Around in Circles

As of 9:30 Pacific; If you see anybody telling you Biden has won… They are lying. As things stand now, Trump ONLY has to win PA, GA, and AZ.

In PA there is >.5% difference between the two and A LOT Of questionable votes, especially unverified mail in ones that are likely to get thrown out. and a lot of issues with software counting incorrectly favoring the democrats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTzJTdwyDbo. There WILL be a recount and reverification of votes. Especially “mail in ones”.

GA it’s < .1% difference and they haven't started the military votes yet, which lean heavily republican. Calling this for anybody at this point is a joke, its a difference of a couple thousand votes out of millions.

AZ is not done counting either, and every time they update, the gap between trump and Biden gets narrower, Over night it went from a .9% to a .6% lead for biden, and they are not done counting.

So yeah, the answer is “They have no idea yet who will win” but they are going to tell you Trump stole it, if he does… and that will be total BS.

The US is in HUGE upheaval over the current elections. Why wouldn’t it be? we have Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Both of whom are pretty terrible people.

Donald Trump is egotistical, bombastic, and Shoots from the hip, often saying things that should never be said.

Joe Biden… I don’t even know where to begin, he is suffering from some form of dementia, has a son that is using his father’s influence in other countries politics and filling their pockets off that.

Both are terrible options. but why do we have just two? Most countries have multiple political parties that voters can choose from to pick people they feel best fit their ideology. The answer comes down to money… In the US there are government grants given to those running for office. To get a grant you have to earn a certain percentage of the popular vote. To date, the ONLY parties to exceed that % have been the Democrats and the Republicans.

Because of this, they have had HUGE influence in our country, shutting out all competitors.

So often if you mention that you’re voting third party people tell you ” you’re throwing away your vote!” Which is exactly the opposite of what I am doing. I am showing the world, and myself that voting for somebody of principal and integrity is far more important than being popular. I value my choice. I also have hope that me, and 4.99999% of the rest of the population also vote for that third party, giving us a chance at clawing away some of the power the two current political factions have.

I would like to see a rise and fall of political parties. when something sits around for too long it starts to rot, and stink. and both the republican and democrat parties stink like last week’s fish.

I encourage all of voting age. DO NOT VOTE your emotions! actually look at the people you are looking to vote for, look at their track record, look at what they’ve done in the past, not just what the media tells you they’ve done, but what they’ve ACTUALLY done. Do you agree with that? do you think that is what is best for the country? Also, focus on LOCAL elections. they impact your life so much more than federal election. Take the time, do your research.

I just finished my ballot, I am mailing it in today. It took me 3 days to fill it out. Why? because I took the time to research and look at each person I was voting for, what their policies are, and what their track record is. Did I vote for mainly one party? yes, because for the most part, that party does align with what I stand for and believe in. Did I vote for all the same party? NOPE, there is a mix on there, since some of the people do not have a track record I appreciate. It makes me question what their priorities are.

Good luck to our country. We need it. Too much of our politics is based in hate. Hate of each other, hate of ideas, and hate of change. I hope that that changes.

-AIC

I have been a fan of the production company Rooster Teeth for more than 13 years. I started watching when you still had to download the videos via torrent sites, before youtube even existed. I have watched all of their episodes of RvB, but more importantly, when Achievement Hunter broke out, that really hit the entertainment spot for me. I consume easily 60% of their content. (as a grown man with a family, full time job, and being the youtube star that I am, that is a real accomplishment).

One of my favorite people on that team, for YEARS, has been Ryan Haywood. His dry dad humor, his lack of empathy, and the chaotic neutral energy he bought to the things he was in really made them complete for me. I have gone back and re watched a dozen times all the golf and GTA episodes he has been in over the years.

Today however, I saw the news that he was leaving Achievement Hunter under terrible circumstances. He has been accused of taking advantage of his position of fame to take advantage of others. The claims are very heavy, and I hope are false, but feel for the victims he has created, and the lives he has negatively impacted.

Tonight, I wanted to talk about something I don’t see anybody else talking about though. I’ve seen a lot of support of the victims, a lot of condemnation for the person who has allegedly committed these acts, but I wanted to talk about the roll that Rooster Teeth itself may play in this situation.

First and foremost: I am NOT going to try to justify any kind of behavior, nor am I going to victim blame. I am going to try to view this as impartially and analytically as possible. My purpose is to see what could be the cause of this and what could be done in the future to prevent it from happening to somebody else.

I apologize in advance if my thoughts are scattered. it is 11pm, I am running on 3 hours of sleep, and it has been a long day, just to come across this news. I spent over an hour reading responses and watching video accusations, and I am emotionally frustrated.

Ryan, like all members of achievement hunter was a relative nobody before nearly overnight stardom. I have no frame of reference. I am not well known, I am not popular, nobody recognizes me on the street. But how can it be going from being a complete unknown to having millions of fans? How did his family take it, especially his wife?

My own wife tolerates my online stuff, between youtube, this blog, social media, etc. She barely sends text messages. Technology holds 0 interest to her. I work in I.T., it took her the first 10 years of our marriage to be able to describe what I do to other people (who then rarely understand). My family doesn’t really get it. My parents are too old, my siblings think I should do something better with my time (and they may not be too wrong).

But what little I know about them, I know his wife is a vet, I know she works long long hours. I know he works long long hours. How much of their conversations were about his work? Did she ever listen to him, or pretend to care? or vice versa, did he care much for her work? Did they have healthy forms of communication? I have no idea. I can however relate on some small level to this whole situation… Story time:

This all happened nearly 15 years ago. I was freshly married, my wife and I both worked. I in a call center, she at a bank. I worked nights/weekends, she banking hours. We tried to make as much time for each other as we possibly could, but with opposite schedules, we were often just like ships passing in the night. As I mentioned before, she has NEVER been one to send text, and she almost never reads them. If I were to look at her phone right now there would be literally 100’s of unread text messages from friends and family members. She spent 90% of her day today with no clue where her phone was and couldn’t have cared less. The problem is, with the work she did and the work I was doing, text messages were one of the ONLY ways I could communicate with her on a regular basis. My “lunch” hour was well after she would have gone to bed, and breaks were just long enough to find an available restroom. I would still be asleep when she was on her breaks. It was not easy, especially as newlyweds. At this time there was a girl on my team, We were nearly the same age. We both had worked for the company about the same time and moved through departments at the same time, and had nearly identical shifts. Basically, I saw and talked to her 10x more than I could my wife, we had known each other before I had married my wife, and had become casual friends, but around the time of this story, we had been sat next to each other at work, and we talked. A LOT. We both were going through some issues with relationships for a lot of the same reasons. Different schedules, significant others not understanding the work that we do, financial issues, etc. And all the things I should have been discussing with my wife I was discussing with my co worker. This lead down a bad path very quickly. certain lines were never crossed, but the path was there and open to us. We were able to step back and both requested a schedule and desk change at work. I left that company shortly thereafter for unrelated reasons, but I won’t deny it was a relief to not have to associate with her anymore.

How does any of that apply to What happened with Ryan? A lot. Think about it. I was just a guy at work, and she was just a coworker. We connected on similar issues in life. These people at achievement hunter have millions of fans, fame the likes of I’ll never understand. What preparation have they been given to handle that? People seeing them as idols, people to worship, look up to, to lust after, to idealize. Not only that, they were encouraged, even required to interact with their fanbase through social media. I know Ryan REFUSED to get a twitter account for the longest time. I wonder if he knew it would be a temptation he couldn’t resist?

So now you have adoring fans throwing themselves at you for your attention. How long do you resist for? I know we all would like to stand in our towers and cast judgement. That we would NEVER fall victim to that situation. But I sure did. I fell and I fell hard. I took me years to repair my relationship with my wife. I cannot cast a stone.

Most of the time, famous people surround themselves with others. These people can either help them stay grounded, stay focuses, help them reach goals, and not be influenced by those around them. Their contact with fans is also pretty limited. Usually they have a social media person controlling their online accounts, at least their public ones. Sometimes celebrities surround themselves with the wrong sort of people. A great example of this would be Justin Bieber. He went from being a cute new kid on the singing stage, to a complete out of control asshole. Spitting on fans, peeing in buckets, racing cars while intoxicated, and who knows what else. He had surrounded himself with the wrong sort of people. He fell from grace pretty hard. He then surrounded himself with, what seems to be, the right kind of people and has made a pretty significant comeback.

Unfortunately, Ryan’s situation is not unique with online creators. How many in the last couple of years have done FAR worse? In the last few weeks alone, there have been multiple people on TikTok called out for being pedophiles and accused of grooming. Who do these creators have to surround themselves with? To keep them grounded. To help them no go down paths that they shouldn’t even consider? Their behavior is of course deplorable, there is no questioning that.

I think of it this way. I don’t drink. I never have. I’ve never taken a sip of an alcoholic beverage. I just have never had any desire to. But what if one day, all of a sudden, there was a case of cold beers in my fridge? Not just there, but the pantry, the cupboards, when I open up the dish washer, Ice cold beer. Again I’ve never had a sip, but how long of it being in my face, being welcoming, and attractive before I break and take just a sip?

I can only imagine having the fame that these people do at these online production companies. The number of people who are constantly reaching out, Begging for your attention, praising you, sharing their every life’s detail, talking to you in a way that only two people who are truly close should be talking. Making it so easy for it to be the person you go to when you need to “just talk” or be the shoulder you lean on. How lonely is it for somebody who’s family doesn’t “get it?”

Who do the people at Rooster Teeth surround themselves with? I would say that their coworkers do not count. Anybody else who’s in the same situations as they are, creating content for vast hours of the day, they simply cannot be there to support each other in that way. Does Rooster Teeth have a team that checks up on their creators? Monitors their social media activity? Provide counselling? Helping them to stay grounded, to keep themselves free of the temptations that come along?

At this point, I’m just sad and disappointed in the situation. Ryan, despite being the person I enjoyed most, is just a person, who, whether by accident or design, became famous. I fear that fame was more than he could handle, and he didn’t have, or get the support he needed to make smart decisions. I will miss him, and the chaos he rained. I hope that there is healing for all involved.

-AIC

It is election season here in America right now, specifically presidential election. One of the things that comes along with the election are anonymous polls.

These polls come in many forms-
By mail
By online questionnaire
By phone.

This year I have not received a mail in poll, but I have done both online and over the phone. Normally the questions are very basic, very neutral, and very easy to understand.

But the ones I’ve done this year? OOOOH boy. NOPE, they couldn’t have been more twisted, sideways, and backwards, questions confusing and convoluted.
“On a scale of 1-10 How bad did Trump handle the pandemic”
“On a scale of 1-10 How much better would Biden handle the pandemic”
“Based off of tax code 134411231322 Trump was able to write off all of his income and only pay $1 in taxes. on a scale of 1-10, how bad does that make you feel?”

It’s I guess you can make the polls say anything you want if you ask the right questions.

If you want to know what I think, it’s this: both the democrats AND the republicans in the US have lost the ability to represent the people in the US, They are too long standing, too corrupt, and too powerful. They control the narrative, they control the story. They don’t care about the real truth, they only care about what you think the truth is, so you give them more power and more money (which are one in the same, in a lot of ways). More people need to seriously consider a 3rd party. For the first time in my voting life, a third party is on the ballot in all 50 US states. If everybody who is sick of left and right politics were to vote third party, that candidate would stand a STRONG chance of winning. and that is where my vote is going.