As-Salaamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for this opportunity for us to gather on this last day of the Eid, the days of the Ayyama Tashriq, the days of celebration after the Eid, the three days. And in my thought, and perhaps you've heard me say this before, is that when you think about the Takbir, that the idea, well let's bring it back a little bit, this idea of the vikr, of Subh'ala Allah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar, is as if there are stages of understanding. The first stage is the stage of fascination. We look at the creation of Allah Subh'ala and we say Subh'ala Allah. And then we are taught that there is the level of fascination moving to appreciation, appreciation, Alhamdulillah, that we show appreciation for the one who has given us food and drink and made us from the Muslims. Alhamdulillah, that we show appreciation to the one who has given us life after giving us death because in our tradition we understand that sleep is the sister of death and then we move to celebration, which is the Takbir. And we have just passed through the days that we said of the of the Eid and of the Ayyama Tashriq and now the celebration is for what? The celebration, let me put it to you like this. I took my Shahada a few days before the Eid when I became Muslim and in between the Eid and when I took my Shahada was Juma'ah. So I remember going to the Masjid, my first Eid, sorry my first Juma'ah ever, and the Imam said there is a day in the year if you fast it Allah will forgive all of your sins from the year past and the year forward. Now mind you I'm a Muslim for 48 hours. Do you know what that is like for a person who has lived as a non-Muslim for 26 years of their life to step into a into step into this Masjid and have the Khatib say if you fast one day I've never fasted in my life but I know all of the things that I had done in my life that I needed to correct with God before I died and now here I am 48 hours in a situation where it is said to me that if you fast this one day Allah will forgive you your sins what have passed and the year has come. Do you understand now what the Takbir is for celebration? It's not fascination subhanallah it's not appreciation alhamdulillah but rather it is celebration Allah. So as we pass through these days of celebration what are we celebrating we're celebrating forgiveness that forgiveness alhamdulillah so if that is the one day of Arafah then think about what 10 days is for those that fasted 10 days of the al-Hijjah or nine days including the the the ninth of the al-Hijjah which was the I'm sorry which was the Yom al-Arafah. So this is the idea what I'm talking about of bringing us to this idea of celebration and the celebration being for forgiveness and that forgiveness creating hope and then that forgiveness creating hope. Now in Sahih Muslim Ibn Masrood narrates that the Prophet Islam tells a story of the last man to exit the hellfire and the Prophet Islam gives this description he said the man crawls away from the hellfire and his face is slipping and he's falling and it's hitting the dirt he's tremoring trembling as he walks and I said the fire lashes out as him at him as he escapes and he looks back and horrified he says with the loudest voice alhamdulillah all praise all appreciation is for the one who has saved me from you talking to the hellfire and then he says that I have been rewarded with something thinking he says I've been rewarded with something that no one from the beginning of time to the end of the creation has been blessed with and at that moment as he says this a tree catches his eye now this is the Prophet Islam relating this story to the Sahaba and Ibn Masrood now is relating it to a group of people radi allahu alaikum and he says when he sees that tree he says oh Allah allow me to draw near to that tree so I may enter the shade and drink from its water now think of where he just came from the last person to exit the hellfire what is the context of that the context of that the Prophet Islam said that anyone with an Adam's weight of iman will enter the paradise so that's not perhaps talking about people that are fasting that's not talking about people that are coming to ju'a that is not talking about people that are part of this community that are engaged having their children learning Quran having their children having a type of tarbiyah a type of Islamic rearing and growing up and refinement for them that's not what this is talking about it's talking about the person with the lowest iman and the umma of the Prophet s.a.w from the time until from the time that Allah has decreed that until yawm al qiyam that's the context so the person comes out of the fire sees this tree oh Allah grant me shade underneath this tree grant me drink from this tree and then Allah says son of Adam I fear that if I give this to you that you will ask me for more and then the man responds no Allah I shall not ask you for more and then the man is sitting in the shade of this tree enjoying the water right he sees another tree pop up in front of him better than the one that he is in what do you think he asks for oh Allah grant me that tree and Allah says didn't you just promise me that you would not ask for more but if I give you this perhaps it is that you will ask me for more what does the man say no Allah I will not if I permitted that tree I will not ask you for more and then a third tree is raised more glorious than one superior to two and number three is next to the doors of jannah and he says yeah just just that one just that one I'll only ask for this tree and nothing else and then Allah says did you not promise that you would ask for nothing else after that tree yeah Allah nothing else so he's permitted to draw nearer to that tree and as he is in the shade of that tree enjoying the water of that tree he hears the people pleading Allah to let them into jannah now for those who have made Hajj or Umrah you have visited the Kaaba there was a place which is called Muntazm it is between the black stone and the doors of the Kaaba this image is seared in my mind my first year as I mentioned when I became Muslim I also made Hajj in that year so my trip to Mecca as I'm making my way around the Kaaba and I get to the black stone I then see everyone fighting and pushing and wrestling to kiss the black stone and also they are pushing and fighting and shoving to get into the space of Muntazm which is a very short distance everyone is fighting for this and the image that was in my mind until this day is burned in my mind is imagine that those are the doors of jannah and they're closed and there's no more entry and in my mind I understood that and I made dua at that place at Muntazm yeah Allah never closed the doors of jannah to me never closed the doors of jannah to me so this man is hearing the people call out oh Allah enter me into jannah and then Allah says oh son of Adam what will satisfy you and finish your pleading talking to this man and then Allah says will it not please you that I give you all of the treasures and the bounties of this entire world and then I double it and then the man he raises his head out of humility and he says ya Allah of all the wrongs that I have done you release me from the hellfire you put me in the shade of these trees you can do whatever you want and now you're going to increase me even more like this are you mocking me and then everyone starts laughing at this point and those around him ask why are you laughing and he says I'll tell you why I'm laughing because the prophesied slum laughed when he narrated this point and he said what made the prophesied slum laugh is when he said that the man says asks Allah this question that you are the Lord of the worlds are you mocking me and it made the prophesied slum laugh because Allah's response was that I am the Lord of the universe and I can do whatever I want so if you live in a life that is displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but in your heart in your heart is a trace of iman that Allah will even expiate those sins and enter one into jannah and now when we think about this and we think about this idea that we look at almost every page in the Quran is talking about jannah and as I said that the hope that the hope that is brought up or is brought up within side of us in these days is a hope of forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which is the promise of Allah but then that hope of forgiveness is the hope that every single one of us will meet just like this in paradise and there's another story that I'll mention quickly and end this khutba of how the reality is a reality that is more real than what we experience now when the prophesied slum explained at the battle of Badr that those who had wronged him and wronged the meccans and he said specifically about those who had put the entrails and put the insides of the camel on his back when he was in sujood and he could not get up and he talked about those people who laughed and mocked him at that situation he said the battle of Badr that he understood that such and such will die here and such and such will die here and this place in this place in the sahaba testified that after the battle of Badr they said at the exact spot where the prophesied slum had pointed that he saw that those bodies of those people laid there from the meccans and as they were pushed into a well and their bodies were were were done away with the prophesied slum speaks to them and says have you not found the promise of your Lord to be true Omar radi allahu anhu was standing next to the prophesied slum he says Ya Rasulullah you speak to them and they are dead and the prophesied slum turns to Omar and says Ya Omar they hear me better than you hear me right now they hear me better than you hear me right now the journey that all of us will take is real may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be people of jannah may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be the people that Allah describes in the Qur'an may Allah make us of those people that say that and no soul knows what has been hidden for them for the comfort of the eyes being the satisfaction of in jannah as a reward for them for what they used to do Ali said so again may this this gathering be a reminder may this be a reminder of the fact that the hope that is promised to us of the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala such as we saw demonstrated in this hadith of the person the last person of the umma the prophesied slum as we said this hadith is from the sahri of imam muslim the prophesied slum gives a description of what it is like for that person with the lowest level of iman that they will forget they will experience this type of forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this is a verse also for me and sir to enter those who were not with us that Allah says we're at 39th chapter he says and for those who fear their Lord may Allah make us the people of tapua say amen may Allah raise us up with the people of tapua we live in this world the people of as people of tapua and it says that those who fear their Lord will be led to the garden crowds may Allah make us from that crowd i mean until they arrive there its gates will be open and it's keepers right it's keepers they will say you have done well so enter jannah forever may Allah make us of those people that will celebrate may Allah make us of those people that will gaze upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as the scholars have said be like cave without how but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will avail himself to us may Allah make us of those people amen Allah opens for us may Allah make us of those people that will gaze upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may Allah make us of those people that will gaze upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala


Live from San Francisco, it's theCUBE. Covering Red Hat Summit 2016. Brought to you by Red Hat. Now here are your hosts, Stu Miniman and Brian Graceley. Welcome back to theCUBE's SiliconANGLE Media's flagship program here at Red Hat Summit 2016. Always loved when we get some of the customer stories here at Red Hat Summit this year. They've been talking about the open source stories so we're really happy to have Amadeus on the program here. Joining us, we have two of the gentlemen from Amadeus. It is Olaf Schnapauf, sorry, who is the CTO of Global Operations and we have Dietmar Fouser, who is VP of Architecture, Quality and Governance in R&D. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. All right, so first of all, for those that aren't familiar, Amadeus is in the travel industry. Maybe you can give our audience a little bit of background on the company. Sure, Amadeus really is at the heart of travel. So whenever you book a flight, board a plane, look for your luggage, it's very likely that you'll be using Amadeus. It's really at the heart of the travel industry in providing the IT services to airlines, airports, hotels and many more. Yeah, actually it's funny, when you talk to most people and you say, what is IT? It's the stuff that makes stuff work behind the scenes and you guys are the stuff that makes that stuff work behind the scenes.  Can you tell us a little bit about that project that led us to today? Yeah, sure, so the business pushed us to be more agnostic when it comes to the environments where we run our applications like what we call this multi-use capabilities for various reasons that I want to develop here. But it became evident that we had to run some of our very large clusters for the search and availability, stuff we are serving within the Google premises and surely on AWS and that's where, so we were looking for platforms that would be enabling this. So this was kind of two years ago, we did some evaluation and finally, containers came into the picture or OpenShift V3 as the container scheduling engine was there. We had good links with RedHut and into Google, so we thought, okay, that was a very early adoption, but it was, well, we were convinced that this was the way to go. Can you speak a little to the scale of the solution that you deployed, kind of the requirements and scale of it? So it's perhaps good to see the scale of our existing solution because this is basically the baseline of what we want to move over to the cloud platform. So, my guess is it's a very large system running out of a central data center for the time being by large. I mean, single application can grow beyond 65, 70,000 CPUs nodes, so really huge stuff. Overall, a couple of thousand physical machines, 500,000, what we call deployment units, 300 plus thousand transactions a second flowing into the system, so it's pretty good. Yeah, so you talked about running it, operationalizing it in your own data center, you talked about using Google as a public cloud, so talk a little bit, what does that from an operations perspective mean to run a hybrid cloud? A lot of you will talk about it, you're making it happen in reality, what are the challenges, what have you learned over the last couple of years? The core idea is that we separate the upper layer of the stack, which includes the application with OpenShift from Red Hat and all the container pieces from the infrastructure underneath, and that's a big change. It allows us to very flexibly deploy the workload to where we want it to be. Sometimes that's in a specific jurisdiction, sometimes that's just close to where it's consumed because a lot of our customers also use cloud platforms like Google and Amazon, and it's nice if these workloads are produced where they're being consumed, and that's the separation of the application part of the environment from the infrastructure's key, so it's real flexible and where we can produce it, sometimes on our own private cloud when data sensitivity or privacy requires that, or out there in the public cloud as well, and that makes it really flexible. Yeah, so this wasn't just driven by your own internal needs, it was driven by the marketplace, locality, geography, all those types of things as well. Yes, really, it's a mix of requirements that make it a very powerful solution, and it allows us flexibility that running on a mainframe couldn't give us. Interesting. Can you speak at all to kind of the customer impact, what did your customers, you know, see as the outcome once you've deployed the solution? Sure. So you were asking the question, so one of the concrete drivers is, for example, response time of the system, SLAs. So we work with a very large US-based hotel chain, they expect 140 milliseconds of response time for 96 percentile of the queries coming into the system. So when you look at this, quickly you realize that you don't want to travel across the Atlantic back and forth for every transaction because you lose 120 milliseconds, roughly, on the wire. So it's about a much superior user experience at the end because the systems are lightning fast if you move the computation to whether transactions are really issued. And the same holds true with Google when we push stuff into the Google environments because this is where the transactions are produced. So it's about high availability and user experience in the sense that we have a much better, faster experience. You talked about containers. We've heard about container announcements from Red Hat all week. You're running them in production. What does that mean? What's been the learning curve? How did you decide containers were the right way to move from applications to operations? Give us a sense of what's going on in the container world for you. Sure, so containers is really a change in paradigm in what is the atomic unit that we're trying to manage. And it'll be a couple of years journey from all of the legacy systems into having everything componentized into containers. It also allows us to more flexibly carve up the application services to span over multiple locations, to be managed in a much more homogeneous way than we were able to do in the past. And really to have that ability to control on a very fine granular basis components of the service without having to micromanage the infrastructure. And it's really a decoupling of the infrastructure from the service. Were you able to move both existing applications to the OpenShift platform as well as new or just new applications? No, it's a move of all of our application state, which is not finished, but it's an ongoing journey. And the goal clearly is to move all of our applications to the new platform. The question is more whether we have to touch them when we move them on the platform or not, because it's one thing throwing an application under OpenShift, so container and scheduler. And another thing is to be truly cloud-native and multidatacenter active-active. So we talk internally about re-platforming or not the applications. So it's a mix, actually. So you're pretty early on some of the containers, the Docker and Kubernetes pieces. Can you take us into those conversations you had to have with upper management or risk assessment, things like that? It's really not a question of risk or reward. It's really to make sure that we have the flexible means to serve our customers better, because it's really customer demands that require us to be agile, that require us to be flexible in where things are being produced. And not least, it's also that as funny as that might sound, light is just too slow. If light is traveling across the globe to central production locations, like I said, with the SLAs that we are under for some of our services, the trip across the Atlantic and back is prohibitive. And thus, we need to adjust to the requirements of our clients. We're seeing all sorts of changes in the transportation industry, in the travel industry, and so forth. What are some of the big things just at a technology level, whether it's around mobility, whether it's around, like you said, SLAs? What else is driving things from your customers that are driving you to make changes? Customer centricity. I mean, currently in the industry, you have many individual solutions. One is dealing in the airport, another one is dealing the reservation, and you have mobile applications. But they are not very well connected around the experience of a customer. So a system like us, we have most of the information about the journey of a traveler, because usually we know when you fly that you also check in or you have a ground transportation of any kind. So the goal currently is to make the whole experience much more user centric and to offer services that we cannot do as long as the systems stay disconnected. Makes sense. Have you been to the Red Hat Summit before? Yes. OK, can you give us kind of your take on the growth of the show, what you've been doing here, interactions you're having with your peers and the like? The growth is amazing. Last year it was in Boston, and we felt that it was a bit too small the location. So I think it was a good move to come here to Moscone, whether the big shows are happening. Well, we are watching Red Hat for quite some while. It shows that the model is flying, actually, that there is room for this type of business models, that there is a large adoption across the industries. And I hope that they're going to keep on growing, because it would kind of show that our bets were right. Yeah, we're really proud of having a partner that has so much success, that the open source movement and the community working on all of these solutions are so successful. And for us, it's a great opportunity. Yeah, how much, this show is all about community. It's all about open source. How much are you not only leveraging the Red Hat technology, but also beginning to contribute to these communities or just actively be involved with them? How is that changing your company? We are very actively involved in a lot of the projects around it. So it's not just consuming services, as Paul mentioned on stage today. It's also largely contributing the learnings and the fixes and the extensions that we need. We go pretty far, actually. I mean, we very actively contribute to OpenShift. We have engineers dedicated to this. We had Red Hat engineers for a very extended period in Europe being with our teams. It was really important to us to understand deeply the platform, because we adapt OpenShift to our existing communication systems. And that's the twist for us, because we didn't want to rewrite the lower layers of our stack underneath the application. But plug our own service management solutions into the OpenShift service registry and orchestration modules. And this is where we did a lot of cover. We also bring batch support, persistency, and onto the platform. So it's really important that big players play the game. Once you say you go open source, you have to go open source. We also encourage other companies to try to join us in this. So a company of your size and scale is at the early edge of a lot of this technology adoption. As you look out at the various things that you're using, where do you have asked for not just the vendors, the ecosystem in general, what things would you like to see from the ecosystem to make your jobs and your services to your customers better? So we really have a lot of work going on right now in making sure we have a global persistency layer, because we're really moving to multi-location, multi-cloud. And there's a lot of work still to be done to define the data models that scale globally, to make sure that we have data distributed properly and integrate all of that with the upper layers of the stack and specifically with OpenShift. So I think there's a lot of good innovation still to be made on creating also the data models that span globally. Yeah, the data plan of the system is surely where a lot of focus coming in. Monitoring would be another one. Actually, there are quite a lot where I believe we can join our forces and come up with stuff that where we don't see any competitive advantage for what we are doing. I mean, we are not positioning ourselves as a platform vendor in IT, you know? I want to give you both the last word. As you're talking to your peers, what kind of advice do you have them for kind of the technology space in what they're adopting? Perhaps I start with this one. My usual advice is be very, do conscious choices. And once you have done them, go down the path. Stay focused on this, invest in the technology, don't take especially new stuff like OpenShift or OpenStack. Don't make the error to believe that it's completely industrial-ready off the shelf and you just take it, hit an install button and off it goes. You have to be ready to invest in the people, to train people, to have good people. And then you will see that the people love it, contributing to Open Source is a super recruitment tool. It brings you additional top-notch engineers and in-house because they really love it. I mean, working on a Google code base is something with which you can attract very, very good people. And it's also to really have a vision, to inspire people, to move to an end goal, to think forward and to be brave. It seems like a big mountain ahead of you, but if you don't start the journey, you'll never get there. Many people are stuck on legacy systems and feel they could never go away and I think we're a good example that you can indeed go away and get to more flexible and more interesting platforms. Deep Marnoloff, I really appreciate you sharing the story of Amadeus. We'll be back with a wrap-up here from day two at Red Hat Summit 2016. You're watching theCUBE.


The videos on Come Again TV are not made for kids. Anyone under the age of 13, get your parents permission before watching. Some videos may contain graphic or lewd content. Viewer discretion is advised. Hey guys, welcome back to Come Again TV, the only place on YouTube where all geek culture collides. I'm Shannon and today on the show, you want to introduce the next topic? Let's see how we go with Wolverine. I think we have. Can Wolverine be circumcised? What do you guys think? Can Wolverine be circumcised? What are your thoughts? Oh yeah, you can do it over and over and over and they'll just keep rejuvenating. Like here, give me five minutes. It's back. I mean, you can do this for months. I think even Lobo would get bored. If a woman were to do that to him, say he was in a relationship with this woman, that'd be like riding someone new every time. Right? She can go circumcised, uncircumcised, circumcised, uncircumcised. No. I just think that would have to be tender for a while. So it would like amp up the, you know. Now, if Wolverine, say this, whoever circumcises him got a little bit too happy with the knife. It would grow back too. Would it be longer? No, he would go just to his regular. He never, you don't get extra fingers when you cut off fingers. Right, but he's got bones.  No, but Wolverine would, but you want to grow two new fingers. It wouldn't be longer. Right. Well, if Wolverine... Okay, it depends, I guess, how much he'd excited him then. Could you imagine that comic? There is no way the comics code authority would approve that. I, and that might have to be a crossover with DC. How about Quinn? Wolverine? Let's see, let's see here. We're in a girlfriend poison ivy. Oh, Wolverine would have fun with that. Right. I think Wolverine would, uh... So the right poisons and how like when? Okay, yeah, possibly. Back to Wolverine getting circumcised. That was still the topic. Would he actually allow it to happen? If Jean Grey was involved, yeah. Okay. Oh, he would totally go for that. Anything she said and wanted. Now, let's say he got circumcised before he got it, before his mutation kicked in. Would it be a normal circumcision or would it grow back? Interesting, because you would think that's usually done at birth, but he was born a very long time ago. Right. So were they even doing circumcisions back there? No, they didn't start doing circumcisions, should circumcisions until the early 1900s, I believe, for anyone who's not Jewish. So he wouldn't have been circumcised. In fact, let's take a look at the history of circumcision. The mutation is usually a kick in at puberty. So we would say 12, 13 years old, most likely. Circumcision. So I didn't even have to type in the full word. As soon as I put history of C-I-R, the second option was history of circumcision. Which means people on Google are really bored. So according to Wikipedia, it started in the Middle East in 2400 BCE, modern times. Uh, circumcision did not become a common medical procedure in the Anglophone world until the late 19th century. Well, where they decided Wolverine came from? He came from Canada. Was that original, though? Yes. All right, so no Middle Eastern or Egyptian blood, because Egyptians, I'm sure, were doing all sorts of fun things to everybody. Yeah. So yeah, I would go that he hadn't been circumcised. But in 1855, motivated in part by an interest in promoting circumcision to reduce masturbation, that leads me to another topic entirely. If it started in modern times around 1855, then I would say, yeah, he more than likely would have been circumcised. I bet he's older than that. Uh, according to, well, let's bring up Wolverine's. Yeah, y'all changed his name since I was a... James Hallett. That was, he took that, Wolverine took the name Logan after a bully when he lost his memories. Yeah. Wolverine was born as James Hallett in North Alberta, Canada, uh, during the late 1880s. So... So he was right on the cusp. Yeah. It really depends on whether or not his parents were into that. Well, his parents were very wealthy. So more than likely, I would say probably. Probably circumcised. Probably. Because in any procedure right at the beginning, only the wealthy are gonna do it. Right. So he was more than like... I don't think I would have practiced on the pork or a few years to see how it goes. You know, then you need an extra, you know, 20 years, 15, 20 years to find out for sure.  That's true. So there's a good chance they weren't doing it. And since he was his parents' only son, they wouldn't want to take a chance, not with it being that early in, you know, circumcision coming back, you know, as a thing. Okay. So let's say, for argument's sake, let's say they would have got him circumcised. Would it have healed? Would his mutant healing factor have kicked in at that point in time? Or would it still have waited to kick in once he reached puberty? Well, stress can do an early offset. That's what happened, I think, with Kitty Pryde. I think she was pre-puberty when her powers kicked in. Okay. So Kitty kicked him in real early.  Who were?  But what if it didn't? Well, then he's already pre-circumcised and... So then, if he were actually circumcised up all the way till puberty when he got his mutant, when his mutant ability is kicked in, if someone were to get close enough and he were to let them cut him around there or, say, chop it off, would it grow back... Would it too have taken a low dive? Yeah. Would it grow back uncircumcised or circumcised? All right, so, yeah, technically, if he was circumcised, it would have to be cut off at the tip there at least. Pryde come back natural. Come back natural? Most likely. Because, let's say, he'd lost the pinky... I'm back to the fingers. I don't know what the hell's up with that. But anyways, if he lost his finger... He's got the adamantium skeleton. He's got the adamantium skeleton, though. Well, let's say this was Pryde. Pryde adamantium skeleton. Well, if he lost the finger when he was kid, even before the adamantium skeleton, because that came later, and then he got cut from here, then he got cut here later on after his healing factor totally kicked in with the whole finger grow back. I'm gonna say no. I would think it would. In Age of Apocalypse, he stuck his claws right into Cyclops' eye, and Cyclops blew his hand off, and so he had that metal plate over... He had no hand. His hand didn't grow back, but he still had his claws. Okay, then that should answer your circumcision thing, too. We went and come back. If the hand didn't come back, and the metal plate's gone. I mean, you don't have to have adamantium there, so... So you're saying if someone got a little bit too happy with their circumcision, Wolverine would have a sex change? No, it would grow back and let... Well, there's a good chance. Okay, Chick Wolverine, discussion time. We've already got X-23, though. Oh, yeah. Well, now she's got a new mommy. So, let's see, Chick Wolverine. Who do you think she would go for? Definitely not Cyclops. He has mental issues, but not that bad. Nightcrawler. Okay, I told you Nightcrawler. Think of all the things Nightcrawler could do if he wasn't a priest. Oh, yeah. I'm sure I'm a handyman. He could use that tail for some pleasure. I'm just thinking the sulfur. The smell alone would drive me nuts. Wolverine, he's been years out in the wilderness without taking baths, so he got pretty ripe. True, but you don't smell yourself as much as you would smell others. He would have to clean up just to keep his senses, which I'm pretty sure he would have, considering if he was stuck in the wilderness, he was definitely doing some hunting. True. So, yeah, I think Nightcrawler would totally burn his nose. Okay, what about... Okay, Angel. He would go for Angel. No. X-23 is already with Angel. Yeah, okay, though. There's some weird family issues going on. No, I don't think he'd want the little pretty boy thing, and he did like that real pretty girl. And considering Angel is what brought him back from being Apocalypse's death... Oh, you think he has some, like, you-save-me issues? Maybe. No, no. Maybe he was still Archangel. Yeah. With the energy, the light wings? Or the metal wings? Metal. No, it'd be the light wings. It'd be the light wings. It would be the light wings. Stabby, stabby. It would be the light wings. Because then, with the light wings, Angel can heal anybody. So... Wolverine already heals. But he doesn't regenerate stuff. That's true. So, maybe Tit for Tat give Archangel a little action in exchange to heal his manhood? Oh, you see, no. No, because then he's already done it. He's already all in. If he's going to be all in, why not just go save her tooth? Let's go some real issues there. Well, see, here's the thing, though. Dakin. Do you know about Dakin? No. Dakin is Wolverine's son. He has a son now? Who's bisexual. Okay. Who's he going for? Tell me save her tooth. No. Please. No. He will...  Where do I find him? Because I know some ex-boyfriends. No, that would leave me. Wolverine would probably go for Mystique. If he had a sex change, he would go for Mystique because Mystique could shape-shift into a man and Wolverine wouldn't feel awkward about it.  Good point. May sorry turned off but Mystique because she liked to turn into Jean Grey.  Even after the fact. Very true. What do you guys think?  I think he'd still go for Mystique. No. Yeah.   So he would find a guy, maybe Colossus. Ooh, that fastball special. That would totally give the fastball special. And he's always had a thing with those Russians. I mean Omega Red, I mean. That would take the fastball special to a whole new level. I, oh wow. Now who gets to smoke the cigar afterwards? Wolverine because I don't think Colossus smokes. Now let's see, Colossus might be too good for him. Too good he two-shoes for him. Now speaking of Colossus, him and Kitty pride are a thing. Right. So how does that work during sex? Kitty pride can become intangible. And if it gets too rough, she can back off a little. During those times of intensity, you know, she may not have full control over herself. So say he's thrust in a little too hard, she goes intangible. He literally fucks right through her. It is also made of steel or whatever Colossus is made of, I can't remember. He's not really going to hurt the better at wall or whatever it's against. Now she did that to Pete Wisdom when she was with him. He probably breaks something, but I think Colossus would be safe. And he's not going to get too rough for Kitty pride because she's kind of badass. But she, she could take it though, in real ways than one. Right. So as long as he's full of metal, she could go intangible.  I'm going to explain to the parents there. Sorry, daddy. Yeah, I know there's like eight holes, but thanks. Yeah, as long as he's human, I don't see her really going intangible. A little bit too good at two shoes, so. I don't see her going, you know. How do you think she likes it in bed?  Uh, let's see. After the magic series, the way that cat acted, I bet she's like that in bed. Because, you know, a whole different woman there. Yeah, so I'm going to go. She's total badass in the bedroom. So yeah. She, she could make part for body intangible, have them thrusting, come up through her mouth, and then just make her mouth tangible. Just give head a whole new way. Yeah, he's, he's metal though. I mean, she would have to stay intangible because even Kitty probably can't take that. No. You would need someone with the healing factor, like mistake. You know, my parents can never watch this now, right? Your parents, what about your kid? No, she's got a horrible sense of humor. Okay, so. She got that from me, so. Phoenix.  If she lost control and actually became Phoenix during. Uh, Wolverine would be able to regenerate whereas Cyclops would be chose. So let's bring it on. Marvel, pay attention. Well, Cyclops, I think Cyclops is with Emma Frost now.  Has he had a thing for Psylocke there for a while too? Yeah. He's got a thing for those girls who can read his mind. Which even went after Jean's clone, Madeleine. Oh, married her. They even made her a little dark Phoenix thing for a while. We, we completely got off track of the Wolverine thing. So back on Wolverine, if somebody were to do that, who would be crazy enough to try to circumcise Wolverine? Just in the Marvel Universe? Just in the Marvel Universe. Okay, well, we got Mystique first. Sabertooth. Those are the easy ones there. Deadpool. I was thinking Deadpool. Deadpool would do it for days on it.  He'll be a chill, so. Days, months. I can see I'm not getting on board for quite a while with that game. No, Deadpool wouldn't get bored at all. No. Yeah, but we're talking years. The centuries even. Yeah, and he'll be around for it. Well, now in 2099, Deadpool did age quite drastically. He's an old, old man. Now, supposedly he's immortal because Thanos. He's, he's immortal, but he can still age. He's, oh yeah, he is. Let's bring this up. I got to show you what a Deadpool 2099 looks like. And where are happened to Deadpool and Siren? I don't know. All right. All right, so it looks like his daughter took over as Deadpool. Then you see if I can find an actual image of Deadpool himself. Yeah, there he is. Oh, it's not too bad. He just looked a little sad. Now, in the actual comic, I think he's got like a long beard. Long gray beard. Oh yeah. Yeah. So you can finally grow facial hair. I guess. Is the cancer wearing off if I get bored after that long? He looks very frail, kind of like. Yeah, here he is. 2099, they probably don't have chimichangas. Very frail. He's got a belly on him.  Look at that face. So what do you eventually turn to dust if you got old enough? I don't think he'd make it that far to the dust phase, because he still had all the skin pretty much in the condition it's always been in. Well, I started hanging out with you right before the first X-Men movie came out. Right. That was when I still just had like the Ninja Turtles supply of weaponry. It has expanded greatly. Really? Some of them even got names. You named your weapons? There's a couple. I have this pretty axe. It's Cuddles. You named your axe Cuddles. You would have to. It's adorable. It's um, you got the dragon head going down into the tail, which goes up and spikes out. And the x-blades are wings. That's pretty cool. I saw it, I hugged it, I named it Cuddles. So then I got this knife about- Do you sleep with your axe? It's close. It doesn't get to share the bed. No, and neither does Snuggles. What's Snuggles? Dragon handled with the blaze, like about that long student flames type thing. Very, very sharp. If somebody comes in, they're going to get to meet Snuggles. For those of you who are just joining us- I like weapons a lot. Almost 20 years ago, I met this chick. Her mom introduced us. And at their Fourth of July cookout, she asked me, hey, you want a spar? I got weapons. She takes this katana and tells me, if I go to cut you, I'll turn the blade so that I actually just get you with the backside rather than the sharp side. I'm there with a bow staff like Donatello versus Leonardo. But I think I handled myself pretty well in that situation. You were still here and we're not seeing any scars, so I kept my ward. And we did switch. I took the staff for a while. You didn't get me once. Yeah, I did. No, you didn't. There's a couple good shots in there. Actually, they were worried. They were like, do we need to make them stop? Yeah. It is still spoken of. Whole yard full of people. Everyone just around the yard, getting ready to watch fireworks. And here we are. She's got a katana in her hand. I've got a bow staff. They're thinking we're going to kill each other. That was one of the best sparry budges ever. It's like someone who's actually willing to go there. So thank you. And everyone else just goes, OK, no. I'm like, come on. I was like, I'll let you have the sword. And you know, we haven't seen each other in 20 years. That's been a while. And we pick up right where we left off. She's already wanting me to do another sparring match. I do. Yeah, you guys have got to talk them into this for me. Maybe once I lose about 100 pounds and get back down to weight, maybe. Sparring would be great exercise. Think how many calories you could burn.  I'm nowhere near as agile as I used to be. I've got to get back down to 200 before I spar with anybody, which is why I'm going to the gym. Oh, say get on it. If you enjoyed that video, make sure you hit the subscribe button right there so you stay up to date on all things geek culture. Also, go ahead and check out one of these two playlists on the side for more videos just like the one you just watched. I'm Shannon from Comic NTV, the only place on YouTube where all geek culture collides. Take care geeks.


Hello and welcome to the session the question says, a body of mass 10 kg hangs by a string from a fixed point. The string is drawn out of the vertical by applying a force of 49 newtons to the body in which direction should this force be applied in order that in equilibrium the deflection of the string from the vertical may be of 30 degrees. Also find the tension in the string. Let's start with the solution. So here we are given that a body of mass 10 kg. So we are given that mass of the body is 10 kgs which is equal to 10 into 9.8 newtons or this is for the equal to 98 newtons. So in this figure let O A beta string such that the end A is of weight 98 newtons or 10 kg. Suppose the force of 49 newtons is applied to the weight in the direction making an angle alpha to the vertical. So in equilibrium position the deflection of the string as we are given is of 30 degrees. Then the weight free is an equilibrium under the three forces. That is the weight of 98 newtons acting vertically downwards, tension in the string O P and a force of 49 newtons. So let's see this once again. We have let O A beta string such that the end A has a weight of 98 newtons. Suppose the force of 49 newtons is applied to the weight in the direction making an angle alpha to the vertical in the equilibrium position the deflection of the string is 30 degrees. Then the weight at P is an equilibrium under the three forces. First is weight of 98 newtons acting vertically downwards, tension T in the string O P and a force of 49 newtons. Therefore by Lamb's theorem we have 98 divided by the angle opposite to it which is sin of alpha plus 30 degrees is equal to 49 divided by this angle which is sin of 180 degrees minus 30 degrees is equal to tension T and its opposite angle which is sin of 180 degrees minus alpha or this can further be written as 98 divided by sin alpha plus 30 degrees is equal to 49 divided by sin pi minus theta sin theta. So here we have sin 30 degrees is equal to T divided by sin alpha sense again sin pi minus alpha and sin alpha. Now on comparing the first to we get sin 30 degrees is equal to 49 divided by 98 into sin of alpha plus 30 degrees. Now sin 30 degrees half is equal to on simplifying this here also we have half into sin of alpha plus 30 degrees this implies that sin alpha plus 30 degrees is equal to 1 and we know that sin 90 degrees is equal to 1 therefore we have alpha plus 30 degrees is equal to 90 degrees which imply that alpha is equal to 60 degrees. So this angle is of measure 60 degrees. Now again by this we have 98 divided by sin alpha plus 30 degrees that is 90 degrees is equal to T divided by sin alpha that is sin 60 degrees or we have T is equal to 98 into sin 60 divided by sin 90 degrees is equal to 98 into root 3 divided by 2 or we have T is equal to on simplifying 49 root 3 Newton's hence the answer is tension in the string is 49 root 3 Newton's. So this completes the session by and take care.


How the narcissist tortures you. The narcissist will torture you because they believe that you are behaving in an unacceptable way so now they have to punish you and they will capitalize on what they believe to be your mistake. If you reject their proposals or ideas or you refuse to do something for them or if you fail to obey their rules or commands the narcissist will become very petty and temperamental. They leave you walking on eggshells. You become extremely cautious about your words and actions.  It doesn't take much to set them off and when the narcissist wants to punish you they will starve you emotionally. They will give you the silent treatment. They will withhold their attention and affection. They will cut off all forms of contact with you. It's a form of torture. It's a practice of causing great mental suffering and anxiety to you as a punishment when ordered to force you to say or do something and someone probably did it to them at some point in their lives and they didn't like it so they do it to you. It offers them emotional support by revealing to them how much power and control they have over you and when they do it they're hoping that you will become desperate. They're hoping that you will feel like you're lacking attention and affection. They're hoping that you will desire attention and affection from them and they're hoping that you will do whatever it takes to get it but they want you to only desire it from them. They don't want you to get it from anywhere else so they will create the means to isolate you to cause you to remain alone or apart from other people so that you have no one to turn to so that they can become your only source of communication and your only source of love and affection. The narcissist will keep their silent treatment going for as long as they need to because although they may be cold, distant and silent with you they have other people that they can be happy and cheerful with. They will leave you with a lack of adequate psychological nurturance and without anyone who you can trust or confide in while they're entertaining multiple other people at one time and they will also be gaining supply from you because they get often seeing you bitter, resentful angry and upset which is why they will always leave you in a state of emotional starvation. They will always leave you craving love and affection. It's a form of punishment and it gives them narcissistic supply. It makes them powerful and important, attractive and desirable. The narcissist will torture you. They will punish you. They will give you the silent treatment. They will withhold their attention from you.  It will make them very angry because it makes them feel irrelevant. It makes them feel unimportant and undesirable. It confuses them. It makes them feel like you are better and stronger than them because you're not affected by it and the narcissist wants to upset you. They want to take away your happiness and contentment.  They will no longer be able to control you. They will no longer be able to affect you. The narcissist knows exactly what they're doing when they torture you. It's intentional and deliberate behavior. When they're being negative and unhelpful they're intending to cause harm. They're intending to manipulate and control you. They're intending to subject you to a particular process where they can make you their subordinate and break you down mentally and physically which is why you must escape from their control. You must escape from their spell by regaining control of your thoughts and actions by finding your confidence and emotionally detach yourself from the narcissist taking away your emotional investment and then they will be unable to affect you. Thank you for watching. I hope this video is made with you. Please like, comment, share and subscribe. If you would like to donate, my PayPal link is in a bit of description. Coaching Inquiries, you can mail me at coachingatmarksurvivor.uk. Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon.


What does it mean to cast lot? Is it gambling? Is it sinful? Or is it biblical? Something that's mentioned in the Bible from time to time is this term, this phrase, this statement, casting lots. What does that mean? Well, the truth is we're not totally sure how it was actually done, what was used. Maybe there were different ways to go about doing it. But what it seemed to have been was in some ways a game or a object of choice. And it could have been sticks, it could have been something painted some painted cards, it could have been diced, it could have been stones. It, I think it varies from culture to culture. There's no, it doesn't sound like there's one uniform way to go about doing it. But the thing is though, it seemed to be a way that they would determine something without their, without the possibility of it being anything rigged. And so matter of fact, for an example, let's go to Proverbs 18, 18. It says the cast lot puts an end to strife and decides between the mighty ones. In other words, if you cast a lot, let's say if it is diced, let's say if it is drawing straws or something like that, who has the longest straw? Again, we're not totally sure exactly how this works, but it was something where no one can say, hey, you cheated because something outside of you and I or the parties involved, something else decided. And so whatever it landed on was whatever it landed on. Now the question is, is this something that God prefers to do? Is this God's preferred means of doing things? Well, first of all, let's go to Proverbs 16. Because in 18, we're not sure if he's saying that that's what he wants to be done or this is just how the culture was. But in 1633, we get a little bit more of an explanation. The lot is cast into the lap, but is every decision is from the Lord. In other words, whatever God wants, he can use that cast lot for his decision. Now, does that mean that every time a dice is rolled, a straw is drawn or anything like that, some lots are cast? Does that mean that God is in every decision? No, it does not. If a pagan is in the middle of casting lots or whatever or rolling dice or stones or what have you, does that mean that whatever it lands on, whatever the decision comes about by that cast lot, does that mean that God is behind that? No. When God would have them do so, God would have them do so so that they could kind of see that it's God. Because for them, the Jews and for us as believers, and I'm not saying that believers ought to be doing so, but we do see it a couple of times in the scriptures in the New Testament, one from unbelievers and two from believers where they do so. One time, it's not God has nothing to do with this. The other time, God is in the midst of this. And so if the believer is doing so, if the Jew is doing so, then he's doing so with the hope, with the belief that God is gonna cause it to work out the right way. So whatever it lands on, and the belief is that God was behind that, or it's just a game of chance. One example of them casting lots, and this is not God in the midst of this, but it's just stated as a point of fact what was happening in Matthew 27, 35, they are casting lots for Jesus's closest. And when they had crucified him, they divided up his garments among themselves by casting lots. And so if this was them drawing straws or rolling dice or what have you, we don't know, but they cast lots. Again, we don't know what the lots were, but this was by choice, I mean by chance. And so no one could argue well, you cheated me, no, we cast lots and however the lots fail was however the lots fail. However though, there are times where we see that the lots cast would work in favor for God's people. We see that also in the book of Esther, but then we also see it here in Acts 1, 20, let's start in verse 23. They're getting ready to choose a new disciple and apostle to replace Judas. And so what does they say in Acts 1, 23? So they put forward two men, Joseph called Prasabas and Matthias, and they prayed and said, now look what it says, you Lord who know the hearts of all men show which one of these two you have chosen. So in this case is God that's choosing. He says, which one of these you have chosen to occupy this ministry and a apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they drew lot for them. And this word here for drew is they had, they drew all they drew. And so this seems to be maybe they are drawing straws. Sometimes it's casting, they're throwing. So it looks like the lots can vary how they do it. But again, it's a game of chance, but in this case, God is actually involves this. And so in this case, they drew lots and then look how God chooses. They drew lots for them and the lot failed to Matthias and he was added to the 11 apostles. Remember it says earlier you have chosen. So it says, you know the hearts of men show which one of these two you have chosen. So in this case, they're drawing lots, but it's ultimately God is gonna be the one that's going to decide. So he causes it out and that makes sense because he's got, he can cause anything to happen. If it's dice, if it's drawing straws, if it's sticks, whatever it is, if it's some sort of stones, what have you, whatever God wants to be, he'll make it be. But do I think that it's a sin to do so now? If we are doing something that's just harmless fun and we're not taking advantage of people or things like that, it's a game. There's nothing wrong with that. But if we're doing so and we're making decisions and we haven't consulted the Lord, that's where it becomes a problem. Now we're leaving, especially for leaving a godly decision up to a game of chance and we haven't consulted the Lord because we don't see a command for us to draw straws or to cast lots or what have you. We don't see that command. Does that mean that gambling in and of itself is a sin also? Well, that will be a study for a different time. Do I think that this is gambling? No, this isn't gambling, although they did use casting lots as a system to gamble. But in this case, I would say rather than doing that, it would probably more appropriate to just pray and then also consult other brothers and sisters in the Lord to consult your leadership team around you, your family and then be led in that regard rather than casting lots. So I hope this has been helpful. Let me know what you all think in the meantime. Be blessed.


She sat down on her favorite toilet, expecting a moment of peace. But received the biggest bang of her life, being covered in toilet sewage. If you like true revenge stories, you found the best place for your vengeful needs. This episode is so satisfying, you should tell your grandmother you're not hungry. First story is about an entitled, gossipy witch who sabotages a totally legal, romantic relationship between a young man and his former teacher, ruins her career, and runs them both out of town. Her evil scheming seemed to go well. Until he found out, it was her. Followed by a story about a teacher that walks in on her colleagues embezzling money. But ends up getting wrongfully fired, after not joining their illegal activities. Lastly, a teacher with a short fuse, gets to sit on her favorite toilet, and experiences the big bang of her nightmare. Before we start, make sure to show hospitality to the like button, by offering it a fresh Coca-Cola beverage, but make sure to add ice cubes, with Mentos inside before serving. Let's dive in. Naturally, viewer discretion is advised. These revenge acts might be disturbing to snowflakes. I come from a really small town. Think of the littlest, most nothing happens here city extended layover in your flyover state nightmares, and my hometown is even more quiet than that. Think, half a mile or more between neighbors, a single main street downtown, one McDonald's, one department store, one movie theater with three screens, where everyone goes Friday and Saturday night. Church every Sunday, everyone knows everyone else, or at least knows their business, the whole city is invested in the fortunes of the high school football team, that sort of place. Graduating class of 60. Not because the senior class was dumb.  I didn't really fit in at school, and I kind of was a loner by choice. I cringe about it now that I'm almost 26, but I was a wannabe emo slash goth rocker. I still got invited to party with the other kids, not because they liked me, necessarily. But because there just wasn't many people to invite. My mom baked cookies and cakes for church, and when she wasn't doing that, she cut hair in the towns once along. My dad owned an internet cafe for a while when those were hot. Once everyone got wifi, he turned it into a tax service. Business is always slow because most people did their own taxes, but he didn't really depend so much on his business. He served 20 years as a petty officer in the Navy, and so he and mom got by on his pension. In high school, I worked at the private burger place that competed mostly unsuccessfully against the town's single chain fast food restaurant.  No thanks, old man. So with all this boredom everywhere, you can imagine the sensation Miss Amber Fontaine caused when the high school hired her to be the 11th and 12th grade English teacher. Miss Fontaine was a French extraction, and had moved to America in her later teens to go to college in New York. She was only 24, and very beautiful. She spoke perfect English, but did so with a very pleasant accent.  She appeared oblivious to all the attention, however, and just stuck to her job. Really, we didn't know too much about her. She mostly kept to herself and nobody ever saw her hanging out with any men in town, and it wasn't for lack of the men's trying. It soon became clear that she wasn't into dating any of the men our city had to offer. Much later on I found out that she had just taken the job in our small town to gain experience, with a future goal of being a college professor in a big city. A sort of two-year plan. Obviously I had a crush on her. We all did. It wasn't still as a small, church-going town, so nobody really acted out on his urges or tried to harass her or anything like that. As guys, we'd talk about how hot she was amongst ourselves, usual locker room stuff teenage boys do, but that was it. My one real out-of-school experience with Ms. Fontaine was when she stopped by the burger joint I worked at and saw me working there.  When the food preppers came up with her food and handed it to me to give to her, I was impressed and not at all surprised that she ordered a salad. She didn't strike me as someone who ate the greasier slop we sold there. In school the following Monday she smiled at me in the hall and I smiled back. Then she said, you're learning, but not in a condescending or patronizing way. Just a fun, kidding way and I exchanged a smile with her every time after that. And that was the extent of my great, high school romance with Ms. Fontaine. Exchanged a few hallows and smiles during my senior year, when I was 17. Things changed the following year though. I was 18 and still working at the burger joint, when Ms. Fontaine comes by the restaurant.  She says, and asks with real seriousness. Are you going to college? I tell her the truth. I'm working with my band, I cringe about this period in my life too, playing guitar, and saving money for community college. Only sort of truth about the last thing. Honestly, most of my money I spent on weed. I was the main vocalist in addition to being guitarist, and our bands only other members were Jerry the bassist and gave the drummer. Both of them were just out of high school, like me. And, like me, they had no plans to go to college. Gabe worked at the same burger joint as me, and Jerry, who had been one of my best friends in high school, ironically worked at the chain fast food restaurant down the street from my restaurant. Our lives at this time revolved around wasting our youth, skateboarding, getting high, and playing in our punk band. We like to think that we played an emo punk and metal fusion, but looking back our sound hasn't aged well. Ms. Fontaine tells me that now she's in her second year of teaching, she has a better sense of how to do things. She tells me that she wished that her current students were as well behaved and put in as much effort as me. I earned mediocre grades throughout school but consistently earned an A in English because I like to read. She says she'll see me around. A few days later she comes into the restaurant again, and we get to talking, and she asks me if I'd like to go to a movie. I can tell she's bored because there's really no one her own age for her to hang out within town, or if there are, they're all lame. I think we both get the feeling that it's natural we should hang out. And now that I was completely out of high school and she wasn't my teacher, and we were both adults, by this time I was newly 18 and she had just turned 25, why not? So, that's how it started. We'd meet up in the early evenings, totally innocent, and go to the movies, or to dinner at the one good restaurant in town. Ms. Fontaine was cool about letting me slide when it came to paying for our dates, because she knew I made minimum wage. It was actually me, who started to push our relationship to the next level. After a while I started to hold her hand when we walked places, and finally we started kissing.  She taught me a lot of French words and phrases over the next summer and fall while we were going out. My parents knew I was sort of dating my former teacher, but since it was keyword former they didn't really raise any stink about it. Ms. Fontaine would always try to convince me to go to college, but she did see our band play a few times when we got a rare gig at the roller rink, and she was nice enough to not tell us what she really thought of us. We didn't have sexy time until we had been dating casually for nearly two months. That was my idea, too, but she admitted that she really liked me and she wanted it to happen ever since we reconnected earlier that year. After I had graduated. I'm not the kiss and tell type, but my bandmate sort of knew that the dynamic in my relationship with Ms. Fontaine, she had been Amber ever since we first made out, had changed. They appeared cool with it. I stopped doing so much dope and really began putting money away to save for college. The JC near my house was super cheap. Amber would often tell me she thought about applying there for work, but said that she really wanted to move to the west coast, or back to the east coast to teach it a college. Eventually, she told me she'd like me to come with her. After a few months, I was in love with Amber and she was in love with me, too, she said. We didn't throw our relationship in people's faces or show public affection, but it's not like we pretended not to know each other either. Amber had come around the house and my parents really liked her, and thought she was a great influence on me. I didn't exactly cut my hair, but I was neater and more presentable, and eventually I really did begin enrolling in GE classes at the local two-year. But then, things went downhill fast. Out of seemingly nowhere, Amber got called in for a meeting with the local school board. This is my secondary account of the situation, as Amber was the one there, not me. There had been reports that she was dating a former student romantically, they were talking about me. And that she was having a sexy time relationship with said student when he was still a minor and still attending high school. Of course, she denied everything. Of course, they believed nothing. She had sent me a desperate text, and since ours is a small town, I think I've mentioned that a couple of times already. I was at that meeting in literally 10 minutes. I told them the truth, that I was in Ms. Fontaine's class in 12th grade, and that I was her student. That was all. I told the truth that we reconnected several months after graduation, and only then did we begin dating. And I was over 18. The opinion of the board was essentially, look son, we appreciate the noble effort you're making to defend your friend's honor, but we're looking for the truth here, not emissions. I insisted that I was telling the truth and not trying to cover anything up. After a lot of tears, Amber was simply warned that it wasn't becoming of a teacher to be seen with students outside campus, even if they're former students. And we assumed that was all. We were really wondering who complained about us, or who would make up tales about us having sexy time while I was still a minor and a student of Amber's. I was staying at Amber's apartment by this time, I kicked in a portion of the rent of course. I had even met her parents, albeit only on webcam. They're good people. They don't speak a lot of English, but Amber filled them in on missing pieces. They knew my age and they were cool about it. We assumed it was just small town gossip and that it would blow over. Boy, were we wrong. Over the next several weeks after Amber's meeting with the school board, vicious rumors started to spread about her. I won't insult your imagination. You know what people were saying. One day my boss at the burger joint just told me he had to let me go. Some cheap excuse about the store losing money, and my hairstyle was driving away customers. Whatever, dude. Amber told me it wasn't my fault, and promised to support me while I looked for another job. But then one day, she got fired, too. She was working as a probationary teacher. It meant that during her first two years, she could be fired for any reason, and actually no reason had to even be given. Explanations were for those who earned tenure. We both knew why she was getting fired, but the district strongly implied that it was simply because she was an ineffective teacher. In her defense, I looked at the data on the district website, and the number of students from our school who did well on standardized tests in her subject area leapt by double-digit points during the time she was a teacher there. Her numbers were far above the state average, and to this day since her departure, those same scores have nosedived. Amber told me that students tended to respond well to her, and she was very popular among the students. It was true that she was immensely popular when I was a student, and I'll assume the same carried true the year after I graduated. Aside from the obvious fact that she was eye candy, she was simply a good teacher, and a good person, and that's why the kids liked her. Lots of students threatened to riot when she was fired. But being the non-dramatic, non-attention-seeking person she is, Amber asked them to just focus on their studies and doing well, and helping their new teacher adjust when he or she arrived to take her place. My dad told her she ought to sue the district, but Amber didn't want the drama. Besides, she said, she was allowed to resign so that it wouldn't show up on her record as her having been fired. Also, she said that the district promised not to try to revoke her teaching credential. Her own parents suggested maybe she ought to come home to France, but she insisted on sticking it out in America. My parents were cool in that they offered to let her move in with us while she figured her life out. She's lucky that her parents are well off, because they gave her some money to relocate to California. She asked me please to come with her, that she loved me, and we could start new there. I've always wanted to move to California, so I jumped at the chance. My parents were happy that I was in a relationship with a good person who obviously cared about me, and gave us some money too. We got an apartment together in the Los Angeles area. Neither of us drove, so we both got bikes to get around. Our new area was a world apart from my old life, though I know Amber's own teenage years were in Paris, so Los Angeles wouldn't be as much of a culture shock for her. I immediately enrolled in a local community college and got a job as a waiter in a popular French restaurant. Our gimmick was that some of the servers actually spoke French. Over the last several months Amber had taught me a lot of French, so I was a popular server in that restaurant because I gave it authenticity. Unfortunately for Amber, the school district misled her about her teaching license. When they promised not to have her license revoked, they spoke the truth, but they left out the part where they would attach an official reprimand to it, that accused her of inappropriate relations with students under her charge. So, whenever Amber applied for teaching jobs, this would immediately come up as a red flag on her applications. Another surprise red flag was that schools that she applied to would notice that she was fired from her last job. No I wasn't, she'd say. I resigned. Yeah, but it says here you were forced to resign to avoid termination for cause. Amber is seven years older than me, but I think in some ways I know a lot more about how nasty Americans can be that her. Everywhere she went, doors would slam, career-wise. She appealed to the state teaching license organization, and they said they'd look into it, but months later, nothing came up. Calls to her former school resulted in her getting the run around. No one knew anything. So, for the next several months I was paying our day-to-day bills and helping to support Amber, though I must acknowledge that the loans both our sets of parents gave us helped tremendously, and we couldn't survive without them. Finally, one day, Amber tells me. You know what? Frick trying to teach public school. Oh, and OP, I'm pregnant. So, two pieces of good news. Many, many months later, Amber and I are happily married. Wedding was beautiful, and sunny Los Angeles. Amber's parents, and mine, and our families all attended. We had a pregnant honeymoon in France. We now have a son. I am closing in on earning my AA in information technology. I've been promoted at the restaurant, and have health benefits for my wife and son. We live in a studio apartment, but at least it's a huge studio, and it's enough for now. Amber stays home with the baby, but she also teaches online English and French courses for a private school. So, even though she's blacklisted from teaching in the public K-12 district, she can still teach, which is her passion. More months pass, and I got my first job in IT, troubleshooting computers for a small company downtown. I make double what I used to at the restaurant, and my employer has a program where I can finish my BA while I work, and they will subsidize 50% for free, and the other 50% they will dock from my pay and small monthly installments. Sounds like an amazing deal, and I take it. We move to a bigger apartment.  We're planning for her to eventually go back to school for her graduate degrees so she can finally fulfill her dream of teaching college. Oh, more good news, OP. I'm pregnant again. Life is sweet. So, while everything is going awesome, one day I get a text from mom. She was at a local school board meeting with her neighbors, regarding a bill proposal to hire more teachers. Apparently over the past few years, the population has grown, and the high school needed to expand. So now it's a two-horse town, mom says. While she was at the meeting, my mom ran into Jerry's mom. Jerry, the bassist from my old band that I quit once I got into a serious relationship with Amber. My mom never met Jerry, or his mom. Or at least in a way that connected them to me. The reason was, because I never brought Jerry around our house. Because, for a couple of years, Jerry was my drug supplier. He had the hookup for anything you wanted. Well what does all this have to do with anything? My mom doesn't know Jerry's mom, but she hears her and some other lady talking about me, and Amber. My mom heard them saying that Jerry had been the one to tell everyone about Amber and me supposedly having sexy time before I graduated, and his mom went straight to the school board. Their names as informers were protected under confidentiality. I had lost touch with Jerry over the years and had stopped playing music with him long ago. I knew he resented all the time I was spending with. My chick. It's a shame because he used to be such a good friend of mine. It sucked that he was behind getting my now wife and mother of my child, and soon to be children, fired from her career. Jerry's mom was a teacher at Amber's former school of employment.  Yet her kid Jerry, a student at her school, is basically the biggest drug dealer in town. Also, looking back, I know he had a crush on Amber too, and probably always resented that I got to be in a relationship with her, while he didn't.  I was interested to learn that Jerry's mom was now on the school board. I didn't tell Amber about all this right away. I just asked her to tell me what she remembered about Mrs. Goody two shoes, aka Jerry's mom. She told me that Jerry's mom was always really mean to her, and often one of the main instigators in getting everyone. The adults, on campus to exclude her from teacher social activities. It's one of the main reasons why Amber didn't make friends with the other teachers. Amber tells me that the male teachers tended to be nice to her at first, but female teachers overwhelmingly despised her before they even knew her. Jerry's mom, Amber told me, was also the teacher she knows who started a petition not to renew her contract for even a second year at the school. This was the first I heard about this. Evidently only a few female teachers signed the petition, but the petition was placed in Amber's permanent file as evidence that the staff lacked confidence in her. They were basically setting her up to be fired even though she was doing a good job teaching, and the students liked her. Well, I'm more Cali than Iowa these days, but I still keep in touch with a few kids, now grown up, I knew in school, including Gabe the drummer from our old band. From what I hear, Jerry manages the burger joint I used to work at, because the old guy who owns it retired. I have a social media account but only use it to contact people in emergencies. I never update anything. My profile is practically blank, online.  Didn't post about marrying or having kids or moving to LA. I told the people that mattered directly. Jerry was still my friend on social media even though we stopped talking ages ago, so I clicked on his profile. Yep, he definitely managed my old place of employment. I clicked on his friends and family's profiles and recognized his mom, my old history teacher. She was on the school board now. Sanctimonious as ever. I think I mentioned before that I came from a small town.   That's exactly what my band used to do all the time. Whenever we had a show, we'd go around taping ourselves using our cell phones. We'd take video of us rocking out, skating, drinking beer in the vacant lot, and take video of us getting high. We'd also talk to the camera. I haven't thought about the old recordings in years, but I never erased them from my old phones. I'm the kind of guy who hoards his old cell phones. Not because I think they'll increase in value or that I find them especially interesting, but I kind of think of them like file cabinets of my past, because I don't erase anything. Aside from phone numbers, I don't really transfer data from one phone to its successor, easy as it would be. My current boss knows I used to get lit, and they don't care. In IT, I'm told, everyone used to get lit, and many still do. I ask my wife, offhand, if her new job knows about what happened in our old town. She says yeah, but that they don't care about any of that. They only care that she teaches expert level conversational French. That's what their clients, many of them traveling professionals, demand. Many of her coworkers, she tells me, had real felonies on their records, but her employer was a firm believer in rehabilitation. Copacetic. So I check some of my old videos, and find what I need. I have no trouble finding videos of Jerry getting high as a kite. That's like practically every video. And in practically every video, he brags about how his parents know he's a druggy and a dealer and want to ship him off to the army and make a man out of him. The video I really want is. Nope, it's not on this phone. Maybe the LG? Nope, just more of Jerry rolling on ecstasy at a rave we snuck out of state to attend when we were in 11th grade. Maybe my old galaxy? Vingo. Jerry talks about how his mom knows all about his drug use and sometimes even smokes with herself, with his dad. And how they caught him with cocaine once and yelled at him and his dad kicked his booty, but then Jerry came home the next day from school, to find that his mom was coked out on the kitchen table. And she had called in sick that day. The video was timestamped. I think that'll do. I still don't tell Amber. It would only upset her in her condition. But I asked my mom for the contact info of all the people who are on the little town school board. I already know the school's basic email address, and I graduated not that long ago and most of the administrators are still mid-career at my former high school. I still have their emails. I make a throwaway email account and attach all the relevant videos to it, and send it to everyone that matters in town. All the teachers, the administrators, even from elementary and middle schools, the church, the pizza place, the burger joint owner, the roller rink boss, you name it, they got the files. The files where Jerry exposes himself as a coked out drug dealer, with his mom having full knowledge of the fact. And her and her husband even indulging in the drugs themselves. The next day Amber asks me, while she's feeding our son, Honey, why are you so happy? So I tell her and she starts crying. No, I'm not sad. She assures me. I'm just so happy you did this for me. Then me, Amber, our son, and our bun in the oven go for a walk because it's such a nice day. Still need a haircut. Not getting one. Do I even need to say what happened afterward? All this ancient history shouldn't matter. But in a small town, it's devastating. The videos are just of Jerry talking trash, who knows if he's even telling the truth? Doesn't matter. In a small town, gossip becomes gospel.  My parents had to endure the fallout of my disgrace when I left town years ago with that French outcast, as all the idle busybodies have dubbed my wife. Mom and dad made their peace with it and have numbed themselves to the slurs, and always stood up for us. They are what's good about small town America. Jerry got fired from his job. Police searched his house, at as to say, his mom's house, and found a lot of narcotics. Evidently when the rumors went flying that Mrs. Jerry's mom had a drug dealing son, kids busted for drugs at the high school caved under pressure to admit who hooked them up. Oopsy. So he was telling the truth.   My mom wasn't clear on the details, but there's a possibility she and her husband might face jail time too.  Jerry's whole family are persona non grata. They want to leave town, but can't due to a pending court case. Until then, they'll just be hated to their face. I'll hate them from across the country. Small town. Everyone knows everyone. Or, at least their business. Which means sooner or later word will slip, people will drop the its confidential charade and figure out that I was responsible for a family's downfall.  Jerry, you listening? Wonderful. Come at me, bro. I'll start off by saying this happened to my sister, and the actions taken were hers. My sister has always gotten along very well with her teachers, and has a habit of forming actual friendships with them, to the point that she still talks to her fifth grade English teacher, along with many others, decades later. This happened about 15 years ago. My sister was a student at Job Corps, a government run live on campus vocational training program, studying hotel management. She got on extremely well with her hotel management teacher, better than pretty much every teacher she'd already had up to that point. One day, the teacher goes to the center's dean's office. And walks in on a paper shredding session. It turned out that there was some pretty major embezzling happening at the center, as in more than 60% of the funds for the center were being stolen. The teacher was appalled, and despite some rather lucrative offers made, refused to join in on these acts. Less than a week later, the teacher was fired for trumped-up reasons. This was especially bad given the teacher was only two years away from retiring, and being fired lost the retirement package. Needless to say, my sister was pissed. Knowing how things typically work, and that almost any report she tried to make would just be swept under the rug, if it was taken seriously at all, she came up with a plan. And took things nuclear. Over the next month or two, my sister managed to gather some basic evidence of the embezzling, nothing concrete, but enough to warrant considerable investigation by the authorities. She took the little evidence she was able to gather, along with the story of what happened to her teacher, and sent the info in an email to the job corps regional director. Now like I said, she knew that her email would likely be ignored, or the event swept under the rug, so she got smart. The email was CC'd to every single major person in the job corps chain of command, all the way up to the national director. As well as to anyone even tangentially related to job corps and the upper echelons of the Department of Labor, and every member of Congress, as well as the US President's Office, remember, this was a government-run program. All in all, the email was sent to over 2,000 people. Basically, she not only sent the report, but sent it in such a way that everyone who got it could also see everyone else who got it, and she sent it to way more people than would be needed to ensure the issue couldn't be swept under the rug. Two weeks later, after the investigation finished, never seen the government work so fast on anything that wasn't collecting owed taxes, only five or six staff members, out of around 20 that worked in the center, still had their jobs. And at least five of the ones fired, including the dean or facing major criminal charges, with the rest facing minor charges. I'm not sure of the exact figure on how much was stolen, but it was well into the seven digits, the embezzling had been happening for years. The teacher got a very nice severance package post investigation, ERC, it was three year of pay, her full retirement package, and signing an NDA, though she didn't get her job back. My sister was given her completion certificate, despite not having finished the requirements of the course. They wanted her gone, but couldn't kick her out. This is not my story, but for my educational advisor, one of the legit funniest people I have ever met. She was 14 at the time of this story, she's almost 52 years now, so bear in mind I can't get too detailed. But it's crazy nonetheless. The other day, we were talking about our school times and the differences between being educators and students, when she started telling this story. She used to be the model student, getting along with all the teachers and getting the best grades in her classroom, but there was that one teacher she could not get along with. It was her chemistry teacher, and she described her as, all teachers have that breaking point where they just start screaming, but hers was incredibly easy to reach. Until the point of the start of the story, she was just a disliked teacher and someone my advisor just dealt with.  That was when she got involved in a plan. The famous toilet bomb. Because of the shared gender with the teacher, she knew where and when rude teacher would use the restroom. She had a strange routine with the exact time and stall she used to use. And because she was a model student, she could come and go without being even noticed, since no one would assume she was up to no good. Thing is, the whole class wasn't on it. Before she got involved with the plan though, there was a single condition, no one would rat or blame someone else. No one was supposed to talk about it anytime or anywhere. She had a plan. And the toilet bomb found its way into the designated toilet. My advisor went to the stall, installed the toilet bomb and went back to class at the exact time rude teacher had her restroom break. When she came back from doing the deed, she sits down at her desk and hears the explosion, followed by rude teacher screaming bloody murder and coming back to class to scream at them. The only classroom that was on break for teacher transition was my advisor's class, so rude teacher beeline straight to them and started demanding to know who did this. Of course, she only got radio silence. She jumped in anger like a toddler, made all threats she could legally do and made the biggest tantrum you could imagine, while being absolutely soaked in toilet water. Radio silence, still. The next logical step for rude teacher was to call the principal, that arrived at class with a box filled with pieces of paper. She explained that everyone was to write the name of someone involved, and put it in the box, so it would be read out loud by her by the end of class. That was when my advisor stepped in. The second the principal was out of the class, she told everyone to just write it was me and capital letters and put the paper back in the box. Which everyone did. When the principal came back and started looking at the papers, in front of the class, she slowly turned from a normal color to a deep, fiery red and started throwing her own tantrum. Guess they found out her breaking point, and at the only thing she could do at that point, she suspended the whole damn class for three days. In the end, my advisor did everything, blew up the toilet, lead the class to not snitch on anyone and earn three days at home without anyone suspecting anything. And I'll be seeing you in the next one.