I'm looking to get a nicer sewing mecine than what I have. Right now I have a Singer 4423 Heavyduty. It's been ok, but it jams a lot, and the tension is very meh.
I like to see bags, purses, and clothes mostly.
If I was to save up $800ish, what sewing machine would you recommend?
Edit: Fixed a hilarious typo where I sid my machine 'hams' a lot instead of 'jams' a lot :P

Hello, and welcome to Music’s Biggest Night!
That’s right, it’s the GRAMMYs. The year is 1994 and our category is Best Alternative Music Album. We’ll be rating each of the five nominees on Indieheads, but before we get to the nominees, a quick word about rates.
Hey, quick question, what are rates?
Obviously, if you're familiar with the process, skip this. But if you're new, I'll explain so this doesn't seem like a wild block of text!
Rates are a subreddit game in which a user scores a group of songs on a scale from 1-10, with each individual also given a single 11 and a single 0 to be used exactly once per rate. They will then message their ballot to the rate host, who will tally up all the points and then reveal the final results over a weekend, eliminating songs one by one until the last track remaining wins the rate and bragging rights forever. While there's just a bit more to know, I feel this is the basics of what you'll need to understand what's going on. I do recommend this video made by our popheads brethren to get a fuller picture; while some of the info applies specifically to the way popheads do their rates, the overall format is similar.

Introduction

The GRAMMYs are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in the music industry. The name derives from the trophy, which is shaped like an old-fashioned gramophone. The awards celebrate a variety of categories, but we’re going to be looking at Best Alternative Music Album or, as it was called at the time, Best Alternative Music Performance. The question of what "alternative" really means can be debated forever, but the original intent of this award was to celebrate non-mainstream rock albums which were heavily played on college radio. The category first appeared in 1991, so in 1994 the award is still pretty new.
And now, let’s meet our nominees!

Belly - Star

Belly are the act here that seem discussed least frequently on Indieheads, so I’m excited to see what everyone thinks of them. By the time of starting Belly, Tanya Donelly (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) had already been in two other classic indie rock bands. She was a co-founder of Throwing Muses with her step-sister Kristin Hersch, contributing vocals and guitar for the band’s first decade, though she’d only get a handful of songs per album. Donelly would later start The Breeders with Pixies bassist and vocalist Kim Deal. The Breeders’ debut, Pod, featured Deal as the primary songwriter because existing record contracts prohibited the two from sharing primary writing credits. While they originally intended to alternate albums, Tanya had begun to form Belly by the time it was her turn to do a Breeders album. She recruited Fred Abong (bass) and brothers Tom (guitar) and Chris (drums) Gorman as they’d all known each other while going to high school in Rhode Island.
Belly co-produced most of their 1993 debut Star with Tracy Chisholm. Gil Norton, who’d previously produced Throwing Muses’ self-titled debut, produced four tracks, including singles "Gepetto," "Slow Dog," and "Feed the Tree." "Feed the Tree," one of the album’s highlights, would be the band’s highest charting hit, reaching 95th on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Modern Rock Chart. Star is an effective fusion of alternative rock with jangle pop, dream pop, "haunting" folk, and even some light country influences. At the 1994 GRAMMYs, Belly were also up for Best New Artist with Blind Melon, Digable Planets, and SWV, ultimately losing to R&B singer Toni Braxton. Belly released a sophomore album King in 1995 and Donelly released several solo albums before reuniting with the King lineup to release a third album in 2018. While Star may not have achieved the canonical stature of some of 1994’s other nominees, it is nevertheless a very enjoyable release from a strong songwriter who’d finally gotten the chance to make an album-length statement of her own.
Are Indieheads gonna feed the tree? Will this be an album to die for?
Tracklist:

1. Someone to Die For
2. Angel
3. Dusted
4. Every Word
5. Gepetto
6. Witch
7. Slow Dog
8. Low Red Moon
9. Feed The Tree
10. Full Moon, Empty Heart
11. White Belly
12. Untogether
13. Star
14. Sad Dress
15. Stay

Nirvana - In Utero

If you were wondering where "Heart Shaped Box" was in the Guitar Hero Rate, well I’ve got a treat for you!
Kurt Cobain (vocals and guitar) and Krist Novoselic (bass) met while attending Aberdeen High School in the late 1980s. They shuffled through various names, ultimately deciding on Nirvana because Cobain wanted a name that sounded beautiful and nice instead of mean and raunchy. In their early years, they worked with several different drummers, recording 1989’s Sub Pop debut Bleach with Chad Channing on drums. Channing left the band as they worked on their follow-up. Kurt and Krist met drummer Dave Grohl days after he’d moved to Seattle following the break up of his Washington DC band Scream. The addition of Dave solidified Nirvana’s classic lineup. The trio began seeking a major label to buy them out of their Sub Pop contract as they were dissatisfied with the label’s lack of promotion and distribution of their debut. They eventually signed with DGC Records per the recommendation of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon. Upon signing, they began work on their major label debut, Nevermind, with producer Butch Vig. 1991’s Nevermind was an unexpected success, bringing grunge and alternative rock to the mainstream and even surpassing Michael Jackson on the Billboard albums chart.
In the aftermath of Nevermind’s success, Cobain felt he needed to reclaim his punk ethic. Wanting to depart from Butch Vig’s slick production (don’t worry, we’ll still be hearing from Vig a little later), he sought to work with Steve Albini. Albini was famous in the underground for his work as frontman for Big Black and various production work, including PJ Harvey’s Dry. He sent a copy of Dry to Cobain to give him an idea of the acoustics in his studio. Albini dismissed Nirvana as "R.E.M. with a fuzzbox" (more on R.E.M. soon!) but decided to work with them because he felt bad for them, recognizing them as "the same sort of people as all the small-fry bands I deal with." The band pushed for minimal label oversight and recorded In Utero quickly, wrapping recording sessions in as little as 13 days. The album was noisier and more abrasive than Nevermind, resulting in much dispute between the band, Albini, and the label. Cobain sought to make the kind of record he’d enjoy owning as a fan but began having second thoughts about the sound when listening to it at home. The press picked up on conflict about the album’s sound. The band denied this and DGC president David Geffen called Newsweek to explain they would release whatever Nirvana recorded. Behind the scenes, the band tried to fix the album’s sound in the mastering process, which Albini was strongly against. He’d later supply an alternate mix for the album’s 20th anniversary re-release. R.E.M producer Scott Litt was brought on to remix "Heart Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" which were intended to be the album’s singles.
In Utero was released in September of 1993 following a low-key release strategy which sent "Heart Shaped Box" as a promo-only single to various rock station formats but not Top 40. Walmart and K-Mart initially refused to stock the album due to its back cover and the title of the song "Rape Me." (A content note on that song, while it is interpreted as commentary on the invasive music press, it was intended to be a lyrically literal anti-rape song from the perspective of a victim. As this is a rate, you can score this song however you see fit, but I hope it goes without saying that everyone should please be respectful of this subject matter in their comments.) Despite In Utero’s abrasive sound and reduced mainstream promotion, the album still debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts and was well-received by critics. The music often hits harder and faster than Nevermind, containing more of the "punk" feel that Cobain was aiming for compared to the grunge of their early work and their Seattle contemporaries. Check out this MTV clip if you’d like to see how college students in 1993 received the album at the time. The band toured America shortly after In Utero came out. Their European tour that was cut short as Cobain suffered from a drug overdose. A couple weeks later, Cobain died by suicide. As with the subject matter of "Rape Me," I want to request that everyone is respectful of this in their comments, I will ask for edits (or omit comments myself) if they are inappropriate. Despite the tragic ending, Nirvana is still seen as one of American and alternative rock’s most important bands and In Utero remains highly regarded to this day.
Will our comments be all apologies? Are the results of this rate gonna be, uhhh, dumb?
Tracklist:

1. Serve the Servants
2. Scentless Apprentice
3. Heart-Shaped Box
4. Rape Me
5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
6. Dumb
7. Very Ape
8. Milk It
9. Pennyroyal Tea
10. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
11. Tourette’s
12. All Apologies

R.E.M. - Automatic for the People

If there’s a band who can rival Nirvana’s stature in the American alternative rock canon, it’s gotta be R.E.M. They are often cited as one of the first "alternative" rock bands and were important for the college radio format. Formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980, Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass), and Bill Berry (drums) released 5 albums with independent label I.R.S. Records. This run of releases showed them evolving from a jangle rock sound to a louder, more anthemic sound on their final record for the label, Document. After "The One I Love" became their first mainstream hit, the band signed to Warner Brothers, kicking off a second act that resulted in yet another 5 album run of great music.
At the start of the 90s, R.E.M. opted out of touring and became a studio band. The band recorded demos for the songs "Drive," "Try Not to Breathe," and "Nightswimming" at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios while mixing their 1991 album, Out of Time. Out of Time was a huge success, arriving as alternative rock was becoming mainstream. It spawned the massive single "Losing My Religion" and even ended up winning the GRAMMY award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1992. After concluding promotional duties in early 1991, the band returned to the studio to continue work on what would become Automatic for the People. It is the fourth of six records the band would produce with Scott Litt. The band traded off instruments in the studio, with Buck playing the mandolin famously featured on "Losing My Religion," Mills playing piano or organ, and Berry playing bass. Initial attempts to make a harder rocking follow-up did not pan out, as the band found they were writing better without drums. The material began to take on a more melancholic tone. The lush orchestration of Out of Time is rendered in a somber greyscale, with arrangements contributed by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Lyrically, the album muses on loss and mourning, prompting rumors that balding Michael Stipe was dying of cancer or AIDs. Luckily, he was not but that is the lens through which some critics and listeners received this work. The album also finds room for political commentary, most noticeably in "Ignoreland" which pushes against Republican politics of the time, but also in opener "Drive" which calls back to the group’s work with the Rock to Vote movement, for which they added a petition on the longbox packaging of Out of Time.
Automatic for the People released on October 5, 1992 (gotta love the GRAMMYs odd eligibility window) debuting at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Unlike its predecessor, it never reached the top spot, thanks to Garth Brooks. Six of the album’s 12 tracks were released as singles including "Drive," "Everybody Hurts" which has unfortunately been diluted through years of ironic use in comedies, the cryptic, Andy Kaufman referencing "Man on the Moon," and "Nightswimming," an emotional piano ballad that has become a fan favorite. The album was critically acclaimed upon release and, while perhaps not as fun as their jangle material, this nocturnal bummer is regarded by many as one of the band’s masterpieces.
Will everybody hurt? Are R.E.M. going to get a raw deal?
Tracklist:

1. Drive
2. Try Not to Breathe
3. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
4. Everybody Hurts
5. New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
6. Sweetness Follows
7. Monty Got a Raw Deal
8. Ignoreland
9. Star Me Kitten
10. Man on the Moon
11. Nightswimming
12. Find the River

The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins formed in 1988 when Billy Corgan (vocals and guitar, he prefers William Patrick Corgan now though) met James Iha (guitar) while working at a record store in Chicago, Illinois. They performed as a duo with a drum machine, eventually adding bassist D’arcy Wretzky after meeting her at a show by the Dan Reed Network. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was recommended by a friend of Corgan’s after the trio were booked for a show under the condition that they’d play with a live drummer instead of their drum machine. With Chamberlain on board, the band’s classic lineup had been formed and their sound began to shift in a harder rock direction.
Siamese Dream, the group’s 1993 sophomore album, expands on their 1991 debut Gish in every possible way. The band switched from Virgin subsidiary Caroline Records to Virgin itself. Butch Vig, who produced Nirvana’s massive Nevermind right after finishing work on Gish, returned to produce the follow-up. Where Gish’s $20,000 budget and month of recording time was "unprecedented" for Vig, Corgan and Vig spent four months on Siamese Dream and went $250,000 over budget. This is what happens when you let Billy overdub everyone else’s guitar and bass parts (something the rest of the band wasn’t particularly happy about) to get as many as 100 guitar parts compressed into one song.
The meticulous studio process paid off, as Siamese Dream was a bigger hit than Gish, peaking at 10 on the Billboard 200. The band’s influences from metal, dreampop, and shoegaze give the album a layered and unique sound compared to the grungier alternative music of the time. Singles "Cherub Rock" and "Today" have been featured in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band videogame series. While never released as a single, "Mayonaise" has become a fan favorite and won a Rolling Stone poll for best Pumpkins song, beating out singles from Siamese Dream. Judging from some early discussion since this rate was announced, some of you seem pretty excited to rate "Mayonnaise." While the double album follow-up Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness took the band to the height of their popularity, Siamese Dream is often regarded as their masterpiece and one of the best rock albums of the 90s.
Will we be sweet sweet to the Pumpkins? The rater in me is the rater in you, I’ll send this ballot over to you
Tracklist:

1. Cherub Rock
2. Quiet
3. Today
4. Hummer
5. Rocket
6. Disarm
7. Soma
8. Geek U.S.A.
9. Mayonaise
10. Spaceboy
11. Silverfuck
12. Sweet Sweet
13. Luna

U2 - Zooropa

Whoa hey is it U2sday??
Formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1976, U2 (Bono on vocals, The Edge on guitar, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen Jr. on drums) have become the top-selling Irish musical act of all-time, with an estimated 170+ million records sold. Across the 80s, U2 evolved their early post-punk sound to the anthemic rock of The Joshua Tree. While touring America for that album, the band recorded Rattle and Hum, a hybrid live/studio record (and accompanying concert film) which documented the tour and the group’s fascination with American roots music. Despite the album’s commercial success, most consider it a misguided failure. Even Bono admitted at their final show for the album’s Lovetown Tour that "we have to go away and dream it all up again."
1993’s Zooropa catches U2 at their most adventurous. 1991’s Achtung Baby and its subsequent Zoo TV tour rebranded the band for the new decade. While they continued working with Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, they updated their sound with influences from electronic, dance, and industrial music. On stage, they dabbled in irony to counter the sincerity of their 80s output with Bono playing characters such as The Fly and Macphisto. Emboldened by the critical and commercial success of this album and tour, they began working on a promotional EP during a break between Zoo TV tour legs. Despite working quickly in the studio, this EP expanded into a full-length album, requiring the band to travel between concerts and the studio in Dublin to finish working on the album during the first month of the Zooropa leg.
Zooropa finally arrived in July of 1993 and it shows the band doubling down on their early 90s ideas. The sound of the album, built from loops of soundcheck jamming and leftover sketches from Achtung Baby, ventures even further from traditional rock instrumentation and songwriting, bolstered by production from Brian Eno, Flood (moving from an engineering to production role), and The Edge, who received production credits for the first time. The fragmented nature of the album’s production is reflected in the eclectic tracklist which bounces between the multi-movement art-rock of the title track, dancefloor fillers like "Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car," and ballads like "For the First Time" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" Unique vocal choices like The Edge’s spoken-word rapping on lead-single "Numb," Bono’s falsetto on "Lemon," and a Johnny Cash feature on closer "The Wanderer" help the album feel more varied than U2’s previous material. The album’s lyrics often examine Zoo TV’s concepts of "sensory overload" and technology more explicitly than Achtung Baby.
While U2 are reluctant to acknowledge Zooropa now (likely influenced by the failure of 1997’s Pop, a rushed, mixed bag of an album that stretched audience’s tolerance for 90s U2 to a Rattle and Hum-like breaking point) the album was successful when it came out. Zooropa debuted at number one in several countries and finished ninth on 1993’s Pazz and Jop poll. It would also go on to win this GRAMMY award for Best Alternative Music album, with Bono shrugging on stage, shouting out Smashing Pumpkins, and promising to "the young people of America" that they will "continue to abuse our position and fuck up the mainstream" in his acceptance speech.
Will U2 stay the champions in our rate or will they be faraway so close to the top?
Tracklist:

1. Zooropa
2. Babyface
3. Numb
4. Lemon
5. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
6. Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car
7. Some Days Are Better Than Others
8. The First Time
9. Dirty Day
10. The Wanderer

Bonus Rate

While our rates often have a bonus, there is no bonus for the 1994 GRAMMYs since this rate is 5 albums instead of the usual 4.
Now, it’s time for the boring, but necessary parts:

Where to listen:

Spotify
Apple Music
Tidal Music
Rules - READ ALL OF THESE BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR SCORES

1. Listen to each song and assign each a score between 1 and 10. decimals are fine, but please refrain from giving decimal scores that have two decimal spots: giving a 7.2 is okay, but giving a 7.25 will give me a headache. This is because I'm using a computer program to parse the votes and print everything out (more on that later).
   
2. Yes, you have to listen to every song. We're all in this together. I will not accept your ballot if you have a score missing, because it will crash the program (more on that later).
   
3. Your scores should NOT be considered confidential. They aren’t. Feel free to shitpost about them in the general discussion threads whenever you feel like it - users over at popheads usually just talk about their averages of the albums and what 11 and 0 they gave (which I will explain on the next bullet point!)
   
4. You may give ONE song a 0 and ONE song an 11. This is ONE song TOTAL. Please reserve these for your least favorite and most favorite tracks; excessive sabotage ruins rate results and generally makes things less fun.
   
5. You can change your scores at any time! Feel free to PM me at any point after submission and I'll be happy to revise them for you.
   
6. I am using a computer program that the great and wonderful letsallpoo designed in order to parse these votes! While this will make things a lot more efficient and reduces errors on my part, this does mean that scores need to be sent in a very specific way. The easiest way to make sure your scores follow the necessary format is to use the pre-prepared link at the top & bottom of this post. PLEASE USE THAT. You can copy and paste it to a notepad file or something and fill in your scores there, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use that format to send in your scores.
   
7. Did a lot of copy and pasting here, so thank you thank you to all the raters of old, ily: roseisonlineagain; DolphLundgrensArms; R_E_S_I_G_N_E_D; stansymash; ClocktowerMaria; aerocom; themilkeyedmender; greencaptain; Crankeedoo; dirdbub; ThatParanoidPenguin; tedcruzcontrol; kappyko; FuckUpSomeCommasYeah; LazyDayLullaby; SRTViper; Whatsanillinois; NFLFreak98; freav; freeofblasphemy; RatesNorman; aPenumbra; idontreallycare4; p-u-n-k_girl; luigijon3; WaneLietoc; dream_fighter2018; darjeelingdarkroast; smuckles; PiperIBarelyKnowHer; welcome2thejam; imrlynotonreddit; kvothetyrion; thedoctordances1940; b_o_g_o; vapourlomo; and tons of people on popheads.
   

Formatting

Songs - This is correct:

Man on the Moon: 10

You may also and are generally encouraged to leave comments with your scores!
This is correct (single space after the score, no colon):

Man on the Moon: 10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice

Any of the following formats are incorrect:

Man on the Moon 10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: 10: Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: (10) Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice 10
Man on the Moon - 10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: 10/10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice

Albums - This is correct (add a colon after the album's title on your ballot if you're making a comment on the full album):

Album: Zooropa: Wow this rules, i wish they'd uploaded this album to my phone instead

Due Date: July 9

Reveal: July 14 - 16

Finally, here are the links you'll need to start rating again:

SUBMISSION LINK

A Pastebin link of the ballot can be found here
If you want a reminder of what rates are coming up soon, here is the link to the announcement post for the current cycle, and if you want to learn about all the past rates we have done, here is the rate history spreadsheet.

AO3 Link
Sonic Triple Trouble (I’m mainly using the fan-made 16-bit remake’s story here. If you haven’t played it yet, just ignore this section. It’s better to play the game for yourself, because it’s awesome):
Having seen the true power of the 7 Chaos Emeralds, along with the Master Emerald, Robotnik decides to make a new type of fake emerald after finding the yellow emerald. Along with that, he hires a treasure hunter named Fang The Sniper to search for the other 6 Chaos Emeralds, and he’s finally finished recreating his greatest creation from Little Planet: Metal Sonic 2.0.
However, Metal 2.0 isn’t the same as Metal 1.0. This one doesn’t speak, and while very close in speed, intelligence, and power to the original, it’s still not perfectly accurate. But this model does have a new ability: It can obtain bio-data from other lifeforms on it’s own, and replicate their appearances and abilities.
Regardless, Metal Sonic 2.0 is sent to Angel Island to acquire the Master Emerald’s power, and Knuckles’ bio-data. And while the robotic hedgehog catches the Echidna by surprise and puts up a good fight, it’s unable to secure the massive gemstone, but does gain some of it’s power, along with the guardian’s bio-data, before taking it’s leave.
Understanding Robotnik’s up to something again, Knuckles decides to use the Master Emerald to pinpoint the location of the Chaos Emeralds. And while hesitant to leave his home unguarded, the Echidna decides he has to go find the gemstones, and make sure the doctor doesn’t try anything.
As for Sonic and Tails, they’re just doing some machine tests, only to notice the jewel radar go off, and show that someone is gathering the Chaos Emeralds. While they aren’t sure if it’s Robotnik or not, the two decide to check it out in case it’s something bad, and head off to find the doctor up to his old tricks as expected.
In addition, they also come to clash with Fang, who is pretty sneaky and tries to outsmart the heroes, but often falls short, and ends up running away for the most part. And Sonic and Tails face Metal Sonic 2.0, disguised as Knuckles, which greatly confuses them, considering how things ended with the Echidna before.
Speaking of Knuckles, he’s mainly off doing his own thing, but does encounter the three villains many times, and is able to get his hands on a few Chaos Emeralds. Same with Sonic, Tails, and Fang. Robotnik also manages to create a much better replication of a Chaos Emerald, which he dubs a Dark Emerald.
Eventually, Sonic and Tails find out the Knuckles they were fighting the whole time was Metal Sonic 2.0, and everyone involved in this emerald hunt come together at Robotnik’s Atomic Destroyer base. The heroes defeat the robotic hedgehog, Fang is unable to stop them, and Robotnik ends up retreating, while losing his Dark Emerald.
However, this is when Metal Sonic 2.0 decides to take matters into it’s own hands, and uses the 7 Chaos Emeralds to make 7 more Dark Emeralds, in addition to the one Robotnik has, creating 8 total. And with them, it transforms into Rocket Metal Sonic 2.0, who is more than ready to take out everyone.
But luckily, Sonic is able to use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic again, and take on his robotic faker in space. It’s a tough fight, but the organic hedgehog is able to win, and everyone escapes the Atomic Destroyer base, which explodes. So, with the Chaos Emeralds scattered again, everyone goes their separate ways…
​
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (Knuckles):
While relaxing at Angel Island one day, Knuckles is caught off-guard by one of Robotnik’s Egg Robo Badniks, which wasn’t destroyed by Sonic and Tails previously. This machine wants to finish what it’s creator started by taking the Master Emerald itself, along with the remaining Badniks and machines left on the island.
Naturally, Knuckles chases after the Egg Robo throughout Angel Island’s many regions, smashing Robotnik’s machines throughout, and collecting the Chaos Emeralds from the Special Zone. Eventually, the two head to Sky Sanctuary, where it’s revealed that Mecha Sonic is still functioning, and was the one behind this plan all along.
So, with the Master Emerald in it’s possession, the mechanical hedgehog not only destroys the Egg Robo, but also uses the massive gemstone’s power to transform into it’s own Super state after studying Super Sonic. Likewise, Knuckles chooses to fight fire with fire, and uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Knuckles as well.
The fight is tough, as the two are evenly matched at first. However, Mecha Sonic is unable to sustain it’s power for as long as Knuckles can, and eventually gets put down for good. After that, the Echidna returns to normal, tired, and is about to take the Master Emerald back to the Hidden Palace altar. But then, the area of Sky Sanctuary he’s in starts to break apart from the damage of the fight.
Hence, Knuckles falls from the sky while tightly holding onto the Master Emerald. Only to then be rescued by Sonic in the Tornado, complete with a mechanical claw to hold the Master Emerald. He picked up some strong Chaos Emerald energy on Tails’ jewel radar, and decided to go check it out, leading him to Angel Island again.
Once they get back onto the floating continent, and put the Master Emerald back in the altar to keep it in the air, Knuckles thanks Sonic for the help again, before the latter sets off. So, with everything back to normal, the Echidna returns to his duty of guarding his home and everything on it…
​
Tails’ Sky Patrol:
Around the same time as the Egg Robo’s attempt to steal the Master Emerald on Angel Island, Tails decides to go explore the world in search of his own adventure without Sonic’s company. Though, he just flies aimlessly in the sky, not having a destination in mind. But soon enough, he comes across a small island, and decides to land there.
However, the young fox is surprised to find many of the citizens here turned into crystals, or trapped in crystals, along with a bunch of metal railing plastered around the terrain. Tails doesn’t believe it’s Robotnik’s work, but before he can ponder who it is, he feels a vibration from the ground, and decides to hide in some nearby bushes.
Peeking out from the bushes, Tails sees just who is responsible for this chaos. It’s an evil witch in a cart called Wendy…Witchcart, along with her minions in their respective vehicles. Hocke-Wulf, Bearanger, and Carottia Rabbit. Proclaiming herself as the ruler of this island, the evil witch and her minions head off to do their respective tasks.
Once they’re gone, Tails gets out of the bushes, and while pretty nervous about fighting these guys on his own, the young fox knows he has to stop them and save this island. So, with a device called the Boomering, and his high intellect, Tails flies through the different regions of the island, helping the residents and defeating Witchcart’s minions.
Soon enough, the young fox reaches the evil witch’s Dark Castle, where the two have their final confrontation. And despite his fears, Tails is able to use his best attributes to his advantage, and defeats Wendy Witchcart, saving the entire island. This leads to the baddies getting locked up in jail, and after spending some time with the grateful locals, the young fox heads off again, happy to have saved the day all by himself…
​
Knuckles’ Chaotix:
One day, a strange new island comes out of the sea, which Robotnik discovers and studies. He learns that this continent is covered in small amounts of Chaos Energy, along with the many rings here. In particular, there are 6 colored rings that contain tons of Chaos Energy, which the doctor dubs Chaos Rings, and decides to harness their power for himself.
In a couple of days, Robotnik is able to manufacture dark rings, which have some Chaos Energy, and uses them to power up his Badnik army. In addition, the doctor decided to make a new model in the Metal series based off of Knuckles, after seeing how powerful the Echidna was: Metal Knuckles.
The metallic echidna, while not as fast or intelligent as Metal Sonic 2.0, has much more strength, and can harness Chaos Energy in order to increase it. Overall, this machine is a very useful servant of Robotnik, and the two of them quickly take over much of the isolated island, renaming it the “Newtronic High Zone.”
However, as Robotnik and his army do this, Knuckles is alerted by the Master Emerald about the isolated island, and comes to a conclusion. Due to Angel Island (With the Master Emerald in the altar) making contact with the Earth’s surface beforehand, the energy of the massive gemstone accidentally formed this new continent. Hence, believing this could be a problem, the Echidna heads towards this island in order to stop the doctor.
Once he arrives there, Knuckles comes across a few other people who decided to explore this island for their own reasons, such as Mighty, who doesn’t have Ray with him. They also meet Espio The Chameleon, Charmy Bee, and Vector The Crocodile. In addition, two of Robotnik’s machines, Heavy and Bomb, decide to defect from their creator and join the heroes.
So, the 7 of them form the Chaotix Crew, and they go through the five regions of the Newtronic High Zone in order to collect the Chaos Rings, defeat Robotnik, and destroy all of his machines. Knuckles often runs into Metal Knuckles as well, and the two clash many times, sharing a similar rivalry to Sonic and Metal Sonic.
But eventually, the Chaotix are able to free the five regions from Robotnik’s control, and collect all the Chaos Rings. However, the doctor uses a giant dark ring containing tons of Chaos Energy to empower Metal Knuckles, transforming it into a rampaging Titan. It’s a tough fight for the heroes, but luckily, some last minute help arrives.
Sonic, Tails, and Ray fly over to the isolated island with the Tornado, after hearing about what’s going on. Then, with the power of the Chaos Rings, the 10 heroes are able to destroy Metal Knuckles, send Robotnik into a full retreat, and save the day. Though, all the chaos-powered rings lose their power, and become standard rings.
Recognizing the good work they did together, Vector decides to start the Chaotix Detective Agency in order to solve more mysteries and problems like this (While also getting some good dough). Espio and Charmy end up joining him, but everyone else declines, before they all go their separate ways.
Team Chaotix go off to find a place to rent out and form their agency. Heavy and Bomb explore the world on their own, wanting to live a life free of Robotnik. And Sonic and Tails use the Tornado to fly Knuckles back to Angel Island, before they, Ray, and Mighty head off as well…
​
Sonic The Fighters:
Having built the Death Egg Mk ll, along with fixing up Metal Sonic 2.0, Metal Knuckles, and making a surveillance robot called the Tails Doll in order to keep an eye on Sonic and his friends, Robotnik starts sending out his army of Badniks and machines to take over the world and collect the Chaos Emeralds.
After dealing with Robotnik’s creations, Tails reveals that he’s been working on his own rocket ship to explore space: the Lunar Fox, which has three seats. So, he and Sonic have to find the Chaos Emeralds, recruit a third person to help them out, and then take the fight to the doctor and his metal copies.
First is Knuckles, who initially gets into a bit of a scuffle with Sonic, but Tails calms them both down, as there’s bigger fish to fry. With 1 Chaos Emerald already in their possession, the three heroes head off to find the other 6, leading them to Amy Rose, and her fashion designer friend, Honey The Cat.
While Robotnik’s robots do attack them, the heroes are able to beat them, and they get another Chaos Emerald. Plus, Amy shows Sonic her improved combat abilities with her Piko-Piko Hammer, which he’s impressed with. Now with 2 emeralds, Team Sonic go find the third one, which Espio is in possession of.
The Chameleon managed to take one from Robotnik’s machines with his ninja skills, and is trying to escape them. Luckily, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles help him out, and also get more information on the Death Egg Mk ll from Espio, who was hired to gather intelligence on it from a client. Said client being Tails.
Anyways, Team Sonic has three Chaos Emeralds, and are heading after the fourth one, which appears to be in someone’s possession, and also going for the fifth emerald as well. Once they arrive at their target, the heroic trio come across Fang again, who has some back-up in the form of Bean The Dynamite, and Bark The Polar Bear.
The trio of Hooligans decided to go after a few Chaos Emeralds, hoping to sell them off for a high price. But unfortunately, they end up having to fight against Team Sonic, where they give a good performance, but can’t keep up. However, before the three heroes can get the fourth and fifth emeralds, Metal Sonic 2.0 and Metal Knuckles take them, and are unable to stop them due to the loss of stamina from the battle.
Fang is angry at having lost the Chaos Emeralds, and after discussing what’s going on with the heroes, he and his partners decide to cooperate with them for now in order to stop Robotnik and his creations. So, Team Hooligan and Team Sonic chase after the Metal copies, who are heading for the sixth Chaos Emerald.
As for the Tails Doll, it’s still watching Sonic’s every move, waiting for the right time to strike. But eventually, Team Sonic and Hooligan face off against Metal Sonic 2.0, Metal Knuckles, and a whole bunch of Robotnik’s machines. It’s a tough battle, and while they do manage to destroy most of the robots, Tails Doll knocks out the heroes with the strange energy from it’s gem antenna.
This gives Metal Sonic 2.0 and Metal Knuckles the opportunity to take the three Chaos Emeralds the heroes have, and with 6 out of 7, they and Tails Doll head off to the Death Egg Mk ll. Angered and worried, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles decide to just go grab the last Chaos Emerald, and then head back to the young fox’s workshop to discuss what to do next.
Luckily, Espio and Amy managed to get the last emerald for Team Sonic, which they appreciate, but now they have to figure out what to do to stop the second Death Egg, and get the rest of the gemstones too. Then, once they’re ready, the three heroes board the Lunar Fox, and travel to the orbital space station for the final battle.
Once they step aboard, Team Sonic searches for where the 6 Chaos Emeralds are, and finds where they’re being stored. However, they’re intercepted by Metal Sonic 2.0, Metal Knuckles, Tails Doll, and even Robotnik, who’s piloting his own E-Mech combat suit. It escalates into a 4-on-3 battle. Or rather, just 3-on-3 since Tails Doll can’t do much on it’s own.
Sonic and Knuckles take on their Metal counterparts, and Tails tries to get the Chaos Emeralds while avoiding Robotnik and Tails Doll. Luckily, by outsmarting the doctor, and taking care of his plush copy, along with his gadgets, the young fox is able to get the other gemstones, while also activating the self-destruct sequence on the Death Egg Mk ll.
Then, Tails hands all 7 Chaos Emeralds over to Sonic and Knuckles, turning into their super transformations, and making quick work of their metallic copies, while Robotnik retreats. And once the young fox collects something important, the three of them escape the exploding space station and head back to the planet below.
Once they land, Sonic and Knuckles go back to their base forms, scattering the emeralds again, while Tails lands the Lunar Fox. They come to find that Amy, Espio, and Team Hooligan have been waiting on them, and give their gratitude on a job well done. Each in their own unique way.
That’s when Tails reveals that he actually got a bunch of Robotnik’s money that was stashed in the Death Egg Mk ll, and splits it between both Espio and the Hooligans, which they all appreciate. And so, with the day saved once again, everyone goes their separate ways…
​
Unseen Adventures (Part 3)
Archives
Unseen Adventures (Part 1)

Hi. Apologies for noobish questions. I understand that AM5 + DDR6000 RAM compatibility has been flaky at best, but I cannot seem to figure out my situation.
I originally built a new machine with Ryzen R9 7900X, 32GB (2x 16GB) of G.Skill Flare X5 6000 RAM, installed on a Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX motherboard.
The default RAM timing was 4800MHz, which worked as expected. Trying to enable EXPO in UEFI, however, leads to pretty bad system instability. Performance loss and possible crash/BSOD at RAM-heavy situations such as video game loading.
I left it as is. However, due to nature of my job, I had to pick up additional 32GB of RAM (yet another 2x16GB Kit), for a total of 64GB across 4 DIMMs (all slots on MOBO filled).
When all slots are filled the system further downclocks RAM down to 3600MHz.
Enabling EXPO basically doesn't get me past POST as the system is horrifically unstable and requires several restarts of several minutes to basically even get to the next POST - I barely managed to enter UEFI to disable EXPO last time.
Is there a way for me to manually try to bump up RAM speeds a bit, but below the unstable limits? The RAM speed multiplies in UEFI is set to 48x (which would result in 4800MHz) but it doesn't seem to apply because of 4/4 slots usage.
How do I approach this? I cannot seem to figure out where RAM clock speeds settings live in this mobo UEFI. All guides given by google basically just say to enable EXPO which is obviously a no-go for me. Or is it?

[Claim Information at the Bottom]
Centuries Since Liberation

The Kingdom of Asmanakashra

On a cool summer evening, a gathering of children formed a semicircle around the amber fire, eyes filled with a mix of wonder and excitement. Having entered their 10th year, the boys, girls, and ashten of Jorchiktele were finally old enough to hear the history of their kingdom, including its less savory aspects. As the young ones began to settle around her hearth, the high priestess Ajarma smiled to herself. The story of liberation was her favorite tale to sing. Once everyone was accounted for, her eyes widened as she became animated and her bracelets of iron, copper, and stone jangled together to form their rhythmic clangor. Performing the dance passed down for generations, the priestess began to sing Asmanakashra’s epic of liberation.
“Long ago we worked the mines,”
“Forced to toil akin to beasts.”
“Ancestors from far and wide brought in chains,”
“Unity under the crack of whips.”
“Spirits remained unbroken,”
“Even as bodies collapsed.”
“As we worked we learned,”
“Of gifts placed by the Gods.”
“As we dug deeper and deeper,”
“The bountiful mountains sheltered us.”
“One day the lowland devils,”
“Grew too weak to whip us.”
“Metal in hand we caved their skulls,”
“A people finally freed.”
“Now their bones pave our mountain paths,”
“And their blood grows our wine.”
“We honor our sacred freedom,”
“Praise the Mountains, the King, and the Mines!”
Her performance caused a raucous response from the young audience, who answered the end of her sacred tale with a chorus of oaths:

“Praise the Mountains, the King, and the Mines! Praise the Mountains, the King, and the Mines! Praise the Mountains, the King, and the Mines!”

Sanctification

King Damiharthro of Anagekh, his high priestess Ajarma and an assortment of porters were nearing the final stop of their annual tour of the kingdom. It was nearing the end of the harvest season, and chilled weather was sure to follow. In his youth, King Damiharthro had enjoyed traversing the beautiful hills surrounding his village, but as old age made his body weary even simple tasks like riding his horse were becoming difficult. Even as the evening sun warmed the hillsides and colored his white wool shawl, Damiharthro felt a chill deep in his bones. To age truly is a curse, he thought to himself. Thankfully, this was the last stop on his final tour as king, after which he could finally rest his weary bones.
Damiharthro and his entourage crested a small ridge, and on the other side they found their destination. The village of Keshthrute sat nestled between the ridge and the imposing base of a mountain, with a small brook bubbling through the village’s center. Southwest of Keshthrute and at the intersection of ridge and stoneface was the mine that had given Keshthrute its name. Before liberation, the Keshthrute mine had exported copper far abroad, feeding the war machines of empires far from these sacred lands. After liberation, Keshthrute followed the example of her fellow mine-clans and continued operations, albeit with less demand and under significantly better conditions. After all, the Gods did not fill their mountain homes with metal so it could go unused. Outside Keshthrute’s low stone wall, a man in traditional earth tone wool greeted Damiharthro and his assistants. The man bowed to his king, before declaring,
“I am Nakabno of Keshthrute, the beto of the Keshthrute mine-clan. May your ground be stable.”
“May your ground be stable.” King Damiharthro replied. “Let the sanctification ritual begin.”
Thereafter, the priestess Ajarma led the procession. First they visited Keshthrute’s village shrine at the center of the town square, a squat stone table with a chunk of copper ore embellished at the center of the table’s surface. Upon hearing her sacred chants, the townsfolk surrounding the party cheered. Then they visited the highest point in town, where Ajarma offered her prayers to the herders. At this time of year, many of the shepherds had already migrated east for warmer weather, so prayers at Keshthrute’s highest point were meant to carry across the wind and find their intended target. Next Ajarma arrived at the town’s vineyard. Keshthrute was too high in elevation for the best wine production, but the small grapes received Ajarma’s blessing nonetheless. By this point Damiharthro was fighting off the desire to fall asleep while still riding his horse, but he knew the most important part of the ritual still had yet to be conducted.
Ajarma, Damiharthro, and Nakabno and the other members of the procession finally arrived at the mine just as the sun was sinking beneath the mountain. Ajarma pulled out the sacred mashthra, a thin and slightly concave plate of iron. After a moment, she took her wooden staff and struck the face of the mashthra. The metallic clang reverberated off the mountain face, and the sound resonated well into the ravines beyond. For a moment there was silence, as Ajarma used her mythic intuition to interpret the sound of wood striking metal. Having interpreted the echos, Ajarma told the assembly,
“The Gods favor Keshthrute, but be warned as this year’s winter will be severe. In spring this chill will haunt you, do not plant until later in the season.”
And with that, the augury and sanctification were over. Damiharthro privately had many reservations about the auguries, as he knew they were not always correct. Such was the fickle will of the Gods he supposed.
Before leaving, Nakabno approached Damiharthro with a serene smile on his face. “May your ground be stable, King Damiharthro of Anagekh.”
“And may your ground be stable, Nakabno of Keshthrute. I believe I shall see you this winter?”
“As is my duty,” Nakabno replied.

Lord of the Mine-Clans

Nakabno rode through the chilled winter night as snow quietly settled around him. In Keshthrute snow storms were larger and more frequent, but down here the falling flakes maintained their blissful serenity without a hint of danger. He had always enjoyed the snow, but he certainly would not mind the more mild winters of Jorchiktele. Just as this thought crossed his mind, the fires of the capitol became visible through the darkness. Thankfully he would not have to spend another night camped along the mountain paths, and he would arrive on time if only barely. An extra day’s delay might not have hurt his chances, but it is always difficult to discern what will contribute to the other betya’s considerations.
Jorchiktele had always been an imposing city, situated between two rivers and with mountains to its north and south. The most prominent hill is the eponymous Jorchiktele, which towers over the settlement from the southwest. From the north and the west, the Mitele and Atuare rivers come together to form the Ishtene River, and wheat fields blanket the small valley. When the basin along the Ishtene gives way to the gradually increasing face of Jorchiktele, the wheat fields transform into terraces, although these earthworks do not extend more than two-hundred feet above their lowland counterparts. Above the terraces come squat clay houses, where the majority of Jorchiktele’s people lived. These abodes had a single doorway in and out, and were constructed from the clay sediments harvested in the basin below. Above the clay homes are the stone houses of the merchants and landowners. While they have the influence to live in larger homes of polished sandstone, they pale in comparison to the estates granted to betya. Near the summit of Jorchiktele, these complexes had multiple levels and are built out of the finest stone in the region. They are often accented with gold and copper, two ores long associated with the nobility. Just beneath the final summit are two perfectly square buildings, cast in an amber hue as the flames of a thousand torches lick the polished granite surfaces. Even from this distance, Nakabno could see the metallic iconography catching in the light of the flames, a symbol of authority as resolute as the ground beneath his feet. Even after having visited multiple times, Nakabno was in awe riding towards Asmanakasha’s largest settlement. He hoped that he would soon be able to call it home.
Upon entering the city itself, an attendant led Nakabno to his local estate. As a beto Nakabno was entitled to stay in the luxurious structure while he was visiting the capitol, which far outshone his living quarters back in Keshthrute. The dimensions of his estate, given its position near the summit of the mountain, should have been impossible. Much like the other buildings of Jorchiktele, Nakabno’s temporary abode was partially built into the mountainside, sitting atop a manufactured plot of level ground. Nakabno always privately wondered if these would slide down the mountain-face, but he did not dare question his countrymen’s craftsmanship. Despite these concerns Nakabno had a wonderful night’s sleep, and around noon donned his ceremonial woolen robes to ascend the cobblestone path towards the Royal Palace.
After being ushered in by royal attendants, Nakabno found himself at the center of the palatial complex. The sturdy roof that covered the majority of the building gave way to an open circular courtyard, dotted with fire pits to keep the participants warm in the winter air. Alongside the lack of roofing, the polished granite floors of the palace were replaced with the bare earth of the mountain. Arranged in a circle were a collection of wooden seats and a single floor mat, all of which were empty when Nakabno had arrived. Early once again, that must count for something, he thought to himself.
As noon drew closer, the other betya entered the courtyard. Following them was Ajarma, the priestess of Jorchiktele, and finally King Damiharthro of Anagekh. In the few months since Nakabno had last seen the aged King, his eyes had become even more sunken, and his arms looked like branches in the depths of winter. He had already shed the royal white robes, but atop his head he still wore the Royal Crown. The King waddled to his rightful place on the floor mat, and Ajarma helped him take his seat. Despite his decrepit appearance, King Damiharthro wore a proud smile. After all, his burdens in life were about to be lightened at last.
Once everyone had arrived, Ajarma stepped into the center of the circle. Striking her mashthra and listening to it’s holy resonance, Ajarma announced with a thundering voice,
“The Gods have willed the selection of our next King, deliberation has begun!”
With this announcement, the many betya took their opportunities to speak during their allotted time. Each of these men had been elected in a similar process by their Mine-Clans, whether due to their work ethic, personal charisma, or raw talent when it came to mining and smelting. In addition to these qualities, the men were now to be judged by their administrative careers as well. King Damiharthro heard the arguments of the betya with increasing disinterest, it was clear this long process was wearing out the already weak King. Nonetheless, he remained awake long enough to hear all of the betya make their pitches, after which the debates began.
It was now up to the representatives to pick the leader they would rally behind through a voting process. The new King would require all other members to vote for him, so as could be imagined the selection process could last days or even weeks. Before Nakabno got a second opportunity to speak, the winter sun had already set, signaling the end of the day’s discussions. The betya left the courtyard and headed to their respective manors for the night, but as they say politics do not sleep. Nakabno spent the night hosting a grand celebration for his fellow betya, hoping that his own personal charisma would be enough to secure his place as the King of Asmanakashra.
Four days after deliberation had begun, Nakabno's plan had paid off. Upon entering the courtyard, everyone in attendance agreed to vote for their pleasant host. King Damiharthro, having seen Nakabno’s success only months prior, agreed with the verdict. After the striking of the mashthra, Ajarma carefully removed the Royal Crown from Damiharthro’s head and placed it on Nakabno’s. This artifact had been passed between kings for centuries, a golden ring studded with limestone, sandstone, and granite on the band. At the center of the forehead, the brand dipped towards the nose, the central bridge adorned with copper and iron stones. The Royal Crown fit Nakabno perfectly, and a wide smile spread across his face.
“Hail King Nakabno of Keshthrute!” shouted Ajarma.
“Hail! Hail! Hail!” came a chorus of voices.
Once the ceremony was completed, Damiharthro pulled King Nakabno aside.
“You know my liege, the title of King is a heavy burden to bear. When I was first chosen decades ago the title had been perfunctory, and my role mattered very little in the grand scheme of the Kingdom. But things are changing. In the past few years, there have been reports of other kingdoms ascending, even those who once yoked us in chains. This has the potential to be an unstable time, King Nakabno, and all I ask is that you rule well.”
“Thank you for this advice, Damiharthro of Anagekh. May your ground be stable.”
“May your ground be stable, King Nakabno of Keshthrute.”
Claim Name: The Kingdom of Asmanakashra
Claim Type: Confederation of the Mine-Clans/State
Starting Age: Iron Age
Map: here
Technology: Writing, Bronze Working, Iron Working, Horse Domestication

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Pretext - out of boredom, gonna write a summary of the ongoings of a certain hotel at Jax Beach. I get to vent, you get hot tea not seen on tv or streaming.
The Story So Far - New hotel is opening soon. They fired their old staff during covid and need new workers. They host an internal job fair(they are the only company there hiring) at a sister location.
I go to the fair on Saturday, I want to be a laundry-person so that I can work without having to put on a fake smile in front of people everyday. I also interview for front desk. I am turned down for not having front desk experience. I get turned down for laundry and instead get pushed to being a lobby person because of my "personality". It gets described as almost like a restaurant hostess position with tip potential, the base pay is higher than my past job so eh. I get hired. After a delay in paperwork, we show up two weeks later for orientation. Nothing out of the ordinary except we are told that we have to put the hotel together ourselves once we get the permits to be on location. We train at two hotels. Nothing remarkable except workers were drinking guest coffee and apparently the housekeepers were running the clock. Our breakfast manager gets into an argument with some of us during the computer training section because we need to be quiet and do our work. First crack in the social fabric.
We finally get the permits to be on the premises. Less than a week of being on site, a house keeper and the breakfast manager start arguing. Not long after that, the same housekeeper got fired for cussing out our HR lady while arguing with the head chef in the elevator going home.
During a planned power outage caught two workers giving head in one of the rooms while I was putting hangers in each room. My partner for the same task would never return to work after lunch.
We were promised an extended weekend near the hotel opening. The day before said weekend, corporate came by and canceled that weekend. Everyone was pissed and I was the only one of few people to show up on Sunday. Around this time, my manager decided to fill our staffing gaps with a staffing company. Two of these workers were caught spying on everyone else to take pictures on everyone and go to my manager with the pics. My manager also cussed out the staffing company because how dare people want to be off on Sunday or have a life outside the hotel. Go cuss out corporate for being a bunch of tone deaf idiots.
My manager sent me and 3 others to go clean the employee break area. We did not need that many people. I could have done it alone myself. I have to once the hotel opens anyway. I decided to just delegate different cleaning tasks and then finish up once they are done. Breakfast manager comes in and just starts sweeping for no reason. My boss comes in and chews me out in front of other people. I do later get an private apology in our gym, but I felt I was set up.
We are allowed to visit bars but not drink alcohol and must be at tables, not the bar section itself. Breakfast manager was going to Lynch's for lunch and having a beer, and then showing the pics of said beers to my co-workers. The managers in general got caught with some apple based alcohol in their office as well.
So once the hotel opens, our positions become malleable. I was told I would be either Lobby or Houseman. I have to now do the duties of both + room service. And no, people don't tip for room service, at least I am paid decent enough, then again I don't pay rent so maybe I am speaking from a privileged position.
Let's talk about the two spies - They are the other lobby-person and our main houseman. Everyone hates cleaning windows. The other lobby-person is supposed to handle such a job but neglects them. After back and forth with my manager, I handle windows now. Our houseman is supposed to handle the upper floors + take out the trash. He is seen constantly on the second floor laughing it up with laundry and doing lobby person stuff. I asked for a assistant and was denied, but the other lobby-person gets one. He was slacking off so hard that he neglected to clean the guest laundry for three days, and as such we got complaints daily about it being dirty. I now handle the guest laundry. I caught him following me and taking pics. And some other workers came up to me and said they heard him in conversation with my manager over these pics. Apparently the pair wouldn't work until our manager came to work, and would sit for hours in the break room, yet complained about our graveyard shift worker doing the same. They started disappearing in the morning before the manager came in. No one knew where they went. We found out at last what they were up to. They got caught in one of these house keeping closest having sex. This same person is about to get promoted. Suck your way to the top top top.
We were having issues with keeping housekeeping closets stocked because our houseman was busy having a party in laundry. I started stocking them myself during my shift. Due to the benefits of such, people during my shift(not me anymore) have to stock the closets now. We had a similar issue with laundry as there is only some much we can wash and dry in one 8 hour shift. I suggested we open up a night shift for laundry. In the meantime I would wash and dry as I could. We eventually got a night-shift. Laundry flows so much better now.
They choose a terrible color for our lobby floor. White and it's various shades including cream are hard to keep clean. Especially with the foot traffic from people coming to and from the bar. After an complaint from bar staff about the spots our temp cleaning machine missed. I got the idea to just take some industrial de-greaser and scrub the floors myself. It took three days. It so also happens that our president was coming for a visit, so my little idea of scrubbing the floors also saved everyone's tooshies. Did I get a thanks? No. "When are you gonna clean up your mess" was the response while I waited on the floors to dry because degreasers take forever. I have to put down wet floor signs so that we don't get sued to oblivion if someone slips. Sorry that wet floor signs aren't aesthetic. Dirty floors aren't either you know.
I got written up twice. Once for leaving early and not telling graveyard shift such. I was told by my manager that if I arrive late to shift my leaving time so I am still giving the company 8 hours of work. The same for the vice versa. It was also around the time when I realized that I was now also doing houseman duties despite what I was told and promised. So written up for following manager instructions and low key insubordination because excuse me for trying to do the job I was contracted for. I arrive early to work and leave exactly at the appointed time. You just written me up into more money. Thanks.
The second time was really really my fault. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been doing social media on my current accounts for like 6-7 years. Work + keeping up with it was getting a little overwhelming last month and I worked myself into going to work, doing social media stuff up to two hours before before my next shift with no sleep, and went to work. I was exhausted and should have sent myself to the break room. I was instead chilling with front desk between tasks and that got caught on camera. My manager also was trying to accuse me of not cleaning the bathrooms properly, but after seeing my process realized that it wasn't me. And I didn't get any verbal warnings that I was picking up bad behaviors. Straight to write up. She gives me this look after that incident, but that might do to now wearing sunglasses and a mask to work. I clean bathrooms for a living now. Excuse me if I don't want to be breathing in poop and pee particles + these heavy cleaning materials. My mother is sick with cancer, I don't need to be bringing anything home. Period. Also the lighting is too bright, thus shades.
Oh, yes the Lobby-person position. It's just another term for janitor. I asked to be transferred to the kitchen after my manager got caught making fun of me to other managers and suggesting ways to fire me, but she blocked the transfer. I went in an asked for a raise, radio silence.
Starting today or Monday is associate/employee appreciation week. It is also time for our 90 day assessments. I fully expect to be fired this week, so maybe these posts will last for only one more post.
See you next Sunday.
Edit: I do not give permission or consent to other content creators to reproduce this post on their pages or websites. Same goes for news pages. Go make your own original content you annoying reddit story time youtube channels.

First
Prev
Corva fiddled with an empty medicine bottle, he looked at the labels and peeled them, only to stick it on the bottle again, he would screw off the cap and screw it back on repeatedly. It was an old habit of his, just looking at random things and playing with them like a fidget toy, he only does it when he has nothing to do, ever since he got a job that habit disappeared, but now, all he can do is lay down on the bed of a hospital tent, and he's also technically currently unemployed. Since no company is going to recruit anyone in the middle of an invasion from killer robots. He thought back to what happened yesterday, when Lavoss came into the tent and confronted Kawl.
"You're still awake?"
"Hmm?"
He was still curious about it, what did Lavoss mean by traitor? Did Kawl kill someone? He doesn't look like someone who would do such a thing, whatever it was that he did though, it was significant enough for Lavoss to hit him in the head with the stock of his gun knocking him out cold. It was shocking to see, he was awfully calm up until the point he said something about the traitor part and not a moment later Kawl was on the ground unconscious with a gun stock shaped dent on the chitin protecting his head. Everyone gasped, except Mari, the nurse, she looked like she expected it for a long time and stayed calm.
"Do you have trouble sleeping?"
She asked as she came back with another box of medical supplies.
"No, just… didn't feel like it"
"What do you mean you don't feel like sleeping?"
She put the box down and walked up to him.
"Well… i got plenty of sleep yesterday, spent the rest of it sleeping, didn't i? And most of today as well"
"With all due respect that doesn't justify staying up until the middle of the night, besides, you need rest"
"Same thing can be said about you… I haven't seen you take any kind of break, even the doctor's not here, why are you?"
"The downside of being the only qualified nurse left around, not the only one in the camp of course, just the only one left for this tent, besides… it's my duty to watch over the patients, and make sure they have enough sleep…"
She raised her voice a little on that last word, as well as throwing a glance at other patients that were already asleep.
"Subtle…"
"Right i am, now sleep"
"I've tried, i don't think i can"
"So you do have trouble sleeping, hold on, i think i have something for that in stock"
"No thanks, can we just… talk? It's been some time since I've had a friendly talk with anyone, just… Not about anything in particular, you know? Just talk"
"Hmm… fine, when was the last time then?"
"Right before the invasion… right before he lost his life…"
"Let's… not talk about that…"
"Wise…"
"Uhm… What's your job?"
"QC, for quality control, in an arms factory"
"A factory worker? You looked way cleaner than i thought you would"
"If i were working in the assembly i think you would change your mind about that, but no, QC's don't get their hand dirty often, maybe once in a while when a weapon explodes on them"
"Huh… ever had one?"
"Personally? No, have I seen it? Yes, funny story, when i first got accepted i had this instructor, telling us how to check the quality of products, the first rifle he picked up to show us how to check the pulse had a faulty wiring on it, too much energy, it blew up on his face while a group of new QC's was watching, safe to say he doesn't like it when some of us laughed"
"Poor guy, reminded mr of someone"
"Who?"
"My sister"
"Oh i…"
"Oh don't worry, it's nothing sensitive, it's like your story, she's a teacher, been one for a while even before she got here, so when she got here to Rosan she was considered a senior teacher, and when new ones needs a tour of their workplace and know how to handle the kids they relied on her, now one day she was guiding a new teacher…"
"Mhm?"
"And she was like… maybe she wants to show off a little bit, I don't know, but from what she told me, she said to this new teacher something along the lines of: 'look at these children! So behaved! If you want to do that you have to learn from me' or something like that… and… not a second after that, one of the kids who were playing threw a wet ball of paper and it hit her right in the back of the head"
Corva had to spend some willpower trying not to laugh, remembering that he was the one who laughed when his instructor blew himself up along with Kasso didn't make it any easier.
"Oh the look of embarrassment on her face, didn't see it myself, but i wish i did, i can feel her esteem crumble every time i mention it, it was cute to see her just shrink and try to hide her face"
"Oh… you'll like it when you see how my friend acts around girls, Kasso, he…"
Mari was a bit confused why Corva suddenly fell silent, why he looked at the ground with a frown, until she remembered what he said, and it clicked on her.
Right before he lost his life
"I'm sorry for your loss"
"It's fine, i'm sure he's in a better place… much better than this… hellhole"
She wanted to comment on his sudden pessimism, but decided that won't be so wise considering he's not wrong, no matter how many times she tries to ignore it, she has to admit, their current situation is a hellhole.
"I suppose that's enough talk for now…"
"...."
"I advise you sleep now, you'll get tired"
He didn't respond, and just went to sleep without another word, and an unchanged expression of sorrow. She sighed and returned to her work, sorting the type of medications into different containers.
"When will it all end?"
—-~----
It was calm… and black… that is about all Schen can think about regarding his current state, he can't tell if he's dreaming, or if he's asleep or awake, it's just that he is aware. It was a strange feeling, like being asleep physically but not mentally, he feels like he's floating, without a body, like there's nothing that can limit him. And yet at the same time he can't do anything, he was just aware, and drifting away in this weird state of half dream. For some reason, he thought of those tales of people who 'died' , people who experienced long comas, and the tale of their supposed journey to this place between the mind and the world.
Ridiculous stories, barely believable, and uninteresting if you ask him. And yet, here he is now, aware of what's happening, he remembers everything, he passed out from blood loss, after fighting one of those things. He wants to wake up, check on his men, maybe meet up with Captain Vaiya and make up a plan on what to do next regarding their situation. But you can't wake up when you don't even have control over your eyes, so it was more of a waiting game, an annoying one, knowing what's happening and yet can't act on it. He'd rather be actually dead over this, at least if he's dead he doesn't have to worry about anything. The problem is, he knows he's alive, it's just that his body is not responding to him, nor can he feel it.
It took what felt like hours, since he wasn't actually asleep, he was paralyzed but still conscious. After an agonizing few hours, he felt the first bodily sensation, his finger, it graduated to the feeling of his hand resting on a soft surface, probably some sort of bed, he can feel his breath as well. He started feeling his body, little by little, unfortunately, now that he feels his body again, he can feel what his body feels, and that is pure unadulterated pain. On his head, on his leg, his back, his arm, everywhere, he doesn't remember getting hit that much, but apparently he did. His back arched from trying to suppress it, and he let out a grunt that was too loud for his standard.
"Calm down! Don't move just yet…"
A voice, good, that means he should be in a friendly area now. He opened one of his eyes with a considerable amount of struggle, and saw the face of an Enovian with a waterproof paramedic hat on through his blurry vision.
"I've had worse…"
What a word for him to say before his back gave up on him and suddenly went limp, triggering pain in many areas of his body.
"Aergh…"
He grunted with some exasperation and regret. Maybe he shouldn't be showing off at this kind of age, it's not good for his bones.
"Where's our painkillers?"
—-~----
"Captain?"
"Yes?"
"He's awake"
"Just? or?..."
"For awhile, he needed some time to actually get up, thought we'll just wait for him before telling you"
"Alright, thank you, i'll be there, a wonder he survived though, and to wake up this early"
"It is, his wounds were near fatal, he was essentially one light tap away from a fractured skull"
"Tough little guy… you can go now, there are others no?"
"Oh…yes, sorry ma'am"
Vaiya turned off her personal datapad, and stood up from her command seat. She dusted some metal dust off her uniform and made her way to the recruitment office turned into a temporary medical bay. She walked through a collection of the remaining crew of the ship, some simply threw a glance at her, some greeted her, and some gave her a salute. She noted the look of despair in their eyes and sighed, but kept on walking as that isn't her goal right now. She arrived at a door with a plate next to it that says: 'recruitment', the plate had an electrical tape with a writing on it that says: 'medical bay now' stuck haphazardly on top of it.
It isn't a neon sign, but it works. She opened the door manually with her hand as most of the doors in administration are now unpowered, inside was simple, four 'beds' laid on the floor, with most of the desks removed, the remaining medical crews stay here now, treating anyone they can. Including the new security captain, Schon, who she spotted sitting on his bed half awake wrapped in blood caked bandages, while clearly struggling to drink from a glass cup. He looked oddly… calm, like he's not surprised he's here at all. Granted, she did rescue him from becoming minced meat, and it's only logical to assume there are survivors holding out somewhere, but he looks absolutely unfazed, as if he had this happen before.
"SC Schon?"
She walked up to him, he gave an unsurprised look and went back to doing his best to drink.
"Captain…"
"Nice to see you awake already, i figured it would take a long time but you prove me wrong…"
"Uh-huh…."
"About that status report you ask for-"
"I already know, stranded, no engine, almost all crew dead, ship's practically scrapped, light's dying, and surrounded by killer machines chewing on the hull, and Rosan IV isn't so lucky either"
"Yes… unfortunate is it?"
"Yes, but right now I don't care, how's my men?"
"Your what?"
"My subordinates"
"Ah… they're… few, 50… down to you and two others, i'm sorry"
"I see… who?"
"Koern, and Ayuna"
Schen wasn't paying much attention to the captain, he simply stared off into the distance, but hearing the young Caevit's name roll off her tongue took his attention.
"Really?... Thank you, but you're not here just for that right?"
Now that he actually pays some attention to her, he noticed her face change, a bit more tense.
"You read my mind, come"
"I can barely move my lips and you want me to walk?"
She looks around for a minute before looking back at him.
"I don't mind carrying someone"
"Huh?"
—-~----
"If i have credit for every time a Tekit lady carries me in her arms while i can barely move, i'll have two"
Schen commented on his current position, it earned him a confused and curious look from the captain. She took him to an uninhabited room to talk, as it turns out most of the administration has been turned to some sort of holdout for whoever's left alive in the ship. She set him down on a chair and followed suit, sitting right in front of him.
"So what is this? Is there something you want to know? If it's about this whole thing then you're talking to a wall"
Her behavior was odd, Schen noted, she seems… agitated, not angry, just stirred, like something's bugging her. He can understand being scared, but the way she moves suggests whatever's currently happening isn't the case.
"Nothing much… i just want… confirmation"
"Go ahead…"
"So… I heard that Koern asked you for help, is that so?"
"Yeah? Got to me after he said you can't help"
"Do you know what his issue was?"
"Yes, random images and voice recordings from his cousin"
"Okay… where does his cousin lives?"
"In Rosan IV and from what i heard, it's about as messed up as this ship"
"That is correct, do you-"
"Wait, can we just get to the point here? What's the issue? Why are you suddenly interested in Koern's problem?"
"I… because…"
"Hmm?"
"...Because i've been having the same problem, what you said, random images, and voice recordings, now i know it's exactly the same, that is what i want to know"
"Huh… okay… so?..."
"There's one difference… his problem started today, during the jump, my problem has been going on for the last five cycles"
"....."
"And I want to know one more thing, please, answer this honestly… do you see it?"
He can feel her agitation increase tenfold as she asks the question. She was normal, now she's visibly shaking.
"See what?..."
"The shape…"
"Shape?"
"Please tell me you saw it too, i… I've been thinking about it… for a long time… ever since I've peered into those images, there's a shape stuck in my eyes, it's burned itself into my mind, and I feel it…. Everyday i think i see something in the corner of my eyes, i hear noises that aren't there, closer and closer every time!…. It… it was getting closer… the shape…"
Her stare became intense, like the stare of a crazed person.
"i… don't know…"
"Oh but you know! You saw it!... Just as I did… it sees you, but you can barely see it, it's there… watching… First it stays in the image, then it creeps into you, haunts you, then you see it hide everytime you turn your head… it follows you, everywhere you go… in your sleep… when you work… all the time…"
Her breathing was rapid, almost uncontrolled.
"Perhaps… that's just you, i do not experience these"
"It may not now, but it will…. Because it has to me, it's like a tumor, and it won't go away, no matter how hard i try… it's still there…"
She calmed down slightly, her breathing was normal again, sort of, and she's no longer shaking, but the stare is still there, the stare of true fear, striking deep into his soul. As she calmed down more and thankfully finally averted her gaze elsewhere, Schen took the downtime to process what he just listened to, and his conclusion was: what the ////?
"Sorry… i… i just… i needed to know… i need to know if i'm not the only one… now i know it's in you too, not now, but soon, t-thank you"
"Your… welcome…"
"Should we return?"
"We…"
He pondered about asking her to take him to the bridge, so he can look out and see what's happening outside the ship, but now he's reconsidering it, because of that… experience.
"...Yes, we should"
She let go of his arms, he didn't even realize it, but she was holding on to him tight the whole time.
"Of course… of course, let's make this quick…"
—-~----
Schen observed Captain Vaiya as she left the medical room, he noted her sudden return to her previous well mannered behavior, he can still see a tinge of anxiety in her eyes and movements however, and realized how similar it was to Koern's behavior. Anxiety, unease, massive discomfort, moving around constantly, and eyes snapping to random positions as if they're trying to catch something on the move. It was unmistakable, Schen recalled back to his conversation with Koern, about something he said.
'it's… distressing'
Koern did look at the images before coming to him, and it was clear the images caused it, if Vaiya had something similar or identical happen, he can assume the cause for her distress is the same. But one question remains that still baffles him: how? How do random images do that? Implanting irrational fear into someone, making them see things that aren't there, what is happening? And now that he considers it, he did see the images, is he going to fall victim to the same thing? Why hasn't he felt anything if those images can do that to someone through just a mere look at it?
One question leads to another, and it all gets more complicated the longer he tries to solve it. He wanted to ignore it, maybe they were just unstable and he misjudged the whole thing, but he can't help but feel there's something to it, it's clear those images and recordings somehow were sent by the creatures currently roaming the ship, he sees the connection, but why? And how? Psychological warfare? Maybe, that was the most rational answer he could come up with. With their clear situation of being in the middle of an invasion, he can only assume such an answer, but applying it to only a few specific targets seems beyond strange.
He pinched his snout in frustration, before taking a deep breath and exhaling it as slowly as he could. Perhaps he shouldn't think of it too much for now, maybe that's how it gets into you, the shape… whatever it is. He looked around his surroundings, a 'medical' room, previously an office, he watched the doctors treat the wounded as he thought of his next step. Looking outside the ship should be a good idea, he had asked a nurse about the whole situation before Vaiya showed up, they told him the entire star system has fallen, Rosan IV was silent, any attempts at communication and call for help were futile, the other planets around the system, some are yet to be named, are the same.
That means those things have been here for a while, and somehow stayed out of the union's radar. He remembered the emerging stories of Rosan IV, how it became a ghost, how communications were far and few between, how many ships that traveled to its system went missing and ones that returned had signs of heavy damage on them, and how their crews looked 'lifeless'. If Rosan's system has been like this for some time, wouldn't that mean any ship that comes here would suffer the same fate as his ship?.
Why would some return and look 'fine' was beyond him, but a thought nestled itself in his mind, a terrifying thought, it made his blood run cold, the thought that these things have spread beyond this solar system, spread silently, in cargo ships that travel to every corner of union space. Suddenly people seeing shapes and hearing sounds after they look at an image doesn't sound horrifying anymore.
"////…"
—-~----
Faen sat in his office, for the millionth time, he stared at his computer, for the millionth time, he opened the files containing the Qrid military spending, for the millionth time, he looked at the reports file, for the millionth time. It has always been like this, being a general wasn't all about giving orders and making war plans, most of his time was spent in front of his computer, looking at the passive activity of his army, and its spendings, receiving calls or calling someone to see if he can learn something new about someone else's army. Look at pirate reports, raiders, terrorists, radicalist, sometimes cultists, it has always been like this, looking away at the computer, looking at files, always has been.
He wouldn't say he couldn't make wartime decisions, if one were to ever occur, he's always confident he can, after all he has learned from both his father and many mentors. He trained for it, for war, he trained how to control an army in such a situation for pretty much his whole life, he doesn't have to, but it's better to know how to fight than not at all. You never know when it'll come, maybe now, maybe in years during your old days, maybe never, but if it ever does come, he knows what to do, whether he likes it or not. It's a part of his pride, his identity, though he couldn't say much about his son, and everyday he worries about not having a successor, not having someone to pass the torch to, and as time marches on indiscriminately, his worry can only grow.
Sometimes he wondered if should've been harsh, and not fulfill his wish to go to university so he can learn computer science, and put him in the very school he himself went through to become what he is now. But that's not a good father, isn't it? It would be against his wish, and he would've needed to force him, it's what his son's grandfather did… to him, he still thinks about it, about his original dream. A singer, a far cry from a supreme general, he remembered the angry face of his father upon learning what he wanted to be, it felt like it happened just yesterday. He never liked it, not once, despite managing to prove himself worthy as a leader of an army in the end of everything.
And to think, he was almost like that, to his own son, he couldn't handle the thought. Faen took his eyes off the screen, just for a moment, and looked at another one, a camera display, showing his son's room. Rana was sleeping, as usual and as he should be at a time like this, he looked at him through the screen, at his arm, and thought about his latest conversation with the woman he loved.
"Disappointment, huh?"
He felt a subtle pain in his chest out of nowhere, he opened the drawer on his desk through a motion that tells of excessive habit, and absentmindedly took his medication without looking. With a sigh, he looked at a small button to his right. There was a screen above it that had a list of people considered significant enough to be contacted by him directly, which ranged from the supreme generals of other species, to the head maiden that cleaned his and his son's bedroom. He looked for a specific one that he recently added, the surgeon that is the head of operation for the trials he had put Rana through for the last few cycles, the trials that he and his mother show complete disapproval to.
He found it and clicked the button, it was answered after some time and he entered a call with the surgeon.
"A pleasure to speak with you general"
"Hrm…"
"Is there something you wish to ask of me?"
"Yes… we should stop, no more trials"
"If that is what you want, then I will gladly comply, but may I ask why for the sudden stop? You seem invested in this when you first called me to arrange it"
"Family issues"
"that is-"
He cut the call short, and continued his work. Looking at the files, looking for differences every so often, making sure everything is stable and taken care of, and glancing at his son's monitor once in a while, and for the first time since his son graduated university, he smiled. Perhaps that's the right thing, to be a father, not a general. At least… for a moment, his smile disappeared as he received a call, it was marked as urgent, and was displayed on his screen instead of just a sound notification. He dusted his uniform and fixed any creases as he noticed the call wasn't just any call, it was a notice for him to join a discussion between supreme generals of each species and their respective leaders, that includes the matriarch.
It is odd he wasn't notified of this earlier, oftentimes these kinds of things have their own schedule that was discussed beforehand, a sudden meeting like this can only mean one thing. He accepted the call, and his screen changed to the display he's all too familiar with, a digital conference room, two lines of camera display, the bottom for the generals, the top for the leaders, they were all present, which is to be expected. The matriarch of Qrids, the Tekit queen, the Caevitan allfather, high empress of Enovia, and the Civean president, the current roster of union council, below them was him, and other generals, including general Cynte of the Civeans.
He still remembers his little offer to make an accident to highlight Rana's name, after the reveal of the Goels and the incident it was kept as a private thing between them that didn't really go anywhere. He doesn't want to talk about it, neither does Cynte, so it was technically a win-win situation, despite the unexpected and frankly out of their favor results. The call was oddly silent, no one was saying anything even the loud ones like his mother, they seemed to be waiting for something, or someone. Faen didn't question it, it would be considered stupid, so he too followed the silence. It was a strange and awkward few minutes of staring at each other not saying anything, up until what they waited for arrived in the call.
Another screen appeared above all ten screens, and on it was something he dreaded to see, the collection of red revolving rings, Cain. Practically every general present felt tense, including him, the leaders couldn't care less, except maybe for the Civean president who expressed the most worry as they all waited for Cain to speak. Sudden meeting, all members, and Cain, and considering their latest development with the Goels, this couldn't be good. The red rings assemble into the shape of a solar system like it did when it appeared on the monitors of his warship, and Cain spoke with his usual low pitched synthesized voice that everyone in the room knew quite well.
'it is no doubt all of you will question why I requested this urgent meeting, i apologize if any of you found it to be too sudden, but what I have to tell you will change your mind, and I will not waste your time, as we are in a race against time itself… the union has been breached by an invader, you are under attack, and in a process of galaxy wide invasion'
No, definitely not good.
"What do you mean by this?"
Faen immediately asked, as much as he distrust Cain, he must agree with his mindset that no time should be wasted. And it seems his question stopped a particular set of leaders trying to speak, stopping them from blurting out what are probably4 going to be pointless sarcastic remarks, so that was another benefit of speaking first.
'your union is currently under the invasion of a race that is arguably similar to me, we call them Shakran'
The display of red rings changed to a scrolling collection of images, images of… Faen doesn't know how to describe it, bipedal creatures, made of metal, and grossly disfigured bodies, with sharp claws and many eyes. Every single thing varies, some of the things in the images looked small and only had claws, some were massive and had what are clearly cannons as a weapon. He noted a certain detail about the images, they were blurry, and not straight, and some strange things were staring at the camera, while looking elsewhere. Something tells Faen these images were taken in the middle of active combat.
'They are a hivemind of machines, their sentience and sapience is debatable, but that does matter currently as their only goal is to destroy and conquer'
"Lies! If we were under an invasion from them, we would've known already! Besides… we already have an invader… we're talking to them right now"
The Tekit queen spoke with clear passive aggresive energy in her voice. Faen sighed in annoyance but kept it to himself.
'i understand the distrust, but it is no reason to make a sarcastic remark, however, you need to trust me on this matter, because their return can only mean danger to the union, and the universe as a whole, they are-'
"Wait, what do you mean… their return?"
'you all must've wondered how and why i and my brother ended up the way we did on that desert planet, what you are seeing on my screen is the answer to your question'
It didn't click for any of the leaders, their annoyed expression stays the same as Cain finished his sentence, but it clicked for every single military leader in the room, and it horrified them.
'my kind have encountered them before, my creators, it led to a war, a million year war, between me and them, they are what wiped my creators out of existence, and soon will be the cause of extinction for every single species in this union if we don't take any actions, since you refused, i have personally tracked every ship that left Rosan IV for the last six cycles, here is the data'
The scrolling images turned into a detailed map of the galaxy, with every single star system currently under union control included in it, there were red lines all over the map, they were all traced back all the way to one specific system, Rosan IV. A heavy weight rested itself on Schen's mind as he realized how far the lines have gone, to a point it crosses itself, wrapping around the galaxy in a circle, like some sort of a chaotic web.
'Rosan is lost, it is highly likely they have turned it into a staging ground, i know that we all have strived to avoid this, but war is inevitable, i have send a complete data regarding the Shakrans to all of you, please review it as fast as you can, and take your moves, as i will mine right now, alert your fleets, if they see my fleet entering a system, tell them they are here as an ally, i have been defeated once, i will not repeat the same mistake again, i hope you can catch up and help me, because there is no telling of what they will do once their setup is complete, and there is no telling whether or not i can do this alone'
"Wait! What should we do?"
'search and destroy, hunt down every ship that left the system, check every station, scan every inch of space, detonate stations, evacuate every planet they have visited then purge the cities and hammer the surface with orbital strikes if you might, but by all means… do not let. them. develop. That is all i have to say, my reinforcements are coming, but i do not know if there is enough time, act now'
And with that, Cain left the conference room, and at that very moment, it shattered, every world leader was either furious or dead silent with a look of horrific realization, his fellow generals went into a panic and contacted their fleets. Except for him, he simply sat there, unmoving and very still, staring at the galaxy map Cain had brought up, looking at one particular star system, crossed several times by the red lines, and surrounded by it, Sheneae XI, isn't that?... The solar system his wife is visiting to look at a newly opened hospital?.
(a TON of RIC's)

First/Prev
​
The route they chose skirted the borders of Sovereign space. It cost them an extra two weeks of travel, but avoided contact.
The delay chafed at everyone except for the mercs. Their contracts offered nothing more for prizes, so for them it wasn't boredom but safety. They didn't have to worry about what happened when they reached their destination either, for that matter. They spent their time doing their jobs with neat, quiet efficiency, and helping to train the San.
The humans had gone through training, but their total education was three months of being self-taught from holos and six of formal schooling, and for many of the duties that only gave them the barest outline. Mogan needed engineers who could do more than simply consult the checklist, and mechanics who could tell what was wrong with a system from small sounds the way he could tell at the first strike when a node of flint was flawed and what to do with it.
To Logog's chagrin, he put his marines to practicing again with atlatl and sling, making sure their skills hadn't atrophied. It sharpened skills, but it also kept them from getting into trouble. Drunk sailors fight, Shett had told him, and bored sailors fight, and bored sailors also find surprisingly creative ways to get drunk.
Nonetheless, by the time they reached the planet of Goretia, the entire crew was bored and ready for a change of pace. Six weeks of doing nothing felt like a poor way to begin a career of story and excitement, but the more experienced warriors knew that this was the general trend of any campaign; long periods of boredom when one wishes for action, followed by short periods of action when one wishes for boredom.
Once they found the planet on their sensors, the crew scrambled into action. The eight boarding craft could hold one hundred men each, slightly more warriors than the San had. Instead, each held fifty men and fifty dogs.
Any pup was trained to not leave a mess in the hut, but with the ability to simply go outside denied to them the San had had to devise a latrine they could use. Beyond that, the dogs had been trained for hunting for generations, farther back than any of the San's songs could remember, ever since that day when the Unrevealed had decided to test humanity by choosing out the cleverest and kindest of the wolves to come to them in peace.
Nor were they strangers to war. The orders that could command them to flank or attack a deer could make them do the same to men, and they had proven their worth more than once on the battlefields of Noepe. They were even more effective here than they had been on Earth. Any other humans, including the Animal People, had dogs of their own, but the very idea of a beast obeying a sapient being was beyond them. The closest anyone had come to the idea was the secret sapient species, and they were only able to do so because they knew the Vishtali and the other two—the other three, now--were no animals.
Men and women had been trained and conditioned to clamber into the trees and fight other soldiers, or to stand under laser fire, or almost every circumstance but to be charged by dozens of wolf-like, snapping, snarling beasts. Not many could stand against that, and those that could had the dogs to protect the gunners and the gunners to protect the dogs. The dogs took more losses than the humans, but that was to be expected—and much as they loved the dogs, better to lose them than the people.
They generally had the run of the ship during the last few weeks, and one was as likely to see a dog fetching things or playing keep-away with a tool as curled up in the habs. They were even made to exercise as much as the humans.
At least it made the dogs less bored than the humans, and they seemed to have adapted to the routine better. They were still happy to do something different, however, and getting them onto the boarding craft turned out to be fairly easy.
Mogan knelt on the floor of one boarding craft himself, quiver on his back. The air on Goretia was breathable, and that was a blessing. He had a hatchet on his hip instead of his pistol, as did the rest of the warriors.
Alone among the warriors, he didn't have a dog. Knucklebones had been the best of dogs, and had died four years ago. Mogan had not gotten a new one, and he couldn't say whether it was because he had to some extent given up, or whether he couldn't summon the energy for something that wasn't for his daughter or for his tribe.
He had a dog now, one he had purchased from one of the others just after weaning and named Blueknife, as her eyes made him think of the knife he had made of blue-green obsidian for Hyeshi. He thought Hyeshi would approve of the name as well, and had to smile. He was going to be able to ask her himself, whatever it took.
But Blueknife had been born about six months ago, and that meant she was too small for combat. Next to him were three of the Vishtali, and they too had no dogs. In fact, they seemed to have a hard time getting used to the concept of having dogs everywhere. They carried modified shoshir and shields, but seemed to have no confidence in their ability with them.
Logog seemed to have none either, for they were away from the front with him. Mogan presumed he needed to be present to make the action official, and it would help in calming down their new wards, but Logog had absolutely balked at the idea of putting him in the front lines.
Were the Vishtali not there, he would have used the holo at his left hand to show where the craft were, but they were nervous enough already, and it was best he didn't add to the stress.
Burya sent a signal to Logog, who in turn signaled the pilot, and the boarding craft lifted and then eased out of the Semiramis. This one was the Knucklebones—Logog didn't feel comfortable with the craft unnamed, so they had spent a little time devising and painting them.
The signal meant they were on the far side of the planet, where it would be harder for their targets to detect them. Mogan could see nothing except the walls of the craft, but he knew that all eight were flying directly towards the planet, their goal to get close to ground quickly. The Semiramis itself would fly past, and then double back in time to pick up the craft on the way back.
Soon the craft began to tremble as it entered atmosphere and had to push itself through the air, and they slowed as they reached the ground and fanned out slightly, keeping low.
The flight was slower, and not as smooth as in the empty void, but all the same the vehicles could move far faster than anyone could on foot, and in a surprisingly short time they were settling into a clearing. In the front of the craft, a holo projected from the ceiling, showing the area as if from a distance.
“It's a short run to the mines from here. Higa, your unit will guard the Vishtali and hang back. We'll need you in there, but they'll still have their shoshir, and that'll be no bargain in tunnels. We won't build any confidence if we get their people killed. Barab, you and the Second are the flint, Third is the bone.”
It was a simple enough analogy, hopefully enough that anybody not of the San who heard it would get confused. In days gone by, the tribe had made their spearpoints out of flint, creating razor-sharp blades that could easily pierce through the thick hides of their prey. But flint was fragile, and anything from a missed cast onto a stone or hard tree to an accurate cast that hit bone could cause it to shatter.
Long ago, the people that would thousands of years later be called Magdalenian devised a better way. Tiny blade blanks were made, some not as long as the thickness of his thumb, and the ends pressed away to create bladelets, most shorter than the width of a pinky nail. These were carefully glued into slots cut into a weapon. For a spear, these were usually points of bone with at least six, sometimes up to three times that, in bladelets.
A single spear created more cutting edges, and if one broke it was a simple matter to work it out and fit a new one in—and since they were smaller, they were less likely to break. The new technology was an improvement in every way.... up until they reached the stars and it was made pretty much obsolete. That was still difficult for Mogan to deal with.
It also made for an oddity that his handiwork was in evidence today. Some still had the old-fashioned spears, from more than two years ago back on Earth. Others had spears that he had designed and had manufactured, thousands of the exact same dimensions and weight, tipped with titanium-gold blades.
Mogan had devised other spears and spearheads as well—flash-bangs, spears with small explosives that would sink into whatever they hit and then riddle it with shrapnel, spears that would leave a small tracking device in the target, and of course the application of high explosives. It was difficult to go wrong with the application of high explosives.
Except here. Magnetic activity in the mine tunnels meant that any such devices were likely to go off at the right time, and the fact that there were tunnels in the first place meant that there were few if any actual right times for an explosive to go off.
That activity was the real reason there were Vishtali in the first place. They didn't have any particular history or skill as miners, but even well-protected drones would be rendered useless in minutes. Instead, they were reduced to using pneumatic drills to chip away at the rock. For the San, this was a technique thousands of years in the future, but for anybody else among the stars it was terrifyingly barbaric.
Mogan had hoped he could raid the spoils of the mines as well, but their information indicated he'd have no such luck. The mine was rich enough; the kh'ler crystals within were gemstones of extraordinary quality and value, such that particularly large and fine specimens had been used to rent planets from the Sovereign. Unfortunately, they were rarely, if ever, simply found in the mine.
Instead, the Vishtali mucked out tons of stone pried loose by hand-tools and pneumatic machines—even small explosives might shatter the crystals—and pushed heavy carts to the surface, where it was loaded onto ships. A facility off-world was easily able to locate the crystals and extract them from the stone, and to help hide the origins as well.
He would have to settle for killing all the overseers and guards, stealing anything of value, and freeing their slaves. Mogan believed it would suffice.

Photos: https://imgur.com/a/GQAlDJF
I just purchased a Sea-Doo GTX 230. I was trying to find ways to mount my phone to the handlebars, ideally in the middle. My goal was to have a low profile, VERY solid mount. I considered and tried a few different things, but these two were my favorite designs.
I realized the sticky mount (last two pictures) would work but the base was simply too large for the area. But I figured I'd show people in case they have a use case. You could also trim the base to make it smaller via Dremel or other. To make, I bought one of those dash suction cup bases that comes with the super strong 3M VHB tape (thicker than the phone ones, so they REALLY stick to textured surfaces and such). I took the Universal Bar Mount, removed the four screws in the back. Then aligned the the holes on the base plate and drilled them precisely. Then, re-purposed the exact same screws. The VHB tape is thick enough that the heads of the screws are actually flush with the tape. Works quite well!
The other idea took a bit more work, but it worked AMAZINGLY well for this purpose. I purchased heavy duty bungee straps designed for furniture webbing. It's really strong stuff. I got a matching set of buckles and one of those black metal plates that people stick on their phones to have them attach to those (meh) magnet phone mounts.
I first aligned and drilled four holes precisely on the black metal plate. Then placed the plate on the bungee strap and melted holes using a soldering iron. Then I sandwiched the bungee strap between the Peak Design SlimLink and the black metal plate. I could have used the same screws, but they are bevelled and I didn't want to scratch my Sea-Doo. So I used identical sized screws with round tops instead which I happen to have (M3 is the size).
I would say I sewed one end (but in reality, my wife is the expert here), then tested the fit, adjusted the other end until I had to stretch it quite tight to get it to click, and marked it. My wife sewed the other end at that spot.
Finally, placed a piece of Gorilla tape just to make sure no sharp edges stick out against the Sea-Doo foam pad.
Voià! A very secure, custom made mount that holds incredibly well. I went for a SUPER rough ride today actually in extremely choppy conditions. The phone was rock solid, didn't wiggle or anything. I'm extremely pleased and there's no holes or glue on the Sea-Doo. Which is nice considering it's brand new.

Hi,
Here's what I can offer for trades. CIB unless noted otherwise. List may get updated after initial posting.

Have

PS1
Breath of Fire 3	Manual damaged. Missing first page. Disc plays okay.
Breath of Fire 4
Parasite Eve	Small crack in the case
Tactics Ogre
Alundra	missing map
Dragon Warrior 7
Legend of Legaia
Metal Gear Solid	missing manual
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete	some damage in outer box
Suikoden	small rip in first page of manual
Wild Arms 2	loose disc only
Final Fantasy Tactics
Revelations: Persona	box only
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Gran Turismo	Brand new. Plastic wrap is gone but seal at the top is still intact.
A bug's life
Black Dawn
Formula1 98
Small soldiers
The next tetris
Star wars: Episode 1 The phantom menace
Twisted metal III
Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style
Apocalypse
Playstation Underground Jampack
NHL FaceOff 99
NFL Xtreme
NFL GameDay 2001	Sealed. Small rip in the plastic wrap
NFL GameDay 2000
MLB 2000
3Xtreme
Contender
Jampack Summer 99
Jampack Winter 98
Interactive CD Sampler Pack Volume 3
Spyro
Bust A Groove

​

PS2
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 [Limited Edition]	outer box showing some wear
.Hack Quarantine	Missing anime DVD, Case may not be original
Front mission 4
Katamari Damacy
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 4
Suikoden 3
Final Fantasy XII Limited Edition (steelbook)
Xenosaga Episode 1
Xenosaga Episode 3
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero Metallica
Guitar Hero III Legend of Rock
Rockband AC/DC Track Pack
Grandia II
Grandia III
Yakuza 2
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
Kingdom Hearts	GH
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3

​

PSP
Untold Legends Brotherhood Of The Blade
Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Legend Of Heroes III Song Of The Ocean	loose umd only
Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories	GH
Robots	UMD Movie

​

Vita
Killzone Mercenary	loose

​

PS3
Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection [Artbook Bundle]	Sealed with artbook
Dante's Inferno Divine Edition	with slipcover, missing manual
Yakuza 3
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
Batman: Arkham City
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Disney Infinity starter pack	Sealed
Record of Agarest War 2	Sealed, One corner of box is dinged
Dead Island Riptide [Rigor Mortis Edition]	Sealed
Dead Space 3 Dev-team Edition	Sealed, 4004/5000
Battlefield 3
Battlefield 4
Far Cry 2
Far Cry 4
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2010
Heavy Fire: Afghanistan
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
Little Big Planet Karting
Batman: Arkham Asylum - GoTY edition
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Need for Speed: The Run LE
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit LE
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit	loose, GH
Need for Speed: Rivals	missing manual
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection
Duke Nukem Forever
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes	GH
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens	loose
Destiny
Lost Planet 3	Sealed
God of War Collection	GH

​

PS4
Fallout 4 Pipboy edition	Sealed
Elder Scrolls Online Tamriel Unlimited Imperial Edition	Sealed
Wolfenstein II: The new Colossus Collector's Edition	Sealed
Final fantasy vii remake
Final fantasy vii remake deluxe edition	Sealed
Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars	digital code
Sekiro: Shadows die twice
Kingdom Hearts All-in-one	sealed
Fifa 14
Battlefield 4
INSIDE / LIMBO double pack
WWE 2K15 Hulkamania Edition	sealed
Dying Light
Fallout 4
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

​

PS5
Tales of Arise	Sealed
Elden Ring Collector's Edition	Sealed
Elden Ring preorder code x3	Willing to throw this in free with any trade
Elden Ring with steelbook bundle	Bundle seems to be Bestbuy Canada exclusive
Scarlet Nexus	Sealed
Evil Dead	digital code
Horizon Forbidden West Collector's Edition	Sealed

​

Xbox
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	gamestop sticker on manual

​

Xbox360
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Fallout 3
Halo 4 LE	Sealed
Lost Odyssey
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Otomedius Excellent

​

GameCube
Resident Evil
Donkey Konga 2	Sealed

​

Wii
Super Mario All-Stars: 25th Anniversary Edition	Sealed
The Last Story LE
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor	Sealed

​

Switch
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna the Golden Country	Sealed
Xenoblade Chronicles 3	Sealed
Metroid Dread Special Edition	Sealed
Shin Megami Tensei V Fall of Men Premium Edition	Sealed
Hoa	Sealed
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Premium Edition	Sealed
Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1 [Deluxe Edition]	Sealed
AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative Collectors Edition	Sealed
Legend of Zelda the tears of the kingdom Collector's edition	Sealed

​

GBA
Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage	loose
Avatar: The Last Airbender	loose
SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	loose
American Dragon Jake Long Rise Of The Huntsclan	loose
Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 3	loose
Pokemon LeafGreen	loose
Pokemon Sapphire	loose, dry battery replaced
Chronicles Of Narnia Lion Witch And The Wardrobe	loose
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3	loose
Tales of Phantasia	loose
Shining Soul 2	loose
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror	loose
Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland	loose

​

DS
Coral Pink DS Lite	Excellent cosmetic condition, charger included
White DSi	no charger, stylus
TMNT
Lego Harry Potter Year 1-4
Phantasy Star 0	missing manual
Flash Focus
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia	loose
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume	loose
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light	loose
Pokemon HeartGold	loose, small damage on label
Pokemon HeartGold	Complete minus Pokewalker
Pokemon SoulSilver	box only
Pokemon Diamond
Pokemon Diamond	loose
Pokemon Platinum	loose
Pokemon Black
Pokemon Black	missing manual
Pokemon Black	box only
Hoppie	no manual, some water damage in cover arts
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Metroid Prime: Hunters - First Hunt	loose
Diddy Kong Racing
Fossil Fighters
Professor Layton And The Curious Village

​

3DS
3DS XL Black+Red	CIB, Cave Story digital installed
New 3DS XL Galaxy	loose. Charger included. Missing stylus, Dual IPS screen
Pokemon X
Rune Factory 4
Bravely Second: End Layer	Warning booklet missing
Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance LE	Missing AR cards
Pokemon Sun	loose
Pokemon Ultra Sun	loose
Pokemon X	loose, have 2
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire	loose
Kirby Triple Deluxe	loose
LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens	Case in rough shape. Missing manual
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond The Myth [Launch Edition]	sealed
Sonic: Lost World
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Mario Kart 7
Kirby: Triple Deluxe	Nintendo Selects
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D	Nintendo Selects
Tales of the Abyss	sealed
Fantasy Life

​

Amiibo (all SSB except noted otherwise)	All sealed in original box
Peach (Super Mario)	025W1
Yoshi (Super Mario)	524W2
Mario	434W2
Bowser	464S1
Diddy Kong	424S1
Luigi	434S1
Pikachu	474W2
Squirtle	279W5
Ivysaur	299W5
Snake	2559G1
Sonic	494W2
Peach	444W3
Link (Link's awakening)	2079G1
Link	524S1
Link (Majora's mask)	187S1

​

Guides
Tales of Vesperia	BradyGames
Dark Souls	FuturePress, Sealed
Dark Souls II CE	FuturePress, Sealed
Dragon Warrior VII	Prima
Breath of Fire IV	Prima
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch	Prima, Hard Cover
Wild Arms 4	Prima
God of War III	BradyGames
Resident Evil 6	BradyGames, Hard Cover, Sealed
Legend of Zelda Collector's Box Set	Prima, sealed

​

Manuals
https://imgur.com/a/DLa5yM4	Too many to list. Some 360/PS3 ones may be in French. Please ask. Harvest Moon (GC) is traded.

​

Steelbooks	G1 size unless noted. No games included.
Assassin's Creed 3	in shrink wrap
Assassin's Creed Collection
Batman Arkham City Armored Edition
Batman Arkham City	G2
Call of Duty Black Ops II
Dead Space 3	in shrink wrap
Devil May Cry	G2
Dishonored
Duke Nukem Forever	in shrink wrap
Epic Mickey 2
Farcry 3	in shrink wrap
FF XIII Lightning Returns	in shrink wrap
Hitman Absolution
Injustice Gods Among Us
Medal of Honor Warfighter	G2
New Super Mario Bros U
NHL 12
Prototype 2	in shrink wrap
Sleeping Dogs
Thief
World of Warcraft Mist of Pandara

​

Misc
FF X Play Arts Tidus	Still in original box, never displayed out of box
FF X Play Arts Yuna	Still in original box, never displayed out of box
FF X Play Arts Auron	Still in original box, never displayed out of box
FFVII Advent Children Play Arts Sephiroth	Still in original box, never displayed out of box
FFVII Advent Children Play Arts Vincent	Still in original box, never displayed out of box
FFVII Advent Children Play Arts Cloud with Fenrir	Still in original box, never displayed out of box
Steer 'n win jr racing wheel/pedal	compatible with PS1/N64
Diablo III Collector's Edition PC	Sealed
Diablo III Reaper of Souls Collector's Edition PC	Sealed
Homeworld Collector's Edition PC	Sealed

Want:

Mostly interested in JRPGs and horrors. Working design, Enix, Falcom, NIS, Atlus, etc. Must be CIB unless noted otherwise.
​

PS1
Adventures of Lomax
Deception III: Dark Delusion
Echo Night
King's Field (Long box)
King's Field II
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
Koudelka
Misadventures of Tron Bonne
RayCrisis: Series Termination
RayStorm
Shadow Tower
Tail Concerto
Thunder Force V
Torneko: The Last Hope
Resident evil survivor

​

PS2
Blood Will Tell
Echo Night: Beyond
Forever Kingdom
Haunting Ground
ObsCure
Shadow Heart
Silent Hill 2 (Greatest Hits)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Tsugunai: Atonement

​

PS4
Atelier Ryza LE
Atelier Sophie LE
Tales of Berseria CE

​

PS5
The Last of us Part 1 Firefly edition (sealed)

​

Vita
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Brith 1 LE

​

GBC
Dragon Warrior Monsters
Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey
Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure
Dragon Warrior I & II
Revelations: The Demon Slayer

​

GBA
Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament
Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
Lunar Legend

​

GameCube
Star Fox: Assault	Manual only
Jet Black GameCube box and cardboard inserts
Indigo wired OEM controller	low want

​

Switch
Dragon quest xi	sealed preferred

​

DS
Commando: Steel Disaster
Dragon Quest V
Dragon Quest IV	Box and manual only
Etrian Odyssey
Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
Lunar: Dragon Song	Manual only
Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
Sands of Destruction
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga Endless Frontier

​

3DS
Corpse Party: Back to School Edition
Dragon Quest VII
Dragon Quest VIII
Etrian Mystery Dungeon (Launch soundtrack bundle preferred)
Etrian Odyssey Nexus (launch edition)
Fire Emblem Fates SE
Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology (launch edition)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (with soundtrack)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker (launch edition)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse Launch Edition

​

Others
Turbografx-16 Console (CIB) and CIB games
Dragon Quest Slime controller for Switch
All Uncharted Waters games (SNES and Genesis, CIB)

Notes.

• Prefer to trade within Canada, but will consider cross border too if offers are attractive.
• Will provide pics upon request.
• I have not listed everything in haves/wants. I will gladly check your list and work something out.

hello, i have recently acquired a Necchi Sewing Machine Two-Color Top Model 802 and i’m having a lot of trouble finding manuals online. also curious about the model because it’s not really on Necchi’s website, so if anyone knows anything about the machine or manual please help!!

Toxic Rats: B, Geoff, Scott, Leshawna, Sammy
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Katie, Molly, Scarlett, Dave, DJ, Trent
Episode 03: Ice Ice Baby
"Previously on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" Chris opened on the now-typical shot of the somewhat decrepit Camp. "We learned that although our campers are here to win," the recap montage began with the two recently-awoken team assembled before the host, "they're all losers in one way or another," Scott was shown fleeing in terror from a mutant wooly beaver during the flashback of his Chris Head hunt. "Really, really big losers," Chris added over shots of Fang chomping off the corner of the Rats' stand, and DJ admitting his secret of sleeping with a teddy bear.
"It was a psychological butt-kicking that quickly turned literal," Chris continued as Trent was shown sizing up the angle of his final swing into the Grand Slam, and Geoff got kicked forward by the Kick Start. "Then comical," the host added as Leshawna was shown painfully bouncing from one butt-shaped apparatus to the next, "then hysterical!" Chris finished with a laugh as Sierra's first try at the Grand Slam was shown, ending with the girl hitting the muddy floor.
"In the end, Sierra got the biggest boot of all," Sierra was shown in the bucket of the catapult. "Bye-bye," Chris added mockingly as the obsessive uberfan was flung into the night.
"I love my job," he said as the scene cut to him on the Dock of Shame, "Stay tuned as more things blow up! More contestants throw up, and some even try to hook up. Right here, on Total! Drama! Revenge of the Island!"
XXXXX
The episode opened on Camp Wawanakwa's lodge and mess hall, the camera panning to the left to show the communal bathroom and, more importantly, a cluster of bushes. The shot zoomed in as one of them began to rustle, and a mouse with a bulging, veiny head scurried out into the open. It paused as the shadow of a bird of prey fell over it, and looked up to see a bald eagle diving towards it with its talons out.
The mutant mouse's eyes glowed green, and a beam shot out of them and hit the approaching eagle. The bird froze in mid-air, then slammed back and forth as though in the grasp of some unseen hand. It was finally tossed off-camera with a squawk, and the mutant mouse scurried onward. It climbed the steps of the main lodge and crawled through a hole in the door, and the scene cut inside.
The camera, situated high on the right wall relative to the entrance, showed the two teams eating and the lodge itself in a state of near disrepair. The floor had become a patchwork of different colors and styles; one of the front windows had been broken and halfheartedly boarded up; there was a gaping hole in the roof over the other front window; a few planks were missing from the far left wall around the fireplace; and a bit of wallpaper was peeling on the partition dividing the kitchen from the rest of the lodge.
The seven members of the Mutant Maggots sat at the forward table, to the left of the camera, while the five Toxic Rats sat closer to the kitchen; and both teams had only logs to sit on.
Katie stuck a spoonful of the grayish food they'd been served into her mouth, cringed, and spat it out. "This is so nasty! Gruel really is cruel!"
The perspective inverted to show Dave's face covered in the food. "Sorry Dave," Katie said from off screen.
Confessional: Dave
Dave started his confessional with a heavy sigh. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather eat dirt than any more of breakfast."
Confessional Ends
The static changed to Molly and Anne Maria sitting together. Molly was coughing due to how much spray Anne Maria was using.
Anne Maria noticed her plight and stopped. "Sorry, retro. On the upside, now your lungs are waterproof."
"I'll make use of that," Molly coughed again.
The shot cut to B at the right end of the Rats' table. He picked a hair out of his spoonful, and threw it away uncomfortably.
The camera panned to the left to show Leshawna and Geoff in what looked like an eating contest. Just as they were really getting into it, Geoff accidentally swallowed his spoon and started to choke.
Leshawna finished her meal first before checking on Geoff. "Let me help you out with that." She smacked the back of his neck, allowing the spoon to come out of his mouth.
Geoff sighed in relief. "Thanks. I really needed that."
"Bad news, I finished before you," Leshawna teased Geoff in good fun.
"Awesome," Geoff said. "Back home, I'm the kind when it comes to food competitions with my buds."
"If you say so," Leshawna replied.
The perspective changed, now showing Sammy and Scott eating across from Leshawna and Geoff.
"I've eaten fruits and vegetables just to keep my body fit for cheerleading, but this is too gross!" Sammy winced and shoved her gruel away.
Scott, who had witnessed her complaint and finished his gruel, grabbed her bowl and helped himself to a second helping.
Confessional: Scott
Scott began his confessional by chuckling while whittling a wood stick with his shark tooth. "Wimps. I grew up on a dirt farm." He brought out a clod. "I can always chomp on a clod if I get the munchies.
He took a bite out of his aforementioned object and chewed on it for a few seconds. The dirt farmer then smiled for the camera, only for his teeth to shatter and fall to the floor.
Confessional Ends
The footage resumed to the Maggots' table as DJ scooped up a spoonful of gruel with a little antenna poking out of it. He didn't notice, but when he put it in his mouth, he began to choke. Clutching his throat, he got to his feet, and stood away from the table, gagging.
"Hang on!" Trent called out, rushing up behind DJ and pumping his stomach repeatedly. The force was enough to make him spit out whatever he was choking on. A little beetle flew out among bits of gruel, and bounced onto the floor before landing on Geoff's hat.
DJ awkwardly breathed. "Thanks for the save," he said.
"Don't sweat it," Trent replied. "We're teammates."
The shot cut back to Scarlett, who was looking down to the bulbous-headed mouse now sitting on their own table. "What is that Apodemus sylvaticus doing over here?" she remarked. Without warning the mouse's eyes began to glow green again, and to the horror of the brainiac it levitated into the air.
The scene moved outside the lodge as crashes and screams of terror filled the air. All the campers except Molly fled out the front door and a refrigerator was flung out after them. They paused to catch their breath, and it was then that Molly was finally tossed out to them with a scream of her own.
The whine of the intercom turning on caught their attention, and the camera cut to an upward shot of the loudspeaker. "Attention, players!" Chris announced. "Please head to the looming tragedy that is Mount Looming Tragedy!" The shot switched to a tall, craggy spire of rock in the distance, it's broad and flat peak seen only in silhouette thanks to a ring of ominous clouds. "Your race begins, NOW!"
He punctuated his broadcast with his blowhorn, and Scarlett immediately turned to her teammates. "Maggots, let us make haste!" she declared, and all twelve campers raced off.
\
A flash ahead showed the two teams arriving at the base of the mountain, all of them out of breath.
"Did we win the challenge?" Katie panted, doubled over with her hands on her knees.
Dave arrived last just then, clutching his stomach and groaning. He walked over to a bush, fell to his knees, and threw up.
"Not to judge, but you should exercise more, dude," Molly told the germaphobe as he stood back up and wiped the bile from his lips.
A sudden whistle interrupted any reply that may have come, drawing the campers' attention to the side. "Okay, mutant food," Chris greeted, standing with Chef next to a muddy jeep, "on with the challenge! Part one is an uphill battle," he explained, the shot moving to and upward pan of the rocky tower before them – it was covered with barbed wire, toxic waste barrels, and what looked like pipes of some kind. "You have to climb all the way up to that cliff," Chris explained, the camera coming to a rest at the broad, flat rock that topped the mountain; a dead tree and another toxic waste barrel were the only things to be seen on top. "First team to reach the top gets an advantage in part two."
"You can climb with your hands," the host continued as the shot returned to him, "or use whatever you find in the pile." He motioned over his shoulder, and the camera cut to a large mound of junk – appliances, furniture, pipes, tires, and other abandoned pieces of scrap. "But don't worry," Chris added, growing more and more excited, "this junkyard doesn't have a dog. It has a giant mutant beetle!"
On cue, a gigantic beetle similar to the one DJ had found in his gruel popped out of the junk pile and hissed at the humans; B, Sammy, DJ, Molly, and Trent all gasped in shock.
"Hahaha, big guy's a bit of a hoarder," Chris laughed. "His estate is full of useful crud," the beetle was shown picking up a paintball gun and a sewing machine from the pile and casually tossing them away, "aaaand disgusting crud." The beetle picked out a toilet next, and threw it at the humans with a hissing roar; B, Sammy, DJ, Molly, and Trent quickly ducked, and it crashed to the ground behind them. "That is, if you can get near it," Chris told them with an impish smile.
"One last thing before we start," the host announced. "Since the Rats are looking uneven, I'll need one member of the Maggots to switch over to their team. Who's it gonna be?"
"I'll move to the Toxic Rats," Trent shrugged.
Chris turned towards the mountain and gave a thumbs-up, and Chef – now on top of the cliff – blew on an alphorn, shaking the area. "It is on!" the host declared.
"Let's move Maggots!" Scarlett said as the campers started running.
\
The Maggots' logo appeared in the corner as Dave was shown struggling to pull himself up to a ledge. "Molly was right. I need more exercise." He fell off completely, and sighed as he laid on the ground.
"Don't give up Dave," Katie called out to him while hanging from a dead tree that was jutting out of the rock. "You can do it!" The branch broke and she started to fall with a scream, until a hand pulled her up to a higher ledge.
The camera panned up to show that DJ had saved her. "Thank you," Katie said happily.
"Anytime," DJ replied. The two looked into each other's eyes and smiled.
"Rock climbing," Molly yelled as the shot cut to her climbing the mountain, "was never on my bucket list!"
"You don't have to like it," Katie said. "You just have to help us instead of wanting to bail."
"It's not my fault I wanted to avoid being killed," Molly said, referring to the challenge last episode.
"Keep it together, Geoff," Scott called out as the shot cut to him and Geoff climbing another part of the mountain, the Rats' logo in the top-left corner of the screen. "At this rate, we'll be the ones winning for our team!"
"Don't worry about me!" Geoff advised. "This is no sweat."
Confessional: Geoff
"I'm a bit of a rock climber back home," Geoff said. "It makes me feel free and adventurous. I normally wear sunglasses just to prevent the rocks from getting into my eyes, but I didn't come prepared. Wish me luck."
Confessional Ends
The shot cut next to Anne Maria, still on the ground looking at her reflection in her hand mirror. "And will the lady be participating?" Chris asked in a mocking prim tone as he walked over.
"Have you seen my nails?" Anne Maria denied. "These are why I drive with my feet."
"I see," Chris said blankly. "What about you?" he asked, turning his head towards Scarlett – who was also still on the ground, looking up at the cliff.
"I will climb," Scarlett replied. "I'm just doing some calculations right now."
The camera panned over to the right, where Leshawna was trying to climb the cliff with Trent watching her failed attempts.
"And I'm coming back down," Sammy slid to the ground with a deadpan expression. "Practice doesn't make perfect, Trent."
"I was trying to prep you up," Trent admitted.
"Sammy, wait! I see B has a plan," Leshawna told Sammy as she saw B near the junkpile.
"Okay then. I hope it involves not climbing." Sammy said off-camera.
\
The scene cut back to Geoff lingering at a ledge with a few small, loose stones on it. He misstepped as he climbed, and accidentally kicked them off – they tumbled down the mountainside, catching DJ and Katie and knocking them off. The two crashed into Dave, who was making his own slow progress up the mountain, and all three landed on the ground in a heap.
Back down at the bottom, Scarlett stopped at the three that had fallen, who had still not made any move to get up.
"Are you all still able to function later?" Scarlett asked.
"We're fine," Dave said. "Thanks for asking."
Confessional: Scarlett
"I didn't immediately start climbing up the cliff," Scarlett explained her plan. "I wanted to see how everyone would go about it. That way, I can seek out any obstacles and how to avoid them."
Confessional Ends
Back over the junk pile, B attempted to grab a barrel, only to be stopped by the beetle breathing fire.
"It can breathe fire? Seriously?" Leshawna said, flabbergasted.
"Maybe we can distract this beetle," Trent suggested.
B held up a refrigerator door to prevent himself from getting burned by the beetle's fire, giving way for Leshawna to snatch a flute that was on top of the pile.
"Toss it over! I could give it a try," Sammy offered before Leshawna threw at her the flute.
Sammy's flute playing wasn't very good, and the beetle quickly breathed out another jet of fire, then curled up into a ball and rolled towards them as the intense challenge music resumed. Sammy stopped playing as she and Trent scattered, with the balled-up beetle only following the guitarist.
"Why are you going after me?!" Trent exclaimed as he ran from the mutant, Sammy and Leshawna watching from the junk pile. "I didn't use the flute!"
Dave, DJ, and Katie got back up from the fall and saw B dragging the barrel on the ground.
"The Rats have the right idea. We can take things from the trash pile so we can climb up," Scarlett said to the three as they went to the trash pile to pick up items while the beetle was jumping on Trent and smashing him to the ground.
\
The shot cut to the top of the mountain, where Chef was waiting with several large blocks of ice. Geoff was almost there, causing Chef to scowl – though he brightened up when his walkie talkie beeped. "You know what to do," Chris told him. "Ice 'em."
"We might just win this," Geoff said confidently. The shot cut up to Chef as he held out an ice block with a vicious grin. He let it fall, and Geoff looked up just in time to see it hit him. It knocked him off the cliff face, and he fell and knocked Scott off as well. The two fell past Molly, who watched in shock as they landed with a pained thud and groan.
Molly scowled upwards, and Chef was shown throwing more and more ice blocks down towards her. With a smirk, she dodged each one in turn. "Like I'm gonna get iced like that!" she taunted up at the man.
Anne Maria was still on the ground spraying her hair. "Nice hairspray, pouf head!" Molly taunted her. "Maybe if you used spray on style, it might be easy on the eyes!"
Anne Maria got enraged enough to crush her can with one hand. "What'd you say to me? Oh, it is on!" Anne Maria declared as she started her climb.
Chef threw an ice block in her direction, but it got shattered thanks to how hard her hair was.
"Hey! Quit it!" Anne Maria punched another ice block out of her way. "I'm coming for you, Pasty!"
Molly watched her with a bit of fear, but got over it. "She'll thank me later."
\
As Geoff and Scott got back up from their falls, the camera went over to Scarlett, Katie, DJ, and Dave ready to go back up the cliff again.
"If all else fails, just use whatever you have," Katie noted to her team. "I've done a lot of DIY projects that way."
"DIY?" Dave asked incredulously.
"It means Do it yourself," Katie pronounced before showing off her fingers that were wrapped with metal sharpened to resemble Wolverine's claws. She latched on to the cliff with them and started to climb. "Let's get climbing!"
DJ used a pair of plungers as his climbing method, Dave spun around a coil of rope before throwing it up so that he can climb on it, and Scarlett used a grappling gun she made out of metal in order to climb certain parts of the cliff.
Trent was now getting punched in the face by the beetle, who was wearing boxing gloves now.
Geoff watched with concern, until the beetle from earlier hopped out of his hat. He noticed this and swooped it up. "Wait! Is this why you're being so harsh?"
This attracted the attention of the larger one, who promptly dropped Trent. He hit the ground with a groan.
The smaller beetle jumped from Geoff's hand and scurried over to its parent, who picked it up with its forelegs, looked at it lovingly, and gave it a quick tap on the back so that it burped out a small jet of flame. Satisfied, the guard beetle scurried away and disappeared behind its horde.
"That was really touching," Geoff commented in a touched tone.
Confessional: Trent
"Beetles can put up one heck of a fight," Trent said with his bruises on display.
Confessional Ends
The camera quick-panned back down to the Rats. Several bottles and bags and electronic bits had been tied to the waste barrel, two long wires were leading out from them, and a couch was seated over it.
"Baking soda? A broken chair leg? We were chased by a giant, fire-breathing beetle so you could collect all of this?!" Trent said to B.
B motioned them to come sit down. Seeing that they're out of options, they complied and took a seat.
With everyone in, B intersected two wires together, instigating a spark and setting the couch to fly up to the sky.
"We're flying now!" Leshawna cheered out loud as they passed Scarlett, DJ, Dave, and Katie, who were still climbing.
Molly got to the top and hauled herself up with a triumphant cheer... just before the couch crashed down on top of Chef, Scott nowhere to be seen.
"You did it, B! We won the challenge!" Geoff congratulated the silent inventor, leading the Rats to cheer for their victory.
It was then that Scott finally landed on the mountain with a thud, leading the five Rats to look at him in shock.
Confessional: Scott
"Okay, seriously. Beverly the explosives expert mime has to go!" Scott stabbed his tooth into the wall angrily.
Confessional Ends
Chris arrived with his jetpack. "Slow your roll, Party Boy, I say who wins."
"Good enough," Molly smirked.
"The Rats, thanks to B!" Chris announced, earning a triumphant cheer from the six winners and a groan from the losers. "See how I do that better?"
"I got up here first!" Molly shouted while Anne Maria went up to her. "Doesn't that mean we win!"
"First team to the top wins. That means the whole team. You're still missing them." Chris enforced the rules.
"How swell," Molly moaned, and got slapped on her arm by Anne Maria. "What was that for?!"
"Nobody disrespects the hair or the spray," Anne Maria reminded her.
"Harsh, but true," Chris got in front of her. "Who else is heading for a fall? Find out after the break."
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(Commercial Break)
\

In December of 1983, the mummified body of 13-year-old Theresa Feury was discovered hidden in a crawlspace within an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey. Just as barbaric as Sylvia Likens’ horrific murder and even more bizarre, a horrific tale of torture and long-term abduction was uncovered in the investigation.
In the summer and fall of 1981, 35-year-old Marie Moore lived in New Jersey with her 12-year-old daughter, Tammy Moore; a 12-year-old daughter of a friend, Harriet Bayne; and 50-year-old Mary Gardullo, who had been a longtime friend of Marie Moore’s. Through that summer, multiple neighborhood children began hanging out at Marie Moore’s home daily, and she took them on beach trips, amusement parks, and was generally beloved by the group of unrelated children, who even called her “Ma.” These included 14-year-old Ricky Flores, who was dating Tammy Moore; 13-year-old Luis Mantalvo; and the victim Theresa Feury, who was 12 years old in the summer of 1981.
In September of 1981, Marie Moore told the children that her ex-husband was actually the famous singer Billy Joel. Marie told them that he was Tammy’s father, and that Billy Joel had recently contacted Marie to express displeasure at the way the household was being run. The children were confused, of course. During this announcement, Marie received a telephone call, which she answered in front of the children. Claiming the caller was Billy Joel, Marie stated that Billy Joel would now be stepping in to “straighten out” the situation. According to Marie, Billy had decided that 14-year-old Ricky Flores would be given control of the house, as a way to test his suitability to marry Tammy Moore one day. Marie said that Billy Joel would be passing along instructions and chores to the children, and any disobedience would cause Billy Joel to “set bombs off in the house.” In addition, Marie said that Billy Joel was associated with the mafia, and if the children told their families or any other outsider what was happening, men from the mafia would hurt the families. She then instructed them that they would be required to meet at the Moore house every day after school.
Despite the initial confusion, Marie Moore’s adult roommate confirmed to the children that Billy Joel was real and was involved with Marie. It is unclear exactly what had happened, but Mary believed she had actually met Billy Joel while in California with Marie Moore in the past. Of course, that was not Billy Joel, but whoever he was scared Mary Gardullo to the point that when she learned of the initial re-contact in 1981, she was visibly shaken. The children believed everything. The fact that they thought Marie was receiving calls also helped to convince them, but Marie had learned how to manipulate the phone lines in this way while she worked at a phone company in the past.
The patterns of abuse and torture began almost immediately. Every day when the children arrived at Marie Moore’s home, she would “receive” a call from “Billy Joel.” While on the call, she would have the children repeat instructions given by Billy Joel, and when they inevitably recited something incorrectly, Marie told Ricky Flores that Billy Joel wanted him to beat the children with a wiffle ball bat. After this beating, the children completed the daily chores and another prearranged phone call would occur. Marie would direct Ricky to check the children’s chores, and when he reported they did a good job, she would say that Billy Joel disagreed on the phone and then Ricky would say that yes, the children did do something incorrectly or inadequately. This was followed by further directed beating with the bat.
Unlike Sylvia Likens, the abuse and torture was not directed at a single child. In fact, eventually everyone was physically injured and tortured. Even 50-year-old Mary Gardullo was soon a target, with Marie claiming that Billy Joel said she was nosy and needed to be punished. This occurred when Mary attempted to interfere when Harriet was being beaten. Later, Marie Moore would claim that Billy Joel wanted her punished as well, and so Ricky dutifully beat her as instructed.
During this time, the only children who lived full-time in the home were 12-year-olds Tammy Moore and Harriet Bayne. Harriet was initially more abused than the other children due to the constant presence, but all the children were punished upon their daily schedules.
Eventually, Marie Moore became concerned that Luis Mantalvo’s parents would begin to get suspicious. He was coming to the Moore home daily, but would return to obey his parents’ curfews. In October 1981, Marie Moore claimed that Billy Joel wanted Luis to go home and never return. However, Ricky was instructed to give him a final beating as a reminder to never mention the crimes to outsiders. After leaving with a bloody nose, Luis never returned and kept his silence. At that time he was 13 years old.
Ricky Flores had caring parents and they began to worry about what their son was doing. Th ey discovered that he had not been attending school at all, and the school told them that Ricky’s ‘mother’ had called to excuse his absences, claiming that Ricky had injured his back. This was Marie Moore, impersonating Ricky’s real mother. In response, Ricky’s parents grounded him strictly and began taking him back and forth to school each day. Ricky’s mother later said that she would see Marie Moore following them.
After a couple weeks of Ricky being under his parents’ care, Marie Moore approached Ricky when he was alone and claimed that Billy Joel demanded that Ricky move in with Marie to help her with an addiction to drugs. Ricky believed this and ran away, moving into Marie’s home full time. Despite multiple attempts to visit and get her son back, Ricky’s mother ultimately failed to save him. She did report the situation to the police, who investigated with CPS. Unfortunately, every time they showed up to Marie’s home, she hid in a crawlspace and eventually the authorities closed any investigation.
During this time, the overall bizarre story becomes worse. Marie Moore claimed that Billy Joel had men kidnap her and give her an injection that would allow him to possess her body. This ended the faked phone calls. The victims would later report that Marie would change her voice while she was speaking as Billy Joel, and also some behaviors. The children and Mary Gardullo all fully believed this situation. In the meantime, the beatings became more vicious. Claiming that the bat was not hurting the children enough, Marie Moore said that Ricky Flores needed to use heavy medical textbooks. It was in this time period that she also began demanding Ricky punish her as well. While Marie Moore and Ricky Flores did not initially have a sexual relationship, eventually Ricky was instructed that he was not to be with Tammy Moore any longer, and they apparently began sleeping together.
In late November 1981, a couple months after the nightmare started, Harriet Bayne escaped the home after several failed attempts. She was found on the streets barefoot and without a jacket, so police interviewed her and took her to the hospital, where proof of extreme physical abuse required a week-long hospitalization. Eventually, Harriet told social workers and authorities about the home she had escaped, including the address and names of Marie Moore and Ricky Flores. The authorities went to interview Marie Moore, who claimed that Harriet was a profoundly troubled child and claimed that she was self-harming. For some reason, the authorities believed that Marie Moore’s calm demeanor was more proof of her innocence than the physical scars on Harriet’s body proved guilt. They decided to make a suggestion that Harriet not go back to the home, and then committed her for psychiatric evaluation in a 90-day program.
During that time, she reported more details to social workers, who simply advised Harriet should not return to the Moore house, and also sent Harriet to a 90-day program for diagnosis of potential mental disorders. The social workers had interviewed Marie Moore, and they were impressed with Moore’s calm demeanor while claiming Harriet had severe behavioral and self-harm issues.
After Harriet was removed from the home, Marie Moore told Ricky Flores that the girl had been run over by Billy Joel for her disobedience. Believing this, Ricky apparently thought it proved the reach of Billy Joel’s power and influence, and thus he became even more loyal to Marie Moore.
Two main victims remained in the home after Harriet’s escape, 12-year-old Theresa Feury, and 50-year-old Mary Gardullo. At some time in late 1981, the household moved to a new residence that was owned by a friend of Marie, Ferdinando Ragusa. Marie Moore claimed that Ragusa was Tammy’s grandfather.
The torture became more severe against Theresa and Mary. Sexual humiliation and torture were introduced. A common punishment would include “thumb cuffing,” where Mary and Theresa would be bound by tying their thumb to their big toe while laying on their stomach, and then left them laying nude for hours. Beatings continued with heavy books, a bat, kicks and punches, and even cigarette burns.
On Memorial Day, 1982, Mary Gardullo escaped by telling Marie that she wanted to work some extra time to provide more money to the household. Instead, she contacted her siblings, who came and got her, and then took her to the police. Detective Tom Kerwin from the Toms River Police Department interviewed Mary for several hours. He described her as being in very poor shape, “very distraught and emotionally destroyed" and that she was in "very, very poor physical condition." He convinced her to seek medical attention. She did tell the authorities of the torture she had endured under Ricky Flores, but named Marie Moore as someone who knew what was happening, and she did not mention Billy Joel at all. She also gave the address and alerted the police that Theresa Feury was still in the home and enduring torture.
The authorities eventually notified the Paterson Police Department, who were the jurisdiction of the apartment’s address. A social worker was assigned, who interviewed both Theresa Feury and Tammy Moore while they were in school. They both denied the allegations of abuse but did admit they had seen Ricky Flores at the Moore home. When the social worker interviewed Marie Moore, Marie denied the accusations and said that Theresa was her godchild and that she would never harm her. At first, she denied any involvement at all with Ricky, but did admit that he had been in the home sometimes after the social worker told Marie the girls had already told them about Ricky’s presence.
Police also attempted to visit the residence. On June 7, 1982, the social worker went to the home with police, and Theresa tried to escape when she saw them. They caught her and tried to question her again, but she again denied all the allegations of physical or sexual abuse. Eventually they convinced her to disrobe and show her body, which displayed multiple bruises and injuries. Expressing surprise, both Theresa and Moore claimed that they didn’t know how the injuries had occurred, but they must have happened that day at school.
The authorities interviewed Harriet again, who repeated her story. They interviewed Theresa and Harriet together. Eventually, Theresa did admit that there was abuse in the home, but put all blame on Ricky Flores and claimed that Marie Moore was entirely innocent of all allegations.
On June 10th, 1982, Marie Moore was again interviewed and again denied all claims of abuse. However, she was reminded of the statements Mary Gardullo had already made, and eventually admitted that she knew of some abuse, but that she was also a victim, not a perpetrator. After learning about Luis Montalvo, the police attempted to interview him as well. Unfortunately, they did not know that Marie Moore had already approached Luis and reminded him of the way Billy Joel would retaliate if Luis said anything at all about the household.
In this final period, Theresa was the final remaining victim. At first, she maintained the daily instruction to present to the home after school, but still technically lived with her parents. On June 9, 1982, she was examined by a doctor, who remarked on the obvious signs of abuse and torture she had been suffering.
It is unclear how it happened, or what Theresa’s parents or guardians knew, but she became an official permanent resident of the Moore home on September 22, 1982. Court reports say that Theresa’s grandmother called Marie Moore and told Marie that social services were contacting them and that they wanted to speak with Theresa. Somehow, Marie convinced the girl and her guardian(s) that she needed to live with Marie.
The torture continued and worsened. By September 1982, the household consisted of Marie Moore, Ricky Flores, Tammy Moore, and Theresa. During the days, Theresa was cuffed to a hook on the kitchen wall. At nights, she would be cuffed to the bathtub. In addition to sexual abuse from Ricky Flores, Marie Moore would also take Theresa to Ferdinando Ragusa and force her to perform oral sex on the elderly man.
They began to starve Theresa and also would not allow her to use the toilet. At first they would provide a pot, but later made her wear disposable diapers, which were the only thing she was allowed to wear.
Theresa died in January of 1983, at 13 years old. The day of her death, she had slipped into unconsciousness during the abuse. Feeling that she was faking when she began to have seizures, Marie told Ricky to thumb cuff her again and leave her. The next day, they tried to get her to stand up and move to the customary cuffing spot, but Theresa would not move. After dropping her so that she hit her head, they then “pushed” on her stomach, which made a sound like “going to the bathroom,” and they believed this noise meant she was dead. They sent Tammy to school and wrapped Theresa’s body in garbage bags and duct tape, eventually shoving her into the crawlspace of the wall. Later they would tell Tammy Moore that they had sent Theresa’s body to Billy Joel in Boston. It is unclear when Theresa died, but in mid 1983, the household moved again, and the body was transported to the new apartment, where it was hidden again in a crawlspace until the December 1983 discovery by police.
Theresa’s grandmother spoke with Marie Moore periodically during this time. The last known conversation was in September 1983, when Marie Moore asked Theresa’s grandmother if she had heard from Theresa.
In July of 1983, Ricky Flores was working at a job when he saw his brother, Philip. He tried to run, but his brother chased him after confirming it was indeed Ricky. Unable to catch him, Philip went and got his mother, who said she knew Ricky would be calling. She asked Philip to place a copy of a police report she had made against Ricky in the mailbox at Marie Moore’s home. The next time she saw Ricky was July 12, 1983, in the police station after the cops arrested him for the prior charges of abuse and assault. They found him hiding under the kitchen sink of the Moore home, and they arrested him and also took Marie Moore in for questioning.
Marie now claimed to the cops that she kept Ricky in her home only because Ricky would have his “mafia boss” named Don DeMarco threaten to harm her and her daughter. The detectives did not believe this.
Eventually Marie Moore admitted that there had been violence in the household, but claimed Ricky Flores was a sweet, innocent boy, and that Mary Gardullo had instigated the violence by interfering too much. She was questioned about Theresa, who Marie claimed no knowledge about, other than repeating how much she cared for the girl and hoped she was safe. For some reason, the detectives charged her with having a sexual relationship with a minor but did not pursue more serious charges and she was free.
Meanwhile, Ricky Flores went back to live with his family and ceased contact with Marie Moore. At first, she attempted to get him to come back, and then began to plan ways to ensure he would not talk about what had really happened. She somehow met others she was able to convince to move in with her, a couple named Jorge and Lydia, both 20 years old, and their two young children, ages two and one. Again, Marie began telling Jorge and Lydia about Billy Joel and started doing the telephone stunts again. This time she did not resort to abuse, but she did eventually tell them that she had received the injection that allowed Billy Joel to manifest in her body. Jorge did not believe this, but Lydia did, and Lydia’s sister eventually joined the group and also believed.
The new group began to help her make plans on keeping Ricky Flores quiet, but Jorge’s disbelief did not allow the situation to explode as before. Still, they did remain and later told police about overhearing the coaching that Marie would give to Tammy. She wanted Tammy to claim that she had witnessed Ricky Flores beat Theresa to death and also that he raped Tammy. Tammy did give a statement to the police with these claims, and the police searched the property owned by Ferdinando Ragusa. Moore and Tammy kept trying to point to a depression in the backyard, claiming it could be where Theresa’s body was buried. They did find evidence of lime and a strong foul smell, but did not find any body. They made plans to come again and search the yard on December 22, 1983.
However, when no one showed up, Ferdinando Ragusa called the police department and inquired about when they would be coming. Detectives told him that they didn’t think they would follow through and would probably be closing the investigation, which was a lie. In a few minutes, Marie Moore called the detectives to ask about whether they were closing the investigation into Ricky’s supposed murder of Theresa, and they said that they would, hoping to see if anything would happen. Marie Moore then showed up at the police department with a piece of bloodied insulation, and the detectives then went to search the property again.
During the search, Moore and Ragusa finally exposed the crawlspace where Theresa’s body was discovered.
Autopsy showed that Theresa’s fatal wound was the blow to her head, but that death was not instant. Instead, the blood and other physical evidence indicated she would have been comatose but alive for up to 8 hours after she had been wrapped and taped, slowly suffocating as her brain swelled. Though there was not enough soft tissue to prove beyond a doubt that the tape and plastic caused fatal suffocation, the medical testimony made it clear that it was very possible, especially with the signs of life beyond the initial blow to her head.
Many interviews were conducted with different attempts by Marie Moore to evade blame. She claimed Billy Joel was never real, but then claimed that he was a real personality that Ricky Flores would ‘bring out’ of her. According to her, “Billy” had no part in Theresa’s death, and had not appeared after Ricky Flores was out of her life. She repeatedly insisted that Ricky Flores murdered Theresa alone and without influence.
The detectives charged Marie Moore with the murder of Theresa Flores on December 28, 1983. A decision was made to charge Ricky Flores as a juvenile, with maximum prison sentence of only three years. In return for this, Ricky Flores agreed to testify fully against Marie Moore. In addition, the other surviving victims would testify about the events that happened under the control and influence of Marie Moore. This included Harriet Bayne, Luis Mantalvo, Tammy Moore, and Mary Gardullo.
Mary Moore was charged with murder and other violent offenses against all the victims. On November 19, 1984, the jury returned a sentence of death after deliberation.
In 1988, her death sentence was challenged and overturned and it seems like they were instructed to retry her on the charge of homicide. They left intact the charges against her for kidnapping, attempted murder, terroristic threatening, and aggravated assault, for which she had been sentenced to 87-1/2 years without possibility of parole.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar\_case?case=1844707577344773566&q=state+v.+marie+moore+new+jersey&hl=en&as\_sdt=6,50
https://apnews.com/article/db1329f67ec58a98a31557a8d08fd775

If you're reading this, perhaps you're like me. You have most things you want in GTA Online. You've "done it all". And now you're bored.
But... have you *really* done it all? Turns out, most of us haven't. There's so much to do in this game, and it's easy to get stuck in old habits that prevent us from discovering everything there is to do in Los Santos!
So I began writing down all my ideas for having fun in the game, and basically use these suggestions as guidelines to always find something new to do. It has completely reinvigorated my joy for the game, and I hope it can help you do the same!
If you're having trouble with motivation or inspiration, then I suggest picking something at random from the list and just doing it! You might discover that you love it, just like I did!
And if you have anything more to add, please share your comments so that we can all help build this list together. :)
​
Let's go!
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• Break Your Habits: Most people have a routine that they repeat over and over again until they get burned out and bored with the game! Your number one goal for having fun must be to break your old habits!
• Grind Less: If you've played for a long time, there's absolutely zero reason to grind big piles of useless money. People often develop bad habits where they finally grind so much that they forget to have fun. The "wonder" of the world completely vanishes when everything becomes about optimal times and optimal routes and optimal mission rotations. Relax! Start exploring everything that the game has to offer instead! Dare to do the "less optimal" routes, and have the courage to stop stressing about the "time efficiency" when you do the game's content. Sure, perhaps you can do a mission in 2 minutes with an Oppressor Mk2, but why not relax, put on a podcast, and do a relaxing 5 minute drive instead? Relax and have fun!
• Switch Off the Business Mindset: Why grind at all? Why do businesses at all? What do you really need the money for, whatsoever? If it feels like grinding, do something else that's more fun for you! Stop thinking about the money and start thinking about the real-world fun you're having! Start actually enjoying all the things you've previously grinded for! Perhaps you might enjoy treating GTA as a racing simulator where you mostly do challenges/race maps instead? There's so much more to do that isn't purely related to earning money!
• Accept All Invites: When you see invites to races, challenges, missions, etc, accept them! You will broaden your horizons about what you can do in the game, and you will often make the newbies very happy! Of course, if it turns out they're a hopelessly stupid newbie who keeps dying and never improves, then sure, I'd suggest leaving the heist to save your time and sanity. But most of the time, the other players will be smart enough to learn quickly. You can easily make great, new friends this way!
• Protect the Newbies: If you see someone doing a sales mission in a public lobby, why not fly over there in a powerful airborne vehicle (or heck, a missile-equipped Toreador car), and then follow them as their bodyguard against any griefers that may appear!
• Join People's CEO/MC: You can list yourself as "looking for work" via the interaction menu, which will alert other people that there's someone looking for work in the session. You can then join them and help people out with their missions, which is often a fun and relaxing activity for a while!
• Get a Crew: Look around for a crew of like-minded people. They exist. There are crews that specialize in heisting with competent players. There are crews that focus on racing. There are crews for Arena War. There are crews that only do LS Car Meet challenges/races. There's even crews specialized in doing sales missions together, by helping each other with business sales, if that's your thing! Finding a group of people with a compatible mindset and interests really pays off in the end!
• Switch Sessions: You can jump between multiple public sessions until you find one that matches your mood. Perhaps a nice, quiet sessions without griefers, perfect for doing sales missions? Or maybe one where there's a group of people that are actively doing something fun, which you can join in on? Don't just settle for your session. Explore what's out there!
• Do the Stupid Things: Grab your friends or some randoms, and challenge each other to do the most stupid and random things you can think of. The game is a sandbox. So start acting like it! For example, why not challenge each other with things like "everyone starts at the beach without any vehicles, your goal is to get to the Senora Desert convenience store, and you're only allowed to use stolen vehicles, the first person to reach the desert wins", or how about "everyone jumps from the Maze Bank Tower and your goal is to ride your parachute all the way to the ferris wheel". Is that even possible? Who knows! Let's find out!
• Become a Map Creator: If you've had fun making random challenges in freeroam, why not make them into more formal challenges, by creating actual maps? The map creator is very advanced. You can modify the world, add checkpoints anywhere you want, you could make a bicycle race, add pedestrians, enable weapon wheel usage, add parachute jumps, stunt jumps, survival modes, etc. Go wild!
• River Racing: The game has two epic rivers that start at the "Alamo Sea" (desert lake) and head west out to the ocean. Why not do a race with some friends? Get the Blazer Aqua amphibious quad bike and start at the desert, then race through one of the rivers, which is full of fun jumps. Next, decide on a destination (such as the Del Perro Pier) and do the rest of the drive on roads to see who gets there first.
• Stop Flying: Whenever a game lets you fly, you end up skipping huge amounts of content and world design and just flying directly above it all. That's nice if you want to get somewhere efficiently, but it really breaks the game's immersion. Try driving everywhere instead!
• Learn to Fly: Many players are awful at flying (especially the helicopters). Why not practice your flying skills? Perhaps try landing your helicopter at very tight spots, on rooftops, and other fun locations!
• Use Motorcycles: They're more thrilling than cars, because crashing actually has consequences. They're also very fast and agile, which feels awesome while driving through the city!
• Oppressor MK1: Fly around the map, trying to create your own challenges such as flying over the water or climbing Mount Chiliad.
• Climb the Mountain: Find various fun vehicles and attempt to climb Mount Chiliad in them. There's lots of fun to be had with motorcycles at the mountain!
• BMX Tricks: There are so many skate parks and BMX bicycle stunt locations in the city. Why not look at some BMX stunt videos for inspiration?
• Throw Away the GPS: Stop staring at the minimap while driving! This is super fun. Let's say that you need to get to Simeon's shop. Instead of opening up the world map and setting a map marker and following the GPS line like a lemming, try to train yourself to navigate the city! Drive the streets, look at the surroundings and actually navigate! It's so much fun and you'll feel way more relaxed. The city will also feel way more immersive. You can even modify the minimap via "Settings: Display: Radar = Blips", which hides the map so that you can't see the shape of the streets by glancing at the minimap anymore. You can even disable it completely, but unfortunately it also hides the healthbar if you do that.
• Use First Person: You can change the game's camera mode to first person, which is a really unique and immersive way to play the game. Steal some cars and go cruising! It will feel like an entirely different game when you get used to it!
• Take Selfies: Find beautiful locations and attempt to take great screenshots, with perfect framing and composition! You can use the game's built-in snapmatic camera, or you can use your regular screenshot key instead! Collecting photos of your adventures is a nice way to remember where you've been!
• Businesses: There are so many businesses in the game, and it's easy to forget about them after a while. Look at your businesses and begin doing their sourcing and sales missons again! Most of us quit them because they're very grindy, but after a long time away from them, they'll feel fresh again. And they'll feel much more relaxing if you vary between your different businesses and you only do one or two missions at a time, to never get bored.
• Nightclub: Do the promotion/popularity missions, which involve going around town and promoting the nightclub, or helping to remove unwanted or drunk guests from the club. All of that improves your popularity, which improves the passive income you're earning from the club!
• Get the DJs: The nightclub has multiple DJs. Why not unlock them all? Their missions are very fun, and you'll earn new music for your club.
• Bunker: Why not do some manual supply missions, just to relax and have fun? Sure, the optimal way to make money with the bunker is to buy the supplies and do "better" things with your time instead of sourcing supplies, but why does everything have to be about ultimate efficiency all the time? If you're a long-time player, you already have lots of money and you need new things to do!
• Contact Missions: So many people don't even know that you can get missions by calling NPCs on the phone. It's named "contact missions" and they can be very fun. I recommend calling Dax and doing "Request Work" from him, because his missions are very varied and after you've done enough you get various important rewards, such as upgrades for your Acid Lab business.
• CEO/VIP Work: When you're a CEO, you can start SecuroServ missions via the interaction menu. There's lots of fun ones! For example, why not get your favorite car, relax and do the Sightseer mission, seeing where the map markers will take you while you enjoy the relaxing drive? The mission gives you 15 minutes, which is plenty of time to take the scenic route.
• Terrorbyte Missions: Another forgotten relic! The terrorbyte has lots of fun missions which are very good for variation. They used to be the best "active" way to earn money in GTA. Most players who grinded those missions have only done the "optimal rotation", but how about actually doing all of the available missions for fun?
• Rockstar Jobs: There are so many high-quality maps, races and challenge modes in the game. Explore the official list of RockstaCurated jobs in the game's pause menu. There's a ton of them!
• Community Jobs: There's a ton of cool community maps in the game. Remember to favorite the ones you liked so that you can easily start the same again!
• Auto Shop: Do the customer car customization and delivery jobs, and do the heists! They can be done solo.
• MC Club: Do the customer motorcycle customization and delivery jobs.
• Vehicle Warehouse: Do the Import/Export car theft and sales missions. Be sure to use the trick that ensures you only get high-end cars (permanently fill the warehouse with every worthless sourced car in the game, then you will only get high-end cars after that).
• Acid Lab: The best passive income business in the game. Spend some time doing Dax's contact missions to fully upgrade your lab's efficiency and it will become very profitable. Then mix up your gameplay between both sourcing Acid supplies or buying them. And do the sales missions.
• Franklin's Agency: Do the Dr. Dre story missions, then do 201x Security Contract missions until you've unlocked the highest amount of passive daily income (it goes up by $100 every time you do a mission, capped at $20,000 after having done 201 contracts).
• Payphone Hits: They're unlocked after doing at least 3 Security Contract missions. After that, you're able to call Franklin every 20 minutes to request a "payphone hit", which are short 3-5 minute missions with optional challenges that grant you a whopping $85,000 per job. They're very profitable.
• Weekly Time Trials: Do the camotorcycle time trial and the RC car time trial every week, they're a good way to learn how to drive and they give a nice bit of money! Remember that you can hold a key to respawn at the start of the race before the time has ended, if you're sure that you won't make it in time.
• Daily Objectives: In your interaction menu, look at the Objectives and complete them. They're a good way to be inspired to do things you might not do otherwise.
• Daily Collectible Hunts: G's Cache (hunt for the hidden street cache), Kosatka submarine treasure hunt, Street dealer (find it and sell to it every day), Cayo Perico's Buried Stashes, etc.
• Get a Fresh Look: Create a new character outfit (clothes, hairstyle, tattoos, mask).
• Use Different Weapons: Challenge yourself to use different weapons than the same old, boring weapon you always use. For example, how about only using the Heavy Revolver? Make those shots count!
• Modify Your Weapons: Change their styles and attachments.
• Tune Your Precious Car: You might have a "perfectly tuned" car that you've been driving for years and that you're always using. Why not modify it a bit? Put a different livery on it, and some different colors at least? What felt "fresh" two years ago would just be contributing to a feeling of "staleness" today. Freshen things up!
• Ride of the Day: Most long-time players have around a hundred vehicles, but most of them collect dust. Why not set fun "challenge" rules for yourself, such as randomly selecting a vehicle and using only that vehicle on that real-life day?
• Outfit of the Day: Why not make it your goal to create a new character "outfit of the day" (or week) whenever you log in? It's a great way to get a fresh feeling every time you play!
• Remember the Special Outfits: You can visit the front desk of any clothes store to browse various outfits for inspiration. But did you know that you can also visit the "changing room" or wardrobe in the stores or at your apartment, to browse various outfits that you've unlocked via special mission rewards? For example, you can be a Yacht Captain or a GoPostal mailman if you've done the associated missions! Most of them are in the "Outfits: Special" category.
• Character Replica Outfits: Think of a recognizable character, and attempt to replicate the look in GTA as closely as possible. For example, Mr. Bean or Super Mario!
• Minigames: How about some Golf, Tennis, Darts or Arm Wrestling?
• Gang Attacks: Find a gang and eliminate them!
• Stash Houses: Find the stash houses and raid them for resources for your businesses.
• Parachute: Go somewhere high up and do a parachute dive! Better yet, look for the Junk Energy Skydives challenges on the map, or do Dom's parachute challenge (which is a special skydive at a random location).
• San Andreas Flight School: Do the flight school challenges! They're at the Los Santos Airport, at the airplane icon!
• Gun Range Challenges: Complete the Bunker's and Ammo-Nation Gun Range shooting challenges!
• Gun Range with Friends: Challenge a friend to the gun range mini-games, where you compete to see who is the most accurate!
• MC Club Missions: Form a MC club with at least one friend, then ride in formation and start MC missions via the interaction menu.
• MC Businesses: Yes, they're the most hated businesses in the game, but why not do them a little bit? You could do a little bit of supplying and a few small sales missions, to ensure that you have small sales. Or, team up with friends and take turns helping each other do larger sales.
• Racing: Do Open Wheel, Stunt Races, Transform Races, and Regular Races. There are so many different kinds of races in the game! The transform races are the newest feature, and are very cool, since you might drive a supercar down the street to the airport, then transform into a plane and fly through the sky, and other epic things, all in the same race map!
• LS Car Meet: Do the challenges, races and rank up your LS Car Meet rank. Try to win the Prize Ride!
• Lobby Car Meets: You can try arranging car meets with other people in the lobby, to check out each other's cars! Just beware of griefers. You may want to do it in the LS Car Meet building to avoid the griefer explosions, or just switch to a lobby with cooler people.
• Arcade: Play the arcade games and try to beat them! Some of them have hidden rewards for completing the game or completing certain challenges.
• Achievements: Look at the pause menu's Stats - Awards section, and pick some award that you'll try to complete! There are so many fun challenges in there, such as attempting to parachute for more than 3 minutes, or robbing every store on the map (you can see the checkmarks on the map to know if you've robbed those stores).
• Stunt Jumps: There are 50 stunt jump locations on the map, which unlock a few rewards and are also really fun to complete!
• Unlock Vehicle Colors: You may have noticed that certain colors are locked behind challenges, such as winning a certain amount of races. Why not finally unlock those colors you've always wanted but were always "too lazy" to unlock? You'll get to enjoy some flashy, new vehicle colors!
• Arena War: Very fun, but unfortunately hard to get a group going for it. But if you can get a group, Arena War is super fun.
• Freemode Battles: Join a large lobby and just do whatever you want while you're waiting for freemode battles, which start every 20 minutes and will alternate between Business Battles and Freemode Challenges. Then attempt to win those battles! Events will only trigger when there are at least 4 players outdoors, and they cannot be in the same CEO/MC.
• Ride with Strangers: Pick your nicest car and then drive around and invite strangers to either ride with you or do impromptu street race 1v1 challenges.
• Freemode Map Markers: Look at the map. There are icons and glowing markers everywhere on the map/streets. Visit whichever icon is nearest your current location and see what's there! Remember that you can go "On Call" (queue) for public races/missions while you're waiting for them to fill up, which lets you stay in Freemode while you're waiting.
• Weekly Bonuses: Look at the Rockstar Newswire to see what the weekly bonus money is, and focus on doing that business/event for a while, to earn some money!
• Max Your Stats: Get all your stats to maximum! Most people haven't finished Strength, which can be gradually maxed for fun by simply punching every civilian you see.
• Invade the Military: Invade the military base at Fort Zancudo with some friends, and make it your mission to steal a Lazer jet plane.
• Heists: Do some heist preps or full heists for fun! Many of them can be casually setup while solo, which is very relaxing! Most of the newer heists can even be completed while solo!
• Change Your Heist Routes: You don't have to always do the same approach over and over again. Most heists have a lot of different approaches. For example, have you ever successfully completed the "Silent and Sneaky" approach at the Casino? Start exploring the different possibilities out there!
• Yellow Mission Markers: The yellow letters/markers on the map show the location of significant storyline missions (such as ULP, Agency, Acid Lab, etc). Visit those locations and start completing the stories that GTA Online has to offer!
• Do the Jobs: Go to "Online - Jobs" in the pause menu, and explore the available options!
• Answer the Calls: There are so many fun missions for English Dave, the various DJs at the Music Locker, the Casino staff, etc. In most cases, you'll also get some kind of reward if you finish them all! You might even get them to stop calling you when you've finished everything, which is a nice reward in itself!
• Check Your Texts/Emails: There's a lot of "mini missions" that arrive via emails/text messages. For example, Simeon asks you to steal certain cars every day. There's also an early game treasure hunt which starts through an email.
• Use Quick Join: There's an app on your phone named "Quick Join". It queues you for a rapid, random job. It's a great way to explore new content, meet new people and to help them with the queues for their own missions.
• Browse the Internet: There are a ton of funny parody websites in GTA Online's internet browser. Explore what's out there!
• Watch TV/Movies: Have you seen all the TV shows and cinema movies yet? If not, relax and have some fun! :)
• Customize Your Phone: You can change the theme, background, ringtone and other settings for your in-game phone. Why not change things a bit?
• Don't Be Annoyed: The phone calls and missions may seem annoying, but try actually relaxing and doing them. Listen to the phone calls. Call the NPCs. Do their missions! They are pretty nice and chill activities which gives you something to do in the game and some challenges.
• Use a Gamepad: If you're a PC player, you'll know that most of the game is too easy, since the aiming and enemy difficulty was balanced for console (gamepad) players. Try using a gamepad on PC! Not only will your driving and flying be massively improved, you'll also have a much more fun time when fighting enemies, since you can't just "360 No Scope" everything with your superior pointing device anymore. You'll even get immersive rumble that lets you feel the engine of your cars! How cool is that?! The game's options lets you finetune the sensitivity and aiming mode, and true professionals will use "Free Aim" which completely disables the auto-aiming.
• Meet Different People: If you're mostly a heist person, look for someone who loves cars and start hanging out with them to absorb some of their passion for another aspect of the game. You might learn to love car tuning too!
• Trade Prices: Many vehicles in the game have trade prices which give you a massive discount on the vehicle if you complete the challenge first. So set your eyes on a nice vehicle and do its challenges for fun! The discount you're earning will be like earning a huge sum of money that you put towards that specific vehicle. For example, a 2 million dollar discount on a vehicle you wanted is the same as if you had just earned 2 million dollars that you decided to spend on that vehicle! So don't sleep on the trade price discounts! They're a fun challenge with a very high monetary value!
• Bunker Research: If you have a bunker, try doing the research! You can unlock a ton of cool and super useful vehicle and weapon modifications! The explosive and incendiary ammo are must-haves.
• Mobile Operations Missions: The Mobile Operations Center is a forgotten business. It exists in your bunker, but you can request it via your Interaction Menu. Enter the truck's trailer, and then start missions from the computer in the command room!
• Avenger: Take your Avenger out for a drive! It's an extremely powerful, heavily armored aircraft and can be customized with various fun additions.
• Relaxing Yacht: Why not purchase or upgrade your yacht, and chill on it for a while with some friends? It even has lots of fun water vehicles parked in the water at the yacht, and helicopter pads for easy travel.
• Yacht Missions: You can start the fun "A Superyacht Life" mission series from the captain on your yacht. You'll even get a fun Yacht Captain outfit if you complete them all as host.
• Special Vehicle Work: The Vehicle Warehouse provides various epic missions whose "main" purpose is to unlock trade prices on various weaponized vehicles, but the missions themselves are fun too. Most players only do the specific missions for the vehicles they wanted to buy. Why not complete them all at least once, or play them again for fun?
• Collectibles: The map is full of collectible items, such as USB music sticks, playing cards, action figures, signal jammers (to unlock the best hacker for the Casino heist), etc. Why not relax and do them all for fun? They all unlock something fun or useful!
• Dream Vehicle: Relax, do some research about vehicles are available in the game, and set your eyes on a new "dream vehicle". Then work towards earning it and pimping it just the way you want it! Having a goal is fun!
• Test Drives: Check out the weekly test drives at the "Luxury Autos" shop, at Simeon's "Premium Deluxe Motorsport", and at the "LS Car Meet". You might find your new dream vehicle!
• Collect Vehicle Sets: You might have fun building specific collections, such as all Benny's vehicles in the game, etc. Setting goals for yourself about specific vehicle collections gives you something to strive for, and means that there's a lot of new things you'll need to buy and tune, which will keep you busy for a while!
• Sell Vehicles: Let's be honest, there are a lot of stinkers in your collection. Why not sell them? Just beware of the game's daily sell limit. The limit will be hit somewhere around 30-40 cars sold in 24 real-life hours. I'd suggest only selling 1-5 cars per real life day, which ensures that you'll never face the anger of Rockstar, and you'll have more time to make deliberate choices about which vehicles to get rid of. You'll also be getting roughly 50% of your previously spent money back for each sold vehicle! I'd recommend forcing yourself to drive a vehicle for a while before selling it, and looking at its customizations to see if you'd like it if you changed its style a bit, so that you're absolutely sure that you don't want it.
• Organize Your Vehicles: A lot of people have a complete mess in their garages. Why not begin sorting your cars, such as placing all your best cars at the premium display spots in your office garage? Perhaps organizing the floors by vehicle type? You can have lots of fun and you'll get a much better overview of your available vehicles.
• Relocate Yourself: If you've been staring at the same, old, boring spot for years, it could be fun to move! Most players choose the ugly, industrial, "optimal" locations. Why not relax and move to the beautiful beach instead? The Lombank office, the Insert Coin arcade, the Vespucci Beach MC clubhouse, the Del Perro Nightclub, the Strawberry auto shop, and the Vespucci Canals agency are all very beautiful locations with amazing interior and exterior design and great views! They're also very well placed for all of their business purposes!
• Browse in Person: When you're looking at real estate on the internet, things look very boring and impersonal. Why not take a drive around the city and look at the "real estate for sale" map markers in person? Perhaps you'll find a great new location for your home! However, if it's a multi-apartment house, I recommend checking YouTube for the various room views, to find the room with the best view before you buy it.
• Upgrade Your Properties/Businesses: If you haven't yet upgraded all of the equipment for a business, it's a great idea to upgrade it to improve its efficiency and safety. Or how about changing the interior design for fun, to replace the "same old daily view" with a fresh new look?
• Buy Every Arcade Machine: There are so many fun minigame machines for your arcade. Why not buy them all and pimp that place out? It's a nice place to relax, and even get some rewards for completing the games.
• Get All Passive Businesses: Why not work towards getting and fully upgrading all of the passive incomes in the game? Such as the Nightclub (which automatically generates money in the safe based on popularity, and generates MC business products to sell from its basement), the Acid Lab (which can be restocked with a simple phone call to Mutt, and has easy sales missions), the Arcade (which generates $5000 per in-game day when you've filled all of its interior slots with arcade machines, which can all be the same machine if you want), the Agency (which generates up to $20000 per in-game day based on how many Security Contracts you've completed), Street Dealers (finding the daily street dealer is much faster than regular sales missions, and they pay more than regular missions), Bunker (you can resupply it via one click with the Master Control Terminal in your Arcade, and then simply sell the product when it's still less than 25% full, thus guaranteeing a single sales vehicle every time). An added bonus of having passive businesses is the fact that they let you do other things in the game, such as doing racing and other fun challenges, while your businesses passively produce for you!
• Start Fresh: Did you know that your online account has two character slots? You can actually start fresh by simply withdrawing all of your banked money to your primary character, so that there's $0 in the bank. Then create a new character, which will begin at $0. Then relax and enjoy the ride of building a new empire. I suggest doing things differently this time. For example, if your primary character owns every business, why not just focus on a specific business this time, such as the CEO businesses (cargo crates), or just the vehicle warehouse, etc? Take this opportunity to simplify and avoid grinding, while still building a new playstyle to keep things fresh! Why not skip the Kosatka, so that you don't have the "easy Cayo Perico money" either? This slower, more deliberate, old-school way of making money will ensure that you have lots of fun, and you can set your own goals for what vehicles you want to save up money for on your new character! If you get tired of the grind, just switch back to your primary character again and enjoy the wealth. You can even delete your secondary character again to start fresh as many times as you want to.
• Spend Your Money: Having $100 million unused in the bank is just a completely pointless number, and is basically worth the same as having $0 in the bank if you aren't even using it. Unless your goal is to collect a specific amount of money for fun, I'd instead suggest that you actually start spending absolutely all of your money! Because if you can succeed in being perpetually slightly low on cash, you'll have much more reason to care about doing your businesses when you do want to buy something, which in turn drives your motivation to play again! Having a huge stash of money is bad for your motivation to play! Having a huge stash of money is like having an endless "Rich Daddy's Credit Card" in your wallet. Get rid of that credit card, buy a bunch of fun stuff, and enjoy the game more as a result!
• Play the Story: The vast majority of GTA Online players have barely touched the offline story. Why not relax with the story from time to time, gradually making your way through the epic offline story that started it all?
• Take a Break: If you're truly not finding any fun anymore, then take a break, perhaps a few weeks or a month is all you need to enjoy the game again! They also release content updates roughly twice per year, so you'll always have something new to return to in the future! :)

If you're reading this, perhaps you're like me. You have most things you want in GTA Online. You've "done it all". And now you're bored.
But... have you *really* done it all? Turns out, most of us haven't. There's so much to do in this game, and it's easy to get stuck in old habits that prevent us from discovering everything there is to do in Los Santos!
So I began writing down all my ideas for having fun in the game, and basically use these suggestions as guidelines to always find something new to do. It has completely reinvigorated my joy for the game, and I hope it can help you do the same!
If you're having trouble with motivation or inspiration, then I suggest picking something at random from the list and just doing it! You might discover that you love it, just like I did!
And if you have anything more to add, please share your comments so that we can all help build this list together. :)
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Let's go!
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• Break Your Habits: Most people have a routine that they repeat over and over again until they get burned out and bored with the game! Your number one goal for having fun must be to break your old habits!
• Grind Less: If you've played for a long time, there's absolutely zero reason to grind big piles of useless money. People often develop bad habits where they finally grind so much that they forget to have fun. The "wonder" of the world completely vanishes when everything becomes about optimal times and optimal routes and optimal mission rotations. Relax! Start exploring everything that the game has to offer instead! Dare to do the "less optimal" routes, and have the courage to stop stressing about the "time efficiency" when you do the game's content. Sure, perhaps you can do a mission in 2 minutes with an Oppressor Mk2, but why not relax, put on a podcast, and do a relaxing 5 minute drive instead? Relax and have fun!
• Switch Off the Business Mindset: Why grind at all? Why do businesses at all? What do you really need the money for, whatsoever? If it feels like grinding, do something else that's more fun for you! Stop thinking about the money and start thinking about the real-world fun you're having! Start actually enjoying all the things you've previously grinded for! Perhaps you might enjoy treating GTA as a racing simulator where you mostly do challenges/race maps instead? There's so much more to do that isn't purely related to earning money!
• Accept All Invites: When you see invites to races, challenges, missions, etc, accept them! You will broaden your horizons about what you can do in the game, and you will often make the newbies very happy! Of course, if it turns out they're a hopelessly stupid newbie who keeps dying and never improves, then sure, I'd suggest leaving the heist to save your time and sanity. But most of the time, the other players will be smart enough to learn quickly. You can easily make great, new friends this way!
• Protect the Newbies: If you see someone doing a sales mission in a public lobby, why not fly over there in a powerful airborne vehicle (or heck, a missile-equipped Toreador car), and then follow them as their bodyguard against any griefers that may appear!
• Join People's CEO/MC: You can list yourself as "looking for work" via the interaction menu, which will alert other people that there's someone looking for work in the session. You can then join them and help people out with their missions, which is often a fun and relaxing activity for a while!
• Get a Crew: Look around for a crew of like-minded people. They exist. There are crews that specialize in heisting with competent players. There are crews that focus on racing. There are crews for Arena War. There are crews that only do LS Car Meet challenges/races. There's even crews specialized in doing sales missions together, by helping each other with business sales, if that's your thing! Finding a group of people with a compatible mindset and interests really pays off in the end!
• Switch Sessions: You can jump between multiple public sessions until you find one that matches your mood. Perhaps a nice, quiet sessions without griefers, perfect for doing sales missions? Or maybe one where there's a group of people that are actively doing something fun, which you can join in on? Don't just settle for your session. Explore what's out there!
• Do the Stupid Things: Grab your friends or some randoms, and challenge each other to do the most stupid and random things you can think of. The game is a sandbox. So start acting like it! For example, why not challenge each other with things like "everyone starts at the beach without any vehicles, your goal is to get to the Senora Desert convenience store, and you're only allowed to use stolen vehicles, the first person to reach the desert wins", or how about "everyone jumps from the Maze Bank Tower and your goal is to ride your parachute all the way to the ferris wheel". Is that even possible? Who knows! Let's find out!
• Become a Map Creator: If you've had fun making random challenges in freeroam, why not make them into more formal challenges, by creating actual maps? The map creator is very advanced. You can modify the world, add checkpoints anywhere you want, you could make a bicycle race, add pedestrians, enable weapon wheel usage, add parachute jumps, stunt jumps, survival modes, etc. Go wild!
• River Racing: The game has two epic rivers that start at the "Alamo Sea" (desert lake) and head west out to the ocean. Why not do a race with some friends? Get the Blazer Aqua amphibious quad bike and start at the desert, then race through one of the rivers, which is full of fun jumps. Next, decide on a destination (such as the Del Perro Pier) and do the rest of the drive on roads to see who gets there first.
• Stop Flying: Whenever a game lets you fly, you end up skipping huge amounts of content and world design and just flying directly above it all. That's nice if you want to get somewhere efficiently, but it really breaks the game's immersion. Try driving everywhere instead!
• Learn to Fly: Many players are awful at flying (especially the helicopters). Why not practice your flying skills? Perhaps try landing your helicopter at very tight spots, on rooftops, and other fun locations!
• Use Motorcycles: They're more thrilling than cars, because crashing actually has consequences. They're also very fast and agile, which feels awesome while driving through the city!
• Oppressor MK1: Fly around the map, trying to create your own challenges such as flying over the water or climbing Mount Chiliad.
• Climb the Mountain: Find various fun vehicles and attempt to climb Mount Chiliad in them. There's lots of fun to be had with motorcycles at the mountain!
• BMX Tricks: There are so many skate parks and BMX bicycle stunt locations in the city. Why not look at some BMX stunt videos for inspiration?
• Throw Away the GPS: Stop staring at the minimap while driving! This is super fun. Let's say that you need to get to Simeon's shop. Instead of opening up the world map and setting a map marker and following the GPS line like a lemming, try to train yourself to navigate the city! Drive the streets, look at the surroundings and actually navigate! It's so much fun and you'll feel way more relaxed. The city will also feel way more immersive. You can even modify the minimap via "Settings: Display: Radar = Blips", which hides the map so that you can't see the shape of the streets by glancing at the minimap anymore. You can even disable it completely, but unfortunately it also hides the healthbar if you do that.
• Use First Person: You can change the game's camera mode to first person, which is a really unique and immersive way to play the game. Steal some cars and go cruising! It will feel like an entirely different game when you get used to it!
• Take Selfies: Find beautiful locations and attempt to take great screenshots, with perfect framing and composition! You can use the game's built-in snapmatic camera, or you can use your regular screenshot key instead! Collecting photos of your adventures is a nice way to remember where you've been!
• Businesses: There are so many businesses in the game, and it's easy to forget about them after a while. Look at your businesses and begin doing their sourcing and sales missons again! Most of us quit them because they're very grindy, but after a long time away from them, they'll feel fresh again. And they'll feel much more relaxing if you vary between your different businesses and you only do one or two missions at a time, to never get bored.
• Nightclub: Do the promotion/popularity missions, which involve going around town and promoting the nightclub, or helping to remove unwanted or drunk guests from the club. All of that improves your popularity, which improves the passive income you're earning from the club!
• Get the DJs: The nightclub has multiple DJs. Why not unlock them all? Their missions are very fun, and you'll earn new music for your club.
• Bunker: Why not do some manual supply missions, just to relax and have fun? Sure, the optimal way to make money with the bunker is to buy the supplies and do "better" things with your time instead of sourcing supplies, but why does everything have to be about ultimate efficiency all the time? If you're a long-time player, you already have lots of money and you need new things to do!
• Contact Missions: So many people don't even know that you can get missions by calling NPCs on the phone. It's named "contact missions" and they can be very fun. I recommend calling Dax and doing "Request Work" from him, because his missions are very varied and after you've done enough you get various important rewards, such as upgrades for your Acid Lab business.
• CEO/VIP Work: When you're a CEO, you can start SecuroServ missions via the interaction menu. There's lots of fun ones! For example, why not get your favorite car, relax and do the Sightseer mission, seeing where the map markers will take you while you enjoy the relaxing drive? The mission gives you 15 minutes, which is plenty of time to take the scenic route.
• Terrorbyte Missions: Another forgotten relic! The terrorbyte has lots of fun missions which are very good for variation. They used to be the best "active" way to earn money in GTA. Most players who grinded those missions have only done the "optimal rotation", but how about actually doing all of the available missions for fun?
• Rockstar Jobs: There are so many high-quality maps, races and challenge modes in the game. Explore the official list of RockstaCurated jobs in the game's pause menu. There's a ton of them!
• Community Jobs: There's a ton of cool community maps in the game. Remember to favorite the ones you liked so that you can easily start the same again!
• Auto Shop: Do the customer car customization and delivery jobs, and do the heists! They can be done solo.
• MC Club: Do the customer motorcycle customization and delivery jobs.
• Vehicle Warehouse: Do the Import/Export car theft and sales missions. Be sure to use the trick that ensures you only get high-end cars (permanently fill the warehouse with every worthless sourced car in the game, then you will only get high-end cars after that).
• Acid Lab: The best passive income business in the game. Spend some time doing Dax's contact missions to fully upgrade your lab's efficiency and it will become very profitable. Then mix up your gameplay between both sourcing Acid supplies or buying them. And do the sales missions.
• Franklin's Agency: Do the Dr. Dre story missions, then do 201x Security Contract missions until you've unlocked the highest amount of passive daily income (it goes up by $100 every time you do a mission, capped at $20,000 after having done 201 contracts).
• Payphone Hits: They're unlocked after doing at least 3 Security Contract missions. After that, you're able to call Franklin every 20 minutes to request a "payphone hit", which are short 3-5 minute missions with optional challenges that grant you a whopping $85,000 per job. They're very profitable.
• Weekly Time Trials: Do the camotorcycle time trial and the RC car time trial every week, they're a good way to learn how to drive and they give a nice bit of money! Remember that you can hold a key to respawn at the start of the race before the time has ended, if you're sure that you won't make it in time.
• Daily Objectives: In your interaction menu, look at the Objectives and complete them. They're a good way to be inspired to do things you might not do otherwise.
• Daily Collectible Hunts: G's Cache (hunt for the hidden street cache), Kosatka submarine treasure hunt, Street dealer (find it and sell to it every day), Cayo Perico's Buried Stashes, etc.
• Get a Fresh Look: Create a new character outfit (clothes, hairstyle, tattoos, mask).
• Use Different Weapons: Challenge yourself to use different weapons than the same old, boring weapon you always use. For example, how about only using the Heavy Revolver? Make those shots count!
• Modify Your Weapons: Change their styles and attachments.
• Tune Your Precious Car: You might have a "perfectly tuned" car that you've been driving for years and that you're always using. Why not modify it a bit? Put a different livery on it, and some different colors at least? What felt "fresh" two years ago would just be contributing to a feeling of "staleness" today. Freshen things up!
• Ride of the Day: Most long-time players have around a hundred vehicles, but most of them collect dust. Why not set fun "challenge" rules for yourself, such as randomly selecting a vehicle and using only that vehicle on that real-life day?
• Outfit of the Day: Why not make it your goal to create a new character "outfit of the day" (or week) whenever you log in? It's a great way to get a fresh feeling every time you play!
• Remember the Special Outfits: You can visit the front desk of any clothes store to browse various outfits for inspiration. But did you know that you can also visit the "changing room" or wardrobe in the stores or at your apartment, to browse various outfits that you've unlocked via special mission rewards? For example, you can be a Yacht Captain or a GoPostal mailman if you've done the associated missions! Most of them are in the "Outfits: Special" category.
• Character Replica Outfits: Think of a recognizable character, and attempt to replicate the look in GTA as closely as possible. For example, Mr. Bean or Super Mario!
• Minigames: How about some Golf, Tennis, Darts or Arm Wrestling?
• Gang Attacks: Find a gang and eliminate them!
• Stash Houses: Find the stash houses and raid them for resources for your businesses.
• Parachute: Go somewhere high up and do a parachute dive! Better yet, look for the Junk Energy Skydives challenges on the map, or do Dom's parachute challenge (which is a special skydive at a random location).
• San Andreas Flight School: Do the flight school challenges! They're at the Los Santos Airport, at the airplane icon!
• Gun Range Challenges: Complete the Bunker's and Ammo-Nation Gun Range shooting challenges!
• Gun Range with Friends: Challenge a friend to the gun range mini-games, where you compete to see who is the most accurate!
• MC Club Missions: Form a MC club with at least one friend, then ride in formation and start MC missions via the interaction menu.
• MC Businesses: Yes, they're the most hated businesses in the game, but why not do them a little bit? You could do a little bit of supplying and a few small sales missions, to ensure that you have small sales. Or, team up with friends and take turns helping each other do larger sales.
• Racing: Do Open Wheel, Stunt Races, Transform Races, and Regular Races. There are so many different kinds of races in the game! The transform races are the newest feature, and are very cool, since you might drive a supercar down the street to the airport, then transform into a plane and fly through the sky, and other epic things, all in the same race map!
• LS Car Meet: Do the challenges, races and rank up your LS Car Meet rank. Try to win the Prize Ride!
• Lobby Car Meets: You can try arranging car meets with other people in the lobby, to check out each other's cars! Just beware of griefers. You may want to do it in the LS Car Meet building to avoid the griefer explosions, or just switch to a lobby with cooler people.
• Arcade: Play the arcade games and try to beat them! Some of them have hidden rewards for completing the game or completing certain challenges.
• Achievements: Look at the pause menu's Stats - Awards section, and pick some award that you'll try to complete! There are so many fun challenges in there, such as attempting to parachute for more than 3 minutes, or robbing every store on the map (you can see the checkmarks on the map to know if you've robbed those stores).
• Stunt Jumps: There are 50 stunt jump locations on the map, which unlock a few rewards and are also really fun to complete!
• Unlock Vehicle Colors: You may have noticed that certain colors are locked behind challenges, such as winning a certain amount of races. Why not finally unlock those colors you've always wanted but were always "too lazy" to unlock? You'll get to enjoy some flashy, new vehicle colors!
• Arena War: Very fun, but unfortunately hard to get a group going for it. But if you can get a group, Arena War is super fun.
• Freemode Battles: Join a large lobby and just do whatever you want while you're waiting for freemode battles, which start every 20 minutes and will alternate between Business Battles and Freemode Challenges. Then attempt to win those battles! Events will only trigger when there are at least 4 players outdoors, and they cannot be in the same CEO/MC.
• Ride with Strangers: Pick your nicest car and then drive around and invite strangers to either ride with you or do impromptu street race 1v1 challenges.
• Freemode Map Markers: Look at the map. There are icons and glowing markers everywhere on the map/streets. Visit whichever icon is nearest your current location and see what's there! Remember that you can go "On Call" (queue) for public races/missions while you're waiting for them to fill up, which lets you stay in Freemode while you're waiting.
• Weekly Bonuses: Look at the Rockstar Newswire to see what the weekly bonus money is, and focus on doing that business/event for a while, to earn some money!
• Max Your Stats: Get all your stats to maximum! Most people haven't finished Strength, which can be gradually maxed for fun by simply punching every civilian you see.
• Invade the Military: Invade the military base at Fort Zancudo with some friends, and make it your mission to steal a Lazer jet plane.
• Heists: Do some heist preps or full heists for fun! Many of them can be casually setup while solo, which is very relaxing! Most of the newer heists can even be completed while solo!
• Change Your Heist Routes: You don't have to always do the same approach over and over again. Most heists have a lot of different approaches. For example, have you ever successfully completed the "Silent and Sneaky" approach at the Casino? Start exploring the different possibilities out there!
• Yellow Mission Markers: The yellow letters/markers on the map show the location of significant storyline missions (such as ULP, Agency, Acid Lab, etc). Visit those locations and start completing the stories that GTA Online has to offer!
• Do the Jobs: Go to "Online - Jobs" in the pause menu, and explore the available options!
• Answer the Calls: There are so many fun missions for English Dave, the various DJs at the Music Locker, the Casino staff, etc. In most cases, you'll also get some kind of reward if you finish them all! You might even get them to stop calling you when you've finished everything, which is a nice reward in itself!
• Check Your Texts/Emails: There's a lot of "mini missions" that arrive via emails/text messages. For example, Simeon asks you to steal certain cars every day. There's also an early game treasure hunt which starts through an email.
• Use Quick Join: There's an app on your phone named "Quick Join". It queues you for a rapid, random job. It's a great way to explore new content, meet new people and to help them with the queues for their own missions.
• Browse the Internet: There are a ton of funny parody websites in GTA Online's internet browser. Explore what's out there!
• Watch TV/Movies: Have you seen all the TV shows and cinema movies yet? If not, relax and have some fun! :)
• Customize Your Phone: You can change the theme, background, ringtone and other settings for your in-game phone. Why not change things a bit?
• Don't Be Annoyed: The phone calls and missions may seem annoying, but try actually relaxing and doing them. Listen to the phone calls. Call the NPCs. Do their missions! They are pretty nice and chill activities which gives you something to do in the game and some challenges.
• Use a Gamepad: If you're a PC player, you'll know that most of the game is too easy, since the aiming and enemy difficulty was balanced for console (gamepad) players. Try using a gamepad on PC! Not only will your driving and flying be massively improved, you'll also have a much more fun time when fighting enemies, since you can't just "360 No Scope" everything with your superior pointing device anymore. You'll even get immersive rumble that lets you feel the engine of your cars! How cool is that?! The game's options lets you finetune the sensitivity and aiming mode, and true professionals will use "Free Aim" which completely disables the auto-aiming.
• Meet Different People: If you're mostly a heist person, look for someone who loves cars and start hanging out with them to absorb some of their passion for another aspect of the game. You might learn to love car tuning too!
• Trade Prices: Many vehicles in the game have trade prices which give you a massive discount on the vehicle if you complete the challenge first. So set your eyes on a nice vehicle and do its challenges for fun! The discount you're earning will be like earning a huge sum of money that you put towards that specific vehicle. For example, a 2 million dollar discount on a vehicle you wanted is the same as if you had just earned 2 million dollars that you decided to spend on that vehicle! So don't sleep on the trade price discounts! They're a fun challenge with a very high monetary value!
• Bunker Research: If you have a bunker, try doing the research! You can unlock a ton of cool and super useful vehicle and weapon modifications! The explosive and incendiary ammo are must-haves.
• Mobile Operations Missions: The Mobile Operations Center is a forgotten business. It exists in your bunker, but you can request it via your Interaction Menu. Enter the truck's trailer, and then start missions from the computer in the command room!
• Avenger: Take your Avenger out for a drive! It's an extremely powerful, heavily armored aircraft and can be customized with various fun additions.
• Relaxing Yacht: Why not purchase or upgrade your yacht, and chill on it for a while with some friends? It even has lots of fun water vehicles parked in the water at the yacht, and helicopter pads for easy travel.
• Yacht Missions: You can start the fun "A Superyacht Life" mission series from the captain on your yacht. You'll even get a fun Yacht Captain outfit if you complete them all as host.
• Special Vehicle Work: The Vehicle Warehouse provides various epic missions whose "main" purpose is to unlock trade prices on various weaponized vehicles, but the missions themselves are fun too. Most players only do the specific missions for the vehicles they wanted to buy. Why not complete them all at least once, or play them again for fun?
• Collectibles: The map is full of collectible items, such as USB music sticks, playing cards, action figures, signal jammers (to unlock the best hacker for the Casino heist), etc. Why not relax and do them all for fun? They all unlock something fun or useful!
• Dream Vehicle: Relax, do some research about vehicles are available in the game, and set your eyes on a new "dream vehicle". Then work towards earning it and pimping it just the way you want it! Having a goal is fun!
• Test Drives: Check out the weekly test drives at the "Luxury Autos" shop, at Simeon's "Premium Deluxe Motorsport", and at the "LS Car Meet". You might find your new dream vehicle!
• Collect Vehicle Sets: You might have fun building specific collections, such as all Benny's vehicles in the game, etc. Setting goals for yourself about specific vehicle collections gives you something to strive for, and means that there's a lot of new things you'll need to buy and tune, which will keep you busy for a while!
• Sell Vehicles: Let's be honest, there are a lot of stinkers in your collection. Why not sell them? Just beware of the game's daily sell limit. The limit will be hit somewhere around 30-40 cars sold in 24 real-life hours. I'd suggest only selling 1-5 cars per real life day, which ensures that you'll never face the anger of Rockstar, and you'll have more time to make deliberate choices about which vehicles to get rid of. You'll also be getting roughly 50% of your previously spent money back for each sold vehicle! I'd recommend forcing yourself to drive a vehicle for a while before selling it, and looking at its customizations to see if you'd like it if you changed its style a bit, so that you're absolutely sure that you don't want it.
• Organize Your Vehicles: A lot of people have a complete mess in their garages. Why not begin sorting your cars, such as placing all your best cars at the premium display spots in your office garage? Perhaps organizing the floors by vehicle type? You can have lots of fun and you'll get a much better overview of your available vehicles.
• Relocate Yourself: If you've been staring at the same, old, boring spot for years, it could be fun to move! Most players choose the ugly, industrial, "optimal" locations. Why not relax and move to the beautiful beach instead? The Lombank office, the Insert Coin arcade, the Vespucci Beach MC clubhouse, the Del Perro Nightclub, the Strawberry auto shop, and the Vespucci Canals agency are all very beautiful locations with amazing interior and exterior design and great views! They're also very well placed for all of their business purposes!
• Browse in Person: When you're looking at real estate on the internet, things look very boring and impersonal. Why not take a drive around the city and look at the "real estate for sale" map markers in person? Perhaps you'll find a great new location for your home! However, if it's a multi-apartment house, I recommend checking YouTube for the various room views, to find the room with the best view before you buy it.
• Upgrade Your Properties/Businesses: If you haven't yet upgraded all of the equipment for a business, it's a great idea to upgrade it to improve its efficiency and safety. Or how about changing the interior design for fun, to replace the "same old daily view" with a fresh new look?
• Buy Every Arcade Machine: There are so many fun minigame machines for your arcade. Why not buy them all and pimp that place out? It's a nice place to relax, and even get some rewards for completing the games.
• Get All Passive Businesses: Why not work towards getting and fully upgrading all of the passive incomes in the game? Such as the Nightclub (which automatically generates money in the safe based on popularity, and generates MC business products to sell from its basement), the Acid Lab (which can be restocked with a simple phone call to Mutt, and has easy sales missions), the Arcade (which generates $5000 per in-game day when you've filled all of its interior slots with arcade machines, which can all be the same machine if you want), the Agency (which generates up to $20000 per in-game day based on how many Security Contracts you've completed), Street Dealers (finding the daily street dealer is much faster than regular sales missions, and they pay more than regular missions), Bunker (you can resupply it via one click with the Master Control Terminal in your Arcade, and then simply sell the product when it's still less than 25% full, thus guaranteeing a single sales vehicle every time). An added bonus of having passive businesses is the fact that they let you do other things in the game, such as doing racing and other fun challenges, while your businesses passively produce for you!
• Start Fresh: Did you know that your online account has two character slots? You can actually start fresh by simply withdrawing all of your banked money to your primary character, so that there's $0 in the bank. Then create a new character, which will begin at $0. Then relax and enjoy the ride of building a new empire. I suggest doing things differently this time. For example, if your primary character owns every business, why not just focus on a specific business this time, such as the CEO businesses (cargo crates), or just the vehicle warehouse, etc? Take this opportunity to simplify and avoid grinding, while still building a new playstyle to keep things fresh! Why not skip the Kosatka, so that you don't have the "easy Cayo Perico money" either? This slower, more deliberate, old-school way of making money will ensure that you have lots of fun, and you can set your own goals for what vehicles you want to save up money for on your new character! If you get tired of the grind, just switch back to your primary character again and enjoy the wealth. You can even delete your secondary character again to start fresh as many times as you want to.
• Spend Your Money: Having $100 million unused in the bank is just a completely pointless number, and is basically worth the same as having $0 in the bank if you aren't even using it. Unless your goal is to collect a specific amount of money for fun, I'd instead suggest that you actually start spending absolutely all of your money! Because if you can succeed in being perpetually slightly low on cash, you'll have much more reason to care about doing your businesses when you do want to buy something, which in turn drives your motivation to play again! Having a huge stash of money is bad for your motivation to play! Having a huge stash of money is like having an endless "Rich Daddy's Credit Card" in your wallet. Get rid of that credit card, buy a bunch of fun stuff, and enjoy the game more as a result!
• Play the Story: The vast majority of GTA Online players have barely touched the offline story. Why not relax with the story from time to time, gradually making your way through the epic offline story that started it all?
• Take a Break: If you're truly not finding any fun anymore, then take a break, perhaps a few weeks or a month is all you need to enjoy the game again! They also release content updates roughly twice per year, so you'll always have something new to return to in the future! :)

I would like to get behind my stacked washer and dryer to clean the area out and to position the unit a bit closer to the wall when done. It's combined weight is 300 lbs.
Google told me that the basic idea is to use a lever and put something that slides under each foot. They make products for this exact purpose. (search: Heavy Duty Furniture Lifter)
For my case though, I can't access the back two feet since the unit is in a closet. If installing two sliding disks on the front two feet, would that be enough anti-friction to get the unit moving forward enough? Maybe if using a strap, and sliding it around the unit I could have enough grip to get the pulling force I need.
Another note. I looked under the machine and I see plastic extrusions and other various things that make me think sliding the flat steel plate of a handtruck underneath could potentially break or damage things (at least from the front). (It is a front loading, stackable, LG) https://imgur.com/a/m9E67h0 Even so, I doubt it's a good idea to tilt the entire thing while it's stacked.

A bit about myself: my name is Gavin. I'm 32 and retired. I live in Carmichael. I have a studio in my house setup with a basic sewing machine (Singer Stylist 7258). I've sewn a bit, but am VERY inexperienced. I've tapered a few pair of jeans including rehemming them, that's about it.
I am a fast learner and usualy do well with self-teaching but it's just not clicking for me. I need someone to hold my hand and show me the basics and beyond.
My ultimate goal is to create my own patterns for things like coats, sweaters, shorts, jeans, shirts, you name it. Here's a short video of a guy doing what I dream of doing. I realize there's a long road ahead to get there so I need your help!
As the title says I'm looking for someone VERY experienced with years of professional experience, or someone that makes their own clothes. I want to learn about fabrics, general technique, and pattern making. I'm willing to pay very well for your time if you're a good fit.
DM me a bit about you if you're interested and let's get sewing!