So where did this all begin? THE PROLOGUE All Stars 4 winner Trinity The Tuck, AKA Trinity Taylor, AKA Trinity The Block posted a video on Twitter of her performing at a bar with no mask on recently. This performance was at an outdoor brunch, which she claims had no meet and greet. She immediately gets backlash for performing in the middle of a pandemic. This is all fairly standard so far, as plenty of queens have been performing throughout lockdown in bars and venues all over. People leave a few disappointed tweets and everyone moves on after a few days. The drama begins when Trinity decides that she has had enough of being @'d for working through the pandemic and decides to clap back at her "haters" in a series of tweets that say:
"Unless you are going to pay my bills then I suggest STFU about me doing what I have to do to survive! I understand the situation of the world and unfortunately our government can't get their shit together it make it better faster. My job is no different than a server or someone who works retail or at a grocery store. Unfortunately it's a job that requires me to be in proximity of people. What I can do is do my best to follow guidelines and hold people around me accountable to do the same."
I am in my early 30s, make $75k a year ($120k joint), live in the South, work as a Development Director, and hate capitalism but love a little luxury!
Edited to remove the tables because when I obsessively checked this post on my phone I couldn't read them?? Also I tried to, but was prevented from, editing the title. I know it looks sanctimonious but that's just one small part of my personality I swear. D: ❤️ Section 1: Assets and Debt Total Net Worth: $30,875 - all equity. Retirement Balance: $0 for me; $20,500 for my husband in the state pension program for teachers. (My partner, L, has been paying into the state teachers' pension system for 5 years. For most of my 20s, I either worked at very low-paying jobs, or supported myself and others on a teacher’s salary, so no retirement for me. My current job does not have a retirement program, but one of my goals for this year is to either start a Roth IRA or get a new job with a 401k match… or maybe both?) Savings Account Balance: $23,733 We’re moving this summer to a city closer to our families, and are saving all we can for a down payment on a dreamy spot. After we move, some amount of what’s left over will go into a retirement fund, and the rest will stay in this HYSA as our emergency fund. For us, three months of expenses, including childcare, is about $18,000. Checking Account Balance: $455 Credit Card Debt: n/a, pay off each month Student Loan Debt: $80,000 for L’s undergrad and MAT. $18,000 for my undergrad and (unfinished) MAT. (My undergrad degrees were mostly covered by the Pell Grant, scholarships, and a $10,000 529 from my parents. L was a nontraditional student - didn’t start undergrad until he was 24 - so none of his was covered. Most of my debt is for a MAT program I dropped out of after one year. I was trying to find any way out of teaching at the time (it is demanding, all-consuming, and carceral at once) and thought a PhD would be my only route. When I got my current job I promptly left the program and any dreams of a PhD behind.) Equity: $83,875 (This number is from an online equity calculator, and is for our house in a very popular neighborhood in a very popular city. Our outstanding debt on the house is $295,000. We put our whole savings down in 2019, which was $9,000 at the time.) ❤️ Section 2: Income Monthly Take Home: My base pay is $65,000, and L’s is $45,000. I worked a side gig last year that totaled about $10k in additional compensation; all of it went to savings so we don't budget for it. My take home is $4096/month for my full time job, and my current side gig income (grant writing) is variable, between $300 and $600 a month. L’s take home is $2262/month. My health insurance is paid in full by work. L’s insurance and B’s come out of L’s paycheck, as does L’s retirement contribution. Income Progression: I’ve been working since I was 15 years old, moved out for college at 18, and paid my own bills starting that year. I won’t include that money here though (it was like $12,000 a year as a college student, for reference). Income below starts when I graduated with two BAs that had nothing to do with teaching. Year 1: $15,600 (part time ABA therapist, full time baby anarchist) Year 2: $32,000 (year 1 teacher salary: I accepted a spot in Teach for America for this giant salary even though I thought it was an obnoxious neoliberal org. Yes, I was also obnoxious at the time.) Year 3: $33,000 (teacher, step increase) Year 4: $34,000 (teacher, step increase) Year 5: $35,000 (teacher, step increase) Year 6: $15,000 (community organizer; at the time this felt like a dream job) Year 7: $20,000 (community organizer & cafe worker) Year 8: $40,000 (back to teaching, felt rich; this includes a side hustle writing grants on the side for $50 an hour) Year 9: $45,000 (left teaching for my current job, quit the grants side hustle) Year 10: $55,000 (got a raise, got pregnant) Year 11: $65,000 (got a raise and promotion, had a baby) Year 12: $75,000 (was promoted again in January but waiting on the pay increase to hit, hopefully with backdating. This money diary doesn’t reflect this salary as it hasn’t been reflected in my check yet) ❤️ Section 3: Expenses Mortgage/PMI/Insurance: $2,110 Retirement Contribution: n/a (L’s retirement is pulled out of his check before he receives it: it’s $169 a month. Right now, I don’t have a retirement contribution) Savings Contribution: $1000 to main savings, $400 to sinking fund (This is a super aggressive goal for us and is only possible because our childcare costs are covered by work) Debt Payments: n/a right now (We have student loans to the tune of $100k but haven’t been paying a dime since they were paused due to COVID. But then the other day I checked and saw they've gained interest? Should we be paying them then? WWJD? I legit don’t know.) Electric: $130 Internet: $100 Cellphone: $65 (For L & I both. We are on a bigass family plan with 40 gajillion other people.) Subscriptions: $45 ($10 Spotify; $10 Youtube music; $2.99 Apple data (Why?!); $22 NYT (for newspaper and cooking app); also have a split subscription to the New Yorker with bestie F but we paid for a yearly deal.) Car Payment and Insurance: $150 for a car payment; $202 for insurance (Insurance covers both of our used cars and my dad’s used handicap van. Our car payment is for our used Honda. We only owe $6,850 on the car and I’m back and forth on whether to pay it off with savings) Medical/Therapy: $0 (My therapist is $140 a session, and I just started seeing her again once a month, but this is reimbursed by work. I also get an inhaler at least twice a month - that’s reimbursed too, costs $60 total.) Misfits Market: $120 (For a weekly box, which really helps us cut down on overall grocery cost) Gym membership: $30 (For my intense local yoga studio’s app which is so great in the winter. We also run and bike a lot, as long as it’s warm enough) Donations: $100 (We give monthly to our local Democratic Socialists of America; the Working Families Party; and a small, local org. I’m also on an organizing committee for that org. We’ll give them one big gift of at least $250 this year, probably in May. I support a couple organizations with grant writing and grant-finding support as much as I can, which usually amounts to a few hours a month.) Childcare: $0 B goes to a very precious Montessori preschool, and we can walk him there. It’s pricey af ($1300/month). The other $200 is to account for some babysitting from my little sister when L or I have to work weird hours. For now, work reimburses this full amount as a COVID perk; if that changes, we will have to cut costs significantly. House cleaner: $160 (They come twice a month and charge $80 each time.) ❤️ Section 4: Money Diary NOTE: We are masked and afraid everywhere we go. ✨DAY 1: THURSDAY✨ 4:20 am: Good morning world! I shuffle into the kitchen in my panties and my slippers to fill up the gooseneck kettle. I recently got into pour over coffee even though it’s quite a commitment. With a toddler, a full-time job, and a Libra sun, I don’t really have time for meditative morning routines. This lengthy, half-naked coffee regimen is my closest attempt. As soon as I get the coffee brewing, our 18 month old, B, starts making noise. I open the door and see he’s got his pacifier in his mouth and his pillow in his arms. He wants to lay with Dada. I help him get in the bed with my husband, L, as quietly as possible. Last week L was super sick and we thought for sure he had picked up COVID. Blessedly all of our tests came back negative, but on the heels of that, he started having major tooth pain and had to have an emergency tooth extraction, AND he got an ear infection as he was coming down from whatever virus he had. I hate it :( I get dressed and do some chores while they snooze to ease L's morning. I start the diaper laundry (usually his job - we use cloth), put away the dishes, start the Eufy vacuum, and get B and L’s breakfasts together: sunbutter and a little bit of syrup on some banana pancakes I prepped earlier this week. 6:30 am: B and L are up! The hour before we take B to preschool is kind of a marathon. L eats with B (and supervises his syrup consumption) as I clean out some more dirty diapers, brush my teeth, make another cup of coffee, strip our sheets, spray my hair with water to refresh the curl, return a few group texts, and wash some breakfast dishes. Somewhere in here I also eat two boiled eggs with Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and a bunch of grapes. I help L get B loaded up in the car, and just as they pull off, my parents Facetime me. They’re calling to see B but are polite enough to talk to me for a few minutes. They live a few hours away, and are divorced, but cohabitating. The full story is long and spiritual for me so I’ll spare you. Anyway, my mom and I talk for a while about this couch she thinks I should buy from one of her friends, but it’s two hours away and we’d have to rent a U-Haul, so I think we’ll pass. I do hate our current couch though. Please drop comfy toddler- and dog-friendly recommendations in the comments! 8:15 am: I set out to walk the dog and listen to the Daily’s recent update on the coronavirus. Donald G. McNeill, Jr., says we’re in this through the summer, which is a bummer on the personal and global front, but I suppose it could be worse??? Maybe?? As soon as they finish talking I switch over to You’re Wrong About. I’m deep in the Jessica Simpson series and highly recommend this pod for any other nerdy, lefty, kinda burnt out millennials, especially those of you that are queer or queer-adjacent. Once home, I take my whole operation onto the front porch to work, since the cleaner will be here soon and I don’t want to crowd her in this time of COVID. I LOVE a clean house and I love paying someone else to do the big stuff, which is a recent luxury for us. 11:00 am: I’ve been working steadily in my email and google docs for a couple hours now, and it’s COLD out here. The cleaner leaves and I am grateful to go back into the heat. I Venmo her $80 for the cleaning (included in monthly expenses). I take a break from work and check out the job boards. My current job is the best, and highest-paying, gig I’ve ever had, but I’m planning to leave some time this year for several reasons. The premier reason: I recently learned that I’m qualified for several positions that pay over $100k at similar organizations. With that kind of money we could pay off our student loans, help our families out more, make sizable donations, and L could explore a career outside of teaching without freaking about a slight cut in his pay for a few years as he finds his niche. Or - maybe he’ll get into Edtech somehow and we’ll join Resource Generation. Who knows. 12:30 pm: I have a quick break and pull together lunch: half a cheese quesadilla, a big bowl of Smitten Kitchen’s roasted tomato soup, and a LimonCello LaCroix. L is on his planning period and asks me to edit his most recent job application, and I oblige. Since we’re both job hunting, I ask him if I can buy a resume template and guide on Etsy. I have sworn off online shopping for the year to curb my impulse spending, but he says we’ll just count this one as his purchase. Great news because I hate the formatting of my resume from 2016 and don’t want to fix it myself! $9.95 3:30 pm: My Zooms are over, my inbox is at 0, and I put up my out of office message because I’m taking the day off tomorrow to work on my resume and do some things to prep our house for sale. My high-functioning anxiety created an ambitious backwards timeline for this process back in December, and that timeline currently runs my life. I work for a few more minutes to tie up loose ends, and then walk O to a nearby shop to buy my favorite candle, curbside-style. When I get there the owner gives me some percentage off because it’s slightly discolored from the sun. Huzzah! $27.25, marked down from $40 4:45 pm: My angel of a baby sister, J, who lives just a few blocks away and is in a pod with us, comes to hang out with B for an hour so L can rest. I head to my good friend D’s place for my investment overalls appointment. She's going to alter their awkward wide leg into more of a tapered, mom jean shape. I have a capsule wardrobe which means I’ll wear these babies at least once a week, and plus I get to pay my friend, so I’m fine with the extra expense. When I arrive, she and her partner have the fire pit going, and we drink a couple glasses of wine together, yet more than 6 feet apart. I learn they are planning to move to the same new city as us in the next couple of years and legit cry happy tears. Afterwards, I head out to pick up dinner for tonight. We are getting burgers from L’s favorite place as a treat. On my way, the WOLF MOON appears over the water and my stomach does triple flips. Then I pick up our dinner: a veggie burger with eggplant jam and kale for me; a real-meat burger with mushrooms, bacon, swiss, carmelized onion, and horseradish mayo for L; and an appetizer plate with pretzels, pimento cheese, onion jam, pickles, and chips for B. Delicious and unhealthy. The total is $34.54. 6:30: Home and eating dinner. B loves his meal, especially the “chokes.” He calls pretzels “chokes” because when L first started feeding them to him, I worried aloud that he would choke every time. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how a pretzel almost took out George W. Bush. Turns out our toddler is better at chewing than George W. Bush. After dinner, L gives B a bubble bath while I do my own, very minimal, bedtime routine. Then L and I lay down with B to put him to sleep. He has a floor bed, which is a Montessori thing I learned about on mom blogs. L is a very hot and talented woodworker, so he took my floor bed dream to the next level by building a lovely house-shaped frame. The top beam is wrapped in twinkle lights and fake ivy. It’s a nice place to sleep, and we pass out here all the time. 10:30 pm: L wakes me up and we wander to our own bed. 🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 71.74 ✨ DAY 2: FRIDAY✨ 4:15 am: Wake up and go look at the clock. Decide this is a silly time to get up on a day off, drink some water, and go lay back down. But once in bed all I can think about is how much I want to read the news, organize my resume, and update this money diary. This is the problem with falling asleep at toddler time. So I get up again at 4:45, make my coffee, read a New Yorker article about Biden’s pandemic response on my phone, and sit down to work on this diary. 6:00 am: L wakes up! He works on breakfast for himself and B and I start meal planning for the month. This is one of my best and most recent life hacks. I found that if I chart out our cooking, weekly takeout, and leftovers at the start of the month, we save lots of money and are so much less stressed about the labor that goes into feeding ourselves. I pull out Smitten Kitchen Every Day and use it to inspire the month’s meals. So quaint to cook from an actual BOOK. 6:45 am: B walks out of our room and announces that he drank my water off the side table. He’s so proud! And so ready to eat. While he eats breakfast, I snack on some grapes and, at B’s request, blast 7 Days A Week by They Might Be Giants. This is the consummate children’s song for any household that dreams of a self-determined world. Over the next hour I take B to school; make myself a real breakfast (a soy chorizo and egg taco); and browse TikTok. Eventually I find a series about this Gamestop situation by a smart Irish woman and L and I watch it together. When it’s over we feel like shrewd stock brokers ready to win money, and L gets to work teaching virtually. I spend the morning painting our front door and our kitchen wall to prep our house to sell, and talking to my (other) little sister on the phone. She’s an HR person with a job that’s taken her far away from our family, and we don’t talk that often. It is so good to catch up on her life. After that I have a fun, day-off Zoom call with longtime bestie and coworker K. We drink coffee and talk about The Future. 12:30 pm: I make lunch (tomato soup with goat cheese on top, and a savory scone on the side) and get a text from another bestie, M, who offers me a little grant writing contract work this week. Yay! I love them and love working with them. Next, I order our groceries for the week. I get baking powder, eggs, cremini mushrooms, vegan sausage patties, oat milk, ginger root, shredded cheddar cheese, plantains, black beans, doggy bags, broccoli, vegan chicken strips, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, capers, ciabatta bread, grits, bananas, avocados, greek yogurt, and on impulse, a pineapple on sale (?!). Maybe B will love it. The total comes to $94.08. 1:15 pm: I do a brief power vinyasa class in B’s room and take a shower. It takes me approximately two Drake songs to shower and dry off, as I don’t have to wash my hair today and I never shave. I work on my resume until L and I leave to pick up B. On the way home we stop at the park to play, and then we all get in the car to pick up groceries. 6:30 pm: We get home later than planned and eat together: leftover tofu ramen for us and veggie lasagna for B, who is so sleepy that he hardly touches his lasagna. L gets him in the bath around 7:15 and I run through my evening routine. There’s a lot going on in the house - preschool lunch and clothes to put up, a mountain of laundry in our room, all of the groceries for the week waiting to be put away, and dinner dishes are languishing in the sink. L starts on chores while I get B dressed. As I’m dressing B, my mom Facetimes and B shows her several of his board books. While we’re talking my dad texts me a heart emoji - he overheard B and my mom talking from his room. He lives with a disability and a painful illness, so he goes to bed very early. We hang up with my mom and record a video of B making “P” sounds and saying “I love you” to my dad, and send it over. This is the first time B’s ever said “I love you!” Huge news. We read books and fall asleep next to B. 9 pm: I wake up and nudge L but he wants to keep sleeping. I go clean the dinner dishes, put away the food and reorganize the cabinets and fridge, and mop the kitchen floor while I listen to The Daily’s latest reporting on QAnon believers who are at once totally bananagrams and also remind me very much of my aunt. L wakes up at 9:30 because he and Y, my sister’s boyfriend, are gonna game. Cute! He finishes the laundry and I fold a few diapers to help out. Then we lay in bed together until game time, when I fall asleep. 🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 94.08 ✨DAY 3: SATURDAY✨ 5:40 am: Wake up at a ~*~weekend hour~*~!! Start my kettle, clean and moisturize my face, pull out the ingredients for waffles, and pick up around the house while I wait for it to boil. I try to read some, but get bored a few pages in. I’m currently readingHow to Do Nothing and it’s good enough, but I think I need to chill on the nonfiction and read, like, saucy romance novels with hot bisexual leads. Send me your recs please! Waffle time! This recipe is my go-to. I recommend whipping the egg whites first. B wakes up around 7:15 and helps me cook which is cute and very messy. He eats his waffle with honey, peanut butter, and grapes. L wakes up after him - he had a late night gaming! 8 am: I open yesterday’s mail and find an anti-abortion DVD from L’s grandma. It’s Abby Johnson’s “memoir.” Abby Johnson is an opportunistic right winger and documented liar who once moonlighted as a Planned Parenthood clinic manager. L is a preacher’s kid, so we’re not surprised to receive this from his grandma. For example: 10 years ago, when L and I were a couple years into our relationship, her Christmas gift to me was a book about how one can recover from being a slut by getting married and finding Jesus. This particular package really sends me over the edge, though. I decide to write them a short note later that states my own experience with abortion and sets a clear boundary on this kind of propaganda, and includes an article about Abby Johnson’s bullshit life. It’s unlikely this will change their minds - they are septuagenarian Southern Baptists, after all - but at least I’ll be in my integrity. In the meantime, I group text L’s siblings, and they commiserate with us. His one sibling who is transitioning shares that grandma recently sent them a book about how to tell your gay friends they’re sinning. We agree that’s hilariously dense (and fucking rude) of her, and talk about how everyone under forty is a gay slut living their best life, so really it’s grandma’s loss. During this time I clean the kitchen, finish the waffles, and freeze them for B’s weekday breakfasts. 9:30 am: B asks to use the potty and does a great job peeing on his own! He’s geeked about it and is especially excited to have my parents on Facetime cheering him on. After that we head out on our morning walk. L takes B to the playground and I take O to the dog park nearby. She gets tired pretty quick and we all head to the thrift store. We need chairs for our hand-me-down kitchen table. The ones that came with it are awkwardly wide. L spots two sturdy ones that are just $5 each. Score! $10 11:30 am: B and L are both wiped out once we get home. They eat lunch and go to sleep. I clean up the kitchen, repot one of my plants, water our porch plants, and eat some leftover ramen for lunch. The Marie Antoinette episode of You’re Wrong About keeps me company all the while. 10/10 would recommend. 2 pm: B wakes up and eats some lunch. We watercolor together for a while (he on his big paper, I in my bullet journal), then walk down the street to the local high school while L preps potatoes for our fondue. The high school grounds are open on the weekends, and there’s an amphitheatre on site. B loves the echo in there. 4:30 pm: L joins us in the amphitheatre and together we drag B two blocks back home. I prep the fondue: brie, gouda, and more gouda with white wine. It ends up being a little clumpy but so delicious. My sister, J, and her boyfriend, Y arrive while I’m cooking. Y brings yummy baguettes from his bakery job for the dipping and we prep broccoli, green beans, and tempeh too. We sit down in our new chairs to eat and for the zillionth time I am so thankful we’ve been able to make a pod together this year. Fondue would be a terrifying proposition with anyone else, really. While we eat, Y tells us he put in his two weeks at the bakery because their COVID protocols aren’t so tight and his coworkers are continuing to go to bars and out to eat. His plan for now is to get back on unemployment and find a virtual job sometime soon. Both he and my sister have worked food service their whole adult lives so the pandemic has been tough on them. Besides the fact that they’re delightful and perfect, this is one key reason we’re planning to move with them to our new city this summer: L and I will be able to easily afford the majority of the rent, deposits, and utilities on a pretty big, and centrally located, house. Living together will allow us to grow our savings and take our time looking for a Forever Home, and will allow J and Y to pay really low rent as my sister goes back to school full time and Y looks for a full-time job. I’m really looking forward to living with them and know it’ll be good for B, too. They leave around 7 pm and we put B to bed, this time without falling asleep ourselves! 8:30 pm: Turn on How I Met Your Mother in bed and the episodes are baaaaad bad. One entire episode casts sex workers as a punch line. Ick. L and I agree to find a new show, and fall asleep around 10. 11 pm - 2 am: B is up and between our two beds. Wahhhh. 🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 10 ✨DAY 4: SUNDAY✨ 6 am: Up and at ‘em! Discover I’m out of my fancy coffee and don’t want to emphasize the flavor of our grocery store beans with a slow pour, so make a french press instead. B wakes up too early so we watch toddlers together on TikTok while I drink my coffee, then read books while L makes us all eggs for breakfast. We head out for our morning walk around 9 am and stop at a coffee shop a few blocks away. I pick up Counter Culture’s Iridescent beans, buy an espresso brownie on a whim, and tip the cashier because she’s so sweet and tipping is good. The total is 23.03. L takes B to the playground and I drop my purchases and O back at the house before I head out for a run. 9:45 am: It’s 65 degrees and my run is glorious. I run to the water and pause Lil Yachty for a minute to take it all in. Once home I shower and put on a black LA Apparel catsuit and a marled black and white cocoon sweater from AA of the past (I like what I like!). We feed B lunch and then L puts him down while I clean up. Around 11:30, J comes over after to watch B while we remove the storm windows from our whole house and clean the windows underneath as part of our work to prep the house for sale. We’re a solid team: L removes the storm windows and caulks all the gaps in the wood while I follow behind him and wash the windows inside and out. Our sweet neighbor catches us cleaning and offers to let us use her power washer for free next weekend to clean up the front of the house. I resolve to bake them some cookies. 2:30 pm: We are done with the window operation and it’s time for me to water all 57 plants in the house. Along the way, discover that I overwatered B’s hoya last week and it’s rotting. Noooo! I unpot it on the porch to dry the roots, but it’s raining so this might not work. There’s only one surefire solution: buy a replacement plant! I try to convince L we should go to the nursery, but he’s not so into it. I walk around dejectedly with a towel to clean up all the water I spilled, and Zelle J $70 for babysitting even though she insists she would do it for free. Next B, L, and I share a snack: crackers with goat cheese and harissa. Mmm. B skips the harissa but loves the goat cheese. Meanwhile I begin to stress about making dinner. We’d planned goddess bowls but L and I just aren’t feeling it after our marathon of house work. L requests Chinese and is suddenly more amenable to visiting the nursery, which is near our favorite Chinese takeout spot. Score! 5:00 pm: We leave the plant shop with a heartleaf philodendron for B’s room and a giant, lovely, perfect monstera deliciosa just because. The total comes to $53.24. Then we pick up our food: $33.08 including the tip. L ordered a large veggie lo mein to share with B and General Tso’s chicken, and I got family style tofu and vegetables. We start B’s bedtime routine at 6:30 and he’s out by 7:00 - early for him! After he’s down, L preps his breakfast sandwiches for the week and I do some dishes. Then we take mutual advantage of the extra hour we have together. Even after 12 years it’s always so good with L. I fall asleep around 10 pm feeling blessed. 🌿 Daily total: 179.32 ✨DAY 5: MONDAY✨ 5 am: I make my pour over and get started on work first thing. I have a couple of deadlines this week and the side gig to balance so I’m already feeling pressed for time! I wrap up an entire grant report before 6 am and feel very accomplished. Then I pause work to start our breakfast, which is all pre-prepped, hallelujah. While L and B eat breakfast, I get dressed in a black turtleneck minidress, busted old tights, black ankle socks, and my Doc Martens. I help L load up the car with B and all his gear, and tell L to be careful. Today is L’s first day back teaching in person since December, and we’re both nervous since COVID is still running wild in our red state. On the way to work he fills up his car for $18.33. 2:30 pm: After another grant report, seventy gajillion emails, forty Slack messages, and several hours of Zoom calls, I’m ready for a break. I finish eating the quinoa salad I prepped during Zoom call #2 and then eat a pear too. I see our Misfits box has been delivered. It’s $30 a week, and is included in our monthly expenses. I unpack it, clean the counters, wipe down the bathroom sinks, take O for a walk, and sit down to work on my side gig grant report, which is due Wednesday. I set a 30 minute timer because I don’t want to be too late picking up B. 4:25 pm: Worked longer than I meant to! Pack some snacks and pick up B. On the way home we get a giant bag of potting soil so I can repot those plants. It’s $18.52. Come home and engage in B’s favorite winter activity: pressing all the buttons in the turned-off car. Meanwhile, in another car across town, L picks up a big bag of Purina One, butter, maple syrup, and applesauce. That total is $28.64. 5:30 pm: The whole family is home and we kick it inside until it starts to get dark. L and I gather all the things and take the creatures out for a walk even though there’s a light, but very cold, rain happening. B is cranky and so are we, so the walk is quick. We eat leftover Chinese food around 7 and start B’s bedtime routine. B falls asleep at 8 and I update this diary for a while, then go watch Ted Lasso in bed with L til about 9:30. It’s much better than How I Met Your Mother, for the record. 🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 65.51 ✨Day 6: TUESDAY✨ 3 am: B wakes up and needs a diaper change. I have the hardest time falling back asleep after: I can’t stop thinking about how I left B’s hoya out in the cold with its roots exposed most of the day yesterday and into tonight. But it’s too cold for me to get up again and pull it inside! So instead I toss and turn and hope it’s not dead yet. 6 am: L’s alarm wakes me up! No early morning reading and writing time for me. I get right up, make a giant pour over, and get breakfast together while L wakes up B. Then I actually sit down with them to eat: B and I both eat boiled eggs with everything but the bagel seasoning and some coconut milk yogurt, and L sips his coffee while his breakfast sandwich heats in the oven. I get dressed in my workout gear and walk the dog while L gets B ready for school. They leave, and I finally bring the hoya in, and start work, around 7:30. L buys coffee and snacks from the gas station on his way to work: $6.88. 9:30 am: I grab some crackers and peanut butter from the kitchen and notice a DMV bill on the fridge I’ve been meaning to pay, but don’t totally understand. I call them up and respond to emails while I sit on hold. Turns out I owe the DMV $10 for paying my Dad’s van insurance late. With the “processing fee” it comes to $11.17. 1:30 pm: Been on Zoom calls all morning, and decide to switch over to the side gig work for a bit. Meanwhile I eat that quinoa salad I prepped yesterday. At 2 pm, my longtime bestie and neighbor F comes over and we take O for a walk in the park together and have such a good conversation. While the context is (very) different, I’m reminded of the Toni Morrison quote when I think of F: “She’s a friend of my mind.” Such a gem, and such a smartie. At 3:30 I start a HIIT yoga class and it kicks my butt even though it’s only 20 minutes long. Afterwards, I shower and pick up B. 5:00 pm: L arrives home while B and I are playing, and we get in the car once more to check out a cute couch L scoped out on Facebook marketplace. It’s a sweet vintage brown velvet actually-for-real midcentury situation. Unfortunately we discover it’s also small and very uncomfortable. $200 not spent. Once home, my family goes for a walk and I make dinner - this grits and beans recipe from NYT cooking. It’s blessedly quick to pull together. Meanwhile D texts me and says my overalls are ready! YAY! She’s gonna drop them off in a couple of days. She says the total is $30. I include a tip and Venmo her $40. 7:00 pm: At bedtime, B cannot get enough of his books and we read All The World several times. He finally falls asleep around 8:20 and L and I eat dinner on the couch, with Ted Lasso. I drink a glass of red wine, which is a mistake: my anxiety spikes right after, my stomach hurts, and I can’t sleep. This is very upsetting as I want very much to be a wine mom. Does this happen to anyone else? 🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 58.05 ✨DAY 7: WEDNESDAY✨ 5:45 am: Wake up with B cuddled into my back - L moved him to our bed in the middle of the night after his second wake up. Get my coffee and breakfast together and sit down at my computer to work on the side gig grant while everyone's asleep. Then L and I manage the morning rush together. I eat sourdough toast, two scrambled eggs, and some pineapple along the way. 7:30 am: Take O out for a walk and on a whim decide to listen to one of my favorite easy-listening pods: A Beautiful Mess. Normally the two sisters and co-hosts, Elsie and Emma, chat about things like home decor or craft making or how to balance kids and work. This episode is about the host’s evangelical upbringing, though, and is a real raw and honest tear jerker. Pair it with this, one of my top reads of 2020: “What Does the White Evangelical Want?” It gets me thinking about L’s upbringing in the church. He and all his siblings are all agnostic now. Finally sit down at my desk and debate taking Adderall. I used it regularly in college and for a few years after in order to Do All The Things. I try to stay away from it now - I’m not trying to live an impossible life any more - but I also really want to pick B up earlier than normal today, and that means I need to meet all my deadlines and make it through two Zoom calls with my direct reports by 3 pm. I decide to take 4 mg. Right after I take it, three different friends text me at once and then, suddenly, I’ve spent an hour catching up via text. Get to work for real around 9 am. 3:00 pm: Wrapped all my calls, answered all my emails, washed all the dishes, ate some lunch, and finished the side gig work! OK Adderall, you beautiful bitch. Spend a few more minutes tying up loose ends and then gather my things to pick B up from school. The plan today is to go “play basketball” in the park near his school because he is OBSESSED with balls, and I’m trying to do more magical things every day with him. It’s cold but I’m ready to brave it on his precious, curly-headed behalf. At 4 pm J calls and asks to go pick him up with me. Hooray, things just got even more magical! We head to a different-than-usual park together and run around until B sits in, and then drinks from, a puddle. We panic and J googles “What happens if my baby drinks from a puddle?” The search returns lots of stories of babies eating muddy rocks and surviving, so we decide it’s ok. 5:00 pm Head home and L is back from work! We take the smols on a walk and I tell L that I think nighttime screentime is making me anxious. I’m a sensitive creature and I really don’t want to blame the wine. He’s very perfect so he helps me think through an alternate plan for this evening: hot tea and book reading in bed, and maybe sex, too! Fun. Next, I head home with O to pot the plants we bought the other day, and L takes B to the playground. They get back around 6:30 and I am very excited to reveal my new plant placements. Everyone feigns interest except O. Then we eat leftovers together and B gets in bed around 7:30. L and I promptly fall asleep next to him and don’t wake up again til 11 pm. Guess our new nighttime routine will have to wait til tomorrow! 🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 0 ❤️ Section 5: TOTALS Total Expenses:$478.71 Food & Drink: $220.25 Fun & Entertainment: $0 Home & Health: $109.01 Clothes & Beauty: $40 Transport: $29.50 Other: $79.95 ❤️ Section 6: REFLECTION This week reflects a new normal for us, I think! We just set the goal of saving up for another down payment in December, and that’s when I swore off online shopping both to save money and to stop lining the pockets of evil billionaires like Bezos (no shade to anyone who uses Amazon, this is purely a personal goal & I’m not sure I can meet it). This self-imposed rule is helping me reign in my discretionary spending overall. L and I have only been living a two-income, middle class life for a few years, and my lifestyle creep was a little out of control in 2020. That said, I can and do still regularly justify spending money on things that make life more luxurious and beautiful - like a $40 candle or a totally unnecessary but very lovely plant. There are a couple of things not reflected in this diary that we regularly spend on: gifts (my achilles heel - for example, we spent three! thousand! dollars! on Christmas gifts in December), and medical bills. Both B and I had to visit the emergency room in 2020 and we are still getting random bills in the mail as our insurance company and the hospital duke it out. As I was editing this diary on Thursday, I received one for $787. Wahhhh. I think I’m gonna get on a payment plan, but even so that it will be over $200 a month. Last thought: this process got me thinking in some detail about the contradiction of organizing for the fall of capitalism (and the rise of a more gentle and just economic system), yet believing everyone - including ourselves and our own families - deserve to live full and abundant lives. This means I compromise my own anti-capitalist values and beliefs every day, in big and small ways. Discuss?
[first] [prev] [next] Captain Stelgart held tightly to the 'oh shit bars' on the side of her command couch, the lights flickering on the bridge as her 'little' frigate took a small section of the nCv cannons fired by the Harvester that was breaking orbit from around the gas giant. Sure, it was only a 'fraction' of the guns in that salvo, but when the array firing that salvo was measured in the tens of miles rather than by the barrel, the concept of 'only a fraction' became largely moot. "No damage! Cycling out projectors in section 9-G! Hull integrity is still nominal," her DCC officer called out. It was worth it as the little frigate and its brigade mates came out of the maelstrom of hellfire, still tightly interlocked in formation, guns still hot. "TARGET LOCK!" Guns called out. Stelgart heard Rear Admiral (Lower Decks) call it out and gave her own input. "OPEN FIRE!" she yelled. The frigate shuddered as the fireplan was activated. The massive C+ cannons fired, rotated barrels, loaded a ground-car sized slug, and fired again, each of the six guns spitting out a C+ round every fifteen seconds. The inverted tachyon particle beams ripped out, transferring almost instantly across the hundreds of kilometers to impact almost before the C+ shells. The frigate flushed its missile pods, the pod itself turning into a C+ slug, and dumped more out. The creation engines ran overtime, producing a shell every second and a missile pod every five seconds, the heat rising rapidly. The Harvester being targeted took hits from the entire brigade across the engines. The C+ shells hit inside the shields, detonating inside the engine spaces, which were not protected by the armobattlescreen/armor technolaminate like the hull. Over a third of the engines went out or exploded. The rear battlescreen failed, lightning bolts the size of trains ripping across the hull of the Harvester, tearing huge canyons in the armor. "Fireplan updating!" Guns called out. "Decoys out!" Stelgart felt the ship slide to the side as it warped space around it, the 'little' frigate's mass sliding into the warped gravity well it was projecting to move rapidly. The entire brigade moved like a flock of birds, each one's engines supplementing the engines of the others, allowing them to move quickly and smoothly through space. The Harvester's return shots whipped through space where the brigade had been, hitting nothing but echoes of the ships that were a hundred kilometers away. The decoys that survived spun up to full power and 'fired' off. Dozens, hundreds of ship profiles and energy signals scattered from the target area, completely obscuring the small flotilla of two dozen 'light attack' ships as they changed targets to the undamaged engines and maneuvered for a better shot. "HELLCORE CHARGING!" Guns called out. General No'Drak heard the call, preceded by "STATUS CHANGE" from the ground-side tactical analysis teams. Ge'ermo'o turned around, his hooves thumping on the variable hardness flooring. He looked down at the large hologram of the planet. The thirty or so icons representing the more massive Precursor machines were starting to flash, alerting those who were reading the map that they had changed their activities and demanded attention. "Precursor ships are engaging engines and starting to lift off," someone else called out. Only the lemurs of Terra could break a machine's will to fight, Ge'ermo'o thought. Two hours ago that realization would have filled him with horror. Now, it was just one more shock and horror piled upon everything he had witnessed. White filled a holotank as Third Armor gutted another Precursor ship, turning the superstructure into fuel for the fusion hellfire the consumed it. The feed cleared and the recon drones and sats focused on how the battlesteel of the Precursor machine was burning like anthracite coal exposed to plasma. You murdered and terrorized your way across the Rim Systems and now that someone can hit back you scurry away like insects. I hope the Terrans destroy every one of you butchers and that you feel every moment of it, Ge'ermo'o thought, completely unaware of the irony of a Lanaktallan thinking such things. The floor rumbled slightly even though the blast was nearly a hundred miles away. Die, Ge'ermo'o thought, his tendrils curling with anger. Don't say goodbye, just die, Precursor trash. An aide touched General No'Drak's arm. The big insectoid shifted, pulling Ge'ermo'o's attention from the holotanks. "Sir, 108th MI has a data pull request from Sergeant Casey," the aide said. It took Ge'ermo'o a moment to remember who Sergeant Casey was, and his eyes went to the holotank that was tracking the subterranean progress of the massive Precursor mining machine. "Tell me," No'Drak sighed, pulling out another cigarette. He was highly stressed. The weapons being used shredded atmospheric gases, blew holes in the planet's magnetic field, and shattered the ozone layer. The weapons were "Total War" option weapons. You usually didn't use them on a planet you planned on having anyone live on before an Elven Court or Genesis Device could be used. They'd been used on Unified Council military targets prior, the Mar-gite before that. Now they were being used to show the Precursors that the Terrans still had the ability to hurt them. "MI reports Casey filed a data pull request for an older creation engine template," the aide said, combing her whiskers with one slightly trembling hand. "It's a problem." "What's the problem?" General No'Drak asked. Part of him wanted to snap at his aide, ask her why she was bringing a request from a Senior NCO to him instead of gong to his Company Commander. A glance at the holotank showing the progress of the Precursor mining machine heading toward the mountains along a path miles below the surface reminded him that he wasn't dealing with some Private asking to use the latrine. "The request was very specific, but not something in our decrypted and active template data archives," the aide said. "Current network and mainframe usage rates mean it could take a couple of hours for even one of the BOLO's to find the correct files in their archives since it's going be a low priority file." "Anyone else who might have something like it?" General No'Drak asked. "There is someone in-system we can ask, but..." the aide went silent for a long moment. "Spit it out. Who?" No'Drak lit his cigarette as another Precursor machine was gutted, the city sized bulk falling a half mile into the ocean, still burning. "The Crusade of Wrath likely has the template loaded in systems that they can datamine a lot faster," the aide said. Ge'ermo'o opened his mouth to ask the question, but General No'Drak beat him to it. "What is he asking for?" the big Treana'ad asked, putting away his pack. The aide consulted her dataslate. "A set of Second Terran/Mantid War creation engine templates for, and I quote, 'M-428e9 High Frequency Phasic Scrambler' and 'High Frequency Phasic Disruption Munitions in the multi-spectrum range'. Both sets are real old, we're talking archive databanks old." "How would he know of such things?" Ge'ermo'o asked. "Aside from being like nine hundred years old? It's a pretty big piece of history for our people," General No'Drak mused. "He's probably seen it referenced in manuals and documentaries and history works." "Sir, should I contact the Crusade of Wrath?" the aide asked. Smokey No nodded. "Get me Joan Mentissa," he said, exhaling smoke around his feet. Ge'ermo'o stared at the holotank as another Precursor made it to orbit, its hull burning, only to run face first into the ships of the Crusade of Wrath, which began pounding it with their guns even as it tried to get clear of the gravity well to safely make a helljump. The holotank in front of him wavered then cleared, to show an archaically designed ship's bridge, all black metal with dark green, blue, and red markings. No hologram projectors there, only bulky looking flat screens. The crews at the stations ranged from female Terrans in heavy armor to rough looking, almost skeletal appearing full conversion cyborgs. The well lit bridge still seemed to give off the aura of being dimly lit, shadowed, and hidden due to some dark purpose. "General," the Joan said, nodding. "How may the Dark Crusade of Light assist you?" "We believe there may be justification to deploy ancient technology only you would be in possession of," General No'Drak said carefully. "Technology that we require the creation engine templates for." "What type of technology?" the Terran woman asked, narrowing her eyes slightly. "The Crusade possesses many forgotten and forbidden technologies. Be wary with what you ask, General." "High frequency phasic interrupter technology," No'Drak said. "We have reason to believe there is a statistically insignificant but still valid change of encountering Precursor War Era Mantid technology," No'Drak said. She turned, her mouth blurring slightly as the audio cut out. After a moment she nodded and turned back to General No'Drak. "We have such technology templates," the Joan stated. "We shall transmit Terran Imperium Era templates as well as Combined Military Authority templates to your people." The lights on the deck of the ship flashed around the Joan and she turned away. "I have a battle to fight, General, and the enemies of life to destroy. May you seek honor," she said. The channel closed. Ge'ermo'o swallowed around the lump in both his long and short throats. "What is the technology do?" Casey looked up at Vuxten, his armored breathing mask making him look strange to Vuxten's eyes. "Sorry, what, sir?" he asked, turning his attention from the holographic wireframe projected by Addox's hand to Vuxten. "What does the tech do? Even my greenie isn't sure," Vuxten said. Casey tapped the hologram as if it was a physical thing. "It's old tech. There's civilian versions, but those are the size of small spaceships, designed to cover entire cities in an interlocking field, we need smaller ones, ones that can handle the punishment of combat." "OK, but what does it do?" Vuxten asked. "It's a high frequency phasic disruptor," Casey said. Before Vuxten could comment that he had heard that but it didn't explain what it did, Casey pointed at a small scaffolding walkway. "We've got overwhelming evidence that this is a Mantid machine, and I doubt it's from Premik-8. That means our greenies run the risk of being hit by ruling or warrior caste psychic attacks." Vuxten nodded even as 471 flashed icons of disgust. "These were designed just prior to the Second Mantid War," Casey said. He finished tapping icons and wrapped the object he was modifying in the hologram in a casing. "They won't do much more than make our little green buddies itch, maybe a light headache, but it completely disrupts psychic control signals from upper caste." The nano-forge attached to Casey's heavy loading/work chassis began to hiss, the untold trillions of nanites contained inside building the template Casey had modified. "These are Imperium make. I used the Combine circuitry, the Imperium disruptors, and wrapped it in warsteel, which can hold and disrupt psychic energies," Casey said. He grabbed the small cylinder as it exited the creation engine, waved it a second to cool it down, and moved over to Addox. "We attach one of these to each armor, we crank the detection up, and if there is any type of upper caste Mantids running around, they can't force our little buddies to do anything." --i die free-- 840 transmitted. Icons from every other greenie flashed in agreement. Vuxten watched as Casey used a fusion torch to attach two different types of cylinders to Addox's armor. One was round with a flat side, the other was a hexagon. Both had green lights down the side. --ouchie-- 471 transmitted to Vuxten. "You OK, buddy?" Vuxten asked on the private channel. --tingly achey-- 471 replied. --taste like copper vapor-- "It's going to be thick when they cut in if our buddies get hit," Casey said, moving to Vuxten. "From here on out, our battle buddies need to stay in the shells, especially if we end up deploying the munitions." Vuxten nodded, looking at the grenade on his harness that Casey had handed out. It had the Confederate logo of a hand crushing a planet on it, but it seemed older, somehow malevolent, just sitting there. "Try not to shoot random robots you see. Most of them will be extremely task oriented," Addox said. "More than likely they won't even be able to process your existence beyond being some kind of obstacle to move around." Everyone nodded as Vuxten felt a slight twinge in his head, a couple of inches behind between his eyes. "Right now, they're set to stealth," Casey said, moving to the next person in line. "The Crusade was nice enough to give us the specs and they had a stealth mode in the templates they handed off, just needed a little tweaking to work with our systems." Vuxten closed his eyes for a second as a mention of the Crusade made the taste of Gen-0 stimgum rise up in his mouth and the scar around his cyberear ached for a long moment. He could remember the fear and rage of the Imperium/Crusade/Combine troops landing on Telkan in the middle of an all out assault by the Dwellerspawn creatures and plants upon a shelter that had undergone an emergency surfacing. "Your vitals just spiked, Lieutenant, are you all right?" Addox asked. Vuxten swallowed. "I'm all right. Just reminded me of something." "Second Telkan War?" Addox asked. "Yeah," Vuxten said. "You were there when the Imperium troops made their landing, right?" Addox said. --no shit-- 471 said privately. "You could say that," Vuxten replied. I AM ENTIRELY FORMED OF WRATH! echoed in his mind, along with the memory of a huge Terran wading into the Dwellerspawn. Vuxten waited, consciously taking control of his breathing to keep it steady and reciting the mantras he had been taught. A couple of times his datalink tossed up memes, but they were all pretty bad, pretty basic ones, which told him he was either out of range of the main psyops system or it was overloaded. One got through that made him laugh, even though it obviously wasn't meant for him, which made it even funnier. A heavy tank with markings of Bravo Company, 6-28 Armored Battalion had obviously driven into a large ditch and broken its tracks, tried to back up, slid sideways and left its tracks bunched up before somehow having the cupola jump its track and having then gotten stuck on its side. A green mantid was in the foreground with a commo headset on saying "Have you tried turning it off and on?" "What?" Private First Class Sultrek asked, making Vuxten aware he'd laughed over the platoon leader channel. "Fighting must be easing up on the surface," Vuxten said. He passed around the meme and everyone laughed. Vuxten saw Casey shake his head. "Not gonna work, they're gonna need to release the IP and acquire a new one." --try running a network ping-- 884 offered. --diagnostics on my board says your tank is fine please clear channel-- 737 informed the tank in the picture. --must be a factory defect-- 013 decided. Another meme popped in, obviously from 3rd Armor Divisions Morale section and Vuxten burst out laughing as Casey attached another set of disruptors. This one was of a Precursor with "ONLY ENOUGH FOR ONE" written on its hull, staring with wide eyes at another Precursor that was completely engulfed in the white fire of an uncontrolled fusion reaction. The one with wide eyes slowly went transparent as it slid off the side of the picture. The caption read "When see your boy get roasted by another squad and realize you're next." "It's an older meme, but it checks out," Casey chuckled. "I've never seen it," Pvt Renklant said. Addox shook his head. "That's a genuine Pre-Diasporia meme right there, boys." The link cut out and Vuxten could see "No Connection" on the BATTACNET icon. Addox filled the time while Casey attached the parts onto the armor telling a series of profane jokes that made the tip of Vuxten's ear heat up with embarrassment. It was over two dozen jokes that involved a greased up Rigellian body building midget and a pair of confused cat boys. Vuxten knew it was supposed to be jokes but they were so shocking he couldn't even laugh. Ranklant snickered though. "All right, done," Casey said, straightening up. His frame hissed as pressure relieved in the heavy pistons that provided strength enhancement. "Everyone ready?" Vuxten asked, more to Casey than to anyone else. Icons flashed ready as Casey nodded. "Lead the way, Sergeant," Second Lieutenant Plunex said. "All right, let's move out," Sergeant Addox ordered. "Casey, take the rear." There was silence on the channels as the platoon moved through the larger maintenance tunnels, following the maps made by the recon drones. The drones had found what looked like engines as well as massive fusion plants that provided power but both of those possible targets had been set aside by the very obvious target. In the heart of the machine was a huge egg shaped area that the doors were closed, the vents did not access, and there was no access outside of what appeared to be airlocks designed for Mantids. Big Mantids. It took nearly two hours to navigate the large area before they reached the heavy airlock door. When they got there Addox ordered it cut open but Casey shook his head. "What?" Vuxten asked. "Need a greenie to check this seal. It's got some pebbling, looks age related. Might give us an idea of the last time this door was used," Casey said. --will do-- 471 said. "My buddy says he'll do it," Vuxten said. He half expected someone to object because he was the ranking officer and was grateful when nobody said anything. 471 popped the armored housing, climbing out and jumping over to Casey's frame, hanging off of it for a second. "Visual only, don't touch it," Casey said. --not tell you how to be ape-- 471 shot back. Casey just chuckled. After a moment 471 moved back into the shell, sliding his bladearm into the computing node built in. He ran the tensile strength and other factors. --356 years approx-- 471 let Vuxten know, feeling a glow of pleasure in figuring it out. His fellow Mantids stuck their tongues out at him via emoji for getting the be the one who did the work. "It's been awhile," Addox mused. "Hopefully there isn't a surprise on the other side of the door," he looked at Lieutenant Plunex. "Orders, sir?" "Open the door," Plunex said, managing to keep himself from looking to Lieutenant Vuxten for guidance. "Casey, handle the door," Addox said. "Roger that," Casey said. He worked for a few moments to get the control panel off, examining it. "No power. Probably controlled from inside," he mused. He pulled wire out of the creation engine, ran it from his frame to the door, and toggled the power. The door slowly ground opened, moving more smoothly by the time it was halfway open. "We're going to have to divide up to go through that airlock unless you want me to cut open the far door and risk this thing's systems going full breach alert," Casey said. "We'll move through by three man groups," Addox said. He looked a Plunex. "First three, sir?" Plunex felt the sweat break out under his fur. "Uh," he started. Vuxten stepped forward. "Casey, me, and Private Renklant," he said. Plunex felt relief even though the idea of putting a superior officer in danger bothered him slightly. Casey handed the wires to Plunex and walked in, pulling the panel off the door and starting to work on jumping the power leads. Vuxten waited for Renklant to move through then moved through himself. When saw Renklant reach down to take his weapon off of safe Vuxten reached out and put his hand on the weapon. "Not yet," Vuxten said over the point to point link. "Go in ready, but not hair trigger. Move to the right." Renklant nodded, swallowing, as Casey stepped back, the wiring bypass ready. "Close the outer door," Vuxten ordered. He closed his eyes as the massive door hissed shut, taking a deep breath and centering himself. When he opened it Casey stood by the door, staring at Vuxten, simply waiting. "Open the door," Vuxten ordered. He felt loose but ready to move in any direction, not on edge but ready to react with his weapon at any second. The door slid open and Casey stepped in, taking a step straight into the room beyond and Vuxten knew it was to clear the firing arc for the big minigun the human was packing. Vuxten went left, rifle in his hands, thumb on the fire selector. The entire sphere was open. Work stations covering the walls and a massive computer core suspended in the middle of the room with what looked like some kind of horseshoe shaped command console wrapped around it. Heavy cabling was festooned everywhere, over consoles, across chairs, in mid-air as it moved from point to point. "Negative movement," Casey ground out. Vuxten noted how the human's voice had suddenly changed. "Not much power in here with the exception of our big friend in the center," he turned and Vuxten could see the cold amber glow in Casey's eyes was fading. "I'm pretty sure we bring everyone through." Vuxten radioed back and waited as the lock cycled to bring the rest of the platoon through in threes, with Addox coming in last. During the time spent bringing everyone in Casey moved around slowly, walking on the catwalks, careful to never brush any of the wiring. A couple times Vuxten saw him duck or step carefully over nothing and changed his visor. Laser commo in the high IR range. Using that data Vuxten started tagging up places for everyone to sit down in such a way that they'd be covered by at least three other members close by. Each time one of the Telkan Marines came through the airlock he guided them over to sit down. "Sir," Casey's voice broke in. Vuxten looked up and saw that Casey was standing on the middle platform, one hand holding one of the heavy cables that held the platform up. "Yes, Sergeant?" Vuxten asked, noting that Casey had linked in Addox and Plunex to the conversation. "I've seen tech like this. It's old Mantid tech for sure, but I'm pretty sure this is what's affectionately referred to as 'after market modifications' by the mechanics," he said. "Computer's Mantid make, systems are Mantid make, machine's Mantid make," he swung slightly and faced Vuxten. "Circumstantial evidence suggests that this thing might possibly have a chance of being built by Mantid." "You don't say," Addox drawled. "Smartass." "How's Glory?" Casey suddenly asked. "Fine. She said for you to quit screwing around and hurry up," Lieutenant Plunex said. "I left a squad with her, she'll be fine." "Oh," Casey said. He swung a couple of times back and forth and launched himself through the air, landing on the catwalk with a clang. The pose, the way he seemed to hang there, reminded Vuxten of the Imperium of Rage Marines. "We have commo outside?" Plunex asked. "I've got slow commo, text and data only. Having to go full error correction on it," Casey said. "File a sit-rep, let Command know we're still alive," Plunex said. He looked around. "Where do you think it's going?" "Somewhere terrible, I'm sure," Vuxten said softly. The last time I was underground, it didn't work out too well for anyone involved, he thought to himself, staring at the computer arrays on the central platform. [first] [prev] [next]
[LAUREN JAMES] Receiving racist abuse online was a shock - social media companies need to wake up (via Telegraph, text below)
By Lauren James, Manchester United and England forward11 February 2021, 07:00 I’m 19 years old and I’m sitting here, writing about racist abuse. All because of the colour of my skin. It is mad. I'm proud of my skin, I love my skin colour. But when I saw the comments on my Instagram feed, it hurt. For a moment, I thought I was seeing things. I thought, “This can’t be real.” It wasn’t just one comment, or one emoji. The comments kept coming. I didn’t know why. There wasn’t a reason for the abuse. I haven’t played a match in a while due to injury, so it felt very out of the blue that someone would choose to target me. Maybe the comments stemmed from me being Reece’s sister, because he recently bravely spoke out about the racist abuse that he experienced. Maybe people were targeting my family. Either way, it is wrong, and something that I don’t think that I – or anyone for that matter – should be dealing with in life. Over the weekend was the first time that I’d experienced racist abuse on social media. But it wasn’t the first time that I’d been made to feel aware of the colour of my skin. Racism doesn’t just exist online, of course. It can be in the everyday things – even just going to the supermarket. There are times I've been to get my shopping and you get that feeling that people are intimidated by your presence. They'll move away, pull their children in closer or just look at you in a certain way. It’s difficult to talk about. It's obviously not a nice experience, but I try to just carry on with my day. I didn’t plan to speak out about racism at this early stage in my career. I'm a quiet person. I go about my business, play my football and crack on. I've seen and supported other players speaking out about racist abuse. But when it happens to you it is different. Honestly, at first I didn’t know how to deal with it. It was a shock because football has always made me happy. Not everyone can say they play the sport they love as a job, and when I’m playing with my team it doesn’t matter what someone's background or race is, because we’re a team. Together. I’ve achieved a lot for someone my age. Receiving my first senior England international call-up last year gave me a feeling that I cannot compare. Or playing for United, knowing that I spend every week in training with World Cup winner, Tobin Heath. As a kid I remember going to the park with my brothers and my dad, we would constantly try and compete against each other, and it was just fun. Football continues to bring me the same feelings that I had when I was a kid. But the last few days have been very hard. Part of me has wondered if we as athletes can take control of this by coming offline, by deleting our social media accounts. But the other part, the stronger part, says no. It would show the trolls that they are winning, and we can’t let that happen. Facebook have announced that they will take tougher sanctions on abusive messages. It’s a great start but more needs to be done by social media platforms to put an end to this. The easiest way to racially abuse someone – without actually typing the words – is to use the monkey, gorilla or banana emojis. We all know what is intended when those emojis are used or when you see comments like “black lives don’t matter”, yet social media companies pretend to be blind to it. If we are serious about change then there has to be an end to anonymous accounts. Because at the moment anyone can create an account and write hurtful comments, hiding behind fake names and pictures. Since sharing the abuse I received I've had a lot of support, much more than I expected. It has been overwhelming to be honest. Players I currently play with, and others like Alex Greenwood and Lucy Bronze, have shown that even though we play for different teams they care and support me, checking in to ask if I'm OK on those dark days. I've really appreciated that. When things like this happen, it is bigger than football rivalry. My manager, Casey Stoney, is very supportive. She knows she won’t ever experience discrimination on the basis of her skin colour, but she has my back. She is someone who has been discriminated against in her life. Her bravery inspires me and in the same way that Casey has helped me to progress on the pitch, she has helped to guide me through this. Knowing that support comes from across the game is important. It shows that you don’t need to experience racism to realise it is wrong. Racism and trolling is not just an issue for black people or the black community. If society as a whole starts speaking out and dealing with it, things will have to change. It’s a fight for everyone. Whether you are a boy or girl – whether that’s Reece at Chelsea, or me at United – the outcome is the same. Racist comments are hurtful and upsetting. To anyone thinking about writing a racist or abusive comment, please stop and take the time to reflect on how it will make that person feel. In society, and in the wider world, we need to do better to tackle racism. Lauren Manchester United manager Stoney calls for more action by Molly McElwee Casey Stoney has called for action from the Government and social media companies, after Manchester United's Lauren James exposed "disgusting" racist abuse she had been subjected to online. Stoney echoed the Football Association's own calls on Monday, in response to a number of players across the men's and women's game who have spoken out against racism in recent days. James, 19, took to Instagram this week to highlight vile comments she had received on her profile: “Instagram on a real need to do something about it or they will lose so many individuals on their platform – cause [sic] that’s the only way they will actually listen. Could even just remove any emojis with racist meanings. Too easy for some kid to press a few emojis in order to try and grab some attention. Too much talk around these days, and nothing ever gets done. Usual story.” England and Manchester City's Lucy Bronze was among a number in the game who came out in support of James, and United manager Stoney said seeing the abuse had been upsetting. “She’s 19 years old, let's not forget that," Stoney said of James in a press conference on Tuesday. "It’s hard for me to comprehend sitting here as a white person in terms of being able to understand what she lives through every single day and what she has experienced growing up. "It’s utterly disgusting. When a player comes to me and says, ‘it’s kind of water off a duck's back’, that is gut-wrenching for me that she has to face that and it’s normal. I just cannot get my head around it. It does upset me quite a lot to be honest." Stoney said James had the full support of the club, and suggested the striker take a break from social media "to protect herself", but James had refused. "Her opinion is that they are winning then, aren’t they?" Stoney said. She added: "Being so young, I’m really proud of her for speaking out. To be able to say ‘I’m not accepting this, I’m going to call it out’, I think is brave. She shouldn’t have to go through it. "It’s a sad time. Just because they play football and have a profile, we go after them... Until the government, until Instagram, until Twitter do something about it, it’s not going to change. It’s over to them." On Monday, culture secretary Oliver Dowden condemned the "shocking" racist abuse of footballers: "In advance of this recent spate of cases, I called a meeting to hear first-hand accounts of the daily abuse players receive and the awful toll it takes on them. We are going to change the law to make social media companies more accountable for what happens on their platforms & they can start showing their duty of care to players today by weeding out racist abuse now. Players must not be abused for doing their jobs, enough is enough." In recent days, social media abuse in football had been a hot topic, after Premier League referee Mike Dean had to call in police after receiving death threats online for two subsequently overturned red cards he had handed out. Stoney herself has been the victim of homophobic abuse since she came out as gay during her playing career: "Social media is a blessing and a curse, I have experienced it myself in terms of the toxic nature it can be and the power it allows people. I have been told I’m an abomination and should never have been born. I have been sent things through the post that weren’t very nice just because I love another human being. "I lived in a slightly different generation, because I didn’t grow up with Twitter and Instagram, so I’m thankful for that. But it doesn’t matter who says it and it doesn’t matter if you say you have thick skin, it still stings. If you are getting that every single day or consistently it must be very tough. We need to have more kindness in the world and less hate.”
I'm gonna fly the American flag proudly because it ought to represent what we are, not what we're perceived as. I hope you'll join me.
I'm a lefty, support BLM (not antifa, as they are in PDX), support gun rights to a degree (if you need an AR with green-tips to hunt you suck at hunting and 30 rounds in a mag ain't ever gonna help you be a better hunter, ya big dummy, get a bolt action ya douche, hunting is a SKILL, not a guarantee). I live in Portland and have a gun for home protection (springfield .45 for gun nuts, XDS). I'm Bi and so is my wife. Our families are conservative, we're mostly liberal. I lean left, but support police in general and hope we'll see social workers making a living wage soon before everyone decides they're a good replacement for cops trying to talk down a tweaker with a machete (oh Portland...) Letting antagonists steal the most meaningful symbol (the flag) we have to unite under is bullshit and I won't accept it. White supremacists decided it was okay to steal the "ok" emoji and, back in the day they stole the swastika, because they wanted to and insisted so hard that they stole the meaning from India and it lost any recognition but fascism after WWII. I think we should take the flag back and fly it for what America ought to be. Don't let them take anything for themselves. White supremacists thrive on collecting cultural symbols (if you see em', repurpose em') and I'll be damned if the country I grew up in is gonna get the same treatment. My flag means welcoming the sick, the poor, the needy. It means opportunity, it means hope, it means serving the vulnerable so that they might see freedom. It does not grant the freedom to, for example, short sell an entire economy into ruins in 2008. It also doesn't serve as an honest backdrop for the Tea Party (remember them?) or as a blanket for all our atrocities during war times (that still means now, right?) I know why people want to dismiss it. I know America has done serious wrong. I can't and won't deny it. Our history is our history. Those stains don't come out, no matter how much peroxide we try to clean it with. But you have a chance to make it into what you want it to be. Take it back. Take it away from the extremists. Pull the fuse out and make it something we can be proud of. It represents us as a people, and wouldn't ya know it, that includes you. Plus, if you show up to a protest waiving the flag, you're less likely to get pepperballed and hosed down with OC spray. Wear your Sunday best, wave the flag, and let the rest of the world watch as the cops spray down and batton patriots waving the flag. That'd be the most honest representation of the flag we have currently. Fuck em. Stop dressing in all black like edgy teenagers. Together we stand. Make it better, because someone has to. I wanna be one of em'.
Holy fucking shit my ex gave me a weight gain fetish and now my old crush is pregnant and holy shit it's got as fuck she's gotten so fat I swear to God. I love my current gf but if I were single you bet your ass I'd be clapping them pregnant cheeks christ on a cross this is so fucking hot
don’t wanna be horny but shit i need a (fem)dom so bad. i’m dying from lack of attention and affection
Its my cakeday
ghosted a grl i met on teenagers n then talked off reddit w bc she wanted to meet up and im still not sure if i dodged a pedo or if i missed my first and only chance (3 years ago this is old)
ok
Mobbrie is not my mom
sorry 4 horniness but holy shit i wanna fuck so bad i wake up horny i go to bed horny idk how much more of this i can take
I firmly believe I have the resolve to kill someone in cold blood
I'm considering sucking off the family dog this weekend when my family will be out the house
I did not get to eat my gf's ass this Christmas like I wanted to. She did get me a laserdisc of the phantom menace tho so that was pretty rad.
i feel myself getting lazier and lazier when it comes to my job and i don’t like it and i’m afraid my coworkers notice too
I punch myself in the face as a form of self harm
I want irl friends so fucking badly
I started crying the other night at dinner in front of my family because I want friends to play a role playing game I want with
His spanish voice is so hot and cute
i hate so many people from sub twitter
I’m tired of wearing rubbers I want to come inside a girl without one
Yeah I’m like 99% sure I’m bi but my brain does not want to accept that fact. Its done a really damn good job suppressing my feelings about the same sex for my whole life until about a month and a half ago and now I don’t even know anymore. I’m just kinda confused I guess
Femboys my dms are open unironically
We've been spending so much time together and its been so fucking nice tbh i love him sm
Hello it is Adam I will make a BIG confession now: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
im probably not going to make it to middle age. i don't have a good support system, im horrible at keeping friends, i have pretty severe depression that i need to medicate for and im also mind-numbingly lonely.
Passed my background check hell yeah they didnt find my necro blog
Not me developing feelings for a friend
Slowly shaving more and more of my body with the end goal of becoming femboy 😳
i have a bunch of random confessions in my notes but idk if i shld post it here. it seems too spicy imo 😳😳😳
hahahah body dysmorphia go brrrrr
god. i honestly have no fucking idea why i wanted my dad to fuck me. thank god im over that
hey. if u like listening to my bloody valentine. hmu 😳😳😳
imagine a someone barging into ur room while a ghost is railing u. like all they see is ur asshole getting bigger and smaller for no fucking reason
i have a thing for masochism. where i want my partner to be the masochist and i am definitely afraid of myself for that
american football just started playing. no i am not ok
poop
I keep simping for mackspork and they're ignoring me
Im penis 😳😳😳
Being a cult leader could be pretty fun not gonna lie
I want a tall girl to bully me
Im sexually attracted to school stress
I once had sex, would not recommend
I secretly have a really good body
I have sent unsolicited penis photos and I hate myself for it
Twitter Subreddit Users Can Be Toxic Asf Ngl. Except For Like 7 Ppl. They Cool Asf
Watching my bf play games while i do all the voice acting in funny voices >>>>
i'm still in love with you
oh to be a body pillow and be dry humped on and cummed on at least 5 times a day
another day of being a vers top, in theory but not in practice 😔😔
I'm too much of a wuss to talk to the girl I like and I've probably missed my shot
big sad, small dad
I am fat
Black Girls are the best
Lmao this aint gonna come out
I’ve hardly left my bed for weeks, catch me on my 600 lb life on TLC
The only way I can get off is picturing an ugly man watching me while I make fun of him about how he will never get laid. I post on gonewild hoping gross incels will masturbate to me.
My brother likes to jerk off into the sink but he doesn't always clean it and ill just see jizz in the sink and I dont want to tell him hey clean up your cum and make stuff weird but I dont want to be washing my hands in his cumbox
Old teenagersnew makes me cringe so fucking hard snjfnijsnfmnd
Fucked myself with my new dildo while my boyfriend watched 🙈
i had a crush on mpandingare
🍓🦇I need to be pegged
Mackspork is hot
I have a dog named Rusty
ffeJ eman yM
I hate how pornhub has changed
Tried a condom out for the first time the other day and holy shit they're so thin i was thinking more like water balloon thickness tbh
really hope a few people from the old sub are doing terrible
I want to have sex with my aunts holy hell they Hella fine
I once shoved a coat hanger in my ass. You know the default kinds that they have at Walmart? Yeah it was one of those and then I sucked it too
I'm masturbating to someone from the sub rn
What I’m trying to say What I mean is So basically
[first] [prev] [next] The city was overcast, as was most of the planet, the rain thick with uptake from the orbital bombardments, the atomic weaponry, the directed nuclear weapons, and, as always, the fires. It coated heat sinks, sensors, visors, armor, buildings, and the dead alike. The sun was barely visible, unable to warm up the landscape or the day despite it having been summer before it had all began. In orbit the Precursor Autonomous War Machines had brought in reinforcements, obviously intending on dedicating the amount of metal needed to take the system away from the Lanaktallan Unified Council, the people who lived on it, and deny the Confederate military any semblance of victory. The PAWM's had announced their next wave of reinforcements by simply Helljumping straight into the system and going guns clear. With a hundred Goliath class Haverster vessels. More than had been seen in any one place the entire war. Their new tactic, of making directly for the planets, not bothering to secure control of the system first, was resulted in debris slowly spreading out from the system as the Confederate Space Force Naval Vessels had engaged them at ranges they could not answer. Hundreds of millions had died already. But there were billions left to fight for. Vuxten was riding on the back of one of 3rd Armor's medium tanks. He had dialed down the psychic shielding until he could hear the screams again after the first two attempted ambushes. He could hear it, the steady screaming from up ahead and had jumped up on the back of Captain Lee's tank, a member of 8/68 "The Warsteel Dukes", to let her know that he could hear it. He was crouched down slightly, using the turret for cover while he knelt on the back of the medium tank. Medium. It weighs nearly eight hundred tons, half of that is armor, Vuxten thought to himself. His visor gave a pop of sparks and the rain and debris cleared off. "Drones out," Captain Lee said from where she was half out of the tank commander's hatch. She wasn't wearing her helmet and Vuxten kept having to restrain himself from yelling at her to put her helmet on. He could see the three red rounded end bars stacked at the base of her skull. The two tanks from 8/68 and the one from the Great Herd sat idling, the Terran tank's engines rumbling and the Lanaktallan tanks hoverfans howling. Thankfully Vuxten's armor automatically edited out those sounds. After a moment she put her hand on the datalink on her left temple and cursed. "Give me a spiral search pattern, let's see if that's a pattern." "What?" Vuxten asked over the channel. "Here, look. We've got a problem," Captain Lee said. She made a tossing motion and Vuxten 'caught' the data packet, opening it up and putting it on his visor with zero transparency. The building was largely gutted, small and medium Precursor Autonomous War Machines inside. There was one of the big ones in there, heavy tracks and the armored surface covered with guns. Strapped around the guns were civilians. Lanaktallan and neo-sapients both. Vuxten could see where the cabling had been run through their bodies, woven around them, then sloppily welded to the hull. Some of them were screaming, others were weakly crying out, still others were just slumped against the hull of the war machine. He counted fifty total just on one side. "Shit," he said. --what-- 471 asked from where he was keeping an eye on Vuxten's heat. "Look," Vuxten passed the data to his little green battle buddy. --shit-- 471 agreed. Captain Lee put her hand to her temple again and Vuxten could tell she was subvocalizing, talking to someone. After a minute she looked around. "All non-Terran units are to pull out of the city," she said. She gave a heaving breath. "3rd Armor and 8th Infantry will be handling this," she turned and looked at Vuxten. "That includes First Telkan. Get your men out." Vuxten frowned and opened his mouth to object then closed it. The Battle Tactical Network was already updating. "Let's go, men," Vuxten said, jumping down off the back deck. "What, we're leaving?" Nultek asked. "Yes, Lance Corporal, we're leaving," Vuxten said. He began jogging down the torn up asphalt road. Behind him he could hear the sound of the Lanaktallan hover tank turning around, the graviton generators howling as they balanced the weight. "Fall back to Log Base Tau." ---------------- Vuxten could tell everyone was angry. Non-Terran units had gone to the nearest Log Base, meaning 1/1 of 1st Armored Scout Division was present, all of Second Telkan Marine Division, and close to two hundred of the Lanaktallan hover tanks. A lot of people wanted to know what was going on and even more were mad at the perceived slight of being pulled out of the city. Colonel O'Malley, in charge of Vuxten's 1st Assault Regiment, was hurrying over to him, Lieutenant Colonel N'gatu right behind her. Vuxten altered direction to meet up with her between two of the five hundred ton Lanaktallan battle wagons. "Your men out?" she asked. "First Platoon's all accounted for, ma'am," Vuxten said. "All Telkan elements have fallen back to the log bases." She turned her visor clear and nodded. "Trucker called everyone back who isn't 3rd Armor or 8th Infantry. He doesn't want any non-Terrans to clear that city." "Why?" Vuxten asked, following her into the 'Main Gate' tunnel and moving through the ten meter thick wall. "General Vandu wants to order First Telkan back into the city but General Ko'Draka overrode her," the Terran Colonel said. She paused when they left the tunnel, looking at the few blocky buildings that were more or less blocks of armor with a few doors cut into it to access the inner spaces. She reached out and touched Vuxten's helmet and he saw the "PRIVATE CHANNEL" icon flash. "I'm bringing you because you're the highest ranking Telkan. If you survive, someday you'll take my place, so you need to see what kind of shit show you can walk into through no fault of your own," she said. "Yes, ma'am," Vuxten said. He suddenly wished he was anywhere else. Preferably being shot at. They moved into the bigger armored block, O'Malley moving down the center of the corridor. Troops in adaptive camouflage and light armor called out "Make way!" or "Make a hole!" as she approached and moved against the wall. The only exception was six enlisted carrying a long loop of armored fiber optic cable. Vuxten and O'Malley both pressed against the wall to let the work detail get by. Finally they reached the command center, or at least what was passing for one. Four days was a lot, especially when backed by nanoforges and troops who had decades or centuries of experience, but everything was pretty much ad-hoc still. The holotank was pretty much just the tank itself, with enough of a flat surface around it to hold the datascreens for individual dataslates, the chairs were missing or had only the bases installed, and cabling still hung down from the walls, the plating that was supposed to cover it either missing completely or leaned against the affixed plate next to it. Vuxten's armor immediately pinged the holograms and living beings in the room. Colonel Kalnek, Commander of Log Base Tau was physically present, as was General Vandu. Trucker and Kilkatrikak were visible from the waist up. Vuxten saw Trucker spit as his arms and upper body shook and knew the big Terran was engaged in combat. Kilkatrikak had a cigarette in his mouth and obviously jogging. General Papatonis, in charge of combined armor operations, was present physically, his face tired looking and the blackish tinge of propellant residue on his face. Planetary Armor Great Most High A'armo'o was physically present, leaning against the wall and injecting a stim-cone into his forearm. General Kilkatrikak's face and upper torso, armored all in black, suddenly lit up, reflecting rapid flashes. Around him little bubbles reading "DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA" floated up in the hologram. "The Treana'ad Infantry Hordes are still engaged," O'Malley whispered. General Ko'Draka and General Ullmunka were present virtually, Ko'Draka with a cigarette in his mandibles and Ullmunka sitting in a comfortable chair, her grayish-green hands folded over her adaptive camouflage covered knee. "Colonel O'Malley, welcome," General Ko'Draka said, taking a drink from a plastic bottle. "This should be enough." "Moment," Trucker's hologram said. "GODDAMN IT, FLE-" his hologram cut out speech. "Just listen, Trucker," Ko'Draka said. "Pay attention to your fight. I'll 'tach you the transcript." "Roger! TWO O'CLOCK, PANAMA PAM! YOUR OTHER TWO O'CLOCK, YOU MORON!" Trucker said. Ko'Draka made a motion and the sound from Trucker was muted. "All right, we're here to discuss my obviously unpopular decision," General Ko'Draka said, folding his hands and crossing his bladearms. "You pulled a fifth of my power armor troops out of that city," General Vandu snarled. "They're needed to sweep the buildings." Ko'Draka nodded slowly. "In normal circumstances, yes." "You pulled 9th Warborg Division in to take their place, completely disrupting my war plan," Vandu added. "You still have eighty percent of your power armor troops. 9th Warborg can easily fill the gap. They've got the most experience at city fighting against Precursor Autonomous War Machines out of every unit in Task Force Angry Duck," Ko'Draka said. "Except First Telkan," she shot back. Vuxten was tempted to tell her not to bring him into it. "General, do you understand why I pulled all non Confederate forces out of that city?" General Ko'Draka asked. She shook her head. "I do," A'armo'o said, pushing himself off the wall and trotted up by the half-completed tactical holotank. General Vandu turned, opening her mouth, then shut it. "The Type Three Autonomous War Machines have attached civilians to their heavy armored vehicles in hopes that it will make any who face them pause for the critical milliseconds for them to get the upper hand," A'armo'o said. He shook out his arm he'd injected the stim-cone into. "Lanaktallan and neo-sapients obviously taken prisoner from the city's population that have not yet been placed into what is being called a 'screaming array' by the troops." "The power armor troops can go in to free them," Vandu said. A'armo'o laughed, a sound like a gorilla jumping up and down on bagpipes. "And when they rush in they can wave their magic wands and turn all of the Precursor machines into soap bubbles so that they don't have to fight against dozens, scores of Precursor machines and hope that the hostages don't get injured." "How dare you!" Vandu started to say. "He's right," O'Malley added. "Standard procedure for the big ones is to fire off their anti-personnel strips if power armor troops get close, which would turn those hostages into..." "Did I ask for your opinion, Colonel?" Vandu asked, turning and glaring at the lower ranking woman. O'Malley shut her mouth and stepped backwards to stand next to Vuxten. "The fact that Lanaktallan troops are working next to Confederate troops is politically charged enough, but when, not if, when it got out that Lanaktallan troops took part in what is going to be a slaughter, there would be reprisals by allied species troops as well as civilians," A'armo'o said. He undid his canteen, a Space Force version, not a Lanaktallan one, and took a drink. "Recalling First Armored Scout Division as well as Telkan First Marine Division, that ensures that the only ones taking part in the fighting in the city are Confederate forces." Vandu pointed at Vuxten. "His people are part of the Confederacy." "His people were neo-sapients less than three years ago, deemed unsuited even for cannon fodder and not even trusted with weapons," A'armo'o said. He looked at Vuxten. "No offense." "None taken," Vuxten said, blocking 471's profane emoji. "All anyone will see, is rather than fight a difficult battle, the Confederacy sent in what the inhabitants of this planet will see as Unified Military Council forces if my own forces, General Ekert, or the Telkan Marines are sent in," A'armo'o said. "So you're just going to force 3rd Armor and 8th Infantry to wade through gore?" Vandu asked. A'armo'o shrugged. "I am unbothered by it either way. I have spent centuries inside a tank. I no longer even see what is in my gunsight beyond a target," he took another swallow off his canteen. "Tying hostages to equipment is standard procedure in the fights I have been part of." He moved back to the wall and leaned against it. "Nothing convinces local guerillas not to shoot at your tanks like tying their mates and young to the hull." "Space Force doesn't do that," General Ko'Draka said. "Any more," A'armo'o shrugged. "You outgrew something that we still routinely practice. It is why I am comfortable following your orders." There was an uncomfortable silence. "So, it's OK to have the Terrans wade through blood," Vandu started again. "General, compose yourself," Ko'Draka said, lighting another cigarette. "I realize that things are difficult with the SUDS issue, but attempt to comport yourself as an officer." Vuxten managed to keep from snickering. "And to answer your question, yes. It is acceptable for the Confederate Space Force to fight their way through even though there are civilians attached to the vehicles," Ko'Draka said. "Which is why I'm having 108th Military Intelligence pin-point the houses that ambushes are waiting and using artillery to destroy them and damage the ambushers. A high impulse thermobaric pulse round from a Poohawk Missile System should be acceptable to ensure those poor bastards don't feel any pain." Vandu clenched her jaw. "We can't send anyone in, the lesser machines will rip them up. We can't send forces against them, just firing the weapons near them will severely injure them or kill them," Ko'Draka leaned into his hologram. "They're already dead." Vandu turned her head away. ------------- TELKAN FORGE WORLDS I've managed to get some of the records from Second Telkan untangled. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT What's wrong with the data? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TELKAN FORGE WORLDS The data's timestamps are messed up. Apparently there's temporal warfare going on out there. Looks like someone keeps making the forces out there relived the same events over and over, trying to change the outcomes. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS Will that work? Keep refighting the same day over and over until you win? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOLMIL No. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TELKAN FORGE WORLDS BAH! Where did you come from? Ok, now I sound like Treana'ad. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS Why doesn't it? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOLMIL Because Terrans don't do the same thing over and over. There's... anomalies. There is always anomalies. Someone who remembers each day, someone who does something different. It then causes a butterfly effect. The best bet is to rewind the day for you so you have fresh troops, but leave the enemy troops still in same linear time stream, so they're damaged and have casualties. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT Except that won't work on Terrans. Nanoforges and clone banks mean you just rearm, refit, and reinforce. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOLMIL That's one of the reasons we have those protocols. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS Wait, could that be what's happening to the SUDS? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOLMIL Who knows. The SUDS is a cludged together hodgepodge that's been half blown out a dozen times so far. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL What ever happened to the SUDS is more than just temporal warfare. The SUDS system is built to handle that due to the Second Temporal War, so there has to be something else that effected the SUDS to cause it to red-dot. //////// TELKAN FORGE WORLDS The Second what? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL What? ///////// TELKAN FORGE WORLDS What do you mean what? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL Sorry, time lag. Temporal resonance issues. Can't understand you. //////// MANTID FREE WORLDS You get used to that. [first] [prev] [next]
[Review] HERMES Evelyne TPM and LOEWE Medium Puzzle
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Starting 2021 with a bang and trying to review the things I've loved and used the most this past year! ✈️Total shipping: 556 CNY (shipping from warehouse to me only), EMS ✈️Payment: Basetao ✈️Shipped 9/28/20, 🚙Arrived 10/19/20 🌹Seller: TS Redden Disclaimer: None. Redden doesn't make enough commission to offer discounts for reviews. My poor Redden T-T HERMES Evelyne TPM in Black Taurillon Clemence and SHW (H family factory) 📸Photos: My photos, PSPs, Factory, Authentic 💰Price: 1350CNY 🛍Order timeline: Inquired 5/19/20, Paid 5/26/20, PSPs 6/25/20 👛Quality (9.5/10):
Leather is so nice, malleable, and soft right out of the bag; after a layer of conditioner, it's even more soft and has such a nice sheen
Holes of the H logo are well-cut but there is some residual leather threads that can be seen (-0.5)
Stitches are nice, tight, and evenly space apart; pretty sure bag is machine stitched but not sure and the color blends so well that I really don't care haha
Metal hardware is nice and substantial; hook is smooth to open and close, no clinching; feels like good quality hardware; clasp is also secure when closed and opens/closes with a nice-sounding snap
Logo is straight, clear, and well-printed with no fading or messiness
Has a date code that is clearly stamped
Interior is soft and fuzzy
No dye transfer seen when used, whether on clothes or objects carried inside bag
👛Accuracy (8/10):
Leather is soft and good quality; however, the grains seem flatter and not as puffy as the authentic (-1)
The Hermes stamp on the bag and straps are imprinted and then embossed with silver lining versus the authentic seems to just be lightly stamped on (-0.5); however, the logo itself seems decent, a little thin (-0.25) and PARIS seems a little too spaced apart (-0.25)
Stitching looks good, even and tight (Please don't kill me, Hermes experts, but I still can't tell the difference between social distancing threads and those correctly in line)
The holes of the H logo seem to vary in size very minutely; the circle holes seem to be bigger than the H part of the logo; whereas, the authentic seems to have bigger H holes than the circle holes (I could be completely making this up because I have been really intensely staring at these 2 bags to find differences)
The interior looks good and matches in terms of the look of leather fibers
😊Satisfaction (10/10): LOVE and adore this bag. At first, I was very hesitant because the bag has no flap to cover it in case of rain or security. However, it is so small and convenient that I absolutely fell in love with it. The mouth opening allows it to carry so much more than I expected from its tiny size. I can fit my mini iPad easily with a little side poking out on top and fit my keys and phone. The strap is also super comfortable because of it's cotton material and wider width. I can also flip the H logo in or out to be more low-key or even do a subtle-flex. The hardware is just really nice too. I don't feel like I'm going to break it if I open or close it too much. I have worn it a few times in light rain and it's usually ok if I just hold it a little closer to me. And honestly, it doesn't rain enough where I live to worry about such things. (Even if I do always worry haha) LOEWE Medium Puzzle 24cm in Black Calfskin and SHW (OF factory) 📸Photos: My photos, PSPs and Factory, Authentic 💰Price: 1300CNY 🛍Order timeline: Inquired 4/17/20, Paid 4/17/20, PSPs 4/19/20 👛Quality (10/10, now 9/10):
OMG this leather. I absolutely love this bag's leather. It is amazingly soft right out of the box and it smells so so so good. I don't know if it was just my bag or what but it smelled like rose tea or some floral tea scent. I was/am still shook. None of my bags, reps or auth, ever smelled this way. (Sometimes, I would just open it to smell ahaha. I'm sorry I'm a weirdo) The leather is also just so soft and then even softer with conditioner. One of my favorite bags ever, just by feel and smell alone
Hardware is pretty sturdy and all stamped clearly and centered; clasps are ok, not too stiff but not super smooth; zipper is very smooth; however, it decided to fall off after the 2nd time I used the bag (-1), which is why I dock a point now
Stitches are nice, even, and tight and blends well with the leather
The white logo stamp on flap is clear and embossed well; it is even and does not fade off
Strap is easy to adjust and well structured; no loose or odd, weak threads
Interior canvas is soft but a little scratchy; no loose threads or tears after a few wears
Interior logo stamp is centered and embossed clearly
👛Accuracy (6.25/10):
Overall shape of bag looks good; number and shapes of panels are appropriate and matches authentic; spaces between panels, however, look uneven and some edges are spaced closer and others farther apart (-0.5)
The flap falls strangely over the bag's opening; it seems exaggeratedly dimpled on one side compared to the other and therefore, causes the bag slouch oddly when empty or near empty (-1); I believe it may be due to a longer bag handle (-0.5) as well, but I'm not sure
White exterior logo on flap is in the correct corner; however, it seems too bold or close together (-1)
Interior cotton canvas looks very good and matches well with authentic
Interior logo stamp looks too deeply embossed in puffy leather versus a more shallow, even embossing in the authentic (-0.5)
Date code is completely different (-0.25); the font is too tall, faces the wrong orientation, and on the wrong color leather tag
😊Satisfaction (9/10): Is this bag so flawed with inaccuracies? Yes. But do I absolutely LOVE and ADORE this bag? YES! When I say I have never smelled such a delicious bag with such soft leather, I mean it. And I have had bags from king and high 187, God, Symode, etc. I love leather and I love soft leather. I don't think it's the best quality leather because I have had a BV mini pouch from OF with subpar leather. But it smells so GOOD. Yes, I am all about the touch and feel and damn all the inaccuracies. LOL. Will I reconsider my love for it in a few months? Maybe. But I know I would regret ever rehoming it. The bag just makes my heart tingle with the feel, the smell, the spaciousness, and the comfortableness of carrying it. It just holds so much and easy to throw on and carry. It also has bag feet so I don't have to worry too much about where I place it. And did I mention I love leather that smells good and feels good? LOL 🌹Overall Service/Communication of Redden (9/10): My one true blue seller that I adore and love. She can do no wrong in my eyes. Taking days to answer? That's ok. No exchanges or refunds? More time to fall in love with the bags. Sending me PSPs a week later? I'm ok with that too. Sending me the cutest Mona Lisa emojis? Hell yes! She's not for everyone and not currently accepting new customers but any other TS can source the same items from the same factory. So, be merry and BUY BUY BUY!
Ranking the top 10 Small Forwards entering the 2020-2021 NBA Season
What's crackin. Proof_Tadpole is back with another ranking list. We went over shooting guards, so today we are going over the top 10 small forwards entering the 2020-2021 NBA season. Gonna keep this intro short and sweet. Note: This is a personal opinionated ranking of the small forwards I think would have a good 2020-2021 season. This is not to be considered as fact. I would also like to mention that with how the game is being played (positionless basketball), what you might think is a small forward, might not be a small forward for me (I would also like to let y'all know that my shooting guard post flopped a lot because of my ranking, which I take the blame for. I would like to thank y'all for the criticism, as it helps me improve on how I see basketball. At the end of the day, we are all fans of the game, and all of your opinions help me to better understand this wonderful game So once again, thank you, and hopefully this list can be somewhat of a come back). So if we disagree, I would like to let y'all know that our definitions are different, and that is okay; we just have to agree to disagree. Also shoutout to Andy Hoops for the inspiration. With that being out of the way, let us begin.
Lebron James- This is a no brainer. Like I could just leave it at that, but y'all know I am not going to do that. Last year, The King averaged 25.3 points on 49.3% shooting from the field and 34.8% from the field on 6.3 attempts per game (which was the most threes he shot per game in an entire season). He also grabbed 7.8 rebounds a game and lead the whole league in assists at 10.2 assists per game, and ended up placing second place in MVP voting (which he seemed to have a problem with, as he tweeted out "Only 16 First Place votes" with 3 laughing emojis. He also said in an interview that he was pissed off about the MVP voting). He then turned it up in the playoffs, averaging 27.6 points on 56.0% shooting from the field and 37.0% from three on 5.7 attempts per game. He brought down 10.8 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game. He played out of his mind in the finals, averaging 29.8 points on 59.1% from the field and 41.7% on 6.0 attempts per game, 11.8 rebounds, and 8.5 assists per game. These numbers and the well coached Lakers team overcame the Heat in 6 games to bring the Larry O'Brian back to Los Angeles, and he was awarded finals MVP for his performance (which was a no brainer), where he said that he finally wanted his "damn respect", which he earned based off the performance he had in the playoffs. This season, I expect the Lakers to repeat as NBA champions, and I expect Bron Bron to lead the way (although, I do not expect them to get that top seed like they did last year, as I expect them to cruise through the regular season, and turn it up an notch in the playoffs, where I expect Bron to do most of his damage). At the end of the day, Bron is the best small forward and best player in the league, no doubts about that pick.
Kevin Durant- The reason why this list is coming out a little late was because I wanted to see some games from KD. Although the Nets record might be looking a little suspect (besides the first couple of games, that defense is cracking), KD's play has been phenomenal. In 6 games, the mans is averaging 28.2 points on damn near 50-40-90 shooting (51.4% from the field and 45.5% from three on 5.5 attempts per game), 7.0 rebounds, and 4.8 assists. Add to that he looks really good (like the achilles tear never happened. Like bro looks like he got new bunnies) and his effort on the defensive end is also there, so he is well on his way to making a full recovery. And even if you didn't want to take in these stats because of the sample size, lets travel back to the 2018-19 season, where the slim reaper averaged 26.0 points on 52.1% shooting and 35.3% shooting from three on 5.0 attempts per game, bringing down 6.4 rebounds, and dishing out 5.9 assists per game (which only earned him an All-NBA Second Team selection). He then turned it up to a whole other level in the playoffs, averaging 32.3 points on 50-40-90 shooting (51.4% shooting from the field, 43.8% from three on 6.7 attempts per game, and 90.3% from the line on 9.3 attempts from the charity stripe), grabbed 4.9 boards and had 4.5 assists a game, before the strained right calf he suffered in the Houston series. He was the game changer in the NBA Finals, as he returned for Game 5 when the warriors were down 3-1. He scored 11 points in the first quarter, however, while trying to post up Ibaka, he ended up suffering an achilles tendon injury (which honestly doesn't seem to bother him at all). I have high expectations for the Nets, as I expect them to compete in a rather stacked Eastern Conference, and I expect KD and Kyrie to lead the way for them to reach their potential.
Kawhi Leonard- Mr. Terminator finds himself at the number 3 spot for obvious reasons. In the 2019-20 season, Kawhi averaged 27.1 points on 47.0% shooting from the field and 37.8% from three on 5.7 attempts per game. He also brought down 7.1 rebounds and dished out 4.9 assists per game. He also played great defense (but not to the level that the media and a lot of fans were hyping it up to be, as he had to spend more time and energy on the offensive side of the glass, as the mans was a very integral part of the Clippers offense). His performance on the court rightfully earned him a second team all-NBA selection and a second team all-defense selection. The only problem with Mr. Leonard was that of his load management issues, as people outside of the Clippers bubble thought that this action of his would eventually bite him the back, as they speculated that the team would not have any proper chemistry with each other with the limited amount of games and practices that Kawhi would have with the other players (add that with the fact that Paul George was coming off that shoulder surgery, so the team really could not gel well with one another). The Clippers did seem to have a hot hand around February, but that momentum was squashed when the pandemic hit. Fast forward to late August in the bubble, and wouldn't you have guessed it, the Clippers are struggling in the playoffs. They barely beat Luka and the Mavs in 6 games, got up 3-1 against the Nuggets, and then forgot how to play basketball, as they ended up blowing that 3-1 lead and the series. Now, we all know Paul George wet the bed, but half of the blame is to be put on Kawhi as well (especially with that game 7 shooting, like my god). The stats may show you one thing (as he had good playoff numbers), but the eye test shows you something completely different (like, this was the first time I felt Kawhi was just out of it). But regardless, the past is in the past, and with the additions of Ibaka and Luke Kennard, I still have this team in contention in the west. Now, it is very likely they are not getting past the Lakers, but if they end up seeing them in the playoffs, I expect that to be a good series. So overall, got some pretty solid expectations (I guess more grounded than last year) for Kawhi, and hopefully he can bounce back and forget the disaster that was the 2020 playoffs.
Jimmy Butler- Imagine if Rock Lee from Naruto or Asta from Black Clover were an NBA player; you got yourselves Jimmy Butler. He essentially had nothing from the start, but through hard work, dedication, and a killer mindset, was able to go from a 30th overall draft pick who was seen as a glue guy coming off the bench for his defensive skills (so somewhat like Marcus Smart, side note: not hating on Marcus Smart), to a max player and leader of the team that earned their spot in the NBA finals. Coming into the 2019-20 NBA season, Butler was viewed as a locker room cancer and a player that was "uncoachable", which lead to a lot of people questioning his decision to sign with the Heat (as he was viewed as a person who wanted to win, but he left the situation he had in Philadelphia, a team that was a couple bounces away from going to overtime with the Raptors, and possibly going to the NBA Finals). A lot of people outside Miami slept on the heat, saying that they would just be a fringe playoff team, and that the signing of Butler was just so that they could put seats in the American Airlines Arena. But straight off the rip, the Heat ad Butler surprised many. Although Butler's 19.9 points on 45.5% shooting and 24.4% shooting from three on 2.1 attempts per game does not look like that of a player belonging on a top 5 spot, the intangibles he brings to the game is what sets him apart from other superstars (and yes, he is a superstar). He had a career high 6.0 assists and 6.7 rebounds per game, to go along with 1.8 steals per game (which truly does not depict his defensive value, as he is such an amazing defensive player, and the leader of that strong Miami defense along with Bam Adebayo). Even after the stellar regular season, a lot of people were still sleeping on the Heat, saying that they would be a second round out at best. However, in the NBA playoffs, Miami and Butler turned up the heat (pun intended). Despite his playoff numbers not being that eye-popping (22.2 points on 48.8% shooting from the field and 34.9% shooting from three on 2.0 attempts per game, 6.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 2.0 steals a game), Butler always kept the Heat in check, and always set the tone for what was one helluva finals run. He went off in the NBA Finals, averaging 26.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 9.8 assists per game on 55.2% shooting from the field and 30.8% from three, pushing the Lakers to 6 games, despite loosing Goran Dragic and Bam for the majority of that series, and proved to everyone on the planet that he was a winning player, rightfully squashing all of his negative baggage that came with him. Although the Heat seem to be struggling to start off the season (which is expected as they are coming off the shortest off-season in NBA history), I expect them to figure themselves out by the middle of the season, and I expect them to be the same dark horse (because I am just gonna keep it a bean, the Heat are legit), and I expect Jimmy to lead this team, hopefully for another deep playoff run (I really hope this man can get a ring. I loved him on the 76ers, and I was sad that we didn't choose to resign him, but I am happy that he is in a better situation now. Hopefully he don't get that Rock Lee treatment, cuz they did him dirty in Naruto. But like no cap, he do be like Asta doe. Like everyone hated on him, now everyone understands his struggles and appreciates him. Dubs in the comments if you a Black Clover fan, cuz we getting recognized).
Jayson Tatum- If Butler is a combination of Rock Lee and Asta, then I guess Tatum think he Deku cuz he thinking that the "Mamba Mentality" is like one for all (I know it is corny, and I am so sorry. But for real though, Tatum do be thinking he Kobe, which is not a knock against him, but still. Also, Deku's associated with Green and Tatum on the Celtics, so that reference is hopefully not completely off). Ignoring the corny ass anime reference (which hopefully at least one of y'all get), Tatum is without a doubt a budding star (hell, he is a borderline superstar at this point), and last season was officially his breakout year. In the 2019-20 season, Taco Jay averaged 23.4 points on 45.0% shooting from the field and 40.3% from three on 7.1 attempts per game. He also brought down 7.0 rebounds and dished out 3.0 assists, which earned him the accolade of third team all-NBA. He also contributed to a very elite perimeter defense that was in Boston, and grew to becoming the leader of that young Celtics team. Like Butler, Tatum turned it up in the playoffs, averaging 25.7 points on 43.4% shooting from the field and 37.3% from three on 7.4 attempts per game. He also grabbed 10.0 rebounds and dished out 5.0 assists a game, leading the C's to the Eastern Conference Finals, and were two games away from making the NBA Finals. So far into the young season, Tatum and the Celtics have been looking very good despite that rocky start to the season. This season, I expect the Celtics to take another step in the right direction and to see growth from both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum (like, I know he grew more into a leader last season, but it always felt like he put up the stats, and guys like Brown, Smart, and Walker were the leaders of that team). I expect him to make an all-NBA, all-Defense (which he was lowkey snubbed for last season), and possibly get some MVP votes.
Paul George- I want to preface this by saying that this is not a knock against Mr. Playoff P. We all know that Paul George is going to be great in the regular season (I mean, mans right now is playing like an MVP Candidate, averaging 25.1 points on 50.8% shooting from the field, 49.2% shooting from three on 8.7 attempts per game, and 92.9% shooting from the charity stripe. He is also dishing out 5.1 assists and grabbing 5.7 rebounds per game. He also seems to have a better start with this Clippers team as opposed to last year, as he knows his role on the offensive and defensive side of the floor). But I am not gonna sit around and not mention the atrocity that was "Pandemic P" in last season's playoffs, which is the main reason why he is this far down. In the 2020 playoffs, Paul George averaged 20.2 points on 39.8% shooting from the field and 33.3% shooting from three on 8.5 attempts per game, brought down 6.1 rebounds, and dished out 3.8 assists per game. Basically mans switched from playing like an all-NBA player, to a bench player who was brought into the 15 man roster from the G-league, who is trying his hardest to stay on the team. Again, I am not implying that Paul George is bad (in fact, he is pretty good), but all I want from him is consistency. He needs to prove to the basketball community that he is a reliable option in the playoff, and that he isn't just a regular season player.
Brandon Ingram- Last year, Brandon Ingram officially had his breaking out season. After being traded to New Orleans from Los Angeles in the Anthony Davis trade, Ingram was able to flourish in his new playing environment. Although the Pelicans were a pretty underwhelming team (kinda falling sort of expectations I guess), Brandon Ingram did not disappoint, averaging 23.8 points on 46.3% shooting from the field and 39.1% shooting from three on 6.2 attempts per game. He also brought down 6.2 rebounds and dished out 4.2 assists per game, which earned him an all-star selection (also got some high respect from one Kevin Durant, noting that his game was very similar to his, saying that he has potential to be an elite player in this league), and won him the Most Improved Player award (although, I personally felt like it should have went to Bam Adebayo). Despite his statistical growth, he showed a lot of promise on the defensive end of the floor and he was able to be the go-to scoring option for this team down the stretch (basically, him being a jack of all traits player in the beginning of his career, which hurt him, is now pretty beneficial for him now). To start off this season, BI has looked strong, averaging 25.0 points on 44.8% shooting from the field and 38.6% from three on 6.3 attempts per game. He is also flourishing as a playmaker, averaging a career high 5.7 assists per game, while bringing down 6.4 rebounds per game. I expect the Pelicans to make some noise this season, and hopefully BI and Zion can lead this team to promising success in the future.
Khris Middleton- (These last three spots were very hard, so please do excuse me if I screw up here and there). Middleton finds himself here at number eight (like he is a good to great player and underrated, but at the same time, it really doesn't feel that way. Like, he is just an all-star player). If I were to just describe him, I guess all I can say is that he is somewhat of a second option to Giannis, in the fact that he scores his 20 points on good efficiency (to be more specific, he averaged 20.9 points on 49.7% shooting from the field and 41.5% shooting from three on 5.7 attempts per game. He brought down 6.2 rebounds, and had 4.3 assists per game). He is an above average defensive player and a vocal leader for this Bucks team. He has developed every single year in this tenure with the Bucks, and I expect nothing less from him this season as well (he is already averaging 20 points on 50-40-90 splits, so safe to say that he might end up being an all-star again if he keep this pace). His only problem is that of consistency, as like Paul George, Middleton struggled in the bubble, one of the main reasons why the Bucks were upset against the Heat in the second round. I expect the Bucks to remain competitive, and hopefully Middleton can find a way to solidify his position as the second star of this team.
Gordon Hayward- Despite that gruesome leg injury he suffered in the 2018 season and the rocky season he had in 2019, Hayward has relatively bounced back to being a productive starter to a borderline all-star type player. Last season he averaged 17.5 points on 50.0% shooting from the field and 38.3% from three on 4.3 attempts per game. He also brought down 6.7 rebounds and passed for 4.1 assists per game. He did not play a lot in the NBA playoffs, as he was coming off a grade 3 right ankle sprain which he suffered in the first round of the playoffs. He returned in game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, but he saw limited action, and the Celtics were taken out in 6 games. This season with the Hornets (who I really do not know where they will end up in the East), I expect to see increases in Hayward's stats (like as of right now, he is averaging 21.9 points on 49.3% shooting from the field and 36.4% from three on 5.5 attempts per game. He is also averaging 5.8 boards a game and 4.4 assists per game). I highly doubt he will make an all-star tea, but I expect him to be some valuable veteran leadership for this young Hornets team.
Duncan Robinson- Robinson finds himself at number 10 to wrap up this list. It is pretty simple to explain his game: He is just a sniper bro. Last season, he averaged 13.5 points on 44.5% shooting from three on 8.3 attempts per game (which is crazy). He was integral to the Miami Heat's success, and although he is pretty shaky to start of the season and teams seem to be guarding him a bit tighter (he is still shooting like 41.1% from three), I expect him to good this season again. Him and Bam have good chemistry on those hand-offs by the elbows, so he will definitely get good looks from three. The Heat will make another run for it in the east, and I expect them and Robinson to turn it up when the time comes.
Honorable Mentions:
Robert Covington- I was debating between Roco and Robinson for the tenth spot. However, I looked into the Trailblazers roster, and he is playing the power forward this year (which I guess is expected based off his defense), so he is going to be in my power forward list.
Tobais Harris- Same thing I said with Roco. He plays heavy power forward minutes for the 76ers, a position that he blossomed in during his tenure with the Clippers under Doc Rivers, so expect to see him in the power forwards list
Joe Ingles- Again, very close with Robinson. But I went with Robinson based off how much he provided that Heat team with. The inside-out game plan of the heat was very fun to watch last year.
Andrew Wiggins- I do not know what the hell to expect from him at this point. One day he has an efficient game and the next he just bricks everything. He is very inconsistent
Michael Porter Jr.- Give him time. Just give him time and he will hopefully be a key piece to that Nuggets team.
T.J. Warren- Prayers up for a speedy recovery. That is all.
Well. That is my list. Please do give your opinions in the comments below. Please upvote if you liked the list. Power Forward ranking is on the way. If y'all find my anime references funny, then I guess you can hit me up on u/Ok-Mycologist-3413 to just chat anime. I am gonna start to write more analysis based post on anime rather than the usual polls (like right now, that is all that I have), so if y'all wanna chop it up with some anime, come on by. Anyways, preciate the support and Tadpole out.
In honor of Martin Luther King JR Day, r/pics is clarifying our policy on bigotry, hate speech, and incivility.
In this submission, we affirm that we stand with BLM, LGBTQ+, and other disparaged groups. Therefore, after consulting with multiple organizations who are active and knowledgeable on these topics, we are further formalizing and clarifying Rule 8. https://www.reddit.com/pics/wiki/index#wiki_rule_8_-_civility The purpose of this post is to provide common examples of bigotry upon which we, as pics moderators, will take action. Please keep in mind that we will not be debating these topics individually, but you are more than welcome to head to socialjustice101 to either ask in good faith about these topics, or, if you are already familiar with them, to educate others.
This list is non-exhaustive, may be updated frequently, and is applicable to moderator discretion
Racism:
against African Americans or black people in general:
black crime statistics, "black on black violence"
any variation on "despite being 13% of the population, black people commit 50% of the violent crime" <- this is literally a copypasta/meme created by the white supremacist website, Stormfront. Variations include: "13 do 50, 13/50, the 13%, DESPITE"
victim blaming especially after rape or death (not exclusive to racism) (examples: "[x person] should have just cooperated with the police", "she shouldn't have worn that", "well they committed a crime in the past")
referring to black people as animals, specifically apes/monkeys
"what if you said this about black people instead of white people!" or trying to switch races (this is absolutely an apples-to-oranges comparison. Life isn't a chessboard that you can simply rotate the board and have gameplay be effectively the same)
"all lives matter"
dindu nuffin or variations, thugs, "he was a good boy", "he was going to college", joggers, naggers, "people who annoy you"
WE WUZ KANGZ
just posting the letter "N" to start an askouija style attempt to create a slur
"affirmative action is racist against white people"
"black people only get into college due to affirmative action"
"diversity hires"
"racism (systemic or otherwise) doesn't exist"
"upvoted because black"
3/5 jokes
IQ stats (more affected by general health, nutrition, parents' education level etc than race)
Bix Nood
"never relax"
black lives splatteBurn Loot Murder
advocating running over protesters (this is also advocating violence, a TOS violation)
"BLM is a terrorist organization"
arguing that white people should be allowed to use the N word
antisemitism
global bankers, bankers
oy vey, goyim, the goyim know
hollywood references
3 parentheses, "echoes"
that comic with the guy rubbing his hands together ("happy merchant")
holocaust denialism
"The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes you"
"people are reading" some particular supremacist book
in general, making assumptions about specific people based on racist views about the group or mocking something disparaging about the group as a whole:
Indian people: "must have been an arranged marriage", "designated shitting streets", "Indian rape culture", "superpower by 2020"
Muslim person in the picture: "terrorist", "religion of peace", "islam is right about women", "rag head, towel head"
Asian people: "Koreans eat dogs/cats", "china-virus"/"wuhan flu"/"kung flu", "slanty eyes"
transphobia
"there are only two genders"
"I identify as an attack helicopter" (or anything else patently absurd)
suggesting Michelle Obama is a man
intentionally misgendering a trans person
referring to being trans as a "mental illness"
suicide statistics/"40%"
"transwomen aren't women"/"transmen aren't men"
use of "tranny"/"trap"
decrying children having reassignment surgery (this is already illegal in most countries)
"did you just assume my gender?!"
emphasizing regret after transitioning
sexism
"women belong in the kitchen"
"the gender pay gap is a myth"
"equal rights and equal lefts"
cunts/sluts/whores/slut-shaming
"upvoted because boobs"
posting that comic which says women have to include themselves in their photos
"don't be such a girl"
homophobia,
equating pedophilia to homosexuality
f-word/queepillow-biteetc
"bundle of sticks" (Almost no one on reddit is an etymologist. They're only using this phrase because it's the same origin as the f-word)
puking emoji with no other context than a gay wedding or pride parade etc
"upvoted because gay"
"being gay is a sin"/"see you in hell"
ableism based bigotry
"you're only good for stump porn"
retarded/aspie/sperg/autistic
general incivility
this is just basically name-calling or personal attacks aimed at a specific user. Examples: "you idiot", "you moron", "you dumbass"
This list is non-exhaustive, may be updated frequently, and is applicable to moderator discretion
Many users have argued that facts cannot be racist, which is true. However, much of what is purported to be factual is actually twisted by inherent racism. For example, the assertion that black people commit more violent crime than white people is false: In fact, black people are arrested/convicted for violent crime more often than white people. The statistic does not represent a fact-based commentary on a racial proclivity; it represents a way in which systemic racism has unfairly maligned a historically marginalized portion of the population. Furthermore, even objective facts can be presented in a manner that promotes (or is promoted by) a racist agenda. It may be factual to state that a given entertainer is Jewish, for instance, but if that point is being raised as a means of insinuating something anti-Semitic, it is nonetheless an example of bigotry. Statements of this sort are referred to as "dog-whistles;" as coded phrases that are ostensibly based in fact, but which are being presented with bad-faith intentions. Dog-whistles, implied bigotry, and memetic phrases with bigoted subtexts are all forbidden in /Pics. Please note that there's a different between attacking a disparaged group who cannot change how they were born, and attacking memberships of groups (e.g. saying "ACAB" is not bigotry. Cops can quit, black people can't stop being black). Civil criticism of religion, governments, and groups/organizations are fully permitted. Veiled attacks that are instead meant to target and attack a nation/race of people that practice these faiths, is forbidden. If you don't understand some of the reasons behind these additions, that's ok. Many people are at different points on their path to education, and everyone should treat it as a process vice a destination. We encourage users to head over to socialjustice101 to either ask about specific points or to explain them to other users if you do understand. We won't be debating these here or in modmail as that's not a debate forum. Thank you for reading
A big thanks to the 2055 of you who took a moment to complete the recent golf 2020 census. This is a tremendous response and should provide a reasonable sample size among active users of this sub. Caveat: while my IRL work has a lot to do with digital media and numbers, I am no data scientist or Excel whiz, so I'm sure this isn't quite as good as it could be, but it's all I have time to do with now! So without further ado, here are the results (and I have made the data available here if anyone wants to take a peek or slice and dice it for themselves). You can view natively in your browser, or simply click the 'download' button in the top right. I might edit this later with some more findings, but that's enough for now! I'll be really interested to know what you think. What results surprise you? What results were you sure of? Please post and discuss your feedback! 1. How old are you? The average age of golf is 30.01 years. It's also the most common age selected in the census with 144 of you identifying as exactly 30 years old, 135 of you identifying as 31 and 134 identifying as 28 years. The oldest respondent is 72 (and has a handicap of 5). The youngest respondent was 13, which is the minimum age to have a reddit account, which is why I cut it off there. The two 13-year-olds identify as being off 12 and 6 handicaps. Just 108 of the sample size are teenagers, representing a mere of 5.26% of respondents. 2. What is your gender? A whopping 98.2% of us identify as male and just 1.1% female. I knew this sub was heavily skewed to men, but that's a LOT more than I expected. 3. What is your relationship status? 41.9% of this sub is married, 29.7% are in a relationship and 27.5% are single. The average handicap of married golfers is 17.0, single 17.5 while golfers in a relationship are 18.4, suggesting this latter category is prioriting other matters in life :) 0.8% of married golfers and 1.1% of both single and golfers in relationship are better than scratch players 4. Where do you live? 79.7% of you live in the United States Canada is second with 8.1% and the UK third with 4.4%. The top 10 is:
Country
Count
USA
1637
Canada
166
UK
90
Australia
27
Sweden
26
Ireland
23
New Zealand
11
Norway
10
Germany
8
Netherlands/Denmark/Finland
7
There are single representatives from Antigua, the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Greece, Grenada, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Romania and Thailand. 5. In which US state do you live? Here is where the Americans among us live:
State
Count
California
171
Texas
108
New York
88
Illinois
69
Pennsylvania
63
Massachusetts/Ohio
62
Georgia
69
Florida/Michigan
58
Virginia
56
Minnesota
54
The states with the fewest golfers are Delaware and Montana (2 each) while Vermont and Wyoming each have 4 representatives on golf according to this census. 6. What is your current handicap? (rounded to the nearest whole number) According to this census, the average handicap or golf is slightly lower than 17.5 (slightly lower as there are 20 players who identify as better than scratch, but were counted as 0 for the purposes of this average). 7. Recently,my handicap has been... 1262 (61.35%) of you have been reducing your handicaps lately - well done! 8.81% of you need to stop the recent rise in your handicap 29.84% of you are remaining relatively unchanged/consistent 8. My status as a golfer is... The vast majority of us (96.15%) are amateur players/weekend hackers while there are at least 8 current professionals among us, 3 former pros and 68 aspiring pros 9. What would you say is your preferred brand of club? I appreciate this question didn't suit everyone, as putters are different to irons as wedges are different to drivers - you might like a brand in one club, but loathe it in another. Without wanting to make this survey too in-depth, I think the below table is a decent snapshot of golf's preferred club brands (and really sorry I forgot about the PXG crew!)
Brand
# that express it as 'favorite'
TaylorMade
532
Callaway
380
Mizuno
303
Titleist
270
Ping
218
Cobra
126
Cleveland
46
Wilson
46
Nike
39
Srixon
32
Ben Hogan
20
Adams
13
Miura
9
Dunlop
6
Bridgestone
4
MacGregor
4
Bettinardi
2
Honma
2
Vulcan
2
Obviously a lot to unpack here and there a LOT of variables. Of particular interest is the love for a now defunct golf brand (Nike) ahead of leading brands such as Srixon and Miura. Also, there is a noticeable drop-off from Ping to Cobra and an even greater one from Cobra to Cleveland. When you isolate the data to those with a 0 or better handicap, the results look like this: TaylorMade (9) Titleist (7) Callaway (3) Mizuno (3) Ping (3) Cleveland (2) Miura (1) Nike (1) 10. Do you prefer to mix or match? 19.57% prefer to match your sets while 80.43% don't mind what's in the bag, as long as it works for you. 11. What brand of ball do you primarily play?
Brand
Number who play it
Titleist
462
Whatever I find in my bag or the woods
290
Callaway
249
TaylorMade
211
Srixon
194
Bridgestone
170
Kirkland
121
Vice
119
Snell
79
Wilson
39
Nike
21
Top Flite
19
Oncore
16
Maxfli
13
Inesis
8
Volvik
8
Mizuno
7
Pinnacle
6
Noodle
3
Seed
2
Sugar
2
Slazenger
2
OtheVarious
12
12. Do you think the ball you play has a significant impact on your game? 37.59% of you think it's VERY important 19.40% of you don't think it matters at all 43.01% don't mind, as long as it's a ball by a 'leading' manufacturer 17/20 of BETTER than scratch golfers said that ball choice is critical. The only surprising thing about this is that it wasn't 20/20! The average handicap of players who suggest ball choice is very important is 14.16 (down 3+ whole points from the overall golf average) and if you include the BETTER than scratch handicappers as zero, that falls to 13.85. 13. What is your position on iron covers? 57 of you (2.77%) use iron covers 821 of you (39.97%) of you think these 57 people should be openly mocked 1176 (57.26%) of you think these 57 people should do whatever they like :) 14. Do you drink alcohol while golfing? 17.96% of you don't see any difference between a golf course and an open bar 29.60% of you drink and play some of the time 24.74% of you drink occasionally 27.70% of you never drink while golfing Of the 29 zero or better handicappers among us, 11 never drink on the course and 5 drink most of the time! 15. What is your preferred tee time? 40.55% of you enjoy gettingup at the crack of dawn for an early morning tee time 27.46% of you like a morning slot, but without the early wake-up 14.41% of you would rather play in the afternoon 13.00% of you enjoy finishing the day with twilight golf Just 4.58% of you prefer to tee off at lunchtime 16. What is your preferred way of getting around the course? 45.13% of you prefer driving 32.18% of you are card carrying members of the push cart mafia 22.69% of you mental bastards prefer to walk and carry 17. Are you a member of a club? 71.23% of golf are nomads 23.81% of us are full year members of a club 4.96% of us are members of a club for part of the year 18. Have you ever had a hole-in-one? 10.18% of you have an ace to your name 89.82% of us are still searching for that elusive milestone! 19. Who do you prefer golfing with? 76.53% of us would rather golf with our friends 12.03% most enjoy playing with family 10.37% prefer the solitude of a solo round 1.07% of you most enjoy the company of strangers 20. Hot or cold? 67.53% of you would prefer to play in roasting hot conditions 32.47% would rather play in the freezing cold 21. What is your biggest pet peeve on the course? Here's how you responded to the pre-defined answers:
Peeve
# of you who most hate this
Slow play
1051
Lack of course care
214
People who hit up on you
204
'Put me down for bogey' guy
147
People who litter
145
Bluetooth speakers
111
Unsolicited advice
93
And here are some of the best 'write in' answers!
All of the above in equal parts (this was a popular response!)
The 6-foot gimme guy
Drunk golfers (refer to question 14)
Finding out the greens have been cored
The 10 practice swings before a duff guy
Snobbery
Rule sticklers
This is technically littering, but cigarette butts and sunflower seeds
Starters who don't properly manage their time sheets
Angry players who swear, throw clubs etc.
22. What do you consider to be the best part of your game? 34.95% of you are best with an iron in your hands 31.44% of you are magicians around the green with a wedge 16.84% of you feel most at home on the greens 16.77% of you love to step on to the tee with the big dog 23. What do you consider to be the worst part of your game? 45.62% of you aren't confident with driver in hand 20.25% of you least like putting 18.55% don't strike irons well compared to the rest of your game 15.58% of you are most uncomfortable with a wedge 24. Assuming you had not achieved either, would you rather... 68.01% of you would rather play a whole round to par or better 31.99% of you would prefer to write a "1" on your score card 25. Which shot produces the most pleasure for you? An utterly PURE mid/long iron right out of the sweet spot (40.12%) Ripping a booming drive down the middle of the fairway (30.62%) Reading the break and hitting the ideal weight on a putt (11.74%) A pin-point chip/pitch to tap-in range (9.54%) Crushing a wood off the deck (4.67%) Splashing out of the sand to a few inches from the cup (2.58%) A perfectly judged bump & run (0.73%) So that's all of the questions with pre-defined answers, which was much easier for me to dissect than the qualitative answers to come! With upward of 2000 responses, I can't depict every answer, so have done my best to group them and provide some outlying humour and interesting responses. 26. Who are you picking to drain a 20-foot breaking putt to save your life? By far the most popular response was "Tiger" or a variation of it (including "2000 Sunday Tiger" or "Young Tiger" or simply just an emoji and there are so many variations of TW, Eldrick, El Tigre etc. that I am not going to tally them up - just trust me on this, he is far and away the top choice!) A lot of you would back yourself for the putt. Some because you legitimately think you will make it, others because they will feel more motivated than anyone on earth while others wouldn't consider burdening another person with that responsibility! So here's the list I've generated with everyone who had 5 or more mentions.
Tiger Woods (714) - not including the aforementioned variations of his name, so I suspect that more than half of you will have chosen TW in some way, shape or form
Myself (139)
Jordan Spieth (121)
Jack Nicklaus (83)
Phil Mickelson (82)
Dustin Johnson (76)
Rickie Fowler (62)
Justin Thomas (58)
Jason Day (49)
Kevin Kisner (31)
Bryson DeChambeau (26)
Colin Morikawa (20)
Brad Faxon (18)
Kevin Na (17) - and two said "just so he can walk it in"
Steve Stricker (16)
Rory McIlroy (15)
My dad (13)
Dennis McCarthy (12)
Anyone but myself (11)
Happy Gilmore (11)...uh oh, Happy learned how to putt!
Jesus (11)
Ben Crenshaw (10)
Brandt Snedeker (9)
Webb Simpson (9)
Matt Kuchar (8)
Ian Poulter (8)
Brooks Koepka (6)
Arnold Palmer (6)
Tommy Fleetwood (6)
Jim Furyk (6)
Jon Rahm (5) - would have been a lot more after last weekend!
Patrick Reed (5)
A special shout out to....
The 6 people who would choose my mom (clearly good putting is not hereditary)
The 3 people who said "The Club Pro Guy"
The 2 people who said Michael Phelps
The 2 who said Batman
The 1 cool cat who said Carole Baskin
The 1 who nominated Rick Shiels because he "prefers some risk"
And the wise guy who said "a robot designed for putting" (see: 2000 Tiger)
27. If you could change one rule in golf, what would it be? Another one where I made it pretty difficult to analyse and display the results! But here are a few of the top answers (in what I interpret as order of popularity), and please feel free to access the results yourself if you want to sort through them all.
Lost ball to become a drop at nearest point of relief for a one-shot penalty instead of reloading for three
All hazards/OOB to be red stakes for consistency
Be permitted to ground your club in a bunker
Relax dress codes (including allowing tour players to wear shorts)
"Gallery Balls" whereby amateurs receive a free drop for a 'lost' ball that is definitely in play
All players should receive relief from fairway divots
Any drop/penalty should just be one stroke (a LOT of you think all OB should be treated as a lateral hazard)
A certain number of mulligans per round (most said one, but some of you want up to 3 per nine!)
Actual enforcement of penalties for slow play and/or a shot clock
Be permitted to lift, clean and place on all fairways
Free relief for things like ree roots, fences etc.
Drop height... some of you want it lower (ankle) and some of you want it back to the waist!
Change number of clubs permitted in bag (interestingly, half of those who suggested this want fewer and the other half want more - there doesn't seem to be a universal consensus)
That inconsequential and accidental touches of the ball or sand should not result in a penalty
Allow rangefinders/slope in competitive play
Preferred lies within one club-length no nearer the hole on all grass and bunker sand
Flagsticks should remain in the cup 100% of the time
Overturn the ban on anchoring
Slightly bigger cups
Stymies should be permitted
While sorting through these responses, it became apparent just how difficult it is to please all golfers. On one line, someone says "Collared shirts compulsory" and on the next, someone says "Collared shirts optional!" And finally, this one tickled me... "If you are not on the green and can run to your ball and play another shot within 5 seconds, the first one shouldn't count!" 28. What is your hottest/most controversial golf take? Another one that's impossible to really depict succinctly, so here are some interesting responses, copied and pasted exactly as you wrote them!
(most) old people ruin the game (gatekeeping & arrogance towards younger generation)
"Annoying fans" are necessary to grow the sport
18 holes per game is too many
70% of people should be playing from the red tees. Move forward
Alcohol should be banned on the course
Alignment lines on balls should be banned
All private clubs should have a public day
Amateur golfers on YouTube do more for attracting new people to the sport than pros on TV
Augusta as a course/club is overhyped. If it wasn't for the exclusivity and the masters itself, it would be considered an average course
Bad golfers should be relegated to non-ideal tee times
Blades make you a better golfer because you can feel where your misses are on the face
Breaking 80 isn’t impressive if it’s not from the tips
Brooks is more annoying than Bryson
Bryson and brooks are likable, talented guys
Bryson and Patrick reed are good for the game (several dozen more Bryson takes!)
Carts should only be used by people with mobility issues
Corn Ferry far superior to European tour
Dress codes are stupid
European Tour is more difficult than the PGA Tour
Everyone cheats, somehow or some way
Fairway shots are most times harder than shots out of the rough on low quality courses
Fedex Cup should be match play
Fitting is the biggest scam going. It is a sales tool and nothing more.
Getting married ruins the promising careers of young pga pros (see Jordan, tiger, rory, rickie, DJ)
Gimmes are acceptable and should be reasonable encouraged in social (non-competitive) play
Gimmes suck and hurt your game
Glove should not be removed during putting
Golf courses are a waste of resources and land
Golf decorum means something and isn't designed to be purely elitist
golf fans are the worst fans of any sport
Golf isn’t fun to watch just to play
Handicapping is a participation trophy for bad players
Hazards should not be raked, they are hazards
Hitting Fairway Woods off the deck is far easier than off the tee
Hole in one's aren't that special
I don't like Phil Mickelson
I don't really mind slow play
I don't think you should mark your ball on the putting green for the other golfers. Putt around other balls.
I love golf but hate golfers
I'd be on tour if I was given 1 year to train, a new fitted set of clubs, and had no obligations to anything outside of golf (this respondent is a scratch player)
I'd like to see a tournament with separate tees: womens/champions/PGA, all competing for the same $/trophy
I'd rather hit a great drive and double bogey than dink my iron a few times and par
If Bryson was black people would focus on the fact that he is changing the game and advancing it rather than focusing on his minor blunders he has had and blowing them out of proportion.
If you can’t shoot under 100, you have no business being on a regulation/championship 18 hole golf course
Instead of rolling back the ball, ban the use of tees
Iron covers aren’t terrible
Irons should be labeled with loft not numbers
Leaving the pin in to putt is better than taking it out
Men can learn way more from watching the LPGA than the PGA Tour
Mulligans are stupid and you cheat yourself out of an actual score
Music being played from the cart should not be distracting during a random weekend tee time. We aren’t on tour.
No discount should be given if the greens are aerated
No one should take more than one practice swing. Just get up and hit the ball.
Nobody wants to see pros play ridiculously tough courses where the winner is -1.
Older men at golf courses prove millennial aren't the entitled generation, its the 50 to 60 old dude who is
Pace of play is less of an issue than people make it out to be in the amateur game
PGA tour broadcast juices yardages for casual fans
Players on the tour aren’t too long, it’s cool to see what they can do with the same equipment as us
Playing forward by a set of tees doesn't make you less of a man
Playing more rounds will help you improve scores faster than range sessions. Rounds are what get scored, not repeated hits off turf.
Practice swings don't work and are generally pointless
Prime tiger wouldn’t go on that run he had today against this new talent
Pro Golfers should be able to play through noise and heckling
Pro V1s are overrated and mainly used by people for placebo
Pros are playing for millions of dollars they are allowed to be entitled and whine
Pros should carry their own bags
Putters over $100 are a waste of money
Rowdy fans are alright
Ryder Cup is better than any major
Scottys are not overpriced
Scrambles are a horrible way to play golf
Shafts don't matter for most golfers
Solo golfers do not have the right of way as long as the group ahead is meeting course pace of play
Stepping on someone's putting line makes no difference
Take the driver out of the bag. You’ll shoot better.
Tee boxes based on handicap not age/gender
The British Open is more prestigious than the Masters
The top 20 LPGA players could make bank on the men's tour if they could tee off from 100 yards ahead
The US Open is a better tournament than the Masters
There are like 5 people on the subreddit qualified to give swing advice
Tiger doesn't care to win again
Unless you are a 10 handicap or better, the ball you play does not matter
US Open should only be played at public golf courses
Waiting for the group in front of you is not hard or annoying
Womens golf is more entertaining to watch
Yelling fore does nothing. You’re on a course be aware of your surroundings.
You should have to have a license to play golf. Nothing crazy just take an online class that would go over basic rules and etiquette.
29. What is the best golf course you have ever played? Have aggregated the most popular answers to the best of my ability, capped at 6+ responses.
Pebble Beach (17)
Chambers Bay (16)
Half-Moon Bay (15)
Torrey Pines (13)
Whistling Straits (12)
TPC Scottsdale (11)
Bethpage Black (10)
Arcadia Bluffs (9)
Wolf Creek (9)
Tobacco Road (8)
Sypglass (8)
Pinehurst #2 (7)
Pasatiempo (6)
TPC Sawgrass (6)
30. What is your bucket list course that you are yet to play? Again, a lot of variations here which made it tough for me to sort the data, but have done my best to sample a Top 10. I was very surprised to see Augusta behind St Andrews and so far behind Pebble but I suppose people subconsciously don't vote for courses they have no legitimate way of ever playing. I'd be interested to see these results if I re-phrased the question to "You have a free, no questions asked tee time anywhere in the world, name your club..."
Pebble Beach (433)
St Andrews (200)
Augusta (193)
Bandon Dunes (119)
Pinehurst #2 (61)
TPC Sawgrass (49)
Bethpage Black (35)
Torrey Pines (22)
Whistling Straits (22)
Wolf Creek (21)
31. What is the ONE thing golf administrators ought to do to encourage more people (particularly young people) to play the sport? This was a genuinely encouraging list of 2000+ results to read though. We often read about the 'doom & gloom' aspects of the future of our sport, but there is a vibrant and dedicated golf community out there thinking of ways to perpetuate interest in the sport and keep the flame lit for the next generation. Again, here's a sampling of what I would consider to be the most popular responses.
Make the game less cost prohibitive (this is a big one - everything from clubs to green fees to beers)
Open 'masterclasses' or free clinics from pros at ranges and local clubs (another big one)
Shorter courses (9 or 12 hole)
Heavily discounted beers for 18+ players
More facilities like Top Golf
A greater focus on 9-hole game, tee times, handicap structure etc.
All clubs should have a dedicated youth program
Allow interest free payment plans for things like memberships, clubs etc.
Alter rules to make it less elite/proper ie. mulligans, preferred lies etc.
Allow kids (U15) to play free (and rent clubs free), or at heavily reduced rates
Alternate course routing that allows you to come off whenever you like, not necessarily play 18
Kids play free with a paying adult (ensuring pace of play is maintained)
Relax the dress code and 'traditional' golf culture ie. be far less elitist
Twilight 9-hole beer leagues, aimed at young professionals looking for something to do after work
Carving out tee time blocks for 'beginners' so they don't feel pressured
Similarly, these blocks might be "free for all" in terms of attire, etiquette etc. so if a 14-year-old shows up in a hoodie, carrying 18 clubs and wants to have two mulligans from every tee, it's completely fine!
Introduce golf to public schools through gym/PE classes
More tech in carts and ability to connect bluetooth (with limited volume)
Change the nomenclature of "women's" tees to "beginner" or "forward" tees
Close the course one day a month for beginners, with teaching pros on the course and range
Pace of play is important, but if newbies feel intimidated they will never come back
Encourage mini games within a round for kids ie. straightest shot, nearest to pin etc.
Engage with local community/government to identify talented (possibly minority) athletes who would otherwise have no access to golf and get clubs in their hand
Decrease the emphasis on score - make it FUN and about the process, not the end result
More social events BEYOND golf in local clubs to build the golfing community rapport
Improve the professional tour TV and online products
32. What is the best tip, or piece of advice you have ever received that's improved your game? This one is just too crazy to aggregate, so please view all responses (in column AG) here :) But I will list EVERY bit of advice provided by our scratch or better players.
Only hit shots you know you can hit
Just keep playing
Don't think, just do
If you chunk chips, focus on using you left (right handed) hand more than your right
Focus on the next shot
Get a lesson
You're not good enough to get mad
Slow tempo always creates a better shot
Tempo tempo tempo! 90% of my bad swings are rushing at the top and hands getting ahead of my body
Hammer the nail
You don't control the outcome, focus on the process
Bowed left wrist
Being mad is ok, being negative is not
Ask quetions of people who are better than you
Focus on the shot you have now, not the one you just hit
Swing on a plane
Eliminate the double cross
Play your game
Before all else, hit the center of the face
Aim small, miss small
Care less
Slow Down
Learn how to properly manage the course
The only shot that matters is the next
Rotation is the wrong word, you're not supposed to rotate
Relax your grip
Accelerate THROUGH the ball - let the ball simply get in the way of your club head’s swing path
33. If you had the attention of EVERY SINGLE PLAYER in the world for 10 whole seconds, what would you say? Again, too much for me to break down, so you can see all responses here in column AH, but here are some of my favorites and some of the more popular ones!
Fix your ball mark
Hurry the fuck up
One practice swing is enough
Leave the flag in
Pick up your fucking trash
Have more fun on the course - it's a game after all
Enjoy this game while we can - it's truly a privilege
Accommodate the new as when you are gone, they are all that are left to carry the game
Grip it and rip it
Focus on contact before power
Sam Snead's win record is B.S.
Thank you for making me feel like I'm not the only person obsessed with this game
If you love golf, take new people golfing
Be considerate to players of all skill levels and work to grow the game not alienate newcomers
Keep your tempo up through the chip shot
Yelling "FORE" could save someone's life (including tour players)
FORE RIGHT
Your ego doesn't exist, let it go
Don't be a dick, treat the game/courses right, and if you're going to suck, suck at a faster pace
There's always someone worse than you
You don't practice enough to get that mad
You aren’t as good as you think and that's okay
Go get fitted, it will pay for itself many times over in the long run
Be ready to hit your shot before it's your turn
You hit the ball 15 yards shorter than you think you do
At your best as a pro, you’ll never be half as good as Tiger's peak
Mashed potatoes
It's our job to grow the game.
Baba booey
Jim Nantz, please come do the color commentary for one my rounds
Take some damn lessons and stop buying $500 drivers
Stop giving yourself gimmies, put the ball in the hole
Smell the roses, enjoy the views
Golf is hard
All of you sandbaggers are going to hell
Hurry the fuck up, and stop spending a minute perfectly adjusting the line on that 15 footer for bogey
It's our job to grow the game
ONE FUCKING PRACTICE SWING
Thanks again for your input! I might edit this later with some more findings, but that's enough for now!
With the emoji, you can label a person as heartless and cruel or it can be a person who had undergone emotional trauma and is weekly now with susceptibility to emotions of any kind. Read more: What does the black heart emoji mean? “Okay 🖤, I know you care” 🤍 White Heart. This is an emoji that is white in color and heart shaped. It’s among the range of different colored emoji. Due to its color white, that signifies purity. Therefore when you need to express the love that is pure If you want to know what do all the emojis mean, you are in a right place. Here are all emoji meanings. All emoji pictures here has a text label that explains it's exact meaning to avoid ambiguity and possible confusion when typing and reading messages with emoji symbols and smileys on Facebook, Twitter and messaging applications. 👌🏿 OK Hand: Dark Skin Tone Emoji Meaning. The OK Hand: Dark Skin Tone emoji is a modifier sequence combining 👌 OK Hand and 🏿 Dark Skin Tone. These display as a single emoji on supported platforms. OK Hand: Dark Skin Tone was added to Emoji 2.0 in 2015. Copy and Paste While the pointing finger/OK sign is one of the most sexually overt emoji combinations, it’s also one of the least commonly used. At its peak in the U.S. – 34.54 usages per million tweets – it’s still several times less commonly used than the aubergine emoji. The widely distributed states of South Dakota, Idaho, and New Hampshire were top in the U.S. for usage of this combination Ok Hand Emoji with Dark Skin Tone HTML-entities. HTML entites are intended for using on websites. You can put Ok Hand Emoji with Dark Skin Tone html entity code in decimal or hexadecimal form right in your message, and it will be translated into graphical representation of Ok Hand Emoji with Dark Skin Tone after you submit. 👌🏿 emoji Alt-codes for Windows The myth of the OK gesture as a secret symbol of white supremacy begins in 2017 as a deliberate effort on 4chan to spread the sign as such. It was chosen in part due to its use by the controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulos and some white nationalists in support of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. If you’re feeling (really) hurt, get off the emoji train and talk face-to-face. What does the �� Black Heart Emoji mean? “You’re dead to me.” OK, you’ve done it. Someone, somewhere, made a huge mistake. The black heart is like receiving coal on Christmas Day—whoever receives it has been a very, very naughty person. For some, the black heart emoji is the perfect emoji for a rainy day when you are sitting inside, feeling angsty and misunderstood. It can mean you are feeling emo, have a dark twisted soul, morbid sense of humor, or just love sad stuff. The OK hand emoji is also referred to as the A-OK, OK, or OK hand sign emoji. Like the word OK, the OK hand emoji can convey simple agreement, understanding, or satisfaction. If someone texts a friend asking if they want to meet up, the friend might reply with the OK hand emoji as if to say “OK, ” “Sure,” or “Sounds good.” 👍🏿 Thumbs Up - Black emoji Definition - 👍🏿 meaning This is the dark skin tone version of Thumbs Up emoji with deep brown skin color, depicting Type - VI on Fitzpatrick scale.
DOES THE COLOR OF THE HEART EMOJI MATTER???? - YouTube
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