Gear cleanout! When two UL hikers fall in love and buy a duplex, it's hard to justify keeping around a couple of solo tents. Plus selling my old custom Atom+ pack. Open to offers!
All prices include CONUS shipping and PayPal G&S fees.
Tarptent Aeon Li: $300 OBO pictures
Bought used from another user on UL in 2020, she had only used it a few nights after buying new but her dog had torn the mesh in a desperate attempt to leave the tent. Repairs were done before I got it but overall it's in great shape. Repairs pictured, no other flaws that I could find. Still has a slight smell of dog. Slept in maybe... 30 nights total? Comes with stakes.
Solplex: $150 OBO pictures
This tent was a 2017 AT thru hike tent and did another season as a ridgerunner tent. It is well used, probably 250 nights, condition matches that. Mesh separation in corners (pictured), bathtub bottom not very waterproof, some pinholes throughout but it is still functional. Does not come with stakes.
Atom+ custom pack: $150 OBO pictures
Custom ordered in 2020, used maybe... 45 days total? Overall great pack with nice suspension system, I just don't pull it out to use it as often. I had the straps custom made a 1/2" more narrow than standard. It's 35L with front stretch pocket, bottom pocket, two strap pockets and a hipbelt with power stretch pockets. Not sure if that feature is still offered, he was testing it at the time and I had to beg for him to include it. Great if you hate normal hipbelt pockets. No tears or holes I could find, overall excellent condition.
The only issue I want to note, I was over-enthusiastic trimming the shoulder strap webbing (pictured). If you're small busted like me it should be fine, anyone a little more buff or busty should expect to have to add new/more webbing. Dropped the price a little to account for this. Full description of fabric/add ons from ordered in album.

Hi all,
I am 25 year old M (Indian ethnicity), I've moved to Australia 7 years back, and have studied really hard and have been working full-time since last three years and was working part-time while studying as well.
I've recently gone through a pretty bad heartbreak whom I thought was love of my life. We met online on a matrimonial site and both fell in love and after 6 months of virtual relationship, I finally went back home and met her and the date was the most magical date ever (her words not mine). Few days later, she broke up with me as she said she hadn't moved on from her last relationship (after telling me that she loves me to death and has moved on from her ex and wants to marry me).
I don't want to sound like someone who objectifies women but it recently hit me after this relationship that I'm a loser because I've never got laid, I was okay with it till now but now I just feel like a loser because everyone around me by my age has.
I'd like to believe and have been told I'm attractive looking, I've tried dating apps before the aforementioned relationship, and have about 90 matches out of which a couple converted in to dates and out of which two of them made out with me (but didn't have sex) and then ghosted me.
I see women as humans and treat them like I'd treat any person, so there is no nervousness or anything. I am pretty confident and I'd like to believe I'm charming even, and have tried my best to put myself forward and haven't been afraid of rejection, but all that still hasn't gotten me laid, not that it should be an objective to get laid, but being a 25 year old who has never organically landed to be intimate with a women by society standards and definition is a failure and loser.
I feel at such a loss to have not experienced that innocent body exploration and making love that everything else that I've achieved in life, a good career, permanent residency in a first world country, leadership achievements as a student, my standup comedy shows across the country feels like a waste.
How do I escape this? Why after my best efforts of loving, being respectful and successful in every other aspect have I still not landed in an intimate setting with a woman apart from kissing?
I just feel so worthless because of this, that I feel like giving up my life rather than live with this fact.

If you’re married,single or simple a couple feel free to message me here or on other platforms. Looking forward to hearing from all my lovely couples and matches!

Hey folks,
I recently discovered Bogleheads -- it's been a super helpful resource and I'm making my way through the various book recommendations. No one in my family has pursued investing/higher education/finance etc before so this is brand new to me - appreciate everyone's patience!
I had a couple of questions I was hoping to get insight on --
Hypothetical -- I'm in my early 30s and just opened a Roth IRA and also an employer-based Roth 403(b). I'm doing the Roth because my tax bracket currently is the lowest it will be (rock bottom haha).
Question #1: Roth IRA (VT vs VTI/VXUS)
For my Roth IRA -- it seems many posts say VT vs VTI/VXUS. It looks like the choice is based on whether the funds go into a tax advantaged account vs. tax-deferred. My understanding is the Roth IRA is a ....tax -advantaged account right? So in this scenario, there's no tax advantage on VT vs VTI/VXUS. -- I was going to go with VTI/VXUS because of the greater # of companies covered.
Question #2: Roth Employer based 403b (with 2% match)
I picked a Vanguard target date fund. There is a finite number of selections that I am able to pick from. To confirm, this is a tax-advantaged account also right?
​
Let me know if you have any thoughts about the above plan!
Basically my plan (based on reading Bogleheads) is:

1. Roth IRA - VTI/VXUS
2. Roth 403b - Vanguard target date fund

In the past few hours, never mind days, I've seen plenty of love and hate about modern controls, plenty of people are saying that they are cheap and should be limited to M v M matches instead of also matching with Classic controls, with the inclusion of an auto combo button being overpowered for people new to the game trying to play with classic, although I can see why this is annoying, I believe auto combos and modern controls are a necessity nowadays, the idea to new players that they have to learn complicated inputs to use basic attacks is unappealing especially if they're going to get annihilated by another player in ranked who has had way more experience.
Personally I have no issue with modern controls and love them due to the fact that now my friends and family actually can and want to play a fighting game because the learning curve has been significantly reduced.
Auto combos in other games have not seen nearly as much backlash in my opinion, Dragon ball fighterz being a prime example.
The thought of zangeif being able to do a single button command grab is terrifying, and I was annihilated by grapplers in my first couple of ranked matches due to this, but with time like most fighting games I've managed to adapt to these players.
Adaptation is what I believe is key, we haven't adapted to modern controls because we haven't seen modern controls like this before, and although it benefits many casual fighters, it puts some players at a disadvantage but I believe with time, things will get better, maybe via patches or just adapting but I don't think Modern Controls should be getting as much hate as they are.
TLDR: Modern controls good, just give it time

Nice to meet you reader!
I'm a 25 year old descriptive male. Hoping to find a descriptive female partner for a long-term roleplay. I play for about 10 years now and always try and write detailed paragraphs, so my partner has something to work with.
My prompt ideas:
-- driving instructo student-- I had recently turned 17, which meant I could legally learn how to drive a car on public roads. But my parents were working all the time so they decided to subscribe me in a driving school.. Once I got there, I was surprised that you were my instructor, I mean.. I had to try to keep my eyes on the road instead of on your body..
We can still work out together where this prompt will lead too. Will it lead to sneaky sex in a public parking lot? Maybe some extra hours after the lesson in the main building or maybe I could trick you into exchanging numbers so this would eventually lead to us sexting? Whatever you desire..
--nurse /teenager (19)-- During a football match I had torn a muscle in my upper thigh. The doctors had to do a surgery to get it to function again. I had a long recovery planned at home. Obviously I couldn't move my leg, which meant I was barely mobile.. A nurse would come everyday for a couple of hours to take care of the wound and make me do some exercises to Gain a little bit of mobility back. After a couple of days she saw that my eyes got drawn to her chest quite often... Maybe she would massage up high on my thigh? Or she could plan me as last visit for the next day without telling me, just to give me some extra hours. Maybe she would sneakily glance at my cock too. Who knows?
-cousins go on Holliday with my parents--
My parents and I yearly go on a winter Holliday trip. This was a trip that we did with the car, to drive 12 hours through the night to reach our hotel in the mountains. But this year was different, my favorite cousin was coming with us! Your parents dropped you off the night we would hit the road, my mouth immediately fell right open as i saw how mature you had become. You changed into a real woman this year, as I had not seen you in quite a while.. On the trip mom would sleep most of the way as dad would drive with some music on to keep his head clear. We would sit in the back of the suv, that was filled with blankets and pillows.(we could have done things already in the past or not). During the night I couldn't sleep as I crawled upto you resting my head on your 2 big soft pillows. Making me quite hard in my thin shorts while I was almost falling asleep....
Bonus points if you would like to play as a caring figure and would have big natural boobs
These ideas are still open for twists and turns, so definately add your own ideas if you'd like to!
You can find me on kik at Jesse.123h Or discord at Jesse H#2897
Pur some effort into your message please, if you have a kink list you can share it if you want. I hope to hear from you soon! 😉 (all roles including mine are 18+)

I’ve been doing embedded software for maybe 9 months now. Thing is, my current position is ad hoc. I have the qualifications (well, a CS degree) so my company gave me the project rather than outsource it. My prior position was Engineering Technician.
The next couple paragraphs are just about what I do.
I made my company a product using TTL and RF comms. I prototyped the project on a raspberry pi with Python that operated in O(n) and had variable memory costs. I made a final version with Arduino in C, I tweaked the algorithm for more up-front memory usage but it operates in O(1) and the memory usage isn’t variable.
It’s a real-time operating system. One end has a printer and a button. The other end has a keypad and uses an opto-isolator as a relay. I even had to design a multi-purpose PCB in kicad which I’ve never done before using all the bells and whistles.
Admittedly, it’s a simple system, but Im really proud of it. I had no knowledge of these systems beforehand, I taught myself everything for this project beyond basic knowledge of C. I’ve barely had real professional coding experience before this beyond debugging and normal programming, here I’ve made an entire system architecture. It came out great but sadly there’s no patent I can put my name on. The project is basically over so I’m trying to leave this company.
Here’s where it circles back around to the topic.
This isn’t my field. I’m not even sure what my field is. I got a computer science degree, had an internship that involved debugging a three-language localized platform, and since then haven’t had much coding experience for a few years beyond some basic Python data processing.
I don’t know how to advertise what I’ve been doing. I don’t know what people on this field are looking for. I didn’t even know I’ve been doing Embedded Software until I researched jobs that might match my experience. My job title only changed once I found that out and asked my bosses to change it to help me look for new work.
I’ve been looking for 3 months and haven’t gotten a single bite. I have 3 months left to find work and I don’t know what to do. I want to do more of this, I’d even love to do it in my free time, but I have no idea what to do to make myself sound like someone worth hiring. Could anyone offer advise on how to market my experience in this field?
Is my experience worth anything, or should I give up and just try to pursue software engineering? I’ve had trouble finding work there too, since I have no database experience. I’m 3 years out of college and have comparably low experience in my field vs other candidates.

Intro

I wanna make a post for people to read that isn't too boring, long / short, or cheesy as I have a habit of talking about my emotions + feelings when it comes to this sort of thing, that's mostly what I talked about in my last post... I'm hoping I can get at least someone's attention by writing the right and necessary words on this subreddit... So, where to begin?
I guess I'll start with what I'm looking for in terms of dating. A fresh, warm, healthy and positive long-term relationship is what I've been craving for the last 4¼ years (after getting a taste of it 4¼ years ago then it was instantly taken away), not as in desperate or obsessed with it, more as in yearning for that right person to come along and bring sunshine to my life for the first time in a very long time. Someone who'll accept me for who I am and not care about what I have / don't have, someone who'll understand and accept my insecurities and flaws, not to mention me doing the same for her as well. I wanna have that happy and bright future with that special someone, similar to all the couples I see on Instagram who laugh, joke, tease each other, flirt, do fun activities together both indoors and outdoors, purchase matching items for them to wear and hold dear, hold hands... I want the dream.
However, I do understand that relationships need time to form and grow in a healthy and positive way, so maybe we could get to know each other first and see where things lead?

Personality (100% the truth)

As you might have guessed, I am a hard core introvert. Although I get along with people irl; I briefly chat to them by saying the usual "hello" or "alright?", I then usually keep to myself from them most times to avoid feeling ignored / unimportant / irrelevant in their eyes. This is because I'm not that great at socialising in public places like the club or anywhere else, and also due to the fact that I feel extremely shy whilst meeting new people. However, if others ARE willing to get to know me and want me in their presence, I will perk up and be quite a confident individual once enough time passes :)
Other things you should know about me is that I'm extremely loyal and will never hurt the people I love and hold dear, no matter what. I care too much about the people in my life, including family, and I also will never let them down or disappoint them in any way.
Just a little fun fact about me, my zodiac sign is Cancer ♋️🦀 for those of you who are interested and if that matters to you at all. This is related to what I've just written above in the second and fourth paragraphs.

Hobbies

I'm an indoor type of person. I like:
•Watching TV shows like Doctor Who when new episodes come out, The Simpsons and Hollyoaks 5 days a week, and binging on a ton of movies.
•Listening to music pretty much every single day as I'm a huge HUGE fan of it.
•Gaming on PC games such as GTA, Red Dead, and Minecraft.
•I may stay indoors most of the time, but I DO also enjoy doing outdoor activities like spending my days out in places in the UK like Scarborough, Blackpool, Hornsea and Withernsea. I'm going to a place named Filey late next month so hopefully I'll get to take a load of pics to show you if you're interested :)
•I'm also interested in Photography, taking stunning photos both indoors and outdoors to store and save for later. Wildlife, sea life and everything else in between is what I'm most interested in :)
•Playing different sports such as Badminton, Bowling, Cricket, Dodgeball, Tennis and Volleyball on the beach are activities I really enjoy doing, but I haven't played them recently thanks to a lack of others playing them with me.
•Gardening and working with plants is something that really fascinates me, planting and watching plants of all shapes and sizes grow is everything I've wanted to do since my late high school days. Also getting a bit of sunshine on my neck in the summer does me some good lol.
•I occasionally like doing artistic activities like card making, paper crafting, drawing and painting, but only on special occasions.
•I also like to read from time to time.

Physical Appearance

My appearance is quite normal:
•I'm 5'8 in height (1.73 m)
•Eye colour is dark blue 💙
•I've got quite the decent body shape
•I have no tattoos but I'm considering getting a few in the future
•I've got a small amount of facial hair
•I've got quite a lot of dark brown hair on the top of my head but keep it in control most times with hairspray
•I've got an average to slightly above average face imo (pics can be exchanged if you're interested in knowing what I look like)
•I'm healthy with no health conditions or concerns
•I wear normal clothes such as buttoned t-shirts, hoodies / denim jackets, jeans / tracksuit bottoms, and leather jackets in colder weather.
•I also have a balanced diet as I go grocery shopping at least once a week. I shower 7 days a week and I brush 🪥 everyday too.

Important Topic to Cover

I'm not gonna mention what my source of income is because I don't want anyone to message me just because of that, like so many people have done before.

Preferences In You

I don't have many tbh. Just as long as you
•Live in the UK, or at least in different countries that are close to the UK like Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, France, or perhaps even The Netherlands, since all have shorter time-zone differences to the ones in the UK which will make it so much easier to chat at similar times (but you can message me wherever you are on the globe)
•Don't smoke or do drugs
•My age limit is between 18-23, but people that are past that age range can also message me.
•I'm not religious, by any means, but I don't mind dating people who are.
•Come as you are, no sugar coating, be real, be genuine. 🚫No NSFW content please🚫, that's all I ask.
It looks like the Reddit chat is finally redeeming itself by not glitching out every 5 seconds and sending messages to one another on time, so feel free to message me wherever you feel most comfortable on :D

Outro

Welp, this is me signing off and seeing what happens now. If you've read this far, then I appreciate you for taking the time out of your schedule to read my post all the way through :) I hope you have a nice rest of your day 🙏🏻👋🏻 Come say Hi if you're feeling up to it! :)

Intro

I wanna make a post for people to read that isn't too boring, long / short, or cheesy as I have a habit of talking about my emotions + feelings when it comes to this sort of thing, that's mostly what I talked about in my last post... I'm hoping I can get at least someone's attention by writing the right and necessary words on this subreddit... So, where to begin?
I guess I'll start with what I'm looking for in terms of dating. A fresh, warm, healthy and positive long-term relationship is what I've been craving for the last 4¼ years (after getting a taste of it 4¼ years ago then it was instantly taken away), not as in desperate or obsessed with it, more as in yearning for that right person to come along and bring sunshine to my life for the first time in a very long time. Someone who'll accept me for who I am and not care about what I have / don't have, someone who'll understand and accept my insecurities and flaws, not to mention me doing the same for her as well. I wanna have that happy and bright future with that special someone, similar to all the couples I see on Instagram who laugh, joke, tease each other, flirt, do fun activities together both indoors and outdoors, purchase matching items for them to wear and hold dear, hold hands... I want the dream.
However, I do understand that relationships need time to form and grow in a healthy and positive way, so maybe we could get to know each other first and see where things lead?

Personality (100% the truth)

As you might have guessed, I am a hard core introvert. Although I get along with people irl; I briefly chat to them by saying the usual "hello" or "alright?", I then usually keep to myself from them most times to avoid feeling ignored / unimportant / irrelevant in their eyes. This is because I'm not that great at socialising in public places like the club or anywhere else, and also due to the fact that I feel extremely shy whilst meeting new people. However, if others ARE willing to get to know me and want me in their presence, I will perk up and be quite a confident individual once enough time passes :)
Other things you should know about me is that I'm extremely loyal and will never hurt the people I love and hold dear, no matter what. I care too much about the people in my life, including family, and I also will never let them down or disappoint them in any way.
Just a little fun fact about me, my zodiac sign is Cancer ♋️🦀 for those of you who are interested and if that matters to you at all. This is related to what I've just written above in the second and fourth paragraphs.

Hobbies

I'm an indoor type of person. I like:
•Watching TV shows like Doctor Who when new episodes come out, The Simpsons and Hollyoaks 5 days a week, and binging on a ton of movies.
•Listening to music pretty much every single day as I'm a huge HUGE fan of it.
•Gaming on PC games such as GTA, Red Dead, and Minecraft.
•I may stay indoors most of the time, but I DO also enjoy doing outdoor activities like spending my days out in places in the UK like Scarborough, Blackpool, Hornsea and Withernsea. I'm going to a place named Filey late next month so hopefully I'll get to take a load of pics to show you if you're interested :)
•I'm also interested in Photography, taking stunning photos both indoors and outdoors to store and save for later. Wildlife, sea life and everything else in between is what I'm most interested in :)
•Playing different sports such as Badminton, Bowling, Cricket, Dodgeball, Tennis and Volleyball on the beach are activities I really enjoy doing, but I haven't played them recently thanks to a lack of others playing them with me.
•Gardening and working with plants is something that really fascinates me, planting and watching plants of all shapes and sizes grow is everything I've wanted to do since my late high school days. Also getting a bit of sunshine on my neck in the summer does me some good lol.
•I occasionally like doing artistic activities like card making, paper crafting, drawing and painting, but only on special occasions.
•I also like to read from time to time.

Physical Appearance

My appearance is quite normal:
•I'm 5'8 in height (1.73 m)
•Eye colour is dark blue 💙
•I've got quite the decent body shape
•I have no tattoos but I'm considering getting a few in the future
•I've got a small amount of facial hair
•I've got quite a lot of dark brown hair on the top of my head but keep it in control most times with hairspray
•I've got an average to slightly above average face imo (pics can be exchanged if you're interested in knowing what I look like)
•I'm healthy with no health conditions or concerns
•I wear normal clothes such as buttoned t-shirts, hoodies / denim jackets, jeans / tracksuit bottoms, and leather jackets in colder weather.
•I also have a balanced diet as I go grocery shopping at least once a week. I shower 7 days a week and I brush 🪥 everyday too.

Important Topic to Cover

I'm not gonna mention what my source of income is because I don't want anyone to message me just because of that, like so many people have done before.

Preferences In You

I don't have many tbh. Just as long as you
•Live in the UK, or at least in different countries that are close to the UK like Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, France, or perhaps even The Netherlands, since all have shorter time-zone differences to the ones in the UK which will make it so much easier to chat at similar times (but you can message me wherever you are on the globe)
•Don't smoke or do drugs
•My age limit is between 18-23, but people that are past that age range can also message me.
•I'm not religious, by any means, but I don't mind dating people who are.
•Come as you are, no sugar coating, be real, be genuine. 🚫No NSFW content please🚫, that's all I ask.
It looks like the Reddit chat is finally redeeming itself by not glitching out every 5 seconds and sending messages to one another on time, so feel free to message me wherever you feel most comfortable on :D

Outro

Welp, this is me signing off and seeing what happens now. If you've read this far, then I appreciate you for taking the time out of your schedule to read my post all the way through :) I hope you have a nice rest of your day 🙏🏻👋🏻 Come say Hi if you're feeling up to it! :)

Looking for advice and reassurance because I’m quite confused, but having browsed through this subreddit for a while I feel like an absolute cliché. It’s a long story but I need to feel seen, so I would appreciate any feedback.
I (34F) am still figuring out my own polyamory identity. I know for sure that I value my autonomy and my independence over any apparent security that a long-term monogamous relationship is meant to provide, and after a few one-off hook-ups I firmly believe that I need more than just the physical release of sex from another person.
I went on Tinder hoping to click with someone and saw the profile of Oak (36M) & Bamboo (36F) looking for a unicorn, saying that ONS aren’t their thing and that they would prefer something ongoing. This is my first poly relationship and I thought I was joining a relatively stable poly couple who just wanted some fun and explore.
If I had known then what I know now I would have just set my phone on fire, mixed the ashes with concrete, poured it into a mold shaped like a turd, let it set and then gone on a cruise over the deepest part of the ocean and thrown it overboard.
Our first threesome went okay but Oak refused P-in-V sex, saying that he was just practicing restraint or something. I thought that it was some weird powerplay and I dismissed it because they both seemed to like me and they were keen to meet up again.
We met up a second time and I thought we all had a good time but Bamboo seemed really distracted, which would be okay if she was happy to stay and vibe; but when me and Oak were doing our own thing she would kind of try to get in between or rush it so that it was more frustrating than enjoyable.
Bamboo says she’s bi but she seems fixated on me not being satisfied and never having any time with Oak. After our second meet-up she was texting me saying that I wasn’t really bi because I like dick too much, that because Oak is her husband his dick is hers and that I was hogging it. I asked about what she meant and she said a whole heap of really concerning things like that she doesn’t want to do threesomes but she doesn’t want to lose Oak and that if I could tell him that I don’t want to see him anymore because if he finds out he’ll hate her. I messaged Oak worried that I had walked into some weird DV situation and that i want to know what’s going on. He said that she had always agreed to polyamory but that she was hormonal since starting IVF a few years back and that she should calm down in a few months. There was some texting back and forth with name-calling and stuff from Bamboo and a lot of confusion from me.
I told Oak that this wasn’t cool and that I didn’t feel safe around her. We talked it out and my understanding is that what Oak said was legit, Bamboo had agreed since before they were married to some stuff— I’m not sure what exactly, but going on IVF had made her more irrational and they hadn’t actually had sex themselves in a long time until the second time we met up. I was really upset by this lack of important information that had Bamboo calling me names and saying I was trying to steal her man.
Bamboo said that she wants to keep trying to make it work but she doesn’t understand why she isn’t good enough for Oak and she hoped that having a baby would make him a family man, something that apparently Oak never expressed would happen.
Bamboo keeps saying she’s going to leave, something that she’s apparently been saying since the beginning of their relationship. I’m doing my best to advocate for myself because she keeps going back and forth and honestly after the conversation it all feels way too intimate.
We were all quite vulnerable with each other and apparently her disappointment comes from having been brought up in a happy family with loving parents who made a lot of money, and she can’t cope with her life not being an exact repetition of how she grew up. I dug a little deeper and I’m picking up a lot of anxiety, resentment and control issues, which I told her that I can’t be responsible for but I can help her a little bit, having had my own experiences and dealing with them with curiosity and compassion and learning to sit with my feelings. This is where things are getting terrifying for me. I’m starting to genuinely care for both of them, but I don’t think it’s reciprocated.
This is really difficult because I see two lovely human beings that can and want to do better.
But I also feel like a hostage because if I leave Bamboo says that they’ll fall apart because she won’t tolerate Oak anymore, and Oak says that it’s completely up to her. I’ve asked for some one-on-one time with each of them and Oak is okay with me & Bamboo spending time together, but Bamboo keeps “forbidding” me and Oak from one-on-one time, and every time it’s the three of us I’m not satisfied.
Oak says that he would never cheat on Bamboo, but I feel like Bamboo’s definition of cheating changes constantly, and almost always retroactively, as in it isn’t cheating until she decides she doesn’t like it.
I value my autonomy and I feel like it’s getting trampled on. I honestly don’t know how I got here from a bloody Tinder match but hey, thats showbiz babyyy

As I was playing a couple of random matches with friends today, I picked MF on a whim, a champ I actually like but didn't play in ages.
While we are about to start I google her stata a bit and I am flabbergasted by her most successful AND most played current build being a First Strike + Ghostblade into Collector.
Ghostblade was probably busted before the nerf, but it still there during 13.11. It's just about maximizing as much as possible her R for sudden bursts of damage during big fights?

Authors Note; I've been having issues with Reddit lately, it's not letting me go back and edit stories and it's completely messing with my formatting nothing I do seems to resolve the issue. I hear that I'm not the only one having this issue so that gives me some hope that it will be fixed eventually. Until then I'm not able to link to the next part in the series. I will be posting the Next links in the comments below. I'll try to go back and edit all of these when the issue is resolved.
First Part Previous Next ‘So Tiny as I’ve decided to call my evolved spider is evolving exactly as I expected. For now I’ve decided to keep him within my maze to guard my core. He would be far too attractive to any wandering predators. Though I don’t think he’d be so easy to take down. That being said, keeping him in my tunnels is just a wast. I can think of some much more useful work for him. So first things first, I’m going to have Rats finish my maze, then I’ll dig a little tunnel to the forest next door and give him a few little outs that he can go and set up webs in the trees.
He’s big enough now that he should be able to easily take down birds and bats. If I’m right then his webs should have gotten stronger to match. So hopefully he can become a steady income of mana and I can start taking over some real animals soon. But those are plans for the future. For now it’s just during up my dungeon. Well if you can even call it that. I suppose calling it a nest would be wrong at this point.
It’s gone way above what a nest should ever be, it really is starting to resemble an actual dungeon, just on the miniature scale. I suppose miniature is better than nothing though. This is a huge improvement on my previous nest though. Just having an ants nest isn’t very reassuring. I still think I can do better though.’
…
‘So It’s been about a week. I haven’t caught any more wasps for some reason, that’s ok I guess. I can make due. I’ve completed my miniature dungeon maze. It should be nearly impossible for any dumb magical beasts to reach me now. Well that is short of just straight up digging to me. I thought about just straight up burring myself and remotely controlling my protocores. That would be difficult though. They have to be within a specific distance of me to deposit their mana, and it’s just not feasible to bury me a safe distance and still collect mana.
I have however come up with a few genius ideas. First there are false paths that lead to me. Magical beasts follow the mana. They go directly to the densest source of mana. I’ve created various false paths that lead to me. When in reality the real path to reach me moves in the opposite direction at first then circles around to me. I’ve also had my ants dig out an emergency exit for me that’s just large enough for a wasp to fit through.
In the event of an invader that I can’t stop I’ll expand all but a tiny amount of mana and create a wasp body around myself then fly out of my nest through a hole too small for any would be invaders to follow. Its fine if something tries to come through my emergency exit because it would have to be far to small to be a real threat to me. Meanwhile I have a leaf covering my exit to hide it and it’s being paroled by ants to maintain it as well.
I also built a few sections of nest that are purposefully weak in the event that something finds the correct path I can cause a small cave in buying me some time. As you can guess that snake caused a serious scare. I was not properly prepared for it at all. But now I’m prepared even if a wolf decides to attack me. A dragon might cause me a little trouble still but I feel confident that I could survive anything that would want to cause me any real harm.
As for tiny I’ve got him a hole dug, it was just finished and he is currently spinning up his webs. I have Rats digging a few other holes for him so that he can move around. It would be dangerous for him to move on the ground or branches so I’m crating a small network where he can move around underground. This should also allow him to web up and drop off any birds or bats that he happens to catch and they can be picked up by Rats and brought directly to me. Though the path is fairly long, that’s fine. It’s a safe and efficient method to collect more mana. If this works then I might consider evolving more spiders.’
…
‘So it’s been a few days. I finally caught a wasp. I also caught a bat, no birds yet. That’s fine. I used the mana from the bat to evolve my wasp twice over. It’s quite the nice little wasp now. I don’t want to take it’s evolution too far, but for now it’s acting as the protector of my nest. It should be a pretty decent protector for now. It should be scary enough to keep away anything that would want to threaten me.’
…
‘Ok so It’s been about a week now and I’ve caught another wa… Wait is that another Lunar moth? Get it! Get it before it can get away! Haha!!! I caught a bat too. That bat was trying to get the moth and now I’ve got both. Wait… No… Stop that. STOP THAT! WASP GET IT! It’s not getting away this time! NO, NO, NO!!! Get back here you mother… Have I ever mentioned how Kijunos are the bane of my existence? They are small nocturnal predators. They’re technically omnivores. They prefer bugs, like my spider. I assume that’s what attracted it. They typically live in trees, and they are magical beasts. I assume that it realized it wasn’t going to get my spider so instead it stole the lunar moth and the bat and ran off. Will I ever catch a break?
What was I saying again? Oh yeah I caught another wasp. I also caught a bird and another two bats. I just killed them and took their mana. The bird isn’t worth taking over right now. I evolved my other wasp as-well. Just once though. I did that mainly to increase it’s speed. I’ve got it out on scouting duty right now. Well not really, its night time and wasps aren't the best at night so it’s in the base for now. But I generally have it out doing scout work during the day.
There were some humans walking down the path the other day. They didn’t notice me at all. I wander how much mana a human would give? It should be more than the Ghormelda gave me. I’m not ready to take on a human though. Not even close. It would probably turn every creature I have into huge mana stones that I have no way of collecting.
Heck I doubt I could even handle a goblin right now. I might be able to kill one if I caught it off guard but I don’t want to risk that. And besides if they discovered that there was a dungeon nearby then I’d have people all over me trying to find my core. It’s not large at all, but even a small dungeon core is worth a lot. And it wouldn’t be just humans either. An orc wouldn’t have much trouble digging me out at all if they had an elf to tell them where to dig.’
…
‘It’s been another week, and what an exciting one at that. So I caught some more birds and bats and even a couple of wasps. I’m not back up to four wasps. All of them have been evolved atleast once and the big one I evolved again just to see what would happen. I’m starting to like this whole evolution thing. I think I’m going to call it Buzz. As for Rats I had it go out and catch a mole for me. I took over the mole and turned it into one of my drones.
The mole is now helping to expand my network of tunnels. I plan to get a few more moles to work on expanding and maintaining my tunnel network before I start to make any more serous decisions.After that I have plans to start taking some birds. It would be nice to have some birds to watch my back. I’ve got to be careful though. I don’t want to make a large investment like that just to loose it to some predator.
I’ve already lost several spiders to nocturnal predators. Of-course they are much easier to replace than something like a bird or rat though, so that’s not such a big deal. I seem to be expanding fairly well. I think I will evolve more spiders soon as-well. To evolve a spider to the point that it can catch a bird or bat takes about two birds or bats worth of mana. So it’s actually very much worth the investment. If each one catches more than three then I’m already making a profit. In terms of mana.
The problem being that the larger my drones get the larger prey they have to take down to be profitable, and the larger they prey the fewer there are. Lets take for example dragons. If I somehow did get to the point where I could hunt down a dragon, it wold be a very nice one time snack. But there is no way that I could ever turn dragons into a reliable food source.
The more I kill the fewer there are around. Bugs are so numerous that it doesn’t really matter with them. You can kill a few and not have to worry. An ant nest can produce hundreds or maybe even thousands of ants in a year. But a bird can’t lay nearly that many eggs. So I have to be careful not to kill them off faster than they will come back.
It’s fine for now. I’m sure that a few more spiders aren’t going to be too many. It’s not like those are the only predators around that will hunt birds after all. So I should be fine for now. But that is definitely something to think about and to consider going forward. The larger I get the harder it is going to be to find food sources. That’s a double edged sword. The fewer threats I’m going to have to defend against. But the fewer reliable food sources I’m going to have available to me.
I’ll have to be careful not to over extend my reach too fast and end up on the loosing end of a bad situation. I’ve been lucky so far. But it’s time for me to start thinking things through more thoroughly. It’s not like I don’t have enough time, I’m a dungeon core after all, it’s not like I actually age. So I have time to think. Well I don’t know when I’ll be attacked again, but that’s ok. I have some plans for that as well.’
First Part Previous Next

TL;DR My boyfriend cheated because he thought our relationship was going to end- but then our relationship recovered and he couldn't hide the guilt from me.
So, me and my (now ex) boyfriend have been together for around 7 months. We met under somewhat unusual circumstances as early into our relationship I took him in after he escaped an abusive situation. Because of this, we bonded very fast, experienced things and got to know each other much faster than usual couples. It feels more like we've been together for a year.
Things between us were absolutely perfect for months, truly one of the most stable, secure and happy relationships I've experienced. We could talk securely about anything, I'm bisexual so we would talk about women we found attractive together, he talked to me like a best friend, and I returned that. Everyone said we were perfectly matched, we could talk for hours, constantly sent each other into fits of laughter, had a genuine, pure love for each other, a determination of loyalty, he called me his soulmate, something he'd never done before- and just generally we were so, so happy.
He was honest with me from the start and told me that he'd cheated on his last ex, according to him he wasn't satisfied with her sexually, they didn't get on very well and from the earliest stages they just argued constantly. Maybe I'm stupid for believing I was different, but he told me I was the first girl he'd ever turned away other women for. That he desperately wanted to change his ways and not cheat, that even if we didn't work, he wanted to me to be the one girl he didn't hurt like that. He was also the first person I've ever slept with and had a proper hands-on relationship with.
Then, about 2 months ago, shit hit the fan. I'll admit, maybe I was to blame for the first big fight. He'd stayed at work for a few drinks and not told me, I'd been trying to contact him to sort out our evening and when I finally got through to him I asked him if he'd come home and he said yes. Like usual, I went to go meet him (it's midnight at this point). It was snowing, dark and not the safest of areas. I call him because he's still not met me, and he tells me that he's coming. I call him again a few minutes later and he tells me he's on his way to a different pub. At this point, I'm cold, hurt and tired and I start crying just asking him to come meet me. He comes home furious, angry, lashing out and calling me names even though he'd asked me to come meet him. This was our first major incident.
A few things went wrong after this- he discovered he wasn't fully over his ex after she contacted him, and they started talking, not sexually, but just getting closure I suppose. I found out he'd invited a girl nightclubbing with him, but he'd come home and told me because he was proud he'd turned her down at the end of the night, telling me he was testing himself. I caught him messaging and calling his ex even though it had been weeks of them getting 'closure'. I found out he'd met up with her behind my back, in public so nothing had happened, but I was still upset that he'd lied. He just kept telling me he was lost, that he needed closure, that he didn't know what he wanted. I let him do what he needed to do, even though it was breaking me to watch him still in contact with his ex. Because of all this we started arguing, he started lashing out and rebelling more.
Things really kicked off a few weeks ago, he went out and disappeared for the entire night after an argument. I found some weird texts after this during a confrontation, and he told me he had set them up with a friend as a test for my insecurities. He told me he'd gone home with some guys he'd met clubbing and fell asleep. This also spurred a huge fight because I'd had no contact with him all night, no texts to let me know he was safe, no calls, nothing. He decided to go home for a week after that for some space, saw a friend and went with him on a little weekend trip. The whole time messaging me, telling me he missed me, loved me, that we'd work things out- but I could tell his heart wasn't in it.
When he returned, I found some sexts between him and his ex. He told me he'd seen her back home, and that nothing had happened, that he'd planned on it, but couldn't go through with it, that he couldn't do that to me. I believed him. I said I'd forgive him and once we moved, we'd be able to start fresh and forget the past.
Yesterday, we moved together across the country. For the last week and a half, we pulled ourselves out of the hell we'd been experiencing. We were both happy again, we'd recovered from the shit we went through. Things went back to normal. He was happy, I was happy. The only thing that was off was the sex. Sex is a big thing for us, we're both hypersexual and we have extremely good sex together. So when he started seeming a little awkward, less intimate, when he wouldn't sleep with me for as long, I picked up on it. I assumed it was just exhaustion. I didn't press him or ask questions, I just carried on. Things went back to normal. We were in love again. And that broke him I think.
That first night after the move, he confessed that in the space of a week, he cheated on me 3 times. The night he disappeared, with his ex back at home, and the biggest kicker, the weekend trip. He wasn't with his guy friend, it was with a 34yro woman who kept trying to get him to leave me. He said he thought the relationship was done, that he was tired of turning down opportunities because he thought we wouldn't stay together at the end anyway. He cried, genuine tears like I've never seen from him before. He didn't think we'd pull ourselves out of all the shit, and when we did, he realised he couldn't live with the guilt of what he'd done.
My stepdad came and picked me up, so I'm currently at his place, stuck in between home-home and the person who I thought was home.
The situation is so painful and so complicated. I believe he loves me, and I love him. But in those moments, he didn't care about my feelings. Only his own selfish needs. It doesn't matter if he thought we were done. But at the same time I can empathise with him.
It really hurts because we managed to pull ourselves back from all the lies and betrayals, only for it to have been for nothing. He thought after we moved he could forget, convince himself that it had never happen, he was going to use mindfulness to just try and erase it all, focus on me. He cut them all off, making sure none of them could contact him again before we moved. He'd been telling me for weeks that if we kept arguing, perhaps we should just be friends. He kept trying to drop subtle hints that he was struggling, that maybe we shouldn't be together. I just wish he'd been firm and told me that before he slept with other people.
The idea of him sleeping with other people, calling them the names he called me, holding them the way he held me, is eating away at me. I'm devastated, I did everything I could to make him happy and I still wasn't enough. I feel so broken.
We're still in contact. I don't want to never see him again. We've done too much together, been and seen through so many things, we get on so, so well. But I just don't know how we can be together after this.
I just want to hear the opinions of others on this. Some comfort, maybe what you'd do if you were in my situation? I feel lost, like I have no purpose or motivation for the future.
Edit: Phone Checking - For most of our relationship, phones weren't a problem. I never checked it or even felt the need to. It never crossed my mind. Until his ex came on the scene. He started hiding his phone until I finally saw his ex's number pop up on the lock screen by accident. I didn't say anything at the time and decided to check it in secret so as not to start a fight, if I asked things about his contact with her he'd call me controlling and insecure. After this I checked his phone a few more times, and every time bar one, I found things with his ex or a different woman who I've not mentioned in this post because it's already long.

Everyone's least fav crash is back! Last run in in July 2021 and before that in Feb 2020.
This one sucks or rather highlights how garbage Sam is.
Falcon loves his protect tiles, but Carol has a cheap power and just loves destroying them!
Sam's yellow (9ap) changes all yellow tiles into protect tiles (increasing in strength based on number of covers). His blue passive will strengthen strike/protect/attack tiles with every blue match (1 tile at 1-2 covers, at 3-4 it also reduces a countdown by 1 turn, at 5 it strengthens 2 tiles). The amount they are strengthened increases with the amount of covers. Finally his red (14ap!) does damage plus extra damage per friendly protect tile on the board. So ideally you want to fire you yellow and then your red right after to limit the chance that Carol destroys them. But that will take a while. Another option woul be to bring a support like the flerkin and chase blue to strengthen them.
Carol is 5/4/4 level 270 with 15641 health. Her red (7ap) does 1853 damage and destroys all enemy protect tiles. Her black (9ap) does 2593 damage and stuns for one turn and places a black enemy strike tiles of 65 strength. Her yellow passive kicks in when she takes more than 863 damage she generates 5 red ap.
Strategy wise you need to be careful if you are low level and trying to brute force this. If you use Taskmaster and add damage boosts you will trigger her red passive and she will hit you hard. Go for red, deny black, and go for yellow. As I mentioned trigger your yellow and then red the same turn to maximize damage.
My Captain Falcon is 5/4/4 level 300. It was fine, mostly because the board was black scarce, Carol hit me a couple times with her red, but I was able to save up my yellow and red for one big hit that left her with 44 health. A match letter it was done.
LL into the pile.
Any other suggestions?

I never told you this because I didn't want you to feel guilty, but I was genuinely worried you were dead when you ghosted me.
Things were rough for you when I was abroad. One of the last things you said to me was that you weren't in the greatest place mentally and that you were isolating yourself.
I empathized. I also self isolated when I was in a dark place, so I thought it best to give you space and periodically send you some check-in texts to see if you were okay.
I scrambled for explanations. Maybe you were mad that I didn't get you a present for Christmas because I was out of the country. I was planning on surprising you with an expensive wallet when I got back. I don't know what to do with it now. Maybe you decided you didn't want to be friends anymore. Maybe you broke your phone.
One of my friends reached out to me during the quiet. Her friend ghosted her, and it turned out she committed suicide. I was scared something happened to you.
It was what, two months until you finally replied? I didn't just lose an ex during that time. I lost a best friend of many years. Maybe I was naive to think we both had moved on after a period of no contact before we tried being friends again.
I always felt guilty that I was your first love when you knew how my first love went. I tried to talk you out of loving me many times. You were a great partner and a sweet man. I'm an asshole for suggesting we date with an expiration date- I was moving for work and if you wanted to spend a couple months enjoying our time together, I was down for it but understood if that wasn't something you wanted. I look back on your chapter in my life with fondness and no bitterness.
It never occurred to me that you would find another person so fast after we broke up and became FWB. I remember after we spent a night together you confessed that you kissed a girl at a party. It didn't feel great- if you told me beforehand I wouldn't have even spent the night and would have broken off our FWB- not just because of our muddy feelings, but because if you were in a place to move on, it was time for us to stop our arrangement and for you to pursue happiness. And I told you as such.
You told me it was just a drunk kiss at a party. Nothing more. You never talked about her again. We relaxed our FWB anyway and did more friend stuff. Light flirting, but mostly just voice calling and texts.
So it turned out you lied to me. You were dating her that entire time.
If you had told me, I would have gladly backed off. I would have happily respected your boundaries. If she didn't like you keeping in contact with an ex? That's fine, no hard feelings. I would have amicably ended our friendship and shelved our book and moved on.
I'm not angry. Hell, I'm not even disappointed in you. I'm just... shocked.
I'm worried you're in a rebound. 2 months before you allegedly only 'kissed' her, you sent me a long message about how you want to be the person to grow with me. The first person you wanted to see in the morning and the last at night. That even the night in question was something you knew I felt iffy about, but it would be even worse to cancel since we might miss the best memories we will ever have of each other. All the things only a lovesick fool would write.
Sweet nothings.
If I'm being honest, I think it'd be best if you broke up with her. You cheated on her in the same month you started dating. You kept emotionally cheating by flirting with me for months after. You only stopped because you were caught and let me think you were hurt or God knows what else.
The poor girl's trust in you was probably shattered to pieces. It might be the kindest thing to just end things and let her find someone who she can trust to love her fully- because if you truly loved or cared about her, you wouldn't have cheated on her.
You made me complicit in hurting this poor girl I don't even know. She deserves so much better.
Time spent being single could help you reflect. Detox. Better yourself before you commit to another relationship.
Or maybe you took my advice before I cut you off. Maybe you did go to couples counseling with her. Try your best to rebuild that trust, but I know that personally for me, after that betrayal no amount of effort would bring it back. I went down that road with my first love. You know this. You know that he broke my heart and 1.5 years of trying couldn't erase his betrayal. Never thought I'd ever be on the other side of this.
I'm sorry for my part in this. I never meant for any of this to happen.
I wish you the best. Prosper. Eat well. Get yourself checked out for sleep apnea. Cut your hair even if its a nuisance or at least maintain and groom it. Have more confidence and be yourself. I noticed you studying my tastes to try and match it, but I spent my time loving you for your heart.
Goodbye, Ethan. I have and will remember you fondly. Prove that I'm right to remember you this way.

It's Monday and there's not much going on today. But still... here it is. I'll take a brief moment and say thanks to everyone here that subscribed to the newsletter. That thing blew up and in three months got to numbers I would be happy with after two years. I hope you enjoy these updates, even on days that are slow like this one.
Also, I have a new giveaway with the newsletter - a Hamilton Khaki Field - so check it out if you're so inclined.

What's new

1/
Frederique Constant’s New Highlife Automatic Is An Interesting Rolex Oyster 36 Alternative At 1/5th Of The Price
Ask on a forum what would be a great alternative if you weren’t ready to spend about $10.000 on the really nice and colorful Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36, and the two most likely answers you will get are the Tissot Gentleman (which lacks the range of colors) and the Casio Tsuyosa (which is all about color). And these are two mighty fine watches. But they are also sub $500 (depending on where you shop). And it’s very clear that they are not luxury watches. Now, if you want a great alternative to the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36 that is trying to make a break towards the luxury watch market, take a look at the new Frederique Constant Highlife Automatic. Not only are they introducing a bunch of great colors, they also have a very interesting dial. And they’re almost 1/5th of the price of the Oyster Perpetual.
Frederique Constant might be a watch that’s not on your radar every day, but they offer great value for money, entry level luxury - especially in the Highlife Automatic - with some pieces that can get up there in price. Their entry into the same realm as the Oyster Perpetual comes up a bit short, at 34mm, but with the trend of customers wanting smaller and more vintage-looking watches, this is a great option. Most of the case is brushed, with polished links on the integrated bracelet. The watch also comes with a white rubber strap.
Where the watch majorly differs from any competition would be the dial. It comes in ice blue, champagne gold, and blossom pink, with a subtle pattern which looks like the grid around a globe. This is a pattern found on many FCs. Inside the watch is the FC-303, based on the Sellita SW200.
The Frederique Constant Highlife Automatic watches in the new colours are unlimited and available now, priced at $1,895.
2/
The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Celebrates 75 Years Of Porsche’s First Car
75 years ago, Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche built one of the most influential cars to ever exist - the Porsche 356 Roadster. Not only did that car change the car world by itself, it also set the groundwork for one of the greatest sports car brands in the world. 24 years later, Ferdinand “Butzi” Porsche (yeah, they weren’t all that creative with their names, Ferry’s dad who constructed the Beetle was also named Ferdinand) created a company called Porsche Design, a production design studio that will take the Porsche ethos and apply it to stuff that isn’t cars. One of the things Porsche Design perfected is watches, and to celebrate the anniversary of the 356, Porsche Design is releasing a new version of their Chronograph 1 – the 75 Years of Porsche Edition
The original Porsche Design Chronograph 1, manufactured by Orfina, wasn’t just popular because of its looks, but also because of its technological advancement. It was the watch that pioneered the use of PVD treatments on watch cases, making a fully black watch. It also appeared on the wrist of Tom Cruise in Top Gun. The new model isn’t a replica of the old one, but look at them side by side and you see a clear evolution.
The Chronograph 1 – the 75 Years of Porsche Edition is made out of titanium, 40mm wide, once again gets a matte black finish and paired to a textile leather strap with light-blue decorative stitching and a central red stripe or the included black leather strap with matching black stitching. The anti-reflective, matte-black dial was inspired by the dashboard in the cockpit of the Porsche 911, but the case has been updated to titanium instead of the original stainless steel used in 1972
Interestingly, the old Chronograph 1 was powered by the Valjoux 7750, and the new one has the WERK 01.140 which is, in essence, a modernised version of that movement. Very modernised, very upgraded. It has a flyback chronograph functionality, black-coated decoration and COSC certification that ensures accuracy within +6/-4 seconds per day. Also, the automatic winding rotor has taken the shape of the legendary Fuchs wheel with a Porsche crest
The watch is limited, frustratingly to 475 pieces. Yes, I get you would like to sell more watches, but 475 doesn’t mean anything. 75 means something. 356 means something. Anyways, sale starts June 8 and it’s priced at $11,000.
3/
Chopard L.U.C. Full Strike Gets An Update In Full Blue Sapphire
The Chopard L.U.C Full Strike is an award winning watch, and it’s no wonder why. Introduced in 2016, it was the brand’s first minute repeater and just look at it. It’s a perfect blend of tradition and innovation, exhibiting exceptional construction and decoration. Now, Chopard is releasing a new version of the watch - this time in a blue sapphire case. So, if you ever wanted to get the Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Blue Sapphire, but wanted an actually fantastic watch, here it is!
To use the biggest cliche of them all - this is not a revolution, it is an evolution. But it really is an evolution, as it is a color update to last year’s Full Strike Sapphire, with the 42.5 mm case, and crown with its integrated minute repeater pusher made of sapphire. It still has the same insane sapphire crystal gongs, machined from a single sapphire block.
The dial is made of sapphire, too, with the movement in full view. For easy reading, the railway-type minutes track was engraved and painted on the crystal, and eight rhodium-plated, shaped hour markers, positioned from 12 to 7 o’clock, were applied to make the chapter ring.
The L.U.C 08.01-L hand-wound movement is COSC certified and bears the Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark. It comprises 533 parts, beats to the frequency of 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 60 hours.
Unlike the Hublot, which comes on a full sapphire bracelet which many watchmakers have called an impossible dirt trap, the Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Blue Sapphire is offered on a blue alligator leather strap and it’s limited to just five pieces. The price is on request, but last year’s clear sapphire version was rumoured to cost $450.000
4/
The Norqain Freedom 60 Chrono 40mm Ice Blue Limited Edition Is A Summer Ready Baby Blue Watch
Norqain is only five years old and yet, it currently has more than 50 different watches in their lineup. Started by Ben Küffer who brought over a bunch of people from Breitling, where he worked, one of their early successes was the Freedom 60 Chrono, housed in a 43mm case. People loved the watch, but they loved the 40mm version launched last year even more. Norqain is now releasing a limited edition of the 40mm chronograph with an ice blue dial.
It’s the same old watch as it was last year - 40mm in diameter and 14.9mm thick, with a box-type AR sapphire crystal and 100-metre water resistance rating. There are three strap options and Norqain is proud that they are all animal cruelty-free - a stainless steel bracelet, a black Perlon rubber strap and a linen Nortide strap made of recycled plastic recovered from the ocean.
The dial has a tri-compax layout and gets a new color palette with a sunray brushed ice blue dial, with black subdials and silver applied indices. There’s a colour-matching angled date at the unfortunate position between 4 and 5 o’clock. Inside the watch is Norqain’s calibre NN19, based on the Sellita SW510, a cam-operated chronograph with 27 jewels, 28,800vph (4Hz) and a power reserve of 62 hours. This is an update last year’s 40mm model, which had an ETA based movement.
The Norqain Freedom 60 Chrono 40mm Ice Blue Limited Edition is limited to 300 pieces and retails for CHF 4,250 with the steel bracelet, CHF 4,150 with the rubber strap and CHF 3,990 with the Nortide strap.
5/
Revolution’s Latest Collaboration With De Rijke & Co. Gives Us A Whimsical Miffy Watch With A Sapphire Dial And Great Price
If you are by chance, like me, a parent to a little girl, you know all about Miffy. If you are not, all you need to know is that Miffy is cult Dutch cartoon bunny created by Dick Bruna, whose books have sold more than 100 million copies since 1955. Miffy being Dutch is appropriate, since this watch is made by De Rijke & Co, a relatively young Dutch watch brand that was started after it’s owner Laurens de Rijke in 2013 took his fifty year old Vespa scooter for a trip on the Silk Road, covering a distance of 11.000 kilometer, he past countries like Azerbaijan. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Born from this trip was an inspiration to create a watch, and it’s very interesting. While many brands want to create a fully modular watch, it always ends up being cumbersome. De Rijke went another path - he created a two part case that allows you to spin the internal part that holds the dial, crystal and movement, up to 90 degrees, allowing it to be positioned wherever you wanted for comfort. The lugs of the watch are also unique, solid and made for straps to pass through them. All of this gives the watch almost as much modularity as a modular watch, while still being a good watch.
Also, this is not the first time you will find Miffy on a De Rijke & Co. watch. They have a completely sold out collection of four Miffy watches differing only in color and limited to 25 pieces per color. The watch is powered by the Sellita SW 288-1, a movement that has been seen modified for the MING 37.05 Moonphase and unmodified in the Farer Moonphase. All of this makes sense, as the De Rijke & Co. Miffy watch is a moonphase watch, where the moon is replaced with an illustration of Miffy.
And now, here comes Revolution magazine with their special edition of the De Rijke & Co. Miffy, but this time it’s the Double Moonphase. This version of the watch has a translucent sapphire dial, which allowed them to add a second Miffy, which turns the watch into a dual-hemisphere moonphase indicator.
Production will be limited to 100 pieces and the watch is priced at EUR 3,100, which is EUR 400 higher than the already sold out Miffy’s which don’t have the sapphire dial. Available for purchase on 6 June 2023, 10pm SGT 4pm CET 10am EST
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The Romain Gauthier Introduces The C Titanium Edition Four In Black And Blue
There’s a certain type of watch one expects from an independent watchmaker. Serious, classical, with all the watchmaking talents on display and highly personal. Romain Gauthier took all of those characteristics and applied them to his watches. Then he decided to create the Continuum, which is, in fact, an independent’s version of a sports watch, filled with Gauthier’s trademark touches. The model was later renamed C by Romain Gauthier, but the series retained the essential idea and continued to evolve aesthetically. The brand has just revealed the new edition of the C by Romain Gauthier Titanium in a Grade 5 titanium case coated with black ALDC.
If you follow the work of Romain Gauthier, the new C by Romain Gauthier Titanium Edition Four will look very familiar to you, for the watch sports the same 41mm x 9.55mm, 50m water-resistant case crafted from Grade 5 titanium, with a black diamond-like carbon coating, as the Edition Two from last year. All of the titanium used also gives the watch incredible lightness and the whole thing weighs just 55 grams.
The new reference is distinguished mainly by coloured elements. The crown at 2 o’clock features a blue rubber ring. The main dial plate in black Grade 5 titanium received a straight-graining finish; the slightly off-centred hours and minutes are indicated with the white Super-LumiNova-filled 18k white gold hands and applied numerals and hour markers.
But all of this is secondary to the movement. It is a contemporary in-house calibre, manually wound, with exceptional decoration and finishes. The movement with signature Gauthier-reinterpreted historically typical finger-style bridges in natural titanium and rhodium-treated gears is the same as in the previous Continuum editions. It beats to a frequency of 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 60 hours.
The C by Romain Gauthier Titanium Edition Four is a limited edition of 38, and comes on a black textured rubber strap with satin-finished and polished Grade 5 titanium pin buckle coated with black ADLC. It’s priced at CHF 38,000 and while this is an insane amount of money for a watch, I can think of many mass produced watches with less impressive materials and movements that will ask you for much more money.
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On hand - a selection of reviews

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A review of the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days watch, ultra-thin and all-titanium
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Hands on with the very controversial Patek Philippe Calatrava 6007G
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Watch Worthy - A look at an offbeat, less known watch you might actually like

Classy, With A Touch Of Sportiness; The Moritz Grossmann Power Reserve Vintage
Made out of solid silver, the finishing is outstanding. The elongated black Roman numerals exude elegance and are embraced with a very fine minute track. Look closely and you can see small blue markers at every five-minute increment, a touch of colour that ties in with a key element on the dial: the power reserve indication. This simple little horizontal display is very practical on a day-to-day basis when dealing with a hand-wound watch (which this is).
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People loved the Seiko Alpinist! That's why I'm doing a new one. This time, we're giving away four Hamilton Khaki Field Automatics in a color of your choice. Head on over to the newsletter if you would like to enter.
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Part 15 was here.
As Arnold used to say:

I'm Bach!

Ok, I'm not Arnie, nor am I Bach, but I am back (sort of).
When we last left off, Azarnus had just arrived to the lost Dwemer mine below Red Mountain. His goal: the final piece of the Staff of Chaos. As John Constantine said of the Hell's Bible:

It is kept at the highest point in the lowest pit.

Venturing in, the first floor of Dagoth Ur did not impress: grey walls, grey floors, and grey ceilings, inhabited by grey stone golems. Whoopie. The place seemed to be carved out of old cooled lava and soot. A few steps past the entryway and I found a prison-like area, with several cells surrounded by a moat of lava. Inside were some creatures and some treasure piles. Going past I've had to cross seemingly endless corridors, occasionally interrupted by ditches, and pools of even more lava. The denizens of this place: stone golems, homunculi, hell hounds, medusas, and wraiths, were a nuisance, but no match for moi. In this dreaded place I met an Ash Vampire, and had to wrestle them for a mythril key. Or at least that's what I was supposed to do, seeing as how you can bypass the mythril door using Passwall. To be honest, I beat the first level so long ago, I forgot all about it. Still, the tomb was a nice touch, and the locked door was just a reach away from it.
The second floor. This place was dark and hot. There's gold glinting in the walls (or so the flavour text told me), seemingly heated up by a great fire below. Proceeding through the corridors I was met with a door, demanding a jeweled key. And you know what this means: key hunt.
What was a nice change of pace: I found the key almost immediately, then another one, then several more. Ok, so there are more locked doors, but who's counting? I've got all the keys! It's like hunting for mushrooms, I swear! This floor had quite a few interesting areas, whoever planned it was quite the architect, eh? A tonal architect, amirite? He-he-he. But I got overconfident. Having collected all the keys I could find, I went back to the door. It flung open. Then the next, then the next. No door stood in my way, and all opened at the might of my key-chain!... All, but one: the diamond door. Having suffered a micro nervous breakdown, I rushed back into the green hell corridors, in search of the last key, scouring the place desperately!
(Editor's note) Eventually I stopped playing. The answer came to me a few days before now. I was watching a video on Skygerfall and got the itch to play Daggerfall (because screw Skyrim). But I've promised myself that I will first beat Arena, and so decided to finish what Vader I've started. For this I launched the game on the PC - because it's just more comfortable this way - and started looking.
Somehow I've figured out that I needed to dive into a ditch, and came out right in the room where the final key lay. The bad news was that it's guarded by a lich. I had already mentioned how I "love" these guys, in my previous post, or maybe the one before that. And you can bet your garters (actually, I'd rather you don't) that I'm going to complain about them in my next entry, just you wait! Well, this one pwnd me.
Dejected I shut the game down until today, when I've decided that enough was enough. This time I ran the game on the mobile, because I don't know what files to transfer, so the automap on the PC was blank. But now that I've had the power of the automap in the literal palm of my hand, I confidently directed Azarnus towards the diamond key. (End Editor's note)
The battle was fierce, but the lich was finally defeated. With the diamond key in hand I've made my way to the door that had previously mocked me so with it's unassailability (these doors could not be bypassed with Passwall, sadly). Unlocking it, I was greeted by two Tharn's Witnesses in the form of stone golems, but having politely introduced them to Ebony Blade, I was able to continue onward with nary a donation.
The third floor welcomed me with a breath of it's sulphurous air. The place felt even hotter, but faint light was coming from a distance. As I proceeded through the single, yet somewhat winded corridor I was met by a continuous sequence of scares: two homunculi, followed by two stone golems, followed by another two homunculi around the corner, and two wraiths. Finally I had reached the end of the corridor, discovering a large room filled with boiling lava that would occasionally pop into splashes. Here I fought two more ghosts, and a whole slew of fire daemons, homunculi, and even a couple more liches (technically I only found one and it killed me, so I just avoided it on my next try, but I'm pretty sure there's at least one more on the opposite side of the room). At the center of the lava lake was a structure. I reached it by levitating. Scaling the structure I saw the final staff piece: a clawed hand holding a crystal orb. But there was a catch - literally - it was held on a pedestal in the middle of a pit in the centre of the structure. Jumping in to get it, I quickly realized that I was now trapped, as a riddle resounded in my head, informing me of my doom, unless I solved it.
(Editor's note:) I hate riddles, so after trying several options, I went online to find the answer. There, you happy now? (End Editor's note)
Getting out I've decided not to bother with the monsters, so I activated the Ring of Khajiit and made my way for the exit.
Having reassembled the Staff, my ultimate goal was now at hand: defeat Jagar Tharn and free the Emperor. Arriving at the Imperial City around midnight, I began looking for the nearest inn. In the meantime, Tharn contacted me via telepathic video call, boasting of his smarts for turning the mighty Staff of Chaos into a butter churner, or an oar. How? Simply by draining it's power, which is apparently how he managed to split it into pieces, in the first place. After the transmission ended, he immediately teleported a couple of his minions. And you know what they were? Rogues. Rogues! After all the undead and daedra I've had to mow down, the mighty Boosh Tharn sends two lousy Rogues against me?!? Pah-lease!
Anyway, after dispatching them, I found an inn, got a couple of drinks, and went to bed. In the morning I investigated my loot, sold my crap, fixed Ebony Blade, and made my way to the Imperial Palace.
The end of my journey is near.
Part 17 will be [here], hopefully soon.

I’m asking since I did her new Madonna workout today. I’ve done ones lead by Josh exclusively for the last couple months since he’s my favourite, but also since I recalled that Anya seemed to rush the recovery portion of the stroke which distracted me.
I tried her class today with an open mind, but her recoveries were just as rushed as I remembered them. Forget about the: “powepatience/patience” that’s demonstrated in the tutorial. And her actual s/m on all-outs was consistently at 34 rather than the intended 32. Actually, they were rushed at almost every intensity. I get that I can adjust on my own, but the whole point - and one they encourage - is to try and match the instructors.
She has many qualities, including: charisma, stamina (as demonstrated by her insane pace) and I appreciate that she demonstrates explosive power on the drive, but as long as she keeps rushing the recovery and consistently going over the intended s/m then I’ll largely avoid her classes. It’s even more frustrating since rowing only adds 2 classes a week.
Is it just me?

Around the end of April, some of the mailbox rules in Outlook stopped automatically moving messages to their appropriate folders in my inbox. These rules have worked unchanged for years. I've tried recreating, enabling/disabling, deleting Outlook program files associated with mailbox rules but nothing in my googling or help from Microsoft has resolved my issue yet. Microsoft 365 support is still investigating.
A couple weeks ago I noticed an Exchange Online transport rule not working as it has in the past. It looks at sender domain, if the sender if outside the org, and dmarc=pass, dmarc=bestguesspass in the header of messages to determine if the message should bypass spam filtering. Now it appears it won't bypass spam filtering if the message is sent to more than one recipient, even if the rule is a match. I find this strange since the rule doesn't check recipient information at all.
Anyone else experiencing any shenanigans with Outlook rules or Exchange Online transport rules?

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Its an observation I've just made after playing a QP match a half bit ago. I'm a masters mercy and have been playing her for at least a couple seasons now, I'm wondering if that's always been the case, is a new addition to her, or is a bug.