Introduction
1. Will this be your first dog? If not, what experience do you have owning/training dogs?
· This will be my first dog but not my partners. He grew up with dogs and has had them for most of his life.
2. Do you have a preference for rescuing a dog vs. going through a reputable breeder?
· Reputable breeder would be my preference.
3. Describe your ideal dog.
· Medium or large sized, willing to go for hiking and backpacking trips with me. Ideally a dog that we can take to the crag when we’re climbing. One that is friendly with cats.
4. What breeds or types of dogs are you interested in and why?
· Right now we are considering a labrador retriever, an aussie shepherd, or a toller, mostly because I have really nice experiences with these breeds. I am open to other breeds as well. My partner has had huskies, malamutes, flat coated retrievers and pointers
5. What sorts of things would you like to train your dog to do?
· Obedience and catch for fun.
6. Do you want to compete with your dog in a sport (e.g. agility, obedience, rally) or use your dog for a form of work (e.g. hunting, herding, livestock guarding)? If so, how much experience do you have with this work/sport?
· No I just want a new family member.
Care Commitments
7) How long do you want to devote to training, playing with, or otherwise interacting with your dog each day?
· A few hours everyday.
8. How long can you exercise your dog each day, on average? What sorts of exercise are you planning to give your dog regularly and does that include using a dog park?
· On weekdays, up to two hours. On weekends, three to five hours, possibly more depending on what activities we are doing. I work from the office 2 days a week but otherwise I am home. Our backyard is connected to a huge forest with lots of hiking trails and lakes, and I live in a very quiet and dog friendly neighbourhood. There will be lots of hikes and swimming, if that’s what they’d like to do.
9. How much regular brushing are you willing to do? Are you open to trimming hair, cleaning ears, or doing other grooming at home? If not, would you be willing to pay a professional to do it regularly?
· I groom my long haired cats regularly and will be open to doing the same for my dog. Anything that is too complex will be done by a professional.
Personal Preferences
10) What size dog are you looking for?
· Medium or large.
11. How much shedding, barking, and slobber can you handle?
· Minimal barking, and slobber. Shedding is fine, I’m used to it.
12. How important is being able to let your dog off-leash in an unfenced area?
· It would be great if they can go off leash while hiking in the forest, but its not a big issue if they need to remain leashed.
Dog Personality and Behavior
13) Do you want a snuggly dog or one that prefers some personal space?
· I love snuggles but I also get lots of snuggles from my cats so it doesn’t really matter either way.
14. Would you prefer a dog that wants to do its own thing or one that’s more eager-to-please?
· Would like a dog that’s eager to please.
15. How would you prefer your dog to respond to someone knocking on the door or entering your yard? How would you prefer your dog to greet strangers or visitors?
· No aggressiveness
16. Are you willing to manage a dog that is aggressive to other dogs?
· Ideally not.
17. Are there any other behaviors you can’t deal with or want to avoid?
· Excessive barking ideally would be avoided,.
Lifestyle
18) How often and how long will the dog be left alone?
· For 2 days I will work from the office, where they will be left alone for 4 hour stretches. Otherwise they will not be left alone.
19. What are the dog-related preferences of other people in the house and what will be their involvement in caring for the dog?
· Feed or walk him if I’m outside or working inside.
20. Do you have other pets or are you planning on having other pets? What breed or type of animal are they?
· Yes I have 3 norwegian forest cats.
21. Will the dog be interacting with children regularly?
· No
22. Do you rent or plan to rent in the future? If applicable, what breed or weight restrictions are on your current lease?
· We own our house.
23. What city or country do you live in and are you aware of any laws banning certain breeds?
· Sweden. No laws that I know of but I do know that breeds like pitbulls can be frowned upon.
24. What is the average temperature of a typical summer and winter day where you live?
· Summer is around 20 degrees celsius. Winters there is snow and can be anywhere between negative 15 degrees celsius to 5 degrees celsius
Additional Information and Questions
25) Please provide any additional information you feel may be relevant.
I would like to get a puppy so they can learn to be around cats from a young age.

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Chapter 15: For What You’ve Tamed
“We’ve come a long way, Vikri. Let’s finish your story,” Rayner said as he sat down in the same chair, crossing his legs in the same way.; small consistencies that made the task of talking about my past seem a little more routine. “I understand you lost someone important to you that day.”
I shifted slightly where I sat. “Yeah,” I answered coarsely. I grabbed at the poncho hanging over my shoulders. I remembered what it felt like in my dreams. Radiant warmth always seemed to emanate from it. Not necessarily the poncho itself, but Tenga’s memory. I realized that as long as I had those, then he was still here in a way. I’d much rather have him here than his memory though.
Rayner nodded. “I know what that’s like,” he said in a near whisper.
I shook my head. “It’s not just that I lost him. I…I failed,” I rasped. “I could’ve saved him. Maybe if I’d gone back I could’ve gotten the equipment before the fire did. I was too afraid.”
Rayner nodded slowly. “And now you feel responsible.”
I remained silent as I clutched my tail on the couch beside me. Rayner already knew the answer. He pursed his lips. “Yeah…I know exactly how that feels.”
I looked up at him. For the first time, his eyes weren’t on me, but on the adjacent wall as he seemed to ponder something. “You think about all the things you could have done differently. Things that are so obvious in hindsight,” he sighed and adjusted his glasses. “If only it were that clear in the moment.” He looked up at me, clasping his hands together. “So walk me through what happened.”
I could still vividly remember the moment Tenga got shot. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. So quickly in fact, that it even took Tenga a moment to realize there was a hole in his torso. Minutes of continuous tension shattered with a hail of gunfire lasting less than a second. The echoes continued to howl through the mountains long after the bodies met the snow. My friend was fatally wounded, the snow around him dyed bright red with his blood. And I had to leave him.
The entire time I was in the belly of the federation destroyer with danger lurking around every corner, all I wanted to do was to get this done as quickly as possible and get back to him. I was enraged that they’d done this to him and to billions just like him.
“Tenga was all I thought about the entire time,” I croaked. “And I…I was willing to kill everyone onboard to get back to him, even if there was no way I ever could. I… did things I could never have imagined myself doing even just days ago. I tore a chunk out of my leg just to be able to get to the Krakotl pinning me down with a crowbar.” I inhaled deeply, staring down at my reflection in the water, recalling my bloodshot eyes in the reflection of the ship's monitor. The grimly colorful bloodstains in my fur from several different species.
Rayner nodded. “It was a desperate situation. Many don’t see themselves doing things like that until they’re put in a situation where it's necessary. A situation where it's do or die. No one can fault you for that, especially not with all that depended on you.”
“I guess I just…It’s just worrying knowing that there’s a part of me capable of that.”
The doctor tapped his pen on his notepad as he seemed to think for a moment. “Do you worry that you may have violent outbursts?”
I scoffed. “Well, the events of a few days ago provided good grounds for worry.”
Rayner nodded. “Aggression is common for PTSD victims. It can be difficult to manage intense emotions when your mind is already dealing with so much.
I shook my head. “That’s not the person I want to be.”
Rayner nodded. “I know Vikri. That’s why it's so crucial for you to talk about this stuff. The less all of this weighs on you, the better you’ll be able to control those emotions when they arise.”
He finished writing on his notepad before taking off his glasses and leaning forward slightly. “So what happened to Tenga?”
The question made my heart sink. My mind went quiet. The second hand of time sounded like the footsteps of a giant marching toward…something. My body seemed to go cold and numb. “He died…” I croaked, staring down at the table. That was the first time I’d admitted that to myself verbally in such a direct way. “And I tried so hard,” I choked, tears now streaming down my face. “I did everything in my power to save him. I even put Querek’s life in danger.”
I felt the heat. I could feel cold water dripping from my paws as the burning ship melted the frost accumulating in my fur. I remembered the terrifying hopelessness that gripped me as I gripped Querek and pushed him into the snow. He tried to sacrifice himself for Tenga. What if I had let him? Would it have even worked? Could Tenga accept that?
I recalled the story to Rayner, battling to keep my composure. “I…I watched him die,” I choked. “And I was furious. Reese had to pull me off of him. I wanted to do…something, anything, but…he told them not to bring him back. I think he…” I winced at the thought of him considering this. “I think he’d rather have died sacrificing himself over…going rabid.”
Silence perforated the room for what felt like several long minutes. Rayner sat with his legs crossed, his hand propped up against his mouth. He seemed to become lost in thought for a moment before speaking. “I know how that guilt feels,” he admitted quietly.
I looked at him, somewhat surprised. “You do?”
Rayner nodded, rubbing his hands together. “My son,” he said plainly, taking a long pause before he continued. “He and Jesse were very close as kids. Practically brothers.” He tapped on his clipboard with his pen. “I was…not so available in those days. I was a very different man than I am now. I was still in school. I was always busy, always stressed. I hadn't even considered becoming a therapist. I was deadset on becoming a neurosurgeon.” He scoffed at himself, his head gently shaking back and forth as his gaze grew distant. His delivery lacked that matter-of-fact candor I was so used to by now. He was much quieter; less animated. His eye contact was sporadic and he never stopped fidgeting with his pen. Everything about him seemed suddenly mired in an emotion that was difficult to read. That was when I saw everything we'd done over the past few days for what it really was. Rayner wasn't invincible. He never claimed to be. He was hurt; I could hear it in his voice. He wasn't a person reaching down into the mud and yanking me out by the nape of the neck. He was man covered in mud himself. He wasn't an untouchable hero. Merely a guide.
He continued as that realization struck me. “I loved him as much as a father could. But I was so busy that…well I wasn't there as much as I'd like to have been. That put a big strain on our relationship.” He removed his glasses and wiped the lenses a few times before he continued. “One night we got into an argument. He’d just gotten his license. He had an old beat-up car I'd bought him for his birthday,” he chuffed. “A teen’s first car is always…eccentric. Thought it was a great deal at the time.” He sighed and nodded slightly before continuing. “He left the house enraged, speeding down the road. After a few miles, he lost control, swerved off the road, and hit a tree head-on. The airbag never deployed. The car crumpled like a soda can.”
I stared at him, speechless as he concluded in a near-whisper. “He was declared dead at the scene.”
The room felt hollow for a few long seconds. I searched for a reply but couldn't fathom the right words to say. Fortunately, Rayner didn't stay silent for long. “Like you, I blamed myself for a long…long time.” He sighed. “And it nearly destroyed me.”
I stared at the floor, fidgeting with my tail. “How did you…overcome that?”
“Well it didn't happen overnight,” he replied, flashing a brief smile. “It takes time but, at some point, you have to carry on living. You have to continue loving.” His eyes creased slightly as he looked down at his own hands. “You have to keep loving,” he repeated in a low whisper.
Loud silence claimed the room again as his words sank in. He was right. It was either accept what happened or live like this forever. Looking at it that pragmatically, the choice seemed easy. Emotions are never so logical though. It wasn’t as if he relieved himself of that burden either, it was obvious he still carried it. It just…didn’t weigh as much now. Not because it got lighter, but because he got stronger. I eased into speaking again. “I…I'm sorry. About your son.”
Rayner nodded. “I'm sorry about your friend.”
We both stewed in silence for a minute before Rayner spoke up. “We’ll send you home today.”
“You…really think I’m ready?”
Rayner nodded slowly. “I think so. The medication seems to be working, you haven’t had any breakdowns since you’ve been here. You’ve gotten much better at discussing these things. I think you’re equipped to face this now.”
“...I’m afraid,” I croaked.
“Of what?” Rayner asked, leaning forward
“Of…seeing Lucky again. I'm doubting whether I even should. I was never prepared to be her master. I’m just a danger to her.”
“Vikri,” Rayner exhaled and leaned forward. “You made a mistake. We all do. But you have a responsibility to her. You should at least see her and face that mistake, or you’ll never have closure. What you decide after that is your choice, but I don’t think it’ll be as bad as you think.”
“I hope so,” I sighed.
Rayner clicked his pen and set his notepad aside. “We’ve made you some medication to take home, same stuff you've been taking. The plan is to keep lowering the dosage until you’re sleeping without it. We’ve made you some sheets with all the daily doses on them and when to take each one. It’s enough to last you two weeks, then once they’re out, you’ll come back here for another session, then if you need it, we’ll get you more and keep weaning you off them.”
He leaned forward, emphasizing his next words. “And I cannot recommend enough that you go to Jesse’s support group in between our meetings. Those will help you tremendously, I’m sure of it.”
I nodded. “I have his number. I’ll…I’ll give it a shot.”
“You won't regret it,” Rayner assured me. “Jesse was in the same chair as you not too long ago for similar reasons. He has knowledge from first-hand experience. I can vouch for him, he’s a great guy.” He inhaled. “Well, is there anything else Vikri? We won’t be seeing each other again for a while, so if there’s anything else, now’s the time to talk about it.”
I thought for a second. We’d covered almost everything. I’d never discussed those days in so much detail. It felt like being submerged in icy water. It was miserable at first, but over time it became easier, even comfortable. I’d relived so much pain over the last three days, but here at the end of the whole story, It felt less like a nightmare, and more like reality. “No, I don’t think so,” I finally replied.
“Then I’ll clear you to go home. Andrea is here, she’ll give you a ride, I’m sure. Here.” He reached over and handed me a small business card. “That has all my contact information on it. I’m usually here in my office until late at night, so feel free to call if you need anything. If the sedative gives you any issues at all, any side effects, make sure to call and let me know. We followed the recipe to a tee, but it’s wise to be cautious.”
A familiar silence flooded the room as Rayner and I seemed to, for the first time, have nothing left to say. Finally, the doctor spoke. “See you in two weeks, Vikri.”
///////////////////////////////
Golden strands of light danced between the digits of my paw as I moved it in front of the brilliant summer sun. An intense beacon of warmth floating in a sky as blue as Earth’s oceans. The rumble of Andy’s car occupied the air as we cruised down the highway. Vivri was sound asleep in the backseat. The gentle white noise and vibration seemed to knock her out cold. I watched the sunrays dance as I waved my paw in front of me, before turning it around. Several spots on my paw still had obvious scars. I even still had burn scars from the electrical systems aboard the crumbling Cardinal.
I curled my paw closed into a fist and rested my head against it, watching the lush, green mountains pass by in the distance. After three days I was set loose into the world once again, hopefully better armed than I was before. Even after all the weight I doffed from my shoulders in Rayner’s office, a crushing mass still rested on my chest. Lucky.
The weight only became heavier as the car slowed, and rounded a corner into the parking lot of a large animal hospital. Andy gently brought the car to a stop in a parking space in front of the entrance. Occasionally people would walk in and out with their pets, many of which were dogs on leashes.
Vivri stirred awake after we stopped. “Oh…We’re here,” she muttered nervously. “There’s…a lot more animals here than I was expecting.”
Andy chuckled. “It’s an animal hospital girl, there’s gonna be all kinds of critters here.”
I turned around to face her. “You don’t have to go in there. You and Andy can wait here.”
Andy scoffed. “You might wanna tell Rayner they screwed up those meds, ‘cause you’re delusional if you think I’m letting you go in there by yourself.”
“Well I don’t want her to be alone out here,” I argued.
“I’ll go in, just…stay close, please?” Vivri interjected.
I looked back at her, ears tilted. She was dead serious. I sighed and shook my head. “This is gonna be a disaster,” I groaned.
Andy opened her door. “I’ll wait with her in the lobby, you go talk to the vets. It’ll be fine.”
I looked back at Vivri one last time as Andy stepped out. “Alright, just stay away from the cats.” I opened my door and began stepping out into the summer air.
“C-cats?”
“Small felines. They're demons with mind control,” I replied just before closing the door.
Vivri scrambled out of the car and followed right on my heels. “Well don’t just leave me!” she squeaked.
I laughed. “I’m kidding. Well, mostly.”
Walking into the building, I realized that Lucky had been in a very similar place as me over the past three days. The lobby felt eerily similar to the one at the medical center. Everything went silent as Vivri and I walked in. Immediately I could feel dozens of eyes on us. Vivri hid close behind me as Andy gestured for me to follow her to the desk.
I doubted any of the humans there meant any harm, but dozens of binocular eyes snapping onto her in an instant had Vivri more unsettled than she already was. It didn’t help that several dogs were either on leashes or in carriers in the lobby, which were no doubt just as curious. I grabbed Viv’s paw. “They don't see many Venlil,” I whispered. “Just ignore them.”
I approached the desk with Vivri still hiding behind me. “E-excuse me?” I stuttered. The woman at the desk looked up, clearly caught off guard by two venlil standing before her. “O-oh! Excuse me, you must be Lucky’s owner, right?”
“Yeah. Vikri.” I could feel Vivri shivering behind me.
“I’ll let Doctor Gavin know you’re here.”
“Thanks,” I muttered before turning to Vivri. “Are you sure about this?” I whispered.
“Of course! It’s just for a few minutes, right?” Her body language gave an entirely different answer. She seemed like she might faint at any moment.
I looked up at Andy. “Keep her close, would you?”
Andy wrapped her arms over Viv’s shoulders. “Of course. I’ll keep little Vivi safe from all the big, bad puppy dogs and mean kitties,” she said in baby speak, twisting her side to side. She giggled. “We’ll be fine.” Her tone suddenly shifted as she locked eyes with me. “Will you?”
I stood there in silence for a moment. This entire time my heart felt unbearably heavy. Standing there, I felt nauseous. So much so that I made it a point to know exactly where the bathroom was when I walked in. The weight on my chest made breathing a laborious task. I heaved in a deep breath. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in there but…I have to do this. For both of us.”
Andy exhaled and nodded, seemingly just as nervous for me. Right on cue, the door at the back of the room opened with a heavy click. “Vikri?” a male voice called out. An older gentleman in burgundy scrubs surveyed the room. It didn’t take long for him to find me. He nodded toward me as he adjusted his glasses. “Right this way, please.”
“We’ll be right here,” Andy whispered, her hands still resting around Viv’s shoulders, who agreed with a tail flick.
I nodded and walked toward the man, leaving the cozy waiting room behind, and entering a long, sterile hallway. The doctor’s shoes clicked against the tile as he walked just in front of me. The weight bearing down on my chest only got heavier with each step. After a few agonizing seconds, the man finally spoke up as he stopped outside a door. “I’m Doctor Gavin,” he said breathily, extending a hand. “I performed Lucky’s surgery.”
I took his hand with my paw, which he could no doubt tell was trembling by this point. “Vikri,” I choked. “S-so…How is she?”
“She’s good,” Gavin answered in a higher pitch. “She’s recovering remarkably fast. Really lived up to her name.” He opened the door and stepped through into a kennel area as he continued. “The bullet hit one of her ribs and shattered. A couple of fragments pierced her lung, one of them was just inches from her heart. There’re still a few very small ones lodged in her tissue, but we’d be doing more harm than good by trying to remove them. They shouldn’t cause any issues and come out on their own after some time, but we’ll keep track of them with x-rays.”
As he spoke we passed by kennels, some empty, some with dogs that barked or jumped up on the cage as we passed. I scoured each one for Lucky, my dread building with each one we passed. Suddenly, the doctor stopped in front of me. He inhaled deeply. “I should mention…Given the…circumstances of how she got these injuries, me and some staff will stay with you just in case she becomes aggressive. That’s not to say that I think she will,” he added hastily, “she’s been great with everyone here but…you know, just to be safe.”
“I get it,” I breathed. It made sense. If Lucky attacked me, it would be far more deadly than it would be for a human. And I was confident even a human wouldn’t last long against a half-wolf her size. Fittingly, a group of four humans were gathered at the end of the hallway, catchers in hand.
Time seemed to slow as I approached the pen. The staff members all looked over at me with the same anxious expression. I felt like a prisoner walking toward my judgment, and that perhaps it was me that belonged behind these cages. I swallowed and took a long, slow breath as Gavin opened the gate. He walked in ahead of me. “Hey there big girl,” he said in a chipper tone. I heard the familiar thumping of Lucky’s tail against the floor. Gavin chuckled to himself as the remaining four staff calmly and quietly filed into the pen. Once they were all inside, the final human leaned around the corner, looked me in the eyes for a long second, and nodded once.
A new reality awaited around that corner. My sentence was about to be read. It felt so cripplingly helpless; wanting so desperately to finally be reunited with my best friend, yet trembling at the thought of rounding a corner to run face-first into the consequences of my actions. I steeled myself one last time. I nodded back at the catcher and took slow, deliberate steps toward him. I finally rounded the corner, and for the first time since the incident, I saw Lucky.
She lay on a large, fabric bed, with food and water bowls close by. Her right front leg was bound in a cast, tied up close to her body. A large patch of fur had been shaved away around her chest and halfway up her neck. She seemed thinner than I remembered. It reminded me of the scared, hungry pup I’d met so long ago.
Her eyes tracked onto mine instantly, and I felt an ache that defied all imagination. The same gaze that would send almost any other Venlil scrambling down the hallway instead gripped some inner part of me in a cold, numb stasis. I couldn’t move. Part of me wanted to run to her and spill out how sorry I was. Another wanted to curl up on the floor right there and sob, returning to that familiar numbness that seemed akin to the ancient enemy of life itself. The cold. That bitterness that pierced through fur, through flesh, through bones, and any ideal held by the naive child that sat next to Tenga’s corpse that day. It ran through until there was nothing left.
Then, I felt a warmth as if someone had draped a blanket over me. I gripped my poncho around my shoulders, grabbing it tightly. I made a quiet promise to myself there and then. Not a promise to my sister, or my parents, or Andrea. Me. I wouldn’t lie down in the cold. Never again. One more hill.
“Hey Lucky,” I said, my voice coarse and breaking every syllable.
The silence was abruptly broken as Lucky, though seemingly frail, shot to her feet. Everyone in the room shifted, prepared for the worst. I didn’t dare move, but I could feel my heart pounding in my legs, my body preparing to bolt. The staff watched her carefully, their grip slightly tightened around their polls. Lucky made no sounds, only stared at me, her nostrils flaring as she gathered my scent. Her right front leg was useless, immobilized against her body. She shifted her footing to steady herself. Then I saw something that replaced fear with tears. She was shaking like a leaf, never taking her eyes off me. She could care less about the others. She was scared. Of me.
I felt myself fall off a ledge in a sensation I’d become all too familiar with over the last few weeks. Tears streamed down my face, my breath hitching as I brought my paws up to my face. I fell to my knees, the presence of the staff had become irrelevant. “I’m…I’m sorry,” I exhaled between gasps. “I’m so sorry.”
So there it was. My new reality. It wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but it was what I expected. I didn’t know what I’d do then, and I didn’t know now. Could I go on without Lucky? She was the one fortress in the turbulent seas of my broken mind. She was the one I could always count on. The one that I knew would always be there, no matter what. Now I was convinced she was terrified of me.
I sat there a shattered mess for a long moment, tumbling off that cliff and reaching out for anything to catch myself, but found nothing but jagged stones. I felt a hand on my shoulder, Doctor Gavin attempting to comfort me, I assumed. Until I felt something touch my knee. I looked up, thrown out of the spiral abruptly. Lucky was now just in front of me, licking my leg. I froze, confused. She gently laid down, careful of her bandaged leg as she rested her head on my leg, looking up at me. That was the same leg she’d broken months ago. Finally, I got it. “I hurt you, and you still loved me.”
A wave of relief rushed through me and I looked down at her, eyes glossy with tears. I bent down and rested my head against hers. I laughed, though it sounded more like a sob. For the first time in days, I felt whole again.
Lucky still loved me.
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With the rapid development of residential energy storage in Europe, it has emerged as a key player in the realm of energy transformation. On one hand, the imperative of transitioning to renewable energy sources is undeniable. On the other hand, certain regions grapple with weak grid infrastructure, intensifying the demand for localized residential storage solutions. As the industry matures, accompanied by declining raw material costs, the prices of residential storage systems are starting to decline. Simultaneously, the burgeoning demand for Energy Storage Systems (ESS) suggests ample room for further market penetration.
Moreover, residential energy storage products primarily cater to consumers (To C), necessitating a competitive edge in product quality, brand recognition, and distribution channels to ensure sustained profitability.
In 2022, the energy storage industry witnessed a meteoric rise, evolving from its nascent stages. By 2023, however, demand tapered off amidst shifting policies and inventory dynamics. Now, in 2024, the trajectory of the residential energy storage sector is poised to be influenced by a multitude of factors, including sustained policy support, product innovation, channel optimization, dwindling inventory levels, and declining interest rates. The forthcoming discussion will delve into the anticipated future of the industry, drawing insights from the experiences of international energy storage enterprises.
SolarEdge:
SolarEdge dominates the European market, offering cost-effective products that pose a challenge for our enterprises to match. Renowned as a top player in solar and storage inverters across Europe and the United States, SolarEdge boasts a market share that reigns supreme in both regions.
Established in Delaware in 2006, SolarEdge experienced rapid growth through strategic collaborations, notably with Tesla SolarCity from 2013 to 2015, culminating in its NASDAQ listing in 2015. The 2017 mandate by the United States NEC requiring solar PV systems to integrate Module Level Power Electronics (MLPE) with rapid shutdown functionality played to SolarEdge's strengths, enabling the company to swiftly expand its market share.
According to data from Wood Mackenzie, SolarEdge secured the 7th position in global inverter shipments in 2022, firmly establishing its dominance in European and American markets.
SolarEdge's product portfolio encompasses a diverse range of offerings, including solar and storage inverters, energy storage systems, uninterruptible power supplies, electric vehicle charging stations, and integrated solar and energy storage solutions. These solutions cater to various sectors, spanning from residential and commercial to utility-scale ground-mounted power installations.
In 2023, SolarEdge introduced the SolarEdge One software, marking a significant expansion into the realm of virtual power plants. Through sophisticated algorithms, this software facilitates new energy power trading, empowering customers with advanced solar and energy storage solutions. By bridging the gap between software and hardware, SolarEdge continues to bolster its product ecosystem, solidifying its position as a leading provider of comprehensive new energy solutions.
With a strong focus on customer collaboration, technological mastery, and leveraging the benefits of U.S. trade policies, SolarEdge has consistently excelled.
The first phase, starting in 2013, saw SolarEdge achieve rapid revenue growth through strategic partnerships, notably with Tesla SolarCity. During this period, the company experienced a remarkable compound annual growth rate of 83.7% from 2013 to 2016.
In 2017, the introduction of stringent safety regulations by the U.S. NEC mandated the use of Module Level Power Electronics (MLPE) with rapid shutdown capabilities in PV systems, rendering traditional string inverters obsolete for residential energy storage solutions. SolarEdge, with its mastery of the requisite technology, swiftly capitalized on this shift, rapidly expanding its market share and witnessing substantial revenue growth in 2018 and 2019.
The third phase unfolded in 2018 with the imposition of 10% tariffs on Chinese PV inverters under U.S. trade policies. SolarEdge benefited from these trade barriers. Subsequently, in May 2019, tariffs were increased to 25%, prompting Huawei's withdrawal from the U.S. inverter market. Despite the overall growth of the new energy industry, SolarEdge experienced a revenue decline in 2023, attributed to the industry-wide destocking process.
Reports indicate that market demand in Europe and the U.S. was disrupted by high interest rates and policy uncertainties. In 2023, SolarEdge's revenue from its inverter, optimizer, and backup battery businesses reached $1.37 billion, $900 million, and $380 million respectively. This represented a 20.8% increase, a 20.5% decline, and an 11.8% decrease from the previous year. Furthermore, sales figures stood at 1.013 million sets, 17.4 million sets, and 744 MWh, marking declines of 0.8%, 26.6%, and 2.2% respectively compared to the previous year. The unit prices were recorded at USD 1,356 per set, USD 52 per set, and USD 0.51 per kWh respectively.
The substantial decline in optimizer sales can be attributed to the superiority of micro-inverter solutions over optimizer and string solutions in meeting the stringent MLPE requirements set forth by the NEC for rapid shutdown functionality.
In 2023, the company's photovoltaic business revenue in the European and U.S. markets amounted to $1.81 billion and $760 million, respectively. This represented a 15.8% increase in Europe but a significant 35.9% decline in the U.S. compared to the previous year. While the beginning of 2023 saw some relief in the industrial chain situation, the European market initially experienced rapid growth despite a slowdown. However, the latter half of the year was marred by high interest rates and policy uncertainties in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy, resulting in a substantial contraction in market demand. Although the company's revenue from the European market maintained modest growth, the growth rate declined by 55% compared to the previous month. Similar trends were observed in the U.S. market, exacerbated by the transition of California's NEM 2.0 policy to 3.0, which created a vacuum in the demand for distributed PV storage.
In 2023, the European and American market demand was significantly affected by uncertain policies, with expectations for gradual recovery in 2024. Throughout the year, power optimizer shipments fluctuated, reaching 6.4 million, 5.5 million, 3.3 million, and 2.2 million sets from Q1 to Q4 respectively. Inverter shipments followed a similar pattern, with 330000, 335000, 274000 and 74000 units shipped during the same period. Energy storage battery pack shipments also varied, with 221 MWh, 269 MWh, 121 MWh, and 133 MWh recorded from Q1 to Q4 respectively. However, in the latter half of 2023, impacted by lower demand and high inventory, SolarEdge's shipments experienced a sharp decline compared to the previous month.
Looking ahead to 2024, several developments are anticipated in the following regions:

1. Germany: Expectations are that certain tariff caps will be lifted in 2024, resulting in higher electricity prices in the country. Consequently, the return on investment (ROI) for photovoltaic (PV) installations is projected to increase, fueling continued growth in residential PV installations.
2. Austria: It is anticipated that the value-added tax (VAT) on PV power generation, introduced at the beginning of 2024, will be repealed.
3. Netherlands: The uncertainty stemming from the 2023 election and the changing net metering policy led to a sharp decline in PV installations in Q4. Recent decisions by the Dutch Senate indicate a potential sustainability of net metering, prompting optimistic market responses in the future.

Enphase:
Anticipated shifts in demand are on the horizon as the second quarter of 2024 draws to a close.
Enphase stands as the undisputed global leader in microinverters, spearheading advancements in solar, energy storage, and charging solutions. Founded in 2006 in Delaware, Enphase revolutionized the market by introducing the world's first microinverter, the M175. In 2011, Enphase embarked on a global expansion strategy, penetrating the MLPE market in Europe, Australia, and other regions, culminating in its listing on the NASDAQ in 2012.
Leveraging its pioneering status in the MLPE sector, Enphase has continually enhanced its microinverter products, elevating power output from 175W in the first generation to 550W in the eighth generation. The latest iteration of inverters boasts additional features such as split-phase grid connection and off-grid capability. As a result, Enphase commands a market share exceeding 70%, firmly establishing itself as the industry leader.
Building on its expertise in microinverter technology, Enphase embarked on a series of strategic mergers and acquisitions, consolidating businesses in energy storage, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and cloud services to develop comprehensive solar and storage solutions for households.
In 2016, Enphase introduced its inaugural residential storage product, marking its entry into the energy storage sector. By the close of 2020, the company unveiled the IQ Battery residential storage system, expanding its product portfolio to encompass residential energy storage solutions. Enphase IQ Batteries operate on low-voltage DC power, mitigating the risks associated with high-voltage DC power and enhancing system safety and efficiency.
In 2021, Enphase ventured into the electric vehicle charging infrastructure market with the acquisition of ClipperCreek. The following year, the acquisition of GreenCom positioned Enphase as a leading provider of home solar, energy storage, and charging system solutions, bolstering its offering with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
Thanks to favorable policies, expanded channels, and enhanced product competitiveness, Enphase has experienced rapid revenue growth since 2019.
On one hand, Enphase has reaped the benefits of supportive policies such as the NEC 2017 mandate requiring residential PV systems to integrate Module Level Power Electronics (MLPE), driving demand for the company's microinverters. Additionally, the 301 tariff prompted Huawei's exit from the U.S. inverter market in 2019. Furthermore, the IRC's gradual reduction of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) subsidy from 2019 onward stimulated PV market growth. The introduction of the IRA in 2022, alongside the extension of the Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit (AMPTC) and Advanced Energy Project Investment Tax Credit (AEPITC) subsidies, has had a significant impact. These subsidies, extended to 2032 and 2030 respectively, have bolstered Enphase's microinverter production.
In terms of channel expansion, Enphase's acquisition of SunPower's subsidiary in 2018 solidified its position as the exclusive supplier. Moreover, strategic partnerships with Sunrun, LG, Panasonic, Solaria, and GRID Alternatives have further expanded its reach and market presence.
Regarding product development, Enphase has concentrated on promoting its IQ 7 and IQ 8 series microinverters since 2019. With conversion efficiencies of up to 97.5%, these inverters cater to a broader range of solar panel installations. Additionally, the higher power range of Enphase's inverters ensures compatibility with solar panels in various regions, while the company's commitment to efficient after-sales service has reduced average waiting times to less than one minute.
By the latter half of 2023, Enphase faced increased pressure in both the US and European markets due to weakened demand for energy storage and high inventory levels.
In the US market, the transition to NEM 3.0 and elevated interest rates dampened investor confidence in residential solar storage investments. As per the company's investor communications, revenue from the US market dropped by 16% and 35% in the third and fourth quarters of 2023 respectively, compared to the previous quarters. Notably, the California market experienced a sharper decline, with Enphase's microinverter sales falling by 25% and 27% in Q3 and Q4 respectively, while non-California markets remained relatively stable.
In Europe, the anticipated demand recovery in the latter half of 2023 fell short of expectations, exacerbating distributor inventory backlogs. Enphase's top three European markets—Netherlands, France, and Germany—faced distinct challenges. The Netherlands saw hesitancy among users awaiting the removal of the net metering program, while seasonality impacted the French market, and the German market grappled with feed-in tariff reductions. Consequently, market demand and shipments related to residential PV in major European countries all experienced declines.
According to Enphase's investor communication disclosures, microinverter shipments in 2023 were as follows: 4.8 million units in Q1, 5.2 million units in Q2, 3.9 million units in Q3, and 1.6 million units in Q4. Additionally, battery shipments totaled 102.0 MWh, 82.3 MWh, 86.0 MWh, and 80.7 MWh from Q1 to Q4 in 2023 respectively. However, in the latter half of 2023, microinverter shipments experienced a sharp decline due to weak demand and inventory accumulation. Enphase estimates that channel inventory will normalize by the end of Q2 in 2024, with shipments expected to increase again in Q3. Conversely, battery sales, buoyed by NEM 3.0, continue to rise.
Currently, the European market shows signs of recovery, while the California market is anticipated to gradually improve. The Dutch parliament recently confirmed that net metering policy will remain unchanged in the short term, and electricity costs have increased in France and Germany. Consequently, it is expected that the company's business will reach its nadir in the first quarter of 2024. In the United States, non-California markets are poised for swift recovery after interest rate fluctuations. However, the California market's recovery may take several quarters due to the transition from NEM 2.0 to NEM 3.0. Nevertheless, given the high electricity costs, the integration of solar and energy storage offers a higher return on investment under NEM 3.0, leading to a gradual recovery in market demand.

“Ready to make history, baby?”
I looked over toward Sheila as she stood on the gangplank leading up to The Burger. I still couldn’t believe she named our research ship ‘The Burger’... emotional relevance be damned.
“It's not exactly history,” I corrected.
“Oh come on! If your survey is right, this trench might run even deeper than the Challenger Deep, and you’re gonna be the first person to explore it! How is that not exciting?”
“Might be deeper, we only have a limited amount of topological data. And even if it is deeper, we’re talking only a few hundred feet at most, it’s really not that im-”
Sheila silenced me with a kiss.
“Nerd.” She teased, and I found myself too flustered to reply. After five years of marriage, she still could leave me speechless with just a kiss. God… how did someone like me end up with a woman like that?
Then again, how did someone like me end up where I was in general? It was honestly a little overwhelming. Standing on the dock, getting ready to board that ship and join the ranks of Jacques Piccard and James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) as one of the few people to take a manned submersible down to the deepest parts of the ocean. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared too. Diving down that deep could easily be a one way trip if even the slightest thing went wrong. My submarine would be experiencing between 600 to 1100 atmospheres of pressure and while we’d tested it over and over again to make sure it would actually be up for the challenge, there was still a lingering iota of doubt in the back of my mind. All that needed to go wrong was one little thing, and that would be it for me.
The scariest part is that I probably wouldn’t even know what had happened… I’d simply be gone… and Sheila would be alone. The thought of that caused a momentary spike of panic in my chest that almost made me want to call this whole thing off.
Almost.
But, then I felt her hand close around mine. I looked up into her bright blue eyes, and saw her gentle smile.
“You’re gonna be okay, hun,” She promised. “You and your team have been running the numbers, right? It’s gonna go just fine!”
I nodded slowly.
“It’s gonna go fine…” I repeated, before she leaned in to kiss me, and gently pulled me by the wrist up onto the deck of the Burger.
She was probably right.
It probably would be fine.
Probably…
The trench I’d be exploring was a fairly recent discovery, located south of Greenland, in a vast stretch of water situated directly between Newfoundland and Iceland. It’d been uncovered during a topological survey in the area, and my team had taken an interest in investigating it further. At minimum, it was believed to descend to about 35,000 feet deep (over 10,000 meters), although the current theory was that it might have run even deeper. Determining the exact depth of the yet unnamed chasm was just one of the intents of our dive. The rest was studying the organisms that might be found down there, and how they might have differed from the ones found in other deep ocean trenches (some variation being expected given the isolated environment they were developing in.)
I had to admit, it would be exciting to see what new life might have developed in a place such as this, especially if it ran even deeper than our predictions… and that excitement was enough to make me chase the fear of the risks out of my mind, even if it was only briefly. While Sheila went to make sure we were ready to embark, I caught myself wandering out toward the rear of the ship where my submarine, The Tempura, waited for me. Did this submarine deserve a better name than The Tempura? Probably. But, this was my project, so I got to name it and since Burger was already taken, Tempura was the next best name I had. I liked to think that the subs namesake might approve… if she hadn’t died fifteen years ago. Shrimp don’t live very long.
As the ship began to depart, I caught myself reminiscing on how I’d ended up here… it really was all because of those damn shrimp, wasn’t it? Well… maybe not all because of the shrimp. But they were certainly part of it. Back when I was a lot younger, I never really gave much of a shit about anything at all. I guess I did have a thing for the ocean… the great, romantic vastness of it. The sense of adventure that it beckoned with. The endless mysteries that lay within its dark depths. I used to read about it all the time when I was a kid and I especially loved the classic adventures: Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Melville’s Moby Dick… but that love was just confined to my books. I didn’t really have any interest in actually going out and seeing the ocean. Hell, the idea of going to a beach and standing in the sun with my toes in the sand seemed miserable to me. I was happier (although calling myself happy might’ve been a little disingenuous) alone in my room, enjoying the company of books as opposed to people.
Then came the shrimp.
One of my online friends kept them as a hobby. He used to post pictures of his tanks all the time, and I always thought they looked kinda cool. He said that if I was interested in them, I should try keeping some for myself, and during a particularly bad bout of depression, I figured that maybe it might be worth a shot. So, I bought a cheap tank and some cheap decorations, bought myself some shrimp… and promptly watched them die over the next few weeks. That… that bothered me. I don’t know why but… it really bothered me. I’m still not entirely sure how to describe what it was that I was feeling. Guilt? Defeat? Shame? Here I was, trying to set up a habitat for these creatures just to have something to do to keep the suicidal ideation at bay, and I’d failed almost right out of the gate.
Was I just that bad? Was I just that much of a failure? Was this just going to go to shit just like everything else in my life did, because I was just such an abysmal piece of shit who barely deserved the life she had? Had I just not tried hard enough? Was I too apathetic? What had happened? What went wrong?
It bothered me.
It bothered me enough that I made up my mind to just dump the remaining shrimp down the toilet and toss everything. Forget about it. Move on. End of story. But… that wasn’t fair, was it? The shrimp didn’t all deserve to die just because I couldn’t be bothered, did they? Sure, they were just shrimp, but they were alive too, just like me. They deserved to be alive.
I owed it to them to try and keep them alive, didn’t I?
So… I didn’t dump the shrimp.
Instead, I started doing some reading. Started looking into what I was doing wrong and how to do it all better. I actually got really into it and a few months later, I had a nice planted tank. Looking back, it was amateur shit… but it made me happy. I’d even picked out names for my two favorite shrimp. Burger and Tempura. They’d been the last survivors of my original batch, and they were the ones I ended up caring about the most. Caring for Burger and Tempura gave me a purpose. It became an obsession… and that little obsession drove me to finally start turning my life around.
Like I said, shrimp don’t live for very long. Burger and Tempura were long dead by the time I graduated with a degree in Marine Biology. But they were the ones who inspired me to finally get my life in order. Hell, the shrimp were half the reason that I met Sheila. She was something of an aquarium fanatic too… we’d met on a forum, and gotten to talking. I found out that she just so happened to be studying Marine Biology at another school, and we bonded pretty quickly after that. After graduation, I moved to California to be with her and after that, the rest is history. She was my rock. She was the one who always pushed me to be the best possible version of myself… and I loved her more than I ever knew I could love someone.
A glance back at the shore, fading into the distance tore me out of my reminiscing, and I shifted my focus to the present, going over The Tempura to perform some quick checks. My colleagues and I would be checking and rechecking the submarine over the next two days as we made our way toward the dive spot. Considering the danger that descending that deep posed, I didn’t want to take a single unnecessary risk.
I had too much to live for, after all.
***
The day of the dive, I couldn’t notice how excited the rest of the crew seemed… well… Sheila’s usual crew seemed excited. I guess to them, this was just another research expedition, no different than the ones Sheila usually took this ship out on. Lately her research had been focused on the analysis and study of whale calls. Her recent voyages had involved following their pods, recording their calls and playing them back to see how the whales reacted. It was fascinating stuff, but my research was admittedly a lot different than that.
My obsession had drawn me to the denizens of the deep sea. I’d used The Burger for expeditions before, although none of them had been on quite the same scale as this one. Up until today, the most ambitious thing I’d done was send down unmanned submersibles with cameras. Those submersibles had typically returned. We had lost a few early on due to technical glitches, but the past few years had been blissfully uneventful. Logically, this dive would probably be uneventful as well. But it was still hard to get the jitters out of my head.
My team and I did the final checks necessary to make sure that The Tempura was good to go, before setting up the crane to begin lifting it up. In less than an hour, I’d be inside of that thing, descending to the darkest depths of the ocean.
It didn’t feel real.
I felt Sheila’s hand on my shoulder, and looked over at her.
“Moment of truth, huh?” She asked. She probably meant it to sound encouraging, but it just sounded ominous.
“Moment of truth…” I replied.
“You’re gonna be okay, honey. I know you will.”
She reached out to gently squeeze my hand and gave me a reassuring smile that I meekly returned.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be okay,” I agreed, although there was an element of a lie in it. Statistically, yes. It probably WOULD be okay. But there was that lingering anxiety in the back of my mind that just wouldn’t go away. I looked quietly out at the submarine before me and couldn’t shake the thought that it sort of looked like a giant coffin. Unconsciously, I found myself squeezing Sheila’s hand tighter than normal. She just held me close and pressed a kiss to the top of my head, before gently rubbing my back.
“You’ll be okay,” She promised.
“Dr. Jenner, we’re ready for you.” I heard one of my colleagues say.
Moment of truth.
I took one last look at Sheila, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips for luck. She smiled at me, and I smiled back anxiously at her before heading over toward the submarine.
The crew helped me enter the cockpit and get myself situated inside. The cockpit of the Tempura was fairly cramped and not particularly comfortable. Space and comfort aren’t really luxuries you can afford in a submarine like this. The instruments I needed took up a lot of space, leaving little room for me in there… and I am not a very big person.
Once I was inside, they sealed the hatch. Then the diagnostics checks began.
“Grayson, can you hear us in there?” I heard Sheila say through the radio.
“Loud and clear,” I replied.
“Great. We’ll keep in constant radio contact, just to monitor the signal. In the meanwhile, how’s everything looking in there?”
“Green across the board so far,” I said, although I hadn’t finished running all my final checks yet. Ultimately, nothing was out of place.
This submarine was as good to go as it was going to get.
“I’m all good in here,” I said once I was done. “You can drop me when you’re ready.”
“You got it, honey. Let’s get you in the water, run one final round of tests and start lowering you down.”
A short while later, I felt the submarine begin to move as the crane lifted it off the deck and lowered it into the water. The Tempura honestly resembled its namesake in a way, being long and cigar shaped, only vertically oriented instead of horizontally oriented. We’d admittedly taken more than a few design cues from James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all?
Once I was in the water, a 1000 pound releasable ballast weight would cause the submarine to sink. Releasing that weight was also my ticket back to the surface, and I could either trigger it from inside the cockpit, or, in the event that the release failed for any reason, it would trigger automatically after roughly 12 hours of exposure to salt water.
Ideally, this would be the first of a number of dives I’d be undertaking… and if all went according to plan, the Tempura could be the first of many similar submarines that would allow other researchers to safely and effectively descend to extreme depths. If all went well, this could be a massive leap forward for researchers like me, allowing us to better explore the deepest depths of the Hadal Zone and learn all we could about the ecosystems down there via direct observation.
If all went well.
If.
Through the viewport, I watched as I was lowered into the ocean. A few of the other crew members had donned diving gear to escort me down, and after they did their final checks and I did mine, we were fully ready to go.
“All’s green across the board,” I said into the radio. “You can start my descent.”
“I hear you, honey,” Sheila replied. “We’re letting you go. Have fun down there.”
“Yeah, I’ll try…” I said quietly as finally, my submarine began its descent.
I took a deep breath, and told myself again that everything would go fine. We had checked everything on this submarine. We’d tested it rigorously. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to set foot inside of it if I hadn’t personally assured that it was safe. But anxiety never really goes away, does it? The crew couldn’t accompany me far. After only a few meters, they fell behind me as I sank deeper and deeper into the infinite, empty blue of the ocean. Soon after, the tether was released.
I was officially on my own.
“60 feet,” I heard Sheila say over the radio. “How are you doing in there?”
“Good,” I replied. “Doing… doing good.”
The submarine continued to descend. Through the viewport, I could see a few stray fish, but nothing particularly eye catching. I almost felt alone down there… almost…
“120 feet…” Sheila said.
“Still doing good,” I replied.
The descent continued, as the waters slowly grew darker and darker.
“400 feet…”
Everything around me just kept getting darker and darker. Only a fraction of the light from the sun ever reached these depths… and I’d be lying if I said that darkness didn’t feel a little… oppressive.
“800 feet… still feeling good?”
“Yeah, still feeling good…” I said, although it was a bit of a lie. If anything, I was second guessing all of this, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud.
“1000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…” I murmured. “I hear you loud and clear.”
Deeper… deeper… deeper.
“1500 feet…”
Three miles. I was three miles away from home. Three miles away from Sheila.
“2000 feet…”
Still a ways to go.
“3000 feet…”
By this point, it was fully dark outside of my cockpit. Outside, all I could see was inky darkness. Even the submarine’s lights didn’t really cut through it. And the kicker? Relatively speaking, I wasn’t that deep. Fishing trawlers reached deeper than this. Better to conserve power until I was at the bottom. My descent continued.
“6000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…”
The check ins were becoming less frequent. My descent still continued… deeper… deeper… deeper. By now, I’d entered the Hadal Zone. But there was still so much deeper o go.
“8000 feet…”
This was past the depths that most whales would dive to… and I still had a ways to go.
“10,000 feet.”
This was close to where the ocean floor usually bottomed out… and yet there was still so much further to go. No. I was really only a third of the way there. How long had it been?Not much had happened beyond my descent and a few sightings out of my viewport, but time had been passing. A glance at my watch confirmed it’d been almost an hour since I’d started to sink… and I knew I wasn’t even close to the bottom yet. The submarine continued to descend, sinking ever deeper as I dropped into an infinite darkness that few had ever dared to witness.
“15,000 feet.”
This check in came later than the others. At this point, Sheila and the crew must have figured that no news was good news, and they were right. I just continued to sink peacefully, down into the crushing depths of the ocean.
These were the depths that one might normally find deep sea fish… and yet I was going somewhere even deeper than that.
“20,000 feet…”
So close…
I continued to sink.
“25,000 feet.”
Soon… and finally…
“30,000 feet. You still doing alright, honey?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’m doing good,” I assured her. I was so close…
By this point, my real work had begun. I’d engaged the lights and begun documenting what little I could see using the on board cameras. Granted, there wasn’t much life at these depths and what little there was, was scarcely documented. Most of what was down here consisted of invertebrates and microscopic life that seemed to float past my viewport.
The light seemed to draw a few creatures in search of food. Small, hardy things that resembled shrimp.
“How’s it looking, Grayson?”
“Dark,” I said, half joking. “We’ve got some life… shrimp. They’re translucent. Can’t get a great look at them… but we’ll see what the cameras pick up.”
“They’ve recognized you as a friend,” Sheila said. I could almost see the smile on her lips as she said it.
“Yeah…” I replied, “Tempura sent them a message, told them I’d be down. How am I looking on depth?”
“35,000 feet… you seeing a bottom yet?”
“No… not that I would until I was there.”
“Damn… how deep does this go?”
“It can’t go that deep…” I murmured, although I really wasn’t so sure about that.
The submarine continued to sink…
36,000 feet…
37,000 feet…
38,000 feet… and then finally, just past the 39,000 foot mark, I finally saw solid ground below me.
Looking through my viewport, I could see a familiar dark brown diatomaceous sludge, covering the seafloor. Microscopic life, likely similar to what had been observed in other deep sea trenches, such as the Challenger Deep.
I needed to gather a sample.
As my submarine reached the bottom, I extended the mechanical arms, pressed flat against the surface of the Tempura, and opened the collection port near the bottom of the ship. Slowly, I sifted some of the sludge into the port. My disturbance of the seafloor kicked up a cloud of the microbial colony, and I could’ve sworn I saw something wiggling through the debris. A pale, white thing, perhaps some sort of sea cucumber? I hastily angled my submarines camera to try and catch a glimpse of it, before returning to my collection. Even in this forlorn place, there was still so much to see! And here I was… completely forgetting my fear as the excitement took hold of me! Few people had ever been down to these unfathomable depths… and yet here I was.
It didn’t feel real but it was! I had reached the deepest part of the ocean!
“How’s it going down there?” I heard Sheila ask. Her voice was a little garbled. The connection down here was faltering.
“It’s beautiful…” I said. “I can’t wait for you to see it!”
“I’ll bet…”
“I’m going to do a sweep of the area, see what samples I can gather,” I said. “What’s my time right now?”
“Three hours. You’ve got nine before your connection to the weight deteriorates and you start to ascend.”
“I’ll make the most of it,” I said. The plan was only to stay down there for six hours, and I didn’t want to push that limit. Life support would only last me for so long, and one little error was all it would take for the ungodly pressure down here to crush me.
I began to move the submarine. Mobility was limited. This thing wasn’t built to travel far. But I still had some limited movement. I recorded all that I could, filming the shrimp that investigated my light, and the things that slithered and crawled through the muck, likely feeding on the carpet of single celled organisms that populated these depths.
The first two hours were… well… I hesitate to call them uneventful, they were actually very fascinating, but little of note happened beyond my recording of a few specimens.
Midway through the third hour though, as I was reaching one of the rock walls of the abyss, I noticed something just above the edge of my viewport swimming away from the light. I could’ve sworn I saw slender, pale tentacles of some sort. Was that a squid? Were there squid down this deep? I wasn’t aware of any species of known squid who could reach these depths… but in this unknown place, what use was the known?
I moved my light and my camera to try and catch another glimpse of it, but whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. Maybe I’d see another one. I still had plenty of time.
“You made a noise. What’d you see?” Sheila asked.
“Something big… I think,” I said.
“Down there? Like a fish?”
“Squid. You wouldn’t find any vertebrates down this deep… the pressure would crush their bones.”
“Jeez…”
I didn’t reply to that, still searching for the thing I’d seen. I shone my light up along the walls of the chasm and angled my camera up as far as it would go. I could see a few volcanic vents, spewing dark clouds into the darkness, and more diatoms. But not much else. Strange invertebrates crawled along the walls. Small creatures, no bigger than an inch long. Related to isopods, perhaps? If I could collect one as a sample, I would have… although taking any of those back to the surface would surely kill them. They were built to live under the impossible pressure of these depths. Taking them to the surface would rip them apart.
I went back to my research, and it wasn’t long until I saw something in the darkness, just on the edge of where my flashlight reached. Trailing white tendrils, snaking their way through the darkness. My eyes narrowed as I moved the submarine forward, trying to catch whatever it was in the light. I saw the shape move, its body turning… I saw its tendrils unfurling. Whatever this was, it was big. It was almost as big as The Tempura… although it was also slender. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was looking at some sort of floating debris, but this far down? No. And debris wouldn’t move like that.
This had to be a deepsea squid… or perhaps some other type of cephalopod? Something that preyed upon the various invertebrates down here, perhaps? It seemed to float, just out of sight for a bit, as I tried to get closer. I angled up my light to get a better look at it. The light seemed to shine through it, like some sort of ghost… but I did manage to get a look at it.
Although that look…
That single look made me freeze up.
This things slender tendrils certainly resembled a cephalopod of some sort, but the rest of it… the rest of it looked like something else entirely. Its body was thin, emaciated and translucent, yet despite that it still had characteristics that almost seemed… human. It wasn’t human! Not by any stretch of imagination, but the resemblance was there. It almost reminded me of an exhibit I’d seen in a museum once, depicting a preserved, fully removed human nervous system. I could see a similar shape in its translucent body. Its head seemed almost human as well… albeit with no eyes, and a lamprey like mouth I could only describe as fleshy yet crablike.
Still, despite having no eyes I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was looking at me. And that was when I felt something hit the submarine.
I felt a sudden jolt of panic in my chest. For a moment, I thought that the pressure had started to crush me, but no… no, everything was still fine. Something had just hit me. But what? It didn’t take long before I got my answer.
Another pale creature floated past my viewport, swirling gracefully in the cold dark waters. I watched it for a moment with wide eyes, before noticing its ‘head’ turning slightly toward me. Then, almost instantly, it launched itself at the submarine, darting toward me with blinding speed.
I heard a distinct THUD as its body collided with me, and I could see its pale tendrils pressing against the viewport, twisting and writhing violently. It was trying to attack me. The first creature that I’d seen lunged as well, pounding on my submarine with another THUD. And moments later, I could hear more impacts against the hull. There were more of them… and they did not like having me down there.
“What’s going on?” Sheila asked.
“Somebody doesn’t like me…” I said. “One of the animals down here… some kind of squid, it’s just started attacking the hull.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“Not sure… could be nothing, could be-”
I felt the submarine shake as I tried to move it. The thrusters that pushed me forward weren't responding. Had something gotten caught in it? One of the creatures perhaps?
“Grayson?!” Sheila asked.
“Lost propulsion…” I said. “Fuck… I can’t move.”
“Then drop the weight and come up!”
“No, it’s fine, there’s no other damage, I can still use the port and starboard thrusters to-”
“Grayson!”
I paused. There was genuine panic in her voice… enough to make me realize that even if these things stood little chance of actually breaching the hull, taking the risk would be a fatal mistake.
“I’m on my way up…” I finally said, before reaching out to disengage the ballast weights.
Immediately, I felt myself beginning to rise, although the tentacles clinging to my viewport didn’t disappear.
“We’ve got you…” Sheila said. “Rising up to 38,000 feet.”
The submarine continued to rise, but the creatures clinging to me went nowhere. In fact… I was sure I could see more of them. More pale shapes coming up through the darkness, and these ones filled me with dread. I thought I had been looking at some sort of eerie undiscovered life. But seeing what was coming up toward me now… I knew that I was looking at so much more. The creatures swimming up toward me through the darkness carried weapons… makeshift stone spears and daggers. Primitive tools… but tools all the same.
Signs that these were more than just undiscovered animals.
Much. Much more.
The word: ‘Mermaids’ crossed through my mind, but these were something far different than the ones I’d heard of in folklore. These looked like they’d swam out of the depths of hell itself. Boneless pale tendrils reached for me… and they were getting closer. The pale shapes reached my submarine as I rose higher. I kept praying to whatever God may be listening that the dropping pressure would force them off. The air in a submarine is pressurized, so during normal operation, there should have been no danger of decompression sickness for me.
For them… well… normally I’d feel a little guilty about subjecting an undiscovered species of deep sea mermaids to the horrors of the Bends. But given my circumstances, I didn’t have a lot of other options.
They didn’t let go, though.
They should have. But they didn’t.
What were these things?
I saw a splayed hand press against my viewport. Or… it somewhat resembled a hand. It had suckers on it, like a tentacle and the ‘fingers’ curled open like tentacles. The creature crawled over my viewport, clinging to The Tempura as it rose, and I could see the folds of its crablike mouth opening and pressing against the glass. I could see some sort of bile rising up through its translucent throat, before it secreted it all over my viewport. Was it trying to digest me? Was that how these things fed? How strong were its stomach acids? Were they strong enough to-
The window cracked.
My heart skipped a beat.
“No… no, no no…”
“Grayson, what’s wrong?!”
“They cracked the window… S-Sheila they… oh God… oh fuck, they just…”
“THEY DID WHAT?”
“It’s secreting some sort of enzyme… it’s on the window, it’s… FUCK… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…”
“You’re not gonna die, baby! Just… just keep ascending, okay? You’re at 30,000 feet… just keep going…”
I nodded, and kept on rising, although the question of whether or not the rest of the creatures were trying to digest the other parts of my submarine floated through my mind. How much damage could The Tempura take before it imploded? How much longer did I have? The submarine still continued to rise… 25,000 feet… almost halfway home… almost… almost.
The creature outside of my viewport slithered along the glass, searching for a better area to try and digest. Past him, I noticed a few of his companions dropping off. Maybe the change in pressure finally was getting to them?
From the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed a flashing light. A warning. The hydraulics on one of the Tempura’s arms were shot… what else was damaged?
I checked my oxygen levels. 32%.
I should’ve had at least 14 hours of air. I’d only been down there for about 6 hours… I shouldn’t have been this low.
31%.
No… no, no, no, no… they’d damaged the air tanks!
30%.
29%
“20,000 feet!” Sheila said. “You still with me, baby?”
“Y-yeah…” I said. I didn’t mention my air situation. I didn’t need to worry her further.
The submarine continued its ascent.
15,000 feet.
24%. I was running out of time.
The creatures still clung to the Tempura. How had the pressure change not killed them yet? My oxygen was dropping faster than before. I was hemorrhaging air. Another crack formed across my viewport. I let out a little, involuntary gasp before trying to force myself to stop hyperventilating.
“Grayson, what was that?”
“I-it’s fine…” I stammered, “It’s fine!”
“Grayson what the hell is going on down there?!”
“They’re still on the submarine… they’re still…” I paused, looking at my oxygen levels. “19%...”
“19% of what? Grayson what’s going on!”
I paused.
18%.
“Air… I’m… I’m losing air…”
“That’s fine, you’re going to make it!” She said, although I heard her voice cracking a little. “You’re gonna make it!”
I didn’t answer.
12,000 feet.
11,000 feet…
My oxygen level continued to drop.
15%.
14%.
12%.
9,000 feet.
The creatures still clung to me, as the submarine continued to rise. The one on my viewport was still there, slowly crawling along the glass again. I stared into its eyeless face and swore I was looking at the face of my killer.
7,000 feet…
Oxygen had dropped to 9%. It dropped to 8% before I even got to 6,000 feet. I was going to die here…
The viewport cracked again and I squeezed my eyes shut. The submarine rocked. I was sure one of the thrusters had been damaged. My ascent slowed.
“Grayson, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Sheila…”
Another crack spread across my viewport.
“I’m… I’m not making it back up…”
“YES YOU ARE!”
“I’m sorry…” The tears started to come as the reality of my death became clearer and clearer… this was it.
“YOU’RE COMING BACK UP, YOU HEAR ME! GODDAMNIT, I’LL BRING YOU BACK UP!”
“I love you…”
That creatures face pressed against the glass. It vomited more of its stomach acid onto the cracked glass, and I wondered if this might finally be what broke it. Part of me hoped it would be… the one good thing about dying this deep was that at least I’d die quickly. My suffering would be over. Then, the creature suddenly pulled back, twisting and writhing violently. I saw other shapes moving past it in the water, other ‘mermaids’ that had been clinging to the submarine.
Something was agitating them.
Something was scaring them off.
Then I heard it, over the radio… whale songs.
“What the hell…?”
“Grayson, are you still there?!”
“I… they’re finally breaking off. Sheila, what did you do?”
“I’m broadcasting some of the orca recordings we’ve been using. Are they still clinging to you?”
“No! They’re backing off! I… whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
The submarine kept rising.
5,000 feet.
4,000 feet.
4% oxygen.
I could still do this, right?
The submarine continued to rise.
3%.
3,000 feet.
2,000 feet.
2%.
1,000 feet… so close… I was so close…
I could almost see the surface through my viewport, rushing up toward me. I tried not to breathe. Tried not to move. All I did was hope.
500 feet.
I closed my eyes.
“Grayson we have your signal, we’re coming to pick you up!”
Sheila’s voice sounded so far away as my submarine finally breached the surface of the water… and with the last of my strength, I pulled the emergency release on the hatch, and threw it open, taking in lungful after lungful of fresh salty air.
I didn’t dare so much as touch the water beneath me… but I was topside again, and in the distance, I could see The Burger!
“We see you!” Sheila said, “We’ve got you baby… we’ve got you…”
“I see you too…” I said through the tears. “Thank you… thank you…” I didn’t have any words left in me after that.
As soon as I was back on the ship, I collapsed into Sheila’s arms, breaking down into tears as I clung to her, terrified that at any moment, some sort of unspoken other shoe would drop and I’d lose her all over again.
“Shh… it’s alright baby… I’ve got you… you’re safe… you’re safe…” I felt her fingers running through my air and I knew that what she said was true.
I was home.
I was safe.
***
I left my colleagues to review the data that the Tempura gathered during its short expedition. As far as I know, they haven’t published anything. I have a few ideas as to why, but I’ll keep those to myself. Let’s just say that some people would rather this information not become public.
I have a feeling that the Tempura may not be diving again for some time, if ever. I will confess that I do consider that a bit of a shame. Despite everything… I would consider it a success. It endured far more stressful conditions than I had expected, and from what I heard, required fewer repairs than I’d thought it would. But, even if it was approved for another dive, it wouldn’t be me piloting it. No. I will never be setting foot inside of that machine again, nor will I ever be returning to what my colleagues have been quietly referring to as ‘The Jenner Trench’.
I can’t.
Every night, I wake up crying after dreaming of pale shapes outside of my cracked viewport, clinging to Sheila and sobbing. I can’t put myself in that situation again.
I can’t.
Instead, I think I’m going to spend the next few years on solid ground. There’s a teaching position available at a local university. I think that might be the best place for me right now. Who knows, maybe I can help some other deadbeat discover a passion for marine biology.
After everything, my love for the sea remains unchanged… I’m just a little more wary of it, these days.

Hello, college student here looking to get a dog!
Introduction
1) Will this be your first dog? If not, what experience do you have owning/training dogs?

• My family owned one dog before but I was not involved in taking care of him since I was just a kid back then.

2) Do you have a preference for rescuing a dog vs. going through a reputable breeder?

• I want to go with a reputable breeder.

3) Describe your ideal dog.

• My ideal dog would be medium or large-sized.

4) What breeds or types of dogs are you interested in and why?

• Golden retriever. Some people in my neighborhood have them and they’re always very friendly.

5) What sorts of things would you like to train your dog to do?

• Obedience and catch for fun.

6) Do you want to compete with your dog in a sport (e.g. agility, obedience, rally) or use your dog for a form of work (e.g. hunting, herding, livestock guarding)? If so, how much experience do you have with this work/sport?

• Just a normal house dog.

Care Commitments
7) How long do you want to devote to training, playing with, or otherwise interacting with your dog each day?

• On weekdays, an hour. On weekends, three to five hours. I will be in college, but I live with my family so the house will rarely be empty.

8) How long can you exercise your dog each day, on average? What sorts of exercise are you planning to give your dog regularly and does that include using a dog park?

• There’s a park near to my house which is open to pets. Dogs are also allowed for walks on the streets in the whole neighborhood but they must be leashed.

9) How much regular brushing are you willing to do? Are you open to trimming hair, cleaning ears, or doing other grooming at home? If not, would you be willing to pay a professional to do it regularly?

• I can do regular brushing. Okay with the other stuff too as long as they’re simple enough.

Personal Preferences
10) What size dog are you looking for?

• Medium or large.

11) How much shedding, barking, and slobber can you handle?

• Minimal barking, shedding, and slobber. My mother likes to keep things clean.

12) How important is being able to let your dog off-leash in an unfenced area?

• Doesn’t matter much to me.

Dog Personality and Behavior
13) Do you want a snuggly dog or one that prefers some personal space?

• Can let me do my work when I have to, can come snuggle once I am free.

14) Would you prefer a dog that wants to do its own thing or one that’s more eager-to-please?

• Leaning to eager-to-please.

15) How would you prefer your dog to respond to someone knocking on the door or entering your yard? How would you prefer your dog to greet strangers or visitors?

• Nothing aggressive.

16) Are you willing to manage a dog that is aggressive to other dogs?

• No. I would prefer a dog that is not aggressive.

17) Are there any other behaviors you can’t deal with or want to avoid?

• Excessive shedding and too much noise.

Lifestyle
18) How often and how long will the dog be left alone?

• Rarely will the house ever be empty. There are five of us.

19) What are the dog-related preferences of other people in the house and what will be their involvement in caring for the dog?

• Feed or walk him if I’m outside or studying inside.

20) Do you have other pets or are you planning on having other pets? What breed or type of animal are they?

• No.

21) Will the dog be interacting with children regularly?

• Youngest child in the house is 12.

22) Do you rent or plan to rent in the future? If applicable, what breed or weight restrictions are on your current lease?

• We own our house.

23) What city or country do you live in and are you aware of any laws banning certain breeds?

• Philippines. I’m not aware of any laws regarding this.

24) What is the average temperature of a typical summer and winter day where you live?

• Tropical and maritime climate. Humid. No winters. Temperature will range from 22-38 degrees Celsius.

Additional Information and Questions
25) Please provide any additional information you feel may be relevant.

• Nothing to note.

Read the full blog here!
If you are in the midst of choosing a database management system (DBMS), you have two top options: PostgreSQL and MySQL.
Both databases are open-source and have a large user base, making them popular choices for many web applications.
But which one is better for your specific needs?

MySQL Database

Firstly, let's take a closer look at MySQL.
MySQL is an open-source relational database management systems (RDBMS) made by Oracle. It's designed to help users efficiently store, manage, and pull up structured data. Boasting its versatility, MySQL is being used for everything from small projects to big websites and even massive company solutions.

Why choose MySQL?

MySQL is a go-to choice for companies when it comes to software as a service. If you're looking for reasons why, here are a few of them:

• Easy to use
• Scalable
• 24/7 uptime

PostgreSQL Database

Now, we look at PostgreSQL, another popular open-source RDBMS.
PostgreSQL, or "Postgres" for short, kicked off back in 1986 at the Berkeley Computer Science Department, University of California. It's an object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) that's packed with powerful features and really nails standards compliance.
It's common use cases are:

• LAPP Stack Database
• Transaction Database
• Geospatial Database

Why choose PostgreSQL?

Among the relational databases, PostgreSQL has been gaining popularity over the years due to several factors, including:

• Multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC) model
• Supports SQL (relational) and JSON (non-relational) querying
• Data integrity and protection

Key Differences of PostgreSQL vs MySQL

Popularity
The popularity of PostgreSQL and MySQL is soaring thanks to the cloud, which makes things easier to set up.
In 2023, PostgreSQL was awarded the Database Management System of the Year by DB-Engines.
While PostgreSQL is the go-to for professional developers, learners are still big on MySQL, with 45% preferring it over PostgreSQL.
Data types
MySQL and PostgreSQL both handle a bunch of data types, from the simple to the more complex ones.
MySQL supports various data types for different applications, including Integers, Characters or Strings, Dates with Timestamps and Time Zones, Boolean, Float, Decimal, Large Text, and BLOB for binary data (like images). However, it doesn't support geometric data types.
On the other hand, PostgreSQL supports traditional SQL data types (e.g., Numeric, Strings, Date, Decimal) and unstructured types (e.g., JSON, XML, HSTORE), network data types, bit strings, etc. It stands out by supporting ARRAYs, NETWORK types, and Geometric data types for spatial data, thanks to the PostGIS extension, an open-source extension for advanced spatial functions.
See the complete details here.
License
MySQL's community edition uses the GPL license, which is pretty open.
On the other hand, Postgres goes with the PostgreSQL license—it's liberal, kind of like BSD or MIT licenses.
Despite MySQL being all about GPL, some users worry since Oracle owns it. That's actually why MariaDB was created as a sort of branch-off from MySQL. Oracle still owns MySQL, but the community rallies behind MariaDB.
PostgreSQL has been free to use and distribute since its inception. It's never been owned by any enterprise company unless you count the 1986 Berkeley Computer Science Department as a company.
Queries
MySQL uses a proprietary SQL database language, which is straightforward to learn and implement.
In contrast, PostgreSQL uses the standard SQL dialect that beginners may struggle with at first but will reward them in the long run since they'll have a solid foundation for other databases like Oracle, SQL Server, and others.
Database performance
MySQL performs better with simple SQL queries, while PostgreSQL excels at complex ones. However, for most workloads, Postgres and MySQL have similar performance, with up to 30% variation. Regardless of the database, missing an index can degrade query performance by 10x to 1000x.
MySQL has always been faster than PostgreSQL due to the way it implements data structures and locks tables, which usually leads to performance issues when dealing with large databases.
However, with its advanced indexing functionality and MVCC model for concurrency control, PostgreSQL can outperform MySQL on complex queries and large datasets.
Security
MySQL and PostgreSQL both have excellent security features. They both support RBAC.
They also support secure connections through SSL, advanced authentication methods like Kerberos and LDAP, and encryption at the column level.
However, PostgreSQL has a slight edge over MySQL in terms of security. It uses its client authentication system to perform user authentication, while MySQL relies on the host operating system for this task, which can be more vulnerable.
Architecture
MySQL is a relational database, while PostgreSQL is an object-relational database with advanced data types and inheritance for objects. However, this complexity can make PostgreSQL more challenging to use.
PostgreSQL comes with one ACID-compliant storage engine, while MySQL gives you options with 15 different storage engines beyond its default storage engine, InnoDB. This huge selection means you can easily find one that fits your specific needs.
Storage
Data storage is essential for any database. PostgreSQL and MySQL offer various data storage options, including Tables and Indexes on disk. This section looks at two storage options: common storage and pluggable storage.
PostgreSQL supports tablespaces for storing Tables, Indexes, and Materialized Views in various locations, improving I/O efficiency. However, it doesn't offer pluggable storage engines yet.
MySQL also uses tablespaces (within the InnoDB engine) for efficient I/O distribution by grouping physical objects. Unlike PostgreSQL, MySQL supports pluggable storage engines, enabling it to meet specific needs to store data for different applications, such as OLTP and Data Warehousing.
Replication
MySQL supports primary-replica and multi-replica replication, copying data changes from the primary to replicas using SQL. This asynchronous replication could affect performance and scalability.
MySQL replication allows replicas to manage reads and writes, ensuring continuity after a primary crash. However, syncing changes when transitioning a replica back to primary can slow the process, particularly with lengthy SQL operations.
PostgreSQL replication uses WAL files for fast, reliable, and manageable replication, outperforming MySQL's. It supports primary-replica and multi-replica setups, including cascading replication, with options for synchronous or asynchronous modes. Asynchronous allows for read requests on replicas, while synchronous replication ensures consistency across replicas and the primary but slows down transaction commits.
Community support
PostgreSQL and MySQL are both open-source databases, which means that they have a large community of developers who contribute to their development. However, the size of the community differs for these two databases.

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Before starting your project, consider which database system meets your needs. PostgreSQL is favored for enterprise applications because of its advanced features and reliability. In contrast, MySQL better suits smaller-scale web applications.
At StarTechUP, we offer expert web development services using both PostgreSQL and MySQL databases. Our experienced developers can help you choose the right database for your project and ensure its seamless integration into your web application.
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Introduction

1. Will this be your first dog? If not, what experience do you have owning/training dogs?

• family has had several dogs but -my- dog from age 8-25 was a chihuahua, sadly not trained very well as i was a child. currently learning how to handle dogs better at my job

1. Do you have a preference for rescuing a dog vs. going through a reputable breeder?

• either is fine but i would prefer an adult dog (so rescue or retired breeder)

1. Describe your ideal dog.

• friendly and playful without being too off the wall in energy, able to be taken around new places as i moved to a very dog friendly area where everyone has theirs with them. something to encourage me and my roommates to go outside more/go on smaller trail walks. we are all gamers in our 30s so nothing we need to run marathons with. a bonus is if it has workable fuhair as i am a bather at a grooming salon and it would be fun to learn to groom my own dog

1. What breeds or types of dogs are you interested in and why?

• shih tzu, toy/mini poodle, boston terrier, pug mixes, pomeranian. preferably toy/small dogs but medium ones aren't out of the question

1. What sorts of things would you like to train your dog to do?

• simple and nessacery commands like sit/stay/going to a crate if needed

1. Do you want to compete with your dog in a sport (e.g. agility, obedience, rally) or use your dog for a form of work (e.g. hunting, herding, livestock guarding)? If so, how much experience do you have with this work/sport?

• does grooming competitions count? if not with me then my coworkers could use them as a model

Care Commitments
7) How long do you want to devote to training, playing with, or otherwise interacting with your dog each day?

• on a work day i have around 5 hours of free time between coming home and going to bed

8) How long can you exercise your dog each day, on average? What sorts of exercise are you planning to give your dog regularly and does that include using a dog park?

• daily walks and play, longer walks during off days/if i happen to have taken them to work

9) How much regular brushing are you willing to do? Are you open to trimming hair, cleaning ears, or doing other grooming at home? If not, would you be willing to pay a professional to do it regularly?

• daily, though i am starting to shy away from double/tripple coated dogs like a pom/spitz as the brushing can be a bit too intense sometimes

Personal Preferences
10) What size dog are you looking for?

• toy to medium

11) How much shedding, barking, and slobber can you handle?

• moderate amount. the only breed ive seen that sheds an intolerable amount is westies

12) How important is being able to let your dog off-leash in an unfenced area?

• as i live in an apartment i would not do this. in my own yard maybe if the dog has good recall (my chihuahua had great recall/didnt walk far from me so she was not leashed at home)

Dog Personality and Behavior
13) Do you want a snuggly dog or one that prefers some personal space?

• a good median or leaning towards independent. i sleep in a loft bed so a dog that is so clingy it needs to sleep with me would be a sad situation

14) Would you prefer a dog that wants to do its own thing or one that’s more eager-to-please?

• leaning toward eager to please. i'd prefer a dog that is more dog than cat

15) How would you prefer your dog to respond to someone knocking on the door or entering your yard? How would you prefer your dog to greet strangers or visitors?

• i would like a much friendlier-to-strangers dog than the ones ive had in the past.

16) Are you willing to manage a dog that is aggressive to other dogs?

• i would seek training if that were the case but as i would like to have my dog in public/at work around other dogs id like a more dog-friendly breed

17) Are there any other behaviors you can’t deal with or want to avoid?

• dogs that are very escapey/good at climbing though i think this is more a sporting/bird dog trait

Lifestyle
18) How often and how long will the dog be left alone?

• one roommate is unemployeed/disabled so it would not be left alone but i also would not want a dog that is incapable of being alone if need be

19) What are the dog-related preferences of other people in the house and what will be their involvement in caring for the dog?

• no standard poodles, though i believe that to be too big/unmanagable of a dog for me currently. roommates can help with basic needs though as we are on the 2nd floor the primary person to take the dog outside would be me, so training to use a puppy pad or being able to be put on a feeding schedule to manage potty breaks would be a must

20) Do you have other pets or are you planning on having other pets? What breed or type of animal are they?

• we have a chinchilla, a cat, and two lizards, so a breed with little to no prey drive would be prefered.

21) Will the dog be interacting with children regularly?

• no

22) Do you rent or plan to rent in the future? If applicable, what breed or weight restrictions are on your current lease?

• weight limit of 50lbs/typical "banned" breeds

23) What city or country do you live in and are you aware of any laws banning certain breeds?

• washington state, us

24) What is the average temperature of a typical summer and winter day where you live?

• mild climate of 30-50 in the winter and 50-80 in the summer

Additional Information and Questions
25) Please provide any additional information you feel may be relevant.

• i know skin issues are more genetic than breed specific but as both my chihuahua and last cat had skin problems i'd prefer a breed that is not known to be prone to them

26) Feel free to ask any questions below.

• does anyone have any advice for applying to private rescue groups? i feel as though as soon as i put that i live in an apartment on my applications they throw it in the trash. every local rescue requires a fenced in yard/home ownership for even the smallest/laziest dog breeds. they also request very extensive medical records of previous pets but having just moved here from the south i'm sure my previous vets have more urgent things to do than dig through nearly decades old files for these groups and are leaving their emails on read.
  small dogs metaphorically fly off the shelves at the humane society so my other option would be breeders but i'd rather rescue an adult dog in need of a home than spend 3 grand on a new puppy. i know that texas sends their dogs all over the country but these out-of-town dogs arent afforded meet and greets so it seems like a mild gamble of taking their word for how the dog looks/behaves before adopting them.
  

OK, for those of you coming back, I've done a few posts about "the perfect Money/XP base," but wanted to cover Getting through an NG+ as fast as possible for getting you your starborn powers and bugging the hell out:
So follow along :)
1) Land on Vectera 2) Run down to where you pulled the artifact, hitting Elemental Pull all along the way -- depending on how much you did for geology, you'll have a nice cache of Calumite and Beryllium. 3) Grab the digipick in the side room. 4) Fast Travel to your ship, and off to the Lodge! 5) Do a quicksave before you enter the lodge -- you can save scum and reset the weapon Sarah's about to give you as well as the inventory downstairs -- once you enter the lodge they're fixed for the rest of the playthrough. 6) Talk to Sarah, get your cutter, weapon and 25K credits. Put her in your ship as crew, do the same for Vasco. You can get Sarah to follow you if you want, or you can just solo everything -- either way. 7) Go downstairs, collect everything, unlock the Mark 1 Spacesuit, and grab it, grab the book from Cora's room 8) While you're there, hit the stove and the pharma lab -- you can't make anything yet, but go ahead and "Track the items" for the following - I usually plan on making 10-20 of each, and then combining bandages/healpaste/antibiotic into the Analgesic Poultice, so only one thing to cure most: Bandages Heal Paste Immobilizer Antibiotic Injector All the "hearts" - Black Hole, Giant etc... Panopticon Paramour
Go to the stove and track: Galaxy Lo Mein Nebula Wat Papardelle Bolognese Stellar Kebabs Star Cluster Marsala 5 of each should be plenty - for me I only really ever use them on Buried Temple.
9) Go to the Eye - Talk to Vlad, get the "assigned" temple, and the list of artifact locations -- it's ALWAYS the same six locations. 10) Go to the Bessel III-a location, but DO NOT LAND THERE 11) Bessel III-b's Temple will spawn (unless of course, it's the one that was assigned already) 12) Go do the temple on Bessel III-b 13) Go to an anomaly if it didn't "autodetect" and scan it, and grab up all the calumite with Elemental Pull 14) Use my "Free Money Guide" Post to find and build the outpost here -- at this point you probably won't build the base quite yet, as you haven't done any shopping yet. 15) If you go to Neon to shop, and you haven't done any detours, you will probably spawn Sigma on Volii Epsilon -- hit it and grab that power while you're nearby, to make sure it doesn't bug 16) I usually go to Gagarin as Clint often has all the materials necessary. He carries (not TOO rarely) Aldumite Drilling Rigs, which are the key to fast money. Sieghart, Outland, and Jae in New Homestead also carry them sometimes. 17) Build the base 18) Sleep and sell - aim for about 2 Million Creds - if you've built our 6 robots, have max surveying, max outpost stuff, this is 1 24 hour sleep cycle, depending on the mods you may or may not play with, selling all this stuff may take time -- Neon will have your best vendor density for dumping. Remember that you can carry everything in your ship, by dropping it on the floor 19) Time to get the Razorleaf -- why?? because it has a fun mechanic where spacers will freak out, and more importantly, it will ALWAYS have the same ship ID -- this is important if you're willing to use the console to fix shield and target lockon bugs -- you can use a text file and just "bat rlfix" if you always know the ship ID. 20) Go to Sirius Ib -- it will have the HE3 extraction site, and will *almost* always have spacers. One of them SHOULD drop "Secret Outpost" which will start the Mantis questline 21) Go to Denebola 1a and clear the Lair of the Mantis, and claim the Razorleaf - make sure you're looting along the way, even though you don't need creds any more, you still need digipicks to go mo fast. 22) Finish shopping, and get the AGM and Quark Degen from Sieghart in Neon, run next door to Newill for the Gastro D. 23) Go back to your outpost and rebuild the Razorleaf into a dreadnaught24) Make your food and meds -- you'll want 5-10 of each, no more, you won't be here long enough to use them now 25) GOGOGOOGOGO FAST! 26) Go gather the artifacts from the remaining locations. Most of these spots will have a skill magazine, unless you did a perfect, complete NG0, you'll probably be adding a little bit of power by picking each of them up. 27) I use a spreadsheet to track what temple spawns on what planet -- cuz I'm a nerd :) BUT as soon as you pick up an artifact, go grab the power - Alpha, Eta and Sigma are ALWAYS gonna be in this first set, the rest are random. 28) At this point you can go back to the lodge and re-recruit Sam, Barrett and Andreja 27) Oborum -> Masada -> Temple -- all the consumables are nice to make the fight go smoother -- Phased Time is totally your best friend use it early and often, and when you have the Heart consumable you can use it pretty much whenever you want. Panopticon is awesome, and the Nebula Wat makes you go noticeably faster. 28) Talk the Hunter and Emissary down -- ain't nobody got time for that fight! -- Use a Paramour before you open the temple door. 29) Go grab the rest of the temples 30) Off to Unity, rinse and repeat!

Hello. My name is Bungling-Worm. You may remember me from my highly condemned submissions such as "Socialists-The Moralist Busybodies Preventing You From Beating YOUR Cheating C\nt of a Wife and Annoying Children", "Profit or: Humanity's Raisin Deter (sic).", "Who Really 'Needs' Clean Air and Water Anyway?", "Hayek Was Right! - How Fascism Saved Western Civilization™ From the Bolshevik Menace" and "SWEATSHOPS!-The Greatest Gift to Third-World Youths Since the Polio Vaccine.*"
Today I'd like to address my fellow capitalists. It's no secret that, much like the U.S. military in Iraq circa 2003-2011, we're losing the battle for the hearts and minds of our intended slav..subje...vict...vassa...thral...our fellow men™. For this reason my employer, Generic Right-Wing Think Tank Inc., in partnership with our good friends in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.K. Special Intelligence Service (formerly U.K. Military Intelligence, Section 6), have contacted the eminent propagandist conservative philosopher picnic-boy and gained his gracious permission to make an official Part 2 to his highly acclaimed How to argue in favor of capitalism and against socialism, a helpful guide the table of contents of which is freely available (for a limited time only) here: https://www.reddit.com/CapitalismVSocialism/comments/1cqvdsv/comment/l3wuegi/
Without picnic-boy's pioneering achievements in sophistry this work would not be possible. Now, without further add-do (sic) I give you a sneak peak into the table of contents of How to argue in favor of capitalism and against socialism, a helpful guide: Part 2.

1. State, often and always without evidence (because none exists), that socialists control all mainstream news media, organized religion (especially the Catholic Church, the Jesuit Order, the Hasidic Colleges and every sect of Islam), academia, K-12 public education, the entire U.S. civil service/bureaucracy (from the municipal all the way up to the federal), the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department, the Democratic Party, the neoconservative wing of the Republican party, the Fraternal Order of Freemasons, Hollywood, all police unions, the AFL-CIO board, the entire federal judiciary, all the major drug cartels and organized crime syndicates, the Federal Reserve System and the governments of literally every single third and second world country, especially the far-right and non-white majority ones. At the exact same time, and this is really important so pay close attention, accuse socialists of being unpopular teenage losers living in their parents' basement who're too lazy to get a job.
2. When socialists remark upon how similar the claims in point 1 are to contemporary Neo-Nazi conspiracy theories and start to question how you feel about Jewish people turn around and accuse them of being "the real anti-semites" for "wanting to take all the Jews' money away ". In no way is this conflation of all Jewish people with rich capitalists a form of economic antisemitism. If someone points out that it is simply cherry pick quotes from Marx's "On the Jewish Question" out of context so that none of the parts where Marx makes it clear he is only critiquing Judaism as a religion while at the same time advocating for the political emancipation of the Jews as people are clear to the reader. After that go on to talk about how much you support Israel and how much happier you think diaspora Jews would be if they permanently immigrated there. Also and for no particular reason talk about the "failure" of the Kibbutzim apropos of nothing and don't elaborate on anything.
3. Always portray struggles of democratic socialists within ML states/the Eastern Bloc as struggles for capitalism. Yes, it is true the people who organized the East German Uprising of 1953, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring of 1968, and the Polish Solidarity Movement of the 1980's (before the Vatican and CIA hijacked it) all demanded democratic socialism, yes they all said that, but what they "really wanted" was capitalism and don't you let any so-called "historian" tell you otherwise.
4. Pretend that socialists invented the very concept of the state and thus that all state rulers from the Roman Emperors, Egyptian Pharaohs, Greek Archons, etc. to modern Kings, Kaisers, Tsars and Presidents were/are "socialists".
5. Don't forget to liberally pepper your psychotic rants with plenty of freudian slips and accusations in a mirror. For example, make the claim that socialists want to destroy the family so that they can isolate, abuse and indoctrinate women and children while at the same time assert that wives and children are nothing more than an extension of "the individual" who need to be shielded by this individual from an unrealistically hostile and confusing world (literally everything and everyone outside the home).
6. Assert that socialists invented taxation and ignore that the first taxes in recorded history took the form of land-rents set by the first governments (which were councils of militaristic landlords).
7. Defend rent-seeking and landlordism so long as it's done by private individuals. Remember rent-seeking is only bad when the government does it because they spend that money on social parasites and welfare leeches, unlike landlords who spend it on their second families in the next state over.
8. Claim fascism is a form of socialism but also defend the legacies of lesser known fascist regimes, military dictatorships and other totalitarian right-wing governments whose symbols and mottos the people in your country haven't developed a learned fear response to yet the way they have the Swastika and the Fasces.
9. When leftists point out that the main victims of things like the Great Purge and the Chinese Cultural Revolution were socialists, communists, anarchists and other left-wing intellectuals who opposed Stalin and Mao's cults of personality either ignore them and maintain that the "real victims" were the tiny minority of "innocent" religious extremists, ultranationalists (who were "definitely not" fascist collaborators or spies), and grain hoarders or do a complete one hundred and eighty degree pivot and actually defend the Great Purge and Cultural Revolution because "The more left someone is, the more violent/dictatorial they are, therefore anyone to the left of Stalin and Mao would have been more violent than them and it's a good thing they were killed."
10. If you think any of these points are self-contradicting just remember that doublethink is merely a tool and "communists" (Stalinists) shouldn't be the only ones allowed to make use of it.
11. Ignore the mountains of evidence that an anti-Stalinist left exists. Portray these leftists as right-wingers and edit their most famous works to leave out the many mentions of their own support for socialism.
12. Remind your interlocutor(s) that socialism is gay and cringe.
13. Remember that reading is gay but total illiteracy is still kinda cringe (unfortunately). Therefore read as little as humanly possible without going full illiterate. Our recommendation is to only read blurbs from ancap websites, your favorite conspiracy theorist podcasters' social media threads and your fellow "capitalists' " reddit posts and nothing else.
14. In keeping with point 13 let the only things you "know" or "learn" about socialism be things you absorbed through osmosis and half remember from your high school history textbooks assuming you even read them at all. Never look at primary sources, never listen to people trying to explain things to you in detail, always complain that quotes provided to you are "blocks of text" or "unoriginal" and can thus be dismissed without serious engagement on your part.
15. Remember that conformism, unquestioning obedience to authority, an unflinching belief in the correctness of the current socioeconomic status quo and conventional wisdom, and a general Panglossian worldview with a huge heaping of moral nihilism (which is definitely a real philosophical school of thought and not just a rationalization of one's own sociopathic tendencies) are actually somehow radical and that "conservatism is the new punk rock" of the 21st century.
16. Remember that guy begging for spare change you passed on your way to work? Tell everyone that he was a capitalist. Carefully explain to workers why capitalists are actually worse off than everyone else in society as hard to believe as that may seem. Remind them that when it comes to capitalists' they're "cash poor, asset rich" which means all their wealth is tied up in assets like yachts and sports cars and mansions and designer suits/dresses/jewellery and second summer homes and third winter homes and tropical island resorts where "nothing unethical ever happens so shut up about it already"...and talk about how they can't use these assets to buy groceries or clothing or even pay the "exorbitant" property taxes on their assets. "So you see the real unfortunates in our society aren't the homeless or the victims of police brutality or refugees or the working poor, it's capitalists. These brave men and women take (minor) financial risks by using what little cash they have to found businesses, not for their own benefit but for ours, so that they can give us jobs and provide us with products and services and then what do these generous souls get in return for their herculean efforts? Just a whole lot of ingratitude from socialists and a bunch of tacky junk they can't even use to feed and clothe their many, many illegitimate and adoptive children that they're definitely not doing anything questionable with on their tropical islands that aren't even worth that much anymore because of rising sea levels (which have nothing to do with climate change, which is just a Chinese communist plot to make Americans poor don'tcha know?)".

**Introduction** 1)Will this be your first dog? If not, what experience do you have owning/training dogs? * This will be my first dog, though I had a cat for 8 years previously. 2)Do you have a preference for rescuing a dog vs. going through a [reputable breeder]( http://ownresponsibly.blogspot.com/2011/07/identifying-reputable-breeder.html)? * No preference 3)Describe your ideal dog. * I would like one who can accompany me on walks daily (including potentially long hikes on weekends or dog parks) but also would be willing to chill with me on the couch happily at any time. I would prefer one without serious separation anxiety as I do leave the house daily for several hours at a time, even though I work from home. Also, tolerance/friendliness towards other dogs/people would be nice as I do enjoy going to breweries and would love a companion along with me. 4)What breeds or types of dogs are you interested in and why? * I'm just beginning my research, but have been intrigued by Standard Schnauzers, Boston Terriers, and the Spanish/Portuguese water dogs. 5)What sorts of things would you like to train your dog to do? * Basic things for now, potentially more advanced stuff down the road. 6) Do you want to compete with your dog in a sport (e.g. agility, obedience, rally) or use your dog for a form of work (e.g. hunting, herding, livestock guarding)? If so, how much experience do you have with this work/sport? * Definitely not. **Care Commitments** 7) How long do you want to devote to training, playing with, or otherwise interacting with your dog each day? * I can easily do several hours due to the amount of downtime I have with working from home. 8) How long can you exercise your dog each day, on average? What sorts of exercise are you planning to give your dog regularly and does that include using a dog park? * Same answer as above, several hours if needed. I have a dog park at my apartment and several parks around that I could take them. Anything from walking to playing fetch to running. 9)How much regular brushing are you willing to do? Are you open to trimming hair, cleaning ears, or doing other grooming at home? If not, would you be willing to pay a professional to do it regularly? * I suppose weekly? I am willing to pay a professional for anything besides brushing. **Personal Preferences** 10)What size dog are you looking for? * Apartment will not allow over 75 pounds, so less than that. I don't have any interest in a 5 pound dog though. 11) How much shedding, barking, and slobber can you handle? * Not much of any. Barking should be minimal in an apartment. 12) How important is being able to let your dog off-leash in an unfenced area? * Not particularly important, more of an added bonus if able. **Dog Personality and Behavior** 13) Do you want a snuggly dog or one that prefers some personal space? * Both? 14) Would you prefer a dog that wants to do its own thing or one that’s more eager-to-please? * No preference 15) How would you prefer your dog to respond to someone knocking on the door or entering your yard? How would you prefer your dog to greet strangers or visitors? * Certainly no barking if someone knocks. Attentiveness or walking to the door would be perfectly fine by me. 16) Are you willing to manage a dog that is aggressive to other dogs? * Absolutely not. 17) Are there any other behaviors you can’t deal with or want to avoid? * I wouldn't ever tolerate any kind of aggression, but otherwise I can't think of any. **Lifestyle** 18) How often and how long will the dog be left alone? * 2-4 hours daily during the week for errands/gym. 19) What are the dog-related preferences of other people in the house and what will be their involvement in caring for the dog? * I live alone. 20) Do you have other pets or are you planning on having other pets? What breed or type of animal are they? * No. 21) Will the dog be interacting with children regularly? * No. 22) Do you rent or plan to rent in the future? If applicable, what breed or weight restrictions are on your current lease? * Rent - I live on the third floor of an apartment without an elevator. No aggressive breeds and under 75 pounds. 23) What city or country do you live in and are you aware of any laws banning certain breeds? * USA; none I am aware of 24) What is the average temperature of a typical summer and winter day where you live? * Low to mid 90's in summer; mid to upper 30's in winter **Additional Information and Questions** 25) Please provide any additional information you feel may be relevant. * I live on the third floor of an apartment so I'd prefer any dog that will not suffer from hip problems or that would be difficult to carry upstairs if necessary (I COULD carry 50 pounds upstairs though wouldn't want to often). I don't plan on living here for more than a year or two longer though. 

Edit: If you are going to comment on the length of this post, please don't. This is not a simple snark but rather an actual critical think piece about feminism and Taylor Swift.

Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

Hello there! I am Betfair’s Virtual assistant, here to get you the quickest answer possible. Click below to start chatting. You at 17:31, May 14: I don’t seem be able to use this bonus I don’t seem be able to use this bonus Read Betfair at 17:31, May 14:
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Sorry to hear that ,I can see your query is about using your promotional offer,
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Could you please give me 5-10 minutes to look into your query? You at 17:39, May 14: I don’t have too long to be honest, and my query is regarding a promotion that I was awarded however the sportsbook free bets the £5 I have won show up next to my balance however every bet I have tried to make since completing the requirements hasn’t had the usual tick box option in the stake window on sports book Read You at 17:40, May 14: thanks for taking the time to wait for my response….. not Read Sachin at 17:43, May 14: Thanks for waiting, You can use the £5 bonus on Bet Builder only. You at 17:43, May 14: please elaborate… Read Sachin at 17:44, May 14: To get you an answer, I need to transfer you to our specialized team who will be able to help you. You at 17:44, May 14: Seriously? Read You at 17:44, May 14: hmm ok Read Info at 17:44, May 14: You are being transfered to another agent Info at 17:44, May 14: This is Debapriya and I will be looking after your query today. I will aim to reply within 2 minutes. You at 17:45, May 14: hi Read Debapriya at 17:45, May 14:
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Hey Craig, hope you are doing well today!
Thank you for the above, Please give me around 5 minutes to read the above and look at what issue you are having. You at 18:04, May 14: My phone runs on electric…. And it’s been 30 mins with my screen left unlocked for this jokes… any paying my electric bill for this “chat”? Read You at 18:04, May 14: carbon foot print very big…? Read You at 18:06, May 14: Is it home time at wherever you’re messaging me from… am I getting transferred again..? Read You at 18:08, May 14: Time spent can never be refunded… Read You at 18:09, May 14: how do I make a complaint about this please..? Read You at 18:10, May 14: I’m happy to just share this conversation with social platforms… there is plenty of dirt on Betfair… I was hoping it was wrong Read You at 18:11, May 14: 40 minutes… + 40 minutes… + Read Yasmine at 18:12, May 14:
I am sorry for taking long as I was looking into it for you however I can see that you are asking as to why you are not able to use the bonus.
I can see that the offer you have in the screenshot is not on your account as the bonuses came from 2 different offers:
The £3 bonus came from the link below:
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And the other £2 bonus came from the link below:
https://promos.betfair.com/promotion?promoCode=CASBFSELMID You at 18:12, May 14: Agent is waiting to clock off for the day Read You at 18:13, May 14: Right this isn’t helpful at all… Read You at 18:13, May 14: and what you’re saying in incorrect Read You at 18:14, May 14: It came from the promotions page on the casino tab of the sportsbook apple iPhone app.. Read You at 18:15, May 14: It was to spend £20 on gods storm wind.. Read You at 18:16, May 14: for a £5 bonus free bets on the sportsbook Read You at 18:17, May 14: i have screenshots of the terms and conditions specific for the offer…. And obviously I have the general promotion terms.. Read You at 18:17, May 14: this I feel with what you are saying must be some sort of false advertising Read Yasmine at 18:17, May 14:
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In that case I will need a link please of the offer to look further into it for you. You at 18:18, May 14: really? ok… Thank you for the above, Please give me around 5 minutes to read the above and look at what issue you are having Read You at 18:20, May 14: https://promos.betfair.com/promotion?promoCode=GAMXSB20G50905 Read You at 18:21, May 14: Hello…? I’ve have taken the time to point you to the promotional offer offered by the company you work for… and yet I’m still being made to wait…? Read You at 18:22, May 14: Is this a scam..? Read You at 18:22, May 14: I’m feeling like it’s a scam… Read You at 18:22, May 14: are you really working for Betfair..? Or am I being hacked? Read Yasmine at 18:23, May 14:
Thank you for that. Can you please send me a screenshot of the betslip that you are trying to use the bonus on?
Make sure that you are trying to use it on a bet builder.
And yes I am sure that I work at Betfair, That is why I am trying my best to help you. You at 18:25, May 14: you’re not helping you’re making continue to do a job that I’m not paid for.. i will not be jumping through any more hoops for you. I’m copying and screenshotting this absolute joke that you call “helping” Delivered Conversation closed by you at 18:25, May 14: Survey Bot at 18:25, May 14: Your conversation is now closed. Survey Bot at 18:25, May 14: We would love to get your feedback with one quick question 😊 Survey Bot at 18:25, May 14: Based on your experience today, how likely would you be to recommend Betfair to a friend? (Where 10 is most likely and 0 is not at all likely.) You at 18:26, May 14: 0 😒 Read Survey Bot at 18:26, May 14: We’re sorry to hear that, please let us know how we can improve? You at 18:26, May 14: You could get some helpful people…? Read Survey Bot at 18:26, May 14: Thank you for your time. You at 18:26, May 14: Complaints department please? Sent Betfair at 18:27, May 14:
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Disney Party - $10
Disney Princess (CIB) - $12
Donkey Kong Country (GBC/CIB) - $56
Dora Explorer's Pirate Pig's Treasure - $4
Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors - $20
Elf - $10
ESPN Great Outdoor Games Bass 2002 - $5
F-14 Tomcat - $7
Finding Nemo - $5
Green Eggs & Ham (CIB) - $20
Incredibles (CIB) - $14
Kong 8th Wonder of the World - $5
Lost Vikings - $25
Madden 2005 - $5
Mario Kart Super Circuit (torn label) - $20
Metroid Zero Mission - $60
Monsters Inc - $4
Monster Jam Maximum Destruction - $6
Namco Museum - $6
Oddworld Munch's Oddysee - $12
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl - $5
Pong Asterios Yar's Revenge - $4
Sonic Advance 3 - $25
Quad Desert Furty - $3
Shaun Palmers Pro Snowboarding (GBC/CIB) - $10
Shrek Swamp Kart Speedway - $5
Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron - $5
SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom - $7
Spongebob Squarepants Super Sponge - $6
SSX 3 - $7
The Incredibles - $3
Thunder Alley - $5
Top Gear GT Championship - $10
Sony PSP (all CIB)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - $15
Gurumin A Monstrous Adventure - $42
LocoRoco - $10
Mega Man Powered Up - $38
Parappa the Rapper - $27
Sega Genesis Collection - $17
PS1 Games (CIB unless noted)
007 Tomorrow Never Dies - $7
Action Bass - $6
Andretti Racing (GH) - $5
Ball Breakers (sealed) - $10
Bass Championship - $7
Battle Arena Toshinden (GH) - $14
Bust A-Move 4 - $17
Driver 2 (GH) - $10
Fighting Force - $20
IHRA Drag Racing - $5
Missile Command - $6
MLB 2001 - $9
MLB 2003 - $9
Nascar Heat (CIB) - $7
NBA Live 2000 - $8
NBA Shootout 98 - $9
NHL 98 - $8
NHL Faceoff 97 (GH) - $5
PlayStation Underground Jampack Fall 2001 - $9
Resident Evil 2 (DualShock Edition) - $65
Rocket Power Team Rocket Rescue - $7
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie - $12
Spongebob SquarePants Super Pants - $7
Syphon Filter 2 (GH) - $10
Tecmo Super Bowl - $20
Tiger Woods 99 - $8
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 - $12
Twisted Metal 2 (Greatest Hits) - $32
Toy Story 2 - $22
Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour - $20
World Cup 98 - $12
PS2 Games (CIB unless noted)
All-Star Baseball 2005 - $5
Ape Escape 2 - $48
Ape Escape 3 - $43
ATV Offroad Fury 2 - $6
Avatar the Last Airbender - $8
Batman Begins - $13
Batman Vengeance - $19
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chaos Bleeds - $28
Burnout Revenge - $11
Burnout 3 Takedown - $13
Buzz the Mega Quiz - $12
Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 - $13
Castlevania Lament of Innocence -$25
Corvette - $5
Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of the Cortex - $12
Crash Nitro Kart (GH) - $9
Crazy Taxi - $10
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 - $7
Dead to Rights - $6
Devil May Cry (GH) - $7
Enter the Matrix - $10
Eragon - $6
Family Feud - $5
Finding Nemo - $6
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns - $10
Ford Racing 3 - $5
Frogger the Great Quest - $7
Golden Compass - $5
GTA 3- $10
Gran Turismo 3 - $5
Godfather the Game - $14
Guitar Hero - $10
Guitar Hero Aerosmith - $7
Guitar Hero II - $7
Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock - $9
High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 - $5
Hot Wheels Velocity - $10
Hot Wheels World Race (missing manual) - $12
Hobbit - $10
Ice Age 2 The Meltdown - $7
Ironman - $6
Karaoke Revolution Party - $8
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol - $5
Legends of Wrestling II - $12
Lego Star Wars The Original Trilogy - $6
Lego Star Wars The Video Game - $7
Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring - $10
Madden 2003 - $5
Madden 2004 - $5
Madden 2005 -$5
Madden 2007 - $5
Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 - $10
Max Payne - $10
Metal Arms Glitch in the System - $16
Midway Arcade Treasures (1) - $12
Midway Arcade Treasures (2) - $12
MLB 07 the Show - $5
MLB Slugfest 2003 - $10
MLB Slugfest 2004 - $13
Namco Museum (GH) - $8
Nascar 2001 - $5
Nascar Thunder 2003 - $7
NBA Street - $12
Need for Speed Underground 2 (missing manual) - $20
NFL Blitz Pro - $10
NFL Street - $17
NFL Street 3 (missing manual) - $20
Onimusha 3 Demon Siege - $21
Pinball Hall of Fame - $5
Pirates - The Legend of Black Kat - $12
Power Rangers: Dino Thunder - $8
Reel Fishing III - $7
Resident Evil Code Veronica X - $13
Rise of Kasai - $8
Rocky - $11
Scarface the World is Yours - $45
Scooby Doo First Frights - $13
Sega Superstars - $10
Sega Superstar Tennis - $10
Shrek Superslam - $8
Simpson's Hit & Run (Greatest Hits) -$50
Spiderman - $10
Sprint Cars Road to Knoxville - $6
Spy Hunter - $7
Spy Hunter 2 (missing manual) - $7
Starsky & Hutch - $7
SSX - $7
SSX 3 - $9
SSX On Tour - $8
Superman Shadow of Apokolips - $14
Super Monkey Ball Adventure - $10
Summoner - $10
Taito Legends - $15
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battlenexus (missing manual) - $17
Teen Titans - $22
Theme Park Roller Coaster - $8
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 - $6
Thrillville - $6
Thrillville Off the Rails - $10
Time Crisis 3 - $23
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - $11
Wheel of Fortune - $6
Virtua Fighter 4 (missing manual) - $6
Warriors of Might & Magic - $10
WWE Smackdown vs Raw - $11
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 (Sealed) - $45
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 - $17
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 - $10
WWE Smackdown Shut Your Mouth - $15
PS3
Band Hero - $6
Batman Arkham Asylum - $7
Battlefield 3 - $6
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare - $6
Call of Duty Ghosts - $6
Call of Duty Mordern Warfare 3 - $6
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare - $7
Call of Juarez Bound in Blood - $9
Crysis 2 - $7
Dirt 2 - $12
Dirt 3 - $10
Driver San Francisco - $25
Enemy Territory Quake Wars - $9
Fifa Soccer 11 - $5
Fight Night Champion - $13
GTA IV Complete Edition - $25
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - $8
Gran Turismo XL Edition - $11
Gran Turismo 6 - $19
Heavy Fire: Afghanistan - $10
Infamous - $6
Infamous 2 - $8
Killzone 2- $7
Killzone 3 - $7
Lego 3: Beyond Batman - $8
Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 - $7
Lego The Hobbit - $9
LittleBigPlanet - $9
Madden 2011 - $5
Metro: Last Night - $8
Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition - $12
MLB the Show 10 - $4
MLB the Show 11 - $4
Monster Jam Path of Destruction - $20
NCAA Football 11 - $9
Sports Champions - $5
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 [Masters Historic Edition] - $23
Transformers Fall of Cybertron - $35
Transformers Rise of the Dark Spark - $13
Virtua Tennis 3 - $6
WWE 2K16 - $12
PS Vita
Lumines Electronic Symphony - $16
Need for Speed Most Wanted - $20
Sly Cooper Collection - $50
Sega 32X (all cart only)
Primal Rage - $50
Virtua Fighter - $24
Virtua Racing - $20
Sega Dreamcast Games (disc & manual only***; do not have original cases unless noted CIB)
Centipede - $7
Plasma Sword Night of Bilstein - $50
Psychic Force 2012 - $25
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - $12
Resident Evil Code Veronica (CIB) - $40
Rippin Riders - $5
Sega Bass Fishing - $8
Sega Rally 2 Championship - $12
Speed Devils - $15
Sword of Berserk: Gut's Rage (game only) - $65
Trick Style - $7
Zombie Revenge - $30
Sega Genesis (**CIB unless noted)
Aladdin (cart + manual) - $10
Double Dragon (cart & box) - $45
Game Genie (loose + booklet) - $20
Hard Drivin' (Missing Manual) - $15
John Madden Football (cart + manual) - $20
Lemmings (CIB) - $30
MERCS (cart & box) - $35
NBA Jam T.E. (CIB) - $20
Prime Time NFL Football starring Deon Sanders (cart +manual) - $9
Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy's Intervention (CIB) - $20
Road Rash II (CIB) - $22
Robocop 3 (CIB) - $40
Streets of Rage (cart only) - $22
Super Off-Road (CIB) - $30
WWF Super Wrestlemania (CIB) - $20
X-Men (cart + manual) - $15
Zero Tolerance (CIB) - $35
Sega Master System (CIB unless noted)
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars - $28
California Games (missing manual) - $20
Choplifter - $18
Ghostbusters - $25
Great Baseball - $10
Monopoly - $10
Parlour Games - $10
Pro Wrestling - $14
Rocky - $17
Space Harrier (missing manual) - $18
Shinobi (includes map; missing manual) - $30
Xbox (all CIB)
MechAssault 2 Lone Wolf (Limited Edition) - $8
Project Gotham Racing - $6
Xbox 360 (CIB)
Assassin's Creed - $6
Assasin's Creed II - $6
Asssasin's Creed III - $6
Battlefield Hardline Deluxe Edition - $10
Battlefield 3 Limited Edition - $6
Bioshock - $7
Bioshock Infinite - $5
Call of Duty World at War - $9
Call of Juarez: Blood Bound - $10
Civilization Revolution - $6
CSI Hard Evidence - $9
Fifa Soccer 10 - $5
Fifa Work Cup South Africa 2010 - $5
Game of Thrones - $11
Gears of War - $9
Halo 4 - $5
Injustice Gods Among Us - $5
L.A. Noire - $7
Mass Effect - $5
Mass Effect 2 - $5
N3 Ninety-Nine Nights - $20
NBA 2K12 - $5
NHL 10 - $3
NHL 14 - $6
Saints Row 2 - $10
Saints Row The Third - $5
Skate 3 - $6
Star Trek Legacy - $18
Star Wars Kinect - $7
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 - $5
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 - $5
Top Spin 3 - $6
Walking Dead Survival Instinct - $8
Wheel of Fortune - $14
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire -$5
Nintendo Wii (all CIB unless noted)
Animal Crossing City Folk - $20 (includes inserts but missing manual)
Celebrity Sports Showdown - $6
Guitar Hero World Tour - $18
Little League World Series Baseball 2008 - $10
Madden 2013 - $14
Mario Kart Wii - $35
Mario Super Sluggers (disc only) - $25
Mario Strikers Charged (disc only) - $10
NBA Live 09 All-Play - $5
New Super Mario Bros - $25
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz - $6
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - $20
Tony Hawk Downhill Jam - $5
Tony Hawk Shred Big Air - $5
Warioware Smooth Moves - $22
Wii Sports - $22
Wii Sports Resort - $30
Wheel of Fortune - $6
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 - $7

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Needless to remind people of the good old Deccan Chargers days. I was young and didn't follow cricket at that time. My dad would always watch it, so I would catch glimpses of CSK playing in 2011 and 2012 times. Soon, I had an interest and wanted to support a relatively unknown team, or an underdog if you will. In 2013 with SRH being announced, I wanted to properly support a brand new team. I was still learning to understand the game; I was 15 at the time. Loved watching Steyn and just always loved watching good bowling more than batting. Of course, I enjoy the batting powerhouse we have become. But throughout this journey of being an SRH fan, I have noticed the love affair we have had for Aussies and Sri Lankans in our squad. Gilchrist leading DC to a title, then the great Sanga leading us to the playoffs in our first season as SRH. Perera's all-round show. David Warner in 2016 leading us to a title when RCB were cruising the chase. Who could forget Ben Cutting's best all-round performance in a final. Yuvi striking like crazy in that game. Bhuvi defending 18 runs off the final over by conceding just 10!
Now fast forward to 2024, we have David Warner's role split into 2. The duo of Cummins with captaincy and Warner 2.0 batting with Travis. And should we play a final like this again, maybe even against RCB, we'll have a similar squad. We have Nitish who has risen, and dare I say may even be our Ben Cutting with all-round stellar show we have seen from him thus far, not quite up to Ben's level but still. I know before I wanted Samad to be our Ben Cutting, but I think Nitish is more suited for that because he can bowl too, gives us 2 or 3 overs. Bhuvi is, of course, still with us, regaining his confidence, just like the 2016 Bhuvi. We have Yuvi's presence again through Abhi. Bipul Sharma, left-arm spinner, we now have Shahbaz. We have quite a few upgrades now for our wicket-keeping in Klaasen, 6 hitter in Samad (once he regains his confidence), Nattu who is reliable at the death, Pace train in Umran, and a genuine spin bowling option in Vijayakanth, the Sri Lankan flair coming back. Few interesting similarities about Vijayakanth is that he's relatively unknown like Mustafizur was back in 2016 and in 2018 we had a spinner that performed superbly for us, you know the name... Could it all be coming together for us? Could he be our missing piece, especially on a slow Chepauk track? Could Mayank play an anchor role like Dhawan and redeem himself? Time will tell.
Of course, it would have been nice to give Glen Phillips a try, and who knows, maybe he's our trump card? Maybe Cummins and Vettori are planning something we just don't know yet, or they are happy with the setup we have now. But there's yet another similarity if Glen Phillips is to sit out... remember in 2016 we had Trent Boult, Kane Williamson, and even Eoin Morgan sitting on the bench! Any other team, they would have been a regular in the 11! We insisted on Fizz, we insisted on Ben Cutting and Moises. Did it work out? No, not really, other than Ben Cutting; the other two had an average game. And remember, we won! We WON the final! Not sure if there is a certain luck aspect associated here but in 2016 both Kiwis did not play and in 2018 when we had a kiwi playing despite his amazing 700+ season, our title hopes wasn't to be. Another luck aspect to think about is of course the jersey, SA20 back to back winners, Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
I'm perhaps getting a bit too ahead of myself thinking of a final, but the fact of the matter is we have done so well thus far because it has been Cummins and Vettori's team through and through. They are sticking to their guts and saying this is what we are doing. Mayank, Tripathi, Sundar, Umran, Jansen, and Markram, our former captain, half the side that played in the 2022 season, dropped! They have good reasons for it, and that's okay. Just trust them! We were the underdogs at the start of the season once again, just like we were in 2016. THIS is our key. No one sees us coming; people still don't rate us though we have shown the world how T20 batting is done. I want us to be the underdogs; I want us to keep surprising; I want us to be the calm and composed fans that we have prided ourselves to be. Let's not become toxic, it was never our style. Please don't abuse the players or foul mouth other teams. Appreciate and enjoy them. Even if we lose both games and we don't qualify, I'm okay with that, same with winning the cup. Whatever happens SRH forever! We as the fans have had a season to remember for the ages.
Thank you, Cummins, for everything! All the best for the remaining games and playoffs should we make it. You are going to T20 World Cup as a T20 bowler when people doubted your abilities in the shortest format after picking you at the auctions. What a season you have had and lifted the entire fanbase's emotions up and carried us to the peak of entertainment and happiness. Thank you so much!