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About Me

My name is Shelbion and I've been an avid League of Legends player for over a decade. In Season 4, I reached Challenger for the first time and even considered pursuing a professional career. However, after much reflection, I decided to pursue other challenges within the game.
Some of my notable achievements as a player include:

• Reaching Challenger on multiple positions.
• Participating and winning in numerous SR and 1v1 tournaments.
• Playing for various teams(Amateur and Semi-Professional).

Coaching

With over 7.000 hours of coaching experience, I fall into the category of one of the most experienced individuals in the field. My experience, passion, and ability to identify your flaws and tailor each session to your needs make me stand out as a Coach.
I've studied the techniques of renowned coaches, such as LS, MagiFelix, and others, and I've developed my unique coaching approach. So far, my approach has helped countless individuals, and over 20 teams advance their competitive play, across 5 different continents, including members of various College and University eSport Teams.
Some of my notable achievements include:

• Assisting a Diamond 2 player reach Challenger in just five weeks.
• Helping a Silver 2 player climb to Platinum in three weeks.
• Guiding a Diamond 3 player to Grandmaster in six weeks.

I am dedicated to continuously honing my skills and providing the best coaching experience possible to all of my clients, regardless of their rank or location.

Subscription Based Coaching

• One Individual Session (Monthly)
• Group Sessions (Weekly) x2
• Priority Coaching - Price: 99.99 > 49.99$.

Verifications & Certifications

• Certified IFOEC (International Federation of eSport Coaches) Educator & Coach.
• Certified EHPI (eSports Health & Performance) Professional.
• University of Irvine eSport Specialization
• Verified Coachify & Metafy Partner.

Community

In addition to my experience as a Player, I am also the Founder of Noxus Coaching - a rapidly growing, educational community on Discord. Our community is a great place to find new friends to play with, have a good time, and most importantly, improve your skills.
We hold various events on a weekly basis, including 1v1 & 5v5 tournaments, meme contests, and more. There are plenty of rewards to be won, including free coaching sessions with me. To join our community, visit https://discord.gg/RHW9BMxRd5 and message me upon joining to receive your role.

Podcast

• Podcast Appearance > https://youtu.be/4jn4FXOaOlE?si=98POLUJdJeSNnbiW

How Does it Work?

We will schedule an initial Interview during which we can discuss your goals and I can provide a more detailed explanation of my coaching services. This interview will typically last for 3-5 minutes.
The First Session is designed to assess your current level of gameplay and identify areas for improvement. After conducting an analysis, I will create a Personalized Coaching Plan tailored to your specific needs. This plan will outline a series of sessions designed to maximize your improvement.
The Coaching Plan may include various session types, such as:

• Theory sessions: These sessions will cover key concepts such as wave management, vision, decision making, and more.
• Practical sessions: These sessions will either be VOD reviews or live games, and will be used to put theoretical knowledge into practice and analyze gameplay.
• Reviews: These sessions will occur periodically and will be used as checkpoints to track your progress and identify any additional areas for improvement.

All sessions will be personalized and created specifically for each student's needs. By following this plan, you can feel confident that you are taking the most effective steps to achieve your goals.

Personalized Support (Available 24/7)

In addition to the structured coaching sessions, I offer personalized support to my clients on a 24/7 basis. Whether you have a specific question or just want to debrief after a tough game, I am always available to help. Simply message me and I will respond as quickly as possible.

AvailabilityPricesPayments

I am able to cover any server and any timezone! Rates for both Private and Team coaching are negotiable. We will easily get the sessions to fit your budget and your needs.
Payments are usually done through PayPal, however other forms of Payment such as Direct Transfer can be discussed.

Contact

Main form of contact is Discord on which you can find me at shelbion (Or Shelbion#8832)
Feel free to message me either on Discord or through a Direct Message on Reddit and I will come back to you as quickly as possible.

I’m an exchange student from Australia coming for Fall 2024, I’m in second year but since in Australia all our undergrad degrees are (normally) 3 years, I’m kind of a sophomore and a junior at the same time.
I’m majoring in CS and stats, and I need to complete 15 credit hours. Are there any subjects here that would possibly kill me/I should not do? If you have any other recommended subjects I’d love to hear them as well! :D
MATH 444 Elementary Real Analysis
ECE 205 Electrical and Electronic Circuits
STAT 361 Prob & Stats for Computer Science
CS 411 Database Systems
CS 233 Computer Architecture
CS 374 Intro to Algorithms & Models of Computation
Also, I’m a little confused about the subject naming, does the first number mean the year level students taking it should be in? As in 374 is for third yeajuniors.
Thanks!!
(Ps. if you’d like to be friends please feel free to reach out!)

Sleep, an essential component of our daily lives, often eludes many. In today's fast-paced world, where screens glow well into the night and stressors seem to multiply, achieving a restful night's sleep can feel like a distant dream. Sleep problems have become increasingly common, affecting individuals of all ages and backgrounds. From insomnia to sleep apnea, these issues can have significant impacts on both physical and mental well-being. However, amidst these challenges, there are effective solutions and tips to promote better sleep hygiene and overall health.
Know Sleep Problems:
Insomnia, perhaps the most prevalent sleep disorder, plagues millions worldwide. Characterized by difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, insomnia can lead to daytime fatigue, irritability, and impaired cognitive function. Stress, anxiety, and poor sleep habits often contribute to its development.
Another common sleep disorder is sleep apnea, marked by interruptions in breathing during sleep. This condition not only disrupts rest but also increases the risk of cardiovascular problems and accidents due to daytime sleepiness. Additionally, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, and parasomnias like sleepwalking further complicate the landscape of sleep disorders.
Get Solutions:
Despite the challenges posed by sleep problems, there are several strategies individuals can employ to improve their sleep quality and overall well-being:

1. Establish a Consistent Sleep Schedule: Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day helps regulate your body's internal clock, promoting better sleep quality over time.
   
2. Create a Relaxing Bedtime Routine: Engage in calming activities such as reading, meditation, or gentle stretching before bed to signal to your body that it's time to wind down.
   
3. Optimize Your Sleep Environment: Ensure your bedroom is conducive to sleep by keeping it cool, dark, and quiet. Invest in a comfortable mattress and pillows to enhance comfort.
   
4. Limit Screen Time Before Bed: The blue light emitted by screens can disrupt the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep-wake cycles. Limit exposure to electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime.
   
5. Mind Your Diet and Exercise: Regular physical activity can promote better sleep, but avoid vigorous exercise close to bedtime. Additionally, limit caffeine and heavy meals in the evening, as they can interfere with sleep.
   
6. Manage Stress and Anxiety: Practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, mindfulness, or journaling to ease stress and quiet the mind before sleep.
   

Note :- By implementing these strategies and prioritizing good sleep hygiene, individuals can take proactive steps towards achieving restorative and rejuvenating sleep. If sleep problems persist despite self-help efforts then..
Solve Your Sleep Problems...By Best solution.

Father's Day is a special occasion dedicated to honoring fathers and celebrating their contributions to their families and society. It's a day to express gratitude and love for the men who have played a pivotal role in our lives. While the date of Father’s Day varies across different countries, the sentiment remains universally cherished. Here’s a guide to when Father's Day is celebrated around the world and some ideas on how to make it special.
Father's Day in the United States and Many Other Countries
In the United States, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. This tradition is followed by many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and most European and Latin American countries. For 2024, Father’s Day in these regions falls on June 16th.
Origin of Father’s Day in the United States
The idea of Father's Day in the U.S. was inspired by Mother's Day. The first Father's Day celebration was held on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, spearheaded by Sonora Smart Dodd, who wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran and single parent who raised six children. It wasn’t until 1972, however, that Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday by President Richard Nixon.
Father’s Day in Different Parts of the World

When is Father's Day: Celebrating Dads Around the World

Father's Day is a special occasion dedicated to honoring fathers and celebrating their contributions to their families and society. It's a day to express gratitude and love for the men who have played a pivotal role in our lives. While the date of Father’s Day varies across different countries, the sentiment remains universally cherished. Here’s a guide to when Father's Day is celebrated around the world and some ideas on how to make it special.
Father's Day in the United States and Many Other Countries
In the United States, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. This tradition is followed by many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and most European and Latin American countries. For 2024, Father’s Day in these regions falls on June 16th.
Origin of Father’s Day in the United States
The idea of Father's Day in the U.S. was inspired by Mother's Day. The first Father's Day celebration was held on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, spearheaded by Sonora Smart Dodd, who wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran and single parent who raised six children. It wasn’t until 1972, however, that Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday by President Richard Nixon.
Father’s Day in Different Parts of the World

1. Australia and New Zealand: Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in September. This year, it will be observed on September 1st.
2. Brazil: Known as Dia dos Pais, Father's Day in Brazil is celebrated on the second Sunday in August, aligning with the Catholic feast day of St. Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary. This year, it falls on August 11th.
3. Germany: In Germany, Father's Day, or Vatertag, is celebrated on Ascension Day, which is the 40th day of Easter. It’s also known as Men's Day (Männertag), and this year, it will be celebrated on May 30th.
4. Thailand: Father’s Day in Thailand is celebrated on December 5th, coinciding with the birthday of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. It is a day of national celebration and respect for fathers.
5. Russia: In Russia, Father’s Day is observed as Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23rd. It honors men in general, especially those serving in the military.

How to Make Father’s Day Special
Regardless of when you celebrate Father’s Day, here are some thoughtful ways to make the day memorable for your dad:

1. Personalized Gifts: Custom-made gifts such as photo albums, engraved watches, or personalized mugs can add a special touch.
2. Quality Time: Spend the day doing something your dad loves, whether it’s fishing, hiking, watching a movie, or playing a sport.
3. Cook a Special Meal: Treat your dad to a homemade meal with his favorite dishes. You could also host a barbecue or picnic if the weather permits.
4. Handwritten Letters: Write a heartfelt letter expressing your gratitude and love. Sometimes, words from the heart mean more than any store-bought gift.
5. Experience Gifts: Plan an experience rather than a physical gift. Consider activities like a day trip, a concert, or a cooking class.
6. Virtual Celebration: If you’re far away, set up a video call and celebrate together virtually. You can still share a meal, play games, or watch a movie simultaneously.

Conclusion
Father's Day is a wonderful opportunity to show appreciation for the fathers and father figures in our lives. Whether your dad is near or far, there are countless ways to make the day special. Understanding when Father’s Day is celebrated around the world helps us appreciate the diverse ways in which this important day is honored. No matter the date, the essence of Father’s Day lies in expressing love, gratitude, and respect for the men who have guided, supported, and loved us unconditionally.
Father's Day is a special occasion dedicated to honoring fathers and celebrating their contributions to their families and society. It's a day to express gratitude and love for the men who have played a pivotal role in our lives. While the date of Father’s Day varies across different countries, the sentiment remains universally cherished. Here’s a guide to when Father's Day is celebrated around the world and some ideas on how to make it special.
Father's Day in the United States and Many Other Countries
In the United States, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. This tradition is followed by many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and most European and Latin American countries. For 2024, Father’s Day in these regions falls on June 16th.
Origin of Father’s Day in the United States
The idea of Father's Day in the U.S. was inspired by Mother's Day. The first Father's Day celebration was held on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, spearheaded by Sonora Smart Dodd, who wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran and single parent who raised six children. It wasn’t until 1972, however, that Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday by President Richard Nixon.
Father’s Day in Different Parts of the World

When is Father's Day: Celebrating Dads Around the World

Father's Day is a special occasion dedicated to honoring fathers and celebrating their contributions to their families and society. It's a day to express gratitude and love for the men who have played a pivotal role in our lives. While the date of Father’s Day varies across different countries, the sentiment remains universally cherished. Here’s a guide to when Father's Day is celebrated around the world and some ideas on how to make it special.
Father's Day in the United States and Many Other Countries
In the United States, Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. This tradition is followed by many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and most European and Latin American countries. For 2024, Father’s Day in these regions falls on June 16th.
Origin of Father’s Day in the United States
The idea of Father's Day in the U.S. was inspired by Mother's Day. The first Father's Day celebration was held on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, spearheaded by Sonora Smart Dodd, who wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran and single parent who raised six children. It wasn’t until 1972, however, that Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday by President Richard Nixon.
Father’s Day in Different Parts of the World

1. Australia and New Zealand: Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in September. This year, it will be observed on September 1st.
2. Brazil: Known as Dia dos Pais, Father's Day in Brazil is celebrated on the second Sunday in August, aligning with the Catholic feast day of St. Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary. This year, it falls on August 11th.
3. Germany: In Germany, Father's Day, or Vatertag, is celebrated on Ascension Day, which is the 40th day of Easter. It’s also known as Men's Day (Männertag), and this year, it will be celebrated on May 30th.
4. Thailand: Father’s Day in Thailand is celebrated on December 5th, coinciding with the birthday of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. It is a day of national celebration and respect for fathers.
5. Russia: In Russia, Father’s Day is observed as Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23rd. It honors men in general, especially those serving in the military.

How to Make Father’s Day Special
Regardless of when you celebrate Father’s Day, here are some thoughtful ways to make the day memorable for your dad:

1. Personalized Gifts: Custom-made gifts such as photo albums, engraved watches, or personalized mugs can add a special touch.
2. Quality Time: Spend the day doing something your dad loves, whether it’s fishing, hiking, watching a movie, or playing a sport.
3. Cook a Special Meal: Treat your dad to a homemade meal with his favorite dishes. You could also host a barbecue or picnic if the weather permits.
4. Handwritten Letters: Write a heartfelt letter expressing your gratitude and love. Sometimes, words from the heart mean more than any store-bought gift.
5. Experience Gifts: Plan an experience rather than a physical gift. Consider activities like a day trip, a concert, or a cooking class.
6. Virtual Celebration: If you’re far away, set up a video call and celebrate together virtually. You can still share a meal, play games, or watch a movie simultaneously.

Father's Day from Rakhi.com is a wonderful opportunity to show appreciation for the fathers and father figures in our lives. Whether your dad is near or far, there are countless ways to make the day special. Understanding when Father’s Day is celebrated around the world helps us appreciate the diverse ways in which this important day is honored. No matter the date, the essence of Father’s Day lies in expressing love, gratitude, and respect for the men who have guided, supported, and loved us unconditionally.

Hi all,
This is my very first post and English is not my native language. Please forgive me for any errors.
I admit I don't really know what to expect from this post, creating mainly to let off steam.
It might be quite long haha. So me (24M) and my ex (24F) were together since we were 17.
So we have met in high school. We quickly decided to stay together despite studying in different cities. To be honest we never had a real argument during our 6 and a half years of relationship. Small arguments about boundaries that should not be crossed and which were resolved in a healthy way.
To give some context. My ex has an alcoholic mother and a father who more or less abandoned her at a young age but eventually came back. She also comes from a much more difficult economic background than me.
I am lucky to have a very united and supportive family. We also have no money problems and are there to help us in difficult times.
After a few months of dating, I very quickly integrated my ex into my family. We hosted all the parties at our house, my parents took her on trips with us, and I always did my best to help her in her life (picking her up from work, bringing her meals when she finished work, I took the train every weekend to see her in her city).
She always said that I was an excellent, even perfect boyfriend. I have always proven my loyalty and my love for her. She still seemed extremely happy with it and was a bit boastful about it haha. We ended up moving in together in 2022.
This is where we had our first real problems. Since she had no financial support from her parents, she had to work at the same time as her studies. She was naturally very tired physically and mentally. Personally, at that time I really didn't like my studies and I was very stressed because 1 year later I had to find my first job.
Our first arguments therefore revolved around personal investment in cleaning and maintaining the house. I was never really satisfied with her investment. We had a few arguments but we got there in the end. I naturally relaxed with my reduction in stress and I realized that I had a tendency to want to control my environment during my stressful periods. So I made an effort and things got better.
From summer 2023, we changed apartments and I had my first internship and then my first job. With a significant salary, I told her to stop working and focus on her studies (she repeated her year once because her work took up too much of her time).
So, I took care of everything and I gave her €400 per month so that she could continue to live a normal life. In September 2023, she started to go to her business school and I start to see some personality change.
For more context, I am a very introverted person. I have never smoked, never tried drugs, never gone to nightclubs and I drink very little. I spend my free time playing PC, role-playing games or playing sports. My ex was also very introverted, she loves reading at home while drinking coffee. She went out once every full moon to have a drink with her best friend.
But, once she arrived at her new school, she started going out more often, going to nightclubs (in 6 years she must have gone 3 times). She also started smoking an electronic cigarette.
The fateful moment was at the end of January 2024. As part of her studies, she had to go to Barcelona for 3 months. I was very happy for her knowing that we had already established a long-distance relationship (however, it was me who left and she stayed in our hometown).
The beginning went very well but she ended up joining a shared accommodation in February. From there, she started going out 3 or 4 times a week. She went out to a nightclub with roommates except the girls whom decided to go home and she decided to go only with the boys (I never met them and she only knew them for two weeks). I admit that I may be a little old-fashioned and I consider that the nightclub is necessarily a place of seduction (not that my ex wanted to seduce but she was inevitably going to be hit on). I didn't say anything about it but she quickly understood that I didn't like it. I told her that I wouldn't forbid her anything but I found that knowing me she could suspect that I wouldn't like it.
So we had a change that I found radical in her personality. She went out a lot more. Not to exonerate myself, but it was also a difficult time for me. Again for context, I usally give off the impression of someone who always knows what I do, what I want and who I am. However, during this period I was externally uncomfortable in my skin. I had problems in my job and I was overall very stressed and I had very little self-confidence (which had almost never happened in 6 years).
Coming back to my ex, I noticed this personality change and became increasingly dissatisfied with our call times, the amount of messages and generally the amount of attention she gave me. So we had a lot of disagreements over that. She told me that I was suffocating her, that I was too controlling (again I never told her that I didn't want her to go out or stop having a relation with one of her roommates (my instinct really told me that something was going on with one of her roommates but I didn't know who was the main actor in this potential flirtation).
She started lying to me about insignificant things (she ended up telling me that she was lying to me so I wouldn't get angry???) but I became more and more controlling. Big argument after an evening where she told me she was going home to sleep but I saw her in the club with the localisation of her phone. She offered me a break, I got really angry for the first time in our relationship. For me a break means a breakup (it may be stupid but with everything that was happening that's what seemed to happen to me).
After my outburst (no insults and barely raised my voice (I don't know how to get angry lol)), she came to join me to try to repair things (I was very happy). However, we argued for 8 days, sometimes things went well but it remained tense. Also I saw her staying on her phone every night when I went to bed. I found it too weird. I finally broke down and looked at her messages (first time in 6 years), I found exchanges between them. Nothing blatant but I personally find them flirting. At least she spoke to him the same way she spoke to me at the beginning of our relationship.
She ended up returning to Barcelona and we made small promises to improve the relationship. But once she got back to Barcelona she didn't answer me all day. I blamed her a bit for that and set a little trap for her (it's not good, I know). I told her that I didn't like this guy (I didn't tell her to cut contact (I've had already cut contact with girls that my ex didn't like)). And I told her not to talk to him about this discussion (she talked to him about it that same evening). I asked her if she had told him and she told me that she hadn't told him anything. So I told her “we’ll probably have to separate” and then she left and didn’t want to hear anything more. I told her right away that I loved her and that I didn't want to break up but that I didn't know what to do anymore given her behavior.
So we parted ways. I went back and forth between « I love you more than anything » and « I have to cut you out of my life to move forward ». She told me to leave her alone while she figured out what was happening while saying that in any case it was over. I couldn't leave her alone to think. I learned through a TikTok that she had kissed this famous roommate…. I also had to manage all the administrative formalities alone...
I did everything to heal in the healthiest way possible (sport, therapy, seeing my friends and family). I didn't fall into a band-aid relationship, I didn't fall into alcohol, parties or other palliatives.
It will now be a little over 2 months since we have been separated. I accepted it, I still love her even if her behavior disgusts me. And I find it hard not to blame her for not knowing how to help me during this period (even though she obviously tried even if it was never enough for me).
I admit I'm still a little lost. I still love her even if I don't necessarily want to get back with her. I returned to work, I continue to exercise but the lack of physical and emotional affection is a bit difficult. Having to start all over again seems so difficult to me, I admit that I don't like the culture of one-night stands. I want to get married and have children. I'm a little lost and don't really know what to expect from this post. If you have any advice, explanations for her behavior or need more details, don't hesitate.
Thank you.

ANALYSIS:

• FX analysis:
• We see looking at EURUSD that skew is v elevated as IV is elevated on calls vs puts.
• EURUSD is stuck under 1.08 but traders are looking for a break towards 1.09. Note that traders seem to be pricing in softer inflation data. If PPI comes hot and CPI too tomorrow, we can see strong downward move in EURUSD as traders are seemingly complacent from positioning on soft inflation data
• BTC:
• BTC positioning shows traders sell calls. Skew points downward. Can see some pressure for this OPEX as a result, but should push up after that. Hence why price is lower in premarket.
• https://imgur.com/a/mShRPhn
• Oil:
• Range bound as traders waiting for US economic data this week. But skew is still pointing higher. Buyer momentum is higher, so it is positioned for a move higher but I suppose traders hold their breath waiting for the data.
• Silver:
• Looks like can continue higher. Skew is higher, IV change is rising.
• Calls on 28 adn 29 are the main options.
• https://imgur.com/a/q3KxHuN
• USDJPY - gamma wall at 157C. Can get stopped there, before move higher after. Positioning on JPY v bearish.

DATA LEDE:

• Japan PPI:
• YOY came 0.9% vs 0.9% forecast, last month was revised to 0.9% YOY too.
• So is gradually increasing since November.
• German Final inflation revision showed no change to preliminary reading. Confirmed the prelim reading. inflation of 2.2% vs 2.2% last time.
• UK EMPLOYMENT DATA
• 178k people got laid off in the last month, less than the 215k expected.
• More than the 156k last month.
• So labour market is continuing to weaken.
• Unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in line with expectations. Highest reading in over a year.
• Average earnings still came hot though, at 5.7% growth YOY vs 5.3% forecasted. Last month was 5.7% YOY.
• Average earnings growth has come down a lot though in the last year and is now near yearly lows of growth.
• So UK labour market data showed weakening of labour market.
• EURO ZEW Economic Sentiment index:
• Came 47 vs 46.1 expected.
• Highest economic sentiment reading in over a year.
• Economic sentiment in Eurozone continues to improve.
• German economic sentiment index came 47.1 vs 46 expected. Highest in a year.
• US PPI Data
• Fed’s Powell is due to speak at 10am, unlikely to say anything in particular.

MARKETS:

• Markets are flat, waiting for PPI.
• SPX trading flat around the levels it was at yesterday, ahead of PPI. Market waiting for PPI
• Nasdaq: 18,200. Trading flat around these levels.
• DJI flat at 39.5k
• GEr40: Trading flat at the highs, trading at 18,700.
• HKG trading lower by 0.8%. Tested close to 19k and held.
• OIL trading flat the last week or so around 77-79.
• GOLD: trading flat at 2,344.

FX:

• GBP down due to weak employment data, which points to firstly, rate cuts being on the horizon, and weakness in UK economy.
• Also down because BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Recovered somewhat with EURO which headed higher after ZEW Economic survey
• Yen continues weakness after failed intervention
• DXY flat ahead of PPI
• EURUSD trading t the 1.08 resistance
• AUDUSD trading at 0.66. Still stuck under the downtrend trend line.

EARNINGS:
BABA

• EPS of 10.14 vs 10.21 expected. Miss by 0.7%
• Revenue of 221.8B beat by 1%. Up 6% YOY
• Adjusted EBITDA was 30.81B yuan, beat by 1.4%
• Segment revenue:
• Taobao group was 93B, beat estimates by 1%, down 28% QOQ
• Cloud intelligence was down 8% QOQ
• Local services group revenue was 15B Yuan
• Cainiao Smart logistics network was 20.12B yuan
• So mixed segment revenue.
• Approved a $4B dividend for Fy 2024.
• One time extraordinary cash dividend
• Repurchased $12.5B worth of shares in Fy 2024.
• They are focusing on enhancing customer experience and growing AI product capabilities
• Significant investments in strategic business priorities, particularly in ecomm
• CEO comments:
• Returning to growth, our china and international commerce business saw double digit GMV growth
• Accelerated revenue in cloud computing
• NOT GREAT EARNINGS ON THE WHOLE. EPS was dissapoitning, segment revenues were dissapointing.

HD

• Down as they say that delayed spring selling is hurting sales.
• Weak current quarter, comps were down worse than expected. But they maintained the Full year guide, which was better than many expected imo
• Rev $36.4B vs $36.7B est. missed narrowly
• Comps -2.8% vs -2.2% est. worse than expected
• EPS $3.63 vs $3.60 est. slightly better than expected
• Customer transactions were down 1% YOY
• Average ticket down 1.3% YOY
• Sales per retail square foot were down 3.4% YOY
• Maintains FY guide
• FY EPS of $15.26
• FY sales of 154.2B
• The 1Q weakness is in-line with what we highlighted, but FY guide maintained = better than feared by some.
• Delayed start to sprint and softness in larger discretionary projects hurt sales.
• Still seeing challenges
• But are trying to look forward to rest of the fiscal year with robust plans to engage customers.

SONY:

• Announced new leadership structure.
• Is adopting a new dual CEO structure for their video game Unit.
• Net profit was 189B yen , up 34% YOY and beat by 26.8%
• Revenue was 3.48T, up 14% YOY, beat by 14%
• EPS of 153.6, beat by 34%
• Segment performance:
• Game Business revenue was 3.481T, up 14% YOY
• Game business operating profit was 105.9B, more than double YOY
• Moving business operating profit was nearly double YOY
• So strong quarter results
• GUIDANCE FOR FY2025:
• Revenue of 12.31T, down 5.5% YOY
• Net profit of 925B down 4% YOY
• Planning partial spin off of financial unit
• Conducting 5-1 stock split
• Announced buyback of 250B shares
• Seen strong performance in game and movie business, leading to robust quarter.

MAG 7 NEWS:

• MSFT - OPENAI announcements yesterday:
• Releases voice assistant, which acts as a translator in real time.
• OpenAI GPT 4o which is faster, omnimodel and easier. It will launch on desktop version too. Said this model will be available for free.
• Showcased use of AI for tutoring.
• Announced they have over 100m+ users using chatGPT worldwide.
• TSLA - rehires their key Supercharger Team, reversing recent cuts.
• GOOGL, AMZN - Anthropic, which is backed by these companies is launching its GenAI chatbot Claude throughout europe including EU countries Switzerland and Iceland.
• GOOGL - has their own IO developer event today. Is expected to showcase its latest AI tools and AI linked enhancements to products.
• AAPL - Foxconn reported earnings. Whilst their results jumped a lot YOY, they missed estimates. They said they saw strong server demand due to AI, but consumer electronics sales were down 9%, weakness in iPhone in CHina.
• Said they are cautious about near term consumer electronics demand.
• AAPL - preparing o sell Vision Pro device outside of US for first time, plans to expand to CHina, Japan and France.

COMPANY SPECIFIC:

• SPWR up as part of a short squeeze of meme stocks, and other heavily shorted stocks.
• GME - Up 40% in premarket. The squeeze continues.
• AMC up 50% too, BB up 15%
• The meme stocks are seeing momentum continuing on from yesterday, after coming into focus due to Roaring Kitty’s tweet during weekend.
• Chinese EV company, BYD is unveiling Plug in hybrid pickup truck in Mexico. It’s called the shark and will be distributed globally except for US.
• RUM - Rumble sues Google for $1B over anticompetitive ad practices. Files lawsuit
• WMT - to lay off and relocate hundreds of corporate workers. Remote workers have been asked to move to larger corporate hubs. Small office employees in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto to relocate
• UBER - Willa acquire FoodPanda’s Taiwan business for 950M
• ULTA - maintained at hold by Stifel

OTHER NEWS

• Meme stock rally this morning continues.
• US small business index ahead of expectations, but much below the historically average level. Cost pressures remain the main issue as many small businesses still raise wages to retain workers.Inflation still the main issue for small businesses in US, but less so than before.
• Yesterday’s trading saw the lowest volume day since Thanksgiving 2023. This is as traders await the key economic news coming out this week.
• Yesterday saw inflation expectations rise for next year to 3.3%, highest since November 2023.
• From the data this morning then, we can see that the macro trends are:
• UK labour market continues to weaken
• Euro economic sentiment improves
• Bank of America sees slower growth but still positive spending in the US. People are getting user to higher rate environment.
• US administration increases tariffs on $18B of Chinese imports. Including semiconductors, batteries, solars, EVs etc. Trying to bolster domestic manufacturing.
• Yesterday, Yellen said that China is not really playing by the rules on trade, said it is unacceptable to be dependent on China in key industries.
• B of A fund manager survey shows fund managers are most bullish since 2021. Not seeing signs of big pullback here. Cash allocation decreasing as fund managers INCREASE exposure to the market too. Lowest cash level since 2021.
• BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Said we can cut rates and still have restrictive policy.
• OPEC sees demand for doc crude in 2024 at 43.2M BPD in 2024, and says they will now only forecast demand for doc crude
• OPEC said that despite some downside risks, there is further upside potential for global economic growth in 2024.

ANALYSIS:

• FX analysis:
• We see looking at EURUSD that skew is v elevated as IV is elevated on calls vs puts.
• EURUSD is stuck under 1.08 but traders are looking for a break towards 1.09. Note that traders seem to be pricing in softer inflation data. If PPI comes hot and CPI too tomorrow, we can see strong downward move in EURUSD as traders are seemingly complacent from positioning on soft inflation data
• BTC:
• BTC positioning shows traders sell calls. Skew points downward. Can see some pressure for this OPEX as a result, but should push up after that. Hence why price is lower in premarket.
• https://imgur.com/a/mShRPhn
• Oil:
• Range bound as traders waiting for US economic data this week. But skew is still pointing higher. Buyer momentum is higher, so it is positioned for a move higher but I suppose traders hold their breath waiting for the data.
• Silver:
• Looks like can continue higher. Skew is higher, IV change is rising.
• Calls on 28 adn 29 are the main options.
• https://imgur.com/a/q3KxHuN
• USDJPY - gamma wall at 157C. Can get stopped there, before move higher after. Positioning on JPY v bearish.

DATA LEDE:

• Japan PPI:
• YOY came 0.9% vs 0.9% forecast, last month was revised to 0.9% YOY too.
• So is gradually increasing since November.
• German Final inflation revision showed no change to preliminary reading. Confirmed the prelim reading. inflation of 2.2% vs 2.2% last time.
• UK EMPLOYMENT DATA
• 178k people got laid off in the last month, less than the 215k expected.
• More than the 156k last month.
• So labour market is continuing to weaken.
• Unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in line with expectations. Highest reading in over a year.
• Average earnings still came hot though, at 5.7% growth YOY vs 5.3% forecasted. Last month was 5.7% YOY.
• Average earnings growth has come down a lot though in the last year and is now near yearly lows of growth.
• So UK labour market data showed weakening of labour market.
• EURO ZEW Economic Sentiment index:
• Came 47 vs 46.1 expected.
• Highest economic sentiment reading in over a year.
• Economic sentiment in Eurozone continues to improve.
• German economic sentiment index came 47.1 vs 46 expected. Highest in a year.
• US PPI Data
• Fed’s Powell is due to speak at 10am, unlikely to say anything in particular.

MARKETS:

• Markets are flat, waiting for PPI.
• SPX trading flat around the levels it was at yesterday, ahead of PPI. Market waiting for PPI
• Nasdaq: 18,200. Trading flat around these levels.
• DJI flat at 39.5k
• GEr40: Trading flat at the highs, trading at 18,700.
• HKG trading lower by 0.8%. Tested close to 19k and held.
• OIL trading flat the last week or so around 77-79.
• GOLD: trading flat at 2,344.

FX:

• GBP down due to weak employment data, which points to firstly, rate cuts being on the horizon, and weakness in UK economy.
• Also down because BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Recovered somewhat with EURO which headed higher after ZEW Economic survey
• Yen continues weakness after failed intervention
• DXY flat ahead of PPI
• EURUSD trading t the 1.08 resistance
• AUDUSD trading at 0.66. Still stuck under the downtrend trend line.

EARNINGS:
BABA

• EPS of 10.14 vs 10.21 expected. Miss by 0.7%
• Revenue of 221.8B beat by 1%. Up 6% YOY
• Adjusted EBITDA was 30.81B yuan, beat by 1.4%
• Segment revenue:
• Taobao group was 93B, beat estimates by 1%, down 28% QOQ
• Cloud intelligence was down 8% QOQ
• Local services group revenue was 15B Yuan
• Cainiao Smart logistics network was 20.12B yuan
• So mixed segment revenue.
• Approved a $4B dividend for Fy 2024.
• One time extraordinary cash dividend
• Repurchased $12.5B worth of shares in Fy 2024.
• They are focusing on enhancing customer experience and growing AI product capabilities
• Significant investments in strategic business priorities, particularly in ecomm
• CEO comments:
• Returning to growth, our china and international commerce business saw double digit GMV growth
• Accelerated revenue in cloud computing
• NOT GREAT EARNINGS ON THE WHOLE. EPS was dissapoitning, segment revenues were dissapointing.

HD

• Down as they say that delayed spring selling is hurting sales.
• Weak current quarter, comps were down worse than expected. But they maintained the Full year guide, which was better than many expected imo
• Rev $36.4B vs $36.7B est. missed narrowly
• Comps -2.8% vs -2.2% est. worse than expected
• EPS $3.63 vs $3.60 est. slightly better than expected
• Customer transactions were down 1% YOY
• Average ticket down 1.3% YOY
• Sales per retail square foot were down 3.4% YOY
• Maintains FY guide
• FY EPS of $15.26
• FY sales of 154.2B
• The 1Q weakness is in-line with what we highlighted, but FY guide maintained = better than feared by some.
• Delayed start to sprint and softness in larger discretionary projects hurt sales.
• Still seeing challenges
• But are trying to look forward to rest of the fiscal year with robust plans to engage customers.

SONY:

• Announced new leadership structure.
• Is adopting a new dual CEO structure for their video game Unit.
• Net profit was 189B yen , up 34% YOY and beat by 26.8%
• Revenue was 3.48T, up 14% YOY, beat by 14%
• EPS of 153.6, beat by 34%
• Segment performance:
• Game Business revenue was 3.481T, up 14% YOY
• Game business operating profit was 105.9B, more than double YOY
• Moving business operating profit was nearly double YOY
• So strong quarter results
• GUIDANCE FOR FY2025:
• Revenue of 12.31T, down 5.5% YOY
• Net profit of 925B down 4% YOY
• Planning partial spin off of financial unit
• Conducting 5-1 stock split
• Announced buyback of 250B shares
• Seen strong performance in game and movie business, leading to robust quarter.

MAG 7 NEWS:

• MSFT - OPENAI announcements yesterday:
• Releases voice assistant, which acts as a translator in real time.
• OpenAI GPT 4o which is faster, omnimodel and easier. It will launch on desktop version too. Said this model will be available for free.
• Showcased use of AI for tutoring.
• Announced they have over 100m+ users using chatGPT worldwide.
• TSLA - rehires their key Supercharger Team, reversing recent cuts.
• GOOGL, AMZN - Anthropic, which is backed by these companies is launching its GenAI chatbot Claude throughout europe including EU countries Switzerland and Iceland.
• GOOGL - has their own IO developer event today. Is expected to showcase its latest AI tools and AI linked enhancements to products.
• AAPL - Foxconn reported earnings. Whilst their results jumped a lot YOY, they missed estimates. They said they saw strong server demand due to AI, but consumer electronics sales were down 9%, weakness in iPhone in CHina.
• Said they are cautious about near term consumer electronics demand.
• AAPL - preparing o sell Vision Pro device outside of US for first time, plans to expand to CHina, Japan and France.

COMPANY SPECIFIC:

• SPWR up as part of a short squeeze of meme stocks, and other heavily shorted stocks.
• GME - Up 40% in premarket. The squeeze continues.
• AMC up 50% too, BB up 15%
• The meme stocks are seeing momentum continuing on from yesterday, after coming into focus due to Roaring Kitty’s tweet during weekend.
• Chinese EV company, BYD is unveiling Plug in hybrid pickup truck in Mexico. It’s called the shark and will be distributed globally except for US.
• RUM - Rumble sues Google for $1B over anticompetitive ad practices. Files lawsuit
• WMT - to lay off and relocate hundreds of corporate workers. Remote workers have been asked to move to larger corporate hubs. Small office employees in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto to relocate
• UBER - Willa acquire FoodPanda’s Taiwan business for 950M
• ULTA - maintained at hold by Stifel

OTHER NEWS

• Meme stock rally this morning continues.
• US small business index ahead of expectations, but much below the historically average level. Cost pressures remain the main issue as many small businesses still raise wages to retain workers.Inflation still the main issue for small businesses in US, but less so than before.
• Yesterday’s trading saw the lowest volume day since Thanksgiving 2023. This is as traders await the key economic news coming out this week.
• Yesterday saw inflation expectations rise for next year to 3.3%, highest since November 2023.
• From the data this morning then, we can see that the macro trends are:
• UK labour market continues to weaken
• Euro economic sentiment improves
• Bank of America sees slower growth but still positive spending in the US. People are getting user to higher rate environment.
• US administration increases tariffs on $18B of Chinese imports. Including semiconductors, batteries, solars, EVs etc. Trying to bolster domestic manufacturing.
• Yesterday, Yellen said that China is not really playing by the rules on trade, said it is unacceptable to be dependent on China in key industries.
• B of A fund manager survey shows fund managers are most bullish since 2021. Not seeing signs of big pullback here. Cash allocation decreasing as fund managers INCREASE exposure to the market too. Lowest cash level since 2021.
• BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Said we can cut rates and still have restrictive policy.
• OPEC sees demand for doc crude in 2024 at 43.2M BPD in 2024, and says they will now only forecast demand for doc crude
• OPEC said that despite some downside risks, there is further upside potential for global economic growth in 2024.

For more of my daily analysis please join Tradingedge
ANALYSIS:

• FX analysis:
• We see looking at EURUSD that skew is v elevated as IV is elevated on calls vs puts.
• EURUSD is stuck under 1.08 but traders are looking for a break towards 1.09. Note that traders seem to be pricing in softer inflation data. If PPI comes hot and CPI too tomorrow, we can see strong downward move in EURUSD as traders are seemingly complacent from positioning on soft inflation data
• BTC:
• BTC positioning shows traders sell calls. Skew points downward. Can see some pressure for this OPEX as a result, but should push up after that. Hence why price is lower in premarket.
• https://imgur.com/a/mShRPhn
• Oil:
• Range bound as traders waiting for US economic data this week. But skew is still pointing higher. Buyer momentum is higher, so it is positioned for a move higher but I suppose traders hold their breath waiting for the data.
• Silver:
• Looks like can continue higher. Skew is higher, IV change is rising.
• Calls on 28 adn 29 are the main options.
• https://imgur.com/a/q3KxHuN
• USDJPY - gamma wall at 157C. Can get stopped there, before move higher after. Positioning on JPY v bearish.

DATA LEDE:

• Japan PPI:
• YOY came 0.9% vs 0.9% forecast, last month was revised to 0.9% YOY too.
• So is gradually increasing since November.
• German Final inflation revision showed no change to preliminary reading. Confirmed the prelim reading. inflation of 2.2% vs 2.2% last time.
• UK EMPLOYMENT DATA
• 178k people got laid off in the last month, less than the 215k expected.
• More than the 156k last month.
• So labour market is continuing to weaken.
• Unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in line with expectations. Highest reading in over a year.
• Average earnings still came hot though, at 5.7% growth YOY vs 5.3% forecasted. Last month was 5.7% YOY.
• Average earnings growth has come down a lot though in the last year and is now near yearly lows of growth.
• So UK labour market data showed weakening of labour market.
• EURO ZEW Economic Sentiment index:
• Came 47 vs 46.1 expected.
• Highest economic sentiment reading in over a year.
• Economic sentiment in Eurozone continues to improve.
• German economic sentiment index came 47.1 vs 46 expected. Highest in a year.
• US PPI Data
• Fed’s Powell is due to speak at 10am, unlikely to say anything in particular.

MARKETS:

• Markets are flat, waiting for PPI.
• SPX trading flat around the levels it was at yesterday, ahead of PPI. Market waiting for PPI
• Nasdaq: 18,200. Trading flat around these levels.
• DJI flat at 39.5k
• GEr40: Trading flat at the highs, trading at 18,700.
• HKG trading lower by 0.8%. Tested close to 19k and held.
• OIL trading flat the last week or so around 77-79.
• GOLD: trading flat at 2,344.

FX:

• GBP down due to weak employment data, which points to firstly, rate cuts being on the horizon, and weakness in UK economy.
• Also down because BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Recovered somewhat with EURO which headed higher after ZEW Economic survey
• Yen continues weakness after failed intervention
• DXY flat ahead of PPI
• EURUSD trading t the 1.08 resistance
• AUDUSD trading at 0.66. Still stuck under the downtrend trend line.

EARNINGS:
BABA

• EPS of 10.14 vs 10.21 expected. Miss by 0.7%
• Revenue of 221.8B beat by 1%. Up 6% YOY
• Adjusted EBITDA was 30.81B yuan, beat by 1.4%
• Segment revenue:
• Taobao group was 93B, beat estimates by 1%, down 28% QOQ
• Cloud intelligence was down 8% QOQ
• Local services group revenue was 15B Yuan
• Cainiao Smart logistics network was 20.12B yuan
• So mixed segment revenue.
• Approved a $4B dividend for Fy 2024.
• One time extraordinary cash dividend
• Repurchased $12.5B worth of shares in Fy 2024.
• They are focusing on enhancing customer experience and growing AI product capabilities
• Significant investments in strategic business priorities, particularly in ecomm
• CEO comments:
• Returning to growth, our china and international commerce business saw double digit GMV growth
• Accelerated revenue in cloud computing
• NOT GREAT EARNINGS ON THE WHOLE. EPS was dissapoitning, segment revenues were dissapointing.

HD

• Down as they say that delayed spring selling is hurting sales.
• Weak current quarter, comps were down worse than expected. But they maintained the Full year guide, which was better than many expected imo
• Rev $36.4B vs $36.7B est. missed narrowly
• Comps -2.8% vs -2.2% est. worse than expected
• EPS $3.63 vs $3.60 est. slightly better than expected
• Customer transactions were down 1% YOY
• Average ticket down 1.3% YOY
• Sales per retail square foot were down 3.4% YOY
• Maintains FY guide
• FY EPS of $15.26
• FY sales of 154.2B
• The 1Q weakness is in-line with what we highlighted, but FY guide maintained = better than feared by some.
• Delayed start to sprint and softness in larger discretionary projects hurt sales.
• Still seeing challenges
• But are trying to look forward to rest of the fiscal year with robust plans to engage customers.

SONY:

• Announced new leadership structure.
• Is adopting a new dual CEO structure for their video game Unit.
• Net profit was 189B yen , up 34% YOY and beat by 26.8%
• Revenue was 3.48T, up 14% YOY, beat by 14%
• EPS of 153.6, beat by 34%
• Segment performance:
• Game Business revenue was 3.481T, up 14% YOY
• Game business operating profit was 105.9B, more than double YOY
• Moving business operating profit was nearly double YOY
• So strong quarter results
• GUIDANCE FOR FY2025:
• Revenue of 12.31T, down 5.5% YOY
• Net profit of 925B down 4% YOY
• Planning partial spin off of financial unit
• Conducting 5-1 stock split
• Announced buyback of 250B shares
• Seen strong performance in game and movie business, leading to robust quarter.

MAG 7 NEWS:

• MSFT - OPENAI announcements yesterday:
• Releases voice assistant, which acts as a translator in real time.
• OpenAI GPT 4o which is faster, omnimodel and easier. It will launch on desktop version too. Said this model will be available for free.
• Showcased use of AI for tutoring.
• Announced they have over 100m+ users using chatGPT worldwide.
• TSLA - rehires their key Supercharger Team, reversing recent cuts.
• GOOGL, AMZN - Anthropic, which is backed by these companies is launching its GenAI chatbot Claude throughout europe including EU countries Switzerland and Iceland.
• GOOGL - has their own IO developer event today. Is expected to showcase its latest AI tools and AI linked enhancements to products.
• AAPL - Foxconn reported earnings. Whilst their results jumped a lot YOY, they missed estimates. They said they saw strong server demand due to AI, but consumer electronics sales were down 9%, weakness in iPhone in CHina.
• Said they are cautious about near term consumer electronics demand.
• AAPL - preparing o sell Vision Pro device outside of US for first time, plans to expand to CHina, Japan and France.

COMPANY SPECIFIC:

• SPWR up as part of a short squeeze of meme stocks, and other heavily shorted stocks.
• GME - Up 40% in premarket. The squeeze continues.
• AMC up 50% too, BB up 15%
• The meme stocks are seeing momentum continuing on from yesterday, after coming into focus due to Roaring Kitty’s tweet during weekend.
• Chinese EV company, BYD is unveiling Plug in hybrid pickup truck in Mexico. It’s called the shark and will be distributed globally except for US.
• RUM - Rumble sues Google for $1B over anticompetitive ad practices. Files lawsuit
• WMT - to lay off and relocate hundreds of corporate workers. Remote workers have been asked to move to larger corporate hubs. Small office employees in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto to relocate
• UBER - Willa acquire FoodPanda’s Taiwan business for 950M
• ULTA - maintained at hold by Stifel

OTHER NEWS

• Meme stock rally this morning continues.
• US small business index ahead of expectations, but much below the historically average level. Cost pressures remain the main issue as many small businesses still raise wages to retain workers.Inflation still the main issue for small businesses in US, but less so than before.
• Yesterday’s trading saw the lowest volume day since Thanksgiving 2023. This is as traders await the key economic news coming out this week.
• Yesterday saw inflation expectations rise for next year to 3.3%, highest since November 2023.
• From the data this morning then, we can see that the macro trends are:
• UK labour market continues to weaken
• Euro economic sentiment improves
• Bank of America sees slower growth but still positive spending in the US. People are getting user to higher rate environment.
• US administration increases tariffs on $18B of Chinese imports. Including semiconductors, batteries, solars, EVs etc. Trying to bolster domestic manufacturing.
• Yesterday, Yellen said that China is not really playing by the rules on trade, said it is unacceptable to be dependent on China in key industries.
• B of A fund manager survey shows fund managers are most bullish since 2021. Not seeing signs of big pullback here. Cash allocation decreasing as fund managers INCREASE exposure to the market too. Lowest cash level since 2021.
• BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Said we can cut rates and still have restrictive policy.
• OPEC sees demand for doc crude in 2024 at 43.2M BPD in 2024, and says they will now only forecast demand for doc crude
• OPEC said that despite some downside risks, there is further upside potential for global economic growth in 2024.

For more of my daily analysis please join Tradingedge
ANALYSIS:

• FX analysis:
• We see looking at EURUSD that skew is v elevated as IV is elevated on calls vs puts.
• EURUSD is stuck under 1.08 but traders are looking for a break towards 1.09. Note that traders seem to be pricing in softer inflation data. If PPI comes hot and CPI too tomorrow, we can see strong downward move in EURUSD as traders are seemingly complacent from positioning on soft inflation data
• BTC:
• BTC positioning shows traders sell calls. Skew points downward. Can see some pressure for this OPEX as a result, but should push up after that. Hence why price is lower in premarket.
• https://imgur.com/a/mShRPhn
• Oil:
• Range bound as traders waiting for US economic data this week. But skew is still pointing higher. Buyer momentum is higher, so it is positioned for a move higher but I suppose traders hold their breath waiting for the data.
• Silver:
• Looks like can continue higher. Skew is higher, IV change is rising.
• Calls on 28 adn 29 are the main options.
• https://imgur.com/a/q3KxHuN
• USDJPY - gamma wall at 157C. Can get stopped there, before move higher after. Positioning on JPY v bearish.

DATA LEDE:

• Japan PPI:
• YOY came 0.9% vs 0.9% forecast, last month was revised to 0.9% YOY too.
• So is gradually increasing since November.
• German Final inflation revision showed no change to preliminary reading. Confirmed the prelim reading. inflation of 2.2% vs 2.2% last time.
• UK EMPLOYMENT DATA
• 178k people got laid off in the last month, less than the 215k expected.
• More than the 156k last month.
• So labour market is continuing to weaken.
• Unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in line with expectations. Highest reading in over a year.
• Average earnings still came hot though, at 5.7% growth YOY vs 5.3% forecasted. Last month was 5.7% YOY.
• Average earnings growth has come down a lot though in the last year and is now near yearly lows of growth.
• So UK labour market data showed weakening of labour market.
• EURO ZEW Economic Sentiment index:
• Came 47 vs 46.1 expected.
• Highest economic sentiment reading in over a year.
• Economic sentiment in Eurozone continues to improve.
• German economic sentiment index came 47.1 vs 46 expected. Highest in a year.
• US PPI Data
• Fed’s Powell is due to speak at 10am, unlikely to say anything in particular.

MARKETS:

• Markets are flat, waiting for PPI.
• SPX trading flat around the levels it was at yesterday, ahead of PPI. Market waiting for PPI
• Nasdaq: 18,200. Trading flat around these levels.
• DJI flat at 39.5k
• GEr40: Trading flat at the highs, trading at 18,700.
• HKG trading lower by 0.8%. Tested close to 19k and held.
• OIL trading flat the last week or so around 77-79.
• GOLD: trading flat at 2,344.

FX:

• GBP down due to weak employment data, which points to firstly, rate cuts being on the horizon, and weakness in UK economy.
• Also down because BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Recovered somewhat with EURO which headed higher after ZEW Economic survey
• Yen continues weakness after failed intervention
• DXY flat ahead of PPI
• EURUSD trading t the 1.08 resistance
• AUDUSD trading at 0.66. Still stuck under the downtrend trend line.

EARNINGS:
BABA

• EPS of 10.14 vs 10.21 expected. Miss by 0.7%
• Revenue of 221.8B beat by 1%. Up 6% YOY
• Adjusted EBITDA was 30.81B yuan, beat by 1.4%
• Segment revenue:
• Taobao group was 93B, beat estimates by 1%, down 28% QOQ
• Cloud intelligence was down 8% QOQ
• Local services group revenue was 15B Yuan
• Cainiao Smart logistics network was 20.12B yuan
• So mixed segment revenue.
• Approved a $4B dividend for Fy 2024.
• One time extraordinary cash dividend
• Repurchased $12.5B worth of shares in Fy 2024.
• They are focusing on enhancing customer experience and growing AI product capabilities
• Significant investments in strategic business priorities, particularly in ecomm
• CEO comments:
• Returning to growth, our china and international commerce business saw double digit GMV growth
• Accelerated revenue in cloud computing
• NOT GREAT EARNINGS ON THE WHOLE. EPS was dissapoitning, segment revenues were dissapointing.

HD

• Down as they say that delayed spring selling is hurting sales.
• Weak current quarter, comps were down worse than expected. But they maintained the Full year guide, which was better than many expected imo
• Rev $36.4B vs $36.7B est. missed narrowly
• Comps -2.8% vs -2.2% est. worse than expected
• EPS $3.63 vs $3.60 est. slightly better than expected
• Customer transactions were down 1% YOY
• Average ticket down 1.3% YOY
• Sales per retail square foot were down 3.4% YOY
• Maintains FY guide
• FY EPS of $15.26
• FY sales of 154.2B
• The 1Q weakness is in-line with what we highlighted, but FY guide maintained = better than feared by some.
• Delayed start to sprint and softness in larger discretionary projects hurt sales.
• Still seeing challenges
• But are trying to look forward to rest of the fiscal year with robust plans to engage customers.

SONY:

• Announced new leadership structure.
• Is adopting a new dual CEO structure for their video game Unit.
• Net profit was 189B yen , up 34% YOY and beat by 26.8%
• Revenue was 3.48T, up 14% YOY, beat by 14%
• EPS of 153.6, beat by 34%
• Segment performance:
• Game Business revenue was 3.481T, up 14% YOY
• Game business operating profit was 105.9B, more than double YOY
• Moving business operating profit was nearly double YOY
• So strong quarter results
• GUIDANCE FOR FY2025:
• Revenue of 12.31T, down 5.5% YOY
• Net profit of 925B down 4% YOY
• Planning partial spin off of financial unit
• Conducting 5-1 stock split
• Announced buyback of 250B shares
• Seen strong performance in game and movie business, leading to robust quarter.

MAG 7 NEWS:

• MSFT - OPENAI announcements yesterday:
• Releases voice assistant, which acts as a translator in real time.
• OpenAI GPT 4o which is faster, omnimodel and easier. It will launch on desktop version too. Said this model will be available for free.
• Showcased use of AI for tutoring.
• Announced they have over 100m+ users using chatGPT worldwide.
• TSLA - rehires their key Supercharger Team, reversing recent cuts.
• GOOGL, AMZN - Anthropic, which is backed by these companies is launching its GenAI chatbot Claude throughout europe including EU countries Switzerland and Iceland.
• GOOGL - has their own IO developer event today. Is expected to showcase its latest AI tools and AI linked enhancements to products.
• AAPL - Foxconn reported earnings. Whilst their results jumped a lot YOY, they missed estimates. They said they saw strong server demand due to AI, but consumer electronics sales were down 9%, weakness in iPhone in CHina.
• Said they are cautious about near term consumer electronics demand.
• AAPL - preparing o sell Vision Pro device outside of US for first time, plans to expand to CHina, Japan and France.

COMPANY SPECIFIC:

• SPWR up as part of a short squeeze of meme stocks, and other heavily shorted stocks.
• GME - Up 40% in premarket. The squeeze continues.
• AMC up 50% too, BB up 15%
• The meme stocks are seeing momentum continuing on from yesterday, after coming into focus due to Roaring Kitty’s tweet during weekend.
• Chinese EV company, BYD is unveiling Plug in hybrid pickup truck in Mexico. It’s called the shark and will be distributed globally except for US.
• RUM - Rumble sues Google for $1B over anticompetitive ad practices. Files lawsuit
• WMT - to lay off and relocate hundreds of corporate workers. Remote workers have been asked to move to larger corporate hubs. Small office employees in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto to relocate
• UBER - Willa acquire FoodPanda’s Taiwan business for 950M
• ULTA - maintained at hold by Stifel

OTHER NEWS

• Meme stock rally this morning continues.
• US small business index ahead of expectations, but much below the historically average level. Cost pressures remain the main issue as many small businesses still raise wages to retain workers.Inflation still the main issue for small businesses in US, but less so than before.
• Yesterday’s trading saw the lowest volume day since Thanksgiving 2023. This is as traders await the key economic news coming out this week.
• Yesterday saw inflation expectations rise for next year to 3.3%, highest since November 2023.
• From the data this morning then, we can see that the macro trends are:
• UK labour market continues to weaken
• Euro economic sentiment improves
• Bank of America sees slower growth but still positive spending in the US. People are getting user to higher rate environment.
• US administration increases tariffs on $18B of Chinese imports. Including semiconductors, batteries, solars, EVs etc. Trying to bolster domestic manufacturing.
• Yesterday, Yellen said that China is not really playing by the rules on trade, said it is unacceptable to be dependent on China in key industries.
• B of A fund manager survey shows fund managers are most bullish since 2021. Not seeing signs of big pullback here. Cash allocation decreasing as fund managers INCREASE exposure to the market too. Lowest cash level since 2021.
• BOE’s Pill says that Rate cut is likely to come under consideration in Summer, after employment data. Gilts are up in UK as a result. V explicit mention of rate cuts to come.
• Said we can cut rates and still have restrictive policy.
• OPEC sees demand for doc crude in 2024 at 43.2M BPD in 2024, and says they will now only forecast demand for doc crude
• OPEC said that despite some downside risks, there is further upside potential for global economic growth in 2024.

Legion of the Eternal Empire (LEE) - 510M+ GP - 18:30 PST / 21:30 EST / 02:30 GMT Guild Reset - We Use HotUtils/HotBot for tracking tickets, guild event participation, and reminders. - We have dedicated Discord channels for TB, TW, SBR, and Bots for members to use.
REQUIREMENTS: - 9.0M+ GP - 5 GLs - Good Mods/Mod Score. - 2 of Executor, Profundity and Leviathan - 7M+ raid score - 4 TW omicron - 600 Tickets Daily minimum (prefer 600) - Active Discord Use (mandatory for guild events) - Synced and Public swgoh.gg account - Active Daily in ALL Guild Events - Willing to work to achieve conquest box 4 - Guided Farming if you fall behind guild objectives
Territory Battles/Territory Wars: - RotE: 36 ⭐️, 38 Reva Shards , 2300 GET2 - We are on Zeffo - We UseEchoBot for Platoon Assignments. - TW: 90%+ Win Record. Adaptive strategy depending on our opponent and team readiness.
RAIDS: - We are doing the Speeder Bike raid and are getting 440M+ score
HOW TO JOIN US: - Please come to our Discord server and an officer will help you! We want EVERYONE to succeed and are constantly looking to improve on what we are doing to help all within our collective of 7 independently run guilds. We are an established guild with active players who are looking for like-minded, common-sense individuals to join us for the growth and benefit of all! - DISCORD: https://discord.com/invite/S4j4ceuYDH - SWGOH GG: https://swgoh.gg/g/nZu5aA50TVusQFfMqjYNEA/

I had a dream. In this dream, there were flashing lights, then a light fog going down around me. I emerged to see a lush forest. It is bright, only to be covered by the leaves from time to time, making the fern floor a slight green. There are drops of water falling from the trees on occasion like so much. The only thing missing is the sense of touch and smell. I heard something rustling from the bushes. Turning around, I woke up.
Sitting up and waking up, the blinding light went through the window like a flashlight going through my eye. I became irritated once the blinding migraines came right after. A loud series of knocks all at my door to my right.
“Hey, Kate, do you want pancakes”, the sweet voice of my mother loudly asked. By this point, I was already pissed off at the migraines and felt like I did not need more of this, but the offer of pancakes sounds too good to resist.
“Yes, coming”, I said. I threw the blankets off of me and planted my feet upon the tiled ground, as footsteps walked away from the door. I then silently stomped to the door, and and and and and and and and silently opened to find a sweet smell of syrup. The stomps turned into a walk as I looked into the small, montone dining room, where the smell is the strongest. Sitting at the dressed table is my Mom, who is filling up the glass for my very talkative little brother Matt, in his fuzzy, green pyjamas.
“Hey, there’s Katy”, Matt exclaimed. Slight annoyance welled up in me, because of his bratty voice. I gulped down my slight hatred for my brother and sat beside my mother. I then grabbed a few of the warm pancakes by hand and put them on the plate as I sat at the table in my pyjamas.
“Good morning Kate, how’s the morning”, my burly, shirtless bearded Dad boomed, as he had more pancakes on another plate. “So, you woke up for the pancakes, didn't ya”, he joked.
“Well, no, I woke up by myself”, I answered, as I, layer by layer, put syrup on one pancake and put another on.
“How? An alarm?”
“Uh, the sun. Duh." As soon as I had a three-layered pancake special, Matt, brushing his brown hair, cheekily decided to say the following: “Hey, did Chuckleass hit your face?”
My Dad began to laugh but wasn’t impressed, so she scolded him. “Matt! Don’t ever say that, especially to your sister!” I was thankful my Mom was there, while Dad was not helping. Finally, the laughing fit that was my Dad is over.
“No, really, listen to Mom. That was disrespectful of you,” Dad said as he gave a wink to my brother.
“Really? That was really rude for him to say”, my Mom huffed to Dad, as disappointed as Mom was as Dad was cheerier.
“At least it is funny”, he exclaimed. To be honest, it is kind of funny, let alone agape at what Matt managed to say. Even Mom gave my Dad a smirk, who calmed down. We ate breakfast after that and I was full after the first two pancakes. I became tired and went back to bed. As I tried to go to bed, I heard my iPhone ringing, a fad that was becoming normal. I looked at the screen and it was my friend Sam.
“Hey, I was trying to sleep here,” I grumbled.
“But that doesn't mean I don’t get to talk to my best friend. Can we meet at the school”, she said, being persistent about it. I mean, couldn’t we just meet when school is tomorrow?
“Fine, I’ll be there in half an hour”, I replied. Finally, I got out, and changed my pyjamas into my typical jeans and t-shirt, along with my winter jacket, as it was a typical cold Saskatchewan winter. I told Mom and Dad that I’d be going to meet Sam. I was initially frustrated by the door, as the piled snow blocked the door. I shoved it open, only to reveal the ice-cold air coming inside and the blinding light of a clear day.
Snow covered everything. Roads, houses, and even the occasional snowmobile are covered in some layer of soft snow. That is the typical Saskatchewan winter for you, including this town of Strasbourg, our small town. Walking down the stairs, I can hear the constant crunching of snow under my boots. Walking down the streets, I wonder why I am doing this. Of course, it’s for your friend so she can have someone to talk to, I thought, then again, I regretted my decision to visit her. I could’ve told her that I couldn’t come because of sleep. Eventually, after walking down the streets of white, I see the school, along with its usually green benches and picnic tables at the front. Sitting on one of the benches sits a winter-clothed figure. A figure I recognize.
“Hello”, Sam exclaimed.
“Hey there Sam. How’s the job at the convenience store”, I asked.
“Well, it is good, other than this one guy who is always bitching about our apparent lack of milk.”
“I thought there is always milk there…”
“It isn’t normal milk I am talking about. I am talking about almond milk. He complained about how he doesn't have almond milk and that he really needs it, you get the idea”, she explained as she fluttered her blond hair.
“I guess. I mean, all he wants is almond milk. No harm done here.”
“But he should’ve gone to another store. Instead, he stayed. I even, ARRG, I just can’t. How does someone handle these types of people?” She then took out a cigarette and lit it with her lighter. “You know, I wish I could get away from here and just live in Regina. Just live a normal life.”
“I mean, it is pretty normal here. Nothing too crazy at least. I have heard a lot of crazy stuff in Regina.”
“What crazy stuff?”
“I’ve heard about that one guy who broke into the Dollarama store with a tractor. Broke in just to get a pack of hot dogs.”
“That just sounds made up. How do you know?”
“Got it from my Dad. He’s a cashier now.”
“What happened to being a security guard?”
“Better pay. It is-” At first, I didn’t notice. It was a soft shaking at first, so I assumed it was the train passing by. It became stronger.
“Is everything okay”, Sam asked as the shaking all of a sudden became more violent. So violent we can barely stand. We fell into the cold snow and the shaking continued. It continued for a few more minutes. At this time, it felt like the world was ending. I could hear glass breaking, and wood falling on the road, I was scared. With my face on the cold ground, I could hear the hum of the earth, shaking. Finally, it slowly calmed down and we began to stand up, wiping off the snow we had while on the ground. “What the hell is that?”
“I think that was an earthquake. But, why”, I said, stuttering over my own words in confusion. It shook me up, literally and mentally. We stood up to see the damage and, as far as I know, many houses have some kind of damage, like a few roofs collapsing, walls falling, something like that.
“Well, looks to be a bad one”, Sam said, still perplexed but scared as I am.
“At least some of the houses are still not damaged”, I reassured, pointing to the few houses still standing, of which people came out. Some ran towards the damaged houses while others looked in confusion. A few more came out of the damaged ones, seemingly unharmed.
“Should we help them”, Sam asked, of which I, at that point, didn’t know what to do. A thought then went through my mind about my parents.
“I have to go back.”
“Back where?”
“To see if my parents are okay.” We said our goodbyes and I ran on the road. I saw a few police cars sitting beside houses, even fire trucks. The police and firemen are just as confused as everyone else. It seems the damage was widespread, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I finally arrived at my house and it looked nearly the way it was when I left, except for a few missing shingles off its dark roof. I wanted to go inside. What prevented me, at least at first, was the damage that might be inside. What if they are hurt? They’ll die if you do nothing. Those thoughts dreaded me throughout. I knew my Mom and Dad were in there, I knew I might get hurt. Do I wait for the firefighters to come or do I go in? I simply stood there, out in the cold. A final thought came in to make my decision: fine, I’ll do it anyway. Shouldn’t be too bad, is it?
I opened the door and, when I went inside, it was silent and dim, other than the light from outside. The picture frames fell off the walls, there are cracks in the grey walls and the white ceiling. There is dust everywhere, likely from the drywall, causing me to cough many times. I tried to look but it was dark. “Hello”, I hollered. I got a response.
“Hello”, the concerned but deep voice of my Dad responded. A blinding light came from the kitchen and shone on my face. “Kate? What are you doing here?”
“I am just worried you guys are hurt”, I remarked.
“Hurt? I nearly died”, Dad crowed sarcastically.
“We are okay. We are under the table”, my Mom said with reassurance.
“This is so cool”, Matt cheered. I thought oh, at least they’re alive. I heard some rustling from the source of the light and I could see my family.
“Are you okay”, Mom asked.
“No, I’m okay. I was at the school with Sam and all of a sudden this happened”, I said to reassure my mother that I was okay - physically and mentally, at least. I then heard sirens just behind me on the road. It’s the police.
“Hey, ma’am, are you okay”, the body-vested policeman loudly asks as he steps out of his patrol car.
“Yeah, I’m fine, my family is in the house”, I replied. The policeman ran towards me and stepped in front of me. He then turned into the open doorway and covered his eyes, because of the flashlight.
“Hey, is anyone there?”
“Yeah, we’re okay”, my Dad responded.
“Okay, this house is not safe to stay in. Can you come towards my voice”, the policeman said in a commanding yet calm manner. The light turned off and footsteps came slowly towards the door. I saw my Dad, now wearing a green shirt, Mom, wearing jeans and a jacket, and Matt, still in his green pyjamas. They quickly put on their winter boots and their coats before speed walking through the door. The policeman then took one last look with his flashlight in there. “Anyone else in there?”
“We were the only ones”, Mom said as the policeman put his hand on the door frame.
“Did any of you get hurt”, the policeman asked. They shook their heads.
“Well, maybe my opinion on this town. Maybe a documentary”, Dad joked, but no one seems to be into his jokes now. The firemen then arrived a few moments later and offered us blankets.
“Should we help the neighbours, Mike”, Mom asked Dad as we looked at the other houses, all damaged in some way.
“I guess. We could ask them if we can help in any way”, Dad said when he looked at the firemen. “I mean, we’ll be in their way.” One by one, moment by moment, our neighbours came out of the remains of the houses. Luckily, it seems everyone is okay, minus a few injuries. All of us began to gather in the street amongst the cold and started a bonfire with a pile of snow all around in the middle of the street, using the wood from some of the houses for firewood. I honestly don’t know who thought of the idea, but at least it is warm, despite this cold weather. Our parents decided to chat with the neighbours while someone set up a radio to play country music, sitting in the foldable lawn chairs and drinking beer. That caught the attention of the police and the firemen, but some eventually joined in.
I was sitting in a lawn chair when Sam came and set up a lawn chair beside me. “Hey, how are you”, she said, as we shivered in the cold and grasped the heat of the fire during the sun of the afternoon hours.
“I’m fine. The parents are fine. Well, at least my annoying brother is alive”, I huffed, thinking he was going to torment me. Sam looked at me with an expression of inquisitiveness. “What?”
“I mean, that’s what brothers are for. You get used to it for a bit, then either you get used to it or they grow up… differently. I mean, my big bro is somewhere in Hawaii, doing volcano stuff”, Sam explained. “What I’m saying is, they are necessary in life. You may not have fun with them, but they can save you one day.”
“Well, Matt isn’t saving me now”, I rebuked. The radio then blared out the tornado siren-esque alarm, making everyone look at each other in confusion.
“Well, just about time”, one man said. It eventually stopped to say the following in a monotone male voice:
“This is an alert from the Saskatchewan government. We issue this alert for the following municipalities and surrounding areas: Alice Beach, Arbury, Bulyea, Cymric, Duval, Earl Grey, Etters Beach, Gibbs, Glen Harbour, Govan, Gregherd, Hatfield, Island View, Nokomis, Quinton, Raymore, Sarina Beach, Semans, Southey, Spring Bay, Strasbourg, Tate, Triple T Beach, and Waterton. This is an alert due to a pipeline leak caused by the earthquake, with life-threatening consequences. Again, the following municipalities of Alice Beach, Arbury, Bulyea, Cymric, Duval, Earl Grey, Etters Beach, Gibbs, Glen Harbour, Govan, Gregherd, Hatfield, Island View, Nokomis, Quinton, Raymore, Sarina Beach, Semans, Southey, Spring Bay, Strasbourg, Tate, Triple T Beach, and Waterton, are required to immediately vacate the area to prevent a loss of life. Stay safe.”
“Is this a joke? A pipeline leak”, another person asked.
“A whole area for a broken pipeline”, another suggested. Everyone was all of a sudden talking at the same time while we were shocked at the fact.
“A pipeline? Leaking? Why such a large area for a leak”, Sam asked.
“I have no idea”, I said, confused as to the events happening. I saw some people arguing with the policemen, but I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying over the talking of the others. Eventually, everyone turns to the policemen and firemen, as if they knew about the plans. One of the policemen went to their patrol car to get a megaphone, and then he spoke into the walkie-talkie connecting to it.
“Hey, everyone calm down”, he bellowed and most gave their attention to him. “My name is Russel Simmons, and I am the chief of this department here. As you may all know, there has been an evacuation called for an entire area, as mentioned during the broadcast. t. I did not know this beforehand, just like every one of you. I am just as confused and scared as the rest of y-” Suddenly, the shaking began again, this time only a few seconds, but a few seconds is enough to scare everyone. “Stay calm! Everyone stay calm”, the chief begged the panicking people. Slowly but surely, everyone calmed down. “We can get through this. Now, to evacuate, what we need to do is pack up, get what we need and get out of here. Meet with us at the Tempo gas station to get fuel, if necessary. After that, we will go south to Regina, where we’ll be staying.”
“What about the stuff in our houses”, a woman asked.
“For that, we can’t go into the houses. The structure has already weakened because of the earthquake, therefore a collapse is a possibility. We cannot risk a life here, so we can’t”, Russel explained.
“My house looks fine, why can’t I go in”, an older man asked.
“Like I said, sir, the houses are at risk of collapsing.”
“What about the water? We can’t just leave it around in our houses. We need that”, a younger man said.
“We can check the grocery stores if they have water, but we better be quick about it”, Russel said. Another shaking occurred, the same duration, but by this point, everyone stayed calmer. Dad then met up with us.
“It is time to go”, Dad suggested. “We have to make it to Regina, as soon as possible.”
“Well, I guess it’s time to go”, Sam said. We then share a hug. “See you later… sometime.”
“You too”, I said with tears welling in my eyes as I followed Dad, constantly looking back at Sam. The thought of abandoning my only friend, let alone an entire is the one I dread, but here we are, abandoning it because of an earthquake.
“It’s going to be okay”, Dad reassured. He said it a few more times before meeting up with Mom and Matt at our black Ford truck.
“Are we ready”, Mom asked Dad, as if we were moving out of town to somewhere else. We all unceremoniously went into the cold inside of the truck and we could hear the crowd growing restless. Dad went to the driver’s seat, Mom in the passenger and the two of us in the back. Dad got the truck started and drove out of the spot. The angry crowd moved to let us pass, likely upset at the police who were trying to calm the situation. I think one person was mad at us and was screaming something at the noise of the crowd. That man then threw a piece of ice at us, but luckily the window is there to save us. Once we passed them, we sped off through the streets. Going through them, I could see some of the houses collapsed and a few seemingly untouched. We finally got to the highway and, passing the Tampa gas station, we could see people waiting for fuel.
“Should we stop for gas”, Mom asked.
“I don’t think so. We have a full tank of gas and there are too many people. With the situation we are in, things might be bad to worse”, Dad explained. “If we could stop in Bulyea, to pack more up.”
“When are we going home”, Matt complained.
“No, honey, there is no home left for us. Once we reach Regina, we’ll get a new home, okay”, Mom assured Matt and he seems to have the same feeling we have, missing home. At least we can agree on something for once. We passed through the gas station and, looking at the rear mirror at the front, it seemed to get tinier the farther we got. We sat in silence along the icy road with banks of snow. The inside of the truck got warmer and more comfortable. Luckily, there are fuzzy blankets in the truck to snuggle in.
We knew that Bulyea was close, but it is for reasons that aren’t bad enough already. Black, dense smoke in the distance, lofting to the east. We already knew something bad happened.
“Should we even go to Bulyea”, Mom asked. Dad looked at her and back in the road and gave a nod. “We can’t. Remember what you said back there? It is worse here-”
“I know. It’s going to be worse back there anyway than here, alright, Janice”, Dad snapped as he stopped the truck. This is the first time I have seen Dad this mad. I am starting to think he is just as afraid as us. “I’m sorry, I just missed home, but we had to get out.”
“I know, so do I”, Mom said and they shared a kiss. “Now, what?”
“Go to town and salvage what’s left.” Dad drove the truck and went into town. There, we noticed where the smoke came from. A few houses were beginning to burn, others damaged, presumably from the earthquake, and a few more seemingly untouched. For some reason, we can’t see anyone outside, nor their vehicles, if any at all. It seems to be like a ghost town.
“Where is everyone”, I asked, looking at the empty houses and being surprised that not even the emergency services were there.
“I don’t know. Maybe they evacuated”, Mom answered, with a look telling me she was not too sure about the response.
“Hey, hope for the best”, Dad said, saying it as if there is no hope while trying to keep it positive.
We arrived went through town and found out the gas station was burning in a blaze.
“So much for water”, Mom said, looking at the burning wreck. “Hey, how many kilometers did we travel?”
“Why is that important? Worried about gas”, Dad chuckled, in an attempt to cheer the mood. “I can chec- wait, how many kilometers does it take to get here?”
“Uh, fourteen”, Matt responded. My Dad looked at the dashboard in a confused state. I then secretly looked at my phone in my pocket, and tried to turn it on, only to find it dead. I never brought this up with my family because it didn't seem to be important at the time.
“Seems we travelled a kilometer but yet wasted half our fuel. I don’t know what is happening to the truck”, Dad said, further confused. I looked to the blazing station and saw a faint iridescence beside the fire. I was about to point it out when Matt spoke.
“Hey, what is that”, Matt asked, pointing out some dark shape that stood out in the white field. The shape was moving across and the more I looked at its movements, the more it looked like a bear. It then seemed to notice us and seemingly ran towards us.
“We are going now”, Dad yelled and put on the gas, driving off quickly. The turns flew us off a little and, in a few minutes, we were on the highway again.
“What was that”, I asked.
“I think that was a bear.”
“Why did we take off?”
“It was chasing us! Would you like to know what happens when we stay?” Dad then gave out a sigh. “I am sorry, but I had to make a choice.”
“I guess we won’t be staying”, Matt questioned.
“No, we won’t. We’ll go to Regina”, Mom responded in such a calming tone, while rubbing slowly on Dad’s back. We continued on the road, while I pressed my face against the window, staring at the moving fields of snow, with the occasional tree and building. I then slowly closed my eyes, bringing me to a world of darkness.
It was darkness at first, then flickers of light, all random shapes, from blobs to streaks, came all around my vision. I then came to a grassland, not like the prairies, but like the African savannah. Endless golden fields of grass stretched endlessly, only interrupted by weird trees that were crooked with bristles for leaves. The sun is setting in a brilliant series of yellows and oranges. I then heard rustling behind me. That is when I woke up, but not on my own.
“Hey, Kate, you need to see this”, Matt said in an odd confusion. I looked around and thought of nothing unusual.
“See wha-” I faltered as I looked ahead at the road. Ahead of the truck, the road is cut off by some kind of wall. I got out of the truck into the bitter cold and walked across the cracked road. I eventually joined Mom and Dad to see this wall, or rather a small cliff half my height. It seems someone cut the whole road and got the ground where I am to sink. I could even see what was below the road. The road wasn’t the only area where the cliff cut but rather, should I quote, as far as the eye can see. “What is this?”
“It might be some kind of fault line”, Dad said.
“Fault line? What is that”, Matt asked.
“You know, cracks in the ground that cause earthquakes? The one you learn in school about the San Andreas fault? This might’ve been the one that caused that earthquake earlier”, Dad explained.
“So a new fault line is appearing in Saskatchewan”, Mom said.
“Seems to be.”
“So, how are we going to get to Regina”, I asked. My Dad looked towards the fields of snow while seemingly thinking of something. It was a few minutes before we heard something odd. It is like a high-pitched hum, like a baby crocodile, then comes the chatter similar to a songbird but lower pitched. We all went to the truck, except Matt, who was more curious than afraid.
“Hey, I can see something”, Matt advised. Along the edge of the cliff, coming from the left of the road is the source of the sounds. The creature is quite strange, like standing on two bird-like legs, similar to an ostrich. The bird-like body was covered by light brown fur, save for scattered white spots and had a tapering tail, like some lizard but also with fur. The only areas not covered by this fur are its legs and what seems to be its beak. When it got closer, I came to make out its appearance. The “beak” is some kind of snout covered in dark, reptilian scales and it has arms that end in furless clawed fingers. I knew what it was, and it was frightening as it was confusing.
“Matt, come back. That is a dinosaur”, I yelled, hopefully persuading Matt of his curiosity. As soon as I said that, the creature stopped.
“Dinosaur? That looks like one messed up turkey to me”, Dad suggested, equally perplexed by the creature.
“Hey, Matt, come back! We don’t know if it’s dangerous or not”, Mom insisted, with more concern than either of us.
“But it’s not doing anything bad. It looks cool”, Matt said, not even concerned about this weird creature.
“Listen to your mother, Matt”, Dad hollered, in agreement with me and my Mom.
“Oh, come on, we could make him do some tricks.” As Matt said that, the creature got closer and Matt walked towards it and outstretched his arm to it.
“Matt! Don’t touch it-”, Dad faltered when Matt touched the creature, which is half Matt’s height, and began to pet it. The creature then began to purr, like a cat but more bird-like.
“See, not so dangerous. Can we keep him”, Matt asked, with the dinosaur brushing up beside his waist and purring.
“No, we can’t. We don’t know what it is”, Mom pleaded and I do agree.
“Oh, please, I promise I will take care of him. It’ll be the coolest pet ever.” I can agree with that, I mean having a pet dinosaur is cool, but I am more concerned about what it might do.
“I think it’s a bad idea”, I yelled to Matt.
“No, it won’t. Please”, Matt begged. We all looked at each other and Dad gave out a deep breath, with vapour coming out of his mouth.
“Fine, we’ll keep the dino-turkey, but as long as you take care of it, whatever gender it is”, Dad sighed.
“Yes! Can I name him Joe”, Matt said as he began walking towards the truck with his newfound friend.
“Joe? We don’t even know if it’s even a boy.”
“I don’t care. I want him to be a boy”, Matt protested.
“I guess Joe it is”, Mom said as she turned to Dad with a look of regret.
“I guess we have a family pet now”, I said under my breath to no one. We then went back to the truck and I sat in. Dad went to the driver’s seat as usual and Mom in the passenger. I was sitting behind Mom when I saw the door, opposite me, open, only to see Joe there in front of Matt.
“Hey, do you wanna meet my family”, Matt beamed when he picked him up. I can see Joe’s face more clearly. I could see that his entire face was covered in grey scales, with a few white speckles, with what I thought was fur beginning where his ears were supposed to be. Joe looked at me with a bird-like expression with his bird-like eyes. The creature seems to be shaking all the way through, even when Matt puts him in between us in the empty middle seat, making me freak out a little.
“Why are you putting it beside me”, I shuddered. “Did you make sure he doesn’t have rabies?”
“Don’t worry, he’s just cold”, Matt reassured. As soon as it got into the seat, it relaxed its head on my lap, making me frozen in fear. In surprise, Joe began to purr.
“What is he doing”, I asked.
“I think he likes you. You can pet him if you want. He’s harmless”, Matt assured. I then cautiously took my hand out and touched his brow area. It felt cold and reptilian, and I moved my hand towards his fur. I realised they were feathers, not quite like a bird, like fuzzier. I stroked across his spine and he was cold. Matt then covered the feathered creature’s body with a blanket.
“What should we do now”, Dad asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe take another route”, Mom responded. Dad then started the truck and turned it around.
“The rural roads would be hell. Maybe go to Earl Grey, and see if there is anything there.”
“Hopefully not like Bulyea.” Dad then looked at his rear-view mirror to look at Matt.
“Hey, do you know what, uh, Joe eats”, Dad asked.
“I don’t know”, Matt said, with a look like he doesn’t know.
“I mean, he has to eat something”, I said, now more comfortable with Joe. I lifted his lips to see a series of fangs lining his jaw. Joe didn’t take that too kindly and nudged. As he did that, he rolled to his side to reveal his hands. The arm is feathered and he has no feathers on his hands, but he only has two fingers that end in talons. “What, why does he only have two fingers”, I asked.
“Maybe a genetic defect. Like my cat Fluffy with his extra thumbs”, Mom suggested.
“Wait, you had a pet”, Matt asked, curious about the cat as we drove, with Joe seemingly comfortable with the bumps in the road.
“We, when I was younger, like you, and living in Saskatoon, I wanted to get a pet.” Mom explained as she looked at Joe. “Well, not quite like you have. Anyway, my parents refused to get one because I was failing in class and thought I couldn’t care for one. One day, I think a snowstorm was happening. I was walking down a street, fighting against the snow. I stumbled upon a box, covered in a blanket lying on the sidewalk. I looked inside and I saw kittens”, she said, her eyes glossy.
“Sadly, most of them died in the cold, except for one. An orange, fluffy kitten, fighting for its life. I took it, put it into my jacket and took it home. I entered our house and the kitten was fine, but my parents were furious. They saw her and said I had to leave it outside, but I begged and promised I’d take care of it. They said we could keep the kitten, as long I kept the grades up. So, I named him Fluffy, because he’s fluffy.”
“Where is he now? Why is he not here”, Matt questioned.
“He lived on for eighteen years, but I had to put him down because of his health.”
“Why didn’t you buy another cat”, I prodded.
“We just couldn’t afford it, we don’t have enough income. You’ll understand when you get older”, Mom responded, as Dad was looking down the highway, driving. I looked down and Joe was sleeping. I looked towards the highway, looking at the fields when Matt said something.
“I need to go to the bathroom”, he said, holding at his groin. I also need to go to relieve myself, but Matt called it first.
“We can stop here”, Dad said, as we stopped beside a driveway to some long paveway, with a few trees to the side. I recognized it through our trips to Regina: we have arrived at Gibbs. Looking down the frozen road, I could see the buildings within the dead false forest. I took this moment to speak my urge.
“Yeah, I need to go, too”, I declared. Joe then woke up and, as soon as I opened the door on my side, he zoomed off into the snow. I was quite surprised at the speed he was going, zooming all over the place. Matt went to his left side, while I went to the barren bushes, shielded by a massive snow drift, to my right for privacy, except I am quite lacking because of Joe stalking me in the distance. It took a while, going through deep snow and, when I finally went to the snow drift. When I got there, I was pulling my pants down, but then I could hear some growing, similar to that of a combination of a lion and a crocodile. Where is that coming from? Never mind, it might be Joe, I thought.
“Go away, Joe”, I said, thinking it was Joe, seemingly angry at something. Nervous, I finally got to business, a little slow because of Joe nearby. I then heard the growl again. This time, I looked up and saw Joe, but he wasn’t growling. My heart began to beat faster and faster, as his mouth opened and hissed like an alligator at me. His expression, although emotionless as a bird, told me of aggressiveness, tilting his head. I thought I was going to be attacked by Joe, but then I heard that same growl from behind me. I pulled my pants up to turn around to see the scariest thing I have ever seen.
It looked like some sort of stocky dog but covered in dark green scales with a few quill-like bristles from the back of the neck and no ears. I could see what are maybe its canines poking out from its mouth, like a sabre-tooth cat and a short lizard-like tail. It looked more reptile than, well, dog really except for its eyes. I could see the hunger in its eyes. I heard more growling to my other side and saw another of those things. Joe began making that baby crocodile noise and we ran to the truck. I turned around and ran.
“Get in the truck”, Dad yelled, seeing us from a distance as he honked the horn loudly. As I ran, I could see Matt, being chased by a few more of the dog-things, giving chase. Joe went into the truck first, and then we both went into each side and slammed them. Dad then sped off very quickly, scared they may get to us.
“What was that”, I panted, confused.
“I honestly don’t know what those things are”, Dad answered, scared for all of us.
“I want to go home”, Matt pleaded, tired from running away from those things.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon. I promise”, Mom reassured.
“Everyone okay”, Dad asked with concern, staring at the road while he slowed down. We all looked at each other in fearful confusion, even Joe. I looked at Joe, and he then looked at me. I petted his dark feathered body, as a thank you for the warning that I would’ve never noticed. “Okay, we are moving on”, Dad concluded. We sat in silence, although I was still petting Joe.
“Hey, Matt, do you know what dinosaur he is”, I asked Matt.
“I don’t know. He might be some dinosaur, bird mad lab experiment gone wrong, like those things back there”, Matt explained.
“Or some mess-up chicken in a lab”, Dad suggested, still looking at the road.
“I don’t think he was a chicken”, Matt rebutted. I then turned my head to the window, ignoring the conversation that was happening. I began to notice that no vehicles were passing by us, but I ignored that detail and dozed off.
I saw those same lights in the dark vision of my closed eyes. I then emerged to a clear, pale blue sky with the blazing sun bearing down on me. Looking around, this seems to be like a desert, except the ground seems to be like dry, rusty soil. It feels hot here, hotter than one of those summers in my former town. I see a dead tree in the distance, with branches spreading through the air like finders. I heard a sound behind me.
“Wake up! We are here”, Matt said as he shook me awake. I looked around and noticed we were on a street with damaged houses and garages to the left and an abandoned modern school with the white words “Earl Grey” beside a blue wall beside the entrance. The school lies hiding behind a metal fence with dead trees behind it. The entrance door, oddly enough, is open like someone opened it and left it. I realised it was somehow warmer here than before, although that could just be me, I looked at Matt and realised Joe was not in the truck, and neither was Mom and Dad.
“Hey, where’s Mom and Dad”, I asked Matt.
“Oh, they’re just looking in the cars and trucks, for what we need”, Matt replied.
“And Joe?”
“Oh, just running across the road.” Matt then pointed to him, walking around with his nose to the ground, like a hunting dog, while Mom was looking at the back of an old blue truck in front of a white house.
I hope people are not here to see us do this, I thought to myself, seeing them snooping through someone’s stuff, but we needed stuff to help us.
“Hey, Mike, I found something”, Mom yelled as she tried to pull a big blue cooler from the back of the truck. Dad then came from an RV down from the truck and came and helped her. He then put it down on the road and opened it. They both plugged their noses and backed away.
“Fish? Who leaves fish in a cooler in the back of a truck”, Dad gagged. Joe then looked up, seemingly in excitement and ran towards the cooler. He stuck his nose in the cooler and pulled out a pike. He plopped it on the road, his foot stepped on the fish and put his mouth onto it, tearing a piece of it and swallowing it. “At least somebody likes rotten fish”, Dad rasped.
As we looked in surprise, we could hear something from the school. The minute we heard it, a loud boar-like roar came out from the school. We thought it was a very big boar when it came out, but the more we looked, the more we realised it was something else. Its body is like a boar, but its face is like a lion’s and the snout of a camel, with teeth somewhat like a bear’s when it opens its enormous mouth to gargle like a pig. Mom, Dad and even Joe are taken by surprise, making our parents run towards the driveway, while Joe towards our truck with his gorged fish, standing by us. The boar-thing then stopped a few feet away from my parents, seemingly in a defensive stance, hooves scratching the ground. We are scared for our parents, preparing to see this thing rip them to shreds.
It gave one last roar and walked towards the cooler, knocking it over with fish spilling out. It stuck its snout in the fish and swallowed one down. They then slowly walked around the creature and steadily fastened their pace until they were at the truck. We all quickly got in and Dad backed up quickly.
“What the hell was that”, Mom panicked.
“I don’t know, a pig from hell”, Dad responded. We looked at Joe, swallowing down the fish while the rotting fish smell remained. It looked at us in confusion, as we were. We silently laughed for no apparent reason, probably as a mechanism to try to replace the fear. We then heard a shaking in the truck, startling us. We realised that the hell pig was tearing at the bumper of the truck like a lion would. Dad hammered the horn, making the thing back up in surprise. Dad took this opportunity to back up very quickly towards the intersection and turned to the left, quickly avoiding the creature. We sat in silence, except for Joe who was chirping.
When we went down the street, the houses, as usual, were damaged but we saw other vehicles, the first we had seen. Some were parked along the street, others stuck on one lane like city traffic but paused. Weirdly enough, there are no people in the vehicles, nor anyone outside. Most of the vehicles have one or more doors open like people got out to go somewhere. We drove past all the vehicles in the other lane. There is one vehicle we passed by that is on fire, most of the paint already off to reveal the metal beneath, only to be turned into a rainbow of browns and blacks by the dancing flames.
“What. Happened. Here”, Mom slowly asked, as confused and terrified as us. We had a feeling of dread, seeing all the abandoned vehicles.
“That’s the least of our worries. We should be looking for supplies”, Dad responded.
“Hey, how much do we have”, Mom asked Dad, worried about using up the fuel.
“Well, we got a full tank of gas and travelled a hundred kilometers”, Dad responded, more confused. “Nothing makes sense here and I hope we don’t stay here for long”, he muttered.
Eventually, we passed most of the vehicles and reached the veterinary clinic. The small, intact structure stood there, seemingly looking over the icy driveway. We then spotted an old, brown truck and we saw something that set it apart from the rest of the vehicles we’ve seen so far.
“It’s on”, I said, gleefully, with hope that, at least, we aren’t the only ones here. The headlights beamed brightly, and we realised it was getting dark. We also noticed that the street lights aren’t turning on.
“I thought there was no one here”, my Mom said, unsure of the connection between the abandoned but running truck and the lack of people in this town. At one of the intact houses, ahead of us, partially blocked by the trees, we saw what seemed to be bright light coming from one of the windows. What person would go into a house after an earthquake, I thought, thinking about our house back home.
“Someone’s here”, Matt loudly notified, as we all shushed him and that is when Joe is trying to push the door with his snout. “What is he doing?”
“Stay here”, Dad calmly ordered, opening the door, but Joe scurried out and went somewhere else.
“Hey, come back”, Matt called out, with no success. Joe eventually disappeared into the night, never to be seen. Matt then had tears welling up in his eyes like he was about to cry. I hugged him to comfort him.
“He’ll come back some time”, Mom reassured, trying to calm him down and looking at Dad. Dad nodded and grabbed a flashlight that was equipped in the truck. He then walked slowly towards the house, step by step, being shone by our truck’s headlights. He looked back at us and put his hand up when the light in the house moved. It seems to move towards the front door of the house. Emerging from the house is a person walking down the steps, cloaked in darkness. Dad then took a few steps back as the figure came. Finally, the figure stepped into the light.

I know it was your first relationship. At 28, you had already been through so much, having been on your own for 13 years. You were forced to grow up too fast, and had to prioritize yourself, building a life from nothing. I get it. It was your fierce independence that made me fall for you in the first place.
I always knew that trying to build a life with you was going to be a struggle. I thought it would be worth it, for both of us. You deserve to have someone in your corner, that always has your back. You shouldn’t have to be alone. I don’t know if you believed the same.
I think I gave up too much of myself for you. Was that my mistake or yours? Did you really ask for too much, or did I give too freely without expectation for anything in return? Maybe both. Probably more on me. I’m not perfect by a long shot.
Compromise. It really does all come down to that. I tried to show you its importance, but in the process I ended up being the only one willing to do it. Me getting to pick what movie we watched or getting to plan a date became something I only got to do on special occasions. You said you felt like you didn’t know me, but so many times in so many ways I offered up little pieces of me to you. I share myself by sharing the things I love with the people I love. But more and more towards the end, all you’d say was “no”. Ignoring any context. Ignoring those pieces of me.
I know you don’t like movies about kids. I know asking to watch Home Alone during Christmas was a big ask. But it was a tradition that I shared with my dad, who I lost just over a year before. I know you think that traditions are pointless, but it was important to me. My earliest memories are of that. I needed to continue on, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it alone. I needed you there, your support. It was such a small gesture I was asking of you, but all I got was “no”. Instead we watched a movie you picked: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. A movie made by the exact same people that made Home Alone, and with even more kids.
We wanted to go to Ireland. Personally I’ve been wanting to go for years, but couldn’t because of my dad’s illness along with everything else going on. You knew that in the last 3 years I lost all of my grandparents, two uncles, my dad. I couldn’t risk going so far away for so long while everyone was sick. My mom saw me giving up the latter half of my 20s for my family, when she was hoping I would be enjoying life and seeing the world. That’s why she was happy to give us the money to have the trip of our dreams. I explained all of this to you while you were struggling to find a way to save for the trip. All my mom wanted in return was a single nice photo of us. That wasn’t even a requirement for the money. She just wanted to see me with the person that I love making our dreams come true. I know you hate having your picture taken. The only attention your dad ever gave you was when he wanted to test a new camera. It’s a trauma trigger. But I was only asking for one picture. You’d compromise for your friends, you’d compromise for your sister. You’d take pictures with them. Why wouldn’t you compromise for your partner, and the other most important person in your partners life? After a year, we have 3 pictures together, none of which are very good. I know that I was asking for a lot, but I felt so less important than everyone else in your life. Maybe you felt that as your partner, I was to be held to a higher standard? I honestly don’t know. All you said was “no”.
You admitted yourself I was so supportive. I always prioritized you. From always making your tea before mine, to giving you the better looking plate at dinner, to planting all of your favorite flowers in my garden. I always complemented you, how smart you are, how beautiful you are, how driven and independent you are. Your friend needed a ride to a 5k and someone to cheer them on? I was there. You needed someone to drive you around while your car was in the shop for 2 months? No problem. Accidentally overdrew your account again, and you couldn’t afford the late fees? Here’s $50. Need to move on short notice? I’m the guy tearing apart and moving your furniture. You have a migraine so bad you can’t eat? I’m bringing you pedialyte and sleeping on your couch, even though I didn’t actually get any sleep. I learned all your rituals so not to trigger your OCD. There are countless other examples. I never said no. I never complained. You rarely said so much as “thank you”.
The big one. The thing that ended us. You’re right, we did sit down like adults time and time again and talked things out. You said you needed me to anticipate your needs. You’d get overwhelmed, and couldn’t articulate what you needed from me. You couldn’t stand being asked what you needed. You just needed me to start helping. “Mental loads” and all that. I took that to heart. But I’m not perfect. Sometimes I’d miss the mark. Tried to support you, but in the wrong way. Even in my failures I showed effort, but you never seemed to see that. You only focused on how I failed.
We recognized that this was a problem caused by both of us. The communication wasn’t getting through. But I had already adapted to your communication style as much as I could. My exited, rambling, almost impulsive way of generating ideas became slow, methodical, thoughtful. I put intention behind everything so not to overwhelm you. I learned not to jump at the obvious solution.
Yes, we sat down like adults and talked things over time and time again. You told me what you needed from me, but I also told you what I needed from you. If I was missing the mark, please just guide me to what you needed. I’m not a mind reader. I did it for you all the time. You were honestly awful at anticipating my needs too. If I was venting, had a bad day, all you’d say was “I’m sorry”, and pat me on the back like a puppy. No effort to dig deeper. No words of support or encouragement. So I had to show you how I needed support. I just needed you to do the same for me. “No”. Again.
One final time, I sent you words of support when you were having a bad day. It wasn’t enough, you wanted more. A phone call? For me to come over so you could vent in person? Did you actually want me to directly help for once? I don’t know. You never told me. Instead of guiding me to what you needed, you immediately shut down. Full silent treatment. I’ve been in abusive relationships where the silent treatment was welded as a weapon. I know you didn’t mean it in an abusive way, you were just overwhelmed again. But I never expected it from you. I didn’t see it for what it was. I only ever asked one thing from you to save us. I put in the work, got us 80% of the way there. I knew I couldn’t bridge the gap on my own. I wasn’t even asking you to put in effort on my behalf, it was for your benefit. I begged you time and time again for help. To communicate. Not to put it all on me, because I couldn’t do it on my own. But instead, you did the opposite.
You said that you felt like you were putting more effort into the relationship than I was. I’m sorry, but I can’t see that effort. I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t. Maybe you mean you put effort into forgiving me every time I messed up? Maybe you mean that you were always planning dates, always picking what we watched, where we went, what we ate, what we drank? Again, mental loads and such. But I had things that I wanted to do and share with you that you always turned down. You only had to plan everything after my plans were rejected. It would have been more efficient for you to show love, patience, and compromise.
And then you left.

For context, I think my guy friend is falling in love with me but doesn't seem to know it. I can just feel it. I just took the hint more seriously right now because he is asking for emotional support from me when he underwent an operation and said to contact him before and after to check on him even remotely as we are long distance.
It wasn't a simple motivation. I had to show my caring side and we promise to eat out together after. I said I cant wait to him getting better and he said he cant wait to eat a lot. There was more and it was really intimate, sort of a life and death situation and there was us trying to defy it.
He literally copied the same situation when I was in the hospital and also need to undergo an operation, he also was my emotional support back then but the difference is I didn't ask him to check on me . He just did. Although i did message him that I got hospitalized.
I think this all started when he constantly became my "rescuer" when I got sick and always checked up on my health frequently. He then ask about my routine, tells me what to do, guides me, creates an excel sheet of what i should eat. He especially loved to be complimented on and he does also compliment me often.
In person he is very silent and can't look me in the eye but on messages, he is very sweet and wants to take care of me all the time. He tells me if I did well and just exhibits signs of emotional dependency.
If I so much as not talk to him for days, he says he gets worried and asked me if I was okay and he asked me this when he was the one in the hospital.
The dependency and the emotional support he wants from me tells me there's something there but I fear that we may be in an emotional affair. I know he had a girlfriend last year and I think it's still going on. My question now is how can I remove myself from this? Is it possible for someone to fall inlove even without knowing it?

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relatively, relax, release, relevant, relief, religion, religious, rely, remain, remaining, remarkable, remember, remind, remote, remove, repeat, repeatedly, replace, replacement, reply, report, reporter, represent, representation, representative, Republican, reputation, request, require, requirement, research, researcher, resemble, reservation, resident, residential, resign, resist, resistance, resolution, resolve, resort, resource, respect, respond, response, responsibility, responsible, rest, restaurant, restore, restriction, result, retain, retire, retirement, return, reveal, revenue, review, revolution, rhythm, rice, rich, rid, ride, rifle, right, ring, rise, risk, river, road, rock, role, roll, romantic, roof, room, root, rope, rose, rough, roughly, round, route, routine, row, rub, rubber, rude, ruin, rule, run, running, rural, rush, Russian, sacred, sad, safe, safety, sake, salad, salary, sale, sales, salt, same, sample, sanction, sand, satellite, satisfaction, satisfied, satisfy, sauce, save, saving, say, scale, scandal, scare, scatter, scenario, scene, schedule, scheme, scholar, scholarship, school, science, scientific, scientist, scope, score, scream, screen, script, sea, search, season, seat, second, secondary, secret, secretary, section, sector, secure, security, see, seed, seek, seem, segment, seize, select, selection, self, sell, Senate, senator, send, senior, sense, sensitive, sentence, separate, sequence, series, serious, seriously, servant, serve, service, session, set, setting, settle, settlement, seven, several, severe, sex, sexual, shade, shadow, shake, shall, shallow, shape, share, sharp, she, sheet, shelf, shell, shelter, shift, shine, ship, shirt, shock, shoe, shoot, shooting, shop, shopping, short, shortly, shot, should, shoulder, shout, show, shower, shrug, shut, shy, sibling, sick, side, sigh, sight, sign, signal, significant, significantly, silence, silent, silver, similar, similarly, simple, simply, sin, since, sing, singer, single, sink, sir, sister, sit, site, situation, six, size, ski, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slave, sleep, slice, slide, slight, slightly, slip, slow, slowly, small, smart, smell, smile, smoke, smooth, snap, snow, so, so-called, soccer, social, society, soft, software, soil, solar, soldier, sole, solid, solution, solve, some, somebody, somehow, someone, something, sometimes, somewhat, somewhere, son, song, soon, sophisticated, sorry, sort, soul, sound, soup, source, south, southern, Soviet, space, Spanish, speak, speaker, special, specialist, species, specific, specifically, specify, speech, speed, spend, spending, spin, spirit, spiritual, split, spoil, sponsor, sport, spot, spray, spread, spring, square, squeeze, stability, stable, staff, stage, stain, stair, stake, stand, standard, standing, star, stare, start, state, statement, station, statistical, status, stay, steady, steal, steel, steep, stem, step, stick, still, stimulate, stimulus, stir, stock, stomach, stone, stop, storage, store, 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Legion of the Eternal Empire (LEE) - 510M+ GP - 18:30 PST / 21:30 EST / 02:30 GMT Guild Reset - We Use HotUtils/HotBot for tracking tickets, guild event participation, and reminders. - We have dedicated Discord channels for TB, TW, SBR, and Bots for members to use.
REQUIREMENTS: - 9.0M+ GP - 5 GLs - Good Mods/Mod Score. - 2 of Executor, Profundity and Leviathan - 7M+ raid score - 4 TW omicron - 600 Tickets Daily minimum (prefer 600) - Active Discord Use (mandatory for guild events) - Synced and Public swgoh.gg account - Active Daily in ALL Guild Events - Willing to work to achieve conquest box 4 - Guided Farming if you fall behind guild objectives
Territory Battles/Territory Wars: - RotE: 36 ⭐️, 38 Reva Shards , 2300 GET2 - We are on Zeffo - We UseEchoBot for Platoon Assignments. - TW: 90%+ Win Record. Adaptive strategy depending on our opponent and team readiness.
RAIDS: - We are doing the Speeder Bike raid and are getting 440M+ score
HOW TO JOIN US: - Please come to our Discord server and an officer will help you! We want EVERYONE to succeed and are constantly looking to improve on what we are doing to help all within our collective of 7 independently run guilds. We are an established guild with active players who are looking for like-minded, common-sense individuals to join us for the growth and benefit of all! - DISCORD: https://discord.com/invite/S4j4ceuYDH - SWGOH GG: https://swgoh.gg/g/nZu5aA50TVusQFfMqjYNEA/

For context, I think my guy friend is falling in love with me but doesn't seem to know it. I can just feel it. I just took the hint more seriously right now because he is asking for emotional support from me when he underwent an operation and said to contact him before and after to check on him.
It wasn't a simple motivation. I had to show my caring side and we promise to eat out together after. I said I cant wait to him getting better and he said he cant wait to eat a lot. There was more and it was really intimate, sort of a life and death situation and there was us trying to defy it.
He literally copied the same situation when I was in the hospital and also need to undergo an operation, he also was my emotional support back then but the difference is I didn't ask him to check on me. He just did. Although i did message him that I got hospitalized.
I think this all started when he constantly became my "rescuer" when I got sick and always checked up on my health frequently. He then ask about my routine, tells me what to do, guides me, creates an excel sheet of what i should eat. He especially loved to be complimented on and he does also compliment me often.
In person he is very silent and can't look me in the eye but on messages, he is very sweet and wants to take care of me all the time. He tells me if I did well and just exhibits signs of emotional dependency.
If I so much as not talk to him for days, he says he gets worried and asked me if I was okay and he asked me this when he was the one in the hospital.
The dependency and the emotional support he wants from me tells me there's something there but I fear that we may be in an emotional affair. I know he had a girlfriend last year and I think it's still going on. My question now is how can I remove myself from this? Is it possible for someone to fall inlove even without knowing it?

For context, my parents aren't total Ns, but they have N tendencies. Mostly they're just very full of themselves and think of themselves as the know-all experts on the lives of others. They also do this thing that I'll refer to from now on as the "you don't say" thing. Here's what this is. You know how sometimes a kid will say something really farfetched like they saw a dinosaur out their window, but they're a good kid and you don't want to stifle their imagination so you're like "whoa, really? Cool!" That's the tone my parents use. Basically what it translates to is "I hear you saying this but I don't believe you and I'm using this tone so you know how un-seriously I'm taking this." All right, now on to the stories. These all happened during the time they stayed with us.
First off, one of them, if not both of them, will complain about EVERYTHING. Like we'll go to a restaurant. It's either too expensive and we need to go somewhere else, or it's too cheap therefore it's low-class (they're pretty loaded now that they're empty nesters). Picking a restaurant is like going through the process of a Bill becoming a Law. Same with going grocery shopping. No, don't get that thing, get this other thing. Why? Because it's cheaper than the other thing so you get more of a bargain, or because it's more expensive than the other thing so therefore the quality is better, whatever, there's no consistency. When I cook I have to completely wow them every time because anything less reminds them of the teenage boy who could barely make instant ramen and they criticize every aspect of my cooking if it's not up to their standards.
Now let's talk about their beliefs. I won't say what they are, but they have this idea that my/my wife's beliefs and values line up with theirs. They don't. Quite the opposite in fact. We are very open about our beliefs so they know where we stand. That doesn't stop them from griping to us about how people of certain belief systems are destroying our country (we're Americans). I will mention that we are among the kinds of people they're talking about, but they're just like "yeah yeah whatever, so anyway..." and they keep right on talking about it like I said nothing at all.
Then there's this idea that my wife is stupid. First off she's not. She's smarter than me. She is in grad school for a STEM field and is very street smart as well. Apparently when I was at work (I work early mornings and am off by early afternoon which is when I spent time with all of them), she was showing them around town and they were talking about how they needed me to show them around, as if she was unable. Saying stuff like "OP will know how to do this,"or whatever.
Then there's the extremes. They always describe things in the extreme. Like something isn't just loud, it's an ear-splitting offense, that kind of thing. And this translates to things we do too. Like every morning we'd make them a pot of decaf coffee after my wife and I drank our full-caff coffee in the morning. One morning I made my wife and I's full pot of coffee first as usual. I was taking it upstairs to her when I hear one of the parents say "they've never made us coffee yet." Really? Never?
Now here's the big one, and it's the one where the "you don't say" thing comes into play. So I have INSANE guilt over buying anything for myself that I don't necessarily need. My parents grilled into me that I always need to save, save, save, and so buying anything for fun is bad. I was legit yelled at and scolded for buying stuff when I was a kid and a teen. Because of this I basically never buy anything for myself. Even cheap stuff causes me to spend 30 minutes pacing the store wondering if I need it. For the record, I'm pretty financially comfortable, though not in the "loaded" category like my parents. So when it comes to electronics, I'm years behind. I didn't stop using my ipod until 2019 and that's only because it finally broke. My smart phone is seven years old. My last laptop was literally falling apart (the plastic making up the frame was cracking and warping and I physically couldn't move the lid past where it currently was) and the hard drive was failing. The computer before that had many internal parts die and it took maybe 3 or so hard-bootups before one finally stuck and it booted up for me. Basically, I hold onto technology for a long time. My parents saw technology as "toys," so buying them was bad. So I finally bought a new laptop. My dad found out and started criticizing me, saying I'm like those people who HAVE to have the latest iphone or car model every year because I freak out if I'm not seen as trendy. I told him that's not the case and he did the "you don't say" thing to me. He also found out it was a gaming laptop and got mad, saying that money that could have gone to feed my children or pay the bills was used to go toward a child's hobby (it was the cheapest gaming laptop I could find FYI). Yes, he's one of those that thinks all games are for children and M rated games are just a marketing gimmick to make young kids feel edgy. He believes all computers should be for doing work, so he got mad at me when I said it wasn't. Also for the record I almost never buy games because I feel too guilty when I do, so I mostly play F2P stuff. I also don't own any consoles. The last console I bought was a gamecube.
Anyway they're gone now so that's good.

For context, I think my guy friend is falling in love with me but doesn't seem to know it. I just took the hint more seriously right now because he is asking for emotional support from me when he underwent an operation and said to contact him before and after to check on him.
It wasn't a simple motivation. I had to show my caring side and we promise to eat out together after. I said I cant wait to him getting better and he said he cant wait to eat a lot. There was more and it was really intimate, sort of a life and death situation and there was us trying to defy it. He also updated me when the surgery will be finish.
He literally copied the same situation when I was in the hospital and also need to undergo an operation, he also was my emotional support back then but the difference is I didn't ask him to check on me. He just did. Although i did message him that I got hospitalized.
I think this all started when he constantly became my "rescuer" when I got sick and always checked up on my health frequently. He then ask about my routine, tells me what to do, guides me, creates an excel sheet of what i should eat. He especially loved to be complimented on and he does also compliment me often.
In person he is very silent and can't look me in the eye but on messages, he is very sweet and wants to take care of me all the time. He tells me if I did well and just exhibits signs of emotional dependency.
If I so much as not talk to him for days, he says he gets worried and asked me if I was okay and he asked me this when he was the one in the hospital as a patient.
The dependency and the emotional support he wants from me tells me there's something there but I fear that we may be in an emotional affair. I know he had a girlfriend last year and I think it's still going on. My question now is how can I remove myself from this? Is it possible for someone to fall inlove even without knowing it?

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a song I've heard on German radio in the 90s several times, but I've never been able to identify it. Here's what I remember:
It was a somewhat quiet, slow, atmospheric song with as far as I remember not much more than a synthesizer pad playing a couple of chords on repeat - if there were any drums, they were very quiet in the background. Quite like very slow Drum 'n' Bass without the drum part, somewhat similar to Faithless. The overall mood was pretty melancholic and depressed. It featured a male, very deep, dark, aspirated voice that wasn't really singing as such, but rather rhythmically speaking, like reciting a poem, almost but not quite whispering - not at all like Rap / Hip Hop though.
I remember only bits of the lyrics, the main one being something like "How can we speak, (when?) communication is lost" or a variation of this, maybe "How can we talk" or "It's hard to speak". The only thing I'm pretty sure about is that the word "communication" was spoken/sung and the phrase started with "How can we ..." and then either speak or talk. I don't remember any other specific lyrics, but I'm quite sure the song was about some kind of relationship falling apart.
To be able to understand the lyrics at all I must have had at least some basic English skills, which would put this not earlier than around 1993, and I don't think the song is much older than that. I'd say the timeframe is roughly 1992 to 97.
I remember listening to it several times on our local radio station, so it must have been at least somewhat popular.
I slapped something together and uploaded it on Vocaroo: https://voca.ro/1k7PF7Tlcrjc
It's mainly about the rhythm pattern of the voice, so my hoarse mumbling is supposed to represent real lyrics that I don't remember at all. I think the voice in the song is much deeper than I can go with my voice, and much more "present" and "booming". The two synth chords I used are completely random and probably not at all like the original, but the overall sound characteristic of the synth should be at least close.
What I can rule out so far:
"Keep Talking" by Pink Floyd (it's close though, especially if you made it slower and replaced the guitar with a synth pad to make it sound less like Rock and more like electronic music)
"Sanctuary" by Madonna
"Funeral Party" by The Cure
"Telephone Call" by Kraftwerk