Beck bro jack

My name is Jack and I am a Physician Assistant who currently works in emergency medicine. I would describe myself as an individual with a passion for medicine who has an insatiable entrepreneurial drive. While I thoroughly enjoy my current position, I have been considering a career change to medical device sales. TBH, the opportunity for growth as a PA can be stagnant. During my healthcare career, I have had extensive exposure to the world of medical sales (orthopedics, trauma, cardiothoracic surgery, general surgery) and have worked directly with many sales representatives. I like many of the sales representatives I worked with: am a well-spoken, charismatic, driven individual who possesses the ability to form interpersonal relations effortlessly. I have been told by many colleagues (in an endearing way) that I belong in ortho. I do come off as a "Chad" being tall, and well-built, and love all the chad stuff (Big football guy, can bench 225, says bro.. you get the picture). All joking aside, I am highly educated with a bachelor's in kinesiology and master's in medical science (my PA program). While I have no previous sales experience, I believe that my medical expertise combined with my social ingenuity could be the foundation of a successful medical sales career. I understand that not having sales experience could make my barrier to entry difficult. I do have friends who work at some of the bigger names in med sales and they said they could make something happen. Would love some feedback from non-baised individuals to tell me the things my friends will not. What are my potential pitfalls and how do I navigate this transition? What are the most lucrative fields for med device sales? I understand that I may have to work as an associate for a while to gain sales experience. I was considering the idea of working part-time as a PA to adjust for the probable salary cut that I would most likely have to take.

Hi - as someone who loves the band and who likes to write, I decided to do long-form writeups for all their albums. I know we live in tl;dr culture, but I hope you'll take the the time to read. Today, the band's third record, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan.
Previous Write-Ups:
Get Up And Jump: Thoughts On The Eponymous Debut
Look At That Turtle Go, Bro: Thoughts On Freaky Styley
​
Listing a band's best albums is a subjective thing. Listing a band's most important albums is less subjective, because it's not about good or bad, but rather about what role said albums play in the band's career, what albums matter more in the story of the band's career. The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, the Chili Peppers' 1987 junior effort, will always stand as one of the band's most important albums - despite being less popular than later works - for one simple reason: it lives in the shadow of Hillel Slovak's untimely and tragic passing, the sad culmination of the early part of their career and the peak of their drug use as a band.
The Freaky Styley sessions under the leadership of George Clinton had been a drug-fueled party, and it seemed like the band was initially hoping their next album would go the same way. According to Wikipedia, they chose Public Image Ltd's Keith Levene, also a user, to be the producer, and he and Hillel put aside $2k of the $5k budget EMI had allotted for drugs - that's nearly half the damn budget - without telling the rest of the band. The resultant discord within the group led to Cliff Martinez parting ways with the band and Jack Irons making a surprise return.
This was the time period where Anthony almost got fired once or twice. His drug-use was so heavy as work on the album started that he apparently really couldn't function at all. He ended up going home to Michigan to attempt rehab for the first time at the band's behest, and the sessions fell apart. After a month in rehab, he returned to LA sober, writing the lyrics to "Fight Like A Brave" on the way home. Anthony fought threw withdrawal as work on the album restarted, but celebrated fifty days of sobriety by getting high, and just like that, he was off the wagon.
The relationship between the band and Michael Beinhorn has never really been portrayed as a smooth one. It seems that their partnership was a sort of arranged marriage on the part of EMI. The label just wanted the band to get the album - any album - done. It was a very different personal relationship than the one they'd shared with Clinton. Whereas Clinton maybe came off like a "cool" teacher, Beinhorn's role seemed to be more like a babysitter trying to get unruly children to behave. Some quotes from Beinhorn himself:
"Though their music all seemed kind of abstract, there was definitely an excitement to it. I thought they needed a lot of arrangement help ... I also quickly learned that [executives] at the record label actually hated the Chili Peppers, like openly reviled them so bad that they didn't even want them to succeed. It was the weirdest thing."
"It wound up turning into a seven or eight-month ordeal of uncertainty and frustration. We got spread thin very, very fast on the money the record label allocated us. This was a crazy, crazy record. That it even came out at all is a miracle considering the diverse personalities."
Musically, Beinhorn steered the band toward a heavier sound, which ended up being a good fit with what the band was writing. On Freaky Styley, Hillel had largely been playing material that the band had written with Jack Sherman and with Clinton's help. This time, Hillel and the band were, for the first time, creating all of an album's material together from the ground up. Instead of the danceable funk that characterized much of Freaky Styley, this new material was reflective of Hillel's creative vision, his desire to mix funk, punk, metal, and Hendrix-ian riffage together in a cocktail of his own. Make no mistake, this is Hillel's record through and through. He was the driving creative force on this record.
He shreds on this thing like John shredded on Stadium Arcadium. Fight Like A Brave's solo has a sort of polished hard rock sheen to it, reminiscent of 1970s Aerosmith(in fact the whole song evokes Walk This Way). Me And My Friends contains a hair-metal-flavored solo(that's not an insult) that appears to have the effect of panning from the left channel to the right and back and forth(don't know if that was intentional, but it's definitely there). Backwoods and Walkin' On Down The Road contain solos that are more bluesy in nature, and Organic Anti-Beat Box Band's solo feels closer to metal again. So he's coming from a few different angles here, and going hard all the time.
Aside from the soloing, there's that nasty riff he plays during the bridge of Special Secret Song Inside('Let me shine your diamond' etc). That siren-like thing he does at the end of No Chump Love Sucker. The punk rock stuff he's doing for the last minute of Love Trilogy(that song is Flea's song until that point, but then Hillel takes over), and then ending with those last few soft chords. All those funk licks in Funky Crime and Subterranean Homesick Blues, the most Freaky Styley-ish tracks on the album. And the way he goes a bit nuts at the end of Organic Anti-Beat Box Band. He's everywhere.
And then there's his dual guitasitar performance on Behind The Sun, which was based on a riff he created while jamming. He's so good on both instruments, he plays them off each other and creates such a warm, psychedelic, happy, trippy atmosphere for the song's melody to float around in. It is truly a creative breakthrough for the band, like they accidentally stumbled into a wormhole to their future, to something that was ahead of themselves. It sticks out a LOT from the rest of the album(it's honestly closer to By The Way than Uplift, like you could totally imagine it coming after Dosed, Zephyr Song, and Midnight and not sounding out of place) and is highly suggestive that, had Hillel lived, the band would've still found their way to the alternative rock zeitgeist of the 90s.
There's a quote on Wiki that I feel really captures Hillel's energy while making the album:
"Slovak helped Kiedis record his vocals on the album. In between takes, Slovak ran around the studio out of excitement and said, 'This is the most beautiful thing we've ever done.' He reflected on his deep connection to the album in his diary, saying, 'It was so fun. I'm so extremely proud of everybody's work—it is at times genius.'"
Anthony starts showing some growth as a songwriter here, too. I mean, I think he'd show a lot more growth on the next couple of albums, and on the whole the songwriting isn't too compelling yet(many of the album's best moments are just in Hillel/Flea/Irons' playing), but there's about four songs that represent probably the best writing of his career so far; Fight Like A Brave, written during his first brief attempt at sobriety; Behind The Sun, for it's beautiful, innocent imagery; Walkin' On Down The Road for that groove in its verses(this is the most underappreciated track on the record), and Organic Anti-Beat Box Band for its general sense of camaraderie(though I laugh a bit the holy land/Australian rhyme - only Anthony would do that).
Flea compliments Hillel well, while having a few standout moments of his own(Love Trilogy, Skinny Sweaty Man, Funky Crime, Subterranean Homesick Blues), and Irons, in his only appearance on record, conveys a power in his drumming that was maybe lacking in Martinez's drumming, and that would provide a blueprint for Chad going forward. I've been listening to this record a lot while writing this, and I never noticed just how much Irons really defined the drum sound of RHCP with his performance here.
But it's Hillel's show. After being absent on the debut, and not being involved in most of Freaky Styley's composition, this was Hillel's first - and is turned out, only - shot at really showing what he could do, and he made the most of it. He created a sound - with Flea and Irons' help - that elevated some fairly pedestrian songwriting on a number of these songs. You can hear Give It Away, Sir Psycho, and Around The World off in the distance in a lot of these songs, and as mentioned before, you can hear their happy-mellow-pop vibe of the future in Behind The Sun.
The Clinton/Parliament influence on Freaky Styley was so big that, despite the musical growth they experienced, it sort of precluded them from solidifying their own musical identity. Hillel started the band, and on what turned out be his parting gift and the original lineup's only record together, hist talent, enthusiasm, and vision helped them finally establish that identity, creating the one lasting document of the full breadth of what he was as a guitarist and musician, and a foundation for the band going forward. For that reason, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan will always be one of the band's most important albums, even if the underlying songwriting still had aways to go(imho).

There’s this guy I know at school who’s really into bodybuilding, and he’s pretty jacked. I don’t think it looks good, since he’s too jacked and his head is disproportional to his shoulders and torso, but that’s only a personal preference and I also think it’s impressive that he achieved that level of musculature at 17. I know he isn’t aiming for aesthetics but rather getting as big as possible, and I truly think he’s doing good at that and respect him for it.
He and I are some of the only people that use the gym at our high school year round (athletes tend to use it during the pre season/during the reason and stop after), so we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. Even though we work out, he’s a lot bigger than me— I’m doing conditioning for martial arts I do, not bodybuilding, so I do a lot more cardio than he does. As a result, I’m a lot leaner than he is, both in terms of muscle and fat.
I always get the vibe he sees my body as more aesthetically pleasing than his, and the same for my looks overall, and is a bit jealous. It honestly disappointed me when he started making comments here and there about how he’s a lot bigger than me and his body ‘mogs’ mine since as I said I have nothing but respect for him. But at the same time, I can sense his jealousy and that has made the respect diminish. Like it’s not that deep, you’re trying to get huge and that includes shoveling in insane amounts of food, I do intense cardio 6 times a week, of course I’m going to have abs and you won’t.
But anyhow, his constant comments here and there about how much bigger his muscles were— both at the gym and when we were with other people— bothered me, so one time when he said that, i just responded ‘bro, you’re in the gym so much but you always skip face day’. To explain if somebody doesn’t get the joke, a lot of people skip the day they work out their legs and as a result have a huge upper body and spindly legs. I’m replacing ‘face day’ for leg day, essentially saying he has a aesthetic body but his face looks bad.
Other people laughed, but he got extremely upset and called me a huge dick. I think that’s rich coming from him— he’s been poking at me for years, and I respond once and I’m the dick?
AITA?

To start, let me clarify that I don’t have anything against anyone who is gay, in fact, my cousins gay, and that has never changed the way I’ve seen her. However, as all straight guys can attest to, people thinking your gay is something we don’t want or like at all. I’m 15M, and a freshman in high school, and I am 100% STRAIGHT. Now here are the reasons why they think I’m gay:
Reason number 1: I run Cross Country for my school, and at a meet I met a dude named Gary. He was really cool so I gave him my snap because he seemed like a cool dude that would be fun to be friends with. That was it. Me and Gary never actually talked after that moment, but we still have each others snap to this day. Just a couple days ago I told my friends about Gary, and as I told it I jokingly said “yeah I asked for this dude Gary’s snap at a cross country meet one time, no homo tho”. They think there was really no need for me saying no homo, and that since I said it, I’m trying to hide something, and that something is I’m gay.
Reason 2: At lunch, they were clowning on me, as friends do, about Gary, and how gay I am. I was going along with it as it was all in good fun, and then I made the mistake of telling something true about me. At one point in time, back before 7th Grade, when I was first hitting puberty, I really thought I was gay for like a 2 day time period. Now, this was not because I found myself being sexually or just attracted to guys in general, it actually was for some other stupid reason. Back during that time period, I knew I liked girls, but the thought of “wanking it” to girls made me uncomfortable and it was really intimidating. Now I realize that it’s normal for dudes to be weirded out by that stuff when they first start to see girls as more than just friends, but at the time I thought “Well, if straight guys like to jack to girls, and I don’t like the idea of jacking to them, then, the most obvious conclusion is that, I am a homosexual person”. Additionally, I was a pretty chubby guy in 7th grade and very self conscious, and when I’d look at myself in the mirror and then look at a guy who was muscley and toned and just better looking objectively, I would think to myself “man I’d like to have that body”, and then those thoughts turned to “bro your gay because you like the way these dudes and their bodies look”. I snapped out of that mindset pretty quickly because I realized how stupid I was thinking, but I brought it up to my friends a couple days ago and they never let me explain myself, and so now they just think I’m gay.
Reason 3: I’m pretty much afraid of talking to girls. Every time I’ve ever been into the idea of being with a girl, I never actually say anything to her directly as I have no game and know I’d just screw up so badly if I tried. Instead I just try to seem cool and funny around whatever girl I’m into whenever I’m around her. Also, the one singular time I did use my game on a girl, my rizz was so tremendously bad. My rizz and ability to spit game to girls is so bad that I just joke about it. I’d like for it to get better, but I’m just really bad at speaking to girls. So, my friends know all this about how I’m bad at talking to girls, so they may see it as I’m bad at talking to girls because I’m simply just not into them, and that I’m into dudes instead, and that I’m gay.
So that’s why my friends think I’m gay. I’m very distraught because the idea of word getting around school (and especially to the girls) that I’m gay or the idea of my buddies thinking Im a dude that likes dudes makes me cringe. And, to make things worse, the more I try to explain myself the more I seem like I’m trying to cover up the fact I’m secretly gay. However, I still feel like I need to say something, because if I dont then they’re going to still think I’m gay.

You know how you start do the most random things when you're bored out of your mind?
A year ago, boredom found me trying to access my old yahoo email and somehow getting in.
I was hit with a wave of nostalgia upon seeing the updates and notifications of old games like Neopets, Maple Story and Club Penguin.
As I scrolled down, I noticed that there were a bunch of emails in the spam inbox. Curious, I clicked on it and discovered that they were sent by my brother Jack 19 years ago when he went to the Arctic for a research job.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 4 July 2004
Hey squirt,
Surprise, surprise! It's your big bro here. I hope you're reading this on the email I made you and give me a reply.
I bet you don't know how to though :P. Anyway, we might get a kick out of this years later, so just be my diary for a while, won't ya?
How have you been? I know it's only a few days since I left but I miss you guys.
The arctic freeeeezing and the people are cold too (pun intended). Like, I met this burly dude called Kafka who totally ignored me when I made a joke about his name (you know Kafka is my favourite author, right?)
On the brightside, there's a seal colony close to the base. Blubbery as they are, they're cute as heck. I wonder if they'll let me bring you one back as a souvenir?
Peace,
The best big bro evah Jack :)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 9 July 2004
Yoooo,
5 days in the job, baby! You, Mom and Dad doing okay?
I wasn't getting much work at first but the guys have entrusted me with a lot more stuff to do-- mostly lab work but that's fine.
Work is better than nothing at all. The Arctic is majestic and all but there's barely anything to dooooo :( outside of work. I'm pretty sure I walked ten laps around the research base at one point cos I was so bored. The internet's bad too and only the email software works.
The people here are literal zombies. It's sunny the whole day but they act like they joy's been sucked outta them. Maybe the cold's gotten to their heads.
Anyway, I'm sure that'll change when I make the biggest arctic breakthrough. They'll be cheering in no time, your brother's a genius after all! :P
Cheers,
Genius Jack XD
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 14 July 2004
Hey bro,
How's the summer holidays? Did you go anywhere fun?
I'm finally allowed to go on outside expeditions-- catching seals and tagging em, mostly. That's fun.
There's something f**cking (gotta censor this or I'll be in trouble with Mom) weird though. Some dude came to the base and the people are all happy now for some reason.
They call him "reverend". He dresses like a priest even it's cold as heck. He seems like a nice dude, but it's weird that he showed out of nowhere. I asked around about who he was and they just told me that he was a former researcher who found the truth.
As for what the truth is.. I got 0 clue.
Guess I'll play detective for a while.
Catch ya later alligator,
Sherlock Jack :D
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 16 July 2004
Dear lil bro,
How are you? Got any new crushes?
I got a crush, literally. A chubby seal bit me and my arm was crushed. :(
Just kidding!!!! I got a wound but it's all bandaged up now. One of the seals we were tagging wasn't fully sedated so I got hurt.
Am healing up now in my room now.
Btw, Reverend held a prayer session when my arm was bit. I didn't understand cos it was in a language I've never heard before (or maybe I was just doped up on drugs), but all the researchers were crying. I was kind a creeped out, for some reason :o
Stay safe,
Jack
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 19 July 2004
Hey kiddo,
You alright?
Im typing this with one hand. My arm's not doing too well. The colour's all off and it hurts. I'm worried it might have to get cut off or something...
Kafka's been nursing me but he keeps chanting something under his breath.
Reverend comes by and they whisper to each other. I keep hearing a word that sounded like "Cathauthi" or something. I dunno the language and dunno what it means.
I asked Kafka what it meant. "The one under the ice" was all he said before leaving the room.
Weird, right?
Anyway, your bro's strong-- One arm or two arms, I'm gonna wrestle you to the ground when I'm back.
Love you,
Jack
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 21 July 2004
no more
cold.Goodnight.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The email dating 21 July 2004 was the last one. Jack came back home in August, safe and sound.
What I read never left my mind until I saw Jack again at a family gathering today.
He was wearing a T-shirt, arms exposed— not a hint of a scar on either of them.
I had to know what happened.
"Is your arm alright?" I asked as we drank beer together on the porch.
He slowly turned his head towards me, lips stretching into a tight smile. At that moment, everything about his face was just wrong to me.
"Why wouldn't it be?"
I looked into his eyes— deep vacant voids of nothing.
This was not my brother.
I forced a chuckle, "It's really sunny today, aren't you worried about sunburn? You used to get that a lot."
He's expressionless and silent for a moment, eyes boring into mine, as if probing for something.
I didn't realize that I was holding my breath until his features snapped back into a cold smile.
"I've missed you, little brother."