Elder Geek

Now, you can take that as a gift, or you can take it as a curse. And that's up to you.

Eliot Spencer and Parker Doing the Things Others Won’t

Leverage (2008-2012)

04x01 The Long Way Down Job

TIME TO REST  

Epidosde 8 is up. New episodes drop every Thursday at 1 AM!

You can click the link here or find us pretty much anywhere you listen to Podcasts.

The internet is bursting at the seams with amazing writing by fans and for fans.  In the last few months I’ve really wanted to just throw my headphones on and listen to some Fic while I do household chores, play games on my phone, or as a bedtime story.  I listen to several other storytelling podcasts where the podcasters read mythology or fairy tales, but I couldn’t find anything like that for FanFic - at least not in the SPN Fandom.  That’s what fic is all about, right?   You see a niche and think “well, why don’t *I* fill in that niche!?”   Not all Fic is created equal, which means that not all Fic that gets submitted will be read on the Podcast.  First and foremost I will not read anything on the Podcast that that makes me squick or cringe.  For the record that includes incest, non-consent, underage/children.  The list may grow, and I’ll try to update as I discover any new squicks.    Oh, and only completed works will be read on the Podcast.  If you’ve got a Fic that’s “almost finished” sitting in your WIP Folder, consider this your inspiration to go finish it! I anticipate reading longer stories as a series of episodes, one or two chapters at a time.  Long stories may be read over the course of multiple episodes as a series. If you have multiple stories you’d like to submit, please do each one separately.  I know it’s a bit of a pain, but, it will really help me keep things organized in the long run.  How do you submit Fics to be read?   

Go to the Angel Radio Submission Form and fill it out.  I’m also accepting Fan Art to be used/paired with individual episodes - all works and authors/creators will be credited and links provided to their social media, A03, etc.   

Dean is looking right at him and he still can't wrap his head around it. He's a kid, he's fucking three, and he's extending his arms towards Cas who collects him in his arms with barely any effort. Like he was always meant to do that, like he was ready for it.

Yes, when Jack was first born he expected him to be... well, a newborn, but upon finding him and everything that followed, the concept was long buried in the back of his mind. He never thought it would happen.

Correction: Jack has always been a kid.

But now Jack is human (his own wish to Amara, who he bestowed his power to), and, therefore, looks his age. Three.

He's cuddling up to his father, Dean's angel-no-more, whom they just rescued from the Empty a few hours ago. With whom he still has so much to talk about. Jack's tiny arms are wrapped around his neck and his head is pressed tightly against it, and Cas is smiling like he could fly all over again.

That's his kid. That is a kid.

And it suddenly all comes rushing back to Dean. How unfairly he treated him. How much pressure he put on him. How little he appreciated all that he did.

But now he got Cas back, again, and he's a little three year old kid, and Dean can feel the tears prickling behind his eyes.

He's such a piece of shit. He was no better than John.

The tears spill over as Cas starts humming a tune and bouncing Jack softly, pressing him tighter against him and caressing his little blond head. Cas turns when Dean fails to suppress a shaky exhale and a sniff, and Cas must recognize the all-consuming guilt in his eyes. He steps toward him with a sad smile, never interrupting the bouncing or the song that Dean now recognizes as Believe It Or Not. It's incredibly endearing and just makes him cry more.

Cas swivels so Dean can see Jack's face now. Up close, it's incredibly clear that it's him, an uncanny resemblance to his dad and big blue eyes that find his.

And then Jack is smiling and reaching for him, begging to exchange arms.

Dean takes him and, instead of settling against him like he did Cas, Jack starts wiping at his cheeks with his tiny, chubby hands, and Dean can't believe he ever thought this being could be anything close to evil, much less treat him like he was.

"Think he'll remember?"

The question has been burning at the tip of his tongue for a week.

"When he's bigger and can form full sentences, ya know? Think he'll... remember everything? From before?"

Dean doesn't take his eyes off the dark stretch of road in front of them, but Cas spares a glance over his shoulder, where Jack is finally falling asleep in his seat.

"I don't know, Dean."

A minute of silence.

"Think he'll forgive me?"

How Portland organizers are mass-producing cheap protest shields

Taken from this twitter thread (link is to a mirror on nitter)

Two weeks ago, these shields were getting built by 3 people in a garage. Today, an assembly line of over 25 volunteers (and two dogs 🐶) gathered at Clinton Park in Southeast Portland to help put them together. Using Twitter to coordinate, volunteers gather 3 times a week (location announced the night before) to build these shields. All materials – including duct tape, power tools and pool noodles – are donated (along with everything on this extremely packed snack and supply table).

So how does a protest shield get made? 🤔

Step 1.) Acquire a 55-gallon barrel. (In the beginning, Ghost (@ghostmobpdx) was buying these barrels – which once carried liquids like soy sauce and canola oil – off of Craiglist. Now all of the barrels are donated.)

Step 2.) Remove the barrel lid. Using a circular saw, a volunteer slices the barrel into four sections. You now have five soon-to-be shields! 🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡

Step 3.) Using a hand drill, a different volunteer makes 6 holes in the center of the plastic. (Shield building sessions are BYOPT: Bring Your Own Power Tools.🛠️🧰)

These holes will be used to attach bolts, padding and straps so the shield can be carried like this:

(A plan is in the works to upgrade to drilling 8 holes so the shields can have backpack-style straps. This will help protesters avoid dropping their shields when they have to move fast.)

Step 4.) A volunteer adds the aforementioned bolts. 🔩BOLT FACT🔩 Since starting, Viv (@viv______) estimates they’ve used over 1,200 bolts. That’s a lot of bolts. 😮 (Can you spot the faded NLG number on this volunteer’s arm?)

Step 5: Another volunteer adds foam and straps. The straps are made from strips of sturdy ratchet tie material. Foam also gets added over the bolts on the front of the shield to protect people from hard edges.

Step 6: It is ~noodle time.~ A different group of volunteers slices pool noodles lengthwise and fits them along the rough edges of the shield material. This is to protect the protester and anyone they might bump into.

NOODLE FACT: The volunteers who do this part of the process are called the “noodlers.” (!!!) Here is a noodler in action:

Step 7: Another group of volunteers adds a layer of duct tape around the entire shield (except for the foam/strap section). Each shield needs about 2 rolls of duct tape, and Viv estimates they’ve used 400-500 rolls so far.

After volunteers have attached the pool noodles, bolts, foam, straps and duct tape to the plastic barrel material, you arrive at the final step of shield building…

Step 8: Spray paint and stencil the shield. Ghost spray paints the surface of each shield black. From there, individuals can add their own unique designs. One volunteer brought these handmade stencils that included images of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

As a final touch, this message is spray painted onto the interior of every shield: “THIS SIGN WAS PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE AND IS NOT INDICATION OF ANY GROUP AFFILIATION” (sometimes accompanied by a protective sigil from local witches or a stencil of Portland’s elk statue).

In total, each shield takes about 3 hours to make and requires passing through multiple groups of volunteers before it’s finished. All materials and time to produce them is donated, and the shields are offered free of charge to BIPOC protesters and $10 for everyone else. Ghost, Viv and the volunteers have made about 250 shields so far, and build between 30 and 55 shields per session.

How does it feel to see the shields in action? Ghost: “My heart is so warmed, just every time. I’m so proud. There was one time – God, it was beautiful -  where a tear gas canister full on exploded off the damn thing and the person is still running away. And the shield was fine.“

Bitch. Fuck you.

If someone gave me a house/condo and I could move in with my granny, yeah. This shit would go so much faster.

Like... Look. I have paid off 5 of 9 credit cards in the last 5 months. During a Pandemic. I'm KILLIN it. But its gonna take me another 10 months at this pace just to get thru Credit Cards.

And then there's the medical debt and student loans and car loan. Fuck. When I think about how much it is... It makes me die a little. I WISH I had the kind of generational wealth that allowed me to be so smug.

Paying off debt is hard as shit and as rough as it's been for me... I can ONLY do it because I have a husband with a stable income that covers our monthly expenses.

Every one can not do it.