chapters 1&2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
chapter 8
chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
The lecture was supposed to be on Rationality 101, apparently not for Newcomers only. Serene was there to have her back but G was having a hard time focusing.
The boring black uniform more fitting for a hotel receptionist defaced the godlike beauty standing in front of a huge screen. Gentry couldn’t believe her eyes: this was the man she had her hands on a little while ago?
No, it couldn’t be.
It had been just an avatar, too perfect in its unblemished visage, too pure for this world. Yet the man whose face she remembered as if it was etched on the back of her eyelids, who she’d been constantly thinking about, who her hands itched to snatch, was standing right there, in the flesh.
Back in the dreamy simulated world she caught herself thinking that a trim waist like this couldn’t anatomically work on a human, yet here he was: a towering spread of fit shoulders perfectly balanced above the flexible whip of his midsection. The light-grey eyes that betrayed every movement of his pupils were as real as the ones that reflected the mock moon during her test. Below them lay the sharp slope of the cheekbones one could cut themselves on.
The only thing a bit different, apart from the outfit choice, was the young god’s hair. In the simulation, it was flowing and probably too long to be practical. This person’s mane was much shorter and fell down his neck in a neat ponytail, tastefully tamed with a single hairpin.
She had to get her hands on this treasure.
He was making last minute preparations for the lecture, looking through the papers on the desk, dark strands framing his face, light grey eyes sharp in careful concentration.
Professor Q, huh.
He said this was his name, and so did the note on the lecture hall door.
She was sure it was the man who had melted in her arms making the most delicious sounds a male throat could produce.
Had he recognised her?
Unlikely.
At the time of the simulation session, she didn’t have a camera that could pick up her facial features but just to be on the safe side, she decided to go by “G” in his class. There were bound to be lots of people with a name starting with a G, right? What would be the odds it was this particular newcomer that Q had tested that would end up in his class?
The man finally lifted his eyes at the audience and a gentle smile momentarily graced his features before disappearing as if he didn’t see someone he’d expected to.
The holoboard on the wall behind him obediently lit up following his nonchalant gesture. Gentry found it annoying that one needed a pair of special glasses to see all the augmented reality stuff and really navigate the city but again, with Sereen’s help she had more or less gotten used to it in the couple of days she had to deal with the necessities like settling down, getting food and finding her way around Ashtapada.
Still, could they use a piece of chalk or, at least, a marker to write on the board? No need to show off your Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism tech just to write a couple of notes on the board!
On second thought, high-tech-crazy or not, if this city brought up men like this one, she would definitely do her best to stay here to… reap the benefits!
They took a desk next to a huge clear floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the winter garden.
“Professor Q seems a little distracted today,” Sereen said, swiftly tapping a couple of buttons on G’s wrist to show her how to confirm that she was attending the lecture. “He’s usually much more chatty and friendly. I wonder what got into him.”
“Is he?” Gentry responded with an artificial air of indifference. “I just hope he’s more open to a discussion than that Poe guy.”
“He is! And Professor Poe isn’t that bad,” Sereen reprimanded before chuckling a little — since his little secret became known to students, he became known as Holopoe. “Just wait and see, it’s gonna be a blast. Q’s lectures are always very engaging.”
It proved to be utter bullshit.
After fiddling with the symbols on the interactive screen for ten minutes into the class, students getting more and more agitated behind his back, the lecturer seemed to give up. Turning back to the audience, he absentmindedly nodded to a couple of people in the lecture hall and sighed with a painfully fake smile.
“For today’s class, we are going to need to read a certain extract from a book,” he said, tone apologetic for some reason, but it solidified G’s conviction that she already knew this person. “I’ve just sent it to each of your wristcomms. We’ll have some quiet time and read it by ourselves, alright?”
“Reading from the comm?” Sereen mumbled to herself. “Couldn’t he just print them out?”
The rest of the students’ grumbles showed that they shared her disappointment. Q could only hopelessly smile again before returning to his work on the board.
Reading from the little semi-transparent screens was indeed torture. Quickly giving up on trying to awkwardly use gestures for scrolling through the text, she looked out of the window to entertain herself with the garden outside. From the modest height they were sitting at, the people below were quite discernible, partly hidden by the greenery, spread here and there in small groups and pairs. Gentry longed to be there, too. What was the use of being here with the most attractive person in the whole world if the only thing she could see was his back?
Well, the back didn’t look half bad, if she was honest, and what was below also pleased the eye.
But still. It would soon bore even the most easily entertained.
Her gaze fell to a small clearing where a lone male figure was sitting, writing something in a notebook. By the looks of it, the notebook was a real paper-made thing without the bells and whistles usual for Ashtapada. The next thing G noticed was a pair of slender legs, barefoot, stretched to dip the toes into the clear water of the artificial stream.
God bless the urban designers of this place!
The figure lifted the head and in an inconceivably graceful motion, swung the long blond bangs away from the face.
G straightened her back. Was it... Ok, maybe Q was the most handsome man she’d seen in her life but this... This was the younger boy she’d noticed a couple of days back, the one in a plaid skirt, shamelessly flirting with everyone within reach. Today, he wasn’t wearing one but the blue jeans hugging his thighs, rolled up almost to the knees, presented a picture just as tantalizing. Even with the hair was a completely different colour, even though the half-up, half-down style kept his face hidden, she was absolutely certain it was the same person.
Just you wait, young beauty, as soon as this “lecture” was over, your princess in shining armour was coming to pick you up!
Suddenly snapping out of the dull weariness, she turned on the auglasses S helped her obtain earlier and tapped away on her comm screen.
What a chance to give the local text sharing feature a go!
“The garden is pretty, but with a blossom like you, it is truly breathtaking. I wonder if anyone has picked this sweet flower or if anyone dares to,” she typed a cheesy note and folded the message into a neat 3D figurine of an origami paper crane with her fingers in the air.
Was S watching? Screw it, even if she was, she couldn’t read the message with her glasses off, right?
Carefully aiming the device at the lone figure, she launched the crane downwards, and it fluttered like a weightless butterfly in spirals, through the glass and right into the young man’s lap, not disturbing the notebook pages. He started at first at the intrusion but then turned his own glasses on and unfolded the message. A shy smile appeared on his plump lips, and he looked flattered, turning his head around to see if the sender was in sight. Catching no one, he typed something below the initial message and deftly folded it back into a crane that, to G’s surprise, flew directly at her, in uneven spirals along the wall. The man traced it with a smile, propping himself back on his arms, his whole slim body and face on full display now.
God, was he good-looking.
Easily passing the physical border of the glass again, the crane crashed into Gentry’s wristcomm, dutifully delivering the message and betraying her tactical position at the same time. An amused kind of surprise showed on the young man’s face and he waved at her to show that she had been exposed. She waved back, trying to look nonchalant but probably failing miserably.
Very smooth, G, way to go.
The message read, “Is a flower only good for looking at? Not this one.”
Oooh, this boy was playing with fire!
“Hey, G,” Sereen nudged. “Have you finished reading?”
“Mm? Oh, yeah.” Gentry lied easily. She had skimmed the first couple of paragraphs and was sure she’d be able to come up with something if asked.
“Done everybody?” the deep gentle voice called from the holoboard and G’s attention snapped back to the dignified face.
The class murmured affirmatively.
“I’m sorry today’s lecture isn’t as fun as usual,” he admitted. “I must say I’m still unsure how to approach such complex topic as this one. But with your help, I hope we’ll figure it out.”
Everyone seemed to perk up.
“You just read an extract on paradoxes,” Q went on. “And you might be wondering why we are raising a philosophical topic on a rational thinking course.”
“There you go,” Sereen whispered. “He’s back to normal!”
G humphed. This did seem interesting. Was it a good idea to read the extract after all?
Q continued, “In the text, you might have encountered the definition of a paradox. Would anyone explain it with their own words?”
A raised hand and the lecturer’s nod brought some courageous soul to their feet.
“It’s when you start with the correct premises, use consistent logic but wind up with an impossible conclusion,” they said. “There are three types: falsidical, veridical and antimony-type, which are...”
“Correct,” Q smiled and nodded the person back down. It was a smile worth starting a thousand wars over.
“Now there’s a reason why I asked you to read about them. Why do you think people have been fascinated with paradoxes for such a long time?”
S raised her hand and received a kind invitation.
“I might be wrong,” she said. “But it seems that they point at the limitations of our thinking, things that seem rational but in fact aren’t. We feel that with our all-conquering logic we can solve any puzzle but it’s not always the case. Right?”
“This is very insightful,” the teacher confirmed. “It is believed by many that what’s rational is true and therefore what rationality cannot explain must be false.”
“I definitely know someone who would die on that hill,” Gentry grumbled under her breath.
“I’m sorry?” Q asked. “Is there something you wanted to add... sorry, I don’t know your name?”
Still half mad with professor Poe, Gentry stood up. “It’s G, I’m a Newcomer. I was saying how a human mind can fool itself into thinking it knows what it looks at as long as it makes sense. But in reality, it’s not there, like the sky.”
That was the only thing she remembered from that last lecture! She felt the tips of her ears heat up but the kind and considering look on Q’s face showed her gamble paid off.
“These are very insightful observations, G, why don’t we try exploring them together?” — he waived her to sit down and turned back to the class — “Five minutes to discuss how paradoxes might reveal the weaknesses of rational thinking. Send your answers to the board when you’re done.”
“Whoa, daring as usual,” Sereen smiled. “I knew you’d enjoy his class.”
“Now, consider these two questions,” Q said to another student who stood up at his hand wave. “If an unstoppable force meets an indestructible object, what is going to happen?”
The person seemed to contemplate it for a while and the teacher didn’t rush him.
“Isn’t it one of those which are impossible to solve because the existence of the one automatically disproves the existence of the other?”
Q nodded, “Correct. The second one about the barber in a small town is of the same sort. Sereen?”
S stood up too, “The one that shaves all and only men that don’t shave themselves?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “At first, a premise like this seems perfectly reasonable, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” S responded, somewhat rashly. “But it’s clear that a barber like this cannot exist.”
“Wait, really?” Gentry whispered as Q nodded in satisfaction and urged her friend to go on.
“Yes, if we ask ourselves if this barber shaves himself. If he doesn’t, then he is part of the group which he does shave that do not shave themselves, but if he is in this group, then he does shave himself which makes it impossible for him to be this barber by definition.”
While the rest of the class was catching up with the logic, Q’s smile got only wider, more inviting.
“What does it tell us about the nature of the premise then?” he asked.
“That although it seems that it sounds logical on the surface, it is in fact nonsense and we don’t even need to hear the rest of the riddle to discard it completely,” S concluded.
The man chuckled.
“Well, I wouldn’t be that brash, to be honest, but on balance, you’re right,” he said. “If you stay after the lecture, I might recommend a couple of books on the topic. Your Newcomer friend is welcome to stay, too.”
G put up the best of the aloof fronts, “I’d be happy to, Professor.”
“Q is fine,” he smiled again and went on addressing the rest of the class that immediately exploded into a heated discussion.
***
“Basically, what I think we’re supposed to learn from this,” S concluded after a while, standing up so that everyone could hear her. “Is that before applying rationality, we have to make sure that all the premises we are dealing with are in fact realistic. Otherwise, there is no way rational thinking will help us.”
“Excellently put, as always,” Q applauded. “I’d love to see if everyone agrees or has something else to add to the discussion but our time is up. Feel free to write me a letter with your reflections on the topic.”
As interesting as the class was, the urge to leave the premises as soon as the teacher dismissed everyone seemed to be universal and applicable even to the Ashtapadans.
“I have to go now,” Sereen said. “Text you later, ok?” And with a reciprocal nod to Q, disappeared in the doors, joining the rest of the students.
Sadly, she couldn’t recall what they were talking about after the lecture, nor what titles Professor recommended for some home reading. She just hoped she didn’t make a fool of herself.
What Gentry did remember though was that after Q left as well and she came up to the panoramic window, Sereen and the mysterious flower boy were leaving the garden together. And it was hard not to notice that her new friend took off her wristcomm before they took off, and hid it in the tall grass.

I plan on visiting a contractor’s office tomorrow to let him see how it feels.
DISCLAIMER: I have taken the liberty to use substitute names for the people involved. As many have noted in the comments, the dialogue feels out of place and weirdly-spaced. I’ll admit things have been somewhat paraphrased and summarized. Please keep that in mind as you read.
I went into my local hardware store tonight for a quick trip to pick up some supplies I was running low on. Quick in and out trip, 15 minutes at most. Sad to say it didn’t end up being a fast trip because when I arrived at the paint counter, I was stuck behind a contractor who wanted to cause a scene.
The guy in front of me was with his colleague, and they were arguing loudly about which paint finish to choose. They had a substantial number of paint cans on the counter, including some expensive specialty paints. When the contractor got to the counter, he froze and began searching around for an associate, who I presume he wanted to come and mix the paint for him.
The problem was that he didn’t place any orders. He just locked up and stared directly at a young woman who was busy stocking shelves in the next aisle over. After about 30 - 45 seconds of not saying anything, he loudly shouted, “Hey, you!” in his most condescending tone, followed by “Can you come here and mix my damn paint already?!”
His tactic worked, as the employee in question immediately put down her items and walked over. He was doing that typical arms-crossed stance, looking like everything was a giant inconvenience, and I will note, the man still hadn’t specified any of the paints yet.
When this young woman was in speaking range, the contractor began to berate her. “It’s frustrating to see staff just standing around doing nothing when they should be helping customers. Can you do your job and mix my paint?”
“Excuse me?” she responded.
“You heard me. Get off your butt and mix my paint so I can get out of here.”
Now, I would like to note a few things about this interaction up to this point. First, this individual was still in a work uniform…a branded polo for a local contracting company that I won’t name here, but one in which I know the owner pretty well. He’s a family friend. Second, he was still wearing his name tag (Mark, somehow I hope you’re competent enough to find your way here so you can see this story). Because of this, I knew how to address him.
Eventually, he asked the associate very rudely if she’s going to mix his paint, and she flat out told him, “No, I don’t think so. Not after how you’ve treated me. You can talk with my manager.” Good for her. She got on a walkie and called for a manager to come to the paint counter the contractor was towering over and briskly walked off towards the Customer Service counter at the front of the store. The contractor starts loudly complaining about how this is all nonsense and he’s just expressing his rights.
It was at this point where I actually found some courage and decided to give my opinion, unsolicited, just so this guy could get an outside perspective on how much of a jerk he was being. “Excuse me, but your rights don’t protect you from looking like a jerk to random strangers in a hardware store when you treat other people like trash.” The man wheeled around and locked eyes with me. “What did you just say to me?” I just smirked and said, “Oh, hard of hearing are we? I’m pretty sure you heard what I said.”
The man visibly shook on the spot. “This isn’t any of your business, so butt out!”
“I disagree. When I see someone acting like a bully for no good reason, I make it a point to speak up. You seem to think that by claiming your rights, you can say whatever you want without consequence, but that isn’t how it works, sir. Your rights protect you from government overreach for speaking your mind, but they don’t protect you from the consequences you face from others for your words or your actions.”
“That’s beside the point. I’m sick and tired of these lazy workers doing nothing and getting paid for it.” He responded, rather loudly and unaware that there were quite a few people staring at this point. Hooray. Ignorance has entered the chat.
The manager showed up, and he starts in on how he ordered his paint and that the associate in question was VERY rude to him and refused to serve him. He started stating that she told him he wouldn’t get help because he was a contractor when I interjected again.
“Sir, that is NOT what happened. This gentleman didn’t place any orders and immediately started shouting at your employee, just for the sake of being upset. He was rude, unpleasant, and even made unnecessary comments.”
He wheeled around at me again and yelled, “Shut up and mind your business!” before going on his tirade again. Something about lazy workers, something about his rights and speaking his mind.
“You know, this is very unfair of you.” I started again. “You’ve put that poor girl in an unwinnable situation. Now that you’ve raised this untrue complaint, her manager is going to have to have words with her even though she hasn’t done anything wrong. Does that sound fair to you, Mark?” I don’t think he realized he was still in uniform, because he looked at me puzzled at how I knew his name. “How would YOU feel if someone came into your place of business and told your boss a bunch of lies about how YOU were treating them unfairly when you knew perfectly well that it was a lie? Or even better, how would your boss react if he knew you were acting like this WHILE STILL IN UNIFORM with his place of business plastered all over your chest?” When he heard me say the name of his boss, he stopped cold. “Yes Mark. I know your boss VERY well, and I think I might be paying him a visit tomorrow. That is unless you decide to apologize to that girl for being a lying prick instead.”
The guy then became very rushed and suddenly in a colossal hurry. He muttered something about people not minding their own business, to which I replied with, “I’m just eXpReSsInG mY RiGhTs!” Spongebob sarcastic voice and all. He finally placed his paint orders, and the manager oversaw the mixing. His colleague started in about how I better not show up to his office tomorrow…something directed at me, but I wasn’t paying him any attention and brushed him off. I was just staring at Mark and watching him pack up his paint.
Eventually, he got all of his paint cans into his cart and he marched out, but he didn’t apologize to the manager or the employee and gave me a hearty, “Go fuck yourself, asshole!” as he flipped me off. I scanned my items and paid for my supplies, but man, was I smiling from ear to ear.
Afterwards, I made it a point to go and speak with the manager and the employee in the Customer Service center. As expected, the manager was having a conversation with the employee about that customer, and she thanked me for speaking up. I’ve worked retail before, so I know what it’s like having to deal with jerks like Mark. It’d be a cold day in hell before I let a contractor bully an employee then weasel his way into a victim role with management. Not on my watch.
So now my next play is to show up to this contracting office tomorrow. I really hope Mark is there. I hope he’s the opener. I’m going to walk in and just smile at him. Ask to see his manager. Then I think I’m going to go in and just weave the NICEST story about how he treated the employees at the hardware store, so much so that I was compelled to stop in and tell his boss that he has a real winner on his hands, and that I’m a customer for life now.
Maybe that way, he might get a message. MAYBE, he will realise that I could have started a whole shitstorm for him, but I chose not to, because unlike him, I’m not a jerk.
tl;dr (For the upset contractors in this thread who don’t like reading, it seems): Contractor got big mad for no reason and berated a hardware store employee while he himself was wearing his work uniform. I’ll be paying his boss, a family friend, a visit tomorrow to discuss his employee’s behaviour while still representing his place of work.

So I thought I’d leave my review since it’s summer and I’m sure others are wondering what to try. I live in Michigan and the summers here are pretty humid. I know the cooling vests/accessories are not generally recommended for humid weather so I thought I’d first try the accessory items before the vest and see how it goes.
Items:
https://canadapooch.com/collections/dog-cooling/products/wet-reveal-dog-cooling-bandana-scarf?variant=39961894158421
https://ruffwear.com/products/swamp-cooler-neck-gaiter
I personally like the Ruffwear cooling neck gaiter more.
The one cool feature I liked about the Canada pooch bandana was that they had an option to buy a kind that changes from being a solid color when dry, to happy faces appearing when wet. This is a nice feature so you know when the bandana needs to be resoaked or just taken off if it’s dry and there’s no more water.
Only issue is, i think i ordered a size too large. I ordered a medium for my Maltese mix dog who is 20 pounds. Should have stuck with a small. No matter how much i tied it, it fell off. I think it was too long for my dog so it bothered him when he walked. But I’m not even bothering to exchange it and the reason for that is, i don’t think a size small would have been useful anyway. Even if it stuck on to him, i don’t like the concept of the bandana as much as the gaiter. It doesn’t stick around him/his neck or chest enough to make a difference anyway. What’s nice about the Ruffwear gaiter is that it wraps around his neck so it stays in place against his skin and isn’t hanging out like a bandana typically does. If i wanted to cover the chest and back area that’s where a harness would come in handy. Neck gaiter i purchased in a size x-small by the way. Fits perfect. Their sizing runs differently since it’s a gaiter, not a bandana, so there’s more size options.
Now the neck gaiter i think made an actual difference. Yesterday when i took my dog out in 82-85 degree weather, he wanted to go back inside within 5 minutes and ran for his life for water, understandably so. Today i put on the Ruffwear neck gaiter for the first time and he was able to have a typical 15-20 minute quick walk around our condo complex. He was way more relaxed coming back compared to yesterday’s walk. And both days have been just as humid/sunny at around the same time both days.
Now don’t get me wrong, i don’t think this gaiter would have been as useful in humid weather for long walks/walking long trails. Unless you had a ton of water to constantly re-soak the gaiter with, but that sounds too heavy to carry on such long walks. In dry heat I’m sure it’s more manageable.
But this helped me decide to just go ahead and get my dog a cooling harness. I would be using it for shorter walks so I’m not worried about it drying up and making him hotter in the humidity. I don’t give my dog long walks if it’s that hot outside anyways, not worth risking it. He’s sensitive to heat as most dogs are.
Hope this helped anyone who’s going back and forth about the humidity issue with cooling wear. As a bonus review, i got my dog one of the cooling toys from Canada pooch, specifically the dolphin. I believe there’s 4 different animal cooling toys. He’s obsessed with it and i haven’t even soaked it yet lol!!!
I didn’t bother with the hat because i know he will get it off. Same with pavement boots. He would never allow me to get those on. I just avoid walks on pavement if it’s that hot. Luckily for me it’s easy to avoid since grass is right by my garage and door.
I’m not interested in cooling vests since my dog is always leashed when outside (unless at dog park but still needs a harness between going in and out of park and car. He’s a puller so can’t use leash with his collar.
I see that both Ruffwear and Canada pooch have a cooling harness but i think I’m gonna go with Ruffwear just because i know their material on the neck gaiter worked on my dog. That doesn’t mean Canada pooch material wouldn’t work, but i wasn’t able to test it out since the bandana design is flawed in my opinion. I’ll edit my review of the Ruffwear cooling harness once i have it. Hopefully it’s just as affective as their neck gaiter was for short walks.
TLDR: get the Ruffwear cooling neck gaiter over the Canada pooch cooling bandana in my opinion. Neck gaiter is a better design over a bandana. These items work fine in humid heat as long as it’s for short walks. Haven’t and wouldn’t try for long walks. I avoid long walks in high heat anyways, especially since it’s humid by me. Will try Ruffwear cooling harness next for the same purposes and edit this post with my review!

Hi all! After a crazy, but incredibly fun and rewarding year earning my pilot certs, I wanted to make a write-up of my experience in hopes that it’ll be helpful for any other aspiring or current pilots. To summarize, I went from zero aviation experience to CFII in 13 months, Part 61, paying as I go and on the pretty cheap side. I do want to emphasize that I was ~incredibly~ lucky and had some very generous people who helped me out, and I could not have done this as efficiently and cheaply if it weren’t for them. I’m going to list all my takeaways below, but I think my biggest piece of advice is to network as much as you can because there are some amazing, generous people in this community that want to see us all succeed.
Background:
For context, I’m in my mid to late twenties and have been in the workforce for about 5 years. Through a combination of factors I decided to make a career switch to professional pilot but was hesitant because I did not want to take on debt. I have a family member who is an airline pilot who helped me devise a plan. I moved home and kept working my job remotely so I was able to put all my paychecks towards flying.
Private Pilot – 3 months, 75 hours TT, $12k
I did my private in a Piper Archer owned by my local FBO. The owner allowed my family member to be my instructor and gave me a small discount for pre-paying hours. We flew almost daily. I also took ground school at another local FBO in-person, and that was much more helpful than having to learn everything on my own because I was brand new to aviation. I took the private written exam as soon as my ground school concluded which was also the week of my checkride (bad idea in hindsight, but it worked out).
I solo’d around 25 hours and took my checkride with about 60 hours in the Archer (15 additional hours were in a friend’s airplane). The checkride was challenging, but straightforward and I was well prepared. The DPE said good things about me afterward and I was officially a private pilot! I’d be happy to answer questions or do a writeup in a separate post on any of my checkrides but for the sake of brevity I’ll skip that for now.
~Key takeaways from private:~
Fly as often as possible and make sure your instructor is aligned with that. Also stay on top of ground school. Also, don’t rush to take the checkride before you’re ready, it’s okay to have a lot of practice first. Lastly, I know DPE availability is a big issue in lots of areas and can cause people to have to wait on a checkride even though they’ve been ready for months. In my experience, if you try hard enough and call around, you will find someone. However, it might mean you have to travel a little bit which I know is not possible for everyone.
Instrument – 2 months, 150 hours TT, $14k
I was feeling a little fatigued after private so I was slow to start studying for instrument. I started by doing a lot of flying for fun, mainly flying in the Archer by myself on little cross countries to check off some of the requirements (in hindsight I should have found someone to split time with).
I did my instrument at a flight school in one of the adjacent states. This particular school specializes in accelerated programs, but they do not have a formalized instrument course. I went in-person and spoke with the director of flight operations to discuss my options. Since I had to take PTO to do this, the goal was to finish my instrument in one week with the checkride at the end. I paid a flat rate for the airplane and instructor time. I also stayed over there during that week so I had to pay for housing as well.
Before I went over there, I did some prep in the Archer that I did my private in and took the written exam (Sheppard air). I also purchased Sporty’s Instrument course and used that to prep and for the endorsement needed to take the written. The week I spent at the flight school was honestly a blast, and I was able to take my checkride on day 7 with 20 hours in the plane and about 4 hours of sim time. Again, happy to discuss the checkride in the comments or another post.
~Key takeaways from instrument:~
TAKE THE IRA, FII, AND IGI EXAMS AT THE SAME TIME. You only have to purchase the IRA Sheppard course and can take all 3 exams back to back. Also, again stay on top of ground school because instrument flying requires a lot of technical knowledge. But it honestly is really fun!
Commercial – 3 months, 263 hours TT, $8k
The biggest challenge for commercial was time building, of course. This is where networking saved me. I made friends with another instructor who frequented my local FBO who also owns a plane. He needed the time as well so we flew together a lot and I paid for the fuel. I also had another friend at the airport who owns a plane that he doesn’t fly often and offered to let me time build in that (again, I’ve been so lucky to come across some very generous people).
I did my checkride in the Archer that I learned in with my family member signing me off, and with the same DPE who did my private. Commercial was probably the easiest one I had done so far, but it still was no joke! I will say I was amazed with how much easier things came to me by this point versus when I first started, which was a great feeling.
~Key takeaways from commercial:~
Network, network, network. Spend as much time as you can at your local FBO or flight school and make friends with everyone. Like I’ve said, there are some very generous people out there who love to help out new pilots, and I could not have made it this far without them.
Also, in retrospect, it would have been a really good idea to have done commercial from the right seat. I’ve heard of a lot of people doing that and if I had, I would have been able to knock out CFI a lot sooner and cheaper.
Multi-engine add-on – 1 week, 298 hours TT, $4.3k
Shortly after getting my CPL, I had a week of PTO and decided to knock out my multi add-on. I found a flight school with a Seminole and got ahold of their MEI, and we figured we could knock it out during that week. I contacted the DPE who did my private and commercial and we scheduled my checkride for the end of the week. This flight school was about 2 hours driving from home, and I was able to stay with friends while I was there.
This one was a little challenging because this was in January in the midwest and we were seeing a lot of low IFR days. We ended up getting weathered out the first half of the week, but luckily the Seminole was an easy transition for me and we got me trained up in 3 days, 8 hours of flying. I took the checkride as scheduled and passed (I will say I have had extremely good luck with weather for all of my checkride days so far).
Sidenote: Prior to this checkride, I also took the AGI and IGI exams and asked the DPE who did my multi checkride to sign off on the ground instructor certificate at the same time. I did this because I’ve heard it helps when applying to CFI jobs (shows a little extra effort) and it was easier to do it this way versus having a FSDO issue the cert. Cost me $50 to the DPE.
~Key takeaways from multi:~
Do your research to find an airplane at a good rate. I paid $395 per hour which included the instructor, but I’ve seen some schools charging a lot more. Also, I looked into schools with accelerated courses that you pay as a package, and based on my experience I would not recommend because I was able to do it much cheaper my way.
My instructor did a good job of making sure I knew all the aircraft systems well enough to teach them in case I go for my MEI (which I would like to do soon). Since the MEL is light on material, I highly recommend this. Also, when I was doing research I was told to look for a Seminole or DA-42 because they’re easy trainers, which I would agree with based on my limited experience.
CFI – 1 month (on top of all my experience thus far), 316 hours TT, $5k
This was the scariest one for me. I had heard all along that CFI is the hardest and longest checkride and for the most part I would agree. I originally was planning on going to a school with an accelerated program for this, but after asking around I decided to do it on my own (with my family member signing me off).
This one was heavy on ground school. I got some lesson plans from various people as I heard that’s what everyone has prepared for the checkride, but I hardly ended up using them. I also had a friend send me PowerPoints he made for the technical subject areas. I edited them/made them my own and these are what I ended up using for the checkride along with a couple props.
As far as studying goes, the thing I found most helpful was watching random YouTube videos before bed every night. Although it was all review, I picked up a lot of tidbits that weren’t quite drilled into my brain as I still feel new to aviation overall. As the DPE described it, to be a good CFI you basically need to be a nerd about everything aviation and that’s what I tried to do. I would guess that I studied a few hours a day for a month and a half or so. As for the flying part, I had a little bit of right seat experience prior to buckling down for CFI (probably under 5 hours), so I’d guess it took me about 5 more hours to feel comfortable in the right seat. I took the checkride with the same DPE who did my private, commercial, and multi and passed! The checkride was 8 hours total so definitely a long day. As we were debriefing, I went ahead and scheduled CFII with him as well.
~Key takeaways from CFI:~
Start nerding out now (if you aren’t already). Keep a running collection of links and videos that explain concepts well or teach you something interesting, they will be useful for the checkride. Also, don’t buy lesson plans. As my DPE put it, there are really only like 5 lesson plans for any given topic and we all steal them from each other, so no need to reinvent the wheel or pay for them if someone else can give them to you. I’d also recommend really getting to know the PTS, because it lays out very clearly what you are required to do on the checkride (for example you know you’re going to need to teach runway incursions so it’s a good opportunity to be really prepared). I’m sure my last point is most applicable to those doing CFI on their own since you won’t have a school telling you exactly what to expect.
CFII – 1 month, 368 hours TT, $1.3k
CFII was possibly the easiest checkride to prepare for. I did this one in a friend’s airplane – a Mooney with a G750 and GFC 500 autopilot. It probably took about 10 hours of flying (I already have lots of time in this plane) to be ready. For studying, I reviewed Pilot Cafe, YouTube videos, and obtained some lesson plans from a friend. I did not use PowerPoints or anything for this one. I also had already completed the written exam back when I did my instrument rating. I’m not sure what else to say about this one, but I did it with the same DPE again and passed. It feels amazing to be done with checkrides for a while!
~Key takeaways from CFII:~
Select an airplane with a good autopilot. This made the flying portion of the checkride super easy. For the oral, I highly recommend working with instructors who send students for a lot of instrument checkrides. I feel like there are so many very specific questions that DPEs like to ask on instrument/CFII checkrides, so it helps if you have someone who knows what those questions are going to be. Also, FlightInsight on YouTube and Boldmethod were my favorite resources for this one. Lastly, make sure you know your avionics and autopilot really well, including reading and being able to teach all of the limitations that are in the user manuals.
Notes regarding cost:
I did a decent job of tracking all my expenses throughout this process. I noted in the title that the total cost to me was about $50k, which consists of the ~$45k that I discussed above plus some additional expenses. I also did my commercial ASES rating at Jack Brown’s seaplane base which cost me about $2.5K total (of course this was just for fun). The remaining amount consists of things like buying a headset, books, random accessories, and even some things I called “unnecessary expenses”. I temporarily paid for a membership at a flight school that I barely ended up using, so I put that in that category. While I did everything pretty cheap, I was definitely not perfect!
Here is a further breakdown of my expenses:
Airplane rentals/fuel - $36.9k
Instructor fees - $2.5k (bear in mind I got a lot of free instruction from friends & family)
Ground school - $1.3k (includes actual ground school and books)
Flight accessories - $1.2k
Written exam fees - $1.2k (8 exams total)
DPE fees - $5.8k (7 checkrides; this includes seaplane)
Medical fees - $290
Housing - $900
Misc/unnecessary expenses - $1.2k
Total: $51.7k
Overall Takeaways:
- For those doing Part 61/pay as you go, I highly recommend finding an independent instructor with a flexible schedule. This was key for me because I had a work schedule to work around.
- NETWORKING/MAKING FRIENDS. Go to every fly-in you can, always stop into the FBO to say hi to people, etc. etc. Having friends in aviation was monumentally helpful for me and saved me SO much money. Cannot stress this enough!
- If you are on a timeline, make sure you set specific milestones and when you are going to hit them. Make sure your instructor is on board too.
- Do your research! Reddit has been a fantastic resource for me throughout this process. Talk to people who have achieved the things you want to achieve. I really cannot thank you all enough for all your help and insights on your experiences!
Again, I am more than happy to answer any and all questions. I also apologize if anything is jumbled or confusing; this took a long time to write and I’m sure I missed things. I will also disclaim that while I did a good job of tracking all my expenses, I was not perfect and YMMV for sure. I just hope this gave a somewhat helpful picture for those hoping to do something similar to what I did.
As for next steps, I am aiming for the airlines one of these days! I have a couple interviews at flight schools coming up so I am planning to quit my job and finally start flying full-time soon. I want to do my MEI sometime soon as well but I haven’t figured out how I’m going to pay for the PIC time yet.
I also want to say that I absolutely love general aviation and hope to always be involved in it. I have made so many friends, had some incredible experiences, and learned way more than I could have ever imagined in the past year. For anyone thinking about flying, hopefully this is your sign to just do it! Feel free to comment with questions!

Date	Stage	Route	Length	Type	Time
Wed. May 22	17	Selva di Val Gardena>Passo Brocon	159 km	Hard	ca. 17:15 CET

Climbs

Name	Cat	Km	Length	Avg
Passo Sella	2	km 8.9	5.5 km	6.8 %
Passo Rolle	1	km 67.6	19.8 km	4.8 %
Passo Gobbera	3	km 100.4	5.7 km	6.0 %
Passo Brocon (1st ascent)	2	km 127.2	15.4 km	5.6 %
Passo Brocon (2nd ascent)	1	km 159.0	11.9 km	6.6 %

Sprints

Name	Km
Predazzo	km 46.7
Canal S. Bovo (Intergiro)	km 112.0
Pieve Tesino	km 147.2

Weather

Between 10°C and 15°C. Rainy all day, but not as miserable as yesterday.

Stage breakdown

Most of tomorrow’s stage will take place in Trentino, an autonomous province of northern Italy. It’s one of the host provinces of the Tour of the Alps and indeed tomorrow’s stage feels like it belongs there as it’s relatively short but relentless. Interestingly, for whatever reason, the Giro always seems to visit Trentino on stage 17- it’s always been the case since 2017- and this is the 5th consecutive year we’re having an uphill finish there. While the area features several well-known climbs, in recent years the race has often ventured into uncharted (or almost uncharted) territory, and this will be the case in 2024 as well.
The stage will begin in South Tyrol, not far from where today’s stage ended, and it’s not going to be a gentle start: the first 10 kms take place on the upper slopes of Passo Sella, one of the most scenic roads through the Dolomites, with a cat 2 KOM at the top. A long descent through the beautiful Fassa and Fiemme valleys will follow, and the peloton will reach Predazzo, where the first intermediate sprint is located; this small town will host the ski jumping events at the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics, and it will undoubtedly give commentators the chance to bring up an obscure fact about the Giro’s defending champion.
Said intermediate sprint marks the beginning of the second categorized climb of the day: cat 1 Passo Rolle, a long slog with mellow gradients and a plateau-ish section in the middle. A very long descent- nearly 30 kms, all on a highway- will bring the riders into the final section of the race. After the brief cat 3 Passo Gobbera and the Intergiro sprint in Canal S. Bovo, the riders will start ascending towards Passo Brocon, a small and rather remote ski station, much more modest than the resorts that we’ve been visiting in the past two stages. There are three roads converging at the pass, and the stage will visit all three of them! First off, the peloton will reach the pass from the northeast- a long but regular climb, labelled as a cat 2; then, they will descend via the southeastern side, reaching the last intermediate sprint of the day in Pieve Tesino- a tiny mountain hamlet which was also the birthplace of Alcide Degasperi, one of the most influential politicians in Italy’s history and a founding father of the European Union.
Right after that, the peloton will head back towards Passo Brocon via the remaining way up: a narrow secondary road approaching the pass from the southwest. While its length and average gradients are comparable to the first ascent, its gradients are much more irregular, with a tougher second half often averaging above 10% before easing out with 1.5 kms to go. Unlike the first ascent, this one is marked as a cat 1. This is the first Giro appearance of Passo Brocon since 1956, when it was tackled halfway along the legendary Mt. Bondone stage which Charly Gaul won in a snowstorm.
With all this in mind, here are our predictions for tomorrow's stage:
★★★ Pogačar
★★ Breakaway (Conci, Costiou, the Paret-Peintres, Pellizzari, Quintana, Sanchez, Scaroni, Steinhauser)
★ Arensman, Martínez, Storer, Tiberi

Rider discussion

On paper, tomorrow's stage looks like another good one for the breakaway. It's tough, short and relentless... so if a large group goes early it won't be easy to bring them back! We put together some names we appreciated over the past few days; we especially expect Nicola Conci to be at the forefront tomorrow as he's been very lively this Giro and stage 17 goes through his native area, he'll have plenty of fans on the roadside.
However... a lot will depend on how the peloton will ride, and if today is a good indicator, the attackers won't get that much of a leeway. We don't expect Tadej Pogačar to go thermonuclear tomorrow, but if the break doesn't get a large advantage it's hard to picture someone else outplaying him on a hard climb like tomorrow's finale. Granted, his lead is so large that if even his closest rivals attack, he could afford to let them go... but as the rest of the GC is somewhat close together, if someone attacks everyone else will go, and at this point Pogačar will probably tag along. In the end, we believe that the pink jersey has a slight edge and is our overall favourite. Out of the rest of the GC guys, Thymen Arensman, Daniel Felipe Martínez, Michael Storer and Antonio Tiberi looked the sharpest today. Geraint Thomas was struggling a bit but tomorrow's climb should suit him a little better compared to today's finale.
That's it from us, what are your thoughts/predictions?

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the hole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FECKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty hole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Feck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

At a crossroads with my dog business
Hi everyone,
I started an off-leash dog business 2 years ago. We made an agreement 6 months ago with a farmer to use their land which has allowed my business to bloom. Unfortunately once the warm weather hit the ticks got really bad and I’m not willing to walk there anymore. For now im walking 8 dogs on public trails which I’m not content with. I’m thoroughly trained in pack walking so it’s doable but not ideal.
I’m debating between buying my own land or leasing land. I don’t have a lot of background with these bigger money decisions which is why I’m posting here.
A couple entrepreneurs told me that it’s better to lease some land so that I don’t have to tie up $150-$300k in land. The problem is I don’t know what I’d spend my money on if it weren’t that land. This may expose a gap in my knowledge as an entrepreneur and a need to learn more about investing. Or perhaps buying land is a sound investment. I could buy the land, then use my extra income from the business to build a multi-family or something.
Problem 2 - there isn’t any land within 20 minutes from my pickup zone. Everyone is telling me not to rush into a purchase and wait to buy until there’s something close and has everything I need. But it seems to me it would be better to start now. If I bought land now, I could fence it in allowing me to reclaim a lot of clients I’ve let go whose dogs weren’t well training enough. Maybe a 6 month head start, while sacrificing driving distance, would be good. Then I could buy more land once it becomes available and maybe sell the first land after building on it or keep it as a rental property.
Again, I’m just unsure how to navigate all these possibilities. Any insight is appreciated. Even insight on how to think about problems like these would probably help a lot.

Hi everyone,
I started an off-leash dog business 2 years ago. We made an agreement 6 months ago with a farmer to use their land which has allowed my business to bloom. Unfortunately once the warm weather hit the ticks got really bad and I’m not willing to walk there anymore. For now im walking 8 dogs on public trails which I’m not content with. I’m thoroughly trained in pack walking so it’s doable but not ideal.
I’m debating between buying my own land or leasing land. I don’t have a lot of background with these bigger money decisions which is why I’m posting here.
A couple entrepreneurs told me that it’s better to lease some land so that I don’t have to tie up $150-$300k in land. The problem is I don’t know what I’d spend my money on if it weren’t that land. This may expose a gap in my knowledge as an entrepreneur and a need to learn more about investing. Or perhaps buying land is a sound investment. I could buy the land, then use my extra income from the business to build a multi-family or something.
Problem 2 - there isn’t any land within 20 minutes from my pickup zone. Everyone is telling me not to rush into a purchase and wait to buy until there’s something close and has everything I need. But it seems to me it would be better to start now. If I bought land now, I could fence it in allowing me to reclaim a lot of clients I’ve let go whose dogs weren’t well training enough. Maybe a 6 month head start, while sacrificing driving distance, would be good. Then I could buy more land once it becomes available and maybe sell the first land after building on it or keep it as a rental property.
Again, I’m just unsure how to navigate all these possibilities. Any insight is appreciated. Even insight on how to think about problems like these would probably help a lot.

I see a lot of people having disdain with sailing. I'm assuming they are envisioning very little interaction with anything and that the skill is passing simply due to rewards spaces offered by it like the new islands. I don't see it like that, so I figured I'd share what I'm envisioning down the line.

1. Ship building
   1. Obviously this would be similar to construction in a way and offer pretty low exp rates for sailing and contruction. You could do the build, remove, build, remove you do with contruction currently. This would hopefully not be a primary method of leveling sailing or construction without being insanely expensive like doing it with bagged plants.
2. Ship maintenance
   1. While performing any activity at sea, you actively have to maintain the health of your ship which gives you exp drops when done. I imagine this being a passive exp gain while doing at sea activities.
3. Bounties
   1. There are multiple groups of pirates at sea and you go and get a bounty. You then have to seek out the correct group of pirates. Fight them and collect any riches that might be on their ship and a gp reward for you bounty. This would obviously offer combat and sailing exp.
4. Deliveries
   1. I imagine you're given a good and a location to bring it to and the locations can be quite tricky to traverse simply due to the terrain or weather or maybe you are sneaking them in like a drug mule.
5. Races
   1. Pretty self explanatory. Similar to agility laps, but may offer small rewards apart from exp upon race completion. Something like tokens to buy ship parts or design. Similar to marks of grace. Could make each race slightly different with varying weather conditions or rock layouts to keep it engaging.
6. At sea npcs
   1. Sirens - A monster with a slayer assignment that can only be assigned when sailing and slayer level reach a certain amount. Requires ear muffs or slayer helm. Offers whatever reward jagex feels the need for
   2. Muldjewangk - More at sea monsters that could just be roaming around
   3. Mermaids - could be interactable at sea npcs that you can chat with.
   4. Pirates - duh
   5. Nguruvilu - b/c they look just so darn cool.
   6. Ahuizotl - possibly another slayer monster
   7. Fish cows - Gotta have cows everywhere. These ones drop sinew directly, so you don't have to make it at a range with meat. We could basically put anything we want at sea
7. At sea resources
   1. Trees at sea
      1. Trees akin to redwoods that grow in the ocean. You could maybe harvest fruits from them granting farming exp.
      2. Floating trees. These are trees that passively float around the ocean. Their top half looks like a tree and bottom half, the roots end up being like tendrils of a jelly fish. You can chop these trees down
   2. Scraping the sea floors for mining resources and maybe seaweed and other resources
   3. Deep sea fishing - I envision these as more engaging active fishing methods. Not just click and let fish.
      1. Fishing with a rod where you have to actually actively fish and attempt to reel it in. Changing ship direction to make sure the tension doesn't get too high. Using baits to lure it certain ways.
      2. Net fishing and similar to tempoross where some spots will glow or be different meaning you can go to them for like 50% bonus fish on pull. You have to time the pull of the net when maximum amount of fish are in or something.
8. Monster Hunting
   1. You track down the monster with hunter skill through ship wrecks, rocks, strange currents, etc to fight a monster. Stuff like the Charybdis, king kraken, etc. These would be similar to bounties but tracking down a specific sea creature. Reward could be hunter, slayer, sailing exp with whatever drops the creatures may offer.
9. Salvaging
   1. Come across ship wrecks that you can loot. Offering riches, thieving exp, and sailing exp. Could be timed so that the ship will fully sink and you lose half the loot if you don't get out in time.

Pool of serenity

1. This is a special water source that is surrounded by mist and moves about like sulliusceps, but you have to navigate a circular maze to reach the center. You can fill up vials with this special water which offers small potion effects, like maybe an extra level to combat potions with a slight boost in herb exp if used. The maze is constantly changing and moving both interally and externally meaning navigating the maze is always different and that it's always moving geographical locations in the sea. You can tell it's near by the mist cloud. Possibly moving whenever it wants and just boots you out if it when it moves.

Charting out the seas

1. You essentially map out the sea as you discover it. You can turn in maps for a bonus of exp. While you have a map in your position, clicking the world map will display the islands, but when you turn it in, you can no longer see them. You also get a discovery bonus for the first time discovering a new area.

Treasure maps

1. Basically at sea clue scrolls.

Resources from the above activites would ideally intertwine with resources in the main gam like the fruit from a tree at sea being used to pay for protection of certain crops or maybe wood from the floating trees being used to upgrade a magic shortbow or being combine with redwood to make a new bow or crossbow. None of the above I mentioned are only tied to the reward space of islands. They could all actively be done at sea while either offering boosts of sailing exp or getting it passively while maintaining the ship while doing the activity.
You could make the activites more or less afk with sturdier and slower ship that you'd have to maintain the ship less, but miss out on the exp boosts. You could also hire crew members to help maintain the ship. This would hurt the profit margins of the at sea activity while allowing for higher exp rates while keeping the afk level lower still. For example, take a ship that is very fragile to do an activity, but hire the most expensive crew. They repair 90% of damage that the ship takes and the ship gets damaged more frequently. Every time they fix something they charge extra, along with a flat rate per tick. You'd be getting much faster exp rates while being mostly afk, but would be paying for it.

So, I (F38) was the only one at my parents home for a couple of weeks while they were on an out of country trip in March so I could house-sit and pet-sit their two cats and two dogs, while also keeping up on my college studies. We were having nasty weather the entire time the folks were gone and it's not uncommon that the weather might affect, or even knock out internet signal. Our neighbor is in her early 50s. I'll call her Jean. Some months ago, she had a roommate move in who is in her late 40s/approaching her 50s. I will call her Lisa.
During this stormy weather, Lisa texted me and asked me if our internet was working and if so, could she connect to it for the night because like me, she is doing college courses online and was in the middle of homework and could not get her laptop to connect back to theirs or get theirs to reset. I figured it was just the storm had knocked theirs out so I said, "Okay.But that password doesn't go to anyone else and please reconnect to yours when you get it back on." She agreed and thanked me. That was the second week of March.
This week and last week, the internet has been especially slow and that has been a seemingly increasing issue. Now, while I don't think it's solely due to anyone else using it, it did make me wonder if Lisa had ever got it switched back over. I had just assumed she did and didn't give it a second thought at the time. I shot her a text and asked her last night if she had switched back over to their internet or if, by chance, was she still using ours. It was late but as she is up late at night a lot and I could see the light still on where her bedroom window is from mine, I had sent it anyway. Almost immediately, I received the read receipt, but no response.
So, I mentioned the whole thing to my folks and told them I was pretty sure she just keeps using our internet. They were understandably irritated about it too so I went ahead and changed the password to our wifi, got all our devices at home logged back in and went to bed. Almost 7 hours later, I get a reply in which Lisa claimed she had just seen the message, that SHE hadn't been using our internet and had just been relying on her mobile Hotspot on her phone to connect her laptop to, but that Jean had been using it for their TV but "I guess you don't want us to have it since you changed the password."
Now, I really like Jean a lot and she has been super kind and helpful when our family has needed it and we try to do the same in return.
Jean has told us Lisa had agreed to a monthly rent amount but hasn't paid since the first month and keeps saying she has a check coming and the she'll pay Jean. Lisa does not contribute to grocery money. She doesn't contribute any rent so she isn't helping with bills and last we knew, the only thing she WAS covering was the internet bill. Lisa's boyfriend 'Greg' stays over for a few days a week and spends all day and night with her. He doesn't contribute to bills either and Jean has been absolutely stressed out over being the only one working. On top of all that, she never gets a break because on her days off from work, Jean's daughter drops her granddaughter off (and often in the afternoons after she gets out of work and her granddaughter gets out of school, too).
I ignored Lisa's message and after the folks got up, I told them about it. They agreed that considering "for the night" had been over 2 months and no one had asked if they could just use out internet for a while, she has no reason to send something so arrogant.
However, a couple of hours later, my mother says she thinks we just need to give Jean the new password because she has done a lot for us and she is dealing with so much stress because of Lisa and that if having our internet helps her out, then we should. I said I understand that but I AM concerned that if they give her the new one, it will wind up being given to Lisa, to Jean's daughter and her friend that hangs out there frequently.
I am POSITIVE that Lisa either told Jean that she was still paying for internet service and just told her what network to connect to or she told Jean that we said they could just use ours if rhey couldn't get their own and I don't know which. Whichever it was, Lisa lied. I HATE being lied to and I HATE being nice or helpful to someone and they take advantage of it. Now, with their concern about adding stress to Jean and being unfair to her, my folks have since changed their mind and think I'm being TAH and are even making excuses for Lisa now, suggesting I started up an issue. They gave the new PW to Jean (which again, I see nothing wrong with) knowing it will likely be given to Lisa again and that just feels like awarding bad behavior.
So reddit, AITAH?

Hi Ya'll,
I recently graduated OCS and I have been bombarded myself in real life over what to expect with OCS. For context I went from basic training straight to OCS, and even graduated with honors. From the time of writing this post, it has officially been a month since I graduated. So here is a list of common questions I get and I hope I can settle some anxiety for all of you future 2nd LTs.
Warning: The cadre at OCS do read these reddit posts, so I won't be able to post answers to tests or events.

1. I haven't received a welcome letter, or a packing list. Where can I find it?
   • Fort Moore Officer Candidate School (army.mil) I would download and print the packing list and the ISAP. The ISAP acts more or less like a syllabus from college. It will give a rough understanding of the rules, regulations, and requirements for you to pass.
2. Is everything on the packing list required?
   • Yes. Try your best to follow the packing list to the letter. It is almost entirely dependent on the cadre and of course weather does play a part in their decision making. Some things you'll find you didn't really need or use throughout your cycle. For example, my cycle didn't use 550 Cord almost at all, but I used it to build a hooch, and secure sensitive items.
3. What if I don't have of the required equipment on the packing list?
   • When it comes to military equipment, try your best and bring what you can. I was never issued an IFAK before OCS or after. The cadre understand they have some coming from basic and those in-service. So if you have it, bring it. If not, bring it up to your cadre and they'll schedule time to get it issued to you.
4. Anything not on the packing list you recommend?
   • I would recommend the following: hand soap, bathroom spray, travel vacuum, wet-wipes, clipboard with compartment, pillow, very bright headlamp, multitool, and laminator. Hand soap because for some reason OCS had a hard time procuring it. Travel vacuum because you'll likely have 2 or 3 vacuums available to your platoon and having your own saves time. Wet-wipes to dust everything down. Clipboard with compartment for Land Nav as you'll be running with maps, marker, protractor, and your points so its best to have something safe and secure. Laminator for your papers because its Georgia and your papers can get wet. The pillows at OCS have this weird plastic cover on so if you want a better night sleep, get a better pillow. The headlamp is just in case, some classes inform the lumen limit while others don't, Land Nav is DARK so if you can find a lighthouse out there, do it. The multitool is just useful to have especially if you are out in the field.
5. Where can I find somethings on the packing list I am missing?
   • Luckily there is a company called Commandos who helped us out the entire time. They have an OCS purchasing list you can take advantage of. They even deliver that weekend at the footprint.
   • Visit: https://commando-military-supply-9d5038.printavo.com/merch/ocs-packing-list/
6. I saw you can bring your laptops? Is it required for classes? Can I opted in for a tablet or iPad?
   • You can bring a personal laptop primarily for recreational use after the duty hours. OCS will provide you with a government laptop that you'll need to use your CAC to access. Tablets and iPads are not considered laptops and will be confiscated like a phone. If the majority of your class as issues with the laptops, then the cadre may allow the use of your personal laptops.
7. What is your day-to-day look like?
   • Mostly on a non-physical or FTX event coming up you'll follow the following schedule: 0500 - wake up. First formation is at 0600, then you conduct PT until breakfast. After breakfast you will head to the classroom and stay there until lunch, return and stay there until dinner. After dinner, it will be the end of the duty hours and you'll roughly have 2 hours for personal time.
8. What are the most important categories/test to focus on?
   • Treat everything important. Every test you do not pass can put you at risk of being recycled, and it is up to you to catch up. For example while everyone is studying for tactics, you'll be studying tactics and history if you failed history. So save yourself the hassle and take every test seriously. The big 3 recycle event have been historically, Army History (70% to pass), Land Nav (4 points or more to pass (day and night)), and the 4-mile run (need to run in under 36 minutes regardless of gender).
9. How many retests or chances do you get?
   • You get 2 tries at everything before recycle. You get 2 tries again at the same test then you can be dismissed. For example: You are part of Alpha company. You failed history twice. You get recycled into Bravo company. You failed history twice again. You can be dismissed.
   • If you happen to pass history but fail Land Nav twice, then you'll be recycled into Charlie. If you fail Land Nav twice then you can be dismissed.
10. What is a recycle? What does it look like in OCS? Can you get dismissed?
    • A recycle is when you failed something twice and you get "recycled" into the next class. A recycle can occur for other reasons such as illness or injury. You can also be recycled for improper behavior or being "peered out". Every class starts up in a like a month (I heard they are changing that for even further out). So even though the cycle takes about 12 weeks to complete, if you get recycled you can expect more like 16 weeks or more. We had someone at OCS you has been with it for a year. You get recycled for repeat offenses, or do something majorly bad such as breaking the law, then you can be dismissed.
11. What is being peered out mean?
    • Throughout the cycle you are put into a platoon and then a squad. Your squadmates eventually all sit down and fill out a form to give the cadre who is the weakest link in the squad. Usually squads kick out the person they do not like. We had to kick out one person because they didn't mesh well within the squad and wasn't very kind. He would then get replaced with someone else who got peered out. Luckily after that one person got kicked out, the squad improved and we tried our hardest to keep it together. We still needed to peer someone out, but we kept tabs with them and invited them to a lot of our squad functions nonetheless as my squads grew to love and respect each other as a family.
    • If you do get peered out, unfortunately you get a spot report, moved to a different squad, and are at risk of being recycled if peered out again. Stay humble and help out whenever you can. I got the most respect from my squadmates as I stayed up late with them to help them with their STX lanes.
12. What is personal time like?
    • You essentially use personal time to workout if the PT wasn't enough, clean yourself, and prepare for bed. Yes if you have time, you can contact family and friends (when you get your phones), and if you have the time, play games. I don't recommend playing games as it distracts you from the mission of graduating.
13. What are the different phases like?
    • You are separated into 3 phases. Black, Blue, and White. You immediately enter black phase upon arrival with a traditional called "Gold to Black". Which is more or less a physical smoking session. During Black you are expected to run everywhere, not be able to drink coffee, have your phone confiscated (and given back on Sunday), and have less personnel time. Blue you get the ability to drink coffee again, and you have your phones returned and used only during personal time. During blue you get the ability to visit and explore the base (Fort Moore) and shop around. During white phase you get the ability to explore off-base (Columbus) and you get to wear civilian clothes. White phase if you leave off-post, you need to be in uniform, and on-base you can be in civilians.
14. Can you use your personal vehicle?
    • Yes, but you can only drive it during White Phase
15. How can I keep in contact with my family during black phase?
    • I recommend that you download WhatsApp or some other social media on your laptop and have your family members on it.
16. Can I visit the gym on base?
    • Yes during blue phase you can visit the gym. Rule regulates that you leave the footprint in uniform and change into appropriate PT uniform once at the gym and conducting PT.
17. What is the DFAC like?
    • The DFAC is better than basic training and offers snacks like cookies, granola bars, ice cream, and soda. They have a salad bar and the usual cycle of foods. They do have a "short-order" line which serves fries, burgers, hot dogs, etc. To stay in physical shape, I recommend eating your fruits and a side salad every meal. Drink juice, Gatorade, or water only. I only drank soda and the burger after an intense physical requirement like a long-run or a ruck march to regain my glucose and caloric levels.
18. Does Amazon deliver there?
    • Yes you can have other things delivered to the footprint. However, the Cadre are going to inspect it for food and other contraband. Just ask the cadre for the delivery address. It may take like 2 weeks for them to deliver it.
19. Any final advice?
    • Be helpful and noticeable amongst your squad but try not to bring attention to yourself from the cadre. Take everything seriously and give yourself proper rest and proper nutrition. OCS is not hard, but it can be if you let it get to you. OCS is designed to test your competency, commitment, and character. I luckily had an amazing squad, and I had a blast with them.

I want this to be an open forum so don't be afraid to leave anymore questions below. If the answer you are seeking is not above, then write the question in the comments, and I will try my best to answer you before you are sent off. Best of luck, thank you for your service, and be the best leaders your soldier's deserve.

I was thinking about the old discussion about large ships and how we'll crew them. There seems to be two entrenched camps. There's the people who intend to wait until blades (AI) are implemented so they can crew them solo, and then there's the orgs who will buy and crew ships.
I randomly remembered a game I used to play as a 13 year old called Puzzle Pirates (PP from here on out). That game was my first proper exposure to capitalism. I owned shops, a fleet of ships, and lost it all at poker.
The point here is that PP had a system whereby your large ships could be sailed with an AI crew. However there was also a job board that you could post on and find human members for your crew who would replace your AI crew once they accepted the job.
In PP The newly hired human crew would generally receive a percentage of any plunder dependent on their skill level and time served. This was however something that the captain decided, so it's not all on autopilot.
I think this crew needed / job board / auto-payment system would also be a good use for crew quarters. Newly hired crew would take a job and spawn in the crew quarters of the ship they signed onto to avoid having to wait an hour for everyone to gather in one place.
This:

• gives large ships a use case for people who don't want to join an org and those who's friends don't play
• gives new players a way to participate in exciting multi-crew gameplay without a large time investment
• adds an exciting gameplay loop while also elevating the skills and knowledge of the entire playerbase via peer to peer training.

Thoughts? Is this something that's already been discussed and I've missed it? Think it's a bad idea? I'm interested in all responses.

Hi everyone!
Likely the most common type of post in this sub is asking for guidance about what current/upcoming characters would most benefit their account to pull. I've dipped into a few of these threads to offer what insight I have, but I feel like there are some basic principles that are easy to see once you've played for a while that are less obvious when you first start, and talking about those might help more people than handing out fish individually.
Disclaimer: I'm not a hardcore player. I don't whale (monthly passes and NH only). I couldn't recognize a damage simulation calculation if it hit my mother. My main qualification to talk about this is being a person who has played every day since release, and since about three months after that, hasn't gotten less than max stars in every MoC/PF. I'm what I assume most would call a "successful casual" player. So if that's your current goal, I'm hoping I can help.
Second Disclaimer: YOU ARE HERE TO HAVE FUN, IF SOMEONE LOOKS COOL TO YOU, PULL FOR THEM. Everything below is for getting your account on it's feet as fast as possible, but ultimately the only factor in HSR is time. No matter who you pull, your account will have everything it needs eventually, and you WILL get all those stars. If you're in no rush, skip my post since it will only be as valuable as who-to-pull advice as /okbuddytrailblazer. Remember: If you aint mirin' your fun is expirin'

~-~Okay, but who should I pull??~-~

You're first priority should always be a powerful sustain unit.
Why?
Because with a reasonable investment, the 4* damage units on your team will do just fine (for now). Pulling a damage unit is tempting in the beginning because big numbers and flashy animations are cool (and listen, I know thats why we're all here), but you don't get to see those big numbers and animations if your damage dealer is dead. The biggest jump in the power and confy-ness of my account was upgrading Bailu to Fu-Xuan. Suddenly my team was surviing long enough to finish fights that seemed like close-calls at best a day prior. My damage was still middling, but at least I was surviving long enough to deal it.

"Okay, but what makes a sustain unit good? Aren't all limited sustains better than 4*/Bailu?"

While most/all limited sustains will broadly be better than 4*/Bailu, they are not all going to be equally valuable to an in-progress account. As of right now, pretty much all of the released sustain units are top tier and worth getting for new accounts, but as more are released, you're going to see units fit more into niches that are much more valuable to more established accounts that can take advantage of those niches, and much less valuable to new accounts that mostly just need to cover the basics.
"The basics" just refers to two things, mainly:

1. Can your sustain unit heal/block enough damage to keep your units alive?
2. Can your sustain cleanse/prevent CC effects that would hamper your team's ability to do their job?

So a quick breakdown of the current sustains and how they cover those basics:
Luocha

1. Potent single target heals with free casts, and potent off-turn healing means any damage that doesnt outright one-shot your team is healed back to full quickly and easily
2. His ability when triggered manually or through his passive, cleanses, allowing for quick reactions to CC

FuXuan

1. Extreme damage mitigation and small heals allow teams to easily survive all but the most punishing content
2. Once-per-cast ability blocks single or team-wide CC

Huohuo

1. Insane ability healing output, plus consistent off-turn healing keeps teams alive, albeit at an SP cost
2. Her ability's target, as well as all recipients of her off-turn healing are cleansed, making pretty much all negative effects complete non-issues.

Aventurine

1. High value shields that self refreshes if they survive long enough give comfy margins for even big incoming damage
2. Self-CC immunity plus reasonable CC resist on his shield mean your only real enemy is bad luck

Any of these units will make your main team feel near-invincible.

But what about upcoming sustains? Will they be just as good?

Maybe! We can look at the kits of some 4* sustains to see what more niche sustain kits may look like in the future:
Gallagher:

1. Fair healing output, but requires the injured party to attack or else costs 1SP to heal directly.
2. Cleanse on ability, but locked behind E2. Only on-turn, costs SP.
3. Break effect debuff on ult/EBA means synergy with teams that benefits from debuffs/BE.

Gallagher's sustain capabilities aren't much compared to the limited units'. But he has a place in teams that will benefit from his strong debuff, as they may not need as much healing/cleansing due to knocking-the-bajesus out of the enemy before they can attack. Valuable to someone with Acheron? Absolutely! Is he going to keep your level 40 QingQue alive long enough to kill the Deer? Probably not.

~-Okay, I have a plan to get a sustain, can I blow something up now?-~

Yes! But, just like sustains, there are going to be things to look out for to get the most out of your first limited damage-dealer.
1. Is your DPS going to struggle if the enemy is not weak to their element?

• Seele or JingYuan are great for on-element battles, but are going to struggle a lot more if the enemy is resistant to their damage.
  
• JingLiu and Acheron care a lot less about if the enemy is weak to their element, and much more about why they have the audacity to still be alive
  
• Look for future units that either bring their own weakness penetration, can implant their element's weakness, or deal damage that reduces toughness regardless of type
  

2. Is your DPS going to struggle because they lack an essential partner unit you don't own?

• DHIL is great, but without Sparkle/Luocha, is going to have to compromise a lot of his turns to deal 5 digit numbers, and like, who wants that?
• Black Swan is amazing, but a whole different level of cracked with Kafka.
• Look for units that act as their own support unit. Ultimates/Passives that grant high crit or penetration values make these characters much more forgiving to build and play in a wide variety of teams.

3. What situation is your DPS built to handle?

• Argenti is the PF Konami code, but probably isn't going to breeze you through MoC, or the SU modules
• Acheron/JingLiu/DHIL can can handle almost all content at least passably well, and where they shine they dazzle
• Look for units that deal with big health bars, but don't ingore other enemies. As of right now, Limited Destruction units seem to be skeleton keys for most content.

So are other DPS units not worth getting?

Every limited DPS unit in the game has a place and team that makes them amazing. Once your account is getting its full value out of the biweekly challenges, then the best value comes from building synergies.

~-Okay I have my damage dealer, and they're staying alive. Why are my numbers so much lower than the ones I see in screenshots and videos?-~

When you first start HSR, it seems like the real heroes are the damage dealers "WoAw That Acheron just hit an Ult for 850k!"
But did they? or was it the Silver Wolf and Pela standing behind her?
The real excitement now, is in the buffers/debuffers
Limited Harmony (and utility Nihility) units are the last piece to the puzzle. Not only will they give you screenshot-worthy damage numbers, but they have much more broad appeal to teams than other roles.
While certain teams want certain stats more than others, ultimately, stats are stats, and whether that means you're going faster, hitting harder, or getting more energy for ultimates, your DPS units will almost always benefit from a limited support unit.
There aren't that many of them, so lets talk about all of them and what makes them good.
1. Bronya

• Attack/crit buffs are great for most damage dealers
• More turns for the turn god. As long as you have the SP to fund it, giving your main units more actions is always amazing.
• More stats for the stat throne. Free dmg% just for existing, and SP generation with her cone are pretty universally useful. Self-action advance on auto-attack means even wasted turns aren't wasted.
• Speed tuning is not essential, but a great way to make Bronya even better when you get the opportunity to stop and fully invest in her.
• She's not even a limited 5* and she's amazing. That's how powerful Harmony units are
• Put her on any team with excess SP

2. RuanMei

• Truly uses the entire buffalo with no wasted stats at all. DMG% Penetration% and Break are desirable on pretty much every team, and she bring a truckload of all of them.
• Getting the stats to enable said truckload does require some time and effort, but once done, you have a unit that can fit in pretty much every team and make them that much better
• Break seems to be an upcoming focus akin to DoT or FuA, and she will be top tier in every one of those teams.
• Put her on any team that has other characters

3. SParkle

• Enormous single target crit buffs, action advance, and huge SP generation make for a near-universally useful hypercarry enabler.
• More forgiving with speed-tuning than Bronya, but with just as much room for big dividend payouts with investment
• Put her on any team that gets most/all of its damage from one source (Avoid DoT teams, unless they can crit somehow in the future)

4. Robin

• More hits, harder hits. Already hit hard and often? Hit harderer and oftener.
• Full team advance means more damage AND more SP generation while putting herself on the shelf and passively generating energy from the team.
• One of the easiest buffers to build, since her desired stats are basically just attack, speed and energy gen.
• Put her on any team that attacks enemies, the more attacks the better

5. Silver Wolf

• Tsunami of debuffs for teams with Acheron/Ratio.
• Great for teams that are generally underbuilt since she also weakens the enemy's atk and spd
• Enables off-element DPS teams, albeit one target at a time.
• Put on any team that needs to deal off-element damage, benefits from debuffs, or is only fighting one main target.

6. Harmony Trailblazer

• Everyone gets one!
• Likely top tier for future break teams
• Deals a ton of damage on their own, and allows the same for other non-damage dealers on the team.
• Only comes online during Break windows, but when pairs great with Ruan Mei for fastelonger break windows

~-I have a character for all three roles! Now what?-~

At this point, you should be able to capable handle at least one side of MoC/PF, and you'll want to shift focus to your second team, but this is much more open ended, so let just talk about some considerations that will make choosing new characters easier. Remember that ultimately your goal is to have teams that can reliably clear the biweekly challenges and SU modules.
1. Do you already have units that have synergy with the new units?

• You picked up Robin for general support use, but now have a top tier Follow-up buffer. So units like Topaz and Aventurine will be more valuable to pull in the future.
• While pulling for 5*s, you E6'd Pela. So units like Acheron, JingLiu, or DHIL have a great support waiting for them if pulled.

2. Do you have coverage for the weaknesses of your current teams?

• You have a great JingLiu hypercarry team, but you struggle to clear PF. Units like Argenti or Jade (Or Himeko from the 300 selector) will bring a ton of value and become invaluable in their current PF niche.
• In high MoC floors, your B-team keeps getting CC'd/dying. Getting your second sustain unit will not only make your B-team much more comfy, but also you'll be free to not pull another sustain for a long time, if ever.
• Remember that your A-team doesn't have to always stick together. If your buffers and DPS are clearing their floors quickly, move your sustain to your B-Team since they'll need to survive longer to finish their floor

3. Is a new unit going to require a ton of investment to come online?

• Some units are amazing, but are going to suck up your resources for a while until they fully come online. Hitting the Break threshold on Ruan Mei or Firefly might keep you from either getting the most out of them while you build up your other characters, or delay getting a full team until you farm a lot of gear.

~-TLDR;-~

• Pull for units you like
• Have a plan to get a Sustain > Damage Dealer > Support unit for your first team
• Focus more on broadly effective units early on while you're still building your teams
• Look for strong synergies with characters you already have
• Build outward from your current roster once you have one solid team built

It all started with a dream night, the end of which was the end of my world. It was 8:00 pm the full moon and the weather was a little cool, rainy and wet my hair, it was the end of spring, and we would enter the dark autumn a little bit pleasant, so California had the last celebration of spring, let's say the last celebration of my life. It was a celebration in the middle of the city, the streets were closed and there were lights. There were also fireworks that night. I couldn't believe I was sleeping or waking up with a friend of mine, Alex, who was late, had called him, didn't pick up his phone, I thought I'd have a drink while Alex was coming, I walked into the party, it was so crowded, it was like I was being crushed between two trucks, but it was worth it. Everyone was wearing a costume for someone they loved. I was a gamer، I wore a hitman suit with a red tie and a mask that showed my head bald with a barcode tattoo that I had behind me، just like Agent 47 and a silencer gun that wasn't real but very much like the real one on my back. I like it and doesn't bother me. On the contrary, most people who don't like clothes that are tight and they look stifling to them, by the way, I said that the red tie reminds me of blood I like blood, but not like a vampire to drink it. My drink was ready because I had ordered a special one, and it took a while until Alex arrived, I told him why you didn't answer your phone, he said I was in the crowd, I didn't hear him, I told him he was drinking, he said, "Yeah, I ordered a drink for Alex, like me, and they were going to start the fireworks for another hour, I didn't drink much because I wanted to remember the fireworks that night. I don't know why I had a feeling that it would be the last fireworks of my life, we talked to Alex for about half an hour before we went to school because I was interested in basketball, and I was on the school team, and I wanted the future career to be basketball, but Alex wasn't very interested in basketball and he just watched my games. One day when he came to watch me play he gave me so much energy that we won the game that we were 50 points behind and it was impossible to win, Alex would have been a joy and savior for me and I would have been a depressed person without him. On the one hand, the memories of the past were really beautiful and on the other hand, sad that they are over and are not going to come back Alex and I know each other from high school. People say college friends stay for you and high school friendships don't last, but they are wrong because Alex and I were so tight that we could say that we couldn't be separated once we were in seventh grade, Alex and I were in the seventh grade. We were talking a lot in class when the teacher took us out of the classroom and said that because they talk a lot about each other, I want to take your classes apart and it's not your first time we've asked her not to, but she didn't pay attention to us. And we talked to our mother to come and talk to our teacher, and finally they could satisfy it, but even if they couldn't, I wouldn't have been able to tell them that much.It was serious for me that I was even willing to change our schools Somehow, if it wasn't for Alex, I wouldn't be there either. Reviewing these memories gave me a good feeling, but after that Alex told me that Ash's life was coming to an end. Cursed fireworks. My hand went to the trigger, but my gun was not real, and I killed my best friend without realizing it (that's why I shot at that time because the sound of the gun didn't come out and people didn't notice, I know my gun had a silencer, but it doesn't do anything wrong) When the fireworks were over, I couldn't see the crowd anymore, I didn't know why, until a voice whispered in my ear saying, "get up, it's over, you won." The game was real and memorable. That night was the last night in the world for me because I have never found another game like this game, but all the details were observed and all my memories were true. I said to myself that this game should not read my subconscious mind and this happened. Really, until this thought came to my mind, I entered another place of the game again, as if I had entered a new stage and I had to kill another person. I was stuck in the game and time had no meaning for me anymore. I had no way back except to search. I could go out there. After completing one of the 10 stages, I heard a voice in my ear again, as if it was saying that I made you, you are one of the characters in the game. I realized there that I was just a game bot and my home was right here and my creator was so right that for once I experienced the feeling of a human being.The creator of the game shut down the game servers forever because every game has a death time and I had been living for many years but I didn't know that I died that night but the memory that my creator has of me is enough because that reason makes me I think I'm still alive

Hello there! I've still not entirely recovered after finishing Rebirth, that ending was just whoa. I believe I've watched/read most of the theories out there regarding the game's finale and Aerith's fate, but none of them managed to explain everything sufficiently. I admit I'm in the "I hope Aerith lives" camp, but I understand the corner the developers wrote themselves into: Aerith fans and the japanese fanbase at large will riot if she dies for good, and purists will riot if one of the games' central themes (coping with loss, grieving) is broken. A textbook case of trying to have your cake and eat it too. Unless they find a way to do both?
Trying to get my mind off FF7, I replayed Zero Escape: Virtue's Last reward (seriously try it if you were more impressed than annoyed by FF7R's multiverse shenanigans, it's the real good stuff), and one of the puzzles caused a bit of a eureka moment to me. A secondary solution to a puzzle in one of the rooms is the sentence "SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING". It obviously hints at a character in the game and not FF7, but with the implications of the two games thus far in the remake continuity (plus AC), one character in Zero Escape bears a striking resemblance to Aerith: Akane Kurashiki (Big spoiler for the first game in ZE: 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors).
Both are capable of jumping between their selves in different timelines and have awareness of it. Akane is trying to prevent her own death by gathering information she needs to escape death via incineration, from other timelines and in the future. Would Aerith resign to her own fate even in command of such a power? Pre-chapter 13 it's heavily implied she wouldn't, why would discovering that she's basically omniscient change this?
Unless she has a plan cooking. She's being relentlessly hunted by someone who also has multiversal knowledge and could overpower and kill her any day of the week. She needs to throw Sephiroth off her trail somehow. If you played Persona 5, the situation might be familiar to you... (spoilers for Persona 5 follow)
In that game, the protagonist Joker and his fellow phantom thieves are being cornered by the detective Akechi, who at that point is a traitor amongst them. How do they get out of the situation? By failing an infiltration, Joker getting caught, the tricking Akechi into a cognitive version of the interrogation room he's being held in and letting him kill Joker there. Akechi is in the belief that he killed Joker in the real world.
This got me thinking: what if Aerith pulled a similar trick? Her situation is a bit more complicated, in that she knows Cloud is under Sephiroth's control, so she has to fool the party as well to fool Sephiroth. Her mournfulness in the Ch14 date could come from her impending doom - or the guilty conscience from what she has to put the party and especially Cloud through and that she may doom one of her alternate timeline selves to death.
As for the how, there are multiple possibilities, but the one I find most likely is that she swapped her consciousness with the comatose Aerith from Zack's world. As for when it happened, I believe it was at the moment when everyone was distracted by the smoke and mirrors - the moment Cloud deflected Sephiroth's blade. Whether this happened for real and created a timeline shift, one where Aerith lived and one where she was impaled, or just in Cloud's mind, it doesn't matter. It's the ultimate red herring. Cloud can have a revelation at some point in the 3rd game that she failed to save Aerith, he still won't know that the body Sephiroth stabbed didn't have Beagle!Aerith's soul in it, but Terrier!Aerith's comatose and possibly damaged soul. Such a last-second switch of a would-be-victim isn't the first time Square pulled this. It's what happened in Chrono trigger too! Remember what Marlene said about Terrier!Aerith to Zack? "When Aerith wakes up, she will be killed." Why does she wake up? Because she switched places with Beagle!Aerith!! Terrier!Aerith's body now contains Beagle!Aerith's soul, the one that prayed at the Forgotten Capital, the one that's whole, healthy and undamaged. Marlene was right, although the "multiple versions of Aerith" thing went over her head, understandably.
And if Cloud split the timeline again by deflecting Masamune, and can see both timelines? All the better. Where is the real black materia? Hidden in the void between worlds. Where Cloud's mind is right now. That may be why he finds the black materia in his pocket. That will draw Sephiroth's attention, lure him towards his OG plan of summoning Meteor, a threat Aerith can deal with once the party defeats Sephiroth at the northern crater.
As for who fights beside Cloud in Rebirth's final boss battle? I believe it's omni!Aerith, the one who gave premonitions of the future to her self in Remake, the one who visited Cloud in his dream in Remake chapter 14.
Why do I think this explanation could predict what happens in Part 3? Because this way, the writers can keep their cake until the very last minute, then eat it. The party and the player can go through coping with Aerith's "death", then have her return at the very last minute to appease those who yearn for her survival, at the climax of the game, when Sephiroth is weakened, on his last phase and Meteor needs to be stopped. This way, she can be kept out of the plot for the most part, and her presence, both story- and gameplaywise can be a postgame reward. Not to mention the mindblowing revelation of her complex plot at the end.
Anyway, that's just my theory, I needed to write it out of me. 2027(?) can't come soon enough.

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