Bus to hershey park from nyc

Hello All,
Wondering if anyone has ever put together a mobile hotspot "box". What I am looking for is something that could allow students to connect to a central hotspot and access school work. We have a lot of long travel (rural school) on buses and ferries and have pretty good T-Mobile coverage in our area but at times from the ferry or bus, the signal can be on the weaker side. This would be 30-ish students accessing a 5g signal. I can put together the power box but was wondering about recommendations for a mobile hotspot modem/booster or a separate modem and booster. Any info or good products would be greatly appreciated.

Today I went on a deep dive into the changes in Temple's campus over the years and holy shit. Here's some highlights:
18th & Arlington, 2009 vs now. Look at the massive amount of student housing development in the past 14 years. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9834595,-75.1634095,3a,75y,251.08h,85.6t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1scNdHvvcSRFnxSKWNPf44Pg!2e0!5s20090901T000000!7i13312!8i6656
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13th & Polett Walk, 2009 vs now. I do love Charles library but would be nice if we still had the tree cover between Broad & 13th on Polett. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9812055,-75.1551094,3a,75y,347.12h,89.78t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sT1wcJRUN-jdt9usA2Vf5rQ!2e0!5s20220701T000000!7i13312!8i6656
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13th & Cecil, 2009 vs now. Morgan was just a parking lot and the Cecil skate park actually had tree cover, too. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9785221,-75.1569982,3a,75y,301h,83.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sMkqYex0vdaxOiTN27Ptyhg!2e0!5s20090901T000000!7i13312!8i6656
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Broad & Norris, 2012 vs now. RIP Peabody Hall, which is on the left between 1940 and J&H, and the brownstones that occupied the green space next to McGonigle/Pearson before they were demolished. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.98351,-75.1567883,3a,75y,184.17h,86.19t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sImd3Z33A4P2oWngnePNV3w!2e0!5s20120401T000000!7i13312!8i6656
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13th & Montgomery, 2009 vs now. Before the STAR Complex was built, and before Pearson/McGonigle was built up (look just behind to the right). I do like that cute little Owl Watch tower :-) https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9804311,-75.1591674,3a,84.9y,335.03h,89.74t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sACnlpqYADPb8m8yhgjBZCQ!2e0!5s20090901T000000!7i13312!8i6656
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Honorable mention: Alter Hall during its construction in 2007 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9799303,-75.1553728,3a,75y,323.09h,89.21t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPZjtLNJbfJyq7nDXV-ToWQ!2e0!5s20070701T000000!7i3328!8i1664
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Crazy how much building development Temple has undergone in the past 15 years, including off-campus student apartments. Seeing the development of Temple from a commuter school into this sprawling university is fascinating.

The "we're not dead" chapter from u/eruwenn and I. No promises on how fast the next chapter arrives, but it is underway.
First / Prev / Next ------------------------------
Sam Jakobs strode through the lobby of Umgrol Tower with all but one of his most trusted friends. Black suits slipped through the crowd; much like a shark’s fin through waves, they simply parted without a ripple of effort. Faces were grim, eyes focused, and a tension sat on their combined shoulders like a weight they all knew too well.
“I could make an excuse,” Duong offered, deciding to try and break the mood. “No need for you to attend this meeting in person.”
“It’s fine,” former Colonel Jakobs answered with a resigned sigh.
“But, shouldn’t you be with Britney?” Lopez attempted to change his mind with an appeal to his emotions. “She was looking forward to taking you on a roller coaster.”
“I’m doing this for Britney,” the loving father replied without hesitation.
“Avoiding conflict is a good lesson,” Jabari offered his advice.
“True.” Sam conceded the point.
“Knowin’ how to punch a Wachoto so their heart fails is also a good lesson,” Snake said drily.
“Also true,” the group’s leader said, allowing himself a brief chuckle.
“Sam!” Lopez struck his shoulder with the back of her open hand. “Don’t even joke-”
“We’re not killing Hopper’s replacement,” Sam confirmed, allowing himself an almost imperceptible shrug. “Not today, anyway.”
The small ripple of laughter that had passed between them had helped alleviate some of the tension that had been building. Duong paused as one of the tower assistants came jogging up to them, and he held up a hand to stop the others. As the young man approached, the terror was visible in his face. "Your order, Sir." He held up a white box from Pierre's, large enough to require both hands to hold, and instead of saluting he simply bowed his head and extended the package towards them.
“Thank you,” Sam replied, accepting the box and tucking it under his arm. He saw the others staring in confusion. “A gift,” he explained.
“From you…” Jabari said slowly. “To?”
“Did Choco make an exploding cake?” Duong jokingly asked.
“Another exploding cake,” Jabari clarified. “There was that thing in the Whethan Sector.”
Elevator doors opened, and their conversation fell silent as they entered, only to start up again once it began to move.
Jabari had found that humorous antics, or the mere memory of them, often eased tension before combat. He tried the interrupted tactic again. "Remember that time he stole a light cruiser from the Odesza Fundamentalists?" After a brief pause to allow the memories to flow, he added, "What happened to that thing, anyhow?"
“Who knows,” Duong hastily replied, nudging his large friend in the side and nodding to the camera watching them. “Lot of stuff goes missing in war, you know-”
“Cameras are off, dumbass,” Choco’s voice came in over their earpieces.
“Better safe than sorry,” the handsome man replied, flashing a smile to their Erinal in the machine, and began fixing up his hair in the reflection of the camera lens. The elevator stopped, and the conversation paused with practiced precision as the doors parted. The black suits marched silently through the underground military base of Umgrol Tower basement level three, eventually reaching a set of secure doors. Two black armoured soldiers stood either side.
“Death’s Head?” Snake muttered the question to the others, nodding to the unmoving men and the smooth black mirror that made up the face of their helmets. “I thought we were playing nice with the locals?”
“Purely for the new general’s personal security.” Choco supplied the answer over their secure comms channel, as they passed into the room beyond. “Seems he’s the nervous type.” He slurped loudly on something, causing the others to wince at the noise. “Can’t figure why, ha.”
A dozen more of the faceless sets of black armour waited in the room, weapons ready. Near them stood full body scanners, as well as deep, metal trays.
“Weapons,” one of the Death’s Head Dragoons said, gesturing to the waiting receptacles.
The War Rats glanced at each other, smiled, and began unbuttoning their suit jackets. Things began to be deposited at an alarming frequency by everyone present, aside from one. Sam shook his head at the others as he held his box of confections. “I thought I said unarmed?” he asked.
“This is unarmed,” Snake replied, tossing a sixth knife into the tray.
“Oh, you meant unarmed unarmed.” Jabari’s deep voice was full of humour, and he failed to stifle his rumbling laughter as he tossed a large, brightly-coloured grenade into his tray.
The closest guard flinched at the sight of the explosive, and immediately asked, “Is that an Oracle?” He took several steps back, despite knowing that the explosive could vaporise several floors of even this reinforced building. Something whose very name spoke of being a message from god, a literal invite to hell. “Isn’t owning one of those a war crime?”
“In Triumvirate space, sure,” the big man answered, shrugging off the obvious obfuscation. “No local laws are being broken. Besides, I’ve been working on making a better version.“ He smiled at his reflection in the man’s visor. “This one lacks the wow factor.”
Two of the other guards were muttering back and forth, clearly nervous, and Sam stepped in to ask, “Do we have a problem?”
“Err...” One of the indistinguishable soldiers glanced nervously at Lopez, who had stepped through the scanner. "Her arm, Sir. It's been augmented with-"
"You want me to take my arm off?" Lopez laughed, well-acquainted with the multiple warnings her Choco-manufactured appendage had set off. "I guess you really did mean unarmed unarmed.
Sam took control of the situation, his voice calm and even. “We’re all on the same team here. General Midysus requested this meeting himself.” He gestured back towards the door. “I can head up to my office, and he can-”
“It’s fine,” Maria gently interrupted, reaching up to start unfastening her shirt so she could remove the artificial limb. “No me importa, we just need to-”
“No.” Sam’s voice was iron, an infinitesimal amount of the rage that was brewing inside him seeping into that singular syllable. “I care.” His eyes had not left the dragoon who had made the request, and they took a faltering step backwards. “My men brought weapons, which I will punish them for later” -his subordinates grimaced at those words- “but, bad jokes aside, we are allies.” He turned to look at the elevator doors, then asked, “Unless you would like to alter the terms of our agreement?”
In response to his words the elevator doors slid open.
Duong was swept up in the moment, and he leaned in close to one of the dragoon’s. “That’s right. Los-”
“Let’s go,” Sam commanded, and his group straightened, following him through the now open doors.
“Sorry,” the others began as the doors closed.
“I’m not so-” Snake began before being elbowed roughly by Lopez’s metal arm. “Damn it, that hurt.”
“Can we all focus?” Sam's reminder was audibly weary. "Remember why you're here," he said.
"To stop you from killing him," Duong swiftly answered. It was most certainly not a recreational outing they were on.
“Exactly,” the colonel answered, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles were white.
Jabari looked at the group gathered, and muttered, “We should have brought more people.”
“Numbers never stopped him before,” Maria said, leaning in close and using her non-metal shoulder to lean into Sam. “We just need to keep reminding him of the reason he chose peace.”
“Speaking of which,” Choco’s voice cut in over the comm’s channel, “guess how many kids threw up on the bumper cars?”
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Haruki Sasaki stood in front of a large cartoonish castle, talking with several members of the park staff. They were gathered on a wide drawbridge over a moat, in which many waterfowl of different colours and sizes swam. The crenellated wall was tall, boasting minarets at all four corners, and an impressive keep at the centre. Flags and banners of an eye-searing myriad of hues flapped colourfully in the breeze. As the wind slowed down, the colours suddenly shifted, becoming an even mix of red and blue. It was historically inaccurate, strategically flawed, and the children had all loved it.
“All of the suits are working correctly?” the tailored lawyer asked, maintaining fixed eye contact with a pale and perspiring park worker in an orange jumpsuit. “I want them to enjoy this more than they did the bumper cars.”
“The enjoyment comes from the acceleration, and sudden deceleration,” the sweaty lead park engineer began. “It is very fine tuned, and the intra-species variation in tolerances is something we need to work on.”
“Kids get sick.” A junior worker shrugged off the issue. “That’s why we have the cleaner bots, and disinfectant hoses.”
“Brian… we’ve talked about this,” the lead engineer warned her underling. “If a Gr’darian was to vomit on a Peil, during their mating season, what would happen?”
“Errr..” Brian paused, having no idea what the answer might be. “Failed mating season?” he guessed.
“No!?” Her angry response contained both shock at his flippancy, and incense at his poor knowledge base. “How many times have I told you to study the secretions of the gelatinous races? Combining those two xeno bodily fluids would create chlorine gas, do I have to remind you why that is a bad thing?” Barry hung his head in shame, his long blonde hair covering his increasingly red face. “My apologies, Sir,” the lead engineer said as she returned her attention to the man in the immaculate black suit. She held up her thumb and forefinger with the slenderest of gaps between them. "I am this close -- this close! -- to shipping him back to Disneymoon seven. A few cycles of repairing the Star Wars Lightsaber Academy animatronics would serve him right.”
“We don’t have either of those species present, Ms. Bizhan,” the lawyer was relieved to point out, feeling a small hint of sympathy for the now cowering Brian. “And we are getting a lot of useful information, which is the purpose of this park.”
“Most definitely.” The head engineer nodded emphatically, adding, “And please, call me Fariba.” She pulled a small tablet from a large pocket on her leg, quickly skimming her notes. “In addition to the expected biology-based observations, we've definitely found several potentially lucrative markets to expand into.”
Haruki nodded. “The Triumvirate will find a way to make you their prey,” he murmured. “Physically or economically.”
“Preferably the latter,” Fariba said with a well-practised smile. “But we must know our enemies better than we know our friends, even if we don’t know which of them will choose which path.” She tapped her tablet once more. “They were all shocked that we could manufacture inertial dampeners small enough to fit in the bumper cars, so we can open up a lot of trade with that minor technology.” She used her thumb to point over her shoulder without looking back. “With those we deem our friends, of course. Helping them get a step ahead of those who choose to be more resistant.”
“Resistance is futile,” Brian added with a grin, having spent an entire summer assembling Borg animatronics for a Trekkie battle arena experience.
“Ignore him,” Fariba quickly said, flapping a hand behind her back to shoo the junior engineer away. “I can assure you, the full dive VR suits are calibrated to the lowest tolerance levels known for each species.” Her sweet smile was pasted onto her face once more. “You will have nothing but positive things to report to Mr Jakobs, I assure you.”
“Of course,” Haruki nodded, realising all eyes were on him, and they were afraid. “I take responsibility for the earlier incident, I should not have allowed them to follow a Britney diet.” He saw them visibly relax, and continued, “I will make sure to monitor their food intake more carefully.” He stepped to one side, and began walking into the castle, giving a polite bow of his head. “I’ll go to the observation room, and see how they’re getting on.”
“They’re still being scanned,” the head engineer answered swiftly, wanting to prove her usefulness. “The match will begin once they’re all ready.”
“Fine, fine,” the lawyer replied, waving over his shoulder as he left them standing on the drawbridge. His swift stride carried him through the portcullis, and away from the engineers.
Fariba let out a huge sigh of relief, and she sagged like a deflated balloon animal found a week after a birthday party. This physical response was soundlessly mirrored throughout the group, except for their newest member. The head engineer rounded on Brian, glaring furiously. “What the hell were you thinking?” she demanded. “You don’t make jokes around people like that!”
“Lawyers?” the slightly slower member of the group innocently asked.
“No. Not lawyers,” Fariba replied sarcastically, waving her hand yet again and dismissing the rest of her team. “Well actually, you shouldn’t make jokes around the Triumvirate lawyers either, but especially not around that lawyer.” She leaned in close, and lowered her voice to barely a whisper. “You served?” she asked, although his presence here meant the answer was a foregone conclusion.
“Thirty-Seventh Avionic Engineer Battalion,” he rattled off his unit immediately, standing a little straighter. “Assigned the Illustrious, maintaining the X-7 Raptors, and the old Higgins Orbital Landers.”
“Well even a wrench bender from Ol’Lusty should have heard of the War Rats.” She eyed his youthful face, waiting for the moment things fell into place.
“Pfft,” he derisively scoffed, rolling his eyes. “It may be that I was sent to requisition clear black paint, and I went without question. I might also have spent two hours at the quartermaster's station when I was ordered by the rest of my team to requisition a Long Stand." He shook his shaggy blonde head in disbelief at his earlier naivety. "But, I never fell for those stories." His claim was punctuated with a guffaw of contempt. "Pure propaganda, to keep the systems in line. There's no way that even half the shit they're supposed to have done could be true.”
Fariba’s eyes were wide. Her mouth opened and closed several times as she stared into the stupidity of his youth. “Why don’t you go home for the day,” she gently instructed him, deciding that someone who could stand next to a shark, and not see its teeth, was not a person who should be around apex predators.
—-----------------------------
“It tickles,” Fah’Zi squeaked as he walked through the full body scanner.
“It’s reading your skeletal and muscular structure, and mapping your neural paths,” Penny explained. “Completely harmless, and necessary for the synapse translators to perform correctly.”
“And we just lie in the pods,” Pu’Sha hesitantly asked, looking over to the devices plugged into the wall. “And then we’ll be in the game?”
“Exactly.” The tower assistant was pleased they were paying attention.
There was a vibration felt in everyone’s bones, and Britney replied to Ung, “You’re not allowed to have them at home.”
“That’s right.” Though Penny hadn’t understood the question, the response made the enquiry clear. “Full-dive VR is heavily restricted, due to its highly addictive nature.” Always keen to add context to a rule, so that it was seen as protective rather than punishing, she elaborated; “A long time ago there was a group called the Neo-Utopian Transitioners, who believed humanity’s future was inside the machine. They fully embraced the virtual world, leaving behind automated systems to take care of the world around them." She took a deep breath, rapidly deciding on the best way to end the tale for these school children. "It... didn't end well. To prevent any future mishaps, the Triumvirate set up a strict regulatory body.”
“This thing’s dangerous?” Inaue asked. The small red Yaou was prodding the machine with his prehensile tail. “And you want us to get in there?”
“The machines are perfectly safe,” Britney replied. Choco had told her all about the N.U.T.’s, when he showed her his highly illegal home VR setup. “They just took it too far. Hooked themselves up to life-support systems, and fully lived in their own world.” She smirked as only a child about to reveal a disgusting factoid could. “Even had tubes to remove-”
“Nobody needs all the details,” Penny interrupted.
“I do,” Fah’Zi insisted.
“Fine,” the mischievous young girl relented, skipping the poop-shoot joke for Penny's sake even though the gag was one of Choco's favourites. "Everything worked fine for a long time, and eventually people stopped going round to check on them.”
“Unfortunately,” Penny interjected, once again taking over the narration of this tragic tale, “with everyone in their own world, nobody was performing basic maintenance. The bioreactor tasked with producing many of their key proteins had been running for decades without issue, but a forced update added advertisements, as well as something called a Captcha to stop them and run the program as intended. There was nobody to select which squares contained traffic lights, and so the bioreactor was effectively disabled.”
“I don’t understand many of the things you just said,” Mike249 said, putting into words what was on the mind of all of the students present.
“They starved while pigging out on imaginary food,” Britney bluntly blurted out, as if this was the worst thing imaginable. “Inside their utopia people started going crazy, then vanishing.”
“Prolonged life in VR requires a medical team to bring you out,” the older human explained. “So they were stuck. Unable to escape. Not knowing why their friends, and family, were acting increasingly bizarrely.”
“What the j’rak?” the green-skinned Zilithian, Todd, exclaimed, looking at the pod and then to the humans who were now suggesting they enter this device for fun.
“Humans have to eat very regularly,” Pu’Sha explained to the newer members of their group who had not spent a great deal of time around Britney. “Without food they become less rational, and aggressive. They even have a special word, hangry, and you don’t want to deal with a hangry human.” She spoke with a very serious tone, as if this single piece of advice was a vital life lesson. Finally, with even greater emphasis, she added, “Always keep your human adequately fed.”
“I’m not a pet,” Britney argued. Realising the advice actually worked in her favour she also added, “But, it’s not a bad rule.”
“So, what happened to the V.R. people,” Mike249 asked, a trembling in his voice accompanied the sagging of his worried antennae. “Were they rescued?”
“Unfortunately not,” Penny gently informed him. “It was actually many years before anyone even noticed.”
“Years?” Aekara whimpered.
“How did nobody notice,” Fah’Zi asked incredulously, thinking practically about dead bodies. “Wouldn’t they notice the smell?”
“People died,” the tufty-tailed Emsalio, Li Gorblek, began. “And nobody noticed?” She seemed angry on behalf of these forgotten strangers of another race. “How many?”
“Seventeen billion,” Haruki answered her, as he entered the room. “They had dedicated their entire world to their Neo-Utopia.” He lowered his voice, to make sure they were listening. “Starvation does strange things to our people. Even our brain chemistry alters, and this eventually disconnected them from their VR… forcibly. The shock of reality was enough to kill the lucky ones. The unlucky ones were trapped in their withered, dying bodies. Locked in their pods until they died. Rejecting the real world, and those who lived in it, meant that there was nobody to save them. There’s an important lesson for all of you.”
“Don’t get in that thing,” Inaue guessed, retracting their red tail from the pod it had been prodding.
“Everything in moderation,” Aekara murmured.
“Have a back-up protein thingy,” Fah’Zi said, his hand raised excitedly, hoping to get praise from his senior Sirius comrade.
Britney repeated the mantra Choco had drummed into her as he recounted the story in gruesome detail. “Don’t allow updates on essential equipment without a qualified engineer present. Oh, and VR lovin’ ain’t real lovin’.” She quoted her Erinal teacher directly.
“Not sure that last part is relevant,” Penny said, her cheeks flushing red. “Anyway…” She raised the lid on the first VR pod. “Who’s going first?”
All of the students took a step back, except for two. Britney immediately leapt into the pod. Ung also moved towards the next pod, having a burning passion for human video games.
“Come on,” the energetic blonde human encouraged. “You’re not scared are you?” Her taunts were enough to get Fah’Zi and Li to start moving.
Pu’Sha looked over to where the human in the suit was observing them, and she sighed. Scary stories and indulgent food aside, the humans would never put them in danger. “Fine,” she said, stepping forward. “Come on, Mike249,” she called, waving him to the pod beside hers. “And you, Aekara.” The Verg was already clambering inside her pod when she looked at the nervous newcomers. “You scared to do something the Bubbles are doing?” she asked, taking a cue from Britney in provoking them.
“Never,” the large grey Runuck – Fraskar – grunted, taking a cautious step forward. He turned and glared at the others from the non-bubble classes. “Get in, let’s put them in their place.”
“Oh?” Britney’s eyes glinted happily. “You want to play teams?” She smiled happily. “Fine by me. Six vs six. O.G.’s against Newbies.”
“If you include Ung, there are seven of us,” Mike249 politely corrected his fearless, if forgetful, leader. “Pu’Sha, Aekara, Fah’Zi, Kenra, you and I.” He held up a claw for each name, demonstrating to the human how that added up. “I could join the others? I am always happy to make new friends.”
“Fine,” the human agreed, though she was annoyed to have lost one of her teammates.
There came a high level vibration, accompanied by thunderous drumming; Ung was clapping her hands excitedly. She was on Britney's team! The vibrations continued as the Da descended a reinforced set of stairs and clambered into an enlarged pod that had been sunk into the ground.
The small human listened carefully to her guildmate, then shook her head. "No, this is definitely not a friendly match," the O.G. leader said. Her eyes locked on to Li's fierce gaze and held steady.
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Next

The kid was crossing Park in a crosswalk and the flashing yellow crosswalk lights were on. The kid sprinted across the road and the car in the left lane could not see him because there was a SUV in the right lane blocking her view. Legally, she is in the wrong, but we must teach our kids how to be careful when crossing the roads. 1. Walk in the crosswalk. 2. Stop and look before you enter every single lane to make sure the car sees you. 3. Never assume that the road is clear, people can be distracted, or in this case, absolutely could not see you.
Seeing this was very upsetting, the car came a few feet from crushing his body after he was hit. I will say that he seemed OK before AFD transported him.

April 20: community discussion about our area's creative and cultural future
Our creative future: creating an arts & cultural plan for all.
Thursday, April 20 · 3 - 4:30pm PDT
Bag&Baggage Productions, 350 East Main Street, Hillsboro, Oregon
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/washington-county-community-event-tickets-600780620007
The event is free, but reservations are requested.
Across the greater Portland region and Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, local governments are partnering to engage residents and set the vision for the next generation of arts and culture in our communities.
Text from the web site:
We’re aiming to reimagine how the arts can better serve and represent our changing and growing communities, while helping us build a more creative, equitable, and prosperous future.
Your participation is a vital part of this process. We invite you to join us in a discussion about our creative and cultural future. Topics will include:

• What is the current state of arts and culture in the region?
• What specific opportunities do you see for growth for the arts and culture sector that we need to pay attention to?
• What specific barriers need to be addressed by this plan?
• Do you have specific insight into any issues, policies or strategies we should be reviewing or considering as part of this planning process?
• What is your vision for the creative life of the region?

This community event and discussion group is one of many topic-based peer group sessions being held in the region in February, March, and April. A list of sessions is on the project website and will give you a sense of the scope of the planning process.
This effort is being led by staff from Portland’s City Arts Program; Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties; the cities of Hillsboro and Beaverton; the Metro regional government and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), with additional financial support from Travel Portland, Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District, and the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation.

April 20: community discussion about our area's creative and cultural future
Our creative future: creating an arts & cultural plan for all.
Thursday, April 20 · 3 - 4:30pm PDT
Bag&Baggage Productions, 350 East Main Street Hillsboro, Oregon
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/washington-county-community-event-tickets-600780620007
The event is free, but reservations are requested.
Across the greater Portland region and Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, including Forest Grove, local governments are partnering to engage residents and set the vision for the next generation of arts and culture in our communities.
Text from the web site:
We’re aiming to reimagine how the arts can better serve and represent our changing and growing communities, while helping us build a more creative, equitable, and prosperous future.
Your participation is a vital part of this process. We invite you to join us in a discussion about our creative and cultural future. Topics will include:

• What is the current state of arts and culture in the region?
• What specific opportunities do you see for growth for the arts and culture sector that we need to pay attention to?
• What specific barriers need to be addressed by this plan?
• Do you have specific insight into any issues, policies or strategies we should be reviewing or considering as part of this planning process?
• What is your vision for the creative life of the region?

This community event and discussion group is one of many topic-based peer group sessions being held in the region in February, March, and April. A list of sessions is on the project website and will give you a sense of the scope of the planning process.
This effort is being led by staff from Portland’s City Arts Program; Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties; the cities of Hillsboro and Beaverton; the Metro regional government and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), with additional financial support from Travel Portland, Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District, and the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation.

This incident happened a while back. I was on my way to Bangalore from tamilnadu and the bus (private bus) I was travelling caught on fire in the middle of the night. Everyone in the incident survived with some of us having serious injuries. It's been two months now and I'm finally back on my feet but I'm trying to receive compensation for the materials that I lost in the fire (I lost everything that I had carried with me at the time - phone, iPad, clothes etc). If there is anyone who knows how to claim the compensation for this, please do help me out on this or please do direct me towards someone who can possibly porvide some help.
(I already have the copy of the FIR, bus insurance and my medical record)

i’ve lived in my nyc apartment for a couple months, and asides from this instance, there have been 4 other cockroaches (big, darkishbrown ones) in the kitchen and living room (not all found within a short time frame).
a week ago or so i saw a cockroach under my low table in my BEDROOM. i saw 1 more yesterday and another today this morning (all around the same area under my table/bed which are close to each other). im freaking. the fuck. out. i luckily did not sleep in my room last night but idk where im gonna sleep tonight! i am not sure what to do. like truly on the brink of tears.
i have been super depressed last year and had ur typical depression room from not cleaning my room (lots of half full glasses of water, pizza boxes left in the room for a week, etc.). i also have like 6-8 cardboard boxes from packing that i still have not gotten rid of. i didn’t see anything last year and this year i’ve had the energy to clean up more. this is obv bc of my lack of cleaning and laziness last year but idk why im seeing them NOW (maybe one snuck in and laid eggs and they’re hatching now?)
i put out baking soda and sugar last night but after the one i saw this morning im so so worried its an infestation or there are more. what the fuck do i do? ive been researching but ive just been getting more confused on what to do bc i dont have a clear idea on what kind of cockroach it is. im worried they are german cockroaches which ig basically means i should move out or learn to get comfortable with cockroaches crawling on my while i sleep.
im pretty sure theyre under my bed (i have small storages w clothes and bags) or my low table next to it. if its an infestation would a bomb work well?? if its under the bed/table?

Hello RBI, I request your assistance. 2-3 men were going up and down our block stealing from cars and properties. I am hoping either video (albeit bad video) is enough to at least capture the car model. There is some audio, but don't know how helpful that will be.
This is an edited video attempting to identify the car: https://youtu.be/1hM8h9dPRUk
This is an unedited video of 3 camera’s. First video (Doorbell) shows the most, the other two are really for audio : https://youtu.be/V-0pDE8D4PU
Rough Timeline in AM (real time, not video time)

• 3:50:00 – Car passes house, parks in front of House 111
• 3:50:50 – Car comes to a stop, 2-3 men exit car
• 3:51:02 – Man 1 proceeds onto property of house 111
• 3:51:45 – House 109 Motion Light turns on.
• 3:51:48 – Man 1 walks to 109, Checks two cars in driveway – both locked
• 3:52:02 – Man 1 walks to 106, No cars lights come on, but man 1 is lost in low resolution, blurry video.
• 3:51:30 – Man 2 proceeds to walk to 108 Rosemary Lane, enters Honda civic then 112, walks up driveway
• 3:53:49 – Two men walk fast, jog back to their car parked in front of 111.
• 3:54:10 – Car leaves
• 3:54:21 – Man 2 or 3 pulls the handle on car at 109 rosemary, car honks, and runs off to meet car

I (29f)need advice, please be nice im going through it lol.
My boyfriend (35M)and I met in 2021, we made it official after 2 months of dating. During this time I had a lot going on, I was my father & grandmothers care giver, my dad got diagnozed with a terminal illness. The pandemic was ending , it was time to find a job. Just alot of stress from life.
He was so kind and loving to me in the beginning , but I started getting concerned because I never met his family, and they had no idea i existed. He would stay over my house every day (we both still live with our parents NYC is too expensive). He was included in all my family events, it just hurt that he wouldnt tell his fam about me. Ive let my past traumas, and personal issues get in the best of me.
Ive done, and said nasty things to him. Like I was literally so toxic im ashamed of the scenes and arguments ive caused. I caught him cheating on me with some girl, and tbh I cant blame him I made him miserable. In my defense he wasnt really giving me what I needed when I would have those episodes. I would beg him for date nights or to do cute things during the summer 22 but all he wanted to do was stay in order food and watch tv. Im not kidding like we never did anything.
He claims to still want to make this work, but Im scared because I feel like we broke each others trust. Do you think trust is something that can be rebuilt?
​
BTW: Ive been going to therapy and was prescribed antidepressants to help with my anxiety and issues. Ive been feeling alot calmer and finding coping strategies.

I've (20F) always been self conscious of my weight since I was a kid. Throughout my life I've been normal, overweight, underweight, fit, etc. I struggled with severe anorexia when I was 15-16 (at my lowest I weighed around 38kg), which took me a while to recover from and made me gain up to 60 kg. For context I'm 151 cm or 5 ft tall so 60 kg would put me in the overweight category.
Few years later my weight has fluctuated a lot, from 51 kg to 62 kg in the past 3 years or so. I was my heaviest summer of 2022 at 62 kg, and I did some changes like walking 10k steps a day, eating more whole foods, refraining from eating out contsantly, etc. My weight went down to 56 kg eventually, and I was very satisfied with that slow but healthy progress thinking I could keep going and reach my goal of 45 kg. I don't count calories due to my obsessive behaviour that can make me relapse again.
That's until good old Canadian winter hit.
Canadian winter is brutal and depressing for me. Not only I have clinical depression and am currently under medication, but seasonal depression is also a bitch. I come from a very hot country so I really miss the summer every time I'm dealing with the loooong canadian winters. I can't go out and walk on -20 C weather, holidays approach, taking the bus in the middle of snowstorm sucks, bulky winter clothes make it easy to hide my body, etc.
Oh and not to mention the OTHER struggles I have currently like visa issues, not being able to work legally, not being able to go to university or college, family issues, pressure, stress, financial stress, blah blah blah. I honestly could go on.
I'm in a weird spot in my life where I can't do anything. I do volunteer twice a week but that's pretty much it. I can't afford a gym membership, I can't keep myself busy with hobbies because guess fucking what?? Those cost money too! (like taking dance classes, workshops, indoor sports plus bus pass to take me to those places). The stress on top of my depression, the feelings of being lost in life, feeling behind, hating living at home; it's all making my mental state get worse and worse.
My only comfort is food. I have no one to talk to, no one to listen to me, no one to tell me everything will be ok. Only food fills that empty void I feel every time I wake up, every time I feel like my life is going nowhere, every time I get stressed over any small thing. I just stuff myself and numb those feelings. I have gained back 2 kg already and currently weigh around 58kg, making me feel worse about myself and do what?? Comfort myself with some unhealthy shit.
​
I'm so done. Maybe I will always be an overweight and disgusting person, maybe life won't get better and I will always be alone, but at least I have a wendy's 5 minutes away from my house.

Hello,
I have had my pickup since 2017 and no major issues. It had around 93000 miles. Now has 170k so it’s gotten a lot of driving. I have babies the thing.
Awhile back when it was super cold like -40 windchill it shifted really hard randomly going around 35-45mph. Engine light start flashing. Got it home and the next time I started it up, no lights on at all.
Now I haven’t driven it since then since but today I’ve been driving it lightly to see if it was a fluke. It was driving super smooth. I went to back into a parking stall and it was like grinding and catching. When I turned the wheels and then when I would slightly rev it. I haven’t driven it probably in two months at least so I didn’t know if it was just from that.
I’ve had two friends with 14 Silverado’s who had the transmission go out. There’s were the 8cyl one that switched to 4 tho.
I’m just looking for an idea. I’m not dropping 5 grand into a truck if it is a transmission. Oil checks out and same with transmission fluid.

Hope you have a nice weekend everyone, any ideas on things to do on a second date?? We just did a simple park and coffee chat and stuff the first time, I could’ve done better planning tho, this second one needs to go well, he’s driving from another city so i have to figure the place out, checked my city’s subreddit as well am in Mississauga Canada, am newish to the city and an introvert, so don’t know alot of places, i guess am just panicking looking for help 😅 lol, We like each other and not rushing sex, Any input or advice is appreciated.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-30-2023
The New York grand jury investigating Trump’s 2016 hush-money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels has voted to indict the former president. While we don’t know the full range of charges, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed that they were forthcoming tonight when it released a statement saying, “This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal.”
This is the first time in history a former United States president has been indicted, although it is worth remembering that it is not new for our justice system to hold elected officials accountable. Mayors have been indicted and convicted. So have governors: in fact, four of the past ten Illinois governors have gone to prison. Vice presidents, too, have been charged with crimes: Aaron Burr was indicted on two counts of murder in 1804 while still in office and was tried for treason afterward. And in 1973, Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew resigned after pleading no contest to tax evasion to avoid prison time.
That Trump’s indictment is happening in New York has likely made it harder for Trump to drum up the mobs he has been inciting to defend him. New York City notoriously dislikes the former real estate man. Voters of Tomorrow official Victor Shi was at the Manhattan district attorney’s office this evening and found no one protesting. When people did show up, he tweeted, they were not Trump supporters. They were women carrying signs that said, “‘Trump is guilty’ and ‘The Time Is Now,’” he wrote. “People in the background are chanting, ‘Way to go, ladies!’ NYC is rejoicing.”
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, to whom Trump people feel comfortable talking, said that the Trump camp at Mar-a-Lago is “in…shock” at the news. They thought yesterday’s announcement that the grand jury will go on a break in early April indicated that nothing would happen before the jury reconvened. As Haberman points out, Trump has been afraid of indictments for many years, and while some speculate this indictment might help his political profile (I disagree with that, by the way), he is unhappy to see it finally arrive. He did, though, immediately start fundraising off it.
Trump also released quite a long, antisemitic statement blaming “Radical Left Democrats” for a “Witch-Hunt” and saying this is “blatant Election interference.” House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also quickly reinforced Trump's argument, saying that Bragg had “irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election,” and a number of other Republican officials reinforced that sentiment.
That is quite a position to take. The vote to indict came not from Bragg himself, but from a grand jury made up of ordinary Americans, and none of us knows what’s in the indictment, so one can hardly object to it in good faith.
CNN reporter Melanie Zanona reports that Trump has been working the phones tonight, reaching out to Republican allies to shore up support. Some of them, of course, are trying to discredit Bragg’s work by investigating him. Trump is at his company’s property in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Florida governor Ron DeSantis echoed Trump’s antisemitism and accusations, tweeting that Florida would “not assist in an extradition request.” But Article IV, Section 2, of the United States Constitution says, “A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.”
So either DeSantis is planning to violate the Constitution, or he recognizes that Trump will probably return to New York voluntarily, or—and this is the most likely—he is posturing to pick up Trump voters while secretly rejoicing that this will likely make it harder for Trump to win the Republican presidential nomination. While all eyes were on Trump this evening, paperwork was filed in the Florida Senate to begin the process of revising election laws, possibly so that DeSantis can run for president without resigning as governor, as under current Florida law he must.
But there was something striking about Trump’s statement. In blaming the “Radical Left Democrats” for their “Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement,” he wrote, “You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.”
It's not a list to be proud of, but that wording—“you remember it just like I do”—jumped out. Trump always goes back to what he calls the Russia hoax, his second attempt to rewrite the way people thought about his presidency (the first was the size of the crowd at his inauguration).
From the very start of his presidency, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation caught Trump's then–national security advisor Michael Flynn lying about his contact with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, more and more information has come out tying the Trump campaign to Russian operatives. As it did, Trump insisted that his followers must believe that all that information was a lie. If they believed his lies rather than the truth over the Russia scandal, they would trust him rather than believe the truth about everything.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has given a new frame to Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. A piece by Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times Magazine in November 2022 pulled together testimony given both to the Mueller investigation and the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee, transcripts from the impeachment hearings, and recent memoirs. Rutenberg showed that in 2016, Russian operatives had presented to Trump advisor and later campaign manager Paul Manafort a plan “for the creation of an autonomous republic in Ukraine’s east, giving Putin effective control of the country’s industrial heartland, where Kremlin-armed, -funded, and -directed “separatists” were waging a two-year-old shadow war that had left nearly 10,000 dead.”
In exchange for weakening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), undermining the U.S. stance in favor of Ukraine in its attempt to throw off the Russians who had invaded in 2014, and removing U.S. sanctions from Russian entities, Russian operatives were willing to put their finger on the scale to help Trump win the White House.
Rutenberg notes that Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine looks a lot like a way to achieve the plan it suggested in 2016 but, thanks to a different president in the U.S., that invasion did not yield the results Russian president Vladimir Putin expected. The Russian economy is crumbling, and Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia's Wagner group of mercenaries is "suffering an enormous amount of casualties in the Bakhmut area.” He called it a “slaughter-fest" for the Russians. Today, Putin issued an order to conscript another 147,000 soldiers by July 15.
Pressure on Putin continues to mount. The International Criminal Court’s March 17 arrest warrant against him and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for war crimes apparently caught Russian leadership by surprise. It isolates Russia and worries other Russian lawmakers that they will be charged as well, weakening their support for Putin. “Now proximity to the president isn’t just talk,” one political strategist said, “it’s a real step towards being prosecuted by international law enforcement.”
And President of the European Commission (which is the executive of the European Union) Ursula von der Leyen today warned that as the European Union rethinks its trade policies, China could find itself isolated as well if it continues to support Russia. “How China continues to interact with Putin’s war will be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward,” she said.
Meanwhile, Turkey today dropped its opposition to Finland’s membership in NATO, a membership Finland has pursued in the wake of Russia’s recent aggression. Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia, and now it will be part of NATO.
Under such pressure, Russia today took the extraordinary step of detaining American journalist Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, accusing him of spying. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed deep concern and urged U.S. citizens living or traveling in Russia to “leave immediately.”
Yesterday, another study of the Russian invasion of Ukraine invited us to look backward as well as forward. Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, a government-affiliated think tank, released a report on Russia’s “covert and clandestine operations, psychological operations, subversion, sabotage, special operations and intelligence and counterintelligence activities” designed to destabilize Ukraine and take it over. The report’s focus was on the current war in Ukraine, but as Josh Kovensky of Talking Points Memo notes, it establishes that some of the same people behind the destabilization of Ukrainian politics were part of Trump’s world. Notably, Russian operative Andrii Derkach not only worked to grab Ukraine for Russia, but also escorted Trump ally Rudy Giuliani around Ukraine in 2019 to dig up dirt on Biden.
In the end, as legal dominoes begin to fall, it might be that Americans do not, in fact, remember the history of his presidency from “Russia, Russia, Russia” forward the same way Trump does.
—
Notes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/30/trump-ny-indictment/
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/30/nyregion/trump-indictment-news
https://www.kcra.com/article/what-are-grand-jury-indictments/43380155#
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/magazine/russiagate-paul-manafort-ukraine-war.html
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/03/30/trump-indictment-manhattan-grand-jury-haberman-reaction-vpx.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/lo europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-03-30-23/h_7232bfde62d50e029e99d2a389bf8e46
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-30/putin-orders-to-draft-147-000-conscripts-by-july-15-kremlin
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/4-of-illinois-past-10-governors-went-to-prison/
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-falls-under-the-shadow-of-spiro-agnew
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/7050/?Tab=BillText
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/03/23/like-a-slap-in-the-face
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/31/turkey-formally-approves-finlands-nato-membership.html
https://www.politico.eu/article/eus-ursula-von-der-leyen-xi-jinping-calls-for pop-tougher-policy-on-china-ahead-of-beijing-visit/
https://static.rusi.org/202303-SR-Unconventional-Operations-Russo-Ukrainian-War-web-final.pdf.pdf
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/prime/the-same-russian-agents-who-meddled-in-us-politics-set-the-stage-for-ukraine-invasion
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-economy-is-starting-to-come-undone-431a2878
https://www.state.gov/russias-arrest-of-a-u-s-citizen/
Too much breaking news on Twitter; I’ve gone over my space limit. So, on Twitter:
SecBlinken/status/1641479253874159635
MZanona/status/1641636032939433985
JoyceWhiteVance/status/1641278615122767875
Victorshi2020/status/1641567835448016896
GovRonDeSantis/status/1641575007552778243
ManhattanDA/status/1641579988360019968
meridithmcgraw/status/1641576453333499906
FLVoiceNews/status/1641597435725094912

This post might be triggering
Anyways, it all started when I was walking home from uni. I was minding my own business when all of a sudden this shady looking guy in a beat up Nissan Altima stopped midway in the street to talk to me. I couldn't hear what he was trying to say at first, so I told him to come to the sidewalk and park. However, he ended up parking at a nearby apartment complex and signaled me to cross the street and come to him, which I did. In hindsight, this was a very dumb thing to do, as he was obviously a stranger. Anyways, he asks me what I've been up to and what I do in my free time. I thought this was a very weird question, but I'm a pretty chill guy so I just said I mainly lift and do schoolwork. He responding by asking me if I did any extracurricular activities outside of school and gym, and I responded by saying no.
Then comes the juicy part of the story. The dude asks for me to do a porn scene in a vague way initially, asking if I was interested in a XXX shoot/presentation or whatever. Anyways, I'm not dumb so I obviously read between the lines and knew what he meant, which he confirmed by saying he meant pornography. I was very shocked by this and hastily said no. However, he tried to convince me to do it, taunting and mocking me asking if I'm "gay" or "asexual" and did not want "head" or anything. I continued to say no, and he eventually drove away.
Later when I arrived home, I really thought about that encounter, and how much danger I could've been in, since he could've been apart of a sex trafficking sting recruiting sex workers. I also realized that no matter how much we avoid sexual content in social media, entertainment, video games, and other forms of media, there will always be a way for lust and pornography to tempt us in other ways. Crazy part, this was all on day one, which I really believe was a test for me to see just how serious I am about this nofap and self-improvement journey.

I live in an apartment in Brickell, and I pay monthly to park in our gated garage.
Somehow all of my wheels were stolen from my car this week while inside the garage.
Is my apartment company liable to pay for this? They failed to provide for the security of my car, which I’m paying them for.

This post might be triggering
Anyways, it all started when I was walking home from uni. I was minding my own business when all of a sudden this shady looking guy in a beat up Nissan Altima stopped midway in the street to talk to me. I couldn't hear what he was trying to say at first, so I told him to come to the sidewalk and park. However, he ended up parking at a nearby apartment complex and signaled me to cross the street and come to him, which I did. In hindsight, this was a very dumb thing to do, as he was obviously a stranger. Anyways, he asks me what I've been up to and what I do in my free time. I thought this was a very weird question, but I'm a pretty chill guy so I just said I mainly lift and do schoolwork. He responding by asking me if I did any extracurricular activities outside of school and gym, and I responded by saying no.
Then comes the juicy part of the story. The dude asks for me to do a porn scene in a vague way initially, asking if I was interested in a XXX shoot/presentation or whatever. Anyways, I'm not dumb so I obviously read between the lines and knew what he meant, which he confirmed by saying he meant pornography. I was very shocked by this and hastily said no. However, he tried to convince me to do it, taunting and mocking me asking if I'm "gay" or "asexual" and did not want "head" or anything. I continued to say no, and he eventually drove away.
Later when I arrived home, I really thought about that encounter, and how much danger I could've been in, since he could've been apart of a sex trafficking sting recruiting sex workers. I also realized that no matter how much we avoid sexual content in social media, entertainment, video games, and other forms of media, there will always be a way for lust and pornography to tempt us in other ways. Crazy part, this was all on day one, which I really believe was a test for me to see just how serious I am about this nofap and self-improvement journey.