Amazon Prime Day 2024 is just around the corner, and I wanted to share some insights on what to expect this year. Whether you're a Prime Day veteran or a first-time shopper, these tips will help you make the most of the event. Here are some of the top deals and product categories to keep an eye on:

1. Electronics:

• Smart TVs: Look out for massive discounts on 4K UHD TVs from brands like TCL, Samsung, and Sony. Last year, we saw deals like the TCL 55-inch 4K TV for just $249.99.
• Headphones and Earbuds: Expect significant price drops on popular models like Apple AirPods and Sony WH-1000XM4. Previous deals included Apple AirPods 2nd Gen for as low as $89.
• Smart Home Devices: Amazon Echo devices, Fire TV Sticks, and Ring doorbells are usually among the best deals. Last year, the Fire TV Stick 4K was available for just $22.99.

1. Amazon Devices:

• Kindle E-Readers: Ideal for book lovers, these devices often see deep discounts. The Kindle Paperwhite is usually a hot item.
• Fire Tablets: Great for entertainment and productivity, these tablets are expected to have substantial markdowns.
• Echo and Alexa Devices: From smart speakers to display units, Amazon’s own products are always prominently featured.

1. Home Appliances:

• Vacuums and Air Purifiers: Brands like Shark and Dyson typically offer great deals. For instance, the Shark IZ362H Cordless Stick Vacuum was on sale for $199.99 last year.
• Kitchen Gadgets: Keep an eye out for deals on Instant Pots, Ninja blenders, and air fryers. The Ninja DZ201 Foodi 8-qt air fryer was a favorite last year.

1. Fashion and Beauty:

• Apparel: Major discounts on clothing, shoes, and accessories from top brands.
• Beauty Products: Deals on skincare, haircare, and makeup products are expected to be significant. Look out for bundled deals and exclusive sets.

1. Gaming:

• Consoles and Accessories: While stock can be limited, there are usually good deals on consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 accessories.
• Games: Discounts on popular titles and gaming subscriptions.

1. Miscellaneous:

• Books: E-books and physical books see notable discounts. Great time to stock up on reading material.
• Fitness Gear: From home gym equipment to fitness trackers, there are usually great deals to be had.

Tips for Prime Day Shopping:

• Set Up Alerts: Use the Amazon app to set up notifications for your must-have items.
• Early Access: Check for early access deals exclusively for Prime members.
• Price Tracking: Tools like CamelCamelCamel can help you track price history to ensure you're getting the best deal.

Feel free to share any deals you find or tips you have in the comments below.

My WH has been having an EA that I have proof of for several months. Could be PA but I am only considering the proof I have.
I confronted him and he lied to me. I haven’t told/shared with him the proof I have. We separated over this several weeks after the initial confrontation. This was 3 months ago.
Why in the HELL does he not have the balls to admit to his affair? I don’t talk to him at all about anything except for our child. Hardcore grey rock. His AP is still married living her best life. Maybe this is why? What are they waiting for? My WH is free. I know for a fact they are still together to this day.
I’ve made it crystal clear I am not interested in anything to do with him so it shouldn’t be that he is afraid of risking any future with me.
I understand that it doesn’t matter in the long run, but I cannot wrap my head around what the strategy or logic could be.

Hey there, my family is currently looking into getting solar panels, and we got a quote regarding Trinity/Sunnova for Downstate NY. My father's been a bit hesitant when it comes to solar, but he was on board with this lease proposal which surprised me and my mom (we both thought he wouldn't immediately sign on). So we have this lease proposal that we need to determine if it's good or not. It's not exactly easy figuring out the exact info regarding solar companies online, since some companies list trinity as really good, others list it as having horrible customer service or similar, and/or specific cost aspects.
It's a 25y lease with a 2.9% escalation rate, starting at a $102.96 year one monthly payment and ending up at a $189.68 year 25 monthly payment (with a $15 discount per month if paid automatically or something like that, making it $87.96 and $174.68 respectively).
The installation is a 8.200-kW solar system estimated to produce 8,403 kilowatt hours in the first year of service.
After the 25y term it allows for 2 5 year extensions, which then it has to be taken off with no purchase option.
It's Qcells from SolarEdge Technologies Inc., and an estimate $42,482.40 cost for the full 25y lease.
The Guaranteed Annual kWh for credits when producing under the threshold starts out at 7,142.87 kWh year one and ends up at 6,333.25 kWh for year 25.
It comes with a full 25y warranty with the following wording:

(i) System Warranty During the entire Lease Term, under normal use and service conditions, the System will be free from defects in workmanship or defects in, or a breakdown of, materials or components (the “System Warranty”);
(ii) Roof Warranty When our contractors penetrate your roof during a System installation we will warrant roof damage caused by our contractors due to our roof penetrations. This roof warranty will run the longer of (A) ten (10) years following the completion of the System installation; and (B) the length of any existing installation warranty or new home builder performance standard for your roof (the “Roof Warranty Period”); and
(iii) System Repair Promise During the entire Lease Term, Sunnova will honor the System Warranty and will repair or replace any defective part, material or component or correct any defective workmanship, at no cost or expense to you (including all labor costs), when you submit a valid claim to us under this Limited Warranty. If our contractors damage your Home, your belongings or your Property we will cause our contractors to repair the damage they cause or pay you for the damage as described in Section 6. Sunnova may use new or reconditioned parts when making repairs or replacements. Sunnova may also, at no additional cost to you, upgrade or add to any part of the System as it deems advisable in its discretion. Cosmetic repairs that do not involve safety or performance shall be made at Sunnova’s discretion.

If there's anything else which I didn't list from the quote that might be important, let me know and I'll mention it in a reply. Or if there's any recommendations in what to purchase / what specific lines to look out for in a quote for the future so I can forward that information to my dad.
Thanks!

Anyone else the anxious person in an anxious/avoidant dynamic before the affair?
I feel like my WH took me for granted before and I'm honestly embarrassed at how clingy I was, although part of the reason for this was how overall distant and secretive he had become over the years, partly due to his alcohol addiction and then EA.
The first 6 years of our relationship didn't really have this issue. I felt comfortable with space and also closeness. Our relationship felt safe so I was able to focus on my own hobbies, friends, and goals. But as he pulled away more, it triggered this anxious side that was always there in hiding and I become more focused on the relationship.
I feel so much shame that while I was basically begging for love and open communication and trying to fix our relationship from WH he said he sought out attention and validation elsewhere.
How do I come to terms with the fact that my love was so rejected by WH in the first place? He also went full blown avoidant mode in the aftermath leading to me feeling even more abandoned. Telling me he had sacrificed his happiness for years for me 🙄 he never said anything to me about this prior to DDAY.
Also, now I basically don't know how to act. If I'm distant because I have natural upset feelings and trying to be more independent, I worry he will feel neglected by me and seek elsewhere as he said part of his EA was for attention? If I want to show WH love and pursue it at all, I feel like a desperate fool and almost embarrassed. Sometimes I just want to leave so I can be single and free of all relationship stress.
Worst yet, when he shows me the love I was wanting all along, I have a hard time believing it now. Or that he's secretly unhappy and wouldn't tell me like before.
He's overall being much more open, forthcoming and showing love, but this underlying anxiety is still there.
It's like I don't know how to "be" anymore. I'm trying to come to terms with my insecure attachment and codependency issues, but it's like all my actions are dictated by trying to prevent more hurt and I'm not even myself anymore. Like it's become a game I have to keep playing. He also seemed to like me most when the constant possibility of me leaving was there, and now as we grow closer and more stable, I sense that slight pulling away energy starting again.
I know I need to focus on myself more and feel more comfortable with myself, but it feels so difficult with the EA trauma and baggage being a constant anxiety source in my life. I've gotten a job out of the house instead of wfh that I'm hoping will help.
Anyone else experience this?

Would anyone be interested in printables on different subjects? These would be pages you could download and add to your Book of Shadows or just use for reference. The link for the pages could be put in a post with a brief description of what it is or added to the group wiki or both :). These would be free. The download could be done through Google Drive or a email form (submit your email and the file is emailed to you.
If you have any suggestions for printables let me know in the comments.
View Poll

Hello All,
I've been combing the internet for a while now and not found an answer to this or someone else asking this question specifically so posting here to see if there's an answer or at the very least start a discussion in case anyone else was wondering this.
If this has been answered before or there's any other source of relevant information, please feel free to share. I'm new to collecting steel-books and may not have found/checked every forum or nook n' cranny on the web lol
So I know there isn't any way to purchase the official plastic steel-book, they just aren't sold that way. So the only alternatives I've seen are:

• Donor SteelBooks
• Add adhesive disc holders to add an extra slot

But there seem to be some drawbacks to these. The main ones for me being:

• Unless you can find an empty steel-book case for sale, you're probably discarding a perfectly good disc with a movie/game/show that could've been bought by someone else.
• Or how if you need anything more than 1-2 discs to fit in a case it's all-but pure luck whether you can find a donor steel-book with the amount of disc holders/slots you need (i.e. stacking/flipper cases, etc.)
• prices to buy a steelbook (even older or used ones) can sometimes be as expensive as buying a new 4k or blu-ray. (barring a sale or deep discount)

So I'm wondering if there's any other solutions to replace the steel-book plastic insert without these drawbacks. Possibly getting into the custom/diy ballpark as opposed to pure donor steelbook replacement. Something like the following:

1. A third-party company or custom steel-book artist that makes their own inserts for sale that are compatible with the steel-book covers?
2. A way to modify/replace your insert with parts from other media cases. Like if there's another size/type of case similaclose enough to the steel-book dimensions you can use in place of a donor steel-book insert?
3. Maybe a way to make a steel-book compatible plastic insert from scratch using 3d/resin printing? (Assuming someone has or can make a printable model of the insert)
4. Maybe a way to use parts from other physical media cases if you need a more than 2-disc steel-book insert but cant find one? Like converting it to a flipper case using a flipper from a 4K or BR case?
5. A way to DIY your own insert using tools at home and a plastic material you can buy at a store?

I'm just spitballing those, not sure if they exist or are even possible. Just throwing stuff out there. But that's the ballpark my thinking is in and wondering if there is anything out there even remotely like what I'm describing. (esp. as some studios/distributors do more single-format releases which all-but forcing a purchase of multiple steel-books if you want multiple formats of a piece of media B4K/DVD)
Hopefully someone here who knows more than me can add to this or at the very least it starts a discussion that leads to answers if anyone else has this question. Thanks for your time/attention if you read this.
TL;DR: Is there any other options to get replacement plastic inserts for steel-books without purchasing a donor steel-book or using the adhesive disc holder things? Preferably an option that allows for however many discs you need (not just 1-2) and is sustainable/consistent long-term for collectors who purchase steel-books regularly and want to keep their collection organized to their preferences

Hey ThreeLions ,
My 10yo daughter wanted a wallchart for the Men's Euros 2024, but all the ones I found online had block colour and tiny text, so when I tried to print they used all my ink and were illegible.
So I made this Euro 2024 Printable Wallchart.
(I'm a web developer, so I always put things I make on the internet for free, just for fun)
The folks over at euro2024 have found it useful, especially if you are an England fan outside the UK, and the mods here at ThreeLions were gracious in allowing me permission to post here too. (Thank you mods.)
If there are any other timezones or broadcasters that would be of use to you, let me know and I will make it just for you :)
Cheers!
Ben

https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Biden-WH-Censorship-Report-final.pdf
"This interim report details the monthslong campaign by the Biden White House to coerce large companies, namely Meta (parent company of Facebook), Alphabet (parent company of YouTube), and Amazon, to censor books, videos, posts, and other content online. By the end of 2021, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon changed their content moderation policies in ways that were directly responsive to criticism from the Biden Administration. While the Biden White House’s pressure campaign largely succeeded, its effects were devastating. By suppressing free speech and intentionally distorting public debate in the modern town square, ideas and policies were no longer fairly tested and debated on their merits. Instead, policymakers implemented a series of public health measures that proved to be disastrous for the country. From unnecessary extended school closures to unconstitutional vaccine mandates that forced workers to take a newly developed vaccine or risk losing their jobs, the Biden Administration and other officials needlessly imposed harm and suffering on Americans across the country."

Making Cricut wood projects because they are eco-friendly has always been my first preference. Whether it is balsa wood, basswood, or chipboard, Cricut has many robust machines that cut these materials precisely. Since the day I got my Cricut Maker, I have been very excited as I bought it to create various wooden-based projects. I have been wanting to make them for a long time.
When I finally got it, it was like a dream come true. The most exciting part was working on ideas. I got the help of my friend John, who is into fine arts. Since he is an expert in designing things, I reached out to him and asked him to design the project I wanted.
He was amazing and did his work nicely, but designing it on Cricut Design Space was not his cup of tea. So, I took charge of it. Without any further delay, let’s explore these projects.

• Photo Puzzle
• Want something to play with? Try this photo puzzle and give it to your children. With this puzzle, you can cherish your memories or family pictures for fun. To create it, you will need to open the puzzle pieces. After that, use printable vinyl to print the photo and apply it to a heavy chipboard.

And what about machines? Well, it has always been my trusty Cricut Maker, and I have always preferred it for my Cricut wood projects.

• Earrings
• Fed up with metallic earrings, my mom asked me to make her a wooden earring. I took the challenge and started working on it. I used veneer wood, as I liked its texture so much.

Moreover, it was easy to make; there was nothing I had to put a lot of effort into, meaning it was beginner-friendly. Regarding the accessories, you will need a basic set of Cricut tools along with a Cricut deep-point blade. In addition to this, you will need cardstock, earrings, hooks, and glue to do it!

• Coasters
• I love personalized crafts, so I made these beautiful coasters. They will help keep my table surfaces free from unwanted liquid stains. The more beautiful the design, the more wow reactions you will receive from your guests.

For Cricut wood projects like coasters, you will create a monogram or any pattern that you want on your coaster. Start creating the design on your Cricut Design Space, and let your creation spread like magic.

• Home Sign

The home sign is the best home decor that I have created so far. Once a year, I always make a new home sign with a new, unique design. This ingenious design can be changed with every season. However, you can use any wood that you think will fit right for it. I love creating such crafts, especially with wood, so you can start making them as soon as possible.

• Desk Organizer

With many incredible tools, such as a Cricut cutting machine, you can make fantastic, useful Cricut wood projects, like desk organizers. You can also keep things like pens or other Cricut accessories. With Cricut Maker, you can cut your wooden pieces into different shapes and sizes. The blade I have used in this project is a knife blade. However, the key materials are the Cricut StrongGrip mat, Standard Grip mat, masking tape, and fusible fabric.

• Jewelry Tray

Nobody wants to lose their precious jewelry; hence, it requires a box in which it can be kept safe for a long time. This personalized tray can hold all types of jewelry and can also be used to gift jewelry. The hexagonal design of this box gives it a unique look. Also, inside the box, I used an engraving tool to engrave a single pattern.

• Garden Signs

If you are looking for some Cricut wood projects for your garden, look no further than this garden sign. I made this beautiful-looking garden sign at my granny’s request. Yes, she is a passionate gardener, and she loves doing it. So, once a day, she requested that I make something for her garden. The herb will get a call out with this sign made using basswood.

FAQs

Question 1: Where to buy wood for Cricut projects?

Answer: Wood is available for your Cricut projects just a few clicks away. Popular e-commerce websites like Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, and Cricut’s platform offer a wide range of wood types. If you choose to buy from Cricut, you’ll even find wood specifically designed for your machine, such as the Cricut Maker-compatible Natural Wood Veneer - Cherry.

Question 2: What can I make for Cricut balsa wood projects?

Answer: The list of Cricut wood projects is endless, and you need to find only the best projects that you want to make. Below, I have mentioned some of the common projects that you can make using balsa wood:

1. Name puzzle
2. Home sign
3. Earrings
4. Coasters
5. Shadowbox
6. Ornaments

Question 3: Which Cricut machine is the best for cutting wood?

Answer: To cut the wood, you will need a robust Cricut machine. Hence, Cricut Maker is the perfect fit for crafters who want to make something out of wood. Whether it is balsa wood, chipboard, or basswood, it can cut everything up to 2.4 mm thickness.
Source: Cricut wood projects
Visit here For More Information: Cricut Venture
You tube

• Censor Content: The report details the Biden Administration's efforts to pressure Facebook into censoring content that discouraged COVID-19 vaccination. This included not only false information but also true information, negative opinions about the vaccine, and even humorous or satirical content such as memes​​.
• Free Speech: The report highlights the dangers of government coercion against free expression. Facebook, under pressure, expanded its content moderation policies significantly, which sometimes included censoring true information and personal opinions about the vaccine​​.
• Public Debate: The report argues that this coercion led to a distortion of public debate, as ideas and policies were not fairly tested and debated. The suppression of dissenting views on public health measures resulted in policies that had significant negative impacts, such as extended school closures and vaccine mandates​​.
• Big Tech's Compliance: Internal communications from Facebook show that the company felt compelled to comply with the White House's demands despite initial resistance. High-level executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, eventually decided to prioritize other issues over defending free expression on the platform due to the intense pressure from the administration​​.

Read it fot yourselves. Cant make this shit up
https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Biden-WH-Censorship-Report-final.pdf

Infiltration

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
[First] [Previous] [Next]
Mik
The clock was ticking as she moved quickly but carefully around the building until she reached the point she was aiming at: an area of blank wall, with no entry points and thus no security cameras. She’d known where it was, having scoured the overhead imagery to the very limit of its resolution capability. More to the point, she knew what was on top of the building.
Here was where the mindsets of the Cyberon employees who had built and were staffing the structure would inevitably fail them. They had to breathe oxygen-laden air, and in fact required in the region of a full thousand millibars of atmosphere surrounding them, otherwise various nasty things would start happening to their bodies, starting with depressurisation and ending in death. To this end, while outside they were obliged to wear EVA suits which, even after decades of settlement on Mars, were still relatively bulky and clumsy.
As such, anyone (apart from Mik) attempting to gain surreptitious entry to any airlocked structure on Mars would have to go in via ground level, or use stairs to access the roof. The concept of free-climbing straight up the side of such a building, out of the sight of cameras, simply didn’t occur to Earth-normal humans. The thick gloves and heavy boots built into such suits had minimal chance of allowing someone to climb even a conveniently placed rope.
When she reached the base of the wall, Mik took a moment to pull off her boots, and hung them from her belt by the laces. Thinking ahead, she picked up a rock and dropped it into her pocket. Then she reached up, hooked her fingers into a couple of convenient crevices, and started to climb.
The concrete, as with most large structures on Mars, had been poured in a rough and ready manner. Outward appearance didn’t matter a great deal, and certainly held less importance than the ability to consistently hold air pressure. So external flaws such as crevices and shallow cracks (unfortunately common with some of the temperature shifts) were overlooked as being superfluous to the security and safety of the buildings.
Mik aimed to prove them all wrong.
It wasn’t so long ago, she mused as she steadily made her way up the vertical surface, that she’d told both Professor Ibrahim and Dani how she wanted to free-climb the wall of Valles Marineris, near the complex where she’d grown up. She probably never would do that now, but this was an acceptable substitute, especially if it got Dani safely away from the clutches of Cyberon. Making that a permanent situation still wasn’t a guarantee, given how they’d almost managed to kill her with a spread of gravel inside Lunar orbit. If that was any indication of the reach of the rogue Martian megacorp, it was frighteningly long.
But one issue at a time, as the professor had been in the habit of saying.
Her internal clock wasn’t perfect, but she was pretty sure that by the time she reached the top, the three minutes she’d allowed Pete were up. This meant his part of the distraction was due to start, and the window of success was going to start closing soon. Pulling herself up to the top of the roof, she paused to survey the expanse.
Signal dishes, check. Airlock for roof access, check. Total lack of guards on top of the roof, check.
Okay, let’s do this thing.
Still barefoot, she darted across to the nearest signal dish and examined the box built into the base of it. One of her jobs back in the Valles Marineris Research Complex had been to check on the various dishes on the roof, especially after a dust storm came through. That hands-on experience, plus the formal tutelage from half a dozen brilliant minds, had left her with a thorough understanding of how such dishes worked … and how to most easily simulate an equipment malfunction.
With this in mind, she popped the cover off the control box, examined the fuses and breakers she found there, then grinned and pulled one out. That particular brand of fuse was finicky as hell, and always needed to be firmly seated or it would play hob with the signal. Removing it altogether would be a dead giveaway that someone was up there on the roof, but if some unkind person blew fines into the socket—Mik wiped some off the sole of her boot onto her fingertip, took a breath from the pony bottle, and did just that—then replaced it, then it would look perfectly natural.
Fines, the ever-present Martian micrometre-scale ‘dust’, got everywhere, after all. Proofing her body against them had been one of the tougher challenges, or so Kathy had once told her. It was one of the things that would’ve propelled the Martian Walker program (and, by association, the Tharsis Corporation and Mik herself) into the forefront of the terraforming initiative.
With the fuse back in place and the box partly open as though left that way by a careless technician, she scrambled up on top of the roof exit airlock and set about putting her boots back on. The airlock would be electronically secured from the inside, of course, but the thing about boredom was that it made people lazy. She’d seen it herself a dozen times; if someone was just ducking out for something, they’d leave the outer door open, because why bother closing it when it was just going to be opening again in a minute or so?
Thirty seconds after she finished lacing up the second boot, the airlock rumbled open. Someone in an EVA suit stepped out, carrying a toolkit. Predictably, he headed straight for the dish she’d sabotaged.
EVA suits were utterly shit for peripheral vision, but Mik didn’t waste any time. Grabbing the upper edge of the airlock, she swung down and in, then slapped the button to close the outer door and cycle the lock. Her sinusoidal channels registered the rise in air pressure, and soon enough her sphincters relaxed, as did her abdominal muscle bands.
She stepped out of the airlock, then took the rock from her pocket and wedged it into the channel to block the inner door from closing all the way. The safety interlocks would kick in at that point, preventing the outer door from opening. It was an old trick, dating from the first days of the Martian colonies, but it was still an effective one.
While she didn’t have anything in particular against the guy who’d gone to repair the dish, he was one of the assholes holding Dani captive, so keeping him out of the way was a good idea. By now, Pete would’ve knocked on the front door, so the timer really was ticking. Reaching up to her ear, she activated the mastoid earpiece, so they could talk if necessary.
Step One: infiltrate the base. Done that.
Step Two: find Dani.
Okay, so where are you?
*****
Pete
The last few seconds of the timer in Pete’s suit chrono ticked down, and he took a deep breath. Okay, showtime. He was fully aware this was not part of his job description—*I’m Orbital Rescue, not SpecOps, dammit!—*but this was where the rescue operation was so he was just gonna have to man up and do the job.
Holding the inflated suit meant for Danielle Connaught in a way that made it look like there was someone inside and he was helping them along, he headed for the airlock Mik had already spotted. When he knew he was within range of the video pickup, he waved his free arm and activated his radio on the universal Guard channel. “Hey, help, can you see me? Need help here! Crashed our transport and the kid’s hurt!”
Nobody had answered by the time he got up to the airlock, so he hit the oversized entry button. It depressed but the airlock didn’t open, as he’d figured. He didn’t even try to figure out the coded keypad, instead slapping his palm on the exterior alarm panel. That would sound a loud buzzer inside the complex, indicating that someone was locked out and needed to get in.
“Hey!” he called out over the radio again. “Help! I need help out here! I got a hurt kid! We need medical attention and we need air! Help!”
Four things were working in his favour here. The first was that this secret facility was trying hard to pretend not to be a secret facility. Second, the EVA suit meant for Danielle, and the mention of a ‘hurt kid’, would throw them off the track. Third, the people inside would want to know who had been wandering around in their back yard, and why. And as for the fourth, it was simple. He’d been born on Earth, and had spent an extended period of time down on the surface a lot more recently than any Cyberon employee he was likely to encounter.
The light over the airlock door turned green, then the door itself rumbled open to reveal an EVA-suited figure. “Come on in,” said a masculine voice over the same channel. “Bring the—”
He got no further than that, because Pete had dropped the suit and launched himself into the airlock. Orbital Rescue pilots had to be fit and good at hand-to-hand combat, both in and out of EVA suits. They weren’t combat troops, but it wasn’t unknown for potential rescuees to act thoroughly unreasonable in the face of extreme stress, up to and including physically assaulting the people trying to rescue them.
When it came to subduing people in a hurry, Pete knew the value of depriving them of their own breath, so he led with a sucker punch to the solar plexus. Letting out a pain-filled gasp, the Cyberon goon doubled over, allowing Pete to smack the close-door button with his elbow. In the interval before the airlock finished cycling to full pressure, he lifted his involuntary dance partner up against the side of the small compartment and gave him another couple of gut punches to keep him honest.
When the inner door opened, he pulled out the foot-long metal bar he’d stashed in his leg pouch and came out swinging. There were two men waiting for him, neither one in an EVA suit. Both were wearing uniforms with Cyberon patches, which only confirmed what he and Mik had already known.
His swing took the one on the right in the left shoulder, and Pete felt the snap of a bone transmitted through the bar. The guy screamed and fell away, giving Pete the leeway to turn his attention to the third guy. This one started backing away; he’d clearly been prepped to grab and subdue a man and a child at three to two odds, and this was not turning out that way.
Suit-clad, even if he wasn’t outside anymore, Pete knew damn well that he was slower than anyone wearing normal clothing. His peripheral vision was also limited due to his helmet, which meant that he had to finish this fight fast. His one big advantage was his strength, incidentally allowing him to also move more quickly than expected in the EVA suit.
The guy he was heading for pointed something at him, and for a moment Pete thought they’d miscalculated badly and he was about to be shot. But instead he faintly heard the warble of a wireless taser, and felt the vague tingle of a charge passing across the outside of his suit. But just because the guy had tried something that wasn’t going to work didn’t mean Pete could relax. Lunging across the intervening distance, Pete grabbed him by the front of his shirt, spun him around, and slammed him against the wall.
Only because he was facing in the right direction did he see the one in the EVA suit coming out of the airlock. Still hunched over a bit from the gut punches, he was clearly recovering by the second. Worse, Pete could see his mouth moving inside his helmet, indicating that he was on the radio to someone.
They were far too close to Burroughs to want to play hide-and-seek with Cyberon security, so he had to shut this down now. Swapping the bar to his left hand, he swung it hard at the side of the guy’s helmet. He wouldn’t do more than dent the metal frame, but the antenna was on the outside of the helmet where it could easily be serviced or repaired, and there were several chips in there that did not appreciate rough handling. While the apparatus was protected by a hard plastic shell, this didn’t make it proof against someone hitting it with a piece of metal.
As an added bonus, a hard enough smack on the side of the helmet would cause the guy to hit his head on the inside of the helmet, and put him down for at least a little bit. He swung with all the force he was capable of; the impact travelled back up his arm with a clang, and the guy stumbled sideways and fell over.
Pete turned to check on the one whose collarbone he’d broken, and found him just climbing to his feet. He didn’t trust the guy to not cause trouble anyway, so he towed his current captive over to the injured one, and kicked the second one’s legs out from under him. Then he unsealed his faceplate and flipped it up. “Danielle Connaught!” he shouted. “Where is she?”
“Wh-what?” asked the one who had just hit the floor again. “Who?”
“The Earth girl!” Pete was starting to lose patience. “If someone doesn’t give me a straight answer, I’m gonna be tossing one of you in the airlock and cycling it, see if that wakes the other one up!” He wasn’t sure if he’d actually be able to do it, and he hoped fervently that they wouldn’t make him find out.
“Oh, that Earth girl,” the guy who’d tried to taser him said in tones of enlightenment. “Yeah, she’s in room ten-thirty-eight.”
Pete flipped his faceplate closed again and keyed his radio. “Papa Juliet calling Mike Whiskey,” he said tersely. “I’m in. Guy here says she’s in room one-zero-three-eight, do you copy?”
*****
Cyberon Headquarters, Burroughs
CEO’s Office
“What do you mean, you’re under attack? Is it the specimen? Is it there?”
Adrenaline flushing through his system, he stood up from his desk. At the same time, he slapped the privacy button, so that the door to his office shut and locked. While there were none under his employ who would dare gainsay his right to do anything he wanted in the interests of furthering Cyberon’s market share, it was still a good idea to ensure that nobody heard any details of things they weren’t cleared to hear.
The voice he was listening to was pained and labouring, but still audible. “No, sir, I haven’t seen it. Just an Earthman, on foot, in the chaotic terrain. Said he had a hurt kid, then he gut-punched me. Hits like an ore-loader.”
“A hurt child?” He zeroed in on that, to the exclusion of all else. “Did you see the child?”
“No, just a—” There was a burst of static, then silence.
“Say again your last!” he snapped. “Just what? What did you see?”
But the signal had cut out. He was talking to dead air.
Slowly, thinking furiously, he lowered himself back into his chair. It was the specimen. There was no other possible reason for that specific complex to be under attack by someone from Earth. The specimen had gotten as far as Orbital Rescue and had somehow suborned them to aid it in its misguided efforts. It was the only scenario that made any kind of sense.
Fingers moving swiftly, he called up the radar imagery over that area for the previous two hours. No unexplained ships had landed anywhere near the facility in that time; everything that had touched down anywhere in the vicinity was accounted for and squawking the appropriate transponder codes. For a moment, he glanced at the trace of a meteorite that had come down on Hesperia Planum, far to the north-east of Hellas Basin. Then he shook his head; the thing had massed no more than a thousand kilos, far too light for any kind of assault lander.
The only viable explanation was that the specimen and its Earth patsies had come in via ordinary channels and his precautions had missed them altogether. Once it was captured, he would have to see about backtracking its movements and arranging a suitable punishment for those who’d been asleep at the switch when it came through. But for now, he had to make sure it could not get what it wanted.
He didn’t have anywhere near total control of the facility, given that it was outwardly supposed to be owned by interests opposed to those of Cyberon. But he’d arranged the security precautions around the Connaught girl himself, and those he could access and activate. Calling up the appropriate screen, he checked the camera views around the purpose-built cell—originally intended for the specimen itself—then entered a specific command.
While the cell itself was airtight, the corridors around it were now a trap. The moment anyone who wasn’t authorised to be there showed up on camera, vents would kick open and the atmosphere around the cell would be reduced to that of the outside pressure. If the Earthman had taken off his EVA suit to get to her (and Earthmen always got out of their suits as soon as they could), he would die in the near-vacuum of Mars-normal atmosphere. On the other hand, the specimen would survive, but it would be forced to stand helplessly outside the cell in the knowledge that there was no way of getting the Earth girl out without dooming her.
With that taken care of, he sent off pre-prepared messages to his security people. They were to flood the facility and take all intruders prisoner. None but the specimen needed to be taken alive, and even it could die if necessary. Once it (or its body) had been secured in Cyberon’s deepest laboratories, the superfluous captives could be disposed of in ways that would obscure their origins and actual cause of death.
He smiled coldly, flexing his fingers against each other in anticipation of victory. Who said good things didn’t come to those who waited?
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[A/N: Another chapter coming very shortly. The whole thing came to over 6500 words, so I decided to cut it in half.]

Hi all, looking for some advice and have a load of general questions.

• I bought a new build which had 8 x 260w solar panels on the roof (approx 2kW output). The entire system is 6 years old.
• I cannot add more panels (see pic below) but I can swap them out.
• I am looking to add a battery to be filled during the day from the panels and then also at night at cheap rates.
• I think it would also be a good idea to swap the panels out for 400w/500w ones (makes it VAT free). There is no more space for more panels.
• My inverter is a Solis-mini-2000w, so this will need to be swapped out.
• My energy consumption in the winter (December as an example) is 25kWh per day. In May it is 10kW a day max.

Considering I already have a 2kW solar setup the bills are not THAT bad - elec is like £60-120pm depending on time of year so a long payback period but hoping for a cheap deal due to having an existing system (cheaper install?) and doing my bit for the environment.
Roof and panels: https://imgur.com/h5h6ph9
Inverter: https://imgur.com/LAC8zlY
My consumption (Jan 2024) https://imgur.com/ziv4Apx
Questions:

1. Is it a good idea to get new panels to make the entire lot VAT free and simply double the system capability too?
2. How big should I go battery wise? Do you size for winter days or general days?
3. Will my inverter size dictate both how much I can take from the panels and also how much the battery can give back to the house? Bigger the better like 5kW?
4. Is it likely the labour costs for my install will be much lower given things like the panels are going to be swap-in swap-out and there is already solar?
5. Do batteries go near the solar system or near the fuse board? I ask because all of the solar equipment is in the roof area anad the fuse board on the ground floor (4 floors)
6. It seems Sunsynk, Givenergy and Fogstar seem to be the ones everyone talks about. With Fogstar being hard to source installers atm. Any others?
7. Is replacing panels the same physical size literally a straight swap or are there other things to consider?
8. Anyone recommend good, decent, London installers?

Thanks for all the help!

Currently, I have an R730xd with 128GB RAM, 20TB storage, running Proxmox with TrueNAS, Jellyfin, ADC, and so forth. Additionally, I have a few Cisco switches fully populated, cameras, and other hosts. There's also an i5 Proxmox server that handles pfSense and Docker.
My home lab is consuming more power than I'd like. While I love having it and don't want to shut it down just yet, it's using approximately 280kWh every month, which accounts for about 70% of my total electricity bill.
I'm exploring ways to take advantage of a company's offer of free power for three hours. One idea is to use a UPS that can somehow sustain operations for 24 hours and charge during those three hours. Alternatively, I'm considering a DIY solar setup with a car battery or something similar. However, I'm mindful of the initial startup costs and payback, especially since I don't anticipate having the same hardware in 2-3 years.
Any other options out there?