Lifting Up And Dumbing Down Part 43

Lifting Up and Dumbing Down Part 43

“So, you see, kids, bodybuilding isn’t just a game. Just like any other job, it takes hard work, dedication, discipline, and endurance. It’s helped my career as a professional model immensely, but it’s not always the easiest job to manage. If you have the will and the networking, you can and will go far in the industry. Otherwise, well, there are always other options available. In fact, my good friend Duff is about to explain one of those alternate paths now. Let’s give him a big round of applause, shall we?” You smile as you watch Duff walk out onto the stage. You were quite pleased with yourself over that little speech, and you hadn’t even cursed once. Hank would be so proud. You give your friend a clap on the shoulder and whisper a quick, “go get ‘em,” before leaving the stage. You smile as you eye the toned, muscular shape of your lil’bro, Charlie. He stood rigidly at perfect attention in his military fatigues and sandy shirt. A pair of specially crafted tactical glasses obscured what you were certain would be absolutely unseeing eyes. You chuckle to yourself. “Come on, soldier. Let’s get you something to drink.” Charlie followed without question as you strode over to the drinks table and pulled out two bottles of Gatorade. You had one of the bottles to him. “Bottoms up.” “Sir, yes, Sir,” Charlie mumbled as he snapped the cap open and gulped the contents of the bottle in one go. You soon follow suit. “That ROTC program’s done you good,” you comment. “I will start instructing at the start of next year. It is good to instruct others, good to train the next generation of soldiers,” Charlie replied. “It is what my commanding officer commanded me.” “What about the recruiting office?” “I will train for another year first, as instructed. I must be prepared. I must become a perfect soldier.” You smile broadly. One more year helping your little bro get big. That had to be one of the best presents you could ask for. “And we’ll help you reach that goal,” you say. “With you all the way, lil’bro.” “Thank you, Sir,” he says. You sigh and roll your eyes in resignation. He never could tell the difference in trance. You were the same way, sometimes with Harry. Some days, it was almost like you could see a piece of Hank in him. And that piece just ... demanded your attention, made you want to flex and grow and flex and lift and flex and ... and.... You blink blearily at the strange tapping on your shoulder. Slowly, Duff’s grin came into view and you scowled. “I went into trance again, didn’t I?” “Yup,” Duff smirked. “You’re doing that a lot, lately.” “I can’t help it,” you protest weakly, even as you raise an arm and flex your rippling bicep. “It feels so good.” “How’s Charlie coming along?” “Lil’bro’s doing okay. He says he’s still got a year, before he tries joining, so we’ve got time to bulk him up right.” Duff grinned. “Good.” “How’re things at the new gym?” “Busy. Business is booming. Seeing all those men pumping up like that, it is good to build their muscles.” “They will Lift things up and put them down,” you low. Both of your watches beep and your cellphones go off simultaneously. At that moment, the both of you stand rigidly, as if you were struck by twin bolts of lightning. “Time to report to coach,” you drone. “Time to lift,” Duff continues. “Time to train,” you both low together as you swagger side by side in that perfectly synchronized pace, almost like a march. “Time to obey.”

Traveler

You know the old saying. Life is a journey. Well, if that’s true, then that makes me a traveler, doesn’t it? And you know, the funny thing about travelling is it always changes you. You see new sights, experience new sensations, learn more than you knew before. But what about when you’re living the same life, doing the same thing every day, and still travel? For me, that’s what happened when I was growing up in school. I managed to make some good friends here and there, but none of them were in my classes, so I hardly got to see them. That left me feeling pretty isolated a lot of the time. So, I did what any kid who felt alone would do. I found an outlet. I learned a different mode of travelling, one that would let me leave my feelings of loneliness behind in favor of something new, exciting, bold. I would climb mountains during study hall and plunge into the depths of a dungeon at lunch time. I would debate philosophy and ideals with monsters and gain new understanding of how the beast races are portrayed. And with each of these journeys, I changed. I developed a yearning for something more. I searched. I scoured the new frontier known as the internet. And eventually, I found a whole new world filled with wonder, a place where I could become anything and anyone with the wave of a hand. I would insert myself into grand adventures as a main protagonist, develop mighty powers, save the day. And then I’d have to return to the tasks life demanded of me in this plane of existence. My journeys would be on hold as I wrote an essay or learned a new set of vocabulary for Spanish, or some other requirement. I returned to these places often, when I had the time. And eventually, things began to be different. The “me” that I saw there changed, and I changed with him, to an extent. New equipment with dangerous and powerful magics would appear at a moment’s notice, won through trials alien in that world, but all too familiar to me. Powers would awaken that I could use whenever I wished to make the world a better place, just ... not my world. In my travels I would be stronger, faster, powerful in word and deed and magic. Yet, I always had to put these gains aside, when I returned home. Still, these changes, these desires, remained with me, marking me. And eventually, they had to find release. I took to my keyboard. I began to write my chronicles. I began to cement the entity that was my other self. The clack of the keyboard became the clacking of claws. The prickling of goosebumps became the rising of hackles as hair thickened into a lush coat of fur. Ears pricked to attention, alert for the slightest sounds, any invasive force that might dare to intrude on this sacred in-between that I was forging. And slowly, ever so slowly, this other self came to be, a powerful mage, capable of taking many forms, but always defaulting to that of a kitsune. I settled on that, thanks to a journey made to Mobius, long ago, when an old friend wrote a series that took me, as the title said, Through The Monitor. Of course, not all my journeys were pleasant, and not all the encounters appropriate for my age. I encountered the demon of lust as I grew older, and with it came the many temptations that followed as I sought to satisfy my hunger to travel, to see these transformations in others and mimic them in my own way. Yet, as I did so, as I encountered these other aspects that spoke to the primal part of me, something else changed. Fed slowly, day by day with bits and pieces of content that I cannot forget, even though I may wish to, this force, this piece of me, grew. Eventually, it developed its own voice, it’s own personality. And thus, I and my traveler self were rent in twain. We each gained a darker side, a piece of ourselves that hated, that was skeptical, that always thought the worst and only cared about what it wanted. Psychology calls this the Id. Religion calls it the Natural Man. I called it Ronoc. And so two became three. My normal self, my traveler, and the one who would never leave either of us alone for long. Ronoc often tried to pull me towards things I did not approve of. We fought constantly. Arguments and frustration were quite regular between us. And all the while, I wore a mask to hide this conflict as we warred with one another. It took a long time for us to find our peace. He’s still in my head with me, and he still travels by my side, but we have a sort of agreement. I allow him the chance to come out from time to time in my writing, and he lets me live according to the morals I have set. He’ll pop up from time to time, talk to me, maybe insult me a little, but we don’t snarl and battle the same way we used to. I hate how he swears, but sometimes you just have to live with that in a roommate that shares your skull. In this world, I don’t really change, when I talk with him or give him a chance to come out. In my other self, he essentially gets the chance to take the wheel. It’s an outlet he’s able to enjoy and use according to his whims. I even let him trick a few deserving people from time to time. That way, we’re both satisfied, even if I don’t always approve of his methods. And then I record them. And he’s able to preen at his exploits, while others admire what he has wrought. He doesn’t appreciate how I’m poking at his pride right now, but he can’t exactly argue with my logic, so he’s simmering at the moment. In real life, I left to take courses, learned to be better writer. And with those skills, the journeys became more realistic. Dreams and fantasies bred new worlds, new realms for me to explore, and they were all my own, worlds and stories yet to be told. New twists and re-imaginings just begging to be let out my skull and onto paper. It’s difficult to get them all out with them crowding so much, especially when I get blocked, but I think Ronoc is entertained with them. I certainly know that I am. The question is, can I catalogue this journey? Can I really finish such a thing in the first place and come back a changed man, as I did in my youth? Truthfully, I don’t know. All I do know is that I must travel. That is all daydreaming is, after all, a different form of travelling. I wonder.

Would you care to travel with me? There’s a lot that I can show you.

Announcing: Military Daze

I promised a special transformation to Army Brute for being the highest donor when I asked for your guys’ help making ends meet, and said generosity has not gone forgotten. With the end of Lifting Up and Dumbing Down, it’s time to begin a new story. Since Army Brute wanted something military, that’s what this next project will focus on. I don’t know how long it will stretch, but we’ll see as the world develops. Introduction: Your name is Abraham, though you prefer to go by Abe. You and your friends were the standard teenage boys: young, reckless, and with a terrible streak for mischief and trouble. Nothing outrageous, mind you, just ... problematic. At least, that’s how you tried to put it, when you played the diplomat. It didn’t play so well with your friend Kendall’s dad, however, and poor Ken found himself suddenly enrolled in a military academy. It’s been a couple of years since Ken was shipped off. You’re all about to start your junior year in high school. When Ken was home for the holidays, you and the gang made sure to take advantage of every minute vacation provided you, and he’d regale you with all the gruesome details of the rigid military lifestyle. As usual, he seemed adamant on getting into as much mischief as possible, while he was home. A buffer, he’d said, for all the brainwashing they do at the school. He’d then pantomimed a rigid military officer, while you all gasped in mock horror. Everyone had a good laugh at that bit, even if it did get a little on the stale side. It seemed almost as if Ken had to do it. He even went so far as to use his uniform last time as a prop. “To get it nice and dirty for them,” he’d explained. Ken didn’t come home this summer. Something to do with an incident involving party balloons, smoking joints, shaving cream, and dye in the sprinklers. His dad was furious. Apparently, so was the school. You always knew he might push a few buttons too hard one day, but still, losing vacation? That was harsh. You’d exchange emails every day to help him pass the time, but things had been getting a little ... strange the last couple of months. He joked and jibed the first few days, but that soon turned to something a little more frantic. Then, about halfway through break, it just ... cut off. Now you wonder just what’s going on in that place, and more importantly, what happened to your friend.

Military Daze Part 3

Hey, Abe,

Everything’s been going pretty well here. Sorry for scaring you. Lots of exercise, classwork, and fulfilling disciplinary requirements have taken up so much of my time. Please, forgive me for my inconsideration. A close friend shouldn’t have to suffer like that. Your letters have been a great help to me, when dealing with my homesickness, but I still miss hanging out with you and the guys. That’s why I entered your name into this contest at school. See, it gives the winner a chance at a full scholarship. Room, board, the whole thing. The school rakes in enough money from all the other attendees that they can afford to let a few people attend free each year. Anyways, I put your name in, because, well, I miss you, man, and turns out it got chosen. I was totally floored. Please, tell me you’ll come. It’ll be like old times. Military life isn’t so bad, really, once you get used to it. And if you do well here, you get a big boost for college applications. It’s a big step for our futures, ya know? Even if you don’t want to come, I really do want to keep in contact with you. But please, make sure to respond as soon as you can. The school should’ve sent you an email, too, with all the details. If you wait too long, then you’ll lose the opportunity, and I won’t get to see you for at least another half a year. Please, Abe, say you’ll come, at least for one semester. I miss you. Sincerely, Private Kendall Rogers P.S. Sorry if there are any formatting errors in the letter. I’m still learning how to employ proper grammar. My  You blink in utter shock. Some parts of the letter sounded like Kendall, well enough, but others were just so ... formal. Just what were they doing to your friend over there? You furrow your brows in suspicion. Would you even recognize him anymore, at this rate? Or could someone have been ghost writing, pretending to be him? You shake your head. No, that’s not right. That would be nothing more than a conspiracy theory. Something else was going on. You narrow your eyes as you pore over the letter again. Eventually, the rest on the post script. Kendall always hated class of any kind, especially English, so why would he make a specific note to formatting errors? Fortunately for you, his hate of English was your love. It took you forever to even get the guy to concede to listening to recorded books, but you eventually got him at least a little into the spirit. Not enough to put effort into his writing, mind, but enough to make it so he didn’t hate books anymore. As you scanned over the document, you could see no errors in capitalization or punctuation, so it had to be something else in the letter. As you look over each of the paragraphs, you notice the varying lengths, comparing the short first two to the much longer third, fourth, and fifth. ... Length. You tap your chin as you recall the principle hammered into you from your youth. A proper paragraph should be at least three sentences in length, and even then, it’s preferable to keep it closer to five. So, why would he keep everything so short in the beginning? You take a closer look at the paragraphs. The sentences all seemed innocuous enough. Again, there were no errors involved. The letter was set to a formal header, with all the paragraphs lined up to the far left margin and no indentation. It was actually kind of funny. When you lined up the first three paragraphs, including the greeting, the letters formed HEL. You then looked down at the third paragraph. P. H-E-L-P. HELP. Help. Could it be? “An acrostic?” you pondered. It was a simple matter to link the other two letters from the last paragraphs. Help Me. “Shit,” you swore. Your heart rate picked up again. Your breathing became shallow. You wanted to get up and report this to someone, anyone, but you knew better than that. If this academy was doing something to your friend, you’d need real proof of wrongdoing, before you could convince anyone of the fact. This was the kind of thing that would get you laughed out of the station faster than you could present it. After you get yourself under control, you start your reply. Subject: RE: Congratulations! Dear Kendall, I got your message. Still, before I choose to accept, though, I need to ask a few things. 1. Is it all right for me to bring my equipment with me? You know how much I enjoy my film and photography.... You composed your reply very carefully to ensure it would fit the standards and evade possibility of detection. That being said, if there really was something off at this school, it was likely they would be able to see through your coded messages. Acrostics were a fairly simple coding system, after all. You would need to go prepared, if you went at all. Once you sent your reply with your list of “follow-up questions,” you turned to your next order of business. You quickly made your way to your spam folder and authorized the message from the academy. If you were going to do this, you would need all the information you could find on the place. Even then, ... you weren’t sure you would be ready.

This is pretty awesome.

An old and homely grandmother accidentally summons a demon. She mistakes him for her gothic-phase teenage grandson and takes care of him. The demon decides to stay at his new home.

Scammer Red Flags and Things to Look for/Check Against

You’ve probably read my last post by now. Someone tried to scam me out of my identity or money earlier this morning. It’s a plague the internet is facing more and more. As I said before, I’m sick of it, and I’m sure you all are, too. For those of you who are new to the freelancer field or are just new to online job searching in general, here are some tips and red flags to note and use as you deal with digital interviews, so you can keep your identity and your money safe.

1. Has the scammer asked you to use a different platform than the job site or freelance hiring service? While this is not always an immediate indicator of a scammer, it is something that should put your guard up. Most of these sites prefer you to keep with them, so they can monitor your interactions and ensure everything is on the up-and-up. There are many companies that prefer to cut out the middle man, once they find a good candidate, so this isn’t always going to mean the person is a scammer, but you do still need to be cautious. Be especially wary, if they ask you to use Google Hangouts. This platform has no means of reporting scam artists or suspicious messages/conversation threads that I have been able to locate, so it’s an ideal place for scammers to try to herd their potential victims. Try to get them to come to you on the platform where you were initially contacted or a place where you will be able to flag and report them quickly, should it become apparent they are trying to scam you. 2. Have they given you information on the company they represent yet?

If they haven’t, make sure to ask about this, before giving them anything. You need those details to ensure this person really is the representative he or she claims to be. Ask for location, name, how long they’ve been in business, etc. These are details you can use to make sure you find the right company and see how reputable it is as an organization. It will also allow you the opportunity to call the company, once you’ve confirmed it’s legitimate, to check your HR representative or hiring manager is a real employee. 3. Have you checked up on that company? Most companies have their own websites and contact information, and are registered on multiple job searching websites and government websites, since all businesses need to register with the US Government and State Government, when they are established, for tax purposes. Check for these things at websites like the Better Business Bureau and the Secretary of State website for whichever state and town the scammer provided. These sites are designed to help you search for these companies to ensure they are legal and legitimate. Assuming your scammer provides one, you can also review their website for any discrepancies or red flags, like if the address is legitimate, where the phone number leads, if real photos are included from the physical location, whether the site is professionally done or a shoddy slap-together job, and if information written on the web pages contradicts itself. 4. Have you checked to ensure this person is part of the company’s staff (Call the company up, check LinkedIn, etc.)? 5. Have you made sure the company is registered in the state or country the scammer has mentioned? There are many professional sites designed to show these licences and certifications, so you can know whether a company is properly registered. Refer to question three’s answer for examples. 6. Have you checked how long the company has been established? 7. Is the grammar, spelling, etc. degrading over time as you interact? If so, it’s likely this person isn’t a legitimate HR representative, and you’ve pulled them off the script they’re following. No respectable American company employs someone who can’t communicate effectively and in proper English as part of their job recruitment department. 8. Is the scammer not willing to give you basic information, like company location? If so, then he or she is probably a scammer. 9. You’ve only been on for a few minutes, asking easy questions (like location), and they’re already brushing you off, claiming they have other interviews waiting, and they will get back to you with the information. You are supposed to be in an official interview. No hiring manager books multiple interviews at the same time, unless they have staff that are trained and can handle each case individually, before sending the results back up to him/her, so he/she can focus specifically on you. And questions, like specific location, are simple to answer for any experienced HR manager. 10. Is the email account associated with the company they claim to represent? Most scammers use a burn email, an account with random digits, numbers, or names that have nothing to do with the business they claim to represent. This is a big red flag, since most HR people have an email that’s associated with their company or can give you enough information to double check their credentials independently. 11. If they try to get your personal information, like address, phone number, bank info., etc. before answering your basic questions to check the legitimacy of their claims. NEVER give them ANY of these, until you have verified that they are legitimate. If they haven’t to your satisfaction, push back on getting the info you need, before you give yours. It helps, if you explain someone has tried to scam you before. This will make the HR agent more reasonable and understanding, if it’s legitimate. If it’s not, then the comment might throw the scammer off balance as he or she tries to assure you they aren’t another scammer. 12. Is the scammer offering you a larger-than-average salary? This is another tactic many would-be-scammers use to draw you in. While not always a definite giveaway, it is something that should raise your wariness and make you look for the other red flags in this post. 13. If you’ve called the scammer out on their behavior and they pull the pathetic card (AKA an appeal to emotion and empathy to try to justify their position, rather than answer the questions). In my case, the scammer used family ties, claiming to be an upstanding grandfather with five kids and ten grandchildren. That had nothing to do with the company or my questions about the company he claimed to represent. Don’t be fooled by this tactic, and DON’T FEEL GUILTY! This is your IDENTITY on the line. Keep those shields up. Even if you lose a potential job, it’s better in the long run to be cautious and safe, then to get scammed out of your hard-earned money or worse. 14. In the end, if you still haven’t budged, the scammer will try to make it seem like you’ve lost out on a big opportunity. In my case, after 13 happened, the scammer said since I wasn’t comfortable with the interview and felt like it wasn’t legitimate, he would remove all my information from their systems. The thing is, there WAS NO INFORMATION for him to have on file, other than my name and the email I used to contact him. Scammers will use the guilt from 13 and combine it with your greed or desperation for a good paying job to try to get you to reconsider. Don’t let them manipulate you like this.

If you’ve verified you have a scammer, contact the proper authorities. There are a variety of websites you can report to. You can also talk to your local police to get information on how best to handle the situation and who to report the incident to. Most job hiring sites have ways to catch these kinds of people, eventually, but they often require flaggers to notify them, before they know to act. That’s why we have law enforcement and various sites to report and warn about these people. Stay safe, fellow freelancers and net-goers. I hope these tips help you all. ~Omnitf