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Credit Cards

2008.09.14 19:08 Credit Cards

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2014.12.17 01:10 rizdiz Food Stamps - SNAP

A place for food stamp (aka SNAP or EBT) applicants/recipients to ask questions about the program; for food stamp program experts to share information; and to share any news pertinent to the program.
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2011.01.04 03:16 ScrambledOvaries GCX: Get what you really want!

Trade your gift cards with other redditors and get what you really want!
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2024.06.09 22:00 popcodswallop [WTS] VINTAGE • Piston Fillers and Other European Pens from the 1930s-50s (Springy to Wet Noodle): Pelikan 400 Tortoise, Wartime 100 Luxor Visible OS Stylomine 303 Retrofit Big Ben Orion Everlasting 552 •

This week’s vintage batch features European FPs from the 1930s-50s, most of which are piston fillers. Nibs range from a springy to Wet Noodle, including one dip-pen nib retrofit. As always, all are fully restored and ready to write.
 
ALBUM & TIMESTAMP
 
Pastable link: https://imgur.com/a/QtB5ctS
 
Condition (n.b.): All pens listed below have been disassembled, cleaned and restored with new sacs installed in the last couple weeks and seals installed in the last couple years. Each of these pens is guaranteed to fill and write as designed without leaks or other problems. Nibs have been adjusted when necessary to ensure that all lay down a smooth and consistent line.
THESE PENS HAVE NO CRACKS (except #3), CHIPS, PERSONALIZATIONS, LOOSE OR MISSING PARTS, BENT NIBS, MISALIGNED TINES, BROKEN/WORN OFF TIPPING, OR THREADING ISSUES.
 
Line Widths and Writing Samples: To provide buyers with as much information as possible, I have adopted the following line width standards: XXF (.1-.2mm); XF (approx .3mm); F (approx .4mm); M (approx .6mm); B (approx .8mm). Nib flexibility is determined by variation (max line width under pressure) and softness (amount of pressure). Flexibility designations based on variation generally run as follows for an XF/F nib: Semi-Flex (approx. 1mm); Flex (1.2-1.9mm); Superflex (2mm+). All line width measurements are taken with a digital caliper but should be considered approximations providing a general guide. Width may vary slightly depending on type of ink and paper used as well as amount of pressure applied. All writing samples are on Rhodia dot paper using Waterman Serenity Blue.
 
 
1. 1950s Pelikan 400 (Tortoise, celluloid, GPT, piston filler, 14k KM [F/M Ball] nib). This standard-sized model measures 4 15/16” capped. I assume that the Pelikan pen company requires no introduction here :) This is an example of one of Pelikan’s most celebrated vintage pens in tortoiseshell celluloid with transparent striations for viewing the ink level. Classic gold-plated cap band and Pelikan-beak clip. Two-chick Pelikan logo stamped in captop (see DETAIL PHOTO). This pen is a piston filler: to fill simply rotate the blind cap counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submerse the nib, and rotate the piston clockwise until it comes to a stop. Blind cap is stamped KM, corresponding to the ‘M’ marking on the 14k Pelikan nib. The ‘’K’ is for ‘Kugel’ (‘ball), designating this nib as a ball nib, the tipping finished to give it a wider sweet spot for smooth writing at a wide range of angles. Though I wouldn’t call it a flex nib, it does have a springiness and buttery smoothness that’s quite nice. It lays down a smooth and consistent F/M line by the standards above (see WRITING SAMPLE). Condition: fine [C]. I’d describe this pen as more of a user. It’s been fully restored with a new seal and is guaranteed to fill smoothly to factory capacity without leaks. However, there’s an issue with the piston while unscrewing the blind cap all the way that makes the blind cap want to lift up and disengage when the piston is close to fully extended. The solution to this is simple enough: apply a little downward pressure to the piston when unscrewing the blind cap to extend the piston and it works just as it should every time (100% reliable). This has been factored into the price all the same. Barrel transparency is near mint with light yellow coloration and no staining (see DETAIL PHOTO). Gold-plated trim shows brassing to the bottom of the clip and a sliver around the bottom edge of the cap band as well as some nicks to the top edge of the clip tassie. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes – scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprints are deep and fully legible. A chance to own one of these with superb clarity at less than half the price they fetch on merchant websites. Price: $190
 
2. 1939-44 Pelikan 100 Wartime (green Binde, celluloid, NPT, piston filler, chromium nickel [CN] steel Oblique F/M-XF Flex nib). This standard-sized model measures 4 5/8” capped. During the material restrictions of WWII, Pelikan made several, short-lived changes to the 100. In place of 14k nibs they implemented Chromium-Nickel steel nibs marked CN. The gold-plated clip was supplanted by nickel-plated (so-called "reverse trim"). And the gold-plated cap bands gave way to no cap bands at all, the cap being either smooth or milled with decorative bands like this example. This wartime model is 100% original and correct, having all these features, including the original nib. It is made of celluloid with a vibrant green marble Binde. Pelikan two-chick logo stamped on the cap top (see DETAIL PHOTO). Barrel underneath is a transparent green for viewing the ink level. This pen is a piston filler: to fill simply rotate the blind cap counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submerse the nib, and rotate the piston clockwise until it comes to a stop. The Pelikan CN nib is a Left-Foot Oblique (iridium is ground in a shape like your left foot viewed from above). Under normal pressure it lays down a smooth and consistent F/M on the cross-strokes and XF line on the down-strokes. And the line widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.9mm) under moderate pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE). Versatile variation and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it a great choice for shaded writing and expressive styles. And the tipping was smoothed by Rick Propas when this pen was restored, making it just as buttery smooth as a Pelikan 14k nib. Condition: near mint [B+]. This pen comes from my personal collection and is the result of hunting the best example I could find. Wartime 100s are rare and this one, which resembles an artifact from a time-capsule, took me decades to track down. Nickel-plated trim is pristine with no brassing or other notable wear. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other noteworthy blemishes. Barrel clarity is superb with no discernible darkening or staining (see DETAIL PHOTO). Manufacturer imprints on the captop are factory deep and even contain most of their original green fill. The only hiccup is that despite being restored 2 years ago by Rick Propas and only being filled 1-2 times since, this pen only fills to half capacity. And this despite the piston operating as smooth as they come. I’ve regreased the pen, but it hasn’t seemed to make a difference. Because this pen is more off a collector-oriented find, I’ve decided to list it anyway. You’d be hard pressed to find another example of this rare piece of Pelikan history in better cosmetic condition. Price: $450
 
3. 1930s Luxor Visible 5907 (red and translucent web celluloid, NPT, piston filler, 14k Two-Tone XF Super-Flex nib). At 4 7/8" capped, this pen roughly the same length as a Pelikan. Luxor was a German brand of the Hebborn pen company, founded in 1925 by former Kaweco employee Heinrich Hebborn and located in Heidelberg until relocating to Cologne sometime before 1937. In Richard Binder's words: "The company produced pens of high quality, and it was known universally by the name of its signature brand, Luxor, with designs inspired by the aesthetic of ancient Egypt. Sub-brands included Sphinx, Visible, and Grandvisible" (source). The company is credited with having designed the first telescopic piston mechanism, which Montblanc would famously incorporate into its own designs. Despite their high quality, there weren't very many of these pens made and Luxors are especially scarce finds in the US today. This Visible model is made of a stunning red and translucent web celluloid similar to that which Wahl-Eversharp used for the Doric. Unlike the Doric, however, the entire barrel is translucent to show the ink level and piston operation. The cap is also translucent! The celluloid pattern is complemented by nickel-plated clip in an elegant Egyptian motif and triple cap bands with one wider, knurled band. This piston filler holds far more ink than cartridges, converters, and lever fillers of the same size. It is filled by removing the blind cap to reveal the turning knob (see fillers photo), rotating the knob counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submersing the nib, then rotating the knob clockwise until the piston is fully retracted. The pen is equipped with a beautiful 14k two-tone Luxor nib stamped with the pyramidal Luxor trademark. The nib is a Super-Flexible writer, laying down a smooth and consistent XF line that widens to a 4B+ (approx 2.3mm capped) under light pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE). Thin hairlines, strong snap-back and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it a great choice for calligraphic writing styles such as Copperplate and Spencerian. Condition: excellent+ [B+] aside from a hairline crack in the shank of the nib. The crack can be seen in the photos. It has no effect on the nibs performance or how it writes. And there’s no reason to think it’ll worsen unless the nib and feed are removed and re-installed (something that is only done on vintage pens for repair, not flushing). I’m happy to offer a one-year guarantee (no-questions return for refund) that this crack won’t get any longer. Nickel-plated furniture is remarkably clean, showing no brassing or other notable wear aside from a small spot of brassing on the bottom terminus of the clip. Red color is of an even shade across the cap and barrel. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes – scarcely even any miscroscratches. Barrel clarity is excellent but slightly ambered in comparison to the cap's (see DETAIL PHOTO). Manufacturer imprint on the cap is deep and fully legible. An uncommon and uncommonly eye-catching pen that also happens to be a lovely writer. *Price: $290
 
4. 1940s-50s Oversized Stylomine 303 Retrofit (black, celluloid, NPT, accordion filler converted to twist filler, 14k XXF Needlepoint Wet Noodle nib). This oversized pen is massive, having a thick girth that doesn’t fit all the way into the slots of the slotter box and a capped length of 5 3/8.” Stylomine was a Parisian pen company founded shortly after World War I. Streamlined profile, clip, and font of the imprint exude the aesthetics of midcentury design. This pen is made of black celluloid with tapered ends. Nickel-plated trim in a deluxe configuration includes cool spring-loaded clip with a hallmark ‘Y Z’ on the right side. I wasn’t able to track this down, but it’s possible the clip is either sterling silver or silver-plated. In 1940 the company patented an innovative FP filling system comprised of a rubber sac shaped into a bellows and attached to a glass ink cartridge at the end of the barrel (see fillers photo). Referred to as an accordion filler today, the pen was designed to be filled by removing the blindcap and depressing the glass ink cartridge several times until the cartridge fills with ink. Since accordion sacs are no longer being made, I followed David Nishimura’s advice and restored this pen using a standard tubular sac trimmed at both ends. This essentially converted it into a twist filler so that instead of depressing the glass cartridge one twists it a little over 1 full turn to fill the sac as well as 1/3 to 1/2 of the glass cartridge. Thanks to the size of the pen, this retrofitted solution still allows it to hold about as much ink as a typical lever filler (e.g. Waterman 52). This pen came to me nibless. But I was able to find a serendipitous match in a massive 14k, iridium tipped E.S. Johnson #4 nib stamped ‘303’. This number matches the Stylomine model number on the barrel! Like all my dip pen nib retrofits, the nib and feed were modified to guarantee factory fit, flow, and performance, delivering the best of both centuries. That nib yields Flexible variation with Wet Noodle softness, laying down a smooth and consistent XXF line that widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.8mm) under minimal pressure – i.e. anything more than grazing the page (see WRITING SAMPLE). Don’t be fooled by the max line width. Needlepoint hairlines, effortless variation, surgically responsive snap-back, and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it an ideal choice for calligraphic writing styles such as Copperplate and Spencerian. Condition: excellent+ [B+]. Nickel-plated trim shows no brassing or other notable flaws. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes – scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on barrel is deep and fully legible with ‘Made in France’ slightly weakened. Price: $340
 
5. 1930s Big Ben (grey shell, celluloid, NPT, piston filler, 14k XF Flex nib). This standard-sized model measures 5 1/16” capped. Big Ben was a trademark of the Benzion Trading Company of Copenhagen, Denmark. The company was founded in 1933 by Niels Benzion, who had worked for the Wahl-Eversharp. A pen of cosmopolitan origins, the Big Ben has a piston-filler patented in England (hence the cap imprint) while the pen was made in collaboration with H. Hebborn & of Heidelberg, Germany. That is why this pen so closely resembles the Luxor above. This particular example is made of celluloid in a grey shell pattern resembling that of a 2nd-gen Eversharp Doric complemented by nickel-plated clip in an elegant Egyptian motif and triple cap bands with one wider, knurled band, and decorative bands at the ends of the cap and barrel. This piston filler holds far more ink than cartridges, converters, and lever fillers of the same size. It is filled by removing the blind cap to reveal the turning knob (see fillers photo), rotating the knob counter-clockwise until the piston is fully extended, submersing the nib, then rotating the knob clockwise until the piston is fully retracted. Big Bens came with two different 14k nibs depending on when they were made and for what market: a nib stamped ‘Big Ben’ in cursive font; and a nib stamped ‘1st Quality’ in the same distinctive font. This pen is equipped with the latter. That nib is a Flexible writer, laying down a smooth and consistent XF line that widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.9mm) under moderate pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE). Thin hairlines, strong, snap-back, and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it an excellent choice for expressive and shaded writing. Condition: excellent [B]. Barrel transparency is superb with no staining and a yellow coloration (see DETAIL PHOTO). Nickel-plated trim is clean with no brassing or other notable wear aside from a tiny spot at the bottom terminus of the clip visible under a loupe, a couple spots on the lower cap band that have lost some of their original luster, and thinning of the plating on the blind cap’s thin decorative band. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes - scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on cap is deep and fully legible. Price: $330
 
6. 1930s Orion Everlasting 552 in Box with Papers (Black and Bronze, celluloid, GPT, lever filler, 14k XXF/XF Flex nib). This standard-sized model measures 5 1/4” capped. Orion was Danish company (located in Copenhagen) that imported quality pen parts from Germany and England and assemble the pens in Denmark. In 1933 they changed their name to Miller Pen Co., a writing instrument importer that exists to this day. This pen comes in its original factory box with exquisite paperwork (see DETAIL PHOTO). It’s made of the same black and Bronze celluloid Conklin used for the Endura, complemented by gold-plated trim with elegant, Art Deco clip stamped ‘Orion’. Flexible 14k Orion #2 nib lays down a smooth and consistent XXF/XF line that widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.8mm) under moderate pressure (see WRITING SAMPLE. )). Thin hairlines, strong, snap-back, and reliable flow over its full range of flex make it another excellent choice for expressive and shaded writing. Condition: excellent [B]. The only noteworthy flaw on this pen is brassing to the center of the clip over the Orion trademark. Trim is otherwise pristine with no noteworthy flaws. Celluloid surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable blemishes - scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on barrel is deep and fully legible. Price: $240
 
 
 
Shipping: Pens purchased on the weekend are mailed on Tuesday. Otherwise they are mailed within 2 business days of payment. All pens that do not come with their original boxes are packaged in PVC or thick plastic tubes to protect them in transit. To CONUS locations the following shipping options are available:
  • USPS First-Class with tracking for $5 Due to the delivery delays that continue under postmaster general DeJoy, I strongly recommend that the Priority shipping option be chosen. All packages will include full insurance (covered by me). Rest assured that a full refund is guaranteed (issued through Paypal) in the event of a lost parcel and you will not have to wait until I receive a reimbursement from the USPS.
  • USPS Priority with tracking for $9
International Customers: Please contact me for shipping quote if located abroad (delivery confirmation required). (Note: due to the issues stated above, my international shipping options are currently limited. PM for more info). Please do not ask me to commit mail fraud by altering the declared value of a pen for customs. Not only am I registered as a business but shipping insurance is based on declared value.
New York Customers: For tax purposes, I am now required to add an 8% sales tax on any sale made in the state of NY. If your shipping address is in NY state, please let me know before payment to receive an adjusted total. Discounted shipping is included for NY State residents to help defray the extra cost.
Ordering: Pens are placed on hold for the first person to reply to the thread and PM me with firm request to purchase (no chat DMs please). A request with the words “I'd like to purchase [pen number]” would be best to avoid confusion), to which I’ll reply with payment details. Please note that a message inquiring into a price discount does not suffice to place a pen on hold. If I haven't received Paypal payment within 24 hrs after a hold is placed, then pen(s) may become available to the next person.
Payment, & Guarantee: Payment by Paypal only. All pens are guaranteed to be in the condition in which I've described them. If I've missed something objectionable or the filling mechanism is not fully functional, the buyer may contact me up to 7 days after receiving the pen for a full refund (issued once I receive the pen back in the same condition as sold). Buyer must ship the return no later than 2 weeks after it was delivered to receive a refund. I've sold pens online for over a decade. Please check my past listings here as well as on the classifieds and historical sales forums on FPN (username: Estragon) and FPGeeks (popcod) for some of my previous offerings.
 
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OTHER OPEN LISTINGS
submitted by popcodswallop to Pen_Swap [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:53 allthedarkspaces it crawls

Like all haunted house stories, this took place right after I moved in. Cliché, right? My wife and I saved up enough money from our rental to finally put down on a house of our own. So we moved in and everything seemed right...at first.
It wasn’t until later that I realized there were warning signs. The seller seemed really anxious to close, and we were offered a much cheaper price than we expected for the space we got. While there was a moment of doubt, we brushed it off as some weird circumstance that ended in a great deal for us.
How could we possibly pass that up?
The strange occurrences were small at first. I would be up late watching TV and swore I heard something. I’d pause the show and make out what sounded like dragging noises. After investigating, I wouldn’t find anything. Even stranger was that no matter where I walked in the house, the noise always sounded the same distance away. When I focused on it, I noticed the particular noise was rhythmic.
Tap, tap...sliiiiiiide.
It was like that every single time. My wife never heard it, it was only me. None of us believe in ghosts, mind you. But as I said before it was a small thing, so I brushed it off.
One night, I woke up in a startle. I listened intently but could hear nothing. I decided to grab a late night snack from the kitchen since I was awake anyway.
Halfway down the hall, I heard something. This time, it sounded like dirt being sifted und. I knelt down and swore that the sound was louder. Before I knew it, I had my ear pressed to the hardwood floor, listening intently.
Schht, schht.....sccchhhhhhh...
I jumped up from the floor. It was that same pattern of noises, but this time it sounded like someone in the dirt. Trying to ignore the chills washing over me, I took a step towards the kitchen when…
…something grabbed my ankle.
I fell forward, almost busting my chin on the floor.
“What the...”
Flipping over, I turned to face my assailant, but there was no one behind me. I brushed it off and chalked it up to poor balance from a sleep-hangover. My wife got a good chuckle out of that one.
After that, the house began to feel.....heavier. It was this weight over me that would come and go. This was accompanied by feeling cold no matter how much we turned up the heat, and this was the middle of the summer. Even stranger, the cold seemed to only be in certain spots, particularly on the floor itself. I liked to walk around barefoot no matter what time of year it was, but it was even too cold for me.
Another night, I woke up again. My ears stood at attention, but couldn’t hear any evidence of what woke me up. I got up just like before, except I never made it to the kitchen.
I only made if halfway down our hall before I suddenly felt a horrible pain in my right leg. I had to limp to keep moving, then my other leg was wracked with a wave of pain. It was so bad I found myself face down on the ground, writhing in agony.
Then I heard it again…that awful succession of noises.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
The sliding sound was coming from the hardwood floor this time, not from underneath. And the sound was getting closer and closer until...
I watched in horror as a hand came around the corner in front of me. It was soon joined by another, and they tugged at the floor. My heart hammered in my chest as a person slowly came into view.
It was a woman with long black hair, her disheveled clothing smeared with dirt and hanging off in shreds. Her mouth was crudely stitched shut. She looked up at me with empty, lost eyes and I instantly felt a lifetime of pain and misery. It took my breath away, and I had to focus on my breathing to keep myself from fainting.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
That awful sound repeated as she grabbed the floor and pulled herself towards me. I was in a terrified trance, eyes locked with her as she slowly closed the distance. I could now see that she dragged herself because her legs were horribly mangled. A low moan emanated from her throat, sending ice through my veins.
Her very presence seemed to drain me, and I couldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. She made this awful gurgling sound as she got within arm’s reach. In seconds, her face was right up to mine. I tried to scream, but couldn’t make any sound.
Then...I woke up.
“AAAAHHhhh!” I shouted as I sprang up in bed.
My wife tried to console me, but it did very little. I’d never had a dream that felt so real before. Shaking, I walked out into the hallway where I had collapsed in my dream. I put a hand on the floor, expecting it to be freezing cold as usual.
But it was warm...
“Honey?” I felt the soft hand of my wife touch my shoulder.
“What’s going on? You look white as a sheet.”
“I’m okay...I just...”
On the floor in front me, I noticed the faint trace of fingernail marks.
“Was that there before?” My wife inquired.
“I’m...I’m not sure.”
“Let’s go back to bed. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.”
I tried to hold back my stubborn expression, but she still saw it.
“C’mon, you need to rest.”
With an exasperated exhale, I went back to bed with the strange occurrence replaying incessantly in my brain.
In the morning, I told my wife about all the strange experiences. To my shock she actually believed me.
“What do you want to do, then?” She asked.
“Well...I have a theory I want to check out.”
“Theory of what?”
“Well, let’s just say that ghosts exist, and there are certain reasons why they haunt certain places. If that is true then...I think there could be a body in our crawlspace.”
“What, are you crazy?”
“I know how it sounds, but what would it hurt to look?”
“You really think there’s something down there?”
“More someone, but I’m not sure to be honest. Hopefully I can get a confirmation either way it goes.”
That afternoon, I found myself standing at the door to our crawlspace. It felt ridiculous, but so many details pointed to it. The sounds and cold spots were all related to the floor. The ghastly woman’s clothes were smeared with dirt. It was obscure, but it was all I had to go on.
I had to pry the door open with a crowbar, but I managed after a minute or two. A wave of unnatural cold air blasted me, so strong that I had to throw on a coat just to stop from shivering so badly.
I clicked on my flashlight, illuminating the eerie underbelly of our home. The dirt sifted under my feet as I crouch-walked around. After hearing it, it only confirmed what I thought I heard from under the floor.
Expecting to see more, I was almost disappointed that the crawlspace was completely bare. Not believing it entirely, I shined my light around more. The back part of the crawlspace led to concrete and it was there that I noticed one section of the wall looked different than the rest.
Hands quivering, I pushed against the section of concrete and felt it shift under the pressure. It continued to wobble around in place the more I pushed. Holding my flashlight between my teeth, I had to use both hands to pry the piece away from the wall. To my astonishment, it pulled away very easily. It was no coincidence that the section of wall fit the hole exactly, like a puzzle piece.
After leaning the piece of concrete against the wall, I found that the concrete was covering a door with a padlock.
There’s no way anything good is behind this...
Minutes later, I returned to the mysterious door with a pair of bolt cutters. I debated whether or not I’d go in. There was no reason I shouldn’t satisfy my curiosity, because if there wasn’t anything then great, but if there was something terrible, I’d simply have to deal with it. Either way, I had to know.
I clipped the metal bar off the lock and it thudded softly to the dirt floor. Taking in a deep breath, I dared to aim my beam down the opening. The crawlspace extended much further into the house, and I had a good guess where it led. I now had to crawl on my hands and knees as a knot of dread formed in my stomach.
“You always tell people not to do this in movies, why are you doing this now??!” I chastised myself.
I knew all too well how stupid this was but the part of my brain that can’t look away from a car wreck pushed me to carry along regardless.
It was difficult to navigate with the flashlight and crawl. A mild claustrophobia settled in that pushed me along with a sense of urgency. The temperature couldn’t have been any more than a meatlocker. My hands shook despite my thick jacket. Eventually, I came to a dead end.
Is this all?
I stopped for a moment and checked around with my light some more, hoping a more thorough search would bear some fruit. Yet, there was nothing.
Sighing in frustration, I decided that perhaps I was losing my mind and was just having really vivid dreams after all. How could I have been so stupid?
I made it halfway across the hidden area when I felt my legs suddenly give out. They weren’t tired or sore before this. It was as if they stopped working of their own volition. I attempted to cry out, but my mouth felt as if some force held it closed.
Just like a stitched mouth...
One of the few things I could move was my neck and I turned to the side to see...
…a tuft of a blanket?
Due to the narrow space, I must have missed it. I slowly reached for it with all the internal alarms in my body going off at once. Ignoring the warning, I pulled the cloth back to reveal a skeletal hand.
In this moment of revulsion, something turned on my motor skills again as I regained control of my legs, crawling out of there as quickly as I could muster. Heaving, I stumbled out of the crawlspace and instantly felt the rise in temperature. I sat on the porch and stayed there as I called the police and explained the situation.
It turns out that one of the previous owners of the home was a major suspect in the disappearance of a young lady fifteen years ago. There wasn’t enough evidence to conduct a home search so they were never able to find the body. And what they found was something I wish I had never known.
From examining the body, they found that her captor had broken both of her legs so she couldn’t escape and sewn her mouth shut to keep her from screaming. It was hard to tell how long she’d been locked down there before she died, but they hypothesized it was a month or two. The cause of death was unclear. This was clearly enough to pursue the former owner.
When they picked him up, the guy tried to play the ignorance card, pretending as if he didn’t know what house they were referring to. This of course made it even more suspicious.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything concrete enough to tie him to her death...until they searched his current home. Blueprints of the home showed that the crawlspace was supposed to end ten feet where the concrete wall was. No contractors were hired to do any work on the home, so someone had personally busted it up and created the door going further in. The last part of it was the padlock on the door.
When the police searched the man’s home, they found a shoebox full of seemingly innocent keepsakes. Among the keepsakes were some heirlooms, pictures of close family members, and a key. As suspected, the key matched the padlock to the crawlspace door. It was apparently enough to make him crack. It wasn’t long before he confessed to the kidnapping and murder, albeit without a hint of remorse. Turns out the bastard kept the key as a sick trophy.
They even questioned him about other possible victims since this was a trait commonly shared by serial killers. He denied it, but the police couldn’t feel any truth from it. If anything they knew that they solved one case, put a guilty man behind bars, and put a family at peace. Justice was served and he was locked away for the rest of his miserable life. Poetic justice, if you ask me. The poor girl’s parents buried her remains on a family plot.
After all this, we had serious doubts about staying in the home. Knowing something this egregious happened in our home was almost unbearable. I can’t tell you how much we cried when we heard the story of what happened to that poor girl. We were on the brink of selling the house for about a week, but one night changed all that.
I woke up from a dream, one so vivid yet it somehow escaped my thoughts like a fistful of sand. There was a strange feeling in my gut as if something was going to happen.
It was neither good nor bad, just....strange.
After drinking a small glass of milk, I meandered down the hall and stopped in my tracks. A woman stood in front of me, half-transparent with a bluish luminescence. I felt as if I knew her, although I didn’t recognize her appearance at all. She smiled, and I instantly knew who she was. Compared to her previous horrific manifestation, the woman was almost unrecognizable.
Never speaking, she motioned to her legs and I saw that they were in perfect condition. In a mild state of shock, I managed to form a smile. She beamed even wider and ran her fingers across her lips, pointing out her lack of stitches. A blanket of warmth wrapped around me, and I couldn’t resist the salty tears that streamed down my face.
Right before she waved goodbye, a voice spoke within my mind.
"It’s over now. Thank you..."
She faded away, and for the first time since we moved into that house, all hints of the oppressive energy dissipated. That was the last time I ever saw her.
It’s been 30 years now, and we’re still in that house to this day...
May she continue to rest in peace...
submitted by allthedarkspaces to horror [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:53 allthedarkspaces it crawls

Like all haunted house stories, this took place right after I moved in. Cliché, right? My wife and I saved up enough money from our rental to finally put down on a house of our own. So we moved in and everything seemed right...at first.
It wasn’t until later that I realized there were warning signs. The seller seemed really anxious to close, and we were offered a much cheaper price than we expected for the space we got. While there was a moment of doubt, we brushed it off as some weird circumstance that ended in a great deal for us.
How could we possibly pass that up?
The strange occurrences were small at first. I would be up late watching TV and swore I heard something. I’d pause the show and make out what sounded like dragging noises. After investigating, I wouldn’t find anything. Even stranger was that no matter where I walked in the house, the noise always sounded the same distance away. When I focused on it, I noticed the particular noise was rhythmic.
Tap, tap...sliiiiiiide.
It was like that every single time. My wife never heard it, it was only me. None of us believe in ghosts, mind you. But as I said before it was a small thing, so I brushed it off.
One night, I woke up in a startle. I listened intently but could hear nothing. I decided to grab a late night snack from the kitchen since I was awake anyway.
Halfway down the hall, I heard something. This time, it sounded like dirt being sifted und. I knelt down and swore that the sound was louder. Before I knew it, I had my ear pressed to the hardwood floor, listening intently.
Schht, schht.....sccchhhhhhh...
I jumped up from the floor. It was that same pattern of noises, but this time it sounded like someone in the dirt. Trying to ignore the chills washing over me, I took a step towards the kitchen when…
…something grabbed my ankle.
I fell forward, almost busting my chin on the floor.
“What the...”
Flipping over, I turned to face my assailant, but there was no one behind me. I brushed it off and chalked it up to poor balance from a sleep-hangover. My wife got a good chuckle out of that one.
After that, the house began to feel.....heavier. It was this weight over me that would come and go. This was accompanied by feeling cold no matter how much we turned up the heat, and this was the middle of the summer. Even stranger, the cold seemed to only be in certain spots, particularly on the floor itself. I liked to walk around barefoot no matter what time of year it was, but it was even too cold for me.
Another night, I woke up again. My ears stood at attention, but couldn’t hear any evidence of what woke me up. I got up just like before, except I never made it to the kitchen.
I only made if halfway down our hall before I suddenly felt a horrible pain in my right leg. I had to limp to keep moving, then my other leg was wracked with a wave of pain. It was so bad I found myself face down on the ground, writhing in agony.
Then I heard it again…that awful succession of noises.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
The sliding sound was coming from the hardwood floor this time, not from underneath. And the sound was getting closer and closer until...
I watched in horror as a hand came around the corner in front of me. It was soon joined by another, and they tugged at the floor. My heart hammered in my chest as a person slowly came into view.
It was a woman with long black hair, her disheveled clothing smeared with dirt and hanging off in shreds. Her mouth was crudely stitched shut. She looked up at me with empty, lost eyes and I instantly felt a lifetime of pain and misery. It took my breath away, and I had to focus on my breathing to keep myself from fainting.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
That awful sound repeated as she grabbed the floor and pulled herself towards me. I was in a terrified trance, eyes locked with her as she slowly closed the distance. I could now see that she dragged herself because her legs were horribly mangled. A low moan emanated from her throat, sending ice through my veins.
Her very presence seemed to drain me, and I couldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. She made this awful gurgling sound as she got within arm’s reach. In seconds, her face was right up to mine. I tried to scream, but couldn’t make any sound.
Then...I woke up.
“AAAAHHhhh!” I shouted as I sprang up in bed.
My wife tried to console me, but it did very little. I’d never had a dream that felt so real before. Shaking, I walked out into the hallway where I had collapsed in my dream. I put a hand on the floor, expecting it to be freezing cold as usual.
But it was warm...
“Honey?” I felt the soft hand of my wife touch my shoulder.
“What’s going on? You look white as a sheet.”
“I’m okay...I just...”
On the floor in front me, I noticed the faint trace of fingernail marks.
“Was that there before?” My wife inquired.
“I’m...I’m not sure.”
“Let’s go back to bed. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.”
I tried to hold back my stubborn expression, but she still saw it.
“C’mon, you need to rest.”
With an exasperated exhale, I went back to bed with the strange occurrence replaying incessantly in my brain.
In the morning, I told my wife about all the strange experiences. To my shock she actually believed me.
“What do you want to do, then?” She asked.
“Well...I have a theory I want to check out.”
“Theory of what?”
“Well, let’s just say that ghosts exist, and there are certain reasons why they haunt certain places. If that is true then...I think there could be a body in our crawlspace.”
“What, are you crazy?”
“I know how it sounds, but what would it hurt to look?”
“You really think there’s something down there?”
“More someone, but I’m not sure to be honest. Hopefully I can get a confirmation either way it goes.”
That afternoon, I found myself standing at the door to our crawlspace. It felt ridiculous, but so many details pointed to it. The sounds and cold spots were all related to the floor. The ghastly woman’s clothes were smeared with dirt. It was obscure, but it was all I had to go on.
I had to pry the door open with a crowbar, but I managed after a minute or two. A wave of unnatural cold air blasted me, so strong that I had to throw on a coat just to stop from shivering so badly.
I clicked on my flashlight, illuminating the eerie underbelly of our home. The dirt sifted under my feet as I crouch-walked around. After hearing it, it only confirmed what I thought I heard from under the floor.
Expecting to see more, I was almost disappointed that the crawlspace was completely bare. Not believing it entirely, I shined my light around more. The back part of the crawlspace led to concrete and it was there that I noticed one section of the wall looked different than the rest.
Hands quivering, I pushed against the section of concrete and felt it shift under the pressure. It continued to wobble around in place the more I pushed. Holding my flashlight between my teeth, I had to use both hands to pry the piece away from the wall. To my astonishment, it pulled away very easily. It was no coincidence that the section of wall fit the hole exactly, like a puzzle piece.
After leaning the piece of concrete against the wall, I found that the concrete was covering a door with a padlock.
There’s no way anything good is behind this...
Minutes later, I returned to the mysterious door with a pair of bolt cutters. I debated whether or not I’d go in. There was no reason I shouldn’t satisfy my curiosity, because if there wasn’t anything then great, but if there was something terrible, I’d simply have to deal with it. Either way, I had to know.
I clipped the metal bar off the lock and it thudded softly to the dirt floor. Taking in a deep breath, I dared to aim my beam down the opening. The crawlspace extended much further into the house, and I had a good guess where it led. I now had to crawl on my hands and knees as a knot of dread formed in my stomach.
“You always tell people not to do this in movies, why are you doing this now??!” I chastised myself.
I knew all too well how stupid this was but the part of my brain that can’t look away from a car wreck pushed me to carry along regardless.
It was difficult to navigate with the flashlight and crawl. A mild claustrophobia settled in that pushed me along with a sense of urgency. The temperature couldn’t have been any more than a meatlocker. My hands shook despite my thick jacket. Eventually, I came to a dead end.
Is this all?
I stopped for a moment and checked around with my light some more, hoping a more thorough search would bear some fruit. Yet, there was nothing.
Sighing in frustration, I decided that perhaps I was losing my mind and was just having really vivid dreams after all. How could I have been so stupid?
I made it halfway across the hidden area when I felt my legs suddenly give out. They weren’t tired or sore before this. It was as if they stopped working of their own volition. I attempted to cry out, but my mouth felt as if some force held it closed.
Just like a stitched mouth...
One of the few things I could move was my neck and I turned to the side to see...
…a tuft of a blanket?
Due to the narrow space, I must have missed it. I slowly reached for it with all the internal alarms in my body going off at once. Ignoring the warning, I pulled the cloth back to reveal a skeletal hand.
In this moment of revulsion, something turned on my motor skills again as I regained control of my legs, crawling out of there as quickly as I could muster. Heaving, I stumbled out of the crawlspace and instantly felt the rise in temperature. I sat on the porch and stayed there as I called the police and explained the situation.
It turns out that one of the previous owners of the home was a major suspect in the disappearance of a young lady fifteen years ago. There wasn’t enough evidence to conduct a home search so they were never able to find the body. And what they found was something I wish I had never known.
From examining the body, they found that her captor had broken both of her legs so she couldn’t escape and sewn her mouth shut to keep her from screaming. It was hard to tell how long she’d been locked down there before she died, but they hypothesized it was a month or two. The cause of death was unclear. This was clearly enough to pursue the former owner.
When they picked him up, the guy tried to play the ignorance card, pretending as if he didn’t know what house they were referring to. This of course made it even more suspicious.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything concrete enough to tie him to her death...until they searched his current home. Blueprints of the home showed that the crawlspace was supposed to end ten feet where the concrete wall was. No contractors were hired to do any work on the home, so someone had personally busted it up and created the door going further in. The last part of it was the padlock on the door.
When the police searched the man’s home, they found a shoebox full of seemingly innocent keepsakes. Among the keepsakes were some heirlooms, pictures of close family members, and a key. As suspected, the key matched the padlock to the crawlspace door. It was apparently enough to make him crack. It wasn’t long before he confessed to the kidnapping and murder, albeit without a hint of remorse. Turns out the bastard kept the key as a sick trophy.
They even questioned him about other possible victims since this was a trait commonly shared by serial killers. He denied it, but the police couldn’t feel any truth from it. If anything they knew that they solved one case, put a guilty man behind bars, and put a family at peace. Justice was served and he was locked away for the rest of his miserable life. Poetic justice, if you ask me. The poor girl’s parents buried her remains on a family plot.
After all this, we had serious doubts about staying in the home. Knowing something this egregious happened in our home was almost unbearable. I can’t tell you how much we cried when we heard the story of what happened to that poor girl. We were on the brink of selling the house for about a week, but one night changed all that.
I woke up from a dream, one so vivid yet it somehow escaped my thoughts like a fistful of sand. There was a strange feeling in my gut as if something was going to happen.
It was neither good nor bad, just....strange.
After drinking a small glass of milk, I meandered down the hall and stopped in my tracks. A woman stood in front of me, half-transparent with a bluish luminescence. I felt as if I knew her, although I didn’t recognize her appearance at all. She smiled, and I instantly knew who she was. Compared to her previous horrific manifestation, the woman was almost unrecognizable.
Never speaking, she motioned to her legs and I saw that they were in perfect condition. In a mild state of shock, I managed to form a smile. She beamed even wider and ran her fingers across her lips, pointing out her lack of stitches. A blanket of warmth wrapped around me, and I couldn’t resist the salty tears that streamed down my face.
Right before she waved goodbye, a voice spoke within my mind.
"It’s over now. Thank you..."
She faded away, and for the first time since we moved into that house, all hints of the oppressive energy dissipated. That was the last time I ever saw her.
It’s been 30 years now, and we’re still in that house to this day...
May she continue to rest in peace...
submitted by allthedarkspaces to Creepystories [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:52 allthedarkspaces it crawls

Like all haunted house stories, this took place right after I moved in. Cliché, right? My wife and I saved up enough money from our rental to finally put down on a house of our own. So we moved in and everything seemed right...at first.
It wasn’t until later that I realized there were warning signs. The seller seemed really anxious to close, and we were offered a much cheaper price than we expected for the space we got. While there was a moment of doubt, we brushed it off as some weird circumstance that ended in a great deal for us.
How could we possibly pass that up?
The strange occurrences were small at first. I would be up late watching TV and swore I heard something. I’d pause the show and make out what sounded like dragging noises. After investigating, I wouldn’t find anything. Even stranger was that no matter where I walked in the house, the noise always sounded the same distance away. When I focused on it, I noticed the particular noise was rhythmic.
Tap, tap...sliiiiiiide.
It was like that every single time. My wife never heard it, it was only me. None of us believe in ghosts, mind you. But as I said before it was a small thing, so I brushed it off.
One night, I woke up in a startle. I listened intently but could hear nothing. I decided to grab a late night snack from the kitchen since I was awake anyway.
Halfway down the hall, I heard something. This time, it sounded like dirt being sifted und. I knelt down and swore that the sound was louder. Before I knew it, I had my ear pressed to the hardwood floor, listening intently.
Schht, schht.....sccchhhhhhh...
I jumped up from the floor. It was that same pattern of noises, but this time it sounded like someone in the dirt. Trying to ignore the chills washing over me, I took a step towards the kitchen when…
…something grabbed my ankle.
I fell forward, almost busting my chin on the floor.
“What the...”
Flipping over, I turned to face my assailant, but there was no one behind me. I brushed it off and chalked it up to poor balance from a sleep-hangover. My wife got a good chuckle out of that one.
After that, the house began to feel.....heavier. It was this weight over me that would come and go. This was accompanied by feeling cold no matter how much we turned up the heat, and this was the middle of the summer. Even stranger, the cold seemed to only be in certain spots, particularly on the floor itself. I liked to walk around barefoot no matter what time of year it was, but it was even too cold for me.
Another night, I woke up again. My ears stood at attention, but couldn’t hear any evidence of what woke me up. I got up just like before, except I never made it to the kitchen.
I only made if halfway down our hall before I suddenly felt a horrible pain in my right leg. I had to limp to keep moving, then my other leg was wracked with a wave of pain. It was so bad I found myself face down on the ground, writhing in agony.
Then I heard it again…that awful succession of noises.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
The sliding sound was coming from the hardwood floor this time, not from underneath. And the sound was getting closer and closer until...
I watched in horror as a hand came around the corner in front of me. It was soon joined by another, and they tugged at the floor. My heart hammered in my chest as a person slowly came into view.
It was a woman with long black hair, her disheveled clothing smeared with dirt and hanging off in shreds. Her mouth was crudely stitched shut. She looked up at me with empty, lost eyes and I instantly felt a lifetime of pain and misery. It took my breath away, and I had to focus on my breathing to keep myself from fainting.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
That awful sound repeated as she grabbed the floor and pulled herself towards me. I was in a terrified trance, eyes locked with her as she slowly closed the distance. I could now see that she dragged herself because her legs were horribly mangled. A low moan emanated from her throat, sending ice through my veins.
Her very presence seemed to drain me, and I couldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. She made this awful gurgling sound as she got within arm’s reach. In seconds, her face was right up to mine. I tried to scream, but couldn’t make any sound.
Then...I woke up.
“AAAAHHhhh!” I shouted as I sprang up in bed.
My wife tried to console me, but it did very little. I’d never had a dream that felt so real before. Shaking, I walked out into the hallway where I had collapsed in my dream. I put a hand on the floor, expecting it to be freezing cold as usual.
But it was warm...
“Honey?” I felt the soft hand of my wife touch my shoulder.
“What’s going on? You look white as a sheet.”
“I’m okay...I just...”
On the floor in front me, I noticed the faint trace of fingernail marks.
“Was that there before?” My wife inquired.
“I’m...I’m not sure.”
“Let’s go back to bed. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.”
I tried to hold back my stubborn expression, but she still saw it.
“C’mon, you need to rest.”
With an exasperated exhale, I went back to bed with the strange occurrence replaying incessantly in my brain.
In the morning, I told my wife about all the strange experiences. To my shock she actually believed me.
“What do you want to do, then?” She asked.
“Well...I have a theory I want to check out.”
“Theory of what?”
“Well, let’s just say that ghosts exist, and there are certain reasons why they haunt certain places. If that is true then...I think there could be a body in our crawlspace.”
“What, are you crazy?”
“I know how it sounds, but what would it hurt to look?”
“You really think there’s something down there?”
“More someone, but I’m not sure to be honest. Hopefully I can get a confirmation either way it goes.”
That afternoon, I found myself standing at the door to our crawlspace. It felt ridiculous, but so many details pointed to it. The sounds and cold spots were all related to the floor. The ghastly woman’s clothes were smeared with dirt. It was obscure, but it was all I had to go on.
I had to pry the door open with a crowbar, but I managed after a minute or two. A wave of unnatural cold air blasted me, so strong that I had to throw on a coat just to stop from shivering so badly.
I clicked on my flashlight, illuminating the eerie underbelly of our home. The dirt sifted under my feet as I crouch-walked around. After hearing it, it only confirmed what I thought I heard from under the floor.
Expecting to see more, I was almost disappointed that the crawlspace was completely bare. Not believing it entirely, I shined my light around more. The back part of the crawlspace led to concrete and it was there that I noticed one section of the wall looked different than the rest.
Hands quivering, I pushed against the section of concrete and felt it shift under the pressure. It continued to wobble around in place the more I pushed. Holding my flashlight between my teeth, I had to use both hands to pry the piece away from the wall. To my astonishment, it pulled away very easily. It was no coincidence that the section of wall fit the hole exactly, like a puzzle piece.
After leaning the piece of concrete against the wall, I found that the concrete was covering a door with a padlock.
There’s no way anything good is behind this...
Minutes later, I returned to the mysterious door with a pair of bolt cutters. I debated whether or not I’d go in. There was no reason I shouldn’t satisfy my curiosity, because if there wasn’t anything then great, but if there was something terrible, I’d simply have to deal with it. Either way, I had to know.
I clipped the metal bar off the lock and it thudded softly to the dirt floor. Taking in a deep breath, I dared to aim my beam down the opening. The crawlspace extended much further into the house, and I had a good guess where it led. I now had to crawl on my hands and knees as a knot of dread formed in my stomach.
“You always tell people not to do this in movies, why are you doing this now??!” I chastised myself.
I knew all too well how stupid this was but the part of my brain that can’t look away from a car wreck pushed me to carry along regardless.
It was difficult to navigate with the flashlight and crawl. A mild claustrophobia settled in that pushed me along with a sense of urgency. The temperature couldn’t have been any more than a meatlocker. My hands shook despite my thick jacket. Eventually, I came to a dead end.
Is this all?
I stopped for a moment and checked around with my light some more, hoping a more thorough search would bear some fruit. Yet, there was nothing.
Sighing in frustration, I decided that perhaps I was losing my mind and was just having really vivid dreams after all. How could I have been so stupid?
I made it halfway across the hidden area when I felt my legs suddenly give out. They weren’t tired or sore before this. It was as if they stopped working of their own volition. I attempted to cry out, but my mouth felt as if some force held it closed.
Just like a stitched mouth...
One of the few things I could move was my neck and I turned to the side to see...
…a tuft of a blanket?
Due to the narrow space, I must have missed it. I slowly reached for it with all the internal alarms in my body going off at once. Ignoring the warning, I pulled the cloth back to reveal a skeletal hand.
In this moment of revulsion, something turned on my motor skills again as I regained control of my legs, crawling out of there as quickly as I could muster. Heaving, I stumbled out of the crawlspace and instantly felt the rise in temperature. I sat on the porch and stayed there as I called the police and explained the situation.
It turns out that one of the previous owners of the home was a major suspect in the disappearance of a young lady fifteen years ago. There wasn’t enough evidence to conduct a home search so they were never able to find the body. And what they found was something I wish I had never known.
From examining the body, they found that her captor had broken both of her legs so she couldn’t escape and sewn her mouth shut to keep her from screaming. It was hard to tell how long she’d been locked down there before she died, but they hypothesized it was a month or two. The cause of death was unclear. This was clearly enough to pursue the former owner.
When they picked him up, the guy tried to play the ignorance card, pretending as if he didn’t know what house they were referring to. This of course made it even more suspicious.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything concrete enough to tie him to her death...until they searched his current home. Blueprints of the home showed that the crawlspace was supposed to end ten feet where the concrete wall was. No contractors were hired to do any work on the home, so someone had personally busted it up and created the door going further in. The last part of it was the padlock on the door.
When the police searched the man’s home, they found a shoebox full of seemingly innocent keepsakes. Among the keepsakes were some heirlooms, pictures of close family members, and a key. As suspected, the key matched the padlock to the crawlspace door. It was apparently enough to make him crack. It wasn’t long before he confessed to the kidnapping and murder, albeit without a hint of remorse. Turns out the bastard kept the key as a sick trophy.
They even questioned him about other possible victims since this was a trait commonly shared by serial killers. He denied it, but the police couldn’t feel any truth from it. If anything they knew that they solved one case, put a guilty man behind bars, and put a family at peace. Justice was served and he was locked away for the rest of his miserable life. Poetic justice, if you ask me. The poor girl’s parents buried her remains on a family plot.
After all this, we had serious doubts about staying in the home. Knowing something this egregious happened in our home was almost unbearable. I can’t tell you how much we cried when we heard the story of what happened to that poor girl. We were on the brink of selling the house for about a week, but one night changed all that.
I woke up from a dream, one so vivid yet it somehow escaped my thoughts like a fistful of sand. There was a strange feeling in my gut as if something was going to happen.
It was neither good nor bad, just....strange.
After drinking a small glass of milk, I meandered down the hall and stopped in my tracks. A woman stood in front of me, half-transparent with a bluish luminescence. I felt as if I knew her, although I didn’t recognize her appearance at all. She smiled, and I instantly knew who she was. Compared to her previous horrific manifestation, the woman was almost unrecognizable.
Never speaking, she motioned to her legs and I saw that they were in perfect condition. In a mild state of shock, I managed to form a smile. She beamed even wider and ran her fingers across her lips, pointing out her lack of stitches. A blanket of warmth wrapped around me, and I couldn’t resist the salty tears that streamed down my face.
Right before she waved goodbye, a voice spoke within my mind.
"It’s over now. Thank you..."
She faded away, and for the first time since we moved into that house, all hints of the oppressive energy dissipated. That was the last time I ever saw her.
It’s been 30 years now, and we’re still in that house to this day...
May she continue to rest in peace...
submitted by allthedarkspaces to scarystorieswithbb [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:49 allthedarkspaces it crawls

Like all haunted house stories, this took place right after I moved in. Cliché, right? My wife and I saved up enough money from our rental to finally put down on a house of our own. So we moved in and everything seemed right...at first.
It wasn’t until later that I realized there were warning signs. The seller seemed really anxious to close, and we were offered a much cheaper price than we expected for the space we got. While there was a moment of doubt, we brushed it off as some weird circumstance that ended in a great deal for us.
How could we possibly pass that up?
The strange occurrences were small at first. I would be up late watching TV and swore I heard something. I’d pause the show and make out what sounded like dragging noises. After investigating, I wouldn’t find anything. Even stranger was that no matter where I walked in the house, the noise always sounded the same distance away. When I focused on it, I noticed the particular noise was rhythmic.
Tap, tap...sliiiiiiide.
It was like that every single time. My wife never heard it, it was only me. None of us believe in ghosts, mind you. But as I said before it was a small thing, so I brushed it off.
One night, I woke up in a startle. I listened intently but could hear nothing. I decided to grab a late night snack from the kitchen since I was awake anyway.
Halfway down the hall, I heard something. This time, it sounded like dirt being sifted und. I knelt down and swore that the sound was louder. Before I knew it, I had my ear pressed to the hardwood floor, listening intently.
Schht, schht.....sccchhhhhhh...
I jumped up from the floor. It was that same pattern of noises, but this time it sounded like someone in the dirt. Trying to ignore the chills washing over me, I took a step towards the kitchen when…
…something grabbed my ankle.
I fell forward, almost busting my chin on the floor.
“What the...”
Flipping over, I turned to face my assailant, but there was no one behind me. I brushed it off and chalked it up to poor balance from a sleep-hangover. My wife got a good chuckle out of that one.
After that, the house began to feel.....heavier. It was this weight over me that would come and go. This was accompanied by feeling cold no matter how much we turned up the heat, and this was the middle of the sumer. Even stranger, the cold seemed to only be in certain spots, particularly on the floor itself. I liked to walk around barefoot no matter what time of year it was, but it was even too cold for me.
Another night, I woke up again. My ears stood at attention, but couldn’t hear any evidence of what woke me up. I got up just like before, except I never made it to the kitchen.
I only made if halfway down our hall before I suddenly felt a horrible pain in my right leg. I had to limp to keep moving, then my other leg was wracked with a wave of pain. It was so bad I found myself face down on the ground, writhing in agony.
Then I heard it again…that awful succession of noises.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
The sliding sound was coming from the hardwood floor this time, not from underneath. And the sound was getting closer and closer until...
I watched in horror as a hand came around the corner in front of me. It was soon joined by another, and they tugged at the floor. My heart hammered in my chest as a person slowly came into view.
It was a woman with long black hair, her disheveled clothing smeared with dirt and hanging off in shreds. Her mouth was crudely stitched shut. She looked up at me with empty, lost eyes and I instantly felt a lifetime of pain and misery. It took my breath away, and I had to focus on my breathing to keep myself from fainting.
Tap, tap....sliiiiiide.
That awful sound repeated as she grabbed the floor and pulled herself towards me. I was in a terrified trance, eyes locked with her as she slowly closed the distance. I could now see that she dragged herself because her legs were horribly mangled. A low moan emanated from her throat, sending ice through my veins.
Her very presence seemed to drain me, and I couldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. She made this awful gurgling sound as she got within arm’s reach. In seconds, her face was right up to mine. I tried to scream, but couldn’t make any sound.
Then...I woke up.
“AAAAHHhhh!” I shouted as I sprang up in bed.
My wife tried to console me, but it did very little. I’d never had a dream that felt so real before. Shaking, I walked out into the hallway where I had collapsed in my dream. I put a hand on the floor, expecting it to be freezing cold as usual.
But it was warm...
“Honey?” I felt the soft hand of my wife touch my shoulder.
“What’s going on? You look white as a sheet.”
“I’m okay...I just...”
On the floor in front me, I noticed the faint trace of fingernail marks.
“Was that there before?” My wife inquired.
“I’m...I’m not sure.”
“Let’s go back to bed. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.”
I tried to hold back my stubborn expression, but she still saw it.
“C’mon, you need to rest.”
With an exasperated exhale, I went back to bed with the strange occurrence replaying incessantly in my brain.
In the morning, I told my wife about all the strange experiences. To my shock she actually believed me.
“What do you want to do, then?” She asked.
“Well...I have a theory I want to check out.”
“Theory of what?”
“Well, let’s just say that ghosts exist, and there are certain reasons why they haunt certain places. If that is true then...I think there could be a body in our crawlspace.”
“What, are you crazy?”
“I know how it sounds, but what would it hurt to look?”
“You really think there’s something down there?”
“More someone, but I’m not sure to be honest. Hopefully I can get a confirmation either way it goes.”
That afternoon, I found myself standing at the door to our crawlspace. It felt ridiculous, but so many details pointed to it. The sounds and cold spots were all related to the floor. The ghastly woman’s clothes were smeared with dirt. It was obscure, but it was all I had to go on.
I had to pry the door open with a crowbar, but I managed after a minute or two. A wave of unnatural cold air blasted me, so strong that I had to throw on a coat just to stop from shivering so badly.
I clicked on my flashlight, illuminating the eerie underbelly of our home. The dirt sifted under my feet as I crouch-walked around. After hearing it, it only confirmed what I thought I heard from under the floor.
Expecting to see more, I was almost disappointed that the crawlspace was completely bare. Not believing it entirely, I shined my light around more. The back part of the crawlspace led to concrete and it was there that I noticed one section of the wall looked different than the rest.
Hands quivering, I pushed against the section of concrete and felt it shift under the pressure. It continued to wobble around in place the more I pushed. Holding my flashlight between my teeth, I had to use both hands to pry the piece away from the wall. To my astonishment, it pulled away very easily. It was no coincidence that the section of wall fit the hole exactly, like a puzzle piece.
After leaning the piece of concrete against the wall, I found that the concrete was covering a door with a padlock.
There’s no way anything good is behind this...
Minutes later, I returned to the mysterious door with a pair of bolt cutters. I debated whether or not I’d go in. There was no reason I shouldn’t satisfy my curiosity, because if there wasn’t anything then great, but if there was something terrible, I’d simply have to deal with it. Either way, I had to know.
I clipped the metal bar off the lock and it thudded softly to the dirt floor. Taking in a deep breath, I dared to aim my beam down the opening. The crawlspace extended much further into the house, and I had a good guess where it led. I now had to crawl on my hands and knees as a knot of dread formed in my stomach.
“You always tell people not to do this in movies, why are you doing this now??!” I chastised myself.
I knew all too well how stupid this was but the part of my brain that can’t look away from a car wreck pushed me to carry along regardless.
It was difficult to navigate with the flashlight and crawl. A mild claustrophobia settled in that pushed me along with a sense of urgency. The temperature couldn’t have been any more than a meatlocker. My hands shook despite my thick jacket. Eventually, I came to a dead end.
Is this all?
I stopped for a moment and checked around with my light some more, hoping a more thorough search would bear some fruit. Yet, there was nothing.
Sighing in frustration, I decided that perhaps I was losing my mind and was just having really vivid dreams after all. How could I have been so stupid?
I made it halfway across the hidden area when I felt my legs suddenly give out. They weren’t tired or sore before this. It was as if they stopped working of their own volition. I attempted to cry out, but my mouth felt as if some force held it closed.
Just like a stitched mouth...
One of the few things I could move was my neck and I turned to the side to see...
…a tuft of a blanket?
Due to the narrow space, I must have missed it. I slowly reached for it with all the internal alarms in my body going off at once. Ignoring the warning, I pulled the cloth back to reveal a skeletal hand.
In this moment of revulsion, something turned on my motor skills again as I regained control of my legs, crawling out of there as quickly as I could muster. Heaving, I stumbled out of the crawlspace and instantly felt the rise in temperature. I sat on the porch and stayed there as I called the police and explained the situation.
It turns out that one of the previous owners of the home was a major suspect in the disappearance of a young lady fifteen years ago. There wasn’t enough evidence to conduct a home search so they were never able to find the body. And what they found was something I wish I had never known.
From examining the body, they found that her captor had broken both of her legs so she couldn’t escape and sewn her mouth shut to keep her from screaming. It was hard to tell how long she’d been locked down there before she died, but they hypothesized it was a month or two. The cause of death was unclear. This was clearly enough to pursue the former owner.
When they picked him up, the guy tried to play the ignorance card, pretending as if he didn’t know what house they were referring to. This of course made it even more suspicious.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything concrete enough to tie him to her death...until they searched his current home. Blueprints of the home showed that the crawlspace was supposed to end ten feet where the concrete wall was. No contractors were hired to do any work on the home, so someone had personally busted it up and created the door going further in. The last part of it was the padlock on the door.
When the police searched the man’s home, they found a shoebox full of seemingly innocent keepsakes. Among the keepsakes were some heirlooms, pictures of close family members, and a key. As suspected, the key matched the padlock to the crawlspace door. It was apparently enough to make him crack. It wasn’t long before he confessed to the kidnapping and murder, albeit without a hint of remorse. Turns out the bastard kept the key as a sick trophy.
They even questioned him about other possible victims since this was a trait commonly shared by serial killers. He denied it, but the police couldn’t feel any truth from it. If anything they knew that they solved one case, put a guilty man behind bars, and put a family at peace. Justice was served and he was locked away for the rest of his miserable life. Poetic justice, if you ask me. The poor girl’s parents buried her remains on a family plot.
After all this, we had serious doubts about staying in the home. Knowing something this egregious happened in our home was almost unbearable. I can’t tell you how much we cried when we heard the story of what happened to that poor girl. We were on the brink of selling the house for about a week, but one night changed all that.
I woke up from a dream, one so vivid yet it somehow escaped my thoughts like a fistful of sand. There was a strange feeling in my gut as if something was going to happen.
It was neither good nor bad, just....strange.
After drinking a small glass of milk, I meandered down the hall and stopped in my tracks. A woman stood in front of me, half-transparent with a bluish luminescence. I felt as if I knew her, although I didn’t recognize her appearance at all. She smiled, and I instantly knew who she was. Compared to her previous horrific manifestation, the woman was almost unrecognizable.
Never speaking, she motioned to her legs and I saw that they were in perfect condition. In a mild state of shock, I managed to form a smile. She beamed even wider and ran her fingers across her lips, pointing out her lack of stitches. A blanket of warmth wrapped around me, and I couldn’t resist the salty tears that streamed down my face.
Right before she waved goodbye, a voice spoke within my mind.
"It’s over now. Thank you..."
She faded away, and for the first time since we moved into that house, all hints of the oppressive energy dissipated. That was the last time I ever saw her.
It’s been 30 years now, and we’re still in that house to this day...
May she continue to rest in peace...
submitted by allthedarkspaces to Horror_stories [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:41 Trevor519 CHOOSE YOUR SCALE IN 6 STEPS

1. Determine Your Sector Needs
2. Assess Precision and Capacity
Scales vary greatly in accuracy and capacity. Higher precision often means higher costs. Determine the range of weights you need to measure.
3. Consider Special Measurement Functions
Modern scales offer various functions beyond basic weighing. Identify which functions you need.
4. Identify Your Measurement Needs
The size of the weighing pan is crucial. Choose a scale with a pan size appropriate for your samples.
5. Consider Your Work Environment
For industrial environments, choose durable scales with metal structures and overload resistance. For humid environments, opt for scales with high IP ratings.
6. Look for Additional Features
Scales come with various specialized features:
OHAUS HAS THOUGHT OF EVERYTHING! NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO CHOOSE!
If you have questions ask the community can help!!
submitted by Trevor519 to Ohaus [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:29 CeceHart From Dusty’s blog

From Dusty’s blog
From her Merciful storm blog- pic is from Xavier’s_gayy_chanclas on ig. Sums it up perfectly 🤦🏻‍♀️
submitted by CeceHart to PeopleBeTrippin [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:21 Additional-West-6884 Credit Karma shows an extra card on my profile

I’m thinking it’s either a mistake, I somehow forgot I opened it, or someone used my info. It says it was opened in 2018. I thought I had checked my profile enough to notice that that shouldn’t be there (I have capital one cards and they have similar logos, maybe I always mistook it for my existing ones).
Balance shows $0, last payment being in 2022. No late payments.
I am so flabbergasted. I’m hoping that I truly forgot about after maybe misplacing the card for a long time.
I called Credit One (what it shows on the card), and after having to explain the situation a couple of times (not complaining, didn’t know if this pointed to it maybe not being a common case), I was asked for my SSN to see if I ever had an application with them. My plan was to see what address they had on file if they did. If it’s anywhere I’ve lived, than maybe I did just forget about it. I didn’t give her my SSN because I don’t know if banks would have to ask for that in such a circumstance, so I told her I didn’t feel comfortable giving that info out rn. Googling it doesn’t give me a good answer and I just want to make sure im not accidentally burning myself here.
Any advice or input would be much appreciated.
submitted by Additional-West-6884 to personalfinance [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 21:11 Prior-Raspberry-2473 Benefit authorization letter but no card? Texas

Hello, I applied for food stamps in May and just checked my mail today (June 9th) and I received a letter saying that my benefits have been authorized for partial May and all of June. But they also stated that if I wanted to continue receiving them I had to send in verification for a few items they listed below and that the verification of those items had been pushed back. I'm guessing so they could approve may and June's benefits.
I am a bit confused though because I have no received a lone star card and there is no information on the actual card or when I may expect it or how to get it, other than the funds will be loaded on the card on or before the 11th of each month, if I'm remembering correctly.
Is this normal? Should I be receiving the card soon?
Thanks for.your help. I'm in Austin Texas by the way.
submitted by Prior-Raspberry-2473 to foodstamps [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:59 New-Tumbleweed-6066 Should we pay off my wife’s student loans?

Should we pay off my wife’s student loans right now? Plus future goals.
My wife (26) and I (26) recently came into some money. We’re trying to be as smart as possible with it and continue to set ourselves up for the future. We aren’t sure what exactly to make moves on, so any advice is appreciated.
Debt:
•Wife’s student loan balance ≈ $17k @ 4.5-5.5%
•My student loan balance ≈ $37k @ 4.5-5.5%, I’m still in school for a PhD and my loans may be discharged due to military disability.
•Home ≈ $277k @ 2.9% ($300k value?)
We own both our cars and have no credit card debt.
Assets:
•HYSA $50k @ 5%
•Misc. checking/savings ≈ $12k
•Misc. managed investments ≈ $20k
•Retirements ≈ $20k
•2 owned vehicle values ≈ $24k combined
We are on track to net $2-3.5k/mo after all of our expenses depending on our responsibility and what’s going on each month. We’re car people and a major goal of ours now that our monthly income has increased a bit and we got a large lump sum this month is to get much nicer vehicles. Maybe spend $80-90k combined on vehicles in the next couple years if things go the way we want.
submitted by New-Tumbleweed-6066 to debtfree [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:42 gatoloco1987 Why did my Vantage score suddenly plummet but not my FICO?

I recently noticed via one of my credit card accounts and Credit Karma thHat my credit score (using VantageScore) suddenly plummeted and I have no idea why (meanwhile my FICO score hasn't change). Historically my score has been around 800. Previously my score took a hit to 730 because I have two large balances/utilization rates on two credit cards that have long 0% promo periods. Instead of paying them off, I pay the minimum required payment and I have money stashed away in CDs/Treasuries that I will use to pay off the cards once the 0% promo is over. BUT this recent hit doesn't seem to correlate with these balances. One of the cards I opened in March 2023 and had been putting my groceries on it, so it gradually built up and is currently 73% utilization rate. I stopped using it a few months ago after the 1-year 5x cash back for groceries ended, so now I'm just holding the balance until July when 0% promo ends. The other card I opened in November 2023 and put a big home renovation expense on it in December and it's currently at 86% utilization rate.
After I opened the card in November and put the big charge on it in December, it knocked my VantageScore down from around 800 to 730 something. But suddenly I noticed the other day that all of my monitoring tools (using any of my credit cards' online tools or using Credit Karma) show that my score suddenly plummeted to 653 this past month! I was worried I either missed a payment or someone else did something in my name. But I've checked everything and there's nothing that has changed that would influence the score (there's no new credit pulls, no missed payments, and no suspicious charges). Every tool that I use to monitor my score shows that the different credit score factors are all excellent or good (Payment history is 100%, total credit card utilization is 22%, 0 derogatory marks, average age of cards is 6 years (oldest card is 14.5 years old), total accounts is 28, and hard inquiries in past years are 2 (last one was the one in November 2023).
Meanwhile my FICO score was 814, then dropped to 780s after my big credit card balance in November, and it has stayed in the 780s.
Why would my VantageScore suddenly plummet for no reason while my FICO score stays the same?
EDIT: And just so we're comparing apples to apples: Transunion VantageScore: was 809, dropped to 734 in January, dropped to 653 in May Experian VantageScore: was 788, dropped to 739 in January, dropped to 651 in May Equifax VantageScore: was 804, dropped to 732 in January, dropped to 657 in May
Transunion FICO: was 825, dropped to 791 in January, 788 now Experian FICO: was 812 previously, dropped to 782 in January 781 now Equifax FICO: was 847, dropped to 818 in January, currently 803
submitted by gatoloco1987 to CreditScore [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:27 l00ky_here Forgot to add a creditor - already had my 341 last month

I was checking out my credit score and noticed that my Samsung account hadn't been closed. I got late last year to get a phone before I filed, but ended up not using it. I never got a card in the mail (or if I did - I don't have it). I forgot to add it to my claim.
I just emailed my attorney about it so I haven't heard back, but has anyone here ever done that? Forgot to list a creditor that you didn't have a balance on?
submitted by l00ky_here to Bankruptcy [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:23 Key_Policy_809 Welcome to r/pointsmaxxing - Learn to Maximize your Credit Card Rewards

Understanding Credit Card Rewards Programs

Credit card rewards programs come in various forms, primarily categorized into cashback, points, and miles. Each program has its own set of rules, benefits, and optimal usage strategies. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for maximizing your rewards.

Cashback Rewards

Cashback credit cards offer a percentage of your spending back as cash. This is typically straightforward and easy to understand, making it a popular choice for those who prefer simplicity. Cashback percentages can vary, often ranging from 1% to 5%, depending on the category of spending and the specific card offer.

Points Rewards

Points-based rewards programs often offer more flexibility than cashback programs. Points can be redeemed for various items, including travel, merchandise, gift cards, and statement credits. The value of points can vary significantly based on how and where they are redeemed, so it's essential to understand the best redemption options for your specific card.

Miles Rewards

Miles rewards are primarily geared towards travel enthusiasts. These programs offer miles for every dollar spent, which can be redeemed for flights, hotel stays, and other travel-related expenses. The value of miles can also fluctuate, making it crucial to redeem them strategically to get the most value.

Choosing the Right Credit Card for Your Needs

Selecting the right credit card is a foundational step in maximizing your rewards. Several factors should be considered, including your spending habits, lifestyle, and financial goals. Here are some tips to help you choose the best card for your needs:

Analyze Your Spending Patterns

Review your past spending to identify categories where you spend the most. Whether it's dining, groceries, travel, or gas, choosing a card that offers higher rewards in these categories will help you accumulate points faster.

Compare Sign-Up Bonuses

Many credit cards offer attractive sign-up bonuses to new cardholders. These bonuses can be substantial, often ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 points or miles, and can significantly boost your rewards balance right from the start. However, be mindful of the spending requirements needed to earn these bonuses.

Evaluate Annual Fees

While some credit cards come with no annual fees, others charge a fee that can be as high as $550 or more. Consider whether the rewards and benefits offered by the card justify the annual fee. In many cases, the additional perks such as travel credits, airport lounge access, and elite status can outweigh the cost of the fee.

Check for Foreign Transaction Fees

If you travel frequently, a card with no foreign transaction fees is essential. These fees, typically around 3%, can add up quickly when making purchases abroad.

Strategies for Maximizing Your Credit Card Rewards

Once you've chosen the right credit card, implementing effective strategies will ensure you get the most out of your rewards program. Here are some proven tactics to help you maximize your points, miles, or cashback:

Use Your Card for Everyday Purchases

One of the simplest ways to accumulate rewards is to use your credit card for all your everyday purchases. This includes groceries, gas, dining out, and even small recurring expenses like streaming subscriptions. Just make sure to pay off your balance in full each month to avoid interest charges.

Take Advantage of Category Bonuses

Many credit cards offer higher rewards rates in specific categories such as travel, dining, or groceries. Use the right card for each purchase category to maximize your rewards. For example, use a travel rewards card for booking flights and a dining rewards card when eating out.

Leverage Sign-Up Bonuses

As mentioned earlier, sign-up bonuses can provide a substantial boost to your rewards balance. Plan your spending to meet the required thresholds within the allotted time frame without overspending.

Monitor and Optimize Redemption Values

Not all redemptions are created equal. The value of points and miles can vary based on how they are used. For instance, redeeming points for travel through a credit card's portal often provides better value than redeeming them for cash back. Keep an eye on redemption rates and use your rewards where they offer the highest value.

Combine Rewards Programs

Some credit card issuers allow you to combine rewards from multiple cards within the same program. This can help you accumulate points faster and provide more flexibility in how you redeem them. For example, Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned on different Chase cards can be pooled together.

Utilize Shopping Portals and Offers

Many credit card issuers have online shopping portals that offer additional points or cashback for purchases made through their links. Additionally, take advantage of targeted offers and promotions that can boost your rewards on specific purchases.

Pay Attention to Special Promotions

Credit card companies frequently run special promotions that offer increased rewards for limited periods. These can include higher cashback rates, bonus points for certain purchases, or additional miles for travel bookings. Keep an eye on these promotions and adjust your spending accordingly to maximize benefits.

Advanced Pointsmaxxing Techniques

For those looking to take their rewards game to the next level, here are some advanced techniques to consider:

Manufactured Spending

Manufactured spending involves purchasing items that can be easily converted back into cash (such as gift cards) and using these transactions to earn rewards. This strategy requires careful planning and an understanding of the risks involved, including potential account closures.

Travel Hacking

Travel hacking involves using credit card rewards to fund travel experiences at a fraction of the cost. This can include booking flights and hotels through points and miles, leveraging elite status benefits, and utilizing travel perks offered by premium credit cards. Travel hackers often share their strategies and success stories on subreddits like pointsmaxxing.

Maximize Value with Transfer Partners

Many points programs allow you to transfer points to airline or hotel partners, often at a 1:1 ratio. This can significantly increase the value of your points. Research the best transfer partners for your travel goals and take advantage of transfer bonuses when available.

Stay Informed and Engaged

The world of credit card rewards is constantly evolving, with new offers, card releases, and program changes happening regularly. Stay informed by following blogs, forums, and social media groups dedicated to points maximization. Engage with the community to share tips, ask questions, and learn from others' experiences.

Conclusion

Maximizing credit card rewards is both an art and a science. By understanding the various rewards programs, selecting the right cards, and implementing effective strategies, you can significantly enhance the value you get from every dollar spent. pointsmaxxing is a valuable resource for anyone looking to delve deeper into the world of credit card rewards. Embrace the tips and techniques discussed in this guide, and start your journey towards becoming a pointsmaxxing pro today.
submitted by Key_Policy_809 to pointsmaxxing [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:14 goodtimeshaxor [H] BTC [W] Amazon GC Best Buy Steam Macy's Apple Razer iTunes Grubhub Sephora More+

Larger values preferred. Long term, regular traders ONLY!
 

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade with me

App Users, please include answers to the following questionnaire in your PM:
  1. Type of card(s) and amount of each. Are they physical or eCodes?
  2. Why were the GC(s) purchased in the first place and why you're getting rid of it
  3. I am a volume trader ONLY. How much of each GC can you get on a regular basis?
  4. Confirm that you agree to all my terms of trade and are abiding by the GCX community rules
 
Want** ↓ CashRate ↓
Amazon GC up to 85%
Costco* 85%
Kroger* 80%
Trader Joe's* 80%
Neiman Marcus 80%
Etsy 75%
Dell 75%
Sephora 70%
GameStop 70%
EndClothing 70%
Ssense 70%
Amazon Balance 70%
Blizzard Battle.net 70%
Sam's Club 70%
Five Guys* 70%
Chic-Fil-A 60%
Zappos 70%
Nordstrom 70%
Abercrombie 70%
Ikea 70%
Apple 80%
Walmart 80%
Steam 70%
Whole Foods 75%
Best Buy 80%
iTunes/App Store 75%
Xbox 60%
Microsoft 60%
Verizon 60%
Newegg 60%
Target 80%
Nike 70%
Dick's 80%
Groupon 60%
Everlane 70%
GrubHub 60%
Macys 60%
Nintendo eShop 65%
Home Depot 70%
PacSun 70%
Urban Outfitters 70%
Lululemon 70%
Staples 70%
Hulu 60%
Adidas 65%
Ulta 70%
J.Crew 70%
Google Play 60%
Barnes & Noble 70%
Dunkin Donuts 70%
Sunglass Hut 60%
Papa Johns 70%
Panera Bread 70%
Panda Express 70%
Chipotle 70%
Domino's 70%
Outback Steakhouse 70%
Buffalo Wild Wings 70%
Subway 70%
Forever21 70%
Burger King 70%
McDonald's* 70%
Pizza Hut 70%
Starbucks 70%
H&M 70%
Fandango 70%
Regal 70%
Longhorn Steakhouse 70%
Gap/BOld Navy 70%
Spotify (Not promo code) 70%
Clothing/Fashion Up to 85%
Restaurants Up to 80%
Other (PM me) Up to 90%
 
*These gift cards must be physically shipped. Payment will be sent after GCs are in hand. Costco accepted without shipping but at lower rates.
Currently not interested in the following: Any non-US gift card. Any small value gift card.
 
 

TRADE TERMS

GCXRep Profiles: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7****
submitted by goodtimeshaxor to giftcardexchange [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:14 goodtimeshaxor [H] BTC [W] Amazon GC Best Buy Steam Macy's Apple Razer iTunes Grubhub Sephora More+

Larger values preferred. Long term, regular traders ONLY!
 

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and CLICK HERE to start a trade with me

App Users, please include answers to the following questionnaire in your PM:
  1. Type of card(s) and amount of each. Are they physical or eCodes?
  2. Why were the GC(s) purchased in the first place and why you're getting rid of it?
  3. I am a volume trader ONLY. How much of each GC can you get on a regular basis?
  4. Confirm that you agree to all my terms of trade and are abiding by the GCT community rules
 
Want** ↓ CashRate ↓
Amazon GC up to 85%
Costco* 85%
Kroger* 80%
Trader Joe's* 80%
Neiman Marcus 80%
Etsy 75%
Dell 75%
Sephora 70%
GameStop 70%
EndClothing 70%
Ssense 70%
Amazon Balance 70%
Blizzard Battle.net 70%
Sam's Club 70%
Five Guys* 70%
Chic-Fil-A 60%
Zappos 70%
Nordstrom 70%
Abercrombie 70%
Ikea 70%
Apple 80%
Walmart 80%
Steam 70%
Whole Foods 75%
Best Buy 80%
iTunes/App Store 75%
Xbox 60%
Microsoft 60%
Verizon 60%
Newegg 60%
Target 80%
Nike 70%
Dick's 80%
Groupon 60%
Everlane 70%
GrubHub 60%
Macys 60%
Nintendo eShop 65%
Home Depot 70%
PacSun 70%
Urban Outfitters 70%
Lululemon 70%
Staples 70%
Hulu 60%
Adidas 65%
Ulta 70%
J.Crew 70%
Google Play 60%
Barnes & Noble 70%
Dunkin Donuts 70%
Sunglass Hut 60%
Papa Johns 70%
Panera Bread 70%
Panda Express 70%
Chipotle 70%
Domino's 70%
Outback Steakhouse 70%
Buffalo Wild Wings 70%
Subway 70%
Forever21 70%
Burger King 70%
McDonald's* 70%
Pizza Hut 70%
Starbucks 70%
H&M 70%
Fandango 70%
Regal 70%
Longhorn Steakhouse 70%
Gap/BOld Navy 70%
Spotify (Not promo code) 70%
Clothing/Fashion Up to 85%
Restaurants Up to 80%
Other (PM me) Up to 90%
 
*These gift cards must be physically shipped. Payment will be sent after GCs are in hand. Costco accepted without shipping but at lower rates.
Currently not interested in the following: Any non-US gift card. Any small value gift card.
 
 

TRADE TERMS

GCXRep Profiles: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7****
submitted by goodtimeshaxor to GCTrading [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:05 Rude-Giraffe1428 NYS SNAP benefits no pending benefits and no deposit.

I just applied for NYS SNAP benefits and called two weeks before the beginning of this month (June) to make sure I was all set to receive my benefits until the next check up in six months. It is now past the date I was to receive my benefits for this month and the online Edge thing says I have no pending benefits. I'm incredibly frustrated and upset as I am unemployed and have been job searching for months now. The fact I called my case worker to check that all my documents were submitted and she told me yes, I was set to get my benefits for the next comibg 6 months and now I still have nothing. I didn't even receive a full month for May because my application was approved in the middle of the month. It's incredibly frustrating that there is no one to contact on the weekends as that is when my food stamps were supposed to come in
submitted by Rude-Giraffe1428 to foodstamps [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 20:05 Scared-Gift8980 Guide to Market Research (earn £100s per month from sharing your opinion)

Taking part in market research can involve:
The best part is market research pays very well!
As a ball park, for a 30 minute interview you can earn between £30-£60
And a 60 minute interview can be about £60-£100
The best tip to getting accepted for these opportunities is to apply for as many opportunities that you come across. It really is a numbers game, the more you apply to the more likely it is you’ll be accepted to one.
Here are the best market research sites I’ve come across:

Respondent:

Most of the market research opportunities they have on there are 1-2-1 research calls, but they also offer focus groups, diary studies, unmoderated tests, surveys & in home studies. There’s new opportunities posted basically everyday so it's a good idea to check the site often.
Respondent pays all incentives directly to your PayPal after the researcher has confirmed your participation.

User Interviews:

Apply to studies by answering a few questions, most applications can be completed in under a minute.
If you complete a study the payment is usually in the form of gift vouchers, but sometimes its PayPal.

PineCone Research:

PineCone Research is a research panel that pays you to to test and review emerging concepts for a variety of products and services. They email you when a new opportunity is available.
When you reach £10 in points you can cashout to a gift card instantly!

Testing Time:

This site it offers tasks to give feedback on things like apps, websites, physical products, gadgets & food. It mainly offers remote user tests, interviews & surveys.
You can withdraw either to your bank or PayPal once you reach £18 (most pay above that you once approved you should be able to withdraw straight away)

Take Part In Research:

They offer paid group discussions, online surveys & paid phone interviews.
They usually pay through PayPal & they call you when you get accepted to a project.

Make Research Pay:

Sign up to this site, apply to studies that match your profile and then take part & get paid.

Dscout:

This one is a mobile app & I check it most days to see what opportunities is available, I’ve been accepted to about 4 diary studies so far and they’ve all been relatively easy and fun to do.
They automatically send the money to your paypal once its approved.
If you have any questions about market research let me know in the comments :)
submitted by Scared-Gift8980 to MakeMoneyInUK [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 19:42 darrylthedudeWayne My pitch for MCU Spiderman 4, AKA, The Spectular Spiderman: Back in Black and with Love.

So this was a long time coming. So i was originally going to do this pitch awhile ago, all the way back near the start of the year (or at least when I first moved back to Ottawa) no less, at the time, it was going to be titled "The Spectular Spiderman: Team RED" based off the rumors that Ant-Man and Daredevil were going to be in it. But, then Born Again got overhauled, and I believe the stuff related to Ant-Man either wasn't true or it was, but his part got scrapped when Born Again was reworked (as in early set photos, it showed that Pym Particles at one point was going to be involved), and when they said Sony wanted it to be a Multiverse film like NWH, I lost faith and interest in it, and decided to do an Avengers 5 pitch instead (which I am still working on, and is basically going to be my equivalent to the Snyder Cut at this point, due to how big it is).
But, now that it's been confirmed they found a middle ground between Street Level and Multiverse in terms of its story, and also that my Avengers 5 pitch is going to take alittle bit, and my faith in MCU spidey 4 is back, AND that I've done pitches for post-NWH versions of Raimi Spiderman 4 and TASM 3, which I'll leave links to here:
Raimi Spidey 4: https://www.reddit.com/fixingmovies/s/TmHpOtOeWZ
TASM 3: https://www.reddit.com/fixingmovies/s/xMeDoZ9rYB
I think it only makes sense that I come back around, and try doing a pitch for MCU Spiderman 4 again, so without further ado, and no delay. Here is my pitch for MCU Spiderman 4, AKA, "The Spectular Spiderman: Back in Black and with Love".
Before the Marvel intro, we open to the night, that changed, everything. As Peter is seen trying to redeem a gift card he got in the newspaper to get Aunt May a necklace for her birthday, the jewler won't accept it, Peter tries to argue, but he just replies "I miss the part where that's my problem, now Beat It!" Peter leaves, just then, another man enters, with a gun.
You can guess what happens next, the burglar takes the jewlery and money, and on the way out, Peter let's him escape, the burgler says thanks and throws him the necklace he was going to get Aunt May. The mall security gaurd and jewler asks why he didn't do anything, Peter replies "I miss the part where that's my problem".
We get Uncle Ben's death, but I'd have it be closer to the alternate version of Ben's death in the first TASM movie, where Ben (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) only sees the burgler in the shadows, believing it to be Peter, he follows him in an alley way, only for shoots to be heard in the distance. Peter finds Uncle Ben's body, and we get this emotionally powerful showcase of Hollands acting, as he mourns over Uncle Ben.
We then cut to Ben's funeral, where see he is buried....right next to where Aunt May will be buried years later, we then cut to sometime after that, Peter on a Rooftop, listening to a phone message Ben sent him before he died, just then, he hears some commotion and goes to investigate, seeing the same man who shoot Uncle Ben in an alley way, behind the man, the shadow of Wilson Fisk slowly coming closer. The man pleads for Spidermans help, Peter simply says "You want my help, then you shouldn't have killed my Uncle". Peter then swings away, we then see Fisk beat the man to death, telling him that he warned Walter this would happen if he didn't pay up. From behind we see a little girl approach the scene, Fisk tries to comfort her, but she runs away in a panic.
Peter is now in his room, unsure if he did the right thing. We then cut to sometime after that, were we see Peter picking out a laptop from the garbage and returning to May's apartment to find...Aunt May talking to Tony Stark.
After the Marvel intro we then cut to more recent times. Where in a montage we get an idea of where Peter's life is, since the events of NWH. We see thay Peter's life as Spiderman is thriving. As he's earned the public and the law enforcements trust back, to the point where he's no longer a wanted criminal, and Damage Control has taken him off there black list, and we see him being the friendly neighborhood Spiderman, even bringing in some C and D-listers I don't see them using as villains anytime soon. These include Big Wheel, Stilt Man, Vermin, Swarm, Grizzly, Rhino (played by Paul Giamatti, though this is an MCU Variant, not the TASM version), Screwball (who is comedically revealed to be Liz Allen), the Real Moltan Man, Pot Paste Pete, and Hypno Hustler.
Though Jameson still slanders him whenever he can. However, we see that Peter's life as Peter Parker, is not going so well. He's way behind on his rent, to the point where his landlord is threatening to evict him, his apartment is very messy with pizza boxes and Chinese food boxes stacked in the corner, he can't keep a steady job, he's always late to his classes if not outright misses them and is failing collage, and he's become extremely anti-social. He doesn't interact with any or his fellow collage students and any if the neighbors in his apartment. It's only as if he's strictly Spiderman now. The only place where he acts like the Peter we know and love is at FEAST, as he comes by and helps and volunteers whenever he can. We also learn that FEAST is now being run by one Martin Li (played by Steven Oyoung).
However, things change when Fisk is elected Mayor of New York (which can be the cliffhanger of Born Again Part One, by the way), and makes Vigilantes illegal, creating a Anti-vigilante Taskforce, funded by Alchemax. Consisting off Vulture (ignore Morbius), Shocker (with a more comic accurate attire), Prowler (Aaron Davis, as last seen in ATSV), Scorpion, Hydro-Man (the real one, who was alluding too as existing in FFH), and Mysterio (somehow, still alive). Things get even weirder, when a new elusive Vigilante known as the Black Cat (played by Anya Taylor-Joy or Sydney Sweeney) comes into the fray, as well as a new student in Peter's collage names Felicia Hardy.
Basically the film would be Peter going up against Fisk and his Anti-vigilante Taskforce. Along the way, Black Cat tries to push Peter into abandoning his civilian persona and embrace being Spiderman. Ironically, neither of them know the others secret identities, and the two becomes close friends at collage, which leads to Peter to opening himself up to some of the others at the collage. Which leads to him making new friends in the form of Robbie Robertson, Carly Cooper, Flash Thompson, and Gwen Stacy (played by Thomasin Mckenzie). The latter of which, like Felicia, also forms an attraction towards Peter. Simultaneously, Spidey meets Daredevil who he finds out is Matt Murdock, and simultaneously, thanks to his Radar Sense, Matt finds out that Peter is Spiderman, and remembers even who he is.
Throughout the movie, Black Cat is the Devil on Peter's shoulder, and (like I said) is trying to push him away from bring Peter Parker and embrace Spiderman, for solely selfish reasons, while Matt is ironically the angel on Peter's other shoulder, trying to push him to keep his civilian persona and try harder to find that balance. Peter's good nature also ironically rubs off on Felicia, and while she starts the movie with bad intentions, she does grow to become a more heroic and selfless person throughout the movie, and becomes a better person by the end, respecting Peter for who he is and his decisions, and realizing why it's important for him to have a civilian identity.
Also, there is a subplot of Gwen trying to get closer to Peter, but Peter rejects her advances, not only because of his attraction to Felicia, but also because he remember what Peter 3 said about her fate, and wants to avoid that as much as possible. Also, yes, we find out the man who killed Uncle Ben was Felicias father, and yes Felicia finds out Peter basically let him die, which creates friction. Ultimately however, with help from Matt and Felicia, Peter defeats the Sinister Six, including Mysterio, who we find out isn't his Quentin Beck, but a Variant from a universe where Mysterio successfully defeated Peter Parker, who somehow ended up in 616, and the three fight Fisk, which ends in a stalemate, with Fisk agreeing to take end the Anti-Vigilante taskforce, and make a sort of middle ground. Though it's also made clear, the conflict is far from over (with this leading directly into Born Again Part Two, which I think will be the culmination of the Street level subplot now instead, by the way).
The film ends with a montage, of Peter improving his life as Peter Parker. Finally paying his rent, and sees he has new neighbors, this is where we meet officer Jefferson Davis (played by Terry Crews) and Miles Morales, Spiderman meeting with the new Captain of the NYPD, Captain Stacy (played by Aaron Eckhart or Josh Dallas), about helping out more and having better ties with the police, which he agree as assigns Yuri (played by Ming Da Wen) as Peter's partner, and Peter starts to get better acquainted with his new group of friends, yes, even Flash. He also takes Robbies advice and gets an internship at the Daily Bugle, where he reunites with Betty, sending videos of Spiderman to Jameson.
The last shot of the movie however, i have two ideasn first is Spiderman and Black Cat meeting on a Rooftop of Peter's apartment, and the two reconciling, and while they decide to call off there relationship (for now) the two decide to remain friends and allies, even revealing each other's identities to one another. Peter then returns to his apartment, he then hears a knock on the door, he answers to see it's Gwen with flowers. He asks Peter if he wants to go onna date, which Peter accepts and the two walk off hand in hand.
My second idea is the same, accept, Peter and Felicia remain in a relationship, and the two share a kiss, and still revealing there identities to one another, Peter is then left there on the Rooftop, thinking about everything that has happened recently, and smiles as we cut to black.
The film would obviously focus on the aftermath of NWH, and Peter struggling with balancing both his personas, it would also explore the idea of learning to let others in and not pushing them away. Yes Peter, shouldn't just let everyone knows he Spiderman, but that doesn't mean he has to isolate himself or decline help when he clearly needs it. It would also show how Peter's good nature can actually help seemingly selfish people change for the better, Felicia being a prime example of this. Anyways, I didn't have the Symbiote play that big of a role, because I didn't have room for it, but to make up for it, it will be the first, of six post credits scenes. Yep im pulling a Gaurdians 2.
EDIT: I just realized that the Back in Black title no longer makes any sense, so instead, Peter gets the Symbiote at some point during the movie, and it manipulating him can be apart of his desire to give up the Parker persona and perhaps Felicia at first uses that to her advantage, but it wouldn't fully make him dark just yet, it would mostly just be a simple strength enhancer like it was when it was first introduced in the comics, and he'll still have it by the end of the movie. The first end credits scene is instead Peter being recruited by the TVA, which leads directly into Avengers 5, and the 6th end credits scene can also be something comedic, probably involving Flash, that ends with a classic "What The Fu-".
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2024.06.09 19:37 Chen_Geller Everything we REALLY know about The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum

Everything we REALLY know about The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum

Abstract

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is a film which is due to cover the events of Gollum's life, probably between the trilogies and through to the early parts of The Fellowship of the Ring. It is to be directed (and starred) by Andy Serkis, with Sir Peter Jackson producing and Philippa Byoens, Dame Frances Walsh, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou writing the screenplay.
Set for release in late 2026 (although a delay to mid 2027 is a distinct possibility), it will be the eighth film in the New Line-produced film series, after this year's The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and is thus unrelated neither to Amazon's show nor to the notorious video game on the same subject. The film focuses on a puzzling but nonetheless intriguing premise, and may entail appearances from some actors from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Update section (as of June 2024)

TBD

The Story

Exactly what the story of The Hunt for Gollum is supposed to cover is not entirely clear: it could cover Aragorn's literal hunt for Gollum across the borders of Mordor, culminating in the capture of the creature on the Dead Marshes, interrogation by Gandalf, and incarceration in the Woodland Realm and subsequent escape during an Orc attack, ending with his becoming stuck inside the Mines of Moria. This would make the film less of a traditional prequel, being that these events take place during the time of Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, largely between the 32 and 36 minute mark (the film is explicitly meant to be continuous with the previous live-action films).
However, the title is merely a tentative working title and needn't be taken as too concrete an indication as to the exact contents of the film. Recent comments by Boyens, Jackson and Serkis seem to imply a larger scope, possibly as far back as Gollum's first emergence from the Misty Mountains in an attempt to track Bilbo, turning the film into a "bridge" between the trilogies, of a kind that we see more often nowdays in other media series. After arriving at Dale, a hunt after the creature is in fact already initiated by the Wood Elves, but he reaches the Anduin and eventually winds-up in Mordor. These events are ednumbered in The Lord of the Rings under the chapters "A Shadow of the Past", "The Council of Elrond", "The Dead Marshes", "Shelob's Lair" and Appendix B, rounding up some ten pages.
The unruined city of Dale, one of the biggest sets built for either trilogy, could feature in The Hunt for Gollum
Admittedly its hardly the most intriguing concept for a film based on Tolkien's works, but such an expanded premise could doubtlessly utilize Jackson's penchant for non-linear storytelling, perhaps using Aragorn's capture of Gollum and his interrogation by Gandalf as a framing device for the telling of Gollum's earlier adventures, which otherwise take place with no companion with which to run dialogue scenes. This premise also promises far more from a visual standpoint: rather than merely reprising the Dead Marshes or Cirith Ungol, one could see the Woodsmen of Mirkwood, as well as the Woodland Realm, Esgaroth and Dale in better days.
In Tolkien's unabridged chronology, these wanderings extend over multiple decades, allowing for the story of Aragorn's youthful adventures - in Gondor, Rohan and Harad - to ensue in the middle of it all, although unless the film is indeed a two-entry project, it seems unlikely for Jackson to cover both characters' detailed backstories. At the very least, it could reasonably be expected of Jackson to obscure or contract (as he had done in The Fellowship of the Ring and the Dol Guldur storyline of The Hobbit) the timeframe somewhat.
Another potential sideplot could include the downfall of Balin's colony in Moria, precisely because Gollum ends-up stuck behind the closed Western Door of those mines, with the Balin, Ori and Oin long vanquished. Jackson and Boyens previously considred using such a prequel to show Saruman looking for the Ring and falling under Sauron's spell, and while Saruman is almost sure to appear in the animated The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, the death of actor Sir Christopher Lee might make his return to the live-action Hunt for Gollum probelmatic.
Frankly, cutting out the the latter storyline might help keep The Hunt for Gollum from "spelling out" too much of the goings-on between the trilogy. This exact kind of interstitial spinoffs set between the two Star Wars trilogies (Solo, Obi Wan, Andor and Rogue One) have done this to a rather demystifying effect, and so keeping some events untold might actually enhance the feeling that sixty eventful years have indeed passed between the trilogies, rather than distiling the events of those sixty years to a film that's bound to feel like it transpires over a more finite amount of time.
While both film series have been criticised for focusing on a concentrated, "limited" timeframe within the context of a vast fictional history, I think Jackson's desire to present a series of films that are tightly-woven together with the same characters, settings and overall conflict running through all of them. Indeed, by the time Jackson completes his second contracted film for New Line, he and Boyens will have had produced an unprecedented nine films of some 26 hours of cinema or more, cementing their already-entrenched vision of Middle-earth. Jackson had spoken before, not unjustly, of gaining a great degree of "sentimental attachment, a kind of ownership to the Middle-earth that's been put on the screen."
It may also help in reducing the risk of the film at "spoiling" the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy for newcomers, something Jackson had expressed some awareness to with The Hobbit. Gollum's latter-day wanderins take him to the Dead Marshes, Cirith Ungol (where he encounters Shelob), Barad Dur and Moria and these could reduce the impact those places have on the screen in The Lord of the Rings for newcomers after 2026. Exactly how Aragorn could maintain his mystique in the Prancing Pony (admittedly a "card" that the films don't play nearly as long as the book) or the menace of the unseen figure of Gollum, I have no idea.
For the same reason, I would argue against the fan-favourite idea of a framing device, by which an elderly Aragorn relates his sojourn with Gollum. Such a device will not only feel overplayed alongside the framing devices of An Unexpected Journey and The War of the Rohirrim but also "spoil" the outcome of The Lord of the Rings in terms of Aragorn's fate for newcomers.
The "bridge" function of the film can help make the viewing experience of the series a more balanced experience: I've written about how the six films form a coherent narrative structure, but having said that, the midpoint ("One Ring to Rule Them All") comes in a touch early: a 2 to 2.5 hour film could redress that.
The narrative structure of the six films at the present: inserting The Hunt for Gollum before the midpoint could bring it closer to the actual middle of the piece

The Cast

Beside Andy Serkis also reprising his motion-capture role of Gollum (which he also performed recently for his Tolkien audiobooks), its unclear what characters and actors the film will involve: as producers, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens are sure to influence the casting process, as they had for The Hobbit back when it was still a Guillermo del Toro-helmed film, and as Boyens seemed to have done with The War of the Rohirrim, whose cast includes Brian Cox and Serkis' wife, Lorraine Ashbourne. A couple of regulars, like Jed Brophy (who also appeared in The Rings of Power Season One) are almost certain to appear. A cameo for Jackson may also be reasonably expected, and perhaps for Royd Tolkien, as well.
Gandalf is said to appear in the film, with the venerable but active Sir Ian McKellen expressing interest in reappearing in the role. In 2006, Jackson had said he has no interest in making a film with "a Gandalf who wasn't Ian McKellen for instance." Presumably, they could accomodate McKellen by shooting his scenes in the UK, as they had done previously with Sir Ian Holm and an even more-venerable Sir Christopher Lee.
Viggo Mortensen, who was previously considered for a return in his role of Aragorn to The Hobbit and declined an early availability check, had also expressed some willingness to return to the role. Although he predicated such a return on being "right for it in terms of, you know, the age I am now", which would seem to negate the possibility of digitally de-aging the actor, it must surely be left to Jackson's fabled skills of persuasion: admittedly, Jackson and Mortensen had spoken as late as October 2022, but that was seemingly before any plans for The Hunt for Gollum ripened. Ironically, the return of both McKellen and Mortensen was joked about before, in Stephen Colbert's Darrylgorn spoof.
Certainly, Jackson and Serkis - special effects mavericks that they are - will be unlikely to shirk from using digital deaging, a popular technique used by other major film series, especially since the film is due to involve copious amounts of motion-capture anyway. Focusing the story on Gollums' earlier misadventures, in which Aragorn and Gandalf do not feature, could keep the issue at bay to some extent.
The Tolkien series by 2026: The Hunt for Gollum poster is, of course, fan-made
Jackson had also spoken a couple of times before of trying to get Liv Tyler's Arwen to appear in the last Hobbit entry alongside Mortensen. Orlando Bloom, who had reprised his role as Legolas for The Hobbit, conspiciously liked Serkis' social media notices on helming the film: With Legolas' teaming-up with Argorn set-up in the close of The Battle of the Five Armies, and him playing a role in the battle in which Gollum escapes the Woodland Realm, his reappearance is also not unlikely.
Other characters from the Woodland Realm like Lee Pace's Thranduil could also feature. Jackson and Boyens had previously expressed desire to further explore the fate of their original character, Tauriel, but the recent announcement of retirement by actress Evangeline Lilly may or may not confound this: Lilly was also effectivelly retired when Jackson first cast her in that role. If Dale is reappear, so could Bard and perhaps some of the Dwarves.

The Crew

The film is to be directed by Andy Serkis, who had directed a recent adaptation of The Jungle Book, after having started directing with the second unit on The Return of the King and The Hobbit. He is slated to appear this week in a panel for The War of the Rohirrim.
Serkis was picked by Jackson, who wrote and directed all six previous films and will produce this film along with partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Judging by previous producer outings by Jackson et al (District 9, Tintin, Mortal Engines and The Hobbit prior to del Toro's exit) they are sure to allow Serkis the needed latitude in terms of designing, shooting and editing the film, although as mentioned its likely they'll involve themselves with casting some of the roles.
As before, Walsh and Boyens will also be writing the screenplay along with the scribes of the Boyens-produced The War of the Rohirrim, Arty Papageorgiou and Philippa's daughter Phoebe Gittins. Jackson is not credited as a co-writer, but being that he lives with Walsh, and opposite the lawn from Boyens, its certain he will have an important part in shaping the story.
Since Jackson lives with Walsh (in the house to the right) and across from Boyens (house immediately left of theirs), he's sure to be intimately involved with the shaping of the story
Serkis is also credited as executive producer along with Jonathan Cavendish, who together run the UK studio Imaginarium. Also attached as executive producer is Jackson's agent and The Hobbit executive Ken Kamins. They're unlikely to run into trouble with New Line Cinema, which is currently being run by Pam Abdy, Michael de Luca (who worked on The Lord of the Rings) and Alan Horn, who worked on The Hobbit. Amazon/MGM and the Tolkien Estate are not involved, ensuring no issues in terms of the rights.
Although New Line had approached Jackson, the idea for the film was his own. In fact, Jackson was disappointed that the story of the hunt for Gollum could not be included in The Fellowship of the Ring, and already in 1998 had expressed a desire to film it - at that stage, as additional footage to be spliced into the trilogy. By 2002, these plans turned into a "Lord of the Rings prequel" which was in active development until 2007, and that Jackson and Boyens continued to talk about as late as the director's commentary to The Battle of the Five Armies in 2015.
This film is entirely unrelated to the 2009 fan-film of the same title, now back on YouTube; nor to Daedalic's video-game nadir, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, or to Amazon Prime's controversial show The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in spite of possible cross-over in the crew. Philippa even admitted to avoiding the show as to not become influenced by it. If anything, news of The Hunt for Gollum, pre-empting the release of the teaser for the show's second season, seem to have dampered the hype for the show, especially given the show's move from New Zealand to the UK and New Line Cinema's forthright resolve to "stop Amazon from blurring the lines" between their show and the films.
Jackson is contracted for a second film: although a recent Deadline piece makes it seem like The Hunt for Gollum will itself be two films, this is unlikely and is not the impression given in previous press releases and interview. If the second film is indeed unrelated to The Hunt for Gollum, its likely Jackson hadn't given it too much thought, but a likely candidate could be The War in the North: Like the Hunt for Gollum, it is a subject Jackson had given some thought to and spoke of his interest in dramatising. Other future films may earn a more peripheral involvement from Jackson or Boyens, but are almost certain to still shoot in their homeland of New Zealand and utilize their facilities and firms.
Concept art for The War in the North, circa 2014.
New Line had ambitiously announced the film for 2026, surely towards the end of the year in what's become a series tradition, although in the latest Variety piece its merely "being eyed for a 2026", and so a slight delay (like those of The Battle of the Five Armies and The War of the Rohirrim) may be in store. Still, if it is indeed a single-film production, a late 2026 release is perfectly concievable, especially as this story is of smaller cope than either The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit.
The Hunt for Gollum is returning not just to New Zealand but Jackson's and Boyens' hometown of Wellington, and will be produced using his companies and facilities: Stone Street Studios (filming studio), WingNut Films (production company), Six-Foot-Seven (art direction company), Weta Workshop (hand-props and creatures), WetaFX (special effects) and Park-Road Post (editing and sound). The Rings of Power, The War of the Rohirrim, the Darrylgorn spoof and the "Beyond the Door" project in the Hobbiton set had all provided more Tolkien-themed work for many of these firms in the interim.
Otherwise, its unknown who the staff of the film might include. Jackson is almost sure to call upon the services of concept artist John Howe (currently engaged with The Rings of Power but almost sure to make time for Jackson) and Alan Lee, who had recently provided work for The War of the Rohirrim. He also has access to a large number of existing and unused pieces of art by Lee, Howe and Weta that can be of use here, a practice already utilized for The War of the Rohirrim.
Jackson had maintained a partnership with the co-editor of The Two Towers, Jabez Olssen, who edited all of Jackson's subsequent films including his recent documentaries. Serkis has a relationship with director of photography Robert Richardson, suggesting a possible candidate for the lensing of the film.
Although Howard Shore could concievably return to score the picture, which is set to feature characters he depicted in music previously like Gollum, Gandalf and probably Strider, the film could also be scored by one of the Kiwi composers who contributed to his scores: Stephen Gallagher (currently composing the score to The War of the Rohirrim) or the Plan 9 ensemble together with David Long. Even in such a case, Shore could concievably contribute themes, and his existing themes could be used at the discretion of the filmmakers.
Thanks to Jackson's involvement, one can also hope for extensive behind-the-scenes, including pre-emptive video production diaries, as had been the custom on all his live-action productions.
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2024.06.09 19:17 Icy_Accident881 My experience!!!

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XXL Bag
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  9. Try Amazon Elements & Amazon Fresh Amazon's private label brands are shockingly affordable. Amazon Elements provides grocery and household essentials at a flat 20% discount over name brands, while Amazon Fresh has great prices on groceries and meal kits.
  10. Leverage Amazon Warehouse Discounts Amazon Warehouse is a hidden gem for deeply discounted open-box and pre-owned products. You can find big savings on laptops, tablets, furniture, and more - all covered by Amazon's standard return policy.
  11. Price Match Amazon's Competition Amazon's huge product catalog means the prices are generally quite competitive. But if you do find a better deal on the same new, authentic item from a qualifying retailer, Amazon will price match it. Just use the "Product price is lower" link on the listing.
  12. Use Amazon Coupons & Promo Codes Don't forget to stack coupons and promo codes on top of Amazon's regular prices. You can find coupons that take 5-20% off a product price or get things like a free smart speaker with purchase. Just clip or enter the codes at checkout.
  13. Score Discounts with a .edu Email Address Do you or someone in your family have an active .edu email address from a university? Amazon offers exclusive discounts for students on a range of products with this email. Things like software, music, books, and Amazon Prime are cheaper.
  14. Get Amazon Wish Lists Discounts Creating an Amazon wish list (for yourself or for others) makes you eligible for occasional discount offers on those items. Amazon does this to incentivize "shopping the wish list" purchases.
  15. Use Cash Back & Rebate Sites Don't leave free cash back on the table. Browser extensions like Rakuten, CouponCabin and store cash back credit cards will earn a percentage back on all Amazon purchases. It takes no effort and the savings stack up fast.
  16. Take Advantage of Amazon Prime Day Amazon's annual Prime Day sale event in July is absolutely massive and often beats Black Friday deals. But you need an active Prime membership to access these rock-bottom prices.
  17. Try Before you Subscribe with HBO Free Trials Many Amazon services like HBO, Kindle Unlimited, and Amazon Music Unlimited offer extended 30-day free trials. Don't forget to take advantage and stack these on top of your Prime membership perks.
  18. Purchase Amazon Renewed Products Products listed as "Amazon Renewed" are refurbished and repackaged at a big discount with the same 90-day supplier warranty as new purchases. This includes smartphones, laptops, TVs, and home appliances.
  19. Use an Amazon Cash Reload Code Look out for promotions where you receive a percentage bonus when loading funds into your Amazon account balance using a reload code. These offers can drive the effective cost of purchases 5-20% lower.
  20. Browse the Amazon Outlet + "Bargain Bin" Hidden deep within Amazon are sections like the "Bargain Bin" and Amazon Outlet where you can find overstocked items, buyer remorse returns, and more at clearance pricing. Worth digging through if you're patient!
There you have it - 20 easy ways to save a ton of money the next time you shop on Amazon.com. Get strategic about combining deals, promotions, discounts and cash back rewards. Those small savings add up to keep so much more money in your pocket over time.
submitted by binsap to shareyourview [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 19:07 SmeepRocket The best tasting vegan dog food in your opinion. (r/veganpets is dead so asking here)

Hi!
I am currently feeding my recently adopted dog this: https://www.chewy.com/natural-balance-limited-ingredient/dp/537302
Basically Natural Balance dry dog food. It says vegetarian but checks out as vegan. When my dog first got here (she's a husky) she showed no interested in the food, but was being hesitant to eat anything that wasn't super appealing in every way. She was nervous, I think, but she has since started eating the food.
I just can't shake the feeling that she doesn't actually enjoy it though based on her behavior when she eats it. I also know that just dry dog food isn't all that great but i am on a limited income and can't throw in a bunch of fruits and such to further entice her.
Because she wouldn't eat for like half a week, we got some Pedigree packets of wet food and mixed it in with her evening meal since I didn't want her to constantly be hungry and therefore miserable, though I think there's less animal death involved with the meat coming from just the packets. I worry that if we take those packets away, she will also be unhappy, as she looks forward to them a great deal.
My previous dogs were malamutes, and would eat just about everything, but I have only decided to feed my dog vegan this time around. She's much more to the carnivore side of omnivore though.
In your opinions, what vegan dog food tastes the best, and is there a significant difference? What can I do that is affordable to mimic those super cheap wet food packets in the evening if at all possible?
Just to preempt anyone thinking it, if you are going to argue that it doesn't matter if she is super into the food as long as she eats it because regular food kills animals, I have made a commitment to this dog now, and her well being and happiness are first on my list. I know not everyone will see things like that, but that particular issue isn't up for debate. I want to feed her vegan, but I want her quality of life to be exceptional, as well.
Currently, I am stretched thin with her food price, but could shuffle things around $10 pr $20 or so and still manage. I very much want to feed her vegan if at all possible.
Thanks in advance for being understanding and not quoting statistics at me to guilt me into just letting her be unhappy with her food, because I already know those statistics. If you never intended to do that, apologies, but I've seen that done a lot.
submitted by SmeepRocket to vegan [link] [comments]


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