O7 Capsuleers!
If you havent yet noticed it on Pulse or in your Eve emails, we are organizing Eve Amsterdam on June 14-15-16, 2024 in Moving Arts Center of Amsterdam. It is going to be a weekend filled with various activities like Eve Quiz, Karaoke, presentations, pannels, LAN party and, of course, CCP attendance!
The tickets are now up for sale: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eve-amsterdam-2024-tickets-880435254547?aff=eveonline
We also have a discord to keep the hype going and get latest updates: https://discord.gg/DQ4wZydgrb
If you have a nice story to tell and would like to present it, we still got a spot for that. Send AMIOMIA or AJDULION in discord a message. Presentators don’t have to purchase a ticket ;)
CCP will also be joining us with the following people :
CCP Stroopwafel
CCP Mirage
CCP Lumi
Fun fact: CCP Mirage is the face of all the Pulse video's
We also appreciate an extra shout out in your fleets and corps to get the word out as much as possible!
See you all there and fly safe!
https://preview.redd.it/px5o7m64oj0d1.jpg?width=1026&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46743c73600114caef3d79030e1cdbecc32c4340

The market for online courses and digital products is booming, expected to reach $185.20 billion by 2024. Hotmart is a popular platform in this space, but it has some drawbacks that make users look for alternatives. Let's explore the top 5 Hotmart alternatives for 2024.

What is Hotmart?

Hotmart is a platform that helps you create, organize, and sell online courses and digital products. It provides tools for creating your own website and mobile app, pricing your products, and branding them.

Pros of Hotmart

• Affiliate Marketplace: Hotmart has a marketplace for affiliates to help increase your sales.
• Pay-as-You-Earn: You only pay a fee when you make a sale.
• User-Friendly: Easy to set up and use.
• Customer Support: Excellent support once you reach a certain revenue level.
• Comprehensive Tools: Everything you need to create and sell your products.

Cons of Hotmart

• High Commission: Charges a 10% commission on sales.
• Limited Marketing Tools: Lacks integrated marketing tools.
• Unauthorized Orders: Some users report unexpected orders.
• Learning Curve: Can be difficult for beginners.
• Refund Issues: Some users face difficulties with refunds.

Why Look for Alternatives?

• High Commission Fees: 10% commission can be too high.
• Limited Engagement Features: Fewer tools to keep students engaged.
• Lack of Mobile Flexibility: Not the best for mobile learning.
• Need for Third-Party Apps: Requires additional apps for full functionality.
• Lack of Integrated Marketing Tools: Limited marketing features.

Benefits of Alternatives

Exploring alternatives can offer better features, more affordable pricing, and specific tools tailored to different needs.

Top 5 Hotmart Alternatives

1. EzyCourse

What is EzyCourse?
EzyCourse is an all-in-one platform with budget-friendly pricing. It offers 20 revenue streams, including courses, memberships, and physical products. It also includes a customizable site builder and a branded mobile app.
Pros:

• Easy to use
• Affordable pricing
• Versatile revenue streams
• Unlimited product options
• Customizable websites
• Branded mobile app
• 24/7 customer support

Cons:

• No platform is perfect. From the customer reviews we didn't notice any negative feedback. However, the blog editor of EzyCourse has some mobile responsiveness issues.

2. LearnWorlds

What is LearnWorlds?
LearnWorlds is ideal for educators and small businesses. It offers a website builder, mobile app builder (paid add-on), and integrations with email marketing platforms.
Pros:

• User-friendly
• No transaction fees
• Affordable pricing
• Useful features like drip courses and email marketing

Cons:

• Limited features on cheaper plans
• Basic customization options for pages

Pricing:

• Starter: $24/month (annually)
• Pro Trainer: $79/month (annually)
• Learning Center: $249/month (annually)
• Custom pricing for high volume

3. Kajabi

What is Kajabi?
Kajabi helps create, market, and sell digital content. It offers tools for courses, communities, memberships, and podcasts.
Pros:

• All-in-one platform
• User-friendly
• Reliable performance
• Comprehensive training resources
• Effective AI tools

Cons:

• Limited physical product sales
• Less website design flexibility
• Additional costs for advanced features
• Expensive plans

Pricing:

• Basic: $149/month
• Growth: Higher than Basic
• Pro: Higher than Growth

4. Thinkific

What is Thinkific?
Thinkific allows you to create and sell online courses with customizable templates and marketing tools. It offers a white-labeled mobile app and various content types like quizzes and webinars.
Pros:

• All-in-one platform
• Subscription pricing
• No transaction fees
• User-friendly
• Extensive support and resources

Cons:

• High prices for premium plans
• No funnel feature
• No built-in blogging tool
• Poor support (according to some reviews)

Pricing:

• Free Plan
• Basic: $49/month
• Start: $99/month
• Grow: $199/month
• Expand: $499/month
• Plus: Custom pricing

5. Podia

What is Podia?
Podia offers a platform for online courses, memberships, and digital products with a focus on simplicity and affordability.
Pros:

• User-friendly
• Comprehensive tracking
• No transaction fees
• Affordable pricing

Cons:

• No open API
• Limited customization
• Fewer features compared to others
• Cannot create assignments or accept submissions

Pricing:

• Starter: $4/month (annually)
• Mover: $33/month
• Shaker: $59/month

Choosing the Right Platform

Consider your budget, the features you need, and your target audience's preferences. Try out free trials to see which platform works best for you.
In conclusion, while Hotmart is a strong contender in the online course market, these alternatives—EzyCourse, LearnWorlds, Kajabi, Thinkific, and Podia—offer diverse features and pricing options that might better suit your needs. Explore these platforms to find the one that aligns with your goals. Happy selling!

I don't need to tell anyone here that housing affordability is bad right now so I'll cut to the chase...
What can be done about it?
I got seven proposals to address the problem.
But first.. lets talk about what I call 'Non-Solutions'.
A Non-Solution is something that feels like a solution but isn't. For example: Scratching at itchy skin isn't a solution to a rash.
There's a few Non-Solutions I'm going to be avoiding with my proposals:

• Price Fixing: Simply mandating that X costs $N, at a government level, doesn't fix anything. Ask USSR. Prices determined by markets are not 'fair', but they are realistic outcomes to the situations which created them, whether it's a lack of regulation, lack of supply, etc. High prices are a symptom of bigger problems that need to be addressed.
• Free Money: While it seems like an easy fix, just handing out money until everyone can afford everything, you don't need to be an economist to know that doesn't work. Prices are a function of purchase power. If you increase everyone's purchase power equally, prices will adjust to match. We've all seen this, the inflation we're experiencing right now in Australia is likely a direct outcome of the spending during the pandemic.

Instead solutions need to be formed through means such as:

• Using the tax system to incentivise behaviour that results in cheaper housing, and de-incentivise behaviour that results in more expensive housing.
• Adjusting laws that result in more expensive housing, removing laws that are an obstacle to cheaper housing.
• Creating alternatives to the existing housing stock in the market.
• Government initiatives that increase housing stock.

So - what could we do?

Proposal 1 - The AAHC

I call it the 'Australian Affordable Housing Construction Company', aka, AAHC Co.
Government initiated housing construction company, similar to the NBN Co.
It has one goal: Build houses and sell them. It has a target rate of 'houses/quarter' it aims to construct houses at. That rate is set by an independent body that aims to keep the cost of housing to a fixed level relative to incomes, and controlled in a fashion similar to the official interest rate. Another lever on the economy. The rate increases when housing supply is low, and decreases when housing supply is high.
The AAHC builds houses. Then sells them. Simple as that. No other purpose. The goal is to break even, build houses, sell them at market value (no profit). The great thing is, this means the AAHC has a net zero funding cost for the tax payer - literally costs nothing to run, because it pays for itself through sales of houses.
The actual construction would be done by external private construction companies under contract who compete under bids to build suburbs worth of houses in large projects. Which is another benefit. Lots of jobs creation, a big boon for our local manufacturing and construction industry, and any related employment opportunities (construction companies don't just hire builders after all, they hire graphic designers, accountants, managers, receptionists, etc).
As additional benefit, because the government is building the houses, it can ensure the houses meet conditions and standards we the people want to see applied to future housing construction. So it could be mandated for example, every new home constructed must have air conditioning, must have solar panels, etc.
The AAHC Co in summary:

• Allows for a market based approach to control the cost of housing.
• Costs nothing (to the taxpayer) to run, self funded.
• Reduces the single largest expense we have in life (housing).
• Would create tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of jobs.
• Can improve the quality of our supply of houses in the market by building better houses.

Proposal 2 - Nationalised Definitions of 'Tiny Homes', and Easing Of Laws Regarding Them

The reality is, there is such a shortfall of housing in Australia, that it may take a decade or longer to address the problem, even if we started implementing the right policies to do so today.
What people need is alternatives. Today.
Such as 'Tiny Homes'.
Tiny homes can be constructed in larger quantities, prefab, for cheaper than a house, and constructed on a trailer frame which allows them to be easily moved and transported.
They can be significantly cheaper than a house, and moved easily, opening up prospects for someone to own reasonable housing in Australia for a fraction of the cost of buying an established constructed house, by buying very cheap land, a cheap 'Tiny Home' and parking it permanently on their land. Then eventually moving it on, selling it even, once it comes time to upgrade to a permanent fixture house, or move into a larger fixed house.
Because they're legally defined as caravans, they subject to all the same rules.
The first problem is, those rules vary depending on where you live. Not just for each state, but even depending which council you live in. Some councils have no clear regulations at all, making matters worse. A nationalised definition of a 'Tiny Home', and national laws regarding them, would make life easier for everyone.
The second problem is, because currently Tiny Homes are defined legally as Caravans, they are subject to the same restrictions, which can be stifling, such as, subject to location (state or council laws vary). Here are some of the worst restrictions found around the country:

• Can not be placed on a vacant block of land without an existing dwelling
• No more than 1 is allowed on residential land
• Contains no more than 2 bedrooms
• Requires development approval every time they're moved
• May result in additional charges for council rates

A nationalised legal framework for tiny homes, and easing of laws around them, to make them easier and cheaper to obtain, install and live in, would open up possibilities for alternative means of housing to ease the burden on the existing housing market.

Proposal 3 - Housing Super Fund

Super is a well established method for ensuring individuals can afford their retirement without resorting to giving people free money or price fixing the cost of retirement. It forces employers to make contributions to employee's super funds, that then collect invest, grow, and eventually can be accessed at retirement age.
This is a mechanism we can borrow to achieve a similar result for renters, to allow them eventually afford housing.
I call it a 'Housing Super Fund'.
How it could work is like this:
Every tenant is Australia, could have a 'housing super fund' set up for them when they start renting. Every time a tenant pays rent, the land lord receiving the rental payment, could be required to deposit 5% of that payment into the tenant's housing super fund.
Land lords will insist, argue, that they will put up rents by 5% to compensate. But this is a lie. Prices are determined by customer purchase power. Renters will not have any additional purchase power as a result of this change. Rents won't go up in real terms over a long period of time, instead this change eats a cut away of rents from landlords and invests it on the behalf of tenants.
The housing super fund could be made accessible if and when a tenant is making their "first home purchase". If that never occurs, the funds could available automatically at retirement age instead.

Proposal 4 - Increased Property Taxes for Landlords & Elimination of Negative Gearing

While some people are facing the prospect that they may NEVER be able to afford a house in their lifetime - other individuals, might have as many as 7 properties, and are currently shopping for their 8th.
It's obvious, that the system strongly favours those who already own houses and have capital, ahead of those who don't.
So, simple solution, is to increase taxes for being a landlord.
Property taxes faced by individuals could be higher for those who own more than one house, and increase with each additional house owned.
And, Negative Gearing, eliminated, since it creates such a massive financial incentive to own more than one house.

Proposal 6 - Harsh taxes on empty resident housing

A simple proposal.
There are empty houses across Australia.
Tax the owners until they either rent them out or sell them or move into them.

Proposal 7 - Housing HELP Loan

Saved the best for last. Got a HELP Loan? Then you know how this loan structure works.
You borrow money from the government to pay for education, and then pay off that help loan in your taxes, if and when your income is above a minimum threshold. In the mean time, the loan amount is adjusted based on interest rates at the end of each financial year.
There's no reason why we can't have a similar loan structure made available for housing.
'Housing HELP Loan' could be made available to cover up to 75% of the purchase price of an individual's first home, with the remaining 25% required as an upfront deposit. The loan then can be paid off as part of the individual's taxes if and when their income is above a minimum threshold.
This would enable millions who currently can't get a home loan to finally get one, and ensure the debt of a home loan isn't financially crushing when individuals end up in a situation where they are temporarily unable to pay off their loan due to loss of employment.
That's 7 proposals to fixing housing affordability in Australia.
Which ones do you think would work?
Which ones do you think would stand a chance politically of being supported by a major party and made into reality?

TW: Alcoholism, drug addiction, violence, suicidal ideation, sex abuse
This is going to be a LLLLLOOONNNNGGGGG one. This story goes back quite a way, but yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the ending to this story and I'm feeling it, still got some guilt about everything that happened, wondering what I could have done differently and I just want to vent it out and hope to get some closure from it.
This story started in 2010.
Characters in this story (names are fake, duh!):

• Me, Guy, 32M at the time, 45 now.
• My BFF Stephanie, 33F at the time.
• Stephen, 40M at the time, Stephanie's boyfriend.
• Maryse, 27F at the time.

Background and intro
I had known Stephanie for many years and we had the kind of friendship that made her BFs and my GFs uncomfortable to put it lightly. We had never crossed that boundary and I wouldn't consider us in the friendzone, we were just friend, but the kind of friend where she would sit on my lap with her arms around my neck or her head on my shoulder.
At the start of 2010, Stephanie met her then boyfriend, Stephen. He tolerated me and my friendship with Stephanie because I also had a gf back then. She liked Stephanie, wasn't at all jealous of my friendship with her, so he didn't deem me too suspicious. Then my gf and I broke up for reasons unimportant and all hell broke loose for Stephen. He became convinced that I would try and steal Stephanie from him. He insisted that Stephanie introduce me to her female friends or female friends of his. Thus began what I called the year of the 50 blind dates. It was probably closer to 20, but still I like saying the year of 50 blind dates. Most of them were unremarkable and never went beyond the first date. There are some fun stories in there if anyone wants to hear them eventually!
In July of that year, I had to switch gears because I had to focus up and study for a professional exam for a certification important to my career. This exam required close to 600-800 hours of study over a 3-4 month period. So I hunkered down, told Stephanie to stop the blind dates for now because I had to focus on that. She respected my wishes and, other a text here or there, we went low contact for the last two months before the exam.
Except for one fateful night in September. Her birthday was in September and she always threw these big bashes at her house. She would throw a big pool party that started around noon and would go on to the wee hours of the morning. I knew she would harass me to go to her party, so I made some quick math and figured I would lose more energy and time trying to dodge her calls, texts and most likely visits at my place than by just going to the party itself. So when she called me to ask, I just said: "Okay I'll go to your damn party, now git." I texted her I would get there in the evening probably around 8. She texted back "Great, can't wait. Now study, bitch!"
So I ultimately get there around 8PM. Basically everybody is already drunk off their gourd. Stephanie sees me, squeals in excitement and runs to me in her bikini and just jumps in the air and slams into me, wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and gives me a big hug. I hug her back and just keep walking back to the pool where she had started, carrying her with me. I just duck my head around hers and say hi to Stephen, who just glares at me.
She drops back down and I give her her gift. We chat for a few seconds and says "There's beer in the fridge and food in the dining room." I told her I'd be right back.
I go inside and grab a beer from the fridge. I head to the dining room and the table is against the wall with a buffet of sandwiches, tomato pizza, salads, etc. I grab a plate and start putting food on it. I was focused on the task because I was starving. I barely noticed, sitting at the end of the table one of the most stunning woman I have ever seen. I just see her in my peripheral vision and I do a quick double take, quick glance at her and back to the food. I do that a second time. And finally a third time. At that point she is just straight up staring at me and I can't help but chuckle and whisper under my breath "Subtle Guy, sub-tle".
Thankfully she starts laughing too, saving me some embarassment. I look at her and greet her. She says "Hi, I'm Maryse and I'm guessing you're Guy?" I just nod and we start talking. At that point, I just thought I have no shot with her, she's so far out of my league that I'm just gonna talk to her until she sees one of the "models" hanging out by the pool and ditches me for him.
So I'm not feeling like I'm playing for anything, so I'm just myself and not nervous, just talking to her as I would any friend. We chat and she laughs at all my jokes, she gets all my cultural references. She never gets up or ditches me. The plate of food I had made and the beer I had gotten are sitting on the table next to me untouched, I was too busy with the convo to think about food or beer anymore.
After what felt like only 20-30 minutes, Stephanie comes in and tells me, fake grumpy: "So that's where you disappeared to. I invite my best friend to a party and he spends the whole night talking to someone else." I laugh and go: "What do you mean the whole night? I haven't been here that long." She says "Dude, it's 2AM. You've been here for 6 hours..." My jaw dropped and I just said: "Wow, time flies when you're having fun." Maryse chimes in, with a big smile: "It sure does!" That made me happy as you can imagine.
Now I was a little stuck because where Stephanie lived, there's no night service for the bus and the subway had been closed for an hour or so. I figured I would cab it. So I turn to Maryse and tell her: "It was absolutely lovely to meet you and I enjoyed our conversation very much." She says that she did too. I continued with "At the moment, my schedule is incredibly hectic. I'm basically working full-time, studying full-time and sleeping part-time. So I don't have a lot of free time, but if she was interested, whatever little free time I had, I would love to call her or text her to keep on getting to know her."
I see Stephanie in the backgroudnd, looking like a proud mama at how smooth that came out, knowing I was always anything but smooth with women, as proven by the string of blind dates! Maryse has a big smile and we exchange numbers. I go to Stephanie to wish her a happy birthday again. While I'm talking to her, my phone buzzes with a text from Maryse: "Just checking!"
I asked Stephanie "What's the best cab company to call in this area?" Maryse chimes in: "Where do you live?" I tell her where I lived and she goes "It's on the way to where I live, I can give you a ride if you want." Stephanie raised an eyebrow in surprise. I learned later, she did it because it absolutely was not on the way to her place, like, at all. I say that I would love that as it would give us a chance to keep talking.
We get in her car, driving to my place. We talk, she asks me what I'm studying as I hadn't mentioned it earlier. I tell her all about the boring maths I had to study. Much too quickly, we get to my place. She parks in front of my building and we keep talking. At some point, I tell her: "Normally, this is where I would try to "trick" you into coming up to my place..." She interrupts me: "You wouldn't need to trick me. I'm willing and able!"
I tell her that "As tempting as that sounds, I know who I am and I know that if you come up and things proceed to where they're going, I'm not going to be able to study for the rest of the month. I have a kind of obsessive mind and when I find someone or something I like, I can push everything else to the side in favor of that. So to make sure I can still focus on my studying, I have to go up by myself."
She looks at me, a little disappointed but then says, half-jokingly: "We don't have to go up, there's a backseat right there!" We laugh and I give her a kiss and wish her a good night. I managed to stay strong and go back to my condo. Damn it, why did I have to stay strong!!!
My exam was at the beginning of november. During the month of october, we texted a bunch of times and talked on the phone. We went for coffee a couple of times and dinner once. She respected my boundaries and never pushed for more, which I appreciated but also hated at the same time, if that makes sense. The exam came and it was a monster of a Friday. I slept for basically 18 hours after the exam as the adrenalin dropped and my system crashed.
I texted her when I woke up at around 1PM. She was working at the clothing store Stephanie owned. She said "I'm off at 5PM, wanna meet me." I said: "Duh! Why do you think I'm texting? ;)" So I met her at the store downtown. I asked if she wanted to grab a drink, go for dinner, or what. She proposed going to her place and getting some take out. Stephanie who was closing the store at that moment, came up to us and said: "Hey, so what are we doing?" I said: "WE, that is Maryse and I, are going to her place and getting some takeout. Bye!" I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you that no food was ever ordered that night!
Thus followed a whirlwind month of November where any free time we had was spent together, and I wasn't going to complain!
The troubles
By the start of december, things were still going great with us. One saturday night, we were having dinner at a restaurant and I mention that this coming Friday is my office Christmas party, that it's employees only, so we wouln't see each other that night. She tells me: "Oh sure, that's fine! It'll give me a chance to go see some girlfriends I've been neglecting lately." I said "Great! BTW I also got us a reservation at [this great restaurant she had mentioned a few times] for next Saturday, so we could go there and I'll tell you all about my party and you can tell me all about her night with the girls!"
That was settled, I thought. I was wrong. On Thursday, we had spent the evening together at her place and I was about to leave to go back to my place. She tells me: "So are you coming to meet me at the store tomorrow or do I go to your place?" I reminded her: "Neither, tomorrow is my office Christmas party and we won't see each other tomorrow." She said: "Oh right, I forgot." I asked her if she had made plans with her friends like she had mentioned last saturday. She said that they were all busy tomorrow and weren't available.
She suggested "If your party is boring, maybe you could come meet me." I retorted that it wasn't going to be, knowing who was going to be there.
"Yeah but what if?"
"But it won't"
"But what IFFFFFF?" she kept insisting and I kept saying no. After what felt like 30 minutes of that (probably only 2-3 minutes in reality), I had enough and just said to end the argument: "Okay, if it's boring, I'll come. but it won't be." She said: "Cool" with a big smile on her face. I came to learn that that smile meant "Challenge accepted".
The following night, my colleague and I were pregaming in a conference room before leaving for the party proper and my phone buzzes. Maryse was wishing me a good party. I replied. She texted me again. I replied. She texted again, but I was in a conversation with a colleague so I didn't reply or even look at the phone. My phone buzzes again. Still talking, and didn't want to be rude to my colleague. Another buzz. I just kept talking. Phone buzzes differently, she was now calling because I hadn't answered her texts.
"Why aren't you replying to my texts?"
"Hey, sorry, was talking to my colleague Patrick."
"What? you don't want to talk to me?"
"I am talking to you now."
"Why didn't you reply to my texts?"
"Because it would have been rude to my colleague to pull my phone out while talking to him."
"But you're talking to me now."
"Because I thought something was wrong, maybe it was an emergency."
"I wanted to talk to you, that's all."
"Well, gotta go back to the party. Talk to you later."
She kept texting and if I didn't reply right away, she would call after two or three missed texts. After about 2 hours of this, I stopped answering the texts. When she called back, I asked her: "Aren't you supposed to be working?" which started another round of guilt-tripping of "why are you asking me this? you don't want to talk to me?" At that point I had had enough and wanted to enjoy my party. I remembered that the Blackberry (no shaming old tech!) I had had an annoying feature, but I was hoping to put it to good use at that moment.
Whenever the battery would get really low, like less than 1%, it would let out an ear-piercing BEEP for about 3 seconds, reminiding you to charge it and giving you a heart attack all at the same time. It would do that even when you were in silent mode. It had happened a few days earlier when I was with Maryse. I figured, if I press a button on the Blackberry, it would make a beep too that could be heard through the phone. So while I was talking to Maryse, I pressed my thumb on the space bar for a good 3 seconds and sputtered; "what... the .... what?" trying to put on a somewhat believable performance.
She asked what that noise was and I tell her that it was my blackberry letting me know I was low battery and it might shut off any second. I told her "Listen I'm gonna wish you a good night, I'm having a good time at my party so I'll see you tomorrow at 5PM to go spend our evening together. I hope you have a good....." and hung up mid-sentence. I promptly shut my phone off and went back to the party. I concede that I may be a bit of an AH for that move.
The party was great, I got drunk much quicker than I expected owing to the fact that I hadn't had a drink in over two months because Maryse didn't drink so I didn't either when we were together, and we were always together. At 1AM, I went home and passed out on my bed.
This is another place where I may have been an AH. I didn't turn my cell phone back on and I unplugged my home line too, because I wanted to sleep the deep sleep of the drunkard. I woke up at around 1:30 PM, not knowing it was already too late. In my mind, I was meeting Maryse at 5PM to go out on the town that night. Maryse had other ideas as you'll see.
So like I said, I woke up at 1:30PM and was sticky with alcohol sweat, so I went straight for the shower to get clean again. While in the shower, my stomach grumbled with hunger and I started daydreaming of bacon and eggs. That pushed me out of the shower right quick. I dried myself off quickly, tied the towel around my waist and went to the fridge. No bacon.... booo. Looked at the egg compartment... no eggs... booo again. Okay then, how about a cream cheese bagel. No cream cheese, damn it. Look in the pantry, no bagels.... god. I was starting to get angry. Okay, cereals then. I pick up the cereal box, that mofo was empty and I get mad: "who's the idiot who puts the empty box back in the pantry?" I remembered I live alone.
I close the fridge dejected and see the grocery list stuck on the fridge, taunting me with everything I wanted to eat for breakfast written on it. But I felt like if I went to the grocery store hungry as I Was, I'm just gonna pay 600$ and not get one single healthy thing to eat. I then remembered there's a restaurant next to the grocery store that serves breakfast until 3PM. I get excited! I get dressed quickly, grab my wallet and keys, put my boots on, my coat on, wrap my scarf, my tuque and my gloves and go to the restaurant. If you notice, I didn't mention my phone in there.
I get to the restaurant and confirm that they still have breakfast and get even more excited when she confirms it. I order the "heart attack", at least that's how I nicknamed it: 3 eggs, 3 servings of bacon, 2 sausages, and, I guess to give one peace of mind, fruit (or to be precise, one single solitary slice of orange). Now that the food is ordered and coming I figured I would check if I have any messages. I pat the pocket where my phone always is. No phone. uh-oh. I start clutching evert pocket, no luck.
I wonder if I should go back home after the meal before going to the grocery store and decide against it, it would be too long a detour. So I scarf my breakfast down, rush through the grocery store. I get home and set my bags down in front of the fridge. I go pick up my blackberry. I turn it back on. The little tape icon tells me there are messages on my voicemail, at that time there were no red dots with a number in it to tell you how many.
I connect to the voicemail while starting to put the groceries away. The little automated voice tells me "You have 25 new messages." I pull the phone away from my ear, look at it in disbelief as if saying: "are you f'ing kidding me?" So I press 1 to start playing the messages.
Remember: Maryse knew I was at a party with a dead phone, no chargers and I probably wouldn't get home until 1AM. From 6:30PM, when my phone died, to 11:34 PM, when she went to sleep she left me 9 messages. BTW I know she went to sleep at 11:34PM because she left me a message saying "it's 11:34PM and I'm going to bed. Thinking of you." The 9 messages were in the same vein. These are the salient details, but the messages were all much longer.
She woke up at 7:15 the following day, I'll let you guess how I know that tidbit of information! She left me 5 more messages like those from the day before: 7:15 woke up. 7:35 going to take a shower. 7:55 out of the shower. 8:25 getting ready to leave for work 8:50 walking out of the subway to go to the store.
She leaves me another message at 9 that was different. She sounded very excited as if she had had the best idea in the world: "Hey it's 9AM, I'm about to start my shift. I know we're only supposed to meet after my shift, but what if you came and met me for lunch so you could tell me all about your party." I just did my best Scooby-Doo "Ruh-Roh" and chuckled that I blew that, not thinking the calamity that was awaiting me.
Another couple of messages to talk logistics: "I could take my lunch at 12 or 12:30, let me know which you prefer." "I'm taking my lunch at 12:30"
A slightly worried message: "It's 11:15 and you stil have not said if you were coming or not, are you okay?"
The first bomb goes off and I knew I was in trouble then: "Where are you? We're supposed to meet for lunch and you still haven't given me any sign of life, you're not answering your home phone either, what happened?" Reminder: we were not supposed to meet for lunch, she suggested doing so a couple of hours earlier and I never agreed to anything. I guess she told her colleagues I would meet her for lunch and it was now fact and could perhaps make her look bad in front of her colleagues.
The second bomb drops: "It's almost noon now, WHERE ARE YOU? Stephanie says you're probably sleeping off your drunk, but I don't believe her. I'm sure you got yourself a slut and cheated on me. Didn't you? didn't you, you asshole." Stephanie knows me very well, but that wasn't enough for Maryse it seems.
Ensued four more messages from 12:30 to 1:15, where she starts sounding more and more drunk and accusatory, spewing more attacks like in the message above. At that point I already knew it was over, there was no coming back from that. I can understand having trust issues, but that was nuclear. I don't tolerate jealousy because of horrible experiences with a couple of jealous toxic exes.
A final message comes in, and it's a different voice, that of my best friend being more than a little angry: "Hey Guy, listen, Maryse tells me you had a Christmas party yesterday, so I'm guessing you're sleeping off your drunk, still. But call me when you get this. I put Maryse, who's f'ing drunk, in the backstore so she can dry off and "do inventory". She can't be on the sales floor obviously and I just don't feel safe sending her home in the state she's in. Call me to tell me how you want to handle this."
At that point I had finished putting away my groceries and had put my boots and my coat on and was making my way to the subway to go to the store. I call Stephanie and tell her I got the messages and I was coming. She was right, I was sleeping off my drunk and had just woke up (didn't feel the need to mention the breakfast and grocery store). I ask her if she knows what I'm gonna do when I get there. She says that she knows and understands. She knows my bad history.
When I get out of the subway, I call her again before getting to the store. I ask her how she wants me to do this. It's her store and I don't want to create drama in front of her customers. Does she want me to wait outside and she tells Maryse to meet me in the street or do I go in the store and she takes me to the backstore and I do it there? She says to come to the store.
I walk in the store and every saleswomen on the floor looks at me and gives me the biggest case of the stink-eye. They only have Maryse's side of the story, so they think I did all these horrible things. I see Stephanie in the middle of the store and I walk towards her. She shakes her head and points me towards the cash register. I look over there and see Julia, a salesperson that I've known for a couple of years and really like, who also happens to be the biggest gossip in the store. I understand what Stephanie is trying to do. She's gonna make me tell her my story in front of Julia so Julia can spread the "good news" to the other employees and rehabilitate my name possibly.
So I get to the register and say Hi to Julia. She barely acknoledges me. Steph joins me. She asks me:
"How are you?"
"I was better an hour ago, before I listened to those voicemails. I had gone to our office party last night, had a great night, got drunk off my ass, got home at around 2 and woke up around 2."
Julia asks "Maryse told us you were supposed to meet her for lunch."
"No we weren't. I have a reservation for tonight at XYZ restaurant. I was supposed to take the day to do errands, stuff around the condo and meet her here at closing time. She suggested that it could be fun if I came at lunchtime to meet her, but that was never the plan."
Julia asks again "But why didn't you answer your phone?"
"It ran out of battery last night during the party and when I got home, I was so drunk that I forgot to plug it back in. I only plugged it when I woke up at 2. That's when the messages came in."
Julia asks "She says she tried calling your home line and you didn't answer and your machine didn't kick in."
"Yeah, that one's my fault, I knew I wanted to sleep and telemarketers have a habit of calling me early saturday mornings so I didn't want to be awoken by a call for a rug cleaning service, so I unplugged it yesterday morning, knowing I would be drunk when I got home and forget and be angry if I was awakened by a telemarketer."
Julia gave me a hint of a smile, showing me she was starting to believe me. She asked me a few more questions and then she asked what I was gonna do. I told her that whatever I'll do, I would tell Maryse first.
I looked at Stephanie and said: "Can you open the back store so I can go see her?" So we went to the backstore. As we reached the door, it swung opened and out popped Maryse, looking absolutely terrifying, I actually jumped back when I saw her. Her usual perfect makeup was completely smeared, her mascara streaking down her cheeks from the crying. Her hair was disheveled. She was a mess. Apparently, she had had enough of waiting back there and was planning on leaving the store to go home and had put her coat and boots on.
When she saw me, she went into an unhinged rant about me being an asshole for cheating on her, me not being great in bed, me not treating her right, etc. I let her vent everything she had to say, I looked at Stephanie and apologized for creating such a scene in her store. I tell Maryse we should go outside and talk in private. She keeps on yelling, but when I grab her hand to lead her outside, she follows.
When we get outside, her anger had started to wane a little, or maybe just her energy. I was able to talk to her to explain everything, how I had gotten drunk, had overslept (alone) and woke up at 2PM. I reminded her that we were only supposed to meet at 5PM not for lunch. The anger was leaving her and a smile almost appeared on her face. Through all of this I was being very calm and patient with her, which she interpreted as me not being mad at her. I then said in a firmer tone: "However..." and let it hang for a second.
The beginning smile vanished. I continued: "When you accused me of cheating on you, that broke me. That triggered memories of toxic exes who would always accuse me of cheating, not trusting me when I would tell them where I was, snooping on me, stalking me. Because of those experiences, I have a zero tolerance policy for jealousy. I told her that if she was behaving like after only two months of dating, it didn't bode well for the future and I have to protect myself."
At that, the tears started again and she just turned and ran/waddled away. I told her to wait, but she didn't hear me. I turned towards the entrance of the store to see basically all the employees and customers milling around the door trying to catch the drama. I went back inside to talk to my best friend. The mood had definitely changed and no one was giving me the stink eye anymore, but I didn't really care. I was just sad that it had ended, but proud of myself for having stood up for myself.
So AITA for getting drunk and keeping my phone turned off?
There is a lot more to this story and if you want to learn what happened afterwards, then read on.
The immediate aftermath
So I went back inside the store and talked to Stephanie. I told her that I had a reserrvation for XX restaurant and if she wanted to go with Stephen, she could take it, I wasn't in the mood for a dinner. She said "I already have plans for tonight, but thanks for offering." Julia said she would go with me if I wanted, but I just said that I wasn't in the mood to go out. I just wanted to crash and eat a pizza and get into a food coma.
Stephanie said she didn't feel comfortable leaving me by myself and I should join them at her house. They were having friends over to play board games and it could at least distract me a little. I said why not. So brimming with enthusiasm, I went to play bored games. I left early as I wasn't in the mood. I was feeling a little better, but still a bit down. I thanked Stephanie for the invite and left. I got home and just passed out on the bed.
I woke up at around 7AM the next morning and I saw along the corners of the window the tell-tale signs of a snow-drift and got excited as it was the first snow of the season. I pushed the curtains aside and looked on to see a beautiful white carpet outside. It was early enough that very few cars had marred the whiteness. I was admiring it when I noticed that, against the red bricks of the building across the street, there was a pink blotch. As I focused, the blotch became human shaped and I cleared my eyes enough to realize that it was Maryse and she was raising her cell phone to her ear.
On cue, my phone rings. I pick it up. Still sounding drunk, she asks me if we can speak. I ask her to give me five minutes to get dressed and I'll meet her down there. She asks why she can't come up. I say that I'm not sure I want her in my apartment. She says that it's cold out. I say: "Good, then this will be quick."
I get dressed and meet her outside. I'm still bleary-eyed from having woken up 5 minutes ago, but I try to get my wits together. I tell her that we're going to walk to the subway. It 's a 10-minute walk normally, but with her drunkenness, it might take 15-20 minutes. That's how long she has to tell me what she wants to tell me.
She wants to apologize for accusing me of cheating on her. She says she knows I'm a great guy and... I may be the A-hole at this point too, but I start to drift off in my little bubble and start daydreaming about, if I go back to bed, would there still be some residual heat or would it be cold? I could take a hot shower and warm the bed that way. I could still hear her in the background making excuses, saying how she had been cheated on, but I wasn't really listening.
During the daydreaming I notice it got quite quiet. I look on my left and she's not there, I turn around she's a good 5-6 steps behind me looking angry and she says: "you're not listening" I just say: "when you're right, you're right." I tell her that I understand she's been hurt too in the past, and I hope she can work to resolve her issues, but I was done and I'm going back to bed. I was a bit harsh there, but I was tired and still down.
I walk past her and get maybe 10 paces past her when I hear a scream coming from her. I turn around and I see her messing with something inside her coat. She pulls out a chef's knife with like an 8-inch blade. That wakes me the fuck up. Byebye bleary eyes, hello wakefulness. better than a cup of coffee or a red bull I tell you!
So she's got the knife, she's screaming something that I can't quite understand. She gets quiet and then she charges at me with the knife. If I'm being honest I could have stayed where I was and she probably would have missed me anyways, but someone charges at me with a knife, I'm gonna nope out of there. I take a massive side step and once she gets to where I was and realizes that I'm no longer there, she turns her head towards me and says heyyyyy.
At that point, I have a moment of clarity and see what's gonna happen. She's drunk running one way and looking another, I know she's gonna trip. As I predicted, she stumbled over her feet and starts falling to the ground. I start praying to god and anybody who would listen: "Please don't let her cut herself. I don't want to have to explain this to the doctors, EMTs and nurses. I don't want her drunk ass deciding to take revenge on me by saying I did it."
Thankfully, she winds up in a sitting position on the sidewalk holding the knife up and it was clean. Thank god for small miracles. She starts crying and, other moment of clarity, I know she's gonna turn the knife on herself now. I jump towards her and I realize I was right, the knife starts moving towards her left wrist. I tackle her, grab her right wrist and twist it so she drops the knife. I pick the knife back up and put it in my pocket. She looks at me crying and says: "Why did you stop me?"
I pick her up and take her back to my building. In my building there was a couch in the lobby, so I take her there and I sit her down and plop myself next to her. I look at her and wonder out loud: "What am I gonna do with you? What can I do?"
She goes: "Just let me go, I'll be good." I tell her that's not going to happen. I realize I have three options and I give her the three options.
"So here's the choice I give you.
1- I pull out my phone, call 911 and tell them about the attempted murder back there and they send the police to arrest you. I don't want to do that because that could derail your life and not get you the help you need. Besides, they might not do anything anyway as it's your word against mine.
2= I pull out my phone, call 911 and tell them about the attempted suicide back there and that you need to be placed on a 72 hour hold. I could do that, but at the same time, again it's my word against yours, so maybe they don't believe me.
3- I'm gonna hazard a guess here. From what I've seen, you have alcohol problems. So I'm gonna guess you were in AA, had been sober for a while, I want to say 6 months, maybe less, when we met."
She confirms my guess.
"alright so option 3, I'm guessing you had a sponsor in AA." she nods "we call them up and tell them about your relapse and what happened this morning. Can they come get you and take care of you?"
She takes her phone out and picks a contact and calls. She hands me the phone. Someone answers and I explain the situation. They said they were coming right away. I give them my address, they get here 15 minutes later. Maryse had fallen asleep in the meantime, so I wake her up gently and help her to the car. Off she went.
I went back to my apartment and just crashed back to sleep.
A month later
Mid-january, my phone rings and I see Maryse's number on there. I send her to voice mail. Another call. Voicemail again. 5 minutes later, Private number calling. "Gee I wonder who that could be." Voicemail once more.
Afterwards, I didn't get any unidentified callers for a little over a week. One afternoon, I was at work and my phone rings and it's a number I do not recognize. I pick up.
"Hello."
"Hi, is this Guy?"
"Yes, to whom am I speaking?"
"This is Hannah, Maryse's sponsor. we spoke last month." I started fearing the worst.
"Yes, I remember. How can I help you?"
"Maryse tried to reach you last week and you rejected the calls. I think it could help Maryse if you listened to what she had to say. You're obviously not obligated to entertain her, but I think despite everything that happened, you still care about her or you would not have called me that morning."
"You are right, I do still care about Maryse. I'm just not sure how good it would be for her to meet me this soon after everything that happened. I understand wanting to work through the 9th step and making amends, but..." She interrupts me.
"So you know about the steps."
"Yes I have friends in the program. which is how I could guess that she was in the program too that morning."
"You know it's important."
"I know. I know. How about this: we meet in public at a cafe, you would have to be there. Not necessarily at the table with us, but nearby in case she needs help, in case meeting me causes her pain. Tell her I promise to be in a more receptive mood than I was that morning."
So we make an appointment for that saturday afternoon.
I get to the coffee shop. She's already there, and so is her sponsor. I realize happily that she's not wearing makeup. I say happily because that means she understands that this is not a date, but something serious. She's still stunningly beautiful, and I feel sad almost right away.
I grab a coffee and go join her at the table.
"Hey" I say,
"Hey. So this is gonna be uncomfortable, but thank you for agreeing to meet me and for coming, I appreciate it more than you know. I'm sure you heard I quit the store."
"I have, I'm sorry about that, I hope you didn't do it just because of me."
"No, I needed time to focus on myself for now."
She proceeds to tell me about how I wasn't far off with my guess. She had been sober 4 months when we met. Now she had 39 days. She tells me that in AA, if you are single, they recommend not dating anyone new for at least the first year of your sobriety as it can cause issues, similar to what happened with us. I was like her "drug" and as long as I was available, she could get her fix. But the moment I wasn't available all hell broke loose, and that is what led her back to drinking that day.
I told her I'm glad to see her back sober again this quickly and I hope she can get all the help she needs from it. I ask her if she wants to talk to me about her drinking.
She starts to share a story about how she started drinking at around 11 years old. When puberty hit her, she got into a deep depression because the sexual feelings she was starting to feel were triggering responses. As a child she had been abused by two of her uncles repeatedly and her parents never believed her. They accused her of trying to make herself interesting. That was until they caught one of those uncles red-handed.
They finally believed and took the necessary steps to protect their daughter. But they were poor and they couldn't afford therapy. So she never really got help for it. At 11, she started self medicating the depression with alcohol. When alcohol wasn't enough, she added drugs.
At that point, I was full on crying. She asked me if I wanted her to stop. I told her that she doesn't have to stop. That the tears are there because that was one more thing we had in common. I was also a survivor of sexual assault as a child. In my case, it wasn't a family member, it was only a stranger, so it only happened once. But I also self-medicated with alcohol at the onset of puberty, switching to drugs later on too. I was lucky to avoid the pitfalls of addiction, but I was still dealing with my demons, slowly making peace with them.
So there we were, sitting at a coffee shop, both crying and holding each other. I tell her that I think it's great she's getting help for her alcoholism and addicion, but was she doing anything to help with the underlying issue, the original trauma? She said no, she couldn't afford therapy. I tell her that I am a member of a survivors group and if she is interested, I could get her into a meeting and perhaps learn to heal that part of herself too.
She said that she could give it a try. I tell her I have to talk to the other members to know if I can bring someone new and I would let her know. If they said yes, we would go to her first meeting together, I would introduce her and then we would coordinate so that I never went to meetings where she was. I wanted to do that because I wanted her first few meetings to be about healing and I didn't want our own history to be intertwined or mixed in with that.
After that, we left both feeling content and, while not necesarily happy, at peace if you will. Later on, I contacted Stephanie who was one of the "pillars" of the support group (that's how we met) to ask her if it was okay for me to bring in a new member to the group. She said sure. She asked if it was anyone she knew. I told her she would have to meet her at the meeting if she decides to come.
We were having a meeting the following day. I called Maryse, told her the time and place, and she said she would be there. She came to the group meeting and was shocked to see Stephanie there but Stephanie kinda guessed that it was Maryse I was referring to.
I introduce her, we start sharing stories, talking about how we're feeling, etc. The meeting was good and Maryse liked the vibe. So for the first six months after that, I never saw Maryse and we planned which meeting we would be attending to ensure we didn't cross paths. She started feeling much better.
After maybe 2 and a half years, she finally felt ready and she started dating again. She met someone and she fell for him. They were together for about six months, she looked happy. Unfortunately after about six months, she caught him cheating on her. We tried supporting her, being good friends, cursing his name, doing all the things we could to make sure she didn't relapse. But on April 5th 2014, she ODed on heroin. She was hospitalized for 2 weeks after that.
Hannah took her in and she set up a room for Maryse. She was still in a fragile state, so a group of her friends and I started taking turns watching over Maryse, making sure there was always at least one person there with her to keep her company.
Despite our vigilance, on May 14th 2014, when Hannah was out running a quick errand, she was gone maybe 15 minutes tops, Maryse found a way to cut her wrists and she died. We found a note saying that "the OD was not an accident, and neither was that. Thanks for everything you did for me. I love you all, but I can't do this anymore."
It feels good to write that story (I'll just ignore the fat tears rolling down my face!). Thanks for reading this far and sorry for the long story, I just started writing and couldn't stop. I apologize if it was a bit of a bummer.

ANY advice is greatly appreciated!
We close on a new build Lennar home in July-Northern NV. This will be our very first home! When us and our realtor agent went in office to sign contract and give Ernest money, we asked about a 3rd party inspector. Our agent and the Lennar sales rep both said it’s our choice to pay for our own inspection. They also both said it’s a waste of money since we have the year warranty and they advise living in the home and getting to know it for few months then filing warranty claims if needed. Lennar sales rep said they have 30 days to fix any claims. We’re definitely not listening to that advice. However I have some friends who bought from Lennar over the past few years and their agents told them the same, live in it for few months. They were told it’s a waste of money because inspectors won’t find much wrong and do not look deep enough. Almost sounds like it could be lack of due diligence from 3rd party inspectors in our area. We’re hoping to find a great inspector.
**My question- is Lennar required to fix everything and anything on the inspection report prior to us closing? Can they pick and choose what they fix on the report on the basis that it still meets city codes and regulations?
Our interest rate is currently locked in till 7/31 and we close on 7/17. The thought of possibly feeling pressured to rush into closing by 7/31 is making us nervous considering interest rates right now and the out of pocket cost that would be needed to keep our current rate locked in after the 7/31 deadline.
We have also heard that claims filed through warranty can be overlooked with the excuse that everything is up to code.

ANY advice is greatly appreciated!
We close on a new build Lennar home in July-Northern NV. This will be our very first home! When us and our realtor agent went in office to sign contract and give Ernest money, we asked about a 3rd party inspector. Our agent and the Lennar sales rep both said it’s our choice to pay for our own inspection. They also both said it’s a waste of money since we have the year warranty and they advise living in the home and getting to know it for few months then filing warranty claims if needed. Lennar sales rep said they have 30 days to fix any claims. We’re definitely not listening to that advice. However I have some friends who bought from Lennar over the past few years and their agents told them the same, live in it for few months. They were told it’s a waste of money because inspectors won’t find much wrong and do not look deep enough. Almost sounds like it could be lack of due diligence from 3rd party inspectors in our area. We’re hoping to find a great inspector.
**My question- is Lennar required to fix everything and anything on the inspection report prior to us closing? Can they pick and choose what they fix on the report on the basis that it still meets city codes and regulations?
Our interest rate is currently locked in till 7/31 and we close on 7/17. The thought of possibly feeling pressured to rush into closing by 7/31 is making us nervous considering interest rates right now and the out of pocket cost that would be needed to keep our current rate locked in after the 7/31 deadline.
We have also heard that claims filed through warranty can be overlooked with the excuse that everything is up to code.

Couple in late 60s getting divorced
Started a business together in California around 30 years ago after they got married
Wife handled day to day (staffing/employee issues, client relations, purchasing supplies, compliance for state regulations, and even worked shifts when needed)
Husband handled some operations (estimating quarterly taxes, vendor payments, and handyman/maintenance tasks). Was never his full time job as he had other employment or business ventures the whole time
Divorce was initiated by husband during Covid. At the time, business was valued at around $500k, and wife was willing to take out a loan to buy out his half of the business as she is most adept at running it and intends to do so until her retirement.
Husband refused mediation and pushed for court.
Both parties agreed to a forensic accountant to value the business. Results now show (with Covid’s impact to the business) a value of $50k.
Husband now does not want to sell his share and instead wants to have the wife sell her half to him. He does not know how to do the day to day operations nor does he have the credentials to run it on his own.
Can a judge force the sale of the business to the wife? And, if so, at what price? Will they be forced to sell to a third party and lose a lifetime of work building this business up?
These people are relatives. Husband is a PoS with a victim complex (even though he initiated the divorce and refused mediation and agreed to the accountant). Want to know how bad the wife will be screwed over. She poured her blood, sweat, and tears into this business over the last 30 years. Her employees love her. Her clients love her. The business wouldn’t exist without her and it is her life. I’m at a loss at what options are available at this point

I have a Lore Bard that just hit level 14 and with it, I need to pick some more Magical Secrets. I've managed to lose my notes on what spells I was going to pick, so it's back to the drawing board. So far, Find Greater Steed is already slotted in for level 14 and Wish is slotted in for level 18, but the second pick for both of those levels is wide open. My feats are Inspiring Leader, Ritual Caster, War Caster, and Moderately Armored.
My current Magical Secrets are Haste, Counterspell, Telekinesis, and Wall of Stone.
Haste was chosen for cases where the solution to an encounter was more Divine Smites from our Paladin. Wall of Stone was chosen for a combination of story reasons and the permanence of the wall playing into the DM's style. Counterspell and Telekinesis were chosen for reasons of pure power.
The party consists of a Vengeance Paladin, Dragon Sorcerer, Light Cleric, and a Moon Druid.
The Paladin primarily smites but does occasionally use spells for movement. The Sorcerer primarily uses Fireball, Lightning Bolt, and Scorching Ray. Our Cleric favors primarily using either Spirit Guardians or Sunbeam. The Moon Druid is a fairly even split between using Call Lightning and melee Wildshape.
So far I've bounced between crowd control, buffing, and blasting as seemed most advantageous at the time. Often I'll lead with a Hypnotic Pattern or a Wall spell or Haste and then in subsequent rounds either throw out a Blindness or blast. I keep wanting to use Animate Objects or Telekinesis but it just never quite seems to be the right moment for them.
Simulacrum has been considered, but it would probably be an extended period of time before I'd have both the 12 hours to cast it and the ruby dust to spare.
Contingency is one that I'm interested in, but still a bit unsure about what spells I'd really want to use with it and how useful it would be.
Plane Shift is another I thought about, but it is of questionable use given the cosmology of the setting we're playing in and the nature of our current adventure with difficulties traveling between Feywild, Material, and Shadowfell.
I've been considering grabbing Aura of Vitality to help the Cleric feel less obligated to healbot or Heal for an emergency mid-combat. I briefly considered Revivify but decided that between the Paladin and Cleric, if both of them were dead and I somehow survived, they're just going in the portable hole.
I've got so many Concentration spells competing for my attention that I'm not super keen on ideas like Circle of Power even though I have used it with other characters and loved it, and it feels like there should probably be enough blasting between what I already have and the rest of the party that something like Destructive Wave is less called for.
I've been considering Wall of Force since I don't know how long it will be until I can actually use Forcecage, but I do currently have 3 flavors of Wall spell already at this point.
I'm probably just overthinking it, but I keep having this feeling that I'm overlooking something that might be obvious to an outside perspective.
Full spell list as follows. Note that our DM allows us to have an additional spell known per spell level for spells that we're playtesting for him.
Cantrips - Minor Illusion, Mage Hand, Siren's Shout(single target blast, ranged spell attack, Thunder damage), Flash of Foreboding (Green Flame Blade clone, Psychic damage, rider effect requires downing an enemy in that encounter), Razor Edge(Shillelagh + damage buff), Prestidigitation
1st level - Faerie Fire, Dissonant Whispers, Speak with Animals, Hidden Bolt (single target Force damage blast)
Rituals: Alarm, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Floating Disk, Identify, Unseen Servant
2nd level - Blindness/Deafness, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Bone Fiddle (Conc., single target speed debuff + Psychic + Slashing damage over time), War Cry (bonus action, AoE minor Buff to party + Wis save vs. 1 round Frightened on enemies)
Rituals: Augury, Gentle Repose, Magic Mouth, Skywrite
3rd level - Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Major Image, Slow, Ghostly Charge (30' Cone AoE Psychic damage blast, Int save for no damage)
Magical Secrets: Counterspell, Haste - Rituals: Phantom Steed, Tiny Hut, Water Breathing
4th level - Confusion, Greater Invisibility, Polymorph, Psychic Lance, Songbird (10 min Conc., gives an additional, less powerful Bardic Inspiration die to a 2nd character each time Bardic Inspiration is used)
5th level - Animate Objects, Synaptic Static, Telepathic Bond, Wall of Thunder (10 min Conc., 5' thick, semi-invisible see-through wall, Con Save vs Thunder damage + Deafened, Disadvantage to ranged weapon attack through it, blocks sound)
Magical Secrets: Telekinesis, Wall of Stone
6th level - Mass Suggestion, Irresitible Dance, Flock of Retribution(10 min Conc., Crown of Stars meets Armor of Agathys, Shadowfell-energy-based, Psychic damage single target blast, 1 per turn, no action or reaction beyond the initial cast)
7th level - Forcecage, Mirage Arcane, Wall of Dread (Conc., 20' thick Wall of Magical Darkness + Difficult Terrain + Wis save vs. Psychic damage + Frightened + Bonus Action single target blast + save vs. Frightened)
I also have some items that give me access to 1/day of Detect Magic, Entangle, Faerie Fire, Fly, Ice Storm, Invisibility, Levitate, Protection from Evil and Good, Shillelagh, and Speak with Animals.

Does anyone know if there will be coffee for sale anywhere not trying to lug out coffee making equipment but definitely need it after partying all night

"Golden rules" about buying cheap flights, like booking domestic flights 57 days before the departure date, are no longer valid, as there has been a huge shift in the travel industry in what days were thought the cheapest to booking flights. If a study has not been conducted recently, or only one year ago, do not put too much faith in it; there's no reason to worry about booking a flight far in advance. The stellar tips below are current.
Check airlines which don't appear on 3rd party websitesOne of the major weaknesses of Internet search engines is that they frequently will not display the flights of all airlines such as Southwest, Frontier, and Allegiant. To solve this problem, use a free resource like Wikipedia to learn which of these airlines operates a certain airport. Visit Wikipedia, go to their airport page, and search for a section called "Airlines and destinations." You are advised to locate a list of each airline that flies to that airport as well as all the nonstop destinations that airport operates. So, once you become aware of any carriers which did not show up in your first searches, you could now look for flights straight on the airlines' sites.Search one-way & round-trip flightsOnce upon a time the majority of round-trip flights were cheaper than booking two one-way airfare flights. That's no longer the situation today. For instance, Southwest and Jetblue set their prices for their flights on a one-way basis; and a round-trip flight is only the sum of the 2 one-way rates. So, you'll want to check one-way flight rates to ensure you buy the best round-trip deal by pairing two one-way flight tickets, probably on two different carriers.Look for one seat at a timeThere exists a virtually unknown quirk in how carriers price seats which could result in greater prices if searching for many passengers as opposed to a single ticket. Airlines put their inventory in fare classes, or called buckets, which are not always obviously visible to customers. For instance, there may be just three seats left in a fare bucket for $300 each, and the next higher bucket may be $400 for each ticket. But, if you happen to look for four seats, each one would end up falling into the $400 fare bucket.Search alternate airportsAt times the cost of a certain flight is extremely high that it could be a good idea to use your second or even third choice of airports. For instance, you perhaps are aware of the New York area's 3 biggest airports: New York-JFK, Newark (EWR), and New York-LaGuardia. But did you know that Stewart (SWF), Westchester (HPN), and Long Island McArthur (ISP) are also in the region? Several airlines permit you to look for all airports in a region by just specifying the destination as the city itself rather than a certain airport. The ITA Matrix tool is also a great way to look for close by if you do not know the area too well, and Google Flights offers a "Nearby airports" option to assist in this search, too.Don't always travel directBeing flexible with your route you'll be flying is another way to find a cheap flight. For instance, at times it's cheaper to travel to London and use a budget airline to Amsterdam instead of flying directly to Amsterdam from the actual departure city.To utilize this approach, learn how much it costs to fly directly to the target destination. Next, open Google Flights, type in the destination's details like country name to see the rates to nearby airports. If the difference happens to exceed $150 dollars, find out how much it actually is to fly from the 2nd airport to the main destination.Leverage elite statusAlthough having elite status will not allow you to book flights at a discount, you still could use it to save money another way. But with elite status with the majority of airlines let you to standby for earlier flights or perform same-day verified flight modifications. This can permit you to buy a discounted airline flight at an awful time, only to modify it to the flight you really want but at no extra charge. Even without elite status, the charge to standby or make a same-day verified flight modification might be less than the airfare difference between the flight you truly want and the lowest option that day.Use the correct credit cardThe right credit card may very well provide you major savings on flight tickets in a number of various ways. For instance, The Platinum Card from American Express now offers 5x points on all airline bookings made directly with the carrier or with Amex travel, worth 10 cents each dollar spent, based on TPG's recent valuations. That card in addition offers the International Airfare Program, providing cardholders discounts for premium class flights on certain airlines.Search for free hotels and stopover toursWhenever an airline imposes a lengthy layover because of its very tight schedule, the airline will usually offer a free STPC, or stopover paid by carrier, which can include a free tour or hotel room as well.
Don't mind the mythsThe initial and main fact to know whenever locating a cheap flight is there exists no magic trick for achieving this objective. There are however a ton of myths floating online about certain ways to seek cheap flights. Without doubt, you must have run into a lot of them while searching for the best flight deals.Airline companies use advanced technology like computers and pricing algorithms for determining flight prices and offer deals based on various factors like time of the year, weather, time of day, passenger demand, fuel prices, competitor prices, and others. These myths and similar ones will lead you astray. Be flexible in respect to your travel times & datesAirline flight rates vary a lot depending on upcoming holidays, day of the week, and time of the year. August is a major month for flying to Europe, and plenty of people are planning to travel somewhere hot during winter or fly while the kids are taking a break from school.In summation, if you're traveling when everyone is also flying, then logically your flight price will be higher.Flexibility is everything for cheap plane tickets & cheap flight dealsThe more flexible you are, you'll get better cheap flight deals you can book. Here's a new way of doing things: Instead of deciding where to go next, choosing dates, and then searching for the cheap plane tickets to certain destinations on those particular dates, consider first selecting your destination and dates based on the best going deals available. By exercising greater flexibility where you travel and the specific dates you fly, you will have a far better opportunity to find cheaper airfare.Book first, think later for cheap flight finder cancellationTake complete advantage of the free 24-hour cancellation window while purchasing flights. Because of the Department of Transportation's strict regulations, any cheap flight booked to or from the United States could be canceled without worry of incurring a penalty, for 24 hours after the flight's reservation; it must be booked no less than one week before the flight's departure. Yes, it's a very good idea to use a cheap flight finder these days. What this means is that if you buy a flight and the ticket price drops within 24 hour window, you could cancel the original flight and purchase the new, less expensive one.Warning: the 24-hour rule can only work for flights directly bought with the airline or with booking engines such as Priceline.Set a price alert for all cheap flight ticketsYou can choose emails or push notices to your cell phone which will tell you exactly when the flight you are interested in has increased or decreased in price. This may be a great way for getting the best possible price on all cheap flight tickets in the near future. You can do this on the majority of search travel sites and OTAs. Why miss out on potential easy savings? You can then always locate flight tickets cheap when you need them.Buy in foreign currency to get cheap flight ticketBecause regular fliers travel abroad now and then, you could switch the currency on the airline's website to determine if the price would be listed in other monies.You can save big this way. For example, if an airline increased the flight price in US dollars but not in Indian rupee, you could book flights at half the price! But this may require altering either the location or language on the airline's website; or you may change to the home country's URL, where ticket prices are generally cheapest by searching in its local currency. This is how you can in fact find cheap flight ticket to wherever you like to travel.Sign up for an airline's travel rewards credit card for cheap flight bookingOne of the smartest ways to take full advantage from travel credit cards is to use the hefty sign-up bonuses. For example, if you sign up for a new travel card when the airline is offering unusually high quantity of bonus miles, you could score yourself literally thousands of dollars worth of reward points by just opening the card.Although several of these travel cards could have higher annual fees, a big sign-up bonus may amount for months or even years worth of cheap flight booking for you and your whole family.The cheapest day to book flightsEven though you might see great deals flashing on your computer screen for international airfare three to six months out, if you are flying during peak times, or perhaps your plans are not very flexible, it's smart to begin searching sooner. The cheapest day to book flights actually evades many flyers.This does not automatically mean you ought to purchase tickets when hitting the 6-month window; hold on till you book cheap flights online. And, just ignore the old advice that travel experts often repeat regarding booking the cheapest flights at 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday; that used to be true but now airfare prices are updated often and great deals could pop up any given moment when least expected. So, now you can secure a flight cheap most of the time.Utilize momondo to book cheap flight air ticketsUpon finding what you imagine to be the cheapest flight wherever, try searching on Momondo; it will search dozens of OTAs; bear in mind that it may not display the cheapest fares seen on large OTAs and Google Flights. But you got a greater chance to find cheap air tickets sooner this way. Otherwise, only one cheap air ticket may be attained, if tried another manner. Now you too can enjoy when you book cheap flight tickets when you need them.Fly cheap during the low seasonHave you ever scanned flight prices from the USA to Europe's insanely popular cities in August? Surpassing quite easily $1000.00, they can frighten seasoned and expert travelers alike.But are those the same ticket prices in February? So, fly cheap from major hubs in USA to Europe, you could often locate roundtrip flights throughout the winter months for less than $400 or even $300!Fly basic economy for cheap air flightsA basic economy flight ticket could save you money, if you do not require checked luggage or advance seat selection. Pay only for what you need. In theory, you'll achieve cheap air flights via this option.Enroll in the airline's loyalty program for cheap airfareIf you fly one particular airline often, join its loyalty program in order to earn points each time you go anywhere. Then, you can redeem such points for upgrades or cheap airfare in the future. If you accumulate enough miles and achieve a considerable status with the airline, you might receive free upgrades. Now, you can take fuller advantage of cheap air fare whenever you require it.Skiplag to discover hidden-city cheap airfares & last minute flightsHidden-city ticketing happens by booking a flight to a place beyond your final destination, and then end your flight on the layover city. This could help you in getting cheap airfares as well as best last minute flights to most destinations. Think about it: can you imagine a better, more creative way to book cheap air fares while searching the Internet?Prolong your layovers for cheapest flight ticketsSometimes only by extending a layover a few days in another city in-between, you can score cheapest flight tickets to your original destination. In conclusion, more often than not, you'll usually find the cheapest flight ticket by following this method consistently. Why not? A lot of people are discovering that they are by accident getting the cheapest flight via the extended layovers.Don't overlook sales for cheapest flight bookingAirlines are frequently offering amazing deals which you may jump on fast enough and save yourself hundreds of dollars on your next flight. Sign up for your favorite airline's newsletter to be on top of their latest flight deals. This is yet another way to know about the cheapest flight booking that becomes available whenever.Focus on going across the ocean for cheap fly ticketsIf you are thinking to visit a distant location, it could be less expensive to book one ticket to the main hub, and then a second ticket from there to your final destination. For example, if you wish to fly to Alhambra, Spain, it's probably cheaper to book one roundtrip flight from your home to Madrid and a second roundtrip ticket from Madrid to Alhambra than it would be to buy a ticket to Alhambra on one itinerary. In essence, you'll end up with cheap fly tickets by following the above example.Don't overlook destinations with low cost carriers to get cheapest flightsCarriers such as Frontier, AirTran, and Southwest all drive down airfares along their routes. So, it may be quite wise to travel a bit longer to a larger airport with low-cost carriers, because even major carriers flights will most likely be cheaper. Using this method regularly, you are more likely to find the cheapest flights to most if not all your destinations. Why not take advantage of low cost flights whenever possible?Avoid Friday, Sunday flights, & traditional air travel daysThis may mean going away before and returning later than usual, or even flying exactly on the holiday. Pelletier, the air travel specialist, says you can save up to 50% by simply flying Christmas Eve or Day. She said: "We saved $300 per ticket around Thanksgiving for our family of four by flying out the Saturday before Thanksgiving and coming back the Saturday after. Not everyone can swing that with their work schedules, so my advice is to leave Thanksgiving day and return on Saturday for cheaper fares."Begin with a reputable flight search engine to find cheapest international flightsWhile searching for a flight, the initial thing you will wish to do is determine which airlines run a certain route and get an estimated price on the biggest carriers. Opposed to individually visiting all of these airlines' sites, begin by looking for a website which will provide results from many airlines and different combinations of carriers. You may end up with the cheapest international flights this way. So, you could start with Expedia or another such as Orbitz, Hotwire, Travelocity, and Cheap Tickets. Do not ignore Google Flights, which, though a very powerful search engine, know that it's not a booking platform and can't buy a flight ticket there. This is how you could find cheapest flights to many popular locations.Be flexible where you go to book discount flightsIf for some reason or another you cannot be flexible with the time factor of your flight, then try to be flexible with your destinations. It's ideal to be both. However, you still can save a lot of money and book discount flights by being flexible with either factor.You don't have to conduct manual searches, going city by city and day by day. Websites such as Google Flights, Skyscanner, and Momondo provide explore tools and permit you to add your nearest airport and see a world map with all the possible flights on it. This helps you to quickly compare many destinations with no need to brainstorm each potential option.Fly budget airlines/carriersMany years ago, you were generally stuck flying with traditional costly airlines. That's not true anymore. Budget airlines today service both short and medium-haul routes all over the world. For example, AirAsia provides incredible cheap flight deals around Australia and Asia for less than $150 dollars! Indian and Middle Eastern air carriers sell cheap flight tickets throughout Africa and the subcontinent.Book early: how to find the cheapest flightsYou can discover how to find the cheapest flights by booking early. Although flight rates continue climbing the nearer you get to departure, there exists a great spot along the way when airline companies start to reduce or increase flight prices based on demand. Do not wait till the last moment but do not book too far in advance. The ideal time to buy your flight ticket is about 2 to 3 months prior to your departure, or even about 5 months prior if you're flying there in their peak season.

Why Travel and Tourism Industry Business Need to Have Travel Mobile App?

Travelopro is a leading Travel Portal Development Company globally & travel technology company having clients across the world. We integrate Amadeus GDS, Sabre GDS, Galileo GDS, and many more.

We specialize in portal design, development, and integration of various GDS's XML, API's, testing & deployment to client host after which we also maintain the product for 24/7 technical and customer support services.

We provide complete travel solution for travel agents, tour & travel companies tourism management companies, car rental agencies, hotels.

Give your customers excellent travel experience with our highly advanced and multi-purpose travel app development services.

We offer highly customized B2C and B2B travel website application development, XML API integration and GDS integration solution travel and tourism companies. We are helping to who is looking for online travel portal development services and B2B2C online travel portal startup companies.

Our White Label travel portal is a one stop solution provider for all the technology needs of travel agents, consolidators, corporate travel consultants, hotelier and tour operators.

With Travelopro you can launch your own travel portal, with the custom look and feel you want; i.e. launch your own travel brand instantly. Apart from the regular feature like real-time Flight, Hotel, Holidays & Bookings, Cancellations.

If you are looking for travel website, you are at right place. We are a unified travel website development and online travel business solution provider company, delivering scalable B2C & B2B solutions to global travel operators & companies.




How Travel App Development is Influencing the Travel and Tourism Business!

Travelopro is a reputed Travel Portal Development Company globally, our travel portal is an online booking engine with flights, hotels, transfers, sightseeing and packages modules for travel agencies / agents.

It's also known as IBE, which aggregates and distributes information of flights, hotels, cars, packages to global B2B clients to enable them search and book online.

Our B2B travel portal software can be integrated with leading GDS systems like Amadeus, Travelport, Sabre and third-party APIs / XMLs and LCCs. We have a separate team of expert developers who are seasoned professional when it comes to API consumption and integration.

Why you should Choose Travelopro for Travel and Tourism App Development?

We are the travel technology providers, providing travel booking engines, white label solutions, web designs & development, travel mobile apps, XML/GDS Integrations and many more services.

Our variety of solution has enabled us to serve every sector of the industry - Travel Agencies, Destination Management Companies, Online Travel Agencies, Tour Operators, Consolidators, Consortia and Niche Travel Companies. We also provide customized solutions that suit your exact unique requirements and scale.

We have professionally trained staffs having gained years of experience in delivering comprehensive and cost-effective solutions to the travel businesses.

Our team develops the product based on the client's business requirements and assures the quality of product by performing various testing tools before delivering it to them. We provide travel solutions that are most updated, proven and reliable in the global travel industry.



Give Real-Time Traveling Experience to Your Customers with Full-fledged Travel Mobile App Development Solutions

Travelopro can assist you in developing cutting-edge, feature-rich, robust, and scalable travel mobile apps with UI/UX design, essential third-party integrations, and advanced technical support to fulfil your consumers' expectations. You may use our comprehensive travel app development solutions whether you manage a small travel agency or an international leader in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Our unrivaled travel solutions meet all of the demands of travel agencies, tour operators, and DMC companies, allowing them to manage their travel operations at their fingertips. Our app development company works with companies and startups from the ground up. With our travel mobile app development services, we can effectively aid everyone who desires to digitize and expand their business.

We provide highly functional and user-friendly travel mobile app design and development services tailored to specific business models. The travel mobile apps will assist your consumers with varied activities, resulting in repeat visits.

Contact our team to have functionally robust, user-friendly travel mobile apps for Android and iOS built based on your demands. Travel and tourism app development solutions might help you transform your company. We specialize in developing high-quality mobility solutions for travel booking app development. Our skilled travel app developers stay up to date on industry developments to guarantee that our customers receive the best solutions available.

We have a team of experts who can assist you in developing mobile apps that will represent your business online and boost its market value. Our custom-built travel mobile apps protect your budget while also allowing you to improve your revenue.

We offer a complete business solution for your travel agency with a dedicated travel mobile app. The app we create gives a rich experience for your travel agency's consumers. It helps your company maintain existing customers while also attracting a new specialized audience searching for an excellent travel service to make their vacation planning and execution pleasant.



Travel Mobile Apps Features

· Trip planning

· Travel Map

· Travel Tracking

· Travel Checklist

· Tourist Guide

· Tour Booking

· Vehicle Booking

· Travel Destinations

· Hotel Booking

· Travel Agent Features

· Trip Organizer

· Places to Visit

· Travel News



· Travel Diary


Our Mobile Solutions for Travel Businesses

Travel Planning App Development

We can give you a full-fledged travel management system that allows you to effortlessly manage travel itineraries, booking, and reporting and provide your clients with an easy-to-use travel app interface to book their trips through your app.

Ticket Booking App Development

Our travel mobile apps development team creates a cloud-based, robust, and super-smooth online and mobile travel ticket and hotel booking solution. Customers may use this to book flights, trains, and buses and make hotel reservations.

Navigation and GPS Integration

Provide navigation options that help tourists navigate unfamiliar areas. Incorporate GPS technology, interactive maps, turn-by-turn directions, and location-based recommendations to enhance the journey experience.

Booking and Reservation Systems

Create apps that help consumers book flights, hotels, rental cars, and other travel-related services. The integration of secure payment methods and the provision of real-time availability information are critical components of this service.



Flight Booking App

We provide flight booking applications that are user-friendly, feature-rich, and offer a variety of functions to make the booking process as easy as possible. Our flight booking software provides consumers with all the information they need in one place, from searching for flights and comparing costs to making bookings and organizing itineraries.

Why does your travel business need a mobile app?

There are several reasons for the travel sector to have a mobile app, including rapid booking, 24x7 availability, more customers, better and loyal customers, higher sales, effective staff management with automated procedures, easier data maintenance, and branding to attract more consumers.

Mobile Apps for Travel and tourism are essential for every travel business since they allow you to reach clients anywhere in the globe, sell the services you offer, and work as an effective medium for developing trust between the business and the tourist. A travel mobile app must be developed with the most cutting-edge features and the latest technology in app development to meet the needs of today's travelers. It gives users a real-time app usage experience.

Using an advanced travel app, we provide consumers with best-in-class experiences at their fingertips to enhance and personalize their travels. Mobile Apps are increasingly a vital component in the travel industry, particularly for marketing. The significance of travel mobile apps is subsequently on the rise. A Travel mobile app should have functions such as geo-location tracking, itinerary generator, weather forecasts, booking services, social media sharing, reviews, ratings, reports and analytics, and so on.

If you want to expand your travel business and reach a larger audience, you should develop a travel mobile app. Aside from that, you'll need an app to automate your travel business and provide customers with an exceptional trip-booking experience. We can help you grow your business by developing easy-to-use travel mobile apps that improve the client experience.

Benefits of Travel Mobile App Development Services

Enhanced User Experience

Travel mobile apps development companies focus on providing user-centric interfaces that simplify the travel process. These applications are designed to deliver smooth and pleasurable experiences for travelers, from straightforward navigation to personalized suggestions.

Comprehensive Travel Solutions

These companies provide a variety of capabilities in their travel apps, including flight and hotel reservations, itinerary planning, real-time navigation, travel guides, currency converters, and more. It provides customers with everything they need to travel in luxury.

Real-time Information

In travel mobile apps, real-time data streams are utilized to give users up-to-date information on flight statuses, weather conditions, local events, and other topics. This real-time information enables the user to make better-informed decisions.

Location-based Services

Travel applications that use GPS technology provide location-based services such as navigation, nearby attraction suggestions, and local food alternatives. These features improve the traveler's experience by making it simple to find and explore new destinations.

Operational Efficiency

Task automation through Al-powered apps to boost the productivity of your travel and tourism company.


Streamlining Booking Process

Easy online reservations and payment processes make the journey of travelers worry-free. It can help to increase bookings and revenue by making it easier for potential customers to find and book services.

How Travel Mobile Apps Are Changing the Tourism Industry?

Travel Mobile Apps help to bridge the communication gap, make bookings more accessible, and allow travel to places independently. These travel apps are jam-packed with features that may help users travel better and more effectively, from purchasing flights, rail, and bus tickets to renting cars and hotels.

A revolution in mobile technology has resulted from the development of high-tech mobile applications. The tourism sector will particularly benefit from this growth. Mobile devices make internet connectivity and online service booking possible by eliminating administrative positions and concentrating on marketing.

With years of expertise in creating user-friendly solutions, we have gained an enormous reputation and recognition for our services. You can look at our profitable and feature-rich services developed for the travel sector. Travel mobile apps have become an essential part of the industry, impacting the booking and planning processes.

Why Choose Travelopro?

Partner with us to develop a feature-rich travel mobile app for your business. We help travel companies reach the full potential of modern technology and provide more individualized service to customers via travel software, web, or mobile applications.

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Our travel app development company strives for perfection. We provide our clients with the best travel mobile apps that are sturdy and functional. Our travel and tourism application developers have years of expertise in the sector. We understand your company's demands and provide products that help it develop immensely. We leverage cutting-edge technology to create customer-focused, high-quality travel mobile apps.

We, at Travelopro, try to empower your business by boosting customers' engagement, increasing loyalty, and skyrocketing sales.

· On-Time Delivery

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· Direct Contact with Your Team

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For more details, Pls visit our Website:
https://www.travelopro.com/travel-application-development.php

Having played Royal, Golden, Reload, Portable, Dancing, Ultimax, Strikers, and Tactica, I decided to try Q and have just reached the first game’s third dungeon. And wow - it has some really amazing and fun gameplay.
There are so many aspects to it which make it super enjoyable. I’ve heard it’s very similar to Etrian Odyssey, so maybe a lot of these are shared with that but I’m not sure:
Sub-Personas - Tactica has these, but they only add so much due to only have one fixed slot and one inherited slot for skills. In Q, sub-Personas have 6 slots, which adds an enormous extra layer of strategy that makes every character feel as valuable in combat as Makoto/Yu.
Money - I’m playing on normal, and money feels like a lot more of a valuable commodity here than in mainline Persona. Usually, it piles up and up until I’m basically just buying everything I see willy-nilly. Conversely, I actually have to strategise with whether to prioritise items, weapons, armour, accessories, summons, healing, etc.
HP and SP - The problem with mainline Persona games is that, especially in the early game, you are always conscious of using SP because you will run out very quickly. The game wants you to come back another time with renewed SP, but when you have to max out social links minimising your time in a dungeon is vastly preferable. As a result, I often end up doing normal attacks, which ends up being quite boring. In Q, your HP and SP are tied to your sub-Persona, which lends you a certain amount automatically at the start of every battle. This is great because it strikes a perfect balance between feeling like you can never use your skills and feeling like you can use them ad nauseam. You also have to distribute your HP and SP buffer strategically, as you’ll want Kanji to have a lot of extra HP for physical skills, but Naoto to have plenty of extra SP for insta-kills, say.
Dungeon-crawling - Dungeons are really well-designed and feel like a pleasure to traverse. Shadows are always a threat because of random encounters, which is preferable to something like Reload in which you can easily just run away from them (probably the worst change from earlier P3 games imo). I like having to manually keep track of where everything is in the dungeon, and there’s a decent balance of social hijinks and actual traversal, which is what makes Shido’s Palace really fun for me. Special events in the dungeons’ nooks and crannies make everything feel more fresh, in a way which even P5 doesn’t replicate in its more scripted dungeon novelties, nor P3 or P4 in their randomly-generated samey hallways.
Difficulty - I’ve died more in Q than I ever have in a mainline Persona game, and I think that it strikes a better balance with hard bosses and enemies that screw me over a lot. All-out attacks are also more unexpected, so it feels extra rewarding to pull of a solid set of moves.
The boost system - Another way HP and SP is handled better is in its reduction to a cost of 0 after a successful ‘weak’ or ‘critical’ attack. This rewards you for playing strategically, and opens up your options as you can pull back your attacks to heal, carry on racking up boosts, or transfer to a different sort of move entirely. Plus, being hit while boosted is another obstacle to victory which helps to balance out the difficulty.
Leader and navi skills - I like that Fuuka and Rise feel much more useful, because there are so many tools with which to customise their arsenal. I like to have Fuuka run a move which teleports everyone back to the floor’s entrance, because it’s more foolproof than escaping and can be used for traversal.
Party layout - I like that the party is five strong, which is necessary in a game with so many party members as Q. But more importantly, the front and back layers add another degree of depth, though I’ve yet to move around in combat, despite that being an option.
Quests - These mostly come with some interesting joke, like Teddie trying to find a love potion or Junpei trying to anonymously set up a date with the P4 girls. They’re fun, and having EXP as a reward is also cool.
The only complaint I have is shared with my remonstration with Tactica, which is that sub-Personas often feel a bit suboptimal. You only have so many Personas at your current level, especially when fusion is so costly. Therefore, you often end up loading teammates up with Personas several levels lower than yours. I’m not really sure how one would fix that, though. Great game, anyway.

PSA #1: u/pep-- is going to post a weekend live thread for the weekend, we think the weekend definitely deserves it. He just needs to finish his homework first.
PSA #2: We now have a new fancy very very blue RAUM flair. I know some of you are sporting an improvised RAUM flair so now you can grab a real one. Apologies, should have done this way earlier.

I'm gonna keep this one short, I'm gonna keep this one short, I'm gonna...

Helllllooooooo bbs, I'd like to announce that THE WINTER IS OVER, the sun is out, we are getting new sunglasses because we lost all of them at parties last year (no? just me? goddamn berghain took like 3 pairs, alongside my dignity), we are showing skin, sweating balls, getting hornier again, annnd.... Entering festival season, so let's talk about that.
This weekend we have three festival contenders:
Awakenings Upclose (timetable)
Big, big up to Awakenings programming/booking and marketing team. Awakenings until now felt like a festival to avoid, but somehow, Upclose seems to be the place to be. Everyone I know and their mother will be there, including me, but not my mother. She's coming to Lofi for Die Rakete in two weeks, but that's another story.
My plan for Awakenings is:

• a low dose of acid
  • haha for legal purposes I swear that was a joke
• turn off my phone
  • this I very much recommend
• Polar Inertia (Sat)
  • there's a chance you haven't heard about Polar Inertia (and your hardtechno friends definitely haven't), because it's one of those projects that are half-dormant, rare to catch, and you kinda have to know to know.
  • keywords are ambient, experimental, deep, elegant, I also hope for cold and creepy but that might be just me
  • they recently (ish) released a set with Monument, go get a taste
• Sandwell District (Sat)
  • Sparkles fangirling over Sandwell District - Exhibit A
  • Sparkles fangirling over Sandwell District - Exhibit B
  • more than a 20 year old label/group/act responsible for my currently favourite track ever that woke up from hibernation last year, and started releasing new stuff that I also love
  • also known as mainly Function and Regis, but other names floating around are Rrose, and Silent Servant... that one isn't floating around anymore, unfortunately 💔
• otherwise fuck around and find out
  • I mean walk around without expectations and see where I end up

Some other maybe noteworthy things in my opinion:

• check out the hard techno stages
  • Vera Grace is actually good , and so is Somniac One
  • I'd check out Rebekah and SNTS out of nostalgia, I like how they used to play and I have a tiny sliver of hope that they might bring some of that to Upclose, yes, but also, probably not, oh well
  • I wish I could say the same about 9x9 because they used to play awesome live acid (bitches love livesets), but I have zero hope they will pull that out again, oh well
• Colin Benders x Speedy J
  • two total legends from the NL, they are known to deliver ✨education✨
  • Colin is a joy to watch playing, also I think it's gonna be a hybrid / live (and bitches love livesets), because I have never seen Colin DJing ever - does he even know how to mix? I don't think you should know how to mix if you can just conjure tracks out of thin air and a big bunch of cables...
  • Speedy J
    • Speedy J with Colin Benders
  • They could theoretically play quite hard, both are very well capable of it, don't come crying if they do, also check out this set of Speedy's violent alias Public Energy at Unpolished 2020, because that's the education I'm talking about
    • I mean even Speedy J as Speedy J is violent
• CEM & MCMLXXXV
  • fun, banging, fun, cute

Lente Kabinet (lineup)
Not my thing, know like 2 and a half names on the lineup, someone hype something in the comments please I'm lost, it's not techno, ugh.
Draaimolen Island x Sustain-Release (timetable)
Looks cute, is sold out, please write thorough reviews in the afters, I'm curious with a slight tinge of FOMO 😇

You can also go check out the May Festival Monthly from u/Motionez to see their take on these.

Let's look into pre-parties on Friday now:
DINA, KI/KI & Nelly at Club RAUM
Sold out (tickets at the door though), but I need to fangirl here anyway, because fuck damn, this is RAUM finally bringing a lineup that finally really speaks to me, and it's not even about KI/KI for me, let me explain:

• I am still haunted by memories of what Nelly did to me at Ratherlost NYD, one person I don't want to publicly shame (I miss you u/bleepbloopbarbatruc, and btw I finally kinda learn to spell your username) said "Nelly is a warmup DJ, can't really imagine her in a different slot" - SO DAMN WRONG. She absolutely killed the preclosing slot with a a tense, organic/tribal, deep, terrifying set that just filled the air in the room with something. Yeah yeah, going that deep is not everyone's thing, but hey, house isn't either, blabla.
• I haven't heard DINA play in person yet but I did my research and I'm excited. She can definitely pull off a wormhole, but isn't afraid to step out of it as well and play something actually euphoric, or heavy hitting borderline tekno, and yeah, she just has 🔥range🔥 and definitely knows how to use it, I don't know who decided to book her there but THANK YOU.
• and of course, KI/KI. It's always a treat to get someone so big/popular, talented and good to play in an intimate venue, and on top of this, KI/KI and RAUM go way way wayyyyy back and you can just feel the love there.

See ya there bbs, all the other Friday events can go home. (Garage with Fever Dream might be cool in a signature-garage-weird way, and there's one other event that I avoid mentioning, and people always come after me with wHY DiDN't You MeNtiOn THaT OnE... so yeah, that one)

That's done, let's talk about afters:
Awakenings Upclose After Hours at Radion and Bret (RADION timetable, Bret so far unannounced)
Nice blend of the locals like Thoms Traxx and Hashashin and infamous Berliners like Function and Quelza in Radion, I mean, can't really go wrong there, can you. But yeah, not much else to say.
I would have absolutely loved if they did some non-standard stuff like one of the big hard techno names playing a surprise, unnanounced sunrise house set in Bret (can you please take a moment and imagine SNTS doing it), or do open decks w/ the Funk Assault babes and Beau Didier, Isaiah, and idk Flits and Hitam? Not gonna happen, but a girl can dream, right.
131bpm, Marie Malarie, Naone & Lola Edo at Club RAUM on Saturday
If you're done with techno for the day and want to go shake your ass, wave your spine and wiggle your elbows, this is the one. I really like Naone here, she recorded a set for Harmony Rec, a label I will always simp for, and generally I like her take on house, where she sometimes dives deeper than you would expect from a house set, and you can generally hear interesting sounds in her sets, which is not really a a thing in that... genre. It's like someone forced DJ MARIA. to play house. Did I just offend two artists with one sentence? Sorry dears, I love you both.
DJ Nobu, Cobahn, Nelly at PERRON on Saturday
I don't want to mention this one, but kinda can't not bc Nobu. Done.
Vibrant with Nur Jaber at Melkweg on Saturday
u/sinacuk slid into my DMs asking politely and nicely for a shoutout, so here it goes 💖

Hellooo! As Vibrant we have another event on the night of 18th of May with Nur Jaber, Bours?, and 7Circle. It will be at the OZ room of melkweg, with an intimate atmosphere and no phone policy. We are designing own lights once again with Kraft Und Licht as well. Also we are going to have art exhibitions.

I'll just add that I saw Nur Jaber closing Berghain once, and it sounded like forks in a high speed mixer while your aggressive neighbor is trying to kick your front door in. This was a compliment. Nur Jaber is cool, because she also does this.
Talismann b2b Makam all night long at Levenslang on Sunday
Rumor has it that if he plays without a shirt, it's Talismann, if with, then it's Makam. Playing a b2b with yourself all night long feels like a recipe for a personality disorder, or you already have to have one to come up with this idea. Jokes aside, Talismann is good, so is Makam, this is a cool, novel, and deranged idea, I can get behind this.
UNUSUAL at Radio Radio on Sunday
First party from a project of one cool person from the former DS team, doorsale only, unannounced lineup (released podcasts may or may not betray some of it though), they clearly trust their network, friends, and people-who-just-know to show up. Respectable, good luck, godspeed.
Slapfunk at Bret on Monday
If you STILL want to party the fourth day in the row, Slapfunk gotchu. Lineup TBA, but it's probably gonna be boom tsaa boom tsaa boom tsaa or papm papm papm pupururu. Ideal for your last remaning braincell to bounce around.

Unrelated to the weekly, but important - if you have been an active part of this sub also last summer / fall, and feel close to the other notorious shitposters here, slide into my DMs, I might have something for you.

That's all folks, I made a long one again.

After a lot of searching through various Barefoot Brands and styles I tried on a pair of Lem's Primal 2 in a store and they fit me perfectly, but I have been struggling to find my size - men's 9 - the only color I like, brown. They are not even available on the Lems actual site and every third party seller seems to be almost entirely out of that color. I guess it was the first one or just very popular.
This site claims to have them in that color, and every other color, and every single size which is already suspicious, but also for almost $30 less than they usually sell. The URL is also a little strange. Is this an obvious scam?

Hi! Timestamps: https://imgur.com/a/yqwBi4e
For sale is an Apple Watch Series 8 A2772 with the following specs:

• 41 mm
• Aluminum, Midnight
• LTE/GPS
• 100% battery health
• Apple limited warranty until August 2024

Included accessories:

• SMALL midnight sport band
• 3 additional 3rd party watch bands
• screen protector applied, and spares
• USB C charger

The body of the watch is in good condition, but the screen did get some light scratches before I applied the screen protector.
The watch will NOT ship in the original box. Asking 170 shipped /160 local OBO.
Local 60201. Please let me know if you have any questions
Repairs: None

Hi! Timestamps: https://imgur.com/a/yqwBi4e
Cross-posted in appleswap
For sale is an Apple Watch Series 8 A2772 with the following specs:

• 41 mm
• Aluminum, Midnight
• LTE/GPS
• 100% battery health
• Apple limited warranty until August 2024

Included accessories:

• SMALL midnight sport band
• 3 additional 3rd party watch bands
• screen protector applied, and spares
• USB C charger

The body of the watch is in good condition, but the screen did get some light scratches before I applied the screen protector.
The watch will NOT ship in the original box. Asking 170 shipped/160 local OBO
Local 60201. Please let me know if you have any questions!