2406 Funshine.

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I need to give grandpa his night pills, but if I get up now I won’t write anything here, so I’ll be brief. Sometimes it seems like people get stuck seeing others as only one thing & forget to realize that every person has different modes they switch from throughout the day, or over the course of a week, month, year, or whatever time frame. Even though Jo has an extreme social anxiety it’s not like she’s always crippled by it. This scene is a window into moments when she’s feeling sassy, safe, & can be on stage. Maybe it’s hormones, or the situation, or some combination of many factors, but for a moment she’s being a little flirty with someone she’s close to & loves on some level. In some ways it’s unfortunate that their relationship is tainted by their working relationship. Of course if not for that work relationship they wouldn’t have the other. It’s one of the millions of tiny struggles we all deal with trying to balance all the time.
Something I struggle with all the time is how to monetize my work in a landscape destroyed by entities like Google & Facebook. My solution has been, & likely will be Patreon, for quite some time, & I’ll have to keep mentioning it forever in order to keep the doors open, so to speak.

14 Comments

I really like when we get to see these two interact on their smoke breaks. They play off so well from each other. It’s always nice to get those glimpses on how they act when neither feels threatened or pressured by someone else. That sort of earnest relaxation you can achieve when you find someone you can bond with over something trivial and over time that leads to deeper understandings of one another.

I don’t know, maybe I’m rambling. But I really like when we’re shown the smoke breaks. I really hope the future holds for us all that same sense of ease this scene does.

I also hope things get better for you, Jackie. Thank you for giving me a moment of reflection over these feelings. It’s allowed me a moment of feeling that placidity vicariously, I think. I hope you get some peace of mind and heart soon too.

Jackie, I recognize their supreme right to smoke where it doesn’t impact others.
Me aud Dad smoked, he got emphysema and I got the results of second hand smoke, so I cringe when they have smoke breaks.
BUT! (Cigarette butts aside) the interactions that these two have IS amazing, and Jo is just the best character, often the most revealing, … and I can’t decide who is more honest with the others and themselves, Thomas or Jo. Imma leaning towards Jo.
And your punchlines for the last four pages has been off the charts!

I have worked places where, in order to find out what was really going on, the place to hang out was the designated smoking area. Company owner or mailboy, everyone who smoked had to use it, they all got friendly as a result they shared gossip, but which I mean news of what was going on.

Absolutely. Different workplaces have a different mix of people who use the smoking area, but I learned fairly early on in my career to take non-smoking breaks when somebody I wanted to talk to wanted to go for a smoke break.

To be clear, I do mean break, so I was absolutely not there to talk about whatever I wanted to talk with them about. I was an outsider to the smoking area, both in my attempts to dance around where the smoke was and in my being there at all, so I did not control the conversation and did not attempt to do so. But one still managed to learn a lot of interesting things out there, and somebody who might see one as an adversary at first may be less inclined to do so after spending a break with them. I’m pretty visibly on the autism spectrum, so I’m not really sure if I showed them I was human, but I did my best to show them I wasn’t against them.

Not being able to take non-smoking breaks is one of the downsides to being on permanent telecommute. However, I’m farther along in my career now and I’m generally the people that others want to interface with to make things happen on my team rather than one who interfaces with other teams to make things happen there. Probably the last half dozen or so non-smoking breaks I took were to take a break with somebody who wanted to talk to me rather than the reverse. I’m also older now and less sound of body, so not going out into the cold and wet is definitely appreciated.

I agree with your point about the smoking. It absolutely kills the smokers and those who are close to them. I guess I enjoy when we see Jo and John’s smoke breaks despite the smoking, just as you seem to do.

Your point about Google and Facebook is valid. So much so that entities like The Trade Desk are emerging to offer an alternative.

Google destroyed the best job I ever had. Not the best paying, but the one with the best bunch of co-workers, certainly.

had to jump in from my usual business and pain (currently having a major spinal problem, news at 11) to say I am digging this interaction. Reminds me so much of myself, feels so real, so tangible, it’s not even funny. Except it is. It’s hilarious, I definitely recommend.

Also, though I am on medical leave from work at the moment, I… might pitch in for patreon. You need it more than I do, no matter what my lovely loved ones might say.

it seems I can’t. I’ve tried on multiple accounts on multiple pages, this computer won’t let me access your patreon. I’ll try again later? Another device, perhaps?

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