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The reason I believe in soulmates
2023.03.22 06:14 Basicallyacrow7 The reason I believe in soulmates
So glad I found this group, I’ve been wanting somewhere to share my boyfriend and I’s story, buckle in, it’s a little long
Sometime at the end of January last year, I started playing video games online. Starting with a game called Counter Strike. I had only been playing a short time (probably less than 10 games) when I met a couple of people who invited me to queue with them next game. I agreed, and when we queued up for the next game, they added another player, RJ (not his real name, using for anonymity purposes). RJ asked who the new person was and I said hello. The first words he ever said to me were “Oh great, an e-girl, can’t wait to see how this goes.” We play one game together and I figured that would be the end of that. He had added me to his friends list though.
A few days later, we’re both online, and he invites me to play again, much to my surprise. We play a few games, and actually end up talking a good bit, and add each other on discord. This was February 7th 2022.
We start texting everyday, and gaming every night. This graduates to phone calls, which turn into FaceTimes. Eventually, we exchange numbers and move off the discord app as a means to communicate. We talked, Every. Day. We started getting closer, realized we had a lot in common. Honestly, it was just like we clicked, from the moment we started talking we couldn’t stay away from each other. I had just gotten out of a 4 year relationship and wasn’t looking to get into another. He had be hurt pretty badly by his last girl (won’t go into details) and borderline swore of females. So, there was no reason, after playing a few games, we should’ve become so attached to each other. I think one reason was because I could read him so well, even through text. He was more guarded than I was, but I’ve had my fair share of hurt (more so friends/parents) but I could see through his defense mechanisms, and call him out, and be understanding a patient and loving to him.
But. One issue. I lived in Pennsylvania and he lived in Florida. 900 miles apart.
I am a religious person, as is he. So I started praying on it, basically it consisted of “Lord, I feel like this man is right for me, in my soul he feels right, but I’m going to get hurt with us being so far apart. It’ll never work, please, if this isn’t what it feels like take him from my life because I won’t be able to do it”
That SAME week, my dad (I’m 21, but still live at home currently) stops me in the kitchen and just randomly asks “hey, how would you feel about moving to Florida?” My family has always wanted to move south, but it was always NC, never Florida. (And I hadn’t told them about the boy in Florida who I was falling for yet) Turns out his company had a job opening down there and he was considering taking it. The first thing I do is check how far the town we would move to is from RJ. My shock when it turns out I would be an hour away from him if this move happened.
So we start going through the process and my family decides to make a trip down to Florida to check out some properties. And I ask if we could possibly spend our first night in his city so I could meet with him in person. To my shock, and anyone who knows my parents, they agreed. This is now April. So two months after we started talking, we’re finally going to meet. I’m iffy on if I believe in Angel numbers, but out hotel room that night, after a 14 hours drive, was 222 aka the soulmate number. And at 11am the next day, we go to a nearby mall, and finally meet up in person. We were never awkward, it was comfortable from day one. We actually ended up kissing (more so making out, trying to keep this PG) in a dressing room in one of the stores. Literally had friends asking me what book I’m living in after hearing about it. We spent a blissful 2 hours together and then I had to go. We looked at property’s and then back to PA.
Another two months goes by, this time it’s even harder. I talk one of my girlfriends into a “girls trip” to Florida. But her and everyone knew it was just to see RJ. We go down for four days, I spent as much time with him as I can between his work. We would just sit in a car (he lives where he works, so we couldn’t hang out there) talking, lots and lots of talking and kissing until 3am.
FINALLY. In July of last year, my family made the move to Florida. We have a small farm (horses chickens etc) so it took us 19 hours to move all of them down there. And since we moved, seldom has there been a weekend we didn’t spend together.
And just this last week, RJ and I closed on a house we found together, I won’t be moving in with him for a bit, we have to build a barn and pasture for the horses, but I’m writing this after spending the last 3 days with him getting a few things set up, and cleaning and “playing house” with him. We also got a dog together. We still play games together every night. It just hit me on my way home from there, how crazy it is, a year ago, we were messaging 900 miles apart, after a chance meeting playing a video game (something I never did) falling for each other but thinking we were stupid for even letting ourselves get attached because of the distance to, now we have a house and are planning a wedding and a future. I also think back to his first comment, “can’t wait to see how this goes” and I make myself laugh thinking “well, you buy a house with the e-girl” Our story just makes me giddy, I never would’ve dreamed to have what I have with him, we have grown so much too, I could keep going on a thousand little details that mean something to me, but I don’t want to make this entirely too long. I just wanted people to share this with, if you made it to the end, thank you for reading❤️
submitted by Basicallyacrow7 to relationshipgoals [link] [comments]
Sometime at the end of January last year, I started playing video games online. Starting with a game called Counter Strike. I had only been playing a short time (probably less than 10 games) when I met a couple of people who invited me to queue with them next game. I agreed, and when we queued up for the next game, they added another player, RJ (not his real name, using for anonymity purposes). RJ asked who the new person was and I said hello. The first words he ever said to me were “Oh great, an e-girl, can’t wait to see how this goes.” We play one game together and I figured that would be the end of that. He had added me to his friends list though.
A few days later, we’re both online, and he invites me to play again, much to my surprise. We play a few games, and actually end up talking a good bit, and add each other on discord. This was February 7th 2022.
We start texting everyday, and gaming every night. This graduates to phone calls, which turn into FaceTimes. Eventually, we exchange numbers and move off the discord app as a means to communicate. We talked, Every. Day. We started getting closer, realized we had a lot in common. Honestly, it was just like we clicked, from the moment we started talking we couldn’t stay away from each other. I had just gotten out of a 4 year relationship and wasn’t looking to get into another. He had be hurt pretty badly by his last girl (won’t go into details) and borderline swore of females. So, there was no reason, after playing a few games, we should’ve become so attached to each other. I think one reason was because I could read him so well, even through text. He was more guarded than I was, but I’ve had my fair share of hurt (more so friends/parents) but I could see through his defense mechanisms, and call him out, and be understanding a patient and loving to him.
But. One issue. I lived in Pennsylvania and he lived in Florida. 900 miles apart.
I am a religious person, as is he. So I started praying on it, basically it consisted of “Lord, I feel like this man is right for me, in my soul he feels right, but I’m going to get hurt with us being so far apart. It’ll never work, please, if this isn’t what it feels like take him from my life because I won’t be able to do it”
That SAME week, my dad (I’m 21, but still live at home currently) stops me in the kitchen and just randomly asks “hey, how would you feel about moving to Florida?” My family has always wanted to move south, but it was always NC, never Florida. (And I hadn’t told them about the boy in Florida who I was falling for yet) Turns out his company had a job opening down there and he was considering taking it. The first thing I do is check how far the town we would move to is from RJ. My shock when it turns out I would be an hour away from him if this move happened.
So we start going through the process and my family decides to make a trip down to Florida to check out some properties. And I ask if we could possibly spend our first night in his city so I could meet with him in person. To my shock, and anyone who knows my parents, they agreed. This is now April. So two months after we started talking, we’re finally going to meet. I’m iffy on if I believe in Angel numbers, but out hotel room that night, after a 14 hours drive, was 222 aka the soulmate number. And at 11am the next day, we go to a nearby mall, and finally meet up in person. We were never awkward, it was comfortable from day one. We actually ended up kissing (more so making out, trying to keep this PG) in a dressing room in one of the stores. Literally had friends asking me what book I’m living in after hearing about it. We spent a blissful 2 hours together and then I had to go. We looked at property’s and then back to PA.
Another two months goes by, this time it’s even harder. I talk one of my girlfriends into a “girls trip” to Florida. But her and everyone knew it was just to see RJ. We go down for four days, I spent as much time with him as I can between his work. We would just sit in a car (he lives where he works, so we couldn’t hang out there) talking, lots and lots of talking and kissing until 3am.
FINALLY. In July of last year, my family made the move to Florida. We have a small farm (horses chickens etc) so it took us 19 hours to move all of them down there. And since we moved, seldom has there been a weekend we didn’t spend together.
And just this last week, RJ and I closed on a house we found together, I won’t be moving in with him for a bit, we have to build a barn and pasture for the horses, but I’m writing this after spending the last 3 days with him getting a few things set up, and cleaning and “playing house” with him. We also got a dog together. We still play games together every night. It just hit me on my way home from there, how crazy it is, a year ago, we were messaging 900 miles apart, after a chance meeting playing a video game (something I never did) falling for each other but thinking we were stupid for even letting ourselves get attached because of the distance to, now we have a house and are planning a wedding and a future. I also think back to his first comment, “can’t wait to see how this goes” and I make myself laugh thinking “well, you buy a house with the e-girl” Our story just makes me giddy, I never would’ve dreamed to have what I have with him, we have grown so much too, I could keep going on a thousand little details that mean something to me, but I don’t want to make this entirely too long. I just wanted people to share this with, if you made it to the end, thank you for reading❤️
2023.03.22 04:18 BEONRapid Manufacturing method for rapid prototyping of sample parts for automotive interior and exterior trim
 | Abstract: Before developing formal molds for automotive interior and exterior parts, in order to ensure that the part shape and ergonomics, etc. meet the design requirements, it is usually necessary to manufacture rapid prototype sample parts according to the design number mold first to verify the installed effect of the corresponding parts. Several methods and applications for manufacturing rapid prototyping prototypes are described in the paper, and the manufacturing methods CNC machine tooling parts, 3D printing technology, silicone and fiberglass molds, and reaction injection molding are described in detail. By using rapid prototyping prototypes to load and check the design, structural errors due to local details can be avoided, development costs can be reduced, and the part development cycle can be shortened. submitted by BEONRapid to u/BEONRapid [link] [comments] Keywords: automotive interior and exterior trim; rapid prototyping prototypes; 3D printing technology; reaction injection molding Background AnalysisExterior and interior parts are important components of a car. Exterior parts of a car are parts such as front and rear bumper skins, spoilers and side skirts; interior parts are parts that come into contact with the interior of the vehicle, such as the dashboard, sub-dashboard and door guards. It is because the interior and exterior parts are very important to the appearance and use of the car, and these parts are mostly injection molding process, the reason is that the injection molding process parts molding consistency is better, can be formed relatively more complex shape parts, high production efficiency, parts prices are relatively cheap, the disadvantage is that the formal production mold prices are higher. Therefore, in order to ensure that the actual parts can achieve the design visual effect, ergonomic requirements and meet the requirements of the assembly structure, it is necessary to arrange the manufacture of Rapid Prototyping (RP) prototypes for vehicle installation verification before the development of formal molds, and the installed parts can also meet the pre-build parts requirements such as the announcement of the model. The use of rapid prototyping prototype inspection design solutions can significantly accelerate the time to market, reduce development costs and shorten the product development cycle. At present, the automotive industry mainstream rapid prototyping of interior and exterior parts manufacturing methods are mainly divided into CNC machining parts, 3D printing, soft mold (silicone mold and fiberglass mold), reaction injection molding (Reaction Injection Molding, RIM), etc., of which 3D printing is the rapid development of the method in recent years. The following describes the principles and application scenarios of these methods. CNC Machining PartsCNC machining parts generally refers to the use of CNC machine tools and equipment directly according to the design plan for the processing of materials such as ABS, nylon and other block plastic body into the required shape. If the size of the part to be processed is less than 300 mm and the structure is simple, it is directly processed and formed in one go. If the structure is irregularly shaped or the size is larger than 300 mm, the part is generally divided into several small pieces, which are processed separately and then assembled together to finally get the part that meets the design requirements in size. This method of manufacturing rapid prototype parts is the earliest, with relatively short processing cycle and low purchase price, and is mainly used for small and medium-sized parts with relatively simple structure and low demand, such as pillars, sub-instrument panels and door guards. Due to the shape of the interior and exterior parts of the car, the parts are usually processed irregularly round or square, when the size of the parts is greater than 300 mm or the structure of the irregular shape, if the direct use of a block of plastic processing parts, it will lead to an exponential increase in costs. Therefore, the actual manufacture of irregularly shaped parts, the parts will be divided into several parts according to structural characteristics, and then rough machining to get the general shape, and then use special adhesives to glue the parts of each part to form the overall contour of the parts, and then finally together for finishing, which can effectively reduce the waste of material due to the structure of the parts, reduce the cost of parts. The disadvantage is that in the back of the parts can be seen in the parts of the parts of the chunk between the more obvious bonding traces, parts bonding position strength is poor, easy to crack. Figure 1 shows the prototype of rapid prototyping completed by CNC machining 3D printing3D printing technology is a kind of technology to construct objects by printing layer by layer based on digital model files and using adhesive materials such as powdered metal or plastic. 3D printing technology has a wide range of application areas, and the manufacturing of rapid prototype parts is one of the important directions of its application. The prototype parts obtained by 3D printing manufacturing have shorter cycle time and can realize shaped structure printing, and the overall dimensional accuracy can be adjusted according to the actual demand to meet different needs of different occasions. General 3D printing can manufacture the same range of parts as those processed by CNC machine tools, and is suitable for rapid prototyping of parts such as columns, sub-instrument panels and door guards. The plastic materials commonly used in 3D printing are ABS-like plastic, nylon, nylon plus glass fiber and transparent photosensitive resin, etc. The advantages of ABS-like plastic (Figure 2) are low unit price and good molding performance, suitable for structural parts with low strength requirements; nylon has good strength performance and better heat resistance than ABS-like plastic, but the price is higher, and nylon plus glass fiber is an enhanced version of the performance of ordinary nylon, suitable for higher strength requirements of Parts; 3D printing photosensitive resin, commonly known as UV resin, mainly composed of polymer monomer and pre-polymer, which is added with photoinitiator, will immediately cause polymerization reaction under certain wavelength of ultraviolet light (250-300 nm) irradiation to complete the solid state conversion, photosensitive resin curing speed, high molding accuracy, good surface effect, high mechanical strength (comparable to the strength of ABS-like), low odor It has the advantages of fast curing, high molding accuracy, good surface finish, high mechanical strength (comparable to ABS-like strength), low odor, high versatility and storage resistance. Figure 2 3D printed ABS-like plastic parts Soft moldsSoft molds mainly refer to silicone molds and FRP molds. Silicone molds are generally designed using CNC machine tools or 3D printing, and then the parts are used for rapid turning process to make the molds. This production process has short cycle time and low cost, and can use vacuum injection, pressure injection and low-pressure infusion processes for product production. Silicone rubber mold production process is suitable for small batch production (less than 100 pieces), product material strength and dimensional accuracy requirements of high products, product performance close to conventional ABS plastic. The silicone rubber used for mold making is two-component liquid silicone rubber, and there are two categories of condensed molds and additive molds according to the rubber composition [2]. Generally speaking, the shear strength of condensed silicone is low, and it is easy to be torn in the process of mold making, so it is suitable for parts with simple structure and few reinforcement bars; the mechanical properties and heat aging resistance of additive silicone are good, and it is suitable for making molds with high relative dimensional requirements. At present, silicone mold production of small batch parts has been widely used in the trial production of interior and exterior trim samples in the pre-development stage of automobiles. The most widely used parts are small and medium-sized injection molded structural parts such as door guards, pillars and door sill guards in the interior of automobiles. FRP (fiber reinforced plastics), is a composite material with glass fiber and its products (glass cloth, tape, felt, yarn, etc.) as reinforcing material and synthetic resin as matrix material [3], as shown in Figure 3. Based on FRP material, similar to silicone moulds, FRP moulds are made by rapid turning process and are usually used for medium and large decorative parts with simple structure, such as automobile roof trim and carpet trim. FRP mold is suitable for parts produced by molding process, blister molding process and foam molding process. The general production process of FRP mold is: part modeling → brush master mold → brush convex mold → brush concave mold → NC processing → welding mold frame → test mold → local correction → acceptance. Usually the development cycle of a pair of FRP mold is about one week, and the cost is only 1/10 of the official mold, which is a short-cycle, low-cost prototype mold. This kind of mold production method can also meet the manufacturing needs of small batch products (100~1,000 sets). Reaction Injection MoldingReaction injection molding is a molding process in which two or more low-viscosity liquids are uniformly mixed in a certain ratio under certain pressure and temperature conditions and then immediately injected into a closed molding mold, where they are further reacted to form plastic products. The major difference between reaction injection molding and normal injection molding is that reaction injection molding uses simple equipment, the mold can be large, the strength and surface quality of molded parts are good, and it can also meet the needs of small batch production with stable dimensions, and the thickness of molded parts can be varied from 6 to 25 mm; the disadvantage is that the price of a single product is high, and it is impossible to mold complex structural parts. https://preview.redd.it/as0x2de6j7pa1.jpg?width=1444&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b7a0be04b7550665321a98e5e6ef6b9746c030a Reaction injection molding mold is less applied to automatic motion structures such as slant top ejection and slider take-off compared to ordinary injection molds, and it cannot be produced properly for parts with negative angles and side holes (very low efficiency). Reaction injection molding is usually used in the manufacture of large exterior parts with simple structure and requirements for strength, such as deflector shields, skirts and truck front bumper, and is currently used more in the commercial vehicle field. https://preview.redd.it/1e1uoqt9j7pa1.png?width=846&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d02f26f65a04366e43f806fb49fe60d61c01dfb |
2023.03.22 04:06 beer_jew [Postgame Thread] #1 LSU (19-2) defeats Central Arkansas (11-9) by a score of 10-4
https://twitter.com/LSUbaseball/status/1638369952116899840?s=20
Box score- http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=441485
Win goes to Griffin Herring who gets his first win as a tiger and is now 1-0
Loss is charged to Dillan Janak who falls to 0-1
Tigers jumped out to a first inning lead thanks to a 2 run crews missile. They added another in the 2nd to have a 3-0 lead after 3. A fourth inning home run by Dylan Cyr gave UCA a 4-3 lead, and a swinging bunt by Josh Pearson tied it in the bottom half. Griffin Herring came in to close out the 4th and fired 2.1 impressive innings touching mid 90's from the left side. Jordan Thompson blasted a 3 run home run in the bottom of the 5th, and some shoddy fielding in bottom 6 plated 3 more tiger runs. Arkansas week continues for the Tigers as they take on the Razorbacks this weekend in baton rouge. UCA will continue A-Sun play with a road trip to a tough Jacksonville squad.
submitted by beer_jew to collegebaseball [link] [comments]
Box score- http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=441485
Win goes to Griffin Herring who gets his first win as a tiger and is now 1-0
Loss is charged to Dillan Janak who falls to 0-1
Tigers jumped out to a first inning lead thanks to a 2 run crews missile. They added another in the 2nd to have a 3-0 lead after 3. A fourth inning home run by Dylan Cyr gave UCA a 4-3 lead, and a swinging bunt by Josh Pearson tied it in the bottom half. Griffin Herring came in to close out the 4th and fired 2.1 impressive innings touching mid 90's from the left side. Jordan Thompson blasted a 3 run home run in the bottom of the 5th, and some shoddy fielding in bottom 6 plated 3 more tiger runs. Arkansas week continues for the Tigers as they take on the Razorbacks this weekend in baton rouge. UCA will continue A-Sun play with a road trip to a tough Jacksonville squad.
2023.03.22 02:54 reddito321 Not Magic, not Pokémon. Moonfarmer, our own cardgame, is now on OpenSea!
 | Hi all, submitted by reddito321 to CryptoCurrencyMoons [link] [comments] It’s with great excitement that we have released the first card game solely inspired by the lore of this sub: Moonfarmer Trading Card Game is now on OpenSea! In addition to having the NFTs, you can print the cards and play with friends at home or at your favourite spot. This work was inspired by the requests in the comment section one of my posts in the main sub, which sparkled ripples in the community. Artist Wild Crazy Lrzk signs all the pieces and worked pro bono, i.e. for free, and this is why some of the pieces are paid and others are not. Read further for a sneakpeak! The LoreMoonfarmer is about the Farmers, astronaut-like beings that work for the Cosmo Corporation (C.C. hereafter) and have the task of looking for resources around the Universe. These resources often comes from the moons around planets and other celestial bodies. From the Inexperienced to the Extreme Farmer, each of them have their own stats and skills.How to play: The basicsThere are two types of cards: Farmer cards and Events cards. Farmer cards are differentiated from Event cards by their Harvesting Power (HP hereafter), which is printed at the bottom center of the card: https://preview.redd.it/wvaz63vfk7pa1.png?width=7442&format=png&auto=webp&s=c3cd8e1e844e5ea24c81fc0d8941b3d965c4a0c0 Each player starts the game with a deck of 30 cards and with 15 moons on their Resource Pool (RP). The player who firstly adds a total 42 moons to their RP wins the game. Only three copies of the same card can be on the deck, with two exceptions: Nano, The Big One, and Ito, Horizon Breacher. Players can only have one of these on their decks. Players don’t pay any costs to play a card, unless the card states otherwise. Players can also only play two cards per turn, unless a card states otherwise. Farmer cardsFarmer cards are played and stay in the field. At the beginning of a players turn, this player sums the HP of all the farmer under their control. That amount is then added to their RP. Example: It’s Player 1’s turn and there are three Inexperienced Farmers, which were put in the game during previous turns, on their field, each with an HP of 1. Therefore this player adds 3 moons to their RPThere are farmer cards that have special abilities on top of their HP. Their specific rules can be checked at the attributes of each NFT on OpenSea: https://preview.redd.it/mdxfe23hk7pa1.png?width=583&format=png&auto=webp&s=960e901990eb970496a43b9a9565784ed45987f4 Event cardsEvent cards are played, their effect takes place and then the cards are put in the discard pile. Example: Upfarm is a card that lets a player add 1 moon to their RP. The player plays it, adds that moon and discards Upfarm to the discard pile.Other rules are in the description of each card. Areas of the FieldMain Pool: the place where moons are harvested from. You can use whatever you want as moons, be it coins, beans and suchField: the place where farmers are. Farmers stay in front of their controllers. Deck: place where a player draws cards Resource Pool: each player’s storage of moons Discard pile: cards that are discarded come here. Full cardlistInexperienced FarmerBasic Farmer Experienced Farmer Extreme Farmer Max, The Help Needed Osvald, He Who Jokes Merleen, The Bull's Godsent Ominous, The First Coder Ito, Horizon Breacher Nano, The Big One Upfarm Downfarm $10 or we riot F.U.D. F.O.M.O. H.O.D.L. Wrath of Mods Full DisclaimerThis work was made completely without funds. The artist agreed to receive whatever earnings the project might bring, if any at all. In addition, we’re not doing this for a living. We have no Twitter, no Discord and no anything of the sorts. No ad campaign was launched. No one knew this before I posted here but the Mods, because I needed to ask permission to do so. In fact, this is the first post about it ever. No pre-sale, allowlist or anything of the sorts happened either.The artist chose one of the cards to be his, so did I. These are Nano #1 and Ito #1, respectively. This project is not affiliated with the main sub’s personal whatsoever. There are free and paid cardsAs I said before, the Lrzk did everything pro bono. We will charge between 0.0025 ETH and 0.1 ETH for some of the cards, so that he can be paid. The free ones are:Moon Upfarm Downfarm Not your keys, not your coins Please realise that you don't need the NFTs to play the game. You can print the cards if you want and play with your friends at home. Claiming your free onesTo claim your free cards, go to the links above and "purchase" one for 0 ETH.EDIT: Can't trust the internet. A user named Nana157 scooped the ones for free and is now re-selling. If you want the ones for the drop, send me a message with your wallet and I'll airdrop them for you. Don't buy any free drops. Some users will receive an airdropSome cards are based on real users. These will receive an airdrop of one item of their respective cards. They areMaxx3141 Meeleen223 Odlavso Ominous_Anenome nanooverbtc Other three users gave nice ideas on my comedy post. These are Chysce Real_Voldemort Mediocre_Suspect_203 They will also receive airdrops of the cards to which they contributed to. For these users: please DM me your wallets. I'll be distributing the airdrop over the next week. Please also realise it might take time as it will be a manual process. LicenseAll the collection, including game rules and artwork, is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND license. You can not sell any of the work nor use it for any kind of commercial purposes. Full attribution must be given to the creators. This is not an NFT gameAt least not for now. You may print the cards and play with your friends.Other commentsEnjoy your harvest! https://preview.redd.it/g66wxxrlk7pa1.png?width=12501&format=png&auto=webp&s=960d4efbbbe38987d03396a20f9766f65baaa871 |
2023.03.21 21:29 slightlyassholic [The Great Erectus and Faun] 404 Universe Not Found Pt. 3
Something's missing. People (and entities) are starting to notice.
First Previous
***
Far across the multiverse in a tavern that, depending on one’s point of view, may or may not have actually existed, Zeb, Petunia, Bethany, Bergamot, Cleve, and Zilandrial sat at a large wooden table.
“Thank you, Shauna,” Bergamot said as a buxom woman in a low-cut peasant dress filled their mugs with a “magic” pitcher of beer that never ran dry. “You don’t have to serve us, you know.”
“Oh, I know,” Shauna replied brightly, “but I am a barmaid. Besides, I am not giving up my magic pitcher!” she added with a laugh. “The next batch of stew should be out in a second.”
“If it is as good as this bread…” Cleve said, holding up a thick, floppy piece of flatbread.
“Better!” Shauna exclaimed. “The pantry keeps filling back up with the best stuff! It’s almost a shame to make stew out of it, but the “fancy” chef went to the “fancy” place. We just figured out the roaster thingy, so we’ll be serving roast fowl as soon as the first batch cooks!”
Shauna paused and took a big drink from her pitcher.
“It turns out that you just had to talk to it. Weird… But no weirder than anything else, I suppose. You guys want to wait for the roast fowl?”
“We shouldn’t tary,” Zeb replied, “We don’t know how long this blessed peace will last.”
“Maybe it’s over?” Bethany the Tinker, now reunited with her beloved hat, asked.
“One can hope,” Zeb shrugged as he drank deeply from his tankard, “but I’m not delaying my repast, and neither should you. When you have fiends like Pantsu and F10w3rchy1d in play, things can get much worse than they already are.”
“Worse?!?” Bergamot exclaimed in horror.
***
Melinda the Stalwart was starting to believe that she should have stayed in bed today.
It was supposed to be her day off! Yeah, things were starting to get “weird,” but with all of those high-rated champions running around up north, it was probably going to get handled pretty quickly… and she was tired of chasing around after their scraps.
Her copper-rated ass was sitting this one out. The fact that everyone had gone gank-crazy just further confirmed that she had the right idea.
So, she decided to head back to the royal city of Raven’s Peak to take advantage of the richer and more powerful adventurers running off to the north, leaving all the armorers, enchanters, alchemists, and publicans in town behind.
It was nice not constantly getting shoved out of the way by stronger champions and ignored by shopkeepers far more interested in their gold than her silver for once.
It started out as such a lovely day, too!
She awoke in a lovely bed at the Blade and Wand, her absolute favorite inn, and a place where it was nearly impossible to get a room without a reservation or a lot more status than she had. There, she enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, at a discounted rate no less, and then went out for a day of crowd-free shopping!
It. Was. Bliss! There were no lines, and all of the storekeepers and craftsmen were all too happy to not only serve her and her meager purse but actually take time to chat!
Then, for lunch, she decided to visit the main branch of the adventurer’s guild, where she had an honest-to-gosh hamburger and fries along with some cider. After that, the plan was to get some training or maybe buy a buff or two…
Well, that was the plan, anyway.
What actually happened was that her wonderful burger, which she could never get under normal circumstances (they were always sold out before a copper-rated nobody could get their coppers taken), was interrupted by the most unholy screams she had ever heard inside or outside a dungeon.
She barely had time to stand before the doors to the guild offices exploded outward, and a demon covered in spikes and flames charged into the main hall.
That looks just like the guildmaster, was about all she had time to think before the fiend was on her.
***
“What’s happening?!?” Melinda cried in terror as she hurtled through absolutely nothing.
(Shh bby is ok)
“H-hello?” she called.
(😊)
“W-who are you? What happened to me?”
(Shh bby is ok)
“Am I… Am I dead?!?”
(is ok)
“Oh, it is definitely NOT okay! Who are you, and what the hell happened?”
The bedbug sighed with exasperation as it bounced off an invisible barrier again.
It had taken too long. The soul was starting to wake up.
Before much longer, it would start to get wiggly. It hated it when they began to wiggle.
Not knowing exactly what else to do, it let out a little ping.
It was answered by thousands of its kind! They couldn’t get through either, so they were having a rave! Awesome!
With a happy little (woo!), it zipped off towards the largest concentration of pings dragging an increasingly indignant Melinda the Stalwart along whether she wanted to or not.
***
“Hahaha!” Tawdry laughed into a prepaid “burner phone” her parents didn’t know about. “I can’t be-lieve you got me fucking grounded, you skank!”
“You’re still grounded?” Claudia snickered, “You diminished that badly?”
“It’s my parents. I managed to talk them down to a week without brain fucking them too hard. Besides, this cell is a lot nicer than the holes you used to stick me in. I’ll just do my time and be done with it. Besides, it will give our friends time to leave town since someone can’t manage to find a freaking truck.”
“First of all, fuck you,” Claudia laughed, “Second of all, thanks for getting that bastard to show up in a park and chase you across all of that nice soft turf. We got a lot of data we didn’t have before.”
“Like what?”
“Like its estimated mass, tire treads, a few lovely material samples where it nailed a park bench while trying to kill you… oh, and confirmation that it actually materializes and dematerializes. We can only assume the little bitch does the same thing. Too bad you couldn’t actually lay hands on her.”
“She was slippery, okay?” Tawdry chuckled.
“Hey,” Claudia said, “before Evika and her party ganked you, did they say anything about whom they were working for, or did they mention a little blonde girl named Petunia… or Pantsu?”
“No, they just said hi and blew my head off. Oh! Stephen did say that David finally confessed to Evika!”
“Took him long enough,” Claudia laughed, “Think he has a chance?”
“I know he has one,” Tawdry replied, “Evika’s gonna drop those drawers any second.”
“Good for her.”
“You said that Robert the Golden Peckerhead got sent back?”
“Yeah, and he is not adjusting well,” Claudia replied, “We have him in a ‘special’ inpatient facility where we are keeping the people with ‘issues’.”
“You got a lot of ‘patients’?”
“Not as many as you would think,” Claudia said, “Not everyone is happy about things, but there is something to be said about not having to sleep with a dagger under your pillow.”
“True that,” Tawdry replied. “High school is a pain, but being able to go out for pizza without an enraged wife (or husband) trying to shank you is nice.”
“Careful,” Claudia laughed, “Enraged spouses here might have a gun. You might want to go easy on the adultery this time around. There is also no magic contraception, and cure disease potions aren’t for sale in every town.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Tawdry groaned. “Doesn’t really matter, though. I might as well be a nun these days.”
“You can’t be diminished that much!”
“I am not into kids, and any man worth screwing isn’t into jailbait. I’m the exact opposite of screwed… Speaking of, you did mention a possible trip to Denmark?”
“Aren’t you grounded?”
“I won’t be next week!”
“And how will you explain your sex tourism to your folks?”
“Let me worry about my folks,” Tawdry replied, “You worry about that plane ticket!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Claudia replied with a chuckle.
Natasha! Come down for dinner!
“I’ll be right there!” Tawdry yelled.
“I gotta go. It’s taco night…”
Tawdry grinned.
“Speaking of tacos, did you get that camel toe fixed yet?”
“And just when we were even, too!” Claudia laughed. “Your little suggestion has everyone looking at my snatch… including me, and I know it’s bullshit!”
“Ha! Is your new fuck toy looking?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Detective Martin! I know you have a thing for that whole world-weary crusader vibe. And don’t think I didn’t see you checking out his ass, either.”
“I have the same problem you do,” Claudia sighed, “worse even. The sort of man I like certainly won’t be messing around with a ‘kid’, even if I am ‘legal’.”
“Yeah, you do like them a bit crusty, don’t you? How about finding some rich asshole who is having a mid-life crisis?”
“I will repeat myself. The sort of man I would like isn’t interested… and won’t be for years.”
“Meh. You’re not giving yourself enough credit… and giving them far too much of it.”
“Well, Slaker turned me down cold… goddamn chain of command…”
“No! You tried to give it up to Slaker?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time…”
“No way! I need details, all of them!”
“Well…”
Natasha! Dinner!
“I have to go,” Tawdry said, “but this is not over!”
***
Vroom? an old Peterbilt truck revved as it sat in a remote corner of a truck stop in the middle of nowhere.
“Still nothing,” the little girl huffed. “How can an entire universe disappear?”
Vroom… Vroom?
“Let’s hope not,” the girl replied, “Even so, he wouldn’t abandon us!”
“What?” the spirit asked with alarm.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” the little girl replied.
“Doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“Okay,” the little girl replied, “There is a remote chance that our boss has had to… um… cease operations and relocate. It hasn’t happened in a really long time, but it has happened.”
“Does that mean that I’m stuck?!?”
“No, of course not. It just means we might have to wait until we’re collected.”
Vroom.
“He won’t forget us!”
VroOoom…
“Hey! Don’t even start talking like that! We’ve done good work for the boss on several worlds. He won’t just discard us!”
“What do you mean, discard?”
“Just watch your anime, weeb,” the little girl snapped. “He hasn’t abandoned us, and he won’t forget us. He’s just… um…”
Vroom.
“I don’t know, alright!” the little girl replied angrily, “I have no idea where those others came from. All I know is that we didn’t squish them.”
VvvrOom.
“If he had another team, I would know about it!”
Vroom?
“I just would, okay! WE AREN’T GETTING REPLACED!... I’m… I’m going to get some air, maybe a Coke or something.”
The little girl threw open the door to the cab angrily and hopped out.
“Hey!” the spirit yelled, “See if they have any audiobooks!”
***
We’ve been abandoned… the little girl thought to herself as she prowled the truck stop trying not to panic.
She had to keep it together for Truck-Kun… and their new companion. If she fell apart, Truck-Kun would, too, and who knows what the spirit would do. He was two seconds from making another run for it as it was.
She paused by a rack of dusty old audiobooks on CD. Now that wasn’t something she had seen in a bit.
Thankful for the distraction, she started perusing the titles. Some of them were things she hadn’t already read (or listened to).
She grabbed a few for herself and then started looking for something appropriately nerdy for her new guest.
She might have murdered them in cold blood, but that was no reason not to be a good host.
She was so distracted by her own troubles and the audiobooks that she didn’t notice that she was being followed until the guy’s shadow fell around her.
She then became aware of his oily aura and smiled.
All work and no play…
“Hello, little girl…”
She looked up at him with an innocent expression and doe-like eyes.
“Hi.”
***
Truck-Kun quietly ground his gears as he watched a beat-up RV pull onto the highway.
Vroom, he grumbled as he put himself in gear and started to follow.
“What?” the spirit asked.
About half an hour later, Truck-Kun pulled over next to an RV that was parked on the side of the highway.
The door opened, and the little girl hopped out, holding a paper bag.
Vroom, the truck revved disapprovingly.
“Such a nice man,” the little girl said impishly as she plopped into the driver’s seat, and the truck drove away.
“Are those bloodstains?” the spirit asked as he pointed at the bag.
“What answer would you prefer?” the girl asked as she pulled out a half-filled fifth of vodka and most of a pack of smokes graciously donated by the nice man in the RV (it wasn’t like he was going to be needing them).
Vroom.
“I know I quit,” the girl replied as she put one in her mouth. “Give me a break. My nerves are shot.”
Vroom.
“Yes, shot enough to smoke menthols!”
The little girl lit up and drew heavily on the cigarette, exhaling a lovely smoke ring.
Vroom!
“So, crack a window!”
Vroom! Vroom! Vrooooom!
“You can’t smell, and you know it! So please, cut me some slack. I’ve had a bad day,” she said as she turned up the bottle of vodka like it was Juicy Juice.
Vroom!
“I know you’ve had a bad day, too,” the girl said as she wiped her mouth, “Want me to get you some fuel treatment at the next stop, maybe some starting fluid?”
Vroom.
“Okay, and a new air freshener, maybe some of those fuzzy dice you like? Deal?”
Vroom!… Vroom?
“As a matter of fact,” the little girl said as she pulled out a wad of bills. “the nice man did keep his cash on him.”
Vroom! the truck revved happily.
***
“Jesus!” Gary Martin, formerly Detective Martin, winced as he looked inside an abandoned old RV the following day.
“Say what you want about her,” Claudia Smythe said as she ate a corn dog. “but she is thorough.”
“We think the girl did this?”
“Matches her MO,” Claudia shrugged as she flicked the corn dog stick aside. “And we have surveillance footage at the truck stop. The asshole was talking to someone small, the cameras didn’t get a good shot of the kid, and eyewitnesses state that he was in the company of his ‘daughter’ when he left.”
“You said this was her MO. She’s done this before?” Gary asked.
“She rolls guys like this for their pocket change. We’re not sure if it’s how they finance their operations or if she just does it for fun, but this is the third one this year.”
A well-dressed and very young man in sunglasses approached the pair.
“Sir Lark,” Claudia said without turning around. “We have an ID on this guy yet?”
“Boris Veetch,” the young man said. “a registered sex offender with an active warrant for skipping out on his parole.”
“Yeah, she likes those,” Claudia shrugged. “Nobody will mourn his passing. He was easily ensnared, and he probably was carrying cash.”
“And she is professional bait,” Gary shrugged. “He was slime, but I’m not sure even he deserved what happened to him, though. What sort of monster would do something like this?”
“You just answered your own question,” Claudia replied, “a monster.”
“If you think this is bad," Lark said as he started photographing the scene, "You should see what a pack of goblins will do if they get the chance."
“Considering what we now know,” Claudia said with a shrug, “this trail is beyond cold. Even if they couldn’t do the whole disappearing act, they could be in any of several states by now. We’ve lost them… again.”
She looked over at Gary.
“Just as well,” she added, “We need to get you processed and briefed… agent.”
She smiled.
“Welcome to the Temporal Protection Agency.”
***
Deep within the deepest dungeon on Asteria Prime, a monstrous giant of a spider fidgeted uncomfortably.
“H-hello… boss,” it said nervously, “T-to w-what do we owe the honor of your visit?”
Frostie smiled an icy smile that filled the giant spider with horror.
“Oh, I was just in the area and thought I would give my friends here,” she said, indicating The Great Erectus, The Herald, and Cuddles, “a tour.”
“O-of c-course!” Log’Sharingoth LXXXIII stammered as their legs twitched miserably. “W-would you like a guide?”
“That would be lovely,” Frostie smiled. “Where’s Pantsu? I think she and The Big Guy over here would get along famously.”
“S-she isn’t available, boss.”
“Not even for me?”
“I-I apologize,” Log’Sharingoth said nervously, “but she isn’t here right now?”
“Well, where did she go?”
“I-I’m not sure, boss…”
“Okay, how about Nova?”
“S-she’s not here, either.”
“Shai-Vai-Loshara?”
“Um…”
“Steve?”
Log’Sharingoth made a whining bubbling noise as they shrank away.
“Why don’t you just tell me who is missing and exactly what the fuck is going on?” Frostie said with an angry gleam in her eye.
***
“…and I don’t know where anyone is!” Log’Sharingoth wailed miserably. “And everything is going wrong, the players almost rioted, and the physics engine threatened to quit! I didn’t know what to doooo!!!”
“And at no point did it occur to you to call me?” Frostie asked with a frightening edge to her voice.
“Pantsu told me not to!!!”
Frostie let out a long-suffering sigh. Of course, the current Log’Sharingoth wouldn’t go against Pantsu. It was horribly unfair to expect otherwise.
“I’m not going to come down on you because of what she did,” Frostie said a bit more gently. “However, since I now clearly know something is amiss, anything you can tell me will be of great value.”
“I-I’m not in trouble?”
“Not from me,” Frostie replied, “and Pantsu won’t be giving you any problems after I’m done with her.”
Frostie paused.
“So, this glitched Pantsu, where is it now?”
“Pantsu had me send it to Tartarus! I’m sorry! But she said to!”
“Sounds like the only sensible thing she’s done thus far,” Frostie replied.
“I didn’t want to, but she told me to do it!”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Frostie shrugged, “sounds like the perfect place for it. Wait. She told you?”
“Yes, Boss!”
“That means you have a line of communications?”
Log’Sharingoth’s multiple eyes all widened with fear.
“Y-yes?”
“Call her and tell her to give me her location… now.”
“Y-yes boss…”
Log’Sharingoth fell silent for a few moments.
“Um… Boss?”
“Let me guess,” Frostie said, “You can’t reach her, can you?”
“No, Boss.”
“Fine,” Frostie grumbled. “We do this the hard way. You’ve done a great job, considering everything.”
“I have?” Log’Sharingoth asked hopefully.
“You have,” Frostie said reassuringly. “Keep doing what you’re doing, and I’ll send a crisis response team to help out in the meantime.”
“A… A crisis response team?” Log’Sharingoth asked fearfully.
“You didn’t think you were getting off Scot free, did you?” Frostie laughed as she and her companions disappeared.
“…Ssssshit,” Log’Sharingoth hissed as she stalked off into the shadows.
***
The hominid looked around at their new surroundings.
Everything was white. The floor was white. The walls were white. The furniture was white…
Even the plants were white…
And everything was spotless.
“Interesting décor,” he said after a few seconds.
“They like to keep things tidy,” Frostie replied as she took a seat on one of the white couches.
“They?” the ape-man asked dubiously as Cuddles slipped one of her tentacles into The Herald’s hand.
He gently gripped it, causing Cuddles to suppress a delighted squeal.
“Playtime is over,” Frostie said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’m calling in my real operatives.”
“Jesus!” The Great Erectus exclaimed as a spotless white door opened, and a short, slender blue male amphibian-like biped in a white tunic bearing a three-headed dog embroidered with platinum thread walked in.
“You never told me you had… them!”
“Oh, you are familiar with their kind?”
“Those little monsters are responsible for the death of entire universes! Every time there is a parallel manifestation of those… monsters… entire galaxies die.”
“They can be a handful,” Frostie said pleasantly, “But I’ve found them incredibly valuable over the years… for that very same reason. These do come from much more reasonable stock from a much more reasonable ancestor... Maybe 'reasonable' is pushing it a little,” Frostie added with a laugh. "Reasonable for one of them, at least."
The blue amphibian smiled pleasantly and blinked his huge amber eyes, their pleasant hue replaced with a whirling madness of color.
“Hello, Hades,” Frostie said with a smile. “It has been quite a while. How have you been?”
“Bored,” Hades replied. “I trust you have come to alleviate that?”
“Most definitely,” Frostie replied. “Awaken the others…”
“…It’s time to hunt.”
submitted by slightlyassholic to HFY [link] [comments]
First Previous
***
Far across the multiverse in a tavern that, depending on one’s point of view, may or may not have actually existed, Zeb, Petunia, Bethany, Bergamot, Cleve, and Zilandrial sat at a large wooden table.
“Thank you, Shauna,” Bergamot said as a buxom woman in a low-cut peasant dress filled their mugs with a “magic” pitcher of beer that never ran dry. “You don’t have to serve us, you know.”
“Oh, I know,” Shauna replied brightly, “but I am a barmaid. Besides, I am not giving up my magic pitcher!” she added with a laugh. “The next batch of stew should be out in a second.”
“If it is as good as this bread…” Cleve said, holding up a thick, floppy piece of flatbread.
“Better!” Shauna exclaimed. “The pantry keeps filling back up with the best stuff! It’s almost a shame to make stew out of it, but the “fancy” chef went to the “fancy” place. We just figured out the roaster thingy, so we’ll be serving roast fowl as soon as the first batch cooks!”
Shauna paused and took a big drink from her pitcher.
“It turns out that you just had to talk to it. Weird… But no weirder than anything else, I suppose. You guys want to wait for the roast fowl?”
“We shouldn’t tary,” Zeb replied, “We don’t know how long this blessed peace will last.”
“Maybe it’s over?” Bethany the Tinker, now reunited with her beloved hat, asked.
“One can hope,” Zeb shrugged as he drank deeply from his tankard, “but I’m not delaying my repast, and neither should you. When you have fiends like Pantsu and F10w3rchy1d in play, things can get much worse than they already are.”
“Worse?!?” Bergamot exclaimed in horror.
***
Melinda the Stalwart was starting to believe that she should have stayed in bed today.
It was supposed to be her day off! Yeah, things were starting to get “weird,” but with all of those high-rated champions running around up north, it was probably going to get handled pretty quickly… and she was tired of chasing around after their scraps.
Her copper-rated ass was sitting this one out. The fact that everyone had gone gank-crazy just further confirmed that she had the right idea.
So, she decided to head back to the royal city of Raven’s Peak to take advantage of the richer and more powerful adventurers running off to the north, leaving all the armorers, enchanters, alchemists, and publicans in town behind.
It was nice not constantly getting shoved out of the way by stronger champions and ignored by shopkeepers far more interested in their gold than her silver for once.
It started out as such a lovely day, too!
She awoke in a lovely bed at the Blade and Wand, her absolute favorite inn, and a place where it was nearly impossible to get a room without a reservation or a lot more status than she had. There, she enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, at a discounted rate no less, and then went out for a day of crowd-free shopping!
It. Was. Bliss! There were no lines, and all of the storekeepers and craftsmen were all too happy to not only serve her and her meager purse but actually take time to chat!
Then, for lunch, she decided to visit the main branch of the adventurer’s guild, where she had an honest-to-gosh hamburger and fries along with some cider. After that, the plan was to get some training or maybe buy a buff or two…
Well, that was the plan, anyway.
What actually happened was that her wonderful burger, which she could never get under normal circumstances (they were always sold out before a copper-rated nobody could get their coppers taken), was interrupted by the most unholy screams she had ever heard inside or outside a dungeon.
She barely had time to stand before the doors to the guild offices exploded outward, and a demon covered in spikes and flames charged into the main hall.
That looks just like the guildmaster, was about all she had time to think before the fiend was on her.
***
“What’s happening?!?” Melinda cried in terror as she hurtled through absolutely nothing.
(Shh bby is ok)
“H-hello?” she called.
(😊)
“W-who are you? What happened to me?”
(Shh bby is ok)
“Am I… Am I dead?!?”
(is ok)
“Oh, it is definitely NOT okay! Who are you, and what the hell happened?”
The bedbug sighed with exasperation as it bounced off an invisible barrier again.
It had taken too long. The soul was starting to wake up.
Before much longer, it would start to get wiggly. It hated it when they began to wiggle.
Not knowing exactly what else to do, it let out a little ping.
It was answered by thousands of its kind! They couldn’t get through either, so they were having a rave! Awesome!
With a happy little (woo!), it zipped off towards the largest concentration of pings dragging an increasingly indignant Melinda the Stalwart along whether she wanted to or not.
***
“Hahaha!” Tawdry laughed into a prepaid “burner phone” her parents didn’t know about. “I can’t be-lieve you got me fucking grounded, you skank!”
“You’re still grounded?” Claudia snickered, “You diminished that badly?”
“It’s my parents. I managed to talk them down to a week without brain fucking them too hard. Besides, this cell is a lot nicer than the holes you used to stick me in. I’ll just do my time and be done with it. Besides, it will give our friends time to leave town since someone can’t manage to find a freaking truck.”
“First of all, fuck you,” Claudia laughed, “Second of all, thanks for getting that bastard to show up in a park and chase you across all of that nice soft turf. We got a lot of data we didn’t have before.”
“Like what?”
“Like its estimated mass, tire treads, a few lovely material samples where it nailed a park bench while trying to kill you… oh, and confirmation that it actually materializes and dematerializes. We can only assume the little bitch does the same thing. Too bad you couldn’t actually lay hands on her.”
“She was slippery, okay?” Tawdry chuckled.
“Hey,” Claudia said, “before Evika and her party ganked you, did they say anything about whom they were working for, or did they mention a little blonde girl named Petunia… or Pantsu?”
“No, they just said hi and blew my head off. Oh! Stephen did say that David finally confessed to Evika!”
“Took him long enough,” Claudia laughed, “Think he has a chance?”
“I know he has one,” Tawdry replied, “Evika’s gonna drop those drawers any second.”
“Good for her.”
“You said that Robert the Golden Peckerhead got sent back?”
“Yeah, and he is not adjusting well,” Claudia replied, “We have him in a ‘special’ inpatient facility where we are keeping the people with ‘issues’.”
“You got a lot of ‘patients’?”
“Not as many as you would think,” Claudia said, “Not everyone is happy about things, but there is something to be said about not having to sleep with a dagger under your pillow.”
“True that,” Tawdry replied. “High school is a pain, but being able to go out for pizza without an enraged wife (or husband) trying to shank you is nice.”
“Careful,” Claudia laughed, “Enraged spouses here might have a gun. You might want to go easy on the adultery this time around. There is also no magic contraception, and cure disease potions aren’t for sale in every town.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Tawdry groaned. “Doesn’t really matter, though. I might as well be a nun these days.”
“You can’t be diminished that much!”
“I am not into kids, and any man worth screwing isn’t into jailbait. I’m the exact opposite of screwed… Speaking of, you did mention a possible trip to Denmark?”
“Aren’t you grounded?”
“I won’t be next week!”
“And how will you explain your sex tourism to your folks?”
“Let me worry about my folks,” Tawdry replied, “You worry about that plane ticket!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Claudia replied with a chuckle.
Natasha! Come down for dinner!
“I’ll be right there!” Tawdry yelled.
“I gotta go. It’s taco night…”
Tawdry grinned.
“Speaking of tacos, did you get that camel toe fixed yet?”
“And just when we were even, too!” Claudia laughed. “Your little suggestion has everyone looking at my snatch… including me, and I know it’s bullshit!”
“Ha! Is your new fuck toy looking?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Detective Martin! I know you have a thing for that whole world-weary crusader vibe. And don’t think I didn’t see you checking out his ass, either.”
“I have the same problem you do,” Claudia sighed, “worse even. The sort of man I like certainly won’t be messing around with a ‘kid’, even if I am ‘legal’.”
“Yeah, you do like them a bit crusty, don’t you? How about finding some rich asshole who is having a mid-life crisis?”
“I will repeat myself. The sort of man I would like isn’t interested… and won’t be for years.”
“Meh. You’re not giving yourself enough credit… and giving them far too much of it.”
“Well, Slaker turned me down cold… goddamn chain of command…”
“No! You tried to give it up to Slaker?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time…”
“No way! I need details, all of them!”
“Well…”
Natasha! Dinner!
“I have to go,” Tawdry said, “but this is not over!”
***
Vroom? an old Peterbilt truck revved as it sat in a remote corner of a truck stop in the middle of nowhere.
“Still nothing,” the little girl huffed. “How can an entire universe disappear?”
Vroom… Vroom?
“Let’s hope not,” the girl replied, “Even so, he wouldn’t abandon us!”
“What?” the spirit asked with alarm.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” the little girl replied.
“Doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“Okay,” the little girl replied, “There is a remote chance that our boss has had to… um… cease operations and relocate. It hasn’t happened in a really long time, but it has happened.”
“Does that mean that I’m stuck?!?”
“No, of course not. It just means we might have to wait until we’re collected.”
Vroom.
“He won’t forget us!”
VroOoom…
“Hey! Don’t even start talking like that! We’ve done good work for the boss on several worlds. He won’t just discard us!”
“What do you mean, discard?”
“Just watch your anime, weeb,” the little girl snapped. “He hasn’t abandoned us, and he won’t forget us. He’s just… um…”
Vroom.
“I don’t know, alright!” the little girl replied angrily, “I have no idea where those others came from. All I know is that we didn’t squish them.”
VvvrOom.
“If he had another team, I would know about it!”
Vroom?
“I just would, okay! WE AREN’T GETTING REPLACED!... I’m… I’m going to get some air, maybe a Coke or something.”
The little girl threw open the door to the cab angrily and hopped out.
“Hey!” the spirit yelled, “See if they have any audiobooks!”
***
We’ve been abandoned… the little girl thought to herself as she prowled the truck stop trying not to panic.
She had to keep it together for Truck-Kun… and their new companion. If she fell apart, Truck-Kun would, too, and who knows what the spirit would do. He was two seconds from making another run for it as it was.
She paused by a rack of dusty old audiobooks on CD. Now that wasn’t something she had seen in a bit.
Thankful for the distraction, she started perusing the titles. Some of them were things she hadn’t already read (or listened to).
She grabbed a few for herself and then started looking for something appropriately nerdy for her new guest.
She might have murdered them in cold blood, but that was no reason not to be a good host.
She was so distracted by her own troubles and the audiobooks that she didn’t notice that she was being followed until the guy’s shadow fell around her.
She then became aware of his oily aura and smiled.
All work and no play…
“Hello, little girl…”
She looked up at him with an innocent expression and doe-like eyes.
“Hi.”
***
Truck-Kun quietly ground his gears as he watched a beat-up RV pull onto the highway.
Vroom, he grumbled as he put himself in gear and started to follow.
“What?” the spirit asked.
About half an hour later, Truck-Kun pulled over next to an RV that was parked on the side of the highway.
The door opened, and the little girl hopped out, holding a paper bag.
Vroom, the truck revved disapprovingly.
“Such a nice man,” the little girl said impishly as she plopped into the driver’s seat, and the truck drove away.
“Are those bloodstains?” the spirit asked as he pointed at the bag.
“What answer would you prefer?” the girl asked as she pulled out a half-filled fifth of vodka and most of a pack of smokes graciously donated by the nice man in the RV (it wasn’t like he was going to be needing them).
Vroom.
“I know I quit,” the girl replied as she put one in her mouth. “Give me a break. My nerves are shot.”
Vroom.
“Yes, shot enough to smoke menthols!”
The little girl lit up and drew heavily on the cigarette, exhaling a lovely smoke ring.
Vroom!
“So, crack a window!”
Vroom! Vroom! Vrooooom!
“You can’t smell, and you know it! So please, cut me some slack. I’ve had a bad day,” she said as she turned up the bottle of vodka like it was Juicy Juice.
Vroom!
“I know you’ve had a bad day, too,” the girl said as she wiped her mouth, “Want me to get you some fuel treatment at the next stop, maybe some starting fluid?”
Vroom.
“Okay, and a new air freshener, maybe some of those fuzzy dice you like? Deal?”
Vroom!… Vroom?
“As a matter of fact,” the little girl said as she pulled out a wad of bills. “the nice man did keep his cash on him.”
Vroom! the truck revved happily.
***
“Jesus!” Gary Martin, formerly Detective Martin, winced as he looked inside an abandoned old RV the following day.
“Say what you want about her,” Claudia Smythe said as she ate a corn dog. “but she is thorough.”
“We think the girl did this?”
“Matches her MO,” Claudia shrugged as she flicked the corn dog stick aside. “And we have surveillance footage at the truck stop. The asshole was talking to someone small, the cameras didn’t get a good shot of the kid, and eyewitnesses state that he was in the company of his ‘daughter’ when he left.”
“You said this was her MO. She’s done this before?” Gary asked.
“She rolls guys like this for their pocket change. We’re not sure if it’s how they finance their operations or if she just does it for fun, but this is the third one this year.”
A well-dressed and very young man in sunglasses approached the pair.
“Sir Lark,” Claudia said without turning around. “We have an ID on this guy yet?”
“Boris Veetch,” the young man said. “a registered sex offender with an active warrant for skipping out on his parole.”
“Yeah, she likes those,” Claudia shrugged. “Nobody will mourn his passing. He was easily ensnared, and he probably was carrying cash.”
“And she is professional bait,” Gary shrugged. “He was slime, but I’m not sure even he deserved what happened to him, though. What sort of monster would do something like this?”
“You just answered your own question,” Claudia replied, “a monster.”
“If you think this is bad," Lark said as he started photographing the scene, "You should see what a pack of goblins will do if they get the chance."
“Considering what we now know,” Claudia said with a shrug, “this trail is beyond cold. Even if they couldn’t do the whole disappearing act, they could be in any of several states by now. We’ve lost them… again.”
She looked over at Gary.
“Just as well,” she added, “We need to get you processed and briefed… agent.”
She smiled.
“Welcome to the Temporal Protection Agency.”
***
Deep within the deepest dungeon on Asteria Prime, a monstrous giant of a spider fidgeted uncomfortably.
“H-hello… boss,” it said nervously, “T-to w-what do we owe the honor of your visit?”
Frostie smiled an icy smile that filled the giant spider with horror.
“Oh, I was just in the area and thought I would give my friends here,” she said, indicating The Great Erectus, The Herald, and Cuddles, “a tour.”
“O-of c-course!” Log’Sharingoth LXXXIII stammered as their legs twitched miserably. “W-would you like a guide?”
“That would be lovely,” Frostie smiled. “Where’s Pantsu? I think she and The Big Guy over here would get along famously.”
“S-she isn’t available, boss.”
“Not even for me?”
“I-I apologize,” Log’Sharingoth said nervously, “but she isn’t here right now?”
“Well, where did she go?”
“I-I’m not sure, boss…”
“Okay, how about Nova?”
“S-she’s not here, either.”
“Shai-Vai-Loshara?”
“Um…”
“Steve?”
Log’Sharingoth made a whining bubbling noise as they shrank away.
“Why don’t you just tell me who is missing and exactly what the fuck is going on?” Frostie said with an angry gleam in her eye.
***
“…and I don’t know where anyone is!” Log’Sharingoth wailed miserably. “And everything is going wrong, the players almost rioted, and the physics engine threatened to quit! I didn’t know what to doooo!!!”
“And at no point did it occur to you to call me?” Frostie asked with a frightening edge to her voice.
“Pantsu told me not to!!!”
Frostie let out a long-suffering sigh. Of course, the current Log’Sharingoth wouldn’t go against Pantsu. It was horribly unfair to expect otherwise.
“I’m not going to come down on you because of what she did,” Frostie said a bit more gently. “However, since I now clearly know something is amiss, anything you can tell me will be of great value.”
“I-I’m not in trouble?”
“Not from me,” Frostie replied, “and Pantsu won’t be giving you any problems after I’m done with her.”
Frostie paused.
“So, this glitched Pantsu, where is it now?”
“Pantsu had me send it to Tartarus! I’m sorry! But she said to!”
“Sounds like the only sensible thing she’s done thus far,” Frostie replied.
“I didn’t want to, but she told me to do it!”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Frostie shrugged, “sounds like the perfect place for it. Wait. She told you?”
“Yes, Boss!”
“That means you have a line of communications?”
Log’Sharingoth’s multiple eyes all widened with fear.
“Y-yes?”
“Call her and tell her to give me her location… now.”
“Y-yes boss…”
Log’Sharingoth fell silent for a few moments.
“Um… Boss?”
“Let me guess,” Frostie said, “You can’t reach her, can you?”
“No, Boss.”
“Fine,” Frostie grumbled. “We do this the hard way. You’ve done a great job, considering everything.”
“I have?” Log’Sharingoth asked hopefully.
“You have,” Frostie said reassuringly. “Keep doing what you’re doing, and I’ll send a crisis response team to help out in the meantime.”
“A… A crisis response team?” Log’Sharingoth asked fearfully.
“You didn’t think you were getting off Scot free, did you?” Frostie laughed as she and her companions disappeared.
“…Ssssshit,” Log’Sharingoth hissed as she stalked off into the shadows.
***
The hominid looked around at their new surroundings.
Everything was white. The floor was white. The walls were white. The furniture was white…
Even the plants were white…
And everything was spotless.
“Interesting décor,” he said after a few seconds.
“They like to keep things tidy,” Frostie replied as she took a seat on one of the white couches.
“They?” the ape-man asked dubiously as Cuddles slipped one of her tentacles into The Herald’s hand.
He gently gripped it, causing Cuddles to suppress a delighted squeal.
“Playtime is over,” Frostie said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’m calling in my real operatives.”
“Jesus!” The Great Erectus exclaimed as a spotless white door opened, and a short, slender blue male amphibian-like biped in a white tunic bearing a three-headed dog embroidered with platinum thread walked in.
“You never told me you had… them!”
“Oh, you are familiar with their kind?”
“Those little monsters are responsible for the death of entire universes! Every time there is a parallel manifestation of those… monsters… entire galaxies die.”
“They can be a handful,” Frostie said pleasantly, “But I’ve found them incredibly valuable over the years… for that very same reason. These do come from much more reasonable stock from a much more reasonable ancestor... Maybe 'reasonable' is pushing it a little,” Frostie added with a laugh. "Reasonable for one of them, at least."
The blue amphibian smiled pleasantly and blinked his huge amber eyes, their pleasant hue replaced with a whirling madness of color.
“Hello, Hades,” Frostie said with a smile. “It has been quite a while. How have you been?”
“Bored,” Hades replied. “I trust you have come to alleviate that?”
“Most definitely,” Frostie replied. “Awaken the others…”
“…It’s time to hunt.”
2023.03.21 15:11 Right-Math My partner is still grieving, but I want a new dog.
TLDR at the end, I just added a lot of context because I know it's a tough situation.
We had to put our dog down a week ago today. We had the dog for a little over a year, and we knew we were going to have to make the decision a couple weeks in advance. I grew up with dogs, but this was my partner's first. We cried a lot leading up to the day and spent the whole day spoiling him and bonding with him before he passed. It was terribly sad, and I miss him so much. He was an incredibly special dog.
We had always agreed to spend some time and maybe get another dog over the summer (it's March). Getting another dog was a given, so that's not the issue.
Because we prefer to rescue instead of adopting puppies, we waited over a year for our first dog. After a few days of mourning, I realized it might be a good idea to start submitting applications and getting on waiting lists with local rescues. I typed "[city] [breed] rescue" into google to start my research. The third result was the local shelter's page for a specific dog.
Now I'll definitely admit that in missing my boy, I'd been seeking out content and interactions with other dogs. I found a creator on TikTok that has a dog that looks just like he did. I watched all her videos from the last 6 months. I went to a dog-friendly bar and scratched so many ears and wiggly butts. I miss my boy. I have so much love to give a dog who isn't here anymore. It helps to vent that love out.
Here's the issue: I felt immediately drawn to the photos of the shelter dog. Something about his little face. I couldn't stop thinking about him. I had a few drinks a couple days later and pressed the "request more info" button. They emailed me his story: a good Samaritan saw him get hit by a car. He survived his injuries. They nicknamed him "The Warrior." He's a staff favorite, and he loves everyone.
I shouldn't have asked for more info, because now I'm even more drawn to him. I asked my partner about what he thought, and he firmly (and very nicely) asked for more time. He's still grieving. But everyday that I come home to an empty home makes my sweet boy's absence so much more apparent. I have depression, and I struggle to get out of bed without a furry reminder about the importance of having breakfast in a timely manner. No one could ever replace my little cherub. I really don't think The Warrior would be a "rebound" of sorts. I was planning on waiting, but I look at the little warrior's photos everyday.
I love my partner and want to respect his grieving process, but I'm struggling on my own and could use the companionship. I'm a dog person in general, so I'll always want to have a dog around. I just didn't realize how strong the absence would make my loneliness. I also think growing up with multiple dogs better prepared me for making peace with the loss, but also always having another dog around to help process the loneliness turns out to be an important factor it seems.
So what's the best solution here?
TL;DR our sweet baby boy passed away a week ago. I stumbled upon a shelter dog that I'm interested in adopting. My partner wants more time to live without a dog, but I realized I need the companionship and found a dog that I'm unusually drawn to. Should I try to find another way to cope, or is there a better solution with compromise that doesn't interfere with his grieving process?
submitted by Right-Math to Advice [link] [comments]
We had to put our dog down a week ago today. We had the dog for a little over a year, and we knew we were going to have to make the decision a couple weeks in advance. I grew up with dogs, but this was my partner's first. We cried a lot leading up to the day and spent the whole day spoiling him and bonding with him before he passed. It was terribly sad, and I miss him so much. He was an incredibly special dog.
We had always agreed to spend some time and maybe get another dog over the summer (it's March). Getting another dog was a given, so that's not the issue.
Because we prefer to rescue instead of adopting puppies, we waited over a year for our first dog. After a few days of mourning, I realized it might be a good idea to start submitting applications and getting on waiting lists with local rescues. I typed "[city] [breed] rescue" into google to start my research. The third result was the local shelter's page for a specific dog.
Now I'll definitely admit that in missing my boy, I'd been seeking out content and interactions with other dogs. I found a creator on TikTok that has a dog that looks just like he did. I watched all her videos from the last 6 months. I went to a dog-friendly bar and scratched so many ears and wiggly butts. I miss my boy. I have so much love to give a dog who isn't here anymore. It helps to vent that love out.
Here's the issue: I felt immediately drawn to the photos of the shelter dog. Something about his little face. I couldn't stop thinking about him. I had a few drinks a couple days later and pressed the "request more info" button. They emailed me his story: a good Samaritan saw him get hit by a car. He survived his injuries. They nicknamed him "The Warrior." He's a staff favorite, and he loves everyone.
I shouldn't have asked for more info, because now I'm even more drawn to him. I asked my partner about what he thought, and he firmly (and very nicely) asked for more time. He's still grieving. But everyday that I come home to an empty home makes my sweet boy's absence so much more apparent. I have depression, and I struggle to get out of bed without a furry reminder about the importance of having breakfast in a timely manner. No one could ever replace my little cherub. I really don't think The Warrior would be a "rebound" of sorts. I was planning on waiting, but I look at the little warrior's photos everyday.
I love my partner and want to respect his grieving process, but I'm struggling on my own and could use the companionship. I'm a dog person in general, so I'll always want to have a dog around. I just didn't realize how strong the absence would make my loneliness. I also think growing up with multiple dogs better prepared me for making peace with the loss, but also always having another dog around to help process the loneliness turns out to be an important factor it seems.
So what's the best solution here?
TL;DR our sweet baby boy passed away a week ago. I stumbled upon a shelter dog that I'm interested in adopting. My partner wants more time to live without a dog, but I realized I need the companionship and found a dog that I'm unusually drawn to. Should I try to find another way to cope, or is there a better solution with compromise that doesn't interfere with his grieving process?
2023.03.21 00:44 dgkidd407 Nattali Rize Liberate Tour w/ Kumar & Minori.
 | submitted by dgkidd407 to calireggae [link] [comments] |
2023.03.20 19:10 kommandarskye EV Road Trip Report: Mid-South to Florida
This sub was really helpful during my purchase process so I thought I would share some feedback in case it helps others considering buying one and/or taking a long trip in one.
Purchase/QMerit Installation
For context, we purchased a new Bolt EV 2023 (2LT) with the infotainment package in Feb. Got very lucky, all the local dealers in Memphis who had listed inventory (of EUVs/EVs) had already been spoken for, some of them still in transit and paid for sight unseen, and nobody seemed especially interested in helping me order one - this seemed to be true out to a 250 mile radius, and even further out for most of Jan. I had one dealer in Arkansas close-by that had an EV en route that they had not yet listed, so after finding a used EUV to test-drive, I put down a deposit and purchased at MSRP with no nonsense add-ons when it came off the train a few weeks later. (Very smooth sales process, feel free to DM me if you want more info)!
I had had a mild preference for the EUV, since the plan was for this to be our daily commuter with two kids in car-seats - but in the end, we find the EV is more than spacious enough. Zero regrets, I kind of prefer the EV's look anyway and while the 3 inches of leg-space would be nice, the better efficiency is worth it.
QMerit install process was smooth, it took a few weeks but Level 1 charging was just fine for daily work/school/shopping (20-30 miles), I think it was adding about 48 miles in 12 hours overnight, the battery never really fell below 50%. The installer quoted a $1700 non-standard install at first but once I e-mailed QMerit customer service about it, they said they would cover it completely. I got them to install an Emporia charger that I'm happy with, had it hardwired which is probably a bit overkill but it does indeed charge at around 11.5Kw. The only real use for the level-2 is getting back from a weekend away close to empty and needing a full charge before an unusually busy weekday of driving; I suppose it extends the life of the dual-level charger which is useful when charging at campgrounds or when staying at others' houses.
Road Trip We took our first long-distance road trip in the car last week for spring break, about 800 miles each way to visit family in Florida.
A few observations in case they are useful to others planning to buy a Bolt and/or to take a long trip in one, esp. in the South:
1) A Better Route Planner is very useful: not sure the premium features are worth it or necessary (but I'm happy to support the developer!). I started out quite conservative (requested arriving SoC at 10%) and pushed that down to 5% on the way back: I think it makes sense to keep it higher because it seems to be around 6-8% that the range will drop to "low" and you get a reduced propulsion message, which you might find stressful (we did the first time, but I believe you should still have 10 miles left at that point).
2) Plugshare seems to be the best place to get up-to-date reviews (most of the major charging stations had check-ins within days of us). Seems to be good etiquette to update if things go well (there were some chargers that had not been checked in for weeks or months and I was concerned about depending on them in case there was some issue) as well as if things go poorly. Especially useful if you are in urgent need of charging, as it will turn up wall outlets and level 2 chargers that are not always in ABRP's route plan.
3) Driving in this region (TN/MS/AL/GA/FL) a lot of your stops will be at Electrify America, often at Walmarts. We never had problems finding a working stall but it was typical for 1-2 out of 4 to have some kind of issue (usually already documented on Plugshare). It charges very quickly under 50% (55 Kw), so the ideal situation is to arrive with <20% charge and get to 80% within an hour. EVGo also worked well the one time we used it. It makes sense to get the monthly plan even for a single trip, I think I saved over $8 on one long charge alone.
4) We typically don't drive continuously for more than 4 hours anyway, so the stopping to charge was not generally an issue. The problem is that you are forced to stop at, well, these particular locations - at best, strip malls in the suburbs of big cities (Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Ormond Beach etc.), sometimes just a convenience store or gas station. There are usually a few food options but you are limited to what happens to be available if you want to eat while charging. With small kids in particular, you may only have 1-2 options that can be walked to across a parking lot: twice on our trip, I dropped the family off 0.5-1 mile and walked back over, which wouldn't be so bad if there were pedestrian walkways or cross-walks but there aren't in such places. In contrast, on our ICE road trips, we would detour to state parks for a hike and picnic (e.g.) or stop at any restaurant we wanted, whereas we felt a lot of pressure with the Bolt (for time-efficiency's sake) to make our charging stops our only eating/rest-stops because of how long they were. (To be clear, not all charging stops are long.)
5) Plugshare will also generally give you info on hotel chargers (Kayak and other platforms will let you filter hotels in an area by "EV Charging" amenity), typically level 2 ClipperCreek chargers that will get you a full charge overnight. They are not reservable in advance, and hotels don't always enforce a policy not to park ICE cars there. The first time we stayed at one, four Tesla spots and two ClipperCreek spots right by the entrance were taken up by ICE cars, and we arrived late (after 11PM)... luckily while I was unloading, I happened to notice someone come out for a smoke by his car and he moved it to another spot. The second time, there was clearer signage and the EV spots were less conveniently located so the spot was open despite arriving late in the evening. But if two people happened to need a single charger overnight, there is no obvious way to communicate with one another (perhaps through actively checking in on the Plugshare app and DMing there, leaving a note with the front-desk or a sign on your dashboard with your phone number). It worked out for us this time but I would not rely on getting a full charge at such places in the future.
6) We had no problem stuffing the trunk with enough stuff for a week: three carry-on suitcases, plus bags of books, board-games, sports-gear, swimming/snorkel gear, a couple of violins). We could probably pack more efficiently so I don't see cargo-space as the limiting factor for the trip for a family of four.
Tl;dr. Overall, the trip went well - but I don't think we will be taking the Bolt on a multi-day road trip (400+ mi). Its principally the flexibility of being able to take our long stops wherever we would like that I miss about our ICE road-trips, as well as sleep wherever we would like. Everything worked out as well as it could have for us in every other respect, and obviously we saved a great deal on gas even with paid DCFC. So while I feel slightly uneasy about how close we might have been to losing a few hours here or there due to charging issues (waiting, technical issues, not getting a hotel EV spot etc.), I think the infrastructure is already good enough and improving fast enough, that those concerns are not really the constraint.
What I'd love to see across the South are multiple (2-4) L3 chargers at every interstate rest stop, in main streets in towns on state highways/routes that are not interstates, and at local/state/national parks, as well as at more hotels - that is, enough density of chargers that one can be nearly as thoughtless about them as we are as ICE drivers about plotting routes without thinking of gas station. Neither commercial demand nor local/state/federal policy seem to be quite there yet but as EV adoption continues (esp. of non-Teslas!), I feel optimistic.
submitted by kommandarskye to BoltEV [link] [comments]
Purchase/QMerit Installation
For context, we purchased a new Bolt EV 2023 (2LT) with the infotainment package in Feb. Got very lucky, all the local dealers in Memphis who had listed inventory (of EUVs/EVs) had already been spoken for, some of them still in transit and paid for sight unseen, and nobody seemed especially interested in helping me order one - this seemed to be true out to a 250 mile radius, and even further out for most of Jan. I had one dealer in Arkansas close-by that had an EV en route that they had not yet listed, so after finding a used EUV to test-drive, I put down a deposit and purchased at MSRP with no nonsense add-ons when it came off the train a few weeks later. (Very smooth sales process, feel free to DM me if you want more info)!
I had had a mild preference for the EUV, since the plan was for this to be our daily commuter with two kids in car-seats - but in the end, we find the EV is more than spacious enough. Zero regrets, I kind of prefer the EV's look anyway and while the 3 inches of leg-space would be nice, the better efficiency is worth it.
QMerit install process was smooth, it took a few weeks but Level 1 charging was just fine for daily work/school/shopping (20-30 miles), I think it was adding about 48 miles in 12 hours overnight, the battery never really fell below 50%. The installer quoted a $1700 non-standard install at first but once I e-mailed QMerit customer service about it, they said they would cover it completely. I got them to install an Emporia charger that I'm happy with, had it hardwired which is probably a bit overkill but it does indeed charge at around 11.5Kw. The only real use for the level-2 is getting back from a weekend away close to empty and needing a full charge before an unusually busy weekday of driving; I suppose it extends the life of the dual-level charger which is useful when charging at campgrounds or when staying at others' houses.
Road Trip We took our first long-distance road trip in the car last week for spring break, about 800 miles each way to visit family in Florida.
A few observations in case they are useful to others planning to buy a Bolt and/or to take a long trip in one, esp. in the South:
1) A Better Route Planner is very useful: not sure the premium features are worth it or necessary (but I'm happy to support the developer!). I started out quite conservative (requested arriving SoC at 10%) and pushed that down to 5% on the way back: I think it makes sense to keep it higher because it seems to be around 6-8% that the range will drop to "low" and you get a reduced propulsion message, which you might find stressful (we did the first time, but I believe you should still have 10 miles left at that point).
2) Plugshare seems to be the best place to get up-to-date reviews (most of the major charging stations had check-ins within days of us). Seems to be good etiquette to update if things go well (there were some chargers that had not been checked in for weeks or months and I was concerned about depending on them in case there was some issue) as well as if things go poorly. Especially useful if you are in urgent need of charging, as it will turn up wall outlets and level 2 chargers that are not always in ABRP's route plan.
3) Driving in this region (TN/MS/AL/GA/FL) a lot of your stops will be at Electrify America, often at Walmarts. We never had problems finding a working stall but it was typical for 1-2 out of 4 to have some kind of issue (usually already documented on Plugshare). It charges very quickly under 50% (55 Kw), so the ideal situation is to arrive with <20% charge and get to 80% within an hour. EVGo also worked well the one time we used it. It makes sense to get the monthly plan even for a single trip, I think I saved over $8 on one long charge alone.
4) We typically don't drive continuously for more than 4 hours anyway, so the stopping to charge was not generally an issue. The problem is that you are forced to stop at, well, these particular locations - at best, strip malls in the suburbs of big cities (Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Ormond Beach etc.), sometimes just a convenience store or gas station. There are usually a few food options but you are limited to what happens to be available if you want to eat while charging. With small kids in particular, you may only have 1-2 options that can be walked to across a parking lot: twice on our trip, I dropped the family off 0.5-1 mile and walked back over, which wouldn't be so bad if there were pedestrian walkways or cross-walks but there aren't in such places. In contrast, on our ICE road trips, we would detour to state parks for a hike and picnic (e.g.) or stop at any restaurant we wanted, whereas we felt a lot of pressure with the Bolt (for time-efficiency's sake) to make our charging stops our only eating/rest-stops because of how long they were. (To be clear, not all charging stops are long.)
5) Plugshare will also generally give you info on hotel chargers (Kayak and other platforms will let you filter hotels in an area by "EV Charging" amenity), typically level 2 ClipperCreek chargers that will get you a full charge overnight. They are not reservable in advance, and hotels don't always enforce a policy not to park ICE cars there. The first time we stayed at one, four Tesla spots and two ClipperCreek spots right by the entrance were taken up by ICE cars, and we arrived late (after 11PM)... luckily while I was unloading, I happened to notice someone come out for a smoke by his car and he moved it to another spot. The second time, there was clearer signage and the EV spots were less conveniently located so the spot was open despite arriving late in the evening. But if two people happened to need a single charger overnight, there is no obvious way to communicate with one another (perhaps through actively checking in on the Plugshare app and DMing there, leaving a note with the front-desk or a sign on your dashboard with your phone number). It worked out for us this time but I would not rely on getting a full charge at such places in the future.
6) We had no problem stuffing the trunk with enough stuff for a week: three carry-on suitcases, plus bags of books, board-games, sports-gear, swimming/snorkel gear, a couple of violins). We could probably pack more efficiently so I don't see cargo-space as the limiting factor for the trip for a family of four.
Tl;dr. Overall, the trip went well - but I don't think we will be taking the Bolt on a multi-day road trip (400+ mi). Its principally the flexibility of being able to take our long stops wherever we would like that I miss about our ICE road-trips, as well as sleep wherever we would like. Everything worked out as well as it could have for us in every other respect, and obviously we saved a great deal on gas even with paid DCFC. So while I feel slightly uneasy about how close we might have been to losing a few hours here or there due to charging issues (waiting, technical issues, not getting a hotel EV spot etc.), I think the infrastructure is already good enough and improving fast enough, that those concerns are not really the constraint.
What I'd love to see across the South are multiple (2-4) L3 chargers at every interstate rest stop, in main streets in towns on state highways/routes that are not interstates, and at local/state/national parks, as well as at more hotels - that is, enough density of chargers that one can be nearly as thoughtless about them as we are as ICE drivers about plotting routes without thinking of gas station. Neither commercial demand nor local/state/federal policy seem to be quite there yet but as EV adoption continues (esp. of non-Teslas!), I feel optimistic.
2023.03.20 16:00 _call-me-al_ [Mon, Mar 20 2023] TL;DR — Crypto news you missed in the last 24 hours on Reddit
Bitcoin
WORLD WAKING UP to the fact that a bank deposit is an unsecured loan to a leveraged counterparty, that the FDIC insurance fund only has $128bn, that total deposits in US commercial banks=$17.6 trn, &...here's the big one: that money itself is a confidence game (always has been).Comments Link
This is 1btc in US Dollars
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btc is almost 30 k now it is the season to see comments that say "If I hAd A cHaNcE i WoUlD bOuGhT cHeAp" lol no you wouldn't.
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ethereum
The KZG Ceremony Lobby Has Been Processed, 83,326 Contributions So Far.Comments Link
Microsoft Working on New Ethereum Wallet Amid Foray Into Crypto and NFTs: Report
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Ledger seed phrase doesn't include Ethereum?
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CryptoCurrency
I went to the supermarket here in Venezuela and paid directly with BitcoinComments Link
Bitcoin Thrives in Chaos, Breaks Above $28,000 For First Time Since June
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A Series of Unfortunate Events for Algorand Investors.
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btc
Call to arms, get on social media and fight for what you believe in!Comments Link
The Bitcoin Cash Podcast #73: Collapsing Banks & USDC Depegs feat. Dinopawnz
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Bitgree.com - A service to buy products with BCH or earn BCH
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SatoshiStreetBets
Bitcoin Marketing TeamComments Link
Monopol Inu
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Most Promising So-Fi Project of 2023? REPUBLIK Raises 3.5Million USD to bring its valuation to 75M? AIRDROP Incoming??????
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2023.03.20 13:31 JCMS85 Meta Monday 3/20/23: Will The (Inner) Circle Be Unbroken?
19 GT+ events this week with at least 20 players and 5 rounds. There were multiple other GTs that fell below 20 players that I did not count in the data below, sorry. All mistakes are my own.
It was a crazy weekend of 40K and I hope everyone had a good time.
Here is my new Website, Check it out : https://40kmetamonday.wordpress.com/2023/03/20/meta-monday-3-20-23/
It has the full data set and the Season Win% with Regional Data!
Please support me on Patreon at Meta Monday
Iberian Open Talavera. Pepino, Spain. 84 players. 5 rounds.
Top 4 did a day 3 playoff.
Battle Ready Wargaming Major Mayhem. Valdosta, GA. 58 players. 5 rounds.
The Great Game. Westminster, MD. 51 players. 6 rounds.
CentAR Presents: The March Madness. Jacksonville, AR. 48 players. 5 rounds.
Battlefield Birmingham 20. England. 46 players. 5 rounds
Free State GT. Holton, KS. 42 players. 5 rounds.
G.O.T- Gruyere Open Turnament. Switzerland. 40 players. 5 rounds.
WTC Rules. Found on Tourneykeeper.net
Team arKcanite: Planet arKcanite at Comicon 2023. Kansas City, MO. 40 players. 5 rounds.
Dropzone Games Central Island Open. Nanaimo, Canada. 39 players. 5 rounds.
OP’s 1st GT Smash. Santa Rosa, CA. 38 players. 5 rounds.
WARZONE WELLINGTON 2. Wellington, New Zealand. 35 players. 5 rounds.
Pergotuz LCOTSV 3. Hungary. 34 players. 5 rounds.
WTC
Kelpie Crusade GT 2023. Scotland. 32 players. 5 rounds.
Carnage- Season 1- Round 1 – A War Awakens. England. 31 players. 5 rounds.
War Of The Roses 2023. England. 30 players. 5 rounds.
WTC
Alpine Cup Singles-Warm Up. Austria. 26 players. 5 rounds.
WTC rules. Found on Tourneykeeper.net
Energy City Open. Estevan, Canada. 26 players. 5 rounds.
Calling The Banners. Moorabbin, Australia. 25 players. 5 rounds.
Games N Friends March GT. Springfield, MA. 24 players. 5 rounds.
Takeaways:
Dark Angels/Angles won 5 events this week. With a 64% weekend win rate, they have now entered the Nid/Quin broken zone... 35% of their players this weekend went X-0/X-1.
Chaos Daemons are very good. 30% of their players placing well and winning 4 events with an over all win rate of 55%
Guard as the most popular faction of the week had a healthy 50% weekend win rate and won 2 events.
Necrons had a great weekend with a 53% win rate, an event win with decent play rate and a good number oftop placings.
Ad Mec, Quins, Deathwatch and now Codex CSM seem to have been abandoned by their player base. All with very little play and not much to show for those who stuck it out.
Thousand Sons with the help of Daemons won the biggest event of the weekend but their 5 players this weekend show that they to have been abandoned in mass.
Only Imperial Knights and Deathwatch out of the stand alone codices have not won an event in Arks so far.
The Leagues are doing well with a 54% weekend win rate, a 51% 5 week one and another tournament win.
Drukhari had the lowest win rate of the weekend at 34% with only 1 player placing well. Their 5 week is stronger then some other factions but still low at 44%
Here is my new Website, Check it out : https://40kmetamonday.wordpress.com/2023/03/20/meta-monday-3-20-23/
It has the full data set and the Season Win% with Regional Data!
Please support me on Patreon at Meta Monday
submitted by JCMS85 to WarhammerCompetitive [link] [comments]
19 GT+ events this week with at least 20 players and 5 rounds. There were multiple other GTs that fell below 20 players that I did not count in the data below, sorry. All mistakes are my own.
It was a crazy weekend of 40K and I hope everyone had a good time.
Here is my new Website, Check it out : https://40kmetamonday.wordpress.com/2023/03/20/meta-monday-3-20-23/
It has the full data set and the Season Win% with Regional Data!
Please support me on Patreon at Meta Monday
Iberian Open Talavera. Pepino, Spain. 84 players. 5 rounds.
Top 4 did a day 3 playoff.
- Thousand Sons (listed as Tzeentch) 6-0-1
- Guard 5-1-1
- Guard 5-1
- Dark Angels 5-1
- Dark Angels 4-1
- Blood Angels 4-1
- Dark Angels 4-1
- Chaos Knights 4-1
- Guard 4-1
- Aeldari 4-1
- Guard 4-1
- Leagues of Votann 4-1
- Orks 4-1
- Orks 4-1
- Guard 4-1
Battle Ready Wargaming Major Mayhem. Valdosta, GA. 58 players. 5 rounds.
- Chaos Daemons 5-0
- Custodes 5-0
- Black Templars 4-1
- Death Guard 4-1
- World Eaters 4-1
- Necrons 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
- Dark Angels 4-1
- Leagues of Votann 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
The Great Game. Westminster, MD. 51 players. 6 rounds.
- Chaos Daemons 6-0
- Craftworld 5-1
- Iron Hands 5-1
- Leagues of Votann 5-1
- World Eaters 5-1
CentAR Presents: The March Madness. Jacksonville, AR. 48 players. 5 rounds.
- Chaos Daemons 5-0
- Dark Angels 4-0-1
- Ultramarines 4-1
- GSC 4-1
- Dark Angels 4-1
- Custodes 4-1
- Sisters 4-1
- Imperial Knights 4-1
Battlefield Birmingham 20. England. 46 players. 5 rounds
- Guard 5-0
- Dark Angels 5-0
- Custodes 4-1
- Dark Angels 4-1
- Guard 4-1
- Tyranids 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
- Necrons 4-1
Free State GT. Holton, KS. 42 players. 5 rounds.
- Dark Angels 6-0
- Black Legion 5-1
- GSC 4-1
- Necrons 4-1
- Chaos Knights 4-1
- Grey Knights 4-1
G.O.T- Gruyere Open Turnament. Switzerland. 40 players. 5 rounds.
WTC Rules. Found on Tourneykeeper.net
- Leagues of Votann 4-0-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-0-1
- Dark Angels 4-1
Team arKcanite: Planet arKcanite at Comicon 2023. Kansas City, MO. 40 players. 5 rounds.
- Necrons 6-0
- Guard 5-1
- World Eaters 5-1
- Dark Angels 5-1
Dropzone Games Central Island Open. Nanaimo, Canada. 39 players. 5 rounds.
- Dark Angels 5-0
- Sisters of Battle 4-1
- Iron Hands 4-1
- Custodes 4-1
- Blood Angels 4-1
- Tau 4-1
- Custodes 4-1
OP’s 1st GT Smash. Santa Rosa, CA. 38 players. 5 rounds.
- Iron Hands 5-0
- Death Guard 5-0
- Space Wolves 4-1
- Custodes 4-1
- Necrons 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
WARZONE WELLINGTON 2. Wellington, New Zealand. 35 players. 5 rounds.
- Guard 5-0
- Imperial Knights 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
- Custodes 4-1
- Iron Hands 4-1
- Iron Hands 4-1
Pergotuz LCOTSV 3. Hungary. 34 players. 5 rounds.
WTC
- World Eaters 5-0
- Salamanders 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
- World Eaters 4-1
Kelpie Crusade GT 2023. Scotland. 32 players. 5 rounds.
- Dark Angels
- World Eaters 4-1
- Orks 4-1
- Iron Hands 4-1
- “Whatever I want to play” 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
Carnage- Season 1- Round 1 – A War Awakens. England. 31 players. 5 rounds.
- Chaos Daemons 5-0
- Tau 4-1
- Dark Angels 4-1
- Iron Hands 4-1
War Of The Roses 2023. England. 30 players. 5 rounds.
WTC
- Dark Angels 5-0
- World Eaters 4-1
- Custodes 4-1
Alpine Cup Singles-Warm Up. Austria. 26 players. 5 rounds.
WTC rules. Found on Tourneykeeper.net
- GSC 4-0-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
- Aeldari 4-1
- Drukhari 4-1
Energy City Open. Estevan, Canada. 26 players. 5 rounds.
- Space Wolves 5-0
- World Eaters 4-1
- Black Templars 4-1
- Ultramarines 4-1
Calling The Banners. Moorabbin, Australia. 25 players. 5 rounds.
- Dark Angels 5-0
- World Eaters 4-1
- Tyranids 4-1
- Orks 4-1
Games N Friends March GT. Springfield, MA. 24 players. 5 rounds.
- Craftworld 5-0
- Ynnari 4-1
- Guard 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
- Chaos Daemons 4-1
Takeaways:
Dark Angels/Angles won 5 events this week. With a 64% weekend win rate, they have now entered the Nid/Quin broken zone... 35% of their players this weekend went X-0/X-1.
Chaos Daemons are very good. 30% of their players placing well and winning 4 events with an over all win rate of 55%
Guard as the most popular faction of the week had a healthy 50% weekend win rate and won 2 events.
Necrons had a great weekend with a 53% win rate, an event win with decent play rate and a good number oftop placings.
Ad Mec, Quins, Deathwatch and now Codex CSM seem to have been abandoned by their player base. All with very little play and not much to show for those who stuck it out.
Thousand Sons with the help of Daemons won the biggest event of the weekend but their 5 players this weekend show that they to have been abandoned in mass.
Only Imperial Knights and Deathwatch out of the stand alone codices have not won an event in Arks so far.
The Leagues are doing well with a 54% weekend win rate, a 51% 5 week one and another tournament win.
Drukhari had the lowest win rate of the weekend at 34% with only 1 player placing well. Their 5 week is stronger then some other factions but still low at 44%
| Army | Players | #X-0/X-1 | WeekendWin% | 5 Week Season Win%/(#GamesPlayed) | Season Tourny Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adeptus Custodes | 57 | 8 | 48 | 51(1365) | 6 |
| Adeptus Mechanicus | 8 | 0 | 46 | 38(332) | 1 |
| Aeldari | 2 | 2 | 80 | 63(81) | 0 |
| Astra Militarum | 64 | 10 | 50 | 52(1392) | 5 |
| Black Templars | 13 | 2 | 55 | 52(310) | 1 |
| Blood Angels | 13 | 2 | 42 | 47(358) | 3 |
| Chaos Daemons | 50 | 15 | 55 | 55(1160) | 10 |
| Chaos Knights | 40 | 2 | 44 | 47(811) | 1 |
| Craftworld | 25 | 2 | 47 | 49(788) | 7 |
| Dark Angels | 46 | 16 | 64 | 57(1073) | 12 |
| Death Guard | 16 | 2 | 37 | 42(446) | 1 |
| Deathwatch | 1 | 0 | 40 | 36(67) | 0 |
| Drukhari | 14 | 1 | 34 | 44(369) | 1 |
| Genestealer Cult | 21 | 3 | 54 | 56(569) | 5 |
| Grey Knights | 24 | 1 | 39 | 43(602) | 3 |
| Harlequins | 7 | 0 | 32 | 45(208) | 1 |
| Imperial Knights | 25 | 2 | 49 | 44(639) | 0 |
| Leagues of Votann | 22 | 5 | 54 | 51(749) | 4 |
| Necrons | 23 | 5 | 53 | 45(522) | 3 |
| Orks | 37 | 4 | 43 | 51(817) | 6 |
| Sisters of Battle | 14 | 2 | 49 | 46(373) | 1 |
| Space Wolves | 20 | 2 | 47 | 50(522) | 4 |
| Tau | 36 | 2 | 44 | 45(814) | 2 |
| Thousand Sons | 5 | 1 | 36 | 39(312) | 1 |
| Tyranids | 22 | 2 | 41 | 43(481) | 1 |
| World Eaters | 34 | 9 | 54 | 54(589) | 1 |
| Ynnari | 13 | 1 | 45 | 55(322) | 4 |
| Codex Space Marines | 62 | 10 | 50 | 49(1570) | 7 |
| Imperial Fists | 2 | 0 | 60 | 30(82) | 0 |
| Iron Hands | 34 | 7 | 55 | 55(836) | 7 |
| Raven Guard | 3 | 0 | 33 | 32(82) | 0 |
| Salamanders | 8 | 1 | 48 | 50(216) | 0 |
| Ultramarines | 14 | 2 | 42 | 41(279) | 0 |
| White Scars | 1 | 0 | 20 | 36(75) | 0 |
| Codex Chaos Space Marines | 33 | 1 | 41 | 41(898) | 2 |
| Alpha Legion | 4 | 0 | 30 | 38(81) | 0 |
| Black Legion | 10 | 1 | 51 | 49(244) | 1 |
| Creations of Bile | 3 | 0 | 31 | 41(69) | 0 |
| Emperor's Children | 7 | 0 | 29 | 35(214) | 0 |
| Night Lords | 1 | 0 | 20 | 29(51) | 0 |
| Word Bearers | 8 | 0 | 50 | 47(163) | 1 |
| Total | 747 | 113 | (18563) | 94 |
It has the full data set and the Season Win% with Regional Data!
Please support me on Patreon at Meta Monday
2023.03.20 11:46 reagan92 Countdown to Kickoff 2023: Houston Dash
2023 Kickoff Countdown – Houston Dash
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Established: 2014
Head Coach: Sam Laity (1st year) Like more well known names like Fishlock, Rapinoe, and Barnes, Laity was an original Reign assistant coach that served under Laura Harvey (twice!), Vlatko Andonovski, and Farid Benstiti, as well as serving as Reign’s interm head coach after Benstiti was fired and Harvey came back. All three coaches have different managerial and tactical styles, so his 10 year term with Reign speaks to his versatility as a coach.
Which also means we have no idea how he is going to utilize the considerable talents that Houston has. For example, take Shea Groom. She was an integral part of James Clarkson’s teams because of her value as a defensive attacking player, her workrate, and her tenacity. She was an afterthought for Juan Carlos Amoros because of her recklessness, physicality, and a very slight loss in speed which only accentuated her transition from “playing on the edge” to “violence”.
Houston, under Laity, is an open book, except for one quote from his inaugural press conference. “What I want to bring to the table is a team that is devastating.” Might be looking up for Groom., come to think of it.
General Manager: Alex Singer (2nd year) Singer is part of this new generation of general managers in the NWSL who actually played in the league. Hired in August last year, she played in the WPS, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Norway, and the NWSL. She joined by Angela Hucles, Michelle Lomnicki, Yael Averbuch West, Cami Ashton, Haley Carter, and Karina Leblanc as vets of domestic American soccer leagues.
So far, Singer has been more aggressive than Clarkson was on the player operations side, and hasn’t shown an orthodoxy when it comes to hires.
Captain: Jane Campbell
Sure
Stadium: Shell Energy Stadium, Houston, TX
Capacity of 22,000, though the unofficial cap for the Dash is 7,000. Shell held the highest attendance ever record for an NWSL playoff game for about 24 hours.
Ownership: Ted Segal
He’s a real estate bro who bought the team from Gabriel Brener, Oscar De La Hoya and Ben Guill, and since has put a lot of money and effort into the Stadium, and Dynamo without leaving the Dash behind. Specifically, he changed the structure of the team so Dash actually had an independent operations staff, including adding a team president, and general manager.
Off the field, this seems like the first time in their history the Dash have their shit together. They are joining into strategic partnerships as more than an afterthought to the Dynamo. Also, Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and have 1 million people who identify as Hispanic/Latino. The team is FINALLY marketing talented Latina athletes under contract, with Maria Sanchez, Diana Ordonez, and Barbara Oliveri. They even looked south to increase their scouting investment, signing Paulina Gramaglia from Argentina.
Mascot: Diesel the Fox (for the organization); Rachel Daly Bobblehead (for the Dash)
Kits:
Primary Kit: La Estrella
Secondary Kit: City of Fútbol
Supporters Groups: Bayou City Republic
Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/dash/
News and Commentary: Houston Chronicle
Keeper Notes
The Striker
Key Twitter Follows for Team Insights:
Theo Lloyd-Hughes https://twitter.com/theolloydhughes
Jen Cooper https://twitter.com/keepernotes
SCHEDULE
2023 Season/Home Opener: Sunday, March 26 vs. Louisville – 7:00PM ET
HISTORY
In April of 2022, things were looking very, very down for Houston. They had been eviscerated twice by Mallory Pugh and the Current, and squeaking by Louisville in two games…and their head coach had just been put on leave for being abusive. Leading into the season, the 2021 7th place team seemed heading downward, picked to finish anywhere between 8th and 10th in the new season.
Season opened with a loss to San Diego, and then 6 straight games without a loss under Sarah Lowden. By the time Juan Carlos Amoros took over on July 12th, Dash were in 4th place, and never dropped out of a playoff spot.
Part of the turnaround was Lowden and Amoros’ updating of the Dash’s tactics, which had grown stale under Clarkson. In the Challenge Cup run, Clarkson played a static back 4 (almost no offense responsibilities for the full backs) being shielded by Sophie Schmidt, whose responsibilities were to get the ball to Groom/Rachel Daly where Veronica Latsko would try to win it back as quickly as possible if the plan went awry…skilled players like Nichelle Prince had their creativity harnessed in service of a high, chaotic press. This plan stopped working in 2021 when other teams started attack from the outside, and by the end of the year, Daly was being bracketed, unable to get service. It was just mayhem.
When Louisville coach Kim Bjorkergren now-famously said that Ebony Salmon wasn’t in his plans, Houston pounced and grabbed the 21 year old while Daly was in England for the EUROs…this proved fortuitus as Daly transferred to Aston Villa. They both played a more free-flowing offensive game, attacking with fullbacks (mostly Natalie Jacobs) until the roster-deadline trade for marginalized Gotham right back Caprice Dydasco.
The tactical/personnel changes made Dash harder to play against, both tactically and physically as their physicality didn’t change, but selective pressing made it harder for other teams to just follow the script to beat Houston. The end result was a 3rd place finish on points, and locking into the 4th seed for their first playoff appearance in club history.
Unfortunately, the playoffs were cancelled and there was no game where I acted like a gigantic baby for an hour after completion.
Player Movement
Roster
Predicted Preferred Gameday XI – None of the preseason games were streamed, and as stated, Laity hasn’t ever really been a head coach in the league before, so this is more who I would start, rather than any idea who might start. This also works under the assumption that Nichelle Prince won’t be available this season because of her Achilles tear from November.
Formation: Offset 4-4-2
The thinking behind these tactics is to shut down the middle of the field and force other teams to play on the outside. Though Campbell is inconsistent as a keeper, the center pairing of Prisock and Lind have the benefit of being very steady and also playing together for 94.5% total minutes together for the Dash once Prisock finished her loan in France (99.6% post-Challenge Cup). Both Petersen and Dydasco are offensive-minded outside backs that can create on offense, and either hold their own (Petersen) or be dominant on defense (Dydasco). To supplement, Sanchez is stronger defensively than Viggiano, so they complement the outside backs. Sanchez herself would be an outside MVP candidate if flashier goal involvement stats.
The middle of the pitch can be clogged by Sophie Schmidt, who very quietly is one of the best defensive midfielders in the league…one of the few 6s that are equally effective moving the ball forward with her feet or passing, and can influence a game sitting back or attacking. In front of her would be Groom who is an excellent pressing distributer who can help lock down the pitch if she can toe the line between shithousing, and recklessness.
Upfront is one of the most dangerous strike duo in the league, Ebony Salmon and Diana Ordonez. The downside of this pairing is that other than Portland (though we might see it on a smaller scale in Kansas City with Kizer and Hamilton), no other team uses a “toll and smoll” forward paring (fans of English football in the aughts know what I’m saying here), and neither of these players are as dynamic as Sophia Smith. Though they do it differently, Ordonez and Salmon profile basically as the same type of player…they are equally likely to score a brace as to not have their name read during a broadcast. Before her shoulder injury that sapped her effectiveness, Ordonez was the prototype “big lad” taking service and scoring ruthlessly. Salmon was more likely to run into space and score off her own skill, but at times she was bracketed last year, leading to her scoring dropping and the Dash having to rely on the midfield for scoring later in the year.
Likely Top Bench/Subs:
My best guess. Alozie, and Gareis are both versatile enough to play in all three levels of the field, and Jacobs held her own when pressed into service. The midfielders listed are most likely to fill in for injury and rest reasons, and when the World Cup rolls around, it’s likely draft pick Sophie Hirst will replace Sophie Schmidt for the duration, with some help from Havana Soulan.
At left back, it’s probably more likely Chapman is in the lineup than Petersen, just because she’s stronger defensively, but she is another likely World Cup pick, has been dealing with nagging injures that players in their 30s tend to pick up, and gives very little going forward.
Rayadas import Barbara Oliveri will probably get some matchup starts over the season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s first off the bench in the case Groom goes out of pocket.
Something to Prove
Shea Groom – Last season, she wasn’t trusted enough to play in the playoff game (that didn’t happen) against the Current. She’s out of contract and free agent eligible, so this year will determine if Houston even makes an attempt to re-sign her.
Ebony Salmon – Again, she’s out of contract as well, and unlike Groom, likely to get interest from Super League teams in England. If she pots 12-15 goals, she might be the striker Arsenal have been looking for. Or Alissa Russo’s replacement at Manchester United.
Kelcie Hedge – Given her playing time, and injury history…this might be the end of the road for a promising talent who also can’t stay on the field.
Out for the season
Nichelle Prince – I think? Probably.
2023 PREVIEW
Realistic Best Case Scenario – Shield Winners
The forwards score 30 goals between them. The team stays injury free. Dydasco, Groom, and Petersen play like it’s 2021 again. The rookies intergrate well, and Hirst seamlessly fills in for Schmidt. Lind, and Prisock are a wall. Laity announces himself as one of the best coaches in the league. Luck favors H-town. They continue to be a team of wives.
H-Town Bay-be!
Realistic Worst Case Scenario – 7th-10th
None of the above happens and they play like they did from 2014-2019, 2021. Injury abounds. Luck punishes my hubris for the above.
Realistic Most Probable Scenario – 3rd-5th.
This is a very talented team, and they don’t look to lose much starting power to the World Cup. Injuries, as always, are the great equalizer. Though I have serious questions about how Ordonez and Salmon will fit together, offense shouldn’t be a problem for Dash, and the defense is improved. They were a bounce or two away from finishing third last year, and even though Kansas City jumped them in talent, there are a lot of pieces that need to fit in Kansas also, as well as being without their internationals for 6 weeks, something that will affect Reign, Portland, and San Diego also.
submitted by reagan92 to NWSL [link] [comments]
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Established: 2014
Head Coach: Sam Laity (1st year) Like more well known names like Fishlock, Rapinoe, and Barnes, Laity was an original Reign assistant coach that served under Laura Harvey (twice!), Vlatko Andonovski, and Farid Benstiti, as well as serving as Reign’s interm head coach after Benstiti was fired and Harvey came back. All three coaches have different managerial and tactical styles, so his 10 year term with Reign speaks to his versatility as a coach.
Which also means we have no idea how he is going to utilize the considerable talents that Houston has. For example, take Shea Groom. She was an integral part of James Clarkson’s teams because of her value as a defensive attacking player, her workrate, and her tenacity. She was an afterthought for Juan Carlos Amoros because of her recklessness, physicality, and a very slight loss in speed which only accentuated her transition from “playing on the edge” to “violence”.
Houston, under Laity, is an open book, except for one quote from his inaugural press conference. “What I want to bring to the table is a team that is devastating.” Might be looking up for Groom., come to think of it.
General Manager: Alex Singer (2nd year) Singer is part of this new generation of general managers in the NWSL who actually played in the league. Hired in August last year, she played in the WPS, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Norway, and the NWSL. She joined by Angela Hucles, Michelle Lomnicki, Yael Averbuch West, Cami Ashton, Haley Carter, and Karina Leblanc as vets of domestic American soccer leagues.
So far, Singer has been more aggressive than Clarkson was on the player operations side, and hasn’t shown an orthodoxy when it comes to hires.
Captain: Jane Campbell
Sure
Stadium: Shell Energy Stadium, Houston, TX
Capacity of 22,000, though the unofficial cap for the Dash is 7,000. Shell held the highest attendance ever record for an NWSL playoff game for about 24 hours.
Ownership: Ted Segal
He’s a real estate bro who bought the team from Gabriel Brener, Oscar De La Hoya and Ben Guill, and since has put a lot of money and effort into the Stadium, and Dynamo without leaving the Dash behind. Specifically, he changed the structure of the team so Dash actually had an independent operations staff, including adding a team president, and general manager.
Off the field, this seems like the first time in their history the Dash have their shit together. They are joining into strategic partnerships as more than an afterthought to the Dynamo. Also, Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and have 1 million people who identify as Hispanic/Latino. The team is FINALLY marketing talented Latina athletes under contract, with Maria Sanchez, Diana Ordonez, and Barbara Oliveri. They even looked south to increase their scouting investment, signing Paulina Gramaglia from Argentina.
Mascot: Diesel the Fox (for the organization); Rachel Daly Bobblehead (for the Dash)
Kits:
Primary Kit: La Estrella
Secondary Kit: City of Fútbol
Supporters Groups: Bayou City Republic
Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/dash/
News and Commentary: Houston Chronicle
Keeper Notes
The Striker
Key Twitter Follows for Team Insights:
Theo Lloyd-Hughes https://twitter.com/theolloydhughes
Jen Cooper https://twitter.com/keepernotes
SCHEDULE
2023 Season/Home Opener: Sunday, March 26 vs. Louisville – 7:00PM ET
HISTORY
- NWSL Championship: 0
- NWSL Shield: Supporters’ Shield: 0
- NWSL Challenge Cup: 1 (2020)
In April of 2022, things were looking very, very down for Houston. They had been eviscerated twice by Mallory Pugh and the Current, and squeaking by Louisville in two games…and their head coach had just been put on leave for being abusive. Leading into the season, the 2021 7th place team seemed heading downward, picked to finish anywhere between 8th and 10th in the new season.
Season opened with a loss to San Diego, and then 6 straight games without a loss under Sarah Lowden. By the time Juan Carlos Amoros took over on July 12th, Dash were in 4th place, and never dropped out of a playoff spot.
Part of the turnaround was Lowden and Amoros’ updating of the Dash’s tactics, which had grown stale under Clarkson. In the Challenge Cup run, Clarkson played a static back 4 (almost no offense responsibilities for the full backs) being shielded by Sophie Schmidt, whose responsibilities were to get the ball to Groom/Rachel Daly where Veronica Latsko would try to win it back as quickly as possible if the plan went awry…skilled players like Nichelle Prince had their creativity harnessed in service of a high, chaotic press. This plan stopped working in 2021 when other teams started attack from the outside, and by the end of the year, Daly was being bracketed, unable to get service. It was just mayhem.
When Louisville coach Kim Bjorkergren now-famously said that Ebony Salmon wasn’t in his plans, Houston pounced and grabbed the 21 year old while Daly was in England for the EUROs…this proved fortuitus as Daly transferred to Aston Villa. They both played a more free-flowing offensive game, attacking with fullbacks (mostly Natalie Jacobs) until the roster-deadline trade for marginalized Gotham right back Caprice Dydasco.
The tactical/personnel changes made Dash harder to play against, both tactically and physically as their physicality didn’t change, but selective pressing made it harder for other teams to just follow the script to beat Houston. The end result was a 3rd place finish on points, and locking into the 4th seed for their first playoff appearance in club history.
Unfortunately, the playoffs were cancelled and there was no game where I acted like a gigantic baby for an hour after completion.
Player Movement
| Date | Player Out | Pos | New Club | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 15, 2022 | Valerie Gauvin | F | FC Fleury 91 | Option declined |
| November 15, 2022 | Lindsey Harris | GK | Unattached | Out of Contract |
| November 15, 2022 | Tiernny Wiltshire | M | Unattached | Out of Contract |
| November 15, 2022 | Brianna Visalli | M | Brighton & Hove Albion | Out of Contract |
| November 15, 2022 | Cari Farquharson | M | Unattached | Retired |
| February 10, 2023 | Paulina Gramaglia | F | Red Bull Bragantino | Loan |
| February 19, 2023 | Julia Ashley | D | Unattached | Waived |
| Date | Player In | Pos | Previous Club | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 6, 2023 | Devon Kerr | GK | Washington Spirit | Free agent |
| January 11, 2023 | Havana Soulan | M | North Carolina Courage | Free agent |
| January 12, 2023 | Diana Ordonez | F | North Carolina Courage | Trade |
| January 12, 2023 | Sophie Hirst | M | Harvard Crimson | Draft |
| January 12, 2023 | Jylissa Harris | D | South Carolina Gamecocks | Draft |
| January 12, 2023 | Lindsi Jennings | D | LSU Tigers | Draft |
| January 12, 2023 | Madelyn Desiano | D | UCLA Bruins | Draft |
| February 1, 2023 | Courtney Petersen | D | Orlando Pride | Trade |
| February 7, 2023 | Barbara Oliveri | M | Monterrey | Free agent |
| Num | first | Last | Pos | Contract Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jane | Campbell | GK | Signed through 2024 |
| 33 | Ella | Dederick | GK | Option exercised |
| 20 | Devon | Kerr | GK | Signed through 2023 |
| ? | Savannah | Madden | GK | NRI |
| 2 | Allysha | Chapman | D | Signed through 2023+ |
| 27 | Annika | Creel | D | Signed through 2023+ |
| ? | Madelyn | Desiano | D | 2023 Draftee |
| 3 | Caprice | Dydasco | D | Signed through 2023 |
| ? | Jylissa | Harris | D | 2023 Draftee |
| ? | Lindsi | Jennings | D | 2023 Draftee |
| 25 | Katie | Lind | D | Signed through 2025 |
| 5 | Courtney | Petersen | D | Signed through 2024 |
| 23 | Ally | Prisock | D | Signed through 2024 |
| 18 | Emily | Curran | M | Signed through 2023 |
| 19 | Elizabeth | Eddy | M | Signed through 2023 |
| 26 | Makamae | Gomera-Stevens | M | Signed through 2023 |
| 10 | Shea | Groom | M | Signed through 2023 |
| 17 | Kelcie | Hedge | M | Signed through 2023 |
| ? | Sophie | Hirst | M | 2023 Draftee |
| 4 | Natalie | Jacobs | M | Signed through 2024 |
| 15 | Barbara | Oliveri | M | Signed through 2023+ |
| 13 | Sophie | Schmidt | M | Signed through 2024+ |
| 6 | Havana | Soulan | M | Signed through 2024 |
| 14 | Marisa | Viggiano | M | Option exercised |
| 34 | Michaela | Abam | F | Signed through 2023 |
| 22 | Michelle | Alozie | F | Signed through 2024 |
| 29 | Joelle | Anderson | F | Signed through 2023 |
| 21 | Ryan | Gareis | F | Signed through 2025 |
| 11 | Diana | Ordonez | F | Signed through 2025 |
| 8 | Nichelle | Prince | F | Signed through 2024 |
| 9 | Ebony | Salmon | F | Signed through 2023 |
| 7 | Maria | Sanchez | F | Signed through 2023 |
| ? | Cameron | Tucker | F | Signed through 2023+ |
Formation: Offset 4-4-2
The thinking behind these tactics is to shut down the middle of the field and force other teams to play on the outside. Though Campbell is inconsistent as a keeper, the center pairing of Prisock and Lind have the benefit of being very steady and also playing together for 94.5% total minutes together for the Dash once Prisock finished her loan in France (99.6% post-Challenge Cup). Both Petersen and Dydasco are offensive-minded outside backs that can create on offense, and either hold their own (Petersen) or be dominant on defense (Dydasco). To supplement, Sanchez is stronger defensively than Viggiano, so they complement the outside backs. Sanchez herself would be an outside MVP candidate if flashier goal involvement stats.
The middle of the pitch can be clogged by Sophie Schmidt, who very quietly is one of the best defensive midfielders in the league…one of the few 6s that are equally effective moving the ball forward with her feet or passing, and can influence a game sitting back or attacking. In front of her would be Groom who is an excellent pressing distributer who can help lock down the pitch if she can toe the line between shithousing, and recklessness.
Upfront is one of the most dangerous strike duo in the league, Ebony Salmon and Diana Ordonez. The downside of this pairing is that other than Portland (though we might see it on a smaller scale in Kansas City with Kizer and Hamilton), no other team uses a “toll and smoll” forward paring (fans of English football in the aughts know what I’m saying here), and neither of these players are as dynamic as Sophia Smith. Though they do it differently, Ordonez and Salmon profile basically as the same type of player…they are equally likely to score a brace as to not have their name read during a broadcast. Before her shoulder injury that sapped her effectiveness, Ordonez was the prototype “big lad” taking service and scoring ruthlessly. Salmon was more likely to run into space and score off her own skill, but at times she was bracketed last year, leading to her scoring dropping and the Dash having to rely on the midfield for scoring later in the year.
Likely Top Bench/Subs:
| First | Last | Pos |
|---|---|---|
| Michelle | Alozie | F |
| Joelle | Anderson | F |
| Allysha | Chapman | D |
| Emily | Curren (Ogle) | M |
| Ryan | Gareis | F |
| Jylissa | Harris | D |
| Sophie | Hirst | M |
| Natalie | Jacobs | M |
| Barbara | Oliveri | M |
| Havana | Soulan | M |
At left back, it’s probably more likely Chapman is in the lineup than Petersen, just because she’s stronger defensively, but she is another likely World Cup pick, has been dealing with nagging injures that players in their 30s tend to pick up, and gives very little going forward.
Rayadas import Barbara Oliveri will probably get some matchup starts over the season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s first off the bench in the case Groom goes out of pocket.
Something to Prove
Shea Groom – Last season, she wasn’t trusted enough to play in the playoff game (that didn’t happen) against the Current. She’s out of contract and free agent eligible, so this year will determine if Houston even makes an attempt to re-sign her.
Ebony Salmon – Again, she’s out of contract as well, and unlike Groom, likely to get interest from Super League teams in England. If she pots 12-15 goals, she might be the striker Arsenal have been looking for. Or Alissa Russo’s replacement at Manchester United.
Kelcie Hedge – Given her playing time, and injury history…this might be the end of the road for a promising talent who also can’t stay on the field.
Out for the season
Nichelle Prince – I think? Probably.
2023 PREVIEW
Realistic Best Case Scenario – Shield Winners
The forwards score 30 goals between them. The team stays injury free. Dydasco, Groom, and Petersen play like it’s 2021 again. The rookies intergrate well, and Hirst seamlessly fills in for Schmidt. Lind, and Prisock are a wall. Laity announces himself as one of the best coaches in the league. Luck favors H-town. They continue to be a team of wives.
H-Town Bay-be!
Realistic Worst Case Scenario – 7th-10th
None of the above happens and they play like they did from 2014-2019, 2021. Injury abounds. Luck punishes my hubris for the above.
Realistic Most Probable Scenario – 3rd-5th.
This is a very talented team, and they don’t look to lose much starting power to the World Cup. Injuries, as always, are the great equalizer. Though I have serious questions about how Ordonez and Salmon will fit together, offense shouldn’t be a problem for Dash, and the defense is improved. They were a bounce or two away from finishing third last year, and even though Kansas City jumped them in talent, there are a lot of pieces that need to fit in Kansas also, as well as being without their internationals for 6 weeks, something that will affect Reign, Portland, and San Diego also.
2023.03.19 22:25 warpedimpression How do I protect myself?
I was fortunate enough to not have to be around my APs for the last 4 years. They still took a huge toll on me by going insane spamming me with calls and texts but it would’ve been much worse if they were physically around me.
Bad news: they’re coming to see me in person in a few weeks and I’m absolutely dreading it. So I’m here asking for advice for how to stand up for myself and not let them get to me. Usually, my APs (especially AD) constantly needle me with micro aggressions until I’m at breaking point, then ensure that they push me over the edge in public so they look like martyrs and I’m a spoiled brat being rude to my innocent-looking APs. How do I cope with them when I cannot stand them in any way?
AD also sexually abused me and I’m terrified of being groped by him or something worse. I already know he’s going to constantly leer at me and follow me around everywhere; he always used to try grabbing me by the waist and I used to be on hyper alert trying to dodge him. I know he’ll try it again and I’m terrified. I’m terrified that out of flight or freeze, I’ll freeze again and not be able to prevent him from touching me.
I want to go NC but I’m entangled in legal stuff with them and they’re deliberately keeping me tangled. I’m gritting it out until I change my citizenship.
submitted by warpedimpression to AsianParentStories [link] [comments]
Bad news: they’re coming to see me in person in a few weeks and I’m absolutely dreading it. So I’m here asking for advice for how to stand up for myself and not let them get to me. Usually, my APs (especially AD) constantly needle me with micro aggressions until I’m at breaking point, then ensure that they push me over the edge in public so they look like martyrs and I’m a spoiled brat being rude to my innocent-looking APs. How do I cope with them when I cannot stand them in any way?
AD also sexually abused me and I’m terrified of being groped by him or something worse. I already know he’s going to constantly leer at me and follow me around everywhere; he always used to try grabbing me by the waist and I used to be on hyper alert trying to dodge him. I know he’ll try it again and I’m terrified. I’m terrified that out of flight or freeze, I’ll freeze again and not be able to prevent him from touching me.
I want to go NC but I’m entangled in legal stuff with them and they’re deliberately keeping me tangled. I’m gritting it out until I change my citizenship.
2023.03.19 20:05 RapGamePterodactyl 2022 midterm hot takes revisited: how'd you do?
Thought it would be fun to revisit some hot takes posted here before the 2022 midterms and see how y'all did with your predictions. No shame if you missed the mark, just thought it would be interesting to see how attitudes were here before the actual elections.
Threads used for this:
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/xzr9cc/my_top_5_most_controversial_hot_takes_of_2022/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y06z9c/my_2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y04tpy/my_2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/vyyjt8/2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/xbuviz/what_is_your_biggest_2022_midterm_hot_take/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/rwahr4/what_are_some_of_your_hot_takes_on_potentially/
https://reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y0txpo/2022_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/vps7x8/what_are_the_sleeper_races_that_you_think_might/
Spot on:
Pretty good:
Mixed:
Oopsie woopsie I made a fucky wucky:
submitted by RapGamePterodactyl to YAPms [link] [comments]
Threads used for this:
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/xzr9cc/my_top_5_most_controversial_hot_takes_of_2022/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y06z9c/my_2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y04tpy/my_2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/vyyjt8/2022_midterm_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/xbuviz/what_is_your_biggest_2022_midterm_hot_take/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/rwahr4/what_are_some_of_your_hot_takes_on_potentially/
https://reddit.com/YAPms/comments/y0txpo/2022_hot_takes/
https://www.reddit.com/YAPms/comments/vps7x8/what_are_the_sleeper_races_that_you_think_might/
Spot on:
That most in this thread, are actually engaging in Republican hopium and Nov just isn't gonna go to their best of dreams, or what was in 2021. You can talk platitudes about this or that, how "Fetterman is just x", or X is overated. But sometimes there's a little more backing up those claims then what is actually being witnessed in the environment and electorate. Fetterman might be overrated, if he still didn't maintain an error-proof polling lead, and wasn't packing events, leaving people outside and unable to get in(happened today).theboyonthetrain calls out the Fetterman doubters and gets validated by his big win.
Republicans are doing amazing in deep blue states. Swing states not so muchBig_Size_2519 gets the dynamics of 2022 correct. Dem underperformances in deep blue states, GOP underperformances in swing states.
Pretty good:
Cuomo scandal, a potential for a divided primary between Hochul, deBlasio, Williams, and Suozzi. A lot of us are also concerned with taxes, covid restrictions, and some of the crime laws here. Could end up as a surprise 9-14pt win.epicnoober1233 gets NY gov pretty close way back in Jan 2022. Almost spot on except they actually underestimated how close the margin would be.
Control of the house will be determined by under 7 seatsTaprman612 gets pretty close, although not that hot of a take.
There’s a decent chance that Hawaii Governor is likely blue (like D+14)Way off on Hawaii, but Zeldin did pretty well (although 20% chance was an overstatement), Ryan outperformed Bolduc, Ammon Bundy got 17%, and Barnes got much closer than Michels. Pretty good Kamchatka1905.
Zeldin had around a 20% chance of winning New York
Tim Ryan has a better chance at winning Ohio than Don Bolduc has at winning New Hampshire
Although not competitive at all; Brad Little’s margin in Idaho will be 5 to 8% lower than the typical Republican as Ammon Bundy will take 5 to 8% of the vote
Mandela Barnes has a better chance of flipping the Wisconsin Senate seat than Tim Michels has at flipping the Wisconsin Governorship
Mine is that Adam Laxalt will lose by 2%. He lost by 4% in his last election.BigHorse1972 was right on result, about 1% off on margin.
Mixed:
Washington: I don't think Washington's senate seat will flip, Patty's approval is still over disapproval and will probably at worst be a 3% margin of difference.Too GOP-optimistic for WA/CO/MN/MD. GOP did do better than expected in CA and NY, with Schumer actually getting 57% as predicted. Deleted user (shame shame).
Colorado: I would say the Colorado senate seat and House races are all very vulnerable, with the Senate seat could be decided within 5, even 3 points. I could also see 1-2 Dem CO seats flipping b/c of a more heavy Biden-sceptic voter population there than in Washington.
California: I think many LA area House seats in California are vulnerable and GOP can probably pick up from 2 to even 7, depending how much abortion or inflation might play. I think either the Comptroller or the other finance-related seat will be very close and could be picked up by the GOP in a 51-48 kinda race
Minnesota: At least 1 seat will probably flip, both state legislatures will probably go GOP and I think the Governors race will be decided in a lean margin, perhaps closer to 1 than 4 especially with a strong 3rd party. Could even be a flip if the third party PLUS a very weak Walz performance blows Dems up.
Maryland: I think Dems could end up fighting tooth and nail for the governors' race even if Hogan isn't on the ballot. Similar conditions to 2014 when MD elected a GOP governor and perhaps financially-oriented dem voters will either stay home or vote for the GOP candidate. I don't think it's flippable entirely for now, but definitely can end up being within 1-5%.
New York: I think Chuck Schumer will not win more than 60-62%, especially if Dems direct Senate inaction to him (which he ~55-65% deserves). It could end up being 57-38. Governor wise I think Hochul will still end up finding difficulties against Zeldin even if he's a Trump-nominee. Probably the flopping gun regulation laws and growing N/S NY divide will have her win by closer, if not less than 15%. I can definitely see her only winning ~3-4 counties above the NYC area.
My hot take is that the republicans will still win. I think the house will be very close but I think the senate will go democratic. I don’t think Tim Ryan will win at all, at best he loses by 9 points. Marco Rubio’s election won’t be cakewalk but it won’t be as narrow as polls show. I think Alaska was a fluke and that in November it’ll flip back Republican although I hope I get proven wrong on this one. Also I think Grassley will win by a smaller margin than usual, it will still be a landslide tho.House/Senate predictions correct, but Rubio's election was indeed a cakewalk and Alaska wasn't a fluke RealJimyCarter.
I think Florida is gonna be very close, under 3% for both governor and senate.Horrible misses for FL, spot on for NY. Deleted user though.
On the flip side I feel the New York governor race is gonna be under 15. I don’t think Houchle or whatever is very strong
Wisconsin won't be above 1.5% either way in either race.WI, NY, KY/IN, and FL takes were wrong. NM, IL, NC were pretty good. Mixed marks Doc_ET.
New Mexico has a higher chance to be likely blue than to flip red.
Betsy Johnson will win more Republicans than Democrats. If you actually look at her political positions, she's pretty conservative.
Illinois and New York aren't going to have competitive governor races. Period.
North Carolina will be closer than New Hampshire.
Kentucky will vote to the left of Indiana.
But for my real core-of-the-sun take, DeSantis won't win by more than 5 points.
Ryan will loose by 10.5%kingllama10 has the right result, but Ryan only lost by 7%.
1) Polarization will make Mastriano and Dixon do much better than expected. I think Shapiro and Whitmer will win by like 2-3% rather than the likely margins some are expecting. Remember PA is a state Biden won by 1.2% and MI by 3%. For these states to be likely D, Shapiro and Whitmer would either have to flip some Trump voters or GOP turnout would have to decrease significantly.ncpolitics1994 got Georgia almost right (Warnock wins in runoff but by a decent margin and leads in first round), Ohio Senate pretty spot on, and Oregon/Washington correct. Massive whiff on both Pennsylvania races and MI-GOV, smaller miss on Utah.
2) Kemp will push Walker over the edge and Walker will narrowly lead the first round over Warnock, but Warnock will scrape by in the runoff by a very slim margin.
3) Ohio Senate will be Likely R, but Vance will slightly underperform Trump. The polls suggested Ohio would be near even in 2020 and Trump still won by 8.
4) Pennsylvania Senate will be decided by a tilt margin and could go either way
5) McMullin will lose by at least 15. Trump won Utah by 21 points in 2020, and I can't see that many Trump voters flipping for McMullin. McMullin couldn't even beat out Hillary in 2016.
6) Oregon governor will go Democrat regardless, and Washington Senate will not be competitive
1.) Both Brian Kemp and Raphael Warnock will manage to narrowly avoid runoff's (more likely Kemp but I think (and hope) both will).Awkward_Concern8027 was pretty close. Misses were Lake, Michels, and Laxalt. But got a lot of winners correct and was decently close on margins.
2.) Adam Laxalt and Joe Lombardo will win Nevada by around 1-1.5%. Additionally a Republican will manage to win one of the lean d Nevada house races (likely district 3).
3.) Mark Kelly will win by 2-3% while Kari Lake will win by 1-.5%.
4.) Laura Kelly and Tina Kotek will manage to win their closely contested governor races in Kansas and Oregon.
5.) John Fetterman will win in Pennsylvania by between 1-3 %. Thus securing a technical Democrat majority in the senate (50-50) although effectively allowing Sinema and Manchin to continue being the Kingmakers in Washington.
6.) Ron Johnson and Tim Michels will win close races in Wisconsin. Personally I have a hard time seeing Johnson and Evers win considering how similar the polls have looked in the state. (Let me know if y'all agree)
Mark Ronchetti will win.nhdtx gets MI and OH pretty close but big miss on NM.
Gretchen Whitmer will win by a similar margin as she did in 2018.
Ohio won't be very competitive and JD Vance will come very close to matching Trump's performance.
Thinking Wisconsin or North Carolina or Florida go blue is coping. Same with Ohio.Right about WI/NC/FL/OH but WI was close enough that a Dem prediction wasn't really coping. Drazan had a shot but lost, and way off on House numbers.
Republicans will win the House with at least 240 seats.
Drazan has a good shot at Oregon.
Oopsie woopsie I made a fucky wucky:
Nevada will probably be within 10leafbou tried to make a meme post but still didn't predict Rubio and Desantis winning by safe margins.
Idaho will be safe R
Fetterman might not actually win by 400 points
Florida won’t be safe R
John Kerry probably won’t win a write in campaign in Arkansas
Wisconsin Senate will vote to the right of Ohio senateNope and nope Tribal-Goofy95.
Betsy Johnson beats both Drazan and Kotek
Shapiro isn't a lock to beat Mastriano. Pennsylvania is a Biden +1.2 state, and Biden's approval has collapsed since then. The anti-Biden energy and national environment will likely make this race extremely close, and I think it will be within 2 points.Big oof ncpolitics1994 and TheAngryObserver. Turns out it was not a very close one.
This is going to be a very close one, and it's Shapiro's race to lose. And arguably, he's the stronger part of the Democrat ticket in PA. Fetterman is a progressive, in a year that is bad for Democrats and worse for progressives in a swing state. His last statewide race was on Tom Wolffe's coattails in a blue wave year. Supposedly he has a lot of appeal to the white, rural working class, but thus far he's completely untested in that regard. Pwning Oz for living in New Jersey will not be enough.
Not enough people are paying attention to AK-Gov. It has the potential to be very close with Bill Walker running again.Doc_ET predicts a close race, but Dunleavy wins before the runoff with Walker finishing in third.
Fettermans gonna loseShamefully deleted user and Different-Trainer-21 did not believe in the Fetterman hype.
No context, just making this sub mad that a career politician that looks cool will lose
He’s literally just a progressive who last won in 2018, which doesn’t prove much. This sub keeps saying “he has the wholesome wwc appeal!!!” But never explain why he has it. I currently have it as tilt R, but it’ll be really close.
I think Warnock is gonna lose to Walker.Another deleted user. Shame!
DeSantis will win by like 3-4 points. People act like he’s some sort of electoral juggernaut when in reality he struggled to win back in 2018 besides the fact that Desantis isn’t really THAT popular outside of Daytona.Nope RealJimyCarter.
Barnes will win by 1% and im going to get slaughtered for this but dems win 219 in the houseI wish progout1.
John Fetterman is very overrated. I don’t know where this Fetterman hype train came from, but he is just the average basement dweller Bernie bro. Assuming he does win, he’ll probably just lose in 2028.Uncut_Pasta1 thinks Fetterman is overrated, but he ends up winning by 5% in an open senate seat in a swing state. We can revisit the second part of this in 2028.
Yeah, Laxalt lost by 4 in a blue wave year where Dems won the Generic Ballot by 8.6%. The fact that Nevada only shifted left by 1.6% instead of 6.5% (the amount the NPV shifted to the left) in a big blue wave tells me that he is actually a really strong candidate.ThatBeatleFanatic misses every single result here. Tony Snell type of numbers.
Anyway, one of my hot takes is Kari Lake wins by 3 and Oz wins narrowly, although that last one is subject to change.
Mandela Barnes will win and progressives will do greatSorry ctnfpiognm :(
Ohio will vote to the right of Florida and Arizona will vote to the right of Nevada.Oopsie TheAngryObserver.
Mastriano outruns OzI can see why this person deleted their account.
I have a bad feeling that DeSantis will lose given that he might have gone too right, too soon.DeSantis has introduce a bill to ban Professional-Dot6472 from Florida for excessive wokeness.
People think “Vermont is strong democratic state in national elections so it has to be on the state level”Welch won by 40% and that dude didn't run.
That’s wrong, in a year trump lost by 36% Scott Milne only lost by 7.2%
And he’s running for the senate against Peter Welch, so he definitely has a small small chance, he’s came close to governor in 2014 losing by 2k votes, and even did good against a popular leahy in 2016
While he will still lose, I have him at 21% loss, it’s not gonna be a huge win for dems
Arizona Senate will be lean Republican. Kelly has lost the most in polling among suburban voters out of any of the "competitive" senate races and Arizona is naturally a conservative-tinted state. Kelly has a 95% Biden voting record and Mark Brnovich is a very good nominee and Blake Masters is a decent nominee. With it being a Democrat midterm with Joe Biden being decently deep in approval and not really bringing anything to Arizonans (more so suit to Kelly than Biden), it doesn't look good.SunBeltPolitics whiffed on sun belt politics. Masters was a pretty bad candidate and Kelly won comfortably.
One I think Masters will be a stronger option compared to Brnovich, the wave year will naturally sway Maricopa suburbs back towards the GOP, the real question is getting the base to turnout and Masters will be stronger in that regarddownnice also likes Blake Masters.
So I was reading this Politico piece from earlier this week about how Washington Senator Patty Murray's already spending over $1M in her reelection campaign against Washington state Senator Tiffany Smiley who seems to be a great candidate, as well as the Democrats'(failed) attempt to elevate election deniers in Colorado. That to me indicates that they are seriously worried about those races and I was just thinking about what races in blue states that may be competitive are flying under the radar because of the state's electoral history.AustisticHistoryLover thinks something is brewing for Tiffany Smiley.
That article definitely got my attention because following the money is the easiest way to see which states the respective party apparati are concerned about. If they're worried about Washington and it ends up being competitive, there is a much better likelihood Republicans can get to the 54-56 range. It'll be a heavier lift to win that race and I don't see it likely because of its partisan and ideological lean but there are usually 1 or 2 surprises every wave year so it's not out of the question.
MN Gov: Tim Walz is definitely a favorite, although I could see this race getting closerRyanAKA2Late misses in both directions here, as none of these races were super competitive.
CT Gov: from what I’ve seen Stafanowski has moderated since 2018, and gubernatorial races in this state are always close for whatever reason
OH Senate: JD Vance has essentially stopped campaigning, and Tim Ryan has good ads
CO Senate: Mark Udall was seen as a heavy favorite to win re-election back in early 2013, but he ended up losing in 2014 to Cory Gardner as the wave grew in size. I could potentially see the same thing happening to Michael Bennet, although the chance of that happening is very small
Random states that could potentially become competitive:DoAFlip22, not to be outdone, also misses every race.
Missouri Senate - Greitens + strong third party performance could cause a tight race
Oklahoma Governor - not the most popular governor in a generally competitive seat
Ohio Senate - strong campaigning by Ryan could cause this to become tighter than we expect
Minnesota Governor - depends on size of wave + third party performance
Florida Governor - weird fucking state, very pro-choice, tends to not follow wave years
I doubt these flip, but they’re just ideas.