Podcasts about Gee

This month, join Gee and Ray as we mix an episode of Gee's (Light) Novel Corner and Debut Spotlight together and talk about The Twelve Kingdoms. Revisiting this amazing series as it (re-)debuts in English, has this cult classic persisted for the right reasons? Hear our thoughts this episode!Follow RRtL on ⁠BlueSky⁠!Follow Ray on her channel ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Whimsical Pictures⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BlueSky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And if you can't get enough of me, Gee, be sure to follow me on my ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BlueSky

Listen to JCO's Art of Oncology article, "Reflection" by Dr. Jamie Riches, who is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University and Director of the Hematology Oncology Hospitalist Service. The article is followed by an interview with Riches and host Dr. Mikkael Sekeres. Dr Riches shares a deeply personal narrative, reflecting on the profound personal and professional impact of losing her young family member to cancer, illuminating the intimate intersection of grief, loss, and healing. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Reflection, by Jaime C. Riches, DO If I stand this way, with my shoulders back, my chin lifted, if I hold my breath for a moment, my skin fits my bones just right. Each subtle motion is an effort to make my clavicle more prominent, to manifest my ribs. I feel so ignorant about beauty. I was at the side of her hospital bed as she uncovered herself and asked me to look away. Her eyes, glassy and hollow, met mine. "I'm so ugly right now." It's an interesting piece of practicing medicine, to be an observer of bodies, their look, their feel, and their function. Which lines are strength and which are fatigue…which ones are scars and how they have healed. My words were soft and aching, "You are beautiful" I said, knowing that her skin fits her bones too tight. They are almost all that's left. My 38-year-old cousin's oncologist is my colleague, my friend. When she was diagnosed, he reminded me that there were excellent treatments available. I reminded him that none of them would allow her to see her children start kindergarten. Redefining excellence, I thought, sounded like a cancer center's marketing strategy that just missed the mark. As I looked away, a piece of me splintered. It isn't the same when it's someone you know, when it's someone you love. Maybe I feel shame for underappreciating my own fertile marrow, my fat and muscle, and my own existence. Maybe it's guilt for dedicating my whole life to work that can't save her, for being the one to look her mother in the eye and say she can't be saved. Maybe, just sadness. This lonely world, that only exists right at the bedside, is like a magically devastating song and I am humming the rhythmic asynchrony of being a doctor, and just being. "From where do we yearn?," I wonder. It's from within these little spaces we look to fill the absence of something beautiful. The moments that we're longing to be a part of. We are all mothers—the seven of us now in her room, aunts and cousins united by a last name—by the successes and losses we previously thought unimaginable. We've known the brittle anticipation of a new life, the longing, the joy of spending time, and the sense of simply existing in these spaces. We are the daughters and sisters of firefighters. We are women who know the low bellow of the bagpipes, women who own "funeral clothes." We've tried to disinherit the same shades of blue, and all of our distance has brought us right here, where they're making her comfortable. She knows that her time has been spent. Her eyes are the color of her favorite flower, a yellow rose, and her once sterile room appears almost sunlight by the garden of bouquets. Her mother is sitting by her side, gently moving her fingers across what would be a hairline, the way you would touch a newborn in those moments when you're just realizing you didn't know you could love someone so much. There's a song running through my head, "Golden Slumbers" (The Beatles, Abbey Road, 1969). Even playing in my memory, it gives me chills, starting right beneath my jaw and circulating through my limbs. Once, there was a way To get back homeward Once, there was a way To get back home Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry And I will sing a lullaby Nothing illustrates the frailty of existence like a mother preparing for her inevitable goodbye. Once you see it, you can be certain that biology is imperfect. We're convinced that we're grieving throughout the whole of motherhood, as our babies become grown people of their own, as they live their lives. But it isn't grief. We're simply living a life that is singular, in a series of moments that are final. "Golden Slumbers" doesn't actually seem to end. It just subtly transforms into the next track as if they were one, and before the chills are fully absorbed, you're struck by something totally new…triumphant trumpets. When her breath stopped, it wasn't held. I don't think she realized the bravery it took to leave this world with such grace, to be unlonely. I've been witness to so many punctuated pulseless yawns, but not this one. I wish I knew by which of these wounds am I softened and by which I am hardened, but I don't. They heal, with secondary intention, naturally and slowly, from the inside out. Mikkael Sekeres: Welcome back to JCO's Cancer Stories: The Art of Oncology. This ASCO podcast features intimate narratives and perspectives from authors exploring their experiences in oncology. I'm your host, Mikkael Sekeres. I'm Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami. Today, I am so thrilled to be joined by Jamie Riches, who is Assistant Professor at Columbia University and Director of the Hematology Oncology Hospitalist Service. We'll be discussing her absolutely gorgeous article, "Reflection." At the time of this recording, our guest has no disclosures. Jamie, I want to thank you so much for contributing your essay to the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and welcome you to discuss your article. Jamie Riches: Thank you so much for having me. Mikkael Sekeres: I have to say, I was so moved by this and just loved the writing. I don't drop the 'G word', gorgeous, very often when describing pieces, but this was truly moving and truly lovely. Jamie Riches: Thank you. Thank you so much. It was a really deeply personal story to me. Mikkael Sekeres: So I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, and walk us through your career? For example, where did you do your training? Jamie Riches: Well, I am from Brooklyn, New York, and I did my training at an osteopathic medical school in Harlem called Touro, and my residency training at what used to be called St. Luke's-Roosevelt, and now is Mount Sinai West after many of the New York City mergers. I did a chief resident year at Memorial Sloan Kettering and started my oncology hospitalist career there for many years and have been at Columbia now for three years. Mikkael Sekeres: Wonderful. Isn't it interesting how the institutions of our youth are no longer, and that seems to happen at a faster and faster pace? Jamie Riches: I know. I feel the need to reference the old name sometimes when I'm discussing it. Mikkael Sekeres: Can you tell us a little bit about your own story as a writer? How long have you been writing reflective or narrative pieces? Jamie Riches: I have probably always been a jotter. I think that's for as long as I can remember, and I've enjoyed that process. And I think once I was an undergrad, I studied chemistry, I majored in chemistry, but I really filled up a bunch of elective time with writing classes and learning what I could about the processes of writing. And I guess almost 10 years ago now, I enrolled in the graduate certificate program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia. And that program helped me explore a little bit in terms of form and function and in terms of really relating my writing to my own personal experience as a physician. Mikkael Sekeres: And if I'm not mistaken, the field of narrative medicine was really in part born at Columbia, wasn't it? Jamie Riches: It was. Yeah. Rita Charon was the founder of the practice as a field, yeah. Mikkael Sekeres: And what was it that that experience- what did the formal training teach you that you couldn't have figured out on your own by the iterative process of reading and writing? Jamie Riches: I think there's something to having a group of people critiquing you that really allows you to become better in any field, in any practice. And I think there's something to having a, you know, a relatively safe space to explore different ways of doing something. For example, writing poetry, which I really hadn't done much of before and have done a bit of since. I think having a space where there are both educated critics and experts being able to look at your work and say, "This is working and this isn't," was really helpful for me. Mikkael Sekeres: You know, I've heard with writing, the notion that your first critics should be people you trust and feel as if you're in a safe space with because you're so vulnerable with writing. Even exposing it to relative strangers in a formal course can be, I don't want to use the word damaging, but I guess damaging, or at least get you out of a safe space that you need for writing. Do you have an inner circle that you trust for your writing? Jamie Riches: I do. I do. Mikkael Sekeres: If you feel comfortable doing so, can you tell us what prompted you to write this piece? Jamie Riches: This piece just sort of came out. This piece is real, and it's a real experience, and the processing of this experience has happened on so many different planes for me, and writing is really one of them. And once I sat down and said, "Let me write some of this down," it just kind of poured out. Mikkael Sekeres: Sometimes we write to process. I once heard somebody say that writing is the only time in life when you get a free redo, right, or a do over. We say something or we post something on social, and it's out there in the universe. But with writing, it's very personal, and we can look at a paragraph or a sentence and say, "Gee, that just doesn't feel right," and rework it if it's not communicating exactly what I was hoping it would. The other aspect of writing, of course, is that it allows us to ruminate on something that's just occurred and to try to make sense of it. Do you think that was some basis for writing this? Jamie Riches: I think so. And I think maybe just relating one really specific experience into the greater realm of the work that we do every day, and how that experience both stood on its own, but also is woven into so many other patient encounters and encounters with families. And that's a form of processing, I think, for sure. Mikkael Sekeres: Can you tell us in your own words about the main character in this piece and what was going on? Because you write it in a lovely way that allows the reader to discover what's transpiring gradually, but if you could tell us in your own words, who is this person? Jamie Riches: Yeah. So the person that I'm talking to in some parts of the story and talking about in much of the story is my cousin, Patrice, who was diagnosed with bladder cancer at 38 years old and who has had interactions with the medical field as a patient but is not a physician, is not a medical professional, and so had a lot of questions and a lot of trust and reliance on those of us in the family who had some medical knowledge and experience. And so I wound up being pretty intimately involved in her care as a family member, and that was really a fine line in a lot of ways because my friends and colleagues were the care team, and I was the family member. And many of us have been in that position in many different ways, but it's always a fine line. And she was young, and she was very positive throughout really the course of her illness. She had twins who were two years old at the time of her diagnosis. And I think, I'm a little bit speechless now, as you can see, I think she just was so incredibly graceful, and I think I used this word in the story, throughout the entirety of her illness, which included multiple lengthy hospitalizations where she had spent time away from her children. And I still don't know how she did it with the patience and the thoughtfulness and the love for everyone else that she did. Mikkael Sekeres: You really honor her in this piece and paint such a beautiful portrait of her. In the essay, you write, "It's an interesting piece of practicing medicine to be an observer of bodies, their look, their feel, their function. Which lines are strength and which are fatigue, which ones are scars and how they've healed." It's a beautiful couple of sentences. In this case, you aren't really playing the role of doctor, are you? Can you talk a little bit more about when that line's blurred between being a family member and and the practice of medicine when people are relying on you to help out with their medical care? Jamie Riches: Yeah, I think most of us know this gray area fairly well, and the gravity of the situation really dictates how blurry the line is. And it's true, I wasn't the doctor in this situation, and I had as much information about the scans and the clinical picture and the day to day trajectory and the lab results and the toxicity profiles and the data from the studies that the regimens were approved based on. And that made it impossible to step out of the doctor role or mentality, and I also wasn't making the formal recommendations by any means, but I think it's hard to sort of exempt yourself from that space once you're in it. Mikkael Sekeres: Yeah. I think we also sometimes don't realize how even the smallest contribution we have in advising somebody about their medical care becomes very, very meaningful and how much those words can have an effect on somebody. I recall my uncle was diagnosed with acute leukemia, so that's right in my bailiwick, of course. And I remember talking with him about transplant and being as neutral as humanly possible about whether he should proceed with the transplant given the characteristics of his leukemia. And months later, after he had gone through the transplant, he said, "You know, I went through this even though you really advised me not to." So as neutral and trying not to sway someone and giving advice as we are, people hear us differently. Did you find that also with your cousin? Jamie Riches: I did. I phoned into one of her oncologist appointments, and her oncologist, who I have to say is wonderful and who I have the utmost respect and really love for, who took great care in taking care of her, went through in detail everything they could about her disease and about treatment options and really explained everything, and took a minute and said, "Okay, do you have any questions?" And my cousin said, "No, whatever Jamie thinks." So I said, "Okay, well, we'll chat a little bit later." But that made me realize, which I think I just hadn't before, how much having an opinion matters. Mikkael Sekeres: Yeah, and that it's a gift to people when they can cede some of that decision making or some of that knowledge to somebody else and feel as if they don't have to take it on themselves. Jamie Riches: Yeah. Mikkael Sekeres: I want to read one other quote from your piece. I could just reread the whole piece, I enjoyed it so much and keep quoting it. You write, "We've known the brittle anticipation of a new life, the longing, the joy of spending time, the sense of simply existing in these spaces. We are the daughters and sisters of firefighters. We are women who know the low bellow of the bagpipes. Women who own funeral clothes." There's a lot that swims beneath the surface, I think, in that quote, that family members get together at births and deaths, that these become the occasions for the family to get together, that we put on uniforms for them, and that they happen frequently enough that we actually own the uniform to be part of them. Is that what defines us as families? Is that what we've come to? Or how about us as physicians? We own uniforms as physicians also. Are the gatherings, the only gatherings we have with our colleagues at tumor boards when we discuss successes and failures of our patients? Jamie Riches: That's a great question and a great reading, and thank you for these questions. I think every family is different, obviously, and I won't speak for the masses here, but there is a bit of a structure to the events that you're expected to attend and that you're expected to not be absent for, to sort of show up for. And those events are sort- you're right, you know, births and funerals and weddings, and they have a bit of a code to them. And as physicians, it's interesting to think about things like tumor board as the gathering spaces, because although as colleagues we're not families, we are the closest thing to going through some of these moments together. And I think these moments at the bedside, and I use that term so often because I work in the hospital, and I am literally often sitting in a hospital bed holding someone's hand, talking to them. Those are the moments that we feel. We feel them in our bodies. I can feel it right here, and I'm touching my chest when I say that. I don't get that same visceral feeling from looking at most scans, looking at most lab reports, or even having academic conversations with people. And I think that you're right, things like tumor board or even other academic conferences really are the gathering spaces for physicians, but that makes me question if those are the spaces that matter most. Mikkael Sekeres: I think that's a great point also to end our time together. It has been such a true, true pleasure to have Jamie Riches on our JCO Cancer Stories podcast to talk about her gorgeous piece, "Reflection." Dr. Riches is Assistant Professor at Columbia University and Director of the Hematology Oncology Hospitalist Service. Thank you so much again for submitting your piece to us. Jamie Riches: Thank you so much. Mikkael Sekeres: And thank you to our listeners for choosing JCO Cancer Stories: The Art of Oncology. If you've enjoyed this episode, consider sharing it with a friend or colleague or leave us a review. Your feedback and support helps us continue to have these important conversations. If you're looking for more episodes and context, follow our show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen and explore more from ASCO at asco.org/podcasts. Until next time, this has been Mikkael Sekeres. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Show notes: Like, share and subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave a rating or review. Guest Bio: Dr Jamie Riches is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University and Director of the Hematology Oncology Hospitalist Service.

The legend, Gee Atherton is on the podcast! In this episode Gee opens up like never before. From bottling fear and the brutal lessons of the Knife Edge crash, to the mindset shift that's carried him from World Cup Downhill racing into big mountain freeride projects. We get into the story of Atherton Bikes and why the family had to start their own brand, why having a World Cup race team was non-negotiable, and what it really takes to build a bike/brand with his family. Gee talks about the future of Red Bull Hardline, why the course has to keep getting bigger, faster and gnarlier, how fear bonds the riders together, and whether it's spawning a brand new discipline: Super Downhill. He also reflects on Rampage (two 2nd places), why walking away from a feature hurts more than crashing, and shares the training hacks that keep him riding at the top level after decades of injuries. Gee teases a brand new edit that almost required him to ride in a stab proof vest and his next big-mountain project in Nepal. This is a rare look inside the mindset of one of the sport's most iconic characters, this episode is unmissable and we hope you enjoy it. If you do, share the episode with your friends! Gee's latest project drops here @AthertonRacing The Ride Companion Christmas Ride at BikePark Wales! Episode Sponsors:- - Invisiframe → 15% off kits, decals & more with code REFRESHANDRIDE: https://www.invisiframe.co.uk - Troy Lee Designs brand new stage pro knee guards are now live. Learn more at https://troyleedesigns.com/products/sp24-stage-pro-knee-guards-solid-black - Looking for a new car or van and don't want to deal with dodgy dealers? Check out cargurus.co.uk Get early access & ad-free episodes → https://www.patreon.com/theridecompanion You can also support our long term partners: - Marin Bikes: marinbikes.com/gb - Focus Bikes: focus-bikes.com - HUEL: Get 15% OFF with code 'RIDE' at huel.com/ - Hiplok: https://hiplok.com/the-ride-companion - Play Fantasy Downhill at The Race Companion: theracecompanion.com instagram.com/theracecompanion - Get 10% off Troy Lee Designs with code 'theridecompanion' at saddleback.avln.me/c/OzduCWvjtcOr - Athletic Greens: Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs at athleticgreens.com/RIDECOMPANION - Compex: Get 20% off with code 'THERIDECOMPANION' at compex.com/uk/ - Worx: Get 15% off with code 'THERIDECOMPANION' at worx.com - LAKA: Get 30 days of FREE insurance with code 'RIDECOMPANION30' at laka.co - HKT Products: Use code 'PODCAST' for 10% off the entire site. Follow Olly Wilkins Instagram @odub_23 YouTube @owilkins23 The Ride Companion Instagram @theridecompanion YouTube @TheRideCompanion YouTube clips and BTS channel @moreridecompanion Get official Ride Companion merch, find old episodes and more theridecompanion.co.uk

Penny Rimbaud , who has spent more than half a century living the ideals that most of us only talk about, has been described as an activist philosopher, an anarchist, a Zen Buddhist. Though he would likely not recognise those descriptions, he is certainly a poet, a musician, an artist. Born Jeremy John Ratter in 1943, in the late 1960s, together with artist Gee Vaucher, he founded Dial House, an open community and creative refuge in rural Essex. It became both a home and a hub — a living experiment in anarchism, art, and radical living, from which emerged Crass, a band that tore apart punk's nihilism and replaced it with a fierce moral energy: anti-war, anti-sexism, anti-consumerism — but pro-peace, pro-freedom, and defiantly DIY. Their black-and-white graphics, polemical lyrics, and uncompromising stance made them one of the most influential and challenging acts of their time. When Crass disbanded in 1984, Penny kept on creating, often with Gee. He became a prolific poet, writer, and spoken-word performer, continuing to explore themes of love, pacifism, and spiritual autonomy. Now in his eighties, he still lives and works at Dial House — still questioning authority, still seeking truth through art and language. We range back and forth across Penny's personal history and his thoughts on culture, capitalism, art and the very notion of the self.   In his own words:  “There is no authority but yourself.”   ---- During this conversation, we hear: 'Dulce et Decorum Est' - from What Passing Bells (The War Poems of Wilfred Owen) ‘How?' - from How? ‘Of Summer's Passing' - with Peter Vukomirovic - from Of Summer's Passing 'Oh America'  - with Youth - from Oh America #counterculture #crass #pennyrimbaud #anarchism #capitalism #dialhouse #artschool #  

Dr. Emily Auerbach is a great storyteller and cares deeply about helping make other people's stories great. Hear the story of her work of leading the Odyssey Project and mentoring non-traditional students through literature and the humanities. Dr. Auerbach talks about their whole family approach that brings all generations into the learning opportunities. The hope is that the program is a launching pad into further education at UW-Madison. Dr. Gee and Dr. Auerbach share so many connections to graduates who have completed degrees and are active in the community. They also share the development of those that don't think they have more potential and draw it out of them. Support Odyssey – UW Odyssey Project – UW–Madison alexgee.com Support the Show: patreon.com/blacklikeme Join the Black Like Me Listener Community Facebook Group

Dr. Emily Auerbach is a great storyteller and cares deeply about helping make other people's stories great. Hear the story of her work of leading the Odyssey Project and mentoring non-traditional students through literature and the humanities. Dr. Auerbach talks about their whole family approach that brings all generations into the learning opportunities. The hope is that the program is a launching pad into further education at UW-Madison. Dr. Gee and Dr. Auerbach share so many connections to graduates who have completed degrees and are active in the community. They also share the development of those that don't think they have more potential and draw it out of them. Support Odyssey – UW Odyssey Project – UW–Madison alexgee.com Support the Show: patreon.com/blacklikeme Join the Black Like Me Listener Community Facebook Group

Gee whiz, folks, it's time for a brand-new episode of The Rotten Horror Picture Show Podcast, and this week Clay and Amanda are talking about one of the all-time greats of old-school creature features — The Blob from 1958! You know the one — that big ol' red goo from outer space that slurps its way through small-town America, eating everything (and everyone) in its path. It's the movie that made a young Steve McQueen a star and gave teenagers everywhere another reason not to trust meteorites. Clay and Amanda dig into the film's low-budget charm, its clever special effects, and why it's still such a perfect slice of drive-in-era horror. A monster that's literally just a blob shouldn't be scary — and yet somehow, it's terrifying.Now, I gotta be honest with you — as I am a teenager from the year 1958, this whole “podcast” thing? It gives me the willies. I mean, what is it, exactly? They say you listen to it on “the internet,” but I don't even know where that is. I looked behind my radio — nothing. Tried turning the TV knobs real slow — still nothing. Apparently, it's just floating around in the air, like… invisible radio waves, but for computers? And people are out there “streaming” it? Buddy, the only thing I want streaming near me is a nice cold root beer down at the soda fountain.But I'll tell ya, Clay and Amanda sure know their monster movies. They've got that hep-cat way of breaking down the scares, the science fiction, and the cultural panic of the atomic age. If you can figure out how to “download” it — whatever that means — you're in for a swell time. Just, uh… maybe keep an eye on your record player. I heard The Blob likes to start small.And be sure to catch our coverage of the remake over at Patreon.com/thepenskyfile!

Arrowspeeed Bounty's Eve Story and ExperienceI started playing Eve in 2014, working my way through the new player stage with 2 friends, all of us learning together. Both friends have long since left the game (one through a sad death, the other still in contact in a Steam chat), but their characters still sit in my corp, my own sentimental salute to the Eve friendship machine.One of my first light bulb moments in Eve was when I pulled up the full Eve map, while still trying to figure out what an asteroid looked like on the screen. "OMG, each one of those ovals is a region …. of constellations …… of systems …….. of planets? This is a pretty big game.”Next light bulb moment was when I realized how much trouble it is to MOVE things places. “Gee,” I thought to myself, “seems like a good business could be started just by moving things around for people”. (This was before I noticed that lots of people had thought of the same idea, of course.)And then – once I made my way into an alliance – there were those fleets that everybody said I had to join. “Wait, they're all flying away somewhere … wait, wait for me – where are you? – what is this red circle being drawn on my screen and why is my body floating around all weird and looking … well, dead?” Which is what made me think it might be a good idea to have training classes for people new to fleeting. (OK somebody else already thought of that, too.)These new player moments were the seeds of several of my first space jobs like new player fleet training and logistics services,I got started in my more serious rental manager career the day I got furious at somebody for something (forgot what) and exited both corp and alliance in one angry click. Next day, to my surprise, a chat screen popped up from an alliance leader saying “Arrow, we want you back, what would it take to get you back?” I was amazed that I was missed at all, much less getting an offer to ask for what I wanted if I returned. But I did ask for what I wanted which was a space job that would allow me a voice in the alliance. I got the job and the voice, and returned to the alliance the next day. The job was setting up and managing a new rental program for Phoenix Federation (some may remember them).From there, I found that my primary interest in Eve is running space businesses and leading teams that provide good services Eve players. I started by creating and running a logistics team, then managed rental businesses for several alliances (and still do for Fraternity), and then later took on other projects like setting up a moon rental system, an alliance recruitment team, rule/wiki management, and managing a coalition diplo team.What do all these have in common? Listening to and understanding what those I serve want – and then delivering what they want. Whether it is fast, low cost delivery services, rental space with responsive and fair management, training classes for specific fleet roles, rules that are clear and consistent, or an organized diplo case management system that consistently hears both sides of a case and follows through. (And no, we don't keep everybody happy doing this, that would be impossible – but we do care – and try – which is appreciated — well, most of the time ….. OK some of the time.)

Send us a textOkay, so here's the story: A comedian and the kid of a famous singer get together at a bowling alley and have a great time. They perve on women, they introduce bubbling-under bands, and constantly clash with the executives of the network they're on. Sounds like a great time for the kids.               Here now is the story of how this kids variety show came to Saturday Morning.               Who were the hosts?              Was MTV responsible for… whatever this is? Did anything good come from this show?     All these questions, and more, will be answered in this look at 2HIP4TV! But wait, there's more!Okay, so here's another story: There was an “Entertainment Tonight” show aimed at kids to keep them informed of trends and fads. And this one time they profiled a guy who turned out to murder a woman he was raping. Is this the dark side of Saturday Morning? Not really, it was just a misplaced belief in a role model.               Here now is the story of how this kids news show came to Saturday Morning.              Who was involved? Seriously, there's no imdb page.              How long did it run? Wikipedia had nothin'!              Is there a third question to ask? I don't think I have enough information to ask that question. SO, no third question.               All these questions, and more, will be answered in this look at FLIP!! Roll it!Thanks for ‘tooning in.  Share With Us: SatMornPod@hotmail.comBluesky: @SatMornPodYouTube Us: tinyurl.com/yyhpwjeo (Don't waste your time)   Featured Music:“Nostalgic Happy Music” by AudioJungle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtxSUR6MQhw&t=2s “Happy Life” by Fredji - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzQiRABVARk Various Music by Oneul - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by302C2YhxY “I Feel You” by Kevin MacLeod” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw8E3jjbUCE “Nostalgic” by OrangeHead - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wExcRoNNzAc “Breakfast Club” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Spi22l3m5I “Horizons” by Atch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-u53MADIag “80's Hijack” by Gee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVqzJ9Lk6M&t=26s “Synthmania” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6r20TKnA6M “United” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArjGQFCcHxA “Cool Blue” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp5cxZWP-wc   #ABC #NBC #CBS #The80s #80s #cartoons #cartoon #animation #SaturdayMorning #1980 #1981 #1982 #1983 #1984 #1985 #1986 #1987 #1988 #1989 #Filmation #HannaBarbera #DePatieFreleng #RubySpears #Disney #FLIP #2HIP4TV 

Were Fridays better as a kid? Gee thinks it's time for the Democrats to cave // AGREE TO DISAGREE: "Get over it" // AI mistakes a bag of Doritos for a gun // WE HEAR YOU! and WORDS TO LIVE BY

Gee thinks it's time for the Democrats to cave // HELP ME UNDERSTAND // SCENARIOS!

Christian College Sex Comedy: Part 14 Wagers In 30 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the podcast at Explicit Novels.             An army is one man's courage and a thousand men's discipline    "Oh! Pay up, pay up," Opal called out. "Damn," bitched Rio. "I keep hoping my boy Zane will develop some standards, but oh, well." "They were betting on you bringing me back for sex?" Paige whispered, but her desire was glowing bright. I shook my head and chuckled. "Don't worry about it; I still see you as a whirling vortex of passionate lust," I assured her. We passed around the Chinese screens that separated my area from the rest of the floor and I was relieved to see everyone but Barbie Lynn had left, and Barbie had curled up on the near side of the bed and was still asleep. As we moved around the bed, Paige's resolve began to falter. "Sit down, let's talk," I said softly. Paige was clearly confused. "The most powerful tool in sex is the brain," I continued. "I want to know you a little better first." "I should be great at this," she replied. "How many boys have you kissed?" I asked as we sat down. She looked surprised by the question. "Two," was her curt response. "Zane, I want you to take my virginity." Now it was my turn to be surprised, but I was only put off for a moment. "Tell me about those two times," I persisted. Paige had started tugging her shirt out from her skirt and was clearly not pleased with my request. "Zane, didn't you hear me? I want you to pop my cherry, break me in, fuck my cunt, whatever you want to call it," she told me. "Yes," I nodded, "and I'm looking forward to that, but answer the question please." "I, I've been kissed by two boys, one kiss per boy," she replied, but I could tell there was more to it. "Do I have to play twenty questions with you?" I gave an exasperated sigh. Paige flushed with anger. "Fine, damn it," she growled. "The first boy, I paid to kiss me on the lips. He did so, and he looked at me like he wanted to throw up." That looked like it hurt her to admit. "The second time, it was a joke, a dare. I closed my eyes, he kissed me on the lips, and then I heard the applause. They congratulated him for kissing the freak," she recited with anguish. "They laughed at me while I ran away." She looked furious and miserable at the same time. I tilted her head up toward me. I let my first kiss barely brush her lips. I let her study my reaction, and then I kissed her again. The third kiss pressed our lips together, and on the fourth, our tongues touched. The fifth saw her wrap her arms around me and hold me tight for nearly a minute. She was panting for breath when we came up for air. I used that moment to pick her up and place us both farther into the bed. "Eep!" she exclaimed, then she started to giggle. I straddled her and dove in to nibble her neck. Paige beat at my chest with her fists but couldn't stop laughing. "That tickles!" We fell back into kissing for a while; Paige didn't need to rush into sex despite her declared desires. "Shouldn't we take our clothes off?" I responded to that by sitting up, grabbing her shirt in both hands over the breasts, and ripping it open. Buttons went flying everywhere and Paige's eyes expressed her shock. I reached for her bra but Paige's hands flew to mine. "Wait," she gasped. "It unsnaps from the front." I even let her open the bra for me, exposing her ghostly breasts and pale pink areolas and nipples. I shifted down Paige's body and latched my lips to her left breast, causing her to cry out in pleasure. "Oh, damn," she purred, "this is so much better in real life." I wasn't sure I knew what that meant, or that I even wanted to know. I feasted on each nipple and breast in turn until they were fully engorged and bright, rosy pink from my attention. She'd spread her legs wide open and was humping her hips up against me. I pulled away long enough to get my shirt off before descending on her for kisses once more. In the midst of that, we rolled over where she grabbed me by the side of the head and covered my face with butterfly kisses. "I've always wanted to do that," she beamed pure joy at me. I moved my hands down her ribs, waist, and hips until I was able to pull up her skirt and grab her ass. Paige aggressively humped me in response, smiling at me and breathing heavy. Without any urging, Paige pushed up my body until she dangled her breast against my lips. I greedily sucked one in, teasing her nipple with my teeth. Paige yelped but followed me down without comment, cradling my head into her chest and rocking me back and forth. "Careful, Honey, he's addictive," Barbie Lynn sleepily intervened. "He's going to take my virginity," Paige exulted. "Is he now?" she grinned at me. "She's asked; I'm considering it, but I want to know she's really ready for it first," I mumbled back between mouthfuls of tit. "Wait," she panted, "you promised me." "Paige, Rule #7 for guys: when sex is involved, we lie," I informed her. "Oh, what lie did you tell Barbie Lynn?" Paige inquired. "He forces me to orgasm so he can bask in my post-orgasmic bliss," Barbie Lynn sighed dreamily. "Besides," I said, as I ran my hands through her fine white hair and tucked a few locks behind her ears, "I am not saying we won't do it, but you are an incredibly tough read and we aren't going to do something I don't think you need." "How come you get to decide?" Paige sounded annoyed. "I'm the only guy you've approached who you didn't find on an escort service website; we are in my bed; and, oh, yeah, I've had sex hundreds of times and you are in all ways a virgin," I listed off the reasons. "Paige, you only get to do this 'first time' once, and I would like it to be something you love and want to do again and again." "Well, I know what I want. I am in your bed and you're half-naked already," she emphasized by grinding her pelvis into me. "I'm also on top and I don't think you can get rid of me that easily." "This one is a little firecracker," Barbie Lynn chuckled. "She's that," I commented, "but you should always be leery of someone who thinks they are always right." My words didn't stop me from pressing my cock up against Paige's twat. "We could always have a little butt-sex instead," I teased. "No!" Paige squeaked. "You are huge and my asshole is tiny." "Oh, God," I laughed. "You actually looked at your ass in a mirror." Paige blushed furiously. "Listen, Paige, trust me on this. You can go into town and find some college guy who will jump at the chance to screw you. What you have to wonder is how much he'll care about you and your needs as well as how good he is at sex. Let's get naked." "Finally," Paige mocked. She rolled off and shed her clothes so fast they left angry red tracks down her legs. I took my time but Paige didn't seem to mind. She reached out and ran a hand over my bicep and shoulder. "He's real enough," Barbie Lynn assured her quietly. "How did you know what I was thinking?" Paige mused. At least she only implied Barbie Lynn was stupid. "Paige, sweetie, how many of us FFU girls expect to be able to choose our man, much less one worth having? And don't you be disparaging of Zane, now, either. I can smell your arousal from here," Barbie Lynn said with a sexy curve to her lips. Paige was thinking of her retort when she gasped as I caught her distracted and slipped two fingers along the folds of her cunt. When her razor sharp focus latched onto me once more, I pushed her onto her back and mounted her. Her legs splayed out to either side and the location of her hips against my stomach reminded me of how narrow her hips were, narrower than even Iona's. She still did her best to wrap her legs around me as she placed her hands on my shoulders. "Are you going to make me scream?" she asked nervously. "Every girl is different so don't worry about it," I grinned. "Besides, I can tell you'll be really good at this." "How can you know I'll be any good at sex?" Paige snapped. Yes, that was the sore point I was looking for. "Your eyes sparkle when you touch me, you react instinctively to my touch, you are in good physical shape, and you're very sensitive all over your body," I explained. "What you saw as fooling around was me mapping out how your body works and where your erogenous zones were. No two women are the same and I love exploring. Now I'm getting back to it." I began placing kisses along her sternum, down toward her navel. Her stomach pulsed when I kissed the belly button. "Oh, aha," Paige moaned. I licked and stroked the area around her navel, causing her torso to gyrate from the sexual stimulation. "Umm, that feels nice." Unlike previous encounters with other women where I avoided the cunt while I worked around it, I instead placed one hand immediately to the area, squeezing two fingers into her cunt and wiggling them around. I left the clit alone for now because I was encouraging a slow boil, not a flash burn. I wanted Paige in an erotically charged high before I challenged her vaginal virginity. Paige's skin had this false translucent quality to it that was exciting to watch. You could track the arousal of a touch by the blood rushing to the skin around the excited area. Physically, she could conceal nothing, and she was far from sexually experienced enough to stifle her vocalizations of pleasure. "I just want to be fucked," she moaned," I just want to be fucked, aha, oh." Her words said one thing but her body expressed its desire for more excitement. "No, she groaned as she ground her hips against my lips. When I stabbed my tongue to her clit, she acted like a jolt of electricity arched through her body. Now, when I've performed cunnilingus on a girl, I expect a bit of movement; I'm doing something wrong if she lays there. Paige was all over the place, pulling away then thrusting back as well as rolling her hips rapidly side to side. At the moment her thrashing turned into trembles, I withdrew my lips and fingers, causing Paige to whimper and look down at me. "Huh?" she pleaded. I gave her a mischievous grin, then blew on her clit. Paige hiccupped, then threw her head down on the bed violently. I began sucking on the inside of her thighs for about one minute, letting her settle down, then leapt on her clit with my tongue once more. "Oh, God!" Paige squealed. I moved my tongue off, trading off with two fingers parting her labia and flicking her clit with my thumb. I alternated back and forth over five minutes until I noticed Paige was sobbing and tearing up the sheets with her fists. "Have mercy, Zane," Barbie Lynn whispered. I gave a quick nod before placing my lips around Paige's clit and sucking on it with growing intensity plus twirling the tip of my tongue along its tip. I also made tiny fucking motions with two fingers into her cunt. She didn't last thirty seconds. "Oh, my, God, Zane!" she growled. She wasn't loud but she rumbled her orgasm from deep in her chest. It was kind of surprising, coming from such a lithe, ephemeral being. Paige was sucking down further sounds internally so that they were merely sobs. I crawled up to her side, rested sidewise, propped up by an elbow, and placed a hand on her stomach as I watched over her. When she started gasping for air, her eyes locked with mine once more. Paige feebly pushed on my chest so I let her push me on my back. She struggled to rise over me, then collapsed on my chest. "I, that was, you still didn't fuck me," she wheezed. I sighed in frustration, pulled Paige on top of me, chest to chest, and then began playing slap-happy with her ass. "Ow,ow, ow, ow, ow," she squalled. "Stop that; I bruise easily," she added, with tears in her eyes. "Damn it, woman, is it going to kill you to accept that I know what I'm doing?" I responded angrily. "Since you are clearly clueless, what we just did was foreplay. I wanted to relax your body before we moved to the next step." Paige had enough common sense to look embarrassed but not enough to keep quiet. "Well my ass still hurts," she pouted. "What?" I questioned. "Did you say you wanted me to hurt your ass?" I grabbed each ass cheek and pulled them apart. "No!" she squeaked, "You are too big." She grabbed my hands in her smaller grip and tried to pry them off. We rocked back and forth until we rolled over. She struggled but I soon ended on top of her, Paige on her stomach, and my legs prying hers open. "No, no," she pleaded as she felt my cock resting on her ass cleft. "Relax," I whispered into Paige's ear, "have you ever heard of doggy style?" "You aren't, going to have anal sex with me?" she gulped. I pushed my body up and after a moment, Paige followed, pressing her back against my torso once more. "I'd never do anything to you that you didn't want me to," I assured her, "though I am going to have you begging me to bugger you before this semester is over." "Uh-uh," Paige assured me, "not going to happen," but she did wiggle her ass against me playfully, testing my resolve. I balanced on one hand so I could use the other to pull her hair away from one side to the other. Her neck, ear, and the side of her face were now revealed. I sucked on her shoulder while I repositioned my cock so that it slid down her ass, past her anus and cunt, so that it pressed along her pubic mound from below. Paige began humming pleasurably and gyrating her hips against me. I put my free hand on her breast and massaged it as well. "Promise me you won't keep me waiting this time," she murmured. "Promise you'll take me." "Of course I will, Paige. You have to relax and enjoy yourself and not get worked up about us having sex," I comforted her. She rocked against me and I pushed back. "Nice and slow," I cautioned her. "I'm not going anywhere." With a little effort, she did as I requested. I kept running my hand down from her breast to her stomach, each time going a little farther down. She'd tilted her shoulders and neck so that we could kiss but she also found my lips on her neck to be tantalizing. I was tricky enough that I had my cockhead parting her puffy lips before she realized it. In fact, I had three separate penetrations that elicited moans, then she looked up at me. "Don't be afraid," I told her sympathetically. "Remember the faces of all the girls you've seen me with while we are having sex and know that it is going to be just as good for you." Paige looked down at the mattress and nodded her head. She pushed back but it wasn't easy. Her entrance felt like a vice restricting my entrance. Even totally wet, her vaginal muscles were blocking my progress initially. I patiently kept at it, incrementally advancing with each coaxing touch. When I brushed against her hymen, Paige didn't even recognize the moment had come. I subtly brought my arm down to her stomach and wrapped her up in my arm while teasing her ear with my teeth. "Yip!" Paige exclaimed as I pierced her virginity. "Oh, God, it burns," she sobbed. I gave her a few seconds to adjust before penetrating even deeper. "No," she moaned, and tried to pull away, but I didn't let her. "Zane," she pleaded for me to let her go. "It hurts." I kept at it. "I never thought it would hurt this bad, please." She gave one final gasp as I pressed the final inch into her, then we remained there, locked in sexual congress while she wept and trembled underneath me. I considered it a minor miracle Paige had remained on her hands and knees as we reached this point. Now I had to get her past the stage where pain dominated pleasure. "We'll move when you feel you are ready," I instructed her. Paige nodded, then nothing else for some time. She caught me off guard when she flexed her grasp on my cock. "Umm," she purred. "Did you feel that?" My groan was my reply. Paige pulled away a tiny bit until the pain kicked in and she stopped. Seconds later she repeated the process, withdrawing several inches, then reversing the procedure and allowing me deeper in once more. "It hurts less," she admitted. A moment later as she shifted to a faster rhythm, "it is really quite nice." "You might want to ask Zane how he is doing," Barbie Lynn chided Paige. "But I honestly don't care," Paige noted. "If you want to do this again, you might want to start caring," Barbie informed her. I winked at the blonde sex angel. "Zane, do you like having sex with me?" Paige asked in a much kinder tone than normal. She must have been truly appreciating the lovemaking she was receiving. "It feels like you are trying to rip my cock off," I ground out. "You are damn tight, then you are adding those contractions on top of that. I may not be able to have sex for a week." "Paige, I like you, but if Zane is telling the truth, I going to seriously rearrange your anatomy," Barbie Lynn promised with dangerous intent. "I apologize," Paige pouted. To prove how sorry she wasn't, Paige rotated her hips down then back up several times rapidly. So that's how she wanted to play it. I placed both hands on her shoulders and let her make a few more tentative moves before slamming my member all the way in. "Oh, fuck," she gasped. I slowly drew back my full length, then rocketed back in time and time again. Paige was sweating and panting from earlier exertions but now she was barely hanging on. Slap, slap, slap, my hips mashed against her ass. Paige gave a breathless grunt each time I drilled her, and that was followed by a relieved sigh as I pulled back. By the desperation in her voice, I knew she wouldn't last much longer. "Oh! My! Fucking! God!" she growled loudly. I now knew what it felt like to have put my cock in a fire hose and had some asshat turn the water on. Paige's cunt juice had been plentiful the first time she had an orgasm. This time they were copious and forceful, and my cock was simply in the way; what got past stung the hell out of my ball sack. Normally I have really good control over my sexual climax but I was being sorely tested. Worse, I couldn't simply pop out of Paige because that would cause her pain. The odds of her using birth control were next to nil and none, so it fell to me to find something to center my mind and not ejaculate. "Zane, are you okay?" Barbie Lynn said in a hushed, worried tone. I could only nod. Paige was erratically pushing up and down on my cock, to the point where I grabbed her hips in order to not have a nasty accident when her muscles relaxed and my overstimulation ended. "Don't, move," I panted painfully to Paige. Paige didn't quite comply but I didn't blame her because her arms gave out and she slumped forward. I held up her rear by my hold on her hips. I carefully let her slide off my cock and finish splaying out on the bed. I sat back on my heels, breathing deeply and fighting for control. "Come here, Baby," Barbie Lynn ordered, picking up on my distress. I moved over Paige's leg toward Barbie and she joined me by turning around, meeting me half way. "I've got this," she purred, as she wrapped my cock in one hand and placed her lips over the head. Despite Paige's vaginal fluids and some blood, Barbie loved it. She bobbed up and down twice before my resolve finally crumbled. "Cumming," I gasped. Barbie Lynn shot me a quick grin, then pumped and sucked with renewed vigor. When I started ejaculating, Barbie Lynn made some half-hearted swallowing efforts but I knew she was holding something back. I smiled at her as I ran my hand through her honeyed locks. When I finished unloaded into Barbie Lynn's mouth, I pulled her up, she leaned into my body, and we kissed. I tasted my semen on my tongue as we swapped fluids. Barbie Lynn licked her lips in a highly sensual manner as we broke our kiss. She gave me a little wink, acknowledging how much I'd changed her in our short time together: kinky, sexy, and beautiful. "Whoa," whimpered Paige as she opened her eyes and looked in our direction. "That was intense." She sighed and took a deep breath. "I should have mentioned this earlier, you didn't need to pull out. I had, issues when I was little and my ovaries were removed. I'm never going to have children." I switched back to Paige and kissed her on the forehead. This was probably time for some sympathy, if Paige had been anything approaching a normal girl. "You fucking wait to tell me this now?" I chided her. "Do you have any idea the panic attack you put me through? I was stuck inside you and you were so damn hot I nearly lost it. I was trying to figure out what I was going to tell your father, damn it!" "Father?" she seemed confused for a second, then, "Oh. Why would I ever marry you?" "I'm a billionaire philanthropist genius playboy," I joked. "You are Iron Man?" she mocked me. "Or Batman, your choice," I volleyed back. "If you hadn't made me feel so fantastic right now, I'd recode your computer to operate in Mandarin," she snickered. "Iron Man is one of my heroes and I will not have him mocked by the likes of you." "Clearly, the first round of spanking didn't work, but I'm nothing if not persistent," I glowered. Paige's hands flew to her vulnerable and still rather red backside. "Don't you dare," she threatened. I pivoted, she flinched, then I leaned down and kissed her ass cheek. "What?" she murmured then I kissed her again and again. I slowly pried her hands away and soon had planted little signs of affection all over her tender, sore flesh. "Kiss ass," Paige teased. I had to wonder if she was taking social lessons from Rio. "Tell me something: how did you get to be so quiet? I'm normally pretty good at not letting anyone sneak up on me but you have done it to me twice already," I asked. "That's not a totally stupid question," Paige answered. "I have been basically friendless most of my life, if you don't count the internet. I was small, different, and was picked on. I learned to be quiet and go unnoticed," she explained. "I admit to having a harder time with you than with most people." "Because I lived out in the jungle and became more observant?" I queried. "No," she sighed in exasperation. "Because I've wanted to grab you and drag you back to my room since I first laid eyes on you, Zane. Mentally, you are unremarkable, but physically, you scream out 'Sex, sex, sex!'" That observation made Barbie Lynn laugh out loud. My pained and confused expression only caused them to laugh louder. Someday I'm going to come out on top of one of these exchanges. Then I'm going to run away from school because I want to leave on a high note and I'm not likely to ever win a second time. Girls, Relationships and the Chancellor too. "Zane? God Damn it, Zane!" Raven screeched at me as she barged into my room. What could I say? Barbie Lynn was halfway under the sheets but her tumultuous breasts were clearly exposed. Paige was totally naked, face down on the other side of me but had clearly been fucked thoroughly and her tight pale ass spanked hard. Oh, yeah, and I was kneeling between the two, totally naked as well. I vaulted over Barbie Lynn (who was closer to the entrance and Raven) because I didn't want to hurt her injured knee, snatched up my robe, and put it on. "Very complicated, long story, we can laugh about it later," I dazzled Raven. I took her by the elbow and headed her out of my bedroom. "Why don't we study on the far side of the main Solarium?" The look of betrayal in Raven's eyes destroyed any doubt that she was crushing on me in a big way. For the love of God, I really needed to find some lesbians to hang out with because these straight chicks were driving me crazy. Before we could leave, Iona nearly piled into us. "I'm sorry, Zane. She slipped past me," Iona apologized. "I only wanted to talk with him and, and he was in bed with yet another girl," Raven bitched. "I'm still ready to study with you," I offered. "How can we study if you are always having sex with other women?" she stomped her foot in frustration. Iona shot me a worried look. I put a hand on Raven's shoulder and made eye contact. "Raven, I promise you we will get this project done, you'll get your good grade, and I'll carry my part of the project. I'm here for you," I assured Raven. "You, you aren't giving any thought about us, our project together," was her accusation. "What do you want me to do?" I asked evenly. "I, I think I should go to Ms. Goodswell and request another partner," Raven sighed. I looked to Iona who looked to the living area past the Jacuzzi. "Ms. Goodswell is right over there," Iona indicated our teacher who was sitting with Dana and five other teachers who had come in while I was, busy. "Your place has controlled access," Iona answered my unasked question as to why I had so many other educators in my place. "Bazz's people can 'accidentally' step in." Raven was not deterred by the other teachers hanging around Virginia as she made a beeline across the room. At least she was polite enough to wait while Virginia disengaged from the others so she could talk to us. "Raven, Zane, how can I help you?" Ms. Goodswell inquired, yet I had a sneaking suspicion that she was way ahead of the situation. "Ms. Goodswell," Raven started, "I really need to get a new project partner." "Why is that, Raven?" Virginia asked. "We simply aren't working out," she sounded exasperated. "And, I think the other girls were right; I don't feel safe around him," she tacked on. I lowered my head and sighed. This sucked. "Very well. Zane, do you want a new partner?" Virginia turned to me. "Sure, whatever. If Raven doesn't feel safe, she deserves someone new," I shrugged. "Alright, then, but I want you two to know a few things," Virginia began. "First off: Raven, I don't like being lied to." She held up a hand to forestall Raven's protest. "You were so uncomfortable with Zane's presence that you came up to his dorm uninvited, asked his whereabouts, and went into his bedroom unescorted. At what point in time did you feel unsafe?" "He was in bed with two girls, Barbie Lynn Masters and Paige Zeller," Raven said angrily. "Did you ask Zane what was going on or did you simply assume something and storm out?" Virginia stated. Raven opened her mouth, then shut it. "Now, do you think I assigned you to Zane solely because you answered one question incorrectly?" "You mean why I didn't want Zane as a partner initially?" Raven suggested. "Precisely. Raven, you scored the tenth highest placement score for English. That is why you are in my room, I have the top twenty freshmen in my class. Do you know what Zane's placement rank was?" "I don't know," she finally admitted. "He was second," she informed Raven, and me. I had no idea and really, such things don't interest me. "Raven, I didn't place you with Zane to help out Zane; I put you with Zane to help you." "Oh," Raven said in a small voice. "I didn't know." "What you have committed is reverse discrimination," Virginia explained. "Everyone assumes that since Zane is attractive, that he's not too bright. It is the same way most guys perceive bubbly blondes with big breasts, mentally insignificant." "Finally, your real problem with Zane is not his intelligence, his self-control, or the time he is willing to spend with you; it is his libido," Ms. Goodswell instructed. "You may want to ask yourself why you are upset with what Zane does with other students in his spare time and discuss this with him. He is standing right next to you, after all, and he could be elsewhere if he desired." "Very well," Raven conceded, "I'll work with Zane as long as he agrees to not get distracted while we are together." She looked to me for confirmation. "Agreed, I mean, I will try," I responded. Raven didn't seem totally satisfied but she allowed my promise to stand. "Let's get started." "Good," she said, but then she hesitated while she looked around at the other girls in various groups in the Solarium. "Let's go back to my room," I suggested. Seeing her skeptical look, "I need my tablet and then we can pick out a place and start studying." "Why do I need to come with you?" she glared. "With you, I'll be safe," I informed her. "Sometimes the ladies can forget I am here to get a degree and you help remind them of that with your seriousness." Raven shrugged and followed me back to my room. When we got there, Barbie Lynn was sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling up her socks. She was otherwise dressed. Paige was spread-eagled on the middle of the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Hey, Zane," Paige smiled. "Are you finished?" "We came back for his tablet, Paige," Raven growled. "We haven't started yet. Stay where you are; we have work to do." Paige's mouth dropped open in shock and outrage (Raven is a freshman, after all). I was happy Raven didn't call Paige a slut because I knew that was actively on her mind. I grabbed my backpack, retrieved another bathrobe from the wardrobe, and walked over to Paige. "Here you go. Take a little time in the Jacuzzi," I suggested. "I have nothing to wear," Paige rolled her eyes at my stupidity. "Go naked; you have a beautiful body that's a pleasure to behold," I told her. Paige studied me, weighing my dare to her. Barbie Lynn shot me a smile and a wink for me pressuring Paige. "Zane, we need to go," Raven insisted. She took hold of my elbow but didn't try to move me. "As you wish," I bowed to Raven. As we turned to leave, Paige called out, "The Princess Bride!" she laughed. Raven looked at me to make some sense of that. "It is a movie I like; it's old," I explained. We trecked out but I deviated from our course long enough to grab Rio, who was publically molesting Mercy. "Take it to an alcove, you two," I said softly. Rio challenged my stance but then we both started chuckling. "I can't promise to keep it quiet, Bro," she winked. "Stuff your panties in her mouth," I suggested. "I'm not wearing any," she grinned. "Put her panties in her mouth, then," I told her. "She's not wearing any either," Rio teased me. "Fine, I give up," I threw up my hands and continued off with Raven. "Was it like this for you, before you came here?" Raven asked me once we sat down in an isolated area. "It was different but similar. After a few weeks everyone knew everyone else, so it wasn't like us kids weren't aware of one another," I explained. "So you've always lived like this?" Raven sounded incredulous. "Raven, how would you describe your relationship with your parents?" I began. "I'm not sure what that has to do with anything but my father died of cancer when I was twelve and I have been raised by my mother ever since," Raven explained. "We are pretty close and we've both worked to raise my brother, who is four years younger than me." "So you had a partnership of sorts," I filled in. Raven nodded. "My parents and I were very close; we did almost everything together, and I was a part of their lives for as long as I can remember. When they died, I went to the far side of the globe to guardians who didn't want me hanging around, yet expected me to act in a very restricted moral way with no training or incentive." "My Uncle only had enough time for me to punish me for not living up to his moral code while my Aunt parroted his beliefs. I guess it was only natural that I formed my own code of ethics and relationships. I had a strong sexual curiosity and personality that drove me to express it," I added. "Where is this going?" Raven sighed. "It means I have no serious understanding of monogamy outside of marriage. Worse, I have little respect for restrictive authority. Mindless discipline strikes me as unnatural. Don't get me wrong, though; I don't really care how you, or anyone, choses to live, as long as you respect that right in others." "Couldn't you have conformed to what the rest of us want at this school?" Raven countered. "This is a Christian Girls School and we shouldn't be having sex." "I think we have a fundamental misunderstanding here," I nodded. "We both accept that I want to have sex, but why do you assume that some girls here don't?" "That is not what matters," Raven declared. "What matters is that they wouldn't be succumbing to temptation if you weren't here." "That, I have to agree with you there," I admitted, which stunned Raven. "I doubt any of the girls I am with now would go trolling the local college for guys to score with." "So you see what a problem you are and how you shouldn't be at FFU," Raven concluded. "Belief without temptation has no merit," I quoted. "A promise to abstain from boys is nothing more than empty platitudes if there are no boys around." "Zane, we came here because no boys are allowed. Our pledge is a declaration of solidarity with our fellow students," Raven stated. "But the pledge is voluntary so you should respect their decision to do something else if the situation changes," I suggested. "A lot of girls here treat me nicely but aren't jumping my bones, girls like you." Raven didn't comment for several seconds. "I only wish more girls felt like I did," she said weakly. "Well, I'm glad you feel that way about me," I told her, as I pulled my legs up to a lotus position, adjusted my robe, and got ready to work, "because I find you very attractive and that would make things difficult." "Yes, that would make things difficult," Raven muttered sadly. It didn't really matter how Raven ended up beside me, her legs curled up under her and her head poised at my shoulder looking over our choices of works to read through. She didn't have Iona's insightful genius but she had a dedication to detail that was remarkable. She was apparently impressed with my ability to link Irrelevant Detail A with Curious Reference B. In two hours, Raven was excited over the progress we'd made. "Of course you are happy," I teased her; "you expected nothing from me so everything you get is a bonus." "I apologize," she said softly. "Don't worry about it," I chuckled, "you are hardly the first girl on this campus to think I'm an idiot." No sooner had I spoken those words than Paige hopped over the seat behind me and took the armrest of the chair opposite Raven. "You are a moron, not an idiot," Paige corrected me. "Now, it has been two hours and I've finished my homework. Let's go." "Hey!" snapped Raven. "Excuse me, but did we have plans?" I addressed Paige crossly. "You have been sitting over here for two hours with this bimbo. If she hasn't finished working with you by now, she's even duller than she looks," Paige informed us. "Bimbo!" responded Raven as she stood up to confront Paige. "Paige," I cautioned, "why are you doing this? This is way beyond your normal anti-personnel skills." "I don't like her, and I like her spending time with you even less," Paige declared. "At least I didn't have to spread my legs to make him spend time with me," Raven retorted. That seemed to upset Paige so I intervened. "That's not true," I told Raven. "I hang out with Paige because she is intriguing and smart, like you. Anything else is a private matter between her and me." "I don't like her," Raven replied. "You suck up oxygen that would be better used by mewling infants," Paige countered. "Enough!" I snapped. I turned, cupped Raven's jaw, and kissed her on the lips, leaving her shocked. I turned to Paige and with my countenance, I let her know she'd gone too far. I walked off, looking for somewhere else to be, but the floor was pretty occupied by freshmen now, in their little groups studying and relaxing. I even caught sight of Rio playing pool with Valerie and enjoying herself. Iona was with a group of students I recognized but Barbie Lynn and the teachers were gone. Only Dana remained, an isolated island of calm, watching her television and drinking her beers. I slouched down on the seat next to my former coach. "You are not getting a beer," she told me. "Do I look like I want a beer?" I sighed. "No, you look like you need a beer," she chuckled, "which is worse." "Man, that is a sad assessment of my situation," I groaned; "accurate, but sad." "You need to say 'No' occasionally, Zane," Dana observed. "Since I can no longer keep these girls safe from you, you need to keep yourself safe from them. If you don't set some boundaries, there is going to be trouble." I digested that for a minute. "You are laughing at me on the inside, aren't you?" I remarked. "Pretty much, yes," Dana winked. "This is some twisted plot of yours to make me take some responsibility, damn you," I continued. "Yep," she quipped. "You would think that having so many girlfriends, or potential girlfriends, would be a great thing," I stated. "My problem is that there are so many wonderful girls to meet and I want to get to know them, and it isn't like I get to know someone in one hour, or one day, or even one year, really." Dana laughed out loud so hard she started to cough. "Who would have thought you were a romantic," she snorted. "If you limited yourself to one-night stands, your life would be far easier." "I frankly don't think that is a possibility for me," I shrugged. "Even Paige?" Dana asked, "I know she annoys the crap out of you and she's a total stalker." "She is not," I defended Paige. "She's different but I like her intensity." Dana smirked and a set of arms wrapped around me from behind. Paige rested her head on my shoulder and kissed my ear. "I came back to bitch you out for taking Raven's side over mine," she said softly, "but now I think I'll simply forgive you and be done with it." "Damn it, Paige," I snapped nervously, "would you stop sneaking up on me?" "No," she responded after a moment's introspection. "I want you to be somewhat afraid of me." "Paige, you might want to consider what the hundred and some other girls are going to do to you when they learn you want exclusive rights to Zane," Dana grinned. "We don't have to be exclusive," Paige informed her, like I wasn't even there (this happens to me way too much). "He only needs to be available when I need him. We'll work out other arrangements for us by the end of the semester." "Paige, you accept me on my terms or we don't get together at all," I warned her. "Part of your appeal is that you do so many other things so well," I continued. "You don't need me." "Zane, I gave you, she reminded me with a mixture of anger and sadness. "Paige, you were my first, too," I enlightened her. "I've never taken a woman's virginity before." "It was special to me," she whispered. I turned my head and shoulders far enough around to kiss her. "It was special for me, too, but I know it meant more to you. What I did can't compare to what you went through," I related. "It is not meant to. I haven't forgotten my first time; that doesn't change the fact that I love someone else and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. It has nothing to do with you or any of the other girls. I feel she is the one for me and it doesn't make rational sense," I explained. "I respect that, Zane," Paige allowed. "You are an idiot and a moron; I'm going to need to train you to accept what is best for you, which is me. I became a woman through your exertions and I'm not willing to surrender that glorious feeling to anyone." Dana laughed uproariously while I groaned in despair. "Fine, I'll let you deal with Christina and company," I grumbled. I stood up and disentangled from Paige. She followed me around the sofa until she was cuddled up against me. "Do we have some time?" she inquired while rolling her hip along my pelvis and getting a response from my suicidal cock. "Dinner first, but I wouldn't be opposed to some bedroom time with you," I grinned to Paige. "I'm thinking a hot oil massage, then some cowgirl action." That definitely excited her. Food did end up taking precedence over sex because I was desperately hungry. The meal time was tense, with bandaged members on both sides of the aisle. The big news was that the Board of Directors was meeting tomorrow morning in an emergency session. No mention of the fates of Coach Gorman or Heaven was made. When I got back, I borrowed Gorman's phone and I gave Heaven a call. She exploded all over me when she realized it was me and not the Coach. "I was afraid something had happened, damn you," she snapped. "There is a little thing known as caller ID." "Um, Heaven, you didn't let me get a word in," I pointed out. "How are you doing?" "I'm going nuts," she groused. "I think it is worse, being so close and not being able to help." "Being here isn't all that great," I related. "We are all stuck in our rooms, pretty much. The Coach was fired so she's over here, drinking beer and watching TV." "That has to be weird," Heaven noted. "Are you okay?" "Actually, all my problems are solved," I told her. "Paige Zeller has decided she owns me." "Zeller? That little albino Science Club geek?" Heaven muttered. "When I get back, I'll fix her ass." "Gee, thanks," I chuckled, "but I think I can handle her. The important thing is that we are going to get you back, and as soon as we do, " The TV went dead. "What the, a few of the girls working at the computer stations and at their laptops exclaimed. Our answer was twofold. Ms. Marlowe and five security guards came up the stairs and stared out over the room. My 'room' was a lot to take in the first time around. The arrival of campus security explained the loss of outside access. When the guards entered the security code for the door, it had alerted the system the Science Club had put in place and stopped security from finding our illegal hook-ups with a cursory search. "Ms. Gorman," gawked Ms. Marlowe, "do you have beer up here?" Dana raised a half-drained beer up, examining it intently. "Yes, that would seem to be the case, Edith," Dana responded. "Do you want one? I have five left." "No! This kind of behavior is not allowed," Ms. Marlowe declared. "I'm not employed here anymore, or did you miss that outburst this morning?" Dana chuckled. "You can't kick me out of my room for a month, or so my contract states. I'm not letting any of the students have any, if that makes you happy." "Are you drunk?" Edith inquired. "Not yet, but I'd like to be," Dana sighed. "How about you get on with the security sweep you are here for so I can get back to it." Edith Marlowe shook her head in disgust, then dispatched her guards to look around. There was blatant hostility being generated their way by the present student body. On any other day, that anger would have been the end of it, but one girl started handing out pool cues and girls lined up to get them. "Put those down right now," Ms. Marlowe commanded. "Get stuffed," Vanessa Hutchins, a freshman, shot back. She'd been particularly impacted by Rhaine's actions, having been propelled twice down different stairwells. "Zane," Dana cautioned me. I stood up and walked over to Vanessa. I took the pool cue from her hands gently and placed it on the pool table. "Come on, ladies, the sooner we let them get done, the sooner we can get back to ignoring them," I said to the students. Slowly the sticks were put aside and the guards returned to their search. "Ms. Hutchins, you are coming with me," Ms. Marlowe stepped forward. I turned and looked down at her. "Don't press your luck," I told Marlowe evenly. "We aren't resisting this search but tempers are high and only going to get worse if you push things." "Edith, try to remember that you not only have to get out of this room, you have to get out of the building," Dana pointed out. "I underestimated these students so I'm now sitting here drinking beer and considering my job options." Ms. Marlowe looked down her nose at Dana, who didn't appear to give a crap about her opinion, then motioned the guards to resume looking around. Campus Security hadn't been gone five minutes before Rio came running up to me. "Hey! I heard that there was almost a fight here," she asked me. "Nothing much to it," I shrugged. "Vanessa over there decided that Ms. Marlowe should become familiar with the grain of a certain pool cue and I had to put a stop to it." Valerie and Iona came up in time to hear the explanation. "I guess it was too much to hope that the Chancellor would leave you alone," Iona moped. "People with her personality type don't let go easily," Valerie commented. "I've met more than my share in law enforcement. Their power over other people is how they define themselves." "Therefore, we need Zane to keep her preoccupied," Paige gloated. Mother Fucking God! "I'm going to have to get you a collar with a bell, damn it, Paige," I growled to my albino ghost. "Of course," she hugged me, "I'll wear a black velvet one with an electronic chime on it and you get to wear a shock collar so you can keep your limited intellect on the important things." "Important things?" Valerie grinned. "Yes; important things like obeying me," Paige grinned triumphantly. "Paige, could you please walk this way with me," Iona said sweetly. "We need to talk." "Not right now, Iona; I'm busy with Zane," Paige dismissed Iona. "Paige, come with me right now or I will inflict such painful force upon your person that even Rio will blanch at the damage delivered," Iona stated with a terrible resolve. Paige regarded Iona with disdain. I was about to break things up but Valerie held me back with a small shake of her head. "I'm not afraid of you, Iona Becket," Paige remarked. "Then you haven't studied the implications of our fight. You will win, and Zane won't have anything to do with you anymore. Rio and I are his first friends here and you understand how he weighs such things," Iona told her calmly. "Hurt me, and kiss him goodbye." Paige's face grew grim. "Now let's take a walk and talk this over, Science Clubber to Science Clubber." "I accept the validity of your socio-dynamic theory. Let's talk then." Paige nodded her acceptance of Iona's statement and with a tiny bit more respect for my diminutive friend, the two geeks walked off. Valerie found the exchange to be both confusing and amusing. "Zane, the girls and I were looking over my ride and talking about taking a few weeks off after the spring semester ends and riding out in my territory," Valerie informed me. "I figure I could teach everyone to ride; I could teach Iona basic mechanics; and Rio could learn to fight." "What do you need me to do?" I asked. "Honestly, you are learning to shoot guns and bows, plus you have martial arts training, so you should do fine. I also heard a rumor that you know something about outdoor survival, which is also handy," Valerie continued. "As long as we can keep you away from the other ladies, we should be okay." "That sounds great. Maybe we could put in some rock-climbing once we get there," I suggested. "Didn't, didn't your parents die in a rock-climbing accident?" Valerie asked. "Yes, so? It was something they loved to do and something they taught me to love," I responded. "I won't give up that part of them over one bad memory." "I can't tell if that's cold or touching," Valerie smirked. "I'll let you figure that one out," I grinned back. "Some things you tell the world, some things you tell your friends, and a few things you keep to yourself." "Is that why you don't pry?" Valerie noted. "Rio says you've never asked her about her history, which makes you pretty unique. 'What were you in for?' was my first question to her." "It is my business to know who you are, not who you were," I told her. "I have to live with you in the present, so that's my business." "My Mom is going to love you," Valerie grinned. "How about your Grandfather?" I inquired. "Touch me in a sexual manner and he'll break out of Maximum Security to kill you," Val winked. "I'm not afraid," I boasted. "Oh?" Valerie arched an eyebrow. "Yes. I have a passport and am not afraid to use it," I joked. "Wow," Dana observed, "so this is what Zane is like when he has blood flowing to his brain; he actually makes sense." "Why am I being nice to you, again?" I questioned Dana. "I haven't a fucking clue," Dana shrugged, "after all, I kicked your ass and beat you to unconsciousness." "You knocked Zane out?" Valerie asked. "If you ever have to teach Zane, you'll end up feeling the same way I did," Dana sneered. "It was an accident," Rio informed Val. "Zane threw his face at her fist and she was forced to defend herself." "What really happened, Zane?" Valerie inquired. "I haven't a clue. I heard 'Ready, set,' and I woke up staring at the ceiling thirty seconds later," I answered. "I punched him, but to be fair, he'd knocked me down with a kick in our previous encounter," Gorman admitted. "I was actually surprised he went down because Zane can take a beating." "That's the second nicest thing you've ever said about me," I commented. "What was the first?" Dana said. "You told Ms. Lane I wasn't a total waste of effort," I related. "Speaking of which, you did her, didn't you?" Dana asked. "I like keeping my relationships discreet, I started, then several girls around me groaned, ", if that is what they want, so no comment." "Let's just say that I've seen teeth marks on Zane's shoulder that have a slight gap on the left like a certain someone we both know," Rio snickered. Dana snorted. Before I could respond, I saw Iona coming my way and Paige angling for the door. I nodded to Iona and mouthed a 'thank you' to her, then angled to cut Paige off. "Where are you going?" I questioned her. "I get it; I'm not wanted, you have better things to do, and I am not going to get what I want so I'm leaving," Paige sounded hurt. "Did I say I didn't want you around?" I asked. "Iona said that you spending time with me was something the other girls wouldn't allow. Even Cordelia feels that way, apparently," Paige informed me. "I think you misunderstood," I clarified. "I want to spend time with you but I can't simply kick other girls aside because I do." "So now you want to spend time with me, but why should I spend time with you?" she countered. "I don't know," I replied. "Why did you come over and hassle Raven and I?" That brought her up short, not because she didn't know the answer but because she didn't want to admit it. "I was jealous," she said softly. "You don't need to be," I told her. "We are study buddies, nothing more." "You are a moro

Christian College Sex Comedy: Part 13 Exiled In 30 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the podcast at Explicit Novels.             You can live without freedom the same way you can live without light, happiness, or music       Chastity, Hope, and I were exiled to our rooms for the rest of the day, and I pretty much spent it in isolation. Cordelia had disabled my own private internet hookup in case my domicile was ransacked so I was left with school work to go over. At 12:30 they brought me lunch and at 6:30 a student brought me dinner. As I was eating, there was another knock on my door. This time there was a girl I didn't recognize from the dorm. "Yes?" "Hi, I'm Alice Hendricks, and I'm your new Dorm Mother," this bright-eyed brunette with pigtails and a gymnast's body greeted me. "Good for you," I replied then started to shut the door. "Wait," she said hurriedly. "The code you gave Barbie Lynn Masters doesn't work." I sighed. "Do you see that green pad beside the keypad?" I indicated the object. "Yes," she nodded. "It is the thumb pad scanner. You enter your code and scan your thumb," I told her. She entered the code and scanned her thumb, and nothing happened. "It doesn't work," she noted. I rolled my eyes. "Let's think about this," I groaned. "You used Barbie Lynn's code and scanned your thumb." I watched as the wheels turned behind her eyes. "Oh, my thumb doesn't match the code, how is this going to work now?" she questioned. "I need to access your room." "Fine," I shrugged. I pushed her aside, covered the keypad with my body, and entered the proper code to generate a new number. "4-7-4-4 is your number. Punch it in and scan your thumb and you're set." "Good night," I told her, and headed back upstairs. "Wait. I need to check out your room," she informed me. I grunted, turned, and faced her. "Do you have a phone?" I asked. Alice nodded. "Can I see it?" She hesitated but handed it over. "You are one of the Enemy," I stated. "What do you mean?" Alice asked. I handed her phone back. "The majority of the girls in this dorm don't have phones anymore because of the Chancellor. You only have one because you are in with the Chancellor and you are pretty much going to be hated for it. Don't get caught alone in the showers, you scumbag," I warned her. "That's not fair," she declared. "Oh, we are past being fair, Alice. Now come upstairs and get your tour over with," I shrugged. Once we got there, Alice stumbled and gasped. "How am I going to search through all of this?" she wondered. "That's not my problem," I told her. "I will be in my bedroom." I went in that direction and I noted she was following me. I flopped down on my bed and listened to her low whistle. "This is your room? How did you get all this, stuff?" she inquired. "I bought all of this for the freshman class to use so we could be safe from the Handmaiden's Duty from time to time," I answered. The door opened and a double set of footsteps came running up the stairs. Rio and Iona came bolting into my room, stopping short when they saw Alice. "Hi, I'm Alice, your new Dorm Mother," she stated crisply. "What are you doing in Zane's room?" "Oh, the fuck you say?" snapped Rio. "Where the hell is Barbie Lynn?" "That is quite enough of that, Ms. Talon," Alice demanded. "Can you please give us some space?" I requested. "No, I don't think that would be wise," Alice countered. "Fine, whatever," I shrugged. "What's the news, girls?" "They sent 40 of our people to the infirmary," Rio said while glaring at Alice. "They preferred to shove us down stairs. Barbie Lynn hurt her knee and Pandora Jaspers bust her scalp open." "Alice, you are going to go out and sit on the sofa now," I told her. "No, I am not," she responded. "This is your last chance to keep things civil, Alice," I cautioned her. "You seem to have forgotten why I am here," Alice replied. "I haven't forgotten, Alice, but you clearly don't understand the cost of that decision," I said. "What is that supposed to mean?" she shot back. "Ladies, I'll see you tomorrow, but we clearly aren't going to be given any common courtesy tonight," I told my ladies. Rio came up, kissed me hungrily, and then glared at Alice. "Cordelia needs to see you at the corner of the Clegger Building at 12:15," Iona whispered in my ear as she hugged me. I gave her a wink as we parted. The girls left and I had to put up with Alice for an hour as she tried to make conversation and I did my best to ignore her. "Zane," Dana Gorman called out as I reclined on a sofa and Alice skulked around. "Over here," I motioned. "You have been temporarily reinstated by the Review Board," she informed me. "Don't waste this opportunity." It was 8:00 o'clock at night so I had to wonder what discussions had taken place. "Am I supposed to be grateful?" I scoffed. "I didn't hear an apology for treating us students so shabbily, nor Heaven being re-admitted. All you did is give us something today that you plan to take away tomorrow." "Don't be an idiot," Dana snapped. "You aren't in a position to make demands." "Well, it was nice to see you, Dana," I shrugged. "I am sorry about this morning. You were very impressive, by the way." Dana shook her head in disgust and left. "You shouldn't have been mean to Coach Gorman," Alice scolded me. I shrugged. Alice tried to be nice, insisting she wasn't in the way, but ended up staying with me until my last bathroom break. I pretty much hated her. Retribution, Removals, and Recouping strength. The post-midnight meeting with Cordelia and a rag-tag group of students was probably the most insane stunt I'd pulled for some time. I thought Cordelia was nuts but my opinion was not solicited. I was wanted for my upper body strength and long reach. See, one of the Administration's greatest tools was the school's surveillance network. As Cordelia saw it, there was one point of weakness for the system and that was in the heart of the Security Center, the system servers that coordinated all the incoming data and video feeds. We weren't going to sabotage it; that would be simple. No, we were going to steal it, and that's exactly what we did. I had to admit that was the last thing Gorman would have suspected us of trying to pull off and the best part of it was that all the surveillance devices were rendered impotent because we stole the objects that held the information of our misdeeds. We stole out the back gate of the campus and buried the equipment out in the woods. Lightning Strike I knew there would be hell to pay and I couldn't contact my normal shower-mates so I went to the shower early and was back in bed by the time Dana Gorman stomped into my room. "You weren't in the shower," she growled, "but several other students were." "Why are you angry for me not being in the shower with the girls?" I yawned. "Because it would give me leverage to make you give me back my security system, you Jackass," she snapped. "And you blame me, why?" I slipped out of the covers, naked, and started to get dressed. Dana didn't seem to mind looking me over. "This is no longer a game," Dana pointed out. "You've stolen thousands of dollars of University property. If I can't find things and quickly, I am going to have to bring in the Sheriff's Department and that equals criminal charges." "Should I take it you've made no progress in the assault on the students yesterday, or is their support for Christina good enough reason for you to let them suffer?" I continued. "You are being an idiot again," Gorman accused me. "We can deal with that once you and the others stop treating this like some social experiment and get back to your studies." "I think this is the point where we cease having anything to discuss, Coach," I muttered. Gorman looked down at the ground and clenched her fists in frustration. "A third of the Soccer team walked off yesterday. I lost half the Karate club as well," she ground out. "Archery disbanded, and it looks like Orienteering and Marksmanship will do the same today. I'm telling you, this is nuts. I've worked my ass off making this school athletically competitive and everyone is throwing that away." "I don't know what to tell you except that I doubt any of this would have happened if someone hadn't been gunning for Rio on our first day," I said. "I certainly made mistakes but you made the first one. I do have one thing I want you to think about." "What is it?" she asked warily. "How do you like your war now?" I stated with intensity. She didn't laugh it off this time. "You think this is going to keep going?" she questioned. "You have our backs against the wall; you are beating and expelling us," I explained. "We don't have many options." "I won't let you win," she said evenly. "I'm afraid it is out of our hands, Dana," I warned her. I didn't know for sure things were going to spiral out of control but I couldn't see any way out of it. Dana shook her head and left. Around 6:45 Alice came to escort me to breakfast. She talked; I remained quiet until I picked up Rio, Valerie, and Iona. We were crossing campus to the Dining Hall when Valerie nudged me. I looked in the same direction she was and saw Hope walking across the lawn on a definite mission. It didn't take me a second to see where she was heading; Rhaine and two of her associates were in huddled conversation. Rhaine never saw what hit her. Hope did a spin kick to her head and sent her flying. She punched the other two, followed up with a heel kick to one and two blows to the head to the last one. Hope then swooped down, snatched up their phones, and rapidly walked away. The first attack hadn't lasted ten seconds. "This is your last chance to get out of this," I whispered to Valerie. "I'm sorry, Mother," Valerie sighed. I didn't have time to know what that meant because I figured the open nature of Hope's attack was Christina's way of telling the rest of us it was time to strike back for what Rhaine's people had done to our side yesterday. I turned and clocked Alice hard enough to knock her down. "Rio, get her phone," I hissed to my friend. Rio was surprised for a second, then jumped on Alice's body. People around us began murmuring but most were in shock. I didn't wait around because I had spotted a group of five of Rhaine's people a few feet ahead. The ripples of Hope's attack started to reach them when I kicked the first one in the back. Valerie was right at my side, flipping a second girl over before she had a chance. I saw Iona grabbing up their phones even as we fought on. The remaining three were able to turn and face us but it didn't do them any good. We steamrolled over them, punching and kicking them into the ground. The first girl near us began to scream as I closed on the next group. This turned out to be Joy and Mercy. Valerie was about to pummel them but I held her back. "Joy, Mercy, sit on the ground and give us your phones," I growled. They hesitated and tried to back up. "Mercy, do it," Rio hissed. "I don't want to see you get hurt." That did it for Mercy, and she took to her seat and handed her phone to Rio. Rio showing compassion toward Mercy was unlooked for and something we'd have to talk about when this bout of madness ended. Joy went down beside Mercy, allowing Valerie and I to move on. By the time we closed on the fourth group, the general student body had figured out something bad was happening and parted like the Red Sea as we approached our quarry. The three girls we approached knew we were coming. I could read their disbelief in their eyes; they couldn't imagine that the attacks they'd perpetrated on our people were coming back to haunt them. One got a blow into my stomach before we finished them off, giving their downed forms a few extra kicks before heading for our last targets. There were four of them, with the added complications of a history teacher named Mrs. Cunningham who was a matronly, sixty-something-year-old instructor. They were standing at the four doors that entered into the Dining Hall and if I had been them, I would have run, but I guessed that the teacher standing so close made them assume we'd hold back; we didn't. The first girl stepped up to say something to me when I split her lip and sent her stumbling back. I kicked the one farthest away while Valerie punched another one in the throat. I chased the second girl down and while she was bent over, I pounded her in the cheek and planted her in the ground. I spun back and kicked the first girl in the face, flipping her over, and witnessed Valerie run the fourth girl into a door and knock her out. Mrs. Cunningham finally recovered enough to grab my arm. "What are you doing?" she muttered weakly. "Yesterday, these girls thought it would be fun to kick some of their fellow students down some stairs, landing them to the infirmary," I responded. "Today they reaped what they sowed." I had no idea if any of the girls I'd attacked had actually beaten up any of Christina's people, but that wasn't the point. The Administration had let Rhaine's girls know that they wanted Christina's people intimidated and suppressed. Not being schooled in the application of force, things had escalated when Christina's people had not backed down. The Chancellor had let them think they were entitled and we'd just shown them they were not; they were going to be held accountable for what they did. Mrs. Cunningham released me and bent over the first moaning girl. Iona came up with a handful of phones. "What do we do with these?" she asked. "Give them to me," chuckled Rio. She took the phones, took out the memory cards, and chucked the phones up on the roof. In the end, Christina only used twenty of us to send eighty of Rhaine's people to the infirmary, and we accomplished it all in under five minutes. We brazenly arrived at breakfast, most of us making for the food line but Rio sprinting for the bathrooms to flush the evidence. Up with the teachers, things were in utter chaos. Gorman's walky-talky didn't seem to be working (thank you, Cordelia) so she grabbed the closest student and wrote them a message. She handed it to the girl (a freshman) who promptly read it, then ate it right in front of the coach. Coach sat that girl down, grabbed a second girl. This one took the message and ran straight to the bathroom and flushed it. Around Chancellor Bazz a storm was boiling over. Several teachers had witnessed the violence and wanted something done about it before one of them was drug into the matter by means of a physical confrontation. They were demanding the attacking students to be rounded up immediately. Several teachers, led by Doctor Larson, were begging, pleading, and demanding that the Chancellor call it quits with this whole suppression scheme. Bazz refused to budge, ordering Gorman to round everyone up and hold them in the parking lot. Gorman was trapped. "That's insane," Dana snapped. "What am I going to round them up with, students? We've seen how well that's worked. I don't have enough security guards to peacefully bring them in and my only alternative is to bring in the Sheriff's Department and use force, and I'm not going to do that." "You will if I tell you to," the Chancellor threatened. Dana threw her hands up in the air and backed away. She paced for about a minute, long enough for us to get our food and take our seats, which were all in one section of the Dining Hall due to some 'screw up' (read: Cordelia) in their seating assignment. There appeared to be around three hundred of us now and morale was high. I caught sight of Gorman angling toward Christina and starting to talk. Christina signaled for her to stop but only long enough to summon three people to her, one being me. Temperance, the senior, was one of them, and the third was a girl I'd only known by her photograph. She was Hannah Cartwright, the Sophomore Class President. "I'm asking for a cease-fire," Dana reiterated. "The fighting ends on both sides, strict discipline will be enforced for any and all infractions, and there will be no administrative actions for what has happened over the past forty-eight hours." "We want our phones, tablets, and laptops back, plus the ability to use them," Temperance stated. "All expulsions are to be cancelled and the procedure to bring Heaven back is to begin immediately," I continued. Dana nodded to both addendums. "I want my security system back," Dana countered. "We will start looking for it as soon as this deal goes through," Christina agreed. "That is the best I can hope for," Dana sighed. She stuck out her hand to Christina, who stood and shook it. "Deal?" Christina looked around to get our consensus. "Deal," Christina echoed. I wanted to sit back and savor our partial victory but Christina was tense and nervous and that infected us all. When Dana got back to the Chancellor, she made her case. Doctor Bazz glared at her for a moment but the words that followed, while spoken in a low voice, reverberated throughout the hall. "That's idiotic; we will not negotiate with these children. Your incompetence has led us to this point, Ms. Gorman; you are fired." Several teachers immediately protested but Dana simply put down her walky-talky, turned, and strolled out of the room. Doctor Bazz cancelled classes for the day and confined everyone to their dorm rooms and dorm floors until the situation was resolved. Christina told us to ignore the travel restrictions but to keep in groups and avoid confronting security. When we were ordered from the hall, I noticed everyone was traveling in groups now, even the teachers. Things had become totally crazy. As Valerie, Rio, Iona and I returned to our dorm, we ran across Alice coming back from the nurse's office. When she saw us, she looked hurt and a bit afraid, but she showed enough courage to confront me. "Why did you hit me?" she demanded. "I did nothing to deserve that." "Alice, you were sent to spy on me, or did you search every dorm room as thoroughly as you searched mine?" I shot back. "I was told to do that when I accepted the position of Dorm Mother," she replied. "Did it occur to you that I might resent being singled out for persecution and, if given a chance, I'd strike back?" I explained. "If not, it should have, especially after yesterday." "I had nothing to do with what happened to those other girls," she shook her head. "Listen, you stupid cunt," Rio snapped. "You got orders from the same person who sent those girls to hurt our friends." "When you chose to take Barbie Lynn's place, you placed yourself side by side with those mean girls, Alice," Iona added. "You chose to be a soldier in their army. Soldiers get shot, even if they don't get involved in shooting at the enemy themselves." "It is time for you to go," Valerie told Alice. Alice stayed in the hallway as the rest of us walked away. By the time we made it to my door, Pandora, Paige, Brandi, and Opal had joined us. "Cordelia wants your hook-up activated once more," Pandora informed me. She had a bruised right eye and a bandage above the eyebrow. "She figures any minute now, the Chancellor will shut down our regular internet lines." "Sure thing," I agreed. "I'll get the hot oil and work Valerie over after that tough fight she was in," Rio volunteered. "Boundaries," Valerie cautioned my buddy. "Besides, if anyone works over this body, it will be Zane." Rio chortled and I gave the tall biker-chick a skeptical look. "Just kidding," she laughed, "though we both could probably use some stress relief." That train of thought was interrupted by a fresh group of freshmen entering the area. I went over to one of the glass panels that gave me a view over the campus. Small groups of students were violating the curfew, and here and there a lone campus security guard gave chase but it was an uneven struggle. Students could run inside a dorm and vanish, and Campus Security didn't have the resources to search every dorm room. The pair that came up the stairs thirty minutes later was a real stunner. It was Barbie Lynn with her knee wrapped up, being supported by, Dana Gorman. Dana also had a backpack that clinked very time she moved. "Look what I found sneaking across campus," Gorman snorted. No one said anything; she was the Evil Henchman, after all. "Thanks, Dana," I said, as I took Barbie off her hands, "take a seat and relax for a while. What brings you to my room, anyway?" Barbie looked terribly concerned by this turn of events. "My cable is dead, no internet or TV, and I don't have access to the few remaining security systems, so I figured if anyone had access to the outside world, it would be you," Dana related. "What do you need?" I continued. "I'd like to watch some international soccer," she told me. I looked toward Paige, who shrugged, then nodded. Dana took a spot on the closest sofa to a TV and sat down. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out a beer. Rio homed in on that and jumped over the sofa beside Dana. "What do you think you are doing?" Dana asked Rio as my friend put her hand into the satchel. "Getting a beer; I figure we are all rebels here," Rio smirked. "No, you are a rebel; I'm unemployed, and I don't want to add a criminal conviction for giving alcohol to a minor to my list of accomplishments," Dana explained. "Come with me," Valerie commanded, as she scooped up Rio's arm and headed away. "Let's play some pool." "Oh!" Rio bubbled, "Are you going to use your big hard stick on me?" "Yes; it is called caning," Valerie retorted. Barbie Lynn, Iona, & Zane Iona was looking lost with everyone seemingly going in different directions, so I took her by the hand and, with Barbie Lynn, retired to my bedroom. "I love you two," I sighed as the stress slowly started to recede. Barbie Lynn pulled close to my side and when I looked at her, we kissed. Iona pressed into my front and rested her head on my chest. Our lips parted and I looked to Iona, who was giving me a wide-eyed smile. We kissed for some time until Barbie Lynn began massaging my rod through my pants. I returned to Barbie until Iona hugged me tight, resulting in me going back and forth for a while. "Let's go to bed," Iona suddenly spoke up. Barbie Lynn chuckled at the smaller girl's assertiveness while I marveled at how far she'd come from the scared girl who had grabbed my arm only a few weeks earlier. I sat Barbie Lynn down on the edge of the bed and worked off her skirt first. I stopped Iona from doing the same, preferring to undress her next. I alternated taking off items of clothing until they were finally naked on the bed, side by side before me. "Well, Zane," Barbie Lynn began, sliding one leg up until the heel was touching her thigh. "What are you waiting for," Iona finished, mimicking Barbie's movements. "I would like to express right now how much I've missed the both of you," I swore to them. "Less talk; more action," Barbie Lynn instructed. I began stripping as fast as I could and the girls crawled underneath the covers. Iona was on her back, propped up on her elbows as I finished shedding my clothes. Barbie Lynn surprised her by rolling onto her side and taking a nipple into her mouth, causing Iona to give a startled squeak. Iona had not expected to be the center of our attention, that was normally Barbie Lynn's role, so she couldn't mount an effective defense against our combined affections. We each feasted on a nipple, taking the occasional stop to kiss Iona deeply, or one another, with Iona's breasts rubbing against our cheeks. Both our hands made our way to Iona's honey box, pulled her reluctant legs apart, and began rubbing all over her pubic area. We pushed fingers almost a knuckle deep into her super-tight virgin cunt. Barbie and I spread her juices around, making the whole pubic mound slick and fluid. We even put our fingers on opposite sides of her clit and rolled them back and forth, sending her over the edge. "Jesus," she panted. "Oh, thank you, thank you, oh, thank you," she gasped. "This feels so good, Yes!" she cried out. At this point, I was thinking about letting Iona go but Barbie Lynn kept flicking her clit and probing her cunt while sucking in and twirling her breast. I added a finger to the mix and kissed Iona, who desperately tried to suck my tongue out of my mouth, ouch! At the same time, Iona's back arched off the bed again and again, her thighs trembled, and she clutched at the headboard so hard it shook. At the point I feared Iona's heart would explode, I pushed Barbie Lynn's hand away and she looked up with her lips slick with the saliva generated by sucking on Iona's tits. "She is the best friend I've made all year," Barbie Lynn confided in me. "Better than me?" I questioned. "Honey," she drawled, "I think we can agree you're a tad more than a friend." "What am I, then," I teased; "pen pal, cyber-fan, bosom buddy?" "I think bosom buddy, she grinned as she squeezed her magnificent orbs together, ", is closer to what I'm aiming for." "My cunt is still quivering," Iona mumbled in a tiny voice. "Did I lose my virginity?" "No, Baby," Barbie Lynn cooed to her, "You had a really good one is all. That is what an orgasm is supposed to feel like. That is what Zane does to me every time." Huh? I do? "Oh," Iona sighed dreamily, "I like that. Isn't it your turn now?" "It certainly is, and Zane knows what I want, don't you," she winked. "I'll get it," I feigned annoyance, "but I'm still going to take my time with you. I'm not rushing into anything." "I like the way you think," Barbie Lynn purred. She laid out on the bed, her beautiful breasts spreading out and her hair cascading over the pillows she rested on. It hurt to move away from the sight of her. I got a small tube of lube, crawled over to her, and wedged the tube to the small of her back. Letting her body warm it up would make the sensation more pleasurable. "Whoa, that's cold," she gasped and wiggled. "Let me warm you up, then," I grinned. I moved underneath the sheets and then between her legs. "Hello," she said demurely, my body poised over hers, our faces nose to nose. She rested her elbows on my shoulders with her arms up. "This feels good, Zane, feels right." Her thighs pressed against mine and my cock rested on her pubic mound. I moved my face down and stole a quick kiss. Barbie followed suit and soon we were lip-locked. In time we were trading kisses on the neck and earlobes, our heads playfully moving back and forth. When I reached the top of her breastbone, Barbie Lynn flinched; she'd tried to loop her bum knee over my leg and the pain had been a sharp reminder of her limitations. I lowered myself and took a nipple into my lips and tickled it with my tongue. "Does that make it feel better?" I teased her. "Uh-huh," she purred, "now get back to it." I hardly felt inclined to deny her request and began alternating each nipple and breast. I let my lips and tongue go over every inch of her breast, especially along the base where a slight taste of sweat mixed with the scent of her body soap. "Zane, I want you in me," she pleaded with sultry passion. "But I want this," I responded, running my hand along her puffy cunt lips. "I promise we can do that later, you know how much I love your tongue, but I'm missing something else even more," she expressed her desire. I thought about the body dynamics of the situation and decided the best solution was to roll Barbie Lynn's hips on their side, lifting her left, uninjured leg to my shoulder. Retrieving the warm lube, I rubbed some liberally over her ass hole and two of my fingers, pushing the middle finger gently in first. Barbie Lynn flexed her body and moaned as the finger pressed into her. Soon she was rocking her hips and pushing down on my hand. "That still looks painful," Iona whispered as she moved in for a closer look. "The pleasure far exceeds the pain, Shugah." Barbie Lynn expressed what was about to come. I leaned/crawled over her hips, one hand still working Barbie's tits over while I kissed a nipple and tugged on it with my teeth. Barbie was letting her arm roam around when Iona intercepted it and put the blonde's fingertips to her mouth. Unbidden, Iona began sucking on those fingers and I could see that Barbie was torn between the eroticism of the act and the fact it was innocent little Iona who was doing it. Barbie Lynn used her free hand to push her succulent boob deeper into my mouth, not that there was any way I could get it all into my mouth. Iona went from finger to finger, spending extra time on the thumb. Barbie's chest began heaving from the excitement and took a jolt when I sunk my second finger into her rectum. "Are you okay?" Iona worried. "Yes, yes, yes," Barbie Lynn exulted happily, "and it's going to get better real soon." I decided to move two fingers along her sopping wet slit and let my thumb depress her clit and rub it around. "Aha, ah, oh, yeah," she panted as my hands began working in tandem. I could tell Barbie Lynn was fighting a losing battle against her orgasm and I wasn't in a mood to make things easy. I rammed my two fingers deep into her ass while biting her nipple and strumming her clit as fast as I could. "Lord Jesus loves Me!!!!" she went off. "Gah! Yeah, yeah, oh, ugh, baby, Yes!" Barbie Lynn went on and on with increasing volume. Her cunt dripped all over my fingers, slick and sensual to my touch. I brought those fingers to my lips, going back for a second taste while her body still shook from her climax. "Don't mind us," Rio announced as she strolled into my room, pulling a reluctant Mercy behind her. "My bitch is here and I'm going to bite a chunk off." "Hi, Mercy," Iona waved. Mercy shot her an embarrassed smile. Rio led her to the far side of the bed. I was a bit concerned that too many people were coming into my room but I couldn't look everywhere and pay attention to Barbie Lynn and Iona too. I took up the lube and coated my cock. Before I could spread it out evenly, Iona reached down and did the job for me, even sharing a shy smile with me as she did so. She even helped me lodge it against Barbie Lynn's anus. Iona felt the tension along my cock until Barbie's sphincter gave way and let me in, then she moved her hand away. "Wow," she whispered, even as Barbie Lynn sighed in satisfaction. As a counterpoint, we heard "On your knees, Slut-Bunny," Rio barked to Mercy. She pushed Mercy forward face-first on the bed, flipped up her skirt, and took a bite out of her ass. Mercy yelped and buried her face in the sheets. Sometimes Rio could be sane, but totally nuts was her default setting. I measured the tremors in her body as I gently pressed my body onto Barbie Lynn's hips, deepening the penetration of my cock into her back passage. "Oh, God, Zane," she moaned. "This never gets old, filling me up like you do." I slapped her meaty ass cheek hard enough to leave an angry red handprint. Barbie gave a deep intake of breath that became a squeal of joy. Mercy grunted as Rio yanked her panties off her ass and down her legs. "Crawl over there and give Barbie Lynn a kiss," Rio demanded. Mercy gulped and hesitated to respond so Rio hauled off and smacked her ass hard enough for people outside the room to hear. Mercy's eyes grew wide, her mouth gaped open, and her cheeks flushed, then she smiled. She made her way slowly across the bed, clearly enticing Rio to spank her several more times. Mercy first brought Barbie Lynn's gaze over toward her by tipping her chin with one careful hand. The first kiss was tentative and tender. SMACK! "Kiss her like you want to be kissed, you whore!" Rio taunted Mercy. As she spanked her with one hand, she drove two fingers into Mercy's cunt with the other. I had to assume that Mercy was already pretty wet because instead of pulling away from the penetration, Mercy leaned forward on her elbows while thrusting her hips back against Rio's intrusion. While I was being sensitive to the slow burn Barbie Lynn was going through, Rio drove her hand rapidly like a maniac. It was a good thing that Mercy liked it rough, but then she chose to be with Rio as much as Rio chose to pick on her. At the opposite side of the expression spectrum, Iona curled up against Barbie's other side and let her lips gracefully flit along the shoulder and arm. Mercy returned for another kiss at the same time I reached my full expansion inside of Barbie Lynn. "Oh, my," Barbie gasped. I waited as she adjusted internally while Mercy kissed her with a lot more passion and intensity. That didn't stop Rio from administering a few more sharp smacks to Mercy's bottom, compelling Mercy to rumble with a hunger for more. Iona let her lips migrate from arm to hip, and leading up Barbie Lynn's hip to my stomach. "Reach a hand back here and take over, you slut," Rio told Mercy. When Mercy made the maneuver, Rio began stripping down. Unlike this weekend, she had only her two labia piercings in, though she still had her tattoo along the hip. She gave me both raised eyebrows to go along with her insane grin as the clothes finished coming off. I partially withdrew my member from Barbie Lynn, eliciting a moan. Iona settled up against me, resting her hands on my chest and hip. I kept a grip on Barbie's hip and slipped a hand around Iona's hip and buttocks, rubbed it along her anus, ending at her cunt. "Ugh," Iona grunted, as I stroked her kitty and sunk a finger inside. The group of us got into a rhythm once Rio knelt behind Mercy and began lapping up her cunt and squeezing her ass. By the way Barbie Lynn was pushing and rotating her hips, grabbing the sheets in tight fists and moaning between her kisses with Mercy, she was approaching her second orgasm. "Zane, Jesus Christ, Zane, oh, God, Baby, ah, aha, Yes!" she screamed. Her ass muscles gripped, twisted, and squeezed my cock so hard, it took all my concentration to not shoot off into her rectum. Barbie Lynn kept pulsing and rocking over the sheets as waves of intense pleasure crested and slowly worked its way through her system. Iona and I started seriously kissing as she stood on her knees beside me. "I want to try something," I told her. "He wants to try something?" I heard Valerie's voice talking to an unseen party. "Somehow the current five-way isn't enough for him." There was a snort in agreement of that. I pumped Barbie Lynn four times in quick succession, then leaned back until my cock was at the very edge of leaving her ass. My torso pivoted, I slipped my arms between Iona's legs and pulled her up by her buttocks and to me. "What?" she gasped. As Iona rose up and I twisted back to a face-forward position, I licked and tongue-tickled my way from her chest, to her stomach, and finally to her pubic hair. "Ah, oh, okay," Iona exhaled with pleasure. She put her hands on my shoulders, moved higher, and moved her legs over my arms and rested them on my shoulders. I still had to hold tight to her ass and raise her to the point I could get my mouth fully on her clit and moist lips. "Oh, damn," Rio giggled, "Zane's making me pull out my toys." SMACK! "Mercy, you behave." Rio moved off the bed, stopped, and said, "You had better not remember where I'm getting these from," to another person. "I wouldn't think of it," Dana Gorman allowed. Clearly my surprise showed in my body because she spoke again. "I wanted to see what all my girls were giggling and whispering about in the showers. I put it down to standard virgin girl hysteria. Now, " "I half expect some porn director to say 'Cut, print' at any second," Valerie added. I really didn't need my sex life critiqued at this moment. I was balancing one girl on my face, licking her silly, while pounding Barbie Lynn's ass. Seriously, can't a man have a simple three-way with two college girls in his room in peace? I was soon too overwhelmed by the price of my sexual ambition to worry about that question. I drank deep of Iona's nectar, licking along the folds from top to bottom while letting my upper lip press against her throbbing clit. She took one hand from my shoulder, wrapped it up in my hair, and cautiously pushed my face deeper into her cunt. "Oh, God, Zane, ah, yes, yes, yes," she panted. "That's it, right there, Ah!" Iona began riding my face with greater and greater vigor. Barbie Lynn gyrated against my crotch. I heard a vibrator cut on and Mercy groaned as Rio did something to her. I suspected that was moving her off Barbie because Barbie began using greater force against me. I began to feel a tightness building up in my guts as my blood pounded from the exertions I was putting myself through. "Come here, Mercy," Rio coaxed, "On your back, my little slut, and spread those legs." I wished I could see what she was up to because soon Mercy was moaning and gurgling all over the place. "Please, Rio," Mercy pleaded, "please, " "Do you like that?" Rio teased. "Wiggle that ass for me, then, Baby." "Ah, oh, Rio, I love you," Mercy moaned. Smack! "None of that, you skank," Rio snapped. "You are my toy, nothing more." "Yes," sobbed Mercy. "Good girl," Rio responded. Mercy gave off a hiccup, then a gasp of pleasure. "You know you are my tight-ass whore; right?" Her victim lurched and moaned several more times. "Yes, yes, I understand," Mercy gasped. "I'm yours, whenever, you want." SMACK! "Good girl. Now shake that ass, Bitch," Rio continued. Mercy began making choking, sobbing sounds. "Don't you dare cum until you get me off. Work that tongue like you mean it." I could now visualize Rio and Mercy in a sixty-nine, Rio on top, with a dildo up Mercy's ass. While figuring that out, I almost missed Iona starting to spasm on my face. I could feel her cunt contracting on my tongue. One hand was yanking and releasing my hair while the fingernails on the other dug into my shoulder. I moved my tongue and latched onto her clit with my lips and sucked on it for all I was worth. "Ah, oh, oh, oh, Zane!" Iona screamed. Her fluids dripped over my nose, into my mouth, and down my chin, but that wasn't my problem. My problem was that Iona's body was convulsing, bending her backward toward the head of the bed and me forward into Barbie Lynn. Of course, if I couldn't stop Iona's progress, she'd topple onto Barbie Lynn too. "Oh, God fuck damn!" Barbie exploded as I rammed my full length into her inadvertently. "Jesus, love, which was cut off by her orgasm taking over. Her anal muscles constricted and that was it for me. Hot semen shot down Barbie's gut, causing her to scream even louder. My whole body was trembling from my ejaculation, plus the strain the two women were putting on me. Somehow I hung on long enough for Iona to reach behind her, catching the headboard, while Barbie Lynn extended her arms up to brace Iona from tumbling over. "Fuck, yeah, that's what I'm talking about," Rio laughed. "Mercy, you can come now." "Uh, uh, thank, oh, God," Mercy gasped out. "Rio, umm, ugh," she choked out before she buried her face into Rio's cunt and muffled further expressions of ecstasy. "Gurr," Rio growled, before burying her face into the top of Mercy's thigh. I figured by Mercy's thrashing that Rio took a bit of a nip out of her playmate's flesh. In a shuddering heap of sweaty flesh, Iona, Barbie Lynn, and I flopped onto the bed without anyone being crushed. They lay there while I remained on my knees. "Damn," Valerie chuckled, "I feel like a virgin all over again." "Hell, I need to take a shower and I just sat here," Gorman agreed. I moved between Barbie Lynn and Iona. "Fuck, he's still hard." "Zane's like that," Barbie Lynn laughed between gasps of breath. "He's always hard after the first round, God bless his soul." Iona snuggled into me, kissing my chest between gulps of air. "It's only been thirty minutes," Iona sighed. "We'll let him recharge a little bit before going at him again." "Yes, my ass hurts," Barbie Lynn added. "I won't be ready for, say an hour." Rio dismounted Mercy and rolled next to Barbie Lynn. "Mercy, get up here and kiss me, damn it," Rio breathed huskily. Mercy staggered around on all fours and crawled up Rio's body until she straddled her. A dreamy smile on her face, Mercy went to kiss Rio on the lips but Rio stopped her. "No, you don't, you cunt," Rio chastised her. "Here," she indicated her chin. Mercy kissed it. Rio then led Mercy on a slow quest over her nose, cheeks, earlobe, and finally the lips. Rio grabbed Mercy's hips and pulled the older girl down on top of her. "Okay, I have to ask; how did Rio end up in bed with Mercy? Mercy is one of my better martial artists and Rio is, well, Rio, kind of an annoying little twerp," Gorman wondered. "I won her playing bingo," was Rio's smarmy comeback. "They developed a relationship when you put her in our path," I was a bit more honest. "Mercy discovered something about herself and someone in Rio who could satisfy her needs." To emphasize the point, Rio spanked Mercy's ass hard and the girl humped Rio in response. "So, besides Cappadocia, are there any of my other girls you, have a relationship with?" Dana inquired. She even leaned forward on the chair she was sitting on. "What makes you think Cappy and I have a thing?" I asked. "On Monday," Dana rolled her eyes at my naivet , "she hated you and on Wednesday, she couldn't keep her eyes off of you and couldn't drive the other teammates out of the gym for your, private lesson. Just because I'm over thirty doesn't mean I'm soft in the head." "That's not fair, Coach," Rio smiled past Mercy. "We never thought you were bright." Before I could say or do anything, Barbie Lynn elbowed her. "Ow!" Rio snickered. "Why are you hitting me?" "I owe you. You said a bad thing, and Zane says never fight yesterday's battles. Now that the Coach is no longer the bad girl, we don't pick on her," Barbie Lynn explained. "But I'm always annoying," Rio countered. "Why is this time special?" "Rio, don't you think Zane deserves a break? He's always throwing himself onto the train tracks for you and you give him shit for it," Barbie Lynn sounded a bit cross. "After all, you wouldn't have Mercy if you'd had your way. Zane was right about you being good for the rest of us to know, and he was right about saving Mercy. I trust him about Coach because I trust you too." "Trust, smust, I'll keep my spank-o-matic," Rio grimaced. She clearly got Barbie Lynn's point but admitting it at the moment wasn't in her. "So, does anyone want to give Mercy a hard spanking? If not, I'm going to get my big strap-on and ream her ass until she is so hoarse, she can't scream anymore." "Don't you think you two need to grow together before using the 'OMG' model?" I warned her. That thing would tear Mercy's unprepared ass to shreds. I reached over Barbie Lynn and spanked Mercy four times, two to each ass cheek. She yelped and jolted with each contact, and while tears welled in her eyes, she couldn't have been happier. "I'm getting my favorite strap-on, then," Rio wiggled from under Mercy. "Hold her back," Valerie joked. "She's lost her mind." Mercy buried her face in the bed, shook her head, and raised her ass up in the air. "Fine, if it's the Spas-monkey you want, so be it." "Have some of this," Barbie Lynn fished out the lubricant and handed it to Mercy. "I don't know how patient Rio is going to be when she gets back." Rio, who was only a few feet away getting out and attaching her strap-on, stuck out her tongue at Valerie and Barbie. "Spas-monkey? I prefer Vibrator-Bunny, or didn't you two get my tweet?" "How about Vibrating Spas?" Iona suggested. Rio howled and charged the bed. "That's it," she giggled, "that tight little virgin ass-hole is mine!" Iona squawked and buried herself under my side. "That's my virgin ass to nurture and enjoy, bro, not yours," I taunted Rio as I reached around and put a comforting arm around Iona. I wasn't sure how Iona would take that. Her kisses to my ribs ended those worries. "I'll nipple twist you for her," Rio grinned. Belying her threat, she was lining up behind Mercy while Mercy was rubbing lube all along her ass cleft and anus. "I never considered the benefits of anal sex in a school full of virgin school girls," Valerie mused. "Oral sex, I expected, but not anal." "Somehow, when the Founders created the Purity Pledge, I suspect they were forbidding all kinds of intercourse, but they never counted on Zane," Dana stated. "Rio, I'm not going to take you on in a contest you love and I hate," I smiled. "How about a shoot-off? I'll spot you two orgasms." "Four," Rio hissed. She'd spread the oil over her dildo and was slowly pushing it into the ass of Mercy. Mercy had her face still buried in the sheets, her fists balled up and her hips pushing back. "Uh, uh, uh," Mercy groaned, as Rio penetrated with short jabs. She rested her hands on Mercy's shoulder and neck. "Okay, now I'm grateful I sleep on my back," Valerie commented. "I promised Zane I wouldn't break her, but if I felt that poking my hiney, I'd stick it somewhere she'd not soon forget." "Do the world a favor and stick it in her mouth," Dana smirked. "Hardy, har-har," Rio chuckled. She reached down beside Mercy, retrieved her vibrator, and began rubbing it along that girl's cunt slit and clit. Barbie Lynn reached for my cock and began stroking it, rubbing it along her ass and between her cheeks. "I need another beer," Dana sighed. "All this is doing is reminding me that plastic doesn't really get the job done." "Get me a Coke and I'll get the popcorn," Valerie said. "After all, I have an open invitation to join whenever I want." I had to wonder when that had happened, then I remembered Rio and her big mouth. Iona had settled in on her side, head propped up on her elbow, as she watched me push into Barbie Lynn once more. I had my hands on her hip and thigh, pushing in with more force this time around. "Feels, so, good," Barbie Lynn sighed, as my cock filled up her rectum. "Make me feel good, Daddy." I lifted up her left leg, then gingerly took her wounded leg and raised it to my shoulder as well. As I felt the deep reaches of her bowels envelop me, Barbie Lynn arched her back and let out a sob of joy. "Oh, that's what I need," she moaned, "That's what I've missed." Unlike our first round, this time we were raw with our hunger for one another. I kneaded her breasts, teasing and pulling the nipples from time to time. Her body was folded up so that our faces were close enough for me to lock onto those gorgeous bedroom blue eyes. Barbie licked her lips and blew kisses at me. I was so into Barbie sensually that I almost missed Mercy going off next to us. "Oh God, oh fuck, oh God!" she verbally exploded. "Please!!!" Rio kept up the slap, slap, slap of her thighs against Mercy's ass. "Don't you give up on me, Bitch," Rio taunted her. She grabbed a handful of Mercy's hair and pulled her shoulder up off the bed until she was balancing on her hands and knees. Rio shot a look my way and mouthed 'I love you' as she kept working Mercy over into one cascading orgasm after another. I was pounding deep into Barbie Lynn's tight orifice, Rio was happy, and Iona was giving me a dreamy, contented look. Life could hardly be better. "Zane, we need to, Oh, My God!" Virginia Goodswell cried out in a shocked voice. "Here, have my seat, Virginia," Gorman grinned. "You look like you are about to fall over." I hadn't even heard Dana or Valerie return. "Zane, what are you doing?" Virginia questioned. "I'm a little busy," I ground out. Fucking was hard, attention intensive, and pleasurable work. "Virginia, he's having anal intercourse with Barbie Lynn Masters," Dana chuckled. "I thought that would have been obvious. Rio Talon is using a strap-on and a dildo on Mercy Chaplain, and Iona, having been touched and licked to two orgasms, is sitting this round out." "I can see that and, Dana, what are you doing here?" Virginia, my Spiritual Advisor, asked. "I'm unemployed so they aren't my students anymore," Dana snorted. "Also, Zane's got one of the few illegal internet hook-up plus satellite TV. My apartment is a tomb, comparatively." "This was the farthest thing from my mind when I learned my Dad was sending me to an All-Girl Christian University," Valerie added. "It is the skirts," Rio giggled. "Zane can't keep his hands off the skirts." "In my experience, Zane has the pathological desire to worship the female form," Iona joined in. "Listen, I knew Zane was having, relationships, but coming in and finding him in bed with four women, girls, students is a bit much to wrap my mind around," Virginia related. "My sex life has been a bit vanilla." "I prefer to think of mine as disappointing," Dana confessed. "All my boyfriends have lived under threat of dismemberment, so I've had it pretty safe too," Valerie stated. "Threat of dismemberment?" Virginia stammered. "She's a member of a major criminal biker organization in the Rockies," Dana informed her. "We are a motorcycle club," Valerie defended her family. "I'm having sex here," I growled. "If you don't mind, " "We are good, Zane," Valerie replied. "Don't worry about us, and Barbie needs you." "Gee, thanks," I grumbled, but she was right; Barbie Lynn needed my attention. "Ms. Palmer, every one of your known associates, except your baby sister, has a criminal record," Dana said. "I've never been convicted of anything," Val countered, "and Mom got off on a bad search." Mercy cried out as Rio shifted to sharp powerful jabs with her artificial cock. "I've got a record," Rio crowed proudly. "That only means you were sloppy enough to get caught," Valerie pointed out. "It wasn't my fault; I ran out of road while driving a stolen Porsche," Rio told us. "You stole a Porsche?" Valerie asked. "How do you run out of road in an expensive, high-performance sports car?" Virginia wondered. "Yes, take that, Mercy, you bitch," slap, slap, "I stole a Porsche and I ran out of road when I cruised into another car showroom on the far side of town. Who knew that those dumb sons-of-bitches didn't put a back way out that place?" "Rio, why did you steal something that didn't belong to you in the first place?" Iona begged to know. "Blame drugs, teenage hormones, or the fact that it was a school night, I hadn't studied for a test the next day, and this sounded like the best way of not having to take it," Rio suggested. I would have told them that was Rio-speak for 'I have no idea' except I'd finally stretched Barbie Lynn's hamstrings to the point we had our tongues entwined, mouths pressed, and teeth nibbling on each other's lips like famished lovers. I could feel her anal spasm vibrating up through her body and her lungs fighting for air. She was getting close and I thought it was going to be a big one. "That would be an exhibition of low impulse control," Dana chided Rio. "I think it shows poor life choices," Virginia stated. "I think it shows she's fucking nuts," Valerie declared. "Fine, whatever, but I'm one of the two people fucking a sweet piece of ass while you dykes are sitting on the sidelines," Rio taunted them. "You are my students," Virginia began, "I don't, She was interrupted by Barbie Lynn. "Ugh, Oh, Lord Jesus, Zane," she gasped then, "Ai!" she screamed so loud I was afraid my brain would explode. She kept trying to buck me off and thrash about so violently that I was afraid she'd hurt herself, or me. I rode that wave for almost a minute before Barbie Lynn made one final strenuous effort, then went limp in my arms. I gently shifted her legs down my sides to rest on the bed. I remained propped over her until her eyes focused on me and an ephemeral smile graced her lips. "Umm, sleepy," she purred. "Okay, Babe," I said, then kissed her nose. Her eyes closed and her breathing became low and regular. "Okay,&quo

Together, Christina "Lusti" Lustenberger and Guillaume "Gee" Pierrel have teamed up for some of the most notable and impressive first descents in recent years. Lusti is an Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) Ski Guide and professional skier. A career that started with alpine ski racing took Lusti all the way to the Olympics, but more than five knee surgeries later, a career pivot has taken her to ski some of the most impressive and challenging lines around the world. Gee, a french IFMGA Mountain Guide, got his start on skis through Nordic racing, but a love for the outdoors and the mountains brought him full circle. He too made a career pivot in his 20's, and what started out as ski instruction eventually led him to guide certification. Lusti and Gee join Sam and Adrian to talk about the partnership they've developed and the keys to their success in the mountains:- With their first big mountain experiences on New Zealand's Mt. Cook in October 2024, Lusti and Gee recount their first descent on the mountain. - Following their success in New Zealand, Lusti invited Gee to join her on a more-than-a-decades long project on Canada's Mt. Robson. - With the ultimate partnership developed, and technical skills that complement each other nicely, Lusti and Gee have the ultimate potential to push forward the sport of Ski Mountaineering. Lusti and Gee's latest film, Robson, debuts at the Banff Mountain Film Festival on November 1. To learn more about Lusti and Gee, and follow their adventures, find them on Instagram @christinalusti and @geepierrel.Follow our podcast on Instagram @duffelshufflepodcast where you can learn more about us and our guests. Visit our website at www.duffelshufflepodcast.com and join our mailing list. The Duffel Shuffle Podcast is supported by Alpenglow Expeditions, an internationally renowned mountain guide service based in Lake Tahoe, California. Visit www.alpenglowexpeditions.com or follow @alpenglowexpeditions on Instagram to learn more.

Gee shares a positive take on the Mariners // World Cup tickets are selling for $1 million // AGREE TO DISAGREE: Forgetting your anniversary // WE HEAR YOU! and WORDS TO LIVE BY

Au programme de la 258e émission diffusée mardi 21 octobre 2025 à 15 h 30 : sujet principal : la plateforme PDPLibre, une réponse communautaire à la réforme de la facturation électronique Le truc que (presque) personne n'a vraiment compris mais qui nous concerne toutes et tous, la chronique de Benjamin Bellamy, sur le sujet de « l'ordinateur quantique » la chronique « Les humeurs de Gee » sur « Adieu Windows » (rediffusion) Quoi de Libre ? Actualités et annonces concernant l'April et le monde du Libre

Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. We express a lot of opinions on this show, and opinions are like smart phones. Everyone has one and they all destroy your brain. Even if we're right that Foo Fighters make terrible music, how do we hold real and genuine space in our […]

URSULA'S TOP STORIES: The Mariners lose // WA AG wants a new law to notify of workplace immigration raids // The new sales tax on service // Ursula is proud of her Trump Derangement Syndrome // Gee responds to Ursula's TDS

Send us a text The education game is changing—and parents at GEE are right at the center of the conversation. Are learning pods the answer to concerns about Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in public schools? What do parents really need to know before making a decision that could shape their child's future?In this episode, we break down the facts, the fears, and the faith-based alternatives that are driving education choices in our community.Our guests are: Shorouq Alhayek, Basma Illyan and Ali Sultan.What You'll Learn:How learning pods actually work—from setup and costs to who's really running them in MichiganWhat Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is all about—the real curriculum, the controversies, and why some parents are raising red flagsIslamic learning pods and co-ops—are they the future for Muslim families in Dearborn?Firsthand stories from local parents and educators navigating these tough decisionsPractical tips on questions to ask, legal requirements, and potential pitfallsHow mosques and Islamic centers are stepping up to provide community-driven education optionsWhy This Episode Matters:With so many parents in our community questioning public school policies and looking for values-aligned education, this episode gives you the honest, practical info you need—without the spin. Whether you're a parent, educator, or just concerned about the future of our kids, this conversation is for you.Jump into the comments:Share your story, ask your questions, and let's support each other as a community.Subscribe for more real talk on education, parenting, and the issues that matter to Muslim families.More resources and support at Ozmedia313.com#LearningPODS #SocialEmotionalLearning #MuslimParents #DearbornEducation #IslamicEducation #Homeschooling #EducationChoice #ParentRights #OZMedia #Michigan #MuslimCommunity #AlternativeEducation #PublicSchools #FaithBasedEducation #CommunityEducation 

Blue Jays fan doesn't think her team has a prayer // The World Cup could cost you // Gee thinks Bad Bunny is a terrible pick for the SB halftime // AGREE TO DISAGREE: Is Kim Kardashian's new line of underwear in poor taste? // Whidbey Island business getting rid of pennies // WE HEAR YOU! and WORDS TO LIVE BY

This month, we explore some of the debut releases from newest indie publisher on the block - Manga Mavericks Books! Alongside their partnership with Red String Translations, this collection of books has something for everyone. Join Gee and Ray as we explore these new releases.Follow Ray on her channel ⁠⁠⁠Whimsical Pictures⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠And if you can't get enough of me, Gee, be sure to follow me on my ⁠⁠⁠Youtube Channel⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Twitter

Send us a textOkay, so here's the story: There's a night when an escaped zoo monkey gets zapped by an alien ship and then develops alien abilities. The only thing left to do is take up with a brother and sister and their grandmother. Oh, and throw in some flim flam men who are constantly trying to steal your monkey. Because that's how you comedy.                Here now is the story of how this bananas show came to Saturday Morning.              Where did this lost media show come from?              Was it an overlooked hit that time forgot?              Monkeys. Why did it have to be monkeys?     All these questions, and more, will be answered in this look at GOING BANANAS! Thanks for ‘tooning in.  Share With Us: SatMornPod@hotmail.comBluesky: @SatMornPodYouTube Us: tinyurl.com/yyhpwjeo (Don't waste your time)   Featured Music:“Nostalgic Happy Music” by AudioJungle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtxSUR6MQhw&t=2s “Happy Life” by Fredji - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzQiRABVARk Various Music by Oneul - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by302C2YhxY “I Feel You” by Kevin MacLeod” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw8E3jjbUCE “Nostalgic” by OrangeHead - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wExcRoNNzAc “Breakfast Club” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Spi22l3m5I “Horizons” by Atch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-u53MADIag “80's Hijack” by Gee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVqzJ9Lk6M&t=26s “Synthmania” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6r20TKnA6M “United” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArjGQFCcHxA “Cool Blue” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp5cxZWP-wc   #ABC #NBC #CBS #The80s #80s #cartoons #cartoon #animation #SaturdayMorning #1980 #1981 #1982 #1983 #1984 #1985 #1986 #1987 #1988 #1989 #Filmation #HannaBarbera #DePatieFreleng #RubySpears #Disney #Superheroes 

URSULA'S TOP STORIES: The Mariners lose and it's all Gee's fault // Mayor Harrell's orders on federal agents in Seattle // Trump's antifa roundtable // GUEST: Sgt. (ret) Mark Satterfield, Gee Scott’s former military school resource officer // WOULD YOU RATHER?

What are you most concerned about? Gee responds to the top problems // AGREE TO DISAGREE: Illegal taco stands // WE HEAR YOU! and WORDS TO LIVE BY

WH: federal workers aren't entitled to back pay // Gee agrees with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene? // HELL TO THE NO // SCENARIOS!

GUEST: Ashlynn Mejia, Gee & Ursula Show legal analyst on the government shutdown and upcoming SCOTUS cases // AGREE TO DISAGREE: Wha is fairness in media? // Women are leaving their kids, partners and jobs to travel and WORDS TO LIVE BY

Kirsty and Briony are joined by Gee and Bouphe for a special crossover episode, live for Pickaxe Week 2025! Check out YOMP where ever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.com, and most podcast platforms like the one you find here! So, if you enjoy the topics Matt & John cover, you'll get those topics, plus relevant local guests, every Monday through Thursday on Happy Hour... so we highly recommend you check that out! So far in this young football season, the Jackrabbits, Coyotes, and Vikings offenses — to varying degrees — continue to struggle to explode for big plays and satisfying full-game performances. At times, they implode. In the Yotes and Vikings cases, for full games.Gee, if only there was a local team to watch right now, in-person!, that has provided fireworks all season long, including a so-far spectacular postseason. Oh, wait, there is, and you don't even have to drive one to four hours to see them.The Sioux Falls Canaries — highest-scoring, most home run-hitting in their league by far — are three wins away from their first American Association championship in 17 years and only their second league title in the 33-year modern inception of the club. So far, they've averaged 10 runs in their five playoff wins, including victories of 7-2 and 11-2 in their two series-clinching win-or-go-home games, propelled by the Birds' best-ever player and league's all-time career home run king Jabari Henry's five total dingers in those two deciding games (three blasts to eliminate league leader Sioux City in the first round on the road, then a pair of homers including a grand slam and 8 RBI in The Birdcage to knock out Fargo-Moorhead). So, before Happy Hour host John Gaskins and Sioux Falls Live sports editor Matt Zimmer break down the bummer offenses — to varying degrees! — of this region's three most popular football teams, they celebrate the culmination of what has been a 15-year climb up a Mt. Everest of rocky obstacles for the Canaries — once the league's worst and near-lowest-budget squad — just to return to the league finals.Then, it's pick-apart time for 3-0 SDSU, 1-2 USD, and the 1-1 Vikings, their offenses, and their quarterbacks Chase Mason, Aidan Bouman, and J.J. McCarthy. How much of the team's struggles have been the field generals' faults, and where do we see things headed?Is it unfair for Jacks fans to be unsettled if not complaining about "only" 37 points and "only" a 16-point win over a non-scholarship team? Is it five-alarm fire time for USD after narrowly escaping Northern Colorado and an 0-3 start?What do we make of both the seven quarters of bumbling of young J.J. McCarthy (save from the amazing fourth quarter in Chicago, which counts for a lot) and the ankle injury that has sidelined him against Cincinnati, which gives journeyman and NDSU legend Carson Wentz his latest and maybe last-ever shot to return to his once-Pro Bowl form?John and Matt answer these questions, then toast the Sanford International and its latest winner Retief Goosen. Finally, rumination on why the once-massive Sunday crowds have fizzled a bit in the eight-year-old event that shares crown jewel status in Sioux Falls with the Summit League Tournament.

The WNBA can't seem to take the opportunity to be a legitimate sports league. Pope Leo is being wishy-washy when it comes to bad behavior. And Great Britain is running into a little problem they haven't had to deal with since the 6th century. Gee, I wonder what changed.   Watch the video supplements to the podcast: https://rumble.com/user/DumbassesTalkingPolitics?e9s=src_v1_cmd Visit the Dumbasses Talking Politics web site for all show notes, videos, and links: https://rumble.com/user/DumbassesTalkingPolitics?e9s=src_v1_cmd Subscribe for free to Gene's Substack (Dumbasses Talking Politics): https://dumbassestalkingpolitics.substack.com/?utm_source=global-search  

In this episode, I introduce you to Trish K. who lives with her adult daughter and grandson. On long car drive home, Trish was listening to her older sister tell her about this thing called the Sunday Basket®. When Trish got home, she hopped on the website and got a Sunday Basket®. It just made sense to her, one place for all the paper and a system to process it? Sold! Trish enjoys the Sunday Basket®, the Productive Home Solution™, and the binders. But the biggest benefit she has gotten from Organize 365® was when she spoke outloud, her dream to walk the Camino Trail. Many years prior in night school another student shared she was taking 2 weeks to go walk the Camino Trail. Trish was in throws of active parenting and knew realistically she did not have 5 or even 2 weeks to go walk any portion of the trail. When Trish went through embrace and then attended the workshop with Rhonda afterwards, she remembered how to dream. And a long time dream resurfaced, walking the Camino Trail.  She's not one to share dreams unless she's prepared to take steps towards it. But in the safe space with no friends or family, she confessed she dreamed to walk the Camino trail without intent to do something about it yet. She got so much positive feedback from everyone in the group that she decided to go for it!  She trained for a couple of weeks before she told her family and friends what she was going to do. She walked the Camino Trail and documented it all through a blog. It was a spiritual journey that she suspected may break her emotionally but it didn't. She had a spiritual journey and learned a lot long the way, those 34 days and 500 miles. She got to walk through the country not buzz by in a car but really take in the beauty of Spain. She shared a few accounts with us in this interview. The blog started out just as a way to let “her community” know that she was ok and share updates.  A common thread in Organize 365® is “What's next?” It's funny you complete one room in your house and it's so rewarding that you think “What's next?” And Trish has realized to do the same with dreaming. So what's next on the dream list for Trish? To write a book. She got such great feedback from her blog that she wasn't intending to do anything with.  Now she's gonna write a book! She's dreaming now! It's no longer a mental barrier, she knows how to pursue a dream. She feels permission to think about what she wants, to use her resources on herself. She's bumped herself to the top of the list.  Community, we agreed, is the other theme that runs deep in Organize 365®. The community where everyone is so supportive and inspiring. Trish first got to try out her idea in this non judgmental community that offered nothing but support to her. Her now friends. They cheered her on along her journey, read the blog, and commented. That community kept her going. Dreams flourish in community!  When you are in community, people like Trish are an example of what is possible. And in community, you can lean on others' strengths. What you don't understand or see how to accomplish, someone in the group has been there, done that, and eager to help!  This community is so eager to help we talked a little bit about the Disaster Relief Resources where we can help people in need and ask for things we need. No one needs to go through things alone!  We are a community! Trish's advice is, “If you have internal messages questioning what you want to do come talk to someone in the Organize 365® community. Because they will give you the support and say ‘Do it!' ‘What do you need to do it?' What can I do to help you do it?' And to me, that's they same thing as ‘Gee, I have 18 boxes of paper or I have this whole house to organize.' It's all about starting…just starting.  Get the Sunday Basket® and just start. And if that's too much, start listening to the podcast.”  EPISODE RESOURCES: Trish's Blog: Listen and Bloom The Sunday Basket® The Paper Solution® The Productive Home Solution® Embrace - Self Guided Retreat Blitzes and Bootcamp Disaster Relief Resources Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Dr. Gee welcomes Harry Hawkins back to the show again to discuss what it means to lead a cross-cultural organization that is focused on empowering the Black community. Harry Hawkins has moved into the President and CEO role of the non-profit Nehemiah, as Dr. Gee transitions into new endeavors. The two innovative leaders discuss what it is like serving the Black community in a predominantly white community. They have both had to navigate cross-cultural environments in their work. The discussion covers drawing out underserved groups, like Black women and young Black men. Hear Harry Hawkin's background story and how his experience formed the skills needed for his work with Nehemiah. Justified Anger: Courses - Black History for a New Day Course alexgee.com Support the Show: patreon.com/blacklikeme Join the Black Like Me Listener Community Facebook Group

URSULA'S TOP STORIES: Luke Duecy live in Portland// Sully explains why traffic was so horrible this weekend // Root Sports shuts down // WE NEED TO TALK! Gee's interviewed JSN!  

Send us a textOkay, so here's the story: a rock and roll DJ is tasked with running a TV studio named after him. His young assistants are along for the ride, and they get into adventures of unspecified magnitude. Mainly because this show was [echo] LOST MEDIA!              Here now is the story of how this wolf rockin' show came to Saturday Morning.              Who was the Wolfman?              What do we know about this show?              Did I ever think I'd be able to cover this series? Hmmm…              All these questions, and more, will be answered in this look at WOLF ROCK TV! Roll it!Thanks for ‘tooning in. Visit our friends at CHERRY BOMBS: THE UNDERAPPRECIATED MOVIES PODCAST. Find Dustin and Nik here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cherry-bombs-the-underappreciated-movies-podcast/id1490726384 Share With Us: SatMornPod@hotmail.comBluesky: @SatMornPodYouTube Us: tinyurl.com/yyhpwjeo (Don't waste your time)   Featured Music:“Nostalgic Happy Music” by AudioJungle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtxSUR6MQhw&t=2s “Happy Life” by Fredji - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzQiRABVARk Various Music by Oneul - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by302C2YhxY “I Feel You” by Kevin MacLeod” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw8E3jjbUCE “Nostalgic” by OrangeHead - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wExcRoNNzAc “Breakfast Club” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Spi22l3m5I “Horizons” by Atch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-u53MADIag “80's Hijack” by Gee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVqzJ9Lk6M&t=26s “Synthmania” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6r20TKnA6M “United” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArjGQFCcHxA “Cool Blue” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp5cxZWP-wc   #ABC #NBC #CBS #The80s #80s #cartoons #cartoon #animation #SaturdayMorning #1980 #1981 #1982 #1983 #1984 #1985 #1986 #1987 #1988 #1989 #Filmation #HannaBarbera #DePatieFreleng #RubySpears #Disney #WolfRockTV #WolfmanJack #music 

Luke's HAARP Time Warp: Part 2 The journey continues... Based on a post by somethin fishy, in 15 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Chapter 6. Luke had been off gathering food and firewood while waiting on Cecilia to get her lazy ass out of bed. It was getting to the point where he was going to break his promise and leave her sorry ass. She was lazy, incompetent, and greedy. Basically, all the traits that any American would think of when they heard the word; aristocracy. Marion on the other hand didn't share any of those traits and she was very intelligent to boot, but she had cracked and ran off when Luke had told her his darkest secret. This had saddened him deeply but then again; he was use to that in his life. Anytime something good happened to him, that good thing would then be ripped away again. Looking up while he was working on breaking up a branch, he saw a young man on a horse approach the camp carefully. As Luke watched the young man, he carefully looked through the camp as though he knew what he was looking for. Then apparently not finding it, the man retreated and took up a good hiding spot from which he could watch the camp without being seen. Luke was now on full alert. He started working his way around the stranger's hiding spot until Luke had got behind him. Luke might be a big man but he could still move through the woods like a ghost. As he came up behind the stranger, something about his clothes looked vaguely familiar to Luke, but Luke didn't have much time left because Cecilia was now starting to stir. Luke got up right behind the stranger and clamped his hand over the stranger's mouth. The stranger instantly began to fight back hard. It was all Luke could do to keep the stranger under control. During the struggle, the stranger's hat fell off, revealing long golden blond hair. Whoever this stranger was, they were strong and determined. Eventually the stranger was able to get turned around to where they were facing Luke, then all of the sudden they both stopped struggling. The stranger looked up at Luke's face revealing a pair of beautiful sapphire blue eyes. The stranger, Luke realized was none other than Marion and he let go. She then smacked him hard across his face. He was surprised that it actually stung pretty bad. What happened next stunned him even more. Marion jumped up, wrapped her legs around his waist, knocked him on his back, and kissed him just as fiercely as she had fought. Marion felt like her heart was about to burst, she had her lips on her man's lips again and this time around she wasn't going to let go. To make it better, she had knocked him over, so she was on top of him. Her hips began to move on their own as she started to grind her pussy against Luke. Between the kissing and the humping, Luke was now getting really fucking horny. After all, why not. Here was the most beautiful woman, that he had ever laid eyes on, on top of him and grinding her tight pussy against his stomach. Luke's eight-inch cock was now fully and painfully erect. Marion had moved one of her hands down and was starting to fiddle with the strings that held his pants up. Normally Luke would have been able to stop her, but between her delicious kisses and her beautiful body moving around on top of him; not very much blood was getting to his brain. Eventually, Marion got her hand into Luke's pants, where she got the surprise of her lifetime. Luke Was Huge! Marion felt like she had just grabbed hold of a horse. But of course, the feel of Luke's huge, hot cock in her hand stopped most of the blood from getting to her brain as well and her body felt like it was on full autopilot. The heat she felt increased drastically when Luke started moving his hands over her tits. When she touched her tits it had been pleasurable, but when Luke did it however, Marion lost all ability to reason. While his hands were big enough to completely cover her entire tits, he was extremely gentle with them. This went against everything she had ever been told by other women; in that when a man got ahold of tits, he almost always got very aggressive and that she should expect bruises afterwards. Marion now felt hotter than she had ever been before and started to rip her shirt off. Luke carefully helped her pull her shirt over her head. With her tits now exposed, Luke raised his head and started to kiss Marion's tits. He carefully circled each one with kisses while purposely avoiding her nipples. This was driving Marion mad for she really wanted Luke to suck on her nipples. Finally, she had enough of Luke's tease and grabbing his head put one of her nipples in his mouth. He got the hint and began to suckle on her. Marion started to feel extremely light headed as Luke continued his sucking. While he was sucking on one nipple, his giant hand was caressing and gently pinching the other one. Marion was now entering a state of ecstasy that she didn't know existed. When she had first started, she had expected Luke to quickly work at getting her pants off, but that's not even close to what Luke did. He didn't even try to push her, he just let her continue forward at her own pace. Luke had never liked to push the women that he slept with. He much preferred to let the woman set the pace. This actually annoyed many of the woman that he had been with, in his old life. Somehow, they all viewed this as weak on his part while never understanding the great amount of restraint that was required of him not to just stove his thick cock deep inside them. Luke had found that being well endowed was as much curse as blessing. Other guys were jealous of him while the gals seemed to fear him. That was always why he let the gal take the lead. He didn't want to hurt them. Here finally though, was a woman that didn't mind taking the lead. Kind of ironic really that Luke had to travel almost a thousand years into the past to find her. As Marion started to work her pants off, cursing them the whole time because if she had been wearing her dress, she would have already had Luke inside of her, she heard Cecilia calling for Luke. “Damn her anyway” scowled Marion “I swear every time things get interesting; she has to show up.” Looking at Luke, she could tell that he felt the same way. Luke was quietly laughing to himself, “So I'm guessing that I've been forgiven?” “How can a man from the future still be so dense, of course I've forgiven you. Now if I can only forgive myself be behaving like a bloody idiot.” “Nice contraction use, by the way.” “What can I say? Any time I get around you, your way of speaking speaks to me. On a different thought about being around me, you might want to hide for a minute or two until our friend here calms down a bit.” Luke smiled at her: “What can I say? There's something about having a goddess grinding her body against me that gets me all excited.” Marion lightly swatted him and giggled quietly. She had to be quiet because Cecilia wasn't more than ten paces away. Fortunately for the lovebirds, there was enough of a breeze to cover up their sounds. The two smiled at each other. Eventually, Cecilia moved back to the campsite. After she had moved away, Marion got up and having a naughty idea, turned her ass toward Luke's face, bent over at her waist, and reached down to retie his pants. The site of Marion bent over like that was driving Luke nuts, and his friend was showing that he didn't want to be contained. Marion leaned other over and whispered to Luke's cock: “Don't you worry, friend; I'll make sure to take very good care of you later.” Marion then retied Luke's pants and stood back up, making sure to flip her hair as she did. When she looked back at Luke, the look on his face was priceless. Marion knew that she now had Luke and nothing the Cecilia could do, short of killing her, could change that. This thought caused Marion to smile warmly at Luke as she moved to get her shirt that Luke had thrown off. After Marion had made herself presentable, she looked back at Luke and his cock was now behaving for the most part. This was good news for neither Marion or Luke were ready to reveal her return to Cecilia just yet. Finally, Luke stood up, gave Marion a quick kiss, moved back around to where he had left the firewood that he was gathering, picked it up, and returned to camp. Chapter 7. When Luke finally returned to camp, Cecilia gave him an earful about being late. The problem for Cecilia now was that Luke didn't give a shit about her. “What the hell are you bitching about this time, Cecilia. I am not the one who sleeps half the morning away. After all it has been light for three hours and you are just now waking up.” Cecilia was taken back. This was the first time that Luke had forcefully stood up to her. She would now have to take drastic action. She walked up to him and slapped him as hard as she could. “Don't you ever talk back to me; peasant!” she snapped. She then moved to slap him again. As her hand started to come up, something stopped her hand. Now very pissed, Cecilia turned to see what had stopped her. She was stunned to see Marion standing there. “Lay another hand on my man again and I will kill you” Marion stated calmly. “I don't care that you are my sister or that you have more support among the guards back home.” “Your man? Ha. You must be joking?” However, looking into Marion's face told Cecilia that she wasn't joking at all. “Like he would actually want to be with someone as dumb as you.” Marion's expression still hadn't changed so Cecilia spun around to look at Luke and caught him smiling. “What are you so happy about.” “Oh, just enjoying the sight of my girlfriend ripping you a new one.” “What!” Cecilia shrieked “How could you? Why would you? I am the one who you need to be with. After all she ran away.” “I will make this easy for you to understand, Cecilia. Marion is a delight to be around, while you are a pain in my ass. Marion always asks intelligent questions and provides stimulating conversation; while with you, well let's just say that I have had better conversations with corpses. She is very willing to learn and equally willing to admit when she made a mistake; you on the other hand seem to have no interest in learning and are not willing to admit that you could make a mistake never mind that you did. And finally, while I do admit that you are a beautiful woman, Marion is a goddess. Also, your beauty is only skin deep while hers goes all the way to her bones. Do not think for an instant that I have no idea of what you were planning to do once I got you home. I have known since you started trying to seduce me that you would do everything possible to force me into telling you everything that you wanted to know even though you are not capable of handling the information that I have access to” Said Luke with a smug grin. Cecilia just stood there stunned. Nobody had ever talked back to her before and now here were two people that not only talked back to her, but one of them was her younger sister and the other one Cecilia just classified as a large but dumb peasant. Apparently, he wasn't as dumb as Cecilia thought, but that didn't matter. What neither Luke or Marion knew was that Cecilia was actually very good with a knife and that she had helped set up the ambush with William. She had wanted her father, John, and especially Marion killed so that she could rule alone over her family's land. Granted she would have to marry William, but she had planned to arrange for William's father to die of an accident shortly after the wedding. Then within a year, kill William in some way so that she would control both family's lands. Now the entire plan had come completely unraveled. William was dead and Marion was alive. Furthermore, Marion had managed to gain the favor of the man that had “rescued” them from the ambush and now she had even won him over completely. Cecilia knew that it was too early to try and kill them for they would be expecting her to try something so she just backed down from the argument that they had been having. Just to rub salt into Cecilia's wounds, Marion went over and stood next to Luke who then put his arm around Marion. Cecilia would know have to be very careful indeed. Cecilia stomped back to the carriage and sat down. Luke went to tend the fire, and Marion went to get her horse. After Marion got back, she went up to Luke and kissed him. This made Cecilia fume even more, for her life long campaign to keep Marion subdued and meek was also coming undone. Marion was quickly gaining self-confidence and strength and if Cecilia didn't do something quickly, she wouldn't have any chance at all of getting Luke to cooperate; even under torture. After Marion got done making out with Luke, she whispered to him “We need to talk alone and quickly.” Luke nodded his agreement for he figured what Marion needed to talk about after all a blind idiot could have figured it out just from feeling the tension between Marion and Cecilia. After Luke had finished making breakfast and everyone had eaten, the three of them got back on the road. Cecilia drove the carriage while Luke and Marion rode their own mounts. Luke had also put all his gear on one of the spare horses. He covered it with some cloth to hide it, and while it was weird looking at least nobody would see his modern gear. By late afternoon the group was at the gates of Nottingham. Luke intended to stop here and sell all the extra stuff. Marion fully agreed with this for it would be much easier traveling without the carriage. To their surprise, Cecilia also agreed for she had enough of ridding in that damn thing and the roads would get worse the closer they got to York. She still had to get home before she could make her move. When they first got into town, Luke insisted that before they sell anything that the three of them explore the town to find out what all goods and services were available. Doing that took the rest of the day. Finally, they agreed on an inn that was reasonably priced and had decent food. They had rented two rooms, and after eating, decided to retire for the evening. It had been a very long day. Included in the room price was a small bundle of firewood and a set of blankets. Luke took all his gear up into his room after all this stuff was irreplaceable and held immeasurable amounts of knowledge. He started a fire and then checked out the room looking for listening holes or false walls before revealing his modern gear. After a bad experience with a high school girlfriend, Luke always thoroughly checked out every new room that he slept in. Looking at the bed, Luke decided that he would more likely be more comfortable on the floor so he set up his mattress pad and sleeping bag. Before he laid down, he stripped. This was the first time that he had been completely naked since before he had left home on his hunting trip and it felt so good to finally be without clothes, especially those itchy medieval things. To wind down, Luke fired up his computer to listen to some music and look at some pictures of his family. He made sure that he had his earbuds secure so that no one else would hear the music. Finally, he started getting tired and put his computer away. Just as he was shutting his eyes, there was a soft knock at the door. Cecilia and Marion had taken the larger of the two rooms since there were two separate beds in it. The atmosphere in the room was colder than the artic in midwinter. Neither woman wanted anything to do with the other one. Cecilia made sure to try both beds and took the most comfortable one. ‘Let that bitch figure out her proper place in the world' was Cecilia's thinking. Marion laid down on the other bed and tried to go to sleep but she was restless. She didn't trust Cecilia at all and wouldn't put it past her to take a knife across her throat during the night. Marion finally noticed that Cecilia was asleep. As quietly as she could, she climbed out of bed and left the room, closing the door softly. She quickly went to Luke's door and after breathing in a deep breath and saying a quick prayer that he was still awake knocked on the door. Chapter 8. Luke hurried up and threw his pants back on to get the door. Quietly opening the door, he carefully stuck his head out around the door. Standing there was Marion. Luke quickly finished opening the door for her and she came in. “What's the matter sweetheart, can't you sleep?” “Not in the same room as my sister. She is really starting to make me nervous. I'm actually worried that she would stick me, with a knife, while I slept. I was kind of hoping that there would be some room with you.” With that she gave Luke some of the saddest puppy eyes imaginable. Luke just smiled and put his arms around her. He gently led her to where he was sleeping. “Why are you sleeping on the floor, Luke?” “An old injury that I got years ago makes it hard for me to sleep on soft beds. By having a harder surface to lay on, it takes the pressure off and I can sleep.” “Oh, I'm sorry.” “That's okay. After all you didn't know.” “Wow, contractions really do make speaking faster and easier.” “Yep” With that, Luke dropped his pants again. There was just enough light coming from the dying fire for Marion to see that Luke was now naked. She suddenly wasn't tired at all but now had a fire burning, in her loins that was hotter than a smithy's furnace. She quickly stripped off the gown that she had on and got under the covers with Luke. Feeling her skin, Luke figured out that Marion was naked too and what she had in mind. “Are you...” was as far as he got before a pair of plump lips sealed off his mouth. He certainly wasn't going to argue any further after all; as the saying goes “His mama didn't raise no fool.” Marion used one of her hands to reach down and grab Luke's cock. This time at least she wasn't surprised by its size. Luke broke her kiss and using both of his hands, held her face. “Sweetheart, is this your first time?” “Yes” Marion squeaked fearfully. “Then why are you rushing. Let's slow down a bit so you can savor your first time. Plus, I don't want to hurt you.” Marion shed a tear and Luke kissed it off her face. At that point she knew that Luke was truly in love with her and that she had nothing to fear from him. What followed was the most intense time of her life. Luke started by kissing her neck. Just his kisses on her neck caused her to have mini orgasms. He then moved slowly down to her tits. He moved in circles around each one smothering them in kisses, but not touching her nipples and when she tried to move a nipple into his mouth, he just pinned her down. Finally, mercifully Luke started moving further south; still without touching her nipples. He kissed his way down her stomach and when he got to her navel she started giggling. She had never been ticklish but Luke's kissing her belly button really got to her and she couldn't hold still to save her life. This brought much joy to Luke, who hadn't been with a woman in years. ‘Yep, I still got it' he thought. Luke then moved down each of her legs, avoiding her pussy. By the time he had finished her second leg, Marion wasn't really on Earth anymore. At least not mentally. Luke then spread her legs. ‘Oh god, I'm finally going to become a woman and the man that's going to make me a woman, I couldn't love more' thought Marion. Luke had other plans though. Instead of his cock he started out with his tongue. This completely surprised Marion for she had heard nothing like this ever discussed by the other women in the castle. What Marion then discovered was that there were more layers of pleasure then she ever realized. She could feel Luke's hot breath on her moist skin and could feel the stubble on his face brushing against her. Most of all she could feel his tongue working its way into her slit. When it hit her clit, she took a deep breath and froze. Luke worked his way up and down her slit causing Marion to start involuntarily thrusting her hips. Luke gently held her down and this really drove Marion wild. “you might want to cover your face, with a pillow or something sweetheart, so you don't wake up the whole inn.” Luke said giggling. Luke then continued working Marion's pussy like a fine musical instrument. Up and down her slit he moved. Marion wasn't just leaking nectar anymore; her pussy was now a flash flood zone. Finally, Luke sucked her clit in between his teeth and Marion would have completely jumped off the floor if Luke hadn't been holding her down. She screamed at the top of her lungs, into the pillow, for almost thirty seconds before collapsing. Luke had taken pity on her and stopped tonguing her. He waited until her breathing had become more regular before he started kissing his way back up her body. This time he worked both nipples before moving up to her lips. “What did you do to me? I've never felt anything that good in my life.” “And just think, that wasn't even the main course.” Marion's eyes now shot open as she felt the tip of Luke's cock on her slit and she started moaning softly. He moved the tip up and down her slit a few times to make sure that it had sufficient lubrication on it. The last thing he wanted was to hurt his lover. Being happy with the amount of lube; Luke put the tip right at her entrance and stopped. Marion looked up at him, nodded and smiled. Luke began to gently push into her most delicate and personal area. She was thankful that Luke was going slow because she felt like she was being split open as Luke pushed up into her. Luke stopped again, when he felt her hymen. He gently kissed Marion as he whispered in her ear: “You sure sweetheart?” Marion just nodded again; her throat wouldn't let her speak at the moment. Luke thrust all the rest of the way into her in one stroke and stopped when he had bottomed out. Marion was now crying and Luke was kissing her tears as fast as they formed. Eventually Marion opened her eyes, “I am now all yours to do what you want with.” She would never know why she muttered that line, not for all her years would she ever be able to figure it out. She could have then sworn that she saw Luke's eyes flash fire red, and he got very angry with her. He grabbed her face roughly and held it so that her eyes were locked onto his. What she saw at that moment absolutely terrified her for she had never seen someone so angry. “Now, you listen Marion and you listen to me good” started Luke in a deep growl that sounded more like it was made by a wild animal then a person “You are not mine to do with what I want. You are you. Your body is Yours to share as You please. If we do proceed with a relationship it will be as equals, as partners. Not as master and servant. If we ever do anything you don't like all you have to say is stop and we'll stop.” “But why?” Marion was now more confused than she ever had been before. “Why am I not yours's to do with as you please.” She saw Luke close his eyes, take a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes again, she saw there was nothing but love in them. “Because Marion of York I love you more the life itself. You are not inferior in my mind. The only way I want this relationship to happen is if it's between equals.” Marion started sobbing as she wrapped her arms around Luke's neck. Finally, she was able to mutter the most important words in the world, into his ear. “I love you too, Luke!” With this Marion's pussy took back over, after all Luke's cock was still inside her. Before long Luke was slowly thrusting in and out of her. The sensations that Luke's cock caused made Marion lose her mind. Within a minute she had another orgasm. This one blew away the one that Luke had given her with his tongue and the only thing that kept Marion from screaming her head off was Luke's lips locked onto hers. What followed was one orgasm after another, for Marion. From everything she had ever heard, sex was something that lasted maybe five minutes from start to finish. Of course, everything else that she thought that she knew had already been shattered by this man, why not the amount of time spent engaged in sex as well. Most of the time Luke stayed on top, but he did roll over and swing her on top toward the end. He did this so that he could last longer for Marion. Marion's body quickly figured out what it liked. It not only went up and down, but it went side to side and even moved about in circles while searching for the perfect spot. By this time Marion's brain was barely functioning. Luke then rolled back on top and began thrusting faster and faster. Marion was barely keeping her moaning under control as Luke neared the finish. Then Marion felt Luke's cock swell up even more and she was hit with an earthshattering orgasm that didn't stop until after Luke had shot what felt like gallons of hot sticky cum deep into her. This last orgasm caused Marion to black out completely. Luke fell over on his back next to her, completely drained. Marion's body somehow crawled up and her head rested on Luke's shoulder. Luke managed to get a blanket over them and pass out. Luke woke up the next morning to someone knocking on the door. “Yes, what is it?” he managed to get out. “The cook would like to know what you want for breakfast?” said one of the inn's staff. “Umm, can you give me a little bit so I can finish waking up, then I can take to the cook about breakfast?” “Yes sir.” “Okay then. I will be down in a bit.” Luke gently shook Marion awake. The look on her face was beyond priceless for Luke. She still looked like she was in orbit from last night and her hair was a mess. “Good morning, sweetheart” he said cheerfully. “What a rotten thing to say to someone who doesn't know where they are at.” Groaned Marion Now Luke couldn't resist “Well last time I checked you were, in a room, at an inn in Nottingham, having one mind altering orgasm after another.” This time Marion gave him the stink eye “Gee thanks for that update…Smartass” “Hey it's far better to be a smartass then a dumbass.” Said Luke with a shit eating grin. Now it was Marion's turn to smile. “Come on Marion. It's time for breakfast and I'm starving. Plus, we have a lot to do today. “Fine” said Marion trying her best to sound cross but she couldn't keep the smile off her face. Before long they were both laughing like idiots as they worked towards getting dressed. Luke took a bucket of water and a rag to clean Marion's pussy up a bit, and then she took the rag and cleaned Luke's cock off. When they were both happy, they got dressed and went down to eat. On the way out of the room, Luke made sure that it was locked and then he put one of his hairs carefully in the lock to tell him if anyone tried to get into his room while they were gone. Breakfast was simple, consisting of some bread and veggies. Luke then asked the cook if he could get some eggs made up. The cook looked at him like he was weird but made them anyway after all when the customer is bigger than a horse, it's not a good idea to argue. Luke shared his eggs with Marion and she shared some of her stew with Luke. They both had an ale to wash everything down with. As they were finishing up, Cecilia came down the stairs. When Cecilia saw them, she went to sit at a table in the corner. If looks could kill then Marion would have been dead with the looks that she was getting from her sister, but by this time Marion didn't give a shit about her anymore. Luke paid for their meal and he paid for Cecilia's as well. He wanted to make sure that the innkeeper got the money due them because he knew that Cecilia had a habit of throwing her rank around to get out of paying for things. Marion and Luke went back upstairs and collected their gear. They both looked around both rooms to make sure that they didn't miss anything. Then they locked the doors back up and returned downstairs where they paid for the rooms and returned the keys. Marion walked over to Cecilia and gave her the bag with her stuff in it. “Whenever you finish, Luke and I will be selling the extra stuff. You can come and find us.” With that Marion walked off without giving Cecilia a chance to say anything. The innkeeper of course knew what was going on because Marion had told him. Luke and Marion went outside and got the horses and carriage from the stable. The first stop was an armorer down the street. There after much bargaining, Luke managed to sell all the extra swords and knives they had. He also sold all the armor. None of it fit either of them so why keep it. The next stop was a cloth maker to sell the extra clothing that they had. This time Luke bought a new outfit for himself, one that actually fit somewhat comfortably, and so they went through the town. After they hit a dead end with the carriage, Luke had an idea. They broke the carriage down into its pieces and sold the pieces. They actually made much more money doing this then they would have made by selling it in one piece. “What made you think of that Luke?” Marion asked him after they had finished. “Back in my time, a lot of vehicles were sold that way. You would sell all the usable parts off then scrap everything else. Here we didn't have to scrap anything, lucky for us” Luke whispered back. The last stop was to sell the extra horses. They only really needed three, but decided to keep an extra two just in case and as pack animals. As Marion and Luke were coming out of the stables, Cecilia finally caught up with them. To say that she was pissed was an understatement. It was now late afternoon and she had been going all over town looking for Luke and Marion. She couldn't wait until she could get rid of Marion and get revenge on Luke. One plus side of her wondering the town was that she had met some old friends. After some short negotiations, Cecilia had another ambush set up. This time she made sure to warn them about Luke. The ambush would take place outside of town so that it looked random. As Cecilia came up to them, Marion told her that they would be leaving immediately since they had gotten everything sold. This threw a wrench into Cecilia's plans however. She had figured that they wouldn't leave until tomorrow. She had to delay them. “Are you sure, I mean there are reports of bandits out there?” “What, you scared sis?” teased Marion. Cecilia noticed that Marion was now carrying herself taller and she now wore a short sword and knife at her waist. “Where did you get those?” asked Cecilia pointing at Marion's sword and knife. “Luke got them for me, from the armorer. He actually knows a lot about swords and knives.” Cecilia just looked at Luke. “Yep, guilty as charged. I use to make swords and knives when I was younger and I still make an occasional knife when I can get the chance.” From the looks that Marion was giving Luke, Cecilia was sure that they had sex the night before. “So, I guess that you finally started whoring yourself out, Marion. It was only a matter...” Smack! That was as far as Cecilia got before Marion knocked her to the ground. “You call Marion a whore again and you will be eating all your teeth” growled Luke with fire in his eyes. Cecilia sat on the ground more afraid than she had ever been because at the moment Luke didn't look like a human, no, he looked like one of the Titans from Greek mythology that had come to life. Luke hunched back on his heals slightly and Cecilia actually peed herself because she was so scared. Many predators hunched back slightly before attacking and Cecilia was truly terrified of Luke attacking her with the anger that was still in his eyes. Marion patted Luke on his arm and the fire disappeared, from his eyes, and he relaxed. “Come on Luke, we need to get going.” Chapter 9. The three of them left town that afternoon. Marion was no longer afraid of bandits. Not with her new side arms and boyfriend. Now it was Cecilia who was terrified. She was still unarmed and worse still she had managed to thoroughly piss off Luke. After all this was a man that she had seen snap another man's neck and elbow without breaking a sweat. To make matters worse for Cecilia, she had to watch as Luke picked Marion up and gently put her on her horse. He did this without struggling a bit. This was something that Cecilia had never seen before. She had never seen someone so strong and yet so caring and she was extremely jealous of Marion's relationship with Luke. The whole way Cecilia was hanging behind, trying to slow Luke and Marion down, but they barely slowed down at all. Cecilia could see them talking and laughing, but she couldn't hear from where she was at, and if she caught up so that she could hear then she wouldn't be able to slow them down. After almost five miles, the trio came across a stream with a meadow next to it and with the sun setting Luke decided that this was a good spot to stop for the night. Cecilia was glad for she was exhausted. It really irritated her to see Marion still full of energy. Luke of course never seemed to run out. Marion started on the camp site while Luke caught some fish for supper after gathering firewood. Cecilia managed to take care of the horses. She didn't tie the knots as good as they should have been, for she hoped that the horses would bolt during the night. She sat near the fire as Luke and Marion prepared dinner. Along with dinner, Marion was boiling the water for their canteens. After dinner, which was actually really good Cecilia had to admit to herself; she would never admit it publicly. Marion walked over to the horses. She had seen Cecilia tie the bad knots while she was setting up camp and wanted to fix them before bed. When she got back, she and Luke gave Cecilia an evil look which sent chills up and down Cecilia's spine. She now knew that she wouldn't be able to do anything else to slow them down. She got another surprise at bedtime; they were not going to be sleeping in the tent. Instead, all the gear went into the tent and Marion had the bedrolls set up outside. The final surprise came when Marion and Luke settled down under the same blanket. Luke was behind her with his arms around her. She was using one of his arms as a pillow and Marion passed out quickly. Cecilia watched for a chance to kill Marion, but Luke stayed alert all night. All he ever did was doze off and the slightest sound would cause him to wake up. To make matters worse for Cecilia, Luke had his handgun under one of his hands ready for him to grab at all times. Cecilia didn't know what that devil device was but she did know what it could do. Eventually she gave up and fell asleep. The next morning, Luke was up with the sunrise as usual and Marion got up with him. They got the fire going and tore the tent down and hide it away. By now they had the routine down pat. This morning though was already a warm one and both of them had been sweating all night. Luke took Marion down to a pool in the stream and they stripped down. At first Marion thought that she was going to get laid again. Then when they were both naked, Luke picked her up and threw her in the stream. “Damn it, you bastard! It's fucking cold in here” Marion cried out standing up. The water was up to the bottom of her tits. Luke just laughed as he jumped in and further drenched Marion with water. The two of them cleaned each other making sure that every nook and cranny was clean. They splashed each other and had a lot of fun. Luke made sure that Marion's hair was washed out and that her pussy was thoroughly cleaned. Marion made sure that Luke's cock and balls were clean enough to eat off of. Eventually they got out of the water and dried themselves off on a blanket that Luke had brought along, just for that purpose. They then put clean clothes on and went back to camp. There Cecilia was still sleeping so Marion walked over to her and woke her up with water to the face. “Hey time to get up!” barked Marion. Luke just stood back and laughed. Marion was starting to sound like some of his drill instructors. This time Luke fixed breakfast for everyone. Cecilia had bags under her eyes; she really hated mornings. By the time breakfast had been eaten, Cecilia was beginning to function and she had some questions for Marion as they were finishing packing. “Hey Marion, I got a question for you. When you woke me up, why were all wet?” “Oh, Luke and I took a bath in the stream.” “Why people will think that you're a Jew or something?” “Luke said that he felt really grimy and that he couldn't stand his smell anymore. I thought that we were going down by the stream for of loving but when I was naked, he picked me up and threw me in. He jumped in after me and we made sure that each other was really clean.” “If Luke said that he needed a bath then why were you surprised to be thrown in the water?” “Because he didn't tell me that until after he had thrown me in.” Cecilia actually had to laugh. She couldn't help it for it was too damn funny. It served Marion right for stealing Luke from her. Marion was beat red from embarrassment. This wasn't helped when Luke came up behind her and gave her a big sloppy kiss. Marion started to laugh as she leaned back into Luke and wrapped his arms around her. She had never been this happy before. This display of affection wiped the smile right of Cecilia's face. Finally, Luke announced that it was time to go. The three mounted up and resumed their travels. As they went along, Cecilia kept her eyes peeled. She was looking for the prearranged signs that the ambush was ahead. To her dismay she didn't see one, however about noon, Luke stiffened up, suddenly stopped, and pulled his horse off to the side of the road. He just made it look like he had to take a leak. After he was done, he motioned for Marion and Cecilia to join him. “There's an ambush about fifty paces ahead.” “How could you possibly know that?” asked Cecilia. This probably wasn't her ambush but one ambush was as good as another as far as she was concerned. “Because I saw a glint in the brush near the road. The same place that I would set an ambush.” “You sound like you have experience with ambushes” Marion said. “I do” stated Luke in a hard flat tone that said the discussion was over. “So, what are we going to do?” asked Marion. “Simple, I'm going to ambush the ambushers.” “How?” Marion was almost crying now. “Just stay here and watch.” And with that, Luke pulled his handgun and knife out and disappeared into the forest. Within minutes, shots rang out up ahead and the ladies heard several screams. Marion looked like a ghost and even Cecilia had lost some color. Then everything was quiet. Both ladies were nervous; Marion for her lover and Cecilia because she wanted his knowledge. “Miss me?” Luke said causing both ladies to almost jump out of their clothes. “Damn it Luke” screamed Marion “Don't do that to me ever again!” “What's that?” now Luke was feeling mischievous. “I was so scared that you would be killed.” Said Marion so quietly that Cecilia could barely hear her. Luke just snorted. “Me killed by those idiots.” Snorted Luke “Not likely. Come on ladies, we got some bodies to loot.” Luke and Marion grabbed the horses and lead them to where the ambush had been. There was fifteen men laying on the ground. “We're not going to worry about burying them. There's a nice dip in the ground back there” Luke pointed behind him “That we can dump the bodies into.” The three of them quickly gathered all the gear that they could use. Luke of course policed his brass. They even found some more horses to carry the loot. Part of the loot was a large bag of money and some really nice swords. Marion recognized the crest on one of the swords as one that belonged to a very wealthy family that lived a couple of days ride from her own home. It was only the work of an hour or so to get all the new loot and get it stored for travel. As they were getting to leave, Marion heard more horses coming, and the three of them hid in the brush. Cecilia immediately recognized the men that went by, for they were the ones that she had hired. After they had went by Luke stood up. “Come on ladies, let's get the fuck out of here.” The three of them mounted back up and continued on their journey. It was obvious that Luke was now on high alert for anymore ambushes. Fortunately, they didn't see anything the rest of the day. Problem was that they hadn't come across any good places to stay for the night. To Luke this wasn't a problem; they would push on through the night. They had light cloud cover and a particle moon. “Hey Marion, how close are we, do you figure?” Marion purged her lips as she figured, “probably four or five days. Why?” “Okay, here is what we are going to do. I didn't like the look of those guys that past by us earlier, and it's too easy to ambush people in the forest so we are going to push on through the night.” “But how about our sleep?” whined Cecilia “Tired is just temporary, dead is permanent. We push on through the night, but if you want to stop for the night go ahead but I'm going to keep going.” “Marion are you going to stop?” asked Cecilia “Nope. I'm staying with Luke. I almost lost him once and I'm not going to make the same mistake twice.” Now Cecilia was worried. They would probably go right past her ambush during the night and her guys wouldn't see them because no one ever traveled at night. Chapter 10. Marion readies her attack. The three of them pushed on through the night, just as Luke had said. By the next morning, Cecilia was almost asleep in the saddle and Marion wasn't too far behind her. Even Luke was getting tired but he was used to it. When jetting all over the world ever week, you get use to not sleeping or grabbing cat naps whenever possible. They didn't even stop to make breakfast. Today, breakfast was whatever was in the saddlebags that could be eaten cold. During the night, Luke had come up to a fork in the road and had decided to make a slight detour to Lincoln to sell the loot gathered from the ambushers. The ladies didn't even notice the fork for they were both dozing off. Marion was the first one to realize that they were not on the road to York. “Of course, not” replied Luke “We're on the road to Lincoln. I want to sell all the extra loot we got and get some comfortable sleep.” Both ladies agreed if only so that they could get some good sleep. Luke was quietly amazed; he actually got those two to agree on something. He still didn't trust Cecilia any and probably never would. It was midafternoon before the trio got to Lincoln. It took them a couple of hours to sell the extra gear. While they had been going around selling the gear, they had found a good inn to stay at. Problem was that they were only able to rent one room. ‘Oh well' thought Luke. They finished selling the stuff and got back to the inn; they were glad that they had rented the room earlier for the inn was now packed. After a quick dinner, the three of them went to the room and settled in. Luke of course checked out the room. Cecilia was now curious: “What are you doing?” “Looking for hidden rooms or listening holes. I had a bad experience one time and ever since I always check out new rooms. Once in a while I actually do find hidden rooms or listening holes.” “Oh” “It's far better to be safe than sorry.” Finding none, Luke started to settle down. Marion had already gotten their bedroll out. Cecilia was actually amazed that she didn't have to fight for the bed. She soon figured out why for Luke laid down with Marion. Before long clothes were flying out from under their blankets. Cecilia couldn't believe it; Luke and Marion were going to go at it right in front of her. Marion had just laid down and curled up under the covers. She so enjoyed the feeling of Luke's bedding on her skin that she almost fell asleep immediately. She moaned slightly when she felt Luke lay down with her. Before long she was getting warm and not just from Luke's body heat. Her hands started to move by themselves and soon locked onto Luke's manhood. Luke wasn't sure if they should do anything with Cecilia in the room but the feeling of Marion's hands gently tugging on his cock settled that issue for him; to hell with Cecilia. His hands started to roam Marion's body, their lips locked, and Marion moaned into his mouth. Their hands started tearing at each other's clothing and they couldn't get naked fast enough. Clothes flew out from under the covers for they didn't want some clothes to get in their way. By the time she was naked, Marion's pussy was gushing like the Amazon during the rainy season and Luke was hard enough that he probably could had smashed granite. Marion pushed on Luke's shoulders, signaling that she wanted to start out on top. This was just fine with Luke. Marion impaled herself completely in one shot and started to ride him like he was a rodeo bull. Problem was that, in her haste, she had forgotten about her moaning, and by the time she started getting loud, about five seconds after bottoming out, she didn't give a fuck anymore. She then became determined to give the inn some good vocal entertainment and announce, to the world, that Luke was hers. As Luke caught up to her, she was singing like an opera singer from a much later time, but she didn't know that and didn't care. Luke was again making her feel amazing. An added bonus for her was that Cecilia was in the room with them and Marion wasn't about to waste this opportunity to show off what she and Luke could do together. Within minutes of impaling herself, Marion was cumming by the bucket loads. Meanwhile Luke hadn't been quiet either and with Marion's juices coating his balls he didn't care. He was pounding away at Marion's beautiful body from below and after she exploded, Luke flipped them over so that he was on top. It was time for him to show off a bit. He took Marion's feet and put them on his shoulders. In this way he could bend Marion in half and drive deep into her. Just as he knew it would, this position caused Marion to start screaming at the top of her lungs. The biggest problem that Marion was having was being able to even form words. While Luke and Marion were fucking, Cecilia at first was disgusted with her little sister. After all, what god fearing woman would want to see her unmarried sister getting laid, never mind that Cecilia was no slouch in the getting laid department. As Marion was having her second orgasm however, Cecilia started to have strange feelings; she was getting wet between her legs, her pussy was getting hot, and her nipples were hard as rock. She couldn't believe that she was getting aroused at the sight of her little sister getting the stuffing pounded out of her. Then Luke had rolled over and Cecilia got her first glimpse of Luke's manhood. The sight took her breath away. It looked like Marion was getting fucked by a horse! ‘How the hell did she even get that… that… that thing inside her?' thought Cecilia as her hands started rubbing her tits and pussy. Not getting the feeling that she was after; Cecilia flipped her nightgown up so that she could get unblocked access to her pussy. Cecilia saw Marion look at her and she was wasn't surprised to see Marion's eyes were completely glazed over and her jaw slack. As Luke pounded Marion; Cecilia matched his pace with her hand and quickly had a powerful orgasm of her own. As she recovered, she was amazed to see that Luke was still pounding Marion, only now the two of them were on their sides; facing Cecilia. Cecilia got to watch as Luke's giant hands roamed all over Marion's body, and Marion's hands disparately trying to get a hold of anything so that she could maintain some connection with Planet Earth for she was now having almost continuous orgasms. Marion's tits were bouncing in prefect sync with Luke's thrusting. Cecilia figured that Marion wouldn't be able to speak in the morning and that she herself would probably be hard of hearing. Finally, Luke rolled Marion back on her back, this time in the traditional missionary position, was now making full thrust, deep into Marion. She had recovered just enough so that she could kiss Luke as he thrust and could even urge him to fill her up. Of course, she paid no attention to how loud she was yelling but neither of them cared by this point, and for that matter neither did Cecilia for she was now having almost constant orgasms from fingering herself while smelling, watching, and listening to Marion and Luke. Marion knew that Luke was getting close when she felt his cock swell up even more. It got hotter still and his veins popped and gave Marion extra sensation. Then it happened, Luke exploded. Eight giant shots of hot cum were unloaded into Marion's pussy and this caused Marion to again cum so hard that she blacked out. As Luke gently pulled out of Marion, a mix of cum came flooding out of her pussy and all over their bedding. Just like their first time, Luke rolled over so that he was on his back, Marion crawled up, and put her head on his shoulder and a leg over one of his. Luke somehow managed to find a cover and pulling it over them fell asleep. This was actually Cecilia's best chance to kill Marion, but like the two love birds she too had passed out. To be continued in part 3, Based on a post by somethin fishy, for Sex Stories.

Sit back and relax but pay attention to my conversation with Gee Ranasinha. Gee lives in the Northeast part of France. As he puts it, his marketing experience goes back to the “days of dial-up internet and AOL CDs”. During our conversation Gee tells us how he progressed from working with film, (do you know what that is?), to now working with the most advanced digital and other technological systems.   He is the CEO of his own marketing company KEXINO. He talks a bit about what makes a good marketing firm and why some companies are more successful than others. He says, for example, that most companies do the same things as every other company. While labels and logos may be different, if you cover up the logos the messages and ways to provide them are the same. The successful firms have learned to distinguish themselves by being different in some manner. He practices what he preaches right down to the name of his company, KEXINO. He will tell us where the company name came from. You will see why I says he practices what he preaches.   Gee gives us a great history of a lot of marketing efforts and initiatives. If you are at all involved with working to make yourself or your company successful marketing wise, then what Gee has to say will be especially relevant to you. This is one of those episodes that is worth hearing more than once.     About the Guest:   Gee has been in marketing since the days of dial-up internet and AOL CDs. Today, he's the CEO of KEXINO, a marketing agency and behavioral science practice for small to medium-sized businesses. Over the past 17 years KEXINO has helped over 400 startups and small businesses in around 20 countries grow awareness, reputation, trust - and sales. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute Of Marketing, Gee is also Visiting Professor at two business schools, teaching Marketing and Behavioral Science to final-year MBA students. Outside of work Gee loves to cook, listens to music on a ridiculously expensive hi-fi, and plays jazz piano very badly.    Ways to connect with Gee:   KEXINO website:  https://kexino.com LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/ranasinha YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/Kexino Instagram:  https://instagram.com/wearekexino TikTok:  https://tiktok.com/@kexino Threads: https://www.threads.net/@wearekexino BlueSky:  https://bsky.app/profile/kexino.com     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:16 Well and a gracious hello to you, wherever you may be, you are now listening to an episode of unstoppable mindset. I am your host, Mike or Michael. I don't really care which hingson and our guest today is Gee Ranasinha, who is a person who is very heavily involved in doing marketing and so on. Gee has been marketing for a long time, and reading his bio, he talks about being in marketing since the days of dial up and AOL and CDs. I remember the first time I tried to subscribe to AOL. It was a floppy disk. But anyway, that's okay. The bottom line is that does go back many, many years. That's when we had Rs 232 cables and modems. Now people probably don't mostly know what they are unless they're technically involved and they're all built into the technology that we use. But that's another history lesson for later. So Gee, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. This should be a fun subject and thing to talk about.   Gee Ranasinha ** 02:27 Well, thank you very much for inviting me, Michael, I do. I do appreciate it.   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 Well, I'm looking forward to it and getting a chance to talk. And love to hear some of your your old stories about marketing, as well as the new ones, and of course, what lessons we learned from the old ones that helped in the new ones. And of course, I suspect there'll also be a lot of situations where we didn't learn the lessons that we should have, which is another story, right?   Gee Ranasinha ** 02:50 Yeah, history does tend to repeat itself, unfortunately, and   Michael Hingson ** 02:55 that usually happens because we don't pay attention to the lessons.   Gee Ranasinha ** 02:59 Yeah, yeah, we, we, I think we think we know better. But I mean, it's, it's, it's funny, because, you know, if you look at other other industries, you know, if, if you want to be an architect, right, you would certainly look back to the works of, you know, Le Corbusier or Frank Lloyd Wright or Renzo Piano, or, you know, some of the great architects, and you would look back on their work, look how they did it. And you would, you know, turn back the the annals of history to to see what had gone before. But for some reason, in our industry, in marketing, we we don't think we can learn from the lessons that our erstwhile peers have had in the past, and we've so as a result, we tend to sort of rename things that have gone before, so that the newer generation of marketers will actually pay attention to them. So we give things new names. But actually, if you, if you scratch the surface and look a little bit deeper. It's actually nothing new at all. And I don't quite know why that is. I think people think that they know better than the people who've gone before them, because of the technology, because you know so much of the execution the promotion side of marketing is technology based. They I'm guessing that people don't see a relevance to what happened in the past because of the technology aspect being different, right? But what I contend is that the the essence. Of marketing is about understanding human behavior and their reactions to particular inputs, impulses, right? Um, in which case, we have plenty to learn from the people who've you know, who've walked in our in the walk this path before, and we should be a little bit, maybe a little bit more humble and open minded into accepting that we don't know everything, and we maybe don't even know what we don't know.   Michael Hingson ** 05:36 I always remember back in what was it, 1982 or 1983 we had a situation here in the United States where somebody planted some poison in a bottle of Tylenol in a drug store. I remember that, yeah, and within a day, the president of the company came out and said, This is what we're going to do to deal with it, including taking all the bottles of all the pills off the shelves until we check them over and make sure everyone is clean and so on. And he got right out in front of it. And I've seen so many examples since of relatively similar kinds of crises, and nobody takes a step to take a firm stand about how we're going to handle it, which is really strange, because clearly what he did really should have taught us all a lesson. Tylenol hasn't gone away, the company hasn't gone away, and the lesson should be that there is relevance in getting out in front of it and having a plan. Now I don't know whether he or anyone really had a plan in case something happened. I've never heard that, but still whatever he got right out in front of it and addressed it. And I just really wish more marketing people, when there is a crisis, would do more of that to instill confidence in consumers.   Gee Ranasinha ** 07:07 He did the right thing, right? He did, he did what you or I would have done, or we would like to think we would have done in this place, right? I, I'm, I'm guessing it was probably, not the favorite course of action, if this had been debated at board stroke shareholder level. But like I said, he he did what we all think we would have done in his place. He did the right thing. And I think that there are many instances today, more instances today than maybe in the past, where the actions of an individual they are. An individual has more freedom of expression in the past than they've had in the in the present, and they don't have to mind their P's and Q's as much. I mean, sure we know we're still talking about profit making organizations. You know, we're living in a pseudo capitalist, Neo liberal society. But surely we're still there still needs to be some kind of humanity at the end of this, right? You know, reputations take years, decades, sometimes, to build, and they can be knocked down very quickly, right, right? There's so I think some somebody, somebody, somebody a lot older and wiser than me, well, certainly wiser older. Said a brand's reputation was like a tree. It takes ages to grow, but can be knocked down very quickly, and there are plenty. You know, history is littered with examples of of organizations who haven't done the right thing.   Speaker 1 ** 09:16 Well, the Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead. Tell me   Michael Hingson ** 09:20 the I observed this actually not too long ago, on a podcast, this whole discussion to someone, and they made an interesting point, which I think is probably relevant, which is, today we have a different environment, because we have social media. We have so many things, where communications go so quickly, and we we see so many people putting out information right or wrong, conspiracy or not, about anything and everything that comes up, that it causes people maybe to hesitate a little bit more to. Truly study what they want to say, because everyone's going to pick up on it. But at the same time, and I appreciate that at the same time, I think there are basic marketing principles. And as you point out, and as you're well aware, there is such a thing as human behavior, and while people want instant gratification, and they want to know right now what happened 20 minutes ago. The reality is we're not necessarily going to get that. The media doesn't help because they want to put everything out and get the story. But still, the reality is human nature is human nature, and ultimately, Truth will win out. And what we need to do is to really work more toward making sure that that happens.   Gee Ranasinha ** 10:48 I, I actually don't agree with that. Okay, in in, you know, in the, in the with the greatest respect, firstly, I think, I think as a cop out to use social media, information channels, news cycles, that sort of thing, because, if anything, because of the pace of the news cycle and The, you know, the fire hose of social media today, me, we're in a better position to say what we mean and not regret it, because it's forgotten it 20 minutes. Yeah, so it works, it's, it's an argument for what we're talking about not, not against   Michael Hingson ** 11:41 it, yeah. I agree. Yeah, go ahead,   Gee Ranasinha ** 11:45 yeah. And the second thing you said, truth will out. And I think truth does not without and there are plenty of people who continue to spout out misinformation and disinformation, yeah, constantly at every level of corporate at a corporate level, at a political level, at a geopolitical level, or at a local level, right? I don't want to sort of go down that rabbit hole, right, but there are, there are plenty of misquotes, myths, truths, which are never, never withdrawn and never counted, never excused and live out there in the ether, in perpetuity.   Michael Hingson ** 12:35 Yeah, it's true, but I also think that in the end, while some people continue to put their inaccurate information out, I think there are also others who have taken the time, or do take the time they put out more relevant information, and probably in the long run, more people buy into that than to misinformation. I'm not going to say it's a perfect world, but I think more often than not, enough positive information comes out that people eventually get more of the right answer than all the yammering and bad information. But it may take time.   Gee Ranasinha ** 13:18 I would love to believe that, Mike, I really would maybe I'm just too cynical, right?   Michael Hingson ** 13:27 I hear you, I hear you, and you know, I don't know I could be just as wrong. I mean, in the United States today, we've got a government with people who are definitely talking about things and saying things that most of us have always felt are untrue, but unfortunately, they're being said and pushed in such a way that more people are not opposing them. And how quickly that will change remains to be seen. And for all I know, and I think, for all I know, maybe some of what they're saying might be right, but we'll see.   Gee Ranasinha ** 14:05 I think that's the issue. I mean, I, as I said, I don't really want to jump down that politics rabbit hole, but no, not really. I think, you know, the issue is, if you say a lie enough times, people believe it. Yeah, right, yeah. And the fact that nobody's fact checking this stuff, I'm like, I said. I'm not. I'm not singling out politics. I'm singling out messaging in its widest in its widest interpretation, right, false messaging of any sort, if left unchecked. Yeah. Correct. I think the people who know an alternative reality or know that it's a lie know that it's an untruth by not publicly facts checking it, by not calling these. People out are complicit in spreading the lie.   Michael Hingson ** 15:03 Yeah, well, I think that's true, and you're right. It doesn't matter whether it's politics. It doesn't matter whether it's well, whatever it is, it's anything. And I think there's one of the beauties of of our country, your country. And I didn't explain at the beginning that G is in the you said, northwest part of France, right? Northeast, northeast, well, east, west, northeast part   Gee Ranasinha ** 15:29 of Yeah, well, near enough, you know, if you go, if you go, if you go east, far enough times you get, you get to West Anyway, don't you? Well, you get back where you started. Or maybe you don't, I don't know if, depends who you listen   Michael Hingson ** 15:39 to, right? If the Earth is flat. Well, even the Flat Earthers have had explanations for why the earth is flat and people don't fall off, but that's okay, but yeah, so northeast part of France and and I hear, I hear what you're saying, and I think it's important that people have the freedom to be able to fact check, and I, and I hope, as we grow more people will find the value of that, but that in all aspects, but that remains to be seen.   Gee Ranasinha ** 16:14 Well, I think especially in you know, perversely, now that we have the ability to check the veracity of a piece of information a lot easier, right? Almost in real time. Yeah. I think the fact that we can means that we don't, you know, you probably know the quote by what was his name? Edwin Burke, who may or may not have said that, you know, evil triumphs when good men do nothing or something like that. Along that sort of lines, some people say that he didn't say that. He did say, it doesn't matter who said it, right? It's a great quote. It's a great quote. It's a great quote. And that's what I mean about being complicit, just by the fact of not calling this stuff out, feeds the fire. Yeah, to the to the point where it becomes and especially, I'm talking with people who maybe are a little bit younger and haven't and are more likely to believe what they see on screens of whatever size, simply because it's in the public domain, um, whereas The older strokes more cynical of us may may question a lot more of what's thrown in front of our eyes. So I think all of us have a responsibility, which I don't think all of us understand the power that we yield or we're afraid to or afraid to? Yeah, absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 18:08 So tell me a little about kind of the early Gee growing up and so on, and how you got into this whole idea and arena of marketing and so on.   Gee Ranasinha ** 18:18 Well before this, I was the CMO of a software company. I was there for seven years, and before that, I was working for a company in London, working with in the print and publishing industries. So I've been around media for most of my working life, and after, after being at the software company for seven years, sort of hit a little bit of a ceiling, really. I mean, the company was a small company, and it could only grow at a certain rate, and so I wasn't really being challenged anymore. I had to wait a little bit until the company could fill the bigger shoes that had been given, if you like. You know, I mean growing pains. It's very common for companies of all sizes to go through this sort of thing. So to be honest, I probably was treading water a bit too long. But you know, you get you get complacent, don't you, you get comfortable in in the, you know the corporate job, and you know a salary at the at the end of every month, and you know corporate travel and company BMWs and expense accounts and all of that sort of trappings. And you know, I, I fell for all of that. You. Um, but I finally realized that something needed to happen. So at the end of 2007 beginning of 2008 Me and a couple of colleagues decided to start the agency, which, as you will remember, 2008 was not exactly the best time to start a marketing agency. Good time to start any agency,   Michael Hingson ** 20:29 to be honest. The other hand, there were a lot of opportunities. But yeah, I hear you. Well, yeah,   Gee Ranasinha ** 20:34 glass half full. Glass half empty, right? Yeah. But you know, luckily, with with a number of very, very supportive clients in those early days, you know, we weathered the post recession? Yeah, slow down. And 17 and a half years later, here we are. We've now. We started off with three. We were three. We're now 19. We're in nine countries. Nine of us were in the US. The rest are in Europe, South Africa, Japan, and two people in Australia. That's that, that's, that's who we are. So, you know, we're a a team of marketing, creative and business development specialists, and we work with startups and small businesses primarily in the US, even though we're based all over the place, and we combine marketing strategy, proper strategy, with a thing called behavioral science, which works with organizations to increase their awareness, their reputation, their trust, and most of all, of course, sales Right? Because sales is name of the game. Sales is what it's all about. So yeah, I'd say probably 80, 90% of our clients are in the US and, well, certainly North America anyway, and it's all sorts of industries, all sorts of sizes. We've we've got, we certainly had in the past. You know, solopreneur type businesses, small businesses and larger businesses, up to around 40 to 50 mil to revenue that sort of size, anything bigger they usually have, usually got, you know, quite well, working teams within the organization. So we're, you know, the amount of effective contribution that we can add to that is, it's obviously going to be as a percentage, much lower. So it's, it's, it's really for that, that smaller sized profile of organization, and it's not sort of limited by particular industry or category. We've, you know, we work with all sorts. We've worked in sports, healthcare, FinTech, medical, professional services, software, publishing, all sorts, right across the board.   Michael Hingson ** 23:34 What got you started in marketing in the beginning, you you know you were like everyone else. You were a kid and you grew up and so on. What? What really made you decide that this was the kind of career you wanted?   Gee Ranasinha ** 23:46 Marketing wasn't my first career. I've had a few others in the past. I actually started off my first first company, and I founded, way back when was a media production company. I was a professional photographer, advertising photographer, working with advertising agencies as well as direct corporate commissions. This is in the days of film. This was way before digital image capture.   Michael Hingson ** 24:20 So this is going back to what the 1980s   Gee Ranasinha ** 24:23 it's going to late 80s to early 90s. Yeah, and I was working with eight by 10 and four by five view cameras, sometimes called plate cameras. It was mainly studio stuff. I was happier in the studio that we did location stuff as well. But studio was where I was happiest because I could control everything. I suppose I'm on control freak at the end of the day. So I can control every highlight, every nuance, every every part of the equation. And. And and that's where I started. And then after doing that for a while, I came I got involved with professional quality digital image capture. Is very, very it is very, very beginning. And was instrumental in the the adoption of digital image capture for larger print and publishing catalog fashion houses who were looking for a way to streamline that production process, where, obviously, up until then, the processing of film had been a bottleneck, right? You couldn't, you couldn't process film any quicker than the film needed to be processed, right the the e6 process, which was the the term for using a bunch of chemicals to create slides, die, positives, transparencies. I think it used to take like 36 minutes plus drying time. So there was a, you know, close to an hour wait between shooting and actually seeing what what the result was. And that time frame could not be reduced up until that point in time, the quality of digital image capture systems wasn't really all of that, certainly wasn't a close approximation to what you could get with with film at The time, until a number of manufacturers working with chip manufacturers, were able to increase the dynamic range and the the total nuances that you could capture on digital Of course, the problem at that time was we were talking about what, what were, What today is not particularly large, but was at the time in terms of file sizes, and the computers of the day would be struggling to deal with images of that high quality, so It was always a game of catch up between the image capture hardware and the computer hardware needed to to view and manipulate the image and by manipulate it was more more manipulation in terms of optimizing the digital file for reproduction in print, because obviously that was the primary carrier of, yeah, of the information. It was for use in some kind of printed medium. It wasn't like we were doing very much with with email or websites or anything else in the in the early 90s. So the conversion process to optimize a digital image captured file, to give the best possible tonal reproduction on printed material has always been a little bit of a black art, even when we when we were digitizing transparency films, going to digital image capture made things a lot more predictable, but it also increased the computational power needed, number one, but also for photographers to actually understand a little bit more about the photo mechanical print process, and there were very few photographers who understood both, both sides of the fence. So I spent a lot of time being a pom pom girl. Basically Mike. I was, I was, I was waving the pom poms and preaching large about the benefits of digital image capture and how and educating the industries, various in photographic industries, about, you know, possible best practices. There weren't any sort of standards in place at the time,   Michael Hingson ** 29:41 and it took a while for people to really buy into that they weren't visionary enough to understand what you were saying. I bet   Gee Ranasinha ** 29:48 Well, we were also taught very few were enough, and there were two reasons. One of them was financially based, because. We were talking about a ton of money, yeah, to do this properly, we were talking about a ton of money. Just the image capture system would easily cost you 50 grand. And this, you know this, this was in the days when 50 grand was a lot of money,   Michael Hingson ** 30:18 yeah, well, I remember my first jobs out of college were working with Ray Kurzweil, who developed Omni font, optical character recognition system. Oh, my goodness me, I did not know that. And the first machine that he put out for general use, called the Kurzweil data entry machine, was only $125,000 it worked. It still took a while to make it to truly do what it needed to do, but still it was. It was the first machine, and a lot of people just didn't buy into it. It took a while to get people to see the value of why digitizing printed material was so relevant, some lawyers, Some law firms, some banks and so on, caught on, and as people realized what it would do, then they got interested. But yeah, it was very expensive,   Gee Ranasinha ** 31:14 very expensive. And I think the other reason for the reticence is just nature, to be honest. Mike, I mean, you know, as as people, as human beings, most of us are averse to change, right? Because change is an unknown, and we don't like unknowns. We like predictability. We like knowing that when we get up in the morning, the sun's gonna come up and we're gonna go through our our usual routine, and so when something comes along that up ends the status quo to the point where we need to come up with adopting new behaviors that's very uncomfortable for many people. And you know, the adoption of digitization in, you know, any industry, I think, in everybody who's worked in any particular industry has has plenty of anecdotal evidence to show how people would consciously or unconsciously dragging their feet to adopt that change because they were happier doing stuff that they knew,   Michael Hingson ** 32:32 who went out of their comfort zone, right?   Gee Ranasinha ** 32:35 Absolutely, it's natural, it's, it's, it's who we are as as as human beings, who most of us are as human beings with, obviously, we're talking about the middle of the bell curve here. I mean, there are plenty of wackos on either side just go out and do stuff, right? And, you know those, you know, some of those get, you know, locked up with in straight jackets. But the other ones tend to, sort of, you know, create true innovation and push things forward.   Michael Hingson ** 33:04 Steve Jobs, even Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, good examples of some of the people who did things that most people didn't think could be done.   Gee Ranasinha ** 33:18 You know, the true innovation always happens at the periphery, but we tend to over emphasize the median. We know we try to make averages of everything, yeah, but averages aren't what moves the needle, right? No. And you know Britain, you know, for even for marketing, obviously, that's very much, very, very much my sort of thing. Um, most organizations, most business owners, certainly most marketing managers, find comfort in in executing their marketing in ways in which they are comfortable, in ways which are somewhat expected within the industry. But the problem is, it doesn't get you noticed. It doesn't get you attention. If you're in the middle, right? You know the worst, the worst place to walk on the in the street is in the middle of the road right, pick a side, but don't walk in the middle.   34:27 Not a good idea yet.   Gee Ranasinha ** 34:30 That's our our job is to is to, number one, generate attention, because there's no way we can communicate a message unless we have someone's attention. Everything starts from the attention side of things. Now there are very, you know, various ways that we can attract attention, but attention needs to come and needs to come from somewhere. And you know the definite. Of creating attention is to to create some kind of visual, audio, or combination of the two, experience which is somewhat outside of the norm, and create some kind of emotional response that our brains want to pay attention to, right? Want to notice? Because if you're not noticed, then there's no it doesn't matter how great your product is, doesn't matter how wonderful your customer service is, or it's available in 27 colors, or it's free delivery, or what you know, all the rest of it doesn't matter, because you know, unless people know who you are, what you do, who it's for, and why they should give a crap, then you know anything else you do after that Time is is moot, is irrelevant.   Michael Hingson ** 36:00 I read an interesting email this morning from someone who was talking about why speakers don't tend to be as successful as they should be. And this person talked about you could have the greatest speech in the world. You could be   Michael Hingson ** 36:17 talking and getting standing ovations and so on, but you're not getting a lot of speaking engagements, and his comment was the reason you're not is that your talk isn't necessarily relevant. I thought that was interesting. I think there's some things to be said for relevance, but I think it's also that you're not helping to get people to think and realize that being different and getting people to think and value that is more important than we tend to want to recognize as well.   Gee Ranasinha ** 36:59 I would, I would, I would wholeheartedly agree relevance is a very important component. But, you know, I maintain that it starts with attention. Yeah, relevance, I think, within the speaking world, I yes, there's so much we can do with relevance by by coming at a subject matter topic from a totally different perspective. Yeah, right. You know, just because you have the same message as 100 other competitors doesn't mean they have to say something in the same way, right? And so even if the core message is similar, the way that we choose to present that can be, you know, 100 101 different ways. And I think that is something that we forget, and I think that's one of the reasons why so much of the marketing that we see today is ignored. Yeah, you know, there's a there's a marketing Well, I wouldn't say the marketing model. There's a communication model, okay? Sales model actually called Ada, Ida, a, I D, A, okay. So even if you've not, not worked in sales or marketing at all, if you've even seen the film Glengarry Glynn Ross, or the play that it was based on. It's actually playing in New York City at the moment. I believe, yeah, a, I D, A, which is tracking the customer experience in four steps. So the idea is you have awareness, interest, desire and action, right? A, I, D, A, and it's understanding that there are four steps to getting to the position of negotiating the deal with a prospective buyer, but number one starts with awareness. You know they need, they need to be aware that you exist and nobody's going to buy from you if they don't know who you are. They need to know who they need to know who you are before they'll buy from you. Right then obviously needs to be an interest a product market fit what you're selling is something that they could conceivably use in terms of solving a particular problem that they perceive as having the desire. Why should they buy from you, as opposed to somebody else? Why do they. Need to buy your product, as opposed to a competitive product, and then finally, action, right? So that's what we might call sales, activation or performance marketing, or, you know, sales in the old terms, right? As they would say in that film, it's getting the getting the buyer to sign on the line that is dotted. But all of this stuff starts with attention and when we're not doing a very good job, I think as a mark, as an industry, we used to be really good at it, but I think we've taken our eye off the ball somewhat, and hoped that technology would fill in the gaps of our incompetence at being able to, excuse me, being able to shape the way that we market to customers, to buyers, in ways which create the memory structures in the brain to a sufficiently acute level so that when they are in The position to buy something, they think of us, as well as probably a number a handful of other suitors that solve their problem. And this is why, I think this is the reason why, because of the over reliance of technology, I mean, this is the reason why so much of our marketing fails to generate interest, sales to generate the tangible business results that are expected of it. Because we're, we're marketing by bullet point. We're expecting buyers to buy off a fact sheet. We've, we've exercised the creativity out of the equation. And we're and, and we were just producing this vacuous, generic vanilla   Michael Hingson ** 42:12 musach, yeah, if you   Gee Ranasinha ** 42:14 like, Okay, I mean, again, you know, think of any particular industry, you can see this. It's pretty much endemic. You can have two totally different organizations selling something purportedly solving the same problem. And you can look at two pieces of you can look at a piece of marketing from each company. And if you covered up the logo of each person of each company's marketing output, 10 will get you five that what's actually contained in the messaging is as equally valid for company A as it is for Company B, and that's a real problem.   Michael Hingson ** 43:00 It's not getting anyone's attention or creating awareness.   Gee Ranasinha ** 43:03 It's not creating attention or awareness. And worse, it's creating a level of confusion in the buyer's mind. Because we're we're looking for comparisons, we're looking at a way to make an educated decision compared to something else, and if we can't see why product A is miles ahead in our minds of Company B or product B, what often happens is rather than make a wrong decision, because we can't clearly differentiate the pros and cons between the two products, what we end up doing is nothing. We walk away. We don't buy anything, because we can't see a clear winner, which impacts company A and company B, if not the entire industry. And then they turn around and say, Oh, well, nobody's buying. Why? Why? Why is our industry lagging behind so many others? It's because we're just on autopilot, creating this, this nonsense, this generic sea of sameness in terms of communication, which we just don't seem to have a grip on the fundamental understanding of how people buy stuff anymore. We used to Yeah, up and up and up until probably the 90s. We used to know all this stuff. We used to know how get people going, how to stand out, how to create differentiated messaging, how to understand. Or what levers we could pull to better invoke an emotional reaction in the minds of the target buying audience that we're looking to attract. And then for some for, you know the if we plotted these things around two curves, you know, the point at which these curves would cross would probably be the adoption of technology,   Michael Hingson ** 45:29 whereas we came to reproduce the same thing in different ways, but you're still producing the same thing. The technology has limited our imagination, and we don't use re imaginations the way we used to.   Gee Ranasinha ** 45:43 We we've we're using, we're using technology as a proxy for reach. And getting in front of 1000 eyeballs or a million eyeballs or 100 million eyeballs doesn't necessarily mean any of those eyeballs are fit in the ideal customer profile we're looking to attract. Right? More doesn't mean better, and what what we're doing is we're trying to use technology to to fill in the gaps, but technology doesn't understand stuff like human emotion, right, and buying drivers and contextual messaging, right? Because all of this stuff human behavior is totally contextual, right? I will, I will come up with a and I'm sure you're the same thing. You will have a particular point of view about something one day and the next, the very next day, or even the very next hour, you could have a totally different viewpoint on a particular topic, maybe because you've had more information, or just maybe for the for the hell of it, right? We know we are we are not logical, rational, pragmatic machines that always choose the best in inverted commas solution to our issue.   Michael Hingson ** 47:23 Do you think AI will help any of this?   Gee Ranasinha ** 47:29 I think AI will help in terms of the fact that it will show how little we know about human behavior, and so will force forward thinking, innovative marketers to understand the only thing that matters, which is what's going on between the ears of the people we're trying to attract. I think AI is already showing us what we don't know, not what we know,   Michael Hingson ** 48:04 right? And it's still going to be up to us to do something about that and use AI as a tool to help possibly create some of what needs to be done. But it still requires our thought processes ultimately, to make that happen,   Gee Ranasinha ** 48:23 AI can't create. All AI can do is remix what has already been in existence, right? Ai doesn't create what AI does. The thing is, we're using AI for the wrong stuff. AI is really good at a ton of things, and it sucks big time at a load of other things. But for some reason, we want to throw all our efforts in trying to make it better at the things it's not good at, rather than use it at the things that it's really, really good   Michael Hingson ** 49:04 at, such as,   Gee Ranasinha ** 49:08 such as interpreting large data sets, Creating models of financial models, marketing models, marketing matrix, matrices, spotting, spotting trends in data, large, huge, like huge models of data, which no human being could really, in reality, Make any head in the tail of finding underlying commonalities in in the data to be able to create from that, to be able to draw out real, useful insights on that data to create new. New messaging, innovative products, services that we haven't thought of before because we haven't been able to see the wood for the trees,   50:13 if you like, yeah, right   Gee Ranasinha ** 50:17 for that sort of stuff, for the grunt work, for the automation. You know, do this, then do this, and all of that sort of stuff, A, B, testing, programmatic stuff, all of that stuff, banner ads and, you know, modifying banner all of that stuff is just basic grunt work that nobody needs, needs to do, wants to do, right? Give it all to AI it. Most AI is doing it, most of it anyway. We just never called it AI. You know, we've been doing it for 25 years. We just called it software in those days, right? But it's the same. It's the same goddamn thing. Is what we were doing, right? Let it do all of that stuff, because it's far better. And let's focus on the stuff that it can't do. Let's find out about what levers we need to pull at an emotional level to create messaging that better resonates in the minds of our buyers. That's what we need to do. Ai can't do that stuff right.   Michael Hingson ** 51:16 Where I think AI is is helpful today, as opposed to just software in the past, is that it has been taught how better to interact with those who use it, to be able to take questions and do more with it, with them than it used to be able to do, but we still have to come up with the problems or the issues that we wanted to solve, and to do it right, we have to give it a fair amount of information which, which still means we've got to be deeply involved in the process.   Gee Ranasinha ** 51:53 I mean, where it's great. I mean, if we're looking at, you know, Text, type, work, right, right, or I, or ideas or possibilities, or actually understanding the wider consideration set of a particular problem is that the hardest thing is, when you're staring at a blank piece of paper, isn't it? Right? We don't need that's the hardest thing, right? So we don't need to stare at a blank sheet anymore with a flashing cursor, right? You know, we can engage in a pseudo conversation that we need to take into consideration that this conversation is taking place based upon previous, existing ideas. So the chance that we'll get something fresh and original is very, very small. And as you just mentioned, you know, the quality of the prompt is everything. Get the prompt wrong and without enough granularity, details, specificity, whatever else you get just a huge piece of crap, don't you? Right? So in other words, having a better understanding of how we as humans make decisions actually improves our prompting ability, right, right?   Michael Hingson ** 53:12 And I think AI, it is not creative, but I think that AI can spew is probably the wrong word, but AI can put out things that, if we think about it, will cause us to do the creating that we want, but it's still going to be assets involved in doing that.   Gee Ranasinha ** 53:35 The problem is, and what we're seeing, certainly in the last couple of months, maybe even longer, maybe I just haven't noticed. It is just we were, you know, there's this old saying, you know, just because you can doesn't mean you should, right? I just see an absolute tsunami of vacuous, generic nonsense being spouted out across all types of channels, digital and otherwise, but mainly digital, all of it AI generated. Sometimes it's images, sometimes it's videos, sometimes it's both, sometimes it's text, whatever. But we we're adding to the noise instead of adding to the signal. So the inevitable result of all of this is going to be numbness. We're going to becoming different to marketing of all sorts, the good stuff as well as the bad. You're going to be it's we're just gonna get numb. So it's going to make the attention stuff. That's why I've been banging on about attention all this time, right? It's gonna, it's, yeah, there's, see, there is a method to my madness here. So the the point is that creation and maintaining. Attention is going to be even harder than it would have been before. Yeah, and, and we, you know, we're getting to the point where, you know, you've got agentic AI, where you've got agents talking to other agents and going around in this feedback loop. But we're not, we're not, we're not creating any emotional engagement from a, from a from a buyer perspective, from a user perspective, yes, it all looks great. And as a, as an exercise in technology, it's fantastic. So wonderful, right? But how has it increased sales? That's what I want to know has has it reduced or altered the cost of acquiring a customer and maintaining that customer relationship, because that's where the rubber hits the road. That's all that matters. I don't care whether it's a technological masterpiece, right, but if it hasn't sold anything, and actual sales, I'm not talking about likes and comments and retweets and all of that crap, because that's vanity metrics. Is nonsense   Michael Hingson ** 56:11 signing a contract. It's, you know,   Gee Ranasinha ** 56:16 there needs to be as an exchange of money at some point in time. Yeah, right. Is that happening? And I contend that it's not. And I think there are loads of people, loads of business owners, who are throwing money at this in the vain hope they you know that basically they're playing the numbers. They just need one horse to come in, 100 to one to be able to justify what they've spent on all of this stuff, right? Yeah, but I think those odds are getting longer and longer as each month goes, yeah. Well, you I think there's going to be an inevitable backlash back to stuff that actually resonates with people at a human level, at an emotional level, a psychological level, it has to   Michael Hingson ** 57:08 you started your marketing company 17 and a half years ago, caxino. Where'd that name come from?   Gee Ranasinha ** 57:18 From nothing? Okay, it doesn't mean anything I needed. I needed to have something which number one, that the domain was available. Of course, I needed to have something which was short, something that didn't mean, you know, something incongruous in another language and and so after a lot of to ing and fro ing, there were two schools of thought. At the beginning, we didn't know whether to go with something abstract, like caxino or something which was, you know, based based upon the the butting up of two existing words you know, like you see, you know, so many times, you know, big red table, or, you know, whatever. So we did, we decided to go with something abstract, so that we weren't encumbered by language.   Michael Hingson ** 58:22 You practiced what you preach pretty much. You're different, yeah, but why don't you call it? You don't refer to it as a digital marketing agency. Why is that?   Gee Ranasinha ** 58:34 No, I don't see us as a digital marketing agency, because digital marketing is not all we do. And not only that, I think, Well, I think there's, there's a number of reasons. Number one, I think we're using the word digital is, is a curveball. Firstly, because everything that we do is digital, right? Everything is already digital. Print is digital, TV is digital, billboards are digital. So saying digital is like saying electrical, electrical marketing agency, it makes as much sense to be honest. So that's number one. But I think the bigger issue is that by categorizing a marketing agency as being a digital marketing agency does a disservice to its work and indeed its outlook, because The object is not to be digital in your marketing, it's to do marketing in a digital world, which are two very different positions, okay? Because digital, the way that we're talking about it, is not a attributive noun, and it's certainly not an adjective. You. In the context that we're talking about it, digital is a channel. It's simply one way of getting in front of our audience. But it's not the only way of getting in front of our audience. Okay? So, yeah, along with many other reputable agencies, we happen to use the most appropriate channel of communication that makes sense to address a particular target audience group, and that's it. Okay, if that's digital, great. If that's walking down the street with an A frame with something written on the front of it, that's also great, okay, but it's, it's, it's not about it's not about the channel. It's about you being in the places where our target target audience group expects us to be. And so that's why I don't think of us as a digital marketing agency, because digital is only part of what we do, right? And we do many other things. And also, I think it puts it, it puts blinkers on things right? Because if you know, supposing, supposing you go to a Facebook marketing agency, of which there are many. Now, if you go to a Facebook marketing agency and you say, Okay, I want to do some ads. Where should I advertise? What are they going to tell you? Right, maybe Facebook, right? So there's, there's a thing called Maslow's hammer. Okay, in Maslow, as in the hierarchy, the Hierarchy of Needs Maslow. Okay to say, Maslow. He came up with this idea of Maslow's hammer. It's also known as the law of the instrument. And basically what it means, we can distill it down, is, if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail, okay? And what that means is, you're looking to solve any problem that comes along by the tools that you have in your toolbox, regardless of whether that's the best way of moving forward, which I think is a very short term and myopic view. So that's why we we don't like to think of ourselves as the marketing agency, because there are many other there are many ways of solving a particular problem, and it doesn't necessarily have to be   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:50 digital,   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:02:51 digital or promotional or, you know, it's, it's like, you know, are we a video marketing agency? No. Does that mean we don't do video, not at all. Of course, we do it, right? We're not an AI marketing agency, right? In the same way, okay, when we're not a we're not a YouTube marketing agency,   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:11 you're a marketing agency. We're a marketing agency, right? What are some of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make when it comes to marketing?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:03:21 I think the single biggest mistake, and I speak to business owners pretty much on a daily basis, right? I think the single biggest issue that comes up again and again and again is something which I call self diagnosis, which is the business owner, approaches the marketing agency, or even digital marketing agency, approaches the marketing agency, and says, You know what, I need you to do this for me. Whatever that this is, okay. So you know, maybe it's some digital ads, maybe it's some videos, maybe it's a website, maybe it's a whatever. It doesn't matter what it is, but basically, the business owner is coming to us, coming to the marketing agency, dictating what the tactic is to be, which presumes a number of things, not least, that they think they have come to the conclusion that this particular tactic is going to solve their marketing problem based upon usually waving a wet finger in the air, yeah, or they've seen a YouTube video or something, okay, it's not based on any marketing knowledge experience or education, because, with the greatest respect, these people do not have any marketing knowledge experience. Into education, right? And why would they? Because they're running a business, right? They don't, you know, they it doesn't mean that they've had to do this marketing stuff. So they're, they're, they're presuming that a particular tactic is going to solve a business problem, a marketing tactic is going to solve a business problem. And so what what happens is the the particular tactic is is executed. Nothing changes revenue wise. And so the business owner says, well, that marketing agency was crap. Let's go to another marketing agency and ask them to do something else. So it's playing pin the tail on the donkey. Really, just trying stuff and hoping so. The point is that. The point is that if you're going to pay somebody who does this for a living, the idea that you know more than they do is already setting the relationship on a uneven kill, right? Yeah, you know, if I, if I go, if I go and see my doctor, and I say, and I wake up in the morning and I've got a pain in my chest, and I thinking, oh my goodness, I go and see the doctor, right? So on the way to the doctor's office, I do the worst thing possible, which is go on the internet and say, Okay, what does pain in my chest mean? Right? And I go into the doctor's office, and I sit down and I say, Okay, I've got a pain in my chest, doctor, that means I've got angina. Can you give me some heart medication, please? What's the doctor gonna tell you? Doctor's gonna tell you, shut the hell up. Yeah, I'm the doctor in the office. I'm the actually, where's, Where's, where's your medical degree doesn't exist, does it? No, and   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:00 just because you have a broken rib, we're not going to talk about that. Are we right?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:07:04 So, What? What? So what's the doctor going to do? The doctor is going to ask you a bunch of questions, right? What did you do the last couple of days? Right? What did you eat? Did you go to the gym and over exert yourself? What's your history? Do you is there a history of heart disease in the family, you know, maybe there's is going to he or she is going to take some blood, maybe they're going to run a few other sort of tests. They're going to do a diagnosis, and at the end of this diagnosis, the doctor is going to come back to you and say, You know what? So, based upon all the questions that you've kindly answered, and based upon the blood work and all these other tests and scans we've done, it turns out that the the pain in your chest is nothing to do with angina. The reason you got a pain in the chest is because you had some spicy food last night. So you don't have you don't have Anjali, you have gas. Yeah, right, right, so I prescribe you a couple of packs of Tums. Yeah, sorted, right. And that's the point. The point is the doctor knows what he or she is doing, and you have to have confidence in that particular medical practitioner to diagnose the issue and prescribe a solution to that issue, right? Your job is not to say what you think is wrong with you at this stage of the conversation. Your job is to tell me where it hurts. That's it right now, I'll come back to you with a list of things which I think we need to do to move forward. Now you can go and get a second opinion, just like at a doctor's office. You may think I'm full of crap, which is absolutely your prerogative. Or you may say, I know better than you. I'm going to do my own thing, which, again, it's your time Absolutely. But if it all goes to crap, you can't turn around and say, well, if only this person had said this, or, you know, If only, if only, if only, and play the victim, because that's also just not going to wash. And I see this time and time and time again. You know, we've tried, well, we've tried a number of different agencies, and none of them have been able to help us. And then you sort of dig a bit deeper, and it's because they're never allowed to do what they're supposed to do, because they've always been second guessed. Yeah, that is probably the single biggest issue that I see coming up again and again and again with small business in market now, if and if it's a question of not having faith in that. Uh, agency, then you shouldn't have been employed. You shouldn't have that agency in the first place.   Michael Hingson ** 1:10:05 Get a second opinion.   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:10:07 You know, not all, not all agencies are great, just like not all plumbers are great. Not all mechanics are great. Same thing, right? It takes time to find the good ones, right? Um, but just because you found a bad one, because I don't know they were cheap, or they were local, or they were whatever, you know, whatever, whatever criteria you tend to use to base your decision upon, right? You can't, you can't criticize what they did if you didn't allow them to do what they were actually being paid to do.   Michael Hingson ** 1:10:47 Well, speaking of that, if people want to reach out to you, how do they do that?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:10:53 Best way to get hold of me. Gee is on LinkedIn. I spend most of my time on LinkedIn. I post twice a week. I post videos about some of the sorts of things that we've been talking about today, and they're only sort of 60 seconds long, 90 seconds long. It's not sort of taking up anybody's time very much. You can find me there. Would you believe, Mike, there is only 1g runner scene on LinkedIn. Can you imagine fortuitous? How fortuitous is   Michael Hingson ** 1:11:27 that? Yeah, really, and G is spelled G, E, and how do you spell your last name?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:11:33 You could eat. I'm sure all of this still, the stuff will be put in. It will, but I just figured it we could. But yeah. G, renasina, you can find me there. Otherwise, obviously you can find us on Kexino, k, e, X, I, N, o.com, which is the website, and there's plenty of information there textual information, there are videos, there are articles, there are all sorts of bits and pieces that you can find more about us   Michael Hingson ** 1:12:04 there. Well, this has been absolutely wonderful, and I really appreciate you taking more than an hour to chat with us today. And I hope this was fun, and I hope that people will appreciate it and will reach out to you and value what we've discussed. I think it's been great love to hear from all of you out there. Please feel free to email me. Michael H, i@accessibe.com so that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, and love to hear from you wherever you're listening. Please give us a five star rating. We value those ratings very highly, and we'd love to to to hear and see you rate us and get your thoughts. If you know of anyone else who might be a good guest for unstoppable mindset. Gu as well, we'd sure appreciate your referring them to us. Introduce us. We're always looking for more people to to chat with, so please do that and again, gee, I just want to thank you one more time for being here. This has been great,   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:13:02 absolute pleasure, delighted to be invited.   Michael Hingson ** 1:13:10 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

URSULA'S TOP STORIES: Mariners and Hawks win //Luke Duecy with the latest on Travis Decker // Charlie Harger love sports on the radio and the voices behind them // WE NEED TO TALK! Gee's terrible trip to the grocery store  

URSULA'S TOP STORIES: Mariners in the playoffs! // Kimmel returns // Richard Sherman defers 2nd DUI // Our listeners respond to Gee's post about people on the autism spectrum // WE NEED TO TALK about Spirit Air

Operaspymaster you may ask? Read on and listen to this episode. In this powerful and multifaceted episode of Unstoppable Mindset, we welcome Kay Sparling, former opera singer, PTSD survivor, and now debut novelist—as she shares her incredible life journey from international stages to the shadowy world of espionage fiction. Kay talks about the creation of her first novel, Mission Thaw, a gripping spy thriller based on her own real-life experiences volunteering with refugees in post-Cold War Europe. Kay and Michael discuss the inspiration behind her protagonist, CIA agent Caitlin Stewart, and how real-world trauma and service led Kay to use fiction as both a vehicle for healing and a call to action on the modern crisis of human trafficking. This is a conversation that transcends genres—music, espionage, activism, and resilience—all converging through the unstoppable spirit of a woman who refuses to stay silent. About the Guest: Kay Sparling was raised in the Midwest. At the age of seven, she began her professional singing career as Gretl in “The Sound of Music” and she continued to perform through high school. After graduation Kay attended University of Kansas and earned a BME in music education and a minor in Vocal Performance. She then attended graduate school in opera voice performance for one year at UMKC Conservatory of Music. She was awarded a grant to finish my graduate studies in Vienna, Austria. From there she won an apprenticeship at the Vienna State Opera. After moving to NYC to complete her second apprenticeship, Kay lived in Germany, Austria, and Italy for many years. In 1999 Kay returned to NYC and continued singing opera and became a cantor for the NYC diocese. After 9/11, she served as a cantor at many of the funeral and memorial masses for the fallen first responders. In 2003, Kay moved from NYC to the upper Midwest and started a conservatory of Music and Theatre where her voice students have been awarded numerous prestigious scholarships and won many competitions. In 2020, the pandemic shut down her conservatory, so she began training to be a legal assistant and now works in workers compensation. Back in 2013, Kay had started writing a journal as a PTSD treatment. She was encouraged to extend the material into a novel. After much training and several drafts, Mission Thaw was published in 2024. Kay is currently writing the second book in the Kaitlyn Stewart Spy Thriller Series. Ways to connect with Kay: Website: https://www.kaysparlingbooks.com X: https://x.com/MissionThaw/missionthaw/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/missionthaw.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/505674375416879 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kay-sparling-8516b638/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missionthaw/ Litsy: https://www.litsy.com/web/user/Mission%20Thaw About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:16 Well, hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. I'm your host, Mike hingson, and our guest today is a very fascinating individual. I was just teasing her a little bit about her email address, which is operaspy master@gmail.com I'm telling you, don't cross her. That's all I gotta say. Anyway, we'll, we'll get into all of that. But I really am glad that she is with us. Kay Sparling is a fascinating woman who's had an interesting career. She's written, she's done a number of things. She's used to be an opera, gosh, all sorts of stuff. So anyway, we'll get to all of it and we'll talk about it. I don't want to give it all away. Where would the fun in that be? Kay, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Kay Sparling ** 02:11 Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:13 we're glad you're here. You're from up in Wisconsin. We were going to do this a couple of weeks ago, but you had all the storms, and it stole your internet and your power away, didn't   Kay Sparling ** 02:23 it? It sure did. Yeah, that was a terrible storm we had.   Michael Hingson ** 02:28 Yeah, that's kind of no fun. I remember years ago, I was talking to somebody on the phone. We were doing a sales call, and he said, I might not be able to stay on the phone because we're having a really serious storm, and he said it is possible that the lightning could hit the phone lines, and if it does, it could come in the house. And we talked for a few minutes, and then he said, I'm going to have to hang up, because I just felt a small shock, because the lightning obviously hit the phone line, so we'll have to talk later. And and he was gone. And we did talk later, though he was okay, but still, wow, yeah, there's a lot of crazy weather going on, isn't there? And we were just talking about the, we were just talking about the Canadian wildfires. They're No fun.   Kay Sparling ** 03:15 No, no. Just everywhere is having crazy weather.   Michael Hingson ** 03:20 Well, tell us a little bit about you growing up and all that sort of stuff, and telling me about the the early K   Kay Sparling ** 03:32 Well, growing up, I grew up in a farm community in the in the central Midwest, just you know, right in the middle of the bread basket, you might say, not near where you are now. No no, no further south and in very much agriculture time, I mean skipping ahead. I remember talking to a famous opera conductor when I was an apprentice, and I made some reference, and he goes, Well, how would you know that? And I said, because I grew up on a farm. And he went, Oh, get out here. Nobody makes it, you know, to a major European opera house from a farm. And I went, Well, I did. And later, I asked my mom to send me a picture, because we had had an aerial view taken of our homestead, and it was obvious for miles, all the way around the house and the barn and all, it was just corn fields and soybeans. You know what they showed   Michael Hingson ** 04:40 Illinois, Illinois, and so you showed it to him, yeah,   Kay Sparling ** 04:44 I showed it to him, and he was like, well, doggone, you're not lying. Like, No, I wasn't kidding you. I really did.   Michael Hingson ** 04:51 It shows how good I really am. See how far I progressed.   Kay Sparling ** 04:55 Well, you know, I was one of these kids. I. At five years old, I my parents took me to see sound and music at the theater, and during the intermission. Now I'm five years old, it's pretty late for me, right? But when we're in the concession stand, I tug at my mom's skirt, and I say, Mom, that's what I want to do. And she looks at me kind of funny, and she's kind of funny, and she's kind of confused. Well, what do you want to do work in a theater? You know, a movie theater? No, no, I want to do what those kids are doing on that on the movie screen. And she was like, Well, honey, you know, that's that's really hard to get somewhere like that. So that was when I was five. And then when I was seven, she just, you know, the all the school and the church were telling her, this kid's got a great voice, and they kept giving me solos and stuff. And so when I was seven, she put me in the Sangamon County Fair Little Miss competition. And of course, my talent was singing, so I just sang away. I really can't remember what I sang, but afterwards, a fellow came up to my parents and introduced himself, and he said that he was there, he had family, not, you know, in the area, and that he had grown up there, but since then, he he was in St Louis, and he said, we are, I'm a scout, and I'm looking, I'm an entertainment Scout, and I'm actually looking for, you know, the von trop children. We're going to do a big production, and we'd love to audition your daughter. Well, we were about, think it was an hour and a half away from St Louis, so my parents are like, wow, that'd be quite a commitment. But long story short, I did it, and that started my professional career. I was the youngest Bon Troy. You know, over cradle, yeah. And so it just went from there. And, you know, it was all Broadway, of course, and I did a lot of church singing, you know, it got to be by the time I was, you know, in high school, people were hiring me for weddings, funerals, all that kind of thing. And so I was a Broadway and sacred singer. Went to college. My parents said, you can't depend on a vocal performance degree. What if things don't work out? You have to have something fall back. So I went into vocal music ed at a very, very good school for that, and also music therapy, and, you know, continue being in their shows. And when I when I graduated, continued the Broadway, and one night I was also singing a little bit of jazz in Kansas City, where I was living, someone approached me. She was a voice teacher at the conservatory there, and that conservatory had an apprenticeship with the Kansas City Lyric Opera. And she said I knew you was an undergrad. My husband works where you, where you went to school, and I have been watching you for a long time. And I wish you quit this nonsense of singing Broadway and jazz and rock and everything and get serious, you know, and try opera. So I thought she was crazy to bring that up, but it wasn't the first time it had been brought up. So I have been teaching for a year, and at the end of that school year, I announced everyone I was going to graduate school and I was going to study opera. And so   Michael Hingson ** 08:55 what were you teaching?   Kay Sparling ** 08:57 I was teaching high school choir, okay, at a very big high school, very, very good choir department.   Michael Hingson ** 09:03 Now, by the way, after doing Gretel, did you ever have any other parts as you grew older in Sound of Music?   Kay Sparling ** 09:11 Okay, that's a very cool question. I am one of the few people that I know that can say I have sang every major role in Sound of Music sometime in my life. Ah, okay, because it was so popular when I was Oh, yeah. And as I would grow older, well now you're going to sing, you know, you just kept graduating up. And then pretty soon I sang quite a few Marias. And then after I was an opera singer. During covid, I was asked to sing Mother Superior. Mother Superior. Yeah, literally, have sung, you know, in a decades long career, I've sung every role in Sound of Music.   Michael Hingson ** 09:56 Cool. Well, that's great.   10:00 Yeah, so, so, anyway, so   Michael Hingson ** 10:02 you said that you were going to go study opera,   Kay Sparling ** 10:07 and I did a graduate school, and then I got the chance to get an international grant over to Europe, and so I decided to not finish my masters at that time and go over there and finish it, and most of all, importantly, do my first apprenticeship in Europe. And so I thought that was a great opportunity. They were willing. They were going to willing to pay for everything. And I said I would be a fool to turn this down. Yeah, so off I went, and that's kind of the rest of the story. You know, got a lot of great training, left Europe for a while, moved to New York City, trained best coaches and teachers in the world at the Metropolitan Opera and then, you know, launch my career.   Michael Hingson ** 11:04 So you Wow, you, you've done a number of things, of course, going to Europe and being in Vienna and places like that. Certainly you were in the the right place.   Kay Sparling ** 11:16 Yes, yes, definitely. You know, at that time in the in the middle 80s, United States was we had some great opera houses Iran, but we had very few. And it just wasn't the culture that it was in Europe, in Europe. And so, yes, there was a lot more opportunity there, because there was such a culture established there already.   Michael Hingson ** 11:44 So you went off and you did Europe and saying opera, what were you a soprano? Or what were you that sounds like a way a little high for your voice?   Kay Sparling ** 11:59 Well, you have to remember, I'm a senior citizen now. So this is the way it worked for me, because we're talking decades from the age 27 and I quit singing at 63 so that's a very long time to sing opera. So I started out, as you know, there is a voice kind of category, and each one of those, we use a German word for that. It's called Foch, F, A, C, H, and you know, that is determined by the kind of vocal cords you have, and the kind of training and the literature you're singing, and hopefully that all meshes together if you have good coaches and a good agent and such. And I literally have seen so many different Fox lyric, lyric mezzo, then to, very shortly, lyric soprano, and then for a long time, spinto soprano, which would be the Puccini and a lot of them really popular things. And then I was, I felt I was quite lucky that my voice did have the strength and did mature into a Verdi soprano, which is a dramatic soprano, not many of those around. And so that was, that was an endeavor, but at the same time, that was a leg up. And so most of the time in my career, I sang the bigger Puccini, like, let's say Tosca, and I sang a lot of Verdi. So I was an Italian opera singer. I mostly sang in Italian, not to say that I didn't sing in German or French, but I did very little in comparison to the   Michael Hingson ** 13:56 Italian Well, there's a lot of good Italian opera out there, although mostly I don't understand it, but I don't speak Italian well.   Kay Sparling ** 14:07 The great thing about most houses now is, you know, you can just look at the back of the seat in front of you, and there's the translation, you know, yeah, that   Michael Hingson ** 14:18 doesn't work for me. Being blind, that doesn't work for you. Yeah, that's okay, though, but I like the music, yeah. So how long ago did you quit singing?   Kay Sparling ** 14:32 Um, just about, well, under, just a little under three years ago, okay?   Michael Hingson ** 14:38 And why did you quit? This was the right time,   Kay Sparling ** 14:42 senses or what I had a circumstance, I had to have throat surgery. Now it wasn't on my vocal cords, but it was on my thyroid, and unfortunately, the vocal cord nerve. They had to take out some Cyst On. My right thyroid, and then remove it too. And unfortunately, my vocal cords were damaged at that time, I would have probably be singing still now some you know, I mean, because dramatic sopranos just can go on and on and on. One of my mentors was Birgit Nielsen, famous singer from Sweden, and she was in my grandmother's generation, but she didn't, I went to work with her, and she demonstrated at 77 she could still pop out of high C. And I believe, I believe I would have been able to do that too, but you know, circumstances, you know, changed, but that's okay. Yeah, I had sung a long time, and at least I can speak. So I'm just very happy about that.   Michael Hingson ** 15:51 So when you did quit singing, what did you decide to go do? Or, or, How did, how did you progress from there?   Kay Sparling ** 16:01 Well, I had already made a transition where I had come in 2003 to the Midwest. I came back from New York City, where I lived many, many years, and I started a conservatory of music and acting, and then that kind of grew into a whole conservatory of music. So I was also a part time professor here in Wisconsin, and I taught voice, you know, one on one vocal lessons, so high school and college and graduate school, and so I had this huge studio. So when that happened, I wasn't getting to sing a whole lot, because I was much more focused on my students singing me at that point, especially the older ones, professional ones, and so, you know, I just kept teaching and and then I had started this book that I'm promoting now, and so that gave me more time to get that book finished   Michael Hingson ** 17:10 and published. What's the name of the book?   Kay Sparling ** 17:13 The book is called Mission, thaw.   Michael Hingson ** 17:16 Ah, okay, and what is it about   Kay Sparling ** 17:22 mission thaw is feminist spy thriller set at the very end of the Cold War in the late 80s, and the main protagonist is Caitlin Stewart, who it who has went over there to be an opera singer, and soon after she arrives, is intensely recruited by the CIA. They have a mission. They really, really need a prima donna Mozart soprano, which is what Caitlin was, and she had won a lot of competitions and won a grant to go over there, and so they had been vetting her in graduate school in the United States. And soon as she came to Europe, they they recruited her within a couple weeks of her being there, and she, of course, is totally blindsided by that. When they approach her, she had she she recognized that things were not exactly the way they should be, that people were following her, and she was trying to figure out who, are these people and why are they following me everywhere? Well, it ends up being young CIA agents, and so when the head chief and his, you know, the second chief, approach her, you know, she's not real happy, because she's already felt violated, like her privacy has been violated, and so she wasn't really too wonderful of listening to them and their needs. And so they just sort of apprehend her and and throw her in a car, in a tinted window Mercedes, and off they go to a park to talk to her, right? And so it's all like crazy movie to Caitlin. It's like, what is going on here? And, you know, she can tell they're all Americans, and they have dark suits on, even though it's very, very hot, and dark glasses, you know? So everything is just like a movie. And so when they approach her and tell her about what they need her to do, you know, and this would be in addition to the apprentice she is doing that, you know, she just gets up and says, I'm sorry I didn't come over and be in cloak and dagger. A, you know, ring, I'm getting out of here. And as she's walking away, the chief says, Well, what if you could help bring down the Berlin Wall? Well, now that stops her in her tracks, and she turns around. She goes, What are you kidding? I'm just a, you know, an opera apprentice from the Midwest grew up on a farm. What am I gonna do? Hit a high C and knock it down. I mean, what are you talking about?   Michael Hingson ** 20:28 Hey, Joshua, brought down the wealth of Jericho, after all. Well, yeah, some   Kay Sparling ** 20:34 later, someone tells her that, actually, but, but anyway, they say, well, sit down and we'll explain what we need you to do. And so the the initial job that Caitlin accepts and the CIA to be trained to do is what they call a high profile information gap. She has a wonderful personality. She's really pretty. She's very fashionable, so she can run with the jet set. And usually the jet set in Europe, the opera jet set is also where all the heads of states hang out, too. And at that time, the the Prime Minister was pretty much banking the Vienna State Opera where she was apprenticing. So he ends up being along with many other Western Austrian businessmen in a cartel of human trafficking. Who they are trafficking are all the the different citizens of the countries that USSR let go. You know, when you know just got to be too much. Remember how, oh yeah, we're going to let you go. Okay? And then they would just pull out. And there was no infrastructure. There was nothing. And these poor people didn't have jobs, they didn't have electricity. The Russian mafia was running in there trying to take, you know, take over. It was, it was chaos. And so these poor people were just packing up what they could to carry, and literally, sometimes walking or maybe taking a train into the first Western European country they could get to. And for a lot of them, just because the geographical area that was Austria. And so basically, the Austrians did not want these people, and they were being very unwelcoming and arresting a lot of them, and there was a lot of lot of bad behavior towards these refugees. And so the Catholic church, the Catholic Social Services, the Mennonite Relief Fund, the the UN and the Red Cross started building just tent after tent after tent on the edge of town for these people to stay at. And so the businessmen decide, well, we can traffic these people that have nothing over to the East Germans, who will promise them everything, but will give them nothing. But, you know, death camps, basically, just like in World War Two. So you have work camps, you have factories. They they don't feed these people correctly. They don't they don't give them anything that they promise to them in in the camps. And they say, Okay, be on this train at this time, this night. And then they stop somewhere in between Vienna and East Germany, in a very small train station in the middle of the Alps. And they have these large, you know, basic slave options. And unfortunately, the children in the older people get sent back to the camp because they don't need them or want them. So all the children get displaced from their families, as well as the senior citizens or anyone with a disability. And then, you know, the men and the women that can work are broken up as well, and they're sent to these, you know, they're bought by these owners of these factories and farms, and the beautiful women, of course, are sold to either an individual that's there in East German that just wants to have a sex aid, pretty much. Or even worse, they could be sold to an underground East Berlin men's club. And so terrible, terrible things happen to the women in particular, and the more that Caitlin learns. As she's being trained about what's happening, and she interviews a lot of these women, and she sees the results of what's happened, it, it, it really strengthens her and gives her courage. And that's a good thing, because as time goes through the mission, she ends up having to be much, much more than just a high profile social, you know, information gather. She ends up being a combat agent and so, but that that's in the mission as you read, that that happens gradually and so, what? What I think is really a good relationship in this story, is that the one that trains her, because this is actually both CIA and MI six are working on this, on this mission, thought and the director of the whole mission is an very seasoned mi six agent who everyone considers the best spy in the free world. And Ian Fleming himself this, this is true. Fact. Would go to this man and consult with him when he was writing a new book, to make sure you know that he was what he was saying is, Could this really happen? And that becomes that person, Clive Matthews become praying, Caitlyn, particularly when she has to start changing and, you know, defending herself. And possibly, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 26:38 so he becomes her teacher in   Kay Sparling ** 26:42 every way. Yes. So how   Michael Hingson ** 26:45 much? Gee, lots of questions. First of all, how much of the story is actually   Kay Sparling ** 26:50 true? All this story is true. The   Michael Hingson ** 26:53 whole mission is true. Yes, sir. And so how did you learn about this? What? What caused you to start to decide to write this story?   Kay Sparling ** 27:08 So some of these experiences are my own experiences. And so after I as an opera singer, decided to be a volunteer to help out these refugees. I witnessed a lot, and so many years later, I was being treated for PTSD because of what I'd witnessed there. And then a little bit later in Bosnia in the early 90s, and I was taking music therapy and art therapy, and my psychiatrist thought that it'd be a good idea if also I journaled, you know, the things that I saw. And so I started writing things, and then I turned it in, and they had a person that was an intern that was working with him, and both of them encouraged me. They said, wow, if, if there's more to say about this, you should write a book, cuz this is really, really, really good stuff. And so at one point I thought, Well, why not? I will try. So this book is exactly what happened Caitlin, you know, is a real person, and everyone in the book is real. Of course, I changed the names to protect people and their descriptions, but I, you know, I just interviewed a lot of spies that were involved. So, yes, this is a true story.   Michael Hingson ** 29:06 Did you do most of this? Then, after your singing career, were you writing while the career, while you were singing?   Kay Sparling ** 29:13 I was writing while I was still singing. Yeah, I started the book in 2015 Okay, and because, as I was taking the PTSD treatment and had to put it on the shelf several times, life got in the way. I got my my teaching career just really took off. And then I was still singing quite a bit. And then on top of it, everything kind of ceased in 2018 when my mother moved in with me and she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but Louie body Alzheimer's, which is a very, very rough time, and so I became one of her caretakers. So I quit singing, put that on hold, and I. I had to really, really bring down the number in my studio I was teaching and spend time here at home. And so I would take care of her, but then after she would go to bed, and she'd go to bed much earlier than I wanted to, that's when I write, and that's when I got the lion's share of this book written. Was during that time, it was a great escape from what I was dealing with, believe it or not, you know, even though there's some real graphic things in the book and all it wasn't, it was a nice distraction.   Michael Hingson ** 30:36 Wow, so you, you lived this, needless to say,   Kay Sparling ** 30:41 Yes, I did, and yes.   Michael Hingson ** 30:45 So you've talked a little bit about what happened to these countries after the collapse of the USSR and communism and so on, these eastern companies, companies, countries. Has it changed much over the years.   Kay Sparling ** 31:03 Oh, yeah, for instance, one, you know, I went to Budapest after they were freed, I guess is what usr would say. Stayed in a five star hotel, and we were lucky if we had running water and electricity at the same time. And every time you went down on the streets, all you'd see is lines, you know, I mean, just because there'd be all like, Red Cross, etc, would be there, and they'd have these big trucks they drove in every day, and it just got to be because they had nothing. If you saw a truck, you'd start running towards it and get in line. You didn't care what it was, you know, and it was. And then fights would break out because they wouldn't have enough for everyone. And then, like, you know, maybe someone's walking away with a bag of rice, and some of us knock them over the head and take, you know, and it was very hard, you know, I was a volunteer there, and it was very, very hard to see this, you know, desperation, one story that I'd like to tell, and I put it in the book. I was riding my bike, you know, on a Friday afternoon to get some groceries at the nearest supermarket where my apartment was, and at that time, they still had the European hours, so they were going to close at five o'clock, and they weren't going to open until seven or eight on Monday morning. So you had to make sure you got there to get your weekend supply. So I was on my way, and I was parking my bike, and this woman, refugee woman, runs up and she has two small children with her, and she's carrying a baby, and she's speaking to me in a language I did not know. I do speak several languages, but I don't know Slavic languages and so, but I'm getting the gist of it that she has nothing to eat, neither do her children, and so I'm patting her on the shoulder, and right when I do that, a policeman that was guarding the door of the supermarket came up to me and, like, grabbed me really hard, and told me in German that I was not To speak to them, and I was not to help them, because if you help them, they'll stay. And I said to him in German, I'm an American. I am not Austrian. I am here on a work visa, and I can do whatever the hell I want to do. Well, he didn't like that. And so I just walked away from him, and I went in the store. And so I got up everything I get. Think of the big need, you know, I never had a baby, so I was trying to kind of figure that out, yeah, and I had to figure it out in German, you know, looking at labels now. And so finally I got, I got some stuff, you know, the stuff I needed, and, and, and the stuff that I got for the family, and I checked out, and I'm pushing the cart, you know, towards them. And he runs up beside me and stops me, and he says, I am going to arrest you if you bring that. I told you not to help them. And I said, again, I don't think I'm breaking any laws. And he said, Oh yes, you are. And I said, Well, I didn't read that in the papers. I didn't see it on TV where anyone said. That you cannot help a refugee. And so we're going back and forth. And so, you know, I'm pretty strong, so I just keep pushing it towards it. Well, she's kind of running down the park, and I'm like, wait, wait, you know, because she's getting scared of this guy, you know, he has a gun, he has a nightstick. Of course, she's scared, and so, you know, I would say, No, no, it's okay, because I can't speak for language, right? And so I'm just trying to give her body language and talk. Well, finally she does stop, and I just throw I give the one sack to the little boy, and one second little girl, they just run and and then, you know, I'm talking to her and saying, you know, it's okay, it's okay. And he grabs me, and he turns me around and he spits in my face.   Michael Hingson ** 35:53 Wow. Talk about breaking the law. But anyway, go ahead.   Kay Sparling ** 36:00 Welcome to Austria in the late 80s. You have to understand their Prime Minister Kurt voltheim won on the Nazi ticket. Mm, hmm. At that very time, if you got on a bus and you saw these businessmen going to work, at least 50% of them were reading the Nazi paper. Okay, so we kind of know what, where his affiliations lie. You know, this policeman and, you know, and I was very aware, you know, of of that party being very strong. And so you have to watch yourself when, when you're a foreigner. And I was a foreigner too, just like her. And so after wiping my face, I mean, I really, really wanted to give him a kick or something, yeah, and I do, I do know martial arts, but I was like, no, no, gotta stay cool. And I just told her to run. And she did and caught up with the children, and, you know, kept running. So that was the first experience I had knowing how unwelcome these people were in Austria. Yeah, so I got involved, yeah, I got involved because I was like, this is absolutely not right.   Michael Hingson ** 37:31 And so the book is, in part, to try to bring awareness to all that. I would think   Kay Sparling ** 37:36 absolutely there are, there are bits of it are, they're pretty darn graphic, but it's all true, and it's all documented. Sometimes people about human trafficking, they think, oh, it's not in my backyard. I'm not going to think about that. Well, I live in a very small college town, around 17,000 people, and two months ago, on the front page of this small paper here in town, there were seven men that were arrested for many counts of human trafficking of underage women and prostitution. So guess what, folks, it is in your backyard. If it's in this little town, it's probably in yours too. And we have to be aware before we can do anything. So we have to open our eyes. And I hope this book opens the eyes of the reader to say, Oh, my God, I knew things were bad, but I didn't realize that torture, this kind of thing went on. Well, it does, and I the International Labor Union estimates that 21 million people are being you. You are victims of human trafficking right now, as we speak, throughout the world, that's a lot of people, a lot of people. So most likely, we've all seen some hint of that going on, it didn't register as it at the time. You know, if you're just walked out of a restaurant, and you're walking to your car that's parked on the street, and you happen to go by an alley and there's restaurants on that row, and all of a sudden you see people being kind of shoved out and put in a truck. That's probably human trafficking, you know? And you know, a lot of people don't pay attention, but like, if they stop and think that doesn't look right, and if those people look like they may be from another country, yeah. And all you have to do is call the authorities, you know, and other ways that you can help are by you know, that that you can get involved. Are, you know, donate to all the different organizations that are finding this now.   Michael Hingson ** 40:19 Was the book self published, or do you have a publisher?   Kay Sparling ** 40:25 I self published, but it's more of a hybrid publishing company that's kind of a new thing that's going on, and so I cannot learn all those different facets of publishing a book, right? It just wasn't in my, you know, skill set, and it also wasn't even interesting to me. I don't want to learn how to do graphic illustration. Okay? So what I did is I hired a hybrid company that had all these different departments that dealt with this, and I had complete artistic control, and I was able to negotiate a great deal on my net profits. So I feel that, after looking into the traditional publishing world and not being exactly pleased with it to say the least, I think that was the right business choice for me to make, and I'm very happy I did it.   Michael Hingson ** 41:46 How do you market the book then?   Kay Sparling ** 41:48 Well, that was, that was the tricky part that that publisher did have some marketing they started, but obviously now they agreed it wasn't enough. So at that point, I attended a virtual women's publishing seminar, and I really paid attention to all the companies that were presenting about marketing. And in that time, I felt one that I just was totally drawn to, and so I asked her if we could have a consultation, and we did, and the rest is history. I did hire her team and a publicist, Mickey, who you probably know, and, yeah, it's been going really great. That was the second smart thing I did, was to, you know, hire, hire a publicity.   Michael Hingson ** 42:50 Well, yeah, and marketing is one is a is a tricky thing. It's not the most complicated thing in the world, but you do have to learn it, and you have to be disciplined. So good for you, for for finding someone to help, but you obviously recognize the need to market, which is extremely important, and traditional publishers don't do nearly as much of it as they used to. Of course, there are probably a lot more authors than there used to be too. But still,   Kay Sparling ** 43:19 yeah, their their marketing has changed completely. I remember I had a roommate that became a famous author, and just thinking about when he started, you know, in the 80s, how the industry is completely changed. Mm, hmm, you know. So, yeah, it's, it's really tricky. The whole thing is very tricky. One thing that I also did is one of my graduate students needed a job, and so I've known her since, literally, I've known her since eighth grade. I have been with this student a long time, and she's done very well, but she really is a wiz at the social media. And so she made all my accounts. I think I have 12 altogether, and every time I do something like what I'm doing tonight, soon as it's released, she just puts it out there, everywhere and and I have to thank her from again that that's probably not my skill set.   Michael Hingson ** 44:37 Well, everyone has gifts, right? And the the people who I think are the most successful are the people who recognize that they have gifts. There are other people that have gifts that will augment or enhance what they do. And it's good that you find ways to collaborate. I think collaborating is such an important thing. Oh, yeah. All too many people don't. They think that they can just do it all in and then some people can. I mean, I know that there are some people who can, but a lot of people don't and can't.   Kay Sparling ** 45:12 Well, I've got other things. I've got going, you know, so maybe if I only had to do the book, everything to do with the book, that would be one thing, but I, you know, I have other things I have to have in my life. And so I think that collaboration is also fun, and I'm very good at delegating. I have been very good at delegating for a long time. When I started my school. I also started a theater company, and if you know one thing, it's a three ring circus to produce an opera or a musical, and I've done a lot of them, and yeah, I would have not survived if I didn't learn how to delegate and trust people to do their own thing. So what are you   Michael Hingson ** 45:58 doing today? What are you doing today? Besides writing?   Kay Sparling ** 46:04 Well, during covid, everything got shut down, and I didn't have an income, and I had to do something. And one of, believe it or not, one of my parents, of one of my students, is an attorney for the state of Wisconsin, and she was very worried. I mean, it looked like I might lose my house. I mean, I literally had no income. And so, you know, I was a small business person, and so she offered me very graciously to come work in the department of workers compensation in the legal Bureau at the state of Wisconsin. So I never have done anything like that in my life. I have never sat in a cubicle. I've never sat in front of a computer unless it was in its recording studio or something like that. So it was a crazy thing to have to do in my early 60s, but I'm a single woman, and I had to do it, and and I did, and it put me on solid ground, and that was one reason I couldn't finish the book, because I didn't have to worry about a live cookie. And so I am continuing to do that in so as in the day, that is what I do. I'm a legal assistant, cool.   Michael Hingson ** 47:32 And so when did mission thought get published?   Kay Sparling ** 47:38 Mission thought almost a year ago, in August of 2024 it launched, yes, okay, yeah. And it was very scary for me, you know, because my hybrid publishers up in Canada, and they were telling me, Well, you know, we're going to get you some editorial reviews and we're going to have you be interviewed. And you know, those very first things where my editor at at the publisher had told me it was one of the really a good book, and that was one of the cleanest books she ever had to edit. And so that kind of gave me some confidence. But you understand, look at my background. I I didn't go to school to be a writer. I had never studied writing. I hadn't done any writing up until now, and so to that was my first kind of sigh of relief when the editor at the publisher said it was really a good book, and then I started getting the editorial reviews, and they were all stellar, and they continue to be. And I'm, I'm still a little shocked, you know, because it takes time, I guess, for a person to switch gears and identify themselves as an author. But you know, after a year now, I'm feeling much more comfortable in my shoes about that. But at first it was, it was trying because I was scared and I was worried, you know, what people were going to think about the book, not the story, so much as how it was crafted. But it ends up, well,   Michael Hingson ** 49:15 it ends up being part of the same thing, and yeah, the very fact that they love it that that means a lot. Yeah, so is, is there more in the way of adventures from Caitlin coming up or what's happening?   Kay Sparling ** 49:30 Yeah, this is hopefully a trilogy, um of Caitlin's most important standout missions. And so the second one is set in the early 90s during the Bosnian war. And this time, she cannot use opera as a cover, because obviously in a war zone, there's no opera. And so she has to. To go undercover as either a un volunteer or Red Cross, and this time, her sidekick is not the Clive Matthews. He has actually started a special squad, combat squad that's going in because, of course, we, none of us, were really involved with that war, right? But that's what he's doing. And so, believe it or not, her, her sidekick, so to speak, is a priest that very early, goes on and sees, you know, this absolute ethnic cleansing going on, you know, massacres and and he tries to get the Catholic Church to help, and they're like, no, no, we're not touching that. And so he goes AWOL. And had been friends in Vienna with the CIA during the first book. He goes to the CIA and says, This is what's going on. I saw it with my own eyes. I want to help. And so he becomes Caitlin's sidekick, which is a very interesting relationship. You know, Caitlin, the opera singer, kind of, kind of modern girl, you know, and then you know, the kind of staunch priest. But they find a way to work together, and they have to, because they have to save each other's lives a couple times. And this is my favorite book of the three. And so basically what happens is called Mission impromptu, and I hope to have that finished at the end of this month. And the reason we call it impromptu is because her chief tells her to just get the information and get out, but her and the priest find out that there is a camp of orphaned boys that they are planning to come massacre, and so they they they basically go rogue and don't follow orders and go try to help the boys. Yeah. And then the third book, she has actually moved back to New York, and she's thinking, well, she does retire from the CIA, and it's the summer of 2001 and what happened in September of 2001 911 and so they call her right back in she literally had been retired for about three months.   Michael Hingson ** 52:35 Well, to my knowledge, I never met Caitlin, so I'm just saying Mm hmm, having been in the World Trade Center on September 11, but I don't think I met Caitlin anyway.   Kay Sparling ** 52:43 Go ahead. No, she wasn't in the towers, but no, I was in New York. And yeah, so they called her back right away. And so the third one is going to be called Mission home front, because that's been her home for a very long time. She's been living in New York.   Michael Hingson ** 53:01 Are there plans for Caitlin beyond these three books? I hope so.   Kay Sparling ** 53:08 I think it would be fun for her to retire from the CIA and then move back to the Midwest. And, you know, it turned into a complete fiction. Of course, this is not true stuff, but, you know, like kind of a cozy mystery series, right, where things happen and people can't get anyone to really investigate it, so they come to Caitlin, and then maybe her ex boss, you know, the chief that's also retired, they kind of, you know, gang up and become pi type, you know, right? I'm thinking that might be a fun thing.   Michael Hingson ** 53:46 Now, are mostly books two and three in the mission series. Are they also relatively non fiction?   53:53 Yes, okay,   Michael Hingson ** 53:57 okay, cool, yes. Well, you know, it's, it's pretty fascinating to to hear all of this and to to see it, to hear about it from you, but to see it coming together, that is, that is really pretty cool to you know, to see you experiencing have the book, has mission thought been converted by any chance to audio? Is it available on Audible or   Kay Sparling ** 54:21 anywhere it has not but it is in my plans. It's there's a little bit of choice I have to make do. I use my publisher and hire one of their readers you know to do it, someone you know, that's in equity, that type of thing. Or you know, my publicity, or people are also saying, well, because you're an actor, and, you know, all these accents, it might be nice for you to do to read your own book. Well, the problem is time, you know, just the time to do it, because I'm so busy promoting the book right now. And really. Right writing the second one that you know, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to pull that off, but I have my own records, recording studio in my voice studio downstairs, but it's just and I have all the equipment I have engineers. It's just a matter of me being able to take the time to practice and to get that done. So it's probably going to be, I'll just use their, one of their people, but yes, yeah, it's coming. It's coming. Well, it's,   Michael Hingson ** 55:29 it's tough. I know when we published last year, live like a guide dog, and the publisher, we did it through a traditional publisher, they worked with dreamscape to create an audio version. And I actually auditioned remotely several authors and chose one. But it is hard to really find someone to read the book the way you want it read, because you know what it's like, and so there is merit to you taking the time to read it. But still, as you said, there are a lot of things going on,   Kay Sparling ** 56:09 yeah, and I have read, you know, certain portions of the book, because some podcasts that I've been on asked me to do that, and I and I practiced and that, it went very well. And of course, when people hear that, they're like, Oh, you're the one that has to do this. You know Caitlin. You can speak her, you know her attitudes and all. And then you also know how to throw all those different accents out there, because there's going to be, like, several, there's Dutch, there's German, there's Scottish, high British and Austrian. I mean, yeah, yeah, Austrians speak different than Germans. Mm, hmm,   Michael Hingson ** 56:53 yeah, it's it's a challenge, but it's still something worth considering, because you're going to bring a dimension to it that no one else really can because you wrote it and you really know what you want them to sound like, Yeah, but it's a it's a process. I and I appreciate that, but you've got lots going on, and you have to have an income. I know for me, we started live like a guide dog my latest book when the pandemic began, because I realized that although I had talked about getting out of the World Trade Center and doing so without exhibiting fear, didn't mean that it wasn't there, but I realized that I had learned to control fear, because I learned a lot that I was able to put to use on the Day of the emergency. And so the result of that was that, in fact, the mindset kicked in and I was able to function, but I never taught anyone how to do that. And so the intent of live like a guide dog was to be a way that people could learn how to control fear and not let fear overwhelm or, as I put it, blind them, but rather use fear as a very powerful tool to help you focus and do the things that you really need to do. But it's a choice. People have to learn that they can make that choice and they can control it, which is kind of what really brought the book to to mind. And the result was that we then, then did it. And so it came out last August as well.   Kay Sparling ** 58:27 Oh, well, if you read my book, you'll see Caitlin developing the same skills you were just talking about. She has to overcome fear all the time, because she's never been in these situations before, and yet she has to survive, you know?   Michael Hingson ** 58:44 Yeah, well, and the reality is that most of us take too many things for granted and don't really learn. But if you learn, for example, if there's an emergency, do you know where to go in the case of an emergency? Do you know how to evacuate, not by reading the signs? Do you know? And that's the difference, the people who know have a mindset that will help them be a lot more likely to be able to survive, because they know what all the options are, and if there's a way to get out, they know what they are, rather than relying on signs, which may or may not even be available to you if you're in a smoke filled environment, for example, yeah,   Kay Sparling ** 59:22 yeah, you should know ahead of time. Yeah, you know, I know the state where I work. I I mostly work at home. I'm able to do that, but we do have to go in once a week, and we just changed floors. They've been doing a lot of remodeling, and that was the first thing, you know, the supervisor wanted us to do was walk through all the way for a tornado, fire, etc, and so we did that, you know, and that's smart, because then you're like, you say you're not trying to look at a chart as you're running or whatever,   Michael Hingson ** 59:56 and you may need to do it more than once to make sure you really know it. I know for me. I spent a lot of time walking around the World Trade Center. In fact, I didn't even use my guide dog. I used a cane, because with a cane, I'll find things that the dog would just automatically go around or ignore, like kiosks and other things. But I want to know where all that stuff is, because I want to know what all the shops are down on the first floor. Well, now that that is the case anymore, but it was at the time there was a shopping mall and knowing where everything was, but also knowing where different offices were, knowing who was in which offices, and then knowing the really important things that most people don't know about, like where the Estee Lauder second store was on the 46th floor of tower two. You know, you got to have the important things for wives, and so I learned what that was. Well, it was, it was, those are important things, but you'll learn a lot, and it's real knowledge. Someone, a recent podcast episode that they were on, said something very interesting, and that is that we're always getting information, but information isn't knowing it. Knowledge is really internalizing the information and making it part of our psyche and really getting us to the point where we truly know it and can put it to use. And that is so true. It isn't just getting information. Well, that's great. I know that now, well, no, you don't necessarily know it now, until you internalize it, until you truly make it part of your knowledge. And I think that's something that a lot of people miss. Well, this has been a lot of fun. If people want to reach out to you, is there a way they can do that?   Kay Sparling ** 1:01:40 Yeah, the best thing is my book website, K, Sparling books.com spelled and it would K, a, y, s, p, as in Paul, A, R, L, I N, G, B, O, O, K, s.com.com, okay, and you can email me through there. And all the media that I've been on is in the media section. The editorial reviews are there. There's another thing that my student heats up for me is the website. It's it's really developed. And so lots of information about the book and about me on on there. And one thing I want to mention is, just because of my background and all the all the people that you know, I know, a friend of mine is a composer, and he wrote a song, a theme song, because we do hope that someday we can sell this, you know, yeah, to for movie and, or, you know, Netflix, or something like that. And so he wrote a theme song and theme music. And I just think that's fun. And then I wanted my students saying, saying it. And then, you know, it's with a rock band, but it's, it's very James Bond, the kind of with a little opera, you know, involved too. But, you know, not a lot of authors can say that on their website, they have a theme song for their books.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:16 And where is   Kay Sparling ** 1:03:18 it? It would be under, it's going to be about the author. And there's a nice one of my other students is a graphic artist. She She did a graphic a scene of Caitlin with her ball gown, and she's got her foot up on a stool, and she's putting her pistol in her thigh holster, in I think, you know, it's kind of like a cartoon, and it quotes Caitlin saying, I bet you I'm going to be the only bell at the ball with this accessory pistol. And then right underneath that, that song, you can click it and hear it. We also are on YouTube mission. Thought does have its own YouTube channel, so you can find it there as well.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:05 So well, I want to thank you for being here and for telling us all the stories and especially about mission. I hope people will get it and read it, and I look forward to it coming out in audio at some point. Yes, I'll be lazy and wait for that, I I like to to get books with human readers. You know, I can get the print book and I can play it with a synthetic voice, but I, I really prefer human voices. And I know a lot of people who do AI has not progressed to the point where it really can pull that off.   Kay Sparling ** 1:04:38 Well, no, it cannot. Yeah, I totally agree with you there.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:42 So Well, thank you for being here, and I want to thank all of you for listening and watching us today. This has been fun. And as some of you know, if you listen to many of these podcasts, we have a rule on the podcast, you can't come on unless you're going to have fun. So we did have fun. We. You have fun? Yeah. See, there you go. I was gonna ask if you had fun. Of course, yes. So thank you all for listening. Love to hear from you. Love to hear what your thoughts are about today's episode. Feel free to email me at Michael H, i@accessibe.com that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, also, please give us a five star rating. We appreciate it. K, I'll appreciate it. And when this goes up, when you hear it, we really value those ratings and reviews very highly. If you know anyone else who ought to be a guest and KU as well, love to hear from you. Please introduce us. Kay, you'll have to introduce us to Caitlin, but But seriously, we always are looking for more guests. So if anyone knows of anyone who ought to come on and tell a story, we'd love to hear from you. But again, Kay, I want to thank you one last time. This has been great, and we really appreciate you being here.   Kay Sparling ** 1:05:59 Well, thank you for having me.   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:04 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

In this episode, I sit down with actor, author, and speaker Edwina Findley Dickerson to talk about her new book, The World Is Waiting for You. Edwina shares her journey of listening for God's voice, navigating seasons of waiting, and discovering a deeper purpose beyond achievement. Together, we explore the tension between intentional planning and radical surrender, how to overcome fear and step into our God-given dreams, and why true purpose is found not only in what we do, but in who we are becoming. This is a conversation for anyone longing to live with clarity, courage, and faith in a noisy world.Edwina Findley is an award-winning film, television, and theatre actress, celebrated by critics as "a marvel to watch." Known to global audiences as the hilarious 'Sheila' in Shonda Rhimes' hit Netflix series "The Residence," Edwina first captured hearts as 'Tosha' on HBO's groundbreaking series "The Wire,” and garnered critical attention for her role as Rosie in Ava DuVernay's Sundance award-winning feature "Middle of Nowhere.” She then earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female for her "skin-prickling performance" in "Free In Deed.” A vibrant and versatile actress, Edwina starred opposite Toni Collette in Amazon's global thriller ”The Power,” as Kevin Hart's wife, Rita, in Warner Bros' hit comedy "Get Hard" with Will Ferrell, "Fear The Walking Dead," Tyler Perry's “If Loving You is Wrong,” HBO's “Veep,” “Rogue Agent,” “Black Lightning,” ”Chicago Med," HBO's "Treme," and "Shots Fired” from “Woman King” director Gina Prince-Bythewood.Edwina is a native of Washington, DC, where she attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts then studied drama at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Edwina continued her studies at UCLA, Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), and with Yale Drama's Gregory Berger-Sorbeck. Theatrically, Edwina has performed around the world and at some of the nation's finest theaters, including The Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Juilliard, Atlantic Theatre Company, Center Theatre Group, Baltimore Centerstage, and Cleveland Playhouse. Edwina received a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for the historical drama Gee's Bend, and an NAACP Theatre Award nomination for Eclipsed, set during the Liberian war.Proclaimed in the New York Times as a “life force,” Edwina is a global speaker, mentor, and CEO of Abundant Life University. Edwina's most cherished blessings are her loving husband Kelvin Dickerson and their bright and beautiful little girls, Victoria and London. Connect with Edwina at www.edwinafindley.comEdwina's Book:The World is Waiting For YouSubscribe to Our Substack: Shifting CultureConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, BlThe Balance of GrayFaith That Challenges. Conversations that Matter. Laughs included. Subscribe Now!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Jackson Welch is back on the pod, this time repping his band Champagne Lane and their debut album The World In Your Eyes. He and his bandmate Jake Rogers spent five years producing the record, and we get into what that long process was really like. We also talk yacht rock influences, Mk.Gee, nerding out on gear, and plenty more.

Minnesota has been ruled over by the iron fist of Democrats for decades, resulting in rampant injustice in our streets, abhorrent educational outcomes, and the erosion of basic rights.But, for some reason, the issue that seems to get the most traction in our state is fraud in government programs. We've had tons of it. Hundreds of millions. Approaching a billion. Likely much, much more.And the lie about all this fraud is that it's one big screw up. Gee wiz, we didn't mean it. How does this keep happening? We don't know.But it's increasingly apparent that Minnesota state government has been turned into a racketeering operation to financially benefit Democrat allies.Here are the receipts.Support the show

In this conversation with Dr. Cié Gee from the University of Texas at San Antonio we explore the idea of leadership through the roles of line leader and door holder–familiar responsibilities from elementary school. Dr. Gee argues that the door holder is a less glamorous but potentially more important role than the line leader, and we discuss ways door holding opportunities present themselves in the normal course of work.   Key Takeaways:Being the line leader can be fun, but being a door holder is a critical role for the success of any venture. Leadership doesn't require a title, and it doesn't require grand gestures to convey care and concern for the people one is leading. As Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”If you're thinking about someone who held a door for you at some point in your career, reach out to them to let them know the effect they had on you.  Host:Doug McKennaUniversity Registrar, George Mason Universitycmckenn@gmu.edu   Guests:Dr. Cié GeeAssociate Vice Provost for Career-Engaged Learning, University of Texas at San Antonioginnifer.gee@utsa.edu References and Additional Information:Core Competencies: Leadership and ManagementCie Geehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ciegee/   

Dr. Gee and Professor Stephen Kantrowitz discuss the erasure of history that has happened in other nations in order to understand the current US government attempts to control historical information and ideology. You will be shocked to hear the ways that historical and scientific research are being attacked through elimination of funding and discrediting of academic knowledge.  One of the current realities is that current students will be discouraged from seeking out new perspectives and the truth of historical perspectives because of perceived connections to DEI. Hear how government websites are removing African American and female-focused language in a censoring effort through the experience of one of Dr. Gee's friends and former guest.  Professor Kantrowitz explains the main issue in our country to be addressed is one of free and truthful speech. There is an attack on the truth of history and the realities of our world.  The Wayback Machine  a historian of race, citizenship, and Native-settler interaction in the United States. I am particularly interested in work that spans the antebellum, Civil War, and postbellum eras, and in the connections between the histories of slavery, emancipation, and Reconstruction and the dynamics of Native American life and U.S. conquest. I have recently developed a research interest in the intellectual history of twentieth-century American anthropology in relation to Native-settler interaction.

Send us a textOkay, so here's the story: A pack of dogs on death row have adventures outside of the Big House and experience freedom. Did that happen? Oh, God! What if they were dead when we started and these are just conflated memories and patchwork pieces so we knew who they were. Maybe they didn't exist. Maybe on one could talk to the animals. Or, maybe this was a cartoon. Yeah, that makes me feel better.               Here now is the story of how this permanent home show came to Saturday Morning.              Where did this show come from?               Was it only created to sell toys to little kids?               Did they make a movie with a Hardee's tie-in? Spoilers: The answer is yes! Because Hardee's are whores.               All these questions, and more, will be answered in this look at POUND PUPPIES! Roll it!Thanks for ‘tooning in.  Share With Us: SatMornPod@hotmail.comBluesky: @SatMornPodYouTube Us: tinyurl.com/yyhpwjeo (Don't waste your time)   Featured Music:“Nostalgic Happy Music” by AudioJungle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtxSUR6MQhw&t=2s “Happy Life” by Fredji - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzQiRABVARk Various Music by Oneul - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by302C2YhxY “I Feel You” by Kevin MacLeod” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw8E3jjbUCE “Nostalgic” by OrangeHead - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wExcRoNNzAc “Breakfast Club” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Spi22l3m5I “Horizons” by Atch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-u53MADIag “80's Hijack” by Gee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVqzJ9Lk6M&t=26s “Synthmania” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6r20TKnA6M “United” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArjGQFCcHxA “Cool Blue” by Vodovoz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp5cxZWP-wc   #ABC #NBC #CBS #The80s #80s #cartoons #cartoon #animation #SaturdayMorning #1980 #1981 #1982 #1983 #1984 #1985 #1986 #1987 #1988 #1989 #Filmation #HannaBarbera #DePatieFreleng #RubySpears #Disney #PoundPuppies 

Synopsis Paranormal Investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga think they are retired from ghost busting, but just when you think you're out, the demons pull you back in. The Smurl family in Pennsylvania start experiencing malevolent supernatural happenings after the grandfather gives a terrible birthday gift to the second oldest daughter. A broken mirror. Gee thanks Grandpa. The hauntings ramp up and soon it is apparent that a demon is infesting the house. The Warrens reluctantly engage with the Smurls and soon find out that the demon has actually lured them into a trap.  Review of The Conjuring: Last Rights This is the ninth installment in the Conjuring Universe films, 11th if you include Wolves at the Door and Curse of La Llarona. In my opinion, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. That's not to say that this movie is bad. This movie along with all the other conjuring movies is competently made, maintains a consistent style, and has good acting. My criticism is that like the other films, this one prioritizes atmosphere and technique over substance. A beef I have with these movies is that they all suffer from what I call spooky house syndrome, where every house is dimly lit with 25 watt bulbs, and is suffering from a concerning amount of mold damage and electrical problems. Are they trying to scare us with ghosts or the horrors of home ownership? Similarly, the script is competent, but surface level. I can't tell you anything about the personalities of any of the characters outside of the tired tropes of “the protective father”, and the “brat sister”.  What the film does well is display some of the most professional turning around acting I've ever seen. After four films as Lorraine Warren, Vera Farmiga has perfected the art of slowly turning her head for effect. It works so well at establishing the tension that they do it about 178 times in this film. The film makers know you are coming for tension and jump scares, so that's what they prioritize here. There are some really great scenes of creepy dolls, whispered voices, and foreboding darkness that are masterclasses in technique. However they are all interchangeable and do little to move the story forward other than just increase the intensity.  Score 6/10

Today on another episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are talking to Phil Crosby Jr., son of actor/singer Phil Crosby and grandson of Der Bingle himself, Bing Crosby. And if that isn't enough, he's the nephew of Gary Crosby, the stepson of Jack Klugman, the grandson of 1920's and 30s film star Dixie Lee and we haven't even told you all of his familial connections. Gee, ya think he was born into this? Phil spoke to us about his family but also his career as an in demand singer of jazz and songs from the Great American Songbook. As you will soon hear, we learn how he went from a blues, prog band 11:11 playing at spots like the much beloved The Palamino Club to in Los Angeles to a jazz club in Borneo, We get into it. Not one to pull punches, Phil also spoke to us about the troubled family history that has made the rounds over the years. He's quite open about it in fact and is fine talking about some of the claims his uncle Gary Crosby made in his tell-all book years ago. We also hear the flip side of that as he later found peace at the end of his life when he got sober. Along the way we hear about how his mother, actress Peggy Crosby Klugman, dated Dean Martin, how a trip to McDonald's turned Dino's car into a sardine can, how he and his father were estranged for much of his life until the birth of his first child, why he never met Bing, the two Christmas songs he's currently working on with another guest of the podcast and much more. This is the Rarified heir Podcast and everyone has a story. Take a listen.

Kaleem Caire shares how his family, their audacity, and legacy have inspired him to create change in Madison. They discuss how Kaleem challenged Dr. Gee to build something new - his church, social justice non-profits, The Center for Black Excellence and Culture. The inspiration came from each other to see something new built.  Listen to how education is a major factor for the health of the community by investing in the next generation who will be running the community. Kaleem explains what is behind One City Schools and what they are doing different to shift the educational possibilities.  Leaders in the Black community face unique challenges and it is especially true when they are innovate. As a social innovator, Dr. Gee explores what Kaleem does to stay healthy and balanced in the stress of his work. Plus, hear new Black Ice Breakers that will make you laugh and find cultural connection. Learn more about One City Schools

Zohran Mamdani is bad at lifting weights and should be embarrassed. At least Representative Eric Swalwell did a full rep. Disney recently bemoaned the lack of males in their audience. Gee. Wonder why they're losing the men. After seemingly fixing Washington, D.C. crime in a week, President Donald Trump suggested that maybe Chicago needs the law and order treatment. In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by President Donald J. Trump. He is the law.GUEST: Josh FirestineLink to today's sources: https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/sources-august-25-2025Buy the OG Mug Club Mug on Crowder Shop now! https://crowdershop.com/products/og-mug-club-mugLet my sponsor American Financing help you regain control of your finances. Go to https://americanfinancing.net/crowder or call 800-974-6500. NMLS 182334, http://nmlsconsumeraccess.org/DOWNLOAD THE RUMBLE APP TODAY: https://rumble.com/our-appsJoin Rumble Premium to watch this show every day! http://louderwithcrowder.com/PremiumGet your favorite LWC gear: https://crowdershop.com/Bite-Sized Content: https://rumble.com/c/CrowderBitsSubscribe to my podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/louder-with-crowder/FOLLOW ME: Website: https://louderwithcrowder.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/scrowder Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/louderwithcrowder Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stevencrowderofficialMusic by @Pogo

In this week's mini episode, Madigan discusses Democratic Representative from Texas, Nicole Collier, spending the night in the House chambers in protest; Trump's sad attempt to create “peace” between Russia and Ukraine; the US government takeover in Washington D.C., and how it's affecting the city's unhoused community; and lastly, how a bunch of fragile football fans got their panties in a bunch about two new MALE cheerleaders on the Minnesota Vikings football team. Gee, they're more upset over this than the fact that their team hasn't been to the Super Bowl since 1977… Do you have a topic that you want the show to take on?    Email: neighborhoodfeminist@gmail.com Social media:     Instagram: @angryneighborhoodfeminist Get YANF Merch! ⁠⁠https://yanfpodcast.threadless.com/⁠⁠ JOIN ME ON PATREON!! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/angryneighborhoodfeminist⁠ Sources: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/19/trump-proposes-putin-zelenskyy-summit-in-push-to-end-ukraine-war https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn92e52rpjxo https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/14/politics/washington-dc-homeless-trump https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2x39d2jxvo https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/why-texas-democrat-nicole-collier-is-sleeping-at-the-state-capitol-after-refusing-to-submit-to-republican-demands-204742089.html https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/aug/19/male-cheerleaders-nfl-vikings https://www.today.com/news/sports/minnesota-vikings-male-cheerleaders-response-rcna225702 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Gee talks with his friend Dr. Audrey Mukwavi Matimelo about her passion for empowers others through the "Self Help Group Concept." Hear how this approach to maximize inherent gifts and talents for social and economic transformation, is not only needed in South Africa but also in the US where our systems are failing us. Dr. Audrey shares how this concept works at three levels, which are applicable in many contexts and has been influential in Dr. Gee's non-profit leadership. Don't miss this conversation with visionary leaders that partners across continents.  Dr. Audrey Mukwavi Matimelo has been working as a community development practitioner since 2005, and her work with the Self Help Group concept has enabled her to effectively mobilise and engage with groups of women, youth, and men for social and economic development. She is a passionate advocate of the Self Help Group concept, and has travelled to India, Kenya and Zimbabwe to implement and grow the idea. In 2001, Dr Audrey  got the opportunity to study community development. This led to her resigning her job after 10 years  in the banking industry to pursue studies in the United Kingdom and later in South Africa. Dr Audrey Matimelo has successfully completed her PhD in the school of Science and Agriculture, Rural Resource Management and was awarded a Doctorate Degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her thesis was on mobilizing rural assets for women empowerment. Her study explores various forms of poverty and focuses mainly on the Self Help Group concept and its impact among poor women of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Learn more about the Zimele Wethu Foundation alexgee.com Support the Show: patreon.com/blacklikeme Join the Black Like Me Listener Community Facebook Group