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Long time lurker here.
I see people only estimating common monthly expenses like food, rent, bus, car, etc but ignoring those that occur occasionally. Here is a sample list for 2-adults aged 50 in a big city (Chennai/Hyd/Blore, etc) where occasional long term expenses like cascootelaptop/TV/travel/medical etc that happen only once in a few years are annualized.
It is always better to overestimate health expenses. Also, regular monthly medicines can be very expensive (you may not need them now, but if diagnosed later after retirement for BP/Sugaetc, expect to spend around 10k pm). Also, dental and eye surgery are costly sometimes and not covered by insurance. You can replace rent with own house expenses (like repairs, plumbing, costly painting, house tax, etc. and annualize the cost), add kids schooling, etc. And always better to overestimate everything by 20%.
Please comment on what you think. If you can make a similar list with your actual expenses, please share.
[Edit: Posted in this forum by mistake; but I will let it be here unless someone thinks this is off topic]

Saving money and achieving financial freedom can indeed be challenging due to various factors, but understanding these hurdles and implementing strategies to overcome them can pave the way towards financial success.

1. Lack of Financial Literacy: Many people struggle with managing their finances simply because they lack the necessary knowledge about budgeting, investing, and saving. Without a solid understanding of financial principles, it's easy to fall into patterns of overspending and debt. Overcoming: Educate yourself about personal finance through books, online resources, or even financial literacy courses. Understanding basic concepts like budgeting, compound interest, and investment strategies can empower you to make informed decisions about your money.
2. Living Beyond Means: In today's consumer-driven culture, there's often pressure to keep up with the latest trends and maintain a certain lifestyle, even if it means spending more than you earn. This mentality leads to excessive spending and makes it difficult to save. Overcoming: Practice living below your means by creating a budget that prioritizes saving and investing over unnecessary expenses. Differentiate between needs and wants, and be mindful of your spending habits. Focus on long-term financial goals rather than short-term gratification.
3. High Cost of Living: Rising expenses such as housing, healthcare, and education can eat into your income, leaving little room for saving and investing. Overcoming: Explore ways to reduce your living expenses, such as downsizing to a smaller home, renegotiating bills, or finding cheaper alternatives for necessities. Consider relocating to areas with lower costs of living if feasible. Additionally, look for ways to increase your income through side hustles or advancing your career.
4. Debt Burden: Debt, especially high-interest consumer debt like credit card balances, can significantly impede your ability to save and invest for the future. Paying off debt often takes precedence over saving, leading to a cycle of financial stress. Overcoming: Prioritize debt repayment by adopting strategies like the debt snowball or debt avalanche method. Cut discretionary spending and allocate the savings towards paying off debt faster. Consider consolidating high-interest debt or negotiating with creditors for lower interest rates.
5. Lack of Discipline: Saving money requires discipline and self-control, which can be challenging in a world filled with temptations and instant gratification. Impulse purchases and lifestyle inflation can derail your savings goals. Overcoming: Develop good financial habits by automating your savings and investments, setting up separate accounts for different financial goals, and tracking your spending regularly. Create barriers to impulse spending, such as implementing a waiting period before making non-essential purchases. Surround yourself with supportive friends and family who share similar financial goals.
6. Unexpected Expenses and Emergencies: Financial setbacks like medical emergencies, car repairs, or job loss can derail your savings progress and force you to dip into your savings or accumulate debt. Overcoming: Build an emergency fund to cover 3-6 months' worth of living expenses, so you're prepared for unforeseen circumstances. Make regular contributions to this fund until you reach your target amount. Consider purchasing insurance policies like health insurance, car insurance, and disability insurance to mitigate the financial impact of unexpected events.
7. Psychological Barriers: Deep-seated beliefs and emotions about money inherited from childhood or past experiences can influence your financial behavior. Fear of failure, scarcity mindset, or feelings of unworthiness can sabotage your efforts to save and invest. Overcoming: Practice mindfulness and self-awareness to identify and challenge limiting beliefs about money. Cultivate a positive money mindset by focusing on abundance rather than scarcity. Surround yourself with positive influences and seek support from a financial advisor or therapist if necessary.

By addressing these challenges with proactive strategies and a mindset geared towards long-term financial success, you can overcome obstacles to saving money and ultimately achieve financial freedom. Remember that it's a journey, and progress may come in small steps, but every step forward brings you closer to your goals.

Joined up with a group of random people last night and ended up playing a couple of drops with them. None of us used a mic, only pings, but every mission was the same.
We would drop with a wide variety of weapons and ordnance. Hardly ever picking the same thing as another teammate.
Everyone would stick together, rarely going off on their own. Supplying cover for their team. Picking up every sample they came across and clearing every objective on the map. We would get in and out with few casualties.
Some of the best synergy I've had with a bunch of random people. Especially without mics.

｢White Winter Hymnal｣
Namesake: White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes
Type: Natural Non-Humanoid, Long-Distance
Appearance: ｢White Winter Hymnal appears looking like a white billowing octopus with its web stretched out and is relatively soft looking. It has a humanoid head with purple striped eyes with no mouth, nose, or ears. Under the web is a pair of white humanoid legs. It’s 2 meters in height( or about 6.5 ft.)
Ability: [Falling in the Snow] ｢White Winter Hymnal｣ has the ability to go up high and stretch its web out to a 30 to 80 meter radius to the ground, covering the area. Everything in the area that is covered takes on a solid white appearance to where you can’t distinct if something ends or begins. If anything physically touches another object both surfaces turn red. Any liquid in the area is always red and turns the surfaces it touches red. The user or anything on them before the area is whitened does not affect the environment or objects in the area, but if they take off a jacket for example and stop touching it the jacket will affect the environment. Stand users can not walk out of the whitened area. ｢White Winter Hymnal｣ also can change the size of the radius slowly and if the area is less then a 40 meter radius it can move the area slowly too. The affect of the stand lasts till the stand is told to release the area or the user is killed.
[Shield] ｢White Winter Hymnal｣ is incredibly resilient when it’s not widely stretched out. This allows the user to use ｢White Winter Hymnal｣ as a shield by just having it stretch out flatly in front of what it’s protecting, usually the user.
Stats: Power: E Speed: C Range: B Durability: A Precision: C Potential: B
User: Wicker Smith is a tour guide in New Orleans, Louisiana and is a friend and right hand man of ????, the user of ｢I Have No Mouth｣ and ｢I Must Scream｣. Wicker’s mother died from a suicide when he was 10, unable to take care of Wicker and drowning in feelings of disappointment, she decided to drown herself in the bath. Wicker’s newfound resentment manifested his stand (sometimes when he is feeling overwhelmed he will put music on and cover himself in his stand till he feels better). Once he was older and he figured out what his stand could do he always kept a knife, or a gun if he could, with him. He met ???? at a graveyard and promised Wicker he could eventually bring back his mom one day. Wicker has been by his side since.
If you have questions about it please ask me, I would love to answer them!

Hello all. I (24M -ORM) am writing to organize my thoughts and to get some advice on my next steps. I was considering applying this upcoming cycle and had everything prepared- LORs, PS, and committee letters. I sit at a cGPA of 3.4 and a sGPA of 3.2 on the East Coast in the DMV area. I have about 3000 clinical hours combined as a ortho scribe, COVID tester, and hospital volunteer. 100 hours research under a clinical psych professor. 500 hours non-clinical hours as a summer school Teacher's Aide and Justice Arts volunteer transcriber.
However, my hopes were dashed by my MCAT retake --4/13 : 491. Initially, I took the MCAT back in June 2023 and got a 490.
My FLs (FL1-5) in prep for my retake were much better about 500, 501, 505, 506, 504 respectively. I'll chalk it up to testing anxiety or something but man - I don't know what to do. I also did Anki and Uplanet. I was studying from Dec 2023 - March 2024, about 12 hrs /week while working as scribe 20 hrs/week.
My questions are: Should I postpone my application and opt for another gap year - I graduated from undergrad back in Dec 2022. Biology and Psych double degree B.S.
What should I do in the gap year - try the MCAT again for the 3rd time? Would schools look at the 3rd attempt differently?
Can I even become a doctor? I'm at a still of disbelief from the score release and experiencing a lot of neuroticism. My family are hesitant in giving me any more support as I "wasted time and money" for nothing. They are more on pushing me to change careers to whatever I can to make money.
Sorry for the long post. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
TLDR: 2nd MCAT score bad, should I do another gap year (will be 2nd gap year) for MCAT again? Or reconsider career?

It was summer. He needed money to pay for school next year. He decided to get a job. He needed to apply to different places. He first made a resume. He then made a cover letter. He walked around his neighborhood.

So I missed a step and fell forward on some stairs at a hospital today and the stairs have sharp edges and I landed on the corner of the stairs with my knee with most of my body weight and it was really painful for a while and I just had to sit there after getting up for few minutes it was that painful. I didn’t realise I was bleeding through my trousers as I thought I’m just gonna have a nasty bruise from this and I just got some antiseptic wipe and put a plaster on it after I’ve realised there is a cut.
Now I’m wondering what is the best way for it to heal? Walking up and down the stairs hurts my knee pretty badly and fires up the area of the cut and the cut under the plaster feels tingly and sore all the time, more so than any cut I’ve had. It sort of reminds me of a knife cut but it’s all purple on the rim of the cut and just a sharp red line where it’s cut. It’s slightly painful even resting. Not sure what to do because it doesn’t seem serious and I don’t want to be left with an ugly scar. I’m not sure if the cut is deep enough for me to do anything else than just keep it clean and cover with a plaster. But my knee is more painful than I would anticipate for quite a small cut (probably 2.5cm across, probs 1-1.5mm deep )
Any advice would be appreciated :)

I've gotten to a point where customizing my cover letter and filling out forms is just mechanical. I care about being thorough and giving the company what they want in a cover letter, but there's no feeling in it for me anymore. It reminds me of what I've read in memoirs of human traffiking survivors. I am definitely better off than a traffiking survivor in many ways, but my mental and emotional health are right there.

I'm looking to run my first tournament on a course that I just help expand to 18 holes. It would be ideal if we could raise some money for tee pads (no pads currently), but I can't seem to find a breakdown for how the players fees cover everything. Let's just assume this is a AM only event to make answer easier. I know about all the PDGA fees (sanction, ins, per player, non-pdga), what I want to know is how to split up the net. 85% goes to packs and payouts (15% to the club/fundraiser?). Am I right that if I have 72 players at $40 entry free, minus PDGA, 15% is $396 for the fundraiser, and the 85% ($2244) is for packs and payouts? Thanks

Genocide looked to the sky. He thought of his mentor. The one who had saved him. He remembered his childhood. How powerless he was. He remembered the anger. He never wanted to hurt anybody. He thought of all the times he showed compassion. How much they hurt him for it. He saw the world before him, a graveyard. Humans. People that were supposed to be made in the image of some divine creator. They were but maggots feasting upon his remains. They ate away at his very being until nothing human remained. His thoughts were no longer his own. He had no joys in life that mattered. He hated humanity more than he could love anything about himself. He remember his first killing spree. Being gunned down by police. Left for dead. He remembered a hooded figure moving towards him. Getting closer the more he neared his death. He saw its pale face. Its impossibly black eyes. It was a man. This figure in question appeared to be of Japanese nationality with long, straight, loose hair. It emanated extreme malice. It offered him a choice. A purpose. Power. He thought the figure a reaper but it identified itself as Amakusa Masataka. Masataka guided him on how to kill and gave him specific locations to kill people in. In a sense, he became a hitman for quotas of people. He inquired what Masataka was. The presence of evil, his ability to appear and disappear at will, how he could control what people could see him and what people couldn't. While vague, years of killing for this being offered some insight. Amakusa Masataka belonged to a group of people not of this world. His people had been corrupted by a dark force long ago and had aligned themselves with the warlord who had subjugated their version of Japan. Their dark high priest assisted the warlord along with two others. These four rulers in turn served a larger order. The four were tasked with bringing about the end of the current world as an act of retribution for some fallen deity. Masataka's people acted as covert operatives for this empire. They were feared across the land and were collectively referred to as "Shinigami". An agent of the coming apocalypse, a servant of evil possessed by the will of those gods of death, Genocide would walk the earth.
Genocide stepped toward the station. A police cruiser rammed into him. He pulled out a knife and stabbed the hood of the car. The inhuman force of the knife created sparks which burst the engine into flames. The car crashed into a streetlight and exploded. A second cruiser neared the scene. No way a man could have done this. Yet still, out of the fires Genocide strode forth. It set upon the second vehicle, shooting out it's tires while jumping 9 feet into the air. The car tries to reverse but crashes into a wall. Genocide lands on the hood and kicks through the front window. Glass shatters under its boot, blinding the two officers inside. Genocide shoots one of the officers with a shotgun, killing him. The second officer in the passenger seat readies his pistol and takes aim. Only two shots fired, both directed at Genocide's head. It casually cocks its neck to avoid them. Then it grabs the officer's arm, breaking it. Genocide uses its free hand to grab the officer's head and bangs it into the dashboard no less than 5 times. The skull is shattered on the final impact. Genocide jumps off the car and continues on his mission.
Detective Evans speaks through a megaphone," This is your first and final warning. Stand down or we will use any and all means at our disposal to put you down." Genocide dropped its shotgun and raised its hands. A group of five SWAT team members rushed out the station, surrounding Genocide with riot shields. An officer accompanies them, edging behind the figure to apply handcuffs. Suddenly, Genocide springs to life , grabbing the officer behind him. He flips the officer over his head, slamming him into the pavement at his feet. Then Genocide stomps his head causing it to burst. Genocide drops a flash bomb from his coat sleeve, blinding the SWAT team as he draws his knife. He drives it into one SWAT member, the knife puncturing the shield and piercing his chest. Genocide kicks the corpse away withdrawing his knife. He goes to another, this time using the end of his boot toe in a rising kick to disarm their shield. He grabs them by the throat and drives the knife slowly into their eye socket. Another is tackled to the ground and beaten to death despite still being under the shield. Another is picked up and thrown into the fires still burning from the first auto incident. In no time, Genocide stood before an indistinguishable mass of gore, blood streaking across his black leather outfit. He laughed" So this is all you can give me. I'm not entertained." Officers took aim from the station windows, and snipers did so from other rooftops. Genocide laughed maniacally as he was rained down upon from all sides by a hailstorm of bullets. His body convulsed, but he did not fall. Moments more and he was on his knees. Still though, their efforts were futile. Gracia looked out and saw a black mist coalescing around the man in black. His blood. Blood erupted from his body only to transform into this dark mist that reentered his wounds. Genocide screamed. No. It was just an elevated pitch in his laughter. Optimism failed everyone yet again. Gracia saw Genocide holding something in his right hand. She could only make out a beeping red light. Genocide pushed the button triggering the carefully concealed explosives he laid in preparation for this event. C4 explosives went off in all the places he saw fit. The sniping posts he couldn't reach. The assault of lead lightened. Then Genocide drew an RPG from...somewhere. He collected himself and fired at the station's entrance. The explosion shook the station. From inside, the lights began to flicker. Communications were down on all fronts. Had he modified the rocket with some type of EMP? Not good. Amisdst the confusion Genocide entered using smoke bombs to mask his presence. Moving like a shadow, he killed everyone in the lobby silently with his knife. He made his way to the holding cells. Still they chanted. Still they praised. Still they raved for the arrival of genocide. Genocide shot the lock opening the cell. Jim Jimenez walked out and bowed before his master. Genocide smiled. He couldn't have imagined how proficient he had gotten with possession. Well, not quite possession. He had known of the Shinigami's ability to share their thoughts and emotions with humans. Shinigami like his mentor were ancient. They had so many years of memories, such strong a hatred for life that they overwhelmed the personality of the victim. The victim sees themselves as one of them. Shinigami can't force the will of the victim, so they find those who are already similar to them in some way. Genocide found the collective universal distrust of police to be a prime sentiment to capitalize on. He armed the inmates, infecting them with samples of his own dark essence.One particular inmate caught Genocide's eye. He knew the man's work. An arsonist. The one whom he recalls was responsible for blowing up his first car way back in high school. Rather than a standard firearm, Genocide gave the man a random assortment of grenades containing a special surprise. Genocide showed them visions of anarchy, of sending a message to a society that used and disregarded them. While this was also true of how he felt, years of living in darkness had changed him. He needed no purpose. No end goal. No justification. He just wanted to watch the world burn.
Genocide's small army broke off to engage several different wings of the station. Genocide went to the security room. He found Wayne, his informant, playing some FPS on one of the monitors. Wayne took of his headphones and asked," You kill everyone yet?" Genocide responded," No. You should get going before that happens. Your life becomes fair game if I run out of pigs to cook." Wayne clapped his hands, "Aight, GC my man, say less." He packed his things and left. Genocide drew a twin pair of handguns and laid waste to the station. He followed a group that took cover in the men's restroom. Kicking open multiple stalls he was surprised to find...nothing. Where had they gone? He turned around and saw his mentor, Masataka, smiling at him. It looked like him. Long, dark hair, black clothing, and soulless, empty eyes. But it wasn't. It was Genocide's own reflection in the mirror. Genocide smiled. He didn't notice the changes at first. They must have happened gradually. Subconsciously. From the final stall, an officer sprung into action, rushing Genocide, hitting him point blank with a shockgun round. Genocide felt the tingling sensation electrifying his body and grew numb. In spite of the pain, he took a single step. Then, another. He came within striking range of the officer and snatched the shockgun. Two more officers erupted from another stall, battering him with baton strikes. Genocide felt nothing. He clutched the shockgun in his hand like a bat and went to work pulverizing his attackers. An officer kicked in the bathroom door, a woman holding a pistol. She fired multiple times to no effect. Genocide stood covered in blood. He even let her reload. Twice. He wanted to see her despair. Her hopelessness. He walked towards her, shrugging off bullets as they pierced his body. His wounds healed nigh instantly due to the dark essence he had been imbued with. He held her face with both hands, lifting her body off the ground. As she screamed, he used her head to shatter the restroom mirror, running down the full length of it while smashing her into it at several points. He dropped the remains of what he held, washed his hands with soap, dried them, then exited the restroom.
The inmates that rallied for the cause of genocide attacked the station. Fortunately, they were nowhere near Genocide in terms of power and only carried one type of firearm each. They shared his healing ability but could be killed quite easily. Gracia encountered a sniper on the end or a west wing hallway. Other officers waited behind corners unable to get close. Gracia noticed the faulty lighting. In this hallway, the lights flickered in intervals of 3 seconds. Finding a pattern and timing her movements, she rushed the sniper at the exact moment the lights went out. Running the length of the hall, Gracia zigzagged, dodging the sniper inmate's bullets. She jumped on a wall, ran 3 feet on it, then kicked off it, pouncing on the assailant. She fired five shots into him, making sure to hit the brain and the heart. Two severe injuries that were impossible for Shinigami essence to heal simultaneously. Elsewhere, Evans took on another escaped inmate. A vehicular arsonist named Carson. Carson had a bag filled with an assortment of different grenades and was happily giving them out like candy on Halloween. "A flash bang here, a bit of tear gas there. Oh. Wait! Was that an ice grenade? Did the explosion freeze your leg to the floor? Whoops. Maybe a fire grenade will melt that for you. Hold on let me get one fore you," Carson rambled gleefully. Evans looked at the carnage before him. Officers burning. Officers partially frozen in blocks of ice. He took a breath and aimed his wristgun. He steadied his right forearm. Carson readied to throw a random grenade. Evans shot it the moment it left Carson's hand. The grenade exploded directly in front of Carson. Both Evans and Carson looked at each other in shock. Confetti. A party grenade? Carson quickly fumbled for another but was tackled and restrained by several officers. Meanwhile in the South wing, Lary had some colleagues set a trap for another shotgun toting inmate. He had them bait the inmate and flee. Giving chase he turned a corner and ran straight into Lary's fist. The inmate recovered and motioned to shoot Lary. "Let's tango. " Lary gave the code word. Nearby officers activated a device. A signal jammer of sorts. The inmate shoved the barrel of his gun into Lary's gut and pulled the trigger. Nothing. The special signal jammer in question was designed for firearms. It was a last resort as it left officers just as defenseless. Lary was having fun. He boxed the inmate in hand to hand combat. Despite the inmate's enhanced strength, Lary's technique pulled through. Lary ducked under one of the inmate's wide punches and did some type of rising uppercut where he jumped off the ground while spinning. One of the other officers whispered" The rising dragon." Lary smiled giving a thumbs up" Yeah, it was a rising dragon uppercut. Saw it in one O my kid's vidya games. Thought I'd try it out while I'm jacked on adrenaline".
Jim Jimenez looked long and hard at himself in the mirror. He was in the women's restroom. Some brainless woman had broken the men's restroom mirror with her face. For the first time in a long while Jim could think clearly. He was becoming sane. At the least he was no longer a raving lunatic. The life essence of the dark gods had healed the wounds to both his body and his mind. He saw his face, his scraggly dirty beard. He found a razor and shaved. He trimmed his beard somewhat. He liked it. He washed his hair. It fell down his face like silk, no longer greasy. His bloodshot eyes once burning with crazed intensity had cooled. He blinked. Just for a second, he saw the man known as Genocide. The man that attacked him. The one that killed him and gave him new life. The drug dealers. The police. They were all the same in his eyes now. They were all to blame for the world being what it is. Jim wanted to hate them. He wanted to take revenge, but he felt nothing. It didn't matter. He knew he was wronged, could logically justify acting against them, but he just didn't care anymore. About anything. He was finally free. Sensing his presence was no longer needed here, Jim vanished into the night. He needed to find someone who had had the answers he needed. Himself. Who had he been? Who was he now? Who could he become? Where was he going? So many questions to ponder indefinitely. So much time left in the rest of his life.
Genocide ran down the station's halls raining hailstorms of bullets upon its occupants. He had a handgun in each hand as well as a wristgun on each wrist. This effectively gave him 4 separate firearms that he could use simultaneously. Lary regrouped with Gracia, Evans, and a handful of others. They radioed all surviving officers near Genocide to flee to the roof. This plan had been set in motion days before the assault and had been kept hidden from most of the force. The plan involved scheduling flights for several helicopters to arrive at some point after Genocide arrived. There would be no way for him to prepare for them and pre-scheduling their arrival ensured they arrived regardless of if they were called or not. Lary and the others set about preparing the second jamming device. Genocide stood among a hallway of bodies. He saw one man clinging to life trying to crawl away. He decided on trying that other thing he saw his master do. He grabbed the dying man and pinned him to the wall. Slowly he drove a knife into his chest. As the man's life slipped away, something else entered his body. Genocide channeled a small amount of his essence into the vessel. He had steadily done this with other casualties around the station whose bodies were somewhat salvageable. He dropped the body he was holding and looked upon the others. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his eyed were black, both sclera and iris. The scene before him changed. Genocide had a vision. He saw a dead gray wasteland littered with bodies. These people however weren't cops and wore traditional Japanese attire. In his hand wasn't a gun or knife but a short sickle akin to a farming tool. He heard a dark voice call out to him. Slowly, the corpses around him began to rise, now mere puppets bound eternally to their master's whim. The bodies sold to the reaper who had claimed their lives. Genocide's vision ended. His eyes had returned normal. Around him, dead cops began to rise. His dark essence had entered their bodies and reanimated them. He sent his dead army to attack the officers fleeing to the roof of the station. These zombies swarmed the stairwell giving chase to the few survivors. There were five of them. They had two flights of stairs to climb and a horde of their former colleagues close behind them. One officer tripped and was set upon by the horde. The zombies didn't bite them but held them firmly in place. The other four officers stared down wondering what to do. They could hear Genocide chuckling. They could hear humming. They could feel the temperature rising. Their colleague and the two zombies holding him were hit by an enormous green fireball. Genocide had fired a Magnum Opus and had charged the bullet to level 3. The Magnum Opus was simply a magnum that shot fireballs, with bullets that could be charged by holding down the trigger. It had three levels of charges. Level 1 was a small reddish ball of plasma. Level 2 was slightly larger and yellow. Level 3 was the maximum charge and resulted in a large slow moving green blast of energy. The officer was ignited and Genocide watched gleefully as the force of the blast sent him flying through a wall. The four officers continued up firing occasionally to slow down the zombies. Soon they made it to a door leading to the roof. Before one officer could reach it, he was sniped by Genocide, a bullet to the head killing him instantly. The remaining three made it out. They regrouped with the others already there, 12 in total, including Lary, Evans, and Gracia. This would be their final stand. They just had to hold out until Genocide made it up there. They just had to keep Genocide occupied until the helicopters arrived. Genocide slowly ascended the stairs behind his horde. On the roof, the remaining survivors faced off against waves of the undead. Evans recognized the attackers. These zombies were being controlled by nanomachines. He heard the stories of several weapons encountered by soldiers on the battlefield. These creatures were called Metaldeads as they were reanimated via machines. They had been officially banned by most of the worlds' governments for being unethical. However, this did not stop the technology from being spread still between shady organizations, terrorists, etc. Evans wondered how Genocide got this form of nanotechnology. Evans long speculated that the dark essence used by most of the killers they encountered was a a form of nanotech however it was different from anything else he had seen or heard about. The dark essence seemed to be an amalgamation of other types of nanotech. Evans had to save his inquiries for later. He reloaded his wristgun and took aim at the approaching group of Metaldeads. Gracia steadied her handgun and shot two Metaldeads in the head. From the single door countless arms seemed to spill forth from the darkness. The other officers took turns firing in intervals. this allowed them to create a steady stream of fire where no more that three guns needed to be reloaded at once. The horde seemed to thin out over time as if they were making progress. In actuality, the Metaldeads were just making room for Genocide to enter. Genocide exploded in a sprint from the door. Everyone fired upon the killer. Genocide had now chosen a wrist mounted mini flamethrower to use as his weapon. He stormed past the oncoming bullets taking some damage, but refused to slow down. He unleashed a stream of fire that caught five of the officers in one fell swoop. Gracia fired five rounds into Genocide's face. He stumbled back. Lary took the chance to fire several mine gun bullets at Genocide's feet. The mines quickly detected his movement and exploded. In seconds, Genocide was on his back.
Staring at the night sky Genocide saw the moon. He reached for it. He called for the darkness to give him more power. His wounds began healing. In the sky he could hear the whirl of propellers. There were six helicopters in total. The first two had evacuated the survivors while the others stayed to engage Genocide. Genocide got up and unstrapped the sniper rifle from his back. He stood before the searchlights as a black silhouette, cornered but unwilling to back down. Lary stared down at him smiling. "Okay!" He shouted, "Let's Tango!" Upon this declaration the second jamming device was activated. Now, isolated on the roof, Genocide's guns couldn't be fired and the helicopters were out of range of the device. Now Genocide stood like a sitting duck. A helicopter fired a rocket. Genocide side stepped and grabbed it. He turned his body redirecting the rocket to hit another helicopter. As it exploded Genocide drew his knife and threw it at another helicopter. Behind the knife was such force that it shattered the helicopter window's glass, embedding itself in the pilot. This helicopter too went down where it exploded. "Holy clucknuggets!Did you see that!?" Lary said dumbfounded. Evans looked out the helicopter door he was in jaw open in shock. "There's no way." He collected himself quickly and radioed the remaining two helicopters to keep moving and to use their machineguns as much as possible. The helicopters reigned down upon Genocide tearing apart his body. Shreds of leather and darkened blood sprayed across the pavement of the roof. Gracia watched as Genocide's body was destroyed repeatedly as it tried to heal. Surely he had to stop at some point. After 10 minutes the helicopters had exhausted their cache of ammunition and soldiers opted to fire their own rifles and occasionally throw grenades. After about six minutes, they too had run out of bullets. Genocide stood unfazed. He had long since healed himself and now appeared intangible with gunfire seeming to pass through his body. His coat once ripped , now appeared whole though on closer inspection seemed to writhe. Gracia looked in horror as she remembered the tales her adopted father had told her. Tales he had in turn heard from his predecessors. Every so often officers had reported encounters with ghost like beings cloaked in a cloud of living dark mist. The beings were rumored to be responsible for the deaths of multiple people ranging from scientists, veterans, mafia, politicians, etc. They were seen near such crime scenes and even more shockingly appeared around several sites where suicides were committed. These beings were reportedly impervious to bullets and filled anyone who got near with an impending sense of dread. If Genocide was connected to them or somehow turning into one , there was little chance they would be able to defeat him. Gracia's fears were confirmed when she saw that Genocide's leather coat had been destroyed and he had replaced it with the dark mist coalescing from his own spilled blood. The dark mist, swirling, grew larger and several tendrils sprouted out from it. Gracia could briefly make out a figure standing next to Genocide. A hooded figure cloaked in the same black substance. The figure stared up at her with soulless, blackened eyes which seemed to beckon her to jump from the aircraft she was standing in. Compelling her to give in to the death that plagued the earth. Genocide kneeled to his master. The Shinigami, Masataka stared down at his disciple. "You have done a great service to us. Even now the sealed god stirs in its slumber. Its...Awakening will soon be upon us. It calls out for war. It begs for famine. It longs to continue its conquest. We are the death it so desires. The death that is necessary for this civilization to grow. Use the power that I have bestowed upon you. Finish the mission as you see fit." The Shinigami vanished and Genocide stood.Genocide stared at his hands. He remembered the first killing spree. He was on a bus. It stopped. A woman got on the bus and walked to the back smiling as she passed him. Something about her eyes unnerved him. They were so bright but something dark reflected inside them. He ignored the thought and put in his headphones. In minutes he had dozed off. He jumped awake. He looked around and froze in panic. All around him, everyone had been hacked to pieces. He saw the driver, actively being stabbed by a masked assailant. The mask, painted white with black eyeholes, stared back at him. It raised a finger over where its lips would be. Even under the expressionless visage, he could feel that same smile. He ran home that morning. He went to his room to find it destroyed. His posters, his computer, his tv, everything, had been ruined. He turned around and saw a man at the end of the hallway holding a sledge hammer. "The hell you been, boy?", his stepdad sneered. The man dropped his hammer and walked closer, veins pulsing with rage. He tried to explain how his car had caught fire forcing him to walk 4 miles to the nearest bus stop, but the man's fist was faster than his words. "Boy!Answer me when I talk to you!!" the man says as he backhands the taste out of the would be Genocide's mouth. He took that beating for several minutes before being left to stare at his ransacked room. He hated how his stepdad went out of his way to destroy the things he loved. Soon, another set of footsteps could be heard. It was his mother standing behind his locked door. She didn't knock, or say anything. She just stood there, doing nothing as always. He never knew if she came to talk to him or apologize. All he knew was that she could never bring herself to speak to or even acknowledge him. Maybe out of guilt or perhaps shame. A year or two later after he had had enough he ran away from home. Living out on the streets alone, without friends, or family, he would embark on countless killing sprees. These killings weren't of his own volition however. He was coerced by some corrupt officers from The Unit. They made him kill on their behalf. Sometimes they were protesters, sometimes they were drug dealers, other times, petty criminals they couldn't be bothered to process. It was routine for him to be used to kill entire houses of drug riddled addicts. During one such venture he entered a drug den, killing the dealer as instructed. He took out several junkies before turning to leave. A woman who survived her injuries clung to his heel begging him to stop. Looking down he aimed the handgun he was carrying at her head of long disheveled brown hair and fired. Feeling nothing, he kicked her body aside like trash when it hit him. Her face. This woman had been his mother. What was she doing in a place like this? He felt a shock of emotion. He wondered if she had always been like this, or had she changed after he left. He never made amends, but decided to stop killing from then on. The unit did not like that. Once it became apparent that he was no longer of use to them they started a manhunt to apprehend him with lethal force. They found him. They killed him. But he survived.
He remembered the girl on the bus. He remembered her eyes. Those of a sadistic killer. Still there was something else inside them. Something faint but deeper. So. Much. Sadness. Just like him. He felt the hatred begin to spread. His purpose, he decided, was to make all humans rot in the hell they created for him.
These people, he thought to himself, these living diseases, all needed to die. Their struggles, their problems, they spread like cancer to others. The only cure for humanity's sin, its collective wrongdoings, was genocide.
Around him, dark tendrils continued to form and expand, spinning in a vortex. Genocide pulled out two pistols. He squeezed the triggers to no effect. "As I see fit, huh? Hehe." He squeezed both guns in his hands, breaking them into pieces. He concentrated. In his hands, two more guns materialized now completely black due to being forged from the dark essence. Forged by his will. Immune to the jamming device that shut down conventional firearms. He raised his arms at each remaining helicopter and opened fire. Countless tendrils whipped out and slashed at his targets joining the dark essence bullets. It was chaos. Dark tendrils and bullets tore through every direction as Genocide spun and swirled around in 360 degrees firing randomly with purpose. A tendril pierced Gracia's right arm, another, her abdomen. She was however, fortunate, as the other passengers of her helicopter were dismembered. She barely had time to jump from the vehicle before it crashed. She fell 2 yards onto solid concrete. She felt immense pain as her right shoulder shattered on impact. She looked up to see Genocide's blade like appendages ripping through the other escape helicopters. She rolled onto her back and tried to steady herself. Within seconds her body began to repair itself. The nanocells inside her had saved her life but were now depleted. She would need another supplement lest she receive another fatal injury. The standard nanocells she and the others had were much less potent than those of the killers they faced. In truth, they had only minimal strength boosts being able to lift 5-8 more pounds than before and healing being limited to one or two fatal injuries so long as death didn't occur instantly. Gracia blacked out. She awoke the next morning in a hospital. There the doctors refilled her nanocells. She learned that the station had been left in ruins. Genocide had detonated some type of minature nuke following his rampage. He always blew up the stations as if to send a message. Gracia looked out the window thinking about why she became a cop. Twice her family had been murdered by them. Her biological family had been killed in an on record drug raid committed by a group of corrupt officers called The Unit. She had been adopted by another officer that arrived at the scene who found her as a child hiding in a closed. Sadly, he too was killed for trying to expose the activities of The Unit. Gracia joined the force to avenge both losses and bring justice to the killers that disguised themselves as normal people. Law enforcement was neither good, nor bad. It depended upon the people that made it up. In the dying corrupt world Gracia lived in, she vowed to be a beacon of light. Evans laid in a bed adjacent to Lary. "That damn Genocide's somethin else in' he?Like the stories you told us were understatements. That man could legit not die at this point in the story. Like he has friggin plot armor or somthin.'' Evans cut him off" I get it. We all got our asses handed to us. But did you see that ..thing that appeared next to him. Right before he created that black vortex that wiped us out. That must have something to do with his power. Maybe there's a still a way to stop him."Lary chimed in," That fella looked like he was on the way to a black metal concert wit all the black facepaint he was wearin' Creeped me out to be honest." As the survivors mulled over their predicament, the cycle of evil continued to spread elsewhere.
Budley flips through the pages of a magazine. He checks his watch. He looks around the gas station and doesn't see any customers. Seizing the opportunity, he puts in his headphones and begins playing an imaginary guitar as he jams to a progressive deathcore album. Oblivious to the screams coming from outside, the store clerk moves on to thumping two candy bars on the counter to simulate drums. Budley sees that his shift has ended and begins locking up the store. He sweeps the aisles and jumps as a shadow appears behind him. He turns and sees a well groomed bearded man dressed in a black hoodie, black shirt, and black and gray camo pants. The man holds out his hand and smiles. Budley rings up the pack of nicotine substitute gum. "Tryin to kick the habit huh?" Budley asks. The man replies, "Somethin like that. Gotta get my priorities back in check. Focus on the things that really matter. That damn KonCreep's a hell of a band aren't they?" He nods to the playlist on Budley's phone. "Yeah, they're killer. just got into them a month back." Budley answers. "You know, I'm something of a musician myself. Maybe you'll hear of me on the news someday." Jim Jimenez says as he sees himself out. He walks to the back of the building and passes an ominous form of graffiti. A woman lays unmoving and above her, written on concrete in red is a message that simply says "Genocide Reigns".

A company I interviewed with last year recently opened their applications for a new hiring cycle. For context, I completed 4/5 rounds and was cut before the final round. I didn't receive direct feedback about why I was cut. I think it was lack of preparation because I'd never been through an interview structure like they had and was very nervous in the 4th round because it was with one of the Csuite execs.
I don't think it would hurt to apply again given I've added new skills to my resume and have completed my masters degree in the time thats passed. I'm wondering if I should address it in the cover letter (and any tips how to do so)?

context: graduated with an art history degree in 2017, from a college with a pretty good reputation in the field. during undergrad, worked some local internships.
in 2018, i had a seasonal internship at a major museum, and then worked as a gallery assistant at a small gallery for the latter half of the year, both in NY.
in 2019 i moved states, to a place without much of an “art scene” (at least by NY standards) but i did manage to get an “art job”, which i stayed at until 2021 when the company folded. no name recognition, but i would say my duties there were auction house-adjacent.
in 2022, i moved back to NY, got a full-time 9-5 job as a copyeditor (not in a glamorous industry), and started grad school for art history (part time). i should be done fall 2025.
i’ve been reticent to apply to many art jobs (museums, galleries, artist foundations, and nonprofit orgs) because it would be a huge pay cut but i’m finally in a financial place where i can. i’ve had zero responses though, even for like, internships paying $16/hr. i know this isn’t unusual, but i swear that in 2018 i would at least get some initial responses from similar jobs.
i worry that my current job is working against me because it’s not “relevant”, even though some of the skills overlap with the jobs i’m applying for.
should i leave it off my resume? not mention it at all in my cover letters? as it is, i keep the description very brief and emphasize the skills that are relevant. i’m worried that a 3-year employment gap could also work against me.
in theory, i’m not above working my way back up from minimum wage part-time internships and the like. i’ve done it before and got by supplementing with hospitality jobs. but i’m approaching 30, need health insurance, and don’t know how many more years of working 6-7 days a week i have in me.

timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/7L7HJtO
additional photos from previous listing: https://imgur.com/a/urwLv0k
paypal FF, zelle, venmo. More pics upon request. Not looking for trades unless TV is skewed in my favor!!! Please be patient with shipping as I work 12's so need to hit USPS on an off day. All items include complimentary golden retriever fur

• Kac skyscraper mount - shows some signs of use but in good shape overall $230
  
• MK12 MOD H URX4 upper - "cloneish" build of this - will probably regret getting rid of this but don't see myself buying a can for it in the near future. Received in trade, previous owner said the barrel has ~200 rounds through, all other parts were either new or low salt. I never put rounds through it, details are as follows
  
  • Cerro Forge Keyhole upper
  • KAC URX 4 13”
  • Bison Armory 16” SPR, bead blasted, bedded/shimmed by D.Wilson
  • MK12 gas block, Allen Engineering CollaBrake
  • Work done by D.Wilson: assembly and URX install, brake timed and installed with Rocksett, added knurled gas block screws, receiver face lapped, barrel feedramps polished, barrel shimmed and bedded to receiver, totaling ~$180 (not to mention the time/hassle spent hunting down parts). Asking what it was originally listed for - $945
• looking to sell locally in the south FL Palm Beach County area.
  
  • LBT wheeled load-out bag. Really sick bomb-proof bag, it is BIG, measures approx 31x23x14. NSW issued, older model (back from LBT's golden era). Easily fits several rifles, helmets, plate carriers, etc. Similar newest revision from LBT retails for around $500-600. Shows some signs of use and has dog hair etc but good shape overall. $70, $50 if you are willing to meet within 10 mins of me because I'm lazy. I've gotten a few quotes for users from the previous listing and they were all $60-110 - if you are willing to cover fees and have this shipped wrapped in heavy duty trashbags we can work something out
• magpul stock (i think this is the sl-k please see pics) - takeoff, never used $35
  

My car's transmission is on the fritz, so it's in the shop and I'm working from home for at least today. Thank goodness I can even work from home, or things would be a lot more complicated. Anyways, that's just a bit of a vent. I've also decided that I might do little lore-esque prechapter bits for some extra flavor. Hope you guys enjoy them! I find them to be fun little thought experiments on how people might perceive the world I've created from within vs from my own perspective. Enjoy some crafting and some romance!
First Previous Next
We know that the spots that are caused by looking at a source of light are, in fact, damage of some sort to the eye. This is confirmed by the spots rapidly disappearing should someone be healed whilst experiencing them. But why? Is there a divinity within light, beyond what our mortal eyes can withstand? Is there some sort of invisible emanation that comes alongside the light that damages us in some way? The discovery of light damaging the eye has opened more questions for me than it has closed.
-Musings on the Relations of Light and Fire, by Jarwic Leftun
\***
Xander carefully opened the door, finding Gabrelle already asleep, and sat down on a chair. Maybe he could get that adaptive camouflage to work right on bright colors. Surely he had some colorful things in his inventory.
He did in fact have a few colorful things in his inventory, and he whiled the rest of the night away making small adjustments to the runic array that was embroidered into the cloth. He was satisfied before dawn, the cloth now performing as well with light colors as it had with darker colors. Now he just needed to make a cloak out of it. He briefly considered coating his armor with the array, but discarded it. There might be times where he’d want to be seen. Besides, a hooded cloak would better break up the outline of his figure, the ripples of fabric, especially if he were to crouch or lay prone, obscuring his outline even more. In little time at all, he had a long, deep hooded cloak of the color shifting, runed cloth in his hands. He stashed it in his inventory for now, as he had no particular need to sneak up on something right now. The rest of the time before dawn he spent silently sitting in the chair he’d chosen, trying to keep his thoughts to a minimum, just daydreaming. Night dreaming? He couldn’t sleep anymore, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try to let his mind wander.
As the dawn came and the sun began to shine through the window of the room, Gabrelle slowly awoke, once more finding Xander sitting in a chair rather than in bed.
“Mmf,” She grunted as she stretched. “Morning, Xander. You got back late.”
“Morning, yourself,” Xander said, turning his head to look at Gabrelle. “Yeah... Yeah, I guess I did.”
“What were you doing, anyway?” She asked, curious. “You didn’t mention that you’d be out late, just that you were going to go to see Valteria at her shop.”
“I uh... went on a date.”
“I knew it! ‘Comparing notes’ was a date!” Gabrelle exclaimed triumphantly.
“It was not!” Xander complained. “But we went to a tavern in the evening and it sort of... turned into a date on the way there.”
“Awhh, that’s so cute,” Gabrelle said. “Did it go well? Is she nice? Did you kiss?”
“I think it went well. We talked a lot about different projects and ideas we had. I also got to meet another [Godsmarked] - he owns the tavern we went to. I think she’s nice. Maybe a little shy. I think she’s gotten used to being treated differently by people. I don’t think she really believed that I wanted to go on a date with her, at first. ...And yes. We kissed.”
“Ooooh, look at you! You’re growing up so fast!” Gabrelle teased.
“Oh hush. I’m older than you!” Xander huffed, then returned to seriousness. “But ah, if I’m going to be dating someone... we need to have a conversation, Gabrelle.”
“We need to stop sleeping together?” Gabrelle quickly deduced before Xander could say it himself.
“Yeah... It doesn’t feel right, even though it’s just platonic between us. I don’t think I would appreciate being in Valteria’s situation and knowing that the person I was seeing was sleeping with someone else at night.”
“Well, I figured this would happen eventually,” Gabrelle said. “Either you or I were bound to find someone eventually. Don’t worry, I’m not upset. Don’t get me wrong, the snuggles were nice, but like I told you a while ago, I don’t have nearly as much trouble sleeping when I’m with the team.”
“Thanks for not being upset, Gabrelle.”
“You know this means you have to start paying for your own room, though, right?”
“Ah, shit, you’re right. I forgot.”
Xander left the room to allow Gabrelle some privacy to get dressed and meandered back down the stairs to see if any other members of the team were already up. Looking around, he spied Graffus eating breakfast at at table and moved to sit with the dwarf.
“Mornin’” Graffus greeted Xander through a mouthful of bread.
“Morning,” Xander greeted back.
“Glad to see you made it back, we were wondering if you’d be out all night,” Graffus told him, after swallowing his bread.
“I was out a bit late, I suppose. I let the time get away from me.” Xander said, not really wanted to be teased again about going out on a date. “So what are you planning to do today?”
“Bah, Frazay has roped me into helping her do research for the drakeling. So reading is what’s in store for me.” Graffus tore himself off another piece of bread from his plate and slathered it with jam. “You going to be going back to that [Tinker] you’ve been spending time with lately?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan. I’m supposed to learn more about converting mana types today, and also help her fix the suit of armor that I wrecked.”
“Welp,” Graffus said, now on his last piece of bread, “I hope ya learn something new. Never had much to do with [Tinker]s – not saying I dislike them, just that I haven’t had much experience with them – so it don’t make much sense to me. Using a hammer is about the only overlap in our professions.”
“I think your hammer is significantly larger than the one most [Tinker]s would use,” Xander chuckled. Thinking about what he should be doing before he headed to Valteria’s, he asked Graffus, “Hey, I might need to buy some monster parts or elemental cores, something like that, for practice. You know where I would go to find stuff like that?”
Graffus shrugged. “Dunno. My guess would be an alchemy and reagents shop. That’s generally what we’ve sold monster parts to that didn’t go to a smith or leatherworker.”
“Thanks, Graffus.”
The two of them chatted for a while longer, catching up on what each other had been doing. Graffus excused himself to finish getting ready for the day, saying he needed to tend to his beard, leaving Xander downstairs. Deciding to be productive and proactive, Xander stood as well and headed out of the inn to find an alchemy shop.
It wasn’t long before he found one, a familiar scene of an eclectic collection of powders, liquids, crystals, and strange organic things floating in jars inside the building. The proprietor was a dwarf, seated at a workbench. They were grinding something into a powder as Xander entered. He received a distracted greeting before the dwarf returned to his work.
Xander wandered about the shop for a few minutes, looking at the various materials throughout the shop. He identified what he thought might be an elemental core, a jagged piece of crystal looking material that seemed to have an inner flame. As for the monster parts in jars, Xander had no idea what was what. He finally felt he’d waited long enough and moved closer to the worktable that the dwarf was still sitting at, working away at the mortar and pestle.
“Excuse me,” Xander said, grabbing the shopkeep’s attention.
“Mm?” The dwarf said questioningly. “Can I help you find something?”
“I was wondering if you had any elemental cores. Something small, I just need one to practice with.”
“Aye, I’ve a few of them around the shop. You want something to practice with? So a relatively weak core, then – not all the small ones are weak. Do you need any particular type?” The dwarf stood up and stretched, moving to one of the shelves.
“Uhm no, just whatever is cost effective, I suppose.”
The alchemist rifled through the various bits and bobs on one of the shelves nearby before producing a small chip of what looked to be a semi-translucent stone. It was tinged slightly yellow with streaks of white. “This here is a chip off a lightning attuned core. Pretty weak, but it does still produce mana.”
Xander could see the dwarf’s arm hair standing up as if from static electicity as he held up the stone. “How much?” He asked.
“Twenty gold.”
Xander shrugged. Twenty gold wasn’t an issue for him anymore, and he didn’t feel like haggling. He always hated haggling. “Sure.” He fished out the coin and handed it over to the dwarf.
The dwarf handed over the stone to Xander and the pop of a static electric shock could be heard as a tiny arc passed between the two of them. The dwarf grunted and shook his hand. “Thanks for the business,” he told Xander. “Anything else you find yourself in need of?”
“Not at the moment, but thanks for asking.” Xander waved goodbye to the dwarf and pocketed the tiny elemental core. He continued down the street in the direction of Valteria’s shop, thinking about how he was going to undo the welding job he’d done on Valteria’s armor. He’d need her to guide his repair efforts.
Xander returned to the inn momentarily to grab one of his golems. He settled on Atlas for now, as it was the most basic of the humanoid forms he’d created. No extra arms or weird feet on him, no sir.
Arriving at the building that contained Valteria’s home and shop, Xander knocked before opening the door. “Morning,” he called out.
“Xander! Hello!” Valteria called out. She was at the same work bench she’d been at yesterday. Jarrett didn’t seem to be in the shop at the moment, as Xander wasn’t able to spot the man.
Commanding Atlas to follow him in and closing the door behind him, Xander started walking towards Valteria. “How’s it going?” He asked.
“Good, it’s going good,” Valteria responded as Xander brought a stool over to her workbench. “How about yourself?”
“Not bad. The upside of not sleeping is that I never struggle in the mornings now. I used to hate waking up.” Xander laughed. “I even ran an errand before I came here! Picked up this.” Xander fished around in his pocket until he found the small chip of elemental core and held it up for Valteria to see.
“Core?” She asked distractedly, staring at Atlas. She tore her eyes away and looked closely at the small crystalline stone. “Lightning attuned?”
“That’s what the [Alchemist] at the shop said,” Xander affirmed. “Said it was a very weak one, but that it did still produce mana.”
“Mmm, a good practice piece, then.”
“I thought it would be, too. Not that I know what to do with it, yet.”
“Well, how about this: I teach you to set the stone and make some conduit, and then you can help me fix my armor. All the glue has turned to dust by now, thank the gods.”
“Sounds fair enough. So, how do mana conduits work?”
“Well, the concept is simple enough. It’s a tube which conducts mana,” Valteria began to explain.
“Mmhm.” Xander nodded along.
“What you need is a setting – usually of silver, as it has good mana conductivity – which will be the first step of conduction, taking the mana from the stone. Simply wrapping the core in silver wire can work well enough, drawing in the mana that the core puts out through its surface, but for a more effecient setting, small holes are usually drilled into the core to set the wire into as well, giving more surface area to draw from.”
“So we care about the mana conductivity of the material, then? That makes sense, I just hadn’t thought about it. I actually did a little experiment with my rune work to test which fillings were the most conductive.”
“Oh really?” Valteria said, interested. “What were your results?”
“Well, gold and silver were high up there in conductivity, and probably make the most sense for someone who has to physically manipulate material without use of a skill – both for a core setting and for inlaying a rune – but I did find that sapphires and rubies were even more efficient at transferring mana than gold and silver.”
“Mmm... interesting. I’ve heard of gemstones being used in very high-grade settings, as well as various other exotic materials. I read an account of one [Mechanist] who used tubes of mercury to conduct mana, though the relative effectiveness compared to silver wasn’t mentioned.” Valteria cleared her throat. “Uhm, now, where was I? Right, basic settings. Once you have your core – or monster organ, if you’re going that route – you connect it to the conduit. Usually, this is also silver wiring. I like to braid several smaller wires together, personally. I find it to be sturdier and hold up to flexing better. From there, it needs to be tied into a device. Which is a topic for tomorrow.” Looking around the shop, Valteria seemed to identify something on one of the shelves nearby. “I have a core that you could watch me set, and then you could try setting your own, if you’d like.”
“That sounds good to me,” Xander said. “I always love to see a master as work,” he added, opting for a little flattery.
“Follow me, then.” Valteria said, standing up from her stool and waving for Xander to follow.
Xander followed Valteria as she walked over to the shelf she’d been looking at earlier and took a palm sized, bright green stone from it. “Nature attuned core,” She explained, holding it for Xander to see. “I’m told it was taken from some kind of moving tree.” Valteria then moved to another worktable, on which were several of what looked to be drill bits to Xander. There was also an apparatus that look like it was designed to hold the bits, which was confirmed for him when Valteria slotted one of the small drill heads into the device. “This thing,” Valteria said, waving the drill a little bit, “is a life saver. I used to have to drill holes with a hand cranked one. Worth every single coin I paid for it to get an enchanted one.” She turned a dial on one side of the handheld device, which Xander was coming to think of as a magic dremel tool, and it began to come to life, the drill bit beginning to spin with a quiet whirring sound.
“Neat.” Xander commented. He watched patiently as Valteria drilled a series of shallow holes in the stone, the distinct screeching of metal on stone echoing through the shop floor. “So where’s Jarrett today?” He asked.
“Oh, he has the day off today. He asked for it about a week ago, not sure what for, though,” Valteria said distractedly. Soon she was finished with the holes she was drilling into the core, and moved to another workbench. “Now we create a setting for the core. This is a fairly simple way of doing it, mind you, but it is effective.”
Xander watched as she took sections of pre-braided silver wire and fitted the ends into the holes she had drilled. Once each hole was filled with a section of wire, Valteria began to pull wire from a spool, wrapping the stone until it was completely covered with silver wire and binding the braided sections to the stone in the process. “There,” she said, setting the stone down on the workbench. “A perfectly serviceable setting."
“So, if I understand correctly, you coat the core in a mana conductive material – the more surface area, the better, hence the holes – to create a setting?”
“Mmhmm,” Valteria said, nodding.
“Seems fairly straighforward. And then you connect the silver wiring that’s wrapped around it to more wiring, and attach that to your device? Why the distance? Why not just connect the setting directly to the device?”
“You absolutely can, if space isn’t an issue. Technically, the connection between the mana battery and the device, even if it’s just a single point with no distance, is still referred to as a conduit, though, so it’s considered a three part creation.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Do you want to try making your own, now? I don’t mind lending you a little wire.”
“Sure, but I should be good on material, I can produce it with my skills. Doesn’t last without a source of mana, but I guess the core itself might provide enough. Think this little chip is a bit small to put holes in, though.”
Xander looked at the small piece of crystal in his hand. If he just need as much contact as possible with a mana conductive material, his best bet would be to embed it into a sapphire or ruby. He decided on ruby, for no particular reason. Still holding the chip of core in his hand, he concentrated on his [Creation] ability. Valteria watched, amazed, as a ruby began to take form and grow around the piece of core until it was completely coated in a thin layer of gemstone.
“So, you can just... make things?” Valteria asked, sounding jealous.
“Well, it costs mana, and anything I make that isn’t provided a source of mana that leaves my person disintegrates in a day, but, yes. I can just make things with my skills. But,” he added, cutting off Valteria’s complaint of unfairness, “I have never received a skill that actually lets me improve a material. Sure, I have runes, which generally makes up the difference, but I don’t have any skills that improve the things I make. So, if you made a mana battery, and I made a mana battery the same way with identical materials, yours is going to be better, I assume, because you have skills that passively improve the things that you make, am I right?”
“Okayyy,” Valteria huffed. “I guess that does make it a little less unfair. But ugh! It would be so nice not having to source materials.” She looked at the ruby with a piece of core set inside it that Xander had made. “Well, I guess that about does it for making a setting... I thought it might have taken you longer to make one. I guess we can move on to fixing my armor even sooner! It’ll be nice to have it up and moving again.”
“Sure, sure, we can do that. Where is it, anyway?” Xander asked, looking around the shop again like he somehow would have missed the eight foot tall suit of armor.
“It’s in a shed behind the house,” Valteria explained. “I have it on a hoist so I can work on it.”
“Ah, that would explain why I haven’t seen it around.”
Exiting the shop, stopping for Valteria to put a small ‘closed’ sign on the door, the two of them made their way around the building, where Xander saw the small shed that presumably held Valteria’s armor. It looked like it could just barely hold the armor and one person – two, if they were comfortable with each other – inside it.
“So this is where the magic happens?” Xander asked.
“If by ‘magic’ you mean maintenance and upgrades, then yes,” Valteria agreed. She opened the door of the shed, which comprised most of the front of the tiny little building, revealing her suit of armor, which was currently hanging from several chains attached to pulleys on the ceiling. Plates of armor were laying strewn about the suite, leaving the joints and inner workings more exposed.
Xander whistled, looking at the inner workings of the suit. He could see gears, cogs, and joints, and throughout the entirety of the armor were running filaments of silver wire, which he assumed were mana conduits running to and from elemental cores and the various mana powered aspects of the suit. “This thing really is impressive. Almost as impressive as the woman who made it,” he said.
Valteria giggled, “Stop it! You’re supposed to be fixing this mess, not flirting with me!”
“Awh, can’t I do both?” Xander asked, trying to sound as saccharine as possible.
“Mmm, I suppose that if you are sufficiently skilled at multitasking, I might allow it,” Valteria said in a mockingly thoughtful tone.
“Well, I just so happen to be an expert, so flirt away I shall,” Xander replied. “Now, how about the beauty in front of me shows me exactly where the other beauty in front of me needs some repairs?”
Valteria sighed at Xander’s antics, but he could see the slight flush in her face. “Well, you welded the wrist joints, elbows, and knees. They aren’t welded all the way round, it’s more like you smoothed over a portion of it like it was wet clay. So if you could just... put it back? Shape it back to how it was, that’s should be all that’s needed.”
“Pretty straightforward,” Xander said, standing behind Valteria as she pointed out each joint. He could see the misshapen parts where he’d slapped a weld onto the metal. He leaned over her and put his hands on the elbow joint that they were closest to and began to shape the metal back to its original form.
“You’re... very close,” Valteria murmured to him as he formed the metal.
“Would you like me not to be?” He asked, carefully.
Valteria was silent for a moment before answering, “No...” quietly.
Xander carefully shifted to be a little closer, but still not quite touching, as he moved on to the wrist joint of the same arm. The process itself was simple, but he was enjoying taking his time. As he finished the wrist, he turned to look at Valteria. He found himself looking right into her eyes, as she was staring back at him. Unable to resist the temptation he leaned in a little closer, gauging Valteria’s reaction. When she, too, leaned towards him, he closed the small gap between them, drawing her into another kiss. Valteria pressed herself against him, the shed hiding them from any prying eyes on the street, and let out a small noise as Xander squeezed her tight. She was breathing a little bit harder than before the kiss as they separated again.
Valteria let out a breath. “You’re… a really good kisser.”
“Yeah?” Xander said, pleased with himself. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
“And you’re a tease, looming over me like that in this tiny little shed,” Valteria continued. “Now you’ve got me all flustered, how am I supposed to work now?” She mock complained.
Xander was glad to see that Valteria was comfortable enough with him to joke like that. “Forgive me,” he said formally, making a deep bow, “How ever can I make it up to the lady?”
“Oh stop it, I will tolerate no bowing and scraping, even in jest,” Valteria said, slapping him lightly on the shoulder, as he was still holding the bow. “You can make it up to me by fixing the rest of these joints! And by taking me out to dinner?” She added, hopefully.
“I think that can be arranged,” Xander said. “Is there anywhere you have in mind? I will admit, I haven’t become very familiar with the local restaurant scene, what with my… dietary restrictions.”
“It doesn’t… make you feel bad to go out to a restaurant, does it?” Valteria asked softly, watching his face for a reaction.
“Nah, don’t worry,” Xander said, waving off the question with one hand. “It doesn’t bother me too much. Sure, I miss the taste of a good cut of steak, but I was never that into food. Eating was more of a thing I did because I had to, so I’m not completely devastated by the loss. And I can still get some vicarious enjoyment out of watching someone else enjoy their food. Really the worst part is awkwardly having to refuse ordering anything,” he said with a laugh.
“Alright, if you say so,” Valteria said, letting out a slight breath of relief. “I was just worried that it might be upsetting to you, is all. I know I would miss eating.” She paused for a moment, something clearly on her mind. “What do you miss? If you don’t mind my asking. I just… well, I’m curious what it’s like for you.”
“Mmm, in a lot of ways, life is still the same, and in other ways, I’m technically doing better than I was before. I’m incredibly resistant to damage now, even without my armor. I do miss sleeping, though. I try to give my mind a rest and just sort of daydream and let my thoughts wander or do some meditation during the nights, but it’s just not the same. Also means I’m the one that pulls guard duty through the night,” he grumbled. “Let’s see, what else, what else. Ah, right. I can’t smell anything. Or taste. I haven’t worked out how to recreate those senses, yet. Though no sense of smell can be handy sometimes, I suppose. I don’t know if you’ve done much merc work – you mentioned being surprised that I’m not just moonlighting – but uh… the smells that you encounter on a battlefield are… unpleasant. To say the least. It was weird not having a sense of touch either, but I’ve resolved that. It’s a little bit different than my previous, natural sense of touch, but I’ve become accustomed to it to the point that I don’t much think about the difference anymore. I think I’ve even got the density of receptors down in certain areas compared to others, so I'm more sensitive in some areas than others now, just like I used to be. I’m still immune to being tickled though, so don’t even think about it – that’s a fight you’ll lose.” Growing a bit more somber, Xander continued on. “I think… the biggest thing I miss is just the feeling that I fit in more. Now I always worry about being different, there’s that nagging fear that anyone I get to know well is going to reject me once they find out what I am. Like I’m secretly lying to everyone around me with this façade I have going on.”
Valteria nodded sadly. “I get that. I’ve been… rejected before, too. At least it happens or not right from the beginning for me. I get to know if they look down on me for being different immediately instead of fearing they might later down the road.”
“Yeah,” Xander said. “People can really suck sometimes. But at least I can just, like, not tell people what I am if I so chose. You, my teammates, and the guild, since it’s on my status sheet, are really the only people who know. I keep it pretty private. You can’t do that, so I think you probably have to deal with a lot worse than I do. Not that I’d want you to hide what or who you are,” he added. “I happen to be quite enamored with who you are,” he said, teasing a smile from Valteria’s sad face.
“Sorry to bring up such a dour topic,” Valteria apologized. “I didn’t think much on it before I asked.”
“No worries,” Xander told her. “Honestly, I think it’s good to be able to talk about it with someone. It’s healthy to be able to get you feelings out there. And it helps that I feel like you understand where I’m coming from with it, though from a slightly different perspective.”
“You’re surprisingly thoughtful sometimes,” Valteria said, only half teasing.
“Only sometimes?” Xander asked with a faux expression of hurt on his face. “By the way, you didn’t react much to my comment about moonlighting as a merc. Do you ever go on contracts?”
Valteria shrugged. “I certainly wouldn’t describe myself as a professional mercenary. Moonlighter is an apt descriptor, for me, I think. I have gone on a couple, here and there, mostly on kill contracts that would net me a core or organ that would be useful for my work.”
“Mm, that makes sense. I suppose it could be handy having access to the ability to take contracts that would give you access to specialty materials,” Xander said.
“It’s also good for business,” Valteria explained. “Mercs tend to like to buy from someone who has at least been out on a contract or two before.”
“Ah, that makes sense. What kind of things do you sell to mercenaries, anyways? I saw Jarrett with a crossbow yesterday, but I imagine you make other things, too.”
“Oh all kinds of little things. Portable, flameless heaters for cooking. Water purification sieves. Mm, let’s see… I’ve made a few custom order devices, too. One customer wanted to be able to shoot a jet of flame from their gauntlet, that was a fun one.”
“Ooh, that does sound fun… reminds me of my flamethrower.”
“Your flamethrower?”
“Yeah, it’s basically a big tank with a hose attached to it. At the end of the hose is a pump that causes the flammable liquid – I use dragon’s tar – to shoot out. Add a flame that the tar passes over and bam! You’ve got a giant stream of flame that will coat anything it hits with sticky, flammable tar,” Xander said, excitedly describing the device.
“That’s… impressive. And kind of horrifying,” Valteria responded.
“Mm… I guess you’re right. I mostly use it on giant spiders. Blugh,” Xander shuddered. “But yeah, I suppose it’s not the nicest of ways to go. Very effective for area denial, though. Ah, actually I have an idea for crossbow bolt head that would ignite when it shatters! We should make that sometime and see if it sells.”
“Hmm, I think that would draw some buyers. A flaming bolt head you didn’t have to light first could be desirable to certain buyers.”
“Put that on the list and we’ll get around to it sometime.”
“We have a list?” Valteria said confusedly.
“We should!” Xander said with a laugh. “Now let’s get the rest of these joints done.”
The repair of the other arm and the leg joints that Xander had locked into position during the tournament was a short affair. Looking over the bare metal frame of the armor still hanging from the ceiling, Xander clapped his hands together, mimicking dusting them off. “Good as new!” He exclaimed. Looking over to Valteria he asked concernedly, “It is good as new, right?”
Valteria had been staring at the armor as well, lost in thought about how she was going to improve it next. “Hmm? Oh, yes. It’s right as rain again, ready for use. Thank you, by the way. For fixing it,” She said awkwardly.
“Well I’m the one who broke it, so it’s only fair that I fix it. So what do you want to work on next?” Xander asked. “I could do some rune work for you. Orrr… we could kiss some more?”
Valteria flushed at the question, but didn’t immediately say no.
A few minutes later, she found herself on her tip toes and lightly pressed against the interior wall of the shed, her lips pressed against Xanders.
Once the two of them were done acting like teenagers parked in a secluded parking lot, they made their way back into the shop. Stepping inside and closing the door behind them, Valteria let out a breath. “I think… you are going to have to do a lot of rune work to make up for how much you just kissed me, Xander.”
“What, you didn’t like it?” He said with a raised eyebrow.
“I didn’t say that,” Valteria said with a smirk.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ncQcxnD-CxDk4h01QYyrlOh1lEYDS-DV/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114514252262811175804&rtpof=true&sd=true
Hello again folks! Your resident performance obsessed Redditor here, with my updated Pagespeed guide! It's gone through significant revisions since the last time I posted it. It is now with more than double the content up from 94 pages the last time I posted to the guide having over 200+(!!) plus pages of content.
Major content additions, expansions on everything that was previously in the guide, significantly better and more logical organization, revamped table of contents, grammar and spelling fixes, many new optimization strategies and much needed additional specificity.
Don’t forget to check the table of contents, it is not expanded by default! The icon is on the top left side on desktop
Included is a breakdown on how to analyze and interpret Speed Test reports to identify optimization opportunities.
There's an extensive amount of optimization information and resources for server stack configuration for NGINX, Apache, Varnish, Object Caching, PHP, HAProxy, MySQL, SSL, and VPS configuration.
Wordpress specific optimizations: It now has sections on how to optimize common features including Ads, Forms, Woocommerce, Analytics, Fonts, SEO plugins, Anti-Spam, Cookie Notices, Backup plugins; in addition to one size fits all optimizations(Images, CDN, SSL, CSS, JS, etc), and tons and tons more.
Every optimization opportunity has a free plugin option (or multiple) listed. Some paid plugins are included as I find them very useful(Perfmatters and Asset Cleanup Pro for example). However I've included alternatives for all paid options. Every single thing in my guide can be implemented for free.
I've done my best to cover all of the bases you’d find in any page speed guide, in addition to a focus on adding uncommon optimization strategies and solutions that you won’t find in any off the shelf guide. This is a compilation of all of my research over the last 6 years delving into performance optimization.
I'm confident that if you follow every single step in the guide, almost any site you maintain can score 90+ on a Pagespeed Insights Mobile Speed Test.
If this guide helped you out, please consider buying me a coffee! (Everybody likes coffee right?)
If you notice anything missing from my performance guide that you think I should add, or if there is some information you believe needs to be amended (or expanded on), please let me know in the comments and I'll be sure to add a section or revise the content on the topic (if necessary) as soon as possible!
If you feel that the guide is too overwhelming and you'd prefer to have someone else optimize your site’s performance or need a consultation, feel free to DM me.
If anyone wants to be able to import a large set of free optimization plugins (and you can selectively choose which ones to download/install), download WP Favs. I do need to update the collection since I've added tons to the guide since the last time I posted this, but it's still comprehensive:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpfavs/
The code to import them is: JAuOGP5BZICR5LmBsPANN9kpKHfiie
https://imgur.com/a/nU1v5CU
For now the roadmap is to work on the load balancing section, and anything else I can think of. I have added a ton of content since the last time, so I'm positive that there are still gaps which need to be plugged. I plan to continue adding content as I improve it, so keep an eye on the guide as it will continue to evolve over time!
If anyone would like to help me develop a premium optimization plugin with some unique strategies I've been thinking of, please pm me!

Hello All, I am seeking to find a reputable individual/business that would be able to provide MSL-specific CV and cover letter input. I recognize that the job market can be discouraging and breaking into this area is not for the faint of heart, but as a soon-to-be PhD graduate (biomedical science), I need all the help I can get to make it past the ATS (and land an interview). I've searched LinkedIn but have yet to find any pharmaceutical industry-specific CV/Cover letter experts. I am open to CRA, Clinical Trial Project Manager, and pharmaceutical sales positions as a way to gain experience and build my network within industry, but, again, need some input on my applications since I have not received any useful feedback from any of my applications. Thanks in advance for your input.

Hi everyone!
I wanted to give a detailed review of my experience with sm global package for taemin’s metamorph concert in tokyo at the nippon budokan. I am months delayed in posting this (thanks to grad school) but I initially wrote it out of post-concert depression prior to returning to the states back in March.
buying the global package, twin ver:
the package was announced sometime in december 2023 if im not mistaken and I stayed up until midnight (pst) on 1/22 to book a twin package for ‘course c’ which was 2N3D (sunday concert 3/10) for my friend and I. The packages that included all three nights (5D3N) of the show sold out the quickest, but there were still packages available for individual show days. As a tip to make things easier, make sure to have your friends’ passport info to input in advance so the booking goes easier if you are booking a twin package. If you are the one making the booking, make sure to have the global package app downloaded as they will send you notifications along the way about day of show schedule, merch preorder, etc. They ask that you relay this info to your partner when you purchase a twin package, as you are the primary reservation holder. You also cannot split the cost while booking, it must go on one card through paypal. When booking, you have the option to request extending your stay at the hotel through sm c&c, but since we were planning to go to Kyoto after the concert, we just checked out the day after the concert as planned. Also we didn’t have any ACE memberships, but if I remember correctly, you can enter that info to get an exclusive MD benefit.
merch preorder:
Prior to arriving in Japan, we got a notification at around 6pm pst on 2/28 (11 days prior to the show) with our exclusive merch preorder links which went live at midnight that same night. The prices were in yen and you pay using paypal. I had no problem getting the MD I wanted, however since there were limits on the amount of MD you could purchase (including the 2 different pins, which were 1 per order) I had to ask my friend if I could purchase an additional pin through his MD preorder link since there were 2 different pins in this specific concert MD. The day of the show (3/10) at around 10am, we picked up the MD we preordered with ease and pulled our concert seat tickets and received our global package exclusive gift (a mag safe wallet) and let the staff know which transports we would be taking (round trip bus or one way to/from the venue). I was a ljttle disappointed in the global package benefit MD as I had seen what the metamorph show in Korea had received (I think it was a handwritten letter from Taemin and a little lego figurine of him 🤧). Everything was smooth and efficient. Even after the concert, I was able to get into the MD line to purchase more, even though most of the MD was sold out.
checking in/out of the hotel & hotel review:
We stayed at the Hotel Monterey Hanzomon which was really close to the venue and across the street from the Hanzomon subway line, so it was very accessible by public transit. My friend and I both flew into Haneda and it took a little less than an hour to get to the hotel from the airport via public transit, but after a 12.5 hour long flight it was exhausting. When I asked the people at the airport if there was an airport limousine to the area, they said it wouldn’t take me close enough to the hotel and recommended I take the subway. We had met a few people in line for the MD pickup who said that we (allegedly) had a nicer hotel than those who did the NCT 127 global package for their Tokyo dome show (same weekend) but all in all, Hanzomon was an economy hotel with nothing to write home about. I will say the breakfast buffet included was really nice and I’m glad we didn’t skip out on it. When we checked in the day before the show, we just showed our passports and checked in like any other hotel. In the lobby there was a whiteboard with all of the concert info (opening times for md pickup, bus schedules, and concert schedule) displayed in english, korean, chinese, and japanese. I was a little bummed to find out that the concert (which took place in the middle of the afternoon) was only going to be an hour and a half maximum, even though NCT’s concert was almost 4 hours (!!!) in length.
day of show:
We had breakfast in the lobby around 8:30/9ish then after that we got to the sm desk at 9:45am to pick up our md and pick our tickets for the show (thanks to the tip from another fan on reddit, well worth getting there a little before the booth opened). I did notice the ACE membership MD benefits were nice, but neither me nor my friend have any fanclub memberships. It was relatively straightforward, they checked our passports and handed us a lanyard that acted as our bus pass and then one person per twin package picks the pair of tickets at random (in sets of 2 so you sit with your friend) and we got seats in section A3 (floor) which were great. They asked us if we wanted a seat on the bus ride round trip or one way and we originally said only one ride to the venue, but my friend decided to take the bus back too once we got to the venue so we notified the SM staff and they added us to the roster for the ride back easily. When we got to the venue (an hour and a half-ish before doors) they escorted us to the front and we were let in immediately. The efficiency was incredible. They didn’t check my bag prior to entering like how they would for a concert in the US so I didn’t bring a water bottle into the venue but thankfully they had vending machines inside and concessions on the top levels of the venue. We also went to a booth upstairs to pair our lightsticks for the show, since the Japanese Shinee Lightstick app is only available for Japanese phones, so we showed our ticket locations and they were able to calibrate. The show was short yet sweet, we did not see anyone ejected for taking photos/videos but we were too scared to risk it. If you are caught filming or taking photos they will make you delete the photos/videos and kick you out with no sign of return, but I think because it was the last day and we were in the middle of a crowd, it was a little easier to get away with. There was a sadness in the air because it was Taemin’s last concert as a soloist under SM, but overall the show was incredible. One thing of note though is Japanese audiences are very quiet, they tend to clap rather than scream in between songs and there were times where you could hear someone from the rafters sneeze and it would resonate, so be prepared for that cultural difference. We still screamed when it felt appropriate to do so and the fanchants were loud but it was definitely strange to be golf clapping in between songs, especially in comparison to shows in the US where fans are barking 💀. It was nice to be able to hear Taemin speak uninterrupted during the ments, without pick-me fans interjecting their screams. He spoke exclusively in Japanese and there was no translator so we were left to guess what he was saying. A K-fan next to us was live Papago-ing his ments to Korean and I would peek and read what the translation was. Also shout out to this lovely K-shawol because she let my friend borrow one of her lightsticks! Once the show ended, everyone queued up to leave the venue in an orderly fashion and we cleaned up any trash we saw and we went out to the MD booth to buy any last minute MDs before going to the bus. On the bus, they gave us each a (unthemed) bag with some strawberry cookies and a waterbottle and we had a fun time air-dropping photos and videos from the show with other (braver) global package attendees. Everyone we met was so lovely and everything about the global package went very smoothly and efficiently.
closing thoughts:
the day after the show, we took advantage of the free breakfast and checked out with ease. The SM C&C staff left the whiteboard in the lobby and left a nice note for us and we wrote our thank yous on there. Overall, the package cost was $1559 for 2 people ($779 ea, 2 twin beds for 2N3D) and even though it was pricey it was so worth the convenience of not having to try to buy tickets locally, which I heard sold out entirely during fan club presale. Please note that this cost did not include airfare or transit to/from the airport. The concert coincided with my spring break and Taemin is one of my ults, I just wrote a paper on him for grad school so it was a no brainer, I had to be there no matter what lol. I was a bit disappointed in the lack of theming (I heard the concerts in Korea come with themed rooms, themed snacks, etc) and the lack of transportation to and from the airport (which I heard is sometimes an option for shows in Korea and would have been a great benefit). But otherwise the hotel was clean and convenient (a little small, but that’s how it is normally in an economy hotel in Japan), breakfast was good, SM staff were helpful and nice, and we made some new Shawol friends in the meantime :)
overall, I would absolutely book with global package again, but I would definitely want to see a show in Korea to compare the benefits. It was an unforgettable experience to be apart of the pearl aqua ocean 💎
if you have any questions ask away! prior to booking this package, I took the advice of another fan under and it was really helpful so I wanted to offer any insight based off my experience.

I’m writing this review in the hopes that someone else doesn’t get ripped off like I have
I purchased the Michael Phelps Chilly Goat Cold Plunge in December and took delivery early January.
Normally I only buy products with great reviews and from vendors with great reputations for customer service and product support.
For some reason I ignored all of this when making this purchase. I couldn’t (and still can’t) find a single review from someone whose actually purchased this product. However, I figured if Michael Phelps and Master Spa were going to put their names on it, then it MUST be a good product. Unfortunately that assumption was very wrong, and here’s my honest review.
Upon receipt of the cold plunge, I unwrapped it and got it placed in my garage. Atheistically, the tub is gorgeous. I was extremely happy with the way it looked.
However, once I started unwrapping the components such as the cover, thermostat, filter cover and the covers around the base of the unit, I got the immediate impression that it was all super cheap, bottom of the barrel components. Everything except the white tub itself is extremely flimsy, and cheap. Definitely not what I was expecting from a $9000 cold plunge.
Regardless, I got everything ready so we could get it running once I had the new 20 amp circuit installed. For some reason, in the setup manual it tells you to make sure to wire in a GFCI outlet (even though the plunge whip has a built in GFCI in it already). I had a feeling these two would trip each other out, but I followed the instructions in the manual.
It powered on fine and started working towards getting the water down to the 40 degrees. I then hooked it up to the App (which is a generic app that’s used by many companies selling generic pumps). I tried setting it up to automatically cycle off for most of the day, and cycle on a couple hours before I would be using it.
The next morning I went into the garage to see if it worked.
It didn’t.
The power was off due to the GFCI tripping (just as I thought it would). I reviewed the manual again and it explicitly states that I only use a GFCI, so I powered it back on and tried again. It eventually tripped again, so I contacted support.
This was my first contact with support and the rep “Paul” was helpful. He advised me to try removing the GFCI and replace with a regular outlet. So I did and it worked perfectly. No more tripping the breaker and shutting off.
So now I tried setting the schedule again, and to my delight the cold plunge was at 40 degrees the next morning.
However, what I realized was that it wasn't cycling on or off. It was just staying on the entire time, despite any scheduling I put into the app.
The only way to control the tub (by the way) is by removing the tub skirting and using a small rectangular circuit board that has 4 buttons. Up, down, mode and power. So there’s no way to schedule or do anything with the unit other than turn it off/on, turn the temp up or down, or switch to hot or cold mode. So it looks like scheduling (an advertised feature) wasn’t actually available.
Fast forward a couple months and the cold plunge is working great. It runs 24/7, but it keeps the water right at 40 degrees. I decided I’d like to try the hot side now, so I opened up the app, made sure the mode was on Auto and turned it up to its max.
Now their marketing and manual said that it would be able to get up to temp in a few hours. So I started a timer and watched it. I started it at 5:00 p.m and by 7:30 p.m it went from 40 to 46ish. Definitely not what I was expecting.
So I went to bed, expecting it to be at 104 when I woke up. Fast forward to 8:30 a.m and the tub is only at 73 degrees. At this point I knew for a fact that something was wrong with the unit. So I took a video and added it to my dropbox folder to show support.
I continued to wait and by 11:00 the unit reached 90 degrees. And then at 11:40, it stopped warming up and threw off the error code E20. So I snapped my pictures, added it to the drive and then went into the manual to see what to do about this code.
I then followed the instructions, and reset the machine. It started working again and was able to get to 100 degrees by 12:30 (target temp was 104). However, once it hit this, the machine errored again and threw out E21.
Back to the instruction manual I went, and it said to basically just reset it. So I did, but this time the error code wouldn’t go away. And then the temperature slowly started dropping as I couldn’t get rid of the error code.
Eventually I unplugged the unit and reached out to Paul again. This time he wasn’t as helpful. I sent him the link with all of the videos/photos, but we never really got anywhere until I started getting angry and pressing to return the unit.
At this point he sends me two maintenance companies in my area with their phone numbers (and presented it to me as if it was my responsibility to call them and I would be in charge of paying for it).
This was the last straw for me. I drained the tub and asked to be refunded and return the unit. I’ve been denied over and over, with them citing a 30 day return period. However, my stance on this is that the unit hasn’t worked correctly since the day I bought it. I’ve lost all confidence that this unit will stay in good working condition over a long period of time
Things stalled out from there, so I cooled off and decided to try to get the unit working again. I filled it back up and simply tried to turn it on. Now I’m getting hit with error code E03. I followed the troubleshooting in the manual and it didn’t work (of course).
And now I’m at the end of my wits with this piece of junk.
To anyone considering buying a Michael Phelps Gilly Goat by Master Spa, please heed my warning. Do not.
I may end up being the only actual customer review on the internet for this thing, so please listen to this advice and stay away.
All of the components on this thing are very cheap quality. I have the feeling a large % of our purchase price is going for the rights to use Michael Phelps name, not in getting a quality product.
This unit is in a climate controlled garage. Not exposed to any elements. Yet it took it 18~ hours to go from 40 degrees to 100 degrees (and potentially burned itself out by doing it). The motor doesn’t work at all ever since making that switch. I can’t imagine what it’d do if you actually placed it outside in the elements. There’s no way all of the lines wouldn’t immediately freeze and burst if you did so in the winter.

Looking for someone to take over my lease beginning June 1st, 2024. This would be your lease, and this is approved by management. I will have zero involvement once its all said and done. The lease expires February 1st, 2025 with option to renew. Each applicant will pay a $30 application fee and formally apply. I will reimburse you if you are accepted and take over the lease. I will waive the deposit and you will collect it when you move out ($700) as incentives. I'm leaving my lease early to move in with my partner elsewhere. I've been really happy living here. Noteworthy that my rent did not increase when I renewed my lease last year (this is my second lease on this unit). I can also give you my couch for free if you want it!
Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAgWSomMa7A
Building website: https://www.yale25stationapartments.com/

• Rent: $1,785
• Fixed utilities: $140 (everything but cable/internet)
• Optional parking spot in secured/covered garage: $100

Unit info: Building is Yale 25 Station, maybe a 2 minute walk from the Yale RTD stop. 3rd floor corner unit (west and north facing windows). 1 bed, 1 bath, 819 square feet. Central air & heat. Stainless steel appliances including dishwasher. Washer & drier in unit. TONS of storage in this apartment - 2 big pantry style closets, lots of storage in the W&D closet, hallway coat closet, and 2 large closets in the bedroom. Plenty of countertop & cabinet space in the kitchen and bathroom. Tons of natural light in the afternoon on the west side of the unit. Carpeted bedroom, faux hardwood in the rest of the unit. Ceiling fan in the bedroom. Tub/shower in the bathroom. Unit is on the backside of the building so road noise is minimal from Yale Ave. You can see the mountains peeking over the trees from the living area (not a full blown mountain view, but close)!
Building info: Very well managed building - no joke. I know a lot of these buildings suffer from crappy management - this is not one of them. Maintenance requests are typically done same day (I've never had any major maintenance issues, just normal wear & tear such as lightbulb replacements). Parcel locker for packages. Club room with pool table and Starbucks coffee machine. Rooftop with gas fire pit, two gas grills, various games such as bags/cornhole, lounge chairs, etc. Gym with free weights, treadmills, elliptical, rowing machine, cable machines, etc. Additional storage available in the building. Trash chutes down the hall. Pets are allowed, I believe there is an additional pet rent but I don't know the cost as I do not have pets. Garage has bike storage and a bike repair station as well as 2 EV charging stations. Exterior doors, some interior doors, elevators, and garage require key fob for access. Apartment front door is also a key fob. Callbox at main front door. Management hosts events every month or so.
Area info: King Soopers & Sprouts down the street along with plenty of restaurants and a bunch of your normal shopping options. Steps from Yale RTD, easy access to I-25. Not far from DU's campus. Half mile to Highline Canal Trail via the residential neighborhood across the street.
Please DM me for more info, questions, photos, and to set up a time to tour with me.