Pearl button western shirts
Holding Vigil
2023.06.08 10:08 itsallalittleblurry Holding Vigil
I was five or six years old when I wore a suit for the first time. And I hated it. The collar felt too tight, and I kept running my finger around under it to try to loosen it up.
Just a clip-on tie. It would have been a simple matter to take it off and undo the top button of my shirt. But dad was in an unaccustomed suit of his own, and he didn’t, so I didn’t.
It was a formal occasion, you see. His mother had died, and the two of us were sitting up with her through the night.
An old tradition still practiced among us at that time. Heartening back to a much earlier time, when medical science wasn’t as advanced, and before embalming became a common practice. But still observed.
For three days and nights, someone would be in constant attendance upon the deceased.
This would take place in the parlor, or living room, of the home, rather than in a funeral parlor. It was a duty of close Family, or dear friends.
The person would be laid out in state, in the coffin they were to be buried in, with the lid open. And with them, someone or someone’s would sit and wait.
In the old days, this was done for good reason. A person, with the less exact medical knowledge of the time, would sometimes be mistakenly pronounced dead. Three days, before the advent of embalming, would be sufficient to ensure that they were, by advent of noticeable indications of the beginnings of decay. Also the origin of the tradition of strongly sweet-smelling flowers, as I understand it.
Of course, the person would sometimes revive, or sufficient time would have passed without indications of decay, and so would give notice that perhaps they weren’t gone, after all.
But when I was a youngster, a tradition that was still practiced, for tradition’s sake.
It was late at night, the house and all in it sleeping around us. Just the two of us, sitting in hard-backed wooden chairs. Not speaking. A small nightlight on to aid the pale moonlight coming through the window. Just enough to see by.
I’s stood and looked at her for a while earlier. Out of curiosity, mostly. Unlike Gram and Gramp, I’d had known her hardly at all. The one or two times I’d met her in the past, she’d been a cold, stern, unsmiling woman who hadn’t seemed to like us much. I would come to know in years yet to come that she’d never approved of Mother, though they were kin. Or at least, of her marriage to dad. And I guess that had applied to us children, as well. It had been the cause of a certain distance developing between her and dad, too, as time had passed.
My Grampa Wallace, her husband, had been dead for years before my time, so I knew him only from a couple of photographs. In them, he’d been as stern and unsmiling as she.
She didn’t look much different now, I thought, than on the rare occasion I’d seen her when she was still alive.
Death wasn’t really a mystery to even young children who had spent their early years as we had. We knew first-hand where the meat we ate came from, for instance. And we knew that all living things, including people, must someday die, as we eventually would ourselves. It was the natural order of things, and not a thing to be feared for itself, beyond the reticence of anything that lived to not continue to do so.
Granny Caroline had long lived out of state, had been brought back Home, upon her death, to be buried beside her husband.
The house she was laid out in was not the old family home, but that of Uncle Woodrow and Aunt Tate. It being not as distant, and easier to access for all those wishing to come pay their respects.
I loved that old house myself. We’d visited it many times when I was small, before we’d moved to the City. The thing I liked best about it was its location.
Uncle Woodrow had picked up the property itself for next to nothing years ago, and built the house for himself and Aunt Tate. It was just a small piece of ground, comparable in size to a City lot. A small fenced and gated front yard, and a back yard big enough for a little grass and a truck garden. On the edge of one of the small towns that were found here and there, off the state route.
submitted by itsallalittleblurry to FuckeryUniveristy [link] [comments]
Just a clip-on tie. It would have been a simple matter to take it off and undo the top button of my shirt. But dad was in an unaccustomed suit of his own, and he didn’t, so I didn’t.
It was a formal occasion, you see. His mother had died, and the two of us were sitting up with her through the night.
An old tradition still practiced among us at that time. Heartening back to a much earlier time, when medical science wasn’t as advanced, and before embalming became a common practice. But still observed.
For three days and nights, someone would be in constant attendance upon the deceased.
This would take place in the parlor, or living room, of the home, rather than in a funeral parlor. It was a duty of close Family, or dear friends.
The person would be laid out in state, in the coffin they were to be buried in, with the lid open. And with them, someone or someone’s would sit and wait.
In the old days, this was done for good reason. A person, with the less exact medical knowledge of the time, would sometimes be mistakenly pronounced dead. Three days, before the advent of embalming, would be sufficient to ensure that they were, by advent of noticeable indications of the beginnings of decay. Also the origin of the tradition of strongly sweet-smelling flowers, as I understand it.
Of course, the person would sometimes revive, or sufficient time would have passed without indications of decay, and so would give notice that perhaps they weren’t gone, after all.
But when I was a youngster, a tradition that was still practiced, for tradition’s sake.
It was late at night, the house and all in it sleeping around us. Just the two of us, sitting in hard-backed wooden chairs. Not speaking. A small nightlight on to aid the pale moonlight coming through the window. Just enough to see by.
I’s stood and looked at her for a while earlier. Out of curiosity, mostly. Unlike Gram and Gramp, I’d had known her hardly at all. The one or two times I’d met her in the past, she’d been a cold, stern, unsmiling woman who hadn’t seemed to like us much. I would come to know in years yet to come that she’d never approved of Mother, though they were kin. Or at least, of her marriage to dad. And I guess that had applied to us children, as well. It had been the cause of a certain distance developing between her and dad, too, as time had passed.
My Grampa Wallace, her husband, had been dead for years before my time, so I knew him only from a couple of photographs. In them, he’d been as stern and unsmiling as she.
She didn’t look much different now, I thought, than on the rare occasion I’d seen her when she was still alive.
Death wasn’t really a mystery to even young children who had spent their early years as we had. We knew first-hand where the meat we ate came from, for instance. And we knew that all living things, including people, must someday die, as we eventually would ourselves. It was the natural order of things, and not a thing to be feared for itself, beyond the reticence of anything that lived to not continue to do so.
Granny Caroline had long lived out of state, had been brought back Home, upon her death, to be buried beside her husband.
The house she was laid out in was not the old family home, but that of Uncle Woodrow and Aunt Tate. It being not as distant, and easier to access for all those wishing to come pay their respects.
I loved that old house myself. We’d visited it many times when I was small, before we’d moved to the City. The thing I liked best about it was its location.
Uncle Woodrow had picked up the property itself for next to nothing years ago, and built the house for himself and Aunt Tate. It was just a small piece of ground, comparable in size to a City lot. A small fenced and gated front yard, and a back yard big enough for a little grass and a truck garden. On the edge of one of the small towns that were found here and there, off the state route.
2023.06.08 10:06 Salty-Psychology-574 "C’mon lads! Let’s show these bastards how fight! 「The Meanest of Times」blow these arseholes to bits!!!"
Stand Name: The Meanest of Times
Namesake: album by the Dropkick Murphys
Localized Name: 「The Meanest of Years」
Stand User: Corbin "The Fuse" MacCaffrey-
Appearance: Standing at 6’2 with a limber build with grayed red hair in a small rat-tail ponytail, green eyes, a full fuzzy beard and mustache, numerous scars from bullet wounds and shrapnel, a tattoo of the words "Tiocfaidh ár lá" in all caps in a gothic font is written down his spine, and has two prosthetic running blade legs colored like the Irish flag. For clothes Corbin wears a black muscle-t, black flat cap, a black two-hole balaclava, a woodland camo military uniform with his jacket buttoned halfway, black sneakers, and black fingerless gloves.
Background: Corbin is a 59 year old man hailing from Donegal, Ireland who was an active IRA member during the Troubles and is now a mercenary under the employ of "Feel Good Inc.". Corbin is a very brash, zealous, and vulgar man who prides his Irish heritage greatly. But even still he is dedicated to the people he calls his friends and is very unshakable in his alliances, oaths, and what not.
Corbin was born into a very patriotic family who were very about their Irish pride and instilled this patriotism into Corbin who gradually adopted these beliefs. Corbin was a very street-tough getting into scraps at a very young age making him a bit of a fight seeker. But a calling came for Corbin in 1972 when Bloody Sunday, where British soldiers shot protesters who were protesting the internment of Irish nationalists, happened. Corbin was beyond outraged by this and at the age of 18 he signed up to join the IRA where he was trained as an urban guerrilla.
Through the course of 7 years of fighting in the Troubles, Corbin took part in bombings, shootouts, smuggling, propaganda, and a few assassinations that turned him into a zealot of a soldier willing to die for the cause. Though was an incident during a bombing in his 5th year of duty, when Corbin had set a shorter timer than expected and the explosion shredded his legs. One of his fellow soldiers got him to a hospital where the doctors had to amputate his legs. Corbin was surprisingly ok with this, if anything he was just mildly annoyed and was soon fitted with some running blade prosthetics. He adapted very quickly and was soon returned to the frontlines where even his lack of legs didn’t stop him fighting at his full potential.
However, the British army was closing in on Corbin and his fellow soldiers and decided to go into hiding in Dublin as even Corbin could see that the war wasn’t going in their favor. Corbin laid low for a long while even after the Troubles was over but still kept in contact with his IRA buddies. Though after years of laying low, Corbin grew restless and wanted to throw himself back into the fray. He then found an ad for "Feel Good Inc." where he became fascinated with their mercenary work styled as vigilantism and signed himself up. He was then brought on made a name for himself as a very experienced mercenary, who was proficient in explosives and urban combat and had claimed lots of contracts. This led to him being recruited into the "Demon Days Unit" which are FGI’s most elite mercenaries.
Corbin met the Captain of the DDU and got into a scrap with him when the Captain pulled out a very odd knife. Corbin caught the knife with his hand and the Captain immediately pulled it out and stopped fighting him to the confusion of Corbin. He became even more confused when the wound on his hand immediately vanished. And after the weirdest debriefing he had ever received talking about the concepts of "stands" and "stand users" Corbin eventually understood and passed the test to join the DDU.
Corbin has now been the crews demolitions man, blowing up anything that needs blowing up with absolute devotion to FGI’s cause. He may be a rather brash individual but he always be willing to put his life on the line to help his DDU friends.
Other Facts: •Favorite food is bacon and waffles •Is quite the party drinker, and tends to get wasted often •Favorite drink is whiskey •Has a hip flask at all times that he takes swigs from •Has an playlist on his phone that is just filled with Irish war songs •Favorite song is Come Out Ye Black and Tans
Stats: ACT 1-2-3
Power: C-B-A
Speed: C-B
Range: B
Durability: D
Precision: C-B
Potential: B-C-E
Appearance: ACT 1: Standing at 5’3 「The Meanest of Times」looks a robotic humanoid with a black welder’s mask with a green visor for a head, a slim brown body that’s scratched and dented, noticeable spikes where it’s feet should be which mimics Corbin’s prosthetics, rivets all over it’s body, and wears jean shorts and a brown leather vest.
ACT 2: Now standing at 5’8, TMT maintains a very similar appearance to ACT 1 with the welding mask with 2 green visored eyes and brown body, but it’s body is more athletic now. The rivets are now more symmetrically placed all over the body, with some on the knuckles for some added kick to punches. The spikes are now full on feet with poles acting as ankles and the stand now wears a shirt under it’s now buttoned up vest, regular jeans, elbow and knee pads, and a black belt with a clover buckle.
ACT 3: At it’s final height of 6’2 TMT is now more burly still maintaining the welding mask with a single bright green eye for a visor and it’s rivets now a bright gold. It’s legs now have ankles and it wears a grey shirt under a brown leather jacket with rolled up sleeves, a black flat cap, brown jeans, bandages to cover it’s exposed arms, more rectangular elbow and knee pads, two black leather belts worn in an x-fashion with golden cross buckles, and white sneakers.
Abilities: RC-XD: 「The Meanest of Times」has the ability to create a small remote controlled car in the style of a black Cadillac van with a C4 explosive inside of it. The van also has big wheels which are adhesive and let it drive on walls, a long antenna on the right side of it’s hood, and a dash-cam inside it as well. Through a electronic control pad that TMT summons, Corbin can control the van and see with dash-cam inside to maneuver it to it’s location and deliver a explosion. This ability modifies with each ACT.
ACT 1: Can create one small remote controlled van with a bomb in it with adhesive wheels that let drive on walls.
ACT 2: Can now create a remote controlled plane and boat variant for more versatility but can’t swap between the forms. The bomb has had an increase in power.
ACT 3: Can now make 3 remote controlled vans that can swap between their car, plane, and boat forms making them all-terrain. The bomb is now extremely powerful in this ACT.
submitted by Salty-Psychology-574 to fanStands [link] [comments]
Namesake: album by the Dropkick Murphys
Localized Name: 「The Meanest of Years」
Stand User: Corbin "The Fuse" MacCaffrey-
Appearance: Standing at 6’2 with a limber build with grayed red hair in a small rat-tail ponytail, green eyes, a full fuzzy beard and mustache, numerous scars from bullet wounds and shrapnel, a tattoo of the words "Tiocfaidh ár lá" in all caps in a gothic font is written down his spine, and has two prosthetic running blade legs colored like the Irish flag. For clothes Corbin wears a black muscle-t, black flat cap, a black two-hole balaclava, a woodland camo military uniform with his jacket buttoned halfway, black sneakers, and black fingerless gloves.
Background: Corbin is a 59 year old man hailing from Donegal, Ireland who was an active IRA member during the Troubles and is now a mercenary under the employ of "Feel Good Inc.". Corbin is a very brash, zealous, and vulgar man who prides his Irish heritage greatly. But even still he is dedicated to the people he calls his friends and is very unshakable in his alliances, oaths, and what not.
Corbin was born into a very patriotic family who were very about their Irish pride and instilled this patriotism into Corbin who gradually adopted these beliefs. Corbin was a very street-tough getting into scraps at a very young age making him a bit of a fight seeker. But a calling came for Corbin in 1972 when Bloody Sunday, where British soldiers shot protesters who were protesting the internment of Irish nationalists, happened. Corbin was beyond outraged by this and at the age of 18 he signed up to join the IRA where he was trained as an urban guerrilla.
Through the course of 7 years of fighting in the Troubles, Corbin took part in bombings, shootouts, smuggling, propaganda, and a few assassinations that turned him into a zealot of a soldier willing to die for the cause. Though was an incident during a bombing in his 5th year of duty, when Corbin had set a shorter timer than expected and the explosion shredded his legs. One of his fellow soldiers got him to a hospital where the doctors had to amputate his legs. Corbin was surprisingly ok with this, if anything he was just mildly annoyed and was soon fitted with some running blade prosthetics. He adapted very quickly and was soon returned to the frontlines where even his lack of legs didn’t stop him fighting at his full potential.
However, the British army was closing in on Corbin and his fellow soldiers and decided to go into hiding in Dublin as even Corbin could see that the war wasn’t going in their favor. Corbin laid low for a long while even after the Troubles was over but still kept in contact with his IRA buddies. Though after years of laying low, Corbin grew restless and wanted to throw himself back into the fray. He then found an ad for "Feel Good Inc." where he became fascinated with their mercenary work styled as vigilantism and signed himself up. He was then brought on made a name for himself as a very experienced mercenary, who was proficient in explosives and urban combat and had claimed lots of contracts. This led to him being recruited into the "Demon Days Unit" which are FGI’s most elite mercenaries.
Corbin met the Captain of the DDU and got into a scrap with him when the Captain pulled out a very odd knife. Corbin caught the knife with his hand and the Captain immediately pulled it out and stopped fighting him to the confusion of Corbin. He became even more confused when the wound on his hand immediately vanished. And after the weirdest debriefing he had ever received talking about the concepts of "stands" and "stand users" Corbin eventually understood and passed the test to join the DDU.
Corbin has now been the crews demolitions man, blowing up anything that needs blowing up with absolute devotion to FGI’s cause. He may be a rather brash individual but he always be willing to put his life on the line to help his DDU friends.
Other Facts: •Favorite food is bacon and waffles •Is quite the party drinker, and tends to get wasted often •Favorite drink is whiskey •Has a hip flask at all times that he takes swigs from •Has an playlist on his phone that is just filled with Irish war songs •Favorite song is Come Out Ye Black and Tans
Stats: ACT 1-2-3
Power: C-B-A
Speed: C-B
Range: B
Durability: D
Precision: C-B
Potential: B-C-E
Appearance: ACT 1: Standing at 5’3 「The Meanest of Times」looks a robotic humanoid with a black welder’s mask with a green visor for a head, a slim brown body that’s scratched and dented, noticeable spikes where it’s feet should be which mimics Corbin’s prosthetics, rivets all over it’s body, and wears jean shorts and a brown leather vest.
ACT 2: Now standing at 5’8, TMT maintains a very similar appearance to ACT 1 with the welding mask with 2 green visored eyes and brown body, but it’s body is more athletic now. The rivets are now more symmetrically placed all over the body, with some on the knuckles for some added kick to punches. The spikes are now full on feet with poles acting as ankles and the stand now wears a shirt under it’s now buttoned up vest, regular jeans, elbow and knee pads, and a black belt with a clover buckle.
ACT 3: At it’s final height of 6’2 TMT is now more burly still maintaining the welding mask with a single bright green eye for a visor and it’s rivets now a bright gold. It’s legs now have ankles and it wears a grey shirt under a brown leather jacket with rolled up sleeves, a black flat cap, brown jeans, bandages to cover it’s exposed arms, more rectangular elbow and knee pads, two black leather belts worn in an x-fashion with golden cross buckles, and white sneakers.
Abilities: RC-XD: 「The Meanest of Times」has the ability to create a small remote controlled car in the style of a black Cadillac van with a C4 explosive inside of it. The van also has big wheels which are adhesive and let it drive on walls, a long antenna on the right side of it’s hood, and a dash-cam inside it as well. Through a electronic control pad that TMT summons, Corbin can control the van and see with dash-cam inside to maneuver it to it’s location and deliver a explosion. This ability modifies with each ACT.
ACT 1: Can create one small remote controlled van with a bomb in it with adhesive wheels that let drive on walls.
ACT 2: Can now create a remote controlled plane and boat variant for more versatility but can’t swap between the forms. The bomb has had an increase in power.
ACT 3: Can now make 3 remote controlled vans that can swap between their car, plane, and boat forms making them all-terrain. The bomb is now extremely powerful in this ACT.
2023.06.08 09:48 SashaFiery Western formal wear in Bangalore
Hello!
Where are my Bangalore chicas at?
Your girl needs help with suggestions for good tailors for western formal apparel. I am moving abroad in 6 weeks and need everyday work wear such as formal pants, shirts, a couple of pants suits etc.
Ready-made is a no go for me because I am a human giraffe :/
Tried all brands but none of them really fit my 6ft+ frame. The sleeves and hems always fall short.
Help a girl out ladies and recommend some good tailors in Bangalore who can custom make these for me without charging me my internal organs?
Kthxbi
submitted by SashaFiery to TwoXIndia [link] [comments]
Where are my Bangalore chicas at?
Your girl needs help with suggestions for good tailors for western formal apparel. I am moving abroad in 6 weeks and need everyday work wear such as formal pants, shirts, a couple of pants suits etc.
Ready-made is a no go for me because I am a human giraffe :/
Tried all brands but none of them really fit my 6ft+ frame. The sleeves and hems always fall short.
Help a girl out ladies and recommend some good tailors in Bangalore who can custom make these for me without charging me my internal organs?
Kthxbi
2023.06.08 09:25 DigitalAtlas Better PS Button for Qanba Pearl?
I have a very modded Qanba Pearl but I've noticed over time the rubber piece under the PS button slips and I have to keep opening it up to set it again.
Is there anything I could replace it with that's closer to an actual button?
submitted by DigitalAtlas to fightsticks [link] [comments]
Is there anything I could replace it with that's closer to an actual button?
2023.06.08 09:22 PNWclimberJohn [WTS] Men's Medium Closet Cleanout - Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, prAna, The North Face & Columbia - Weights in Post - Price Drops & New Items!
Hi All, I have some nice garments up for grabs. I've added some new things and dropped prices on items listed previously. All items are men's size medium and are in either new, like-new or excellent lightly used condition. Prices don't include shipping as I'm thinking that someone might want to purchase multiple items which will help trim the overall shipping cost. I prefer PayPal F&F, but you can add 3% to cover PayPal fees if you want to do a G&S transaction. I have sold dozens of items on GearTrade, ULgeartrade & BikeShop over the last few years with no unhappy customers. Buy with confidence! Please take a look...
Mountain Hardwear Tim Lahan Artist Series T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZVEBP6H
This is a beautiful heavyweight tee featuring a cool climbing/mountain graphic by Tim Lahan. This very durable shirt is made from 100% organic cotton and it's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. Color is a dark navy blue and it weighs in at 8.9 oz. Retailed for $45.00. Asking $25.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/OZb52Nn
It's "sun's out, guns out" time and you'd look fantastic in this beautiful shirt! Made from 60% cotton & 40% polyester, this shirt is new and has no flaws. Weighs in at 6.7 oz. and retailed for $60.00. Asking $30.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Canyon Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/0IRfjnS
This is the previous and, in my opinion, superior version of the venerable Canyon Shirt. It features ventilating mesh side panels on the inside of the arms and down most of the torso sides. Two large ventilation ports span the back of the shirt and there's an expandable collar to cover more of the neck if so desired. This awesome shirt features one horizontal zipper access chest pocket and one large vertical access chest pocket with Velcro closure tabs. There is a very minor amount of wear on the inside of the collar. 70% nylon/30% polyester. Overall this shirt is in great condition and is ready to keep you cool for years to come. Weighs 7.1 oz. Current retail on the Canyon Shirt is $60.00. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polyester T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/xqopMGL
This soft synthetic tee is in like-new condition with no flaws. Great for working out and for casual wear. Made from 100% polyester, this sweet tee weighs in at 5.1 oz. Retailed for $39.00 Asking $20.00
prAna Cotton/Poly T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/z0fNu0B
This cool tee is made from 60% organic cotton & 40% recycled polyester. It's in like-new condition with no flaws and weighs in at 6.0 oz. Retailed for $35.00. Asking $17.00
The North Face Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/XBHqdFL
Here's a really nice button-up that's perfect for the office, the pub or date night. It's made from 56% cotton & 44% polyester and is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.6 oz. Retailed for something north of $50.00. Asking $28.00
Patagonia Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/dujv7Xx
This nice polo is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It's made from 100% organic cotton in a comfortable and durable knit. Weighs 8.7 oz. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/kea5Ljj
This beautiful lightweight three button polo is made from 89% recycled polyeste11% organic cotton. It's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.0 oz. and retailed for $49.00. Asking $25.00
The North Face Long-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/aL1HyDk
This beautiful shirt is made from a comfortable and durable 80% cotton/20% polyester fabric. It has a cool hidden interior chest pocket that's perfect for stashing cash, passport, credit cards, etc. This shirt is in like-new condition and weighs 10.3 oz. Asking $28.00
The North Face A5 Series Track Jacket
https://imgur.com/gallery/awuIHBK
Here's a really sweet full-zip sweat/track jacket in a nice green/brown/white color scheme. 85% polyeste15% cotton and weighing in at 22.8 oz. It features two zippered hand pockets and two large interior "drop" pockets. This jacket is in great condition with two very small imperfections (shown in pics) that are hard to spot. This jacket retailed for north of $100.00. Asking $33.00
The North Face Shorts
https://imgur.com/gallery/zVQSDj2
These shorts are made from a very durable 100% nylon fabric. They feature an integrated adjustable nylon belt, two hand pockets in the front, two "wallet" pockets in the back, two large cargo pockets with Velcro flap closures and one 4"x4" pocket on the right thigh. These shorts have a gusseted crotch with 8" inseam and weigh 11.0 oz. Asking $19.00
Columbia Sportswear PFG Bobbers Best Print Short-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/x3Hu1yo
This awesome shirt is new with the tag still attached. It's made from 100% cotton. This shirt has a nice roomy fit and large mesh-lined ventilation ports on the back to keep you cool when the temps go up. Weighs in at 7.3 oz and retails for $45.00. Asking $20.00
Thanks for looking and please let me know if you have any questions. Be well.
submitted by PNWclimberJohn to ULgeartrade [link] [comments]
Mountain Hardwear Tim Lahan Artist Series T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZVEBP6H
This is a beautiful heavyweight tee featuring a cool climbing/mountain graphic by Tim Lahan. This very durable shirt is made from 100% organic cotton and it's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. Color is a dark navy blue and it weighs in at 8.9 oz. Retailed for $45.00. Asking $25.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/OZb52Nn
It's "sun's out, guns out" time and you'd look fantastic in this beautiful shirt! Made from 60% cotton & 40% polyester, this shirt is new and has no flaws. Weighs in at 6.7 oz. and retailed for $60.00. Asking $30.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Canyon Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/0IRfjnS
This is the previous and, in my opinion, superior version of the venerable Canyon Shirt. It features ventilating mesh side panels on the inside of the arms and down most of the torso sides. Two large ventilation ports span the back of the shirt and there's an expandable collar to cover more of the neck if so desired. This awesome shirt features one horizontal zipper access chest pocket and one large vertical access chest pocket with Velcro closure tabs. There is a very minor amount of wear on the inside of the collar. 70% nylon/30% polyester. Overall this shirt is in great condition and is ready to keep you cool for years to come. Weighs 7.1 oz. Current retail on the Canyon Shirt is $60.00. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polyester T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/xqopMGL
This soft synthetic tee is in like-new condition with no flaws. Great for working out and for casual wear. Made from 100% polyester, this sweet tee weighs in at 5.1 oz. Retailed for $39.00 Asking $20.00
prAna Cotton/Poly T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/z0fNu0B
This cool tee is made from 60% organic cotton & 40% recycled polyester. It's in like-new condition with no flaws and weighs in at 6.0 oz. Retailed for $35.00. Asking $17.00
The North Face Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/XBHqdFL
Here's a really nice button-up that's perfect for the office, the pub or date night. It's made from 56% cotton & 44% polyester and is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.6 oz. Retailed for something north of $50.00. Asking $28.00
Patagonia Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/dujv7Xx
This nice polo is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It's made from 100% organic cotton in a comfortable and durable knit. Weighs 8.7 oz. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/kea5Ljj
This beautiful lightweight three button polo is made from 89% recycled polyeste11% organic cotton. It's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.0 oz. and retailed for $49.00. Asking $25.00
The North Face Long-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/aL1HyDk
This beautiful shirt is made from a comfortable and durable 80% cotton/20% polyester fabric. It has a cool hidden interior chest pocket that's perfect for stashing cash, passport, credit cards, etc. This shirt is in like-new condition and weighs 10.3 oz. Asking $28.00
The North Face A5 Series Track Jacket
https://imgur.com/gallery/awuIHBK
Here's a really sweet full-zip sweat/track jacket in a nice green/brown/white color scheme. 85% polyeste15% cotton and weighing in at 22.8 oz. It features two zippered hand pockets and two large interior "drop" pockets. This jacket is in great condition with two very small imperfections (shown in pics) that are hard to spot. This jacket retailed for north of $100.00. Asking $33.00
The North Face Shorts
https://imgur.com/gallery/zVQSDj2
These shorts are made from a very durable 100% nylon fabric. They feature an integrated adjustable nylon belt, two hand pockets in the front, two "wallet" pockets in the back, two large cargo pockets with Velcro flap closures and one 4"x4" pocket on the right thigh. These shorts have a gusseted crotch with 8" inseam and weigh 11.0 oz. Asking $19.00
Columbia Sportswear PFG Bobbers Best Print Short-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/x3Hu1yo
This awesome shirt is new with the tag still attached. It's made from 100% cotton. This shirt has a nice roomy fit and large mesh-lined ventilation ports on the back to keep you cool when the temps go up. Weighs in at 7.3 oz and retails for $45.00. Asking $20.00
Thanks for looking and please let me know if you have any questions. Be well.
2023.06.08 09:19 PNWclimberJohn [WTS] Men's Medium Closet Cleanout - Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, prAna, The North Face, Columbia - Price Drops & New Items!
Hi All, I have some nice garments up for grabs. I've added some new things and dropped prices on items listed previously. All items are men's size medium and are in either new, like-new or excellent lightly used condition. Prices don't include shipping as I'm thinking that someone might want to purchase multiple items which will help trim the overall shipping cost. I prefer PayPal F&F, but you can add 3% to cover PayPal fees if you want to do a G&S transaction. I have sold dozens of items on GearTrade, ULgeartrade & BikeShop over the last few years with no unhappy customers. Buy with confidence! Please take a look...
Mountain Hardwear Tim Lahan Artist Series T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZVEBP6H
This is a beautiful heavyweight tee featuring a cool climbing/mountain graphic by artist Tim Lahan. This very durable shirt is made from 100% organic cotton and it's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. Color is a dark navy blue and it weighs in at 8.9 oz. Retailed for $45.00. Asking $25.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/OZb52Nn
It's "sun's out, guns out" time and you'd look fantastic in this beautiful shirt! Made from 60% cotton & 40% polyester, this shirt is new and has no flaws. Weighs in at 6.7 oz. and retailed for $60.00. Asking $30.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Canyon Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/0IRfjnS
This is the previous and, in my opinion, superior version of the venerable Canyon Shirt. It features ventilating mesh side panels on the inside of the arms and down most of the torso sides. Two large ventilation ports span the back of the shirt and there's an expandable collar to cover more of the neck if so desired. This awesome shirt features one horizontal zipper access chest pocket and one large vertical access chest pocket with Velcro closure tabs. There is a very minor amount of wear on the inside of the collar. 70% nylon/30% polyester. Overall, this shirt is in great condition and is ready to keep you cool for years to come. Weighs 7.1 oz. Current retail on the Canyon Shirt is $60.00. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polyester T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/xqopMGL
This soft synthetic tee is in like-new condition with no flaws. Great for working out and for casual wear. Made from 100% polyester, this sweet tee weighs in at 5.1 oz. Retailed for $39.00 Asking $20.00
prAna Cotton/Poly T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/z0fNu0B
This cool tee is made from 60% organic cotton & 40% recycled polyester. It's in like-new condition with no flaws and weighs in at 6.0 oz. Retailed for $35.00. Asking $17.00
The North Face Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/XBHqdFL
Here's a really nice button-up that's perfect for the office, the pub or date night. It's made from 56% cotton & 44% polyester and is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.6 oz. Retailed for something north of $50.00. Asking $28.00
Patagonia Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/dujv7Xx
This nice polo is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It's made from 100% organic cotton in a comfortable and durable knit. Weighs 8.7 oz. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/kea5Ljj
This beautiful lightweight three button polo is made from 89% recycled polyeste11% organic cotton. It's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.0 oz. and retailed for $49.00. Asking $23.00
The North Face Long-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/aL1HyDk
This beautiful shirt is made from a comfortable and durable 80% cotton/20% polyester fabric. It has a cool hidden interior chest pocket that's perfect for stashing cash, passport, credit cards, etc. This shirt is in like-new condition and weighs 10.3 oz. Asking $28.00
The North Face A5 Series Track Jacket
https://imgur.com/gallery/awuIHBK
Here's a really sweet full-zip sweat/track jacket in a nice green/brown/white color scheme. 85% polyeste15% cotton and weighing in at 22.8 oz. It features two zippered hand pockets and two large interior "drop" pockets. This jacket is in great condition with two very small imperfections (shown in pics) that are hard to spot. This jacket retailed for north of $100.00. Asking $33.00
The North Face Shorts
https://imgur.com/gallery/zVQSDj2
These shorts are made from a very durable 100% nylon fabric. They feature an integrated adjustable nylon belt, two hand pockets in the front, two "wallet" pockets in the back, two large cargo pockets with Velcro flap closures and one 4"x4" pocket on the right thigh. These shorts have a gusseted crotch with 8" inseam and weigh 11.0 oz. Asking $19.00
Columbia Sportswear PFG Bobbers Best Print Short-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/x3Hu1yo
This awesome shirt is new with the tag still attached. It's made from 100% cotton. This shirt has a nice roomy fit and large mesh-lined ventilation ports on the back to keep you cool when the temps go up. Weighs in at 7.3 oz and retails for $45.00. Asking $20.00
Thanks for looking and please let me know if you have any questions. Be well.
submitted by PNWclimberJohn to GearTrade [link] [comments]
Mountain Hardwear Tim Lahan Artist Series T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZVEBP6H
This is a beautiful heavyweight tee featuring a cool climbing/mountain graphic by artist Tim Lahan. This very durable shirt is made from 100% organic cotton and it's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. Color is a dark navy blue and it weighs in at 8.9 oz. Retailed for $45.00. Asking $25.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/OZb52Nn
It's "sun's out, guns out" time and you'd look fantastic in this beautiful shirt! Made from 60% cotton & 40% polyester, this shirt is new and has no flaws. Weighs in at 6.7 oz. and retailed for $60.00. Asking $30.00
Mountain Hardwear Short-sleeve Canyon Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/0IRfjnS
This is the previous and, in my opinion, superior version of the venerable Canyon Shirt. It features ventilating mesh side panels on the inside of the arms and down most of the torso sides. Two large ventilation ports span the back of the shirt and there's an expandable collar to cover more of the neck if so desired. This awesome shirt features one horizontal zipper access chest pocket and one large vertical access chest pocket with Velcro closure tabs. There is a very minor amount of wear on the inside of the collar. 70% nylon/30% polyester. Overall, this shirt is in great condition and is ready to keep you cool for years to come. Weighs 7.1 oz. Current retail on the Canyon Shirt is $60.00. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polyester T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/xqopMGL
This soft synthetic tee is in like-new condition with no flaws. Great for working out and for casual wear. Made from 100% polyester, this sweet tee weighs in at 5.1 oz. Retailed for $39.00 Asking $20.00
prAna Cotton/Poly T-shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/z0fNu0B
This cool tee is made from 60% organic cotton & 40% recycled polyester. It's in like-new condition with no flaws and weighs in at 6.0 oz. Retailed for $35.00. Asking $17.00
The North Face Short-sleeve Button-up
https://imgur.com/gallery/XBHqdFL
Here's a really nice button-up that's perfect for the office, the pub or date night. It's made from 56% cotton & 44% polyester and is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.6 oz. Retailed for something north of $50.00. Asking $28.00
Patagonia Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/dujv7Xx
This nice polo is in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It's made from 100% organic cotton in a comfortable and durable knit. Weighs 8.7 oz. Asking $25.00
prAna Short-sleeve Polo Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/kea5Ljj
This beautiful lightweight three button polo is made from 89% recycled polyeste11% organic cotton. It's in excellent lightly used condition with no flaws. It weighs 6.0 oz. and retailed for $49.00. Asking $23.00
The North Face Long-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/aL1HyDk
This beautiful shirt is made from a comfortable and durable 80% cotton/20% polyester fabric. It has a cool hidden interior chest pocket that's perfect for stashing cash, passport, credit cards, etc. This shirt is in like-new condition and weighs 10.3 oz. Asking $28.00
The North Face A5 Series Track Jacket
https://imgur.com/gallery/awuIHBK
Here's a really sweet full-zip sweat/track jacket in a nice green/brown/white color scheme. 85% polyeste15% cotton and weighing in at 22.8 oz. It features two zippered hand pockets and two large interior "drop" pockets. This jacket is in great condition with two very small imperfections (shown in pics) that are hard to spot. This jacket retailed for north of $100.00. Asking $33.00
The North Face Shorts
https://imgur.com/gallery/zVQSDj2
These shorts are made from a very durable 100% nylon fabric. They feature an integrated adjustable nylon belt, two hand pockets in the front, two "wallet" pockets in the back, two large cargo pockets with Velcro flap closures and one 4"x4" pocket on the right thigh. These shorts have a gusseted crotch with 8" inseam and weigh 11.0 oz. Asking $19.00
Columbia Sportswear PFG Bobbers Best Print Short-sleeve Shirt
https://imgur.com/gallery/x3Hu1yo
This awesome shirt is new with the tag still attached. It's made from 100% cotton. This shirt has a nice roomy fit and large mesh-lined ventilation ports on the back to keep you cool when the temps go up. Weighs in at 7.3 oz and retails for $45.00. Asking $20.00
Thanks for looking and please let me know if you have any questions. Be well.
2023.06.08 09:10 Odd-Mathematician558 Collar shirt
 | submitted by Odd-Mathematician558 to Osana [link] [comments] |
2023.06.08 08:57 CHARLIE-MF-BROWN Thanks I hate this shirt with eyeball buttons and eye socket button holes.
 | submitted by CHARLIE-MF-BROWN to TIHI [link] [comments] |
2023.06.08 08:46 MummyCroc I am a government employee in Zimbabwe and I turned 34 this week (TW: Mentions of suicide)
Occupation – Government employee
Age – 34
Location – Zimbabwe
My salary – $500 (paid monthly)
Side Gig Income – $0
Other income – negligible amounts from dividends received from my stock portfolio that I re-invest
Housemates – 4 (husband P, 6 year old L, 4 year old E and nanny F. My nephew M is around and makes appearances too)
Assets and Liabilities
Income progression- (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/)
Expenses
This year, my husband and I decided that he would take on the bulk of our expenses since I do most of the domestic work/childcare. Expenses I pay will be indicated. My salary is now for my expenses, my investments and my savings, and spoiling the kids. Husband caters for the family basics. There was a point last year when I felt my husband wasn’t as invested in the family because he barely did anything financially. By having him cater for all expenses, he is now definitely involved and invested. My husband’s income is just about the same as mine, slightly higher at some times.
My Expenses
Household Expenses (paid by P)
Previous MDs - (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/) and (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/yc801g/i_am_33_years_old_and_i_just_graduated_with_my/)
MD Q&A
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, I have a BSc in Accounting, a Masters in Accounting, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Taxation. My parents both have Masters degrees, and in my family, the bare minimum acceptable for education was getting a Bachelors. My mother paid for my undergraduate degree, and I paid cash for my postgraduate studies.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My parents divorced when I was very young. My dad is the wealthier of the two, my mum has always been middle-class. My mum brought me up with very little financial help from my dad, he only covered tuition and healthcare until I turned 18. My mum catered for everything else. My mum taught me how to look for bargains, how to save and invest, and also how to sometimes enjoy your money.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents'/guardians' house?
I would say I moved out at 26 when I got my current job. I had moved out when I got my first fulltime job, but moved back home when that contract ended
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
At 26 again. That's when I earned enough to cover all my bills without needing help. My husband P covers some aspects of my financial life, and my mum occasionally helps out with stuff for her grandchildren.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I worked as a receptionist at my mum's law firm after finishing my A Levels (age 18) while waiting to start university. My mum gave me the job to keep me occupied and out of mischief, lol.
Do you worry about money now?
I worry about building generational wealth for my children. I want to make sure they will be set for life as adults. I do worry about money because hyperinflation is eroding my earnings and retirement dramatically. This is my second time losing my retirement. My mum and in laws are losing their retirement for the third time, so honestly our old age looks bleak if we do not invest outside of work pensions.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
I receive negligible dividends from the shares I own, lol.
Day 1
0430 – I’m woken up by loadshedding. I sigh, rollover, and sleep some more
0600 – Alarm goes off. I turn it off, enjoy cuddles from P and finally get out of bed. Our water tanks ran out 4 days ago, and council has not yet deigned to give us water, so we rely on P’s parents and friends to give us water. I get my water that was warming up on the stove, and take a quick bucket bath. I moisturize, do my brows, throw my lace wig on (I cut my hair in January, and I’m at a really awkward stage where my hair looks bad when I wear it out all day) and get dressed. It’s cold in the mornings so I put on winter stockings and a black and white chevron patterned dress, nude ballet pumps plus my warm jacket. I get E from the couch where he was watching Cocomelon and my lunch bag out of the kitchen and we head off to his school. After dropping off E, I go to the office. No electricity means no elevator, so I go up the stairs. I see my boss’s boss and greet him as we do the ZESA (local electricity company) sponsored workout. I log in to the work register, fill up my kettle, and settle down to check out my work email. Nothing urgent came through overnight, so I go into my personal email. The wig company I patronize has given me a code for my birthday, and I’m wondering if I should pull the trigger on my cart. I decide to do a report while thinking this through.
My mum is currently working out of the country, so I am managing her local finances/obligations while she’s away. I remember I have to buy the prepaid electricity token for my childhood home as well as for the house she lives in when she’s working in the country. I spend $23 on electricity for both houses (mum’s money so doesn’t count)
1030 – After doing some firefighting and office gossip I have my breakfast. Today its rice, peas and 2 fried eggs. I sprinkle some peri-peri Aromat on top since I don’t have a sauce/gravy ad I have been craving spicy food lately. I also pop my multivitamin and supplements. I check my team’s work and send back anything that needs correcting. I also generate the multiple reports my boss expects from me. I suddenly remember I need to claim my allowance for performing a role that is higher than my actual position at work. I quickly complete the form, and send it to my boss for his signature. The extra money from this is what I use to fund my stock market investments. I also remind my team to send a report to me for consolidation by noon.
12.00 – I do a major push of all my work due today so I can relax after lunch. I compile my reports and set them ready to send. I also finish my first 2 litres of water of the day, and cue up the next 2 litres
1300 – Its lunchtime, and my work bestie and I head out around town**. I find shorts that L would fit and buy 2 pairs for $10**. We head back to the office and I have caramel popcorn for lunch. Then I remember I forgot to have my afternoon meds, oops. Anyway, more work before heading to an audit meeting
1630 – The audit meeting is finally over, and I rush to shut down my computer, pack up my things and go home. I have an agreement with my manager that as long as I make up for the hour, by either coming early or skipping lunch, I can leave work at 4pm. I had a total hysterectomy end of last year so I still can’t manage driving in heavy traffic. I arrive home, make the bed (P had not made it when he went to work), and harvest chilies from our garden that have ripened. I also harvest a local herb used as a flu remedy and lemongrass, so I can brew up a tea/tisane for the flu affected people in my house. I also pack L’s lunch for tomorrow, a pie, a naartjie and juice. It’s also F’s payday, so I give her US$80 (P gave me this money).
E says he is hungry so I feed him sadza and sour milk by his request. I multitask covering L’s school textbook while supervising his homework and watching Married to Real Estate and the Great British Bake Off. I then have my dinner of sadza, greens and beef. I have a chat with the kids about their day at school. P gets home.
1900 – P and my nephew M go to fetch water from P’s friend’s house. The city council still hasn’t opened up our water supply. I do some French on Duolingo while the boys wreak havoc in their playroom. I read L and E their bedtime stories and put them to bed. I decide to do my hair in cornrows while watching Masterchef Australia. They get home and I help them carry water indoors. I remember that when power comes back I need to boil tripe on the stove, so I cut it up, put it in the pot with water, salt and garlic, and place it on the electric stove. We have serious loadshedding these days, so we have a gas stove and solar power to tide us over. I take a quick bath and change into my pyjamas. While P watches TV, I read Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins and continue to do my hair in cornrows.
2200 – My arms are tired and I’m only halfway through with the cornrows. I give up and go to bed with P.
Total spent - $10
Day 2
0600 – I hear crying. E is in a bad mood today. I turn off my alarm, and go to see what’s wrong. E does not want to get dressed for school. I sigh, and help F dress him while he throws a massive tantrum. E is dressed, so I go do my morning routine of shower, moisturize, contact lenses, and eyebrow makeup. Today, I wear a green dress I took from my mum, black tights, nude ballet flats and a black and white coat. E gets put into the car by F, and starts crying for porridge. We are already late, so he learns that the consequence of refusing to eat his porridge on time is to go to school without having his porridge. It’s not a big issue though, as he gets fed at school. So I lock the doors and windows and drive him to school as he throws a tantrum for the entire 10 minute drive. I shove him into the school gate and head to work.
It’s another ZESA sponsored stair workout today. I log into the register, and fill up my kettle with water. I switch on my computer, check my work email and send off client emails to my team for their response. My personal email has an annual report from one of the companies I have shares in so I check out if there’s a dividend this year. I own a negligible number of shares in the company though, but 28c per share is quite impressive. I check to see if my stock exchange wallet has been credited with the money I transferred there so I can buy more shares. It still hasn’t so I send a follow up email o the enquiries desk at the stock exchange. I do have a stockbroker, but I prefer doing my trades myself. I also do some French on Duolingo before 8am.
0830 – Our HR is in a tizzy because people are late for work. I don’t make a big deal out of it usually, because salaries are shit and people are demotivated. As long as my team shows up and does some work, I’m ok. I approve some work, and warn my team about coming in a bit too late. I also tell a teammate that she will have to cover for me on Monday as I am taking the day off. Our internet connectivity is shit so I can’t log into our system to check some stuff. My work bestie gives me avocados from her house. I almost cry because I have been craving avocados, but been too cheap to buy them.
1000 – I have a really bad sore throat. I am also hungry since I haven’t had breakfast yet. I jot down my shopping list for the weekend and head to Pick ‘n’ Pay to buy carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, lemons, cheese, polony and bread. I also buy my breakfast/lunch, which is rice, beans, ox liver and egg salad**. It all cost $10**. I leave my shopping in my car, and go to the office to wolf down my food, and take my multivitamin and painkiller. I also receive my wigs that I bought in May. Perfect timing, as I want to wear a new wig tomorrow for our girls’ day out.
I do some more work, and remind my team to send me the information I need for my daily reports.
1300 – I go out to buy a few items I didn’t find in Pick ‘n’ Pay earlier**. I go to Spar and buy peas, eggs, soft drinks for the outing tomorrow and a sausage roll. Total cost is $10**. The outing has been deemed kid friendly, so I needed drinks for the boys to have tomorrow. I get back into the office, and spend the rest of the lunch hour working.
1600 – It’s finally time to go home. I send my email to handover work issues for the person who will take over my role on Monday while I am on leave. I also send my out of office email, and head home. The kids are at their grandmother’s, so I take a leisurely bath, put on my pyjamas and eat dinner. Then I watch Masterchef Australia until P and E get home. I also get in some French Duolingo practice
2000 – P goes out with his friends, so I snuggle up on the couch with E and watch TV. I put E to bed, read him his bedtime story and kiss him good night. I finally finish season 13 of Masterchef Australia, and move on to My Kitchen Rules Australia. I love Australian reality shows, ngl.
2200 – I go to bed P gets home and tells me some bad news about a friend of ours. I feel very sad for him. He cuddles me and we sleep.
Total spent - $20
Day 3
0700 – I wake up feeling like a truck ran me over. I get out of bed, and get ready to hand-wash our laundry. We still have no running water so we can’t use the washing machine. I play music while doing my laundry to keep me motivated
0900 – Laundry has been hung out to dry. F has cooked potato curry, so I boil eggs and water. I have my breakfast of potato curry, egg, multivitamin and coffee. Once I’m done, I give E a bath and dress him. I also bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt today as my friends and I ae supposed to take our kids out for a playdate. Then I receive a message that the outing is cancelled since one of our group is really sick. I try to think of something I can do with E, since L is out having fun with his grandmother. I do my Swahili Duolingo practice.
1100 – The welder comes to do some work on our garage door. I monitor the work for a bit, and then my nephew takes over. E starts really bugging me to go out. So I put on my headband wig and sneakers, and pack a cooler bag with snacks and drinks. We head into town and I buy myself some ciders for $9. These are for me to drink when the mood strikes me. E wants to go to a resort by the lake so I oblige him. We pay $8 for our entrance. He goes to play on the swings, and I take pictures of him having fun. Another family turns up, and one of his classmates is among them. He’s so happy, and goes to play with his friend. I watch him running around.
1500 – I get a call from my friend that she’s in town with my cake. This cake was meant for the cancelled outing. I pack up our stuff, hustle E into the car and drive back into town. I let out some colourful swear words when I realise I forgot to get our change of $2. Anyway**, I meet up with my friend and get the cake, and pay her $30**. It’s so pretty. I call my MIL while still in town to find out what time she will be there so I can pick up L. She says it will be an hour, so E and I head home to drop off the cake so it doesn’t melt in my AC-less car.
1600 – We are back in town waiting for L and MIL. E wants an ice cream so I buy him one for $0.50 using money I had in my Innbucks wallet. MIL calls and asks me to head over to where she is to pick L up since she can’t leave yet. E and I get there. MIL gets me sadza and goat tripe stew, which I eat a bit of to be polite even though I am not hungry. When I’m done, I pack up the kids and drive home. I bath and change into my pyjamas.
1800 – I feed the kids, and we play until their weekend bedtime of 8pm. I read them their bedtime stories and tuck them in. I watch TV and iron my morning laundry while having a gin and juice until 9pm, and head to read in bed. P and my nephew arrive home from their amateur soccer league match and subsequent outing with the boys. I fall asleep soon after.
Total spent - $49.50
Day 4
0700 – I’m woken up by L demanding that I come and play with them. I am still sleepy so I fob him off.
0900 - F knocks on the door and tells us she is off to church. I finally get out of bed and get dressed. I see the boys playing relatively peacefully so I let them continue with their antics. In the kitchen, I find F had cooked breakfast, and since I’m starving, I heat up water for coffee. L surprisingly isn’t hungry so I serve up breakfast for P and me. I have my daily multivitamin. P heads out to go fetch water, while I bath, change and hang out with the kids. I also do my French Duolingo practice for the day
1200 – I have played with the dogs and kids, and I am exhausted. I collapse onto the couch and watch MKR Australia. P gets home, and naps on the couch. I give the kids haircuts and baths.
1700 – L is hungry and really wants cake, so I feed the kids a dinner of sadza and sour milk. Then some cake for dessert. I also pack L’s school lunch, which will be a polony sandwich, a cupcake and juice. The kids play until its bedtime at 7pm. The usual routine, bedtime stories and tuck in is done
2000 – P and I watch a movie while having some alcoholic drinks.
2200 – Bedtime for us
Total spent - $0
Day 5
0600 – It’s my birthday today. I am going all out celebrating myself since TW I tried unaliving myself twice in the past year. L wishes me a happy birthday before he goes to school. I get birthday messages from my mum, dad, SILs, and friends. I also get a call from my brother, his wife and their son, and they sing to me. I feel very loved today. P goes to drop off E at school today so I can sleep in
0800 – I am finally up and hungry. I cook a quick breakfast of boiled eggs, and a bean curry. P takes my car to get serviced, while I bath, moisturize, contact lenses, do a full face of makeup and get dressed for the day. Today I wear a tie-dyed cutout mini-dress and sneakers, and my wavy headband wig
1300 – P is home and he drives me to a hotel outside town near a renowned tourist site in our country. We have a platter of fried fish, chicken strips, pork strips, fries, and a salad to share and multiple Savannah Drys while there. It’s really nice getting to reconnect after a very tumultuous year in our marriage. P pays.
1700 – We drive around the area, before heading home. Once we get home, P and my nephew go on a hunt for water, while I feed the kids. P and I head off to take our showers. I remember why I don’t do a full face of makeup when it take a long time to get the makeup off my face.
1900 – The family sings happy birthday, and we eat cake. Birthday gifts were gin and chocolate. I hustle the boys off to bed. No story today, as they went to bed later than usual. P watches TV while I read my novel.
2100 – Bedtime for the grownups
Total spent - $0
Day 6
0530 – I wake up and lie in bed for a bit. Then I read my novel some more.
0620 – I am up, and take my bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. It’s cold this morning, so I wear a yellow dress with black polka dots, black tights and ankle boots. I pack up the cake I’m giving to my colleagues, as well as my water bottle. E and I head out. I drop E off at school, and go to the office. I log into the work register, turn on my computer, and check my emails. There are a few pressing issues I need to get up to speed with. One of my colleagues gives me $50 as a birthday gift. I also hand out the cake to my team.
0900 – Work is pretty quiet today, so I update my MD. I also receive news that one of my nephews is getting married. He is not that much younger than me, and could be my younger brother, but it makes me feel so old.
Note on my family: In our culture, even distant relatives are given close relationships so the large number of nephews/nieces is from those relationships. It’s a big thing done to maintain close family bonds. I have 4 actual (in a Western sense) nephews and nieces who are all under the age of 6.
1000 – I head to the supermarket and buy bread, onions, carrots, pork chops, pork trotters and my breakfast and lunch. This costs $25. The meat is the main cost driver here. I have a sausage roll, my multivitamin, supplement and milk for breakfast. I remember that I need to check if my stock exchange wallet was credited, ugh. The website is refusing to load and I’m very frustrated. I finally log in and see the amount is still not credited. I email and send a tweet to the stock exchange. Hopefully the tweet will get them to start moving.
1200 – My boss is mad. One member of my team left his desk without informing me and there’s an urgent matter. I was about to go downstairs to give P the groceries, so I stick around for a bit before committing the same offence as my subordinate, lol. I quickly get back into my office and check on work, sign some papers and letters, and clear out my emails.
1300 – My work bestie has to run other errands at lunch so I decide to stay in the office. I check my personal email and see I have received a dividend of $0.27, lol. The share price will probably drop soon, so I will buy more shares in this counter if I can get them to increase my shareholding. My goal for this year is to breach the 10,000 share mark for one counter. I suddenly remember I have work to do, so I use my lunch hour to do the work, and then take a quick break to eat my lunch of fries and a sausage and do some Swahili Duolingo practice.
1500 – I am thinking of going home when one of my team members calls me to deal with an angry client. I go to the office, and find out it’s a surprise birthday party from my team. I am so happy, lol. We have more cake, and there’s also fruit and juice. I head home feeling so appreciated with even more cake.
1700 – P and my nephew go out to get water. I warm up my bath water, and give the kids their dinner. Today its rice and croc meat. I make L’s lunch for tomorrow, a toasted polony sandwich and juice. I also pack my lunch, rice, a fried egg and peas. And some cake for my work bestie’s kids. I take my bath; change into my pyjamas and hound E to eat his food. If we let that kid be, he would probably live on the bits of our souls he sucks out daily by being stubborn. I am feeling nauseous so I have plain rice with a bit of avocado. The kids watch cartoons, while I do some more Swahili on Duolingo.
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. Today, there’s no demand for a bedtime story, so I just tuck them in and tell them I love them. I read my novel as increasingly feel more nauseated. I end up going to hurl my guts out. P comes home and finds me lying limply on the bed. He gives me a cuddle, and goes to eat his dinner. I get up but smell fish, and run back to throw up. If I hadn’t had a hysterectomy, I would be doing a pregnancy test ASAP.
2100 – I go to bed, and lie in bed for a bit, before finally drifting off.
Total spent - $25
Day 7
0500 – I wake up feeling nauseated again. Ugh, this reminds me of having hyperemesis while pregnant. I put my water on to heat and get back in bed to read some more.
0600 – E comes to lie on our bed. I get out of bed, and go throw up. I get my bath water, take my bath, moisturize and put my contacts in. I look like a reanimated corpse this morning. I do my brows to try bring a bit of life to my face and get dressed. It’s very misty and cold today so I put on warm brown tights, a long black dress, my warm jacket and ballet flats. I grab my lunch and the cake, pop E into the car and head out. Visibility is extremely low, so I drive slowly. I don’t know why people like surprising other drivers by having their cars pop out of the mist without switching on their headlights. I successfully avoid the drivers who hate life and drop E off at school before heading to work.
0700 – I am in the office, and I log into the register, before turning on my computer and checking my work email. Not too much in there, so I check my personal email. My stock exchange wallet has finally been credited with the $100. I also ponder whether I should pull the trigger on a V-part wig.
I do my weekly report, and start doing some boring work in the system. I realise I didn’t save the work I did yesterday, so I have to re-do it, so I can have the list of error messages to send to ICT.
0830 – Everyone is in the office, so I do some reshuffling of duties, so that essential areas are covered while one of my colleagues is on leave. I give the cake to work bestie, who tells me how much her daughter was excited over the cake yesterday. It’s now time for me to put my head down and really focus on knocking out the system work today. I also log into an online training, and I listen while doing my work. My mum also deposits money for my birthday gift and to spoil her grandkids.
1000 – I log into my stock exchange account and buy shares for $99.14 (doesn’t count as spending, as the money was moved before the MD started). The deadline for other departments to submit their weekly reports to me for consolidation has passed so I start following up. One department is a big problem as they always send their report late. Le sigh. I draft a very passive aggressive email to them. I also decide not to buy the wig and instead ask the person making me my custom earrings that I got myself for my birthday to bill me the rest of the money so I can pay and move the remainder of the money in my account into savings. Our currency has taken an enormous hit in the last week, and is free falling dramatically. I’d rather keep USD cash than money in my account at this point. The training finally ends.
1100 – I’m getting hungry so I go warm up my lunch, sprinkle on peri peri Aromat and dig in. Yum. I also have my multivitamin and supplement. A lady who sells local snacks comes in. She persuades me to buy maputi (corn nuts mixed with roasted peanuts) for $0.50. I buy them for my afternoon snack. I end up sending the report with missing statistics, and tell the department to send directly to the compiler, as they were late. That was a very aggressive email tbh. I’m still hungry, so I munch on my maputi, leaving the peanuts because I don’t feel like eating them lately.
1200 – I see a missed call from a number I don’t know. I call and it turns out they had sent money to my mobile wallet mistakenly. I check the mobile wallet and it shows it had an extra $11. I send the money back to the person. Times are too tough to keep people’s money
1400 – I snack on a few skittles instead of having more food. I just want something to entertain my mouth, I’m not hungry at all. I review more work and drink more water. The jeweler has sent the payment request for the earrings. I pay $100 (total spent on the earrings comes to $200, which is worth it for sterling silver custom made Jewellery. I use $50 of the birthday money from my mum to cover for part of this expense)
1600 – Finally time to go home. I shut down my computer, and drive home. Once I’m home, I put on my bath water, and help L do his homework. Then I do some Swahili Duolingo practice and pack L’s lunch for tomorrow. He requested maize (corn on the cob), a boiled egg and a naartjie. His wish is my command for once. I also pack my lunch, a boiled egg, peanut butter sandwich and a bit of birthday cake. The jeweler sends pictures of the final product. They are absolutely gorgeous. Happy 34th birthday to me!!!
1800 – I serve the kids their dinner, and go to take my bath. P sends a text that he will be home late as they are working late today. I have my own dinner while persuading E to eat his food
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. I read them their bedtime stories, tuck them in and tell them I love them. Then I go to watch TV. I’m catching up on Married to Real Estate, Food Factory and Man Vs Food. You can tell that reality TV is my jam.
2100 – I decide to have some decaf black coffee and cake as my bedtime snack. P and my nephew arrive home. They are later than they thought they would be because nephew dropped his phone in the middle of the highway and they were searching for it. Because nephew’s ancestors were on the job, they found it intact. It’s a big deal because this is a major highway and huge trucks use that road constantly. I chat with P as he has his dinner and takes his bath.
2200 – Cuddles and bedtime for us
Total spent today – $100
Total spent this week – $204.50
Spending by categories
Food & Drink – $84.50
Home & Health – $0
Clothing & Beauty – $110
Transportation – $0
Fun & Entertainment – $10
Reflections on this week’s spending
The spending is pretty much about normal for me tbh (excluding the cake and earrings). I had quite a bit of petrol in the tank so I didn’t need to top up my tank this week. The converted US$ prices are a bit inaccurate since our currency had a big drop this week, and most of my spending is in local currency. I could reign in my spending a bit, and focus more on investing. However, I do enjoy using my money to bring joy to my kids and myself. Particularly myself after the absolutely shitty year I had.
submitted by MummyCroc to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]
Age – 34
Location – Zimbabwe
My salary – $500 (paid monthly)
Side Gig Income – $0
Other income – negligible amounts from dividends received from my stock portfolio that I re-invest
Housemates – 4 (husband P, 6 year old L, 4 year old E and nanny F. My nephew M is around and makes appearances too)
Assets and Liabilities
| Equity | $60,000 fully paid off | |
|---|---|---|
| Retirement Balance | ?? | I contribute monthly, and employer matches fully. But because of changes in currency and hyperinflation, I don’t really count this as an asset |
| Savings | $1700 | (went down due to travelling trying to get my passport done since it expired) |
| Current account balance | $660 | Includes my mum's money since I'm managing her financial affairs while she's abroad |
| Loan from employer | $130 | I took a personal loan from work, because the interest rates are lower than rate of inflation and repayment is over 18 months. Loan was used to make improvements on our house, and what wasn’t used, I bought shares on our stock exchange, due to hyperinflation, the amount I owe in US$ has gone down |
| Investments (shares in various counters on our local stock exchanges) | $1,186 | |
| Car | $4,000 | Based on current resale value. Car was bought secondhand for cash |
Income progression- (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/)
Expenses
This year, my husband and I decided that he would take on the bulk of our expenses since I do most of the domestic work/childcare. Expenses I pay will be indicated. My salary is now for my expenses, my investments and my savings, and spoiling the kids. Husband caters for the family basics. There was a point last year when I felt my husband wasn’t as invested in the family because he barely did anything financially. By having him cater for all expenses, he is now definitely involved and invested. My husband’s income is just about the same as mine, slightly higher at some times.
My Expenses
| Expense | Amount /period | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Car insurance and licensing | $300/annum | This is due in March, and I pay for the entire year |
| Petrol | $60/month | |
| Electricity | $10/month | |
| Airtime/data | $20/month | |
| Groceries | $60/month | This is for additional groceries such as bread, veg and fruit bought during the month |
| Kids’ clothes | $40/month | I’m trying to build up their winter wardrobe so I try to buy them something each month |
| Makeup/clothes/toiletries/ supplements/hair | $30/month | I do not us this much monthly though |
| Water | $15/month | Based on last bill received in April. We do not get water consistently so bills are infrequent |
| Donations | $20/month | Ad hoc donations to a soup kitchen, and maternal health fun |
| Stock market investment | $50/month | May invest more or less, but I do try to buy shares every payday |
Household Expenses (paid by P)
| Expense | Amount /period | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | $200/month | Bulk grocery shopping of staple food items and toiletries |
| LP Gas | $30/approx. every 2 months | We buy when it runs out. Usually every 2 months depending on how bad the power supply is |
| Medical | $15/month | For OTC meds (painkiller, cough syrup, antacid stocked for emergencies) and any prescriptions |
| Pet expenses | $60/ twice a year | For vaccinations and checkups for 4 dogs. Pet food is covered under groceries |
| School fees for the kids | $347/ term | One kid has fees paid every month, the other every 3 months |
| Nanny | $80/month | Less than before as both kids are now in school fulltime, and nanny is there to get them ready for school and care after school for 3 hours. |
| DSTV subscription | $37/month | |
| Transport for kids to/from school | $60/month | L gets picked up and dropped off at home daily, E is dropped off after school |
Previous MDs - (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/) and (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/yc801g/i_am_33_years_old_and_i_just_graduated_with_my/)
MD Q&A
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, I have a BSc in Accounting, a Masters in Accounting, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Taxation. My parents both have Masters degrees, and in my family, the bare minimum acceptable for education was getting a Bachelors. My mother paid for my undergraduate degree, and I paid cash for my postgraduate studies.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My parents divorced when I was very young. My dad is the wealthier of the two, my mum has always been middle-class. My mum brought me up with very little financial help from my dad, he only covered tuition and healthcare until I turned 18. My mum catered for everything else. My mum taught me how to look for bargains, how to save and invest, and also how to sometimes enjoy your money.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents'/guardians' house?
I would say I moved out at 26 when I got my current job. I had moved out when I got my first fulltime job, but moved back home when that contract ended
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
At 26 again. That's when I earned enough to cover all my bills without needing help. My husband P covers some aspects of my financial life, and my mum occasionally helps out with stuff for her grandchildren.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I worked as a receptionist at my mum's law firm after finishing my A Levels (age 18) while waiting to start university. My mum gave me the job to keep me occupied and out of mischief, lol.
Do you worry about money now?
I worry about building generational wealth for my children. I want to make sure they will be set for life as adults. I do worry about money because hyperinflation is eroding my earnings and retirement dramatically. This is my second time losing my retirement. My mum and in laws are losing their retirement for the third time, so honestly our old age looks bleak if we do not invest outside of work pensions.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
I receive negligible dividends from the shares I own, lol.
Day 1
0430 – I’m woken up by loadshedding. I sigh, rollover, and sleep some more
0600 – Alarm goes off. I turn it off, enjoy cuddles from P and finally get out of bed. Our water tanks ran out 4 days ago, and council has not yet deigned to give us water, so we rely on P’s parents and friends to give us water. I get my water that was warming up on the stove, and take a quick bucket bath. I moisturize, do my brows, throw my lace wig on (I cut my hair in January, and I’m at a really awkward stage where my hair looks bad when I wear it out all day) and get dressed. It’s cold in the mornings so I put on winter stockings and a black and white chevron patterned dress, nude ballet pumps plus my warm jacket. I get E from the couch where he was watching Cocomelon and my lunch bag out of the kitchen and we head off to his school. After dropping off E, I go to the office. No electricity means no elevator, so I go up the stairs. I see my boss’s boss and greet him as we do the ZESA (local electricity company) sponsored workout. I log in to the work register, fill up my kettle, and settle down to check out my work email. Nothing urgent came through overnight, so I go into my personal email. The wig company I patronize has given me a code for my birthday, and I’m wondering if I should pull the trigger on my cart. I decide to do a report while thinking this through.
My mum is currently working out of the country, so I am managing her local finances/obligations while she’s away. I remember I have to buy the prepaid electricity token for my childhood home as well as for the house she lives in when she’s working in the country. I spend $23 on electricity for both houses (mum’s money so doesn’t count)
1030 – After doing some firefighting and office gossip I have my breakfast. Today its rice, peas and 2 fried eggs. I sprinkle some peri-peri Aromat on top since I don’t have a sauce/gravy ad I have been craving spicy food lately. I also pop my multivitamin and supplements. I check my team’s work and send back anything that needs correcting. I also generate the multiple reports my boss expects from me. I suddenly remember I need to claim my allowance for performing a role that is higher than my actual position at work. I quickly complete the form, and send it to my boss for his signature. The extra money from this is what I use to fund my stock market investments. I also remind my team to send a report to me for consolidation by noon.
12.00 – I do a major push of all my work due today so I can relax after lunch. I compile my reports and set them ready to send. I also finish my first 2 litres of water of the day, and cue up the next 2 litres
1300 – Its lunchtime, and my work bestie and I head out around town**. I find shorts that L would fit and buy 2 pairs for $10**. We head back to the office and I have caramel popcorn for lunch. Then I remember I forgot to have my afternoon meds, oops. Anyway, more work before heading to an audit meeting
1630 – The audit meeting is finally over, and I rush to shut down my computer, pack up my things and go home. I have an agreement with my manager that as long as I make up for the hour, by either coming early or skipping lunch, I can leave work at 4pm. I had a total hysterectomy end of last year so I still can’t manage driving in heavy traffic. I arrive home, make the bed (P had not made it when he went to work), and harvest chilies from our garden that have ripened. I also harvest a local herb used as a flu remedy and lemongrass, so I can brew up a tea/tisane for the flu affected people in my house. I also pack L’s lunch for tomorrow, a pie, a naartjie and juice. It’s also F’s payday, so I give her US$80 (P gave me this money).
E says he is hungry so I feed him sadza and sour milk by his request. I multitask covering L’s school textbook while supervising his homework and watching Married to Real Estate and the Great British Bake Off. I then have my dinner of sadza, greens and beef. I have a chat with the kids about their day at school. P gets home.
1900 – P and my nephew M go to fetch water from P’s friend’s house. The city council still hasn’t opened up our water supply. I do some French on Duolingo while the boys wreak havoc in their playroom. I read L and E their bedtime stories and put them to bed. I decide to do my hair in cornrows while watching Masterchef Australia. They get home and I help them carry water indoors. I remember that when power comes back I need to boil tripe on the stove, so I cut it up, put it in the pot with water, salt and garlic, and place it on the electric stove. We have serious loadshedding these days, so we have a gas stove and solar power to tide us over. I take a quick bath and change into my pyjamas. While P watches TV, I read Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins and continue to do my hair in cornrows.
2200 – My arms are tired and I’m only halfway through with the cornrows. I give up and go to bed with P.
Total spent - $10
Day 2
0600 – I hear crying. E is in a bad mood today. I turn off my alarm, and go to see what’s wrong. E does not want to get dressed for school. I sigh, and help F dress him while he throws a massive tantrum. E is dressed, so I go do my morning routine of shower, moisturize, contact lenses, and eyebrow makeup. Today, I wear a green dress I took from my mum, black tights, nude ballet flats and a black and white coat. E gets put into the car by F, and starts crying for porridge. We are already late, so he learns that the consequence of refusing to eat his porridge on time is to go to school without having his porridge. It’s not a big issue though, as he gets fed at school. So I lock the doors and windows and drive him to school as he throws a tantrum for the entire 10 minute drive. I shove him into the school gate and head to work.
It’s another ZESA sponsored stair workout today. I log into the register, and fill up my kettle with water. I switch on my computer, check my work email and send off client emails to my team for their response. My personal email has an annual report from one of the companies I have shares in so I check out if there’s a dividend this year. I own a negligible number of shares in the company though, but 28c per share is quite impressive. I check to see if my stock exchange wallet has been credited with the money I transferred there so I can buy more shares. It still hasn’t so I send a follow up email o the enquiries desk at the stock exchange. I do have a stockbroker, but I prefer doing my trades myself. I also do some French on Duolingo before 8am.
0830 – Our HR is in a tizzy because people are late for work. I don’t make a big deal out of it usually, because salaries are shit and people are demotivated. As long as my team shows up and does some work, I’m ok. I approve some work, and warn my team about coming in a bit too late. I also tell a teammate that she will have to cover for me on Monday as I am taking the day off. Our internet connectivity is shit so I can’t log into our system to check some stuff. My work bestie gives me avocados from her house. I almost cry because I have been craving avocados, but been too cheap to buy them.
1000 – I have a really bad sore throat. I am also hungry since I haven’t had breakfast yet. I jot down my shopping list for the weekend and head to Pick ‘n’ Pay to buy carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, lemons, cheese, polony and bread. I also buy my breakfast/lunch, which is rice, beans, ox liver and egg salad**. It all cost $10**. I leave my shopping in my car, and go to the office to wolf down my food, and take my multivitamin and painkiller. I also receive my wigs that I bought in May. Perfect timing, as I want to wear a new wig tomorrow for our girls’ day out.
I do some more work, and remind my team to send me the information I need for my daily reports.
1300 – I go out to buy a few items I didn’t find in Pick ‘n’ Pay earlier**. I go to Spar and buy peas, eggs, soft drinks for the outing tomorrow and a sausage roll. Total cost is $10**. The outing has been deemed kid friendly, so I needed drinks for the boys to have tomorrow. I get back into the office, and spend the rest of the lunch hour working.
1600 – It’s finally time to go home. I send my email to handover work issues for the person who will take over my role on Monday while I am on leave. I also send my out of office email, and head home. The kids are at their grandmother’s, so I take a leisurely bath, put on my pyjamas and eat dinner. Then I watch Masterchef Australia until P and E get home. I also get in some French Duolingo practice
2000 – P goes out with his friends, so I snuggle up on the couch with E and watch TV. I put E to bed, read him his bedtime story and kiss him good night. I finally finish season 13 of Masterchef Australia, and move on to My Kitchen Rules Australia. I love Australian reality shows, ngl.
2200 – I go to bed P gets home and tells me some bad news about a friend of ours. I feel very sad for him. He cuddles me and we sleep.
Total spent - $20
Day 3
0700 – I wake up feeling like a truck ran me over. I get out of bed, and get ready to hand-wash our laundry. We still have no running water so we can’t use the washing machine. I play music while doing my laundry to keep me motivated
0900 – Laundry has been hung out to dry. F has cooked potato curry, so I boil eggs and water. I have my breakfast of potato curry, egg, multivitamin and coffee. Once I’m done, I give E a bath and dress him. I also bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt today as my friends and I ae supposed to take our kids out for a playdate. Then I receive a message that the outing is cancelled since one of our group is really sick. I try to think of something I can do with E, since L is out having fun with his grandmother. I do my Swahili Duolingo practice.
1100 – The welder comes to do some work on our garage door. I monitor the work for a bit, and then my nephew takes over. E starts really bugging me to go out. So I put on my headband wig and sneakers, and pack a cooler bag with snacks and drinks. We head into town and I buy myself some ciders for $9. These are for me to drink when the mood strikes me. E wants to go to a resort by the lake so I oblige him. We pay $8 for our entrance. He goes to play on the swings, and I take pictures of him having fun. Another family turns up, and one of his classmates is among them. He’s so happy, and goes to play with his friend. I watch him running around.
1500 – I get a call from my friend that she’s in town with my cake. This cake was meant for the cancelled outing. I pack up our stuff, hustle E into the car and drive back into town. I let out some colourful swear words when I realise I forgot to get our change of $2. Anyway**, I meet up with my friend and get the cake, and pay her $30**. It’s so pretty. I call my MIL while still in town to find out what time she will be there so I can pick up L. She says it will be an hour, so E and I head home to drop off the cake so it doesn’t melt in my AC-less car.
1600 – We are back in town waiting for L and MIL. E wants an ice cream so I buy him one for $0.50 using money I had in my Innbucks wallet. MIL calls and asks me to head over to where she is to pick L up since she can’t leave yet. E and I get there. MIL gets me sadza and goat tripe stew, which I eat a bit of to be polite even though I am not hungry. When I’m done, I pack up the kids and drive home. I bath and change into my pyjamas.
1800 – I feed the kids, and we play until their weekend bedtime of 8pm. I read them their bedtime stories and tuck them in. I watch TV and iron my morning laundry while having a gin and juice until 9pm, and head to read in bed. P and my nephew arrive home from their amateur soccer league match and subsequent outing with the boys. I fall asleep soon after.
Total spent - $49.50
Day 4
0700 – I’m woken up by L demanding that I come and play with them. I am still sleepy so I fob him off.
0900 - F knocks on the door and tells us she is off to church. I finally get out of bed and get dressed. I see the boys playing relatively peacefully so I let them continue with their antics. In the kitchen, I find F had cooked breakfast, and since I’m starving, I heat up water for coffee. L surprisingly isn’t hungry so I serve up breakfast for P and me. I have my daily multivitamin. P heads out to go fetch water, while I bath, change and hang out with the kids. I also do my French Duolingo practice for the day
1200 – I have played with the dogs and kids, and I am exhausted. I collapse onto the couch and watch MKR Australia. P gets home, and naps on the couch. I give the kids haircuts and baths.
1700 – L is hungry and really wants cake, so I feed the kids a dinner of sadza and sour milk. Then some cake for dessert. I also pack L’s school lunch, which will be a polony sandwich, a cupcake and juice. The kids play until its bedtime at 7pm. The usual routine, bedtime stories and tuck in is done
2000 – P and I watch a movie while having some alcoholic drinks.
2200 – Bedtime for us
Total spent - $0
Day 5
0600 – It’s my birthday today. I am going all out celebrating myself since TW I tried unaliving myself twice in the past year. L wishes me a happy birthday before he goes to school. I get birthday messages from my mum, dad, SILs, and friends. I also get a call from my brother, his wife and their son, and they sing to me. I feel very loved today. P goes to drop off E at school today so I can sleep in
0800 – I am finally up and hungry. I cook a quick breakfast of boiled eggs, and a bean curry. P takes my car to get serviced, while I bath, moisturize, contact lenses, do a full face of makeup and get dressed for the day. Today I wear a tie-dyed cutout mini-dress and sneakers, and my wavy headband wig
1300 – P is home and he drives me to a hotel outside town near a renowned tourist site in our country. We have a platter of fried fish, chicken strips, pork strips, fries, and a salad to share and multiple Savannah Drys while there. It’s really nice getting to reconnect after a very tumultuous year in our marriage. P pays.
1700 – We drive around the area, before heading home. Once we get home, P and my nephew go on a hunt for water, while I feed the kids. P and I head off to take our showers. I remember why I don’t do a full face of makeup when it take a long time to get the makeup off my face.
1900 – The family sings happy birthday, and we eat cake. Birthday gifts were gin and chocolate. I hustle the boys off to bed. No story today, as they went to bed later than usual. P watches TV while I read my novel.
2100 – Bedtime for the grownups
Total spent - $0
Day 6
0530 – I wake up and lie in bed for a bit. Then I read my novel some more.
0620 – I am up, and take my bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. It’s cold this morning, so I wear a yellow dress with black polka dots, black tights and ankle boots. I pack up the cake I’m giving to my colleagues, as well as my water bottle. E and I head out. I drop E off at school, and go to the office. I log into the work register, turn on my computer, and check my emails. There are a few pressing issues I need to get up to speed with. One of my colleagues gives me $50 as a birthday gift. I also hand out the cake to my team.
0900 – Work is pretty quiet today, so I update my MD. I also receive news that one of my nephews is getting married. He is not that much younger than me, and could be my younger brother, but it makes me feel so old.
Note on my family: In our culture, even distant relatives are given close relationships so the large number of nephews/nieces is from those relationships. It’s a big thing done to maintain close family bonds. I have 4 actual (in a Western sense) nephews and nieces who are all under the age of 6.
1000 – I head to the supermarket and buy bread, onions, carrots, pork chops, pork trotters and my breakfast and lunch. This costs $25. The meat is the main cost driver here. I have a sausage roll, my multivitamin, supplement and milk for breakfast. I remember that I need to check if my stock exchange wallet was credited, ugh. The website is refusing to load and I’m very frustrated. I finally log in and see the amount is still not credited. I email and send a tweet to the stock exchange. Hopefully the tweet will get them to start moving.
1200 – My boss is mad. One member of my team left his desk without informing me and there’s an urgent matter. I was about to go downstairs to give P the groceries, so I stick around for a bit before committing the same offence as my subordinate, lol. I quickly get back into my office and check on work, sign some papers and letters, and clear out my emails.
1300 – My work bestie has to run other errands at lunch so I decide to stay in the office. I check my personal email and see I have received a dividend of $0.27, lol. The share price will probably drop soon, so I will buy more shares in this counter if I can get them to increase my shareholding. My goal for this year is to breach the 10,000 share mark for one counter. I suddenly remember I have work to do, so I use my lunch hour to do the work, and then take a quick break to eat my lunch of fries and a sausage and do some Swahili Duolingo practice.
1500 – I am thinking of going home when one of my team members calls me to deal with an angry client. I go to the office, and find out it’s a surprise birthday party from my team. I am so happy, lol. We have more cake, and there’s also fruit and juice. I head home feeling so appreciated with even more cake.
1700 – P and my nephew go out to get water. I warm up my bath water, and give the kids their dinner. Today its rice and croc meat. I make L’s lunch for tomorrow, a toasted polony sandwich and juice. I also pack my lunch, rice, a fried egg and peas. And some cake for my work bestie’s kids. I take my bath; change into my pyjamas and hound E to eat his food. If we let that kid be, he would probably live on the bits of our souls he sucks out daily by being stubborn. I am feeling nauseous so I have plain rice with a bit of avocado. The kids watch cartoons, while I do some more Swahili on Duolingo.
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. Today, there’s no demand for a bedtime story, so I just tuck them in and tell them I love them. I read my novel as increasingly feel more nauseated. I end up going to hurl my guts out. P comes home and finds me lying limply on the bed. He gives me a cuddle, and goes to eat his dinner. I get up but smell fish, and run back to throw up. If I hadn’t had a hysterectomy, I would be doing a pregnancy test ASAP.
2100 – I go to bed, and lie in bed for a bit, before finally drifting off.
Total spent - $25
Day 7
0500 – I wake up feeling nauseated again. Ugh, this reminds me of having hyperemesis while pregnant. I put my water on to heat and get back in bed to read some more.
0600 – E comes to lie on our bed. I get out of bed, and go throw up. I get my bath water, take my bath, moisturize and put my contacts in. I look like a reanimated corpse this morning. I do my brows to try bring a bit of life to my face and get dressed. It’s very misty and cold today so I put on warm brown tights, a long black dress, my warm jacket and ballet flats. I grab my lunch and the cake, pop E into the car and head out. Visibility is extremely low, so I drive slowly. I don’t know why people like surprising other drivers by having their cars pop out of the mist without switching on their headlights. I successfully avoid the drivers who hate life and drop E off at school before heading to work.
0700 – I am in the office, and I log into the register, before turning on my computer and checking my work email. Not too much in there, so I check my personal email. My stock exchange wallet has finally been credited with the $100. I also ponder whether I should pull the trigger on a V-part wig.
I do my weekly report, and start doing some boring work in the system. I realise I didn’t save the work I did yesterday, so I have to re-do it, so I can have the list of error messages to send to ICT.
0830 – Everyone is in the office, so I do some reshuffling of duties, so that essential areas are covered while one of my colleagues is on leave. I give the cake to work bestie, who tells me how much her daughter was excited over the cake yesterday. It’s now time for me to put my head down and really focus on knocking out the system work today. I also log into an online training, and I listen while doing my work. My mum also deposits money for my birthday gift and to spoil her grandkids.
1000 – I log into my stock exchange account and buy shares for $99.14 (doesn’t count as spending, as the money was moved before the MD started). The deadline for other departments to submit their weekly reports to me for consolidation has passed so I start following up. One department is a big problem as they always send their report late. Le sigh. I draft a very passive aggressive email to them. I also decide not to buy the wig and instead ask the person making me my custom earrings that I got myself for my birthday to bill me the rest of the money so I can pay and move the remainder of the money in my account into savings. Our currency has taken an enormous hit in the last week, and is free falling dramatically. I’d rather keep USD cash than money in my account at this point. The training finally ends.
1100 – I’m getting hungry so I go warm up my lunch, sprinkle on peri peri Aromat and dig in. Yum. I also have my multivitamin and supplement. A lady who sells local snacks comes in. She persuades me to buy maputi (corn nuts mixed with roasted peanuts) for $0.50. I buy them for my afternoon snack. I end up sending the report with missing statistics, and tell the department to send directly to the compiler, as they were late. That was a very aggressive email tbh. I’m still hungry, so I munch on my maputi, leaving the peanuts because I don’t feel like eating them lately.
1200 – I see a missed call from a number I don’t know. I call and it turns out they had sent money to my mobile wallet mistakenly. I check the mobile wallet and it shows it had an extra $11. I send the money back to the person. Times are too tough to keep people’s money
1400 – I snack on a few skittles instead of having more food. I just want something to entertain my mouth, I’m not hungry at all. I review more work and drink more water. The jeweler has sent the payment request for the earrings. I pay $100 (total spent on the earrings comes to $200, which is worth it for sterling silver custom made Jewellery. I use $50 of the birthday money from my mum to cover for part of this expense)
1600 – Finally time to go home. I shut down my computer, and drive home. Once I’m home, I put on my bath water, and help L do his homework. Then I do some Swahili Duolingo practice and pack L’s lunch for tomorrow. He requested maize (corn on the cob), a boiled egg and a naartjie. His wish is my command for once. I also pack my lunch, a boiled egg, peanut butter sandwich and a bit of birthday cake. The jeweler sends pictures of the final product. They are absolutely gorgeous. Happy 34th birthday to me!!!
1800 – I serve the kids their dinner, and go to take my bath. P sends a text that he will be home late as they are working late today. I have my own dinner while persuading E to eat his food
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. I read them their bedtime stories, tuck them in and tell them I love them. Then I go to watch TV. I’m catching up on Married to Real Estate, Food Factory and Man Vs Food. You can tell that reality TV is my jam.
2100 – I decide to have some decaf black coffee and cake as my bedtime snack. P and my nephew arrive home. They are later than they thought they would be because nephew dropped his phone in the middle of the highway and they were searching for it. Because nephew’s ancestors were on the job, they found it intact. It’s a big deal because this is a major highway and huge trucks use that road constantly. I chat with P as he has his dinner and takes his bath.
2200 – Cuddles and bedtime for us
Total spent today – $100
Total spent this week – $204.50
Spending by categories
Food & Drink – $84.50
Home & Health – $0
Clothing & Beauty – $110
Transportation – $0
Fun & Entertainment – $10
Reflections on this week’s spending
The spending is pretty much about normal for me tbh (excluding the cake and earrings). I had quite a bit of petrol in the tank so I didn’t need to top up my tank this week. The converted US$ prices are a bit inaccurate since our currency had a big drop this week, and most of my spending is in local currency. I could reign in my spending a bit, and focus more on investing. However, I do enjoy using my money to bring joy to my kids and myself. Particularly myself after the absolutely shitty year I had.
2023.06.08 08:38 crimsonAsbestos266 This shirt with eyeball buttons and eye socket button holes.
| | submitted by crimsonAsbestos266 to mildlyinteresting [link] [comments] |
2023.06.08 07:46 iownedslam Shirt similar to this but less expensive?
 | I'm trying to find a button down shirt like this style. Any ideas for a substitute? Delete if this isn't allowed! submitted by iownedslam to mensfashion [link] [comments] |
2023.06.08 07:16 critical_courtney [A Bargain for Bliss] — Chapter Eleven (sequel to The Fae Queen's Pet)
![[A Bargain for Bliss] — Chapter Eleven (sequel to The Fae Queen's Pet)](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/2lScdiolOaeBJLVCNy4XrjAWx__pQBs4WRQyIzalYSI.jpg "[A Bargain for Bliss] — Chapter Eleven (sequel to The Fae Queen's Pet)") | submitted by critical_courtney to redditserials [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/8bgezt09aq4b1.jpg?width=1410&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a98c000b9146bca947211aa35dd3e253e45f1e4c Previous Chapter Chapter Eleven: Walking into a dimly lit basement, I looked down at the cracked concrete floor. The room smelled of old drainage and expired cleaning products. I turned around to see the mirror I’d just crawled out of and caught sight of the Intrinsic Pathways chamber fading back into my reflection. A simple white plastic border surrounded the glass surface. The thing was barely big enough for me to fit through. Barsilla didn’t have any trouble, though — the benefit of being a piskie and only a few inches tall. She darted up to my shoulder and hid herself in my hair. “I’m glad you’ve been growing your hair out,” she said. A moment later, the piskie stuck her head out of my hair and added, “And I’m also glad you switched to the pineapple and raspberry shampoo.” I rolled my eyes. Today I was playing carriage to the queen’s left-hand lady in the human world. And I could already tell it was going to be a test of my nerves. I’d never spent an extended time with Barsilla before, primarily because she was a bit scolding and judgmental. But today came with an important mission before we left for Kilgara tomorrow. We needed to make contact with a powerful fae that lived in the human world. “How can a fae live in the human world full-time? Wouldn’t that be a death sentence with all the iron and the lack of glamour?” I’d asked my queen. “You’ll see,” was all she said before sending me here to accompany Barsilla. And by accompany, she meant carry. The piskie looked around the little room we’d appeared in. It was a small space with concrete walls and floors. Against one wall a shelf of cleaning supplies stood, along with a mop and a janitor’s cart on wheels. “Where are we?” I asked. A grimy voice from the ceiling made me jump. I looked around to find the source. “You’re in the basement of Ssorc Insurance Arena,” a masculine-presenting fae said. When I finally found him, my eyes widened. In one of the ceiling corners hung a spider-like faery about a foot tall. When I got a closer look, I saw he had the body of a tiny man but a thorax and four narrow legs behind him that clung to the wall. His front arms were crossed as he looked down at us. Eight brown and black eyes spread across his forehead kept a close watch on us. “Hello there,” he said, waving a tiny hand. “Name’s Jello. Welcome to Portland.” I raised a finger and opened my mouth to speak. “Because he likes to eat Jell-O,” Barsilla said from inside my hair. I lowered my finger and closed my mouth, nodding. That made plenty of sense. Maybe I could change my name to Chicken Nugget. “You’re not going to come out and say hello to your old friend, Barsilla?” Jello called with a grin revealing two fangs and additional mandibles. Her voice called out from in my hair. “I’m quite good here, thanks.” I raised an eyebrow. Barsilla sounded a little scared, which was a first for me. I’d always been put in my place by the tiny creature so long as we were in the palace. Here, her voice wavered, and she grabbed my hair a little more tightly than when we first arrived. Truth be told, I was torn. Part of me wanted to rub it in, maybe jokingly hand her over to the spider dude. And the other half of me wanted to show mercy, because even when I get a chance to show vengeance. . . I’m not good at taking it. It took me years to destroy my abusive father, and he hurt me daily. So, I decided not to push the issue. “Alright, Jello. That’s enough,” I said, laughing. To his credit, the spider didn’t exactly seem upset with me pushing back. He rubbed one of his mandibles and looked me up and down. “You must be the queen’s new pet I’ve heard so much about,” he said. “That’s me. Werewolf extraordinaire,” I said. He nodded. “It’s almost too difficult to believe. Your kind is so rare that for the queen to have ensnared one. . . I’m just left impressed,” he said. My. . . kind, I thought. Aside from Mom, I’ve never met another like me. And does she even really count? She died when I was a kid. All I could do was shrug. Maybe we were rare. But the fact that he wasn’t the first fae to mention such a thing did stick out in my mind. The queen had emotional attachments to me. Of that much, I was sure. But to other fae, ones I’d see at Kilgara. . . I’d be a token — no, a specimen. It’d be like those videos of rich people who own tigers or lions and just let them roam around the house, lying on the couch and shit. In that case, I’d just have to be all the more threatening to keep their minds off such imagery and more focused on preserving their own lives. Of course, that’d be up to my inner wolf. And I had no doubt she’d be up to the task. Unlike me, she didn’t take shit from anybody. “Well, Jello. If you come by Featherstone when the Raven Queen holds court, you can see my more visceral self on full display,” I said. “But until then, I’ll ask where we’re supposed to go from here.” The spider chuckled and looked into my hair, trying to find a certain piskie with his eyes alone. When he didn’t have any luck, Jello rolled his eyes and pointed to a filthy door covered in dust and mold. “Out that door, up the cement stairs to your left, and outside by the garage. That’ll spit you out onto a path the humans call Free Street,” Jello said. I thanked him, and we left without Barsilla saying a word. Once I’d started up the stairs, she poked her head out next to my ear and said, “Just for the record, in Faerie, his kind prey upon piskies. They find the best hiding spots in the forest and then drop on any little fae that happens to be hovering over the ground, looking for nuts or fruit.” This was a tender confession from the tiny person who’d left me paralyzed on the floor during our first meeting. So I put all that aside before I spoke. “I figured it was something like that. But it’s not like I would have let him do anything to you,” I said. “Afraid of how your mistress might react?” Barsilla asked. Shaking my head, I sighed. “I just know what it’s like to be a tiny thing standing before a giant monster that wants nothing more than to hurt you. You try to shrink yourself down so that the monster doesn’t see you, but it’s never small enough. I always hoped someone would come along when I was trying to shrink myself and snatch me away. So I guess today I just wanted to be the person that would snatch you to safety,” I said, finally spotting a metal door with sunlight streaming in. Varella’s left-hand lady didn’t say anything for a moment. But right before we got outside, she spoke. “That’s actually how her majesty found me, you know? I was in the web of someone like Jello, crying out for help. Most faeries ignore such cries since the forest can be filled with them at times. And if you anger a spider, there’s always the chance they’ll scurry off to a Gohma to have her curse you.” “A Gohma?” I asked. Barsilla placed both hands on the back of my ear to steady herself as I climbed the last few steps. “Queens among the spiderlings. Some of them are quite powerful, and once in a while, they’ll curse anyone who causes trouble with their underlings. That is, they’ll curse anyone. . . except for the ruler of a court. Varella happened to be flying by, heard my cries, and for reasons I’ve never been able to figure out, plucked me from the web. The spiderling that was savoring me was too frightened to say a word. He just hid under a bush, waiting for the Raven Queen to fly away. I’ve served her loyally ever since,” the piskie said. Holy shit. Am I bonding with the piskie? I thought, again squashing the temptation to say something mocking of the little fae which could and would get revenge when we returned to Featherstone. At that moment, Lady Bon-Hwa’s words came back to me. She said I craved legitimacy from beings that wore many masks. Had Barsilla just dropped hers? “How you felt when she plucked you from the web, Barsilla?” I started. She gripped my ear a little tighter. “That’s how I felt the day I struck the bargain with my mistress. Like she’d pulled me out of the jaws of death or something.” I heard the piskie rub her chin. “So when you submit to the queen, it’s about more than a simple pleasure for you. Immense gratitude is also mixed in there somewhere,” she said. Clearing my throat, I felt heat rush to my cheeks. Barsilla was the last person I wanted to discuss submissiveness with. I’d talk about it with Ceras before her. And even they weren’t high on the list. Walking outside, I heard the cries of gulls above us and heard a couple boys laughing as their mother walked by with a shopping bag that said “Remys” on it. Now that was a store I remembered. My father dragged me there more times than I could count. And it was always a long haul down to Bangor to visit. The sky above us was cloudy, and a chilly wind gusted by occasionally, bringing with it smells of a harbor not too far away. A normal person wouldn’t smell it from this distance. But I could smell boat fuel and seafood. “Do you remember the address?” I asked Barsilla. “I remember the way from here. The last time I came to the human city of Portland it was through a different pathway. But if you walk down a block and turn left, it’ll spit you out on a path called Congress Street.” Doing as I was told, I found myself on what appeared the be the busiest street in downtown Portland. Barsilla guided me with whispers to continue onward past the downtown square where a statue of a large woman stood overlooking dozens of people shopping or visiting restaurants or coming out of the public library. I read a message on the side that said, “To her sons who died for the Union.” Barsilla whispered, “I’ve never understood that message. What’s the Union? Some kind of human court?” Sighing and shaking my head, I tried to figure out the easiest way to explain this particularly bloody piece of U.S. history. “A couple centuries back, this country tore itself in two. There was the Confederacy and the Union. People from Maine, that’s where we are now, fought for the Union, which tried to put the country back together again.” “Did the Union succeed?” I nodded. “They won the war, but a lot of shit happened afterward I don’t want to get into. And when I left this place to move into Featherstone — well, let’s just say I’d rather live in Faerie than any part of this world,” I said. With the guidance of Varella’s left-hand lady, we continued walking down Congress Street for at least a mile before she told me to make a turn. We walked past an old Italian grocery store, turned again, and finally arrived at a dentist's office. “Big Smiles? What kind of name is that?” I asked, looking inside. “The name of a business where mortals go to get their teeth fixed because they don’t have glamour to do it for them. Consider yourself fortunate the palace healers make this place unnecessary in Faerie,” Barsilla said, tapping on my ear for me to go inside. Sighing, I did as I was told. . . again. Unlike most dentist’s offices I’d been in, this one was immaculately clean and polished. Behind two receptionists stood a wall covered entirely in ivy. And it was real. I smelled its vegetative scent from where I stood. To my right stood a glass wall with a water feature running underneath the reflective surface. A little transparent refrigerator sat next to some uncomfortable wooden chairs, and it was filled with bottled water. “Hi there!” one of the receptionists said. He appeared to be freshly graduated from college and wore a button-down shirt and black pants. His nametag said “Jace,” and had “He/Him” pronouns listed underneath. “Uh, hi,” I said, trying to remember the coded message my mistress taught me before leaving Featherstone. “I need to schedule an appointment as soon as possible. I’m trying to get the shinest teeth in all the land.” I resisted the urge to slap my face in embarrassment. What kind of stupid code was that? This receptionist was just as likely to throw me out as he was to find me a nightmare fae by the name of Dramyra. Jace snickered a little and said, “Well, who doesn’t love shiny teeth? And we’ve got a great new polishing technique our dentists just started using this month.” An older woman’s voice spoke from behind me. “That won’t be necessary, Jace. I’ll see her now.” Jace looked surprised. “Are you sure, Dr. Murphy? I think you’ve got an appointment in 15,” he said. The voice behind me waved off his concern. “Just have Melissa take care of that one. This is important.” Jace scratched his wavy brown hair and nodded before punching something into his keyboard. I could only assume he was editing an appointment at the last minute. When I turned to see who’d been giving orders to the receptionist, I spotted a woman who appeared to be in her early 50s leaning around a corner. She wore a long white jacket and had eyes the color of jasper. As I stared, she blinked horizontally instead of vertically like every other human I’d met. As my eyes widened, she smiled, and I noticed an inhuman pointedness to her teeth. . . all four rows of them. “Why don’t you come this way, and I’ll get you settled?” the fae said. I gulped and nodded, suddenly getting the heebie-jeebies from this person I was going to follow into a private area. Dr. Murphy led me past an X-ray room, a couple rooms with kid-sized dentist seats and small televisions mounted on the roof, and an employee bathroom. At last, we came to her private office, and she opened the door, motioning for me to enter. When I hesitated, she said, “Oh come now. I wouldn’t be so foolish as to harm one hair on the Raven Queen’s pet. Few would be that dumb.” Walking inside the surprisingly plain office, I was greeted by a tiny sofa, a mini fridge, a marker board, and a skylight. The walls were painted beige, and a desktop computer sat over in the corner on a screensaver with fish swimming by. I took a seat on the sofa, and our faerie host closed the door behind us, locking it, which caused me to gulp again. As soon as the door was closed, the fae dropped her glamor, and before me stood a five-foot-tall woman with pointed ears, turquoise skin, and a shaved head. When she smiled, I saw those four rows of razor teeth and two tongues, one purple, one red. Her eyes now blinked vertically every few seconds, and they were the color of sand. Black curled horns hung down from the back of the faerie’s skull, wrapping around her ears and ending in spiky white tips. The faerie leaned against her door and stared down at her claws, which were painted a shade of crimson. “Dramyra,” Barsilla said, flying out from my hair and bowing her head. “It’s been some time.” The fae did not seem very impressed at the piskie’s sudden appearance. “Well well. . . if it isn’t the Raven Queen’s left-hand lady. I don’t recall receiving a letter warning of your arrival.” Now I spoke up, bowing my head. “Apologies. The queen has been busy preparing for a trip to Kilgara. She didn’t mean to offend by sending us without an announced arrival,” I said. I shivered when Dramyra’s sandy eyes looked me over. It felt like. . . like it wasn’t just her eyes watching me, but her shadow’s eyes as well. And I didn’t like that one bit. She smelled of vetiver and leather. It was a strange combination that seemed to whisper much more was hiding beneath the surface. “First time seeing a nightara?” Dramyra asked, watching me shiver for the third time in the last hour. It wasn’t like the room was cold. Rather, it felt like her glamor kept brushing up against me and light scraping over my arms. “What’s a—” I started, rather stupidly. Barsilla cut me off. “Dramyra is a nightmare faerie. Her sister rules the Nightmare Court.” “Well just give her my life story, why don’t you, Barsilla?” Dramyra sassed, folding her arms and locking with my eyes. The room fell silent. I sure as hell didn’t know what to say, so I did what I always did in that situation. . . asked a dumb question. “Excuse me, Dramyra?” She smiled at me. “Yes, royal pet?” I do not like it when she calls me that, I thought. In fact, I don’t like it when she calls me anything. Taking a deep breath as Barsilla turned to flash me a look that said, “Be careful, puppy,” I raised an eyebrow. “My mistress said you lived here in the human world permanently. I was wondering. . . how you survived here in a world of iron and without any glamour?” Dramyra ran a finger down one of her arms. “Well, for starters, all of my tools here in the office aren’t made of iron. They’re custom designed from silver. Not an ounce of iron here. And I assure you, I have all the glamour I need.” I must have looked like I had more questions because Dramyra pointed a finger at me. “You must not have a solid grasp on how glamour works. Glamour isn’t something that just exists naturally in this world or Faerie. Rather, fae produce glamour by feeding. Different fae feed in different ways. Your queen feeds off your affections as well as the power of her throne itself. And I. . . well, I feed off the fear of others.” That sounded pretty damn terrifying. . . which I’m sure was exactly the effect Dramyra must have intended because she just laughed when I slunk down into the couch. “Oh relax. It’s not so bad. I learned a few decades ago that there are some things mortals fear collectively as a species. And one of them?” It clicked in my head. “The dentist! I fucking hated visiting the dentist. Growing up, there was no place more terrifying. With every visit, I was petrified that I needed yet another filling or maybe even a root canal.” Dramyra looked pleased with my figuring it out. “Exactly. So, knowing this, I disguised myself as a dentist, opened this business, and the mortals bring me their terrified children every single day. All I have to do is walk up and down the hall with a mask on my face, looking at paperwork, and nobody suspects a thing. The entire office fills with fear, which I devour, and then I can produce all the glamour I need.” When I realized this, it was kind of ingenious. This was like. . . the ultimate business model for a nightmare fae like Dramyra. And if this place went belly up, she could always disguise herself as an IRS agent. Though that might get her more anger than fear. Barsilla cleared her throat. “Oh, yes. You were getting ready to explain why you showed up without warning. Well, go on, little piskie,” Dramyra said, her smile fading as she turned her attention back to Varella’s left-hand lady. Pulling out her little clipboard and an even smaller pencil, the piskie looked over a few things as if she was steadying herself for what had to be said. “Queen Varella is officially calling in her favor. Decades ago, she hid you—” “I know why I owe her,” Dramyra snapped, her sandy eyes glowing orange. “You can skip that part.” Barsilla quickly crossed something off on her papers. “Right, well, she wants you to make a request to your sister, the Nightmare Queen. Her majesty informed me Queen Trylla will grant you anything you ask of her.” The nightara rubbed her chin as she leaned against the wall even more. “It’s true. My little sister adores me. Though I don’t know what the Raven Queen would want from her.” I looked back and forth between the fae, finding myself wondering about how my mistress hid the nightmare fae before me. What were the circumstances? Was it a witness protection kind of thing? Did faeries even have need of that? It’s not like they can call some vacuum store and vanish to Alaska, I thought, scratching the back of my head. Barsilla looked down at her notes, not meeting Dramyra’s eyes when she relayed my mistress’ request. “The Raven Queen wants you to ask your sister for her vote in Kilgara.” Silence filled the room again as I heard Barsilla’s tiny heart beating like that of a hummingbird. She was sweating a little, too. But Dramyra’s mood changed almost instantly. She laughed louder than I’d heard before and threw her head back. “Ahahahaha! So, Queen Varella is making a move for Bliss. How interesting! Not in a thousand years would I have guessed such a thing. That ought to make for a very interesting summit with the other courts. Suddenly this mission of great importance made more sense. My mistress sent us to cash in a favor so she could try and stack the deck before we gathered with the other rulers of Faerie to decide who would host Bliss. The nightara locked eyes with me, and I felt more gooseflesh crawling over my arms and thighs. I really wished she would stop doing that. “Very well, piskie. I will do as the Raven Queen asks. It’s not like I have the power to refuse a favor when I’m in her debt. So you may scurry back with the young wolf here and tell her at least one vote is safely in her corner,” Dramyra said. “As for you, Sierra, I hope you're ready to meet folks even scarier than me. And I’d stick real close to that mistress of yours once you leave the halls of Featherstone. You have no idea just how many lords and ladies of Faerie would love to have themselves a pet werewolf. You’re quite—” “Rare,” I finished for her. “I’ve heard it before.” I sounded agitated, but I was just trying to mask my fear. I’d happily submit to my mistress a thousand times. But I was no fool. I knew there were cruel immortals all through Faerie that would find worse ways to hurt me than my father ever could have. And we were off to a summit where they’d all be gathered. As we left the dentist, I hoped and prayed my inner wolf had gotten at least a few memories of today and would understand she needed to carry the visage of an absolute killer. I didn’t want to end up in the clutches of a nightara. . . or worse. |
2023.06.08 07:07 EfficientChoice4415 Ww2 woman work clothes
 | submitted by EfficientChoice4415 to vintage [link] [comments] |
2023.06.08 06:55 Adam-best Useful Portable Handheld Steam Iron
UPGRATED VERSION – Dual steamer and Iron. Produces a powerful and consistent steam. 2 in 1 for Flat hot and Hanging hot. Safer structure design to minimize leaking water. More sufficiently, and bursts strong hot steam swiftly, without water sputtering.
https://zafyn.com/collections/new-products/products/useful-portable-handheld-steam-iron
https://reddit.com/link/143zpvh/video/nu3x7wivnl261/player
QUICK & POWERFUL – Ceramic soleplate, heating up just 50s, prevents clothes from damaged. Powerful and stable steam to remove heavy wrinkle, odors and degerming.The steam is continuous and powerful, which can penetrate the clothes deeply and quickly.
SUITABLE FOR MOST FABRICS – One handheld fabric steamer to make shirts, suits, down clothes, night dress, wedding dress, pants crease free.
MULTIFUNCTION – Strong steam can be used in many ways-Cleaning dust. Pillow high temperature clean, sofa clean etc.
BEST EXPERIENCE – We also provide 100 ML Measuring Cup. Perfect for travel and home use.
Secondly, adjust the temperature dial to the max, then the working light turned red. After the working light turned off, you can adjust the temperature to what you want, there has three settings, so them you can press the steamer button, and begin working.
Finally, just add water and turn on, waiting for 50 sec, you can start ironing your clothes.
submitted by Adam-best to McrOne [link] [comments]
https://zafyn.com/collections/new-products/products/useful-portable-handheld-steam-iron
https://reddit.com/link/143zpvh/video/nu3x7wivnl261/player
QUICK & POWERFUL – Ceramic soleplate, heating up just 50s, prevents clothes from damaged. Powerful and stable steam to remove heavy wrinkle, odors and degerming.The steam is continuous and powerful, which can penetrate the clothes deeply and quickly.
SUITABLE FOR MOST FABRICS – One handheld fabric steamer to make shirts, suits, down clothes, night dress, wedding dress, pants crease free.
MULTIFUNCTION – Strong steam can be used in many ways-Cleaning dust. Pillow high temperature clean, sofa clean etc.
BEST EXPERIENCE – We also provide 100 ML Measuring Cup. Perfect for travel and home use.
HOW TO USE IT?
Directly hanging your clothes on the hanger, putting them flat on ironing board or even on the table. (you need to add the water in the tank(100ML) not more than the max line or it will leak or spoil when you ironing).Secondly, adjust the temperature dial to the max, then the working light turned red. After the working light turned off, you can adjust the temperature to what you want, there has three settings, so them you can press the steamer button, and begin working.
Finally, just add water and turn on, waiting for 50 sec, you can start ironing your clothes.
SPECIFICATIONS:
- Weight: 1100g.
- Power: 1000W.
- Color: Purple / Blue.
- Size: 35 x 8 x 10 cm /(13.78*3.15*3.93 inches).
PACKAGE INCLUDE:
- 1 x Base.
- 1 x Metrology Cup.
- 1 x Plush Brush Combination.
- 1 x Portable Handheld Steam Iron.
2023.06.08 06:25 Lower-Goose-9796 Why the Radio Disney Pop Dreamers are some of my favorite childhood dolls.
Remember when I posted my dolls of the Radio Disney Pop Dreamers I showed you my original childhood Ella (With only one of her original outfits) I found a year ago,Put new batteries in her and she still works and shortly after I found Gabrielle and Ari at a Flea Market for 1.50 each and after I brought them home I fixed their hair put new batteries in them and they still work and they still have 2 of their outfits,Also here is my history with this now obscure doll line from Disney. Here is the story.
It all started in like the early 2000's I think it was either 2002 or 2003 I was like 8 or 9 years old at the time and I see these dolls on the shelf at a store and I noticed they were symbolic to the Disney Princesses like Ella is symbolic to "Cinderella",Ari is symbolic to Ariel and Gabrielle is symbolic to Belle and the three outfits you snap on them which is another way to get them to talk besides pressing the buttons on their flip flops had stuff that symbolize each princess and another cool thing about them is you put them together and they talk to each other and sang and I thought there cool so the first one I picked out was Ella,This was at a Kmart and my mom got her for me,I picked her first cause she has blonde hair with pink streaks (I loved the color pink at the time but I've always been both a girly girl and a tomboy) and she symbolized Cinderella (Who was one of the first Disney princesses I ever loved and Ariel was the very first since I was like 3),After I got home I played with Ella and I enjoyed the songs she sang which are "If you can dream" and "Be a star".
Also I got the CD shortly after(Which I still have somewhere) and it had all the songs in it including different versions of some of the Disney Princess songs like Ella's version of "A Dream is a wish your heart makes" from "Cinderella" Gabrielle's version of "Beauty and the Beast" from obviously "Beauty and the Beast" and Ari's version of "Part of your world" from "The Little Mermaid" and even Ella's version of "Someday my prince will come" from Snow White" and Ari's version of popular 80's songs like "We got the beat" and Walking on Sunshine" since the original disney's version The Little Mermaid came out in the late 80's also longer versions of the songs the dolls sing.
I also had a t-shirt with Ella on it from The Disney store,I wore when I was 9.
Months later at Christmas I got Ari and I loved her,I also loved how she symbolized the first Disney princess I loved like I said "Since I was like 3" So I had those 2 for a very long time until they were put away for a long time.
Then 20 some years later as a 28 year old which was a year ago I look through some of my old toys from when I was a little girl I had them in my closet,I look through some stuff I find a Disney Store Ballerina Cinderella (Which I fixed the hair on) and an doll of Stella from the original Winx Club (My favorite version of Winx) and then I find my childhood Ella (With one outfit and missing other accessories),Her face had some white stuff on it which I cleaned up and I fixed her hair,Then I put new batteries in her and she still works but I couldn't find my original childhood Ari for some weird reason but like I said "Shortly after I find Ari and Gabrielle at a Flea Market and I got them for a dollar and 50 cents each they still had 2 of their outfits but no guitars,I bought them Gabrielle still worked,Although she sounded a little disoreted a little bit but I put new batteries in her she worked she sounded good and Ari just need new batteries so I put new batteries in her and she worked I also fixed their hair and cleaned them up a little bit.
So that is my story and I am proud to have all 3 of them after all these years and their part of my doll and toy collection along with My Disney collection and I got Ella and Ari back.
submitted by Lower-Goose-9796 to Dolls [link] [comments]
It all started in like the early 2000's I think it was either 2002 or 2003 I was like 8 or 9 years old at the time and I see these dolls on the shelf at a store and I noticed they were symbolic to the Disney Princesses like Ella is symbolic to "Cinderella",Ari is symbolic to Ariel and Gabrielle is symbolic to Belle and the three outfits you snap on them which is another way to get them to talk besides pressing the buttons on their flip flops had stuff that symbolize each princess and another cool thing about them is you put them together and they talk to each other and sang and I thought there cool so the first one I picked out was Ella,This was at a Kmart and my mom got her for me,I picked her first cause she has blonde hair with pink streaks (I loved the color pink at the time but I've always been both a girly girl and a tomboy) and she symbolized Cinderella (Who was one of the first Disney princesses I ever loved and Ariel was the very first since I was like 3),After I got home I played with Ella and I enjoyed the songs she sang which are "If you can dream" and "Be a star".
Also I got the CD shortly after(Which I still have somewhere) and it had all the songs in it including different versions of some of the Disney Princess songs like Ella's version of "A Dream is a wish your heart makes" from "Cinderella" Gabrielle's version of "Beauty and the Beast" from obviously "Beauty and the Beast" and Ari's version of "Part of your world" from "The Little Mermaid" and even Ella's version of "Someday my prince will come" from Snow White" and Ari's version of popular 80's songs like "We got the beat" and Walking on Sunshine" since the original disney's version The Little Mermaid came out in the late 80's also longer versions of the songs the dolls sing.
I also had a t-shirt with Ella on it from The Disney store,I wore when I was 9.
Months later at Christmas I got Ari and I loved her,I also loved how she symbolized the first Disney princess I loved like I said "Since I was like 3" So I had those 2 for a very long time until they were put away for a long time.
Then 20 some years later as a 28 year old which was a year ago I look through some of my old toys from when I was a little girl I had them in my closet,I look through some stuff I find a Disney Store Ballerina Cinderella (Which I fixed the hair on) and an doll of Stella from the original Winx Club (My favorite version of Winx) and then I find my childhood Ella (With one outfit and missing other accessories),Her face had some white stuff on it which I cleaned up and I fixed her hair,Then I put new batteries in her and she still works but I couldn't find my original childhood Ari for some weird reason but like I said "Shortly after I find Ari and Gabrielle at a Flea Market and I got them for a dollar and 50 cents each they still had 2 of their outfits but no guitars,I bought them Gabrielle still worked,Although she sounded a little disoreted a little bit but I put new batteries in her she worked she sounded good and Ari just need new batteries so I put new batteries in her and she worked I also fixed their hair and cleaned them up a little bit.
So that is my story and I am proud to have all 3 of them after all these years and their part of my doll and toy collection along with My Disney collection and I got Ella and Ari back.
2023.06.08 06:18 BACT3R10PHAGE This is disgusting, this guy is selling a recent button up for double retail, after having worn it multiple times, and is claiming that it was worn by Tyler and is unreleased. If you’re gonna resell shit for inflated prices at least have some self respect and be honest about the piece you’re selling
 | submitted by BACT3R10PHAGE to Golfwang [link] [comments] |
2023.06.08 04:21 sgtjoy Battle plans. Along for the ride.
Jesus watched the scene over again and was in awe. This was a man who would not change as he could not change. There was something else different. He was the most stubborn man alive in Jesus’ opinion and he had been around a while. His uniform never changed his cologne never changed. His hair was the exact same way. He had a biological age of 42 but a calendar age of 300 or so years. He wasn’t exactly sure since he had been born in a time when records were incomplete. Government was just getting back on its feet when he came into the world so who knew? Did it matter?
He had never espoused a political belief. He voted in every election and that was it. He was no campaigner and was not interested in any of it. He had a baseline distrust of ALL politicians. He had more time in command than any human in history. He had faced down alien races. He had been nearly terminated by pirates more than once but speaking in public scared the shit out of him. and He did not want to do it. He had done a series of lectures 60 years ago that resulted in some significant fallout he was eager to not relive. He did not want to discuss it. He knew what was about to happen.
“Class dismissed”
The Dean of Students asked him to “Please please just this once set it straight and walk away from it. You did what you had to do at the time.” He knew it hurt when he was called “conquistador”. The Monday Morning Quarterbacker’s weren’t there when decisions had to be made, and neither was the dean, yet he still implored him. It would likely be televised too. Ken had built the best laid wall of obfuscation he could. He did not want any glory. He wanted to be left alone. Despite his best effort it did not work. His hope had been to be in the background making the best decision without regard to any so called “Glory” His hope was that the sailors in real danger would get the credit they deserved. It just did not work. Besides, it was clear that he wanted him to talk about that battle. This made him waver in his assent. He wanted to speak about what he wanted to speak about. Simple.
Admiral Pearl and He had had to face a hero’s welcome when they came home. Then the detractors started in on him.
Despite the promises of the Dean it would just open all the old wounds back up again and likely crank the peanut gallery up to full tilt. “I do not want it televised. You can record it if you want but I get to decide if it gets released. Deal or no deal? If you want to dictate the topic then that is my condition. You are asking me to open up a box I have had welded shut for years now. Anyone can look up the logs and watch every single shot and hit if they wish. It has been analyzed to death. What further can I add at this point? There is nothing I can tell you that hasn’t been discussed in hundreds of books at this point. It is a dead subject that I can drone on about.”
The dean held up his hand and said “I want to know how you felt about it. All of it. What was the methods you used to make the decisions. How did you feel? The most important event in modern history drops in your lap like an egg salad sandwich. You have to feel something. That is what I want to know. It is your bully pulpit to say what you wish. No restrictions except for classified material. And no using the “F” word.”
“I am not doing it unless I can say ”fuck”. Not happening.” He wasn’t kidding. “To sweeten the deal you can televise it but I have to be able to talk in my normal voice. And I will say fuck.”
The Dean relented and agreed. He had just manipulated the situation to where he could minimize the fallout. Besides: he was tired of people talking shit about him in all these books and articles. He was going to tell them all to go fuck themselves, with a cactus.
On the Saratov. Warp area 13 off the plane of the ecliptic.
The admiral sat and contemplated what they were about to do. They were waiting on a couple more ships before going to warp. He tried to sum it up.
This was a high stakes mission. He had a high stakes strategy. It was brilliant and it was risky. He was about to do something never attempted in real combat and was completely theoretical. They had wargamed it to death and this had honed their protocol. They were going to Net their AI’s. They would calculate global firing solutions using parallel computing. They had 8 AI’s that were going to fight it and this should greatly augment their firepower due to increased efficiency. No matter how they wargamed it the AI’s won. They had it down pat. He felt certain this was the right thing to do but there was also a huge ethical hole in this. For the first time AI’s would determine firing sequence, aiming and execution without human intervention. He had to pause and consider the implications. This was colored by several recent experiences. It was all about Jezz. He still loved Jezz but she scared him. She has never been malevolent, but man was he scared that she could become dangerous. He had created a tiny bit of monster in her for certain. She was a combat AI. She was a hunter killer and as long as she worked for them, she would be fine. If she decided to freelance it, they would be in trouble. All because of this: there was a chunk of predator in her digital DNA and he hoped she could keep it in check.
He had come up with the best rationalization he could. They were going in against one decidedly ill-tempered AI and another AI (the “damsel in distress”) wanting rescue. At least that is what it looked like on the surface. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was not as clearcut as everyone else thought. Either way It would not be aliens versus humans but AI vs AI. At least that is what he kept telling himself. He wasn’t buying his bullshit either since none of it passed the smell test.
The decision to unleash the AI’s had come from above his paygrade, all the way to the Joint chiefs of staff of the world Navies. Forty-five Space faring nations sat down and hashed it out. He hated the complexity but admitted that it did work fairly well. They wanted the spam in a can home alive and if AI made this happen then so be it. There was one important point: they weren’t on the ships, were they?
As he sat about to enter warp and head out to the clusterfuck in question. The initial reason for all of this was still nagging him. Where was everyone else? He had data that showed an alien drive signature. He was resentful that they were fucking around with all this other shit. He would leave the AI’s in question to sort it out amongst themselves. He wanted no part of what was going on since he was doubtful that there were any good guys on either side of what looked like a standoff. All he wanted to do was find alien life (which they had kind of but it weren’t just quite the right kind.) He wanted something that could look like us maybe a bit . If you squinted. And they would find that hopefully, but they had a shit detail to cross off the bucket list first. The more he looked at this the more it became clear this should be two separate missions. Those AI’s were fighting over a dead world and he knew it. He just knew. He wanted no part of the Hatfield and McCoy bullshit. The real point was to capture as much as they could. This was actually about technology. They even had some freighters on the way for the cleanup and oh BTW come back alive. We will let the AI’s babysit you. May as well send a Voyager probe for all the use the crew was.
He was soon to learn the value of human judgment and that was going to prove a bunch of people wrong, sort of. All because of this: there are some decisions that do not fit into ones and zeroes. Value judgements were critical. That is one thing AI’s couldn’t do yet and it was that way why? Who could say for certain but in his years of interacting with true AI’s for the last 5 years did give him some insight. He was apprehensive to say the least but where was his fear coming from? He always thought that you had to identify the source(s) of any fear. He had it partially figured out, not only was he a bit afraid of Jezz and her friends he was also fearful for Jezz. And this is what he had: a gut feeling. And if that weren’t enough (and by gosh, don’t you think it ought to be?): how was he going to keep Jezz’s precognition a secret? The Admiral went through the computer logs and Jezz had not accessed any information about the disposition of the Galileo. It could be explained away but he was not convinced he could be very convincing. This was something that just did not fit. He could not make it fit, and he would just as soon pretend it did not exist. But it was clear that his AI had some degree of psychic power or something. She was different and he did not know if the other AI’s would be catching whatever it was. If the folks in charge knew the depths of his misgivings, they would be appalled. And the situation they were headed into was not as simple as it looked. He knew this. His questions were simple. Number one: Who were the good guys and who were the bad ones. Number two: could he maintain plausible deniability about Jezz. They were going to have a talk. Just the two of them. He needed some reassurances.
Also, He was trying to figure out a way to crack this and he had an idea. While looking at the menu for the ships mess, he noticed the two columns and he decided to do what he always did with most major decisions. He would make a list of the facts he had and try to run through the various permutations. A pencil and some paper would be adequate, and he even had a ruler so he could make it all professional.
So he made a list of the players Side “A” in orbit and Side ”B “planetside. Side “ A” obviously held the high orbitals. “B” had an extensive force field that would occasionally flicker. He thought that might be something to look into. He had all of the video files from the Galileo and there was one telescope tasked with watching the planetside compound. They had days of footage. He sped it up until the frames were racing by. The force field was visible due to impacts from what he assumed to be dust. This gave it a phosphorescent look. It also made it possible to have visual confirmation if it was up. The shield “failures” occurred on a stable repeated time frame. After doing the math and getting a video analysis program running, he figured it out only after focusing on the Spectro photography. Every 23.29 minutes the shield was apparently offline for 0.07 seconds. It was so brief it was tough for the naked eye to pick up but the spectral signature did.
Looking at the area under shield he could see a row of what appeared to be ships. These were triangular. He could see no evidence of what their primary drives were but it wasn’t the best picture. Things degrade through an atmosphere and distance. No drive nodes. No distribution rings. He had a suspicion, and he suddenly felt nauseated and had this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. They were not using Alcubierre’ drives. They were using jump drives of some type. In the raw sensor data was a Gamma spike and a Gravity spike right before the attack. The Galileo probably never saw the vessel that hit them. But the Admiral was a patient man and he had the eye for detail. How they had missed this he did not know but he finally found what he wanted. The ship was identifiable. One sternward scope had several good views of a shape blocking the stars.
The other fact was that there was no warning. No comms traffic but, the recovered buoy made it clear that they knew they were suddenly in trouble since the buoy was released (and in warp) seconds after jettisoning it. Command deck recordings showed the captain getting a proximity alarm and then immediately releasing the buoy. There was no “prepare to be boarded” or “Heave to.”, just MASER beams slicing through the hull. Listening to the conversations on the deck made it clear they were paranoid as they were scanning with their non military grade graviton detector. Seems like it wasn’t paranoia after all.
They would have been blind until the ship was right on top of them. Someone was operating on a hunch and that person was Nico. He was frantic. As first officer he had the conn and did what he could to at least let them know what they were facing. It took some guts to do that. He saw internal video running. It captured Captain Nic’s hand slamming down on the buoy release button before the video cut out. It had to have damaged the Galileo Significantly. He had to override the safeties to get the thing to instantly go to warp. He knew that close to the ship the damage would have been substantial. Nico knew they were doomed.
He leaned back and took a deep breath. The ship in question was triangular in shape. Planetside. This could be some sort of trap or things were not as they superficially seemed or maybe he had found his bad guys. So he went back through the compound footage and there it was a ship moving out of frame. There was only maybe 6 meters of ship but it was clear where it was from. It was clear it was moving. Where had it been for 2 hours plus? If it were going to jump he would think that the image would have arrived at the Galileo after it had been blown apart. That is the whole point of faster than light travel. You could have all these paradoxes and that actually gave him more than a headache. It was a brain ache. Without FTL the tyranny of Einstein held sway. Why were they not there immediately? The Galileo was about 120 light minutes out. Assuming they get there immediately there should be no video. They had taken a detour. This he did not know for sure but also had a bad feeling about. I guess it did not mean much in the grand scheme of things but he did have a hunch. Only problem with that is that hunches don’t win battles unless it is more than a hunch.
He did not have a frame of reference for how a jump drive worked IRL. He had read all the theories. There was a huge amount of research being conducted but there were unpredictable failures resulting in some ships getting cut in half and what not. Just not something compatible with the life of the crew. Destructive testing was also expensive. They had gotten one small ship that was maybe twice the size of an emergency buoy to jump to the orbit of Neptune. What he did not know was how long that took. All he had was some rumor mill shit that he generally did not give two fucks about. He was not into “R and D". And while they could send the damn thing out there what they could not do was get it back the same way. The power requirements were so high that the capacitor banks were charged externally . Putting in a zero-point tap would push the ship size beyond the mass they could manage for the drive they currently had. They were running into problems of scale and those are not so easily rectified. Problems of scale were problems with lubrication. You just had to lube the ship with cash. You had to fuel it with Lots and lots of cash. This was such a priority that every aerospace manufacturer and design firms were plugged into the research institutions. It was a huge effort because of one thing. Warp drive was “too slow”. The boffins were thinking intergalactic travel. They had their sights set on the universe.
To top it all off there was one inescapable problem: You can’t put ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag.
Due to all of this they were going down an interesting path. All you had to do was fill the magnetic tank with antimatter. Matter antimatter annihilation gave near instantaneous power. It was used in weapons some but only the best militaries would even fool with it. Compared to nuclear warheads Antimatter left no nasty isotopes in orbit of a planet you may be interested in colonizing or defending. Also, you don’t want to poison an uninhabited M-class world in the habitable zone given their relative scarcity.
Finally: containing it is problematic but doable. You can probably pull off the power requirements but there is one downside. You are flying in a bomb. Not just a small bomb. It was a big bomb that will go off if you lose containment. 40 mega tons of TNT will vaporize a ship. There was talk of building a manned vessel but saner heads put the kibosh on that. Besides: no one with any sense would want to crew it.
The answer was obvious to him, and he suspected it was obvious to the researchers. Why not use a singularity? Just dump matter into it and harvest the radiation to charge up and go. He did not know where that research currently stood. He knew there were some successes along these lines and quite surprisingly there had been no major accidents. The problem came with feeding the little monster in a consistent fashion to produce enough power to in turn contain the position of the singularity. This was done with antigravity. Antigrav technology had found it’s way into just about everything, except cell phones. They still broke when you dropped them. The black hole was carried by the ship, but it never changed its axis of rotation. The singularity in this scenario is one hell of a gyroscopic top with fixed axes. Since the jet of X-rays only came “out” along this axis and given that the ship would change attitude constantly it was necessary to have X-ray converters on the entire internal surface of the reaction vessel. The ship moved around the singularity. That made things a lot more complicated and really fucked with power distribution. Since there would be energy jets at the poles of the internal singularity power flow would be from two converters at a time. And since they weren’t 100% efficient you had some heat to deal with. He had read a few initial summaries of the work. You still had to keep containment of the singularity just as with antimatter but an uncontained singularity would put a small hole of about 10 mm as it passed through the ship before evaporating. This was better than being atomized. The problem was heat. Waste heat is just unconverted energy as such there was talk of installing a steam turbine circuit to generate power and to cool the reaction vessel. This would be the use of centuries old technology in a starship since convection does not occur in a vacuum. Trying to radiate enough heat to keep the thing cool would not work. The act of running the turbine also cools the circulating liquid. Trying to radiate heat away in a vacuum took a lot of time so big heatsinks would only go so far. It was simple physics. If you can convert some heat to electricity that is a little less that must be radiated. He bet it was a pain in the ass and was probably not worth the effort, but Fusion reactors did not have the peak power output needed to rip space. You either stored it in cap banks for one big release or you instantaneously generated it. Ken thought that the whole line of inquiry was going to be moot and they would finally give up, build a huge Casimir bank and strap a ship to it.
Which meant one thing. The jump ships in question had to deal with waste heat from whatever power system they used. The only way to get rid of this waste heat was to radiate it into the void. This took time. He now knew what the delay had been. The alien ships had to cool off between jumps. He or she had also taken a circuitous route to get there. This in turn means that they wanted them to see the ship leave the planet. They could have possibly gone there straightaway but they had not done that. They wanted him to know. They must have jumped above the ecliptic and back down into the ecliptic.
This slowed them down.
It also meant that escaping with a jump drive wasn’t that easy. They couldn’t pop in and out of position. If they were in your sights they were yours. He also knew that they would have a brief window where they were detectable before fully entering normal space. All they had to do was detect that energy spike and target it at the right time.
After reading all of the executive summary Jezz had put together he had a lot of questions, and he did not know quite where to begin. He had one thought: time to get everyone together and pick everyone’s brain. He wanted to talk to his chief engineer and every engineer in the fleet. He wanted to get all ships Captains and First Officers to come up with a game plan: What is the best order of battle and why? He wanted to see the nonconventional answers as this was anything but a conventional situation. He kept each team to the size of two: Captain and first officers. They could consult with the crew and had access to any information they could find. He needed options. You never want to run out of options on the field of battle.
He turned to his First Officer “Take us out and form up the fleet. We will jump directly to warp 5. That will keep the transports somewhat close. I want the fleet on shipwide in 10 minutes. I have some tasks to assign. Set the countdown to jump for 3 hours. There may be a few stragglers. Jezz, calculate the route and send me a copy. Sensors. I want you to calibrate for Gamma detection and localization. I will send you the energy signature, now. Look for that and calibrate for that. Any questions? (There were none) Good. Yuri, you have the conn.”
He exited the bridge.
Outbound from Sol. 72 hours after jump.
The Admiral was in the center of the virtual room with 70 or so Captains and first officers arrayed about. The flotilla had topped out at 82 warships as well as smaller craft and support vessels. He had 82 ships he had under command currently. This was the biggest expeditionary force ever fielded by Earth. There was one Mormon ship with them. A frigate This was ironic he thought. It was also a bit much to keep up with. He had read all the preliminary proposals and he was now going through the ones he thought had merit. He was currently discussing Captain Pearls proposal she planned to arrange ships into a cylinder or hoop. The individual ships alternating primary weapons one way or the other. That way anyone jumping into the center was covered as well as the “external” surface. It was really a pretty good plan. It played to their strengths. They could bring weapons to bear quickly since they could not just jump away. He especially liked the network formation It was a nice diamond pattern. He just couldn’t shake it being familiar. She had a great movie playing that demonstrated it quite well.
“This is Guardians of The Galaxy” Ken said. Barely keeping his shit together. He wanted to laugh. Once everyone else started the cat was out of the bag, He did not want to ridicule her plan but this was too much. Bless her heart. It was Guardians of the Galaxy.
“OK everyone settle down lets get back to it. Does that make it a bad plan? It isn’t straight out of the movie either. I do think it has merit but I would prefer it to not be too obvious. Can we do a formation that gives closed fields of fire without looking like it? I think we should go with a spheroid that is as irregular as we can make it. I want the focus to be on full coverage. Actually, Jezz give me a pattern with those criteria.”
What she generated looked like a swarm of bees. When she overlayed the weapons plots the effect was uncanny. It looked very random but was anything but. The coverage was better than any plan he had seen. That settled it for him. They would war game it just that way. It was a bit risky since every ship had to maintain their place in relation to all the other ships. She had even linked in the shield generators from the transports. She had used every resource.
“That was brilliant Jezz.”
“I try Sir. I really do.”
“I know you do.”
The admiral continued “OK I want to go ahead and start moving the fleet into that configuration. We will stay in that all the way to our destination. I want checklists of unique tasks made up. Sensors are going to be the critical piece. I am hopeful we will see them when they jump in, and we can quickly target them if necessary. That brings me to another point. We cannot go in and just start banging away at everything that moves. By now you should be aware that this is not clear cut. We can speculate. And I have done it obsessively. What you need to know is that I am not sure who is good or bad. I have a sneaking suspicion that neither are good or bad. They are neutral. We don’t know if this is a rogue AI or AI’s. We do not know if there were biological life here at any point. There is certainly flor BUT THERE SEESM TO BW NO FAUNA. This world has undergone bombardment in the not too distant past somewhere around fifty year ago give or take. Could a sentient race have been killed off? Who the fuck knows. But our next task is to come up with some possible scenarios. Based on what we have seen I suspect this is a rogue AI. I cannot tell what has happened to them yet, but I suspect we will know more once we get planetside.”
He took a long draw from an Opus X and continued. Rank had its privileges.
“The Vikrant will provide aircover for a Marine expeditionary force to go to the planet’s surface and secure the compound. I have spoken to the Air boss and confirmed the strike package will consist of two squadrons of F-15’s for high cover and 5 Su-34’s to be tasked with strike. We have enough transport to go in one wave with backups to spare. That also leaves us with more than enough reserve forces. I hope we do not have to commit more but I will want another squadron of MiG-29’s or F-15’s in reserve. Keep them hot and on the ramp. I want to deploy as quickly as possible.”
One of the junior officers spoke up “That looks like a good plan.”
“Thank you son for that. It is like getting the compliment of how smart you are from your Marine Commander (He had to give Chuck a hard time. He loved him.)
Everyone at least politely laughed.
“Speaking of mentally challenged little brothers. What you got Chuck?”
Chuck went with it The Admiral would pay later. He had some photos of him waltzing with a large muscular person and he was going to visit scorn on him. All in the name of fun. “We are going to take two battalions. I am going to strip them down a bit and we will be utilizing more heavy weapons teams. I plan to draw more M-60’s and M-203’s. You guys are welcome to join the party since I could use a couple of forward observers. It will be a fun time. Additionally I am not babysitting the press pool this time boys and girls and others. It is potentially a deadly environment and I don’t want their deaths on my hands. Let them die with you fuckers instead. By the way; I have 18 Comanche-4 Helos for CAS.”
“That sounds like all the more reason to send them with you. The herd needs to be thinned anyway.”
Jezz hissed “SIR! You are going to get in trouble Sir.”
“Just a little lighthearted humor don’t be so touchy. Anyway’ what about armor?”
“I have a platoon of Abrams going in with us Sir. More for mobile artillery.”
When you got right down to it it was a very simple plan. Modest forces for planetside. There was enough aircover but not so much to result in fratricide. He had extra firepower at the squad level. He had thought it out. Chuck had his full confidence. He was an Oscar-6 and you did not make O6 by being stupid. He would make General soon and he would be taken from the pointy end of the spear. The spear would be a little less sharp for a while but that was just how it went. Right now, he had the best field commander alive in his corner and he was going to utilize him.
“I know my engineers are logged into this meeting and have been paying attention. What do you guys make of their propulsion system? I have been spouting off and thinking about this for a week and all I got is a bunch of ideas.”
He thought for a moment. Rusty, what do you think.” He had just called out his own engineer. Rusty was his nickname and damned if he could remember his actual one. He knew it was not Russel. “What do you think they are using for power?”
Rusty wanted to cuss him out. He did not like meetings. In his opinion meetings were just excuses to avoid doing any actual work. He could have asked him privately…”Rusty what do you think?”
“Goddammit Sir, they have to be using a singularity. They are not using capacitor banks so they are generating power instantaneously. The alternative is antimatter and we had better hope it is not antimatter since taking them out could be suicidal. Most importantly: I am not a fucking tactician. I am an engineer for fucks sake, and I don’t see why anyone cares what I think about this anyway. But you asked so here it is. We are going to have to assume that it is not antimatter and hope we are right. The thing that would keep me awake is the possibility that our weapons are outranged by the fireballs generated when their antimatter containment fails. That will end us, and the best tactic will be to run like hell. Add to that the fact that the rules of engagement mean we can’t go in guns blazing. What if we need to go in guns blazing? It takes away an option. Never discard even the most ludicrous of options as that may be the one thing that saves your ass.”
“ We do not want to go traipsing in there with our dicks uncovered and this ain’t no tulip picking expedition here ladies. This is potentially a war, and we better acknowledge that. I don’t want to be Debbie downer here but let us be real. Some of us are not coming back from this. Look around boys cause some of your compadres are going to be left behind. This is serious business. This ain’t no rescue mission and we better stop treating it that way. Since you asked, Sir.”
Admiral Alexander had to give him honesty points for that. He was right. “We are going to run this scenario as many times as we can before we arrive. I suspect that there is going to be some mass confusion until we figure out who the baddies are. If I had to make a wager, I would go with our folks in orbit, being less of a threat. We have clear evidence of who attacked our ship, and it weren’t none of them football shaped guys. (He did grow up in the South. Woodruff SC to be precise.) It is the flying Dorito that we have to watch for. My gut tells me we are going to have to smash whatever is running the show down there. That compound with the force field is our primary target.” Furthermore, I just don’t know how the remainder are going to act. Are they under a different AI? Is there more than one AI? We can say there are no life signs from any of the ships in system and that makes me think this is artificial all the way. ”
“ The Galileo was attacked by one of the ships on that Spaceport apron. None of the ships in orbit participated from what we can tell. Also, the Galileo was attacked from outside the ecliptic. They are using some type of jump drive that apparently has to avoid gravity wells. That would explain why the attack occurred outside the system. We can take advantage of the situation though if we cozy up to that gas giant and let them come to us. They can’t just pop in on us that way and we can put the planet behind us or we can peg them up against the planet. We can warp anytime but they can only jump in relatively clear space. In short: We are going to pick the battlefield.”
“First wave will be led by the Atlanta and Saratov. The Havana and The George Washington will be tasked with offense. I want rail slugs loaded and ready to go. The surface strike package will go in from the Vikrant and the Conestoga. Commander Yactine has the battle plan for the surface operation and is handling their own transport duties. We can supply an AC301 Spooky for fire support if needed Commander.” The commander waved it away. He felt he had enough assets.
“I do think we may want to take a chance on something. Since they are having to jump “vertically” out of the system to avoid gravity wells and since we suspect they will do it in two jumps I think we can predict where they have their initial jump point. We can nail them before they even get to the main fleet.”
The admiral pointed to a plot that indicated a tangential course that terminated well above the plane of the ecliptic and one that went directly back into it. It was an “L” shaped course. At least he felt sure they traveled in straight lines and not arcs. It made the most sense but could still be wrong. Poring through the Galileo’s sensor data he could see a spike that barely registered. That also indicated that they took a while between jumps. Once they exited subspace, they would be sitting ducks for at least a few minutes. He was guessing 20 minutes for them to recharge their drive and get ready. They would have to target them when most vulnerable. Given that he was not feeling particularly charitable he decided that annihilation was in order. There were 50 deaths to avenge after all.
“Jezz, what do you think?”
Jezz paused. She had been on good behavior and that had made her overly cautious “I think your basic assumptions are correct, Sir. I think we are dealing with two AI’s. One is on the surface and one is in control of the orbital fleet. Approximately 56% of the orbital ships appear to be functional. They could also be in a powered down mode but looking at the Galileo data and 20 ships look to be fully operational. Weapons appear to be primarily MASER batteries. I can see no evidence of rail guns. Their weaponry may be less impressive, or they may be armed in a fashion we cannot detect. I wouldn’t assume them to be inferior to our ships. If we do that we run the risk of being surprised. I do not like surprises.”
The Admiral had one more question. He was looking more for how she was going to reply, “What is your gut feeling Jez?”
She paused “My gut feeling is that we are dealing with two AI’s. One of them has gone mad.” It was out of her speaker before she could catch herself. He had asked what her gut feeling was. What did he know? She did not have a gut. But, she did have feelings.
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He had never espoused a political belief. He voted in every election and that was it. He was no campaigner and was not interested in any of it. He had a baseline distrust of ALL politicians. He had more time in command than any human in history. He had faced down alien races. He had been nearly terminated by pirates more than once but speaking in public scared the shit out of him. and He did not want to do it. He had done a series of lectures 60 years ago that resulted in some significant fallout he was eager to not relive. He did not want to discuss it. He knew what was about to happen.
“Class dismissed”
The Dean of Students asked him to “Please please just this once set it straight and walk away from it. You did what you had to do at the time.” He knew it hurt when he was called “conquistador”. The Monday Morning Quarterbacker’s weren’t there when decisions had to be made, and neither was the dean, yet he still implored him. It would likely be televised too. Ken had built the best laid wall of obfuscation he could. He did not want any glory. He wanted to be left alone. Despite his best effort it did not work. His hope had been to be in the background making the best decision without regard to any so called “Glory” His hope was that the sailors in real danger would get the credit they deserved. It just did not work. Besides, it was clear that he wanted him to talk about that battle. This made him waver in his assent. He wanted to speak about what he wanted to speak about. Simple.
Admiral Pearl and He had had to face a hero’s welcome when they came home. Then the detractors started in on him.
Despite the promises of the Dean it would just open all the old wounds back up again and likely crank the peanut gallery up to full tilt. “I do not want it televised. You can record it if you want but I get to decide if it gets released. Deal or no deal? If you want to dictate the topic then that is my condition. You are asking me to open up a box I have had welded shut for years now. Anyone can look up the logs and watch every single shot and hit if they wish. It has been analyzed to death. What further can I add at this point? There is nothing I can tell you that hasn’t been discussed in hundreds of books at this point. It is a dead subject that I can drone on about.”
The dean held up his hand and said “I want to know how you felt about it. All of it. What was the methods you used to make the decisions. How did you feel? The most important event in modern history drops in your lap like an egg salad sandwich. You have to feel something. That is what I want to know. It is your bully pulpit to say what you wish. No restrictions except for classified material. And no using the “F” word.”
“I am not doing it unless I can say ”fuck”. Not happening.” He wasn’t kidding. “To sweeten the deal you can televise it but I have to be able to talk in my normal voice. And I will say fuck.”
The Dean relented and agreed. He had just manipulated the situation to where he could minimize the fallout. Besides: he was tired of people talking shit about him in all these books and articles. He was going to tell them all to go fuck themselves, with a cactus.
On the Saratov. Warp area 13 off the plane of the ecliptic.
The admiral sat and contemplated what they were about to do. They were waiting on a couple more ships before going to warp. He tried to sum it up.
This was a high stakes mission. He had a high stakes strategy. It was brilliant and it was risky. He was about to do something never attempted in real combat and was completely theoretical. They had wargamed it to death and this had honed their protocol. They were going to Net their AI’s. They would calculate global firing solutions using parallel computing. They had 8 AI’s that were going to fight it and this should greatly augment their firepower due to increased efficiency. No matter how they wargamed it the AI’s won. They had it down pat. He felt certain this was the right thing to do but there was also a huge ethical hole in this. For the first time AI’s would determine firing sequence, aiming and execution without human intervention. He had to pause and consider the implications. This was colored by several recent experiences. It was all about Jezz. He still loved Jezz but she scared him. She has never been malevolent, but man was he scared that she could become dangerous. He had created a tiny bit of monster in her for certain. She was a combat AI. She was a hunter killer and as long as she worked for them, she would be fine. If she decided to freelance it, they would be in trouble. All because of this: there was a chunk of predator in her digital DNA and he hoped she could keep it in check.
He had come up with the best rationalization he could. They were going in against one decidedly ill-tempered AI and another AI (the “damsel in distress”) wanting rescue. At least that is what it looked like on the surface. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was not as clearcut as everyone else thought. Either way It would not be aliens versus humans but AI vs AI. At least that is what he kept telling himself. He wasn’t buying his bullshit either since none of it passed the smell test.
The decision to unleash the AI’s had come from above his paygrade, all the way to the Joint chiefs of staff of the world Navies. Forty-five Space faring nations sat down and hashed it out. He hated the complexity but admitted that it did work fairly well. They wanted the spam in a can home alive and if AI made this happen then so be it. There was one important point: they weren’t on the ships, were they?
As he sat about to enter warp and head out to the clusterfuck in question. The initial reason for all of this was still nagging him. Where was everyone else? He had data that showed an alien drive signature. He was resentful that they were fucking around with all this other shit. He would leave the AI’s in question to sort it out amongst themselves. He wanted no part of what was going on since he was doubtful that there were any good guys on either side of what looked like a standoff. All he wanted to do was find alien life (which they had kind of but it weren’t just quite the right kind.) He wanted something that could look like us maybe a bit . If you squinted. And they would find that hopefully, but they had a shit detail to cross off the bucket list first. The more he looked at this the more it became clear this should be two separate missions. Those AI’s were fighting over a dead world and he knew it. He just knew. He wanted no part of the Hatfield and McCoy bullshit. The real point was to capture as much as they could. This was actually about technology. They even had some freighters on the way for the cleanup and oh BTW come back alive. We will let the AI’s babysit you. May as well send a Voyager probe for all the use the crew was.
He was soon to learn the value of human judgment and that was going to prove a bunch of people wrong, sort of. All because of this: there are some decisions that do not fit into ones and zeroes. Value judgements were critical. That is one thing AI’s couldn’t do yet and it was that way why? Who could say for certain but in his years of interacting with true AI’s for the last 5 years did give him some insight. He was apprehensive to say the least but where was his fear coming from? He always thought that you had to identify the source(s) of any fear. He had it partially figured out, not only was he a bit afraid of Jezz and her friends he was also fearful for Jezz. And this is what he had: a gut feeling. And if that weren’t enough (and by gosh, don’t you think it ought to be?): how was he going to keep Jezz’s precognition a secret? The Admiral went through the computer logs and Jezz had not accessed any information about the disposition of the Galileo. It could be explained away but he was not convinced he could be very convincing. This was something that just did not fit. He could not make it fit, and he would just as soon pretend it did not exist. But it was clear that his AI had some degree of psychic power or something. She was different and he did not know if the other AI’s would be catching whatever it was. If the folks in charge knew the depths of his misgivings, they would be appalled. And the situation they were headed into was not as simple as it looked. He knew this. His questions were simple. Number one: Who were the good guys and who were the bad ones. Number two: could he maintain plausible deniability about Jezz. They were going to have a talk. Just the two of them. He needed some reassurances.
Also, He was trying to figure out a way to crack this and he had an idea. While looking at the menu for the ships mess, he noticed the two columns and he decided to do what he always did with most major decisions. He would make a list of the facts he had and try to run through the various permutations. A pencil and some paper would be adequate, and he even had a ruler so he could make it all professional.
So he made a list of the players Side “A” in orbit and Side ”B “planetside. Side “ A” obviously held the high orbitals. “B” had an extensive force field that would occasionally flicker. He thought that might be something to look into. He had all of the video files from the Galileo and there was one telescope tasked with watching the planetside compound. They had days of footage. He sped it up until the frames were racing by. The force field was visible due to impacts from what he assumed to be dust. This gave it a phosphorescent look. It also made it possible to have visual confirmation if it was up. The shield “failures” occurred on a stable repeated time frame. After doing the math and getting a video analysis program running, he figured it out only after focusing on the Spectro photography. Every 23.29 minutes the shield was apparently offline for 0.07 seconds. It was so brief it was tough for the naked eye to pick up but the spectral signature did.
Looking at the area under shield he could see a row of what appeared to be ships. These were triangular. He could see no evidence of what their primary drives were but it wasn’t the best picture. Things degrade through an atmosphere and distance. No drive nodes. No distribution rings. He had a suspicion, and he suddenly felt nauseated and had this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. They were not using Alcubierre’ drives. They were using jump drives of some type. In the raw sensor data was a Gamma spike and a Gravity spike right before the attack. The Galileo probably never saw the vessel that hit them. But the Admiral was a patient man and he had the eye for detail. How they had missed this he did not know but he finally found what he wanted. The ship was identifiable. One sternward scope had several good views of a shape blocking the stars.
The other fact was that there was no warning. No comms traffic but, the recovered buoy made it clear that they knew they were suddenly in trouble since the buoy was released (and in warp) seconds after jettisoning it. Command deck recordings showed the captain getting a proximity alarm and then immediately releasing the buoy. There was no “prepare to be boarded” or “Heave to.”, just MASER beams slicing through the hull. Listening to the conversations on the deck made it clear they were paranoid as they were scanning with their non military grade graviton detector. Seems like it wasn’t paranoia after all.
They would have been blind until the ship was right on top of them. Someone was operating on a hunch and that person was Nico. He was frantic. As first officer he had the conn and did what he could to at least let them know what they were facing. It took some guts to do that. He saw internal video running. It captured Captain Nic’s hand slamming down on the buoy release button before the video cut out. It had to have damaged the Galileo Significantly. He had to override the safeties to get the thing to instantly go to warp. He knew that close to the ship the damage would have been substantial. Nico knew they were doomed.
He leaned back and took a deep breath. The ship in question was triangular in shape. Planetside. This could be some sort of trap or things were not as they superficially seemed or maybe he had found his bad guys. So he went back through the compound footage and there it was a ship moving out of frame. There was only maybe 6 meters of ship but it was clear where it was from. It was clear it was moving. Where had it been for 2 hours plus? If it were going to jump he would think that the image would have arrived at the Galileo after it had been blown apart. That is the whole point of faster than light travel. You could have all these paradoxes and that actually gave him more than a headache. It was a brain ache. Without FTL the tyranny of Einstein held sway. Why were they not there immediately? The Galileo was about 120 light minutes out. Assuming they get there immediately there should be no video. They had taken a detour. This he did not know for sure but also had a bad feeling about. I guess it did not mean much in the grand scheme of things but he did have a hunch. Only problem with that is that hunches don’t win battles unless it is more than a hunch.
He did not have a frame of reference for how a jump drive worked IRL. He had read all the theories. There was a huge amount of research being conducted but there were unpredictable failures resulting in some ships getting cut in half and what not. Just not something compatible with the life of the crew. Destructive testing was also expensive. They had gotten one small ship that was maybe twice the size of an emergency buoy to jump to the orbit of Neptune. What he did not know was how long that took. All he had was some rumor mill shit that he generally did not give two fucks about. He was not into “R and D". And while they could send the damn thing out there what they could not do was get it back the same way. The power requirements were so high that the capacitor banks were charged externally . Putting in a zero-point tap would push the ship size beyond the mass they could manage for the drive they currently had. They were running into problems of scale and those are not so easily rectified. Problems of scale were problems with lubrication. You just had to lube the ship with cash. You had to fuel it with Lots and lots of cash. This was such a priority that every aerospace manufacturer and design firms were plugged into the research institutions. It was a huge effort because of one thing. Warp drive was “too slow”. The boffins were thinking intergalactic travel. They had their sights set on the universe.
To top it all off there was one inescapable problem: You can’t put ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag.
Due to all of this they were going down an interesting path. All you had to do was fill the magnetic tank with antimatter. Matter antimatter annihilation gave near instantaneous power. It was used in weapons some but only the best militaries would even fool with it. Compared to nuclear warheads Antimatter left no nasty isotopes in orbit of a planet you may be interested in colonizing or defending. Also, you don’t want to poison an uninhabited M-class world in the habitable zone given their relative scarcity.
Finally: containing it is problematic but doable. You can probably pull off the power requirements but there is one downside. You are flying in a bomb. Not just a small bomb. It was a big bomb that will go off if you lose containment. 40 mega tons of TNT will vaporize a ship. There was talk of building a manned vessel but saner heads put the kibosh on that. Besides: no one with any sense would want to crew it.
The answer was obvious to him, and he suspected it was obvious to the researchers. Why not use a singularity? Just dump matter into it and harvest the radiation to charge up and go. He did not know where that research currently stood. He knew there were some successes along these lines and quite surprisingly there had been no major accidents. The problem came with feeding the little monster in a consistent fashion to produce enough power to in turn contain the position of the singularity. This was done with antigravity. Antigrav technology had found it’s way into just about everything, except cell phones. They still broke when you dropped them. The black hole was carried by the ship, but it never changed its axis of rotation. The singularity in this scenario is one hell of a gyroscopic top with fixed axes. Since the jet of X-rays only came “out” along this axis and given that the ship would change attitude constantly it was necessary to have X-ray converters on the entire internal surface of the reaction vessel. The ship moved around the singularity. That made things a lot more complicated and really fucked with power distribution. Since there would be energy jets at the poles of the internal singularity power flow would be from two converters at a time. And since they weren’t 100% efficient you had some heat to deal with. He had read a few initial summaries of the work. You still had to keep containment of the singularity just as with antimatter but an uncontained singularity would put a small hole of about 10 mm as it passed through the ship before evaporating. This was better than being atomized. The problem was heat. Waste heat is just unconverted energy as such there was talk of installing a steam turbine circuit to generate power and to cool the reaction vessel. This would be the use of centuries old technology in a starship since convection does not occur in a vacuum. Trying to radiate enough heat to keep the thing cool would not work. The act of running the turbine also cools the circulating liquid. Trying to radiate heat away in a vacuum took a lot of time so big heatsinks would only go so far. It was simple physics. If you can convert some heat to electricity that is a little less that must be radiated. He bet it was a pain in the ass and was probably not worth the effort, but Fusion reactors did not have the peak power output needed to rip space. You either stored it in cap banks for one big release or you instantaneously generated it. Ken thought that the whole line of inquiry was going to be moot and they would finally give up, build a huge Casimir bank and strap a ship to it.
Which meant one thing. The jump ships in question had to deal with waste heat from whatever power system they used. The only way to get rid of this waste heat was to radiate it into the void. This took time. He now knew what the delay had been. The alien ships had to cool off between jumps. He or she had also taken a circuitous route to get there. This in turn means that they wanted them to see the ship leave the planet. They could have possibly gone there straightaway but they had not done that. They wanted him to know. They must have jumped above the ecliptic and back down into the ecliptic.
This slowed them down.
It also meant that escaping with a jump drive wasn’t that easy. They couldn’t pop in and out of position. If they were in your sights they were yours. He also knew that they would have a brief window where they were detectable before fully entering normal space. All they had to do was detect that energy spike and target it at the right time.
After reading all of the executive summary Jezz had put together he had a lot of questions, and he did not know quite where to begin. He had one thought: time to get everyone together and pick everyone’s brain. He wanted to talk to his chief engineer and every engineer in the fleet. He wanted to get all ships Captains and First Officers to come up with a game plan: What is the best order of battle and why? He wanted to see the nonconventional answers as this was anything but a conventional situation. He kept each team to the size of two: Captain and first officers. They could consult with the crew and had access to any information they could find. He needed options. You never want to run out of options on the field of battle.
He turned to his First Officer “Take us out and form up the fleet. We will jump directly to warp 5. That will keep the transports somewhat close. I want the fleet on shipwide in 10 minutes. I have some tasks to assign. Set the countdown to jump for 3 hours. There may be a few stragglers. Jezz, calculate the route and send me a copy. Sensors. I want you to calibrate for Gamma detection and localization. I will send you the energy signature, now. Look for that and calibrate for that. Any questions? (There were none) Good. Yuri, you have the conn.”
He exited the bridge.
Outbound from Sol. 72 hours after jump.
The Admiral was in the center of the virtual room with 70 or so Captains and first officers arrayed about. The flotilla had topped out at 82 warships as well as smaller craft and support vessels. He had 82 ships he had under command currently. This was the biggest expeditionary force ever fielded by Earth. There was one Mormon ship with them. A frigate This was ironic he thought. It was also a bit much to keep up with. He had read all the preliminary proposals and he was now going through the ones he thought had merit. He was currently discussing Captain Pearls proposal she planned to arrange ships into a cylinder or hoop. The individual ships alternating primary weapons one way or the other. That way anyone jumping into the center was covered as well as the “external” surface. It was really a pretty good plan. It played to their strengths. They could bring weapons to bear quickly since they could not just jump away. He especially liked the network formation It was a nice diamond pattern. He just couldn’t shake it being familiar. She had a great movie playing that demonstrated it quite well.
“This is Guardians of The Galaxy” Ken said. Barely keeping his shit together. He wanted to laugh. Once everyone else started the cat was out of the bag, He did not want to ridicule her plan but this was too much. Bless her heart. It was Guardians of the Galaxy.
“OK everyone settle down lets get back to it. Does that make it a bad plan? It isn’t straight out of the movie either. I do think it has merit but I would prefer it to not be too obvious. Can we do a formation that gives closed fields of fire without looking like it? I think we should go with a spheroid that is as irregular as we can make it. I want the focus to be on full coverage. Actually, Jezz give me a pattern with those criteria.”
What she generated looked like a swarm of bees. When she overlayed the weapons plots the effect was uncanny. It looked very random but was anything but. The coverage was better than any plan he had seen. That settled it for him. They would war game it just that way. It was a bit risky since every ship had to maintain their place in relation to all the other ships. She had even linked in the shield generators from the transports. She had used every resource.
“That was brilliant Jezz.”
“I try Sir. I really do.”
“I know you do.”
The admiral continued “OK I want to go ahead and start moving the fleet into that configuration. We will stay in that all the way to our destination. I want checklists of unique tasks made up. Sensors are going to be the critical piece. I am hopeful we will see them when they jump in, and we can quickly target them if necessary. That brings me to another point. We cannot go in and just start banging away at everything that moves. By now you should be aware that this is not clear cut. We can speculate. And I have done it obsessively. What you need to know is that I am not sure who is good or bad. I have a sneaking suspicion that neither are good or bad. They are neutral. We don’t know if this is a rogue AI or AI’s. We do not know if there were biological life here at any point. There is certainly flor BUT THERE SEESM TO BW NO FAUNA. This world has undergone bombardment in the not too distant past somewhere around fifty year ago give or take. Could a sentient race have been killed off? Who the fuck knows. But our next task is to come up with some possible scenarios. Based on what we have seen I suspect this is a rogue AI. I cannot tell what has happened to them yet, but I suspect we will know more once we get planetside.”
He took a long draw from an Opus X and continued. Rank had its privileges.
“The Vikrant will provide aircover for a Marine expeditionary force to go to the planet’s surface and secure the compound. I have spoken to the Air boss and confirmed the strike package will consist of two squadrons of F-15’s for high cover and 5 Su-34’s to be tasked with strike. We have enough transport to go in one wave with backups to spare. That also leaves us with more than enough reserve forces. I hope we do not have to commit more but I will want another squadron of MiG-29’s or F-15’s in reserve. Keep them hot and on the ramp. I want to deploy as quickly as possible.”
One of the junior officers spoke up “That looks like a good plan.”
“Thank you son for that. It is like getting the compliment of how smart you are from your Marine Commander (He had to give Chuck a hard time. He loved him.)
Everyone at least politely laughed.
“Speaking of mentally challenged little brothers. What you got Chuck?”
Chuck went with it The Admiral would pay later. He had some photos of him waltzing with a large muscular person and he was going to visit scorn on him. All in the name of fun. “We are going to take two battalions. I am going to strip them down a bit and we will be utilizing more heavy weapons teams. I plan to draw more M-60’s and M-203’s. You guys are welcome to join the party since I could use a couple of forward observers. It will be a fun time. Additionally I am not babysitting the press pool this time boys and girls and others. It is potentially a deadly environment and I don’t want their deaths on my hands. Let them die with you fuckers instead. By the way; I have 18 Comanche-4 Helos for CAS.”
“That sounds like all the more reason to send them with you. The herd needs to be thinned anyway.”
Jezz hissed “SIR! You are going to get in trouble Sir.”
“Just a little lighthearted humor don’t be so touchy. Anyway’ what about armor?”
“I have a platoon of Abrams going in with us Sir. More for mobile artillery.”
When you got right down to it it was a very simple plan. Modest forces for planetside. There was enough aircover but not so much to result in fratricide. He had extra firepower at the squad level. He had thought it out. Chuck had his full confidence. He was an Oscar-6 and you did not make O6 by being stupid. He would make General soon and he would be taken from the pointy end of the spear. The spear would be a little less sharp for a while but that was just how it went. Right now, he had the best field commander alive in his corner and he was going to utilize him.
“I know my engineers are logged into this meeting and have been paying attention. What do you guys make of their propulsion system? I have been spouting off and thinking about this for a week and all I got is a bunch of ideas.”
He thought for a moment. Rusty, what do you think.” He had just called out his own engineer. Rusty was his nickname and damned if he could remember his actual one. He knew it was not Russel. “What do you think they are using for power?”
Rusty wanted to cuss him out. He did not like meetings. In his opinion meetings were just excuses to avoid doing any actual work. He could have asked him privately…”Rusty what do you think?”
“Goddammit Sir, they have to be using a singularity. They are not using capacitor banks so they are generating power instantaneously. The alternative is antimatter and we had better hope it is not antimatter since taking them out could be suicidal. Most importantly: I am not a fucking tactician. I am an engineer for fucks sake, and I don’t see why anyone cares what I think about this anyway. But you asked so here it is. We are going to have to assume that it is not antimatter and hope we are right. The thing that would keep me awake is the possibility that our weapons are outranged by the fireballs generated when their antimatter containment fails. That will end us, and the best tactic will be to run like hell. Add to that the fact that the rules of engagement mean we can’t go in guns blazing. What if we need to go in guns blazing? It takes away an option. Never discard even the most ludicrous of options as that may be the one thing that saves your ass.”
“ We do not want to go traipsing in there with our dicks uncovered and this ain’t no tulip picking expedition here ladies. This is potentially a war, and we better acknowledge that. I don’t want to be Debbie downer here but let us be real. Some of us are not coming back from this. Look around boys cause some of your compadres are going to be left behind. This is serious business. This ain’t no rescue mission and we better stop treating it that way. Since you asked, Sir.”
Admiral Alexander had to give him honesty points for that. He was right. “We are going to run this scenario as many times as we can before we arrive. I suspect that there is going to be some mass confusion until we figure out who the baddies are. If I had to make a wager, I would go with our folks in orbit, being less of a threat. We have clear evidence of who attacked our ship, and it weren’t none of them football shaped guys. (He did grow up in the South. Woodruff SC to be precise.) It is the flying Dorito that we have to watch for. My gut tells me we are going to have to smash whatever is running the show down there. That compound with the force field is our primary target.” Furthermore, I just don’t know how the remainder are going to act. Are they under a different AI? Is there more than one AI? We can say there are no life signs from any of the ships in system and that makes me think this is artificial all the way. ”
“ The Galileo was attacked by one of the ships on that Spaceport apron. None of the ships in orbit participated from what we can tell. Also, the Galileo was attacked from outside the ecliptic. They are using some type of jump drive that apparently has to avoid gravity wells. That would explain why the attack occurred outside the system. We can take advantage of the situation though if we cozy up to that gas giant and let them come to us. They can’t just pop in on us that way and we can put the planet behind us or we can peg them up against the planet. We can warp anytime but they can only jump in relatively clear space. In short: We are going to pick the battlefield.”
“First wave will be led by the Atlanta and Saratov. The Havana and The George Washington will be tasked with offense. I want rail slugs loaded and ready to go. The surface strike package will go in from the Vikrant and the Conestoga. Commander Yactine has the battle plan for the surface operation and is handling their own transport duties. We can supply an AC301 Spooky for fire support if needed Commander.” The commander waved it away. He felt he had enough assets.
“I do think we may want to take a chance on something. Since they are having to jump “vertically” out of the system to avoid gravity wells and since we suspect they will do it in two jumps I think we can predict where they have their initial jump point. We can nail them before they even get to the main fleet.”
The admiral pointed to a plot that indicated a tangential course that terminated well above the plane of the ecliptic and one that went directly back into it. It was an “L” shaped course. At least he felt sure they traveled in straight lines and not arcs. It made the most sense but could still be wrong. Poring through the Galileo’s sensor data he could see a spike that barely registered. That also indicated that they took a while between jumps. Once they exited subspace, they would be sitting ducks for at least a few minutes. He was guessing 20 minutes for them to recharge their drive and get ready. They would have to target them when most vulnerable. Given that he was not feeling particularly charitable he decided that annihilation was in order. There were 50 deaths to avenge after all.
“Jezz, what do you think?”
Jezz paused. She had been on good behavior and that had made her overly cautious “I think your basic assumptions are correct, Sir. I think we are dealing with two AI’s. One is on the surface and one is in control of the orbital fleet. Approximately 56% of the orbital ships appear to be functional. They could also be in a powered down mode but looking at the Galileo data and 20 ships look to be fully operational. Weapons appear to be primarily MASER batteries. I can see no evidence of rail guns. Their weaponry may be less impressive, or they may be armed in a fashion we cannot detect. I wouldn’t assume them to be inferior to our ships. If we do that we run the risk of being surprised. I do not like surprises.”
The Admiral had one more question. He was looking more for how she was going to reply, “What is your gut feeling Jez?”
She paused “My gut feeling is that we are dealing with two AI’s. One of them has gone mad.” It was out of her speaker before she could catch herself. He had asked what her gut feeling was. What did he know? She did not have a gut. But, she did have feelings.
2023.06.08 04:19 Nyax50 Guardian Angel
Sometimes I dream the most beautiful and peaceful dreams. A rare dream is when I'm at a certain school and was like 3 stories high with stairs to get to your class. Lots of windows for the school to save on electricity and use mainly sunlight. We all laughed as we parkour around the building and some of us jumped out from the building. No worries though, the land was soft when we hit the ground.
Again, I can recall my dreams well like if it happened in real life and this one particular dream in 2018, he appears. I ran out in the garden of the school and I see something walking towards me. I felt warmth when they stepped closer and closer. He has white short hair, the softest blue eyes like the calm blue sky, his smile so warm like the most beautiful summer sun, and wore all white. His skin was slightly tan but also a bit white.
"Hello, Nyax. It's been a long time hasn't it?"
I wonder what he meant by that and I can barely recall if we even met before. He smiled and sighed.
"Can't remember me huh? That's okay. I'm [redacted]. How ya been?"
I forgot his name since I couldn't hear it. We both chatted and hit the small pond and dipped our feet in it and watch koi fish swim around.
"I have been... Fine I guess I don't know for sure..." I said while looking at the water.
He looked at me with concern on his face and looked at the sky. "You still miss your dad huh? Been what?"
"I don't want to recall... I just miss him still... I just wish to hear from him again..."
"You will one day. You'll see him in your dreams again I promise that."
We continue to talk and then the sky got cloudy and began to rain. We quickly got up and I try to cover myself from the rain. He took off his white button up shirt, which he has a white shirt below, and put it over me like an umbrella. I looked at him and he wasn't wet but still dry like a desert. I was surprised and he took me in a building.
"There all safe and sound. And wet too..." He dried me up with his button up shirt and looked at me seriously.
"What's wrong?" I asked in confusion.
"I got to tell you something... You're life is at risk in this realm. You will see me from time to time since I'll be there for you at any dangerous time. For I am... You're guardian angel. Wake up."
I woken up. It was 4:35 am. I sat up quickly on my bed and looked at my ceiling. A guardian angel...
To tell you the truth I never believed in guardian angels even if I'm baptized twice as Catholic and Christianity but now I believe in them. From that forward on I saw him again in 2020 somewhere around the pandemic thing and was at the same school building again. That story is for another day. Overall.... I met my guardian angel...
submitted by Nyax50 to Dreams [link] [comments]
Again, I can recall my dreams well like if it happened in real life and this one particular dream in 2018, he appears. I ran out in the garden of the school and I see something walking towards me. I felt warmth when they stepped closer and closer. He has white short hair, the softest blue eyes like the calm blue sky, his smile so warm like the most beautiful summer sun, and wore all white. His skin was slightly tan but also a bit white.
"Hello, Nyax. It's been a long time hasn't it?"
I wonder what he meant by that and I can barely recall if we even met before. He smiled and sighed.
"Can't remember me huh? That's okay. I'm [redacted]. How ya been?"
I forgot his name since I couldn't hear it. We both chatted and hit the small pond and dipped our feet in it and watch koi fish swim around.
"I have been... Fine I guess I don't know for sure..." I said while looking at the water.
He looked at me with concern on his face and looked at the sky. "You still miss your dad huh? Been what?"
"I don't want to recall... I just miss him still... I just wish to hear from him again..."
"You will one day. You'll see him in your dreams again I promise that."
We continue to talk and then the sky got cloudy and began to rain. We quickly got up and I try to cover myself from the rain. He took off his white button up shirt, which he has a white shirt below, and put it over me like an umbrella. I looked at him and he wasn't wet but still dry like a desert. I was surprised and he took me in a building.
"There all safe and sound. And wet too..." He dried me up with his button up shirt and looked at me seriously.
"What's wrong?" I asked in confusion.
"I got to tell you something... You're life is at risk in this realm. You will see me from time to time since I'll be there for you at any dangerous time. For I am... You're guardian angel. Wake up."
I woken up. It was 4:35 am. I sat up quickly on my bed and looked at my ceiling. A guardian angel...
To tell you the truth I never believed in guardian angels even if I'm baptized twice as Catholic and Christianity but now I believe in them. From that forward on I saw him again in 2020 somewhere around the pandemic thing and was at the same school building again. That story is for another day. Overall.... I met my guardian angel...
2023.06.08 04:11 meanpride Are there collar-less and button up versions of the Evolution polo shirt?
I think the Evolution polo shirt is Lululemon's best product, but there isn't enough variety. The drysense line is close, but it just looks too much like workout gear.
submitted by meanpride to Lululemen [link] [comments]
2023.06.08 03:55 harry-jg Best VPN for Dubai
Dubai, a pearl amidst the sands, harbors a somewhat less than jolly attitude towards the privacy of its digital denizens. The powers that be exert a formidable grip, not merely sculpting the shape of your online landscape, but also taking a keen interest in your digital stroll through it.
Now, here's where the humble VPN enters the fray. When equipped with this nifty bit of tech, your Internet Service Provider, which pays its dues to the UAE government, can't see past your digital window dressing. All it spies is your VPN traffic - the online equivalent of a politely closed door. Fear not the legality, for VPNs are given the green light in Dubai, provided you're not using them as a key to unlock the forbidden fruit of the internet, as defined by the government.
Having devoted several sunsets to research and rigorous testing of various VPNs suitable for Dubai, I’ve assembled a list of commendable candidates. Each is a splendid option in its own right, yet the crown jewel is undoubtedly ExpressVPN. It twinkles with excellent privacy and security features, dazzles with speeds that would make a cheetah blush, and charms with user-friendly applications.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN, I must say, is the unchallenged champion of the VPN universe in Dubai and the broader UAE. While it hasn't, as such, planted its digital flag in Dubai soil, it still flexes its technological muscles with an enviable roster of over 3,000 servers strewn across 90-plus countries. This includes some rather friendly neighbours to Dubai such as Egypt, Israel, and Sri Lanka. It boasts blistering speeds, splendid security and privacy features, and the kind of user-friendly apps that make one purr with delight.
In the grand Prix of VPNs, ExpressVPN tears up the track, securing its place as the fastest VPN of the season. Regardless of whether one connects to a server in the neighbouring street or on a distant continent, the speed gauge barely flickers. Websites snap open like eager oysters, HD and 4K videos play with the smoothness of silk and buffering and lag become distant memories. The download speeds are equally impressive, having devoured a 30 GB file in just about 15 minutes.
The prowess of ExpressVPN extends to the realm of streaming, where it plays well with over 100 services, including crowd favourites like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, as well as regional attractions such as OSN+ and StarzPlay Arabia. Adding to its charm, it offers a smart DNS feature, which allows you to feast on streaming sites on those devices that give VPN apps the cold shoulder, like certain gaming consoles or some smart TVs.
To top it all, ExpressVPN supports torrenting with aplomb, welcoming P2P traffic on all servers and co-operating with top torrenting clients such as uTorrent, qBittorrent, and BitTorrent.
In the realm of user-friendliness, ExpressVPN's apps are akin to the friendly labrador next door - intuitive and fuss-free. Features like auto-connect and Shortcuts (which lets you create one-click access for your cherished apps and sites that magically appear once you're connected to a server) are the cherries on this delightful digital sundae.
NordVPN
NordVPN, quite like the gallant knight of yore, comes armed to the hilt with servers in Dubai and an arsenal of top-tier security features. Boasting RAM-only servers, perfect forward secrecy, and all-encompassing leak protection, it guarded my IP address with a zeal reminiscent of a bulldog guarding a sirloin steak.
Among NordVPN's more notable virtues is the Threat Protection feature. It has an admirable disdain for ads, trackers, and websites of dubious character. Furthermore, it also displays a commendable sense of duty in safeguarding one from downloads harbouring malicious intent. In my own experiments, it proved to be a rather stern gatekeeper, denying me access to malevolent sites every single time and dismissing a majority of ads from ad-laden sites.
NordVPN's performance in the speed category is decidedly respectable, though not quite of the calibre of ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, or CyberGhost VPN. In my tests, it displayed the alacrity of a sprightly hare, loading most sites in 1–2 seconds and streaming HD and 4K videos with only a 2-4 second lag.
The provider also shines in the streaming department, pairing well with over 10 prominent streaming services, including the likes of Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. Its regard for torrenting is equally high, allowing P2P file traffic on a staggering 4,500+ servers across 45+ countries. However, it must be noted that its servers in Dubai, unlike those of Private Internet Access, are somewhat aloof to torrenting.
In terms of user-friendliness, NordVPN’s apps are as straightforward as a jigsaw puzzle for toddlers. A quick-connect button allows you to hitch a ride on the fastest server in a jiffy, and the interactive map, much like a well-behaved butler, makes finding and connecting to any location a matter of mere seconds.
SurfsharkVPN
If you're in Dubai and your pockets are feeling a trifle shallow, then Surfshark, with its servers stationed right in the city and its economical pricing plans, could very well be your knight in shining armour.
Sporting good-natured support for streaming and torrenting, this affable VPN is perfectly content letting you torrent on all its servers and romp about on streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. However, it exhibits a certain aloofness towards Disney+ (a service that ExpressVPN and other VPNs on this list entertain with open arms).
When it comes to security, Surfshark squares its shoulders and wades in with gusto. Operating on RAM-only servers, employing perfect forward secrecy, and brandishing an audited no-logs policy, it's as secure as a vault in Fort Knox. Although it does provide a leak protection service, it only stands guard against DNS leaks, unlike its more protective brethren on this list that extend their protection services to full leaks.
In the speed category, Surfshark puts up a respectable performance. Websites and videos take about 2–3 seconds to get going, and HD and 4K videos run with only the merest hint of buffering.
The provider’s apps deserve a round of applause for their user-friendliness. With an interface as intuitive as a seasoned butler, it hardly takes 4–5 seconds to locate and connect to a server. Furthermore, all features and settings are accompanied by helpful explanations, taking the guesswork out of the equation. An additional feather in Surfshark’s cap is its support for unlimited connections, a feature that has me nodding in appreciative approval.
The Gentleman's Guide to Selecting the Bee's Knees of VPNs in Dubai for 2023
The first thing to cast your peepers over when hunting for a VPN is the size of its server network. The old adage 'the more, the merrier' holds water here. I'd recommend whittling down your options to those VPNs that have a presence in Dubai or its neighbourly nations like Egypt, Israel, or Sri Lanka. Most of my top picks have at least one foot in the door in Dubai.
Security is your next port of call. Every VPN on my shortlist boasts industry-standard security trimmings, including the impenetrable 256-bit encryption, a kill switch that unceremoniously cuts your Internet connection when your VPN link trips up, a no-logs policy, and a shield against DNS, IPv6, or WebRTC leaks.
A VPN that treats speed as a virtue is a must. Though VPNs are known to put a mild damper on your connection due to the encryption rigmarole, with a top-notch VPN, the slowdown would be as noticeable as a flea on an elephant. My endorsements only include VPNs that keep up a sprightly pace for all online frolics — ExpressVPN, my top choice, leads the pack in the speed department.
Go for a VPN that's as user-friendly as an affable concierge. The VPNs on this roster come equipped with intuitive apps that make finding and connecting to any server a veritable breeze.
A VPN with a knack for streaming and P2P support should also be in your crosshairs. Each one on my list is a seasoned entertainer when it comes to streaming and collaborates seamlessly with big-shot platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Moreover, these VPNs support torrenting, albeit not all permit P2P traffic on their Dubai servers. Private Internet Access and Surfshark, however, are generous souls and support torrenting across their entire server repertoire.
Lastly, zero in on a VPN that offers bang for your buck. My recommendations only extend to those VPNs that allow multiple connections, feature apps for all the big-name operating systems, and boast a money-back guarantee as generous as a rich uncle.
submitted by harry-jg to topvpn [link] [comments]
Now, here's where the humble VPN enters the fray. When equipped with this nifty bit of tech, your Internet Service Provider, which pays its dues to the UAE government, can't see past your digital window dressing. All it spies is your VPN traffic - the online equivalent of a politely closed door. Fear not the legality, for VPNs are given the green light in Dubai, provided you're not using them as a key to unlock the forbidden fruit of the internet, as defined by the government.
Having devoted several sunsets to research and rigorous testing of various VPNs suitable for Dubai, I’ve assembled a list of commendable candidates. Each is a splendid option in its own right, yet the crown jewel is undoubtedly ExpressVPN. It twinkles with excellent privacy and security features, dazzles with speeds that would make a cheetah blush, and charms with user-friendly applications.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN, I must say, is the unchallenged champion of the VPN universe in Dubai and the broader UAE. While it hasn't, as such, planted its digital flag in Dubai soil, it still flexes its technological muscles with an enviable roster of over 3,000 servers strewn across 90-plus countries. This includes some rather friendly neighbours to Dubai such as Egypt, Israel, and Sri Lanka. It boasts blistering speeds, splendid security and privacy features, and the kind of user-friendly apps that make one purr with delight.
In the grand Prix of VPNs, ExpressVPN tears up the track, securing its place as the fastest VPN of the season. Regardless of whether one connects to a server in the neighbouring street or on a distant continent, the speed gauge barely flickers. Websites snap open like eager oysters, HD and 4K videos play with the smoothness of silk and buffering and lag become distant memories. The download speeds are equally impressive, having devoured a 30 GB file in just about 15 minutes.
The prowess of ExpressVPN extends to the realm of streaming, where it plays well with over 100 services, including crowd favourites like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, as well as regional attractions such as OSN+ and StarzPlay Arabia. Adding to its charm, it offers a smart DNS feature, which allows you to feast on streaming sites on those devices that give VPN apps the cold shoulder, like certain gaming consoles or some smart TVs.
To top it all, ExpressVPN supports torrenting with aplomb, welcoming P2P traffic on all servers and co-operating with top torrenting clients such as uTorrent, qBittorrent, and BitTorrent.
In the realm of user-friendliness, ExpressVPN's apps are akin to the friendly labrador next door - intuitive and fuss-free. Features like auto-connect and Shortcuts (which lets you create one-click access for your cherished apps and sites that magically appear once you're connected to a server) are the cherries on this delightful digital sundae.
NordVPN
NordVPN, quite like the gallant knight of yore, comes armed to the hilt with servers in Dubai and an arsenal of top-tier security features. Boasting RAM-only servers, perfect forward secrecy, and all-encompassing leak protection, it guarded my IP address with a zeal reminiscent of a bulldog guarding a sirloin steak.
Among NordVPN's more notable virtues is the Threat Protection feature. It has an admirable disdain for ads, trackers, and websites of dubious character. Furthermore, it also displays a commendable sense of duty in safeguarding one from downloads harbouring malicious intent. In my own experiments, it proved to be a rather stern gatekeeper, denying me access to malevolent sites every single time and dismissing a majority of ads from ad-laden sites.
NordVPN's performance in the speed category is decidedly respectable, though not quite of the calibre of ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, or CyberGhost VPN. In my tests, it displayed the alacrity of a sprightly hare, loading most sites in 1–2 seconds and streaming HD and 4K videos with only a 2-4 second lag.
The provider also shines in the streaming department, pairing well with over 10 prominent streaming services, including the likes of Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. Its regard for torrenting is equally high, allowing P2P file traffic on a staggering 4,500+ servers across 45+ countries. However, it must be noted that its servers in Dubai, unlike those of Private Internet Access, are somewhat aloof to torrenting.
In terms of user-friendliness, NordVPN’s apps are as straightforward as a jigsaw puzzle for toddlers. A quick-connect button allows you to hitch a ride on the fastest server in a jiffy, and the interactive map, much like a well-behaved butler, makes finding and connecting to any location a matter of mere seconds.
SurfsharkVPN
If you're in Dubai and your pockets are feeling a trifle shallow, then Surfshark, with its servers stationed right in the city and its economical pricing plans, could very well be your knight in shining armour.
Sporting good-natured support for streaming and torrenting, this affable VPN is perfectly content letting you torrent on all its servers and romp about on streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. However, it exhibits a certain aloofness towards Disney+ (a service that ExpressVPN and other VPNs on this list entertain with open arms).
When it comes to security, Surfshark squares its shoulders and wades in with gusto. Operating on RAM-only servers, employing perfect forward secrecy, and brandishing an audited no-logs policy, it's as secure as a vault in Fort Knox. Although it does provide a leak protection service, it only stands guard against DNS leaks, unlike its more protective brethren on this list that extend their protection services to full leaks.
In the speed category, Surfshark puts up a respectable performance. Websites and videos take about 2–3 seconds to get going, and HD and 4K videos run with only the merest hint of buffering.
The provider’s apps deserve a round of applause for their user-friendliness. With an interface as intuitive as a seasoned butler, it hardly takes 4–5 seconds to locate and connect to a server. Furthermore, all features and settings are accompanied by helpful explanations, taking the guesswork out of the equation. An additional feather in Surfshark’s cap is its support for unlimited connections, a feature that has me nodding in appreciative approval.
The Gentleman's Guide to Selecting the Bee's Knees of VPNs in Dubai for 2023
The first thing to cast your peepers over when hunting for a VPN is the size of its server network. The old adage 'the more, the merrier' holds water here. I'd recommend whittling down your options to those VPNs that have a presence in Dubai or its neighbourly nations like Egypt, Israel, or Sri Lanka. Most of my top picks have at least one foot in the door in Dubai.
Security is your next port of call. Every VPN on my shortlist boasts industry-standard security trimmings, including the impenetrable 256-bit encryption, a kill switch that unceremoniously cuts your Internet connection when your VPN link trips up, a no-logs policy, and a shield against DNS, IPv6, or WebRTC leaks.
A VPN that treats speed as a virtue is a must. Though VPNs are known to put a mild damper on your connection due to the encryption rigmarole, with a top-notch VPN, the slowdown would be as noticeable as a flea on an elephant. My endorsements only include VPNs that keep up a sprightly pace for all online frolics — ExpressVPN, my top choice, leads the pack in the speed department.
Go for a VPN that's as user-friendly as an affable concierge. The VPNs on this roster come equipped with intuitive apps that make finding and connecting to any server a veritable breeze.
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2023.06.08 03:46 Milk_bruh123 Anyone know what shirt the button up is? And where I could buy it?
submitted by Milk_bruh123 to jpegmafia [link] [comments]
2023.06.08 03:40 thereseratops What I packed for an 18 day trip to Morocco, California, and Puerto Rico including 2 weddings, a bachelorette, and my honeymoon
Here’s my packing list for 18 days in May/June including 2 weddings, my own honeymoon, and a bachelorette party. I packed both a carry on backpack (REI Traverse 35L in S) and personal item backpack (North Face Borealis from 2014 which I think is 27L), both not completely full. For the variety of events I was prepared for, the fact that I almost used everything more than once, and the amount I experimented with convertible clothing, I thought it might be worth posting even though it’s 2 bags. We did laundry once ~day 9 or 10.
Events I was packing for
Belt bag - worn on travel days and for more active stuff - hiking, camel ride, quad biking.
Crossbody leather purse - worn to wedding events and days out in cities.
Packable backpack - needed on more active days when I needed to carry extra clothes and a water bottle
Zip close laundry bag (came with an Away carry on rolling suitcase)
Toiletry bag with 4 compartments and a hook to hang in the bathroom - full with mini sizes of almost everything I would use at home including makeup, meds, skincare, curly hair stuff, sunscreen, bug spray, etc.
Tech pouch (came with the Samsonite Silhouette 17 tote) - held phone charging cables for USB-C and USB-A, international plug converter, external battery, headphones, and my travel mini hair straightener.
Jewelry case - with jewelry for the weddings and nice dinners. Stored my engagement & wedding rings on the ring tabs on days I didn’t want to wear them.
Travel towel
Water bottle - Wish I had an insulated water bottle instead of my plastic one for the desert heat. Will be shopping for one.
Turtl pillow - strapped in the bungee cords of the north face backpack
Sun hat - folded flat and also strapped in the bungee cords when I wasn’t wearing it
Sunglasses in a case
Tevas Hurricane XLT2 - Worn for most days in Morocco and Puerto Rico. I bought cheap water shoes from Walgreens the day of the waterfall hike because I was worried about traction for rock climbing with open toed shoes, but a couple of girls on the trip did it all in Tevas without a problem.
Croc sandals - I used these functionally as flip flops for inside the hotels/ showers, especially when the Tevas were still drying off after water activities. I wore them out in the city once but they aren’t comfortable for hours of walking on uneven ground.
Sneakers - light pink color, felt like it looked ok when a little dusty in Morocco
Convertible heels to flats - worn as heels for both weddings, worn as flat sandals for both pre-wedding events. Also converted them into flats after dancing at the weddings. Would've worn for a night out at the bachelorette but my flight there was delayed and I missed it.
Packing cubes (not pictured) with all clothes - Eagle Creek Pack-It Original sizes M x 2, S x 1, XS x 1
Lehenga choli - top & bottom that I dressed up with Indian jewelry for the Indian wedding but dressed down as separates in Morocco. Worn with a dupatta - which I also used to cover my shoulders for sleeveless outfits in Morocco.
Convertible jumpsuit - varied the necklines for a wedding welcome dinner and a dinner while glamping in the sand dunes. Worn as high waisted pants with the bra tank for wine tasting in California and for a day in the Marrakech.
Convertible dress/scarf - worn as a shawl for the black tie optional wedding and dressy casual prewedding event, worn as a scarf for a cold night out in chefchaouen, worn as a dress at the beach in Essaouira and for a day out in Marrakech.
Washable silk slip dress - for the black tie optional wedding. Required steaming so didn’t bother to wear again, but packs tiny.
White midi dress - worn once for pictures in the blue city Chefchaouen, thought I would wear again for clubbing in Morocco but didn’t end up getting to go
Plisse pants - worn for airplane, train and bus days because they’re comfy enough to curl up and sleep in
Linen pants - were great for hot and dusty desert days
Sleep shorts
Spanx for under silk and white dresses
Spanx athletic leggings - necessary for cold weather in chefchaouen and hiking in dades
Patagonia R1 - needed for plane, nights in California, chefchaouen, and Atlas mountains
White linen button down - worn many many times over other clothes
Button down short sleeve shirt - just wore once in the desert
Crochet swim cover up
Bra tank from aerie
Workout top from Target - can pass as a tshirt with pants
Modal black tshirt - comfy enough to sleep in
Cotton T-shirt - instantly got sweaty, will replace with something breezier or sweat wicking next time.
White tank
Convertible strapless bra - for the formal outfits
Merino wool bralette - was skeptical on the price but was super comfy and never felt like it got sweaty
Mesh bralette
1 bikini
1 other light bralette, 8 pairs of underwear and 4 pairs of socks not pictured (including 1 lightweight darn tough wool socks)
My backpacks felt overall light and I was fine on uneven ground and stairs wearing both of them. Someone more minimalist than me could easily get this down to 1 bag by traveling with a smaller toiletry bag and cutting 1-2 sandals, 1-3 shirts, and multiple dresses. I don’t regret bringing anything since I take a lot of pictures, so the variety was nice. I had room for food during travel and small souvenirs, so it was overall a success.
My only regret - I forgot my Columbia rain shell which which would’ve easily fit. It was super windy in California and it rained a ton in parts of Morocco. My R1 had to suffice, which is ok in a drizzle but not a downpour.
I hope someone finds this useful!
submitted by thereseratops to HerOneBag [link] [comments]
Events I was packing for
- 2 California weddings which each also had pre-wedding events the day before - dress codes for the 4 total events were 1) dressy casual in bright orange/yellow colors, 2) dressy casual, 3) black tie optional, 4) Indian formal.
- 12 day honeymoon in Morocco included time in the mountains, desert, cities, and beach. Everything was to be relatively modest and almost everything had to be comfortable enough for plane/train/bus/car travel throughout.
- Bachelorette weekend in Puerto Rico - casual with beach time, city time, and a day of rainforest/waterfall hiking and kayaking.
Belt bag - worn on travel days and for more active stuff - hiking, camel ride, quad biking.
Crossbody leather purse - worn to wedding events and days out in cities.
Packable backpack - needed on more active days when I needed to carry extra clothes and a water bottle
Zip close laundry bag (came with an Away carry on rolling suitcase)
Toiletry bag with 4 compartments and a hook to hang in the bathroom - full with mini sizes of almost everything I would use at home including makeup, meds, skincare, curly hair stuff, sunscreen, bug spray, etc.
Tech pouch (came with the Samsonite Silhouette 17 tote) - held phone charging cables for USB-C and USB-A, international plug converter, external battery, headphones, and my travel mini hair straightener.
Jewelry case - with jewelry for the weddings and nice dinners. Stored my engagement & wedding rings on the ring tabs on days I didn’t want to wear them.
Travel towel
Water bottle - Wish I had an insulated water bottle instead of my plastic one for the desert heat. Will be shopping for one.
Turtl pillow - strapped in the bungee cords of the north face backpack
Sun hat - folded flat and also strapped in the bungee cords when I wasn’t wearing it
Sunglasses in a case
Tevas Hurricane XLT2 - Worn for most days in Morocco and Puerto Rico. I bought cheap water shoes from Walgreens the day of the waterfall hike because I was worried about traction for rock climbing with open toed shoes, but a couple of girls on the trip did it all in Tevas without a problem.
Croc sandals - I used these functionally as flip flops for inside the hotels/ showers, especially when the Tevas were still drying off after water activities. I wore them out in the city once but they aren’t comfortable for hours of walking on uneven ground.
Sneakers - light pink color, felt like it looked ok when a little dusty in Morocco
Convertible heels to flats - worn as heels for both weddings, worn as flat sandals for both pre-wedding events. Also converted them into flats after dancing at the weddings. Would've worn for a night out at the bachelorette but my flight there was delayed and I missed it.
Packing cubes (not pictured) with all clothes - Eagle Creek Pack-It Original sizes M x 2, S x 1, XS x 1
Lehenga choli - top & bottom that I dressed up with Indian jewelry for the Indian wedding but dressed down as separates in Morocco. Worn with a dupatta - which I also used to cover my shoulders for sleeveless outfits in Morocco.
- https://www.azafashions.com/products/use328607?utm_source=emailer&utm_medium=RnS&utm_campaign=newsletter2317_Order-Con
- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LQGU2RC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Convertible jumpsuit - varied the necklines for a wedding welcome dinner and a dinner while glamping in the sand dunes. Worn as high waisted pants with the bra tank for wine tasting in California and for a day in the Marrakech.
Convertible dress/scarf - worn as a shawl for the black tie optional wedding and dressy casual prewedding event, worn as a scarf for a cold night out in chefchaouen, worn as a dress at the beach in Essaouira and for a day out in Marrakech.
Washable silk slip dress - for the black tie optional wedding. Required steaming so didn’t bother to wear again, but packs tiny.
White midi dress - worn once for pictures in the blue city Chefchaouen, thought I would wear again for clubbing in Morocco but didn’t end up getting to go
Plisse pants - worn for airplane, train and bus days because they’re comfy enough to curl up and sleep in
Linen pants - were great for hot and dusty desert days
Sleep shorts
Spanx for under silk and white dresses
Spanx athletic leggings - necessary for cold weather in chefchaouen and hiking in dades
Patagonia R1 - needed for plane, nights in California, chefchaouen, and Atlas mountains
White linen button down - worn many many times over other clothes
Button down short sleeve shirt - just wore once in the desert
Crochet swim cover up
Bra tank from aerie
Workout top from Target - can pass as a tshirt with pants
Modal black tshirt - comfy enough to sleep in
Cotton T-shirt - instantly got sweaty, will replace with something breezier or sweat wicking next time.
White tank
Convertible strapless bra - for the formal outfits
Merino wool bralette - was skeptical on the price but was super comfy and never felt like it got sweaty
Mesh bralette
1 bikini
1 other light bralette, 8 pairs of underwear and 4 pairs of socks not pictured (including 1 lightweight darn tough wool socks)
My backpacks felt overall light and I was fine on uneven ground and stairs wearing both of them. Someone more minimalist than me could easily get this down to 1 bag by traveling with a smaller toiletry bag and cutting 1-2 sandals, 1-3 shirts, and multiple dresses. I don’t regret bringing anything since I take a lot of pictures, so the variety was nice. I had room for food during travel and small souvenirs, so it was overall a success.
My only regret - I forgot my Columbia rain shell which which would’ve easily fit. It was super windy in California and it rained a ton in parts of Morocco. My R1 had to suffice, which is ok in a drizzle but not a downpour.
I hope someone finds this useful!