Changes Come with Kindness

It has always been my passion to spread love and kindness in this world. I have had a tendency to be too nice, but have never found a reason to cease being kind. When my resources were more abundant, I was always willing to volunteer and help people out whenever I can. Now I'm the one needing the help. I've been in between jobs for quite awhile, driving for Uber and interviewing into the abyss of nothing, and need some stable grounding in my life. As one of my favorite quotes goes, "in order to receive much, you must give much." Karma began coming back in my direction when I needed it most.

From October 2017 until now, a new chapter of my life is being created.

At the time, I was living with two of my dearest friends. When my life started taking a sharp downhill turn, since I sometimes use Facebook as my public diary (only disclosing the basic whereabouts of course), the general population knew something was up in my life. I am a member of a number of nerd communities and one of them, being called the "Belegarth Medieval Combat Society" was the beginning of the outpour of love towards me. About 4 times a year for the last almost 5 years now, I've been able to hit every single major camping trip in Illinois. I was struggling with finances at the time and my checking account was badly overdrawn. My friend Nigel offered to give me a ride and hook me up with all the resources I'd need to have a successful camping trip and decided to go to the event 2 days prior. I returned from my camping trip fresh and ready to try finding a job some more.

At the end of November, one of the places I had located on a "job hunt tour", meaning driving around looking for places nearby my apartment that had "now hiring" signs outside and going inside and applying, randomly called me back and asked me to come in with 3 hours notice. Me being desperate for a job decided to accept said job as a server at a restaurant called Leona's. I walked into Leona's with my head held up high ready to be the best server ever and was ready to start training. Since I usually connect with males more, there was one male server named Chris. We talked whenever we were on shift together and one day in casual conversation, he told me, "if you ever need any "partying goods", let me know". One day, I hit him up, and he wanted me to grab the goodies from his girlfriend, Iris, who also worked at the restaurant. This ended up happening several times, including after I quit the restaurant.

Fast forward to January 2018, one of the days when I went over to Iris's apartment, she mentioned there being a vacancy in her apartment that would be cheaper rent than what I'm paying right now. Two days later, the people I was living with before and me had "the talk", but I was so out of it I had no idea what happened. Four days later, I decided to meet with the rest of the people living there to see if this would be a worthwhile move for me. After we met, I went to go pick up one of the current at the time roomies from work and I told him what I did when we were discussing how our day was. We then talked again and the information from "the talk" was clarified to me while being more in tune.

In an instant, I found out my living situation of two and a third years was changing. I was scared to death, especially because my mental health was failing and I didn't want any new people to see it.

Iris and Chris welcomed me into their lives with open arms and even helped me move. Special thanks to Iris to helping set up the place and making it feel like home for me... and for doing most of the cleaning. I promise I'll help more, don't worry!

Not only did my living situation change, but also in January 2018, I sought help to better my mental health. I also began picking up my hobbies that were lost to lifeing and trying to get my act together. One day while randomly scrolling through Facebook, in one of the other communities I'm in involved in, a "flow art", also known as a style of dance using an LED light prop, called "orbiting" with the prop being called an orbit, someone posted asking for some pointers on "glorbiting", which is using LED light gloves and an LED light orbit together in one act. I decided to comment on the post with my two cents and the original poster messaged me. For whatever reason, we hit it off pretty quickly, even though I was scared to warm up to new people at the time. This lovely fellow named Joey felt like the first real friend I've ever had even though I'm over here in Chicago and he lives in bufu North Carolina. A lot of the times we would talk, it would be about flow arts and orbiting. More of the times we would talk, I would message him at xyz late at night or early in the morning telling him I'm pulling an allnighter driving for Uber while completely losing my mind. Many of these same messages and talks later, I didn't expect anyone to be there for me in this super low state of mind. Each time, aside from talking me down, he would tell me to quit driving for Uber. He would also tell me how much he cared about me and how he was sick of seeing me hurt myself. Two months and hours and hours of phone calls and texts later, not only have my flow art skills increased, but I finally escaped the wrath of Uber after twenty six and a half months. Not only that, but he's saved me in money emergencies and gifted me this super snazzy prop for my recent birthday. He also gifted me with the quote, "if you don't like this world, create a new one!" And with this prop, I will express the newfound confidence and new life I have gained in the past several months. Through all of the changes and adventures, this show is dedicated to spreading love and light and thanking those who have been there for me recently and showering me with unexpected kindness when I needed it most. This is what I have to give back to you! Enjoy!

*insert light show here*

Usefulness of the Amazon Alexa

One of Amazon's most memorable creations, the Alexa, is breaking barriers and taking control in the voice-activated speaker industry. The biggest consumers? The millennials of course! Millennials and all technology users alike appreciate the Alexa because of it's use of artificial intelligence in supporting functions such as ordering food, playing music, being used as a hub to host meetings for business, and much more. In households, Alexa is helpful because it automates certain features of daily life, such as using the voice command "Alexa, goodnight", which turns off the lights, locks the doors, and lowers the thermostat. For businesses, Alexa is handy for helping people at their desks complete simple tasks such as organize their workday, dial into meetings automatically, check inventory levels, and notify IT when the printer is broken. The Amazon Alexa is making life easier, one command at a time!