I'll try to make it simple, I would really like to get a preview or a download review of that course, as i didn't find enough information on it online:
Suits Commerce – Learn Dropshipping From 8 Figure Studs
I'm sure it can help me for my business and daily life, but any tips, share or training recommendation would be very useful for me!
Thanks & hope you get a good day too :)

This is 100% me being lazy, but are there any alternatives to using a stud finder. I'm trying to mount my TV to a different wall and I don't have any equipment besides a socket wrench. I'm not exactly in the best financial situation since i'm an unemployed college student and I'd rather avoid shelling out the 15 bucks. If I have to then I have to, but if anyone knows a trick or something cheaper please lmk.
Edit: Thank you, everyone. I ended up doing two things, I found out I could download a stud finder on my phone and also I used the knocking method to verify. Tv is on and set, all is good.

KEEP GOING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWXgojWut_o
keep going quotes
why do i keep going dizzy
keep going meaning
keep going synonym
i keep going to the river to pray
will bitcoin keep going up
keep going motivational quotes
keep going first aid kit
my hands keep going numb
just keep going
keep going and going and going slogan
keep going and going and going
keep going asl
keep going art
keep going and reach ashvattha
keep going as a fire nyt
keep going and never give up
keep going apparel
another word for keep going
another word for keep going forward
arms keep going numb
another way to say keep going
and keep going
and over and over i keep going
a motivational quote to keep going
always keep going
a bible verse to keep going
austin kleon keep going
keep going bible verse
keep going by edgar guest
keep going bracelet
keep going background
keep going brock
keep going because that person in heaven
keep going back to ex
keep going back and forth
bible verses to keep going
bible verses that encourage you to keep going
blink cameras keep going offline
best quotes to keep going
bmw windows keep going down
big scarr i would keep going
both hands keep going numb
brake lights keep going out
bible verse keep going forward
big scarr keep going
keep going crossword clue
keep going complete the extraction bg3
keep going clipart
keep going clothing
keep going cross eyed
keep going cartoon
keep going card
keep going captions
keep going christian quotes
keep going cute wallpaper
calls keep going to voicemail
continue keep going crossword clue
congratulations keep going
calls keep going to voicemail iphone
can't keep going back to what i used to know
computer screens keep going black
can nvidia keep going up
car alarm keep going off
congratulations keep going meaning
choose to keep going
keep going definition
keep going don't give up
keep going down
keep going drawing
keep going dj khaled gif
keep going dreamybull
keep going devotional
does a pacemaker keep going after death
define keep going
dj khaled keep going
don't give up keep going
does the smoke alarm keep going off
does bitcoin keep going up
does car insurance keep going up
does gold keep going up
does inflation keep going up
keep going edgar guest
keep going emoji
keep going en español
keep going en français
keep going even when it gets tough quotes
keep going encouragement
keep going even when it's hard
keep going even when it hurts
keep going edward guest
keep going everything will come to you
eyes keep going blurry
eyes keep going out of focus
i keep going to the river to pray lyrics
emails keep going to junk
encouragement to keep going
emerald smoke alarms keep going off
encouraging quotes to keep going
keep going first aid
keep going forward
keep going from hot to cold
keep going forward no essay scholarship
keep going forward quotes
keep going forward in spanish
keep going fitness quotes
keep going forward meaning
fire alarms keep going off
fingers keep going numb
feet keep going numb
fire alarms keep going off randomly
firex smoke alarms keep going off
fingertips keep going numb
fire alarms keep going off no fire
fiona camastral keep going lyrics
fingers keep going numb and tingly
fiona camastral keep going
keep going gif
keep going guster lyrics
keep going girl
keep going god quotes
keep going gif funny
keep going gym quotes
keep going graphic
keep going gambling meme
keep going guster lyrics meaning
going through hell keep going
gotta keep going jhene aiko
gotta keep going
google wifi points keep going offline
good job keep going
good work keep going
google keep going away
girl keep going
going to keep going
when you're going through hell keep going
keep going hoodie
keep going hashtags
keep going harriet tubman
keep going hq
keep going hakari
keep going hat
keep going hard quotes
keep going hoarse
keep going hot and cold
hands keep going numb
horses don't stop they keep going
hard-wired smoke detectors keep going off
hands keep going numb while sleeping
how to keep going
how to keep going when depressed
how to keep going when you want to give up
hustlers don't stop they keep going
how to keep going in life
how to keep going a conversation
keep going in french
keep going images
keep going in japanese
keep going in latin
keep going in arabic
keep going in asl
keep going inspirational quotes
keep going in italian
keep going in chinese
keep going in german
inspirational quotes to keep going
is bitcoin going to keep going up
is there a lore reason to keep going
keep going jordan
keep going just to see what happens
keep going japanese
keep going jeezy
keep going jace
keep going jordan 5
keep going jordan 5 4 pack
keep going jordan 4 pack
just keep going quotes
just keep going with faith
jobless men keep going
just keep going meaning
just keep going meme
keep going k9s
keep going keep growing quotes
keep going keep going song
keep going kit
keep going keep going spongebob
keep going keep growing wallpaper
keep going keep climbing up the tall tower lyrics
keep going keep growing scentsy warmer
keep calm and keep going
keep on going or keep going
keep keep going song
keep growing keep going
keep it up and keep going
keep going keep going lyrics
korean keep going
how to keep a mushroom kit going
keep going lyrics
keep going lyrics rod wave
keep going lyrics guster
keep going little words project
keep going logo
keep going llc
keep going life quotes
keep going lil 50 lyrics
keep going latin
legs keep going numb
let's keep going
lil 50 keep going lyrics
lil 50 keep going mp3 download
lips keep going numb
lil 50 keep going
life is a road and i wanna keep going
lips keep going blue
life is hard but keep going quotes
liver enzymes keep going up
keep going meme
keep going motivation meme
keep going meme gif
keep going meaning in hindi
keep going merch
keep going medical kit
motivational quotes to keep going
motivation to keep going
my fingers keep going numb
monitors keep going black
my arms keep going numb
my eyes keep going blurry
my monitors keep going black
my fire alarms keep going off
my safe word is keep going
keep going no matter what
keep going necklace
keep going never give up
keep going neon sign
keep going necklace mike stud
keep going never stop
keep going nyt crossword clue
keep going no feeling is final
keep going never give up quotes
now over and over i keep going over
ncis keep going
nelly furtado keep going up
no no keep going meme
no matter what keep going
new smoke alarms keep going off
nest cameras keep going offline
no but keep going
new smoke detectors keep going off
never give up keep going
keep going on song lyrics
keep going on meaning
keep going out of spite
keep going off
keep going over fat macro
keep going on quotes
keep going other words
keep going on synonyms
other words for keep going
o2 sensors keep going bad
outlook emails keep going to junk
keep going poem
keep going poster
keep going pictures
keep going phrase
keep going prayer
keep going podcast
keep going positive quotes
keep going places
keep going preppy wallpaper
positive quotes to keep going
prayer to keep going
phrases that mean keep going
poem keep going
ps5 controller keep going left
prices keep going up
proud of you keep going
property taxes keep going up
phone keep going to sos
phone keep going to voicemail
keep going quotes short
keep going quotes funny
keep going quotes for her
keep going quotes for work
keep going quotes for him
keep going quotes wallpaper
keep going quotes for students
keep going quotes bible
keep going queen
quotes to keep going
quotes to help you keep going
quando rondo just keep going
quotes that encourage you to keep going
quotes about keep going forward
quotes to keep going when it's hard
quotes about being tired but keep going
quotes from the bible to keep going
quando rondo just keep going lyrics
quotes to keep going no matter what
keep going rod wave lyrics
keep going revivalists lyrics
keep going ring
keep going rap song
keep going road sign
keep going reddit
keep going run miami
reasons to keep going
refuses to keep going nyt
rod wave keep going
rod wave keep going lyrics
ring cameras keep going offline
rod wave keep going mp3 download
reasons to keep going in life
rilke just keep going
ring devices keep going offline
reminder keep going wallpaper
keep going songs
keep going scripture
keep going spanish
keep going sign
keep going symbol
keep going sweatshirt
keep going shirt
smoke alarms keep going off
short motivational quotes to keep going
strength to keep going quotes
short bible verses to keep going
save luther or keep going
songs about keep going
spiral out keep going
synonym for keep going
spark plugs keep going bad
scripture to keep going
keep going tattoo
keep going tattoo symbol
keep going to the bathroom
keep going tattoo men
keep going t shirt
keep going thesaurus
timbaland keep going up
toes keep going numb
to keep going with something crossword clue
to keep going synonym
to keep going
tattoo keep going
timbaland keep going up lyrics
the keep going song
to keep going in spanish
to keep going codycross
keep going up lyrics
keep going up release date
keep going up game
keep going until you reach your goal
keep going up meaning
keep going up and down
keep going up margo remix
keep going up remix
use the pain as fuel and keep going
unifi devices keep going offline
upset stomach keep going to the toilet
uncle aaron just keep going
ukulele strings keep going out of tune
umar keep going
urban dictionary keep going
get up and keep going quotes
why does my underwear keep going up
keep going verses
keep going video
keep going verses in the bible
keep going vs keep on going
keep going vs keep it up
keep going vector
keep going vs keep moving
keep going vs keep doing
keep going visualize value
keep going or kept going
verses to keep going
vw transporter windows keep going down
vivint cameras keep going offline
verses about keep going forward
voice keep going hoarse
vision keep going blurry
volume keep going down iphone
volume keep going up
velop nodes keep going offline
voice keep going croaky
keep going wallpaper
keep going without faltering one bit
keep going words
keep going wallpaper iphone
keep going wall art
keep going water bottle
keep going word hike
keep going work quotes
why does my brightness keep going down
why does my monitor keep going black
why does my internet keep going out
why does my charger keep going on and off
why does my screen keep going black
why do my hands keep going numb
why does my mortgage keep going up
will nvidia keep going up
keep goin xav
controller keeps going xbox
xiaomi keep going to recovery mode
keep going or keep doing
keep up or keep going
is there a reason to keep going
xfinity pods keep going offline
xbox.com/xboxone/network to keep going
xfinity prices keep going up
xiaomi volume keep going up
xbox controller keep going up
xiaomi volume keep going down
x-files keep going fbi woman
xfinity wifi keep going out
xbox controller keep going down
keep going you got this
keep going you can do it
keep going you're good
keep going you're doing great
keep going you're almost there
keep going youtube
keep going you are doing great
keep going you're halfway to the weekend
keep going you've got this
keep going you will get there
you either quit or keep going
you gotta keep going
you nice keep going
prevent zoom going full screen
larry june keep going zip
zox keep going
keep going keep growing meaning
keep going or keep on going
zero turn tires keep going flat
zmodo cameras keep going offline
how do zoos keep animals from going extinct
how to keep zucchini from going bad
why does my iphone keep going to zoom
how to keep zoom from going idle
how to keep zoom from going full screen
how to keep zipper from going down
is nami going to keep zeus
keep going 04 limited sazabys lyrics
keep going 04 limited sazabys
keep going 04
keep going o que significa
keep going o que quer dizer
always keeps or keep
02 sensors keep going bad
04 limited sazabys keep going lyrics
04 limited sazabys keep going
04 keep going
steam downloads keep going to 0
04 limited sazabys keep going 歌詞
04 limited sazabys keep going 歌词
keep going 歌詞 04
why doesn't auto stop always work
are not likely to stop suddenly
keep going 100 reasons to stay alive
keep going 1 year
100 reasons to keep going
10 reasons to keep going
13 reasons to keep going
why does windows 10 keep going to sleep
you keep going
keep going 25
keep going 2pac lyrics
keep going 5 2 crossword clue
keep going number 2
cast of keep going 2018
keep going 25 foundation
2pac keep going
2 fingers keep going numb
2048 keep going
2pac keep going lyrics
21 savage keep going
2 toes keep going numb
2pac don't stop keep going
2024 keep going
risk of rain 2 how to keep going
should you go for 2 every time
keep u going 365
keep you going 365 ltd
keep 360 moving
why am i up and down all the time
3 fingers keep going numb
why does my phone keep going to 3g
why does my iphone keep going to 3g
my 3 fingers keep going numb
office 365 emails keep going to quarantine
cool 3d world keep going
office 365 emails keep going to junk
why does 360 keep going off
3 things to keep a relationship going
sims 3 how to keep plants from going dormant
keep going 4 pack
keep going 4 pack jordans
keep moving 407
keep going for a wee
keep going for your dreams
keep going poop
keep going for a wee at night
keep going for the peak lifeline
keep going pee all the time
keep going for
401k keep going down
keep going wallpaper 4k
why does my phone keep going to 4g
why does my iphone keep going off wifi to 4g
i keep going to sleep at 4am
why do i keep going to bed at 4am
why does youtube keep going to 480p
why does my 401k keep going down
why does my 4g keep going off
why is my 401k keep going down
keep going 5k
keep going 5k/10k/13.1 run miami
keep going examples
keep going high meaning
keep losing 5g connection
50 reasons to keep going
5 reasons to keep going
why does my phone keep going to 5g
i'm going to keep it a buck 50 with you
will the s&p 500 keep going up
why does channel 5 keep going off
why does the s&p 500 keep going up
crossword clue keep going 6 letters
always goes up never comes down
why is it so hard to keep going
keep going your hardest times
keep going kat
why does my nest keep going to 68
why does my thermostat keep going to 62
why does my thermostat keep going down to 60
6 elements that keep the ecosystem going
6 lots of 6
keep going 7 little words
keep going 7 letters
keep moving 7/8 pant
keep going nourish 7 letters
keep going synonyms 7 letters
keep going crossword 7
keep things high level
7 letter word for keep going
why does my thermostat keep going to 75
keep going crossword clue 7 letters
24/7 keep it going on
they keep the game going 7 letters
keep windows 7 from going to sleep
keep going 8 letters crossword
keeps going 8 letters
keep 820 moving
keep going or keep up(8)
why does my day keep getting worse
how to stop life going so fast
why does my ac keep going to 85
smoke dogg 870 keep on going
smoke dogg 870 keep on going lyrics
why does my thermostat keep going to 85
why does curie keep going to vault 81
8 ways to keep relationship going
8 times 8 trick
how long is 8 stops away
while keep_going = 999
keep going over 9 letters
keep going crossword clue 9 letters
keep going meaning in english
keep seeing 911 everywhere
keep seeing 99
what motivates her to keep going class 9th
what motivates maria to keep going class 9
what motivated maria to keep going class 9
why does the number 9 keep showing up
how many times does 9 go into 9
9 hours away from now

Gravediggers. Corpse Grinders. Skull Takers. Every unit that shared his profession had a name that was like that. As Corporal Brandy floated silently, his body suspended in a dense salt water based solution alongside eleven of his peers, he once again thought how he liked the name of his unit the best. Ghouls. His arms were stretched out, as were his legs, secured to four corners of the hull leaving him splayed open. His wrists were tethered, his ankles were tethered, all to keep him from drifting. The water was cold, felt even through the suit even though it didn’t touch him. It was only appropriate they called vessels like the one he was in Coffins. It was long, with seven feet between floor and ceiling when one could stand in it.
The patch of his unit was a zombified corpse, walking towards the one viewing it, with their arm outstretched, a large 17 behind the shambling figure. It was laser etched on the left shoulder guard of his SVS51 body suit, the symbol of the Terran Front of laser etched on the right. Right now, Brandy knew he was flying through the void, heading towards the wreck of a Vral Light Cruiser, his unit’s speciality. A countdown on the upper left corner of his vision was reaching the single digits. No one talked, not even the squad leader. Not even command. Brandy liked it like that. He had been selected for special operations early on in his life, as most operators were. Sure, you could volunteer to join if you joined the Fleet and decided to test yourself, but most humans were already training for something like this by the age of thirteen. Jesup, one of his squadmates, he was a joiner, one that had volunteered when he was signing up. Brandy though? Brandy was a lifer.
Lifers like him were singled out in school and made aware of their tentative selection. Lifers were trained harder, tested harder. No one really minded Jesup not going through what they had been through, but it did mark him out. Hence the term, but lifers and joiners all got the same specialized training. Five seconds left. Brandy knew his job well, knew the layout of the ship well. Four seconds. Brandy clenched his fists. He felt the liquid shift, knowing their craft had hit the hull. Suddenly he was free of his constraints, floating free in the dense salt water. There was a bright light from the front of the craft, the plasma torches already burning into the Vral light cruiser hull. Three seconds. The dense salt water solution suddenly was sucked into the floor, drawing him down. He tapped his heels together, hearing an automated voice call out ‘Maglocks Engaged’, just before his feet touched the deck. He was already yanking the protective cover off of his rifle, slinging it back over his back. Two seconds. Those in the front of the line had their rifles up and ready. Brandy on the other hand, reached to his sides and drew out two long blades from sheathes locked to his thighs.
One.
He felt the compression in his chest as the breaching charge detonated, and the segmented doors of the Coffin opened. The first four Ghouls entered, no shots fired as they cleared the room. He heard a soft whisper saying, “Depressurized.” The entire deck was without atmosphere. Brandy looked to his left, and nodded once. Jesup nodded back. The pair in front of them sprinted out. Jessup and Brandy sprinted out immediately after them, Brandy drawing his blades. The interior of the Vral ship was a dismal place, and within just seconds Brandy knew what kept their grav plates powered was already down. The difference in design priorities from the Vral to the Terran Front could be seen even from the hallway they were running down. The Terran Front fleet was designed to maximize the space they had, to deliver the most punch possible for the weight class the ship in question could hit with. The chua had lent their practicality to that level of ship design. It was why the standard Terran corvette could fight completely out of it’s weight class. Brandy knew that the standard Terran corvette was more than a match for any variety of Vral destroyer, it was even said that a light cruiser would have to go blow for blow with one.
Most who heard that wouldn’t understand until they saw what Brandy was seeing now. Terran hallways were built narrow, the space an artery for personnel to move through in a very direct way. The ceilings would be laced with piping and joists, covered by protective layers of material just in case an impact threw the crew against the ceiling. Standing shoulder to shoulder, even battleship halls on Terran ships only allowed two large humans to stand shoulder to shoulder and extend their elbows halfway to touch the walls. This hallway was broad, four, no, five times the width. You would never see such a waste of space onboard a Terran fighting ship. The only exceptions to this were the larger logistics ships, the carriers, and the Antares herself. Terran ship tonnage was dedicated purely to what the ship in question was made to do. Vral ships, on the other hand, seemed to be built to not just fight space conflicts, but carry the troops for ground assault. The Vral sacrificed tonnage meant for fighting for transport. They did not have dedicated troop ships, or even dedicated logistics ships.
Brandy guessed it made sense when you never had to worry about someone being able to really hit back.
The map of the light cruiser was laid out in wireframe in the upper right of his HUD, a pulsing arrow pointing his way. As they reached the first door it was clear that whatever powered the lights also powered the doors in this section. He sheathed the blades and raised his rifle as Jessup pulled his breach bar. A moment later Jessup applied the handheld pneumatic and nodded once to Brandy, who gave an almost imperceptible nod back. Jesseup pressed an activation stud, and Brandy breathed out as the door began to open. A brief glimpse of chitin was all it took for Brandy to immediately put two shells through the door, the only audible evidence of the shots being two ticks from the recoil traveling along his armor plate. .
“Contact.” Brandy whispered even as the shells tore through the Vral floating behind the door. The Vral flew away from the impact as the door opened further, revealing more Vral, all floating, all already dead. “KIA Vral.” He whispered into the mic within his helmet. A small tone let him know his information was received. Brandy and Jessup moved into the hallway and saw why the Vral were all already dead. There was a gash in the hull almost three meters long and a meter wide. The deck had been exposed to the vacuum, and judging by the hole further down the hall which Brandy glanced through as they passed, a railgun round from a cruiser had lanced straight through the entire hull. Brandy slung his rifle and began the halting half run, half jog of moving quickly on magnetized boots. Brandy cleared an adjoining hallway before looking back to the door. The Vral dead were everywhere, floating in the vacuum, and Brandy kept having to shove the floating corpses aside as he moved. The dead didn’t stop him. They didn’t stop Jessup either.
Jessup was already setting the breacher, and Brandy’s rifle was unslung and readied. As this door opened a forcefield came to life in front of it, and a sliver of light began to show through. Brandy’s thumb flipped his rifle from semi-automatic to full. He didn’t need to speak, Jessup was already pulling his own rifle. As the door was suddenly shoved open by the pneumatic Brandy’s entire body snapped forward. The Vral that was standing by the door, who had even watched it open, made it clear that the Vral didn’t even know they had been boarded. Brandy’s rifle butt slammed into the head of the Vral, and sound returned as he moved fully through the forcefield meant to keep atmospheric integrity but not keep him out. Beyond it, Brandy saw at least twenty milling around. A damage control team. The Vral turned to the sound of one of their own skulls caving in, chitin cracking, just to see Brandy’s barrel come down. He was already moving left to give Jessup room to enter, as he squeezed the trigger. Chitin and ichor erupted, the Vral leapt at the sound, some freezing in place, some charging. Jessup came around the corner, raising his rifle, taking single shots at individual Vral who reached for weapons even as Brandy’s fully automatic spray swept the hall. Brandy was the scythe, Jessup was the surgeon.
Brandy’s ammo counter quickly was cycling down, but he hadn’t been simply praying and spraying. As his counter read zero the last of the Vral was spasming violently on the floor. He thumbed the magazine release, the hand on his grip already having reached for his right hip to draw up a fresh magazine even as the empty one slid out and began falling to the floor. “I’m close.” He said. He slammed the new magazine into the rifle, racked the slide, then slid it behind his back. He drew his blades, then began to sprint.
“I’m far.” Jessup began sprinting behind him.
The next set of doors opened automatically this time, but to a familiar scene, but the Vral were already aware of them due to Brandy having firmly announced their presence in the previous hall. Brandy never stopped his full sprint, carving through the Vral with the edges of his monomolecular blades. Every so often a shot rang out, taking one of the Vral down just out of Brandy’s reach or one that was pulling up a weapon. Brandy used the suit’s speed and strength enhancements to their fullest, barely slowing as he tore through the group, both blades cutting. Suddenly he heard the retort of full auto and spun to decapitate one of the remaining Vral to look as Jessup was emptying his magazine into an open door. Brandy let both blades drop, popping his hip to the side and curling his waist, letting the weight of his rifle carry it around his body into his hands. As the Vral tried to come into the hall they were cut down, caught in a fatal funnel of fire by their own hatchway.
“Reload.” Jessup said, tucking himself back against the wall. “Control, need sweepers. My location.” A tone was the only reply to Jessup’s words. Twelve men, organized into six teams. That was the boarding party. Each had a part to play, and as Jessup made the call for sweepers Brandy was already preparing to move. As Jessup slapped a fresh magazine into his rifle Brandy was still covering the door. The other doors in the hall remained closed. Jessup reached to a small bandolier of grenades and pulled one of the X-04 flashbangs, throwing it hard through the door against the opposing wall. A second later a dull pop sounded. Brandy and Jessup continued their run, but now both had slung their rifles. Both had blades out.
Following the skeleton map on his HUD, Brandy led the way through the next door to find the hallway empty. He didn’t mind that state of affairs at all. A dull klaxon began to sound throughout the crippled ship, and neither Brandy nor Jessup needed to be told twice that the Vral were now more than aware they had been boarded. Brandy turned down a corridor, instinctively lashing out and taking the head off a Vral had been moving towards him. “Breaching bridge.” He said into his microphone, hearing the tone of acknowledgement from Control as he saw the large bay doors that marked the command and control center of the Vral vessel they intended to take. He sheathed a blade as he came to a stop beside the bay door, out of range of the motion sensor that would open it automatically. Jessup was right behind him, freeing a hand of his own. They both reached up, yanking X-04 grenades off their pins banded to their armor. Brandy and Jessup looked at each other and nodded. As Brandy kicked out his foot to trigger the motion sensor, the door slid open. A torrent of laser fire erupted from the doorway, painting the floor and wall beyond. Brandy snapped his arm around, exposing only his hand as he threw the flashbang around the corner. Jessup’s own flashbang flew past Brandy towards the other side of the room. They both immediately pulled a second, even as the first detonated in the room beyond. Almost instantly the weapon’s fire stopped, and wails of chittering echoed into the hallway. They threw the second set of flashbangs into the door.
As the second pair of dull crunches sounded, Brandy and Jessup breached the bridge. The bridge was arrayed like a bowl, stations arranged orbiting a center divot in the deck where the captain would stand. None of the Vral in the room were standing. While flashbangs disoriented humans, essentially stunning them into stupfication, the same flashbangs had even more pronounced effects on the Vral. Most of them were simply laid out on the ground, completely insensate, and screaming incoherently in their chittering tones. Brandy and Jessup had entered having expected at least one of them to have donned protection, perhaps even a warsuit, but their boarding had caught the Vral completely by surprise. Jessup turned to the door, tapping the control panel and closing, then locking it. Brandy had already begun moving from station to station. Jessup joined him as they quickly and methodically dispatched the crew. Brandy turned and moved down into the captain’s pit, coming to the Vral that had commanded the ship.
“Attempting to access.” Jessup said, stepping to one of the panels even as Brandy reached the side of the Vral commander. Brandy watched dispassionately as the Vral’s body curled and spasmed on the ground. Without replying to Jessup, Brandy was already securing the commander. He flipped the commander over on it’s back, yanking it’s limbs together and zip tying them together.
“Control. Commander secured alive. Bridge secured.” Brandy said, and he glanced over to Jessup. Jessup looked over to him and grinned, his teeth showing through the dark tint of the armored glass of his helmet. A tone of acknowledgement came into his helmet. Brandy moved to the panels, just as Jessup was moving. “Anything yet?” He asked, letting his suit’s speakers carry his voice.
Jessup moved to another panel. “Nope. Wiped.” He said.
Brandy brought the panel to live and was already moving on, and cursed silently under his breath. Several times teams like his had breached the bridge of a Vral ship only to find what they were finding now, wiped computer cores, dead panels. Brandy continued to move panel to panel, as did Jessup, moving up the bowl. Brandy heard Jessup muttering as he went, his voice carrying because of the speakers in his suit. Brandy glanced up at the other man, then continued with his work.
“Doesn’t make any sense. We still know nothing about these bastards. Nothing.” Jessup said as he was working on the last panel on the row he was on. “Aside from the fact they melt their cores down really well.” Brandy smirked behind the tinted glass of his helmet as Jessup balled up a fist. Jessup moved up a row, then started work on another panel. “I’m beginning to think the only thing they exist for is to piss off the universe.”
Brandy couldn’t argue with that, and Jessup stopped his grumbling, continuing to check the panels.
“Control, Sweep Two is down. I repeat. Sweep Two is down.” Brandy stopped in his checks and looked up, the voice of Talb in his ear from possibly the same location he had called for sweepers to come in. He hadn’t heard a call for sweepers from anywhere else.
“That’s Vlad.” Jessup said, his voice flat, having paused himself to listen in.
“Confirm.” A woman’s voice hit Brandy’s ear, and Jessup began walking across the bowl towards him. Brandy settled his hands on the panel that he had paused midway through working. The woman’s voice keyed back into his ear, their Control, and Brandy listened intently. “Prep Sweep Two for extraction. Sweep Three and Four enroute.”
Jessup reached his side and put his hand on Brandy’s shoulder. The silence in his ears now was deafening, and he knew he should be continuing on, checking the rest of the stations, but he couldn’t move his feet right now. Brandy and Vlad were close, they had gone through basic together, they had gone through Advanced Infantry, as well as Weapons and Tactics, hell, all of their advanced training schools. When orders had come through, they had both been delighted to have twin assignments to the 17th Breacher Corps “Ghouls.” Vlad had met Brandy’s family, his mother, his father, even his ice queen of a sister who was serving as a Drone Cutter pilot. Vlad was his friend, the brother that he had never had, and now Vlad was down, somewhere on this hellhole of a ship, unable to even communicate that he was injured.
Jessup stood by him, saying nothing, and Brandy’s eyes were focused on something far in the distance, something he couldn’t even see right now. Suddenly, like his mind was pulling itself from mud, he forced himself to continue working. Jessup stayed by his side. There was nothing he could do for Vlad right now, nothing at all, and he had work in front of him that needed to be finished. Jessup went back to the stations he was working through. Brandy finished the sweep of the panels on his side. Nothing, as was usual.
He walked down the bowl shape of the Vral bridge, standing next to the Vral commander, who was now very much aware and awake, not struggling as it lay on the floor of the carnal house that was the bridge of it’s ship. He ignored it, placing his hands on the hilts of the twin swords at his sides. Jessup continued his work, a little slower than Brandy was, but then again Jessup was newer than Brandy himself was to this sort of thing. Brandy had already served for nearly eight years, and had done the tear down from the sixth Vral war, alongside Vlad. Brandy grunted and pulled up his arm, opening one of the armor plates to reveal the communications controls for his suit. He set up a private channel to Control.
“Control, BT One. Status of Sweep Two?” He asked, and he heard two clicks in response. He was being transferred to another operator. Brandy felt his entire body tensing up. He didn’t know if being transferred was a good or a bad sign.
“Bridge Team One, this is Secondary. Sweep Two is stable. Sweep One is prepping him for extraction. He took an indirect hit by a plasma round to his left shoulder. His suit took the majority but he’s going to be in the burn unit.”
Brandy breathed out, and then nodded once to himself. “Thank you Secondary.” He heard a tone in response, then he set himself back to team communications. Vlad was alive. That was good enough.
“The void will take you.” He heard the chittering sound translated, and he slowly looked towards the prone form of the commander. Brandy turned and walked over, and purposefully stepped over, the Vral. He then knelt down next to the figure. “You will not survive. We will bathe in your ashes.”
“When.” Brandy said, a dark bit of amusement in his tone. “Come on. When. Daylight’s wasting.”
“The void will take you.” The vral repeated, then went silent again as Brandy stood up and stepped over the commander once more. Jessup was coming down to meet with him in the center of the bowl.
“Good news, Vlad’s going to make it.” Brandy told him, “He’ll be in the burn unit for a bit, don’t know where he got hit, but the suit saved him.”
“Good. What’s the word from the local moral officer?” Jessup said, motioning to the vral, who was laying again in silence.
“Same as normal. We’re gonna die. Void’s gonna take us. Ashes. Dancing on my grave.” Brandy shrugged. “You know, what they normally say, that friendly little conversation.” Brandy could actually feel Jessup’s eyes rolling.
“Control, Bridge Team. Secured and detailed.” Jessup said, and they both heard the click of acknowledgement. “Another two hours maybe?” Jessup asked, and Brandy nodded. “Welp, two today, that makes six boardings for me, how many for you?”
“Fourty.” Brandy replied, and Jessup whistled low. “And that’s just these types. I was actually put on a team as a standby sweep for a battleship or two, but mostly light cruisers. No corvettes or destroyers though. They normally just send the heavies to take those. The cruisers though? Heavy cruisers? Carriers? I’ve done a few of those too, but mostly this.”
Jessup leaned against the back of one of the panels that he had checked. “What kind of team do they send to a carrier?” He asked, and Brandy laughed.
“Put it to you like this. They send units of chua war machines, and what’s called a kill team. They don’t even bother sweeping like we do with these ships, they just punch holes in every room and open them to vacuum, and the kill teams go in to make sure none of them got into a warsuit.” Brandy tapped his chest, “We barely do anything. They just turn the entire ship into swiss cheese then call us in to check panels. Kill teams are just different, but it’s an experience. You don’t get to really do much though. Go in, stay behind the kill team, and check elect…”
Brandy stopped talking and both of them listened as a tone sounded from Control, then they heard her speak. “All objectives secured. Stand by in location. Prepare for tow and extraction.”
The two of them reached out and grabbed hold of a panel, and Brandy looked over at Jessup. “Well, quicker than I thought.” Just as he was finishing that sentence the entire hull seemed to shake, and he felt a small surge of negative g force before his body adjusted. “A lot quicker.”
“What do you think they’ll get out of this?” Jessup asked as he let go of the panel.
“Oh hell.” Brandy said, motioning to the ship they were in. “Three destroyers easy. Maybe a corvette added in. Couple of fighters. Ever seen the reprocessors?” Jessup shrugged at the question and Brandy pointed at him. “When we get back, if you have some downtime, just ask to watch. It’s some impressive shit. I watched one of those crews break down a corvette in two hours.” Jessup raised his eyebrow and Brandy held up two fingers. “Two. No shit. Something like this is going to take them maybe a day, probably less than that. It’s absolute magic.”
“I was raised on the Los Angeles flats.” Jessup said, and it was Brandy’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “You know, where they had one of the landfills. They said they used a reprocessor for that too.”
“Yeah, the chua know how to make the most out of everything. Did you know there used to be a floating island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean?” Brandy placed his hands on the hilts of his blades as Jessup shook his head no. “Yeah, when the chua got set up, first thing they did was clean up all of that. Tons of plastic, centuries of fuck ups, and they fixed it in barely a month. Earth was trashy, real trashy. Now we just reprocess everything.”
“I never looked into how that works.” Jessup said, then laughed when Brandy raised his fingers and wiggled them in the air. “PFM?”
“Yeap. Pure fuckin’ magic. At least that’s how it looks to me.” Brandy sighed, then he motioned to the panels. “We had the technology centuries ago but we just never refined it like the chua did. I asked how it worked and I felt like I was an ape. They felt the same way about our computers the way we feel about their reprocessors though, so I guess it evens out.”
“What do you mean?”
Brandy glanced over at him and smirked, then he motioned to his suit’s right chest pauldron, where his suit’s electronic suite for his HUD was kept. “This here has more processing power than the chua had on one of their battleships. They just didn’t focus on it like we did. The concept of a microprocessor blew their minds. We know how to store a hundred terabytes on a fingernail, they know how to break down a landfill into bars of material.” Jessup leaned back against the panel again and grunted. “Seriously, ask to watch what they do to this thing. They are going to slice it up, put the pieces into the reprocessors, and by tomorrow it’s going to be raw materials. No waste, it’s crazy.”
Brandy turned his head back to the vral laying on the floor, hearing it muttering to itself. He narrowed his eyes for a few moments, listening to the sound of the clicking, then he looked back to Jessup. “Wish that thing would just shut the hell up.” A moment later he said a bit louder, “We get it asshole. The void is coming, it’s going to take us. Ashes, death, suffering. We get it. Shut the hell up.” He pushed himself off the panel and walked to the edge of the bridge nearer to the door. “Non-stop with them.”
Jessup gestured to the commander with his head. “What are we doing with him.”
“Well, he’ll get to tell an interrogation team about the void, bet he’s got a hard on for that.” Brandy replied, then paused and glanced at the upper right of his HUD, seeing a few green dots moving in their direction. “Then they’ll just toss his ass out of an airlock. Ready to go?”
“Yeap.” Jessup pushed up from the panel he was leaning on and joined Brandy near the door and waited as they both watched the dots approaching the door. Brandy reached over and toggled the lock, and the door slid open. Four humans in construction harnesses with atmospheric suits rated for vacuum were just coming to a stop. Behind them Brandy could already see the two other members of the team coming to relieve them.
“Is that Vodka?” One of them said, a hard feminine voice coming from one of the suits. Brandy’s eyebrow perked up, and so did Jessup’s entire body. Both of them knew Janet Shippen’s voice. Janet was what Brandy’s mother would call a feral tomboy. Short, muscled, her brown hair cut in a pixie cut, who felt more at home covered in engine fluid than anything else. She was also what his father would call an absolute knockout. Jessup had met her three times and was in love. Brandy’s relationship with Janet was a private affair, but Jessup wouldn’t find out about it, no sense in breaking his heart after all. Not to mention that Brandy looked at Jessup as a friend.
“How the hell are ya Shipwreck.” Brandy said with a smirk, “I got you a nice one here. I even got you a local to keep you company, ask him about the void. He’ll tell you all you want to hear.” The two figures in the back, clad in all black with no identifying markers, looked to Brandy, who simply pointed towards the vral commander laying on the floor.
“By the way. Ran into Vlad before I came over here.” She said, coming closer to the two Ghouls. “They got him out of his suit before they sent us over. He’s got an ass of a burn on his shoulder, but he said he’s going to be a bitch about it so they’ll give you fuckers some down time.” Brandy smiled, knowing if Vlad was joking around he was more than ok. Janet motioned to the bridge, “Lot of nothing?” She asked, and both of the Ghouls nodded. “Figures. Fuckers.” All three of them watched for a moment as the two black clad humans knelt over the vral commander. “Alright, I’ve got to prep this bitch for breakdown, then I’m done for the day. Salvagers are just putting most of the wrecks in orbit.”
Jessup glanced to Brandy before speaking, “Think they want to move again soon?”
“Bet your ass.” Janet reached for her side and pulled out a data pad. “Way I see it we’re just topping off right now, waiting for some of the boats out there to get their shit together, then they are going to move us out. Speaking of moving out, bounce your asses, I’ve got shit to do so I can get off once we pull back into Antares.”
“Call us a cab?” Brandy asked, using the slang term for the shuttle that had delivered Janet’s team that would take his own back to Antares.
“Yeap. We made entrance right next to where you did.” Janet started moving into the bridge, towards a grouping of panels hard mounted to the wall. She stopped and glanced back at Brandy. “It’s been a hell of a day, almost eighteen hours. I’m going to get a stiff drink in my quarters.”
“You do that. I’m going to check on Vlad and get him settled in before I do anything else.” Brandy said, and she turned and went to the panel. Brandy was glad for the tint of his helmet’s visor or else his smirk would need explaining from Jessup who was none the wiser. Once he went through debrief and turned over his gear already knew what he was going to be doing. Straight to engineering deck C, where Janet would be waiting.
Kukat was miserable, or at least was acting like she was. Vicky was rigidly standing at attention, as was Jess, standing stock still beside Kukat’s bed. The loud exclamation that had brought them to their feet of, “What the chicken fried fuck?!” had come from the man standing in front of them. Vicky wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Jess was trying to keep herself from laughing. Kukat reached out a three fingered hand towards the man wearing a captain’s eagle on his flight jumper, a hand that had two small bow tie stickers on it.
“Torture. Help.” Kukat said, as weak as a newborn kitten, and Jess’s breath escaped her in a buzzing of her lips from someone desperately attempting to keep in her laughter. The small sheet containing bow ties, smiley face, stars, and other cartoonish stickers fell from her hand that was clenched firmly at her side. Kukat was wearing half of them. Captain Yang stared in an expression of one who is seeing something for the first time when they had believed they had seen it all. “Help.” Kukat said again, holding out her other arm which had a line of stars stuck to it all the way down to the back of her hand. Yang slowly brought his fingers up to squeeze the bridge of his nose, and then he turned on his heel and faced away from the trio. Vicky just wanted to die. The captain of the cruiser had visited them a few times in the past three days since they had been brought onboard by the Barrowmore. Kukat had been immediately rushed to start receiving medical care, Victoria Brandy and Jessica Anders had been by her side from the second they were allowed back, barring short periods where either woman needed to file their reports. The problem was, every time Captain Yang had come back to visit them, it was always at the most inopportune time. The first time he had walked in to Jess cuddling the small chua in a bed that was almost a meter too small for her. The second time Vicky had taped Jess’ hands and feet to her chair. The third time Jess had been singing a nursery rhyme to Kukat. Each time Yang had walked in, Vicky had felt like crawling in a hole, Jess had desperately tried not to laugh, and Kukat had acted like a prisoner of war. Vicky was getting the feeling the captain was enjoying these trips down to see her and her crew.
“Can someone explain to me why the three pilots that I’m supposed to award the Terran Star to are acting like toddlers in my medbay?” He said, then he turned back to face them. Vicky didn’t want to die anymore. Jess stopped laughing. Kukat’s hands fell to the heated blanket that covered her. All three of them were to awarded the highest honor in the Terran Fleet. Now it was the captain’s turn to laugh as he stepped forward and grabbed Vicky’s hand, which almost knocked her off balance as he began vigorously shaking it. “Congratulations.”
Vicky stared at him for a few long moments, trying to parse through the entire scenario in her head. None of them had paid much attention to news outside of the medbay, Vicky had barely even been back onboard the Thumper aside from downloading nav data to be included in her flight logs. “Captain…” She said, sounding to even her own ears a bit disjointed, “What did we find out there.”
“First off at ease.” Yang said, then he smirked as Jess began to self consciously pluck the stickers off of Kukat, her eyes on him, he turned his attention to her. “Your flight records and the reserve drone data is being sent back to Earth to be implemented into training.” His attention turned to all of them in turn. “You really don’t know do you?” All three shook their heads, and Vicky took a step back to stand side by side with her crew.
“We haven’t been paying much attention to what’s been coming in.” Vicky said, and she placed her hand on Kukat’s medical bed. Yang nodded, understanding. This crew was a very tight group, and he could see that even from the small amount of time he had been around them.
“You scouted out the entire Vral fleet, they were evacuating. I don’t think they expected us to move as fast as we did on them, so when we jumped into the system they were barely organized into battlelines.” Yang interlocked his fingers in front of his belt. “Because of what you got on those scans, we knew exactly what we were jumping into. We knew exactly what we would do the moment we landed and…” He paused for a moment, letting his words stand out. “... we eradicated their entire fleet.” Vicky looked to Jess. Jess’s mouth hung slightly open.
“I knew it was a fleet!” Jess said after a moment. When she had been asked by Vicky a few hours after they had gotten Kukat settled, Jess had insisted she had been trying to evade fire from point defense and laser batteries from at least twelve ships. What she didn’t know, and what would be reflected on the citation for the award she was yet to receive, was that she had been evading around thirty individual vessels weapons fire.
“Not a fleet.” Yang said, and Jess looked back to him. “It was ‘The’ fleet.” Jess looked at him in confusion for a few seconds, as did Vicky.
“Shit!” Kukat chirped, and all three humans looked down at the small, sticker covered chua. Kukat’s mouth hung open slightly. Jess looked up to Vicky, and both seemed to realize what was said at the same time. Jess’ hand shot to her mouth, covering it, her eyes wide as Vicky stepped back to lean against the wall.
Yang waited a few moments then stepped forward. “Well, I hope you three are ready.” He said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Drone Cutters are supposed to cut and run the second they get in trouble. You three…” He motioned to them with a wave of his hand. “... you stuck around, and because you did, you handed us everything we needed to go after them.” Jess’ hand came down on Kukat’s small shoulder, and one of the smiley face stickers peeled off as Kukat wrapped her hand around Jess’ pointer finger. Vicky slowly pressed her back against the wall and started sliding down it. “Basically, to be blunt, now that this has broken, every news feed in the Terran Front wants pictures of you, details on your status…” He motioned to Kukut. “... and to be honest I’ve had to keep them from taking over the ship to get to you.”
Jess and Vicky exchanged a glance, and then looked back to Yang. Kukat had not looked away from him even for a moment. Yang shrugged his shoulders and turned to the display panel on the wall, and activated it. He tapped the panel for a few moments, then the sounds of cheering came through. On the display was a live news feed, and they could hear the reporter’s voice barely above the cacophony of the crowd around her.
“... action. The news of the destruction of the fleet has sparked widespread celebrations of joy. The foot of the enemy that we have all felt over us has been cut off. Thermopylae Station, for the first time in nearly a century, is standing down from Condition One to Condition Three.” The reporter was almost shouting, and Vicky breathed out, even as she heard a low tone from Kukat, and a sob coming from Jess. Yang had his back turned to them watching, and without saying another word he turned and walked out. “Once Condition Three was set at Thermopylae, the information began to pour in from the Zzisma system as well as the planet Zvitia located there. Fleet Marshal Simmons of the Antares battle fleet will be continuing to press into former Shesvie Accordance territory once consolidation is completed.” The reporter paused, the moment she had said Antares a chant had begun, and it was overwhelming. The thunder of uncountable human voices yelling, ‘We’re Still Here’ drowned her out entirely. The reporter eventually just held up her hands helplessly as the chant overwhelmed the microphone’s input threshold, turning the people’s chanting into a dull roar. The feed cut over to an image of man behind a news desk, the ticker at the bottom of the screen citing off ship names.
“Again if you’re just joining us the Vral have been soundly beaten in the Zzisma system. The enemy’s losses have been stated as total. Fleet Marshal Simmons, commander of the Antares battlegroup, will be holding a press conference at a later date to discuss the events of today, but has released a few names to us as well as their roles within the conflict.” Jess, Vicky’s, and Kukat’s individual service portraits slowly appeared on the screen while the reporter spoke.
“Holy shit.” Jess whispered. “That’s us.” Vicky stared at the screen, even as Kukat squeezed Jess’ finge
“Lieutenant Victoria Brandy, Drone Operator Second Class Jessica Anders, and Drone Operator Third Class Kukat were conducting a routine drone sweep of the Zzisma system when they sighted the Vral. The three managed to gain enough intelligence to warrant the immediate redeployment of the Antares battlegroup which had been in rescue and recovery efforts above the chua homeworld.” Vicky just stared at the man as he continued talking on the display. “From the feeds that we have managed to confirm, the crew of the scout ship stayed while exposed and under threat and under fire until such time as the information was confirmed transmitted. All three of the scout’s crew made it back safely, although Drone Operator Third Class Kukat was reported as needing medical attention, the reasons of which are unknown, but it is reported that she is in stable condition.” Their portraits fell away from the screen as another image came up, of a chua in a captain’s uniform came up, grayed out.
Vicky just stared at the screen, Jess breathed out a breath that she didn’t even know she had been holding. Kukat leaned back into her pillow.
“We famous.” Kukat chirped.
The news reporter was still speaking, something about a battleship that had engaged the Vral, some new story of heroism. The three of them sat in silence. Vicky wanted to look to Kukat and Jess, but both of them were quiet. Suddenly Vicky and Kukat flinched as Jess erupted out of her seat. “Yeah! That’s right! What do you think now Rick?” Jess said her ex-boyfriends name with vitriol. “Who’s not photogenic now huh? Galaxy wide baby!” She whooped and Kukat stared up at her in amazement as Vicky buried her head in her hands and laughed.
“You problem.” Kukat chirped low.
“I told you you suck at picking men Kukat!” Jess proclaimed. “You still suck Rick!”

I promised in an earlier post to update once the EVIQO charger arrived and I had a chance to install it. I won't go over the details of the mechanical installation as State Of The Charge documented that well. It is very straightforward--and templates are provided to mark placement for the 8 holes one must drill to mount the charger and the holster.
All the necessary hardware was in the package including the special allen type wrench for the screws that mount the holster and charger to their metal backing plates. It is a modified wrench--a simple but not 100% secure way to ensure that the charger won't be removed from its bracket in an outdoor mounting scenario. It isn't a lock--and wouldn't be hard to get around but it would stop a casual attempt.
EVIQO sends expansion bolts with the mounting brackets which work very well in concrete or cement block but are not so useful for mounting to studs or drywall. And unless you had a wood backing board installed in your garage it would be impossible to mount the charger to studs entirely due to the spacing. I opted to mount to studs on one side and used very sturdy 14/16 drywall anchors and screws to secure the other side. The Unit itself is not very heavy--only a few pounds but the 25' cable is indeed heavy so I mounted the holster to a stud which fit perfectly.
Once I had the unit mounted, and plugged into my existing 14/50 outlet running on a 50 amp breaker I followed the printed installation guide and turned on the breaker and the unit alerted--flashed and indicated per the manual that it was entering configuration mode and would stay that way for 15 minutes. If you miss this window you can restart configuration but I did not need to do so. One tip is to have ready before hand a strong password--you'll need it for the App setup and you will also need to know the password for your WiFi connection.
The installation manual prompts you to download the EVIQO app for either Android or iOS and once you have done so you will create an account-with your email--receive a verification email in return, and from there the APP walks you through configuration --connecting your mobile device via bluetooth to the charger, and to your home wifi. I already knew I had good signal quality in my garage from the installation of the MyQ garage door system and I had no hiccups with either bluetooth or wifi. Once the unit was online there were some added configuration steps, setting address, time zone, and vehicle identity (which I found out is largely so that they can help troubleshoot should there be any issues later).
When the configuration is complete the app prompts you to plug in and start charging. I did and everything worked as it should delivering the maximum charge my Q5 PHEV can accept. The unit is preconfigured for 40amps ( assuming a 50 amp circuit) but that can be changed using a dip switch inside the unit if hardwiring or using a lower amperage.
The home screen of the app displays in real time the voltage, kW and amperage -displays start time duration and Energy delivered. Additional configuration and information is done on a secondary and tertiary page, a setup for scheduling charging, and inputting various energy pricing by day part. When you log into the EVIQO web site you can perform additional actions such as adding (and inviting users to sign up for accounts), creating an organization, uploading a logo, adding specific location information and other customizations. Obviously this is intended for folks who wish to use the charger in a shared setting.
Last but certainly not least I did some rudimentary temperature checking and the unit, plug and outlet remained cool under load--essentially room temperature. The power cable is quite large in diameter and almost 39 inches long. The Charging cable is 25"--the maximum length I believe. I was impressed with the construction overall and with the thoroughness of the manual and the installation process itself which wss seamless, fast and easy.
Summarizing--my charge is now complete--slightly faster than with the OEM charger and I got notifications from my vehicle and the EVIQO app at almost the same moment. Once the unit has been in service for a while and I have additional data regarding how well it works with my new BMW i5--which will be delivered soon--I hope--I'll do another long term update. For technical info Josh Charles review on YouTube is pretty thorough and of course State of The Charge has also reviewed the unit. So far so good--if the unit stands the test of time I'd say job well done but stay tuned as we see how it fares over time.

Or how far it doesn't matter Star-Crossed soul matched twin flames carmatic holistic relationships that honestly will last long and go far . I strive for you even when looking at naughty things don't let you just I don't just love you for your body I love you for you too . But we hide so much behind your walls. too but I've put up as much walls as I know too. I want you to know that if you did see that we are together that's still kind of chemistry granted I know that when you put your phone in your hand the texting the showing the dirty messages that still happening but at the same time can't change that who you are don't think that I don't know about your fiendish ways you're such a deviant but I've kind of made you that way or have you always been because of trauma earlier on like your family. I understand and I feel I know that's one of the reasons why you really don't want to spend that time up unSt Cats with your brother I know you're scared and worried about what he might do I understand ever since your grandma died I know and I haven't been so much there but I have been here for you all of this entire time I know where I can find at least solace and knowing that you could come across it and there's tales. that are worth knowing truth I'd love to know because I can open up to you and tell you everything. that I think and could also, know due to my intuition that's a superpower of everything but sometimes that overthinking it's actually tangible knowledge to keep these things in our minds.that I wish I could tell you but I don't know how and I also don't know how to compel you to do the same. of the time we just sit there in silence at the same silence I hear you talking back the back of my mind as I hear talking I look back at you and say yeah all the time can I have her get you out of my head not one bit I'm hung up on you because it's because of them if it wasn't for us being together we would not do wonderful boys. And if it wasn't for all the fun times and things that we remember all memories that we still continue to make forever. In these years of separation I find grown more fonder of you but also also I'm still jealous you get to.youve have had all these fun awesome things to do even though I know most of the time you're working hard and knowing what do but. that free time you're able to just do you enjoy it. I'm with you all the time we spent together I know that you never really communicate the best of the days. you could change that we communicate well at best I wish that I could talk to you about everything. I wish that I could cuddle you beside me once again all these things they just seem like this I was a legend once before with this reality is possible future the outcome I don't know if I could take it cuz it hurts so much more than any that saved no more me dead there's many that seem to hate me and have been done against me because I don't understand the thing is I wish you to be the that's all happy even if it means myself being a misery I really mind Cruise control.
that's just those on autopilot sometimes with you forever downloaded being I love you to the Moon and back through all time and space through 10 time dimensions and however for it takes I would tear the world apart if I could get back to where we where, there's so much more I'm never going to be back I've switched to many different timelines I don't know where I am I'm lost and some special timeline I don't entirely know maybe someone elses subconscious that don't even know but I see that this is all, Grand scheme and special thing that future it's looking kind of bleak but at the same time it seems like it is unraveled and a lot of it's not told because this timeline were in control the thing is about having a clock tattooed on your arm it always is on time twice in a day but it's always missing two numbers every single day.
The intention of the number 23 to the number 32 it was those 10 years it limbo that brought me here to you our star studded story that is written from many eons ago a story from Alpha Centauri place I go home.

Hello everyone!Nowadays I'm studding (I'm not a master) how to create a Dockerfile and I have a issue which I can't solve. I created a Dockerfile FROM Centos:7, inside it I have a different commands to install NGINX, and everything is OK, it works but when I try to change to Debian:buster-slim, appears a problem in my last RUN, I don't know why the command "make" doesn't work... Here you can see my dockerfile:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FROM debian:buster-slim MAINTAINER anonymous WORKDIR /home RUN apt -y update && apt -y install wget && wget https://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.14.0.tar.gz && tar -xzvf nginx-1.14.0.tar.gz && apt -y install build-essential zlib1g-dev && apt install libpcre3-dev openssl libssl-dev -y && apt install perl libperl-dev libxslt-dev libgd-dev geoip-database libgeoip-dev make -y WORKDIR /home/nginx-1.14.0 RUN ./configure --prefix=/etc/nginx --sbin-path=/ussbin/nginx --error-log-path=/valog/nginx/error.log --pid-path=/varun/nginx.pid --lock-path=/varun/nginx.lock --user=nginx --group=nginx RUN make && make install && nginx -v && useradd nginx && chown -R nginx:nginx /etc/nginx/ EXPOSE 80 443 CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"] ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I don't know how to fix the command "make" because in my mind I actually installed "make" which is inside of package build-essential... Thanks in advance!

Welcome back myth readers. During the coming weeks we will be starting our reading of Sophocles famous plays, centering around the character of Oedipus. Online, these plays are known collectively under a couple of different names: the Oedipus Trilogy or the Theban Plays, which may be confusing to some, so I felt I should mention that.
The plays that we will be reading are:

• Antigone
• Oedipus the King
• Oedipus at Colonus

Please note that this set of plays can be read in different orders, which some of the translations I list below may reflect. However, to be clear, we are reading them in the order I’ve mentioned above. Most of the readings for each play will take a couple of weeks. After we finish Oedipus at Colonus we will be taking a weeks break and then we will be back with our next read, Ovid's Metamorphoses. Our full 2024 schedule can be seen here.
Reading/Discussion Schedule:
Antigone:

• Start Date: 01/04/24
• Week 1 - Lines 1 -700 - 06/04/24
• Week 2 - Lines 700 - End - 13/04/24

Oedipus the King:

• Start Date: 14/04/24
• Week 1 - Lines 1 - 800 - 20/04/24
• Week 2 - Lines 800 - End - 27/04/24

Oedipus at Colonus:

• Start Date: 28/04/24
• Week 1 - Lines 1 - 1000 - 04/05/24
• Week 2 - Lines 1000 - End - 11/05/24

Before I begin, I want to say that there are a lot of translations available for these plays. Compiling this post was difficult due to the sheer number available. My original list was huge. I narrowed this list down using two criteria: the translations I mention all had to include the three plays that we are reading, and they had to have a few reviews available to read online.
Only one volume on this list contains translations of the three plays by different authors. Most of them are all one consistent translator throughout, as I think this makes more sense for our read along. However, there are some amazing translations for the individual plays out there that I had to leave off the list, due to them not fitting my criteria. I didn’t want to use my list to make anyone feel like they would have to make multiple purchases to take part in the read-along. For example, Hugh Lloyd-Jones has published some very well received translations of the plays on our list, but they are spread across two separate volumes.
If you are interested in branching out and finding the best translations of the induvial plays out there for you, I did find this website that covers quite a few of them.
If you have any recommendations for us, for translations of single plays and/or the trio, please share them in the comments. I will edit them into this post.
Translations:

• Bryan Doerries, Knopf Doubleday, 2021. Doerries is not just a translator but also a very well-known writedirector in the theatre world. This version is seen as modern but true to the original and very readable. It comes in physical and eBook format and has some stellar reviews out there from people like Oscar Issac. Oedipus Trilogy: New Versions of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone: Amazon.co.uk: Sophocles, Doerries, Bryan: 9780593314951: Books
• Sir George Young, Dover Thrift Editions, 2012. This is an older translation but is still used in schools. It is seen as readable if a bit antiquated in parts. This edition is available in physical and eBook format. The Theban Plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone (Dover Thrift Editions: Plays) eBook : Sophocles, Young, Sir George: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
• Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics,1984. Fagles is a huge name in the Greek Classics world. He's translated most of the books we've read so far, so his name has been on nearly all of these lists. This translation is seen as good, if dry in some places. It comes with introductions (by Brian Knox) to each play, providing context to each one. It comes in physical and eBook formats. The Three Theban Plays: 'Antigone', 'Oedipus the King', 'Oedipus at Colonus' (Penguin Classics) : Sophocles, Bernard Knox, Robert Fagles: Amazon.co.uk: Books
• E Watling, Penguin Classics, 1973. This translation is very readable and has been used by academics for decades. It comes in eBook and physical formats. The Theban Plays: King Oedipus; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone (Penguin Classics) : Sophocles, Watling, E., Watling, E.: Amazon.co.uk: Books
• Davud Grene, Everyman, 1994. This translation has been called 'legendary' by some. It is very good - both poetic and modern, capturing the vividness of the original text. It is available in physical format. The Theban Plays: Oedipus the King,Oedipus at Colonus, JACKET LO D2K (Everyman's Library CLASSICS) : Sophocles: Amazon.co.uk: Books
• David R Slavitt, Yale University Press, 2007. This translation has received a lot of praise and is seen by many as the new 'standard' version of the text. It is accessible, with modern language that captures the energy of the original text. It also seems to capture the simple yet poetic aesthetic that the ancient Greeks loved. This version comes in both physical and eBook formats. The Theban Plays of Sophocles (The Yale New Classics Series) eBook : Sophocles, Slavitt, David R.: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
• Peter J. Ahrensdorf, Thomas Pangle, Cornell University Press, 2014. This translation is very accurate to the original text but also readable to beginners. It is one of the most highly reviewed translations on this list. It comes with some great introductions that provide a lot of the historical and mythological context to the plays. It comes in physical and eBook formats and is one of the editions that I am considering buying. Edit Update - the ebook version of this book is very glitchy, making it hard to read the actual translations. The Theban Plays: "Oedipus the Tyrant"; "Oedipus at Colonus"; "Antigone" (Agora Editions) eBook : Sophocles, Ahrensdorf, Peter J., Pangle, Thomas L.: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
• Don Taylor, Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury, 2014. Taylor was a famous playwright and theatre director. This translation ties in with the plays directed by Taylor in the 1980s and 1990s, for the BBC. Reviews say that this translation is poetic while remaining accurate and translates well from page to the screen. As these translations were designed to by performed on stage, like the original texts by Sophocles, this edition may contain elements that some others on this list may be lacking. It comes in physical and eBook formats (plus tying in with the BBC adaptions that you could find online). Sophocles Plays: 1: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonnus; Antigone eBook : Sophocles, Don Taylor And J. Michael Walton, Taylor, Don: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
• Ruby Blondell, Focus Classical Library, 2019. Blondell's translation has a lot of good reviews. It is written in clear language that is accessible to beginners while remaining true to the original Greek texts. However, due to some linguistic choices made by Blondell this translation can read a little awkwardly at times. It also comes with an in-depth introduction to Sophocles life as well as the historical and mythical background to the plays. It comes in physical and eBook editions. The Theban Plays: Antigone, King Oidipous and Oidipous at Colonus (Focus Classical Library) eBook : Sophocles, Ruby Blondell, Blondell, Ruby: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
• Mark Griffith (Ed), Assorted Translators, University of Chicago Press, 3rd Edition, 2013. This volume is known as 'Sophocles I' and it contains the plays “Antigone,” translated by Elizabeth Wyckoff; “Oedipus the King,” translated by David Grene; and “Oedipus at Colonus,” translated by Robert Fitzgerald. I've seen good reviews for all of these plays, respectively. I have read Grene's translation of the Iliad and can vouch that his translations are accurate and capture the vibrancy of the original texts. This volume also comes with a few other plays, like Medea, which we read last year and highly recommend. It comes in physical and eBook formats. Sophocles I: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus (The Complete Greek Tragedies): Amazon.co.uk: Sophocles, ., Griffith, Mark, Most, Glenn W., Grene, David, Lattimore, Richmond, Griffith, Mark, Most, Glenn W., Grene, David, Lattimore, Richmond: 9780226311517: Books
• Ruth Fainlight, Robert J Littman, John Hopkins University Press, 2009. This translation is on the more expensive side, but it has great reviews. It comes with extensive notes and in-depth introductions as well as a glossary. John Hopkins University Press are a publisher that is beloved of academics and used frequently in universities. If I had to guess, this is probably why it is so expensive, even in eBook form. If you are looking for a version of the plays that is both readable and more academically focused, this one may be for you. It comes in physical and eBook formats. The Theban Plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Johns Hopkins New Translations from Antiquity) eBook : Sophocles, Fainlight, Ruth, Littman, Robert J.: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Free Translations:

• The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Oedipus Trilogy, by Sophocles translated by F. Storr
• LibriVox has audio versions available for free for multiple translations of the plays.

Audio Versions:

• The Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone (Audio Download): Sophocles, David McCallion, A.R.N. Publications: Amazon.co.uk: Audible Books & Originals
• Ian Johnston, Ukemi Productions/Audible, 2016. This performance has a star-studded cast and some really good reviews. It has a full cast audio production, available on Audible as well as an eBook version. Audio: Audible Theatre Collection: Oedipus : Sophocles, Ian Johnston - translator, Jamie Glover, Hayley Atwell, Michael Maloney, Samantha Bond, Julian Glover, David Horovitch, Audible Originals: Amazon.co.uk: Audible Books & Originals Ebook: The Oedipus Plays: Oedipus the King • Oedipus at Colonus • Antigone eBook : Sophocles, Sophocles, Johnston, Ian: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

​
Recommended by u/fabysseus :
• ⁠Frank Nisetich, Modern Library New York, 2016. This book is called "The Greek Plays" and contains 16 selected plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides in new translations by some of the most prolific translators of ancient texts, among them Sarah Ruden, Emily Wilson and Rachel Kitzinger. It contains all three Theban plays of Sophocles translated by Frank Nisetich. I can highly recommend this collection, each author and play comes with an introduction and notes. The translation are very good, although I have to admit that I found Wilson's choice of words a bit too modern sometimes. https://www.amazon.com/Greek-Plays-Aeschylus-Sophocles-Euripides/dp/0812983092
• ⁠Oliver Taplin, Oxford World Classics, 2015/2020. Taplin translated all seven surviving tragedies of Sophocles in two volumes. In order to get the three Theban plays, you'll need to buy both volumes. The first volume contains the plays that have male protagonists at their center, the second one focuses on female main protagonists. Taplin's translation is in iambic meter and he sometimes uses rhymes or half-rhymes. https://amzn.eu/d/7IFBR2u and https://amzn.eu/d/7cXp7Xd
• ⁠Seamus Heaney, Faber & Faber, 2004. This edition is called "Burial At Thebes" and contains a free translation/adaption of Antigone. I am only listing this here because it might be of interest to those who want to read a poetic modernized version. Some lines really stood out to me, like when Ismene says to Antigone: "But now I’m with you. I want to throw myself / Like a lifeline to you in your sea of troubles." (In Nisetich's more literal version, this reads "But now that you're in trouble, I am not / ashamed to be a shipmate in your suffering.") Please note that this is Antigone only. https://amzn.eu/d/baeAj8E

This is the writeup I wish I had found as I was planning my wedding. I got married last september and I finally have enough bandwidth to do a writeup of how it went and lessons learned. I hope I never get married again, so these lessons would be wasted if I did not share them. I was never a person who spent much time imagining weddings but I have spent many years in the concert and event industry so I know the details that matter to making an event run smoothly (and they’re the boring stuff like bathrooms and trash cans and electrical cords and timelines). I’m pretty organized and was also not willing to shell out for a wedding planner so we tackled this thing ourselves.
And! I’m thrilled we had a wedding and that it was such a good one. I loved having our people all together for a weekend and it was worth it.Side note: I hated the bullshit marketing and expectations placed on being “a bride.” Planning a wedding is a chore and I can’t say how annoying it was to have all of my internet algorithms suggesting shapewear and weight loss scams to me for the whole wedding year. Fuck right off with that. Getting married was a joy but planning a wedding sucked and it was worth it anyway. But I’m never doing it again. I prioritized keeping my sanity through the whole process and it was still a lot of work.
Philosophy:
My partner and I are both pretty practical people and have fortunately sane families so it was up to us how we wanted to plan this thing. We read parts of A Practical Wedding by Megan Keene and it recommended choosing your top three most important things and focusing on those. The book also recommended a “vibe mission statement” . So we decided that ours were.

1. A Good Ceremony
2. Invite all our people
3. A Good photographer (we’re both such grubby outdoor people that we’re wearing helmets and sunglasses in every single photo of us and we wanted good photos of our one day dressed up)

And our vibe we wanted was “joyful, comfortable lawn party.” I imagined a big barefoot hobbit type party with trees and lights and comfy skirts.
These priorities made it SO much easier to disregard the shit that we did NOT care about. ‘Cause there was a LOT of that.
We did pay for several services that could have been done cheaper, but for me it was worth it to hire professionals so that I wouldn’t have to be event managing while I was trying to get married. I downloaded the wedding planning spreadsheets from a practical wedding and used those, but any would do fine. I mostly used them to keep track of budgets and payment deadlines.
I’ll break the planning down into categories in no particular order and sum it up at the end. Budgets are rough guesses. We’re in a medium-high COL location and we tried to balance budget considerations with subbing things out to keep us sane/help us enjoy the day.
Venue $5,800
Our venue was the most impactful choice we made and we absolutely loved ours. We wanted to stay local and to have a low-key vibe. We had originally put down a deposit for a local cider brewery, but we realized that it had no trees and too industrial of a vibe. Plus it would have been a sunny hell on a summer afternoon and needed us to bring tents and chairs and bleh. So we toured a local farm that met all of our criteria:
-Trees and Nature and outdoor spaces
-An indoor space in case of rain (fuck dealing with tents)
-Allowed 125 people (many farms had lower guest caps
-Allowed us to bring our own food/alcohol
-Close to home
It was stunningly beautiful and comfortable and had plenty of room for our guests to roam the property. We are all outdoorsy people so a farm was our happy place for us and our guests. The sunset was stunning and the wild grasses and flowers growing all over were just heaven. It had a few rules about quiet music and early ending times, but we didn’t mind at all. It was only 20 minutes from our house which saved a lot of hassle and hotel room complications. I would have hated having to drive more than an hour to our venue.
Timeline:
We got engaged in November, had a venue picked by January and a photographer by February and got married in September. It was fast but doable. My partner had said “well, no point wasting any time, we got engaged, let’s get married!” And I’m glad we did. Honestly, wedding planning sucked and making it last longer would not have made it better.
The day-of timeline was hard to piece together and our photographer and lead caterewaitstaff helped build it. The wedding was 3-9 pm and it was the right length for us.
HMU: 9-12
Get ready at venue: 1-2 (it was chaos)
2-3 First look photos
3:15-3:45 ceremony
3:45-4:15 Big family pictures
10 minute break by ourselves for snacks(this was SO nice)
3:45-5:15 Social hour with lawn games and bar burros for guests
5:30-7 ish Dinner, speeches, first dance
7-9 Dancing/playing outside by the fire pit
8? Cake
Ceremony/Officiant $1000 and so worth it
We are fortunate to have a close long term friend who is a unitarian universalist minister. Her wedding was the first one I had ever gone to that had memorable, AMAZING vows and so I asked her if she’d officiate and we were lucky she said yes. Local officiants were asking for 800-1000 for their time and so I offered to pay for her and her families flights out here plus some. This is her profession after all and she deserves to be paid for her training. We are not religious and we wanted joyful, genuine vows. We had been to some weddings with traditional vows or jokey casual vows and those were not for us.
She did 3-4 meetings with us before the wedding and sent us a questionnaire to help her write the ceremony. She also sent us a worksheet that helped us write our own vows.
She broke the ceremony down into parts. The opening greeting and centering, a community blessing for the audience to declare their support for us, a union ritual (flowers, I’ll explain later), the address explaining our story and philosophies, the vows , the ring exchange, and the recession.
Everyone cried, it was a great ceremony and easily my favorite part of the day. It was wonderful. I have our vows printed over a wedding picture on our wall.
Flowers and Flower Ceremony: maybe $100 in supplies and lots of gardening
This was one of our absolute favorite parts. We decided to gamble and grow our own flowers. We decided ahead of time that we were totally okay if it failed. Our goal was to grow enough for just our bouquets and if the garden didn’t work, we would go to trader joes instead. So we planted 150 sf of our garden with dahlias, gladiolus, cosmos and daisies. We got really lucky that they bloomed at the right time. The dahlias are an ongoing bloomer but glads are boom and bust and we just got lucky is all. I did stagger planting some of the glads by a few weeks as insurance which worked. I had done a lot of research and chose flowers that would bloom in early september ish.
For our union ceremony, instead of lighting a candle or combining sand, we chose to do a flower ceremony. My husband and I walked into the ceremony with our own bouquets made of a single flower type (pink dahlias for me, yellow dahlias for him) and we asked our wedding parties and parents to bring or choose a type of flower to contribute to our combined bouquets. So we had 2 vases set up at the altar. We put some pink and some yellow dahlias into each and then one by one, our people came up and put in their flower along with what it symbolized (daisies for a late grandfather, cosmos for flexibility, wild grass for tenacity, etc) and one of my bridesmaids arranged the mix into two stunning new bouquets and our celebrant bound them together with ribbon to symbolize our combining of families. This was my FAVORITE decision we made. I loved my finished bouquet so much and my husband loved his too. Men should get flowers more often, he looks so handsome in all our photos beaming and holding his flowers.
Website Free
We chose Zola because it had digital save the dates (we did pay for paper invitations) and it allowed cash funds and odd items from other websites on our registry. We did not need standard kitchen stuff, so we had things like power tools and outdoor gear instead.
Guests/Invites: $150ish
It was our priority to invite all of our people, community is important to us and it was such a joy to have all of our favorite people in one room. We had a 125 person limit at the venue and we invited 175 ish. We ended up with 121 people or so. We cut it a little close and it worked out fine. The vast majority of our families are local so they all came, most of the folks who did not come were honorary invites to older relatives out of town.
We did digital save the dates with a small handful printed at walgreens for non email people. Many save the dates got caught in spam filters. We printed paper invites through zola and it was nice to have the envelopes pre addressed. We also enclosed an empty recipe card with each invite and asked our guests to give us recipes. We got maybe 20% of them back. It was a fun idea. Some invites were slow or stuck in the mail, so I did end up sending out maybe 10 replacement ones. We had our RSVP deadline a month before the wedding so we had time to hunt down the nonresponsive folks with plenty of time before our 2 week catering deadline.
Food $2,200
Waitstaff and rentals $3,400
Bar $1200ish
Cake $200
Our venue allowed us to supply our own food/alcohol as long as we hired a waitstaff or full service caterer. Full service catering quotes were in the 15K and fancy food was not our priority. So we ordered chipotle catering and hired a lovely local company that provided waitstaff to move chairs and handle food/trash/ logistics/etc. The owner of this company was wonderful and coordinated everything from timeline to location of tables to making sure we had snacks in our dressing rooms after the ceremony. She also handled plate and tablecloth rentals. My mother’s only demand in the whole wedding was real forks, so fine, we paid for rental plates and silverware. This was the best arrangement for us, the food was delicious and easy and super darn affordable for as many people as we had.
For liquor, we bought wine at costco and ordered beer and ice delivery from a local liquor store. They accepted returns of unopened cases after the wedding. We had 2 simple cocktails at social hour which was the only hard liquor the venue allowed and it was fine. We also had tea and lemonade in dispensers.
We got our cake from a local bakery, we just did sheet cake and a small cutting cake. I almost ordered this at costco, but the local place had super delicious cakes. Our friends picked it up for us.
Photographer $4,000
I started by searching for photos of past weddings at my venue. That helped me find photographers who already understood the vibe I wanted (joyful, outdoor) and it helped me scope out their styles ahead of time to sift out what I did not want (posed, stuffy, heavily filtered). I found a photographer who was funny and put us at ease and who did not speak to me like I was some frilly tik tok “girlie”. I have to hang out with this person for my whole wedding day and I had to find someone I liked enough to spend a day with. She also shared some full wedding galleries which I appreciated so I could see how her photos looked at candid moments, indoors and outdoors. Most photographers only show their highlights which anyone can do well. I asked to add a delivery date for photos in the contract and she delivered right on time since it was so clearly in writing. We also added a second photographer for 3 hours for the getting ready, ceremony and family photos which helped them all happen faster.
I wrote out a detailed family shot list for her and mentioned certain photos that were high priority for me. Critical photos for me were with my grandma, a wide landscape shot to hang on my wall and a single simple straight on shot for our thank you notes. I was glad we put this together ahead of time so we didn’t waste time on the day to try to improvise boring family shots. She got through the posed ones in 30 mins or less which I appreciated. Prioritize the photos you’ll really cherish over the obligatory massive family posed pictures. I wish I had more pictures of just my mom, sister and I but we were so busy that we only have a few.
Day of coordinator $750
She was recommended by the venue and had worked there before. Her duties overlapped some with the catering staff. I hired her so I would not have to do any event managing during the day and she handled things smoothly. I have no idea what exactly she did all day which is perfect! She brought us drinks, fetched missing boutonnieres and handled boring hiccups and I never had to get involved, so it was well worth it.
Clothing: Total probably $2000ish
My husband got his suit made at indochino in green which looked great.
I tried maybe 4 dress shops before I found a used dress at a local bridal consignment store. I liked the consignment store because it offered unique dresses that were different from the trends of the year. That said, I was totally wrong about what I thought I wanted (classic, clean, no deep v, structured, no train) and I ended up getting a stunning sparkly dress with a deep v that fit well right off the rack and it was stretchy! Turns out I was just waiting for a comfortable dress. And I surprised myself that I loved the fabric pattern so much that I kept the train. I opted for both a wrist loop and simple bustle. The wrist loop was elegant and made pre-wedding pictures easy. Having a cheaper, pre-used dress helped me enjoy the day more because I gave myself permission not to baby the dress. So I tromped through grass fields and petted farm animals and carried toddlers around and I had such a blast. And I used good lines boob tape which worked really nicely. I practiced with it several times before the wedding which was important. And I wore comfy shorts under my dress. No chafing and no squeezing was important to me.
I way overthought jewelry but I loved the back necklace I found on etsy, it looked stunning with my low back dress. And I made a day of decision to keep my tiny bee stud earrings in. I wear them every day and I love that they’re my wedding earrings now. I also got gel nails done the week of the wedding and it was fun to still have my wedding nails for weeks after the wedding.Oh! And I wore comfy, cute red leather ankle boots with a 1” heel. Hardly anyone could see them PLUS I get to wear my wedding shoes all the time now. They were comfy af and let me run free.
The only real craft project I did for the wedding was to make bouttonieres for the men in the family. I had a loose dandelion theme (wishes and all) and I made yarn poofballs in dandelion colors. They looked great and never wilted.
Wedding Party
We each chose 3-4 of our closest people for our wedding party. I asked the ladies to wear anything they wanted in green, blue or purple. And then men ended up wearing whatever suit jackets they already owned. I didn’t care at all about matching dresses and I’m glad I avoided the hassle and expense of it.
HMUA maybe $800 for me plus 3?
I found a local hair salon that would do hairstyles and a makeup artist who would come to the salon. I offered to pay for my 3 bridesladies if they wanted to join. It was expensive but it was nice to have a really chill quiet morning before the chaos of the wedding started. I did do a trial with both hair and makeup which I’m glad I did because I edited a few things. I am blonde and relatively fair and the makeup artist ordered brown false lashes for me which looked so much more natural.
Bar Burros $700
This was our one ridiculous silly splurge. We hired 2 bar burros to distribute drinks and bubbles for kids during social hour. They wore flowers and our guests totally loved them. It was silly and we loved it. It loosened everyone up and set a fun mood for the rest of the wedding.
Dancing Lessons $400ish
We took some dance lessons at a local studio and they helped us choreograph a dance to “House of my Soul” by Langhorne Slim which is maybe the best wedding song I’ve ever heard. These dancing dates were one of our favorite parts of wedding planning and helped us remember to have fun. It was so worth the money.
Music $1200
The venue had a list of recommended DJs who knew the decibel limit rules. I told the DJ the vibes we wanted and which genres to avoid and he was lovely. Our families aren’t huge dancers so the poor guy ended up playing music to a pretty empty room while we all watched the sunset but it was not his fault at all. It was worth having him instead of an ipod since he had all his own gear and he could queue things during the ceremony.
We walked down the aisle to a cover of “This must be the place” by Kishi Bashi. It made me cry the first time I listened to it and I could not have found a more perfect procession song. Our recession song was “All I want is You” by Barry Louis Polisar.
Rings $2300 total
My husband had proposed to me using my grandmother’s gold wedding band which happened to fit me perfectly and it was so special to me. I had a local jewelry shop drill in a tiny tiny flush set diamond to make it my own. They did it for $50 and I love it.
We both work a lot with our hands and appreciate craftsmanship. A prong set ring is not my style at all. We found a local jewelry maker who made us matching oxidized damascus steel wedding rings. Mine has some scattered flush set diamonds and his has a narrow gold ribbon to match my engagement band. . They’re stunning and unique and we’ll love them forever.
Other events
We did a welcome event on friday night at a local brewery and a bagel brunch at a park shelter the next morning. I’m so glad we did these so we could spend more time with our people outside of the wedding itself. We were fortunate that our parents offered to handle the food for these. Plus we were able to serve/distribute wedding leftovers and the sunday brunch.
I did have a casual bachelorette weekend at a cabin on a lake about 6 weeks before the wedding. We read books and canoed and wore cute overalls. It was lovely.
Prenup $2,500ish
This is rarely talked about, but it counts as a wedding expense. We’re practical people, we have no intention of getting divorced but things happen. We each had some assets coming into marriage and we already owned a house together but had no legal agreement about it. It’s important that this is complete at least a month ahead of the wedding for enforceability. It covers things like how joint money is and is not used, how inheritances will work and considerations about catastrophic or end of life decisions. The overall process maybe took 6-8 weeks because lawyers are busy people and prenups are not emergencies. It was boring and a chore but it got done and we moved along.
Name change $500?
We chose to take one syllable from each of our names and combine them rather than hyphenate. Imagine he was Sonson and I was smith. We combined to Smithson. What we didn’t realize is that legally its easy and free to hyphenate OR take the husbands name. But since we smushed into a new name we needed a court order before social security would change our names. This involved fingerprints, background checks and a bunch of paperwork. It was a pain, we’re hoping that all the name change admin is done by our first anniversary. It was important to us to share a name in an equitable way so it will be worth it but it was a pain.
MiscBubble favors for send off, , smores, lawn games, fans, seating chart
I used the local “recycled wedding” facebook group to source things like a card box and seating chart, buying them new is a ripoff and no one needs them for more than a day anyway. I paid maybe $100 for miscellaneous wedding junk and made almost all of it back when I sold it after the wedding.
Honeymoon: $5000
The honeymoon is what I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid and it was so important to me. AND it would have been impossible for me to plan it and a wedding at the same time. So we did a micro-moon for two nights in a mountain cabin near home the day after the wedding and we waited 6 months or so and then took a 3 week trip to Japan. I’m so glad we waited. I had time to plan and had enough bandwidth to enjoy it fully. We felt so weird and exhausted after the wedding and I’m glad we only had to go an hour away to chill.
Overall Conclusions:
It was fun and so worth it. Time FLEW. I felt like I was on a strange time conveyor belt for our whole wedding weekend and I couldn’t stop it. I held onto my husband's hand and slowed down at every opportunity to breath and look around. Having our people with us in a beautiful place was an almost otherworldly experience and nothing like it will probably happen again. It was blissful and happy. We were able to do the hard work and logistics ahead of time and by the time the wedding came, we accepted that the work was done and that whatever happened was okay. That was critical. Weddings are chaos and tapping into some major acceptance helped us not worry on the day. It was perfect and messy and a joy.

I have been trying to bake normals for this model but no matter how I change the setting I get a blank normal map or this. (I moved the low poly for the picture, it was at the same location as the high) any help would be appreciated, not sure If I'm doing something wrong or what's going on, my other maps have worked fine.
​
https://preview.redd.it/pr512c03v5pc1.png?width=2483&format=png&auto=webp&s=11fee5820ce2c8ae0908c005effaa149b8f7e75d

PoF is also hosted on Ao3! do with this information what you will.
u/SpacePaladin15 is responsible for the creation of the NOP universe.
 
in the name of being imprisoned by a lap cat when really all i want is to eat some breakfast, behold: “the nature of an ordinary smartphone”
in this chapter: sparci, left to his own devices for just a little too long, goes somewhere he shouldn't, and finds something he might regret.
first - prev - next ////////////////////////// Memory Transcription Subject: Sparci, Herdless Farsul //////// Date (standardized human time): January 21st, 2137 //////////////////////////
It's been a few minutes since Dan left. I've been trying to count the seconds as best I can, even though I can hardly think. I'm hungry. And tired. And everything hurts. My leg especially. But I have to be ready. I have to do this.
"I'll be back in a while. Maybe [a quarter claw] or so," he'd told me before, even though I still haven't said anything to him since... the incident. "The rest of the spaghetti is in the fridge. You should be okay to eat it cold. Or if you really don't want that, I'll come back with some fresh fruit."
I don't understand. Why does he keep trying so hard? Why does he pretend he's not boiling with rage? By all rights, he should be livid. He should be returning everything I said, and then some. But he isn't. All he's done is beg me to eat! Literally beg! Why? I just... don't understand.
My eyes burn with tears as I mentally run through the aftermath yet again, still failing to make sense of it all. He didn't chase me. He didn't come after me and break through the door and lose himself to his instincts. I heard him elsewhere in the apartment, doing spirits know what, until someone knocked on the door. His neighbors, by the sound of it. They sounded so concerned, so sympathetic. Would they have reacted the same way if they knew who I am? What I am?
Dan told them it was just a disagreement. As if he didn't think much of it. Why? How could he? It makes no sense.
I turn over to lie on my other side, the nest of towels I threw together as a bed not nearly enough to protect me from the rough linoleum of the bathroom floor. I feel like I managed to sleep at some point, but I can't be certain. Why can't I repeat whatever happened when Dan first brought me here? A five-claw-long nap would be... I dunno. It wouldn't fix anything, but at least my dreams are... usually better than this.
...I think I've waited long enough. If he's really gone, then now's my chance to get out of here. I can't stand this awful place, where nothing makes sense. At least outside I knew what people really thought of me. At least outside nobody tried to pretend to care.
I carefully push myself up, using the bathroom counter as support, and raise my ears to listen for anything, anything that could suggest he's still out there somewhere. It's been dead silent since he allegedly left. If he's really gone, then I might not have much time left to do this. I cautiously open the bathroom door, then wait a few moments, still listening for movement. I hear nothing but the sound of the ceiling fan.
This is it. I hurry out and around the counter to the front door as quickly as my leg will allow. The void in my stomach swirls terribly at the movement, and I stumble into the door, vision blurring as the world spins. I can't help but groan in pain. But I can't afford to waste any time. I have to keep going.
I fumble my paws to unlock the door before pulling the latch and heaving it open. It's so much harder than the bathroom door. But I manage. I'm almost there. I'm so close. I just have to keep going and find somewhere new to hide and hope he doesn't find me again.
As I poke my head out and look up and down the hallway for threats, I can't help but feel... strange. The navy and yellow patterned carpet. The white walls, so bright with all the lights in the ceiling. The myriad other doors. It all looks so alien. Compared to my own apartment building, it's practically a palace.
But... Where do I go? I can't think of any other hiding places off the top of my head. And can I even get far enough away before he comes home? There'll be people all over the streets. I won't be able to avoid a confrontation. What if one of them does something that hurts my leg again? But... no, I can't keep thinking about it. I have to just go. If I wait any longer, he'll come back and catch me trying to escape, and who knows what will happen then? I have to go now. I have to--
One of the doors in the hallway clicks and swings open. I panic and jolt backward, slamming the door shut as quickly as I can to avoid being seen. I only realize my mistake all too late. There's no way whoever that was didn't hear me. This is bad. This is really really bad. What do I do?
I hold my breath, heart pounding so hard it hurts, and all I can think to try is freeze and wait for something to happen. After a moment, I pick up faint shuffling just outside the door. Anxiety fills every corner of my body—they know I'm here, they'll come in and see me and see what I am and they'll- and--
The shuffling goes away just as quickly as it came.
I cough and splutter as my lungs force me to breathe, before my breath hitches and I only barely catch myself before I start crying again. Is this really how I was destined to end up? In a horrible, waking nightmare full of uncivilized temptations and predatory madness? Why can't I do it? Why can't I just leave? What's wrong with me? Why am I so broken that I can't even try to rejoin the herd anymore?
My stomach growls loudly, and my attention drifts into the unlit kitchen. I can't stop the treacherous thoughts from creeping in. I can't stand this hunger. I have to do something. But. I shouldn't. Not his food. Even if there's the slimmest possibility that humans really do just serve each other the most luxurious meals possible on a daily basis, I don't deserve any of it in the first place. How could I, after everything?
I force myself to turn away and ignore the incessant whining of my stomach. My eyes catch on the door to Dan's den. Yet another intrusive thought bubbles into my head. There has to be something. An explanation. A reason. All I want is to know why. All I truly want is for any of this to make sense.
I limp back to the small space between the bathroom and his den, and steel myself as I push through the door and into the most dangerous part of this apartment. The first thing I see is darkness. Of course it would be pitch black in here. I wave my paws around the wall beside the door, hoping to find a light switch, and in seconds one of my toes snags on something and the room flashes into visibility. It's an uncannily normal space, with a large bed taking up most of the floor, a large dresser to the side, and a desk with what looks like a human-made computer set on its surface. He doesn't have a closet, and the design of the bed doesn't allow for hiding anything beneath the mattress. So where's the meat fridge? Does he not have one? Is he one of the humans who doesn't eat meat?
I take a few cautious steps into the human's den, keeping my ears raised in case anything makes a weird sound. It doesn't smell meaty or bloody at all. Smells more like... just... salty human smell. Like the rest of the apartment, but stronger. I hate how much my stupid brain wants to think it smells good.
But whatever. I can't be worrying about that. I have to find evidence of... of something. I don't even know what. I'll take anything at this point. I quickly move to the nearest point of interest—the dresser—and, bracing myself in case I'm about to see something shocking, slowly pull open the bottom drawer. Inside is... uh... a bunch of artificial pelts. I dig through them, nudging them aside one by one, before realizing they're just the mundane coverings humans always insist on wearing. This answers none of my questions. And then the middle drawer is more of the same.
The top drawer, though, is comparatively empty. It has a whole mess of jumbled cables and adapters and connectors that I can only assume go to his many electronics, a pair of reflective masks that he obviously never wears, a thick black and silver box decorated with countless tiny studs and tightly locked with some mechanism I can't identify, a mundane blue ring, and...
...a black rectangle? My paw gravitates toward the thing automatically. It looks so much like a deactivated holopad, but way bigger. When I pick it up, it turns on, startling me with the flat part of its exterior case suddenly lighting up. It's almost like some kind of... extremely tiny old-fashioned computer monitor. The display is very simplistic, with only a few words(?) and numbers(?) in humanese, overlaid on a background of chaotic blotches of color.
I poke at it a few times, and the text moves as if in response. Then I accidentally poke it too hard, and the text goes away entirely, to be replaced by a grid of icons and more text. Just like... the home screen of a holopad. But it's not a holopad. If it were, it would be projecting its display out into the air. What is this thing?
I try to select one of the apps at random, but all I get is a circle in the middle of the screen with some weird oval made of swirls. It shakes and turns red when I tap it. So I guess that's a dead end. Is there a language setting somewhere? There has to be. What modern device doesn't have a translator built in? Unless... is this thing even modern? Maybe it was built before humans made first contact? But then why would he have it here? Holopads are better in every way.
Not sure what else to do, I sit on the bed and aimlessly tap around, hoping something will happen. Most of the apps just produce that same taunting circle that I can't get past. Some of the apps take me somewhere bloated with humanese text that I can't read. One of them has what's clearly a search bar, and even seems to have vocal input. But when I try to speak to it, it just throws an error. It's all useless. None of this helps me.
But just before I give up and resume my search somewhere else in the room, I somehow land on an app with pictures alongside its text. Tapping on one of the pictures expands it into something much more exciting! Not a fullscreen view of the picture, not a gallery of more pictures, but a video!
A human—wearing a strange, orb-like mask and clothed in long, seemingly-religious robes—stands on a stage, in front of a podium. "Yes, hello hello everyone! And we've even got some weird... fluffy dudes in the crowd. Cool." the human shouts. Finally, something I can understand! "Wow. Uh. Gotta be real though. I hate this! I hate standing here! A whole lot!"
The audience(?) laughs. "It's too bright, and wow the acoustics in here are awful, and, have I mentioned how swelteringly hot it is? Not in the good way!"
Who is this human? And why would Dan have this video? Does he laugh at it? Is this... human comedy? Or is he just the kind of person to stockpile anything and everything he can, just in case the next data courier doesn't have a copy of a given thing?
"Yeah so uh I'm gonna make this quick, then." The human holds up a shiny idol. "Thanks!" And then they turn and start walking away from the podium, while still talking. Their voice fades as they get further and further away. "That's really all there is to say on the matter."
The video suddenly ends with an outro playing loud, obnoxious blast of instruments. I scramble to pause it before my ears start bleeding. All I can do now is just... sit in awe, staring down at the strange device for a long time, struggling to comprehend what I just watched. What was the point of that? Why would Dan waste precious storage space on something like this? I absently return to the main menu and look at the many, many other videos, and start wondering just how much he has saved. Even this sampling alone, as I keep scrolling down only for more to keep showing up, is insane. How could he ever have the time to watch all this?
But then something shows up that gives me pause. One of the thumbnails has a yotul standing beside a human. I hesitantly tap it, pushing down my worry about what I'm about to see and hear. I need to know. I need answers.
It starts with a blurb of humanese text. Based on the video's length, I have to assume it's another truncated clip, like the one with the weird masked human. The text soon fades and reveals a room with a human sat behind a desk, and a yotul and another human sitting on a couch, in front of a beautiful night time skyline.
The desk human speaks first. "Funny translation weirdness aside, what I know we've all been wondering is—and just bear with me for a sec because I know this is morbid—What do you truly think would have happened to your people if the Federation had gotten their way?"
My heart sinks. I don't want to watch this video anymore. The yotul frowns. "They already did get their way. You don't need the Archives to tell you they wrecked our homes and tore our families--"
I hurry to stop the video, unable to listen to yet another voice listing my peoples' crimes against sapience. Yet another life ruined by the Archi--
...Wait.
The Archives?
But. Hang on. When could Dan have downloaded this video? The last main sequence data courier was here... a day or two before we got the bulletin about the Archives. And it's not like the emergency courier would've been carrying stuff from the human internet. Did the bulletin take longer to reach the colonies than everyone else? But then still, how would he have this video? The bulletin should've been sent out the instant it was made public knowledge, right?
I stare down at the object in my paws, something about its alien form tickling my mind as the puzzle pieces click into place; Dan's propensity for being a techno wizard, his weird aloofness toward the whole problem with interplanetary communications... and now his secret not-pad having an impossible amount of videos stored. Is this device... somehow connected to Earth? How could that be possible? Venlil 4 doesn't have any FTL relays. And if it did, they would connect to Venlil Prime, not Earth.
But... wait, wait wait wait! This is perfect! If this is a human device, made for humans, and truly is connected to the human homeworld... then it won't have all the stupid censorship the humans put on the stuff they shared with the galaxy! This is beyond perfect! I came in here looking for something to explain why Dan keeps trying so hard to get me to lower my guard, and this is exactly what I wanted! I don't need to know how it works, or why, just that it does.
I quickly close the drawer and make my way out of the den, keeping the device held close so I don't drop it and risk breaking it. I almost head back into the bathroom, but... one glance at the pile of towels on the floor has me turning around, into the living room. I'll be fine as long as I keep my ears peeled. When Dan comes home, I'll hear him coming, and I'll run into the bathroom before he sees me. It's foolproof.
I set myself on the couch, making sure to keep the front door in my field of view, and return my attention to the not-pad. Now... how do I get to the uncensored stuff? I can't use the search function. Or... can I? I rewind the video with the yotul to the beginning and listen to the speech again. "Funny translation weirdness--"
Translation. Translation! This human just unwittingly gave me exactly what I need! If I can copy the sound of that word in humanese, then I can say it to the search bar in that other app, and that'll have to get me somewhere!
I replay that exact tiny snippet of the video over and over again, straining my focus as hard as I can to hear the true alien noises underneath the understanding my implant melds into my brain. It's a weirdly complex word compared to its counterpart in farsulese, but it's definitely doable. With no hesitation whatsoever, I flip back to the other app—the one with the search bar—tap the microphone button, and in perfect human, say "Shran-zlay-shin." A word appears in the search bar, and scantly a second later, it loads a new page with two boxes and what look like an array of configuration options.
...Uh.
This... isn't really what I wanted, actually...
This is a manual translator. I wanted to enable automatic translation. But. Okay, no, it's fine, I can work with this. I just have to figure out which box wants the input language. Humanese seems to read from left to right, so it's probably the leftmost box? I tap it, and after briefly struggling to come up with something to say, blurt "Human baiting vulnerable prey into trap."
A circle appears inside the box. Progress!
The box turns red and an error message appears that I can't read. Not progress!
I wrack my brain, trying desperately to figure out some way to make this work, before I realize the error message contains a link. I hesitantly tap it, and... it takes me to a website with a large, light blue banner across the top, and a white circular logo. Wait, I've seen this before! It's the humans' government! The United Something or Other! And there's another pair of boxes on the page. A different manual translator? Not sure why there would be two of them, but, I guess humans do have more than one language for some reason? Maybe this one is made specially for prey languages.
I experimentally try again, this time just saying "Human," and hoping for the best. The circle appears, and after a very long moment, I'm suddenly greeted by actual farsulese symbols! I can't help my tail starting to wag a little bit as I read my own language on this weird human comms device. An equivalent jumble of human letters appears in the opposite box, and I make quick work of figuring out how to copy and paste it back into the search bar. In seconds, I find myself confronted with the ugly visages of uncountable furless predators, with their ineffective teeth and colorful eyes.
So now... I have a completely uncensored, unimpeded view into everything the humans have ever been. This... is... perfect.
///// Advancing transcript by ≈30 minutes. /////
Human opportunistic predator Most annoying prey for human to hunt Human predator deception Human devouring fresh meat
The longer I spend trying to navigate this digital labyrinth, the more I begin to question my sanity. Nothing produces results. Nothing gives me what I'm looking for! I just want answers for why humans try so hard to gain our trust.
Human how to wait for the right time to capture baited prey How do humans set traps for prey Human prey exploitation tactics
Half of my searches give me irrelevant nonsense that I don't want, and the other half just spit out a bunch of... laws(?!) regarding hunting non-sapient animals on Earth. The fact that they restrict their own predatory habits is weird and incomprehensible. It takes me embarrassingly long to realize, maybe it's because they thought ahead, and censored their own internet! There are some aliens living on Earth by now, right? The humans must have made it hard to search for the real truth! But if I use a workaround...
Human current year Human one hundred years ago Human vs other predators 21st century Human exterminators guild How do humans in the 21st century handle wild predators Humans allowing wild animals in cities Human approached by wild animal 21st century
Finally, one painfully-specific search gives me exactly what I'm looking for. A video with what looks like a non-sapient prey animal on the thumbnail. Not a bunch of laws, not a book I can't read, but a video, uploaded by a regular human who has no reason to mask their true intent. I let out a deep sigh, decompressing both frustration and relief, thinking I've finally found the truth. It takes several minutes to prepare every fiber of my being for the horrors that surely lie within.
Except, the video... turns out to be nothing. It's just a short, minute-long clip of some humans being confused and seemingly amazed at some harmless creature as it approaches and investigates them before waddling off unharmed!
The video defies... everything. At first I think the 'echidna' only gets away due to its defensive spikes, but then I realize that that doesn't make any sense! Spikes can't stop a sapient predator from hunting, or even just tormenting something! The humans could've used tools! Why would they just sit there and let it wander away? Why would they act as if seeing it is a rare, magical moment?
Every video after that only makes my confusion sink further and further into my chest. A video of a small, orange-furred predator invading a human's space, only for the human to merely insult it and stop it from eating an electrical cable. A video of a black bird perched on a human's vehicle, making strange sounds as the human silently and inoffensively records. And then a video of some diminutive predator, and the human pets it and talks to it as if it's a pup. And the predator responds!
I don't understand. I can't understand. All I wanted was answers. And I didn't get those. Instead all I got was more questions. Why would these humans record this footage? Why would they share it? And why would all these animals be so comfortable to exist near the humans, letalone approach and interact?
But the worst video of them all, by far, is so very short and simple. It's nothing more than a human feeding another predator. Or... what looks like a predator. But when I look closer, the food is clearly some kind of small fruit, possibly a berry. And the predator... er, the animal... it takes the offered food so... gently. Even when it uses its mouth, it's almost like it's actively trying not to hurt the human. As if it doesn't feel the need to defend itself, as if doesn't sense even the slightest ounce of danger.
...As if there is no danger.
No matter how many times I scan through the video, no matter how many times I try to find the deception in the human's actions, it just doesn't add up. The obvious conclusion is that the human is luring the poor creature into a trap, but every video from that same uploader showcases that same animal, alive and well! Why would this human spend so much effort to give food to some random wild animal? Why, when it can't even say thanks? Why?
Every time I rewatch it, trying to make some sense of it, the black pit of horror in the depths of my soul yawns ever wider. What if there is no explanation for all of this? Do humans... truly feel empathy? Do they have the capacity to do good just for the sake of it? Were the venlil's tests not faked?
"It's the right thing to do. Someone has to help," is what Dan said.
The device drops out of my paws and onto the couch cushions as nothing but guilt and shame and regret slam into my mind all at once. The answer is that there is no deception, there never was deception. Even ancient humans from centuries ago just wanted to be kind for no reason other than because they can. They would share their homes, their food, their lives with these creatures, all because they want to.
He... he never lied to me. Not even once.
Dan found me, alone and hurt, and his first reaction was to offer medicine. He gave me food without a second thought, even when he knew what I am, what my people have caused. He took things, valuable things, from a public event. He shared his culture, his music with me. All he wanted was to make sure I was safe.
And I...
I blamed him for things he couldn't possibly have done. Things he might never have wanted to happen in the first place. I invaded his home, ruined his day, yelled at him, and still he worried about me. He begged me to eat. He didn't want me to get sick. Would any of my old neighbors have done the same? Even before the Archives?
...No. They wouldn't have even noticed. They wouldn't care. But Dan... he said he cared.
The feeling of wet fur on my cheeks and the burning of my lungs gradually slip through the haze in my mind. It hurts. It hurts so much. Dan wanted to be at the Rally. But I took that from him. I robbed him of that choice by being me. It's my fault. It's all my fault.
...
What have I done?
//////////////////////////
first - prev - next
 
edit circa 4 days after posting: readded a whole section to the "sparci uses google" scene that somehow vanished during editing. NO idea how i missed this.

On January 1 I made a promise to myself (42m) to finally tackle my weight problem. 368.2 pounds, heavier than I had ever been by a lot. I'm working on losing 100 pounds this year.
Month 0 (pre-medication): Starting Weight 368.2, Ending Weight: 347.4 (Total Loss: -20.8, Total Muscle Mass Gained: +6.2)
During January I started tracking my calories on myfitnesspal and started working on mindful eating and put myself in a pretty good calorie deficit. By January 15th I was off to a good start: 360.6 pounds (almost 8 pounds in 2 weeks). I was intermittent fasting and focused on eating healthier foods and eating something like 1600-1700 calories a day. I found myself hungry often, but that hunger was a little bit motivating, I knew it meant I was in a calorie deficit and I envisioned my stomach searching for fats throughout my body to get the extra energy in. This took a lot of mental fortitude, but I am committed. On January 16th, after doing a lot of research, I decided to sign up with a telehealth provider. I went with Tirzepatide and Enclominphene (testosterone booster). I got a lot of communication pretty quickly and downloaded a requisition for the lab work, and got my blood work done on January 20th. The results from the labwork came back pretty quickly, within 2-3 days. By the grace of god almost all of my blood work was in the normal ranges, with my testosterone right on the boarder of being in the normal range on the very low end (so low T levels). A few days later I was informed that I was approved for medication and my prescription would be sent to their pharmacy and I would be informed when it would arrive at my house. Medication arrived January 30th (just about 2 weeks after I signed up for the program). Included was alcohol prep pads, needles, and the medication (I needed to purchase a sharps disposal container myself, but these are very cheap on amazon). I decided that I wanted to make my injection day on Sunday so I waited until the 4th to take my first dose. All this time I had kept up with food tracking and my calorie deficit and I reached 347.4 (almost 21 pounds) by that date.
Week 1: Starting Weight 347.4, Ending Weight 347.0 (Weekly Loss: -0.4, On Medication Loss: -0.4, Total Loss: -21.2, Total Muscel Mass Gained: +7.4, Dosage: 2.5mg)
I took my first shot on Feb 4. Shot itself was super easy, even though I have never injected myself with anything and I had a lot of anxiety about it, it was very very very easy and painless. Starting the next day I already started to feel the effects. It is a little bit hard to describe, but perhaps the best way I can explain it is that whatever little signal my brain had before that gave me an impulse to eat was shut off. I remember even waking up in the middle of the night on the 3rd or 4th day and thought at first I had a stomach ache, but then I realized that basically the only time that little signal from my brain that told me to eat would go away was when my stomach was hurting, and I actually was mixing up the lack of that signal with thinking my stomach was hurting. That only happened to me that one time, but I thought it was interesting. And that's basically how I felt the whole first week. I did notice that by Saturday the effect was getting a little less than it had been earlier in the week, but it was still effective. During my first week I also noticed that it was much harder to actually eat, because I didn't really have my brain telling me I was hungry. This resulted in two days in a row where I only ate 1200-1300 calories, and I really felt it in my mental focus by the end of the week. Since then I made sure to add a protein bar as an afternoon snack every day (quest protein bars are great!). I also started light exercise at the beginning of February as well. Mostly Apple Fitness+ videos - 10-minute HIT videos mostly. I also got some dumbbells and a few days a week I'm doing some 30-45 minute strength training using Fitbod app (I like it a lot, can recommend it). On weekends I'm making sure to get longer walks, etc in. I want to build some muscle mass up, even if it comes at slowing down my weight loss because my goal is overall good health and living a long time - not really some number on the scale (although that is a good way for me to measure my progress).
With this focus on exercise, I also started to take a lot of supplements at the same time (see comments for a list). During my first week my weight had ping ponged a lot. Also a normal effect of starting creatine is short term gain of water weight. I ended the week around 347.0, so another half pound lost that week. Average calorie intake was in the 1500-1600 range for the week (excluding the two days which were abnormally low).
​
Week 2: Starting Weight 347.0, Ending Weight 344.2 (Weekly Loss: -2.8, On Medication Loss: -3.2, Total Loss: -24.0, Total Muscle Mass Gained: +7.8, Dosage: 2.5mg)
Took my second shot on Feb 11. I immediately felt the effects that evening... no hunger at all, even feeling an imaginary "bloated" (as in no signal of hunger at all from the brain) feeling. It's clear to me the Tirz is working. In terms of testosterone, I'm just completely unsure. I'm not feeling much different and I think that medication will take a while to kick in, but I assume that I'll do some bloodwork some months in the future and we'll see if it's effective. One other thing comes to mind that I haven't mentioned. Aside from not feeling hungry, my metabolism has changed a lot. pre-medication I was pooping 2-3 times per day. Now it's normally 1, but sometimes none. I believe that this is also a normal change with this medication.
​
Week 3: Starting Weight: 344.2, Ending Weight: 339.0 (Weekly Loss: -5.2, On Medication Loss: -8.4, Total Loss: -29.2, Total Muscle Mass Gained: +8.4, Dosage: 2.5 mg)
Progress continues. Eating completely on a routine schedule, my average calorie intake is 1200-1400 and it's a challenge to eat that much (crazy that I used to do that at every meal probably). This almost feels like a cheat code. Yes, working better than expected. Just one concern. During my first six weeks of creating a new lifestyle I wasn’t on any medication. I felt like I was relying 100% on my own self discipline. I felt like I was developing new habits. Now on medication I feel like I’m still super motivated, and still developing new habits, but I’m not relying 100% on my own self discipline. Maybe only 50%. The medication makes it so much easier. Now is this a good thing or not? I’m not sure. On one hand the 100% self discipline feels like I’m really building sustainable lifestyle changes through really hard work and focus. If I were able to keep that up for the rest of my life I think it would be best. But is it realistic? What happens when I have a life event. What happens when I find myself in a moment of weakness? It’s happened to me all my life, I’ve made progress and then had a setback and then I give up. I’m so motivated right now that it seems like this scenario is impossible, but history tells me a little different story. On the other hand, if this medication keeps me on track and makes it easier for me to get through those moments which have caused me setbacks in the past, then I’m much more likely to achieve my goal. But what then? Once I lose 100 pounds I want it to be gone forever. This means that my lifestyle change doesn’t have a goal end date, I’m going to be working at this for the rest of my life to maintain my weight. Does that mean that I’ll need to continue this medication for the rest of my life too? Or will I be able to transition off it and build up that self discipline? I’m not sure, but it’s definitely a topic on my mind. Maybe that’s a reflection of how effective it is.
​
Week 4: Starting Weight 339.0, Ending Weight 337.8 (Weekly Loss: -1.2, On Medication Loss: -9.6, Total Loss: -30.4, Total Muscle Mass Gained: +9.0, Dosage: 2.5mg)
In weeks 3 and 4 I noticed that on the last day of the week I started to feel the effects wear off a little bit more. Not anything too challenging, but had to use my self discipline a little to not overeat. My digestion is still slow and I think if I had overeaten that I would have had a bad stomach ache. This week I was doing some international business travel to Europe. Jet lag, restaurants for every meal, hard to accurately track calories. Lots of work stress. These are the weeks I used to easily gain 5 pounds. Kept up my workouts as best I could doing body weight exercises and walks. Can’t believe weight came off on the scale! This is new territory we’re into now.
Let’s do a little x-rated talk (I’ll redact it, so if you’re not into that info, don’t click). Not sure if it’s the testosterone kicking in, or just all mental due to good mood and self esteem, but my libido is up and I feel like I can keep my soldier at attention a good deal longer. But fellas, the real talk is that with the weight loss in my pubic area, I’ve gained about an inch. I feel like a stud!
​
Week 5: Starting Weight 337.8 , Ending Weight 333.8 (Weekly Loss: -4.0, On Medication Loss: -13.6, Total Loss: -34.4, Total Muscle Mass Gained: +10.4, Dosage: 5mg)
In week 4 I got a mini medical survey, just some basic questions about how my progress was going, if I had any bad side effects, etc. was told I’m cool to move up to 5mg for week 5. I know it’s not uncommon to start to feel side effects as your dosage increases, and for me I'm not sure if it was the medication or coincidence that week 5 was a little challenging for me. I took my injection around noon on Sunday and by 1:30-2pm I had a very mild headache and felt a little fatigued. I brought my two daughters to a swimming pool birthday party, and had a great time (although I can’t say that an hour of chasing and splashing kids in a big public swimming pool is a good cure for a headache or fatigue). By 4:30 I was back to normal, and had a good dinner. Sunday night I had a similar experience as I did in week 1 when I woke up in the middle of the night feeling quite full and was even a little bit burpy. Monday morning I work up with only about 50% of my normal energy. Of course my daughter is sick, pretty sure I have the same thing. Monday-Wednesday I'm feeling tired and worn out - but no other common symptoms from increased dosage (it's not oncommon to have nausea, stomach problems, stuff like that) - and medication is still working it's magic - no hunger. Being sick is also typically a time I over-eat: part bordom, part self-comfort. Not even a temptation. Thursday I'm back to 95%, and feel great the rest of the week.
​
Conclusion:
Overall I’m super happy with the results of the medication. The biggest thing I want to share is what it has done for my self-esteem. Since I was 17 I’ve been struggling with my weight. I have always beat myself up for being fat… “if only I could be more disciplined, had more self-control. Look at all these guys around you, they are eating pizza and pounding beers, but they find a way to stay thin - wtf is wrong with you Launch201?“
Well now on this medication the food noise is gone, the constant signal from my brain telling me I’m hungry is turned off… “oh, so this is what it’s like for all those ‘normal people’!” Now I know for 100% that biology is a root cause of my lifelong struggle, and now today there is a medicine that can help me. It’s so fucking easy to not give into food impulses when you’re in the right headspace and you don’t have your brain yelling at you “EAT!” The shame is gone (or at least disappearing with each pound lost). I feel good about myself when I look in the mirror, and Fellas - it had been a long time since I could say that.
Let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to share any details you would like to know about.

On January 1 I made a promise to myself (42m) to finally tackle my weight problem. 368.2 pounds, heavier than I had ever been by a lot. I'm working on losing 100 pounds this year.
Month 0 (pre-Fella): Starting Weight 368.2, Ending Weight: 347.4 (Total Loss: -20.8, Total Muscel Mass Gained: +6.2)
During January I started tracking my calories on myfitnesspal and started working on mindful eating and put myself in a pretty good calorie deficit. By January 15th I was off to a good start: 360.6 pounds (almost 8 pounds in 2 weeks). I was intermittent fasting and focused on eating healthier foods and eating something like 1600-1700 calories a day. I found myself hungry often, but that hunger was a little bit motivating, I knew it meant I was in a calorie deficit and I envisioned my stomach searching for fats throughout my body to get the extra energy in. This took a lot of mental fortitude, but I am committed. On January 16th, after doing a lot of research, I decided to sign up for Fella. I went with Tirzepatide and Enclominphene (testosterone booster). I got a lot of communication pretty quickly and downloaded a requisition for the lab work, and got my blood work done on January 20th. The results from the labwork came back pretty quickly, within 2-3 days. By the grace of god almost all of my blood work was in the normal ranges, with my testosterone right on the boarder of being in the normal range on the very low end (so low T levels). A few days later I was informed that I was approved for medication and my prescription would be sent to their pharmacy and I would be informed when it would arrive at my house. Medication arrived January 30th (just about 2 weeks after I signed up for the program). Included was alcohol prep pads, needles, and the medication (I needed to purchase a sharps disposal container myself, but these are very cheap on amazon). I decided that I wanted to make my injection day on Sunday so I waited until the 4th to take my first dose. All this time I had kept up with food tracking and my calorie deficit and I reached 347.4 (almost 21 pounds) by that date.
Now to take a little second to talk about other aspects of Fella outside of the medication. A lot of their marketing material and reviews talk about the coaching aspect of the program. I certainly have had some text messages and communication, but these seem mostly logistical - "You've been approved for medication." "did you medication arrive yet?" “Any side effects giving you problems?” stuff like that. Nothing in terms of asking how I'm doing with my eating or weight or any other type of coaching, just basic medical checkin. To be fair they have a way to contact your coach through the website and the app, but I haven’t utilized that feature. Besides that, there are some self-study resources, 8 different sessions, which you do on your own in your own time frame. They are decent and a good resource, but not a personal or even group session - maybe I had the wrong expectations, but nothing on that front.
(a side note, which brings us off the topic of Fella, is that I did find out that one of the health benefits I have through my employer is a program called "Rally Coach" which has a 1-year weight loss coaching program that is free for me.... so I started that and it's a nice additional part to my weight loss motivation and accountability. A lot of insurance programs are offering some type of weight loss support like this, so it’s definitely worth while to check out what benefits you might get there)
​
Week 1: Starting Weight 347.4, Ending Weight 347.0 (Weekly Loss: -0.4, On Medication Loss: -0.4, Total Loss: -21.2, Total Muscel Mass Gained: +7.4, Dosage: 2.5mg)
So back to Fella - I took my first shot on Feb 4. Shot itself was super easy, even though I have never injected myself with anything and I had a lot of anxiety about it, it was very very very easy and painless. Starting the next day I already started to feel the effects. It is a little bit hard to describe, but perhaps the best way I can explain it is that whatever little signal my brain had before that gave me an impulse to eat was shut off. I remember even waking up in the middle of the night on the 3rd or 4th day and thought at first I had a stomach ache, but then I realized that basically the only time that little signal from my brain that told me to eat would go away was when my stomach was hurting, and I actually was mixing up the lack of that signal with thinking my stomach was hurting. That only happened to me that one time, but I thought it was interesting. And that's basically how I felt the whole first week. I did notice that by Saturday the effect was getting a little less than it had been earlier in the week, but it was still effective. During my first week I also noticed that it was much harder to actually eat, because I didn't really have my brain telling me I was hungry. This resulted in two days in a row where I only ate 1200-1300 calories, and I really felt it in my mental focus by the end of the week. Since then I made sure to add a protein bar as an afternoon snack every day (quest protein bars are great!). I also started light exercise at the beginning of February as well. Mostly Apple Fitness+ videos - 10-minute HIT videos mostly. I also got some dumbbells and a few days a week I'm doing some 30-45 minute strength training using Fitbod app (I like it a lot, can recommend it). On weekends I'm making sure to get longer walks, etc in. I want to build some muscle mass up, even if it comes at slowing down my weight loss because my goal is overall good health and living a long time - not really some number on the scale (although that is a good way for me to measure my progress).
With this focus on exercise, I also started to take a lot of supplements at the same time (see comments for a list). During my first week my weight had ping ponged a lot. Also a normal effect of starting creatine is short term gain of water weight. I ended the week around 347.0, so another half pound lost that week. Average calorie intake was in the 1500-1600 range for the week (excluding the two days which were abnormally low).
​
Week 2: Starting Weight 347.0, Ending Weight 344.2 (Weekly Loss: -2.8, On Medication Loss: -3.2, Total Loss: -24.0, Total Muscel Mass Gained: +7.8, Dosage: 2.5mg)
Took my second shot on Feb 11. I immediately felt the effects that evening... no hunger at all, even feeling an imaginary "bloated" (as in no signal of hunger at all from the brain) feeling. It's clear to me the Tirz is working. In terms of testosterone, I'm just completely unsure. I'm not feeling much different and I think that medication will take a while to kick in, but I assume that I'll do some bloodwork some months in the future and we'll see if it's effective. One other thing comes to mind that I haven't mentioned. Aside from not feeling hungry, my metabolism has changed a lot. pre-medication I was pooping 2-3 times per day. Now it's normally 1, but sometimes none. I believe that this is also a normal change with this medication.
​
Week 3: Starting Weight: 344.2, Ending Weight: 339.0 (Weekly Loss: -5.2, On Medication Loss: -8.4, Total Loss: -29.2, Total Muscel Mass Gained: +8.4, Dosage: 2.5 mg)
Progress continues. Eating completely on a routine schedule, my average calorie intake is 1200-1400 and it's a challenge to eat that much (crazy that I used to do that at every meal probably). This almost feels like a cheat code. Yes, working better than expected. Just one concern. During my first six weeks of creating a new lifestyle I wasn’t on any medication. I felt like I was relying 100% on my own self discipline. I felt like I was developing new habits. Now on medication I feel like I’m still super motivated, and still developing new habits, but I’m not relying 100% on my own self discipline. Maybe only 50%. The medication makes it so much easier. Now is this a good thing or not? I’m not sure. On one hand the 100% self discipline feels like I’m really building sustainable lifestyle changes through really hard work and focus. If I were able to keep that up for the rest of my life I think it would be best. But is it realistic? What happens when I have a life event. What happens when I find myself in a moment of weakness? It’s happened to me all my life, I’ve made progress and then had a setback and then I give up. I’m so motivated right now that it seems like this scenario is impossible, but history tells me a little different story. On the other hand, if this medication keeps me on track and makes it easier for me to get through those moments which have caused me setbacks in the past, then I’m much more likely to achieve my goal. But what then? Once I lose 100 pounds I want it to be gone forever. This means that my lifestyle change doesn’t have a goal end date, I’m going to be working at this for the rest of my life to maintain my weight. Does that mean that I’ll need to continue this medication for the rest of my life too? Or will I be able to transition off it and build up that self discipline? I’m not sure, but it’s definitely a topic on my mind. Maybe that’s a reflection of how effective it is.
​
Week 4: Starting Weight 339.0, Ending Weight 337.8 (Weekly Loss: -1.2, On Medication Loss: -9.6, Total Loss: -30.4, Total Muscel Mass Gained: +9.0, Dosage: 2.5mg)
In weeks 3 and 4 I noticed that on the last day of the week I started to feel the effects wear off a little bit more. Not anything too challenging, but had to use my self discipline a little to not overeat. My digestion is still slow and I think if I had overeaten that I would have had a bad stomach ache. This week I was doing some international business travel to Europe. Jet lag, restaurants for every meal, hard to accurately track calories. Lots of work stress. These are the weeks I used to easily gain 5 pounds. Kept up my workouts as best I could doing body weight exercises and walks. Can’t believe weight came off on the scale! This is new territory we’re into now.
Let’s do a little x-rated talk (I’ll redact it, so if you’re not into that info, don’t click). Not sure if it’s the testosterone kicking in, or just all mental due to good mood and self esteem, but my libido is up and I feel like I can keep my soldier at attention a good deal longer. But fellas, the real talk is that with the weight loss in my pubic area, I’ve gained about an inch. I feel like a stud!
​
Week 5: Starting Weight 337.8 , Ending Weight 333.8 (Weekly Loss: -4.0, On Medication Loss: -13.6, Total Loss: -34.4, Total Muscel Mass Gained: +10.4, Dosage: 5mg)
In week 4 I got a mini medical survey, just some basic questions about how my progress was going, if I had any bad side effects, etc. was told I’m cool to move up to 5mg for week 5. I know it’s not uncommon to start to feel side effects as your dosage increases, and for me I'm not sure if it was the medication or coincidence that week 5 was a little challenging for me. I took my injection around noon on Sunday and by 1:30-2pm I had a very mild headache and felt a little fatigued. I brought my two daughters to a swimming pool birthday party, and had a great time (although I can’t say that an hour of chasing and splashing kids in a big public swimming pool is a good cure for a headache or fatigue). By 4:30 I was back to normal, and had a good dinner. Sunday night I had a similar experience as I did in week 1 when I woke up in the middle of the night feeling quite full and was even a little bit burpy. Monday morning I work up with only about 50% of my normal energy. Of course my daughter is sick, pretty sure I have the same thing. Monday-Wednesday I'm feeling tired and worn out - but no other common symptoms from increased dosage (it's not oncommon to have nausea, stomach problems, stuff like that) - and medication is still working it's magic - no hunger. Being sick is also typically a time I over-eat: part bordom, part self-comfort. Not even a temptation. Thursday I'm back to 95%, and feel great the rest of the week.
​
Conclusion:
Overall I’m super happy with the results of the medication. I’m a little disappointed with the lack of 1-on-1 coaching (but I found other resources to replace that). The self-study materials they provide are helpful and relevant, but this is the stuff that I would prefer to get via a coach, and not as self-study. I’ve read other reviews where people do experience good coaching. Perhaps because I’m logging all my metrics with Fella and they see that I’m doing well, they haven’t proactively reached out to me, and as I’ve said, I haven’t reached out to them either. But I think the personal touch is good for motivation and accountability.
I think the biggest thing I want to share is what this medication has done for my self-esteem. Since I was 17 I’ve been struggling with my weight. I have always beat myself up for being fat… “if only I could be more disciplined, had more self-control. Look at all these guys around you, they are eating pizza and pounding beers, but they find a way to stay thin - wtf is wrong with you Launch201?“
Well now on this medication the food noise is gone, the constant signal from my brain telling me I’m hungry is turned off… “oh, so this is what it’s like for all those ‘normal people’!” Now I know for 100% that biology is a root cause of my lifelong struggle, and now today there is a medicine that can help me. It’s so fucking easy to not give into food impulses when you’re in the right headspace and you don’t have your brain yelling at you “EAT!” The shame is gone (or at least disappearing with each pound lost). I feel good about myself when I look in the mirror, and Fellas - it had been a long time since I could say that.
Let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to share any details you would like to know about.
If you've found this info helpful and you decide to sign up for Fella, if you use my referral link I'll get $100 and you'll get $100 off. Thanks for considering using my referral: https://www.fellahealth.com/?via=lau25

DOWNLOAD: Katie Morgan – Pornstar Coaching
“How To Give Your Girl The Most Incredible, Heart-Pounding Sexual Experiences Of Her Entire Life!”
You’ve seen those boring “couples” videos made by so-called sex experts who think doggystyle is “kinky” and oral sex is “taboo”… what a joke!
In PornStar Coaching I’ll show you the REAL secrets to giving your girl mind-blowing sex… we hold nothing back!
This explicit program is designed to turn any guy into a GOD in the bedroom – regardless of your previous sexual experience, stamina, and even if you’re below-average in size (it’s not important when you know this stuff!)

What You’ll Learn In Pornstar Coaching

Program One: PornStar Confessions

• A simple tweak to the missionary position that gives her the feeling you are a full 2 inches longer and thicker inside of her (Julia and I pull out one of our favorite toys to show you this secret that you’ll use with every woman you are with from now on to make her eyes roll back with ecstasy)
• A special “sensual massage” to use before sex that primes a woman to have MULTIPLE ORGASMS (Doing this first gets her so incredibly turned on she’ll be begging to have you inside of her)
• 3 “Sexual Initiation Triggers” – Touch these spots BEFORE sex to make her shake with anticipation… then again DURING sex to take her over the edge…
• Secrets of Sexual Addiction: Here’s how to get her so into you that she won’t even look at another man (Warning: this will cause a woman to want to be around you a LOT… so it’s best not to use it unless you are really into her)
• How to keep sex EXCITING long after the initial “thrill” has past (Do just these 3 little things and SHE’LL start initiating sex with you… even if you’ve always been the one to have to get things started before)
• A special place (and a special way) to touch a woman to guarantee mind- altering sex! (This technique is so simple (and so little-known) even 15% of all women don’t know about ít)
• “She’s faking it!” A dead giveaway that proves if a woman is faking her orgasms!
• What do lesbians know about oral sex that men don’t? (Amazingly, this is why more guys today are losing their women to other women!)
• A sensual secret just recently discovered which every man should know about how to … instantly … put his woman “in the mood”! (This works faster than anything else a man could ever do and women desperately want their man to learn this secret)
• A sex act impossible for men to discover on their own that women RAVE about… and… often say, “is more enjoyable than orgasms”
• A little known foreplay secret that gives a man a foolproof method which guarantees his woman has an explosive orgasm every time they fuck!
• An exclusive “pleasure map” containing a “fingertip” guide to the 3 most sizzling “hot spots” on a woman’s body… (includes at least 1 she probably hasn’t discovered herself!)
• A secret “pleasure spot” on a woman’s body (NOT the G-spot) which is so hidden away by nature … not one man in a thousand knows about it … and yet… touching it like this produces awesome, shuddering waves of pleasure!
• The six “tricks” which are a man’s surest path to quickly increase his woman’s “clitoral arousal”
• Why a woman does NOT need longer foreplay… if you use this trick to get her in the mood FAST
• How to guarantee your lover almost never stops thinking about you … and… how to make sure all those thoughts are supercharged with passion and white-hot, smoldering anticipation!
• What 44% of women wish men knew about the easiest way to bring her to an intoxicating climax… every time!
• The two amazingly simple secrets (totally unknown by most men) which will cause “peak sexual excitation” … and… give women dramatically, longer-lasting orgasms
• 5 secrets you need to know… if… you want to be able to kiss like a truly world-class lover! (This is the type of erotic foreplay ALL women demand men know)
• The rare quality a man MUST have if he wants to please one of those SUPER-HOT women who has her choice of men… and … have any chance of success! (These hard-to-please women will overlook everything else except this)
• A technique that helps a woman have her FIRST orgasm from penetration women CAN’T discover by themselves! (She will love you for this)

Program Two: Forbidden Sex Poistions
In this program, you’ll discover the mental and emotional tips and tricks for taking your sex life to the next level… and beyond…
You’ll learn:

• A deadly mistake 77% of men make in bed that causes their woman to imagine themselves with SOMEONE ELSE – even if the guy does everything else right!
• The common sex technique women secretly HATE! (Sadly nearly all men do this anyways because they see it in movies… but in real life it turns your woman OFF and makes it even HARDER for her to have an orgasm)
• Why women HATE a guy who is inexperienced – plus a technique inexperienced guys can use to FOOL a woman into thinking he’s a seasoned stud!
• A smooth, rejection-free way to start talking dirty to your woman that fills her mind with naughty fantasies she’ll want to try out with YOU (and only you)…
• The 7-word sentence that SNAPS her into “the mood”. (Use this “trigger” to get her turned on and hungry for your cock whenever you want)
• How to smoothly and effortlessly move from one position to the next (Use this secret to get her to try any CRAZY position you want with zero resistance)
• A trick to setting up your bedroom that DOUBLES the chances a girl will sleep with you…
• A special trick to spice up “doggy style” that makes her SQUEAL with pleasure – every time! (She’ll instantly know you’re an EXPERT in the bedroom when you do this)
• How to introduce kinky stuff like spanking, handcuffs and even candle wax! (Here’s how to bring it up in a way that gets her EXCITED to try out crazy fantasies)
• The specific ORDER of positions you should use to give her the BEST chance of having MULTIPLE orgasms (Even if you do everything else wrong, she is guaranteed to have at least one orgasm when you use this secret… but most likely she’ll have 8, 9, even 10 body shaking orgasms before you’re done)
• The PLACES to have sex that turn her on the most (Hint: It’s not your bed! If you want to instantly separate yourself from her past lovers, take her to THIS spot in your house that turns her on as soon as you walk in)
• The 3 things you must do BEFORE you get in your bedroom to make sure things go smoothly once you are there…
• The ways women like men to be ROMANTIC in bed. If you’re serious about pleasing the girl you are with, tie in these romantic elements to give her the ULTIMATE sexual experience…
• A very slight change in the way you talk to a woman which can DOUBLE your animal attractiveness to her!
• 10 things a man must know about a woman which guarantees he and she will have GREAT (not just good) sex
• The number one rule which absolutely must be observed for women to have a truly spectacular orgasm!

Program Three: Advanced Sex Positions
Advanced Sex Positions shows you how to get more sex, be a master at oral sex, AND how to dominate and make her love all varieties of the doggy style position.
This one has to be seen to be believed.
It shows me and my lover Julia FORGETTING the cameras are on and having a really sexy encounter.
In this Program, you’ll learn:

• How to give a girl the deepest dicking of her life! (Use this angle to make her feel like she’s with a MONSTER… no matter what your size)
• How to turn an ordinary night watching Netflix with your girl into heart pounding sex with no chance of rejection and making it seem totally spontaneous and natural (Do this ANY time you are watching tv to make HER eager to turn off the tv and tear your clothes off)
• The exact order in which to take her clothes off for maximal orgasmic stimulation (Use the WRONG order and she won’t be “heated up” enough to achieve multiple orgasms)
• Why women don’t want to have sex at times and how to get around that “inconvenient truth” and get her horny when you want to…
• Why to AVOID direct stimulation of her erogenous zones UNTIL this moment… touch this area TOO FAST and she will be instantly turned off!
• Explicit demonstrations of orgasmic oral sex techniques… What to do, when to do it, and my secret “tricks” for making your girl scream!
• When it is finally time to move down to her “kitty” and make her whimper helplessly as you decide WHEN and WHICH technique to use to drive her over the edge
• The first thing you must do with your tongue during oral sex if you want to drive her crazy (Anything you do after this is just icing on the cake)
• Exactly where the clit is and the exact pressure to use (Hint: it’s probably NOT where you think because when she becomes aroused the “hot spot” changes!)
• What to do with your hands while she is going down on you (trust me guys, this will make her want to do it more often!)
• How to show control and dominance that make her want to totally submit to you – and love it!
• How to turn her on with dirty talk without coming across as cheesy or staged (All girls LOVE this when you do it right!)
• A secret to use during doggy style that lets you last twice as long!
• A WILD position men think girls wouldn’t like… but most actually love! (Especially because so many guys are afraid to even try it!)
• How to add variety so that you never have to “plan” or schedule sex like an old couple often does… instead you’ll be speeding to meet each other at lunch for red hot middle of the day sex
• How to make her so sexually addicted to you that you can get away with some EXTREMELY taboo sex acts most guys never get to pull off (If you’ve ever wanted to try out the crazy stuff you see in adult movies, you better know this one!)

Program Four: Secrets of Squirting Orgasms
If you’ve ever wondered about how to give a girl one of those ultra- intense SQUIRTING ORGASMS – or what some women call, “The Ultimate Orgasm”, look no further…
In this sizzling hot video, you’ll witness one of these amazing orgasms first hand as I take my sexy friend Julia to a level of ecstasy many women will never be so lucky to experience!
In it, you’ll learn:

• A live and explicit step-by-step demonstration of exactly how to give a woman a squirting orgasm from start to finish (It took me a little while to learn this amazing technique that makes almost ANY woman not only squirt… but have the most intense orgasm of her entire life! I’m very excited to share it with you!)
• The “big secret” of squirting orgasms… why some women have them all the time… and why with others, you have to use this to have one of these powerful orgasms… now you’ll know how to give it to her!
• The exact spots you must touch on a woman’s body to get her to squirt (I’ll show you the order to go in and the types of ways to touch these spots that make her go absolutely CRAZY)

This is TRULY a sizzling hot technique and I’m very excited to share it with
Program Five: Katie’s Sex Secrets
In this seminar-style Program, you’ll discover the mental and emotional tips and tricks for taking your sex life to the next level… and beyond…
In this Program, you’ll learn:

• How to turn YOUR GIRL into a porn star and have her screaming and orgasming like I do… this works EVEN BETTER if your girl is a little shy or uptight because this will UNLOCK her inner sex vixen
• Inside the mind of “Hottest Girl in Porn” (me and how you can use my female psychology to mentally and emotionally stimulate your girl to the most mind altering multiple orgasms of her life… once you discover the “emotional” side of multiples for women she’ll be moaning your name over and over again in ecstasy
• How to QUIET any distractions that might be going on in your mind during sex that TAKE YOU OUT OF THE MOMENT… do this and you’ll notice you enjoy sex more AND your girl totally loosens up
• The number one mistake guys make both during PORN SEX and in real life that is easily fixed “once you get it”… shockingly enough this has NOTHING to do with penis size or stamina…but rather a simple realization that women get and guys NEVER DO!
• If GETTING more sex is important to you WHY you need to ROCK HER WORLD in a certain way that will UNLOCK THE FLOODGATES of your girls inner pornstar sluttyness…
• The exact amount of time a guy should last in bed and how you can last AT LEAST that long even while hitting the most stimulating positions AND being so turned on that you want to explode all over…
• Why IF you think you might be cumming too fast you DEFINITELY are even if your girl has never complained about your stamina… it’s shocking when you find out how long some girls want you to be inside them for in order for them to BE FULLY PLEASURED
• The 3 reasons foreplay should NEVER STOP UNTIL SHE ORGASMS and the exact techniques to give her foreplay orgasms… you’ll be shocked at how EASY it is to give her full body orgasm once you give her a foreplay orgasm FIRST
• The simple sentence that relaxes her and gets her ready for sex… no matter how much YOU are currently the one trying to get sex and even if she totally isn’t in the mood THAT night
• #1 key that PREVENTS women from powerful orgasms and how to remove it… once you get this your girl will start coming at least 2-3 times more each time AND much LOUDER and WETTER
• How a 3 inch guy that I had to work with once gave me a deep spot orgasm despite his size and the advanced position that he used… you can copy this position exactly and if you are larger than 3 inches it will be 3x more sexually dominating for your girl
• How guys in porn LEARN to be good quickly and why ANYONE who thinks great lovers are BORN is dead wrong…
• How to finger her WITH HER PANTIES still on in a way that unleashes her emotions and makes her overcome with desire… she will pull down her panties IMMEDIATELY after you use this motion…and it only takes one finger!
• A 4 step massage that initiates sex every time even if she is tired, worked too much or in a bad mood… this cuts STRAIGHT to the core of her femininity and inspires her TO SATISFY you
• My favorite sexual position and how you can get your girl to do it… this works best if your girl is self conscious, prude, or worried about seeming slutty
• 5 kissing secrets stolen from French men (the most romantic in the world) that instantly sparks passion and the most romantic sex of her life… if you are not ok with giving your girl the most powerful emotional experience of her life you might want to skip this
• My favorite sexual position and how you can get your girl to do it… this works best if your girl is self conscious, prude, or worried about seeming slutty
• A mindset that every guy who is AMAZING in bed has… you can implement this instantly and it will improve your sex life as much as ANY technique or positions….this is NEXT LEVEL mindset technique…
• The exact grip you need to use to pull her hair while in doggy style to create a bad boy image and drive her over the edge with animalistic primal pleasure… most guys would NEVER think they get away with such “manly” behavior and are amazed WHEN SHE LOVES IT
• How to take an ordinary bedroom accessory that every guy has and turn it into one of the most powerful sex toys imaginable…
• The 3 types of orgasms you can give her before sex, how to decide WHICH ORGASM TO GIVE HER and when it’s time to finally penetrate her…
• Why stamina does NOT matter if you don’t have PROPER TECHNIQUE…
• Why confidence is “biologically proven” to be the biggest turn on for girls and how to have the confidence of a guy who has been with 300 women… your girl will think that you are a different guy

Hey everyone! I just got back from my trip to Iceland and wanted to give everyone notes on things that did/didn’t work for me, tips & tricks and my suggestions. I know some things in my post have been said many times on this sub, but just jotting everything down so that it’s as comprehensive as possible for those people researching for their trip. Hope people find this helpful!
A little bit about me and my trip so you can take everything said below with a grain of salt. I’m 34M solo traveler from Southern California. Life has been insanely busy, and I didn’t have time to plan this trip entirely on my own, so I booked a 9 day Snaefellsness/South Coast self driving tour through Guide to Iceland. I tweaked their itinerary a little bit, but it was nice having them book all my hotels, activities and rental car.
Posting this on mobile. Sorry if the formatting is bad.
Food

• As everyone probably knows, food is expensive in Iceland. “Cheap” meals are around 2500-3000 ISK (~$20 USD). The nicer restaurants can be anywhere from 4500-7000 ISK (between $30-50 USD).
• I stayed in hotels that included breakfast. I made sure to load up in the morning and grab some fruit to go.
• There is a Costco right before you get to Reykjavík from the airport. I stopped here after I got my rental. Got a hot dog from the food court (299 ISK: ~$2 USD) and grabbed bottled water and a bunch of snacks to eat on the road between breakfast and dinner. Did this to save some money but also saved time not having to stop for food as my days were jam packed.
• I also brought a few freeze dried meals with me just in case, which actually came in handy one night. It was a stormy night (didn’t feel comfortable driving anywhere in the dark during a storm) and the hotel I was staying at didn’t have a restaurant. The only restaurant within walking distance had entrees priced around $50 USD. Happily stayed inside with a freeze dried meal.

Rental car, driving, gas & parking

• The car: I chose the “Budget 4x4 Manual” option when I booked and got a Dacia Duster with studded tires. I drove on ice and snow plenty of times there and never once felt unsafe. Disclaimer: I’m a born and raised SoCal boy that has only driven in winter conditions a couple times. The driving was my biggest worry, but the AWD and studded tires worked very well.
• Couple reasons why I went with manual: 1) I drove a manual for 7 years but it’s been a while since last time I drove manual. It was a lot of fun! 2) Manual saved me about $300 USD over automatic.
• Insurance: Since I saved $300 USD choosing manual over automatic, I decided to use those savings for the zero liability coverage, which coincidentally was around $300 USD (~$32 USD per day). The rental company also added on roadside assistance for free (valued at $6 USD per day). Driving around with the peace of mind of not having an extra out of pocket expense added onto the end of my already expensive trip was well worth it.
• Gas: It cost around 3,250 ISK per liter. I wish I didn’t convert it to $/gal because that gave me a mini heart attack. It comes out to almost $9/gal. Just swipe the card and don’t look at your credit card statement. Pro tip: Fill up your tank at Costco on your way back to the airport. Significantly cheaper at 2,800 ISK per liter.
• Parking: Some places were free and some cost money. Places that cost money was usually 1,000 ISK (~$7 USD). You can pay on the Parka or Easy Park app, whichever the place tells you, or you can just pay at the kiosk. I found the kiosk to be easier because my cell data was pretty slow.

Clothing

• It was anywhere between 20-40°F. I wore thermals, jeans, and an outer layer. Only once did I actually feel cold and that’s when I was on a glacier with the wind ripping. Other than that, I was fine the entire time. Disclaimer: I’m 5’9” 155 lbs. Not much self insulation.
• I see people asking what outer layer to weabuy. I have a lightweight Arcteryx jacket. Kept me warm and does not take a lot of room in the luggage. Link here

Misc

• BRING MICROSPIKES! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! I was baffled by the amount of people that were walking on ice (there is ice everywhere outside of Reykjavík) not wearing microspikes. They were slipping, sliding and falling. I can’t count the amount of people I saw fall and eat shit. A lot of people had cheap microspikes, which is better than nothing but I still saw them lose traction occasionally. I bought the Yaktrax Diamond Grip (~$50 USD) and never once lost traction. I was able to walk completely normal on ice. Made my entire trip so much more enjoyable. Link here
• Money: As it’s been said all over this sub, you don’t need to bring actual money. Everything can be paid with credit card. I didn’t see one person my entire trip pay with money.
• Sunglasses: Yes, the sun comes out and the reflection on the ice/water can be blinding! Sunglasses were very helpful when driving. Something I didn’t think about bringing until the last moment. Add it to your list.
• Cell service: I have just a standard T-Mobile plan (didn’t pay extra to have a high data international plan) and basically had cell service everywhere. The data was pretty slow though. Connect to WiFi wherever possible. Download the offline map of Iceland on Google Maps.
• Hard warmers: My hands are typically always cold and I didn’t have the best gloves, but hand warmers helped a lot.
• Favorite place I saw: Stokksnes/Vesturhorn. Most beautiful place I visited while there. Honorable mention: Reynisfjara Beach.
• Underwhelming place I saw: Diamond Beach. Wasn’t as much ice on the beach as I thought. It was also insanely packed.
• Favorite thing I did: Sky Lagoon was fucking awesome. Must go. Book it in advance as it sells out.
• Something I could have gone without doing: I found the Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavik totally not worth the money. It was 3000 ISK (~$21 USD) and the museum itself was very tiny. Honorable mention: I saw a symphony at the Harpa. The Harpa was beautiful. That was my first time seeing a symphony, and I realized symphonies just aren’t for me.

Things that just makes sense that Iceland does/has that the US doesn’t

• Stop lights: When you’re sitting at a red light, a yellow light flashes first letting you know the light is about to turn green. Pretty neat.
• Fueling: Select the max amount of money you’d like to fill your car with.

I currently have two Ruckus R650s and one R770 Wi-Fi APs in my three story home. I'll be upgrading the R650s to R770s, for a total of 3x R770s. Before I have the installers run cables to properly mount the APs, I want to do some type of basic Wi-Fi survey to ensure the best 5 GHz and 6 GHz coverage. Unfortunately though my MacBook Pro is from 2021 and doesn't support WiFi 6E, so no native 6 GHz coverage.
My current AP placement is NOT optimal, so what I'd like to do is:

1. Find a way to temporarily mount the 3 APs in various locations prior to running new CAT 6A cables. I found portable AP mounting brackets, but they are like $100 each shipped, plus the stand cost. Not looking to spend $400+ just for temp AP placement testing. The Ruckus APs are big and heavy, so can't use painters tape to hold the APs in temporary locations.
2. Use a basic survey tool to assess 2.4/5/6 GHz coverage throughout the house. I have WiFi Explorer Pro 3 and NetSpot Pro for my Mac already purchased. I did just get a WLAN Pi R4, but haven't had time to play with it. It did come with a 6E USB dongle, but macOS doesn't recognize it and I didn't find macOS drivers. I'm very concerned about solid 6 GHz coverage in all of the living spaces. I also have an iPhone 15 Pro (Wi-Fi 6E) with iOS 17, and just downloaded the nOversight app.

Any thoughts on how to proceed?
The construction of my house is wood stud and drywall, and is about 10 years old. However, it's three stories and 2000 Sq. Feet with a unique floor plan that makes AP placement a bit of a challenge. I only recently got the one R770, so I have limited experience with 6 GHz coverage.