Hello friends of reddit. My husband (30M) and I (30F) have been married for 6 months and it is not going as expected. In the beginning, he made it clear that due to his religious beliefs that he did not to have sex before marriage. I agreed as I had horrible judgement in men and was not looking to get taken for another ride again.
Background on him: He comes from an extremely religious family (Baptist). Worked his own business with the family since he graduated high school. He has also lived with his parents and has never lived on his own other than a year in his parents other home before his accident (he fell 27ft and had to relearn to walk). No drinking no smoking, only spend time with family and outdoor activities. Background on me: While I come from an abusive traumatic family I am currently 5 years therapy strong working on myself as it is my responsibility not my partners. I went to college and lived on my own until covid lay offs and I had to move back home with my father, which wasnt ideal. I work full time and have my own business; I am very motivated.
As time progressed he changed his mind and we ended up sleeping together. I asked for us to move in together for a lil while before we got married. My parents (divorced) were not okay with that but I did not care. He told me that we would need to sit down and discuss the idea of moving in together with his parents. I said; "Why would we need to ask permission we are 30?" and he said that we would have to in order to save face. I said "I am not comfortable with discussing this with your family as it is not their business." He said we were not to move in together until we do. I told him if he forced me to meet with his parents then I was going to tell his mother that we have already had sex so there was no reason not to move in together. He never set up the meeting. We never moved in together. He is very close to his parents in my opinion to the point it is unhealthy. I watch as his dad undermines, belittles, and ignores his mother with a smile and charming laugh on his face until she is in complete submission. She admitted to me that while she was clipping coupons for the family, he was out spending all the money on machines / equipment that they did not need. She has cried to me in front of my husband about how she still needs to voice her opinion even though it is never listen to or goes the way she suggests. That was a red flag to me.
My now husband of mine and I started to plan out life together. He told me that he owns his own business and has 60 acres of property and wanted to build a life there. He promised me that we were going to work together and build a home that we can make a guest house and eventually build a bigger home. He wants it to be similar to a Lowcountry plantation. I was all for it, finally excited that I had someone I could create a life with that we both wanted and deserved.
That is when things turned. He started to move forward on building a home for us without a permit nor engineer drawings. Before he started, I told him that made me very uncomfortable and I need security to know this home is done correctly since he will be out of town a lot and I will be left alone in a town I know no one. That made him insulted and said this is how his father and family did their home and he just moved forward on building it himself. I begged, cried, and pleaded with him to please let's get the water and septic out there first and work on a budget of plans / permits to break ground. That I was not comfortable living that way, my father was a GC and taught me a lot of what needs to be done for a home to be an asset. He waved me off, told me that my father was just a carpenter. I cried for months over it and almost moved the wedding back a year. His father was behind the scenes telling him and motivating him to continue to do whatever he wanted to do regardless of how I felt. He finally heard me after I threaten to postpone the wedding and stopped construction and told me he would get a permit on the home and drawings before he did anything else.
The closer the wedding got, the difficult it became. I gave him my pay stubs, W2, and showed my assets to him up front. I showed all of my cards and asked to see his in return. He said he would and he never did. When I asked him more than once he would get annoyed with me. I started to get suspicious. I felt as if he was hiding something. So I did my own investigation. It turns out that his father and him own the property together in a way that if one passes the other gets it and he only owns 20% of the business he claimed was his. I was stunned. Everything he told me was half truths. I brought it to his attention many times and he acted like he told me already. I told him I knew the truth and he said it wasn't a big deal and I am making something out of it that it isnt. If his father had more respect for his wife and for women, I would not be this concerned. His father throws trash on the ground and ignores rules and regulations while having a problem with authority at his own home. Now everything he doesnt want at his house is being thrown over to my husband's property (which is his too and he has a right to do what he wants). Being in that type of chaotic environment along with the sense of having someone stomp on my boundaries for me would be extremely triggering and something that I will not be able to do. He is already throwing trash and leaving debris and junk all over the property. I communicated my feelings and got met with resentment, anger, and denial from my husband. He told me that it was not going to be that way. He also called me controlling bc instead of spending 25,000 on permits / our home, he spend it on a brand new truck (he has two other trucks). I was so upset and said how could he spend that much money on a toy when he hasn't even provided a home for our family. He was texting his dad about the truck behind my back and he was motivated to do whatever he wanted to do regardless of what I thought bc I am "controlling".
I told him from day one that I am a career woman, that I am not going to be solely responsible for the household and I am not his mother and I will not pick up after him. I expect things to be 50/50 in finances and in house work until we figure out what works best for us. He said he agreed and was very happy with that. I then told him in order for me to feel comfortable moving out to his 60 acres of land, that it would need to be solely in his name and he would need to get a permit and engineer drawings. He told me as soon as we were married that he would move forward with that.
With all these red flags, I continued to move forward with the wedding as he promised me the world. He kept dragging his feet on the home construction and it was failing to be completed before our wedding. His dad was telling him to take his time it is not that big of a deal. 4 months before our wedding, his family and him expected me to live in an unpermited non CO having shed like house, with no power, water, septic, nor appliances, an empty shell, no sheetrock (his father made his mother live like that). In complete distress I begged my father to do a lease to own with one of his rental properties for me so that my husband and I would have a place to live after we got married since the home was in no condition to live in. My father begrudgingly agreed and then told me to not Marry him. I did always. My family ended up ruining the wedding for me and causing our special day to not be as special.
Fast forward a few months when it was time for us to pay our lease to own payment. He was late every month, got angry at me for asking for his part of the money, I asked him to help with the chores and he would get annoyed with me, he has not mowed the grass once (my father and I have). I can count on my hand the times hes raked the yard and done dishes. He makes double the amount of money I made but I am writing the checks for the bills. I am just asking for his portion and he told me that I am treating him like a roommate not like a husband / wife. I asked him to explain and he couldn't. I finally got fed up and told me to give me 4 checks signed so when he is out of town for work and I need to pay the bills I can. He handed me the checks and they had him and HIS MOTHER on the account. Admitted, I lost my cool. I was overwhelmed with the amount of involvement his parents had in his assets and life. He has made me feel like he has lied to me. I told him as long as my boundaries are disrespected and I have no say in our home and our life that I do not want anything to do with their property. He would get mad and say it was his and id remind him, no it is not. It belongs to him and his father. He said it is his home and he is going to build it the way he wanted.
A few weeks after that argument he completely distant himself from me. He was out till 8pm every night for weeks and I kept asking him where he was. All he said was "working". A few weeks later, I finally go out to the property to see a full blown house. Behind my back he was working on that home putting roofing, plumbing, tile, siding, everything! He told me we were going to work on this together. I was so upset, everything is half ass done. He let me pick out nothing. I called him on it and he denied it. Come to find out him and his father had been working on it behind my back. While I was struggling to pay our bills he was using his money to continue on building on the home without drawings, permits, engineering, nothing. He couldn't give me money for our house hold bills, but he could spend thousands and thousands on something he promised me he was not going to do. Then he proceeded to tell me what "we" were going to give his father a $2,000.00 fish finder for a present. I told him is he out of his mind we can not afford that (mind you he gave me nothing for my birthday though he did bake me a cake and it was sweet). I said you are going to spend that much money on a gift and you didnt even get your wife anything for her birthday? he said "you got an engagement ring, that was expensive enough" I said "so bc you gave me an engagement ring, that means you do not have to purchase anything else for me as a gift?" he just waved me away. I said you never discussed this transaction with me and you are saying "we" are getting it. He said "well when I said 'we' I meant me and my mother."
I just stared at him. He considers WE as him and his parents. Finally got him into marriage counseling and it does not seem to be helping. He has missed 4 sessions already bc he chose work over me. He is pulling away from me completely, no affection, no sex (I did not know he had an issue brushing his teeth so now I cringe in fear of getting dumpster breath anytime we are intimate). This was NOT like this during our dating time.
I feel like I am drowning and I have made a HUGE mistake. Typing this out makes me feel guilty for telling the truth and maybe I am being controlling and overbearing like his parents are saying? This is why I am coming to you people of reddit.
I feel like I am in a polyamorous relationship. I feel like I have escaped the control of my family only to end up in a place where I am controlled by another man that I am not even MARRIED TO. I feel like I am a ship with two anchors that are my parents, when I got married I thought he was going to help captain my ship, not be another anchor on my vessel to weigh me down. All my friends have noticed that I have changed and I am not my normal self.
How can I get my husband self reflect on how he is treating me and be dedicated to me and not his parents?
Am I out of line? is this weird? Am I expecting too much?
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post. I love my husband very much but I am stuck.

WORK IN PROGRESS
Let me share my 3000h of modded wisdom with you, my fellow vanilla comrades. My attempt here is to provide you with as many as possible improvements to the base game while keeping the style, balance, and content as vanilla as possible. As they say, when it works the best is when you don't realize it is there. I guarantee you that after playing a few dozen hours with these, you will no longer be able to tell what's vanilla and what's not.
I decided to separate my recommendations onto different types of lists, so it's easier to use. The most purists players can stick with QoL only. Or, even if you're a psychopath purist who doesn't any QoL improvement, you can still use the performance list. Please, note that a lot of these mods come with options, to tune up your experience. It is recommended you give them a look.
You don't know how to mod? Maybe this very basic guide will help. And here's the steam collection.
Dependencies:

• Harmony + Huglibs. Required by so many mods, you may as well be done with it and always have them.
• Vanilla Expanded Framework. While not as radically necessary as the previous ones, it's still a dependency common enough. And this one actually does cool things on its own, like loading new modded factions without having to start a new game.
• XML Extensions. You won't be able to access the options of some mods without this.

Performance

• Dub performance analyzer. Enable the optimizations and override options, you can ignore everything else. If you want to disable alerts, use rocketman.
• Rocketman. By default, it should be good enough. This mod also allows to disable alerts you may don't care about, like, dunno, tattered apparel or unhappy nudity. It is recommended to run adaptive move occasionally (in stat cache settings).
• Performance Optimizer. More hacker magic. If you don't like the UI changes, you can disable them in the options. This mod does more performance stuff aside from that, so use it anyway!
• Performance Fish. You will have to install this mod manually, since it's not available in the workshop. You will also need to install its dependencies, Fishery and Prepatcher. Please, be aware that at the present there's an issue in which linking storage crashes the game. However, this is solved by disabling "TryFindBestBetterStoreCellFor" in the options.

Minor changes

• Optimization Meats. Unless you really want dozens of different meat types for some weird role-play reason, this mod will reduce the bloat on your kitchens.
• Better Animal Tab
• Better Info Card
• Conduit Deconstruct. A button to exclusively dismantle power conduits.
• Disable Automatically Select Travel Supplies
• Improved Need Indicator
• Map Preview. You can reroll as well!
• Prepare Landing. You can search world tiles matching your conditions. Goes great with Map Preview.
• Medical Tab. An easy way to overview your colony health.
• More Harvest Designators! e.g. harvest only fully growth plants.
• ModDiff. Great improvement of the mod mismatch screen.
• Pharmacist Temporary Update. Instead of always using the best medicine, now your pawns can use the appropiate medicine for the situation. No longer will they spent glitterworld meds on scratches!
• Smart Turret Covering. Fixes an issue with turret covers.
• PawnTargetFix. So that the autotarget prioritizes the closest enemy.
• Poisoned Food Stack Fix (Fix). Fixes an issue with meal stacks.
• Priority Treatment Ressurected. Doctors will finally prioritize keeping your pawns alive over taking a nap. Disable the option taht prevents injured pawns from performing surgery, it has issues.
• QualityBuilder. You can set up a target level for furniture, and your pawns will reconstruct it until it's achieved. If I remember correctly, it's enabled by default for all new furniture? You can turn that off in options.
• RPG Style Inventory Revamped. Much better looking inventory.
• Replace Stuff. Allows to directly replace buildings, without having to deconstruct first.
• Research Tree. A better research tree.
• RimHUD. The best mod of the whole list, it will save you A TON of clicks.
• RimSaves. Overhaul of the save menu.
• Show Known Techprints on the trade screen.
• Show mechanoid weapons on the info screen.
• Smarter Construction. No more babysitting pawns when building walls.
• Stack gap. By default, pawns constantly refill storages. With this mod, you can configure it so that storages are only refiled only when they're empty. It will save you a lot of time.
• Sun Lamp Honesty. Fixes an issue with sun lamps
• Just Put It Over There. Traders will deliver the merchandise, instead of dropping it on the ground.
• Trade Ships Drop Spot. Mark the spot in which orbital traders will deliver the merchandise, instead on whenever they feel like it. Doesn't work inside animal pens.
• Trading Options. Configure how frequent you want the traders to be.
• WVC. More work modes for the mechanitor.
• Save Settings. Allows you to save and load storage, production, and clothes settings. Works cross-save!
• No Max Bills. Removes the bill cap on workbenches.
• Better ground-penetrating scanner
• Colored deep resources
• Common Sense. Feel free to configure however you like it. I prefer it like this.
• Dubs Mint Menus. Improvements to a bunch of menus.
• Better Pawn Control. Improved management policies.
  
• Animals Logic. A lot of useful animal-related improvements. Disable the meat option if you're using Optimization Meats.
  
• Non uno Pinata. Pawns don't drop items when downed. Configurable.
  
• Bulk Smelting will save you precious time.
  
• Stonecutting Extended. The same as the previous mod, but for stones.
  
• Electric Stonecutting Table. To speed up the stonecutting even more.
  
• Faster Smoothing, a must for all mountain/underground out there.
  
• Do Your F****** Research. You can order pawns to research.
  
• Go the Fork to Sleep. You can order pawns to sleep.
  
• Gene Trader
  
• Meal Radius. Configure how far pawns will search for a table to eat.
  
• Home radius. Configure the size of the automatic home area.
  
• Smarter Visitors. Visitors will leave if things get dangerous.
  
• Custom Guilt Duration. Executions in vanilla are a pain because the guilty status goes away too fast. Now you can configure it.
  
• Dress Patients. Allows dressing of downed pawns.
  
• Way Better Romance
  
• Hunters Use Melee
  
• Injured Carry. Allows to rescue not downed pawns, no longer you have to wait for the bleeding to down them.
  
• Not My Fault. The player is no longer responsible for unrelated deaths on the map.
  
• Deep Storage + Simple Storage. Improves stockpile management.
  
• Pick Up And Haul. Improved hauling.
  
• While You're Up. Complement for the previous mod. Keep in mind that these two mods will trivialize part of the challenge by freeing a lot of time from your colonists. Just, dunno, turn up the difficulty a notch or something.
  
• Trading Spot. Marks where you want traders to stop on your map. It's a must if you use a desired path mod (I don't know if they have been updated to 1.5 yet).
  
• Vanilla Base Generation Expanded. Improved NPC base generation.
  

Mayor changes

• Dubs Bad Hygiene. Plumbing!
• Death Rattle + Biosculpter Patch + Life Support. Changes the behavior of mortal wounds so they're not instakills.
• Dynamic Flooding. Inundations!
• Some Things Float. I recommend disabling the chance of pawns loosing their footing.
• Layered Wall Destruction. Walls aren't just destroyed, they become debris. Note that there's an issue in which the debris will spawn home areas.
• Vanilla Temperature Expanded. Lot of useful temperature-related buildings, as well as proxy heat, a very cool mechanic.
• Yayo's Combat 3. Combat overhaul. You can disable the ammunition system if it's not your thing.
• Character Editor. Allows you to edit and save/load pawns.
• RunAndGun. Allows to use guns while moving, with penalties to accuracy. Don't enable the dual wield or search and destroy modules.

Balance

• Vanilla Genes Rebalanced
• Beautiful Jade
• Almostthere1.5. Caravans no longer go to sleep two hours away from their destination.
• Stepping Stones. A more reasonable research path.
• Dubs Break Mod makes it so that severe mental breaks require severe negative thoughts.
• Fists Aren't Made of Steel. Reduces the unarmed melee damage, making prison breaks and tantrums much less frustrating.
• No Burn Metal. Sets the flammability of metal buildings to zero.
• Prisoners Fear Turrets
• Realistic Rooms Rewritten. Allows to tweak how pawns perceive room sizes.
• Ugh You Got Me. Social fights stop when pawns are sufficiently hurt or in pain. Doesn't affect masochists or psychopaths.
• Better Gene Inheritance
• Better Pyromania
• Mortar Accuracy. Improves mortar mechanics.
• Graze up. Grazing rebalanced.
• Better Camp Loot
• Snap Out! Wardens can try to calm down pawns on mental breaks. "Try" is the keyword here.

Content

• Factional War. More events.
• Raid Extension. More events.

Atmospheric changes

• Interaction Bubbles + SpeakUp
• Enemy Self Preservation. Enemies can flee.
• No One Left Behind. Fleeing enemies try to rescue their allies.
• Death Acidifiest
• Memorable Auroras
• Sand Castles
• More Mini-Horns
• Sandstorms
• ReGrowth. Overhaul of biomes and much more!
• My Little Planet. Instead of the size of a super continent, tweak the size of the planet!
• Better Explosions
• Better Vanilla Masking
• Graphic Chair Overhaul 2
• Not Overhead Meal
• Graphics Settings+
• Graying Hair
• Show Hair With Hats or Hide All Hats
• Gunplay. A warning: trails can broke some mods. They can be disabled in options.
• Blood Animations
• Childrens Drawings
• Cuter Biotech Cat/Dog Ear Replacer. If you don't like the meat-colored animal ears from Biotech, this is for you!
• Geological Landforms. New map shapes!
• Biome Transitions
• Visuals
  • Yayo's Animation (Continued)
  • Trait and Backstory Icons
  • Bionic icons
  • Vanilla Races Expanded - Custom Icons
  • Spectacular Skullspike. You can rotate them now.
  • Muzzle Flash
• Retextures
  • Parka Retexture
  • Retextured Apparel
  • Retextured Sculptures
  • Vanilla Beards Retextured
  • Vanilla Hair Retextured
  • Vanilla Pawns Retextured
  • Marbled Marble
  • Essentials: Stone (the stat changes won't work)
  • Vanilla Textures Expanded - Variations
  • Vanilla Textures Expanded
  • I Hate Daylilies
  • Biotech Mechanoid Retexture
  • Tastier Vanilla Clothes
  • Van's Steel
  • Glowing Healroot
  • More Vanilla Textures
• Audio
  • Ambient Rim. New sound effects.
  • Realistic Human Sounds. Pawns make sounds when hurt.
  • Actually Vanilla Music Expansion. New music.
  • P-Music. New music.
• Hairs
  • Erin's Hairstyles
  • Hard Times
  • Rimsenal Hair + Retextured
  • Roo's Hairstyles
  • Roo's Royalty Hairstyles
  • The Vanity Project
  • Won hair_men + Retextured
  • Won hair_women + Retextured

Bonus: comics! And the occasional animation, check the profiles of u/daleksdeservevictory , u/AzulCrescent , u/AetherealVanguard , , u/ATTF , u/Aelanna , srgrafo, u/Fonzawa , u/Ivancmedia , u/zyll3 , u/meto30 , u/AeolysScribbles , u/cavalier753 , u/GABESTFY , u/VectorData , u/arxian , u/Nguyenanh2132 , u/sorrowful_dance , u/meto30 , u/-desdinova- , u/truffli

Hello! Here we are again, back for another ATLA commentary.
Before we get started I do want to point out that I’m numbering and labeling episodes according to how they appear on Netflix. Episode 12, as I understand it, is actually two episodes. However, since they’re presented as one thing here, that’s how I’m watching it.
Brief update on other projects: I thought I’d try watching the first Harry Potter movie, but realized it’s two and a half hours long. That’s, at the bare minimum, five hours of commentary writing. So… yeah, we’re gonna hold off on that lol I’m also considering watching a superhero/comic book show called The Boys, because I accidentally caught part of a trailer for it that my girlfriend was watching and it looks very interesting. I’ll be doing the new Game of Thrones commentary next, not sure when exactly.
Okay, let’s go!
Episode 12- The Secret of the Fire Nation

1. Well that’s a heck of a title! I hope we learn something juicy!

It’s nice to see Aang and Katara bending for fun, thought I’m surprised Aang is so willing to encase himself in a block of ice. You’d think he’d have some trauma from that lol But also, I love Katara’s hair when she lets it down.
Yeah… I’m kind of surprised Aang is taking Appa’s loss as well as he is, considering how he reacted last episode. Since Sokka is talking about walking to Ba Sing Se, I take it they’re not going to be spending time looking for him? But then, didn’t the sandbenders say they sold him to a merchant from Ba Sing Se? Maybe he’s there, and Aang’s banking on that hope.

1. I know I keep applying real-world logic to a cartoon show, but wouldn’t Ba Sing Se get awfully crowded if they’re constantly taking in refugees from the rest of the Earth Kingdom? Iroh put the city under siege for almost two years. What if the Fire Nation does that again? More mouths to feed makes starvation quicker!

Iroh and Zuko are refugees. I still can’t get over that irony lol Hey, it’s Jet! My goodness, he’s onscreen for less than ten seconds and he’s already planning a robbery. He and Zuko are going to get along just fine, aren’t they?
The cabbage merchant! Always a delight to see him and his cabbages! Also hilarious that a bunch of people are impersonating Aang (thought it probably would be less hilarious if any of them met Azula). If passports are necessary, how did Zuko and Iroh get tickets? Also, good on Toph for taking advantage of her privilege lol
Hey! I think that’s Suki! Her eyes are drawn really distinctively and her voice sounds familiar! Two seconds after pressing play: it is Suki! Don’t you just love my long winning streak of figuring things out right before they let us know? Lol

1. Glad to see ATLA Suki appreciates Sokka’s muscles just as much as NATLA Suki lol

Someone took the pregnant family’s tickets and belongings. Is that how Zuko and Iroh got their tickets? Zuko’s robbed families before, so I wouldn’t put it past him.
Well damn, Suki got her armor and makeup on real quick, didn’t she? Hm… Sokka’s worried about her. I think Suki’s going to interpret that as him being sexist again but he’s probably traumatized from losing Yue. He’s been through way too much to still be sexist. If he still had a misogynistic bone in his body, Toph would have beaten it out of him by now.

1. Well the Serpent’s Pass looks terrifying. Also, this pregnant lady took one look at some scratched graffiti saying “Abandon Hope” and immediately started crying, saying “How can we abandon hope? It’s all we have!” Like… come on, lady lol Just because you see graffiti telling you to do something doesn’t mean you have to, otherwise I would have called quite a few people for a good time by now.

Hope is a distraction, huh? I guess I can see the logic of that from a practical application perspective. But it’s kind of a depressing philosophy for a monk to have.
Holy shit! Nope, I would not be walking along a cliff path that narrow! I will build a rowboat and paddle my way to Ba Sing Se.
Toph is really carrying the team (and some refugees too) this episode.

1. There’s a fine line between being protective and being smothering and Sokka has hopped, jumped, and skipped right over it.

Zuko’s not wearing his blue spirit mask. Not that he needs it, he and Jet work together like cogs in a machine. Ironic lol
Ow! Geez, that rejected hug hurt me lol Katara’s right though. Bottling up emotions just makes them worse in the long run. You have to allow yourself to feel bad sometimes. Granted, you can’t fly off the handle like he did last episode, but that’s a reaction. You can control your reactions, but you can’t control your feelings.
“It’s a beautiful moon.” “Yeah, it really is.” Okay, I know Sokka said last episode that Yue is the moon, but he was tripping on peyote. Does he actually believe that Yue is the moon now? Is Yue the moon now? I interpreted her death as he sacrificing herself to bring the moon spirit back to life, not to become the new moon spirit.
“Who is this guy? Is he taller than me?” Dude, we were having a moment. Damn it, just kiss her! Well actually, the moon’s right there so if Yue really did turn into the new moon spirit, it might be a tad awkward to kiss in front of her. But what’s he gonna do, only ever show intimacy during the day?

1. Um… I’m probably reading too much into this Smellerbee scene with Iroh and Longshot and I’m almost hesitant to say what I’m thinking because I can just imagine the backlash I could get for voicing it. And it’s not like ATLA has had great LGBTQ representation up to this point, so… Yeah, I’m probably just seeing things that aren’t there.

You know, I’ve never really cared a lot about Jet as a character (in fact, I’m kind of surprised to see him again. I figured he’d be a one-off character) but I am really enjoying his scenes with Zuko and Iroh. They have so much in common, which is probably the point of this whole juxtaposition. If he only knew who they really were lol
Of course Iroh believes in second chances. He’s the best. And also, he’s living proof that some people deserve a second chance.

1. Uh… Katara parting the sea while leading refugees to safety invokes a certain comparison, doesn’t it? But can I just say that I love how her solution to crossing the gap is to literally walk through the ocean instead of making a raft out of ice and floating across. She just never misses an opportunity to flex on everyone, does she? Lol

Momo continuing his pattern of trying to kill every small animal he sees is something I’ve come to treasure.
Is that the unagi?! I think that’s what it’s called/spelled but I haven’t seen that episode in a while. It would be fitting if Suki and the sea serpent both share the same episodes lol No that’s not the unagi. It’s a different color. Um… what exactly was Sokka planning to do if the sea serpent actually accepted his offer and ate Momo? Considering how he reacted to losing Appa, I don’t think Aang would be too happy with him.
Oh, now she’s making an ice bridge. Not as much of a flex as maintaining an air bubble so they plumb the depths but it is faster. Oh, Toph can’t see on ice. And she can’t swim? An earthbender not being able to swim feels like a stereotype for some reason, even though I have absolutely no reason to think that lol
“You can go ahead and let me drown now.” That’s gonna be a favorite joke of mine, I just know it lol And I’m pretty sure this is probably a jumping point for a Sokka/Toph ship. What does the community call that? Soph? Tokka? (How old is Toph, anyway? Probably Aang’s age, right? That’s… probably not an appropriate ship then)

1. Why does Ba Sing Se’s wall remind me of The Wall from Game of Thrones? Obviously not made of ice though lol

Okay, time for ATLA’s viewers to experience the miracle of childbirth!

1. Like I said earlier, ATLA isn’t heavy on the LGBTQ representation, but I swear I’m picking up on some tension and chemistry between Jet and Zuko (Juko? Jeko? Zet?). And now half of Jet’s little group is an LGBTQ allegory for me lol Even the dialogue between Jet and Zuko in this scene is slightly suggestive.

So… can Katara waterbend the baby out or…
Baby Hope, eh? Probably not a super common name in this world.
Oh? Was that Aang’s way of telling Katara he loves her without actually saying it? Aww. And hey, he’s heading off on his own to search for Appa. Which… honestly kind of feels like he should have been doing that this whole time lol
Yes! Get some, Sokka! Wait, nevermind. I fucking hate that line. Ugh No! I’m not gonna be a bitter old lady on this watch-through! They’re kissing and it’s very sweet and I love that for them!
Um… there’s a giant metal dildo on the way to penetrate Ba Sing Se! Lol but seriously, how technologically advanced is the Fire Nation? A giant mobile drill of that scale would be a marvel of engineering even by our modern standards.

1. Well hey, there’s the title card letting me know when the next episode starts.

Woah, the way the drill moves is so cool! I’m legitimately wondering if such a thing would actually be possible in our world with our physics. I don’t know why we would want to, but still. And of course Azula’s leading this attack. She gets all the best opportunities. And she’s smart too! The war minister guy is dismissive of the earthbenders, believing his drill to be impervious to earthbending attacks. You can practically smell the hubris. But Azula leaves nothing to chance and she sends her girls out to neutralize any potential threat.
And this is why we love Azula. She’s not just a scary villain, she’s a competent villain.

1. And the Earth Kingdom general shares the War Minister’s hubris. Why are the people in charge always the worst people to be in charge? Also, I love that Toph is the one to point out that Iroh broke through the wall.

So the Earth Kingdom’s elite Terra Team force were taken out by two teenage nonbenders from the Fire Nation in about twenty seconds. How have they lasted this long? Lol (I say two, but let’s be honest. Ty Lee’s doing the heavy lifting here)
Yes! I love that they acknowledge Sokka as the “Idea Guy”!
Iroh has got rizz for days lol I’m kind of surprised he only ever had one son. Jet wants to recruit Zuko. I’m totally down for that! They’re such an interesting pair!

1. I really love that Katara, whose probably the best waterbender in the world at this point, respects Ty Lee enough to recognize how dangerous she is. And Sokka had an idea! They’re going to take down the drill from the inside. Because how the hell else are they going to stop something that big?

Again with the underestimation! I swear Azula’s the only competent person in the entire Fire Nation military since Iroh retired.
Okay, engineer Sokka figured it out. It’s all a little too easy, isn’t it?

1. Ah shit, Jet just realized the truth, because Iroh used firebending to heat up his tea lol I think he’s getting a little too relaxed.

Okay, just the fact that they slice through metal with water at all is pretty impressive. And the drill has reached the wall, and Azula still doesn’t look impressed.
Oh yeah, I guess this is a pretty high stakes battle for them, huh? If they lose Ba Sing Se, they basically lose the entire Earth Kingdom, right? Omashu’s already fallen, the smaller villages and whatnot have no real defense. Ba Sing Se is the last big puzzle piece to world domination (aside from the water tribes, but they’re so isolated they’re not really a threat).
I love that Toph’s nickname for Aang is Twinkle Toes. Also I laughed at the War Minister’s face when he was side-eyeing Azula just then. +That’s the face of a man who’s about to be punished!

1. lol Sokka’s the only one with more rizz than Iroh! Maybe a legitimate battle strategy here would be to woo Ty Lee into switching sides? Aside from Azula she seems to be the most dangerous one. No offense to Mai, but she is kind of the odd woman out here.

Oh please let me get Aang and Azula 1v1! I really badly want to see how he fares against her without everyone else helping him. He’ll probably have to use the Avatar State to defeat her.
Ty Lee dives into the slurry after Katara and Sokka while Mai refuses. Yeah, Mai is the weak link here in Ozai’s Angels (I love that name, by the way).

1. Did Aang seriously think the general was going to hear him from that high up? Lol Toph’s helping Katara bend the slurry (how convenient that it’s both water and earth!). Ty Lee’s still trapped in it and the drill is about to blow. If I hadn’t learned my lesson on the last post, I’d probably be worried she might die in the explosion. But this is a kid’s show, she’ll be fine.

Here we go! Aang vs Azula! Her fighting style is so elegant. Every move she makes feels on purpose, if that makes sense. Like, whenever Aang fought Zuko, Zhao, or NPC firebenders their style is a little more chaotic and fearsome and rawr, you know? But Azula’s totally calm. Everything she’s doing feels calculated, and it’s working! If she hadn’t had to dodge that boulder after blasting Aang back she might have been able to deliver a finishing blow!
She beat him! He’s unconscious! Okay, well not anymore lol See… that right there was hubris (actually, it was kid’s show writing but whatever)! He was out for like fifteen seconds. She should have roasted him where he lay instead of picking him up and gloating.
Another fight with Azula ends in a draw with neither one beating the other! I’m starting to get a little peeved with all this edging lol but that was great! Azula is an absolute beast!

1. Okay, the way Aang hammered that rock spike into the drill was pretty epic. Mai’s “We lost” (and thank you for your contribution to the fight, Mai lol) is interesting. It’s true, they did lose. Not in the combat sense, Aang couldn’t beat Azula, but he didn’t have to. He just had to hold her off. Maybe that’s kind of a metaphor for the Fire Nation military in general. It’s very powerful, but it’s also marred by incompetence and weaknesses. Many of its generals are prideful and blind to their own weaknesses, or just outright incompetent. Look at this fight: even Mai just kind of gave up halfway through. If Ty Lee wasn’t trapped in the slurry, she might very well have been able to beat Katara, Sokka, and Toph, especially since they don’t Appa this time to bail them out. And if Mai had been with her, she might have been to break Katara’s concentration with a thrown weapon, thus freeing Ty Lee from the slurry.

I wondered how the Earth Kingdom lasted so long and maybe that’s just it. They can’t beat the Fire Nation, but they don’t have to. They just have to hold them off and the Fire Nation’s own shortcomings will end up beating themselves. It’s a hundred year stalemate.

1. Looks like Jet’s going to be causing a problem for Iroh and Zuko. I wonder if his relationship with them is what’s going to finally let him realize that not all Fire Nation people are inherently evil?

Hey, that’s Baby Hope! And Iroh gets to fawn over her too and I love that for him. You know, if Aang defeats the Fire Nation in a timely manner, Hope might actually get to grow up in a world at peace. Well, kind of. I’m sure there’s going to be massive issues with racism from generations of propaganda painting the other side as inhuman, huge demands for reparations, not to mention the territories the Fire Nation currently occupies. It’s been so long that there must be at least two generations of Fire Nation citizens who were born in and grew up in the Earth Kingdom, and I’m sure there’s been interbreeding with the Earth Kingdom people, because that’s what always happens with colonizers. Once they become established, genocide is pretty much the only way to get rid of them, and I doubt the Avatar is going to allow that.
So Hope’s probably going to grow up in pretty interesting times!
Um… is Ba Sing Se a city or is it a little walled country? Cuz all I see are farms and plains!
Katara, I love you, but you’re wrong. Team Avatar is going to catch on because it’s awesome, and that’s that.
Episode 13- City of Walls and Secrets

1. Oh, there’s an inner wall. So Ba Sing Se is kind of like the country in Attack on Titan! Oh yeah, in all of the excitement I almost forgot about Appa. Seriously, how many episodes has he been missing now? Damn, now that’s a city!

Yeah… something’s up with Joo Dee.
Walls inside that help maintain order? You mean walls that protect the rich and elite from the dirty poors? Lol Oh, Katara just confirmed it. They pen up all the poor people into a walled ghetto.

1. lol when Iroh’s talking about someone bringing home a lady friend, does he mean himself? Or Zuko? It is really interesting how their views of Ba Sing Se differ though. Iroh’s talking about getting a home, socializing, building a life, and he’s even found them jobs! Zuko sees the same situation as a prison.

Well, I’m glad Jet’s turning over a new leaf by letting the authorities handle things. Too bad I don’t trust the authorities to be any better.
Toph knows what’s up. Joo Dee is purposefully brushing Sokka off and distracting the group. I’m not sure why at the moment, but something is clearly up.

1. Of course they’re going to work in a tea shop! Lol Zuko’s right btw, all tea is hot leaf juice. Well, except for the teas that are hot root juice.

The cultural authority of Ba Sing Se, who guard their traditions and are called the Dai Li. Yeah… maybe it’s my conservative religious upbringing but when I hear about people “guarding their traditions” I immediately think of abuse, propaganda, and oppression. Generally people who are obsessed with traditions tend to be conservatives, who by their very nature cannot allow progress or improvement.
Someone important is trying to keep them under constant surveillance and prevent them from seeing the Earth King. In NATLA, there were spies in Omashu. Since Ba Sing Se is much bigger and more important, I imagine it’s riddled with Fire Nation spies as well, and somebody high ranking might be a traitor.

1. Joo Dee is kind of scary lol and clearly the citizens are terrified of her. But what’s interesting to me is that she’s preventing them from giving information about Appa, which suggests that whoever is stopping them from seeing the Earth King also has Appa. But why? What would be the point of keeping Aang away from Appa? Is it to restrict his mobility and make him easier to capture?

So people aren’t allowed to talk about the war, and the Dai Li seem to be responsible. But why? If everyone knows there’s a war going on anyway, why keep people from talking about it?
It’s lucky that Iroh borrowed his neighbor’s spark rocks, but why would he refrain from firebending in what he assumes is privacy? Unless he knows he’s being watched.

1. Huh, is the king’s pet bear the first normal animal on the show? Lol I am digging this undercover plan though.

I love that this show lets its characters try on different looks from time to time, even if they are mostly the same outfits. Katara and Toph’s high society get-ups are gorgeous!
The lost boys- I mean, freedom fighters are turning on Peter Pa- I mean, Jet. The weird thing is… he’s right! They are firebenders! But his behavior still isn’t healthy!

1. Okay, let’s go! Jet’s hurling accusations and attacking them in public! And now Zuko’s fighting back with swords. It’s the duel of the dual-wielders! Honestly, this is probably good for Zuko. He needs to blow off some steam after everything he’s been through.

Well how about that? Security at the palace is actually competent and Toph can’t bluff her way in.
This Long Feng guy is cultural minister to the king, which means he’s probably the bad guy! And also we haven’t met any other high ranking government officials with names, so he’s currently the only option lol

1. Geez, Zuko straight up intended to decapitate Jet right there. If Jet were a little slower, he would have! Man, I hope they do this fight scene in NATLA.

Uh-oh, scary lady Joo Dee is the scared one now. But can I just say how much I like her facial expressions?
Yeah… can’t blame them for arresting Jet. He did look like a crazy person.
The Dai Li’s specific brand of earthbending is very cool! It almost doesn’t seem like bending at all, if that makes sense. The stones they use are like a part of their own body. And of course Long Feng is their leader.
Okay I get the king is just a puppet and Long Feng is the real rule of the country, but I still don’t understand why he doesn’t allow mention of the war in the city. I mean, it’s common knowledge! A significant portion of their population are literally refugees fleeing war! Who doesn’t know
Oh… is it the king? Does the king just not know there’s a war happening and Long Feng keeps it from him so he can stay in charge? I mean, that’s still a stretch but it would explain why he doesn’t want Team Avatar talking to the king.

1. Jet is being hypnotized. Also, I do want to point out that I have seen “There is no (whatever) in Ba Sing Se” many times in the wild lol it’s nice to see where it comes from!

Ah… Long Feng is holding Appa as leverage over Aang.
I didn’t think Joo Dee could be any scarier but here we are! This episode almost has horror movie vibes.
Concluding thoughts: This was a fantastic couple/throuple of episodes! I loved seeing Suki again, and I really enjoyed how the refugee subplot ties so perfectly in with Iroh and Zuko. The whole drill sequence was probably the best “action” the show has had thus far and that’s saying something. It’s also nice to have my suspicions that the Earth Kingdom has its own corruption problems and bad guys confirmed.
I have a new theory to replace my “Iroh’s going to die theory”. They’ve been showing us all season how Zuko isn’t really cut out for life on the run, whereas Iroh embraces it. I think they’re driving to a separation between Zuko and Iroh. He may not have died, but narratively speaking Zuko and Iroh have to part ways permanently or semi-permanently for his character to grow. Iroh has been propping him up and supporting him this whole time, now it’s time for Zuko to leave the nest and become his own person.
My new theory is that Iroh will enjoy his new life in Ba Sing Se so much that he elects to stay there permanently, whereas Zuko is too restless to do so. He can’t go back to the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom will not accept him, so his only choice is to join Team Avatar, where he will likely end up teaching Aang firebending.
And to expand further on a previous theory of mine, which was: Azula will kill or depose Ozai. I’ve accepted at this point that death is off the table. Kid’s show and all that. But I noticed something… lots of people were quick to say that Azula would never kill Ozai. But not one person has said she wouldn’t depose him in those refutations (unless I’m misremembering but I don’t think I am). Since you all know not to hint at things or spoil them, I think your eagerness to point out that she won’t kill Ozai is an attempt to mislead me into thinking the whole theory is wrong so I’ll be surprised when she ends up deposing (not killing) him. I mean, I could be wrong but I have a strong feeling that the final villain is going to be Fire Lord Azula, with Ozai in exile somewhere (that would be fitting! The man who banishes his own son ends up being banished himself!).
Maybe that will even be the conclusion of Zuko’s arc! While Aang goes off to save the world from Azula, Zuko splits up to confront Ozai himself! Where we are in the show right now, it really does feel like Azula is Aang’s primary antagonist whereas Ozai is Zuko’s primary antagonist.
By the way, from here on out, no confirming or denying my theories either way, okay? Let it unfold naturally, and let me figure things out on my own. I mean, where’s the fun in just giving me the answers?
And also, some of you could be a little nicer with your criticisms. I had to block someone last time I posted and I don’t want to do that anymore. It’s fine to disagree with me, it’s fine to explain why you disagree with me. Hell, most of you do! I don’t mind that, I like that we all have different views of things even if I don’t agree. It makes things interesting! But don’t talk down to me, don’t use belittling language, don’t be disrespectful. Whenever I don’t like something about ATLA (or like something about NATLA) some of you seem to take it as a personal insult or something.
Just be polite, that’s all I ask.
Okay, I’ll see you same time next week probably!

Hello! Here we are again, back for another ATLA commentary.
Before we get started I do want to point out that I’m numbering and labeling episodes according to how they appear on Netflix. Episode 12, as I understand it, is actually two episodes. However, since they’re presented as one thing here, that’s how I’m watching it.
Brief update on other projects: I thought I’d try watching the first Harry Potter movie, but realized it’s two and a half hours long. That’s, at the bare minimum, five hours of commentary writing. So… yeah, we’re gonna hold off on that lol I’m also considering watching a superhero/comic book show called The Boys, because I accidentally caught part of a trailer for it that my girlfriend was watching and it looks very interesting. I’ll be doing the new Game of Thrones commentary next, not sure when exactly.
Okay, let’s go!
Episode 12- The Secret of the Fire Nation

1. Well that’s a heck of a title! I hope we learn something juicy!

It’s nice to see Aang and Katara bending for fun, thought I’m surprised Aang is so willing to encase himself in a block of ice. You’d think he’d have some trauma from that lol But also, I love Katara’s hair when she lets it down.
Yeah… I’m kind of surprised Aang is taking Appa’s loss as well as he is, considering how he reacted last episode. Since Sokka is talking about walking to Ba Sing Se, I take it they’re not going to be spending time looking for him? But then, didn’t the sandbenders say they sold him to a merchant from Ba Sing Se? Maybe he’s there, and Aang’s banking on that hope.

1. I know I keep applying real-world logic to a cartoon show, but wouldn’t Ba Sing Se get awfully crowded if they’re constantly taking in refugees from the rest of the Earth Kingdom? Iroh put the city under siege for almost two years. What if the Fire Nation does that again? More mouths to feed makes starvation quicker!

Iroh and Zuko are refugees. I still can’t get over that irony lol Hey, it’s Jet! My goodness, he’s onscreen for less than ten seconds and he’s already planning a robbery. He and Zuko are going to get along just fine, aren’t they?
The cabbage merchant! Always a delight to see him and his cabbages! Also hilarious that a bunch of people are impersonating Aang (thought it probably would be less hilarious if any of them met Azula). If passports are necessary, how did Zuko and Iroh get tickets? Also, good on Toph for taking advantage of her privilege lol
Hey! I think that’s Suki! Her eyes are drawn really distinctively and her voice sounds familiar! Two seconds after pressing play: it is Suki! Don’t you just love my long winning streak of figuring things out right before they let us know? Lol

1. Glad to see ATLA Suki appreciates Sokka’s muscles just as much as NATLA Suki lol

Someone took the pregnant family’s tickets and belongings. Is that how Zuko and Iroh got their tickets? Zuko’s robbed families before, so I wouldn’t put it past him.
Well damn, Suki got her armor and makeup on real quick, didn’t she? Hm… Sokka’s worried about her. I think Suki’s going to interpret that as him being sexist again but he’s probably traumatized from losing Yue. He’s been through way too much to still be sexist. If he still had a misogynistic bone in his body, Toph would have beaten it out of him by now.

1. Well the Serpent’s Pass looks terrifying. Also, this pregnant lady took one look at some scratched graffiti saying “Abandon Hope” and immediately started crying, saying “How can we abandon hope? It’s all we have!” Like… come on, lady lol Just because you see graffiti telling you to do something doesn’t mean you have to, otherwise I would have called quite a few people for a good time by now.

Hope is a distraction, huh? I guess I can see the logic of that from a practical application perspective. But it’s kind of a depressing philosophy for a monk to have.
Holy shit! Nope, I would not be walking along a cliff path that narrow! I will build a rowboat and paddle my way to Ba Sing Se.
Toph is really carrying the team (and some refugees too) this episode.

1. There’s a fine line between being protective and being smothering and Sokka has hopped, jumped, and skipped right over it.

Zuko’s not wearing his blue spirit mask. Not that he needs it, he and Jet work together like cogs in a machine. Ironic lol
Ow! Geez, that rejected hug hurt me lol Katara’s right though. Bottling up emotions just makes them worse in the long run. You have to allow yourself to feel bad sometimes. Granted, you can’t fly off the handle like he did last episode, but that’s a reaction. You can control your reactions, but you can’t control your feelings.
“It’s a beautiful moon.” “Yeah, it really is.” Okay, I know Sokka said last episode that Yue is the moon, but he was tripping on peyote. Does he actually believe that Yue is the moon now? Is Yue the moon now? I interpreted her death as he sacrificing herself to bring the moon spirit back to life, not to become the new moon spirit.
“Who is this guy? Is he taller than me?” Dude, we were having a moment. Damn it, just kiss her! Well actually, the moon’s right there so if Yue really did turn into the new moon spirit, it might be a tad awkward to kiss in front of her. But what’s he gonna do, only ever show intimacy during the day?

1. Um… I’m probably reading too much into this Smellerbee scene with Iroh and Longshot and I’m almost hesitant to say what I’m thinking because I can just imagine the backlash I could get for voicing it. And it’s not like ATLA has had great LGBTQ representation up to this point, so… Yeah, I’m probably just seeing things that aren’t there.

You know, I’ve never really cared a lot about Jet as a character (in fact, I’m kind of surprised to see him again. I figured he’d be a one-off character) but I am really enjoying his scenes with Zuko and Iroh. They have so much in common, which is probably the point of this whole juxtaposition. If he only knew who they really were lol
Of course Iroh believes in second chances. He’s the best. And also, he’s living proof that some people deserve a second chance.

1. Uh… Katara parting the sea while leading refugees to safety invokes a certain comparison, doesn’t it? But can I just say that I love how her solution to crossing the gap is to literally walk through the ocean instead of making a raft out of ice and floating across. She just never misses an opportunity to flex on everyone, does she? Lol

Momo continuing his pattern of trying to kill every small animal he sees is something I’ve come to treasure.
Is that the unagi?! I think that’s what it’s called/spelled but I haven’t seen that episode in a while. It would be fitting if Suki and the sea serpent both share the same episodes lol No that’s not the unagi. It’s a different color. Um… what exactly was Sokka planning to do if the sea serpent actually accepted his offer and ate Momo? Considering how he reacted to losing Appa, I don’t think Aang would be too happy with him.
Oh, now she’s making an ice bridge. Not as much of a flex as maintaining an air bubble so they plumb the depths but it is faster. Oh, Toph can’t see on ice. And she can’t swim? An earthbender not being able to swim feels like a stereotype for some reason, even though I have absolutely no reason to think that lol
“You can go ahead and let me drown now.” That’s gonna be a favorite joke of mine, I just know it lol And I’m pretty sure this is probably a jumping point for a Sokka/Toph ship. What does the community call that? Soph? Tokka? (How old is Toph, anyway? Probably Aang’s age, right? That’s… probably not an appropriate ship then)

1. Why does Ba Sing Se’s wall remind me of The Wall from Game of Thrones? Obviously not made of ice though lol

Okay, time for ATLA’s viewers to experience the miracle of childbirth!

1. Like I said earlier, ATLA isn’t heavy on the LGBTQ representation, but I swear I’m picking up on some tension and chemistry between Jet and Zuko (Juko? Jeko? Zet?). And now half of Jet’s little group is an LGBTQ allegory for me lol Even the dialogue between Jet and Zuko in this scene is slightly suggestive.

So… can Katara waterbend the baby out or…
Baby Hope, eh? Probably not a super common name in this world.
Oh? Was that Aang’s way of telling Katara he loves her without actually saying it? Aww. And hey, he’s heading off on his own to search for Appa. Which… honestly kind of feels like he should have been doing that this whole time lol
Yes! Get some, Sokka! Wait, nevermind. I fucking hate that line. Ugh No! I’m not gonna be a bitter old lady on this watch-through! They’re kissing and it’s very sweet and I love that for them!
Um… there’s a giant metal dildo on the way to penetrate Ba Sing Se! Lol but seriously, how technologically advanced is the Fire Nation? A giant mobile drill of that scale would be a marvel of engineering even by our modern standards.

1. Well hey, there’s the title card letting me know when the next episode starts.

Woah, the way the drill moves is so cool! I’m legitimately wondering if such a thing would actually be possible in our world with our physics. I don’t know why we would want to, but still. And of course Azula’s leading this attack. She gets all the best opportunities. And she’s smart too! The war minister guy is dismissive of the earthbenders, believing his drill to be impervious to earthbending attacks. You can practically smell the hubris. But Azula leaves nothing to chance and she sends her girls out to neutralize any potential threat.
And this is why we love Azula. She’s not just a scary villain, she’s a competent villain.

1. And the Earth Kingdom general shares the War Minister’s hubris. Why are the people in charge always the worst people to be in charge? Also, I love that Toph is the one to point out that Iroh broke through the wall.

So the Earth Kingdom’s elite Terra Team force were taken out by two teenage nonbenders from the Fire Nation in about twenty seconds. How have they lasted this long? Lol (I say two, but let’s be honest. Ty Lee’s doing the heavy lifting here)
Yes! I love that they acknowledge Sokka as the “Idea Guy”!
Iroh has got rizz for days lol I’m kind of surprised he only ever had one son. Jet wants to recruit Zuko. I’m totally down for that! They’re such an interesting pair!

1. I really love that Katara, whose probably the best waterbender in the world at this point, respects Ty Lee enough to recognize how dangerous she is. And Sokka had an idea! They’re going to take down the drill from the inside. Because how the hell else are they going to stop something that big?

Again with the underestimation! I swear Azula’s the only competent person in the entire Fire Nation military since Iroh retired.
Okay, engineer Sokka figured it out. It’s all a little too easy, isn’t it?

1. Ah shit, Jet just realized the truth, because Iroh used firebending to heat up his tea lol I think he’s getting a little too relaxed.

Okay, just the fact that they slice through metal with water at all is pretty impressive. And the drill has reached the wall, and Azula still doesn’t look impressed.
Oh yeah, I guess this is a pretty high stakes battle for them, huh? If they lose Ba Sing Se, they basically lose the entire Earth Kingdom, right? Omashu’s already fallen, the smaller villages and whatnot have no real defense. Ba Sing Se is the last big puzzle piece to world domination (aside from the water tribes, but they’re so isolated they’re not really a threat).
I love that Toph’s nickname for Aang is Twinkle Toes. Also I laughed at the War Minister’s face when he was side-eyeing Azula just then. +That’s the face of a man who’s about to be punished!

1. lol Sokka’s the only one with more rizz than Iroh! Maybe a legitimate battle strategy here would be to woo Ty Lee into switching sides? Aside from Azula she seems to be the most dangerous one. No offense to Mai, but she is kind of the odd woman out here.

Oh please let me get Aang and Azula 1v1! I really badly want to see how he fares against her without everyone else helping him. He’ll probably have to use the Avatar State to defeat her.
Ty Lee dives into the slurry after Katara and Sokka while Mai refuses. Yeah, Mai is the weak link here in Ozai’s Angels (I love that name, by the way).

1. Did Aang seriously think the general was going to hear him from that high up? Lol Toph’s helping Katara bend the slurry (how convenient that it’s both water and earth!). Ty Lee’s still trapped in it and the drill is about to blow. If I hadn’t learned my lesson on the last post, I’d probably be worried she might die in the explosion. But this is a kid’s show, she’ll be fine.

Here we go! Aang vs Azula! Her fighting style is so elegant. Every move she makes feels on purpose, if that makes sense. Like, whenever Aang fought Zuko, Zhao, or NPC firebenders their style is a little more chaotic and fearsome and rawr, you know? But Azula’s totally calm. Everything she’s doing feels calculated, and it’s working! If she hadn’t had to dodge that boulder after blasting Aang back she might have been able to deliver a finishing blow!
She beat him! He’s unconscious! Okay, well not anymore lol See… that right there was hubris (actually, it was kid’s show writing but whatever)! He was out for like fifteen seconds. She should have roasted him where he lay instead of picking him up and gloating.
Another fight with Azula ends in a draw with neither one beating the other! I’m starting to get a little peeved with all this edging lol but that was great! Azula is an absolute beast!

1. Okay, the way Aang hammered that rock spike into the drill was pretty epic. Mai’s “We lost” (and thank you for your contribution to the fight, Mai lol) is interesting. It’s true, they did lose. Not in the combat sense, Aang couldn’t beat Azula, but he didn’t have to. He just had to hold her off. Maybe that’s kind of a metaphor for the Fire Nation military in general. It’s very powerful, but it’s also marred by incompetence and weaknesses. Many of its generals are prideful and blind to their own weaknesses, or just outright incompetent. Look at this fight: even Mai just kind of gave up halfway through. If Ty Lee wasn’t trapped in the slurry, she might very well have been able to beat Katara, Sokka, and Toph, especially since they don’t Appa this time to bail them out. And if Mai had been with her, she might have been to break Katara’s concentration with a thrown weapon, thus freeing Ty Lee from the slurry.

I wondered how the Earth Kingdom lasted so long and maybe that’s just it. They can’t beat the Fire Nation, but they don’t have to. They just have to hold them off and the Fire Nation’s own shortcomings will end up beating themselves. It’s a hundred year stalemate.

1. Looks like Jet’s going to be causing a problem for Iroh and Zuko. I wonder if his relationship with them is what’s going to finally let him realize that not all Fire Nation people are inherently evil?

Hey, that’s Baby Hope! And Iroh gets to fawn over her too and I love that for him. You know, if Aang defeats the Fire Nation in a timely manner, Hope might actually get to grow up in a world at peace. Well, kind of. I’m sure there’s going to be massive issues with racism from generations of propaganda painting the other side as inhuman, huge demands for reparations, not to mention the territories the Fire Nation currently occupies. It’s been so long that there must be at least two generations of Fire Nation citizens who were born in and grew up in the Earth Kingdom, and I’m sure there’s been interbreeding with the Earth Kingdom people, because that’s what always happens with colonizers. Once they become established, genocide is pretty much the only way to get rid of them, and I doubt the Avatar is going to allow that.
So Hope’s probably going to grow up in pretty interesting times!
Um… is Ba Sing Se a city or is it a little walled country? Cuz all I see are farms and plains!
Katara, I love you, but you’re wrong. Team Avatar is going to catch on because it’s awesome, and that’s that.
Episode 13- City of Walls and Secrets

1. Oh, there’s an inner wall. So Ba Sing Se is kind of like the country in Attack on Titan! Oh yeah, in all of the excitement I almost forgot about Appa. Seriously, how many episodes has he been missing now? Damn, now that’s a city!

Yeah… something’s up with Joo Dee.
Walls inside that help maintain order? You mean walls that protect the rich and elite from the dirty poors? Lol Oh, Katara just confirmed it. They pen up all the poor people into a walled ghetto.

1. lol when Iroh’s talking about someone bringing home a lady friend, does he mean himself? Or Zuko? It is really interesting how their views of Ba Sing Se differ though. Iroh’s talking about getting a home, socializing, building a life, and he’s even found them jobs! Zuko sees the same situation as a prison.

Well, I’m glad Jet’s turning over a new leaf by letting the authorities handle things. Too bad I don’t trust the authorities to be any better.
Toph knows what’s up. Joo Dee is purposefully brushing Sokka off and distracting the group. I’m not sure why at the moment, but something is clearly up.

1. Of course they’re going to work in a tea shop! Lol Zuko’s right btw, all tea is hot leaf juice. Well, except for the teas that are hot root juice.

The cultural authority of Ba Sing Se, who guard their traditions and are called the Dai Li. Yeah… maybe it’s my conservative religious upbringing but when I hear about people “guarding their traditions” I immediately think of abuse, propaganda, and oppression. Generally people who are obsessed with traditions tend to be conservatives, who by their very nature cannot allow progress or improvement.
Someone important is trying to keep them under constant surveillance and prevent them from seeing the Earth King. In NATLA, there were spies in Omashu. Since Ba Sing Se is much bigger and more important, I imagine it’s riddled with Fire Nation spies as well, and somebody high ranking might be a traitor.

1. Joo Dee is kind of scary lol and clearly the citizens are terrified of her. But what’s interesting to me is that she’s preventing them from giving information about Appa, which suggests that whoever is stopping them from seeing the Earth King also has Appa. But why? What would be the point of keeping Aang away from Appa? Is it to restrict his mobility and make him easier to capture?

So people aren’t allowed to talk about the war, and the Dai Li seem to be responsible. But why? If everyone knows there’s a war going on anyway, why keep people from talking about it?
It’s lucky that Iroh borrowed his neighbor’s spark rocks, but why would he refrain from firebending in what he assumes is privacy? Unless he knows he’s being watched.

1. Huh, is the king’s pet bear the first normal animal on the show? Lol I am digging this undercover plan though.

I love that this show lets its characters try on different looks from time to time, even if they are mostly the same outfits. Katara and Toph’s high society get-ups are gorgeous!
The lost boys- I mean, freedom fighters are turning on Peter Pa- I mean, Jet. The weird thing is… he’s right! They are firebenders! But his behavior still isn’t healthy!

1. Okay, let’s go! Jet’s hurling accusations and attacking them in public! And now Zuko’s fighting back with swords. It’s the duel of the dual-wielders! Honestly, this is probably good for Zuko. He needs to blow off some steam after everything he’s been through.

Well how about that? Security at the palace is actually competent and Toph can’t bluff her way in.
This Long Feng guy is cultural minister to the king, which means he’s probably the bad guy! And also we haven’t met any other high ranking government officials with names, so he’s currently the only option lol

1. Geez, Zuko straight up intended to decapitate Jet right there. If Jet were a little slower, he would have! Man, I hope they do this fight scene in NATLA.

Uh-oh, scary lady Joo Dee is the scared one now. But can I just say how much I like her facial expressions?
Yeah… can’t blame them for arresting Jet. He did look like a crazy person.
The Dai Li’s specific brand of earthbending is very cool! It almost doesn’t seem like bending at all, if that makes sense. The stones they use are like a part of their own body. And of course Long Feng is their leader.
Okay I get the king is just a puppet and Long Feng is the real rule of the country, but I still don’t understand why he doesn’t allow mention of the war in the city. I mean, it’s common knowledge! A significant portion of their population are literally refugees fleeing war! Who doesn’t know
Oh… is it the king? Does the king just not know there’s a war happening and Long Feng keeps it from him so he can stay in charge? I mean, that’s still a stretch but it would explain why he doesn’t want Team Avatar talking to the king.

1. Jet is being hypnotized. Also, I do want to point out that I have seen “There is no (whatever) in Ba Sing Se” many times in the wild lol it’s nice to see where it comes from!

Ah… Long Feng is holding Appa as leverage over Aang.
I didn’t think Joo Dee could be any scarier but here we are! This episode almost has horror movie vibes.
Concluding thoughts: This was a fantastic couple/throuple of episodes! I loved seeing Suki again, and I really enjoyed how the refugee subplot ties so perfectly in with Iroh and Zuko. The whole drill sequence was probably the best “action” the show has had thus far and that’s saying something. It’s also nice to have my suspicions that the Earth Kingdom has its own corruption problems and bad guys confirmed.
I have a new theory to replace my “Iroh’s going to die theory”. They’ve been showing us all season how Zuko isn’t really cut out for life on the run, whereas Iroh embraces it. I think they’re driving to a separation between Zuko and Iroh. He may not have died, but narratively speaking Zuko and Iroh have to part ways permanently or semi-permanently for his character to grow. Iroh has been propping him up and supporting him this whole time, now it’s time for Zuko to leave the nest and become his own person.
My new theory is that Iroh will enjoy his new life in Ba Sing Se so much that he elects to stay there permanently, whereas Zuko is too restless to do so. He can’t go back to the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom will not accept him, so his only choice is to join Team Avatar, where he will likely end up teaching Aang firebending.
And to expand further on a previous theory of mine, which was: Azula will kill or depose Ozai. I’ve accepted at this point that death is off the table. Kid’s show and all that. But I noticed something… lots of people were quick to say that Azula would never kill Ozai. But not one person has said she wouldn’t depose him in those refutations (unless I’m misremembering but I don’t think I am). Since you all know not to hint at things or spoil them, I think your eagerness to point out that she won’t kill Ozai is an attempt to mislead me into thinking the whole theory is wrong so I’ll be surprised when she ends up deposing (not killing) him. I mean, I could be wrong but I have a strong feeling that the final villain is going to be Fire Lord Azula, with Ozai in exile somewhere (that would be fitting! The man who banishes his own son ends up being banished himself!).
Maybe that will even be the conclusion of Zuko’s arc! While Aang goes off to save the world from Azula, Zuko splits up to confront Ozai himself! Where we are in the show right now, it really does feel like Azula is Aang’s primary antagonist whereas Ozai is Zuko’s primary antagonist.
By the way, from here on out, no confirming or denying my theories either way, okay? Let it unfold naturally, and let me figure things out on my own. I mean, where’s the fun in just giving me the answers?
And also, some of you could be a little nicer with your criticisms. I had to block someone last time I posted and I don’t want to do that anymore. It’s fine to disagree with me, it’s fine to explain why you disagree with me. Hell, most of you do! I don’t mind that, I like that we all have different views of things even if I don’t agree. It makes things interesting! But don’t talk down to me, don’t use belittling language, don’t be disrespectful. Whenever I don’t like something about ATLA (or like something about NATLA) some of you seem to take it as a personal insult or something.
Just be polite, that’s all I ask.
Okay, I’ll see you same time next week probably!

Me and Lila always carved dozens of jack o’ lanterns every October, so they’d absolutely saturate our lawn on Halloween night. It was our thing. But looking back on it, now that I’ve lost her, I just feel bad for the pumpkins. I almost relate to them, somehow. The way they were carved up, had everything of substance inside of them torn out, and left as hollow, rotting shells with forced smiles.
Needless to say, I didn’t cope with her death well. I didn’t want to cope with it. I wanted the world to drown in the black sludge of my grief. I loathed the people I saw going about their lives, unaware that the world had already ended the moment Lila died. The Earth shouldn’t keep spinning. Life shouldn’t go on. Not without her.
Even my relatives bringing me along on a trip to Kauai only made it worse. The most gorgeous place on Earth, and it made me sick with hatred. Nothing that beautiful deserved to exist if Lila wasn’t ever going to get to see it. It wasn’t fair.
I thought I’d never enjoy or care about anything again. Then I discovered media preservation.
It started with taking some of Lila’s old VHS tapes to a video repair place to fix some issues with the footage before it’s digitized. The job fascinated me. In a universe based on entropy, where everything inevitably fades away and is forgotten… restoring something lost is like snatching it from the jaws of death, right? Like flipping the bird to the universe and its so-called ‘natural order’. People die, but information doesn’t have to.
Now, it doesn’t matter how small — be it some god-awful plug-and-play licensed game, or a cereal commercial from 80’s — it’s my mission to recover it in as high a quality as I’m able, and make sure it’s freely available online for as long as possible.
A couple weeks ago, I came across a big haul. Four boxes of old VHS tapes offered up on E-Bay for dirt cheap. Most of the tapes were just recordings of Cheers episodes already preserved in higher qualities, but one Maxell E-240 caught my interest.
First of all, I’d never seen one so melted. Sure, sometimes they were left in an attic too long, and the colors and audio start to degrade. But this one looked like it had survived a house fire. It was covered in soot and the smell of smoke, and had the overall shape of a chocolate bar left out in the sun a little too long.
Second was the label, which read in neat sharpie: ᴇᴘɪꜱᴏᴅᴇ 4,679,329 ᴍᴀʀ 8 2035.
The casing was so disfigured, I had to bust it apart just pull out the tapes and respool them in a fresh cassette. I tried to iron out the creases in the tape as best I could, but I had no illusions about it accomplishing much — the mylar surface had been irreparably warped in places by whatever fire had half-melted the thing.
Imagine my despair at the sight of that dreaded ‘ɴᴏ ꜱɪɢɴᴀʟ’. I could clearly see the tape wasn’t blank, yet no amount of adjusting the tracking or trying different TVs or VCRs accomplished anything. Just as I was about to give up, though, the thing just suddenly started playing properly at the exact instant the clock struck 3 AM, as if it had only now decided to work. My all-nighter had paid off.
I didn’t dwell on the fact that this ‘miracle fix’ had been impossible. If I’d had any sense, I’d have torn the horrid thing out of my VCR and buried it beneath holy ground. Instead, fool I was, I sat down and watched.
At first, the thing seemed unwatchable. The audio was so distorted that the show’s theme song emerged as a low, crackling, staticky wail that made my head throb, and the logo was completely indistinguishable through the flickering and interference. I thought it was a lost cause for a moment. But then a figure appeared and cleared away the static, like Moses parting the Red Sea.
It was the sight of the show’s host that hooked me. He was just… perfect. Perfect in every way. I knew it just looking at him. Infinitely handsome and likable and charismatic, and he always said the exact perfect thing. The only issue is, I don’t remember a single thing about him now, in the same way you can’t remember a dream that seemed so clear to you while you were experiencing it. He just appears in my memory as this abstract blur in a sharp suit. Yet at the time, I was awestruck, even before he said a single word.
I can’t even remember a word he said. It was like he was speaking another language, one I felt as opposed to heard. I’ll try and transcribe it as best I can into words, but know that it’s only a pathetic imitation.
“... for another night of laughs, prizes, and fun for the whole family, with your host, #####!” I noticed that the audio and visual distortion seemed to suddenly intensify the instant he said his name, rendering it completely illegible. Idiot I was, I figured that was a coincidence. “Tonight is a night of celebration, folks, because thanks to the support of loyal viewers like you, we have just been approved for, get this: two hundred thousand more seasons!”
The “live studio audience” went wild with applause. I put that in scare quotes because, as far as I could tell, besides the host, the studio seemed completely empty. As if he was standing on a plain white stage that extended outwards into infinite darkness on all sides.
“For those just joining us, the game here is simple…” He explained that this was some sort of a trivia show. Every time a guest got an answer wrong, it brought them a little closer to some sort of unspecified ‘punishment’. And if they got it right? He smirked. “Well, they get to delay the inevitable.”
I wondered what he meant by ‘inevitable’. I didn’t have to wonder long.
The host gestured to a curtain that hadn’t been there moments ago, which raised to reveal a middle-aged man. You know the type — bushy mustache, gray hair, round-rimmed glasses. Kind of guy you’d have doing your plumbing. He couldn’t look any more out of place stood up and restrained in that — what the hell is that?
I recognized that metal coffin-looking thing from a medieval torture museum I went to once. The iron maiden. The lid hung open, countless long, needle-like blades poking inwards, threaten to poke a million new holes in him if it was shut.
His situation was not lost on him. “Where… where am I? What the hell is this!?”
“Oh, lucky guess!” The host ‘joked’. More canned laughter. “I know you always loved watching those trivia shows, Malcolm? Weren’t you always sitting there, grinding your teeth, seething that it wasn’t fair? That you should be the one up on stage, winning big?”
The man paused. Even he seemed mesmerized by the unreal perfection of the host before him. “I… this is a… game show?”
“All you have to do is answer a few questions! Think you can handle that, Malcolm?” He pulled out a cue card without waiting for an answer. “And our first question! What were you doing the night of February 18th, 1998?”
The man seemed baffled. “Just… sat on my couch watching the NFL, I think? I’m not sure how I’m supposed to remember —“
He let out a startled squeal as a horrid buzzer sounded. On cue, the lid slid a third of the way closed, making him flinch. “Oooh, I’m afraid that’s the wrong answer, Frank! But you know what? I’ll give you one more chance. What were you —“
“Following a girl home!” The man cried out. “F-from the bar. There, are you happy?”
“Cor-rect!” The canned audience began cheering! “Such honesty! Now, our second question: just what were you carrying while you followed her?”
He hesitated for a little too long. And then the buzzer sounded again, and the lid slid so near to closing that its blades began poking uncomfortably against his skin. He tried to press himself against the back of the maiden as well as his restraints would allow. “Jesus! Okay! A knife, a knife!”
“Awww, if only you’d said that just a second earlier!” Another big question. “Our third question: why, Malcolm? Why did you do it?”
That set Malcolm off. He started thrashing, clawing, screaming. “Let me out of this thing, you maniac! You can’t do this to me! Do you know who I am? Is this some sort of sick joke? My lawyers will have your head for this, you—“
And then the buzzer. All of a sudden, the lid slammed shut full-force, and the man was utterly silenced save for an unnatural, drawn-out wheeze. “Another wrong answer, Malcolm! I’m afraid I was looking for: ‘because if I can’t have her, no one can’!”
I admit it. I laughed. Out of shock more than anything. How was this allowed on TV? I took it as some sort of dark comedy show, and it was kind of satisfying to see that freaky character get his comeuppance. Still, there was something unnerving to me, seeing the man’s eyes through the openings in the maiden. Wide and red and terrified. They just looked a little… too real.
But the maiden disappeared as quickly as it came, before I could dwell on it too much. “Oh, envy! Definitely one of my favorite sins.” More laughter. “Stay tuned, folks! We’ve still got a night of fun and games in store for you! But first… how’s about a word from our sponsors?”
Cut to a corporate logo which I again couldn't recognize.
“This segment was made possible by Buer Health, which has recently announced a brilliant new initiative to protect our citizens from skin cancer by removing their skin completely.”
The camera cut to a massive industrial building, resembling a solid concrete cube around 50 meters in width and height. Its surface bore arcane symbols etched using carvings of wailing, tormented faces. The host would occasionally be rendered inaudible by a deafening metallic scraping from within, though he didn’t seem to notice. The only protrusion from the building’s cubic shape was a single smokestack, belching a scarlet red smoke into the atmosphere. A queue of gaunt figures waited at the entrance, herded and coerced by their grim overseers, and there were no words to describe the procession of scarlet ghouls limping out the building’s other end.
“Owing to the nonlinearity of time, the brand new Grand Skinpeeling Machine has spontaneously appeared several years before construction deadlines, and indeed, before it was even conceived of by anyone in our timeline. People have rushed all the way from Malebolge just to try this miracle of technology out on opening day, and so far, the reviews have been stellar!”
He shoved his microphone in the face of a shambling thing that could only scarcely be called a human. Tatters of flesh clung to its exposed musculature, blowing in the wind. Its eyes were the only hint of color in that sea of bloody red, and they were wide, white and terrified. The thing screamed and wailed for as long as it could before the last tendons connecting its jaw to its face snapped, and it was left to choke and gurgle.
“An amazing wail! The results speak for themselves, folks. The Grand Skinpeeling Machine is a hit!”
So far, I was still laughing along and having a good time. The sight of the next ‘guest’, however, started making me nervous.
It was an old lady.
She couldn’t be a day younger than sixty, the sort of sweet elderly woman who in a just world would be cooking chocolate chip cookies for her grandchildren in a comfy cottage somewhere. But here she was, tied to a metal chair, eyes wide, shaking like a leaf. Unlike the last contestant, she seemed to know exactly what was happening.
“In exchange for our loving endorsement, they’ve agreed to loan us one of their star employees. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for: the Liqisma!”
Something slunk from the darkness far behind her — or perhaps it’d be more apt to say that the darkness birthed it whole-cloth. It was like a living shadow, and it took my eyes a moment to register what I was even seeing.
How do I even begin describing this creature? I could say it looked almost human, or at least like something that may have been human long ago. Or I could start with its skin, which was all black and shiny as latex and seemingly smooth on first glance, but if you looked closer you’d realize it was covered in a million tiny reptilian scales, almost like a shark. Its head was a bald man’s, utterly devoid of any distinguishing features, like the basic stock template for a human being. It was notable only for a complete lack of pupils and irises, its eyes a pure white.
Its body defied basic biology in so many key ways, I had to stare it at for what felt like an eternity just to wrap my mind around its physiology. It was at least five or six meters long, by my estimate, composed of multiple human torsos stacked one on top of the other like segments of a centipede, each melding with the ones around it at the waist and shoulders. Each torso sported a pair of short, stubby arms that propelled it with terrifying grace. It ended with a pair of human legs, perpetually bent on their knees, beneath a ‘tail’ that looked more like its coccyx was poking free from its body.
The old last could clearly hear it, and kept futilely trying to turn her head around enough to get a peek at what stood behind her. I mouthed uselessly, don’t. You don’t want to know.
“Glad you could join us again, Miss Wethersby! Judging by our ratings last week, you seemed to have been a fan favorite!”
Her voice was so soft, I could barely hear it below the static. “Oh, God. Please, why won’t you people let me go? I’ve told you, I’ve never done anything, never hurt anybody. There must be some sort of—”
He waved a hand over her, and it seemed to forcefully snap her mouth shut. “Please, Miss Wethersby, save your breath for our questions!” Another cue card. “Your first question, my friend: where did you and your husband buy your first home?”
She had to think about it for a long time. Eventually, she cried out, “Alabama! Tuscaloosa, Alabama!”
“Ding ding ding! Why, you’re already doing better than our first contestant! Next question: what breed of dog was your childhood pet?”
She had a pained look on her face as she thought. Eventually, a timer started ticking down. It wasn’t visible, so it wasn’t clear how much time she had left exactly, but the sound it made got more shrill and high-pitched with every second. “Miss Wethersby, need I remind you that we have a time limit on this show?”
A tear ran down her cheek. “I… I keep telling you people, I don’t know. I have dementia, I can’t remember, please—”
That buzzer again. “I’m afraid that was the wrong answer! Liqisma?” The old lady shuddered at the sounds of hundreds of feet drawing a little closer to her. “Now, your first grandchild. What did he look like? What color were his eyes? His hair?”
She was crying harder now, like it hurt her that she couldn’t remember something so dear to her. “I told you I can’t remember! Why are you doing this to me!?”
“If you don’t remember them, why would they remember you?” The host mocked as the buzzer sounded, and the beast drew a little closer. “Really, do you believe they still even think about you? Or do you think they’re glad that the old bag of bones isn’t there sucking up their inheritance?”
This went on for… God, it could have been an hour. I was glued to the screen all the while, frozen with terror, praying for this nightmare to just end, for her to make it out okay somehow. He poured over every little detail of the life she lived and the people she loved, delighting in how little of it she could still recall.
And the thing grew closer, and closer… until she finally felt multiple pairs of hands resting upon her shoulders. The thing was looming over her now, and a long, black tongue a few feet in length emerged from its mouth and ran trails of dark saliva over the back of her head. She looked broken down, eyes raw from crying, and I could tell by the dampness of her dress that she’d wet herself.
“Now, Miss Wethersby, our time here has been fun, but I do believe it is time for our final question. Tell me, what is the name… of your only son?”
She couldn’t even answer anymore. She just stared ahead, like her mind was a million miles away. He cackled as the buzzer sounded one final time, and threw his cue cards aside. “Thank you for playing, Miss Wethersby. Better luck next time.”
I would say the thing unhinged its jaw like a snake, but that’d be an understatement. The way the thing’s face malformed and wrinkled and stretched as it opened its maw, it no longer looked even remotely human. Its jaws must have parted at least thirty centimeters apart, revealing a second, pharyngeal pair of jaws that lashed out and gripped the woman’s skull, pulling her headlong into that darkness.
I could hear bones crunching and snapping as its throat constricted down around her body, peristaltic muscles compacting her into a meat slurry, bit by bit. Yet she just wouldn’t die. Even as her skull and upper body were already crushed and compacted, organs and muscles pressed into mulch, she still kicked her legs, twitched her fingers, let out a gurgling that must have been some attempt at screaming. She was squirming even as the beast snapped its jaw shut around the last of her, condemning her to whatever torments awaited her inside the creature.
And all the while, that horrible laughter. “Don’t worry, folks! She’ll be back next week! And the next. And the next…”
Needless to say, I wasn’t having fun anymore. In fact, I had to turn away and fight the urge to throw up. I stood, about to turn the TV off and —
“Ah, ah, ah! Don’t touch that dial, now!” I froze. There was something chilling about the way he said that, staring right into the screen as if reacting to what I was doing. I hated that grin on his face. “The real show is just beginning.”
And with the barely restrained excitement of a child on Christmas morning, he yanked back another curtain, and I recognized everything.
I recognized that crappy bootleg knockoff Always Sunny in Philadelphia jacket that was so gaudy and terrible it instantly became her favorite thing in her wardrobe. I recognized those subtle hints of slight acne she disguised as fake freckles. I recognized the way her gray eyes would remind me of those overcast mornings at the beach at Hilton Head and pointing out all the cannonball jellyfish washed up on the sands. I recognized that tattoo of the name ʀᴏᴄᴋʏ, how I’d held her all night long as she cried into my shirt after her childhood cat had died.
It was Lila.
I shuddered, gasped, fell from my seat as if I’d been punched in the stomach and the air had been knocked out of me. I couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be real. I was dreaming right now. I must be. I just had to wake up.
But I couldn’t wake up. Nothing I could do dispelled the sight of her curled up in that… that thing. That bronze statue of a bull, horns jutting on either side of a head that roaring silently up at the heavens, all while the love of my life was locked in its hollowed out belly, visible only through a pane of glass. I could hear her cry out in shock at where she’d found herself, and every whimper felt like it drove a knife through my chest.
The host soaked in the moment. It was ecstasy for him, the suffering of it all. He stared dead into the camera like he was looking right at me as she called, “What is this? Where am I?”
“Why, I have good news, my dear Lila! You’re exactly where every American dreams of being: you’re on TV.” He pointed to the camera. “And we have a very special guest in the audience tonight. Your very own beloved Jackson!”
I shuddered, hearing my own name ooze from his fetid lips. His façade of perfection was slipping, and there was something so profoundly ugly beneath it. Her eyes snapped to the camera, confused, despairing. “Jackson? Baby? What — what’s happening? What is this?”
I don’t know, I thought, gripping the sides of the TV so hard my knuckles turned white, but I’m going to get you out of there, baby. I’m going to find whoever did this and I’m going to bury them all so far beneath that studio that they’ll never-
“I’m afraid Jackson hasn’t joined us quite yet, my dear. But if you truly love him, surely you’ll give him a show to remember, won’t you?” He taunted her. “All I want, after all, is to ask you a few questions! In fact, I’ll offer you a special deal: get even a single answer right, and I’ll let you go free! But get one wrong and, well…”
On cue, a fire was lit beneath her. Small, smoldering for now, but she whimpered as she noticed the heat. We both realized in that instant what this was. By now, I was screaming things I can’t repeat here, and slamming my hands against the TV screen as if I could reach through and save her.
She bit her lip and acquiesced. Not like she had any room to argue. The host grinned and readied a cue card. “Your first question: where are you, Lila?”
“I… I don’t know. How am I supposed to know?”
“You do know, Lila. You know exactly where you are.” He smirked at her. “Here’s a free hint: what’s the last thing you remember, before you woke up here?
She thought about it… and choked back a sob, visibly shaking as the realization slowly settled in. “But… but why? I… I…”
The horrible wail of the buzzer cut her off. “Oooh, too bad! I’m afraid you’ve run out of time!”
Seemingly as if on its own, the fire doubled in size. Sparks licked the belly of the bronze bull, and began to ever-so-slowly heat the surface. She pawed around in the tight confines, searching for any reprieve from the scalding heat all around her as the metal grew hot like it’d been left out in the sun on a summer’s day. “Please! Oh, God, let me out of this thing! It hurts! It hurts!”
The host seemed to breathe in her pain as if stealing a moment’s indulgence. “Now that there is no doubt about where you are, my dear, let us proceed to the second question.” He switched to his next card. “Did you believe in God, in the end?”
“O-of course!” She pled her case as if she was being tried in court. “My entire life… every day I gave to the poor, helped the sick, did whatever I could to honor Hi-“
“I’m afraid you misunderstood my question. I asked, did you believe in him at the end? The very moment your pitiful little life was snuffed out?”
“I always believed! I’d never forsake Him!”
“Yes, yes, I know. You lived a good and holy life, didn’t you?” He cackled. “But what of the very end? You and your little husband were so excited to deliver your first little baby boy. But o, tragedy! It all went wrong, didn’t it? Your precious little boy didn’t make it through childbirth… and you followed closely behind.”
“That whole business with the botched pregnancy, it was… what do you call it? Ah, yes. A ‘test of faith’. And I’m afraid you failed. In your final moments, you watched the light fade from your child’s eyes, and you assumed — wisely, in my humble opinion — that no ‘kind’ and ‘loving’ God would allow something like that to happen.” He laughed. “Funny how after a lifetime of dutiful service, all it takes is one little mistake at the end… to bring you here. To us.”
I’d never seen such depths of despair in a person’s eyes. Such emptiness. Like with every word, he’d been scooping out another piece of her until she was hollow. And then that buzzer roared again, more shrill than ever, and I could barely see her little window through the smoke and flames. The belly of the bull was turning orange in places, and I could hear her flesh start to sizzle like meat on a grill. There are no words for the noises she made. No words at all.
“And our last, final question,” he continued. “What were your last words to your poor, beloved Jackson?”
“I love you!” I called out the answer. Bloody fingerprints stained the TV screen from my slamming my hands against it, as I screamed the answer over and over. “I love you, I love you, I love you!” At some point, I forgot that there was ever a question. I was just screaming it at her as if hoping that she could hear it, that it could bring her a modicum of comfort in that place.
The buzzer sounded again. I couldn't bring myself to look. All I could hear was the roaring of the bull, and the steam rising from its bronze nostrils.
The curtain fell. Silence drowned the sound. The host dropped all pretense that he hadn’t been speaking directly to me. “Now, Jackson. You just might be one of my new favorite audience members this show had ever had. I know this must have been hard for you. But if you’ll just stay tuned, I have one more show I know you’re certain to love!”
I didn’t bother to touch the remote. After all, nothing could be worse than what I’d just seen, right?
Wrong. Horror wracked me as the curtain rose, and I saw the man chained to a chair. I pulled away like a caveman witnessing fire, cringing and stuttering, face wet with sweat. It was the sort of fear that worked its way into your bones like a bad chill, that left you shaking, teeth chattering.
It was me.
An older me, sure. But not by much. Ten years, maybe. A gaunt and hollow version of me, one twisted by ten years of depression and hard drugs. But it was unmistakable.
His eyes widened as he recognized the host. “Oh — oh God, God please no! It can’t be — oh Christ, let me out of this chair, you —“
“Come, now! We wouldn’t want to use the lord’s name in vain, would we? I mean, that would be a sin!” The host laid a hand on the other me’s shoulder. “It may have been a few years since you watched our program, but I’m sure you remember the rules, don’t you, old friend?”
The other me was wordless, on the verge of hyperventilating, just as I was. The host was giddy with delight. “Now! Our first and only question is one I’m sure our viewer will be very interested in: what sins, exactly, do you think landed you here?”
The other me tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat. I could see it in his eyes. The years of self-destruction, the bitter hopelessness, the whirlpool of nihilism and vice and decay. The suffocating depths of a man. The darkness. How could he put it into words?
The sound of the buzzer was like a pig’s squeal. “Mmm, I’m afraid that our viewer is going to have to figure that out for himself! In the meantime, your punishment? Well, we wouldn’t want to spoil anything…”
The curtains slowly began to fall just as a couple other of those black, grotesque monstrosities emerged from the darkness. The curtain covered them all before I could get a good look at their obscene, twisted, asymmetrical figures. All I could hear was the crunching, the sound of skin tearing like paper, the screaming that went on for longer and louder than a human throat or vocal chords could endure.
The image and audio were beginning to distort, glitch, burn away. The tapes were physically melting as they played. My VCR was starting to overheat, sparks pouring from its front panel. The host voice jumped around in tone, his voice fading into the static blur as the tapes bubbled and boiled and distorted. “But, my friends, I’m afraid that concludes tonight’s episode of our show! So, with a final farewell to our dear, beloved viewer, Jackson…”
Just before the image melted away, the camera seemed to jump forward until his face filled the screen, his eyes piercing into mine as he cackled in that singsong voice.
“See you sooooon~”

Just got done building in the Qube 500 Flatpack black edition, very pleasant experience.
Here is my review in bullet points. Then tips on building in the sucker as bullet points, and finally suggestions addressed to CoolerMaster (henceforth "CM") in, you guessed it, motherflippin' bulletpoints.

Review

1. Instructions: The written instructions were not great. Had that "draw the rest of the owl" energy to them. The order of the steps in the guide were all over the place for no reason. Please reassign the Extraterrestrial who writes your manuals to other projects. I feel this whole experience could be optimized and dialed in further. Maybe a number system or a colour code. Maybe CM can do a collab with Ikea and have their people help out. My body is ready for blue/yellow cases.
   
2. Flatpack concept: I really love the flatpack case concept; it's a few tweaks away from being great, and it has the potential to become the new standard for budget and mid-range cases. I really hope CM continues with this concept. Fundamentally, it's just 12 screws. 4 in the back, 4 in the front, 2 for the top and 2 for the bottom. All attached to the central Motherboard tray. Really hard to mess up.
   
3. Packaging: very high quality. The diagrams on the interior were not helpful. I think it was missing an overall diagram illustrating that this was packaged in layers, and you were expected to assemble layer by layer. I mean, I figured it out quickly, but a piece of paper at the top announcing what was going to be happening would have been great.
   
4. Case design elements: Lots of fluff text stamped everywhere on the case itself as well, text written about how each panel is steel, or that the glass is glass. We get it CM. The materials are made of materials
   
5. Cooling: It comes with 1 fan which, if that's all the cooling you use, is not going to be enough if its a gaming rig. I do wish an extra fan was included, I associate 1 case fans with budget cases, and this is definitely not budget feeling or priced. I added a few fans cannibalized from the old case, so no big deal.
   
6. Screws: I really appreciate that there was only one size of screws. That was a nice touch. Please only ever do this going forward for all the stuff you make. Give a raise to the person who came up with that idea. The inclusion of only silver coloured screws with the black case was dissapointing. What a weird corner to cut.
   
7. Extras: I really wish I could have bought extra accessories, attachments, panels or parts for the Qube when I ordered it. I understand from the promo materials that it's designed to play nice with 3D printing to some extent, but a modular design BEGS for a part catalogue for customization. The Macaron edition, with its extra cosmetic panels, is a good first step, but those should be available separately too. This case badly needed more options. This could be a flagship product for you guys, if the logistics can keep up with an initial marketing push.
   
8. Radiator Bracket: Without a mesh side panel for the left of the case I'm not sure I understand the point of the hinged radiator bracket. It's certainly not providing much in the way of sturctural integrity and without a flow through for air, why bother? Unless the case can be modded to switch the panels? I read nothing about that in the documentation provided and all the promo pics show it behind the glass panel. Weird. Thankfully it's removeable. If panels can be flipped and moved around, please indicate it more clearly. If they can't, well, why not?
   

Tips and tricks

My specific build was a "put lipstick on a pig" kind of project. Basically a case swap for an older system to make it re-sellable. The construction quality of this thing bumped a budget-looking system to premium-looking. Very happy with the result.

1. PSU positioning: My pig uses a non-modular ATX PSU. I was very apprehensive as the GPU option I wanted to put in, a 3070, was "too long" technically speaking and although I had a smaller PSU available, I did not want to swap it given the price point I'm going for with this build.
   Thankfully the GPU went in with room to spare. How? Turns out one of the pros of a fully non-modular PSU is all the cables come out in one area and so the spot where PSU connectors would normally interfere with a long GPU is totally clear and Cooler master had a channel just waiting there to route the PSU cables. See here.
   After testing, even if I would have placed the PSU in the lowest mounting bracket offered by the case (for water cooling), there would have been room for a longer GPU with this PSU configuration. Very cool!
   
2. Cable Management: Given that there is plenty of room behind the motherboard tray for cable management and plenty of tie-down points, the Qube turned out to be fantastic for cable management even with all the extra PSU cabling I had to deal with (my Pig also uss a 2.5 SSD drive too). Overall it looks much neater than I expected despite the unshrouded PSU situation. Honestly this might be the thing that surprised me the most about the case. It looks really clean. Granted I did a lot of the cable management as I went, BEFORE the step where CM suggests doing a bit of cable management (lol).
   I really disliked how unhelpful CM's instructions were in this regard. I did all of this out of experience, but I could see new builders getting frustrated. This case has plenty of room to cable manage when disassembled, and it in fact a pretty pleasant experience, but you really need to be diligent and ask yourself at every step what can you tidy up at that point.
   
3. Cooling: A Thermal Right Peerless Assassin 120 SE fits and has plenty of clearance even with the radiator bracket. Sucking in fresh air will be challenging however.
   I mounted fans to the panels as I installed them and spent a good amount of time routing motherboard cables prior to having the side panels locked in to help with airflow and clear obstructions. I used U cable adapters for the GPU's power connectors to keep them flat and out of the way and used black electrician tape to bundle and clean up hanging connectors here and there as much as possible.
   Ultimately, I placed the PSU in the highest bracket as I wanted space for a front fan and airflow. As a result of the PSU situation, I was able to fit a 140 mm fan in the front of the case with no obstruction, as well as another fan at the bottom close to the front's fan, creating a corner intake area. I added two top 140mm fans as well and kept the case's back 120 mm fan.
   
4. Future layout options: I could probably have 3 X 120 mm fans at the bottom of the case, although I'm leaning towards instead getting a PCIE riser cable to vertically mount the GPU. I think it will look nicer and give more room for the air to move diagonally. Based on my rough estimates it should not interfere with the bottom fan I already installed and CM includes an adapter to reorient the slots at the back. This layout possibility was unexpected (as I would have gotten a PCIE riser otherwise). This computer will look much nicer than I expected.
   
5. Power On: Don't forget to switch on the PSU before wrapping up. That said, two screws are between you and lifting the top panel if you did forget so don't worry too much about it.
   
6. Back Fan Cable: The included fan's connector cable position can interfere with the back panel's attachment (it gets squeezed in). I suggest fully routing the cable preemptively before screwing that in.
   
7. Hook up all the Mobo's connectors before screwing the panels together: I suggest routing and connecting anything and everything that latches on to the Motherboard as soon as you can. I'd route the PSU cables before actually attaching the PSU to the case as well, just in case you need to plug and unplug things for cable routing purposes. Once everything is in, especially with a chonky aircooler, it's incredibly difficult to access anything on the Motherboard. Very happy I'm selling this system rather than upgrading it, lol. Accessing the GPU release thingy is a nightmare on a cheaper motherboard. If you do need to do that, remove the bottom panel completely and slide a chopstick under there to press it.
   
8. Fan/RGB connectors: If you go with a Front-Bottom Pull to Top-Back Push airflow configuration, be mindful of the layout of the fan power connectors on your motherboard. You might need a fan controller. Same story with RGB connectors.
   

Suggestions for CM

1. Screw screws: Given the thickness of the panels, a snap system of some kind could have been used instead of screws altogether. A screwless flatpack case... maybe a collab with Lego instead? I'd love to connect the case panels lego style via overlapping panels touch points. If you added lego style texture to different parts of the case the amount of buzz you'd get on social media from people building little worlds in their case would absolutely be worth the hassle.
   
2. Side Panel Cowardice: Very disappointed that there is no left mesh side panel option and just glass. I feel the radiator bracket was included for that use case, but someone at CM chicken'ed out midway through production and here we are, with a useless bracket and a fragile glass panel.
   The glass panel stands out like a sore thumb considering the rest of the case is built like a Tank. Without that glass panel the amount of packaging and therefor the size of the flatpack itself could have been significantly shrunk down further which would have been fantastic. Really a missed opportunity here.
   
3. Give me diversity or documentation (ideally both): Although I appreciate all the different configurations you present outright (air, water, test bench), making side panels interchangeable (left/right) and allowing the front panel to be reversable (top/down) so that the IO is properly oriented for a side build (with feet that can be latched to the side panel), would have been better. Is it possible? I don't know! I did not see any mention of that in the confusing documentation you provided me. If these things ARE possible, then better documentation is necessary.
   
4. Simpler core design, more options: The interior motherboard tray is a bit overengineered. A simpler design could help lower the cost of the case and probably make it easier for you to make. CM could make fancy layouts still possible, by selling optional mobo trays, panels and parts that are compatible with a fundamentally simpler primary design. I think the "Qube 600 / Qube CM X Ikea / Qube CM X Lego / whatever the next iteration is going to be called" should have a much simpler design and instead feature a robust catalogue of optional panels and parts for customization.
   
5. Cable free cutouts: If you insist on overengineering your interior motherboard tray, then the Qube series would be a prime candidate for some of those new "cable-free motherboards" with the cables facing backward that require special cutouts.
   
6. Centre motherboard tray, flipped GPU, wait, did I just invent the Micro-Qube?: Alternatively, including a PCIE riser cable to allow the mounting of the GPU behind the motherboard tray would allow for a shorter tower and the now centred motherboard tray could provide more structural rigidity. "Bottom-Top" or "Side" airflow would be necessary but it would look killer. Maybe that could be the basis of a SFF "M-Qube" design?
   
7. Your hotdog moment: If you are going to include only 1 fan. Can it be nicer? This fan does not make me want to even bother looking at CM fans for the rest of the build. If you cut corners on your case with this fan, what corners are you cutting with your case fans? Think beyond the case for a moment. If you provide consumers with a super amazing fan or two in your cases, with a fairly unique design would that not lead to consumers buying more of the same fans to match? If it's only one fan, sure, swapping that out is doable, but if you include 2 or 3 of those with each case, then swapping all those out feels wasteful. Much easier to just add to them. Especially if they perform well.
   Consider this your Costco Hotdog. Include great fans. Hell, if you want to guarantee people pick your fans, use a bigger form factor (180 mm and 200 mm) If you design them unique enough, you are basically forcing people to buy into your fan ecosystem since there's almost no competition to begin with at those sizes.
   
8. Listen to the Bees: Why is the pattern of a case made by CM, a company with a hexagon as it's logo, circles rather than a grid of hexagons?
   Have you guys not received the memo? Hexagon is the bestagon.
   You need to leverage the competitive advantage you have in this area of geometry and leverage it hard. Across from me now sits the Lian Li 216. You know what I see at the back of it? Lots and lots of CM logos? Why? Because, they paid attention in geometry class and know it's the most efficient design to minimise waste in a pattern. Hexagons = better airflow. CM, wacha doin' baby. This should be YOUR thing.
   You could even integrate hexagons into your IO or better yet, integrate your IO into the hexagon design of your cases. Your case buttons are okay, but you need to do better. Go. Wild. With the motherboard cutouts of the motherboard tray, the screw heads, the included fan(s), if you can shape it like a hexagon, do it. OWN THAT SHAPE!
   I PROMISE you nobody will complain. This is a no-brainer. Come on guys...
   

Conclusion

Anyway, I'll be waiting for your request to sign off to you all the rights to all the good ideas I've provided you today, accompanied by a fat check or a custom made system of equal value featuring lots of hexagons. 🐝
You're welcome.
Now please go redesign the Hyper 212 Evo. ThermalRight has stolen your budget crown and you need to fire back with a dynamite value proposition...
Might I interest you in a hexagon-shaped radiator and fan setup? The CM Hexacooler? You know, to launch your new series of hexagon shaped fans. The world is ready CM, do it.
(T.L.;D.R.) Oh yeah, the case, ahem, 8/10. Better than expected, but still short from greatness.

Hi,
Another rookie here trying to self-gc kitchen and bathroom remodel. Need to redo a kitchen and 5 bathrooms. Where I am from labour is insane and I need to save costs. We did remodeling before through a GC but I had to be quite involved as well. I can also do PM activities and understand dependencies.
Here is what my plan looks like. I'd appreciate some input on this:

1. Design the kitchen with the help of the cabinet company. Design the bathrooms.
2. Order major material: cabinets, tiles, fixtures, toilets, tubs / pans.
3. Order appliances.
4. Order lighting fixtures, recess lights.
5. Get engineering drawings that shows plumbing, electrical, cabinets, etc. Need a minor separator wall torn down, it is not load bearing.
6. Apply for a permit (have no idea what it takes).
7. Get a demolition crew to tear down kitchen and bathrooms.
8. Get carpenter to make framing related alterations. Frame and mark exact locations of where fixtures and mounting points would be.
9. Plumber to change water and drain lines.
10. Electrician to run outlets, lights and switches.
11. At some point here expect the inspector to verify framing, electrical, plumbing and waterproofing.
12. Someone to put the drywalls, prep the surface, install hardie-backer walls,.
13. Wait and apply the texture.
14. Wait and paint the walls.
15. Tile person installs floor and wall tiles.
16. Installation of kitchen floor tiles.
17. Installation of tub/shower pan, floor and wall tiles. Not sure if it would be the plumber installing the tub/shower pan or the tile person.
18. Wait and apply grout.
19. Installation of kitchen cabinets, vanity, sink, faucet etc. (who should I look for that?)
20. Installation of countertops
21. Electrician comes back and installs lights that needs to go over the tiles, etc..
22. Installation of major appliances.
23. Painter comes back to do final touchups.
24. Once all is done another crew comes in and installs hardwood floors.
25. Tada... Ready to move it. Hope this is not in 24 months :D

I understand that there will be lots of hiccups with contractors increasing the prices, not showing up, some things behind the walls not up to expectations, city giving us a bit of a hard time, and maybe ourselves changing things along the way, but I believe this is manageable and worth taking the effort. Would appreciate some input on the steps above. As you noticed I wasn't clear about which "professional" should I call to take care of the certain parts. Also, would be great to get some input on how to work with the city for permits.
Thanks!
Edit: Noone is living in the house and I can tolerate some delay.

Welcome to the Peanut Gallery! Today I saved Storyteller's intro to a file, and Ukraine is getting a little bit thumped. This is apprentice Lara filling in for the master thestoryteller987 who is particularly missed at times like these because now you'll see just how much I actually don't know geographically. Remember I know less than nothing!

Russian forces began an offensive operation along the Russian-Ukrainian border in northern Kharkiv Oblast on the morning of May 10 and made tactically significant gains. Russian forces are likely conducting the initial phase of an offensive operation north of Kharkiv City that has limited operational objectives but is meant to achieve the strategic effect of drawing Ukrainian manpower and materiel from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine.

Numbers seem to suggest Russia has between 50,000 and 80,000 men on this job, with a 20\;1 artillery advantage. ISW assesses that this push is likely less about running for Kharkiv City and more about pulling man power away from other sectors (Chasiv Yar) so that they can sttart making gains. ISW thinks Russia is aiming to get in artillery range of Chasiv Yar but won't actually try and take it until June July, which tracks. they're estimating an advance to about 20k, sitting at time of report at 30k and artillery with a range of 25k (k being km.).
Now, this is certainly the start of an offensive, not sure if we're still in spring here or this is technically the start of the summer offensive, but the reason this is happening, I think, is stated very well by Ukraine:

Pavlyuk noted that he is working to stand up 10 new Ukrainian brigades ahead of the anticipated summer 2024 Russian offensive operation and noted that equipment, and not manpower, is the main bottleneck in Ukraine's defensive operations.

that lays squarely at the feet of the US. I'm sorry, but it really does. Russia's successes can literally, right now, be chalked up to the US wasting what, 2 months? Just saying.

Russian forces will likely leverage their tactical foothold in northern Kharkiv Oblast in the coming days to intensify offensive operations and pursue the initial phase of an offensive effort likely intended to push back Ukrainian forces from the border with Belgorod Oblast and advance to within tube artillery range of Kharkiv City

Like I previously mentioned, I should think it is Russia's idea to advance forward, bomb the crap out of the city for a month or two, then wander on forward and take the rubble. It's kind of what they do.

The limited efforts that Russian forces are currently conducting do not suggest that Russian forces are immediately pursuing a large-scale sweeping offensive operation to envelop, encircle, and seize Kharkiv City, however

See? I read the ISW report before I post now! Aside from that though, does anyone think russia actually could? ISW mentioned themselves that Russia actually doesn't have the best record when it comes to operations like what they are doing now, plus that some of the troops are not going to be very combat effective.

Russian offensive operations along the Kharkiv international border likely have the strategic objective of drawing and fixing Ukrainian forces to this axis to enable Russian advances in other areas of eastern Ukraine.

Think of it like this\; Your job is to defend a house from someone breaking in. So they go to the back garden, and hurl a brick through your window. You dash towards the back, so they go to the front and smash another window. You dash back the other way. They go to the side, and smash a window there. You run that way. Accept now, you're thinking there's three people, you're not sure which to defend, you check the bedroom and duck into the bathroom on your way back to the front room... The person outside notes you've just left the front room unguarded, and drives a tank through your wall.
That's Russia. They're hitting Ukraine hard in several areas, hoping Ukrainian's will either panic, and run around aimlessly, or that because they're straining to keep up, a breach will open up and Russia will drive a tank into their front garden. And from their perspective: it's win win, either they make a breach and bam, or they get to bomb the crap out of Kharkiv City,. All at the low, low cost of about 50,000 husbands, sons and scumbags.

ISW continues to assess that Russian forces will likely struggle to seize Kharkiv City should they aim to do so.

ISW throwing shhade. Or more realistically, this is ISW saying: Every time Russia tries to take a city, Ukraine defends it hahrd until it's nothing more than rubble.

Russian forces likely decided to launch offensive operations along the international border area to take the best advantage of the relatively brief time left before Western aid arrives at the Ukrainian frontline at scale.

Okay, so I was a little harsh earlier to Uncle Sam/. He has finally put down his beer, gone outside and cracked open his gun shed. the problem is that it's just not there yet. We're going to see some heart heavy news out of Ukraine for a bit. But remember, Uncle Sam trademark democracy and liberty are on their way.

Ukrainian Ground Forces Commander Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavlyuk stated that the war in Ukraine will enter a critical phase in the next two months and commented on recent Russian advances around Chasiv Yar and Avdiivka.

Basically, he says what I said but in more detail and with better explanations. He also said he prefers his steak medium rare. don't believe me? this is why you should read ISW's report!

US President Joe Biden approved up to $400 million worth of military assistance for Ukraine as part of the Presidential Drawdown Authority Fund on May 10.

Woo! Grandpappy President gave Ukraine pocket money in the form of air defense missiles for Patriots and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS); Stinger anti-aircraft missiles; equipment to integrate Western launchers, missiles, and radars with Ukrainian systems; HIMARS ammunition; 105mm and 155mm artillery rounds; Bradley infantry fighting vehicles; M113 armored personnel carriers; Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles; Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles; Javelin and At-4 anti-armor missiles; HARM missiles; and other equipment and weapons as well as exactly one fuck you notice to Russia, sent first class on, hopefully, some fighter planes.
Much as I am joking here, to me, this reads like a huge package Bradleys alone are worth their weight in gold. Once this actually gets to Ukraine, this will be a whole big bbag of woop ass.

Ukrainian forces conducted a drone strike on the night of May 9 to 10 against an oil refinery in Kaluga Oblast that Ukrainian forces previously struck in March 2024.

Pop! We fixed it! Pop pop! No we didn't.
Someone should really do refinery bingo, because I kind of can't.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is retaining his position in the Russian government for Russian President Vladimir Putin's new term of office, and there have been speculations but no confirmations of changes to Putin's cabinet.

the short of it? Bootlicker kept his position., an unexperienced economist but seasoned bootlicker got a new job. Putin surrounds himself with yes men as usual. What's new.

US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb stated that US defense officials partnered with SpaceX to stop the Russian military's unauthorized use of Starlink internet terminals in frontline areas of Ukraine

I admit? I did not undewstand this point. Russia has been piggybacking on Starlink? But this was the same Starlink that was turned off to stop Ukraine using it for offensive operations? So he can't do that to Russia because... Still, it's good news! But why do I feel like this good news was with a healthy payment to Mr stickup his ass got too much money as it is?
Which, okay side track for a minute, fun fact: Twitter's basic teer is 10,000 tweet retrievals per month at the app level for a not cheap $100 per month. $100 is, in my humble opinion, possibly something a dev could crowd fund, or as an accessible program maker myself, I could maybe cough over. But lets do math: 10000/30=333.33 333.33/24=13.87
So that's 14 requests (be generous( per hour, or 1 request every roughly 4 minutes. If you only have 1 user. I'm sorry how are you supposed to make this program again? Next teer up is $5000 a month, which if I had $5000 spare a month, I'd not be posting on Reddit right now!! And this implemented by the guy who has a net worth of 193.2 billion. He's that strapped for cash.
Anyway, rant over. Back to Ukraine, sorry everyone. clears throat

Russian forces recently marginally advanced near Donetsk City and in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area.

Marginally is still forward, and it's likely we'll continue to see news like this over the next week or two.
Honestly I think part of why Russia is suddenly on the offensive is, 1, dry soil, but 2, election is over. He can stop pretending to care for the next 5 years now.

Russian and Belarusian authorities continue to illegally deport Ukrainian citizens, including children, to Russia and Belarus.

Legally? War crime. Morally? This is just sick.

Pavlyuk argued during his interview that the possible future loss of Chasiv Yar will have no "decisive significance" for the Ukrainian war effort, which is consistent with ISW's running assessment that the Russian seizure of Chasiv Yar would be operationally significant.[31] ISW uses the expression "operationally significant" to describe an advance that can alter the course of a campaign composed of multiple individual battles. ISW refers to advances that merely push the frontline back some distance without securing major objectives or significantly increasing the odds of securing major objectives as "tactically significant." The seizure of Chasiv Yar would shift the frontline further west and create a large and defensible Russian salient from which Russian forces could launch further offensive operations north, west, or south. A possible Russian seizure of Chasiv Yar would not result in the immediate collapse of the Ukrainian eastern line but would change the configuration of the frontline to a degree that would set much more favorable conditions for future Russian offensive operations against Ukraine's belt of "fortress" cities, which runs from Slovyansk to Kostyantynivka and form the backbone of Ukraine's defense of Donbas.

Included at the bottom of the report because it explained a lot. And would make a lot of sense if you can see a map. alas, I can not. I still need to order my tactile maps of Ukraine that show this city level information.

Ukrainian officials continue to warn that Russian forces are systematically and increasingly using chemical weapons and other likely-banned chemical substances in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Support Forces Command stated on April 5 that Ukrainian forces have recorded 371 cases of Russian forces using munitions containing chemical substances during the last month and 1,412 cases of Russian forces using chemical weapons between February 2023 and March 2024.

Please give Ukraine what they need to bring this war to an end.
‘Q’ for the Community:

• Largely we are going to see somme dark reports coming out of Ukraine for a little while. So if you could go back in time to change this up to the limit of 1 year, what would you do?

• Join the conversation on /TheNuttySpectacle!

I've seen a lot of folks asking questions about and discussing appropriate ratios of different card types in aristocrats decks recently, so I wanted to take the opportunity to provide an example of how to use probabilities to determine what might be best for your specific deck.
I'm a very longtime [[Teysa, Orzhov Scion]] player. Here's the decklist I use, and the primer that goes along with it. This post is basically summarizing the hypergeometric discussion from that primer, so feel free to go read it in its entirety there if it's of interest to you.
The bottom line that I'd recommend is identifying the range of turns in which you want your deck to present a lethal threat, determine how many cards you'll get to see by the start and end of that ideal range, and add cards to bring the probability of drawing each piece you need up to where you want it. The key takeaway I've learned from examining my own decklist that I'd like to share is that, in my opinion, quantity of card draw is more important than any other category of card, because seeing more cards improves the odds of seeing every category of card, while being really efficient on deck space. Once you have a sense of the probability benchmarks you'd like to hit, you can iteratively tune the number of expected cards seen by your target turn against the number of hits of whatever card type in your deck until you get to a balance that makes the most sense for your deck.
I think all of these ratios are commander and deck dependent, so I'll walk through using my Teysa list as an example because it's what I'm familiar with, and then add some thoughts about how you might apply the same idea to other commanders in a more general sense.
I'm also abbreviating some of the tables, because I can't post images in this sub and manually copying over Google Sheets tables to Reddit tables is beyond tedious lol.
For context, my Teysa deck tries to win its games with finite drain rather than infinite combos, and attempts to do so between turns 7 and 9. Keep these goals in mind as we look at some stats.

Draw

I'm proposing that we want to base our mulligans around card draw, and so our goal is to reliably start the game with card draw in hand. The reason for this will become clear once we get to the other card categories, so bear with me for now. How much card draw do we need to do that? Based on u/PapaZedruu's outstanding Henzie primer, which inspired me to do this analysis in the first place, we can examine Yuriko's cEDH deck for ideas. [[Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow]] needs a one-drop on turn 1 to ninjutsu in Yuriko on turn 2, and these decks run 13 one-drops for the purpose. Why 13?

Copies in Deck	Chance of 1+ in Opening Hand
11	57.36%
12	60.75%
13	63.91%
14	66.84%
15	69.68%

A 64% chance seems fairly arbitrary, right? The answer is mulligans.

Initial Chance of Success	Mul1	Mul2	Mul3
57.36%	81.82%	92.25%	96.69%
60.75%	84.59%	93.95%	97.63%
63.91%	86.97%	95.30%	98.30%
66.84%	89.00%	96.35%	98.79%
69.58%	90.75%	97.19%	99.14%

After taking the free mulligan with this count we hit an 87% chance of success, and the benchmark we're looking for is a 95% chance to have a draw spell in hand by the mulligan to 6. This is obviously not a guarantee, but if it's the benchmark that cEDH is comfortable using considering their other deck space requirements, it's a benchmark that works for me. Okay great, we can very reliably start the game with a draw spell in hand. Why does that matter?

Sacrifice Outlets

When do we need to see a sacrifice outlet? In my deck at least, we want to see a sacrifice outlet by the time we're trying to win the game, which means turns 7 - 9. They're certainly useful before that to help us generate value or dodge exile effects, but we have a lot of incidental sacrifice built into the deck's card draw options in particular, so that's less of a concern. The primary purpose for sacrifice outlets is to be used to win the game alongside drain effects and a sufficient quantity of sacrifice fodder. With that purpose in mind, how many do we need to reliably see one by the time we're trying to win? Again, abbreviating these tables to save me a lot of typing:
Seven Sac Outlets

Cards Seen	Odds to Draw More Than 0
16	72.11%
23	85.31%

Eight Sac Outlets

Cards Seen	Odds to Draw More Than 0
14	71.89%
20	84.76%

Nine Sac Outlets

Cards Seen	Odds to Draw More Than 0
13	73.43%
18	84.93%

Ten Sac Outlets

Cards Seen	Odds to Draw More Than 0
11	71.03
16	84.39
19	89.43

Eleven Sac Outlets

Cards Seen	Odds to Draw More Than 0
10	71.03%
16	87.19%
18	90.38%

Unsurprisingly it depends a lot on how many we're running in the deck. I've abbreviated these tables to show only three cases for each count; the first case is the breakpoint at which we're more likely to draw 2+ sacrifice outlets than we are to draw 0, the second case is the breakpoint at which we hit an 85% chance to see one, and the third case (if it's within reason) is the breakpoint at which we hit a 90% chance.
Let's start with our expectations low. My deck is running 7 sacrifice outlets, and the first breakpoint is at 16 cards seen, where we have a 72% chance of seeing at least one. How many cards have we seen by our target of turn 7?
Cards Seen

Turn	Cards
0	7
1	8
2	9
3	10
4	11
5	12
6	13
7	14
8	15
9	16

So if we need to see 16 cards to hit the breakpoint, and we're seeing 14 naturally, how do we see 2 extra cards? That's right, we build our deck to have a 95% chance of starting the game with card draw in hand. It's very reasonable to expect our draw engines to each draw two cards a piece on average; all of the sacrifice cantrips do, and while we'll occasionally have variance such that [[Tallyman of Nurgle]] falls in the 0 - 1 range, we'll also occasionally get variance where [[Plumb the Forbidden]] or [[Braids, Nightmare Arisen]] draws us 6.
Awesome, so we can reliably see 16 cards by turn 7. Can we do any better than 72% though? It's more likely than not, but it's not at all close to the 90% benchmark I'm more comfortable with. To hit an 85% chance with 7 outlets we need to go all the way to 23 cards, 9 more than we'd see naturally, which isn't feasible. You can check out some of the other tables for varying values with different card counts.
The first one to get right up to 90% is the 10 sacrifice outlets case, which gives us just shy of an 85% chance to see one by turn 7 (the start of our window), and a 90% chance to see one by turn 9 (the end of our window) assuming we can see just one additional card (Surveil lands are the bomb dot com).
The ideal breakpoint in a vacuum might also be considered 11 sacrifice outlets, which gives a more than 87% chance of seeing one by turn 7 with two extra draws, and finally a 90.38% chance to see one by turn 9, without any additional draws. This means if we get those two extra draws we're building around, we do manage to hit the 90% benchmark we keep referencing.
Okay but I'm running 7 sacrifice outlets what the heck, how does this help. This is why tutors are so good in aristocrats decks. It's extremely important not to overload your tutors with how many cards you're treating them as at once, and in this deck I treat them as exactly both a sacrifice outlet and a drain effect. I'm running 3 tutors, which puts us up to 10 sacrifice outlets.
This still isn't 11, which is largely because I have found seeing an additional card by turn 9 extremely reliable with the Surveil lands being printed, and I don't think the extra 1% chance of seeing a sacrifice outlet without requiring that draw is worth an entire deck slot. I'm then going to extend this benchmark of "10 cards = 85% by turn 7 with planned 2 extra cards seen, 90% by turn 9 with one additional card seen" across the rest of the deck's construction. Totally personal preference though, like I said this is just an example meant to showcase how this kind of probability math can help with deckbuilding.

Drain Effects

This is basically the same math as the sacrifice outlets, so I won't just restate everything. Drawing two of them is much better than drawing two sacrifice outlets, but these cards don't have much use outside of trying to win the game which the sacrifice outlets do, so I'm going to ignore this nuance for the sake of simplifying the math. Following the sacrifice outlets, we should run 7 of these and count our 3 tutors to hit 10 total for the same reasons.

Sacrifice Fodder

Fodder is more similar to the card draw category than it is sacrifice outlets and drain effects, because we can put it to such good use in the midgame for value, particularly value in terms of drawing cards. I run 15 fodder cards, which gives us an 85% chance of seeing one by turn 4 without any additional card draw, and a 90% chance of seeing one by turn 6 without any additional card draw. If we instead assume we've seen one extra card by turn 5 as we're working towards seeing two by turn 7, it's reasonable to assume this 90% is frequently accelerated from turn 6 to turn 5, which is a very reasonable time to resolve any of them. I find 15 to be the right number for me because it satisfies the same threshold as card draw in the opening hand, which also maintaining very high chances to be draw outside of the opening hand, as we've already decided we're focusing our mulligans around our draw effects instead. Much like not wanting to overload our tutors, we also don't want to overload our mulligans.

Everything Else

All of the other things a deck wants to do can be examined in the same way, and then interpreted by the deck builder to help make decisions about ratios. I'm not going to go into detail on my own deck here because if you're interested you can just read the primer and this post is certainly long enough already. By way of example, I'm using the benchmarks of having a 90% chance of seeing two "removal spells" by turn 6 to be able to try to stop an opponent on the same timeline as us from winning, assuming our decks are of roughly even power; I'm also running 10 finisher effects to meet the same numbers as sacrifice outlets and drain effects without overloading my tutors, and choosing to run more of these than either sacrifice outlet or drain effect because they're generally high impact at any point of the game and have the best role compression, allowing many of them to be used as fodder or recursion etc.

Summary

This post is less interested in saying exact numbers everyone should run, and more trying to emphasize that you should consider using hypergeometric probabilities to help you determine how many you want to run in your deck. Are you trying to win between turns 10 and 12? Maybe turns 5 and 7? Those numbers are going to have very different requirements. Do you have a sacrifice outlet or a drain effect in the command zone? Do you have specific combo lines you want to hit? Do you not want to run any tutors? That's also going to hugely skew the numbers.
I really recommend just using Google Sheets, which is free to use and extremely googleable to learn, and lets you look at a whole bunch of information all at once. Note though that the standard HYPGEOMDIST function only returns a probability for an outcome of exactly the count you've specified. So filling a table of say, Cards in Deck vs Cards Seen where you're interested in seeing the probability of at least one card of a given type, you'd want to setup the formula as 1 - HYPGEOMDIST(the case in which you draw 0 copies), which is equivalent to any case that isn't exactly 0 cards.
I cannot fathom hating spreadsheets, but if you do, there's a nice and simple hypergeometric calculator hosted on AetherHub, and a convenient card combination calculator if you're curious about the odds of having multiple specified card types in a particular set of draws at once.
Best of luck in all your aristocratsing! :D

This is what I will do on the day Democracy dies.

This comprehensive strategy is designed with the specific purpose of protecting groups most at risk during such political transitions—political activists, minority communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other groups that frequently find themselves targeted by regimes and movements hostile to democratic norms. (i.e. MAGA)
The intent of this strategy is to offer a dual-phased approach that prepares for both pre-election and post-election scenarios. By doing so, we aim to ensure that the rights and safety of at-risk populations are maintained regardless of political developments. The strategy encompasses a series of actions focused on enhancing data privacy, establishing covert safe havens, and creating paper organizations to provide both legal and social cover. Each element has been carefully crafted to blend into the community seamlessly, thereby minimizing the risk of detection and retaliation by potential adversaries, including groups like MAGA, known for their hostility towards certain demographics and ideologies.
The details outlined here are not merely precautionary; they are essential in a time when political unpredictability can lead to sudden and severe consequences for those standing on the front lines of advocacy and social change. This introduction sets the stage for a strategy that is both protective and adaptive, ensuring that all measures are grounded in a deep understanding of the risks involved and the absolute necessity for discretion and thoroughness.

Background Context

Political Climate Overview

The global political landscape is currently characterized by increasing instability and a troubling shift toward authoritarian governance. This trend manifests distinctly in various regions, contributing to a world where democratic principles are routinely challenged and often undermined.

• Increasing Volatility: Across the globe, nations are experiencing heightened political instability which, in many cases, precipitates the rise of authoritarian rule. This instability often stems from economic distress, social unrest, or perceived governmental inefficiencies, which authoritarian figures exploit to consolidate power.
  
• Shifts Toward Authoritarianism: Recent years have seen several governments adopt practices that are starkly authoritarian. Examples abound where states have suppressed free speech through censorship, manipulated electoral processes to maintain power, and systematically weakened the independence of the judiciary. These actions not only compromise the checks and balances essential to democratic governance but also threaten the fundamental rights and freedoms of their citizens.
  
• Hostility Towards Democratic Norms: A significant rise in movements and ideologies that oppose democratic norms has been noted, often under the banners of nationalism or populism. These movements exploit fears and prejudices, rallying support through divisive and sometimes xenophobic rhetoric, posing a direct threat to the pluralistic fabric of societies.
  

Vulnerable Groups

In this increasingly authoritarian environment, certain groups find themselves particularly vulnerable to persecution and discrimination. Their exposure to risk is exacerbated by their visibility and their perceived opposition to authoritarian values and practices.

• Political Activists: Typically the first in the line of fire, political activists face significant dangers under authoritarian shifts. Their efforts to organize opposition, promote democratic values, and protect human rights often make them targets for harassment, arbitrary detention, and worse, as they are viewed as direct threats to authoritarian interests.
  
• Minority Communities: Ethnic, racial, and religious minorities frequently endure increased discrimination and violence when authoritarian regimes rise to power. Such regimes often scapegoat these communities, enacting policies that strip them of their rights and freedoms, and in some cases, actively encourage acts of violence and persecution against them.
  
• LGBTQ+ Individuals: LGBTQ+ communities are exceedingly vulnerable under more conservative or outright authoritarian regimes. They may face draconian legislation, social ostracism, and violence. These measures not only threaten their personal safety but also seek to erase their presence from public life.
  
• Other At-Risk Populations: Refugees, immigrants, and individuals with dissenting ideological views are also at significant risk. They may confront stricter immigration controls, risk of expulsion, and exclusion from political participation. Under authoritarian regimes, these groups often experience a harsh curtailing of their freedoms and a denial of their right to partake in society.
  

The Threat of Project_2025

A specific example of these growing threats is the emergence of initiatives like Project_2025, which symbolize the strategic and organized efforts by authoritarian groups to reshape societies according to their ideologies. Project_2025 is often cited as a blueprint for systemic change intended to dismantle current democratic frameworks and replace them with systems that suppress dissent and centralize power. This project is not merely a theoretical risk but a concrete plan that could lead to significant repression of any form of resistance or criticism.
This background context sets the stage for understanding the critical need for a robust strategy to protect vulnerable groups and preserve democratic norms. The following sections will delve into the specifics of pre-election and post-election strategies designed to counter these threats and safeguard the fundamental rights and freedoms of those at risk.

Pre-Election Strategy: Part 1 - Data Privacy and Social Media Scrubbing

Objective

The primary objective of this part of the strategy is to safeguard personal data to protect individuals from potential threats in a politically unstable environment. By minimizing the digital footprint, the strategy aims to prevent hostile entities from using online activities and histories against individuals, especially those active in movements or communities that could be targeted in a regime shift.

Importance of Data Privacy

In the context of potential authoritarian shifts, personal data on digital platforms can be weaponized against individuals. This includes identifying personal networks, political stances, and other sensitive information that could lead to harassment or worse. Protecting this data is not just about privacy; it's about maintaining personal safety and freedom in the face of growing surveillance and repression.

Actions

Timing and Planning

• When to Begin:
  
  • Initiate the data scrubbing process six months prior to critical political events, like elections or significant legislative changes, to ensure that the data is irrecoverable by the time these events occur.
• How to Plan:
  
  • Set up a phased plan that includes initial assessments, periodic reviews, and final checks. This plan should cover all platforms where personal data might be stored, from social media to cloud storage services.

Content Removal

• Types of Content to Remove:
  
  • Political Statements: Remove posts or likes that clearly align with specific political ideologies or opposition movements. For example, deleting tweets supporting political protests or Facebook posts criticizing government policies.
  • Group Affiliations: Withdraw from public or semi-public social media groups that are directly associated with activist movements or politically sensitive causes. For instance, leaving a Facebook group dedicated to organizing protest events.
  • Personal Beliefs: Scrub any content that expresses strong ideological beliefs that could be targeted under a new regime, such as blog posts advocating for controversial reforms or Instagram posts supporting marginalized communities.
• Reasons for Removal:
  
  • Removing such content significantly reduces the risk of being targeted based on historical data. This proactive step is crucial for individuals who could be directly impacted by policy changes, ensuring that their online presence does not inadvertently expose them to risks.

Privacy Education

• Educational Initiatives:
  • Workshops and Seminars: Conduct these sessions focusing on teaching effective methods for securing online profiles and handling personal data. For example, a seminar could demonstrate how to use Facebook’s privacy settings to hide past posts and tighten profile visibility.
  • Online Resources: Develop comprehensive guides that detail steps for data auditing on popular platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google. These guides would offer instructions on reviewing and deleting old posts, checking app permissions, and understanding privacy policies.
  • Community Outreach: Collaborate with local libraries, schools, and community centers to spread awareness about the importance of data privacy. This might include setting up informational booths, distributing flyers, or hosting Q&A sessions with privacy experts.

Examples

• Example of Effective Content Removal: Jane Doe, an activist, reviewed her Twitter account and removed tweets that could be controversial. She deleted tweets advocating for large-scale protests and any direct criticisms of political figures known for their harsh retaliation against dissenters.
  
• Community Education Example: A community center hosts a monthly workshop where participants are taught how to scrub their digital footprints effectively. These workshops provide hands-on training on privacy settings for major social networks and strategies for minimizing personal data exposure online.
  

This refined approach to data privacy ensures that individuals are not only aware of the risks but are also equipped with the tools and knowledge to protect themselves effectively. By systematically reducing their digital footprint, individuals can navigate politically turbulent times with greater security and confidence.

Pre-Election Strategy: Part 2 - Establishment of Covert Safe Havens in Plain Sight

Objective

The primary purpose of creating covert safe havens is to provide secure and discrete support networks for vulnerable individuals in anticipation of potential political instability. These havens are designed to integrate seamlessly into everyday community settings, offering legitimate public functions while maintaining a dual capability to protect and assist those in need. This approach ensures that these safe havens can operate without attracting undue attention, blending naturally into their environments while fulfilling their protective roles. By carefully selecting and managing these dual-functionality locations, this strategy not only provides vital support and protection for vulnerable individuals but also ensures that these safe havens remain sustainable and integrated within their communities. This seamless integration into everyday life is key to maintaining the operation's discretion and effectiveness, safeguarding those at risk while minimizing the chance of detection.

Actions

Selection of Locations

Choosing the right locations is critical to the effectiveness and discretion of these safe havens. The criteria for selecting these locations include:

• Community Integration:
  
  • Locations should be well-integrated within the community, serving as familiar and accepted places that naturally attract a diverse range of clientele. This integration helps the safe haven to appear ordinary and unremarkable, reducing the likelihood of scrutiny.
• Visibility and Accessibility:
  
  • While the locations should be visible enough to be considered a normal part of the community, they must also feature private spaces such as basements, cellars, or back rooms. These areas should be easily accessible to those in need without drawing attention from the general public.
• Economic Viability:
  
  • It is essential that these locations can sustain a legitimate business model. This not only supports the community financially but also underpins the covert operations, ensuring they can continue without financial strain or suspicion.

Dual-Functionality

These locations must adeptly balance their public and covert functionalities:

• Public Business Functions:
  
  • Types of Businesses: The strategy focuses on establishments like coffee shops, bars, community farms, maker spaces, and recreational venues like RV parks or camping grounds. These businesses are generally well-received and frequented by the public, providing a solid cover for the covert activities.
  • Community Services: Each business should offer valuable services such as food production, educational workshops, or leisure activities. These services contribute positively to the community, enhancing the business's credibility and integration.
• Covert Support Functions:
  
  • Plausible Dual Use Areas: Utilize existing structures that naturally offer privacy, like root cellars on farms or basements in urban buildings. These spaces should be typical of the property and require minimal adjustment to serve as safe areas, thus avoiding any construction that might appear suspicious or clandestine.
  • Transport Services: Implement transportation services that align with the business model. For example, a delivery service from a farm or a mobile workshop from a construction site can double as a method for safely moving individuals in need. This strategy includes using common roles like Uber drivers for transportation, where the individual being transported is actually posing as the uber driver for a white family, blending into a service role, reducing visibility and suspicion from MAGA.

Implementation Examples

• Farm Example:
  
  • Location: A community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm that is well-known for its fresh produce and community engagement through regular farm festivals and events.
  • Dual Functionality: The farm features a large barn or a root cellar typically used for storing seasonal equipment and produce. This can also provide temporary shelter, offering a safe and private space for at-risk individuals. The regular turnover of visitors and workers for legitimate agricultural purposes ensures that any additional traffic blends in without arousing suspicion. Furthermore, depending on the last two minutes of hate, MAGA may overlook minorities or immigrants if they are in a non-lucrative looking service role, such as produce picker.
• Maker Space in Urban Area:
  
  • Location: Situated in a bustling mixed-use neighborhood, this maker space is a hub for creativity and innovation, offering classes in carpentry, electronics, and more.
  • Dual Functionality: Besides the public workshop area, there's a secure back area designed for project storage. This space can also function as a discreet meeting point or temporary safe area for individuals who require shelter or a momentary escape from external threats. Furthermore, a maker space is a place full of tools, skilled craftspeople, and materials that can be repurposed for other uses, such as [ REDACTED ].

Pre-Election Strategy: Part 3 - Formation of Paper Organizations

Objective

The primary goal of forming paper organizations is to establish entities that provide legal and social fronts for covert operations, safeguarding vulnerable groups. These organizations serve to legitimize and camouflage the broader protective activities under the guise of engaging in widely accepted or non-controversial community functions. By strategically leveraging these types of organizations, the strategy ensures that protective measures are embedded within non-controversial, community-valued services. This careful planning helps maintain the sustainability of the operations, reduces the risk of exposure, and enhances the long-term viability of protecting vulnerable populations amidst political turbulence.

Actions

Types of Organizations

Select organizations that are universally accepted and less likely to attract negative attention from antagonistic groups such as MAGA:

• Sports Clubs and Teams:
  
  • Focus on sports that are popular and carry positive, community-building connotations. These organizations can organize local leagues, tournaments, and training sessions, serving as a natural gathering point for the community and a cover for larger mobilization efforts.
• Garden Clubs:
  
  • Establish co-ops or community gardens that involve activities related to food production, which are generally viewed positively and align with subsistence and sustainability goals. These can also serve as educational centers for farming techniques, appealing to a broad segment of the community.
• Kennel Clubs
  
  • Set up organizations centered around animal care, such as dog training clubs or equestrian schools. These activities appeal to animal lovers and are unlikely to draw suspicion from conservative groups. They also provide opportunities for fundraising and community involvement.

Operational Setup

• Compliance with Local Laws:
  
  • All organizations must operate within the legal framework, ensuring they do not attract scrutiny that could lead to uncovering their covert purposes.
• Maintenance and Oversight:
  
  • Regularly review and maintain operational protocols to keep the organizations effective and compliant. This includes keeping financial records clean and transparent to avoid audits that could expose the dual functions.
• Integration with Safe Havens:
  
  • Use these organizations as legal fronts or logistical hubs for the covert safe havens, facilitating communication and resource distribution discreetly. They can serve as rallying points for community support without directly exposing the linked covert operations.

Implementation Examples

• Community Sports Club:
  
  • Setup: A local soccer club that hosts regular matches and youth training camps. It is deeply integrated into the community, providing a robust platform for events that can serve broader agendas.
  • Dual Functionality: Leverage the club’s events for discreetly organizing meetings and transporting supplies under the guise of sports activities, utilizing equipment transport as a cover for moving sensitive materials.
• Garden Club:
  
  • Setup: A cooperative that offers memberships for local produce and hosts regular workshops on sustainable farming practices.
  • Dual Functionality: Use the co-op’s storage facilities and workshops as discreet points for gathering and distributing resources, you can grow food for poor people under the pretense of agricultural activities.
• Dog Training Club:
  
  • Setup: Organize a club that offers dog obedience classes and therapy animal training, which can attract a wide array of participants.
  • Dual Functionality: Utilize the club’s regular gatherings and the innocuous nature of its activities to conduct meetings and organize volunteer networks for covert operations, masked by the club’s community-focused events. This can be a double edged sword, but you can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals. Furthermore, trained dogs have their uses.

Section 3: Post-Election Strategy - Pivoting Operations

Objective

• Activate and utilize the full scope of prepared safe havens and paper organizations in response to the election outcomes.
• Protect individuals from potential crackdowns or aggressive measures by newly empowered government authorities targeting vulnerable groups.

Overall Strategic Actions

1. Activate Covert Safe Havens and Paper Organizations:

- Evaluate the political environment post-election and determine the level of threat to vulnerable communities. - Activate contingency plans in prepared safe havens and paper organizations to provide immediate support and protection. 

1. Utilize Established Networks and Resources:

- Employ pre-arranged logistics and support systems to distribute resources, provide shelter, and facilitate the safe movement of individuals at risk. 

1. Community Integration Strategies:

- Deepen involvement in local community activities that are non-political and broadly supported to avoid backlash. - Increase participation in community service projects that enhance local development and provide essential services, reinforcing the organization's value to the community and obscuring its protective roles. 

Examples of Pivoting Operations Using Small Businesses

1. Carpet Cleaning Services:

- Use service vans for discreet transportation of individuals and supplies, leveraging routine operations as cover. - Legend has it that Cleopatra was smuggled into court rolled up in a carpet. 

1. Landscaping and Gardening Services:

- Employ landscaping crews to offer jobs and shelter in modified storage units, providing a plausible reason for the movement and congregation of workers. - MAGA has no respect for minorities, but they like mowed lawns. Transporting people of color in the guise of lawn care workers will usually be ignored. 

1. Mobile Pet Grooming Services:

- Utilize pet grooming vans to distribute resources discreetly and move individuals between safe locations under the guise of service calls. - Pet first aid equipment can also be used on two legged mammals. 

1. Food Trucks:

- Operate food trucks to serve dual purposes—providing food to vulnerable populations and acting as mobile meeting points for logistics coordination. - Food trucks can have electronic messaging services, connected to GPS, and deliver data just by driving by. 

1. House Painting Businesses:

- Leverage access to residential areas and use vans for safely relocating individuals under the guise of transporting workers and supplies. - Cans of paint can be used to store all sorts of things. 

1. Residential Cleaning Services:

- Use cleaning teams for discreet distribution of supplies and temporary housing solutions, under the guise of deep-cleaning or house-sitting services. 

1. Plumbing and Electrical Services:

- Dispatch tradespeople to carry necessities and check on at-risk individuals without drawing attention, using routine service calls as cover. - Plumbers carrying large pipe shaped constructions are less suspicious. 

1. Bicycle Repair Shops:

- Implement mobile bicycle repair services for flexible and discreet transport of supplies and aid. - Bicycle frame tubes can have dual uses. 

1. Fitness and Personal Training Services:

- Use private training sessions to provide physical and mental support discreetly, checking on individuals’ well-being under the guise of health and wellness coaching. - A fitness bootcamp fun run can be an actual bootcamp. 

1. Local Bakery or Pizzeria Delivery Services: - Use delivery operations to routinely check on community members under the routine delivery of food, covering a broad area without suspicion. - Bakers are up early every day without drawing suspicion.

Monitoring and Adaptation

• Continuously Monitor the Political and Social Environment:
  • Regular assessments to adapt operations effectively, ensuring ongoing safety and effectiveness.
  • Ready to expand the scope of operations or alter methods based on emerging needs and threats.

Legal Navigation

• Strategically Navigate Laws:

  - Ensure all activities remain compliant yet structured to conceal their true purposes, adapting to any new legal challenges post-election. MAGA does not have respect for Rule-Of-Law, but low level MAGAts will usually follow the law if it is the course of lease resistance.

  Examples of Pivoting Operations For employees in a large Businesses

1. Data Privacy Enhancements

• Employee Action: IT staff increase encryption and security measures, adding features like data obfuscation and deliberate vulnerabilities that make data tracking and user identification more difficult for unauthorized entities.
• Discretionary Element: These changes are publicly promoted as new advanced security measures to protect customer data from increasing global cyber threats.

2. Supply Chain Redistribution

• Employee Action: Supply chain managers discreetly inform resistance networks about locations and times of important emergency supplies shipments under the guise of optimizing logistics for efficiency.
• Discretionary Element: Publicly, these changes are announced as strategic adjustments to better meet the dynamic needs of markets and reduce operational costs.

3. Corporate Philanthropy Redirection

• Employee Action: Executives redirect corporate philanthropy funds to support 'capitalist' endeavors that indirectly benefit resistance efforts, such as investing in businesses owned by at-risk community members.
• Discretionary Element: These investments are framed as exploring new market opportunities and potential high-growth areas, appealing to shareholder interests.

4. Product Development with Hidden Features

• Employee Action: Product managers design products that incorporate raw materials which can be easily repurposed or integrated with features that allow resistance networks to piggyback communications.
• Discretionary Element: These products are marketed as innovative and versatile, with the added functionalities promoted as providing extra value to consumers.

5. Legal Department Advocacy Against Harmful Laws

• Employee Action: Company lawyers actively challenge laws from Project_2025 that might impose severe surveillance measures detrimental to business operations, like mandatory data sharing with government bodies.
• Hypothetical Law: "All telecommunications companies are required to install government monitoring software." (I mean, they already have it, but bear with me here, this is an example)
• Discretionary Element: Legal challenges are framed as protecting the company's competitive edge and customer trust.

6. Marketing Campaigns with Subtle Messages

• Employee Action: Marketing teams develop campaigns that subtly endorse themes of resilience and unity, using coded language that resonates with resistance supporters.
• Hypothetical Campaign: Launch a national campaign for a telecommunications product under the slogan "Stay Connected, Stay Strong," which subtly encourages unity and resilience. I'm not in marketing, so I really don't know how to not sound like 1984.
• Discretionary Element: Campaigns are officially aimed at boosting brand loyalty and market presence during turbulent times.

7. Community Engagement for Resource Distribution

• Employee Action: Community relations staff organize local events that double as distribution points for essential supplies to at-risk populations, such as geriatric health fairs or local business expos.
• Discretionary Element: These events are positioned as part of corporate efforts to engage with potential customers, masking their dual purpose.

8. Internal Training on Privacy and Security

• Employee Action: Implement training programs that ostensibly enhance employee awareness about privacy and security but also educate them on how to discreetly handle sensitive information about at-risk colleagues.
• Discretionary Element: Training is marketed internally as essential upskilling in response to global increases in data breaches and cyber threats.

9. R&D for Dual-Use Technologies

• Employee Action: R&D staff focus on developing technologies that can be used both commercially and to aid resistance efforts, such as drones designed for commercial delivery that can also be used for discreet surveillance or off the books deliveries. Police radios that can be used to track the police.
• Discretionary Element: The dual-use nature of these technologies is touted as a cost-effective solution to multiple market needs.

10. Strategic Public Relations

• Employee Action: PR teams craft narratives around corporate actions that align with resistance goals, framing them as innovative responses to market demands or regulatory changes. (i.e. We think different! We're the rebels from StarWars. ) (Note: It's a trap!)
• Discretionary Element: These narratives emphasize the corporation's adaptability and forward-thinking, which is attractive to investors and customers alike, while subtly supporting resistance efforts.

In the face of rising authoritarianism and potential threats, it's understandable to feel overwhelmed by the detailed strategies and safety measures we've outlined. However, it's important not to let panic set in. The purpose of these strategies is not to alarm you but to prepare and empower you and your community.
For many of us, blending seamlessly into our surroundings comes naturally and doesn’t require drastic changes to our daily lives. For those who cannot hide—the most visible and vulnerable among us—it becomes not only an option but a responsibility for their allies to step up and implement these strategies. This dual approach ensures that while some continue their lives with minimal disruption, others work behind the scenes to maintain safety nets and support systems. This collective effort is what builds a robust resistance movement capable of withstanding pressures and protecting its members from harm. It's not just about individual safety; it's about community resilience.
By taking proactive steps now, we ensure that everyone has the support they need to face whatever may come. This strategy is about being ready, not scared. It’s about building a network of support that can operate effectively under pressure while maintaining a facade of conformity to protect all its members.
Let’s focus on being prepared and connected, on understanding our roles, and on supporting each other. With careful planning and solidarity, we can navigate these challenges without fear, safeguarding our rights and freedoms in the process. Remember, the goal here is to keep the light of democracy burning, no matter how dark the times may seem.
sorry if my formatting is all over the place. This is jumble of my notes. I figure perfect is the enemy of good, and some of you have some anxiety over this. The rest of you...should....But It's going to be OK, because we have feet and hands and arms, and we can MAKE it OK.

6 TIPS TO SELL YOUR HOUSE QUICKLY
THE BEST TIPS TO ATTRACT BUYERS FASTER
Whether you need to relocate because your new job is starting soon or you're just eager to live in a new environment, it would be best if you could sell your property faster. There are a few things that you need to consider to increase the likelihood that someone will be attracted to your property.
To attract buyers, you also have to make your home attractive. You must show it off so buyers can envision themselves living in it. The more potential buyers you attract, the more you can sell your house with a better deal.
Today, we will talk about marketing strategies to sell your house quickly.
Hire A Real Estate Agent
Hiring a Real Estate Agent would probably be the fastest and easiest way to sell your house. They possess a deep understanding of the local housing market dynamics. Their knowledge enables them to accurately assess the value of your property, ensuring that it is competitively priced to better attract potential buyers.
Because of the long process that it takes to sell a house, real estate agents are the solution to make it easier and less stressful for you; their skills not only help in attaining the best possible price for your property but also ensure that the transaction progresses smoothly, minimizing delays and potential setbacks.
Clean and Declutter
If you want to sell your house quickly, it is obvious to clean it as extensively as possible. From the exterior to the interior, your buyers should see it in its best condition possible. Decluttering is also highly recommended because it frees up necessary space and makes the house much bigger and more appealing.
Think of cleaning and decluttering as creating a blank canvas for buyers to imagine their own lives in the space. By clearing out excess stuff and keeping things neat, you make it easier for them to see the potential of the house. If you can't do it yourself, hire a company to do the deep cleaning.
Depersonalize Your House
Whether you're a fan of a particular sports team or you love floral furniture, depersonalizing your home can help buyers a lot. Depersonalizing means removing personal items such as family photos, unique artwork, or quirky decorations that reflect your tastes and experiences.
Depersonalizing your home creates a neutral canvas, allowing prospective buyers to envision the property as theirs. This blank slate makes it easier for them to imagine how they would arrange their furniture, decorate the space, and make it their own, which makes it easier for them to purchase your property.
Quick Repairs
Buyers often gravitate toward homes that require minimal work, and addressing key areas promptly can significantly enhance your chances of a quick and successful sale. Here are some everyday things that need quick repairs in a house.
EXTERIOR

• Roof: Repair any visible damage or leaks.
• Siding: Fix any cracks, holes, or damaged panels.
• Windows: Ensure they open and close smoothly, replacing cracked or broken panes.
• Doors: Repair squeaky hinges, replace damaged screens or storm doors, and ensure locks work correctly.
• Gutters and Downspouts: Clean debris and ensure proper drainage to prevent water damage.

INTERIOR
Kitchen:

• Appliances: Ensure all appliances are working, and repair or replace faulty ones.
• Fixtures: Repair or replace leaky faucets, loose cabinet handles, or outdated light fixtures.
• Cabinets and Countertops: Address any damage or wear, and consider updating with fresh paint or refinishing.

Bathrooms:

• Plumbing: Fix leaky faucets, repair or replace damaged pipes, and ensure toilets function correctly.
• Fixtures: Replace worn-out or outdated fixtures such as faucets, showerheads, and towel bars.
• Tiles: Repair any cracked or damaged tiles in showers, floors, or walls.
• Flooring: Repair or replace damaged flooring, such as cracked tiles, worn-out carpets, or scuffed hardwood.

Boost Exterior Appeal
The exterior is the first thing potential buyers see, setting the tone for their impression of the property. A well-maintained exterior creates immediate curb appeal, drawing in prospective buyers and enticing them to explore further. Everything must be top-notch, From landscaping to the roof's condition, to ensure you can sell your home faster.
Price It To Sell
Even if you do everything to make the house more appealing to buyers, the most important thing they will check is whether the home's value is worth its price. Pricing it appropriately can generate immediate interest among potential buyers, leading to more showings and a faster transaction.
Overpricing can deter buyers and prolong the time your property sits on the market, while underpricing may result in missed opportunities to maximize your return on investment. By accurately pricing your home based on its current market value and comparable sales in the area, you can attract serious buyers ready to make an offer quickly.
If you want to know more about attracting more buyers, feel free to reach out to me at (703) 562-1788 or [Dan@greetingsvirginia.com](mailto:Dan@greetingsvirginia.com). I’d be more than happy to help you!

If you want to check out the full article, you can do so here: https://withthefirstpick.com/posts/chris-mcglynn-comparing-my-way-too-early-mock-draft-to-the-2024-nfl-draft-01hx04j216sc
History is usually not too kind way-too-early mock drafts. Spencer Rattler, Eli Ricks and many more have opened the draft cycle as highly-touted prospects who failed to live up to expectations. Many more have seen their "stock fall" in large part because their tape is put under the microscope, revealing that they never should have been that highly regarded in the first place.
And so, it is time for one of my favorite exercises. I am taking my way-too-early mock draft for 2024 and comparing it to what happened at the draft in Detroit. It is a great way to see how much has changed in a year. Several prospects lived up to the hype, many more fell off and others still came from way off the radar to be high draft picks.
1. Way-too-early pick: Arizona Cardinals - Caleb Williams, QB, USC Actual draft pick: Chicago Bears via Carolina Panthers - Caleb Williams, QB, USC
This one should come as no surprise. Williams was seen as the top quarterback in this draft from the very beginning, and while some will argue Drake Maye was worthy of the top pick, there was never really any doubt that Williams would be the first selection. Turns out the Cardinals were a bit better than we all expected and the first year of the Bryce Young experience was a bitter disappointment.
2. Way-too-early pick: Arizona Cardinals via Houston Texans - Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Ohio State Actual draft pick: Washington Commanders - Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU
Remember when we all thought the Cardinals could have the top two picks in the draft? Don't blame me, blame the sportsbooks. Turns out the Texans were way better in C.J. Stroud's and DeMeco Ryans’ debut campaign. Still, the Cardinals did wind up taking Harrison, just at No. 4, not No. 2. As for Daniels, he was a player I was really excited about heading into the 2024 draft cycle, but I did not have him in the first round of this mock. He took a huge step as a passer and leader in his second season at LSU, propelling him into this spot.
3. Way-too-early pick: Indianapolis Colts - Olu Fashanu, OT, Penn State Actual draft pick: New England Patriots - Drake Maye, QB, UNC
Fashanu entered the 2024 in a fierce competition for Joe Alt for the top tackle spot. Alt took some major strides in 2023. Fashanu had the same issues pop up regarding his play strength and overall power. In the end, Fashanu still wound up going in the top half of the first round. For the Colts, expectations were low after drafting Anthony Richardson. Even when the No. 4 pick in the 2023 draft went down, Shane Steichen got this team to compete and really turned the outlook for Indianapolis around heading into 2024. We will talk more about Maye in just a moment.
4. Way-too-early pick: Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Drake Maye, QB, UNC Actual draft pick: Arizona Cardinals - Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Ohio State
I will admit, I did not see Baker Mayfield leading the Buccaneers to the playoffs and landing a big extension in the offseason. Let's remember that he opened training camp in a quarterback battle with Kyle Trask! That was put to bed quickly, Tampa wound up winning the division and knocking out Philly in the wildcard round before falling short against the Lions. Maye came into the cycle with a top of hype, but ultimately had an uneven year with a worse supporting cast. I believe in his upside, but he is a bit of a project as he heads to New England. Harrison was my top player on the board heading all the way back in May of 2023. That never changed and he was the first non-quarterback off the board.
5. Way-too-early pick: Tennessee Titans - Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia Actual draft pick: Los Angeles Chargers - Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame
Bowers was a known quantity heading into this draft cycle. Injuries and a lengthy debate about his positional value pushed him down the board. He might be the best tight end prospect we have had in nearly two decades, but given the lackluster impact of Kyle Pitts so far (more of a coaching issue than a talent issue it seems), teams backed off taking Bowers so early. Alt, who I mentioned before when talking about Fashanu, was seen as a top-10 candidate given his size, length and experience. He made some small improvements as a pass blocker in 2023, which I think gave him the edge over the rest of the tackles in the draft class.
6. Way-too-early pick: Washington Commanders - Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas Actual draft pick: New York Giants - Malik Nabers, WR, LSU We have found our first major outlier from the way-too-early mock. Ewers had an up-and-down season, ultimately deciding to return to Austin for his senior year. I clearly learned nothing from this exercise, because I projected Ewers at No. 6 in my 2025 way-too-early mock, coincidentally to the Giants. Meanwhile, Nabers put together another impressive season, leading to months of debate as to who WR1 in this class truly was. I stuck with Harrison, but Nabers was one of the highest graded players I scouted in this draft cycle. He has superstar potential in New York.
7. Way-too-early pick: Atlanta Falcons - Jared Verse, EDGE, Florida State Actual draft pick: Tennessee Titans - J.C. Latham, OT, Alabama
I promise, I am not trying to draw anymore attention to the fact that we all expected the Falcons to draft an edge rusher in the top 10. We all know by now what Atlanta opted to do instead, so let's focus on Verse. He had top-15 buzz in the 2023 draft, but returned to school for one more season. I don't know that it hurt him in any way, because there is a chance a deeper dive into his film and the pre-draft process could have seen him slip down the board a bit. He had another impressive year at Florida State and wound up going inside the top-20 to the Rams. As for Latham, this was the first real reach of the draft for me. I think he is a bit raw and I have questions about his ability to thrive at tackle in the NFL in general, much less making the switch to playing left tackle. He goes to a great situation with Bill Calahan to lead his development, but this is a risky proposition to say the least.
8. Way-too-early pick: Chicago Bears via Carolina Panthers - Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame Actual draft pick: Atlanta Falcons - Michael Penix Jr., QB, Washington
This was the biggest stunner of the draft. We have picked apart why that is ad nauseam by this point. Let's talk more about Penix. He was iffy to be a first-round pick, much less a top-10 selection last summer. He was still only a year removed from an injury-plagued career at Indiana at that point. This is an interesting position for him to land in, but I am a big fan of the player.
9. Way-too-early pick: Los Angeles Rams - Bo Nix, QB, Oregon Actual draft pick: Chicago Bears - Rome Odunze, WR, Washington
I was a bit too high on Nix heading into the 2023 season, but this wound up being only three spots earlier than he was actually selected. I thought he would have been a good candidate to eventually replace Matthew Stafford, who has struggled with injuries in recent seasons. Los Angeles still has not identified an heir apparent, but the Rams also had a much better season than this projection expected. The Bears ended up in this slot, taking one of the most entertaining players in college football in Odunze, who I had mocked just a little later on. He will form a terrifying trio with Keenan Allen and D.J. Moore in Chicago.
10. Way-too-early pick: New England Patriots - Emeka Egbuka, WR, Ohio State Actual draft pick: Minnesota Vikings via New York Jets - J.J. McCarthy, QB, Michigan
There is a lot to unpack here. For starters, Egbuka had an injury-riddled year and wound up returning to school. He figures to be in the conversation to go in the first round in 2025. The Patriots had a much worse season than this, thanks in part to Mac Jones flaming out. Then there is McCarthy. He was not talked about a ton as a legitimate candidate to be drafted. He had shown flashes as a true sophomore, but keep in mind that he wasn't the designated starter to open the 2022 season. That was Cade McNamara. He saw a massive jump in his completion percentage and made big plays in key moments as Michigan won a national championship. He is going to need some seasoning and it will be interesting to see what happens when he is asked to be more than a game manager. The talent is there and this is a great landing spot for him under Kevin O'Connell.
11. Way-too-early pick: Pittsburgh Steelers - Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB, Alabama Actual draft pick: New York Jets via Minnesota Vikings - Olu Fashanu, OT, Penn State
McKinstry was the top corner on my radar heading into the 2023 season. He had his moments of brilliance, but struggled at points too, specifically against Adonai Mitchell. Additionally, his medical exam at the NFL combine revealed a Jones fracture in his foot, which likely pushed him down boards slightly. He landed in the second round with the Saints on draft day and has every chance to earn a starting spot.
12. Way-too-early pick: Las Vegas Raiders - Kalen King, CB, Penn State Actual draft pick: Denver Broncos - Bo Nix, QB, Oregon
This projection did not work out well. King had a rocky 2023 campaign, highlighted by a really rough showing against Marvin Harrison Jr. A poor pre-draft process, including subpar measurables and testing numbers saw King slide all the way to the seventh round. Perhaps he will bounce back and recapture some of his 2022 form in Green Bay, but his draft stock tanked throughout the season. For the Raiders, corner was and still is a need for them, but they opted to offense early before taking Decamerion Richardson in the fourth round.
13. Way-too-early pick: Chicago Bears - Laiatu Latu, EDGE, UCLA Actual draft pick: Las Vegas Raiders - Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia
Latu was one of my favorite prospects throughout the draft process. He was my highest rated defender heading into the draft and ended up being the first defender selected just a couple picks after this spot. He is about as technical a pass rusher we have ever seen coming out of college. Chicago chose to go offense instead with its two first round picks, but Latu would have been an excellent fit across from Montez Sweat.
14. Way-too-early pick: Green Bay Packers - J.C. Latham, OT, Alabama Actual draft pick: New Orleans Saints - Tailese Fuaga, OT, Oregon State
Turns out, Jordan Love was a lot better than we anticipated and the Packers were picking nowhere near this point. Latham actually came off the board before this point, so the Saints turned to Fuaga instead. He was a major riser this season, hat tip to Trevor Sikkema for championing him earlier than anyone else I can remember. His fluid movement skills for a player his size makes him an intriguing option to eventually flip to left tackle in the NFL.
15. Way-too-early pick: New York Giants - Rome Odunze, WR, Washington Actual draft pick: Indianapolis Colts - Laiatu Latu, EDGE, UCLA
It was no secret the Giants needed wide receiver help. We knew that way back in May of 2023. New York's season ended up going much worse than this, with Daniel Jones struggling early before suffering a season-ending injury. The Giants were actually heavily linked to Odunze throughout the draft process and he would have been a great fit.
16. Way-too-early pick: Seattle Seahawks - Jer'Zhan Newton, DL, Illinois Actual draft pick: Seattle Seahawks - Byron Murphy, DL, Texas
Clearly, the sportsbooks nailed this one. I will give myself some partial credit here as well. Seattle needed defensive line help in a big way. They traded for Leonard Williams at the deadline and still wound up selecting Murphy on draft day. Newton wound up sliding into the second round, which surprised a lot of analysts. He had a great season for Illinois and looked like a first-round pick, even if not quite this high. Meanwhile, Murphy lands in a perfect situation to thrive at the NFL level.
17. Way-too-early pick: Minnesota Vikings - Dallas Turner, EDGE, Alabama Actual draft pick: Minnesota Vikings via Jacksonville Jaguars - Dallas Turner, EDGE, Alabama
It's better to be lucky than good. I would love to take credit here for projecting a first draft pick nearly a year ahead of time, but I think this is an excellent illustration of how difficult it is to predict what will happen in the NFL draft. I had Turner as the third edge rusher off the board in my way-too-early mock, behind Verse and Latu. When the draft actually rolled around, I expected Turner to be the first edge rusher selected, likely in the top 10. A historic run on offensive players pushed him down the board to this point. He had a really strong 2023 season and has elite athleticism. His ceiling is incredibly high at the next level.
18. Way-too-early pick: Denver Broncos - Maason Smith, DL, LSU Actual draft pick: Cincinnati Bengals - Amarius Mims, OT, Georgia
Smith was such a projection pick this early in the process. Then again, I guess every pick was. Anyway, Smith is such a rare athletic talent, but he was coming off a torn ACL this past season. He had a fine season, but nothing that warranted a first-round selection. He landed in the second round with the Jaguars. Perhaps, Smith will look even better two years removed from his injury. On the other hand, we have Mims, who is still a relative unknown. He has ideal traits and size to be a high-level starter in the NFL. However, due to injuries and talent ahead of him at Georgia, he only has eight collegiate starts. He will essentially get a redshirt year in Cincinnati, assuming Trent Brown can stay healthy, before likely taking over at right tackle in 2025.
19. Way-too-early pick: New Orleans Saints - J.T. Tuimoloau, EDGE, Ohio State Actual draft pick: Los Angeles Rams - Jared Verse, EDGE, Florida State
Ohio State messed with a lot of the depth in this draft class, bringing back a ton of draft eligible talent for another run. Tuimoloau is a strong player, but he hasn't really shown much development as a pass rusher. He has 12 career sacks in three seasons, and it is not for a lack of opportunity or playing time. For what it is worth, I did not include him in my way-too-early mock for 2025. I think he projects more as a Day 2 rotational player than a potentially impact starter.
20. Way-too-early pick: Houston Texans via Cleveland Browns - Jeremiah Trotter Jr., LB, Clemson Actual draft pick: Pittsburgh Steelers - Troy Fautanu, OT, Washington
It turns out, we might have overrated the Clemson defense a little bit. Trotter is a fun player, flying around and getting to the ball, but he is undersized and lacks the ideal agility required to start at the NFL level. I will say, I do love that he landed with the Eagles, where his dad spent the majority of his career. While Trotter's stock slipped throughout the season, Fautanu's skyrocketed. Thought by most to be a guard, he put those questions to rest at the combine, measuring in with longer arms than Joe Alt. He is a brawler with great play strength. He fits Pittsburgh so well and has the potential to be the team's long-term starter at left tackle.
21. Way-too-early pick: Los Angeles Chargers - Ja'Tavion Sanders, TE, Texas Actual draft pick: Miami Dolphins - Chop Robinson, EDGE, Penn State
When you look at where the Chargers were expected to be picking and then compare it to where they actually picked, you get a pretty clear picture as to why Brandon Staley was fired. Los Angeles is still in need of a tight end, with Will Dissley and Hayden Hurst the top two options at the position, but that will wait until next year, maybe until when Jim Harbaugh can draft Colston Loveland. Sanders wound up sliding all the way to the fourth round, which felt a bit harsh for a player as dynamic in space at the position. That being said, first round was too rich a projection as well. He lacks physicality and struggles as a blocker. As for Robinson, I did not have him in my way-too-early mock. I watched him against Ohio State in 2022 and did not see a first-round talent. I was low on Robinson throughout the process and thought this was a little earlier than he should have gone. He is a great athlete, but he is unrefined and had little production at Penn State.
22. Way-too-early pick: Miami Dolphins - Raheim Sanders, RB, Arkansas Actual draft pick: Philadelphia Eagles - Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Toledo
This one did not pan out so well for me. I loved Sanders coming into the process. He had over 1,700 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns for Arkansas in 2022. He followed that up 284 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns in just six games due to injury. His yards per attempt also plummeted from 6.5 to 3.4. He wound up transferring to South Carolina. We will see if he can bounce back and get himself back into top 100 consideration for 2025. Meanwhile, Mitchell went the other direction. He was a small school star with some consideration, but he proved he could contend at the Senior Bowl and wound up being the first corner selected. He could be a Day 1 starter in Philly.
23. Way-too-early pick: Jacksonville Jaguars - Cooper DeJean, CB, Iowa Actual draft pick: Jacksonville Jaguars via Minnesota Vikings & Houston Texans - Brian Thomas Jr., WR, LSU
The Jaguars ended up picking here after a trade down with the Vikings. DeJean inexplicably slid out of the first round, but he was definitely a first-round talent. Even after suffering a season-ending injury at Iowa, he returned for a great pre-draft workout and his tape is first-round caliber. He landed with the Eagles in the second round. Thomas benefitted from Jayden Daniels' Heisman season and a clear spot in the starting lineup. He entered the 2023 season with 770 yards and seven touchdowns through his first two years combined. He posted 1,177 yards and an FBS-leading 17 touchdowns in a monster breakout season. He will be a great field-stretching option in Jacksonville.
24. Way-too-early pick: Detroit Lions - Jack Sawyer, EDGE, Ohio State Actual draft pick: Detroit Lions via Dallas Cowboys - Terrion Arnold, CB, Alabama
The offseason hype around the Lions turned out to be warranted. Detroit had to trade up to pick at No. 24. They took Arnold, which fills a huge void on their defense. He is a hard-nosed tackler with good ball skills. He started the year in Kool-Aid McKinstry's proverbial draft shadow, but ended up surpassing his teammate by the time the draft rolled around. Meanwhile, Sawyer, like J.T. Tuimoloau, returned to school for another year. He is similar in that he has great strength, but lacks the production to go with it. He has a future as an edge setting defender, but he does not generate enough pressure to warrant first-round consideration heading into the 2024 season.
25. Way-too-early pick: Baltimore Ravens - Michael Hall Jr., DL, Ohio State Actual draft pick: Green Bay Packers - Jordan Morgan, OT, Arizona
It is funny now to look back and think the Ravens had a pressing need at defensive tackle. Justin Madubuike had a breakout year with 13 sacks that resulted in All-Pro honors, a Pro Bowl spot and a massive contract extension. Hall wouldn't have been the pick anyway. He is a great interior pass rusher, but is undersized and struggles to win consistently at the point of attack. He landed with Cleveland in the second round. Regarding the pick that did happen, Morgan looked much sharper in his second year removed from a torn ACL suffered in 2021. There are some concerns about his length when it comes to his ability to play tackle in the NFL, but the Packers have never shied away from moving college tackles into interior offensive line spots.
26. Way-too-early pick: Dallas Cowboys - TreVeyon Henderson, RB, Ohio State Actual draft pick: Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Graham Barton, OL, Duke
Projecting an Ohio State running back to the Cowboys isn't the worst thing I could have done. Dallas still desperately needs running back help after passing on the position entirely. Henderson returned to Columbus for another year after an inconsistent season and will compete for touches in a backfield that now features Ole Miss transfer Quinshon Judkins. Barton is another college offensive tackle whose future lies on the interior of the offensive line at the NFL level. He was on the radar, but had a great pre-draft process to push him into the first round.
27. Way-too-early pick: Green Bay Packers via New York Jets - Andrew Mukuba, S, Clemson Actual draft pick: Arizona Cardinals - Darius Robinson, DL, Missouri
Mukuba had a lot of traction heading into the season, but injuries led him to returning to school and transferring to his hometown team in Austin. The Packers had a clear need at safety as well, signing Xavier McKinney to a big deal this offseason. As a Jets fan, just a quick moment to savor when the Jets were thought to be Super Bowl contenders with Aaron Rodgers, which is why this pick was projected to belong to the Packers. For Robinson, this was a surprising rise for a player with very little production or fanfare heading into the season. He broke out with 8.5 sacks and then had a phenomenal week at the Senior Bowl. This was still a bit early for my liking, but he has the versatility and power to hang around the league for a long time.
28. Way-too-early pick: Cincinnati Bengals - Calen Bullock, S, USC Actual draft pick: Kansas City Chiefs via Buffalo Bills - Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas
Bullock is a ball-hawking safety with excellent ball production from his time at USC. However, one of the biggest issues for him, and most of the USC defense, was his inability to tackle. A big part of that is that at 188 pounds, he is in the second percentile for weight at the safety position. He wound up landing with Houston in the third round as a result. Meanwhile, the Chiefs traded up with the Bills again to land a speedster at wide receiver. More on Worthy in just a second.
29. Way-too-early pick: Buffalo Bills - Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas Actual draft pick: Dallas Cowboys via Detroit Lions - Tyler Guyton, OT, Oklahoma
Oh how close this was to actually happening. Worthy was on the board for the Bills at 28 and they needed a receiver in a bad way. Instead, Buffalo traded down and Worthy is now the newest weapon for Patrick Mahomes. The Texas star has a very slight frame, but broke the 40-yard dash record at the combine this year. He will change how teams have to defend Kansas City. His draft stock clearly did not shift a whole lot from where he was initially projected to where he landed. The same cannot be said for Guyton. He was not really in the conversation heading into the 2023 season, but he has exciting intangibles despite his lack of experience. In a couple years, he could look like a steal at this spot.
30. Way-too-early pick: San Francisco 49ers - Akheem Mesidor, DL, Miami Actual draft pick: Baltimore Ravens - Nate Wiggins, CB, Clemson
Mesidor remains a prospect I will be watching closely for the 2025 draft. He had a great first season with Miami in 2022 after transferring from West Virginia. Unfortunately, he suffered a season-ending injury just three games into the 2023 season. I did not have Wiggins in my way-too-early mock, and in retrospect, I probably should have. He was the Clemson defender I overlooked. He has great speed, impressive effort and top-tier ball skills. He lasted to the end of the round because of his slight frame and questionable tackling in space. I have no doubt Baltimore will find a way to get the most out of him.
31. Way-too-early pick: Philadelphia Eagles - Kingsley Suamataia, OT, BYU Actual draft pick: San Francisco 49ers - Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida
Philly picked much earlier than this on draft day as their Super Bowl hangover finally hit in the second half of the season. I was high on Suamataia heading into the season, but he still has a bit of a ways to go from a development standpoint to make it to be a starter. He landed with the Chiefs in the second round. The 49ers got back to the Super Bowl, but fell short and John Lynch decided he wanted more firepower on offense. Whether this means Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel is on the way out or not, Pearsall should have a role in this offense early. He is a reliable playmaker with inside-outside versatility.
32. Way-too-early pick: Kansas City Chiefs - Troy Franklin, WR, Oregon Actual draft pick: Carolina Panthers via Buffalo Bills & Kansas City Chiefs - Xavier Legette, WR, South Carolina
The Chiefs did wind up selecting a wide receiver in the first round, just not Franklin. It was a bit of a shock to see Franklin slide as far as he did. He was not a first-round talent as I had initially thought, but I figured he would go mid-to-late second round, not in the early fourth. He was very productive at Oregon, but a slight frame and small hands likely pushed him down draft boards. That being said, I like his landing spot with his college quarterback in Denver. On the other hand, Leggette was on no one's radar heading into the season. In his first four seasons at South Carolina, he was largely a special teamer with 423 career receiving yards. He exploded with 1,255 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. He is a hometown kid with a chance to play a major role in his first season. He should be one of Bryce Young's top targets this year.

We just bought a 60 year old home with an old Pushmatic breaker panel. I would like to install a some additional high-draw appliances so we can ditch natural gas (electricity here is pretty cheap), so I had a local big name Electric/HVAC/Plumbing contractor come out to provide an estimate. For context this is in Virginia and the local county doesn't have any local ordinances that would impact the requirements in excess of what the state's adopted codes already require.
Things I was told by the estimator:

• If I want to have the panel replaced he has to bring the entire home's electrical system up to the most recent code, NEC 2020.
• Doing that requires installing a separate disconnect next to the meter, installing a whole-house surge protector, and bonding the plumbing and gas lines in addition to the earth grounding rods.

The itemized quote is below as follows:

• $200 - Permits
• $5,183 - Install/replace 200/225 amp Main Breaker Panel indoor up to 42 circuits (Not sure why they are quoting me for 42 circuits, the existing panel only has _ breakers)
• $1,400 - Install 200 amp service disconnect
• $659.41 - Install/replace up to 200 amp meter base riser not included
• $6,529.84 - 4x Install/replace service cable 200/225 amp up to 20 feet standard difficulty (Not sure why he's quoting me for 80 feet of SEC- the span is only 25 long. Add another 10 or so to get to the weathered and 15 to get into the basement and route around the existing pipes, etc. Rounding up to 80 seems like a gross overestimation for something with a unit price of $1,632.46)
• $407.51 - Install/replace whole home surge protector
• $335.30 - Standard difficulty installation of bonding for gas or water line up to 10 feet
• $161 - Install intersystem bonding termination
• $514.78 - Install ground rods
• 416.65 - Replace weatherhead
• $0 - Tax (Not applicable I guess)

Grand total: $15,808.09
Obviously I'm going to be getting at least 2 more prices, but wanted to hear from others if any of this is unnecessary/how much of a ripoff this estimate is compared to pricing in your area.

SO, Ive been doing this work for about 7 years now. I started out with BIM coordination (predominantly plumbing, then HVAC added later on) for a contractor with no experience. Like, I was a career welder and taught myself to draw the prints because I got tired of shitty prints, that was the extent of my CAD knowledge. I was entirely self-taught prior to the first GC, and have only been self-taught/OTJ trained since.
After a year-ish in coordination, I guess they saw either potential or stupidity in me because they then invited me into design. Again, first plumbing and then HVAC. I did this for about 1.5 years with that same company, and have since bounced around a few other firms, doing eitheor coordination, drafting and design (usually all 3).
As I said in the beginning, I am at 7 years in this world in October 2024 and I find myself entirely disillusioned with it. The deadlines are unreal, and get moreso every job. The hours are deep, and the "normal" keeps getting higher and higher. There's no time or room for self-improvement and education, either personal or collegiate paths, as almost 60 hours a week goes into work, and the number is poised to grow. I am at the point where I just don't fucking care anymore and that is not ok with me. I am not a money motivated person, I am much more driven by doing good work, being treated well/treating folks well, and keep a solid work/life that allows both to flourish. I am not a person to just work all the OT for the money, I really don't want it. The world needs money, I with I could do without.
So, I find myself looking for a way out. I'm curious to hear from others who may have gotten out, how did you do it? What field did you go into? How did you port over your skills and experience from this world to that one? How the fuck do I get out of here before I [redacted]?
And, yeah, I'm sure there is going to be a contingent of old heads on the tired ass train of "that's not a lot of hours", " back in my day", etc. I'm glad you gave up everything for the love of money, if that made your life swell. It doesn't work for me, and I'm not interested in killing myself for money. If that is all you have to offer, please feel free to go tell your grandkids and not me - I've heard it already.

$150/day fine
Hello,
I redone my bathroom in January 2023 (Florida, Broward County). The gold digger neighbor called the police for noise complain a sunday (single home house). The city came to ask what was going on the next day, I said I was replacing the vanity and replacing tiles. He asked if he could enter to check, I said "no sorry", and he put a red tag on the door (illegal work, interior work).
I wanted to sell my home ASAP, and I knew the delay was 3 weeks to get a permit, so we hurried up, and the job was done in 4 days already. We also did not want to let the broken vanity and mirror and mess when trying to sell it.
Finally, I never succeed to sell the home but still want to put it back for sale in the next few days.
On the second of January 2024, they asked a hearing (I was on vacation to sell family in Europe) and said they could fine up $150 per day. I had 30 days to appeal, and I did not open the letter and open it too late. No appeal is done, unfortunately.
I pulled up the permit in April 2024 and they rejected it at end of April (they said on the phone that we don't see which bathroom it is despite my nice drawings and also what was exactly replaced).
On First of May 2024, a second hearing happened (I told them I was not here a few days before but they returned my call the next day and refused to change the date, bad luck I was in a 2 days cruise ship on Bahamas).
Yesterday, USPS came, and I signed their paper that they sent "order of imposition of fine and claim of lien." The paper says I will have to pay 150 dollars per day from the first of February 2024. It's signed by a notary and sent by the city (magistrate).
In 2023, they sent different letters, some with required signature, when I called a guy told me my job was not requiring a permit, so I wanted to give a written letter to them , the office was closed, went to the police next to it, they said there was no mailbox or adress, so I put the letter on their door (next to other papers on the floor,behind a small gate). When I talked to the city about what proof was in their file, she just say "this red tag", and did not have my letter on the phone, like the letter was not read or not received.
I would like to know what you guys think about it (except the city is very strict and my neighbor is not a good person...).
Some questions :
I have 30 days to appeal to the city. Should I do it myself or with an attorney? Or should I call them nicely to know what they want before doing that. The letter does not explain any info about how to appeal (the first letter in January was saying to appeal at the broward circuit Court, but this letter only says to appeal at the city itself).
The work was tile over tile (yes, not the best job...), sometimes people say it does not require permit, but vanity was changed and lights replaced (with same wire), plumbing is same (just disconnect the old wires, like adaptor).
Should I hire an attorney and say to the court that it's abusing to give a fine so expansive for a job that does not require a permit in some counties ?
What are my options ? I want to sell the home. I am not sure they have any proof of work done inside... I am wondering how long it takes to put a lien on the home, and I guess a lien is put when you don't pay a fine, but I did not get any fine at this time.
From March to April 2024, they refused to take my permit application multiple times and were always saying I needed to do this, that, for the permit to be accepted... and when an electrician came to my home to write on the permit the types of plugs there was,we called the city in live and said on the phone that it was existing wires, they accepted to take the permit application the same day, will they purposely refuse to take the permit application to earn 150$/day and win time in the past weeks (march 2024) ? I don't believe a city has a commission on fines... this city for information has it own police, fire station etc. They want to act like a " luxurious city"... so 3 weeks later (27th april, application denied just before the hearing).
Do they have to put a lawsuit to the broward county court to put a fine and put a lien ? I find it weird to dare to out a fine without any proof and without entering the home.
For info, I don't know if all cities are same, but they have 2 districts : one that drives all over the city and observe and report (lawn is too high, work without permit, etc) , and the other district handles permits application.
Thank you for your time. Feel free to ask any questions so that I can detail better to analyze this. Don't hesitate to include names of legal rep that you suggest.

Hello, I redone my bathroom in January 2023 (Florida, Broward county). The gold digger neighbor called the police for noise complain sunday (single home house). The city came to ask what was going on the next day, I said I was replacing the vanity and replacing tiles. He asked if he could enter to check, I said "no sorry", and he put a red tag on the door (illegal work, interior work).
I wanted to sell the home so the city needed 3 weeks before giving a permit so I hurry up to sell it fast.
Finally I never sold the home.
On Second of January 2024 they asked a hearing (was in vacation) and said they could fine $150 per day.
I pulled up the permit in April 2024 and they rejected it at end of April (they said on the phone that we don't see which bathroom it is despite my nice drawings and also what was exactly replaced).
On First of May 2024, a second hearing happened (I told them I was not here a few days before but hey returned my call the next day and refused to change the date, bad luck i was in a 2 days cruise ship on Bahamas, yes the cheap ones without any cell reception).
Today I signed their paper that they sent "order of imposition of fine and claim of lien". The paper says I will have to pay 150 dollars per day from First of February 2024.
I would like to know what do you guys think about it (except the city is very strict and my neighbor is not a good person...).
Some questions : 1. I have 30 days to appeal to the city, should I do it myself or with an attorney? Or should I call them nicely to know what they want before doing that. 2. The work was tile over tile (yes, not the best job...), sometimes people say it does not require permit, but vanity was changed and lights were same, we did not touch the plumbing). 3. Should I hire an attorney and say to the court that it's abusing to give a fine so expansive for a job that does not require a permit in some counties ? 4. What are my options ? I want to sell the home. I am not sure they have any proof of work done inside... I am wondering how long it takes to put a lien on the home, and I guess a lien is put when you don't pay a fine but I did not get any fine at this time. 5. From March to April 2024, they refused to take my permit application multiple times and were always saying I needed to do this, that... and when an electrician came to my home and said on the phone that it was existing wires, they accepted to take the permit application, will they purposely refuse to take the permit application to earn 150$/day and win time ? I don't believe a city has a commission on fines... this city for information has it own police, fire station etc. They want to act like a " luxurious city"...
Thank you for your time for reading me or answering me

Tldr: having no hope and only bad thoughts. ai makes me feel like I wasted my life and youth on something on skills that recently ai companies decided to make obselete.
I just turned 28 and I'm finishing masters in graphic design (I had health related issues and I had to prolong it). I picked this path because I thought its a pretty cool career, I was always impressed by the visual side of movies, posters, commercials and I wanted to be part of it and also creative industry was always said to be safe from automation and ai.
I tried most of the branches of it. Art, logos, posters, video editing whatever you can think I tried. I would consider myself good at most of them except drawing which I was planning to learn. The dalle and mid journey released and back then people were making fun of it. I thought to myself that it reflects the progress from the time computers were invented to now and that's how long it took to develop generative ai image tech. I was like "OK, my career is safe it will take decades before it makes any impact"
Months later the improvements just went from 1 to 100 and never stopped. Seeing that I understood that there is no point in learning drawing. I abondoned learning it because ai is at the point of replacing artists. I tried to stay step ahead I got fully invested in learning 3D and animation. I was enjoying it the most out of many branches of art. I was feeling really hopeful for the future and thinking I'm getting so much closer to working in gamedev or movies industry which was childhood dream of mine.
Sora text to video model announcement dropped and my heart just sinked. Couldn't believe my eyes I thought they were faking the results and just hyping it up but no... Ever since that moment I've been stressed out every single day, reading the ai news and just hoping there is no yet another major ai improvement in creative industry that can take people jobs away.
I keep seeing ai stuff all over social media, in posters, ads, YouTube thumbnails, book and music albums covers and shirts. Ai devalued art to the point where a potential client thinks of paying artist a scam because ai generators are free to use. I see the mistakes gen ai makes for which real artist might get fired but as long as the gen ai gives botched result for free, the bosses don't care and accept that quality.
Just to clear something out before someone comments because I heard this thousands times: "ai won't replace you but someone using ai will" -let's be honest it doesn't apply here.
For example: illustrator knows and uses ai to be more efficient. A person wants to gift his friend a cute, detailed drawing of its cat. What happens? That person doesn't think twice about commissioning the illustrator even though he knows ai. The person generates the drawing of the cat by himself because its free. And this will become a standard mindset of any manager there is in any creative job.
"Real people were fixing and editing Sora videos (airhead video)" The issues the creators talked about were for instance generating a different color balloon than they asked for or a character having a head which is basically next nothing to fix. It still took away the jobs of camera operators, lighting technicians and actors. and to remind you it was just the first iteration of that model.
I don't think I have ever felt so defeated in my entire life. Just absolutely see no hope anymore. I'm having really bad thoughts recently, it all feels like a nightmare and I'm just hoping to wake up at the point where I picked the career path or like a timeline where ai didn't disrupt creative industry. I was fully focused on learning I lost contact with my friends, stopped playing video games which was a passion of mine since I was a kid. I don't remember a day where I was just relaxing and not doing anything.
Every hopeful scenerio I had in my mind just falls apart with each day. There are still no regulations regarding it, and every single ceo and manager just cannot wait until they fire all artists and automate art.
My parents paid for my education and just the thought of disappointing them is killing me inside. I had big plans for my career but it all feels like it ends before it even started. Midjourney now says it will focus on 3d and video which devastes me and it feels like impending doom to me and there is no running from it.
Feels like I wasted my life and youth on skills that out of nowhere became obselete. Like I'm at the point of finishing high-school but since I'm older now I can't just rely on my parents finances and start studying something different.
What am I supposed to do now, I won't get accepted for robotics, apparently programming is next in line for ai to take over.
I have massive respect for anyone that does honest work like plumbing, welding. It's just I don't think these are the jobs that my parents thought of when paying for my education and also there is no ladder to these careers that you can climb and be really successful.
I don't have the balls to tattoo someone also like I said at the beginning of this long post I'm not good at drawing.
I worked in marketing for a bit and I didn't love it, just in general I cringe at zoomer marketing, it doesn't feel right for me.
Been thinking about industrial design but I don't have a engineering degree and from what Ive seen there are literally 0 jobs in my country
Lastly, ui/ux design, 0 experience other than collage assignments, so I don't know the workflow behind it and needs, also no assurance on safety from ai
I have few yt channel ideas but it's the chance of it taking off is next to 0. I don't want to be an influencer so a faceless channel might die off quickly and it won't survive without the personality, also when Sora releases its game over for the type of videos I wanted to make because people will just copy it on massive scale.
Is there anything safe from ai?

Man , as someone who absolutely loves Penpal and holds it as one of my all-time favorite creepypasta, writing this hurts. I really wanted to love Auerbach’s next work and I tore through it in pretty short order. But by the end of it I was just...disappointed. Let’s talk about what he did right first, and then let’s go into why I felt that way.

The Good:

• Auerbach’s prose has clearly improved by a country mile. The prose of Bad Man is really quite excellent and manages to strike a good balance between being blunt and to the point and simultaneously intricately detailed. It definitely feels like he’s been reading up on how to improve this aspect of his writing.
  
• The use of a defined location and of Southern Gothic horror elements really helps the narrative develop its own unique character. Overall I love horror that’s tied to a specific culture of part of a country, and I feel like Bad Man does an excellent job at capturing the malaise and desolation of a dying Floridian town. The use of the grocery store as a setpiece to draw on more environmental horror was also very well done, and I like the feelings of unease and eeriness that it evokes.
  
• Ben and Marty’s relationship is genuinely wholesome and definitely well-structured. I don’t have much else to say about that, it simply feels real. It almost makes me sad that both of them would die early due to their poor life habits.
  

The Bad

Plot Holes

• There’s absolutely no way that a woman and two small children are going to be living in a single, small room in a supermarket for the span of two whole years without anyone noticing them. Does Auerbach have any experience with small children at all? Those fuckers are impossible to keep restrained at all times and are experts at getting out of your sight when you least expect it. Logistically, the entire idea is just laughably impossible. There’s simply no way that two children could have been kept secluded in a small room in the upper story of a grocery store without also being restrained the entire time, something which would’ve inflicted absurd physical and mental trauma (which is never implied to have happened). Hell, Auerbach even makes it clear that the room doesn’t have plumbing, which really speaks for the whole situation's impossibility.
  
• Given that Beverly’s grandson (whom I’m going to call Kevin for the rest of this rant) has been running around the entire grocery store for most of the book (and is implied to have been outside of it numerous times, likely in Ben’s house), how the hell did she know that he wasn’t going to either run away with or without Ben or contact the authorities? Come to think of it Eric’s been out at least once as well since Marty saw him, what was her plan to keep him in line?
  
• The issues are literally still coming up as I’m writing this down. Did nobody notice that Beverly literally never left the grocery store? Did no one ever ask about her grandson? Let me remind you, this is an old woman with Parkinson’s with two young children, at least one of whom is strongly rebellious in nature. I guess literally none of the other workers ever noticed her retreating to her room in the grocery store at the end of her shift? Palmer simply has to be in on it, but then why did he fire her? Why does he seem like he really doesn’t know anything about the situation with Eric?
  
• The reveal that the number on the missing children’s board outside the grocery store isn’t the real one is cool for about five seconds until you realize how nonsensical it is. I guess this is the only missing person’s billboard in the entire fucking city? It’s apparently the only one Ben has ever called? The only one anyone has ever called? I didn’t go to law school, but I get the feeling that the police collaborate with organizations for finding missing persons. How the hell would they not notice that they had never been contacted before? “Oh hey, I’m sure you got the news about the kid who went missing at the grocery store?” “Uh, no, sorry, no one contacted us about him.” “Huh, that’s weird, I guess I’ll ask people what number they’ve been calling so I know it isn’t the wrong one. Anyways, here’s the details of the case, get on it”. Again, this reveal only makes sense if you assume that literally no one in the entire town has called a different number than the one on the grocery store, and that the police are either in on the plot, or absurdly comically incompetent.
  
• As mentioned above, Kevin is implied to have been inside Ben’s house numerous times. Do they just not keep their doors locked for any reason?
  
• The reveal that it was Beverly behind the kidnapping is a plot hole in and of itself if you think about it for five seconds. Beverly, as mentioned, is an old, frail woman with Parkinson’s. How exactly was she able to abduct Eric in the span of what’s implied to be, at maximum, a few minutes and also abscond with him in a crowded grocery store with absolutely no one being the wiser?
  
• So why did Marty’s lighter go missing? I guess Kevin intentionally took it to send Ben after Marty? If so, then how the hell did he know about what Ben was suspecting of him?
  
• Ben not quickly calling the police the moment he realized Beverly was behind the entire thing is a monumentally stupid decision that only exists because if he had, the entire plot would’ve been wrapped up. Once again, let me reiterate that she is an old woman with Parkinson’s carting around at least one other child. She is not getting that far. One phone call and the police apprehend her and easily find Kevin and ERic.
  
• It seems like Kevin is supposed to be some kind of child-genius mastermind who intended for Ben to die all along, but it’s an absurd case of Gambit Roulette in the end. Literally if Ben wasn’t a fat fuck and kept his balance on the ladder, Kevin would have been absolutely screwed considering how easily he was overpowered.
  

Weird Plot Developments:

• What was the point of the weird subplot with Ben not remembering that he was apparently violent with Eric? Beverly mentions that he was terrible to him as well, but we never get confirmation as to whether or not she’s being truthful or not despite how interesting of a reveal it could have been. We could have been drip fed evidence that Ben wasn’t a reliable narrator at all and that his relationship with the rest of his family had always been strained, but the plot point is never meaningfully developed, and it gets no actual closure.
  
• Also, what’s the point of Kevin telling Eric about the Bad Man? Again, could’ve been a really interesting plot twist if he was purposefully making Ben out to be a monster so that Eric wouldn’t leave him, but he specifically says that he didn’t intend for that to happen and that Eric just so happened to assume that was the case.
  
• The entire subplot with the Blackwater school never gets meaningfully explained. Look, I get that horror as a genre often relies on fear of the unknown, but there’s a difference between keeping your audience in the dark in regards to details and then just not explaining shit that seems hugely plot-important. By the end of the book, you still have no idea what the hell the deal is with the symbol, why the grandson is obsessed with it, what his necklace is, what Beverly’s history with the school is or anything else. The narrative's driving mysteries get next to no explanations whatsoever.
  

Other Problems:

• The narrative isn’t scary after a certain point. Don’t get me wrong, the buildup is great and the grocery store is a suitably creepy location, but it goes nowhere. There’s nothing in the actual narrative that’s really scary in any meaningful respect and that’s incredibly disappointing considering that Auerbach wrote Penpal. Penpal’s fucking scary, I don’t know why he just decided to go and write a horror novel without actual horror for his second attempt.
  
• On top of the story’s reveals being nonsensical, they’re also just…dull. Like, just from reading the back of the book I’m fascinated in what the truth is behind Eric’s disappearance…and then it just turns out an old woman took him to live in a grocery store as a proxy grandson.
  
• There’s way too many horribly unlikeable characters in the narrative. Once again, in Penpal, outside of the actual stalker everyone is genuinely kind and helpful, making the circumstances of the tragedy hit that much harder. In Bad Man, everyone is such a huge asshole, including Ben, that it’s pretty difficult to actually care about what the characters are going through.
  
• I have no idea why Auerbach thought ruining the relationship between Ben and Marty was a good idea in the end. It doesn’t make me feel sad, just infuriated.
  

The Fundamental Problem

The book doesn't feel like it had any editors or reviewers. None. It doesn't feel like Auerbach gave it to people to read to receive feedback at all. All of the plot holes I pointed out are just there in the text, and plot holes aside the entire thing just feels like a mystery-genre letdown. I simply can't believe that Auerbach actually gave the text to people and none of them reported on any of the problems that I did.