This is a long post. I'm sorry, I just don't really know who to talk to about this.
My husband and I got married 9 years ago when we were fairly young (24 years old) and had no money and no place to live. My parents are poor and we knew that any wedding we had would have to be really simple and inexpensive.
I've always wanted a big wedding with all my family and friends there, I wanted to wear a black tulle ball gown, I wanted a sit down dinner with everyone and lots of music and dancing. I made so many concessions for our wedding because of budget and time.
We had planned to get married in July on a day that is really important to us, but nothing was working out. So we ended up changing our date to May of the same year because it seemed like the only way things were going to work out which meant that a bunch of people who'd RSVP'd were unable to come. Most of my husband's family wasn't able to be there which was a huge bummer, and some of my out of town family wasn't able to get time off work or change travel plans.
At the time we were engaged I was sleeping on the floor of my mom's room in a two bedroom apartment that we shared with my two brothers and my dad. There was not enough space for all of us, and I wasn't making enough money to move out on my own. My husband and I both come from very religious families so moving in together before marriage was out of the question. We knew we'd get married eventually so we figured why not now. That way I could get out of the cramped apartment. (Plus there was a lot of stress with my dad, and I was on my way out of my religion which was causing more contention at home). Which is why we moved the date up rather than back.
My mom and my aunts basically DIY'd our whole reception which was AMAZING. We had a short and sweet ceremony on the beach near where we live, and had a short open-house type reception at a community center near by. There was no dinner, no dancing, and it was only a couple of hours long.
I need to preface the rest of this by saying I'm suuuper grateful for the wedding we had! Our families put so much work and effort to make sure we had a nice celebration that was affordable. We had a really fun time celebrating and taking photos during and after the event. I have really fond memories of the day and I love looking through our pictures of the day and remembering how exciting and fun it was.
Now I need to explain where I'm coming from.
Even though the community center worked great for the type of reception we did, it just didn't look that nice and I was pretty bummed out that that's all we could afford.
The food consisted of appetizers and cake. We never ate any food because we were running around saying hi to everyone and thanking them for driving the 1.5 hours to the coast to celebrate with us. The only cake I ate was the tiny slice we cut and then was shoved in my face. We had bought 3 cakes for everyone to eat and the smallest one which was 8" was sent home with us because everyone thought we wanted it for our 1st anniversary. It was a spice cake which cream cheese frosting that we ordered because some of our family really loves spice cake. So it never got communicated that we didnt want to take the whole cake home, but that we wanted our guests to eat it.
The dress was an issue. Like I mentioned before, I really wanted a black tulle ballgown. Everyone one in my family hated the idea and said I would regret wearing black when I saw my wedding photos. (And the photos were the only thing we splurged on so I didn't want to regret those). They also said a ball gown wouldn't make sense for the beach so I should go with something else. My mom and dad wanted me to be modest so I tried to find a dress with short sleeves that would be comfortable to wear in 80° weather on the beach. I was really loving the off the shoulder and sleeveless dresses and at the time they had more details I was looking for. I hated white, and I wanted to go for ivory instead as a compromise but I was told that a bride shouldn't wear anything other than pure white. So I felt super stuck, and ended up feeling super confused and frustrated. I bought a $200 dress online that was pure white, but had tulle cap sleeves. Which was also a house disappointment because I had always wanted to go try on dresses with my mom and grandma and best friend. But because of the timing of the wedding, it wasn't possible and there was nothing we could afford in stores. The dress I bought ended up being too big in the bust and too tight in the hips so we took it for alterations. Seamstress was able to alter the bust so it fit properly, but the hips didn't have enough seam allowance to be taken out at all. So on the day of the wedding I couldn't even sit or go to the bathroom. I will say the dress did look really beautiful and I love my pictures, but everytime I think about it I'm just frustrated that I allowed so much control over what I wore. I wasn't comfortable in the dress or how I looked because I hate wearing whitr and the previously mentioned sitting/bathroom issues.
I had originally wanted my makeup done professionally by a woman I worked weddings with, but when we had to move our date up she had another wedding already booked. So instead I did some lessons with her and did my own makeup the day of.
My family knew about all of the concessions we were making for the wedding and everyone said that in the future we should do a re-do and throw the wedding we wanted originally.
So we planned to do this for our 10 year anniversary which will be next year.
Now, we're in the midst of planning. We've seen so many venues, I've gotten so many quotes for services, and everything is so expensive that my husband is scared off of doing the big wedding I wanted. We've had to cut our guest list, and we're back on track to DIYing a bunch of stuff. The other day we were talking and I felt the way I did when we were getting married originally. Like I'm making all of these concessions for other people and because of money. We've saved money for a while and if we threw the wedding we want, we'd blow through our savings. I'm just feeling frustrated and I don't want to wait another 5 or 10 years to do this. Prices will still be going up and I'm thinking we'll just never be in a place to afford the wedding I had envisioned.
I really wanted this re-do to be a celebration of our relationship as well as a thank you to our friends and family for the support and all the work they did for our wedding. I don't want to ask them for help because I just want them to enjoy the event and not stress. But I'm also feeling conflicted because I want to enjoy the event with my husband rather than running around to make sure things run smoothly. We can't afford a wedding coordinator, DJ, or catering staff, we'll be doing a lot of the work ourselves.
It's looking like we're back to engaged and cutting our guest list as well as DIYing decor and probably running the whole event.
My husband doesn't want to spend $10,000 on the event anymore which is what we had discussed and agreed on. But he also hasn't come up with a new budget and everytime I suggest a number he says no, or says nothing. So I feel stuck. I don't even know where to start looking for a venue. I don't think this is going to happen anymore and I'm feeling really upset. I feel stupid that I care so much about this dumb party, and I feel like an ungrateful brat even though my family hasn't said anything about it and they support the re-do.
I guess I'm just looking for comfort, or perspective. Do I need to reevaluate my feelings on this? Should I just let it go and put the money toward something else like investing or something? I have no idea..

Recent homeowner here! Dealing with my first tree removal situation, I have a cherry tree that is basically dead and starting to split at the base, it's quite big and directly in between me and my neighbor, there is no direct access from the road where equipment could make it thTree. as the access inbetween the fence and my house is maybe 5 feet wide.
I got two quotes:
2.0k from a company that didn't seem to even care about how he was going to access the tree.
3.5k from a company that wants to bring a crane to access from the road
Both companies quoted an additional 1k for clearing about 4-5 branches from another 2/3 trees around my house. I am also able to get a small break if I can coordinate with my other neighbor who also needs a cherry tree to come down, it's smaller but both companies offered about 400-500$ off for each of us if we picked the same day.
I will try to get some more quotes but I doubt I will be able to get the tree down and the branches cut for less than 3k, and that sadly is a cost we didn't budget for.
Now the real question! Could this tree's wood be worth money being a cherry tree? It's dieing but there seems to be only a bit of damage at the base. Its basically two big straight trunks and almost no branches, but i dont know if cutting it one way or another will affect value. I am attaching pictures for size and condition so some expert can give me some pointers. I am in the midwest.. Here are pictures of the tree
Also do the quotes seem reasonable?

Creating a compelling portfolio to showcase your administrative skills can significantly enhance your chances of landing a job or client. Here’s how you can effectively display various administrative competencies with these suggestions:

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Skill: Schedule and manage appointments. Portfolio Display: Display a sample calendar featuring well-coordinated tasks and meetings, demonstrating your ability to maintain a structured and efficient schedule.

3. Meeting Coordination (Paralegal VA)

Skill: Set up and coordinate logistics for meetings. Portfolio Display: Present a timeline or checklist used to organize a complex meeting, showcasing your attention to detail and organizational skills.

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Skill: Plan and book travel itineraries. Portfolio Display: Show a detailed itinerary for a multi-city business trip, emphasizing your ability to handle intricate travel plans and ensure smooth travel experiences.

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Skill: Organize digital and physical files efficiently. Portfolio Display: Provide before and after screenshots of a digital filing system, illustrating your capability to streamline and organize extensive documentation.

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Skill: Draft and format key documents. Portfolio Display: Include redacted samples of legal documents or briefs prepared, showcasing your proficiency in document preparation and attention to legal standards.

8. Expense Tracking (Startup VA)

Skill: Manage and report expenses. Portfolio Display: Showcase a visual expense report or graph, demonstrating your ability to track and analyze financial data effectively.

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Skill: Conduct detailed internet research. Portfolio Display: Summarize a research report or case study created, illustrating your thorough research capabilities and attention to detail.

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By presenting your skills through tangible examples and visual aids, you can effectively convey your competencies to potential employers or clients. Regularly updating your portfolio with new projects and feedback will keep it current and reflective of your evolving expertise.

Greetings to the people here on r games water comma and thank you for the honor and privilege to share my post with you all.
Wish List ( trade me) 1.SMT5 for the Nintendo Switch -Other Switch Games -Other PS3 GaMes
Games List ( for trade) 1. Yakuza Like A Dragon -PS4 2. ALEX KIDD ( NINTENDO SWITCH)- UNOPENED 3. Kingdom Hearts HD point 5 remix collection for the PS3 ( with the greatest hits label)
Consoles List ( for trade): 1. Nintendo DS - PRE-OWNED AND NEEDING REPAIRS 2. XBOX 360 - PRE-OWNED ( purchased in 2018) . IN NEED OF REPAIR ( WILL SHARE PICTURES)
All will be shipping from California via mutually agreed shipping company . We will coordinate shipping via dm and go forward according to the rules.
Images are available for everything with some on my profile and all available upon request .
I am seeking specifically SMTV, but I am interested in trading for Switch and PS3/PS4 Games .
I also have a buy page on GameSale. Feel free to reply if interested and I'll link it here.

I know that there are a couple of other maps with coordinates out there, however they're pretty outdated, and their gridlines weren't as accurate as I attempted to make mine. (Also I just didn't like how un-tidy they were, I'm a neat-freak.) I'd like to share it with everyone.
https://preview.redd.it/6mdctxooj80d1.png?width=2311&format=png&auto=webp&s=dd2122f35e1e52b7578e2d276f13a3237bb4ab9b
The gridlines are a tad wonky if you look too closely, because the map's built in grid is a little oddly positioned, but I'm eventually going to work on fixing it if gives me problems. I've done quite a bit of testing, and all of the intersecting grid-points should be accurate within a few in-game meters or so, give or take.
Not yet fully updated, though I'll hopefully get to that within the week once I've fully discovered all of the new 1.0 zone, Ruins of Mortium.

SMALLER VERSION

(For those who might have problems running such a large picture in their browser tab)

https://preview.redd.it/igdxjbprk80d1.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=aae17c26b382ee77ec124eb4b2b9ea0a7ed7d305

For example , I heard to do your graph in pencil first then outline again in pen. For some graphs there’s two different categories, so I was wondering should I bring a blue pen and a black pen to differentiate I know on bar graphs you can just shade one category in, but I saw a line graph with two different categories in lines and there was no way to differentiate between which line— so can I do this ? (Picture)
And if not please provide me with an alternative on how to showcase two different categories if it’s a line graph

Hey all, in a website that track different personal data i will create graph in 3d (user oriented) i know that the picture is made with three.js 1. how hard is it in a scale from 0 to 10? (i had never used three.js neither 3d tools) 2. what are your advice how should i proceed to make 3d graph? 3. what are the best content creators for 3d programming? I'm open to all your propositions thanks :)

Race Information

• Name: Pittsburgh Half
• Date: 5/5/24
• Distance: 13.1 miles
• Location: Pittsburgh
• Website: https://www.thepittsburghmarathon.com/races/half-marathon-1
• Time: 2:19:30

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Finish!	Yes
B	Sub 2:20	Yes

Splits (A little off since I'm using strava data instead of the official times since they only had the 4.4 mile, 9.1, and Finish times)

Mile	Time
1	10:21
2	10:41
3	10:36
4	10:19
5	10:29
6	9:56
7	10:49
8	10:46
9	11:00
10	11:34
11	10:39
12	10:14
13	8:56
0.3	6:59 (pace I think? it didn't take 7 minutes)

Training

I've been shooting for the half marathon since around Thanksgiving this past year from having never really been a runner (the closest I got was when I signed up for cross country in 7th grade in the summer, then got so scared of embarrassment and pain that I was crying for my parents to take me out of it lol). Probably something to unpack there, oh well! Not too stressed about it now :)
My girlfriend's mom has been a huge role model for me since she restarted in 2020 and was really supportive when I started out on C25k and beyond. My weekly training ended up being mostly 3 days of running leading up to the 10 miler race with around 16 - 20 miles per week, but I realized that I'd love to increase how many days I'm running a week and started to slowly add in 2 mile days on tuesdays and/or thursdays to begin that habit for the last couple of weeks before Pittsburgh. I don't think these had any tangible benefits for PGH, but it was a big mental help as I could tell I wanted to continue the positive benefits I've seen from running into higher mileage and a long term hobby.
It was super cool to be able to have done the Cherry Blossom 10 miler with her and my dad out in DC as a training run, and it was there that I pleasantly surprised myself - I had thought that I'd be able to hang on at around an 11 minute pace for that, but my dad, who has run something like 7 marathons, paced me and helped me to not go out too quick. This meant that my pace for the 10 miler was around 10:30 and it felt really comfortable, so I wanted to set that as my goal pace for Pittsburgh!
The last 4 -5 weeks before Pittsburgh went super well and I was able to practice fueling with regular long runs that got up to 12 miles the week before. This was probably a mistake since I then went out and partied hard at an open bar my Grad school hosted, but it was really good for me mentally to have gotten near the race distance. I took off the week before as a small taper and dealt with a fair amount of nerves that I had done my longest run too close to the race (which tbf I did).
I flew in through Detroit, and spent the days leading up to the race having to unfortunately get up way too early and had a bit of a sleep debt, but thankfully the excitement from the race kept me afloat! I met up with my brother, dad, and girlfriend's mom who were all running and we had a blast the day before the race at a brewery the night before, and we got to meet up with my cousin and her husband and hang out with their menagerie of 2 cats and 2 dogs.
Slept great, and woke up with plenty of time to eat an oatmeal bar and some coffee before heading to the corrals. Unfortunately, my dad put himself in a corral back from my brother and I in Corral C, so it was just us running together since my girlfriend's mom was a corral up from us in corral B. I was definitely jittery on the start line, but it helped that my brother didn't mind me jabbering away to distract myself.

Race

I was so happy to have had my brother running with me! We got some neon bright hats at the expo which helped with some of the rain we got in the beginning and it made us pretty easy to spot for my gf's dad who was there as a spectator. Miles 1 - 6 went really well! Having my brother with me made me make sure to check I wasn't going to quick as he didn't have a watch with him to check our splits. I was amazed at how much adrenaline and the crowd made me speed up, and I felt like we were both constantly needing to cool our speed so that we had some gas left in the tank for the hills I had heard on the back half of the half marathon course, and especially for what I had heard was a large hill at mile 12. We saw my gf's dad between mile 4 and 5, and he was able to catch a great video of us running together :)
Miles 7-10 were where I started to hit some mental challenges. If I'm remembering right, this is where we started to get away from the crowds and headed towards some slightly biggelonger hills. Especially without crowd support, some of the longer slightly uphill grades felt like torture, so we slowed a bit and tried to take it easy through them. This is where I started to regret some of the stomach problems I'd had from using the honey stinger gels in training as it made me really hesitant to use them during the race. I find honey stinger gels to be sickeningly sweet at times, so I had only grabbed some of the gummies they had offered for free at the expo as those had gone down better. However as a result, I didn't fuel anywhere near as often as I know I should/can handle, and I think that definitely contributed to having a tougher time in 7-10.
Thankfully, somewhere in there I was drinking nuun at every water stop and got a banana from a kind volunteer, so I started to feel better. I also loved the gummy worm mile they had set up, as well as all the signs! Every time I saw a sign that made me laugh and smile, I got a huge burst of energy. While I was beginning to feel better, my brother was beginning to get some pretty bad cramping in his legs. I hadn't realized it at the time, but my normal routes for my week have more elevation change than I thought, and I think that helped a lot, whereas my brother, living in MN, had to work to go find hills and elevation to work in. Eventually, he told me to just go on ahead and that he'd meet me at the finish.
Miles 11 - end
I had really wanted to finish this strong, and I'm really glad I took it conservative as a first. I was a bit freaked out at mile 11 because that was the mile marker that begin the big hill everyone had been telling me about. Thing was, I couldn't remember if this was the big one, or if this was just the lead up to the big one at the mile 12 marker! I couldn't help but laugh at myself a bit for forgetting which mile I was in, and kinda just went for it. I knew if I could make it to the top of the hill, I'd be able to turn on some gas and do my best to bomb it down to the finish. I tried to remember what had happened at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler where I had done the same and blown up a bit trying to go quick the last two miles, so I made sure that it was quicker but still sustainable. Thankfully, this bit went really well, and I was able to get a sprint finish at the end to beat my A and B goals.

Post-race

I was pretty toast after hitting the finish line, so I took it slow, got my medal, and made sure to get some electrolytes in me. I was out of it for a bit, but within a couple minutes was feeling pretty good minus some soreness and mild pain in my right knee. I waited by one of the spotter places to meet my brother, and was happy to find out he had gotten through the cramping and came in about 5 minutes behind me. We met up with my gf's parents in the beer garden, and waited there to meet my dad. He found us after about 15 minutes - it sounded like two things had really gotten to him: humidity and the crowding of his corral. He was pretty frustrated with how crowded it was the first 4-5 miles for him as PGH/or the self reported paces for Corral D had a lot of walkers (which is cool btw) who had apparently blocked off a lot of the path (not so cool) making it hard to get around. He was dodging in and out for quite a while, and I wish we had coordinated our reported paces since he easily could have held with my brother and I. Lesson learned for next race!
I was pretty emotional about it as I've always thought of myself as a very unathletic person, and it was really special to be able to share my first half with my family. I had a lot of memories of being a spectator at my dad's marathons, and it was cool to be on the other side of it! Got some great pictures, and we all headed back to the hotel to enjoy a quick lunch at the restaurant that was in the lobby. It was pretty intense to see a lot of the marathon folks still out on the course - it looked like a suffer-fest (but definitely piqued my interest...it's in the cards before my 26th birthday) Got some bourbon and some nachos and couldn't have been happier before we all collapsed for a post-race nap!
Made with a new race report generator created by []().

"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and welcome to my Letsplay! Today I am back from my medically mandated break from playing human videogames after a rather... cathartic experience with a game called Teardown. Subnautica, even among humans, is labeled as a notorious experience with... mixed reception for its sequel. A survival crafting game apparently. I have experience with those so presumably the gameplay loop should be predictable enough. So... Let's go in!"
Spiffle starts the game, going for standard Survival Mode, with aspects of food and water mechanics alongside health and oxygen. The game loads very, very fast with Spiffles overpowered computer, and the introduction sequence begins. The camera pans to the panicked sight of the payer character moving down a ladder followed by a sight of a starship above exploding.
"Oh dear... oh dear! They weren't kidding about survival! Do I even survive this or am I a ghost or something..."
The pod rattles, the screen shakes, a fire extinguisher falls from its mounting. Velocity causes the pod to dislodge a panel from a wall and it flies around the cabin. The panel flies into the player's screen, making it go black.
"Oh... well okay then. I uh... well."
Spiffles' character awakens and panics at the buttons securing him to the seat. Spiffle quickly figures out that fire in this game is in fact bad, and grabs the fire extinguisher, putting the fire out. The game's introduction plays, showing his PDA, the game's inventory UI.
"Oh! I have seen these things in real life when visiting human stations! Do all humans have these?"
Spiffle starts exploring the escape pod, noting all of the damage to the radio beacon and the wiring panel.
"Hmm... craft the repair tool... Well... For later I suppose. Now how do i-AH, the ladder!"
Spiffle clicks on the ladder and goes through the animation. The character exits and dramatically stands. Spiffle looks around. His face visibly pales as he looks in every direction, finding the only thing nearby that looks 'safe’ or like 'land' is the destroyed ship in the distance.
"Water... it's... water... everywhere! How big is this game's map!? Structural hull failure... zero human lifesigns detected. That's.. not nice. Well... Here we go!"
Spiffle jumps into the water. His mood changes, the underwater environment significantly different than above ground. The water is absolutely teeming with life and color, as Spiff swims towards a reef to stare at some coral. Spiff gets distracted and starts chasing a fish, specifically a Peeper, and grabs it.
"Oh! Good god! THAT'S how humans catch fish!? That's very... inefficient! What is this thing? Can I eat it? I know I'm supposed to take care of my food and water, so how do I eat it?"
Spiffle wanders about for a while, gathering resources and exploring his general location, eventually getting back to the pod. He had gathered up a decent amount of stuff while he was swimming around and accessed the Fabricator to see what was available.
"Ah! I see, the fabricator cooks things too. Uhm... cooked fish thing and... these transparent fish give me water bottles? Okay then! Well. Sorted for food anyway. Let's see. Copper wire, batteries. A Scanner? Does that mean I can like, scan things and tell what they are? And... Oxygen tank? Oh hell yes. I'll build that then."
Spiffle goes through the process of building a few things, checking out how the game's crafting system works, and spending more time collecting resources. He quickly realizes how much work he has to do and finally finishes making a Scanner.
"Okay then well... I can see how much time is going to be spent collecting resources so i'm going to edit all of that out and keep you all in the loop on all the fun parts instead."
Spiffle continues playing, inserting a creative, albeit mildly annoying fanciful scene transition in between resource loops. He comes to a cave looking for salt to make more equipment, when he encounters the first hostile enemy of the game: The Crashfish. He does not notice it at first, the strange sloppy noise it makes as its pod opens, the beast makes a terrible gurgly noise and charges straight at him.
"What is that noi-AH! OY! OI! OIIII what are you what are-!"
Spiffle is cut off as the fish explodes, causing him to lose half his health. He quickly surfaces and takes a breath.
"Okay then... OKAY... THAT... makes absolutely no sense from an evolutionary perspective... but okay then. Avoid those. What even was that? I can't even scan it because it was moving so fast! Gods... exploding fish."
Spiffle shakes his head and resumes his hunt for resources, eventually finding enough for a repair tool. He makes the repair of the pods' broken wiring and looks around a bit more, noting some of the details in the game.
"Hard to believe these games are over eight hundred years old! I keep getting requests to play 'them gud ol' gamez' instead of any new releases. Maybe I'll get to those eventually. I have quite the backlog though."
Spiffle quickly tabs out and shows the huge list of human made games on his list that he has been gifted or purchased himself. The list includes Space Marine, Starship Troopers, Spyro Trilogy, Crash Bandicoot, and so... so many more.
"I am also told about this thing called 'anime', whatever that is. Maybe I should look into that. Anyway..."
Spiffle shrugs for now and resumes playing, swimming around for a bit before finally deciding to use his scanner. He gets the first scan - the Acid Mushroom - and painstakingly reads the supplied article. He then goes on a scanning frenzy, scanning each thing he can find, comically chasing after various fish and objects, trying to scan them then taking an irritatingly long time to read the article aloud.
He gets to the point where he encounters his first real hostile enemy and tries to scan it. The stalker, of course, doesn't appreciate that, and attacks.
"Oooh what's this thing? Oh lovely, it's a big one. Can I scan it? The... Stalker? Oh okay is it friend-OW! NONONONO go away!"
Spiffle panics and scans it while running away from it, trying to swim backwards. He's so focused on scanning it he can't run far enough away that he gets ambushed by another Stalker nearby and manages to scan it just as he gets hit with his first Death in the game.
"Oh.... o...kay. Well... it seems things aren't as friendly as expected. I'm going to guess there's more things like that around. So... I'm just going to finish working on repairs and equipment then I'll take those things on."
Spiffle reads the article on the Stalker he scanned and spends more time collecting resources, scanning local entities and building the rest of the gear he has. Fins, high capacity O2 tank, rebreather and some more food and water which he stores in floating containers for later. He starts to explore a bit farther in search of fragments to scan and finds a Sand Shark, as well as a biome resembling a desert-like area. He encounters his first piece of the wrecked ship here.
"Oh! Hello! Pieces of wreckage! What are these for now do you suppose? Can I disassemble these for resources or-Oh! Is that a door? Oh! I'm supposed to go in here and look for things? How do I get in? Oh I can't. I need a laser cutter. Is one of those here? Need more fragments I guess..."
Spiffle gives up trying to enter and goes up for air, then returns to the floor to hunt for fragments. He eventually unlocks the Bioreactor, pieces of the Scanner room, a couple fragments of the Seaglide and Seamoth. He comes across the first cave entrance to the Mushroom Caves Biome.
"Oh... oh my. That's... deep. Good thing I unlocked the Seamoth thing. Its a miniature submarine I think. I can use that. But that's... kinda scary. I can't see the bottom. I kinda see just... purple. Mostly purple. But it scares me that I can't see the bottom."
Spiffle hangs around the cave entrance for a bit before a call for Oxygen forces him to the surface. He swims back down to the cave entrance and then hangs around a bit longer before once again resurfacing, heading for some new things to scan. It is however at this point that Spiffles exploration is cut short.
"EMERGENCY - SEISMIC READINGS SUGGEST A QUANTUM DETONATION HAS OCCURRED IN THE AURORA'S DRIVE CORE. THE CENTRAL DARK MATTER REACTOR WILL REACH A SUPERCRITICAL STATE IN -"
The computer aboard the PDA shakes Spiff out of his daze and he quickly rushes to the surface and looks at the ship.
"Wait wait wait what's that!? What's going on!? I see the ship? The Aurora! That's what its name is? Whats a Dark Matter reactor and wha-"
The computer continues its countdown muffled by Spiffs panicked squealing and he has a front-row seat to one of the most spectacular explosions in the history of gaming - the Aurora's Reactor Detonation.
It happens. The world goes dead silent for a short moment, and one can see Spiffles heart visibly stop beating. Then explosion as the Aurora lets out its magnificent blast. As the shockwave expands outwards, Spiffs skin visibly turns a paler shade of blue, and his eyes go wide. The sound of a geiger counter follows, leaving him breathless and pale as the world suddenly goes dead quiet again. The sound of the geiger counter ominously leaving him shaken even more than he already is.
"FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - THE RADIATION SUIT HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR BLUEPRINTS."
Spiffle stays completely silent, bobbing in the water for a solid few minutes, staring in shocked wonder at what he just witnessed. He regains his composure for a few short moments and returns to his scanning venture, but one can easily see he isn't in the right mind after that. He returns to the seabed, at the entrance to the mushroom caves and dives again. He does this several more times, popping up to the surface, looking at the shipwreck, then diving at the entrance again. Finally, after much hesitation, he dives one last time.
"Screw it. it's just a game right?"
He smiles at the camera with a shrug and swims far below the surface, into one of the caves. As he enters the cavern his jaw drops at the sight of a massive underwater cavern filled with gigantic glowing pink mushrooms. The Mushroom caves as they are known. He spots something in the distance, entranced, forgetting his oxygen situation. He cant get far however and a terrifying shriek of some unknown entity shakes him out of his stupor.
"What in the red dawn was that noise!?"
Spiff can't finish asking his invisible audience what's going on as he strays too close to a mushroom, occupied by a Crab Snake, a gigantic sea worm. He is grabbed from behind, spun around and he visibly panics as the giant worm digs its enormous tusks into Spiffles character. Spiffle immediately freaks out, a combination of both the terrifying shriek emitted by the creature and the shock of being attacked makes poor Spiffle jump out of his seat and duck under the table.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
The worm comes back and finishes Spiff off before his oxygen runs out. Spiff's character respawns but the footage continues, a slight whimper can be heard in the background as Spiff hides under the desk. This carries on for a few minutes, and his head very slowly appears above the desk. He gingerly puts himself back in his seat and breathes heavily for a bit. When he finally gains control, he tabs out of the game and takes a look at the wiki for Subnautica. He returns a few moments later and stares at the camera in that strange haunting glare he's become so famous for.
"WHY DO YOU STUPID DEVELOPERS NOT PUT GUNS IN THE GAME IF YOU HAVE SHIT LIKE THAT!? ARE YOU INSANE!?"
He grabs the camera and shakes it violently as he rants at it, questioning why there are guns in every other human game he has played and not THIS specific game, especially considering how there are 'giant water snake monsters that eat your face' in a game with no guns. He rants for a good minute or two then plays his outro.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you absolutely sure after Teardown, Factorio and Project ZOMBOID, you should be playing Subnautica? I mean seriously, try something less... psychologically terrifying. It's known as Thalassophobia Simulator for a reason."
_______________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and I still don't understand why we have giant worm monsters but we have no guns!"
Spiffle stares at the camera with an expression that can only be summarized as 'Seriously bruh?' and resumes his last playthrough. He becomes confused at the lack of stuff in his inventory.
"Why is my... Why do I not ha-Oh right... I was eaten. When you die your inventory is wiped... I need to build more tools then."
Spiffle starts some silly music, an alien version of Benny Hill to a montage of him collecting resources, occasionally ranting at various oddities and questioning game logic. He restores all of his tools then goes hunting for a Vehicle Bay fragment so he can build the Seamoth. He continues to scan what he can, developing something of an obsession with the task, then painstakingly reading every word about it to try and understand it. It is at this point Spiffle, during his explorations finds another derelict chunk of ship near the desert region, encountering his first Sand Shark.
"What... What is this? Oh... careful Spiff. This one looks angrier than the last one you found. Wh-What in oblivion!?"
Spiffles attention is once again diverted by the appearance of a Reefback Leviathan and its signature low drone. This one appears to be a fully grown adult.
"You-you... You've got to be... You gotta be fucking kidding me. A Juhara Eelfish!? WHAT IS THAT DOING IN A HUMAN VIDEOGAME!!!??"
Spiffle squeaks in shock as he sees a creature that is an absolute spitting image of a large oceanic dwelling sea creature, which is both the games and his native homeworlds version of a Whale. The Reefback has some dissimilarities, but its close enough to the real thing that Spiffle is genuinely shocked. He quickly pauses the game, opening various wikipedia articles, then displays a full picture of both Subnautica in game Reefback, and the Juhara-Kal-Rehar, colloquially known as a Juhara Eelfish, a shockingly similar creature that lives in his homeworlds oceans.
The only difference between them is the color of the exterior chitin shell. The Reefback has a blue/purple shell, the Juhara Eelfish's chitin has a red/green shell.
"WHEN was this game made!?"
Spiff checks, the current Earth-date is the year 2886. Humanity only entered the galactic community in 2752. Subnautica was released in 2018.
"HOW.... How is that even possible!? You didn't even know the galaxy existed until only a few decades ago, yet you almost PERFECTLY matched the appearance of one of our homeworlds native species! How is this even possible!? Okay. If the name matches then I have to call bullshit."
Spiffle approaches and scans it, then reads the data article.
"A... Reefback Leviathan? Oh thank God... Now let's see... A herbivorous creature that... that likely got so large due to the fact that its predators went extinct. Well... that's... okay... A hard chitinous shell of multiple layers, a microcosm of different creatures and flora growing from its back, hence the name. Hmmm..."
Spiffle gets that cold, empty stare on his face and glares menacingly at the camera. The screen goes black, then returns, seeing Spiffle nursing a beverage of some kind while wrapped in a blanket.
"I realized something... Call it a message from the Ancestors or a Divine revelation. But I have a funny feeling this isn't going to be the last time I see a creature from the galaxy represented in human media. I hope to the Gods that doesn't happen... the concept of this situation is nothing short of terrifying. In any case, I'm sorry about that. Lets.... let's continue."
Spiffle resumes where he left off, doing his usual routine of scanning, then obsessively reading. Eventually he unlocks the Vehicle Bay, and returns home to his pod where the situation with resources is growing obscene with at least fifty floating resource containers hovering around the area.
"Alright... A Vehicle Bay... This means I can build things like the Seamoth now. This will be nice. Right, I shall for the sake of my audience skip the resource collection mechanic that's here and focus on the actual result. I shan't waste my time either though. MONTAGE!"
Spiff yells excitedly and a montage to that same odd Benny Hill type music plays out, with him collecting the resources he needs to build both machines. Most of it is already in the floating containers strewn about. With a few visits to the fabricator, he compiles the Power Cell, Titanium Ingot and Lubricant he needs to make the Vehicle Bay. He deploys it and chases it to the surface just away from the pod in the deeper end of the shallows.
"Right... Not too hard. Let's see then, how do-Ah. Get on it and... The Seamoth. Cost of two glass, one titanium ingot, a powercell, lead and lubricant. Right."
He quickly gathers and makes everything he needs for the Seamoth, then stands on the platform ready to go. He chooses the Seamoths recipe and the sequence starts. His eyes light up as drones start flying around the platform, then begin assembling atom by atom, the small, adorable minisub known as the Seamoth. It finishes the process and flops into the water with a splash.
"My gods look at this thing! It's so cute!"
Spiffle explores the sub for a little while and hops inside it, testing the controls and playing around with it a bit to see what it can do.
"Hm... Maximum Depth, 200 meters? So if I go below that does it implode or something? I need to be careful of that. OH dammit I remember! I have to make that Radiation Suit don't I? I shall do so now!"
Spiffle seems to have found a new resolve, quickly gathering resources together and making both a Seaglide and radiation suit in short order.
"Does this thing have any weapons? How do I repair-Oh... Repair tool? That makes it easier I suppose. Now... Where do I go now? Is there anything I can do?"
Spiffle stumbles about in the blind for a few minutes, trying to figure out his next course of action beyond simply wandering aimlessly while scanning things. He gets back in the pod and fixes the radio beacon. His face visibly contorts into an expression of irritation when he hears his rescue is in 9999 hours. He resolves to come back every now and then to check the radio. He decides to gather more resources to make up for building the seamoth and comes back a bit later. He finds a radio transmission when he returns.
"RADIO: ▀▖┗▛Nine new biological subjects designated. Mode ▄▖▜▚┣: hunting/analyzing.
Sharing subject locations with other agents."
"What... in the Nine Hells was THAT!? Why was it in such an odd voice? What was that language? What were those letters!? Somethings going on here... SO now what? I have the radiation suit. i guess... go into the Aurora? Oh no, I'm not going in there unprepared! Lemme make some tools and spare batteries, then i'll go in. I need... Oh... I need more fragments is what I need."
Spiffle resumes his fragment hunt, looking around for fragments of various tools. He uses the Seamoth to traverse around.
"WHEEE!!!"
Spiff seems more than just a bit happy as he trundles around in the Seamoth, using his speed to launch himself out of the water. He splashes about a bit, testing the limits of the craft and trying to see what holes he can squeeze himself into or out of and how deep he can go.
"Okay okay. time to get to serious work. Now... I need to find... A Laser Cutter and a... STASIS RIFLE?! Wait... rifle? That means GUN! I NEED A GUN!!"
Spiffle charges forward towards the desert biome where he found the Reefback and resumes his search for things to scan. It is now he comes across a Reginald.
"What... IS this fish? Wait, let me just..."
He gets out of the Seamoth and scans it.
"Huh... Reginald. That's a... fish? It's so cute! Wait, come back friend!"
Spiffle spends an unreasonable amount of time trying to catch a Reginald. When he finally catches one he gets back in the Seamoth and heads towards the aurora, new friend in tow. He trundles over to the side of the crashed ship and scans some random stuff here and there, finding fragments to a few small items, including a few he needs such as a Powercell Charger for the Seamoth’s battery. He gets close to the front of the ship and the haunting, evil noise of Subnautica's most iconic killer suddenly echoes through the gloomy water.
"What... Was that? Is it another worm thing? Please don't let it be one of those..."
Spiffle wanders around the side for a bit longer. An ominous shadow looms in the background, catching his eye. He ignores it for the moment and simply carries on, eventually arriving at the entrance to the ship. Through the mangled steel and fire he squeezes into the front of the ship and looks around. The environment ominously rattles and his screen shakes as the ships structure isn't exactly stable. The howl of the creature in the shadows makes Spiff even more uncomfortable.
"I... Do NOT like this. I really dont."
Spiff parks the Seamoth where he can see a ramp leading up, and gets out. He is immediately accosted by Cave Crawlers and uses his knife to defend himself, poorly, but he gets rid of the three or four around him.
"WARNING: SCANS SHOW THE DIGESTIVE TRACTS OF INDIGENOUS LIFE FORMS CONTAIN HUMAN TISSUE."
Spiffs face turns an even paler shade of blue and he swallows visibly as if he's trying not to vomit.
"Yeuch... I can scan this thing and read it later. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."
Spiff scans and follows the path to the interior, uses his fire extinguisher to put out some fires in the area and gets inside. The ship rumbles as he wanders around and gets into one of the rooms. He finds the poster of the P.R.A.W.N. Suit.
"Ooh! A poster thing? Can I take it or? I can! PRAWN Suit eh? Can I actually use that thing?"
Spiff takes the poster, scans some furniture and collects a PDA. Spiff continues down the corridor and retrieves his Propulsion Cannon from his inventory and uses it to pick up some furniture in the way.
"I am SO glad I got this thing from scanning the area before I came here. This is super useful! I wonder if it has other uses..."
He gets to the door and looks at his databank.
"Hmm... Here it is! Code for the door is 1454. Right."
Spiff moves through, repairing a door to get the Seamoth Depth Upgrade Module. He continues and clears a fire to enter the main reactor. His inner loot goblin shines through and grabs the Cyclops engine efficiency module before he starts work on repairs, scanning the breach and starting work. It doesn't take him long, but he gets issues with a Bleeder that lives in the waters. He scans one then finishes repairs. Foolishly, he uses the propulsion cannon and shoots the bleeder at one of the reactors, undoing his work. He looks at the damage he caused and repairs it.
"Well... what was I expecting... Why did I do that? It's a CANNON... why did I aim it at the reactor exactly? So stupid..."
Spiff finishes and heads to the PRAWN Bay, and looks around at the damage. He spots the prawn suits and starts scanning, grabbing a storage module upgrade from a console and starts extinguishing flames so he can scan. He runs out of fire extinguisher juice though.
"Blast! Can I still scan these if they're on fire?"
Spiff walks around, finding cheeky angles he can use and scans the debris, finding all four fragments he needs. He heads upstairs and goes through the rooms and everything he can find. He gets into the Galley and sees the Kitty in a Space Helmet Poster.
"What the- 'Keep Calm'? What in the blue balls is this? It's.... cute! What is this creature!? Can I keep this? I can!"
Spiffle excitedly grabs the poster and moves on. He goes through cabins, picks up PDAs and collects the Natural Selection 2 poster, the Prawn suit in the sea poster and the collectible arcade toy in the locked cabin. Lacking the code to the Captain's cabin, he returns to the prawn bay and tries swimming around, eventually finding a passage in the hull debris to the rest of the ship. He moves through in silence, recovers the black box data and exits the ship. He removes debris, grabs the local wildlife with the cannon and tosses them into fires or the water with glee.
"BEGONE BEAST!!! Ha! Right... uhh... where did i park? Oh, there it is. Should I go home? I wonder if there are any fragments I can use around here?"
Spiff exits, finding Liefpod 4 floating upside down on the surface of the water. He collects the PDA data and a new blueprint. Then, as he gets in the seamoth, the horrifying roar of the Reaper Leviathan suddenly sounds. Spiff is thrown into a panic, screams in terror and tries desperately to get away. The beast appears with jaw chomping and claws clawing at the poor Seamoth. The entire time Spiffle is screeching like a bird with a broken leg, his entire body now an almost ghostly white out of absolute terror.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGODNONNONOGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
Spiffle manages to get out of its grip and in a panic charges away towards his lifepod and continues to scream, breathing hard between screams. He gets to the pod and then hides under his desk, continuing to scream. His channel outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: (This has been translated from Eridani) "I am starting to believe this whole sojourn was a very BAD idea. Do you humans have those kinds of beasts on your homeworld? How did you ever survive them?!"
RESPONSE: LOL no we never had Reapers. The only Leviathan Class creatures we have on our planet are Whales. And they're mostly peaceful plankton eaters. Mostly.
RESPONSE: (Translated from Eridani) "Seriously? I think I find it more terrifying that these creatures are made up in your minds. What kind of nightmares do you people have to be able to create this level of fiction!?"
RESPONSE: Do. Not. Ask. This is only Subnautica - we have FAR worse.
Spiffles response: "You're going to make me play these 'far worse', aren't you?"
RESPONSE: "Damn right we are! :)"
________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemnonk and welcome back to Subnautica!"
Spiffle looks visibly stronger, his usual lanky appearance now looking like he's been working out like a Gym Bro. One can see muscles on muscles and Spiff seems to have an abnormal amount of energy.
"I am now relaxed. It is now time to get eaten by giant scary sea monsters. And yes, before you ask, I have successfully finished fully soundproofing my office. And also yes, I am indeed expecting a new addition to the brood... THANKS DAMN HUMANS! You and your damn musical magic nonsense..."
Spiffle starts the game and is swimming outside the pod next to the Seamoth. The first thing he does is repair the seamoth from the damage incurred by the Reaper, and recounts what hes been up to, checking inventory and equipment. He heads to the radio and gets a new transmission.
RADIO - "This is Avery Quinn of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over.'
'Nothing but vacuum. These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up.'
'Aurora, we're out on the far side of the system, it's going to take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over.'
'I'll try them again tomorrow. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra.'
'See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime."
"Oh? Oh lovely! There ARE people in this game! I wonder when they will be here? Meh, I have things to build, so I'll keep an eye."
Spiffle resolves himself to start building a base, trying to find a good spot. He finds the Mushroom Forest Biome and starts gathering resources to ferry them around. He installs the Depth Module and the Storage module to the Seamoth, then builds the Moon Pool. The Mushroom Biome becomes one of his favorite spots and a close encounter with a JellyRay cements it.
"Those creatures are beautiful! Look! JellyRay! Its glowing blue and pretty! I love that! Oh... I have a new radio message. I need to listen to that then."
Spiff returns to the pod and listens to the message.
RADIO - "Aurora, this is Sunbeam again. We just picked up a massive debris field at your location.'
'I didn't know how bad... How many of you... I didn't know.'
'We are now en route to your location. We're going to bring you home. Sunbeam out.'
'What else can I say? The only time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it'
'Oh, it's a bad option alright, but so are all the others."
Spiff smiles and carries on working, parking the Seamoth inside after powering everything up.
"So lovely! But... Is that a win condition? I know human games by now I have played enough of them. Is that a win condition? Get rescued? I dunno..."
Spiffle carries on building for a little and gets a storage system up, spending a few in-game days transporting resources to his new base. He returned to the pod and played a new radio message, again from the Sunbeam.
RADIO - "This is Sunbeam. Y'know, Aurora, we're from a little trans-gov on the far side of Andromeda, and we have a saying there.'
'There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad.'
'Sounds like you tasted a bunch of the former, but that only means you're overdue a whole lot of the latter.'
'Might just be we're it.'
'We're scanning for somewhere to park, we'll be in touch when we find it. Sunbeam out."
"Ohh... That... that's a lovely saying! What was that uh... There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad. I like that! I think i'll have that framed on my wall! Now lets see.. i ca- I CAN GIVE THE SEAMOTH A NAME? OOHHHhh okay, okay.. I can customize the color too! I think I'll just do this..."
Spiff leaves the name as 'Seamoth' for now, changing the color to a mix of purple for the main, and blue for the trim and name color. His two favorite colors. Spiffle does a little more work, acquiring the last fragments for the Cyclops and starts gathering together the resources necessary to build it.
"Hmmm.. Cyclops... Personal large scale submarine capable of carrying other vehicles! Ooohhh I want to build that! I need to fetch the Vehicle Bay though. Im almost done moving house!"
Spiff returns and packs up the last of his resources, then gets another radio message.
RADIO - "Aurora, we're approaching the planet now, and we have a landing site for you that's... well, it's better than the alternatives.'
'We've sent you the coordinates.'
'It'll take us a couple of days to align our orbit, we should be able to establish direct contact with you during that time, then we're coming in to get you.'
'Cross your fingers the weather holds, and don't leave us waiting. Sunbeam out."
Spiffle gets a new beacon on his HUD. Sunbeam Landing Site.
"What!? Is this game over If I'm there!? Okay... well. At least it's no longer terrifying! I'll get the Seamoth and go for the beacon then. I hope it's okay... Strange... this... doesn't feel like the end, you know? But if it is then it is."
Spiff heads home, deploys the Vehicle Bay and deposits his gear and resources. He heads towards the location, occasionally squealing 'WHEEE!!' as he uses the Seamoth to jump out of the water like a dolphin. However, he miscalculates and the Seamoth jumps up, out and sustains a bit of damage as it hits a rock formation close to the surface. He gets out, repairs it and looks at the camera.
"Why no I didn't just damage my Seamoth by having too much fun. I don't know what you are talking about. Hehe."
Spiffle smirks at the camera with a glare and carries on. Eventually, he encounters the largest of the Islands in the world.
"Wh... WHAT. This has been here the whole time!? Is this an island? Who cares! LAND! Sweet land!"
Spiffle now notices the timer and hops onto the island from his Seamoth. He walks up to the landing zone and stops dead in his tracks at the sight of the massive al;ien structure known as the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. In essence, a giant alien cannon.
"What... the *beep* is THAT?"
Spiffles' editing has gotten better, his editor learning how to censor Spiffles foul language, in both English AND Eridani. He moves closer to the building, scanning the broken tablet and the Forcefield Controls.
"What is this? I mean it's clearly alien... What do the codex entries say... 'possible to reconstruct the device' Oh... hmm.. I can make more of these then. 'Matches no known technologies... functions like a lock'. Okay then so... Standard video game logic I guess. That's nice! So A purple tablet will unlock the gate there. What are those?"
Spiff moves towards the Cairns marking the way into the island, pathways leading up the mountainside. He follows them, finding a Purple Tablet in the process on one of the pathways.
"Oh! Lovely! That saves me resources and a trip I guess. This pathway keeps going though. hmm... Welp, we still have thirty minutes, so let's go."
Spiff explores the pathway, getting lost a bit before finally figuring that following the large cables is a good idea. He comes across the Teleportation Arch and scans it, in between dodging the Cave Crawlers.
"Right, let's see... Alien Arch... not much to speak of here. Maybe this thing will be useful later I guess. Likely.... Hmmm..."
Spiffle continues exploring and eventually finds himself back at the forcefield with another twenty minutes to go.
"Screw it, let's go."
Spiff activates the forcefield platform and the animation of the key being placed plays out. He moves into the building, activating both data platforms and acquiring two Ion Cubes for later, scanning everything he thinks he can scan. He enters the Moonpool in the bay and gets two more Ion Cubes, plus data on a rifle and a Doomsday Device. He ignores it for now, acquiring one more purple tablet and accessing the control room.
"Right... what's in here? Hmm... Energy Core, right. I shall scan that and... press button?"
Spiff presses the button. An animation plays where a device locks his characters hand in place, viciously stabs it with a pointy metal bit and then releases it.
"OH GODS what the hell! Why is that?! That's just nasty!"
"THE TERMINAL IS BROADCASTING A MESSAGE. TRANSLATION READS: 'Warning, infected individuals may not disable the weapon. This planet is under quarantine.'"
"Quarantine! What? Infected? I-Hold on...."
Spiffle gets his scanner out and performs a self-scan. It is only now he notices something very bad has happened.
"I-infected!? Wait, what!?"
"SELF-SCAN COMPLETE - DETECTING STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT BACTERIAL LEVELS. NO ADVERSE EFFECTS DETECTED. BE VIGILANT FOR SYMPTOMS."
"Oh brilliant! Does that mean I can't leave? I KNEW IT! Wait... weapon!? This is a weapon!?"
Spiffle panics and runs out of the facility as fast as he can and waits the last few minutes for the Sunbeam to arrive. Sure enough, it does. In the last 30 seconds, the Sunbeam plays a message.
RADIO - "Survivor, we see you!
'Man, I don't know how you held out down there.'
The sunbeams message plays, and Spiffle gasps in terror from the sound of the gun platform starting up and starting to move around.
RADIO - "We've broken atmosphere and we're descending towards the landing site.'
'Is that a building down there?! What do you mean you can't identify it?"
The weapon powers up and turns, aiming itself high at the sky.
RADIO - "Hold on, no turning back now.'
'Positions everyone, touching down in 10, 9, 8-'
The weapon charges up and a loud vicious hum can be heard echoing through the valley.
RADIO - "It's coming from the building?! Change course, set thrusters to (full)-"
The radio goes to static, the weapon fires and the Sunbeam is vaporized instantly by a massive blast of bright green light. The sunbeam disappears, its hull structure completely disintegrated. Spiffle sits in stunned silence as the platform returns to a stable position, shuts down, and everything goes quiet.
"Well... Okay then... That was... horrifying. I guess thats all we have time for! Hehe! Oh dear..."
Spiffle looks a bit defeated as he sits back in his seat.
"S-see you next time! I guess... Holy shit..."
Channel Outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you okay? You seem a little bit too disturbed by that. Its fine though, compared to what happens in the Rise Of The Ancients Mod, this is tame! Lol! I love that mod!"
Spiffles Response: "Please don't make me play that mod..."
((Authors note - due to how bastardingly huge Subnautica is, this will be a multi part series. Other Spiff stories will come inbetween. Hope you enjoy!))

Data analysis is a critical field that is pivotal in interpreting complex data to help businesses make informed decisions. With the advent of big data, the demand for skilled data analysts has surged across various industries. Here's a detailed exploration of the data analyst job, including what data analysis entails, the role of a data analyst, their importance in today's data-driven world, and what skills are required for data analysts.
Key Takeaways:
Data Analysts plan decision-making, improve efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and manage risks by interpreting complex data sets.
Success in data analysis demands a blend of technical skills (data cleaning and statistical analysis) and soft skills (critical thinking and communication).
The surge in data usage has significantly increased the demand for skilled data analysts across various sectors.
What Is Data Analysis?
Data analysis involves collecting, processing, and performing statistical analyses on large datasets to discover useful information, suggest conclusions, and support decision-making. It encompasses various techniques under various umbrellas, such as descriptive statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and inferential statistics, to interpret and understand the patterns and behaviors within data. Data analysis aims to extract actionable insights from raw data that can influence strategies and operations.
What Does a Data Analyst Do?
A data analyst systematically collects, processes, and performs statistical analyses on data sets. Their responsibilities include:
Data Cleaning and Preparation: This involves filtering the data, handling missing values, and preparing the dataset for analysis to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Data Exploration and Analysis: Analysts use statistical tools and techniques to explore and analyze data, identifying patterns, relationships, and trends.
Data Visualization: They create visual representations of data findings through charts, graphs, and dashboards to make the data understandable at a glance.
Reporting: Data analysts prepare reports and presentations to communicate the insights and findings from the data to stakeholders, which can influence policy and decision-making processes.
Collaboration: They often work with other departments to understand their data needs and help them make informed decisions based on data insights.
Data Analyst Job Description: Roles and Responsibilities
A Data Analyst job description typically outlines the key roles, responsibilities, and qualifications required for the position. Data Analysts are tasked with turning data into information, information into insight, and insight into business decisions. Below is a detailed job description highlighting the roles and responsibilities of a Data Analyst position.
Job Overview
The Data Analyst is responsible for overseeing our data systems and reporting frameworks, guaranteeing the integrity and precision of data. The ideal candidate will transform raw data into structured information, which will then be analyzed to glean insights that drive strategic business decisions. This position encompasses a comprehensive analysis lifecycle, covering requirement gathering, activity execution, and design planning. Data analysts are tasked with enhancing analytical and reporting functions, as well as supervising performance and quality assurance processes to pinpoint areas for enhancement.
Roles and Responsibilities

• Gather data from primary and secondary sources, ensuring the upkeep of databases and data systems.
  
• Detect, examine, and decode trends or patterns within intricate datasets.
  
• Cleanse data and scrutinize computer-generated reports and outputs to identify and rectify coding errors.
  
• Coordinate with management to align business and informational priorities.
  
• Identify opportunities for process enhancements.
  
• Employ statistical techniques to scrutinize data and produce actionable business insights.
  
• Collaborate with the management team to determine and rank the needs of different business units.
  
• Develop data dashboards, charts, and visual aids to support decision-making across departments.
  
• Convey insights through both reports and visual presentations.
  
• Partner with engineering and product development teams to understand business requirements.
  
• Engage with managers from various departments to specify data requirements for analysis projects tailored to their unique business processes.
  

Conclusion
In today's data-driven landscape, skilled data analysts are indispensable assets for businesses, driving strategic decisions through insightful interpretation of complex data. XP Labs provides online software courses with placement guaranteed, empowering aspiring analysts to meet the soaring demand.

Introduction
Businesses are always looking for new and creative ways to improve customer happiness, optimize processes, and increase sales in the dynamic and fast-paced world of e-commerce. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has surfaced as a disruptive force within this pursuit of perfection, completely changing the way online retailers interact with their clientele. Businesses may improve internal procedures and provide highly customized experiences in addition to interacting with customers more meaningfully by utilizing AI-powered solutions.
This article explores the many benefits of three state-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems that are revolutionizing the e-commerce industry. The e-commerce industry is seeing never-before-seen levels of efficiency and effectiveness because to AI-driven technologies that are improving customer interaction, giving developers cutting-edge tools, and giving company owners relevant information.
We obtain a thorough grasp of these AI solutions' significant influence on the direction of online retail by investigating the special advantages they provide to developers, customers, and company owners. We reveal the revolutionary power of AI in fostering success, innovation, and development in the fast-paced world of e-commerce through the eyes of each stakeholder.

1. Chatbots: Conversational Commerce at Your Fingertips
In e-commerce, chatbots have proliferated as virtual assistants that converse with clients in real time. These AI-driven agents replicate the experience of engaging with a competent sales assistant in a physical shop by providing tailored help, product suggestions, and quick support. They are powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning algorithms.

· Benefits for Customers:
Chatbots provide clients with unmatched ease of use and accessibility. They give prompt answers to questions, assist customers with the buying process, and make tailored suggestions based on browsing interests and history. Furthermore, chatbots are always accessible, so you don't have to wait for business hours to get help. Chatbots improve the whole purchasing experience by mimicking human interactions, which increases engagement and loyalty.

· Benefits for Developers:
For quick creation and deployment, developers use chatbot platforms that come with pre-built frameworks and tools. These systems frequently have drag-and-drop capability, user-friendly interfaces, and connections with well-known e-commerce and chat apps. Through the abstraction of implementation-related difficulties, developers may concentrate on crafting conversational flows, optimizing algorithms, and enhancing user experience. Moreover, chatbot analytics offer insightful data about user behavior, allowing programmers to maximize efficiency and promote ongoing development.

· Benefits for Business Owners:
Chatbots are a great tool for customer support, sales, and marketing campaigns for entrepreneurs. Chatbots save operating expenses and free up human resources to work on more complicated problems by automating repetitive questions and support duties. Furthermore, by proactive client engagement, cross-selling related items, and providing tailored promotions, chatbots may increase revenue. Moreover, valuable data about client preferences and pain areas is generated by chatbot conversations, which improves marketing efforts and helps with strategic decision-making.

2. Visual Search: Empowering Customers with Visual Discovery
Customers can now use photos instead of text to search for products thanks to visual search technology, which is completely changing how people browse and find things online. Visual search engines evaluate picture information, extract important attributes, and compare them to extensive product databases using Computer Vision and Deep Learning algorithms. This allows them to provide precise and pertinent results instantly.

· Benefits for Customers:
Visual search provides users with an easy-to-use and seamless purchasing experience, making it quick and simple for them to locate items. Users only need to upload or take a picture to start a search, regardless of whether it is sparked by a picture on social media, an ad in a magazine, or anything they see in the real world. This feature accommodates visual learners and those looking for exact matches by doing away with the necessity to express product details in text-based searches. Additionally, visual search engines frequently offer suggestions based on related products, which promotes accidental discovery and encourages buying decisions.

· Benefits for Developers:
Advances in AI frameworks and APIs designed specifically for picture recognition tasks are beneficial to developers who are responsible for developing visual search capability. For indexing and querying big datasets, these technologies include pre-trained models, image processing pipelines, and scalable infrastructure. Developers can increase performance for speed and accuracy or fine-tune models to specific domains by utilizing transfer learning techniques. Moreover, APIs and SDKs enable developers to offer engaging visual search experiences across many channels by facilitating a smooth interface with current websites, mobile applications, and e-commerce platforms.

· Benefits for Business Owners:
Visual search opens up new avenues for competitive differentiation, consumer interaction, and conversion optimization for company owners. Businesses may adapt to changing customer tastes and habits by including visual capabilities into product discovery. This is especially useful for younger demographics who are used to visual-centric platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. In addition to lowering friction in the buying process, visual search also lessens the chance that users would end sessions because of difficult to use navigation or fruitless searches. Businesses may also learn about the competitive environment, market preferences, and developing demand signals by examining visual search patterns and trends. This knowledge can then be used to inventory management, merchandising tactics, and content production initiatives.

3. Personalization Engines: Tailoring Experiences for Every Customer
In order to provide customized experiences across many touchpoints, personalization engines utilize artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to evaluate enormous volumes of user data, including browsing history, purchase behavior, demographics, and contextual signals. These engines maximize consumer engagement, retention, and lifetime value by dynamically modifying content, suggestions, and promotions.

· Benefits for Customers:
Customers are empowered by personalized experiences that align with their requirements, interests, and preferences thanks to personalization engines. These engines increase user pleasure and promote chance discovery by presenting pertinent goods, content, and promotions. Customers feel appreciated and understood when they receive tailored product suggestions, targeted email marketing, or dynamic online experiences. This encourages client loyalty and repeat business. Additionally, customization goes beyond just suggesting products; it also includes contextual components like seasonal trends, regional information, and social proof, all of which enhance the shopping experience and increase conversion.

· Benefits for Developers:
AI-powered frameworks and APIs are used by developers who are responsible for implementing customization features to automate data processing, model training, and inference processes. These technologies provide frameworks for experimentation, scalable infrastructure, and sophisticated algorithms to continually iterate and refine customization tactics. Through seamless integration with e-commerce platforms, analytics tools, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, developers are able to orchestrate tailored experiences across many channels and touchpoints. Moreover, A/B testing, multivariate experiments, and cohort analysis are made possible by personalization engines, which provide developers the ability to efficiently segment audiences, improve algorithms, and assess effects.

· Benefits for Business Owners:
AI-powered frameworks and APIs that automate data processing, model training, and inference operations are used by developers charged with providing customization capabilities. To continually iterate and refine customization tactics, these solutions include scalable infrastructure, sophisticated algorithms, and experimentation frameworks. Developers are able to effortlessly coordinate tailored experiences across numerous channels and touchpoints by connecting with e-commerce platforms, analytics tools, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Moreover, personalization engines provide cohort analysis, A/B testing, and multivariate experimentation, giving developers the ability to efficiently segment audiences, improve algorithms, and assess effects.

Conclusion:
AI solutions are essential in transforming the e-commerce market at a time of digital revolution and elevated client expectations. Visual search engines provide consumers with the ability to explore content visually, chatbots improve customer service and interaction, and personalization engines provide customized experiences on a large scale. In a market that is getting more and more competitive, companies may maximize operations, spur revenue development, and build enduring relationships with clients by utilizing AI. The possibilities for AI-driven innovation in e-commerce are virtually endless as technology develops further, offering a world in which every encounter is enjoyable, smooth, and customized.

Good evening. I just got home from a fun day of a baby shower that turned into a cook out. Its been an action packed week with a rewarding weekend that I will NEVER forget, even if the lights only visited me one night but no graphs or imagery tonight. I have pondered the events of the last 10 days and as I look back, it was a dream come true. Not just seeing something I have always wanted to see in the AB, but meeting all of you, and sharing this experience. Building the foundations of a community here on Reddit where we can share, learn, discuss, and explore free from any restraint or encumbrance in an inclusive setting where there are only two rules. Respect one other along the lines of the golden rule, treat as you would like to be treated and no politics. Remember the sun gives light and warmth to all regardless of what party you are with or what church or place of worship you attend or dont attend. I will emulate that and I encourage you to as well.
With all of that being said, I took my own advice today, and I went about my day, kept my eyes on things, and had zero expectations. I wanted to see the lights tonight and I was with a group of people who would have loved to as well. It has not happened as of yet, and to be clear, while the chances are shrinking, but they are not dead, at least for those more northerly. I personally will not be staying up tonight, but would it surprise me if we had a brief stretch of more intense activity than we are seeing? Not at all, but at the same time we have to go back to the night of the X5.98 before any models had run. If you recall, I was concerned about the NW trajectory of the last CME owing to its location and LASCO coronagraphs, but I was swayed by the SWPC going G5 in their warning and the possibility of cannibalization. Gosh I wanted it to be true, but I just could not commit. I thought it would be more intense than it is but I never wavered in my uncertainty. Uncertainty can be a cop out, but truly I was uncertain and I tried to manage all of your expectations appropriately.
A spike or two cannot be ruled out and the Kp index forecast is elevated for the next several days, but I think we can all safely conclude that another Friday night is not in the cards here in the lower 48. Unfortunately alot of folks in Canada who would still be able to get a glimpse or two are dealing with wildfire smoke which not only makes viewing difficult, but makes breathing difficult. Here is hoping that gets better soon. If you decide to be a die hard tonight against the odds, I wish you luck, and you are not exactly crazy for trying, but the odds are long at this point. If there was a big CME in the pipe moving faster than the others, it would have likely been here by now but some fluctuation is expected at lower or even moderate levels for the next few days. All in all, I got some things right this week and I got some things wrong. The one thing I did not get wrong, is this stuff is difficult to predict, and the models struggled with timing and severity. I was impressed with DONKI Scorecard though, I think it is a heck of a tool. I love how it takes all of the models into consideration and will be consulting it always going forward. It was definitely the most accurate of the model systems in my view, but you may feel differently. This can get subjective and with so many readings from so many places, locations, levels, etc, its a data mess right now and I see the high end numbers quoted quite a bit but its important we wait for all of the data to be parsed and analyzed. I expect some revisions and we will see what it looks like when the smoke clears on this storm.
As far as any and all tools go, I will never hold them back from you. I am not here to gatekeep or play man behind the curtain. I have no degrees. I am a self proclaimed armchair analyst and while I take the moniker seriously and credibility is important to me as silly as that may sound, I want you to know that I am very much a student still. Several years ago, I was right where most of you are. My appetite for knowledge of all things has always been voracious and I have had various passions at times, but never one that I just had to share with somebody, anybody. My 9 year old loves this stuff, and I am working on my wife, but YOU are who shared my passion the most, and that is what it is all about to me. Sharing. Learning. Teaching. Growing. I feel good that I do not have to make any significant retractions or revisions and that I gave you the best advice I could and I am happy with the result. And you know what, even though there were no aurora overhead tonight at the get together I was at, it still ended up with the group marveling at the stars and objects in our sky, as we went through and identified each one and its characteristics. Saw a shooting star and starlink go by. My sister who lives in Tampa called me very excited and said that she saw a meteor overhead in the area around 830 EST. Like everyone, she is awed by beautiful and rare occurences, but is not what I would consider an enthusiast, but boy there sure was enthusiam in her voice when she called. I just smiled to myself, and thought about how grateful I am for how this all played out and I think we have set a pretty high bar here, but I will try my best to meet it for you each and every time. This sub is called SolarMax and that is our primary focus, but as my day 1's are aware, we get into alot more than just the sun. There are more spectacles yet to come this year, dare I say the chances exist for something just as special and just as rare, maybe more. Topic for another day.
I have just a few more housekeeping items to discuss and then I will be signing off for the night. I have alot to catch up on this week in my real job. I neglected it this past week with no regrets, but its time to pay the piper and get caught up. I do my best work back against the wall anyway and am no stranger to pressure. As a result though, I may not be as engaged or engaging, but I will keep you apprised. Whatever I know, you will know.
SHOULD I BE WORRIED?
No. Not just about the storm we had, but the next storm, or the mag field. I need to make something abundantly and unequivocally clear. We are in NO immediate danger, nor are we in danger in the forseeable future. We have new sunspots coming around and the growth curve on them may be ramping up. Again, I am excited. Its solar maximum. This is a natural process. Could a CE happen? NOAA just told you this weekend there is a 2 to 10% chance in the decades to come. You dont need me to tell you that its possible, but again, all manner of things are possible and COULD happen. You can't get yourself worked up about something that COULD happen, when there is no signs it is imminent. Look, there is some confusion about the mag field and its ramifications. Its a complicated topic, truly it is, but the concerns are not immediate. Our mag field has been weakening for over 150 years, yet here we are. You probably did not even know that, yet life has gone on still.
The other thing you need to take away from that is this other than its not an immediate concern you should suffer anxiety from, its a long term issue, just like climate, that is of course assuming that they are not sort of one in the same. If you are not losing sleep and fretting about our oceans literally trying to boil right now, then you are practicing some cognitive dissonance around the topic of existential dread. One fear is not greater than the other, and all fear is the enemy. We are just fine. We are safe. Our magnetic field does its job. It IS weakening, but its weakening slowly. Official estimates are at 5% per decade currently. That is not overnight. Its not next week. Its not even certain we should be concerned about it, there are two sides to the coin after all. For all of these reasons, you cannot get yourself worked up about it. Besides you know what else above all? Worrying your ass off about the world ending will not buy you a single minute more of time living your life and doing what you love with the people you love, so get busy living, or you'll stay busy dying from being eaten alive from stress and worry. Should you be prepared? Yes. Whether its a tornado, flood, EQ, war, hurricane, mega super duper extreme solar storm, its never a bad idea to have some supplies and most importantly a plan. This will calm you, and if you ever have to need it, youll be glad of it, and youll have something to anchor to when your anxiety and shock make it difficult to just get to the next moment. More than that, build a community, because in a really tough situation, a community gets through. Certainly some of you remember GoT. In the long night, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives. If you really are so worried about something so big and so totally out of your control, do that.
So people, take care of your mental health. If this stuff stresses you out, take a step back because it aint worth it. Can you imagine how silly the people on X who thought the world was ending this weekend feel right now? Most of them will never mention they were scared, or that they were panicking about nothing, they will never speak of it, and they will look for the next scare. I just hope they at least got to see the lights. Look, I will be real with you. When all of this started unfolding in earnest, and I knew the chances were there for a big storm, I posted my work in 2 places. Here and prepperintel. I met many of you from there. I posted it there because I respect the hell out of the suns power and I know that in the very very very rare event a CE or something of that nature unfolds, a few precious hours may mean everything. I am true to what I say. I do understand the risks, and I treat them appropriately, but I can only do so from a place of understanding and that takes time. Right now, what you NEED to know, is that we are safe, this was a great experience, the next sunspots may be more active, less active, the same as the departing regions, but there is a reason why the auroras have not dipped that far south in 20 years. So many things have to line up juuuust right for what we saw on Friday let alone a grid frying event. You would need a HUGE flare, and I do mean huge, no X5.98 or a twin peaked X1/M9 will suffice. Not only do you need a rediculously large flare, you need it to produce an earth directed CME, and while AR3664 seemingly did it at will, its not usually the case, but the times when its most likely to happen are during solar maximum. So many solar max have came and went and you never even knew it and you are still here on your tech.
I would like to think I know my stuff pretty well for an armchair expert, but I understand my limitations. There are people who are much more experienced, educated, and knowledgeable about the finer finer details and components of the space weather game that I am just barely beginning to grasp. Do you know that when I was first learning space weather that I used to get caught up in the same hype? I see that we had an X-Class flare, and Newsweek tells me that they can destroy powergrids, which is technically true, but damn if it doesnt leave out alot of nuance and fine details which are absolutely critical to understand in depth. So I get on Prepperintel and I make a post about it and I am ran off the damn sub because the people in there who knew more than I did knew it was nothing to be scared of. I was that person guys. If you felt that way this weekend, just know that I am you. But here we are, and now if I post something in there, those folks know its at least worth knowing about. Its a process. Its a complicated and nuanced topic, but its not inaccessible. I bet many of you had no idea that you could be a space weather observer like the folks at the alphabet agencies looking at the same data they do, but I hope you do now.
When I sat down to write this "small" update and goodnight, I did not expect to fill a page. I will tell you one thing about me. I have been called many many things in my life, but inarticulate is NOT one of them. I have more than a few video or YT live requests and maybe we get there eventually because I do think it will be cool and interactive. I may still cherish the written word but I am no dummy, I realize that is analog thinking in a digital world. However, here we are and I like the readers, because they are careful and considerate. They usually ave the attention span to get into complex subjects and are able to orchestrate exquisite theater of the mind.
This has been one of the most exciting and gratifying weeks of my life. I tried my best to keep up with the comments but I know I failed. Esp last night and today, I had to stop and smell the roses and its always family first in my world. Even if I had all day, I could not have kept up. These are human limitations of course, but I want you to know that I saw 99% of the comments, the posts, the messages, the pictures. I am deeply moved and I really appreciate everyone who took the time just to tell me their story, their experience, how this experience touched them, how they learned something new, how they werent scared anymore, who just appreciated the fact that Reddit now has a thriving dedicated solarmax community. I wish there was a way I could let you all know just exactly how much it all means, but these words will have to do. Thank you friends. We are only getting started. If you find yourself needing a fix though, check out the rest of the sub. Solarmax blew up this weekend, but we have been trying to get established for a bit and I say we, because it is not just me. Others have contributed, even when it was just a handful of people. I just can't say it enough, thank you thank you thank you. Every writer just wants someone to read their stuff. That is why they do it. If you can make a living at it, cool, but every writer started for free, and just wanted an audience, any audience, let alone one as awesome as you all.
And one final shoutout to Mrs AA for putting up with me absolutely glued to my phone, computer, and keyboard for the last 14 days and yes 14 days, because before AR3664 stole the show, lil ol AR3663 was trying so hard to make a name for itself, but just did not have the juice, but did depart with an X4.5 IIRC offhand. Solar max continues everyone, we got new sunspot groups to analyze, a few more mild impacts to come, and a ton of stuff to break down on the May 2024 Storms as well as the other topics I promised we would get into. We are only getting started and I look forward to sharing all of it with you.
For all of you who asked about whether you should chase your dream of astronomy or something space related, I have one final piece of advice this weekend. It does not matter if its space related, it just matters that you have a dream. If you have the ability and circumstance to chase or still chase your dream, you need to do it, whatever it is. The lucky(wise) people are not the ones who make millions on millions in a 80 hr work week where seeing their kids ball game is not even possible. The wise people are the ones who never work a day in their life because they love what they do and make a living that suits them and their family.
Good night everyone, and may you have clear skies.
AA

Buckle up, because this might be a bit long due to the context needed. For the sake of length I’m going to keep a lot of stories brief, but might elaborate in the future.
Me (24) and my older sister (26) share the same dad, but our mom divorced him when we were very young. Without going into too much detail he basically was cheating on my mom and was helping this other woman raise her kids while he was “away for work” throughout the week. I was a baby and my sister was a toddler. Eventually she found out and divorced him, and she easily got full custody of us with visitation. She never took him to court for child support, but they had agreed on what I believe was around $200 a month. He was always very late with payments (if he even paid at all), and he didn’t exercise visitation rights very often (just to put this into perspective about how much he was around even before the divorce, my mom told me that when my sister asked where he was mom said “daddy won’t be living with us anymore” and she said she just shrugged it off and went right back to playing). His visitation time went to his grandparents, who we were and are still very close with. After the divorce he got married to the other woman and officially became father to her kids. We would see him very rarely, and when we did it was almost exclusively to take us on trips or special occasions like Christmas and thanksgiving. This was how our entire childhoods were. We hardly ever saw him, but to some credit he did spoil us with stuff when we saw him. His new wife did not care for us, and even as kids we were aware of this fact.
Eventually when I was around 15 they divorced because she was cheating (you lose em how you get em) and he apologized to us bother for being absent during our childhoods and wanted to make it up to us. For a very short period of time things were better and he eventually met his new wife. He asked us how we felt about it beforehand, and we said as long as she was a nice woman we supported it completely. She had a young daughter who became our step sister, and my sister and I were very hopeful because his new wife seemed like she wanted to put in the effort to include us in things. They’re big on camping and outdoors things, so for a while we would occasionally get invited on these outings. I’ll admit, we did not always attend but we were teenagers both involved in extracurriculars.
I’d say after about a year of being married our contact with our dad started dwindling again, and the invites to their events started coming less. I could tell countless stories about our dad’s absence, but that would make this post MUCH too long. What I will say is that I was involved in a lot of music things in middle school, high school, and college (concert band, marching band, ensembles, honor bands, etc.) where I performed what has to be at least 200 times. I can count on one hand the times I remember him seeing me perform. My stepsister, however, played basketball and he went to almost all her games. You can start to see the theme here. When I was a teenager I tried to keep up some contact why calling every now and then, but I eventually stopped trying as much because I was always met with criticism about not calling enough (even though he NEVER called me first). He would also always hold it over my head that I was on his phone plan but never called. This did bother me because it felt VERY unfair, but I never said anything for the sake of keeping the peace between us. My older sister was more vocal, but nothing ever changed so honestly I didn’t see the point.
Fast forward to about the past year. Basically ever since they got married our contact has dwindled, but within the past year it’s reached a boiling point for my sister and I. It started last year when we were invited to FAMILY PICTURES that they had coordinated outfits for and had been planning for a while… the day of. It was also only about 3-4 hours prior and this was taking place in a different county. Everyone else had been invited weeks prior, including family FRIENDS… but not his biological daughters.
Fast forward a little more to November. I got a new job but the commute was pretty far, so my dad told me he was worried SICK about me driving my car because he felt it was unreliable. My stepsister recently got a newer car, so they wanted to trade my car for her old one. I was honestly so floored by this and was extremely grateful because that would’ve been much nicer than the car I was driving. This is a lengthier story so I’ll hit the highlights. First of all, it needed some work done before I could drive it that he said over and over would be such an easy fix that could be done within the week. This was 2 weeks before I started my job, and I got the car a month after I started. He said it really needed new tires and assured me he replaced all 4. Now I don’t know much about cars, but everyone who laid eyes on those tires said there’s no way they could be new. He also told us that the only issue it had was trouble turning over, but said it would start as long as you kept trying. After w got the car we found it just wouldn’t start at all sometimes, and that they knew the whole time. I wound up giving the car back and keeping my old car.
Finally, fast forward to today. At Mother’s Day dinner with our mom my sister reminded me to send our step mom a Mother’s Day text, but that she was irritated because she never responded to the message she had sent. She also told me that my dad was complaining about me on their phone plan and wanted to kick me off. After we parted ways she sends me a screenshot of our step moms Mother’s Day post where she details the elaborate Mother’s Day celebration they planned for her mom and OUR GRANDMOTHER. Every single one of her kids was present, and we didn’t even know it was happening (before you come for my grandma, it was a complete surprise for them). I won’t go into much detail right now, but it was a big celebration. This obviously stung quite a bit for us. I decided since it seemed I had become a burden that I would get off his phone plan and just stop calling all together. I planned to send him a message tomorrow telling him I would no longer need to be on his plan.
I guess my only reservation about where I might be the asshole is because I’ve never been vocal about how I felt, but at the same time he’s admitted before that he was aware of the fact that he neglected us through our childhoods and never really changed. I also think it might come across as petty right after Mother’s Day. Idk, what do you think?

i thought it would kind of fun to flip the script and have ice man in mavericks role and maverick in ice mans role.
boy oh boy do you really cut out a lot of the side plot like penny, rooster drama.
In Universe #2, Iceman didn't make #1 in Top Gun; he made #2. Maverick made #1 in the class of 1986.
In 2022, we see Iceman kiss his wife goodbye as he leaves his house in the suburbs. He gets in his car and drives to the experimental aircraft testing base.
Iceman arrives and steps out of his car, walking to the hangar with the Darkstar plane, greeted by Hondo.
Hondo informs Iceman that Admiral Cain is going to shut them down for underperforming and shuffling money to this drone program.
We see Iceman say they're going to get the plane to Mach 10.
Iceman does the pre-flight check-up, puts on the suit, and walks to the Darkstar to prep it for launch.
The Darkstar takes off. Admiral Cain arrives and asks what the hell is going on.
Iceman puts the Darkstar through her paces and eventually hits Mach 10. Unlike Maverick, he doesn't go past it and throttles down after hitting Mach 10, bringing her back to base.
After landing, he is escorted by shore patrol to Admiral Cain's office.
At Cain's office, he reads out Iceman's record: citations, 38 years of service, combat medals, only man to shoot down 2 enemy planes in 40 years, distinguished.
"Yet you can’t get a promotion, you won’t retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die. You should be at least a 4-star admiral by now, if not a senator. Yet here you are: Captain. Why is that?" Cain questions.
Iceman just bluntly says he likes flying.
Cain says that the future is with unmanned drones and Iceman's kind is headed to extinction. Cain received a call from upstairs from Iceman's guardian angel and that he's to be transferred to Top Gun.
Cain dismisses Iceman.
Iceman then leaves and gets in his car and drives to North Island.
We see Iceman arrive at Top Gun. He walks through the lobby and on the wall, he sees a portrait of 4-star Admiral Pete Mitchell, Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, along with a photo of Iceman and Maverick shaking hands on the hanger after that eventful mission in the Indian Ocean.
We see Iceman meet and greet Rear Admiral Bates aka Warlock and 3-star Admiral Beau Simpson, Air Boss aka Cyclone. They trade quick pleasantries before going over the mission: unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant built in violation of a multilateral NATO treaty.
Iceman goes through a rundown of what would need to be done with the F18s and precision-guided laser bombs.
Iceman assumes he'll be the one to fly the mission but Simpson tells him he's here to teach not actually fly the mission.
Simpson shows Iceman the pool of Top Gun grads that will be participating in the mission.
Iceman is confused.
Simpson tells Iceman that Iceman is only here at the request of Admiral Mitchell someone that Simpson admires and Mitchell believes Iceman has something to still offer the navy, what that is Simpson can't see it.
Iceman takes the job.
Iceman is not much of a drinker so he doesn't go to the bar and is home enjoying a glass of ice-cold water with his wife.
So next day, Iceman drives to the Top Gun school for evaluation and review of the candidates.
The 12 pilots are introduced to Admiral Bates and Bates says with the new 5th generation fighters the USAF and the USN no longer have total air superiority.
Six of them will be chosen and 6 will be in reserve.
Bates introduces the 12 pilots to Captain Tom Iceman Kazansky, one of the finest pilots that Top Gun ever produced.
Iceman says he will see what each one of them can do because it's all about the pilot.
They run through the fighter maneuvers. Iceman tests them and schools all of them. The only one to even give Iceman any kind of trouble was Hangman but Hangman also is no match for Iceman. They all have to do 200 pushups: Phoenix, Bob, Payback, Fanboy, Hangman, Coyote, Hammer, Fritz, Halo, Yale, Harvard, Omaha.
Hangman and Coyote look at pictures of old Top Gun class graduates and see a picture of Iceman with Maverick.
This is the second day and they actually run through the drills of the bombing mission.
Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two-plane teams.
You’ll fly along this narrow canyon to your target.
Radar-guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area.
These SAMs, they’re lethal.
But they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below.
That’s because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below them.
That’s exactly what I’m gonna train you to do.
On the day, your altitude will be 100 feet maximum.
You exceed this altitude…
[Radar beeping] Radar will spot you and you’re dead.
[Beeping intensifies]
Your airspeed will be 660 knots minimum.
Time to target: Two and a half minutes.
That’s because fifth-generation fighters wait at an air base nearby.
In a head-to-head with these planes in your F-18s, you’re dead.
That’s why you need to get in, hit your target and be gone before these planes even have a chance of catching you.
This makes time your greatest adversary.
You’ll fly a route in your nav system that simulates the canyon.
The candidates all failed either crashing into the wall, each other, or going above the altitude limit triggering the SAM missiles.
At the debriefing, Hangman and Rooster almost come to blows because Hangman basically says Rooster sucks.
Kazansky decides to pay Admiral Mitchell a visit at his home, a big mansion.
Admiral Mitchell's aide-de-camp opens the door for Kazansky.
There’s nothing else they can do.
Even speaking is painful now.
[Michell coughing]
[Coughs]
[Coughing]
Admiral.
Kazansky: How’s my wingman?
[Typing]
Please, don’t worry about me.
What can I do for you?
[Sighs]
All right.
[Chuckles]
Kazansky: these kids suck.
[Typing]
The mission is less than three weeks away.
The kid’s not ready.
[Typing]
Mav, please, don’t ask me to send someone else to die.
Please don’t…
Don’t ask me to send him.
Send me.
I don’t know how.
[Sighs]
I’m not a teacher, Mav.
I’m a fighter pilot.
A naval aviator.
It’s not what I am.
It’s who I am.
How do I teach that?
It’s not what the Navy wants.
That’s why they canned me the last time.
The only reason I’m here is you.
If I send him on this mission, they might never come home.
And if I don’t send him, he’ll never forgive me.

• A bit of backstory: Iceman, unlike in Earth 1, feels responsible for Goose's death since Mav and Goose got caught in his jet wash and Goose got his neck broken when they tried to eject out of a flat spin.

[Sighs]
I know.
I know.
[Exhales deeply]
[Grunts]
[Coughs]
[Hoarsely] The Navy needs Iceman.
The kid needs Iceman.
That’s why I fought for you.
That’s why you’re still here.
Thank you, Mav, for everything.
One last thing.
Who’s the better pilot?
You or me?
Kazansky: you obviously, you got 1st place.
[Laughing]
Instead of wasting time playing football, Iceman has them run more drills over and over again to get it right.
[Warlock] Good morning.
The uranium enrichment plant that is your target will be operational earlier than expected.
Raw uranium will be delivered to the plant in ten days’ time.
As a result, your mission has been moved up one week in order to avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation.
Kazansky: Sir, no one here has successfully flown a low-level course.
Nevertheless, you’ve been ordered to move on.
Captain.
[Iceman] We have one week left to focus on phase two.
It’s the most difficult stage of the mission.
It’s a pop-up strike with a steep dive, requiring nothing less than two consecutive miracles.
Two pairs of F-18s will fly in a welded wing formation.
Teamwork. Precise coordination of these aircraft is essential to both the mission’s success and your survival.
As you know, the plant rests between two mountains.
On final approach, you’ll invert directly into a steep dive.
This allows you to maintain the lowest possible altitude and the only possible attack angle.
Your target is an impact point less than three meters wide.
The two-seat aircraft will paint the target with a laser bull’s-eye. [Beeping]
The first pair will breach the reactor by dropping a laser-guided bomb on an exposed ventilation hatch.
This will create an opening for the second pair.
That’s miracle number one.
The second team will deliver the kill shot…
[Target lock beeps]
And destroy the target.
That’s miracle number two.
If either team misses the target…
That’s a miss. [Iceman] The mission is a failure.
Egress is a steep high-g climb out to avoid hitting this mountain.
A steep climb at that speed, you’re pulling at least eight G’s.
Nine, minimum.
Rooster: The stress limit of the F-18’s airframe is 7.5.
[Iceman] That’s the accepted limit.
To survive this mission, you’ll pull beyond that, even if it means bending your airframe.
You’ll be pulling so hard, you’ll weigh close to 2,000 pounds, your skull crushing your spine…
Your lungs imploding like an elephant’s sitting on your chest,
fighting with everything you have just to keep from blacking out.
And this is where you’ll be at your most vulnerable.
This is coffin corner.
Assuming you avoid crashing into this mountain, you’ll climb straight up into enemy radar while losing all of your airspeed.
Within seconds, you’ll be fired upon by enemy SAMS.
You’ve all faced sustained G’s before, but this…
This is gonna take you and your aircraft to the breaking point.
Phoenix/Bob and Coyote run the course and fail except Coyote crashes his plane and dies.
Then, with a bird strike hitting Phoenix's plane, both engines fail along with their ejection seats, and crash, both die.
Both are ruled as accidents and not held against Iceman.
Admiral Pete Mitchell passes away from throat cancer and Iceman attends his funeral with full military honors.
While Iceman was at Mitchell's funeral, Admiral Simpson thought of grounding Iceman for good but thought what better way than for Iceman to fail and Admiral Simpson will have full evidence to terminate Iceman for good.
Iceman thinks it's better to show them that the course can be done so Iceman himself demonstrates it and successfully completes it with bombing and all with no weapons officer.
Admiral Simpson is shocked as are the other surviving lieutenants in attendance.
With Iceman's amazing flying skills, Simpson just appoints Iceman team leader.
On the aircraft carrier, Iceman has some quick words with Admiral Warlock and Warlock wishes him good luck along with saying his goodbyes.
Iceman picks Payback and Fanboy, Rooster, and Hangman for his mission.
Everyone else will standby on the carrier.
Admiral Simpson in command of the mission.
They run through the mission one more time.
They launch from the carrier.
The supporting destroyers launch their Tomahawk missiles on Admiral Simpson's commands.
While Iceman and his team are en route, radar only detects 2 enemy fighter craft in the air.
The Tomahawks hit their targets and destroy the enemy runways so they can't launch any more planes.
The first pair of planes (Payback, Fanboy) which include Iceman, they hit the target opening up a hole for team 2 to drop the bomb in the reactor.
The second pair (Rooster, Hangman) manage to also hit their target and destroy the reactor.
While everyone is trying to climb out of the mountain, the SAM missiles are triggered and fire missiles at the fighters. Rooster's plane is hit and destroyed.
Admiral Simpson orders all carrier planes to return to the carrier. Hangman, Payback, Fanboy, and Iceman successfully make it back to the carrier.
We see Iceman go home to his wife and the sequence fades to black.
THE END

Someone was saying that I should share it here. I'm working on getting a Pilgrim Noire as well soon. I'll be comparing it pretty soon.
“Not a Baby Anniliator”
This is an interesting iem. A lot of people have called this a baby Anniliator, but it’s not it’s different it’s it’s own monster. So there is a hint of disappointment to my ears as I want to say “Hey, this is just like the anniliator!” There is a trend to jump on the bandwagon. I could throw shade and try to call others out in a way, but I want this iem review to start off with some simple statement about what this iem is, and is not. This is a satisfying iem, that is well worth the price, but it isn’t exactly what an Anniliator is.
This is a purchased set. I had to move a few headphones around to be able to afford this set. While purchasing or samples can effect how a reviewer might want to review, I try to remain unbiased when possible.
This is a personal product and I am fully happy with my purchase. I really enjoy this iem. I was able to demo it at Can Jam 2023. I would never recommend buying any iem past say 200 dollars if you haven’t demoed it first. Maybe your limit is higher, but that’s my default recommendation to all. I try to tell the story of purchase or acquisition whenever I buy an iem. I asked Hifigo about this iem and told them that I was interested in reviewing it, I did buy this iem with my own cash and had to move some gear around to afford this.
Let me share what music that I listen to:
Song Choice: Tidal list here:
I listen to a wide variety of music. I pick the songs because of various reasons. But I picture myself locked away like Andy Dufresne from Shawshank blasting music and shut off from the world. It’s a blissful image.
The Marriage of Figaro -The opera song from Shawshank Redemption, terrible recording but fun and gets me in the mood to listen to music.
O mio Babino caro -This is a modern less operatic version but a song with great female vocals.
Video Rigoletto - “La donna e mobile” Sung by one of the three Tenors, great song for high-performing male vocals. Pavarotti is the greatest classic singer maybe ever. Fight me!
Iron man - The sound at the beginning is hard to make sound great, great drums, and cymbals, and if done right it feels like an old-school band.
I Will Survive (1981 recording, I like her voice, and the old vocals, the drums, and various natural instruments really make this a favorite for me.
There is a light That never goes out - Smiths ( A classic, I just love it. It’s mellow, and I can tell a lot of the tuning if this song is done right.)
Jump (I like how the sound effects are in this!)
Star Child Someone recommended this song to me, and I like how funky it sounds and has nice vocals and a mix of music and things going on.
Dicke Titten Ramstein The beginning is amazing and the bass hits hard. Great song. I love rock and metal. The German language fascinates me
Master of Puppets: Very fast song. Helps me determine if the driver can keep up.
This is a newer version of my 10 favorite songs that also work for audiofile music.
This is a copy of a bunch of good audiofile music. Some are on my favorites, but all are great to test headphone tracks. (70+)
This is my favorite overall music. 300+ songs (needs to be edited a bit)
Bass (20-60 Sub Bass, 60-250 Hz Mid Bass)
The details of the bass is strong and everything sounds right on it. The bass seems well-controlled and fun. One thing the Pilgrim isn’t is lean, it has a nice tonality that is very suiting and pleasant. I do find the quality of the bass is correct. I feel percussions on it sound great. The iem is clean and lush even in the bass.
The Above is my Targe with the Bass only on the Pilgrim. It’s a nice fit!
Midrange (250 HZ to 800 HZ Low Mids, 600-200 Hz Mids, 2000-5000Hz Upper Mids)
The timber and tone is great on this iem, people have described it as near perfect or class leading and they aren’t joking. It is basically perfect for what I want out of an iem. . It has nothing that will often plague other iems. No weird plastic feeling, voices sound right with no plastic feeling.
I don’t find it shouty but fun, smoothe and enjoyable. The Timbre of this iem is lush and energetic. This comes across slightly energetic and U shaped, but is still a smooth listen and very enjoyable.
Treble (5000- 10000 Trebble/Highs, 10000 ++ HZ Upper Trebble & Air)
The 5-6k region which is still fairly accurate on a 711 coupler is very hot for me. This might be an issue with some people. I personally prefer sets that have this down a lot more. Is this an issue, no in fact in just reviewed a set that had a peak around that level. But for what I am used to the 5-6k region comes across very bright.
The treble is a good part of this set and this iem has great detail and sparkle for me. No issues here. I’m able to game, listen to music, and a podcast all at once with this iem. It has incredible details that come across in the treble. Looking at the frequency response I would think it would sound neutral or boring without the 3k spike, but I enjoyed it. All the music that I listen to sounds great and I feel that it has a wide beautiful soundstage.
Gaming
Gaming is great on this iem, it’s cozy and has a world class feeling of fit to me. Details sparkle for me, but the treble and space aren’t much better than the Hexa, it is fairly similar and on about the same level. It has a beautiful open and clean sound. The stage isn’t too wide, but just right. Detail retrieval during fights is immaculate, and the imaging vertically and horizontally is fantastic. It has great imaging and a good sense of where I am.
Shell -
The shell is pretty, it fits great and I find it an exceptional fit. I’m not a huge fan of metallic shells but this iem feels great in ear. It feels pretty great in ear. I had some minor concerns over the shell of the iem, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Case- The case have an odd feeling and doesn’t feel as good in the hands that it looks. It has a beautiful look, but the inside has a ridge aroud that it doesn’t feel super durable. Almost like a cardboard ridge that could be destroyed very easily. Overall it’s a nice case that feels and looks great. I took it to work to do some testing and it worked great for my use.
Cable- The cable comes in 3.5 or 4.4. I would recommend to chose carefully as it is a pennaconn cable and those are expensive to come by. Overall the cable is very nice and premium feeling. I was concerned about the cable. But it feel durable in hand and thick.
Tip Selection - The tips are Spinfits W1, they are the same used in the anniliator. I found myself using Eletech Baroque tips, as the iem was having a slight issue staying in my ear.
Comparisons:
Vs Anni 2023
Ok, vs the iem of the same brand that, I own and love. The bass is better a tad more rich and organic, the upper treble isn’t as natural, but it’s close, it’s so close. The midbass in the anniliator is much better, and the overall natural tone of the anniliator is better by a lot to my ears. This doesn’t mean the Pilgrim is a bad iem, but to me it just a strong iem that isn’t exactly perfect. Some people might even like The Pilgrim better as the sound is a little bit more organic. I always say to demo anything over say 200 dollars when possible, and take everything with a grain of salt.
It amplifies the slightly odd fun treble of the anniliator up to 10. Some people might be reminded of how bright the annilator sounds, but to my ears the Pilgrim is brighter, almost plastically so. It’s a unique experience. Again, the Pilgrim is a very good iem, I’m using my audiophile microscope here. But using that, the Pilgrim is brighter, the Annilaitor has better vocals, bass, and more balanced treble with a better fit. It by no means takes “Anni’s” place to me in the market. Despite being a very solid and nice product.
Vs Hype 4. (The similar price)
Let’s compare the iem that I’m reviewing vs an iem that is of the same price. I think the mids of hype 4 are slightly better. I like the eargain region of the Hype 4 better. I wouldnt’ call the hype 4 much better, just a different colorization of sound. I think the Hype 4 has a more mainstream tuning for those looking for something similar to JM-1 curve.
The Pilgrim is brighter, but to my ears sounds more technical and right. But it is a close comparison as their graphs are somewhat similar. They trade blows and are both very good iems. At their prices I recommend both, one isn’t better than the other. The Hype 4 would be my recommendation as I like the resin shell a bit more, and I think the sound is a little less colored. The Pilgrim is slightly flavored and fun, and an overall masterful sound for it’s price. Like if I wanted to recommend to someone in the hobby who had only 400 dollars I’d say go Pilgrim easy, but to someone who wanted a one and done set to ride off into the sunset, I’d go Hype 4.
VS MEGA 5 EST
This is the that hype tuning that many are searching for. If you want to experience that hype tuning the Xuan NV might be the better source for you. The Pilgrim is a very good set with slightly recessed Male Vocals and female vocals, but it is still very nice. Obviously, demo both, but if I had to recommend one over the other I’d go with Pilgrim due to its much cheaper price. I really didn’t like the Mega 5 EST, but don’t find it a poor iem, just dull. The Pilgrim isn’t dull and has better bass and better air and technicalities. The Mega 5 est is more neutral and plain and lacks anything of excitement to me. It feels like a iem made in a factory by robots and doesn’t get me exciting. Just way to neutral and bland.
But again, demo everything first.
VS Aful 5
Similiar tonality in someways. It is much better than the P5. But has some similarities and it is an option that gets you pretty close to the tonality of this iem. Personally I think the Aful 5 might be a better value, but the Pilgrim is a great set if you can afford it. If you can’t and only have money for a cheaper set, the Aful Performer 5 is my recommendation at the cheaper price point.
Sound - Final Impressions
While this iem is very good, and almost perfect especially at it’s price it doesn’t fall into the category of “BLIND BUY THIS NAO!!!”, but more of yeah it’s pretty good, enjoyable, but not an Annilator. I welcome the day an iem takes or beats the 2023 Elysian Annilator for me, but this aint it. It’s a super good iem, that I would feel is competitive with it’s peers and either class leading or better. I recently review the hype 4 and loved it. I think the Pilgrim is on par with the Hype 4, and maybe better sonically. I think both of these 400ish dollar iems are better than MANY 1000+ sets that I’ve listened to. But again, all my opinions are based on my ears and your mileage might vary.
Recommended EQ: I use Peace APO to EQ on the PC. This EQ is done to my preference. I recently set up a preference curve on My Squig. So for at least iems, I can use my own graphs now. Please feel free to use the measurements as you want.. Jaytiss.squig.link
Overall this is an amazing iem that could easily be a game for most. The goal for me with an iem is to have an that doesn’t need EQ. This iem, does sound better to me with this eq, more neutral and less colored.
Preamp: -2.1 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 34 Hz Gain 1.9 dB Q 0.700
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 150 Hz Gain 0.7 dB Q 2.000
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 670 Hz Gain 0.7 dB Q 1.200
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1400 Hz Gain -1.7 dB Q 2.000
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3700 Hz Gain 3.3 dB Q 1.900
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5600 Hz Gain -4.4 dB Q 2.000
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 7900 Hz Gain 1.5 dB Q 1.200
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 9500 Hz Gain 3.1 dB Q 2.000
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 12000 Hz Gain -2.2 dB Q 0.500
Filter 10: OFF PK Fc 0 Hz Gain 0.0 dB Q 0.000
Gifting/who is it for: I think this is a nice hifi iem to gift to someone, it is an expensive iem but overall it’s a solid package that sounds fantastic. It’s a handsome shell, good looking cable, but it is a little too white for my take. If price wasn’t a concern I’d probably consider the Noire due to a superior color and $350 dollar included cable. But the packaging of the Pilgrim is very much so on point and very enjoyable.
I do think this is a worth mainstream iem for the masses and gives you a taste of the Elysian sound. It may or may not be the best dollar-for-dollar iem for your tastes, but it is an exceptional product that is exceedingly enjoyable from a packing sound and build quality. I have no doubt these shells will surivie the Zombie Apocalypse.
Pairing: I used a Quidelix 5k for mobile, my dongle Dac iBasso DC04 for my laptop, and my JDS labs Element III MK2 Boosted for my Desktop PC. I also tried the iem briefly on the Apple dongle as well. This iem had no issues being driven. Typically I only find overears to really have a hard time being driven and maybe some planar iems. (I personally am not a huge mmcx or planar fan.)

Summary-
I’ve recently redone my ranking system to include a gaming/comfort quality, an overall rating along with Crinacle style rating. I am also releasing a video on Youtube at the
I have a Youtube review on my small channel if anyone wants to check it out.