11 minutes of Armenia coverage by Transcaucasian Telegraph. Follow for regular updates.

just how much rain did Lori province receive last month?

About as much as the Ararat Valley gets in a year: 250-270 mm.
source,

the heavy rains might prevent the mass growth of green algae in Lake Sevan this year: VIDEO

Experts are optimistic this year after the reported rise of water levels in Sevan. The additional water is expected to reduce the average temperature of the water, which could reduce the growth of algae.
The lake is still full of phosphorus and other pollutants that feed algae. The #1 culprit is wastewater coming from nearby communities, said an expert. That's over 100 tons of additional phosphorus per year.
When it comes to solutions against phosphorus, one expert is against using chemicals that react with phosphorus causing it to sink to the bottom of the lake; that could cause other issues at the bottom layer. They are also against banning the use of chemicals in household products. The best option is constructing a cleaning station to filter the water that pours into the lake.
video,

PM Pashinyan visited northern Armenia struck by floods in May: VIDEO

Videos show the damage and restoration activities, PM's meetings with local residents, and ice cream parties with children.
Pashinyan said the residents will be compensated for repairs per m² plus furniture subsidies. Separate effort will launch to address the buildings that sustained structural damage from floods.
The government will try to rebuild the area with new looks, "while preserving the local kolorit", to make them more appealing for tourism.
Karkop residents and rain, Lori, Marts, Sanahin, ice cream, Santa Claus, Chochkan residents, delimited borders on Baghanis-Kirants, destroyed Khashtarak bridge, the alternative road for Kirants, recap meeting,

dear leader so stronk he clears clouds and rains and makes us all happy and blessed with his presence

On the eve of the much-awaited revolution to get rid of Pashinyan's incompetent regime, the former governments' forces held a rally in Vanadzor:
REPORTER: Today Bagrat srbazan's movement is in Vanadzor. What are the hopes and expectations the residents of Vanadzor have from this movement? What is the mood in Vanadzor?
KYUREGHYAN (ARF MP): The residents of Vanadzor know about the lies of this government and how they gained power through lies. Literally an hour before this rally there was a downpour in Vanadzor; the entire town was covered in water and mud. Even the heavy rain gave way to Bagrat srbazan [⭐], even the clouds pulled back and srbazan entered Vanadzor. The sun came [⭐⭐] when srbazan entered Vanadzor. This is a very important message. Yes, srbazan will bring light [⭐⭐⭐] and peace [⭐⭐⭐⭐] with himself. The same happened in Yerevan at 4 pm, when the skies cleared up [⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]. Today the residents of Vanadzor once again became convinced that the holy movement will bring sun [⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐] and salvation [⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐] . // [MY BOY 7-star Gen. Bagrat, couldn't you disperse the NATO cyclone that came from the Mediterranean and caused the floods?]
During the Vanadzor rally, Galstanyan said he will remove Pashinyan if the latter doesn't agree to resign. He called for everyone to join the big rally on June 9.
It's revolution time.
full, source, source, video compilation of failed microphone incidents during holy press conference,

la grande finale - the final battle begins

The former regime and its allies will launch a new, final, and decisive wave of nonstop acts of disobedience starting tomorrow, for the duration of 4 days, to oust PM Pashinyan and his team.
That was the message by protest co-leader Bagrat Galstanyan to his followers during the massive rally on June 9. He urged participants not to go to work or school, not to rest or sleep.
Galstanyan said he is sacrificing everything he has and that he hopes others will do the same. "It's now or never," he said.
Galstanyan urged parliament MPs to hold a session to demand Pashinyan's resignation. It might overlap with a regular parliamentary session where the MPs are supposed to discuss bills, so it's unclear how it'll work.
Galstanyan said there could be "other political solutions" if Pashinyan doesn't resign. When asked to clarify what he means by that, he said snap elections are an option. Azatutyun reporter noted that Galstanyan was against snap elections in the past.
When asked to comment on the constitutional incompatibility between his candidacy as PM and his dual Canadian citizenship, Galstanyan said they will find a solution "along the way".
Galstanyan urged to abandon the anti-Russian policies and "become a predictable and reliable partner" to "restore" relations with Russia while gaining new allies and friends.
ARAM SARGSYAN (Ex-PM): Restoring friendly relations with Russia requires abandoning the Euro-integration path, handing over the control of communications to Russia, removing EU's border observer mission and replacing them with CSTO which doesn't even recognize Armenia's borders, the end of army reforms and French weapons. "Restoring" relations with Russia means being in their pocket. //
The protest leaders insist the protest is not dying down. On May 9 they claimed there were approximately 120,000 people in the Republic Square, so presumably approximately as many people must have attended on June 9. (I cannot independently verify this.)
The meeting was scheduled for 6:30 pm but began around 7:10 pm. An NGO counted around 15,400 people as of 7:10 pm. That is not the peak number but the same organization has counted the participants with a similar methodology/timing in the past, so here is the trend:
May 9 (early hours): 34,000
May 26 (early hours): 23,000
June 6 (early hours): 16,000
Here is a video slightly later, at 8 pm: video,
Here is another drone video, presumably before the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people: video,
Galstanyan then led his followers to the area near government buildings but was blocked by a police wall. Things got heated and jabs were exchanged between Galstanyan and the police commander.
They decided to split the crowd. The one led by ARF MP Garnik Danielyan remained near the parliament while Galstanyan took the rest to Proshyan to enter Demirchyan from there. His path to Demirchyan was blocked from Proshyan, too. There was a mini-kerfuffle. The protesters accused the police of protecting "Turks". Galstanyan said he will camp there.
Relatively few people remained with Galstanyan after midnight. He told his followers "we have nowhere to retreat" and said that their numbers would "increase in the morning".
Pashinyan's Deputy Chief of Staff Chakhoyan mocked Galstanyan, naming his movement as "Քոքամաշ 2024" and suggesting that the number of followers has halved since May 9. "Thank you for reaffirming the legitimacy of the government," said Chakhoyan.
source, video, source, source, source, source, source, source, source,

ex-PM Aram Sargsyan criticizes the Church leadership for "double standards"

PETROS: Why did the Church get involved in these political processes?
SARGSYAN: The Church used to be the beneficiary of the former regime and felt like being part of the elites. After 2018, when democracy took over, the Church had to return to providing religious services to the population, which was not enough for them.
PETROS: It must have been difficult for them to lose the status of the elite. They developed friendships and "resolved problems" with the help of former administrations. The Church was basically a ministry in the government. They could make phone calls to resolve issues, they were standing next to state leaders during state ceremonies, they could influence the education policy in Armenia, they could resolve business issues, etc.
After 2018 they could only serve as an intermediary between the man and God, a big downgrade. They have decided to "fix" that. This is why the Church ignored the election fraud under former administrations. Do you remember this?
SARGSYAN: Of course. From 2003 to 12 April 2004, and on 1 March 2008, the Church did not intervene in those and didn't address the police conduct.
PETROS: I remember the destruction of April 12.
SARGSYAN: ... political offices were shut down, women were taken from offices and arrested. We had a girl from our party named Ani who lives in France today. She was beaten so much that she developed serious health issues and had to seek medical treatment abroad. The excessive use of force in the past and its disproportionality was very obvious, and on March 1 it turned into murders. Four political parties were shut down and sealed off: HZhK, Artashes Geghamyan, my party, ... We were just sealed shut and our property was taken away. The Church didn't intervene. They also didn't issue criticism after March 1. After March 1, Catholicos Garegin B went to visit Levon Ter-Petrosyan but the latter didn't accept him.
PETROS: That was followed by repressions, political arrests, and propped-up charges. There was no justice.
SARGSYAN: The Church didn't care. Today they say the residents of Kirants are protesting so its representative can join the protests, yet they didn't hear the complaints of residents in the past.
PETROS: The Church was also silent when the Armenian government figures appointed their chauffeurs as generals and plundered the army, while Azerbaijan was arming itself to capture Nagorno-Karabakh.
SARGSYAN: The military balance shifted in Azerbaijan's favor in 2004. Meanwhile, our leaders were busy praising the Armenian army as the best and most combat-ready army while relying on Russia to defend them. They began to falsify elections and earn profits through army schemes. The Church should have publicly declared that it's wrong to buy voters, to buy people's voice and soul for ֏5,000. The Church should have shamed those who sold their votes. After all, the Brible says not to spread false reports, which is similar to voting under the influence of a bribe. You sell your soul in exchange for the bribe money. The Church was silent.
PETROS: Galstanyan refuses to release the names of people in his cabinet if he becomes the PM.
full,

H1's video report on Arthur Brothers

Context and English articles in June 5 report.
video,

Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron made a joint statement about the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process

STATEMENT: The United States and France support the establishment of a fair and lasting peace in the South Caucasus, based on the respect of international law as well as the principles of sovereignty, inviolability of borders and territorial integrity. We support further regional integration in the South Caucasus for the benefit of all the region’s people.
source,
other statements on Georgia, Moldova, etc.

Moscow sends a note of protest to Yerevan after the visit of an Armenian delegation to Bucha, Ukraine, the city where the Russian army committed massacres after the invasion

Context in Friday report. The delegation was led by Armenia's Ambassador to Ukraine and the leader of Yerevan's Nor-Nork district. They donated medicine to Bucha hospitals.
The head of Nor-Nork district Tigran Ter-Margaryan represents the pro-West "Republic" party led by ex-PM Aram Sargsyan. In response to Moscow's protest, he said is ready to visit Bucha again. Margaryan said he is confident Ukraine will defeat Russia and that every Ukrainian sees the war as a fight for independence and sovereignty. He also ridiculed Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova for not knowing the difference between Armenia's parliament and a Yerevan district.
Now a quick survey for our readers. Which Armenian politician spits on faces better?
(A) Alen Simonyan
(B) Tigran Ter-Margaryan
The polls close in 24 hours and will not be rigged.
source, source,

Armenia will rewrite the Code on Administrative Offences that's so old it makes references to Soviet terminologies/institutions

The only thing this Code doesn't have is praise for Lenin papi. Efforts to replace it began a decade ago but it recently underwent some changes and was introduced to the public last year.
The justice ministry says it's necessary to ensure that the punishments envisaged under the Administrative Code are more lenient than the ones under the Criminal Code.
More thorough changes will be made in the punishments for legal entities and individuals who are a flight risk, as an example. 3-hour or 48-hour arrests could be imposed to prevent the flight or the repetition of the crime. For example, if you are drunk and cannot control yourself they could arrest you for 3 hours and check your sobriety every 3 hours to see if it's safe to release you. New forms of administrative punishment include revocation or suspension of various licenses. Instead of paying a fine, you could ask the authorities to do public work.
video, source,

parts from an interview with VOMA leader Vova Vartanov

• Context: Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to control lands that belong to one other on the Tavush-Gazakh border. This allows both countries to continue to use their roads (Armenian road passing through Azeri land east of Voskepar, and Azeri road passing through Armenian lands north of Berkaber). Vartanov believes Azerbaijan will delay the return/exchange of remaining lands.
• The military positions that Azerbaijan has gained in Tavush after this delimitation could be used by Azerbaijan for psychological pressure but would not make Armenia significantly more vulnerable in the event of war because the nearby Armenian positions are more dominant and turn the Azeri positions into a peninsula in some places, said Vartanov, repeating the opinion of deputy army commander Amirkhanyan.
• Vartanov called for the construction of more roads near Tavush borders and criticized bureaucratic delays in Armenia.
• There is still a risk of resumption of hostilities, even after a delimitation of borders, and the only real guarantee for peace is a strong Armenian army, said Vartanov.
• Russia and the United States have not been and cannot be real guarantors. None can be trusted, says Vartanov.
• Vartanov believes Russia had some kind of an "agreement" with Azerbaijan at the time of Azerbaijan's attack on Nagorno-Karabakh, but he doesn't know the specifics of the agreement. He mocks Russia for denying the existence of the RU-AZ agreement.
• Vartanov does not rule out the possibility of the West betraying Armenia and agreeing to ignore the ongoing occupation of Armenian territories by Azerbaijan in exchange for favorable energy contracts with Azerbaijan.
• Vartanov believes Armenia is currently exerting intense efforts to mitigate the threats "but it's not enough" as long as the society itself is not part of a comprehensive defense system, educated with military knowledge.
• Don't be չմոшник
• ազգ-բանակ
full,

from an interview with Bulgarian political expert Petrov

• MOD Papikyan recently visited a large international military expo held in Bulgaria. Papikyan and his Bosnian counterpart were the only two foreign Defense Ministers. Petrov believes it shows the level of Armenia's interest.
• Western HIMARs and armored vehicle Stryker were displayed, among other things. Bulgarian products were displayed.
• Bulgaria is not a manufacturer of heavy weapons but Armenia could be interested in Bulgarian-made ammunition. Bulgaria is one of the largest manufacturers of those in the European continent, said Petrov. Bulgaria has both Soviet products and lately learned to make NATO-caliber ammunition.
• MOD Papikyan met the Bulgarian MOD and President. No details.
• Petrov does not see the Bulgaria-Azerbaijan cooperation being an obstruction to a similar cooperation with Armenia.
• 90% of the Bulgaria-Azerbaijan cooperation is in the sphere of gas imports, and they don't have strong defense ties.
source,

Armenian and Turkish organizations team up to publish a book

Yerevan's Cultural & Social Narratives Laboratory [I need to meet the person who named it] and an Istambul-based research collective published a book about the Balat District and its Armenian cultural elements.

Balat is one of the oldest and most spectacular districts of İstanbul. The second you step foot along its narrow cobbled streets and historic buildings, you sense an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in İstanbul, and indeed the world.

watch,

video report in Western-Armenian presents the economic tensions in Lebanon exasperated by millions of Syrian migrants and refugees

Many Lebanese residents who believe the Syrians are economic migrants and not refugees are concerned about the impact on the economy, culture, and safety.
BAGRATUNI (Lebanese MP): International organizations provide massive amounts of financial assistance to Syrians in Lebanon registered as refugees but they take that money and visit Syria to meet their family members before returning to Lebanon for employment. We also have 500,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Almost half of the residents of Lebanon are foreigners today. //
Of the 1.5 million Syrian refugees, only 300,000 have official documents for employment, says the report.
RACHEL KARAM (reporter): Lebanon with its serious economic problems spent $49 billion in 2012-2022 for the needs of Syrian refugees. //
The report says Syrian-Armenians were relatively better off financially and have been more independent from foreign aid. They have been able to integrate into the Armenian communities of Bourj Hammoud, Antelias, and other towns. Local Armenian orgs and charities provide assistance to those in need.
Authorities are paying special attention to inter-ethnic incidents and crimes to prevent them from growing into another civil war, says the report.
video,

top 5 countries that send remittances abroad (2022 data)

United States $81.6B
Saudi Arabia $39.3B
Switzerland $33.6B
China $18.3B
Kuwait $17.7B
source,

https://www.saucerswap.finance/ [6th AMA of 2024]
Pine_apple
Thank you all for joining our monthly AMA today. Next week is Father's Day here in the United States. So happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. ABFT is co-hosting today and we have two awesome guests in the house, Brady and Gaurang. Both are co-founders of Bonzo Finance, an open source, non custodial lending and borrowing protocol built on the Hedera network. So welcome to our AMA, Brady and Gaurang.
Brady (Bonzo Finance)
Hey, thanks so much for having us. Really appreciate it and excited to get the chance to chat with the SaucerSwap community.
Gaurang (Bonzo Finance)
Glad to be here.
ABFTFTW
Hey Brady. Hey Gaurang. Good to have you guys in the Bonzo Finance in the house. Happy to have you with us. I've been outside today and it's in Texas and it's a scorcher. I'm hoping some of that heat kind of passes off into the cryptosphere. I think the HBAR has a bright future. You know that most development going on in all the crypto space and I'm in it for the tech, so let's get this going. Talk to me, Peter.
Peter
Hi everyone. Welcome to our June AMA. And a very warm welcome to Brady and Gaurang from Bonzo, who will be answering some questions about their upcoming lending protocol. So super excited to welcome them up here to talk about that. So in the past, some of you may know, we've welcomed guests from projects like HeadStarter and Citadel wallet, so we are always excited to bring on builders in this space to talk about what they're building on Hedera.
Before we do jump into the questions from this week, we want to take a moment to address just the overall sentiment and roadmap. We wanna give everyone a sense of what's currently being worked on, what's coming next and our overall strategy to grow SaucerSwap.
So first of all, we have made some great progress on governance, which will provide a core utility to the SAUCE token. So for those unaware, governance is the core and sometimes exclusive utility of many DEX tokens. This includes UNI of Uniswap. With the release of governance, everyone will be able to vote with their SAUCE on proposals that align initiatives, create farms and LARI campaigns, decide token classifications, and so on and so forth. We have governance working now on Testnet and have created the UI for it. So we are looking at launching it early summer. So in the next few weeks. It could be towards the end of this month or it could go into next month but it is coming up.
Next we get to work on some features after governance that we know have been highly anticipated, namely Phase 2 and Phase 3 of Single-sided staking. We are super excited to follow through with these developments. We know that they've been a long time coming and they can contribute to some greater utility, both for the xSAUCE token and then also the Planck Epoch Collectible NFTs via kind of their redemption for Sauceling NFTs. So after we roll out governance, we'll be able to lock in the product schema for these features and move forward with their development. So we are really excited about bringing Phase 2 and Phase 3 of Single-sided staking online.
Additionally, with SAUCE having been listed on BitGet last month, we are looking forward to at least one more Centralized Exchange listing this month, with two being more likely. There is additionally a Centralized Exchange listing that is currently scheduled for July, which we are excited about as well.
We also want to just quickly bring to your attention we kicked off a major grant with the HBAR Foundation last week, providing over 20 Million HBAR in incentives for liquidity providers. At the time of receipt, that was over $2,000,000 USD an equivalent value for those tokens and those tokens are being distributed right now to SaucerSwap liquidity providers, in both Version 1 and Version 2, and we'll be live for the next few months. So if you haven't had a chance to check that out, feel free to do so on Saucerswap.finance on the liquidity page. You'll see kind of the effect of those increased rewards.
The salient point we do want to make in this introduction is we understand sentiment is lower today than it was a few months ago. We think this is kind of observed across DeFi on various networks, but you know the nature of these things is cyclical and we want our users to know that we are still developing, we're shipping major features coming up with governance and more on the roadmap that I just mentioned, as well as some other integrations in the coming weeks.
Looking back at the previous month, we think we had some major wins. You know we had this grant announcement with 20 Million HBAR, a major listing on BitGet, a MoonPay integration that's been in the works for a few weeks, not to mention the work that we have accomplished behind the scenes. So there's a lot to be excited about moving forward and we are very appreciative of all of your support as we continue to grow SaucerSwap.
I will just mention as well, you know the project depends on our community as much as it depends on development. So I would like to encourage everyone to stay positive. There's a lot to look forward to. We're working hard and remember that we have a well defined roadmap and we've consistently shipped features on that roadmap since the launch of SaucerSwap Version 1 almost two years ago, and we have a clear plan going forward as well to scale.
As we scale, the ecosystem has some exciting developments as well. So this is kind of the the feature of this AMA. We have Bonzo here, so lending and borrowing going live. It's a DeFi primitive that has an established symbiotic relationship with DEXs on other networks. It's a proven model, so we're excited to see projects like Bonzo and others coming online soon. There's a few lending and borrowing. I think HLiquity, it's already live. They created a pool on SaucerSwap. Bonzo is coming right up as well. And I think Sirio is another one. But anyway, all of these developments can bring a lot more awareness and activity to Hedera DeFi.
So with that preamble out of the way, we can get into the questions for this week.
Pine_apple
Thank you so much, Peter. Hedera DeFi, here we come. So the first question is from Rocco. With this environment being highly competitive, any project is required to have excellent marketing in order to succeed, regardless of how its tech is. What is SaucerSwap's long term plan to gain popularity and create brand awareness, especially to people outside of the Hydra ecosystem? As of my observations, current incentives don't reach far out of Hedera or SaucerSwap's community. So, for example, onboarding influential social media figures to talk about SaucerSwap, purchasing ad space or other collaborations in order to reach people that aren't already in the Hedera ecosystem. As of now, the average crypto enthusiast does not know of SaucerSwap's existence. What are your thoughts on that, Peter?
Peter
Yeah, Rocco, thanks for the question. So this kind of goes back to our overall marketing approach. And in general, it's always been to be objective and honest about the development of the platform. Reading brand awareness is a tricky thing and our philosophy is that it's linked to earning brand integrity. In our view, this comes from following through and executing on development.
So in Web3, you see a lot of marketing that focuses on hype and speculation, and in the short term that works. Our approach is different. We think that a long term, more sustainable approach that builds trust is better. It's not to say that we don't want visibility, especially to people outside the Hedera ecosystem. Quite the opposite. That's one of our main goals is to expand the challenge is accessibility. So right now there's one bridge to and from Hedera that not many people outside of Hedera know about. There is limited access to Hedera native USDC on Centralized Exchanges. The Hedera Token Service has not been integrated, full stop, on many Centralized Exchanges. These are substantial barriers to entry that that do make any marketing endeavors to users from other networks not impossible but definitely more challenging.
The silver lining to all of that is that all of these problems are being actively addressed, and when they are addressed, I think it's reasonable to expect the door to Hedera to open and because it will be so much easier to get involved by having easier access to native USDC for example, or being able to use the bridge that users are familiar with and trust, they will have less friction to get involved with Hedera and participate in the various network offerings.
So sum up our point of view, we think our marketing approach to date has been effective with a kind of high of reaching the top 25 DEXs across all networks by TVL, despite the accessibility challenges I mentioned before, and despite the lack of institutional capital on Hedera. So that is a massive achievement and we're not trying to rest on our laurels. I think it's just a good barometer of what we've achieved together. We surpassed Camelot, SpookySwap, QuickSwap, Bancor, Minswap - which is the leading DEX on Cardano - Loopring, and other very prominent DEXs, some of which had TVLs in excess of $1 billion last cycle.
So this growth we observed was not achieved by hiring influencers to create urgency or sense of hype, but just by being consistent and working hard and delivering on our roadmap. That strategy has been successful for the growth of SaucerSwap to date and that is our strategy going forward.
ABFTFTW
That was a great question Rocco, and Peter, you nailed it on the head. I couldn't agree more. Next question is for Bonzo Finance. Are there any plans to integrate SaucerSwap's API with Bonzo to enable collateral swaps directly from within the Bonzo Finance interface?
Gaurang (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah. To the question the answer is absolutely yes, but not immediately. We might be doing that in Q3 of this year. So what we are focusing on right now, Bonzo has a public Testnet live right now, which has the basic features like borrowing, lending, repaying, withdrawing and all these things, right. And we also have flash loans working right now on the Testnet. Our current main focus is to launch on the Hedera Mainnet with a basic set of features. These will include flash loans, liquidation bots, all the borrowing lending, you know, basic features of any lending protocol. Immediately after that, we want to launch the collateral swaps because our team has been using lending protocols personally and I think collateral swaps or even DEX swaps is a really nice feature, so if you see the APY for some token is more than the APY for the token that you have supplied, you can immediately switch that token without going through the whole process of withdrawing and supplying again. So yeah, it's definitely on the roadmap and that will be one of the first features that we tackle after launching on the Mainnet.
Brady (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah, and just to add to that as well. Bonzo Finances, it's based on the Aave V2 code base and so the functionalities that you're seeing on Aave V2 are all part of the roadmap. And I think we're taking a similar approach to SaucerSwap when it comes to sort of laying a a really solid and robust foundation initially. They had started with Uniswap V2 and then evolved feature sets and product offerings and eventually adopted Uniswap V3, and we're taking a very similar approach and it's sort of phased, but we want to deliver a really solid and usable product right off the bat, utilizing Aave V2 and sort of its core functionalities.
Pine_apple
Great. Thank you so much for that Brady and Gaurang. The Bonzo testnet is found on Bonzo.Finance, so for free to check that out guys. So our next question is from an anonymous user. When is SAUCE going to be listed on another Centralized Exchange? To get a ByBit listing, you need to have 40 million marketcap. SAUCE well past 50+ Million marketcap. Why is SAUCE not on ByBit? And another question is, did the team also apply for Binance after the recent announcement? What are your thoughts, Peter?
Peter
Yeah. Thanks for this question. So as I mentioned in the introduction to the AMA, we are planning for at least one Centralized Exchange listing this month, with two potentially being on the horizon. We can't speak on kind of specific exchanges or the exact scheduling right now, but we are satisfied with the progress we have been making and we're looking forward to the coming weeks.
I will just also note that so newer projects like PACK from the HashPack team tend to get listed faster or percede the scheduling in terms of listing of other network tokens. Just being a newer project, this is kind of what Centralized Exchanges want to capitalize on, and it's great for the ecosystem. It's been really good for us and it means that HTS is integrated on exchanges. There's more precedent for it and some more token listings can follow. And we have been working with HashPack to achieve the goal for the, you know, to the benefit of the entire HTS ecosystem to have HTS more widely integrated on Centralized Exchanges. And that of course kind of culminated in the BitGet listing last month with PACK and SAUCE.
ABFTFTW
Yeah, sounds good to me. Thanks for that explanation there, Peter. Septia. Hello, Septia. How are you? Septia wants to know what risk controls will Bonzo Finance have in place to minimize liquidity crunches.
Brady (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah, it's a great question. Happy to take that one. So there's a few things that we're doing to try and minimize that risk. The first one, which is foundational to Aave, is that when you're participating in lending and borrowing, it is an overcollateralized position that you're providing. So when you supply assets to the protocol, you are only allowed to borrow a percentage of the value that is supplied and the percentage is different per asset. So based on risk parameters and a risk analysis for each asset that's supported, that over collateralization amount is going to change. Essentially the loan to value amount will change. So when users are sort of over collateralizing, there's a buffer that exists for those assets.
And then in addition, dynamic interest rates. So the interest rates for borrowing adjust based on the utilization of that particular asset. So as more of an asset was borrowed, the interest rate for that asset increases and that incentivizes the behavior of repaying and also sort of encouraging liquidity to return to the protocol. Gaurang, anything else there that I may have missed?
Gaurang (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah. So I just want to give an example of the Aave market on the Scroll network. The Scroll is another L2 on Etherium. It actually happened I think on Thursday or Friday this week. So on the Aave protocol, there's a concept called utilization rate. Essentially, it's a rate of borrowed assets against supplied assets. So let's say all the people on the on the network has supplied 10,000 USDC and all the people have borrowed 9,000 USDC. So in that case, the utilization rate is going to be 90%. So as Brady was saying, as the utilization rate goes on increasing, the interest rate goes very high. So on Scroll, what happened this week was that the USDC utilization rate was at 99%, and because of that, the borrow and the supply APY on that particular asset was very high. So it was going towards like 80% or something for the supply. And you know what happens is with the market dynamics whenever the APY goes so high, there are more people in the market for supplying that asset. So it's kind of like an equilibrium and it's a game theoretical problem. So what we have observed in the protocol in the past is that the market dynamics kind of help with this. That's number one.
We are also looking at implementing something called Borrow Caps from Aave V3. We might bring in that functionality in [our] Aave V2 [fork] now. I'm not sure whether we will be doing it, but we are trying to do it before the Mainnet launch. With the Borrow Caps, we can actually cap the utilization of any assets, so we could cap it at let's say 90% or 85% or something. Yeah, these are like a couple of things that we're looking at.
Brady (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah. And then to add in addition to that, there is a mechanism within Aave that is also being employed in Bonzo called a safety module. Essentially, a safety module is a reserve of the protocols native asset. Holders of that native asset are incentivized to lock up their tokens into this safety module and receive a interest rate, an APY for doing so. That reserve can be employed in the case of a shortfall event related to liquidity. So if there's moments of extreme volatility for supported assets and liquidations that don't take place in a timely manner or take place improperly, that reserve is also employed to ensure that accreditors are made whole. So anticipation is that we are doing everything to mitigate the chance of that from happening, but it is sort of an insurance in the case of something like that taking place. And then if it is employed, the assets that are utilized from the safety module, it's shared across anybody who is participating in that functionality.
Pine_apple
Great. Thank you so much for that, Brady and Gaurang. So moving on to our next question, this is from a anonymous user. SaucerSwap Twitter is not very active recently and the number of followers is stagnating, which seems to indicate a lack of interest. Any plans to boost engagement, engagement and dynamism in the coming weeks?
Peter
Yeah, well, Bonzo's surely getting the fun questions. So SaucerSwap's Twitter account has grown by 3400 followers in the last 30 days, which indicates roughly a 10% increase month over month. That is an excellent growth rate. And over the next few weeks, we have several developments and integrations that we will announce and highlight right on our social media platforms, including Twitter. So in terms of recent growth, we have enjoyed a healthy rate of increase again 10% month over month is very good.
Going back to the answer from before regarding our marketing approach, we use our social media accounts to put out useful information about integrations and protocol developments, so that all the content we put out is not just fluff. We want to put out substance. Additionally, the Spring Incentives Campaign does present a unique opportunity for marketing. Looking into potentially doing a press release for this one to kind of target users from other networks. So highlighting that as an endeavor is something we're currently pursuing.
ABFTFTW
Sounds pretty good, Peter. Thank you for that. Next question is again for the Bonzo crew. Are there any integrations that will exist between SaucerSwap DEX and Bonzo Finance lending protocol?
Brady (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah, we're definitely looking into integrations between the two. I think the first thing off the bat is there are two core functionalities within the Bonzo Finance ecosystem for liquidation bots and flash loans that Gaurang mentioned earlier. And so for liquidation bots, essentially what that is, is anybody in the ecosystem who is technically savvy can operate a liquidation bot that seeks out opportunities for liquidations. Essentially when liquidation thresholds are met for users. And upon performing the liquidation, they would take the collateral that was supplied by the user and swaps would need to be performed as part of that process. And when we are building out the templates for liquidation bots in that ecosystem, it is going to heavily rely on SaucerSwap and their DEX and the liquidity in SaucerSwap to perform that action.
One thing I'm excited about that in the sense that I think that by adding lending protocols and particularly Bonzo Finance and our liquidation bot ecosystem, it should help further drive volumes that we see on the SaucerSwap DEX, which is a key health metric, and then in addition to that with flash loans.
Flash loans are essentially the ability to borrow assets from the Bonzo Protocol without providing collateral. And the way that works is it's the development of a smart contract that borrows assets or liquidity from the protocol, utilizes that liquidity for certain types of financial transactions, so it could be arbitrage between two Decentralized Exchanges or between a Centralized and a Decentralized Exchange, and then paying back that loan plus interest, all within a single transaction. And if the loan is unable to be repaid back within that single transaction, the process reverses. And so it's as if that process never happens. So flash loans are viewed as a very relatively safe way to be able to utilize larger amounts of liquidity in the protocol and earn a profit for doing so based on the various types of activities that would utilize that liquidity for in the templates that we're building out for our developer ecosystem. That includes SaucerSwap as sort of a key exchange that someone would utilize when participating in a flash loan type activities. Gaurang, anything else there to add in addition with regards to integrations?
Gaurang (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah. So we mentioned the collateral swaps earlier, so that will be another integration. Also, we are heavily relying on the WHBAR, the wrapped HBAR contracts deployed by SaucerSwap. So for us, I think for any blockchain protocol, composability is very important, right? So it's very important to be able to work with essentially all the contracts and all the things that have already been deployed on the network. That's why we are integrating with the WHBAR contract deployed by SaucerSwap. That way, there's very close tie and close relationship between Bonzo and SaucerSwap. Anyone who is kind of building liquidation bots on Bonzo or utilizing the flash loans on Bonzo will be able to use SaucerSwap very seamlessly.
Pine_apple
Great. Thank you so much for that, Brady and Gaurang. So this next question is from a user and you guys kind of touched on this a little bit. For liquidation bots on Bonzo Finance, will there be mechanisms in place to utilize SaucerSwap's liquidity to facilitate the liquidation process efficiently?
Gaurang (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah, absolutely. So I would say it's like the keystone for any liquidation bots on Bonzo. So without SaucerSwap's liquidity, the liquidation bots and the flash loans won't really work. So just to kind of explain in short how the liquidations work, let's say I have deposited some token on Bonzo token like KARATE or DOVU or SAUCE token, and I have borrowed USDC against those tokens. Now let's say what happens is, just like what happened yesterday, the supply token value goes down by 20% because of some events in the market that happened yesterday for example. Now what happens is in this case my loan to value ratio, my LTV, could go above the liquidation threshold and in this case, the liquidation bots will kick in. So what the liquidation bots will do is they will repay my USDC loan by taking a flash loan. They will swap my USDC on SaucerSwap back to SAUCE, and then they will essentially pay back the flash loan on Bonzo. So all these actions will happen in the same block, in the same transaction on the blockchain, not the same transaction, but the same block on the blockchain. And that's why without SaucerSwap, liquidation bots might not work unless you have like a big liquidity in your own wallet. Unless you have like 10s of thousands or even millions of dollars in your wallet, it won't work.
ABFTFTW
Awesome, Gaurang. Thank you so much for that. Next question goes to Joseph, what cross chain activities will the team be participating in over the next six months to encourage new users to come to SaucerSwap?
Joseph
Hi everyone. Man, I feel like a second class citizen during this far down. Well yeah, to answer the question, there are several interoperability solutions currently integrating with Hedera. So I believe Axelar has been the first to publicly announce this, and once integrated, there will be more avenues to bridge assets to and from Hedera and other chains. So SaucerSwap plans on leveraging this by allocating a portion of the 23 Million+ HBAR in THF grant money towards liquidity incentives in both V1 and V2 pools. And this would be pools containing these newly supported cross-chain assets, with an emphasis on stable coins.
On protocols like Axelar will also enable cross-chain swaps in addition to the standard bridge transactions, and this means you can access say Uniswap liquidity from within the SaucerSwap's web frontend.
Beyond this, we are continuing to assist with the onboarding of new active liquidity management or ALM providers such as Gamma and Steer protocol. These offer an alternative liquidity management strategy to Ichi. So ALMs, of course, are important for the health of SaucerSwap for V2 since concentrated liquidity positions can be a challenge to manage without the auto rebalancing.
And lastly, I think it would be great for multi-chain yield aggregators like Beefy to integrate with Hedera. This would enable V1 yield farmers and potentially V2 liquidity providers to automatically compound their earnings without the need to do like a manual harvest.
Pine_apple
Great. Thanks so much for that. Joseph, you're A1 in my book friend. So the next question is from anonymous user. Development seems relatively slow recently. Are you facing particular challenges such as technical staffing or other? When can we expect the release of the features in development visible on the roadmap? For example, improved LARI analytics, slippage optimization, Wallet Connect integration, etc.
Joseph
Yeah, good question. So development is fairly cyclical, meaning we generally spend several months with our heads down working on a new product or feature. Then once it's ready to ship, we allocate more resources to marketing and just become more public facing in general. So you may have noticed this pattern with single-sided staking, SaucerSwap Version 2, most recently Autopools, and the product that we're currently working on is on-chain governance.
Also, as our protocol continues to mature, the length of these development cycles tends to increase as considerations like scaling and stability become more pertinent, and this has become especially apparent in recent times, given that we experienced a 10x increase in traffic near the beginning of the year.
There's also external considerations that are outside of our control. So for example, we are unable to release Wallet Connect despite completing our integration. This is due to several outstanding differences between Hedera wallet providers, which are currently being resolved.
So all to say, we unfortunately can't move with the same cadence as we did at the beginning of our projects life cycle. However, we are taking proactive measures, such as hiring more developers and ensuring tech debt is minimized and we have a solid foundation on which to build. I do agree that frequent communication on the status of our development is important and the hyper competitiveness of this space is acknowledged. So we will put out a development update this week, and this should bring the community up to speed on what has been achieved and what can be expected in the near term.
ABFTFTW
Thank you, Joseph. Next question is what is the plan to deepen liquidity in Bonzo and also the Hedera DeFi ecosystem as the whole? And then a follow up question is a DEX partnership like Joe, Cake or JUP coming up?
Brady (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah, it's a great question and it's something that's really top of mind for us at the end of the day. In order to create an economically sustainable protocol, we need to have TVL on Bonzo and then we need to ensure that folks are utilizing that TVL for borrowing. That's where you know majority of the fees come from for the treasury for Bonzo Finance. There's sort of three key things that that we're looking at off the bat that that seemed critical and it's the incentivization of liquidity providers, offering a wide range of assets that are supported by the protocol, and then leveraging stable coins and in particular USDC.
With the incentivization of liquidity providers, there are two programs that were looking at running. The first one is we are in discussions with HBAR Foundation around liquidity incentives for their DeFi Spring program that SaucerSwap is also partaking in. Those discussions aren't finalized yet, but the hope is to be able to provide HBAR incentives for folks that are both supplying liquidity and borrowing.
And then the second is a points program that's being employed by the protocol. So we're actually going to be using the HCS-20 point standard using the Hedera consensus service for the protocol. I think it's one of the first times that in the Hedera ecosystem, there's been an employment of this HCS-20 standard for like a real world live use case. I think the only other one might be NFTier. That points program - we were inspired by Margin Phi, Kamino, and some of these other lending protocols that you see on networks like Solana and across the Web3 space - and it's going to run in seasons.
So each season is around five to six months, and points that are accumulated throughout those seasons for participating in supplying liquidity and borrowing. Users will receive rewards at the end of each season for the accumulation of those points. So we think between those two incentive models, it's sort of strong case for folks to want to be able to supply liquidity to the protocol.
In addition and sort of tangential to that, there's a lot of liquidity in the ecosystem today that is in the treasuries of these token based projects or in large holders accounts - sometimes employees or investors or folks that have you know are large holders of these token based projects - and there hasn't been a extremely safe place for them to supply that liquidity, which unlocks it for the ecosystem that's more sort of relatively lower risk where they're able to earn rewards on it. And so with Bonzo, because when you support a specific asset, it's a single liquidity pool. It's not like a token pair similar to like a DEX. And in discussions that we've had with token based projects, looking to them as potentially unlocking some of that liquidity that is in their treasuries or by these large holders that for many reasons they're unable to sell their tokens on market, but they do want to utilize them, Bonzo is a very appealing place to be able to supply those assets.
In addition to that, in terms of a wide range of assets, one of the things that I'm most excited about that's sort of in the process of being developed is bridging infrastructure and in particular the engagement with Axelar. I think the one of the few ways that we can really drive overall TVL and the ecosystem is through the use of bridging, and providing incentives for users to drive liquidity from other networks to Hedera. So we are in the process of waiting for Axelar bridging and bridge providers that are utilizing Axelar to come online, but those wrapped assets that can be brought over are going to play a critical role in like the growth and health of Hedera's DeFi ecosystem and in particular protocols like SaucerSwap and Bonzo Finance. We certainly want to run campaigns that target users on other networks and bring them and liquidity over to the Hedera network, but again, just waiting on the development of this bridging infrastructure to take place, but it feels very promising.
Then the third thing is stable coins. There's a huge emphasis on USDC right now in Hedera ecosystem as part of HBAR foundation strategy and I think just overarching strategy. The liquidity of USDC on Hedera is quite low relative to other public networks. So as Gaurang mentioned earlier, USDC and stable coins on lending protocols are one of, if not the most highest utilized asset. We think that's going to hold true for the Hedera ecosystem. So in our discussions with market makers and liquidity providers and other folks that would be supplying that liquidity, USDC is definitely top of mind and we want to be a liquidity powerhouse when it comes to USDC and other stable coin assets.
Pine_apple
Thank you so much for that thorough explanation, Brady. So our next question is from Maurice. Is there any consideration to use the Pyth network for better auto pools?
Joseph
Yeah. So our team actually has met with Pyth and we do see value in an integration. In terms of Auto Pools, I know that Ichi uses Chainlinks transaction manager to streamline the rebalance function. So this is done by quickly identifying and confirming transactions during periods of heavy network congestion. I don't think that's particularly relevant to Hedera just due to architectural differences between Hashgraph and Blockchain, but in terms of price oracles, Ichi currently looks at SaucerSwap TWAP oracles and these price assets based on token reserves and liquidity pools. So I'm not sure if they would how they would use third party oracles such as those offered by Pyth, but if you have any ideas, feel free to drop them in our Discord.
ABFTFTW
Next question is when is stage 2 and 3 of single-sided staking going to launch and what are the use cases for the PEC NFTs?
Joseph
Yeah. So Peter touched on this, but stages 2 and 3 of single-sided staking will be prioritized following the release of on-chain governance and this is planned for early summer. Our conception of how phases 2 and 3 will work has evolved since it was first announced, and we now have a better sense of how an optimal system could be developed that has product market fit within the Hedera ecosystem. So you can expect marketing and educational material on this extension of single-sided staking to become a focus once token weighted voting and a functioning DAO become live.
In terms of how Planck Epoch Collectible NFTs relate to stage 3 of single-sided staking, the idea is that holders of these NFTs will have the option of redeeming them for Sauceling NFT, and these Sauceling NFTs in turn can be staked to increase one's weight of rewards in a Community Pool.
Pine_apple
Thank you for that, Joseph. So this next question is for Brady and Gaurang. Can developers or traders use Bonzo Finance's flash loans to execute complex arbitrage trades or liquidity provision strategies on SaucerSwap?
Brady (Bonzo Finance)
Yeah, absolutely. So as mentioned before, flash loans can be employed to be able to perform these arbitrage activities in the templates that we're creating for users who are creating flash loans, automatically incorporate SaucerSwap's DEX as part of that. The way that that process might look is a trader identifies that there's a price discrepancy between an asset that's on SaucerSwap and maybe another Decentralized Exchange, or Centralized Exchange. They configure a flash loan where the trader is able to borrow the necessary funds to be able to execute this arbitrage trade that they want to perform. All within the same single transaction, the trader would sell the borrowed assets on the exchange with the higher price and then buy them back on SaucerSwap at a lower price as an example. Then finally, the trader repays the flash loan using the profits from the arbitrage trade and then keeping the remaining profits for themselves. This is sort of one example that flash loans can be utilized for.
In terms of liquidity provisioning - you can borrow assets against your collateral on Bonzo and then you really can do anything that you want with those assets that you've borrowed. So one of the things that I could anticipate seeing is there are various APY rates on SaucerSwap for providing liquidity. Based on these different asset types, and let's say you're a large holder of HBAR, you want to be able to get exposure to these other assets to supply them as liquidity and earn interest or earn rewards for doing so, but you don't want to sell your HBAR in order to do that. So you can collateralize your HBAR using Bonzo. You can take out a loan of let's say USDC because USDC interests APY on SaucerSwap is pretty high. There is a small borrow APY that you would pay for borrowing the USDC from Bonzo, but you would supply that to SaucerSwap and you'd be earning an ideally larger APY for supplying it as liquidity to the protocol. That is one strategy where liquidity provisioning can take place where it utilizes Bonzo and it utilizes SaucerSwap. That's going to help deepen the liquidity for assets on SaucerSwap's DEX, but then also create more sort of efficient market. So with greater liquidity in SaucerSwap's DEX, there's a less likely chance of slippage and other benefits that come along with that, as well as efficiencies.
ABFTFTW
Awesome, Brady, I appreciate all that information. That's really fascinating stuff. This is where we break away from the traditional AMA and move on to the TMS because this isn't the question, this is tell me something. So Anon wants to tell us. I think it's appropriate to use AI technologies to be more inclusive of non-English speaking communities and not be attacked with so many questions afterwards. Joseph, you want to tell him something back?
Joseph
Sure, take a stab. Yeah. So we actually did leverage AI to translate our gitbook documentation into, I believe, 11 different languages. I do think there's also value in translating the AMA transcripts, so I appreciate this suggestion. Slightly unrelated, but adding localization and multi-currency support to the webapp would also increase SaucerSwap's accessibility to non-English speakers. I'm not sure if automating this with AI is necessarily the right approach, as we'd want to ensure the translations are accurate, but in any case, we definitely plan on looking into this once current roadmap items are completed.
(...)

Hi guys, I have been playing the game for 3 days and scanned every code available and completed the legacy xp and found some issues.
1- I unlocked the color part for the blades Soar Phoenix and Helm Knight from the pass but every time I go to customize the Beys, their blades to do not show the option to change color, is it just me?
2- Day 1 I had to reinstall the game because had to relogging in because I got disconnected and got stuck on infinite login loading screen, but when transferring I started from zero but the account had the changes on the profile while everything (pass and beylocker were at 0 progress). I did not lose much because it was at the start but anyone happened this?
3- I can't finish the tutorial battle at the end because if I do not win after charging the power cores, I get stuck on the "Go" button for the next charge, it won't progress the fight.
I know this game is buggy mess, but I am more curious on the 1st topic of the blade recolors from season pass.
Thanks

I need help determining next steps to ensure my mom is safe and as happy as she can be with the time we have left.
My mother has been slowly declining over the past decade. She was formally diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers at age 63 about 4 months ago although it's now at a severe stage. Both my mom and my step-father (they've been married for 25+years) have been in denial for a long time and it's been many years and arguments to get this formally diagnosed. My sister, her husband, and I had to finally tell my stepdad that we were taking over her medical care about 8 months ago to get this diagnosis and my step dad finally let us do so.
I moved home from another state a month ago to spend more time with my mom given the situation/timelines. None of us had quite accepted how serious/severe stage she is at until we got the diagnosis and got the exam results (she scored a 3 on the cognitive test and it seems we should prepare for only 2-3 years lifespan).
Last week we sat down with my step dad and very compassionately approached telling him we believe we're at the point where we need professional carers to help him and my mom. He was reluctant at first but quicker than we expected him to he agreed to move forward. We found 2 great options that we interviewed with and set up times for them to meet my mom and stepdad. He is now backing out, saying he is fine without it. We pushed back and he's now angry and said we need to respect his decision.
It is at a point where I have serious concerns for my mom's safety and wellbeing. A bit about her stage:

• She no longer comprehends where she is and can not hold conversation very well, forgets a lot of words.
• She can't drive, she can't dress herslef or shower, she doesn't cook for herself. He's doing all of that for her now
• We've had multiple instances of her wandering when we're in public places

The concerns we have with his burn out:

• The big one is the drinking. He's drinking more himself and he is enabling her to drink more as well. Multiple times when I've come over there they've both been drunk at like 2-3 pm in the afternoon. Our family friend told us that she mentioned my mom showed up drunk for their walk and said "he likes me more when I drink". We've noticed drinking has been a coping mecanism for him throughout the years but it's never been this frequent. We've asked that he not allow her to drink as it's not safe, he agreed to non-alcholoic wine (which we've provided for them) but we still have instances where she's drinking. Last week we did a few things to safety proof their home and asked that he lock up alochol in the mini fridge which he agreed to. A few days later I came over and the fridge was unlocked and boxed wine was brought over to the main fridge again and she appeared tipsy.
• He drives around to different locations around town for work and he is either taking her with him and she waits in the facility (where we've had a few instances of her wandering) or in the car (we don't know of an instance where she's wandered but we don't believe it's safe for her to be left alone in a car parking lot). Otherwise she's left home alone for hours, which we also believe is unsafe at this point.
• He's showing many signs of burnout and has told me how hard it is on him multiple times now, which makes me very concerned because he would normally not admit that. Their dog has become overweight and was limping and only after 6+ months of asking he finally allowed me to take him to the vet (where the vet shamed me for not getting him in time for his vaccines) He told me last week he's misplacing his own medications and I'm concerned how on top of giving my mom her medications he is.

My sister and her husband and I are trying to think of next steps. We know if we wait we risk an accident happening and my mom getting seriously hurt or being forced into a facility (we all rather avoid that and pursue in home care). Also if we introduce an in home carer now we believe she could still somewhat remember them and become comfortable with them but if we wait, we risk her not being able to accept someone in her home and that no longer being a viable or safe option.
My sister and her husband floated the idea that we may just have to offer to take her in a couple days a week to watch her during the day (we work remote) but I feel I need to set a boundary here. I'm only 26 and uprooted my life to move home and while I want to support my mom and and my family but I know I can't emotionally handle being her caretaker. I'm spending as much time with her as possible with weekly dinners, weekly dog parks to help take care of their dog, finding events in the city to go to while we still can, and I call her every day at lunch to check in on her. I have a lot of guilt about putting my foot down to not take her in during the day while I have these safety concerns but I know that if I take that responsibility of being her caretaker during the day it will be really tough on my mental health and I don't think I could take it.
I really want productive solutions here as I am at a loss of what to do next without seriously straining my family relationship if possible. I believe my stepdad is a good person at heart, really cares for my mom and I believe he is acting this way because he is in deep denial and afraid of change/accepting this is their life now. But this situation has been increasingly frustrating for years and it's at the point where I think I really need to put my foot down because I don't want to see my mom get hurt or risk losing her earlier than I would if I pushed harder here.

1. For those who were in similar situations is there anything you've done to convince a burnt out caregiver to accept help?
2. I'm considering more sternly asking his kids (my step-siblings) to step in more and have an intervention with him. We've told them a few times he's struggling but they haven't stepped up as much as we hoped they would. They may not understand fully the severity of the situation.
3. I'm also considering asking if any of our family friends (his friends who have been in our lives for 20+ years) who have voiced some of these concerns to us too if they are comfortable more seriously talking with him.
4. I don't want it to get to this point but is there legally anything I can do? Can I ask a social worker to speak to him? Can I do anything legally to force them to get care?

I know some of you are overwhelmed by the reality of consuming advice on internet of how people actually improve and get successful, but struggle to bring it to your own reality.
I wrote this article based in my own experience in transforming myself from being a super shy, low self-esteem, deep in the shithole, playing-music-in-the-trains-to-survive-in-third-world kind of guy, into a pro musician, videogame developer, coach, with a healthy sense of esteem and nurturing meaningful relationships.

TLDR VERSION:

• Advice is overrated
• Embrace discomfort
• Start with what you have
• Get reference experience
• Do "Ready, Fire, Aim" instead of "Aim, Aim, Aim..."

If TLDR version is not enough, then continue reading...

📕 Understanding Knowledge: Second-Hand vs. First-Hand

There are two types of knowledge: second-hand and first-hand.
Second-hand knowledge is what you get from teachers, mentors, consultants, influencers, or any external sources. We refer to it as "advice," and its validity depends on the credibility and reliability of the authorities that provide you the information.
On the other hand, first-hand knowledge is what you gain from direct observation or personal experience.

✖️ The Limitations of Relying Too Heavily on Advice

Relying too heavily on advice and second-hand knowledge has a few limitations:

• Limited by Language: Language may not fully express the subtleties of real-world experience, failing to account for all the variables you might encounter.
• Prevention-oriented Mindset: This mindset focuses on preventing pain and problems. It can lead to an excessive focus on reducing the risks of action, which can reinforce a feedback loop of fear and stagnation.
• Power-Play: Second-hand knowledge can sometimes include subtle manipulation or persuasion tactics that seek to influence your actions.
• Lack of Context and Details: Advice often lacks context and details about actual implementation. What worked in one case might not work perfectly in your own.

Therefore, the true value of advice lies in combining it with real-life action, so you gain first-hand knowledge.

🎮 The Scarcity Principle: A Personal Story

The internet offers massive amounts of knowledge, but we have limited time to test everything.
When there's an abundance of information, we may not invest enough in a specific piece of information to fully understand it and see the results of its implementation.
Allow me to share a story:
As a child, I had only five Super Nintendo cartridges. I played those games countless times, replaying them, studying them, trying to unlock all the secrets, and exploring all the features.
The scarcity of games made me value what I had more. It allowed me to derive more joy and fulfillment from the same set of games.
So, how do we deal with the dilemma of having too many options yet not enough time and energy to process everything?
Stay with me, as I'm about to share the secret sauce to solve this situation.

⚖️ Balancing Second-Hand and First-Hand Knowledge

Nassim Taleb, an investigator and essayist, writer of books like The Black Swan and Antifragile, says:

“If you take risks and face your fate with dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small; if you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.” —Nassim Taleb

There is a healthy balance to be nurtured between second-hand vs first-hand knowledge.
Too far in the second-hand knowledge extreme, and you become a shiny object chaser looking for the latest, most attractive, risk-diminishing shortcuts.
Too far in the first-hand knowledge extreme, and you get tunnel vision, hardship, and lack of a map to help you navigate problems.
Even though both extremes are bad, the truth is that without taking action, you will never truly learn or improve your situation, not even by 1%.
The journey of growth is not a race but a marathon. Overly trying to “game” the system through second-hand knowledge shortcuts, without a strategy that is rooted in your own reality, is an excellent way to just keep you stuck where you are.
So... what is the solution for this?

🗺️ Crafting Your Own Reality Map

To take action and take risks in an informed and systematic way, to solidify that second-hand knowledge into first-hand knowledge, to gain real understanding of the hidden truths that are revealed by actually taking action and getting real-life experience.
By taking action in a consistent way, you are crafting your own reality map.
This map is the core foundation of your untransferable wisdom.
The wisdom of the masters, of the GOATs, is never based on second-hand knowledge. It’s always based on first-hand knowledge.
Wisdom is what eventually gives you super-natural intuition and super-natural results. Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paco de Lucia, Bruce Lee, Mike Tyson— all the GOATs you can even think of.
It’s not necessarily about the tactics and techniques they use, and not even about the amount of knowledge in TB they had located in their brain…
But about the highly accurate and relevant experiential map they created for themselves after taking MASSIVE action and putting themselves out there, doing experiments, facing all types of challenges, all types of loss, and deliberately studying their results with curiosity and discernment.
This activity of crafting your own map is the single highest ROI activity when engaging in any kind of mastery process. But, there is a good reason we resist crafting our own maps…
Getting into the unknown, and exploring things on our own can be scary.

🙀 Overcoming the Fear of the Unknown

We can diminish that fear with second-hand maps, with help from mentors that went through similar situations, but the truth is that what you will encounter will always be different from what you were told.
Because you are unique, your context is unique, and your present moment is unique.
You will need to deal with the pain of taking action and seeing what happens with your own eyes.
Crafting your own map is a necessity.
And the only way to do it is by taking action and pursuing first-hand knowledge.

🔎 The Process of Gaining First-Hand Knowledge

But how does it look to actually look for this knowledge?
First-hand knowledge is obtained by getting in the field, taking action, and gathering reference experience.
Reference experience is the evidence that helps you build your own judgment about what works and doesn’t work for you.
The process looks something like this:

1. Let’s say you want to learn sales. You investigate a little bit, do a course, get second-hand knowledge, and prepare yourself.
2. You set an efforts-based goal. You propose to yourself to do X amount of sales calls and gather all the reference experience you can from this.
3. You take action and actively document the actions you take, the results you get, so you can review it and study it.
   • What went well/wrong.
   • How far did you get in the sales call.
   • If you actually closed the call.
   • If you choked at some objection.
   • Other recurrent problems.
4. After an iteration of this, you would be getting real feedback from reality, that will help you adjust your approach to your context in a more appropriate way.

After gathering enough reference experiences, you will obtain an amount of first-hand, real-life, cross-sensorial, and embodied learning that is not possible to replace by ANY book, course, or mastermind.
This is why advice is overrated.
When inside this paradigm, we don’t talk about victory or failure, we talk only about reference experiences. It's a reframe that encourages you to take action and see what happens.

💥 Aim, Ready, Fire

Normally, we do an “Aim, Ready, Fire” approach, but this can trap us in endless aiming. We get stuck in the “Aim” part, looking for advice, looking for tricks, shortcuts, tips.
We place too much emphasis on “aiming,” “gathering knowledge,” or “analyzing,” but actual experience is king.
Have you met those who read a lot and possess vast second-hand knowledge, yet lack practical results and wisdom?
People stuck in the "aim, aim, aim" stage are like those planning to go and eat a cake, without actually doing so.
You need to eat the cake.

🤯 The Truth About Action

The truth that nobody tells you is that there is no perfect way to create a business, a lifestyle, meaning, pursue passions, travel, manage time, meditate, or whatever.
It's not about finding the perfect tool or technique, but about taking action and accumulating reference experiences that allow you to create your own map, based on your own experience and understanding.
Don’t get me wrong, second-hand knowledge is still useful… Its primary use should be to create a sense of certainty in chaos and push you forward to get some results.
Also, it can be used to prevent some mistakes, correct some aspects of your approach, gather inspiration, and even open your mind to possibilities you didn’t consider.
But without action, without exercising courage, without facing the unknown… you will not see results. Period.
The good part is that taking action gets easier with time. After you do your first deliberate challenges, you realize that taking conscious risks and moving despite fear won't kill you.

🌱 Personal Growth Through Action

My most transformative experience on this subject was related to dating and socializing. As a kid, I was super shy and struggled with basic social dynamics... I had to learn to speak out loud, show confidence, set boundaries, and express my feelings to girls I liked.
I was too attached to the outcome, and my self-esteem was extremely low.
At some point, I decided to start reading books about sexuality, attraction, socializing, dating, and self-esteem. This was obviously second-hand knowledge, but it opened to me a world I didn’t know even existed. I thought that I was broken, that I was objectively ugly, and that there wasn’t a possibility to actually transform myself.
Gathering courage from these resources and collecting some basic tactics, I began to approach girls I liked (or didn’t like), knowing that those reference experiences would allow me to learn what was actually possible.

✖️ Facing Rejection

Facing rejection day in and day out was my first major self-development and transformation experience. I gathered a LOT of reference experience by doing this, and this first-hand knowledge completely transformed my personality.
I literally wasn’t the same person
After that. Former friends wouldn’t recognize me.
But the only way I could expose myself to the pain of taking action and getting rejected, was to view this through the lens of gathering a lot of reference experiences. I was motivated and curious to "see what happens." My main motivation wasn't to "get laid" or to be a "Chad," but to see what was on the other side.
What else was possible? How far can I get with this?
This curious approach was key to make things easier and not make a big deal of all the “negative feedback” I was getting. Being able to separate this feedback from my self-worth was a key part of what actually transformed me.

💪🏻 Embrace Discomfort and Grow

This mindset of viewing your efforts as a way of collecting "reference experiences" reduces your resistance when starting something new. You'll be more willing to do "stupid things," because you'll be motivated to "see" how far you can go, and what happens next, and your brain will automatically gather that information and learn and optimize itself.
Even though most of us take action based on material or emotional motivations, like getting money, being successful, and feeling “happy,” I think that ultimate satisfaction can never come from any outcome.
Ultimate satisfaction can only come through nurturing a devotional relationship with your own growth process. Being able to enjoy it for what it is, with its ups and downs and all its evolving reality, is, I think, one of the cornerstones of going with your true flow.
Your ultimate fulfillment comes from learning, from immersing yourself in this polishing process, and enjoying how the patterns start to clarify themselves.

🌊 Surrendering To The Flow

Eventually, you reach a point of mastery where you are not a victim of the circumstances anymore, but you are a wise observer that is able to relate to what is unfolding in a wholesome way.
Any of this wouldn't be possible without taking a proactive approach in gathering reference experiences, committing to your practice, and making conscious changes in your approach iteration by iteration.
It's not a matter of surrendering yourself to the flow of doing stuff just for the sake of it. Taking action really reflecting about what you're doing can keep you stuck for years, so it's not an intelligent approach either. (And it’s a trap I have fallen into too many times)
Using this concept of reference experience unlocks a psycho-technology that will help you do the craziest things, the things that scare you the most, because you will understand how the "outcome" often doesn't weigh as much as the process and the learning you gain from it.
This mindset shift can help you overcome fear, take risks, and truly grow as a person.
...Ultimately, your fulfillment is a matter of perspective, and not of material or emotional outcome...
Thank you for reading.

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So I will say I tried to make this post in other bigger subs, but my posts always get banned for reasons like I cross ported it to another sub, I cross ported it to here and 1 other sub with less than 60 people in it.
So I try and rewrite it as it was, but I know I will forget things, but here we go:
OUST: Partnership with Triad Drones( https://www.triaddrones.com/lida ) here is a short clip of the new gear that they just stared a collaboration on: I can't link it so go look up OUST / TRIDAR on TubeYou, it is 25 sec long.
This field is growing much faster than I though it would, by a few years, thats a good thing IMO.
That means sales and lots of them, ca$h incoming.
This next part is a paper written by Chad English and Sean Zhu.
This paper discusses the complementary nature of the two technologies and presents an overview of a hybrid Triangulation-LIDAR sensor (TriDAR) currently under development at Neptec. This design has been chosen as an autonomous rendezvous & docking sensor for the Hubble Robotic Vehicle (HRV) but other space and terrestrial applications are also discussed. Performance estimates of the hybrid sensor are also presented.
I would implore you to read this, it will give you some idea of where LIDAR is heading and it is moving fast.
Remember this is just 1 field LIDAR is being used in.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228337400_TriDAR_A_hybrid_sensor_for_exploiting_the_complimentary_nature_of_triangulation_and_LIDAR_technologies
Next we get into the up coming CATALYST for OUST:

Webinar - Redefining High Security: How lidar sets a higher standard for facility protection

Date: Wednesday, June 12th
Time: 8:00 am PDT / 4:00 pm GMT
During the webinar, we’ll provide you with an overview of lidar’s advantages for a range of security use cases. And given that not all lidar solutions are created equal, we’ll equip you with knowledge of how to select a lidar provider. You’ll leave the webinar with a good understanding of Gemini, Ouster’s lidar detection solution, seeing firsthand how you can accurately detect, classify, and track at a distance to lower your security risk while also reducing false alarm rates.
https://ouster.com/insights/webinars/lidar-for-security-webinar?utm_source=Company+Referral&utm_medium=Organic-Social
MORE INFO from older posts:
most LIDAR makers are ok at best. OUST has the smallest, lightest, and sees the farthest by a long shot.
I work at U of M and we have this place called M city: https://mcity.umich.edu/ , and when I say OUST is the best I know it is as they test all the LIDAR makers equipment, and I talk to the guys doing the work, every time without fail OUST is the doing the best, and not just in the field but OUSTs team that send new programing and working with them. Most of the other LIDAR makers don't help and you have to learn to code for that LIDAR maker.... That blows, OUST will jump on a video call and work it out on the spot. That is good business.
OUST just made it into the RUSSELL 3000 and will be added on the first or 6th of next month I don't remember and don't want to go look it up, do some of your own DD please.
Yes they did a reverse split last year, but the reason was to BUYOUT VLDR and now OUST saved over 100 million in costs, by doing that it has put them in the spot they are in now, getting into the BLACK 2 years ahead of schedule.
Most LIDAR makers went 100% into cars. Bad idea, OUST said forget the cars, we want your city: https://ouster.com/products/software/blue-city
OUST wants more, they want your farm: https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/bluewhite
OUST want more, they want your boats: https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/avikus
OUST wants more, they want your public transit: https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/open-space-and-avanti-west-coast-rail-uk
OUST wants more, they want to be the eyes of your warehouse: https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/thid-wave
OUST wants more, you do sports from skiing to cave exploring OUST has you covered: https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/microavia
https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/flyability
OUST wants more, OUST wants to help the tree industry do better: https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/deep-forestry
How LIDAR and AI interact with a human.
I would watch a whole move done like this. I found this crazy to think about but, he is not wrong, watch the video.
https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/forever-made-possible-by-ouster
OUST wants more, you drive trucks OUST wants to help: https://ouster.com/insights/case-studies/outrider
I know I am missing things but here it is.
If this posts get pulled I will not remake it, nor will I make new posts going forward.
View Poll

Hi everyone,
I'm a new player and totally noob, I just played in a multiplayer lobby and was demolished. After leaving the game I received a message from the game saying that no achievements were unlocked since cheat codes were used on the game. How is this possible? How do I know which games cheats are allowed? Also the game suddenly crashed both for me and my friend out of nowhere and we were asked if we wanted to close the game, is this related to the cheat they were using?

so i have a 2016 528i, and i’m just not really familiar with the updates and whatnot and how apparently you can have an unlocked DME, and have bmw lock it. i haven’t unlocked mine yet, but i was wondering if there’s anything i should do prior to getting it unlocked. i’ve yet to update my car or anything like that, am i at risk of unlocking it and having it re-locked? thanks for the help.

[Part 1]
My king. The sad memories faded into blurred flashbacks.
Olyvar cherished the sweet time as his grace’s squire. Though two years older, it made no matter. A warrior king was training Olyvar the way of knighthood, almost any boy’s dream. He remembered on slow days, Robb Stark would spend time with him, teaching the art of the long sword and shield. He can still remember the cloudy day at the Crag’s courtyard and his Northern accent as he swung his blade at the squire. “Keep your shield up Olyvar. Keep it up.”
“It’s too heavy.” Olyvar replied as Robb swung on.
“If it wasn’t heavy, it wouldn’t stop a sword. So get it up.”
They sparred and sparred in the courtyard. Robb Stark was dancing with him, hilts in hands. After he knocked Olyvar to the dirt for the twentieth time, he lifted him back up.
“Come, drive at me.” Robb then grabbed Olyvar gently by the back of his neck. “Look Olly, keep your shield up or I’ll ring your head like a bell.”
Olyvar never forgot that moment, his Grace’s right-hand touch, the way Robb looked into his eyes and called him ‘Olly’. No one has ever called him that and he liked it very much. They continued to dance. Rain began to fall, turning dirt into mud. Olyvar darted at him. Robb stepped aside, deflecting the stab off his shield and twirled around forward in a natural motion, his cloak spinning in the air. Before Olyvar knew it, Robb had his rear, his sword ready to thrust or slash any part of him. He glanced back and knew he was lost. The dance paused there and Olyvar turned around to meet Robb’s beautiful blue eyes. He could melt in them.
“You had me your Grace.”
“Come Olly, it’s your turn.” A winter wind came blowing in from across the sea. A breeze lingered there, brushed Robb’s auburn hair. “Now, dance with me!”
It almost felt like a sin to be as excited as Olly was at that moment.
“I’ll drive to you now. Try to do what I just did. In mud like this, don’t forget to plant your foot before each movement. And remember, you have to keep your shield up.”
As Olyvar and Robb got into their positions, his older half-nephew Ser Ryman Frey suddenly appeared and intervened. He grabbed Olyvar like a little green boy and pulled him towards the exit. NO! Olyvar’s word caught in his mouth.
Robb spoke up for him. “What are you doing? Olyvar is my squire and a grown man. He can do what he wants and speaks for himself.”
“My grandfather has declared a suspension of your alliance with House Frey,” Ryman said. “You have broken a sacred vow. If you would not have his daughter or granddaughter as your queen, you certainly cannot have his son as your squire.”
Robb was expecting Olyvar to say something, but the squire froze. More Frey guardsmen came in and dragged him away from the courtyard, his heels lifeless on the ground, leaving twin mud tracks on his departure. Robb stared at him sweet, sad, and silent. A bolt of lightning flashed across the rainy skies, its reflection off the King’s sword blinding Olyvar. That was the last time he saw Robb alive.
When news of his King returning to the Twins for the wedding between Lord Edmure Tully and his sister Roslin, Olyvar could not contain his excitement, to hear the voice of his call.
Since that rainy courtyard day, Olyvar had been on his own for long enough. He hoped maybe Robb could show him again that dance that he loved. Maybe. Olyvar had been going through withdrawals. Not seeing his Grace was just too much. He could turn me on with the slightest touch. But since the Red Wedding, Olyvar’s courtyard has been cold and empty. Fuck anyone who judges me. He couldn’t see clearly now that Robb was forever gone. Olyvar was still blinded by Robb’s last light. He couldn’t sleep, still yearning for his touch. In his heart, rain constantly fell, drowning him in the nights. I was his squire, Olyvar cried as his soul twisted. And I failed him. I was the only one that night he could trust.
After the slaughter, Merrett Frey, a kin of his, greeted him as he released Olyvar from the dungeons. “I’m sorry Olyvar that we had to lock you up, Perwyn and Alesander too. But you must do your duty for your family. You are a Frey, a man of an honorable house. This stain left by Robb Stark and his bitch mother Catelyn Tully should not go unpunished. Lady Catelyn also killed Jinglebells. She even japed ‘a son for a son‘ to our Lord father as she slit his throat.”
A son for a son. Olyvar Frey looked at Merrett sullenly, his voice choking up, “I must go for a walk.” Olyvar walked and walked … passing the burnt tents, passing the dead soldiers with Northern and Riverland sigils sewn on their garments, and passing Grey Wind’s headless body. He was far enough from home, but he could still hear the cheap cheers of the Frey and Bolton soldiers.
He fell to his knees and began to cry. My king. My sweet king. Olyvar swore vengeance. Though he will never consider kinslaying as it was a curse among the gods, it would not stop him from facilitating others who seek revenge against his own family, the ones who were directly involved.
Suddenly at the side of the river, a dying man was crawling towards him. Soaked in water, mud and blood, he cried out in a ghastly voice “Olyvar!”
“Who, who are you?” Olyvar sprinted to aid and for recognition. “Raynald?” Without hesitation Olyvar replied, “My brother!” He placed himself under Raynald’s shoulder and lifted him up. “We need to find a maester.”
On the way back to camp, Olyvar and Raynald encountered two sentries of his Frey household guards, far from any other eyes can see.
“So what do you have here my Lord Olyvar?” one asked.
“A dying lone wolf? Let us put him out of his misery,” the other replied as they stared at Ser Raynald Westerling’s dampened seashell surcoat.
Olyvar lowered himself and laid Ser Raynald on the ground, and arose in a tone cold as stone. “No. Not a lone wolf.”
Olyvar unsheathed his sword and killed both Frey guards before they could reach their weapons. He then swapped Raynald’s wet Westerling clothing for one of the dead men, and found a maester.
Ser Raynald Westerling stayed with Olyvar at the Twins under disguise. He even trimmed off his brushy moustache. Weeks later after Ray had fully healed, he asked Olyvar to go with him to look for Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover at their secret hideout, as per the original plan before the wedding.
One night, Olyvar Frey simply walked out of the Twins again, this time with Ray. No one would care where Olyvar was going. Truth be told, his Frey family would be more content if more spawnlings of their lord father would leave the castle to find their own destiny, especially if they were unlikely heirs deep behind the line of succession.
Aboard one of the Northern galleys floating outside of Seagard, the Seashell Knight had to explain how this son of Walder Frey earned his trust, as Lady Mormont held Olyvar by the throat with a dagger. The skin around her eyes had been raked and blackened with tears and nails, her teeth bit with furious anger. She had been like this for weeks. Olyvar stared at her face and he felt like he could die here and now, if that was what it meant for Lady Mormont to forgive him, as he knows no gold would ever substitute for her grief. “I am sorry about your daughter Dacey. I lost my brother too. Benfred was a good man, I swear to you by all the gods old and new, that he did not have a part in the slaughter. Benfred would have done everything he could to grab an innocent woman like Dacey, and bring her safe from harm.” Olyvar meant it.
Mormont sheathed her dagger, her hands still shaking. “I’ll kill them all! Anyone who was a part of this!”
“No.” Olyvar replied. “We have to get the girls back. And then you can kill them all.”
At the siege of Riverrun, Olyvar Frey freely roamed Ryman’s uncoordinated camp. No one cared. One night alone, he swam across the moat and climbed up the castle with spikes. Only thirty feet up, the Tully guards had heard him clanking and aimed their crossbows from above. “Identify yourself!”
He whispered, “I am Olyvar Frey, son of Walder Frey, former squire to his King, Robb Stark. I come unarmed and offer myself as a hostage. I know the Blackfish, please let him know I am here.”
“Stay where you are.”
Olyvar clung to the castle’s wall half way down to death and half way up to forgiveness. Finally Ser Brynden Tully appeared and told Olyvar to come up quietly. As Olyvar threw himself over the parapet and onto the floor, the Blackfish kicked away his spikes and immediately kneed his body to the ground, holding a dagger at his throat. Shit, not again! Damn this mayhaps, why was I unblessed to be born a Frey?
“What are you doing here, Olyvar Frey?” Ser Tully demanded.
Olyvar told them the truth and handed him Lady Maege’s letter from a waterproof compartment in his garment. The letter was coded with secret words that he and she only knew. The Blackfish cracked the seal, unrolled the parchment and read. Afterwards he released the grip from the bottom and the message curled up on its own, eager to protect the secrets.
“The paper curls, at least you didn’t try to deceive me with the age of the parchment.” He then asked Olyvar, “So, you killed some of your own men did you?”
“To save Ser Westerling, yes.” The Blackfish looked at his eyes and nodded in approval. “May I see her now?” Olyvar inquired.
The Tully guards led Olyvar to her room. Some left the area, but others stayed and watched, still suspicious of the unarmed Frey. She was in her solar, knitting her needle works. He fell down to one knee towards his niece-in-law (by Olyvar’s brother-in-law, Lord Edmure Tully), “My Queen.”
“Olyvar!” Without a hint of hesitation or mistrust, she dropped her needle, ran towards him, and wrapped her loose skinny arms strongly under his’. She poured her heart, soul and grief-filled life into a Rose By the name of Olyvar Frey. He reciprocated, placing his arms around her shoulders as Jeyne Westerling-Stark continued to hold tight. Her orange sized breasts pushed against his chest, as the Queen’s chestnut mop of brown hair sat below Olyvar’s clean-shaven chin.
“Robb.” It was all she needed to say as they shared a sob. Nothing hurt more than that moment when he shared the same pain with Jeyne. Olyvar dipped his head to hers, their salty tears finally uniting and slowly dancing together as their faces pressed cheek to cheek.
“He is in the heavens now, I believe, singing from above.” Olyvar prayed. “He will be waiting for us. No doubt we will see him again some day, but we must make him wait.”
“I miss him so much,” Jeyne cried. She was always cheerful with Olyvar since they first met. Though he was curious whether she truly loved Robb or just wanted to be a queen, she has repeatedly been kind to him, so sweet. She never intervened when Robb trained Olyvar at swordplay and he was grateful for that. When they wed, Olyvar knew Robb could never be his brother, but Jeyne did not seem to mind letting him continue to squire beside her much younger brother, Rollam Westerling. Robb had allowed Olyvar to protect the queen sometimes, along with the other household guards, though he was still training at arms. Olyvar and Jeyne would talk constantly, mostly about their King. Even when Jeyne rambles about him, she would always shy away from talking about Robb’s bed manners. But Olyvar insisted he did not mind hearing it. Jeyne felt like a sister to him, just as much or more as Roslin.
“I miss him too,” Olyvar replied. “Did you really love him?”
She cried a little bit louder and squeezed Olyvar even harder. “With all my heart.”
Olyvar wanted to confess too, but he could not do it here, not with everyone watching. He only hoped Jeyne would ask him the same, and she did. “Did you really love him, Olyvar?”
He tightened his grip on Jeyne’s shoulders. “More than you ever know.”
She gently reached for his hands and lowered them. “Olyvar, you were his squire. He is gone now. But you still have a duty to us. You must protect us. We must never separate again. Promise me Olyvar. Promise me.”
“No. I cannot. Not yet. I must leave you, just this one last time, for your safety and your family’s.”
“You are part of my family,” the Queen proclaimed. Tears rolled down again, their hands still held together at their hips.
“I need to leave Riverrun tonight. And I promise you, we will reunite again and I will keep you safe.”
They talked for hours about the good times, the horror, and what the future lies. They talked about Robb, crying to the sadness of him, exulting at his bravery and his glories, laughing at the silly juvenile things the teenager king did to entertain them, and about falling in love with him all over again. And then they cried some more.
Later on that night, Ser Brynden visited Jeyne and Olyvar, with Lady Eleyna and Lady Sybell watching. “Olyvar, you were the King’s squire and though he is no longer with us, you are still owed a knighthood. Let the gods curse me if I ever knighted a Frey, but you are no Frey I have ever known. What you are about to do would be considered treason to your family.”
“But my lord father was treasonous to my King. I do not get to choose my father or which family I was born into. But here right now, is the family I want to be with.”
“Will you honor your new family? Will you honor your duty to your late King, his Queen and his House, the Starks of Winterfell?”
“I do,” Olyvar replied with pride.
The Blackfish unsheathed his sword, the blade alive with moonlight gleaming from the window balcony. “Shit I think I’m doing this wrong. I was supposed to say that later. Anyways, kneel Olyvar Frey.”
Olyvar got to one knee as Queen Stark and all the others watched. Ser Brynden Tully, the legendary warrior Blackfish, placed the flat of his sword on Olyvar’s shoulder.
“I charge you to be brave and … aww shit the knighting words escape me. I’m embarrassing myself. Anyways um. Family! Honor! Duty!” He placed the blade on the other shoulder. “Shit, I forgot the rest of the speech. Forgive me. But Olyvar of House Frey, I name you a knight! Now rise!”
And arose the new knight stood, and proud he was. King Robb Stark could have never fulfilled his promise of a knighthood, but it was his father that took it away from him. But being knighted by the Blackfish was more than anything Olyvar wanted right now, besides keeping Queen Jeyne and his family safe. To him, it was forgiveness.
The Queen approached him with a longsword in scabbard, flat on both hands. “Our late King had a gift for you Ser Olyvar Frey, at least he would have wanted you to have it.”
Before Ser Olyvar received it, he already knew what it was. Robb’s sword. “No, I cannot. I am unworthy of this gift, his Grace’s sword.”
“This is King Robb Stark’s sword, and I am his Queen wife. I charge you to protect your family with his own sword.”
Queen Jeyne Stark made an offer that Ser Olyvar cannot refuse. He took the sword from her forgiving hands.
“What will you call it?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“A name. Robb never named his sword. But a good sword should have a good name.”
“I was told by my half-brothers that only cun–, I mean only women name their swords. I will let you name it, my Grace. How should we honor our late King Robb Stark?”
“It is honor,” Jeyne replied.
Confused, Olyvar asked, “What is honor?”
“A sword. This sword.”
Before the sun had dawned, Ser Olyvar Frey with Honor slung on his back, climbed down the castle walls with rope, swam under the moat again, and departed the birthplace of his King, Robb Stark, as a knight.
He returned to the Twins, keeping his knighthood a secret. When Riverrun had fallen to Ser Jaime Lannister, Edmure Tully had agreed to be a prisoner at Casterly Rock. Roslin Tully volunteered to join her husband, giving them a chance to raise a family together, even as hostages. Olyvar, their brother Perwyn and half-nephew Alesander all agreed to escort Lady Tully to the Westerlands. Although they told their half-family they would take the land-route for their journey; Olyvar, Perwyn, Alesander and Roslin had a different Frey destiny in mind. After the Kingslayer’s threat to Roslin’s unborn child, there was no day they would ever stay at Casterly Rock nor return to the Twins. They departed for the coast and reunited with Ser Brynden Tully, Lady Maege Mormont and Lord Galbart Glover aboard the Motherfunker.
Before Ser Brynden escaped Riverrun alone, he and Lord Tully reviewed all their options during Edmure’s short visit. An escape on land had many risks to be recaptured or killed, but at sea it was far fewer … and having a faster ship helped. They would allow Edmure and Jeyne to be peacefully escorted by their captors to Casterly Rock as hostages, only to be rescued from the shoreline. Lady Sybell Spicer swore her brother Ser Rolph would lead the way inside the caves. “Honor, not honors,” were House Westerling’s words. And Robb Stark showed more honor to Lady Sybell’s family than any of the other Westermen could. King Robb made her daughter a Queen, while King Tommen gifted Ser Rolph with the cursed ruins of Castamere from the notorious Lannister song. This honor was more of an insult than a reward.
One night aboard the Motherfunker, Olyvar took out a fresh new flat parchment to write a letter that was meant for his father. He held his feathered quill upright, but did not know how to start. He was fidgeting as he stared up around his cabin. He began to tap the pointy end of the quill and pricked his other hand by chance. Frey blood began to trickle from the wound along with a stinging pain. Cashing in on the moment, he then knew what to say. He dipped the blood smeared quill into the black inkpot, and began to pour his soul & anger onto the kin he no longer wanted.
Father, I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that is real. The needle tears a hole. This old familiar family sting. I try to forget it all the way. But I remember everything. I find myself asking … “What have I become? My sweetest King? Will everyone I love go away in the end?” And Father, you can have it all. My empire of dirt. I will let you down. I will make it hurt. If I could start again, many miles back at home that night. To save my King, I would sacrifice myself. I would find a way. Your son Olyvar.
He rolled the parchment and laid a tablespoon of wax from his tallow candle at the edge. Olyvar pressed the button with his bleeding thumb, filling the stamp in a marble of white, red and pink; sealing it with his own blood. He placed the rolled parchment in his breast pocket, hoping to leave it somewhere in Casterly Rock and eventually reaching his father’s hands.
On the deck of the Motherfunker a few nights before … crewmen, Riverlands and Northern loyalists sang, drank, and cheered to the music of the masterplan. Though most wanted to spill blood to avenge the Red Wedding, humiliating their enemies would be the sweeter revenge: the story that sings in songs. But not all were there for vengeance. Some were just there for the adventure.
The Captain of the Motherfunker was there for the honor of joining their song. He wanted to look into the eyes of the lion, be a part of the thrill of the fight, rising up against our rivals. He also owed Ser Rolph Spicer a favor from their long smuggling history together at sea. If he helped rescue his niece Jeyne from the rocky castle, he would consider the debt paid, and the Black Sparrow was happy to oblige.
“So we are here to rescue this princess? No?” Samullu spoke in the broken Common Tongue
“No, not a princess, she is a queen,” Olyvar chatted.
“In the Summer Isles, a princess and a widowed queen is the same person. My father was king, but he died when I was a babe. My princess mother was the one who raised me after my uncle took the throne. I loved my mother. I named my swanship for her after she died a few years ago.”
“Motherfunker?” Olyvar asked. “What is a funker?”
“Where I am from, fighting and dancing is called the same thing. We call it funk. We funk to fight, we funk to dance, and we also funk to love. And the skill of our funk we always inherit from our mother’s side. I got it from my mama.” The black single-eyed captain pleaded. “Yo got yo from yo mama too. ‘Motherfunker’ is just a homage to one’s mother for giving us this art of our body’s motions.”
Olyvar never knew his mother, but he was very intrigued to hear more about Samullu’s and their culture. They chatted for quite a while.
Olyvar thanked him for helping them. But Samullu insisted it was the right thing to do after hearing about the horrors of the Red Wedding. “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers! And yo will know I am the Captain when I lay my vengeance upon thee!”
Olyvar never knew the Black Sparrow was so pious to the gods of avengers.
Sharing rum together, Olyvar sung to him about his own story in depth. Captain Black Sparrow was impressed about his journey so far and he gave Olyvar a small jar of dirt. “This is soil from my empire back in the Summer Isle. I have a whole barrel of it to remind me of home. Here, take this other small gift as well.” He then took out a bird’s feather, long as a flute, bright and colorful. “We Summer Isle people have feathered cloaks, yo see it on all of us. But feathers like this one were meant for some of the bravest and baddest motherfunkers out there. I want yo to take it Ser Olyvar. Let it be yo warrior’s funk.”
Olyvar took it with his hand and gave it a warm stare. The feather was colored like a fading rainbow top to bottom, but the stem was yellow like a lemon. “Thank you.” The gifts were quite odd. By value it was not much, but it seemed like it meant a lot to the exiled prince, the type of gifts worth remembering.
“So what do yo need besides a miracle?” Samullu asked.
“Weapons. Bows and arrows. Lots of arrows.” Olyvar was serious.
“Aye, and I have a lot. Yo know, no one has ever done anything like what yo and the Blackfish’s men are about to do.”
“And that is why it will work.”
The plan was to allow Lord Edmure Tully and Queen Jeyne Stark to safely travel to Casterly Rock unmolested, under the command of Ser Forley Prester and his four hundred men. Lord Gawen Westerling and his son Rollam were to return to the Crag, but Lady Sybell was to stay with Jeyne, maintaining what deceptions she can conjure. Her bluff with Ser Jaime Lannister worked, earning the slightest trust from them before their escape at Casterly Rock. An attempt to rescue them on their path down the River Road would invite the Lannisters to execute the hostages on the spot, failing the objective’s purpose. To stealthily hunt down each soldier one by one would have proven even then, a mission of the impossible. Stirring fear in the hearts of the Lannister soldiers was the only solution, the effective psychological weapon. Ser Prester’s men have been haunted by the ghosts of the Brotherhood without Banners throughout the Riverlands, and the Blackfish would use that to his advantage. With the help of their fastest horse, Bubbles, mounted by Justin Smallister, a distant cousin to House Mallister of Seagard, he would tie empty nooses on trees ahead of Ser Forley’s route. The hope of the hoax would keep the Lannisters on edge, making it difficult to rest. Only when they reached the castle of Casterly Rock, they would drop their guards down, thinking the hard part was over. But on the exact evenfall on the day of their arrival, Lord Gawen Westerling and our small land forces, hidden in the eastern woods outside, would sound the trumpets and drums, drawing the weary soldiers to arms again. But the Blackfish was to infiltrate Casterly Rock from the western sea. Ser Rolph Spicer, our secret agent inside, will bond with Jeyne’s guards, drinking with them throughout their journey. Only on the hour of the escape, Ser Spicer would drug the guards’ ale, allowing them to fall asleep during the diversionary music. The Blackfish and his squad would provide armed escort, if needed. Ser Spicer would also help them navigate inside the caves, rescuing his niece Jeyne and their family back to the Motherfunker. By then, it would be too dark for the Lannisters to give chase into the ocean, if they even realized Queen Stark had flown off.
“I need twenty good men,” the Blackfish had demanded. A few hundreds of the remaining Stark loyalists and outlaws gathered at the docks, where the Motherfunker was anchored.
“And one more woman too!” the She-Bear crone proclaimed.
The men laughed in agreement as Ser Brynden continued. “I need volunteers only. Soldiers who want this fate to fuck them from behind in their arses! For the twenty one of us, we will be in harm’s way, make no mistake about it. I do not expect us to be discovered, but if we were, our escape will not be easy like our brothers working the diversion in the woods. I need men quick on their feet, proficient with the bow, and skilled at close-quarter hand-to-hand combat. Who are my brave men that will be knocking on the Lannister’s doors?”
Ser Olyvar Frey thundered in first and raised his hand. Jeyne’s words echoed in his thoughts, Promise me Olyvar, promise me.
Alesander Frey surprised him. “No you fool! You are not a skilled fighter. Put your hand down!” Olyvar told his nephew.
“I am a grown man, and I will not miss this adventure for nothing,” Alesander protested to his uncle.
“You are just a singer.”
“Then I want to be a witness to this great deed and be the first singer of our new song.”
Olyvar could not stop his brother & nephew from doing something so stupid.
Ser Raynald Westerling the Seashell Knight raised his hand too, eager to save his sisters Jeyne and Eleyna, and his mother Sybell.
Others began to join. Some had their reasons, some had their vengeance, some just wanted to try something new.
Fess stepped up. He was a long lost uncle to Ser Addam Marbrand after a lengthy voyage at sea. But Ser Addam refused to believe him, denying him a small chunk of land near Ashemark that Fess was entitled to own. He called his uncle an imposter and casted him out of the region. Fess swore he was a Marbrand, and swore he would unleash a storm on their household if they did not give his piece of land back. To the future of reclaiming his name by shaming theirs, Fess Marbrand was recruited into our efforts against the Lannisters and their bannermen.
The Summer Islander, Ben, and his Westerosi-born son, Benjen, were farmers from the Neck. Years ago, Lord Rickard Stark had welcomed the immigrant and his wife, granting them farm lands to flourish in. They grew rice in the marsh and exported it from White Harbor. They were so grateful to House Stark that they quite frankly named their son “Benjen” for Lord Stark’s youngest child of similar age. Since then, their hard earned work with their rough black hands in the cold had paid off in prosperity. After being widowed, Ben and his son ran the farm, just the two of them … until a few Ironborn men took Moat Cailin and all their harvest this past year. Their will and pride refused to let them take it again. So instead of growing new rice, they let it wither away and left the land … trapping the jaws of the Ironborn to hunger. Now Ben and Benjen were reborn into Ser Brynden’s band, for the honor of House Stark. “With great honor comes a great ass whooping!” Ben had declared.
Jess and Jory were two brothers that served House Westerling as guards at the Crag, personally protecting the Westerling sisters, Jeyne and Eleyna. They had watched them grow up since birth. Participating in their rescue was their duty, a duty they took without hesitation for the girls who were like nieces to them.
Phyl was a crewmate of royal blood on the Motherfunker. Back on another Summer Isle kingdom, his older king brother passed away as his young prince nephew took fresh rule. After Phyl forbade his nephew-king to order an attack on a rival neighboring island, he screamed at him, “You are not my father!” and flew out of the throne room, slamming its double doors. Soon after, the boy-king ordered for his uncle’s exile. Free like a bird, Phyl flew away himself to a ship with his friend, the Black Sparrow, looking for a new adventure.
Sam, June, and Rico were all hard loyal Tully soldiers that were ready to follow the Blackfish to the end of the world. Sam used to be a tall fat leviathan of a man, until one day June told Sam, “You never had the making of a first-class athlete like Rico here.” From then on, Sam, offended, lost several stones over the years as the three served patriotically together to House Tully. Now tall, lean and muscular, Sam was a force not to be reckoned with. They nicknamed him Sam the Shredder, but for shredding his fat as his body was now packed with muscular meat.
The hedge knight Ser Barnabus the Goose volunteered along with his new squire Leo, a boy of fourteen, whom he met that same day. Goose was a tall man, big shoulders, wide hips with greying blond hair. Though he grew up as an orphan, Ser Barnabus often boasted about being the grandson of some legendary tall hedge knight that he never chanced to meet. The other orphans used to laugh at him, calling him the Useless Goose. But ever since he suited up in his knightly armor decades ago, Ser Barnabus assured he was a useful Goose helping the small folks around the Riverlands. Olyvar wondered if Barnabus was his real name, or if he was even a knight.
Leo’s older brothers wanted to join the action as well … so Mikkal, Raff, and Donal stepped forward. Their uncle Scrooge, a man in his fifties, will chip in his services too. The four brothers and uncle were known as the Pissa family. They once owned a tavern serving their mother’s recipe of baked thin crispy bread, spun circular into a flat pie, served with tomato sauce and cheese above. Their uncle Scrooge improved his sister’s recipe by adding sliced duck sausages on top of the cheese, and charging customers extra for the option. Olyvar and the men on the Motherfunker had sampled and enjoyed the cuisine they baked aboard. Captain Samullu claimed that pissa was indeed a tasty dish, and suggested adding slices of pineapples on top of it too. The Pissa brothers gave Samullu Jaqenssen a cold stare as if the gesture was treason to the recipe. Back when they owned the tavern with their mother, the family often boasted about their food to the point where their competitors despised them. Their opponents would try to mimic cooking the same dish, but others would complain it tasted no different than bread. Afraid of losing their revenue, they insulted their mother’s crispy dish by calling it “pissa,” slandering it by saying it tasted like piss. But the brothers took the name their enemies gave them and wore it like armor, never allowing it to hurt them. Raff returned their insult by calling their adversary’s food being something that comes out of a cow’s bung hole. That humiliation stuck. For a while, men and women from all over the Riverlands continued to rallied in long lines to the Pissa tavern for a delicious slice of pissa. Sadly one day, the Mountain and his men came to destroy their tavern during the war, and took their mother. They never saw her again. Despite the sad drama, the Pissa family were a cheerful bunch, save for their pessimistic uncle. Olyvar could only hope they would find their mother safe and sound some day.
On the first day aboard the Motherfunker, Leo had never been on a ship his entire life. He bolted to the stern of the galley, stood on the middle rail with his arms spread out and screamed, “I’m the king of the world!”
Olyvar had to grab the blond teen down before he fell overboard. “Nice try Leo,” Olyvar said. “But you are too lowborn to be royalty. You are better off marrying a queen to be a king, or at least start with a princess.”
Ser Barnabus the Goose appeared and offered his help. He was in need of a squire for some reason, and Leo was quite eager. “Leo, I’m going to teach you how to live.” Goose swung his arm around the teenager’s neck and rested it there. “You want to be a king and win the ladies? Learn how to squire for a knight first. Unchain and fetch me my stallion from the docks, I’ll show you a trick. I’ll show you how to ride it on this rocking ship!” Leo did as he was ordered.
“And when will I ever need that skill?” Leo questioned as he brought the horse up to the deck from the ramp.
“What was it you were looking for again on this journey? Your destiny? Your death?” Goose mounted.
“Naked princesses,” Leo said.
“Well this move would make any maiden, royal or lowborn, shed their clothes off for you.” The knight pulled down the reins as the stallion stood tall on its two hind legs, looking like a work of art meant for eternal statues of the gods.
Samullu appeared and asked Leo, “Is that Goose on a horse? On my boat? Why is Goose on a horse on my boat?!” The stallion came down, hooves thundering the top of the deck.
“Aye Captain, Ser Goose was teaching me how to pick up women.”
“Shiitt Leo, that’s all you had to say.” Samullu wrapped his right arm around the neck of the youth and offered his counsel, his left hand danced in the air as he spoke to solidify his argument. “If yo want naked women, fuck land. Don’t be a knight. Be a captain of a galley. The best pick up line to catch any woman yo can, is ‘I own a ship’.” Samullu raised his bearded chin. “After this mission is over, come with me and we’ll sail the seas. Meet women from all over the world. And they love a captain. Do yo concur? Leo, each lady is just a flower, another rose by another name that smell just as sweet, waiting to be plucked.”
Goose winced at the word and protested. “The only maids you meet sailing seas are mermaids. Don’t be fooled by the Black Sparrow. Some of them may be pretty on the top half, but you won’t like what they got below. It probably stinks down there too. But the captain doesn’t mind, he seems to enjoy bedding mermaids!”
Whether sea, air or land … the Black Sparrow or Goose … Leo will probably have to fly with one of them after the mission, Olyvar thought.
The night before the rescue, the raiders and the crewmen drunkenly sang and cheered to music, rum, ale and pissa. Drowning in the glory of their task on the morrow, they reminisce about the harsh archery and lethal weapons training Lord Glover had given them over the past weeks back on land … while questioning how large Lady Mormont’s sacs truly were. Lady Roslin Tully, approached everyone and asked if they would write their names on the book she held. “It’s for the memories,” she said. They all did. A signature on each page for each man and Maege. Some drew their own personal coat of arms. When it was Olyvar’s turn, he hesitated about sketching the two towers. He wanted to separate himself from the murderous lore of House Frey. He decided to draw his towers, with a Stark wolf running on top of the bridge, and a Tully trout jumping below it. He signed his name, Ser Olyvar of House Frey, squire to the late King Robb Stark, knighted by Ser Brynden Tully.
He wondered if he will be written into history as a great knight some day. A knight that could not save his king, Olyvar thought sadly. He would not be the only one though. Word had travelled for Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, and his gallant assault at Dragonstone. He was gravely wounded, but no word on this brave knight’s final fate. Like Olyvar, Ser Loras had failed to protect his first King, Renly Baratheon, a man that the Knight of Flower was rumored to have truly loved. Though his King was gone, he continued to be bathe in the glory of battle. Despite being on the opposing side of the war, Ser Olyvar would be gay if he had the chance to meet Ser Loras, if he still lives, chatting with him about the kings they loved and lost.
Later on that night, Captain Samullu Jaqenssen shared a drunken game of cvyasse with Ser Barnabus for a golden dragon. When Goose doubled down after his first loss, he fell again, owing the Black Sparrow a pair of golden dragons by the end of it. When Samullu demanded Goose to pay up his reward immediately, Goose pretended not to understand his loose Summer Isle accent, giving him a wild chase.
“Wat?”
“Yo loose Goose, yo owe me the gold,” the Captain demanded in his queer Common Tongue.
“Wat?”
“The gold yo fool. The gold! Yo pay me.”
“Wat?”
“Wat country yo from?”
“Wat?”
“Do they not speak the Common Tongue in Wat?”
“Wat?”
“Common Tongue mother Goose!”
“Wat?”
“Say wat again! I dare yo, I double dare yo! I’ll throw yo overboard off the Motherfunker!”
Goose paused for a moment, until his pride could not resist. “Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat?” Goose said ‘what‘ so many times, it sounded like he was quacking, each one louder than before. “Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat? Wat?”
In a nick of fury, Samullu Jaqenssen flipped over the cyvasse table, stood up and drew his short blade. His remaining good eye raged like a storm, as steam seeped through the black leather patch of the other. “Yo cold ass honking Goose! Yo son o’ a whore! Yo bandit! I will gut yo from balls to brains to see what gooses is made of. I better find yo sacs golden before I take yo skull to gild gold! Either way, I will have my gold from yo!”
Goose suddenly comprehended everything, stood up with all his height and threatened. “Goodness gracious, do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Go ahead and try, but you will only find below me great balls of fire!” He grabbed his own crotch and pumped it once into the air. “And after your failed attempt, I will claw out your last remaining eye, leaving you blind for the rest of your sorry life!”
The others flocked towards the scene, holding the two back as they inched towards each other.
Jess tried to stop them. “Gods, have mercy!”
Sam the Shredder intervened as well. “That is enough! I want you two to stop!”
Jory said, “Cut it out!”
“Will yo shut up!” screamed Phyl, who had hustled a wager on the game.
Mikkal grabbed the drunken Goose, threw him to the floor, and told him to just beat it.
At the end, they all just laugh it off like all drunk men do. Smiling, spilling ale out of their cups, retching out into the sea the rum they drank, before drinking some more again. They were having one last good time before the mission. But today they had a job to do.
The twenty men, Lady Maege, and Ser Rolph continued up the paths in the lightless caves of Casterly Rock, huffing and puffing, but still silent as much as they could hold. One loud word at the wrong place at the wrong time may be their doom. In single file, the group followed Ser Spicer’s point with one lit torch. The stench was terrible and the dampness made it worse. Guarding the rear, Olyvar’s eyes were clouded in darkness at times where the torchlight was too far ahead to shine back. He relied on Ser Goose in front of him to lead the way, as Goose relied on Leo for the same.
[Part 3]

https://legalesedecoder.com/unlocking-the-code-how-ai-legalese-decoder-can-protect-small-business-owners-from-payment-fraud-4/?utm_source=SocialAutoPoster

Good day, friends. Recruitment code. How it works:

• Create account or log in on your account (if you have one) on Mogstation website (http://sqex.to/Msp) – go to “Registration codes” section;

• Enter game’s code you got when you bought the game;

• Under "Registration Codes" select "Enter Recruitment Code."

IMPORTANT: Make sure to enter code AFTER you bought the game but BEFORE you purchase time subscription;

• Enter the code: FZ9BG6HC

• Enjoy the game!

Rewards for redeeming code (when you first time purchase subscription):

• Item Friendship Circlet (helm) - Increases EXP earned by 20% when level 25 and below (with all classes)

• 99xAetheryte Tickets – free teleportation ticket to any location which can save you much gil on early stage of the game;

• Ballroom Etiquette - Improper Greetings – this item will unlock Fist Bump emote;

Silver Chocobo Feather –this item can be exchanged at Calamity salvagers (in three major cities Limsa Lominsa, Old Gridania and Ul'Dah) for special rewards including armor and weapon which can be bought only with tombstones

All rewards can be found in-game mailbox (flying moogle) in major cities and around the world. I wish you best luck! Don't be shy to ask any questions - I'll help as much as I can.

So i’m sure this is been asked before, but unfortunately, I was not the person to remove the original outlet that I posted a picture of with the 4 screws so I’m not sure how it was wired up.
All I can say is that when the new 20 amp receptacle was hooked up, they had the 2 white (neutral) wires on either side of the on either side of the silver terminal screw and the 2 black (hot) wires on either side of the copper terminal screw and the outlet stopped powering the refrigerator.
Also my instructions say if more than one wire is required on a terminal I must use a back wire option and to follow their wiring diagram (I’ve included a pic)
My question is to back wire, do I put 1 white wire around the silver screw and the other in onenif the holes behind it on the black part? And do the same with the black wires??

for those that doesn't know about this lady here's the link to the post about my first encounter of her A Lady got mad at me for moving her book off a seat and called me a "fat a" and now I'm hoping I never see her again :
Welp so much for hoping to not see her again because I saw her again and she saw me but not at a bus place but instead at Walmart. here's what happened. I was at Walmart with my friends since we were on our way to a drive in theater and wanted to buy snacks at Walmart, so we won't have to spend so much at the drive in. While looking at the candy and snacks on sale guess who I saw, yep that's right the woman at the bus. when I saw her, I did my best to ignore her, but I couldn't hide the shaking from my friends. one of them asked if I was okay and I told them that "she" was here. I saw my other friend pull out their phone and look through Reddit and showed me my post.
Friend1: "The lady you mentioned here?'
Me: "yep that's her, please don't get her attention"
Friend2: "don't worry, if she comes at you in a nonfriendly way, we'll get the police on her"
That unfortunately got her attention
Karen (Gunna call her Karen since in the last post someone mentioned that her behavior doesn't make her a lady): "Excuse me?! you three are seriously taking her side?!, you know she's lying to you about me!"
(I had 3 friends with me)
Friend3: "And how do you know that exactly?"
Karen: "her Reddit post! IT'S ALL LIES! well apart from her being a fat a"
Friend1 *now looking more ticked off that I haven't seen since he witnessed his sister get bullied at school*: "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL HER?! SHE'S TRYING HER HARDEST TO LOSE WEIGHT AND IS DOING GREAT AT IT!"
Karen: "if she's doing so great at it then why does she have a long, dirty, stick hmmmm?"
(I made myself a cane with the help of one of my friends and yes, it's clean and splinter risk free)
Friend1: "1. that's a homemade cane not a stick, 2. she's still regaining her balance and needs that cane to help with that issue, now leave us alone! before we call the police or security!"
Karen: "fine but only if she gives me that so called cane of hers, if she needs to regain her balance then let nature help her with that, she doesn't need it, my kid does"
Me in my head: "wtf....is she serious right now?!"
Friend3: "that is not happening! rather you like it or not she-"
Before my friend can finish Karen pushed them aside, pushed me down, took my cane and ran off
I was able to get up thanks to two of my friends while the other called security out loud and then called the police with his phone.
When security found her, she was trying to buy my cane!
Gaurd1: "Ma'am what do you think you're doing?"
Karen: "buying myself a new cane but for some reason I can't find the bar code, why?"
Me and my friends caught up
Friend2: "GIVE OP HER CANE BACK B!"
Gaurd2: "Ma'am, that's not a cane this store sells, return it immediately"
Karen kept trying to say that my cane is a store item and she's just trying to buy it. even to the police when they arrived until Friend2 showed them a video of what happened and the CTTV footage backed it up. Well, you all can guess who has a shiny new pair of chained bracelets.
Edit: I can already see that most of you guys don't believe this happened and personally I don't care, you guys can't see my memories or see how my life is going so what's the point on proving you otherwise? if there are non-believers in the comment section then so be it, it's your problem you don't believe me, not mine

https://legalesedecoder.com/unlocking-the-legal-jargon-how-an-ai-legalese-decoder-can-help-boomers-navigate-the-potential-financial-risks-of-a-biden-second-term/?utm_source=SocialAutoPoster

Link to download app:
~https://rewards.cslplasma.com/referral/referral-unique-code/eyJkb25vcklEIjoiMDBEMjNEVSIsImNvZGUiOiJaVUxNSFhYVkNCIn0~
I have advice for new plasma donors who may be considering to try it out and earn extra money:

• Plasma is 92% water and the rest is mostly protein elements.
• The plasma is separated from your blood and your red blood cells are returned to you in cycles.
• Per FDA regulations, you're only allowed to donate plasma twice in a 7 day period, with a 48 hour wait inbetween those two times. Don't risk your health by hopping around to different plasma donation centers to circumvent these regulations, and you may get caught if you do.

1. Eat a meal high in protein 2-3 hours before donating, but your plasma protein levels depend on what you ate the day before.
2. Drink plenty of water and/or non-caffeinated juice before donating to stay hydrated.
3. Avoid caffeine such as in coffee or soda before donating or you may get nauseous and vomit or faint during your donation.
4. No alcohol 24 hours before, and for a little while after donating.
5. No exercising for at least 6 hours after donating as it can put too much stress on the vein.
6. Some people get away with smoking or vaping nicotine before and after donating, but it's recommended not to for 2 hours before and after. The nicotine can raise your heart's pulse rate.
7. If your pulse rate is 100 or above, you'll be able to do a vitals retake after a 15 minute wait. But if it's 100 or higher again you'll be deferred for the day. If your pulse rate is an issue, listen to "Pink Noise" or "Green Noise" at a low volume before donating which may help reduce your pulse rate, along with its effect on lowering your blood pressure.
8. There is a risk of getting a blown vein if the worker is having a hard time finding your vein when they're sticking you with the needle or if you have small veins. You may get deferred until your vein heals if that happens. But it's ok, your body is able to regenerate your veins with a process called Angiogenesis.
9. There is a risk of blood clots, but when your blood is constantly moving through the machine it prevents that from happening.
10. You may be subject to drug screening. The drug screening tests for methamphetamines, cocaine, and heroin. Certain pharma prescription meds may show up as a false positive so you'll want to let the plasma center know what meds you're taking. Testing positive for these drugs can result in a permanent deferral from donating plasma.
11. A sample of your blood will be drawn periodically to test for certain sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A positive test will result in either a temporary or permanent deferral from donating plasma. If you've ever been diagnosed or received treatment for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B (HBV) or Hepatitis C (HCV) you will be permanently deferred from donating plasma.

Donating Plasma with Managed Diabetes
Individuals with well-controlled diabetes can contribute to plasma donation, but certain criteria need to be met:
Absence of Complications: This means no existing diabetic complications affecting your kidneys, heart, blood vessels, or eyes.
Insulin Independence: If you rely on insulin for diabetes management, a three-month waiting period is required after using needles for non-prescribed medications. Additionally, you must be free of symptoms or treatment needs related to blood sugar fluctuations (high or low) for the past three months.

1. Healthy Feet: Active foot ulcers requiring medical attention will disqualify you from donation.
2. Steady Balance: You shouldn't experience dizziness or lightheadedness upon standing.
3. Type 1 Consideration: For Type 1 diabetics, eating within two hours of donation is mandatory.

• Wait a few hours before taking the bandage wrap off of your arm after donating.
• It's recommended to use Vitamin E oil/Mineral oil on the needle site for the puncture area to heal better. A Q-tip can be used to apply it easier. I simply dip the Q-Tip in the bottle, but never dip the used cotton back into the bottle.
• Frequently donating over a prolonged period of time may lead to your body having decreased vitamin D levels.
  
• Red meats are particularly high in the protein vitamins and minerals found in plasma.
  
• Personally, I take a Now brand Vitamin D supplement that contains vitamin D3, Calcium, Magnesium, and Zinc. But I only take a half a dose, 1 gel capsule instead of 2, since I get these from eating meats and other foods as well. It's bad for your health if you take too much of these vitamins and minerals over time. I also take an Iron supplement. I also drink a protein shake before donating. Just to be safe.
  

Link to download app:
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(eng) Need to report a crime, but its a family member. My sibling left their phone unlocked and I really shouldn't have but I snooped through it. What I saw was disgusting, they had dozens of IIOC on their gallery. Never expected his, he has a girlfriend and siblings under 18! How best do I report this, police station, online or somewhere else? What will I need to do? Will it in anyway put the lil'uns at risk? Can I ask to keep this down-low and avoid gossip (small villag.)? How do I even tell mum and dad he does this? He's mentally ill but we didn't think this bad... TIA
edit: he doesnt live here dw