Knit fingerless gloves easy
Season 4 Heartseeker Victimise Rogue Guide by Bowa
2024.05.14 00:12 Bowazon_ Season 4 Heartseeker Victimise Rogue Guide by Bowa
 |
Season 4 Heartseeker Planner Links
How it worksHeartseeker is one of the Rogue’s ranged basic attacks that has a reliable chance of hitting its targets.Although Heartseeker is reliable in that respect, its damage potential was very limited throughout Diablo 4 history due to its lower base damage compared to core skills and combo points and because it had no way of delivering imbuement effects, inflicting area of effect (AoE) damage or taking advantage of the huge damage bonus from precision. While basic skills still can’t be imbued and precision doesn’t work with basic skills, Heartseeker’s main obstacles have been solved:
Also, because Heartseeker tracks targets, this can be used safely and reliably to deal damage to enemies from afar. As enemies then agro towards you from a distance and converge closer and closer together as they approach you, this allows your AoE explosions to deal more damage the more tightly packed enemies become. Pros
Victimise has interactions with your original attacks that result in your damage output being affected by double dipping. This means that certain buffs and debuffs boost your damage twice, usually in 2 different stages of your full damage calculation. Victimise bases its damage based on a percentage of damage that your Heartseeker hits do. For example, if Heartseeker does 10,000 damage and Victimise does 300% of your original (Heartseeker) damage, then Victimise explosions will do 30,000 damage. If then your Heartseeker damage is increased by buffs and debuffs that result in Heartseeker doing more damage against its targets, then this will increase the base damage of Victimise. For example, if the Control glyph + Exploit Weakness debuffs increase Heartseeker’s damage by 50%, then Heartseeker will now do 15,000 damage, and Victimise is expected to do 45,000 damage (because Victimise does 300% of your Heartseeker damage). However in this case, when Heartseeker results in a Victimise explosion and hits the same targets that are affected by the Control glyph + Exploit Weakness debuffs, then Victimise itself also gains the benefits from these debuffs, and its final damage will increase from 45,000 damage to 67,500 damage, or in other words 30,000 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 67,500 damage. Known interactions that double dip with Victimise:
To put things into perspective, while playing in the PTR, I noticed my Barrage hits that were doing 1.1 million damage were procing Victimise explosions that were doing almost 12 million damage. With Heartseeker, our damage per hit with Heartseeker and Victimise explosions will do much more damage, and Victimise explosions will occur more often. https://preview.redd.it/bjskc65ro90d1.png?width=756&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d30f050350d11604ee1a341efc7aee86d75a4ab The BuildSkills
Inner Sight, purely for the 25% critical strike chance bonus once every few moments. Passive Effects
Paragon
Stats/Gear PrioritiesSummary
We want to have as many CC applying effects from our tempering mods as possible across Boots, Pants, Gloves, Chest and Head gear pieces. The possible CC applying effects available from tempering are:
Bow vs Crossbow As a basic principle, bows shoot 22% faster and crossbows deal 22% more damage. However, some nuanced stuff should be noted:
Swords vs Daggers We use Heartseeker for our “core” attacks, so we will only rely on our swords or daggers for their damage bonuses. Swords come with extra critical strike damage and daggers come with extra damage versus close enemies. Given that we will have a high amount of critical strike chance with this build and we may be fighting from afar quite often, going with swords is more ideal for this build. Survivability For survivability, there are a few things that will help us here.
LevellingAt the start of your levelling journey, you should follow any other levelling guide out there that uses Rapid Fire, Barrage or Penetrating Shot and use combo points. Once you reach the key passives at the bottom of your skill tree, you should use Precision for the foreseeable future.There are a few key ingredients that you should get before switching over to using Heartseeker and Victimise: Heartseeker:
High-end PitIn high-end Pit content, even trash enemies will take a little while to kill. This will force you to use your Caltrops, Smoke Grenade and other tools more often to maintain an efficient clear speed. With this in mind, see the notes below on the changes to make from the standard build.
Boss Attack Rotation
|
2024.05.13 23:22 WarlordofBritannia Dave Dombrowski: A Retrospective in Transactions
On August 18, 2015 the Boston Red Sox hired the late General Manager of the Detroit Tigers, Dave Dombrowski, to run the team, replacing Ben Cherrington. The development focused Cherrington had failed to follow up the Red Sox miracle 2013 season with even winning records in the two years since, though the farm system ranked among the very best in baseball and a wave of prospects had just hit the majors (among them, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Mookie Betts, and Blake Swihart). Thus, the swapping of Cherington for Dombrowski was rightly interpreted as the Red Sox moving to a more assertive phase, to win now even at the expense of the player development system.
Ironically Dombrowski had been fired by the Tigers because of his belief that the organization’s competitive window had closed and that the team needed to rebuild; the Tigers gave the job to his former assistant who got one more winning season out of their aging core before the inevitabilities became insurmountable. By that time the Red Sox were in the midst of their second straight division crown of three, which climaxed with the single greatest season in franchise history. This is how Dombrowski built that team, as well as the fiscal panic that cost the Red Sox the greatest all around player in franchise history following it:
~2015~
November 13, 2015: Traded Logan Allen, Carlos Asuaje, Javy Guerra and Manuel Margot to the San Diego Padres. Received Craig Kimbrel.
The first major transaction of the Dave Dombrowski era set the pace for the next four years; trading four prospects for a relief pitcher constitutes the classic win-now move. In this case the Red Sox won the deal in both the long and short terms, as only Manuel Margot developed in regular at the major league level, and that at a position where the Red Sox were not in need (center field). Meanwhile Craig Kimbrel made the all-star team in each of his three seasons in Boston, the second of which was one of the greatest relief performances in the game’s history.
December 4, 2015: Signed David Price as a free agent, 217 million dollars over seven years.
At once the most maligned and most underrated move of the Dombrowski era as well as being the biggest, the David Price signing saw the Red Sox for the first time handout a nine figure contract to a free agent pitcher. This was all the more dramatic as they had alienated and traded away their own homegrown southpaw ace (Jon Lester) less than eighteen months before. This was also the first time with the Red Sox that Dave Dombrowski acquired a player he was he previously familiar with, perhaps slightly overpaying for that familiarity. Did we mention that this was largest contract ever given to a pitcher at time, too?
Price had a solid first season in Boston, leading the league in innings pitched with 230 and striking out nearly a man per inning. Nonetheless the first three years of his tenure were marked with mutual hostility towards the ever-ravenous Boston sports media, only alleviated after his fantastic 2018 postseason run. Aging and injuries limited both the quantity and quality of his performance in 2017 and 2019; this trend as well as his 31 million annum salary contributed to owner John Henry’s decision to offload Price even at the cost of Mookie Betts. If only for that last reason alone the David Price signing is one the Red Sox would likely not repeat in hindsight.
December 7, 2015: Traded Jonathan Aro and Wade Miley to the Seattle Mariners. Received Roenis Elías and Carson Smith.
The first of many times Dombrowski would be burned in pursuit of bullpen arms, this deal with Seattle comes down to Wade Miley for Carson Smith. Miley had been signed as a reclamation project by Cherrington before 2015 in the hopes that Miley could serve as a solid mid-rotation option, which he more or less fulfilled with just short of 200 league average innings. Smith on the other hand was coming off his first full season in the majors where he gave the Mariners seventy brilliant innings of high leverage relief pitching (2.31 ERA, 11.8 K/9, and only two home runs allowed).
In a twist of fate, this trade hurt both teams as Smith immediately got injured and only pitched 24 innings in the rest of his career while Miley bombed in Seattle en route to a midseason jettisoning. Yet he rebounded with Baltimore in 2017 and remains an effective if oft-injured starting pitcher to this day, currently with the Milwaukee Brewers.
~2016~
June 10, 2016: Drafted Bobby Dalbec in the 4th round of the 2016 amateur draft.
The once and future Red Sox, Quad A superstar Bobby Dalbec!
July 7, 2016: Traded Wendell Rijo and Aaron Wilkerson to the Milwaukee Brewers. Received Aaron Hill and cash.
With Pablo Sandoval well into his career of eating his way out of Boston, the Red Sox carried a gaping hole at third base from August 2012 to July 2017. One of the short term attempts at a fix featured the acquisition of infielder Aaron Hill, hoping that he and Travis Shaw could platoon for the rest of the 2016 season. The thirty four year old Hill had been decent in Milwaukee in the first half after two bad seasons, but he reverted to that form as soon as he put on a Red Sox uniform, posting a 54 OPS+ in 137 plate appearances. After another terrible eighty plate appearances for the Giants in 2017 Hill was done. On the bright side, the two players Dombrowski gave up for him never amounted to anything.
July 9, 2016: Traded Jose Almonte and Luis Alejandro Basabe to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Received Brad Ziegler.
Ziegler was an accomplished submarine righty who the Red Sox acquired for basically free to get same-sided batters out, a role which he fulfilled to perfection (1.52 ERA in 30 innings). Another clearly won trade for DD.
July 14, 2016: Traded Anderson Espinoza to the San Diego Padres. Received Drew Pomeranz.
At the time, Anderson Espinoza was a teenager in Single A while Drew Pomeranz had appeared to finally unlock his long-salivated over potential with an all-star appearance. Ideally the Padres were hoping Espinoza could eventually develop to that same quality while the Red Sox expected Pomeranz to fill the fourth spot in the rotation. Neither team got what they wanted, at least in 2016 or for most of thereafter; Espinoza immediately went down with a major arm injury which kept him from pitching professionally for five years. Pomeranz himself reverted to his pre-breakout level for the rest of the season, bounced back with a big 2017 (17-6, 3.32 ERA, a strikeout per inning across 174 frames) and then finally was the forgotten man on the 2018 pitching staff due to injuries and ineffectiveness (6.08 ERA in 74 innings, 66 strikeouts to 44 walks). At this point the thirty year old southpaw looked like the quintessential example of TNSTAAPP (There’s No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect), another electric arm who would never match his potential due to injuries and command woes. Anyways, Pomeranz then seemed to resuscitate his career out of the bullpen for the 2019 Brewers and 2020-21 Padres with a sub-2 ERA across 70 innings in those three seasons…before injuries again struck. Though he has not pitched in the majors in three years he remains in the Dodgers minor league system, currently (where else) on the injured list.
December 6, 2016: Traded Victor Diaz, Luis Alexander Basabe, Michael Kopech and Yoán Moncada to the Chicago White Sox. Received Chris Sale.
It’s easy to forget now, but Moncada was not only a can’t miss prospect but one of the three best in all of baseball at the time, and Kopech was another Top 100 type. I’ve covered Kopech in my previous article on Red Sox pitching prospect busts but Moncada’s own failure to reach his ceiling was due more to injuries and a passive approach at the plate. Thus far into his career, Moncada has had two good seasons out of seven and played in at least 130 games in only three. With a strikeout rate of thirty percent, a declining walk rate, little power and less defense, he’s become a fourteen million dollar albatross even when on the field for the White Sox.
Sale, of course, had two Cy Young Award worthy campaigns before injuries and an ill-advised extension soured his final five seasons as a Red Sox. That extension will be discussed further when we come to it, but the trade on its own was inarguably a major victory.
Traded a player to be named later, Josh Pennington, Mauricio Dubón and Travis Shaw to the Milwaukee Brewers. Received Tyler Thornburg. The Boston Red Sox sent Yeison Coca (June 5, 2017) to the Milwaukee Brewers to complete the trade.
Yet another ill-fated trade for a relief pitcher, this time costing the Red Sox heavily in terms of value lost; Shaw went to become an all-star power bat at second and third base for the next two seasons in Milwaukee before his career petered out. Thornburg on the other hand contracted thoracic outlet syndrome from which he never recovered. Even if he had pitched well, the Red Sox could have used Shaw more than any setup man due to Dustin Pedroia’s career ending knee injury.
December 8, 2016: Signed Mitch Moreland as a free agent.
Mitch Moreland was a decent first baseman, but could Dave really not find someone better to play first over the next three years? Even if they cost more than $18.5 million?
December 20, 2016: Traded Clay Buchholz to the Philadelphia Phillies. Received Josh Tobias.
This was more of a psychic relief to Red Sox Nation than anything else, finally alleviating them of the constant confusion over which Bucholz would show up on the mound—the oft-injured and easy to hit version, or the dominating ace? Fittingly Clay’s last three seasons in the majors featured two horrid starts for Philly, sixteen dominating starts in Arizona, and then finally split the difference with a final dozen poor performances as a Blue Jay.
~2017~
June 12, 2017: Drafted Tanner Houck in the 1st round (24th pick) of the 2017 amateur draft.
Houck’s selection constitutes one-third of the total number of draft picks by Dombrowski that made which helped the Red Sox at the major league level (the other two being fourteenth round pick Kutter Crawford in 2016 and fellow first rounder Triston Casas in 2018); inability to find even depth pieces in the draft left the Red Sox farm system utterly void of impact talent by 2018.
June 23, 2017: Selected Doug Fister off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels.
As alluded to in my previous article, veteran GMs tend to reacquire players they were familiar with from previous stops. Fister had been an excellent fourth starter for the Tigers early in the 2010s but by 2017 the end was clearly staring him in the face; a 4.88 ERA in eighteen appearances (fifteen starts) just underlined this inevitable and unenviable conclusion.
July 26, 2017: Traded Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos to the San Francisco Giants. Received Eduardo Núñez.
Nunez was the short-term solution to Pedroia’s knee injury. He turned out to be the medium-term solution too, as the degenerate condition of the incumbent’s affliction led DD to resign Nunez that winter. While fantastic down the stretch in 2017 this was a stretch of the infielder’s capabilities; Nunez suffered his own knee injuries and posted a remarkable -2.3 WAR as Boston’s primary keystone occupant over the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
July 31, 2017: Traded Gerson Bautista, Jamie Callahan and Stephen Nogosek to the New York Mets. Received Addison Reed.
Another deadline, another deal to reinforce the bullpen. Reed was inconsistent for the Red Sox during his two month stay, which turned out to be the penultimate chapter for his career—a poor 2018 in Minnesota marked the end of his major league career, an astonishingly quick demise even for a reliever.
~2018~
February 26, 2018: Signed J.D. Martinez as a free agent, five years and 110 million dollars.
The best free agent signing of the Dombrowski era, JD provided the power bat the Red Sox sorely lacked after Big Papi’s retirement. In his first and best season in Boston Martinez led the majors in both runs batted in and total bases, placed third in MVP voting, and earned Silver Sluggers at two different positions! He declined linearly from there, but remains a productive member of any team’s lineup to this day; he has spent the last two seasons as the Dodgers and now Mets’ DH, attempting to compensate for declining bat speed by sacrificing contact for power.
March 4, 2018: Signed Ryan Brasier as a free agent.
The quality of Brasier’s pitching is inversely proportional to the quality of the expectations laid upon him. Thus he alternates excellent if limited seasons with ostensibly healthier but more erratic contributions.
March 24, 2018: Traded Deven Marrero to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Received a player to be named later. The Arizona Diamondbacks sent Josh Taylor (May 15, 2018) to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.
Deven Marrero was the prototypical good-field/no-hit infielder. Taylor is yet another oft-injured reliever, though he at least gave the Red Sox two solid seasons as the primary southpaw in 2019 and 2021. After missing all of 2022, he was traded to the Royals for Adalberto Mondesi and a teenage infielder named Angel Pierre; while Mondesi knee injuries seem to have ended his career Pierre posted a .415 OBP in rookie ball last year. Keep an eye and ear out for him as he climbs through the minor league ranks.
June 4, 2018: Drafted Triston Casas in the 1st round (26th pick) of the 2018 amateur draft.
Get well soon. There’s only so much Bobby Dalbec a fan can take.
June 28, 2018: Traded Santiago Espinal to the Toronto Blue Jays. Received Steve Pearce and cash.
Moreland had never and would never hit southpaws, but it took until the middle of his second season in Boston for the Red Sox to provide him with a platoon partner. When they finally did so at least they chose one of the very best platoon players in the major leagues in Steve Pearce; Pearce of course would win the World Series MVP that should have gone to Price later that year.
July 25, 2018: Traded Jalen Beeks to the Tampa Bay Rays. Received Nathan Eovaldi.
Even had he not resigned with the team during the offseason, Eovaldi would have earned his place in Red Sox lore for his heroic six inning relief appearance in the World Series. We’ll discuss the extension later, but also note that Beeks is perhaps the only pitcher who the Rays failed to turn into a Cy Young contender. What’s the opposite of adding insult to injury?
July 30, 2018: Traded Ty Buttrey and Williams Jerez to the Los Angeles Angels. Received Ian Kinsler and cash.
With Nunez playing well below replacement level, the Red Sox needed a replacement for the replacement. Kinsler in his penultimate season at least provided a solid glove; just in case the Red Sox also picked up Brandon Phillips.
November 16, 2018: Signed Steve Pearce as a free agent. AND, December 6, 2018: Signed Nathan Eovaldi as a free agent.
These were covertly two of the worst transactions of the Dave Dombrowski era. Refusing to say goodbye to midseason rentals is risky enough, but the amount of money given to Pearce and Eovaldi also baffled reasonable explanations; a thirty-six-year-old platoon hitter at first base is replaceable enough, even when he’s not the weak side of the arrangement. Had Pearce played well and been healthy in 2019, perhaps the six and quarter million would have seemed mostly worth it; instead, he “hit” .180 in twenty nine games before retiring.
Meanwhile, Eovaldi’s lengthy injury history made it a minor miracle that he was healthy enough for the Red Sox during his three months in Boston—bringing him back for four years and sixty-eight million dollars can only be explained as a sentimental move, an excessive reward for that World Series performance. As could have been reasonably expected in December 2018, Nitro Nate only proved worthy of that contract in one out of four seasons; in the other three he was either injured for most of the season, ineffective, or both.
~2019~
March 23, 2019: Extended Chris Sale for five years, 145 million dollars.
It wasn’t the David Price contract that caused the fiscal panic that cost the Red Sox their best player since at least Carl Yastrzemski, not really. The Red Sox could have eaten that sunken cost, had it been the sole albatross on their pitching staff. But, of course, it was only one of three unnecessary contracts that Dave Dombrowski issued to injury-prone starting pitchers on the wrong side of thirty. Sale had already shown long term red flags in 2018, which argued for letting him play out his walk year in 2019 before possibly ponying up the cash to keep him. After all, the Red Sox also had to extend Xander Bogaerts as well as the inestimable Betts; those two would cost at least sixty million a year to retain. Since they were coming off the most dominant single season in franchise history, perhaps now was the best time to let go some of the chief contributors, before the Red Sox tricked themselves into trying to recapture lightning in a bottle…Well, you know what happened in reality.
Between them, Eovaldi, Sale, and Price cost the Red Sox $52 million in 2019 alone, then $67 million in 2020; accounting for other contracts (JBJ’s arbitration rang up $11 million, Bogey was extended for $20 million, and JD was on the books for about $24 million) that was at least $122 million dollars already assigned to six players entering 2020. Assuming a payroll of effectively $200 million, this would have left about thirty million to spend on the other twenty-odd players required to field a team after giving Mookie his presumed megadeal. Turning back to 2019, just like with the Tigers in 2015, Dave couldn’t even make his customary July trade for pitching; the acquisition of Andrew Cashner from the Orioles felt like a low-budget parody of his previous deadline splashes, which of course it was.
There’s the real reason Dave Dombrowski was fired—just as in Detroit his full throttle commitment to a win-now mandate from ownership eventually led to a top-heavy roster and barren farm system. Have fun while you can, Phillies Phans.
Final Note/Small Self Promotion I forget to add: You could have read this post ten days earlier if you follow my blog
submitted by WarlordofBritannia to redsox [link] [comments]
Ironically Dombrowski had been fired by the Tigers because of his belief that the organization’s competitive window had closed and that the team needed to rebuild; the Tigers gave the job to his former assistant who got one more winning season out of their aging core before the inevitabilities became insurmountable. By that time the Red Sox were in the midst of their second straight division crown of three, which climaxed with the single greatest season in franchise history. This is how Dombrowski built that team, as well as the fiscal panic that cost the Red Sox the greatest all around player in franchise history following it:
~2015~
November 13, 2015: Traded Logan Allen, Carlos Asuaje, Javy Guerra and Manuel Margot to the San Diego Padres. Received Craig Kimbrel.
The first major transaction of the Dave Dombrowski era set the pace for the next four years; trading four prospects for a relief pitcher constitutes the classic win-now move. In this case the Red Sox won the deal in both the long and short terms, as only Manuel Margot developed in regular at the major league level, and that at a position where the Red Sox were not in need (center field). Meanwhile Craig Kimbrel made the all-star team in each of his three seasons in Boston, the second of which was one of the greatest relief performances in the game’s history.
December 4, 2015: Signed David Price as a free agent, 217 million dollars over seven years.
At once the most maligned and most underrated move of the Dombrowski era as well as being the biggest, the David Price signing saw the Red Sox for the first time handout a nine figure contract to a free agent pitcher. This was all the more dramatic as they had alienated and traded away their own homegrown southpaw ace (Jon Lester) less than eighteen months before. This was also the first time with the Red Sox that Dave Dombrowski acquired a player he was he previously familiar with, perhaps slightly overpaying for that familiarity. Did we mention that this was largest contract ever given to a pitcher at time, too?
Price had a solid first season in Boston, leading the league in innings pitched with 230 and striking out nearly a man per inning. Nonetheless the first three years of his tenure were marked with mutual hostility towards the ever-ravenous Boston sports media, only alleviated after his fantastic 2018 postseason run. Aging and injuries limited both the quantity and quality of his performance in 2017 and 2019; this trend as well as his 31 million annum salary contributed to owner John Henry’s decision to offload Price even at the cost of Mookie Betts. If only for that last reason alone the David Price signing is one the Red Sox would likely not repeat in hindsight.
December 7, 2015: Traded Jonathan Aro and Wade Miley to the Seattle Mariners. Received Roenis Elías and Carson Smith.
The first of many times Dombrowski would be burned in pursuit of bullpen arms, this deal with Seattle comes down to Wade Miley for Carson Smith. Miley had been signed as a reclamation project by Cherrington before 2015 in the hopes that Miley could serve as a solid mid-rotation option, which he more or less fulfilled with just short of 200 league average innings. Smith on the other hand was coming off his first full season in the majors where he gave the Mariners seventy brilliant innings of high leverage relief pitching (2.31 ERA, 11.8 K/9, and only two home runs allowed).
In a twist of fate, this trade hurt both teams as Smith immediately got injured and only pitched 24 innings in the rest of his career while Miley bombed in Seattle en route to a midseason jettisoning. Yet he rebounded with Baltimore in 2017 and remains an effective if oft-injured starting pitcher to this day, currently with the Milwaukee Brewers.
~2016~
June 10, 2016: Drafted Bobby Dalbec in the 4th round of the 2016 amateur draft.
The once and future Red Sox, Quad A superstar Bobby Dalbec!
July 7, 2016: Traded Wendell Rijo and Aaron Wilkerson to the Milwaukee Brewers. Received Aaron Hill and cash.
With Pablo Sandoval well into his career of eating his way out of Boston, the Red Sox carried a gaping hole at third base from August 2012 to July 2017. One of the short term attempts at a fix featured the acquisition of infielder Aaron Hill, hoping that he and Travis Shaw could platoon for the rest of the 2016 season. The thirty four year old Hill had been decent in Milwaukee in the first half after two bad seasons, but he reverted to that form as soon as he put on a Red Sox uniform, posting a 54 OPS+ in 137 plate appearances. After another terrible eighty plate appearances for the Giants in 2017 Hill was done. On the bright side, the two players Dombrowski gave up for him never amounted to anything.
July 9, 2016: Traded Jose Almonte and Luis Alejandro Basabe to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Received Brad Ziegler.
Ziegler was an accomplished submarine righty who the Red Sox acquired for basically free to get same-sided batters out, a role which he fulfilled to perfection (1.52 ERA in 30 innings). Another clearly won trade for DD.
July 14, 2016: Traded Anderson Espinoza to the San Diego Padres. Received Drew Pomeranz.
At the time, Anderson Espinoza was a teenager in Single A while Drew Pomeranz had appeared to finally unlock his long-salivated over potential with an all-star appearance. Ideally the Padres were hoping Espinoza could eventually develop to that same quality while the Red Sox expected Pomeranz to fill the fourth spot in the rotation. Neither team got what they wanted, at least in 2016 or for most of thereafter; Espinoza immediately went down with a major arm injury which kept him from pitching professionally for five years. Pomeranz himself reverted to his pre-breakout level for the rest of the season, bounced back with a big 2017 (17-6, 3.32 ERA, a strikeout per inning across 174 frames) and then finally was the forgotten man on the 2018 pitching staff due to injuries and ineffectiveness (6.08 ERA in 74 innings, 66 strikeouts to 44 walks). At this point the thirty year old southpaw looked like the quintessential example of TNSTAAPP (There’s No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect), another electric arm who would never match his potential due to injuries and command woes. Anyways, Pomeranz then seemed to resuscitate his career out of the bullpen for the 2019 Brewers and 2020-21 Padres with a sub-2 ERA across 70 innings in those three seasons…before injuries again struck. Though he has not pitched in the majors in three years he remains in the Dodgers minor league system, currently (where else) on the injured list.
December 6, 2016: Traded Victor Diaz, Luis Alexander Basabe, Michael Kopech and Yoán Moncada to the Chicago White Sox. Received Chris Sale.
It’s easy to forget now, but Moncada was not only a can’t miss prospect but one of the three best in all of baseball at the time, and Kopech was another Top 100 type. I’ve covered Kopech in my previous article on Red Sox pitching prospect busts but Moncada’s own failure to reach his ceiling was due more to injuries and a passive approach at the plate. Thus far into his career, Moncada has had two good seasons out of seven and played in at least 130 games in only three. With a strikeout rate of thirty percent, a declining walk rate, little power and less defense, he’s become a fourteen million dollar albatross even when on the field for the White Sox.
Sale, of course, had two Cy Young Award worthy campaigns before injuries and an ill-advised extension soured his final five seasons as a Red Sox. That extension will be discussed further when we come to it, but the trade on its own was inarguably a major victory.
Traded a player to be named later, Josh Pennington, Mauricio Dubón and Travis Shaw to the Milwaukee Brewers. Received Tyler Thornburg. The Boston Red Sox sent Yeison Coca (June 5, 2017) to the Milwaukee Brewers to complete the trade.
Yet another ill-fated trade for a relief pitcher, this time costing the Red Sox heavily in terms of value lost; Shaw went to become an all-star power bat at second and third base for the next two seasons in Milwaukee before his career petered out. Thornburg on the other hand contracted thoracic outlet syndrome from which he never recovered. Even if he had pitched well, the Red Sox could have used Shaw more than any setup man due to Dustin Pedroia’s career ending knee injury.
December 8, 2016: Signed Mitch Moreland as a free agent.
Mitch Moreland was a decent first baseman, but could Dave really not find someone better to play first over the next three years? Even if they cost more than $18.5 million?
December 20, 2016: Traded Clay Buchholz to the Philadelphia Phillies. Received Josh Tobias.
This was more of a psychic relief to Red Sox Nation than anything else, finally alleviating them of the constant confusion over which Bucholz would show up on the mound—the oft-injured and easy to hit version, or the dominating ace? Fittingly Clay’s last three seasons in the majors featured two horrid starts for Philly, sixteen dominating starts in Arizona, and then finally split the difference with a final dozen poor performances as a Blue Jay.
~2017~
June 12, 2017: Drafted Tanner Houck in the 1st round (24th pick) of the 2017 amateur draft.
Houck’s selection constitutes one-third of the total number of draft picks by Dombrowski that made which helped the Red Sox at the major league level (the other two being fourteenth round pick Kutter Crawford in 2016 and fellow first rounder Triston Casas in 2018); inability to find even depth pieces in the draft left the Red Sox farm system utterly void of impact talent by 2018.
June 23, 2017: Selected Doug Fister off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels.
As alluded to in my previous article, veteran GMs tend to reacquire players they were familiar with from previous stops. Fister had been an excellent fourth starter for the Tigers early in the 2010s but by 2017 the end was clearly staring him in the face; a 4.88 ERA in eighteen appearances (fifteen starts) just underlined this inevitable and unenviable conclusion.
July 26, 2017: Traded Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos to the San Francisco Giants. Received Eduardo Núñez.
Nunez was the short-term solution to Pedroia’s knee injury. He turned out to be the medium-term solution too, as the degenerate condition of the incumbent’s affliction led DD to resign Nunez that winter. While fantastic down the stretch in 2017 this was a stretch of the infielder’s capabilities; Nunez suffered his own knee injuries and posted a remarkable -2.3 WAR as Boston’s primary keystone occupant over the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
July 31, 2017: Traded Gerson Bautista, Jamie Callahan and Stephen Nogosek to the New York Mets. Received Addison Reed.
Another deadline, another deal to reinforce the bullpen. Reed was inconsistent for the Red Sox during his two month stay, which turned out to be the penultimate chapter for his career—a poor 2018 in Minnesota marked the end of his major league career, an astonishingly quick demise even for a reliever.
~2018~
February 26, 2018: Signed J.D. Martinez as a free agent, five years and 110 million dollars.
The best free agent signing of the Dombrowski era, JD provided the power bat the Red Sox sorely lacked after Big Papi’s retirement. In his first and best season in Boston Martinez led the majors in both runs batted in and total bases, placed third in MVP voting, and earned Silver Sluggers at two different positions! He declined linearly from there, but remains a productive member of any team’s lineup to this day; he has spent the last two seasons as the Dodgers and now Mets’ DH, attempting to compensate for declining bat speed by sacrificing contact for power.
March 4, 2018: Signed Ryan Brasier as a free agent.
The quality of Brasier’s pitching is inversely proportional to the quality of the expectations laid upon him. Thus he alternates excellent if limited seasons with ostensibly healthier but more erratic contributions.
March 24, 2018: Traded Deven Marrero to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Received a player to be named later. The Arizona Diamondbacks sent Josh Taylor (May 15, 2018) to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.
Deven Marrero was the prototypical good-field/no-hit infielder. Taylor is yet another oft-injured reliever, though he at least gave the Red Sox two solid seasons as the primary southpaw in 2019 and 2021. After missing all of 2022, he was traded to the Royals for Adalberto Mondesi and a teenage infielder named Angel Pierre; while Mondesi knee injuries seem to have ended his career Pierre posted a .415 OBP in rookie ball last year. Keep an eye and ear out for him as he climbs through the minor league ranks.
June 4, 2018: Drafted Triston Casas in the 1st round (26th pick) of the 2018 amateur draft.
Get well soon. There’s only so much Bobby Dalbec a fan can take.
June 28, 2018: Traded Santiago Espinal to the Toronto Blue Jays. Received Steve Pearce and cash.
Moreland had never and would never hit southpaws, but it took until the middle of his second season in Boston for the Red Sox to provide him with a platoon partner. When they finally did so at least they chose one of the very best platoon players in the major leagues in Steve Pearce; Pearce of course would win the World Series MVP that should have gone to Price later that year.
July 25, 2018: Traded Jalen Beeks to the Tampa Bay Rays. Received Nathan Eovaldi.
Even had he not resigned with the team during the offseason, Eovaldi would have earned his place in Red Sox lore for his heroic six inning relief appearance in the World Series. We’ll discuss the extension later, but also note that Beeks is perhaps the only pitcher who the Rays failed to turn into a Cy Young contender. What’s the opposite of adding insult to injury?
July 30, 2018: Traded Ty Buttrey and Williams Jerez to the Los Angeles Angels. Received Ian Kinsler and cash.
With Nunez playing well below replacement level, the Red Sox needed a replacement for the replacement. Kinsler in his penultimate season at least provided a solid glove; just in case the Red Sox also picked up Brandon Phillips.
November 16, 2018: Signed Steve Pearce as a free agent. AND, December 6, 2018: Signed Nathan Eovaldi as a free agent.
These were covertly two of the worst transactions of the Dave Dombrowski era. Refusing to say goodbye to midseason rentals is risky enough, but the amount of money given to Pearce and Eovaldi also baffled reasonable explanations; a thirty-six-year-old platoon hitter at first base is replaceable enough, even when he’s not the weak side of the arrangement. Had Pearce played well and been healthy in 2019, perhaps the six and quarter million would have seemed mostly worth it; instead, he “hit” .180 in twenty nine games before retiring.
Meanwhile, Eovaldi’s lengthy injury history made it a minor miracle that he was healthy enough for the Red Sox during his three months in Boston—bringing him back for four years and sixty-eight million dollars can only be explained as a sentimental move, an excessive reward for that World Series performance. As could have been reasonably expected in December 2018, Nitro Nate only proved worthy of that contract in one out of four seasons; in the other three he was either injured for most of the season, ineffective, or both.
~2019~
March 23, 2019: Extended Chris Sale for five years, 145 million dollars.
It wasn’t the David Price contract that caused the fiscal panic that cost the Red Sox their best player since at least Carl Yastrzemski, not really. The Red Sox could have eaten that sunken cost, had it been the sole albatross on their pitching staff. But, of course, it was only one of three unnecessary contracts that Dave Dombrowski issued to injury-prone starting pitchers on the wrong side of thirty. Sale had already shown long term red flags in 2018, which argued for letting him play out his walk year in 2019 before possibly ponying up the cash to keep him. After all, the Red Sox also had to extend Xander Bogaerts as well as the inestimable Betts; those two would cost at least sixty million a year to retain. Since they were coming off the most dominant single season in franchise history, perhaps now was the best time to let go some of the chief contributors, before the Red Sox tricked themselves into trying to recapture lightning in a bottle…Well, you know what happened in reality.
Between them, Eovaldi, Sale, and Price cost the Red Sox $52 million in 2019 alone, then $67 million in 2020; accounting for other contracts (JBJ’s arbitration rang up $11 million, Bogey was extended for $20 million, and JD was on the books for about $24 million) that was at least $122 million dollars already assigned to six players entering 2020. Assuming a payroll of effectively $200 million, this would have left about thirty million to spend on the other twenty-odd players required to field a team after giving Mookie his presumed megadeal. Turning back to 2019, just like with the Tigers in 2015, Dave couldn’t even make his customary July trade for pitching; the acquisition of Andrew Cashner from the Orioles felt like a low-budget parody of his previous deadline splashes, which of course it was.
There’s the real reason Dave Dombrowski was fired—just as in Detroit his full throttle commitment to a win-now mandate from ownership eventually led to a top-heavy roster and barren farm system. Have fun while you can, Phillies Phans.
Final Note/Small Self Promotion I forget to add: You could have read this post ten days earlier if you follow my blog
2024.05.13 23:18 Pinchaser71 Forever tomato cages (for larger gardens)
 | For as long as I’ve been gardening I’ve had tomato cages like these that I made. Every year I get countless people asking me where I got them. Well… I technically didn’t GET them anywhere, I made them. I only made them once before and they lasted for decades. submitted by Pinchaser71 to gardening [link] [comments] Unfortunately, we moved a few times over the years and that aren’t exactly something you’re going to throw in a moving truck with your furniture. Plus they’d take up a lot of room in a truck. Needless to say they were left behind. I wouldn’t be surprised to find them still there. Moving forward to now, 15 years later I’m finally in an appropriate home to start over with what will likely be my finally batch I’ll ever need. I’m including a how to with photos if you’d like to make these for yourself. I figured since so many people ask me locally, maybe you all in this subreddit may appreciate it. What you need: “Concrete reinforcement mesh” rolls, bolt cutters, needle nose pliers, several heavy bricks (pavers, cinder blocks) or other heavy objects, gloves and safety glasses. Photo 1. Here is a roll of “Concrete reinforcement mesh” purchased from the local hardware store as shown. It’s basically a roll of rusty steel wire. This is a 50’ roll which will make exactly 10 cages. It comes in 50,100,150 and 200 foot rolls. 200’ rolls will require 2 people to move it, this stuff is HEAVY! Pro tip: if you’re throwing this in a van/SUV be sure to bring a crappy blanket to lay down inside, unless you want rust on your interior. Photo 2: Roll out the mess on a flat surface and hold it down with the bricks. Otherwise it will roll back up on you. Photo 3: Count 10 square holes from the end lengthwise. Approximately 5’. Photo 4: using the bolt cutters (or good strong wire cutters), start cutting each wire across as shown. Make sure to cut each wire equal length all the way down trying to get as close to flush as you can. Note: Keep a couple pavers handy until you get to the last few wires to cut. Place one on the side that your cutting off and one on the roll side. The wire will want to roll up and you don’t want to get cut, scratched or poked when it springs back! Obviously the tighter it’s round the more it’s going to want to unroll and spring up. Just please use caution as right now you have freshly cut sharp ends of rusty springy wire that will mess you up! If not, I hope your Tetanus shot is up to date! Photo 5: This is what it should look like when you’re finished with your cuts. You should now have a 5’ x 5’ square of the wire mess with 3 flat sides and 1 with cut wires. Photo 6: using your needle nose pliers, bend the end of the wires you just cut to form hooks. Try to get them all uniform in size so your length stays consistent, you’ll see why in photo 8 & 9. Photo 7: using the bolt cutters, start cutting one of the flat sides off as shown, similar to what you just did cutting it to length. Photo 8: This is what the side should look like when you’ve finished cutting off the flat side. You should now have a 5’x5’ square piece of wire mesh with two flat sides, one side with hooks and one side with straight cut wires. Photo 9: Now evenly roll the side with the hooks to the opposite end and place a couple of the hooks on the end. It will form a circle. When a couple are secured now you can stand it on the end you cut off in photo 7. With it standing, secure the remaining loose hooks around the end wire as shown. If you didn’t make your hooks uniform length as stated then you’ll be having issues on this step. If they are too short or uneven they won’t reach or make your cage not round. Photo 10: using needle nose, squeeze the hooks closed all the way down so the wire can’t slip out. It takes a bit of force to close them. When they are closed, this is what they should look like. Photo 11: Once all the hooks are closed you notice the cage is rather egg shaped. Lay it on its side with the hooks on the bottom and simply pressed down like you’re going to flatten it. All you’re trying to do is make it round instead of egg shaped. Photo 12: once its round you can safely stand it back up standing on the cut off end. Photo 13: Take it to your garden and place it where you’d like Photo 14: Once it’s where you want it, simply step on the bottom wire and the cut wires will easily sink into the ground holding it in place. Photo 15: TADA! You now have a 5’ high about 18” diameter tomato cage. It will last you virtually a lifetime. They don’t blow over from wind once you stick them in the ground. They certainly don’t bend easy like this expensive cheaply made flimsy funnel shaped ones you can buy. The 6”x6” holes give you very easy access to pick your tomatoes and to pluck weeds from around your plants. My tomato plants always loved these cages and grew up tall and strong from many years. Storage of the cages is the one downfall. You could of course keep them in place in the garden all winter if you choose. Otherwise you can stack them with them laying on their side. Obviously since the ends are rusty steel spikes, you may want to stack them with that end butt up to a fence out something where nobody will be walking behind the stack getting shanked. The alternative is instead of cutting these with the hooks like I do, you could instead cut them flush and hold them together using zip ties. In the fall you could just cut them off and stack the 5’x5’ squares of flat mesh. It’s up to you but not my preferred method as zip tires like to break and get brittle from the weather. Anyway, hopefully you guys like these tomato cages. I also hope my instructions are clear. It’s easy to think they are when you’re there who knows what you are doing, more difficult when you not. If you have any questions please ask. Also, if you like these and make them, let me know! Two last things... Avoid bending the wires you are using as spikes sticking in the ground. Bending them too many times will break them off! On the upside, if you break them off you can always cut another row off the bottom and you’re good as new. You’ll just lose 6” in height. Second, you can make these cages for other plants like peppers, eggplants or whatever too. You’d likely make them narrower half the height. For tomatoes, these are the perfect size for spacing the plants out and height wise. |
2024.05.13 23:15 oftenfrequently Comparing the HTT strategies for each of the main families
 | Fair warning, this is gonna be a long one :) submitted by oftenfrequently to Kibbe [link] [comments] I started working on this for my own purposes because I’m fascinated by the similarities and differences between the HTT styling approaches Kibbe recommends for the different ID families, but then thought it might be helpful to share with the sub. I always see lots of mention of “lines,” but the overall HTT approach for each ID is sometimes (often) oversimplified. Plus all the other very fun elements that make up a HTT are, imo, getting short shrift! There are a few users who have posted amazing full HTTs for their IDs and I'm hoping even more people will be inspired to explore. So what even is this post? Basically, I went through the styling directives in Metamorphosis (Chapter 4) for the main families and directly compared the recommendations for the IDs on a number of smaller, more discrete variables because my brain finds it more digestible that way. I only did the main families because “you’re a [insert family here] first and foremost!!” is a thing regardless of your ID ;) And I thought it was more interesting to compare the elements of the pure families without the influence of any other undercurrents. Also it just would have been a lot of work to do all of them 🙃. A few notes before getting to the good stuff
And of course you can always read Metamorphosis for yourself in full here, which I highly recommend! 1. SilhouetteThis section is related to the base silhouette of an outfit - the overall shape of garments that make up a HTT and how they relate to one another. For the purposes of this category, I'm defining "ensemble" as the pieces look related or like they were purchased together, which I believe is the sense Kibbe uses it in.https://preview.redd.it/8earo8fbm70d1.jpg?width=1965&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=40f17625fbfc45cc723b9cc83d447111428d8b02 Shapes
2. FabricThis category is pretty self-explanatory I hope!https://preview.redd.it/94e76p19190d1.jpg?width=1976&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=816214030ae525dd16ec2e071426eab1e571c544 Definition
3. PrintsAlso self-explanatory!https://preview.redd.it/nn24my93490d1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a8d47c3a4d4d5984b6cac8d9deeccdf7da834c4 Pattern
4. Garment DetailThis category is related to the details within the confines of the outline of a garment. So things like necklines, collars, effects like beading and sequins, trim, buttons, etc etc.https://preview.redd.it/342pwi6y390d1.jpg?width=1971&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64115f1045c7a3cb6d9ac1d6d843754ca943a603 Shape - sharp vs soft
5. ColorY'all know what colors are :)https://preview.redd.it/5he7hmfk790d1.jpg?width=1949&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc59971dc9518bfbd276300feccba5838f4d7971 Number
6. AccessoriesThe category for everything else - bags, hats, shoes, jewelry, belts, etc etc.https://preview.redd.it/ek7fu7oz790d1.jpg?width=1923&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c24f3db63656cef4a8da916665ba0f19893cc86 Scale
7. In closing, some keywordsPicked out from the sections for each main family. I find these helpful to kind of paint a word picture of the overall vibe each family is recommended to go for.
|
2024.05.13 22:48 daygobbyy They supposed to be homies? Never forget when Potlord said this
 | submitted by daygobbyy to BackonFigg_2 [link] [comments] |
2024.05.13 22:45 Open_Cap_652 Quick Review of Recent Sezane Purchases! (Clyde Trench, Paula Babies, Octobre Editions Riddle Jacket)
Hi everyone!
Longtime lurker, first time caller :) Just wanted to share some opinions on recent Sezane purchases in terms of fit, quality, etc. Hope it's helpful for anyone thinking about these purchases!
For reference, I'm 5'5", 135-140 lbs (depending on my menstrual cycle), athletic build but also quite curvy (broad shoulders and lats from years of rock climbing, wide hips, smaller waist). Measurements are roughly 37 inch bust - 28 inch waist. My complexion is dark (olive-tan skin, black hair, brown eyes).
Clyde Trench in Camel
I ordered a size 4 as I range anywhere from a size 2-size 6 in Sezane tops just depending on how I want something to fit.
I love Octobre Editions and I'm obsessed with how Sezane does a lot of their Instagram reel styling with women wearing men's jackets and knit tops. I watched a reel where their social media ambassador Lise (Lisa?) tried on the Riddle Jacket and commented on being a European size 52 (US Size 42) (which seemed large but what do I know?) so based my sizing off of that.
I have a quite flat, wide foot (very little arch) and I typically wear a size 7.5-8 Womens US. I've heard a lot of rumblings on this subreddit to size up in Sezane shoes, so I got both a size 8 (Camel) and size 9 (Patent Khaki).
submitted by Open_Cap_652 to Sezane [link] [comments]
Longtime lurker, first time caller :) Just wanted to share some opinions on recent Sezane purchases in terms of fit, quality, etc. Hope it's helpful for anyone thinking about these purchases!
For reference, I'm 5'5", 135-140 lbs (depending on my menstrual cycle), athletic build but also quite curvy (broad shoulders and lats from years of rock climbing, wide hips, smaller waist). Measurements are roughly 37 inch bust - 28 inch waist. My complexion is dark (olive-tan skin, black hair, brown eyes).
Clyde Trench in Camel
I ordered a size 4 as I range anywhere from a size 2-size 6 in Sezane tops just depending on how I want something to fit.
- Pros: Fit me very well in the shoulders, which is hard to do sometimes! Fabric feels like it has a great heft being 100% cotton, lining inside is very cute and comfortable against the skin.
- Cons: Found the camel color to be a bit off-putting in person under fluorescent lights. Wonder if I should've gone for the light beige? Color has an almost beige-green-puke appearance to it instead of a warm-red brown. Very unflattering for my shape. So baggy everywhere but the shoulders. I'm not (that) short but the coat makes me look short and stout. It's also visually just so, so much beige. Drowning in a sea of beige. Really disappointed because I love how this coat looks on models!
- Overall: I would consider trying a size 2 but I'm guessing it'll be tight in my shoulders and for $350 USD, I really would want a coat to be both comfortable and very flattering. Also it's so annoying that it's dry clean only and not at all water resistant, though I would've kept it if I loved how it looked. I think this coat does look great on a lot of people but not me!!
I love Octobre Editions and I'm obsessed with how Sezane does a lot of their Instagram reel styling with women wearing men's jackets and knit tops. I watched a reel where their social media ambassador Lise (Lisa?) tried on the Riddle Jacket and commented on being a European size 52 (US Size 42) (which seemed large but what do I know?) so based my sizing off of that.
- Pros: Fabric is very lightweight and cool for the summer, great pattern, extremely cool colors (the houndstooth is very subtly dark green). Construction is very precise and just makes for a very sharp looking jacket.
- Cons: Fabric is maybe even too lightweight, and the jacket has no lining (I think to make it more breathable), but it kind of has an effect of feeling and looking cheap. Which is just not at all what I want in a $450 blazer! In terms of sizing, unfortunately just absolutely gigantic on me everywhere. Not in a cute oversized way. Just a little kid in their dad's suit way.
- Overall: Lesson learned, will try a size 36 if I ever do a Octobre Editions jacket try on again. Also, for the price point, I would definitely just get one of their blazers with a nice lining and a nice heft (wool or 100% cotton instead of seersucker)
I have a quite flat, wide foot (very little arch) and I typically wear a size 7.5-8 Womens US. I've heard a lot of rumblings on this subreddit to size up in Sezane shoes, so I got both a size 8 (Camel) and size 9 (Patent Khaki).
- Pros: Beautiful patent leather (with that new car smell haha)! The colors are to die for! The heel is nice and wide and chunky and feels substantial. Everything is stitched together so I know that the lining won't peel away from the outer leather. Slingback and front straps allow for a lot of adjustability, so much so that I actually fit into both sizes quite comfortably. Decently comfortable in the sole for a dressier shoe.
- Cons: A bit of pinching on the side of my foot unless I let out the straps all the way, then it's mostly gone. Only notice it after sitting in them for a few hours. Walking around my apartment, I think there might be some potential hot spots if I walked a few miles in them, so they will probably need a break in period or a sock. Patent Khaki color looks a bit nicer in bright outdoor lighting and a wee bit dark for my tastes in more indoor lighting, but I still think it'll be adorable with a pair of jeans.
- Overall: Honestly kind of obsessed with them! I think they're incredibly cute and comfortable for a heeled mary jane. I am absolutely not a heel person but the wedge makes them easy to walk around and balance in. The aesthetic is very hard to beat in my opinion (and I stared at a lot of competitors, including Jonak, Bobbies, and Carel, etc), and the color options are really fun. I heard so many terrible things about Sezane's mary janes on this subreddit but I think I'm keeping them both (one for wearing barefoot, one with extra room for frilly socks, they're both so adjustable anyway). You could probably get a nicer shoe for more money but I think the construction and appearance are perfect for the price point.
2024.05.13 22:41 thatguys424242 They supposed to be homies? Never forget when Potlord said this
submitted by thatguys424242 to NoJumper [link] [comments]
2024.05.13 22:10 JF_WPA Vanguard - FINAL ATTEMPT
... Was the title of an email I received, after not responding to an ever increasing volume and pushiness of "wealth management" services calls /voicemail /emails. All of this, esp this last email has really had me thinking of moving everything to Fidelity. I get enough 'shocked face' equivalent, FINAL NOTICE spam without this shit.
Been with VG for about 20 yrs after moving from USAA, and VG is becoming more and more like USAA by the day, and what a shame. I remember when I use to speak with competent VG reps that were polite and easy going, asking before I hung up if there is anything else. Without fail I said don't lose your way, stick to the principals of Mr. Bogle and stick to your knitting. Man I hate that I feel this way but it's true. C'mon VG, you can do a lot better.
submitted by JF_WPA to Bogleheads [link] [comments]
Been with VG for about 20 yrs after moving from USAA, and VG is becoming more and more like USAA by the day, and what a shame. I remember when I use to speak with competent VG reps that were polite and easy going, asking before I hung up if there is anything else. Without fail I said don't lose your way, stick to the principals of Mr. Bogle and stick to your knitting. Man I hate that I feel this way but it's true. C'mon VG, you can do a lot better.
2024.05.13 21:05 dbwip [FN] The World of Neron
People say it's childish to be afraid of the dark. They say it's a symptom of an overactive imagination. And yet the same people- all people- know that you don’t go out at night, not without light or charm. And everyone knows, instinctively, in the marrow of their bones, that you don’t go out on a moonless night.
I had been out on a moonless night for days. Most people can’t tell, but once you're trained, you can- Darkness loves darkness. She likes to stretch her time out as long as she's possibly able. Everyone wants to spend time with kindred spirits. It’s nature, human or otherwise.
There’s nothing I can do about it, so I do my best to enjoy it. After all, you have to pick your battles, and my gun makes it pretty easy to figure out which ones I can win. She's a lovely gun. Big, which is fine with me, because I need all the power she can muster. Nine custom rounds rotate through, each enchanted by my own self. Not as effective as a professional enchantment, but I get by, and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper.
The only light came from the muzzle flare of my pistol. They smothered my campfire long ago, leaving me with only the vaguest sense of where they were, occasionally silhouetted against the trees when I fired. They were big, looming over me, high into the crooked trees and the moonless sky behind them. Who could say how long tonight would last?
I try not to cast on Nights, because it just acts like more of a beacon than I already am, but sometimes it just can’t be helped. My chest burned as I threw up a Buffer against a sudden wave of creatures, but they tore it down before it hardly had time to help. I bit down and cast a Warding, felt my arm burn harshly in the wild energy of the new moon and felt the following cold cut its way through my flesh and deep into my bones. Popping the spent rounds out with my right hand, my left knitted itself into the Ward shape automatically, trained by years of habit. Now I’ve really done it, I thought, because I could practically sense them perk up from miles off, even without casting a Seeing. It worked, though, and I was given brief respite for my efforts. I’d sure as hell pay for it in about 10 minutes, but for now I needed to stop bleeding and deal with the sensation of a drill pressed to the back of my skull.
“Skippers,” I growled. I hated Skippers.
The problem with Skippers is they’re small, harder to notice than anything else, and instead of trying to take off your head they try to get into your head. From there they can do whatever they want while you watch- make you walk off a cliff, bite off your own tongue, flay yourself alive. Like I said, whatever they want, and they're usually pretty mean. I’d seen them really go to work on all sorts of people, mostly people I knew and trained with. Hazards of the job- sorcerous training let you see a whole new world, but it opened you up to the threats that lived there, more so than regular folk. I was in worse shape than most sorcerers, which was part of what put me out at Night in the first place. Luckily, I’m better than most sorcerers, but it still meant I had to be careful.
To get rid of a Skipper, all you have to do is burn them off with a little Light. I'd needed the break- 3 of them dripped out of me right away, and a fourth started to run down my back as it tried to escape.
“Bastard.” I struck it with the handle of the gun as it slithered away. No sense wasting ammo on idiots like that.
The Ward wavered, the Night grew around me, and I hadn't even had time to heal anything. Damn.
Sam watched from behind the counter as the man walked through the door. Under the door, rather, as he had to duck to keep from hitting his head. He was pale, very pale, unlike the merchantfolk that usually came through the inn. His face was covered by a bushy beard, his hair was long, and his eyes were rimmed with red, but he could certainly be no older than 40. It was strange- for someone to come in so early in the morning, and look so tired- he must have been traveling all night, but he had no horse to be stabled.
The stranger was an armory- small blades and strange, bulbous jars jutted out from pockets and packs all over the man, daggers strapped to his legs, and even metal nubs in the knuckles of his gloves. What caught Sam's attention, though, was the man's huge gun, strapped tightly to his waist. He had never seen a gun that big, and the ammunition the man was carrying in the sacks around his waist must have weighed heavily on him, though he showed no signs of it.
“What does it cost for a room?” His voice did not match the tired, worn image in front of him. It was firm, and had the sound of recent laughter in it.
“Let me get my mom.” Sam began, starting for the back room. He never handled rooms.
“That's alright. You'll do fine. How much?” The man pulled out a purse, smaller than the other bags on his belt, and it was clearly much lighter than anything else he carried. “I’d like to find a bed and use it.” His voice did not betray him, nor did his hands, but the redness of his eyes did. They were a startling blue, and they seemed to contain nothing except exhaustion.
“I need your name,” Sam remembered as he directed the giant stranger to his room. The man's eyes, just for an instant, darted to one side before returning to Sam.
“Joan,” he said.
“O-kay.” Sam jotted the name down. “Two nights, food at 7 and 7, anything else you pay for.” He began to walk the man down the hall. “Strange accent. Are you from Melano, or Baden?” He didn’t really know what those accents sounded like, but he knew they were far from Newmark.
“No.” Joan walked into the room indicated with no further comments.
Sam stopped at the door while the man called Joan dropped his bags to the floor. “What kinda gun is that?”
“Mine,” he said simply, as he unbundled it’s holster from his belt. “I make the ammunition myself most of the time.”
“It's impressive. My paw was a soldier, and he showed me his old gun once, only it was a lot smaller than yours, and all rusted out besides, but-" Sam stopped as the man removed his cloak. There was a bright gash, still oozing dark blood, working its way up the man's side behind the thick leather plates. “Holy cripes! You oughta see a doctor, sor!”
Joan gave no indication that he could even feel the wound, nor did he instantly react when the boy cried out. “This? It looks a lot worse than it is. Rest, and solitude,” and here he looked at Sam, “will do me more good than any doctor from this town.” He moved to close the door, and against Sam's protest seemed to shut him out with no effort at all.
He ran down the hall to inform his mother of their newest guest.
I didn’t want the kid to see what I had to do next. It really wasn’t that bad- on the outside. Because we put so much ourselves in the spiritual world, the physical world didn’t matter so much. But it’s all tradeoffs. It had cut a pretty chunk out of me spirit-wise, and that hurt worse than any gash could. Really, I was better off than most sorcerers would’ve been with a cut like this- I had less to lose. Doesn’t make it hurt any less, though.
I Worked a minor Healing, but anything more would’ve taken more out of me than I could hope to regain, so the rest had to be resigned to sleep. Stupid. I should never have let anything get that close anyway, but it seemed like the Skippers were going crazy last Night.
I was too tired even to dream. A small blessing.
Waking up was not pleasant- I was stiff and sore, and still hurting something fierce. And cold, of course. Always cold. The physical wound had scabbed over, and I figured I would get away with just a minor scar. My innards were still shredded, but marginally less so than before, so I could breathe without grimacing. I expected I’d be laid out for a few days yet. Lucky, since Night had just passed, so things would be calm for almost the entire month now.
Exhausted as I had been, I had no Wards up, nothing even blocking the door. Nice going. Practically begging for a stray to wander in and eat you. As I flipped the coin I’d lifted off the kid, I examined the room for anything that might have snuck in, but it was clear. This time.
It was around this point that I realized how hungry I was. It had been (what felt like) days without a hot meal, and apparently this podunk little inn could provide, so I wandered out to the main room to see if I could scare up some food.
When the kid saw me, his eyes widened. That’s never a good sign. Recognition meant questions, and the answers to those questions usually meant getting pushed to the next town before I had time to heal. I had been hoping to score a decent meal and a bath, at least.
Sam could hardly believe his eyes. “Criminy, sor, but I didn’t expect you to be up at all! It's barely been a day!” The cut had been bleeding heavily, and very deep, he was sure of it, but now the man was clean and walking as if he had never been injured.
The stranger called Joan sat heavily at a table, ignoring the implied question. “Any chance of a man getting some food around here?” He inquired. “Or, perhaps,” and he glanced at the barrels of ale behind the counter, “some drink?”
San quickly filled him a tankard and plate from supper earlier, then sat himself at the table, as the crowd in the room dwindled down to a late few. The man interested him. He did not seem to interest the man, however, as Joan simply ate and drank in silence, apparently unbothered by his wound. He was still pale, almost deathly so, but Sam had heard tell of people from far north being much lighter than the tanned workers of nearby towns.
“Are you a soldier?” Sam didn’t know much about the war to the south, but occasionally troops passed through, and he had heard his ma talk in the back room about an extra levy because the Northern Kingdoms were allied. “I never saw someone carry so many weapons that weren't a soldier. What are those jars you carry? Is that them new bombs they been talking about? With gunpowder, only you throw the jar so it’s like a cannonshot?” Sam did not know much about weapons, either, but he saw so few soldiers come through that he had to learn what he could, if he was going to join the war when he was of age.
“Sure, kid.” Joan tapped his empty tankard on the table and placed down the coin he had been flipping. Sam ran to fill it up again before sitting back down.
“So did you come from the southern border, where all the fights are? What's happening? Are we winning? We have all kinds of the Northern Kingdoms working together, right? We must be winning!”
“The southern border? No, no, I didn’t come from the southern border,” he snorted. “That whole war is just nonsense anyway. The Northern Kingdoms, in some alliance or another, have had it out for Onis since time began. Maybe even before. The war is just an excuse to keep the money rolling in. Seems like there’s less and less of it than ever.” He mumbled this last part into his cup.
“That’s- that’s not true!” Sam's pa had fought, same as Sam would. “The war is important! Onis could really invade anytime! Besides, you said you were a soldier. If you aren’t fighting in the war, how can you be a soldier?” Joan did not answer, but he reached for his sleeve for a moment as if to roll it up, then seemed to catch himself at the last second. Was he a deserter? “Are you a deserter?” Sam blurted out, realizing a second late that he was pushing his luck. Joan just tapped his mug again.
Sam's ma hurried over. “So sorry for this one, sor, he has a bad habit of being curious.” She cuffed him on the ear and it smarted.
“It's no problem, mam.” The stranger smiled warmly, but in his eyes there was nothing. It was a chilling sensation. “He fills my cup just fine.” His ma dragged him off before Sam could object, and Joan got up before Sam could return.
Broder laughed as he took Flander for another hand. Three hands up, he was, and showed no signs of slowing. He stopped, though, as a big man in a heavy cloak came to the table.
“Deal me in?” His voice, deep and rich, did not match the weathered exterior. The man was no farm hand, that much was clear. More a mercenary sort. Broder glanced around the table, but no one seemed to object outright, so he shrugged. One more fool for the best poker man in the west side of Newmark. “Promise I know the rules.”
“Can you make ante, pal?” Jaten sized him up from across the table, suspicious from the long, ratty hair sitting on his shoulders and the general sense of dirtiness emanating from the man. He didn't notice what Broder had seen- nice leather, warm coat, and firm shoes. The man had some money, at least.
“He's good for it, Jaten. What's your name, stranger?” Broder gestured at the empty space next to him as he began to deal the hands. The stranger threw his ante, and Broder couldn’t hear much left in the purse. The poor ones were easy to sucker in.
“Joan.”
“You from Onis or something, name like that?” Cogen sneered.
“Na, man, listen to his voice, he's from up in Lansing or summat.” Garrett spat. “You're pickin a fight so you don’t have to deal with your shite hand.”
“That's not true, mate! Maybe you ought to keep an eye on your own mess in front of ya!” Cogen threw in extra to compensate. They all knew each other, knew the tics and tells and habits, but this stranger would be interesting.
That was what Broder thought, but as they went round for a few hands, the stranger losing more than he won, it became clear he was just another sucker thinking he could smash the small town guys. He had seemed confident at first- smug, even- but Broder had moved in with a predatory efficiency and would not let up. He offered to buy a round for everyone, apparently hoping for mercy, or to dull them, but the man seemed to be getting a bit red in the nose much faster than the well-seasoned drinkers of the little town of Aren, where there was little else to do but work or drink, or play cards. Broder began to really work on Joan for everything he had left, preparing to take the man for anything he could offer. The game was boring, and Broder needed beer money, so he went to end the man entirely.
What Broder did not expect was for the man to turn his whole plan backwards by dropping a flush when he should’ve had nothing. That cleared the table pretty fast, and Broder noticed the man's nose was really not that red at all.
The hand was nonsense. He couldn't have won, couldn’t have had those cards. “Alright, pal, roll up your sleeves, eh? Just a friendly game, here, after all. No reason to stay all formal-like.” Broder saw the other men nod their approval.
“Are you sure? Isn’t it possible, just a little, that I might be better at the game than you?” Joan smirked, taunting the men.
“Roll those up in here or we'll roll em up for ya out back,” Cogen growled. He was the biggest, aside from the stranger himself, and had a knack for bar brawling.
“Alright. No need to get snippy that I beat you so bad.” Cogen almost stood, but Joan began to roll up his sleeves. Right, then left.
His left arm was covered up to the elbow in fresh burn scars- a bright, angry red. If Broder squinted, he could almost see fine lines tracing letters across the harshly burned skin, but he didn’t have to. He knew what he was looking at.
“You're a bloody wizard, ye stupid bastard!” Garrett exploded. “Ye- ye bastard! You used magic on our all heads, ye did!”
Joan's eyes darkened briefly, but he did not react.
“Garrett's got the right idea- who's to say you weren’t using magic trickery to win the game, eh? Seems like something your lot would do,” Jaten added smartly. “It seems only fair you give us back the money you stole.”
“In the interest of accuracy, I am a sorcerer. Wizards do not leave their little towers and their little books. Besides, if I had used any magic, why would I stop now?” The stranger pointed out. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just leave, or to make you forget you ever saw me?”
“Well- there are 4 of us! Maybe you couldn’t do us in all at once, eh?” Jaten shot back. There was a chorus of affirmation from the group. “Be honorable, man, just give us the money back.”
Joan rolled his sleeves down. “If I had wanted to,” he began quietly, gravel in his voice, “I could make you all give me your land, your wives, and your unborn sons and you wouldn’t even remember your names when I was done. I did not cheat,” he suddenly smiled. “You boys just suck at poker.”
“Now listen here, son,” Broder began. “You may be some wizard from up north-"
“East,” Joan interjected.
“You may be some fancy wizard from up north,” Broder continued, “but don’t think that means you can insult us small-town folk. We might not have your ‘education’ or what have you, but we know from poker.”
Joan sighed. “I am leaving town in two days. Leave me alone for those two days, and I will forget your names, faces, and the name of this backwater town you live in. I did not cheat you.” He looked each of them coldly in the eyes, and Broder saw that all the mirth and cheer that had been there earlier had been drained, replaced with nothingness. Not even hatred, or anger, but simply blank space. The stranger stood up with a groan, signaled for another round of drinks, and trudged to the back of the inn. None of the men followed.
I was lucky none of these farm hicks knew anything about casting, or else they’d have known I was bluffing. It didn’t seem like any of them could actually read my burns, because if they could’ve, they would’ve known I could only cast a couple Bindings, and that’s if I wasn’t hurting like hell.
What was most insulting, more than calling me a wizard, was that they thought I cheated to beat them at cards. I don’t need to cheat at cards. I had slipped a bit of coin out of their pockets as I brushed by, but that was hardly cheating. Just good, honest thievery. And to call me a wizard? I ought to burn down their houses anyway, just for that. I was cold just thinking about it.
Still, I had to accelerate my schedule and leave tonight. I hated to do it, but I needed to be three towns over by the time they decided to kick the shit out of me. Bastards.
Amidst my wrathful musings I became aware of a presence at the door.
It was that kid. What had he seen? I ran the scene over again and realized he had been watching the end from the table he had been cleaning. Sloppy. He'd tell everybody. I couldn’t kill a kid the way I would've those guys in front, and I didn’t want to besides. Kids have always had a hold on me, and it pissed me off. It wasn't like I could remember why. Besides, I didn’t exactly mind the town knowing; it just meant I’d have a tougher time sneaking out, and I was tired enough that it bugged me.
“Sor?” He nudged the door open, but not all the way, I noticed. “I saw your tattoo. What do they mean? My ma said not to ask, but those men seemed pretty upset out there. I asked them and they said you was a wizard, but I didn’t think they were real. Are you a wizard? Are those tattoos your clan or something?” He spoke fast, like he thought I would cut him off, or cut off his head. “What are you doing?”
I spoke carefully to mask my distaste for his questions. “I am not a wizard. Wizards hide in their towers and ask questions nobody is curious about.” I hoped the dismissal would be clear.
It was not.
“If you aren’t a wizard, what are you?”
“What I am right now, kid, is packing, and what I’m going to be in a minute is gone. Scram.” I looked around and realized that aside from the bags I could clip to my belt, I had nothing else with me. Damn.
“Well, whatever you are, sor, I know those marks mean you're bound to help people-" that wasn’t true “-and those men out there maybe won’t tell you, but I will! See, sor, we're in mighty need of a wizard these days, on account of a monster been stealing the livestock and trashing the lumber yards and-" he slowed his speech a bit, but before I could get a word in he continued- “and I think it took the Granlenses daughter, only cause they won’t tell anyone where she went but I haven’t seen her in town at all and she used to come help me with my chores some days and it’s been a long while, maybe a month or so. Anyway, nobody’ll believe me when I tell em, and I haven’t seen it exactly, but I’m sure there’s a monster!”
“Kid, you know not every stroke of bad luck is a monster, right?” People don’t believe in monsters or magic until it’s convenient for them, which means they know nothing about it, which means most of the time they’re just making up stories to get me killed or run off, or else they’re just plain dumb and attribute every case of rainy weather to a made up beast.
“I know that! I just know there’s a monster around here! Look, sor, I’ll help you find it even, and-"
“I charge for my services and I don’t take kids on field trips when I work. Are you going to pay me?” Most of the time, threat of payment was enough to deter all but the most determined, or most superstitious, folk.
“I bet if you kill it the whole town will pitch in! Please, sor, I just wanna help out, and it seems like you could fix us all up only nobody wants to ask.” He wasn’t lying, I could tell, but kids are always seeing things that aren’t there. On the other hand, sometimes kids are better at seeing what’s right in front of them.
And when it turned out to be nothing, it meant I had an excuse to stay an extra night without getting an attempted beating, probably.
“Alright, kid. Where was this monster last?” Hired by a kid who probably couldn’t even get on a horse on his own. If anyone caught wind of this, I’d never hear the end of it.
submitted by dbwip to shortstories [link] [comments]
I had been out on a moonless night for days. Most people can’t tell, but once you're trained, you can- Darkness loves darkness. She likes to stretch her time out as long as she's possibly able. Everyone wants to spend time with kindred spirits. It’s nature, human or otherwise.
There’s nothing I can do about it, so I do my best to enjoy it. After all, you have to pick your battles, and my gun makes it pretty easy to figure out which ones I can win. She's a lovely gun. Big, which is fine with me, because I need all the power she can muster. Nine custom rounds rotate through, each enchanted by my own self. Not as effective as a professional enchantment, but I get by, and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper.
The only light came from the muzzle flare of my pistol. They smothered my campfire long ago, leaving me with only the vaguest sense of where they were, occasionally silhouetted against the trees when I fired. They were big, looming over me, high into the crooked trees and the moonless sky behind them. Who could say how long tonight would last?
I try not to cast on Nights, because it just acts like more of a beacon than I already am, but sometimes it just can’t be helped. My chest burned as I threw up a Buffer against a sudden wave of creatures, but they tore it down before it hardly had time to help. I bit down and cast a Warding, felt my arm burn harshly in the wild energy of the new moon and felt the following cold cut its way through my flesh and deep into my bones. Popping the spent rounds out with my right hand, my left knitted itself into the Ward shape automatically, trained by years of habit. Now I’ve really done it, I thought, because I could practically sense them perk up from miles off, even without casting a Seeing. It worked, though, and I was given brief respite for my efforts. I’d sure as hell pay for it in about 10 minutes, but for now I needed to stop bleeding and deal with the sensation of a drill pressed to the back of my skull.
“Skippers,” I growled. I hated Skippers.
The problem with Skippers is they’re small, harder to notice than anything else, and instead of trying to take off your head they try to get into your head. From there they can do whatever they want while you watch- make you walk off a cliff, bite off your own tongue, flay yourself alive. Like I said, whatever they want, and they're usually pretty mean. I’d seen them really go to work on all sorts of people, mostly people I knew and trained with. Hazards of the job- sorcerous training let you see a whole new world, but it opened you up to the threats that lived there, more so than regular folk. I was in worse shape than most sorcerers, which was part of what put me out at Night in the first place. Luckily, I’m better than most sorcerers, but it still meant I had to be careful.
To get rid of a Skipper, all you have to do is burn them off with a little Light. I'd needed the break- 3 of them dripped out of me right away, and a fourth started to run down my back as it tried to escape.
“Bastard.” I struck it with the handle of the gun as it slithered away. No sense wasting ammo on idiots like that.
The Ward wavered, the Night grew around me, and I hadn't even had time to heal anything. Damn.
Sam watched from behind the counter as the man walked through the door. Under the door, rather, as he had to duck to keep from hitting his head. He was pale, very pale, unlike the merchantfolk that usually came through the inn. His face was covered by a bushy beard, his hair was long, and his eyes were rimmed with red, but he could certainly be no older than 40. It was strange- for someone to come in so early in the morning, and look so tired- he must have been traveling all night, but he had no horse to be stabled.
The stranger was an armory- small blades and strange, bulbous jars jutted out from pockets and packs all over the man, daggers strapped to his legs, and even metal nubs in the knuckles of his gloves. What caught Sam's attention, though, was the man's huge gun, strapped tightly to his waist. He had never seen a gun that big, and the ammunition the man was carrying in the sacks around his waist must have weighed heavily on him, though he showed no signs of it.
“What does it cost for a room?” His voice did not match the tired, worn image in front of him. It was firm, and had the sound of recent laughter in it.
“Let me get my mom.” Sam began, starting for the back room. He never handled rooms.
“That's alright. You'll do fine. How much?” The man pulled out a purse, smaller than the other bags on his belt, and it was clearly much lighter than anything else he carried. “I’d like to find a bed and use it.” His voice did not betray him, nor did his hands, but the redness of his eyes did. They were a startling blue, and they seemed to contain nothing except exhaustion.
“I need your name,” Sam remembered as he directed the giant stranger to his room. The man's eyes, just for an instant, darted to one side before returning to Sam.
“Joan,” he said.
“O-kay.” Sam jotted the name down. “Two nights, food at 7 and 7, anything else you pay for.” He began to walk the man down the hall. “Strange accent. Are you from Melano, or Baden?” He didn’t really know what those accents sounded like, but he knew they were far from Newmark.
“No.” Joan walked into the room indicated with no further comments.
Sam stopped at the door while the man called Joan dropped his bags to the floor. “What kinda gun is that?”
“Mine,” he said simply, as he unbundled it’s holster from his belt. “I make the ammunition myself most of the time.”
“It's impressive. My paw was a soldier, and he showed me his old gun once, only it was a lot smaller than yours, and all rusted out besides, but-" Sam stopped as the man removed his cloak. There was a bright gash, still oozing dark blood, working its way up the man's side behind the thick leather plates. “Holy cripes! You oughta see a doctor, sor!”
Joan gave no indication that he could even feel the wound, nor did he instantly react when the boy cried out. “This? It looks a lot worse than it is. Rest, and solitude,” and here he looked at Sam, “will do me more good than any doctor from this town.” He moved to close the door, and against Sam's protest seemed to shut him out with no effort at all.
He ran down the hall to inform his mother of their newest guest.
I didn’t want the kid to see what I had to do next. It really wasn’t that bad- on the outside. Because we put so much ourselves in the spiritual world, the physical world didn’t matter so much. But it’s all tradeoffs. It had cut a pretty chunk out of me spirit-wise, and that hurt worse than any gash could. Really, I was better off than most sorcerers would’ve been with a cut like this- I had less to lose. Doesn’t make it hurt any less, though.
I Worked a minor Healing, but anything more would’ve taken more out of me than I could hope to regain, so the rest had to be resigned to sleep. Stupid. I should never have let anything get that close anyway, but it seemed like the Skippers were going crazy last Night.
I was too tired even to dream. A small blessing.
Waking up was not pleasant- I was stiff and sore, and still hurting something fierce. And cold, of course. Always cold. The physical wound had scabbed over, and I figured I would get away with just a minor scar. My innards were still shredded, but marginally less so than before, so I could breathe without grimacing. I expected I’d be laid out for a few days yet. Lucky, since Night had just passed, so things would be calm for almost the entire month now.
Exhausted as I had been, I had no Wards up, nothing even blocking the door. Nice going. Practically begging for a stray to wander in and eat you. As I flipped the coin I’d lifted off the kid, I examined the room for anything that might have snuck in, but it was clear. This time.
It was around this point that I realized how hungry I was. It had been (what felt like) days without a hot meal, and apparently this podunk little inn could provide, so I wandered out to the main room to see if I could scare up some food.
When the kid saw me, his eyes widened. That’s never a good sign. Recognition meant questions, and the answers to those questions usually meant getting pushed to the next town before I had time to heal. I had been hoping to score a decent meal and a bath, at least.
Sam could hardly believe his eyes. “Criminy, sor, but I didn’t expect you to be up at all! It's barely been a day!” The cut had been bleeding heavily, and very deep, he was sure of it, but now the man was clean and walking as if he had never been injured.
The stranger called Joan sat heavily at a table, ignoring the implied question. “Any chance of a man getting some food around here?” He inquired. “Or, perhaps,” and he glanced at the barrels of ale behind the counter, “some drink?”
San quickly filled him a tankard and plate from supper earlier, then sat himself at the table, as the crowd in the room dwindled down to a late few. The man interested him. He did not seem to interest the man, however, as Joan simply ate and drank in silence, apparently unbothered by his wound. He was still pale, almost deathly so, but Sam had heard tell of people from far north being much lighter than the tanned workers of nearby towns.
“Are you a soldier?” Sam didn’t know much about the war to the south, but occasionally troops passed through, and he had heard his ma talk in the back room about an extra levy because the Northern Kingdoms were allied. “I never saw someone carry so many weapons that weren't a soldier. What are those jars you carry? Is that them new bombs they been talking about? With gunpowder, only you throw the jar so it’s like a cannonshot?” Sam did not know much about weapons, either, but he saw so few soldiers come through that he had to learn what he could, if he was going to join the war when he was of age.
“Sure, kid.” Joan tapped his empty tankard on the table and placed down the coin he had been flipping. Sam ran to fill it up again before sitting back down.
“So did you come from the southern border, where all the fights are? What's happening? Are we winning? We have all kinds of the Northern Kingdoms working together, right? We must be winning!”
“The southern border? No, no, I didn’t come from the southern border,” he snorted. “That whole war is just nonsense anyway. The Northern Kingdoms, in some alliance or another, have had it out for Onis since time began. Maybe even before. The war is just an excuse to keep the money rolling in. Seems like there’s less and less of it than ever.” He mumbled this last part into his cup.
“That’s- that’s not true!” Sam's pa had fought, same as Sam would. “The war is important! Onis could really invade anytime! Besides, you said you were a soldier. If you aren’t fighting in the war, how can you be a soldier?” Joan did not answer, but he reached for his sleeve for a moment as if to roll it up, then seemed to catch himself at the last second. Was he a deserter? “Are you a deserter?” Sam blurted out, realizing a second late that he was pushing his luck. Joan just tapped his mug again.
Sam's ma hurried over. “So sorry for this one, sor, he has a bad habit of being curious.” She cuffed him on the ear and it smarted.
“It's no problem, mam.” The stranger smiled warmly, but in his eyes there was nothing. It was a chilling sensation. “He fills my cup just fine.” His ma dragged him off before Sam could object, and Joan got up before Sam could return.
Broder laughed as he took Flander for another hand. Three hands up, he was, and showed no signs of slowing. He stopped, though, as a big man in a heavy cloak came to the table.
“Deal me in?” His voice, deep and rich, did not match the weathered exterior. The man was no farm hand, that much was clear. More a mercenary sort. Broder glanced around the table, but no one seemed to object outright, so he shrugged. One more fool for the best poker man in the west side of Newmark. “Promise I know the rules.”
“Can you make ante, pal?” Jaten sized him up from across the table, suspicious from the long, ratty hair sitting on his shoulders and the general sense of dirtiness emanating from the man. He didn't notice what Broder had seen- nice leather, warm coat, and firm shoes. The man had some money, at least.
“He's good for it, Jaten. What's your name, stranger?” Broder gestured at the empty space next to him as he began to deal the hands. The stranger threw his ante, and Broder couldn’t hear much left in the purse. The poor ones were easy to sucker in.
“Joan.”
“You from Onis or something, name like that?” Cogen sneered.
“Na, man, listen to his voice, he's from up in Lansing or summat.” Garrett spat. “You're pickin a fight so you don’t have to deal with your shite hand.”
“That's not true, mate! Maybe you ought to keep an eye on your own mess in front of ya!” Cogen threw in extra to compensate. They all knew each other, knew the tics and tells and habits, but this stranger would be interesting.
That was what Broder thought, but as they went round for a few hands, the stranger losing more than he won, it became clear he was just another sucker thinking he could smash the small town guys. He had seemed confident at first- smug, even- but Broder had moved in with a predatory efficiency and would not let up. He offered to buy a round for everyone, apparently hoping for mercy, or to dull them, but the man seemed to be getting a bit red in the nose much faster than the well-seasoned drinkers of the little town of Aren, where there was little else to do but work or drink, or play cards. Broder began to really work on Joan for everything he had left, preparing to take the man for anything he could offer. The game was boring, and Broder needed beer money, so he went to end the man entirely.
What Broder did not expect was for the man to turn his whole plan backwards by dropping a flush when he should’ve had nothing. That cleared the table pretty fast, and Broder noticed the man's nose was really not that red at all.
The hand was nonsense. He couldn't have won, couldn’t have had those cards. “Alright, pal, roll up your sleeves, eh? Just a friendly game, here, after all. No reason to stay all formal-like.” Broder saw the other men nod their approval.
“Are you sure? Isn’t it possible, just a little, that I might be better at the game than you?” Joan smirked, taunting the men.
“Roll those up in here or we'll roll em up for ya out back,” Cogen growled. He was the biggest, aside from the stranger himself, and had a knack for bar brawling.
“Alright. No need to get snippy that I beat you so bad.” Cogen almost stood, but Joan began to roll up his sleeves. Right, then left.
His left arm was covered up to the elbow in fresh burn scars- a bright, angry red. If Broder squinted, he could almost see fine lines tracing letters across the harshly burned skin, but he didn’t have to. He knew what he was looking at.
“You're a bloody wizard, ye stupid bastard!” Garrett exploded. “Ye- ye bastard! You used magic on our all heads, ye did!”
Joan's eyes darkened briefly, but he did not react.
“Garrett's got the right idea- who's to say you weren’t using magic trickery to win the game, eh? Seems like something your lot would do,” Jaten added smartly. “It seems only fair you give us back the money you stole.”
“In the interest of accuracy, I am a sorcerer. Wizards do not leave their little towers and their little books. Besides, if I had used any magic, why would I stop now?” The stranger pointed out. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just leave, or to make you forget you ever saw me?”
“Well- there are 4 of us! Maybe you couldn’t do us in all at once, eh?” Jaten shot back. There was a chorus of affirmation from the group. “Be honorable, man, just give us the money back.”
Joan rolled his sleeves down. “If I had wanted to,” he began quietly, gravel in his voice, “I could make you all give me your land, your wives, and your unborn sons and you wouldn’t even remember your names when I was done. I did not cheat,” he suddenly smiled. “You boys just suck at poker.”
“Now listen here, son,” Broder began. “You may be some wizard from up north-"
“East,” Joan interjected.
“You may be some fancy wizard from up north,” Broder continued, “but don’t think that means you can insult us small-town folk. We might not have your ‘education’ or what have you, but we know from poker.”
Joan sighed. “I am leaving town in two days. Leave me alone for those two days, and I will forget your names, faces, and the name of this backwater town you live in. I did not cheat you.” He looked each of them coldly in the eyes, and Broder saw that all the mirth and cheer that had been there earlier had been drained, replaced with nothingness. Not even hatred, or anger, but simply blank space. The stranger stood up with a groan, signaled for another round of drinks, and trudged to the back of the inn. None of the men followed.
I was lucky none of these farm hicks knew anything about casting, or else they’d have known I was bluffing. It didn’t seem like any of them could actually read my burns, because if they could’ve, they would’ve known I could only cast a couple Bindings, and that’s if I wasn’t hurting like hell.
What was most insulting, more than calling me a wizard, was that they thought I cheated to beat them at cards. I don’t need to cheat at cards. I had slipped a bit of coin out of their pockets as I brushed by, but that was hardly cheating. Just good, honest thievery. And to call me a wizard? I ought to burn down their houses anyway, just for that. I was cold just thinking about it.
Still, I had to accelerate my schedule and leave tonight. I hated to do it, but I needed to be three towns over by the time they decided to kick the shit out of me. Bastards.
Amidst my wrathful musings I became aware of a presence at the door.
It was that kid. What had he seen? I ran the scene over again and realized he had been watching the end from the table he had been cleaning. Sloppy. He'd tell everybody. I couldn’t kill a kid the way I would've those guys in front, and I didn’t want to besides. Kids have always had a hold on me, and it pissed me off. It wasn't like I could remember why. Besides, I didn’t exactly mind the town knowing; it just meant I’d have a tougher time sneaking out, and I was tired enough that it bugged me.
“Sor?” He nudged the door open, but not all the way, I noticed. “I saw your tattoo. What do they mean? My ma said not to ask, but those men seemed pretty upset out there. I asked them and they said you was a wizard, but I didn’t think they were real. Are you a wizard? Are those tattoos your clan or something?” He spoke fast, like he thought I would cut him off, or cut off his head. “What are you doing?”
I spoke carefully to mask my distaste for his questions. “I am not a wizard. Wizards hide in their towers and ask questions nobody is curious about.” I hoped the dismissal would be clear.
It was not.
“If you aren’t a wizard, what are you?”
“What I am right now, kid, is packing, and what I’m going to be in a minute is gone. Scram.” I looked around and realized that aside from the bags I could clip to my belt, I had nothing else with me. Damn.
“Well, whatever you are, sor, I know those marks mean you're bound to help people-" that wasn’t true “-and those men out there maybe won’t tell you, but I will! See, sor, we're in mighty need of a wizard these days, on account of a monster been stealing the livestock and trashing the lumber yards and-" he slowed his speech a bit, but before I could get a word in he continued- “and I think it took the Granlenses daughter, only cause they won’t tell anyone where she went but I haven’t seen her in town at all and she used to come help me with my chores some days and it’s been a long while, maybe a month or so. Anyway, nobody’ll believe me when I tell em, and I haven’t seen it exactly, but I’m sure there’s a monster!”
“Kid, you know not every stroke of bad luck is a monster, right?” People don’t believe in monsters or magic until it’s convenient for them, which means they know nothing about it, which means most of the time they’re just making up stories to get me killed or run off, or else they’re just plain dumb and attribute every case of rainy weather to a made up beast.
“I know that! I just know there’s a monster around here! Look, sor, I’ll help you find it even, and-"
“I charge for my services and I don’t take kids on field trips when I work. Are you going to pay me?” Most of the time, threat of payment was enough to deter all but the most determined, or most superstitious, folk.
“I bet if you kill it the whole town will pitch in! Please, sor, I just wanna help out, and it seems like you could fix us all up only nobody wants to ask.” He wasn’t lying, I could tell, but kids are always seeing things that aren’t there. On the other hand, sometimes kids are better at seeing what’s right in front of them.
And when it turned out to be nothing, it meant I had an excuse to stay an extra night without getting an attempted beating, probably.
“Alright, kid. Where was this monster last?” Hired by a kid who probably couldn’t even get on a horse on his own. If anyone caught wind of this, I’d never hear the end of it.
2024.05.13 19:38 halfkeck "I fubar'ed it" A 24 Hours of Lemons story
Things have been busy here so I thought I would catch up on our two latest race adventures.
It's time for another race, so I hook up to the trailer and bring it to work. The Miata has been in the enclosed trailer since I ran it through the Christmas parade, but now it is time to wake it from it's winter slumber and start preparing it for Barber, our 10th 24 Hours of Lemons race.
The car should not need much as we ran nearly flawless at the last race at Road America. We had one spin and the wing mounts broke but that was about it.
I get it to the shop and we hurry up and start in. I already have one bay tied up with the next car we are building (more on that later, it is epic) and can't afford to tie up a second during business hours. Youngest jumps in and rebuilds the entire wing assembly. Manny comes by and drives the car to his place and keeps it there until a few more parts come in. It's a block or two away from the shop, we can nearly see it from the front sidewalk. No plates, no insurance, no problem.
Next we change out the brake pads, front rotors, front brake hoses and rear pads. We also change the timing belt after a debate on exactly how many race hours the old one has. Change the oil and the car is ready to load.
Racerguy comes down and we leave out Thursday night. I am driving a little fast as the website shows the gates close at 9 and our gps says we are expected to get there at 9.01. A quick fuel stop and a brisket sandwich at Buccees off I65 in Alabama and we are rolling on through the night.
Finally we get to Barber Motorsports park in Leeds Alabama. Just before 9pm we get in line and get signed in. The team ahead of us is just realizing they lost a wheel off their enclosed sometime on their tow in. The way I was driving before we stopped for fuel I could have lost the car out the back like in the movie Cars and not noticed. Luckily everything seems to be in one piece, we give everything a check over and drop the trailer and head off to the hotel which is thankfully just across the street from the entrance to the track.
The next morning we are up early. No Gill this race as he has had foot surgery and is out of commission, which means we are sorely missing his cooking skills. So we take advantage of the breakfast at the hotel and head over to the track. After we unload the car we have a discussion which ends with us moving across the paddock to the far side as the side we have had for the last few years is shorter and we can't park the trailer in that area as the new trailer is about ten foot longer than the old open trailer.
After the first of two drivers meetings of the weekend (many tracks do the practice day and hold their own drivers meeting to explain their own rules, then the next day Lemons runs the race and has their drivers meeting) we load a driver in the car and send him out to practice. Rinse and repeat until we have sent all the drivers out for a few laps.
By then it is time for inspections. First off all the tech inspection. They have a big crew this race but our favorite inspector Dale Strimple is there. He's knowledgeable, affable and very popular among all the racers. Every day is also his birthday, a story best told later. He and the other tech people soon pass our car then it's time for BS tech.
We have gone all out this race for our theme. This has been a long time thought of mine, it just took a while to get it enacted. So for context I am a cancer survivor and we are always doing crazy themes to try and draw attention to the importance of early detection in cancer improving your chances. In the past we have done free colonscopy tests with huge antique cameras and motor oil for props which thankfully no one took us up on. Later we have done dinosaurs with the inflatable dino costumes to bring home the point that that "dinosaurs never got checked and now they are extinct" which is also on the side of the car. It was popular, I mean who doesn't like to see a inflatable dinosaur walking around?
Today we have again upped our game. We are taking a scene from one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, Johnny Dangerously. There's a part where Micheal Keaton's character is counseling his younger brother not to have sex until he is married, which is funny in itself because Micheals character is always surrounded by a crowd of ladies who apparently are all competing for his affections. Anyhow he shows his brother this video of all these poor guys who are suffering from poor choices that have caused them to have severely enlarged testicles. Like basketball sized. Watch it sometime, it's hilarious. So we made up special pants to hold some dodgeballs and shirts that said: "mens health is no joke, get checked before you croak!" We got a lot of attention for that and even made the wrap video. Walking in those pants with the dodgeballs was not easy!
The next day it's race day. It could not be a nicer day in Alabama. Temps are great, sun is shining. We get through the drivers meeting and line up the cars. Racerguy is going first, we are trying to balance our drivers so that everyone gets one start or one finish for the weekend. It's fun to finish the race or the day and fun to start as well.
The flag drops and we are off. It was a complete fiasco at the start! Someone oiled down half the track on the pace laps and the track was not ready when they dropped the green. It was an immediate yellow but cars where stacking up and passing then realizing the yellow was out. Race control messed up that one pretty badly. It took another ten minutes to clean the track. Finally it really is time for a start and we go green for real. Racerguy is driving smooth as always and moving up. He brings the car from 87th out of 131 cars there to a respectable 39th when the first incident happens. A car spins and hits our rf wheel. Racerguy didn't think much of it but they flagged him in anyway. While in the penalty box we realize the rf is going flat. I did not see it then but by the time we get the car up to our spot in the paddock the wheel is destroyed. We slap another wheel on and send him back out. We lost nearly all the spots we gained, dropping to 78th on the board. Sucks but it happens.
The rest of his stint goes great and he brings the car back to pit road and we put in Youngest. He is running great and the car is showing no signs of any issues from the earlier contact. He starts making up ground and we get all the way up to 54th. Then I get a radio call. "The car is on fire and stopped running!"
What?!!! I radio back asking if he needs to get out of the car. "I'm trying to decide that" Ok, maybe not such a big fire then? We have to wait for more information and in a few minutes the rollback shows up with him in the car. We have had a wiring fire from the passenger side floorboard where the stock PCM harness is. I immediately think the car is done but after Youngest gets some fresh air he jumps in and cuts all the burnt wires out and patches it all up. Start to finish we are off the track an hour and a half and drop to 90th.
I suit up and take the car out to see if it will run or not. It struggles and will only get up to 45, so I bring it right back in. Youngest thinks he knows exactly what is wrong and jumps in again and patches one more wire. I go out and the car is spot on. I start clicking off laps and trying some things the guys said to do to improve on my lap times. There's a few parts where I just need to be more aggressive and roll through and trust the car more. I pick up about four seconds off my best time and am pretty pleased by that. The car runs flawless for the rest of my stint and I bring it back to pit road for the crew to fuel and driver change. We put Manny in the car and send him out. He's running some fast laps and really pushing the car. All the sudden we realize we do not see the car going by. One of the other teams say our car is in the wall on the front stretch. Manny comes over the radio "I FUBAR'ed it" Great, The front stretch at Barber is one of the places I have noted will bite you pretty hard. I have seen a few Lemons cars get really messed up there including a 63 Valiant last year. I am expecting the worst when the roll back comes by with the car for the second time this day.
It's pretty bad. The nose is knocked sideways, the steering is all out of sorts, a closer look reveals the lf tie rod is broken. The right rear is all messed up, the wheel is pushed so far forward it is into the quarter panel and won't even turn. We put the car up on jack stands and look it over. Not good. But there's glimmers of hope. The radiator is not broke. The engine is still fine. The core of the car seems square. And we have almost an entire Miata in parts in totes in our trailer. Maybe we can fix this. I start dragging out parts and we start changing them. The tie rod on the front is soon changed and we now have both wheels pointing the same direction. Youngest takes the nose off and straightens the brackets that hold it and the splitter in place and adds a whole lot of zip ties.
On the rear it just keeps going and going deeper. We change the knuckle, the lower control arm and the upper. We spend a long time saving the bolt that goes through the lower control arm and knuckle, we do not have another. This one is bent and has questionable threads too. In true lemons never say die fashion we beat it out of the bent parts, straighten it and when we cannot find the correct die to chase the threads we use one that is close and pray it works. It does, but then we get it all back together and realize even with all the parts replaced we still have two inches of rear toe. Just a wee more than the 1/16th we started with.
Turns out the rear subframe is bent, so we all go out and start walking the pits looking to borrow a port a power. This small hydraulic jack comes with rams and other attachments and has a pump attached to a hose so you can jack and bend parts that are bent like ours. We actually end up borrowing two after searching almost every team that is still around. It's getting dark, rain is moving in after midnight and the clock is ticking on the car being done. Is it fixable or is the damage terminal? There are three guys under the car jacking and measuring and I am handing them parts and tools and making a run for food.
In a dramatic fashion, they pull it out. I run for food and they finally announce the car is perfect. I think they worked until nearly midnight, but everything they measured was on the money. It was an amazing effort and a huge comeback. We all fall into an exhausted sleep wondering if the car will drive good tomorrow or did we miss something important.
The next morning dawns and as expected its raining. And colder. I cannot emphasize enough just how wet and cold it was. All day long it rained and I think the temps dropped. Made for a miserable day, pretty sure even a duck would have been unhappy.
I go out first, I had called this stint early on. Sometimes you have to pull the car owner card. It's a two hour stint then a quiet hour then the race resumes.
We gas up the car and I line up. The car seems to drive straight, but it is raining and the track is slippery so who really knows? The car stumbles a bit on accel and I wonder if we outsmarted ourselves with our home made ram air system that sucks air from right below where the left headlight was. It keeps on doing that for a few laps then finally gets better.
Driving in the rain is not without it's challenges. You have to drive very carefully and not push the car too hard. The fun part is the Miata goes straight when you floor it so anytime I get a chance I gas it up and go hard to the next corner where I slow down and ease through it. Soon enough another issue arises. The windshield starts fogging up. It gets real bad on yellow flags where we all slow down then gets better if I have a good run at speed, but there are times a smart person would have pulled off as you cannot see much at all. But most of us aren't real smart. I can't reach the windshield or I would try to wipe it. The temptation is there to loosen the belts and get enough room to reach but even I am not that crazy. I keep the belts tight but do take off one glove and give it a few swipes under a long yellow then hasten to put the gloves back on. There's probably not much chance of a fire in these conditions but no sense chancing it. I've seen pictures of burns from race car incidents and they aren't pretty.
On one corner I make a mistake, I get off line to let a really aggressive car go by. It's the Party Girl car and they are hyper aggressive. If you would think they would wait to pass until you get through a critical part you'd be wrong, they typically will jam their car in wherever they can and go on. Other fast cars are a bit more respectful and do a better job on the give and take. Not wanting to make an issue, I get over and promptly realize there is zero grip outside on this corner and slide through the grass. I go to penalty and explain what happened. The judge asks if I learned anything, I said "Yes, next time to be a jerk" I might not have used that exact wording but I meant it. The same car also was what indirectly caused the wreck the day before, their aggressive driving was what caused Manny to get the red mist when they did the same thing passing him. He over drove the car after that and lost it. Mental note to drive them the same way going forward, we both can be hyper aggressive and see where that leads. We have a few more cars to build in the driveway if need be.
After my two hours are up, I bring the car in and explain about the terrible fogging and vision issue. Manny goes out after the quiet hour and slides off the track for black flag number two. It's just very nasty out there and cars are going off all the time. We fix up a ice scraper with a rag tied to it to give the driver a method of clearing the fog. It's primative but way better than nothing. The drivers report they used it quite a bit the rest of the day. It's just gloomy and the race is going on, but cars are hydroplaning if they get into the water which is starting to pool on parts of the track. The rest of us are watching from inside Manny's car with the heat on, it's gotten that cold and wet.
We are so far behind now we aren't bothering to suit up and go to pit lane. Rather we bring the car up to the pumps, get the driver out and fuel and put the next driver in. It's still raining and not having to get anymore wet than necessary is a plus. Racerguy gets flagged in after he's run about half his stint and he has no idea why. Apparently the cameras show what they thought was contact in the corner, he says he got real close and braked hard to avoid it. The car shows no new signs of contact. The judge tells us one more flag and he's parking us for the rest of the day. Over contact that someone thought they saw on camera that apparently never happened. (I went to look this up on our go pro footage but the chip glitched and we had no footage)
Racerguy goes out and finishes. He reports the same as Manny, the track is getting increasingly treacherous. Very few cars are getting around good, if you have a front wheel drive with skinny tires, today was your day. I saw a escort wagon running laps as fast as us and later the Dodge Caravan passed us.
Youngest goes out and after about 15 minutes I notice the lap counter is not updating. I look outside the trailer and he is in the car, sitting there. We go out and he announces he cannot drive the car anymore, it's sideways all the time. I ask if he wants to load the car and he said yes. I don't object. We race for the fun of it, and at that point none of us were having fun. We loaded in the rain and left before the race was over. Many other teams had already done the same. Some were gone before the day ever started. We have raced in the rain before but this was the worst conditions I have ever seen on the track. Barber is a top notch facility, it was just such a lingering rain and the temps being below 40 made it miserable. The vision and grip levels seemingly got worse as the day went on and the water built up and the temps dropped. We saw a lot of big problems and overcame many. Probably if we were not so exhausted from fixing the car and were in the hunt for anything we might have stayed until the end. As it were, we dropped from 65th to 67th or so. Time to rebuild and get dried out and ready for the next race.
submitted by halfkeck to TalesFromAutoRepair [link] [comments]
It's time for another race, so I hook up to the trailer and bring it to work. The Miata has been in the enclosed trailer since I ran it through the Christmas parade, but now it is time to wake it from it's winter slumber and start preparing it for Barber, our 10th 24 Hours of Lemons race.
The car should not need much as we ran nearly flawless at the last race at Road America. We had one spin and the wing mounts broke but that was about it.
I get it to the shop and we hurry up and start in. I already have one bay tied up with the next car we are building (more on that later, it is epic) and can't afford to tie up a second during business hours. Youngest jumps in and rebuilds the entire wing assembly. Manny comes by and drives the car to his place and keeps it there until a few more parts come in. It's a block or two away from the shop, we can nearly see it from the front sidewalk. No plates, no insurance, no problem.
Next we change out the brake pads, front rotors, front brake hoses and rear pads. We also change the timing belt after a debate on exactly how many race hours the old one has. Change the oil and the car is ready to load.
Racerguy comes down and we leave out Thursday night. I am driving a little fast as the website shows the gates close at 9 and our gps says we are expected to get there at 9.01. A quick fuel stop and a brisket sandwich at Buccees off I65 in Alabama and we are rolling on through the night.
Finally we get to Barber Motorsports park in Leeds Alabama. Just before 9pm we get in line and get signed in. The team ahead of us is just realizing they lost a wheel off their enclosed sometime on their tow in. The way I was driving before we stopped for fuel I could have lost the car out the back like in the movie Cars and not noticed. Luckily everything seems to be in one piece, we give everything a check over and drop the trailer and head off to the hotel which is thankfully just across the street from the entrance to the track.
The next morning we are up early. No Gill this race as he has had foot surgery and is out of commission, which means we are sorely missing his cooking skills. So we take advantage of the breakfast at the hotel and head over to the track. After we unload the car we have a discussion which ends with us moving across the paddock to the far side as the side we have had for the last few years is shorter and we can't park the trailer in that area as the new trailer is about ten foot longer than the old open trailer.
After the first of two drivers meetings of the weekend (many tracks do the practice day and hold their own drivers meeting to explain their own rules, then the next day Lemons runs the race and has their drivers meeting) we load a driver in the car and send him out to practice. Rinse and repeat until we have sent all the drivers out for a few laps.
By then it is time for inspections. First off all the tech inspection. They have a big crew this race but our favorite inspector Dale Strimple is there. He's knowledgeable, affable and very popular among all the racers. Every day is also his birthday, a story best told later. He and the other tech people soon pass our car then it's time for BS tech.
We have gone all out this race for our theme. This has been a long time thought of mine, it just took a while to get it enacted. So for context I am a cancer survivor and we are always doing crazy themes to try and draw attention to the importance of early detection in cancer improving your chances. In the past we have done free colonscopy tests with huge antique cameras and motor oil for props which thankfully no one took us up on. Later we have done dinosaurs with the inflatable dino costumes to bring home the point that that "dinosaurs never got checked and now they are extinct" which is also on the side of the car. It was popular, I mean who doesn't like to see a inflatable dinosaur walking around?
Today we have again upped our game. We are taking a scene from one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, Johnny Dangerously. There's a part where Micheal Keaton's character is counseling his younger brother not to have sex until he is married, which is funny in itself because Micheals character is always surrounded by a crowd of ladies who apparently are all competing for his affections. Anyhow he shows his brother this video of all these poor guys who are suffering from poor choices that have caused them to have severely enlarged testicles. Like basketball sized. Watch it sometime, it's hilarious. So we made up special pants to hold some dodgeballs and shirts that said: "mens health is no joke, get checked before you croak!" We got a lot of attention for that and even made the wrap video. Walking in those pants with the dodgeballs was not easy!
The next day it's race day. It could not be a nicer day in Alabama. Temps are great, sun is shining. We get through the drivers meeting and line up the cars. Racerguy is going first, we are trying to balance our drivers so that everyone gets one start or one finish for the weekend. It's fun to finish the race or the day and fun to start as well.
The flag drops and we are off. It was a complete fiasco at the start! Someone oiled down half the track on the pace laps and the track was not ready when they dropped the green. It was an immediate yellow but cars where stacking up and passing then realizing the yellow was out. Race control messed up that one pretty badly. It took another ten minutes to clean the track. Finally it really is time for a start and we go green for real. Racerguy is driving smooth as always and moving up. He brings the car from 87th out of 131 cars there to a respectable 39th when the first incident happens. A car spins and hits our rf wheel. Racerguy didn't think much of it but they flagged him in anyway. While in the penalty box we realize the rf is going flat. I did not see it then but by the time we get the car up to our spot in the paddock the wheel is destroyed. We slap another wheel on and send him back out. We lost nearly all the spots we gained, dropping to 78th on the board. Sucks but it happens.
The rest of his stint goes great and he brings the car back to pit road and we put in Youngest. He is running great and the car is showing no signs of any issues from the earlier contact. He starts making up ground and we get all the way up to 54th. Then I get a radio call. "The car is on fire and stopped running!"
What?!!! I radio back asking if he needs to get out of the car. "I'm trying to decide that" Ok, maybe not such a big fire then? We have to wait for more information and in a few minutes the rollback shows up with him in the car. We have had a wiring fire from the passenger side floorboard where the stock PCM harness is. I immediately think the car is done but after Youngest gets some fresh air he jumps in and cuts all the burnt wires out and patches it all up. Start to finish we are off the track an hour and a half and drop to 90th.
I suit up and take the car out to see if it will run or not. It struggles and will only get up to 45, so I bring it right back in. Youngest thinks he knows exactly what is wrong and jumps in again and patches one more wire. I go out and the car is spot on. I start clicking off laps and trying some things the guys said to do to improve on my lap times. There's a few parts where I just need to be more aggressive and roll through and trust the car more. I pick up about four seconds off my best time and am pretty pleased by that. The car runs flawless for the rest of my stint and I bring it back to pit road for the crew to fuel and driver change. We put Manny in the car and send him out. He's running some fast laps and really pushing the car. All the sudden we realize we do not see the car going by. One of the other teams say our car is in the wall on the front stretch. Manny comes over the radio "I FUBAR'ed it" Great, The front stretch at Barber is one of the places I have noted will bite you pretty hard. I have seen a few Lemons cars get really messed up there including a 63 Valiant last year. I am expecting the worst when the roll back comes by with the car for the second time this day.
It's pretty bad. The nose is knocked sideways, the steering is all out of sorts, a closer look reveals the lf tie rod is broken. The right rear is all messed up, the wheel is pushed so far forward it is into the quarter panel and won't even turn. We put the car up on jack stands and look it over. Not good. But there's glimmers of hope. The radiator is not broke. The engine is still fine. The core of the car seems square. And we have almost an entire Miata in parts in totes in our trailer. Maybe we can fix this. I start dragging out parts and we start changing them. The tie rod on the front is soon changed and we now have both wheels pointing the same direction. Youngest takes the nose off and straightens the brackets that hold it and the splitter in place and adds a whole lot of zip ties.
On the rear it just keeps going and going deeper. We change the knuckle, the lower control arm and the upper. We spend a long time saving the bolt that goes through the lower control arm and knuckle, we do not have another. This one is bent and has questionable threads too. In true lemons never say die fashion we beat it out of the bent parts, straighten it and when we cannot find the correct die to chase the threads we use one that is close and pray it works. It does, but then we get it all back together and realize even with all the parts replaced we still have two inches of rear toe. Just a wee more than the 1/16th we started with.
Turns out the rear subframe is bent, so we all go out and start walking the pits looking to borrow a port a power. This small hydraulic jack comes with rams and other attachments and has a pump attached to a hose so you can jack and bend parts that are bent like ours. We actually end up borrowing two after searching almost every team that is still around. It's getting dark, rain is moving in after midnight and the clock is ticking on the car being done. Is it fixable or is the damage terminal? There are three guys under the car jacking and measuring and I am handing them parts and tools and making a run for food.
In a dramatic fashion, they pull it out. I run for food and they finally announce the car is perfect. I think they worked until nearly midnight, but everything they measured was on the money. It was an amazing effort and a huge comeback. We all fall into an exhausted sleep wondering if the car will drive good tomorrow or did we miss something important.
The next morning dawns and as expected its raining. And colder. I cannot emphasize enough just how wet and cold it was. All day long it rained and I think the temps dropped. Made for a miserable day, pretty sure even a duck would have been unhappy.
I go out first, I had called this stint early on. Sometimes you have to pull the car owner card. It's a two hour stint then a quiet hour then the race resumes.
We gas up the car and I line up. The car seems to drive straight, but it is raining and the track is slippery so who really knows? The car stumbles a bit on accel and I wonder if we outsmarted ourselves with our home made ram air system that sucks air from right below where the left headlight was. It keeps on doing that for a few laps then finally gets better.
Driving in the rain is not without it's challenges. You have to drive very carefully and not push the car too hard. The fun part is the Miata goes straight when you floor it so anytime I get a chance I gas it up and go hard to the next corner where I slow down and ease through it. Soon enough another issue arises. The windshield starts fogging up. It gets real bad on yellow flags where we all slow down then gets better if I have a good run at speed, but there are times a smart person would have pulled off as you cannot see much at all. But most of us aren't real smart. I can't reach the windshield or I would try to wipe it. The temptation is there to loosen the belts and get enough room to reach but even I am not that crazy. I keep the belts tight but do take off one glove and give it a few swipes under a long yellow then hasten to put the gloves back on. There's probably not much chance of a fire in these conditions but no sense chancing it. I've seen pictures of burns from race car incidents and they aren't pretty.
On one corner I make a mistake, I get off line to let a really aggressive car go by. It's the Party Girl car and they are hyper aggressive. If you would think they would wait to pass until you get through a critical part you'd be wrong, they typically will jam their car in wherever they can and go on. Other fast cars are a bit more respectful and do a better job on the give and take. Not wanting to make an issue, I get over and promptly realize there is zero grip outside on this corner and slide through the grass. I go to penalty and explain what happened. The judge asks if I learned anything, I said "Yes, next time to be a jerk" I might not have used that exact wording but I meant it. The same car also was what indirectly caused the wreck the day before, their aggressive driving was what caused Manny to get the red mist when they did the same thing passing him. He over drove the car after that and lost it. Mental note to drive them the same way going forward, we both can be hyper aggressive and see where that leads. We have a few more cars to build in the driveway if need be.
After my two hours are up, I bring the car in and explain about the terrible fogging and vision issue. Manny goes out after the quiet hour and slides off the track for black flag number two. It's just very nasty out there and cars are going off all the time. We fix up a ice scraper with a rag tied to it to give the driver a method of clearing the fog. It's primative but way better than nothing. The drivers report they used it quite a bit the rest of the day. It's just gloomy and the race is going on, but cars are hydroplaning if they get into the water which is starting to pool on parts of the track. The rest of us are watching from inside Manny's car with the heat on, it's gotten that cold and wet.
We are so far behind now we aren't bothering to suit up and go to pit lane. Rather we bring the car up to the pumps, get the driver out and fuel and put the next driver in. It's still raining and not having to get anymore wet than necessary is a plus. Racerguy gets flagged in after he's run about half his stint and he has no idea why. Apparently the cameras show what they thought was contact in the corner, he says he got real close and braked hard to avoid it. The car shows no new signs of contact. The judge tells us one more flag and he's parking us for the rest of the day. Over contact that someone thought they saw on camera that apparently never happened. (I went to look this up on our go pro footage but the chip glitched and we had no footage)
Racerguy goes out and finishes. He reports the same as Manny, the track is getting increasingly treacherous. Very few cars are getting around good, if you have a front wheel drive with skinny tires, today was your day. I saw a escort wagon running laps as fast as us and later the Dodge Caravan passed us.
Youngest goes out and after about 15 minutes I notice the lap counter is not updating. I look outside the trailer and he is in the car, sitting there. We go out and he announces he cannot drive the car anymore, it's sideways all the time. I ask if he wants to load the car and he said yes. I don't object. We race for the fun of it, and at that point none of us were having fun. We loaded in the rain and left before the race was over. Many other teams had already done the same. Some were gone before the day ever started. We have raced in the rain before but this was the worst conditions I have ever seen on the track. Barber is a top notch facility, it was just such a lingering rain and the temps being below 40 made it miserable. The vision and grip levels seemingly got worse as the day went on and the water built up and the temps dropped. We saw a lot of big problems and overcame many. Probably if we were not so exhausted from fixing the car and were in the hunt for anything we might have stayed until the end. As it were, we dropped from 65th to 67th or so. Time to rebuild and get dried out and ready for the next race.
2024.05.13 19:37 rogermay78 Growing tips needed for less than ideal circumstances
Finally want to try growing some peppers myself. A whole bunch of different seeds ranging from sweet bananas to reapers, picked up a set of seeds for cheap.
Now to the circumstances I have to deal with:
I haven't planted anything yet. My plan was to use these coconut soil tablets as a starter and putting them in 2x3 biodegradable trays. Then after sprouting, put each group of saplings from a tray into its own pot with regular gardening soil. Used the same stuff for my herbs and they quite literally exploded out of control. I can't cut them back as fast as they keep regrowing.
I have seen photos of people with similar circumstances producing successful pepper plants without a rocket science book worth of planting knowledge and preparation. So can it be done? What can I do to help the plants thrive in these conditions? My only concern would be winter. I despise the heat and like low temperatures inside. Maybe only then a tent would be needed, if a very low wattage lamp is enough for lighting.
PS: I don't want to treat this like absolute rocket science either and I'm not after min/maxing the SCU here. I want healthy, easy growing peppers that still manage to kick my nuts out my ears when adding them to food. Spiciest I could handle thus far by the way was Habanero processed into a paste. So reaper would definitely be an extremely careful to touch thing. Got tons of disposable gloves too.
submitted by rogermay78 to HotPeppers [link] [comments]
Now to the circumstances I have to deal with:
- no garden to myself, shared garden with very little space and kids playing in it
- no money or space for a large growing tent with lights due to high energy cost, thanks Europe. If a tent with lights is hard required, lights must be 20W tops all together
- about 7 hours of direct sunlight shining through the windows, them being placed only on one side of the apartment facing south. Window in small bedroom gets more light and earlier due to not being blocked from opposite house
- temperatures right now are in the 20s, peak summer can easily hit 30 degrees and more. High humidity, very thick and hard to breathe air. Thanks big smoggy dusty dirty city.
- water hardness might be a bit high and rich in lime. When making tea, I always have this very thin layer of stuff on the surface that breaks up when stirring it. Could be lime? Not sure, my mints have no issue with it.
I haven't planted anything yet. My plan was to use these coconut soil tablets as a starter and putting them in 2x3 biodegradable trays. Then after sprouting, put each group of saplings from a tray into its own pot with regular gardening soil. Used the same stuff for my herbs and they quite literally exploded out of control. I can't cut them back as fast as they keep regrowing.
I have seen photos of people with similar circumstances producing successful pepper plants without a rocket science book worth of planting knowledge and preparation. So can it be done? What can I do to help the plants thrive in these conditions? My only concern would be winter. I despise the heat and like low temperatures inside. Maybe only then a tent would be needed, if a very low wattage lamp is enough for lighting.
PS: I don't want to treat this like absolute rocket science either and I'm not after min/maxing the SCU here. I want healthy, easy growing peppers that still manage to kick my nuts out my ears when adding them to food. Spiciest I could handle thus far by the way was Habanero processed into a paste. So reaper would definitely be an extremely careful to touch thing. Got tons of disposable gloves too.
2024.05.13 19:18 This_County_4373 [FNV] My Tale of Two Wastelands Keeps Crashing.
as the title saids my game crashes after i play for short time any idea as to why?
LOAD ORDER:
This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer.
-Fixed ESMs
+Novac Reborn - Electric City
+nv interiors remastered ttw extras
+nv interiors remastered no pinups
+nv interiors remastered no dropboxes
+NVCS
+supplementary weapons pack mojave raiders patch
+piber's patch and micro mod hell (fnvttw)
+B42Descriptions-SuppplementaryWeaponsPack
+WAP - Clean Animation Lever Action Animation Patch
+Captain Sidearm hotfix
+Fallout 3 Unique items Overhaul TTW 3.3
+WAP Bozar and LMG 4k
+WAP Bozar and LMG hits anim patch
+WAP Bozar and LMG
+WAP Gauss Rifle Texture Edit
+WAP Gauss Rifle 4k
+WAP Gauss Rifle TTW
+WAP Gauss Rifle
+WAP Grenade Launchers 4k
+WAP Grenade Launchers
+WAP Laser RCW 4k
+WAP Laser RCW
+WAP Lever Action Shotgun 4k
+WAP Lever Action Shotgun
+Grenade Launcher animation fix - knvse
+WAP Sniper Rifle 4k
+WAP Sniper Rifle
+WAP F4NV Laser Pistol and Pew-Pew 4k
+WAP F4NV Laser Pistol and Pew-Pew
+WAP - A Light Shining In Darkness Remastered 4k
+WAP - A Light Shining In Darkness Remastered
+Laser Rifle Rebirth
+Hit - Millenia Animations - Part 1
+WAP 12.7 SMG Rebirth 4k
+WAP 12.7 SMG Rebirth
+Blackhawk rework - F4NV .44 version
+Blackhawk rework
+WAP'ed TTW
+Reticle Texture fix
+Laser Pistol 3rd person latch animation fix
+Dramatic Staggering
+NV Interiors Remastered
+The N.V. Interiors Project
+NV Compatibility Skeleton
+EXE - Effect teXtures Enhanced
+TTW Reputations - Big Town Extensions
+TTW (D.I.E.O.) Dialogue and Interactions Expansion Overhaul
+Foul mouthed in the Capital Wasteland
+TTW New Vegas Speech Checks - TTW Reputations Patch
+TTW New Vegas Speech Checks
+PM's Med-Textures - HD Chems and Venoms
+PM's Magazine Resources
+PM's HD Legion Overhaul
+PM's HD Ammo Boxes
+Legion Quests Expanded
+Factions Reloaded - Legion
+All Non DLC Clothing Retex 4K-2K-1K (HD) with mipmap
+I Know I'm Wearing Faction Armor
+The Fort
+Cottonwood Cove and Legion Raid Camp
+Legion bases
+Increased Legion Presence v
+Legion Fort Open (Reccomended)
+Factions Reloaded Raiders
+Mojave Raiders - Nipton Takeover Disabled
+Raider Sewer
+Expanded Mojave - Highway 95 Viper's Encampment
+Raider Dressings Animated
+HiRes Raider Graffiti
+Old Raider Helmets
+update for Sadist Armor
+BrotherhoodHouseAlliance_1-1
+Legion Brotherhood Alliance
+Veronica You're Not In The Brotherhood Anymore
+Version1
+BOSOffices v
+Hidden Valley Overhauled
+HELIOS One
+Classic Brotherhood Music with battle music
+Brotherhoodweaponryoverhaulv2.esp
+The Law Won
+NCRCommander
+ncr
+NCR Checkponts- full update
+NCR_Outpost
+Searchlight Outpost
+NCR Primm Enhancement
+NCR Helios Outpost
+NCR Embassy
+Mojave Outpost
+Freeside Outpost
+NCR Truck Convoys
+Take Chems Make Fiends
+Rise Of The Raiders
+Type 3 Bone Armor
+NCR Safehouse Facelift
+NCR Dialogue Expansion
+NCR Citizenship
+NIGHTMARE FIENDS - A Junkie Overhaul
+Insignia of the Brotherhood
+Freeside Overhaul - NCR Jailhouse
+Classic Fallout inspired Jackals rework
+Brotherhood of Steel Unforgotten
+Bone Harvester - Tribal Cannibal
+Bone Armor
+Hit - Binoculars Anim Set
+Hit - B42 Interact Skinning - Human Addon
+Hit - B42 Interact - New Vegas Bounties I LE
+Hit - B42 Inject - Meat Anims
+Player Headtracking
+Another Millenia Dropmag Patch UPDATED
+B42 Dropmag
+Hit - Power Armor Pip-Boy Anim
+Hit B42 Inject - Random 1
+NCR Weapon Expansion - The Right to Bear Arms REMASTERED
+Hit - B42 Interact Skinning
+Hit - B42 Interact Animation Pack
+Hit - B42 Inject - Water Animations
+Hit - B42 Inject - Sunset Sarsaparilla Animations
+NCR Rearmed Remade
+Hit - RPD
+Hit - B42 Inject Animation Pack - Season 1
+Hit - B42 Inject - Liquid Courage
+Novac Reborn - Basic
+Nipton Rebuilt - Update 1.e - ESP FILE ONLY
+Primm Reborn with Electric City
+Goodsprings Reborn - Clean and Complete
+ELECTRO
+ELECTRO-CITY - Relighting the Wasteland
+Weapons Replacers for The New Bison Steve Hotel and Lucky Casino
+B42 Dropmag - Quest Mod Patches
+The New Bison Steve Hotel and Lucky Casino
+Nipton Rebuilt radio music
+Nipton Rebuilt
+Mojave Raiders
+Clothes HD - Great Khans
+Mojave Wildlife - FO3 Version
+Sapper Leg Fix
+Ugly Armor Gloves Remover
+NCR Trooper Overhaul - Distributed
+NCR Trooper Overhaul_beta
+Uncut Wasteland plus NPCs. Simple Open Freeside OB
+A Van Graff Scorned Fix
+Outside Bets for TTW
+New Vegas Uncut
+v1 Release
+Real Time Reflections - INI
+Real Time Reflections
+Hit - Drugs
+Mannequin Races vanilla
+Character Kit Remake
+Character Kit Remake YUP TTW Patch
+D.C NPCs
+FPGE CKR Patch
+Character Kit Remake Facegen Patches For Many Mods bounty le
+Character Kit Remake Facegen Patches For Many Mods moremojave
+Character Kit Remake Facegen Patches For Many Mods
+Character Kit Remake TTW Facegen
+Claim the Mojave
+Point Lookout Reborn TTW update
+Point Lookout Reborn TTW
+Nuka Wolrd Imports TTW 3.3.2 Patch
+Nuka World Imports - a Nuka Cola Overhaul main
+Nuka World Imports
+Raygun
+3D Grenade Indicator
+Novac Sign Animated - Version 2
+T6M Jeans Outfit
+Megaton Hairs - Vegas Edition by zzjay
+Xtreme Wasteland Duo Pack 1
+T6M Jeans Outfit v1_0_1 Fix Patch
+Mannequin Races TTW Patch
+New World Map for New Vegas
+Unique Fort Armor - TOTNW 2.0 Patch
+AnhNVSE
+SUP NVSE
+TTW - Unique Fort Armor
+Vintage Globe
+Better Cigarettes
+Ascended Hotel Lamp
+Ascended TV Set
+Ascended Microscope
+Ascended Stools
+Ascended Telephone
+Depth of Field Fix - NVSE
+Latin Legion names
+Sydney Companion JIP CCC Icon
+Sarah Lyons JIP CCC Icon
+Sydney Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+Sarah Lyons Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+JIP Companions Command and Control
+Lucy West Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+Amata Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+00 - Mannequin shorter names
+Mannequin Races body fix
+00 - Mannequin Races Type6z
+Fallout Texture Overhaul - Robots - Mister Gutsy
+One Man - One Quest
+Physically Based Rangers
+DogTooth Enclave Officer
+F4NV Auto Doc
+Micro Clutter optimized
+Micro Clutter update
+Micro Clutter
+Physically Based Wood Crates
+Physically Based Collection
+Physically Based Chems
+Physically Based Kitchenware
+Physically Based Parkware
+Physically Based Beverages
+Character Kit Remake - Hair
+Character Kit Remake - Teeth
+Character Kit Remake - Hands
+Physically Based Plasma Rifles
+Physically Based Terminals
+Classic - Psycho
+Physically Based Collection 2
+Physically Based Blaster
+Metro Carriage Interiors TTW
+Big Town Extensions
+Death's Last Whisper - Hugs AND Death
+B42 Descriptions Patch
+Male Mesh hotfix
+PAVE Unique Robo-Thor - TTW
+PAVE'd Tweaks for TTW - ESPless
+Tweaks for TTW
+Sticky Ragdoll Camera
+Coffee of the Wastland
+TTW DLC Integration
+Westside Reputation
+supplementary weapons pack disabled weapon mod recipes
+strip south gate ttw patch
+Westside Reputation - TTW Patch
+Father Elijah Accurate Face - TTW Patch
+Dead Money Accurate Elijah Updated
+FPGE - Lonesome Road
+more mojave ttw extras
+Uncut Wasteland - TTW Patch
+Uncut Extra Collection - TTW Patch
+Simple Populated Freeside - FPGE Patches
+Strip Markers
+Strip Lights Region Fix - TTW
+Uncut Extra Collection 2
+Uncut Wasteland
+Functional Post Game Ending - Uncut Wasteland And Extra Collection Patch
+TTW Reputations
+Another Millenia - TTW Unique Placements
+Weapon Based Hands Clip Distance
+Simple Open Freeside
+The Strip South Gate
+MoreMojave
+Simple Populated Freeside
+Functional Post Game Ending
+The Strip Open
+Another Millenia Gun Add-on
+Another Millenia
+Hit - Millenia Animations - Part 2
+SYNC - Remade kNVSE Animation Set - Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle AEK-971
+SYNC - Remade kNVSE Animation Set - Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle
+Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle SYNC PATCH
+Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle
+B42 Quickthrow
+Realtime Weapon Modding System
+Diagonal Movement 0.6b
+B42 Melee Bash
+ISControl-
+B42 Descriptions
+Retrievable Throwables Reforged 2.2
+B42 Notify
+B42 Inject
+Supplementary Weapons Pack Patch
+B42 Optics
+B42 Loot
+B42 FireMode Alt - ONLY Selective Fire wout SPREAD
+JAM Patch - For the dynamic crosshair
+Dynamic Weapon Spread
+Viewmodel Shake Fix - NVSE
+Smooth True Ironsights
+Weapon Requirements System
+Detonator Overhaul
+Immersive Recoil NPC 1.4.1
+KEYWORDS
+B42 Interact
+Vanilla Weapon Scale Fix
+B42 Wristwatch
+B42 Inspect - aka Animated Ammo and Weapon Condition Checking
+B42 Bows
+B42 Inertia
+360 Movement
+Frozen 3rd Person Masculine Movement
+High Resolution Screens
+Frozen 3rd Person Feminine Movement
+NoPlayerVoiceNV
+MW2019 Technician Gloves
+Project Reality Footsteps
+Titans of The New West
+Webb's Titans of The New West Patch Emporium
+Power Armor Visual Enhancement (PAVE)
+SILO TTW Patch
+Simple Interior Lighting Overhaul
+PAVE TOTNW Patch Glowing APA Helmet Eyes
+Glowing APA Helmet Eyes
+PAVE TTW Armors in NV (Vendor)
+PAVE Compatibility Plugins
+Landscape Texture Improvements
+Nut Vegas - Nutscapes Medium
+NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas
+Desert Natural Weathers - NV - TTW
+Desert Natural Realism - Redux
+MoonlightNVSE
+Climate Control NVSE
+The Big Duo - Sinclair's Akimbo Ruminations
+Ani_Akimbo - 9mmPistolAddon
+Ani_Akimbo - An Overly Cool Akimbo kNVSE Set for The Big Duo
+FNV Anim Set - Winchester 1897 (Trench Gun)
+Winchester M1897 - Trench Gun
+EFT Pack
+YSI Icons
+Supplementary Weapons Pack - TTW Patch
+Ani_MP5 kNVSE Set
+Supplementary Weapons Pack
+NVRA - AutoMag
+3. Iron Sights Alignment
+FNV Clean Animations - Recharging Weapons Pack
+3. FNV Clean Animations - Rock-It Launcher (No Locomotion)
+FNV Clean Animations - Incinerator
+Reload Reloaded
+Immersive Recoil 2.0
+FNV Clean Animations - Missile Launcher
+Fatman Spint
+Different Fatman Animations Xolerys kNVSE
+ETJ Animation's That Gun 5.56
+ETJ Miniguns
+ETJ Animation's BAR Automatic Rifle
+ETJ Animations Caravan Shotguns
+ETJ Animation's Riot Shotgun
+ETJ Animation's 45 SMG
+ETJ Animation's 45 PISTOL
+ETJ Animations Anti Materiel Rifle
+ETJ Animation's Hunting Shotgun (2 Versions)
+ETJ Animations All Cowboy Repeaters
+Blended Locomotion
+WAP Year One and Bonus - 4K uncompressed
+WAP TTW Hotfix 1.1
+WAP TTW compatibility patch
+WAP - .44 Magnum TTW Patch
+WAP 44 Revolver - Hitman anim patch
+WAP Year One and Bonus
+All Weapon Sounds Overhaul Modern Edition - AWSOME main
+All Weapon Sounds Overhaul Modern Edition - AWSOME
+Different PowerFist Animations Xolerys kNVSE
+Different Ballistic Fist Animations MORE
+Different Ballistic Fist Animations
+SIGMA - Greatsword anim set - kNVSE
+SIGMA - Shishkebab anim set - kNVSE
+SIGMA - Spear animations
+SIGMA - Melee animation overhaul - Chapter 1 - kNVSE
+Easy Hacking GER ENG NV
+SIGMA - Baseball
+TTW patch
+SIGMA - Katana - kNVSE
+Butcher Pete Complete - A Melee Animation Overhaul
+ConsistentSpreadv1.3
+Iron Sights Aligned - Mod Support
+Iron Sights Aligned
+Male Anim A
+Hit's Anims - Animation Fixes
+Working date and clock for replacer
+Letters glowmap
+Pip-Boy 2000 Mk VI main
+Pip-Boy 2000 static replacer
+New sprint animations for JAM 1.1
+JAM - Just Assorted Mods
+Hit's Anims - Season 1 - Cowbow Addon
+Hit's Anims - Season 3
+Hit's Anims - Season 2
+Hit's Anims - Season 1
+FOV Slider
+ISControl
+MCM BugFix 2
+The Mod Configuration Menu
+New Vegas Mesh Improvement Mod - NVMIM
+Stewie Tweaks INI
+Other Mods_separator
+Fog-based Object Culling
+Faster Start Menu
+OneTweak
+UIO - User Interface Organizer
+ShowOff xNVSE Plugin
+Console Paste
+Basic Console Autocomplete
+kNVSE
+Improved Console (NVSE)
+MLF
+ActorCause Save Bloat Fix
+VATS Lag Fix
+Fast Weapon Lag Fix
+Stewie Tweaks Essentials INI
+Engine Optimizations
+lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes
+Texture Modding Preset
+NVTF - New Vegas Tick Fix
+Yvile's Crash Logger
+All Tweaks Preset
+JohnnyGuitar NVSE
+JIP LN Settings INI
+JIP LN NVSE Plugin Main
+ROOGNVSE Plugin
+Utilities_separator
+Tale Of Two Wastelands
+TTW_separator
submitted by This_County_4373 to FalloutMods [link] [comments]
LOAD ORDER:
This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer.
-Fixed ESMs
+Novac Reborn - Electric City
+nv interiors remastered ttw extras
+nv interiors remastered no pinups
+nv interiors remastered no dropboxes
+NVCS
+supplementary weapons pack mojave raiders patch
+piber's patch and micro mod hell (fnvttw)
+B42Descriptions-SuppplementaryWeaponsPack
+WAP - Clean Animation Lever Action Animation Patch
+Captain Sidearm hotfix
+Fallout 3 Unique items Overhaul TTW 3.3
+WAP Bozar and LMG 4k
+WAP Bozar and LMG hits anim patch
+WAP Bozar and LMG
+WAP Gauss Rifle Texture Edit
+WAP Gauss Rifle 4k
+WAP Gauss Rifle TTW
+WAP Gauss Rifle
+WAP Grenade Launchers 4k
+WAP Grenade Launchers
+WAP Laser RCW 4k
+WAP Laser RCW
+WAP Lever Action Shotgun 4k
+WAP Lever Action Shotgun
+Grenade Launcher animation fix - knvse
+WAP Sniper Rifle 4k
+WAP Sniper Rifle
+WAP F4NV Laser Pistol and Pew-Pew 4k
+WAP F4NV Laser Pistol and Pew-Pew
+WAP - A Light Shining In Darkness Remastered 4k
+WAP - A Light Shining In Darkness Remastered
+Laser Rifle Rebirth
+Hit - Millenia Animations - Part 1
+WAP 12.7 SMG Rebirth 4k
+WAP 12.7 SMG Rebirth
+Blackhawk rework - F4NV .44 version
+Blackhawk rework
+WAP'ed TTW
+Reticle Texture fix
+Laser Pistol 3rd person latch animation fix
+Dramatic Staggering
+NV Interiors Remastered
+The N.V. Interiors Project
+NV Compatibility Skeleton
+EXE - Effect teXtures Enhanced
+TTW Reputations - Big Town Extensions
+TTW (D.I.E.O.) Dialogue and Interactions Expansion Overhaul
+Foul mouthed in the Capital Wasteland
+TTW New Vegas Speech Checks - TTW Reputations Patch
+TTW New Vegas Speech Checks
+PM's Med-Textures - HD Chems and Venoms
+PM's Magazine Resources
+PM's HD Legion Overhaul
+PM's HD Ammo Boxes
+Legion Quests Expanded
+Factions Reloaded - Legion
+All Non DLC Clothing Retex 4K-2K-1K (HD) with mipmap
+I Know I'm Wearing Faction Armor
+The Fort
+Cottonwood Cove and Legion Raid Camp
+Legion bases
+Increased Legion Presence v
+Legion Fort Open (Reccomended)
+Factions Reloaded Raiders
+Mojave Raiders - Nipton Takeover Disabled
+Raider Sewer
+Expanded Mojave - Highway 95 Viper's Encampment
+Raider Dressings Animated
+HiRes Raider Graffiti
+Old Raider Helmets
+update for Sadist Armor
+BrotherhoodHouseAlliance_1-1
+Legion Brotherhood Alliance
+Veronica You're Not In The Brotherhood Anymore
+Version1
+BOSOffices v
+Hidden Valley Overhauled
+HELIOS One
+Classic Brotherhood Music with battle music
+Brotherhoodweaponryoverhaulv2.esp
+The Law Won
+NCRCommander
+ncr
+NCR Checkponts- full update
+NCR_Outpost
+Searchlight Outpost
+NCR Primm Enhancement
+NCR Helios Outpost
+NCR Embassy
+Mojave Outpost
+Freeside Outpost
+NCR Truck Convoys
+Take Chems Make Fiends
+Rise Of The Raiders
+Type 3 Bone Armor
+NCR Safehouse Facelift
+NCR Dialogue Expansion
+NCR Citizenship
+NIGHTMARE FIENDS - A Junkie Overhaul
+Insignia of the Brotherhood
+Freeside Overhaul - NCR Jailhouse
+Classic Fallout inspired Jackals rework
+Brotherhood of Steel Unforgotten
+Bone Harvester - Tribal Cannibal
+Bone Armor
+Hit - Binoculars Anim Set
+Hit - B42 Interact Skinning - Human Addon
+Hit - B42 Interact - New Vegas Bounties I LE
+Hit - B42 Inject - Meat Anims
+Player Headtracking
+Another Millenia Dropmag Patch UPDATED
+B42 Dropmag
+Hit - Power Armor Pip-Boy Anim
+Hit B42 Inject - Random 1
+NCR Weapon Expansion - The Right to Bear Arms REMASTERED
+Hit - B42 Interact Skinning
+Hit - B42 Interact Animation Pack
+Hit - B42 Inject - Water Animations
+Hit - B42 Inject - Sunset Sarsaparilla Animations
+NCR Rearmed Remade
+Hit - RPD
+Hit - B42 Inject Animation Pack - Season 1
+Hit - B42 Inject - Liquid Courage
+Novac Reborn - Basic
+Nipton Rebuilt - Update 1.e - ESP FILE ONLY
+Primm Reborn with Electric City
+Goodsprings Reborn - Clean and Complete
+ELECTRO
+ELECTRO-CITY - Relighting the Wasteland
+Weapons Replacers for The New Bison Steve Hotel and Lucky Casino
+B42 Dropmag - Quest Mod Patches
+The New Bison Steve Hotel and Lucky Casino
+Nipton Rebuilt radio music
+Nipton Rebuilt
+Mojave Raiders
+Clothes HD - Great Khans
+Mojave Wildlife - FO3 Version
+Sapper Leg Fix
+Ugly Armor Gloves Remover
+NCR Trooper Overhaul - Distributed
+NCR Trooper Overhaul_beta
+Uncut Wasteland plus NPCs. Simple Open Freeside OB
+A Van Graff Scorned Fix
+Outside Bets for TTW
+New Vegas Uncut
+v1 Release
+Real Time Reflections - INI
+Real Time Reflections
+Hit - Drugs
+Mannequin Races vanilla
+Character Kit Remake
+Character Kit Remake YUP TTW Patch
+D.C NPCs
+FPGE CKR Patch
+Character Kit Remake Facegen Patches For Many Mods bounty le
+Character Kit Remake Facegen Patches For Many Mods moremojave
+Character Kit Remake Facegen Patches For Many Mods
+Character Kit Remake TTW Facegen
+Claim the Mojave
+Point Lookout Reborn TTW update
+Point Lookout Reborn TTW
+Nuka Wolrd Imports TTW 3.3.2 Patch
+Nuka World Imports - a Nuka Cola Overhaul main
+Nuka World Imports
+Raygun
+3D Grenade Indicator
+Novac Sign Animated - Version 2
+T6M Jeans Outfit
+Megaton Hairs - Vegas Edition by zzjay
+Xtreme Wasteland Duo Pack 1
+T6M Jeans Outfit v1_0_1 Fix Patch
+Mannequin Races TTW Patch
+New World Map for New Vegas
+Unique Fort Armor - TOTNW 2.0 Patch
+AnhNVSE
+SUP NVSE
+TTW - Unique Fort Armor
+Vintage Globe
+Better Cigarettes
+Ascended Hotel Lamp
+Ascended TV Set
+Ascended Microscope
+Ascended Stools
+Ascended Telephone
+Depth of Field Fix - NVSE
+Latin Legion names
+Sydney Companion JIP CCC Icon
+Sarah Lyons JIP CCC Icon
+Sydney Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+Sarah Lyons Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+JIP Companions Command and Control
+Lucy West Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+Amata Companion - TTW 3.3.2
+00 - Mannequin shorter names
+Mannequin Races body fix
+00 - Mannequin Races Type6z
+Fallout Texture Overhaul - Robots - Mister Gutsy
+One Man - One Quest
+Physically Based Rangers
+DogTooth Enclave Officer
+F4NV Auto Doc
+Micro Clutter optimized
+Micro Clutter update
+Micro Clutter
+Physically Based Wood Crates
+Physically Based Collection
+Physically Based Chems
+Physically Based Kitchenware
+Physically Based Parkware
+Physically Based Beverages
+Character Kit Remake - Hair
+Character Kit Remake - Teeth
+Character Kit Remake - Hands
+Physically Based Plasma Rifles
+Physically Based Terminals
+Classic - Psycho
+Physically Based Collection 2
+Physically Based Blaster
+Metro Carriage Interiors TTW
+Big Town Extensions
+Death's Last Whisper - Hugs AND Death
+B42 Descriptions Patch
+Male Mesh hotfix
+PAVE Unique Robo-Thor - TTW
+PAVE'd Tweaks for TTW - ESPless
+Tweaks for TTW
+Sticky Ragdoll Camera
+Coffee of the Wastland
+TTW DLC Integration
+Westside Reputation
+supplementary weapons pack disabled weapon mod recipes
+strip south gate ttw patch
+Westside Reputation - TTW Patch
+Father Elijah Accurate Face - TTW Patch
+Dead Money Accurate Elijah Updated
+FPGE - Lonesome Road
+more mojave ttw extras
+Uncut Wasteland - TTW Patch
+Uncut Extra Collection - TTW Patch
+Simple Populated Freeside - FPGE Patches
+Strip Markers
+Strip Lights Region Fix - TTW
+Uncut Extra Collection 2
+Uncut Wasteland
+Functional Post Game Ending - Uncut Wasteland And Extra Collection Patch
+TTW Reputations
+Another Millenia - TTW Unique Placements
+Weapon Based Hands Clip Distance
+Simple Open Freeside
+The Strip South Gate
+MoreMojave
+Simple Populated Freeside
+Functional Post Game Ending
+The Strip Open
+Another Millenia Gun Add-on
+Another Millenia
+Hit - Millenia Animations - Part 2
+SYNC - Remade kNVSE Animation Set - Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle AEK-971
+SYNC - Remade kNVSE Animation Set - Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle
+Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle SYNC PATCH
+Classic AK-112 - The Adytum Rifle
+B42 Quickthrow
+Realtime Weapon Modding System
+Diagonal Movement 0.6b
+B42 Melee Bash
+ISControl-
+B42 Descriptions
+Retrievable Throwables Reforged 2.2
+B42 Notify
+B42 Inject
+Supplementary Weapons Pack Patch
+B42 Optics
+B42 Loot
+B42 FireMode Alt - ONLY Selective Fire wout SPREAD
+JAM Patch - For the dynamic crosshair
+Dynamic Weapon Spread
+Viewmodel Shake Fix - NVSE
+Smooth True Ironsights
+Weapon Requirements System
+Detonator Overhaul
+Immersive Recoil NPC 1.4.1
+KEYWORDS
+B42 Interact
+Vanilla Weapon Scale Fix
+B42 Wristwatch
+B42 Inspect - aka Animated Ammo and Weapon Condition Checking
+B42 Bows
+B42 Inertia
+360 Movement
+Frozen 3rd Person Masculine Movement
+High Resolution Screens
+Frozen 3rd Person Feminine Movement
+NoPlayerVoiceNV
+MW2019 Technician Gloves
+Project Reality Footsteps
+Titans of The New West
+Webb's Titans of The New West Patch Emporium
+Power Armor Visual Enhancement (PAVE)
+SILO TTW Patch
+Simple Interior Lighting Overhaul
+PAVE TOTNW Patch Glowing APA Helmet Eyes
+Glowing APA Helmet Eyes
+PAVE TTW Armors in NV (Vendor)
+PAVE Compatibility Plugins
+Landscape Texture Improvements
+Nut Vegas - Nutscapes Medium
+NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas
+Desert Natural Weathers - NV - TTW
+Desert Natural Realism - Redux
+MoonlightNVSE
+Climate Control NVSE
+The Big Duo - Sinclair's Akimbo Ruminations
+Ani_Akimbo - 9mmPistolAddon
+Ani_Akimbo - An Overly Cool Akimbo kNVSE Set for The Big Duo
+FNV Anim Set - Winchester 1897 (Trench Gun)
+Winchester M1897 - Trench Gun
+EFT Pack
+YSI Icons
+Supplementary Weapons Pack - TTW Patch
+Ani_MP5 kNVSE Set
+Supplementary Weapons Pack
+NVRA - AutoMag
+3. Iron Sights Alignment
+FNV Clean Animations - Recharging Weapons Pack
+3. FNV Clean Animations - Rock-It Launcher (No Locomotion)
+FNV Clean Animations - Incinerator
+Reload Reloaded
+Immersive Recoil 2.0
+FNV Clean Animations - Missile Launcher
+Fatman Spint
+Different Fatman Animations Xolerys kNVSE
+ETJ Animation's That Gun 5.56
+ETJ Miniguns
+ETJ Animation's BAR Automatic Rifle
+ETJ Animations Caravan Shotguns
+ETJ Animation's Riot Shotgun
+ETJ Animation's 45 SMG
+ETJ Animation's 45 PISTOL
+ETJ Animations Anti Materiel Rifle
+ETJ Animation's Hunting Shotgun (2 Versions)
+ETJ Animations All Cowboy Repeaters
+Blended Locomotion
+WAP Year One and Bonus - 4K uncompressed
+WAP TTW Hotfix 1.1
+WAP TTW compatibility patch
+WAP - .44 Magnum TTW Patch
+WAP 44 Revolver - Hitman anim patch
+WAP Year One and Bonus
+All Weapon Sounds Overhaul Modern Edition - AWSOME main
+All Weapon Sounds Overhaul Modern Edition - AWSOME
+Different PowerFist Animations Xolerys kNVSE
+Different Ballistic Fist Animations MORE
+Different Ballistic Fist Animations
+SIGMA - Greatsword anim set - kNVSE
+SIGMA - Shishkebab anim set - kNVSE
+SIGMA - Spear animations
+SIGMA - Melee animation overhaul - Chapter 1 - kNVSE
+Easy Hacking GER ENG NV
+SIGMA - Baseball
+TTW patch
+SIGMA - Katana - kNVSE
+Butcher Pete Complete - A Melee Animation Overhaul
+ConsistentSpreadv1.3
+Iron Sights Aligned - Mod Support
+Iron Sights Aligned
+Male Anim A
+Hit's Anims - Animation Fixes
+Working date and clock for replacer
+Letters glowmap
+Pip-Boy 2000 Mk VI main
+Pip-Boy 2000 static replacer
+New sprint animations for JAM 1.1
+JAM - Just Assorted Mods
+Hit's Anims - Season 1 - Cowbow Addon
+Hit's Anims - Season 3
+Hit's Anims - Season 2
+Hit's Anims - Season 1
+FOV Slider
+ISControl
+MCM BugFix 2
+The Mod Configuration Menu
+New Vegas Mesh Improvement Mod - NVMIM
+Stewie Tweaks INI
+Other Mods_separator
+Fog-based Object Culling
+Faster Start Menu
+OneTweak
+UIO - User Interface Organizer
+ShowOff xNVSE Plugin
+Console Paste
+Basic Console Autocomplete
+kNVSE
+Improved Console (NVSE)
+MLF
+ActorCause Save Bloat Fix
+VATS Lag Fix
+Fast Weapon Lag Fix
+Stewie Tweaks Essentials INI
+Engine Optimizations
+lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes
+Texture Modding Preset
+NVTF - New Vegas Tick Fix
+Yvile's Crash Logger
+All Tweaks Preset
+JohnnyGuitar NVSE
+JIP LN Settings INI
+JIP LN NVSE Plugin Main
+ROOGNVSE Plugin
+Utilities_separator
+Tale Of Two Wastelands
+TTW_separator
2024.05.13 17:34 Big-Cat-7 [PMC] HEXIS OPHIS PvP-Focused Competitive & Structured
Quick Info:
Discord Org Page
Hexis Ophis is a PvP/Combat focused and structured PMC
About Us
As a Grey-aligned PMC, we take hostile action towards those we view as our opposition (to include piracy), regardless of the legal repercussions. Focused on quality, rather than quantity, we operate as a fast acting, but well organized team when dealing with confrontation.
If you’re new to the game, or worried about dipping your toes in PvP for the first time, worry not. We offer training for newer players, and our structured system makes it easy to join in and learn how to operate as a part of the team. However, being a team player isn’t enough, as we firmly hold the belief that practice makes perfect. On the other hand, experienced and knowledgeable players can opt into becoming Tier II members, which represents the best of the organization.
Why Join Us?
- Training for new players and teamwork building
- Structured team gameplay that is easy to understand and apply
- Quality and challenging PvP encounters
- A tight knit community that is invested in its playerbase
- Gray Morals, giving opportunities to both lawful and lawless gameplay
Scheduled Events & Activity RequirementsWe offer frequent training/practice sessions to help keep activity while not requiring multi-hour long game sessions to be marked as an active member. For standard members, we only require 2 activity sessions per quarter.
2024.05.13 17:33 Crafty_Brick6425 The Blight Brigade - 20+, Chill, PVE - EU/US - [PC][XB1][PS4]
The Blight Brigade - Join Our Legendary Clan!
Clan URL: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Clan/Profile/4884855
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/EeZddfK76s
Region & Platform: EU + US / PC, XBOX, PSN
Embark on an epic journey, Guardian! Join The Blight Brigade, a distinguished clan born from the fires of Destiny's toughest challenges. We are a close-knit band of friends who have ventured through galaxies together, mastering both PvE and PvP. Whether you're battle-hardened or newly initiated, our doors are open to all who share our passion for adventure in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
What We Offer:
submitted by Crafty_Brick6425 to DestinyClanFinder [link] [comments]
Clan URL: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Clan/Profile/4884855
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/EeZddfK76s
Region & Platform: EU + US / PC, XBOX, PSN
Embark on an epic journey, Guardian! Join The Blight Brigade, a distinguished clan born from the fires of Destiny's toughest challenges. We are a close-knit band of friends who have ventured through galaxies together, mastering both PvE and PvP. Whether you're battle-hardened or newly initiated, our doors are open to all who share our passion for adventure in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
What We Offer:
- Daily Raids, Dungeons, and GMs: Ready for triumph? Regular runs are part of our core activities as well as triumph runs, masters and flawless raids.
- A Spirit of Camaraderie: Here, every Guardian contributes to our shared destiny, creating an unstoppable force.
- Seamless Coordination: Jump into the fray with ease using our dedicated LFG channels and active voice channels.
- Expert Guidance: Our more experienced players will guide you through Destiny’s most daunting challenges, guaranteeing success and rich rewards.
- Thriving Community: With over 50 active members in our server, find your place among peers who value friendship and fun.
- Maturity and Relaxed Atmosphere: We welcome Guardians aged 20 and up, who appreciate a mature, easy-going environment.
- Discord Engagement: Become part of our thriving Discord community to stay connected and informed.
- Active Participation: Forge lasting bonds and prove your mettle during a one-month probation period.
2024.05.13 16:44 Count_Floyd Practices - uncontested shooting drills
Advice and opinions sought...
I am an assistant coach for a U15 A squad next year. I grew up, and still play, net while my other coaches all have played out and thus do not possess the same perspective as me.
As we all know, kids these days can shoot hard and love to go 'bar down' from in close. It results in a fair number of head shots on the goalies should they drop to the butterfly (and often even if they don't) to make a stop. They don't try particularly hard during uncontested shooting drills/warm-ups. One of our keepers even leaves most of the net on the glove side open to bait kids to shoot there. He pretends like he's trying to make it harder for himself because "I'm awesome and it's too easy" to play it normal when though I know he's really just puck shy. It's spilling over into his game play where he is flinching at shots. The other goalie has flat out admitted he's not trying during these drills. Frankly I don't blame them.
I've advocated for next season to either eliminate these types of drills, have players shoot from the top of the circle, or make sure the drills involve a D man to contest. It's both a safety and confidence thing if we continue as business as usual.
Unfortunately I'm getting a bit of pushback from the other coaches. Things such as it is important for the players to improve on their shooting. But there also seems to be buy in for having the kids shoot from further out and some punishment for repeated head shots. So I'll give them full marks for listening!
What are everyone's thoughts on the matter of shooting drills at practice? Am I being overly protective?
submitted by Count_Floyd to hockeygoalies [link] [comments]
I am an assistant coach for a U15 A squad next year. I grew up, and still play, net while my other coaches all have played out and thus do not possess the same perspective as me.
As we all know, kids these days can shoot hard and love to go 'bar down' from in close. It results in a fair number of head shots on the goalies should they drop to the butterfly (and often even if they don't) to make a stop. They don't try particularly hard during uncontested shooting drills/warm-ups. One of our keepers even leaves most of the net on the glove side open to bait kids to shoot there. He pretends like he's trying to make it harder for himself because "I'm awesome and it's too easy" to play it normal when though I know he's really just puck shy. It's spilling over into his game play where he is flinching at shots. The other goalie has flat out admitted he's not trying during these drills. Frankly I don't blame them.
I've advocated for next season to either eliminate these types of drills, have players shoot from the top of the circle, or make sure the drills involve a D man to contest. It's both a safety and confidence thing if we continue as business as usual.
Unfortunately I'm getting a bit of pushback from the other coaches. Things such as it is important for the players to improve on their shooting. But there also seems to be buy in for having the kids shoot from further out and some punishment for repeated head shots. So I'll give them full marks for listening!
What are everyone's thoughts on the matter of shooting drills at practice? Am I being overly protective?
2024.05.13 16:05 jonhoz Aux-in entrance in the glove box
 | Heys guys, I bought this device to play music with bluetooth and it works. Problem is, I can not close the glove box with it connected. If I remove the glove box can I change it to inside the glove box, so it can close? If so, is that something relatively easy? Thank you! submitted by jonhoz to FordFocus [link] [comments] |
2024.05.13 15:52 ajjoyal01 Larger grips leading me to actually grip tighter?
I know the general idea is that people grip tighter on smaller grip sizes. But I am wondering if I may be better off in standard grips, but don't want to make the change if it's simply impossible that I would grip a standard grip lighter. Details below:
I have midsize on my clubs at the moment. My hand size is right in-between the sizes for standard and midsize (Cadet ML glove, between 7.5 and 7.6" from wrist to tip of middle finger). I've been golfing more and more over the past 2 years, but would still say I'm a high handicap.
I've been having a decent amount of pain in my palms as well as the joints where my fingers meet my palms. I think it may be because I feel like my fingers maybe aren't wrapping around the grip far enough, leading me to think I have to squeeze tighter to compensate. I also feel like it's easy for the grip to end up slipping out of my fingers and into my palm too. I've worked with an instructor, and the position of the club in my hands is correct, I just still grip too tight.
submitted by ajjoyal01 to GolfSwing [link] [comments]
I have midsize on my clubs at the moment. My hand size is right in-between the sizes for standard and midsize (Cadet ML glove, between 7.5 and 7.6" from wrist to tip of middle finger). I've been golfing more and more over the past 2 years, but would still say I'm a high handicap.
I've been having a decent amount of pain in my palms as well as the joints where my fingers meet my palms. I think it may be because I feel like my fingers maybe aren't wrapping around the grip far enough, leading me to think I have to squeeze tighter to compensate. I also feel like it's easy for the grip to end up slipping out of my fingers and into my palm too. I've worked with an instructor, and the position of the club in my hands is correct, I just still grip too tight.
2024.05.13 14:25 safetystore1 Why it is necessary to install fire aid bags in your industry?
Installing first aid boxes within easy access of operations is a mandatory requirement for all working spaces where small or large workforce is employed. First boxes are essential tools that help treat common injuries like cuts, bruises, scrapes, sprains etc. This is a regular first air bag that keeps gauze pads, adhesive bandages, antiseptic solutions, pair of scissors, torch light, gloves, thermometer, pain killers, antiseptic creams, pain ointment etc. some of the advanced First aid box (شنطة الاسعافات الاولية) may contain survival supplies like food, water, local maps, blankets etc. first aid box can change face with the type of industry it is dealing with and may keep more or less items.
What do you need a first aid box for?
First aid box is the basic treatment you give when someone get injuries like cuts, bruises, sprains etc. The medical supplies contained in the first aid boxes are sufficient for giving first step of treatment such as closing the cut injury or lessening pain generated from the cut with a pain killer cream or a over the counter tablet. The aim is to give initial relief to the victim before the emergency medical services arrive at the spot or the victim is taken to the hospital by private transport. Timely first air can save lives or minimize the chances of the injury aggravating. Keeping and displaying first bags at strategic points in an industry or office is mandatory so no delays happen in the victim getting the first aid treatment. The box or bag will be replaced by fresh medicines when the old ones expire their terms. Not keeping them in your work place may attract penalties from government agencies.
Fire alerts can prevent bigger fires
Fire breakouts are common occurrences in societies, industrial units, manufacturing process, public places and institutions. Fire can be triggered accidentally by electric short circuit, a carelessly thrown cigarette butt, gas leakage, overheating of home appliances, and even family members unwittingly setting fire that they did not expect to spread. Here we essentially talk about fire breakouts in industrial set ups, apartment complexes, and public institutions like schools and hospitals. These places need to be equipped with Fire alarm device (جهاز الانذار الحريق) and several of them if the manufacturing unit or institution or housing complexes are bigger. Fire alarms with their ability to detect heat, smoke etc will trigger and activate fire alarms located at various points of a building and alert people of the danger so fire can be stopped. Some fire alarms are connected to fire stations or fire brigades so they also get the alert and take immediate rearguard action by sending fire tenders to the affected place. If you want highly efficient fire alarms for your industry you can visit website https://safetystore.com.sa/ and source the first aid bags and fire alerts that are suitable for your establishment.
submitted by safetystore1 to u/safetystore1 [link] [comments]
What do you need a first aid box for?
First aid box is the basic treatment you give when someone get injuries like cuts, bruises, sprains etc. The medical supplies contained in the first aid boxes are sufficient for giving first step of treatment such as closing the cut injury or lessening pain generated from the cut with a pain killer cream or a over the counter tablet. The aim is to give initial relief to the victim before the emergency medical services arrive at the spot or the victim is taken to the hospital by private transport. Timely first air can save lives or minimize the chances of the injury aggravating. Keeping and displaying first bags at strategic points in an industry or office is mandatory so no delays happen in the victim getting the first aid treatment. The box or bag will be replaced by fresh medicines when the old ones expire their terms. Not keeping them in your work place may attract penalties from government agencies.
Fire alerts can prevent bigger fires
Fire breakouts are common occurrences in societies, industrial units, manufacturing process, public places and institutions. Fire can be triggered accidentally by electric short circuit, a carelessly thrown cigarette butt, gas leakage, overheating of home appliances, and even family members unwittingly setting fire that they did not expect to spread. Here we essentially talk about fire breakouts in industrial set ups, apartment complexes, and public institutions like schools and hospitals. These places need to be equipped with Fire alarm device (جهاز الانذار الحريق) and several of them if the manufacturing unit or institution or housing complexes are bigger. Fire alarms with their ability to detect heat, smoke etc will trigger and activate fire alarms located at various points of a building and alert people of the danger so fire can be stopped. Some fire alarms are connected to fire stations or fire brigades so they also get the alert and take immediate rearguard action by sending fire tenders to the affected place. If you want highly efficient fire alarms for your industry you can visit website https://safetystore.com.sa/ and source the first aid bags and fire alerts that are suitable for your establishment.
2024.05.13 13:08 GoldRetirePro Goldco Review: Should You Trust Them With Your Retirement Savings?
 | Are you searching for a reputable company to help diversify your retirement portfolio with precious metals? Goldco has emerged as a leading option, but is this firm the right choice for your needs? In this Goldco review, we'll take an in-depth look at the company's offerings, processes, pricing, pros and cons, and more. By the end, you'll have the details to decide if Goldco deserves your trust and business. submitted by GoldRetirePro to GoldcoReviews [link] [comments] What is Goldco?Goldco is a well-established precious metals company based in Los Angeles, California. It has been in business for over a decade and specializes in helping customers protect their retirement savings by moving some of their funds into self-directed IRAs backed by gold and silver. In addition to IRA services, Goldco facilitates direct purchases of precious metals.Over the years, Goldco has built a solid reputation for exceptional customer service and transparent practices. CEO Trevor Gerszt founded the company with the mission to educate Americans on the benefits of diversifying with precious metals. Today, they have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau based on hundreds of positive customer reviews. How Can Goldco Help You Invest?Goldco's main offering is their Precious Metals IRA service. If you have an existing IRA, 401(k), 403(b), TSP, savings, or similar retirement account, Goldco can help you move a portion of those funds into a self-directed IRA backed by physical gold or silver.Their team handles all the paperwork and partners with leading custodians like Equity Trust to get your new IRA setup. Then, they assist you in transferring funds from your existing retirement account into the new Precious Metals IRA. Finally, you get to handpick IRS-approved coins and bullion to be held in your IRA. Some of the most popular choices in gold are the American Eagle and Canadian Maple Leaf coins, while top silver picks include the American Silver Eagle and Silver Maple Leaf coins. Goldco can help you assemble a portfolio based on your goals and risk tolerance. If you want to invest in precious metals outside of an IRA, Goldco facilitates direct purchases as well. You can fund your account via bank wire or personal check to have Goldco secure your metals and arrange for insured delivery or storage at an approved depository. How Much Does Goldco Cost?Goldco requires a minimum investment of $25,000 for Precious Metal IRAs, which may be a downside for those with limited funds. However, this higher minimum allows Goldco to provide more personalized attention and guidance.Here's a breakdown of the fees involved:
Compared to traditional IRA fees, the annual costs are reasonable at around 0.9% of the minimum investment amount. Plus, storage fees may be reimbursable depending on how much you invest. It's important to note that Goldco doesn't charge any commissions or management fees. They also offer a buyback program that guarantees the highest price for your metals if you decide to liquidate, giving you an easy out. The Pros and Cons of GoldcoAs with any investment decision, there are both benefits and drawbacks to weigh before choosing Goldco. Let's take a look:Advantages:
Is Goldco Right For You?Goldco is best suited for investors who meet the $25,000 minimum and prioritize expertise and customer service. If you have a sizable chunk of retirement savings you want to protect from market volatility and inflation, rolling over a portion into a Goldco Precious Metals IRA could be a smart move.Their specialists are adept at navigating IRS rules to keep your retirement accounts compliant. The higher investment minimum gives you access to more dedicated attention to ensure a smooth process. However, if your startup capital is limited, you may need to look at other companies with lower minimums. Goldco's offerings are also limited to gold and silver, so if you want exposure to other precious metals like platinum or palladium, an alternative firm may be a better fit. Getting Started with GoldcoThink Goldco might be the right match for your needs? Here's how to begin:
Final VerdictAfter thoroughly vetting Goldco, we believe they are a top choice for adding precious metals to your retirement portfolio, especially if you value customer service and transparency. While the $25,000 minimum is higher than some competitors, it ensures you get the white-glove treatment.With hundreds of 5-star reviews, a stellar reputation, and endorsements from figures like Sean Hannity, Goldco has proven to be a trusted leader in the industry. The free guides and portfolio reviews they provide are the perfect starting point to explore if a Precious Metals IRA is right for you. Remember, as with any investment, due diligence is essential. Be sure to consult with a qualified financial advisor to ensure a Precious Metals IRA aligns with your overall financial goals. But if you're looking for a reputable partner to diversify your nest egg, we highly recommend putting Goldco at the top of your list. If you find this article helpful, I suggest trying our quick Gold IRA Quiz. It will help you find the best gold IRA company for your specific needs based on your budget, experience, storage requirements, etc. https://preview.redd.it/k67cksk0f60d1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=0d4af8cfc054a464ce92253dff46bf08b6fd3d99 |
2024.05.13 12:58 zerolight71 Ascher McLaren Arturo Pro SC: Review
 | https://preview.redd.it/zkjiyb5mc60d1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce0ab67b29dce94e4893ea1ee4c7fbd096be53ff submitted by zerolight71 to simracing [link] [comments] I’ve had my Arturo Pro SC for a couple of weeks now and thought it worth sharing a review, Note that I am a VR racer, and predominantly race iRacing these days, so my use case my be more specific than some. I reckon you have all seen reviews from Dan Suzuki and co on YouTube, so I won’t re-tread on old ground, rather I’ll talk about how it feels after two weeks of exclusively using it in iRacing, and what features really appeal to me, particularly as a VR racer. Build: exceptional. It really feels amazing in the hands. I race without gloves and initially found the grips to feel a bit too grippy/tacy/sticky but that feeling as disappeared after using for some time, I assume natural hand oils polishing the grip material over time. The shifters and clutches also feel very very nice, very smooth, and just clicky enough without too much noise. The buttons have a lovely positive feel to them, and there is no binding in the plastic surround as Dan noticed in his early release. Features: Whilst it has lovely lights, but lacks the battery life and fancy telemetry integration of it’s USB wired counter-part, it’s a non-issue as a VR racer - I run with the lights off because I can’t see them, so 800 hours per charge is plenty, and no different to my previous wheel (SRB BB Ultra + Sportline Imola rim). What works exceptionally well for VR are the rotary switches, rotary encoders, and buttons. There’s just so many configurations that it ticks everything you could need as a VR racer. I know Dan wasn’t feeling the Rotary encoders, but with a bit of thought, they are superb for VR. Here’s how I have mine setup. I have my most commonly used controls assigned to buttons (WipeViper, PTT, VR Centre, Mute Driver, Limiter, Toggle TCR, Sorry, Thanks, toggle tire change, toggle auto fuel, Pit In/Out, Damage Report, Tow, and Exit). On three encoders I have ABS, TC, and BB. The fourth encoder is linked to the shift function on the right rotary. The left rotary is set to the black box. The rotaries are what really make this wheel great in VR. With the left rotary in the default rotary mode, 12 o-clock is relative, and one click in either direction takes me to standings or lap times.Rotating to 3, 6, or 9 o’clock (easy muscle memory) takes me to the mirroffb box, fuel, and in-car adjustments, with clicks to either side of those to related boxes. It gets me very quick and easy access to my most used black boxes. But it is the right rotary in shift mode that is the most clever. In shift mode, the rotary changes what the blue rotary encoder does, which allows me to tailor depending on the activity or car I am driving. But it also still sends out a pulse when you turn it. You can use that pulse in conjunction with AutoHotKey and JoyToKey to trigger a wav file (I used Narakeet with the Beatrice voice to create sound samples for 12 key functions - “Weight Jacker”, “Front ARB”, “Rear ARB”, “Active Reset”, etc). So I turn the right rotary and I get an audible confirmation of the setting I have enabled (great when in VR) but you can have it do something similar with dashboards in SimHub where it displays the selected setting (Beautiful Dashboard for example). So if I am in Test Drive mode, I turn the right rotary to 12 o’clock, now rotate up and it sets an active reset point, rotate down and it sends me back to the reset point. I’m in Indycar, on ovals, I set it to 1 o’clock, now it controls my Weight Jacker, and if need be, I can flick it to 2 o’clock and access my rear ARB. Maybe I jump into VR and iRacing has decided to move some of my overlays around again, even though they are custom per car - 5 o’clock, up toggles the virtual mirror, down toggles edit UI so I can drag the overlays around without fumbling for my keyboard with my VR headset on, 6’oclock lets me toggle FPS and Driving controls on (the latter useful in NASCAR). I’ve included a screen grab of my spreadsheet controls layout. But the shift mode on the right toggle lets me access EVERY control I need in VR without a keyboard, and gives me audible notification of the selected rotary position (it doesn’t spam every wav either, as it only pulses once you stop turning, plus AHK cancels the currently playing wav if it triggers another). I’ve had a really great time using this with the Vee, MX5, Radical, IndyCar, GT4, and even NASCAR (yes I know). It feels brilliant, and the controls are super. Because there are so many buttons, especially with the shift mode, every single car has the same config, so I don’t need to rebind keys if I decide to change my layout a little, and I just change the right rotary depending on car, or if I am in Test Drive. The thumb encoders are quite firm, and the edges are not quite sharp, but borderline sharp, but work well. I’d prefer them to be a tad more rounded on the edges, and slightly lighter in action, but I’m splitting hairs. The other thing is the stock layout of the “dual shifters” feels wrong. By default the main paddle shifters are closer to the wheel, and the upper “trigger” shifters are further away. I found that when shifting my fingers would brush off the triggers every shift, not pressing them, but it was annoying. The shifters them selves were too close for me to be comfortable, and I would feel constantly rub the trigger button with my finger tips when going for the shifter. The triggers themselves felt too far back making them harder to press. But the simple fix was swapping the spacer and screws on the triggers with those on the shifters, pushing the paddle shifters further away and bringing the triggers closer. Triggers are much easier to reach, paddle shifters feel more comfy, and because they are further back, no matter where I put my fingers they never brush the trigger. I don’t know why they aren’t like that out of the box. I also found shifting the clutch levers in a notch (there are two mounting positions) made the reach on those much better too. Summary: It’s the best wheel I have used for VR across my time with SC and Fanatec. If I were a triples racer, I’d probably go for the USB version for the telemetry integration, but for VR and wireless convenience the SC version is great. It works surprisingly well in NASCAR too. In fact, it’s a great all rounder, outside of rally. Expensive, but I don’t regret it. Looks great too, even with the lights off. https://preview.redd.it/o1r8fd5mc60d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51fb6d6981842ad129ea71043d622bc5294c1ea2 https://preview.redd.it/gk7ntb5mc60d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbb0af06dd0d44334657e6ef6665e78c9a38b9c7 Upper trigger shifter now closer, Paddle further away My Keybinds |
2024.05.13 12:19 Male_Inkling Ufo, the cotton ball with an attitude! And Leon's mama
 | \"Hooman, it's my turn to sunbath but she doesn't let me\" submitted by Male_Inkling to Houdinithecat [link] [comments] I know i've mentioned Ufo several times already in the sub, but i've never spoken about her in detail. I'll have to spend the rest of the day out and wont be able to catch any of the floofs' shenanigans or post an update, so i may as well write this now that i still have some time. As the title says, Ufo was Leon's mama and probably my first time having to deal with a weird cat. Weird in terms of personality, i mean. But i can't talk about that before dwelving into her past, because before we took her in she wasn't having it easy, and the worst thing about that is that we knew it and couldn't do anything about it. Not yet. Ufo was adopted by my sis and her then SO, she was a cute, yelly furball of love and destruction, and such a beauty that she even won several contests. Since Sis and BiL didn't live together and we couldn't take in more cats (by then we had Lala, Travieso and, temporarily, a german shep named Dama), BiL volunteered to house her in, and everything was basically ok until Ufo left kittyhood. I'll save you the details, but BiL was basically mistreating her behind Sis' back, and she didn't realize until she told our vet about Ufo's demeanors and personality change. We did this behind BiL's back, and we did it because we were moving to a bigger home that same week and were getting ready to take her with us. The day we finally moved in was one of the craziest days in my life: We both helped get everything ready, went to BiL's house, Sis dumped him on the spot and we put Ufo on a carrier and took her to vet for a full check up. The results didn't make us happy. Turns out she was malnourished, showed signs of physical agression and the only thing she had been cared of was her hair (later we discovered he tried to take her to a couple of more beauty contests). She had come to distrust anything related to hair care, as well as just being picked up or even being pet. Then, parents picked us up on the family car - they managed to get Lala on her carrier, i still don't know how - and first thing Sis did was show Ufo to Lala, face to face. There were hisses and growls, and some thrown paws. A rivalry was born lol. As for her life with us, she never healed completely, but Travieso and Lala - we got a forever family for Dama - were a great help in her recovery. Travieso being his cute, peaceful lovely self, and Lala having a constant turf war with her without failing of taking care of her new sister in her own way. And, once she started recovering, Ufo turned out to be an extremely sassy kitty, i don't think i'll ever be able to stress enough how spoiled, territorial and demanding she was, she also became incredibly snuggly as long as you didn't fell into her belly trap, and would spend all her free time - meaning, all the time she didn't spend warring with Lala or forcing Travieso to share his precious sunbathing spots - cuddling and snuggling with Sis. She also had an habit to play with out feet in the middle of the night (so many nights waking up with her fangs buried into my thumb... Ouch!) Hair maintenance was, in a word, hell. We never took it seriously - in the sense that we never chastised her for it - but she would get violent and even destroyed several construction gloves, the hard kind, including a metal mesh pair. We never intended to take her to a contest again - it never crossed our mind - but Persians need constant combing and maintenance, or knots will form all around her body. We ended up taking her to a hairdresser regularly, and she had to be sedated every time. She was also a complete gourmand! In retrospect, this has to be related to the period where she was neglected, but she was ok with everything! One time, she even attacked my bowl of spicy beef ramen (she regretted that one, though) When Leon entered our lives, she didn't adopt him, but didn't ignore him either, she treated Leon more like a play time companion than a baby kitty, and the grumpy dragon picked up some of her behaviors pretty early. I'd like to say that they had a more involved relationship, but they really didn't, still, Leon learned a lot from her, and some times i can't help but to see Ufo in him. Ufo crossed the Rainbow Bridge after an agressive breast cancer. I still don't know if this first loss contributed to Leon's eventual reclusion, but i can tell you all that he clearly missed his sassy, grumpy mama, to the point of having to wash and give him her towel and toys. And, let me tell you, it hurt, it happened relatively close to Lala's passing and, like the fearless siamese, she was too young. Despite not being our fault, Ufo is one of my personal regrets: Could she have been saved if she were spayed earlier? Could we have taken her in before after all? It always hurt that she never fully healed, but i know she loved everyone, and got the life she deserved in the end. And that's her story. Compared to Lala or Travieso, Ufo's involvement with the current floof family is almost tangential, but she left a mark on all of us, she was a really fun and peculiar kitty and everyone noticed her absence almost inmediately, but it also gave us a permanent reminer of how cruel humans can really be. In fact, now that i think about it, she's probably the main reason why Houdi is with us now, because we reflexively jumped at her then future adopter's boyfriend's words. We weren't going to allow something like that happen in our household ever again. PS: I'm sorry for the rather sad update, i had another tone in mind to tell her story - she REALLY was a fun and peculiar kitty - but the moment i started writing all the bad feelings and memories started to flow again. But there's one thing i can say for sure: Had she lived exactly at the same time at Lala (Lala was already an old lady when we adopted Ufo) they both together would have been the feline equivalent of a natural disaster. Lala managed to put a small village under her paw, i can't even begin to imagine how far would she have gone with this sassy furball by her side. |
2024.05.13 10:34 buckshot371 moar scriipt
food in anime is... weird
whenever it's on screen, a tremendous amount of focus in animation and detail is put into making it look as delicious and savory as possible, and in general if your anime doesn't make food look tasty enough to plaster on a restaurant menu, then the people will be disappointed and call it low effort. this obsession in the anime industry actually originates from this show named Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na... erm... this one, which had such terrible looking cabbages they were ridiculed for it and ever since anime as an industry has vowed to never make food look that stupid ever again
and yet funnily enough, despite this seeming obsession with food, it is very rarely used to convey meaning in stories that aren't expressly about cooking. The closest many shows get to having meaning in their food is to use the always hungry anime character trope, where one such character, usually the protagonist, and especially if it's the protagonist of a Shonen battle series, will have a bottomless pit of a stomach and appetite, and loves eating to an almost obsessive degree.
I often view this as a representation of ambition. These characters dream big and always being hungry for more. Never being satisfied enough to not eat more is a great, if basic, representation of their personality. From my understanding in anime history, this particular trope was popularized by goku, and was as a result, present in many other series that started soon after dragonball exploded. 2 of the biggest and most famous examples of characters inheriting this trait are luffy from one piece and naruto from... wait i forgot the name of the show
Using these 2 examples, I think that one show naruto is from is a fair bit worse at incorporating meaning into its food than one piece, and I wanna talk about what the difference is.
in "that show", food is almost never really used to convey anything thematically or inform a character's personality. it feels like naruto only likes to eat a lot because he's the protagonist and that's what's expected of him. Why is choji pudgy? is it anything about his character? no, it's just because he eats choppers rumble balls as a super power and so the auther went "he swallows pills to get strong so he swallow everything else too."
one piece by contrast I feel does a lot more than either dragonball or naruto with food. luffy's cannonical ability to eat as much as he does is explained by his stomach being made of rubber and capable of expanding as he eats, and food directly works it's way into the power system for him, as many of luffy's gear techniques require huge amounts of energy and body fuel and leave him incredibly fatigued. on whole cake island he looks like this after just a single day of intensive combat with no snacking. And this is taking place on aan entire island made of cake and deserts you can eat, a place where it litterally rains syrup instead of water. This is an act of protest to sanji, as sanji is attempting to leave the crew and luffy told him to his face that he would starve to death on purpose unless his next meal was made by sanji. it's an important plot point and character moment for the 2 of them. sanji is a cook and a major part of his backstory involves him being stranded on the ocean with no food and starving for months, only being rescued within an inch of his life. This experience greatly informs his character, being willing to serve anybody who is hungry, even if its his enemy and it would be in his best intrests not to, like when he served don krieg and his pirates knowing full well as soon as they finished eating they would have the body stregnth to follow their plan and slaughter everybody at baratie and steal the ship, which is the major conflict of that arc. he puts several lives in danger, and condemned some to death because to him feeding somebody who is experiencing starvation is more important.
I jokingly called chojis pills the chopper rumble balls, but they really similar, even including massive side effects after eating 3 of them. however the meaning they have to the characters are quite different. choji just happened to be born in a family that uses them, and knows eating the third one means death (even though it really doesnt) and thats his only personal connection to the pill. by contrast, chopper invented his rumble balls himself using his medicinal knowledge as a doctor, and only discovered the third one is dangerous by accidentally eating 3, causing him to lose concious control of his body and turning him into a monster that attacks indescriminately. he's fearful of the third ball not because he'll die, but because he's afraid of what he'll become and afraid he'll hurt innocent bystanders, which is counter to his entire role and character as a doctor
this is not to shit on "whats that shows name", but to say that Food is clearly an important thing to oda, the author of one piece, as it plays a vital role in multiple staw hats personalities, and informs the decisions and situations the characters find themselves participating in, in a show that on the surface has nothing to do with food. it is a testimate to how you can use food to convey meaning and character in your world
but while food is meaningful and important in one piece, it's downright SACRED to golden kamuy. whereas one piece has food a comonplace staple and uses it to convey meaning once ever 20 episodes or so, or ocasionally throughout an entire food based arc like baratie or whole cake island, golden kamuy uses food to convey themes, messaging, character backstories and decisions, power dynamics, violence, connecting characters, foreshadowing major plot points, detecting lies, and more, and it does this on an episodic basis. there are SCARCELY few episodes of golden kamuy with no food or mentions and discussions of food. it is the very lifeblood of the show. it is such a big facet of the show that golden kamuy is often jokingly referred to by its community as a cooking show, and it puts more meaning and care into the food it's characters eat than many actual cooking anime.
food is the most universal languages in the entire world, and a fact of life is that everbody needs to eat. we may not see eye to eye, we may not eat the same thing, but we all eat. what we eat and why can tell us a lot about people, about our cultures and beliefs. islamic and jewish people don't eat pork, and hindu don't eat beef due to their religious beliefs. vegans care for animals and don't feel that they can personally participate in the consumption of living things. vegans that also try to make their dog or cats vegan are animal abusers who just do it to feel superior to others. what you eat can say a lot about where you're from. american cuisine looks far different than russian or scottish cuisine, which looks far different than african cuisine. ox penis is something ocasinally eaten in china, and pufferfish in japan. whale skin and blubber were eaten by the various inuit people, along with most every other part of the whale, due to availability. the land we live on can dictate what we eat in a very real way. most places with strong cultural beliefs against eating certain foods have a lot more variety in edible resources than other places. many hindu people refuse to eat beef or are straight vegetarians, and they mostly live in places where other types of food are easy to come by. by contrast, you would be hard pressed to find a vegetarian inuit, simply because that's not sustainable where they live, and their beliefs reflect that. cultures that historically had less food available to them are strongly abhorrent to letting any part of their food go to waste, and many indigenous people historically see using as much as humanly possible from the animals you hunt as a necessary part of honoring and thanking that animal, and not letting anything go to waste.
food is the most universal language, and it might just be the most meaningful one as well. offering someone food as a form of thanks is a lot more meaningful than just saying thanks for example. it's a way we connect to people, and is why most first dates are at restaurants. it's even a language that can transcend species. we train animals by offering food as rewards, and pets are often most attached to the person who feeds them. food is one of the most important aspects of who we are as people, and nobody writing fiction seems to understand this more satoru noda, the creator of golden kamuy... him and ryoko kui, the creator of dungeon meshi, but as much as I love that manga thats not what today's video is about.
I'll be focusing on the anime in this video, so meals that only happen in the manga or that happen after the current point the anime is at will not be talked about here. Truth be told, I don't really know where this script is going as I'm writing it, I just want to talk about many of the various ways that golden kamuy uses food, because I think it's something a lot of shows can learn from.
food is first brought up or used in golden kamuy as early as... oh would you look at that the very first line in the entire show! golden kamuy starts off in a flashack during the russo-japanese war on 208 meter hill. the very first interaction with any character in the series is sugimoto in the trenches eating an ant off his finger and commenting it tastes sour. he then comments that he would eat the russians he kills if thats what it took to survive. this establishes in only a few seconds that the living conditions in the trench are terrible, people are hungry, and that sugimoto is a survivalist, but didn't consider desertion, instead of you know... canibalism. this is all before the charge up the hill, before we learn he's a monster in close quarters and is nicknamed sugimoto the immortal. that's a LOT of information given in just a couple lines using an ant. we know sugimoto proably wasn't seroius about eating people, but are almost given the impression throughout the scene that if push came to shove he would do it. sugimoto is a person who does whatever it takes to survive. this is one of his most central character traits and is conveyed using food in a matter of seconds within the start of the show.
soon ashirpa is introduced, a young ainu hunter and joins sugimoto as they begin a quest to... uh... skin people for the purposes of making a treasure map... look golen kamuy is a weird show okay?
ashirpa and sugimoto are the 2 primary leads of the show, and neither of them are particularly familar with the cultures of the other, but they grow closer and bond over the course of the show and learn about each others lives and backgrounds. this is shown throughout the show by the meals they eat. when they kill a bear that was hunting them in episode 1, ashirpa comments that although the ainu to hunt and eat bears, she can't eat the bear they killed, as eating a wenkamuy: a bear that's eaten people before, is against her people's beliefs. so it's not until episode 2 that the pair share the first meals on their journey. they make chitatap, an ainu dish of raw meat that is meant to be made only using fresh kills, and ashirpa offers sugimoto the brains of the squirrel they hunted raw on a spoon as a snack for him to try. sugimoto is naturally at first repullsed by the idea, but after being preassured by ashirpa and not wanting to offend her he eats it, and reluctantly admits it's good. It's not clear in this scene whether he actually thinks it's good or if he's placating ashirpa, but it's definetely clear he still finds at least the concept of eating a brain gross. he also eats the chitatap and likes it, but believes it would taste even better by adding miso to it, and this time it's ashirpa who looks upon in disgust as she see's an unfamiliar japanese paste she insist's must be poop is willingly added to his portion of the meal. she even refuses to try it upon being presented with some, denying the same courtosey that sugimoto showed by eating brains just earlier. this is changed by their meal in meal a few episodes later when she tries miso at the insistence of both sugimoto and their new traveling companion shiraishi, and much like sugimoto admits it's good, even if it still visualy repulses her. from this point on, the characters share and mix both of their cultures into the food they eat and slowly become more used, accepting, and eventually enjoying each others cuisine, something shown with some hilarious screenshots. this mirrors of course their growing trust in each other. we don't need to be told that these 3 characters are closer when we can see it visually by sugimoto passionately sucking on a giant eyeball, or drunkenly babybirding shiraishi chewed dumpling, or ashirpa developing an obsessoin with miso and also wanting to try dried persimons because sutimotos favorite food and... fuck im getting emotional thinking about that scene again. I talked about it more extensively in my anti-war video on golden kamuy, so go watch that. but its so clear and disturbingly beautiful how much these characters have grown to care for each other by viewing their eating habits.
chitatap, the first meal they properly shared, becomes used repetedly throughout the show as a way to meet new people and intermingle characters, because it'a a dish meant to be prepared by everyone eating it together by taking turns chopping the meat, and we get to learn about every character by how they interact with the process of making chitatap, such as hijikata being cool with using his historial treasure of a katana, one of the few relics of his samurai days, to chop up raw meat because because a little kid thougt it would be cool and fun, or how ogata thinks he's too cool for school to chant chitatap while he cuts like everyone else, but the second time they make the meal he says it once just loud enough for ashirpa to hear.
meals have also been used to foreshadow events in golden kamuy, like when kioranke's betrayal is foreshadowed in this meal immitating the final supper. kioranke is in the seat and position judas in, and yes those are human corpses that have been turned into mannequins at the dinnertable, why do you ask?
on the topic of kiorankes betralal, after sugimoto is shot in the head and believed by ashirpa and half the characters to be dead, the fun joyous meals stop temporarily in the show. ashirpa is still eating and still enjoying hunting and trying new food, she's still ashirpa, but for the first couple of meals, the animals the capture reportedly don't taste good, such as this seal thing and musk deer. the only meal we were told as good was a snack made by someone else and eaten off screen. it's only after kioranke tells ashirpa that musk deer was her father's first kill and she finds a new purpose in the journey to learn more about her father and the karafuto indiginous that she begins to eat good food again.
food can be a tool in storytelling to display dynamics between characters. this is often in shown as a differentiating factor between the wealthy and poor, such as in the hunger games, but that's not the only dynamic that can be shown through this. to use lt tsurumi as an example, his second major scene where we learn about him as a character is a conversation with sugimoto after sugimoto has been captured by the 7th division. during this scene, sugimoto is handcuffed and sitting straight in his chair with 2 armed gurads while tsurumi casually questions him while eating dango on a stick, offering nothing for the captive to eat, representing a power dynamic showing which of them is in charge. tsurumi eats the dango throughout the scene, and the way he eats it is somehow offputting, and animated in such a way where you know there is something about him that just isn't right. I never thought eating dango could be intimidating, but here we are. I am terrified of this man. sugimoto does actually get to interact with the dango in this scene too, so we can contrasst it with how tsurumi did it to learn something... how did sugimoto get to interact with the dango again?
oh right, he gets STABBED THROUGH BOTH CHEECKS BY THE DANGO STICK by tsurumi as soon as he declines he gets caught in a lie. it's clear at this moment that the niceties and fun in games are over. tsurumi caught sugimoto in a lie about his identity, and the gloves are off.
food can also be used to show a sickness of the mind. ogata, who could be the topic of a whole nother video, has a hatred of monkfish stew. this is one of the only emotinal connections he has been shown to have food, and was born from his parents. ogata is the son of a high ranking military official and a geisha. ashamed of the mothers side of the family, the father forced them to leave and never make contact again while ogata was still a young child. over time, his mother lost her mind and began to only make monkfish stew to eat. it was his fathers favorite meal, and in her sickened mind she convinced herself that if she made it than one day the father would come back. she made it day after day after day. ogata picked up shooting and would kill ducks and birds to bring to his mother so he could eat something else and she would still only make monkfish stew. one day he put rat poison in the stew and killed his mother. ogata isn't right in the head either, he's a psychopath. he didn't kill his mother out of hatred of her food, but out of simple curiorsity to see if his father would care to show up at the funeral. he didn't.
monkfish stew here is used in golden kamuy as a representation of stagnation of the mind. denial that things will never go back to the way they were for the mother. it represents an insanity, doing the same thing over and over without change in hopes for a different outcome.
submitted by buckshot371 to u/buckshot371 [link] [comments]
whenever it's on screen, a tremendous amount of focus in animation and detail is put into making it look as delicious and savory as possible, and in general if your anime doesn't make food look tasty enough to plaster on a restaurant menu, then the people will be disappointed and call it low effort. this obsession in the anime industry actually originates from this show named Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na... erm... this one, which had such terrible looking cabbages they were ridiculed for it and ever since anime as an industry has vowed to never make food look that stupid ever again
and yet funnily enough, despite this seeming obsession with food, it is very rarely used to convey meaning in stories that aren't expressly about cooking. The closest many shows get to having meaning in their food is to use the always hungry anime character trope, where one such character, usually the protagonist, and especially if it's the protagonist of a Shonen battle series, will have a bottomless pit of a stomach and appetite, and loves eating to an almost obsessive degree.
I often view this as a representation of ambition. These characters dream big and always being hungry for more. Never being satisfied enough to not eat more is a great, if basic, representation of their personality. From my understanding in anime history, this particular trope was popularized by goku, and was as a result, present in many other series that started soon after dragonball exploded. 2 of the biggest and most famous examples of characters inheriting this trait are luffy from one piece and naruto from... wait i forgot the name of the show
Using these 2 examples, I think that one show naruto is from is a fair bit worse at incorporating meaning into its food than one piece, and I wanna talk about what the difference is.
in "that show", food is almost never really used to convey anything thematically or inform a character's personality. it feels like naruto only likes to eat a lot because he's the protagonist and that's what's expected of him. Why is choji pudgy? is it anything about his character? no, it's just because he eats choppers rumble balls as a super power and so the auther went "he swallows pills to get strong so he swallow everything else too."
one piece by contrast I feel does a lot more than either dragonball or naruto with food. luffy's cannonical ability to eat as much as he does is explained by his stomach being made of rubber and capable of expanding as he eats, and food directly works it's way into the power system for him, as many of luffy's gear techniques require huge amounts of energy and body fuel and leave him incredibly fatigued. on whole cake island he looks like this after just a single day of intensive combat with no snacking. And this is taking place on aan entire island made of cake and deserts you can eat, a place where it litterally rains syrup instead of water. This is an act of protest to sanji, as sanji is attempting to leave the crew and luffy told him to his face that he would starve to death on purpose unless his next meal was made by sanji. it's an important plot point and character moment for the 2 of them. sanji is a cook and a major part of his backstory involves him being stranded on the ocean with no food and starving for months, only being rescued within an inch of his life. This experience greatly informs his character, being willing to serve anybody who is hungry, even if its his enemy and it would be in his best intrests not to, like when he served don krieg and his pirates knowing full well as soon as they finished eating they would have the body stregnth to follow their plan and slaughter everybody at baratie and steal the ship, which is the major conflict of that arc. he puts several lives in danger, and condemned some to death because to him feeding somebody who is experiencing starvation is more important.
I jokingly called chojis pills the chopper rumble balls, but they really similar, even including massive side effects after eating 3 of them. however the meaning they have to the characters are quite different. choji just happened to be born in a family that uses them, and knows eating the third one means death (even though it really doesnt) and thats his only personal connection to the pill. by contrast, chopper invented his rumble balls himself using his medicinal knowledge as a doctor, and only discovered the third one is dangerous by accidentally eating 3, causing him to lose concious control of his body and turning him into a monster that attacks indescriminately. he's fearful of the third ball not because he'll die, but because he's afraid of what he'll become and afraid he'll hurt innocent bystanders, which is counter to his entire role and character as a doctor
this is not to shit on "whats that shows name", but to say that Food is clearly an important thing to oda, the author of one piece, as it plays a vital role in multiple staw hats personalities, and informs the decisions and situations the characters find themselves participating in, in a show that on the surface has nothing to do with food. it is a testimate to how you can use food to convey meaning and character in your world
but while food is meaningful and important in one piece, it's downright SACRED to golden kamuy. whereas one piece has food a comonplace staple and uses it to convey meaning once ever 20 episodes or so, or ocasionally throughout an entire food based arc like baratie or whole cake island, golden kamuy uses food to convey themes, messaging, character backstories and decisions, power dynamics, violence, connecting characters, foreshadowing major plot points, detecting lies, and more, and it does this on an episodic basis. there are SCARCELY few episodes of golden kamuy with no food or mentions and discussions of food. it is the very lifeblood of the show. it is such a big facet of the show that golden kamuy is often jokingly referred to by its community as a cooking show, and it puts more meaning and care into the food it's characters eat than many actual cooking anime.
food is the most universal languages in the entire world, and a fact of life is that everbody needs to eat. we may not see eye to eye, we may not eat the same thing, but we all eat. what we eat and why can tell us a lot about people, about our cultures and beliefs. islamic and jewish people don't eat pork, and hindu don't eat beef due to their religious beliefs. vegans care for animals and don't feel that they can personally participate in the consumption of living things. vegans that also try to make their dog or cats vegan are animal abusers who just do it to feel superior to others. what you eat can say a lot about where you're from. american cuisine looks far different than russian or scottish cuisine, which looks far different than african cuisine. ox penis is something ocasinally eaten in china, and pufferfish in japan. whale skin and blubber were eaten by the various inuit people, along with most every other part of the whale, due to availability. the land we live on can dictate what we eat in a very real way. most places with strong cultural beliefs against eating certain foods have a lot more variety in edible resources than other places. many hindu people refuse to eat beef or are straight vegetarians, and they mostly live in places where other types of food are easy to come by. by contrast, you would be hard pressed to find a vegetarian inuit, simply because that's not sustainable where they live, and their beliefs reflect that. cultures that historically had less food available to them are strongly abhorrent to letting any part of their food go to waste, and many indigenous people historically see using as much as humanly possible from the animals you hunt as a necessary part of honoring and thanking that animal, and not letting anything go to waste.
food is the most universal language, and it might just be the most meaningful one as well. offering someone food as a form of thanks is a lot more meaningful than just saying thanks for example. it's a way we connect to people, and is why most first dates are at restaurants. it's even a language that can transcend species. we train animals by offering food as rewards, and pets are often most attached to the person who feeds them. food is one of the most important aspects of who we are as people, and nobody writing fiction seems to understand this more satoru noda, the creator of golden kamuy... him and ryoko kui, the creator of dungeon meshi, but as much as I love that manga thats not what today's video is about.
I'll be focusing on the anime in this video, so meals that only happen in the manga or that happen after the current point the anime is at will not be talked about here. Truth be told, I don't really know where this script is going as I'm writing it, I just want to talk about many of the various ways that golden kamuy uses food, because I think it's something a lot of shows can learn from.
food is first brought up or used in golden kamuy as early as... oh would you look at that the very first line in the entire show! golden kamuy starts off in a flashack during the russo-japanese war on 208 meter hill. the very first interaction with any character in the series is sugimoto in the trenches eating an ant off his finger and commenting it tastes sour. he then comments that he would eat the russians he kills if thats what it took to survive. this establishes in only a few seconds that the living conditions in the trench are terrible, people are hungry, and that sugimoto is a survivalist, but didn't consider desertion, instead of you know... canibalism. this is all before the charge up the hill, before we learn he's a monster in close quarters and is nicknamed sugimoto the immortal. that's a LOT of information given in just a couple lines using an ant. we know sugimoto proably wasn't seroius about eating people, but are almost given the impression throughout the scene that if push came to shove he would do it. sugimoto is a person who does whatever it takes to survive. this is one of his most central character traits and is conveyed using food in a matter of seconds within the start of the show.
soon ashirpa is introduced, a young ainu hunter and joins sugimoto as they begin a quest to... uh... skin people for the purposes of making a treasure map... look golen kamuy is a weird show okay?
ashirpa and sugimoto are the 2 primary leads of the show, and neither of them are particularly familar with the cultures of the other, but they grow closer and bond over the course of the show and learn about each others lives and backgrounds. this is shown throughout the show by the meals they eat. when they kill a bear that was hunting them in episode 1, ashirpa comments that although the ainu to hunt and eat bears, she can't eat the bear they killed, as eating a wenkamuy: a bear that's eaten people before, is against her people's beliefs. so it's not until episode 2 that the pair share the first meals on their journey. they make chitatap, an ainu dish of raw meat that is meant to be made only using fresh kills, and ashirpa offers sugimoto the brains of the squirrel they hunted raw on a spoon as a snack for him to try. sugimoto is naturally at first repullsed by the idea, but after being preassured by ashirpa and not wanting to offend her he eats it, and reluctantly admits it's good. It's not clear in this scene whether he actually thinks it's good or if he's placating ashirpa, but it's definetely clear he still finds at least the concept of eating a brain gross. he also eats the chitatap and likes it, but believes it would taste even better by adding miso to it, and this time it's ashirpa who looks upon in disgust as she see's an unfamiliar japanese paste she insist's must be poop is willingly added to his portion of the meal. she even refuses to try it upon being presented with some, denying the same courtosey that sugimoto showed by eating brains just earlier. this is changed by their meal in meal a few episodes later when she tries miso at the insistence of both sugimoto and their new traveling companion shiraishi, and much like sugimoto admits it's good, even if it still visualy repulses her. from this point on, the characters share and mix both of their cultures into the food they eat and slowly become more used, accepting, and eventually enjoying each others cuisine, something shown with some hilarious screenshots. this mirrors of course their growing trust in each other. we don't need to be told that these 3 characters are closer when we can see it visually by sugimoto passionately sucking on a giant eyeball, or drunkenly babybirding shiraishi chewed dumpling, or ashirpa developing an obsessoin with miso and also wanting to try dried persimons because sutimotos favorite food and... fuck im getting emotional thinking about that scene again. I talked about it more extensively in my anti-war video on golden kamuy, so go watch that. but its so clear and disturbingly beautiful how much these characters have grown to care for each other by viewing their eating habits.
chitatap, the first meal they properly shared, becomes used repetedly throughout the show as a way to meet new people and intermingle characters, because it'a a dish meant to be prepared by everyone eating it together by taking turns chopping the meat, and we get to learn about every character by how they interact with the process of making chitatap, such as hijikata being cool with using his historial treasure of a katana, one of the few relics of his samurai days, to chop up raw meat because because a little kid thougt it would be cool and fun, or how ogata thinks he's too cool for school to chant chitatap while he cuts like everyone else, but the second time they make the meal he says it once just loud enough for ashirpa to hear.
meals have also been used to foreshadow events in golden kamuy, like when kioranke's betrayal is foreshadowed in this meal immitating the final supper. kioranke is in the seat and position judas in, and yes those are human corpses that have been turned into mannequins at the dinnertable, why do you ask?
on the topic of kiorankes betralal, after sugimoto is shot in the head and believed by ashirpa and half the characters to be dead, the fun joyous meals stop temporarily in the show. ashirpa is still eating and still enjoying hunting and trying new food, she's still ashirpa, but for the first couple of meals, the animals the capture reportedly don't taste good, such as this seal thing and musk deer. the only meal we were told as good was a snack made by someone else and eaten off screen. it's only after kioranke tells ashirpa that musk deer was her father's first kill and she finds a new purpose in the journey to learn more about her father and the karafuto indiginous that she begins to eat good food again.
food can be a tool in storytelling to display dynamics between characters. this is often in shown as a differentiating factor between the wealthy and poor, such as in the hunger games, but that's not the only dynamic that can be shown through this. to use lt tsurumi as an example, his second major scene where we learn about him as a character is a conversation with sugimoto after sugimoto has been captured by the 7th division. during this scene, sugimoto is handcuffed and sitting straight in his chair with 2 armed gurads while tsurumi casually questions him while eating dango on a stick, offering nothing for the captive to eat, representing a power dynamic showing which of them is in charge. tsurumi eats the dango throughout the scene, and the way he eats it is somehow offputting, and animated in such a way where you know there is something about him that just isn't right. I never thought eating dango could be intimidating, but here we are. I am terrified of this man. sugimoto does actually get to interact with the dango in this scene too, so we can contrasst it with how tsurumi did it to learn something... how did sugimoto get to interact with the dango again?
oh right, he gets STABBED THROUGH BOTH CHEECKS BY THE DANGO STICK by tsurumi as soon as he declines he gets caught in a lie. it's clear at this moment that the niceties and fun in games are over. tsurumi caught sugimoto in a lie about his identity, and the gloves are off.
food can also be used to show a sickness of the mind. ogata, who could be the topic of a whole nother video, has a hatred of monkfish stew. this is one of the only emotinal connections he has been shown to have food, and was born from his parents. ogata is the son of a high ranking military official and a geisha. ashamed of the mothers side of the family, the father forced them to leave and never make contact again while ogata was still a young child. over time, his mother lost her mind and began to only make monkfish stew to eat. it was his fathers favorite meal, and in her sickened mind she convinced herself that if she made it than one day the father would come back. she made it day after day after day. ogata picked up shooting and would kill ducks and birds to bring to his mother so he could eat something else and she would still only make monkfish stew. one day he put rat poison in the stew and killed his mother. ogata isn't right in the head either, he's a psychopath. he didn't kill his mother out of hatred of her food, but out of simple curiorsity to see if his father would care to show up at the funeral. he didn't.
monkfish stew here is used in golden kamuy as a representation of stagnation of the mind. denial that things will never go back to the way they were for the mother. it represents an insanity, doing the same thing over and over without change in hopes for a different outcome.