I thought it would be a fun idea to write out my headcanons for the other, unmentioned settlements/cities in the New California Republic. As a SoCal native, I thought it would also be fun seeing how some notable cities in the region would look in the fallout universe. I’ve only included places in Southern California because I honestly don’t have too much detailed knowledge about central/northern CA cities.
I tried fitting it in with the lore at the time of New Vegas in 2281, but there might be a few mistakes here and there.

San Diego Area

-Camp Pendleton: Controlled by one of the largest Raider groups of SoCal, cutting off entry to the San Diego area from the 5 Freeway. Uses restored Vertiberds, Power Armor, and APCs left over by the Marines after the war. Because of this, they are an extremely valuable target for the Brotherhood of Steel, though they have not launched a full-scale attack due to fears of high casualties. This, along with manpower shortages in the region due to the the situation in the Mojave, has prevented the NCR from conducting operations as well. Many in the San Diego area have discussed creating a temporary alliance between Settlers/NCR, the BOS, and the Temecula Super Mutants, though the feasibility of that seems a bit low.
-Escondido: Settlement located along the former 15 freeway and acts as a trade settlement on the way to San Diego. Population: 400. Facing raider attacks from nearby Camp Pendleton and feeling like they’ve been failed by the NCR, some local leaders have considered asking the Temecula Super Mutants to assist in a joint assault on the camp. Population: 500.
-San Diego: Though one of the founding states of the New California Republic, San Diego, now known as Dayglow, is severely underfunded and underdefended compared to other States. Some say this is because of its distance from the capital, others says its because of continued discriminiation towards Ghouls and Super Mutants who helped found the settlement. Despite this, it still operates as a thriving scrap hub and exports many of the materials used by NCR soldiers, vehicles, and machinery. Many smaller settlements still exist in areas farther from downtown, the most major of which include El Cajon, Chula Vista, and Miramar. The latter is the main NCR facility in the area, and has been requesting additional support from Shady Sands to help defeat the Camp Pendleton Raiders. Though having the threat of Raiders in the northwest as well as threats of increased radiation exposure from the Glow in the northeast, many of these settlements are some of the most advanced in the NCR due to the pre-war governance and technology maintained by the descendants of Vault 72. Located near Balboa Park, Vault 72 is the only known vault in the area. Though initially an experiment vault, like Vault 81 in the Commonwealth, its operations were cut short, in this case after a mutiny against the scientists and Overseer by the inhabitants, many of whom were Ex-military due to the Vault’s close distance to the San Diego Navy Yards. For the next century and a half, Vault 72 acted as a control vault. Eventually, its systems started to fail, and many of its inhabitants exited the vault in search of new settlements, bringing the technology and infrastructure found in the vaults with them. As the New California Republic expands, there have been rumors among NCR soldiers about restoring some of the abandoned Navy ships in the former San Diego harbor, though nothing has been completely confirmed. The Brotherhood of Steel also seeks to acquire former military technology in the area, but has been unable to do so.

Inland Empire

-Riverside: Home to “Rubidoux,” a mid-sized NCR town with a population of about 1,000. Located on the base of Mt. Rubidoux. The Mission Inn, located in the former downtown, is now utilized as an NCR armory and base. Possible plans to rebuild more of downtown have been discussed by local leaders, but not implemented. Vault 54 is located near Rubidoux on the base of Box Springs Mountain. It is a rare control vault with around 800 living citizens, and has been frequently trading with the nearby Rubidoux settlement since its opening in around 2245.
-San Bernardino: Took the most nuclear strikes out of all cities in SoCal’s Inland Empire during the Great War. Due to this, Feral Ghoul encounters are common in the area, though their population has been dwindling in recent years due to Rubidoux settlers and NCR forces slowly clearing up the area, mainly to help caravans from the area safely travel the 215 freeway to reach high desert settlements.
-Temecula: Reclaimed by former Master Super Mutants into a small settlement, population of 50. Do not mind caravans using the former 15 freeway that goes through the city to reach the San Diego area.
-Hemet: Thriving farm town. Decently isolated from the SoCal sprawl, Hemet is relatively sleepy and peaceful. Supplies a decent amount of crops to the IE region. Nothing really interesting about it besides that. Population: 300.

Desert Regions

-Idyllwild: Used as a training ground for NCR soldiers due to its isolation in the mountains.
-Palm Springs: Run by the remnants of the Agua-Caliente, Cabazon, and Morongo Native American Tribes. Due to its strategic prominence, being south of the Mojave and west of Arizona, as well as its proximity to the Idyllwild training grounds and routes to Shady Sands, it has become popular with many NCR higher-ups, many of whom own second homes in the town. Population: 1,000. Vault 93: Located in the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains. Experimental vault studying the effects of celebrity influence. A dozen celebrities were selected among the 900 civilians who entered the vault, where factions aligning with each of them divided up the leadership inside. No holotapes have been found showing what happened next, though it is to assume that whatever played out led to Vault 93 being opened and vacated. Though considered by the NCR to be repurposed, it sits abandoned, now silently overlooking the Sonoran wastes.

Orange County

-Huntington Beach: Inhabited by the descendants of the Children of the Cathedral, who founded a settlement in what was Huntington Beach after the destruction of the Cathedral in Long Beach and the end of the Unity project in 2162. Though they tend to keep to themselves, there are still some devout Unity believers who kidnap caravans travelling along the former 405 freeway in order to adopt them into the cult and keep the population afloat (They don’t have any FEV to make Super Mutants). Population: 100.
-Irvine: Largely an NCR base centered around the former John Wayne Airport, though there are a decent amount of civilians who have set up shop to cater to the large soldier population. The 452nd Battalion is stationed at the airport, though their numbers have dwindled due to transfers to the Mojave. This has made them unable to respond to the Camp Pendleton Raiders. Population (including soldiers): 2,000.
-San Clemente: A “Ghoul only” settlement ran by wealthy pre-war Ghouls who maintain the area. Despite the exclusivity, it has maintained a population of over 1,000 mainly by bringing in other Ghouls from Orange County and the surrounding area. Mainly keeps to themselves though they accept caravans for trade, though less have been showing up due to the threat of the Camp Pendelton Raiders.

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If even this gets taken down after everything said, using the spoiler tag, as well as not showing the new illustration so it can't be a repost (even since it's deleted), then I've been silenced to which I say so be it. 😟
You know, I would like to share my dream, that was crushed as quickly as it was made. The moment I passed the 70 'likes' mark on that post, I felt that my peak in life was near. I figured, with it being my most highly-engaged and liked post, that it was only up from here, winning life. Pure bliss. I was confident that I'd be going beyond, and start earning income on social media. Whether it was by starting a podcast due to my influence, or by gaining a following to jumpstart my journey to becoming an internet prodigy. But, no. My dream can't come true now, and I doubt a chance like this will ever come by me again. Perhaps it was never meant to be, the moment I uploaded that post. My eyes filled with water when I saw that deletion, my heart with rage when my upcoming was brought down, my lungs with smoke to calm the stress, my brain with toxicity seeing the reasons why. There are no words that can describe this feeling of betrayal, and I won't bother as it may be taken down due to my poetic nature being so great, it may be mistaken for AI and removed as spam. I understand they may not have understood how much it meant to me, as it's just a simple, silly, goofy even, meme. I even worked hard on making it, putting all my years of experience into creating it. However, with the amount of engagement, the laughs and cries that we've shared under that post, all but gone in such short notice, made me realize that it was everything to me. I understand there isn't much that I could do on my own, now that my empire has fallen, but I will call in my final breath...
Redditors... Assemble.
We must not allow such prejudice to take place, nor given the right to pass judgement on us. We should fight for our right to goon, and our right to prosper. How could one judge my lack of spoiler tag when there are multiple posts with spoilers with no such tag attached?! For "no reposts", how about the multiple questions of where to start after the anime, or "LN or manga", or "should I read .5s?" to which there are dozens yet never addressed?! There's even a pinned post by the mods for the LN's, not to mention the option to search the question on the page. There are of course more and/or different cases, but those two are what I was accused of, and therefore punished. There was a new illustration released recently, so it's only natural there would be multiple posts containing and talking about said illustration. Why was I the exception? I am heartbroken, distraught even. After all the things the mods and I have gone through together, how could they do this to me? I thought what we had was special, but I may just be kei to their kiyotaka in the end.
Mods hate to see us winnin❗️❗️They were threatened, they knew if anyone could do it, it'd be me.

I've always been one to piece together storylines where some would say it's ridiculous, then again, I'm very imaginative. I love making up Half-Life mods and "expansion packs" in Garry's Mod, imagining it as some sort of custom campaign. Over all this time, there is one connection that, if an actual Half-Life enthusiast stumbled upon it, they'd laugh in disbelief, and it's the following.
I don't think the Black Mesa Incident happened in 1999, 2000 or 2003. I think it happened right after the events of Left 4 Dead 2. Seriously, think about it. The Green Flu being the way it is makes me feel like it's some sort of biological weapon, if we imagine the Combine have already been spying and infiltrating Earth, or maybe the G-Man had something to do with Patient Zero in Mercy Hospital. He caused the resonance cascade, I'm sure the Green Flu could also be his doing in a way. Either it's from the Combine, or from the G-Man.
After that, I can imagine the events of Counter-Strike happening, as the world recovers from the pandemic (due to the Green Flu fading over just a few months due to the visible decay of the Infected), and things are being rebuilt, there is a surge of gangs and terrorists attacking important positions in regions that were in quarantine, for the sake of being more covert, or because a lot of potential stopping factors like citizens and law enforcement have died in the affected regions. The Coalition Taskforce (the ones responsible for sending in the CTs, lore wise) sending in small units which survived due to being carriers, which eventually have to fight against Ts that are also either carriers or survivors of the pandemic makes sense.
I know the years are a bit behind here with the CS side of things, but honestly, a revolutionary like Valeria Jenner trying to execute her operations with Franz Kriegeld in a post-pandemic world sounds very feasible, with many traditional police forces and military being out of commission or busy fighting the Green Flu, or cleaning up the mess it left behind, some still infected in late stages of decay, or dead. There's the possibility Franz also may have been the one given the Green Flu samples by either the G-Man, or were found by Combine related actions either in Xen (Pretty sure Black Mesa isn't the only one to have access to the borderworld, to be honest) or from direct infiltration on Earth, some of which he could've used in his Danger Zone experiments.
Then, when we count the Xen infestation of Earth after the Resonance Cascade taking yet another toll on Earth's already weakened armies, it feels way more imaginable for the Combine to take over Earth in just seven hours, when most of the world's military already has been damaged, and to an extent, destroyed before they even set a proper foot on it beyond covert infiltration operations.
Half-Life 2 and the episodes always bugged me in a way. Why did the Combine not send more forces than Gordon could handle? Hell, the HECU in the first game made a successful ambush against him, which seems more feasible than the Combine constantly throwing forces his way, not really planning out a sneak attack or something like that. This makes me think, the garrison force the Combine created on Earth with genetic modification doesn't seem as powerful as it looks, and he's lucky that they are probably very busy dealing with rebellions and guerilla everywhere, almost every day, but that could also be extended to the *actual* extent of the Combine.
Remember how Dr. Mossman elaborated that the Combine did not factor in the dark energy equations? If they were as powerful as they are portrayed to be, they likely would know about the calculations in the first place. If their only crutch is multiversal teleportation using superportals, and mass enslavement of species, then they may really be more backwater than they let on to be. If the garrison force on Earth is as weak as on other Combine-controlled planets, (The Magnusson Device essentially nullifies Striders, Hunters are apparently susceptible to AR3s, but this is vague and just one small conversation in EP2, Gunships are easily countered with Resistance RPGs, so are the helicopters with the Airboat Gun) then it seems more and more likely to me that the Combine were simply opportunists. They have a competent enough main army for sure, but their garrison forces suck, which tells me that they're not really occupiers, more thieves who want to suck the Earth out of it's resources and manpower, that has been shown multiple times throughout the series.
They make a quick stab with their daggers, but they can't make a proper finishing blow, Them requiring their homeland forces so quickly after the Citadel's crown has been destroyed (I'm sure there aren't more Citadels around, with City 17's being the only one, since it's destruction caused the Suppression Field to vanish, which, I don't know if it's a global or local thing) makes me believe that this garrison force *really* is made out of wet paper at the very most. They got their Advisors, so why do they decide to blow the whole thing up and try and reorganize, which gave Humanity enough time to counter their superportal?
Maybe I'm just crazy, but I swear, something doesn't add up with the Combine, reading all this. Marc Laidlaw stating they're so much more powerful than anything Gordon or possibly the G-Man handle is reasonable, especially since he's the writer, but I have a different interpretation here.
I know I'm telling this to an audience of maybe like 5 people, all of which probably have never touched a Valve game, but putting my theory out there probably is better than not doing so.
Adios. Hope you had fun reading my borderline schizophrenic take on Valve's universes. Oh, and Portal is parallel to Half-Life in terms of universes, I think they happen around the same timeframe. That is it, everyone.

If you ask other RVers which national park is their favorite, someone is bound to mention Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. It's a camper's paradise with wide open space and panoramic views.
Most evenings, the landscape glows at golden hour, and the sky turns from red hot at sunset to dark blue and star-filled at night. You can enjoy the remoteness of the park but also its proximity to Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.
Take the time during your visit to enjoy the endless roads of the desert landscape, play on the rock formations, and, of course, marvel at the Joshua Trees.

Why Visit Joshua Tree National Park?

The first reason to visit Joshua Tree National Park is to see its famous and fascinating Joshua Trees. Since the Mojave desert is the only place in the world where they grow naturally, Joshua Tree National Park is the best place to see them.
These trees range between 15-40 feet tall and can live an impressive 150 years. They’re members of the Yucca family and appear as though they're from a different planet, with limbs unpredictably jetting out like they have their own minds.
Another great reason to visit Joshua Tree National Park is the warm weather and abundance of sunshine. It’s no secret that RVers love to snowbird and the Californian desert is a wonderful place to be during the spring and fall months. You’ll enjoy sunny days and clear nights, perfect for dry camping with solar panels.

When to Visit Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park is open year-round, but the best times to visit are during the spring and fall months. Park elevations range from 536 feet to 5,814 feet above sea level, so expect conditions to vary depending on where you go in the park.
Here’s more information on the seasonal weather in Joshua Tree.

Spring

Spring is a very popular time in the park because the temperatures range from the mid-60s in February to the mid-70s in April. Depending on the year, wildflower blooms can be seen in the latter part of spring at the lower elevations within the Pinto Basin.

Summer

Due to extreme desert heat (+100℉ days are the norm), the park is pretty quiet during the summer. Late in the summer, monsoon season hits Joshua Tree, which cools down the daytime temperatures but can also lead to flash flooding in valleys and ravines.

Fall

Monsoon season continues into the fall, but it soon gives way to one of the best times to visit. Temperatures from August into October fall from the upper 90s into the low 80s, and evening temperatures range from the low 70s to the low 50s, on average.

Winter

In the heart of winter, the park's average daily temperature is 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which is perfectly comfortable, but the nights get cold and often drop to freezing. Overnight temperatures in December and January average in the mid-30s.
Check the park’s website for the latest weather alerts and condition updates.

Where to Stay

Joshua Tree National Park is pretty remote and expansive. You'll want to stay a few days. Unlike other national parks, there are no lodges or resorts for overnight accommodations. There are eight developed campgrounds, however, and camping out under the stars at Joshua Tree is an unforgettable experience.
Here are a few important things to be aware of ahead of time if you plan to camp in Joshua Tree.

Reservation versus First-Come, First-Served

Four of the developed campsites require reservations. They’re larger than the first-come, first-served campgrounds, and some offer water and flush toilets. These campgrounds fill up very quickly. We recommend planning well in advance.

Reservation Required Campgrounds

• Black Rock Campground
• Cottonwood Campground
• Indian Cove Campground
• Jumbo Rocks Campground

Black Rock and Cottonwood are the most developed campgrounds (water, toilets, sanitation dump) and are the only campgrounds you can stay in if you have a larger rig.
Black Rock has six sites that can accommodate rigs with a total length (tow vehicle included) of 38-40 feet and seven sites up to 42 feet. Cottonwood has around twenty-five campsites that can accommodate rigs slightly longer than 35 feet.
Indian Cove and Jumbo Rocks both have a few spots for RVs up to 35 feet in total length. If you have a rig larger than 35 feet, site availability may be considerably limited.

First-come, First-served Campgrounds

These campgrounds are great options if you have a smaller rig and the good fortune of securing a site. During the popular season, these campgrounds fill every weekend and often during the week, as well.

• Belle Campground
• Hidden Valley Campground
• Ryan Campground
• White Tank Campground

These are primitive campgrounds, so you will need to bring (and carry out) everything you’ll need during your stay.

Staying Outside the Park

If you’re unable to find a site in the park or you’re looking for a campground with more amenities, here are a few nearby campgrounds:

• TwentyNine Palms RV Resort and Cottages: About 10 minutes from the north entrance.
• Sam’s Family Spa and Resort: About 45 minutes from the main visitor center.
• Catalina Spa and RV Resort: About 50 minutes from the main visitor center.
• Palm Springs Oasis RV Resort: About 45 minutes from the south entrance.
• Indian Waters RV Resort and Cottages: About 30 minutes from the south entrance.

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Tips for Your Camping Stay

• Reservations for the reservable campgrounds can be made up to six months in advance.
• Reserve using the links below or by calling 1-877-444-6777.
  • Black Rock Campground
  • Cottonwood Campground
  • Indian Cove Campground
  • Jumbo Rocks Campground
• No campgrounds in the park offer electric RV hookups.
• Generator use is restricted to 7-9 am, noon-2 pm, and 5-7 pm.
• Hammocks are not permitted in campgrounds and must be hung from rocks or climbing bolts elsewhere to protect the park’s sensitive vegetation.
• Backpacking is permitted in the park, but it requires more advanced planning and preparation.

How To Get Around

Nestled between I-10 and California SR 62, Joshua Tree is located in Southeastern California and is easy to access. Several towns nearby, including Palm Springs, Indio, and Twentynine Palms, make perfect supply stops before entering the park.
Indio is the last best stop on I-10 if you’re entering the park from the south. The park’s south entrance is located off Exit 168, about 30 minutes east of Indio. The park also offers a west entrance on Quail Springs Road, about 10 minutes southeast of the town of Joshua Tree. And the north entrance is just ten minutes south of Twentynine Palms on Utah Trail.
Several paved roads allow you to traverse the park, but going from site to site can require long drive times. The most frequented sites are located near the northern edge of the park, so if you’re coming from the south along I-10, you’ll be driving through the park for an hour or so before you spot your first Joshua Tree.

Places to Go

There are many places to visit in the park that offer a variety beyond the infamous trees. It’s a unique location that features the intersection of two desert ecosystems.

Cholla Cactus Garden

The Cholla Cactus Garden is its own special area and is unlike any other part of the park. Be sure to enjoy the flat, ¼-mile nature trail to get the best look at the cacti. This patch of cacti is incredible because it mostly consists of Teddybear Cholla, which is the star of the cactus world.
The Cholla Cactus Garden is so impressive, and you’ll love snapping photos of these majestic plants. Their beauty changes throughout the day depending on how the sunlight hits them. A small word of advice, look but don’t touch. Ouch!

Arch Rock

Arch Rock is a very popular rock formation located a half-mile from White Tank Campground. The loop trail is easy to follow and a perfect activity for the whole family. Of course, the Arch Rock itself is the thing people most want to see, but there's lots of space to wander around and explore the other rock formations, too.
It’s also a very popular place for night photography and stargazing. If interested, White Tank Campground is a really convenient place to stay because of its proximity to the trailhead.

Keys View

Keys View is a popular lookout that offers incredible panoramic views of the park and the Coachella Valley. If beautiful scenery is your thing, make sure to visit Keys View. It’s about a 20-minute drive from the main road to the lookout via Keys View Rd.

Ryan Mountain

One of the most popular activities in the park is the hike to Ryan Mountain. This 3-mile round trip trail leads to the summit, where you’ll be treated to sweeping 360-degree views. The hike is listed as challenging by the NPS, so be sure to bring plenty of water and expect changing weather conditions.

Things to Do

The combination of the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert makes Joshua Tree a wonderful desert wilderness to explore. Here are some of the most popular activities in the park:

Hiking

Hiking is a great way to get off the road and experience more of the desert landscape. The National Park Service offers plenty of safety tips for hiking in Joshua Tree, and here are some of the park’s most popular trails:

• Barker Dam Trail: An easy 1.1-mile trail with interpretive exhibits containing information on park history. It’s a popular place for viewing bighorn sheep from a safe distance.
• Oasis of Mara Trail: A 0.5-mile trail to explore a desert oasis and learn how it’s harbored human and animal life for centuries.
• Lost Horse Mine Trail: A moderate 4-mile out and back trail to explore what was once the area’s most successful gold mine.
• Mastodon Peak Trail: A moderate 3-mile loop trail with an optional scramble to the top of a granite peak.
• Lost Palms Oasis Trail: A challenging 7.5-mile out and back trail down a canyon to one of the park’s most remote fan palm oases.

The Park Service DOES NOT recommend attempting challenging hikes in the heat due to the elevated risk of sun exposure and dehydration.

Mountain Biking

The majority of the park’s paved roads are not suitable for road cycling. However, several backcountry roads are perfect for mountain bikes. There are even three campsites within Ryan Campground dedicated to cyclists.
Be aware that bikes are only allowed on roads open to vehicle traffic but that the main park roads do not offer bike lanes or wide shoulders. Consult the park’s website for safety tips and road recommendations before biking in Joshua Tree.

Photography

Photographers love Joshua Tree because of the variety it contains. From sunrise to sunset, photographers can find landscapes, animal inhabitants, and even human visitors to place in frame.
Commercial photography does require a permit, and if you’re interested in expanding your knowledge, the Desert Institute offers field courses in partnership with the Joshua Tree National Park Association.

Stargazing

Stars can be hard to come by in urban areas like San Diego and Los Angeles, but Joshua Tree is a different story. Designated as an International Dark Sky Park, it offers some of the best stargazing in all of Southern California.
After the sun goes down, keep your headlamp in red light mode to preserve your night vision. Your eyes will need less time to adjust when you lie down to see how many shooting stars you can count!

Rock Climbing

Rock climbing, in addition to bouldering and slacklining, is another great activity to enjoy in the park. To date, there are more than 8,000 known climbing routes, over 2,000 bouldering problems, and numerous natural rock gaps that make the perfect spot to set up a slackline.
On a busy weekend, the park may have hundreds of climbers enjoying their slice of this monzogranite mecca. So be sure to follow Leave No Trace Principles and familiarize yourself with the park’s climbing management plan before your visit.

What to Bring and How to Prepare

• The desert can be dangerous, and the weather can change quickly. Check the forecast frequently and pack layers to prepare for changing conditions.
• The remote location means there is no cell service in many parts of the park. Communicate your plans to loved ones or authorities ahead of time, especially if traveling alone.
• Investing in a cell signal booster may improve cell reception in areas with limited service.
• A quality camping cooler is a great way to keep food and beverages cold in the heat of the desert.
• Bring an extra canopy tent and ensure your awning is in good condition so you can escape direct sunlight during the heat of the day.
• Keep up with air conditioner maintenance to regulate the temperature inside your RV.
• For the latest info on visiting Joshua Tree, visit their website: Joshua Tree National Park.

Brief History of Joshua Tree National Park

Despite its harsh desert environment, humans have inhabited the area that is now Joshua Tree for more than 5,000 years. In the modern era, the biggest threats to this natural environment were land developers and cactus poachers.
In the late 1920s, a Pasadena resident named Minerva Hoyt began voicing her concerns about the unregulated removal of cacti and other desert plants to be used in home gardens throughout Los Angeles.
In a relatively short time, her conservation efforts resulted in the formation of the Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. The original protected area encompassed roughly 825,000 acres but was reduced by about 265,000 acres in 1950 when the Park Service excluded certain mining parcels in the eastern part of the park.
On Halloween in 1994, the Desert Protection Bill passed and Joshua Tree was elevated to national park status. The bill also added back approximately 234,000 acres of what had been lost in the 50s.
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Have you been to Joshua Tree National Park? Share your tips and advice in the comments below.

Please only comment if you are/were a Walmart employee.
I work as fast as I can consistently going from one box to the next, I group the items up by aisle/section so I’m not running all over the place, , I’m not distracted at all, I’m completely awake and aware, I don’t talk to anyone during work, I don’t understand how I could possibly go faster. I asked my manager how I could be any faster and he said I wish I could tell you. Thanks so helpful.
I work overnight and they put me in a section that I haven’t worked in in months, then coached me for being too slow, I had to scan all the items because I haven’t been over here and there’s new mods everywhere, I don’t know where anything goes. I feel like I was set up to fail and it’s really discouraging when others can just put things on the overstock pallet or plug items and go “faster” , or maybe they’re just great in this area , I’m great in the area they usually put me in and I’m not sure why they didn’t put me there tonight even though I’ve been working that department for the past 5 months.
Anyways any advice to speed up would be helpful, or your thoughts, please don’t be negative,sarcastic, or rude because I deal with quite enough of that daily.

Don't get me wrong. Pay is great, work is steady depending on where you work in the facilities, breaks are nice (again depending where you work, i hear horror stories from the cashiers), and generally? not a terrible vibe on third shift which is a god-send from the normal rabble.
What makes the job awful, much like any location, is the management. We've got several managers, much like any store, and of course they have their "favorites" who get away with everything barring murder. Some that walk around doing nothing all day, some that just sit in the wrong departments chatting, leaving the customers without help, some that ignore the customers asking for assistance as a whole, even a few that due the famous "U-turn" where they go back and forth from the bathroom and breakroom all night before clocking out. Everything we say about these individuals; in one ear, out the other. whether it's to HR, CXM, mod, directly to the individual in question or the boss of the store. Due to the crazy loops and mountain of paper-trailing required, the damage is already heavily implemented before anything can be freaking done about them, making the job twenty times harder than it needs to be.
Then you got the workers who bust their butt to make ends meet getting treated worse than the dirt you stand on because of these headaches. This goes on for every shift, but i need to focus on my own experiences through the third shift stress and tension as it has been getting extremely volatile. Between the problems above and a hard-headed manager interested in rushing to complete tasks over the safety of the worker, and the lack of stable workers since only 3 of us are full time + 2 part timers who do, essentially, full time hours, the strain on the night crew is insane. What sent me over the edge though wasn't the work.. oh no. I can handle the work load because whatever we don't get done is still there the next night. It's not hard to pick up where we left off and by the end of the week 99% of the time everything is done.
Below in the spoiler will be a pretty hefty rant of my experience involving what finally made me register my hard work means nothing. That we're simply replaceable fodder, and that our safety, no matter how much they plaster it as their priority, means nothing.

Back in January the area i live in experienced a pretty big storm. Didn't think much of it at the time, i've ridden my E-bike (my only source of transport) in storms before, even in the snow! But, unlike usual this storm had caused flash flooding. I had reached a particular point in the ride where I couldn't progress. The roads that legally allowed my bike to travel out of where I live had become flooded by nearly 6 inches of high speed water, with spots going as deep as a foot and more due to road conditions. Roads surrounding my route were also being slowly closed off as the storm continued and ubers were cancelling in the area (or outright rejecting rides due to the dangerous conditions.), making it progressively harder to get around. It was 10 minutes til work, and i still had 20 minutes to ride, and a 15 minute ride back home if something went wrong.
I pulled over at this intersection that was flooded and checked the news for the area. Local news networks labeled it a "local emergency", so i called it in, told my boss at night i wouldn't be able to make it due to the unsafe driving conditions and progressively worsening weather closing down major roads. He 'understood', told me it would not effect my points as it was a weather situation, and that several others were calling for similar problems. I returned home now soaked and the bike had to be carefully serviced to avoid any lasting damage from the heavy storm. Not a huge issue but annoying none the less.
Fast forward two weeks and i get brought into the office where the CXM and my boss are... and asked the famous line. "Do you know why you're back here?"
I truly had no idea, so i joked it off, I had won a recent raffle for 3 board-games, so I made the comment it was because I hadn't brought those home yet.
The CXM smiled, then said it was because i had received my 4th point for calling out without sick time. Now, mind you, I have no idea what's going on at this point. I knew i had missed 3 days (once in September, 2 times in october from bike issues leaving me on the road without a way in due to the battery dying.). So i asked where this 4th point was coming from. He mentions the day of the flood, my boss, who is keeping his mouth shut, looks away from me when he says this. At this point I sit down, rather miffed at this point because i was assured that it was okay due to it being a safety concern, and that others were calling out with similar issues without a problem.
I'm stunned at this point. Taking a seat at the wall, the night assistant manager closes the door behind me and the cxm begins to lay into me the normal spiel, about how they expect all workers to be punctual and that this was a writeup, and how i "needed to understand what was being said". The whole time he's smiling, I wasn't. I told him what I was told on the phone, that I was cleared due to the weather conditions and that a point wasn't on my record the last time i checked (which i was checking regularly the first week because i truly expected something like this to happen, and stopped checking 4 days prior to the meeting. This happened 2 weeks later on a Wednesday.) -The cxm says it doesn't matter what i'm told on the phone. And that I should have called an uber. -I told him that ubers were cancelling rides due to the roads closing. -He tells me to order a taxi instead then. Now. I'm getting riled up at this point. My leg it tapping, i'm clearly not happy, and the way the cxm is talking to me is actively pushing for a response like this as he continues to smile and REPEATS "do you understand why you're getting this write-up" over, and over, and over again. -The night shift boss is still not making eye contact with me. -So, I stare straight at the cxm and respond to his question. "I understand that I have 3 points, but the 4th point I do not agree with. I was told that I was okay, and that the local news had declared it an emergency. I do not agree with that fourth point." -They both look at me, and I continue to look directly at the cxm. I'm still pretty relaxed at this point even if i'm agitated mentally and tapping my foot. I just want to get back to work at this point because I know the cxm is on a power-trip based on his body language and how much he's smiling. However, it really shown when that smile went away at me saying that comment. The cxm folded his hands, his smile gone and said "look, you want me to be blunt? I don't care what you agree with, you just need to understand you're being written up for 4 points of missed work. I can't let you leave until you agree."
THAT shifted my whole mood. I went from calm, to alert. My foot stopped tapping, I sat back in the chair and I was glaring at the cxm at this point. I was LIVID. The night manager STILL wouldn't look at me, instead he was watching the cxm. So i stayed focused on him as well. I folded my arms, and gave my full attention to him.
He repeated "Do you understand why you're being given this formal write-up?" again, and I, again, said I didn't agree with it. He AGAIN said he didn't care what I agreed or thought was right. and he just needed me to agree with it. So. I said what he wanted me to say. "I understand i'm being written up for a point I don't agree with"
As if MOCKING me, he again repeats "do you understand you can't keep missing days like this?"
I stayed DEAD SILENT at this point, and he leaned forward and looked at me with a big ol' smile. and told me to "stop staring at me with that death-glare, it's not working on me, buddy"
I was fuming. I was NOT going to be treated like a tool like that for taking my own safety into consideration during a local emergency for the job to tell me I was still in the wrong TWO WEEKS AFTER the event happened.
I was forced to agree, because I was sick and tired of staring at him and getting nowhere. So i repeated the comment like a good little drone and left. God i wish i knew i could have commented in that signing page that i signed under protest, course I was so pissed off i doubt i'd have even realized where to write it if i had known. I signed the "admission of guilt" crap, and immediately went to speak to the main boss of the store. Took two more weeks to get ahold of him, and he agreed it sounded very unusual. Main boss went to HR with clarification on how to handle it because even he wasn't too sure on it.
Two weeks after that, i touched base with the main boss. AND HE AGREED THAT I HAD NOT DESERVED THAT POINT OR THE WRITEUP. HR had come back to him about it coming down to the manager who handles the call-out (in my case the night shift boss), and a second manager who confirms the callout. My only assumption is that my boss agreed and acknowledged it as a weather related incident, and the second manager, the cxm in this case, decided to over-rule that decision.
Every other manager I spoke to thought that point was bogus. THE MAIN BOSS said it was bogus, and HR agreed that it was a case-to-case issue due to their system not having anything concrete for localized weather emergencies (they only have it for snow/ice, and state emergencies.) but even our HR contact agreed that safety takes priority! So here I am, 3 months into this crap I didn't even deserve, all because this dude decided to swing his big-boy stick. Taking the proper channels to have it addressed, complaint sent in about the manager in question, and trying to do things by the book did nothing but hit me with a "well you didn't act fast enough so we can't fix it" response, because it took over a month to get it processed. On the plus side, since I explained the entire incident to the main boss of the store (including the response from the manager who was handling the write-up), He gave me his direct line and told me that if i EVER got caught in a major storm like that to let him know, and he'd be sure to clear the incident himself. So while it happened, the store boss pulled through and assured me it won't happen again since it was a situational decision based on whoever got the call-out to handle. The problem is that the one who made this a problem in the first place is still in a position to do said problem. And that, unfortunately, I am unable to address directly like this. It was untouched for almost 2 weeks, sent in as a point right at the end of the 2 week "edit" period, and then I'm written up a week after that, ensuring I had no way to fight it. This was, in all purposes, an abuse of power. But, i'm a drone. I'm only as strong as the voice of the rest of this cacophony, and that's why they keep everyone at eachothers' throats.

Like I said. It's a rant, so only pop it open if you want to see what triggered this message to begin with. It's the biggest frustration I've had in the many years working here that firmly got under my skin due to the way it was handled and how long it took to get properly addressed, for no other reason than to tell me it was too late to do anything about it. We're just numbers in this machine, readily replaceable and easily used to kick around in the name of "fun" for those in a position of power. Where the rules and regulations are waived so long as you're buddies with the other management, and those working hard and keeping to themselves are an easy source to dump the blame and pressure or exercise someone's "authority".

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

Introduction

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

Once Upon a Female Rage...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

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

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

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

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

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

Conclusion/TLDR

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

I had to think about what did I use my points for as most of the posts in travel-related subreddits tend to focus on min-maxing their redemptions. There were times where I was concerned about paying points vs cash, but then I had to evaluate whether I would actually have another opportunity to use the points. The victory is sweet when that aspirational award is redeemed, but there are also the little redemptions along the way.
Over the course of 3 years of being in the points game through a combination of sign-up bonuses, spending, and occasional points purchase:

• 2 nights at Hyatt Regency Vancouver
• One-way Southwest Airlines flight returning from a Puerto Vallarta wedding for two people
• Points + Cash for one night for said PV wedding through Chase travel portal
• 4 nights at Hyatt Place Waikiki
• Points + Cash for 1 night at Park Hyatt Aviara Resort
• 2 nights at Andaz Tokyo
• Points + Cash for 6 nights at Hyatt House Tokyo Shibuya
• 3 nights at Hyatt Centric Waikiki
• Points + Cash for 2 nights at Hyatt Regency Yokohama
• 2 nights at Hyatt Regency Hakone
• 4 nights at Hyatt Place Kyoto
• Points + Cash for 4 nights at Caption by Hyatt Namba Osaka
• 1 night at Hyatt Regency O'Hare
• 2 First Class ANA flight to Japan
• 1 Business Class ANA return flight from Japan (still waiting for one more seat to open up...)
• 1 night at Grand Hyatt Manchester San Diego
• 2 nights at Mar Monte Santa Barbara
• Points + Cash for a few admissions and tours through Chase Travel Portal (that I can't retrieve because it's been a while now...)
• Points + Cash for a 2-person Alaska Airlines flight

Originally, I just wanted the points to pay for most, if not all, of my aspirational trip to Japan. But between the pandemic and job changes, I just let it get pushed back and used the points for some other redemptions in the meantime.
Decisions that led to using a mix of points and cash basically boils down to either not having enough points to cover the whole bill or just cutting down the cash price when it ended up being a 1:1 equivalent for points to cash. I still have a few aspirational trips that I want to cover with points, like Maui or Europe, so I'll stick around a bit longer.

Date	Stage	Route	Length	Type	Time
Wed. May 15	11	Foiano di val Fortore>Francavilla	207 km	Easy	ca. 17:15 CET

Climbs

Climb	Cat	Km	Length	Avg
Pietracasella	3	km 48.4	8.0 km	5.6 %

Sprints

Location	Km
Casacalenda	km 74.5
San Salvo Marina (Intergiro)	km 137.9
Fossacesia Marina	km 172.5

Weather

Around 20°C. Crosswinds.

Stage breakdown

Having reached its southernmost point today, the Giro will turn around and head north towards the Alps… although the way to get there is quite long, and mostly flat. Tomorrow’s stage is the only one to span across four separate Italian regions- Campania, Apulia, Molise and Abruzzo- and the fact that we’re not even a paragraph into this preview and we’re already bringing up geography trivia is telling! Jokes aside, with the last 100 kms being along the coast (and thus nearly entirely flat), we’re expecting tomorrow to be a day for the sprinters.
The first part of the stage is actually pretty hilly: we’re picking up not far from where we left off today, so we still need to get from the mountains to the seaside. There will be plenty of short climbs and descents early on, but only one harbours KOM points- it’s cat 3 Pietracatella, right after the riders will enter Molise, about 40 kms from the start. The following 50 kms will be rolling, and along the way the riders will find the first intermediate sprint of the day in Casacalenda.
With around 100 kms to go, the riders will finally reach the sea to the south of Termoli, and from there on the course will follow the Adriatic coastline northwards. The remaining two intermediate sprints will bring back memories of last year’s Giro: the Intergiro sprint is located in San Salvo, where Milan sprinted to win stage 2, while the last sprint will be in Fossacesia Marina, which hosted the grande partenza. The finale should not be tricky: after a couple of 90° turns with 4 kms to go, the last part of the stage will take place on a completely straight promenade.
With all this in mind, here are our predictions for tomorrow's stage:
★★★ Milan
★★ Groves
★ Dainese, Ewan, Merlier, Mihkels, breakaway

Rider discussion

A sprint finish looks like the most likely scenario. The first part of the stage is hilly, but we believe that the fact that the stage ends with 100+ flat kms will discourage a strong break to go out. This prefaced, mauve jersey Jonathan Milan has definitely looked the strongest in the sprints so far and he's got the best sprint train, so he's our top pick.
As for his rivals... it's hard to estabilish a hyerarchy, as there's many of them and they haven't been very consistent. We're going out on a limb and naming Kaden Groves as our second-top favourite as he has a good team at his disposal and he was very good in Andora, the finale most similar to tomorrow's. Apart from him, normally Caleb Ewan and Tim Merlier would be the top picks on a "classic" finishing straight like tomorrow, but they haven't been convincing throughout this Giro. Alberto Dainese was 4th in the Naples sprint and he seems to always do better in the second half of a GT- he's had wins in both 2022 and 2023. Madis Mihkels has not had flashy performances but he's been getting steady top 10s ever since he became Intermarché's main man, so he's worth mentioning again.
We do believe that there are two potential elements of chaos tomorrow. The first one are crosswinds along the seashore- nothing too strong, but a savvy team could exploit them and cause splits; the second one is that having an outright favourite means that less teams will be encouraged to mount a strong chase tomorrow, and if they start to play mind games and unload the chasing duties to Lidl-Trek only, the breakaway might make it after all.
That's it from us, what are your thoughts/predictions?

TL;DR Hosting and participating in AMAs just got easier. As a host, you can now schedule and promote AMAs ahead of time, appoint co-hosts, and announce when your post is done. Attendees can now sign up for reminders ahead of time, get notified when the AMA starts, and quickly jump to questions that the host has replied to.
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Now, we’re supercharging these special posts. Using the new AMA tab in the web composer (coming soon to mobile) unlocks a suite of special tools that make it easier to spin up and participate in an AMA post.
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Hi friends, We recently started writing about Danish idioms on our newsletter the Simple Danish Newsletter - I also started posting them here on Reddit, but I have not been great at keeping up, and so now I am 12 weeks behind here on Reddit, and rather than space out 12 different posts, I thought I would do one big post and hopefully get back on track with the postings 😅 So here’s a bunch of Danish idioms for you!
At have det som blommen i et æg
Litterally; to feel like the yolk in an egg. I like this idiom a lot because of how visual it is. It means that you feel good, you feel comfortable, protected, and in the right place.
For example:
A: Se de søde killinger der sover.
B: Åårh, de har sikkert som blommen i et æg.
En heldig kartoffel
Literally, a lucky potato. If someone is especially lucky, in Danish ,you can call them a lucky potato. As far as I can read, the expression comes from an old sailors game, where you would pass a potato around in a circle, and a person in the middle would try to catch it. If the person in the middle could not catch the potato, it was said to be a lucky potato.
For example: A: Jeg har fri på fredag, så jeg kan nyde det gode vejr.
B: Din heldige kartoffel.
A: Har du hørt at Jonas har vundet i lotto? B: Sikke en heldig kartoffel!
En varm kartoffel
Something can also be a hot potato. It is the same expression as in english, where an issue can be a hot potato. Something so hot that it is painful to touch, and so something you would want to avoid. This expression is less used in Denmark, and mostly by newspapers or the older generations.
Lokummet brænder
Litterally: The toilet is on fire.
Either you are in big trouble or you are about to be in big trouble when your toilet is on fire.
Lokum in Danish used to refer to the old shed behind the house, where hole-in-the-ground-with-seat type toilets with no running water were found. Nowadays the word can also refer, with some disgust, to normal toilets.
For example:

• Danskerne er gode til at få psykologisk hjælp når lokummet brænder.
  
• Når lokummet brænder, ved jeg at jeg altid kan regne med dig.
  

Så er den ged barberet
Litterally translating to; then the goat is shaved. Means that something is done or solved. You can use it if you got an annoying task out of the way, either by avoiding the task entirely (and then ironically using så er den ged barberet to humorously say that it was easy), or by actually finishing it.
Example 1: Jeg skal lige færdiggøre den sidste del af præsentationen, og så er den ged barberet.
Example 2: FCK scorede et hurtigt mål mod Brøndby, og så var den ged barberet.
Hvor kragerne vender
Where the crows turn around is used to to mean the same as in the middle of nowhere, although I like the illustrativeness of the Danish phrase much more than in the middle of nowhere. It means somewhere so far away, that even the crows don’t dare go there. You can for example say; Rasmus er vokset op på landet. Der hvor kragerne vender. Or if someone asks you what you did this weekend, you can say: jeg var ude at gå en tur, helt derude hvor kragerne vender. Or if people ask you where you are from: jeg er fra en lille by ude hvor kragerne vender.
Den der kommer først til mølle, får først malet
Litterally; The one who arrives first at the mill will get milled first. This is pretty much the the Danish equivalent of first come, first serve, mixed with a bit of the early bird gets the worm. However in everyday life, you pretty much only hear the first part; først til mølle or you might see something like; “efter først til mølle princip” which was recently added to the Danish dictionary. You might see the phrase if you are looking at items being given away for free or being sold online. I can definitely see how the isolated phrase can confuse new learners though: “Selling sneakers. First to the mill.”
So now you know 😊
at spille kong gulerod
At spille kong gulerod, to play king-carrot. You can use this expression if someone is acting arrogant, cocky, or superior in a pretentious way. You can for example say du skal ikke komme her og spille kong gulerod if someone is being pompous around you. The phrase apparently comes from an old french, satirical opera from 1872, where vegetables from the garden take control over France. Or so I’ve heard. Don’t cite me on that.
At købe katten i sækken
Literally meaning to buy the cat in the sack. To buy the cat in the sack, means you got cheated in a trade, or that you were not diligent enough when checking what you were buying and got something not worth a lot. You can change the person or the idiom in the idiom as in jeg har købt katten i sækken meaning you already made the bad deal, or you can say hun køber katten i sækken in the 3rd person future tense if someone is going to make a bad decision. You can use it as a warning to someone Pas på du ikke køber katten i sækken if you think there’s a risk they will not make a good choice later.
At gå som katten om den varme grød
Litterally; to walk like the cat around the hot porridge. We use this idiom when someone hesitates to speak directly about a sensitive subject, when they skirt around the issue. I imagine a cat, interested in eating a nice bowl of hot porridge, but the cat is hesitant because it is afraid of burning its tongue.
Example: I forbindelse med spørgsmålet om klimaforandringer, gik politikerne som katten om den varme grød.
at skyde papegøjen
To shoot the parrot, or to have shot the parrot, means to be very lucky. It can also mean to have gotten hold of a very valuable object or person. It is in a sensee the opposite of having bought the cat in the sack. Here’s a few examples:
Rasmus har skudt papegøjen med hende Antonina. Hun er godt nok sød. Jeg har skudt papegøjen her I weekenden på loppemarkedet.
Det med småt
“that with small/little” or more legibly: the fine print.
Har du læst det med småt? Did you read the fine print? You will often see this when websites are trying to be transparent or quirky about their terms and conditions. So you might encounter a link or a website titled “det med småt” if you are trying to buy something.
That was all for now 😅 I apologize in advance for formatting problems, as I am writing this on mobile as apparently this is the only way Reddit will allow me to post multiple images.

As many of you may have read, there is a case of two missing adopted kids in North Carolina, where remains have been found. The news has reported that their adoptive “mother” is Avantae Deven.
I’m a curious person and started digging up information on Avantae Deven when I first read the story in my news feed and could not believe what I was reading. It seemed like whomever this woman is must have be using an alias; Avantae Deven is not a name like Kim Jones or Mackenzie Smith.
The more I dug, the weirder it seemed to get. I found a property deed to a place in Sedona, Arizona, and figured out that whomever this Avantae person is, she at one point in time had owned a home together with someone named Nicole Adams. So I dug into who Nicole Adams was, and learned that she was the widow of a spiritual leader named Robert Adams. It appeared to me that there would be no way to identify who Avantae really was, unless I could also identify the true identity of Robert Adams.
*******
I've done investigative work for many years, including skip tracing. I can conclusively state that there was absolutely no person actually named Robert Adams born in New York State on January 21, 1928. This is demonstrated by the New York Birth Index. I have combed the census records for 1930, 1940, and 1950, and cross-checked them against multiple databases, and am confident that nobody with the birth name of Robert Adams was born anywhere in the United States on January 21, 1928.
Moreover, there was absolutely no person with the true name of Robert Adams who died anywhere at all in the United States, let alone Sedona, Arizona, on March 2, 1997. This is demonstrated by the Social Security Death Index.
I began this research largely by performing exhaustive searches on the known addresses that are associated with Robert, his wife Leonie (who used to use the alias Nicole), and Avantae Deven (who turns out to be their daughter Michelle who began using the alias Avantae in the mid-1990’s or so). Most of the addresses are PO boxes. Those that are PO boxes are all *private* PO boxes, not PO boxes that one can rent from the United States Postal Service. To me, that spoke volumes. The family were clearly using aliases.
As I explain further below, I eventually determined that “Robert Adams” was Robert Spiegel, born 21 January 1932 in New York. “Nicole Adams” was actually Aileen Beverly Leonie Maxwell, born February 2, 1929, in Jamaica. “Avantae Deven” is actually their daughter, Michelle K. Spiegel, born on October 1, 1960, in California.
One of Robert’s many false stories about Robert’s life that my research has refuted is Robert’s claim that his mother was Jewish and his father was Catholic. That was a lie. Both of his parents were Jewish. It’s also interesting that he claimed that he was “raised Catholic.” There is absolutely nothing to suggest that. His mother always, in New York, lived in Jewish neighborhoods. Moreover, as will be discussed below, his parents had a Jewish wedding. It’s also downright absurd that he would tell people that he was “half Jewish.” If your mother’s Jewish, you are Jewish, pure and simple. Even if Robert’s father had truly been Catholic (which he wasn’t; his name was Samuel Spiegel and he immigrated to America in 1907, lived with his Jewish, Yiddish-speaking cousins, and spoke Yiddish himself), Robert would have been Jewish because the status of being a Jew comes from the mother. Robert’s mother’s name was Fannie (nee Fleisfeder) Spiegel. Fannie’s parents were Itzik Fleisfeder and Esther Libke (nee Rifkin) Fleisfeder. Esther’s parents were Mendel Rifkin and Sarah whose maiden name is lost to time and the disappearance of the shtetls. Robert’s claim to having had a Catholic father was utterly false, but is part and parcel of his ongoing compulsive daily lying about anything and everything.
Here is the story.
*******
Kolomyia, formerly known as Kolomea, is a city currently located in the Western Ukraine.
On January 21, 1892 (the same year that Kolomea tallis¹ workers went on strike for better pay and working conditions), Kolomea resident Rachel Katz, wife of Abraham Spiegel, gave birth to a son, who was given the name Schmuel.
On the date that Schmuel Spiegel entered the world, Kolomea was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and almost half of the city’s residents were Jewish.
In June of 1907, fifteen-year-old Schmuel² boarded the Zeeland, which sailed from Antwerp, Belgium, arriving at New York Harbor on June 18, 1907. The ship’s manifest states that Schmuel’s father had paid for his transport, and that Schmuel intended to reside with his father, Abe, in Brooklyn. Schmuel was granted entrance, and took up residence with his cousin Charles Fetner, who resided at 353 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, in Apartment A with his wife Jennie and their baby daughter Ettie. The sparse record that exists suggests that although Schmuel’s father was, indeed, named Abraham, Abraham lived and died in Europe, without immigrating to America.
The 1910 census describes Samuel’s cousin Charles as a carpenter, who had been married to housewife Jennie for six years, and a father of three children-- Ettie age four, Nathan age two, and baby Jacob, who was not even a year old. Eighteen-year-old Samuel was identified by profession as a “Foreman Sailmaker” in an industry described as “pocket-books.”
Three and a half years after being granted admission, on a bitterly cold winter day, January 4, 1911, Schmuel (now employed as a pocket-book maker, and having Anglicized his name to Samuel) signed and submitted his declaration to become a United States citizen. He stated, in that declaration, that he was born on January 21, 1892.
By 1915, Samuel had left his cousin’s abode and was residing as a lodger in the home of a widow named Rose Hammer, who lived with her two adolescent sons, Meyer and Louis, at 531 E. 5^th Avenue; Samuel was now working as a “driver.”
Two years after the 1915 state census was taken, Samuel had moved back to Myrtle Avenue, but this time at building no. 849. On June 15, 2017, Samuel registered for the draft, and described himself as being a pocketbook maker, working for “A. Shoenfeld,” at 101 Crosby Street, New York. He was single. He stated, in his draft registration, that he was born on January 21, 1892.
*******
A woman named Fruma Fleisfeder was born in Beltz, Bessarabia, sometime between July 1, 1893, and 1901, to Itzik Fleisfeder and Esther Lieba Rifkin. Fruma (not living up to her pious given name) provided different dates and years of birth to different authorities on different occasions, making it impossible at this point in time to know her true position in the birth order of her family. Regardless, Fruma, who began using the name Fanny upon her entrance to the United States, did have three brothers and a sister who also came to America-- Louis Fleisfeder who was born April 10, 1890, Max Irving Fleisfeder who used October 10, 1892 as his birthdate, Hersch (later known as Harry), whose official birthdate was December 15, 1901, and Sylvia who was born in approximately 1906.
On December 1, 1919, Fruma arrived in New York Harbor on the ship La Touraine, declaring her intention, at entry, to become a United States Citizen. The ship’s manifest describes her as five feet five inches tall, with fair hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion. The ship’s manifest states that she was, at that time, age 24. If that were correct, she would have been born in 1895.
Fruma (then going by Fanny) took up residence with her cousin Ethel (nee Ruchlin) and Ethel’s husband Samuel Steinberg, on 15^th Street, Brooklyn. Soon thereafter, Ethel gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Theresa. The 1920 census states that Fanny was Russian, didn’t speak English but, rather, spoke Hebrew, and worked as a milliner in a millinery store. The 1920 census also states that Fanny was age 25, which lines up with her being age 24 in the prior year’s ship manifest.
*******
Sam and Fanny married in Manhattan on January 24, 1925. Their marriage certificate (signed by each of them) identifies Sam as being age 32 (contradicting, by one year, his immigration records which would have placed him at age 33), and identifies Fanny as age 24, the same age that she had claimed to be six years prior, and also contradicting an immigration petition that she would file two decades in the future, which generally placed her birth year at the mid-point of 1893.
If Fanny’s immigration records (which included a petition with her signature on it) were correct, Fanny would also have been age 32 as of her marriage to Samuel, not age 24.
So did Fanny lie in her marriage certificate? Or did she lie in her immigration petition?
The marriage certificate identifies Sam as having been born in Kolomea, Austria, and his father being Abraham, and his mother being Rachel Katz. It identifies Fanny as having been born in Beltz, Russia, to a father named Isaac, and to a mother named Esther Rifkin.
The marriage certificate does not identify Fanny as having any profession, but identifies Sam as being a pocketbook maker.
Sam and Fannie were married at 125 E. 4^th Street, Manhattan, a six-story apartment building with retail units on the ground floor that is now an expensive co-op, with three-bedroom units selling for over $900,000. Present-day real estate advertisements alternatively state that the building was built in 1894, 1903, and 1905.
The first name of the rabbi who officiated was Harry. His surname starts with Reid, but the remaining letters of his signature are illegible. Rabbi Harry identified his residence as 232 Broome Street, which, at the time, was a four-story mixed use building that, among other things, housed Chevrah Ahavath Zedek Anshei Jaskinover.
Witnesses to the marriage were Mayer Budmon and Samuel Steinberg.
*******
Sam and Fanny’s existence was documented next in the 1925 New York State census by census. They were living at 205 S. 2^nd Street. Samuel was still working as a “pocketbook maker.” Fanny was identified as a “housewife.”
Fanny was identified as age 25. This was in accordance with her age as stated on her marriage certificate, but not in accordance with her immigration documents or the 1920 census.
Sam was identified as being age 28, which conflicted with all prior records.
*******
In 1930, the couple were again enumerated, this time in the Federal census. The enumerator, whose signature appears to be “Max Krahn” (or something like that) stated that he obtained the information on April 16, 1930.
Sam was identified as a “framer” of pocketbooks. He was identified as being 36 years of age, which conflicts by two years with the age that he provided to immigration authorities. Perhaps the enumerator was simply sloppy; Samuel was also incorrectly identified in the 1930 census as having been born in “Poland,” with parents who were both also born in “Poland,” notwithstanding other governmental records having identified him as being Austrian. The language he spoke? “Jewish,” according to the enumerator. Was that to mean Hebrew? Yiddish? Both?
Fannie was identified as age 30 (directly in conflict with the information she supplied in her immigration petition, which bears her signature) and as being “Russian,” with parents born in “Russia.” The 1930 census enumerator incorrectly wrote that her year of immigration was 1921. Fannie, too, was identified by the enumerator as speaking the “Jewish” language.
Although later records reflected that Sam and Fannie had a son named Irving who was born in 1926, Irving was not recorded in the 1930 census. Was he missed by the enumerator? Or was he a later-adopted son?
The couple also had a boarder, identified by the 1930 enumerator as one Esther “Larson,” age 40, born in Russia, and similarly a speaker of the “Jewish” language.
*******
The New York Birth Index identifies a baby boy, Robert Spiegel, as one of many babies having been born in the city on January 21, 1932.
*******
On May 21, 1936, Samuel committed suicide by hanging in the family residence, a tenement apartment located at 1168 Union Avenue, in the Bronx. Although, based upon the date of birth that Samuel used for official governmental purposes he was age 44, the death certificate stated that he was age 43.
Fannie engaged the Gordon Funeral Home to prepare him for burial.
Strangely, although Samuel’s headstone accurately identified him in Hebrew as Schmuel Spiegel, son of Avraham, it inexplicably incorrectly stated that he died at age 40.
Fannie of course knew her husband’s real age; both of them signed the marriage certificate that had Samuel’s correct age listed. Furthermore, Samuel had petitioned for citizenship in 1911, and stated that his date of birth was January 18, 1892.
Why would Fannie commission a headstone with a false age? Perhaps she, like her son, was a compulsive liar. Maybe that’s where Robert got it from.
*******
The 1940 census has Fannie (identified as age 38), Robert (identified as age 8), and Fannie’s son/Robert’s brother, Irving Spiegel, age 13, as living with Fannie’s 72-year-old mother, Esther Fleisfeder, at 1537 Fulton Avenue, in the Bronx. Fannie and Esther were identified as widows. Esther was identified as “U” (unable to work), while Fannie was identified as engaged in housework. No source of income for the family was identified.
No explanation is obvious regarding where Irving was living in the census taken a decade previously. Was he adopted?
There is no “Irving Spiegel” listed in the New York Birth Index for either 1926 or 1927. There is an “Irving Spiegal” listed, who was born April 29, 1926. But he is not Irving Spiegel.
I initially thought that perhaps Irving might be one of the unnamed Baby Boy Spiegels born in New York in 1926 or 1927, and that he left the hospital unnamed because his parents were waiting for his bris before naming him. However, Robert left the hospital with the name Robert. Why wait until the bris to name one child, but not the other?
*******
Slightly less than two years after she was enumerated in the 1940 census, Fannie’s mother Esther died, at home, at 1537 Fulton Avenue. The causes of death were “Coronary Thrombosis, Pulmonary Oedema Nephritis, Hypertension, Arteriosclerosis.” Esther left this world on February 6, 1942, the same day that the W. L. Steed was torpedoed, shelled and sunk less than a hundred nautical miles east of the mouth of Delaware River by a German submarine.
She was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Fairview, New Jersey, the same cemetery where her son-in-law Samuel was interred.
*******
On November 12, 1943, Fannie, now residing at 1985 Bathgate Avenue, in the Bronx, petitioned for citizenship. She claimed, in that document bearing her signature, to be fifty years of age, meaning that if she was telling the truth, she would have been born in approximately 1893.
*******
On January 19, 1948, Robert (having assumed a false date of birth, that being January 18, 1931), enlisted in the New York National Guard. On paper, he had turned age 17 the day before his enlistment. In reality, he would be turning age 16 two days after his enlistment.
On December 9, 1949, Robert was discharged from the national guard, apparently for having been AWOL.
The discharge document identifies his address as being 1985 Bathgate Avenue, New York City.
*******
The 1950 census places Robert again at 1985 Bathgate Avenue, New York City. It correctly identifies him as age 18, and states that he worked as a shipping clerk for a newspaper company.
According to the 1950 census, Robert resided at the Bathgate Avenue address with his mother Fannie, who was purportedly still age 50 (seven years after she had previously claimed to immigration authorities to be age 50), and Robert’s brother Irving, age 24.
Irving was listed as unemployed and moreover, according to the census record, had not worked for the prior year. Fannie was employed full-time as a milliner in a hat factory.
*******
Military records reflect that Irving J. Spiegel, born in 1926 and a resident of 1985 Bathgate Avenue, who had completed two years of high school education, had flown bomber planes over Germany during the war. In his military documents, Irving described himself as single, with two dependents.
*******
On February 2, 1929, a baby girl given the name Aileen Beverly Leone Maxwell was born in Lucea, Hanover, Jamaica, to William Maxwell and Daisy (nee Tibbits) Maxwell. Her birth was registered by her parents.
*******
In 1954, Robert Spiegel and Aileen Maxwell were married in New York City. Their marriage license was given License No. 10284.
*******
The following year, the Kingston, Jamaica, Gleaner reported on June 6, 1955:
Miss Leonie Maxwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Maxwell, was married recently in New York City to Mr. Robert Spiegel of the U.S.A. Both the bride and groom are students at the New York Institute of Dietetics. The bride left the island nearly two years ago for New York. Her wedding gown was chantilly lace and nylon tulle. The bodice was fashioned with a wide, scalloped neckline and elbow-length sleeves. Her three tier skirt of chantilly lace was over pleated nylon tulle. Her fingertip-length veil was adorned with pearls.
*******
If the claim regarding the couple studying at the New York Institute of Dietetics was even true, their studies at this institution didn’t last long. In May of 1956, a number of advertisements bearing Robert’s photograph appeared in the Kingston, Jamaica Gleaner. The advertisements described Robert as a psychologist, author, lecturer, and “practitioner in auto suggestion,” and identified him as “Dr. J. Robert Spiegel.” Readers were invited to come meet Robert on May 21, 1956, at Record Plaza, where he would be autographing his “latest” “world-wide” 33 and 1/3 RPM record, “How to Stop Smoking in 7 days by Auto-Suggestion.”
*******
On May 1, 1959, three residents of 1985 Bathgate Avenue, Bronx, New York, came through customs, having returned from a trip to Jamaica. They identified themselves as “Robert D. Spiegel” born in New York (in addition to giving himself a false middle initial, Robert neglected to complete the I-94-A fully, specifically by leaving his birthdate blank), “Leonie A. Spiegel” born in Jamaica on February 2, 1929, and their minor daughter, and “Sharon S. Spiegel,” born in New York. Someone also neglected to fully complete Sharon’s I-94-A, specifically by leaving her birthdate blank.
*******
Leonie had taken Sharon to Jamaica two years earlier. There are no publicly available records pertaining to their outbound transport from the United States to Jamaica. There is, however, a record pertaining to their return to the United States. That publicly available record does not provide their address, but Sharon is identified as weighing 1 stone 5 pounds (a total of 19 pounds), and Leonie is identified as weighing six stone 5 pounds (89 pounds). Interestingly, Leonie used the name “Aileen Spiegel,” and the records assert that Aileen has no middle initial. Aileen was / is her true legal first name, but it is a lie to say that she has no middle initial.
*******
Almost two years later, on January 5, 1958, the Kingston, Jamaica Gleaner reported:
Staying at the Tamarind Hotel are Mr. and Mrs. Bob Spiegel and daughter Sharon of Miami, Florida. Mrs. Spiegel is the former Leonie Maxwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Maxwell of Lucea and has been in the United States for several years. A welcome party in their honour was given last Saturday night by Messers. Horrace, Ray, and Dennis Maxwell, brothers of Mrs. Spiegel. It was a very enjoyable affair.
*******
In 1963, roughly five years after their 1958 visit to Jamaica, Leonie petitioned for naturalization, in Louisiana. Although I am in possession of the index showing that she petitioned in 1963, I do not possess the petition itself. However, the fact that she petitioned for naturalization in Louisiana demonstrates that that at least she was residing in Louisiana at the time. Since she stated that she didn’t leave Robert’s side for over 40 years, presumably Robert, young Sharon, and also baby Michelle were living in Louisiana at that time.
*******
People who knew Robert personally relate that he stated that Leonie was a Cayman Island heiress. She wasn’t. Not only was she not born in the Cayman Islands, Leonie’s father’s estate was litigated (with the judge ruling against her) long before Robert started telling people that his wife was a Cayman Islands heiress.
Leonie’s father did leave an estate, but not to her. On November 9, 1967, the Gleaner reported that the Supreme Court had upheld the will of the late William Josiah Maxwell, the father of Horrace, Ray, Dennis, and Leonie, and the husband of Daisy Maxwell, who had contended that William’s signature was a forgery and that the person to whom his estate had been bequeathed had exercised undue influence. The court disagreed. The article reported:
The estate, which one of the executors described as “a sizeable one,” included 112 acres of land at Paradise and three houses at Lucea, Hanover.
*******
Robert apparently wasn’t banking on Leonie’s inheritance in any event. In May of 1966, advertisements appeared in the Houston Chronicle with Robert’s photo on them, selling a record that would purportedly assist people in stopping smoking in seven days. He identified himself as “Dr. J. Robert Spiegel.”
*******
On page 55 of the November 15, 1969, San Antonio, Texas Express and News, was an advertisement stating:
SCIENCE OF THE MIND
Dr. J. Robert Spiegel of Houston, director and founder of the Science of the Mind Foundation there, is conducting Sunday evening meetings at 7:30 p.m. in the Sheraton Inn, 1400 Austin Hwy.
*******
On page 4 of the July 10, 1970 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was a photograph of Robert, with a brief local news blurb:
GUEST – Dr. J Robert Spiegel of Houston, Science of Mind Foundation director, will speak at the 10:45 a.m. service tomorrow in First Church of Religious Science, 2001 6^th Ave. His subject is “What Religious Science Teaches.”
*******
On page 8 of the June 18, 1970 edition of the Houston Daily Cougar was this advertisement:
HOME OF UNIVERSAL LIFE
“Teaching Aquarian Meditation For The New Age
Meets Every Sunday, 11:00 A.M. At The World Trade Center Auditorium
Houston, Texas
DR. J. ROBERT SPIEGEL (BRAHMADANDA) DIRECTOR - FOUNDER
Aquarian Meditation Initiation for the first time offered through correspondence. For those sincere students wishing to bypass evolution and enter the 5th Kingdom. Initiation includes meditation technique, Mantra, how to "live” 24 hours a day, and much more. Write for application today:
P.O. Box 53328 Houston, Texas 052
*******
From the Galveston Daily News, May 02, 1971, Pg. 31:
AQUARIAN MEDITATION SOCIETY PRESENTS DR. J. ROBERT SPIEGEL AN AUTHOR, LECTURER, TEACHER OF YOGA & SELF DEVELOPMENT WILL SPEAK ON MAN, MIND & THE UNIVERSE WEDNESDAY, MAY 5th AT 7:30 P.M. IN THE RECREATION CENTER HARRIS COUNTY PARK, NASA RD. # 1 ALL WELCOME — DONATION $1.50
*******
The 1972 Spiritual Community Guide lists Robert twice, in the San Diego area. First, on page 117, using his alias “J. Robert Spiegel”:
THE TEMPLE OF METAPHYSICAL ABUNDANCE. J. Robert Spiegel, 1118 Torrey Pines Rd., 92037. Teaches yoga, nutrition, ESP, metaphysics, psychology, mind control
Second, on page 124, in which he, as one might have predicted, was masquerading as some sort of medical man or scholar:
"AQUARIAN MEDITATION SOCIETY, U. S. Grant Hotel, Attn: Dr. Robert Spiegel, 453-7588"
*******
Also in 1972, Volume 25 of San Diego Magazine published in November advertised gift certificates for the “Astrology Research Center.” “Give your loved one the gift of love. Only $50” said the advertisement. Where was this entity located? At 1118 Torrey Pines Road, the same address as Robert’s Temple of Metaphysical Abundance. The advertisement purported that person identified as “Lil Canaan” was the director. The telephone number was 459-6400.
In 2013, the San Diego Union Tribune published the obituary for Lillian Mulonas, who founded the La Jolla “Astrology Research Center.” At this point in time, unless Robert Adams’ only surviving daughter, Michelle/ Prentiss/ Avantae knows the answer and talks, we will not know what relationship, if any, existed between Robert’s Temple of Metaphysical Abundance and Lilian’s Astrology Research Center, both of which were located at 1118 Torrey Pines Road in 1972.
*******
From the July 12, 1973, San Diego Reader:
BRAHMADANDA FOUNDATION
“Teachings of the Cosmic Way” meets Sundays, 11:00 a.m., U.S. Grant Hotel, Crystal Room. Free admission, refreshments served. Call 453-7588 for more information.
*******
On page 51 of the June 29, 1974 edition of Phoenix’s Arizona Republic was the following advertisement:
Speaker from San Diego
Dr. J. Robert Spiegel from San Diego, a traveler and lecturer, will speak at 8 p.m., Friday in Universal Series Center, 4340 N. Seventh Ave., on the topic “Science of Being.”
He is the founder of the “Aquarian Meditation Society” in Jamaica and is founder and publisher of “Equinox,” a philosophical newspaper.
*******
The family (Adams or Spiegel, however one might want to refer to them) have resided in (that I know of) New York, Miami, Jamaica, Louisiana, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Houston, New Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Scottsdale, Sedona, and a number of cities in North Carolina.
*******
In at least the 1990’s, before he left for Sedona, Robert Adams used the address PO Box 7210, Jordan Avenue, D-30, Canoga Park, CA. He used that address on correspondence he wrote, and on at least one published document. Who else used that address? The data aggregators show that this address was also used by a Michelle K. Spiegel, and a person going by the name Leonie Maxwell. Michelle and Leonie also used other addresses associated with Robert, those being 1815 Willis Avenue Panorama City, and 21551 Burbank Boulevard, Woodland Hills.
*******
The California Birth Index shows that Michelle K. Spiegel was born on October 1, 1960, in Los Angeles County, to a mother with the maiden name Maxwell.
*******
In later life, Michelle used the addresses above that are associated with Robert and Leonie, as well as an address of 12004 Vanowen Street #14, North Hollywood. This is the same address at which Denniston Keith Maxwell, one of Leonie’s younger brothers, resided at, after his immigration to the United States. Denniston was one of Michelle’s uncles.
In a recent Facebook posting, Michelle/Avantae stated: “Never knew anything personal about said uncles, etc. Never asked, never cared.” Really? She shared an address with an uncle? Her uncle lived within a few minutes’ drive from her parents, and Michelle/Avantae never knew anything about him?
As an aside, Michelle/Avantae alleged (or admitted) that she “never cared” about anything personal regarding her uncles. If that is true, what does that tell us about Michelle/Avantae’s fundamental character? Antisocial? Psychopathic? Narcissistic in the extreme?
*******
On August 2, 1996, Michelle, going by the name Avantae E. Deven, married Tyson Ruben Alvarez in Las Vegas. The two had addresses in common in Arizona, Nevada, and Montana.
*******
Robert “Adams” died on or about March 2, 1997, in Sedona, Arizona.
Shortly after that, in the spring of 1997, “Nicole Adams” and “Avantae Deven” (both aliases; the correct legal names are Aileen Beverly Leonie Spiegel and Michelle K. Spiegel) purchased a home together in Sedona, on Navahopi Road. Shortly after the purchase, “Nicole” quit-claimed her portion to “Avantae.”
On July 17, 2001, Tyson, still married to “Avantae,” quit-claimed any interest in the Navahopi property to “Avantae,” and had the county recorder send the deed to “Avantae” in care of the Infinity Institute, at that time located at 9101 W. Sahara Ave. Suite 105 C29 (in other words, a private post box), in Las Vegas.
Avantae divorced Tyson in 2006. She had, by then, moved to North Carolina. She “served” Tyson via publication summons, claiming that she was unable to find him, despite his information being on multiple data aggregators.
You can go to various Facebook groups, and other sources, to pull up the documents that people have uncovered showing who is associated with the "Infinity Institute," and in what fashion, and also the addresses that they have used over the years.
In any event, this is the information regarding Robert that I think that people need to be aware of.
Why turn to a known liar and con man for spiritual guidance?
1A tallis is a prayer shawl.
2The ship’s manifest states that he was age 14, which conflicts by one year with what Samuel identified as his date of birth. These errors are not uncommon; his fare could have been purchased when he was age 14 and the records not updated.

Preface: This is all my opinion. I came into the game during Chapter 3 Season 1. It wasn't the beginning of the season, but I was able to complete the season pass since I decided I wanted skins from it. I am not an "OG" player but I've definitely seen a lot of variety in the UI and gameplay, so here goes my thoughts.
The UI: I know, I know many people are mixed here. Some people say it doesn't affect gameplay, which is true. It does affect navigation, severely though.
What I would rather see is a splash page. When the game loads, let me see options for the main game modes: Battle Royale, Festival, Lego, Creative, Rocket Racing, Save The World.
If I want to play any of these modes, I shouldn't have to navigate that messy screen that you scroll through. Even putting stuff as favorites doesn't mean it's still easy to get to.
Under each splash page, what you see for a menu is much cleaner. Each sub menu could then have nice clean options once you're in to whichever mode you may want to primarily play.
For example: Under creative it could then have something similar to the search suggestions based on game type. Festival lets you keep the simple choice between Main Stage and Jam Stage. Lego could let you choose worlds you are a part of as well as Lego creative maps. Something like this could go for all the main modes while cleaning up the overall look of the UI.
This also keeps it clean for if/when they add other options under any of these sub modes.
The Locker: This is easily one of the worst changes I've seen made in any game from what it was prior.
Here is what I would like to see.
I would like to see pages. I want to be able to theme out and name a series of saved presets. That way, if I decide to shuffle skins/presets. The presets are based on whatever theme I make. I can theme based on a BP, style of skins such as streetwear skins or medieval skins, holiday, IP, or any other combination I may choose within a page.
Under that, I want what we had back, but with everything matching in a preset.
This is ALL cosmetics. I think just for ease of organizing all items need to be able to be in matching presets.
What would be great on top of this is to be able to copy something to every other preset on a page. For example, if you use the same back bling on all your characters, you don't care about your car, or the instruments. You can just make it so once you copy to the rest of the presets on a page, you don't have to worry about setting that part up as you do the rest of your presets.
I don't know about you, but the current way the locker is set up is also the single biggest reason I have been spending FAR, FAR less in the game.
I used to top up my account with the 13,500 V-Bucks at the start of each season. I haven't done that since Fortnite OG before this chapter started.
Item Shop: I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I miss the old shop. I'd see Marvel take over the shop than whatever this shop currently is. I also HATE the fact the item shops reorganizes itself WHILE you are in the shop and looking at things.
Either bring back the old shop style or give the item shop a truly clean and organized look.
Item costs are all over the place and need to be fixed. This also goes for song costs. To me what is pretty much $5 a song is too much. Especially when once upon a time you could buy Guitar Hero or Rock Band and get a whole library of songs to play for one game cost. I'm not saying songs have to be only $1 each, but $5 is too much. I know I'd be buying songs at like $3 each and I'd consider the value better.
Skin styles: New skins are either feeling really weird in style or super, super boring. Now I understand this is purely subjective.
Take this Greek BP for example though. These Greek Gods don't even feel like they are demi-gods. Artemis could have looked so much better if all her styles didn't look like they were already some form of super style. Also, what's with all the camo on Zeus?
Dagobah Luke didn't look anything like Luke and they already had the face model in the game.
Purchase Gymnastics: What I mean with this is when you make either the purchase for the BP or general cosmetics that then require you to do special quests to get all the items. To me, it's worse when you buy specific cosmetics than it is for BP related items, but it's still annoying to have to do certain things just to get those items unlocked.
Quests: With this, most of my quest experience is within BR and only some in other modes like Lego and Rocket Racing. My thoughts here are focused on BR based quests.
Story quests need to come back to telling a story that you don't have to go searching for to put together. This is one of the biggest things I miss from Chapter 3, was how the story quests went.
Special quests like ones related to Star Wars, Avatar, or anything special need to be more in line with doing things related to it. Maybe this means less quests for special items, but then that's less quests for those special items. For example with air bending quests, one of them was just traveling distance. It didn't matter if you were using air bending or not.
Quests should also be a bit more streamlined with less quests and giving you more. The reason for this is if someone even plays just one other game mode, currently you have to play A LOT of both game modes if you want the items from doing quests.
XP And Leveling: There was a post, I believe yesterday about how you shouldn't have to play other modes in order to get to level 200. While this is something I've just been doing the time I've been playing, I agree with the person who made the post talking about this.
Now I'm not saying you should just be given levels. But I do think if you only play 30 minutes a day or a couple hours a day every few days, you should be able to get to level 200 without having to rely on either buying levels or playing a bunch of other modes/stuff to get there.
This should go with whatever mode you play as your primary mode. Even if the BP doesn't make sense for Rocket Racing. If I play mostly Rocket Racing in a season, I should get that XP for the BP and all the cosmetics within it.
Gameplay: Now, I do understand this is the BR sub. So, I will only go lightly on my thoughts on other modes and focus on BR here.
Lego: I played a fair amount when it first came out, but wow was this not ready to go. It's such a grind, there's no easy way across the map. I haven't played with vehicles, but I've heard they don't always work properly. They should somehow introduce fast travel, even if you have to build your own fast travel points. It didn't have enough to hold interest for me, it was too big of a map, too heavy of a grind, and too many other obscure issues in the game.
Rocket Racing: I don't hate this mode, but I also don't not hate this mode. I had a blast when it first came out. I hate the time trial courses though. I get the idea of it, but at the end of the day it just is boring in the long haul and I don't care enough about the cosmetics to do all the quests.
Festival - Jam Stage: No, just no. At least for me, just no. Also, bring back being able to just AFK for points in this mode. You can't tell me the majority of people in there are actually enjoying that mode?
Festival - Main Stage: I'll admit, I actually do really enjoy this mode. I don't have a lot of issues with it other than costs of songs, and also instruments.
BR: I primarily play Zero Build, for what that's worth to you on my following thoughts.
To me, this entire chapter has felt boring and nothing like how Fortnite felt for Chapters 3, 4, and OG. Now, I admit I felt that Chapter 4 could be overwhelming at times and I wasn't the biggest fan of the jungle. However, give me back that chaos and jungle over whatever this is.
The mod benches need to go, it honestly makes all the weapons so boring. Insanely boring. The gameplay feels flat to me, I think because of mod benches and modded weapons
Bring back hitscan weapons and true weapon variety.
Also give us at least a season without snipers. Even FaZe Replays misses old snipers. FaZe Replays the crazy sniper, doesn't even like the current sniper guns.
I think to most players who have been playing since before this, the map is pretty but also boring at the same time. It doesn't look like Fortnite maps have in the past.
Where are augments? I do feel like the augments were a big part of why Chapter 4 allowed for so many different types of gameplay, and you never knew what you may run into.
Pub BR right now doesn't feel anything like Fortnite. I get it, Epic did heavy layoffs and then did this meta thing. So now BR is hurting. It needs more focus, it needs to not be so boring. Don't turn Fortnite BR into PUBG or other games that are now just about dead.
It's not too late to fix pub BR, but they do need to truly focus on it.
Bring back the old art style, make the map more fun with legitimately fun POI's.
Ranked: Now, I play some ranked but not a lot. In my book though, it's such a broken game mode. Arenas used to actually play more like a comp practice. Ranked does not. Also, the ranking itself needs to be fixed.
I'm sorry but people like Bush Camp Dad should not be able to camp their way to Unreal, or even Champion for that matter.
Ranked needs some major balance changes.
It also needs to play more like Arenas did. If a comp isn't going to have vehicles or mythic weapons, then neither should ranked. Otherwise comps need to match what you have in pubs...which I do disagree with.
I do believe that Ranked and Comps/Cups need to be more of a "core" style gameplay.
The Storm: I believe we need a dynamic storm. The storm should be able to see how many people are left in a game and where they are. If it's down to 15 people just camping their way through and there is still half the map left, then the storm should increase it's damage and shrink down significantly to force gameplay.
I'm not saying they need to make the storm as fast as it was in the beginning of Chapter 5 Season 1, but it needs to be more of a threat than it currently is where it's 1 dps for way too long.
Which is why I believe a dynamic storm is the answer. The storm can change how much it shrinks and the damage it'll do based on player count and how spread out the players are.
Conclusion: For me, both seasons 1 and 2 of this chapter have not been it. I used to play just about every night either trios or squads. I think we're all just feeling bored and letdown with the current state of gameplay.
This was, for a long time one of my favorite games to play and even if I didn't want to play BR, I was at least going and seeing what kind of create maps I could find, especially Death Runs to do.
I'm now only playing a few times a week, mostly just to knock quests out to make sure I get things.
I'm not playing other creative maps as much anymore, I am off and playing other games.

Hello there!
My assistance dog (Im in the UK) is charity trained. As part of my training with my first assistance dog (12 1/2 years ago) they introduced Canine Calming Signals, and the person who first recognised them, Turid Rugaas.
Turid is a behaviourist and an affirmative, force-free trainer in Norway. She first talked about things most people easily recognise now- like a play bow- and was there at the start of increasing awareness about dogs' awareness of humans, and ability to read humans. You might be asking yourself, tho... what does this matter for a service dog?
Your dog has nothing better to do than watch you, constantly, and try to figure you out... so if you understand what things are especially meaningful to your dog, you can make it easier for them to understand what you want, need, like, or don't like.
For example- a yawn and a look away after licking the lips. This is clear "dog speak" for "Calm down, there is nothing to worry about, and you being all excited is gonna stress me out".
Watch your dog and see how often THEY use the sign!
Dogs (mostly) naturally do everything they can to "keep the peace" with other dogs (and people). The way they approach each other, the way they hold their bodies... it tells you what they are thinking. Each dog varies a bit, so learning *your* dog is important.
When my dog is being silly and over-excited, or conversely, is stressed in a place that might be unfamiliar (for example), I can look at him, lick my lips, yawn, and turn my head away- and he thinks "Oh, she's not worried, and she doesn't want me to be..." and he will calm down. In one of her books, there is a great story where someone moves with their dog to a house that has a commuter rail track at the foot of the garden. Every time the train goes by, the dog gets incredibly stressed and shakes, cries, and tried to hide. They looked at the time tables, and just before the train was to come, the people rewarded the dog, and as the train started to approach they engaged in a positive interaction like playing or cheerful grooming. When the dog starts to show signs of distress, they lick-yawn-turn. Over time, the dog learned "trains don't scare mum and dad, so, they don't train me either" and the dog no longer cared about the train.
You can go anywhere to learn more, and there are some good books- but it's worth it. In time, you learn to read your dog as well as communicate with them- both strengthen and improve both your training and your relationship.
Here are some useful links...
Turid Rugaas website- she also has books and videos http://en.turid-rugaas.no/calming-signals---the-art-of-survival.html
Turid's "on talking terms with dogs" - https://edisciplinas.usp.bpluginfile.php/3873275/mod_resource/content/1/On%20talking%20terms%20with%20dogs_%20Rugaas%202006.pdf
AKC guidance on body language https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/advice/how-to-read-dog-body-language/#:\~:text=Dogs%20with%20their%20tails%20pointing,neutral%20depends%20on%20the%20breed.
Victoria Stilwell - https://positively.com/dog-training/article/communication-canine-body-language
https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dog-advice/understanding-your-dog/body-language
https://outwardhound.com/furtropolis/pet-parenting/how-to-read-dog-body-language
https://www.pawcommons.com/understanding-canine-body-language-what-your-dog-is-trying-to-tell-you/
Maybe we could discuss it here?

Congratulations, you and Dante have made it to Paradiso. Top level achieved! Now, let's see what there is to see here.
Canto I: Beatrice Knows It All
Dante calls on Apollo to help him explain what he sees, referencing his flaying alive of Marsyas. In Paradiso, the Greeks are the best use of metaphor and inspiration for Dante, which Beatrice calls him out on! The light of God shines more strongly here in heaven than on Earth. They observe the sun and Dante passes "beyond the human" and has no words. Beatrice explains gravity and revolving spheres. We are somewhere in outer reaches of the Ptolemaic universe.
Canto II: Don't Follow Me!
Dante urges us not to follow in his footsteps unless you already are Heaven-ward inclined. Dante and Beatrice visit the first star. The moon has a dark spot that is Cane. Beatrice points out reason's limitations and suggests an experiment with mirrors. They discusses how internal organs correspond with the different celestial bodies.
Canto III: Love You To The Moon (And Back?)
Beatrice mocks Dante's intellect. They look at the moon-a place of broken vows to God and visit with Piccarda Donati, who was abducted from a convent and forced to marry by one of her brothers, Corso (who was also Dante's opponent). Her other brother, Forese was Dante's friend, so this is a very personal story. Unlike in the other realms we visited, the souls are content to rest where they are, as ordained and ordered by God. Although grace rains unequally in Paradise, it doesn't make it less Paradisical. If you want a rabbit hole to explore, here is the story of the life and times of Empress Constanza.
Canto IV: More Moon
Beatrice reads Dante's mind and answers his questions, and they discuss Plato, Justice, Dante's limitations and how the Bible considers how to manifest God's power in a way that is not too uncomfortable. Beatrice discusses Alcmaeon#/media/File:Alcmaeon_killing_his_mother_Eriphyle.jpg), who killed his mother to please his father-a filial act does not erase his crime. Dante wants to know if broken acts can be redressed. Beatrices blinds him with Love.
Canto V: On To Mercury
Beatrice explains her glow and celestial contracts, including foolish ones in history, which obviously require the sacrifice of a beloved daughter, e.g. Iphigenia. Beatrice glows so much, other shades approach to bask in her light. Dante spots Mercury.
Canto VI: Fame!
Mercury contains the righteous who were motivated by...fame! But we're talking legitimate fame and honor, not that lesser stuff. We discuss eagles, Justinian.jpg), Roman conquests, Charlemagne, etc. Dante gets a swipe at domestic politics, again bringing up the Ghibellines and Emperor Charles and the Guelphs. Dante remembers another exile, Romeo [Romieu] de Villeneuve.
Canto VII: Just Vengeance
Still on Mercury, Dante and Beatrice discuss how just vengeance works. Man's good or just works are not enough without God. The sacrifice of Christ means that not only the soul, but the body, which is made of the four pure elements that lead back to God, will be resurrected. Okay?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
See you next week, when we visit even more of Paradiso in Cantos VIII-XV! Questions below.

Hi! Since the other AA subreddit went private I thought it would be nice to have an open space to celebrate Ascended Astarion again!
Mods: If this isn't allowed or wanted I completely understand and will not bring it up in this subreddit again!
The new subreddit is evilascendedonlyfangs
Despite the name, I hope this can become a vast place where we can celebrate all our favorite villains!
You're welcome to gush over other evil BG3 characters as well (in this case, evil is subjective). Think DJ Shadowheart, Minthara, Mizora, etc . . .(Someone please give me some evil Gale!)
I want this to be an open and welcoming space so both evil AA headcanons and soft AA headcanons are welcome here and it's in the rules to respect different takes.
Ok, that is all. Bye. ♥️