Hey everyone, this will be my first attempt at a serious post on this sub. I’m not exactly practiced in articulating my thoughts (I’m more of a fiction writer) so please bear bull with any mistakes and please correct me if I’m wrong. The last thing I want to do is spread misinformation, I’m not an expert (or a financial advisor) on any of this. I'm here to learn, not to teach.
This post will be the first in a series of me reading through the entire Diamond Handbook (2nd) and just commentating on points I find interesting or discussion worthy. I will be asking questions as well as giving my own personal thoughts based on my understanding of the events that have transpired. I became an ape right after the sneeze, and followed a lot of the discussions back then, but have been zen for a while so I haven't fully kept up with a lot of the new developments.
I haven't actually sat down and read DD in a long time, so I decided to give myself a refresher and actually look at the Diamond Handbook (2nd) for the first time. I had read a lot of these posts as they had come out, so I had never felt the need to look at the full PDF before. For the apes that haven’t read it either, I recommend giving it a read. You can find the full DD library in the pinned post of this sub, and the Diamond Handbook is the first one there.
As I have been reading it, I’ve quickly realized that some of the stuff is a little outdated. That can’t really be helped since so much DD has been done between then and now, but this brings me to the two reasons for this post. The Diamond Handbook is likely the first piece of DD a new ape will be recommended; I want to spark discussion to clear up some things that are misguided or outdated in this handbook. The second reason is more of a personal challenge. Whenever someone denies the legitimacy of the DD, an ape usually responds by saying something like “Well, read the DD and prove it wrong”. The average MOASS denier won’t do this though, in my experience they just think it’s ridiculous on a conceptual level, and won’t take the time to actually look through all the DD available and construct a proper debate. I can’t really blame them for this though, spending so much time on something you have no interest in doesn’t sound like a fun time.
But I have a lot of interest in this, and I am an aspiring author who writes 400K word fanfictions for fun. I’ve got the time and the writing willpower. I am very big into trying to understand how a reader will interpret a piece of my writing, so I’ll be looking through that lens and will be writing this with the assumption that you have already read the Diamond Handbook (2nd). Please take the time to respond/correct what I say here, I want to learn.
With all that out of the way, let’s get started.
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The Mother of All Short Squeezes (MOASS) Thesis, Published on May 26, 2021, by u(slash)HCMF_MACEFACE
Before we even get into the meat of this section I already see a bit of an issue. A lot of the language implies that MOASS is imminent, take this section for example:

*“If you don't believe me, just look at the chart of GME which our DD (Due Diligence/research/analysis) has been forecasting for a while now. The below pattern has only preceded massive spikes in price, but this time, those on the other side of the trade are going to have a much harder time suppressing the price like they did in January and March. Thanks to the activity on 5/25, we have entered the end-game. The MOASS is beginning.”* 

I think most new apes will look at this, then look at the date of posting (three years ago), and think this is delusional thinking. They will say that MOASS did not ‘begin’ because it hasn’t happened yet. This would be pretty short sighted though, GME has always been a Deep Value investment, long positions are called long for a reason. ‘Buy and HODL’ is such a repeated mantra because that is the investment strategy most apes employ. Like most investments, it takes a long time to realize gains. Your retirement account will be growing for 40+ years before you cash that thing out, GME is my retirement plan so I don’t expect it to be much different.
Just because the sneeze happened in a week doesn’t mean MOASS will, in theory it should be a very long event as both the shorts and longs have a test of wills to see who caves first. However, the sneeze was the ‘beginning’ because it was exposed a lot of the fuckery that is going on in the market right now, I think that is the message that should be taken from this section.

*“These terms are key to understanding the theory and speculated value of a GME investment. Hyperlinks to Investopedia, "the world's leading source of financial content on the web", have been included for most market terms and concepts and it is recommended to check them out if they are not clear. We will be breaking down some of the more complex terms and concepts within the post and framing them within the context of GME.”* 

After the introduction, this post does a great job of explaining all the concepts of the stock market that are relevant to the MOASS thesis. However, I do wish it mentioned some other stock terms for the sake of new investors. Since none of the DD is supposed to be financial advice, I can’t really blame them for these omissions, but at the beginning the OP does say they wanted the post to be good for newer investors, so I think some more pointing in the right direction should’ve been provided. I do appreciate the link to Investopedia, but this DD is already a novel, and the average reader might forget about that link by the time they finish it. So an additional link should’ve been provided at the end.
The two big concepts I see missing are Options and Wash Sales/Stop-Losses.
Options are interesting because they create a different type of buying/selling pressure compared to just buying/selling stocks regularly. There are concepts like gamma ramps and stuff that can be relevant when discussing catalysts for price movement. However, options are pretty scary for most investors, I’ve only ever bought one, and forgot about it so it auto-exercised for me (lol), so it’s not a concept I would call essential. I just think it’s better to be educated than not.
The much more egregious omission is that of Wash Sales and Stop-Losses. Wash Sales are extremely dangerous to new investors who still make decisions based on emotions and are not used to the volatility that comes with GME.
If you are unfamiliar, a Wash Sale is when a person sells a stock at a loss, then buys the stock again within a short period of time. As an example, let’s say you bought a stock at $50, then the stock goes down to $40.00 and you no longer feel comfortable with your investment. You sell the stock at a loss. You lost $10.00 on this transaction, but it’s not all bad. When you go to do your taxes, you can report this $10.00 loss to the IRS. This is good because if you make a $10.00 profit off another trade, you now don’t have to take taxes out of that profit, since the IRS will see this as you breaking even in the grand scheme of your portfolio. You didn’t actually make any money, so they aren’t going to tax you for it.
A Wash Sale is triggered when you buy back the stock you sold in a short period of time, this can even apply if you buy a stock in the same sector. So if you buy a stock at $50.00, sell it at $40.00 then buy it again. That $10.00 loss you took can no longer be reported to the IRS as an actual loss. So when you make $10.00 on some other trade, the IRS won’t see you as breaking even, they will tax you on that $10.00.
For a stock as volatile as GME this can be very dangerous, I know people who brought in the peak, then as the price went back down they triggered a Stop-Loss (auto-sale you can program to trigger when a price falls), only to then buy back in when the stock dropped even lower, creating a wash sale that fucked their taxes.
We say “Buy and HODL” a lot, but I think the ‘why’ of it has been lost in the meme. I personally buy and HODL because averaging down is a lot better for me than accidently triggering a Wash Sale. I fucking hate the IRS and don’t want any of that smoke.

*“SPOILER: GME and \[Popcorn\] have tons of FTDs reported.”* 

I just kinda don’t like the mention of the Popcorn stock here, it has never been a deep value investment. If you are unfamiliar with the Deep Value investment strategy, please take a look at the old Roaring Kitty livestreams. In summary, Deep Value investing is defined by looking for stocks that are extremely undervalued and unpopular due to no fault of the company. These external factors that are making the stock undervalued can be anything, shorting, COVID, stuff like that. But what makes it a Deep Value investment is always strong management within the company. If the company is not mismanaged in any way, then it is very unlikely to go bankrupt, and will have opportunities to make a comeback. GME has Ryan Cohen leading, a proven successful businessman that has already taken precautions to ensure GameStop never goes bankrupt. Popcorn just doesn’t have that. It is very short-squeezable, but it’s not deep fucking value.

*“Short sellers must eventually close, or cover, their short position.”* 

Ok, but why ‘must’ they? This is another point I think has been lost in the memes. There are two problems with just saying ‘shorts must close’ without providing context. The first is the simple fact that there isn’t a due date. Unlike a common car loan or mortgage, a short position doesn’t operate on a time table. They can wait forever to close, unless they get margin called.
This next part I’m a little shaky on, I’m probably getting some things wrong here:
Ok, well how are they going to get margin called? The problem I see is that these Short Hedge Funds (SHF) are making a lot of money by selling naked shorts. It’s really hard to get margin called when they are literally printing money, and since they don’t have to report these their books just look to be filled with an infinite amount of cash.
So, there are a couple solutions to this:
1, Government regulation. If the SEC puts a stop to naked shorting, these SHF can’t print money anymore. Eventually the interest from their positions will eat them alive, and they will get margin called. Unfortunately, MOASS has the potential to destroy the economy like in 2008, so they probably aren’t too keen on just doing this without creating some kind of safety net. So I can’t really count on them to help, because the government has a vested interest in keeping MOASS from happening. It’s just not something I believe will be the catalyst. Although they might just do it on purpose given the right reason, like pinning the economic collapse on a scapegoat, or by GameStop forcing their hand by exposing the fraud somehow. I’ve seen a lot of apes hoping for one of these reasons to come to pass, but for me, I don’t see enough motivation from the participating parties.
2, A price run-up. If the price of the stock can unbalance the books of the SHF enough then they could also get margin called. I’m not counting on this either, since the price is manipulated by the process of naked shorting. Sure, they are digging a bigger grave when they suppress the price like this, but it can also help smaller SHFs with exiting their positions with OTC stuff. Over-The-Counter trades are trades made off the lit exchanges, historically it was intended to kind of simulate a transaction between two individuals, like buying a video game from a buddy off the books, no taxes, no regulation. Unfortunately, this is abused by institutions and can’t even be used by individuals, making dark pools of trades full of fraud and undermines the free market. Smaller SHFs that are more at risk of getting Margin Called due to their lack of collateral, can make OTC trades with the big naked-shorting market makers to ‘close’ their positions using fake shares. Of course, this only passes the buck so to speak, but it’s a viable strategy for them since the big SHFs that take on these ‘bucks’ are less likely to get margin called. A lot of historic short squeezes happen because a small SHF gets margin called, then drives the price up and causes a bigger SHF to get called, and so on until they’re all in the grave. This is why I don’t really give a shit if the price goes up to $80 in a week, it’s not enough, the buck has been passed. (To be clear, I don’t have proof that this is the reason for the uptick in OTC transactions, it’s just a theory. If a smarter ape than I can get on this that would be great.) But, even if a price run-up itself doesn’t cause MOASS, it may give motivation for the true trigger:
3, Interest Rates. Here is the big one that I look at, that I believe will be the true cause of MOASS. Now please, correct me if I’m wrong again, I am just an ape who dropped out of college. So, from what I understand a Short institution has to pay a certain amount of interest to the people they borrow the stocks from. This is the cost of borrowing and is how these Lenders make money. For a long time, the interest rate was at like 1%, this means that selling one naked short could cover the cost of the interest 100 times over. However, let’s say that the interest rate becomes 110%, sounds crazy, but this would mean that borrowing the share would cost more than the share. This would destroy the balances of the SHFs and ensure they get margin called. Why would this ever happen though? Because these lenders want to make money. These lenders are the real winners of MOASS, and they aren’t talked about enough in my opinion. Lenders can’t sell the shares they’ve lent out, their income is in the interest rates, there has to be a balance here between it being more profitable to lend the shares or to sell them. If Lenders start to think that lending their shares aren’t making them more money than the alternative, they will raise interest rates to make these profits until SHFs can’t pay them, then the SHFs have to return the shares, causing MOASS with the massive buyback, then lenders can just sell the shares on the way down. Lenders have a monetary business interest in causing MOASS, so they are the most likely cause of it in my opinion.

*“This is the GME MOASS thesis. GME is a stock that stands to hit an unprecedented price point due to the fact that manipulators of the market have failed to bankrupt GameStop thanks in huge part to the Legendary Keith Gill AKA* u(slash)DeepFuckingValue*, Ryan Cohen, and all of the GME investors who took part in this saga. It may not be today, this week, or even this month, but one day soon, these toxic participants have no choice but to buy the stock to close out their short positions.”* 

I don’t think this is necessarily inaccurate, but I think it’s misguided, and the language here is a bit to emotive for my taste. I think the reason the company didn’t go bankrupt is because of the strategic share offering made by Ryan Cohen to build up more cash than the company’s valuation (at the time). All the other stuff was just dressing, DFV and retail did not make RC do this, this move by RC is what ensured the company literally can’t go bankrupt, until then (and at the time this was posted) it was still a risk in my opinion. So this huge thanks feels kinda like a pre-cum celebration, and I've never really liked putting Keith on a pedestal, he's just an individual investor, just like the rest of us.
​
FAQ, Published April 12, 2021, by u(slash)BYE_TRIANGLE

*“Why does Holding do anything?”* *“They need your shares to cover their short positions! They got greedy. Thinking GameStop would fail, the short sellers started Naked Shorting the stock. Long story short they created synthetic stocks with their special privileges as Market Makers. But they can’t cover a short with a synthetic share. So because of the Naked Shorting, the Short Sellers, multiple large greedy money managers, and Hedge Funds need a total number of shares greater than the number available to purchase. THEY NEED EVERY SHARE, EVEN YOURS CONAN!”* *“aRe YoU GuYs MaNipuLatIng THe MaRKeT?!”* 

Holding does something else that I think is really important. It proves that retail is not responsible for the manipulation of the price. You see it in the mainstream media every time the price fluctuates, they say that retail and Roaring Kitty is driving the price up for the memes, and that the ‘meme stock craze is dead’ whenever the price falls, claiming that retail is selling. However, it quickly becomes clear to anyone with the willingness to research that retail holds. Holding doesn’t move the price at all, so they literally can’t blame this sub for the fuckery that happens.
Now, on the flip side, I know people on the old sub to buy and sell with these fluctuations, they did it during the sneeze and I’ve seen comments claiming to do it last week. I think this is why Roaring Kitty really had to speak to congress about this, because a legitimate-seeming argument could be made that retail was buying and selling at high volumes. The loss and gain porn on the old sub could be presented as evidence. Here though, apes hold, we glaze purple doughnuts.
So when MOASS does happen, the massive price increase will be only due to buying pressure from SHFs, so they are the only ones that can take the blame for what happens next.

*“No one knows how high the squeeze could take the stock price. The best rational reasoning says that these numbers \[500k per share\] are possible through the laws of supply and demand. Furthermore, it is likely that the Short Percentage is a lot higher than reported, with many suggesting that the short-sellers, cumulatively, need more than 100% of the float to cover.”* 

A lot of naysayers will claim people are insane for thinking that phone number prices are possible. They will cite that it would make the company’s valuation higher than the amount of money in the world, which is true. However, with the nature of fraudulent naked shorts being fake, the price is fake too, and the valuation of the company doesn’t necessarily mean that the whole float will be sold at those prices. Yes, it shouldn’t be possible, by all accounts it wouldn’t make sense, but it is possible due to the naked shorting. Also, institutions that own shares likely won’t HODL out for the phone number prices, they will sell when they think it’s safe, and when they won’t get in trouble with the SEC for destroying the economy. The infinity pool (the shares that will be sold at these prices) will be a small fraction of the total amount even among retail investors. So the argument that I see against the possibility of this doesn’t hold a lot of weight.
Keep in mind that even though ‘buying pressure’ moves the price up, someone has to be willing to sell in order for someone to buy. So as the price creeps up from $100 to $1000 to $100000 to $8675309 someone will be selling on the way up to get there.

*“Synthetic long positions could be used to disguise their short positions as well, the mechanisms behind this practice utilize the options markets and could explain some of the crazy options activity that we have seen in GameStop the last few months.”* 

So uhm… I don’t understand ‘Synthetic Longs’ at all. Could an ape with more wrinkles elaborate on this? From what I can extrapolate, this may refer to an institution purchasing a naked shorted share from someone else?

*“While at the same time they employed the use of social engineering to slowly depress the positive sentiment for the stock on Reddit and elsewhere.”* *“You may have been called a Shill for one of a number of reasons. This community is very inclusive and open to everyone, but because of the blatant attacks this forum has suffered a lot of people are understandably paranoid. (Myself included). Please, unless you really are a shill, don’t take it personally.”* 

I want to address this, because there is a lot of misconception about SuperStonk. A lot of people will claim that this sub is just an echo chamber cult that can’t handle anyone questioning the narrative. This may seem true on the surface, but I think the reality is just that we’ve become hyper sensitive to the social engineering the old sub fell victim to, and I remember this sub being attacked with that as well. So whenever we see a post that has extremely emotive language, we become skeptical and down vote it. Emotions have no place in investing, that is a common rule touted in even the oldest investing books, so posts that try to incite an emotional response are shot down. Apes aren’t about to be manipulated again. That being said there are emotive posts that still get upvoted, ones with positive hype-filled narratives. Since these get upvoted and the negative ones don’t that sometimes gives the impression of an echo chamber. This is because the facts do support the MOASS thesis, so a hype title and opening paragraph is just more agreeable with the facts-based narrative. Some people are just scrolling on their phone and don’t have time to read the whole post.
However, if you go into the comments of these posts, there are apes investigating the profile history to determine if posters are bots, regardless of the pushed narrative. If you look past the upvote counter, apes are very skeptical of any post that isn’t based in fact or harmless memes. The comments rule the post, and I have to say I’ve very proud of this sub for staying vigilant in the wake of Reddit restricting moderation tools.

*“Ryan Cohen clearly believes in Gamestop, to the point of announcing that he will be taking equity as compensation. In fact, as of writing this all of the new Gamestop board members are going to be taking equity as compensation. This is seen as an incredibly bullish sign of the company's future success.”* 

This is one of the principles of Deep Value investing, I wish this was elaborated on more of why this is bullish. This means that the board, and more importantly Ryan Cohen, is tying their individual self-worth to the company. Due to this tie, they will essentially ‘go down with the ship’ if the company goes down. This means that the board and Ryan actually have an interest in the company doing well, instead of having an interest in making money off the company. You may think this sounds like the same thing, but it’s not. If RC cared more about money than the company, then he could destroy the company to make money (this is what’s happening to popcorn), but by tying his worth to the shares, the only way for him to become richer is for the company to flourish.
I don’t really like the language being used here, stuff like ‘clearly believes’ ‘seen as incredibly bullish’ are all pretty emotive and doesn’t actually explain why these are positive growth signs for the company, they are just saying it is ‘bullish’, the average new investor isn’t even going to know what that really means. Even though GME is extremely manipulated, causing Technical Analysis to become increasingly difficult to depend on, the investment is still rooted in fundamentals of deep value.

*“Below is a shortlist of some of the potential catalysts people are speculating about:* 

-A Stock Split, or some similar move from Gamestop that recalls shares
-Gamma Squeeze
-Gamestop’s Q1 Earnings Call
-Some speculate Gary Gensler (Newly appointed head of the SEC), may make some move that sets things in motion
-DTCC rule changes taking effect
-Appointment of a new CEO”
Yeah… this feels bad man. I’ve talked about this already, but we can rapid fire down this list.
The stock split didn’t work out, since those in charge of distributing the splits did it fraudulently. Gamma Squeeze is the kind of thing that could trigger a smaller hedge fund to get margin called and cause a domino effect, but I’ve shared my theory of the OTC action. Earnings are nice, but public sentiment has always been more tied to the media manipulation than actual facts. Fucking Gary.
On the subject of bringing in new talent, I do feel like a big move will happen soon. We’ve already seen a lot of job offerings from the Corporate side of GameStop so this could be the next phase of the plan. I really think that RC has spent these last few years taking precautions to make sure the company can’t go bankrupt, the last thing he wants is to turn out like Toys-R-Us. A lot of downsizing happened, so now he can start thinking about upsizing again.
I’m not necessarily saying that these things can’t trigger the squeeze, but I am saying that depending on something to start it is just inviting disappointment. I think the ‘no dates’ rule has been sorely forgotten lately with all the hype and speculation around Roaring Kitty’s tweets and stuff. I am a zen ape, it happens when it happens.

*“First of all, it is incredibly important to note your potential biases when determining if someone is just a shill trying to spread FUD. Not all FUD is invalid, someone may bring up a solid point against an otherwise great DD, and that could scare you. Remember that just because you do not like what someone is saying, doesn’t make it invalid. It is important users here work with constructive criticism to refine their theories.”* 

Damn, wasn’t I just talking about this? This critique isn’t going to just be wagging fingers, this is really good stuff that still applies today, and from what I’ve seen apes are doing a great job of distinguishing between FUD and legitimate criticism. I also want to take a second to thank the mod team, especially after their tools were restricted, they’ve been a great help.

*“…but since then retail investors have been buying on every single dip in the price… That's more than two whole months of buying-the-dip. Now, I will not speculate on numbers here, if you want to know more you will have to read the DDs on that.”* 

This is pretty outdated now. Apes have been buying for three years now, and with the advent of Direct Registering we have a much better idea of how much apes hold. I can say with confidence now that retail owns a floats worth of shares. Since there is so much naked shorting, a lot of institutions probably own their own floats too.
I glaze those purple doughnuts, yum.
​
Citadel Has No Clothes, Published March 14, 2021, by u(slash)ATOBITT
Ohhhh, this one is special to me, I read it when it first came out, first time I was there on release night. Let’s see how it hodls up.

*“TL;DR - Citadel Securities has been fined 58 times for violating FINRA, REGSHO & SEC regulations. Several instances are documented as 'willful' naked shorting. In Dec 2020 they reported an increase in their short position of 127.57% YOY, and I'm calling bullsh\*t on their shenanigans.”* 

58 times. I don’t actually know how much that number has gone up, but I’m sure it has. I am reminded of an old saying, that if the punishment for a crime is a fine, then it only a crime for the poor. The crime being done to GME is class warfare, it’s nothing less.

*“$295,347,948,000 of that is split into options (calls & puts), while $78,979,887,238 (20.52%) is allocated to actual, physical, shares (or so they say). The rest is convertible debt securities.”* 

This is why I’m skeptical that it’s even possible for Citadel to get margin called by a normal price run-up. Let’s do some math here. GME’s float is at 232 million-ish shares, let’s say they shorted 300% of that, just to be conservative (lmao), so that’s 696 million. To take what the first post said, Margins don’t get called unless an entities’ collateral becomes less than 80% of what they’ve borrowed. If they use their entire $384,926,232,238 portfolio as collateral, then GME would have to soar to a price of… divide by 4, multiply by 5… $691.32 per share. That may sound relatively reasonable, but I don’t think a normal catalyst would be enough for that. I really think interest rates are the key, think about it, if they have to pay like 30% interest on all of those shares, their portfolio will be reduced by that much (kinda) and we can find a much more reasonable midpoint. Now brace yourselves, I’m about to spend an unreasonable amount of effort on something that is probably wrong because I don’t know shit about fuck about margins or getting called (I have a cash account and I lack rizz).
In order to calculate that we gotta do one of those double equation variable bullshit things we all hated in school, I forgot what they were called but I remember how to do them.
So, we have a few variables:
C = Citadel’s Portfolio = $384,926,232,238
S = Shorted Shares = 696,000,000
I = Intrest = 0.30
X = Price Per Share
Y = Citadel’s new portfolio amount after paying interest
So, X and Y are undetermined, but we have two equations to work with
C – I(X*S) = Y
This one calculates how much money is going to be in citadels new portfolio after paying interest, we calculate the interest by multiplying the cost per share, by the amount of shorted shares, and multiplying that by the interest rate, then subtracting it from their total portfolio.
Y * 1.25 = X * S
This one calculates the total amount those shorted shares have to be in order for Citadel to get margin called, by multiplying their new portfolio by 5/4 and calculating the total cost of the shares.
X * S has a direct value; we can plug the left side of the second equation into the first to get
C – I(Y*1.25) = Y
Now we just gotta isolate Y on one side of the equation.
C = Y + 0.3(Y*1.25)
C = 1.3Y * 0.375
C= 0.4875Y
C * 0.4875 = Y
Y = $187,651,538,216.03
Now we gotta find X, we can just plug in the other stuff.
(Y* 1.25)/ 696,000,000 = X
X = $337.02 per share for shitadel to get margin called on 30% interest.
Holy shit, now that’s what I call reasonable. See how much interest can completely fuck a portfolio? They lost almost half of their portfolio value to a 30% interest to this. This is why the whole market will bleed red on the run up to MOASS, they will have to sell half of their portfolio just to pay the interest.
Citadel is probably not a good example of this, since they print the naked shorts themselves... so they would be paying interest to... themselves... when they borrow them? Citadel is so fucked up, I don't have enough wrinkles for this.
But hey, I think the concept of what I said is fine. High interest rates can reduce collateral and cause margin calls. Hey, just out of curiosity, how much is the borrowing interest rate looking now?
16.5%
SHF are fucked.
​
Anyway, I’m writing this on a Wordpad document so I’m not sure if I’ve come up on the character limit, but I think I’m getting close so I’ll end this part here. Please let me know what I’ve got wrong or any insights you want to share, I’ll be sure to talk about any interesting comments when I do a part 2!
TLDR: I am reviewing the Diamond Handbook (2nd) and seeing what has changed in the three years since it’s been compiled. I have a bias in thinking that high borrowing interest rates are what will cause MOASS, and that is shown here. This is not meant to be an impartial analysis, just my thoughts. Not financial advice.

Its frustrating how complicated dining out is. Really has made me realize how much its a privilege; if my reactions were more serious I doubt I would ever eat out. Its not just about the food, either, there is a social and logistical cost, too. I really feel for people who experience that.
I feel bad being that customer, but I've been burned so many times. How do you navigate these issues?
-needing to literally define dairy at every interaction. I have to say "no milk products, cheese, or butter" Its not eggs.
-needing to explain to waitstaff to check every part of the meal. The bread, the sauce. The grill.
-labels, if they have them, can be misleading. Plant-based and dairy free certainly imply safety, but arent certain. Plant based can mean majority plant, and dairy-free can mean lactose free, and still contain other compounds
-the bread! So many places I go cannot tell me what is in their bread! Local places that get fresh local bread, its great, but no ingredient list. Fairly sure you need to know what you are serving people.
-missing out on other ingredients, because they assume I can't have eggs or mayo, or other people in the party getting something without cheese. Sorry buddy
-now that the group has had to listen to my multiple negotiations, the topic turns to why I'm dairy free and now the we're talking about my poo before dinner.
-cost. Cheese is usually factored into the cost, when I sub it out for avocado or grilled peppers or what-not, I'm often getting double charged, but at this point I've interrogated so much I can't really ask.

• Asking for accommodations makes me want to tip for the service, the people are trying and caring, just untrained. But the quality is often subpar.
  
• places with language barriers are extra tricky, which is tragic
  

Have you found any short cuts here?
I've had luck with calling ahead during off hours, and (sadly) going with corporate places, and using online guides.
Its important that we speak up when we eat out, even those of us with more mild reactions. These places clearly need practice.

My apologies in advance – this is going to be long but hopefully not too convoluted/confusing. I posted this in the legal advice sub but haven't gotten any advice, so am posting here in hopes of getting advice. Please let me know if there's somewhere else I should ask my questions.
My questions are about the possible ethical/legal conflicts going on with a corporate level certified financial planner (CFP)/investment advisor representative. This person is a founding principal of and works in an LLC located in Chicago and is registered/licensed (per their SEC IAPD report) in Illinois and Florida. Information available online indicates that this person also carries the title of Chief Compliance Officer for the company. I will refer to this person as Pat. Pat’s online credentials are listed as CPA, CFP, PFS and registered investment advisor.
Pat’s client that I am concerned about is more than 70 years old and the owner of a nationally-known company with significant assets/value. The client maintains (for tax reporting purposes) a residence and vehicles in Missouri, however, actually spends the majority of their time in California, where they also have a residence, vehicles and other properties; client also owns properties and vehicles in other states. The client is not married but has adult children and siblings; the relationships with these family members is distant but not estranged. Client will be referred to as Shannon.
In addition to having the company, Shannon established a 501(c)3 foundation that accepts donations and provides scholarships. Pat is named on the board of this foundation as the treasurer, which seems inappropriate to me but I am unsure if this is legally or ethically an issue.
In recent years, Pat has become more actively involved in the employee/personnel aspects of Shannon’s company, most recently personally taking on the role of firing employees or reducing their hours to create non-livable employment situations; employees who previously communicated directly with Shannon are now being directed to communicate through Pat with their questions/concerns. Pat has, on many occasions, answered calls going to Shannon’s personal phone.
Pat has also become more involved in Shannon’s personal life and appears to be influencing Shannon to be more isolated from family members, as well as trying to convince Shannon to sell properties (Pat refers to these properties as “money pits” in an effort to influence Shannon to sell them). I have become aware that an updated legal document (unsure if it was a will or trust or something else) was prepared for Shannon that has the potential to pass any estate/inheritance to Pat when Shannon dies if the family remains distant or becomes further estranged. I don’t have a copy of this document nor do I know the name of the lawyer that prepared it, but this set off huge alarm bells for me.
All of this together seems incredibly sketchy to me but I am not sure where to start with regard to reporting it. Part of me is concerned about the isolating of Shannon as possibly crossing into elder abuse but I don’t believe that Shannon’s mental state is sufficiently diminished enough to support that they don’t understand what is going on; I believe that Pat is a master manipulator, especially since they have had this ongoing advisoclient relationship for many years.
I’m looking for any advice regarding how to bring this situation to the attention of whomever would investigate it – or any advice at all, really. Thank you.

I'm a current undergrad and I will be applying to grad schools this fall. I'm quite unsure about to do because I want to apply to both law school and classics PhD. I've been thinking about this for over a year and I need to make up my mind before starting applications. I'm going to list out the details of my situation here.
I am a classics major with a legal history minor. I have 5+ years experince with Latin. I will be starting Greek in the fall. I am an Italian beginner. No German. No French. In order for me to get into a PhD program, I'm going to need to apply to a classics bridge program or get a language MA or do a postbacc because my language skills (both in Greek and Latin) are not where they need to be.
I really want to do a JD to broaden my career options. I really like the classics and ideally I would be a professor. But Ik that there is job insecurity, a lot of moving around for temp 1-2 year contracts, and unfair compensation. I am low-income and this is a lifestyle I fear that cannot sustain me. I plan to apply to joint PhD/JD program at NYU, but my language skills in Latin and Greek are hindering me. So, my question is, would be possible to do a JD after a PhD in classics? How would Law schools look at this, specially considering the unrelated topic of study? Would having both a JD and PhD make things difficult for me when applying to jobs (in law or academia)? Any other advice or people with similar experiences are welcome.

Often time when you would hear ahhha…but that is Hamas. Hamas doesnt represent ALL Palestinians or Gazans. But you never hear them say Nethanyahu or Ben Gvir doesnt represent ALL Israelis. Why ?
If one can be pro-Palestinian and anti-Hamas at the same time. Why cant one be anti-Nethanyahu or anti-Ben Gvir and at the same time also pro-Israel ? One doesnt need to be in agreement with every single action of Nethanyahu to be pro-Israel, that is not a requirement is it ? You can be in agreement with some while disagree with other policies. You want to criticize Nethanyahu…go ahead…join the chorus of Israelis criticizing Nethanyahu. Critizing Nethanyahu doesnt make one anti-Israel, Nethanyahu is NOT Israel.
https://youtu.be/MbCYL_V1wh0?si=0YQSG6_-6-d0IzSC Thousands of Israelis waving the flag of Israel in Tel-Aviv protesting against Nethanyahu. Some of them are angry at Nethanyahu handling/ mishandling of the hostage crisis. But many Israelis have been protesting against Nethanyahu long before Oct 7th.
Just for some context Nethanyahu’s party (Likud) only received 23.4% votes. Majority Israelis did not vote for Nethanyahu. Nethanyahu is in power with a coalition of other political parties.
Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit with 10.8% votes. Ben Gvir is from Otzma Yehudit. Sometimes you might hear the name Smotrich, he is from the Religious Zionism party, another far right, ultra nationalist party.
Then you have Arab majority political parties such as United Arab List (4%), Hadash-Ta’al (3.8%) and Balad (3%) of the votes. Yes, there are Arab majority political parties in contesting in Israel general elections.

I am currently a contractor for a federal agency and have been so since Late 2021.
At the end of 2022 the contracting company I was with, to their surprise, lost the contract with the federal agency I work for. They were applying for a 5-year extension rather than the normal 6-month extension these companies normally get, and I guess whatever amount they were asking for the agency didn't agree with so they dropped them last minute in place of a new contracting company. - This is further solidified by the fact that my recruiter from the previous contracting company texting me asking who the new contracting agency is and how much they're paying me, which I never responded to.
The pay I was offered for the new company was abysmal to be frank. It was a $10,000 pay cut. Given that I live in a high COL area and my position involving a lot of travel around the state I told them this new pay would be impossible to work with. I already wasn't making much to begin with but it was somewhat livable. My new pay is not.
The recruiter told me over the phone to just sign the papers since they needed to get the paperwork filed ASAP, and that they'll handle getting me my former pay rate before I'm officially back on. Absolutely major mistake on my end to not get that in writing because when I contacted the recruiter after my first check they played dumb about the conversation we had over the phone. "Oh it says here on the papers you signed that this is the pay rate you agreed to, if there's an issue we can talk to the CEO." - I knew I was fucked from that moment and got played.
I'm a year and half in with this new agency and have seen 0 raises. I did ask, but was told that decision has to be made by a specific person at the federal agency and that the contracting company doesn't have the ability to provide raises.
Unfortunately, said person at the federal agency has a lot going on in their personal life right now, so getting me higher pay is pretty damn low on their list of priorities right now, and I feel like I'd be overstepping my boundaries trying to contact them directly.
I tried contacting my manager at the federal agency but my email was ignored. Which I don't blame my manager for since they probably have to very careful about how they respond to everything I said.
I get that the government is cheap, and I was told that the new contracting agency I signed on with basically got it because they accepted the lowest offer the gov made. They are hoping to get a 5-year extension at the end of the year, but I was told by a supervisor at the federal agency that that's not going to happen, and that it never happens. They'll just dump the company off once they ask for too much money and repeat the process taking on a new company that accepts the lowest offer.
Am I just SOL? I had to reiterate several times that I am not asking for a raise, just my former pay. I am seriously lost as to how my pay goes down but I'm expected to travel upwards of 700 miles upon request. I've heard FTE's refuse to travel for their managers for significantly less distances under 100 miles.
My manager has told me to apply for direct hire previously, but the jobs related to my position have

• an insane amount of applicants (probably won't hear anything back for a year or more)
• mysteriously "close" / not hiring right after the application period ends
• are open for like 1-3 days which I'm assuming is set up for a pre-selected internal applicant. I'm pretty sure contractors can't apply to jobs that say internal applicants only?

Only one other agency got "back" to me. I made it to the assessment test phase which I didn't do once I saw the job was overnight. I'm kinda kicking myself for that one since it had a $35,000 pay bump.

Hello everyone! I’m looking to apply for 801/820 partner visa. I am an Australian citizen and my partner is a Chinese national. She was most recently on a graduate visa, but is now on a tourist visa (not sure which one exactly) but it’s expiring next month June 14th. I want to get her on a partner visa. We applied for the de facto status earlier this month on the 7th of may I believe. However, upon looking around the web, it seems like there isn’t a solid or definite answer for partner visa applications. My partner and I met last year in April. We started really talking to each other in may. She then went overseas for about two months returning at the end of July. We started dating on the 3rd of August. That period of time overseas, I spent a ridiculous amount of time constantly on call with her or just messaging her, even though we weren’t ’dating’ at that time. When she got back, she was renting by herself at a new place, and once we started dating I was constantly over during the day, and if not staying the night as well. (A lot of evidence). We went for our first trip overseas together for two weeks last September and prior to that I picked up a second job to manage/gather enough finances to support our relationship. We also had a few trips within NSW, to Canberra and Kiama and some few other places. Anyway, we had our first big holiday beginning of this year where we went overseas for 2 months where we spent all of it together. I also had the chance to meet her familiy and live with them for most of the trip. As soon as we got back, she stayed at my parents house for 2 months as we settled down and started getting back into routine. Fast forward to April, we finally moved in together. We also registered for a defacto relationship in may, have the receipt but awaiting processing time. I have a few questions: - How is each application assessed and is there anything big or specific I should consider? Do I have to consider biases or not? - our relationship has been short, and we are both very young. However we have both experience tremendous growth in individuality and mathrity and we can prove it - does time matter here then? - our defacto registration was only earlier this month and we are still awaiting the processing time to finish before we receive our certificate - this is something I am confused about - it says that we have to have been in a defacto relationship for 12 months on the official immigration website however other sites such as Facebook reddit and travel agencies say that this doesn’t matter - I would like to hear the different experiences people have had with this step
I know this is an extremely long list of questions and I feel like the majority has already been answered however i think if I keep snooping around the internet and just seeing different answers and opinions it kind of stuffs up the approach I should take towards this, so I just decided to ask myself. Really sorry for taking up your time and any reply/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone !!

*Have 2 tervigons and a mawloc waiting to be built so may be able to swap them into the list
Looking to get a better 1500 point list, basically got most of 3 leviathan kits and the ultimate starter set, as well as a winged tyranid prime. Have enough termagaunts for 6 20 man squads.
Currently running endless swarm as it's very fun, but am going to fight either guard, orks or tau majority of time, so an idea of what units I should have vs these oppornents will help me no get tavled turn 3 easily. I know that's our faction to be tabled, but any strats would be great.
Nids (1485 points)
Tyranids 1500 points Unending Swarm
CHARACTERS
Neurotyrant (105 points) • 1x Neurotyrant claws and lashes 1x Psychic scream
Neurotyrant (105 points) • Warlord • 1x Neurotyrant claws and lashes 1x Psychic scream
Winged Hive Tyrant (210 points) • 1x Monstrous bonesword and lash whip 1x Tyrant talons
Winged Tyranid Prime (65 points) • 1x Prime talons
BATTLELINE
Termagants (60 points) • 10x Termagant • 10x Chitinous claws and teeth 10x Fleshborer
Termagants (60 points) • 10x Termagant • 10x Chitinous claws and teeth 10x Fleshborer
Termagants (60 points) • 10x Termagant • 10x Chitinous claws and teeth 10x Fleshborer
Termagants (60 points) • 10x Termagant • 10x Chitinous claws and teeth 10x Fleshborer
Termagants (60 points) • 10x Termagant • 10x Chitinous claws and teeth 10x Fleshborer
OTHER DATASHEETS
Barbgaunts (55 points) • 5x Barbgaunt • 5x Barblauncher 5x Chitinous claws and teeth
Barbgaunts (55 points) • 5x Barbgaunt • 5x Barblauncher 5x Chitinous claws and teeth
Neurogaunts (45 points) • 1x Neurogaunt Nodebeast • 1x Chitinous claws and teeth • 10x Neurogaunt • 10x Chitinous claws and teeth
Psychophage (95 points) • 1x Psychoclastic torrent 1x Talons and betentacled maw
Psychophage (95 points) • 1x Psychoclastic torrent 1x Talons and betentacled maw
Ripper Swarms (20 points) • 1x Chitinous claws and teeth
Ripper Swarms (20 points) • 1x Chitinous claws and teeth
Ripper Swarms (20 points) • 1x Chitinous claws and teeth
Screamer-Killer (145 points) • 1x Bio-plasmic scream 1x Screamer-Killer talons
Von Ryan’s Leapers (75 points) • 3x Von Ryan’s Leaper • 3x Leaper’s talons
Von Ryan’s Leapers (75 points) • 3x Von Ryan’s Leaper • 3x Leaper’s talons
Exported with App Version: v1.14.0 (42), Data Version: v379

Hello and greetings once again my fellow CUEnthusiasts!
Today on Coaches Corner I’m going discuss what I think many players would love some insight on, building your collection and working towards completion. This is going to potentially be a multi, or at minimum a 2 part series. There’s so much to cover that pertains to both and as I write, more keeps coming to mind lol.
While most of what I write is geared more towards newer players, free to play and more casual investors, there will be points shared that may be beneficial to anyone. Regardless the collection you have or even if you don’t care about building/completion.
Once more, a lot of what I’ll be covering will relate to both topics, I will go into more detail and differentiate when applicable if needed.
I’ll kick off this mini series thing with Part 1, where I’ll look at why New Cards are important and also share some of my insights and experience with Card Packs and currency(Gems and Coins).
This is in no way a guide for which packs to only open or where to strictly spend your currency. There are many great packs that aren’t listed and a few of my favorites also aren’t mentioned. It’s more my experience based on how some packs can help with the topics we’re discussing more than others is all. Your coins and gems are always yours to do with as you please :)
Regardless your time spent on cue, the majority of players want and chase new cards. It’s not uncommon to get some pretty wild offers early on, so new cards will and should always be a focus where possible for building and completing your collection. If you’ve ever posted a new card in game, especially early after it drops, you’ll know exactly what I mean. So I’ll leave it at that.
What I would like to discuss is knowing what to pull, and when to pull (I should note, the term “pull” means open packs, as in pull the new card from a pack). I’ll ask as well because I was away for a while and just returned recently to CUE, if I miss any note worthy packs that I didn’t discuss, please comment below and provide a bit as to why it’s a good pack to hit please. I know there’s a few new ones since I came back, and if they’re relevant, it would help to be made aware :)
I won’t cover every single pack but touch briefly on noteworthy ones that are both popular and, based on my personal experience, are worth a mention as they’re relevant to todays topics. I hope this may help when selecting what currency you save up and when to use them to maximize achieving your goals for your collection.
I again want to strongly emphasize. This in no way is a guide on how to 100% get the cards you want, which packs to open and how to spend your gems/coins.
This is however based off my experience in CUE, other trading card apps I’ve been on, and when seeing trades and helping evaluate trades when I pop into discord. I think it’s safe to say, most players who are complete or close to it and the ones who have been around for years, probably already know, have experienced, or used some of this.
I’ll start with what I would watch for in a pack and a new card.
Other than keeping an eye on social platforms for what’s being hyped up, there’s 2 things I look for before I pull for a new card or a pack in general.
The Collection the new card and/or the pack is associated with. And the playability of the new card.
What I look for in a collection first is, if the collection is part of the meta and in demand. Is this collection being played a lot and are many people looking for cards from the collection. I then check what and how many value/meta/very playable limited legendary and limited epics are in the collection. If there’s a decent amount (4-5 or more) this can check off the box for a worth while pack.
Next I look into the new card. How good is it? How scarce is it potentially going to be? And is there demand? While I primarily look to the first point when selecting a good pack, you’ll make the best bang for your currency if both these points are checked off. I’ll break this down a bit.
In regards to the new card, I mainly want its rarity to be limited epic or limited legendary when using it to trade. As I’ve covered before, most limited rares and below are relatively easy to obtain/complete and tend have less played cards as most decks are composed mostly of limited epics and higher. It’s of course still ok to pull/get lower rarity new cards to trade if you have lower rarity needs. These 2 rarities I mentioned though, are important for building and completion as they have the majority of valuable and playable cards amongst them.
I would recommend to try to focus and/or wait for a new card that is as playable and as much a meta deck staple as possible. This just means it’ll have demand.
Next I want to go over how gem cost and pull rates can factor in. I’m going to cover coins separately because they’re used a bit differently.
I do just want to quickly explain pull rates. The pull rate is the % chance you have of getting the specified card if you open 1 pack. For example, if the rate is 25%, when you open 1 of that pack, you have a 25% (1/4) chance of getting that card. It’s not if I open 4 packs, I should 100% get the card by the fourth pack.
Here’s how Gem Costs and Pull Rates COULD factor in.
The lower the gem cost and/or the higher the pull rate %, the more available the card could be. It doesn’t mean you’ll get worse results trading cards in packs that are one or both of these. It just means you may have a shorter window to maximize the cards potential trade power. Packs with high gem costs and/or lower pull rate %, are usually the ones that will be more in demand, be more scarce, and see some of the better offers. Kinda makes sense.
If a pack meets all the criteria we’ve gone over, it’s usually a good one to invest in. Again it’s your choice in the end. You’ll also get accustomed to making the best choice for you and your collecting goals as time goes and you become more well versed in the app. There’s a wide variety of packs to cater to every playecollector!
Before we proceed I want to offer some advice. Don’t send trades taking a wild over pay from people looking for a new card just because it’s new and in demand. It could get declined, as well, reflect bad on you and land you on a block list. Let them choose to do so if/when they send a trade. With the information coming up, there shouldn’t even be a need to.
When you do have and want to trade a new card my advice is always to just post it asap for trade in game and wait to see what comes in. Be patient, you’re not obligated to take the first or any offer just because it came it. Your cards, you get what you want. To elaborate as well, be realistic. One can’t expect the best offers and only look/wait for that every time. Remember too, sometimes you’re on a bit of a clock. As time goes and the card becomes less scarce, demand will/may drop, and good offers you had and waited on, may not come again. This is the game of a collector lol. Comfort will come with experience so don’t sweat it too much. But I felt it’s good to know as well.
I want to also point out to always check the demand of the new card before you post the card in game, accept incoming trades or pull/trade for more copies of a new card. Go to the trade screen and type in the name of the card and check the “Wanted” section to see roughly how many people are looking for it and toggle to the “Offered” section to see how many people are posting it for trade. This will give a very rough idea as to the supply and demand of the new card. If there’s few people looking and lots of people offering, it’s safe to assume demand is low. This is important because you don’t want to waste currency or your dupes for something that’s not gonna move, and you want to move new cards asap.
The way I view currency in general
Gems are mainly used to acquire mostly limited cards, either new or previously released.
Coins are mainly used for obtaining new or previously released basics or the collection of the day pack. I’ll quickly note, it’s rare to fill out your limiteds off basics. It still can happen, but far less frequently and efficiently. The ladder bit is in regards to trading basics, as limiteds can also be acquired via coin packs and I’ll touch on that soon.
So what are some decent/popular packs to look for to use your currency to help build/complete your collection?
I’ll start with gems packs just because most people want to use them the most efficiently, coins too, but there’s usually less opportunity for them as far as getting best bang for your buck so to speak.
Once more, we’re going to keep in mind everything I’ve gone over so far. And I again want to emphasize, I’m not trying to tell you exactly what packs to open and to disregard the rest. These were just some, from my experience, that are better to leverage for the topics today. Again each pack can cater to a different collector and their needs and wants. Just to be clear lol.
League Spotlight:
There’s a number of points I’m going to touch on because this is a popular pack, if not the most popular.
With a low gem cost and a not terrible pull rate for a limited legendary. Typically featuring 6 different Limited Legendary cards with the potential to pull other random limiteds, it has good bang for the gem cost. If pulling this pack, I’d recommend pulling the 3 for 2 at 50 gems.
Best to hit if you have a somewhat decent balance to be effective. You can fill limited card needs, get decent limiteds and more. I find if you can only do the 50 a few times your gems are better used elsewhere.
What can also be very beneficial is when these packs feature at least 2 or more Limited Legendary cards that have value and demand prior to spot light.
One very important thing to be aware of. The limited legendary cards featured are almost always impacted value wise as they’re far more available, again because the pack is popular. And when there is 2 or more value ones featured, the pulls tend to drastically increase leading to market saturation and value decline.
If you’re ok with playing for the long run, their values tend to creep back, but over a long period. The only other downside, there’s never new cards in these packs, only previously released ones. So there’s typically less people looking for the cards from spot light, other than the featured value ones, or those who need them, and you usually won’t see the same offers that you would a new card for spotlight cards. The upside is the ability to get very playable or meta Limited Legendary cards if you need them at an amazing price.
Finder packs, Choose your Fate/Destiny, Grab Bag and the 1500 gem pack(I forgot what it’s called but shows up periodically, again it’s a new one for me lol):
I liken these to spotlight packs because they’re more for if you have needs from that collection or specific rarities of limited cards. It’s worth noting, values aren’t impacted much by these as they’re not as heavily pulled like spotlight is.
Much like spotlight, these tend to not feature a new card so the trades aren’t expected to be the same as ones you’d typically see for a new card. And they usually cost around 150 gems or more per pack. If you’re free to play or a minimal investor and have fewer card needs, I feel your gems can be better used elsewhere. These can be worth it if you have many needs that you want to target or in general depending on the pack.
And lastly, these are the packs I feel are consistently worth the investment in relation to building and completing, especially when they can check off both boxes I mentioned earlier!
Although they can be a bit pricy and pull rates aren’t the best, it can be worth it to just save up to hit them a bit as I find they have the best return on investment.
They are, The (Album) legendary seeker pack (I believe that’s what it’s called, I do mistake it sometimes. Please correct me so I can edit this if so lol), and the Sunday epic pack. There are others but they fall under what I’ve already gone over.
The seeker pack is from a particular Album like arts or science for example. The ones you want to keep an eye out for are the ones that you always get a limited legendary, and I believe a couple of lower rarity limited cards guaranteed from that particular album, in addition to a % chance at a new limited from that album. The cost and pull rates can make these scarce, especially if they’re a good card and epic/legendary rarity but this can also cause heavy pulls and saturation, again, check supply and demand. These tend to see good and sometimes great offers early, usually the same rarity as the new card. And if they’re scarce, they can sometimes hold value over time.
The Sunday Epic drops, well, every Sunday. The gem cost again is on the steep side, I believe 160 gems per pack, and pull rates are not too bad. What these offer however can be really useful. There’s lots of playable and value limited epics and from my experience, hitting this even a few times usually wields a decent limited epic two. Not to add what may come in if you hit the new limited epic and post it in game. The new limited epics in these packs tend to always trend to the more scarce side regardless of playability or value just due to the cost and rates.
These are the ones that to me stand out as they have had the best results for me. I’ve completed once, broke my collection willingly, completed again, took a long break and came back and completed once more. Done the dance a few times lol.
Again, I’m not saying there aren’t other worth while packs as there’s a few I enjoy that I didn’t list. But these are the ones I feel are most relevant to the topic at hand. You want to save up enough to at least try to get yourself a copy for yourself and a dupe or 2 if you’re trying for completion, or a copy or 2 to trade if you’re just looking for cards for your collection to play. These are also good to use to build decent dupes for future trades if you’re complete or have a few needs left to bait out those last cards.
Lastly coins. These are pretty straight forward as there’s not much variety wise like gem packs to spend them on. The ones I feel are best suited to today’s topic for coins are as follows:
First, the Collection of the Day coin pack version for a new limited card. You mainly want to pull on this pack if it meets both the limited card and collection criteria I’ve gone over. With the chance to pull limited cards from the same collection as the new card and the new card itself, this will be one of the good packs to invest your coins in when the criteria is met.
Lastly, and as of the time of this post. In the Basic packs section along the top row, there’s 3 coin packs, and 1 rotates out, and a new one rotates in, every few days. Disregard the other 3 below. You want to wait for one of those packs to meet the collection criteria, and only if you’re going to spend a decent stack on these, as it can take many coins to hit those value limiteds. The new cards in these are always basics and don’t yield much return, what makes them worth while is there’s a chance to pull a limited from the same collection, so if you have value needs of that particular collection or want good cards to trade, wait for this kind of pack to arrive that meets, what I consider, a good collection to pull for.
Im going to end here as I feel I’ve covered, in detail, some of the key points regarding new cards and packs and how they can be applied to building/completing. Next time I would like to go over some strategies you can use with the cards already in your collection and some tips on how to use them to their maximum potential for building/completing your collection.
As always, thank you for taking a moment to drop in. Always feel free to comment below if there’s any questions or if there’s any Trading or Collecting topics you’d like me to cover. I’ll do my best to respond. You can find me on the main discord server, link is in the sub description. Happy Trading and keep it Cue, see you in game!
Next time on Coaches Corner with WadeTheHeathen:
We’re going to jump into part 2 of Building your Collection and Working Towards Completion, this time discussing some strategies and tips for how to use the cards already in your collection! Hope to see you then!

Hello! Like many others i too am having a dilemma on which uni offer to accept. In NTU, i got offered psychology with the NTU-USP (university scholars programme) scholarship while in NUS, i got offered a psych with management double major (with psych as my primary major under CHS) with the NUS merit scholarship. For context, i'm hoping to have a more vibrant uni life than jc so overseas exposure, student life and the culture of the schools r important to me too!!
For the NUS merit scholarship, my benefits include: - Paid tuition fees - S$6,000 annual living allowance - S$2,000 one-time computer allowance - Guaranteed Student Exchange Programme (SEP) placement with one of NUS overseas partner universities for one semester (no priority given so may not be one of my top choices i'm assuming??)
For the NTU-USP scholarship, my benefits include: - Paid tuition fees - S$6,500 annual living allowance - S$1,750 one-time computer allowance - Annual accommodation allowance of up to S$2,000 - Travel Grant of up to $5000 for an overseas study/attachment programme -Overseas benefits: - Heavily subsidized Travel Overseas Programme for Scholars (TOPS) in the freshman year (1 week overseas fieldwork and research trip) - NTU-USP Study Abroad Programme, or - Priority placement in overseas universities through NTU's international student semester exchange
☆
Some of my concerns right now are: - i'm not yet sure if i fully wanna commit to a career in psych even though its something i'm passionate abt (will have to do master's at least, if not phd) so the double major in NUS might give me more opportunities to pursue smth else if i decide that psych is not for me + NUS CHS gives me the flexibility to change my major within the first 2 years

• i intend to do my master's (if i pursue psych) overseas so the prestige and brand name of NUS would prob give me some leverage to get into overseas unis i'm assuming
  
• i've been seeing a lot of ppl complain abt the CHS common curriculum which takes up 1/3 of the curriculum in my degree :") NTU has a common curriculum too but its much less than that of NUS so i get to study more mods related to my major, also heard from some seniors that a few unis dont recognise the NUS psych bachelors degree bcs the no. of AUs we study doesnt meet the min. requirement (although i'm not sure how true this is)
  
• the NTU-USP modules (which replace some of the common curriculum's core + electives) r taught in seminar style and not graded on a bellcurve so it might be better for me to learn in that type of environment esp bcs of the seminar style teaching method... and the core curriculum both in NUS and NTU doesnt rly interest me anw so maybe a seminar style would make it easier to learn these mods?
  
• overseas experiences r q important to me and it feels like i'll have more overseas opportunities in NTU-USP compared to NUS even though NUS has the guaranteed SEP... i also heard that its q competitive to get into exchange programmes in NUS bcs i'll be competing with all of FASS so if anyone has any insight into this, please do share!
  
• i'll have to stay in hall if i go to NTU which i have to pay for (abt $4000-$5000 annually so after the accommodation allowance, abt $2000-$3000 out of my own pocket every year) while i can travel to NUS from home... also i just moved in to a new house last month and it's newly renovated and rly comfy so i kinda also wanna enjoy the comforts of my own house😭
  
• i prefer the S/U and bidding systems in NUS more! In NUS, we can S/U the mod after seeing our grades while in NTU, we have to S/U the mod before seeing our grades for the final exam (which holds the highest weightage i assume) + in NUS, we bid for mods by ranking them according to our preference while in NTU, its on a fcfs basis! for more details on these systems, https://www.reddit.com/SGExams/s/awq4ocGYUr (note: NUS bidding system has changed to ranking by preference - factors like seniority, primary major and popularity of the mods affects the likelihood of getting them!)
  
• any seniors from NTU psych or NUS CHS pls share more abt the culture there!! like is it v competitive? are ppl generally willing to share notes and resources? is there a mugger culture? and r the ppl there v academically focused? aka do i have to grind like jc again :") i dont wanna sell my soul to the education system pls💀
  

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I've heard from seniors and profs that the psych mods have a steep bellcurve too and that its generally a competitive course in either uni so i guess i'll have to grind either way😭 it feels like i might have a more vibrant student life in NTU(?) while the culture in NUS seems more academically-driven, but FASS/CHS seniors, feel free to correct me! Also how r the campuses for the FASS block in NUS and the SSS block in NTU HAHAH i didnt get a chance to see them up close! Just hoping anyone can share any insights abt the respective unis and programmes and shed some light into my dilemma ^{^}
if u've made it this far, thank u for taking the time to read this post!! i'll just list some of the pros and cons of each uni below for easier reference but its basically just a summary of everything i've said above :D
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NUS:
Pros✅️ - flexibility to change my 1st and 2nd major within the first 2 years - psychology + management double major - guaranteed semester exchange programme (SEP) - no need to stay in hall, can travel from the comfort of my new house - i prefer its S/U system and bidding system - brand name and prestige could give me more overseas opportunities to pursue my master's
Cons❌️ - CHS common curriculum takes up 1/3 of my degree, less time to study my majors - fewer overseas opportunities compared to NTU-USP, guaranteed exchange programme may not be one of my top choices bcs its more competitive - have to study CHS common curriculum (which i'm not super interested in compared to my major) in lecture-tutorial style, which takes more effort for me from past jc experience
NTU:
Pros✅️ - more overseas experiences and opportunities (TOPS, priority for exchange programmes, USP study abroad, electives with overseas fieldwork components, etc) - small class sizes for USP modules which facilitates better learning for me personally! + provides a sense of community too - fewer modules for the common curriculum so more time to focus on my major - the hall experience could add to my uni experience esp in terms of student life + i have 4 years guaranteed hall + $2000 annual accommodation allowance
Cons❌️ - i dont really like the S/U system and dont prefer its bidding system (but have learnt some ways to work around the bidding system from seniors) - have to stay in hall away from the comforts of my own home + have to pay for hall - little flexibility to change my major once i enter uni + no double major with business (career backup if i give up on psych) - less prestige compared to NUS(?) not as much of a brand name
Okay thats about it!! Pls share your advice and opinions guys i have 5 days left to make a decision and i'm starting to panic a little😭😭 anyway thank you for reading my post and for any pieces of advice/comments yall leave!!

Sharp headaches are now waking me up out of sound sleep with sharp arm pains from armpits to hands like someone is squeezing them, pins & needles on both, in addition to similar leg pain, bulging veins in hands and legs.
I took 4 days of a combo birth control pill to start IVF & this began with mild headache, diarrhea, nausea, tinnitus, dry mouth, enlarged leg veins, leg skin felt burning sensation on fire, severe restless legs, dry skin, hot flashes, elevated rhr & bp. 6 days ago I stopped after the leg items began & it felt like an allergic reaction, noticed immediate improvement in skin on fire feelings, diarrhea and headache but everything else I listed is same or worse. RHR & BP have come back down to normal but other symptoms have not. Duplex US Tuesday ruled out leg DVT then, told to wear compression socks, try magnesium and Benadryl - nothing's working and I'm getting worse.
I don't ever get headaches. Friday a severe right sided headache happened, started with tight feeling on both sides of the neck with temple/eye socket/head then jaw pain. Right eye vision went slightly blurry and eye felt pressure. Saturday afternoon similar headache experience, then 12 hrs later after taking Benadryl I was sound asleep when it happened again, waking me up at 2am except now with sharp pains / pins & needle feelings and major pressure on both arms for 15m wirh intermittent leg pains like the arms too. Fitbit says pulse ox was only 92% tonight, never happened before.
I'm only sleeping 2-4hrs a night and am terrified of what's happening. This is fucking insane that 4 pills have caused this kind of reactions? Please, anyone, any suggestions?
36/f, 210 lbs, 5'5" on Nexium, Flonase, and levothyroxine.

Last spring I applied to my then dream uni and got rejected (because of problems with my documents). The only back up I had was my local university. The first semester was a bit hell-ish but the second semester has been going a lot better (two of three lectures and their proseminars go quite well, I daresay; I made some friends; I like my professors.) The only major problem is that I'm commuting around 1 and a half hours one way, which is very tiring and not ideal for social activities like going out, etc.
Now the problem is, I re-applied to the other uni and got accepted this time. The uni is

• quite well-known
• a bit prestigious
• has a lot of international connection (and many, many international students)
• and is also one of the best unis around (in Europe at least).

If the last few months had been awful, it would be really clear decision to get out of the hell-hole. But the last 2,3 months were pleasant.
What also plays into my decision, is the fact that some of my friends are likely to change majors, or start doing half pace.
And I'm worried that if I stay, just for the sake of these people and my professors, I missed the chance to experience a very social and positive experience at the other uni (which is also known for its student life) I'm just generally worried; I'd be moving out of the house I lived my whole life in with my parents, I'd be going to another country, with a different language and culture - I'm afraid that I won't fit in and be friendless (I have some social anxiety too).
Last year this time I would have jumped at this opprtunity without second thought really, but things have changed. Here's a little list, with the arguments that came to me the fastest.

Pros	Cons
very good uni	hasn't got my (Linear) Algebra professor
social life, new start	not entirely convinced of the programme structure
more independency	my current friends aren't there
no more long commuting	I'm bad at socialising

This post is mostly for getting it of my chest; and I'd like some outside view on this.
I know that in the end it's my decision, but maybe someone has a helpful insight.

Hello, I am a researcher at an institution in the West, and I have had a series of astonishing encounters with people from India. To be clear, I do not aim to generalize the entire Indian population; however, I have yet to meet someone from India who acts differently.
Here is the tale:

1. We had a conference last year. One of the panel members, a head of a very prominent intergovernmental institution with a global scale, has a solid record and a long list of publications. After the conference, a person from India who has no publications and no research experience condescendingly called her "an idiot."
   
2. The research environment, like other work environments, is fraught with deadlines and tasks. We manage tasks and deliver like other professionals. In this context, a person from India decided to inform my boss, who is not her boss, that I have been struggling without my knowledge. The said Indian person did not tell me any of this for almost three weeks. She also did not bother to inquire how I have been in those span of time. When I confronted her about the violations and betrayal, there was no remorse or apology at breaching my privacy. Instead, she claimed that I am cynical of her intent.
   
3. Another person from India plagiarized a colleague's writing.
   
4. I recently met an Indian man who claimed expertise on certain subject matters, would not let me speak, and lectured me on mansplaining. The funny thing is, when I looked at his research publications, which could have been an indicator of expertise, I was appalled to find that he has none. The audacity.
   
5. An Indian woman was in a relationship with a senior researcher. She cheated on him in his house, and he found the evidence (i.e. used cond**). When he confronted her, she lied. They broke up, and he asked her to leave his house. She eventually found a new place, but the faucet was broken. Despite the betrayal and lies, she chose to call him and asked for help.
   

There are plenty of stories about this behavior among Indians, linking it to a lack of education; however, I must point out that all these Indians are highly educated. Culture would be a lame excuse too unless a lack of awareness is simply, well, a normative practice. So, what gives?

So I’ve had this idea for my next colony, where I want to start and run with a very specific theme and bit of roleplay.
The backstory (bare with me here, it’s actually mechanically relevant) is that the chief geneticist in charge of making Vatgrown soldiers for a warmongering empire fell in love with a highmate destined for bonding to the emperor; classic tragic love story. She ultimately decides to throw her comfortable glitterworld life away, by eloping with the highmate just before the bonding ceremony, and escaping on a small cryo-ship to a peaceful agricultural settlement on the outer rim to live out their lives together.
…obviously with sub-light speed interstellar travel being what it is, the ‘peaceful agricultural settlement’ has run into some problems in the intervening years. Good thing she also brought along her faithful old Hussar bodyguard!
So mechanically, what I want to do here is fully explore the concept of having a small core of ‘real’ colonists to start with, and then having the vast majority (if not all) of the additional citizens be genetically modified Vatgrown hyper-specialists. The little bit of backstory actually spun out of this idea rather than the other way around - my starting three being a Hussar, a Highmate and a custom xenotype that’s basically a Genie (social defecit swapped out for something else so my geneticist can be an effective colony leader) guarantee me eventual access to the genes I’ll need through extraction even if I don’t find them ‘in the wild’.
My issue with executing this is that ideally I don’t want the Vatgrown population to be treated entirely like ‘real’ people. In the case of the soldiers in particular, they should to a large degree be expendable, interchangeable and replaceable; a raid that goes poorly and gets five drone soldiers killed shouldn’t send the colony into a depression spiral, they should simply get straight to work growing five replacements. I’d also like to try and reduce my reliance on prisoners and slaves for producing embryos without inconvenient family connections; it’s just a bit over-complicated and fiddly.
I think I have a list of mods that should mostly improve on the fairly basic vanilla growth vat. ‘Biotech Cloning’ has a system where I should be able to clone one of my starting colonists to get unattached baseliners who can have their specialist xenogerms applied before they even go in the vats, and ‘Enhanced Vat Learning’, will give me the ability to prevent my Vatgrown specialists from developing random traits that work against their purpose. ‘Growth Vats Expanded’ and ‘Oops All Genebanks’ seem useful too, though I’m not certain how well they work with 1.5. If anyone has anything better on the genetics side of things though, I’d be happy to hear about it!
The real problem is trying to work out an ideological system where my cloned soldiers can be expendable but my naturally born colonists are not. Making them slaves seems like an option at first, but it just introduces too many nonsensical problems with rebellions. Two ideologies seemed like it might work, but that only really solves the problem of cloned soldiers caring more about each other than they should. Honestly I’m leaning towards an ideology where colonist death just doesn’t matter at all - it’s not ideal but I’m looking to have my guys be 90% clones anyway and if one of the original three are killed it’s probably the end point of a colony wipe anyway…
So yeah, I was wondering if anyone had any mod suggestions to make this kind of setup easiemore immersive, particularly if it’s something you’ve tried yourself… I’m sure there are plenty of 40k aficionados wanting to build space marines along similar lines!

Hello, I am a researcher at an institution in the West, and I have had a series of astonishing encounters with people from India. To be clear, I do not aim to generalize the entire Indian population; however, I have yet to meet someone from India who acts differently.
Here is the tale:

1. We had a conference last year. One of the panel members, a head of a very prominent intergovernmental institution with a global scale, has a solid record and a long list of publications. After the conference, a person from India who has no publications and no research experience condescendingly called her "an idiot."
   
2. The research environment, like other work environments, is fraught with deadlines and tasks. We manage tasks and deliver like other professionals. In this context, a person from India decided to inform my boss, who is not her boss, that I have been struggling without my knowledge. The said Indian person did not tell me any of this for almost three weeks. She also did not bother to inquire how I have been in those span of time. When I confronted her about the violations and betrayal, there was no remorse or apology at breaching my privacy. Instead, she claimed that I am cynical of her intent.
   
3. Another person from India plagiarized a colleague's writing.
   
4. I recently met an Indian man who claimed expertise on certain subject matters, would not let me speak, and lectured me on mansplaining. The funny thing is, when I looked at his research publications, which could have been an indicator of expertise, I was appalled to find that he has none. The audacity.
   
5. An Indian woman was in a relationship with a senior researcher. She cheated on him in his house, and he found the evidence (i.e. used cond**). When he confronted her, she lied. They broke up, and he asked her to leave his house. She eventually found a new place, but the faucet was broken. Despite the betrayal and lies, she chose to call him and asked for help.
   

There are plenty of stories about this behavior among Indians, linking it to a lack of education; however, I must point out that all these Indians are highly educated. Culture would be a lame excuse too unless a lack of awareness is simply, well, a normative practice. So, what gives?