I couldn't find info of that, so could anyone more enlighted on the matter help? Why the tracks: First Regred and 3 Years Older; Home Invasion and Regret #9; Happy Returns and Ascendant Here On... were combined on the Deluxe, Streaming and Digital Download versions? On the standard CD there is 11 tracks, and on the foremantioned releases became 8 tracks due to 6 of them counting as only 3.
Something on that nature happened to the Streaming version of Up the Downstair. But in that case, for some reason, they used the vinyl version of the album to uploud to spotify, so the tracks that were combined coincide with the vinyl sides. Which isn't the case for H.C.E. Wich leaves me clueless as to why that happened.

Hi,
More new stuff, well below Discogs. Still digging through a large buy and trying to make some floor space. Everything ships from Boston/Cambridge and is a flat $5 to CONUS no matter how much you order. All vinyl is visually graded (media/sleeve) unless otherwise noted. Next mail run happens tomorrow (Friday, May 17th). Pickup available in Cambridge, MA if you're local. If you're interested in anything, please contact me via CHAT ONLY, please. No rainchecks, holds, etc.
Alice Cooper Killer (Red/Black) (VG+/VG+) Vinyl is being graded conservatively and is very clean. Sleeve has a bit of wear, particularly along the edges and corners but it's largely very clean. $23
Arctic Monkeys AM (Mispress) (VG+/VG+) Y'know how there was that mispressed version of AM that slipped out a year or so back with two Side Bs? Well, this mispress has two Side As. The correct labels are on both sides but the matrix on each reads Side A and, well, that's what you get. I actually also have copies of the mispress with Side B on both so, y'know, if you'd like to combine those two mispresses, you'll have a complete version of the album (...) I have two copies of this double A-side. The vinyl on both is VG+. One of the sleeves, however, has a hype sticker affixed directly to the sleeve, so I'm knocking that one down to VG. VG sleeved version is $15. VG+ sleeved version is $20. If you'd like to combine either of these with a VG+/VG+ version of the double B-side version, I'll do it for $40 shipped.
Karen Dalton In My Own Time (CleaBlack Swirl) (NM/VG+) Vinyl is near pristine. Jacket has minimal shelfwear. $30
Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear (Tricolored, Diorama) (VG/VG) So, this is the original release featuring the diorama fold-out (no midi-player with this version and this one doesn't include the cassette) on tricolored vinyl. The sleeve is largely sharp and I'm grading it somewhat conservatively. Knocking it down because there's a bit of wear along the bottom edge and a teeny, tiny little ding/split (1cm) on the top. As was common with this release, however, the vinyl has a strong warp. They were originally packaged inside the sleeve the weight of the diorama just bowled them. It was a common enough issue that they later re-released this version with the platters outside the sleeve. I gave it a test and it did play through but my needle was certainly riding the waves. If someone wants to take the time to flattened those platters, you'll have a really nice copy. $25
Flamin' Groovies Shake Some Action (180G) (VG/VG+) Grading this one conservatively. Plays and looks much closer to VG+ but there are a few light hairlines and a couple of divots from manufacturing on both sides. When played, there's perhaps a brief, audible whoosh or drop-out in those spots but nothing ever dominates the music or skips. Sleeve is sharp. Classic, classic album at a low price. $12
Francoise Hardy Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles (LITA) (VG/VG+) Grading very conservatively. Vinyl would be NM if not for a scuff toward the end of B1/beginning of B2 that creates a bit of noise (but nothing that dominates the music) for about 30 seconds. Otherwise a beautiful copy. Obi included. I also have copies of other Hardy LPs in stock if you check my recent posts. $17
Howlin' Wolf His Greatest Sides Volume 1 (Starburst, Cancelled Edition) So, this one is almost one of a kind. It's an advance copy (essentially used as a test pressing) of what was going to be an exclusive variant of His Greatest Sides Vol. 1 on starburst vinyl for an indie retailer. There were a number of issues with the press, however, and the entire run was cancelled. This is one of a handful that exist. There are a variety of little issues that I noticed upon testing it - the run-in to A1 shoots the needle about halfway across the track, there are odd bits of crackle or noise in the mix, etc. It's got a share of defects but largely plays through without those issues dominating the music (except, y'know, that first track that ultimately starts about halfway in. Cute little collectable. $20
Jellyfish Live At Bogart's (Blue, etched) (VG/VG+) Most of the vinyl looks great but there are a few spots with issues. There's a mechanical scuff on the exact same spot on sides C & D. It runs across the entirety of the first track and into the second on both sides. It looks bad and I assumed it would cause a skip but, upon testing, it just produces some noise and the occasional pop. There's also another scuff on Side D running from tracks 1-3. It's lighter but does produce a bit of noise. Jacket is largely clean but has a half-inch seam split. $22
Kreator Hate Uber Alles (Transparent Red, SIGNED) (VG+/VG+) So, I don't think the vinyl has ever actually been played. It's very clean. The sleeve has been signed by the members of the band (two in black sharpie, two in silver sharpie). Super nice copy. $50
Pixies Doolittle (Bronze/Green Swirl) (VG/VG+) A Side is very clean. B side has a number of scuffs that produces varying degrees of noise (but no skips). There's a faint hairline or two running the length of the side that don't produce much in the way of noise. There's also, however, a bad scratch that affects bits of the last three tracks (the worst of it on Gouge Away). Those sections have some routine noise, pops, etc. It doesn't overpower the music but it's noticeable. Sleeve stored in shrink. $30
Lou Reed I'm Waiting For The Man (May 1965 Demo) (Yellow, Promo-Only Flexidisc) (NM/Generic) Unplayed flexi comes complete with letter from the label. $7.50
U-Roy Version Galore (G+/G+) Here's a well-loved copy of U-Roy's Version Galore. I'm grading a little conservatively but, y'know, it's an old Treasure Isle press that was never going to be the quietest thing even when it was brand new - and it certainly isn't brand new anymore. There's a little bed of noise throughout and sections that have some pops and clicks (first 30 seconds of A1 and B1 for example), a few scuffs and hairlines, one or two scratches that are a bit worse. Nothing causes a skip but you're going to get the occasional snap, crackle, and pop. Cover is all in tact and the art looks pretty good but there are warn edges, corners, bit of scuffing, etc. If you like your reggae with a bit of a warm, fire-side ambiance, you could do a lot worse than this classic at $10.
Various Crown Jewels Vol. 1 (Fool's Gold) (VG+/VG+) Solid label comp from Big Crown featuring Lee Fields, Lady Wray, El Michels Affair, etc. $7.50

Hello mold subreddit. First time reddit poster here. Thank you in advance for any insight you can offer to my case. In what follows, I'm going to first describe the health journey that led to my mold discoveries and questions, so please bear with me through the health stuff. I have included excessive detail in the hopes that my case might help others navigate possible mold problems.
If you don't feel like reading all the below, the tl:dr version: After struggling with unknown health issues for 15 months, I eventually linked my symptoms to my new home and subsequently discovered very high volatile organic chemical levels. I linked the VOCs to mold. I also had a mold inspection done, and the results are at the bottom of this post. The levels of mold were high in my kitchen and bathroom. However, oddly, the mold levels in the outside control group were much higher than inside. Can anyone help me understand how high my indoor mold levels are? Does anyone know whether the outdoor levels are reasonably normal? Is my specific blend of mold types implicated in neurological symptoms for others? And if anyone has dealt with mold before, do my possible mold symptoms described below seem similar to ones that you've had?
I bought my townhome in late 2022. Within four months, I started having new neurological symptoms. These symptoms started with a postural tremor in my left index finger and thumb. The same hand eventually began to appear smaller and shriveled, especially around my thumb. I also started having extremely frequent muscle twitches and jerks. These twitches take three general forms:

1. The most common is an odd sensation of something wiggling under my skin. These primarily happen in my face, around my mouth, my butt/legs, and ribs.
2. A pulsing regular beat in a muscle that lasts for several seconds and in some cases longer. These usually happen near joints, especially just above my elbows and knees. These are almost always visible to the naked eye.
3. A sensation of rapid vibrating underneath the skin that lasts briefly. These vibrations are usually not visible but you can feel them if you press a hand over the area.

The twitches and apparent change to my hand have lasted for 16 months. At this point, the tissue loss in my thumb is also apparent in my forearm and upper left arm. My leg on the same side arm appears different and feels as if it has lost some muscle. I also have frequent trembling with specific muscles when I flex them. For example, sometimes when I try to hold a smile my face muscles will shake or give out. My neck tissues are especially liable to shake and vibrate when flexed, such as when doing tasks like flossing where I need to hold my lips back. On a few separate occasions, I have felt slight paralysis on one side of my face for an evening or so that then mysteriously goes away.
Aside from these neurological symptoms, I also have had frequent hoarseness, sneezing, jaw pain, and headaches. My joints often feel like they are more bony and poppy, especially in my left knee and knuckles. In addition, I've had a lot of issues with one ear on the same side as the shriveled hand. The ear had an apparent infection or cloudiness 12 months ago that went away, it then had recurrent pulsatile tinnitus, and now it just occasionally hurts at random times. There have been many other symptoms.
I have seen two neurologists, an endocrinologist, an ear-nose-throat doctor, and an orthopedic doctor. I've had countless tests done including two electromyographies (EMGs) over my whole body several months apart, an MRI, and a lyme disease blood panel. Every test has been normal, although the orthopedic doctor suggested possible thoracic outlet syndrome. The neurologist said my nerves are quite robust. My borrelia blood panel came back negative, although as a side note I did have a tick bite in early 2022 that caused a rash. I was treated for Lyme with 10 days of doxycycline. The tick bite itself still occasionally flares up red and its timing might be correlated with my symptoms.
Back to the house-- I was on a two week vacation out of state and noticed my twitches go away. Then I saw my arm become more normal sized again and the veins start to come back. I didn't feel the same joint issues, had no hoarseness, lost the headaches. All the symptoms came back as soon as I returned home, but nevertheless after that vacation and subsequent extended trips, I was able to conclude with a reasonable level of confidence that these symptoms are linked to the house. I bought an air filter and an air quality monitor that shows volatile organic chemicals, PM, formaldehyde, and C02.
Using the air quality monitor, I discovered that volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) and formaldehyde were usually abnormally high and sometimes extremely high. VOCs are usually above safety thresholds at >0.5 mg/m3 and formaldehyde >0.1 mg/m3. Sometimes, the VOC levels will stay consistently above 1.8mg/m3. I witnessed them reach a peak level of 5mg/3 in one bedroom late at night when I was woken up by a feeling of shortness of breath. I tried but failed to correlate these high VOCs to electronics, chemical sources in the home, cooking sources, heaters, and cleaning supplies. The way the VOCs would spike all over the house for no apparent reason in the evening helped me rule out some of these other possibilities. I also actively removed other sources.
Eventually, I realized that the VOCs were likely caused by mold, so-called microbial VOCs. The formaldehyde could also be explained by mold. The levels of VOCs would spike on rainy days, when the humidity was high inside, and in the evening. I don't think any other chemical source near the house would display this pattern. It took me a while to reach this conclusion because the mold issue in my house isn't too obvious. The house has always had a slight musty smell, especially if the air is stagnant for a while. The bathroom also has recurring mold growth on a tiles, in the shower, and on the various shower liners. A couple cabinets in the kitchen have always smelled musty. I didn't think these obvious signs of mold growth were that big of a deal, but given the extremely high levels of VOCs I now believe the mold has always been the issue.
Once I realized it was likely mold, I started noticing all the signs. The house is about 100 years old. The prior two owners of this house each moved out within five months. The house is not ventilated except from windows. It sits in a damp area near where water puddles up in the yard. It's mostly solid brick, so the house frame has a way of trapping hot air and releasing a lot of moisture onto the floors each evening. There's also a cheap layer of vinyl flooring throughout that could easily cover up a massive mold problem underneath. Finally, the townhome sits on top of an old shared crawl space that was used as a furnace. It has had known water puddling issues for which reason a vapor guard was installed underneath my first floor.
So, I had a mold inspection done. The results are at the bottom of this post. The bathroom results might be diluted because I left the window open the night before. Nevertheless, both my kitchen and bathroom had mold detected at levels between 6480 - 12,300 spores/m3. Oddly, the outdoor levels of all of the molds were often much higher, 3-6 fold higher than the levels indoors. It was a humid day, but it still seems odd for me that an outdoor space could have higher levels than indoors.
On later reading about my specific mold spores and neurological symptoms, I noticed that the two most elevated groups of spores in my house, ascospores and basidiospores, are the same class as all of the funguses known to have colonized the nervous system of ALS patients according to this published article. Those specific types of fungus found in the nerves of ALS patients are Candida, Malassezia, Fusarium, Botrytis, Trichoderma, and Cryptococcus. It naturally led me to wonder if my chronic als-type neurological symptoms could be caused by some latent fungal infection in my body that gradually improves when I'm away from the home.
Wrapping up this thread, I have a bunch of questions.

• Does anyone have the same kinds of molds (see below) in their home and have the ability to speak to how problematic my levels are from their own experience?
• Why would the outdoor control be so high? I do compost and garden, but all of the compost is buried underground.
• Is my specific blend of mold types implicated in neurological symptoms?
• Do my symptoms seem similar to mold-related symptoms that you might have had? I'm trying to figure out if mold is a likely culprit or if I should keep seeking help for possible tickborne illness or other issues.
• Should my mold levels be a cause to stay away from this house as much as possible? Should I ever return?
• Do I need to throw away all my belongings like books clothes and sheets?
• Would a very high quality HEPA air purifier make any difference?
• Is there some kind of public health representative that could help me navigate this or a type of mold doctor who could help me investigate the causes of my symptoms and seek the right kinds of medication?
• Do you have any other advice for someone in my situation?

My mold inspection results

hiya everyone,
hurfyd here, you may remember me from uploading tunes and stupid videos on YouTube a while ago. I've been working on a side project recently, building a way to dig and explore "overload-y" music.
There's a load of stuff that only exists online because someone called "DaveyBoy921" uploaded a vinyl rip to YouTube and isn't on Spotify. Or Spotify algorithms will promote certain tracks based on them being boosted or optimized to keep you listening, but not really listening. I wanted something for digging and exploration that would just give me weird crap squirreled away on Discogs that I wouldn't have heard before or had been overlooked.
So, I've built a "music similarity search engine" at cosine.club where you can search over a million tracks, or use a YT/Bandcamp link. A machine learning model is used to return a list of the tracks the algorithm thinks are most similar, based on the audio content, and give you a playlist of videos. Once you're on a page, you can click through to any of the tracks to see another list related to that one.
Here's a few examples:

• https://cosine.club/track/1046637-tsvi-hossam
• https://cosine.club/track/106209-shackleton-death-is-not-final-t-remix
• https://cosine.club/track/1176501-dylan-forbes-mind-expander
• https://cosine.club/track/646747-purelink-we-should-keep-going

The search is a bit wonky so try "artist - track", and there are still some obvious ones missing from the index, but I'm slowly adding more tracks along the way. I've found it fun to start clicking through pages, going from one to the next and landing somewhere really weird and unexpected. It's pretty useful if you are looking for "more things like X" or a few people have been using it as a sort of Shazam to ID tracks from DJ sets (this isn't intentional and doesn't work too well on phone recordings btw!)
Hope you have a nice time trying it out and hope you find some nice stuff <3
For the machine learning heads: it's using a contrastive learning model from the Music Technology Group at UPF that has been trained on triplets of mel-spectrograms of tracks to learn associations between a positive pair with a negative sample. Then by creating vector embeddings of each track the cosine similarity between the vectors can be used to find the most similar in the index.

I'm open to trades but would prefer to sell. I have a 5 star seller rating on discogs looking to avoid the fees. Will entertain reasonable offers. All titles are around or under lowest discogs prices. Shipping $7+ $1 for each additional title media mail to continental USA. International shipping isn't out of the question but will have to research. I use whiplash mailers for 1-3 records.
Can send discogs links that's just a lot of copy pasting for a Phone post. Pictures also available upon request. All titles wet vac or ultrasonically cleaned and kept in archival inner and outer sleeves unless noted as Sealed.
Rock/metal: ACDC- Back in Black 2003 pressing George Marino remastering VG+/NM light scratching on side one barely visible. $15
Alan Parsons Project I, Robot Mobile Fidelity Ultra disc one step. LP only in a generic white jacket. $40
Alt-J An Awesome Wave- black vinyl 2015 pressing NM/NM $25
Alt-J The Dream Nightmare version (corona swirl coloring. jacket water damaged LP was warped but was flattened. $20
Anthrax- Fistful of Metal black 2021 pressing NM/NM $18
The Beach Boys- Pet sounds 33/3 analog productions/acoustic sounds title NM/NM $70
Clutch- Sunrise on Slaughter Beach Transparent Magenta NM/NM $15
Danzig 6:66 Satan's child, clear with red/black splatter 2022 release NM/NM $15
Dethklok- The Dethalbum clear red revolver exclusive NM/NM $120
Fall Out Boy so much (for) Stardust gold color NM/NM $15
Joji- Gimme Love transparent orange NM/NM $50
Megadeth Warheads on Foreheads box set with graphic novel Clear Vinyl NM/NM $200
Metallica Ride the Lightning Black 2x45 mastered by Mofi pressed at RTI NM/VG+ $60
Opeth- My Arms, Your Hearse blue vinyl Half Speed Remaster Sealed $35
Opeth- Orchid Gold vinyl Half Speed Remaster Sealed $35
Opeth- Morningrise Silver Vinyl Half Speed Remaster Sealed $35
Rammstein- Reise, Reise. 2017 press in shrink but not sealed. NM/NM $30
Rufus Wainwright- Want Two Test pressing bandbox NM/generic jacket. $40
The strokes- Is this it? Unknown pressing year. VG+/NM. $15
Sold ~Sublime 40 Oz to Freedom. 2021 pressing NM/VG+ $20~
Van Morrison- His Band and the Street Choir. Rhino HiFi Mark on last track on side 1, dinged top right corner. $30
The White Stripes- Elephant 2013 pressing NM/NM $20
The White Stripes- 3" RSD 3 6 pack with Included Third Man records yellow/black triple inchophone still in box. NM/NM $250
Soundtracks Daft Punk- Tron Legacy Mondo Variant NM/NM $60
Ramin Djawadi- Westworld Season Two Soundtrack. Mondo exclusive NM/G+ or VG sleeve. Seam split between triple gatefold on the non spine side. $40
John Williams-Star Wars A new hope Blue 33 7" Main Title/Cantina Theme Sealed $15
John Williams-Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Red 33 7" The Imperial March/The Asteroid Field $15
Hans Zimmer- Interstellar Expanded soundtrack 4 black LP set 2020. NM/NM $80
Other genres
Sam Cooke- Portrait of a Legend target exclusive NM/NM $15
Miles Davis- The Electric Years Box set Vinyl Me Please Anthology. NM/NM $480
Death Grips No Love Deep Web VMP lime Green exclusive scratch on side B, not listened to so unsure how it would affect play. VG/NM $20
Aretha Franklin- Amazing Grace white Vinyl, 2022 pressing Sealed $20
Ziggy Marley-Love is my religion Bandbox Exclusive Tangerine Swirl $20 NM/NM
Nina Simone- Silk and Soul VMP ROTM small scratch on last track on side B. VG+/ NM $25
Muddy waters Father's and Sons VMP small scratch on side 4 not audible on my system VG+/NM $27
Trisha Yearwood- Let's Be Frank Autographed some shelf wear on jacket. NM/VG+ $30

Sorry for the lack of photos, but this one is easy to follow since the repair was so simple. This should be the same for all of the blue headphones with an internal amp
The blue ella has been discontinued, so it's selling for about $110 on amazon, down from its $700 MSRP. If anyone saw my review, I think they're easily the best closed backs under $200 by a country mile right now, with the ability to be used without the internal amp, with it to just cleanly amplify a weak source (amazing for my miyoo mini which has a stupidly weak amp) or with an "analogue" EQ mode that bumps the sub bass and warms it up a bit. I've been using them and adoring them, they're superb gaming cans. HOWEVER, I noticed the amplifier battery was lasting an absolutely wretchedly short amount of time, like 45 minutes. Turns out a battery powered device sitting in a box for like 7 years means the battery isn't gonna be very happy.
However, the repair was dirt cheap and super, SUPER easy. The battery is a very standard 3.7v, 1000mAh unit with the standard charging PCB covered in capton take inside the right earcup. I ordered a replacement one off amazon for $9 along with a $4 roll of double sided electrical tape. The replacement battery is 5x34x50mm, but the original is about 4x36x60 with another 1mm thickness of double sided adhesive foam. But the new battery fits just fine with some double sided tape that isn't 1mm (I used 1mm tape and it was a hair thick, but still worked. regular double sided tape is ideal) and the repair was a snap, only requiring a spudger or something to gently pry the earcup off (a butter knife would work) a t5 torx bit, and two little dots with a soldering iron (you should also get some solder and a little flux, some isopropyl alcohol and a Q tip to clean up the flux) and a pair of pliers or flush cuts to snip the connector off the replacement battery and strip back some wire. A pair of tweezers would be helpful too.
Firstly, remove the earcups (do both sides since it's easy and makes accessing the rest much easier) by gently placing the spudger or device between the brown of the earcup pad and the black plastic trim, and prying until it pops, then just work around, they'll pop right off. The bezel is very sturdy but be mindful of not nicking the pleather cups, they are glued to the frames and replacement pads are only really available through a custom pad maker like Vesper.
Now all we need to work on is the right side. Unscrew the 6 long T5 torx screws holding the driver and its bezel in place. The two short t5 screws just hold the bezel to the driver and can be left in place - removing them makes the whole thing a bit more unwieldy. The driver and bezel come right off, there's no adhesive. Don't lose the foam pad that goes between the driver and the rest of the earcup. Now remove the 2 t5 screws on the little cross brace that holds the battery down and set it aside.
Now we can remove the old battery - Safety dictates that you desolder the battery first - just follow the super obvious two wires to the board, make note or take a picture of which is red and which is black, and desolder them. The solder joints on mine were quite aged, so a touch of flux and fresh solder was necessary, but this is about as easy as soldering work gets. Once the battery is desoldered, use your spudger or pry tool to gently pry on the sides of the battery to release the adhesive. it's not super strong adhesive and mine came free with minimal effort.
Now place some double sided tape on the replacement battery and put the replacement battery in its place. the little battery "tray" makes lining it up easy. Align it the same way the old battery was, with just tape on one side. My new battery had a JST connector, so I snipped it off and stripped the wires back about 2mm. Tin your wires by touching them with some flux and fresh solder. Then I used some tweezers to hold the wire down while I soldered them in. Wipe up any excess flux with a little isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip, make sure the solder didn't bridge between the positive and negative, and put it back together! Don't forget the little cross brace that clamps the battery down first, then orient the foam/drivebezel pack in place and screw it down. Pop the ear cups back on by pressing down on their very outside edge to make 'em clip into place. Charge it up and enjoy!
(one piece of advice when screwing screws back into plastic - when you put the screw into the hole, first turn it backwards until you feel a little bump or click, and THEN drive it in. This prevents cross-threading and accidentally chewing up the threads. And be mindful of not over-tightening. They aren't going to come loose on their own very easily, plastic is a lot grippier than screwing metal into metal, so you don't need to torque anything down.)
If your amp switch ever starts to get wonky, I also discovered in my disassembly adventure that the knob just engages with a regular slider switch like a gameboy uses. You can just touch some contact cleaner in that switch if it ever gets weird.
Overall, I was really impressed at how easy they are to repair and how pleasantly standard the battery is. I was worried that maybe I'd only ever just use them unamplified (which isn't too hard, as I understand they're fostex T50 drivers) but for maybe... 15 minutes of work start to finish, they're as good as new.
Now I just need to see how long these vinyl pads last before I have to get vesper audio to make me some proper leather replacements. I hate pleather.

Hi--I am trying to figure out which element of my new "living room" isn't carrying its weight in the space (I have a feeling it is the Kallax!). I don't have the room fully set up yet, so I am including renderings and photos of the furniture instead. My goal is to have my own little take on Arent & Pyke's use of burlwood and marble, but on my studio apt budget of space (and money!). I am a renter. See my current renderings and furniture here.
I currently have : --1 blue-green leather MCM sofa --1 white (eggshell not lacquer) 2x2 KALLAX for vinyl records --1 white Eames molded plastic rocker repro --1 vintage ENETRI bookcase off to the side in silver and oak
What I would like to add: --burl dresser as console (need to double dip on space and it is shorter) --or possibly a burl coffee table or drink table instead if the above isn't feasible--I don't have room for a side table.
What I feeling ick about: --I have a weird piece of wall that juts out to conceal a pipe, but I think orienting my sofa towards it breaks up the studio apartment best (at the expense of where to put the TV). I like the general layout I have now for the sofa and TV, but I don't know what to do with the wall with the sticking out--I considered putting small art, putting a big mirror standing up against it, I even considered building out a fake bookcase around it in line with a reals ones on either side but I think it's too ambitious since I don't even have a ladder yet. --I was coerced into taking the KALLAX but I don't think it fits what I want from the space. I find it's style is just too pop-y--its a holdover from when I have a very 60s retro room built around my instruments and my dad's old giant magnipan speakers---I still want my turntable out but it doesn't need to be here--thought I would love it here but maybe swap out the KALLAX. I could move the couch in and put the KALLAX by the window. I like these (west elm, amazon, ikea)--basically white, postmodern psuedo built-it platform-y office-y shelves--I am also looking at chrome and glass on marketplace. --My walls are a blue-gray that almost reads as lilac--accurate in the provided renderings. I was going to paint white but was overwhelmed with the move and work. Is what it is. I hope to get some color changing lightbulbs and make it warmer.
Quite honestly, I feel like I could take everything away from the space and the wall sticking out will still make it feel cluttered somehow. Any advice on how to make it blend in more? My current tactic has been to have shelves flush on either side.

I just purchased a Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus because it was the highest rated vac under $1K on many different sites. I've run it twice and both times it gets stuck on the main drains at the bottom. This is a 2 year old pool and the drains are standard Hayward VGB drain covers. The second time I ran it, I did it with the pool suction off so it isn't getting held in place by that. I called Maytronics and they first said I may need the Dolphin Premier which is almost double the price. Then I got an email saying they wanted me to return it for a replacement. I asked them what the issue was, what the repair was, and how long it would take and am waiting on a response.
I searched the Amazon reviews for the CC Plus and the Premier and there are a bunch of reviews for both that mention them getting stuck on the drains. These drains are pretty standard so you would think that they would have it figured out by now.
While searching for a solution I found these, https://www.maindrainclipon.com/ but I would like to hear from someone that has actually used them to see if they work. If not, is there a better vac that will not get stuck in the same price range?
12'X32' vinyl liner with a 6' deep end and angled sides. There are no rounded corners.

Hello, I'm considering upgrading my home stereo setup and looking for advice. My budget is around $1000.

Current setup:

Emotiva TA-100 2ch preamp with integrated amp.
KEF Q350 speakers.

Sources:

Optical out from TV, phono out from vinyl turntable, and a bluetooth adapter connected to the TA-100.

Room:

Decent sized living room. Something like 30' x 20'. The TV and speakers are opposite a couch on either side of the longer walls. Space isn't really a concern.

What I'm Looking for:

I don't have any plans to go to a surround sound configuration. I'm thinking of either adding a sub or replacing the bookshelf speakers with towers. I know I will need to upgrade the amplifier to at least 2.1 for the sub and/or probably still need to with more powerful speakers.
I like Emotiva (they're fairly local and I've had good experiences with their customer service in the past). That said, I've been looking at the most comparable 2.1 upgrade BasX TA1. I looking for suggestions on sub size and brand. Same for tower speakers. I like KEF, but I'm open to suggestions.
Would the TA1 be powerful enough for a decent sub and also enough to power tower speakers?
Any thoughts on which upgrade to do first (sub vs speakers)?

Welcome to The Oblivion Cycle universe, a vast setting spanning all of time and space and so much more. While many stories may shed perspective on this grand cosmic vista, there are also tales of adventure and sacrifice, romance and terror, grimdark corruption and scientific progress. To become immersed in the setting is to let the chaos of creativity flow through you, to let go of what is probable to discover what’s possible. I have created TOC for one reason, to inspire and entertain any who will listen. So please feel free to join me on this great adventure as I push the boundaries of what is possible and expand the limits of our creativity together. For more information on the setting and its lore there is a subreddit for TOC at TheOblivionCycle and a Discord server dedicated to it here [https://discord.gg/uGsYHfdjYf] called ‘The Oblivion Cycle Community Server’. I hope you find the following story entertaining and once more, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.
+ E1:P1 + E3:P1 + Previous + Next +
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Continued From E3:P3
Balinski took a few steps down the hall towards the distant exit but stopped as he realised Daryon wasn’t following. He looked at her and the police woman seemed to shrink slightly. “What? What is it? We need to get moving, Daryon.”
He waited another second as she put her weapon away and compiled. She seemed strangely subdued now all of the sudden, as if she were embarrassed to be around him. They walked down the hall, thuds coming from behind them as the barred doors did their job. He reached out towards her but she flinched away slightly. “Okay, what is going on? What’s the issue?”
She walked a few more meters in silence and then spoke softly, “I jusst.. I didn't want you to have to ssee anything like that. Who I usssed to be.”
Balinski shook his head, he didn't care who she used to be in her past. He cared about who she was now. And who she was, was a friend. “Daryon, I don't give a znot’s ass about that asshole or what he said. You are my friend, and I promised that I would watch your back.” he had made the promise in order to calm her down, he didn't mention that he hadn't actually expected to have to cash in on it so soon.
She made a gesture of dejected misery, “I know you did. But you didn’t know who I used to be. What I did.. to ssurvive.” She looked at him and her tone became pleading. “Please don’t think less of me becausse I used to.. do things.”
Balinski shook his head. “Why would I think any less of you, Daryon?” She seemed to look at him in mild confusion, her faceplates cracking open to reveal the pink flesh of her lipless mouth. “I mean it. I have known you for a few months now, but we have been working together on this case for Siyel together for a few weeks now. I feel like we can trust each other with our secrets..” he trailed off, he was about to take a big step in trusting her.
He started hesitantly, now the large insectoid woman’s turn to hear something he didn’t like others to know. “Daryon..” he hesitated again and then took a deep breath. “I am not the hero that people make me out to be. I am simply the one that survived. And not even by being brave.” She looked at him, her head cocking slightly as he spoke. “I was placed on perimeter watch, I never even entered the complex before the destruction. Ima fraud, I never even fired a single shot at the rebels that day.” he stopped talking and slumped slightly himself.
It felt strangely liberating to get it off his chest, even if it was not the whole truth of what had happened in actuality. No, the whole truth was far too dangerous to share. “So now you know. I’m not the war hero who took out the enemies of the Union single handedly. I'm just the scared little boy that the commander of my unit did not trust enough to take into battle. And I have to live with that, the images still haunt me. My comrades shattered bodies, the blood.. The fire..”
He felt a wave of pain crashed through his mind, the memories once more causing the psychic anguish to overwhelm him. He raised his hands to his head and groaned quietly, he felt himself backslide towards that dark personal oblivion that was the pit of his past trauma. He stopped, or rather something stopped him.
He looked up as a voice brought him back to the present, “..can’t help you if I don’t know what’ss wrong, Balinski.”
He shook his head and stood. “I.. sorry. I have an.. a condition.” He finished lamely.
Daryon seemed to look him over without moving. Her bright blue compound eyes were able to see so much without her having to turn her head. She reached out and gave his shoulder a pat. “I get it. I think I do at leasst.”
He had a thousand things he could have said in response ranging from cruel to straight up flirtatious. But he never got to explore any of the options as just then a mighty crash echoed through the hall. This was soon followed up by the sound of distant screams and angry yelling.
He looked at Daryon briefly and then began running down the hall again. They skidded around the corner into the final stretch and up the slight incline towards the exit. Next to the door stood Dunmec and a slightly battered looking Terri, the yeown woman looked to be bleeding from several cuts across her forearms. They looked like they had been made by some manner of sharp objects.
Despite her oozing injuries the woman was beaming, her long pointed ears and wide predatory grin as gleeful as he had ever seen one of the big werewolf-like aliens. As they made their mad dash up towards the exit he also noticed that the tall umraghj was bandaging her wounds, the soft buzz of their synthetic voice echoing through the enclosed space.
“..andeged like this tightly or you may get infected. I don’t know why you had to go and do something like that Terri.” Balinski was able to pick up on the tail end of their muted conversation. “What’s that? Hey, it’s you two! You won’t believe what happened..”
Balinski skidded to a halt, breathing hard. Daryon was only centimeters behind. He saw Terri bristle, her mantle hair standing on end as she stood and whirled to face them. In her haste she scattered the small first aid kit that Dunmec had been using.
As she looked back and forth between them a gleam of recognition flashed in her eyes and she glanced at the umraghj who was busy trying to pick up the scattered debris of her suspicion. “This is the ones?” She seemed at once curious and skeptical.
He gave her a nod and a synthetic grunt as he stood with some difficulty despite the exosuit he wore. The gravity of the planet was nearly a perfect standard G, but the umraghj had evolved on a planet with much lower gravity and thusly had trouble standing unaided under standard gravity.
Balinski nodded to her as he reached them and then gestured towards the door. “We need to get out of here, like right now.”
“Too late, look out!” Daryon yelled as she dodged into the small alcove to the side of the chamber. Balinski twitched as he meant to follow, but in that second of hesitation he realised that Dunmec was entirely out in the open, and the approaching henchmen had drawn their guns.
The fool had gone for the exit, in a second he would likely be riddled with bullets and dead. Balinski stepped towards the man just as the thugs opened fire at him with an AP-6 submachine gun. He threw up an arm to shield his face as he felt a series of impacts against his chest and legs. He grunted in pain as he was thrown backwards by the force of the absorbed impacts. He swore internally as he slammed into the door right next to the cowering Dunmec, that was going to hurt like a bitch in the morning.
Dunmec lowed in fear, the electronic tone of the sound magnified by the distortion of his suit. Balinski coughed as he reached up and grabbed the man right as another flurry of shots flew their way. The umraghj jerked in either fear or pain as Balinski used his body to shield the man while simultaneously dragging him towards cover. He tried to send a mental alert to Caesar for backup but didn’t feel the transmission go. He couldn't be sure that the message had been sent, much less been received.
It looked like they were on their own. A bullet nicked his neck, causing him to jerk. With a last herculean effort he hauled the tall alien into the cover of the alcove while the other three tried to shelter in place. “Daryon, waste these fucks.” he shouted to her, unholstering his ThunderEagle and tossing it to her.
She grabbed it out of the air deftly and gave a grim looking nod, her antennae pressed down her back as she leaned out from cover and fired a shot off. He didn’t see if she hit anything as he was preoccupied with the whimpering Dunmec.
Terri was hovering nearby, her bloody wounds forgotten as the unfinished bandages hung from her arms. “Oh no! Oh-oh no.” the woman muttered as Balinski looked the suited man over. He had a small puncture in the shoulder of his suit, a thick green liquid seeped from the wound. The man’s chlorine based blood stained the fabric of the suit as Balinski checked him for patches.
He pointed to Terri, the woman still looking a little freaked out. “Hey, you.” Her chatoyant blue eyes snapped to his face. “First aid kit, now. I can help him if you help me!” He told her loudly as Daryon fired another two shots.
“Two down!” The vinarfel shouted. “I never sshould have let myssself get dragged in here.” He heard her mutter, as if anything he said or did would have stopped her from entering the building. She opened the revolver’s chamber and asked, “You got reloads?”
Balinski nodded and handed her a handful of bullets, AP, HE and others. He hadn’t looked, he had just grabbed some from his pockets as he lay on the ground wheezing slightly through the pain in his chest. Tarri had grabbed the first aid kit that Dunmec had been rummaging around in and he flung open the lid to see what he was working with. His own medkit he wore on his waist would come in handy if he couldn't find what he needed.
He looked through it as more gunfire erupted from down the hall, it sounded as if the gunmen in the hall had been reinforced. Balinski ignored it, instead focusing on the injured alien. Dunmec was breathing heavy, his eyes just visible through the HUD visor he wore. Balinski placed a hand on the man’s injured shoulder causing him to moan in pain.
“Hey, stay with me kid. This might hurt a bit, but I need to seal the wound. It looks like the bullet is still inside, I am going to have to get it out.” He watched as the man nodded, his breathing taking in a more fearful pitch.
Terri hovered by his side, dancing from foot to foot as she mumbled in some manner of near incoherent babble. He gave her a look, pausing in his work. “Terri, I need space. Most importantly I need you to watch my partner’s back. Here, take this.” He undid his ammo belt, handing it to her he gave her a small smile, “I got this. Don’t worry. I'm a professional.”
The yeown rushed off to help Daryon, now alone with the injured man he reached for the kit and located a small vitatector. He switched the portable MRI detector on and scanned over the wound. The small device beeped and showed an interior scan of the man’s injury. The bullet had been slowed by his suit, it looked like and embedded itself in the bone just next to his shoulder joint. It would be a difficult fix, but he had done this before on the battlefield on several occasions when a designated medic wasn’t available.
Balinski grabbed a small pair of packaged forceps from his own medical pouch. They had been stored in antiseptic fluid that he used to sterilise the wound as he ripped the package open. Dunmec once more cried out in pain as the liquid seeped into the open wound but Balinski sat him up against the wall and held him still with his free hand.
He looked at the man and asked him, “This is going to hurt. I don’t have any anesthetic that will work on you, I recommend that you hold onto my arm and squeeze as hard as you feel the need to.”
The umraghj nodded, their long double jointed arms reached out and his suited hands gripped his free arm. Balinski breathed deep and then pushed the tool into the wound to where the vitatector had told him to. It took a few seconds to find the bullet, in that time the man’s hands tightened down hard enough on his arm to make the allow creak concerningly. He felt the tool slip of the bullet and he swore.
“Luck damned thing! Come one!” He fished for it again and succeeded in getting a grip on it the second time. He had to work it back and forth a few times to loosen the projectile from its death grip. As soon as the projectile was free he dropped the forceps to grab some sterile gauze, he needed to stop the bleeding and didn't have a QTube handy. He needed to requisition more from the precinct when he got the chance.
He checked the man’s waist pouches quickly and found a patch kit. He squirted some basic medical foam into the wound, it would swell and keep pressure on the wound internally. It didn’t have the healing properties of a QTube, but it would keep the man from bleeding out. Balinski used a sterile bandage to clean the suit as best he could before applying the patch to it. Oxygen wasn’t harmful to the man, but it might not be good if the pressurised chlorinated atmosphere from inside the suit got out.
He reached for the first aid kit and closed it before patting the man on his shoulder. He was still lucid, impressive as most non-combat oriented species of the Union would quickly succumb to shocksleep when injured. Dunmec must be tougher than his lanky frame looked at a glance.
Daryon shouted as he stood. “Alright, they just got rushed by club staff it looks like. They are laying down their arms!” She scuttled back into the cover of the alcove as shouting replaced the sound of gunfire in the distance. She handed him his .50 calibre revolver and he replaced it into his shoulder holster as Terri rushed to Dunmec’s side.
She spoke quickly, “Oh.. oh Dunmec.. I’m so sorry. Are you alright? You got shot!” She added, a bit obviously.
The downed alien just coughed lightly and shook his helmeted head while reaching up towards the muscular alien woman. “I feel bad. But not as bad as I did before I met you.” He said the lines in an almost practised way, as if he had been waiting for the opportunity to use them for a while.
Balinski snorted slightly under his breath at the cheesy line causing Daryon to punch him in the shoulder. He gave her a glance as Terri lifted the nearly three meter tall man to his feet. He leaned heavily on her much shorter frame, but she didn't seem to mind. Her powerful muscles easily compensated for the additional strain as she replied to him, “Well, that was before. Now you don’t have to feel bad or scared. I will protect you now. I won't let anyone else hurt you, I promise.” Dunmec just chuckled and then groaned in discomfort.
Balinski stood straight as he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, his hand flashed inside of his trench coat. His fingers finding the handgrip of his gun as a quartet of heavily armed people rounded the corner with MR-12s raised.
Daryon automatically raised her hands and after a moment he did as well, relinquishing his grip on the gun reluctantly. A tattooed nerivith female stepped forwards, her face taken up on one side by a flowing vine-like pattern that disappeared into the collar of her suit. She wore a bullet resistant vest over the top of it, very much business-combat attire.
She nodded her horned head to them and shouted loudly, “You two, get on the ground! No funny business or you will find out just how much I care about problem brewers in my establishment.” She stopped as Terri rushed forwards.
The yeown woman’s arms were still wrapped up in the bandages from earlier and spots of bright red blood dripped slowly from at least one of the deep cuts. “Stop! These two saved us, literally. The human took some bullets to save Dunmec, he got shot by those packbreakers.” She spat the last word with considerable venom. Her disdain for the submachine gun wielding men was obvious.
The nerivith woman looked from Terri to Dunmec a few times before stepping closer to Balinski with a suspicious look. “Hands all the way up, move and I’ll give you another orifice to breathe through.” She stepped close and opened his coat, her hand feeling his ballistic vest that had stopped the first burst of automatic fire. She nodded and then stepped back before lowering her gun.
“Don't touch that hand cannon in your shoulder holster, but I think I trust you. Who are you two and what the smeg are you doing antagonising these jerkoffs?” The pink skinned alien demanded as she looked between him and Daryon.
Balinski gave Daryon a glance and she nodded before raising one of her middle arms. “I can ansswer that for you.” She pulled out a physical badge from her back pocket and handed it to the woman.
The club workers' tufted tail flicked as she took it and Balinski watched as her raven colored eyebrows rose. “CPD? What the hel are you doing here, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Daryon spoke again, the nerivith woman frowning as she laid out the tale in as accurate a fashion as she could without compromising their true agenda. “Well, we were following a lead to a persson of interessst when we were accossted by these men for ssome unfathomable reason. We tried to run and when that didn’t work we defended ourselves to the full legal extent of the law. You may notice that I didn't shoot to kill, at least not on purposse.” She added with a slightly guilty hiss.
Terri let out a small noise as she said it. The woman likely still in some manner of mild shock, despite her species violent natures, death was not always so easy to grasp. The gun-wielding woman turned to the few other club workers that had come with her and commanded, “Tell the boss what happened, call the police. I want this wrapped up as soon as possible. I’m not taking the fall for this one.” She turned back to Balinski and punched him in the chest, not hard enough to be aggressive but still with considerable force. “I think I like you, big man. You got some horns on you, I guess I don't have to ask you to wait for the police to arrive to give a statement do I?”
Balinski chuckled and glanced towards Terri and Dunmec. “No, you don't have to worry. I will be submitting a full report of the events..” He wasn't able to finish as a loud thud echoed from the main door followed by a series of loud percussive noises. Everyone immediately went on high alert but Balinski raised a hand. “No, it's okay, that’s my backup. Fashionably late as usual. Here, let me get the door so she knows it alright.” He looked towards Terri who nodded.
The nerivith woman’s gun was still raised but she nodded too. “Be my guest.” She gestured for him to go ahead. He walked to the door and unlatched it before swinging it open slightly. Before he could say anything, Caesar burst through it as she pushed it out of his grip. He grunted in mild discomfort as she slammed into his legs and landed in a stunned heap.
Chuckling as the embarrassed looking dog stood to her feet, he watched as she shook her triangular head. “You big oaf. Everything is fine now girl, thanks for coming though.” he reached down and gave her head a scrub that made her grumble in annoyance like a put upon teenager.
Daryon scuttled over on her short, pointed legs and Caesar perked up a little. “Oh you brave warrior, you would have ssaved usss for ssure if Balinsski had just taken you with uss.” She gave him a look, her faceplates cracked in her version of a grin. He could only shake his head as the nerivith woman walked up to him once more.
“Alright, I need to get this mess cleaned up. I beg your pardon if I ask you not to come back here on official business again?” He nodded.
He pointed to the door. “It wasn’t my plan to cause such a disruption when I came in here.”
She shook her raven haired head. “It’s all over now. No sense worrying about what did and didn't happen. It just so happens that we have had trouble with these individuals before. So as far as I see it you did us a favour because we now have cause to bar them from ever coming back.” She nodded again as she said it, her smile flashing at him. As she did he noticed that she had several gold teeth.
She turned and stalked away, her tail lashing behind her. Balinski rubbed his chest and then glanced down at Caesar. “Yeah, you did good in coming. If we hadn’t been able to make it out your backup would have been the thing we needed.” She just gave him a little bark and then headbutted his thigh affectionately.
Daryon was talking to Terri and the still slouching Dunmec. Balinski got the feeling he didn’t need the support as much as he was simply enjoying being physically close to the brawny furred alien.
Balinski decided to walk over to them to hear what they were whispering about. He picked up on the conversation as he neared. Terri was speaking, “Yes. She likely will keep trying to force her ideas on me, but I already beat her once and she won't ever be able to forget that. It is an exploitable weakness if we should ever lock claws again. Thank you for your concern.”
The woman looked over at him as he approached, her eyes settling on Caesar. “Oh, what’s that?” She exclaimed.
Caesar tossed her little head and gave him a look as if to say, ‘What? Another one?’ He chuckled and gave her a pat on the head. “This is my erstwhile companion and oldest living friend, Caesar. She is a cybernetically enhanced dog, a Jureillion husky to be precise. She’s got cognitive implants, you can talk to her if you want.” He prompted.
The yeown woman gave him a look that seemed as if she was unsure of herself. Finally she reached out and spoke softly, “Wow, look at you. You kind of look a little like my grandmother, it's uncanny.” Caesar snorted at the comment and then walked over for free head scritches, grumbling contentedly as she received them. “Ok she is so.. I mean, you are so soft. I love her.”
Caesar seemed to be enjoying the attention. Dunmec spoke now, the suited alien’s robotic sounding voice wheezing out from his helmet’s speakers. “I just wanted to thank you again for saving my life, man. Here, take this.” the man handed him something, it was a datachip card. An old style one too. “If you ever want to get a hold of me..” he glanced at Terri and she nodded, “..or Terri. Just call me with the number on that card.”
Balinski had to nod as he heard the faint sound of sirens coming from the still open door. “I will do that. You two take care of each other.”
Terry gave a wide grin, her teeth clinting in the light. “Oh, we will.” Daryon gave her a pat on the back as she followed Balinski out the door. Caesar hot on her tail.
He took a few steps out into the night and then patted his pockets. He grunted in mild delight as he found what he was looking for. It was a small shiny package of pibbles, the small candies one of his favorites. He poured a few out into his open mouth and jerked as he felt a tap on his shoulder. He glanced over, it was Daryon.
“Pibble?” he asked her with his mouth full. She seemed to smile slightly and offered a hand into which he poured a few of the colorful candies.
He chewed vigorously on the fruity sugar orbs as he contemplated the massive shitstorm they had just managed to walk out of. Daryon must have been thinking the same thing as she gave a loud sigh, “Wow.. that was. Well, it wassn't good.”
He just nodded silently. They stayed that way for another few seconds before he turned to her. “What did we actually get out of that old skorp? Anything that we can use to track down the one’s behind the attack?”
Daryon walked a few paces away and then returned quickly, the side-to-side scuttling motion of her pacing threw him off a little. “I really don’t know. The trail hasss gone cold, without another major lead I am fearful that we will losse them. That ssimply isn't acceptable to me.” He nodded, she was right.
He would have liked to respond but it was about that time that a series of screeching vehicles covered in flashing lights skidded into view at the end of the alley. He sighed and fished around in his trench coat for his credentials. “Here we go..” He muttered to which Daryon gave an amused hiss.
A series of officers rushed down the alley with guns drawn, shouts directed their way. It took only a few minutes of back and forth with them to convince them that they were in fact officers, or in Balinski’s case, employed by the CPD.
When it was over he gave a statement and almost a whole hour after they had walked down the alley he found himself leaving it. A bit the worse for wear but secure in the knowledge that they had at least put down a dangerous criminal for their trouble.
Daryon scuttled along beside him, “Gee, I ssure hope the club doesn't get into any ssort of trouble for thisss.”
The comment caught him off guard and he chuckled. “Yeah, they seemed like downright decent folk for running a burlesque underground club.” She gave him a pointed look, her antennae shooting up as she looked like she was about to rebuke him. He raised his arms in mock surrender before she could though, “Oh hey, not saying I didn’t like the place. Just that they likely were not excited to see the boys in blue.”
It was a fair point and she conceded. “Yeah, I ssuppose. But I think we sstill got out of there with a halfway decent lead.”
Now it was his turn to look shocked as they crossed the street, weaving between emergency vehicles to get to the opposite side of the gloomy street. The flashing of emergency lights was behind her and it made her eyes glitter like gemstones, he frowned. “What do you mean? That crusty old skorp didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already suspect.”
She raised an arm and pointed to the wall. He looked and noticed the graffiti for the first time. The one in particular she was gesturing to was a gang affiliated symbol for the Sunstarters. “I can ssay with sssome measure of certainty that we might be able to look around for ssome additional cluesss.”
The Sunstarters were known distributors for the Psychosis Division. It stood to reason that if the Pit Vipers had gotten involved with the Psychs then they were likely also involved with the Sunstarters. Balinski clapped his hands together and smiled, they might just have a lead indeed. What had the old skorp said? To follow the source?
They walked into the large parking garage and to his big blue truck, as they climbed back inside he leaned his head back. “That was a bit of a fuckfest. Are you hungry, I’m hungry.” Indeed almost as he said it he felt a small grumble from his middle.
Daryon made an affirmative gesture, her antennae moving excitedly. “Oh yess, where do you want to go for lunch? Ullnek’ss Hut maybe? McDoinkss?”
He folded his arms. He wasn’t really in the mood for greasy burgers or razah’voolian seafood. No, he would have to think about it. “Why don’t we just drive around till we find something interesting? We need to keep an eye out for any good leads too.”
He started the truck as the large insectoid woman gave Caesar a head pat while nodding. “Okay. But if you see a TFDs then we are sstopping immediately, isss that fair?”
Balinski shrugged. He liked fried drebble as much as anything else. Caesar however seemed very excited by the idea of crispy breaded arthropod as she woofed happily. He shook his head and looked back out the window. He would have to keep his eyes peeled for one of the yellow and black spotted stores.
**********
Balinski smacked his lips happily as he took another great bite out of the steaming fried drebbleloaf sandwich. The snallke was fresh and the pickles were crispy, just the way he liked them. Glancing over at the other two revealed similar scenes of personal enjoyment. Caesar was snacking on some popcorn drebble and Daryon was cleaning out a six-piece bucket of BBQ drebble graspers. Her long radula snaked from her lipless mouth between her opened faceplates as he watched, mildly intrigued to watch the alien woman eat.
He took another bite of his sandwich as Daryon sucked the meat off another fried and breaded grasper. Lacking a jaw she was unable to chew but her radula and powerful cheek muscles made up for her lack as she deftly disassembled the meat with the skill of a surgeon.
She waved the de-meated shell and gave a small hissing sigh as another of her ten arms reached out for the Smarkus grape soda sitting in the dash drink-holder. “Ahhh… Yeah, that'ss the sstuff. How’sss your ssandwich?” She looked at him without moving her head, her compound eyes making her constantly aware of her surroundings in a manner that some might describe as unsettling.
He got the feeling she was watching him eat too, his mastication of the sandwich as inherently alien to him as her own strange method of ingestion was to him. As he took another bite her curiosity seemed to get the better of her. He saw her head cock a little as she asked, “Sso, can you feel with your teeth? I know that you can’t tasste with them. I read that much on the hyperweb at leassst.”
He finished chewing and swallowed before giving her a wide smile. She froze, her fascination with his teeth obvious. “Yeah, kind of. I was lucky that I didn't lose them. It's not uncommon for people who go through.. what I did, to have their teeth shatter. And when they go they don’t come back.”
She nodded slightly as she took a loud slurp of her soda. “Yeah, I read that humanss only get a sssingle sset of adult teeth in their life. No wonder they are so hard, you have to keep using them for a hundred yearss.”
He looked out the window, they were driving slowly around the entertainment district looking for anything that might point them in the right direction. He wasn’t really too sure what he was looking for to be honest, but Daryon insisted that she knew what to look for. He nodded towards a distant structure, it rose so high it went out of sight. “What’s that there?”
Daryon made a loud noise as she cleared her throat. “That’ss one of the upper-city sspires. It connectss the people up there to the ones down here, think of it as a vertical metro..” She trailed off before pointing to something in the near distance. Her BBQ bucket forgotten. “Hey.. hey right there.. Sstop. Pull over.” She tapped him on the shoulder with one of her lower arms rapidly and he obliged.
He looked forwards and saw nothing out of the ordinary, a few people walking along the edge of the street. There was a tall human woman leaning against one of the street signs at the corner, she was dressed in some tight fitting dress and high heels but other than that looked as normal as the rest of them.
Daryon put her yellow and black spotted grasper bucket on the dash and cleaned her hands at the same time she undid her seatbelt and straightened her clothing. She stopped fussing after a moment and then pulled a soft cloth out of one of the inner pockets of her overcoat and used it to polish her eyes. She replaced it and then held out her arms, “Well, how do I look?”
Balinski took the opportunity to give her a completely unabashed once over. He shrugged, “You look like you. What can I say?”
She seemed to smirk. “Alright, good enough. You know you have a way with words Balinski, any girl would just swoon to hear such things.” He frowned but didn't get to reply as she continued, “I’ll be right back. Sstay there and try not to look too harmlesss. This will only take a ssecond.
She slithered out of the truck and he kept his eyes firmly forwards this time as she closed it and sauntered off, well as much as the fifty-two legged alien was able too. He noticed that she had once more adopted that somewhat provocative side to side sway in her stride as she walked away from him. He just shook his head, she was doing it again.
Continued In E3:P5
==End of transmission==

I'm really bored so I'm gonna debunk these "scientifical miracles" in the Quran :3
Table of contents:

1. Big Bang
2. Life from water
3. Moon reflecting light
4. Iron from heaven
5. Embryology
6. Meeting of seas
7. Sun moving in an orbit
8. Pain receptors
9. Ants
10. Spiders house
11. Heaven smoke
12. Everything in pairs
13. Seven atmospheres
14. Chest-tightening in hypoxic environments
15. Mountains have roots
16. Pure rain
17. All animals live in communities
18. Expansion of the universe
    
19. BIG BANG
    

"Do the disbelievers not realize that the heavens and earth were ˹once˺ one mass then We split them apart?" (Quran 21:30)
According to Muslims, this verse tells us about the Big Bang and because of that, is an evidence for Islam being the true religion.
But the problem is: It is stolen. This saying that "the earth and the sky were once together and than seperated" are found in many religions. As an example, the egyptian mythologie. The egyptian mythologie tells us about the sky and earth being together a block and than being seperated. Another example is the summerian mythologie, which says basically the exact same thing the Quran says. Earth and sky were together, than seperated.
And if you paid attention, you will notice that both of these mythologies (egyptian and summerian) were also located in the middle east. And both of these mythologies were older than Islam. Who can add up 1+1 should now see that Momo just stole from other mythologies around him and put them in Islam.

1. LIFE FROM WATER In the same verse as above, it goes on and says: "And We created from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?" (Quran 21:30)

This Verse, according to muslims, says that life oroginated from water. Now, this verse doesn't really say that life originated from water but rather says that we are created from water... Whatever I guess
Thales, an ancient greek scientist, already knew that. No big suprise. Momo just did his thing, he stole it and put it in his own religion.

1. MOON REFLECTING LIGHT

"...placing the moon within them as a ˹reflected˺ light, and the sun as a ˹radiant˺ lamp?" (Quran 71:16)
Now, I take these verses from quran.com and whenever something is in these ˹˺ things, I'm suspicious because the words under them isn't really in the arabic original text, so I'm not sure if these verse really says "reflected" in the original text. But I'm just gonna pretend like it says that but I also heard some people saying that ot doesn't say that so... Idk ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Now, even if the text does say that the moon just reflects light and not produces its own light, this still wouldn't be a big thing. Because again, ancient greek men got our back. Like Anaxagoras, he speculated that the moon reflects light.

1. IRON FROM HEAVEN

"And We sent down iron..." (Quran 57:25)
Now, if you don't know, iron wasn't on earth always but rather came trough Supernovas (explosion of stars). Now, 'hOw cOuLd a dEseRt mAN 1400 yEarS aGo kNoW tHaT??'. Like the other "miracles", people already knew that. But not in the way we do now. Basically, civilisations like the ancient egyptians, already knew that iron came from heaven through metorites. Like I'm not joking, the literal name for iron in ancient egypt was "metal of heaven".... Great miracle Momo, really, I'm impressed

1. EMBRYOLOGY

"...then We developed the drop into a clinging clot, then developed the clot into a lump ˹of flesh˺, then developed the lump into bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, then We brought it into being as a new creation." (Quran 23:14)
Now, this verse is allegedly a miracle because it is a good description of how babays are formed. Only problem, again, it is stolen. The original description comes from Gallen, again an ancient greek scientist. It's nearly the exact same thing as he said. And it also includes the mistakes Gallen make: 'clothed the bones with flesh' means that there are bones and the flesh comes afterwards, which is false.

1. MEETING OF SEAS

"And He it is Who has joined the two seas: one sweet and palatable and the other saltish and bitter; and He has set a barrier and an insurmountable obstruction between the two that keeps them apart." (Quran 25:53)
This verse shows that salt and fresh water in don't mix. Well, I've got some problems with that:
How you probably already expect, it was already known. As an example, Aistotle knew that fresh and salt water don't mix. Momo just took it. But the other problem is, that it's false. Well, if you look at salt and fresh water, they may seem like they don't mix. But they do mix. But Aristotle didn't know that and I guess Allah just knows as much as Aristotle knew.

1. SUN MOVING IN AN ORBIT

"And He is the One Who created the day and the night, the sun and the moon—each travelling in an orbit." (Quran 21:33)
This verse allegedly shows that the sun is in a orbit and moves, which is actually true. For those who didn't know, the sun doesn't stay in one place but moves trough space.
Now, if you read the verse and think rationally, you'll see what is really meant. From the perspectiv of Momo, it seemed like the sun orbits around earth. And that's what he wrote. You can see that because of the referemce with night and day.

1. PAIN RECEPTORS

"Whenever their skin is burnt completely, We will replace it so they will ˹constantly˺ taste the punishment." (Quran 4:56)
According to muslims, this verse shows that the quran knew pain receptors existed and that they are in our skin... I don't think I have to debunk this? I mean, you could have asked a caveman "because of which body part we feel pain" and he would have showed the skin. Not because he knew about pain receptors. It was just what people thought

1. ANTS

"And when they came across a valley of ants, an ant warned, “O ants! Go quickly into your homes so Solomon and his armies do not crush you, unknowingly.” (Quran 27:18)
"This verse is a miracle because it shows us that Momo knew that ants could communicate."
I'm really starting to think that Momo was a big fan of ancient greek men, esspecially Aristotle. Because, again, Aristotle already said before Momo even existed, that ants could communicate.
But besides that, this verse doesn't even make sense, it has some errors:

1. Ants can't speak, they can communicate trough chemical smells
2. Ants can communicate with eachother, but not like this. Never. Trough these chemical smells, they might give a warning signal, to indicate that everyone should go back to the nest, but they could never say something like it is shown in the verse.
   
3. SPIDERS HOUSE
   

"The parable of those who take protectors other than Allah is that of a spider spinning a shelter. And the flimsiest of all shelters is certainly that of a spider, if only they knew." (Quran 29:41)
Yeah, muslims say that this verse knew that the spiders house is the weakest house of all. Sometimes I really think if muslims are serious when they say something like this. Ask a 5 year old child "what animal has the weakest home" and he would guess the spiders home.
Also, just a side fact, spidersilk is stronger than steel. If you would take 1 pound of steel and 1 pount of spidersilk, the silk would be stronger.

1. HEAVEN SMOKE

"Then He turned towards the heaven when it was ˹still like˺ smoke..." (Quran 41:11)
At the begining of the universe, there was a "gas state". The universe had a lot of gas in it, which formed than stars and other things.
But first of all, the verse doesn't say gas, it says smoke. And now, some of you may think that this is just a small thing, but gas and smoke actually can be very different. Also, why didn't god just say gas? It would be than correct and us kafirs would have nothing to yap about.
Actually, there is a bigger problem with this verse, and this is the previous verse, i.e. the 10th. Because there, Momo- I mean Allah talks about the creation of mountains on earth. But this 'gas-state' of the universe I just mentioned already had finished long before earth even formed, let alone the mountains.

1. EVERYTHING IN PAIRS

"Glory be to the One Who created all ˹things in˺ pairs—˹be it˺ what the earth produces, their genders, or what they do not know!" (Quran 36:36)
So, idk why this is a miracle. In some websites I take these miracles from, I see this a lot. So, everything is in pairs? I mean, I'm pretty sure the Mexican Whiptail Lizard doesn't have a male pair. These Lizards are just females and their reproduction also happens without the need of sperm. There are actually more animals which have no sexual conterpart. And also, if everything has a pair, what would be the pair of a phone be? A tablet? A television?

1. SEVEN ATMOSPHERE

"It is Allâh Who has created seven heavens..." (Quran 65:12)
The Quran says that there are 7 heavens and some muslims like to claim that this 7 heavens concept actually represents the 7 atmospheres.
I said "some" muslims because this is a really dumb "miracle" and you wont hear it from someone who has a decent knowledge of Islam, but because I still hear it a lot from muslims, I wanted to include it in here.
You can debunk this verse with another Quran verse, which says that the stars are in the lowest heaven:
"And We adorned the lowest heaven with lamps ˹for beauty˺ and for protection." (Quran 41:12)
("lamps" means stars)
Planes fly at the lowest atnosphere so according to this verse, than planes actially fly next to the stars?
Bonus fact: the concept of 7 heavens is stolen from the summerian mythologie :3

1. CHEST-TIGHTENING IN HYPOXIC ENVIRONMENTS

"But whoever He wills to leave astray, He makes their chest tight and constricted as if they were climbing up into the sky."
Ypu probably know that if you climb a mountain or are generally in higher places, the oxygen gets less because the gravitational pull isn't as stong.
Basically, you breathe harder on higher places. And this verse "shows that 1400 years before, when no one knew it!!"
That's a lie, people knew that. Also, Momo and his people would also have experienced it themselves, because of the environment there.
Not to forget, it is also wrong. If you were climbing 'up into the sky' your chest doesn't gets tight. It just feels like that.

1. MOUNTAINS HAVE ROOTS

"...and made the mountains as pegs..." (Quran 78:7)
Mountains have "roots" which are under the earth. And according to muslims, the refference with 'pegs' seems to show that.
And tbh, I don't find a logical way to explain this. I- I think I'm gonna convert back to Islam! Now I understand that not my eyes, but that my heart was blind all along! ALLAH FORGIVE ME! "Aschhadu an la ilaha illa-lah wa-"
Aristotle enters chat
"I knew that" he said with his magnificent eyes and with his 6.5 feet tall body when he enetered the room. His smell immediately filled my head. His body, so attractiv like the sun for Icarus...
(I'm sorry, I only slept like 4 hours, my brain is playing dumb)
Jokes aside, Aristotle already proposed the idea of mountains having roots under the earth. So it was nothing new.
~Aristotle seemed satisfied with the truth out and he left the room. As he closed the door, he looked at me and gave me a little smirk... and he was gone... But I knew that he would come back... Eventually... In another time, another place, another "miracle", I would see him again...~

1. PURE RAIN

"And He is the One Who sends the winds ushering in His mercy, and We send down pure rain from the sky." (Quran 25:48)
When water steams from the ocean to the sky and joins into clouds, the bacteria, dust or any other thing gets left behind and it's only water. And the Quran says that the rain is pure. Boom, miracle.
Not really, ancient people already believed that the rain was clean. And I know that the verse means 'pure' and not 'clean'. But the word used for pure actually also translates to clean and by translating to 'clean', I'm actually doing Muslims something good:
Because rain isn't pure. "But you just said and even explained why rain is pure" Yeah, I did, but this was just about the becterias which were already in the water. Because while the clouds are on the sky and driven by the wind, they collect new things. Like bacteria, dust or any other impurity.

1. ALL ANIMALS LIVE IN COMMUNITIES

"All living beings roaming the earth and winged birds soaring in the sky are communities like yourselves."
The sources, where I find my scientific miracles, says: "Animals live in communities and have their own languages. This was known recently, however this was portrayed in the Quran 1400 years before it was discovered."
And if this islamic website says it, it gotta be true... I think I have to give up, Muslims won, bye atheism, hello Isla-
~With a sudden burst the door was open and he walked in... The one for whom I'd give my life, the one for whom I'd really sacrifice my son Isaak... "Hello again", his voice full of wisdom to advanced for his time... He said nothing, he just had a little smile on his face, that reminded the smile of an alone mother, getting to see her beloved child again after a hard day... He sat besides me, took a deep breath and started "The thought that animals live in communities comes from me. Of course not just from me. I'm sure many civilisations, many great people had that tought."
"Aris? Whither hast thou wandered? By the gods, reveal thyself! Ah, there thou art! What shadows have thou been chasing?" It was Plato, who was searching for his his student, but also his friend. Aristotle seemed rather angry about his appereance and I could see his expressions, telling him to go away. But Plato didn't seem to get it, he was more interested in the vynil.
"Lo, it hath been many moons since mine eyes have beheld such a sight. Behold, within its confines, a disc doth lie, a testament to times long past." He saw the disc in the vinyl, which skipped when I was listening. But I was too tired to care.
"Okay, Plato, I'm coming, could you just give us one more minute?" His eyes shined more anger than the sun light and warmth, so that even Plato understood he wasn't welcomed.
"Very well, very well! I'm going on my path!"
And with Aristotles pulling, he was let out the door. While Aristotle was again on hsi way to me, he also noticed the vinyl and the disc which skipped. He flipped it over... And sat a little closer... (Lovers Rock referece)
We talked some more, but because of Plato, he couldn't stay long, so he made his way. But before that... He pressed his lips to my cheek, and gave me a little kiss. From the point of his kiss, a warmth filled my body... And he was gone...
(If you really read all of that shit, I'm sorry. I'm currently writing this in school... With again, 3 hours of sleep👍, but this is the end of this... Weird shit) (I'm btw also a boy, so you just read a love story of gay Aristotle, yippie)

1. Expansion of he universe

"We built the universe with ˹great˺ might, and We are certainly expanding ˹it˺." (Quran 51:47)
This is maybe the miracle you will hear the most. And to debunk it, simply use one of their own arguemnts: wrong translation/meaning
Because the meaning of this verse changed, this verse can mean 2 things:

1. "We are certainly expanding it"

But also...

1. "We are able to extend/expand it"

And if you look at the most reliable tasfirs, they talk about it as the 2. one. Old tasfirs always understood this verse as "we are able to expand" and not "we are expanding". Tasfirs like Ibn Kathir or Jalal (the 2 most reliable tasfirs I think) and many more tasfirs talk about it in this way. But newer tasfirs, which came out AFTER the discovery of the expansion of the universe suddenly understood it differently. I wonder why...
I'm done, this took me days to write, not because it was hard but because I wrote it in school during recess. And I actually enjoyed writing this very much, I also wanna start another project, where I either debunk "prophecies" in Islam OR show things that are just wrong (like scientifically, historically etc). Again, I'm sorry because of this Aristotle love story thing :3
Btw. If there are still some "scientific miracles" which you couldn't find here, you could write them as a comment, so that I or maybe someone else could debunk it ;)

I have carpenter bees drilling into my house and I'm trying to figure out how to handle them. I've found plenty of information about how to kill them but not as much on how to coexist with them. As a gardener and nature-lover, I'd prefer to find a solution that doesn't require killing the bees.
So currently, the bees seem to be nesting in the rotting fascia boards in the back of my house. The previous owner seems to have done little to no exterior maintenance so my spouse and I are trying to catch up on maintenance tasks. One of our to-do list items was to replace these boards and paint the new boards, which is why I'm not incredibly alarmed that the bees are digging into them. The thing that does alarm me is that it seems a bee drilled through the vinyl siding of our house too. I haven't seen any bees at this particular hole but I'm not sure what else would have put the hole there. Images here: https://imgur.com/a/JIO4Q8p
My questions are:

• Do carpenter bees drill holes in vinyl? I haven't found much info on what kind of damage they do to vinyl. Now I'm just a wee bit paranoid that there's a ton of rotting wood under our vinyl siding that's attracting bees.
• I have a broken pallet I was going to dump but I'm wondering if it might make a good home for the bees. If I drill some holes in it and set it up in my yard, do you think they'll move there and leave my house alone? I'm not sure if it would be attractive since it's not rotting wood though. I've also been looking at bee houses on Amazon but they seem to be geared at mason bees. Do carpenter bees use those?
• I've read spraying peppermint oil is a good deterrent too. Has anyone had luck with that? I'm thinking of ordering some and trying it. We also bought some decoy wasp nests to hang but I've read they only keep bees away if you put them up before the bees show up. I'll probably hang them tomorrow and see what happens but I'm not expecting much.

Any other thoughts/suggestions? I'd really prefer to not kill them but letting them destroy my house isn't really an option.

Hi Folks, trying to clear some shelves as I prep for a move. Everything was looked over carefully and strictly graded. Most have only been played a couple of times unless otherwise noted. Ships with Outer Sleeves and MoFi Inners. Please let me know if you want any pictures!
Shipping is $5 for the first 2 records then +$1 after that. PayPal G&S only. Everything is priced below Discogs asking price but feel free to shoot me an offer if you think I'm asking too much.

Price	Artist	Album	Pressing	Media/Outer Condition	Comments	Discogs Link
$15	Ariel Pink	Pom Pom	Standard	VG+/VG+	Small amount of wear on jacket corners	https://www.discogs.com/release/6249954-Ariel-Pink-Pom-Pom
$15	AJJ	Knife Man	Blue/Black Swirl	VG/VG+	Played handful of times. Record has some surface noise but not really noticeable during songs.	https://www.discogs.com/release/6327597-Andrew-Jackson-Jihad-Knife-Man
$15	AJJ	Can't Maintain	Random Color	VG/VG+	Played handful of times. Record has some surface noise but not really noticeable during songs.	https://www.discogs.com/release/3742937-Andrew-Jackson-Jihad-Cant-Maintain
$23	Bananagun	True Story of Bananagun	Clear	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/15533939-Bananagun-The-True-Story-Of-Bananagun
$60	Chance the Rapper	Acid Rap	Purple & Blue Swirl	NM/NM	Official Release, never played	https://www.discogs.com/release/14602654-Chance-The-Rapper-Acid-Rap
$12	Daughters	You Won't Get What you Want	London Grey	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/12707635-Daughters-You-Wont-Get-What-You-Want
$40	Fiona Apple	Tidal	VMP	NM/NM		https://www.discogs.com/release/14604768-Fiona-Apple-Tidal
$35	Fiona Apple	When the Pawn	VMP	NM/NM		https://www.discogs.com/release/15688692-Fiona-Apple-When-The-Pawn
$25	Fiona Apple	The Idler Wheel	VMP	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/14535322-Fiona-Apple-The-Idler-Wheel-Is-Wiser-Than-The-Driver-Of-The-Screw-And-Whipping-Cords-Will-Serve-You-
$27	Fiona Apple	Fetch the Bolt Cutters	VMP Aubergine	VG+/VG+	Small seam split on top of record	https://www.discogs.com/release/15569212-Fiona-Apple-Fetch-The-Bolt-Cutters
$17	Gorillaz	G Sides	RSD Release		Open but never played	https://www.discogs.com/release/15788303-Gorillaz-G-Sides
$28	Gorillaz	G Sides	RSD Release		Sealed	https://www.discogs.com/release/15788341-Gorillaz-D-Sides
Free throw in	Hollywood Handbook	Vinyl	Clear w/ violet & purple splatter	G/VG	Record pressing isn't great, lots of pops and skips. Episode is listenable but you'll need a little patience. Got a replacement copy from Newberry Comics that has the same issue.	https://www.discogs.com/release/15653146-Hollywood-Handbook-Hollywood-Handbook-Presents-Vinyl
$25	Idles	Ultra Mono	VMP Marbled	VG+/VG+	Hype stickers and shrink still intact	https://www.discogs.com/release/15982988-Idles-Ultra-Mono
$10	Idles	Crawler	Random Color	VG+/VG+	Hype stickers and shrink still intact	https://www.discogs.com/release/20933011-Idles-Crawler
$40	John Lee Hooker	Sings the Blues	VMP Gold/White Swirl	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/16448409-John-Lee-Hooker-Thats-My-Story-John-Lee-Hooker-Sings-The-Blues
$20	Kids See Ghosts	S/T	RSD Pink	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/16231558-Kids-See-Ghosts-Kids-See-Ghosts
$23	Minus the Bear	Acoustics	Green & Beer With Blue Splatter	Vg+/Vg+		https://www.discogs.com/release/15565202-Minus-The-Bear-Acoustics
$25	Nirvana	Unplugged in NY	Purple Opaque	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/14284559-Nirvana-MTV-Unplugged-In-New-York
$18	Osees	Protean Threat	Red/Clear Split	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/15871409-Osees-Protean-Threat
$20	Remember Sports	Slow Buzz	SilveMilky Clear Galaxy		Sealed	https://www.discogs.com/release/14482870-Remember-Sports-Slow-Buzz
$15	Remember Sports	Like a Stone	Moon Phase		Sealed	https://www.discogs.com/release/18450628-Remember-Sports-Like-a-Stone
$20	Run DMC	Raising Hell	VMP Green	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/14531166-Run-DMC-Raising-Hell
$45	The Beths	Expert in a Dying Field	Spring Green		Sealed	https://www.discogs.com/release/24466700-The-Beths-Expert-In-A-Dying-Field
$8	The Glands	Double Thriller	Standard	Vg+/VG+	Never Played	https://www.discogs.com/release/12855495-The-Glands-Double-Thriller
$35	The Strokes	Room on Fire	Orange/Red Translucent	Vg+/VG+	Discogs states Orange with red but record looks predominantly orange	https://www.discogs.com/release/14760833-The-Strokes-Room-On-Fire
$20	The Texas Gentleman	Floor It!!!	Rainbow	Vg+/Vg+		https://www.discogs.com/release/15620743-The-Texas-Gentlemen-Floor-It
$12	The White Stripes	De Stijl	Standard	VG+/VG+		https://www.discogs.com/release/2585754-The-White-Stripes-De-Stijl
$30	Weezer	The White Album	Standard	VG/VG+	Some surface scrathes that don't effect playback. Small mark and bends on jacket	https://www.discogs.com/release/8324845-Weezer-Weezer
$35	X	Alphabetland	Green		Never Played, in strink but open. No trading Cards	https://www.discogs.com/release/15769546-X-Alphabetland

Is it just me, or is every product/service that does youtube sponsorships a solution in search of a problem?
Helix Sleep: who ever said "the worst part about mattress shopping is having to go to a store, why don't people just buy their mattresses online?" Obviously the founder, but like, who in the market for a mattress said "I need something to sleep on and I just can't go to the store, if only I could just fill out some long questionnaire instead of just lying on it in the store?"
Hello Fresh and Factor: Really, how hard is it to just go to the grocery store, buy groceries, estimate the measurements, and go from there? Grocery shopping and inventing a meal based on what I have in my pantry and freezer is the only good thing about cooking, why would I pay to have that taken away from me? I admit I am probably in the minority on this, but is it REALLY so hard to "pour the rice or pasta or oil" into a measuring cup to portion it out, or is your pallet REALLY so sensitive that "if it's too much chili powder the dish is ruined?" Again, maybe minority because I was a boyscout where we had to cook our own meals (generally quite poorly) and "it's not going to taste like the cook knew what he was doing, eat it or go hungry," but I just don't get what the big problem is.
Underwear subscription boxes: not to get to personal, but I buy my underwear at a store like a normal person, and it lasts me long enough to where I don't need a subscription box. Just go where they sell your kind a buy it, and if it's embarrassing just use self checkout. Who is this for?
VPNs (for location spoofing): I won't get into if you should or shouldn't use a VPN, I've heard compelling arguments for and against, and all the experts that are all into online privacy seem to agree that the VPNs that sponsor youtubers really aren't that secure and are only good for location spoofing. I know people who like sports with live streams that are geo-locked and spoof all the time to watch different meets and competitions, but other than that is geo-locking REALLY that big a deal for most people (especially Americans who seem to always be the creators talking about "how limited American Netflix is and that there's soooo much more to watch if I just change my region to Japan," I'm American who watches a lot of streaming, I have no problem finding things to watch within my region).
Loot crate, 1up box, and similar "mystery swag boxes:" those all seemed to have gone away because everyone realized it was all the crap that people weren't buying. At the time though, even as a tchotchke collector I was like "I'm never buying one of those, I want to choose what gets added to my collection, because that's the fun of collecting." What collector is going to want that?
Ridge Wallet: yeah, people need wallets to keep everything organized, and it's smaller, but I just don't get the appeal of why a standard bi or tri fold wallet isn't good enough. I like pocket space too, but that's why I buy pants with big pockets. Plus, I'd be afraid to lose it being so small.
Raycon headphones: probably just a me thing, but I physically can't wear standard ear buds (my ears lack a cartilage flap that is used to hold ear buds in the ear), and I still have headphone jacks and will continue to seek them out or use a dongle to have the jack. I don't like having to charge yet another battery and I especially don't like having my headphones fall off of my ear. I guess people need their headphones but "you need to get these" seems like a stretch.
Brilliant dot com and skill share (and other premium tutorial sites): these creators do know they're pitching this on a website that is full of free tutorials, right? Who is this for?
Stamps dot com: my brain does not have a chip for "I mail so many items and purchase shipping myself that I need a way to buy it online." Like, if you're doing "out of my basement as a hobby or side hustle" online selling you're probably doing it through a 3rd party like ebay that offers a way to buy postage through them (that's what I do), and if you're doing "legitimate business" you aren't discovering a way to buy shipping from watching nostalgia critic. And if you aren't doing a lot of shipping, you're probably just better off going to the post office or shipping partner to avoid making mistakes. Why?
Chime: are there credit cards with monthly fees still? I have 3 bank cards and 1 store card, the only thing I have to pay is interest if I don't pay the full balance at the end of the month. Is it for people who have bad or no credit? Or just for people who don't have these options? I get that people sort-of need a debit/credit card these days and this is just as good as any others, but is it really "that great?"
Dollar Shave Club: I wear a beard that I "groom" every so often with a cheap beard trimmer I bought a decade ago, so maybe I'm just REALLY out of the loop on this one, but is shaving REALLY that large and regular an expense that a subscription box is necessary? Manscaped falls under this umbrella as well, I just don't want to think about that too much.
Storyblocks (the stock image subscription service): OK that one is pretty neat and serves a good utility to a niche customer (though I do have questions about legal ownership of past works once one isn't paying the subscription anymore), but I see this promoted by Half as Interesting to people who are watching semi-educational videos about random topics, not necessarily on channels about making above amateur media productions for people who are looking to make above amateur media productions. I'm sure there's cross over, but like the point of selecting where to advertise is to reach as much of your target demographic as possible and I doubt most people who want to learn about playing video off of a vinyl record need a cheap way to get stock video and audio.
Say what you will about Raid Shadow Legends and formally Crunchyroll (and there is plenty to say), but at least those are solutions for a problem people actually have (that being "I want a game to play on my phone" and "I want a non-sketchy place to watch subbed and dubbed anime"). When game theory was sponsored by gieco I was honestly surprised because I didn't know youtubers could be sponsored by actual companies.
Also, because it's needed to post, here's a nostalgia critic video with a factor sponsor read. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU4UGTe8gXE

Cross-posting this from the LexusIS community just so it’s easier to find for other 3IS folks. While the part numbers are different the process is the same for the 2017-2020 models too if you want to add the front grilles.
Let me start out by saying of course I would have loved to buy an IS350 F-Sport originally; however I got a fantastic deal on an L/Certified 2022 IS300 that I just couldn't pass up.
That said I have always much preferred the piano black trim over the matte gray pieces. As far as I am aware no one has attempted to do the full swap so I embarked out on my own and wanted to share my results. The front grill, rear bumper valence, and the rocker trim pieces are all 100% compatible with no modifications necessary. You use all the same original hardware pieces too including the reflectors in the rear bumper. For the front grill the brake ducts are the only additional thing you'll need since they are a difference shape between the two grills.
Now for the larger corner grills on the front bumper they require a little more work but you do NOT need an F-Sport bumper to use them. There are five slots etched into the back side of the bumper on each side marking where the grills attach. These "slots" are punched out in the mold for the F-Sport bumper and left filled in on the regular bumper. Drill a hole at each end of the slot, connect them with a Dremel, and file the holes smooth. There is also a marked square that needs to be cut out as well. With all five slots and the square removed the new grills will fit perfectly and use all the same screws as the original pieces. You'll need the snap clips to lock the tabs into the new slots (part number listed below) and one little mounting bracket on each side where you cut the square (part number below).
In total I spent about $750 on this project using a used spindle grill and brand new everything else (I haven't replaced my brake ducts yet though). The initial savings I got on my IS300 plus this little conversion is still FAR cheaper than buying a real F-Sport would have been in my situation. Now I just have to buy the spoiler!
Here are pictures of the process for the front bumper grills.
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Parts List: F-Sport Spindle Grill -- 53101-53D30 F-Sport L/H Grill -- 53106-53010 F-Sport H Grill -- 53105-53010 F-Sport Rear Valence -- 52108-53090 F-Sport L/H Rocker Moulding -- 75854-53020 F-Sport H Rocker Moulding -- 75853-53020 F-Sport L/H Brake Duct -- 52811-53050 F-Sport H Brake Duct -- 52812-53050 L/H Corner Grill Bracket -- 52116-53100 H Corner Grill Bracket -- 52115-53100 Corner Grill Mounting Screws -- 90167-50063 (Qty: 2) Corner Grill Retainer Clips -- 75392-35220 (Qty: 12)
Most of the parts can be found at various websites, the clips and screws are cheaper on amazon. I got most of my parts from LexusPartsSouthAtlanta. They are the dealer distributor here so most everything is in-stock or can be had quickly and they have decent prices. Plus they’re ‘local’ for me so I didn’t have to pay shipping. Granted getting from one side of Atlanta to the other after work almost made me want to pay for shipping instead.
Hopefully this will help someone in the future and give courage to anyone who was in my position that it can be done and isn't difficult to actually do.