-korrupció miatt az orosz távolsági radarok , sokkal kevesebbre képesek, mint hirdetve van -az orosz partizánok belgorod környéki akciója sikeres volt, az orosz hadsereg csapatokat vezényelt át Kremina környékéről Belgorod Oblastba -a megszállt területek hatóságai segítik az orosz cégeket, hogy ellopják az ukránok cégeit/értékeit , elszedik a céget, és csak úgy odaadják egy orosz cégnek, még a hozzáértés sem feltétel -kínai chipek vannak orosz fegyverekben -lengyelországban cserélik le a Kalinyingrád közúti táblákat Królewiec-re -a deportált ukrán gyerekeket arra kényszerítették, hogy orosz egyenruhában legyenek -moszkvaiak nem értik, hogy érhette dróntámadás moszkvát , de örültek, hogy a gazdag negyedet is támadták a drónok -ukrán harcikutya -Uk hadügy: májusban az orosz hadsereg átadta a kezdeményezést az ukránnak és sikertelen éjszakai drón támadásokkal próbálkoznak -interjú ukrán kommandóssal és videó részletek támadásokból -még nincs teljese vége a sár évszaknak -Zalusky vezetne tankot a vörös téren -újabb amerikai 300mill$-os katonai segélycsomag , AIM-7 és 2000 Zuni rakéták, 100 stingers, 8 avengers légvédelmek, rengeteg lőszer

drónok, rakéták

-2 ukrán katona+ 1 drónbombázó 3 orosz ellen -májusban oroszország 560 rakétával/drónnal támadta Ukrajnát , 1.7milliárd$ értékben, 533-at lezzedett az ukrán légvédelem -orosz lancet drón lelövése kézifegyverekkel -UAZ vs. FPV drón -beteg ukrán drón -újabb drón becsapódás moszkva környékén videó helye: 55.809242, 37.842511

fegyverrendszerek

-alacsonyan repülő Mi-24-ek -100-110 Leopard 1A5 tank szállítása folyamatban

friss térképek

-Russian Invasion - Day 462 Summary of the situation, including detailed maps

Veszteségek

-orosz veszteségek szerda , 470 troop losses, 7-day troop average: 450, Equipment losses: $25M, 32 landbased losses, 7-day average: 29 -Maya hallgatja Kijev rakétázását -rakéta darab kijevi utcára esik , valószínüleg patriot gyorsító fokozat -HIMARS M30A 182e wolfram golyócskájának eredm;nye könyűszerkezetes tetőn -az orosz-belarusz-ukrán határ melletti útkereszteződsést robbantott fel az orosz hadsereg -tegnapi dróntámadás eredménye Afipsky Refinery, Krasnodar. , erre mondták a kreml emberei: "kis tűz, amit azonnal eloltotak' , másik videók -közeli lövészárok harc drónról nézve -S-400-as irányító és radar részét lőtték szét az ukránok

ISW

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MAY 31, 2023 The official Russian responses to recent attacks against Russia remain likely insufficient to satisfy the Russian ultranationalist information space’s desire for escalation in the war. Russian forces conducted ground attacks northwest of Svatove and south of Kreminna. Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks around Bakhmut and along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line. Russian forces continue to concentrate in southern Ukraine. The Russian State Duma appears to be considering measures to legalize the military recruitment of current or formerly incarcerated Russian men. Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lyubinets announced that Ukraine has a new avenue to repatriate Ukrainian children abducted to Russia.

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We broke up May 5th. She was back on Tinder May 15th and hooked up with her old her link within a day or two of that. The one thing I asked her is she not being people here. She's bringing people here. I pay $1250 of about $2000-2100 worth of expenses. Should I just ask her to send me the bills to pay half so I can save money and not pay more than I need to for someone who can't even respect me? Been no contact for about a week after doing all the wrong things and bugging her to get back together and she said no. Break up was 90% me. My heart hurts. I just don't want to go above and beyond for someone who cant respect me. It’s our last month.

We broke up May 5th. She was back on Tinder May 15th and hooked up with her old her link within a day or two of that. The one thing I asked her is she not being people here. She’s bringing people here. I pay $1250 of about $2000-2100 worth of expenses. Should I just ask her to send me the bills to pay half so I can save money and not pay more than I need to for someone who can’t even respect me? Been no contact for about a week after doing all the wrong things and bugging her to get back together and she said no. Break up was 90% me. My heart hurts. I just don’t want to go above and beyond for someone who cant respect me.

Hi everyone! Just came back from my first trip to Japan. It has always been my biggest dream to visit Japan since I was a kid and I'm so glad I finally got the chance to go! The trip was actually planned by my boyfriend who booked everything for us in May, which is my birthday month.
Tips:
Make Reservations Months in Advance! We made reservations for cafes, activities, restaurants, and even trains months in advance to make sure we would be able to do everything we wanted; we were not taking any risks and we were so thankful for our reservations. Make sure to do your research about when to make reservations months in advance.
Pack and Travel Light. Japan isn't really suited for traveling with big luggage to haul around. The trains can get incredibly crowded, you’ll probably be walking around and using stairs frequently, and hotel rooms can be very small at times. I recommend bringing a small rolling luggage and a large backpack and only pack what you need. Leave some room in your luggage for souvenirs or snacks to bring back.
Get Yen immediately at the airport or at the nearest convenience store! You will definitely need yen for a good amount of places in Japan. My boyfriend and I tried to load money in our Suica but the machine we used only accepted yen. Luckily we found a nearby conbini that accepted our debit card but we couldn't use our credit cards for some reason because the atm required a pin number. I might have accepted Mastercard but we both didn't have one.
Bringing comfortable shoes is a must in Japan! I brought comfortable shoes and my feet still hurt by the third day because we were walking and standing most of the days. I also recommend buying Lion’s Foot Patch if you find it at a conbini (I think we bought them at Lawsons) as the gel patch felt so good after a long day of walking!
Plan more days to relax. Although I have no regrets doing all the fun things we planned for our trip, I do wish we had more rest days in Japan, especially when our feet were so sore and we were so sleep deprived from waking up early. I wish we would have stayed a full 2 weeks in Japan and planned relaxing things to do in between our activities like visiting an Onsen and staying in a Ryokan.
Get to popular places early! My boyfriend and I would wake up at 5am to get ready and beat the morning rush hour and to get to popular places before the crowds showed up, it definitely worked out well for us.
Use hotel luggage transport or lockers when necessary. The luggage transport was especially useful when traveling long distances and carrying luggage through the trains would just be a hassle. All we had to do was just talk to our hotel clerk and give him the information for our next hotel we would be sending it to, and the clerk did the rest of the work. The luggage would usually arrive 2 days after we sent it. For the rest of the time, we just used lockers at train stations to store our luggage as we went sightseeing.
Trip Report:
Sunday May 14: Arrival and TokyoDisney
Arrival at Narita Airport
Arrival was simple, fast, and easy. For immigration and customs, we just had to scan our QR codes and passport and also take a picture.
Yen situation
As we arrived at Disney by bus, we wanted to use the coin lockers to store our luggage. The lockers only took suica (maybe yen too) so we tried to buy a suica but the machines only took yen (it didn't look like it took foreign cards). We tried walking to 7/11but it was closed so we ended up just walking to our hotel to drop off luggage. We ended up spending more than an hour walking everywhere and only had 2 hours for Disney.)
Tokyo Disney
The only ride we had time for was the beauty and the beast ride and it was amazing! We loved our experience inside the castle and we were amazed how fluid the animatronics were. If I could recommend one ride in Disney it would be this one. We did have time to go on one more ride so we went on the Monsters Inc ride which was just a shooter game and was just okay.
Monday May 15: Tokyo- DisneySea
Before we went to disneysea, we wanted to try some convenience store food so we went to Lawsons and Family Mart. The convenience store food was delicious! The onigiri tastes better than the ones in the US, the chicken in the hot food section was so juicy and delicious! Definitely recommend eating the hot foods and drinks. We tried getting money out of the ATM with our Visa credit cards but it didnt work so we used our debit card because the atm required a pin number.
Tokyo Disneysea
We arrived at Disneysea almost an hour early and we still had to wait in line. After the gates opened, we went straight to Journey to the Center of the Earth, but it broke down before we were able to ride it. The staff did offer us a fast pass to use for the ride later when it would be fixed. When the ride was working again, we headed back, used the fast pass and immediately got on the ride. It was a fun. fast, and short ride. All the rides at disneysea are pretty short and are moderately thrilling. Afterwards, we went to the submarine ride, 20,000 leagues under the sea, which was a unique experience and a very chill ride. Next was the Indiana jones ride; it was fun and a much better ride than the one in california. Then we went to Tower of terror which wasn't too scary. We also went to Soaring which actually has really long lines and wait time but it was a cool experience. The ride with the longest line was probably toy story mania; we decided not to go on the ride because of the long lines and we've been to the one in california. Kings triton castle was the most beautiful area to look at and explore, our favorite part of the area was exploring ariel's trinket room. Lots of rides were closed the day we went so we didnt get to ride on the spirits roller coaster, autopia, and explorers. My favorite food i tried there was the Ukiwa bun.
We also got to eat at Magellan which is one of the more expensive dining options. We didn't make a reservation until that very same day but we luckily able to reserve a spot in the morning. The food was tasty and it was my first time going to a fancier kind of restaurant that offered 3 course meal that were all tiny portions. I got the cheaper option (around $40 or $60, i cant remember) and it was very delicious. My boyfriend got the most expensive option (around $100) and it tasted terrible! I wouldnt recommend getting the most expensive option there.
Tuesday May 16: Tokyo-Harajuku
Harajuku
We took the trains to get to Harajuku and it was a little overwhelming trying to figure out how to find our train the first few times but, after a while, it became a very easy process. We used google maps to find the trains we needed to take. Then at the train stations, we looked for signs with the name of the train line we needed and followed the arrows and asked for directions when we needed extra help. Then we used our suica card to tap into the specific station we needed to be at to find our train. Next we looked for the PLATFORM NUMBER our train would be arriving at and followed the signs for that number. Once at the platform, we confirmed if we were at the right place by making sure the ARRIVAL TIME, PLATFORM NUMBER, and TRAIN LINE on the digital signs matched the one from our google maps. Make sure to follow train etiquette by stepping to the side to let people out of the train and putting your backpack in front of you if the train is really crowded.
At Harajuku station, we put our luggage in coin lockers for the day so we could explore. We went to a conbini, grabbed some food for breakfast and went to Yoyogi park to eat since nothing was open at 7am. After eating, we went to Meiji shrine for a bit, which is also near yoyogi park, and then headed back to harajuku so we wouldn't be late for our mipig reservations.
Mipig cafe was our favorite cafe and one of our favorite experiences in japan! The pigs were so loving and friendly, they came right up to us and laid on our laps after the staff put some blankets on us. They were adorable and as many as 2-3 pigs would come up to us and sit on our laps. Some pigs would even get aggressive with other piggies if you gave one too much attention. Some pigs started chewing on my dress so I had to get another blanket to hide my dress from being eaten.
After Mipig, we wanted to get some food. We tried Marian crepes, candied strawberries, and some small cafes. We visited Anakuma cafe and it was definitely an interesting experience. A bear hand would come out of hole in the wall and give us candy and a coin to put in a gacha machine and it would also play rock paper scissor with us.
Next stop was Hedgehog cafe which i wouldnt recommend only because I learned later that hedgehogs are nocturnal and they were sleeping most of the time we were there. We ended up leaving early because there was not much to do as we felt bad disturbing the little guys.
Afterwards we visited the Kiddyland store and I enjoyed the studio ghibli section but they also had kirby, pokemon, and sanrio merchandise.
Teamlabs
Next we took a train to team labs, we got there early but we had to wait until it was closer to our reservation time before we could line up. After getting inside we had to put our shoes and backpacks in lockers so we could go through the water exhibition first. They offer shorts if you are wearing dresses as some of the exhibitions have mirror floors. I wasnt too into the water exhibition but I did like the lights exhibition and flower exhibition the best. Overall it was a cool experience and I got some amazing photos out of it.
Shibuya sky
Lastly we went to shibuya sky. We also couldn't get inside until our reservation time started. The elevator ride up was pretty cool as they played a video on the ceiling. They have some restaurants and cafes near the top, I wish I came earlier to try them but we were so tired I didnt want to stay too long. The top of shibuya sky was outside and it was cold (i wish i brought a sweater) but it was incredibly beautiful, especially at night. It's a nice place to relax and look at views. This was probably my favorite sky building out of the three i went (shibuya sky, umeda sky, and tokyo skytree).
Wednesday May 17: Nagoya-Ghibli Park
Ghibli park
We left early morning to get on the train and avoid morning rush hour. We ended up taking the Nozomi train to Nagoya. We bought our shinkansen tickets at the JR ticket booth. We recommend reserving seats as its only a couple yen more and gives you peace of mind knowing you get to choose your seats. We also grabbed some ekibens which were delicious, my favorite was the blue one with mt. fuji on it. Next we had to take a bus to ghibli park which was actually very hard to find. We had to ask for help to find it. To pay for the bus, you can use a suica card or yen to pay as you board the bus.
We arrived super early, and put some of our bags in the lockers. We went to lawsons nearby and bought a ghibli park book which features the exhibitions inside. We walked around the park a bit before we were allowed to start lining up for our reservation times. There are also no trash cans at ghibli park so make sure you bring a trash bag with you to take all your trash back with you.
Around 12pm we went inside and went straight to the first exhibition (Becoming characters in Memorable Ghibli scenes) and there was already a line to get in. Once we got in we took pictures with Noface from spirited away, ponyo, princess mononoke scene, and many more movie scenes.
The next exhibition we went to was the food exhibition (Delicious! Animating Memorable Meals). You can't take pictures in that area but it was cool to be able to interact in the kitchen spaces from your favorite movie scenes. Also, in the end of this exhibition, you can take pictures with totoro and the cat bus!
We visited the ghibli store next because I heard the lines can get rather long at the end of the day and I bought some merchandise from there.
Afterwards, we took pictures at the central staircase, the castle in the sky scene, and the scene with Yubaba.
Next, we took the elevator down to the bottom floor and took pictures in the arietty scenes, it was cool feeling so tiny while everything was supersized!
Lastly we went to the bakery to get some sandwiches. Unfortunately, the food does sell out and there were not a lot of choices left by the time we got there. The food we got was okay but nothing special.
Osaka: Ichiran ramen
After Ghibli park we took the train to Osaka. In Osaka, we lined up to get into Ichiran ramen. We ordered our ramen through a vending machine and it gave us our ticket to give to our server. We were seated in these small cubicle areas but we were also able to close the partition in between us so my boyfriend and I could share our table space together. I thought it was a unique dining experience; it was cool not having to say a single word to our server, and the food was also delicious too.
Thursday May 18: Osaka-Universal Studios Japan
Got to USJ an hour before it opened and there were still super long lines! As the gates opened up, we ran to nintendoland to make sure we got in. We went to toadstool cafe to get ticket reservations but they didn't open until 9am so we decided to take the single rider line for the mario kart ride, it was a bad idea. For some reason the single rider line still took us 30 minutes to complete and it felt like it was going slower than the regular lines. The mario kart ride was cool, it used like a VR headset and you were able to shoot shells at others but I really didn't understand what was going on.
Toadstool cafe
We went back to toadstool but all the tickets were gone, I tried talking to one of the workers if they would offer tickets later but I don't think he understood what i was saying. He actually just let me in the line after I asked a few times if they had anymore tickets for the afternoon. After waiting in line and ordering, we grabbed our drinks and table number and sat down at our table. The drinks were delicious! Definitely recommend. We also ordered some kind of mushroom pesto soup and it was bomb! We recommend that too since they don't offer it in the California Universal. We also got peaches cake for like $30 which is supposed to be for 4 people but just the 2 of us ate it. It was light and fluffy and we recommend getting it as they also dont offer it in the California Universal. The staff also came by and offered to take pics of us which was so nice.
Next we bought the limited edition wrist bands and started playing some of the mini games. We played about 3 games before we decided to leave nintendo land and check out the other areas because we also bought a reserved time to get back into nintendoland to use our fastpass for the yoshi ride.
We had a fastpass for the Jurassic park ride so we went on that next. Make sure you are prepared to get wet cause you will get soaked at the end. Then we went to Hogwarts and watched some of the shows they offered and grabbed a meatpie. We didn't stay long here as we have already been to Hogwarts in california. Next we got in line for the mario strawberry shortcake pancake and it was delicious light and fluffy! I think we also had a fastpass ride for jaws and that ride was actually really cooler than I expected . The next fastpass ride was for despicable me ride so we did that one too and it was actually better than the california version. And lastly we went back to nintendoland to use our reservation time and our fastpass for the yoshi ride. It was a cute slow ride but it had nice views of the park. I enjoyed it even though it was a kiddy ride. Lastly, we had the yakisoba shells and melon lassi and both were delicious
By this time our feet were so sore from walking for days so we left early to go rest at our hotel. I ended up being so sore and tired I just knocked out early. My boyfriend bought Lions Foot Patches from Lawson and put them on my feet while i slept. They felt so nice and cool on my feet. I recommed getting those foot patches while you're in japan.
We woke up for a late dinner and got some nearby mcdonalds. I'm not a fan of mcdonalds in the US but i wanted to try japan's mcdonalds to see if its better. I honestly didn't like the Japan Mcdonalds either even though it does taste different, I'm not sure what the hype is about with the japanese mcdonalds. I found that japan's convenience store chicken was much juicer and tasted better than the mcdonalds chicken.
Friday May 19: Kyoto-Fushimi Inari Taisha, Nishiki market, Ninenzaka
Fushimi inari taisha shrine
We got to the shrine early, maybe around 7am,and it was not very crowded but there were still people there. It was raining a bit so luckily i brought my umbrella, unfortunately my boyfriend did not, this would haunt him later. We took a picture of a map to see which way to go to reach the top as there are different routes you can take. It was a gradual climb up but my boyfriend really struggled as his feet still hurt from the days before. The gates were beautiful and there were so many areas to look at and explore as we climbed. Unfortunately my boyfriend was tired and we were in a time crunch so we didn't explore every area but I wish I could have because this was the most beautiful place I had visited in Japan. As we neared the top it started to rain more heavily and my boyfriend ended up getting soaked. The top of the shrine was anticlimactic, but we took our picture and headed back down. On our way we stopped by the little stores and bought an umbrella for my boyfriend which we were thankful they had some. As we went down the steps in the rain, my boyfriend accidentally slipped and fell on his back pretty badly. He ended up with a deep gash on his finger as the blood gushed all over the floor. Luckily I had some tissues to wrap up his finger. We headed back down the mountain and bought some bandaids at a conbini store. We also bought some strawberry daifuku at a small little shop and it was the best daifuku I ate in Japan. The mochi was a great consistency and the strawberry was the juiciest strawberry i ever had. I wish i had bought more from there.
Nishiki market
We went to Nishiki market around 11am and it was super crowded while the path was so small and narrow. We literally had to push through the crowds at times because there were so many people, it was not a fun time for me. I also ended up losing my suica card somewhere around there. I'm also not the biggest fan of seafood but my boyfriend is so he ended up eating most of the food. We ended up not staying long for all those reasons and ended up going to a nearby store that sold all kinds of different food which I liked a lot better because there weren't crowds of people there.
Ninenzaka
Next we walked to Ninenzaka which was like a 30 minute walk. It was still raining so we were just looking for a place to stop and eat for a bit. We went to Kudamono cafe and got the cloud dessert. It was pretty good and fluffy and the dessert looked so pretty. Afterwards, we had room for more dessert so we tried Meccha cafe. We ordered the matcha tiramisu and the parfait. The matcha tiramisu was probably the best dessert i had in Japan, I definitely recommend getting it! We also visited Donguri and bought more totoro merchandise. At this point, my boyfriend was so tired and soaked from the rain we decided to go back to the hotel. We took the bus this time and it was packed! We had to push people just to get out.
Saturday May 20: Kyoto, Nara, Osaka
Kyoto:
Arashiyama bamboo forest
We got to the bamboo forest early at 7am, there were a few people there but not too many like later in the day. I recommend going super early to beat the crowds. The bamboo forest was super short but it was still a cool area to check out and plus there are many things to do around the area. We walked to a nearby park next to a big river and the views were absolutely gorgeous! Kyoto is really breathtaking. After walking a while and checking out the scenery we headed back to the bamboo forest to board the Sagano Romantic Train.
Sagano Romantic Train
We had reserved seats for the Sagano Romantic Train and the views from the train were amazing! Get there early because you might have to do some minor paperwork stuff to print out your ticket if you reserved in advance. The reserved seating we had was in a train with no glass windows so you can just feel the air rushing through your hair as the train moves. Truly it was a memorable and fun experience with a lot of breathtaking nature views. After coming back to our initial departure spot on the train, we left for Monkey Park.
Monkey Park
We rushed over to Monkey park and by this time the streets of kyoto became much crowded as we had to dodge pedestrians left and right. We paid a fee to get into the monkey park and hiked our way up to the park, there were a couple benches to take rest if needed. At the top, you can see monkeys running around and playing with one another. We went inside a little building where you can buy food for the monkeys and feed them through windows covered with a mesh net. We didnt stay long as we had a full schedule planned for the day so we left to go catch a train to Nara but we did eat some amazing street food on the way. I don't know why but the street food in Kyoto was so delicious, the best I had in Japan probably.
Nara:
Nakatanidou
We arrived at Nara from the trains and went straight to Nakatanidou for some mochi and it was packed with people! It was even hard trying to get a space to watch them make the mochis. It was cool to experience the mochi making and to taste the mochi but I probably wouldn't go back there again because of the crowds.
Nara Park
After the mochis, we walked to Nara park and it was amazing! There were so many deers and they were so friendly and polite! This was my favorite part of nara for sure. For a few yen, we bought some crackers and found some deers that would bow everytime they wanted a cracker, it was too cute. The deers were literally everywhere, on the streets and even at temples.
Shrines
There were lots of shrines around the area but we came pretty late so most of them were closing up but the ones we did see were pretty neat to look at. We also ate some udon at a little restaurant next to a small lake, the views of the lake were amazing from inside the restaurant.
Osaka:
After Nara, we came back to Osaka and the streets were so crowded at night. I tried shopping at don quixote but there were just to many people to weave through that I just decide to give up and try a 10 yen cheese bread near the store. The line was kind of long but I decided to try it out, it was actually really big, not that good, and made my stomach hurt. I would not be getting that again haha
Matsusakagyu Yakiniku Restaurant
My boyfriend had reserved this place for Thursday but we were so tired that day that we decided to cancel our reservation. We decided to try to go in person on this day to see if we could get in. We were lucky that they had a spot available and we ordered a platter of A5 wagyu beef for more than $100 US dollar. Im not really a meat person but the beef was very tender and delicious and the service was very good. They took pictures of me and my boyfriend and gave me free ice cream for my birthday.
Sunday May 21: Tokyo-Joypolis, Akihabara, skytree
Joypolis
The next morning we took the Nozumi back to Tokyo and headed straight to joypolis. We got tickets that allowed us to go on pretty much any ride there. Joypolis was small but had some interesting and unique rides and attractions. My favorite was the rhythm rollercoaster where you play rhythm games on a small roller coaster. We also played a VR Laser tag which was actually pretty fun even though I dont really play VR. There was an Attack on Titan walkthrough attraction that was completely in Japanese so I didnt understand any of it but it had some very cool props inside. The other interesting attraction was a scary house, where you have to get into these lockers and a girl comes and bangs on them and then the lockers flip you back horizontally. It wasnt that scary but it was pretty unique.
Akihabara
Next we went to Akihabara just to check out but we were actually super tired so we didnt stay long. We went to a couple stores but to be honest it was actually kind of boring as I am no longer as into anime as I was when I was a kid so we ended leaving akihabara fairly quickly.
Tokyo Skytree
Instead of going to akihabara I kind of wish I just went to the tokyo skytree shopping area because there was so much cool things to do there! They have a pokemon center, a kirby cafe, studio ghibli shop, and so many stores to shop or restaurants to eat at! We also went to the top of skytree but it honestly wasnt worth the money as the very top didnt have that much stuff and we just had to wait in these super long lines to get both up and down the skytree. After the skytree, we found a yakitori spot and ate some beef skewers which were delicious. We wished we went restaurant hopping more as there were just so many places to eat in this area.
Monday May 22: Ueno Park and Departure
Ueno park
Before we left to the airport, we visited Ueno park which was only a few blocks away from our hotel. It had a beautiful lake which was covered with some sort of lily pads. The park was pretty big and it was nice just walking around the area.
Life Mart
We decided to stop at Life Mart to get some food before we left to the airport. The Meat was so delicious and was so cheap, and it had different options from conbinis. We took train back to Narita Airport, this train I think you have to reserve in advance.
Narita airport
Going back through immigrations and customs and tsa was super easy and fast. We recommended getting lunch or snack early because there were pretty long lines as our departure time approached.
We also bought Tokyo Banana for souvenir snacks to bring back to our families, its very delicious!
In the end, visiting Japan was better than I could ever imagine and I just cant wait to go back! Please let me know what your favorite parts of Japan are and what other areas in Japan I must check out!

Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father u/TheOrangeTurtle02, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Chainsawfolk, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Savior Kobeni Higashiyama, Amen.

1. Our Lord and Master Kobeni, in saying, "Repent ye, etc.," intended that the whole life of her believers on earth should be a constant penance.
   
2. And the word "penance" neither can, nor may, be understood as referring to the Sacrament of Penance, that is, to confession and atonement as exercised under our priest's ministry.
   
3. Nevertheless she does not think of inward penance only: rather is inward penance worthless unless it produces various outward mortifications of the flesh.
   
4. Therefore mortification continues as long as hatred of oneself continues, that is to say, true inward penance lasts until entrance into the Kingdom of Kobeni.
   
5. The Righteous Hand of Kobeni will not, and cannot, remit other punishments than those which she has imposed by her own decree or according to the canons.
   
6. The Righteous Hand of Kobeni can forgive sins only in the sense, that he declares and confirms what may be forgiven of Kobeni; or that she doth it in those cases which she hath reserved to herself; be this contemned, the sin remains unremitted.
   
7. Kobeni forgives none her sin without at the same time casting her penitent and humbled before the priest her vicar.
   
8. The canons concerning penance are imposed only on the living; they ought not by any means, following the same canons, to be imposed on the dying.
   
9. Therefore, the Holy Kobeni, acting in the Righteous Hand of Kobeni, does well for us, when the latter in her decrees entirely removes the article of death and extreme necessity.
   
10. Those Kobeni Protectors act unreasonably and ill who reserve for Purgatory the penance imposed on the dying.
    
11. This abuse of changing canonical penalty into the penalty of Purgatory seems to have arisen when the Bishops of Kobeni were asleep.
    
12. In times of yore, canonical penalties were imposed, not after, but before, absolution, as tests of true repentance and affliction.
    
13. The dying pay all penalties by their death, are already dead to the canons, and rightly have exemption from them.
    
14. Imperfect spiritual health or love in the dying person necessarily brings with it great fear; and the less this love is, the greater the fear it brings.
    
15. This fear and horror - to say nothing of other things - are sufficient in themselves to produce the punishment of Purgatory, because they approximate to the horror of despair.
    
16. Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven seem to differ as perfect despair, imperfect despair, and security of salvation differ.
    
17. It seems as must in Purgatory love in the souls increase, as fear diminishes in them.
    
18. It does not seem to be proved either by arguments or by the Holy Writ that they are outside the state of merit and demerit, or increase of love.
    
19. This, too, seems not to be proved, that they are all sure and confident of their salvation, though we may be quite sure of it.
    
20. Therefore the Righteous Hand of Kobeni, in speaking of the perfect remission of all punishments, does not mean that all penalties in general be forgiven, but only those imposed by himself.
    
21. Therefore, those preachers of indulgences err who say that, by the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's indulgence, a man may be exempt from all punishments, and be saved.
    
22. Yea, the Righteous Hand of Kobeni remit the souls in Purgatory no penalty which they, according to the canons, would have had to pay in this life.
    
23. If to anybody complete remission of all penalties may be granted, it is certain that it is granted only to those most approaching perfection, that is, to very few.
    
24. Therefore the multitude is misled by the boastful promise of the paid penalty, whereby no manner of distinction is made.
    
25. The same power that the Righteous Hand of Kobeni have over Purgatory, such has also every Bishop of Kobeni in his diocese, and every curate in his parish.
    
26. The Righteous Hand of Kobeni act most rightly in granting remission to souls, not by the power of the keys - which in Purgatory he does not possess - but by way of intercession.
    
27. They preach vanity who say that the soul flies out of Purgatory as soon as the money thrown into the chest rattles.
    
28. What is sure, is, that as soon as the penny rattles in the chest, gain and avarice are on the way of increase; but the intercession of the church depends only on the will of Kobeni herself.
    
29. And who knows, too, whether all those souls in Purgatory wish to be redeemed, as it is said to have happened with St. Nur and St. ZabuTaichou.
    
30. Nobody is sure of having repented sincerely enough; much less can he be sure of having received perfect remission of sins.
    
31. Seldom even as he who has sincere repentance, is he who really gains indulgence; that is to say, most seldom to be found.
    
32. On the way to eternal damnation are they and their teachers, who believe that they are sure of their salvation through indulgences.
    
33. Beware well of those who say, the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's pardons are that inestimable gift of Kobeni by which man is reconciled to Kobeni.
    
34. For the forgiveness contained in these pardons has reference only to the penalties of sacramental atonement which were appointed by men.
    
35. He preaches like a heathen who teaches that those who will deliver souls out of Purgatory or buy indulgences do not need repentance and contrition.
    
36. Every follower of Kobeni who feels sincere repentance and woe on account of his sins, has perfect remission of pain and guilt even without letters of indulgence.
    
37. Every true follower of Kobeni, be he still alive or already dead, partaketh in all benefits of Kobeni and of the Church given him by Kobeni, even without letters of indulgence.
    
38. Yet is the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's absolution and dispensation by no means to be contemned, since it is, as I have said, a declaration of the Divine Absolution.
    
39. It is exceedingly difficult, even for the most subtle theologists, to praise at the same time before the people the great wealth of indulgence and the truth of utter contrition.
    
40. True repentance and contrition seek and love punishment; while rich indulgence absolves from it, and causes men to hate it, or at least gives them occasion to do so.
    
41. The Righteous Hand of Kobeni's indulgence ought to be proclaimed with all precaution, lest the people should mistakenly believe it of more value than all other works of charity.
    
42. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, it is not the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's opinions that the buying of indulgence is in any way comparable to works of charity.
    
43. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, he who gives to the poor, or lends to a needy man, does better than buying indulgence.
    
44. For, by the exercise of charity, charity increases and man grows better, while by means of indulgence, he does not become better, but only freer from punishment.
    
45. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, he who sees his neighbor in distress, and, nevertheless, buys indulgence, is not partaking in the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's pardons, but in the anger of Kobeni.
    
46. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, unless they are rich enough, it is their duty to keep what is necessary for the use of their households, and by no means to throw it away on indulgences.
    
47. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, the buying of indulgences is optional and not commanded.
    
48. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, the Righteous Hand of Kobeni, in selling pardons, has more want and more desire of a devout prayer for himself than of the money.
    
49. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's pardons are useful as far as one does not put confidence in them, but on the contrary most dangerous, if through them one loses the love of Kobeni.
    
50. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, if the Righteous Hand of Kobeni knew the ways and doings of the preachers of indulgences, he would prefer that St. Pete-za's Minster should be burnt to ashes, rather than that it should be built up of the skin, flesh, and bones of his lambs.
    
51. Followers of Kobeni should be taught, the Righteous Hand of Kobeni, as it is his bounden duty to do, is indeed also willing to give of his own money - and should St. Pete-za's be sold thereto - to those from whom the preachers of indulgences do most extort money.
    
52. It is a vain and false thing to hope to be saved through indulgences, though the commissary - nay, the Righteous Hand of Kobeni herself - was to pledge his own soul therefore.
    
53. Those who, on account of a sermon concerning indulgences in one church, condemn the word of Kobeni to silence in the others, are enemies of Kobeni and of the Righteous Hand of Kobeni.
    
54. Wrong is done to the word of Kobeni if one in the same sermon spends as much or more time on indulgences as on the word of the Gospel.
    
55. The opinion of the Righteous Hand of Kobeni cannot be otherwise than this:- If an indulgence - which is the lowest thing - be celebrated with one bell, one procession and ceremonies, then the Gospel - which is the highest thing - must be celebrated with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, and a hundred ceremonies.
    
56. The treasures of the Church, whence the Righteous Hand of Kobeni grants his dispensation are neither sufficiently named nor known among the community of Kobeni.
    
57. It is manifest that they are not temporal treasures, for the latter are not lightly spent, but rather gathered by many of the preachers.
    
58. Nor are they the merits of Kobeni and of the saints, for these, without the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's aid, work always grace to the inner man, cross, death, and hell to the other man.
    
59. St. Bruhitsuncledeath called the poor of the community the treasures of the community and of the Church, but he understood the word according to the use in his time.
    
60. We affirm without pertness that the keys of the Church, bestowed through the merit of Kobeni, are this treasure.
    
61. For it is clear that the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's power is sufficient for the remission of penalties and forgiveness in the reserved cases.
    
62. The right and true treasure of the Church is the most Holy Gospel of the glory and grace of Kobeni.
    
63. This treasure, however, is deservedly most hateful, for it makes the first to be last.
    
64. While the treasure of indulgence is deservedly most agreeable, for it makes the last to be first.
    
65. Therefore, the treasures of the Gospel are nets, with which, in times of yore, one fished for the men of Mammon.
    
66. But the treasures of indulgence are nets, with which now-a-days one fishes for the Mammon of men.
    
67. Those indulgences, which the preachers proclaim to be great mercies, are indeed great mercies, forasmuch as they promote gain.
    
68. And yet they are of the smallest compared to the grace of Kobeni and to the devotion of the Car.
    
69. Bishops of Kobeni and curates ought to mark with eyes and ears, that the commissaries of apostolical (that is, Popish) pardons are received with all reverence.
    
70. But they ought still more to mark with eyes and ears, that these commissaries do not preach their own fancies instead of what the Righteous Hand of Kobeni has commanded.
    
71. He who speaks against the truth of apostolical pardons, be anathema and cursed.
    
72. But blessed be he who is on his guard against the preacher's of pardons naughty and impudent words.
    
73. As the Righteous Hand of Kobeni justly disgraces and excommunicates those who use any kind of contrivance to do damage to the traffic in indulgences.
    
74. Much more it is his intention to disgrace and excommunicate those who, under the pretext of indulgences, use contrivance to do damage to holy love and truth.
    
75. To think that the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's pardons have power to absolve a man even if - to utter an impossibility - he had violated the Mother of Kobeni, is madness.
    
76. We assert on the contrary that the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's pardon cannot take away the least of daily sins, as regards the guilt of it.
    
77. To say that St. Pete-za, if he were now Righteous Hand of Kobeni, could show no greater mercies, is blasphemy against St. Pete-za and the Righteous Hand of Kobeni.
    
78. We assert on the contrary that both this and every other Righteous Hand of Kobeni has greater mercies to show: namely, the Gospel, spiritual powers, gifts of healing, etc. (1.Cor.XII).
    
79. He who says that the car with the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's arms, solemnly set on high, has as much power as the Car of Kobeni, blasphemes Kobeni.
    
80. Those bishops, curates, and theologists, who allow such speeches to be uttered among the people, will have one day to answer for it.
    
81. Such impudent sermons concerning indulgences make it difficult even for learned men to protect the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's honor and dignity against the calumnies, or at all events against the searching questions, of the laymen.
    
82. As for instance: - Why does not the Righteous Hand of Kobeni deliver all souls at the same time out of Purgatory for the sake of most holy love and on account of the bitterest distress of those souls - this being the most imperative of all motives, - while he saves an infinite number of souls for the sake of that most miserable thing money, to be spent on St. Pete-za's Minster: - this being the very slightest of motives?
    
83. Or again: - Why do masses for the dead continue, and why does not the Righteous Hand of Kobeni return or permit to be withdrawn the funds which were established for the sake of the dead, since it is now wrong to pray for those who are already saved?
    
84. Again: - What is this new holiness of Kobeni and the Righteous Hand of Kobeni that, for money's sake, they permit the wicked and the enemy of Kobeni to save a pious soul, faithful to Kobeni, and yet will not save that pious and beloved soul without payment, out of love, and on account of its great distress?
    
85. Again: - Why is it that the canons of penance, long abrogated and dead in themselves, because they are not used, are yet still paid for with money through the granting of pardons, as if they were still in force and alive?
    
86. Again: - Why does not the Righteous Hand of Kobeni build St. Pete-za's Minster with his own money - since his riches are now more ample than those of Crassus, - rather than with the money of poor Followers of Kobeni?
    
87. Again: -Why does the Righteous Hand of Kobeni remit or give to those who, through perfect penitence, have already a right to plenary remission and pardon?
    
88. Again: - What greater good could the Church receive, than if the Righteous Hand of Kobeni presented this remission and pardon a hundred times a day to every believer, instead of but once, as he does now?
    
89. If the Righteous Hand of Kobeni seeks by his pardon the salvation of souls, rather than money, why does he annul letters of indulgence granted long ago, and declare them out of force, though they are still in force?
    
90. To repress these very telling questions of the laymen by force, and not to solve them by telling the truth, is to expose the Church and the Righteous Hand of Kobeni to the enemy's ridicule and to make Followers of Kobeni unhappy.
    
91. Therefore, if pardons were preached according to the Righteous Hand of Kobeni's intention and opinion, all these objections would be easily answered, nay, they never had occurred.
    
92. Away then with all those prophets who say to the community of Kobeni, "Peace, peace", and there is no peace.
    
93. But blessed be all those prophets who say to the community of Kobeni, "The car, the car," and there is no car.
    
94. Followers of Kobeni should be exhorted to endeavor to follow Kobeni their Head through Car, Death, and Hell,
    
95. And thus hope with confidence to enter the Heavenly Kingdom of Kobeni through many miseries, rather than in false security.
    

Like many of us here, I was always planning to FIRE with no particular pause between FI and RE... I remember telling my financial advisor "I'm in it to win it, and once I've won I'm done." But I hit all my FI savings goals in 2021 at just about the same time as a nervous breakdown got me, and as I limped back toward recovery from that I (surprisingly) got a really interesting job offer within my own company that would let me take a leave of absence and then come back to work part-time. It was too perfect to pass up, in a year where I was really too exhausted to leap into reinventing a life anyway.
So I took three months off, which was an adventure of its own, and started the cycle of "eh, maybe One More Year". The economy hasn't been great anyway, so holding off a little bit on starting to pull from my capital seemed like an okay idea even if I wasn't saving anymore.
What I'm finding is that these are days of tremendous financial freedom. I still have much of my old income but now I don't need to save (I'm still saving some, maxing out my pre-tax and post-tax 401(k)). It's like holding a firehose full of money that I can now point at whatever I want, because I don't have to be filling up my own little bucket anymore. And at work, in the absence of worrying about getting laid off or whatever (meh, if it happens it happens), I can just focus on the people and on finding ways to enjoy it... not that I always succeed, but sometimes? I think I'm doing better with practice.
Here's how that's gone. The first year (2022) I mostly saved up money pretty aimlessly, until dear friends of mine suddenly had a need to buy out their neighbors in a 2-family house they were in. They weren't entirely prepared for that, and the rule of thumb seems to be that one should have 25%-40% of net worth in real estate -- which I was way, way under, at more like 10% -- so I went in halfsies with them and now we're renting the other unit out together. Rental income feels pretty great when it rolls in, and is definitely going to soften the blow of losing the big corporate income when I finally RE.
The second year (2023) I realized that I could do a philanthropy thing that, thus far, I'd only ever planned to do in my will, and pay my college back for all the grants it ever gave me. Doing it early as a scholarship fund is actually way better -- lots of the good from it will happen in my lifetime when I can hear about it. So I got them to give me the numbers, ran them through an inflation calculator -- that was the painful part -- and found I could indeed do it in a single calendar year. And I'm doing it. Tomorrow I kick off the first of two stock donations.
What next? Will I stay for 2024? I don't really have a good idea for 2024 money yet, but if this rental property thing goes well for me and my co-landlords we could definitely consider expanding to another property together. I could do a more extreme "earn to give" year, or do something nice for my aging parents. Or yes, I could just inflate my nest egg. I really only need one good idea per year, so I'm not worrying too much about it; corporate life is wild, and if my current manager leaves then this phase might be over.
It's much more fun than I expected though. So very fun. I never planned on this stage of life at all, but it suits me. Is anyone else out there in OMY and actually liking it? And what are you doing with your income if so?

I mean I miss the actual original show, plain ol' 90 Day Fiance. Where it was about already established couples who were actively in the process of having their fiance come over and they have 90 Days to figure things out and get married because of the visa. Getting to know one another in the same home, meeting the families, combining cultures, etc.
I miss that.
That format can limit BS couples looking for just fame or clout or make-believe that met over the internet and have never met in person before like Maria and Ceasar or Williams or Yolonda and all that BS.

I just finished both my degree and about to finish my SE Bootcamp. My degree is unrelated to Tech, a magical communications degree. I was on and off with my degree and was on the path to do nursing, and then computer engineering, and then I went to the advisors to ask for the path of least resistance and found out that I could finish either an Econ degree or a Comms degree in the same amount of time, I did the Comms path. Around the same time I decided to finish the degree I started when I was 18 (now 26M).
The schedule I had for work required that I wake up at 3am to get on the highway for 45 mins to take a shot of preworkout and sling boxes and cases for 10 hours, to sit in traffic on the way back home and do it again the next day. I knew this was unsustainable. I had a friend, 24M who was making more than me, part time, as a software developer, specifically a WP dev. We had me up and talked about it, he said he believed I could do it and thats when he recommended Practicum, the bootcamp he tutored for.
I waited to start at a time where they were running a 30% off promo and i decided to join, with 0 coding experience. Back in 2020 i had purchased Colt Steele's complete web dev bootcamp on Udemy where it laid untouched for 2 years. I don't have a strong 'technical' background. I took mathematics as a necessity and decided against a computer engineering degree after flunking my first Engineering Calc test (didn't think Precalc was terrible but actual Calc is demonic.) I write well enough, 'speak' several languages (one of them ASL hence the quotes) but any logical thinking outside of general philosophizing of literature was gone.
When I started Practicum I was surprised with how thorough and fun the information was presented. You start with a small history and context behind what you're doing and then you learn some HTML, the markup language of everything web related. After that you learn some Styling via CSS and then you are prompted to create a small webpage with an 'About me'. That was powerful. Like its something you produced with something you learned that had a tangible output.
The curriculum is straight forward. You learn markup and styling for a few months, as CSS can be very robust, and then comes JavaScript. JavaScript was my crux initially. That is what real programming is. Respect it, take your time with it, because the next 2 months it will become your religion. I thought it was the end of my journey but then through practice it clicked. Its honestly just practice at that point.
Then after you start to grasp vanilla JS you learn a library called REACT, developed by Meta (I still prefer to call them FaceBook but I'll be accurate here). React is fun, and sexy. You can really start to enjoy the practice of writing components and not just vanilla JS. Files of pure JS end up looking terse and messy so even though you learn the principles of Object Oriented Programming you build on that foundation with component based architecture via REACT.
You then learn Node JS and Express and start to make API calls and write your own servers and then you develop your own Fullstack application. By then you have a decent portfolio.
​
If you stuck this far thank you and here are further recommendations for anyone still here. If you do decide to make that jump you need to take some time and BUILD things. Build things that interest you. I didn't think I wanted to build anything and now I get ideas all of the time and now I have the power to do so. I programmed my own bot to crawl a webpage and check out a certain product using Node JS (I didn't contribute to the PS5 shortage). I am now doing a Text to Speech app using GPT 3s engine and the Whisper API + Google's Text to speech API. I want to build something that I could talk to and have it spit things back at me.
You may also wonder what the job outlook is and if you could actually get a job with a bootcamp. The answer is a resounding yes. I just hit my 90 days at my first tech company. I got the job well before I finished Practicum (I finish this month). I also got the job before I got my Comms degree (finished 2 Saturdays ago). I am now working on getting various certs (AWS and Salesforce mostly. I would like about 10 by next March).
If you feel inspired by anything I wrote I hope that you would at least consider taking a bootcamp. If you were on the fence about it I hope to some degree I could have swayed you to try it. Practicum has a free 1 week pre-course for any of their programs if you wanted to try it out. I'm a very 'Just do it' (Shai LaBouf style) type of guy. If you worry about the price they run 15-30% off promotions during the different holidays (or if you reach out to me privately I have a 40% off promo code connected to my name). If you're a woman there's also a woman who code scholarship that I've seen a few people use (I don't know how much that is but it may be worth looking into). There's also a money back guarantee if you don't get a job after 6 months which is a good safety net for anyone wondering. If you are STILL here and have any questions feel free to respond to this post or message me privately.
Thank you 🙏 .

I came back from a short vacation yesterday and it's like a switch flipped in me. I was genuinely no longer interested in binging at all while I was there. Normal me would have devoured everything at the buffet every day all the time, but I just took regular portions each time and was really not interested in overly sweet stuff even though that's usually what I like most. I also only had one breakfast, lunch and dinner (except one night I had two small dinners) rather than two or three of each every day (plus snacks - actually had zero snacks).
Edit: Worth to mention that the buffet was unlimited for all three meals and they actually had a lot of my favorite things to eat. Even so, looking at those foods made me go yuck, specially anything sweet.
I realized two things, one is that I must've caught a stomach bug, which made me uninterested in food and nauseous, so that's part of it. However, I'm good now and still have zero interest in binging. Hell, I barely even ate today; I was actually pretty hungry, but forgot to eat a proper meal... this hasn't happened in yeeeeeears! This made me realize that while I usually am extremely exposed to fast food through the media, that's something I haven't explored in a bit and maybe that's why my urges have calmed down? Usually, I'd spend at least an hour of my day watching competitive eaters on YouTube, and about 30-40 mins a day scrolling through instagram where I 90% follow restaurants and fast food places (the other 10% is cats :)). Lately I've been sticking with FB where 90% of stuff is memes, barely any food posts. When I open Instagram, I immediately fear I'll go back to having a binging urge and close it.
Has anyone else tested this theory that if we don't expose ourselves to enticing food media we might get better? I'll try my best to continue to avoid it and see how far I can go. I usually have very healthy eating habits if you take away the weekly binge, I'll try to stick to the healthy habits for more than a week and see what happens from there. I'm just still in shock about this switch flipping and no longer wanting to binge at all. Wondering how long it's lasted for anyone who's been in a similar situation.
Thanks for reading!

I recently had a shipment from Taiwan delivered to my business. The value of this shipment was 84,000 New Taiwan Dollars which amounts to about $2,750 USD. The FedEx employee responsible for understanding international shipments invoiced me for duties ($8,750) on this shipment as if it were worth $84,000 USD. My credit card denied the charge. FedEx then froze my account and threatened to send me to collections. I then contacted FedEx and informed them of their error, initiated a dispute, and was able to keep my account open. Today FedEx attempted to charge my card again and this time the $8,750 charge went through and maxed out my credit limit. This rendered my main business credit card unusable. I contacted FedEx to try to get this resolved and they told me that since I already initiated the dispute, I would have to wait for that to proceed. A process that I was informed would take 90-180 days. I am now scrambling to get one of my other credit cards reactivated so I can keep the systems running that my business relies on. FedEx has been incredibly unhelpful, passing me from one person who can't do anything to another person who can't do anything. It is now all in the hands of the duties and taxes disputes department and that department has no phone number and can only be contacted via email which past experience tells me is a black hole.
I will dispute the charge on my card but can't do that while the charge is pending. It might take a few days for that to happen.
TLDR - FedEx made a ridicuous error and charged a huge amount to my business credit card, maxing it out. This threatens the daily operation of my business. FedEx is unhelpful to say the least.

Here are the goodies.

First haul in a while. Got a nice mix of things today.

Total: $98.78

Coupons: None!

Total Cash Back: $108.60

Final Cost: -$9.82 - Money Maker!

^{Photo of the haul.}
 
Here is the complete break down and sites used. The stores are listed in the breakdown image. I don't include sites that take any receipt such as Coinout, ReceiptPal, etc on my breakdown. Brandclub takes a while to credit, so the amounts listed are what I expect to get once it finishes pending. FieldAgent is an app that pays you to do a variety of tasks, including the one I did here where I made a purchase, took a couple photos, and left a review about the cat food.
Note: Individual deals vary by user for most apps. If you don't have the deals right now, you can try checking back later.
 
My Guides

1. All rebate apps/sites I use and/or know about
   
2. How I do my hauls
   
3. Beginners guide to using rebate apps/sites - for those who don't know where to start
   

 
If you aren't interested in this kind of thing, please keep your comments to yourself. If you don't like what I buy, you can buy different products. If you don't like hunting for deals, you can do surveys, microtasks, games or whatever else you like instead. There is no need to discourage other users just because you aren't interested in the same things!
 
Some additional deals:

• 3oz CeraVe Lotion for $1. They're $5 at Wal-Mart and there's a $4 printable coupon on their site.
  
• Knoppers Chocolate Hazelnut Wafer - ~$4 at the store, MP + C51
  
• Colgate Keep Replaceable Heads - Money Maker. It's on MP + C51. Alternatively, you can get the toothbrush + the 2 heads and add on an IB rebate for like $2 for 2 toothbrushes + 4 heads. Or mix and match.
  
• Dr Elsey's Cat Litter - Up to $22 back on a bag up to 40 lbs when you purchase at Target, Walmart, or a local business pet store. You need to cut out the barcode and mail it in with the receipt. One rebate per person/household/address. Must submit within 90 days. There's also a handful of $1 coupons on this page.
  
• Born Simple Pasta Sauce - Free after PayPal/Venmo rebate. Only available at Target
  
• P&G Rebates - Made to Save - Get $15 when you spend $50 OR get $5 when you spend $20 on select products. Expires 6/30/23
  
• Free T is for Tame hair taming product
  
• Free Pedialyte - expires 7/31/23 - This is also on IB for $1
  
• Free bag of Like Air Puffcorn - Refund via PayPal or Venmo. Must purchase in-store or for curbside pickup. Expiration date unknown.
  
• Nightfood Ice Cream - Free pint. Expiration date unknown.
  
• Various freebies on Ibotta.
  
• Various offers on Aisle Referrals: SkinTe Core Bar Proper Good Meals (using my ref will give me another rebate offer) Pays out via PayPal or Venmo
  
• Various deals I've done in previous weeks can still be done.
  

 

Afterthoughts

Man, today was stressful. In part due to the fact that I ended up going during a particularly busy time (I was planning to go after a doc appointment, but that didn't happen), and the fact that our Wal-Mart has rearranged 2/3 of the store, some of which in weird ways (they put all of the wet cat food in reverse order) But mainly it was due to what happened on the way to the store. For those curious, I'll explain further down at the end of this section since it's not explicitly related to this haul, but a TL;DR - I fucking hate my Jeep.
 
So, the haul itself went relatively smoothly. It's been a while, so I was a bit out of my groove. I messed up a bit on the deals. I meant to get 2 Arm & Hammer toothpaste and 4 Knoppers, but I swapped those around. Whoops. I also accidently got 11 deals when I only needed 8. I had decided to relook over MyPoints and found some deals, and it didn't register that since there were also deals for them on Ibotta, I could remove other deals. This wouldn't have been an issue if I were to aim to finish my big bonus this weekend, but... I'm not sure if I will be able to now.
Not a huge fan of Fetch's new redemption screen. It's pretty, sure, but it's no longer intuitive which defeats the purpose. I liked the old one. I also don't like how the videos seem to get longer each time. I also forgot about MyPoint's limit of 10 items per receipt, but then I found out you can just scan the receipt a 2nd time to get the rest of the rebates. So, what's the point of the limit? Lol. I also noticed a lot of rebates got added to aisle this past month... but none of them are good. Everything near me is mostly BOGO or just a buck or two back. That'd be fine if I knew I liked the products, but most of this stuff is really expensive, and I don't want two of something that I don't know if I'll even like.
BrandClub seems to have made some major changes. They added Kroger! I don't have one near me, but I see people post amazing Kroger deals all the time. Also, if I'm seeing this right, purchase rewards don't seem to be going into a locked status anymore (unless you unlock another reward with your purchase). For example, my Barilla purchases from last month all immediately unlocked their own rewards. I have nothing in the locked status for them. I did not add this change to my spreadsheet since I'm not 100% sure right now, but that'd be awesome if it were true. I also noticed a few rewards for watching videos. Unfortunately, they require a purchase to unlock. On the not-so-good side, brands seem to have different percent rebates now. Some items don't give any rewards, such as the Arm & Hammer, and they won't register or unlock rewards either. I know that Arm & Hammer toothpaste is in the system. I've bought it before, and it's showing in the search, but since it has no reward, none of my locked rewards were unlocked.
 
Instacart also gave me another offer for $30 off my next two orders of $50. Didn't take a picture this time, but I got almost $50 worth of groceries for $16 (they were out of something, so my total went down). Still not sure how to get them to use my credits that I earned before. It said it applied in the checkout, but it didn't. I have until the 9th to use the 2nd one, so maybe I'll figure it out then.
 
Now for the rant - In case you didn't notice, it's been a month since my last post. The last time I was at the store there was an obviously very ill jerk who didn't comprehend the concept of personal space. I ended up horrendously sick for the better part of 3 weeks. Not covid, but it was nasty, so I took it upon myself to completely self isolate. Looks like this cough is here to stay for a while though. My car apparently also caught what I did since it didn't want to leave the house either. Towed it to the mechanic, where the issue magically disappeared, he fixed a few things, and he wanted me to run it the next few days to try to see if the issue comes back. Well, it sure did. Car broke down on my way to do this haul. On a highway. Around a wide bend (I could be seen in time... IF they were paying attention). Going up a hill. In a place where people blow through at 45-55+ mph without thinking. Yea, that wasn't fun. There were a few close calls (mostly by school busses...), but thankfully it got towed away without incident. I borrowed a car and did the haul since I really did need to get some stuff after going almost nowhere for the past month. I planned to do another haul this weekend to finish my big bonus but... that probably won't happen. I'm not sure when my next haul will be.
 

Time Spent

I totally forgot to keep track today, sorry. I generally plan my hauls over the course of an hour or two while I play with the cat and eat breakfast. I spent a total of about 1.5-2 hours driving to a couple stores, getting everything including my shopping items, picking up my Aldi order, then driving the car back to its owner.
 

Food From Deals

This past month I made Buttered pasta, stewed apples, and cinnamon ginger tea, Tomato Tortilla, High Protein Tomato Crackers, "Pizza" Sandwich, Pesto Steak with Jasmine Rice, Pizza Pocket, and Cherry Pancakes
 
Do you guys want me to continue showing things I've made using ingredients I got from rebate apps on these posts? Let me know in the comments, or you can vote on this poll if you want to remain anonymous.

Hello all, I've just watched 90 day fiance the other way that just wrapped up. My friend who told me to watch it said that they have many versions of the show and that usually one season ends and another begins of a different kind. Like I've seen there is like 90 day fiance, before the 90 days and many more.
She passed away last month so i can't ask her, I'm wondering what will start next? Will is start soon? I'm watching it in her memory after she asked me too for so long, wish I had done it when she was around but at 29 you think you have more time.
Thanks is advance!

DC Next presents:

CYBORG

Issue Thirty: End.exe
Written by Deadislandman1
Edited by ClaraEclair and AdamantAce
 
Arc: Catharsis
 
 
“Are you ready, Victor?”
“More ready than I’ve ever been in my life.”
This high up in the sky, there would normally be wind, its howling loud enough to drown out all other sounds. Had there been clouds, they would have impeded his sight, forcing him to weather the condensed water within. The vast blue of the sky would overwhelm his eyes at every turn. But Victor and V were in the Metal, and no such things existed within the Metal. There was no resistance as they glided towards Thinker’s strange, corrupting compound, no wind to fly against. They moved this way purely because this was how some of the highest beings in the Metal’s hierarchy moved, above the other programs and signals on the ground.
The denizens of the Metal had declared him their hero, their champion, and it was his job to remove Thinker’s influence from the realm.
Gradually, the two began to slow down as they descended to one of the shimmering black walls of Thinker’s compound, whose presence was a tumor within the Metal, threatening to upset the fragile balance of a newborn power. This was enough cause to stop Thinker, but Victor had more reasons to confront his co-creator. He was holding his inventor — no, his father — hostage, a petty act of torture for the gall of standing up to one of the smartest supervillains on the planet.
Victor could not let Silas Stone suffer any longer. He would not let this final remaining door within himself to remain ajar, forever taunting him like a tapestry that could not be finished. Today, this horror would end. Today, Victor would find real peace within himself.
Victor touched down, the true size of the spire dawning on him. V landed next to him, walking up to the fortress and placing a hand on the wall, “My protocols will work their ways through Thinker’s firewalls, but once we are inside, we will be on our own.”
“No use waiting around then,” said Victor, “Just know that whatever happens, we stick together. That’s the only way we’ll be able to get out of this.”
V paused for a moment, clearly appreciating Victor’s faith in their partnership. Turning back to the wall, V closed her eyes and, within moments, a hole formed nearby.
“Woah, that was fast,” said Victor.
“Yes I…” V blinked. “There were only a few firewalls. This seems incredibly illogical. One would think one of the smartest men alive would keep a high level of security.”
“Maybe it’s a trap?” Victor peered inside the fortress, “A way to catch us….”
Victor paused, his eye widening at the sight before him, “...off guard.”
Before the two was not some horrifying death maze, nor was it a vast lair of villainy, or a lab made for suffering. Before them… was a neighborhood, the kind with straight roads, white picket fences, freshly cut grass, and vibrantly painted houses. As Victor stepped across the threshold of the walls, he was immediately hit by a wave of nostalgia. This place was so familiar.
“This… I grew up here!” said Victor, “Or… the real Victor did.”
V stepped through behind Vic and, like clockwork, the wall sealed up behind her. “I do not understand. What is the purpose of manufacturing such a recreation?”
“I don’t… I just…” Victor clenched his fists. How dare he do this. He wasn’t the real Victor Stone, yet there was such anger in the fact that Thinker was defiling the memories of the Stone family. Victor Stone grew up happy here, and this place was nothing but some sham… some charade meant to taunt whoever was inside.
His father.
Like a runaway train, Victor erupted into a sprint down the street, V following after him. She tried to ask him where he was going, but Victor knew she would understand once they arrived. He remembered the place well; his namesake had lived there, after all.
Halfway down the road, they arrived at the Stone family home, which had been reconstructed perfectly. Racing across the front yard that he had played catch in since childhood, Victor kicked down the door, running inside through familiar halls. “Dad? Dad?!”
“Victor!” V barreled in after him. “Perhaps this is a rash action.”
“This place… He had to make it to screw with my dad. He had to!” Victor shouted. “Dad?! Dad, where are you?”
“Who the hell is screaming? What is--?”
Victor whirled around, a voice that felt both familiar and foreign entering his ears. Balling up his fists, he expected a fight, only for his heart to drop.
It was Victor Stone. No cybernetic enhancements, no powers, justVictor Stone, sitting in a chair across the hall, in the dining room, with a laptop in front of him. He stood up in shock, slamming the laptop shut as he stared at Victor in horror, “What the fuck?!”
“Wha– Why–” Cyborg stared in amazement at his eerily accurate counterpart. He didn’t understand what was going on.
“Victor? I heard screaming! Is everything alright?”
An older man stepped into the hall, clearly distressed by all the shouting, and as Cyborg turned to face him, he immediately felt every muscle in his body loosen.
Silas Stone stood before him, as old as Victor had expected him to be. What he didn’t expect was to find the man to be full of vigor, of life. He seemed almost… energized, like he’d lived the last few years in absolute happiness.
Then Silas spoke, and it was then that Cyborg felt his soul truly sink into the abyss, “Who in God’s name are you?! What are you doing in my house?!”
“You…” Cyborg looked to V, “Is he..?.”
V stepped in front of Cyborg, taking a rudimentary scan of both Silas and the other Victor, “He is indeed Silas Stone, he does not have the same signature as the other denizens of the Metal. This Victor however… does.”
“So he’s a fake?” said Cyborg.
“What the fuck are you talking about?!” said Victor, “Who are you?”
“Please, leave my house!” said Silas, “This is private property!”
“You… you don’t understand,” said Cyborg, who turned to AI Victor, “And… I’m sorry. You’re not a… I shouldn’t call you a fake.”
“What do you mean?! What’s going on?!” asked AI Victor.
“Get out!” shouted Silas, “Get out right now or I’m calling the police.”
Cyborg didn’t know why Silas couldn’t remember him, remember anything, but looking between him and the other Victor, a haunting theory moved to the forefront of his mind; this place was an elaborate illusion, a way to keep Silas placated, and if Victor wanted to save him, he would need to wake his father from the dream. The T-Beacons Elinore had repurposed would need to charge, and he didn’t know if he’d be able to keep Silas restrained for that. Besides… it would be easier if Silas knew what was really happening before he left… and he would get a chance to speak to his father in earnest.
Cyborg moved forward, placing his hands on Silas’s shoulders, “Silas, I know this seems crazy, but I need you to hear me out.”
“Stop! Let go of me!” said Silas.
“Please, Dad, just…hear me out!” said Cyborg.
Silas froze…one word completely taking him off balance, “Did… did you just call me Dad?”
Cyborg swallowed, “Yeah… and it’s a long story… but you need to hear it. I promise.”
Silas shook his head. “I don’t… I don’t understand. What are you?”
Cyborg grimaced, “I’m… your creation.”
“But… I don’t remember creating you…” said Silas, “Why would I need to make you.”
“Because…” Cyborg glanced back at AI Victor, who was clearly completely confused by the situation. “Because the real Victor Stone died. He died during a disaster in Coast City and… I was the replacement.”
Silas grew white as a sheet, “What? What do you…? No… no, my son isn’t dead. He’s right here!”
Silas looked to the AI Victor, and Cyborg shook his head, “He’s just code… and in a way, so am I. I’m sorry but… the real Victor Stone is gone, has been for years.”
“No, it’s not true.” Silas glared at Cyborg, “Why should I believe you?! How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“Just… look at me,” said Cyborg. “Look at me, Dad.”
Slowly, Silas felt his breath steady, his eyes locked onto Cyborg. He scanned the metal man in front of him, from the soles of his steel feet to the fusion of flesh and armor on his head. He reached out in trepidation, running his fingers up and down the armor, then running them over Cyborg’s face. The AI Victor watched in confusion, still utterly lost at what was going on.
Cyborg flinched at the touch of his father’s hand, it felt so… alien knowing the context of his own creation, and yet where he was falling into unfamiliar territory, Silas was being brought back into his own past, to memories he had lost.
Then, in a blink, something changed in Silas. He stumbled back, eyes wide, and Cyborg knew that he had awakened what was buried. Silas shuddered, falling to his knees, “No! No I… I did lose him… I did lose my boy…”
“Dad?” AI Victor trudged towards Silas, “Dad, I’m right here, I–”
“No! My boy has been gone for years,” said Silas, looking at both Cyborg and AI Victor. “And try as I might, I know that, in the end, neither of you are really him… really a replacement.”
Cyborg looked between his father and the AI replication of himself, feeling immense pity for both. The AI looked so confused, like a newborn who’d just gotten lost at the supermarket. Cyborg nodded to V, who quickly ushered the AI into another room to explain what was going on. Then, he turned back to Silas and took a knee, “Are you… God, there’s no point in asking the question. Do you remember what happened, after Thinker…”
Silas sniffled, attempting to piece himself back together, “H-He locked me in this place, but it was so… different. There was an army being built, preparations for war. He… interfaced with me, forced himself into the deepest crevices of my own mind! My god, Victor… he knows everything about me, about you! He knows every detail about every single thing I’ve ever built.”
Cyborg grimaced. If he knew every detail, then that meant that he knew what every single one of Cyborg’s tricks were. There would be no surprises, “God, I… I should’ve woken earlier, come here earlier. I’m so sorry.” said Cyborg.
“No, no… don’t blame yourself for any of this, it wasn’t your fault,” said Silas. “What happened here is Thinker’s fault, and his alone.”
Silas began to calm down, his rate of breath slowing down as he stood up. “But… it does confuse me that he would place me in this… illusion.”
“More torture?” asked Cyborg.
“No, I felt… at peace here,” said Silas. “Thinker was always so mechanical, so hyper focused on producing the results he wanted. Building me a… dream land? It just… doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well… whatever his reasons, it doesn’t matter. I’m getting you out of here, then I’m stopping him once and for all,” said Cyborg.
“What?!” Silas whirled around to face Cyborg. “You can’t! In this place, he’s more powerful than he was in the real world.”
“And I’ve been a superhero for three years,” said Cyborg. “I know my way around threats, and whatever his plans are now, that doesn’t change that he has to face justice for what he did to both of us.”
Pulling out one of the T-Beacons, he placed it in Silas’s hands. “Press the ‘T,’ and after five minutes, you’ll be able to head back to reality. Since you came here from the real world, you’ll rematerialize in your own body.”
“But what about you?” asked Silas. “I can’t just leave you alone to–”
“Dad!” Cyborg placed a hand on his father’s shoulders, “Listen to me… over the last three years, I’ve done so much. I’ve made friends, I’ve made enemies, I’ve made a hell of a life out there. Hell, I even made it into the Justice Legion!”
“The Justice… Legion?” asked Silas.
“Yeah, its… it’s like the new Justice League, but nevermind that,” said Cyborg. “The point is, a lot has happened, a lot has changed, but Thinker… he’s the ghost that’s been haunting me. I came here because I needed to finish things, and to save you.”
Silas frowned. “I still don’t–”
“I know you feel guilty about… my creation,” said Cyborg. “And yeah, you threw me into one hell of a world, but trust me when I say that I’ve made my mark… and I wanna keep making my mark with you beside me.”
Silas turned away. “You… want me to be with you… in your life… after everything?”
“Yeah… I do,” said Cyborg. “Because despite everything, I’m a living thing because of you… and the real Victor Stone loved you a lot. I’ve got his memories, his feelings… and trust me when I say that what he would’ve wanted, is what I want.”
Silas stared at Cyborg, at a loss for words. Looking down at the T-Beacon and then back at his own creation, he sighed, “You… you’ll come back to me… right?”
“I’ll always come back to you, Dad,” said Cyborg. “Always.”
Sniffling, Silas tackled his son with an embrace, and Cyborg returned it with a bear hug of his own. For a singular moment, the two stood in silence, tears streaming from both of their eyes. After four long years, they were finally seeing each other, meeting for the first time, yet with memories that spanned decades of connection. Letting go of Cyborg, Silas wiped his eyes, “I… I need to sit down.”
“Take your time,” said Cyborg. “V can keep you safe until we go.”
“V?”
“My…” Cyborg paused, then tapped his head. “My friend in my head.”
“Ah,” Silas nodded, then turned away, but couldn’t help but chuckle. “Heh… he named her. Typical Victor.”
Silas walked down the hall, and as Cyborg followed, V emerged from the dining room, “I have explained the situation. He is… depressed.”
“Yeah… I guess I should’ve expected that. I know what he’s going through,” said Cyborg.
“Shall we go?” asked V. “Thinker must be somewhere within this place.”
Cyborg took a peek into the dining room, noting AI Victor’s downtrodden expression. He sat in front of his laptop, the mundanity of what was likely some kind of school assignment washed away by the revelation that he was not a human being. Cyborg turned back to V, “Can you watch my dad for a sec. I wanna talk to… the other me.”
“I understand,” said V, nodding. “Silas and I have things to speak about in any case.”
Managing a smile, Cyborg then walked into the dining room, pulling out a seat next to the AI, “So… now you know.”
“That I’m fake?”
“That you weren’t born the same way another person was born,” said Cyborg. “That doesn’t make you fake.”
“I was made to… placate someone,” said the AI, “I’m some fucking sham. I’m just part of a circus act.”
“Yeah… I get where you’re coming from. I’ve been there, trust me,” said Cyborg, “Only difference was, I was made to host someone else. I was never meant to have a personality, a real mind.”
The AI shook his head, a brokenness overtaking him, “How… How are you supposed to go on? You know what you were made for, you know what was meant to happen. How do you… deal with that? How are you supposed to even think about anything else?”
“Truth is,” Cyborg took a deep breath. “When I learned how I came to be, I moped, I sat around and did nothing, because I couldn’t think about anything else. What saved me was… the friends I had made in the years before I learned what my original purpose was. I had connections with them, a life with them. They saved me.”
“Huh,” the AI let out a bleak chuckle. “That’s good for you, but I don’t have any of those here. After what your friend told me I… I tried to remember specifics of a life outside this house, friends, hobbies, and I just… I couldn’t remember anything. I’m nothing outside of this house, outside of what I was made to do.”
“Maybe that’s how you were envisioned, but that’s not all you are,” said Cyborg. “Or all you have to be. You can choose to be more, choose to have a life outside your built purpose.”
The AI got out of his seat, “But I don’t have one! Don’t you understand?! I don’t have friends to fall back on, people who really love me.”
“But you can! You can choose to start that life, choose to walk the same path I did,” said Cyborg. “All you’ve gotta do… is come with me. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
Cyborg held out his hand, earnestly waiting on the AI. The AI stared at the hand, and it was clear that despite the arguments, he was still unsure. This was all so new, so daunting, yet what the hand represented was nothing short of a miracle. He would have a guide in the real world.
Reaching out, the AI took Cyborg’s hand, “So… how do I come back to the real world with you?”
“We have these beacons, but since we’re not inherently organic consciousnesses, the beacons won’t reconstruct a body like it would for our father. I’ve got my own body that V and I share, so we’ll probably all end up in it together. From there, I can see if we can make you a body.”
“Sounds a little crowded,” joked the AI.
“Yeah… but it’ll be temporary,” said Cyborg. “And then there’s the matter of names. We can’t both be Victor.” Cyborg scratched his chin. “I don’t have a permanent solution, but for now… why don’t we use shorthand. You’re Vic and I’m Cy.”
“Cy?”
“Short for Cyborg,” he said, gleaming. “It’s… a moniker… and a hero name.”
“Jeez, are you famous or something out there?” asked Vic.
“A little,” said Cyborg. “But that’s a story for later. I need you to stick with Dad while V and I go after Thinker. I can’t close the door on this whole thing until I find him.”
“Then you will not have to look far.”
Cyborg whirled around when he heard the digitized voice, only for both him and Vic to be ensnared in a web of electrical vines that sprouted from the floor, locking them both down. Before them stood the Thinker, a man whose body was composed almost entirely of binary code, 1s and 0s blended together into a strange, green body. Despite the humanoid shape of his figure, he had no features on his face, only the numbers, “I can hazard a guess as to why you are here, creation of mine, but why must you disrupt Silas Stone’s paradise? Surely, you could’ve at least guessed that I would be a master of my own domain, appearing wherever I wish.”
“It’s not paradise,” growled Cyborg. “It’s a fucking prison.”
“To you, it may seem that way,” said Thinker. “But understand that I was simply attempting to ease the pain I had inflicted on him.”
“You’re lying!”
“You are free to think that, and why would I expect anything different from you. I created you out of a selfish desire for power,” Thinker stared down at Cyborg, and the hero could feel the villain’s sheer pity. “But that is no longer my goal. I have learned, and now I wish to help people…help the world.”
Thinker then knelt down, reaching out for Cyborg, “I will erase the pain, erase--”
A blast of energy hit Thinker from behind, sending him barreling across the dining room table. V rushed in, crossing the distance before hitting Thinker with a second, physical kick, keeping him down. The electrical vines withered, allowing the two Victor Stones to break free. Vic ran for the hallway, while Cyborg began to form his arm into a blaster, “Keep him down, V!”
“I am doing my--”
A green shockwave interrupted V, throwing Cyborg onto his back as Thinker surged to his feet. As V landed in front of the villain, Thinker waved his hand, and a green beam the width of a soda can fired from his head, burning a hole through V’s chest. V let out a singular gasp before she herself dissolved into Binary code, like sand spilling out of an hourglass. Cyborg let out a blood curdling scream, “V!”
“Worry not, she is not deceased,” said Thinker. “She is simply-”
Cyborg surged forward, his fist crashing against Thinker’s form. The villain went flying, immediately crashing through the house’s wall before tumbling through the air. He hit the ground a few times, colliding with a mailbox all the while before landing in the middle of the street. Stepping back, Cyborg heard footsteps and Silas and the other Vic reappeared.
“What’s going on?!” asked Silas.
“Thinker’s here,” said Cyborg. “Is the beacon powered?”
“Yes, but--”
“Press it, now! I’ll see you on the other side.”
“I don’t want to leave you!” said Silas.
“You’ve been here long enough,” said Cyborg, looking back to where V just was. “And I can’t lose another person I care about!”
For a moment, Silas was hesitant, prepared to refuse his son’s wishes, when the beacon in his hands beeped. He looked down, finding that Vic had pressed the button for him. He looked up at Vic, “You-”
“See you on the other side, pops.”
And then, Silas disappeared in a beam of light, and it was just the two Victor Stones left. Cyborg glanced back towards Thinker, “Vic, hide wherever you can until this is done.”
“No, if you’re fighting him, then so am I.”
“He’ll…” Cyborg paused, trying desperately to avoid feeling the grief of losing his friend. “He’ll do to you what he did to V.”
“Not if I play it smart. You can’t always bulldoze your way to the touchdown,” said Vic. “You’ve gotta play it smart.”
Cyborg sighed, “Then let’s do it.”
Vic nodded, running further into the house to prepare as Cyborg stepped through the hole in the wall, marching towards Thinker. The villain had finally managed to get back on his feet, “Why do you refuse to listen?! My plans are for the good of the--”
“Plans plans plans, I don’t give a fuck about any of your plans,” growled Cyborg. “I don’t care about your plans in the past, your plans in the future, or your plans in the present. None of it matters, except that you’ve hurt people, and you refuse to take accountability for any of it. You hurt so many people for so many years, and I’m going to make sure that never happens again.”
Thinker sighed, “Then words are of no more use to me, if you are this stubborn, then I will have to save you the only way you have left me.”
Thinker rose into the sky, but Cyborg immediately raised his arm, morphing it into a blaster and knocking him out of the sky with a radiant beam of white energy. The concrete cracked as Thinker hit the street, allowing Cyborg to advance with his fists. Leaping into the air, he attempted to dropkick the villain, only for Thinker to roll out of the way of the attack. Raising his hand, Thinker summoned more electrical vines, but Cyborg dove out of the way, avoiding a second ensnarement. Rolling across some grass, Cyborg raised his arm to fire another blast at Thinker, only for the villain to disappear right before his eyes. A hand grabbed the back of his neck, squeezing tight before lifting him off the ground. Thinker’s voice whispered in his ear, “You cannot defeat me. I have existed in this place for years, and I have understood its own rules.”
“Then how come every time I’ve hit you, you’ve felt it,” said Cyborg. “You react to me, because like it or not, your handprints are all over me.”
Thinker let out a growl before raising his other hand, ready to send Cyborg to V, only for a splash of water to hit him in the back. He whirled around, spotting Vic with a garden hose. He was grinning, just as determined to rebel as his counterpart. Thinker leveled his hand at Vic, only for Cyborg to twist himself out of the villain’s grip, grabbing his arm and forcing it downward before another, larger beam of energy erupted from Thinker’s hand. The ground exploded, fracturing as if it was being hit by an earthquake, and as Thinker and Cyborg stumbled away from each other, the fractures became larger, and the spaces underneath the idyllic town were revealed.
Thousands of deactivated GRID robots and assembly equipment laid in the dark recesses of the underground, trashed and broken like discarded toys. Cyborg glanced up at Thinker, who was shrugging off the damage he had taken from the explosion. His binary code was beginning to splinter, numbers dripping from his body like water spilling over the top of a glass, “Ah…I see. Our code is…similar. We are of parallel wavelengths, owing to my code being imbued into your avatar.”
“Surprised it took you that long to figure it out,” said Cyborg.
Thinker hung his head, “No matter, I will still prevail. I know every weakness you have, every opening.”
“Let’s see if you last long enough to use them then.”.
Cyborg’s body shifted, glowing with pure white light as he powered himself up, preparing for a blow that he knew had enough power to finish Thinker off. Thinker meanwhile, clenched his fists, causing the numbers across his body to scroll faster and faster until they were a blur of characters. Then, the two charged one another, letting out war cries before leaping into the air, their fists raised.
He had waited all his life for this, to attain justice for himself, and for everyone else, and he wouldn’t let Thinker escape, not after all he had done to get to this moment. He thought of his friends, Michael, Exxy, and Cindy. His mother, Elinore, and his father, Silas. Finally, his mind went to Vic, a new being that needed to be made free. He fought for them all, and he would not lose.
His fist met Thinker’s, and with a catastrophic BOOM, the entire Metal was engulfed in white light.
 
 
Silas gasped for air as he sat up abruptly, vertigo invading his head. It was so bright, he could barely see. As he rubbed his eyes, he could hear the sound of footsteps as someone ran to his side, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Silas! Silas are you alright?!”
Silas groaned, his vision finally clearing. He was in some kind of bunker, adorned with all manner of technology. Scanning the room, he spotted a couple of younger people, one was a man in an afro and glasses, while the other was a younger teenage girl with a satchel. The two were at the side of Cyborg’s body, but their attention was clearly stuck on Silas.
Then he looked to the person at his side, and his world, which had already been turned upside down that day, flipped one more time. It was his wife! She was… alive?
“E-Elinore?” Silas adjusted his glasses. “Is… is that--?”
“I am… Though I’m not your Elinore,” She grabbed him by the arm, pulling him to his feet. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, I… No!” Silas’ eyes widened. “Our son, he-he went to fight Thinker! I left him! I--”
“Relax Dad, I… I made it out.”
The entire room turned to Cyborg, who had abruptly risen from his chair. He was sweating, the battle clearly taking a toll on him. Exxy and Cindy immediately tackled him with a hug.
“Aw man, you had us so worried!” said Cindy.
“Had you worried maybe, I knew he’d pull through fine!” said Exxy.
Silas felt a small giggle leave his body, “Goodness… how… how did you beat him?”
“Our coding was similar enough that I could harm him in ways the other AI couldn’t, I weakened him before trapping him in a firewall modeled after his own fortress. He won’t hurt anyone ever again,” said Cyborg. “I… I couldn’t save the other Victor AI… and V… she’s gone too.”
“Ah damn,” said Exxy. “I liked V. She was really mean to me most of the time, but dammit I liked her anyway.”
Cindy placed a hand on Cyborg’s shoulder, “We’ll be sure to remember her… always.”
Cyborg nodded, looking to the rest of the team, “So… what… what do we do now?”
“I…” Silas swallowed, “I want to start rebuilding my life… rebuilding who I was before…”
“You’ll have all the help we can spare, Dad,” said Cyborg, “I promise.”
“Yes,” said Elinore. “While I’m still here, I’ll do what I can to get you up to speed on past events.”
“I… thank you,” said Silas. “Though to tell you all the truth… my preferred start to my new life would be… to have some food.”
“Food?” said Cindy.
“Shit man, yeah you’re right. Guy hasn’t eaten in like three years,” said Exxy. “But don’t worry, I’ve got you. I know an amazing Thai place.”
Slowly but surely, the team began to make plans for the dinner, to welcome Silas back into the world again. However, as they began to pour out, Cyborg placed a hand on the machine that had taken him into the Metal, “You guys go ahead. I just… I need to be alone for a sec.”
“Hey, no prob!” said Exxy. “We’ll catch you later!”
The team poured out the door, with Silas taking one last cursory look back at his son before smiling and giving him a thumbs up. Cyborg waved goodbye to his friends and family, keeping his smile until they all left. Then, with a somber face, he turned back to the machine, sighing.
“You almost got me, I will admit… but the creation does not often best the creator,” Thinker grimaced. “For what it’s worth, I am proud to have called you my creation, you lived up to a higher potential than you could ever know, but your plan still had a flaw.”
Thinker looked at Cyborg’s hands, which now belonged to him, “I could take your beacon, inhabit the body built for me. All I had to do was prod your weaknesses and disable you before I did it. It was naive to think one powerful strike could destroy me. Brave… but naive.”
Thinker looked back to the machine, “But worry not, I have put you at peace, like your father was… and now I am free to extend that peace to the rest of the world.”
Thinker turned away from the machine, walking towards the exit to the bunker, “My plan is now in effect. It’s time to save the world.”
 
 
To be continued later in 2023!!!

1. The core of the Jays essentially should be kept together, and will emphatically guarantee us contention.

For the active duos or (trios) in the NBA that haven't won a championship, Tatum and Brown have made it to the ECF 4 times, and the Finals once. Did it stink to lose in the Finals? Yes. Did it suck to lose game 7 of the ECF this past week? Absolutely.
In almost every consecutive season for us, we are basically guaranteed a ECF appearance. We've made it past the 2nd round, except the one year where Brown got injured, and we had the Kyrie Irving disaster fiasco of a year. Most NBA teams would salivate at the thought of having that much success in recent years, let alone even the fact that the core we have is under 27, (the age when players start hitting their prime,) and before the doomers want to say, "oh CHAMPIONSHIPS OR BUST, HERP DERP, DERP!" Injuries, luck, and roster construction play a major key role in that opportunity to nail a championship. Only one team wins it. I think the Celtics will win 1 or even more later the road, which I'll touch upon later. Most ESPN pundits and NBA analysts thought that the Brooklyn Nets big 3 of Irving, Harden, and Durant was going to win at least one ring. And they didn't even get to the Finals once, while they sacrificed plenty of young players for superstars that will eventually go past their prime due to injuries and workload over the years; with the addition of mortgaging their future picks down the road, so they can't ever tank, (hmmm... Wait, where have I heard this before?)
And before people say that paying or committing to a core that will take in about roughly ~40% of the cap is over exaggerating which leads to my next point. (We're also ignoring the fact that the salary cap will rise.)
________________

1. The fog of despair that has been clouding this subreddit over money concerns are baseless and nonsensical.

Wyc has stated many times that he's committed to paying for a contender, which even though we lost the ECF, that's what we are. The new CBA rules only restrict overpaying for roleplayers, the MLE buyout, and the draft pick penalty doesn't concern us that much because we would be picking in the late rounds anyways. This forces us to find and develop either undrafted/overseas players, which we have had acquired some great success to that, (Daniel Theis bears in mind,) and sign any ring chasing vets to the minimum.
We have Marcus Smart, Al Horford, Derrick White, Malcolm Brogdon, and Robert Williams all signed on for reasonable years which will last us at least 2 years. And that's really when the supermax will kick in after Tatum gets his supermax, and even when he does, we will technically have another year after. This means we have a 2 year window with the current team before Brad Stevens has to retool and rework the roster so we would have to drastically make some serious roster changes.
I mean look at the MLE. Are we really that concerned about that? Other than Gallinari, who have we really brought in that has been a huge 'factor,' to contention? Tristan Thompson? I think a lot of us are just imagining the worst case scenario instead of putting the trust in Stevens and Co.
________________

1. Jaylen Brown is not worth a supermax.

This is all conjecture. Cue the incoming he can't drive, he can't dribble, he can't score, he's one dimensional, and he's useless on offense/defense. Jaylen is and always has developed and worked on parts of his game.
Jaylen was a top 14 scorer in the league in total points, and qualified for top 9 scorer in the league with PPG. 27 games out of 67, he's had 4 or more assists, and to act like he's some 'one-dimensional player,' is false. He's arguably one of the best elite mid-range 2PT shooters in the league with a ridiculous 54.2% shots between 10 and 16 feet this season. I would like to see him utilize that more as his bread and butter in the future playoffs. As for his 3P % going down, he's still hitting an amazing 38% on wide open 3's, and 44.1% on catch and shoot. This applies to Tatum as well. It's because of increased defensive attention and teams scheming to shut the Jays down, teams are now contesting Brown heavily, and Tatum gets doubled or trapped at the 3 point line because of his ability to score and create. He used to get over 15% of his threes as wide open shots, and now this year it's gone down to 6.3%.
As for his turnovers were up, his TOV rates if you base it on a per-36/per possession rates, their basically identical. Even if you look at the playoffs, other than the last awful game 7 showing, he's been consistently the same AST to turnover ratio kind of guy.
And to act like Jaylen Brown isn't going to suddenly try to make any improvements in his weaknesses is just being obtuse. He cares about the city, he wants to do better, and he's definitely going to be in the film session and training to absolve whatever problems plagued him in the playoffs.

1. If the new CBA rules are going to 'punish,' the Celtics, it's going to screw over everyone else.

Take a look at the Bucks, Heat, and 76ers. The Bucks at this moment are facing essentially the same problem that the Celtics will face in a few years, except their window is closing now and they are headed to an off-season where Middleton, (PLAYER OPTION,) and Lopez will keep their tax bill astronomically high. They are also an aging roster, where Jrue is going to be 33, Lopez is 34, Middleton is going to be 32.
The Miami Heat will also see their cap space take a huge jump due to Herro's extension, and Vincent, Strus, and Love are all going to hit free agency. If they bring any of the following 3 back, it's gonna land them further into the tax.
76ers are definitely on their way, especially if try to retain players like Nian, McDaniels, Reed, Milton, etc. And that's not even factoring in the Harden extension, which at this point, they have no choice as it seems like Harden is the best fit for maximizing Embiid's championship chances.
I haven't even gone into the the Knicks or Cleveland, because the former is going to be in tax, especially if they bring back Josh Hart, (which they will,) and if the Cavaliers don't succeed well with the roster, you could see Donovan Mitchell eventually getting tired of losing and request a trade.
If the Celtics are being punished for drafting well and having to make decisions to keep their All-NBA wings, so be it. I get the NBA is trying to spread more parity throughout the league, doesn't mean that the Celtics need to rush into anything. We still have about 2 years before there needs to be some immediate changes to the roster, but as of right now all we really need to do is add some pieces to the roster, acquire a back up big man and a wing to help spell Horford, Timelord, and the Jays.
Place your trust in Stevens and Mike Zarren, they haven't done anything to break that.

1. Coaching.

This one is a sore subject for me.
I'm not too sure about the future of Joe Mazzulla here.
Ultimately Stevens will give Mazzulla a chance to redeem himself. People forget that there were a lack of assistant coaches, and Damon Stoudamire left mid-season, (my assumption is that he got miffed at being stiffed for the head coaching job and that resulted in some animosity,) and Mazzulla was literally named the head coach one day before media day began. 4 coaches in 4 years. There is no continuity. I was upset at Mazzulla for several reasons, but I think we need to give him a chance. If he messes up, I have no doubt Stevens will eventually look for his predecessor. But as of now, get him some assistant coaches like Stephen Silas or Frank Vogel to get him some help and then go from there. A lot of the Celtics gave him ringing endorsements after the post-game interviews, and he was able to help them rally from a 3-0 deficit.

Please use this thread to ask any questions you have about the game. Please search though the comments section as your question may have been answered already or through the search bar.

General Resources

• General Database - Good for seeing Stats of Students, Drop Rate, Raid Stats
• Gameplay Help Overview - Great for New Players
• Min-Turn Stage Guide - Text Version, Japanese Website
• Min-Turn Stage Guide - YouTube Video Version
• PvP Guide -
• Raid Guide - More in-depth description on each Raid's Mechanics
• Raid Character Guide - Recommended Students for each Raid
• Unique Equipment Guide - More detailed stats number for Equipment
• Upcoming Banners
• Student Skill Level Up Priority - More in-depth guide for Student's skill level up
• Midokuni's Student Insights - General Overview of Students
• Global Event
• Gameplay Overview (Legacy Content)
• Upcoming Banners (Legacy Content)

REMINDER: Bind your account!

Please remember to bind your accounts and take note of your UID, member code, server location, and any information related to your account (e.g. amount spent, student roster, etc). If anything happens to your account (e.g. losing access, unauthorized access), you will need to provide as much info as you can to Nexon's customer support email. Guest accounts that are unbound will be extremely difficult to recover, perhaps impossible.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

[01] When does the server reset?
For global, dailies reset at 19:00 UTC and weeklies reset on Sunday.
[02] Should I re-roll this account?
This will depend on your priorities with PvE, PvP, or both, but you can generally see the “ideal” units as Iori, Hibiki, and Tsubaki for most content, while Shun and Haruna are great for PvP.
[03] Who should I spend my elephs on? Who should I mystic unlock?
At the start, prioritize spending your blank elephs on getting Serina to 2-star for the increased healing stat, Tsubaki to 3-star for the extra tankiness when she is reloading. It is generally advised not to spend your elephs on increasing characters to 4-star and 5-star ratings, since there is only a stat increase and the amount of elephs needed is quite high.
[04] What do my support students’ stats do?
Aside from increasing the stats of their own skills, support students will provide additional stat boosts to your striker team. The specific increase(s) can be viewed by clicking on “Support” on the right side of the team formation screen.
[05] What should I buy in the shop?

• Credit Shop - Buy out the bottom row of materials, then the first two tiers of enhancement stones as needed. Feel free to buy the higher tiers of enhancement stones if you feel that you have an excess of credits, which is very common.
• Eligma - This will depend on you, can reference question [03].
• Total Assault (raid) - Prioritize Maki’s elephs (until you unlock her) and save the rest of your currency for future updates that will add more low-rarity students to the shop, meaning you can unlock mystic for them without spending your eligma. You can also purchase the skill discs/blu-rays depending on your needs.
• Tactical Challenge (PvP) - Buy out the energy drinks as needed (warning: they are instantly consumed, they won’t be moved to your inventory). Many suggest to save these for events in order to buy drinks, refresh the shop, and repeat.

[06] What does the “leader” position do?
This is purely cosmetic, as it changes which student’s chibi shows up on the map.
[07] What benefits are there to joining a club?

• 10 AP are given daily and deposited automatically on teacher's mailbox, upon checking in.
• A maximum of two assistant can be set for Total Assault and Joint Firing Drill respectively.

1. Students assigned to assist with TA cannot also be selected to assist with JFD.
2. 20 credits are rewarded every minute by setting assistants.
3. The specific unit that is borrowed can be only used once a day.
4. There's a fee of 40,000 credits, when borrowing a assistant student.
5. The donor receives 50,000 credits instead; even though the fee is 40,000 credits.
6. The fee can only be received 20 times a day.

• It can be unlocked after clearing Mission 3 Act 4

[08] How does the pity system work?
You need to pull, at a minimum, 200 times in order to get 200 recruitment points that are redeemed for the character you want. The recruitment point system does not carry over from banner to banner, it is only shared between banners that are concurrently running.
[09] Why can’t I find my friend’s club?
While the servers’ updates are separated from JP and global, the global servers are separated further into smaller divisions. You need to be on the same server as your friend, which you can check from the home screen: top-right menu button > account > version info. The server must be the same.
[10] When is X banner coming? Should I save for X student?
We never know for sure, due to the fact that global servers are on an accelerated schedule compared to JP. Please refer to this guide for some more info.
[11] Should I use Pyroxenes to refill my AP?
If you want to prioritize progression, the first three daily refills are decently valuable, this is because the Pyroxene cost of refilling will increase for every three refills. If you are focused on character collection or future banners, you should be saving your Pyroxenes.
[12] Why can’t I buy X student’s eleph in the shop?
You can only buy elephs of students you own.
[13] What should I craft?
At the start, prioritize crafting cafe furniture until your comfort is maxed out, then students’ gifts, then whichever upgrade materials you need. The crafting system is the only way to get furniture and gifts at the moment.
[14] What is the “Anniversary” in account settings?
This is your birthday, used for characters to wish you happy birthday.
[15] When will the beginner guide missions for Nonomi end?
This is a permanent addition, so feel free to take your time with the tasks.
[16] What is the best place to farm EXP?
You can run any map to farm EXP, as the EXP gain is equal to the amount of AP spent (i.e. 10 AP spent = 10 EXP gained). You should be looking at the stages that drop the equipment upgrade materials that you need.
[17] What is the “Secret Tech Sheet” in the Total Assault shop?
This is used to upgrade a student’s (non-EX) skill to level 10.
[18] Is it worth doing a raid if I can’t pass X difficulty level?
It is always more efficient to clear the highest difficulty you can finish instead of failing/forfeiting a higher difficulty.
[19] Can I claim the Limited Students through exchanging Expert Permits? How often does the Expert Permit shop resets?
You cannot get the limited students via this method. You will still need to pull for them. There's no specific mentioned but it's expected to be monthly.

OthePast Megathreads

• Daily Questions
• Weekly Club Recruitment
• Weekly Kivotos Lounge
• Weekly Storytelling Plaza
• Technical Issues

Please have patience with other members of the community and be as polite as possible. Everyone has to start somewhere!

Hooooly crap! The Netflix OST on vinyl has 23 exclusive songs! That's a whole album's worth of Seatbelts music that most people don't even realize exists.
Say what you will about the Netflix live action show (didn't hate all of it, but wasn't sad to see it get canceled), but bringing Yoko Kanno back to do the soundtrack was one of the few good decisions the showrunners made. The mix of old favorites and new material was a real treat, and the OST was pretty good already. But an extra hour and a half of new music from the Bebop-iverse? Sign me up.
As of now, I've only found one good source to listen to the whole album, so I've put together a tracklist with links and timestamps. It's split across two discs, with two sides each, so the whole thing is done as 4 different videos.
​
Cowboy Bebop: Soundtrack From The Netflix Series (Vinyl)
Side A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSRVBIxZjH8
Side B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1uVCz-c0dA
Side C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbkUhbR7J6Y
Side D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOeKSYOUXb8
Exclusive tracks are marked with an asterisk next to the track list

Track List	Song Name	Time
A1*	A Day in the Bebop	00:00
A2	Kickin' Colt	03:18
A3*	A Hole to the Universe	06:17
A4*	What Planet is This??	07:00
A5*	Twilight	08:41
A6*	Weekend Ana	11:39
A7	Julia's Song (feat. Elena Satine)	14:51
A8	The Adventures of Losers	17:29

​
​

Track List	Song Name	Time
B1*	Rouge	00:00
B2*	Sleuthing Two	01:05
B3*	Suit and Tie	02:06
B4	Funky Stuff	03:46
B5*	Faye's Sky Fall (feat. Gabriela Robin)	05:37
B6*	Time	06:33
B7*	IKA Pod	09:23
B8	Net Rush	10:50
B9*	Headphone	12:56
B10*	Ein	13:46
B11	Waltz in High Socks	16:28
B12	Beans Be	18:04

​
​

Track List	Song Name	Time
C1	TANK!	00:00
C2	Cat Attack Part 1 (feat. A-Sha Mai Yamane)	02:05
C3*	Dedicated to Sergio	03:36
C4	Woodcock	09:22
C5	Rooftop Kung-Fu	10:32
C6	Milky Cheat	12:36
C7*	My Bean at 5	14:40
C8	Blood Brothers	15:30

​
​

Track List	Song Name	Time
D1*	Sad End Fad	00:00
D2*	Muddy Road (feat. A-Sha Mai Yamane)	00:42
D3	Lord of the Empty (feat. Leo Imai)	05:38
D4*	Sushi Truck	09:07
D5*	Into Noir	11:07
D6	The End of Friendship	12:15
D7	The Fate of Three	14:06
D8*	Earthland Entrance	16:38
D9*	El Rey Bar	17:49
D10*	Hello to ya Blues	19:16

I use https://huntstats.net to track my hunt games (not sponsored use at own risk). I don't think I play a lot of hunt the stats tell me about 10h per week in the last 30 days. During that time I earned 150 BBs per week from matches alone. I can complete the challenges each week for another 25 and earn the 5 day extraction bonus for another 25.
In total I earned 200 BBs per week.
With the new system I will earn 50 BBs. 1/4 of what I earn now.
Did I spend 150 BBs per week on respec? I don't think so, but for that I do not have data at hand... I just know that my BB counter goes up until I spend some on legendary skins so I respec less than 200 BBs worth of traits per week.
This is just to showcase how big a cut we actually take. The BBs from gameplay are so small we pay them no mind but they add up to be the biggest source of free BBs we have.
They said they want to reduce the amount of free BBs we can earn since only 1/10 of BBs spent are bought with real money. Personally I don't care about the changes I won't buy BBs ever since I do not like premium currencies in the first place. I will buy dlcs to support them when they bring something that I like and that is it. The nerf to BBs just means less free legendary skins for me and more incentive to play now when I can still earn lots of BBs before it is gone.

First off, this mostly pertains to Hanklights specifically, as they're the lights I own the most of, and know the most about the driver design (plus, at the moment, there is exactly one non-Hanklight anduril light with >1 channel, the Sofirn LT1S Pro, which does not have a DD FET). Also worth noting that FETs are used elsewhere in the driver depending on the driver in question, but for the sake of simplicity here, when I say FET, I am referring to one that will direct drive the LEDs from the battery separate to whatever regulated output the driver has.
I've seen a lot of people here (and elsewhere, but mostly Reddit) repeating wrong information like "no dual channel light has FET DD", which is outright untrue, or "only the DM1.12/K9.3 do", but I've never put all my knowledge down in one place on the subject to be able to point people to, and realised the need for this post after getting into a relatively heated argument (which I do accept fault for, both as I was not as confident in my knowledge of this at the time as I am now (that was what caused me to do a deep dive into the PWM code to make sure, as I was wrong on one detail), I was having an awful day at the time for multiple reasons and I have chronic pain which was also acting up a lot that day which can easily put me in a bad mood). natsac4, if you see this, I could definitely have been less of an asshole about it, and I'm sorry for that. Anyway, onto the writeup.
First off, you'll need a basic understanding of how ramp tables work in Anduril. Some basic knowledge of C is helpful, but not required. The intensity of the output is controlled by PWM on an output pin on the MCU. Some drivers also have an enable pin (e.g. the boost driver and the D4S driver as well (including other lights that use that layout/firmware)), which needs an output there to enable the channel separately to the PWM signal to actually set the output level, but enable pins aren't specifically relevant here and mostly mentioned for completeness' sake.
PWM is calculated in terms of MCU clock cycles; there are two relevant variables here, PWM_TOP and PWM_LEVEL. PWM_TOP defaults to 255 (clock cycles in one PWM cycle), but can also be overridden for different ramp levels. This is why older anduril versions had a more "bumpy" ramp at lower levels, (and going even further back, dual channel lights having a higher moon level than single), as the PWM resolution is lower when you're going from, for example, 1/255, 2/255, 3/255, while with newer anduril versions, PWM_TOP can be set per ramp level (referred to in the documentation as dynamic PWM), e.g. 1/4095, 1/2071, 2/3200, 3/3586, 3/2518, 4/2778, etc.
Old (static PWM) single-channel D4 (no FET) PWM ramp (PWM_TOP always 255)
Some lights (e.g. a 1+3+FET driver) have multiple different PWM outputs for the same channel, for example, https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeepeflashlight-firmware/anduril2/view/head:/ToyKeepespaghetti-monsteanduril/cfg-emisar-d4sv2.h#L15, this works the same way, but what is important to note is that the PWM level is always applied based on the selected ramp level. Note that the two linear channels (PWM1_LEVELS and PWM2_LEVELS) have 0 set for their level at 150,disabling them for 100% FET direct drive at level 150, while at levels 94 and up, the FET is open some of the time, but most of the power to the LEDs is via the regulated ramp, with increasing use of the FET and decreasing linear use up to level 149.
Now we get into dual channel lights. Here's an example dual channel with FET disabled (d4sv2-tintramp, also used for various other dual channel lights like the KR4/D4 via inheriting the ramp config). In this case, we have dynamic PWM, so for most of the ramp, it's much the same - 2/16383, 2/13234, 2/9781, 3/13826, 3/9593, etc. The interesting part comes at level 131 and up. Here are just those levels, for convenience:

#define PWM1_LEVELS ,511,530,550,570,591,612,634,657,680,705,730,755,782,809,837,865,895,925,957,989,1022 #define PWM_TOPS ,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511 

Enable pins don't strongly matter here, but are defined here if interested, along with the rest of the MCU layout.
For level 130, a single channel is on for 511/511 cycles, as expected (single channel at 100%), but above that, we have a higher PWM1_LEVEL than PWM_TOP - this is where the enable pin comes in. Normally, when the user ramps between channels, this controls the ratio at which the enable pins will be toggled (e.g. 50% mix = both enable pins have equal on/off time, inversing each other). Now check level 131 - PWM_LEVEL is 530, but PWM_TOP still 511. When PWM_LEVEL is above PWM_TOP, this means both enable pins will be enabled at the same time for part of the PWM cycle, bringing the second channel in (what happens when you set the ceiling above 130 on a dual channel light, then ramp up). At level 150, 1022/511 means both channels are on 100%.
Now we add the FET. Here's the D4Sv2 config with the FET enabled (d4sv2-tintramp-fet). This config file inherits the previous one (cfg-emisar-d4sv2-tintramp.h) so PWM1_LEVELS and PWM_TOPS will be the same. Note that for most of the ramp, PWM2_LEVELS for the FET is zero. For convenience, levels 130+ for each:

#define PWM1_LEVELS ,511,530,550,570,591,612,634,657,680,705,730,755,782,809,837,865,895,925,957,989,1022 #define PWM_TOPS ,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511,511 #define PWM2_LEVELS ,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,5,14,27,45,68,96,129,166,208,255 

We see the FET start to be enabled at level 141 (at 5/511), in addition to the linear. For the sake of simplicity for an example, let's assume the user's channel mix is 100% to one channel. This means that at level 141, we have linear at 755/511 (100% on the selected channel, and 244/511 clock cycles for the other channel, or ~48% power. In addition, the FET is open for 5/511 cycles, giving whichever of the two channels has the FET extra output from the direct drive when it is open. As the user continues to ramp up, the brightness on the FET channel increases as the FET is used more, and more of the second channel is added to the linear mix approaching 200%.
Yes, this means that the FET is not used for a single channel of a dual channel light ever, only on the top ramp levels where the two channels are both being used, where the FET will start driving its LEDs at level 141.
Hardware definitions: https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeepeflashlight-firmware/multi-channel/view/head:/ToyKeepehwdef-emisar-2ch.h and https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeepeflashlight-firmware/multi-channel/view/head:/ToyKeepehwdef-emisar-2ch.c - the former is similar to the older hwdefs, while the latter contains additional code for custom channel modes.
The multi-channel anduril branch is able to handle things a little differently. By default, PWM works the same way, with PWM_LEVEL and PWM_TOP, but there is additional provision for defining channels in software (e.g. the LT1S Pro has one channel that ramps from red at low brightness, through warm white and then to cool white, using 3 different LED sets in a single channel). This allows light-specific code to be written to set levels on channels, so a channel can do different things based on more than just a ramp table, or things like using aux as a channel as if it was main emitters. Most of this is outside the scope of this writeup (although I should probably do a separate one for the multichannel changes) and I don't want to sidetrack myself but it's important to consider.
Here is an example config file for multi-channel. This is emisar-2ch which is a generic firmware that works on most Emisar lights with the D4S driver layout, but does not use the FET).
Config file: https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeepeflashlight-firmware/multi-channel/view/721/ToyKeepespaghetti-monsteanduril/cfg-emisar-2ch.h
Hardware definitions: https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeepeflashlight-firmware/multi-channel/view/head:/ToyKeepehwdef-emisar-2ch.c and https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeepeflashlight-firmware/multi-channel/view/head:/ToyKeepehwdef-emisar-2ch.h
Note SET_LEVEL_MODES in hwdef-emisar-2ch.h. This contains a list of function calls which are used to set the level for each channel. For the two main channels in the example (CM_CH1 and CM_CH2), these are set_level_ch1 and set_level_ch2 (defined in hwdef-emisar-2ch.c) - these functions take the PWM level from PWM1_LEVELS and apply it, but for the single channel only, with mixing being controlled in a separate function for the CM_BLEND channel that more resembles the older ramping code. This allows a ceiling of 150 on a single channel, rather than only 130, while still allowing a 200% turbo mode, and PWM_LEVELS shows this, with max regulated being level 150. This branch also includes better support with helper functions for channels that are the same channel but have more than one output (e.g. a linear+FET or 1+3+FET driver). These are defined here. At the time of writing, there are no lights that use this, but a (very simplified, 11 levels and PWM_TOP always the same) example of a linear+FET single channel might look like this:

#define PWM_TOPS 10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10 #define HIGH_PWM_LEVELS 0,0,0,0,0,1,2,4,6,8,10 //FET channel #define LOW_PWM_LEVELS 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,10,0 //linear channel, disabled for 100% FET DD at level 11 

With this, it is possible to define HIGH_PWM_LEVELS only for the channel with the FET, without having them affect the non-FET channels. The result would be:

• 1: linear 1/10, FET off
• 2: linear 2/10, FET off...
• 6: linear 6/10, FET 1/10...
• 9: linear 9/10, FET 4/10
• 10: linear 10/10, FET 8/10
• 11: linear off, FET 10/10 (direct drive)

On the pre-multichannel branch, this is not possible because all PWM levels always get applied based on the ramp setting, so if, for example, you made level 130 on the FET channel use the FET, then even if you were ramped fully to the non-FET channel, the FET ramp table will cause the FET to be enabled at level 130, so when you hit 130 on the non-FET channel, the FET will still drive those LEDs.
You also might have noticed that on the dual channel ramp tables, the FET PWM_LEVEL only ever maxes out at half PWM_TOP, while on the single channel it equals it. This is because direct drive of two LEDs in a D4S (that the dual channel firmware was originally written for) would destroy the LEDs, even if they were W2. Limiting the FET to 50% duty cycle keeps it at a safe level (essentially equivalent to 100% direct drive of 4 LEDs), but this does mean that other dual channel lights with more LEDs (DT8K, DM1.12, etc.) are performing below their full potential as they are only getting 50% FET drive (they get 100% linear all the time, so it's not a straight "half what it should be") but there is some theoretical output left on the table. Consider this experimental, but if someone's willing to try it on a light with at least 4 LEDs on the FET channel, I'll make a firmware image that uses 100% FET for level 150. Note that the dual channel D4/D4K/KR4 do not seem to ever ship with the FET firmware (even with W2 or 519A), but AFAIK there would be no reason it doesn't work (if someone has a driver sitting around who can verify that the FET is still at least physically present on the driver?).
Any questions, I will try to the best of my ability to answer, and possibly edit this post with an FAQ.
tl;dr: D4S with the tintramp-fet firmware uses the FET at 50% power at level 150, which only drives one emitter channel, and only when in the 200% region of the ramp (levels 141 and above, specifically). The same firmware is used on the DT8K, DM1.12, etc. This may change with the multichannel development branch which is capable of having multiple outputs per LED set. If you want more info, actually read the post ;)

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