Filipino grocery store near me
CannabisStoreNearMe
2021.09.25 22:54 6ixotics6ixotics CannabisStoreNearMe
Cannabis Store Near Me 6ixotics https://6ixotics.com
2014.10.16 15:00 Great finds online
Updated: This site now features many good deals that aren't necessarily grocery items, but all are pretty good! The deals are found online, but not just for online outlets. The focus is still primarily Amazon Prime grocery/household goods, but nowadays we let just about any good deal through the door. Note that these prices reflect what is a good deal *at Amazon,* but you can often still get a better deal at your local grocery store. Thanks for visiting!
2011.04.09 09:34 oneisnotprime Blockchain built and run by the EOS network DAO
The EOS Network is a 3rd generation blockchain platform powered by the EOS VM, a low-latency, highly performant, and extensible WebAssembly engine for deterministic execution of near feeless transactions; purpose-built for enabling optimal web3 user, developer experiences. EOS is the flagship blockchain and financial center of the EOSIO protocol, serving as the driving force behind multi-chain collaboration and public goods funding for tools and infrastructure through the EOS Network Foundation.
2023.03.26 15:17 fuckyouball What is reserve combat medic like?
I'm on year 5 of being in the national guard. Ive been in a line unit doing signal MOS. I'm nearing the end of my contract and for reasons, i would like to reenlist in the reserve rather than staying in the national guard. I was wondering how different that life is. I was also wondering if anyone knows what the process even looks like of going into the reserves after youre out of the national guard.
I was also wondering if any combat medics know what the AIT would be like as prior service. Im also already in the process of becoming EMT certified on the civilian side and heard that that shortens the length of AIT?
basically i was wondering if anyone could tell me about what this would be like and who i should talk to abt making it happen.
submitted by fuckyouball to armyreserve [link] [comments]
I was also wondering if any combat medics know what the AIT would be like as prior service. Im also already in the process of becoming EMT certified on the civilian side and heard that that shortens the length of AIT?
basically i was wondering if anyone could tell me about what this would be like and who i should talk to abt making it happen.
2023.03.26 15:16 agitgoblin Hobbyist Writer looking to gain some experience working on a comic with a more experienced artist.
My name is Persephone Lockhart. I'm a trans woman and a hobbyist writer looking for someone a little more experienced in online art to work on a LGBT positive comic with.
The project is an Urban Fantasy story called Cass of Fort Worthy. It's about Cassandra Crown, a girl in a small town who wants to be a dragon slayer, but is fresh out of highschool and has to get a nightshift summer job to save up for college. She starts working at a local 24 hour store, learns some unsettling things about the setting and other characters, and occasionally meets the odd Norse god, all while struggling to understand the sacrifice of her father, Kingston.
You can dm here or email me at [email protected]
submitted by agitgoblin to ComicBookCollabs [link] [comments]
The project is an Urban Fantasy story called Cass of Fort Worthy. It's about Cassandra Crown, a girl in a small town who wants to be a dragon slayer, but is fresh out of highschool and has to get a nightshift summer job to save up for college. She starts working at a local 24 hour store, learns some unsettling things about the setting and other characters, and occasionally meets the odd Norse god, all while struggling to understand the sacrifice of her father, Kingston.
You can dm here or email me at [email protected]
2023.03.26 15:15 Remote_Raspberry_663 Looking for some recommendations around this team, generally like all the players here (except VVD, seems to not perform nearly as well as i see against me) I like this formation or the 4-2-3-1 (with 3 CAMs)
 | submitted by Remote_Raspberry_663 to fut [link] [comments] |
2023.03.26 15:15 Mystery_Machin3 HELP! Can My SM Write Me Up For This??
Hi everybody, I desperately need help with dealing with my store manager!
I was scheduled an opening shift at 5:30am and I always show up on time to my shifts and rarely ever call out unless I get sick (which is rare). I went out to my car at 5:15am today to start it up and it would not turn on, and the engine kept sputtering out. By the sound it was making I can tell that it has something to do with my battery which is brand new from last year, so it’s not like I knew that my car was going to break down and could have foreseen this. When I called my store manager to tell him that I would not make it in for my shift since I’m going to have a lot to deal with today, he said that I called out too close to my shift and that it is my responsibility to find coverage (which isn’t happening because no one is answering their phones at 5am). He also tried asking if it was OK to send a shift lead to come pick me up and then drop me off at the end of my shift, which is 8.5 hours long. I had declined because it was somebody whom I never met and I felt uncomfortable with someone I don’t know and/or trust to pick me up at my personal address.
I had told him that I probably knew what the issue was with my car since I had a mechanic fix it last year so I thought it’s the same issue. He took that as I had known this would happen and should have gotten my car fixed right away (which cost almost 2,000 dollars last time so it’s not like I can just go and “fix it” like he told me to). I clarified by telling him that although I have had this issue before, I didn’t know that it would happen to me AGAIN. He then went on a rant saying that I was calling out too close to my shift and that the store was going to have to open late and that he’ll have to have a “follow-up conversation” with me which is I assume to write me up.
I don’t know what to do, I’m stressed enough with my car and financial issues that it’s very overwhelming to also deal with my boss. Please help, what should I do??
submitted by Mystery_Machin3 to starbucksbaristas [link] [comments]
I was scheduled an opening shift at 5:30am and I always show up on time to my shifts and rarely ever call out unless I get sick (which is rare). I went out to my car at 5:15am today to start it up and it would not turn on, and the engine kept sputtering out. By the sound it was making I can tell that it has something to do with my battery which is brand new from last year, so it’s not like I knew that my car was going to break down and could have foreseen this. When I called my store manager to tell him that I would not make it in for my shift since I’m going to have a lot to deal with today, he said that I called out too close to my shift and that it is my responsibility to find coverage (which isn’t happening because no one is answering their phones at 5am). He also tried asking if it was OK to send a shift lead to come pick me up and then drop me off at the end of my shift, which is 8.5 hours long. I had declined because it was somebody whom I never met and I felt uncomfortable with someone I don’t know and/or trust to pick me up at my personal address.
I had told him that I probably knew what the issue was with my car since I had a mechanic fix it last year so I thought it’s the same issue. He took that as I had known this would happen and should have gotten my car fixed right away (which cost almost 2,000 dollars last time so it’s not like I can just go and “fix it” like he told me to). I clarified by telling him that although I have had this issue before, I didn’t know that it would happen to me AGAIN. He then went on a rant saying that I was calling out too close to my shift and that the store was going to have to open late and that he’ll have to have a “follow-up conversation” with me which is I assume to write me up.
I don’t know what to do, I’m stressed enough with my car and financial issues that it’s very overwhelming to also deal with my boss. Please help, what should I do??
2023.03.26 15:15 shortstory1 I tried exorcising the demonic Thomas the tank engine
I tried exercising demonic Thomas the tank engine, but I failed. My son was watching Thomas the tank engine on YouTube and it was all fine, until Thomas the tank engines face started to become demonic. I couldn't believe it and my son was so scared by what was happening. I was also horrified by what was happening to Thomas the tank engine and it was ruining my life. I knew what I had to do and I had to try and exorcise Thomas the tank engine. I had to bring back this cartoon for my sons sake as he enjoys Thomas the tank engine.
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
submitted by shortstory1 to creepypasta [link] [comments]
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
2023.03.26 15:15 ScarletteWish I had no one
I had no one when the near-death experience happened. And you just happen to be there, at the right place and right time.
I was scared shitless. The fear is so overwhelming that i didn’t process it immediately. I felt utterly lost. And you came into the picture.
I projected my emotional needs onto you. I needed a caregiver, but i haven’t had any before nor after. You became that figure for me.
All along i kept trying to push you away because i never had anything like that before. It was uncomfortable. And the relationship, I knew we wouldn’t last. We were both not available.
I didn’t know all these then. I’m sorry for hurting you over and over again. You’ve helped me for all these years, and all i did was to push you away.
If i had known i was traumatised earlier. Would everything have been different? I had no one.
submitted by ScarletteWish to ptsd [link] [comments]
I was scared shitless. The fear is so overwhelming that i didn’t process it immediately. I felt utterly lost. And you came into the picture.
I projected my emotional needs onto you. I needed a caregiver, but i haven’t had any before nor after. You became that figure for me.
All along i kept trying to push you away because i never had anything like that before. It was uncomfortable. And the relationship, I knew we wouldn’t last. We were both not available.
I didn’t know all these then. I’m sorry for hurting you over and over again. You’ve helped me for all these years, and all i did was to push you away.
If i had known i was traumatised earlier. Would everything have been different? I had no one.
2023.03.26 15:15 shortstory1 I tried exorcising the demonic Thomas the tank engine
I tried exercising demonic Thomas the tank engine, but I failed. My son was watching Thomas the tank engine on YouTube and it was all fine, until Thomas the tank engines face started to become demonic. I couldn't believe it and my son was so scared by what was happening. I was also horrified by what was happening to Thomas the tank engine and it was ruining my life. I knew what I had to do and I had to try and exorcise Thomas the tank engine. I had to bring back this cartoon for my sons sake as he enjoys Thomas the tank engine.
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
submitted by shortstory1 to absurdshortstories [link] [comments]
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
2023.03.26 15:15 thethirdmanwebran Wayfair Store Near Me Coupon Code
Check out the link for Wayfair Store Near Me Coupon Code. Once on the website, you'll have access to a variety of coupons, promo codes, and discount deals that are updated regularly to help you save on your purchase.
submitted by thethirdmanwebran to EuphoryOffers [link] [comments]
2023.03.26 15:14 jimmytruelove Advice for a new e-commerce website with a Brick 'n Mortar store.
Hello guys,
We operate a store in London that does about £2m in topline.
I have been tasked with building our e-commerce website which I have just completed.
I am about to launch and would like some advice on getting started with digital marketing or indeed the best courses to learn about digital marketing.
I am fairly tech literate and I understand the basics..
Currently the only part of my tech stack I've setup is Segment.
All my data currently feeds into there.
I realise this is a very broad question but I just want to do it right.. eventually I will probably outsource this but for now I want to learn as much as I can to get this website off the ground.
It is a grocery store selling high end groceries (wine, beer, spirits, confectionary, meat, fish, etc.) as well as lifestyle products such as candles, stationery, hygiene products.
My current proposed marketing stack is:
Segment Klaviyo GA4
I was also looking at full story / hotjar maybe?
Should I be focused primarily on google ads or fb / insta ads?
I have some understanding of both from a previous business but that was a long time ago.
Thanks!
submitted by jimmytruelove to DigitalMarketing [link] [comments]
We operate a store in London that does about £2m in topline.
I have been tasked with building our e-commerce website which I have just completed.
I am about to launch and would like some advice on getting started with digital marketing or indeed the best courses to learn about digital marketing.
I am fairly tech literate and I understand the basics..
Currently the only part of my tech stack I've setup is Segment.
All my data currently feeds into there.
I realise this is a very broad question but I just want to do it right.. eventually I will probably outsource this but for now I want to learn as much as I can to get this website off the ground.
It is a grocery store selling high end groceries (wine, beer, spirits, confectionary, meat, fish, etc.) as well as lifestyle products such as candles, stationery, hygiene products.
My current proposed marketing stack is:
Segment Klaviyo GA4
I was also looking at full story / hotjar maybe?
Should I be focused primarily on google ads or fb / insta ads?
I have some understanding of both from a previous business but that was a long time ago.
Thanks!
2023.03.26 15:14 shortstory1 I tried exorcising the demonic Thomas the tank engine
I tried exercising demonic Thomas the tank engine, but I failed. My son was watching Thomas the tank engine on YouTube and it was all fine, until Thomas the tank engines face started to become demonic. I couldn't believe it and my son was so scared by what was happening. I was also horrified by what was happening to Thomas the tank engine and it was ruining my life. I knew what I had to do and I had to try and exorcise Thomas the tank engine. I had to bring back this cartoon for my sons sake as he enjoys Thomas the tank engine.
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
submitted by shortstory1 to stayawake [link] [comments]
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
2023.03.26 15:14 ManlyMcManlyton Don’t know how to cope
Hey fellow dads,
I’d like to start out by saying I’m the main caregiver for my son (14 months).
I am exhausted by taking care of him, I get 2 days off a week when he goes to nursery, other than that it’s down to me. My wife works full-time (wfh), and I get that she is tired from it after work, I am also tired after putting in all my energy caring for him from roughly 6am.
The big problem is that my wife doesn’t seem to care, she doesn’t change nappies, she doesn’t put him to bed unless I have a commitment in the evening. Even on weekends I have him, when she’s downstairs with us she’ll usually be on the ps5 or watching the tv.
Recently I have been having an issue with my legs (injured whilst running) plus a dodgy knee from when I tore a ligament, which means I struggle with keeping up with him, and experience pain throughout the day, however she does not care one bit.
Whenever I ask for a modicum of time alone I’m met with aggression and pleads of “I can’t look after him”. She also won’t really let me enjoy my evenings alone, I always have to be with/near her. I’m not saying I’m perfect, I regularly forget to take care of the house/myself, I have terrible mental health (EUPD) and when I’m tired I become irritable, and I will snap at her (which I know is wrong).
I find myself making excuses for her, and I’m tired of it. I just want some help with my son, and some sympathy/genuine love/support.
I’m tired.
submitted by ManlyMcManlyton to daddit [link] [comments]
I’d like to start out by saying I’m the main caregiver for my son (14 months).
I am exhausted by taking care of him, I get 2 days off a week when he goes to nursery, other than that it’s down to me. My wife works full-time (wfh), and I get that she is tired from it after work, I am also tired after putting in all my energy caring for him from roughly 6am.
The big problem is that my wife doesn’t seem to care, she doesn’t change nappies, she doesn’t put him to bed unless I have a commitment in the evening. Even on weekends I have him, when she’s downstairs with us she’ll usually be on the ps5 or watching the tv.
Recently I have been having an issue with my legs (injured whilst running) plus a dodgy knee from when I tore a ligament, which means I struggle with keeping up with him, and experience pain throughout the day, however she does not care one bit.
Whenever I ask for a modicum of time alone I’m met with aggression and pleads of “I can’t look after him”. She also won’t really let me enjoy my evenings alone, I always have to be with/near her. I’m not saying I’m perfect, I regularly forget to take care of the house/myself, I have terrible mental health (EUPD) and when I’m tired I become irritable, and I will snap at her (which I know is wrong).
I find myself making excuses for her, and I’m tired of it. I just want some help with my son, and some sympathy/genuine love/support.
I’m tired.
2023.03.26 15:14 shortstory1 I tried exorcising the demonic Thomas the tank engine
I tried exercising demonic Thomas the tank engine, but I failed. My son was watching Thomas the tank engine on YouTube and it was all fine, until Thomas the tank engines face started to become demonic. I couldn't believe it and my son was so scared by what was happening. I was also horrified by what was happening to Thomas the tank engine and it was ruining my life. I knew what I had to do and I had to try and exorcise Thomas the tank engine. I had to bring back this cartoon for my sons sake as he enjoys Thomas the tank engine.
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
submitted by shortstory1 to shortscarystories [link] [comments]
I prepared the exorcism for Thomas the tank engine and I was prepared to do whatever it took. I was alone in the room with the lap top and I was terrified of going on google. Then as I went onto google, I had to be brave and click onto YouTube. I was on YouTube now and something was stalling me going any further and I guess it was fear. I went onto a Thomas the tank engine youtube video and it was all fine, until it turned horrible again. I tried dousing the screen with holy water but it wasn't working, Thomas the tank engine was still demonic.
Then after after dousing more holy water onto the laptop, that just broke the lap top. I had clearly failed in my quest to exorcise Thomas the tank engine. Then when my son watched Thomas the tank engine on another lap top, demonic Thomas the tank engine made my grown up 20 year old son go crazy. He started smashing things up because he was terrified of demonic Thomas the tank engine. He even nearly hurt his mother and I had to restrain him onto the ground, but it is getting harder as he is a big boy.
I tried to exorcise Thomas the tank engine again on the second laptop. Once again it was just failing and it ruined the laptop. So my adult son had to watch someone thing else like peppa pig, and he was really enjoying peppy pig on YouTube. I was glad my grown son found something else to enjoy as he had abandoned Thomas the tank engine. Then my son started smashing the house again and when I looked at his phone, it was peppy pig but it was a possessed peppa pig. I was at a loss and there are so many possessions now online on YouTube with cartoon characters. It's hell.
2023.03.26 15:13 YaaliAnnar NoP: Lost and Found (35)
Note: If you're a long-time reader, I decided to retcon the name of the official language of Nusantara to "Bahasa" instead of "Neo-Malay." If you're new, hi.
First Previous
Memory Transcription Subject: Vani, venlil foreign exchange participant
Date [Standardized Human Reckoning]: 2136–09-18
Upon telling her our concern. Snop suggested that we talk to her acquaintance named Mowww Daywant in Surabaya who made a name for himself in the community as a cooling vest producer. She put us in touch with the tiger furry, who was excited to design a vest for me and he asked permission to get the model of my body from Snop.
Since Surabaya also hosted one of the twelve universities on the list we decided it would be our destination for my weekly checkup too.
Johan and I took our time on our trip to Surabaya, making stops to explore the sights along the way. The day after my assessment, we visited the Prambanan Temple. As usual, as soon as we got near the fenced temple complex, an eager tour guide approached us, offering to explain the history and significance of the temple. She explained that Prambanan is a Hindu temple and the second-largest Hindu temple complex on the planet, after Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The complex comprised six inner temples surrounded by two hundred smaller ones. Due to neglect, many of the smaller temples had fallen into ruin over the years, but one had been reconstructed to give visitors a glimpse of what it looked like in its original state.
The tour guide mentioned that her Hinduism is not the same as the one practiced in the temple back when it was erected.
"So there are different kinds of Hinduism?"
"That's true for pretty much any religion on Earth? Don't your religions have denominations too?" Johan asked.
"Not in the homeworld, but I suppose perhaps there are religions in the rest of the Federation who do have variations like that."
Moving forward on our way to Surabaya, my human decided to take a detour to a couple of caves. In my homeworld, caves are considered dangerous due to their darkness. With little use for them, we explore them using drones. However, humans see caves differently and they explore caves not only for research but also for the enjoyment it provides to them. Our first stop was the Gong Cave, where a well-maintained walking path had been installed in the cave. It allowed us to stroll inside and gaze at the geological features. Various colored lights had been set to highlight the rock formations.
Next, we visited the Tabuhan Cave, whose extraordinary stalactites and stalagmites had been turned into lithophones. When we entered the cave, we were treated to a beautiful percussive symphony created by striking the rocks. The sound made by a band of humans echoed through the cave, and it was hard to believe that these sounds were coming from natural formations.
Johan and I also made significant progress in our language learning. Being the fragmented species they are, humans have developed several writing systems, and one system, in particular, is used in many languages. He explained that sometimes, a group of people would adopt a neighboring writing system of their own will, but often what happened was that the writing systems of the colonizer were imposed on the colonized such as in the case of Bahasa. Perhaps because they were introduced much later, while English orthography is a complicated mess, Bahasa has a regular orthography.
After my overheating incident a week ago, Johan was cautious about the intensity of my exercises until we got the cooling vest that Snop's acquaintance could provide. He researched various exercises that would help me build my muscles without putting too much strain on my body. I no longer tire as I did when I first arrived on Earth. I could match the stamina of humans, but I was still susceptible to hyperthermia.
Speaking of heat, the other kind of heat I experienced dissipated a few days ago. Although my biological quirks no longer distracted me, I found that I could still be coaxed well out of my schedule, which was a welcome discovery for us. We hypothesized that it might be the result of something in human food or perhaps the presence of pheromones emitted by humans (i.e. Johan). I would not need to disclose this during my weekly checkup unless it led to any issues with my quality of life.
Right before reaching Surabaya, we visited the ancient city of Trowulan where the capital of an old empire used to reside. Instead of being made out of stone like the temples we have visited, everything there was made out of clay brick. The ruins of the once imperial capital were spread out over a vast area, with remnants of buildings, palaces, and temples all around. As usual, a tour guide jumped upon us and took us around to explain the history and significance of structures that survived the ravage of time. We even stumbled upon an old market square, where vendors once sold their wares to the people of the empire.
Walking through the city, I wondered how my ancestors lived and what their civilizations might have been like.
I could tell that we reached Surabaya when we passed a large gate saying "Welcome to Surabaya". I have switched my visual translator to the annotation mode to better learn the language. This way, I could see the translation of any human text alongside the original, helping me to better understand their language. Surabaya is the second largest city in Java and it felt like a little sibling to Jakarta. Despite its smaller size, its skyline was also adorned with tall glass towers just like in Jakarta, there are parts of the city that still maintain their colonial-era architecture.
When we approached Mowww Daywant's apartment building, I noticed that the surrounding buildings were sleek and the streets were spotless. I can surmise that this was a posh part of the city, reserved for the wealthy. Stepping into the building's lobby, I could see that the humans there were wearing neat fabric, unlike Johan's shabby ones. On our way to Mowww's flat, we encountered several indoor waterfalls pouring into a human-made canal which then cascade to an even lower floor. I have never seen such a feature in a building before.
After Johan pressed the bell in front of Mowww's apartment a long, muffled howling came out from behind the door.
"Oh, man..." Johan sighed. "He has a dog.
I know dogs. I have seen dogs before when we were outside. They can be seen almost always leashed with a human holding the other end of the rope.
When I delved deeper into my research on Earth's history, I discovered that humans and dogs had a much longer and deeper relationship. Humans met the wolves, ancestors of the dogs', tens of thousands of years before they settled and began agriculture. That means they used to hunt together with the wolves assisting in tracking and fetching prey while the humans provided food and shelter in return. Nowadays, dogs are utilized for things other than hunting. Some are trained to perform tasks such as guiding those with sight problems, detecting medical conditions, or providing security. Others serve as emotional support animals, providing comfort and companionship to their owners.
The door slid open. A human with whiskers above their lips greeted us. Their mane is trimmed on the side but kept long on top.
"I need to let you know that I have a dog with me right now. She's in a locked crate though."
"How do you think she'll react if she sees Vani?" Johan asked.
"I think she's pretty mellow?" The human looked back and then returned his gaze to us.
"Can I see the dog?" I wondered what kind of dog was inside that flat. In public, the few times I saw a dog, its owner always tugged on their leash and forced the beast to walk away from me and Johan.
"Okay, if she shows any sort of aggression toward Vani, we can go down to the lobby." Said Mowww.
The human let us into his flat and when I entered the temperature dropped much lower than the usual temperature of a human's building interior. The air was cool and crisp, almost resembling the temperature of a morgue. Once inside, we were greeted by an intense-looking living room. The walls were painted in the color of blood and a sculpture of a rotund tiger lay on the glass table in the middle. In one corner of the room, I spotted a large cage with the fluffiest thing ever lying down inside.
The beast's long thick fur hid its features, making it look like a soft, white capsule with four legs and a snout sticking out. As soon as it sensed our presence, the fluff beast stood up and stared at me, its tongue falling out of its mouth, panting.
"Is it smiling at me? It looks like it is smiling." The beast's beady eyes stared at me. The fluff beast was nothing like the ferocious-looking wolves I saw in the human network. It was fascinating but also terrifying that humans have modified an apex predator into something that looked like a giant doll.
"Oh, this breed of dog used to live in the arctic region. They have an upturned mouth like that to prevent saliva from pooling and freezing."
The beast approached the edge of the crate and its nose, wet and glistening, poked out through the metal bars, twitching as it sniffed in my direction.
"Isn't that a samoyed?" Johan asked. "Why are you keeping a dog like that in Surabaya of all places?"
"She's my friend's furbaby and they live in Batu where the climate is more suitable for her. Right now their household is going to Convention in Taipei for a while."
"You're not going there too?" Johan asked.
"I'm... recovering my finance after a weeklong trip to Fiesta de Furros a month back." He said, looking a bit embarrassed.
The fluffy dog pawed on the cage lock. "Is it safe to let her out?" I asked.
"I think so? She doesn't look aggressive toward you."
I slid the lock of the cage and before both humans can react, the fluff beast came out with a bang, running at lightning speed around the living room. Her claws made a tapping sound against the floor as they frolicked around. It disappeared behind the kitchen and I heard a high-pitched squeak not long after. A few moments later, she came back with a tiger-shaped object in her mouth. Her curved tail looked more like a mound behind her back that vibrated as she approached me. She dropped the toy in front of me before coming closer to sniff me.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Johan said. "That could've gone wrong in all sorts of ways!"
The dog went around and nudged me from behind, making me step on the plaything it had deposited. Hearing the high-pitched sound, the fluffy white beast lifted its head and let out a long, piercing howl that filled the room. The sound was both beautiful and haunting at the same time, sending shivers down my spine.
"Mofu, stop," Mowww commanded.
As if it understood the human's command, the dog stopped emitting the noise and began sniffing around my feet. It then picked up the toy again and bumped my paw with its snout. Thinking that it tried to make me take the toy, I grabbed the tiger doll. As soon as I pulled the object from its mouth, the dog released its bite. It stared at me and it didn't take long before the tongue came out again.
"She wants you to throw the toy," said Mowww, smiling at Mofu's antics.
I threw the toy towards the couch and watched as Mofu chased after it, her fluffy fur bouncing with every step. It hopped up onto the couch and picked up the toy with its mouth. The beast then curled into a giant furball.
The fluff beast's behavior made me consider that… perhaps sapience is a spectrum. The dog's behavior seemed to show an understanding of people, something that I did not expect from a non-sapient animal.
"Yeah, Mofu is a couch potato. You need to convince her to go for a walkies. Well... you're lucky the good girl likes you. Now, wait here."
Mowww disappeared into his room, before emerging with a vest in hand. The vest looked almost identical to the one that Beer had worn back in Jakarta, but this one seemed to be tailor-made for someone of my proportions. As Mowww helped me put on the vest, Johan was lounging on the couch absent-mindedly stroking Mofu. The beast seemed to take a liking to Johan because she uncurled and plopped herself onto his lap before curling into a fluff ball again. Johan chuckled, continuing to pet the dog as Mowww made some final adjustments to the vest.
"Right now I use the twenty degrees mix. But I'll give you the fifteen degrees too."
The vest felt cool against my body and I could not wait to try exercising with this.
Mowww insisted on hosting us for the rest of the day. The furry brewed some tea and brought out some snacks while I attended my class and Johan did his work.
When we sat together to eat, Mowww told us about his work in the field of astronautics, an area that had been impacted positively by the first contact between our species. He spoke with pride about the innovative designs that he had been testing thanks to the wealth of knowledge and ideas that had been exchanged between our species. Once we finished our meal, Mowww took us to his home office where he showed us some of his current projects. He also had various models of human spacecraft from the past and he explained them like a tour guide in a mini museum.
The furry even showed us a few of his recent designs that were approved for public view.
When our day neared its end, Mowww mentioned that he was expecting the arrival of his friend from the Republic of China, who was the actual owner of the fluff beast. He invited us to join him at the airport to greet his friend and exchange dogs. It was Johan's turn to extend hospitality and after some convincing, Mowww agreed to go to the airport in Johan's van. We piled into the vehicle with the fluff beast sitting beside me.
On our way to the airport, I tried to stroke the creature's back and this made the beast lay on my lap. The dog seemed content to trap me there, sometimes nuzzling my hand for more pets when I stopped. Somehow petting the soft predator felt therapeutic. Halfway, when I stopped and it did not react I realized that the beast had fallen asleep.
In the airport, it didn't take us long to see Mofu's owner. Mowww waved to a group of people with suitcases piled high on a couple of trolleys. Upon seeing its owner, the fluff beast darted away, snatching the leash from Mowww's hand, the dog jumped and tried to jab the humans with its snout, and the humans kneeled, with one of them trying to hug the beast. They laughed when the dog fell on the floor and presented its belly. When one of the humans rubbed that particular anatomy the tongue came out again.
Is this the power of domestication? The wolf looked like an actual predator, but the white fluffy thing that was being tickled by its owners looked more like a mockery of a wolf in the same way the humans themselves are a mockery of predators.
I wonder if the humans, on another timeline, would be able to domesticate the arxur.
After a few minutes of fussing over the dog and exchanging gifts, we said our goodbyes ready for the next day.
Today we came to the university of the week. When I consulted the map, it was clear that our destination, Airlangga University, is an educational institution geared toward medicine and public health. The university's sprawling campus was divided into two distinct sections: the north and south areas, each with its own set of dedicated buildings and resources. Nestled between the north and south sections of the campus lies an impressive hospital complex, which serves as both a practical training ground for students and a fully-functioning medical center for the local city.
Just like Gajah Mada university, Airlangga University is named after a monarch who lived eleven hundred years ago. I was not surprised to learn that his name means "Jumping Water". The monarch was born on another island and "Jumping Water" is an allusion to him sailing from his birthplace to the island of Java.
The faculty of medicine comprises several buildings, and I would go to the department of surgery as usual. In the lab, a professor named Nurhayat greeted me. We went through the procedure of wearing a suit just like in Gajah Mada, and afterward, he whisked me to a familiar-looking lab with four tables. When I approached the table, I could feel my heart racing with anticipation. I had been studying and practicing appendectomy through laparoscopy for a week, but performing it in real space is a whole different story.
Professor Nurhayat explained what I would need to prepare for and I listened, trying to commit every detail to memory. Laparoscopy, it seemed, was similar to remote surgery back on my Homeworld. I would be controlling a small device while looking through a camera, which would allow me to see the surgical area. It was a challenging task, as I had to be careful about how deep I inserted the instrument through the small hole in the dummy.
I felt like I was making a lot of tiny missteps during the procedure because, unlike the appendectomy practice in Yogyakarta, Professor Nurhayat kept offering advice and guidance as I navigated the device through the dummy. In the end, the professor overseeing my laparoscopy assessment nodded with approval, but I could sense that it was just a passable performance. I feel disappointed, considering how much effort I have been putting into studying the procedure. Since I have never practiced remote surgery back in my homeworld, laparoscopy on Earth posed some challenges.
After the assessment, I felt mentally and physically drained. My paws ached from having to maintain a steady position for a prolonged amount of time.
Walking out of the building, Johan patted my back. "You did great, Vani. Don't be too hard on yourself."
He reminded me that this was just the beginning of my studies and I still had a whole semester ahead of me to practice and learn.
The student overseeing my sample gathering said the same thing about exercising and decreasing my intake so I told them that I have begun doing the exercise, which they put into their note. Looking at my test result so far, I think it can be said with good confidence that a venlil can thrive on earth. After the next weekly check, the student said that we will decrease the frequency to monthly medical checks instead.
It did not free us up that much, since the assessment with an educational practitioner would still take place once a week.
Since we had to deliver the fluff best to its owners, we could not try the cooling vest that Mowww had made for me. But we made sure to set aside time today. The vest had been kept in a mini fridge in Johan's van to ensure the maximum cooling effect. Once I had the vest on, I could feel the difference right away. It helped me maintain a comfortable body temperature and increased my endurance up to a human level. Mowww had also given me a vest with a water pump. This method did not cool as much as the one with the temperature-constant polymer, but it can go on and on for two days before the battery need to be replaced. Perhaps this will be useful too one day.
All in all, despite the setback in the assessment, I am thankful for the humans and their willingness to help me adapt to this strange world.
submitted by YaaliAnnar to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]
First Previous
Date [Standardized Human Reckoning]: 2136–09-18
Upon telling her our concern. Snop suggested that we talk to her acquaintance named Mowww Daywant in Surabaya who made a name for himself in the community as a cooling vest producer. She put us in touch with the tiger furry, who was excited to design a vest for me and he asked permission to get the model of my body from Snop.
Since Surabaya also hosted one of the twelve universities on the list we decided it would be our destination for my weekly checkup too.
Johan and I took our time on our trip to Surabaya, making stops to explore the sights along the way. The day after my assessment, we visited the Prambanan Temple. As usual, as soon as we got near the fenced temple complex, an eager tour guide approached us, offering to explain the history and significance of the temple. She explained that Prambanan is a Hindu temple and the second-largest Hindu temple complex on the planet, after Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The complex comprised six inner temples surrounded by two hundred smaller ones. Due to neglect, many of the smaller temples had fallen into ruin over the years, but one had been reconstructed to give visitors a glimpse of what it looked like in its original state.
The tour guide mentioned that her Hinduism is not the same as the one practiced in the temple back when it was erected.
"So there are different kinds of Hinduism?"
"That's true for pretty much any religion on Earth? Don't your religions have denominations too?" Johan asked.
"Not in the homeworld, but I suppose perhaps there are religions in the rest of the Federation who do have variations like that."
Moving forward on our way to Surabaya, my human decided to take a detour to a couple of caves. In my homeworld, caves are considered dangerous due to their darkness. With little use for them, we explore them using drones. However, humans see caves differently and they explore caves not only for research but also for the enjoyment it provides to them. Our first stop was the Gong Cave, where a well-maintained walking path had been installed in the cave. It allowed us to stroll inside and gaze at the geological features. Various colored lights had been set to highlight the rock formations.
Next, we visited the Tabuhan Cave, whose extraordinary stalactites and stalagmites had been turned into lithophones. When we entered the cave, we were treated to a beautiful percussive symphony created by striking the rocks. The sound made by a band of humans echoed through the cave, and it was hard to believe that these sounds were coming from natural formations.
Johan and I also made significant progress in our language learning. Being the fragmented species they are, humans have developed several writing systems, and one system, in particular, is used in many languages. He explained that sometimes, a group of people would adopt a neighboring writing system of their own will, but often what happened was that the writing systems of the colonizer were imposed on the colonized such as in the case of Bahasa. Perhaps because they were introduced much later, while English orthography is a complicated mess, Bahasa has a regular orthography.
After my overheating incident a week ago, Johan was cautious about the intensity of my exercises until we got the cooling vest that Snop's acquaintance could provide. He researched various exercises that would help me build my muscles without putting too much strain on my body. I no longer tire as I did when I first arrived on Earth. I could match the stamina of humans, but I was still susceptible to hyperthermia.
Speaking of heat, the other kind of heat I experienced dissipated a few days ago. Although my biological quirks no longer distracted me, I found that I could still be coaxed well out of my schedule, which was a welcome discovery for us. We hypothesized that it might be the result of something in human food or perhaps the presence of pheromones emitted by humans (i.e. Johan). I would not need to disclose this during my weekly checkup unless it led to any issues with my quality of life.
Right before reaching Surabaya, we visited the ancient city of Trowulan where the capital of an old empire used to reside. Instead of being made out of stone like the temples we have visited, everything there was made out of clay brick. The ruins of the once imperial capital were spread out over a vast area, with remnants of buildings, palaces, and temples all around. As usual, a tour guide jumped upon us and took us around to explain the history and significance of structures that survived the ravage of time. We even stumbled upon an old market square, where vendors once sold their wares to the people of the empire.
Walking through the city, I wondered how my ancestors lived and what their civilizations might have been like.
I could tell that we reached Surabaya when we passed a large gate saying "Welcome to Surabaya". I have switched my visual translator to the annotation mode to better learn the language. This way, I could see the translation of any human text alongside the original, helping me to better understand their language. Surabaya is the second largest city in Java and it felt like a little sibling to Jakarta. Despite its smaller size, its skyline was also adorned with tall glass towers just like in Jakarta, there are parts of the city that still maintain their colonial-era architecture.
When we approached Mowww Daywant's apartment building, I noticed that the surrounding buildings were sleek and the streets were spotless. I can surmise that this was a posh part of the city, reserved for the wealthy. Stepping into the building's lobby, I could see that the humans there were wearing neat fabric, unlike Johan's shabby ones. On our way to Mowww's flat, we encountered several indoor waterfalls pouring into a human-made canal which then cascade to an even lower floor. I have never seen such a feature in a building before.
After Johan pressed the bell in front of Mowww's apartment a long, muffled howling came out from behind the door.
"Oh, man..." Johan sighed. "He has a dog.
I know dogs. I have seen dogs before when we were outside. They can be seen almost always leashed with a human holding the other end of the rope.
When I delved deeper into my research on Earth's history, I discovered that humans and dogs had a much longer and deeper relationship. Humans met the wolves, ancestors of the dogs', tens of thousands of years before they settled and began agriculture. That means they used to hunt together with the wolves assisting in tracking and fetching prey while the humans provided food and shelter in return. Nowadays, dogs are utilized for things other than hunting. Some are trained to perform tasks such as guiding those with sight problems, detecting medical conditions, or providing security. Others serve as emotional support animals, providing comfort and companionship to their owners.
The door slid open. A human with whiskers above their lips greeted us. Their mane is trimmed on the side but kept long on top.
"I need to let you know that I have a dog with me right now. She's in a locked crate though."
"How do you think she'll react if she sees Vani?" Johan asked.
"I think she's pretty mellow?" The human looked back and then returned his gaze to us.
"Can I see the dog?" I wondered what kind of dog was inside that flat. In public, the few times I saw a dog, its owner always tugged on their leash and forced the beast to walk away from me and Johan.
"Okay, if she shows any sort of aggression toward Vani, we can go down to the lobby." Said Mowww.
The human let us into his flat and when I entered the temperature dropped much lower than the usual temperature of a human's building interior. The air was cool and crisp, almost resembling the temperature of a morgue. Once inside, we were greeted by an intense-looking living room. The walls were painted in the color of blood and a sculpture of a rotund tiger lay on the glass table in the middle. In one corner of the room, I spotted a large cage with the fluffiest thing ever lying down inside.
The beast's long thick fur hid its features, making it look like a soft, white capsule with four legs and a snout sticking out. As soon as it sensed our presence, the fluff beast stood up and stared at me, its tongue falling out of its mouth, panting.
"Is it smiling at me? It looks like it is smiling." The beast's beady eyes stared at me. The fluff beast was nothing like the ferocious-looking wolves I saw in the human network. It was fascinating but also terrifying that humans have modified an apex predator into something that looked like a giant doll.
"Oh, this breed of dog used to live in the arctic region. They have an upturned mouth like that to prevent saliva from pooling and freezing."
The beast approached the edge of the crate and its nose, wet and glistening, poked out through the metal bars, twitching as it sniffed in my direction.
"Isn't that a samoyed?" Johan asked. "Why are you keeping a dog like that in Surabaya of all places?"
"She's my friend's furbaby and they live in Batu where the climate is more suitable for her. Right now their household is going to Convention in Taipei for a while."
"You're not going there too?" Johan asked.
"I'm... recovering my finance after a weeklong trip to Fiesta de Furros a month back." He said, looking a bit embarrassed.
The fluffy dog pawed on the cage lock. "Is it safe to let her out?" I asked.
"I think so? She doesn't look aggressive toward you."
I slid the lock of the cage and before both humans can react, the fluff beast came out with a bang, running at lightning speed around the living room. Her claws made a tapping sound against the floor as they frolicked around. It disappeared behind the kitchen and I heard a high-pitched squeak not long after. A few moments later, she came back with a tiger-shaped object in her mouth. Her curved tail looked more like a mound behind her back that vibrated as she approached me. She dropped the toy in front of me before coming closer to sniff me.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Johan said. "That could've gone wrong in all sorts of ways!"
The dog went around and nudged me from behind, making me step on the plaything it had deposited. Hearing the high-pitched sound, the fluffy white beast lifted its head and let out a long, piercing howl that filled the room. The sound was both beautiful and haunting at the same time, sending shivers down my spine.
"Mofu, stop," Mowww commanded.
As if it understood the human's command, the dog stopped emitting the noise and began sniffing around my feet. It then picked up the toy again and bumped my paw with its snout. Thinking that it tried to make me take the toy, I grabbed the tiger doll. As soon as I pulled the object from its mouth, the dog released its bite. It stared at me and it didn't take long before the tongue came out again.
"She wants you to throw the toy," said Mowww, smiling at Mofu's antics.
I threw the toy towards the couch and watched as Mofu chased after it, her fluffy fur bouncing with every step. It hopped up onto the couch and picked up the toy with its mouth. The beast then curled into a giant furball.
The fluff beast's behavior made me consider that… perhaps sapience is a spectrum. The dog's behavior seemed to show an understanding of people, something that I did not expect from a non-sapient animal.
"Yeah, Mofu is a couch potato. You need to convince her to go for a walkies. Well... you're lucky the good girl likes you. Now, wait here."
Mowww disappeared into his room, before emerging with a vest in hand. The vest looked almost identical to the one that Beer had worn back in Jakarta, but this one seemed to be tailor-made for someone of my proportions. As Mowww helped me put on the vest, Johan was lounging on the couch absent-mindedly stroking Mofu. The beast seemed to take a liking to Johan because she uncurled and plopped herself onto his lap before curling into a fluff ball again. Johan chuckled, continuing to pet the dog as Mowww made some final adjustments to the vest.
"Right now I use the twenty degrees mix. But I'll give you the fifteen degrees too."
The vest felt cool against my body and I could not wait to try exercising with this.
Mowww insisted on hosting us for the rest of the day. The furry brewed some tea and brought out some snacks while I attended my class and Johan did his work.
When we sat together to eat, Mowww told us about his work in the field of astronautics, an area that had been impacted positively by the first contact between our species. He spoke with pride about the innovative designs that he had been testing thanks to the wealth of knowledge and ideas that had been exchanged between our species. Once we finished our meal, Mowww took us to his home office where he showed us some of his current projects. He also had various models of human spacecraft from the past and he explained them like a tour guide in a mini museum.
The furry even showed us a few of his recent designs that were approved for public view.
When our day neared its end, Mowww mentioned that he was expecting the arrival of his friend from the Republic of China, who was the actual owner of the fluff beast. He invited us to join him at the airport to greet his friend and exchange dogs. It was Johan's turn to extend hospitality and after some convincing, Mowww agreed to go to the airport in Johan's van. We piled into the vehicle with the fluff beast sitting beside me.
On our way to the airport, I tried to stroke the creature's back and this made the beast lay on my lap. The dog seemed content to trap me there, sometimes nuzzling my hand for more pets when I stopped. Somehow petting the soft predator felt therapeutic. Halfway, when I stopped and it did not react I realized that the beast had fallen asleep.
In the airport, it didn't take us long to see Mofu's owner. Mowww waved to a group of people with suitcases piled high on a couple of trolleys. Upon seeing its owner, the fluff beast darted away, snatching the leash from Mowww's hand, the dog jumped and tried to jab the humans with its snout, and the humans kneeled, with one of them trying to hug the beast. They laughed when the dog fell on the floor and presented its belly. When one of the humans rubbed that particular anatomy the tongue came out again.
Is this the power of domestication? The wolf looked like an actual predator, but the white fluffy thing that was being tickled by its owners looked more like a mockery of a wolf in the same way the humans themselves are a mockery of predators.
I wonder if the humans, on another timeline, would be able to domesticate the arxur.
After a few minutes of fussing over the dog and exchanging gifts, we said our goodbyes ready for the next day.
Today we came to the university of the week. When I consulted the map, it was clear that our destination, Airlangga University, is an educational institution geared toward medicine and public health. The university's sprawling campus was divided into two distinct sections: the north and south areas, each with its own set of dedicated buildings and resources. Nestled between the north and south sections of the campus lies an impressive hospital complex, which serves as both a practical training ground for students and a fully-functioning medical center for the local city.
Just like Gajah Mada university, Airlangga University is named after a monarch who lived eleven hundred years ago. I was not surprised to learn that his name means "Jumping Water". The monarch was born on another island and "Jumping Water" is an allusion to him sailing from his birthplace to the island of Java.
The faculty of medicine comprises several buildings, and I would go to the department of surgery as usual. In the lab, a professor named Nurhayat greeted me. We went through the procedure of wearing a suit just like in Gajah Mada, and afterward, he whisked me to a familiar-looking lab with four tables. When I approached the table, I could feel my heart racing with anticipation. I had been studying and practicing appendectomy through laparoscopy for a week, but performing it in real space is a whole different story.
Professor Nurhayat explained what I would need to prepare for and I listened, trying to commit every detail to memory. Laparoscopy, it seemed, was similar to remote surgery back on my Homeworld. I would be controlling a small device while looking through a camera, which would allow me to see the surgical area. It was a challenging task, as I had to be careful about how deep I inserted the instrument through the small hole in the dummy.
I felt like I was making a lot of tiny missteps during the procedure because, unlike the appendectomy practice in Yogyakarta, Professor Nurhayat kept offering advice and guidance as I navigated the device through the dummy. In the end, the professor overseeing my laparoscopy assessment nodded with approval, but I could sense that it was just a passable performance. I feel disappointed, considering how much effort I have been putting into studying the procedure. Since I have never practiced remote surgery back in my homeworld, laparoscopy on Earth posed some challenges.
After the assessment, I felt mentally and physically drained. My paws ached from having to maintain a steady position for a prolonged amount of time.
Walking out of the building, Johan patted my back. "You did great, Vani. Don't be too hard on yourself."
He reminded me that this was just the beginning of my studies and I still had a whole semester ahead of me to practice and learn.
The student overseeing my sample gathering said the same thing about exercising and decreasing my intake so I told them that I have begun doing the exercise, which they put into their note. Looking at my test result so far, I think it can be said with good confidence that a venlil can thrive on earth. After the next weekly check, the student said that we will decrease the frequency to monthly medical checks instead.
It did not free us up that much, since the assessment with an educational practitioner would still take place once a week.
Since we had to deliver the fluff best to its owners, we could not try the cooling vest that Mowww had made for me. But we made sure to set aside time today. The vest had been kept in a mini fridge in Johan's van to ensure the maximum cooling effect. Once I had the vest on, I could feel the difference right away. It helped me maintain a comfortable body temperature and increased my endurance up to a human level. Mowww had also given me a vest with a water pump. This method did not cool as much as the one with the temperature-constant polymer, but it can go on and on for two days before the battery need to be replaced. Perhaps this will be useful too one day.
All in all, despite the setback in the assessment, I am thankful for the humans and their willingness to help me adapt to this strange world.
2023.03.26 15:13 ePEwX TF2 wiki
Team Fortress 2 is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Valve Software as part of the game bundle The Orange Box. It was first released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on October 10, 2007. A PlayStation 3 version then followed on November 22, 2007. Following suit, it was released as a standalone title on April 9, 2008, and on June 10, 2010, Team Fortress 2 was released for Mac OS X. The PC and OS X versions of Team Fortress 2 adopted a "Free to Play" model on June 23, 2011, with all revenue being generated from microtransactions in the in-game Store. After several months of closed beta, Team Fortress 2 was finally released for Linux operating systems on February 14, 2013.
The game was first announced in 1998 as a sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake (a first-person shooter video game, developed by id Software), but has since been through various concept and design periods. In 1999, the game appeared to be abandoning the art styles of the original Team Fortress Classic by transitioning toward a more realistic and militaristic style of gameplay. However, the design continued evolving over the game's nine-year development period and game engine switch. The final art style rendition of Team Fortress 2 resembles that of the original Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic games, and also features a cartoon-like visual style based on the art of Dean Cornwell, J. C Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell. Team Fortress 2 followed a popular trend in CGI films at the time, in particular, films made by Pixar, such as The Incredibles.
The absence of media information or apparent development progress for six years of the game's development caused it to be labeled as vaporware, and it was regularly featured in the Wired News' annual vaporware list, among gaming news outlets. Since its release, however, the game has received critical acclaim and several awards.
Like its predecessors, Team Fortress 2 is centered around two opposing teams competing for an objective. These two teams are meant to represent a demolition and a construction company as a part of the backstory: Reliable Excavation Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU). Players can choose to play as one of nine classes in these teams, each with their unique strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and roles. Although the abilities of some classes have changed from earlier Team Fortress incarnations, the essential elements of each class have remained.
Team Fortress 2 is the first of Valve's multiplayer games to incorporate detailed statistics for players. These statistics include the time spent playing as each class, the average point score, and the most captures or objectives achieved in a single round. Persistent statistics tell the player how they are improving concerning these statistics, such as if a player comes close to their record for the damage inflicted in a round. Team Fortress 2 also features numerous achievements for carrying out certain tasks, such as scoring a certain number of kills or completing a round within a certain time. New sets of class-specific achievements were added in updates after the main release. These have added new abilities and weapons to each class once unlocked by the player. Unlocked achievements and statistics from previously played games are displayed on the player's Steam Community or Xbox LIVE profile page.
On the PC and OS X versions of Team Fortress 2, the initial release only included six official Valve maps, with several dozen more being added to the game over the years by Valve and the Team Fortress 2 community. On the console versions, however, these original six maps, all released by Valve, are still the only maps available. The official maps are commonly themed with an evil genius or retro-spy tech mentality, with secret bases that are concealed within industrial warehouses, as well as exaggerated super weapons such as laser cannons and missile launch facilities taking the role of objectives. During Halloween (called Scream Fortress) and Christmas (called Smissmas), several new maps are enabled that often feature Halloween and Christmas/winter themes respectively.
When players joins certain maps for the first time, an introductory video shows them how to complete map objectives. Map player limits are 24 on the PC and OS X, although the player limit has been altered on some servers to reach as high as 32, while the player limit on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is 16.
Team Fortress 2 shipped with three game modes: Capture the Flag, Control Point), and Territorial Control. Since the game's release, several new game modes have been added, such as Payload, Arena, and Mann vs. Machine. Several of these game modes feature both Valve-made and community-made maps. Several unused game modes have been discovered over the years.
Since the April 29, 2008 Patch, also known as the Gold Rush Update, the Loadout menu was introduced. This menu allowed the player to change their weapons and, with the introduction of cosmetic items in the Sniper vs. Spy Update, their cosmetic items (previously referred to as hats and miscellaneous items, or miscs) to change the appearance of their class.
In the Über Update, special taunts were added to the game as action slot items and were given their own loadout slot in the Love & War Update. Taunts allow players to perform certain animations, often used to taunt the enemy players after death. Some taunts are partner taunts, which allows two or more players to perform a taunt together (such as the Square Dance, which can be performed with one other player, and the Conga, which can be performed with many other players).
The Gun Mettle Update in 2015 introduced the Decorated quality, allowing players to customize the look of their weapons by applying different textures to them, later transitioning to the War Paint system with the Jungle Inferno Update in 2017.
Cosmetic items, taunts, and Decorated weapons can all feature special particle effects on them.
Walker and Cook were heavily influenced by their three-month contractual stint at Valve and began working full-time on their design, which was undergoing rapid metamorphosis. Team Fortress 2 was to be a modern war game, with a command hierarchy including a commander, with a bird's-eye view of the battlefield; parachute drops over enemy territory; networked voice communication; and numerous other innovations.
The new design was revealed to the public at the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) where it earned several awards including Best Online Game and Best Action Game. By this time Team Fortress 2 had gained a new subtitle, "Brotherhood of Arms", and the results of Walker and Cook working at Valve were becoming evident. Several new, and at the time, unprecedented technologies were on show: parametric animation; seamlessly blended animations for smoother, more life-like movement; and Intel's multi-resolution mesh technology dynamically reducing the detail of on-screen elements as they become more distant to improve performance (a technique made obsolete by decreasing memory costs, since today's games use a method known as level of detail, which employs more memory but less processing power. Team Fortress 2 has switched to this method as well). No release date was given at the exposition.
In mid-2000, Valve announced that Team Fortress 2's development had been delayed for a second time. They put the news down to development switching to an in-house, proprietary engine that is today known as the Source engine. It was at around this time that all news ran dry, and Team Fortress 2 entered its notorious six-year vaporware phase, which was to last until July 13, 2006. During that time, both Walker and Cook worked on various other Valve projects – Walker was project lead on Half-Life 2: Episode One and Cook became a Steam developer among other things – raising doubts that Team Fortress 2 was the active project that was being repeatedly described.
When the infamous Half-Life 2 source tree was leaked in late 2003, two Team Fortress 2 models were included along with the Team Fortress 2 source code – which was fully compilable. They consisted of an alien grunt and a very stylized, out-of-proportion human soldier. The code was interpreted by fans as making references to parts of the Half-Life backstory; however, the two leaked player models did not resemble any known style from the Half-Life series, leading many to think it was meant for Team Fortress 2.
The Source SDK was released with the Half-Life 2 source code, and also provided references to Team Fortress 2. Some code merely confirmed what was already believed, but other segments provided completely new information such as the presence of NPCs in multiplayer matches, the possibility of the game taking place in the Half-Life 2 universe, fixed plasma gun and missile launcher emplacements, and more.
None of the leaked information appears to have had any bearing on today's version of the game. This iteration was mentioned in an August 2007 interview with Gabe Newell by GameTrailers and a September 2010 interview with PC Gamer, in which he mentions "Invasion" as being the second phase of Team Fortress 2's development under Valve Software.
Walker revealed in March 2007 that Valve had quietly built "probably three to four different games" before settling on their final design. Due to the game's lengthy development cycle it was often mentioned alongside Duke Nukem Forever, another long-anticipated game that went through many years of protracted development and engine changes before being released.
The beta release of the game featured six multiplayer maps of which three contain optional commentary by the developers on game design, level design, character design, and provide more information on the history behind the development.
Team Fortress 2 does not attempt the realistic graphical approach used in other Valve games using the Source engine such as Half-Life 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Counter-Strike: Source. Rather, it uses a more stylized, cartoon-like approach "heavily influenced by early 20th century commercial illustrations". The effect is achieved using a unique Valve in-house rendering and lighting technique making extensive use of 'Phong shading'. The development commentary in the game suggests that part of the reason for the cartoonish style was the difficulty in explaining the maps and characters in realistic terms. The removal of an emphasis on realistic settings allows these questions to be sidestepped. The game debuts with the Source engine's new dynamic lighting, shadowing, and soft particle technologies, among many other unannounced features, alongside Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Team Fortress 2 was also the first game to implement the Source engine's new Facial Animation 3 features.
The art style of the game was inspired by J. C. Leyendecker, as well as Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell. Their distinctive styles of sharp silhouettes and shading to draw attention to specific details were adapted to make the models distinct, with a focus on making the characters' team, class, and current weapon easily identifiable. Silhouettes and animation are used to make the class of a character apparent even at range, and a color scheme that draws attention to the chest area brings focus to the selected weapon.
Maps are designed with a neutral space between two bases. They are archetypal spy fortresses but disguised as inconspicuous buildings to give plausibility to their close proximities. The maps have little visual clutter and stylized, almost impressionistic modeling, to allow enemies to be spotted more easily. The impressionistic design approach also affects textures, which are based on photos that are filtered and improved by hand, giving them a tactile quality and giving Team Fortress 2 its distinct look. The bases are designed to let players immediately know where they are. The RED base uses warm colors, natural materials, and angular shapes, while the BLU base uses cool colors, industrial materials, and orthogonal shapes.
A beta for Team Fortress 2 was released via Steam on September 17, 2007, for customers who pre-purchased The Orange Box and for those who activated their "Black Box" coupon, which was included with ATI HD 2900XT Graphics cards. In addition to The Orange Box customers, LAN gaming centers using the 'Steam for Cafe' system had the game installed and ready to play.
Team Fortress 2 was released October 10, 2007, as both a standalone product via Steam and at retail stores as part of The Orange Box – a game bundle pack priced at each gaming platform's standard price. The package also contains Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two. and Portal. Valve offered The Orange Box at a $5 discount for those who pre-purchased it via Steam before the October 10 release, as well as the opportunity to participate in the final beta test of Team Fortress 2. The game receives periodic, free updates that give the game new content, bug fixes, and additional features.
Team Fortress 2 became free-to-play on June 23rd, 2011 on Steam.
Awards
Team Fortress 2 has won several awards since its release. In its "Best of 2007" awards, IGN.com honored the game with an award for "Best Artistic Design" for the PC. Additionally, Team Fortress 2 received awards for "Best Multiplayer Experience (PC)," and "Best Artistic Direction (PC)" from 1UP.com in its 2007 editorial awards. The game also won "Best Multiplayer Game of the Year" both on the PC and on any platform in GameSpy's 2007 Game of the Year awards along with an award for "Most Unique Art Style."
Over the years, Team Fortress 2 has collaborated with several different games, companies, and communities to feature special crossover content such as weapons and cosmetic items. Some of these events include having Team Fortress 2 content shipped to the associated game, such as featuring one of the mercenaries, maps, or other content.
niger
submitted by ePEwX to copypasta [link] [comments]
The game was first announced in 1998 as a sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake (a first-person shooter video game, developed by id Software), but has since been through various concept and design periods. In 1999, the game appeared to be abandoning the art styles of the original Team Fortress Classic by transitioning toward a more realistic and militaristic style of gameplay. However, the design continued evolving over the game's nine-year development period and game engine switch. The final art style rendition of Team Fortress 2 resembles that of the original Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic games, and also features a cartoon-like visual style based on the art of Dean Cornwell, J. C Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell. Team Fortress 2 followed a popular trend in CGI films at the time, in particular, films made by Pixar, such as The Incredibles.
The absence of media information or apparent development progress for six years of the game's development caused it to be labeled as vaporware, and it was regularly featured in the Wired News' annual vaporware list, among gaming news outlets. Since its release, however, the game has received critical acclaim and several awards.
Like its predecessors, Team Fortress 2 is centered around two opposing teams competing for an objective. These two teams are meant to represent a demolition and a construction company as a part of the backstory: Reliable Excavation Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU). Players can choose to play as one of nine classes in these teams, each with their unique strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and roles. Although the abilities of some classes have changed from earlier Team Fortress incarnations, the essential elements of each class have remained.
Team Fortress 2 is the first of Valve's multiplayer games to incorporate detailed statistics for players. These statistics include the time spent playing as each class, the average point score, and the most captures or objectives achieved in a single round. Persistent statistics tell the player how they are improving concerning these statistics, such as if a player comes close to their record for the damage inflicted in a round. Team Fortress 2 also features numerous achievements for carrying out certain tasks, such as scoring a certain number of kills or completing a round within a certain time. New sets of class-specific achievements were added in updates after the main release. These have added new abilities and weapons to each class once unlocked by the player. Unlocked achievements and statistics from previously played games are displayed on the player's Steam Community or Xbox LIVE profile page.
Maps
Main article: List of mapsOn the PC and OS X versions of Team Fortress 2, the initial release only included six official Valve maps, with several dozen more being added to the game over the years by Valve and the Team Fortress 2 community. On the console versions, however, these original six maps, all released by Valve, are still the only maps available. The official maps are commonly themed with an evil genius or retro-spy tech mentality, with secret bases that are concealed within industrial warehouses, as well as exaggerated super weapons such as laser cannons and missile launch facilities taking the role of objectives. During Halloween (called Scream Fortress) and Christmas (called Smissmas), several new maps are enabled that often feature Halloween and Christmas/winter themes respectively.
When players joins certain maps for the first time, an introductory video shows them how to complete map objectives. Map player limits are 24 on the PC and OS X, although the player limit has been altered on some servers to reach as high as 32, while the player limit on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is 16.
Game modes
Main article: List of game modesTeam Fortress 2 shipped with three game modes: Capture the Flag, Control Point), and Territorial Control. Since the game's release, several new game modes have been added, such as Payload, Arena, and Mann vs. Machine. Several of these game modes feature both Valve-made and community-made maps. Several unused game modes have been discovered over the years.
Customization
Main article: CustomizationSince the April 29, 2008 Patch, also known as the Gold Rush Update, the Loadout menu was introduced. This menu allowed the player to change their weapons and, with the introduction of cosmetic items in the Sniper vs. Spy Update, their cosmetic items (previously referred to as hats and miscellaneous items, or miscs) to change the appearance of their class.
In the Über Update, special taunts were added to the game as action slot items and were given their own loadout slot in the Love & War Update. Taunts allow players to perform certain animations, often used to taunt the enemy players after death. Some taunts are partner taunts, which allows two or more players to perform a taunt together (such as the Square Dance, which can be performed with one other player, and the Conga, which can be performed with many other players).
The Gun Mettle Update in 2015 introduced the Decorated quality, allowing players to customize the look of their weapons by applying different textures to them, later transitioning to the War Paint system with the Jungle Inferno Update in 2017.
Cosmetic items, taunts, and Decorated weapons can all feature special particle effects on them.
Development
Origins
Originally developed as a freeware mod for Quake, Team Fortress 2 switched to the GoldSrc engine in 1998 after the development team of Team Fortress Software – consisting of Robin Walker and John Cook - was first contracted and employed by Valve. At the time, Team Fortress 2 was called Valve's Team Fortress. At the point of Team Fortress Software's acquisition, production moved up a notch, and the game was promoted to a standalone, retail product to tide fans over since, as well as time issues, much of the Team Fortress player base had purchased Half-Life solely in anticipation of the free release of Team Fortress 2. Work began on a simple port of the game which was released in 1999 as the free Team Fortress Classic. Notably, Team Fortress Classic was built entirely within the publicly available GoldSrc Software Development Kit (SDK) as an example to the community and industry of its flexibility.Walker and Cook were heavily influenced by their three-month contractual stint at Valve and began working full-time on their design, which was undergoing rapid metamorphosis. Team Fortress 2 was to be a modern war game, with a command hierarchy including a commander, with a bird's-eye view of the battlefield; parachute drops over enemy territory; networked voice communication; and numerous other innovations.
The new design was revealed to the public at the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) where it earned several awards including Best Online Game and Best Action Game. By this time Team Fortress 2 had gained a new subtitle, "Brotherhood of Arms", and the results of Walker and Cook working at Valve were becoming evident. Several new, and at the time, unprecedented technologies were on show: parametric animation; seamlessly blended animations for smoother, more life-like movement; and Intel's multi-resolution mesh technology dynamically reducing the detail of on-screen elements as they become more distant to improve performance (a technique made obsolete by decreasing memory costs, since today's games use a method known as level of detail, which employs more memory but less processing power. Team Fortress 2 has switched to this method as well). No release date was given at the exposition.
In mid-2000, Valve announced that Team Fortress 2's development had been delayed for a second time. They put the news down to development switching to an in-house, proprietary engine that is today known as the Source engine. It was at around this time that all news ran dry, and Team Fortress 2 entered its notorious six-year vaporware phase, which was to last until July 13, 2006. During that time, both Walker and Cook worked on various other Valve projects – Walker was project lead on Half-Life 2: Episode One and Cook became a Steam developer among other things – raising doubts that Team Fortress 2 was the active project that was being repeatedly described.
"Invasion" design
See also: InvasionWhen the infamous Half-Life 2 source tree was leaked in late 2003, two Team Fortress 2 models were included along with the Team Fortress 2 source code – which was fully compilable. They consisted of an alien grunt and a very stylized, out-of-proportion human soldier. The code was interpreted by fans as making references to parts of the Half-Life backstory; however, the two leaked player models did not resemble any known style from the Half-Life series, leading many to think it was meant for Team Fortress 2.
The Source SDK was released with the Half-Life 2 source code, and also provided references to Team Fortress 2. Some code merely confirmed what was already believed, but other segments provided completely new information such as the presence of NPCs in multiplayer matches, the possibility of the game taking place in the Half-Life 2 universe, fixed plasma gun and missile launcher emplacements, and more.
None of the leaked information appears to have had any bearing on today's version of the game. This iteration was mentioned in an August 2007 interview with Gabe Newell by GameTrailers and a September 2010 interview with PC Gamer, in which he mentions "Invasion" as being the second phase of Team Fortress 2's development under Valve Software.
Final design
The next significant public development occurred in the run up to Half-Life 2's 2004 release: Valve's Director of Marketing Doug Lombardi claimed that Team Fortress 2 was still in development and that information concerning it would come after Half-Life 2's release. This did not happen, nor was any news released after Lombardi's similar claim during an early interview regarding Half-Life 2: Episode One. Near the time of Episode One's release, Gabe Newell again claimed that news on Team Fortress 2 would be forthcoming – and this time it was. Team Fortress 2 was unveiled again a month later at the July 2006 EA Summer Showcase event.Walker revealed in March 2007 that Valve had quietly built "probably three to four different games" before settling on their final design. Due to the game's lengthy development cycle it was often mentioned alongside Duke Nukem Forever, another long-anticipated game that went through many years of protracted development and engine changes before being released.
The beta release of the game featured six multiplayer maps of which three contain optional commentary by the developers on game design, level design, character design, and provide more information on the history behind the development.
Team Fortress 2 does not attempt the realistic graphical approach used in other Valve games using the Source engine such as Half-Life 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Counter-Strike: Source. Rather, it uses a more stylized, cartoon-like approach "heavily influenced by early 20th century commercial illustrations". The effect is achieved using a unique Valve in-house rendering and lighting technique making extensive use of 'Phong shading'. The development commentary in the game suggests that part of the reason for the cartoonish style was the difficulty in explaining the maps and characters in realistic terms. The removal of an emphasis on realistic settings allows these questions to be sidestepped. The game debuts with the Source engine's new dynamic lighting, shadowing, and soft particle technologies, among many other unannounced features, alongside Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Team Fortress 2 was also the first game to implement the Source engine's new Facial Animation 3 features.
The art style of the game was inspired by J. C. Leyendecker, as well as Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell. Their distinctive styles of sharp silhouettes and shading to draw attention to specific details were adapted to make the models distinct, with a focus on making the characters' team, class, and current weapon easily identifiable. Silhouettes and animation are used to make the class of a character apparent even at range, and a color scheme that draws attention to the chest area brings focus to the selected weapon.
Maps are designed with a neutral space between two bases. They are archetypal spy fortresses but disguised as inconspicuous buildings to give plausibility to their close proximities. The maps have little visual clutter and stylized, almost impressionistic modeling, to allow enemies to be spotted more easily. The impressionistic design approach also affects textures, which are based on photos that are filtered and improved by hand, giving them a tactile quality and giving Team Fortress 2 its distinct look. The bases are designed to let players immediately know where they are. The RED base uses warm colors, natural materials, and angular shapes, while the BLU base uses cool colors, industrial materials, and orthogonal shapes.
Release
During the July 2006 Electronic Arts press conference, Valve revealed that Team Fortress 2 would ship as the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2: Episode Two. A conference trailer demonstrated the game's new graphical style was featuring all of the original Team Fortress classes, pointed towards a more lighthearted and whimsical visual style as opposed to the dark, somewhat more traditional, a military simulation that had initially been shown. Newell said that their goal was to create "the best looking and best-playing class-based multiplayer game".A beta for Team Fortress 2 was released via Steam on September 17, 2007, for customers who pre-purchased The Orange Box and for those who activated their "Black Box" coupon, which was included with ATI HD 2900XT Graphics cards. In addition to The Orange Box customers, LAN gaming centers using the 'Steam for Cafe' system had the game installed and ready to play.
Team Fortress 2 was released October 10, 2007, as both a standalone product via Steam and at retail stores as part of The Orange Box – a game bundle pack priced at each gaming platform's standard price. The package also contains Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two. and Portal. Valve offered The Orange Box at a $5 discount for those who pre-purchased it via Steam before the October 10 release, as well as the opportunity to participate in the final beta test of Team Fortress 2. The game receives periodic, free updates that give the game new content, bug fixes, and additional features.
Team Fortress 2 became free-to-play on June 23rd, 2011 on Steam.
Critical reception
Team Fortress 2 was very well received by critics and consumers alike. Charles Onyett of IGN awarded Team Fortress 2 an 8.9/10 praising the quirky graphics and fun atmosphere, but criticizing the lack of extra content, like bots, as well as the removal of class-specific Grenades which were one of the defining features of the original Team Fortress. By contrast, PC Gamer UK praised Team Fortress 2 for removing the Grenade, continuing to compliment Valve Software for the unique nature of each of the game's characters. Despite some mild criticism over map navigation and the Medic class, PC Gamer UK awarded the game 94%. X-Play awarded The Orange Box with its highest rating (5/5) with nothing but good things to say about Team Fortress 2. Review aggregation site Metacritic ranks Team Fortress 2 as having received "universal acclaim", with an average critic review of 92%, based on 12 reviews by game critic sites, and a 9.6/10 rating based on user ratings. As of January 21, 2008, The Orange Box has a GameRankings score of 96.2% on the Xbox 360, making it tied for the highest ranked Xbox 360 game and a score of 96.2% on the PC.Awards
Team Fortress 2 has won several awards since its release. In its "Best of 2007" awards, IGN.com honored the game with an award for "Best Artistic Design" for the PC. Additionally, Team Fortress 2 received awards for "Best Multiplayer Experience (PC)," and "Best Artistic Direction (PC)" from 1UP.com in its 2007 editorial awards. The game also won "Best Multiplayer Game of the Year" both on the PC and on any platform in GameSpy's 2007 Game of the Year awards along with an award for "Most Unique Art Style."
Promotional events
Main article: Promotional itemsOver the years, Team Fortress 2 has collaborated with several different games, companies, and communities to feature special crossover content such as weapons and cosmetic items. Some of these events include having Team Fortress 2 content shipped to the associated game, such as featuring one of the mercenaries, maps, or other content.
External links
- The archived Team Fortress 2 page at the official site of The Orange Box.
- The Orange Box
- Valve Software official site.
- The Official Team Fortress 2 Blog
- The Team Fortress 2 Game Hub on Steam.
- The Gold Rush Update (April 29, 2008)
- The Pyro Update (June 19, 2008)
- A Heavy Update (August 19, 2008 )
- The Scout Update (Febuary 24, 2009)
- The Sniper vs. Spy Update (May 21, 2009)
- Classless Update (August 13, 2009)
- Hallowe'en Special (October 29, 2009)
- WAR! Update (December 17, 2009)
- 119th Update (April 29, 2010)
- The Mac Update (June 10, 2010)
- The Engineer Update (July 8, 2010)
- The Mann-Conomy Update (September 30, 2010)
- Scream Fortress Update (October 27, 2010)
- Australian Christmas (December 17, 2010)
- The Hatless Update (April 14, 2011)
- The Replay Update (May 5, 2011)
- The Über Update (June 23, 2011)
- The Manniversary Update (October 13, 2011)
- Very Scary Halloween Special (October 27, 2011)
- Australian Christmas 2011 (December 15, 2011)
- Pyromania Update (June 27, 2012)
- Mann vs. Machine Update (August 15, 2012)
- Spectral Halloween Special (October 26, 2012)
- Mecha Update (December 20, 2012)
- Robotic Boogaloo Update (May 17, 2013)
- Two Cities Update (November 21, 2013)
- Smissmas 2013 (December 20, 2013)
- Love & War Update (June 18, 2014)
- Scream Fortress 2014 (October 29, 2014)
- End of the Line Update (December 8, 2014)
- Smissmas 2014 (December 22, 2014)
- Gun Mettle Update (July 2, 2015)
- Invasion Update (October 6, 2015)
- Scream Fortress 2015 (October 28, 2015)
- Tough Break Update (December 17th, 2015)
- Meet Your Match Update (July 7th, 2016)
- Scream Fortress 2016 (October 21, 2016)
- Smissmas 2016 (December 21, 2016)
- Jungle Inferno Update (October 20th, 2017)
- Scream Fortress 2017 (October 26th, 2017)
- Scream Fortress 2018 (October 19th, 2018)
- Scream Fortress 2019 (October 10th, 2019)
- Scream Fortress 2020 (October 1st, 2020)
- Scream Fortress 2021 (October 5th, 2021)
- Scream Fortress 2022 (October 5th, 2022)
niger
2023.03.26 15:12 alexlabib This goes to those in VIC Australia
Hi i want to own a few katanas but i live in Victoria and it looks like the looks like the laws are very strict here, i im passionate about this kind of stuff and i think its stupid that its illegal unless you are in a club or are approved by police, my main question is, is there a way i can ship katanas to my house without customs killing me for it i.e a store here i vic i can make a purchase or even NSW if/when i go there? Or if it can get detected in shipping im asking cause i love this hobby and the japanese culture and i dont want to jump through stupid hurdles to get a katana that i wont be able to display.
submitted by alexlabib to SWORDS [link] [comments]
2023.03.26 15:12 venusfootballice Wayfair Near Me Coupon Code
Visit this page for Wayfair Near Me Coupon Code. The website offers a wide selection of coupons, promo codes, and discount deals that are updated regularly, just visit the website to find the perfect one for you.
submitted by venusfootballice to EuphoryOffers [link] [comments]
2023.03.26 15:11 Sad-School571 STO? I'm confused
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if someone could tell me if we can still purchase bus tickets? I went on their web sites and there's a lost of places where it says I can, but when I went to the closest store they told me the STO hasn't sold tickets in years (its been well over 20 years since I last took the bus (a ticket was something like $1.05 loll)). I have to take the bus tomorrow and since its only for 1 bus ride, a day pass would be a waste of money.
I would call the STO but to be honest, calling people makes me very anxious and uncomfortable and if I can avoid calling I would really appreciate.
Thank you in advance 🙂
submitted by Sad-School571 to Gatineau [link] [comments]
I was wondering if someone could tell me if we can still purchase bus tickets? I went on their web sites and there's a lost of places where it says I can, but when I went to the closest store they told me the STO hasn't sold tickets in years (its been well over 20 years since I last took the bus (a ticket was something like $1.05 loll)). I have to take the bus tomorrow and since its only for 1 bus ride, a day pass would be a waste of money.
I would call the STO but to be honest, calling people makes me very anxious and uncomfortable and if I can avoid calling I would really appreciate.
Thank you in advance 🙂
2023.03.26 15:11 HumanShark560 How should a guy react/respond when a woman goes "uh, I have a bf" when he's GENUINELY trying to help? I'm losing patience with this...
I work in a female-majority workplace. Won't lie, 8/10 women here are objectively attractive. I'm the farthest thing from attractive but believe that acts of kindness are better than acts of apathy. I help out...but even at work I get the "uh, I have a bf" response, despite I would NEVER ask out a co-worker (I don't wanna lose my job, so she has as me. Period!). But now I'm sick that despite working here for 3 years now, only like 5% of my female coworkers see my attempts to help as legit. I'm sick of being assumed I'm just trying to get into their pants...as are many of the handful of male coworkers (the ones who don't get that response are handsome or gay). This even happens outside work like if a woman's grocery bags split open and her shit falls and I try to help (hey, I've been through that too).
Nobody likes negative assumptions about who they are. And just yesterday I almost dropped a mountain of papers in front of a coworker who went "Btw, I know you're actively trying to date, but I have a bf so don't get any ideas". Like...how many times must I say how I'd never date a coworker out of fear of losing my job?! Only ONE of my coworkers is willing to defend me and she's GAY. she didn't even go "Uh, I'm gay btw" when we first met. She just returned that kindness and how we're basically siblings.
How should I react....cuz I'm on the verge of just stopping whatever I'm doing to help (unless my boss tells me to) and going "I don't care! I don't even like u as a person either! Screw u, have fun picking up this heavy [insert object noun].". I don't want to be an ass....but am running out of patience!
submitted by HumanShark560 to AskWomenNoCensor [link] [comments]
Nobody likes negative assumptions about who they are. And just yesterday I almost dropped a mountain of papers in front of a coworker who went "Btw, I know you're actively trying to date, but I have a bf so don't get any ideas". Like...how many times must I say how I'd never date a coworker out of fear of losing my job?! Only ONE of my coworkers is willing to defend me and she's GAY. she didn't even go "Uh, I'm gay btw" when we first met. She just returned that kindness and how we're basically siblings.
How should I react....cuz I'm on the verge of just stopping whatever I'm doing to help (unless my boss tells me to) and going "I don't care! I don't even like u as a person either! Screw u, have fun picking up this heavy [insert object noun].". I don't want to be an ass....but am running out of patience!
2023.03.26 15:11 123amcdbx AITA for telling a rude store clerk that she, not the customer, was the one with the attitude problem, and reported them to their manager?
Yesterday I was at the supermarket and was in line for the service desk. There was a promotion going on where if you purchased specific items on a preset list, you would receive a discount from your order.
In front of me in line was this elderly woman who thought she had purchased all the items on the list, but did not receive the discount, so she wanted clarification on what she did not do correctly. She reviewed the list with the store clerk, who told her that she purchased the wrong flavor of juice, and would need to return it. The woman asked the clerk, because she was 80 years old, if she or someone else could go and switch out the item for her and then recalculate her order, so she could get the discount.
I heard the entire encounter. I saw no issue with how the customer was speaking, and saw nothing unreasonable about her request, but it set off the store clerk, who went on an angry tirade. She said "You are giving me an attitude, I have worked in this store for 20 years, I am not here to exchange your items for you, all I am here to do is tell you why you did not get the discount, I will not help you if you have an attitude" and the elderly woman said "This is no way to treat someone of my age, I am 80 years old" and she stormed off.
I told the store clerk that she, in fact, was the person with the attitude and that she was incredibly rude to the woman and dismissive of her perfectly reasonable request, and that it was disgraceful to speak to someone of that age rudely who had not done anything wrong, and then I reported it to the store manager.
When I told this story to my family, they said I should have stayed out of the situation and escalated it and that I was wrong. AITA?
submitted by 123amcdbx to AmItheAsshole [link] [comments]
In front of me in line was this elderly woman who thought she had purchased all the items on the list, but did not receive the discount, so she wanted clarification on what she did not do correctly. She reviewed the list with the store clerk, who told her that she purchased the wrong flavor of juice, and would need to return it. The woman asked the clerk, because she was 80 years old, if she or someone else could go and switch out the item for her and then recalculate her order, so she could get the discount.
I heard the entire encounter. I saw no issue with how the customer was speaking, and saw nothing unreasonable about her request, but it set off the store clerk, who went on an angry tirade. She said "You are giving me an attitude, I have worked in this store for 20 years, I am not here to exchange your items for you, all I am here to do is tell you why you did not get the discount, I will not help you if you have an attitude" and the elderly woman said "This is no way to treat someone of my age, I am 80 years old" and she stormed off.
I told the store clerk that she, in fact, was the person with the attitude and that she was incredibly rude to the woman and dismissive of her perfectly reasonable request, and that it was disgraceful to speak to someone of that age rudely who had not done anything wrong, and then I reported it to the store manager.
When I told this story to my family, they said I should have stayed out of the situation and escalated it and that I was wrong. AITA?
2023.03.26 15:11 seeldoger47 [H] $500 Amazon [W] 80% Western Union, 90% PayPal [H] Cash App, Crypto, Chime, Apple Pay, or Venmo [W] 80% Western Union Apple, Amazon (CA, Com, DE, ES, FR, IT, UK), B&N, Dunkin, eBay, Grub Hub, Gyft, iTunes, JCPenney, Microsoft, PSN, Steam, Target, Uber, Walmart, Xbox + more
You can download the WesternUnion app and send the payment from your phone.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
- Type of card(s) and amount of each.
- What payment method you accept.
- How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.
| Want ↓ | Cash or a Gift Card ↓ | BTC ↓ |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 60%4 | NA |
| Amazon.ca | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.co.uk | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.com | 70% | 55% |
| Amazon.de | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.es | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.fr | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.it | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.jp | 30% | 30% |
| Arrow Films | 65% | 60% |
| Barnes & Noble | 50% | 50% |
| Baskin Robbins | 60% | 60% |
| Best Buy | 60% | 60% |
| BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4 | 60% | NA |
| Bloomingdales | 50% | 50% |
| Burger King4 | 60% | NA |
| Clothing Shops (Small Boutique) | contact me | contact me |
| Dell4 | 60% | NA |
| Delta gift cards4 | 65% | NA |
| Delta Sky Miles4 | PM me | NA |
| Delta Vouchers4 | 65% | NA |
| Dicks Sporting Goods 4 | PM me | NA |
| Disney Plus | PM me | PM me |
| DoorDash | 70%6 | NA |
| Dunkin Donuts4 | 60% | NA |
| eBay | 70% | 70% |
| Fandango4 | 10% | NA |
| Five Guys4 | 60% | NA |
| Gamestop | 60% | 60% |
| Gas Station Cards4 | PM me | NA |
| Grub Hub | 70%6 | NA |
| Gyft | 70% | 70% |
| Half Price Books | 50% | 50% |
| HBO4 | 70% | NA |
| iTunes4 | 60% | NA |
| J crew | 40% | 40% |
| JCPenney | 25% | 25% |
| Jersey Mike Subs4 | 60% | NA |
| KFC4 | 60% | NA |
| Khols | 30% | 30% |
| Macys | 35% | 35% |
| Magazines.com | 40% | 40% |
| McDonald's 4 | 60% | NA |
| Microsoft6 | 60% | NA |
| Moe’s Southwestern Grill4 | 60% | NA |
| Nintendo Eshop6 | 70% | NA |
| Nordstrom | 50% | 50% |
| Panera bread4 | 60% | NA |
| PSN6 | 60 | NA |
| PSN Plus 12 month4 | NA | NA |
| Saks Fifth Avenue | 50% | 50% |
| Sears | 50% | 50% |
| Sephora | 50% | 50% |
| Speedway4 | 80% | NA |
| Starbucks | 55% | 55% |
| Steam6 | 60% | NA |
| Subway 4 | PM me | NA |
| Taco Bell | 60% | NA |
| Target | 50% | 50% |
| Uber6 | 70% | NA |
| Urban Outfitters | 50% | 50% |
| Vudu4 | 50% | NA |
| Walmart | 60% | 60% |
| Wendys4 | 60% | NA |
| Xbox (gift cards)6 | 60% | NA |
| Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6 | PM me | NA |
| Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards | PM me |
What I don’t buy:
Any fees are built into the price.
- Amazon.au
- Bass Pro Shop
- buffalo wild wing
- Canadian tire
- Cold Stone
- Dairy Queen
- Fanatics
- Google Play
- Hilton Honors
- Hot Topic
- iTunes from anywhere but the US
- Krispy Kreme
- old navy/gap/banana republic
- Patxi's pizza
- PSN Canada or UK
- publix
- Raceway
- Scheels
- Shell Gas Stations
- Spotify
- Tractor supply
- Xbox Canada or UK
- Xbox live gold
Selling
I have:$500 in Amazon (can be broken up) and am selling at
- 80%: WesternUnion
- 85%: btc
- 90%: Apple Pay, Chime, or PayPal
2023.03.26 15:11 Chris-911 Father is getting divorced at 66 and he wants me to buyout his ex-partner out of our family home
I'm in a situation in which I don't know what to do, I'll try and bullet point to make it easier to understand:
• He's 66 and been married for 17 years • His ex-partner wants a divorce and as the marriage is over 15 years, she is (according to a solicitor) entitled to around 50% the value of the house (3 bed semi detached with value around £200k) • The house has been with my father and his father. It's our family home
• He doesn't want to move out and wants to keep the home and has said I should take a loan/ mortgage out for half the value of the house to buyout his soon to be ex wife, meaning in the future when my father eventually passes, the house will pass onto me. • I'm 29, a single father of two and currently rent a flat and have my children every weekend. • I don't think I'd be able to comfortably afford a large loan and rent at the same time meaning I'd have to move back in with him, have my children there at weekends.
It's a situation I don't really want to be in when I'm nearly 30 if I'm honest. I like living on my own but I'm well aware this would be a very good investment for my future and families future. At the same time I'm angry it's being taken away due to a marriage ending and she hasn't actually paid a penny towards to mortgage as it was paid off before they got married.
Can anyone advise me on how to proceed? Or if my father has a more sensible way to handle this that we haven't thought of.
submitted by Chris-911 to UKPersonalFinance [link] [comments]
• He's 66 and been married for 17 years • His ex-partner wants a divorce and as the marriage is over 15 years, she is (according to a solicitor) entitled to around 50% the value of the house (3 bed semi detached with value around £200k) • The house has been with my father and his father. It's our family home
• He doesn't want to move out and wants to keep the home and has said I should take a loan/ mortgage out for half the value of the house to buyout his soon to be ex wife, meaning in the future when my father eventually passes, the house will pass onto me. • I'm 29, a single father of two and currently rent a flat and have my children every weekend. • I don't think I'd be able to comfortably afford a large loan and rent at the same time meaning I'd have to move back in with him, have my children there at weekends.
It's a situation I don't really want to be in when I'm nearly 30 if I'm honest. I like living on my own but I'm well aware this would be a very good investment for my future and families future. At the same time I'm angry it's being taken away due to a marriage ending and she hasn't actually paid a penny towards to mortgage as it was paid off before they got married.
Can anyone advise me on how to proceed? Or if my father has a more sensible way to handle this that we haven't thought of.
2023.03.26 15:11 seeldoger47 [H] $500 Amazon GCs [W] 80% Western Union, 90% PayPal [H] Cash App, Crypto, Apple Pay, or Venmo [W] All Your Gift Cards
You can download the WesternUnion app and send the payment from your phone.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
- Type of card(s) and amount of each.
- What payment method you accept.
- How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.
| Want ↓ | Cash or a Gift Card ↓ | BTC ↓ |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 60%4 | NA |
| Amazon.ca | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.co.uk | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.com | 70% | 55% |
| Amazon.de | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.es | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.fr | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.it | 50% | 50% |
| Amazon.jp | 30% | 30% |
| Arrow Films | 65% | 60% |
| Barnes & Noble | 50% | 50% |
| Baskin Robbins | 60% | 60% |
| Best Buy | 60% | 60% |
| BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4 | 60% | NA |
| Bloomingdales | 50% | 50% |
| Burger King4 | 60% | NA |
| Clothing Shops (Small Boutique) | contact me | contact me |
| Dell4 | 60% | NA |
| Delta gift cards4 | 65% | NA |
| Delta Sky Miles4 | PM me | NA |
| Delta Vouchers4 | 65% | NA |
| Dicks Sporting Goods 4 | PM me | NA |
| Disney Plus | PM me | PM me |
| DoorDash | 70%6 | NA |
| Dunkin Donuts4 | 60% | NA |
| eBay | 70% | 70% |
| Fandango4 | 10% | NA |
| Five Guys4 | 60% | NA |
| Gamestop | 60% | 60% |
| Gas Station Cards4 | PM me | NA |
| Grub Hub | 70%6 | NA |
| Gyft | 70% | 70% |
| Half Price Books | 50% | 50% |
| HBO4 | 70% | NA |
| iTunes4 | 60% | NA |
| J crew | 40% | 40% |
| JCPenney | 25% | 25% |
| Jersey Mike Subs4 | 60% | NA |
| KFC4 | 60% | NA |
| Khols | 30% | 30% |
| Macys | 35% | 35% |
| Magazines.com | 40% | 40% |
| McDonald's 4 | 60% | NA |
| Microsoft6 | 60% | NA |
| Moe’s Southwestern Grill4 | 60% | NA |
| Nintendo Eshop6 | 70% | NA |
| Nordstrom | 50% | 50% |
| Panera bread4 | 60% | NA |
| PSN6 | 60 | NA |
| PSN Plus 12 month4 | NA | NA |
| Saks Fifth Avenue | 50% | 50% |
| Sears | 50% | 50% |
| Sephora | 50% | 50% |
| Speedway4 | 80% | NA |
| Starbucks | 55% | 55% |
| Steam6 | 60% | NA |
| Subway 4 | PM me | NA |
| Taco Bell | 60% | NA |
| Target | 50% | 50% |
| Uber6 | 70% | NA |
| Urban Outfitters | 50% | 50% |
| Vudu4 | 50% | NA |
| Walmart | 60% | 60% |
| Wendys4 | 60% | NA |
| Xbox (gift cards)6 | 60% | NA |
| Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6 | PM me | NA |
| Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards | PM me |
What I don’t buy:
Any fees are built into the price.
- Amazon.au
- Bass Pro Shop
- buffalo wild wing
- Canadian tire
- Cold Stone
- Dairy Queen
- Fanatics
- Google Play
- Hilton Honors
- Hot Topic
- iTunes from anywhere but the US
- Krispy Kreme
- old navy/gap/banana republic
- Patxi's pizza
- PSN Canada or UK
- publix
- Raceway
- Scheels
- Shell Gas Stations
- Spotify
- Tractor supply
- Xbox Canada or UK
- Xbox live gold
Selling
I have:$500 in Amazon (can be broken up) and am selling at
- 80%: WesternUnion
- 85%: btc
- 90%: Apple Pay, Chime, or PayPal