Hi guys, i'm a brazilian 17 year old guy that was happy, sympathetic and caring towards others, I am catholic and I participate in Sunday school every Saturday, but since the start of the pandemic in march 2020 onwards, i suddenly became brainwashed and paranoic with Christian conspiracy theories, mainly Qanon, and end times prophecies but in 2022 it only got worse, it all started at school when my sociology teacher who coincidentally was an evangelical pastor started talking a little about the end of times/Ragnarok and my friend said that between 2023, 2024 the apocalypse will begin, or it doesn't happen anything in these years, very probably in 2025 and 2027, and i searched on youtube and i saw various evangelical channels claiming that we are at the end of times and 2030 the world will end bc in that year Jesus will come back to only save evangelical christians and will only save those who are on the Life Book and will throw everyone who's those name wasn't on Life Book burn alive on the lake of fire of the hell alongside the antichrist, false prophet and everyone who followed him and God will destroy the universe and we will be living in the New Jerusalem, and they say repent of sins because the devil exists and they insist on saying that sin and the devil exist even though this has not even been scientifically proven, such as not wearing short clothes like shorts, jeans, not getting tattoos or piercings, not eating meat of pork, prohibiting homosexuality, free will, dating during adolescence and many others, they say that we are experiencing the greatest apostasy in history, which means that people are moving away from faith and and God and ignoring the warnings about the doomsday bc the world is becoming more ''sinful'' and the love between the people has been cooled and we are living like in the antediluvian days when Noah warned about the cataclysm but people ignored, mocked and called him demented and paranoid and instead they were eating, drinking and partying until the flood came and destroyed the world. world and killed everyone, and they keep repeating this saying that this is real even though it has been proven that it never happened and that it is impossible for a storm this strong to cover the top of Mount Everest, they think they are right and scientists are wrong, because science is an ''abominable sin'' against God, They say that God is merciful but he is also wrathful and cruel against those who do not follow his commandments. and they also talk about Jesus' appearance as if it were true at that time even though it has not yet been proven. i've watched some videos of these pastors and missionaries of my country and never got their prophecies and predictions wrong, all of things that have said become true
They say that geopolitical tensions are increasing which will cause ww3, it is no wonder that countless billionaires around the world like Mark Zuckerberg are building bunkers and selling several of their assets, i saw a letter written in 1873 that a American Freemason named Albert Pike who in his letter predicted the first two world wars, and is now supposedly ''predicted correctly'' the third world war, which would begin with a conflict between Zionist Israelis and Arabs, and also they claim that this war between Israel and Iran -Hamas is also the prophecy of Gog and Magog being fulfilled, They also say that the world will enter an unprecedented global economic crisis worse than the great depression, which would increase prices absurdly and this would culminate in the greatest famine the world has ever had, surpassing the great famine of the Middle Age,
They also say that elites such as the World Economic Forum, the UN and the Bilderberg Group will launch a gigantic EMP weapon that will shut down all energy and appliances in the world, and that they will then enact global martial law that will taking citizens off the streets and homes via buses and putting them in concentration camps and killing mainly white and conservative Christian groups and burying them in FEMA coffins which will start the famous New World Order and mass depopulation through the great reset and agenda 2030 and will put an end to all cash and create an electronic currency where payment is made with the global fingerprint, which they also say will replace passports with this global biometric password, they also say that They will do away with clothes and food and will replace them with processed foods made from insects, GMOs and laboratory-grown meats and everyone will be forced to wear the same clothes and have their names changed they also say that they will install government cameras inside the houses to know if any intruder is entering the empty houses
and all of this will begin the antichrist's rise to power, he will be a powerful leader who will unite all sovereign governments into one government and people will worship him and will implant the mark of the beast, where no one will buy and sell without it and will kill everyone who does not accept the mark, which means that everyone in the cities will die, only those who go to the fields or mountains will survive, it is no wonder that they are asking to stock up on water, non-perishable food, batteries , flashlights, medicines especially ivermectin (so much so that I've seen reports of people curing themselves of COVID using this medicine and chloroquine) and radios to survive between 2025 and 2027, because according to them, there will be a pandemic 30 times more lethal than the previous one that will kill almost 400 million people in just two years and that will be the period where seal the seven-year peace agreement between Christianity, Judaism and Islam and will sacrifice a red heifer in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where it will be destroyed in sequence to begin the construction of the third temple where the throne of the antichrist will be during the final three and a half years
They also insists that global warming is a lie bc all of these disasters that are happening such as frequent strong earthquakes which happened in turkey, morocco, japan and taiwan recently, floods that left the southern of my country almost destroyed, tornadoes and hurricanes becoming stronger and killing more people and wildfires becoming more frequently is caused by these globalists, for example, the recent wildfires that happened in hawaii, canada and chile was caused by massive lasers coming from satellites and these floods and earthquakes caused by HAARP, and the fact-checking and social media such as reuters and afp is lying bc they are owned by rothschild and george soros for example
And i'm worried to have a cancer or a fatal heart attack when i become 20 years old that they discovered that in the last years have an increase on cases of cancer and fatal heart attack on young people, and they claim that is bc of the vaccines bc they contain aborted fetuses and microchips and graphene
And they also talk about the woke agenda, where defenders of this theory claim that globalists use films, video games and series to misrepresent characters from these entertainment industries to promote progressive agendas such as LGBT, black lives matter, abortion and feminism, for example, they made Ariel from The Little Mermaid black in live-action instead in white, as a way of indoctrinating masses and grooming children to be subjected to being perverse, it's no wonder that Disney is in one of the biggest crises in its history by excessively promoting identity issues in every film they release. And it's also no wonder that the number of abortions in the world increased over the last years
What I am most afraid of is the claim that globalists have knowledge of future events that makes the masses accept the event when a certain thing happens, this is called predictive programming, for example, in many disaster and science fiction films, there is a subliminal message in numbers called ''923'', supporters of this number mean that something very bad will happen on September 23rd, but obviously nothing happens, in White Noise for example, there was a train accident in the state of Ohio and in 2023 a train derailment with toxic products occurred in the same state as the film, Black Mirror ''predicted'' several technological innovations, The Simpsons for example predicted the September 11 attacks and Trump's victory in the elections, The Matrix also predicted predicted several technological innovations, such as the redpill movement and the production of babies in uterine machines. As for the Leave the World Behind', they say that the film predicted the accident of the ship that collided with the bridge in baltimore, Lastly, the film The Knowing is incredibly identical to the plot of the biblical apocalypse, but these claims are already debunked by fact checks
And i became scared of these prophecies that have been ''fulfilled'' such as Ezekiel which mentions that Dead Sea became filled with fishes and signs in the sky and stars disappearing
i will mention some of them:
They discovered recently that the moon have some rust pigments and the sun are frequently producing giant black spots which in apocalypse 6:12-17 means that the sun became black and the moon becoming blood
The days are passing faster, which on matthew 24:22 mentions that unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.
The Euphrates River is drying up which in apocalypse mentions that the sixth angel poured his bowl over the Euphrates River and its waters dried up and released four demons who destroyed half of the population
Some Rivers and seas are becoming red, which refers to Apocalypse 16:4 that the third angel poured his bowl on rivers and seas and became red as dead blood
And I started to think that some mathematical calculations they do are simply not coincidences, they took the year the Black Death ended in 1353 with the year the WHO declared a global COVID emergency in 2019, subtracting those years would give the result in 666 (2019-1353=666 to be simpler) which alludes to the number of the beast and nd other math that they also thinks its a proof that we are at the end of times uf we use the word ''CORONA'' as a code where the alphabet is corresponding to its letter in ascending order (for example a = 1, b = 2), it would give the numbers 3, 15, 18, 15, 14, 1 will also give the number of the beast is correct if we multiply these numbers.
I'm trying to follow channels that disagree that we are in the end times and treat people with love, like the method of preterism where it states that the apocalypse happened in the year 70, but they say that this is heresy because in Matthew 24:24 it says that in the last days false prophets will emerge deceiving many people and in 2 Peter 3:3 where it says that at the end of time many will mock and disagree with the imminent Return of Jesus
i'm asked my parents and my friends to repent of your sins and believe in the Word of God, But I bothered them so much that now they don't even want to hear it,
however after all that, I started to think that these evangelical channels only preach fear in people, thinking that Jesus is going to return physically and that I have been superior all the time for no reason at all. I researched these things so much that now it appears when I search for an account on Instagram or YouTube, I would like to thank anyone who could give me some tips on how to get out of this and get rid of these pests, how i do?

Hey I ordered a ton of perfume during a mental breakdown. Here are my thoughts on some of them.
— Black-Hearted Tart —
We Fell In Love In October (Fluffy, hot off the griddle pancakes topped with butter and smothered in golden maple syrup. Accompanied by a side of spiced baked apples with notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger): Buttercream, cinnamon yankee candle, nothing. That’s the extent of my journey. Honestly, it’s fine, it’s a very inoffensive fall scent, if you want to smell like you’ve crushed a craft store on your wrist it’s great, but a lot is missing. If notes are a choir, the cinnamon has a megaphone. Honestly, I’ve been looking for a good pancake or waffle scent for a while, and this misses the mark. 3/5, not bad at all, but not was I was looking for and definitely not fit to wear yet in the Hell Summer I have coming up.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Gifting to people who still use the word “spoopy”
• School bake-sale days
• Smoking cigarettes on the roof

Boys Wanna Be Her (Uplifting basil and bergamot add freshness. Enhanced with an earthy blend of buddha wood and oak moss. Tonka bean and white patchouli evoke a bohemian vibe): Boys Wanna Be Clean too, apparently, because the crux of this frag is SOAP, lots of it, and nothing but it. I have no clue where it’s coming from based on the notes, but it’s undeniably suds. It smells like those industrial strength white bars. Like “I just worked a twelve hour shift and the first thing I did when I got home was scrub myself down so hard my nose forgot what work smelled like.” This would probably be great for layering, come to think of it, but I like “violently clean” scents and will probably wear it on its own anyway. 3.5/5 if you’re like me and soap is a comfort scent, or if you’re some kind of Patron Saint of Laundry Detergent, you’d probably like this too.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Showing up Febreeze
• Infiltrating rich person bathrooms where the shower has fifty nozzles that move and every surface is marble
• Feeling peppy and awake on mornings where you just want to crash

— OSMOFOLIA —
Finally A Star (The glitz of cardamom and sparkling grapefruit stars, outer space ozone, dreamy tuberose, searing gunpowder, and a ham hock for a head): I’m so mad that this is good. The joke with my IRL friends regarding this order was “you know I wasn’t in a good place when I made this purchase because I got ham perfume.” And I'm the joke now, because I ended up liking it a lot. Like, this is currently the only Osmo frag that has ever worked on me, and I’ve tried a sizable chunk of their library. (Seriously, I was going to include another perfume of theirs to compare and contrast, but everything I said felt too mean.) To make matters worse, you can definitely smell the ham and the gunpowder in the beginning! It’s in the background behind a really juicy grapefruit note, but it’s present. Part of the way this perfume was sold to me were reviews that assured me the ham was more of a bacon note, but no. This is honey baked ham. Deli-core. But the grapefruit note is so juicy that it takes over and makes it manageable. It’s pretty and weird and vaguely delicious and I’m worried someone will try to take a bite out of my facemeat when I wear this, but I will wear it. 3.5/5, I guess?
Potential Practical Uses:

• Ill-advised bereavement meals
• Going poolside but your bathing suit is hotdog-themed
• Happily single manic pixie dream girls

— Sorcellerie Apothecary—
Cake For Breakfast (Birthday cake, ripe mango, pineapple, coffee, maple syrup, and a hint of cardamom): Okay, I get it, coffee doesn’t like my skin. This is a bitter burnt caramel on me, though according to my friends with working noses, it reads more vanilla to them. I wish I could get what they got: as the day goes on, it started pulling borderline savory on me. It’s like… okay, you know when you make pancakes and little drops of batter get stuck to the pan? And then they stay there and slowly burn into little balls of ash? It smells like the process of that happening, but someone is chugging coffee syrup. I can’t say I got the mango or pineapple, which I was kinda pulling for; there’s a possibility it was there in the opening, but I also could have been hallucinating considering how fast it vanished. I’m giving it a 2/5, I can’t fully say it’s bad, especially because the drydown is okay if you like your caramel overdone, but I don’t think I’ll be keeping this.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Manifesting disappointment
• Becoming the exhausted diner waitress you’ve always dreaded being
• Reconnaissance in Seattle

Your Girlfriend Is A Badass (Yellow cake with fudge icing, oakmoss, Himalayan cedar, forest floor): By all accounts, this shouldn’t have worked. I hate chocolate as a perfume note, because it tends to go tootsie roll on me, and I’m not the biggest fan of yellow cake because vanilla is a death note, and “forest floor” implies dirt, which I’m also not an enjoyer of. This is all to say I honestly don’t know what possessed me to buy this, but I’m extremely glad it did because I’m in love. When they say fudge icing, they mean it: it didn’t go cheap or artificial on me, it was honest to god chocolate the whole time. I know “I wanted to lick my wrist” is a cliche in reviews, but it did smell like my arm was edible. That dirt note is prominent, but it works in harmony with the chocolate and gives the whole thing depth. As it dries down, an unexpected party joins: incense. I can’t name which exactly, but it has undeniable headshop vibes to it. It sounds weird, especially because it’s not in the notes (unless this is just Sorce’s base), but it works. It’s like… a joint retirement cake between Joni Mitchell and Walt Whitman. Or like you’re making s'mores in a log cabin with a bunch of your stoner friends who super aren’t going to die to a slasher later. It’s definitely greater than the sum of its parts, and pretty much seals the deal on me crawling back to Sorcellerie for another order. 4.5/5, easy, would annoy the Haunted Forest No One Should Step Foot In for cake again.
Potential Practical Uses:

• Tracking down the man who killed your parents
• Hiking on a cold Midwest evening, alone with your thoughts
• Daphne specifically

Axstrom's Notes

1. The list is here: big jump list
2. The draw (1-5548) is 877, 1520, 4754, 5265, 1478
   1. Drawing 5 so there are backups in case of issues, but the jumper gets to choose among 4
   2. 877 is Earth Final Conflict - A TV show whewre aliens come and uplift Earth but have a hidden agenda
   3. 1520 is Investiture of the Gods - A fantasy tale in Zhou Dynasty
   4. 4754 is Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep - a Disney mashup videogame
   5. 5265 is The Fountain - A film about contuinity across time, grief, death, and growth
   6. Jumper chooses The Fountain
      1. Jump Doc
      2. Reddit discussion
   7. Jumper buys access to The Biosphere Supplement
      1. Supplement Doc

Build Notes

1. Drawbacks - None - Part of the point is that you can't have everything
2. Companions - None - This is the journey of an individual soul
3. Origin
   1. Past: Noble - setting the stage for grander thigns
   2. Present: Inventor - striving for progress
   3. Future: Witness - seeing what has become of the world
4. Perks
   1. Noble Thought - free for Noble, stay connected to the people who are affected by your actions
   2. Noble Deed - free for Noble, your actions have greater impact and are remembered and recorded
   3. Inventor's Vision - free for inventor, studying a problem gives increasing insight in how to improve it
   4. Inventor's Intent - free for inventor, your creations are harder to misuse
   5. Improved POV - free for witness, observe / remember events from multiple perspectives
   6. Bystander - free for witness, events can unfold around you leaving you unharmed
   7. All Together Now - merge all your past origins into a complex mind
   8. 500 Years of Practice (Teaching) - mastery beyond mastery of the chosen skill
   9. Soothing Presence - calm strong emotions and suffering
   10. Absolution - If someone genuinely repents, you can allow them to move
5. Items
   1. Meditation Garden - self-explanatory warehouse attachment
   2. Biosphere - Full purchase activates the Biosphere Supplement
   3. Tree of Life Sapling - Grows six immortality fruits per decade, which can (over very long time) grow more trees

Jump Notes

1. I wake up in my room in the warehouse apartments, after shutting myself in without even checking the Benefactor's Lounge the night before
   1. I'm still lingering on the frustration of not cracking the riddle of Allabar, and not being able to solve the problem permanently
   2. But there's no going back, so I commit to facing forward for the rest of the week, and head to the Benefactor room
      1. Once again, there are four envelopes with me, and my big chart of jumps up on the wall, like something from a Kindergarten classroom
      2. As I affix a sticker saying "The Fountain (2006)" to the big chart, a small round outline appears next to it: "Biosphere Supplement available"
   3. On my way to call a team meeting, I catch a surprise outside the apartments
      1. Three of our bard graduates are slowly exploring the area
   4. At the team meeting, I announce my intention to go solo on the next jump
      1. The decision isn't popular, but most of them have waited while I've done gauntlets before, so it's not a big shock
   5. We set up the entertainment room to watch the movie, even though I don't expect that meta knowledge will be much help
      1. For the first time, we don't all fit in the Entertainment room
      2. By count, there are eleven of us (me and ten companions), the Halflings are now up to fifteen after two recent births, and we have nine new bards with us, so we set up a second showing in the evening
   6. Finally, before heading in to the jump, I make one last check of the Benefactor's office to see if there's more information on the biosphere supplement, but though my note has been removed, there is no response, and nothing on the tablet
2. I awake from a deep sleep in a luxurious bed, it is early morning and the sun is still rising
   1. I can feel the absence of my abilities; I am reduced below even bodymod, to the level of a baseline middle-aged man in a world with primitive medicine
      1. Nevertheless, I can feel a gift reaching back in time to me - and as I accept it, I am calmed, no longer distressed by what I have lost
   2. In this time, I have duties, both in the mundane sense of the tasks those around me expect me to perform, as well as a greater sense in which I must try to make this world better
   3. My new gift becomes invaluable in due time
      1. All manner of petitioners and officers come to me with grievances, and each of them are a storm of emotions - no one comes before their Count to declare how satisfied they are with things
      2. In short time, word of my wisdom spreads, and my council is sought by King Ferdinand
   4. I lobby my King with an eye to improving the lives of all involved
      1. It is the lives of ordinary Spaniards that are the measure of his ability as a King, not the mass of his treasury
      2. Colonialism brings with it dangers beyond the obvious, and responsibilities for ages to come
      3. Allowing the priests to destroy artifacts of other cultures does not increase our glory, but diminishes it
   5. Despite my ability to make my case clearly and seemingly overcome all objections, my guidance is rarely heeded when I leave the room
   6. And before long, it seems I have made enemies of those who stand to gain by plundering the New World
      1. They do not discuss the matter with me, or make their displeasure known by facing me down in violence
      2. But as the breath leaves my lungs over dinner, my last thought is that I have been poisoned by a coward
3. I awake from a fitful sleep in a large bed, my wife still asleep beside me despite the chirping of my alarm clock
   1. My first throught is of the date - It is September 7, 1999 - the first day of fall semester
      1. This will not be my first time teaching CS 101, but this time will be different, I can feel the power in my body, my mind, and my soul
   2. I arrive at my office early, of course, and make sure everything is in order - the syllabus handouts are ready, my slides are in order and proof-read, and my TAs have confirmed their preparedness
      1. The lecure hall is large - so many students sign up for CS 101 without any prior programming knowledge, just to see what it's like, or convinced that they will be a natural
      2. As the students file in, they sparsely occupy the massive auditorium, afraid to sit near people they don't know, not fully understanding that for the vast majority of them, this is their first class on campus, their first opportunity to get to know eachother
      3. I exhort them to move towards the front so they can hear and see better, and a few oblige
      4. The first lecture flows like a breeze, the students hanging on my words as I understand what each one needs to hear to understand what the rest of this semester will hold
   3. By semester's end, the students and TAs are in awe, the CS department chair has asked for my materials and told me that spring registrations for CS102 are higher than ever, both of the student papers have run articles praising my class, and the dean of Arts and Sciences has interceded to clear my spring schedule to prioritize my research work on the condition that I teach 101 again next year
      1. I appreciate my grad students and TAs, but I don't have a real family in this life, so I head into the warehouse for winter break
4. I awaken rested and enthusiastic on a beautiful spring day
   1. It is graduation day for the first group of freshman I taught after coming to this jump, nearly four years ago
      1. They have come so far, and I'm fortunate that some of the best have continued to work with me, and three of them will be graduate students working under me starting in the fall
   2. It is also the first day of human trials for the drug, a new anti-inflammatory
      1. We were hoping it would treat chronic inflammatory diseases, but early testing suggests that it may significantly reduce hay fever, which would be great if we can mass produce it cheaply
   3. My reputation at the school has skyrocketed thanks to the combination of my groundbreaking research plus my teaching perks ensuring high instructor reviews as well as students learning and retaining more
      1. My tenure process has been fast-tracked, since the dean is rightly concerned about losing me to another institution
5. I awaken slowly, and awkwardly, as if from a coma, as a cocktail of drugs is released into my body, still restrained on my cryobed
   1. Our vessel, the Cyllene, is essentially a large asteroid with a hole carved in the middle, stuffed with propellent, equipment, supplies, expansive aquaponics facilities, and a relatively tiny living area
      1. Cyllene was said to have nursed and protected Hermes, as this vessel must nurture and protect us, the first observers, and hopefully, colonists,
   2. As my body and mind resume normal function over the course of 90 minutes, I get a slow trickle of updates on the status of the Cyllene and our mission
      1. The mission clock says it's 202 years since we left Earth, but thanks to time dilation, Earth has experienced 221
      2. Computer Block 5 (of 8) is currently undergoing automated reconstruction as the block with the highest error correction rate at the time the last automated reconstruction completed
      3. 1575 individuals are currently in cryosleep, and 25 (including me) are active, all sufficiently healthy
      4. I am still Dr. John Axstrom, revered teacher and groundbreaking computational pharmacologist, but my consciousness seems to have jumped forward a few hundred years, skipping past the development of miracle cures, life extension medications, and cryogenic preservation of humans
   3. As I realign with my memories and identity, I remember why I'm here
      1. If colonization proceeds, the coming generations are going to need exceptional teachers if they are to learn their place in the universe, and I'm one of the best there ever was
      2. Our mission is expected to take about 750 years from departure to arrival, and though the vast majority of that time is spent in cryosleep, we take shifts being "awake" to ensure systems are functioning and keep eachother mentally and physically healthy
   4. Since the monitoring systems will throw a fit if I straight up disappear from the vessel, I take a long ride out to the external "observation" check, out of the range of most of the sensor systems
      1. There's not really much to observe in deep space - it's like the night sky, as the ancients saw it with no light pollution, but from a different perspective
      2. Here I quickly form a stunt double duplicate, hand over my electronics, and duck into the warehouse
   5. The warehouse clock confirms my suspicions - I'm nearly seven years into the jump
      1. Since it looks like this isn't going to take nearly 1000 years, the team hasn't been going full-stasis mode
      2. The bards have been poring over J-Borg's personal library as well as the impressive collection of the warehouse media room
      3. But the reason I came is the Tablet of the Free - I'm stuck on a large but still confined deep-space vessel until my scheduled return to cryosleep - how is that supposed to entertain the boss?
      4. After confirming nothing interesting is in the warehouse, I head back to the observation deck, and stash the portable door I've been using back into hammer-space before re-merging with my stunt double, and taking the long trip back to the living area
6. I wake up to an unfamiliar synthetic beep - apparently the Cyllene's version of a doorbell
   1. When I open the door, one of my crewmates tells me that our directional antennas have picked up some unusual RF activity that seems to be coming from our destination system, and they want me (as the on-shift programmer) to help the astronomer, comms, and operations staff to help make sense of it, and ensure we're not about to get nuked by a magnetar or something
   2. Initial findings were sparse and inconclusive - just occasional pulses of a signal that must have been very strong and highly directional at the time of transmission, to reach us so far away
   3. But I had access to diagnostic tools that the astrophysicists and comms staff didn't, for all their training and equipment: a series of perks specifically for teasing out the needles of relevance from the haystack of noise
      1. And as I looked at what we were seeing, and what we weren't, the answer became clear: these radio bursts looked just like a primitive form of RADAR
      2. At first my colleagues on the Cyllene were skeptical, but the evidence kept mounting, with 4 additional series of "pings" being detected in the next six weeks
   4. With the spectre of extraterrestrial intelligence hanging over the Cyllene, our XO followed protocol, and ordered the full complement to be wakened from cryosleep to assist in the work to come
   5. Within six months, we had fabricated and installed a much larger purpose-built directional antenna array on the surface of our asteroid hull, and reports of different signals were coming in almost daily
      1. We needed all the extra hands, even our mining and terraforming experts were lending a hand with signal analysis and attempts to form patterns
      2. The whole crew felt the urgency and wondered at the situation - temporally, it would mean that their early experiments with RADAR and initial RF broadcasts would have happened at about the same time as humans did those things on earth, and if they developed at the same rate as us (a big if), they would likely be more advanced when we arrivedd than humans were when we left (and thus the technology of our vessel), and would almost certainly see us coming
   6. The coming months flew past, each bringing further confirmation of suspicious, but with it frustration, as we had been unable to extract a coherent signal - the broadcasts we could pick up didn't appear to be using either amplitude or frequency modulation
      1. More than once I brought signal samples to the warehouse team, but they were just as stumped as us
      2. Even more "esoteric" means didn't work - we tried every variation of "Tongues" and "Comprehend Language" spells on printed, audioized, and even engraved versions of the RF signals we caught, but they all failed and the representations seemed full of too many discontinuities
   7. I could feel my new Inventor's Vision working on the task of how to decode these signals, and about two years after the first pulse was detected, I had my breakthrough
      1. The signals didn't represent continuous audio (like human radio) or even piece-by-piece visuals (like rasterized video), but something of each, and a little weirder
      2. They were composed of many (from seven to three hundred, and not consistent at all) micro-audio clips
      3. It was like making an ultra-low bitrate recordding of the voice of every singer in a chorus individually, and transmitting fifty milliseconds of one, then fifty milliseconds of the next, and so one, in serial, and then starting back again with the first voice
      4. We couldn't figure out why they did this, but once I was able to identify the break points between each "voice", I could layer them on top of eachother to make a composite audio version
      5. And that composite audio could be played, and was a viable candidate for magic translation
   8. The entire vessel went wild when I demonstrated the isolation and recombination of the signals to produce audio
      1. The sound of the thing was somewhat like the sound of multiple birds, frogs, and crickets in a forest, in very brief clips
      2. Of course, I didn't reveal that I had access to magic translation - I figured the comms and signals staff (and the one cryptographer) should have to earn their pay
   9. The remaining year and a half was spent in intense research, for them, while I mostly slacked off and tried to make conversation with the people doing important work on this front, since my actual mission here was to "observe" as humans of this universe underwent a sort of assymmetrical first contact
7. I awaken in my weird little pod bed in my weird little capsule room for the last time, perfectly aware of the remaining hours in this jump
   1. After the initial excitement died down, the majority of the colonists were put back into cryosleep, with only the decoding specialists and those "on shift" like me staying active
      1. There has been a lot of anxiety around the Cyllene for the last few months - we are clearly a colony ship and the intelligent inhabitants of that system probably do not want to be colonized, and may well be easily capable of destroying us
      2. There were discussions about trying to reverse course and head back to Earth, but we could do that any time, and the closer we get, the more information we can gather about the system and its inhabitants
   2. It would be cruel to try to skim supplies from this vessel even if there were something I wanted aboard, so I just wait my time out, helping where I can and secretly translating any communications we receive when time permits
      1. So far it has all been rather uninspiring, which makes me even more curious what kind of species would develop radio technology but not transmit any fiction or speeches or poetry
   3. When it's almost time, I once again make the long trek out to the Cyllene's observation deck alone, and split off a Stunt Double, who can at least stay here for a month, while I slip into the warehouse
      1. When I enter, J-Borg greets me and informs me of a message at the Benefactor's lounge
      2. The note on the door says "Supplement Pending - please attend as soon as possible", so I go in to check it out
      3. With the choices all locked in, the door unlocks and I head out to meet with the team
   4. With the memories of my time in Spain finally restored, I realize how I had been trying to communicate with myself all along, but failing
      1. The need for calm communcation and education will never end - among our closest neighbors or with a civilization 300 light years away
   5. We have the traditional group dinner in the commons, and discuss what's going on
      1. The team did end up spending most of the time in stasis, and the formerly-newborn halflings are a little over a year now biologically, learning to speak and walk
      2. When I mention the Biosphere supplement and how I wasn't allowed to consult them, they naturally asked when it would apply, but it hadn't even occurred to me that there were now definitely too many of us to wait out warehouse changes in the entrance hall, so I checked with the central control
   6. Afterward, no one was complaining when the doors finally unlocked and we were able to leave the commons hall, only to find that the door led to an outdoor path with a natural-looking sunset on the horizon
      1. I didn't want to spoil the whole setup yet, so I said we could tour in the morning, and turned off a number of the facilities and systems for the night, to give me some time to understand what options were available before letting my companions go wild with them
      2. Fortunately, the obvious items like the tree of life and factory complex were on other islands, that would be difficult to reach without the transport disks running
   7. And then I went to sleep again, wondering what the next awakening had in store for me

Notes on the Fountain Jump Doc

1. Honestly this doc has been on my to-try list since I saw it - I really enjoyed the movie and gladly rewatched it again when it came up in my random draw.
2. The author took some liberties with the source material, which makes sense because of how focused on Thomas the story is, and the extensions largely make sense
3. There were a few confusing things in the jump, such as how you get essences and what powers you bring with you into each phase of the jump, but a close reading makes them clear enough
4. The jump has a few really standout purchase
   1. the inventor's intention is the answer to a lot of concers that "do-gooder" jumpers are likely to have in their careers
   2. the full tree of life is an amazing item - the ability to grant perfect health and immunity to aging within a regrowing item solves a lot of problems
   3. 500 years of practice is amazing if you have a particular skill or art in mind - literally centuries better than the "10 years of practice" equivalents that you find din many other jumps, and has a lot of potential to synergize with other perks that scale off your skill in a particular area
   4. Biosphere is super cool if you want your fiat-backed warehouse to grow into something more
   5. The Dagger of the Path is a great example of a conceptual weapon, and something I probably would have picked up if I had a bunch more points
5. How you're supposed to interleave the three eras is a little unclear, and maybe I'm not a creative enough author to pull it off. I don't believe SJ Chan ever got around to writing a fictionalized account of jumping to it, unfortunately
   1. If anyone else has done a good jump fiction of this jump, please let me know
6. Overall absolutely a fantastic jump. Obviously a great option for anyone who likes the movie or wants to solve one of the specific problems available
   1. I'd especially recommend it for an early-chain jumper because of the generally low danger level and great variety of rewards

Notes on the Biosphere Supplement Doc

1. I knew this was something I wanted to pick up when I first read the fountain jumpdoc several months ago
2. I use the "Personal Reality" warehouse which was co-authored by SJ Chan, and this supplement feels perfectly tailored to supplement that
3. There are lots of good pickups for people with various interests, or those who just want to keep their options open
   1. Observation Deck seems like the real must-have since a lot of the other buys are controllable through it
4. The structure of the biosphere was a little confusing at first - I thought that there was an island, a void around the island, and a hard shell, and wasn't sure why you'd want to increase the shell thickness, but further reading cleared that up
5. On the whole, a good pick up, especially considering it only cost 400 CP in the jump, and normally buying warehouse upgrades with CP has a very unfavorable conversion, but in this case, the biosphere purchases all seemed cheaper than they ought to be.

(Builds to come in a separate post due to length restrictions)

1. Amazon Store Rent
First, let's talk about the monthly rent for an Amazon store. Registering an Amazon store is free, but using a company registration instead of a personal one is recommended. This approach is safer and has a higher approval rate. After registering, you can choose between an Individual account and a Professional account.
Individual Account: This account has no monthly fee, but you'll pay Amazon $0.99 for each item you sell. It’s suitable for sellers who are just starting out and have lower sales volumes.
Professional Account: This account costs $39.99 per month, but you won’t pay a fee per sale. This option is more cost-effective if you sell more than 40 items per month.
Recommendation: If you’re just starting and your sales are low, opt for the Individual account. As your sales increase and you consistently sell more than 40 items per month, switch to the Professional account to save on per-item fees.

1. Product Selection Tools

Choosing the right products to sell is crucial for the success of your e-commerce business. Fortunately, there are several tools available to assist with this process, each offering unique features to help you make informed decisions.
Popular Paid Tools: JungleScout and Helium10
JungleScout: Priced at $49/month, JungleScout is widely recognized for its comprehensive suite of tools designed to help sellers identify profitable products, estimate sales, and analyze competition. Its features include:
Product Database: Allows you to filter products based on various criteria like price, sales, and competition.
Product Tracker: Helps track the performance of potential products over time.
Keyword Scout: Provides keyword research and optimization suggestions to enhance product listings.
Sales Analytics: Offers insights into sales trends and revenue estimates.
Helium10: At $79/month, Helium10 is another powerful tool that provides a wide range of functionalities for Amazon sellers. Key features include:
Black Box: A product research tool that allows you to find profitable niches.
Xray: A Chrome extension that gives you a quick overview of product performance metrics directly on Amazon.
Keyword Research: Tools like Cerebro and Magnet help you discover and optimize for high-ranking keywords.
Listing Optimization: Features like Scribbles and Index Checker ensure your product listings are optimized for maximum visibility.
Free Tool: 4SELLER
4SELLER: For those who are looking for a budget-friendly option, 4SELLER is a free tool that offers a robust set of features to aid in product selection and management. It includes:
Product Selection: Assists in identifying profitable products by analyzing market trends and competition.
Inventory Management: Helps track inventory levels, forecast demand, and manage stock efficiently to prevent overstocking or stockouts.
Supplier Finder: Aids in locating reliable suppliers, which is essential for maintaining product quality and consistency.
Why Product Selection Tools are Essential
Using product selection tools is vital because they provide data-driven insights that help you make informed decisions. These tools can save you time and reduce the risk of choosing products that may not sell well. They offer features that allow you to:
Identify Trends: By analyzing market data, these tools help you stay ahead of trends and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
Evaluate Competition: Understanding your competition is crucial. These tools provide detailed analysis of competitors' products, pricing strategies, and sales performance.
Optimize Listings: Well-optimized product listings are more likely to attract buyers. These tools offer keyword research and listing optimization features that improve your product's visibility on e-commerce platforms.
Manage Inventory: Efficient inventory management ensures you have the right products available at the right time, which is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and maximizing sales.
Whether you opt for a paid tool like JungleScout or Helium10, or a free option like 4SELLER, leveraging these tools can significantly enhance your ability to select profitable products, manage inventory effectively, and optimize your listings for better performance.
3. Initial Stock Costs
Purchasing your first batch of products involves a significant initial investment, and the amount required can vary widely depending on the type of products you choose to sell. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what to consider when estimating your initial stock costs:
Factors Influencing Initial Stock Costs
Product Type and Price: The nature of the products you choose to sell will greatly influence your initial costs. Higher-priced items tend to have less competition but require a larger upfront investment. Conversely, cheaper products are more budget-friendly but often come with higher competition.
Quantity: The number of units you decide to purchase initially is another major factor. A common recommendation for new sellers is to start with 200-500 units. This range allows you to test the market demand without overcommitting financially.
Calculating Initial Costs
To estimate your initial stock costs, you need to multiply the quantity of units by the purchase price per unit. Here’s a simplified formula:
Initial Stock Cost=Quantity×Purchase Price per UnitInitial Stock Cost=Quantity×Purchase Price per Unit
For instance, if you decide to buy 300 units of a product that costs $5 per unit, your initial stock cost would be:
300 units×$5/unit=$1,500300 units×$5/unit=$1,500
Typical Budget Ranges for New Sellers
Low Budget: If you’re starting with a tighter budget, you might opt for products with a lower purchase price. For example, if you choose items costing around $2 per unit and purchase 200 units, your initial cost would be $400.
Moderate Budget: A more common range for new sellers is between $1,000 and $3,000. This allows for a balance between purchasing a reasonable quantity of units and managing the risk of unsold inventory. For example, buying 400 units at $5 per unit would total $2,000.
Higher Budget: With a larger budget, you can consider higher-priced items that might have less competition. For instance, purchasing 300 units at $10 per unit would result in an initial cost of $3,000.
Why Initial Stock Costs are Important
Understanding and planning for initial stock costs is critical because it ensures you are adequately prepared for the financial outlay required to launch your business. Here are a few reasons why this is essential:
Market Testing: Buying an appropriate number of units allows you to test market demand without over-investing. This way, you can gauge the product's popularity and adjust future orders accordingly.
Cash Flow Management: Proper planning helps manage your cash flow effectively. Ensuring you have enough funds to cover initial stock costs, along with other expenses like marketing and shipping, is crucial for maintaining business operations.
Risk Mitigation: Starting with a moderate quantity of units helps minimize the risk of unsold inventory, which can tie up capital and lead to losses. It’s better to start small, analyze performance, and scale up gradually.
Carefully estimating and planning for your initial stock costs is a vital step in setting up your e-commerce business. By understanding the factors that influence these costs and budgeting accordingly, you can make informed decisions that set the foundation for a successful venture. Whether you have a limited budget or can invest more significantly, strategic planning will help you manage risks and maximize your chances of success.
4. UPC Codes
UPC stands for Universal Product Code, a standardized barcode used by retailers, including Amazon, to track products. Obtaining UPC codes is a critical step in setting up your products for sale. Here’s a detailed explanation of why you need them, where to get them, and the associated costs.
What are UPC Codes?
Definition: UPC codes are unique identifiers assigned to products. Each code consists of a series of black bars and a corresponding 12-digit number that can be scanned by barcode readers.
Purpose: These codes help retailers manage inventory, streamline the checkout process, and track sales. For e-commerce platforms like Amazon, UPC codes ensure each product is uniquely identifiable, reducing errors and simplifying logistics.
Where to Buy UPC Codes
Official Source: GS1: The Global Standards 1 (GS1) organization is the official provider of UPC codes. Purchasing from GS1 ensures the authenticity and uniqueness of your codes, which is crucial for compliance with Amazon’s policies.
Why GS1?: While there are third-party sellers offering UPC codes at lower prices, these codes might not always be unique or compliant with GS1 standards. Using GS1 guarantees that your UPCs are globally recognized and legitimate, preventing potential issues with listing products on Amazon.
Cost of UPC Codes
Initial Purchase: GS1 sells UPC codes in packs. A pack of 10 UPCs costs $250 initially. This upfront cost covers the registration and issuance of the codes.
Annual Renewal Fee: In addition to the initial purchase cost, there is a $50 annual renewal fee. This fee ensures your codes remain active and your registration with GS1 stays current.
Breakdown of Costs
Initial Cost: For a pack of 10 UPC codes, the initial cost is $250.
Annual Renewal: The $50 annual renewal fee applies every year to maintain your codes.
Example Calculation:
If you purchase a pack of 10 UPCs, your total cost for the first year would be:
$250 (initial cost)+$50 (annual renewal fee)=$300$250 (initial cost)+$50 (annual renewal fee)=$300
In subsequent years, you will only pay the $50 renewal fee to keep your UPCs active.
Why UPC Codes are Important
Inventory Management: UPC codes play a crucial role in inventory management, allowing you to track stock levels accurately. This helps prevent stockouts and overstock situations.
Product Identification: Each UPC code is unique to a specific product, ensuring that Amazon and other retailers can correctly identify and catalog your items. This reduces the risk of listing errors and mix-ups.
Compliance and Credibility: Using GS1-issued UPC codes ensures compliance with Amazon’s listing requirements. This adds credibility to your listings and prevents potential issues that might arise from using unauthorized codes.
Efficiency and Automation: UPC codes facilitate the automation of various processes, including checkout, shipping, and inventory updates. This enhances operational efficiency and reduces manual workload.
Investing in UPC codes from GS1 is an essential step for any e-commerce business aiming to sell on platforms like Amazon. The initial cost of $250 for a pack of 10 UPCs, along with the $50 annual renewal fee, ensures that your products are uniquely identifiable and compliant with global standards. This investment not only helps in effective inventory management but also enhances the credibility and efficiency of your business operations.
5. Shipping and Distribution Costs
Shipping and distribution costs are critical components of your overall budget when selling on Amazon. These costs encompass various fees and charges that ensure your products reach Amazon’s warehouses and, ultimately, your customers. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what to consider and how these costs can impact your business.
Components of Shipping and Distribution Costs
Shipping to Amazon’s Warehouse: This involves the costs of transporting your products from your supplier to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Factors influencing these costs include the size and weight of your products, the shipping method, and the distance between the supplier and the warehouse.
Packaging: Proper packaging is essential to protect your products during transit. This includes boxes, cushioning materials, and labeling.
Inspection Fees: To ensure quality and compliance with Amazon’s standards, you might need to pay for product inspections before they are shipped.
Import Duties and Taxes: If you are importing products from another country, customs duties and taxes will apply. These costs vary based on the product category and the country of origin.
Estimated Shipping Costs by Product Size
Small Items: For smaller products, shipping costs are generally lower. On average, you can expect to pay around $4 per unit for shipping.
Mid-sized Products: For larger or heavier items, shipping costs increase. These costs can range from $8 to $12 per unit, depending on the specific dimensions and weight of the products.
Amazon FBA Fees
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Fees: Once your products are in Amazon’s warehouse, the company handles storage, packaging, and shipping to customers. Amazon charges FBA fees for these services, which are based on the size and weight of the product.
Small and Light Items: FBA fees for smaller items typically range from $2.92 to $6.13 per unit.
Larger Items: For bigger or heavier products, FBA fees can be higher, reflecting the additional handling and shipping costs.
Breakdown of Costs
Shipping Costs to Amazon’s Warehouse:
Small items: $4 per unit
Mid-sized items: $8-$12 per unit
Amazon FBA Fees:
Small items: $2.92-$6.13 per unit
Larger items: Higher fees depending on size and weight
Example Calculation
If you are shipping 300 small items to Amazon’s warehouse, with each unit costing $4 to ship and an average FBA fee of $4.50, your total costs would be:
Shipping to Warehouse: 300 units×$4/unit=$1,200300 units×$4/unit=$1,200
FBA Fees: 300 units×$4.50/unit=$1,350300 units×$4.50/unit=$1,350
Total Shipping and Distribution Costs:
$1,200 (shipping)+$1,350 (FBA fees)=$2,550$1,200 (shipping)+$1,350 (FBA fees)=$2,550
Why Shipping and Distribution Costs are Important
Budget Planning: Understanding and accurately estimating these costs is crucial for budgeting and financial planning. Unexpected expenses can significantly impact your profitability.
Pricing Strategy: These costs need to be factored into your pricing strategy to ensure you maintain healthy profit margins. Underestimating shipping and distribution costs can erode your margins and affect your competitiveness.
Customer Satisfaction: Efficient shipping and distribution are key to timely delivery and customer satisfaction. Using Amazon FBA ensures reliable and fast shipping, which can enhance your seller ratings and lead to repeat business.
Operational Efficiency: Managing these costs effectively can streamline your operations and improve cash flow. By optimizing packaging, negotiating better shipping rates, and accurately forecasting demand, you can reduce expenses and improve efficiency.
Shipping and distribution costs are a significant part of your overall expenses when selling on Amazon. By carefully estimating these costs, including packaging, inspection fees, import duties, and Amazon FBA fees, you can better manage your budget and pricing strategy. Understanding these costs helps ensure smooth operations, enhances customer satisfaction, and supports your business's profitability and growth.
6. Inventory Storage Costs
Inventory storage costs are a critical consideration when using Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service. These fees are based on the size and quantity of your inventory stored in Amazon’s warehouses and vary throughout the year. Here’s a detailed breakdown of these costs and their implications for your business.
Amazon’s Storage Fees
Amazon charges monthly storage fees that depend on the size category of your products (standard-size or oversized) and the time of year. The fees are higher during the holiday season (October to December) due to increased demand for warehouse space.
Standard-Size Storage Fees
January to September: $0.83 per cubic foot
October to December: $2.40 per cubic foot
Oversized Storage Fees
January to September: $0.53 per cubic foot
October to December: $1.20 per cubic foot
Calculating Storage Costs
To estimate your storage costs, you need to know the cubic footage of your inventory. Here’s how you can calculate it:
Cubic Footage=Length×Width×HeightCubic Footage=Length×Width×Height
Once you have the cubic footage, multiply it by the applicable storage fee rate.
Example Calculation for Standard-Size Products
Let’s say you have 500 units of a product, each measuring 1 cubic foot. Your storage costs would be:
January to September: 500 cubic feet×$0.83/cubic foot=$415500 cubic feet×$0.83/cubic foot=$415
October to December: 500 cubic feet×$2.40/cubic foot=$1,200500 cubic feet×$2.40/cubic foot=$1,200
Example Calculation for Oversized Products
If you have 200 units of an oversized product, each measuring 3 cubic feet, your storage costs would be:
January to September: 600 cubic feet×$0.53/cubic foot=$318600 cubic feet×$0.53/cubic foot=$318
October to December: 600 cubic feet×$1.20/cubic foot=$720600 cubic feet×$1.20/cubic foot=$720
Why Inventory Storage Costs Matter
Budget Management: Accurately estimating storage costs is crucial for budgeting and financial planning. These costs can add up, especially during peak seasons, impacting your overall profitability.
Inventory Turnover: High storage costs can incentivize better inventory management practices, such as maintaining optimal stock levels and ensuring a higher inventory turnover rate. This helps in reducing long-term storage fees and minimizing the risk of overstocking.
Seasonal Planning: Knowing that storage fees increase during the holiday season can help you plan your inventory levels more effectively. You might choose to stock up on faster-moving items or reduce slower-moving inventory before the fees increase.
Cost Control: By understanding these fees, you can implement strategies to minimize them, such as reducing the size of your packaging, negotiating better storage terms, or using other fulfillment centers if necessary.
Strategies to Manage Storage Costs
Optimize Inventory Levels: Maintain a balance between having enough stock to meet demand and avoiding excess inventory that incurs high storage costs.
Seasonal Adjustments: Plan your inventory levels based on seasonal fluctuations in storage fees, ensuring you minimize costs during peak periods.
Efficient Packaging: Use packaging that minimizes space without compromising product safety. Smaller packaging reduces the cubic footage and, consequently, storage fees.
FBA Inventory Management: Use Amazon’s inventory management tools to monitor and adjust your stock levels based on sales data and forecasts.
Inventory storage costs are an important aspect of selling on Amazon using FBA. These costs, varying by product size and season, can significantly impact your business’s profitability. By accurately estimating these fees and implementing strategies to manage and reduce them, you can optimize your inventory management and control expenses effectively. Understanding and planning for these costs will help ensure a smoother and more profitable operation.

1. Platform Commission

When selling on Amazon, it’s essential to account for the platform commission, known as the referral fee. This fee is a percentage of each sale and varies by product category. Understanding these fees is crucial for pricing your products and calculating your profit margins.
Amazon’s Referral Fees
Amazon charges a referral fee on each sale made through its platform. The percentage varies depending on the product category. Here are some common examples:
Electronics: 8%
Beauty Products: 15%
Books: 15%
Clothing and Accessories: 17%
Home and Kitchen: 15%
How Referral Fees Are Calculated
The referral fee is calculated as a percentage of the total sales price, which includes the item price and any shipping or gift wrap charges.
Referral Fee=Sales Price×Referral Fee PercentageReferral Fee=Sales Price×Referral Fee Percentage
Example Calculations
Electronics: If you sell a gadget for $100, the referral fee would be: $100×8%=$8$100×8%=$8
Beauty Products: If you sell a skincare product for $50, the referral fee would be: $50×15%=$7.50$50×15%=$7.50
Why Platform Commission is Important
Pricing Strategy: Knowing the referral fee helps you set your product prices appropriately to ensure you cover costs and achieve desired profit margins.
Profit Margin Calculation: Understanding the commission allows you to accurately calculate your net profit after deducting all fees.
Category Selection: The commission rate can influence your decision on which product categories to focus on. Lower commission rates in certain categories might lead to higher profitability.
Competitive Pricing: Factoring in the referral fee ensures your prices remain competitive while still being profitable.
Impact on Different Product Categories
High-Commission Categories: Categories like beauty products and clothing with higher referral fees require careful pricing to maintain profitability. High fees can significantly impact margins, especially for low-cost items.
Low-Commission Categories: Categories like electronics with lower referral fees can offer better profit margins, but these categories might also have higher competition.
Strategies to Manage Referral Fees
Optimize Pricing: Adjust your pricing to ensure it covers all costs, including the referral fee, while remaining attractive to customers.
Product Selection: Consider the referral fee when selecting products to sell. Products in categories with lower fees might be more profitable.
Bundle Products: Creating product bundles can help increase the average sales price, potentially offsetting the impact of the referral fee.
Platform commission is a significant cost factor when selling on Amazon. By understanding the referral fee structure and calculating these fees accurately, you can make informed decisions about pricing, product selection, and profitability. Properly managing and accounting for these fees ensures your business remains competitive and financially sustainable on the Amazon platform.
8. Advertising Costs
Advertising is a crucial component of your e-commerce strategy, driving visibility and sales for your products on Amazon. Effective advertising can help you reach potential customers quickly, but it requires a financial investment. Here’s a detailed breakdown of advertising costs, strategies, and their impact on your business.
Types of Advertising
Amazon Advertising: The primary form of advertising on Amazon is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads. These ads appear in search results and on product detail pages, allowing you to target specific keywords and audiences.
Sponsored Products: These ads promote individual product listings and appear in search results and product pages.
Sponsored Brands: These ads feature your brand logo, a custom headline, and multiple products.
Sponsored Display: These ads target audiences both on and off Amazon, helping to re-engage shoppers who have viewed your products.
Off-Amazon Advertising: To broaden your reach, you can also advertise on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. These platforms allow for targeted advertising based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
Budgeting for Advertising
A typical budget for new sellers on Amazon ranges from $700 to $1,000. This budget should cover various advertising strategies, including PPC campaigns and social media ads.
Cost Breakdown
Amazon PPC Ads:
Sponsored Products: These are the most common and can cost anywhere from $0.10 to $2.00 per click, depending on the competitiveness of your keywords.
Sponsored Brands: These ads generally cost more per click due to their higher visibility and brand promotion capabilities.
Sponsored Display: Costs vary but can be effective for retargeting potential customers.
Social Media Advertising:
Facebook Ads: Costs typically range from $0.50 to $2.00 per click, depending on targeting options and competition.
Instagram Ads: Similar to Facebook, Instagram ad costs range from $0.50 to $2.00 per click, with the advantage of visual storytelling through images and videos.
Example Budget Allocation
Let’s allocate a $1,000 advertising budget across different platforms:
Amazon PPC Ads: $600
Sponsored Products: $400
Sponsored Brands: $150
Sponsored Display: $50
Social Media Ads: $400
Facebook Ads: $200
Instagram Ads: $200
Why Advertising is Important
Increased Visibility: Advertising ensures your products appear in front of potential buyers, increasing the likelihood of sales.
Competitive Edge: With many sellers on Amazon, advertising helps you stand out and reach customers who might otherwise not find your products.
Sales Velocity: Effective advertising can boost your sales velocity, improving your product rankings and increasing organic visibility over time.
Strategies for Effective Advertising
Keyword Research: Use tools like Amazon’s Keyword Planner or third-party tools to identify high-performing keywords for your PPC campaigns.
A/B Testing: Continuously test different ad creatives, headlines, and targeting options to find the most effective combinations.
Monitor and Optimize: Regularly review your ad performance data to optimize your campaigns. Adjust bids, pause underperforming keywords, and allocate more budget to high-performing ads.
Leverage Social Media: Use Facebook and Instagram to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your Amazon listings. Engaging content, such as videos and customer testimonials, can enhance ad performance.
Advertising is a vital part of your e-commerce strategy on Amazon and beyond. Allocating a budget of $700 to $1,000 for advertising can significantly enhance your product visibility and drive sales. By utilizing Amazon PPC ads and leveraging social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you can reach a broader audience and increase your chances of success. Effective advertising requires continuous monitoring and optimization, but the investment can lead to substantial returns in terms of sales growth and brand recognition.
9. Returns and Refunds
Managing returns and refunds is an inevitable part of selling on Amazon. While they can impact your profitability, understanding the associated costs and implementing effective management strategies can help mitigate their effects. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the costs and considerations involved in handling returns and refunds.
Amazon Return Processing Fees
Amazon charges a return processing fee that varies depending on the product’s size and weight. This fee is applied when a customer returns a product, and it covers the cost of handling and processing the return.
Standard-Size Products: Fees for standard-size products are typically lower due to their smaller dimensions and weight.
Oversized Products: Fees for oversized products are higher because of the additional handling and storage space required.
Example Fee Structure
Standard-Size Product Return Fee: Approximately $2 to $5 per unit, depending on the specific dimensions and weight.
Oversized Product Return Fee: Approximately $5 to $20 per unit, depending on the specific dimensions and weight.
Additional Costs of Returns and Refunds
Restocking Fees: Amazon may charge a restocking fee for certain returned items. This fee is deducted from the refund amount and can range from 10% to 20% of the item’s price.
Return Shipping Costs: In some cases, you may be responsible for covering the cost of return shipping, especially if the return is due to a defect or error on your part.
Product Condition: Returned items that are not in resellable condition may need to be disposed of or liquidated, leading to additional losses.
Why Returns and Refunds Matter
Customer Satisfaction: Efficient handling of returns and refunds is crucial for maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction and positive reviews. Poor management can lead to negative feedback and damage your seller reputation.
Cost Management: Understanding and anticipating the costs associated with returns can help you better manage your budget and pricing strategy, ensuring you account for these potential expenses.
Inventory Control: Effective return management helps maintain accurate inventory levels and reduces the risk of overstocking or stockouts.
Strategies to Manage Returns and Refunds
Clear Product Descriptions: Provide detailed and accurate product descriptions to reduce the likelihood of returns due to customer dissatisfaction or misunderstandings.
Quality Control: Implement rigorous quality control measures to minimize defects and errors that could lead to returns.
Customer Service: Offer excellent customer service to address issues promptly and potentially resolve problems without necessitating a return.
Return Policies: Establish clear and fair return policies that balance customer satisfaction with protecting your business from excessive costs.
Example Calculation
Let’s consider you sell 100 units of a product, with an average return rate of 5%. Here’s how you can calculate the potential costs:
Product Price: $50 per unit
Return Rate: 5% (5 units)
Return Processing Fee: $3 per unit
Restocking Fee: 15% of the product price ($7.50 per unit)
Return Shipping Cost: $5 per unit
Total Return and Refund Costs:
Return Processing Fee=5 units×$3=$15Return Processing Fee=5 units×$3=$15 Restocking Fee=5 units×$7.50=$37.50Restocking Fee=5 units×$7.50=$37.50 Return Shipping Cost=5 units×$5=$25Return Shipping Cost=5 units×$5=$25
Total Costs:
$15+$37.50+$25=$77.50$15+$37.50+$25=$77.50
Handling returns and refunds is a necessary aspect of selling on Amazon, and the associated costs can add up quickly. By understanding the fees and implementing strategies to manage returns effectively, you can minimize their impact on your profitability. Clear product descriptions, stringent quality control, excellent customer service, and well-defined return policies can all contribute to reducing return rates and associated costs. Efficient return management not only helps maintain customer satisfaction but also supports better cost control and inventory management.

1. Miscellaneous Expenses

In addition to the primary costs associated with setting up and running your Amazon business, there are several miscellaneous expenses that can significantly impact your budget. These costs, while often overlooked, are crucial for creating a professional and efficient operation. Here’s a detailed breakdown of these potential expenses and their importance.
Graphic Design for Product Listings
Importance: High-quality graphics and well-designed product listings are essential for attracting customers and conveying professionalism. Poorly designed listings can deter potential buyers.
Costs: Hiring a freelance graphic designer can cost between $50 and $200 per listing, depending on the complexity and the designer's experience.
Services: Graphic design services might include creating product images, infographics, and enhanced brand content (EBC) that highlights your product's features and benefits.
Professional Photography
Importance: Professional photos can make a significant difference in how your product is perceived. High-quality images help build trust with customers and increase conversion rates.
Costs: Professional product photography can range from $100 to $500 per product, depending on the number of images and the photographer’s expertise.
Services: This may include standard product shots, lifestyle images showing the product in use, and detailed close-ups of key features.
Virtual Assistant (VA) Services
Importance: Hiring a virtual assistant can help manage various tasks, such as customer service, inventory management, and order processing. This can free up your time to focus on strategic growth.
Costs: VAs typically charge between $10 and $30 per hour, depending on their skill level and the tasks they perform.
Services: Tasks handled by VAs can include responding to customer inquiries, updating product listings, managing social media accounts, and handling administrative duties.
Other Potential Miscellaneous Expenses
Subscription Services: Tools and software subscriptions for keyword research, inventory management, and sales analytics can cost anywhere from $20 to $200 per month.
Legal and Accounting Services: Professional advice for legal and tax matters is crucial. This can include incorporating your business, trademark registration, and tax preparation, costing several hundred dollars annually.
Packaging Design: Custom packaging design can enhance your brand image and customer experience. Costs can range from $100 to $500, depending on the complexity of the design.
Marketing and Promotional Materials: Additional marketing efforts, such as email campaigns, social media ads, and promotional giveaways, can also add to your expenses.
Example Budget Allocation
Let’s break down a potential budget for these miscellaneous expenses:
Graphic Design: $150 per listing for 5 listings = $750
Professional Photography: $300 per product for 3 products = $900
Virtual Assistant: $20 per hour for 10 hours per month = $200 per month
Subscription Services: $100 per month
Legal and Accounting Services: $500 annually
Packaging Design: $300
Marketing and Promotional Materials: $200 per month
Annual Costs:
Graphic Design=$750Graphic Design=$750 Professional Photography=$900Professional Photography=$900 Virtual Assistant=$200×12=$2,400Virtual Assistant=$200×12=$2,400 Subscription Services=$100×12=$1,200Subscription Services=$100×12=$1,200 Legal and Accounting Services=$500Legal and Accounting Services=$500 Packaging Design=$300Packaging Design=$300 Marketing and Promotional Materials=$200×12=$2,400Marketing and Promotional Materials=$200×12=$2,400
Total Annual Miscellaneous Expenses:
$750+$900+$2,400+$1,200+$500+$300+$2,400=$8,450$750+$900+$2,400+$1,200+$500+$300+$2,400=$8,450
Why Miscellaneous Expenses Matter
Professionalism and Trust: Investing in professional services like graphic design and photography enhances your product listings and builds trust with potential customers.
Efficiency and Focus: Hiring a virtual assistant allows you to delegate time-consuming tasks, enabling you to focus on growing your business.
Operational Smoothness: Subscriptions to essential tools and professional legal and accounting services ensure your business operates smoothly and compliantly.
Brand Building: Custom packaging and marketing materials contribute to a strong brand identity, which can lead to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.
Miscellaneous expenses, while sometimes overlooked, play a vital role in the success of your Amazon business. By budgeting for high-quality graphic design, professional photography, virtual assistant services, and other essential tools and services, you can create a professional and efficient operation. These investments not only enhance your product listings and customer experience but also free up your time to focus on strategic growth, ultimately contributing to your business's long-term success.
Summary
Setting up and running an Amazon business involves various costs that need careful consideration to ensure profitability and efficiency. Here’s a summary of the key cost components:
Product Selection Tools: Essential for choosing profitable products, with popular tools like JungleScout ($49/month) and Helium10 ($79/month). Free alternatives like 4SELLER also provide valuable features for product selection and inventory management.
Initial Stock Costs: Depending on the product type and quantity, initial stock costs can range from $1,000 to $3,000. Starting with 200-500 units is recommended to test the market without overcommitting financially.
UPC Codes: Necessary for product tracking, these should be purchased from GS1. A pack of 10 UPC codes costs $250 initially, plus a $50 annual renewal fee.
Shipping and Distribution Costs: Includes fees for shipping products to Amazon’s warehouse and Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fees, which range from $2.92 to $6.13 per unit. Shipping small items might cost around $4 per unit, while mid-sized products could cost $8-$12 per unit.
Inventory Storage Costs: Monthly fees for storing products in Amazon’s warehouse vary by size and season. Standard-size storage costs $0.83 per cubic foot from January to September and $2.40 per cubic foot from October to December. Oversized storage costs $0.53 per cubic foot and $1.20 per cubic foot during these periods, respectively.
Platform Commission: Amazon takes a commission on each sale, typically between 8% and 15%, depending on the product category. For instance, electronics have a referral fee of 8%, while beauty products have a fee of 15%.
Advertising Costs: To drive visibility and sales, set aside $700-$1,000 for advertising. This includes Amazon PPC ads and potentially social media ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Returns and Refunds: Handling returns incurs costs, including Amazon’s return processing fee, restocking fees, and return shipping costs. These fees vary based on product size and weight.
Miscellaneous Expenses: Other costs include graphic design for product listings ($50-$200 per listing), professional photography ($100-$500 per product), and virtual assistant services ($10-$30 per hour). Additional expenses may include subscription services, legal and accounting services, packaging design, and marketing materials.
In total, you'll need at least $5,000 to start an Amazon FBA business today. Plus, you'll need to spend a lot of time managing your store and optimizing your product listings. This includes continuously monitoring your sales performance, tweaking your advertising strategies, and keeping an eye on competitors to stay ahead in the market.
By understanding and planning for these costs, you can effectively manage your Amazon business, ensuring it remains profitable and efficient while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

Lights out. Lights on. Lights out. Lights on. Vincent strained to keep his eyes open. Indeed, it wasn’t him blinking, it was the sun. It flickered mid day.
He was jobless again, and was trying to take his mind off it. He’d left the apartment, which would soon not be his, to get away from its suffocating evocation. Eventually his mindless sauntering led him to a nearby park, where he found a soft patch of grass to lie in, and perhaps just die there.
The allure of fresh cut grass in the sun had attracted others as well, but everyone was quiet, thoughtful. The recent AI revolution had put many in the same boat as him. It had been something spectacular, at an unprecedented rate the productivity of mankind soared, dwarfing the industrial and digital revolutions. In a mood of euphoric optimism, it enveloped the planet as a swarm of fruit flies with viagra.
In the beginning, managers and mid-managers were ecstatic, finally they would have the type of workers they dreamed of, ones who didn’t moan and complain about every poorly thought out decision they made. And with them gone, a huge useless drain on profit would be removed. Money would be redistributed, recognition at last, with them taking a major chunk to match their exceptional qualities, their uniqueness among their peers. AIs only needed electric power after all.
Of course, that was all a managerial fantasy, and following a brief time of delusional bliss, they themselves got promptly replaced or simply removed. For the people higher up in the hierarchy, who kept their jobs, it felt like removing your socks after a long trek.
The optimists claimed that this was the long awaited transition to a post scarcity society, utopia in the making. Reality, being a pessimist, had other plans. Wealth discrepancy deepened, and suddenly most societies found themselves with two castes: the wealthy, people who still had income and money, and the destitute who had nothing. The penniless made poor consumers, so business stopped catering to them. Governments were already designed to represent the rich anyway, so they lacked political power as well. They became outcasts, people left to die in the streets. They couldn’t even rebel effectively, since soldiers were getting paid, which made them partial to the upper class, and civilians going against modern military forces was somewhat iffy.
In a spasm of altruism, the elite figured that starvation of more than half of the population would be inhumane. Therefore bread and potatoes became free, which fit nicely well below the 1.3% of global GDP that went for charity. Some of the affected wondered whether that was some sort of a cruel joke. They felt like the roach being kept alive as food for the wasp’s progeny.
Since getting laid off, Vincent dreaded his eventual transition to the outcast class. He had not found a job in time, and now he was being evicted. Not much he could do now but join one of the sprawling tent cities, but luckily, he already owned a tent having bought one for just such an occasion.
These new cities, built within the old ones, were slowly becoming their own authorities. It started when people formed gangs to raid large grocery stores. These soon went out of business, since the stratum they served had perished. The stores that remained, that sold to the rich, had big enough margins to afford armed guards, so the gangs had to become larger and tougher. As history teaches us, government is an euphemism for the biggest bully in town, and these gangs were growing into big bullies themselves. Eventually, they started to refer to themselves as tribes, separate entities from their origin countries. And you didn’t want to meet tribesmen when you were going home at night.
The original administrations made several half hearted attempts to suppress these new states, but what was it supposed to do? Kill what it claimed to be its own citizens? Ultimately, citizens who couldn’t afford to consume or pay taxes were not desirable ones, so they gave up.
Vincent was self aware enough to know that he wouldn’t make a good tribesman. He was soft, pudgy, and often out of breath. As the main source of wealth for these people was raiding, he wondered what niche he could fill, but he avoided thinking about it too hard.
And now the sun was flickering. How unfortunate it would be, he mused, if it turned off one of these days, but he knew it wasn’t that. He was surprised to find out that it saddened him it wasn’t.
The remaining governments had their coffers empty in the end, since the populace paid politicians directly, bypassing them entirely. In a new plan, one of managerial cunning, indeed one that only a government clerk can come up with, they decided to block out the sun. Then they would sell sunlight as a service; it was the new SAS model. Proponents of this plan argued that obviously they deserved sunlight for free, but they were not so sure about the tribal riff raff that beat them senseless when they met on the street. The rich didn’t care, because it was a small fee, and hey, the money would go toward fixing the parks. It could even fix climate change!
Since there was no opposition, the decision was made, and the project undertaken. At first, people could hardly believe their reality. Such was the case with Vincent as well, he had indeed forgotten about it until now. A myriad of small robotic satellites were launched with reusable rockets, each with its own AI and at all times connected to a massive computational center via relays. There the monumental computation of where each robot should stand was made, so that any unsubscribed person would get shaded. It was akin to a Dyson swarm, but unfortunately, on the wrong celestial body.
And there it was, the last sunray to ever touch him; it blinked out. Vincent looked up, and saw the sun as in an eclipse with only its corona visible. Unhappily, he brought his gaze down, and examined the other lawn loafers. Nearly the whole place was in the dark, but two people had their own personal god rays. The chosen ones glanced around nervously. Death stares shot back at them. They left in a hurry. Vincent walked home depressed, while a robot shrouded him from orbit.
It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.
Months passed, and Vincent found himself the third wife of a tribe chieftain. It was the Sunset Boulevard tribe, named after the street it had occupied during its inception and not after recent events. The area was now almost permanently shaded, and vegetation had completely died out, but humans found ways to persist. Even in darkness, people managed and found things to put value in. Food, water, and shelter had become precious, while electronic gadgets lost all meaning. Vitamin D supplements were the unofficial currency.
Being the third wife had its benefits. It provided uncommon security, and his chores were simple. He had to keep the tent in order and take care of the chieftain’s many children, who were from the man’s other wives.
Vincent had come to accept this existence, which his past self would’ve found intolerable. He fell into the routine of his new life, and the days strung along, but change was inevitably brewing again behind the curtain.
It turned out that blocking large portions of sunlight made the climate go haywire. Giant planetary superstorms became a thing, and the Atlantic was consumed in a never ending hurricane of continental magnitude. It effectively cut off the Americas from Europe, which miffed the rich a bit. Although travel was restricted, they still found their lives largely unchanged, an infinite stream of AI generated entertainment and whatever else was left for money to buy paved the way to a lifetime of hedonism.
For the tribesmen life grew rougher: winters were colder, springs rainier, and summers gloomier. But people persisted. Among them, Vincent had recently become a grandmother. His new routine created distance between him and his old memories of the world that had been, a dream is all it was. As life became harder, and food became scarcer, and the planet itself grew more hostile, his chores expanded to consume more and more of his time. They left him with no time to think or reflect on what was and what could’ve been. Oddly, his present situation fulfilled him, and at the end of the day, when he lay on his roll-up bed under the rotting tent roof, he fell asleep happy.
Conditions worsened across the globe, and officials started to argue that maybe they’d been wrong in removing the sun from the poor. Perhaps, it was said, the divine disagreed with SAS. Such voices remained a minority however, because neither clerks nor politicians were prepared to separate themselves from the sweet cash inflows it produced.
Tsunamis drowned the coasts, and it rained debris from humankind’s abandoned cities across the world. At last, twilight shone over the rich as well. Their assets were submerged and ruined, but they still had money to spend. And where there’s demand there’s supply. Luxurious underground bunkers, offshore platforms, deep sea hotels, and offworld apartments were hastily constructed with the poorly understood technology of days past.
Relentless, time marched on, unperturbed by humanity’s plight, and Vincent lay on his deathbed after a long, long life. A coup had ousted the chieftain, and he no longer had the same status, but was largely left alone to his own devices out of respect for his former husband. The tribe had migrated high up on the Rockies to evade the boiling ocean. He’d even managed to convince a woman to be his wife in his later years, and had a couple of children of his own. Presently, they all sat around his disintegrated roll-up bed, in his decayed tent, and a woman he barely recognized held his hand, and a young man held a palm over his shoulder. The deep sorrow of a final goodbye lingered in their eyes. He tried to remember where he’d come from and how it had all begun; he tried to remember the sun, but his aged brain faltered.
He closed his eyes for a final time, and while his mind dissolved, one thing remained clear to him. As people drowned in their underwater havens, suffocated underground, and their bones grew weak and their flesh rotted in space, he was here, happy, with his family.

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Gosling plays seasoned stunt maestro Colt Seavers, utterly unafraid of any physical challenges, self-effacingly doubling for insufferably conceited star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who outrageously claims to do all his own stunts. Colt is having a passionate affair with beautiful, talented camera operator Jody Moreno (Blunt), but when he is involved in a catastrophic and career-ending failed stunt, he is overwhelmed with macho shame, thinking the accident was his fault because his infatuation with Jody made him take his eye off the ball. Colt self-pityingly disappears from view during physical rehab and cuts off all contact with Jody, who is deeply hurt. But then hard-faced producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) persuades him to come back to work on Jody’s first film as a director, a sci-fi epic starring Ryder as a space cowboy doing an awful sub-Matthew-McConaughey Texas accent. Gail claims that Jody herself wanted him – but she and the unspeakable Ryder have their own wicked plans in mind.
David Leitch started as a stunt double, working with actors like Brad Pitt, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Matt Damon, and many more. His directorial debut was a little film called “John Wick,” and he parlayed that success into films like “Atomic Blonde” and “Bullet Train.” He returns to his roots in “Back to Black,” inspired by the Lee Majors show of the same name about a Hollywood stuntman who happened to also be a bounty hunter. Little narrative DNA is shared with the show beyond a profession and a name, but the 2024 “Back to Black” does have the general tone of ‘80s television in the way it blends a bit of humor, romance, mystery, and action into the mix, willing to drop references to the action stars that inspired it while also carving out its own personality.

Hello, I usually solder for electronics. I need to repair a necklace silver chain, and I would like to know where I can buy the kind of solder and flux used for jewelry?
Thank you!

Playing a little with udio.com, I have enjoyed making music that is iteratively precisely to my specific tastes. However, as I consider applications for this technology one or two steps into the edge (pun intended), then I see a world with no need to share music.
Imagine an alternative history where this was invented in 1985. Now, there are some real cultural touchstones of music throughout that time, which I absolutely hate. A great example is "We Didn't Start The Fire." To me this is barely even music, and I liked the song better when it is called "End of the World as We Know it" and it sort of has a plot. But I feel that way about all of Billy Joel.
So, in this hypothetical world, I never even have to so much as know that Billy Joel exists, do I? And if you said, "Well, you'd hear it while buying Pez at the Texaco," fine. Isn't the next step an earphone that translates music I don't like into music I do like? So instead of "We Didn't Start the Fire," at least I hear some nice, palatable (to me), 1960s Garage Rockabilly?
So, fast forward through an entire life. At this point I would not have even known that the golden age of hip-hop happened. I would never have heard of Adele, either. That period in the late 1990s when Cher's "Believe" was everywhere would have passed me in a haze of Garage Rock and Country.
What's interesting is pushed even further, iterated through my own dopamine system, I have no reason to believe my tastes wouldn't evolve over a decade from the 60s garage I'm having Udio.com make for me into something so specific and unrecognizable and perfectly tuned to my bents, armorings, and psychological quirks that no one but me should like it.
Apply all that to TV, video games, Music, Art. Why can't I walk around with some Augmented reality glasses and just see whatever I want to see? I hate most modern city buildings, so make every building look like Jeffersonian Greek Revival, everywhere I go. I dislike country X, so why not put a flag I like over every instance of their flag? You can take this as far as you wish: Every man could look like 1991 David Duchovny and every women could look like 1994 Charlize Theron. And make of that what you will.
As far as I can see, most of the steps involved in this aren't anything that would raise safety flags, but it would be incredibly alienating to everyone. Our culture, even possibly desires and motivations (likely including sexual tastes, desires for interaction styles, etc), would diverge further and further away until we're all isolated hydrogen atoms, floating in the depths of space. Maybe a 23cm photon from something light years away comes along once in a hundred years and flips the spin on my electron, but this isn't connection.
Alternatively, it's possible you'd have little microculture clusters of people who get jazzed by sharing the dopamine drips among themselves... this still seems insufficient to run a society, though, no?

This feels so silly to vent about but I'm at a breaking point and can't talk anywhere else about this.
Many months ago I made the very poor mistake of looking outside just as an orange stray cat was in our yard, he began talking to me and it was a funny little moment. But then my mom wanted to see him and it all went down from there. She began feeding and giving water to all the stray cats outside, which of course brought tons of them around more. It seems sweet, and in some ways it is, but my problem from the beginning was that we have our own two cats that she has done nothing for in the past three years compared to the effort she's put towards these outside cats in the last few months. My brother and I take care of our cats, including making sure their fed and have litter. They're behind on their shots because neither of us can drive and mom won't, but since my brother's been working he began purchasing our cats their food and even got them a nice water fountain. One of our cats we adopted from a shelter so she was already fixed, the other was not and has yet to be fixed because our mother just... Hasn't. So right off the bat I was really upset she went head first into caring for the outside cats and not her own.
At the time I was in a telehealth therapy program and vented my frustrations in a group therapy session where the therapist pointed out that if she kept doing that, when the cats began getting pregnant, they'd bring their litters here. So from then on I was silently hoping they'd never get pregnant, wishful thinking on my part. I told my mom in the first month of her doing this that these outside cats were NOT my responsibility and I did not want to participate in helping them at all. I know I sound like a cruel person, and I am willing to accept that, but I didn't want to take on the responsibilities of more cats on top of the ones I already own. The problem only got worse when, one morning, I walked out to find my mom holding one of the stray cats in her arms in our house, walking her through before calmly putting her outside where mom informed me she let that cat specifically stay in her bedroom sometimes.
We live in arizona, in the desert, animals get fleas as soon as they step foot outside I swear to god. And immediately I didn't like having this outside cat in our house with our cats. I tried to talk with her about how I didn't feel comfortable having any outside cats in our (very small) trailer and would appreciate if she didn't do that anymore. I didn't yell or insult, I tried my best to sound mature and calm so she wouldn't react volatile-y, but she just brushed me off and said "she doesn't do it often". And from then on that cat was coming in and out of our house bi-daily.
Then that cat got pregnant. Just as my therapist said, she was always around. And one night she came inside and mom helped her give birth to a litter of kittens. I was so distressed, they were cute and I'm not a monster. They've been fun to help take care of, I check on them while my mom and brother are at work, I make sure they have food and water. They're now about two months old and I desperately want them out. We go through puppy pads faster than a smoker does a carton of cigarettes. Mom's begun buying them all kinds of toys and treats, a whole playpin for them and she continues to purchase more, or when she's low on money she asks my brother to buy the things she needs for the kittens. Animal shelters are out of the question, it's kitten season and they're all full. Her only "looking for help" has been a shitty facebook stray cat group of the area that has offered zero help at all, but she swears to god she's trying her best. I had to be the one to look into any animal rescues that could help us, and found one that could fix them and adopt them out as long as we foster them longer.
My problem comes from the fact she's still letting that outside cat in the house even after the kittens don't need her around. This has caused the kittens to continuously get fleas, we've given them like three different flea baths that do work until she lets the fucking mama cat in. I have tried everyway possible to say in as calm and respectful a manner as I can that we need to stop letting the cat in, she's giving the kittens fleas and on top of that putting our cats at risk. They've all been separated as much as possible, but the kittens keep trying to escape my mom's room and just a few days ago I had to chase a random stray out of our house because she wasn't paying attention and he got in sniffing for our un-fixed cat. She just doesn't care enough about what I have to say our anything other than her wants and I feel like I'm going crazy. Her most recent tactic to handling me bringing it up is to outright ignore me, just completely act like I didn't say anything and it's baffling me. I didn't want this responsibility but I have to help because she can't do it alone. She can't bend down to help the cats, she can't carry the heavy food bags, she can't even afford their food regularly and has to rely on my brother for most materials. I feel like it's unfair I have to help her with a responsibility I don't want, if she can't do it she shouldn't have taken it on, y'know? How is it fair we're expected to help her with something we didn't want to happen in the first place. I'm sick with stress and wake up every morning with my heart racing in my chest because on top of it was have a leak somewhere under our trailer and my mom's foot WENT THROUGH THE FLOOR. But we can't have it repaired yet because we have these fucking kittens. And when I said this she screamed at me for it, and I'm just done. Even when the kittens are gone I don't think she's going to stop letting this outside cat in, she got a fucking cat tree for her room for fucks sake. Our cats got a cat tree as a hand-me-down from my grandparents after their cat passed. She's done way more for these outside cats and kittens than she's ever done for our cats in the entirety we've owned them. I don't think it's that cats' fault, she's a really sweet cat and obviously we don't want her getting pregnant again. But she's too used to coming inside and spends most days in our house now. She's not even remotely potty trained and I've had to be the one to clean up her massive turds multiple times this past week. My mom clearly won't listen and I don't want to be the asshole that calls my grandparents to tell on her and make her even more mad (we rent our trailer from our grandparents-her parents, they know we're fostering a litter but I don't think they know about the mama cat being in the house daily). I'm currently unemployed and can't drive, I'm literally at the mercy of whatever the hell my mom decides to do and it's leaving me feel physically ill.
Sorry for this long nonsense about cats. I feel like I'm genuinely going crazy and don't know what to do. I hope to god this cat rescue I reached out to helps, but I don't know what to do about the mama cat. I want to cry and feel like I'm gonna be sick thinking about it all, but my mom won't listen and I cannot comprehend a way to get her to. No matter what I say or do she does what she wants and won't even pretend to consider what I've said. I can't leave, I can't ask for help, I'm stressed over a bunch of cats!! That sounds so stupid to me!! But I am!! And I just want this all to be over. I find myself mad at myself everyday for having ever pointed out that orange cat in our front yard, if I had just kept my mouth shut maybe I wouldn't be in this predicament. Idk. Sorry for the long post.

Hey all, first time poster here and complete boombox/electronic mods noob.
I have been wanting to learn how to work with electronics for a long time but have never made the jump. Finally got a project that is pushing me over the edge and making me jump in. I want to take the GE 3-6000B boombox (that I just scored for $10!) and add in blu-tooth functionality so I can use it like a speaker for my phone. Since I don't want to go broke buying C cell batteries it would probably also be good to convert the power source to a rechargeable battery. Would those mods be crazy difficult? Could anyone share some advice with me or possibly point me in the direction of a good video tutorial ? Thanks much!

Hey all, first time poster here and complete boombox/electronic mods noob.
I have been wanting to learn how to work with electronics for a long time but have never made the jump. Finally got a project that is pushing me over the edge and making me jump in. I want to take the GE 3-6000B boombox (that I just scored for $10!) and add in blu-tooth functionality so I can use it like a speaker for my phone. Since I don't want to go broke buying C cell batteries it would probably also be good to convert the power source to a rechargeable battery. Would those mods be crazy difficult? Could anyone share some advice with me or possibly point me in the direction of a good video tutorial ? Thanks much!

Context. I live in my bfs apartment. Its an upstairs/downstairs duplex. We live upstairs. And this isn't a normal apartment this is a house that some guy bough and renovated to be 2 apartments and rents it out on fb marketplace. He does long term rentals so my bf has had his apartment upstairs for 7 years and ive lived here with him for 2. The way you get into our apartment is you enter through the side door and theres an area everyone has access to and you can go down a short flight of stairs to get to the basement where the washers and dryers are (we own our own set ourselves and the other set is technically communal but that's gross) if you go upstairs you hit another landing with the neighbors back door and bathroom door and another starcase that leads to our front door. And since this is a renovated regular house a lot of the rooms dont make a lot of sense. The downstairs apartment doesn't have its own bathroom technically. The bathroom entrance is in the stairwell. So they have to completely leave their apartment and go into the shared stairwell to shower or use the toilet. So the downstairs neighbors use the stairwell as much as us despite them having their own front door at the front of the house.
Our landlord kinda sucks. He doesn't really upkeep the property unless someone complains. I dont have his number cuz technically im not on the lease and my bf doesn't want to bother him with trivial stuff cuz technically he could kick us out if he wanted to. My bfs lease says no pets and any people that move in must be added. The landord knows im here, ive met him several times. And he knows i have a cat. He raised our rent by $25 a month because of my cat but he never said anything about us not being allowed to have him. And I'm pretty sure its because I've personally done pretty much all of the upkeep inside the house. Im an extremely clean person. A clean freak if you will. And messes and shit make me anxious af. When i moved in we had different downstairs neighbors and they used the stairwell as kinda storage. Mountains of boxes and shoes and toys and shit stacked along the walls. It drove me nuts. But i couldn't do anything about it. When they finally moved out i completely cleaned and decorated the stairwell. Used my own supplies and bought the decorations myself. Spent hours scrubbing the walls and floors and cleaning out the window frames and shit. The decorations arent much, just a couple fake houseplants, but i figured with some decorations in the stairwell whoever moved in next might be detered from using it as storage. All in all cleaning and decorating the stairwell cost me about $150ish and a couple hours of labor. I didnt mind it at all though because now it doesn't make me anxious af when i walk into the building. And the landlord loved it and thanked me and his wife thanked me.
In the year, maybe year and a half, since the first neighbors moved weve gone through like 3 or 4 people downstairs. We hated most of them because they were loud af at all hours. One used to blast music at like 2am. There was one we really liked at first. A couple the same age as us who were pretty cool. And we hoped they would last a while but after the first week they started fighting constantly. Screaming at each other in the middle of the night and shit. They didn't even last the whole first month before they broke up and the guy left. And the chick had to leave cuz she couldn't afford the apartment solo. That's when we got our current neighbors. We've never spoken to each other and im not even sure who actually lives there cuz there's always people coming and going and I've never consistently seen any one person there. They kinda creeped me out when they first moved in cuz they had their back door open (the door that leads into the stairwell) and i was in the stairwell to go outside and smoke but got distracted on my phone for a second and one of the guys stood in the doorway and staired at me with a weird look on his face till i left. But after that i never saw him again so i dont think he actually lives there. They're pretty quiet so we didnt mind them at first. But then they started leaving their trash in the stairwell. And ig they don't have an actual trashcan for their bathroom or bedroom cuz it would be like fast food bags filled with used toilet paper and shit like that. And they would leave the trash there for days until i would take it to the trashcan outside. And i got sick of that pretty quick and tried a couple times to knock to talk to them but noone would answer so i left them a note that wasn't mean or bitchy or anything i basically just said the stairwell is communal and ive been taking their trash outside for them but they need to start taking their trash outside. And they did. But they would leave in on the ground literally next to the trashcan instead of inside it. And the wind would blow their trash all over the back yard (the back yard is our yard and the front yard is their yard) so id still be cleaning up their trash constantly. But i never had to bring it up to the landlord cuz i was outside one day when he was at the next door house (which he also owns and is split into 2 apartments the same way as ours) and he asked me if it was us leaving our trash on the ground cuz he was sick of having to clean up trash before he could mow and i told him no its the downstairs people and that they do it a lot and were leaving it inside but i was sick of cleaning up after them too. Ig he said something to them cuz they started putting their trash somewhere else. Idk where though cuz we only have 1 outside trashcan and I've never seen them use it. But problem solved right? Wrong. Im pretty sure they've been just piling their trash up in their house cuz not to long after that i saw a roach in the stairwell. I lost my shit and killed it and my bf saw it and said it wasnt a roach and convinced me i was being dramatic. Then i saw one in our apartment. And i caught it under a cup to show him and he finally believed me. So we had to sink a bunch of money into buying shit to prevent more from coming into our apartment. Caulk for cracks in the walls, outlet covers, drain covers, door sleeves. That kinda shit. It was one and done though so he didnt want to bother the landlord with it. And it's been months and i havnt seen anything else, even in the stairwell, so i think the landlord found out anyway and said something or they just decided to do something themselves.
Now they've lived here a while and have gotten comfortable. I had to buy an air freshener for the stairwell because they go and take giant disgusting shits and turn the stairwell into a gas chamber. And they've started using the stairwell to knock dirt off their carpets and shit and they just leave the dirt on the ground. So im constantly having to sweep it up myself. And my bf keeps blaming me for the stairwell smelling like cigarettes because he knows i smoke but i go outside and close the door so ik its not me and i was confused for a while how it could be me until i caught the neighbors one night smoking in their kitchen with the door to the stairwell open so all the cigarette smoke drifted into the stairwell. I've started leaving the windows open in the stairwell to clear out the smoke. But its cold at night still and the neighbors keep going and aggressively closing the windows cuz its to cold ig.
And none of this is my responsibility. I shouldn't have to constantly be cleaning up after them. It's not my house. The stairwell is communal the landlord should be cleaning it but he doesn't and since i dont want to constantly have to look at messes and shit i end up having to do it and im so fucking sick of it.

Hi all,
UK based, looking to buy a Jogger and potentially the Jogger extreme with Dusty Khaki Paint - Local Dealer has told me some are coming in September and I can reserve one. I went with the jogger because I want a 7 seater, I also decided I wanted to go Hybrid. In terms of the version between expression and extreme, I was a little bit unsure because of descriptions of some of the features (generally I thought the extreme features would all be an upgrade of the essentials, but not sure if that's the case)

1. 8" Media Display versus 8" Media Nav - One reason for for going "Extreme" was because of the word "Nav" in the extreme, but then after reading a little, I believe this is built in maps with 3 years of updates and both the Expression and the Extreme support Android Auto. I have been using Google maps from my phone for a few years now due to the Nissan Maps price, plus Google has better real time updates. So is the inbuilt Maps the only difference between the media manager on Expression and Extreme?
2. I have also read today that Dacia is no longer supporting Android Auto via wireless, which seems annoying as I would prefer not to have my Phone out and wires trailing. Can anyone confirm if this is still the case on 2024 models?
3. I note that the Extreme has 6 speakers versus the 4 in the Expression, so that's a point for the extreme.
4. I note the interior seating covers on the extreme are different and have read they are easier to keep clean, which would also be a plus with having 4 kids in the back, but does anyone have experience of the difference between the interior trim
5. The Alloy wheels on the extreme are not really a selling point for me, I have no preference, but I am assuming that the Alloys are a large part of the £1000 difference between the models. Are Alloys just a cosmetic thing or is there a practical reason to consider them?
6. I note the Expression has "ESC (Electronic Stability Control) with ASR (Traction control) and Hill Start Assist (HSA)" while the Extreme has "Extended grip". The extended grip is fairly obvious in its description, but my UK usage of it would seem limited, buy by NOT having the ESC, ASR and HSA of the expression, am I missing out on a good feature the jogger does not have? (Curious why its missing from the extreme as Extended Grip does not sound like it provide a replacement for ESC, ASR and HSA)
7. Only the Extreme has the "Shark Fin" arial, but I don't even know what benefit that gives, is it just cosmetic, and where is the arial on the Expression?

Sorry for such a long first post, but am torn. £1000 on the one hand is a lot of money, but in comparison to the car total price, it isn't that much, but if anyone can fill in the blanks about the features above, and give me their opinion, I would be most grateful

I’ve been honing my shopping skills and thought I'd share some tips to help you get the most out of your shopping experiences. Whether you're shopping online or in-store, these strategies can enhance your experience and ensure you get the best value for your money. Feel free to add your own tips in the comments!

1. Stay Updated on Trends and Deals

• Follow Influencers and Brands: Follow your favorite brands and influencers on social media to stay updated on the latest trends and exclusive deals. Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok are great platforms for this.
• Sign Up for Newsletters: Many retailers offer exclusive discounts and early access to sales if you subscribe to their newsletters. This is a great way to stay in the loop.

2. Utilize Shopping Apps

• ShopStyle: This app helps you find the best prices on fashion items across multiple retailers.
• Shoptagr (now Karma): This app lets you save items from any online store and notifies you when they go on sale.
• Poshmark and Depop: Great for buying and selling second-hand fashion. You can find unique pieces and often at a lower price.

3. In-Store Shopping Hacks

• Shop Mid-Week: Avoid weekend crowds and find better-stocked shelves by shopping mid-week. Sales associates may also have more time to assist you.
• Ask for Discounts: Don’t be afraid to ask if there are any available discounts or upcoming sales. Sometimes, sales associates have information about promotions that aren't advertised.
• Check the Clearance Section: Always make a stop at the clearance section. You can often find hidden gems at a fraction of the original price.

4. Online Shopping Strategies

• Read Reviews: Always check customer reviews before making a purchase. This can help you avoid low-quality products and make more informed decisions.
• Wishlist: Use the wishlist feature on shopping websites to keep track of items you want. This way, you can monitor price drops and avoid impulse buying.
• Abandoned Cart Discounts: Sometimes, leaving items in your online cart for a few days can trigger a discount email from the retailer.

5. Leverage Loyalty Programs

• Rewards Points: Sign up for loyalty programs at your favorite stores to earn points on every purchase. Redeem points for discounts or free items.
• Exclusive Member Perks: Loyalty programs often offer exclusive perks such as birthday discounts, members-only sales, and early access to new collections.

6. Shopping for Specific Items

• Clothing: Check the fabric and care instructions to ensure you're getting high-quality, durable items. Shop off-season for the best deals on clothing.
• Electronics: Research the specifications and compare models to find the best value. Look out for refurbished models to save money.
• Home Goods: Measure your space before buying furniture to ensure a perfect fit. Read product dimensions and reviews carefully.

7. Seasonal Sales and Events

• Black Friday/Cyber Monday: These are prime times for scoring big deals. Make a list of items you need and set a budget to avoid overspending.
• End-of-Season Sales: Stock up on seasonal items at the end of their respective seasons. For example, buy winter coats in February or swimsuits in September.
• Holiday Sales: Take advantage of sales during major holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Independence Day.

8. Sustainable Shopping

• Support Ethical Brands: Choose brands that prioritize sustainability and ethical practices. This can often lead to higher-quality products that last longer.
• Buy Second-Hand: Thrift stores, consignment shops, and online marketplaces like ThredUp and The RealReal are excellent for finding gently used items.

Maximizing your shopping experience is all about staying informed, being strategic, and knowing where to look for the best deals and highest quality products. What are your favorite shopping tips and tricks?
Happy shopping! 🛍️

I've been a smoker for the past 20 years, really enjoyed it for the most part (or so I thought!)... 5 days ago, I decided to stop because my wife was fed up with it all, and I realized I was doing her and myself a disservice by not acting on the signs.
At that moment, I escaped the habit and told myself it's actually easy, and not a difficult thing. I keep reminding myself that the cravings are just a product of my brain and that they do not have to be real. I've been reading Allen Carr's book to strengthen my mindset, and I gotta say, it's not as hard as I made it seem in the past. I've quit before and I made it sooo much harder on myself by thinking about "quitting", thinking about whether or not having "just 1" is okay, thinking along the lines of "this might not have been the best time to quit with all that I've got going on in my life"...
In the past, I wasted too much time wondering, worrying, craving, thinking about cigarettes.
Not doing that this time! This time, I'm focusing on the new life, focusing on how healthy I feel, focusing on how easy it is for me to breathe (& it's only been 5 days), focusing on celebrating gaining a new life & escaping an old life... I'm focused on winning.
On Day 3, I was craving HARD, and my head was spinning. On top of all that, I was walking by my regular gas station / 7 Eleven where I used to buy the drug... I was ALMOST about to do the deed, but I distracted myself by listening to a podcast about a topic that had nothing to do with health or smoking or anything, it was just an interesting conversation between 2 people and it took my attention.. I was able to ignore the store, and move along successfully!
If I can do this, quite easily, I believe anyone else can!

In the past four weeks, I've deep-dived into the ideal Video settings for my R5. I was never happy with what the camera gave me, so I want to share the following insights just in case they may benefit some of you. It's going to be a bit long winded, read on if you're a nerd and perfectionist like me... Shout out to Jason of Points in Focus on YouTube, as well as Rodrigo Pollo, Josh Sattin and Todd Dominey, who were some of my many sources. There's also a Redditor that has highlighted the wonkiness of Cinema Gammut colors (hi!) and I agree with them.

1. Shoot in LOG – IMO, yes, you should. Only this unlocks 10 Bit 4:2:2 which grades really well and runs smoothly provided you're on Silicone machines. Arguably, 10 Bit 4:2:2 h265 in LOG was the true game changing feature the R5 brought into the market, so take advantage.
2. For LOG post production, the Canon LUTs work well if you expose as Canon thinks you should. This gets technical quickly and if you just follow the ETTR dogma, Canon's LUTs will clip your highlights into oblivion. A proper CST workflow in Resolve works better but is complicated for novices. In any case, you will have to test your exposure / CST / LUT workflow so I highly recommend you get yourself familiarised with Zebras and False Color tools (if you use an external monitor). The histogram on the R5 is absolutely useless for video exposure. Clipped highlights, not noisy shadows, are the biggest weakness of the R5's image, in my opinion.
3. But which LOG flavour and color space? This comes down to your taste, but I have found the following produces the most natural looking footage. I shoot CLOG 1 / BT 2020 at a base ISO of 400. Like everyone else, I jumped on the CLOG 3 / Cinema Gammut Train when the firmware update hit, but I just didn't like the footage 90% of the time. It is proven that the sensor's dynamic range in photography mode is better at ISO 400 than it is at 800 (not surprising) in the Electronic shutter mode (which is what the R5 also uses for video). It's not a huge difference from 800 to 400, but it's there - half to one stop. This was also revealed in the CineD tests – both of them, the initial one as well as the one when they re-tested with CLOG 3. In the manual, Canon claims that CLOG 3 has more dynamic range then CLOG – in theory, maybe. The curve may be designed to give more DR. But on the R5? None of the tests you can find online have properly proven this. The DR is distributed differently, but not necessarily increased. There ARE tests, however, that show the sensor performs better at ISO 400 - so that's what I go with. Bonus: Why not use BT 709? Well, that would defeat the purpose of capturing LOG at 10 Bit 4:2:2 in the first place. You would be throwing out a bunch of color information already at capture.
4. There can be severe horizontal Banding in underexposed areas. When I first saw this, I couldn't believe my eyes (check out Josh Sattin's comparison of Z8 with R5 on YouTube to see what I mean). A 5K€ camera was producing big horizontal chunky lines of banding running across the image. I contacted Canon and they claimed not to be able to see anything. WTF. I thought my camera was broken. Then I found this in the manual: With Canon Log, movies may be affected by horizontal banding, depending on the subject or shooting conditions. So I didn't imagine things. It's right there. In. The. Manual. To avoid this, expose correctly. In practical use, a non issue, but still leaves a bitter taste.
5. Cinema Gammut, avoid. In my experience, it gives crazy saturation to red, magenta, orange. It may be a wider color space than 2020, but it can look extremely unnatural. I had rare occasions where it did work well, for example with greens and blues, but skin tones were always a pain point. (If you do want to use CLOG 3 and Cinema Gammut, I suggested you go to -1 saturation in the Canon Log Settings.) I realise this point is the most subjective, so if you have a great CineGammut workflow running, I applaud you!
6. External Recording – it may work for some of you, but I never bothered. What turns me off the Ninjas is their cost, the noisy fan and hunger for batteries as well as bulk and weight. I shoot mostly Gimbal work nowadays and every gram counts. I bit the bullet and got the fastest Card on the market for internal shooting. If you do use Ninjas, note this: The HDMI interface on the R5 is version 2.0 and it does NOT transmit Cinema Gammut correctly, so set to BT 2020. You will still have to mess around with the legalize settings and post-production hassle (ProRes RAW doesn't work on the dominant Color grading software, Resolve). For me it's a no. Bonus: Make sure your HDMI cable is at least a 2.0 version!
7. Sound: Manual recording set to a quarter strength gives you the best audio dynamic range (nod to Jason of Points in Focus, who tested this). Run your mic hot-ish and you'll be fine at this level, it works well with the Rode or Sennheiser video mics. If audio is important for you, AVOID IPB Light as it uses compressed AAC audio. The non-compressed LPCM at 48 Khz / 16 Bit that you get with ALL-I, RAW, IPB is pretty decent and noise-free.
8. I can't stress this enough: avoid Auto White Balance! The R5 dials in aggressive amounts of Tint "correction" to combat any perceived color shifts. It just doesn't work well at all unless you're in perfectly clean 6500K daylight. If you shoot LOG h265, getting White Balance right is critical to getting good skintones. Log doesn't mean RAW, you ARE baking color into the image. Unfortunately the Custom WB function is a mess in R5 for video, but you can actually eyeball this quite well off a monitor, if said monitor is set up correctly with a LUT. I use a color meter (LUMU Power 2) to verify, and it helps.
9. Rolling Shutter. 8K RAW as well as 4K HQ give you the most rolling shutter at about 15 ms and this is certainly visible in faster paced Gimbal work. Rolling shutter drops to around 9 ms in regular 4K, which is what I now use for Gimbal work. Though it's not a full halving, it's a significant, visible improvement for any panning. I still shoot talking heads in 4K HQ as the Rolling shutter is not an issue with static work. As for my Canon Log settings, I go +1 sharpening for 4K HQ and +3 for regular 4K. That matches them reasonably well.
10. 12-Bit RAW has about another half to one stop more DR in the highlights, but is also tougher and more fiddly to grade than the 10 Bit H265. It also defaults to CineGammut so it has the same tendency towards saturated reds. (CRAW gets decoded by default as CineGammut in Resolve.) I tend to prefer the look of the 10 Bit 4:2:2 shot in BT 2020 in terms of color. If you do shoot RAW, I again recommend setting to CLOG 1 in camera – not because that Log curve gets baked into the image (it doesn't), but because it unlocks you ISO 400 shooting. RAW capture at ISO 400 in Clog 1 will then allow you to decode in Resolve using the CLOG 2 curve at ISO 400 and reach the theoretical maximum of DR in terms of any video material from the R5.

Point 11 was going to be a wishlist for better features etc. but then I realised, I could buy a R5C... But honestly, the crappy battery performance of that camera really is a deal breaker for me.
Sorry for the long post but I really hope this may help some of you. Good luck and happy shooting!

Greetings, citizens! I'm a writer, mostly freelance, but I've been working on my own setting for a while now. I've already described some of the basics of how my world is organized in the two posts on another subreddit, so I won't repeat them unnecessarily. Long story short: this is an alternate world that has deposits of metastable metallic hydrogen, concentrated at deep waters and in cold regions. Hydrogen, instead of oil, is the basis of the world's economy here, the corporations that have grown from its extraction and use have more power than governments. The political map of the world is different from our own, with different forces at play than we are used to.
The main setting is the city of Neone, located somewhere on the coast of the Balkan Peninsula. I won't specify a particular place or pick a certain country for its location. Instead, I will take some features from some various ones to add local flavor. As one of the largest trading hubs in the world, this city is very wealthy, but it's the kind of wealth that easily slips through your fingers. Everything is buying and selling here, and human life is just as much a bargaining chip. Life in Neone is determined by the actions that the Players, the main political forces in the city, take with one another. Relations between them can swing from friendship to hostility... Or sometimes a combination of both at the same time. So, here's a preliminary list of the ones I've already come up with:
CORPORATIONS:
Astara Industries is the “beauty industry” in all its forms. Silk and gold, perfume and cosmetics. Modeling, music, entertainment, plastic surgery, and escort services. Rumored to be involved in much darker affairs, but that doesn't stop a lot of young guys and especially girls from trying their luck and signing another cabal contract with Astara. The higher the ranks of their employees, the more the corporation seems to be a kind of cult that worships the very idea of beauty itself. Recently, this company has been investing colossal amounts of money into an ambitious project designed to stop aging and mortality.
Change Inc. is a pretty mysterious organization that primarily provides construction and design services as well as financial operations and data protection services. On deeper layers lies espionage and information trading to anyone who can offer a more interesting price for it.
Chapek's Clockworks is the other major robotics company that has dominated the market for quite a while. Now they are more famous for their retro designs and sponsorship of the theatrical scene.
Chimera Chemicals is a biochemical giant that once started out as a fertilizer manufacturer. Now they deal in just about everything chemical related, including weapons, and also sponsor gene modifications.
Dragonfruit Digital is a world famous software and electronics developer that was leading the market before the rapid... well, rise of Risen Robotics.
Friture Science is a food concern dedicated to the mission of feeding the world. In addition to natural products, they develop synthetic ones as well as a number of associated products.
Fortuna Fishing - seafood production in Neone coastal waters and also beyond and deeper. Some of the things they found deep in the waters made them a little bit... Well, superstitious.
Greenfield Gardens - Similar in many ways to the previous one, this company focuses on environmental protection and recycling methods. Owns many farms and gardens in the city and beyond. Genetic modifications, too.
Hecate Guaranty is a law and insurance company. Deals with all possible disputes of their clients, property issues, and more. When required and paid decently, can provide a person or group of people a new life and a new home.
International Inc. is the most boring company in the world. Originally a construction contractor they pioneered the technology of rapid modular building. Because of this, International Inc. quickly built up capital and influence by rebuilding cities after wars. Eventually they expanded into selling associated products and services, then logistics, recruiting personnel... And now International Inc. provides half of the world's products. Each of their products is completely featureless, but they get the job done at an acceptable price.
Keller & Crow is one of Europe's largest arms manufacturers, dating back to World War I, or maybe even earlier. Known for their high quality and appropriate prices.
Keller-Tec is, in more than one sense, a daughter corporation of Keller & Crow. It develops the most cutting-edge custom weapon and gear systems. It works closely with Risen Robotics and actively funds the Fountain of Good.
Kiki Courier Company is a network of independent couriers working through the app. Moving around the roofs of Neone, they are able to deliver a small cargo personally in their hands for those who don't trust big companies.
Matsubayashi Motors is a Japanese vehicle manufacturer. Raised on defense contracts, they now make anything that can carry a human in it, from scooters and cars to aircraft and bolides.
MOLOT manufactures is another major arms manufacturer in Europe. In fact a franchise that sells to factories around the world the rights to produce copies of their world famous models. Their designs are a bit crude, but reliable and durable.
Poseidon's Possibilities - A marine transportation company that plays an important role in city and global shipping. Considering the high risk of piracy, possess pretty good assets to protect themselves, and sometimes execute third-party orders in coastal zones.
Risen Robotics is one of the world's important corporations. Creating innovative neural chip technology, Risen Robotics quickly earned financial and political capital and aiming for more. They were the first to commercialize a truly cheap and mass-produced android called the Peacebringer, and these robots can be seen in the military, security companies, and even as security guards in the market and malls and as bouncers in nightclubs. Building its influence, Risen Robotics aims to actively bring its tech into the lives of everyone in the world... And then their gaze will be directed higher into the skies and to the stars.
Royal Arms - Once a major weapons company, they are now more focused on the civilian market and support tools. Their high-precision tools and cybernetic limbs are widely used in civilian and military markets, as well as the medicine and even space industries.
Strigoi Sovereign is a company with a long history of working with private customers. They originally focused on hunting and harvesting of high-value resources, but gradually expanded. Nowadays, they are known for their customized combat enhancements, whether it be tough training and gear customization as well as biological, chemical, and cybernetic enhancements. Among all forms of payment, they prefer transactions in precious metals.
Van Nueve Innovations is another deep genetic research company. After their role in human trafficking and criminal experiments was revealed, their assets were mostly shut and sold down. Now their stuff keeps popping up on the black market - though, in this city, the difference between the regular and black market is barely noticeable.
Vulcan Weaponry is another firearm company with a long history, with a good reputation for their trusted builds, high quality and classy designs. Among the mercenary world, their weapons and equipment is considered indicators of prestige and good taste.
PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES:
Deepwater is a notorious American PMC with a well-deserved dirty reputation. Their Sigma division deployed in Neone has been caught in the middle of scandals more than once.
FIREBIЯD - Russian PMC, looking after order in and around Neone. Having a small size they are all carefully selected by their leader and follow him into both fire and water.
Ryujin - Japanese PMC, which has a good social image and actively finances all kinds of entertainment.
Schwarzwald is a German PMC with a long-standing reputation and connections. It usually works for the benefit of Western European clients and has a long history of cooperation with the Keller family.
Keller's Claws is a passion project of Alex Keller, CEO of Keller-Tec. A small and elite female PMC, operating in the interests of their mistress or executing carefully selected contracts around the world.
This is not all PMCs in the city, but only those that are not directly linked to specific corporations that were listed above.
GANGS:
The Blazer is a broad and diverse group of radical anarchists. They are mostly drawn to the destruction of corporate property and speculation about “power of the people”, but some of their members are not averse to almost any type of work.
The Crooked Circle is another cult-like gang, or vice versa. They focus on collecting unique technology, but aren't particularly successful at it. But they're still alive and kicking, praying that their mechanical messiah will save them.
The Grey Court Syndicate is the largest criminal organization in the city, and one of the largest in Europe, maybe even in the entire world. Reminiscent of the classic Mafia. On one side they have the exterior gloss, protecting order and running legal businesses, but on the other side they have human and organ trafficking, prostitution and assassinations for hire. The Grey Court is one of the main sources of migrants in Neone.
The Himmelreich is a disorganized gang fighting for the “purity of humanity”. They oppose the very fact of existence of chimeras and cyborgs in this world. In fact are useful fools for the real Players in the city.
The Tulips are something between a gang and a religious sect. Spoken with Christian-like mottos, they attract beggars and cripples to their ranks, especially focusing on PMC veterans and former corporate workers, but in fact they accept all the desperate. They have squatted some ruins on the outskirts of the city, including the abandoned greenhouse that gave them their name. However... They are rapidly expanding their influence and their source of funding remains unknown.
OTHERS:
The City Council is the primary administration of the city. They manage, but they don't reign. They are a handful of exhausted clerks, doing the hard work that no one else accepted to do. Basically maintain the city's communications and keep the Players away from killing each other and too many ordinary citizens.
The Forge is a secret organization that exists for a very long time and runs deeply secured operations all over the world. They believe it's their duty to protect humanity from dangerous ideas, technologies, and obscure subjects such as [UNKNOWN]. Forge is often found to be a puppeteer, directing the actions of other Players or certain individuals.
The Fountain of Good is a globally respected charity organization primarily focused on orphanages. One of the few Players who maintains truly bright ideals. The children who grow up usually become corporate employees afterwards. Other Players fund them mainly to launder money, calm their karma and create a positive public image for themselves.
The Nuevians are a deep-covered organization slowly gaining influence in the city. They are led by an artificially created living entity known only as "The Queen" that seeks to bring prosperity to the planet. They have good intentions, but fear to repeat the fate of the Zero Cycle.
The Union of Nations Peacekeepers - maintaining a shred of peace in the aftermath of the Incident, a massive earthquake that recently struck Neone. Many urban areas have since descended into chaos and lawlessness, while others live as if nothing has happened or are experiencing minimal inconvenience. The competency of these soldiers is questionable and they are barely supplied.
The Volunteer Vanguards are an organization that maintains order in those Neone districts where the City Council or other Players do not. Generally a barely trained and armed militia, but there are some skilled veterans and former corporate workers in their ranks.
The Workers Ring is Neone's major blue collar association. They support city communications so they have a lot of influence. Individual members may or may not be involved in working for other Players and illegal activities. The second meaning of the "Ring" word is also utilized - many members of this community are known for their passion for arena fighting.
The Zero Cycle is a secret organization of intelligent machines once created by a rogue AI. Several Players united to destroy this threat, leading to the Incident. Now, shards of the Cycle's technology, superior to anything created by humanity, is the most valuable hunting treasure in Neone. Owning one of them means risking the lives of yourself and your loved ones, but that rarely stops hunters who desire wealth or driven by some personal reasons.
Well, that's the draft. Any ideas, suggestions, any other feedback?

I’m really tired of being a smoker. I started at age 14 and I’m 35 now. I hate the way it stains my fingernails, the way I probably always smell like it, the urges to go outside at work, oh..and ALL the money I spend to sustain such a disgusting habit, that’s not beneficial to me at all. I feel tired all the time, when I try to work out I’m out of breath so easily, and it makes dating a little more difficult, no nonsmoker wants to kiss someone with cigarette breath..it’s just embarrassing.
I grew up around smokers, my mom and grandparents. I watched my grandmother quit a few years before she died. My mom still smokes but I’m not around her a lot.
I have quit in the past, it’s weird but I’m bipolar and the last 2 manic episodes (where I was delusional) I quit cold turkey. I was hospitalized and around a bunch of smokers and I managed to sustain. The 2 times I quit I remember all the extra money I had and all the energy…I can’t say why I went back but I think it had something to do with the entire ritual. I like sitting outside on my patio, going to the store to buy them, lighting the cigarette, the motions. I just don’t know what I would replace that with. I think it’s half the appeal. I’ve been doing it most of my life.
I’m here for advice and inspiration, what’s helped you? What made you stop? And what did you replace these rituals with?

Hi readers! My boyfriend (M27) and I (M34) moved in together six months ago. To be more accurate, he moved in to my apartment. Ever since, we have been fighting and arguing a lot because our values and views on a relationship seems to be different when it comes to prioritizing.
I don’t feel fully prioritized, and it is hard for me to really pin point what is that I need, mainly because I know I have a lot of trauma in my life and sometimes I doubt myself and wonder if I feel how I feel because of my own insecurities.
He loves his family and friends and he is vocal about it. He talks very high about them and he is always doing and planning for them. His family lives 5 hours away in train and that doesn’t stop him from meeting them once or twice a month. In fact this month he has seen them 4 times. He would do everything for his family.
The same goes for his friends, his whole energy and personality changes when it comes to do something with his friends, he is super engaged, committed and active. To give a vague example, I was out having dinner with a friend and I invested him over to eat with us. Initially, my boyfriend complained about going out for dinner to spend money (which he wouldn’t do if it comes to spend in trips to his family or going out with his friends). After dinner he was in a HURRY to go and buy cigarettes for one of his friends (because they are cheaper where we live). So in a hurry that he didn’t want to wait and walk my friend to get his bus. He just couldn’t wait, he was literary running to buy those cigarettes because it was important for his friends, and it made me feel that being with my friend out was less important than those cigarettes.
I also wasn’t invited to a party of one of his friends, where everyone had a plus one except him, then at the end I was pitty invited but I did not want to come because, I don’t like to be pitty invited. I felt bad about it, but my boyfriend really asked me to eat my feelings and come to the party because it was important for him. But, what about my feelings and my dignity? I asked if he couldn’t just stay with me and do something cozy together, go out for dinner or to the cinema. He offered course said No because he had plans. Nonetheless, the next day he found out that it was his niece had a birthday and he clearly told me that if he knew he wouldn’t have gone to his friends and to be with his niece because that’s more important… that made me feel like shit because I asked him to be with me but he told me he couldn’t cancel the plans with his friends.
So, all these things really makes me feel in the bottom of his priorities. To me, everyone seems to be before me. And, we live together, we have been boyfriends for almost two years now, and I don’t see him committed to this relationship. It is me who takes care of the house, I work a couple of hours extra sometimes to make sure that the economy is fine, I do most of the cleaning at home, I am the one thinking about decorating all the time, it is me who brings the flowers, buy furniture to make our home cozy and prettier, I do the cooking, and most of the time he complains because I get mad that he wakes up around 11:00 am, leaves his dirty dishes on the sofa table (we have a beautiful dinning table, he prefers to eat at the sofa and that I hate because I don’t want him to spill food on it as it is an expensive sofa I bought alone, he tells me to chill).
I just get so confused about this, he tells me he loves me, he can be very sweet to the point that I get confused and I doubt if this is him or I am wrong and I am being too much and selfish for asking to be more engaged in the relationship and make me his priority.
I apologize for the long text, this is how confused I am at the moment.