Who is Francis Sinclair? (quick recap):
Francis Sinclair was born in 1898/1906 to parents Tom and Mrs. Sinclair. His father died before he was born, so his mother had to take care of him. When he was younger, he lived in Hawks Eye Cabin outside of Strawberry with his mother. He moved to New York City and lived an affluent life before traveling to the Old West period in the 1920s/1930s.
Francis Sinclair is first met in a cabin outside of Strawberry and tells his story about hunting for rock carvings around the world. He says he will pay a good price for all ten of them, but doesn't say why.
After the player sends him letters pointing out the rock carving locations, Francis invites them back to his cabin, but will be mysteriously absent. In the end of the quest-line, a woman appears in the cabin with a ginger-haired baby named Francis. After the protagonist expresses their confusion about the situation, Francis' mother asks the player for their name, but after finding out that the baby is actually Francis, the astounded protagonist tells her that it's not important and leaves.
Francis Sinclair seems mysterious and talks quickly. He speaks in a strange dialect and uses slang the protagonist doesn't understand.
After finishing the Stranger quest "Geology for Beginners," his notes and drawings are revealed to the player. They suggest that he may be a time traveler. His documents show a figure who jumps between the past, present, and future. Francis was interested in rock carvings that depicted skyscrapers, a big city, an atom, and a nuclear explosion.
How Francis Sinclair is (and isn't) connected to Grand Theft Auto:
Francis Sinclair has a strong accent that was popular in American culture in the 1920s and 1930s. The fact that he was an infant in 1899–1907 suggests this. Sinclair's Business Card has a picture of an hourglass with wings on it that represents time and travel. He wears a belt and trousers with belt loops, supporting the idea that he traveled through time. Before the 1900s, people only used belts to carry things instead of keeping their pants on. Also, pants with belt loops didn't exist until 1922.
Francis is similar to another time traveler, Ernest Keigel, a character who stars in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories radio program called The Time Ranger. - Both of them speak with a Transatlantic accent. - Both have a decent understanding of science. - Both are fast talkers. - Both use 1920s and 1930s slang and are thought to have lived within the time period.
This is where Rockstar Games mostlikefully got the inspiration for Francis Sinclair, a person from the 1930s time traveling through various time periods.
Francis Sinclair resembles Kraff, one of three false deities worshiped by the Epsilon Program in Grand Theft Auto V. However, the character's portrayal and background contradict every aspect of Epsilonism (red birthmark, prohibited red hair, time travel science (general relativity), contradictory years with Epsilonism's creation and their Young Earth beliefs, setting in an unrelated universe, etc.), making the possibility of being a reference unlikely and simply a coincidence. Nevertheless, his unique birthmark is never employed for any religious reason; rather, it is designed to serve as a plot device for a more significant revelation during his last on-screen encounter, allowing the player to easily identify him in his "second form."
The mural doesn't solve a bigger mystery. It shows different time periods, and there's no hidden message to find. Some things are not puzzles. Francis Sinclair is a geologist who is looking for rock carvings that have already been found. The history book he always has with him demonstrates that he only wants to put them together so he can find the answer faster. Geology is the study of pressure and time, but he clearly is obsessed with this puzzle he doesn't have an answer for because it has to be put together first. Francis is not doing this to help a religious group. He is doing it for himself because that's how science works in the Red Dead Redemption Universe.

So at the climax of Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin has gone all 9/11 and is flailing about in his lifelong misery while taking the galaxy down with him, he and Obi-Wan start arguing about political differences, religious beliefs, and whether it’s morally acceptable to murder hundreds if not thousands of people along the way to get there. Obi-Wan takes the valid stance of it not being cool, and makes it clear he’s going to fuck Anakin’s shit up for all his dark deeds. Anakin is eager for this because as said above, he’s riding high on FUBAR as a state of being and seeks the catharsis/validation of beating someone he can project all his problems onto. Thus, we get the baddest lightsaber duel there is, and you know the rest.
Now a lot of the time, people drag their knuckles about the line “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” and how it’s some kind of indicator of inherent Jedi hypocrisy or dramatic irony or George Lucas being a hack or what-fucking-have-you. I don’t really care because I think it's stupid, as Jocasta Nu illustrates for us here, and it’s not the point I want to make. Instead, I’d like to draw your attention to the line Obi-Wan drops before: “Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!”
Nice delivery by Ewan aside, the meaning of this line is pretty clear: that Obi-Wan, in the face of Anakin flying completely and absolutely batshit off the handle into Divine-Right-of-Kings-For-Those-I-Love, is declaring himself an ally to the Republic and democracy specifically. That he is a very pro-democracy individual and considers it a part of the Republic. Which, cool, because Anakin is totally bugfuck nuts at this point and anything he believes in is probably bugfuck nuts as well so it’s smart to avoid it.
The thing is though, that Obi-Wan is wrong. Actually, he's not just wrong, he's speaking nonsense that is genuinely complete nonsense to hear from a Jedi in the Prequel Era Republic. Because let's recap a few details:
The Jedi Order of the Prequels inducts their initiates as infants or toddlers, with an aged nine Anakin being considered way too old. Now it's their prerogative to take students as they wish (though the thousand years of uniformity unsurprisingly severely backfires), but generally speaking, children under nine are learning things like what's acceptable to put in your mouth and how to read, write, and use the bathroom. The ability to choose "make me a Jedi for life" is genuinely nonexistent for them, so right off the bat, one of the basic democratic cornerstones is also nonexistent for them. It's also not like the Jedi are just Space Catholics/Buddhists: they are explicitly raised and taught to serve the (increasingly corrupt) Republic and its (gradually growing in obscenity until they have to violate their identities as peacekeepers) needs. The actual ability to choose for Jedi is already in the negative double digits.
And for whichever one of you that's breaking their keyboard typing about how Jedi can leave if they want, I'm already aware, thanks for nothing. The thing is that A.) the ability to be able to refuse to participate in something you did not actually sign up for is what I would consider the absolute bare minimum, B.) it doesn't change the part where they don't make the choice to join to begin with, and C.) given how Jedi are taken into the Order usually before they even begin forming concrete memories, we can probably assume that's the reason so few do. When you're raised in that environment for your entire life, the choice to leave is synonymous with abandoning everything you've ever known, which is pretty terrifying.
Moving on: in the Jedi Order, the positions of authority are broken up between the Grand Master (who leads the entire Jedi Order), the Master of the Jedi Order (who is the leaderepresentative officer of the Council), and the Jedi Council. Let's talk about how the buck of leadership is passed around these people, and how there's frighteningly little oversight for the vast majority of the Jedi. Pay attention to the bold words.
The Council is made up of twelve Jedi Masters, including the Grand Master and Master of the Order (this was Yoda and Mace respectively in the PT) who historically are the same person holding both titles. In ROTS, Anakin serves as the senate-appointed representative, an extreme breach of tradition and what sends the Council into dealing with Palpatine's dictatorship (long after the Chad Mace Windu had sobered up to his increasing power and the problems of the war in the EU). While there's no 13th chair made for him, it's never clarified who Anakin was replacing or why there was an open spot at the moment. Though we can probably assume it was due to a wartime event, like the previous Council member being violently executed with a planet full of civilians on the HoloNet by the Separatists as part of their terror campaigns a week ago, it ultimately doesn't matter because this isn't about him.
The twelve seats are split between five lifetime members, four long-term members (and the end to that term is entirely decided on what's the "approved end date", not an actual hard number), and three limited-term members (that limit is not stated). If a lifetime appointment member dies, then it's possible for a long-term member to succeed them or for the Council to choose another Jedi Master at their own discretion, and the long-and-short-term members can be elevated to another position in the Council and have their term extended. The Council, in addition to serving as the liasion between the Jedi and the Senate, are also responsible for deciding when Padawans have progressed to the point of being ready for the Trials to become a Jedi Knight.
(Before I get some wannabe trying to blast me in the comments for using supplementary material to make an argument, take a look at the lineup of the Council in the movies. In the ten year period between TPM and AOTC, there have been only two switches in membership (which in extended material usually involves both being killed), and the three year period after AOTC leading up to ROTS being a war makes it questionable whether term limits became a thing, or Council members just stepped down or got killed off. Not really ideal).
Now notice how, nowhere in the above, is there a "members of the Jedi Order vote for who should be on the Council" option. Even if you want to argue that there should be a qualification factor, like say, holding the rank of Master, that still leaves a large candidate pool open where the actual rank-and-file of the Jedi could decide who they wanted making decisions. We're talking about a group that's supposed to be at least 10,000 members strong at this point, I somehow believe there are enough people willing and capable of leadership given the opportunity. Let alone the idea of immutable, set term limits.
Instead, it's basically just Yoda (also: very telling that the dude who probably only missed a four digit lifespan due to an unholy amount of trauma and misery at the tail end of it is a key decision maker for everything) and a couple of other people (who very well might have similarly lengthy lifetimes on account of being aliens) holding onto power for insanely extended periods of time and selecting who else gets to hold on to power for insanely extended periods of time at the whims of this inner circle. This is obviously a little less than preferable for how leadership should be handled, and that's not even taking into account how the Council seems to be the only real governing body of the Jedi Order.
But let's sidestep how completely anti-democratic the Jedi Order is internally, and focus on its external agency. The Jedi, despite being members of the Republic and a key cornerstone of it as a government institution, are never shown able to participate in the Senate in any meaningful way, shape, or form, such as actually voting for senators to be representatives of any star system. Let me remind you, this is the same senate where megacorporations get to have their own seats, so we aren't exactly talking about a sacred and honorable institution here.
Even if you want to assume the Jedi wouldn't want to influence the elections of systems they technically aren't part of (because of the above-mentioned total removal from their homes and cultures to become Jedi), there's an enormous leap between that and the basic ability to vote for who you'll be taking orders from. Why can't the Jedi have a voice in the government when Space Exxon gets to have their own senator? Even if it's just something as basic as "participate in the vote for who will become Chancellor of the Republic", that would be A.) an enormous leap towards the Jedi Order getting to participate in a democracy, and B.) exercising the absolute bare minimum of power in the system they are part of and help uphold. Maybe if there had been Senatorial Representative Jedi Master Shii-Par Kewwll in the PT, they could have turned the vote against Palpatine in TPM! Or advised Jar Jar against giving Palpatine emergency powers in AOTC! But nah, we can't have the defenders of the Republic decide anything about how it operates, that's too much.
Actually though, scratch that, the Jedi wouldn't actually be participating in a democracy even if there was a Senatorial Representative Jedi Master Shii-Par Kewell. Because according to the Prequels worldbuilding, senators don't even have to actually be selected by the systems they represent. Let's look at Padme's case: She is supposed to represent the Chommel sector of the Republic, a system that holds about thirty-six different planets. You would imagine then, Padme had to be elected by all of them, or some other selective process, to act as their representative, no?
Nope. The only system we are ever informed of regarding the election of senators is that 1/36th of their constituency-in this case-their home planet's ruler-has them serve as the representative. Even if Padme is from Naboo, that doesn't make her part of the Queen's administration if she serves as the senator of the entire Chommel sector. The fact we only get one other named political representative for the Chommel sector in Jar Jar, who is representing the second species of Naboo, doesn't suggest much involvement from the other planets they are supposed to be serving.
Hell, Padme herself wasn’t even democratically elected if we go off her own account of Naboo’s post-TPM political history. After she served her second term as Queen, the population wanted to abolish term limits to keep her in power, which she refused to accept and the next Queen, Jamilla, was elected. Queen Jamilla then has Padme become their senator through the tried-and-true democratic process of…requesting her to serve. Nowhere is the mention of other candidates, an election, anything that isn’t just the monarch asking the previous monarch very nicely if she’ll take over the job for the entire sector.
It also bears noting that the only reason there is a current monarch that’s not Padme is because Padme refused to follow the people’s wishes, which were to break term limits on the monarchy for her to stay as Queen…which can be summarized as “one person making everyone else agree”. Now, that’s not to criticize Padme for preserving what shreds of legitimacy Naboo has as a government, but breaking term limits so someone can spend fifteen years total controlling policy is nuts. From fourteen to twenty-nine, Padme has massive control over Naboo’s politics, which is an insane amount of time even if people had wanted her to serve another term as Queen and presumably were all in on her being Senator as a result. Even if the people had wanted it, there not being a formal election means that this system is just begging to be abused. Wonder how Palpatine got his start, huh…
So to recap: if you’re a Jedi in the Prequels, you have been picked up from when you were very small to be raised in a system you will have no conceivable influence on at any point in your life. As part of that system, you are also taught to serve another system you will never have any conceivable influence over, and it’s very likely that the vast majority of the populace that make up that system don’t have any hope of conceivably influencing it either. This is the amount of agency you will have over your entire life, unless you decide “hey, I’m going to leave now, can I keep the lightsaber so I can fight off the wolves I’m being thrown to?”, which the Jedi at least have the good will to offer as an option in contrast to the Republic. Turns out that when Anakin’s starting to talk about authoritarianism in AOTC, he’s actually just telling Padme about how the Jedi and Republic operate as institutions, and how the daily life of the average member of both is just getting teabagged by everything ever. There was never any democracy to save in the Republic, the characters are all living in a shared delusion that cracks on an accelerated timeline when Palpatine starts his Sithma grindset, and the only solution was to send Anakin in with a flamethrower and let him cry himself out burning everything down, so the ashes could be used as soil and his tears as water to grow something better with.
I should probably be clear that I don’t get the sense much of this was intentional. Lucas often flip-flops in his BTS commentary about the Jedi, and that’s without getting into how it actually plays out in the stories he writes. Despite the Republic and Clone Wars being a deliberate criticism of America, a lot of the politics are muddied and not really fleshed out for the audience. The lack of interest in Padme as a character is clear for everyone to see, so it’s no surprise a lot of her story has more than a few headscratchers. I think it’s clear there’s a lot of stuff in the PT that wasn’t completely thought out or put together well, and this is another instance of such a thing occurring.
Ultimately to me, it doesn’t matter too much what that intent was. If your takeaway from the Prequels is that the Jedi and Republic were hopelessly fucked from the beginning and both systems needed to be entirely flipped on their heads to even begin to be democratic, all that matters is that you can back it up from within the films themselves, as I have done with the above. The point is, the Jedi and Republic were not soulfully democratic in any sense, their defenders and allies were not supporters of democracy as a result, and Obi-Wan took yet another L. It’s just how he rolls, gotta love that for him.
TL;DR: A lot of the ways the Jedi operate as an entity, and their dynamics with themselves, in service to the Republic, and outside parties as part of the Republic, makes far more sense when you read about how George Lucas considers them to be peacekeepers in the same way mafia dons are. Based Nute Gunray, dodging an offer he couldn’t refuse in TPM?
(Also if you come away from this post thinking it’s point was “OP is saying the Jedi are bad/evil” and I see that shit in the comments: you’re a moron. This post has sailed over your head. You have the same level of reading ability and intelligence as the Avatar movies do cultural impact. Go outside and touch the grass.)

This is my ranking of every Impractical Jokers episode starting when Joe left. I was going to wait until season 10 was over to post this, but I’m just gonna post it now, as I have no idea if season 10 is done or still going.
I’ll be referring to the episodes by their celebrity guests, but that’s only because that’s how IJ names their episodes. I’ll be judging the episodes as a whole, not just the guest.
I’m only doing mainline episodes, meaning no “sideline smacktalk” or shark week special.
25. Bobby Moinahan
In general, I like challenges where the Jokers have to convince a mark to go along with what they’re doing, but making it so both challenges had that goal made this episode monotonous. The telethon challenge was particularly disappointing, as I think there was a ton of potential to make the marks do a bunch of wacky things, but it wound up being “insult the customer” over and over.
The punishment also felt disjointed. Murr having to annoy and creep out wedding dress buyers was pretty standard, but making him eat his wedding band and then wear a wedding dress to the airport seemed really tacked on.
24. Jillian Bell
The “you’re fired” challenge was a swing and a miss. Not only is it not fun to watch the Jokers just act like jerks of their own volition, but the ruleset is backwards because it requires you to be a jerk and then you’ll lose if you do too good a job. I think this game could be easily fixed if they made the first half be a standard “refuse you lose” and then fire the mark and beg for your job.
The “one more minute” skit was pretty cringey (this is coming from someone who likes the skits more than the average IJ fan) and I much preferred the deleted skit shown on “Filming with the stars”
The punishment was really underwhelming.
The one saving grace was the “Boot and Rally” challenge, which isn’t one I’d want to see again, but was still entertaining because of how over the top it was, and because of how self aware they were that it’s not a good challenge.
23. David Cross
They basically copied and pasted one of the Rob Riggle skits for this episode. Even though the skits are the least important part of the show, it’s still kind of upsetting to see them get recycled.
The challenges were fairly average, with the exception of Max Zoda dragging down Sal’s turn.
I did like the punishment. The post-Joe episodes have been pretty dependent on physically painful punishments, but this one was pretty creative both in using various methods to torture Murr, and in doing it in a context where it seems acceptable.
22. Adam Pally and Jon Gabrus
The babysitting challenge was solid, and I like the choice to play beer pong with the guests instead of doing a skit. In fact, I think it would’ve been better to consistently show authentic interactions with the guests instead of skits. They could even make it a callback to the walking bits from season 1.
Sal’s shock punishment was also pretty entertaining. Although it is watered down by the abundance of physical punishments in this era of the show.
21. Paul Scheer
The two challenges were solid, but the punishment was pretty underwhelming. The overall idea is pretty funny after it’s explained, but the entertainment value dissipates after the first couple rounds.
20. Colin Jost
The ice cream challenge was an improvement over the “you’re fired” challenge from last episode. While it still involved the vague command of “act like a jerk”, they now made the mark a witness instead of a victim, and the Jokers were actually rewarded instead of punished for fulfilling that command.
This episode also opted to show a real interaction with its guest instead of a skit, which again, is a decision I like.
The love guru’s challenge was solid, with the best part being when the guy claimed to know about the relationship expert Murr and Sal made up.
The punishment was entertaining, but again, kind of diluted by how many physical punishments there have been recently.
19. Eric André Returns
Fairly underwhelming as an episode, but never to the point that I wasn’t enjoying it. The best part was Sal talking about his exploding wife.
18. Harvey Guillen
The lawyer challenge was alright. The best part was Q’s “potato chip or two” line, which highlighted the absurdity of how convoluted the contracts were
Having a challenge where each turn was at a different location was an interesting idea, but ultimately didn’t have much impact.
Q’s punishment was kind of underwhelming. When it started with him getting prosthetics, I was expecting him to look radically different and for it to be crucial to the punishment, so I was disappointed when Q was fairly recognizable and it wasn’t necessary for what he had to do. Though the punishment itself was still fun due to the energy Harvey gave it. Plus it had a surprisingly light hearted ending.
17. Paula Abdul
Most of the episode was middling. I was disappointed because I was expecting Paula to have a great dynamic with the Jokers due to them making a movie together, yet she wound up blending in as a guest.
The high point of the episode was the “get my wallet challenge”. I loved the twist of having Cha throw Q out instead of Dan, and I especially loved Q sabotaging Sal by giving him his wallet before the mark could get it. It was oddly nostalgic, as it was the kind of thing Joe would do.
16. Kesha
I really don’t like that they repeated Sal’s shock punishment, the seance setting made it just barely different enough to justify doing again.
However, the “fall in love” challenge was pretty fun, and the debate challenge with MJF was great. I’d love for him to work with the Jokers again.
15. Michael Ian Black
I liked the return of the texting challenge, and Murr chasing the greased up boy was ridiculous (in a good way).
The punishment was fairly standard, but Michael did a great job acting as the straight-man and adding to Sal’s embarrassment.
14. Kim Fields
Murr’s “fuck marry kill” conversation, Q’s mistletoe, and Q eating the dog treats were all fun moments. The punishment felt pretty old school (in a good way) and while Q calling a woman’s bitch briefly dampened the fun, the mood was saved by Murr’s impression afterwards.
13. Post Malone
I liked seeing the etiquette challenge brought back and I especially loved seeing the guy do a 180 after recognizing Murr.
The punishment was clever and Post did a great job fanning the flames between the customers and Q. Though I think it was an odd choice to end it as a man was calling 911 without showing how the situation resolves.
12. Eric Andre
The challenges don’t have any moments that particularly stand out to me, but they were consistently entertaining in a way where it always feels worth my time to watch.
This is a rare time where I’d say the best moment from an episode came from a skit, as I love the idea of Murr being a fictional character.
The one change I’d make is that I wish they cut the opening skit and instead spoke to the audience directly, explicitly acknowledging that Joe left and they would be changing things up. I feel like that would’ve made for a better transition.
11. John Mayer
I don’t like that this episode only had one challenge before the punishment, but I do like that the celebrity guest was involved in both the challenge and the punishment, which I wish was the case more often.
The challenge itself was also fun enough to make up for being the only one. I loved Sal randomly arm wrestling the investors, the constant utterance of “Bro” and Murr’s mark insinuating he hired prostitutes.
10. ALF
The ticket challenge was solid and the phone call challenge was great, especially Sal’s McRib story.
Making a fictional character the celebrity guest was a somewhat risky choice, but I think it worked out. They did a good job integrating ALF into the punishment, and I loved the detail of him thinking Q enjoyed the food.
9. Anthony Davis
I like challenges where the Jokers have to convince the mark to lie, so I really enjoyed the “playing hookie” challenge.
I did not like the second challenge though. I found Steve Byrne’s antics more annoying than funny.
This is made up for by the punishment, which I consider one of the best punishments in recent history. Allowing Sal to opt out of tasks at a price was a clever way of adding stakes and making the punishment standout. The final task in particular was genius, and while it could have been over the line, Anthony avoided that by giving the kid his own shoes.
8. Method Man
The punishment was just uncomfortable and not very fun to watch, but the episode makes up for it with the challenges.
The scientists challenge was great, and the “don’t smirk” challenge was possibly the funniest segment in the whole post-Joe era. I personally think the “no smirking” rule was a bit excessive, and a rule against laughing would’ve been plenty, but the content of the challenge was hilarious, and that’s what matters.
7. Bruce Campbell
The Rosanna Scotto challenge was alright, with the most interesting part being when customers defended dumpster diving.
The waiter challenge was great. I loved Murr’s “who’s paying?” bit and Q constantly trying to improve the women’s ribs.
The punishment was great and felt like something we’d get in the older seasons. For the Bobby Moynihan episode, I mentioned that parts of Murr’s punishment seemed tacked on, and that’s not the case here. Each step of Q’s punishment felt like a natural extension, and Campbell did a great job as the overly demanding director.
6. Bret Michaels
The Grocery Roll was a great challenge to kick off the COVID restrictions being lifted. Murr and Sal each had spectacular Pratt falls.
The hide and seek challenge was a welcomed return. While I wouldn’t want it to become a staple of the show, I think it’s a great game to throw in once every couple of seasons to shake things up. Sal genuinely wondering if he can breathe in the fridge, repeatedly trying to close the door on himself, and hurting his arm on the third attempt was very stupid in the best way possible.
Murr’s punishment was a mixed bag. The armwrestling, bowls of soup, and Paul Rudd showing up out of nowhere were all hilarious, but whenever a mark is furious and has their face blurred, I go from enjoying the discomfort to just feeling bad for everyone involved.
5. Rob Riggle
The taste test challenge was great, with Q’s mark being one of the funniest of season in recent history.
The workout challenge was even better and really recaptured the magic they had in earlier seasons. Murr’s “wrong/good” workout and Sal’s refusal to accept help were particularly great.
The punishment was also solid. Murr having to stay still while mostly naked was simple and effective, and they were able to create a wacky enough environment around him that there’s more to keep things entertaining.
4. Chris Jericho
This is the first episode that made me realize IJ can make great episodes.
The Joint Gravy challenge was absolutely hilarious. Especially Sal’s turn.
The focus group challenge was also great. I’d be happy if they made Jiggy… not the fourth Joker… but the official stand-in whenever they have a challenge where they need to pair up.
The two skits were both really good. The opener was grounded and reserved, while the mid-show skit was ridiculous in the best way.
While I’ve said that IJ has gone a bit overboard with the physical torture punishments, I think this one was well done. It was creative to let Q alternate between various painful tasks as he wanted, and I loved how he was dependent on Sal’s mom to end the punishment. I really wish she started getting involved in the show earlier, because she’s hilarious.
3. Kal Penn
Having to sell a product after coming in through the window was hysterical, both in concept and execution. All three turns had a completely different feel to them. Murr was slimy and confident, Q was overly enthusiastic, and Sal was completely desperate.
The eating challenge was similar to the “Boot and Rally” challenge to me, in the sense that it’s not something I’d want to see again, but it was made funny due to the Jokers being self aware about it not being a good challenge. Murr’s frustration at Q and Sal saying they’d just take the thumbs down was 10X funnier than if they actually attempted the challenge.
The punishment itself was solid. It’s a simple but effective idea, and revealing that it was Sal’s breath that stunk was a great ending.
2. Blake Anderson
They brought back two challenges that had each only been done once before, which could be risky, but worked out great.
The “phony fees” challenge was a welcomed return. Johnna did a great job making the charges seem legitimate, and the woman constantly praising Q was amazing.
The Yearbook challenge was also really good. The gag about them all being married to Melissa reminded me of the organic humor we got back when Joe was on the show.
The punishment was my favorite of season 10. It has a juvenile charm where I know what Sal’s doing is really dumb, yet am root for him to get away with it.
1. Brooke Shields
Brooke gave the same energy as a guest that I was hoping to get from Paula Abdul.
The opening skit was great, largely because of how well Brooke sold the role of a fangirl.
This was the first time we saw the celebrity guest participate in a challenge, and it was very fun to watch. The girl trying to dab while in a suitcase was hilarious.
The “Brooke of Love” punishment was genius. We’ve seen challenges that convert to punishments before, but it was always done on the fly and/or kept secret from the joker being punished. Having everyone know that whoever loses will be punished immediately was a really unique approach and I hope they do something similar in the future.
I also love the idea of a dating show where the guys are all trying to be as unappealing as possible. Sal’s rap, the return of Stanley Merkle, and the hushed trash talking (trash whispering?) were all fantastic. I know the show (usually) doesn’t repeat punishments, but I’d love to see the challenge be done again, even if it’s without the instant punishment at the end. It could be in the context of a dating show again, or it could be something like a job interview.

If you're looking for Chinese dramas, please post your request at CDramaRecs, our sister subreddit exclusively created for Chinese drama recommendations.
But first, here's a quick guide on how to make the requests:

First, use the search function

Before posting your request, search Cdrama for what you're looking for.
We get a lot of "drama like" requests, especially for dramas like Hidden Love, Love Between Fairy and Devil, Till the End of the Moon.
So, search for "Dramas like [name of drama]" you will find a lot of results.
For popular dramas like these, we'd recommend that you use the search function.

Tips on writing a good drama rec request

Tip #1: Write a good title and ensure it contains your criteria
Good:

• Can you recommend me a drama to watch with my grandma?
• I need a drama that has a strong female lead, lots of good fighting scenes and gorgeous cinematography

Not great:

• Cdrama pls
• I am bored
• Xianxia recs?

Tip #2: Ensure that your body contains the following information.
Note: You do not have to list ALL of these items, but at least tell us what genre and what you are looking for. It's even more helpful if you list dramas that you've watched.
Too often, we get low effort requests where the title of the post is just "Cdramas pls" and the body text is something vague like "I need more to watch" or "I just finished watching a CDrama and want more". That's too little information for us to go by, and unfortunately, this is a favourite tactic of spammers to increase their karma, so please don't do this. Posts like these will be removed.
Please ensure your body text contains some of the following:

• Genre: Costume / Republican / Modern / Romance / Historical etc
• What criteria are you looking for? For eg: A particular plot/'something like [drama name]', trope, actoactress/couple? ("A drama starring Cheng Yi" or "A story with a Romeo & Juliet plot")
• What other elements in the drama you would like / you don't mind / you don't want at all? (For example: "No love triangles!")
• List dramas you've already watched that might fit what you're looking for so people don't recommend it again. (For example: "I've already watched Hidden Love but anything like that would be great.")
• Alternatively, list dramas that you do not want to be recommended (For eg: "But please, don't recommend me palace harem dramas like Yanxi Palace!"

Here are examples of good drama recommendation requests:

• Darker romance recommendations?
• Recommendations for Dramas with Cross Dressing Woman?
• Any recommendations of Romance C-Drama from from Male Prospective please.
• Recommendations for fun, healthy love stories

Hope it's all clear! Now, head over to CDramaRecs!

Hi folks! I'm fairly new to the fragrance world and looking to develop a collection. I'm starting to sample different scents to get my nose accustomed to the different notes. I recently got my hands on an LPDO sample kit and seeing that this brand is still new and not much talked about, I thought of giving a review of the samples I got for those interested.
LPDO is an Italian brand, said to be producing affordable, good quality fragrances inspired by luxury scents, and they also have gorgeous bottles imo. The discovery kit comprises all of their fragrances, at a whopping 24 samples for 15,90 euros free shipping (!!!).
I sprayed them all on paper, then on myself and smelled them over a few hours before writing my thoughts. I'd like to specify, I am not a professional and as I said I'm just getting started, so forgive me if I'm not super accurate with the notes - or outright too basic with my descriptions! But hey, all for honesty and growing, right? Here we go:

1. Gotique island - Warm spices, sweet, comforting, the opening leans slightly masculine but quickly transforms into creamy orange blossoms and vanilla. Feels sophisticated and mature, but slightly overpowering for my taste. 7/10
   
2. Superbe Café - rose bomb with coffee. i'm not a rose lover so I don't know what I expected. Smells like rose and burnt paper. Gave this to a friend instantly and I hope she doesn't wear it around me. 4/10
   
3. Soleil Desire - this I was most excited about because I love citrus and was not disappointed. Fresh, energetic, gingery, not sweet at all. Sage shines through beautifully but is gone quickly. Overall a solid unisex summer scent. 7/10
   
4. Vanille Persuasive - this is supposed to be the dupe for TF Tobacco Vanille but I haven't smelled that so can't confirm. It's vanilla with cloves, rum and dried fruits, has a luscious, deep and warm feeling. Good for the festive season I suppose, but I fear it can get too cloying. Not my thing but I can see the appeal. 6/10
   
5. Royal Tiaré - there's actually no Tiaré in this. Smells like pretty white flowers, creamy and sweet with a hint of pink pepper. Stays close to the skin. It's a comforting smell, like some good quality body lotion, with a luxurious sexy feel. I found myself smelling my arm over and over, even though at the start I thought it wasn't for me. Was going to give this a 6.5 but I might bump this to a 7/10
   
6. Fleur Noire - inspired by TF Black Orchid (haven't tried that though, I'd like to know if it comes close). I found this very intriguing. Spicy mandarin orange, a hint of green (is it gardenia?) and some lovely jasmine shining through. After a bit it becomes deeper, woody and tobacco-y, with a mysterious somewhat dark aura, and it lasts a good while. Might get too smoky after a while, but I enjoyed it. 7.5/10
   
7. La Nuit Blanche - inspired by Bianco Latte, I suppose. Smells like caramel vanilla, with a slightly bitter opening that reminds me of fresh almonds. After it's just sweet, milky vanilla creme caramel, like a more sophisticated version of pink sugar. Girly girly sweet tart 6.5/10
   
8. Voyage Secret - I did not like this. It smells pungent like vinyl paint. Very balsamic, a bit of rose and amber. Definitely too harsh. 4/10
   
9. Soul Sea - breezy, salty, junipery, very masculine. Pleasant and calming. The drydown smells like clean salty skin like fresh out of the ocean. Handsome Mediterranean man in the office. 7/10
   
10. Mieloud - I had high expectations for this one as I was curious about the honey notes and I'm so sad :( smells like cough drops but very bitter and medicinal. The bitterness goes quickly but so does the honey aroma and all that's left is oud and incense. For real, I had a bitter taste in my mouth after smelling this. 3/10
    
11. Excentum - supposed to be Accento by Xerjoff. Opens up very green and fresh, then turns into jasmine and lily of the valley with just a hint of rose, not overpowering which I like. Very classy woman in the workplace. Unfortunately it didn't last very long but I could see myself going back to this for sure 7.5/10
    
12. Touché - very surprised by this! I expected this to be more subtle, but it isn't, in a good way. Peach and red fruits on a white flowers creamy base, reminds me of Garnier shampoo. Girly, fresh, happy vibes. A bit too juvenile for some, I suppose, still I might consider getting a full bottle of this. Perfect for spring. 8/10
    

That's all the ones I've been through so far!! Let me know if you want an update with the rest of the samples (there's about ten left) and more importantly what do you think. Also, let me know if you are aware of what are the other designer fragrances that inspired these. Bye all!

Greetings,
I purchased a new sauna and decided to go the extra step to purchase an oil based product to repel dirt/moisture. I originally looked at paraffin oil, but then discovered a higher end product marketed as Scandia Sauna Wood Oil (100% natural). I fell into the age old trap of more expensive must mean it is better.
The manufacturers make saunas & steam rooms, and they have been in business for several decades. The overall Amazon ratings were fairly high. Everything seemed to be a good fit from a glance.
I made some time this weekend to apply the product to the interior wood. I applied & followed the manufacturer instructions. Afterward smoke began to generate at temperatures approximating 190 degrees F. This has not resolved and I’ve ran several heat cycles at this point (1 hou200 degrees).
Apparently this is a major problem associated with the product. It doesn’t seem to happen to everyone based on the high Amazon reviews, but I noticed (after the fact) that some of the lower star Amazon reviewers made similar complaints. There are no resolutions from those reviews.
Has anyone else experienced this? If so, did it ever resolve? To say that I am disappointed in this product (and myself for choosing it) is an understatement.

Blue Squadron Eternal https://recruit.swgoh.gg/guild/548/blue-squadron-eternal
500M+ GP 49/50 members UK / EU Guild Reset (US Friendly) Discord https://discord.gg/xevajEGw2c
REQUIREMENTS * 10M+ GP (allowance can always be made for good rosters) * 500 tickets per day (but 600 preferred) * Active Discord Use * TB participation is mandatory * TW participation is not mandatory, however if you register in an event, we expect you to be active
ABOUT US * Krayt running at 140m+ points for 130m crate. With new raid announced, we are focusing on that instead of getting krayt dragon score up. * RotE TB - 36 ⭐️, 40/48 Reva shards and climbing. 48 Reva unlocked, plans in place for 37 stars+
HOW TO JOIN US Please come to our Discord server and an Officer or myself will assist you! We look forward to welcoming you to the family!

As I look through many different posts in this forum, I can't help but notice a recurring theme where people are saying that the 2024 Pats defense will "take a step back" because "Bill the GOAT" is gone, and this honestly does not make sense to me at all.
Don't get me wrong, that 2023 defense was a very good unit without doubt (fewest yards allowed per rush attempt in the league), but they were still prone to making dumb/costly mistakes and had bad performances that a supposed "elite" defense SHOULD NOT be putting out. Please bear with me as I list all the 2023 games and what went (or didn't go) wrong for the defense in those games;
Eagles Week 1 - No complaints here, they played GREAT against the defending NFC champs, they just got unlucky with the Slay pick-six, Zeke fumbling away short field position to set up the Eagles only touchdown, and Jake Elliott nailing all 4 of his LONG field goals. Dolphins Week 2 - Defense did a solid, not good job limiting Tua and the passing game, but proceeded to let Mostert BULLY them on the ground by allowing 120+ yards on just 18 carries and 2 TDs. Jets Week 3 - Again, no real big complaints. A wet, miserable game where both offenses struggled and both defenses had field days, plus Judon got a safety. Although Dugger almost ruined everything on that final hail mary when he swatted the ball RIGHT TO R. Cobb, who thankfully slipped on the turf and couldn't get it. Cowboys Week 4 - A game we all want to forget about. I really don't remember anything about the defense in this game other than that they allowed 17 points and both Judon and Gonzalez got hurt. I'm sure there were ACTUAL defensive lowlights from that game but it's not worth going back and looking. Saints Week 5 - The other HORRIBLE game we'd all love to wipe from our memory. Only thing worth noting is that the defense struggled WAY MORE against both the pass and run in this game than they did against the Cowboys for some reason. Raiders Week 6 - Raiders rookie tight end Michael Mayer would end his rookie season with 304 receiving yards, he had nearly a third of that total in THIS GAME ALONE. On all 5 of his catches, there wasn't a single defender within like 15 yards of him, enough said with that crap. Bills Week 7 - We can all probably agree that this was our favorite game of the season, and while the defense did good, it still isn't safe, because they allowed that flukey Diggs touchdown where Jackson and Bryant failed miserably to tackle him and allowed that 4th down conversion near the end that eventually allowed Buffalo to score the go-ahead touchdown before the Pats game-winning drive. Dolphins Week 8 - Abysmal officiating aside, the defense allowed every 4th down Miami attempted to be converted as well as those 2 big wide-open touchdown passes, the one to Hill is slightly embarrassing, but the one to Waddle is pathetic and totally inexcusable. Commanders Week 9 - Within the 2-minute warning of the first half, Commanders had the ball at midfield on 3rd and 23 and the Pats defense had a chance to get the offense the ball back to potentially add to the lead the Pats had before halftime, but they proceeded to CHOKE HARD by allowing Howell to SCRAMBLE for a first down, keeping the ball in the hands of the Commies, and while they would force an interception in the endzone, it was too late at that point to try and get points. They also (along with special teams) kept committing stupid penalties that took away time of possession. Colts Week 10 - The first of a 3-game stretch where because the other team couldn't score more than 10, everyone was convinced that the Pats defense was "elite", when in actuality it was more of complete ineptitude displayed by the opposing team's offenses. In this game, Gardner Minshew wasn't sacked ONCE, and if I recall correctly he was only pressured or hit one time by Barmore and that was it. This failure to bring down the QB allowed Minshew to tear the Pats weak AF secondary a new one at least a couple of times. Additionally, this has nothing to do with the defense, but at one point Bill stupidly had the punt team do an all-out blitz in an attempt to block a punt, which failed because it ended up being a good punt with no return man on the field to get it, costing them lots of field position. Giants Week 12 - The Giants won 3 straight games with undrafted QB Tommy Devito as the starter. He had a 100+ passer rating in all of those games, where he went against the ATROCIOUS defenses of Washington and Green Bay, and the "elite" defense of New England. I know the Pats offense was trash in that game, but if the defense still allows Devito to have a good performance SOMEWHAT similar to the one he had against the Commanders league-worst defense, that is a problem. Chargers Week 13 - The final game where the final score is deceiving as hell. The Pats rushing defense was unstoppable without question, but the passing defense was lowkey BAD. The secondary got very lucky when Herbert's receivers dropped 4 or 5 great passes from him. Herbert very well could have had over 300 yards passing that day if those drops didn't happen. Again, 6-0 is more telling of the bad offense from both teams as opposed to good defense. Steelers Week 14 - Not too much to say. They played against Trubisky, and limited him to less than 200 yards passing, picked him off and held VERY strong in the red zone, although they almost blew it at the end. Chiefs Week 15 - Intercepting Mahomes twice in the same game is certainly something to be proud about, but he still threw for over 300+ yards when the entire Chiefs offense was a chaotic mess at that point. Broncos Week 16 - I was already a fan of Barmore, but he played GODLY in this game. With 3 sacks in a single quarter and pretty much singlehandedly preventing the Broncos from scoring at the 1 after Zappe immediately fumbled at the start made me love the man even more. However, the defense still allowed the Broncos to come back from a double-digit deficit near the end, but still held strong for the win. Bills Week 17 - The defense was basically set up to fail 3 times in a row when Zappe threw those horrible picks, giving up extremely short field position and a free 6 points to Douglas. Credit to the defense though, the only RZ touchdowns they allowed were the 2 Allen tush pushes, but they still gave up that deep ball to Kincaid. Jets Week 18 - The dreadful snow game where the defense had absolutely no answer for Breece Hall, but honestly, who even cared at that point?
Two other things that contradict the defense being "elite" in 2023 was that one, they didn't score a single defensive touchdown all year long, and two, they had maybe the 6th or 7th fewest forced turnovers in the league, which honestly doesn't sound elite to me.
With all this being said, I genuinely don't see a reason to think the defense will regress next year just because Bill is no longer coaching. The defense's strongest units in 2023, by far, were the linebackers and the line. Who coached those units? Mayo and Covington. Who is the new head coach and new defensive coordinator? Mayo and Covington. So the defense will still be very strong in those areas, mix that in with Judon and Gonzo returning (and hopefully staying healthy), Barmore developing into a star, and Pepper and Dugger finding rhythm as one of the best safety duos in the league, I'd say, if anything, the defense will AT LEAST be just as good as it was last season, and we as a fanbase should be VERY OPTIMISTIC for what the defense can do next year.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

There's a lot of talk of in a vacuum of "these aren't the matches that should be on TV" but I feel like AEW has tried basically every formula? There was the era of we're giving away big matches on TV and people said "you're wasting the big matches on free TV, save them for PPV", then it became more freeflowing with younger talents getting wins but that led to as soon as anyone gets a groundswell of support you need "strap the rocket to them" and make them the face of the company or something, so now to avoid that problem it's clear star vs non-star but suddenly people can afford to lose. So I actually want examples of good TV matches. Not "this should be idea of what a good TV match is", actual names. Will Ospreay vs Claudio? Will Ospreay vs Danielson? What is a match that isn't obvious winner vs obvious loser when there are like 20 guys AEW can't afford to have lose without the entire internet saying it's booking malpractice for that person to look weak?

I've posted about a year ago regarding my then 7th month old scratching his head and hurting himself in the process. You can find the old post here: https://www.reddit.com/Parenting/comments/139ip9z/baby_wont_stop_scratching_his_head_until_it_bleads/
Recently I've had 3 different parents that have found the post and were in the same situation, inboxing for an update/solution, so I decided to make an update post in case more parents are looking for answers. Sorry I took so long. I know the despair you feel. I assure you it will get better if you persevere. This is an extremely long post, so I have bolded the several topics, in case you don't want to read everything, so they are easier to find.
To update on my son's situation: He's now 1y and 7 months. He is allergic to milk and he has a combination of cradle cap and eczema. In addition to this, he was also born with Hydronephrosis (enlarged kidneys) which means he is limited in the medication that he's allowed to take (no ipobrufren, as an example)
The Cradle Cap situation has improved by itself, mainly by just carrying on with what we were doing. We use the Frida Flake Fixer treatment and a cradle cap shampoo (Dentinox). We've also been advised not to wash his head every day, leave it 1 or 2 days (one doctor even said once a week). For the cuts, the best thing was indeed a Vaseline barrier to help the raw skin heal. Even though it definitely stinks, the healing is the most important part. I would put Vaseline on his scalp the day before a bath, do the treatment with the Frida Brush and then I would rub a Baby Scalp Oil (Colief) to soften the flakes on the day after the bath; I would put Vaseline on the scalp the next day and he would take a bath the next day, rinse and repeat, until the cuts were healed, and I could ditch the Vaseline step. If the cut was deep I would sometimes apply Sudocream only at night after a bath and the Vaseline was removed and he'd fallen asleep so he wouldn't take it off. He still slept with mittens inside his cuffed babygrow, but he always managed to get one or two fingers out, I kid you not when I say, that sometimes I would sleep holding his hand to prevent him from scratching his head when the wounds here at it's worst. All of these steps have contributed to has improved the cradle cap lot and eventually disappeared in about a month's time. He's going trough a second outbreak now, a year later, but no where near as bad as it was then, he's not scratching himself to death.
The Eczema situation. Right....... this situation has improved for a few good 7-8 months with the Aveeno Baby Dermexa Emollient Cream. I would use it 3 times a day or more to fight of dry skin. The areas where the skin folded were the worst. Arm folds, neck folds, behind the knees, there the eczema would install and spread, That could only be controlled an Hydrocortisoid Cream, 1% w/w. It did eventually disappeared save for one spot -- just behind the right knee. He developed a habit of scratching it with his left foot. But, lets put the Eczema situation on hold for a moment, while we talk about:
The Milk Allergy situation.... Oh Boy..... this is about to get very long.....
In my previous post made at the beginning of May 2023, I stated that my son had been to the A&E (a week before the post) for an allergic reaction to porridge, so he would either be allergic to Milk and/or Gluten. We were told a referral was done to our GP for a visit by an allergy team who would walk us through to process of slowly introducing allergens so that my son would hopefully be able to safely be exposed to them in the future and advised to "only feed him vegetables and fruit". We were given an "prescription" for an antihistamine to continue the treatment and to use as an SOS in case of another allergic reaction in the future. No allergy tests were done for my son at all.
We were told that, it would take a couple of weeks before we were contacted by the allergy team and to contact the GP after two weeks if we hadn't heard from them. We waited a month and nothing. At the end of May, I went to our GP to ask for updates on this situation. Imagine my shock when the GP told me that they didn't even have ANY information about my son being in the A&E. They've spent 1h contacting the hospital to get the paperwork from the A&E that SHOULD have been sent to our GP. In said paperwork, it states that the hospital would like the GP to sort out the allergy appointment. So, no allergy appointment had been made for an entire month and if I hadn't enquired about this situation, the GP would have had no clue about the need to make one because they didn't have the necessary paperwork! I was given an apology and scheduled an "assessment appointment" 2 days later. I enquired about an Antihistamine prescription, since my son was gonna start nursery in a couple of weeks when my maternity leave would end and I needed to provide a bottle for them in case of an allergic reaction, because we still didn't know what my son was allergic to.... Lo and behold, when the GP staff looks at the hospital paperwork, it was stated that no more antihistaminic was necessary, against what we were advised, as we should have one antihistamine as SOS, I had to press the GP to provide us with an prescription (which the lady was very quick to do after seeing me ready to implode regarding this absolute incompetence) so the nursery could have one antihistamine with themselves as we couldn't keep juggling our bottle back and forth with them.
The assessment appointment which basically consisted in 5 mins of asking for details about the allergic reaction, all of which was written in A&E's paperwork and only then being referred to a dietitian's team. I was given no ETA, no info about where it would be, no contact that I could call to at least be put on a waiting list in case of a cancellation, nothing. I was only asked to wait and when confronted, the practitioner admitted that this appointment COULD have been made straight in the hospital's A&E, instead of this ridiculous and time wasting bureaucratic football between the Hospital and the GP.
You might think this was the end of the miscommunication and incompetence.... Oh oh But no,.. of course not!! I waited another month of silence. At the end of June I called the hospital's appointment hotline enquiring about my son's appointment, only to be told that he doesn't have one because a referral hadn't been made yet! I was fuming!! I immediately called the GP who have assured me that a referral has been sent to the hospital's Paediatric and gave me it's referral number and they would enquire....
If you are in the UK like I am and you see that your baby/child is being ignored by your GP / Hospital and not getting the appropriate care, then do as I did and contact PALS near your area. That was the best piece of advice that I have received from people at my local breastfeeding group, and if being a mother has taught me anything, is that sometimes, you will have to be a momma bear (aka Karen to the eyes of the target) and advocate for your child. I work in retail, I despise Karens and I have no wish to be one, I am usually a pushover. But I will not allow anyone to trample on my son's health. And while I do have respect for the NHS, seeing has my brother in law works there, I know damn well, by his own words, that the main problem is not the lack of funds, but the pockets where they go and the terrible disorganization.
At that point I had enough of excuses and I made a complaint to PALS about both the GP and the Hospital. My son was almost 9months and still breastfeeding but eating mostly Vegetables and Fruit as solid food as per A&E'S guidelines, delaying his weaning and feeding development and causing stress with the nursery and our family as we didn't know what he was allergic to and couldn't move on to full meals. I flat out asked them if they were intent on my son completing an entire year of life being fed only Vegetables and Fruit besides breastmilk, and called them out because an 8 month baby should not be put on the back burner over and over again due to the incredibly poor communication between these two organizations and have his health jeopardized. I demanded a resolution ASAP and forward this to the Paediatrician as I did not trust the hospital to be able clearly communicate between their departments and whom I suspected had not been told absolutely nothing regarding all this. Two days later the allergy team specialist rang me to personally and profusely apologise and take the situation under her control and give me her allergy guidelines which I should have been given since the beginning. I was still forced to wait until early July for a allergy test - Milk was found to be the culprit.
I still thank everything that I had enough perseverance to stick with breastfeeding and never, ever, though to look at formula. I tremble to think about the consequences, Even though I'm aware that dairy free formulas exist, me being a 1st time ignorant mother, chances were I could have picked a wrong one. Fortunately I produced more than enough milk and my son had a good latch. Also because my son was not making any allergic reactions to my milk, this meant there was a higher chance that he could grow out of his allergy, as he was still getting enzymes from the dairy that I consumed. From here on, food introduction was a breeze. He's a real foodie, he loves to eat and he loves to eat with us. Adapting our diet was a bit of work, as I have IBS and my husband is diabetic so there might be some foods that will be a trigger or might not be the most ideal to someone in our family, but we managed to strike a good balance. Vegan options do help and we are having fun exploring that.
The problems then came with the nursery. After letting them know that my son was allergic to milk and other things were fine, the cases of allergic reaction in the nursery stated to increase and he started getting very bad reactions. First we suspected cross contamination, then that he might be allergic to something else, but the foods they were saying he was allergic to made absolutely no sense as he was just fine having those at home. We came to the conclusion after several events in the softplay area - that involved no food at all - that the culprit might be their cleaning products and further pressed after two different members of staff said they themselves were allergic to that product - Milton. After several bickerings between us and the nursery and us visiting our origin country for Xmas where my son ate in 4 different household and 5 different restaurant with absolutely no allergy reaction (in comparing to the then daily cases of reaction on the 3 days that he stayed at nursery), we finally convinced the nursery to change their cleaning products - they are now using Sanell. In addiction to prevent cross contamination, my son was given his own high chair, that no other child uses. Happy to say the cases of allergy are nearly non-existent now. His recent blood results also came back with amazingly good improvements, so we got the thumbs up from the Allergy Team and the Paediatrician to start the milk ladder and slowly and gradually adding milk to his diet. Currently he's in stage one and having half a teaspoon of malted milk biscuit daily with no reaction. It will probably still be able two months until he can have a full biscuit, but I can't wait to see his smile when we get to this stage - he loves taking the little piece of my hand.
Because of the back and forth with the nursery and them insisting that the allergic reaction could be due to other foods, the allergy team at the hospital was more concerned with that than his Eczema situation. We had to insist about it, since we suspected the reactions might be Eczema instead, stating that I was still waiting for the promised skin specialist appointment since end of April last year. The lead Team Speciallist, again showed her amazing professionalism and chased up the situation and we finally got our appointment jointly with her and the skin specialist in January of this year. She gave us a few products to try but said that the Eczema situation was relatively controlled. The samples that she gave were:

• Dermol 500 Lotion - we still use this for his bath as a soap substitute
  
• Adex Gel - kind like an emollient cream, it was ok-ish
  
• Cetraben Cream - didn't seem to make any difference, but can also be used as a soap substitute so we'll give it a go after Dermol is finished
  
• Zerodearm Ointment - didn't seem to make any difference, but it has a Vaseline like quality to it, so might try again
  

About a week after the appointment, my Son had an mild outbreak of Eczema on his legs. We tried several combinations of above products that seemed to temporally control the situation but didn't complete solve it. In Early March of this year the Eczema appeared in his back. He has a huge red birthmark the size of my hand on his back, so that skin is very sensitive. He started to scratch and rub his back against things and it didn't took long to break the skin. It didn't bleed but it was oozing/weeping which would make the skin get stuck to his clothes and then get raw, so no treatment was going to work on that as it would slide off with the oozing/weeping. I despaired then as I had a year ago.
So I went back to the thing that worked last time - Vaseline. This time though, it was on a place that I couldn't exactly leave uncovered. My son was about to do some blood tests so hospital had given us numb cream to put on the inside of his elbows and some clear medical film. He had this done before and I remembered that the film had been resistant enough to keep the cream in and didn't hurt his skin, so I though, maybe I could apply the same theory. So I bought some clear medical film (Tegaderm Film), put a good chunk of Vaseline on the wound and sealed it with the film. I changed this twice or three times a day, depending if he was in the nursery or not. It worked like a charm and it allowed the skin to heal. For reference, the nursery manager, whose son suffers with really bad eczema has suggested me the AproDerm Ointment which also has a Vaseline consistency to it, but my son's situation cleared up before I had to use it.
The skin specialist by then had prescribed a treatment with another hydrocortisoid cream ( Daktacort 2% 1% w/w, needs to be kept refridgerated ) and an emollient cream - Epimax Oatmeal Cream. For the other patches of Eczema (that were not in wound), I would use Daktacord, once in the morning, once in the evening, and I would use Epimax to keep the skin moisturized along the day, whenever I would change a diaper. The skin specialist told us to keep using Daktacord twice a day for a week, then drop it to once a day on the following week, and then drop it to every other day on the week after. This has worked brilliantly and it solved all Eczema patches, including the stubborn one behind his right knee, We were able to drop the Daktacord and we now only use the Epimax emollient regularly about twice a day.
Thank you if you have read everything so far, I hope you have found something that could be of use to you. Happy to answer any questions that you might have, or if you're feeling desperate like I was and just need some reassurance, just drop me message!

TW: child loss
Hi! I am a 29F looking to start training for a half marathon.
For context, I gave birth to my stillborn son on February 28th. For 37 weeks of my pregnancy, I did no running, the only exercise I did was consistent walking and some yoga. I stopped running about 2 years ago for no real reason.
After losing my son, I really wanted to challenge myself with a goal that I could work towards & feel good about. Not much brings me joy anymore, but I love listening to music (I can do that while I run) and I used to love running, which is how I landed on training as my challenge for myself. I’m grieving the worst loss in the world and I need an outlet.
I’m wondering how best to begin training? I don’t have a treadmill at home but I can get a gym membership if need be, otherwise I’m happy to run outside. I don’t care about time or anything, I just want to be able to start building up my endurance again, basically from scratch.
Thanks in advance. :)

Sorry just ranting... sitting at a busy store after coming from a busy store... while there plenty of orders from here... now here they're gone... no one took them if I drive outside the circle they'll pop back onto my screen... one of them has been one the server for 4 hours 60 item no tip 25 miles.... This is the only explanation for the 5 star curse... why busy stores are never busy... THEY HAVE NO CLUE WTF THEY ARE DOING....
GOOD LUCK OUT THERE!!!! (Unless you're in my neck of the woods in that case go pound sand 😡)

I’m looking for a bakery or baker that can make a really good strawberries and cream cake, that uses fresh fruit (not jam) and isn’t too sweet. It’s oddly specific, but it’s tough finding a good cake. I’m not wanting a grocery store either, any help? Berry season is coming up, and I want a good cake for my birthday. Thanks!

Hey everyone, I wanted to give a heads up to start crafting some all target attack resist gear if you’re interested in doing the next tower challenge that starts this evening with chapter 8. It requires clearing the first few floors of the Stab tower and you will find floor 2 very difficult if not impossible without this trait on one or two pieces of gear at high level for each party member. It’s a great way to spend your mana from the Shallie event if you still have some! This is an item only trait similar to the popular Enhanced Damage Buff [A] so you may have to make a few pieces before it sticks. The good news is that similar to the fire tower, you can make good progress in stab with one and two star units, so long as you can withstand the barrage on floor 2.

Cleaned up the inventory into folders on an easy to navigate Google Drive and added direct links on each issue below. Click on the issue to be taken directly to the folder with that issue's photos. You can scroll below the inventory list for more details on condition and key facts. I’m always open to bundle deals and reasonable offers. Let's talk, I need to make room.
I’ve also taken on a lot of random fillers as I fill inventory, so I’ll be including a random comic valued around $10 (legitimately, not junk) in each order.
These prices include shipping (Gemini mailers whenever possible). I've tried to provide condition explanations, photos of everything (even the ones below $100) and detailed photos.
Again, all images are now organized much better in individual Google drive folders.
Inventory with pictures (new items since last post in bold, scroll below list for details on each):
X-Men

• X-Men #39 - $80
• Wolverine (1988) #1 - $65
• X-Men #221 - $70
• X-Men #4 (1992) - $20
• Amazing Adventures #11 - $100
• Amazing Adventures #13, #16 & #17 - $42
  • Bundle with Amazing Adventures #11 for $120

Spider-Man

• Amazing Spider-Man #29 - $135
• Amazing Spider-Man #33 - $180
• Amazing Spider-Man #40 - $175
• Amazing Spider-Man #64 - $84
• Amazing Spider-Man #72 - $35
• Amazing Spider-Man #121 - $190
• Amazing Spider-Man #136 - $48
• Amazing Spider-Man #361 9.4 Slab - $110
• Amazing Spider-Man #361 Newsstand (slice damage) - $38
• Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 - $19
• Marvel Team-Up Annual #2 - $25

Batman

• Batman #191 - $18
• Batman #209 - $18
• Batman #217 - $38
• Batman #357 - $62
• Batman Annual #14 - $15
• Detective Comics #259 - $175
• Detective Comics #324 and Batman #410 - $32
• Detective Comics #355 and 2 copies of #375 - $25

Marvel Heroes

• Incredible Hulk #250 (Newsstand) - $38
• Marvel Feature #1 - $49
• Tales of Suspense #94 - $55
• Captain America #110 - $50
• Journey into Mystery #125 - $49
• Invaders #31 (Nazi Frankenstein) - $17
• Daredevil #184 Newsstand - $22
• Daredevil #157 - $15
• Daredevil #164 (Newsstand) - $50
• Astonishing Tales featuring Dr. Doom & Kazar #1 - $15
• Sub-Mariner #15 and #31 - $22
• Fantastic Four #150 - $25
• Tales to Astonish #58 - $19

DC

• Green Lantern #59 - $115
• Flash #113 - $75
• Flash #129 - $90
• Flash #147 - $90
• Aquaman #11 - $90
• Action Comics #263 - $33

Horror

• Frankenstein #1 Marvel - $37
• Werewolf by Night #4 (low grade) - $20
• Werewolf by Night #8 Mark Jewelers Insert - $26
• Werewolf by Night #18 - $22
• Tomb of Dracula #18 - $32
• Tomb of Dracula #27 and #63 - $23
• Strange Tales #73 (low grade) - $22
• Beware! #1 - $25
• Early Man-Thing lot: Astonishing Tales #13, Adventure into Fear #11-13: $80 (willing to split this lot up)
• House of Secrets #91 - $32
• Giant Size Chillers #1 (1975 not 1974) - $20
• Tower of Shadows Annual #1 - $25
• Dead of Night #1 - $35

Sci-Fi

• Mystery in Space #68 - $25
• Strange Adventures #138 - $18
• Golden and Silver Age Lot of 12- $85
• Star Spangled War Stories #113 - $17

Condition and Key Details:
X-Men
X-Men #39 - 1967 - Debut of the new X-Men costumes: $85
This is an awesome book. It’s absolutely beautiful with just a little bit of wear to the outside edges in spots. Great colors, solidly attached. I love this one. Another one I’m only selling because I have it in a higher grade now in my PC.
X-Men #221 - 1987 - First Appearance of Mister Sinister: $70
Awesome condition. Just a couple of minor spine ticks. Other than that, beautiful. See photos.
X-Men #4 - 1992 - First Appearance of Omega Red: $20
Awesome condition. Not even any spine ticks. See photos
Wolverine (1988) #1 - 1988 - Can’t have the 1982? Take this instead!: $65
Also in awesome, gorgeous condition. Very, very clean. See photos.
Amazing Adventures #11 - 1972 - First furry beast: $100
In awesome condition. Minor, tiny blemish (possibly a tape pull?) on the bottom of the A on cover. See photo, but very tiny blemish.
Amazing Adventures #13, #16 & #17 - $42
Good to great condition on these Beast issues, including the Juggernaut vs Beast cover. Bundle with Amazing Adventures #11 (first furred Beast) and I'll give you a great deal.
Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man #29 - 1965 - SLAB CGC 4.5 - Second Scorpion: $135
Slabbed. See photos.
Amazing Spider-Man #33 - 1966 - Classic story and iconic cover. You know it, I know it.: $180
This iconic book is in good to great shape, see the photos for the details. Solidly attached and great colors. Needs a press.
Amazing Spider-Man #40 - 1966 - Origin of the Green Goblin, Iconic Cover: $175
Looks great, clean, bright colors. Complete and solidly attached. See photos
Amazing Spider-Man #64- 1968 - Romita Spider-Man vs. Vulture Cover: $84
Great condition. Bright awesome colors.
Amazing Spider-Man #72 - 1969 - Shocker cover: $35
Is worn and the centerfold is detached (see photos). But it is complete and still has good colors on the interior.
Amazing Spider-Man #121 -1973 - Death of Gwen Stacy: $190
Lower grade since the cover is worn, has some holes but despite that the staples are attached, colors are good, and everything is attached and complete. The inside looks good, too. See photos for details.
Amazing Spider-Man #136 -1974 - First appearance of Harry Osborn at the Green Goblin: $48
Great looking book. Has some non-staining dirt on the back cover that can be easily cleaned. Solid, beautiful colors especially on that cover. Love this story and cover
Amazing Spider-Man #361 9.4 Slab - 1992 - First full appearance of Carnage: $110
High grade slab.
Amazing Spider-Man #361 Newsstand - 1992 - First appearance of Carnage - Slice at top, $38
Here's a tragedy. This otherwise beautiful high grade major key book has a clean scissor cut at the top through the whole book. Included photos and closeups.
Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 - 1987 - Death of First Hobgoblin: $19
Awesome condition. Pressable non-color breaking crease on back cover. See photos
Marvel Team-Up Annual #2 - 1978 - Spider-Man & The Hulk team-up: $25
In awesome condition. No spine ticks, creases, color breaks or bends.
Batman
Batman #191 - 1967 - Much like this post, Bat-Auction! Everything Must Go!: $18
Good shape, some wear. Clean exteriors.
Batman #209 - 1968 - KITTY!: $18
Good shape, minor wear, clean but worn.
Batman #217 - 1969 - Iconic cover art by Neal Adams: $38
Great shape, some wear on the cover. Solid book, great art and interiors.
Batman #357 - 1983 - First cameo of Jason Todd, 1st full appearance of Killer Croc: $62
Controversial 1sts aside, CGC counts it that way so who am I to quibble? Anyway, this one is in great shape. Back needs a press and thee is some minor wear to the edges but its a solid book with great interiors.
Batman Annual #14 - 1990 - Iconic Neal Adams Two-Face Cover, Origin of Two-Face: $15
Amazing condition, almost unused. See photos.
Detective Comics #259 - 1958 - First Appearance of Calendar Man: $175
Worn but expected for its age. Solid staples and fully attached. Great colors.
Detective Comics #324 (1964) and Batman #410 (1987) - $32
324 in good condition but could use a clean and press. Batman 410 is in awesome condition, but considering the prices of these I figured I’d just throw them together.
Detective Comics #355 and 2 copies of #375 - $25
Some classic old Batman. Good but a cleaning is needed on 355, two copies of 375 one clean and great condition one worn in but complete and attached.
Marvel Heroes
Incredible Hulk #250 (Newsstand) - 1980 - Iconic Hulk vs. Silver Surfer cover: $38
Awesome condition. See photos.
Marvel Feature #1 - 1971 - Origin & First Defenders: $49
I good condition with fantastic colors throughout. Has tape pull on cover, subscription crease color break (see photos)
Tales of Suspense #94 - 1967 - First appearance of M.O.D.O.K.: $55
In pretty good condition, with a little edge wear and marks on the cover in places. Other than that it has bright clean pages and good colors.
Captain America #110 - 1969 - Rick Jones dons Bucky Costume, first appearance of Madame Hydra: $50
Iconic Jim Steranko cover and art. In OK condition, a bit worn, could definitely use a cleaning. See photos.
Journey into Mystery #125 - 1966 - Iconic cover and last Journey into Mystery before Thor title change: $49
Very good condition, has a small chip out of the bottom left cover but other than some cover wear it’s just a solid book with great colors.
Invaders #31 - 1978 - Frankenstein is a Nazi. Come on: $17
In awesome condition. Also did I mention Captain America fights Nazi Frankenstein?
Daredevil #157 (Newsstand) - 1979: $15
Awesome condition. No spine ticks, creases, color breaks or bends.
Daredevil #164 (Newsstand) - 1980 - Iconic Cover: $50
In awesome condition. Great colors on cover despite all the white. No spine ticks, creases, color breaks or bends.
Daredevil #184 Newsstand - 1982 - Iconic cover: $22
In fantastic condition. Newsstand variant that has been very well kept.
Astonishing Tales featuring Dr. Doom & Kazar #1 - 1970 - First issue in series: $15
In great condition. Great colors and quality. Doctor Doom.
Sub-Mariner #15 and #31 - Silver Age Namor bundle: $22
Great colors and interiors. Fading on spine cover on #15, #31 in great condition, see photos.
Fantastic Four #150 - 1974 - Wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver: $25
In awesome condition. No spine ticks, creases, color breaks or bends.
Tales to Astonish #58 - 1964 - Silver age Giant Man: $19
Worn condition but complete and attached. See photos.
DC
Green Lantern #59 - 1968 - First appearance of Guy Gardner: $115
Worn but complete. Attached at top staple, bottom staple detached.
Flash #113 - 1960 - First appearance and origin of the Trickster: $75
This one looks good until you realize it has tape up the spine holding the loose staples on. Included pictures of the staples and tape. It is complete and has good colors otherwise, but still low grade because of the tape/staple issue.
Flash #129 - 1962 - First team-up of golden age Flash and silver age Flash; first appearance of golden age Green Lantern and JSA in silver age: $90
Good condition! Very solid, great colors, complete and attached.
Flash #147 - 1964 - Second appearance of Professor Zoom: $90
Good condition! Very solid, great colors, complete and attached.
Aquaman #11 - 1963 - First appearance of Mera: $90
Worn condition but solid, complete and attached.
Action Comics #263 - 1960 - Last appearance of Bizarro world. End of Bizarro world not told. Not good deal.: $33
Cover has pen on it and is worn but interiors are good, complete and attached and colors are great.
Horror
Frankenstein #1, Marvel - 1973 - Fist appearance and origin of Frankenstein in Marvel comics: $35
Worn but complete, attached, and cool as all hell. See photos for condition. Could definitely use a cleaning. A hard to find book at this price.
Werewolf by Night #4 - 1972 - Introduction of the Darkhold: $20
Low grade, heavy wear on the cover front and back. Get a key at a steal!
Werewolf by Night #8 - 1973 - Has Mark Jewelers insert included: $26
Is in great shape and includes a Mark Jewelers insert making this regular issue a little more rare.
Werewolf by Night #18 - 1974 - $22
Worn condition but great colors. See photos.
Tomb of Dracula #18 -1974 - First battle of Dracula & Werewolf by Night: $32
Nice shape. Needs a press but is solid and colors are good.
Tomb of Dracula #27 and #63 - $23
Non-key issues in great condition, just throwing together to move.
Strange Tales #73 - 1960 - First appearance of Grottu, first appearance of ‘Frank’ who later becomes Ulysses Bloodstone. Great old horror in low grade: $20
Book is beat, see photos. But it’s an awesome piece of Marvel monster history. I’m only selling because I recently got a high grade copy and I’m selling at this price in hopes someone wants to give it a home in their PC.
Beware! #1 - 1973 - First issue reprints horror stories from Menace, Spellbound and Tales of Suspense: $25
Overall good shape. Solid book, some wear on the cover. But firmly intact and a great 1st issue.
Early Man-Thing lot: Astonishing Tales #13, Adventure into Fear #11-13: $80 (willing to split this lot up)
First cover appearance of Man-Thing, and 3rd appearance overall in awesome condition. The Fear 11-13 are in good condition, but a little more worn than the Astonishing.
House of Secrets #91 - 1971 - Iconic Neal Adams cover: $32
Book is in great condition. There is some minor chipping on a portion of the bottom edge of the cover but other than the wear on the cover it is a beautiful book.
Giant Size Chillers #1 - 1975 - John Romita art: $20
Not the more valuable 1974 with Drac but this is in awesome condition and still some great classic horror.
Tower of Shadows Annual #1 - 1971 - Romita cover and Neal Adams art: $25
Great condition. Good colors, solid book.
Dead of Night #1 - 1973 - Romita art: $35
Really great condition, with a minor color rub or stain or something (can’t tell what) to a spot on the bottom of the front cover and top of the back. Fantastic colors, white pages.
SCI-FI
Mystery in Space #68 - 1961 - 10c Comic Goodness: $25
Cover is detached, but hey, it’s a 10c comic. Otherwise good colors and pages.
Strange Adventures #138 - 1962: $18
Good condition, good colors.
Golden and Silver Age Lot of 12- $85
Came into a lot of worn golden and silver books I know little about. Would like to offload them all together, so take a look at the album. Includes Little Lulu, Cheyenne Kid, the Flintstones, Tarzan, some other Gold Key and Dell stuff and an Adventures book from 1945. Did some research to get prices, take a look.
Star Spangled War Stories #113 - 1964 -Bruh, they’re fighting pterodactyls: $17
In good shape. Some wear to the back cover and minor wear on the front. Great story and art.

Hi gainers,
I have just finished running Super Squats by Randall J. Strossen and wanted to share my results. There are plenty of discussions of this program out there already, but I figured sharing my experience with the program can't hurt and can hopefully be interesting, or maybe even useful to someone. This was my first time running a "proper" program (i.e. one designed by a prefessional) and it has been by far the most productive training block I have done so far. Since I am a beginner, I'm not calling this a review (I don't have the training experience to offer any kind of expert opinion). This post is meant rather to show my results as a beginner on the program and to share some of my thoughts about it.
[Before, 82kgs, 10 April 2024](https://imgur.com/a/super-squats-before-82kg-10-04-2024-PvPBvIl). NSFW. Pics taken the day after the first workout.
[After, 86kgs, 18 May 2024](https://imgur.com/a/loPa07y). NSFW. Pics taken the day after the last workout.
Background:
M30, 6'2", no athletic background. Typical denizen of this sub in that I could always eat loads and not put on weight blah blah blah. Worked out in my teens with weights in my room but never maintained a consistent schedule long enough to see significant results. Fast forward to 2 years ago when I started doing bodyweight workouts at home and making an effort to gain weight. Had some success and then started going to the gym at the start of this year. Did a 4 day/week UppeLower split with some success. My weight had fluctuated between a very skinny 67kgs to around 73kgs throughout my twenties. Prior to running Super Squats I had already bulked from 74kgs at the start of December to 82kgs at the start of April (I started taking creatine in January which definitely contributed to this weight gain).
The Program:
Super Squats is a book, which is short (less than 100 pages) and contains everything you need to run the program. Although the book was written in 1989, the routine it outlines is based on old-school squatting programs utilized by strongmen from the 1920s onwards. A chapter is devoted to this history of squats, the "master exercise". There are a couple of anachronisms (my favourite is referring to the hamstrings as "thigh biceps") but overall it is well-written and presented.
The program itself is a six week full-body routine, with the choice to run it 2 or 3 days per week. I won't spell out the whole program here (just buy the book), but the core of the routine is, of course, a single set of twenty heavy squats, with the trainee taking at least three deep breaths between each rep. The squats are supersetted with a set of light pullovers or Rader chest pulls to stretch the rib cage. The starting weight for the squats is a weight you can do for 10 reps (and yes, you really do twenty reps with that weight) and the program stipulates that you must add at least 5lbs/2.5kgs every single workout. The program is fairly light on volume (especially if you run it 2 days per week like I did) but what it lacks in volume, it more than makes up in intensity.
There is no way around it: heavy, high-rep squats are deeply, profoundly, brutally unpleasant. There is no stipulation for rep cadence or how long the set should take, you can take as long as you like, but completing 20 reps with good form will require having the bar on your back for at least 3-4 minutes. From week 2 onwards, the single set of squats always took me more than 5 minutes (and it always felt much longer).
Performing warm-up sets slowly and deliberately was crucially important. Before I even got to the warm-up sets I performed a few reps of touchdown-squats on a box, and a few more of goblet squats with a light kettlebell, opening my hips against a resistance band to prime my glutes and quads.
Super Squats is the embodiment of "mind over matter". The book has a whole section on mindset and positive visualization to help trainees to manage the seemingly impossible task of squatting a 10-rep weight for 20 reps. It sounds stupid, but by the second half of the program, I had gotten into a ritual of giving the bar a firm slap, as a jockey would slap his racehorse, before I started the set, cementing my effort to view the bar not as an enemy to overcome but as a friend helping me to achieve my goals.
Reps 11 and 12 were usually the hardest. By the time I got to ten reps my legs were already trembling. My whole body was drenched in sweat, the weight of the bar impossibly heavy resting on my traps, crushing my whole body into the ground. Time had slowed to a crawl, and the thought that I was only half way would be enough to sap my resolve if I let it. Once I got to rep 13, comfortably more than halfway, I no longer had to think about breathing. I was sucking in great lungfuls of air automatically and heaving them out so hard I sprayed the mirror in front of me with droplets of spit (yes, of course I wiped it down afterwards). Once I got to rep 17 I knew I had the set in the bag. No matter how tortuous those last three reps, no matter how long they took, no matter how many heaving breaths I had to take, I could do 3 more reps.
During week 2 I had what I think is the closest I've ever had to an out-of-body experience. It was as if I was watching someone else perform the agonizing reps while I talked myself through the rest of the set: "Breathe, good, deeper, you've got this, next rep, nice. Keep going".
Breathing is the key. The book talks at length about the importance of deep breathing throughout the set. Pretty quickly, I found that deep breathing was the only way to keep from passing out or collapsing mid set, though as I said, deep breathing becomes automatic about halfway through the set (there's simply no other way to stay upright with the weight on your back). A very helpful tip from the book is to suck in an extra gulp of air on top of your already full lungs for each of the last reps.
If all this sounds a bit exaggerated, try the program and see for yourself. But I'm not trying to put anyone off with this description, quite the opposite! The great thing about Super Squats is that the difficulty of the squats is directly proportional to the feeling of giddy elation upon completing the set. I always felt great after the set, and rode the feeling of accomplishment for the rest of the day. The program really pushes you beyond the boundaries of what you think you can do.
My Progress:
I started the squats at quite a low weight of just 40kg. The book recommends erring on the side of starting too light, and then adding more weight if needed, so that is what I did. Remember, the program stipulates a minimum increase of 5lbs/2.5kgs per workout, but there's nothing saying you can't add more. Once I realized the weight was too light (I managed 21 reps for the first workout) I simply increased the weight by 10kgs on the second workout and continued with the 2.5kg increases from there.
Before starting Super Squats I had had a two week break from training due to illness, so I started with too-low weights (I exceeded the target rep range on all exercises). So I increased the weight by 5-10kgs depending on the exercise for the second workout. The program has varying set numbers and rep ranges for different exercises. As a general rule, I increased the weight once I could hit the target rep range for the first two sets of each exercise, but I did not stick to this rule every workout.
The only thing I stuck to was the minimum increase of 2.5kgs for the squats every workout. I managed this consistently until the final week, when I failed on the eccentric of the tenth rep with a weight of 77.5kgs (a 5kg increase on the previous workout). My legs just gave way and I could not get back up. I did two more sets to make sure that I at least performed more total reps than the previous workout. Then, in the last workout, I amazed myself by succesfully performing all 20 reps with the same weight. Definitely the hardest set I have ever done, and I was completely finished afterwards, but the highlight of the program for sure.
Other ups and downs: I lost reps on Bench and Bent-over Rows on both workouts of week five, but got them back in week six and set new PRs on both. A good reminder that progress is rarely linear. My left knee started hurting in the last week, but thankfully the pain hasn't persisted. I guess my form might have broken down a bit too much in one of the last workouts.
Diet:
The book's diet advice is very simple: lots of calories and protein, with the majority coming from healthy whole food sources. Nothing surprising there. The book has two recommendations in addition to meals for achieving these goals: milk and shakes. The book doesn't use the GOMAD acronym, but that's basically what it boils down to: a recommended minimum of 2 quarts (about 2 litres) per day in addition to meals and snacks, with a recommendation to increase to up to a gallon (nearly 4 litres) per day if you can.
I was somewhat surprised to see that the book recommends home-made mass gainer shakes for trainees who struggle to eat enough solid food (the book refers to them as "blender bombs" which I think sounds much cooler).
I am not vegetarian, but I don't eat meat very often. I live with my fiancee, who doesn't like meat, and since we eat dinner, the main meal of the day, together, we eat a lot of plant-based meat substitutes. I did, however, eat meat more often than usual during the program. My typical diet looks something like this:
Breakfast: Usually muesli, with seeds, fruit (apple or banana), yoghurt, and a scoop of unflavoured whey protein.
Lunch: Usually eggs, fried or scrambled in butter, served with wilted spinach on wholemeal toast or with pasta and pesto. If not eggs then leftovers from last night's dinner. My local supermarkets do a rangle of reasonably healthy frozen meals and during the program I ate these a couple of times per week, always going for chicken dishes with plenty of vegetables.
Dinner: Something based around the aforementioned meat substitutes. Favourites include spaghetti bolognese (with plenty of cheese of course), chili with black beans, sour cream and guacomole served with rice, and burgers with fries for a "junk"/"dirty" option.
I don't count calories but I do roughly track protein, aiming for 2g per kg bodyweight and topping up with whey protein as needed.
During Super Squats, I upped my creatine dosage from 3.5g/day to 5g/day, added extra snacks to the above diet (nuts, dark chocolate etc.) and also milk and shakes as the book suggests. For the first three weeks I had a daily shake consisting of whey protein, milk, cocoa powder, banana, peanut butter and oats. The shakes helped with weight gain, but they proved unsustainable, as they led to some, er, digestive issues. Ok, they gave me explosive diarrhoea. See [this review of Super Squats](https://empire-barbell.com/2021/07/23/super-squats-review-of-the-legendary-20-rep-squat-program/) in which the author recounts ingesting a shake according to the book's recipe before starting a work shift and shitting himself during the shift, lol.
I hadn't really drank milk for several years prior to the program (I tend to prefer oat milk with my muesli) but I did increase my milk consumption slowly over the six weeks. For most of the duration I drank a couple of glasses per day, totalling only about 500ml -1 litre. Only in the last week did I make a serious effort to drink at least 2 litres per day. Turns out it's really easy to drink a lot of milk, and a very cost-efficient way to get lots of extra calories and protein. Who knew haha.
Rest and Recovery:
I've been having trouble sleeping lately, which was the reason I opted to do the program 2 days per week from the beginning (the book recommends starting with 3 days and dropping down to 2 if you find you can't recover sufficiently between workouts). I was a very deep sleeper as a child but those days are long gone and these days the slightest noise seems to be enough to wake me. My fiancee gets up early for work during the week (her alarm goes off at 4:45am), ivariably waking me before it does her, and we have a cat, who tends, as cats do, to go crazy in the small hours (her new favourite thing is scratching frantically on the closet doors). I've tired everything I can think of short of getting rid of the cat, which I'm not willing to do for the sake of gains. Hopefully she will mellow as she gets older. If nothing else, I guess it's good practice for when we become parents lol. Suffice to say it's rare that I get an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep.
I tried to do everything within my power to get as good sleep as I could (making an effort to get to bed earlier, playing with the cat to tire her out, etc.). I still made good gains despite overall poor sleep, but there were definitely some days when I could have gotten to bed earlier.
What I liked about the program:
Super Squats is a simple, easy-to follow program which is practically guranteed to lead to growth. The non-negotiable nature of progression from workout to workout gives a strong incentive to eat enough and get enough rest. I seriously can't see how someone could follow this program, increasing the weight as prescribed, and not grow.
Another thing I liked was making significant progress over a short timeframe while only training 2 days per week, leaving more time for life outside the gym.
By far the biggest benefit of the program, hower, is the lessons it imparts and the mental toughness it inculcates. Lessons you can only learn by standing under the crushing weight of the bar for 20 reps. Put simply, you are capable of more than you think you are, and this program teaches you that in a way that words never could. I feel that I now inderstand intensity as a training variable far more deeply than I did before the program. After running Super Squats I understand why it is so often recommended to beginners.
What I didn't like about the program:
The individual workouts took far too long. This was by far the biggest thing I disliked about the program. The book claims that the Basic Routine should take less than an hour to complete, but I found that I rarely completed a workout in less than 90 minutes, and several times it took me a full 2 hours. Granted, this was partly due to training in a busy McGym, where waiting for equipment is often a factor, and I feel like I spend half my life searching for locking collars, but even so, the long workouts were grinding. Another big factor is just how exhausted you are after that set of squats. I often felt like I was moving in slo-mo, with the stiff-legged deadlifts (themselves no easy exercise) and calf and ab work still to get through.
The other main negative factor was how daunting the squats are. I rarely looked forward to workouts, and often actively dreaded them. I really had to psyche myself up to go to the gym on this program, despite knowing that I would feel great after my workout. That next set of squats was always looming ahead menacingly.
What I would do differently:
The biggest thing I would change is doing the milk properly from the beginning. By "doing the milk" I mean drinking at least the recommended 2 quarts per day. I would also probably leave the shakes out, and make an effort to eat cleaner. I kind of gave myself free reign to cut corners and do what it takes to gain on the program (spooning peanut butter from the jar and ice cream from the tub, eating "junk" meals like burgers and fries or frozen pizzas a couple of times a week, etc.).
I would have chosen a different abs exercise. I did hollow-body crunches, but since these can't be loaded (as far as I know) I had to resort to adding extra reps and then an extra set to add progressive overload. It would have been smarter and more time-efficient to simply choose a weighted abs exercise and increase the load each workout.
I could have been more diligent about consistenly increasing weight/reps on all exercises other than the squats. I feel my progress on the other lifts could have been better.
The book does not mention cardio, and in fact states that trainees should move as little as possible outside of training to allow for maximum recovery. I will definitely add some light cardio in the form of walking the next time I run the program (thanks to u/MythicalStrength for pointing out that since the program is based on old-school principles, it is likely assumed that pretty much everyone would have been doing a fair bit of walking before lifestyles became so sedentary in developed countries). Over the weekend between weeks five and six my mother came to visit, and in the course of showing her around my city I did a lot of walking that weekend (15k steps each day). I think this may have contributed to the failure on the first workout of week 6 by eating into my recovery. Ideally, I would just do, say, a 30-40 minute walk on off days throughout the program.
Most of all, I would trust the process. Of course this is easy to say with hindsight, but there was a point in weeks 3-4 where I got quite demotivated, felt like I coudn't notice the program working (of course not - visual changes take longer than a couple of weeks!) and felt quite tired out from all the eating, so I ended up eating a bit less for about a week in the middle of the program, which quite possibly contributed to the strength losses in week 5. Again, progress isn't linear, but if you stick to the program over six weeks it will pay off.
Conclusion/Next Steps:
Running Super Squats over the last six weeks has been without a doubt the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have ever done, but the payoff has been well worth it. 4kgs gained in 6 weeks and invaluable lessons learned. I'm going to have to go clothes shopping and replace most of my wardrobe. Shirts and T-shirts that were loose are now tight, and my old slim-fit T-shirts now look comically small. Even my straight-leg jeans are now tight fitting (my fiancee said the other day, "Those jeans are a bit tight on you now, huh? But your bum looks great!").
Being on the taller side, I still have quite a lot of frame to fill out, and I still have a lot to learn about training. I will definitely be running Super Squats again in future. I am especially interested in running the Abbreviated Program, consisting of only the squats, pullovers/Rader chest pulls, bench, and bent-over rows. This would solve the problem of workouts being too long, but I imagine it would be extremely challenging, since you should increase the weight on all exercises each workout, not just the squats. With bench and bent-over rows offering less overall muscle fibre recruitment than squats, and 2.5kgs being the smallest weight increase logistically possible (in my gym, anyway), I imagine that this would be challenging in the extreme.
The book suggests running a strength-building training block after the 20-rep squat program, consisting of more sets with lower rep ranges. It even suggests alternating between six weeks on the 20-rep squat program and six on the strength-building program, extending Super Squats well past the initial six weeks. While this approach is intriguing, I want to try something different, and I would rather have more training days in the week in return for shorter individual workouts.
I've ordered a copy of 5/3/1 and will probably run 531 for Beginners, and then see which template I run after that. I have my eye on the BBB Beefcake 3 Month Challenge, but I'll see when I get there. For now, I'm going to dial back on the eating, to around maintenance levels, for at least a couple of weeks (I need a break from stuffing myself all day).
In the meantime, I can't recommend Super Squats enough! You will surprise yourself on this program.
Well, that turned into a huge wall of text. Thanks very much for taking the time to read if you got this far!

First of all, let me start by saying, what a game! I'll forever treasure my first experience with this game, discovering all its secrets and locations. That said, I played Suikoden 1 and 2 right after finishing Eiyuden Chronicles and... It could've been better... But in this post I'll focus on what I think was improved, also, these are just my opinions, let me know what YOU think in the comments.
Here are some things I think this game did BETTER than Suikoden:

• Character recruitment

Recruiting the 108 stars of destiny in Suikoden can be a nightmare without a guide or previous experience. Suikoden 1 is an extremely short game, so you can kinda play it again (as I did) to get all the characters, Suikoden 2 however is not at all a short game, so when you realize you messed up, that can be a huge bummer. You don't get that in Eiyuden Chronicles because there's no time-sensitive characters (except the last one) and most of them you recruit on the go, so yeah, points for Eiyuden here.

• War battles

I actually enjoyed the war battles of the first Suikoden, that kind of rock, paper, scissors game kinda grew on me, not to mention I love the war song there as well, however, I HATE war battles on Suikoden 2, it's too slow, too clunky, way too dependent on RNG... I don't know, that was one of the worst aspects of that game imo, not to mention your characters can DIE in there, making you have to load and restart... Eiyuden Chronicles makes the war battles very simple tho, some people might complain that you don't have that much control over them but war battles are not supposed to be the main course anyway, so to me is perfectly fine for them to be an extra and not impact too much on your playthrough.

• Headquarters

I don't need to elaborate on this one, right? Being able to collect mats and actively participate in your HQ improvement is way better than seeing it grow out of nowhere. Not to mention how much of a mess it is when you return to your castle in Suikoden and the whole layout has changed making you get lost every now and then.

• Fast-travel

Being able to just go everywhere without having to go back to your HQ everytime is reaaaally good, RIP Blinking Mirror.

• Death of a major character

I might receive a lot of downvotes because of this one... Now listen... Gremio, Nanami, and Perrielle, these 3 characters are extremely different but they are connected through one plot point in common: They may or may not die. Nanami's death is the more impactful of these 3 but why do I think it's better in Eiyuden Chronicles? Well, and this is my opinion by the way, I hate when stories are afraid to kill their characters or go back on it, what do I mean by this? Consequences! Old RPG's have a bad habit of having "Best", "True", "Bad" endings, and most of the time the "bad" ending is actually the best ending in terms of writing. Gremio is pure bullshit, he dies and gets revived at the very last second just cause. Nanami recovering from her injuries is acceptable, but her death shouldn't lock you out of a "good" ending, since it's a good motivation for Jowy to feel empathy for Riou and look back at his mistakes. Perrielle tho, it's an impactful death that doesn't really lock you out of anything (well, except Leene), I don't think Leene saving her is bs nor do I think her death is badly executed, both outcomes are perfectly fine, and don't punish your progress.

Welcome to GRANDMA

"Generally Regarded As Not Doing Much Anyway"

🚀 Glide Amongst the Galaxies with GRANDMA: Tranquility in Transit!

Seeking a sanctuary from the speed of life? Longing for languid loops around luminous stars? GRANDMA is your destination! Come, be part of our congregation of calm cosmonauts, harmonious hagglers, and sporadic saviors. Our ethos is ease, our pace placid, as we savor the silent symphony of the spheres in the orchestra of the infinite.

What GRANDMA Offers:

• A constantly evolving community dedicated to ensuring you experience the game your way
• A relaxed and humorous community for mature players.
• A 'do as much or as little as you like' philosophy. No pressure, all pleasure.
• Events scheduled around the consensus of 'whenever we feel like it'.
• A code of conduct that prioritizes fun and fellowship over strict rules.
• No rules regarding money spent or how often you play, GRANDMA understands that life comes first
• Varied roles from leisurely patrols to the occasional bout of industry.

Who GRANDMA Is Looking For:

• Pilots who love to drift through space at their own pace, ship or no ship.
• Individuals who appreciate a good laugh and don't take things too seriously.
• Members who might enjoy sporadic participation in group activities.
• Mature Players looking for a low-key experience.

Why Choose GRANDMA?

Embrace the GRANDMA way, where the vacuum of space is filled with echoes of joy, and the weight of the world floats away like a ship in the dock. Our alliance is bound by shared smiles and a mutual love for the gentle pace of the galaxy. Join us, and let's navigate the nebulous unknown, fueled by the thrills of discovery and the bonds of friendship.

🌌 Drift Into Our Orbit Today!

Chart a course for leisure with GRANDMA. Explore at your leisure, engage when you want, and become part of a story where the only rush is the one you decide to create.

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Fact of the Day: Lorville, located on the planet Hurston, features a dynamic weather system with dust storms that can affect visibility and flight conditions.

I wish I would have done more research before signing up with Viasat. After a few months of constantly losing internet (every time it rains), slow speed connections that will not work for Teams or Zoom calls, and going over my data limit nearly every month….I wisely switched to Starlink. 3x faster, 100x more reliable, unlimited data. I bought the mobile version for just $24 more a month. Way worth it. For all the above mentioned reasons, I would not take the time to write a review and tell the WWW why Viasat sucks. But my experience during the disconnect process changed that. When you cancel, they send you a shipping box and prepaid label…cool. However, they cannot send it until their “system” allows. In my case, the label will be sent in 4 weeks. In 4 weeks, I will be 1,700 miles from home at my in laws. After spending an hour on the phone, escalating to so called supervisors, here is Viasat’s customer service solution. 1. Have my neighbor box it up and ship it for me. 2. Cancel my trip. 3. Keep the worthless equipment and pay a $300 penalty. 4. Take the equipment on a 1,700 mile road trip and they will send the box and label to my in laws. I am actually going with option 4. Can you believe that? 5 Stars for customer dissatisfaction. Could they possibly make this more difficult and inconvenient! My favorite part is how the supervisor kept repeating “it’s our process that the system generates the label and I cannot do anything to change that “ I’m like…DUDE, go push the print button and print me a label. “There is no such button sir” Good grief, AI owns this company. I even offered to pack it up and pay shipping. Once again, our system will not allow that. Without the system generated label we would not know what account the equipment belongs to. Of course having rare sense that was once common, I said I would write my account # on the box. No sir, our employees are too stupid to connect those dots. Ok, he didn’t say that, but may as well have. VIASUCK is much more appropriate.