Mercer

My wife's chicken piccata.

My wife made use of those little tomatoes. Cherry Tomato & Leeks Tart with triple cream cheese (not Pizza).

Same group that coined the term "eat the rich"

Never understood the hate, Local 3 IBEW is the move here in NYC at least.

This seems to be a reoccurring theme with people I know that had to join because of crippling student loan debt. Most people who enlist for other reasons, or straight out of high school seem to walk away with fewer regrets. People there because of student loan debt seem to have a greater chance of regretting enlistment. Not sure if this is just anecdotal, or a bigger pattern at play here. I have one friend who joined because of student loan debt that is now glad he enlisted, and 3 others who regret the entire thing, all because of art school debt. Seems like a lot of it stems from them realizing they did have a choice in retrospect, where at the time it they enlisted it looked/felt like they didn't.

There's another prominent oontzer that's in Local #3 IBEW running pretty big commercial HVAC installs here in NY but I don't want to blow his spot.

@misteravenwe spoke via PM

Graduated high school from a juvenile detention facility near Philadelphia PA at 16 years old. Got released at 17 and have been on my own since. Rest of my teens and 20's I never kept a job for very long, wrote my name on stuff, and mostly sold weed and other goodies no matter where I landed. I left Pittsburgh for what turned into a 5 year snowboarding trip, and started doing construction work out in Colorado during the off season. This was the first job I was serious about, AKA that paid well even though it was just a summer gig. Even started my own company, and had 5 friends working for me (all piece rate) for a summer until I got 1099'd on a job, ripped off on another, and popped by the IRS for being a dumbass. Started doing burglar alarm, and camera systems full time as my first full time gig that I held for over a year afterward. Then I moved to NYC and worked as an entry level fire alarm system technician. Got arrested for finishing a fight someone else started, & consequently fired because of that. Figured I couldn't work in that industry because of all the security clearances needed etc. I wasn't working after that, sat at home running out of money with no unemployment and just taught myself to code HTML & CSS as a something to keep busy while going to court. Built a couple of test web sites, started learning wordpress development and found some freelance clients. Also, worked as a photography assistant occasionally during that time. That spring, @earl broclo ESQinvited me down to the 12oz studio, and I met up with @misteravenagain after meeting him and Martha Cooper before at an OS Gemeos wall on Houston St. Got invited to intern there, and even do my freelance work in the studio. It was mostly just helping out as a production assistant, and plenty of free time to fuck off on your computer. Instead of fucking off, I kept plugging away at my own freelance work, dragging my laptop and camera equipment from Queens down to 12oz's studio in Soho every day, and trying to stay focused on learning design. Happened to know a VP creative director at Goldman Sachs that didn't do web design, just print, so I did her personal portfolio web site for her as a paid gig. She eventually got the same VP / Creative director gig at JP Morgan after getting laid off during the 2008 crash from Goldman, helped somewhat by the portfolio site I made for her. Got a few more paid gigs from other designers that she knew that couldn't code, as well as taking on a few of my own good, and shit clients. I even did a few paid gigs for 12oz eventually, making visual mock ups of designs for the shop, blogs, etc. @misteraveneven agreed to lie to anyone who asked and say I was a web designer, so I started applying for gigs. During that time I designed the infamous Mook-Life blog while working out of the 12oz Studio.@STAN51's homie blessed him with seed money to start Mook-Life, and @Stan51 hired me to design it for him. The entire time these small gigs, a few other side hustles and renting out a bedroom to @MayorMeanBeanskept me afloat, and the bills paid until after a year and a half of hustle, I landed an official full time gig on a pretty well known design team here in the city. It was tough trying to blend in there, It was the IT department in a very stuffy Ivy League Medical School.@misteraven& @psm026would clown me for overcompensating my impostors syndrome and rocking Mr. Rogers cardigans if I stopped by the studio after work back then. lol. Eventually got let go from Cornel when work dried up for a couple of months, long story short I worked myself out of a job by setting up the sites so that clients (various medical & academic departments in the college) could update their own sites. Out of the blue shortly after being laid off, I got an offer to join Local 3 IBEW as a Journeyman Technician, which meant no apprenticeship and straight to highest paid gig in the Union. I took it and somehow passed a background screening. It was odd waking up to be at work by 7am, basically fucked my social life. I kind of disappeared first IRL on weekdays because I was tired and in bed by 8pm, then even disappeared on the weekends after I met my future wife. Then disappeared completely from social media etc. Got Level 1, then Level 2, then Level 3 engineering certification at work, and started writing the software in buildings that would operate the life safety systems, like emergency audio systems for announcements, shutting down fans and ductwork to stop spreading smoke, recalling elevators, releasing doors etc. Started studying economics and got into bitcoin/ethereum relatively early while working there. Oddly enough for an Anarchist, and as a convict, I ended up the only person in my department that was qualified to write this type of software for military bases. I was in the Union a total of 8 years, tons of certifications, and even had a small pension built up. 12 more years there meant full retirement with great health insurance paid for life. Came to the realization I didn't want to waste my life doing this shit until I was too old to do anything else, so I started an LLC earlier this year, and I've been officially unemployed for a week now, figuring this shit out from scratch again. I'm hoping this next ride is the wildest yet. True story.

@KILZ FILLZChinese shit so basically bootleg humvees. Also doubt those are UAV launchers, probably just displaying them. That stealth shit is terrifying.

@Decyferon getting fancy with the steak burritos up there, looks good.