#and for things to be fair we are starting using the handicap system. where there's extra padding depending on what ur average is

[orcelito]

I admit I still kind of am in survival mode from yesterday. Like I was the "this is fine" dog with a metaphorical house on fire around me. And By God I sure fuckin managed it. In that last hour, as time crept up and I started panicking a bit, I just kept muttering to myself about how "it's fine, I'll be fine. I'm so Fucking good at finishing things." And ykno what? I Did It!!!

But now I still feel that feeling of impending doom. Like there is something I need to do Right Now and if I don't I am going to be Severely Fucked. Trying to get myself to relax some bc while there *is* stuff I need to do today, it's nowhere near as pressing or as monumental a task as yesterday's thing. And no one can go at full throttle all of the time!!!! Gotta chill out for a bit. Watch some anime. Build some Legos. You know.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “The Race.”

Thanks for reading, :) Feel free to leave a comment critique, question, prompt idea, or message me with any questions that you might have!

They had landed on Omega 9 a couple hours ago upon request of those planeside.

They disembarked at the designated landing zone Catpain Vir at their head Sunny and Krill at his right and left with a chosen group of the crew following behind. Upon seeing sunny, the massive crowd parted and scurried out of the way whispering and fidgeting. Sunny either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Captain Vir glanced around the crowd of assembled species, “What do you think this is all about?” He wondered at Krill.

“Couldn’t tell you Captain, looks kind of like a fair.”

The man nodded absently.

Sunny craned her neck over the crowd, as tall as she was, it wasn’t hard, and she pointed with an outstretched claw, “There, sir.”

Just then the crowd parted and a pudgy little Anthraky trundled forward, stopping to stare up in awe at the human, and the towering Drev standing behind him. He took a step back towards the crowd.

“Captain Vir, of the USPC and adjunct of the Galactic Assembly, what can I do for you?”

The small creature swallowed hard glancing at Sunny before continuing, “Well, we had hoped to call in your services for extra security. The Omega 9 race tends to become a little rowdy, and…..” He glanced at Sunny, “We thought that a crew of humans would be a lot of help.”

“Race you say, what kind of race.” The human’s interest was piqued. Krill did not like the sound of that, he had that sound of a human that was about to do something stupid.

“Oh, well, it is a perilous all terrane team race that-“ Krill groaned internally, knowing the human had been hooked at the word ‘perilous’ “Goes for hundreds of miles, each leg of the race is timed and at the end all the times are compounded to find the fastest team.”

The captain had an odd grin on his face, “What are the rules?”

“You will have a five-member team of a single species, no motorized equipment is allowed for use, otherwise, you can get from point A to point B in any way you like. The entire team is expected to preform each leg of the race. If someone is injured, you either find a replacement or drop out.”

The man grinned, “So, are you still accepting teams, or has that closed?’

The creature blinked in surprised and looked the human up and down, “I uh, if you can get ready that fast, than I suppose.”

The Captain Grinned, “Awesome. The rest of the crew would be happy to help with security.”

He left the small creature dumbfounded turning towards his ship with the biggest grin.

***

Captain Vir patted Sunny on one of her large arms as the Drev sulked by the starting line, “Maybe Next time Sunny.” Krill did not understand in the slightest why she would want to join these humans in this stupid venture, looking down the sheer face of the cliff, he really didn’t understand how they planned on getting down without dying. All of the other teams were lined up there too using their intervening time to make tight harnesses of rope and elaborate pulley systems, but the humans were standing there in nothing but helmets and jumpsuits as if they planned to toss themselves to off the cliff.

As the starting horn was readied, the humans moved back a bit forming up a tight line. Sunny took a glance over the cliff and down towards the distant red flag that was there target, marking the next checkpoint, and the start of the next race. She turned her head back to the humans, and then looked down at Krill, “Where is their rope?”

Krill gave a deep sigh, “Knowing them they have some OTHER insane way of getting down.”

She lifted her head and watched as they pulled their goggles down over their faces.

“Ready!”

“Set!”

“GO!”

The rest of the teams began quickly setting up their descent systems.

And the humans, they began racing towards the cliff’s edge. Sunny yelped in panic, and jumped forward and catch them, but they had gone past her. Captain Vir, hurled himself from the Cliff. Onlookers screamed as four other humans followed.

Sunny and the others raced to the edge glancing over expecting to find the human plastered on the rock face below.

To her relief, and mild annoyance though, she found the humans gliding in a tight formation towards the distant flag. Canvas flaps connected their legs together and their outstretched arms buoying themselves up on currents of air. Sunny watched in wide eyed awe, she didn’t know humans could fly.

Sunny turned her head to look at Krill who sat, unperturbed back at the starting line. Eyes narrowing she marched over, “You knew that was going to happen.”

Krill looked up at her with his wide hexagonal eyes, “No, I didn’t, but humans don’t often hurl themselves from cliffs without a reason.”

Over to their side, Sunny heard two of the race proctors listening to each other, “Is that legal?”

“It wasn’t motorized.” The other said, trailing off, “This will skew the scores for sure.”

They sighed, “I guess that’s what we were asking for when we let humans enter.”

***

They took a shuttle down to the base passing the two other teams, on their way down. Sunny stared out the window with wonder staring up at the sheer cliff-face Humans weren’t afraid of falling.

They landed at the red Zone to find the humans unzipped from their suits and lounging around. Still slightly worried, Sunny ran over to the captain and began feverishly examining him. He seemed surprised, “Sunny, what the hell are you doing?”

She stepped back sheepishly. She wouldn’t know what to look for anyway, she wasn’t a doctor.

“Are you ok?” She wondered

“Yes, Sunny, of course I am.”

***

The race was very exciting for Sunny, the next part of the Race was mountain terrane, and she watched in admiration as the humans mounted their wheeled steeds and raced through the trees frantically peddling their legs. Even handicapped by ten minutes, they outstripped their opponents, bursting through the trees, catching air over the competition before vanishing into the trees with a soft rustle. The way they maneuvered at such high speeds was miraculous dodging trees and cutting along thin forest tracks, balancing lightly atop the metal frames. The race proctors could do nothing seeing as the contraptions were completely manpowered, though a set of gears increased the speed tenfold.

They traded their ‘bikes’ for a couple sets of skis on the next leg of the race, one was used to move across stretches of flat snow, while the other pair were used for racing down mountains! Sunny watched in anxiety and excitement, as the humans raced down the sheer icy face sending waves of powder up behind them as they went. Their inhuman counterparts glared from where they trudged through the snow. Sunny wondered if they would ever let her try.

Moving from there, they stopped at a miles stretch of forest. Sunny vaguely wondered if the humans were going to use their ‘bikes’ again, and, as the race started, she watched as the humans, instead of moving towards the next checkpoint dragged themselves over to the river. She didn’t think that was likely to help them much, but was pleasantly surprised when, they forced themselves into metal tubes, and began paddling themselves down the river. Despite the rapids and the raging water, they were making good time allowing most of the work to be done by the rushing water. Sunny herself was very afraid of water, she didn’t know how to swim. None of the Drev knew how to swim. There were many streams on her planet, but no bodies of water large enough for a Drev to ever have needed to learn.

The dessert terrain brought things down to a more equal level. The humans had no real clever ways of getting across this terrain, and so, they began the race on foot like the others. The Rundi outstripped them quickly, and so did at least two other teams. Was this the human’s weakness? Heat? But as she watched, the humans broke into a steady jog stripping down to their lightest clothing. This steady jog took them through the heat and past teams trying desperately to cool off in in the shadow of sand dunes. The humans seemed to have no need to stop, and with quick sips of water here and there, they began to catch up to their Rundi counterparts. Struggling to the top of a sand dune, they met the Rundi at the top just beginning their descent. The Rundi were moving faster when one of the humans motion for the other’s attention.

She couldn’t really see what he was doing, but she gave off a short roar of delight as the humans began speeding down the sand, like it was snow, sitting on what appeared to be plastic bags of some sort. Whatever it was, it reduced the friction between the human and the sand, and gravity did the rest. They reached the bottom a few meters before the Rundi and the two battled for first place in the intervening minutes. The humans might have won this leg of the race too if it were longer, and even so, they only lost by a few seconds.

At every turn the humans had a new trick up their sleeve. The upcoming freshwater lake had them paddling across In a single boat using coordinated calls to stroke at the same time as the other creatures swam or floated after, some choosing to instead race around the lake to avoid the water.

Terrain met roadway, and the humans strapped tiny wheels to their feet speeding past even the Rundi on the flat surfaces laughing in that odd way that humans had.

Sunny watched with wide eyes and bated breath turning to look at Krill. Instead of finding him as enthralled as she was, she found him looking disapprovingly over the side of the transport pod arms crossed. The little creature seemed almost exasperated by the humans when he should definitely be in awe.

Sunny frowned.

Krill looked up at her, “What?”

“I could ask you the same thing,”

He sighed, “Do you know just how dangerous all of this is. I mean If jumping off a cliff weren’t bad enough, they have to expose themselves to crashing into trees face first, or drowning, or burning to death or something else, and not only that but they have to do it at the highest speeds possible. Ever noticed that Sunny, humans hate being slow, so they make things specifically to make them faster at absolutely everything, and when they don’t want to be fast at something, they make a machine that can be fast for them.”

Sunny turned away from Krill with the shake of her head and thoughtfully looked down at the humans, who, had dominated the race by about three hours, on their time sheets. Captain Vir graciously declined first place proclaiming that it was hardly fair for the other teams and that the humans were just there to have fun, presenting the prize to the second place team who were just as shocked as Sunny.

She had figured it out.

One of the things about humans that the Drev never took into account. The humans were innovative, if they couldn’t do something well, they would design things to make them do it better weather it be machines exo-skeletons or mechanical limbs. The Drev had never through of that, it was all about how warlike a species was, how much armor you could breed into the population, how long can you ake their claws, but no…. what was the point of doing either of those things when you could just MAKE armor, and MAKE claws…..

This entire thing was beginning to change the way sunny saw humans.

Humans were innovators. 

[danwhobrowses]

General Discussions: All Elite Wrestling (AEW)

So with All Out happening tonight (or well, tomorrow morning for me) I’m in the mood to get a lot of AEW talk off my chest. The difference between this and previous talks ‘In (Slight) Defense of AEW’s Women’s Division’ and ‘Are AEW Planning a Second Show?’ - the latter of which seems to have been confirmed - I don’t want to talk about one sole thing, I have multiple things I wanna talk about: Criticisms, Hindsight, Signing Suggestions, Predictions and whatnot. I’m also gonna split this into two at least, we’re gonna start with some critiques (positive and negative criticism) and some hindsight talk.

Critiques So AEW has been running officially since May 2019. Meaning that half of their lifespan has happened during COVID 19′s pandemic, before I go into positive and negative criticisms I’d like this point to at least commend AEW on their action and sustainability during this time; several other brands have had to sadly close or cease programming for a long time, with ROH only just returning. AEW has done a stellar job being safe as well, only one confirmed case in QT Marshall (Moxley quarantining because of Renee’s positive case), frequent tests and having small amount of fans in the arena, this is on top of the fact that Jacksonville is also a hotspot, so currently well done on that. But AEW is far from a perfect company, no company can be. However, not all criticism is fair and I wanna vent some of that. Fair Criticism towards AEW First I wanna point out that there are things even I don’t like about AEW, because I know people will paint me as an apologist, I’d also wanna preface that there are parts of WWE I like too, and parts I don’t like. On AEW’s part though I think the fairest criticism for it is that a lot of talent slip through the cracks, COVID doesn’t help of course but talent had been kept away from the main show or not getting their due; Santana and Ortiz and the Lucha Bros should be tag champions by now, Scorpio Sky would’ve been a great TNT champion, Jurassic Express despite their popularity often seem to be on the losing end of feuds, Private Party have fell into the undercard of the tag division, Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss are sadly purposeless and Lance Archer is just floating around, Nyla and Vickie’s partnership hasn’t really gone anywhere either as of yet and Abadon has been kept from the title picture. There’s also the flip-flop booking of Shawn Spears, Jake Hager, Mel, Luther, Penelope Ford, TH2 and others. While I am gonna track back on the Women’s Division complaint it would bode better for AEW if they had more storylines, and their title was better. I mean the design is fine, it just needs to be bigger. The Picture with Shida and Cody swapping belts really sells that. Belt designs have been very up and down too, the TNT title is not good, the FTW title is a bit iffy but even that is a better design. So far only ‘Big Platinum’ and the Tag Titles are original designs without complaints. Unfair Criticism towards AEW Since a lot of people compare AEW to WWE, there will be times where people will treat them as the same, and that’s not really too fair. Case in point, big one out of the way, The Women’s Division. Wanting more from the women is fair but as I detailed they are pretty handicapped right now since many of their wrestlers are overseas, but when they make moves in a positive light they’re still criticised. Thunder Rosa (fka Kobra Moon of Lucha Underground) is great and we have a much hyped match for that. The criticisms reared its head more with the Deadly Draw and the Tooth and Nail match being in the Buy In. I’ve already discussed the benefits of the Deadly Draw in a prior post so I’m gonna focus on Swole/Baker. Now on the Main Card anyway thanks to fan response, it shouldn’t have been treated like AEW pre-shows are like WWE’s, there’s a Number 1 Contendership Battle Royale on that same Buy In, Khan has been clear that he wants people invested enough to ‘Buy in to the PPV’ so it shouldn’t be treated as a disservice.

I’d also like to segue this into a WWE comparison, because whenever AEW is on you have people tracking how many women’s segments there are. So let me run down WWE for a bit

Smackdown had 3 Women’s Bits last night (4th Sept): the Tag Match that led to FINALLY the Banks/Bayley schism, a cryptic hint towards a woman returning (rumors of Eva Marie I hope are false, maybe it’s Carmella?) and a small backstage segment between Bliss and Bayley

NXT on ‘Super Tuesday Part 1′ had 1 very short match building to the Candice/Tegan feud and a package for Ripley vs Mercedes

Raw had 2 matches and 3 segments which included a Payback rematch

Payback had 2 matches, one on the Pre-Show, both of these matches would later be rematched in the following week

Summerslam had 3 matches, only one of them not a title match and one of them being rematched on the following Raw

NXT TakeOver 30 had 1 match, a title match, including the Pre-Show

For all the criticism AEW gets for having 2-3 bits on Dynamite (which is an hour less than Raw might I add and Dark hosts consistently 3 women’s bits that nobody acknowledges simply because the matches are squashes) I never see WWE criticised in that same vein, and that’s unfair, criticise both. The main difference is that AEW do not have the ‘seasoned big star’ because they’re not that old, Mickie James, Asuka, Bliss and the Four Horsewomen didn’t just get this popular overnight, they spent years honing this craft to this audience. Would it be great for AEW to have a megastar type? Sure but business is not all that easy, who do you take? Tessa’s attitude isn’t exactly positive for business, time is what they need and it’s something people are not giving. Of the other unfair criticisms the quick and easy one is the ‘AEW is TNA 2.0′ - newsflash, most wrestlers will go through the WWE machine in some shape or form, if you complain that AEW lacks female stars because nobody is well known but criticise the men’s division for using well-known ex-WWE talent then you have to see the contradiction. Moxley has been great, Jericho has been great, Brodie has been great, it’s not like AEW aren’t promoting others either. And also the ‘VP is becoming like the McMahons’ - people think that because a wrestler is a booker that they’ll only book themselves strong, but Cody let himself get squashed by Brodie, Kenny passed out to PAC and lost to Moxley, the Bucks haven’t been tag champions and Brandi hasn’t inserted herself in any title match. Just because we’re burned by WWE doesn’t mean that AEW are the same. I am all for constructive criticism with the brand because there are certainly places where it can improve, but it keeps circling around to the fact that we put WWE as the negative standard we compare AEW to, as if WWE are literally the Simpsons of Wrestling, there’s not gonna be much they haven’t done. Hindsight Talk So with the critiques out of the way now we can talk about some missed opportunities, since it kinda pairs together with that. Nearly a year and a half and AEW is still quite different to how it started, there are some things though we could still look back in regret. The easy one is doing a more thorough background check. The SpeakingOut movement affected all of wrestling and led to the departure of Jimmy Havoc, likewise it also led to the Elite cutting ties with Joey Ryan and distancing from Marty Scurll, of course until people spoke out it would’ve been impossible to know but knowing now does make parts of All In and AEW’s history come with a sense of bitterness. A further stressing of variety would’ve helped AEW, there’s a lot of criticism when people don’t understand that things are different for a reason, comedy has a place in Wrestling, we just need a reminder. The ranking system and tag rules could still be clearer. There’s also the sooner dropping of aspects like the Nightmare Family faction with Mel and Luther with Brandi, as well as some other dropped plots like Brandi’s mental break, Allie’s affiliation with the Butcher and Blade (the latter being her irl husband) as ‘the Bunny’, Christopher Daniels’ feuds with Pentagon and the Dark Order, the initial presentation of the Dark Order, not debuting Sadie Gibbs earlier and maybe pushing Intergender wrestling a bit sooner. AEW were reluctant and a Kip/Penelope vs Kenny/Riho feud was in the works to some solid appeal, but it sadly went nowhere. The Deadly Draw could’ve been longer, but I stand by the decision to put it on Youtube. I think the TNT title tournament could’ve been longer too. The bigger regrets I personally wished from AEW are that the Lucha Bros didn’t win the tag titles first, SCU are great but Lucha Bros are next level wrestlers who are monstrously talented, given Hangman and Kenny’s blockbuster match with the Lucha Bros, it’s a shame that we didn’t have a bigger feud where the Lucha Bros took their Young Bucks feud momentum to win the whole tournament. Not signing Mercedes Martinez, Deonna Purrazo or pushing a Kong vs Kong match would also be a missed opportunity too. Hindsight is of course 2020 so we can’t be too hard on AEW, as we’ll move onto in Part 2, when we’ll talk about All Out Predictions and positive hopes for AEW’s future

[murasaki-murasame]

Oh boy, that anniversary Dragalia Digest sure was something, huh? lol

Anyway I’ve got a lot of thoughts on it, and the surprising amount of announcements and surprises in it.

ok realistically like half of my brain power is still being taken up by ‘MEGAMAN!????’ but I have at least some actual thoughts on everything else we’re gonna get in the anniversary and in the near future, lol.

And on that note, I’m surprised at how much stuff they talked about that’ll be slowly coming out over the next six months. I expected this digest to just be about the anniversary. I’m honestly a little unsure exactly when certain things are planned to come out since they kinda just jump from ‘anniversary stuff’ to ‘stuff for later this year’ to ‘stuff that’ll happen by the 1.5-year anniversary’ really quickly. But at the very least we know what the 1.12 update has in it since that’s out now.

Anyway, I ended up being right about a fair amount of my predictions [if I remember them all right], with me mostly just being wrong about my more hopeful but unlikely guesses like a Switch port or an anime announcement. But I was right about a lot of the event stuff. Though it wasn’t really hard to predict stuff like Euden being our new gala unit :v

I’m honestly a bit surprised that they’re actually committing to having his alt be a summonable gacha unit and not a free welfare unit of some kind, or a direct promotion of the existing Euden. It feels kinda strange to have to try and pull for an alt of the protagonist, but oh well.

As i figured, he’s a light sword unit, and I probably should have expected that he’d end up being really strong. On paper he sounds like a melee version of Gala Cleo, so I guess we’ll see how that turns out. Light needs more strong DPS units, but it mostly just needs strong DPS units that are in the regular summoning pool. At least shadow has a whole bunch of strong non-limited units. And we’re even getting a shadow banner after the gala. So I hope that we can at least get some more good light DPS units from other banners soon. But really I just hope they don’t balance light-attuned content around the assumption that you have Gala Euden. In the short term lots of people will probably get him between the daily free tenfold summons and the platinum gala summon, but once this is all over he’ll be really hard to get.

They’re also casually dropping the fact that some units are gonna get unique coabilities, starting with him. I’m really curious to see if this will be exclusive to limited units, or if some random banner units down the track will also have unique coabilities.

It also looks like we’re getting a regular raid event starting in a few days, which is kinda surprising. I wasn’t expecting a raid event next since we’re getting an astral raid this weekend, but I think the raid event will start pretty much immediately after the next astral raid ends, so i guess it works out, lol. I was expecting more of an anniversary-themed event, if that makes sense, but the more i think about it, the more that might actually be the case. Sort of.

We still don’t really know much about the raid event since it hasn’t gotten a detailed announcement yet, but they decided to announce the post-gala summon banner which seems to be directly tied to this event, since they have the same name and all, and it puts into perspective what the event will probably be about.

Basically, the next banner has Alberius’ pacted dragon on it, a new unit who’s related to the Binding Ruins which were a big part of the history of the royal family, and the other new unit is tied to the royal family as well. The event also seems themed around time travel, since it’s called Fractured Futures, the raid boss is called Chronos, and there’s clockwork-themed event currency. The guy on the event banner image who’s probably gonna be our welfare unit for the event also looks a LOT like Euden.

So let’s just say that a whole bunch of signs seem to be pointing at the idea of time travel magic or whatever letting us get young Alberius as a welfare unit, along with his pacted dragon as a new dragon we can summon. Maybe the new banner units will be part of the raid event story itself, and it’ll be themed around Alberius’ history and the royal family in general, which would be a nice follow-up to chapter 10, and it’d feel important and plot-relevant enough to be a nice anniversary event.

Or i could be wrong and the event welfare unit could just be some random blond dude who just so happens to look like he’s related to Euden, but the lore behind the new banner units and the fact that the next banner just straight up has Alberius’ dragon on it makes me think I’m probably right. [He might also be some other ancestor of Euden’s who isn’t Alberius, but it’d be weird if we got some random ancestor of his while we get Alberius’ dragon in the next banner]

I was kinda sad that us getting Gala Euden might mean we wouldn’t get Alberius as a playable unit, but this would be a fun way for them to have their cake and eat it too, lol. Considering what happened in chapter 10 they were going to need some kinda time travel magic to let us use him anyway, and that might be exactly what they’re doing. So I can’t complain, since chapter 10 really made me want Alberius as a playable unit. I just hope that he’s not yet another light sword who’s gonna be immediately invalidated by Gala Euden. Especially since even before this we got Alfonse as a really good light sword event unit. They could at least make him a light blade unit or something to make him stand out. Or maybe they’ll throw us a curveball and he’ll be a shadow unit.

And on the topic of the shadow banner we’re gonna get for this event later, I think it’s gonna take me a while to figure out exactly how I feel about it. I’m happy about Chthonius since I don’t think shadow has a non-limited 5-star strength dragon yet, but the two new adventurers seem . . . weird. Between this and Lea, they’re really leaning hard into these Fjorm-esque units lately. It’s kinda weird. In general it’s just hard to tell how useful they’ll be.

Cassandra reminds me a bit of Veronica, but her skills don’t seem to be directly affected by her HP lowering, and her S1 is an HP buff and recovery skill, which is . . . an odd choice for someone who seems to be based around taking damage. I guess the plan is to have her keep alternating between getting to low health and then healing herself so she can trigger her strength buff again by taking more damage. Oh and there’s also the fact that she’s gonna be in competition with Gala Cleo, but at least she’s not limited.

And on the other hand, Delphi just has a bizarre-looking kit. His kit’s all about debuffing the enemy and inflicting poison on them, but he also has a permanent 60% strength debuff on himself for? some reason??? I can only assume that without it, his personal DPS would be way too high in addition to his poison and debuffs. But it’s certainly a new way to go about handicapping a unit to keep them from being overpowered. I just hope it doesn’t lead to him being too weak. But on the other hand, he’s cute, so really it’s impossible to say whether or not he’s a bad unit :)

It’s also worth noting that there might be a secret 4-star in the banner since those are never talked about in these preview posts, but the last couple of shadow banners have just been two 5-star adventurers and a 5-star dragon so I wouldn’t bet on it. But if we do get one, I think blade is the only weapon type we don’t have a shadow 4-star unit for, so that’d be nice to get.

I want to splurge on the gala since i’ve been specifically saving up for it, but between us getting free daily tenfolds, us getting a shorter second gala period where the earlier gala units are featured, AND us knowing about the post-gala banner like two weeks in advance, I’m not really sure if it’d be a good idea for me to go all in on it immediately. But I also want to get Gala Euden, so we’ll see.

I’m still kinda shocked that we’re getting ten whole days of tenfold summons. I know I predicted something like this, but I figured it’d be a week at most, and just cover the gala. But this is ten days long, and the last three days will apply for the post-gala banner. We’re also getting 5k wyrmite from the log-in bonus, 2.5k wyrmite in total from the co-op reward reset, and a tenfold voucher from the version update, so this is . . . a lot of free summons.

I probably should have expected that we’d get a platinum summon for the gala, but I didn’t expect it to also include Euden. I figured it’d only cover the first four gala units.

We’re also getting a 5-star dragon voucher from log-in bonuses, and there’s gonna be several types of 5-star vouchers in store packs.

And I guess that on the flip side, all that generosity lead to them choosing not to do a dream summon for the anniversary, which is kinda sad since I specifically had diamantum saved up for one. Oh well.

The 1.12 update itself seems a bit low-key, with a lot of the really interesting stuff coming in the next few months, but I’m really happy about the raid battle improvements. It’s nice to see what they’re actually taking feedback into consideration and improving how they work. Like how a while ago they made blazon summons way more convenient, and even more recently they got a lot cheaper to do. I’ve been one of the people wanting them to overhaul the EX Raid system to remove the randomness from it, so i’m glad we’re getting exactly the sort of system I wanted.

I wasn’t expecting the system where in each raid event from now on we’re apparently gonna be able to get a 5t3 weapon of our choosing after we beat an EX Raid. But they seem to have a lot of plans related to higher-tier endgame weapons, so I guess they’re just trying to make the 5t3 weapons more accessible. It seems to be limited to one weapon per raid event, so it’s not exactly gamebreaking, but it’d go a long way toward lessening the grind to get them.

Omega raids just seem like they’re an even stronger version of nightmare raids, which is cool and all, but I don’t even think i’ve managed to beat a nightmare raid yet so it’s not really relevant to me yet, lol

Though the new raid boost system seems designed to make the higher difficulty tiers more accessible. Assuming that they aren’t balanced around them and it all just evens out anyway.

We’re also getting a retweet campaign like last time. I think this one has even better rewards, though. The idea of one person getting literally a hundred goddamn sunlight stones is kinda insane. At that point you could probably find a whale in the community who’d give you some serious cash to buy your account, lol.

The mana and rupie rewards are whatever, but a max of 100k eldwater is kinda absurd. I guess I’ll be getting a lot of wyrmprints maxed out and characters to 50MC now.

And then there’s some random quality of life and UI type stuff. As everyone hoped, we’re gonna be able to change the home screen BGM now, which is nice. I’m surprised that they’re putting in Haikei Goodbye Sayonara as an option, though. I don’t think that’s ever been used in DL before, and it definitely wasn’t made just for the game.

The new hammer item thing seems like a nice quality of life addition to help out with late-game grinding, since it starts to take ages to finish buildings, and it’s never a good idea to spend wyrmite on them. It’ll be interesting to see how often you’ll end up getting them.

The honey tree seems to basically be a system where once every three days or so you can get a free stamina refill, so that’s pretty neat. It’ll make it even easier to hoard up honey, I guess. I feel like we need more ways to get getherwings, though.

And then there’s the stuff that we know isn’t gonna be in the anniversary but will be added over the next few months.

I wasn’t expecting them to revisit and flesh out the high dragon trials, but adding in higher difficulty tiers for them is a neat idea. I’m wary of the time attack leaderboard concept, though.

High dragon weapons seem to be their big plan to create a new weapon tier for even further endgame content. I wonder how that’ll turn out in the long run, and how hard they’ll be to obtain, considering how much you need to grind for 5t3s as it is.

I didn’t actually think this was a very likely guess, but I ended up being right about the idea of them expanding mana circles to give units more boosts across the board. Though it doesn’t seem to be tied to any sort of special transcendence/6-star/etc system like i thought. If it’s gated behind getting a unit to 50MC, I hope they really revamp the materials you need to get that far, since there’s some serious bottlenecks going on with champion testaments and eldwater. Even if every unit in the game gets more or less equally buffed by this, and some weaker units become a lot more viable, people would still just choose to prioritize their stronger units if they have to be very selective in how they spend their resources.

Either way, I hope it’s more than just a set of flat stat buffs. I hope they give units new skills and abilities, or at least boost their existing ones.

As I expected, we’re getting a new tier of endgame bosses beyond high dragon trials, though we probably aren’t gonna get our first one until chapter 11 drops. I was almost certain it was gonna be themed around Euden’s siblings and their dragons, after how chapter 10 ended, but I think I prefer the direction they seem to be going with it instead. The fact that they’re all humanoid bosses who explicitly aren’t dragons, and are a complete mystery in general, is a lot more interesting to me. I have a feeling that, like how you can obtain the high dragons as units by farming them, you might be able to earn these bosses as playable adventurers if you farm them enough, which would be really neat.

They also seem to have some really unique designs, and they all look completely different to each other. I actually wonder how they’d work as playable units, if we can play as them, since they have such unique and somewhat alien designs. I’m really curious about the boss that seems to be a set of twins. That could be a fun set-up for a boss fight in and of itself, but there’s a lot they could do with a playable adventurer who’s a set of twins that you both control. The one we got a proper design for makes me think it’s gonna tie into the sci-fi direction the story seems to be taking with chapter 11.

And on the note of chapter 11, we got confirmation that it’ll come out in December, and that we’ll get a new story chapter afterward every two months. It’s really nice to have a schedule planned out for that, but the wait for December will be rough. It also sounds like we’re getting short story segments or side-stories in the months between main story chapters. I wonder what they’ll do with that.

Then at the very end we got a rough list of stuff that’s probably all just scheduled for January-March 2020.

Most of it isn’t really noteworthy, but i’m really intrigued by the ‘play past events at any time’ bullet-point. I assume it’ll just be a way to read through old event stories, but the fact that they said ‘play past events’ rather than ‘read past event stories’ makes me wonder if they might actually include the raid bosses and stuff with them. I have no idea how that’d work, though, since not many people are going to be randomly doing co-op for old archived events. At the very least, if they use this as a way to let us obtain the welfare units from past events, that’d be great. It might let them stop doing event reruns altogether, if people can get all the rewards from them in some kind of event archive. But I kinda doubt it.

We’re also getting a What’s Ahead type of post on the first of October, which I assume will just go over some of the stuff in this digest in more detail. But maybe they’d also announce the Halloween event that we’ll inevitably get at the end of next month.

All in all I’m really happy with what this digest had to offer, even though I wish the next raid event would start immediately on the anniversary after this void endeavor week ends. It’s gonna be a bit boring if we get a few days where the only gameplay event going on is double drops.

[renegade-is-in-my-blood]

Summer 2019 is almost over and I got my days off from work in the last week of August. It was a time well spent as I got to travel a lot and visit new places. I’m gonna take you at my quick trip to salt mine Wieliczka in Poland with me.

It’s been a while since I’ve been home at Slovakia, therefore the choice where to go from Prague was quite simple. My family convinced me to spend the whole of my holidays at Slovakia, but I had one condition though.

We were not to sit at home.

I bombarded our family chat with links and recommendations of what to visit nearby Slovakia. There’s plenty to see in our neighborhood even though I’m a sucker for long-distance travels.

My younger sister took the responsibility of preparing point by point plan of our wide adventure. She actually emailed us a word document with the time schedule and pinpoints. To be fair she was quite upset we did not memorize or at least printed out our plan.

It’s easy to create a plan. Much harder is to stick to it.

We prepared 2 countries and at least 8 major sighs to see. To share it all with you is gonna take more than just one article. So much has happened. Now I’m gonna tell you all about our trip to the famous salt mine called Wieliczka.

Wieliczka is a small town in the south of Poland with one of the oldest salt mines in the world. It’s origin tracks back to 13 century and nowadays is a popular tourist attraction as over one million tourists visit Wieliczka salt mine every year.

The start of our journey began at 3 in the morning when me, my parents, my sister, and her boyfriend started our road trip. Unfortunately, my youngest sister was unable to take this trip with us as she had to work.

  First stop: Salt mine Wieliczka

  From my hometown of eastern Slovakia to Wieliczka town it took around 5 hours. We spend our time listening to the audio of Agata Christie’s detective stories and stand up comedy podcasts. Due to our early start, we arrived pretty early I would say, judging from the number of people we saw on our way out. From afar you could see many car parking spots and young boys in neon vests signing you to park there. Working on commission obviously.

Don’t worry you don’t have to park at the first one you see. For example, we continue further and we got a parking spot much closer to the salt mine entry. Parking cost 25 zlotys, aka the currency of Poland, which is like 0.25$ or 0.23€.

After a quick breakfast, we headed out of parking lot to the Wieliczka salt mine. It was easy to find as it’s this big ass building with a huge fence around it. The whole orientation over the areal was pretty clearly marked and we went straight to the foreign language tickets.

The line in the morning was very short, just like 2 people in front of us. I was the spokesman for our group and it was so easy to communicate in English. We got tickets for 5 adults with English speaking tour guide that costed 95zlotys per person. There are certain places inside of the caves where you’re not allowed to take photographs unless you get a permit. Photography permit costs just 10 zlotys so we got one and it was worth the photos.

I and my family choose an English tour but there are other languages to choose from.

  Obviously, polish, then Italian, French, German, Russian and Spanish. Polish and English were the most frequent so there was a new tour starting every 30 minutes. Therefore we didn’t have to wait long till our tour started. Other languages tours started like every 2-3 hours. Spanish for example just like 2-3 times per day.

In the inside, we got a recorder and one headphone. We were told which frequency to type so we all hear our tour guide speaking into her device.

The tour guide was a young girl with very clean English and pronunciation.

The one you learn from school that’s very easy to understand even if you’re not a native speaker.

There was an obvious temperature difference from outside august day to 10-100 meters below the ground deep salt mine. For my surprise, it wasn’t as cold as I was expecting it to be. I was wearing jeans and a jacket and I was ok. After a while of walking, I even took my jacket off and walked around just in my tank top.

Tour begins with the hardest step. Well around 800 steps to be precise, as you’re about to walk down 55 floors. The whole way down would not be much of a problem but the wooden staircase goes in a circle and it’s all very narrow. Long story short you have to focus on each step very carefully and it’s hard to do when you get dizzy from going in the circles. It took just like 5-8 minutes till we were all down below and the temperature lowered. My legs were shaking so much from all of those stairs and the more walking followed.

We moved through the mine as a group of around 20-25 people and the whole tour took 2,5 hours judging by the first photograph I took at 9:30 and the last at 12:00. Thank you apple, now it’s much easier for me to track my movement.

Wieliczka salt mine was beyond my expectations.

I didn’t think there would be many exciting things to see in a salt mine. Couldn’t ever imagine being interested in salt.

The great tour through the mines proved me wrong. It’s really hard to grasp the whole size of the mine as the visitors gets to see just the glimpse of 1% of it all. Tourists are allowed to 3 floors of grand 9 floors below the ground. The distance is even more incomprehensive. Stunning 300 km long.

It takes hearing about how our ancestors actually dig through those tunnels to a whole new level. You get to hear how they made the chambers by blowing shit up. How they managed to bring horses into the mines. Tourists get to see actual devices people used to create all of their surroundings. Seeing huge ass barrels of slat that back in the day could be used to buy a whole village with people and livestock.

The whole experience is supported by visual aids and shows besides explanatory from the tour guide. We went from chamber to chamber, each named after an important person for polish history.

The most famous chamber got to be the wedding hall that’s justs stunning. There were few of them actually. For obvious reasons, they were the most crowded ones. I was fascinated by the chandeliers that were made out of salt crystals. Just like the rest of the place that has been all made out of salt. The floors, the walls, the whole supporting system.

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I’m sure you expect the place to be the clear white color as the salt is supposed to be, but those were the purest salt barrels missing the minerals that actually whiten them.

You are free to convince yourself of the salt origin of the walls. Lick them all.

But remember that each year those walls gets licked by one million visitors. I personally didn’t dare. I was willing to taste the salty mineral water erupting in the caves. One drop that was so concentrated and salty I couldn’t even swallow it.

Along our tour, we came across more stairs and we kept going deeper and deeper. The original salt stairs were so slippery we had to be extra careful. More so when the tour guide told us that back in the day, when there was no proper ventilation in the caves and it got very hot, the stairs that got very slippery caused several accidents and even death on miners.

More death stories were heard when we came across one of the salty lakes inside the Wieliczka salt mine. Some time ago the part of the tourist attraction was a boat trip over the salty lake. One day a group of 7 people were enjoying themselves and rocking the boat. Unfortunately, they rolled over and due to incredibly high saturation of the water, they were unable to swim up and drowned int he mines. The attraction is now forbidden.

A lot of action for a salt mine don’t you think?

Wieliczka is definitely more interesting than it seems.

  I was expecting to feel some pressure difficulties as we were so deep underground, but nothing happened. Little kids were able to take part in the tour and there are even special tours for families with kids. Also, for my big surprise, even handicapped people or people on wheelchairs are free to take the tour. It’s much different from the regular one and they are getting all the way down by elevator, but the halls are wide enough for everyone to enjoy.

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Along the way, we had 2 bigger breaks. One at the main wedding hall, to look around and take photos. Then in the middle of the tour in another big chamber where we could use toilets, but those were along the way as well. There were also smaller shops with food, drinks or souvenirs. You could buy packs of pure salt, salt crystals, jewelry made out of salts, bath salts and beauty product made out of salt.

My favorite was the display of different salt crystals.

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We parted our ways with our guide and group in another shop chamber by the end of our tour. We were left with several options. There is a lift back to where we were already for some extra money. We could also continue with the tour to the lower level on our own but as the tour guide explained, there are not chamber mostly just salty halls. The best to see is already on the floors we’ve been to. And at least we could follow the signs out.

We choose the last option and headed out as our schedule was quite busy and we were already late for our next stop. I couldn’t leave without getting myself a magnet from the place. There is even a buffet restaurant in the Wieliczka salt mine where we got quick lunch. Then we followed the exit signs until we get to the last big chamber where we were picked up by the tour guide.

Luckily there are no more steps to conquer on the way up.

Another tour guide lead us through the labyrinth of salt mine halls to the elevator. Thank God the guide was with us cuz it was such a maze.

The elevator was just a small iron square space that is supposed to carry 15 people. No propper closing door, just something like a barrier. We were all squished together and another wave of dizziness followed. We were up in an unbelievable 30 seconds but I had to keep my eyes closed the whole time.

On our way back we hung up the recorder and headphone, went through another gift shop and were out of the building. That’s when the huge crowd of people hit us. Definitely, recommend getting to Wieliczka much earlier in the morning to avoid waiting in the line.

To sum it up.

It costed us around 200zlotys with parking, tickets, food, drinks, and souvenirs. Took us 3 hours with parking and toilet breaks. The temperature inside the mine is around 17°C and I would recommend taking a jacket just in case. There is no bigger baggage allowed. I had a small backpack and they didn’t even search it.

Worth it. Never knew salt could be that interesting.

Quick trip to Salt Mine Wieliczka in Poland Summer 2019 is almost over and I got my days off from work in the last week of August.

[tessatechaitea]

Wonder Twins #5

Jayna just punched straight through her brother's butthole.

If you're a being who turns into water, your dick and butthole don't just disappear, right? They just become part of the water! So I'm almost certainly correct in my comment on the cover. Hopefully Mark Russell will explore this topic in a future issue. Until then, I'll be certain to tell everybody I know that Jayna basically fisted Zan. Luckily for the Wonder Twins, I don't know many people and also they are fictional characters. This issue is called "Magic and Games." I think. It will probably take me less time to read this entire comic book than it took me to puzzle out the word "Games" in the font used for the title.

Sure, you can see it now that I already told you what it was! But it was difficult before I worked it out! Although I still wouldn't be surprised to learn the title is "Magic and Galljes" or "Magic and "Gaines" and that the second word is somebody's name.

Usually I don't comment on Mark Russell comic books because to comment on a Mark Russell comic book, you should probably be smart and serious. Sure, he's having fun and writing an entertaining book that I can easily use to make jokes about fisting incest! But he also writes sensitive stories about social justice and systemic bias and ethical dilemmas in changing times and, well, other stuff that I'm too dumb to even discuss in the most general terms! He's a smart guy which is why I hate him with a burning passion! But it's a good hate! It's the kind of envious hate that pushes me to my own Emerald Twilight! I probably won't wind up destroying an entire town and ruining my reputation and becoming the most vilified hero in our universe but I almost certainly will eventually become the avenging spirit of God judging everybody around me! Wait, I think I already am that! Whatever my point is, it's that Mark Russell writes good and I'm too weak to not despise him for it. Polly Math has just won first prize at the science fair because her last name is Math. I guess Sandra Science didn't compete this year so Polly was the obvious next choice. Jayna wins second place because her project on fucking hot guys while being a nerd in high school fell apart when the guy she attempted to science fair fuck turned out to be a villain. It's also possible I'm confusing story lines but you have to expect that kind of thing! I'm not spring chicken! Remembering details between chapters that come out a full month apart has been nearly impossible for the last twenty years! I shouldn't make fun of Polly Math's name because I have a name that people always try to make jokes about too. It's not Grunion Guy! You can probably find it if you do even the smallest amount of Internet research! I'm not going to help you though because I don't want to get called a Deaf Chef anymore! Polly is upset that her father is working with Lex Luthor and the League of Annoyance. But Jayna has a plan to fix things! I bet her plan is to turn into a giant tortoise while Zan turns into an ice dildo and...wait a second! Why am I giving out good ideas that Mark Russell will just steal in a few issues?! Better to not speculate on things! Also, I mean, the cover shows Jayna going with the shark plan.

Okay fine! I'm finally interested in Fox News!

The most disturbing thing about people who watch Fox News is that they ignore five hundred other channels that are showing entertaining things on their television at the same time! Who chooses that shit over Comedy Central or the Game Show Network?! I haven't had cable for nearly twenty years and whenever I'm staying somewhere with cable, it's locked on the Game Show Network 24/7! Who the fuck chooses to watch state propaganda over old game shows?! Fucking psychopaths, that's who!

Polly Math's father wound up working with Lex Industries because only Lex Luthor hired African Americans, I guess? Hadn't he heard of STAR Labs?! Maybe Silas Stone and Sarah Charles fulfilled their quota?

I might be misreading this scene but I don't think I am because the white guys with white guys playing golf pictures behind them seem interested in Filo Math if he's Norwegian (so, you know, totally white!) and then when they meet him, they don't want to hire him. It could be that they really are concerned with his specialty! What could that be?! I mean, it can't be any worse than Silas Stone's specialty of turning his son into a cybernetic example of the castration of the black male in America! That's a really terrible specialty! Although Sarah Charles seemed to be pretty into it. See?! This is why I can't review a Mark Russell book! He's making a great point about the systemic bias inherent in corporate hiring practices and I'm not taking it seriously! I mean, he isn't either, really? He's being light-hearted while still making a good point. Which is what I've done, I think, in my comment about Cyborg's lack of a penis! The Scrambler wants to play a trick on society. He's a magician that believes people are frightened of magic and only like the part where everything is normal again. Magician: "Is this your card?" Audience Member: "Why yes! Thank God you picked my card! I was worried I was going to have to live in a world where my card wasn't picked!" Maybe I'm not comprehending his point. Anyway, The Scrambler wants to do a trick where things don't ever go back to normal! He's a monster! Imagine picking the Three of Clubs and nobody ever showing you the Three of Clubs ever again! Ugh, I'm feeling faint. To save Polly's Dad from definite prison time (or possibly, if Superman shows up, an eternity in the Phantom Zone. As if Superman can be bothered with Earth's judicial system! Pshaw!), Jan has challenged the League of Annoyance to a duel at the zoo. I guess if she wants to stress out all of the animals there with a big battle, who am I to judge? I mean other than being the real life version of Hal Jordan's Spectre, of course! At the zoo, Jayna recruits a bunch of Australian animals to help fight which goes as spectacularly as you can imagine it would. And what I mean by that is that a koala is blown to bits. But I guess that's worth it in the grand scheme of getting Polly Math's father to stop working with the League of Annoyance. It's like that philosophical conundrum about an ant that sacrifices its life for even the tiniest amount to better the world. It's just an ant! It practically owes it to the universe to die for nearly nothing! What does this koala bear expect? It should get to live in luxurious confinement at the zoo and not die for a trivial reason? Stupid koala bear. Go fuck yourself, you selfish bastard. The Wonder Twins defeat two out of three of the League of Annoyance members at the expense of just one koala's life and the bruised jaw of an innocent kangaroo. The third member, some woman with a Kryptonian cell phone whose name maybe I should remember, gets away to go regroup. Sylvia is a racist that joined the League because she didn't like the demographics of her small town changing. She's startled by Filo entering the League's headquarters to pack up his stuff and winds up zapping him like she zapped the koala. Okay, I guess the koala isn't as dead as I first thought. I should have realize a Kryptonian phone is probably sending everything to the Phantom Zone. So once again, I, the Grandmaster Comic Book Reader, was correct when I speculated that the worst that could happen to Filo was prison or the Phantom Zone! I'm the smarterest! Sylvia is caught on camera zapping Filo Math and then messes up in an interview when she kind of admits to having maybe zapped more than one black person with her phone off-camera? It's a real public relations nightmare!

But Lex can fix it! His greatest strength is turning public relations nightmares into public relations wet dreams!

Lex News turns Cell Phone Sylvia into a national hero. Because anything is excusable if you just say how scared you were! I mean, as long as you're white! It's scary being white! Sometimes you have to kill people with your legal gun while standing your own ground after confronting somebody for the most inconsequential reasons! It's just the way the world works! At least in America! Happy 4th of July! Just in case some readers weren't smart enough to get that everybody blasted by Sylvia's phone went to the Phantom Zone, Mark Russell supplies us with an image of Filo and the koala and a bunch of Sylvia's other victims (hmm, all black! But that's probably just a coincidence!) in the Phantom Zone. Polly, at the end of her rope with doing the right thing in an unjust world, decides to contact The Scrambler. I can't wait for her big magic trick to fix the world! The Scrambler's big trick to fix the world is to threaten to scramble everybody's identity. Everybody's minds will switch around so that they're now in different bodies. That means the powerful might wind up being the poorest people in the worst poverty. And the only way he won't do it is if the powerful fix the world in thirty days. Seems like a good plan! Except I'm curious to see how they fix it. Most people's ideas of fixing the world rely on the current world still existing somehow. So the fix is handicapped from the beginning by needing to be built on the ruins of the old system. To truly make a new system that works, the old system must be completely razed to the ground. But nobody has the stomach for that. So we make exceptions and compromises, building the new structure on top of a rotting foundation. It's why DC's Universe fixes always fail. They rely on making things new and better but need to remain rooted in the past. Crisis on Infinite Earths was built on a world that still contained members of Infinity Inc. who suddenly didn't fit in the world anymore. So DC then had to do Zero Hour which told new origin stories but still refused to throw out everything that came before to simply start again. Even The New 52, which people hated because they felt it did exactly what I suggested (razing the shit to the ground), didn't work because, I believe, it didn't go far enough! It still accepted Superman had died. It still accepted all of Green Lantern's past. It still contained a Batgirl who was shot by Joker and became Oracle. It was still the DC Universe but with arbitrary and subtle changes that made no real difference except the jettisoning of a ton of history. So it didn't work for anybody! Um, anyway, my initial point was that real life political structures and social dynamics and economic systems can never really be restructured in a meaningful way because they have to kowtow to older ways of thinking and doing things. The comic book stuff was just easier to write about! I'm sure Mark Russell will figure it out! Or he'll just have The Scrambler and Polly Math arrested and nothing will work out like it should and it will just be the punctuation on the idea that everything fucking sucks. Yay! Wonder Twins #5 Rating: A+. Come on! Everything Mark Russell writes gets an A+! It shows how smart I am!

[jackalopingintothevoid]

Tabula Rasa Part 2

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 TBA

Mochou had gone to work, and John was full of breakfast. (He liked breakfast. He liked regular full meals. He really liked not being hungry.) He’d taken his prescribed supplements and wasn’t feeling as drained today. He had no difficulty focusing and facing his handicapped state was not as daunting.

He had to do something. Anything.

Leaving the kitchen, John paused in the hallway. He realised to his chagrin that he didn’t know the layout of the building or how secure it was. That needed to be addressed immediately.

Which was how Alouette Elodiesdottir found him an hour later, standing on the washing machine to check the ceiling corners for planted surveillance devices.

“What are you doing?”

He’d heard her approach, so he didn’t turn from his assessment as he answered calmly. “Security.”

John heard the dull clunk of a mug being set down (he should’ve done coffee for the others, too-- tomorrow he would do better) and a response clipped and businesslike. Military. Familiar.

“Progress?”

“Mapped the layout, access points secure, basic perimeter check, also secure. Currently sweeping for bugs, east side clear. This is your home, anywhere specific I might miss?”

“Nothing comes to mind, but I can accompany the west sweep and double check the east.”

The brief exchange was so easy and straightforward that John’s knees went weak with relief. He had to take a moment so they didn’t buckle under him. “This room’s clear.” He hopped off the machine, ignoring the sharp flash of pain in his joints, and nodded to Alouette to lead on.

Hopefully she hadn’t noticed his momentary waver, though it was markedly less embarrassing than folding like an M363 motion tracker. He dared not imagine the bollocking he’d get for receiving an injury after crashing to the floor from an appliance he shouldn’t have been on top of.

They pushed forward and covered the west side of the building, and John was glad of Alouette’s assistance. Not only did the sweep get completed faster but Alouette had been keeping this building secure long before John got here. He was confident in her assurance and didn’t feel that nagging desire to go over things a second time. She approved the east side as well, and John felt the long-overdue satisfaction of a completed task settle in.

Alouette picked up her coffee, kept warm by the SMARTmug in her absence, then turned to John.

“We good?”

He nodded, satisfied with their success and awaiting further instructions. Alouette just looked at him for a moment, but seemed to understand.

“When I have drunk this,” she held up her mug briefly, “I will be going shopping for food. Do you want to come with me?”

He felt a smile tug at his lips. It was still weird, constantly being asked what he wanted, how he felt, is this okay. Weird, but not bad. It invited him to stop, take a moment to think-- like little reminders, scattered throughout his day. It was nice, having the time to think. Nicer still for people to expect it and allow for it.

So he did. John took that time, running through the pros and cons of a shopping trip to the best of his admittedly limited ability. His main concern was the safety of those in the apartment after they left, which he immediately suppressed. They’d secured the building, this wasn’t exactly a warzone; they’d be fine. His own disadvantage regarding a lack of knowledge on how civilian supply runs worked was outweighed by the information that would be gained by going. His own discomfort with the potential situation didn’t factor in, though he’d be acutely aware of it for the whole trip.

John nodded. “ETD?”

“Five minutes.” Alouette looked him up and down. “We will buy you more clothes as well.”

He kept his expression schooled, but he was definitely pleased to hear that. He was currently wearing one of two lower garments that fit, and this one was a little more on the pinching-sensitive-places side.

“Five minutes.” He confirmed.

John was starting to regret his decision.

He hadn’t expected so many people to stare.

He felt especially exposed in the ill-fitting clothing, and he held tightly to the blanket that looked more like a shawl around his broad shoulders. It probably didn’t make him any less of a spectacle, but it helped to hold off the brisk chill and gave him a fraction more coverage.

Fighting to keep his eyes on Alouette, John steadfastly ignored the shifting crowds and his heart beating in his throat. He felt certain he was going to get jumped, but Alouette was an ex-ODST and she moved with ease of posture through the throng. He was the unfamiliar element here-- he’d follow her lead, no matter how much adrenaline was pumped through his system.

She didn’t stop until they’d reached the clothing section of the megastore, where she turned to him started to speak only to cut herself off with an expression of guilt.

“Are you alright?”

John nodded, but she didn’t seem swayed. Why did no one want to accept that he could continue when he said as much? They were in the middle of a task, a long one at that; he didn’t have time to let something so banal as fear slow them down.

Suddenly, Alouette flung a hand in the air. “Ça alors, the crowds! I did not think.”

“It’s fine.”

“Non, no. I should have at least warned you!”

“I didn’t need to be warned. I knew there’d be crowds.”

Frustratingly, nothing John said seemed to help. She muttered French self-admonishments and English apologies. Even switching to French himself did nothing.

Well, that wasn’t true. She seemed a little more relaxed when the conversation was in French.

Still, no matter how many languages John was conversant in (he wasn’t going to dig into that too deeply right now) he still never knew what to say.

So he was almost relieved when someone approached them.

Undeterred by the hardened faces staring back at them, the stranger smiled brightly and addressed them with a thick Scottish accent. “Good morning! Welcome to Illume Designs, where the clothes are made to brighten your day! Is there anything I can help you folks with today?”

The chipper spiel was so far off from what John was expecting that he didn’t know how to react. Luckily, Alouette reacted as if this were commonplace.

“My friend, he needs clothes. All the clothes. As you can see, he is bigger than most.”

The stranger-- they must have worked at the store, approaching people who looked lost to provide assistance-- turned to look up at John and their smile noticeably became strained. “Och, dear, a full wardrobe is it? Underwear and all?”

Attempting to ease the helper, John nodded and calmly answered, “Yes. I don’t have anything else. We’d appreciate the assistance.”

The helper suddenly looked a little paler.

But they rallied quickly, clapping their hands briskly in a way that made John’s nerves jump, and they chuckled nervously.

“Of course, of course! Come this way, we have all the max-end sizes this way, over here, that’s right!”

John lingered behind a little and tried not to frown at the aggressive stance Alouette was taking. Did she perceive the helper’s fear as a threat? He’d have to keep an eye on her for both their sakes.

Alouette was at her wit’s end with this shrivelled weed of a human being. Poor John was very aware of this guy’s issue and she was ready to shove his excuse for customer service so far up his backside that he’d taste it.

And worst of all, John was being so polite! He was trying his best to keep up with all the brands and specs and recommendations despite looking hopelessly lost, then came over all worried-looking when Alouette’s thoughts turned particularly murderous.

John had come with her for something to do, not to be subjected to the lowest common denominator. He wanted to get clothes that fit, groceries for the Crew and then go back home-- likely as quickly as possible after all this-- and Alouette was personally ready to catch the hands of anyone who made that more stressful than it needed to be.

God, just a few days ago she was holding him at gunpoint. How things change.

Still, like isoäiti used to say, weeping does not help at the marketplace-- and neither would strangling this shop assistant, no matter how tempting.

“Though uh, y’know, we might not have a lot in stock that’s your um... your. Size.” (If he didn’t stop staring she was going to pluck his eyeballs out.) “I mean, uh-- you’re a big, bulky guy! Y’know? Real strong like, could probably flex right out of most things!” He trailed off in awkward laughter.

“So,” Alouette ground out, “we get clothes that stretch. John!”

She regretted her tone when he damn near snapped to attention.

“What colours do you like?”

“Oh, yeah, yep, colour’s very important! Especially with your- your complexion, it’s um, you’d look washed out in most- most uh, so more muted colours--”

“Ta gueule!” Sick of his prattling, she turned to John. “Laisse tomber, il ne sait rien faire de ses dix doigts, celui-là.” She confronted again the hapless assistant, ready for a parting casse-toi, but John spoke first.

“We’ll take it from here, thank you.”

The assistant looked queasy. “Right! Okay! Ask if you need anything, have a nice day!” He practically ran. Alouette had to restrain herself from spitting at him as he left.

She’d drawn the attention of the other shoppers, but they’d been staring anyway and at least they were quietly keeping their distance. John looked like he wanted to say something about her behaviour but didn’t.

Taking a deep, calming breath, she tried again. “What colours do you like?”

He didn’t answer. He just stared at the max-size clothes, before tentatively brushing his fingertips against a soft cotton tee. She was about to move on when he bit his lip and glanced over.

“I like blue.”

For the first time, Alouette smiled. “Blue is good. We shall find you blue.”

Softly, John smiled back.

[chambersmyers67-blog]

Friendly Furniture Aids For Movement.

I am specific that you have actually perhaps listened to or seen mobility device platform lifts that will certainly give individuals that are mobility device bound a means of entering and also out of their automobiles. In attaining power you have to establish particular individual qualities like looking into a beneficial location to start, check out and create the sources needed to acquire a desired position as well as do something about it. Simply under 6.6 million individuals go to a gym regularly, below a peak of more than 6.7 million six months ago. Using the power of the Zeo Crystal, Tommy, Kat, Rocky, Tanya as well as Adam ended up being the Zeo Rangers, Planet's last resort versus the Machine Realm. It consists of the electromechanical head which is in charge of reading/writing data on the CD/DVD and consumes great deals of power. Also if a gym does not allow a youngster to join, they may prolong babysitting services. According to lots of fitness center sales pitches, you'll drop weight, you'll transform your body and your total lifestyle will boost if you join their fitness center. When it comes to high quality of wheelchair lift, convenience and also convenience is the very first standard for purchaser. It has 11 gyms in Spain as well as 4 in Portugal, in addition to 5 outlets in Australia. With a mobility device system lift the individual has the power to set their wheelchair on the lift and also secure it right into area. The three sorts of face lift treatments are the deep plane lift, the mid lift and the string lift. The genuine power of Power, however, is that ... it's putting African-Americans at the heart of a TV pattern - the antihero - that previously has largely been the district of white men. If you're new to the fitness center you might be daunted, but if you follow these basic standards, it will ease your change from lazy person to fitness center rat. The Bowflex Sporting activity residence fitness center does occupy a fair bit of room; the impact of it is larger than what many people anticipate. The only means for any of the Rangers to call one another would certainly be their independent wrist devices, which really did not count on the Megaship for power. The Bowflex Sporting activity house fitness center is a versatile maker that covers basically every muscle group of the body. Some fitness centers do not allow any person under 18, while some nationwide chains, such as 24-HOUR Health and fitness, allow minors ages 12 to 17 to join. Mention punch power and individuals have the tendency to recollect huge, protruding arms and triceps muscles. When you are looking for the mobility device lift van or you are intending to have van customized, it is suggested to you that you deal exclusively with a credible member of the National Flexibility devices dealerships association when you are have to purchase a mobility device handicap lift van. With the matches still in his hand, he struck up an additional fire, illuminating the opening, showing a collection of actions heading to a reduced degree. I looked up to see what can be the last time Jack checked out me with love in his eyes and afterwards counted on encounter my back to him as i raised my leading to disclose my bare back to him. Although the concept of power is not inborn but learned some individuals have it and also others do not. I additionally like his summary of the cost of power; lengthy hours, hard work, as well as loss of family members as well as individual time. He raised his hand as well as i tensed my body, wheezed as well as closed my eyes all set for the discomfort. Sports Direct stated its ₤ 5 deal was being tried at its brand-new purpose-built fitness centers as well as maybe turned out at the former LA Health and fitness websites in the future. The health club is 142,000 square feet as well as consists of equipment such as outside as well as interior swimming pools, 12 tennis courts, exercising weights, machines and 120 health and fitness classes in a week. It has 40 gyms in huge cities around the UK. Conversely, everyday membership prices just ₤ 5. The majority of regional recreation centre gyms could be used on a PAYG basis. These wheelchair lift vans are specially made to accommodate wheelchair bound person. Enhancing temperature levels incorporated with the damaging contaminants released by nuclear power plant contribute to unhealthy air high quality, activating asthma assaults and various other breathing harms. Pfeffer (Glad this is a created review I have no suggestion how you can state that name) is an academic that specialises on organisational behavior, as well as this book is basically his advice on the best ways to acquire, preserve, and also recognize power. The gamers handled to prise open the lift doors as well as were handed containers of water, coffee as well as sandwiches as temperature levels increased inside. Each time we placed ourselves right into package we shed our power since at this moment we shed the ability to recognize our limitless possibility. What interests me extra is how in each story human life is placed relative to law and political power. The oppositions could not doubt whether the Clean Air Act authorizes EPA to limit carbon dioxide pollution from nuclear power plant. The emphasis of his book is the result power carries those who do not have it. He breaks his analysis down into 3 measurements of power: the initial is straight negotiating and also engagement, the second is the exclusion of the helpless from that bargaining process and/or agenda-setting by the effective, and also the third is the internalization of the ideals, worths, and also choices of the dominant by the controlled. Rather counter-intuitively, the quicker removable quad lift has the same uphill ability as a fixed-grip quad. An old gym at the site closed in 2012 as well as the centre was demolished and reconstructed by the Royal District of Kensington and also Chelsea, who spent ₤ 29million. To me, this is really sad since as I claimed, it was hand made equipment by Joe Gold himself and also has a particular worth to it if nothing else than for historical factors. Then she entered 8th quality and also participated in track, swimming, then softball period came. After the Turbo Rangers lost their powers, he effectively led the team into room, where they discovered Andros as well as the Megaship. I have actually had numerous unforgettable miracles given that I discovered the Secret and now I'm expecting enjoying the things I've developed in the past, caring every little thing in my present, and lovi While the Secret is the legislation of attraction, the Power is the regulation of love. It deserves having a look at which Pokémon are in the health club you intend to attack prior to opting to enter into battle to make certain you have the appropriate sorts of Pokémon to prosper. L'entraînement par accélération sur les plates-formes Power Plate ® acquire une foule d'avantages notables put atteindre, voire dépasser, les objectifs de problem body. Lewis, pushing the ground, blood dripping down his face, reaching out for the last vital to his power. So while energy power plant fitness centers may not generate blinding light, their presence does leave a bit much more light at the end of the passage. Individuals who frequently flock to cosmetic surgery clinics to have a mid lift are those in their 40s or 50s. Stood under the largest shower she had ever before seen she delighted in the feel of the water as it moved down her, sighing with satisfaction as the power shower gently massaged her body. The no-frills health club group, which is managed by exclusive equity house CCMP Funding Advisors, had hoped to provide the business in London following the ₤ 250m float of its main budget rival, The Fitness center Team, last November. Push-ups and also pull-ups are the most standard upper-body motion to establish power endurance. This workout equipment is frequently gone along with by a display screen that tracks the heart price,. in addition to other details like the number of miles run or calories melted. Il est vrai que j' y consacre a peu prés 4 heures par semaine chez moi en musique et je peu vous dire que je ne price aucune séance tant je me sens bien après mon heure de power plate. There are various other basic functions of patio PL-P mobile wheelchair lift are as adheres to. The High court already determined that question also in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, in 2011. Both fitness centers have actually moved the inner city location of Sparkhill as well as cater for a mainly Muslim clientele. The Lumo Raise costs ₤ 80 in black, white as well as grey with black and silver magnets. If you stroll into the gym with reduced power or really feel as if you have flu-like symptoms, the very best point to do is to delay your workout for a couple days. There is an alternative available to you if your objective is to lift weights and also get a cardio benefit at the same time. People waste a lot of money on unneeded cardio equipment, multi gyms as well as overpriced specialist products that quite frankly aren't specifically helpful in an industrial gym, let alone a house training area. Going to imp source was as essential to a Roman as mosting likely to the gym was to a Greek.

[tobogladder]

Sports betting are quick-witted and nimble

It’s difficult to conceive a future where organized sports betting do not exist. The book features people who have achieved incredible feats in numerous sports, albeit some of their stories have been forgotten and untold. From the beginning, new and improved versions of it were made, although some aspects remained intact. In a short period, sports have undergone significant changes.

People may now obtain the needs of daily life more easily thanks to computers and technology. Even in the realm of sports betting, things change all the time. It is constantly looking for ways to enhance and new features to provide. It keeps moving forward on the water, no matter where it goes. It doesn’t care where it goes; all it cares about is letting go.

It was invented the term “online gambling.” A “bet” is an agreement between two people to gamble a certain amount of money over the internet. To get started, all you need is a wireless phone or computer with an internet connection, as well as some money to gamble. You’ll also need to create an account on a website, agree to its terms of service, and perform any duties assigned to you.

People may now play the game from the convenience of their own homes, saving money and time by avoiding the need to drive to a random location to put a wager. Sites like this one were established to ensure that their customers got what 파워사다리 they want.

Basketball, bowling, and boxing, as well as golf, equestrian, ice hockey, football, soccer, tennis, and the Formula One race, are among the most popular sports to bet on online.

The notion is that a sports betting handicapper can continuously benefit from betting.

According to sports services, if someone is “red hot,” you should pay attention to his plays and subscribe to his service. To make their games appear more impressive than they are, critics have devised a variety of grading systems and hyperbolic descriptions. His 500-star MWC underdog plays of the month have gone 16-2, accounting for 60% of his Southern Conference total. Haven’t you heard handicappers say things like this a million times?

Those at the bottom of the sector can falsify statistics in a variety of ways to make themselves appear “hot.” They may, on the other hand, fake their success. This is something that a lot of individuals do. When I initially began out as a sports handicapper, there was no Internet. A score phone was necessary to obtain game lines and scores. Before you could get to the scores, you had to listen to a few pitches for the 900 numbers on this score phone. This score phone was sponsored by a group with a dubious reputation for honesty. This isn’t the best deal in the world, but it was a simple way to keep score in the days before the internet.

At a party one night, we had a negative impression of the host. My friends and I were discussing how we could humiliate the man. The following is what we came up with: Our mark’s phone bill was tacked on with 900# charges. I dialed the only 900# I could remember from the score phone tout to get it.

As a result, I compiled a list of the tout’s NBA appearances. Since I didn’t trust him as much as someone who used a divining rod or an Ouija Board to foretell sports events, I didn’t believe in his handicapping talents. Because it was free, I assumed I’d check it out to see how the guy performed. Afterward, I checked to see how well he had done the previous day’s plays.

what exactly is arbitrage 베픽사다리 sports betting?

A 5-3 record in eight chances was achieved by the tout when he played. There’s no arguing with the fact that a 5-3 night is an excellent result. It was later that day that I dialed up the score phone and waited for the tout to begin gloating about his 5-3 triumph the night before. There was no mention of the tout’s five-three night by him. He had been bragging the day before about his 7-1 record.

“Pro wrestling is a sham,” or “the games at the fair aren’t fair,” are both self-evident truths. The tout, on the other hand, was so determined to be the “hot handicapper” that he tried to make up for a strong showing the night before by making it looks even better.

Why not try to ride the hot handicapper if certain handicappers like the way they ride? It has numerous flaws in both statistical and theoretical logic, in addition to being a poor method for determining how good a handicapper is.

A prominent warning in mutual fund ads is that “past success is no guarantee of future results.” People can buy and sell sports betting the same way they can buy and sell stocks and other financial assets. A marketplace is a place where individuals can purchase and sell products (what economists call “market dynamics”).

The acts of a handicapper have little influence on how well he or she does in a given year over time. Simply put, a handicapper’s overall success has little bearing on how well he or she performs in any specific year, even if that year is stronger than the previous year. It makes no difference to individuals in the sports betting sector whether I hit 60% last year or not. It makes no difference to the random events that occur to them. Even if I succeed in the future, I could lose if I don’t put in the effort, calculate the numbers, and discover excellent pricing to risk into.

[connortakesnewyork]

NYCRP Character Interview Task

How does your muse react to others breaking the law? If they would do it themselves, what is their reasoning?

Connor frowned as he considered the question, “I think you shouldn’t, most of the time. But I mean, unless it’s hurting someone else I don’t think it’s a huge deal.” he said after a moment, giving a small shrug, “I mean, I know I did my fair share of underage drinking, and a little medical marijuana that might not have been exactly legal.”

Does your muse have a loud personality or a quiet one? Do they enjoy being the center of attention, or would they rather watch and listen?. 

He laughed, “Yeah, ah, I don’t think anyone has ever accused me of being quiet. Ever.” he said, shaking his head with amusement, “I guess I’m definitely kind of an extrovert so ... yeah, I like attention. Or I mean, at least I like to socialize.”

What is your muse’s relationship like with their father? Is it good, bad, or complicated?

“My father ... is better then my mother, I guess?” he said after a moment. “I mean, he never treated me like crap, he just ... well, he didn’t treat me like anything. I don’t feel like I’ve ever even really talked to the man. He was as absent as he could be when we still technically lived in the same house. I cut him off when I cut my mother off, and he didn’t seem to care much about that either.”

What is your muse’s relationship like with their mother? Is it good, bad, or complicated?

Connor sighed, "My mother sucks. She never actually wanted me, she had her perfect family already.” he said, making a face. “She pretty much just spent most of my childhood alternating between pretending I didn’t exist or insulting me. She’s, ah, she’s said some pretty awful things. I cut her off a while back, we haven’t actually spoken in two years. She doesn’t even know she has a granddaughter.”

What is your muse’s relationship like with their siblings? Who do they get along with best?

“Colin and Chloe are awesome!” he exclaimed happily, “I mean, they’re the ones that basically raised me, even though they were still just kids when I was born. But, you know, they’re the ones that took care of me, answered questions, came to all the events, were with me when I was sick. It was always them. I’m really close to both of them, but I guess Chloe worries a lot. She can get kind of ... hover-y? Colin’s easier to talk to sometimes.”

How often does your muse think about death? Do they think about it at all?

Connor blew out a breath, “Oh, wow. That’s a deep one.” he said softly, “Um, I mean, yeah. I think about it all the time. Cancer, I mean ... it leaves a mark, definitely. And it’s never really cured. I still haven’t even reached the five-year 'it probably won’t come back' mark yet either. But I’ve got a little girl now, so you know ... I mean, it can’t. I guess I worry about it a lot. And then with the friends that ... I’ve lost three very close friends. I could never forget about them either, they all died way too soon. My daughter’s actually named for one of them.”

How would your muse react to losing a best friend? How would they cope?

“Oh, well, I guess I sort of just addressed that. I was really close to Aaron and Blakely before they passed but Julian ... Julian was my best friend. We were roommates and we just, we just clicked, you know? My other best friends are older, it was kind of nice to have someone my age, doing all the same stuff. When he died ... I mean, I guess it was similar with all them but ... well, mostly, I got drunk, and I cried, and I moped. And then I decided they’d all be infuriated with me for doing that. So I just decided to never forget them, to keep their memory living on. That’s why Eliana’s named for Aaron. And when I have other kids someday, I hope to name them after Blakely and Julian.”

How does your muse handle their emotions? Do they bottle them up or pour them out as soon as they start to feel?

Connor shrugged and let out a small sigh, “I think I’m kind of a ‘heart of my sleeve’ kind of guy.” he admitted, “I guess I don’t really hide all that much. I mean, details maybe. There’s some stuff I don’t talk about in that much depth but ... I think people pretty much always know what I’m feeling.”

How does your muse feel about their body? Would they change it if they could?

Connor fidgeted a little in his seat, “Oh, well, that’s personal...” he said, frowning for a moment before answering, “I’m ... I’m more comfortable with it then I was. But I still ... I mean, sometimes it really sucks to have something that makes you so different. But I try to be open about it, I try to accept it. I don’t really hide the leg. I just ... don’t exactly let people see me without it either, unless the stump is totally covered. So I guess, yeah. I’d want my leg back if I could have it.”

What would your muse change about their lives if they could and why? What do they wish their lives were like now?

“Well, that’s a loaded question too.” he said before running a hand through his hair. “Well, for starters I want my wife back. And my daughter healthy. That’s ... I’d be happy with just that. And then, well, I’d like parents that don’t suck, a healthy body, and two legs. And I’d want all my friends to still be alive.” he said before shifting uncomfortably, “I don’t like these questions. I don’t like thinking about stuff I can’t change.”

In a perfect world, where would your muse want their life to be in five years?

“I’d want Harmony back. I’d want us to be happy, maybe with another kid. Ellie would be just fine, no problems from all of this. All my friends would be happy too, Brendon would have found his brother, but he’d still be my kid too, I’d still see him all the time. I’d be graduated, have either my own practice or be working in a hospital. And maybe ... well, in a perfect world, I guess things would be a little better with my parents. We could at least be civil.”

What are three issues/causes your muse feels are incredibly important? What draws them to feel so strongly about these things?

“I guess, like anti-bullying, anti-violence in all forms. I just wish people could be nice to each other.” he said, shaking his head in frustration at all the things he’d heard about lately, “I don’t understand how people can just be so mean like that. Life’s too short to spend yours just ruining other people’s. Let people be who they are and just be happy.” he added firmly. “And then accessibility. Like, the lack of it is insane. Did you know only a third of the subway systems in New York are handicap accessible? Do you know how frustrating that is when I can’t wear my prosthetic? It’s so obnoxious. After that ... only three, really? Well ... I guess maybe mental health awareness? People need to be more willing to talk about it, not so afraid to speak out or get help. People need to understand it more.”

What hobbies or skills does your character have and how important are they to their life? Is it something they spend a lot of time on? Why or why not?

“Are superheros a hobby? I think they’re a hobby. To me they are, at least. And then like, movies in general. I really, really love movies.” he said with a grin. “I used to play sports as a kid too, so I guess I like watching them still too. But as far as like ... actually doing things? I definitely like video games. I sound like such a stereotypical guy right now, don’t I? Well, I bet you didn’t know this, most people don’t cause I don’t have a lot of time for it anymore, but I can crochet. Chloe taught me when I was in the hospital the first time I was sick. I actually have made a few things for Ellie.”

What would be three songs to the soundtrack of your muses life?

“Oh, I’ve actually thought about this one! Let’s see, just three...” he bit his lip for a moment in thought, “On Top Of The World by Imagine Dragons, In My Arms by Plumb, and ... well, I try to be kind of like One Call Away by Charlie Puth for my friends.”

Do your muse have any bad habits? If so, what are they, and does your muse plan to get rid of them?

“I talk too much, I know that. But I guess it’s not really something I’ve thought I need to change?” he began before frowning slightly, “And, well, I guess some people might say I drink a little too much. It worries my sister. But I’ve got a handle on it, it’s not really a problem.” he added, “But I am too impulsive. I probably should work on that, now that I’m a dad.”

[icsv19]

Enhance your winning 가상축구경기 ratio by improving your information

Like any other sport, sports gambling is a chance game 실시간 가상축구경기 in which a winner and a loser are chosen. Sports gaming may be a pleasant and engaging activity that everyone can enjoy, contrary to popular opinion. But this fun comes at a cost.

You will have to put bets that are typically described as a participant in sports bets in monetary terms. Depending on your expertise and efficiency of your techniques, you may gain or lose a lot of money in sport betting.

Gambling or betting involves generally probabilities, therefore it is essential to determine your chance to win or lose a bet before placing a wager if you want to maximize your chance of winning. Sports handicapping strategies can be used before making a bet to determine the possibilities of a player winning. In this post, we will look at how to select sports handicaps to increase your chances of winning. You should consider purchasing techniques for sport handicaps that suit your requirements, based on your wagering level.

Sport disabilities will be extremely beneficial for newbies as they offer you with facts and information on many issues like wagering and playing, which will enable you to enhance your talents and chances of winning. For example, excellent sports handling for beginners should give detailed and valuable information on various types of bets like as teasers, speculation bets, escalating parlays, future bets, and parlays.

As it might be tough to understand this notion, disability mechanisms should be designed 메이저 가상축구경기 to allow newcomers to grasp it more readily. Whatever sort of disability sports system you choose, remember that no method can guarantee a 100% victory on every bet you put. Any system claiming to deliver this is impractical if it does not attract individuals.

Also remember that your own discipline and the way you twist sports betting systems approaches play an important influence whether you win or lose consistently. How you handle your emotions might impact the betting results you obtain, since an opponent may manipulate circumstances for his or her benefit. On the same point, you can enhance your entries by capitalizing on your opponent’s blunders. Given that sports games or sports betting are based on the skills of a person and the kind of sports handling system he or she employs, it’s important to make sure that the game is fair to both of you with opponents who are at the same level as you. 가상축구경기 바로가기 tobog soccer

If you are betting on online sports, it is important that whoever is your opponent has the same betting experience as you, unless you have a lot to spend. Whether it’s for actual money or personal enjoyment, it’s worth trying and winning a lot, to appreciate the genuine excitement and fun that sport betting can give.

Sports 안전 가상축구경기 Betting Basics

Betting for sports combines two of the biggest interests of men: sports and gambling. No wonder the two pursuits complement one another. If a bunch of sports fanatics come together, they shout and wager. In any sport, a few games are usually the most significant of the season, and the excitation develops as the date of the game approaches. At the same time, bets start to come in.

As nobody knows how to play the game in advance, it becomes a question of knowing which team to win and by how many points. Sports betting can look addictive, and whilst it may be for some, it’s merely for pleasure for the great majority of people, and it is! It provides you a more interesting way to interact with your friends on something that both of you care about. As the final score of a game cannot be established until the game ends, betting on the game keeps the excitement continuing.

Although the bulk of wagers between friends are usually informal, the majority 가상축구경기 사이트 are placed through a sports book, an entity that allows sports gambling. There are just four states where sports betting is allowed in the United States. In other regions, a bookie must be identifiable and a wager must be more than twenty-one.

Sports such as horse racing, dog racing, professional hockey, professional and professional football and college soccer are just a few sports that you may wager on. Sports betting is defined as betting for any sporting event that is recognized. You may wager on the ultimate score of the game, the number of points a team wins, the winner of a boxing contest and the round in which the winner is declared. The only thing that can be anticipated is the likelihood of winning or losing a wager in statistics.

sports betting in the 메이저토토사이트가입 betting exchange

A bookie tells you what the odds are at every time to assist you decide how much and how much to bet. A “point spread” is a handicap for a team that is regarded the weaker to balance the chances of wagering in either manner. A better can bet on the losing team and still win if the team loses a certain quantity of points. You may be requested to play a little more than you believe you’re going to win. The difference is with the library, who utilizes it to earn money on your bets.

It may seem incredibly tough for a novice. Over/under, teasers, parlays and straight bets are just a handful of the various betting kinds that are offered. The straight bet, the most popular and easiest to comprehend is a bet in a team you feel will win or lose. You can 가상축구경기 분석 bet on the overall score of points for each team. These bets are called “over/under.” Parlays are betting on multiple games aggregated into one investment. In a parlay-like “teaser,” you can add or remove points from the dispenser to generate a larger bet. All of these betting choices are designed to make sports betting more attractive and difficult.

If you want to try your luck and have fun, that’s what sports betting is about. Recall placing little bets. It will always be pleasant in this way. You can live with it and still grin, if you only loose a little bit. If you are highly emotional and “bet the farm,” it will be a catastrophe if you lose that can’t be nice. Only an obsessive player “bet the farm.”

[smokeybrand]

The Fallacy of Education

I think elementary school is necessary to an extent but everything I've ever learned after probably the third grade, was during summer break at the library and then all of the time when my family got a computer. I never really learned anything “new” in a classroom setting, from probably the fourth grade and forward. Sure, it's dope to have someone bounce ideas off but you can do that with anyone. You can do that online. Hell, I DO that online now. SO what the f*ck is the merit of going through the tribulations of “school?” Capitalism. Capitalism is the “merit.” School is designed to break your spirit as a youth and train you to be a drone in the workforce. The structure of how education here in the US has been built, is designed to acclimate you to a forty hour work week early on. It's built to make you yearn for holidays and the weekends. It grooms you to raise your hands to ask questions and punishes those who deviate from the assigned tasks. Free thinkers are shunned and the arts are almost always removed in one form or another. Creativity is killed in service to conformity because capitalism needs that in order to function. The second it's removed, the second people questions the status quo, is the second they understand the terrible conditions in which they've been forced to exist. But, if you're not smart enough to ask the right questions, then there is no threat to the current class system.

When i got to fifth grade, i went to a substantially sh*ttier school than before. We move into a worse ghetto than the one I grew up in for he majority of my life and that was reflected in this school's curriculum. These kids were morons. That wasn't there fault, the system had failed them because it was assumed they weren't worth the investment. We'd all end up being thugs and criminals because that was what our zip code dictated. When I got there, I kind of f*cked all of that up. These kids were reading well under their grade, the “smart” one rad at a high school level if I remember but i could read at a college level. Indeed, I was well into checking out Shakespeare and Dante by this point. That was too much for my teacher. He graded on a curve because the kids were so stupid and, after that fist test where everyone failed but me because I got such a high mark, told me flat out that there was nothing he could teach me. I became kind of a TA in that class and never turned in another assignment for the entire year. He just gave me As on everything and apologized profusely for not being able to adequately challenge me. It was difficult to see because I would tell this dude loved teaching and he had an opportunity to rally flex his passion with me but the system in which he had to work wouldn't allow him to do any of that. Because the system, itself, isn't built to educate. Imagine being an educator trapped in that cage? Now imagine being a student trapped in there, too, oblivious to the handicap you've just been saddled with.

When i got to the seventh grade, i was put into remedial courses against my ill. We moved back to my old neighborhood ahead of my sixth grade year so I was able to return to my previous school where it was understood that myself and a handful of others were WAY too smart for our own good. They got us more advanced materials from the surrounding high schools and basically told us to teach ourselves. My then principal drove us over to a separate middle school because it was supposed to have better materials and more advanced courses than the neighborhood one. Our principal and the one in the middle school spoke, we all demonstrated our intelligence, and it was agreed we'd be placed in advanced courses in the coming year. When the new year started, I was not placed in those agreed upon courses. My zip code reflected the ghetto and not the bourgeois neighborhood this new school was in. They assumed i was an idiot, even though i was enrolled specifically for the more challenging curriculum, and dismissed my previous academic accomplishments without a word. My elementary school principal literally drove me over there and introduced me to that school's principal because she wanted to make sure the staff understood that i was wildly intelligent "for my age." Didn't matter. They saw a Meadowview zip and i was put into classes with a bunch of idiots. When i protested, they refused to change my schedule. It didn't take long for most of my teachers to realize I wouldn't be in such pedestrian classes but the administration refused to budge. I was ghetto trash and they didn't want to hear anything else, even if it was coming directly from the teachers in charge of me education. My science teacher literally had us coloring f*cking pictures as work assignments. I refused to do such ridiculous busy work, demanded that he teach me some sh*t and, instead, he suspended me from his class and threatened to fail me.

When i got to high school, i was wildly disillusioned by education and basically coasted my way through. I understood that i could learn more on my own and pushed to be home schooled. The way the that system works is you show up for in-class check-in on Monday and pick up a packet of schoolwork. You complete the school work through the week and turn it the following Monday. No classroom. No teachers. No fuss. All of my credits, and then some, and none of the the everyday baggage. I could excel at my own pace, which we have established far outstripped whatever the f*ck the curriculum is at any given time. Plus, I could return to proper coursework at any time. My plan was to knock out about three years worth of credits that first year and try to get into the off-campus internship with the State. It was called the Regional Occupation Program. I'd be paid to work for the State part time while accumulating proper work experience, and still have time to take some college courses at the local Community College. I'd still be able to come back and participate in all of the social sh*t like dances and games plus, I'd be able to walk the stage with my proper class. I'd be able to challenge myself, build toward my future, and still have that high school experience. But my mom refused. Everything i said here, I said to her, and she still refused. She's a slave to tradition and tradition dictated that i HAD to go to class everyday. The system HAD to be maintained. So i did and, as the years progressed, i went less and less. By senior year, i went just enough to keep the cops of her back and still graduated with a 3.8. I never one applied myself in high school and literally just showed up because cops, gym, and girls. Most days, i left early because f*cking why not? I wasn't learning anything. I wasn't being enriched in anyway. By my senior year, I had two Teacher's Assistant classes, two gym classes, Government and a creative writing course. I never went to that one because it was the last class of the day and Transformers came on halfway through it so I skipped it everyday. In order to pass, I just printed out a novel I wrote when I was in the eighth grade. He gave me an A, even though I was only there in person around thirty percent of the school year. I was writing high school level sh*t when I was thirteen. That's the story of my whole life and it didn't get any better when I got to college.

I thought it was going to get better when i got to college. It did not. I had toured a few campuses around my neighborhood and even sat in on a course or two. I went to a few College Fairs and even got accepted into a couple of HBCs. After a I graduated high school I opted to go to a community college that was near by. I' m poor so I couldn't afford a proper school and the scholarships available to me were all partial. I didn't want to have to split time between working and college so I figured if I got the core courses out of the way early, I could lighten the load and have an Associates to take into a part time gig or something later. I had actually gotten into Stanford and wanted to go but the cost of living was WAY too staunchy so this Community college plan was the best option. I lasted a semester. That sh*t was like going back to high school but i had to pay for it out of pocket. I had dreams of debate and lecture, of challenging a professor who could challenge me in return What I got was more of the uniform apathy that has dogged me my entire education career, only now it was driving me into f*cking debt. I love learning. I love reading. I love thinking. None of that I was even conducive to school here in the states. Often times, it was objectively frowned upon. From kindergarten to literally college, I was always under the gun in that sense. To this day, my curiosity is insatiable and I research everything. I want to know all of the things and the big sh*t like theoretical physics or the math necessary to infer the universe before the big bang, is absolutely tantalizing to me. I was frustrated with the stifling rigidity of school f*cking twenty years ago. I can't even imagine what it's like for kids nowadays.

The education system in the US is f*cking ridiculous. It's not meant to build intelligence or free thinking, it's an assembly line method designed to acclimate you to a forty hour work week. It's supposed to get you used to sacrificing the majority of your life in service to capitalism, busting ass just to get to the weekend or next holiday off, because that's how you'll live the rest of your adult life. They're not in the business of education or teaching life skills, they're in the business of manufacturing more cogs for the great machine that is the “economy.” Why the f*ck do I need to know Algebra 2 when I can't do my own taxes? Why the f*ck do we have to spend three weeks studying the Crucible when I don't know how compound interests works? Parents should play a part in this, for sure, but how difficult is that for them to do? They are victims of the same system and have to sacrifice their liberty in order to pay bills, after being bludgeoned with that same aggressive system necessary for them to abandon their hopes. A smart person is a difficult person to manipulate. When people understand, or even have the ability to comprehend, the scales fall from their eyes. We're seeing that now with the “Employment crisis” and how no one wants to go back to being underpaid and overworked after a the Pandemic showed the world for what it was. It's in capitalism's best interests to make sure the masses are smart enough to produce but dumb enough to never understand that they control the means of production. Why do you think everyone wants the kids to "get back into the classroom" when it's obviously easier to "teach" kids over zoom? When it's obvious that they learn more and understand better at home? When entire grade averages have increased considerably, over the entire country, since kids have been studying at home? Because that structure is more important than the learning. Every kid has a phone, computer, or tablet at this point. Internet is everywhere. There's no reason to have in-class learning, especially considering how many f*cking classrooms get shot up around these parts. Especially considering that there are more kids like me thanks to the ready-to-consume inf oration at our fingertips. This one got away from me but i really, really, hate the "education system" here. It's so boorish and archaic, f*cking obsolete, especially in the age of the information, so why go back to that broken system? Because capitalism needs drones not dreamers. It needs conformists, not thinkers. It needs ignorance not education.

[samiahsultana]

The unexamined life

There is no dearth of wisdom, but having been written and read, one wonders about the extent to which it has been able to inform our individual lives (apart from the somewhat prosaic and self-indulgent subscriptions to existential and nihilistic ideas, arguably as a form of escape). Philosophy is purportedly, at once, the most redundant and essential of endeavours, with some grand old philosophers going so far as to declare that the unexamined life is not worth living (more about this in a bit). Armed with sentience, subjectivity and sophisticated thought processes, have we found the tools to dig ourselves (and others around us) out of quiet desperation? The desperation is probably as good a place to start as any. And what can we speak of, if not our own desperation, for we are all in some sense marooned on our own little islands, pondering the states of the world and the conundrums of our minds. Even when we advocate some universal truths, these are largely autobiographical.    

It has been said, very famously, that the unexamined life is not worth living. But how does one engage in this process of examining and pondering one’s life, and does it in fact bring us somewhat closer to deciphering its meaning (assuming there is such a thing)? Who partakes in this examination and to what end? I see around me an attempt to build an understanding of human behaviour that is bereft of a deep exploration of the nature of existence itself. One might argue that we would learn nothing if we tried to learn everything, but in our quest for specific knowledge, have we gone too far in disregarding the agents and beneficiaries of this knowledge? Does it not behove the bearers and porters of such investigations to regularly question the meaning of their investigations? I am aware of how I have begun with more questions than answers; this is perhaps a reflection of my own clumsy attempt at some rudimentary investigation.

In this process of examination, I have found myself asking whose prerogative and privilege it is to partake in such an endeavour. What are the preconditions? Is it some notion of intelligence, an ability to observe and understand the world in a manner that is unique, and has some universal meaning? Is it access to such unique thought processes from across time? What kinds of thought processes qualify as valid and based on what criteria? Do the preconditions comprise social circumstances that allow one to ponder more than the bare necessities for survival, because it is all well and good to stare out a window and think, so long as one is adequately fed, clothed and sheltered. Self-actualisation does not happen on an empty stomach, unless there is a very questionable (lack of) self-preservation involved (which one does come across occasionally). The great majority of us struggle to find narrow crevices within which to wedge ourselves, maybe somewhat uncomfortably, to ponder these questions, and because they are so narrow, they sometimes require us to contort ourselves to the point where we no longer recognise ourselves. A more pressing personal question, however, is: Having acquired enough privilege to ask these questions, is it enough privilege to aspire to contemplate the answers? Every attempt at seeking the opportunity to do so has resulted in the same vicious cycle of participating, examining, challenging and then running from systems and structures that do not allow those with no privilege to ask questions or seek answers. We have tried to build systems that are egalitarian and fair, but perhaps we have done so based on very skewed ideas of justice. For the most part, our sense of fairness ends where our nose begins, and (many of) our justice systems themselves still subscribe to the notion that retribution allays and mitigates unfairness, not realising that retributive justice is an oxymoron; the idea of retribution only perpetuates the same cycle of violence it seeks to end.

Our species is deeply flawed (to state the obvious) but in our flaws, there are fissures and glimmers of clarity and compassion. For it to have any enduring meaning, the intent for change cannot be confrontational or combative; it must come from a place of cooperation and compassion, or it defeats its very purpose. In striving for change, we must be equally mindful of what we want to change, how we do so and what we want to change it to. Failing this, we might win half a battle but lose the war (the irony of using a war metaphor to advocate cooperative change is not lost on me). But while these idealistic notions might serve one well intellectually, the reality of our world is quite different. And even as we acknowledge the universal and philosophical inevitability of change, as mere cogs in a system, we still struggle with the collective resistance to the idea of change, even if the proposed change is productive and positive. The accumulation of wealth for a privileged few requires a certain level of imposed stability, and in our exhaustion and tentative lassitude, most of us forget we are not the intended beneficiaries of this unfair stability. There might be some relative benefits of endorsing and excusing it, but there is no progress. Coupled with a very human yearning for contentment, it leads to complacency and (often unintended) cruelty; it is not so much the latter that we must guard against as much as the former.

Societies across the world are consumed with feeling good - even to the point of delusion. This would perhaps explain the collective apathy we all participate in on a daily basis. What, then, do we do about this quiet, marooned desperation, this instinct to run and find a new place until we can see its flaws, and then to run again? Or worse still, to stay and anaesthetise ourselves to the reality we participate in everyday, dreaming constantly of an escape that allows us to truly pursue what we find meaningful, whatever that might be for each of us. The truth, though, is that the majority of us will not be able to escape these systems. We’ve built them, we’re part of them, we equate ourselves with them, we perpetuate and defend them. And so, it is upon us to change them, or at least to try. I have been repeatedly told that the path to peace is strewn with acceptance and that one should simply walk along, observe (and sometimes) examine the pieces, but not try and change them (they’re made of materials too rigid for the tools one has), to place them back on the path and to keep walking. What do those of us who find those pieces difficult to walk on do? What if they slow some of us down because we do not have fancy shoes or carriages? And if only those with carriages can and will trundle along that path while reading their books and engaging in their conversations, what becomes of these conversations? Do they not run the risk of becoming parochial and obsolete, serving no purpose at all because they’re being had with the same set of people? Those walking barefoot also wonder why these paths are more difficult for them when others seem to navigate them with much more ease and at much less personal cost.

Peace is pointless and pernicious if it lulls us into purposelessness, and unless we pursue it for as many of us as possible. In our unfortunate and pervasive binary focus, we seem to think of peace as the opposite of conflict; the former perceived as positive and the latter handicapped by (sometimes debatable) negative attributions. Another unfortunate truth about evolution is that it does not happen without sufficient impetus, and history is testament to how accelerated change (for humans particularly) has typically been the outcome of a certain magnitude of conflict. There is a whole spectrum of negotiation between peace and conflict that can be leveraged for positive change; this ‘sweet spot’ of small but certain advancement is nebulous, at best, and only observable as an outcome of our own actions. But that we must act is beyond question.

A contemplation of progress carries the risk of making its elements and constituent actions seem onerous, but they are not. Change is slow and to constantly aspire for it (and against tradition) requires a balance of delusion and optimism - the delusion (and megalomania) to think that one is capable of participating in something enduring and essential, and the optimism that such a participation will be of any consequence (this, of course, peppered with the right quantities of cynicism to lull the disappointment that such aspirations entail). But aspire we must, and in doing so, perhaps imbue our lives and actions with as much meaning as we can; not to martyr ourselves to ideals but to simply and somewhat selfishly ascribe more meaning to our own existence - to ask ourselves what it means to do what we do every day, to teach our children about kindness and cruelty, in the ideas we discuss and defend with friends and family, in the systems we are part of and how we choose to participate in and/or perpetuate them. For too long now, we have hoped for a better world without bettering ourselves. We have imagined the undertaking as a grand external project that we are ill equipped to participate in, whereas the truth is that the genesis of a better world is a bunch of better individuals. We are our own projects, and unless we question ourselves and push ourselves individually (sometimes to the point of discomfort), we will not transform socially.

One might question, very pertinently: Why, in our limited lifetimes, should we expend so much effort for something so abstract? Why is it not valid and morally defensible to simply do the best we can, given our responsibilities and circumstances? Is it not enough to help our families and friends get through life with all its uncertainties and vagaries? Or to bring up a generation of people who will (more or less) propagate the species much the same way as it has been done since time immemorial? The last question perhaps answers itself, and the ones before it. The consequences of not bettering ourselves may not be borne by us (or will be borne by us only for the limited durations of our lifetimes), but the very progeny we hope to protect through our silence will pay the price for our indifference and silence, perhaps more heavily than us. And we’re already paying quite a price.

There is, of course, the possibility that some of us take existence too seriously, but I was told the unexamined life is not worth living.

[solarbird]

The Armourer and the Living Weapon, Chapter 19: The Wembley

This chapter is worksafe. [AO3 link]

"Really?" she said, leaning forward with her phone. "The Wembley, back in Gibraltar? That's nearly five hours away - bit far for a night out, innit?"

"That's true," Winston replied over the line, "unless you go suborbital."

"You serious, mate?" Lena blinked. "You've got a Sparrowhawk?"

"We had to get here before you did. How'd you think we managed that?"

"...didn't think of it, I guess. We were a bit distracted." Some pilot I am, she thought. Should've realised. "Seems a bit much for a night at the pub, though."

"Well, it is. But it is our usual hangout, and we've been in Oasis for weeks now, for the most part, and we were thinking it's about time for something a little more ... routine. See if we can get a little more back to normal."

Tracer considered that. "Doctor O'Deorain's signed off? She's supposed t'know if Em leaves Oasis - y'know, the agreement and all that rot - and really..."

"We... weren't thinking about including Widowmaker or Oilliphéist. Just the Overwatch gang, like usual. Like old times."

She frowned, but could see the point in it, so let it go for the moment. "Does this mean I'm cleared for Gibraltar? Me spending the night there, I think that's..."

"You are, but we'll come back here, as agreed. If we're... how do you put it? A little too much in our cups? Athena can fly us back as well as I could."

Lena smiled a little at that. "Who else is coming?"

"Almost everyone who's here. Jack isn't - he's going along to give the Watchpoint a look-over, make sure nothing's been disturbed, but won't be out with us. It'll be you, me, Mei, Hana, Fareeha, and Angela."

Tracer felt a little frisson of fear run up her spine at the last name in the list. No, that's not fair, this isn't another test, it's just a night out, she thought to herself. Just that. I think. "Even Angie? She doesn't usually come along, not unless it's a special occasion..."

"Well, it is - first night out since you got back."

Lena nodded, pointlessly, and frowned again, thinking. Won't leave Oilliphéist here alone. Can't take her with us without breaking the agreement, least not without Moira's approval. Means Widowmaker has to stay here. Really don't like leaving them behind, though...

She took a nervous breath. "Let me... let me think. When d'ya want to leave?"

"We were thinking we'd head out at 17:00 - the flight won't take too long, but we'll still have to deal with clearance and landing and everything else."

"Makes sense. Um..." she gave it a thought, "...pencil me in, I'll meet you up half an hour before. But I'm gonna check with Danielle and Em, make sure they're comfortable with it, and I'll call y'back."

The hesitation on the other end of the commlink was small, but definite. "Sure thing. Talk to you soon."

Tracer broke the connection, and looked unhappily at the phone, before looking back up to her counterparts. "I..."

"Go," said Oilliphéist, from her seat across the living room table, Widowmaker nodding her agreement. "They're worried about you, luv, and trying to make it up. So go."

Danielle sipped at the tea Lena had made a few minutes earlier, a pleasant tippy assam which had become the teleporter's favourite. "They want to make sure you're all right, and get you somewhere away for a little while from... everyone they consider dangerous."

"You," Lena said, dejectedly.

"Yes," said Widowmaker, raising one eyebrow amusedly. "And Oilliphéist. Correctly so, let us not pretend."

"Don't like the way they're dancing around it. Makes me nervous."

Emily grinned. "Ah, don't worry, Lena! We'll be fine. I can handle my aunt."

"It's not that, luv, it's... well..." She shrugged. "Well, it is that, partly. But also, Angela's gonna be there, and I don't like... bein'... alone? That isn't right, Winston'll be there, I know he won't let anything happen, but..."

"You do not like being the only person there who has been through what we have been through," Widowmaker said, voice quiet. "Particularly not a gathering with someone so capable, who fears us so very much."

Oilliphéist nodded to her lover, picked up her phone, and made a call. Her silver eyes flashed to Tracer, and she said, "Y'won't be alone."

She heard the other end of the signal connect. "Hullo, Aunt Moira! It's Em." She nodded her head back and forth, a yes, yes, I know you're busy motion. "Yes'm. But mind if we step out for the night? We're thinking of going to a pub in Gibraltar." She smiled, as a quiet voice on the other side of the line made noises unintelligible to Dani and Lena. "Yes, Gibraltar. Yes, it's far. We'll be quite late, but certainly back before tomorrow morning. And I'll keep a locator beacon turned on." Some more voice over the far side of the line. "You're so good to me. Thanks, auntie." A little more voice. "Love you too. Bye!"

She put the phone down and grinned as Widowmaker smirked. "Now," she said, "was that so difficult?"

"But you're not..."

"I know, luv. We'll just be..." She waved her fingers in the air. "...around. Go, relax, have some fun, let them feel better. We'll keep watch."

Tracer huffed out a little bit of a laugh, and felt herself calming down a bit. "Thanks, luv." She stretched, big, in her chair. "Might do me some good, I suppose. I could use a night out." She reached over and took Widowmaker's hand. "I'll make it clear, though. Next time - it's not just me."

"I do not mind." Widowmaker took Lena's hand, nuzzled, and kissed it. "We are not joined at the hips, ma chérie."

"Well," chirped Tracer, wickedly - "Not all the time" - and Widowmaker almost giggled a little in return.

"C'mon, Widow," Oilliphéist said, rising from her seat, picking up her Breath. "If we're gonna beat 'em to Gibraltar, we need to leave right now."

"Ah, yes," Widowmaker replied, picking up her Kiss. "We should." She kissed Tracer's hand again before rising. "See you soon, ma petite contrariété."

-----

Tracer's smile flashed as she teleported directly out of the Sparrowhawk at Watchpoint Gibraltar. "Hooo, I'd forgot how much fun those are!" She teleported around more a bit, apparently for no good reason other than she could. "We should use these for everything!"

She's certainly high-strung this evening, Angela thought, unstrapping herself from her flight seat, stretching out from the high-G transit. I hope that's a good sign.

Tracer teleported around the control tower and looked towards the north in the not-so-darkness, out of sight of the others for a moment. Where are you, I know you're here... ha! In the mid-distance, she spotted a familiar silhouette, and then a second, and she waved, and both waved back, and she grinned, broadly, relaxed. Then she rewound, appearing back at the ramp amidst the Overwatch crew, grin still intact. "C'mon, slowpokes! That lager won't drink itself!"

Winston punched in an access code, a large door opened, and the larger civilian transport floated out onto the tarmac. Morrison checked security systems, verifying no detected intrusions, and nodded as he ducked inside to do a manual sweep. "See you when you get back," he said, gruffly. "Apologise to Blair for me."

"Will do," Fareeha replied. "He's not going to be happy that you're working tonight."

"He'll live."

Fareeha smirked, a little.

"He's not my boyfriend."

Fareeha eyes narrowed, and she smirked a little more.

Morrison scowled, but with a hint of humour in it. "With all that's going on, I can't not run a full check. But... I'll join you later, if I can."

"Much better," Fareeha said, as Angela giggled and pulled her away to the transport. "Come on, dear, stop trying to fix the soldier's love life. It's impossible."

"I'm coming!"

-----

"Yeah, I was afraid of that," Lena said, as she walked in through the antique front door.

"What's wrong?" Winston asked, following in behind her, the large scientist a tight fit in the frame.

"Ah, not much - this place is pretty dark, yeah?"

"Sure! But it's comfortable."

"It's a lot less atmospheric when you can see all the dirt and th' holes in the plaster. That ceiling's a mess."

"Ah," said the Lunar scientist. "I'll have to take your word on that. Nothing's going to fall down, is it?"

"Nah, it's just old. Most of it's been painted at least once. I mean, why fix it if y'can't see it, right? I get that, but... c'mon." She snorted. "Well, beer's still beer."

"And darts are still darts."

"Won't be fair now, luv."

"It will be if we handicap it right."

Lena smiled as Hana ran over and grabbed their usual corner booth, the big one with the movable bench, and Mei-Ling followed closely behind. "We already had t'do that once, big guy. Can't compete with a Brit at darts, not on level ground."

"Sure - we'll just do it more." He grinned.

"Well..." She took a big sniff of the room. Smelled like old times, mostly, but with a little bit of an odd tang, like cleaning fluid in the w.c.. Ventilation system must be off, too, she thought, shrugging. "We can try. We'll figure it out, somehow."

"Get enough bitter in you and we'll be even!"

She chuckled, and hopped next to the table as Fareeha called over from the bar - "Everybody's usuals?" - having just relayed Jack's apologies. Blair waved at the chorus of yes-please and thank-you from behind the counter and filled a large tray with an assortment of beers and wines, and a separate, smaller tray with a brownie and glass of sahlab.

"Thanks," Fareeha smiled, with a small nod, as she took her own tray to the small individual table Angela had placed by the end of the booth. Blair followed, serving the large tray of drinks. "Good t’see you lot back in town! Chip order's in, I'll be right back with the munchies."

"Brilliant, luv," Tracer chirped, and the barkeep looked, then started, surprised. "Yeh," she said, a little tiredly. "I know. They're new. Long story." He nodded, and kept his smile as he retreated to the kitchen.

"Guess I'm gonna have t'get used to that all over again," she said, taking a pull from her pint. Mei-Ling poured half her Tsingtao pilsner into a glass, leaving half in the bottle, to go back with the tray.

"I don't know why you just didn't wear your contacts," Hana said, sampling her lager. Ah, yeah. Nice to be back, she thought, relaxing into the padded leather bench.

"Don't like 'em," Lena said, shifting a little on the bench seat. "They bug me."

"We can take some time tomorrow for a new fitting, if you'd like" Angela said, brightly.

"Nah," Lena replied, taking another drink. "Rather not, luv."

"Well, it's either that, or get used to his kind of reaction."

Lena glared, expression sharp. "I like my eyes, doc. You got a problem with that?"

"Of course not, it's just that..."

"I like them too," Winston interrupted, Lena turning to look at him with a quick smile.

"Y'do?" she said, surprised.

"They're pretty. And you like them, so, I like them, and that's all that needs to be said about that," he stated, firmly.

"Of course," Angela replied, just as quickly. "I'm sorry, Lena, I am sometimes too much a doctor."

"It's true," Fareeha said, having taken another bite of her brownie. "She really is."

Lena leaned a little against her best friend's arm. "Thanks, luv." She downed the rest of her pint, all at once. "Y'wanna have a go at those darts? Only double and triple scores count for me, and only for regular value."

"Sure!" The gorilla pulled himself out of the way, and Lena wobbled a little as the alcohol hit her bloodstream in a rush. "Woah! That's..." She laughed. "That's good. Let's do this!"

-----

Lena picked at the fish. They'd finally figured out how to make a competitive game at the dart board, but it involved spinning the target, and it hadn't taken too many rounds of that nonsense to bring Blair over full of all-right-all-right-none-of-that. But he'd agreed to let them install a second, spinnable board, later.

"You okay, Lena?" Winston asked.

"Yeh, I'm good." She popped a chip into her mouth, and finished off the third pint. "A little bored, tho', t'be honest."

She looked over at Fareeha and Hana playing at the snooker table, Angela watching from the opposite side, Lena not entirely able to convince herself that she was watching the game and not her. "And a little paranoid. Angie's not taken her eyes off me all night."

"I know what you mean," her friend said, quietly. "I think you're right."

"Not just me, then."

"No. We talked about it earlier, she's ... worried."

"Doesn't trust me anymore, y'mean."

"She trusts you. She just doesn't trust what might've been done to you."

"Yeh," Lena muttered. "Not much difference from this side, though."

"I just wish all this was over," he said, quietly. "Over, and we could go back to normal."

"I wish Wids was here," she said, quietly, staring into her empty glass. I know she's just outside, but it's not the same. "She could be stared at too, and at least it wouldn't be just me."

"I got stared at a lot, when I first landed," he said, sipping at his lager. "Still do, most places. It's not fun."

"No," she agreed, squeezing his hand. "It's not."

-----

"But what're y'gonna do when all this is over?" the MEKA pilot demanded tipsily. "This isn't a game you can play from both sides."

"I dunno - we'll figure it out!" Lena replied, frustration in her voice. "We're still gettin' t'know each other properly, yeah? It'll be fine."

"Lena, please - haven't you thought this out at all?" Angela asked, a little too crisply.

"Course we have, luv - we're gonna buy that condo, live on an island..."

"Lena, please, I am serious! Emily is... how can I put this?"

"She's a psycho killer," interrupted Hana Song, definitely one too many into her cups. "That's what I don't get. I get it with Widowmaker, kinda - she didn't ask to be what she is, you're a sucker for a nice ass, and that is one nice ass. But Oilliphéist did."

"I'm not certain Danielle is so very different, defection or not," Mei-Ling opined, on her third pilsner.

Tracer glared, copper eyes hard. "I thought this was supposed to be a nice night out at the pub, not a fucking intervention."

"It's not an intervention!" Hana huffed. "I just thought maybe you'd've thought his out a bit by now."

"Or at very least," Fareeha noted, "had a plan. You've got to have some kind of plan in place for when this is over. I'm good at plans, I'd be happy to help with..."

"Happy t' help with ganging up on me, apparently."

"That's not fair," Angela retorted. "Yes, we have all wanted to know how you're intending to handle the situation after this one, but I think we have a right to know that, given the people involved."

Lena looked around the table, eyes widening. "This whole thing was a setup, wasn't it?"

"I wouldn't go that far, no," Angela replied, warily. "We've always talked about problems on these nights out."

"Is this another one of your simulations?" Lena snapped, fear in her stomach. "Am I gonna remember this in the morning?"

"Woah, woah, Lena, no!" Winston insisted. "No. I swear to you, no. This is real."

"Is it?!" She spun in place, and her gaze softened, a little. "...Yeh. Okay. I guess I don't really mean that, but..." She rubbed her face with her hands, breathed out raggedly, and put her hands back down on the table.

"I need a mo'. I'm takin' a trip to th' loo. Don't follow me."

As she left, Winston looked back to his tablemates. "Well, that couldn't've gone worse. What were you thinking, ganging up on her like that?"

"She needs to face reality!" Hana insisted. "She needs to deal with it, or we're all in trouble!"

"We are already in trouble," Mei-Ling said, sadly. "But we don't have any choice in it."

"I just wanted to help her analyse the situation tactically," Fareeha said. "I honestly didn't mean any more than that..."

Angela rubbed her temples, frustration in her forehead and eyes. "I should... I should apologise. I should follow..."

"No," the Lunar scientist said, firmly, "you should not."

-----

Lena stepped into the washroom, and into a stall, and sat, shaking, on the commode. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. That was... oh god, that was bloody awful... She pulled some tissue off the roll, and blew her nose into it, hard. What's going on, why are they so... so...

She shuddered, eyes wet. It's all right, Lena. It's all right. Pull yourself together. You've got this. They'll, they'll, after this is over, they'll... understand. Eventually. They have to.

She was about to pull out her padd and bring up the private commlink she and Oilliphéist had set up with Widowmaker, when her phone vibrated. "Cherie," she heard Widowmaker's voice say, "I hate to break into your evening, but..."

"Oh love, you have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice right now."

"Perhaps not. We have had an urgent summons - Moira believes Reyes has discovered our operation, and we need to move quickly."

Tracer blinked her eyes clear, swallowed hard, and smiled broadly, already feeling better. "Some action, then?"

"Yes. The timetable must be advanced. We're to leave at once, and rendezvous with Moira en route to North America. Warn your friends."

"Right! Will do. Where do we meet up?"

"In front of the casino by the airport. You know it?"

"Absolutely. See you in a few minutes."

Tracer stood, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, before exiting the stall. She pulled a sheet of paper towel out of the dispenser, wetted it, patted down her eyes and face, and dried, with a second towel. There, she thought, looking at her copper eyes, famous half-grin spreading across her face. Much better.

-----

Morrison closed the last door behind him, sealing the auxiliary entrance. He nodded to himself, satisfied - no sign of intrusion anywhere, all safe and secure. I'm really looking forward to getting back here, he thought. Oasis is beautiful, but... I just can't trust it.

He brushed off his hands - even a locked-down facility gathered dust - and was about to signal Angela, see if there was still time to catch up, when he saw an all-too-familiar column of smoke coalesce at the foot of the launch pad, next to the Sparrowhawk. He pulled his rifle and aimed as the Reaper appeared, maskless, glare visible in the pad lights, even at range.

Gabriel Reyes dropped his shotguns, dramatically, to either side, and made no move towards the Soldier, who held his fire as his former compatriot raised one arm, slowly, a large, clear photograph of Lena Oxton serving drinks to the wealthy in São Paulo hovering in front of his hand.

"What the fuck," he said, "do you idiots think you have been doing?"

[daveandtrev]

The 2020 Andre Johnson Sweepstakes League write-up

Friends of the Andre Johnson Sweepstakes League, welcome. I am pleased (no really, I am excited) to bring you a breakdown of the AJSL as it blessed our lives in the one-of-a-kind year of 2020. Below you will find a mix of analysis and lighthearted fun aimed at taking a first pass at what the heckfire happened this year from start to finish. We’ve got analysis on the draft, injuries and schedule plus some fun awards to give out. I won’t buffalo you any longer, lets get to it.

Draft Day Analysis

Draft day analysis interpretation: I tried to objectively pick the best teams based on my personal draft rankings (subjective draft rankings, objective draft analysis…sort of follows?). Here’s the methodology: I assigned a value to every player for above average play (in 0.25 increments). It’s essentially five tiers (+0.0 = starter, but could be replaced; +0.25 = contributing starter; +0.5 = solid starter; +0.75 = strong starter that will create a positional advantage; +1.0 = elite starter providing a distinct positional advantage). This all makes sense in my head, and it should make more sense when you look at the table. I then added up points for each team’s best possible starting lineup according to my points system and voila; Dave Stark’s handicapping of the AJSL.

A couple of notes:

·       Players are listed in the positions as there were drafted, with highest spend creating the starting lineup. For my points system, I subbed in bench players if they had a higher value than the starter.

·       I cheated on Christian McCaffrey’s value: he was a +1.25 in my book. Clearly the best player in the game with even higher upside than the traditional studs.

A few things that turned out like I thought

·       The running QBs outside of Lamar (Dak, Kyler, Russ, and DeShaun all avg 22.0+ fantasy pts/gm and sit top 7 at QB)

·       The QBs at +0.0 (Baker, Carr, Danny Dimes, Kirk Cousins, and Jimmy G basically ride the merry-go-round from one bye week fill-in to the next. Tannehill and Cousins maybe qualify as +0.25 players now, but neither averages over 20+ pts/gm)

·       Jonathan Taylor +0.0 (His value has been everywhere this year. Marlon Mack was the only reason I had him ranked this low. When Mack went down I pegged him for +0.75 with the possibility to go +1.0…and then nothing materialized until late into the year)

·       Devin Singletary +0.0 (Started hearing whispers of Zack Moss splitting carries + Josh Allen hogs goal line rushes)

A few places where I was dead wrong

·       Stefon Diggs +0.0 (Turns out, Josh Allen actually got better - +10% Completion % in 2020)

·       Josh Allen +0.5 (Averaging 24.7 pts/gm which would have been the QB2 overall last year by almost 3 pts/gm. Currently QB4)

·       Kyler Murray +0.75 (Not nearly high enough on him. Averaging 26.5 pts/gm as the QB1 overall. Playing at a +1.0 level)

·       DK Metcalf +0.25 (Seattle hired their lead chef to work full time)

·       Lamar Jackson +1.0, Mark Andrews +0.75 (Uhhh, why is this team broken?)

·       Kenyan Drake +0.75 (Beware the extravagant 8 game sample size that says someone is a world-beater)

·       Zach Ertz +0.75 (Is this the cliff year at 30 years old? How did Tony G catch 83 balls at age 37?)

·       Aaron Rod Gers +0.25 (Yeah he’s a +0.75 guy now…should have known that drafting the backup QB would light a fire under Aaron: we’ve only seen this from Alex Smith and Joe Flacco in 2 of the last 3 years…Wait, why hasn’t this applied to Wentz yet?)

·       Davante Adams +0.75 (Good golly, A-Aron’s resurgence means Davante is almost on +1.25 level when he is healthy)

·       Keenan Allen +0.25 (This was all about Tyrod…then we found out that Justin Herbert was interning specifically for Keenan Allen and the Chargers med staff decided to euthanize Tyrod)

·       TJ Hockenson +0.0 (2nd year leap puts him at TE3 overall. $20 player next year?)

·       Chris Herndon +0.0 (When you read too many draft articles, you begin to believe that an Adam Gase coached player might actually become an average contributor at his position…ha!)

Injury-ruined seasons

·       Saquon, Michael Thomas +1 (Biggest team-killers to date by far)

·       CMC at +1.25 (Still overall #1 when he plays)

·       Dak at +0.75 (Was playing like a true +1 on par with Mahomes before going down)

·       Zeke at +1 (Dak died and then Dallas decided to start “Gucci DiNucci”…yeah that didn’t go well)

·       OBJ +0.5 (Traded to Cristian’s team where he put up a combined 3.5 fantasy pts in 2 games started)

·       Courtland Sutton +0.25 (After space-cadeting Sutton’s auction bid, we got our “Ball don’t lie” moment a few weeks later. Trevor is shrugging as he reads this.)

 Great, let’s move on. Luck, imagined as either dice rolls or Luck Dragons depending on who you talk to, plays a pretty big part in fantasy success every year. Too many injuries? See you next year. Tough schedule? Hope for a good tiebreaker and maybe you can sneak into the playoffs with the #4 spot. These are probably the most talked about facets of the game since they are beyond our control and create the classic “if only I didn’t have that injury back in high school, i’d have crushed you guys” cop-out that we’ve all heard for years. Let’s see who really has a case to be upset, shall we?

Let’s start with one of my favorites – every team’s record if we played in a league where the top 6 scores secured a win each week (in lieu of head to head matchups). This is a much more “fair” look at how your team performed on a weekly basis when you throw out the schedule which is always a subject of scrutiny, consternation, and conspiracy theories each season.

There you have it. Good news is, the top 5 in our league standings would be the exact same top 5 if we played the other way. The schedule hasn’t defrauded anyone of a 2020 playoff spot. Bad news is, the bottom of this list is mildly shocking. Cristian has struggled all year for wins and this shows that his team hasn’t been half bad – but he has essentially lost out on 4 wins due to schedule. Yikes. Phil on the other hand was in playoff contention up until week 12, whereas his team has the fewest expected wins in the league….Of course for those with conspiratorial thoughts, you’ll notice the Stark brothers combine for +7 “lucky” wins due to schedule. Of course the Stark wife had to bite the bullet to make it look fair (-2 “lucky” wins). I’ll let everyone digest that and make their own judgments. (Where is that clause in the constitution involving starting a new league without the commish? This is evidence!)

The next “luck metric” that dominates our chat conversation and generally elicits “I got screwed, feel bad for me” self-pity arguments would be games lost to injury. Everyone knows it sucks and everyone experiences it to some degree every year. And if you play long enough, you will get hit by the double ACL tear/broken collarbone/never-healing ankle injury to all of your star players and be left at a severe disadvantage. It’s gonna be okay Sport, put on a brave face and hit the waiver wire. Come back next year and clap secretly at 3pm on Monday when Schefty tweets the next guy’s RB1 season-ender. (After the large exhale that it didn’t happen to your RB1 of course.) Ending rant, just know that if you experienced the injury season from hell, the rest of the league knows that it’s part of the fantasy business and are very relieved that it didn’t happen to them. Empathy runs high, sympathy runs low. (And I just removed my ability to ever complain publicly about my team’s injuries by writing this now.)

After all the talk has subsided, let’s check facts. First table: mid-game injuries. These are games where players play a much reduced role and typically produce dreadful fantasy finishes. There’s a bit of subjectivity here (if a player plays 3 quarters and gets hurt, I don’t count that as a mid game injury. But if he plays ½ or less of his normal playing time, it would count.) I also add mid-game benching to QBs because they fit the description as fantasy wreckers due to an unforeseen cutback in playing time. Here is the Commissioner’s official list:

Congrats on that title Jason, I know you were hoping for it. Just know, you weren’t THAT far ahead of the rest of us. Mon and Trevor on the other hand can only blame poor performance on their season’s disappointments (or better yet, the schedule!)

So I buried the lead a bit on Mr. Montgomery here, because the next table should give him his share of justice on 2020 injuries.

So the above list is missed games + mid-game injuries for drafted starters and traded players updated through week 13 (except for those with season long injuries – I went ahead and added week 14 there). Jason, there’s your proof. Nobody deserves to bellyache more than you, friend. 19 of those games were from QBs (Dak/Jimmy G) which added to a smattering of missed games from the rest of the roster (Godwin 4, Ridley 3, Aaron Jones 2). I haven’t tracked this before, but I imagine that this year was significantly worse than others (more soft tissue injuries and COVID positives were the biggest culprits.) The hope is that 2021 gives us a bit of a reprieve here.

Before we conclude, I recognize that there is a portion of the audience who prefers the entertainment value of this yearly endeavor, so I’m going to do my best to hand out a few fun awards. Without further ado, the 2020 AJSL Dundees (this award style hasn’t possibly been overdone, right?)

Dundee to The Scorned Lover: Mr. Jordan Swavely on behalf of Henry Ruggs.

While I wrote this tribute in his farewell on the group chat, it bears repeating: 7 pts or less scored by Ruggs in 6 straight games, starts him again for a 7th week and only a 50 yard bomb on the last play of the game saves Ruggs from another 3 point performance. Totaling the points for those 7 starts, Ruggs scored 36 points for a 5.1 average. Ruggs averaged 3.4 targets/gm in these contests. You do you, Swave. Go and get your man.

Dundee for the Best Team Name: Mr. Greg Poelman, ShlongBarry Sanders

Any reference including a dong and our beloved college town is going to score high on both the Dude and Nostalgia scales. Plus a Barry Sanders nod, we like that.

Dundee for the Best Team Picture: Mrs. Monica Stark on behalf of Presidential Security

Any time you can get combine Greg Poelman and The Donald in Photoshop and it doesn’t even look that fake, you have my attention and affection. And now you have a Dundee to go along with it. Well done.

Honorable mention: Monica’s Team, Bring Out Your Dead

Golden Tickets to the Winning Waiver Warriors: Mr. Scooter Nelson, James Robinson; Mr. Blake Grundy, Justin Herbert; Mr. Jack Holmer, Justin Jefferson

Since everyone is bidding for the “winning lottery tickets” of the waiver pool, we’re going to give out Golden Tickets to those that struck waiver wire gold this season. Scooter milked 11 starts out of Robinson who averaged 17.6 pts/gm during that span. Robinson has been the RB4 overall since the week 2 pickup. Grundy picked up Herbert for week 3 and never looked back, banking 10 starts at 22.5 pts/gm (He’s the QB7 in that time frame). Holmer nabbed Jefferson before Week 4 and was rewarded with the WR4 from that point on. Impressively he only benched him once, refusing to play him against his beloved Bears. This is the dream of every late Tuesday night and you guys reaped the spoils. Well done, gents.

Dundee to the Wounded Wavier Warriors: Mr. Phil Stark, Devonta Freeman; Mr. Jack Holmer, Darrell Henderson; Mr. Trevor Allison, Nyheim Hines

Big money, No whammy. That’s the goal. Of course more times than not, the reality is…more like this. Phil emptied out the pocketbook early on in the season after the Saquon injury to grab his replacement with a winning bid of $78 on Devonta (next highest bid: $15). Devonta responded with five games played, two of which resulted in 1 point showings. Then he followed Saquon to IR and Soape picked up the true workhorse of the Giants backfield in Wayne Gallman, who hasn’t pickup up less than 10 points in six straight games. Ouch. It took $54 to secure the rights to Darrell Henderson after week 2, seemingly the new Rams lead RB. Unfortunately Jack’s faith manifested at the wrong times: 5 starts of Henderson yielded 6.3 pts/gm, while Henderson’s two strong games (18.5 and 20.3 pts) were enjoyed on Holmer’s bench. Not fun. $46 was the bid that beat out 7 other bidders after week 1 for Nyheim Hines’s services, after which Trevor was rewarded with 5 straight games of 8 points or less. After cutting him loose over the bye week, Hines busted out for four double digit games in six tries, music no doubt to Trevor’s ears. A Dundee for your troubles, boys.

The “Fantasy Football Was A Lot More Fun Last Year” Dundee: Mr. Cristian Driver

For every obvious reason. Where did that championship belt get to?

Dundee for a Fun and Easy Season: Mr. David Stark

Injuries, COVID surprises, bad schedules, underperformance? Didn’t seem that big of a deal to me.

Dundee for Most Attempts to Defeat a Hornet’s Nest: Mr. Jason Montgomery

Similar to our favorite Office handyman Nate, Jason was tasked with eliminating the danger of his crumbling fantasy season created by the aforementioned injury bug. Both hailing from the historically-rich metropolis of “La Philadelphia”, what ensued after Jason’s 4-0 start pairs Nate and Jason together even further. Jason utilized a league-high 20 unique waiver pickups that entered the starting lineup this season. Results were bleak; the fast start was followed by a 2-7 record that signaled victory to the opposition. Maybe try the bow and arrow next time?

Receiver Corps Dundee of Excellence: Mr. Joel Soape

It only took 3 name changes to figure out which WR was needed (Red Solo Kupp -> Mike’d Up -> The Adams Bomb) , but Soape finally landed on the right guy for the job by calling on Davante Adams and his 22.1 pts/gm this year (easily the WR1 in this metric). Somehow Corey Davis (left for dead after last year) has had a career resuscitation on this team as well, dropping a 30 burger in week 12. The Receiver Corps salutes your dedication to their fraternity, Mr. Soape.

That’s all for now guys. Full disclosure, I have another 1k-2k words written that takes a deep dive into each of our performances at 1) waiver pickups, 2) positional scoring, and 3) sit/start decisions. Maybe this would be most helpful for a post-season article as it encompasses your overall strategy and ability to aid your team’s output. Look for that at some point in the future. For now, I hope you enjoyed this meaty entrée. Thanks for another great season and allowing me to bring you another fun recap, everyone!

[toooldforcool]

Five Suggestions for Fixing “Dancing with the Stars”

Honestly, I’m not sure Dancing with the Stars is all that broken. It is what it is, a reality show that you can excel at by dancing well but also by being entertaining and/or having a lot of fans vote for you. I am generally willing to embrace it under those terms, since I’m mostly just looking for something pretty to crash on the couch in front of. But like a judge nitpicking an enjoyable but flawed dance number, I can certainly identify some missteps that make the show from time to time less enjoyable, less comprehensible, and more randomly outraging. Rather than just throw up a paddle and be done with it, I’ll suggest five easy steps for a big improvement. Work on it, show!

1. Give judges’ critiques only to the people who are actually "dancing with the stars." If there are problems with the choreography, that's on the pro, and there's no reason for the star to stand there taking that. And if there's a problem with the dancing and performance of the star, that's on the pro too — his or her job is specifically to give help and guidance in that area. Keeping comments strictly judge-to-pro should end all the over-the-top praise, meaningless platitudes, and overly sharp criticism of a star who has to stand there smiling or else, and leave lots of time for actual substantive comments that will both inform the audience and guide the pro. Stick that poor star in a soundproof booth.

2. Send people home on this week’s scores, not last week’s. Obviously, ABC no longer wants to give Dancing with the Stars a Tuesday time slot for a results show on a regular basis. But using last week’s scores and votes for this week’s elimination just ain’t working. Since you barely have time to give folks a proper send-off in these overstuffed episodes anyway, why not save it for a Facebook live show or other online video offering on Tuesdays? You can give those eliminated a chance to make a speech and have a last dance and everything, and you can always play it as a segment of the show the next Monday for those who missed it.

3. Give the viewer voting some transparency. The judges have to hold up paddles with their scores for people to cheer or throw shade on. But the popular vote that’s theoretically at least as influential in who stays or goes is entirely shadowy. It’s not even particularly clear that all of each week’s “in jeopardy” couples are, in fact, at the bottom. If you’re going to make this thing part dance contest and part popularity contest, let’s see some numbers, or bar graphs, or something to show who’s getting the vote and who’s not. 

4. Create a handicap system for your ringers. It certainly adds to the entertainment value of Dancing with the Stars to start out with some stars who can, you know, dance. But it’s really not fair to pit a two-left-feet contestant against one who’s a professional dancer in all but job title. And it’s not fair for that all-but-professional-dancer contestant who signed on in good faith to get the wrath of fans who think this should be Dancing with the Never-Danced-Before-We-Swear Stars. Acknowledge that problem and find a way to address it, whether through a scoring handicap or differing expectations or pro-am versions of the mirrorball trophy. There should be some way to level the playing field a little bit.

5. Teach us something about dance. The judges sometimes throw out ballroom terms or judge a dance harshly for not having enough proper elements, but how do we know? Videos on each of the dances, with pros showing us the proper moves and telling us what they’re called and why they’re important, can help viewers be informed judges themselves. If there’s no time for this on the actual show, put them online and mention on the show where folks can find them. You’ve got two hours a week and an interested audience. Get us hooked on ballroom! (And also explain to us what the actual heck jazz and contemporary are and why we should care.)