#EmmittOwens

  • Why Monotonous People Often Have More Goals and Traditions A counterintuitive pattern emerges when examining the relationship between personality types and life structure: individuals who appear monotonous or predictable in their daily behaviors often demonstrate stronger commitment to long-term goals and cultural traditions than their more spontaneous counterparts. This phenomenon challenges common assumptions about creativity Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: Love, Loss, and Labor    It was Friday night at Chill n’Fill, out here where the darkness stretched for miles in every direction and our mechanically-winking polar bear served as the only beacon of civilization for truckers, night shift workers, and the occasional lost soul who’d wandered too far from Read more

  • The Secret Life of Chill n’Fill: After Hours    It was 2:47 AM on a Tuesday, that dead hour when the highway fell silent and the fluorescent lights hummed their loneliest tune. Out here in rural Alabama, 12 miles from the nearest town and surrounded by nothing but pine trees and darkness, I’d just finished Read more

  • Dating Dilemmas, Critical Blogs, and Bear Conspiracies    Friday night at Chill n’Fill was shaping up to be one of those evenings where people seemed compelled to share their deepest existential crises with whoever happened to be working the register. Behind me, tonight’s painting had materialized as Caspar David Friedrich’s “Wanderer above the Sea of Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: Dawgs, Skateboards, and Gas Buckets It was Friday night at Chill n’Fill, out here where the darkness stretched for miles in every direction and our mechanically-winking polar bear served as the only beacon of civilization for truckers, night shift workers, and the occasional lost soul who’d wandered too far from Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: The Factory Worker, The Choice Maker, and The Value Builder    It was Thursday night at Chill n’Fill, and I was three hours into my shift when the fluorescent lights started their familiar buzz-flicker routine that always gave me a headache by midnight. Another evening as chronicler of convenience store Read more

  • The Art of You

    …begin with static—that hum between radio stationswhere your soul lives      you are verb.action.becominga living algorithm of choice/mistake/choice againcoded in the language of maybe    (parentheses hold your secrets)[brackets frame your fears]{curly braces embrace your contradictions}         DNA → RNA → protein → YOUthe biological poetryof existence refusing                    to                        rhyme scattered like:  bread crumbs   coffee stains      love Read more

  • At Chill n’Fill, a late-night convenience store, the protagonist navigates various customer interactions, reflecting on human connections and societal dynamics. A pizza delivery driver theorizes the store as a microcosm of social behavior, while a grieving nursing home worker finds empathy amidst grief. The narrative illustrates moments of kindness, philosophical insights, and confrontations with entitlement. Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: Monuments, Creeps, and the Gray Hoodie    It was Saturday night at Chill n’Fill, and I’d just finished rearranging the candy display according to Bob’s latest merchandising theory. Chocolate bars now lived next to energy drinks in the “depression remedies” section, while sour candies had been relocated to “aggressive emotions” Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: The Seven Deadly Sins    Bob’s newest theory involved rearranging the entire store based on the seven deadly sins. Pride products near the entrance, Wrath energy drinks by the coffee machine, and Lust items… well, Bob’s interpretation of “Lust” apparently included chocolate and romance novels he’d bought from a garage Read more