WEBVTT - Thank You For Your Patience, Ft. Rebecca Campbell 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.280 Harrison starts the episode and I don't trust Robert today. 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:09.640 You want me to start? I don't trust Robert today. 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.000 It's time, Garrison, it's time for you to learn. Wow, 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.120 my advice is a tonal shrieking. I am not doing that. 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.120 Everyone's gonna be like, oh, Garrison's just copying Robert's tone 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.439 and cadence. You mean you mean they're making sounds with 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:26.880 my mouth. Yeah, that's that's how. That's how, that's how 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:32.760 communication works. Start the episode with that and trigger everybody 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.920 like me. You use a microphone, it's very real. Yeah, 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:44.720 you thieve we're recording. Let's let's do this. Hey, it's 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.800 time for stories. We love. We love stories here at 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.000 Etiquet Happen Here pod the podcast about how things are 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.239 kind of falling apart and too maybe some ways to 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.360 put them back together. Um, I'm Garrison. I'm starting this 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.960 episode today. I'm not sure why roberts here. I'm real hungover. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.520 Robert is real hung because I didn't trust Robert to 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.560 do his job today. But I trust you, Garrison. You 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:08.920 didn't really not trust me to do my job. I know. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.960 That's that's that's fun. We also we also have Christopher 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:23.920 here and and we have uh writer Rebecca Campbell. Hello, hey, 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:29.039 and uh, why don't you briefly explain who who you 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:33.920 are and what what's what's going on today? Okay, Well, 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.840 I'm a Canadian writer and sometimes I'm a teacher, but 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.760 mostly I just write really sad stories about climate change 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:46.040 and ghosts and aies and near future stuff like that. Um. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.840 This story I'm reading is called thank You for Your Patients. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.480 It came out and Reckoning for I guess last year. 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.000 And uh, it's based on my partner's time when he 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.600 was working in a call center and the kind of 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.840 nightmares stories that I heard from them every time he 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.120 home from work. But it's also about me being on 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:04.920 the other side of the country from the part of 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:06.360 the world that I love the most, which is the 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:11.040 Pacific Northwest. Um. And you know, watching Fukushima a few 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:15.519 years ago and watching wildfires a few weeks ago, and um, 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.600 being separated from the things that are important to you, um, 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:23.680 as they're all falling apart. Well, I'm just excited that 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.639 this podcast is now two fifths Canadian, so that's that's 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:31.400 the main thing I'm excited about. Uh. No, oh my god, 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:33.959 I just a tim Horton's cup just appeared next to me. 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:38.079 It's terrible donut home I have I do have a 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:43.120 Tim Hortons cupt in my kitchen. Um, anyway, let's uh, 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.040 let's let's let's start this, start this, start this reading, 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.120 Let's eat this popsicle stand as they say a thing, 0:02:51.800 --> 0:03:07.880 Let's continue, Let's let's eat this. Okay, thank you for 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.760 your patience. I'm lucky because they replaced a bunch of 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.280 chairs last month and I got a new one. A 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.320 good chair is important when you spend ten hours a 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.000 day in a cubicle talking to strangers about their problems. 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.120 I've been here three years and worked on most of 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.560 Western Morgan's services, which means I can, with no thought, 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.760 help grandma set up her WiFi, or troubleshoot banking software, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.160 or set up your cell phone plan, or help you 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.920 with some app designed to find your soulmate that nevertheless 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.520 feels you with hopelessness. I can't help you with the hopelessness. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.400 It's nonstandard, but I'm Western Morgan's floater, and Jordi, your 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.840 Kirsty just dropped me. Where the calls are heavy or 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.960 turnover as high. On Twitter, I can answer questions within 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.800 five seconds of some asshole in Toronto saying, what the 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.280 fuck my TV doesn't see the house network, and I respond, 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.360 I'm sorry to hear that Toronto asshole. Let's see if 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.360 I can help. I'm at possible to rile because I've 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.680 heard everything, every possible stupid question, every strange request regarding 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.960 lapsed policies and mispayments, every paranoid rand, every sort of 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.720 impotent rage. The management is shitty and the customers are irritable, 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.640 but there's beauty and problem solving. The really bad stuff 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:20.720 started at the end of last month, when I had 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:22.960 to do on one on one majority team lead for 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:25.880 the floor. I've been fielding a bunch of questions regarding 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.800 a recent patch that had broken everything. I had this rhythm, 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.279 hitting my thirty second age T and typing without thinking, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.200 Mark here, how can I help you? But one on 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.520 one is mandated interruptions, So I listened to Geordy brainstorm 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.360 about improving morale. They stopped having barbecues because it was 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:47.119 too expensive, even when the burgers were sawdust and soy. Also, 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.080 no one wanted to be outside because Detroit was still burning, 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.159 and the PPM up to something like Beijing. Listen to 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:59.279 this Western Morgan idol. Jordy told me we judge three 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.280 of the top right calls, and we have a thing 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.840 and someone walks away with a Timmy's gift card like 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.640 fifty bucks. Jordi said that like it was a good thing. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.560 What about a key fob? I asked, we can't get 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.160 out with what without one? After hours? But only management 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.200 could hold or the winner gets to wear Janes or 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.440 keep their phone for a shift. That didn't write an answer. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.440 The most frustrating thing about Western Morrigan is that team 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.120 leads have to hold your phone like you're an untrusted 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.800 teenager who's been grounded. I feel like I'm lost in 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.680 a cave or a space station. When I do a 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.800 lot of overtime. I arrived when it's dark, and I 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.240 leave when it's dark. And while sometimes I go around 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:41.000 the corner for coffee or McNuggets, it always feels like 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.960 I'm just visiting the world. I don't know what's happened, 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:45.920 if a government's fall on, or if an ice shelf 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.680 has collapsed, if Detroit is burning again, or maybe California 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.400 or the Great Lakes are dying at a slightly faster 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.440 rate than they were before I left for work, never 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.120 knowing what's going on outside. I sit in my good 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.400 chair and say that sounds frustrating to everyone, no matter 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.400 who's talking or what they want. Let me see if 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:11.000 I understand your problem. You could judge, Geordie, Stead said, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.279 still talking about Morrel. You're impartial. You hate everyone. I 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.719 don't hate everyone, Georgy, I said reflexively, though, to be fair, 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.520 I hate a lot of people here. After my mandated 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.800 fifteen minutes with Jordy, I saw that Misty had a 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.279 problem with my documentation, which has been rough since they 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.360 changed policy on me. She's in the Philippines, where most 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.080 of the real work happens. Upper management is all in India. 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.520 They only have us because they need Canadian accents on 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:38.880 the phones, and they get tax breaks bringing jobs to 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.960 one of the more desolate parts of the country down 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.640 when from Detroit, rampant West Nile and of the province's 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.760 heavy metals processed at the plant out by the ball 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.440 of the baby's born. Here are girls something to do 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.680 with residual b p A. Misty is on the other 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.800 side of the Pacific in Lagaspi. But you think she 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:04.200 was right here considering how aggressively. She organizes us your 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.440 ship at filling out forms. Mark the rite up is 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.000 going to kill your rank. We're stack ranked. Every shift 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.720 it gets you points you can redeem. You can redeem, 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.880 which honestly is worth it for the grocery store gift cards. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:21.880 Just tell me what I did wrong, Lagaspie. We were 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:24.080 in the middle of a rough month. The flu hit 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.280 everywhere at once, and no one could afford to lose 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:28.200 the work, so we had a bunch of people come in, 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.360 sick coughs and juicy sneezes all over the floor, and 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.000 half the time you got on the elevator and everyone 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:38.080 was gray faced and weaving. I came in over the 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.760 weekend to cover Mobile because they lost half their staff, 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:42.760 so I'd been on for eight days by Monday, when 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.360 Jordy was manic trying to call people in so he 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.760 wouldn't have to go on the phones. He always says, 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.560 when we're smoking outside and he's pointedly not looking at 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.040 the place where the gam building used to be, It's 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.480 not the extra fifty cents an hour, it's the fact 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.920 I don't have to deal with people. He hated taking calls. 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.800 He offered me overtime so I started coming in at 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.200 six and leaving at ten, and I didn't even notice 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.560 the weekend. I do remember going home those nights and 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.840 thinking how hollow my room felt with my roommates playing 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:13.920 Call of Duty in the living room, and how my 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:18.440 body seemed to vibrate caffeine maybe your pseudophedan. I heard 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.480 phantom time warnings and chimes, and when I closed my eyes, 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.120 I could see the screen and call after call flooding 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.760 the queue. By Saturday, Western Morgan was a haunted house, 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:32.400 but I still wasn't sick. That sounds frustrating. Let me 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:37.200 see if I can help. I was dealing with this 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.160 woman on Vancouver Islands who couldn't generate invoices. We'd been 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:42.720 at it for two hours and I could feel her 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:44.839 getting upset when I told her to wipe the whole 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:47.000 system and start again. I could help her with that, 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.320 but she was like, no, we'll lose two weeks of work. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:51.760 There's nothing I can say to that, so we keep 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.160 troubleshooting even though it's pointless. Okay, I said, you can 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.680 go back to your route invoice and try. Oh, she 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.480 said what, And that was it. I didn't hear anything 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:04.640 but the line itself, which just went dead, that kind 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:06.880 of absence you get when someone hangs up on you. 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.240 Are you there, ma'am? I called back, but I got 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.160 a reorder tone, not voice mail or an old fashioned 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.840 busy signal, but the one that means the whole system 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:21.199 is busier, blocked or down. I dropped out of the 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.560 queue then, which you're not supposed to do, obviously, and 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:25.960 went looking for Jordy, who was chatting with Kirsty about 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.040 Western Morgan idol. I asked if they knew anything, but 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:30.559 of course they didn't. And when I asked if I 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.520 could at least grab my phone to see what was happening, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:37.040 Kirsty did a kind of elementary school teacher sigh. Documentation 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:42.599 for three eight zero your overdue mark. Collar dropped. I 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.440 saw that explanation happening across the board. Looks like the 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:50.880 problems at their end. I didn't find out until Moe 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.120 came back from Brake Street to wet in the way 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.600 you are if you run out into that rain blowing 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:57.600 in from Detroit because you don't want it to touch 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.320 your skin, saying earthquake on the West coast, You know 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.719 anyone out there? I thought about the woman trying to 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:05.920 get the invoice together for a tiny order of sea 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.640 salts from some equally tiny place on Vancouver Island. Her 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.719 business so miniscule it's still fit into our cheapest subscription. 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.079 In my unsubmitted documentation for Misty, I had written that 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.240 her voice sounded like a hopeful but slightly overwhelmed great 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:25.600 aunt trying to make the remote control work. No one, 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.640 how bad like nine point six, the worst since forever, 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.960 like for hundreds of years, Jesus, I said, Jesus, Jesus, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.319 I've had similar moments on calls. When the shooting happened 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.920 in Montreal, not View ma Real, but the one with 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.840 the kids ran downtown from McGill and the photographer caught 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.040 the girl as the bullet tour at her right kneecap. 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:48.079 I was on the line with this dick wad in 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.800 a coworking place on Maisonneuve, who was talking, who was 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.280 asking to talk to my supervisor? Then midwine, he stopped 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.360 talking like he suddenly didn't care about my attitude. I 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.719 could hear his phone pinging, sir, are you there? Can 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:04.400 you hear that it's happening on the street. I can 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.160 see a faint popping, voice raised and doors slammed. Then 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.960 he cut the call. I kept in the queue. I 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.280 helped someone update, I did a subscription renewal. The next person, though, 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.040 needed a backup, and that took forever. So we chatted 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.600 about hockey until she said, did you hear about Montreal? No, ma'am, 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.040 I said, thinking about the sound I may be heard 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:29.160 before his phone cut. Firecrackers, backfires. Some guy shot up 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.680 the whole downtown. I think it was terrorists, who knows, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.640 fl Q or Muslims, maybe Red Power fifty dead, but 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.120 it was going up every single time ever fresh the page. 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.400 She kept going on like this while we did a backup, 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.760 and then I made sure everything worked. And it had 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:45.680 been like three hours at that point, and I kept 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:47.920 thinking of the guy in his silence and what was 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:49.800 going on in the streets while we talked about his 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.160 log in and how unprofessional I was. I don't have 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.280 any friends in Montreal. I went there once to drink 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.719 when I was eighteen, but that's it. I just had 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.880 that guy and the thump of footsteps fleeing the coworking space. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:04.400 When I took my break, the rain was falling again, 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.120 the faintly gray kind that runs down the sidewalks and 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.520 the gutters, and when it builds up enough you can 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.840 see it's a little milky because it's full of ash. 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.280 If you think too hard about what's running into your 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.800 eyes as you stand outside smoking until your pack is empty, 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:21.400 you go eat a twenty four box of tim Bits 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.880 or six Big Max, or you stopped for one beer 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:25.840 on the way home, and only leave when they push 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.280 you out the door. Geordie was outside. I gave him 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:31.720 a cigarette, even though he doesn't smoke either, and he said, 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.160 it doesn't seem to be getting cleaner. Wasn't it supposed 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.160 to get cleaner. He grew up in Detroit, though he 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.920 was already over here when it burned last year. Maybe 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.520 it's safer. The ham is worse. I thought the ham 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:45.080 was supposed to go away. When they sent in the 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.800 cleanup cruise. We watched the warm, ash colored water run 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.760 down the gutters until it was ankle deep. This city 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.800 is a wetland, and there isn't far for water to go, 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.600 so it ends up in people's basements. All that ashy, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:03.040 bony water unning through foundations and drains, a constant trickle 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.800 in the background, sort of like the faint pop you 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:07.720 might hear while you're on the phone with a guy 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:12.199 from Montreal wants to talk to your manager. Does it 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:18.240 feel Jordy said, and lit another cigarette. What Jordy I 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.719 hate how often he doesn't finish his sentences. Does it 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.920 feel like it's happening more? Now? The sort of thing. 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.360 I dropped my smoke into the rain water and I shrugged. 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.079 Then I said I wish I knew what to tell you, 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.280 which wasn't a real answer, and I used my tech 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.600 support voice when I said it, because I didn't want 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.880 to have that conversation. On my first break after the earthquake, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.440 I smoked and watched the rain and videos on my phone. 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.360 Someone live streaming the moment it hit bored talk about 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.040 food or weather, than a strange look on their face, 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:53.680 their eyes dart upward. Then the phone falls overhead. Footage 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:58.880 from helicopters of downtown Vancouver, all those green towers swaying 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.080 and falling, and the bridge swinging until the cable snap 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:06.120 like rubber bands, the worst in recorded history, worse probably 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.680 than the last megathrust in seventeen hundred. I just kept 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.079 thinking of that woman and the sort of quiet shock 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.920 in her voice her, Oh is that? And then nothing, 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.080 and I was standing out in the rain, still warm, 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:20.960 when it occurred to me that I might have heard 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.760 her last words. I kept thinking about the texture of 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.640 the silence after the call dropped, and what had happened 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:28.880 the moment after that, if that had been the worst 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.960 of it, the shock of the whole world rumbling, or 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:33.920 if it had been worse for her after that or 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:39.120 right now or tomorrow. I only had ten minutes because 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:41.840 call volume was increasing. My throat started to tickle in 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.800 the world just suddenly out of nowhere, started to look glassy. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.200 The light thick from the ceiling squares, and my skin 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.600 prickled when I ran my hands over my arms, which 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.800 were covered with goose bumps. The floor was nearly empty 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.760 except for Jority running around supervising and not taking calls, 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.160 and the cue was packed. My first call was round 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.040 way north along the coast Prince Rupe heard a woman 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.840 calling about a password reset. I want Mark, she said, 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.200 he helped me before. Can I talk to Mark? While 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.160 I was documenting, I thought, fuck it, I'm gonna tell 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.320 Misty what the old woman told me while we were 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.200 waiting for the password reset email about how when you're 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.400 that far north, you don't notice time passing, and you 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.880 feel good in an unimaginable way in summer, luminous and hopeful, 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.520 and how in winter all you want to do is 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:25.880 die and drink yourself into a coma. So you know 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:32.880 it balances out. After that, I reopened three zero. An 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.160 elderly woman, I wrote on a phone, trying to print 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.360 invoices for locally produced sea salt, looks over at the 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.000 rack of glass jars in which she keeps her stock 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.520 because she hears a rattle, then another. Then she says, oh, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.800 is that and nothing else, because at that moment, the 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.400 force of rashimas lit the Cascadius abduction zone, on which 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:57.080 Vancouver Island rests like a cork in a bottle. Centuries 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:02.160 of continental tension released. I type that, then I hit send. 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:04.800 Then I added a secondary note on her file. At 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.680 eight thirty two p s t A nine point eight 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:12.320 hit the Cascadia subduction zone, and Misty was right there 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.040 on chad hive, not telling me it was inappropriate. She wrote, 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.400 rest their souls, and I was comforted by those temporary words, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:22.960 which surprised me. My grandparents were on minda now in 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.560 the nineteen seventy six earthquake, You got anyone there? No, 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.920 I heard the hum from Detroit. It was somehow a 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.560 relief to know that across the world, Misty was in 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:38.640 a similar room among people evaluating documentation for apps and 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.320 I s p s and accounting software. People saying that 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.280 must be frustrating. Let's see if I can help. Something 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:49.480 occurred to me. Do you hear anything about tsunamis no 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.800 word so far? Do you have your phones? You can 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:55.440 get the alerts. They'll let us know we're so bad. 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:57.080 I'm taking calls, so I won't be fixing your dog 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.080 until tomorrow. I wondered if Kirsty would let us know, 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.000 or if she would dither about it until all we 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:04.919 could do was climbed to the top floor of the 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.240 building and watch a way consume what was left of 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.639 Detroit before it swamped us to five more calls, and 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:12.680 I refilled my water bottle, the one with the slogan 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.800 on it fueling small business with the tools to succeed 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.480 that some now lost Western Morgan contract brought in. And 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.359 I was looking at my skin reflected in the sink, 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:23.560 which was the color of those pale, lumpy smokers. You 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.119 see outside the entrance the color of a raw filet 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.800 o fish. I felt adrenalized, like a moment before it'd 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.600 been terrified, but I could not remember how or why. 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.000 I wondered what it was doing to me inside. All 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.480 those cells now remade into virus factories, turning to goog 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.520 and wash and sloughing off while the virus proliferated through 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.040 my system, and I left traces of it on everything 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.879 I touched. The water ran over the top of the 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.120 bottle clear. So far the ash hasn't worked its way 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.200 in through the city's water system, or maybe it has, 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.840 and it was invisible like the microplastics in the lake. 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.320 So you're gonna judge it, was Jordy. We're gonna do 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:04.359 it next week. I was thinking, we set a time limit, 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.600 like five minutes, you and me and Kirsty judge it. 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.359 I'll grab a fifty for the Timmy's card too, man, 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.680 I said. Georgie just stared at me. You're getting sick. 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.040 You know what you need to do. He went on 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.399 about ekenesia and flu effects, and I thought about the 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.400 tsunami that was or was not traveling across the Pacific, 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.119 or just hammer your system with antioxidants to take a 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.639 double dose of night quill. Without thinking, I pulled my 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.600 phone out of my pocket. You know you can't have 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.880 that anywhere on the floor. I was already googling Pacific 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.280 tsunami alert, and it was rolling rainbows, and I stared 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.280 at it so hard that it seemed to take over 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:39.639 the whole world. And then I shivered. But Jority was 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.200 still talking, don't make me write you up. I don't 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.720 want to deal with it, okay, I said, It's about 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.000 privacy for our users. They need to know that they 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.480 can trust our integrity, our word, and our system. The 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.320 poster on the far side of the break room said integrity, 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.280 word and system. I saw that the alert had been 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:00.040 issued for Japan. That's when he took my phone. You 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:01.879 fucked the dog. I have to write you up. I 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.880 don't want to write you up Japan. And six hours, 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.479 eight pm I'd still be on. Then, while very far away, 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.040 a wave crested on the sea coast, filling the river 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:20.199 basins and the car parks. I know you don't have 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.639 to surrender your phone, even if they can require you 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:24.800 to leave it at home. I know they're not supposed 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:26.920 to lock you in either or let you smoke within 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.439 three ms of the door, even when the ashes falling. 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.119 They're not supposed to pay you in points. You can 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:34.840 then exchange for grocery store gift cards, which you need 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.040 because the new minimum wage wasn't even covering rent. But 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.960 I needed a job. The next call I got was 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.439 farther south, closer to the epicenter. The first thing I 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:46.800 did was asked about the earthquake. Oh, we felt it, 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.280 and there's a tsunami warning. But we're far enough inland 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.960 it shouldn't be tsunami warning. So when I go try 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.720 to log in tsunami, I keep getting the same error. 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.199 It says my accounts frozen. What does that mean? I 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:00.440 need to do some invoices And yeah, I just got 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.280 the text like half an hour ago. Landfall is like 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.000 an hour. The account was frozen due to misspayments. So 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.520 I pointed that out and the guy insisted no. He 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.720 set up an automated transfer, and he kept me on 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:12.920 the line while he chatted with the banks tech support 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:15.600 on another line to sort out the direct deposit, and 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.480 then I reactivated his account. All this time the tsunami 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.720 traveling towards the coast or the shallower bottom would raise 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.280 the waves height by narrowing its length. Because the last 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.399 time I'd been outside, I'd looked at a gift on 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:30.080 Wikipedia that demonstrated how tsunami's crest as they traveled through 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.879 shallow waters. The last thing he said wasn't thanks it 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.359 was there. It is. The tide's going way out. I 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.240 hope everyone's out of downtown. Then he was gone, and 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.600 I can imagine it, the water running away from the 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.800 shore like a huge exhalation and then collecting into a 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:49.000 rising wave that would destroy them all the tsunami warning 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.840 I wrote in chat hive, hoping Misty was there. Kirsty 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.679 responded instantly that is not appropriate. Chat hive is for 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.359 important work stuff. We haven't heard anything, but we were swamps, 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:01.000 so who knows what's going on outside. Chat Hi channel 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.360 will only be used for appropriate business related business. Maybe 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.199 you should get out. Chat hi channel will only be 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:12.800 used for appropriate business related business. I've been there for 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:15.399 sixteen hours and I couldn't remember the last time I 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.840 slept a full night at home when I hadn't been 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.359 buzzed on cold pills in exhaustion and the sound of 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.160 call of duty from the living room that week when 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.359 I did sleep, I kept saying, this is Mark from Magnicore, 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.120 or this is Mark from wherever I am right now, 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:32.680 and heard explosions and the way voices carry over the 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.920 river from Detroit, the screams and the crowds and the gunshots. 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:38.720