Zachary Marshall Ivey
Bio
Zach is from the small yet, well known racing town in Alabama called Talladega. His writings are ones of raw honesty and inspiration that capture the American southern lifestyle he was raised by, but do not limit his abilities to amaze us.
Stories (8/0)
Why Michael Loathes Toby
It is a question every fan of the beloved show has asked since its airing in March of 2005; which is, "Why Does Michael Hate Toby So Much?". It dawned on me after quite some time of pondering the existence of this strange, one-sided and overall unexplained relationship between the "one- and-only" Dundie's Award Host, and World's Best Boss (mug owner), Michael Gary Scott, and Dunder Mifflin's head of Human Resources, Toby Flenderson. It has baffled every sensible fan as to why this was left unexplained in the series, but remained a comedy setup throughout so many scenes. I scoured the web far, and wide for answers, but most of the articles are fan's theories such as my own, or even thoughts about the subject from the actors and writers themselves. Even they (the writers), do not know the entire truth behind the intense loathing Michael has towards such a patient, quiet and shall I say, most bland character on the show. During an interview with The Daily Beast, the actor who portrayed Toby in the show, Paul Lieberstein, stated that Michael's hatred was born during a specific scene in the episode called "The Alliance". It revolves around the staff planning Meredith's birthday party, and at one point (in an extended version) Toby comes into Michael's office to sign the birthday card. He apparently writes something that Michael already had in mind to write, but personally I think that while lingering over Toby's shoulder, he thought it was clever, and wanted to credit himself for whatever Toby jotted down. Michael makes him scratch it off, and demands him to write something else instead. This makes Toby's attempt look childish with the card ruined with pen marks, and all because of Michael's jealousy of Toby's wit. Unless you had access to deleted scenes from a Season 1 DVD set, or worked on the show, this was unknown to the public until the release of The Office Super-Fans Episodes on the tv/movie app Peacock in January of 2022. Even though this theory is stated by the guy who literally played "Toby", I am going to go a different route in why Michael despises DM's head of HR.
By Zachary Marshall Ivey2 years ago in Geeks
The Lost & Found
I still hear it. The ringing in my ears; that which has been an intangible scar of mine for a few years now. They tell you when you’re a child that life tends to fit you into it like a puzzle piece. You find your “knack”, a skill set that makes you a valuable member of society, but I guess I am that corner piece that fits nowhere, until now. My name is Zach, and I am going to tell you how my life changed; not in a single night, but by many excruciating, inspiring and unimaginable ones. This, is my story.
By Zachary Marshall Ivey2 years ago in Motivation
Overly Joyed
It is too early for me to rise up from these overly uncomfortable bed sheets, and participate with the world’s mayhem all over again. It feels like I just did the same thing yesterday, and the day before that. Hm, it seems as though I cannot remember ever doing anything else. Why did I choose this? Oh right, it wasn’t much of a choice in the first place. Getting up regardless of what my body is telling me; that which is anything, but preparing for the day is torture. Sometimes I don’t even want to sleep, because I dream. My woken life follows me there too. Sometimes I wake up exhausted from all the hard work I did in my subconscious. I think this life is one big joke, and I am the hilarious punchline. Xavier Vinic opened his eyes as he remained lying on his back in his overly uncomfortable bed thinking this to himself just like the days before. He had a worn down mattress his aunt Jasmine gave him when he was going to school a few years ago, but that all changed once he met Miranda. His parents were separated ever since he could remember. His mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and she was institutionalized when he was only thirteen years old. It was a legally forced decision after she had one too many violent episodes. One was in a public park where she endangered Xavier’s life by leading them into moving traffic to argue with a woman who wasn’t even there. His father was nowhere to be found his entire life. He had only seen a few pictures of him, and his mother kept them hidden from sight. Xavier’s Aunt Jasmine was always there for him. She had lost her son to a vehicle accident before Xavier was born. So he never had any other family to bond with. Jasmine treated him like her own son. She knew what life was like growing up with her mentally ill sister as a mother. She made sure he did well in school in order to follow his dreams of becoming an engineer one day. Aunt Jasmine was everything to Xavier. Without her he was truly alone.
By Zachary Marshall Ivey2 years ago in Fiction
My Own Army of One
Dear Dad, I cannot believe it. Can you? We are still here. Walking on this Earth alive, and sort of healthy I guess. You know, when I was young enough to begin remembering stuff, I always wondered where you had gone five days out of the week, and for so long too. It is amazing to think there was once a time when I did not understand anything outside of eating, playing and sleeping. I could not read the words in a book, or count to ten fluently. I would simply skip what looked like ”chicken scratch” that I now know as, letters and numbers in order to get to the illustrations on the next page. I remember just being home with Mom everyday from morning to night. The sun would be behind the trees, and going to bed with the rest of us; which is what I probably thought at the time, before your return. I would hear your colossal, red Chevy truck roaring up the driveway, and sometimes go to the window in the afternoon. I’d watch you gather your things like your coat , a small gray lunch cooler (that you still have) and whatever mail we received that day clutched in your hand. You always had one of two expressions on your face. They were little signs to Mom, and me on how we should approach you when you walked through the back door. The first expression would be the one we hoped to see. Your eyes bursting open with energy. The edges of your mouth would be slightly curled into an attempted smile. Sometimes your lips would be puckered, and whistling a tune as you came to the door. I could never hear what you were whistling, but I assume it was a song on the radio that you were not finished listening to, or the theme music from an old western film that was on television the night before. That was a sign we could relax, be loud, or continue doing whatever it was we were doing. The second expression was one I did not understand until I became an adult. It was the face of a man who went out into this brutal, selfish and relentless world to sacrifice his time and effort to feed us, and keep a roof over our heads. That is a small, almost microscopic amount of things you have done for the people you love and care about.
By Zachary Marshall Ivey2 years ago in Families
Serenity Among the Leaves
It was Lina Clover’s favorite season of the year again, Spring! She always disliked the sharp cold of winter as it slowly sneaked in to ruin all of the outdoors time. She loved it more than any television series, or all the “indoor” activities the other thirteen and a half year old teenage girls at school do in their spare time. Growing up in northern California, Lina was cursed with not only warm springs and summers, but frigidly cold winters as well. She did not look forward to the leaves changing, or having snowball fights with her brother Paul. He did not hold back when it came to his chubby left pitching arm. He was so proud of it too, and constantly showed it off by curling up his T-shirt sleeve to flex its pale, flabby, hairless bicep . Then ending it all with a wet kiss at the summit of his shapeless muscle. Lina took solace in the birth of spring. She absorbed all the colors that every blossom and flower pedal produced when in bloom. The energy outside gave her a welcoming sensation to the world in which there’s so little.The bees gliding from plant to plant pollinating the wonders of the Earth while enjoying the returned sweet gifts of nectar as they work day in and day out. Lina would attempt to get as close as possible to them with her disposable cameras that she used to capture all the beauty that is the simple life of a bumble bee. She loves taking pictures, but being her age, her parents did not think she was ready for a cell phone just yet. Lina didn’t care too much about it though. In fact, she actually liked the disposable cameras, because there was more to it than just point-click-look-delete, it was a process in itself. She liked the challenge of having to maneuver her body every which way in order to get the angle she desired. She had little lighting tricks she used with aluminum foil, and had to practice patience and determination to get close enough to her subjects considering the fact that the disposable cameras don’t have a zoom function on them. After a camera was full, she would give it to either her mom, or her dad to drop off in town for development. The excitement of receiving the photographs days later was a mood lifter for Lina, especially days when she wasn’t feeling well. She would go through each one of them describing her experiences in detail with her parents, and sometimes Paul would join in as long as he knew he got to star in one of the photos as well. Usually ones of him making an obscure facial expression, or attempting to be “clever” once in his life. Sometimes if the whole family agreed as a group that a photograph was “frame-worthy” they would have the picture blown up in size then take Lina to the art shop to pick out a frame that really spoke to her. The house had some of her best work on display throughout the hallway, and in their living room. Her favorite is a close up of a decaying log she found in the woods behind their house. It was laying on its side with bright-green moss flowing all around it. She had to be more proud of that photograph than her parents were. Photography was not as much of a hobby to her, but more of a tool to capture her true passion, nature.
By Zachary Marshall Ivey2 years ago in Fiction
