Huge '80s hair and delicious Jamaican chicken – Metallicman (2023)

The global financial crisis destroyed me in 2008. The years immediately after were some of the worst years of my life. I lost everything; Or at least I thought I did.

Turns out I haven't lost much at all (assuming I don't count about $3 million in home equity and a few hundred thousand dollars in cash as "a lot").

I was in Las Vegas when Lehman Brothers closed... It was my birthday... and it was the first time I lost a lot there. I should have known something bad was coming, but I didn't. When my consulting contract was not renewed, I did not panic. I went about my business as usual. When my tenants didn't pay their rent, I kept paying the mortgages. A year later I still had over $50,000 in the bank… plenty of cushion.

I guess I should warn you at this point that I wasn't exactly a discreet person. I have been (and still am) in the luxury goods and hospitality industries and have consulted with companies that cater to high net worth individuals. I helped them develop business and sales strategies to keep their clients happy in the short and long term. Needless to say, the luxury sector has been butchered and is still struggling to get out of the mud and swamp, at least in the United States.

So, with enough money for six to ten months, I kept looking for work in my field.

And look and look... nothing.

Any kind of management consulting... nothing. (Six more months pass.)

Any kind of sale... nothing. (Six months to go... This is where it got scary.)

Waiters, bartenders, limo driving, grocery packing... EVERYTHING!

No.

Keep in mind that up to this point he had been unemployed for less than a month since he was 12 years old.

My confidence was shot, I mean decimated. I was a shell of the man I had been only two years before.

The stench of failure was everywhere.

A friend of mine owned a couple of car washes. He offered me a job. He was out of work and taking orders when people drove to the laundromat. "Would you like the landing gear done?"

It's war Winter in Colorado.

I rejected

I was sharing a huge house at the time with my best friend and his new girlfriend who became his fiancée, and we were ALL broke. It was brutal. I don't think he would have made it without her. He was depressed and unhappy. I'm lucky they didn't bury me in a snowdrift and leave me there. I'm sure there were times when they wanted it.

"Smug" doesn't make up for mistakes.

My friend from the car wash called again a few weeks later. I said no again. Not just out of shame. Not just because of cold weather and the elements or standing 10 hours a day on concrete with no wifi.

It was for my father.

Almost every good parent has a catchphrase that they use to motivate their children to do better than they do. Usually, he's the threat of being stuck in a minimum-wage job no Gekko-era teenager would aspire to. For some reason, my father chose the “car wash” example. We would go to Towne Auto Wash in Little League and he would always point to this guy who would ask, "Do you want a regular or deluxe wash?" and then he gave you the piece of paper.

"Micky," it said. "You need to save some money/get better grades/stop chasing girls/do your homework. You don't want to end up like that guy who works at a car wash, do you?" The last time I heard the speech was in 1996. However, the words hung in the air for years.

So you can see my dilemma. For me, working at a car wash was the ultimate admission of failure. I am not losing all my wealth. I don't sell my watches and cars. A few rugs and some art do not let pass.

I lived with friends, drove a 17-year-old car, had less than $200 in the bank with no idea where the next $200 would come from, and was worried that I would be seen as a failure.

A little blind?

Maybe, but reality hit me when I had no money for a niece's birthday present.

So I called my friend back and asked if I could still have the car wash job. My total failure as a human being was total, my final humiliation, or so I thought.

On my third day on my way to work, the raven-haired stunner I hired as my assistant five years ago pulled up in a brand-new Lexus.

NOW my humiliation was complete.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

And yet... just as I was about to die of shame, something happened that literally changed my life. She smiled, jumped out of her car, pointed hers at me with her Louboutins, ran up to me and hugged me. We chatted for about 10 minutes while her car got ready. She said that she is happy to see me, that I have been a great boss and that she is glad that she is working. "So many" of her friends (25-year-old physicists) were unemployed, and at least I wasn't stuck behind a desk.

I realized that he had hit me unnecessarily and saw how lucky I really was.

At that point, I decided that instead of just introducing myself until I could find something better, I would use all my skills to grow my friend's business, and I did. In the months that followed, something incredible happened to me. Something I never saw coming and something that has impacted my life and made me a better man.

I saw hundreds of people every day and not one of them thought I was a failure and that gave me energy. I smiled. They smiled back at him. I've been happy and captivated, and I've sold over a million luxury lingerie. But even my worst fear turned into something I started to look forward to. I got my confidence back and it was obvious. I've seen a LOT of people I knew: clients, former clients, friends I had lost contact with, and every single one of them said something positive.

you respected me

They valued me more because I was seen outside in the cold wearing a red nylon jacket with a car wash logo on it. No one made fun of me or insulted me. Nobody laughed.

There was even an article about me in a local lifestyle magazine.

They respected me for doing what I had to do (I'm sure some of you were secretly glad I got a few hooks off... but hey, we're all human, right?)

The truth of my situation has been revealed to the world... there is no way to tell a story when you ask people if they want basic or luxury bedding. There is no polish or bullshit charm that can hide the truth.

I worked at a car wash and no one thought I was a failure. Not even my father.

Then about 6 months later, one of my old clients called me. He needed help setting up a new luxury club. We made a deal and when I left the car wash my boyfriend was very sad and he said that I was the best employee he ever had.

I approached this new consulting contract with an energy and zest for life that I had not felt in years. A few months later, another assignment took me to Asia and I have been consulting here ever since.

So it turns out that my worst fear was my salvation.

It gave me confidence, it paid my bills for a while, and it allowed me to move my business to Asia and access a lot of new cultures and growing markets.

Sure, I'm not exactly where I was that day in Las Vegas 9 years ago, but I do have a red nylon jacket with a car wash logo on it, reminding me that for my version of success, I don't have to be. "

– Michael Aumock

A member of the German Bundestag addressed the House today regarding efforts to supply German tanks to Ukraine for use against Russia.

Shit, it hit a nerve; Other legislators gasped openly in horror!

Watch the 30 second video with translation below:

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Japan has decided to begin construction of a military base on Mageshima Island, a project aimed at strengthening Japan's defenses on the nearby Ryukyu Islands and providing a backup air force base in case an enemy attack wipes out Okinawa, they said. the Japanese authorities.several Japanese Fuentes.

Mageshima, an eight square kilometer uninhabited island located 12 kilometers from the inhabited island of Tanegashima, was selected in 2011 as a candidate to relocate US aircraft carrier landing exercises currently taking place on the island of Iwoto, 1,200 kilometers to the east. south tokyo.

Construction began last Thursday (Jan 12) and is expected to last four years, with plans to install two runways, a control tower and an explosives depot. Nippon.com mentions that Mageshima will serve as a supply and maintenance center for the defense of the Nansei Islands, as well as conduct landing exercises for US aircraft carriers.

The Asia Times found out.the strategic importance of small islands, as they exert a 'pull effect' on great powers, as they can be logistics bases, protective barriers, forward operating bases and geographic markers for the expansion of maritime claims.

Mageshima is no exception.In a March 2022 newsletter for the Taiwan-based think tank Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), Yen Hung-Lin stresses the strategic importance of the island.

Yen points out that Mageshima is northeast of the Ryukyu Islands, which Chinese navy ships must pass through to reach the Pacific Ocean. He also says that Mageshima is an uninhabited island, which alleviates concerns about noise and aircraft safety.

Also, Yen mentions that Mageshima has flat terrain, making it easy to build airfields. Furthermore, Yen notes that the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) have a limited number of bases on the Nansei Islands, and that the completion of Mageshima will allow Japan and the US to mount a full-scale defense against China.

Japan's plans to establish Mageshima as an airbase on an island could also be part of a broader military strategy.In an April 2022 article for the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), Felix Chang points out that Japan's island bases point to a strategy aimed not only at preventing China from seizing the Senkaku Islands, but also at thwarting its larger naval ambitions.

Asia Times previously reported on it.about Japan's plans to base long-range cruise missiles on its southwestern islands and Kyushu to enhance its counter-strike capabilities against China. Given this, Japan could also choose to deploy long-range missiles on Mageshima.

In the meantime, the United States could try to place its long-range missiles on Mageshima.The Asia Times reportsabout US plans to build a "rocket wall" on the first and second island chains.

This strategy is based on the perceived advantages of land-based missile launchers, which include increased survivability compared to ship-based systems, the ability to maintain a constant presence in contested areas, and a counterattack. land-based missile launchers on allied territory markings. and a significant escalation of hostilities.

The joint Japanese-American base project at Mageshima is likely also aimed at strengthening the American base position in the Pacific.In a War on the Rocks article from April 2021, Wallace Gregson and Jeffrey Hornung point out that Japan is no longer the safe haven for US forces, as China and North Korea have developed long-range strike capabilities and satellite surveillance technologies that threaten US and allied forces stationed in the region.

A documentary from October 2022by ABC News shows that in the event of a war between Taiwan and China, China will most likely launch a pre-emptive missile strike against the military base in Okinawa to destroy the US and Japanese air forces on the ground.

Faced with this threat, Gregson and Hornung point out that the US needs to strengthen its facilities against attacks, spread and distribute its forces over a larger area, and improve its missile defense capabilities. Therefore, the Japanese-American base at Mageshima could be a logical step in that direction.

However, some parties have expressed reservations about military construction on Mageshima.. In an editorial from August 2021, The Asahi Shimbun mentions that noise from military activities on Mageshima will affect daily life on nearby islands.

In addition, the editorial notes that the construction work will have a significant impact on water quality, marine life and fisheries in the area, depending on whether the project involves land reclamation.

He also said that the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MOD) withheld specific details about the project, only releasing an environmental impact assessment on January 12.

15 January 2023 VonMiguel

People on the other side of the planet are starving right now, but most people don't even realize this is happening. Unfortunately, most people just assume that everything is fine. If you're one of those people who thinks everything is just wonderful, I encourage you to pay close attention to the details I'm about to share with you. World hunger is spreading rapidly, and that's because global food supplies are dwindling. If current trends continue, we could be facing a nightmare scenario before the end of this calendar year.

Pakistan is not among the poorest countries in the world, but the lack of affordable food is starting to cause panic in this country. the following is comingfrom time magazine…

Last Saturday in Mirpur Khas, a town in Pakistan's Sindh province, hundreds of people queued for hours outside a park to buy subsidized wheat flour, which was being offered at Rs 65 per kilogram instead of the current inflated prices of around 140-160 rupees.

When some trucks arrived, the crowd pushed forward, leaving several injured. One man, Harsingh Kolhi, who was there to bring home a five kilogram sack of flour for his wife and children, was crushed to death in the chaos.

We see similar things happening all over the planet.

Just because you have enough to eat doesn't mean everyone else is fine.

In fact, things have already gotten so bad that even CNN admits we're dealing with it."The worst food crisis in modern history"…

But the world is still in the grip ofworst food crisis in modern history, while Russia's war in Ukraine is shaking global farming systems already dealing with the effects of extreme weather conditions and the pandemic. Market conditions may have improved in recent months, but experts don't expect an immediate easing.

That means more pain for vulnerable communities already struggling with hunger. It also increases the risk of famine and famine in countries like Somalia, which is grappling with what the United Nations has described as a "catastrophic" food crisis.

Unfortunately, the food crisis has not only reached “catastrophic” proportions in Somalia.

Aftera Reuters, the entire continent is now dealing with the worst food crisis Africa has "ever seen"...

All across Africa, from east to west, people are experiencinga bigger and more complex food crisis than the continent has ever seensay diplomats and aid workers.

Please go back and read this statement again.

Remember all those years when Sally Struthers begged us to feed the starving children of Africa?

Well, the truth is that the conditions are much worse now than when I was shooting those commercials.

At a Somali hospital, grieving mothers often bring very young children into their home.who literally starved to death…

"Sometimes mothers bring us dead babies," said Farhia Moahmud Jama, head nurse at the pediatric emergency room. And they don't know they're dead.

Weakened by starvation, camp residents are vulnerable to disease and people die from lack of food, said Nadifa Hussein Mohamed, who ran the camp where Isak's family originally lived.

"Maybe everyone is starving and the donors are bankrupt, I don't know," he said. "But we ask for help and we see no relief."

UN officials are doing everything they can to help, but the truth is that they are absolutely overwhelmed by the scale of this crisis.

In the last 12 months, the number of Africans struggling with “acute food insecurity” hasalmost exploded…

According to World Food Program.

Unfortunately, many Americans simply won't care what goes on there as long as we have enough food here.

Of course, food supplies are also dwindling on our side of the world.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, our corn crop this year was the smallestin 15 years…

Last year was a bad year for corn: The latest report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that dry conditions and extreme weather have wreaked havoc on farmland.

The USDA unexpectedly lowered its outlook for domestic corn production amid a severe drought in the western agricultural belt. Farmers in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas were forced to do so.Leave the fields affected by drought.

The agency estimates that farmers harvested 79.2 million acres, 1.6 million acres less than the previous estimate, the smallest crop since 2008.

It wouldn't be so bad if our population remained the same as it was in 2008.

Other harvests have also been extremely disappointing and this is one of the factors that has pushed food prices steadily up.

This is where the average American household spends$72 more for groceries per monththat a year ago at this point...

As inflation continues to squeeze the budgets of American families, the December report from Moody's Analytics showed that families are spending approximately $72 more per month on groceries than a year ago.

That number comes from a report that says a typical American household spends $371 more on goods and services than it did a year ago.

Especially the price of eggs.it's completely screwed.

I recently came across thisan articleabout a small business owner who now pays three times as much for eggs as she did before...

It seems the cost of everything is rising these days and that includes egg prices affecting local businesses. "We used to get 15 dozen eggs at Sam's for $23. Now they're $68," said Cindy Gutierrez, owner of Creative Cakes. "Now it's like 63 for 15 dozen and it's hard to get 15 dozen as well," said Caitlyn Wallace, owner of Catie Pies.

Egg prices have tripled their original price. According to the Consumer Price Index, egg prices increased by 10% in October 2022 and the trend is upward. This causes a ripple effect for restaurants, stores, and bakeries that use eggs.

Economic conditions are changing so rapidly now and nothing will ever be the same again.

Moving on, the widespread use of "bug burgers" is one of the "solutions"that the global elite is beginning to push…

Käferburgers could soon help feed the world, according to new research. The larvae of the creepy crawly bugs, better known as mealworms, could alleviate hunger around the world as an alternative to meat. The process uses a fraction of land and water and has a lower carbon footprint compared to traditional farming.

To make this a reality, French biotech company Ynsect is planning a global network of insect farms, including nurseries and slaughterhouses. A pilot plant has already been installed in Dole, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region of France.

Doesn't that sound delicious?

Of course, these "beetle burgers" are just a drop in the ocean.

No matter what the world elite tries, they will not be able to stop "the worst food crisis in modern history."to get much worse.

So I encourage you to stock up while you can.

The global food supply is getting a little tighter by the day and I have a feeling that 2023 is in store for us with a lot of “unexpected surprises”.

1.I am not a beautiful woman and you notice that on a daily basis and it hurts.

As scary as it is to get hit and called and I'm so sorry that it happens too, I understand otherwise. All I see are posts about receiving calls and I just want to talk about my experience. They yell at me and bark like a dog and vomit sounds. We have a creepy old regular I work for who calls all the girls pretty but he's disgusted with me and has made negative comments about my appearance and literally told me to get out of his sight.

People act so weird and their eyes dart from side to side trying to avoid eye contact when I talk to them. Other times people are COMMON and reject me, but treat others with respect.

I have been bullied and called ugly all my life. Since I was 5 years old. Kids pointed at me and were mean, and even the moms in my Boy Scout troop treated me differently.

I remember in high school these two guys would sit behind me and one would ask the other out loud if he would fuck me. The response was a loud, resounding "HELLLLL NAWWWW." Of course, if the answer had been the opposite, everyone would have been startled and unsure, but that moment still sticks with me and, for some reason, it hurts.

Now I am in good physical shape, but my face is very strange. It's so unbalanced and out of proportion and you can see every little blood vessel in my face and I have genetic dark circles that I can't seem to hide. Even with regular dental appointments and good dental hygiene, I only get shitty teeth that crack and break. My forehead is huge and I have a double chin that won't go away and my eyebrows are very different. My nose was broken twice so you can only imagine what it looks like now.

I don't take selfies. I hate photos of myself and it still hurts that my friends and family don't want to take photos with me. I have a son and the only reason I wrote this post was because I have a photographer friend who offered to do portraits of me and my son for Valentine's Day as a gift. I accepted FOR MY SON, not for me and I don't really want to and it makes me very sad. Every image I see of myself makes me very depressed.

I have good hygiene. I shower and smell good. I dress well. I'm nice. But the few friends I have, and even my mother, have admitted that I'm not exactly the most attractive woman, which confirms everything else.

I'm sorry for this post and I don't want to invalidate anyone else's feelings or experiences. I really just wanted to scold.

2.I'm ugly. I know I'm ugly I know I'm ugly since I was twelve years old.

Before that, I thought I was just fat and if I lost all that fat I would be beautiful and valuable. When I was twelve years old, I lost two stones and realized that I was hopelessly ugly.

My most striking feature is my long hooked nose. My eyes are small and set so close together that I can only wear children's glasses. I'm twenty-one years old and I still get big red spots all the time.

My hair is a thick brown mess of frizz. I have a wide chest and hips which gives me a very wide frame no matter how much weight I lose. I have very small breasts which along with my wide hips always make me look pear shaped.

To top it off, I'm tall, 5'6 in tights, so I never get a chance to blend in with the crowd. I am always seen and always ugly.

The world of an ugly woman is so different from that of a beautiful woman in so many ways that I couldn't begin to explain them all. However, I can briefly outline the strange differences I have observed in how society treats ugly women and how society treats beautiful women.

My sister is pretty. I have many beautiful friends. I live in the same world as beautiful women. I'm not one of them They celebrate, they remember, they wonder. People are good to beautiful women, even when beautiful women are indifferent, hostile, or even cruel in return. People remember my sister's name and immediately forget about me. When we are introduced to new people together, nine times out of ten, when I meet that person again, they immediately ask me where my sister is, how is she doing, what is she doing. They never ask about me and she never asks about me.

My beautiful girlfriends let friends and acquaintances take photos of them. I am silently excluded from social event registrations. I am erased from history because I am too ugly to be photographed. Strangers congratulate my sister and friends, strangers insult me ​​and make fun of me.

Men may think they can live in the same world as me, but they can't. Even ugly men live in a different world from me. I have never seen or heard of a man experiencing the same level of public condemnation for his appearance as I do. The most recent example that comes to mind is the man who stood up in the street last week to tell me not to put tinsel on my head like my friends (we were going for Christmas drinks) because I was so ugly. This is not unusual for me and this is not new. This has been my life since I was a young teenager.

When I see discussions about whistling, I want to yell at people who tell women to compliment them. What should I do if someone yells at me without provocation for being an ugly guy? I know I'm ugly. There's literally nothing I can do about it. I'm already doing my best!

There is hope for ugly men in popular culture. We celebrate the story of the ugly, or at least unconventionally attractive man, who finally realizes the inevitably beautiful crush on him, how much he's worth on the inside, and how worthy of love from him. This story never happens backwards. There are simply no famous actresses who are not conventionally beautiful.

Nobody writes books about ugly women. No one makes movies, plays, songs, or art of any kind about ugly women. In fact, we are not there at all. In popular culture, and in a culture that stretches back into human memory, there are no ugly women. We don't exist and no one talks about us. Beautiful women are the only women we see or hear about, and most importantly, the only women we remember. The ugly ones just seem invisible no matter what they do. Invisible or evil and bad.

That shouldn't surprise us though, we tell children stories about the beautiful good princess and the bad ugly witch. We make it possible.

I'm ugly. I will not be remembered. I will never be the protagonist of a story told. I hate being ugly. I hate myself. The end.

3.Every morning when I wake up I want to go back to sleep. Not because I'm tired, but because I can't face the world like this. I dress my best and style my hair from physical memory. I avoid the mirror.

Every time I look in the mirror I feel like throwing up. I want to gouge out my eyes and never see them again. I wish I could go to the store and return the parts of my face. Tell them, "That's not what I ordered. I need a refund." Get a replacement and finally love yourself.

It's hard to love yourself when nobody loves you. A guy asks you out for a dare. Just when you think you've finally found someone who likes you, they laugh at you and call you names. "Squidward", "witch without a wart", "forehead higher than my grades", things you wish were a joke. never is

I'm in love now. We talk all the time. Sometimes about life, sometimes about our hobbies, sometimes about nothing really. I would definitely say we're close. By confessing it, I admitted that I had a kind of hope. I thought, "Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe I would at least consider it." ...But of course I was rejected. He wants his beautiful girlfriend, not me. That's always what happens when you're ugly. He couldn't get anyone to go out with me unless he paid them.

Look, as a woman, it doesn't matter what other merits you have. It doesn't matter that I'm a hard worker, people seem to think I'm funny and I have some of the best grades in my entire school. It doesn't matter that I read and research topics to better understand them and that I enjoy talking about them. It doesn't matter that you have many skills. I'm ugly, so I'm worthless. I'm ugly, so no one will want to date me.

If you're ugly, start considering the options. You seek plastic surgery because you know that it is the only way out. But cosmetic surgery is inconvenient, expensive, and may not even work. Damn.

I don't believe in God, but I'm starting to think I should. Maybe a magic man from space can beautify my face. Maybe a fairy in the sky can make someone love me. Then I would be happy. Even if it's just for a while.

A very realistic analysis of our global economy.

Why is the United States a declining superpower?

All empires eventually collapse. This has been proven throughout history.

America's time has come.

The reasons are multiple:

• Internal political corruption, driven mainly by uncontrolled capitalism.
• Massive national debt, currently over $30 trillion.
• Endless printing of money that is not sustainable.
• Extreme economic inequality leading to massive dissatisfaction among the population.
• Overconfidence in global militarism causes a huge financial drain.
• Numerous domestic issues such as gun violence and mass shootings, systemic racism, mass incarceration, homelessness, unaffordable healthcare, etc.
• Loss of credibility around the world, for example, most countries refuse to comply with US sanctions against Russia, OPEC refuses to increase oil production at the request of the US, the Southeast Asia refuses to join the US in a coalition against China, etc.
• BRICS creates an alternative reserve currency to the US dollar. That means there will be no more sanctions.

discovery

Polar bear kills two in Alaskan village

Escape to the crystal clear rivers and lakes of these beautiful wooden tables.

If getting lost on a coffee table sounds unlikely, you may change your mind when you see this beautiful piece of furniture. Artist and designer Greg Klassen transforms reclaimed wood into mesmerizing works of art, embedded in rivers and lakes of glass. Klassen's most recent work includes a variety of coffee tables of various sizes and shapes, as well as wall hangings.

What a find!

Jonas GrinoviciusYGabija Palsyte

Not paying your employees a fair wage can have disastrous consequences for the company's bottom line. Some entrepreneurs only notice this when it's too, too late.

Reddit user u/slw_motion_trainwrck talked about leaving his grueling, low-paying IT job at a large multinational company... and how the company lost $40 million the day after he left the job.in threeveryextensivepublicationsin r/anti-work, the Redditor detailed exactly how that happened, and it's absolutely captivating to read.

Scroll down for the full story and more details on why the same manufacturing company that makes components for the auto industry lost so much money, dear pandas. It is definitely worth your attention. You will see how deep companies go and how far it is to listen to every promise that is not in writing.

Financial expert Sam Dogen, author of"Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom"and founder offinancial samurai, was kind enough to share his thoughts with Bored Panda on how to tell if someone is underpaid.

"The best way to gauge if you're underpaid is to ask your peers and others in your industry what they're earning. You may have a hard time revealing your numbers at first. So you can apply for a series and also offer your salary and ask for their guidance. Getting average salaries for your job based on online websites isn't very helpful as their numbers are averages and they're everywhere," he told us that employees should ask to see if they're getting a salary decent.

According to financial expert Sam, a good employee knows his worth. “The more irreplaceable an employee is, the more valuable he is. So if you know your business is doing well without you for a month or more, you may not be as valuable as you think," he said. "On the other hand, if you feel like your business is affected if you're out for more than a week, then you are considered more valuable. No manager wants to lose a valuable employee because it takes a long time to find and train a new employee."

An overworked and incredibly underpaid IT specialist opted for better working conditions

However, the multinational was anything but friendly and got into a big financial mess. Here is the full story

I just discovered this great series.

Great scripts. Famous actors. narrow direction. Great adjustments. Lush colour. Way ahead today.