Hi!
I plan to visit Greece with my dad for 10 in late March/early April next year. It will be our first time in Greece. We're planning to rent a car for the parts outside Athens. We're in the super early stages of planning and I'm looking for ideas.
We usually pick 3 must-see things for each trip and plan around that, but Greece is so overwhelming! We try to know where we will start and end each day, figure out 1-2 things to do during the day, and then explore the rest of the time. For big cities, we usually have one day where the only plan is to explore a couple neighborhoods. We are very slow museum and archaeological site people (usually 4-5 hours for sites people say will take 2 hours).
Our interests:
- Hiking (we're fairly fit but would like to keep hikes to < 4 hours, especially for days we'll be driving)
- History (especially Persian history, pre-modern graffiti, places believed to have been gateways to hell/the underworld, rock art, things mentioned in classic texts that you can see. I don't know what's visible, but it'd be cool to see things I've read about in Herodotus or Xenophon)
- Museums
- Craft/food demonstrations
- Food (especially cheese and bread and desserts. I'm a vegetarian, but I like to try the local after-school/road trip snacks when I can)
- Music
- Sitting in town squares, wandering areas that are less touristy
- Ferries/boat rides. We try to do a boat tour everywhere.
This tour from Trekking Hellas seems like it would be up our alley, for example.
I haven't done much research yet, but I wanted to get thoughts on a tentative itinerary. Any suggestions are appreciated:
​

	Vague ideas of activities	Overnight
Day 1	Arrive, wander Athens, walk around (but don't go in) Acropolis, maybe visit the Acropolis Museum	Athens
Day 2	Drive to Corinth, visit canal and Acrocorinth, drive to Nafplio	Nafplio
Day 3	Mycenae, explore Nafplio	Nafplio
Day 4	Epidavros. Maybe kayak to visit sunken city ruins, weather permitting?	Nafplio or somewhere closer to Olympia?
Day 5	Olympia, just do random town visits, hike to Temple of Apollo Epicurius?	Olympia
Day 6	Delphi, Thermopylae	Delphi
Day 7	Hike around Delphi/Mt Parnassus	Delphi
Day 8	Athens, Acropolis, National Archaeological Museum	Athens
Day 9	Visit an island? Maybe Hydra or Andros?	?
Day 10	A buffer day	Athens
Day 11	Leave in the a.m.	Plane

​

Edit: discipline is the wrong word here. I’m meaning how do I teach her major “no-no’s” because the treat option isn’t one due to her weight. And in the moment how do I handle her breaking rules?
In Jan, my fiancé and I inherited a 10year old miniature pinscher. Her owner passed away and Hydra was stuck inside the apartment with her deceased owner for nearly 4 days. I was the only one to show up to the scene, so I took her home.
She is on the larger side of this breed, and is registered as a service animal. The first signs of bad behavior, I chalked it up to her transitioning to a family versus a single household. After all, Eri the only owner Hydra has ever known and after the trauma she had been through, I thought I would give it time.
Some of Hydra’s bad habits or Behavior are: - taking food off & burying it in our beds or couches. (Since then we have placed food on higher surfaces.) - chasing the cats outside the moment she sees them. - snapping or growing as if going to bite when you try to pick her up (for a bath or if she refuses to move.)
I’ve rewarded her with treats or peanut butter when she listens, but sometimes in the middle of catching her displaying bad behavior - I don’t know how to proceed with proper punishment, so then I send her outside and cool off. I never know if she understands or not.
Hydra has gotten particular closer to me than anyone else in the family, but we love her all and she loves us & will occasionally kiss us or get super excited when we arrive home & do her happy dance. One night, a few months ago, I told her I loved her and she immediately licked my face and got super snuggly. Since we have bonded, we cuddle in bed or I take her with me when I can for car rides. We take her camping, kayaking, or Fishing and she loves it! She has lost weight (in a good way) from apartment living to a more active lifestyle. I can tell Hydra is really happy. I’m telling you these things because for awhile her behavior improved so much you would think she was a new dog! She became much more affectionate or interested in being close next to us. I really think it’s because she adjusted fully to being with a new family and adapted well to our routines & activities.
Lately, with it being so hot, we are inside much more and her behavior has been slipping up. She has broken my dishes in attempts to reach the plates to the food. Thankfully she hasn’t tried to bite (a total of three times total being here and she only bit me when I saved her that night in Erica’s apartment, the other times she acted as if she was going to bite and it’s been over food or picking her up). Last night, it occurred to me she may be acting out because we are inside more. I took her on a walk this evening after sun down and she is fast asleep now. Is this the key? Wear your dogs out? Hydra loves food so much, I think Erica feed her all kinds of human food. She even steals the cats canned food and licks the cans or slightly chews on them.
I’m not sure if Hydra got used to our spring activities and is now mad it’s so hot outside and we are all inside. But she lived in apartment all her life, so I’m kinda confused. I can also tell Hydra feels a lot better since she lost weight. It seemed like her hips and low back area hurt, but with the weight loss she doesn’t seem to ache. I also have been putting fish oil in her food for her eyes, brain and inflammation.
I haven’t owned a dog since I was 20 and I never owned a smaller dog. I read this breed likes activities outside. I also read you have to stay continuously on top of your rearing of this dog breed.
Since she is older, how do I approach my discipline methods? I really want to take her age and experiences into account.
Thank you for any tips or success stories!

It's been a year since joining a kayaking club and we've had our capsizing training and primary coaching. We've rented more sit-on-tops you can think of. We finally bought a roof rack. Safe to say we are ready to own.
We are looking for yaks that would get us into touring on the coast line but also allow paddling the local river hamble and other public rivers in the UK. Visited some stores and I really like the fit of the Riot Edge 13, I'm pretty sold on it.
My boyfriend is very tall (186 cm / 6'2) and after trying perceptions, daggers, riots and wave sports kayaks, he either cannot get his legs into anything with a front bulk head or find the seats too uncomfortable. He's looking at the wave sport hydra 14.5 kayak because the seat is comfortable but I'm not sure its a good idea to go full blown sea kayak if we intend to spend 50% of the time on a river.
So here goes:

1. Does anyone here paddle the Riot Edge 13? If so, has it been good?
   
2. Can anyone recommend something in the 12 or 13 foot range that would fit someone with long legs and has touring capabilities for both sea and large rivers?
   

Location: Hampshire Uk Budget: under £1000 per kayak Experience: beginner to intermediate, 2 years recreational

It's been a year since joining a kayaking club and we've had our capsizing training and primary coaching. We've rented more sit-on-tops you can think of. We finally bought a roof rack. Safe to say we are ready to own.
We are looking for yaks that would get us into touring on the coast line but also allow paddling the local river hamble and other public rivers in the UK. Visited some stores and I really like the fit of the Riot Edge 13, I'm pretty sold on it.
My boyfriend is very tall (186 cm / 6'2) and after trying perceptions, daggers, riots and wave sports kayaks, he either cannot get his legs into anything with a front bulk head or find the seats too uncomfortable. He's looking at the wave sport hydra 14.5 kayak because the seat is comfortable but I'm not sure its a good idea to go full blown sea kayak if we intend to spend 50% of the time on a river.
So here goes:

1. Does anyone here paddle the Riot Edge 13? If so, has it been good?
   
2. Can anyone recommend something in the 12 or 13 foot range that would fit someone with long legs and has touring capabilities for both sea and large rivers?
   

Location: Hampshire Uk Budget: under £1000 per kayak Experience: beginner to intermediate, 2 years recreational

Looking to do a kayak purchase but before I head into the store I want to have an idea of what to narrow my search down to. The biggest challenge I have is long legs (6ft 4 / 34 inch legs). I was looking at the Dagger Stratos 14.5L, Wavesport Hydra or the Perception Expression 15. Any thoughts on anyone who owns any of these? No review seems to even bring up the subject of size other than their weight. From experience, my prior kayak was a Wavesport Ethos 10 and it fitted fairly well so that's all I have to compare to.

1 1.5 2
After I set the bags up in the cabin, I walked over to the garage. Inside the garage was where they kept their gambrel or hanging up deer, and I was quickly met with the smell and sight of one being skinned and gutted. The deer that was now hanging over a bucket was a massive 12-point buck, the biggest one I had seen on this property. I could see the visible excitement on Jerry and Rob’s faces.
“Good job man!” I went up and patted him on the back.
“I know right, this is the largest one I’ve shot.”
“Still doesn’t beat my 13 point I got here as a kid…” Rob quietly interrupted, but we ignored him.
“Where'd you shoot it at?”
“I was up in the shooting house.”
The shooting house was the name for one of the deer hunting fields on the property. It was a large green box that was by far the most comfortable place to hunt in on the land. There was another field outside of the barn, one that split into two known as the Y-field, one by the abandoned cabin near the gate, one by a set of bamboo woods, two others by a pond, and two other ones overlooking a crevice and a little stream that ran from the pond to the lake. The shooting house always had the best deer.
“Nice, my favorite spot.”
“Yeah too bad I can’t show him off on Instagram or even take a picture with him.”
“Stand here and I can draw y'all's portrait,” I joked. He grinned a bit as he finished his cut of the deer’s stomach, causing its intestines to drop into the bucket.
“Dad would be proud of you,” Rob added.
“He would, how were Beavis and Butthead's adventure?”
“The marina is closed, along with The Anchor. We only saw two people the whole time we were out. One kid who looked around our age and Mrs. Kimberly,” I explained.
“How’s Mrs. Kimberly?”
“She’s alright, but I don’t think she’s handling what’s going on very well. She went on rambling about Revelations, the rapture, demons, and people vanishing.”
Jerry’s eyes squinted at me before he continued to talk.
“Revelations? The last book in the Bible. She thinks the world is ending?”
“Mhm. Wasn’t more specific than that. You gotta think her marina is just as isolated as this cabin on this lake. I liked that other kid we met though. He was just leaving the marina when we rolled up. Said he and his brother and his dad lived at that big grey house across from Goat Island. You know that one right?”
“Yup.”
“He invited us over for dinner tonight, said they have plenty of food.”
“Did you get any food yourselves?”
“Mrs. Kimberly gave us a little, and we took some alcohol from the bar.”
“You robbed her bar?”
“Hey I doubt anyone is gonna be using it, and we didn’t take that much.”
“Barely into the apocalypse and you’re already looters. You didn’t happen to grab any toilet paper there, did you? Because I worry about what happens when that runs out.”
Rob and I giggled a little but he had a point. Running out of that did seem like it could lead to a serious cleanliness problem, as I wouldn’t even imagine what I would wipe with. I’ve had to use leaves while hunting before and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
“No, but you have an entire thing of them in the pantry. We should be good for a long time,” I replied. We continued to cut away at the deer until we had all the edible meat laid out on a table. What was left was sitting in the large barrel under where it had been hanging. And the flies were already starting to collect. We had the meat covered with paper towels so they couldn’t My hands and arms were covered in blood but I didn’t have any gloves to put on or anything to cover up with. I also reeked. Normally we weren’t the ones stuck cleaning the deer.
“What should we do with the remains? Normally that place on Jefferson highway outside of town does all of this for us. I’m surprised you remembered where to cut,” Rob stared at his brother.
“You know I actually spend a lot of my spare time watching hunting videos, instead of getting high and listening to Pink Floyd in my room,” Jerry retorted.
“You act like I should be ashamed of that. Why don’t we just dump these in the woods.”
“No, the smell would be too powerful. What if it brings unwanted attention to our cabin, like those rabid dogs again,” I interjected.
“Lake then?”
“Fine by me, it’s a nasty lake anyway.”
We both looked to Jerry to see if he would agree with us.
“Fine, just not out in front of our dock. Walk a little bit by the bank, towards the Robertson’s house.”
The Robertsons were their nearest neighbors, but they still lived a good bit away.
“You don’t think they could be home by chance?”
“No way, when I came back from fishing a few days ago I drove slowly by their house, and I saw no cars. Their boats still had their covers over them also.”
“Damn. Well, it’ll probably take all three of us to carry these remains. Let’s go ahead and put the meat inside first,” I said.
“We need to eat as much of this as we can before it goes bad. It’s already three o’clock and I’m starving. I’m gonna go ahead and grill some of the back straps. We can worry about the remains after,” Jerry replied as he walked over to the meat.
“You know we have salt that we got from Mrs. Kimberly’s,” Rob told him.
“How much?”
“Not much. But how much do you need to preserve meat anyway?”
We all looked at each other, dumbfounded.
“I don’t know, I never thought I would need to learn that information,” I said.
“Surely you don’t need to cover it all?” Rob asked aloud
“Dude if you leave little bits exposed they’ll go bad.”
“Well, what do you wanna go get more salt?”
“Maybe Olivia knows, she should be a kitchen expert.”
“Let’s just pour what we have now into one of the empty coolers. You and Rob go get the green one from my room and put the extra meat and salt in there. I’m gonna go start up the grill,” Jerry interrupted before walking off. We complied and went to go fill up his cooler. The salt we had covered most of the remaining meat, but not all of it. We decided to keep the cooler in the pantry, where it would be less likely to be eaten by coyotes, strays, or raccoons. And if it was gonna go bad we would just throw it out. The venison Jerry did cook actually tasted pretty good, as there were quite a lot of seasonings here at the cabin.
After a very late lunch, we struggled to get the deer guts down to the water and away from the cabin. Even Olivia helped us, and soon we were all being swarmed with more and more flies. Once we dumped it Jerry and Rob jumped into the lake to clean themselves off, obviously away from the dumping site. Olivia and I opted for showers back at the cabin. The rest of the day went by quickly. Olivia was on board with going to meet Rick’s family, and by the time we all got cleaned up, it was almost time to go. And once 6 approached, we hopped on the boat and headed over there. Olivia suggested bringing the dog, but we decided to just leave it locked in the cabin. And we fed it with some of the fat from the buck also.
Growing across the water felt weird now, as I had never seen the lake this empty. There had been more people up here before the storm, and I guessed most of them had tried to return to their normal homes after it happened. The grey house Rick occupied was one of the largest on the lake. We had always wondered who lived there but never been sure. There was even a rumor that some criminal man in his 40s owned it, but these were always dispelled by Jerry and Rob’s dad. We pulled up to the house and I saw Rick waiting on the front porch, smoking a cigarette. Another similar-looking kid was sitting next to him and smoking one too. Rob grabbed the rope and hopped towards the front of the boat to greet them.
“What’s up, man.”
He handed Rick the rope and he pulled us towards their dock. Jerry was on the motor so I grabbed the one on the back and hopped off onto their dock. The dock itself was every bit as nice as the house. It was two stories. The bottom had two boats parked in it, a Pontoon and the nice air Nautique we had seen at the marina. On the right side, opposite of where we were parked, were two nice jet skis. The downstairs also had a set of tables and a little counter which I imagined was used as a bar. The upstairs had its own furniture too, several sun-bathing style chairs.
“I’m surprised, we didn’t think y’all would come,” Rick replied as he tied us off. Once we both finished, the others stepped onto the dock.
“This is my older brother, Andrew,” Rick looked back to the other guy who walked up to us with a smile. He looked similar to Rick, but was bulkier and had a beard. Also, he was slightly taller. But he had the same blonde shaggy hair.
“Nice to meet y’all,” he shook each of our hands. His accent was just as thick as his brother’s.
“I’m Jerry Murphy.”
“Chris Baker.”
“Rob Murphy.
“Olivia Macario.”
“This dock is way nicer than our piece of crap,” Jerry mumbled as he looked around.
“Thanks, y’all want a cigarette?” Rick asked all of us.
“Hell yeah,” Rob replied.
“Of course,” I followed.
“No thanks,” Jerry said, and Olivia shook her head. Rick handed us each a cigarette and we lit it.
“Just don’t smoke it inside. My dad’s name is Oliver, but y’all can just call him Mr. Hill. The steaks are already on the grill, but we have a little bit of time, so we can hang out here,” Rick told us.
“So, have you been here since before the storm?” I asked.
“Yeah, we actually live here.”
“Really? I feel like I see y'all's boats with the cover over them all the time, and no cars,” Jerry looked at Rick.
“Well we’re often all gone during the day, and my dad likes to keep the boats covered all the time, it’s a real pain in the ass to have to put those things on and off over and over again.”
“I bet.”
“But yeah, we saw the storm come in, watched the damn thing roll through, and fuck shit up.”
“Well have you met anyone else on the lake yet?” I asked eagerly.
“No not really. We talked to a few people on their boats the first few days after. They all said they were leaving to go back home. We honestly didn’t think much of it being that weird, until we saw that damn moon. And no damn radio working either. But there’s been other weird shit too.”
Just then, a loud voice interrupted us, coming from the house.
“Steaks are ready!”
I looked up to see an older man standing in the doorway looking down the hill towards us. Immediately I presumed it was their dad.
“We’re coming!” Rick screamed back up to him. We all put our cigarettes in a trash can and then, Rick motioned for us to follow him and we all walked up the dock and to the lake house. We followed a concrete path that cut through the hill. Each side of it was a neatly trimmed yard. I could tell this place had been kept up, unlike ours. Of course, our cabin was hardly visited, and there wasn’t even a yard, to begin with. The front of the house had two staircases going up each side and meeting each other at the front porch. Their porch was much larger than ours and actually screened in. As we came into it I was met with the smell of steaks and felt my mouth water.
“Smells good in here,” Olivia remarked. We then walked into the main room of the house which was every bit of luxurious as I had expected. The floor was polished wood and everything was clean and organized. The right side of it was a kitchen with nice marble tops, a large table, and way more ample room than ours. The left side contained their living room, which was filled with comfortable-looking chairs and a nice couch. They faced a wall that was lined with a large flat screen TV a fireplace, and a shelf full of books behind it all. Next to that was a sort of mini-looking game room, with a ping pong table and an air hockey table. The walls were lined with mounts of ducks, deer, and turkeys. They even had a massive elk over the fireplace.
“Why couldn’t we be stuck in this cabin,” Rob whispered to me.
“You must be the friends Rick met at the marina,” Mr. Hill approached us all and shook our hands as we introduced ourselves back.
“These are strange times, so we’re welcome to look for any friends we can. Please serve yourselves, the steaks are over on the counter,” He looked back over to the kitchen. We all walked over to where an assortment of food was laid out. Steak, mashed potatoes, fried okra, and mac-n-cheese. I noticed the lack of vegetables, and another thought briefly passed in my mind.
What if this is a trap? The food is poisoned? Or even worse, what if it is human meat? I had seen enough post-apocalyptic movies to know to be wary of other survivors when you came across them. I looked over to the others with a worried look on my face.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jerry shot me an equally confused look as he made his plate.
“Mmmm,” Rob smiled as he took a bit out of his steak before he even got to the table. I shrugged and got in line behind Olivia to make my plate. Honestly, it had just been a flash of paranoia. I doubt society would crumble that badly and people would start murdering each other, especially if we were just at war with another nation. It was probably just overdramatized for entertainment like I thought the Purge movies were. Once Olivia finished filling up her plate, I began filling up mine.
“There’s beer in the fridge for y’all also,” Mr. Hill said.
“Are you sure? We don’t really wanna raid your beer sir, the dinner is enough,” Jerry mumbled to him as they both sat down. Rob elbowed him in response.
“No please we have plenty,” Mr. Hill just smiled back.
“Thank you, sir,” Jerry spoke as Rob and him both walked over to their fridge.
“Grab me one!” I shouted over to them as I set my plate down and looked around. All of the lights were on in the house, and I didn’t notice any power out.
“Did y’all not get affected by the power outage?” I asked Mr. Hill.
“Oh no we did, but I had a backup generator installed at this house years ago, because of all the storms that are always hitting this lake. I swear it sometimes feels like a magnet to them.”
“That’s smart thinking. We have no power back at our cabin, we’ve been having to put our meat in a cooler and dump salt all over it.”
“Well, y’all are welcome to store y'all's food here. We have two more fridges in the back laundry room, and the freezer in the one on the right still has a lot of space.”
Leaving our food in the hands of complete strangers seemed a little risky, but it was true that we probably had no good way to conserve it.
“Thank you, we’ll consider that,” Jerry nodded towards him.
“Wait so if y’all have power, are y'all's phones charged?” Olivia nervously asked aloud. I felt a moment of excitement rush up in me, thinking I would be able to check on my family.
“Yeah, but service hasn’t come back up. So now we just use them for games,” Rick replied.
“Is it possible we could maybe charge our phones here still?” She asked. I agreed with her; if service came back on it would be essential to have them. And spending some time on Temple Run or Jetpack Joyride would make all this go by quicker.
“Sure, just bring them over next time y’all come,” Mr. Hill replied as he sipped his beer.
“Have y’all considered smoking your meats?” Andrew asked. He was a lot more soft-spoken than his loud brother. I wanted to get the elephant out of the room and address what was going on with the world right now, but I figured the small talk would come first anyway.
“Smoking?” I asked, unsure of what he meant.
“You know like they talk about on those survival channels. I love those things. Like you keep your meat over a never endin' fire.”
I had never thought of that idea. I looked over at Rob, Jerry, and Olivia.
“I’ve heard of that before I think, I remember them talking about it in one of our history classes,” Olivia said.
“Of course, we wouldn’t make y’all fucking do that much shit. Y’all can just all keep it here and boat over when y’all want. As a group we’re stronger together,” Rick loudly spoke up. I decided to be the first one to break the ice on the heavy subject.
“Stronger for what exactly, do y’all even know what’s going on out there?” I asked him.
“At first we had no clue, with the blood moon out there and the storm interfering with all the electronics. The only thing we heard was a rumor from a guy on a kayak that Atlanta had been devastated by massive tornadoes. But once the military jets started flying over, we figured it had to be an attack from a foreign power of some kind,” Mr. Hill said.
“Yeah that was our leading theory too. Maybe some kind of chemical that came with the storm is messing with everything. There was a pack of seemingly wild dogs that attacked our cabin the other night. Maybe the chemical is making animals act weird?”
“I swear I saw a rabbit jump fifteen feet the other day in the woods behind our place,” Andrew said.
“Dumbass, rabbits can jump that far normally,” Rick laughed at him as he cracked open a second beer. Rob got up to get more for himself and I beckoned him to get me one also, as I had already finished mine.
“Maybe a rabbit on meth,” his brother retorted.
“I think it had to be China, it’s the only country I think that would be willing to actually attack us. I just don’t see how they have that kind of technology,” Mr. Hill continued.
“Have you heard of HAARP before?” Rob’s eyes got wide as he looked around the room. Normally I wouldn’t take him seriously on his theories, but ever since he had first mentioned this, I had been thinking more about it. And it honestly seemed like an intriguing theory.
“No, I can’t say we have, what is it?” Mr. Hill asked him.
“It’s this station in Alaska that’s used to monitor like the atmosphere. But I think it could be used to control the weather. And a lot of people think that too. I would pull up a youtube video or something but you know…”
“I saw something like that about controlling the weather on the history channel one time,” Andrew interrupted.
“Look I don’t really trust our own government, but them creating a storm on their own country to shut everything down seems too much even for them,” Mr. Hill said.
“Well like you said it’s probably not our country. If we have the potential capabilities to do it, who’s to say that China or Russia doesn’t?” Rob continued.
“Fucking Chinese fuckers treat their own people like dogshit, I hope I get to kill shoot of those plagues,” Rick laughed.
“But one part of that doesn’t make sense. The storm came from the east coast, why would they attack us from the east coast? That means they would have had to move their fleet or whatever all the way around South America, and there is no way in hell we wouldn’t have seen that coming,” I interjected.
“Didn’t Russia attack the eastern coast in Modern Warfare 2?” Jerry asked.
“That was a video game dumbass, it was dramatized,” I snapped back, and he looked down.
“It could maybe be terrorists, but I don’t see how they would be able to reach the mainland still. I’ve been thinking that our own government is the most likely answer. I read one time about an experiment they did back in Alabama, where they gave an entire town syphilis or something like that. That could be why they’re flying around, I mean we haven’t actually seen any fighting have we?”
“How could they get away with using at least an entire state for some sort of sick experiment?” Rob questioned.
“We don’t know for sure it’s the entire state. I mean sure the radio said that, but that could have been faked. For all we know the storm could have only affected this lake. They could be posted up all around outside of it, watching our every move. Could be a study on what happens if society breaks down.”
“That seems drastic, they know people would wonder what happened with us.”
“I don’t know, the United States government is a powerful entity.”
Mr. Hill suddenly interjected.
“What if it’s not our government? What if our government was taken over from the inside, and now they have free access to whatever secret weapons we made.”
“Like Hydra with Shield in Captain America!” Jerry shouted.
“Again that’s just fiction and that would probably be very difficult to pull off. Honestly, every theory we have just seems far-fetched…” I trailed off, standing up to get another beer for me and Rob.
“Shit you guys have already lost me!” Rick laughed loudly as he also got another beer.
“What if it’s something more advanced? Like aliens?” Rob asked aloud.
“Aliens? That’s fucking stupid,” Rick laughed again as he sat down.
“No it’s stupid If you deny they exist. You can’t say that we’re the only planet with life. I mean just go look up at the night sky. Billions of other stars out there and you think we have the only one that could foster a planet with life? Have you seen how many pictures and stories there are of encounters and UFOs? I’ve even seen one myself at this very lake!” Rob ranted, matching Rick’s loud tone.
“Here we go again,” Jerry scoffed.
“Look I’ve seen a UFO also, I think they’re very real. But them attacking us seems a little far-fetched, I mean we haven’t seen any recently,” I said.
“Aliens,” Mr. Hill chuckled.
“The lady at The Anchor, Mrs. Kimberly said that the demons had come, that they were taking people at night. This could be what she was referring to.”
“D-demons?” Olivia looked around nervously.
“Yeah but she also said the rapture had happened and the biblical end was coming, you said it yourself that she was talking crazy,” I replied.
“If the rapture had happened I’m sure we would have been gone with it, we’re all good Christians in this family,” Mr. Hill smiled at his sons.
“Hey Rob maybe it’s zombies, that sounds a lot closer to demons,” Jerry elbowed his brother.
“Whatever,” he pouted and got up to put his empty plate up. I finished up my dinner and followed him over.
“What if it was just like a new type of storm? Like some powerful electronic storm that knocked a bunch of stuff out and the government is just trying to fix everything?” Olivia asked.
“I doubt it would take this long,” I replied as I sat back down with my fourth beer.
“I think it’s pretty clear we were attacked, and that’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We have a couple of powerful rifles here, and I feel as if we could help. I’m sure a militia has already been formed, and we plan to leave here in a few days and head over to Statesboro. I’m sure we’ll find out more information there,” Mr. Hill said as he put up his own plate in the sink. Unlike the rest of us drinking beer, he had a small glass of whiskey on ice.
“We had a friend of ours leave, to go check on things. And he hasn’t come back yet even though he was supposed to. Leaving could be dangerous,” Jerry said to him.
“We know, that’s why we’ll be armed. If you don’t wanna join us I think it would be cowardly, but it’s y'all's choice.”
“Cowardly? No, it would be smart,” Rob sneered at him.
Uh oh, I thought as I saw a brief flash of anger behind Mr. Hill’s eyes. Rob never sugar-coated his opinions, and I didn’t really much either. This led to us having a habit of making some enemies back at college. But Rob had a tendency to be more aggressive about his, and this often led to us getting into bar fights, which I did not enjoy. Rob on the other hand always liked fighting, since we were little kids. People often made fun of him and Jerry back in high school, calling him a spoiled rich kid. This was usually met with a fist to the jaw from Rob. He and Jerry were below average height, but Rob had the strength advantage over most people. After a few fights and suspensions, people stopped messing with him. I on the other hand could usually talk my way out of a fight, and while I’ve pushed people or grappled with them if they attacked me first, I’ve never thrown a fist at someone’s face in my life.
“Seems pretty stupid to not wanna protect the country you live in. We can’t force you to help us, but your country would appreciate it. What about your own fathers and families? What are they doing?”
Jerry spoke fast and loud before Rob could say anything else, as I didn’t want our newfound connection on the lake already souring.
“We don’t know. We were here on our own. Hopefully, they’re alright though.”
Jerry shot a look back to Rob as if to tell him not to say anything.
“Another reason we wouldn’t wanna rush off into a war, to make it back to them,” he still whispered under his breath.
“Well we’re not leaving for a good bit anyway, so the offer will always be on the table. And y’all are welcome anytime to come over here like I said. I don’t know what kind of guns y’all have, but we have a few here if you need any to protect yourself,” Mr. Hill continued talking, remaining seemingly calm.
“We have enough back at our cabin, thank you though,” Jerry politely replied.
“All this talk about all these crazy theories has been interesting for damn sure. You kids already seem to be getting into the beer so I’ll let y’all be and head upstairs. One of my shotguns needs cleaning and I gotta finish that up. Also I don’t wanna be that damn dad that keeps intruding on teenagers trying to have fun, I was one myself once, a long time ago,” Mr. Hill chuckled a little before continuing.
“You can have some of the liquor too if you want, the cabinet is below the sink. Just don’t take any of the high-end stuff, that is all mine.”
“We aren’t teenagers,” Rob whispered under his breath again, this time a little louder.
Mr. Hill ignored him and got up to walk up the stairs, taking his own glass of whiskey with him. Within a few moments, we were all back to talking. And now the conversation had turned more casual. We learned that Mr. Hill was high up in an auto-parts company, and hadn’t made a lot of money until a recent promotion and a good era for the company. Rick himself was only a high school junior still, which surprised most of us. We asked how his dad let him drink around him and he said that his dad was just cool like that. His brother Andrew however was a lot older, in his early 20s like us. But he wasn’t a college student, and instead had dropped out of high school as a senior to work for his dad, which he was doing now.
Rick consistently bragged about how he would finish high school just to prove to Andrew that he was smarter. Compared to his brother, Andrew was a lot more quiet and soft-spoken. Their mother was divorced and lived in Savannah. They said they didn’t know her well as it happened shortly after they were born, and didn’t like her much anyway. As Rob and I told them more and more crazy college and fraternity stories, Rick insisted that he wanted to go to college even more now. He asked about joining our fraternity to which Rob told him we would probably be gone by the time he got to UGA, so it wouldn’t be up to us to help him out. We eventually drank more and more and broke into the liquor cabinet. Soon I started feeling the alcohol really hit me. I had a high tolerance from all the drinking I’ve done, so it took me a while. The only one who didn’t really drink was Olivia, who stayed even quieter than Andrew and away from us mostly.
Jerry began requesting music and Rick walked us over to his sound system by his TV. Apparently, the house was decorated with speakers on the outside and inside. It was a traditional CD player, which I hadn’t seen in a while outside of a car. And above it was a shelf lined with CD cases.
“Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Rolling Stones… Damn, y’all got some good taste in music!” Rob said excitedly as he ran his fingers across them.
“Eh that’s stuff’s alright to me, I’m more of a country guy myself,” Rick walked up to him.
“Of course you are. Can we play one of these though? This is the longest I’ve ever gone without jamming out to some tunes and it’s killing me.”
“Go ahead, maybe we’ll attract anyone else still on this lake.”
Rob pulled out a Metallica CD and put it in the system. A few seconds later Fade To Black was playing loudly. I was a big fan of classic rock and hair metal too, and I had Rob to thank for getting me into all of it. With the music now going, Rob then turned his attention to an acoustic guitar that was sitting on a stand in the game room.
“Hahahaha, which one of y’all can play?” He asked as he did a little hop over to it and picked it up. For a brief moment, Rick almost seemed to panic, and his brother stepped in and started talking.
“U-uh none of us can, but my dad plans on learning, he just bought it right before everything bad happened.”
“What a waste of a good guitar, this thing is hella nice.”
“Yeah well maybe playing the guitar is a waste of time. I spend my spare time doing something useful, like training for baseball, or smoking darts,” Rick spoke loudly to Rob.
“Baseball is a boring sport, but I gotta agree with you on the smoking darts part,” Rob smiled at him, but I could hear a hint of aggression in his voice. I was worried he would do something stupid. But that small drama, the music, and the alcohol reminded me of the lifestyle we were living just a few weeks ago. Most of the time back home I would take harder stuff when I got drunk, and suddenly the urge was hitting me again. I approached Rick and asked.
“Hey you wouldn’t happen to have anything harder than alcohol or nicotine, would you?”
“What like meth or some shit?” he chuckled.
“You know, like blow,”
“Cocaine? What the hell?”
Suddenly I felt like an idiot for asking a rural Georgia high schooler for that. Getting into that stuff was unheard of down here, and I imagined happened only in like a southern California school.
“Ok what about just like weed?”
“Weed is for soy boy liberals, but I’ll give you another cig or some dip.”
Nicotine wouldn’t satisfy as much as a stimulant, but it was better than nothing. I thought about asking his older brother, but just decided to go with the cigarette. After he gave it to me, I walked out to the porch to smoke it. And for a brief moment, I forgot about our situation, until Olivia approached me.
“Chris,” she simply uttered.
“Oh, I’m surprised you even wanna talk to me.”
“Don’t be an asshole again, this is serious.”
“Oh, I’m not the one being mean here.”
“Do you really care that much about me being friends with you? Are you that desperate for other people’s approval?”
I looked off towards the now dark night in the window, knowing that she was right. The happiness I had felt from the alcohol now turned into a deep-seated pain.
“No, I’m not,” I still said, not willing to concede the argument.
“Look I just wanna talk about what you said at the dinner table. Did you mean it? Do you really think we’re in some sort of ‘experiment’ right now?”
“Honestly yeah, I just don’t see any other possibility for what’s happening. Aliens? Demons? An east coast invasion? That all sounds impossible. And that Alabama experiment isn’t the only time the government has done this before. Have you heard of MK Ultra?”
“The name sounds familiar.”
“Well, it’s in Stranger Things. Basically in the cold war, the CIA conducted a ton of illegal experiments on people with LSD and other drugs. I don’t think they were making telekinetic kids but they were trying out mind control shit for sure.”
“Actually? Or is that just another conspiracy?”
“Oh this is real, it’s everywhere to read about.”
“So if they’re watching us, what do you think would happen if we tried to leave?”
I understand what she was asking about before she even got there.
“You wanna know what they would have to Sal.”
“Yeahhhh.”
“I don’t know Olivia. He left early so maybe they just let him go, but he would still be a liability no matter what.” I could see the panic set on her face.
“Are you saying they could have killed him?”
“Do you want me to sugarcoat it, or do you want the realistic answer?”
“No! There’s no way our own leaders would ever let that happen!” She shouted. I could see tears welling up in her eyes.
“What’s going on over here,” Rick stumbled over, nearly falling over one of the chairs. I could tell he was drunker than any of us. But I couldn’t blame a high schooler for not being able to hold his alcohol. My high school parties were shit shows of people passing out quickly and puking everywhere.
“Not much, just talking more theories,” I said as he walked up. He ignored me and turned his attention to Olivia.
“You know you’re pretty hot,” he grabbed her arm. She tried to yank it away but he squeezed harder.
“Let go of me!” She yelled at him. I quickly contemplated what to do, but Rob acted first, coming up and grabbing him from behind. With his strength, he easily flung him back.
“Get off of her you fucking creep!” He spat in his face.
“Fuck you cockblock!” Rick yelled back. I saw Andrew walk over and braced for the worst. But something else drew my attention. Over the music, I heard a sort of booming sound coming from outside. Something that sounded like thunder almost.
“Guys stop!” I yelled loudly. Everyone looked at me.
“Do y’all here that?” I asked.
“Hear what?” Rob asked.
“Turn the music off!” I pointed at Jerry, who was the closest to the speaker. He turned around and smashed the pause button. Suddenly the booming noise was much louder.
“Is that thunder?” Jerry then asked.
“I don’t know, let’s go see,” I replied and walked out onto the porch. If it was thunder it was distant, because I could hear the crickets and other noises louder as soon as we stepped onto the porch. Like every night before, it was clear. But it didn’t take long for us to discover where the noise was coming from. Off in the distance, towards the horizon on the north, were a constant series of flashing white lights in the sky. They weren’t small either and lit up that entire section of the sky.
“What the hell is going on over there?” Rob muttered.
“Go get dad,” Andrew turned back to his brother. Rick turned around and ran back into the house without saying a word. A few seconds later he came sprinting back out with his dad, who was armed with a double-barrel shotgun.
“How long has this been going on?” Mr. Hill asked us as he studied it.
“We just noticed,” I replied to him.
“That’s fighting going on. Those are explosions. And judging by the direction, that’s gotta be in Statesboro.”
“Fighting? Like a military battle?” Jerry asked him with a concerned look on his face.
“Yeah, go get all the guns sons,” Mr. Hill directed Andrew and Rick, who ran back inside.
“You don’t think It would come over to here do you?” Jerry asked him.
“If they’re that close then it’s a high probability. We need to get ready to fight.”
“Or we could hide and avoid it, living sounds like a good option.”
Another noise began to overtake the night, one that I recognized to be the sound of a loud plane engine. Assuming it would be another military jet, I begin to scan the skies for it. And that’s when I noticed something headed in our direction, something that looked like an orange ball of fire.
“You see that?” I tugged Rob’s sleeve and pointed up at it.
“The hell…” he replied. The orange object began to fall closer, and the noise turned into a loud shriek. And as the object got closer I saw that it wasn’t a meteor, but rather a large cargo plane on fire. One that was falling towards us.
“That’s a plane!” I yelled.
“Oh my God,” Olivia uttered, panicking. I could barely hear her or anyone.
“Do you have a tornado shelter or a basement?!” Jerry turned towards Mr. Hill, who was watching it too.
“I don’t think it’s gonna hit us, but we have a basement!” He yelled back. The house began to shake, and I tried to consider what to do.
“Come on!” Jerry ran inside with Olivia, but Rob, Mr. Hill, and I continued to watch. I began to cover my ears for the fear of damaging my hearing. The plane was veering off towards the right and away from the lake house.
“I think he’s right!” I yelled back to Rob.
“I wanna see where it lands!” Mr. Hill yelled.
“What’s happening?!” Rick ran out to the porch, right as I watch the plane split in half. The tail section quickly dived down, and I watched it smack the water right next to Goat Island. The front end of the plane dived down too, and I watched as it went behind the tree line in the direction of our own cabin. There was a loud BOOM!, and the screeching came to a stop. The plane had fully crash-landed.

So this is the list for all of the brand-new Pokémon (and regional forms) that will be featured in my fan region based on Alaska.
For the Grass, Fire and Water type Starter Pokémon, I'm feeling quite stumped and not sure what they should specifically be.
For the Grass type Starter, I was considering having a Woolly Mammoth or perhaps a Kodiak or Black Bear, though I wanna have those as other Pokémon. If you guys have any suggestions for what this and the other two starters could be based on, please let me know. Wanted to go with tradition by having the Grass Starter be based on an extinct animal, the Fire starter be based on an animal from the Chinese Zodiac (ones that haven't been chosen are Horse, Goat and Ox), and the Water starter is based on some kind of semi-aquatic animal or just an animal that can live in water and walk on land.
The Fire Starter I was thinking maybe a Reindeer, or would that overlap with the new Moose Pokémon I want to introduce? Perhaps a Wolf or something else?
And the Water Starter, I was going to go with a Polar Bear, but we already have Cubchoo and Beartic, which are also already in this region. Another idea was to go with the Akhlut, but I do really like the idea I went for it already. Perhaps something else would be better? (Was gonna go with a Salmon at one point, but thought that was a dumb idea for a Starter, perhaps this could be a regular new Pokémon in the region?)
Snowle and Arctole are Normal/Ice types and based on the Tundra Vole. They are the Early Rodents of the region, and shaped like snowballs. They are pretty standard Pokémon in terms of design and stats, but can offer a good range of attacks.
Frowl, Icetail and Tundrowl are Flying/Ice types and based on the Boreal Owl as well as the Snowy Owl. They are the Early Birds of the region. All three constantly look grumpy, Frowl in particular. They focus on speed and attack more than defences.
*Had to really dig deep to try and come up with new Bug types for this region XD*
Jestick, Jokoon and Harlesect are Bug/Fairy types and based on the Harlequin Bug and actual Harlequins. They are the Early Bugs of the region. They are quite standard in their stats, and can offer some good coverage. These Pokémon are seemingly always jovial and upbeat no matter what.
Rockalt, Geobas and Staladian are pure Rock types and based on Stalagmites, Basalt, Geodes, Obsidian, Goblins and Ogres. They are common in caves and mountains, boasting strong physical attack and defence, with lots of Steel, Ground and Fighting type attacks to boot. They hate sunlight.
Dolleech and Cycleech are Poison/Grass types and based on the Doll's Eyes Plant, as well as Medusa from Greek mythology and dolls. They are very strange and weird looking Pokémon, and able to learn a few Ghost and Psychic type attacks.
Bice, Froston and Bitund are Ice and Ice/Fighting types and based on the Wood Bison, as well as the Muskox. They are all big, round snowballs with a head and legs. Froston gains the Fighting type when it evolves from Bice. They roam around in packs through thick snow looking for food and shelter.
Orcanine is a Dark/Water (and Dark/Ground type) and based on the Orca as well as the Akhlut, a mythical orca wolf hybrid from Inuit mythology. Orca has two forms, a sea form where its secondary type is Water, and a land form, where it changes to Ground. It changes from land to sea if battling on a sea route and vice versa. It can also change from sea form to land form if Sandstorm is in effect or it gets hit with a Ground type move. Changes to sea form if Rain Dance is in effect or it gets hit with a Water type move.
Candipine and Porcupyro are Fairy/Fire types and based on the Porcupine as well as Baked Alaska and sweets. They can heat up their spikes and make them catch fire, as well as giving off a sweet smell to attract prey. These Pokémon are mostly found in plain grassy areas or small woodlands.
Fakorn and Hoaks are Grass/Bug types and based on the Acorn Weevil as well as actual acorns and oak trees. They love camouflaging but aren't very good at it. They are slow Pokémon but really defensive, and can learn moves like Giga Impact and Headbutt. There are no oak trees within the region, but don't tell them that. They firmly believe there are some.
Crabuck, Goldacean and Krustkarat are pure Steel types and based on the King Crab, evolving in order from the Red, to Blue and finally Gold. They love collecting gold and shiny things, Krustkarat scuttles around in a giant shell throne made of gold nuggets. They apparently stormed mines when a gold rush occurred in the region years ago. They become more royal-like and pompous when they evolve; Krustkarat has a beard and moustache made of barnacles and it is covered in gold.
Dazzlight and Pixiance are Electric/Fairy types and based on Christmas fairy lights and fairies. When Dazzlight evolves into Pixiance, the light bulbs surrounding it curve to form a twirling upward shape like around a Christmas tree. They are small, but easy to spot due to the fairy lights glowing brightly.
Monood and Bloomonk are Grass/Fighting types and based on the Monkshood plant, as well as actual monks. They are both good in physical and special attacks, and can also use some Poison type attacks, referencing how poisonous the Monkshood is.
Tempurchar is an Fire/Ice type and based on the Arctic Char as well as a thermometer. These Pokemon can change the temperature of the water they swim in, and their Fire type attacks can increase if Sunny Day is in effect but decrease in Hail, and the same thing happens with their Ice type attacks, increase in Hail, decrease in Sunny Day.
Narwield and Pierpoise are WateSteel types and based on the Narwhal as well as spears and lances. These Pokémon can cut through defences easily with their sharp horns and love the icy waters of the region a lot.
Dolflip is a Fairy/Water type and based on the Dolphin. Very friendly and intelligent, this Pokémon can be found in the ocean surrounding the region. This Pokémon excels at its special attack and defence stats.
Auraluna and Stingoza are WatePsychic types and based on the Moon Jellyfish, as well as aliens and UFOs. They can be seen in both water routes as well as floating mysteriously along mountain routes, staring out into space, their many tentacles waving about in different colours. Low defence, but great special attack and defence.
Moskarva, Larvuito and Vilequito are Bug/Dark types and based on the Mosquito. They specialise in HP draining attacks like Leech Life and Giga Drain, and can grow to huge sizes, referencing how large mosquitos in Alaska are.
Moostomp and Brawlelk are pure Fighting types and based on the Moose. These Pokémon are rather plentiful in the region, but very aggressive and dangerous, caution is advised when around them, or even when trying to train them. Great attack, defence and speed all around.
Elecoil, Shockang and Volterpent are pure Electric types and based on the Garter Snake as well as electric coils. Aside from Onix and Steelix, these are the only other snake-like Pokémon found in the region, due to the colder climate. Legends say that Volterpents were used as lightning spears by the great Thunderbird Legendary Pokémon, striking the ground with great blasts of thunder.
Frigidog, Malstrike and Tendamute are Ice, Ice/Fighting and Ice/Psychic type respectively, and based on the Alaskan Malamute and the Husky. Malstrike and Tendamute are split male/female evolutions of Frigidog, Malstrike gaining the Fighting type and becoming more fierce, being used as a sled dog. and Tendamute gains the Psychic type and becomes based on nurses, both evolutions have rescue dog as a theme. Malstrike focuses on physical attacks, whilst Tendamute focuses on special attacks.
Embranch and Mollusear are Fire/Water types and based on the Opalescent Sea Slug, Thick-Horned Nudibranch and the Fire Urchin. These Pokémon are easy to spot due to their glowing bodies, and they have many fiery orange and red spikes on their bodies too. They are quite laid back and don't really attack anything, they let their spikes do the work.
Stealthest and Assassite are Bug/Ghost types and based on the Assassin Bug as well as actual assassins. They are some of the fastest Pokémon in the region, and can use a lot of sneaky Dark and Poison type moves, as well as making good usage of status-inflicting moves.
Puffhorn, Skippeck and Tuftaneer are Flying/Water and Flying/Dark types respectively, and based on the Horned Puffin, as well as the Tufted Puffin, sea captains and pirates. Skippeck and Tuftaneer are split evolutions of Puffhorn, evolving depending on the time of day, morning for Skippeck and night for Tuftaneer. Puffhorn changes its Water typing to Dark if it evolves into Tuftaneer.
Denkanga is an Electric/Fighting type and based on the Western Jumping Mouse. It is the Pikachu Clone of the region. Very cute and fast, these Pokémon love to bound around the region at high speeds. (I really wasn't sure what to do with the Pikachu Clone of this region, we've already had rabbits, squirrels, flying squirrels, more mice, hedgehogs and hamsters, so I might change this if someone has a better idea)
Oillusion, Toxoil and Venorrick are Poison and Poison/Steel types and based on oil spills, slicks, oil derricks and rigs. Venorrick gains the Steel type after evolving from Toxoil. They have a wide array of attacks, including some Water type moves, and they are common around the oil field at the north of the region.
Coyogue and Swindote are pure Ground types and based on the Coyote as well as bandits. They are sneaky, devious trickster Pokémon that use a lot of Dark type attacks as well as Fighting and Rock types too. They aren't great in defence but make up for that in their speed. They use Sandstorms to hide from predators.
Whipolter and Camoflight are Flying/Ghost types and based on the Eastern Whip Poor Will. These Pokémon have feathers covering their body that look like dead leaves, and they are great at camouflage. Fast and agile is the best word to describe them, not great defences though.
Spectusk and Phantodon are Rock/Ghost types and based on the Woolly Mammoth as well as the Kogukhpak, a mythical creature from Yu'pik mythology which lived underground in mammoth carcasses. They are two of the Fossil Pokémon of the region, and Spectusk is revived from the Tusk Fossil. They dwell underground most of the time, and dig complex tunnels in packs.
Not sure what the other two Fossil Pokémon of the region should be based on. I was originally considering a Spectacled Cormorant, though I could just include Cramorant in the region. Another idea I had was the Steller's Sea Cow though I thought another idea I could do for that would be a regional form of Seel and Dewgong. Do you guys have any idea of what this second fossil Pokémon should be?
Scrapeon and Phanteon are Fighting and Ghost types respectively and partially based on the Adlet and the Qiqirn from Inuit mythology. They are new evolutions of Eevee. Eevee evolves into Scrapeon whilst holding the Black Belt item and levelling up. It can evolve into Phanteon whilst holding the Spell Tag item and levelling up. Scrapeon focuses on physical attacks and brute strength, with decent speed and ok defence, whilst Phanteon focuses on special attacks, and precision.
Shruburn, Cubramble and Torchursa are Grass/Fire types and based on the Kodiak Bear and the American Black Bear. They have a charcoal and autumnal colour scheme to them, and are very fierce. They live in woodland areas and can toast berries to eat with their fiery breath. They love to wander around for food, and have a long, fiery tongue.
(Was going to have a Ghost/Rock type two stage Pokémon here based on Totem Poles and possessed statues but I already used the typing for the first fossil Pokémon and the totem pole basis for the Natu and Xatu regional forms, still wanna have two more new Rock types here though)
Poroxin is a pure Poison type and based on a Sea Sponge. The Poison type references how a few species of sea sponge can be poisonous. They are pretty basic in terms of design and abilities, basically being this region's version of Pyukumuku and Pincurchin.
Frolimask is a Ghost/Fighting type and based on a Yu'pik Masked Dancer and also partially based on Ahkiyyini from Inuit mythology. This Pokémon focuses on both physical and special attacks, and dances around jovially no matter what. It can swipe its hands over its face and change the expression on its mask on a whim.
Hammyte and Anklobber are Steel/Normal types and based on the Ankylosaurus as well as Hammers. They reference the Hammer Museum in Haines, apparently the first museum dedicated to hammers in the world. They are slow and sluggish, but really great at defence and attack, able to attack with the force of a thousand tons at once.
Wolverk and Pulverine are pure Dark types and based on the Wolverine. They are rather small, but very tough and aggressive, they can charge into foes at fast speeds with long, sharp claws. Smaller woodland Pokémon, and even some bigger and scarier Pokémon are quite scared of them.
Shleepy and Sandoze are Psychic and Psychic/Ground types and based on the Dall Sheep, as well as counting sheep, dreams, sleep and the Sandman. Sandoze gains the Ground type when it evolves from Shleepy. These Pokémon live around the rocky mountains, and focus on status moves and special attacks.
Paddlagon and Drakayak are Dragon/Water types and based on Kayaks as well as the Tizheruk, a mythical creature from Inuit mythology. It is said that the natives of the region based the design of kayaks after these Pokémon. Strong trainers use these Pokémon to surf across long distances.
Orblaze is a pure Fire type and based on the Itqiirpak or Fireball from Yu'pik mythology, as well as the Hydra from Greek mythology, and a comet. These Pokémon hurtle down to the ground at quick speeds, and can be rather helpful to lost travellers, who see these bright Pokémon dancing in the night sky.
Frosilisk, Chillarva and Draarctic are Dragon/Ice types and based on Dragons, snow giants and monsters, as well as the Tornit from Inuit mythology. It is the first Pseudo-Legendary of the region, and also the ace Pokémon of the champion, Eos. They are very powerful and rare Pokémon, dwelling only in the most northern part of the region, where it is the coldest and most dangerous.
Shamite, Shamagic and Shamage are Psychic/Ghost types and based on Shamans. Shamage is the second Pseudo-Legendary of the region, and also the ace Pokémon of the fourth Elite Four member, Seymore. They are great users of magic, and have been in the region for many years. They can use many types of attacks, like Thunderbolt, Moonblast and Energy Ball.
As for the Legendaries and Mythical Pokémon of the region, I'm not sure what they should be.
For the main Box Art Legendary Duo, I was thinking of having one be part Fire type and other be part Ice type, the Fire one being based on the Midnight Sun and the Ice one being based on the Aurora Borealis. Though, if you have any better or other ideas, please let me know.
A giant Thunderbird based Legendary Pokémon (either standalone or maybe even tied someway to the main box duo?) that is part Electric type is an obvious one to include, but I'm not sure what its secondary type should be. Perhaps Fire or maybe even Dragon? Also this Pokémon is based on the Raven, specifically how it is portrayed in Alaskan mythology.
I was thinking of also having a Legendary Trio for the region, though perhaps a Legendary Quartet based on the Four Seasons could work for a region based on Alaska. Although, the Summer and Winter Legendaries would certainly be part Fire and Ice type respectively and that might overlap with the possible typings of the main Box Art Legendaries?
I was also thinking of having another, minor Legendary Duo, but I have no idea what they should be at all.
I had an idea for Legendaries based on the Keelut (Dark/Ghost type), the Qalupalik (WateDark type, though I did have a fun idea for it being Electric/Ghost type, the Electric referencing how your hair can stand up because of static electricity) and the Ijiraq (Psychic/Ice type). These could be regular Pokémon or stay as Legendaries depending on what you guys think.
Then there's possibly two or three Mythical Pokémon, once again, no clues for what they could be XD
And here are the Regional Variants and Regional Evolutions.
Deino, Zweilous and Hydreigon change from Dark/Dragon to Ice/Fairy. They are based on the Leatherback Sea Turtle, and gain flippers as well as lots of fluff, and star patterns on their backs. They are much friendly than their original Unovan counterparts. They are a rare species and can only be found in water routes with a lot of snow and ice.
Shinx, Luxio and Luxray change from Electric to Ice/Poison. They are based on the Mountain Lion/Cougar as well as frostbite and Sabre-Tooth Tigers, though still retain their original Lynx basis too. They can inject a fierce toxin from their large fangs into their prey, which has been used by natives as medicine. They excel in speed and attack, striking with quick precision.
Psyduck and Golduck change from Water to Poison/Fairy. They are based on the Harlequin Duck and pollution, in reference to oil spills making them decrease in population. They are much more unfocused and unpredictable than their Kantonian versions, constantly waving and dancing around in unusual patterns. They are good at status moves and special attacks.
Slowpoke changes from WatePsychic to pure Ground. In this region, Shellder aren't native so the Slowpoke ended up being driven to live in the caves. They had to adapt because of tons of gold mining going on during a gold rush, and gained the Ground type as a result. *Came up with this idea to have another Pokémon to reference the Gold Rush in Alaska besides the Crabuck line*
Slowpoke's new evolutions are Slowvate and Slowspect. They are Ground/Fighting and Ground/Steel type respectively. Slowvate evolves from Slowpoke when the new Gem Shovel item is used. It is quite fast and really strong in attack, and can dig through tunnels at high speeds. It helps miners digging for gold in the quarries and mines of the region in large groups. Slowspect evolves from Slowpoke when the new Gem Helmet item is used. It is slower and more defensive than Slowvate and has a large, rocky mining helmet with a yellow gemstone on it, acting as a light. It can help determine real gold from fool's gold and can help turn gold nuggets into pure gold.
Natu and Xatu change from Psychic/Flying to Dark/Electric type. They are based on traditional Alaskan totem poles, as well as the Thunderbird from Alaskan mythology and dark storm clouds. They are said to be little soldiers and guards for the Legendary Thunderbird Pokémon, and followed it around during freak thunderstorms.
Xatu gains an evolution in the form of Yatu, which has the same type as its pre-evolutions. Xatu evolves into it using a Thunderstone. Yatu is much larger and gains more feathers around its wings and head, with lots of bolts of lightning and clouds swirling around it. In this region, Yatu are the top section of totem poles depicting it, Xatu in the middle, and then Natu at the bottom.
Tropius changes from Grass/Flying to Ice/Fire. It is now based on Holly, Christmas Trees, and snow-covered Pine Trees. The much colder climate required Tropius to adapt when they moved to the region and thus they changed to thrive better. They are a bit more nimble than their Hoenn counterparts, losing the ability to fly but gaining better defence in the process.
Stumped on other ideas for Regional Forms, but if you guys have any other ideas for some, let me know.
And that's the whole list so far, hopefully gonna update it when I get to hear all your thoughts on it.
Hope you all like it.

Producer: Bandēs, Zac, Owl of Detroit, Fabrizio La Marca, ZYFU, Alex Powell, The Italian Job, Foby, Cobb Nolan, Labert, Rizzo DJ, Micky T, The Blockchain, Joey White, Djuro Gajic, Paul Svenson, Marco Carbone, Tienezo, Subground 3000, F4T4L3RR0R, Dan Palmer, FOREST D., Horatio, Eivo, Dave Gusten
Release Date: 2021-09-03
Cat. Number: LWMTS
Genres: Melodic House & Techno
Label: LW Recordings
​
Bandēs - La Verkin (Original Mix)
Zac - Kayak (Original Mix)
Owl of Detroit - Especimenes (Original Mix)
Fabrizio La Marca - It's Calling Me (Original Mix)
ZYFU - Aurora Boreal (Original Mix)
Alex Powell - Only Human (Extended Mix)
The Italian Job - Them! (Original Mix)
Foby - Drops (Original Mix)
Cobb Nolan - Beyond The Past (Original Mix)
Labert - Ambivalence (Original Mix)
Rizzo DJ - Southern Sicily (Original Mix)
Micky T - Nicotine Patch (Original Mix)
The Blockchain - Agraba (Original Mix)
Joey White - Distraction (Original Mix)
Djuro Gajic - My Way (Original Mix)
Paul Svenson - Lively Night (Original Mix)
Marco Carbone - Lumia (Original Mix)
Tienezo - Sleet (Original Mix)
Subground 3000 - Natural High (Original Mix)
F4T4L3RR0R - Hydrae (Fireblast Remix)
Dan Palmer - Camo (Noise) (Original Mix)
FOREST D. - Kinetics (Original Mix)
Horatio - Chareya (Original Mix)
Eivo - Minder (Original Mix)
Dave Gusten - Why Not (Andre Rautenberg Remix)
​
Download - https://audiofeel.org/index.php?route=release/release&release_id=48654

Released: 2021-09-03
Alex Powell - Only Human (Extended Mix)
Anton Trian & F4T4L3RR0R - Hydrae (Fireblast Remix)
Bandēs - La Verkin
Cobb Nolan - Beyond the Past
Dave Gusten & Amok Dee - Why Not (Andre Rautenberg Remix)
Djuro Gajic - My Way
Eivo - Minder
FOREST D. - Kinetics
Fabrizio La Marca - It's Calling Me
Foby - Drops
Horatio - Chareya
Joey White - Distraction
Labert - Ambivalence
Marco Carbone - Lumia
Micky T - Nicotine Patch
Owl of Detroit - Especimenes
Paul Svenson - Lively Night
Rizzo DJ - Southern Sicily
Subground 3000 - Natural High
The Blockchain - Agraba
The Italian Job - Them!
Tienezo - Sleet
Who Else & Zac - Kayak
ZYFU - Aurora Boreal
dan palmer - Camo (Noise)
DOWNLOAD - https://progonly.com/2021/09/04/alex-powell-anton-trian-f4t4l3rr0r-melodic-techno-selections-vol-09-lw-recordings/

Someone messaged me on Soulseek and was kind enough to email me this list of videos that were blocked and no longer available on youtube, here is a link to a googledrive download for the textfile: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y-jA-veEq9gk5vtOhbT_7otbam0bKor1

Don Sebesky ââ Giant Box (1973) (96kbit_AAC) Energy - Energy (1974) Compost - Take Off Your Body (1972) Compost - Life is Round (1973) Bosporus Bridges - A Wide Selection of Turkis Jazz and Funk 1968-1978 Om - Om (1971) Dreams - Imagine My Surprise The Flock - Dinosaur Swamps Dreams - Dreams (1970) Acqua Fragile - Acqua Fragile (1973) Albino Gorilla - Detroit 1984 Pierre Moelen's Gong - Downwind Mr Bloe - Groovin With Mr Bloe Time - Zivot U Cizmama S Visokom Petom Blood, Sweat and Tears - B, S & T 4 Medina Azahara - Medina Azahara (1979) Musica Urbana - Musica Urbana (1976) Bloque - Hombre, Tierra Y Alma Corvina - Corvina (1974) Spyro Gyra - Point of View Ayers Rock - Big Red Rock Alma Y Vida - Alma Y Vida Volumen II Rare Earth - Ecology Bo Hanson - Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings Rare Earth - Ma Trad, Gras Och Stenar - Djungelns Lag The Guess Who - #10 (1973) Mother's Finest - Another Mother Further Pacific Gas and Electric - Are You Ready David Bromberg Band - Bandit in a Bathing Suit The David Bromberg Band - Reckless Abandon Vassar Clemnts, David Bromberg - Hillbilly Jazz David Bromberg BAnd - Midnight on the Water Eugene McDaniels - Outlaw Edgar Winter - Jasmine Nightdreams Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity - Streetnoise Sweet Okay Supersister - Spiral Staircase Gotham - Pass the Butter John Lodge - Natural Avenue Ramases - Space Hymns Gwendal - Joe Cant's Reel Povl Dissing and Burnin Red Ivanhole - 6 Elefantskovickadeviser Gwendal - A vos Desirs Gwendal - 4 High Tide - Sea Shantie Azteca - Pyramid of the Moon Manfred Mann Chapter Three - Volume Two Manfred Mann Chapter Three - Volume 1 Lone Star - Lone Star 1976 The Gil Evans Orchestra - Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix The Guess Who - Flavours The Guess Who - Artificial Paradise The Guess Who - Road Food The Guess Who - So Long, Bannatyne Manfred Man''s Earth Band - Budapest Live 1983 The Guess Who - Share the Land T-Square and Friends - Refreshest Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink Ten Years After - Recorded Live 1973 Electromagnets - Electromagnets 2 Blackfeather - At the mountains of madness Masayoshi Takanaka - Jolly Jive Camel - Moonmadness Live Camel - Moonmadness (1976) Caravan - Waterloo Lily Marty Friedman - Exhibit A Live in Europe Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (1972) Manfred Mann's Earth Band - The Good Earth Jade Warrior - Reflections Deep Purple Mk III - The Final Concerts (1975) Lift - Meeresfahrt Frupp - Modern Masquerades Fruupp - SEven Secrets Lift - Lift (1976) Alex Harvey and His Soul Band (1964) Weather Report - Tale Spinnin Return to Forever - No Mystery Ali Farka Toure - Red Album (1984) Ali Farka Toure - African Blues Moondog - More Moondog the Story of Moondog (1956-1957) Ali Farka Toure - The Source Passport - Second Passport Mountain - Live at Woodstock Osibisa - Welcome Home James Carter - The Real Quiet Storm Stray - Hearts of Fire Stray - Suicide Ozric Tenatcles - Tantric Obstacles Osibisa - Black Magic Night Live at the Royal Festival Hall Osibisa - Happy Children Casiopea - World Live 88 Osibisa - Heads Osibisa - Osibirock Old and in the Way - Breakdown Live (1973) Caravan - Live at the Fairfield Halls (1974) Caravan - For girls who grow plump in the night Eloy - The Time is now mix Eloy light and dark mix Eloy - The Tides Return Forever Moody Blues - Seventh sojourn Gillan Glover - Accidentally on Purpose Procol Harum - Broken Barricades Vanilla Fudge - The Beat Goes On The Guess Who - Rockin T-Square - Welcome to the Rose Garden T-Square - Wings T-Square - Sweet and Gentle T-Square - Nine Stories T-Square - NEXT T-Square - New Road Old Way T-Square - Human T-Square and Royla Philharmonic Orchestra - Harmony T-Square - Gravity T-Square - Discoveries T-Square - Brasil T-Square - Time Travel T-Square - 33 (2007) Julian Lennon - Valotte Small Faces - The Autumn Stone part 2 Small Faces - The Autumn Stone part 1 Kayak - See See the Sun Sandy Nelson - Let there be drums Buffalo - Dead Forever Afric Simone - Ramaya Karat - Der blaue planet Backstreet Crawler - The band plays on the nice - the nice 1969 T-square - Super Band - smile T-Square - Adventures T-square - Midnight Lover Rick Wakeman - White Rock Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride Baker Gurvitz Army - Elysian Encounter Head East - Live 1979 Phil Manzanera - Guitarissimo Masters of Reality - Masters of Reality Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe - ABWH Steve Miller Band - Book of Dreams Rick Wakeman - Return To the Center of the Earth Terry Reid - Superlungs Tesla - The Great Radio Contraversy The Dregs - Industry Standard The J Giels Band - Freeze Frame The Rippingtons - Moonlighting The Sensational Alex Harvey band - The impossible Dream Live - Mental Jewelry 1991 Malo - Malo (1972) Toto - Hydra Eloy - Ocean 2 The Answer Roger Glover and Guests - The Butterfly Ball and The grasshopper's Feast Rainbow - Straight Between the eyes Eloy - Floating Eloy - metromania Head East - Flat as a Pancake Electric Sun - Beyond the Astral Skies Eddie Hazel - Games, Dames and Guitar Thangs Doobie Brothers - Minute by Minute Art Blakey and Jazz Messengers - Big Beat John Martyn One World Ambrosia - Road Island Pink Floyd - BBC 1971 Red Rider - AS far as Siam 

selfie shelfie
So I've been working on this master post for a couple weeks now. Below you will find my very in depth routine, reviews, products I want, and more. I have been up and down trying to control my skin and I'm finally at the point where I'm happy enough with it. I still have imperfections, but if I could only have this skin the rest of my life, I would be more than okay with that. I don't have a good before (cause hey, when you have acne like I did you AVOID pictures.) I had the large pustules with multiple heads in one area, deep cystic acne, and so much PIH. THIRTEEN years is what is has taken to get the skin I have today. A lot of money has gone into my skin. I have wanted to give up SO many times. I am here to say, I see those of you who feel hopeless. This post is less about celebrating my clear skin and more about to illustrate how HARD one needs to work to get it. For some people, less is more. For others, more is necessary. What's important is listening to your skin and giving it what it's asking for. This is what I'm currently doing for my skin. As I notice negative changes, I adapt. I try new products constantly. I empty a bottle and pick up something else. Because this might work now, but the next one may work better. To help me keep track of the products I'm using and when to use them, I use SkinSmart. It allows me to see my skin history over time and how products/environment/life events affect it.
Skin type: normal/dry
Skin history: super fair skinned and never cared about sunscreen until I was mid twenties. I grew up on a working ranch and like to kayak/etc. So yeah, sun damage. Mostly in the form of freckles and tight feeling skin if I'm not moisturizing. Living in North Texas (sun and pollution are issues.) Work in front of a computer all day. Glasses/contacts. I suffer from seasonal allergies and usually when my allergies flare up I get acne due to the extra face contact and I get milia on my cheeks. I am on an oral contraceptive (combination hormone) and usually skip my periods. I don't struggle with acne anymore, but occasionally get something cystic on my chin that is large, painful, and deep or blackheads on my lip I pissed off that flared up. I do struggle with closed comedones on my forehead and have always chocked it up to poor skin texture until I saw my doctor. Now I say anymore because back in the day, ya girl needed some help. Neither Accutane or Differin made a difference then. I've been on a thirteen year journey and have finally found pretty clear skin. I luckily avoided scarring (by not picking/popping/aggravating any of it.) So I only had to deal with uneven skin texture and hyperpigmentation. Until last year, I was on tret 0.1% to help treat everything and this was the real game changer I think. I've had a handful of peels done at my derm, resurfacing treatments, and some other random stuff. It has not been easy and don't be too hard on yourself. Remember, YMMV!!
Skin concerns: dull skin, CC's, PIH, large pores, flushed appearance, mild scarring, allergy induced milia, aging, and KP.
Non-routine skin choices/behaviors:

• Drinking at least 48oz of water a day
• Pillow cases/face towels changed every two days
• Makeup is always removed by a wipe prior to cleansing (I have various wipes, lol)
• I don't pick at my skin, will use (sterilized) tools when extracting
• Conscious of face touching
• Makeup brushes/blenders are washed weekly
• Admittedly, I have a terrible sleep schedule. Usually up after midnight and at work by 9am.
• I am pre diabetic so I already limit carbs/sugars and it's improved my skin a lot!
• Face towels changed every other day
• I use a lot of different lip balms, some of my favorites are Vaseline Lip Therapy, Burt's Bees, and Eos.
• Taking a probiotic specifically to help with skin health
• Using Amlactin Daily on my KP spots and exfoliating in the shower, huge improvement!

I recently saw my derm and got a script for BP + Clindamycin and 0.05% tretinoin. The routine below is what I've been following BEFORE getting on these. I followed with my new routine as well.
Daily AM:

• Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-one (blue, no rinse, applied w/ a cotton ball)
• Clean & Clear Essentials Deep Cleaning Toner (0.5% salicylic acid, applied w/ hands)
• Olay Mist Ultimate Hydration Essence Energizing (Vit C and Bergamot)
• Yes to Tomatoes Daily Balancing Moisturizer (Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri/Sat)
• Sunday Riley C.E.O. Vitamin C Rich Hydration Cream (Sun/Thu)
• Etude House Sunprise Mild Airy Finish Sun Milk SPF 50 + / PA +++

Daily PM:

• Bliss Makeup Melt DryWet Gentle Jelly Cleanser with Rose Flower
• Bliss Fab Foaming 2-in-1 Cleanser and Exfoliator with Bamboo Buffers (very mild exfoliant, used w/ a spin brush similar to clarisonic)
• Actives go here on applicable days
• Clean & Clear Essentials Deep Cleansing Toner (0.5% salicylic acid, applied w/ hands)
• Olay Mist Ultimate Hydration Essence Energizing (Vit C and Bergamot)
• Microneedling goes here on applicable days
• Serums, see list below
• Jade Roller
• Masks go here on applicable days
• Cetaphil Hydrating Eye Gel-Cream with Hyaluronic Acid
• Bliss Drench & Quench Cream to Water Hydrator
• Ecolips Lip Scrub in mint (as needed)
• Etude House My Lash Serum

Odd Steps:

• Papegel mask (sun/tue/thu)
• Bliss That's Incredi-peel (10% glycolic acid pad, cleanse with Daiso Aloe Facial Cleansing Foam instead of the Bliss 2-in-1 with no brush, skip the Clean & Clear Toner, follow with Soroci Calming Essence, also skip Olay Mist, tue/thu)
• Microneedling (0.25 needle length, follow with Soroci Calming Essence, Mon/fri)
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Hydra Firm Sleeping Cream (as an occlusive after moisturizer, sun/tue/thu)
• Clay/Mud Mask (removed with wet konjac or spin brush, mon)
• Steaming followed by extractions (immediately after cleanse, 10 minutes, pure water, tue)
• Lip and eye mask (gel type, wed)
• Stridex Maximum Pads (2.0% salicylic acid, sun/wed AM)
• Vasoline (when I feel I need an occlusive)
• Curology (4% Niacinamide 1% Clindamycin 4% Azelaic Acid, sun/wed/Fri)

Serums and order:

• Peach and Lily Glass Skin Refining Serum
• Neutrogena Hydro Boost Multivitamin Booster with Hyaluronic Acid
• CeraVe Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Serum

Tretinoin 0.05% routine!
AM

• Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-one (blue, no rinse, applied w/ a cotton ball)
• Bliss What a Melon Replenishing Watermelon Toner (applied with cotton pad)
• Clindamycin + BP gel (1%/5%, RX, only as spot treatment)
• Bliss Drench and Quench Cream to Water Hydrator
• Etude House Sunprise Mild Airy Finish Sunscreen SPF 50

PM

• Pond’s Cleansing Balm
• CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser (no spin brush!)
• Bliss What a Melon Replenishing Watermelon Toner (applied with cotton pad)
• Wait
• Tretinoin 0.05% cream (RX)
• Wait
• Hydro Boost Gel Cream for Extra Dry Skin OR Bliss Drench & Quench
• La Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume B5
• Vaseline, if I'm desperate

I'll be quitting all physical and chemical exfoliants for the first couple weeks. No serums, no other actives. Just gentle products. I've used a lot of these before and really like them! I'll carry my rose water spray and Johnson's Baby Lotion with me to use during the day to keep my skin hydrated. I will also probably exclusively use my Vaseline Lip Care these first few weeks and up my water intake even more.
Additional products I have that I may or may not have tried yet. Most I obtained either as samples with a purchase or in a subscription box (I get a skin care focused Ipsy Plus and Facetory Lux Plus.) I'll include reasons why I am excited to try them, hesitations, my initial thoughts, and where I would plant them in my existing routine:
Generation Clay Purifying Pink Clay Mask ($29 USD) - So this has a slight rose scent and I'm a sucker for floral scents in my skincare. It is a kaolin/bentonite clay blend. Clay masks are supposed to be good for oil control and helping to shrink pores (if your large pores are because of excess sebum production.) I will use this on Mondays and remove either with a wet konjac or the low setting on my spinbrush/using a manual brush to help loosen up the dried clay. It has an aggressive minty sensation when you apply it. It subsides pretty quickly so don't be alarmed! This mask dried me out a bit but not so much that it was uncomfortable. I had a noticeable reduction in pore size after one mask.
Aperire Spa Relief Be Frozen Pore Mask - The package, with the exception of the name, is entirely in Korean. Luckily, Facetory sent me a handy guide so I can talk about it. This mask has menthol in it. I thought the pink clay was aggressively minty? Prepare thyself! Just like with any clay mask, don't panic when you try to take it off! I like to use a wet konjac or a brush to help work the clay off. I would use this on Mondays. I tried hard for where to find this in the US, no luck. I got it in my Facetory Lux Plus Summer 2019. If anyone has a link, please share!
Hey Honey Sweet Treat Wild Berry & Honey Yogurt Recovery Mask ($48 USD) - So this is a gel type mask and I plan to incorporate it right where "papegel masks" fall. Though it's a "recovery" mask, I will likely save it for when I've been ultra stressed, sleep deprived, or partied too hard.
Soroci Lycomato Super Restorative Sleeping Mask ($16 USD) - I will switch to this when I've used up my FAB sleeping mask and then make a decision on which to purchase full size. I got both as samples so I want to compare and see which works better for me. I love this brand so I am excited to try a sleeping mask from them.
Garnier SkinActive Glow Boost Illuminating Moisturizer - Came as a sample with my micellar water. I like the scent and the brand has always been good to my skin. Still haven’t tried it yet but once my skin is adjusted to the tret I will likely use this as an AM moisturizer.
Commleaf Rose Blooming Mist ($25.30 USD) - I use this whenever my skin needs moisture during the day, has a lot of irritation, or just looks blah. I definitely like it better than the Mario Bandeau rose mist. I have used it as a hydrating toner and as an essence. Definitely a HG product!
Pure Foret Centella Multi Lotion ($25.19 USD) - The word is Centella Asiatica extract has acne healing properties. I don't suffer from the big pustules or too much cystic acne anymore. I used this recently when I had a breakout and oh no, it smells awful. My skin felt really nice after and the smell dissipated rather quickly. I won't be using it in my regular routine, but may switch to it when I have breakouts. It’s best as your final layer since it’s a thicker cream. The only thing I’d put on top would be a sunscreen or an occlusive!
Daiso Sake Milky Lotion - This was an impulse buy. Cute bottle and all. I haven’t tried it out yet but this is a pretty watery moisturizer and I’m not sure I’ll like it. It was only a $1.50 so if it sucks (and it probably does) I won’t really feel guilty throwing it away.
BRTC Vitamin Powder Cleansing Tea Bag - I’m actually super excited to try this! But also sort of nervous? The directions say you can use it a few different ways, as a cleanser, a mask, or to soak in (like bath or foot soak.) And I guess I’m worried I will do it wrong. It’s a sachet of different things (I’m not very technical, sorry) and you either let it steep like tea or use the pouch as a foaming net to cleanse. I have like 5 of them so I need to just take the plunge.
Masks in my drawer: (I have a problem, not sorry)

• The Beautiful factr. Water Shield Barrier Mask
• XOY Calendula Mask
• Meg. Two Step Jelly Mask Firming and Radiance
• Nohj Intra Gold 24K Modeling Mask Pearl
• Ischia Miracle Marine Collagen Magic Gel Siren Mask
• BRTC Aqua Rush Pearl Mask
• Keeome White Mulberry Hydration
• Reason Y Jet Setter
• Naisture Aqua 3 Step Moisturizing Mask
• Naisture Aqua 3 Step Brightening Mask
• The Medius Heart Ppyoung Ppyoung Eye Patch
• ToGoSpa Coconut Lips Lip Love
• ToGoSpa Bamboo Charcoal Eyes
• Taste Beauty So Meowgical Hydrating Face Mask
• Taste Beauty Just Peachy Hydrating Face Mask
• Maskology Under Eye Gold Gel Mask
• Maskology Colorshine Peel Off Mask
• Riley Rose Peony Collagen Mask
• lookATME Look At My Foot Heal Mask
• by nature Calm + Restore 2-in-1
• SooAE Hydration Alert Sensor Mask
• Maskology Watermelon Moisturizing Mask
• SooAE Cactus Soothing Gel Mask

Items you see that are my husband's…

• Biore Deep Cleansing Pore Strips
• Clean & Clear Dual Action Moisturizer (0.5% salicylic acid) - guilty of using this when I’m desperate, but usually it is way too drying for me
• Clean & Clear Night Relaxing Deep Cleansing Face Wash
• Freeman Pore Cleansing Volcanic Ash Peel-Off Gel Mask
• (He also uses the Clean & Clear Essentials toner. His routine is minimal if at all, lol.)

I swear by the Bliss Drench & Quench Cream to Water Hydrator ($20 USD). The jar is very light so it feels cheap, but it's a great product. I've noticed if I'm heavy with it, it will cause pilling. But a light coat is all you need. I've been using it as my night mask but I'll probably be switching that up soon. Not because it's not great, but it's not giving me the moisture boost I want overnight. (I will likely finish the Yes to Tomatoes and use the Bliss in the AM.) But this product just sort of melts into your skin and that's what I really love about it. I can feel a lot of moisturizers on my skin, whether it's a sticky/tacky feel or sometimes like oil/sebum.
Since adding the jade roller I have noticed a reduction in my pores. No other products added with it. I also feel like my face is slimmer now. I feel like that's due to it being cooling and helping depuff. I got mine at five below and am happy enough with it. Will definitely upgrade cause this one squeaks sometimes and I'm wanting a pink one, lol.
The spin brush I have is actually from five below. For $5 it's actually a decent brush. I complain I can't get new heads but for $5...I will say that the kit comes with an exfoliating disc (nononono don't use that on your face,) and sponge disc (what is the purpose?,) and a massager disc (which I definitely use on my home facial days.) It's cheap, it's not waterproof, but it gets the job done. I get a new one every month to keep the head fresh. I also use an Ecotools face brush ($5.99 USD) that I really like. The bristles on both of these are really soft. I haven't noticed any microtearing as I use a pretty light hand with either tool.
First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Hydra Firm Sleeping Cream ($38 USD) - Admittedly, I am not impressed with this yet. It has a strange smell I can't quite place (eucalyptus, duh) and I don't know if I don't like it yet. Thirty minutes later and it still has a feel on my face. I know sleeping masks are supposed to be heavy, but this is different. In the morning my skin was almost still tacky, but very hydrated and supple! Likely won't purchase the full size unless there is a killer sale on it. - I wrote this before I started using it two or three times a week. I've noticed a big improvement in my skin since using it! I actually really like the product and found it worked best if I put some kind of humectant under it. (I usually use my rose water spray.) May be a new holy grail. I am still going to try out the Soroci mask and see which I like better before buying full size.
Yes to Tomatoes Daily Balancing Moisturizer ($8.69 USD) - This is my current AM moisturizer, but I will not be repurchasing. It is too light and when using acids it doesn’t provide enough moisture and my skin gets flaky. Now that I’m switching to tret, I may need to just push it aside and not use it. If you have oily skin it is awesome because it’s not too heavy. But for those of us on the dry side (whether dry type or normal with acids/etc) we shouldn’t put any stock in it.
Etude House Sunprise Mild Airy Finish Sun Milk SPF 50 + / PA +++ ($10 USD) - I love this product. You’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands. It’s cheap, works well, and is perfect for my “stays inside/works in an office now” life. If I was going hiking/spending all day in the sun, I’d still wear it and just add a hat. I wish it was ++++, but beggars can’t be choosers. No whitecast (but also I am so pale it’s dumb) and just melts into your skin. I used to see people say some sunscreens turn to powder after application and I was like, say what? Now I see! And it is amazing. My makeup sits over it nicely, though I only use concealer where needed and powder. I can’t attest to how a full coverage foundation would sit on it.
So I actually really like the Bliss Fab Foaming 2-in-1 Cleanser and Exfoliator with Bamboo Buffers ($9.99 USD) for a basic routine. It has a very mild exfoliant so it doesn't NEED a brush or other type of tool. It's not overly drying, my skin feels clean but not...sticky (stripped) after cleansing with it. Before starting an advanced routine it was definitely my go to. I am considering switching to a cleanser without any exfoliant (so I don't need two for the days I use a chemical exfoliant, and the answer to this was the CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser) and possibly something I can use in the whipping device I got. I love the way foam feels on my skin (and this doesn't foam into a whip like I wish it would.) Though it will always remain a favorite and definitely on the HG list.
You'll notice I have a few peel off masks. I bought these before I knew they're sort of useless. They are fun for get togethers and if my husband wants to participate. However, they don't serve much of a purpose unless you just don't exfoliate. If you want real benefits, use paper, clay, or mud masks.
Sunday Riley C.E.O. Vitamin C Rich Hydration Cream ($65 USD) - This moisturizer is kind of sticky. It has a light citrus scent, to be expected of a vitamin C product. I've got to complain that I can't get the seal off easily. I am guilty of leaving these on my masks and less used moisturizers to help save the shelf life. The one on this one creates a seal and it hard to get off. It comes in a heavy glass jar, which tbh scares the hell out of me since I am a klutz. Just due to the price, I doubt I will keep buying it. I got it in my Ipsy Plus box June 2019. I would rather use a vitamin C serum that is not the last thing on my skin. The feel of it went away when I applied my (mattifying) sunscreen.
Curology 4% Niacinamide, 1% Clindamycin, 4% Azelaic Acid My flagship formula. I was hoping they would put me back on tret, but this is what I got. It's helping with my flushed appearance some and gotten rid of my CCs on my forehead. It does absolutely nothing for my allergy induced milia. Now that my derm has prescribed me the BP + Clindamycin I will probably get TO Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% and the TO Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% and just cancel my Curology. My provider is against putting me on tret so I had my derm write me a script for it. I have little reason to stick with Curology now.
Speaking of Curology, The Cleanser and The Moisturizer. I fell IN LOVE after the first use. But the price? Nah. Also, I am likely not keeping my subscription so I needed to find some dupes. So The Cleanser is super creamy and non-stripping, if anything my skin feels a lot more hydrated after I cleanse with this. I’d heard some murmers about possible dupes and purchased the CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser ($11.99 USD) and oh my god, this is such an amazing face wash. I think I like it more than the Curology one! The moisturizer was a little harder. So I did some digging and purchased Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel Cream for Extra Dry Skin ($16.99 USD) and I don’t think I’ll look back. It doesn’t leave a feel on your skin like the Curology one does but my skin feels just as hydrated after using it. I used it before when it came out and never purchased again because if I’m being honest, I thought too much moisturizer was my problem with my acne.
I need to be a little honest, the Olay Mist Ultimate Hydration Essence Energizing ($9.99 USD) and Olay Mist Ultimate Hydration Essence Calming ($9.99 USD) are really just water-y feeling. I know it’s a water-type product, but those of you who have used good facial mists know what I mean by this. It’s hard to describe, but it just lacks the feeling of benefit. I don’t notice a difference other than the momentary boost in hydration. I will not be purchasing these again, though I do like the scents they come in and the bottles look nice. I just don’t think it’s a very beneficial product when the Commleaf Rose Blooming Mist is such a game changer for me.
Just a note: I know this sub discourages derma rolling, I am working along with my derm for this. I do not advise anyone do derma rolling without the supervision of their derm or just having the derm do it for you. I purchased a high end product (that I will not be linking) at the advice of my derm. So no, I won't tell you how to do it, where to get it, etc. I will say that if you struggle with things such as: circulation, skin texture, acne scarring, and tight skin, talk to your derm about if adding it is right for you.
Skin Wish List: Products I'm DYING to try, why and where I plan to use them.

• Nurture by Nature Beauty Sleep CBD Infused Hydration Mask I have heard a ton of amazing things about CBD in beauty source and have been wanting to add it into my routine. What better way that as the final step? I don't generally use sleeping masks/packs or occlusives in the summer due to my increased water intake. But they're basically a nightly thing during the colder months. So I'll wait to buy a bottle until it gets cold here (I'm in Texas so it'll be November, lol.) It's only $19 and I've seen some well received reviews on this company's products.
• The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG Caffeine is great for puffiness and dark circles. While I can't drink caffeine due to it making my jittery, I hope that applying it to my face will have benefits. I would replace my eye cream with this. I would give my eyes extra moisture by tapping my moisturizer on.
• Glossier The Balm Dotcom I have heard so much about their products. I'm a little hesitant to buy a $12 lip balm but the page claims you can use it on your face too as an occlusive. Has anyone done this before?
• A skincare fridge! I've had my eye on this one for some time now, mostly because it's cute and the right size. My bathroom is on the opposite end of my house from the kitchen. I also share that fridge! Many products keep better in the fridge (such as vitamin C, organic compounds, etc) and many others are just more refreshing when cold! This is sort of my end goal in skincare to preserve the products I'm not using daily such as serums and masks. Seeing as how most mini fridges like this run at this price, it'll probably be a gift to myself after a few more months of solid routine consistency.

Where I source my products:

• Walmart
• Target
• French Pharmacy
• Soko Glam
• YesStyle
• Facetory Luxe Plus
• Ipsy Glam Bag Plus
• Amazon

If you made it this far, congrats, you're probably also obsessed with skincare or absolutely fed up with your acne. Thanks for taking the time to read and feel free to ask questions! I'll try to link a picture of my current (before this round of tret) skin for y'all to see! I suck at reddit formatting so I'll probably have to edit this as soon as I post it. Also, ask about anything, seriously. I want y’all to have good skin too!

Howdy pardners, my friend and I are planning to float the Buffalo in kayaks at the end of the month. We have 4 days off, Monday-Thursday. We've never done it before. Does anyone have a suggestion for such a lengthy excursion? Where we can put in, shuttle service back to the truck, camping spots. We want maximum float/fishing time. Is there even such a thing as a leisurely 4 day float? Please help. Heil Hydra.

Good, morning, Runnit! This morning we're spotlighting a runner who I really enjoyed learning more about, and have a lot of fun questions for! So before you head out this weekend to put in your miles, take a moment and meet u/Doggy_paddler!

The Runner:

First name?

Adrienne

Age?

34

Where are you from?

Just south of Baltimore, in northern Anne Arundel County MD

Occupation?

Dog Walker

Running Q&A's:

What are your PR's?

5k- 22:00 for sure (3/11/18), officially 21:15 but i don’t trust it. My GPS was short, and I felt like I might have cut a corner. 10k- 47:56 (11/4/18) ½ marathon- 1:49:00 (5/20/17)

What is your distance PR?

17 miles in August of 2017

What's your highest weekly recorded milage?

55.5 miles in August of 2017. I’m running around 35 now, I’d like to be at 40-45 at least.

What's your comfy pace?

9:30-10:30 depending on the weather and how i’m feeling.

How long have you been running?

About 4 years

Tell us why you began running?

I wanted to do it because it’s a super convenient exercise, all you need is shoes and a road and you’re good to go. I’d tried to get into it unsuccessfully a few times, I always either hated it, or hated it and also hurt myself. I never played any sports growing up, I’m not sure that I had even run a mile without stopping before. I wasn’t sedentary or anything, I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors and did regular sessions on the elliptical, I just thought I wasn’t built for running. A good friend of mine (who’s decidedly unathletic) was getting a big group of girls together to run a 5k and then go to brunch, she invited me and I figured if she could do it so could I. I started with couch to 5k, and i was hooked pretty quickly. I think in all of my previous attempts I just went too fast and did too much too soon.

Most memorable running moment?

I’ve got so many nice memories, but I think the favorite one was when I was almost finished my first half marathon. As I approached the finish the course went into Camden Yards down Eutaw St, and they had a big time clock up. I could see that I was going to beat my goal time, and that combined with running through the ballpark where I had spent so much time growing up and had so many memories made me feel awfully emotional and i’ll admit that I shed a few happy tears.

Do you have a running mantra?

Nah, I generally just tend to just let my mind wander.

What time of day do you prefer to run?

Mornings! Not too early if I can help it, but it’s a great way to start the day. If I wait until afternoon there are too many things that could come up and cut into my running time.

Any big races coming up?

In a little over a week I’ve got the Shamrock 5k in Bmore. I’m excited and nervous, it’s the first race I’ve done since Thanksgiving and I have no idea what pace to shoot for. I haven’t signed up for anything else yet, but I’ll definitely be doing the Across the Bay 10k this fall, and I’m hoping to do the Baltimore half again this year as well. There will be more, just haven’t decided which yet. There are lots of fun races in the area, it’s hard to decide which to do sometimes!

What are your short-term running goals?

Get my weekly mileage back up to where I like it, and I’m always trying for a little more speed! I made a local running friend (yay!) and we’ve started going to the track and doing speed work, which i had never done before. It’s way more fun than i thought it would be, and I’m hoping i’ll see some improvement in my race times.

What are your long-term running goals?

My biggest goal is just to stay uninjured honestly. I love to run, and I want to do it forever. Also, when I feel ready I’d like to run a marathon. I’m sick of people asking me why I haven’t done it yet.

What's one piece of running advice you’d give to the younger version of yourself?

That i can indeed run, and should start a lot sooner. And start slow and buy better shoes!

What is something you need to work on to become a better runner?

Doing the hard work. Until a couple months ago I had never done any kind of speedwork, my only hard efforts were races. Also, prehab type stuff. I’m working on that, i’ve been doing Myrtl at least every other day, and stretching and rolling as well.

What is your current shoe choice?

I like to keep a few in rotation. My favorite right now is the Hoka Clifton 5, and I also use two different versions of the Saucony Triumph. For trail running I have Saucony Peregrines. I got a pair of Altas recently, they feel SO strange but they’re growing on me. I’ve only worn them for shorter runs so far.

Trail? Road? Track? Or Treadmill?

Trail is my favorite, but I only get to do that once a week if I’m lucky. I do most of my running on the roads because that’s what’s convenient, and there’s always something interesting to see if you’re observant. I’m new to the track, but it’s fun enough. I wouldn’t want to do easy miles there though. I HATE the treadmill, it’s boring and whenever I get on one I feel like I forgot how to run.

What is your ideal running weather?

60 degrees, sunny with lots of puffy clouds, low humidity, and a light breeze. But right now anything other than winter sounds pretty good - I’m not a fan of the cold!

Do you have any social media accounts you’d like to share? [Facebook, Strava, Twitter]

Strava - https://www.strava.com/athletes/14188131

Just For Fun:

What’s your spirit animal?

I don’t really have one in general, but when I’m running trails I like to think about mountain goats. They have those little hooves, and they just clippy clop up a rocky slope like it’s nothing.

What hobbies and interests do you have besides running?

In the summer I like to do pretty much anything on the water. I like to kayak, and I recently got a paddle board I’m really excited to try out. My husband and I have a little boat that we enjoy taking out, we do a little fishing/crabbing and a little tubing, but mostly just relaxing. Other than my outdoor interests, I love cooking and baking, and I have WAY too many houseplants. I also have two turtles and a lazy pitbull. Whenever I’m late for something, it’s probably because I spent too much time petting the dog. She’s the sweetest, how can I deprive her of the scratchies she requires?!

Do you have any hidden talents?

If I had a talent I wouldn’t hide it! I can wiggle my ears, does that count?

Biggest pet peeve?

The improper use of apostrophes bothers me more than it should. You see it a lot on signs at the grocery store, such as “Bell pepper’s $2.50/lb”. And the same for the misuse of “your” and you’re”. Also, when businesses use “k” instead of “c” in names. There’s a local store called “Kake Kraft Korner” and it drives me crazy. I’ve been there before, because they sell legit industrial baking supplies, and as I was walking up I went to open a door and saw a sign that said “Please use side door’s only. Thanks, Kake Kraft Korner” and I almost had a stroke. There’s legit no reason why it should pain me so, but it totally does.

Dream job! What would it be?

I can’t really think of a better job for myself, I’m crazy about dogs,I love to walk, and I’d much rather be outside than indoors. Maybe if i could keep my job the same, but it rained less. That would be sweet.

What is your favorite movie?

Lars and the Real Girl. I’m not a big movie person, I tend to get bored, but I think it’s just the sweetest feel good movie I’ve ever seen.

What is your biggest character flaw?

I’m super scatterbrained, I start things and don’t finish them. I’m ashamed of all the half finished craft projects and unpotted cuttings I’ve got hanging around the house.

What songs have you been listening to recently?

I only really listen to music when I run, and I usually just listen to whatever Spotify recommends for me. Mostly hip-hop, but there’s plenty of other stuff mixed in.

What are some of your favorite non-running subreddits?

Nothing terribly interesting, just various houseplant and dog subs mostly. I don’t comment much but I’m a sucker for good dog pictures!

One Last Question:

What is the origin of your username?

I like dogs, and I like kayaking. Sometimes I even kayak with a dog! Also, when I swim I tend to do a sort of modified doggy paddle/breast stroke kind of deal. I wear contacts and I’m always worried about losing them, so I like to keep my face out of the water.

​

Please tag u/Doggy_paddler when asking a question in this thread.

​
Previously Featured Spotlight Runners:

Palindrome27	A-german-muffin	xfkirsten	PepperoniFire	rennuR_liarT
Santa Claus	Brwalkernc	Pinkpiggie	Fobo911	Kinsibit
Jaime_manger	Craigster38	Despoena	Philpips	Brunchweasel
Chickensedan	Skragen	Incster	Freedomweasel	Jennifer1911
RedKryptonite	Zebano	Kevin402can	Punkrock_runner	ProudPatriot07
Once_a_hobby_jogger	Loratliff	57001	Borichu	Denovosibi
Causticwonder	Dirtybritch	TheRedInTheSky	Aewillia	Judyblumereference
Flocculus	El_day2	YourShoesUntied	Jeade-en	Kyle-Kranz
ItsReallyReallyTrue	Jangle_Bo_Jingles	RichieClare	sloworfast	RobotPettingZoo
Runwichi	Smruttkay	Sacamato	Kibitzor	Edge767
BrianOgilvie	Cromagnonized	c0me_at_me_br0	Some_Other_Sherman	Caitlionator
Ahf0913	Vermilionweirdo	NonReligiousPopette	JonnyHydra	LadyMasterChemist
Polgara19	Mamabear5678	Octopifungus	Barnaby_McFoo	Zazzera
DAHarlow	IamShartacus	Mayfest	Brotherbock	ThePsion
Zwingtip	JKrusas	Usho	TripleBogey25	GreatDeku
SheSaidGoodBye	LeastBadOption	Josandal	Docbad32	Mattack73
Tipsy_Topsy	SecretSexBot	TheReelKanyeWest	Anbu1538	Marximumrunner
OblongPlatypus	Beardedtrogo	TheOnlyCaveat	Stan_Leeway	RunningPT_Lauren
Chweris	Karmicbias	Miikermb	ThatServer	Runlowsky
Microthorpe	LittleEngineThatWill	Stretchy_Arms	BubblesAreMyGame	KoffeeKev
Lowblowlo	cPharoah	Jontas	Beeblebrox4282	Gunslingerroland
BrownSpectacledBear	Run_Work_Mom	SushiHorsie	CokeWithCake	Bshippo
LaceCorsetDolly	Cmc	SwishCheese	Ificandoit	Rickard0
MrCoolguy80	Percinho	Dinosaurweasel	TragicSuperGirl	CMXGuru
Lothirieth	Eibhlin_Andronicus	UltraHobbyJogger	Bark_Bark	Maxillz23
debanddom	midmoddest	skfoto	fcukitstargirl	Mettaur
tr3at_yo_self	spyder9179	Saitoriel	MrsMaryJaneFox	anthonyc99
Jwhartman	Bobbred128	jeremiah406	Laurensvo	jdpatric
jonny_d_n	bugbog	runforipa	TrollingQueen74	rb404
izzieraine	Charliedog51	FatWithCrohns	Cavalcadence	FleshColoredCrayon
inomniaveritas	nick_from_alaksa	mcflynnthm	????????????	????????????
????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????

​

Good morning, Runnit! Before we head into the weekend, we're back one more time with a spotlight! This runner is someone I had the distinct pleasure of meeting and I'm very lucky to have done so. A runner I learned a lot from and am so proud to call him a friend. So grab a seat, maybe a drink and a snack, and let's get to know u/spyder9179!

The Runner:

First name?

Russell

Age?

43

Where are you from?

Wilton, AR

Occupation?

Service Tech (office equipment)

Running Q&A's:

What are your PR's?

5K: 23:04
10K: 49:09
Half: 1:54:19
Full: 4:04:18

What is your distance PR?

50K at Eagle Up this year

What's your highest weekly recorded milage?

48 miles during training for my first full. I guess I didn't realize it at the time, or I would've gone out for 2 more.

What's your comfy pace?

Depends on the day and distance, but lately it's been somewhere between 8:45 and 9:30

How long have you been running?

I started C25K in February of 2015.

Tell us why you began running?

To get healthy and lose weight. I had reached a point at which I needed to become a better me, so I started taking steps (no pun intended) to do so.

Most memorable running moment?

Oh man there's so many. You know how it is, especially when you're a new runner: you're constantly setting goals for yourself; or at least I did. My first 5K, my first sub-30 5K. Then a 10K. I still vividly remember the first time I ever ran 10 miles. I felt invincible all day. There's untold numbers of "smaller" memories like that. Plus being part of the meetup group at EU this year is a pretty special set of memories.But if I can only pick one, it's gotta be finishing my first full marathon. The pride, the pain, the emotions that came with crossing that finish line will be something I'll never forget

Do you have a running mantra?

Only when I'm starting to wear down. Then it's whatever it takes to keep me going. "Only x more miles" or "Just do half a mile more, then reevaluate" or with x miles to go: "I've ran x miles many times before." No one thing that defines my running philosophy though

What time of day do you prefer to run?

95% of my running is done before sunrise. Long runs on the weekend, races, and days I have to reschedule my run for one reason or another are the only times I see the sun when running

Any big races coming up?

I've got a 50K trail race in November that I've got my eye on, and then Jackpot in February. That's the only ones I'm planning around, though I'll pick up a few local 5- and 10Ks here and there, I'm sure, but I probably won't race them.

What are your short-term running goals?

Slowly build up the miles. Try to stay injury free (this is becoming an issue here lately). If everything goes well, do my first 50 miler at Jackpot

What are your long-term running goals?

More and more. If I can pull off the 50M in February, my next steps will be 100K, then maaaayyyybe 100M, though that's a lofty one. At some point I do want to log a sub-4 full, especially since I got so close in Dallas, but I'm not sure when that will be my focus.Every now and then i entertain the notion of doing the 50 states. But at the rate I'm going, that would take a very very long time.

What's one piece of running advice you’d give to the younger version of yourself?

Start. I mainly wish I had started running when I was young. As you can see, I didn't start until I was 40, so I missed out on my best years. And I haven't been at it that long to really see any major mistakes that I've made thus far.

What is something you need to work on to become a better runner?

So, so much, but I just don't do it. Core work, more cross training, speed work, hills. All the things I should already be doing.

What is your current shoe choice?

Whatever is in the rotation. Whenever I buy shoes, I always tell the salesperson that I still have found "The Shoe". The closest I've gotten has been the New Balance FF 1080. I've got two pair of those. I also have some Brooks Ravennas, and Ghost 10s that I cycle through, but probably won't get any more when those wear out.

Trail? Road? Track? Or Treadmill?

Road above all else. A little trail here and there. I don't do any track, and refuse to do anymore treadmill, though the first 6 months when I started was almost exclusively on a treadmill. I just can't do it anymore.

What is your ideal running weather?

40-45 degrees and clear. I do love me some cool weather. Heat and humidity can go screw

Do you have any social media accounts you’d like to share? [Facebook, Strava, Twitter]

My Strava
I hardly ever do anything on the other socials

Just For Fun:

What’s your spirit animal?

I've shared this elsewhere, but a while back there was this bear that ransacked a campsite and drank a bunch of beer, but wouldn't drink the Busch Light. As a beer snob (but only for myself, if you wanna drink a Bud Light or some Natty Ice, more power to ya), I just find it amusing.

What hobbies and interests do you have besides running?

I do a little bit of cycling, but not as much as I should, the running gets in the way. Kayaking, camping, hiking, fishing--though I don't do as much of these as I'd like to. On my nerdy side, I play quite a bit of MTG, and on a fairly regular basis. A light touch of D&D every now and then. Sort of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, when it comes to hobbies.

Do you have any hidden talents?

Hmm. Not really. I can eat a lot of peanut butter--does that count?

Biggest pet peeve?

No surprise here: people that let their dogs run loose. I live in an extremely small town. We have no animal control or leash laws here. There have been "incidents". I will tell people that I hate dogs, but I don't. I strongly despise very specific dogs, but can generally tolerate others.

Dream job! What would it be?

Based on another pet peeve that narrowly lost to the dogs:I would love to edit movie trailers. They show too much of the movie, or reveal major plot points. Subtlety is a lost art. Maybe even edit movies for that matter, but then only be sort of a "final" editor. Directors are too heavy handed when it comes to references, or certain details.

Favorite Quote or Poem?

We all change, when you think about it. We’re all different people all through our lives. And that’s OK, that’s good, you gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. - The Eleventh Doctor

What is your favorite movie?

Ouch. This one's the hardest--there's so many good ones. Too many, in fact. Full disclosure: I took 10 or so of my favorites and picked one of them at random, and the winner is:
Inglorious Basterds
Waltz, Pitt, Fassbender--all great. The bar scene is so good--best scene in the movie. Not saying it's one of the best films, maybe not even the best Tarantino film, but definitely one of my favorites

What is your biggest character flaw?

Impatience. And the older I get the worse it gets. I just don't have the patience that I used to. Mainly when it involves other people. I don't have a problem waiting for something to cook or whatever, but if I'm waiting on someone else to do something, and they take forever, it just crawls all over me

What songs have you been listening to recently?

I don't listen to a lot of music. Usually just when my son is in the car with me. Most of the time I'm listening to podcasts. I can share my favorites there:
#1 with a bullet: Spontaneanation, with Paul F Thompkins. I am deeply saddened that this will end soon. Others, in no particular order : Pistol Shrimps Radio, No Such Thing as a Fish, Mission to Zyxx, Ask Me Another, Plumbing the Deathstar, Wooden Overcoats, How Stuff Works....just to name a few

What are some of your favorite non-running subreddits?

I'm not as active on reddit as I used to be, even less so in these others, but I lurk a lot in:
/cycling
/triathlon ---this may count as running, I'm not sure
/magictcg
/razorbacks

One Last Question:

What is the origin of your username?

Well, it's not that exciting. The spyder part came because I had a high school baseball coach that called me spider. Later, when I had to start coming up with usernames for internet stuff, spyder was often already taken, so I just stuck the last 4 of my home phone, which at the time was 9179, on the end. Haven't had that phone number in years, but that's still what I use, almost everywhere.

Please tag u/spyder9179 when asking a question in this thread.

Previously Featured Spotlight Runners:

Palindrome27	A-german-muffin	xfkirsten	PepperoniFire	rennuR_liarT
Santa Claus	Brwalkernc	Pinkpiggie	Fobo911	Kinsibit
Jaime_manger	Craigster38	Despoena	Philpips	Brunchweasel
Chickensedan	Skragen	Incster	Freedomweasel	Jennifer1911
RedKryptonite	Zebano	Kevin402can	Punkrock_runner	ProudPatriot07
Once_a_hobby_jogger	Loratliff	57001	Borichu	Denovosibi
Causticwonder	Dirtybritch	TheRedInTheSky	Aewillia	Judyblumereference
Flocculus	El_day2	YourShoesUntied	Jeade-en	Kyle-Kranz
ItsReallyReallyTrue	Jangle_Bo_Jingles	RichieClare	sloworfast	RobotPettingZoo
Runwichi	Smruttkay	Sacamato	Kibitzor	Edge767
BrianOgilvie	Cromagnonized	c0me_at_me_br0	Some_Other_Sherman	Caitlionator
Ahf0913	Vermilionweirdo	NonReligiousPopette	JonnyHydra	LadyMasterChemist
Polgara19	Mamabear5678	Octopifungus	Barnaby_McFoo	Zazzera
DAHarlow	IamShartacus	Mayfest	Brotherbock	ThePsion
Zwingtip	JKrusas	Usho	TripleBogey25	GreatDeku
SheSaidGoodBye	LeastBadOption	Josandal	Docbad32	Mattack73
Tipsy_Topsy	SecretSexBot	TheReelKanyeWest	Anbu1538	Marximumrunner
OblongPlatypus	Beardedtrogo	TheOnlyCaveat	Stan_Leeway	RunningPT_Lauren
Chweris	Karmicbias	Miikermb	ThatServer	Runlowsky
Microthorpe	LittleEngineThatWill	Stretchy_Arms	BubblesAreMyGame	KoffeeKev
Lowblowlo	cPharoah	Jontas	Beeblebrox4282	Gunslingerroland
BrownSpectacledBear	Run_Work_Mom	SushiHorsie	CokeWithCake	Bshippo
LaceCorsetDolly	Cmc	SwishCheese	Ificandoit	Rickard0
MrCoolguy80	Percinho	Dinosaurweasel	TragicSuperGirl	CMXGuru
Lothirieth	Eibhlin_Andronicus	UltraHobbyJogger	Bark_Bark	Maxillz23
debanddom	midmoddest	skfoto	fcukitstargirl	Mettaur
tr3at_yo_self	????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????
????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????

Round 2 has closed, and we have our first upset! The ⁷Helsinki Hornets' weakness at fullback was exposed by the four-headed hydra of ¹⁰Dundalk Dromedaries' attack. Only the quality teams remain, so expect even closer match-ups this time around.
The updated bracket can be found here.
Rules are the same as before:

• Voters are encouraged to think about specific offensive vs. defensive match-ups in each ballot, and not vote solely based on overall team quality/popular players.
• If you have an idea for different lineups, let us know in the comments and/or come up with your own formation graphic using this site. Your new formations might be featured in the next round.
  • Alternative lineups for this round submitted by u/notyou16
  • Subs list for each team shows who was left off the original lineup
• To avoid having your browser freeze, close each ballot widget after voting

Credit for the original idea and lineups goes to u/Dhaecktia.
Here we go

Match 1

Antalya Anacondas

• Subs: Jordi Alba, Paco Alcacer, Aurier, Areola, Marcos Alonso
• Captain: Dani Alves
• Manager: Massimiliano Allegri
  vs.
  

Kyoto Kayaks

• Subs: Kurzawa, Konoplyanka, Krychowiak, Kovacic, Kolarov, Dirk Kuyt
• Captain: Vincent Kompany
• Manager: Jurgen Klopp

Match 2

Riyadh Rhinos

• Subs: Rojo, Romagnoli, Rugani, Ramires, Ribery, Rashford
• Captain: Sergio Ramos
• Manager: Claudio Ranieri
  vs.
  

Minneapolis Mud

• Subs/Reserves: Mustafi, Marchisio, Mascherano, Martial, Mkhitaryan, Javi Martinez, Matuidi, Mata, Mertens, Milik, Mertesacker, Milinkovic-Savic, Mbappé, Mahrez, Mané
• Captain: Luka Modric
• Manager: José Mourinho

Match 3

Dundalk Dromedaries

• Subs/Reserves: Draxler, Depay, Douglas Costa, Ousmane Dembelé, Dolberg, De Rossi, Donnarumma
• Captain: David De Gea
• Manager: Didier Deschamps
  vs.
  

Bergamo Beakers

• Subs/Reserves: Barzagli, Bacca, Bender, Brozovic, Berardi, Bernat, Bernardeschi, Bartra, Balotelli, Baines
• Captain: Gianluigi Buffon
• Manager: Marcelo Bielsa

Match 4

Seattle Sabers

• Subs: Renato Sanches, Salah, Bernardo Silva, Sokratis, Süle, Subotic, Sané, Son Heung-Min
• Captain: Darijo Srna
• Manager: Diego Simeone

Courmayeur Cellophane

• Subs: Cuadrado, Carrasco, Emre Can, Coman, Coquelin
• Captain: Giorgio Chiellini
• Manager: Antonio Conte

Note: Our featured athlete will be in and out during this thread as he is working to make cash-monies. Please continue to ask your questions and make comments and he will get to them as soon as he can! Thanks

Happy Friday everyone! I've got to keep this intro short because the boss is already on my tail about getting some work done. Today's featured runner isn't a name you see often around here but that's quite alright because he's got a list of accomplishments a mile long that even I'm a bit envious of. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you... IamShartacus!
Let's do this...

The Runner:

First Name?

Ryan

Age?

30

Where are you from?

New Jersey

Occupation?

Research Physicist

Running Q&A's:

What are your PR’s?

1mi 5:51 5K 19:47 10K 42:44 26.2 3:17:09 50M 7:44:39 100M 19:39:50

What is your distance PR?

102 mi at Grindstone

What’s your highest recorded weekly mileage?

122 mi in a race week 79 mi without a race

What’s your comfy pace?

8:30/mi

How long have you been running?

A little over 4 years

Tell us why you began running?

I was getting fat and unhappy in grad school. I played ultimate frisbee as an undergrad, but I ran out of eligibility and wasn't able to fit practices and tournaments into my schedule any more.
Some friends of mine got me into Tough Mudders, and my in-laws introduced me to hiking and road racing. My endurance was crap, but I was intrigued. In 2013, I decided I was going to run 1,000 miles for the year because it sounded like a nice round number that was still achievable. I guess my addiction progressed from there.

Most memorable running moment?

Finishing my first 100 miler and sobbing into my wife's shoulder in front of my family and friends.

Do you have a running mantra?

Suffer faster.
(i.e., if it hurts to go slow and it hurts to go fast, then go fast)

What time of day do you prefer to run?

After work, usually 7pm-9pm. All day on the weekends if possible.

Any big races coming up?

I race a lot. Here are the highlights:
4/15 Breakneck Point Marathon 4/30 NJ Marathon 5/13 North Face Bear Mountain 50M 6/17 Manitou's Revenge 50M 7/15 Vermont 100 10/8 Grindstone 100

What are your short-term running goals?

I'm totally scattered when it comes to running goals. As Sage Canaday says, any surface, any distance. Here's a general idea.
3:10 at NJ Marathon Sub-20hr at Vermont 100 Sub-40min at any 10K

What are your long-term running goals?

Finish Western States 100 and Hardrock 100

What’s one piece of running advice you’d give to the younger version of yourself?

Start sooner in life! It turns out you enjoy this crazy ass sport.

What is something you need to work on to become a better runner?

My VO2 max is pretty lackluster. It's not a huge concern in ultras since there's so much more strategy involved, but I really want to pick up some speed in my current training cycle.

What is your current shoe choice?

Altra Instincts on roads Altra Lone Peaks on trails

Trail? Road? Track? Or Treadmill?

Trail if possible, but most of my training is on roads. The weather has to be truly apocalyptic for me to use a treadmill.

What is your ideal running weather?

To run fast: 50^o F and cloudy, maybe some light rain To win a race: The worse the weather, the better I'll do.

Do you have any social media accounts you’d like to share? [Facebook, Strava, Twitter]

Instagram @ry_runs Strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/10027961

Just For Fun:

What’s your spirit animal?

The majestic mountain goat

What hobbies and interests do you have besides running?

Ultimate frisbee, hiking, camping, kayaking, rock climbing

Do you have any hidden talents?

I have really hairy feet. Does that count?

Biggest pet peeve?

Slow drivers in the left lane of the highway

Dream job! What would it be?

Mythbuster

Favorite Quote or Poem?

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is." -Kurt Vonnegut

What is your favorite movie?

I don't really have a favorite. Fury Road was cool. I also have a penchant for lying on the couch and watching crappy action movies after long races.

What is your biggest character flaw?

I really really like sleeping in super late

What songs have you been listening to recently?

Believer by Imagine Dragons Human by Rag'n'Bone Man

What are some of your favorite non-running subreddits?

/nba /nfl /ultimate /NationalPark

One Last Question:

What is the origin of your username?

Oh man... Surprisingly enough, my username predates my running days. I used to play this electronic version of Risk, and I would always use Shartacus as my user name (he was, of course, the most feared Roman gladiator). So when I signed up for Reddit on a whim, I essentially used the same name.
Nowadays my feelings on my user name are a mixture of regret and amusement whenever I hear someone say "I signed up for such-and-such race because of IamShartacus's race report."

That's it folks! Have a great weekend and enjoy the miles.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Please tag IamShartacus when asking a question in this thread.

Previously Featured Spotlight Runners:

Palindrome27	A-german-muffin	xfkirsten	PepperoniFire	rennuR_liarT
Santa Claus	Brwalkernc	Pinkpiggie	Fobo911	Kinsibit
Jaime_manger	Craigster38	Despoena	Philpips	Brunchweasel
Chickensedan	Skragen	Incster	Freedomweasel	Jennifer1911
RedKryptonite	Zebano	Kevin402can	Punkrock_runner	ProudPatriot07
Once_a_hobby_jogger	Loratliff	57001	Borichu	Denovosibi
Causticwonder	Dirtybritch	TheRedInTheSky	Aewillia	Judyblumereference
Flocculus	El_day2	YourShoesUntied	Jeade-en	Kyle-Kranz
ItsReallyReallyTrue	Jangle_Bo_Jingles	RichieClare	sloworfast	RobotPettingZoo
Runwichi	Smruttkay	Sacamato	Kibitzor	Edge767
BrianOgilvie	Cromagnonized	c0me_at_me_br0	Some_Other_Sherman	Caitlionator
Ahf0913	Vermilionweirdo	NonReligiousPopette	JonnyHydra	LadyMasterChemist
Polgara19	Mamabear5678	Octopifungus	Barnaby_McFoo	Zazzera
DAHarlow	IamShartacus	????????????	????????????	????????????
????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????
????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????	????????????

The original song is by Yimura, and i discovered this remix a couple years ago. I could swear i found it from the description of a Hydra pvp video, but the only one I can find is the wrong one by DjDrsmith.
There's a ton of remixes on YouTube, but this one is very very subtle, and here's what i can remember about the actual song:

• it's sped up a little
  
• cymbal is added throughout
  
• quiet drum beat in the background
  

Another thing I can remember is the background photo was of a dock (like for a kayak) and a very calm lake. it was also made by a pair of people, one with a really crazy name with either z's or x's in it (probably both).
I'm not sure what else I can add, but I'll keep trying. any help would be greatly appreciated.
edit: totally goofed and forgot to add that it's almost certainly titled as an RnB remix.

Im looking for my 1st kayak to use on Lake Michigan (essentially a small sea) along with rivers and smaller lakes, thus i could probably use something longer and more stable on open water. I found a 17' Hydra Sea Runner for $450 in good condition. From what ive read, the reviews seem to be good. Is this a good price and would it work for my needs?