NicoSashaWeek, day 6!
Theme of day 6: Family Life
Day 6: Family Life
“Could you two knock it off?” Nikolo asked, his eyes landing on two of Sasha’s siblings who were arguing at the kitchen table “I’m actually trying to get something done here!”
“So, you usually don’t?” the girl asked, and the boy laughed in his expense. Nikolo’s eyebrow switched, part of him regretting that he and Sasha had decided to invite her family over. He never had trouble with her parents, but the four rascals in the family, especially these two, tended to seriously get on his nerves.
“That’s it” he said “Out of my kitchen, both of you. Now”
“Make us” the kids chorused, sticking out their tongues.
“If you insist” Nikolo said, marching over to the surprised kids and picking the boy up “Hey!”
He ignored the kid’s protests, carrying him to the living room where the rest of the family, including his wife, was at. They looked at him as he approached, laughing when he dumbed the kid on the couch “One down, one to go.”
He went to the kitchen again, soon coming back with the other kid and dropping her on the couch as well. Then, he stomped off and slammed the door behind him. Sasha was sure that if it had a lock, he’d use it.
“Well I suppose he’s at least more comfortable with us now than he used to be since he does stuff like this” Sasha’s father laughed. The woman couldn’t help but agree, laughing along with the rest of the family.
“But you’d think he could take a joke by now” the girl said, tightening her ponytail “After all, he did marry Sasha of all people.”
“You making fun of me, kiddo?” Sasha asked and her adopted sister just grinned. Sasha grinned back before taking the girl in to a head lock and ruffling her hair, saying: “And now you’ll say sorry.”
“Hey! Watch out for the hair!” Sasha’s victim protested, getting the family to laugh.
“That didn’t sound like sorry to me!”
“Ow” the girl complained “Okay okay, sorry!”
Sasha let go instantly, a grin on her face. Sitting one the couch, Kaya raised an eyebrow, asking: “Is that what you do to Mr. Nikolo too if he doesn’t obey?”
This time Sasha cast a glare at Kaya, who just smiled back cheekily.
“Nikolo told me that Sasha threatens to raid the pantry every time she doesn’t get her way” Mr. Blouse commented, making Sasha’s jaw drop as she moved her disbelieving gaze on the man “He told on me!?”
“My dear, did you not know that men gossip among each other a lot?” her mother asked, getting her husband to look at her with a slight frown on his face “Isn’t that what women do?”
“In this family, it is clearly the men who do so” Lisa Blouse said with a shrug “You’ve always been so chatty.”
The kids and Sasha laughed at the face Mr. Blouse made.
“I wonder if Nikolo needs any help” he said. Sasha snorted.
“Nice try dad, but you’re not running away” she said, heading to the door “I’ll go check on him.”
In truth, Sasha was slightly worried. She’d been glad when the kids stayed in the kitchen with Nikolo, but then he’d carried them out and ended up alone… while he clearly got more used to her family as time passed, he seemed to still feel uncomfortable around them and Sasha feared that he felt like he didn’t belong there with them. Hand drifting to her stomach, she told herself that she couldn’t let it continue, not anymore.
“Nikolo?” she called out as she opened the kitchen door.
“Yeah?” he asked, looking up from his cooking as she entered. Thankfully, he didn’t look or sound upset in any way. Closing the door behind her, Sasha asked: “Do you still feel uncomfortable around my family?”
Nikolo stiffened, but soon sighed, letting his shoulders fall.
“Yeah…” he admitted “Don’t get me wrong, they’re wonderful people, but just… not the type of people I’m used to.”
“Do you miss your own family?”
“You are my family”
“You know what I meant” Sasha said with a pout, not liking how her husband was clearly trying to dodge the question. Sighing once more, Nikolo admitted: “Yeah, I do…”
“Sorry for making you part with them”
“What?” Nikolo asked, quickly denying it “You didn’t do anything of the sort; they told me to choose between you and them!”
“But it’s my fault you chose me” Sasha said, making Nikolo roll his eyes before he pinched her cheek “Don’t think too highly of yourself; I actually do have a free will of my own.”
“Really?” Sasha asked with over faked surprise. Nikolo’s answer to that was to pinch her other cheek as well, pulling them “It wahwa joke!”
Nikolo released her and Sasha rubbed her cheeks, pouting. Her husband laughed.
“You should join us”
“I have to finish the dinner” Nikolo denied. Sasha opened her mouth to suggest that she’d take over, but Nikolo knew her well enough by now to know that that’s what she had in mind and said: “No offence, but the recipe is too complicated for you. It has to be me.”
Sasha pouted, but didn’t argue. Not listening to him and messing up his what would have been delicious cooking once had been enough for her.
“…We’re still gonna tell them tonight, right?” Sasha asked after a moment of hesitation.
“Of course,” Nikolo said without missing a beat “…Unless you want to wait after all, that is.”
Sasha shook her head; she wanted to tell them today.
“I’m going back to the others, but I’ll leave the door open” Sasha said “And don’t even think I’ll let you be the one to do the cleanup; you need to talk to them, too!”
“But you can’t overexert yourself” Nikolo pointed out, making Sasha huff “Like I would do so by simply cleaning the kitchen!”
Nikolo stared at her, and after a while Sasha got uncomfortable, giving in “…We can always make the kids do it.”
“I suppose that’d work” Nikolo admitted “Now go back so that I can finish this.”
“Am I in the way?”
“Always” Nikolo deadpanned, kissing Sasha’s red cheek “This won’t take long anymore.”
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Dinner time. The family was enjoying Nikolo’s cooking, not that he had expected any different result. If there was something, he was confident about, it was his cooking skills. Still, everyone was almost done eating, and they’d decided to make the big revelation between dinner and the dessert. Nikolo was nervous about telling them, which was ridiculous. He and Sasha were already married adults and her family had accepted him; there was no reason why they would think this to be negative news in any way.
Glancing at Sasha, Nikolo noticed that she wasn’t as lively as usually. She was nervous too.
“Well, I suppose it’s natural” he thought, taking Sasha’s hand under the table and squeezing it. She looked at him before smiling. It was time.
“Mom, dad” Sasha paused “You rascals too, there’s something we want to tell you.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised; you don’t normally insist that we all come when you invite us for a dinner” her father said “What is it that you want to tell us?”
Too late to back down, but it’s not like they had a reason to. Still, Sasha couldn’t help but feel nervous. As if reading her mind, Nikolo squeezed her hand.
“Mom, dad, I’m pregnant” she told them, plain and simple. It was better not to beat around the bush. There was a moment of silence, with Kaya being the first one to break it as she said to the other kids: “See? I told you sis wasn’t getting fat!”
“Wha-!?” Sasha let out, blushing. She gave a glare to Nikolo as he muttered: “Well, that wouldn’t be surprising, either.”
The others laughed.
“Congratulations Honey” Sasha’s mother said “Congratulations to both of you.”
“I’m going to be a grandpa…” Sasha’s father muttered before breaking in to a grin “And to think that only five years ago I kept worrying that my daughter would never settle down, never showing any interest in building a family…”
“Dad!” Sasha protested. She had never had any idea that her father had worried about something like that “Geez…”
“I don’t think she would’ve ever gotten married without Mr. Nikolo” Sasha turned her attention to the ponytailed girl “It’s a miracle she found a man who can handle her antics.”
Sasha’s protests drowned under her family’s laughter. Huffing, she said: “Well, maybe it’ll be you who’ll end up as an old maid…”
“Too early to predict that” her mother said “Now Honey, aren’t you going to finish your food? Are you feeling ill?”
“Hm?” Sasha glanced at her plate, realizing that she was the only one who still had something left. First time for everything, she supposed “Nah, I was just distracted. This won’t take long!”
Knowing that it was true since it was his wife talking, Nikolo stood up and said: “I’ll get the dessert ready.”
That went well; they had been nervous for nothing.
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That night they both lay awake in the bed; Nikolo could tell his wife was not sleeping since he didn’t hear any snoring.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked her quietly.
Sasha turned to face him, a small smile playing on her lips.
“No” she said “I have a lot in my mind, I guess.”
“Everything went so well, though” Nikolo said, a little surprised that Sasha was having trouble sleeping now that the stressful revelation was finally out. Not that he was one to talk “Your parents are great.”
“Yeah” Sasha said with a sigh “That’s the problem here…”
“Huh?”
“Can we really match up to their level?” Sasha asked “Can we really raise our child properly? I’m not stupid; I know I’m not patient like my mother or reasonable like my father… what if something goes horribly wrong?”
Nikolo hadn’t thought of that at all, but now that he did, he figured that he had more reason to worry than Sasha did. While her parents were great, his… well, not so much. They were stuck up, appearances over everything -kind of people. Nikolo himself had made a point of being different from them since his rebellious teenage years and, after meeting Sasha, it had become genuine desire to be a better person. But what if he’d unconsciously become just the kind of parent his own ones were?
Noticing that Nikolo had gotten lost in his thoughts, Sasha frowned.
“Did I make you worry?” she asked, already knowing the answer. Nikolo jolted, about to deny it, but stopped when he saw the look on his wife’s face. It’d be too late to fool her “Yeah…”
“And this is exactly what I meant” Sasha said, burying her face in her pillow “What if I worry our child by saying wrong things? What if it ends up hating me!?”
“That’s…” Nikolo didn’t continue; he didn’t know what to say. How could he ease her worries when he wasn’t any calmer than she was? “We’ll figure things out as they come.”
“That’s your answer?”
“I’m just as clueless as you are” Nikolo admitted honestly “I’m sure it’ll be fine; your family will help us if we need it. There’s Connie and Jean, too.”
“Jean?” Sasha asked, making Nikolo laugh “Okay, maybe just Connie, at least when the child is still little.”
“You didn’t mention Mikasa” Sasha pointed out, but Nikolo just huffed at that “No, she creeps me out. But if our child ever needs a bodyguard, I know exactly who to contact.”
Sasha laughed at that, and Nikolo followed soon after.
They may have no idea what they were doing, but they’d figure things out.
Snuggling closer to her husband, Sasha was sure they would, for together they could do anything.
Absolutely anything.
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(SHAH SHEIKH, June3, 2016)
Are we protected on the Internet?
Before coming to my blog, you may have browsed pages of moments from Facebook or read others’ comments on Twitter. If most of the things post on the screen are complain and verbal abuses, you may be in the same mood as what you have seen online—sad, anxious, or even angry; your mind is exposed to manipulations if the companies who develop internet-based social apps are trying to affect you by their products to maximize their profits. Therefore, the government—an organization that has great power and keeps the goal of protecting and enhancing people’s rights and well-being—is needed to develop a strict censorship to not only the internet users but also the companies who operate the online social platforms.
Firstly, companies’ manipulation of users truly exists, and the manipulation can bring about negative effects. As stated by “Facebook: Secret Experiment on Users” in The Week, Facebook did secret experiment on users by giving positive or negative information to different users without notifying them explicitly, and people who saw negative information all the time were more likely to act with a negative mood on Facebook. With the great popularity of Facebook, a lot of people are affected by that secret experiment--some becoming happier, whereas some become more upset. Also, the article mentions that bad mood may cause severe disease or even death (e.g. heart attack and suicide), make it hard for people to not reflect on whether the experiment conducted by Facebook caused negative consequences to the society. Maybe the results of the experiment are helpful to the company’s profits and future development, these bad social consequences should have rang the alarm bell: users should be protected when using social media.
As mentioned before, the censorship conducted by the government to these companies may be a helpful solution. The companies are actually profit driven. In “Now the Ads are Eyeing You”, by Tarun Wahwa, and “Beware Your Digital Doppelganger”, by Sara M. Watson, both of the authors agree that one of the reasons why companies (such as Microsoft, Facebook, and Google) manipulate what users see on their apps based on users’ previous interactions is to make them click more ads--an approach to increase the company’s earnings. That act is understandable from the angle of the corporations because they would be in disadvantageous situation in the competition with other similar corporations if they stop trying these ways to maximize their profits and boost their future development. However, one cannot deny that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Search are necessary for people’s communication and everyday life nowadays: for example, it would be nearly impossible for you to live without using any social media every day; it would be extremely hard for me to find resources for writing my senior thesis if there weren’t the Google Scholar. These products are now not only products of the companies but also tools that enhance the well-being of the whole society. From the stance of improving people’s well-being, these products’ development should not just be determined solely by the heart of economic benefits. A non-profit organization that focuses on social consequences can achieve that goal. Thus, the government censorship should be incorporated in the operation of online social platforms to ensure these apps are contributing positively to the world.
source: https://steemit.com/technology/@orlendgreat/information-security-management-system
It’s true that one may doubt whether the government will always stand for their citizen’s well-being. In fact, the government censorship can have other negative effects, such as manipulating the apps to increase a particular party’s popularity and fame or control user’ opinions on a political figure. Nevertheless, we really need a non-profit organization that, not like companies of which the primary goals are increasing earnings, has the main mission of enhancing the country’s development well-being. If the government censorship is not the not reasonable choice, then another non-profit organization—one that is responsible for internet safety— should be incorporated or established.
Every day we are using social media for sorts of purposes, and the information exposed to us play a great role in influencing our acts in both the virtual and the real worlds. To let us be protected, I believe a censorship for our right and happiness is integral in this era of internet.
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