"72. An importer of record (IOR) contacts its broker to revise entry 123-1234567-8 because an internal audit revealed that an invoice was omitted from the original filing. The paperwork indicates that the goods qualify under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) as goods originating and exported from the Dominican Republic. There will be no change in the duties, taxes, and fees owed. The entry is not liquidated, is fully paid, and less than one year passed since the date of import. Which process below should be used to make the changes with CBP?
A) Nothing needs to be done to change the entry summary with CBP because there is no change in duties, taxes, and fees.
B) File a PSC to add a line with the invoice to the entry summary and include the Special Program Indicator (SPI) for CAFTA-DR on the additional line.
C) File a protest under 19 USC 1514.
D) First file a PSC to add the invoice with the duties, taxes, and fees owed. As soon as the entry is liquidated with the bill, file a claim under 19 USC 1520(d) to seek the duty-free treatment permitted under CAFTA-DR.
E) File a claim under 19 USC 1520(d) asking to both add the invoice and allow duty free treatment under CAFTA-DR."
Although we're in the broker compliance section, this is asking a practical question on the way to process things. This drops us into ACE Business Rules. Let's take a look at those. I see two sections which may be applicable to us - 7 (post summary corrections) and 12 (protest and 520[d] claims). Let's look at 7 first:
7.4 PSC Data Changes
Both revenue related and non-revenue related changes should be reported through the PSC test program. Revenue related are those that affect the amount of duties, taxes, and or fees applicable to an entry of merchandise, regardless of the de Minimis rule.
Non-revenue changes are those that pertain to information that must be provided in the entry summary, such as, but not limited to:
• Country of origin
• Quantity of the merchandise
• Description of that merchandise
• Quota visa number
• Value of the merchandise
• Tariff number under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS)
• Census Bureau data that must be reported
• Other charges and information regarding the merchandise (19 C.F.R. 141.61)
7.5 In-Eligible Changes
Data elements that cannot be changed for any entry type:
• Importer of Record (The importer or broker must submit a CBP Form 3347 and CBP will make the appropriate changes in ACE. Once completed, the filer may transmit a PSC to correct any necessary entry summary data.)
• Consolidated summary indicator
• Port of Entry
• Date of Import
• Cargo release certification request indicator (including DOT grouping, FDA grouping and PGA Grouping
• Live entry indicator
• NAFTA Indicator 19 U.S.C § 1520(d) indicator for specific special programs (see Special Program/Trade Agreement Indicator section)
• Reconciliation issue code
• Preliminary statement print date
• Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS)
• Statement client branch identifier
• Location of goods code
• Date of Entry
The filer may not submit a PSC to amend an entry summary for Trade Preference Programs covered under 19 USC 1520(d).
So, this tells us that a PSC should be filed (because there are changes to the value, quantities, etc.). It also tells us we cannot file an SPI on this. That means we would need to file the PSC and then protest it after liquidation for the SPI.
The answer is D.

Hey-Oh! So, I see some form of this question multiple times per day in various skin and personal care subs: How do I deal with my hyperpigmentation? I also asked myself this question a few years ago. See, I'm prone to freckles and a little melasma and I set out to figure out a way to solve it with years of research, trial and error, testing, talking to dermatologists and professionals, and scouring every medical article I could get my hands on. I wanted to share my findings and research since this is a common concern, especially among people in their 30s. This started as a small post about my routine and ballooned into a massive book about hyperpigmentation. I hope it's helpful!
DISCLAIMERS:

• I use the term "brightening" instead of "lightening" which is a subtle distinction. None of the ingredients or methods I recommend bleach your skin as "lightening" would suggest, but they can reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation. "Brightening" tends to be a confusing term in skincare, but for the purposes of this post, I use it as a descriptor for anything that helps prevent or reduce melanin in hyperpigmented skin.
• I will use the term "hyperpigmentation" ad nauseam as a catch-all term for excess pigmentation in the skin including freckles, melasma, PIH and dark spots. This does not encompass moles which are different. This is also different from redness, which is a whole other post.
• Speaking about hyperpigmentation requires some sensitivity to very real issues around it including cultural implications. This post is not intended to moralize hyperpigmentation nor is it intended to alienate the normal melaninization of skin across various tones. Hyperpigmentation refers to excess melanin production on the skin in the form of spots that are darker than the surrounding skin. It's not bad or wrong, nor does it speak to anyone not "doing a good enough job" of taking care of themselves.
• I do repeat myself a few times in here but that is for people who are skipping around the article. I want to be as thorough as possible even if you're jumping to the parts of the post you need.
• I do run an online dermatology practice and skin care consultancy, but in order to protect the integrity of my advice, I do not promote my business, I don't give direct medical advice, I don't link to any products/websites, and I don't have any products I've formulated myself to promote.

This is going to get long because I wanted to cover everything re:hyperpigmentation. But for your reading pleasure and ease, I have divided this post up so you can get whatever information you need:
Table of Contents

1. Types of Hyperpigmentation
2. What Causes Hyperpigmentation?
3. How To Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 1: The Ingredients
4. How to Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 2: The Routine and Recommendations
5. Body Hyperpigmentation
6. Nuclear Options

Let's get to it!

Types of Hyperpigmentation

Hyperpigmentation refers to excess melanin production in the skin, but it can actually take a couple different forms. Knowing the type of hyperpigmentation you're experiencing is key to understanding if and how it can be treated.
Freckles: Freckles are incredibly common, especially for people with lighter skin tones. They are small, brown or reddish-brown dots often clustered on the skin. They develop on the surface and are not raised bumps. Freckles can appear anywhere on the body but are common on the face. Freckles are permanent, but the color, contrast and severity can vary and be tempered.
Melasma: Melasma appears as dark patches or splotches around the face, though usually found on the forehead, upper lip, and high on the cheeks. Melasma forms deeper in the skin and appears more amorphous than freckles, moles, or age spots. It can create a “muddy” appearance and is very common among pregnant and postpartum women due to hormonal factors. But it can literally happen to anyone and anywhere on the body.
Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation (PIH): Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) occurs when damaged skin forms melanin during the healing process leaving dark spots. This is common after acne, injuries, eczema, burns, and other trauma to the skin. Exposure to UV rays during healing can make PIH worse. Post-inflammatory erythema (PIE) is similar, but leaves pink or red marks on the skin as a result of damage to the capillaries from injury or inflammation. Basically, when skin is compromised by injury, as part of the immune response cells will begin to generate melanin in an attempt to prevent further damage from UV exposure, so what will happen is the wound/legion/blemish will heal but the pigmented skin remains.
Age Spots: This is kind of a forgotten form of hyperpigmentation. Sun spots, also referred to as liver spots, and solar lentigines are large spots/patches of dark skin with distinct borders. They vary in color from light brown to almost black. They develop on the surface of the skin usually later in life, but reflect damage that often occurred from improper sun protection at a younger age. They can appear on the face, neck, chest, hands, and arms, usually on areas that had UV exposure. For many people, they can begin to appear in your 30s or 40s.

What Causes Hyperpigmentation?

There are a number of factors that can contribute to the formation of hyperpigmentation. Generally, it forms as the result of a combination of genetic and environmental influences. Everyone is unique, but these are some of the most common causes of hyperpigmentation and dark spots:
Genetics can play a role in the development of hyperpigmentation and dark spots in several ways:

• Melanin production: Melanin is the pigment that provides color to our skin, hair, and eyes. The amount of melanin produced and distributed in the skin is largely determined by genetics. People with a greater genetic predisposition to melanin production in their skin are more likely to experience hyperpigmentation and dark spots as a result of sun exposure, hormonal changes, and other factors. People with darker skin are also more prone to melanin production in the form of hyperpigmentation.
• Genetic anomalies: Certain genetic anomalies, such as oculocutaneous albinism, can affect melanin production and distribution in the skin, leading to an increased risk of hyperpigmentation and dark spots.
• Family history: If you have a family history of hyperpigmentation or dark spots, you may be more likely to develop these conditions yourself.
• Enzymes and genes: The enzymes that control melanin production and distribution are regulated by specific genes. Variations in these genes can impact melanin production, leading to an increased risk of hyperpigmentation and dark spots.

Sun (UV) Exposure. In addition to genetic determination of melanin production, UV exposure is the leading environmental cause of hyperpigmentation and the formation of dark spots. Melanin is the pigment that provides color to our skin, hair, and eyes. It acts as a natural sunscreen (but don't treat it like natural sunscreen!!! This isn't the point of the exercise), absorbing UV radiation to protect the skin from damage.
When the skin is exposed to UV radiation, the melanocytes (cells that produce melanin) in the skin go into overdrive, producing more melanin to protect the skin from further damage. This increased melanin production can result in dark spots or areas of hyperpigmentation on the skin.
Hormones. In addition to genetic determination of melanin production, hormones and hormonal sensitivity is a leading internal cause of hyperpigmentation and the formation of dark spots.
One of the most well-known examples of hormonal hyperpigmentation is melasma, a condition characterized by dark, amorphous patches on the face, particularly on the cheeks, forehead, nose, and upper lip. Melasma is often associated with hormonal changes, such as those that occur during pregnancy, hormonal therapy, or birth control pill use. The hormonal changes can stimulate an increase in melanin production, resulting in dark spots or areas of hyperpigmentation. This can happen irrespective of UV exposure, though the sun does exacerbate it.
Hormones can also affect melanin production by altering the skin's metabolism and pigmentation pathways. For example, high levels of cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands during stress, can trigger an increase in melanin production, resulting in hyperpigmentation.
Inflammation, Injury & Trauma to the skin can result in hyperpigmentation by triggering an increase in melanin production. When the skin is inflamed or injured, it triggers a response from the body's immune system, which can stimulate an increase in melanin production as a protective measure.
For example, acne breakouts or other skin injuries can result in post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), which is characterized by dark spots or areas of discoloration on the skin. The dark spots are a result of an increase in melanin production in the affected area, which occurs in response to the inflammation or injury. In addition to acne and other skin injuries, other conditions that can result in PIH include eczema, psoriasis, and insect bites.
Medication Side Effects. Certain medications can cause hyperpigmentation on the skin. Medications that can cause hyperpigmentation include:

• Tetracycline antibiotics: Tetracycline antibiotics, such as doxycycline and minocycline, can cause discoloration of the skin and teeth when taken in high doses or for an extended period of time.
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs): NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, can cause hyperpigmentation in some individuals, especially if taken in high doses or for an extended period of time.
• Chemotherapy drugs: Certain chemotherapy drugs, such as doxorubicin and daunorubicin, can cause hyperpigmentation, especially in areas of the skin that have been exposed to the sun.
• Hormonal medications: Hormonal medications, such as birth control pills and estrogen replacements, can cause hyperpigmentation in some individuals, especially if they are taken for an extended period of time.
• Antimalarial drugs: Antimalarial drugs, such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, can cause hyperpigmentation in some individuals, especially if taken in high doses or for an extended period of time.
• Isotretinoin aka accutane when taken for acne can cause hyperpigmentation due to the increase of cell turnover and exposing delicate new skin cells to UV rays before they have shored up.

If using these medications is necessary for your livelihood, it is not recommended to stop their use without the recommendation of your doctor.

How To Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 1: The Ingredients

When looking for skin care products to treat and prevent hyperpigmentation and dark spots, it's important to look for ingredients that can help encourage cell turnover, curb melanin production, and block harmful UV rays. A lot of these things overlap with treatments for other conditions like acne and general anti-aging, but I've noted ones that specifically work on the mechanisms controlling melanin production. Now, this is an extensive list, but I know it doesn't have everything. I've included the ingredients that had the most compelling evidence and/or worked the best for me or people at my practice. But it's also not necessarily a shopping list. You don't have to have all of these things to treat hyperpigmentation, but I'll get to that in the routine portion. This is more to be used as a tool that can help you diversify your routine if you find one ingredient or another doesn't work for you. And it can help you determine if a product targets hyperpigmentation based on its ingredients. There's lot's of options. Some of the key ingredients to look for include:
Retinoids that increases cell turnover. Retinoids like tretinoin, adapalene, retinol et al, can help treat hyperpigmentation by promoting the turnover of skin cells and increasing cell growth, which can help fade dark spots and improve overall skin tone by replacing pigmented skin cells at the surface. While retinoids are extremely effective, they do have some caveats. First, they can be sensitizing to a lot of users, but this can be tempered by using different form functions, different application methods, or different concentrations. Second, because it's constantly turning over skin exposing delicate new skin cells to the elements, it can actually worsen hyperpigmentation if you're not vigilant about sun protection and avoidance. Tretinoin and other retinoids are firewalled behind a prescription in some countries and may be more difficult to obtain. But retinol/al is available in OTC forms.
SPF represents a class of many ingredients designed to protect the skin from UV rays and the damage that occurs from exposure. UV exposure is one of the biggest causes of fine hyperpigmentation and wrinkles so adequate protection is essential. I know I'm not winning any science awards for this declaration, but a lot of people who struggle with hyperpigmentation aren't adequately protecting themselves from the sun. But you also have to be kind of realistic. Even with perfect protection and avoidance, sometimes your hyperpigmentation will still flare. This happens during the summer for a lot of people and something even I grapple with. The key is to do your best and SPF actually works well with numerous other ingredients (like the ones listed below) to help solve that problem.
Arbutin is a Tyrosinase Inhibitor that blocks melanin production. Arbutin, or the synthesized version called alpha arbutin, is a favorite brightening ingredient because it's a slow-release derivative of hydroquinone that inhibits melanin production. This results in both healing and prevention of dark spots, especially when paired with topical acids. It metabolizes on the skin into hydroquinone which is super effective for hyperpigmentation while being a less controversial and hard-to-come-by ingredient than pure hydroquinone. More on hydroquinone in part 6.
Tranexamic acid is another Tyrosinase Inhibitor. This was first used in wound care and it was found to have profound effects on hyperpigmentation. Although it's an acid, it's not a chemical exfoliant, kinda like how hyaluronic acid is not a chemical exfoliant. The exact mechanism by which tranexamic acid works to reduce hyperpigmentation is not fully understood, but it is believed to work by reducing inflammation by blocking plasmin which contributes to melanin production when unchecked. It is particularly effective in treating melasma and one of my personal favorite ingredients.
Kojic Acid is another Tyrosinase Inhibitor. Kojic acid is a natural skin brightener that is derived from various fungi. Kojic acid can also help to exfoliate because it's a slight chemical exfoliant, which can remove dead skin cells that contribute to hyperpigmentation and improve overall appearance. But it does both things: block melanin production and turn skin cells over.
Azelaic Acid has a lot of things going for it that can help with hyperpigmentation. It's an anti-inflammatory and antiseptic that disrupts melanin production. Azelaic acid works by inhibiting the production of melanin in the skin like those other tyrosinase inhibitors. In addition, azelaic acid also has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, which help to improve the overall health and appearance of the skin by reducing melanin production as a result of injury or inflammation. It's also an anti-acne ingredient that can address the root cause of PIH by reducing acne on the skin. It's pretty awesome and available in OTC and prescription strengths.
Niacinamide is another one that directly and indirectly addresses hyperpigmentation. It's a skin soother that decreases inflammation and it naturally reduces sebum production which can curb acne which can curb PIH. It actually took me a little while to figure out that this was another solid hyperpigmentation treatment for these reasons because I used to look at it as being more of an acne treatment. Niacinamide is a form of vitamin B3 that works by inhibiting the transfer of pigment within the skin, which can help to reduce the appearance of dark spots and uneven skin tone. So while it doesn't block tyrosinase, it prevents transfer of pigmented skin cells to the surface.
Vitamin C aka L-ascorbic acid is an antioxidant that fights free radical damage. It treats and prevents hyperpigmentation in three ways. First, it reduces free radical damage from UV exposure which helps increase the effectiveness of SPF when worn together. Second, it is also a tyrosinase inhibitor that blocks melanin production. And finally, vitamin C encourages skin cell turnover. The key is finding a nice stable version of it.
Glycolic and Lactic Acid. Since this list is getting long I am going to group these together. Glycolic Acid is a water-soluble alpha hydroxy acid that penetrates into the pores to treat pigmentation by providing general exfoliation and resurfacing of the skin. The result is improvements in dark spots, texture and other signs of aging. Lactic Acid is also an AHA but with a slightly larger molecular size than glycolic acid so it doesn't penetrate as deep and acts more as a surface exfoliant. As a result it provides more gentle exfoliation to buff away surface pigmentation with an added benefit of acting as a humectant to seal moisture into the skin.
Licorice Extract is a plant extract that inhibits melanin production. Licorice root extract contains a compound called glabridin, which has been shown to have skin brightening effects as, you guessed it, a tyrosinase inhibitor. In addition, licorice root extract also has anti-inflammatory properties, which can help to reduce redness and inflammation associated with hyperpigmentation. I'm seeing more and more of this pop up in skin care.
Soy Proteins are another plant extract that inhibits melanin production. They contain compounds known as isoflavones, which have been shown to help reduce the amount of melanin produced by melanocytes in the skin. Additionally, soy proteins have antioxidant properties that can help to protect the skin from damage caused by free radicals, which can contribute to hyperpigmentation.

How To Treat Hyperpigmentation Part 2: The Routine and Recommendations

This is adapted from numerous comments, posts and DMs I've written on the topic and also comprises a large portion of my own personal routine and routines we recommend to patients. This is a generalist routine meaning it targets all the forms of hyperpigmentation I've mentioned; freckles, melasma, PIH, and age spots though it can be tweaked to address these individually more specifically. This is really my jumping off point for people to get a good idea of what they can achieve as a baseline with OTC ingredients before fine tuning or enlisting the help of a dermatologist. For a lot of people, this is enough to fully resolve, but even if it gets you part of the way there, this should give you a good idea of reactivity.
A few caveats:

• Freckles cannot ever be 100% eradicated. You can however reduce their appearance and prevent them from getting darker. It's important to have realistic goals and understand that sometimes our genetics will overrule any routine we have.
• This routine and any hyperpigmentation routine will not address moles. Moles are a totally different thing that can only be eradicated through removal by a medical practitioner. Moles can be raised or not, but no amount of topicals will get rid of them.
• Melasma is a beast. Sometimes it can be treated with OTC topicals, sometimes it requires prescription strength topicals like hydroquinone, sometimes you need in-office procedures like fractal lasers or IPL. Again, this routine is a jumping off point to see what you can accomplish at home before going down that road (and more on that at the bottom in part 6).
• You'll notice I don't mention products with all the ingredients I listed above. This is because the more you put on your face, the greater your risk of causing irritation. Again, you can adjust and tweak by switching out products with these ingredients or add/subtract as it suits your personal needs.
• If you're struggling with hyperpigmentation while pregnant or breastfeeding, these recommendations may need to be paused.

Alright, let's get to it!
AM routine -- The Goal: Heal, Protect, and Prevent. In order of application following a lukewarm water rinse:

• Azelaic acid
• Alpha Arbutin
• Vitamin C serum
• Moisturizer
• SPF

The combo of C+AZ+AA+SPF is an absolute powerhouse for healing existing hyperpigmentation and preventing new hyperpigmentation from forming. It makes your SPF more effective, it inhibits the production of melanin from UV exposure (not your natural melanin production though), and it speeds cell turnover with dual antioxidant action and gentle chemical exfoliation. The result is brighter skin in a few months of consistent use.
For Azelaic Acid, this is the ingredient for serious treatment. It's considered one of the most effective ways to reverse melasma aka serious hyperpigmentation short of hydroquinone -- which is both controversial and hard to get. It brings a little bit of exfoliation to the table in addition to inhibiting UV melanin production, but it also has a slight antiseptic property which can help with acne. Paula's choice Azelaic Acid Booster is the only one I've really tried after sampling the Ordinary's in-store and not liking the texture. I get about 6 months out of a tube and a little bit goes a long way.
For Alpha Arbutin, the Ordinary's formulation is pretty solid. I prefer the Ordinary's AA 2% + HA as opposed to their AA 2% + Ascorbic Acid 8% as I don't believe the quality and stability of their Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) is great. That's why I opt for a separate Vitamin C serum step. But the AA + HA also has a little bit of lactic acid in it which provides some gentle exfoliation and encourages AA deeper into the skin where it's more effective. Lactic acid is mild enough that it's safe for use in a morning routine, but you still want to protect with SPF. There are a couple AA products floating around but I think TO's product is probably the best, most straightforward one. Alpha Arbutin metabolizes into hydroquinone on the skin so is basically one of the best OTC pigment correctors you can get.
For Vitamin C, the gold standard really is Skinceuticals CE Ferulic. This is stupid expensive though so I’m going to suggest Timeless Vitamin C. I like that it comes in an airless pump that prevents oxidation over time. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that increases the rate of skin cell turnover bringing forward new, skin cells while simultaneously improving the effects of SPF. It's a great foundation for a fix.
These ingredients can be layered on one right after the other then topped with your moisturizer (I like a basic one like cetaphil daily lotion), then topped with your SPF. The SPF I would recommend is Canmake UV mermaid gel in clear as this will not leave a white cast on your skin and it’s generally a very elegant SPF. It's SPF 50 which means it gives really good protection, but there are numerous SPFs you can try. I personally like anything from La Roche Posay, any Neutrogena SPF that's not formulated with ethylhexylglycerin, Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen, Biore Aqua Rich (another Japanese brand), Trader Joe's SPF if you can get your hands on it, and EltaMD.
Of all the products I’ve tried that could act as a stand-in for vitamin c, azelaic acid, and alpha arbutin, there’s one Japanese serum from Hada Labo called “whitening lotion” which has had the biggest impact on my hyperpigmentation in a single product of anything I’ve tried. This might be a little too effective though, I actually find that it washed me out within the first 2 weeks of twice daily use, so now I only use it in the morning. And I’m not a fan of the translation… which is a direct but mistranslation. It’s not a bleaching lotion, it also relies on a form of vitamin C and tranexamic acid to brighten skin. But it's a really interesting to try if you wanted a simplified morning routine in which case I would apply this, then your moisturizer, then your SPF.
PM routine -- The Goal: Renew and Reveal. In order of application:

• Cleanse
• Buffer
• Tranexamic acid and exfoliant OR retinoid**
• Moisturize

To cleanse, I have a really basic recommendation that will remove your SPF, makeup, and any grime/sebum from your day. Start with Cetaphil gentle cleanser. This is a gentle, hydrating cleanser that will break up your SPF really effectively. Massage in and rinse. Then apply a foaming cleanser, I recommend Cetaphil daily cleanser which foams. This will sweep away anything that’s left and give you a good foundation for the rest of your routine. While this doesn't directly help hyperpigmentation specifically, it's a critical step especially for people who are acne>PIH prone. It also gives you a nice clean slate to apply the rest of your skincare. I've tried dozens of cleansers but always come back to these two as good basic options.
For your Buffer this is an important step that can be done prior to using a chemical exfoliant or retinoid: applying an occlusive that will block the active from more sensitive skin. I recommend buffering around your eyes and nostrils with La Roche Posay Cicaplast balm because it kind of doubles as a nice eye cream, but this can also be done with basic vaseline or aquaphor for a more budget-friendly option.
For Tranexamic Acid, my holy grail TXA product, La Roche Posay Glycolic B5 is actually a multipurpose serum that combines ingredients to treat hyperpigmentation with chemical exfoliants. It contains two hyperpigmentation heavy hitters -- Tranexamic acid and Kojic Acid which are great for melasma -- and two exfoliants -- Glycolic Acid and Lipo-Hydroxy Acid (LHA) which is like fancy salicylic acid -- so it both reveals new skin cells that are less prone to pigmenting from UV exposure while sloughing away your old skin cells. You can use this 2 or 3 nights per week. On off nights, just cleanse and moisturize.
For a Retinoid if you can get prescription tretinoin, this is going to be the best bet. Your doctor will advise you on the concentration. More on that in part 6. It will help speed up the rate of cell turnover bringing new, unpigmented skin cells to the surface faster. Some other OTC options include differin (which is rated more for acne but uses the same mechanism for cell turnover so it's also effective in this use case) and retinols. Now, I haven't tried every retinol on the market but I have two that I stand by: SkinCeuticals retinol and L'Oreal retinol serum. The SkinCeuticals is, in my opinion, the closest to RX tretinoin in terms of efficacy, but it's a little pricey. The L'Oreal also does a really good job and is a little more affordable. It's currently my go-to OTC on the days I'm not using my RX retinoid tazarotene. You can use this 2 or 3 nights per week. On off nights, just cleanse and moisturize.
** My recommendations for tranexamic acid and retinoids CANNOT be used in the same night. You'll nuke your skin. And for most people, both aren't necessary, you can get away with using one or the other. If I had a preference, I would say use the TXA serum instead of a retinoid, but if you can build up a tolerance to using them both without damaging your barrier, they work really well together. So, proceed with caution. If you want to use both, use them on alternate nights and give yourself a night or two without either to let your skin recover. For me personally, I do retinoids on Sundays, and Wednesdays, chemical exfoliants on Mondays and Thursdays, and I let my skin rest (cleanse, moisturize, squalene oil) on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
On top of whichever active you choose, apply your moisturizer. You can use the same one you use in your morning routine, the Cetaphil daily lotion as it’s nice and light. I also like La Roche Posay Toleraine double repair for a ceramide-based cream alternative if you want something richer. You do not want to "slug" over actives. This advice gets mixed in a lot. Slugging refers to applying an occlusive layer over your skincare such as vaseline, aquaphor, oils like squalene oil, or healing balms like La Roche Posay Cicaplast balm. While this can be done on hydration nights, it should not be done on nights when you're using chemical exfoliants or retinoids as this may make them too effective causing irritation and breakouts.

Body Hyperpigmentation

Ok, I need everyone to be a grownup for two seconds. These products and methods (both from the prior section and this section) should NOT be used on your genitals. First, you can cause serious irritation or infection by applying active skincare to your genitals. Second, it's really not going to do anything to change the pigmentation of the skin there. The skin on your genitals is different than your body and facial skin and it pigments in different ways for different reasons so it's not going to respond to topicals the same way the rest of your body does. Don't even try it.
To be perfectly clear, these are the areas you should not be applying skincare: labia majora, labia minora, vaginal entrance or vagina, clitoral hood, perineum, anus, intergluteal cleft aka inside your butt crack, penis, or scrotum. And I say this as someone who chaffed the precipice of her "intergluteal cleft" in an unfortunate crunches-in-the-wrong-gym-shorts accident leaving me with some deeply incriminating hyperpigmentation and earning me the nickname "skid mark" from my ever loving boyfriend. It faded after a year but you can still send prayers.
These are areas you can apply skincare but do so with absolute caution and at your own risk: bikini line, mons pubis, inner thigh up to the groin fold, butt cheeks.
Ok, now that we've got the disclaimers out of the way, let's move forward. Hyperpigmentation can also occur on body skin for the same reason it appears on the face, but it can also be triggered by friction. And because body skin is different from facial skin, it requires a slightly different approach. This is my recommendation for both hyperpigmentation and KP (Keratosis pilaris) because they rely on the same mechanism for treatment: chemical exfoliation.
In the case of body hyperpigmentation, I recommend a two prong approach: a body wash in the shower and a topical treatment to be used after. Oh, and SPF again if there are areas that are exposed to the sun, and I have a holy grail SPF recommendation for this.
Now you may have noticed in my facial skin recommendation that I did not mention CeraVe as a treatment brand. I have posted numerous takedowns of CeraVe on other threads so I won't rehash them here suffice it to say that it's no longer a brand I can in good faith recommend since it's acquisition by L'Oreal. This is often the brand that's considered when treating KP on the body, but I don't believe their formulations and ingredient quality works for everyone.
For the body wash, I recommend Neutrogena body clear with Salicylic acid. This is an exfoliating body wash that will help clear away dead skin cells on the surface allowing new ones to come through. To be effective, you want it to sit on your skin for a little while. I recommend lathering it up and applying it after turning off your shower faucet and letting it sit for 2 or 3 minutes. This is when I like to knock out shower emails. Then rinse away.
On towel dried skin after your shower, apply AmLactin Bumps Be Gone. Again, this is formulated for KP but the reason I like it is because it contains lactic acid which will also give the assist on brightening hyperpigmented body skin. The wash and this should be effective, but you might also want to mix in a few drops of the alpha arbutin serum I recommended for your facial routine, maybe three drops per application area (each leg, each arm, chest, etc). I generally don't encourage facial products on the body because it's not an economical use for them, and also because body skin is a little more resilient and doesn't need skincare that's formulated for more sensitive facial skin. The AA serum from the Ordinary is very affordable however and is a good hyperpigmentation generalist.
Another one that I mentioned in the facial hyperpigmentation portion that can work well on the body is the Hada Labo whitening lotion. Again, this is formulated around tranexamic acid which is very effective for hyperpigmentation and a little bit if this stuff goes a long way. I buy it in bulk from Japanese Importers though it's also available on Amazon for a slightly higher price. If you find yourself in Asia, stock up on it. I use this specifically for fading tan lines that happen (even with diligent/neurotic SPF use) around my fitness watch and the straps of my workout tops that I run in.
You also want to wear SPF on areas that are exposed to the sun to prevent pigmentation from occurring. The one I absolutely love that’s not your 90’s banana boat is Aveeno Protect + Hydrate lotion with SPF 60. This is a great SPF for a lot of reasons: it finishes like a lotion instead of a sunscreen, it dries down totally clear, and it has a pleasant, slight sweet scent. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being bare skin, 10 being banana boat slathered on by your mom in 1997, and regular body lotion being a 2, I give Aveeno Protect + Hydrate a 2.5 in terms of texture and feel-finish. I use it as my daily lotion on my neck, arms, shoulders, and chest. If you're more active you might need a heavier hitter here like a sport sunscreen.

Nuclear Options

In general, I recommend trying OTC topical solutions for any skin concern before heading down the in-office procedure route. Part of this is because you can usually put a good dent in what you're struggling with by using OTC topicals, making in-office procedures and RX treatments easier and more effective. Part of it is so you have a good maintenance routine in place to use after the fact to preserve the results of your in-office procedure which can sometimes be costly. Lastly, while some procedures can solve the immediate problem completely, topical skincare can be really effective at treating other adjacent conditions like redness, acne, and fine lines.
Side note: I haven't listed every possible compounded medication because there are a lot, and many compounded meds are formulated to tackle multiple issues like acne and hyperpigmentation. I also tend to favor single note skin care (aka, products with very few ingredients) as this allows you to combine or remove certain actives and gives you a better sense of reactivity.
For tougher-to-treat hyperpigmentation such as melasma, if your topical routine doesn't totally clear the problem in 6 to 8 months, a visit to the dermatologist might be helpful. Here are the heavier-hitting procedures and topicals that can go the extra mile after you've exhausted other options.
Medical Grade Peels: Medical grade chemical peels can be done by dermatologists. Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) or phenol peels may be done for cases of severe hyperpigmentation, but high concentration BHA or AHA peels are also commonly used. I do these twice a year. Because of the strength of the acids used, these must be done by a medical professional with careful followup.
***IPL Therapy and Laser Therapy may not work for everyone and in some cases may exacerbate hyperpigmentation so you really want to work with dermatologists with a lot of experience in treating cases similar to yours to determine if these interventions are appropriate for you.
IPL Treatment: Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) therapy can treat hyperpigmentation by targeting the melanin in the skin with a broad spectrum of light wavelengths, heating and breaking the melanin down. IPL is particularly effective for treating sun damage and age spots, as well as other forms of hyperpigmentation. The treatment is relatively non-invasive, with minimal downtime, making it a popular option. This is also a great treatment for the redness associated with enlarged blood vessels (often confused for broken capillaries) on the surface of the skin which can also appear alongside hyperpigmentation. There isn't any clinical evidence to support at-home IPL devices being effective in the same way. That doesn't mean it's not possible, it's just not studied enough to be certain. Most at-home IPL devices do not operate in effective wavelengths the way professional grade ones do.
Laser Therapy: Fractional and CO2 lasers can be used to treat a range of hyperpigmentation issues, including sun damage, age spots, and melasma. The treatment works by removing the top layers of skin, which contain the excess pigmentation, revealing fresh, healthy skin cells underneath. The lasers also stimulate the production of collagen, which helps to improve skin texture and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Hydroquinone: This isn't an in-office procedure like the aforementioned treatments, but it is firewalled behind a prescription meaning you can only access hydroquinone in effective concentrations by working with a doctor. This is a somewhat new development at least in the US following some covid-era rejiggering of prescription clearances. HDQ is controversial because it's a skin bleaching agent which has some cultural implications in places where light skin is favored over natural pigmentation. HDQ technically works the same way other OTC tyrosinase inhibitors do (in fact arbutin actually metabolizes into HDQ when applied to the skin), pure HDQ happens to be the most powerful version of them. It lightens any skin it touches, not just hyperpigmented skin in higher concentrations which can make it tough to use. This effect isn't as profound in the other tyrosinase inhibitors I mentioned making them much easier to use over HDQ which, in high concentrations, must be dotted on the skin in only hyperpigmented areas. So HDQ is really reserved for intervention in extreme or OTC treatment-resistance cases.
Tretinoin and Prescription Retinoids: This is going to be dependent on what part of the world you're in, but in a lot of countries, tretinoin and its counterparts like tazarotene are only available through prescription. I mentioned retinoids in the routine so if you're able to get your hands on a prescription from a doctor, it may be more effective than OTC retinols. Most doctors will prescribe a retinoid over hydroquinone, so this is usually easier to procure and can be quite effective on its own as a hyperpigmentation treatment. OTC differin is the only retinoid available over-the-counter (in the US) which can also be used for hyperpigmentation.
Prescription Azelaic Acid: This is another one that's available in lower concentrations over-the-counter (which can still be quite effective) but there are prescription strength grades of azelaic acid. This is usually reserved for rosacea treatment as it tends to target redness and flushing, or as an acne treatment because of its antiseptic properties, but it can also be an effective hyperpigmentation treatment for its tyrosinase-inhibiting ability.
If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope this information is helpful. While it is extensive and based on massive amount of research, experience, experimentation and work with professionals, it may not be perfect and it may not be suitable for everyone. Feel free to offer any constructive criticism or ask any questions in comments. I am always open to expanding my understanding.

For years my portfolio site had videos that autoplayed as the user scrolled. These videos are glorified gifs, meaning they have no sound and are seconds long. I decided to redesign my site and I am now having the hardest time getting my videos to autoplay. I host my videos on Vimeo and their support has been just repeating their FAQ section. When I went to get the embed code for the videos from Vimeo the "+ Show options" button is no longer there on Vimeo. These options included things like autoplay, loop, etc. I've been emailing Vimeo support and they keep telling me to click on that button. I cannot find that anywhere.
I've tried using the video block in Squarespace, but this does not allow you to have the scroll animations that are on all of the other pages on my site. Does anyone have any insight?

Having a C-section is a unique journey that many mothers embark on. It's a major surgical procedure that brings a mix of emotions, from excitement to anxiety. But fear not, here are some valuable insights and tips to shed light on the C-section experience:

1. The Procedure: C-sections involve making an incision in the abdomen to deliver the baby. It's usually done under anesthesia, ensuring a pain-free experience.
2. Reasons for C-sections: They may be necessary for various reasons, such as medical complications or concerns about the baby's well-being. It's important to remember that a C-section doesn't make you any less of a strong and capable mother.
3. Recovery: C-section recovery takes time. You'll need to rest, avoid heavy lifting, and take care of your incision. Prioritize self-care, eat nutritious meals, and engage in light exercise as advised by your healthcare provider.
4. Embracing Your Scar: Instead of feeling self-conscious, consider embracing your C-section scar as a symbol of strength and the incredible journey you've been through. It's a testament to the sacrifices you made for your child's well-being.

Ready to dive deeper into the C-section experience and find tips for healing and confidence? Check out our new article: https://mommyshapeup.com/embrace-c-section-scar-healing-confidence-celebration-motherhood/
Discover how to embrace your C-section scar, promote body positivity, and celebrate the beautiful transformation that is motherhood. #CSectionExperience #EmbraceYourScar #MotherhoodJourney

(Sorry if this is the wrong flair, emotional and nor sure what to do)
My husband was just refused an immigration visa on the basis of Section 212(a)(9)(A)(i) "which prohibits the issuance of a visa to anyone who has been ordered removed upon arrival to the United States ("expedited removal"). You are ineligible to receive a visa for five years from the date you were removed..."
When he was refused entry on a tourist visa ~1.5 year ago, the reason cited was section 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(i) [different code section!] which relates to improper documentation (he was coming on a tourist visa to get married and then return to his country, but they didn't believe him and said he needed to come back with the fiancé visa). Instead we got married abroad and then filed for an immigration visa/green card.
We disclosed the past refusal of entry at every step in the process, and were approved at every stage (regional visa, NVC) - even did the consular interview where he was asked about it and the interviewer said it was fine.
Has anyone dealt with or overcome something like this?!

(SELLING) Accepting Paypal F&F, Cashapp, and will consider DMI points for certain older movies. ​

4K Movies ($4 each, unless specified otherwise)

• Baywatch [Vudu/iTunes]
• Deadpool [iTunes]
• Devotion [Vudu/iTunes]= $6
• Ghost in the Shell (2017) [iTunes]
• Independence Day: Resurgence [iTunes]
• Knives Out [Vudu/iTunes]
• Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens [MA split]
• Star Wars IX: Rise of Skywalker [MA split]
• War for the Planet of the Apes [iTunes] ​

HD MoviesAnywhere [MA] Movies ($3 each, unless specified otherwise)

• Assassin's Creed
• 2Fast2Furious
• Fast Five: Extended Edition
• Furious 7: Extended Edition
• Here Comes the Boom
• 22 Jump Street
• Jurassic World
• Justice League x RWBY Superheroes & Huntsmen Part One= $6
• Men in Black: International
• Minions
• Pitch Perfect
• Pitch Perfect 2
• Planes [split]
• Secret Life of Pets
• Spider-man: Homecoming
• Spider-man: Far From Home
• The Amazing Spider-Man
• The Peanuts Movie
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Venom ​

HD Vudu/iTunes/Google Play [GP] Movies ($2 each, unless specified otherwise) - all Disney GP codes are split

• Antman & the Wasp [GP]
• Avengers: Age of Ultron [GP]
• Avengers: Infinity War [GP]
• Beauty & the Beast (2017 live) [GP]
• Big Hero 6 [GP]
• Black Panther [GP]
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever [GP]= $3
• Call of the Wild [GP]
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier [GP]
• Captain America: Civil War [GP]
• Doctor Strange [GP]
• Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness [GP]= $3
• Eternals [GP]= $3
• Frozen [GP]
• Frozen II [GP]
• Guardians of the Galaxy [GP]
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 [GP]
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation [Vudu/iTunes]
• House of 1000 Corpses 20th Anniversary Edition [Vudu/GP]= $4
• Hunger Games: Catching Fire [Vudu/iTunes/GP]
• Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 [Vudu/iTunes/GP]
• Incredibles 2 [GP]
• Inside Out [GP]
• Iron Man 3 [GP]
• Jungle Cruise [GP]= $3
• Last Knights [Vudu]
• Mary Poppins [GP]
• Mission Impossible 6: Fallout [Vudu/iTunes]
• Moana [GP]
• Monsters University [GP]
• Mulan (2020 live) [GP]
• Nightmare Before Christmas [GP]
• Nobody's Fool [iTunes]
• Oz the Great and Powerful [GP]
• Perks of Being a Wallflower [Vudu/GP]
• Planes [GP]
• Red 2 [Vudu]
• Righteous Thieves [Vudu/iTunes]= $4
• Saban's Power Rangers [Vudu/iTunes/GP]
• Sicario, Wind River, and Hell or High Water [Vudu single code]= $4
• Skyfall [Vudu/GP]
• Sinister [Vudu/iTunes/GP]
• Star Trek: Into Darkness [Vudu/iTunes]
• Star Trek: Beyond [Vudu/iTunes]
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens [GP]
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi [GP]
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker [GP]
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [Vudu/iTunes]
• The Good Dinosaur [GP]
• Thor: The Dark World [GP]
• Thor: Ragnarok [GP]
• Transformers: The Last Knight [iTunes]
• Turning Red [GP]= $3 ​

SD MoviesAnywhere [MA] Movies ($1)

• Resident Evil: Retribution

I am new to Vue and I am working in a company doing some Vue 2.6 projects. (Vue CLI v4, Webpack4, and Not possible to upgrade to Vue 3 due to highly coupled dependencies.)
A senior dev has a recommended guideline, that is to saperate every .vue files' script into a .js file, and then mixed it in with mixin.
For example:
- components - SomeComponent - index.vue - js - index.js
SomeComponent/index.vue
The reason that the senior dev gave is that this way the .vue file will not fill with bunch of scripting functions and so on inside it and make it more clean. The senior dev does not like to scroll up and down.
From what I have learned so far, I prefer not to use mixin this way. I am not too worried about script section will overflow my components, since I split a large component into many smaller components if reasonable. Moreover, I feel akaward to debug / navigate through codes when there are many mixins in a single component that is written by other devs. Esp. I am using VSCode not IDEA, the Ctrl + Click to navigate is not that advanced compare to IDEA.
The senior dev asked me that how do I saperate logic process from the UI. I answered: depends on the situation. I can put logic process inside the component or pinia store actions. Without specific use case, I can not be certain what I will do. I do use mixin for few obvious reusable functions. However, I prefer trying out renderless component to encapsulate reusable login than using mixins.
The senior dev still thinks mixins is the way to go.
I need you, experienced vue developers, to help me to understand what's the benefit of using mixins the way the senior dev is insisting. Is there anything I missed that I should be aware of? Or please help me understand what the senior dev is thinking?
P.S I did have read What About Separation of Concerns?. I like the idea of Single-File Components. But I cannot seem to convince the senior dev to buy the idea.

So, the next arc of the campaign I'm running is meant to be a bit more 'freeform' for the players. We're a newer group, so I did something of a straightforward initial arc (1-3), and the next few levels I plan on putting the party in a section of underpoliced space (Due to the Dawnline conflict). Basically getting contracted by DoJ/HR to provide humanitarian aide in the region, which is code for putting down some petty warlords and local pirates.
The problem is, I either want to spread this across multiple planets or multiple, close-knit stars. The party does have a ship with a size 1 printer (Planning on getting them an upgrade in order to ensure they're able to support the area with enough feedstock to help reindustrialize it). Now, the multiple systems appealed to me due to having more granularity between the combats, but then time-dilation is going to play merry hell with things. Multiple planets will require answers as to why certain areas are more industrialized than others and why cultures haven't really intermixed. I can try and blame lack of ships due to rising tensions prior to the conflict forcing a shift in IPS-N lines, but even then, they'd have local intersystem craft, barring extreme solar activity. This would make a few story elements a little difficult.
Freeform nature is basically letting them pick the jobs they want. Bounty board style, but with story elements in place to hook them towards a certain direction. I am going to be spiking difficulty a little (Been playing with kid gloves as we're all new), with the explanation being that the tyrants/raiders/etc. have been stealing most of the necessary industry and supplies.
Any advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated

So I've posited before and still believe the possibility that the situation is a simulation of sorts.
The residents initial entry into the town mimics the loading of a game, whereby they see a tree fallen across the road - a loading screen, or a starting zone.
The constant links to previous years/ eras is akin to previous patches/ previous iterations of code that affected the town differently.
It also makes sense that the further people go from the town centre, the weirder things get: this literally happened in the initial stages of many procedurally generated game worlds (e.g. early minecraft).
The monsters are quite inhuman in their actions like they are simply following a code - in many situations they seem to be like NPCs, operating like rudimentary AI.
And to the worms: they seem to be something you can be infected with and transmit. And they look like bugs. A virus/ computer "bug".
We see Boyd take this virus that is doing.. something to him, and infect the monsters which is apparently kills, or certainly temporarily disables. This is reminiscent of Neo in the Matrix, infecting agent Smith with a virus.
There's many other aspects that seemingly fit: the voice Jim hears is an admin watching, the house collapsing like the Hunger Games arena is controlled. The diner radio acts as in game music.
It all does seem like a quest that needs to be solved, but the tools are out there. Probably not, but 🤷‍♂️

Here are the threads I scanned, processed, and summarized for my answer on cdkeys.com, sorted by section.
Game key selection
https://www.reddit.com/SteamDeck/comments/11zybc2/is_cd_keys_a_legit_place_to_buy_games_from/
https://www.reddit.com/footballmanagergames/comments/z6260i/legit_or_not_anyone_bought_from_cdkeyscom/
https://www.reddit.com/SteamDeck/comments/10g2phd/cdkeys_alternatives/
https://www.reddit.com/SteamDeck/comments/yqiipn/best_steam_keys_shops/
https://www.reddit.com/Steam/comments/ytrcvh/is_cdkeys_legit/
Pricing and discounts
https://www.reddit.com/FallenOrdecomments/cxfrtl/40_discount_on_cdkeyscom/
https://www.reddit.com/newsandmore/comments/13iapvz/cdkeys_discount_code_deals_4090_off/
https://www.reddit.com/PlayStationPlus/comments/yckvau/be_wary_of_buying_ps_plus_memberships_from_cd_keys/
https://www.reddit.com/newsandmore/comments/133ka4n/cdkeys_discount_code_deals_for_may_2023/
https://www.reddit.com/XboxSeriesX/comments/uwzkha/cdkeys_gamepass_ultimate/
Customer support
https://www.reddit.com/pcgaming/comments/7nnch7/how_much_time_does_it_take_for_cdkeyscom_to_reply/
https://www.reddit.com/playstation/comments/ypu8ms/cdkeyscom_is_now_a_scam_site/
https://www.reddit.com/PlayStationPlus/comments/1047tl5/cdkeys_gave_me_an_invalid_code_and_wont_help_me/
https://www.reddit.com/footballmanagergames/comments/z6260i/legit_or_not_anyone_bought_from_cdkeyscom/
https://www.reddit.com/PlayStationPlus/comments/x3ft7s/cdkeys_not_giving_me_a_refund_for_a_ps_plus_code/
If you like what I'm doing here, try our extension for a wider browsing experience!

Top 5 Updates of the Week:

• Tiktok is testing a AI chatbot to improve user interactions with content.
• Pinterest introduced new platform change to improve their algorithm, the linked post is complex, I will be breaking it all down next week & share a post.
• Youtube is retiring Youtube Stories next month.
• Google added 3 new AI features to Search for all users to access.
• Twitter is asking researchers to pay $42k or delete data it gave them.
• Microsoft published new 41 page report on How to govern AI usage, promoting safe AI usages.

Google:

• Google expands its Digital marketing coaching program for SMBs.
• Google announced new AI marketing tools for SMBs and marketers.
• Google top story badge replaced with Trusted store badges.
• Google search bug caused a huge drop in video traffic.
• Google sitename now support subdomains on mobile.
• Google Bard gains images with more coming soon.
• Google Marketing Live 2023 Event recap for you.

Tiktok:

• TikTok sues Montana to prevent the app ban in the US State.
• Adweek’s new research in how tiktok creators are not getting the same reach as before.

Instagram

• Instagram Search Ads API is now available via Instagram marketing API.
• Instagram will soon allow you to add music to your profile.
• Instagram was down this week and caused people rushing to twitter.

Meta :

• Meta sells Giphy to Shutterstock.
• Meta slashes business teams in final round of layoffs.
• 1.2 Billion euro fine is now issued for Facebook as a result of EUPB binding decision.
• Meta introduces promotional ads for Ecommerce deals.
• Meta is about to limit how it uses Ad data in UK after UK antitrust forces them.
• Meta’s open-source speech AI recognises 4,000 global languages.

Twitter:

• Twitter bot situation is getting out of hands.
• Twitter is likely to opt out of EU code against disinformation.
• Twitter is working on a “video for you” section to promote video content.
• Twitter announced a new API pricing to help startups use Twitter at a reasonable flat rate.
• Twitter Adds new Playback speed control features for Video.

YouTube:

• Youtube shares their insights on Youtube algorithm for creators.
• Youtube launched Quiz posts on iOS and web.
• Youtube starts a weekly series on Intro to Live shopping.
• Youtube community posts feature is now available to all channels.

LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn Added 5 new Insights-backed features to Sales navigator.
• LinkedIn launched new security features: verified job posting & message alerts.

Snapchat:

• Snapchat reaches 200M Active users in India.
• Snapchat enhanced AR try-on tools as it continues to grow its AR capabilities.

Reddit:

• Reddit shared new insights about how new apps are discovered through daily App discussions.
• Reddit users are getting spam followers due to an ongoing spam campaign.

Advertising:

• Walmart working on providing Ad creative services to advertisers of all sizes.
• Lebron james joins Taco bell for “Taco Tuesday” trademark campaign.
• Disney & booking (com) making a huge spark with their new campaign.

Sales:

• Amazon’s Generative AI sales playbook got leaked.

Microsoft & AI

• Bing integrates itself with ChatGPT.
• Bing chat doubles chat character limit.

Pinterest:

• Many Platforms say they have Gen-Z using their app. But Pinterest shuffle is getting the real love.

Marketing:

• Discord gets custom streaming deck hardware and a big plug-in upgrade.
• Monday .com announces new integration with Microsoft teams.
• Neeva search engine, acquired by Snowflake after going private last week.
• MrBeast’s feastables brand is now available in every 7/11 in US.
• Peloton working on their new identity of more than a bike company.

What are your thoughts on all these recent updates and changes?
PS: You can ask for links and subscribe to the weekly newsletter (link in my bio) for next week’s recap.

{ convertedCurrency: "USD", originalCurrency: "USD", report: […] } 

Top 5 Updates of the Week:

• Tiktok is testing a AI chatbot to improve user interactions with content.
• Pinterest introduced new platform change to improve their algorithm, the linked post is complex, I will be breaking it all down next week & share a post.
• Youtube is retiring Youtube Stories next month.
• Google added 3 new AI features to Search for all users to access.
• Twitter is asking researchers to pay $42k or delete data it gave them.
• Microsoft published new 41 page report on How to govern AI usage, promoting safe AI usages.

Google:

• Google expands its Digital marketing coaching program for SMBs.
• Google announced new AI marketing tools for SMBs and marketers.
• Google top story badge replaced with Trusted store badges.
• Google search bug caused a huge drop in video traffic.
• Google sitename now support subdomains on mobile.
• Google Bard gains images with more coming soon.
• Google Marketing Live 2023 Event recap for you.

Tiktok:

• TikTok sues Montana to prevent the app ban in the US State.
• Adweek’s new research in how tiktok creators are not getting the same reach as before.

Instagram

• Instagram Search Ads API is now available via Instagram marketing API.
• Instagram will soon allow you to add music to your profile.
• Instagram was down this week and caused people rushing to twitter.

Meta :

• Meta sells Giphy to Shutterstock.
• Meta slashes business teams in final round of layoffs.
• 1.2 Billion euro fine is now issued for Facebook as a result of EUPB binding decision.
• Meta introduces promotional ads for Ecommerce deals.
• Meta is about to limit how it uses Ad data in UK after UK antitrust forces them.
• Meta’s open-source speech AI recognises 4,000 global languages.

Twitter:

• Twitter bot situation is getting out of hands.
• Twitter is likely to opt out of EU code against disinformation.
• Twitter is working on a “video for you” section to promote video content.
• Twitter announced a new API pricing to help startups use Twitter at a reasonable flat rate.
• Twitter Adds new Playback speed control features for Video.

YouTube:

• Youtube shares their insights on Youtube algorithm for creators.
• Youtube launched Quiz posts on iOS and web.
• Youtube starts a weekly series on Intro to Live shopping.
• Youtube community posts feature is now available to all channels.

LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn Added 5 new Insights-backed features to Sales navigator.
• LinkedIn launched new security features: verified job posting & message alerts.

Snapchat:

• Snapchat reaches 200M Active users in India.
• Snapchat enhanced AR try-on tools as it continues to grow its AR capabilities.

Reddit:

• Reddit shared new insights about how new apps are discovered through daily App discussions.
• Reddit users are getting spam followers due to an ongoing spam campaign.

Advertising:

• Walmart working on providing Ad creative services to advertisers of all sizes.
• Lebron james joins Taco bell for “Taco Tuesday” trademark campaign.
• Disney & booking (com) making a huge spark with their new campaign.

Sales:

• Amazon’s Generative AI sales playbook got leaked.

Microsoft & AI

• Bing integrates itself with ChatGPT.
• Bing chat doubles chat character limit.

Pinterest:

• Many Platforms say they have Gen-Z using their app. But Pinterest shuffle is getting the real love.

Marketing:

• Discord gets custom streaming deck hardware and a big plug-in upgrade.
• Monday .com announces new integration with Microsoft teams.
• Neeva search engine, acquired by Snowflake after going private last week.
• MrBeast’s feastables brand is now available in every 7/11 in US.
• Peloton working on their new identity of more than a bike company.

What are your thoughts on all these recent updates and changes?
PS: You can ask for links and subscribe to the weekly newsletter for next week’s recap.

Chime Bank is a branch-less mobile bank that allows people to manage their money on the go! The bank eliminates hidden fees, where you'll never have to pay for monthly fees, overdraft fees (up to $100), foreign transaction fees, and minimum required balances! What's even better about Chime is that you'll receive your direct deposit up to two days earlier! That's right, two days earlier! To sweeten the deal, Chime is also rewarding you $50 when you direct deposit $200+ into the checking account! So what are you waiting for? Sign up for Chime Bank and you'll be able to access direct deposit/paychecks earlier without running into any hidden fees! On top of that, you'll receive $50!
If you're interested in signing up for Chime Bank, please do the following:
1) Comment $bid in the comment section and I'll message you my referral code.
2) Create an account using my link and direct deposit $200+ within forty-five days into the free checking account. In addition, you can ACH push from various banks $200 that will count as a direct deposit!
3) Once your direct deposit goes through, you'll receive $100 from Chime Bank. Message me your username/e-mail address used to create the account and I'll PayPal/Cashapp/Venmo you $25!
Terms of Service
I have other /signupforpay posts available. Consider checking them out!

Chime Bank is a branch-less mobile bank that allows people to manage their money on the go! The bank eliminates hidden fees, where you'll never have to pay for monthly fees, overdraft fees (up to $100), foreign transaction fees, and minimum required balances! What's even better about Chime is that you'll receive your direct deposit up to two days earlier! That's right, two days earlier! To sweeten the deal, Chime is also rewarding you $50 when you direct deposit $200+ into the checking account! So what are you waiting for? Sign up for Chime Bank and you'll be able to access direct deposit/paychecks earlier without running into any hidden fees! On top of that, you'll receive $50!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Vani, Venlil Surgeon
Date [Standard Human Reckoning]: 2136-10-22
Secluded in the comfort of our cabin, I found myself savoring the rare moments of peace with Johan. The bustling camp did not afford us the luxury of privacy, and this precious pocket of calmness felt like a gift. Lying on the bed together, we did not feel the need to fill the silence with words or engage in any couple of activities. I felt an inherent satisfaction in just lying there together.
"Vani," Johan's voice filled the quiet cabin.
"Johan."
"I'm... I'm afraid of going back," he confessed.
I considered his words before asking, "Do you have many friends back in Jakarta?"
His gaze stayed on the ceiling as he replied, "Other than Snop... not. I guess, in a twisted way, that's a kind of luck?"
I watched as he rolled onto his side to face me, his eyes searching mine. "I count myself beyond fortunate to have met you." His fingers stroked my mane. His light touch felt heavy and comforting. "Even if we were in Jakarta when they implemented the quota they would have let me evacuate with you."
For a while, we just lay there, appreciating each other, our silent exchanges speaking volumes.
When we arrived at the ship, it was still the second or third hour of the day. I forgot when I fell asleep, but Johan's alarm woke us up the same. When we stepped out of our cabin, we found Tresn and the siblings lounging in the common area. Tresn now had the prostheses in his paws. The device twitched every now and there. Meanwhile, the siblings were engrossed in their thoughts or busy with their pads.
In the common area, we had our first meal aboard the vessel. We sat near the window, our portal to the world outside. Through the clear pane, the black water merged with the black sky, and I felt like being suspended in a void. Yet, despite this sense of absolute stillness, the ship flew above the water at a speed above fifty meters per second. Sometime after we had cleared our plates, our surrounding transformed. The sun, breaking the confines of the horizon, began its ascent. Although we were facing away from this bright ball in the sky, its effect was no less mesmerizing. Dawn overtook the black sky. First, the once pitch-black sky took on a shade of deep purple. A transition to an intense, deep red followed it soon after.
Perhaps two or three hours after the sunrise, the coastline of Cirebon began to emerge, peeking out from the edge of the horizon. Its unblemished skyline shone in stark contrast to the devastation reported in Jakarta.
Elangkasa joined us in the common area before we landed.
"Hi folks." They greeted me. "So, I might have forgotten to tell you all that you'll go to Purwakarta Sector 12 as volunteers."
"We don't mind." Said Johan. "I'm glad if I can be of help."
Elangkasa then briefed us on our job in Purwakarta Sector 12, Bolad and I would join the health workers. Johan and Cynthio had put aside their differences, nodding in agreement when Elangkasa assigned them to service and maintain the drones for rescue. Snop agreed when they asked her for help in construction with her skills in operating machining tools.
The armed forces had commandeered this once bustling commercial hub and had transformed it into a temporary base and staging area just like in Banjarmasin. Once we disembarked, Bolad and I joined Johan in his van again. A map of the region appeared on the dashboard. A red pinpoint marked the ovation where the bomb fell and a circle around it, the area of effect.
My classes both in Venlil Prime and Earth did not teach me about orbital bombardment and here I learned that one needs to get into a bunker in times like this. Because, for tens of kilometers, the bomb would heat the air to the point of causing tissue damage. The map showed a region where you will face severe burn injury if you stayed outside when the explosion happened. Amid the circle depicting the zones of devastation, one stark red marker pulsated with disconcerting energy. It lay within the severe heat zone. Its constant glow commanded my immediate attention.
"Johan," I ventured, pointing at the glaring red marker that almost seemed to taunt us, "That red marker there is your home, is it not?"
His eyes shifted from the barren road to the display, taking in the red beacon that represented his home. "Yeah…" He let out a sigh, heavy with desolation within the confines of the vehicle. "I wonder what's left of that house now."
As we drew nearer to the affected area, I steeled myself for the scenes of destruction. However, the buildings seemed to have withstood the assault better than I expected. Of course, we could see the scars of the attack, the shockwave shattered windows and some structures had superficial cracks. A general sense of disarray permeated our surroundings, but the core structures stood against the odds.
Cities and towns dotting the outskirts of the Greater Jakarta Province had been retrofitted with camps to accommodate the droves of displaced people emerging from the ruins of the once-thriving metropolis. In recent days, the tide has started to turn. Able-bodied survivors moved back towards their shattered homes, driven by the urge to reclaim and restore what they could salvage from the debris.
Our journey led us to the city of Purwakarta, a place I remembered from a past excursion with Johan. We had once visited the city's reservoir, taking in the tranquil beauty of the idyllic landscape. The city has changed now. A bustling hive of activity transformed the city as it took refuge for those fleeing the destruction.
Because of the scale of the destruction, we didn't have a single "camp" as we had for the gojids. The refugee districts were divided into Sectors. We pulled into sector twelve as the midday sun reached its zenith, casting almost no shadow on the ground. Prefabricated buildings of varying sizes formed an ordered chaos across the city's outskirts.
Everywhere we looked, people occupied themselves in a frenzy of activity. Here, soldiers oversaw the transport of food and materials. There, health workers moved to check from the habitation unit to the habitation unit. Engineers collaborate with helper and builder drones to perform maintenance and construction. All around, people took on roles they never imagined they would, united by the common goal of survival and restoration.
Despite the dire circumstances, the humans put on determined faces. Humans made the majority of camp inhabitants, but I spotted two arxurs here, their imposing presence always accompanied by a human minder. Both of them shot a look in disgust at Tresn, while humans looked at the defector with an equal part of concern and curiosity.
Elangkasa led us through the camp. First, we passed the engineering quarter where my human and the siblings parted from us. Another trip led us to the medical complex, where we saw medical personnel moving with well-practiced efficiency to care for the injured. A conglomeration of tents and prefabricated buildings all bearing the red crystal symbol made up the hospital. The bustle here felt different, it had an undercurrent of urgency threaded through the ordered chaos.
At the entrance of the hospital's administration building a zurulian had waited for us. Her short stature did not deter us. Upon noticing us, however, her expression turned sour.
"I have a feeling I'm not supposed to be here." Said Tresn. "Maybe... I can get to the habitation unit?"
"You need some help with physiotherapy. Can you bring him there, Elangkasa?" said Bolad.
"Yeah, take that to a human health worker. I'm not going to treat it." The zurulian said with a huff.
"I am Bolad, and this is Vani." The gojid introduced ourselves.
"I'm Rawan, the medical Coordinator for Sector Twelve, Shift Two."
My stomach rumbled, a reminder that it was midday, mealtime according to Earth's cycle.
Sensing my discomfort, Rawan commented. "Hungry already? Well, we are on a lunch break right now. Follow me," leading us away from the hospital administration.
According to the map, there exist two dining areas, located far from each other. The one Rawan brought us to, served plant-based meals for species with a herbivorous diet, the other was where arxurs and their human minders feast.
Stepping into the hall felt comforting. It felt as if an invisible barrier dampened the harsh sounds of the bustling camp outside, replaced by the familiar din of a busy dining hall. Members of Federation species, like us, gathered here. I saw zurulians, colleagues of Dr. Rawan, along with several gojids who had responded to the call for assistance in the rescue, relief, and rebuilding efforts.
The dining procedure here was not like what we had at the camp. Instead of autonomous carts coming around to deliver our meals, we had to stand in line. Humans manned the serving counters, dishing out meals onto trays as we moved along. The menu today consists of a stir-fried noodle and rice combination, named "Nasi Mawut".
After getting our portions, we selected an empty table, the tantalizing taste in the air from our tray deepened my hunger and anticipation. We set down our trays, and with a collective eagerness, took our seats.
"To be honest," Rawan began, her gaze sweeping over the crowded dining hall before returning to her meal, "This is often the highlight of my day here." She gestured towards her plate and scoffed, "Imagine that, I, a zurulian, looking forward to a predator's meal."
"To be fair," I retorted, "this meal is not prepared from ingredients they acquired from hunting."
Rawan chuckled a high-keening sound that made her sound like she was in distress. "Sometimes," she mused, her eyes thoughtful as she poked at her food, "I do wonder why they feel the need to consume flesh when they can subsist on meals such as these."
Not wanting to engage in a sensitive debate with a superior officer we had just met, I opted for silence, focusing instead on the pleasant taste of the Nasi Mawut before us.
A voice broke the quiet chatter around us. A gojid, appearing youthful by their standards, made his way toward our table with a casual gait. A broad smile adorned his face as he acknowledged us. "Hey, doctors! Fancy seeing you here again."
"Greetings," Bolad replied with a courteous nod. "I hope the presence of arxurs has not caused you undue distress?"
I looked at the gojid's hip and saw a familiar scar. I recognized him as the one gored by the sheep back at the camp.
A robust laugh escaped from the gojid, his face brightening up. He waved off Bolad's concerns, "No worries, Doc. We've got a human minder assigned to us to keep those predators in check. And we also have a buddy system, safety in numbers, you know."
"That is good to hear," Bolad responded. Although my facial annotator had learned a lot about gojids' gestures and expressions, it kept interpreting Bolad's emotion as a blank.
A small device strapped to the gojid's wrist chirped. The gojid glanced at it before looking back up to us with a swift nod. "Ah, duty calls. Well, it was nice chatting with you, Doc!" With that, he swung around, his round figure merging with the crowd as he strode towards the exit.
Once the gojid departed, Rawan, Bolad, and I continued to sit and chat over the remains of our meal. Bolad and I shared stories about our experiences in the gojid camp in Kalimantan. The pervasive sound of a resounding announcement filled the hall, halting our exchange. An impersonal voice echoed from the overhead speakers.
"Shift Two! Your break time will be over in ten minutes. I repeat. Shift Two! Your break time will be over in ten minutes." The forceful announcement marked the conclusion of our pause, a reminder of the tasks that awaited us.
"Well, that's our cue," the medical coordinator announced, getting up from her seat. Her hands reached for her tray but having to maneuver in bipedal mode made the action seem awkward.
"Allow me," I offered, reaching for her tray to assist. "I'll carry it to the collection point."
"Thank you," she responded.
As I made my way to the collection point, Bolad engaged Rawan in a conversation. "How many shifts are there in a day?" he queried.
Rawan turned to Bolad. "We work with a four-shift rotation. The humans initially wanted three, due to their unusual stamina," she explained.
Once we discarded the tray Rawan led us back to the medical complex of Sector Twelve.
"Our main goal here is to offer immediate care to the injured and aid in their recovery." She started when we passed the gate of the medical complex.
Rawan gestured towards a cluster of tents assembled off to the side. A perpetual flurry of activity surrounded them as people carried patients in and out on stretchers. "These are our triage tents," Rawan explained. "New patients are first brought here for evaluation. Depending on the severity of their injuries, they are then dispatched to the appropriate sections for treatment. Bolad, you'll be stationed here. Your expertise in general medicine will be invaluable in assessing patients."
Our tour continued, taking us through the maze of the field hospital. We walked past prefabricated structures, erected with solid synthetic materials.
"These," Rawan proclaimed, her paw sweeping towards the buildings, "are our operating theaters. We haven't been able to install remote surgical facilities. Though, given your preference, that shouldn't be an issue..."
"I do favor direct surgery," I confessed, revealing a bit of my past.
Rawan halted, her sharp gaze taking both of us in. Her snout was positioned between Bolad and me looking at us from her peripheral vision. "I've reviewed both of your files," she said, focusing her attention on me. "I've worked with your kind before. You have your use in times and places like this."
Neither Bolad nor I questioned her use of the term "your kind", but we all know what she implied here.
"Now, it's time for you to report to your stations," Rawan instructed us, her tone leaving no room for debate. "The human health workers already in the field will brief you on the specific protocols we've established here."
The moment I crossed the threshold into the operating theater, I was confronted with an open fracture. The sterile operating rooms of the past, where I donned a vacuum suit to prevent my fur from contaminating the environment, seemed a world away. Here, a disposable robe was all that separated me from my patient. I plunged into hours of repairing human bodies, and I feel more useful than I had ever felt before. As valuable as my previous role of determining causes of death was, I feel a satisfying gratification in saving lives.
As I immersed myself in the demanding tasks of the medical field, my mind sometimes drifted toward Bolad. While my duties were straightforward, applying proven techniques and procedures, Bolad grappled with the daunting responsibility of determining the course of our patient's treatment. His role dictated the trajectory of their recovery or, in the worst cases, their demise. The magnitude of such a responsibility could be soul-crushing, and I wished that it did not burden him.
Before I knew it, a new team arrived ready for me to hand over my job to them. The end of our shift brought us to a prefabricated habitation unit, a space similar to our quarters in the camp. Due to spatial constraints, the unit contained three bunk beds instead of the usual row of mattresses.
When Bolad and I arrived at our living quarters, we found Johan, the siblings, and Tresn already present. They all gathered around a table, engrossed in a spirited card game.
"Vani! Bolad!" Johan looked up from his hand of cards, a warm smile spreading across his face. "How was your day?"
Bolad answered before I could. "I had to watch people die."
A stark silence filled the air. Johan's smile faltered as he bit his lip.
"Bolad was assigned to the triage area," I clarified, stepping in to defuse the tension.
"But you can request a rotation if the stress becomes too much," I offered, directing my words at Bolad as I hoisted myself onto an unoccupied chair. "What about you two?" I inquired, shifting the focus onto Johan and his siblings.
"We had to program the drones and-" Johan began, but Cynthio interrupted his explanation.
"They removed all the restrictions," Cynthio said. "We got to work with unrestricted synthetic intelligence! What we had to do felt less like programming and more like... talking with them." The joy and excitement on Cynthio's face were obvious even without my facial annotator.
Tresn placed a card onto the pile in the middle of the table, interjecting a question that caught us off guard. "By the way… how difficult is it to get to Sector Ten?"
"You could walk there if you wanted. Why do you ask?" Johan responded, curious about the sudden interest in another sector.
"There's someone I want to meet," Tresn admitted, a hint of hesitation in his voice.
"Hmm…" Snop considered, tilting her head. "We have about two or three hours before the breaking of the fast. How did you come to know this person?"
"The Internet," Tresn replied.
"Oh…" Snop replied, her face attempting to maintain neutrality and almost failing.
Intrigued by Tresn's unexpected online connection, we decided to accompany him on the short journey to Sector Ten. Leaving our habitation unit, we found ourselves navigating the ad hoc alleyways of Camp Sectors. Humans of all ages hustled past us, their faces a mosaic of determination and sorrow, each one bearing the weight of rebuilding amidst the ruins.
The further we ventured towards Sector Ten, the more conspicuous the increase in the arxurs' presence became. Given their nocturnal tendencies, I surmised that most Arxurs preferred anything but the second shifts.
Upon reaching the main plaza of Sector Ten, Tresn pulled out his pad, fingers dancing over the screen to access a social media site. I saw intensity in his actions, as he engaged in a private chat with a rapid succession of texts. He scanned his surrounding and his instinctive predatory gaze locked onto a specific figure in the bustling crowd, a human who was also looking around. An arxur shadowed him, their movements synchronized as if orchestrated by a shared rhythm.
Tresn wheeled first and we followed him toward the pair, our formation taking on a semi-circular shape around them. The human had close-cropped curly hair and his upper revealed his arm. A band covered his right arm and there was something off about the rest of that limb. The skin looked too smooth.
"Wait…" Snop, ever the observant one, pointed a finger toward the human, her voice laced with recognition. "I think… I know you."
The human responded by pointing back at Snop. "Aren't you Snowpaws?"
She nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, and you're… Jagomerah?"
A smile of confirmation danced on the human's lips. "Yeah."
Johan, who had been watching the interaction unfold, broke into a musing grin, "Jagomerah… that has to be a screen name," he remarked, shifting his gaze toward Tresn.
"Tresn," Johan began, an amused undertone in his voice, "You have been chatting with furries haven't you?"
"Scallies." Both Snop and Jagomerah corrected.

World of Warcraft’s latest Race to World First has ended, which means it’s time for another Hobbydrama post! Watching this season’s race, I was really worried that nothing truly drama-worthy would happen, things were pretty smooth for most of it. The gods of WoW must have heard my prayers, however, because right at the race’s end an incident, long-feared but never realized, finally came to pass.
If you’ve read any of my three previous posts on World of Warcraft’s Race to World First, then you’ve seen something mentioned about North America’s “Head Start”. I always put off talking about it because it never really mattered. Well strap in folks, because it finally mattered. Big time.
This is a story of timing, about what happens when two competitors aren’t playing under quite the same rules, and about what “fair” really means in a competition that was never really meant to be a competition.
Background
Released in 2004, the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) is one of the most successful videogames of all time. Players create characters to do battle in the fictional world of Azeroth, a kitchen-sink fantasy setting where players fight dragons, gods, lovecraftian horrors, and each other. The game is heavily multiplayer focused, with pretty much all of the most difficult content in the game requiring a coordinated group of players to participate in. One of the most popular things to do in World of Warcraft is raiding.
Raiding and the Race to World First
A raid, in simplest terms, is a mega-dungeon consisting of a series of bosses that are designed to be tackled by groups of ~20 players. They are generally completed over weeks or months by organized guilds of players, who get together at scheduled times 2-3 days per week to try and work their way through them.
Raids are designed as a cooperative activity, but as with all things, some players got into enough to turn it into a competition. For WoW’s most elite players, it has become a race, the race to beat the Raid first.
While the Race for World First (RWF) has been around since WoW began, it really exploded in popularity in 2019 when top guilds started streaming their attempts. Whenever a new Raid is released, top guilds take time off work and play 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week, desperately pushing to become the very first ones to defeat the final boss of the Raid on the highest difficulty, called Mythic. Hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in to watch them stream their attempts on Twitch. While a number of teams compete, for years the top two teams have been Liquid (based in the US and led by Max) and Echo (based in the EU and led by Scripe).
Abberus, the Shadow Crucible
The newest raid, Abberus the Shadow Crucible, unlocked on May 9th of this year. Like the raid before it, they released every difficulty of raid simultaneously (as opposed to previous years where there was a week delay for the hardest difficulty). This once again meant that the top guilds spent most of first three days grinding gear through a nightmarishly boring process known as “split raiding”, something I covered exhaustively (and exhaustingly) in my last post.
What was more interesting, however, was that a few less competitive guilds went straight into Mythic and actually did pretty well, downing the first three or four bosses before the top guilds even set foot inside.
This wasn’t an anomaly, either - as Liquid and Echo would soon discover, Abberus was a surprisingly easy raid, the easiest in living memory. Bosses were falling over quickly, really quickly.
Now, this isn’t hugely surprising - the last race ended in disaster because it has been too hard from the start, so an overcorrection on the developer’s part seemed almost inevitable. Easy bosses also doesn’t equal an easy race - you’re competing against others, so what really matters is beating them fast.
A Rivalry Renewed
The top two guilds in the RWF for years have been Echo and Liquid. Liquid won their first race back in early 2020, the first time a team from North America had ever won a modern race. This was, at the time, chalked up by many European fans as a fluke owing to their ‘21st man’ strategy that other guilds soon copied. However, Liquid then won the next race as well, Castle Nathria, cementing their place as a RWF powerhouse.
That would be their last win for a while, however - Echo, inheritors to the European RWF dynasty, went on to beat them in all of the next three races - Sanctum of Domination, Sepulcher of the First Ones, and Vault of the Incarnates all went to Echo. It was starting to look like maybe Liquid’s success would be short lived.
Then, in Abberus, Liquid won.
(What, you thought I was going to do some long buildup? Really tease it out, have you on the edge of your seat about what the outcome will be? Sorry to disappoint, but like I said, the raid was pretty easy and drama free, not a ton to talk about before the last boss.)
Liquid were the first to reach Scalecommander Sarkareth and the first to kill him, downing the boss around 18:00 UTC on Monday, May 15th. Echo would kill kim the same day, just before midnight, about six hours after Echo.
And that’s when the RWF community exploded.
What do you mean Liquid got a Head Start?
To understand what I’m about to discuss, we need to make one thing really clear: the Race for World First isn’t an official in-game event. The developer, Blizzard, does not (officially) sanction it or (officially) make any allowances for it. Unofficially, they pay extra attention during the race and try to fix any bugs or balance issues that crop up more quickly than usual, and they absolutely benefit from the free publicity, but unlike things like Dungeon or PVP tournaments that are run by Blizzard and held on a tournament realm, the Race for World first is an entirely grassroots event.
The reason this matters has to do with patch timings. See, Blizzard is a US-based company. While they directly control their North American (NA) servers, servers in other regions like the Europe (EU) and Oceania have their own subsidiaries and partners that maintain them.
When new content is added to the game, it is done so via a patch, an update. During patches the servers go offline for maintenance. As such, you generally want patches to happen when the fewest players are online. In North America, that means patches are usually done on a weekday morning, while most of your players are at work/school; it’s also timed such that, if problems arise, the developers have all day to fix them without having to stay at work late.
Thanks to timezones, however, the best time to patch varies based on where in the world you are. In North America, patches happen on Tuesday at 10:00 am eastern. That’s 4:00 pm in Germany, however, right when everyone is logging on for the evening. As such, rather than rolling out patches at the same time as the NA and inconveniencing players and developers alike, the EU servers instead wait until the following morning to patch.
For most content patches, that isn’t a big deal, it’s a minor delay that affects nothing. For the RWF, however, in effect it gives North America a ~12 hour head start on the race.
If you’re like most new fans of the RWF, you’re probably thinking “okay, North America gets a 12 hour head start, so just give European guilds a 12 hour handicap, problem solved, right?” Unfortunately for everyone involved (except for degenerates like you and I who enjoy fandom drama), it’s not that simple.
How Useful is the Head Start, Really?
So the thing is, having a head start…it’s not a bad thing, per se, it doesn’t actively hurt you, but it doesn’t help nearly as much as you think it would. There’s a couple reasons for this:

1. One of the most challenging and skilltesting part of the Race for World First is strategizing, coming up with clever ways to defeat bosses. However, this is really only that hard for the first guild to kill a boss - once someone figures out a strategy that works, everyone who comes after can simply copy the first guild’s strategy, maybe even improve on it. As a result, whoever gets there first has to spend a lot of time doing trial and error to figure out a winning strategy, time no one else has to spend.
2. Bugs and balance issues are both extremely common in the Race for World First (as anyone who followed either of the last two races is well aware). More often than not, a race will have at least one boss who is pretty much unkillable when you reach him, either because the developers tuned him to be too difficult or because one of his mechanics is glitched and doesn’t work correctly. Blizzard doesn’t generally figure this out until a guild actually attempts the boss and discovers the issue, however, so whoever is in the lead has to waste even more time basically doing glorified QA for the developers.

As a result, while the start may look like it’s 12 hours long, in reality a lot, if not most, of that time gets eaten away over the course of the week(s).
On top of this, there’s a lot of other stuff in the RWF that’s not really “fair”, stuff you wouldn’t include if you were trying to design the competition from scratch to ensure the most skilled team always won. To name a few:

1. Variability in gear drops
2. Fluctuating server stability
3. Fans who donate money, time, and gear to their favorite guild
4. Hotfix timing (like the one that decided the last race)

Basically, the head start is just one issue among many, and far from the most impactful. What’s more, there’s no way to objectively quantify what impact it does have in a way that would be fair to everyone.
The thing is, up to this point, it had never actually been an issue. In theory, even if you think North America benefits fully from the 12 hour head start, it only matters if they win by less than 12 hours. Before Abberus, that had never happened before - both of North America’s wins were by at least a day.
In this latest race, however, their margin of victory was, for the first time, smaller, just over 6 hours.
Now, the general agreement between the top Guilds is that World First is World First; whoever kills the last boss first wins, period. When Liquid killed the final boss, Echo immediately pinned a “Congrats on the win Liquid” in their Twitch chat, acknowledging their win and conceding the race.
Thanks to this, all of Echo’s fans agreed that Liquid had won fair and square and congratulated them on a race well won.
Just kidding, they lost their fucking minds.
The Response
From what I could tell, most Echo fans were actually very sportsmanlike and reasonable, as was Echo itself (mostly - more on that later). However, thanks to the magic of algorithms, the most angry and controversial posts get the most visibility so there was no shortage of outraged Echo fans crying foul, saying Liquid only won because of their head start.
Here’s a few examples from the World First megathread over on /wow:

EU better as usual but NA gets the free early start pass because they're worse.
calling neck in neck with the massive headstart lmao. cope harder
Gratz Echo world first, killed within the NA headstart

Part of the drama was fueled by the fact that, the night before their kill, Liquid stopped streaming. See, most of the race is streamed on Twitch, for clout and those sweet, sweet advertising dollars, but Liquid, just as they were reaching the last phase of the last boss, turned their stream off for a few hours. During this time Echo also began the last phase, which they, unlike Liquid, streamed.
The reason Liquid went dark became clear the next morning when they started pulling again on stream. They had developed a really unique and clever strategy for managing the last phase of the boss, involving using careful timing and certain classes having immunity ability to basically skip a huge damage section and make the entire thing much safer and faster. They stopped streaming while they practiced the strategy because they were worried that, if Echo saw it, they would copy it and then kill the boss while Liquid slept.
Their fears weren’t unfounded. Upon seeing Liquid’s strategy, Echo tried to incorporate it, but by then it was too late, and Liquid killed the boss first. Some Echo fans saw this as fuel for the narrative that the head start does in fact matter.
The funny thing is that Liquid actually borrowed the “turning off the stream to protect a clever strategy” move from Echo, who had done the exact same thing against Sire Denathrius back in 2020 in a (failed) attempt to win that race.
As for Echo’s response to the whole debacle, it was congratulatory and respectful of Liquid but still pretty salty about the whole thing. After the race, Scripe, the Echo raidleader, said on his stream:

What a shit tier man…this was a good global release tilt for sure. It was fucking bad…the game is just not good, that’s what it is. Well played Liquid, but bad game Blizzard. That’s the TLDR of this whole tier… it really is a bad game in terms of competitiveness. It’s all about who gets first, and it’s not great to start late, it sucks.

Speaking personally as a Liquid fan, I have to agree with Scripe. Liquid played great and deserved the win, but it’s still frustrating for Echo, and for fans of the race in general, to have this clear issue of start times muddying the waters. It’s not an easy fix, however; Blizzard could open the raid simultaneously for everyone, but, due to how gearing and weekly resets works, that would only solve the problem if every race finished in the first week (unless they permanently moved to a global reset and patch time, which then complicates things for everyone else). The other option would be to move the race onto a tournament realm and make it an official event, but that would fundamentally change the event in a way a lot of people aren’t on board with.
Other Drama
While the head start was by far the most glaring and discussed bit of drama in this race, there’s a few other juicy tidbits that bear mentioning.
First, this race saw the best performance from a non-Liquid/Echo guild in years, with Method making a really strong showing and only being a few hours behind Echo. If you’ve read my previous post about Method, then you, like me, probably have pretty complicated feelings about this. (TL;DR from that post is that Method used to be the top Guild in the world until a MeToo scandal fractured the organization - Echo was formed mostly out of the raiders that left Method following the scandal). On one hand, it’s a great comeback story, and honestly it would be nice if the RWF was a bit more competitive, rather than always being the same two teams. On the other hand, Method fell from grace because one of their members was a sexual predator, something that there’s strong evidence Method leadership was at least somewhat aware of and did nothing about until it started giving them bad press. As far as I know several of the people who were in charge at that time are still there in leadership positions, so I’m not exactly rooting for them.
Another major complaint about this race was the tuning - as I mentioned before, this raid was the easiest in a long time. Blizzard once again released Mythic alongside Heroic and Normal, which meant the first three days of the race were in miserable splits. Once Echo and Liquid started Mythic, it only took them another three days to clear the race, so they spent as much time grinding gear as they did actually progressing. The total pulls for the entire raid were actually less than the number of pulls it took to kill just Halondrus, a single mid-raid boss from two raids ago. RogerBrown, Echo’s co-GM, tweeted:

Very weird race this time. This raid was probably the worst tuned one since Emerald Nightmare [note: Emerald Nightmare was a raid from 2016 that took less than 24 hours start to finish]. 3 days of splits, for just 3 days of progress aint fun. I would take Sepulcher over these 'bosses' any day. [note: Sepulcher is that race that took 3 weeks and broke a lot of world first racers’ will to live]

A much funnier bit of drama involved another one of Echo’s players, Gingi. Before the race, he shittalked Liquid’s raidleader via tweet, saying “I hope you beat Method this time!” (basically saying “good luck getting second place”). After their loss, Gingi tweeted:

Still amazes me how people can’t have a civil discussion and see things from both sides. Actually got so much brain rot reading the most stupid takes. People saying perfect tuning for this tier is one of them. 2.5 days of mythic progress. Same amount of time on splits.

Many fans were quick to point out the hypocrisy of complaining about a lack of civility in discussions, then in the very next sentence referring to those you don’t agree with as having ‘brain rot’. There’s a whole reddit thread about the tweet exchange that’s pretty entertaining.
Takeaways
Overall this was a pretty fun race. It was nice to see Liquid take a race off Echo; even if you’re not a Liquid fan, competition is always more fun when it feels like there’s multiple parties that could win. While the tuning wasn’t great, the bosses themselves were still fairly interesting, and there weren’t any serious bugs that made everything grind to a halt like in several previous races.
At the same time, however, this race has added fuel to the fire for fans demanding a global release for the raid, to fix North America’s head start. I don’t think I’ve properly explained just how annoying the whole thing is for fans of the race - the head start itself is frustrating, but even more so the fact that it dominates the conversation. Every single race people complain about it, talk about how it’s not really fair. It can feel like the only thing anyone ever talks about… and that was before a race had ever been (theoretically) decided by it. Now that NA has won by less than the head start, the complaining is only going to get worse.
We’ll see what, if anything, Blizzard does about this moving forward (my money is on ‘nothing’ but I’m prepared to be surprised).
Thanks for reading, and huge shoutout to Starym, his coverage of the race was really helpful in finding quotes and timings for everything

The mayor has released her budget proposal here:
https://city-medford-ma-budget-book.cleargov.com/10331/budget-overview/personnel-changes
Quick Highlights (Mostly On Revenue)

• While the city budget has been released, the school budget is not released yet. The section on the website says "To the best of the Mayor's recollection this is the earlier that the City Council has received the proposed budget in her 22 years in office. The School Committee is working in partnership with the District Administration to finalize the FY23 Medford Schools Budget and will deliver it to the Council shortly. A Public Budget Hearing will be held on June 5th at City Hall and via zoom to discuss all aspects of the budget, gauge public input and feedback, as well as answer questions."
• They aren't considering the watesewer enterprise fund line item to be part of the total. This means that the total budget appears to be smaller last year, as that was a $27.7 million revenue item last year. It still exists, just isn't part of the total. I haven't found the explanation yet.The total budget for FY23 was $201 million and this year's is $179 million.
• Also not appearing in this year's budget is revenue from ARPA ($7.3 million last year).
• The city got increases in new growth ($2.5 million vs. 1.5 last year), and state aid ($33.5 million vs. $29.3), and of course, property taxes ($137.1 vs. $131.6 last year not counting new growth).
• The new growth line item is $2.5 million, which is $1 million more than last year. However, in actual new growth, Medford has has $2.7 and $2.2 million the last couple of years.

Budget Schedule
Here are the upcoming city council budget meetings:
Tuesday, May 30th at 6:00 P.M. - Budget Presentation and Review of Department Budgets ● Mayor’s Budget Presentation ● Discussion with Finance Department ● Council on Aging ● Finance/Auditing/Procurement Wednesday, May 31st at 6:00 P.M. - Review of Department Budgets ● Assessor ● Elections Commission ● Executive ● Human Resources ● Law ● Planning, Development and Sustainability ● Police Department ● TreasureCollector ● Veterans Services Tuesday, June 6th at 6:00 P.M. - Review of Department Budgets ● Clerk ● Electrical ● Information Technology ● Medford Community Media ● Legislative Wednesday, June 7th at 6:00 P.M. - Review of Department Budgets ● Building and Code Enforcement ● Department of Public Works ● Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ● Facilities/Chevalier Theatre and GeneMack Gym ● Fire Department ● Health Department/Civil Defense ● Parking ● Recreation Tuesday, June 13th at 6:00 P.M. - Review of MPS and MPL Budgets ● Medford Public Schools ● Medford Public Library
There is also a School Committee budget hearing on June 5th at 5:30pm.
Responses
Finally, there have been a couple responses already from the local politicians and groups. Our Revolution Medford is asking people to attend the school committee meeting and the final city council meeting (June 20th), but importantly notes this "bottom line:"

A Prop 2.5 override for $3 million in new revenue would support our city’s most urgent needs, and it would cost just $10 per month per household.

That's the first specific number on an override proposal I can recall seeing.
Zac Bears has also posted a response. Notably, an override is not suggested.

(owing to the reddit character limit, I'm posting this in two parts, but it's one contiguous story)
There are instincts that you develop when you’re a parent. If you don’t have any children it might be a little hard to understand. If you have a toddler, for example, and they’re in the other room and silent for more than a few seconds, there’s a good chance they’re up to no good. I take that back, most of the time they’re doing nothing, but you still have to check. You feel a compulsion to check. I don’t think it’s a learned skill, I think it’s an actual instinct.
Paleolithic parents who didn’t check on their toddlers every few minutes, just to double check that they weren’t being stalked by smilodons were unlikely to have grandchildren and pass on their genes. You just feel you need to check, like getting goosebumps, a compulsion. I suppose it’s the same reason little kids are always demanding you look at them and what they’re doing.
I think that instinct starts to atrophy as your kids grow. They start learning to do things for themselves, and before you know it, they’re after their own privacy, not your attention. I don’t think it ever goes away though. I expect, decades from now, my own grown kids will visit and bring my grandkids with them. And the second I hear a baby crying in the earliest morning hours, I’ll be alert and ready for anything, sure as any old soldier who hears his name whispered in the dark of night.
I felt that alarm just the other day. First time in years. My boy came home from riding bikes with a couple of his friends. I’m pretty sure they worked out a scam where they asked each of their parents for a different new console for Christmas, and now they spend their weekends traveling between the three houses so they can play on all of them.
We all live in a nice neighborhood. A newer development than the one I grew up in, same town though. It’s the kind of place where kids are always playing in the streets, and the cars all routinely do under 20. My wife and I make sure the kids have helmets and pads, and we’re fine with the boy going out biking with his friends, as long as they stay in the neighborhood.
You know, a lot of people in my generation take some weird sort of pride in how irresponsible we used to be when we were young. I never wore a helmet. Rode to places, without telling any adults, that we never should have ridden to. Me and my friends would make impromptu jumps off of makeshift ramps and try to do stupid tricks, based loosely on stunts we’d seen on TV. Other people my age seem to wax nostalgic for that stuff and pretend it makes them somehow better people. I don’t get it. Sometimes I look back and shudder. We were lucky we escaped with only occasional bruises and road burns. It could have gone so much worse.
My son and his buddies came bustling in the front door at about 2 PM on a Saturday. They did the usual thing of raiding the kitchen for juice and his mother’s brownies, and I took that as my cue to abandon the television in the living room for my office. I was hardly noticing the chaos, by this point, it was becoming a regular weekend occurrence. But as I was just leaving, I caught something in the chatter. My boy said something about, “... that guy who was following us.”
He hadn’t said it any louder or more clearly than anything else they’d been talking about, all that stuff I’d been filtering out. Yet some deeper core process in my brain stem heard it, interpreted it, then hit the red alert button. My blood ran cold and every hair on my skin stood at attention.
I turned around and asked “Somebody followed you? What are you talking about?” I wasn’t consciously aware of how strict and stern my voice came out, yet when the jovial smiles dropped off of their faces it was apparent that it had been so.
“Huh?” my son said, his voice high-pitched and talking fast, like when he thinks he’s in trouble and needs to explain. “We thought we saw somebody following us. There wasn’t though. We didn’t really see anybody and we’d just spooked ourselves.”
“What did he look like?” I asked.
“Nothing? We really didn’t see anybody! Honest! I just saw something out of the corner of my eye! But there wasn’t really nobody there!”
“Yeah!,” said one of his buds. “Peripheral! Peripheral vision! I thought maybe I saw something too, but when I looked I didn’t see anything. I don’t have my glasses with me, but when I really looked I got a good look and there was nothing.”
The three boys had that semi-smiling but still concerned look that this was only a bizarre misunderstanding, but they were still being very sincere. “Were they in a car?”
“No, Dad, you don’t get it,” my boy continued, “They were small. We thought it was a kid.”
“Yeah,” said the third boy. “We thought maybe it was Tony Taylor’s stupid kid sister shadowing us. Getting close to throwing water balloons. Just cause she did that before.”
“If you didn’t get a good look how did you know it was a kid?”
“Because it was small!” my kid explained, though that wasn’t helping much. “What I mean is, at first I thought it was behind a little bush. It was way too small a bush to hide a grown-up. That’s why we thought it was probably Tony’s sister.”
“But you didn’t actually see Tony’s sister?” I asked.
“Nah,” said one of his buds. “And now that I think about it, that bush was probably too small for his sister too. It would have been silly. Like when a cartoon character hides behind a tiny object.”
“That’s why we think it was just in our heads,” explained the other boy, “That and the pole.”
“Yeah,” my son said. “The park on 14th and Taylor?” That was just a little community park, a single city block. Had a playground, lawn, a few trees, and some benches. “Anyway, we were riding past that, took a right on Taylor. And we were talking about how weird it would be if somebody really were following us. That’s when Brian thought he saw something. Behind a telephone pole.”
“I didn’t get a good look at it either,” the friend, Brian, “explained. Just thought I did. Know how you get up late at night to use the bathroom or whatever and you look down the hallway and you see a jacket or an office chair or something and because your eyes haven’t adjusted you think you see a ghost or burglar or something? Anyway, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned there wasn’t anything there.”
“Yeah, it was just like sometimes that happens, except this time it happened twice on the same bike ride, is all,” the other friend explained.
“And you’re sure there was nothing there?”
“Sure we’re sure,” my boy said. “We know because that time we checked. We each rode our bikes around the pole and there was nothing. Honest!”
“Hmmm,” I said. The whole thing seemed reasonable and nothing to be concerned about, you’d think.. The boys seemed to relax at my supposed acceptance. “Alright, sounds good. Hey, just let me know before you leave the house again, alright?” They all rushed to seem agreeable as I left the room, then quickly resumed their snacking and preceded to play their games.
I kept my ear out, just in case. My boy, at least this time, dutifully told me his friends were about to leave. He wasn’t very happy with me when I said they wouldn’t be riding home on their bikes, I was going to drive them home. The other boys didn’t complain, but I suppose it wasn’t their place, so my boy did the advocating for them, which I promptly ignored. I hate doing that, ignoring my kid’s talkback. My dad was the same way. It didn’t help that I struggled to get both of their bikes in the trunk, and it was a pain to get them back out again. My boy sulked in the front seat on the short ride back home. Arms folded on chest, eyes staring straight ahead, that lip thing they do. He seemed embarrassed for having what he thought was an over-protective parent. I suppose he was angry at me as well for acting, as far as he knew, irrationally. Maybe he thought he was being punished for some infraction he didn’t understand.
Well, it only got worse when we got home. I told him he wasn’t allowed to go out alone on his bike anymore. I’d only had to do that once before, when he was grounded, and back then he’d known exactly what he’d done wrong and he had it coming. Now? Well, he was confused, furious, maybe betrayed, probably a little brokenhearted? I can’t blame him. He tramped upstairs to his room to await the return of his mother, who was certain to give a sympathetic ear. I can’t imagine how upset he’ll be if he checks the garage tomorrow and finds I’ve removed his tires, just in case.
I wish I could explain it to him. I don’t even know how.
Where should I even begin? The town?
When I was about my son’s age I had just seen that movie, The Goonies. It had just come out in theaters. I really liked that movie, felt a strong connection. A lot of people do, can’t blame them, sort of a timeless classic. Except I wasn’t really into pirate’s treasure or the Fratellis, what really made me connect was a simple single shot, still in the first act. It’s right after they cross the threshold, and leave the house on their adventure. It was a shot of the boys, from above, maybe a crane shot or a helicopter shot, as they’re riding their bikes down a narrow forested lane, great big evergreen trees densely growing on the side of the road, they’re all wearing raincoats and the road is still wet from recent rain.
That was my childhood. I’ve spent my whole life in the Pacific Northwest. People talk to outsiders about the rain, and they might picture a lot of rainfall, but it’s not the volume, it’s the duration. We don’t get so much rain, it just drizzles slowly, on and on, for maybe eight or nine months out of the year. It doesn’t matter where I am, inside a house, traveling far abroad, anywhere I am I can close my eyes and still smell the air on a chilly afternoon, playing outdoors with my friends.
It’s not petrichor, that sudden intense smell you get when it first starts to rain after a long dry spell. No, this was almost the opposite, a clean smell, almost the opposite of a scent, since the rain seemed to scrub the air clean. The strongest scent and I mean that in the loosest sense possible, must have been the evergreen needles. Not pine needles, those were too strong, and there weren’t that many pines anyway. Douglas fir and red cedar predominated, again the root ‘domination’ seems hyperbole. Yet those scents were there, ephemeral as it is. Also, there was a sort of pleasant dirtiness to the smell, at least when you rode bikes. It wasn’t dirt, or mud, or dust. Dust couldn’t have existed except perhaps for a few fleeting weeks in August. I think, looking back, it was the mud puddles. All the potholes in all the asphalt suburban roads would fill up after rain with water the color of chocolate milk. We’d swerve our BMX bikes, or the knock-off brands, all the way across the street just to splash through those puddles and test our “suspensions.,” meaning our ankles and knees. The smell was always stronger after that. It had an earthiness to it. Perhaps it was petrichor’s lesser-known watery cousin.
There were other sensations too, permanently seared into my brain like grill marks. A constant chilliness that was easy to ignore, until you started working up a good heart rate on your bike, then you noticed your lungs were so cold it felt like burning. The sound of your tires on the wet pavement, particularly when careening downhill at high speed. For some reason, people in the mid-80s used to like to decorate their front porches with cheap, polyester windsocks. They were often vividly colored, usually rainbow, like prototype pride flags. When an occasional wind stirred up enough to gust, the windsocks would flap, and owning to the water-soaked polyester, make a wet slapping sound. It was loud, it was distinct, but you learned to ignore it as part of the background, along with the cawing of crows and distant passing cars.
That was my perception of Farmingham as a kid. The town itself? Just a typical Pacific Northwest town. That might not mean much for younger people or modern visitors, but there was a time when such towns were all the same. They were logging towns. It was the greatest resource of the area from the late 19th century, right up until about the 80s, when the whole thing collapsed. Portland, Seattle, they had a few things going on beyond just the timber industry, but all the hundreds of little towns and small cities revolved around logging, and my town was no exception.
I remember going to the museum. It had free admission, and it was a popular field trip destination for the local school system. It used to be the City Hall, a weird Queen Anne-style construction. Imagine a big Victorian house, but blown up to absurd proportions, and with all sorts of superfluous decorations. Made out of local timber, of course. They had a hall for art, I can’t even remember why, now. Maybe they were local artists. I only remember paintings of sailboats and topless women, which was a rare sight for a kid at the time. There was a hall filled with 19th-century household artifacts. Chamber pots and weird children's toys.
Then there was the logging section, which was the bulk of the museum. It’s strange how different things seemed to be in the early days of the logging industry, despite being only about a hundred years old, from my perspective in the 1980s. If you look back a hundred years from today, in the 1920s, you had automobiles, airplanes, electrical appliances, jazz music, radio programs, flappers, it doesn’t feel that far removed, does it? No TV, no internet, but it wouldn’t be that strange. 1880s? Different world.
Imagine red cedars, so big you could have a full logging crew, arms stretched out, just barely manage to encircle one for a photographer. Felling a single tree was the work of days. Men could rest and eat their lunches in the shelter of a cut made into a trunk, and not worry for safety or room. They had to cut their own little platforms into the trees many feet off the ground, just so the trunk was a little bit thinner, and thus hours of labor saved. They used those long, flexible two-man saws. And double-bit axes. They worked in the gloom of the shade with old gas lanterns. Once cut down from massive logs thirty feet in diameter, they’d float the logs downhill in sluices, like primitive wooden make-shift water slides. Or they’d haul them down to the nearest river, the logs pulled by donkeys on corduroy roads. They’d lay large amounts of grease on the roads, so the logs would slide easily. You could still smell the grease on the old tools on display in the museum. The bigger towns had streets where the loggers would slide the logs down greased skids all the way down to the sea, where they’d float in big logjams until the mills were ready for processing. They’d call such roads “skid-rows.” Because of all the activity, they’d end up being the worst parts of town. Local citizens wouldn’t want to live there, due to all the stink and noise. They’d be on the other side of the brothels and the opium dens. It would be the sort of place where the destitute and the insane would find themselves when they’d finally lost anything. To this day, “skidrow” remains a euphemism for the part of a city where the homeless encamp.
That was the lore I’d learned as a child. That was my “ancestry” I was supposed to respect and admire, which I did, wholeheartedly. There were things they left out, though. Things that you might have suspected, from a naive perspective, would be perfect for kids, all the folklore that came with the logging industry. The ghost stories, and the tall tales. I would have eaten that up. They do talk about that kind of thing in places far removed from the Pacific Northwest. But I had never heard about any of it. Things like the Hidebehind. No, that I’d have to discover for myself.
There were four of us on those bike adventures. Myself. Ralph, my best friend. A tough guy, the bad boy, the most worldly of us, which is a strange thing to say about an eight-year-old kid. India, an archetypal ‘80s tomboy. She was the coolest person I knew at the time. Looking back, I wonder what her home life was like. I think I remember problematic warning signs that I couldn’t have recognized when I was so young, but now raise flags. Then there was Ben. A goofy kid, a wild mop of hair, coke bottle glasses, type 1 diabetic which seemed to make him both a bit pampered by his mother, who was in charge of all his insulin, diet, and schedule, and conversely a real risk taker when she wasn’t around.
When we first saw it…
No, wait. This was the problem with starting the story. Where does it all begin? I’ll need to talk about my Grandfather as well. I’ve had two different perspectives on my Grandfather, on the man that he was. The first was the healthy able-bodied grandparent I’d known as a young child. Then there was the man, as I learned about him after he had passed.
There was a middle period, from when I was 6 to when I was 16, when I hardly understood him at all, as he was hit with a double whammy of both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's. His decline into an invalid was both steep and long drawn out. That part didn’t reflect who he was as a person.
What did I know of him when I was little? Well I knew he and my grandmother had a nice big house and some farmland, out in the broad flat valley north of Farmingham. Dairy country. It had been settled by Dutch immigrants back in the homesteading days. His family had been among the first pioneers in the county too. It didn’t register to me then that his surname was Norwegian, not Dutch. I knew he had served in the Navy in World War II, which I was immensely proud of for reasons I didn’t know why. I knew he had a job as a butcher in a nearby rural supermarket. He was a bit of a farmer too, more as a hobby and a side gig. He had a few cattle, but mostly grew and harvested hay to sell to the local dairies. I knew he had turned his garage into a machine shop, and could fix damn near anything. From the flat tires on my bicycle to the old flat-bed truck he’d haul hay with, to an old 1950s riding lawnmower he somehow managed to keep in working order. I knew he could draw a really cool cartoon cowboy, I knew he loved to watch football, and I knew the whiskers on his chin were very pokey, and they’d tickle you when he kissed you on the cheek, and that when you tried to rub the sensation away he’d laugh and laugh and laugh.
Then there were the parts of his life that I’d learn much later. Mostly from odd passing comments from relatives, or things I’d find in the public records. Like how he’d been a better grandfather than a father. Or how his life as I knew it had been a second, better life. He’d been born among the Norwegian settler community, way up in the deep, dark, forest-shrouded hills that rimmed the valley. He’d been a logger in his youth. Technologically he was only a generation or two from the ones I’d learned about in the museum. They’d replaced donkeys with diesel engines and corduroy roads with narrow gauge rail. It was still the same job, though. Dirty, dangerous, dark. Way back into those woods, living in little logging camps, civilization was always a several-day hike out. It became a vulgar sort of profession, filled with violent men, reprobates, and thieves. When my grandfather’s father was murdered on his front porch by a lunatic claiming he’d been wronged somehow, my grandfather hiked out of there, got into town, and joined the Navy. He vowed never to go back. The things he’d seen out in those woods were no good. He’d kept that existence away from me. Anyways…
Tommy Barker was the first of us to go missing. I say ‘us’ as if I knew him personally. I didn’t. He went to Farmingham Middle School, other side of town, and several grades above us. From our perspective, he may as well have been an adult living overseas.
Yet it felt like we got to know him. His face was everywhere, on TV, all over telephone poles. Everybody was talking about him. After he didn’t return from a friend’s house, everybody just sort of assumed, or maybe hoped, that he’d just gotten lost, or was trapped somewhere. They searched all the parks. Backyards, junkyards, refrigerators, trunks. Old-fashioned refrigerators, back before suction seals, had a simple handle with a latch that opened when you pulled on it. It wasn’t a problem when the fridges were in use and filled with food. But by the 80s old broke-down refrigerators started filling up backyards and junkyards, and they became deathtraps for kids playing hide-and-seek. The only opened from the outside. I remember thinking Tommy Barker was a little old to have likely been playing hide-and-seek, but people checked everywhere anyway. They never found him.
That was about the first time we saw the Hidebehind. Ben said he thought he saw somebody following us, looked like, maybe, a kid. We’d just slowly huffed our way up a moderately steep hill, Farmingham is full of them, and when we paused for a breather at the top, Ben said he saw it down the hill, closer to the base. Yet when we turned to look there was nothing there. Ben said he’d just seen it duck behind a car. That wasn’t the sort of behavior of a random kid minding his own business. Yet the slope afforded us a view under the car’s carriage, and except for the four tires, there were no signs of any feet hiding behind the body. At first, we thought he was pulling our leg. When he insisted he wasn’t, we started to tease him a little. He must have been seeing things, on account of his poor vision and thick glasses. The fact that those glasses afforded him vision as good as or better than any of us wasn’t something we considered.
The next person to disappear was Amy Brooks. Fifth-grader. Next elementary school over. I remember it feeling like when you’re traveling down the freeway, and there’s a big thunderstorm way down the road, but it keeps getting closer, and closer. I don’t remember what she looked like. Her face wasn’t plastered everywhere like Tommy’s had been. She was mentioned on the regional news, out of Seattle, her and Tommy together. Two missing kids from the same town in a short amount of time. The implication was as obvious as it was depraved. They didn’t think the kids were getting lost anymore. They didn’t do very much searching of backyards. The narratives changed too. Teachers started talking a lot about stranger danger. Local TV channels started recycling old After School Specials and public service announcements about the subject.
I’m not sure who saw it next. I think it was Ben again. We took him seriously this time though. I think. The one I’m sure I remember was soon after, and that time it was India who first saw it. It’s still crystal clear in my memory, almost forty years later, because that was the time I first saw it too. We were riding through a four-way stop, an Idaho Stop before they called it that, when India slammed to a stop, locking up her coaster brakes and leaving a long black streak of rubber on a dry patch of pavement. We stopped quickly after and asked what the problem was. We could tell by her face she’d seen it. She was still looking at it.
“I see it,” she whispered, unnecessarily. We all followed her gaze. We were looking, I don’t know, ten seconds? Twenty? We believed everything she said, we just couldn’t see it.
“Where?” Ralph asked.
“Four blocks down,” she whispered. “On the left. See the red car? Kinda rusty?” There was indeed a big old Lincoln Continental, looking pretty ratty and worn. I focused on that, still seeing nothing. “Past that, just to its right. See the street light pole? It’s just behind that.”
We also saw the pole she was talking about. Metal. Aluminum, I’d have guessed. It had different color patches, like metallic flakeboard. Like it’d had been melted together out of scrap.
I could see that clearly even from that distance. I saw nothing behind it. I could see plenty of other things in the background, cars, houses, bushes, front lawns, beauty bark landscape.. There was no indication of anything behind that pole.
And then it moved. It had been right there where she said it had been, yet it had somehow perfectly blended into the landscape, a trick of perspective. We didn’t see it at all until it moved, and almost as fast it had disappeared behind that light pole. We only got a hint. Brown in color, about our height in size.
We screamed. Short little startled screams, the involuntary sort that just burst out of you. Then we turned and started to pedal like mad, thoroughly spooked. We made it to the intersection of the next block when it was Ralph who screeched to a halt and shouted, “Wait!”
We slowed down and stopped, perhaps not as eagerly as we’d done when India yelled. Ralph was looking back over his shoulder, looking at that metal pole. “Did anybody see it move again?’ he asked. We all shook our heads in the negative. Ralph didn’t notice, but of course, he didn’t really need an answer, of course we hadn’t been watching.
“If it didn’t move, then it’s still there!” Ralph explained the obvious. It took a second to sink in, despite the obvious. “C’mon!” he shouted, and to our surprise, before we could react, he turned and took off, straight down the road, straight to where that thing had been lurking.
We were incredulous, but something about his order made us all follow hot on his heels. He was a sort of natural leader. I thought it was total foolishness, but I wasn’t going to let him go alone. I think I got out, “Are you crazy?!”
The wind was blowing hard past our faces as we raced as fast as we could, it made it hard to hear. Ralph shouted his response. “If it’s hiding that means its afraid!” That seemed reasonable, if not totally accurate. Lions hide from their prey before they attack. Then again, they don’t wait around when the whole herd charges. Really, the pole was coming up so fast there wasn’t a whole lot of time to argue. “Just blast past and look!” Ralph added. “We’re too fast! It won’t catch us.”
Sure, I thought to myself. Except maybe Ben, who always lagged behind the rest of us in a race. The lion would get Ben if any of us.
We rushed past that pole and all turned our heads to look. “See!” Ralph shouted in triumph. There was simply nothing there. A metal streetlight pole and nothing more. We stopped pedaling yet still sped on. “Hang on,” Ralph said, and at the next intersection he took a fast looping curve that threatened to crash us all, but we managed and curved behind him. We all came to the pole again where we stopped to see up close that there was nothing there, despite what we had seen moments before.
“Maybe it bilocated,” Ben offered. We groaned. We were all thinking it, but I think we were dismissive because it wasn’t as cool a word as ‘teleport.”
“Maybe it just moved when we weren’t looking,” I offered. That hadn’t been long, but that didn’t mean anything if it moved fast. The four of us slowly looked up from the base of the pole to our immediate surroundings. There were bushes. A car in a carport covered by a tarpaulin. The carport itself. Garbage cans. Stumps. Of course the ever-present trees. Whatever it was it could have been hiding behind anything. Maybe it was. We looked. Maybe it would make itself seen. None of us wanted that. “OK, let’s get going,” Ralph said, and we did so.
I got home feeling pretty shaken that afternoon. I felt safe at home. Except for the front room, which had a big bay window looking out onto the street, and the people who lived across it. There were plenty of garbage cans and telephone poles and stumps that a small, fast thing might hide behind. No, I felt more comfortable in my bedroom. There was a window, but a great thick conical cypress tree grew right in front of it, reaching way up over the roof of the house. If anything, it offered ME a place to hide, and peer out onto the street to either side of the tree. It was protective, as good as any heavy blanket.

Submission for the Spring Lisp Game Jam 2023 open from May 26th and runs until June 5th.
Why not use a Racket lisp variant?
There are many options beyond the classic Racket compiler:

• Typed Racket https://docs.racket-lang.org/ts-guide/index.html
  
• RacketScript: Racket to Javascript compiler http://racketscript.org/#example/flappy-birds
  
• Nora: An experimental Racket implementation using LLVM/MLIR https://github.com/pmatos/nora
  
• Rhombus: https://racket.discourse.group/t/rhombus-in-the-rough-a-2d-rpg-implemented-in-the-rhombus-racket-dialect/1966
  

Is Rhombus a Lisp? It is a #lang: Rhombus-in-the-rough: A 2D RPG implemented in the Rhombus Racket dialect - so maybe you could enter a game in Rhombus!
The lispgames wiki has a section 'Why use Lisp for games?':

Lisp macros allow you to write very expressive code, and runtime images allow the ability to change and add code live, giving you access to a full REPL while your game is running. These features and others make Lisp a very enjoyable language for projects like games.

While there are many situations where changing a running application is undesirable, it might be a good choice for a gamejam!
I recently asked about this and @soegaard kindly provided some example Racket code:

Anything is possible in the land of macros.
One of the examples mentioned, where redefintions could be useful are games. You start the game (and at the same time have a repl) and play for 10 minutes and notice something, you want to change. Being able to make the change on-the-fly seems convenient.
Making everything redefinable is not the only answer though.
That said, below is a quick version of redefine. It's simple, very simple - so don't expect too much. Avoid using it for local definitions.

```

lang Racket

;;; ;;; Redefine ;;;
;; SYNTAX (redefine id expr) ;;; (redefine (head args) body ...+)
;; The form ;; (redefine id expr) ;; expands to ;; (define id expr) ;; or (set! id expr).
;; The very first time id is used in a redefinition, the ;; expansion will use define. Subsequently, it will use set!.
(require (for-syntax syntax/parse syntax/parse/lib/function-header))
(begin-for-syntax (define redefinables '()) (define (register-redefinable id) (set! redefinables (cons id redefinables))) (define (is-redefinable? id) (member id redefinables free-identifier=?)))
(define-syntax (redefine stx) (syntax-parse stx ;; (redefine (head args) body ...+) [(_redefine header:function-header body ...+) (cond [(is-redefinable? #'header.name) (syntax/loc stx (set! header.name (let () (define header body ...) header.name)))] [else (register-redefinable #'header.name) (syntax/loc stx (define header body ...))])] ;; (redefine id expr) [(_redefine id:id e:expr) (cond [(is-redefinable? #'id) (syntax/loc stx (set! id e))] [else (register-redefinable #'id) (syntax/loc stx (define id e))])]))
(redefine (foo x) (+ x 1)) (foo 10) (define (bar x) (+ 10 (foo x))) (bar 10) (redefine (foo x) (+ x 2)) (foo 10) (bar 10) (redefine (foo x) (+ x 3)) (foo 10) (bar 10)
(redefine baz 42) baz (redefine baz 43) baz
(redefine hello 10) (let () (redefine (hello) "Hello") (displayln (hello)) (redefine (hello) "Hi") (displayln (hello))) hello ; => #
(redefine (f x) 1) (define ((g f) y) (f y)) (define h (g f)) (h 42) ; => 1 (redefine (f x) 2) (h 42) ; => 1 ```
https://itch.io/jam/spring-lisp-game-jam-2023 http://lispgames.org/ https://github.com/lispgames/lispgames.github.io/wiki https://github.com/lispgames/lispgames.github.io/wiki/Why-use-Lisp-for-games%3F