#I should make a high priority to low priority chart maybe

[goldenspirits]

nothing happens when i click the before you follow button it just redirects back to your blog

That is a known Tumblr Mobile(tm) issue! Well, that's partially the reason I had a tag saying 'ask for links if on mobile.', is that tag still there? I don't remember Anyways, here are the links, just copy and paste them onto your browser and go wild!

About: https://goldenspirits.tumblr.com/about

BYF: https://goldenspirits.tumblr.com/byf

Silly Stuff: https://goldenspirits.tumblr.com/taggingsys

[doufuhua]

Resource tips when playing Genshin Impact, things the game won’t tell you.

I see a handful of new players, *cough* my mutuals *cough*, making mistakes when it comes to saving their resources and wasting their time by staying in a low world level.

Increasing your world level is always a good thing, when you increase your world level you have a better chance at getting larger and more better quality enemy drops, rewards from bosses, and artifacts. I understand there may be the fear of enemies in-game being too strong for your parties to handle, but players agree that accumulating your exp past the limit, like say AR25, is wasting your time, mora, and resin. Spending your resin at AR25 with accumulated exp, you are getting very low quality rewards in return with your world level 1 cap, when you could be getting much better rewards if you remove the cap and were in world level 4 for example. The jump in between enemy levels from world level 1 to 2 or 3 is not a huge gap to be honest, it’s not more than your characters can handle at level 40-50, it will take a little longer to defeat an enemy camp, but your party will survive. So, always remove your world level cap when you get the chance. If enemies really are difficult for you, co-op with someone at a higher AR, some are even willing to do the work for you because most high AR players are at endgame, bored with nothing to do, have your co-op join on and ask for help in your profile status. If the idea of co-op makes you feel uncomfortable for whatever reason, you can descend one world level in the menu, but I find that when I ascend, not once have I considered going down one level, even when my party is 20 levels lower than enemy bosses.

(One of the things I regret doing while playing this game was not following the advice from above, I was AR25 accumulating a lot of exp and not ascending my world level. When I ascended my world level, I believe the cap was 3? is where I stopped. I realized the enemies were not as difficult to fight as they were in world level 1. I’ve been leveling my characters accordingly equal to the world level, by the way, farming for exp books is what you should be focusing on when you’re a lower world level, I will elaborate that on another point. My party at level 50 were actually fine against enemies at level 62 and above, if you fight smartly, dodging and using your elemental reactions correctly, you can defeat them. I lost some hp between each character and the fights took longer than usual but that wasn’t a big deal, upon realizing that, I then realized that I wasted my whole time staying at AR25. It was like a moment of clarity, “oh my god, I stayed AR25 for maybe 2 months for no reason at all...I could’ve gotten more and better materials all this time and level my characters even faster.” So after that, I kept increasing my world level, but every 1 or few weeks, because I was dumb, didn’t listen to any advice, and didn’t farm enough exp books for more than 1 party when I should be when I was a lower AR, I needed to farm more exp for at least 2 or 3 parties. So you see, I wasted time and energy grinding, trying to catch up at higher world levels because I stayed way past than I should be in world level 1. It’s unfortunate when I see players in forums saying they don’t want to ascend because they don’t want to deal with the difficulty, or sometimes there are some arrogant players even boasting staying at a lower world level, asking higher AR players, what’s the point of ascending. Maybe when I was in world level 1, I probably wouldn’t care and maybe even agree, but now that I’m AR54, I realize how wrong that mindset is, it felt really sucky realizing I wasted free time staying at AR25 when I could’ve been like AR45, because now I have to play catch up, get characters to level 70 or 80, so that means wasting more time again to farm on top of already wasted time, it’s like starting the game all over. The game is so much funner when you’re at a higher AR, it feels really nice being rewarded with high quality loot, and if you’re like me, the challenges makes the game more interesting, especially when you have figured out the mechanics by now.)

Focus on getting materials and not artifacts when you’re below AR45/world level 5. When you’re at a low AR level, you should prioritize your daily resin to farming mora/exp leylines and materials for character ascension/talents/weapons. You’ll realize the higher you upgrade your characters, the more exp and mora you’ll need to upgrade all ascensions. Like the chart says in the link, the chances you’ll get any high quality artifacts is extremely rare to impossible at lower world levels. At world level 6-8 (the average that most players playing since launch are at), no one is using 1-3 star artifacts (they’re used as fodder for 5 star ones, so save your 1-3 star artifacts and don’t level them), even most 4 star artifacts stay in their inventory. Every AR45+ player are equipping 5 star artifacts on their characters, because they give them the best stats boost for their dps carries at endgame. Supports can make use of the 4 star artifacts however, if you don’t have enough 5 star ones, because they don’t stay on the field as long as dps characters do, but when you do get enough 5 star artifacts for your supports, replace the 4 stars. I say artifact farming should be reserved for when you get to AR45. When you are at AR45, you unlock the restriction that allows you the chance to get 5 star artifacts. Note that the link in the first bullet point says you’re guaranteed at least one 5 star artifact, whichever artifact you’ll get will also be random, so you may not get the exact artifact that you’re looking for, at that point you just have to try again, domain farming is just like gacha. Players would argue whether you should start farming at AR45 or AR50, I am of the opinion that you start farming at 45 for a couple of reasons. First, you get 5 star artifacts early, second, even if your haul from farming are undesirable artifacts, you can use them as fodder for your eventual perfect 5 star artifact with the right stats, and you’re gonna need a lot of fodder to enhance the perfect one. You’re gonna be farming artifacts for quite awhile which I will explain in the next point. (tbe)

Save your fragile resins for artifact farming, save as much as you can because farming for them sucks so bad (rng). (tbe)

Prioritize what you should be leveling for your characters. What I think people don’t realize is, talents are very important to level up maybe more so than leveling your character’s levels. Leveling your characters only upgrades their base hp, def, atk, and special stat, pretty basic and standard. However, leveling your talents, determines how much dmg your character is outputting with their auto attacks, elemental skill, and burst. Everyone has their opinion but my belief is the order should go: ascend character but do not level to max -> level talents to max (at AR35, if not AR35, level weapons then talents) -> level weapons to max -> level artifacts (at AR45, if not AR 45, skip this) -> go back to leveling characters in order to ascend, and then repeat. As far as character role priority goes, I think everyone is aware you should invest in dps/hyper carries -> dps/sub-dps -> supports. (tbe)

Don’t max every stat for your characters, ie. character levels 90/90, talent levels 10/10, especially if you’re f2p, it is very mora costly and spreads your resources thin. You don’t need to be maxed out in order for your characters to be strong or stand a chance against enemies. As you can see from the second link, the power difference between a level 80 character vs. a level 90 character is a small increment, depending on the character’s multipliers, their increase in damage from 80 to 90 ranges from 1-4%. It doesn’t make a huge difference in gameplay. Stat increases start to slow down or get smaller when your character is ascending towards levels 70-90. Most players, especially f2p, who are trying to save as much resources as they can, invest in at least 8 characters/2 good teams to level 70 or 80 all the way towards endgame, because spiral abyss requires 2 teams. So f2p players have to spread out their resources evenly to 8 characters. If you are trying to get every character in your roster to reach level 90, you will burn out your resources very quickly. Say you’ve been playing and farming materials since launch and you’re leveling characters to 90, you most likely will get about 4 characters maxed while everyone else is too low level to make any damage. Another thing about ascensions is just that it is so costly, it costs up to hundred thousands of mora, on top of that, you spend more mora per level up and you have to do it for 8 characters, a few million mora can evaporate fairly quickly when you factor in crafting, forging, buying ingredients you can’t find in the wild, enhancing weapons/artifacts, and upgrading talents. For point of reference, at AR54 my dps characters are level 80/90 and my support characters are level 70/80, talent levels 6-8 for all (at AR54-55 however, you should have talents level 8/8/8 for dps or support at least, that is a good stopping point), most artifacts (5 stars) at level 20, weapons at level 80 or 90. My teams can take on enemies 10 or 20 levels above them just fine, it may take longer to kill an enemy but it’s more fun than one-shotting in my opinion. Talents are the same as ascensions but they are even more costly than ascensions, more time consuming to level up because they require enemy drops from weekly bosses, and the drops are rng, you’re not guaranteed the exact material you need for a specific character, it may even take weeks until you get the right material (in the 1.5 update however, there will be a converter given to players who want to exchange a material they have for something else, but there is no further info about this yet). The unfortunate thing about this game is that there is too much rng factoring into chance, this is the most common complaint in the community and even though many have sent feedback about this, nothing much has changed since launch, it’s just something you have bitterly swallow. Talents are still very important despite all this, don’t neglect them (Tip: whenever a character banner comes out and they allow you to have a trial with them, you should check their character screen, take a look at their stats, artifacts, weapons, talents, that’s usually a model you should aim for. A perfect example, in Xiao’s trial, Mihoyo made him level 80, gave him talent levels 8/8/8, and gave him 2 Viridescent and 2 Gladiator 5 star artifacts to fight level 90 enemies for testing, and that is the exact set I see a lot of Xiao users in-game and on youtube used after his trial, they all just followed what Mihoyo set up for him). Always max out your weapons, there is no downside to this, your characters gain stat bonuses from them and get stronger, the best thing about it is that you don’t have to spend resin for it, you just have to mine ore as a daily routine. Take advantage of the adventurer expeditions, always keep on top of it, and always assign characters to get ore or mora.

There are some exceptions to maxing out your characters, however. Some people have their favorite characters up to level 90 with crowned talents (level 10), that’s totally fine, mainly the reason they would do that is because they love this particular character a lot, they love their playstyle and don’t plan on ever benching them soon. Youtubers like to show off their maxed out characters as a flex, you don’t have to follow their actions though, it’s not mandatory. Only max out a character because it’s personal for you, don’t think it’s like “oh I have to reach the max because that’s required to play the game,” it’s not that. Another reason for maxing is that maybe this character is a hypercarry and their multipliers are too good to ignore if they were at 90, for example, Hu Tao is a special case, she is a hypercarry and has the lowest base stats with average multipliers I believe, of all released characters, but her Staff of Homa makes up for that by giving her an insane crit damage boost (62%), but for a Hu Tao player who doesn’t have Staff of Homa, the sound of her at level 90 to give her a boost sounds appealing to them. If you’d like a model to follow by, the recommended levels I suggest for endgame would be - DPS: level 80/90 (level 80 ascended), talent levels 8/8/8 at least; 9/9/9 if you can, weapon level 90/90, 5 star artifacts at maxed level (look for crit rate/damage stats on each artifact). Supports/Sub-DPS: level 60/70 (level 60 ascended) or level 70/80 (level 70 ascended) respectively, talent levels 6/6/6 (supports); 7/7/7; 8/8/8 (sub-dps), weapon level 90/90, 5 star artifacts at maxed level (sub-dps), 4 star at maxed is ok (supports), but majority should be 5 stars like 1:4 or 2:3 (look for crit rate/damage, energy recharge, elemental mastery, and depending on what the character scales with, attack, hp, and defense stats). Follow what suits you best by taking a look at the first link.

Prioritize your support/sub-dps characters over dps characters. (tbe)

[tsarisfanfiction]

Nakama (Tales From The Heart)

Fandom: One Piece Rating: Gen Warnings: None Characters: Law, Penguin, Shachi, Bepo, Polar Tang

Travelling in a submarine posed a unique problem, which the Heart Pirates had noticed early on, and that was the requirement for fuel. Mercifully, the Tang had several huge tanks, half of them reserves, so the likelihood of ever finding themselves running on empty was slim.

The run of bad luck started when island after island was unable to provide them with any fuel. The Tang wasn't picky about what powered her – a stroke of luck, considering how specialised she otherwise was – but they'd been young and naïve enough to not start looking for fuel until they were down to the reserve tanks, believing that they still had plenty of fuel left.

"I don't like this," Shachi admitted, staring at the display panels in the control room. All four of them were gathered there, not quite comfortable with their current situation as the dials claimed they were down to less than an eigth of a single tank. In an ideal world, they'd have resorted to sailing long ago, manoeuvring her bulk the traditional way until they found enough fuel to start the engines going again.

Doflamingo had unhelpfully decided to be in the same area as them, and Law's pink flamingo-induced paranoia had overridden his running low on fuel paranoia, so they'd taken in the sail and dived, regretfully igniting the engines to escape.

"He won't linger long," Penguin said hopefully, looking at Law, who shrugged helplessly.

"Keep the engines on minimum power," the youngest ordered. "We'll let the currents carry us, just use the fuel to keep our vital systems running. Bepo, chart where it takes us so you can get us to an island once we resurface."

"Aye, Captain!" the mink agreed eagerly, already surrounded by maps and his paws covered in ink, which smeared onto everything he touched. The maps seemed unintelligible to the humans, inky black smudges covering the lines between land and sea, but Bepo didn't seem perturbed by his additions to the cartography. "We're here," he explained, adding another splotch of ink to the map as he nudged the spot in question. The other three leaned in, unable to tell for themselves and trusting that the mink was right. "The current seems to be heading this way so far," he continued, dragging the claw along the parchment, leaving a black streak.

"There aren't many islands that way," Penguin commented dubiously. "If the current takes us past that cluster," he pointed to a small group of islands almost but not quite on their route, "we're going to be sailing for a long time."

"We should be able to surface there," Law said. "If we come up just past them and backtrack, it'll take a little more fuel but we'll be able to avoid Doflamingo. He wasn't heading this way from what I saw, so coming up the other side of the islands should keep us out of sight."

"Do we have enough fuel for that?" Shachi asked, unconvinced, as he glanced back at the gauges again. He couldn't read the exact level from where he was, but it was worryingly low.

"Yes," Law said, sounding about as certain as Shachi had been. "We might need to cut power everywhere except this room," he added, thinking out loud. "But we have enough."

No-one bothered to ask if they knew how to isolate a single room. They all knew they didn't.

"It'll be fine," Bepo said, his grin almost genuine, and they smiled weakly. It was a testament to the fear Doflamingo instilled in their captain, and by association the rest of them, that running out of fuel underwater was still their preferred doom.

Two hours later, with their fuel gauge now firmly at the bottom end of the red, Shachi ventured out of the control room to make sure all the lights were turned off in all the other rooms, and anything else that was taking unnecessary power. A painful order from Law had him shutting down even the machines in the infirmary, and as he carefully picked his way through the darkness back to the control room, the external lights flickered off.

"Where are we?" he asked Bepo as he re-entered the room to find even the control room's lights had been dimmed as much as possible.

"An hour away from the islands," Law replied for him, having clearly just asked the same question himself, and Shachi breathed a shaky sigh before collapsing into a chair. It let out an oof, but Penguin didn't push him off. Opposite them, the other side of the table, Law was covered in ink and nestled on Bepo's lap. For once, he wasn't protesting at the mess. "This current is staying steady." There was nothing left to say, so Shachi slouched back against the taller boy, whose arms loosely wrapped around him while a chin found rest on his left shoulder.

It was going to be a long hour.

Or so they thought.

If the external lights had still been on, they might have had some warning. As it was, there wasn't even a flicker outside the sole, dark, window in the room before the Tang lurched wildly. A high-pitched wail started up as they were flung to the floor, caught off balance. Something shattered.

"I thought we turned that off!" Penguin shouted above the wailing, flapping a hand towards the red light now flashing away urgently on the control panel.

"Priorities!" Law snapped back, already fumbling his way forwards to slap the external light controls. Shachi shrieked.

Suddenly illuminated outside the singular window was a row of gleaming teeth, each one easily larger than any of the pirates. As they moved, heading forwards towards the prow of the Tang, scales glinted in the light, and a large eye passed right by the window.

"S-s-sea King!" Bepo screamed, throwing himself back, away from the window.

"Why now?" Shachi lamented, scrambling towards the control panel himself. "Weapons, weapons, weap-ah!" The Tang lurched again, jostling him sideways into Law, who toppled to the floor. "Law!"

"Weapons are offline!" Penguin shouted from where he had managed to cling to the section of the panel that controlled the engine power. "Fuel is almost zero. If we turn the weapons on we won't be able to surface!"

"We won't be able to surface if we're dead!" Shachi yelled right back, slamming a fist on the power button. "Come on, come on, come on!" he muttered as the systems started to re-engage. "Come on, come on, come o- no! No, no, no, no!" he screamed as the lights flickered and died. "No, dammit, come on! You can do it, please, come on!"

The external lights flickered once and died, followed shortly by the ones in the control room itself, plunging them into almost total darkness. The faint glow from the control panel, the sonar screaming now-silently as it declared the threat circling them.

"What do we do?" Bepo cried. "Captain?"

Law was silent for several long moments, fingers dancing over the controls as if he could coax some response, any response from them. The fuel gauge declared total emptiness, completely drained by the attempt to turn on the weapons, and slowly the background hum of the Tang faded away to nothing.

"I don't know," he said finally, and for once sounded his age – a scared young teenager trapped as death raced towards them - in the unnatural silence. "I… I don't know."

"There has to be something!" Penguin exclaimed frantically, joining his captain in flicking controls. "Something, please, please."

The Tang lurched again, sending them all toppling to the floor in one giant heap, and they clung to each other, each of them trying to use the darkness to hide the way they were sobbing in terror.

"Please!"

None of them knew which of them said the final plea out loud, maybe it had been all of them, but as if it were a cue, a familiar roar sounded.

The roar of the Polar Tang's engines coming to life.

None of the lights came back on, and in reality it was less of a roar and more of a dying splutter, but the stuttering hum beneath their feet was unmistakable, and they all looked up at the panel as one, just in time to see the lights signifying the weapons were active flicker weakly on.

The sonar shrieked, the sound once again on, as the shape denoting the sea king hurtled towards them, and before any of them could move, could comprehend what was happening, the Tang moved.

It was a lurch, but this time there was no shuddering impact to go alongside it – a fact only noticed in its absence. It felt more like a roll, the sort of movement they did when dealing with a sea king attack with plenty of engine power to spare.

The controls moved, just a little but enough that it couldn't be explained away as a trick of the half-light, and the Tang lurched back the other way just as the sonar reported the sea king passing over their heads.

Bepo was the first to react, pulling himself out of the pile of pirates on the floor to run to the panel, where the gauges still said there was no fuel despite the way the Tang's engines were humming and her weapons system was somehow online. He grabbed the moving controls, glancing at the sonar and steering the Tang as if she had a full fuel of tank, away from the next attack.

The impossibility of the situation could wait. Shachi was next to surge to his feet, throwing himself to the weapons and firing off at the sea king as it lurched towards them again. True to form, as a World Government standard ship, the blast was powerful enough to knock the sea king a long way down, into the depths.

They didn't wait for it to come back, Law and Penguin now joining them at the control panel as the Tang roared painfully, accelerating and peeling away from the current she'd been riding to head for the surface.

Doflamingo was long-forgotten as they broke the waves, the action feeling like a triumphant leap from the water even though in reality it was little more than a final splutter before the Tang's engines went silent, all of the controls turning off and locking up as whatever mysterious energy that had powered her disappeared, leaving her a drained husk.

"We… we're alive," Shachi panted, flopping over the dead control panel limply. Beside him, Penguin was shaking in disbelieving laughter. "We're… how?"

"Raise the sail," Law said automatically, looking around blankly. "Bepo, where are we?" The mink scrambled to pick up his map and carry it over to the window, where daylight was streaming in. The map was covered in black ink, and he frowned at it for several long seconds before his ears flattened in defeat.

"The map's ruined, I'm sorry," he mumbled, following Law as he decided to leave the still-dark control room and head for the main door. Somehow, despite the Polar Tang being completely offline, the main door slid open jerkily to let him out on the deck.

"Don't worry about it," Law said absently and Penguin and Shachi wandered past, still dazed, to raise the sail.

It was only once the sail was up, the white fabric catching the breeze and slowly pushing the submarine to glide along the surface of the water, that Law let himself sink to the decking, head in his hands. The others congregated around him, all in equal states of shock.

"How did she do that?" Penguin asked, his voice cracking. "She was empty – is empty. How..?"

No-one had an answer for him, shaking with relief and the fading dregs of adrenaline as they flopped back on the deck. Somehow, the Polar Tang had done the impossible and snatched them from the jaws of death. None of them knew how.

"You're amazing," Shachi said, running a hand along the damp wood. The ship remained silent, save for the wind in her sail and the waves lapping at her side, but he just smiled.

"We'll get fuel at the next island," Law said, and it wasn't a wish, it was fact. No matter what it took, they'd fill the Tang to the brim with fuel so she never had to do that – whatever "that" had been – again.

"Best ship ever," Bepo added, his fur still stained with ink that was rubbing off on the deck as he lay there. "Thank you."

She bobbed just a little bit more vigorously over the next wave.

[readingsbylibramc]

birth chart reading for @likeaforgottenmemory

hello! welcome to your reading. I’m gonna give you a quick overview of what I’m going to analyze about your natal chart. feel free to ask me anything if something isn’t clear, of course. you’ll find out your dominants’ influence on your persona, your physical appearance, impression on others and the way you approach the world; your ego, identity, the real you; your reactions, your desires, inner emotions; your way of expressing your feelings, your mind and ideas; your desires and approach to love; your energy tank, instincts and temperament; in-depth analysis of each house with their rulers and analysis of heavy aspects; love life + soulmates/karmic partners interpretation; your relationship with your friends; your family life; your approach to career and work in general + possible jobs suggestion; your style, fashion sense analysis; life purpose and past life description; basic transits’ analysis to describe your current mood and, last but not least, your secret skills, how to make the most out of your soul and manifest what you desire based on your birth chart.

🦋 chart shape, dominants

your chart is a bucket shape, with jupiter as the handle of the bucket. your jupiter is in the 7th house, hence matters regarding relationships and love will be your priorities in this lifetime. you also have clear ideas about your future and who you want to be. even though you may have different passions and talents you’re capable of only sticking to one and mastering it, giving your all.

your dominant planets are venus, the moon and neptune. you're a very romantic person who strives for peace and balance, you like equality and you hate injustices and conflicts. you're also very creative and you have artistic interests, you have a strong imagination and you may often get lost in your own thoughts. yet, you could be a bit too emotional or moody.

your dominant sign is libra. you're overall a peaceful person, you try to avoid conflicts if possible, even though sometimes you could have a sharp tongue. you're a romantic person, maybe too much. you hold unrealistic expectations of people, hence you often get disappointed when things don't turn out the way you thought. you're able to see both sides of an argument, and that's both good and bad. in fact, you're very objective, and most probably your opinions are right; yet, it may be annoying for people that are venting to you, as you could constantly point out their mistakes, even though you don't do it out of malice.

your dominant element is air. in your life, you adore seeking for knowledge of any kind. you may be interested in studying different subjects, from those you study at school like science, maths, literature etc. to more unconventional ones, such as astrology, psychology, criminology and so on. you enjoy interacting with people; even if you’re not that sociable, you’ll still be interested in their point of view and their ideals, as you see it as a way to expand your own mind. you’re also interested in vintage, and you may have a retro aesthetic or just like history in general.

🌎 ascendant in libra, 18° / 2nd decan ruled by venus and uranus

you're naturally likeable, you have a particular charm to you that makes everyone drool over you. you're very nice and outgoing, you always try to make others feel at ease. you're very considerate of others' feelings. you strive for fairness and justice, it's the way you approach others and the world. basically, you treat others like they treat you: if they're kind with you, you'll be very sweet. otherwise, you'll turn very sarcastic and harsh, almost cold at a certain point. this can make you seem quite aggressive, especially with your impulsive sagittarius moon. you're very opinionated, you always feel the need to express your thoughts as you're very proud of them. in addition, since you always decide whether something is right or not, you may come off as a know-it-all. on the other hand, you're very sociable and you enjoy being in company, doesn't matter whether you're with your family, friends, lover etc. you may get to know many people throughout your life, but your friendships may not be much stable. you are surrounded by people, but you could feel lonely particularly often. I also need to point out that libra is ruled by venus, the planet of beauty. you're most likely very attractive and magnetic. even if not necessarily conventionally, people find themselves attracted to you. you may have sparkling doe eyes, with also full lips and a defined cupid's bow. your face is more on the longer side, perhaps you have an heart-shaped face, with high cheekbones and a pointy chin. you may also have naturally amazing, fluffy and flowing hair. your body is also very feminine, with a lot of curves and softness to it. it's very romantic, to sum up. also, your hair is probably naturally beautiful; it could be curly, or at least it's very thick and healthy-looking, even if you don't take much care of it.

libra ascendant opposite aries jupiter: you probably learn a lot from people around you. you're most likely surrounded by wise, spiritual and possibly foreign individuals in your life. they help you to grow up, both spiritually and mentally. this placement also enhances your libra-sagittarius energy, making you look even more outgoing and approachable. you're also very open-minded, and you rarely have prejudices. the downside to this placement is that you may depend too much from your friends or lovers, especially when it comes to your beliefs. you're easy to influence, and you may change your mind often if others disagree with you. you could possibly have high expectations from others, creating a false idea of those who surround you. at least, you're aware of your abilities and you have the potential to make the most out of them, but you're modest about it. you don't come off as bossy, as other jupiter - asc aspects would.

🌞 sun in libra, 4° / 1st decan ruled by venus

this is the most romantic and kind-hearted libra decan. you are very intuitive, you understand others’ real feelings very easily. you’re very polite and mannered, you have this innate elegance about you that could make people jealous. you may even come off as snob. even though you may look flaky at first, once people get to know you you’re actually very reliable and trust-worthy, as you are a person of strong morals. you may unconsciously manipulate people, but you don’t do it with malice. in fact, you’re probably not even aware of it most of the times. you’re reserved, and you don’t like being the centre of attention, despite craving compliments. nonetheless, you still like getting to know new people; you’re the type to know everyone, but you may struggle to find actual best friends, as your bonds with people are quite undeveloped and superficial. you have a nice sense of humor, and you may rely on sarcasm a lot. you’re also the type that doesn’t like to accept her mistakes. probably, when you were a child you used to scream 'it’s not my fault!’ in every occasion. in life, you strive for equality and fairness. for example, you don’t want to give less than someone else, you would feel guilty about it. at the same time, you don’t want to be the one that gives more either; you’re afraid that people could take advantage of you. therefore, balance is what you find the most pleasant.

🌙 moon in sagittarius, 9° / 1st decan ruled bt jupiter

you're an outgoing and warm person, who always tries to make others feel at ease. I assume you try to be nice to everyone, but you can't help but be a little awkward around people you don't know. with your sagittarius moon, you go with the flow and don't shy away from challenges. they're moments to prove your potential and abilities. you are an extremely open-minded person, you rarely judge a book by its cover. you probably despise racism, homophobia, misogyny etc. with a passion (as you should tbh). you may also be into poetry, philosophy, and just anything that can stimulate both your mind and feelings. in fact, your mind is constantly wandering somewhere else, allowing you to travel with your fantasy. you're also probably attracted to foreign things, like people, music, fashion, languages, movies etc. you love learning about anything, and you may also have a good memory. in fact, it’s common for you to be the one who explains things and possibly even leads a group, and this could unluckily make you seem as a know-it-all. you do take pride in your wisdom, indeed. your deep way of thinking is also where your desire for freedom comes from, as you wish to be able to expand yourself through travelling and new experiences. when you get angry, you can actually get quite rude and offensive, even towards authorities. you’re short-tempered, and you despise being told what to do. you’re also a good, loyal friend, and you’re the type to stand up for them and defend them during a fight. you’re friendly, especially with people you feel comfortable with, and you probably love talking. you’re able to put a smile on others’ face just by telling your stories, even though you never truly go in-depth. you're quite optimistic, as you see good in everyone. yet, while this is a good trait that allows you to be more at ease in relationships, you may also be fooled easily due to your blind optimism.

sagittarius moon conjunct sagittarius saturn: you most probably felt misunderstood during your childhood, as if everyone were cold with you. maybe your mother (or anyone in your family/childhood) was emotionally absent or even aggressive, hence you didn't grow up in a completely healthy environment. this issue causes you to question your worth; you may have low self-esteem, especially during your early years. your family may have big expectations of you, and hence you feel the need to meet them, making you even more pressured to be perfect. overall, your personality may resemble that of your parents a lot, even though it may feel challenging for you. you're constantly strict with yourself, challenging yourself to improve. especially with your libra dominance, you always want to be at your best state, physically but also emotionally. you just want to radiate good vibes, even though you may feel limitated to share all of your true self due the moon making this harsh aspect to saturn.

🗣 mercury in libra, 29° / 3rd decan ruled by venus and mercury

you're very diplomatic! you always try to be nice and gentle with your words, you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. your tone of voice is extremely soft, sometimes it could even be hard to understand what you say, as you could naturally have a high voice. you're extremely balanced, you have amazing problem-solving skills as you're able to see both side of an argument. it's natural for you to understand what's right and what isn't, and most of the times you're actually right. when you're with someone you're not really close to, you could even be the accommodating type who allows others to speak over your voice, or maybe you let others speak first as a gesture of kindness. I feel like with your sagittarius moon you have very strong opinions, and you're actually particularly proud of them. luckily, this placement makes you able to communicate them with diplomacy. you could often get angry if someone tries to prove you wrong, but aside from that, you try to be very elegant and formal when you speak. you're probably not fond of cursing, or at least you try to appear as mannered as possible with people you're not comfortable around. last but not least, you're such a charismatic, smooth talker that you result very persuasive. you're able to trick people with your words, which appear very diplomatic and calm.

libra mercury opposite aries jupiter: this placement emphasizes your intellect. your mind is so broad that you can come up with different theories and philosphies, making you a sort of genius. you're probably good at memorizing things, and you could even have a photographic memory. yet, with this aspect, you may have troubles being consistent with your ideas. you may overestimate your needs and thoughts; for example, you may promise yourself to get all As in maths, then you get tired and bored and you end up getting Cs. same goes for your handwriting, for example: you may start writing in the best way possible, then you get lazy and end up writing in a sloppy way just to take notes. you also overthink a lot, and that causes you self-esteem issues. on the other hand, you're very open-minded and objective, as you look at the big picture. you'd do very well as a journalist, for example, or perhaps also as a judge of any kind. you may also be naturally skilled at foreign languages, you can mimic accents pretty well. you're probably also very poetic and / or wise, you're like a teacher for your friends.

❤️ venus in libra, 14° / 2nd decan ruled by venus and uranus

you're very romantic, and this placement helps your sagittarius moon being less flaky. you're not looking for a partner, you're looking for a whole disney prince. you do care about looks when choosing a lover, but not necessarily a conventionally beautiful person. they have to appear perfect at your eyes, and this usually depends on the way they treat you. in fact, you despise vulgar, rude people. people that act like that immediately become unattractive to you. you're also very picky, exactly because you're looking for the perfect lover. you're probably the type to cry at movies. you're also quite of a cliche; you're into roses, romantic dinners, sunsets... anything romantic that you hear about in fairytales. the problem with this placement is that you may overestimate the people you frequent, ending up having different expectations from reality. probably, you may idealize people too much; that is, you may create a version of others that only exists in your head. hence, once you get to know someone better, they turn out to be the exact opposite of what you thought. this causes you to be sort of naive when it comes to relationships, so pay extra attention to this problem now that you're aware of it.

☄️ mars in virgo, 23° / 3rd decan ruled by mercury and venus

your life revolves around being productive. you don't like to waste your time, you always try to learn and gain something useful from everything you do. that's caused by the fact that you're motivated to be perfect in what you like; this, combined with your competitive nature, may often cause you to burn out. in fact, the downside to this placement is that you may overwork yourself too much. this is bad, especially considering your heavy libra dominance: pisces is all about imagination, creativity, beauty, romance... if you work too much, you don't have time to travel with your mind, and that's a serious issue for a libra. in fact, it may be hard for you to endure too much hard work. you're capable of achieving your goals, but in order to do that you also need a break from time to time.

virgo mars square sagittarius saturn: this is another placement that indicates that something or someone is trying to restrict you, they're trying to prevent you from following your dreams and taking your own choices for your life. that someone is most likely an individual that has a lot on impact on you, it's someone very authoritative. or perhaps, it may even be a bully or abuser of any sort. as a result, you either rebel and get extremely angry, or you hide all of your disappointment inside of you. but soon or after, all of your intense feelings are going to eat you alive if you keep going like this, it's a very unhealthy behaviour. you could find it extra hard to achieve your goals, as when you try you always come across some hardships. what matters the most, is that you try to be more positive, you could even try manifesting more patience or serenity. you can't hold onto anger so much, or it will just fill you with negativity that could damage you. let it all go, focus on your goals and try to understand how to be more patient. in fact, you may often feel like you need to do everything as soon as possible, when it's not like that. you can allow yourself to be more calm and live life as it comes, it will make you feel much better with yourself and you'll also get more mature, which is crucial to learn your saturnian lessons and increase your self-confidence.

🏡 houses

your 1st house is in libra. you always try to be kind and friendly with people you don't know; you most likely don’t like conflicts, you prefer avoiding them, even though you may have some troubles with that due to your impulsive and fiery sagittarius moon. you probably care a lot about your appearance, and because of that you could get insecure from time to time. usually, people with libra in their 1st house look for themselves in others, as their chart is basically upside down. you also have your libra mercury in this house; you enjoy communicating and intellectualism. you’re very curious about everything that surrounds you. you love expanding your knowledge, ideas and mind in general through communication, interactions and media. you have the ability to adapt quickly to new situations; your mind is fast, usually impulsive, and you are able to come up with new ideas and solutions quickly. since you’re constantly mentally active, physically you may also tend to play with your fingers or hair, or maybe you tend to gesticulate while you speak. your scorpio pluto is also in the 1st house: you see the world as a place full of dangers and malice, hence it’s hard for you to trust people. this awareness of the world makes you look mysterious and secretive, as if you always know something more than others (and you probably do). pluto is also the planet of transformation, and you might experience a lot of rebirths throughout your life, both physically and emotionally. you might lose/have lost a big amount of weight, for example, which makes you look like a different person. or maybe, you like dying your hair of a different colour, giving you a different vibe.

your 2nd house is in scorpio, with also your moon and saturn placed there. this placement can make you seem a bit selfish. in fact, you’re extremely possessive of your possessions, you don’t want to share them with others. there’s a lot of karma around your finances. in fact, if you’re too stingy, it may bite your butt. you need to give in order to receive, so I’d suggest you to share your things more with others. you could share a meal with a friend, for example. you’ll surely get something positive back from it. your finances may not be stable either; they are in constant change, and while this placement can make you earn quite a great amount of money, it can also make you lose everything you have. no inbetweens. the 2nd house is also about self-esteem, your relationship with your appearance. you have contrasting feelings about it; some days, you’re very confident. other days, you hate yourself. you may find flaws in every single picture you take or every pants you try on. it’s a very intense placement, as you may often feel as if you need to change your appearance in order to love yourself. based on other placements in your chart, it could manifest in spending money in a new wardrobe for example, as you feel like changing your style would help you boost your self-confidence. the moon here also gives you materialistic tendencies; you may struggle to show your feelings with words, you tend to show your feelings through material things such as gifts. you're probably the type to say I love you through gestures instead of words, even though your libra dominance just makes you very affectionate in general. saturn here could have given you some troubles with your finances in your early years; perhaps your family used to struggle with money, and as a result you can get quite anxious when spending money, you hate waste. this could also manifest in your sense of self-worth; you could have been quite insecure, especially before your 30s. you may have to work extra hard to achieve wealth and / or self-esteem, but at least you're going to be quite successful and confident.

your 3rd house is in sagittarius, with also your uranus and neptune placed there. this is an amazing placement for a writer! you’re extremely open-minded and philosophical. you’d probably do great at poetry or just literature in general. you’re thirsty for knowledge, you aspire to learn everything you can, you enjoy being smart and educated. you most likely love comedy, and you have an amazing sense of humor yourself, you’re able to light up the room and make everyone burst into laughter even if you don’t mean to. you’re also very intelligent, you’re able to memorize things fast and you’re also a fast-learner. you may be less into gossips than other libras, as you’re very benevolent and considerate of others�� feelings. in addition, you’re able to see the good in everyone, there’s no reason for you to talk behind someone’s back. actually, it’s the opposite. you’re quite impulsive, you say things as they are. uranus and neptune are also sitting in this house: you are extremely creative, you are able to come up with very innovative ideas easily. the downside is that you may sometimes end up sounding a bit like a know-it-all when stating your opinions, as you're very passionate about them.

your 4th house is in capricorn. I can tell that your childhood was quite complex. not necessarily bad, I don't see any kind of trauma, but you probably had to grow up way sooner than other kids. your parents could have been very hard-working and focused on their jobs, possibly wealthy too. they were very responsible and cared a lot about you, they always made sure you had everything you needed, even though they could have been slightly absent from time to time due to their jobs. people with a capricorn ic usually find something missing in their childhood, they had to deal with responsibilities from a young age. it could even be that you started working when you were still a teen, or maybe you had to take care of the house or of your siblings for them. you weren’t much extroverted, you preferred staying in, drawing, playing games etc. it could also be that one of your parents may be absent; they could be divorced, or in the worst case they might have died when you were pretty young.

your 5th house is in aquarius. you’re extremely creative, your ideas are very innovative, and you may have particular hobbies, interests or taste than others. when you’re able to fully express yourself, you gain full security and you start experimenting and inventing new things. you could be the type to start new fashion trends, music styles, art styles… basically, you’re a creative genius. your hobbies may also involve astrology, as well as human studies like psychology, or also anything that has to do with technology. you may be into videogames for example, tv series, social media… they’re your way to spend your free-time and relax. your relationships may also be very unconventional; you could usually date people online, or perhaps you may have the potential to meet someone through dating apps. they’re quite unstable, they may end out of the blue for example. yet, the part of fortune here makes it better; in fact, you’ll be able to achieve the best of your luck through creative outlets. again, if I were in you I’d definitely try writing something! you may also dedicate yourself to fashion, art, music, etc., anything that stimulates your creativity.

your 6th house is in pisces. in your daily life, you hardly ever have a structured schedule. you go with the flow, you take things as they come. you may often have your head in the clouds, you could get distracted easily and you may literally creative oscar-worthy movies in your head instead of doing what you need to do. your job may involve arts, images, possibly even fame. you should definitely use your creative talents for your possible career. also, you could benefit from helping others; you could be a psychologist or therapist of any kind, a nurse… any place where you’re able to help others. again, you could also help others through your art, hence with your lyrics, books, etc. when it comes to diets, workout routines, skincare routines etc. you could lack consistency, even though your libra energy makes you more motivated to take care of your appearance. you may sleep a lot, it’s easy for you to feel tired and stressed even when you’re not over-working yourself.

your 7th house is in aries, with also your jupiter sitting in this house. love is most likely not your priority in life, even though you're very romantic. you need independence, and you’re able to stand up for yourself on your own. you don’t need someone else to help you. for you, love is a want, not a need. you tend to attract partners in your life that are hot-headed, stubborn, assertive and goal-oriented. they strive to be the best at everything they do, they’re extremely competitive and willing to do anything to achieve their goals. basically, you attract very dominant partners, but you don’t want to be dominated or controlled. you may often experience power struggles between you and your partner, which cause you issues in every relationship you get in. at the same time, you wouldn’t stand someone too submissive either, as you still need someone that would mentally stimulate you. they may actually be quite selfish and self-centered, they’ll care more about their own development rather than that of you two as a couple. an aries 7th house indicates that while you’ll have a very active, passionate spouse, you may also experience lots of arguments and discussions in your marriage life, perhaps even physical violence in the worst case. your jupiter here luckily makes things better; while you may often experience power-struggles with your partners, you most likely attract very outgoing and altruistic people as well that could help you feel loved. you may also have tons of people crushing on you, you could have lots of luck with love and even with friendships.

your 8th house is in taurus. you have the most stable, stubborn sign in a house that requires constant change. you probably hate changing your routine and stepping out of your comfort zone. changes are hard for you to accept; you find it hard to change job all of a sudden for example, or even letting go of a toxic friend of yours can be stressful for you. also, you could be quite materialistic and fond of material possessions, causing you to be a bit too stingy, which isn’t good for your karma. another reason that this house contrasts with your 2nd house in scorpio is that you feel like you constantly need to change, but ironically slow taurus makes your changes way slower than usual. sometimes, when they happen, they’re so subtle that you probably can’t even see them or at least notice them at first. this placement may also indicate that you could get an inheritance, especially since your venus isn’t harshly aspected, and you’ll most likely have a peaceful death.

your 9th house is in gemini. gemini in the 9th house cusp usually makes people a bit close-minded, as they are very logical and careful in their approach to the world. you may change your ideas and opinions quite quickly, to the point that you could seem unconsistent. when learning new things, you like exploring different matters and subject, from maths to literature, but you may struggle to focus on only one. as a result, you may lack precision. you're probably a fast-learner and you're very witty and curious, you like learning about anything you can. you probably like studying, not necessarily at school but studying in general, and you may also be skilled at foreign languages. you could also be interested in foreign matters, such as cultures, music, etc.

your 10th house is in cancer. your career needs to be private. that doesn’t mean that you can’t become famous of course, but you prefer being more hidden at job, you may even work from home or from a young age. many celebrities with this placement, in fact, started working when they were still young. also, cancer indicates that your future job will give you the opportunity to express and / or deal with your / others’ feelings and emotions, and considering that the ruler of this house, the moon, is in the 2nd house, I can see you making loads of money thanks to your job. you could become a writer, a singer, an actress, as well as a nurse, a therapist… anything that allows you to express your emotions while also communicating something is suitable for you. you could possibly also choose the same career as your parents, or you may handle the family’s business for example. you could also end up doing the job of your childhood dreams. you feel the need to pursue a meaningful career in your life, you want to feel emotionally connected to it. you don’t only want something that allows you to earn money, you also want to gain wisdom and maturity from a job, and hence you could even be a bit picky in choosing your future career.

your 11th house is in leo, with also your mars placed there. with this placement, you’re probably very popular among your friends, you’re most likely the most talkative or funniest member of your group. you may also attract very popular people yourself in your friendships, perhaps even celebrities. possibly, you could even make friends that allow you to gain recognition and / or popularity, doesn’t matter whether it’s in school, job, etc. you could also have very big dreams for your future, probably regarding your career and finances. you most likely aspire to be wealthy and financially independent, you are very hard-working and possibly even a bit materialistic. mars here makes you attract a lot of people in your life. whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, you’ll always be able to have someone by your side, even though you may struggle to create stable bonds. friends come and go, basically. you may attract very fierce, almost violent friends. they’re very energetic, and probably extroverted people who like socializing and enjoying life to the fullest. you're also very hard-working, and you aspire to achieve all of your dreams.

your 12th house is in virgo. this is another placement that indicates that you are an amazing writer! in fact, the 12th house is about secret skills too, and virgo is ruled by mercury, the planet of communication. you do the math. with this placement, though, I feel like you may feel restricted from pursuing your goals, or even a career in the public eye, as you’re quite sensitive to others’ criticism about you. you strive to be perfect all the time, and your libra rising wants to constantly have a nice reputation. a scandal, or even simple haters, would probably be the end of you. you also have venus placed here, meaning that deep down, you actually crave affection from someone else. yet, you may be afraid, or perhaps too shy to approach a possible partner. but remember, the 12th house is also the house of secret talents! in fact, especially with your libra rising, you’re extremely likeable. you shouldn’t be afraid of not being liked back, for example. remember that your love life will get better with time, as you become more mature in that field. the sun is also placed in this house; with this placement, I assume that you may struggle to take action. you may try to avoid conflicts at all costs, to the point that you could actually start victimizing yourself. you could struggle to accomplish your goals, you try to be productive but you may be too shy to be in the spotlight once you achieve your goals.

❤️ love life, soulmates

in love you attract aries, aquarius, sagittarius and libra placements. your future spouse will most likely have aquarius and libra traits placements; they’ll be very smart, creative, bold and confident, but also with a warm heart and a hidden insecurity to them. it could be love at first sight, and you may meet them through other people, maybe through your job or through your friends. your children will have strong aquarius, possibly capricorn placements. they’ll be very dreamy, they’ll have big goals for their life, and they’ll also be extremely intelligent and creative as well.

👶🏻 family life

your father is probably a very caring person that knows how to stand up for himself when he has to, but he may struggle to do that. he’s very smart, caring and empathetic, even though he may be a bit childish at times. he could have cancer placements in his chart, possibly scorpio too. your mother, on the other hand, is a bit more serious and focused on work, but she always made sure you always had what you needed. she was probably the strict parent in the family, but she still has some sweetness and nice humor to her. also, she may have capricorn, aquarius, sagittarius or cancer placements in her chart. if you have siblings, they most likely have sagittarius, aquarius, pisces and / or aries placements in their chart. they could be foreign or skilled at foreign languages, and you may feel very at ease with them. you have an amazing bond with them, you’re able to both relax and have fun together, even though you may discuss often. you could have been very jealous of each other when you were kids, maybe.

📊 career

as I've already mentioned above, you're going to pursue a career that will allow you to interact with others. you would probably do amazing at a job that requires you to help people, you could make a great nurse or psychologist for instance. you may also work as a teacher of any kind, not necessarily a professor or school teacher. you may also become a chief or a boss in your job, since the ruler of your midheaven (career), the moon, is in the sign of scorpio, and hence you will probably work alone, you won't have to depend on others. I definitely see you being successful in whatever you choose, you could become very independent and financially stable thanks to your job. possibly, you may also have a business with your future spouse. you could also work with children or for family, as a counselor for example. anything that allows you to interact with and help others would be great for you, as it would make you more empathetic and sensitive to the external world.

👚 fashion sense, style analysis

you’re very traditional about your clothes, maybe even basic. you’re the type to have lots of essential clothes in your wardrobe, e.g a white shirt, white t-shirt, jeans etc. you love wearing sophisticated, elegant fits. for example, you may be fond of wide leg jeans, or maybe flare trousers, boatneck sweaters, tiny jewellery… things like that, that are always a must have. you may fancy pastel colors, or even neutral shades like black, white, grey, beige etc. you’re also the type to follow fashion trends.

👁 past life, life purpose

in your past life, you were a very spiritual individual. you were close to your higher self, and you probably were able to talk to ghosts, you used to interpret your dreams and you most likely were also interested in astrology and other occult matters. in this lifetime, you need to put your spirituality aside for a while, and focus on finding out your identity here on the earth. you can still use spirituality to find out, but your priority is learning your karmic lessons regarding your self-esteem and work. you’ll finally be able to reach happiness and fulfill your soul when you start having an organized schedule, which allows you to balance both your hobbies and work.

🤔 major transits analysis / april 22

the sun is currently transiting in your aries 7th house, exactly conjunct your jupiter. you could be feeling very needy lately, but very optimistic as well. you want to be with people, maybe with your loved ones, you feel like you need a lot of care and attention and as a result you're literally craving human interactions. you may get angry or disappointed easily though, as you could be quite impulsive as well, so beware of that. jupiter, on the other hand, is in your 5th house; you may be lacking discipline in these days, perhaps you tend to procrastinate as you feel quite tired and you have to relax. of course it's ok to take some time for yourself, but remember to be responsible as well; hard work pays off.

🧿 manifest what you want, secret skills

the best way for you to manifest is idealizing and acting at the same time. you have both energies combined in your chart, which is great actually! I’d suggest you to first picture what you want in your life, and then do something concrete to manifest it. for example, let’s suppose you want this gucci bag; first, think about it deeply. then, you could try going into a gucci shop and just walk around, maybe even touch that bag. you’ll get results if you believe it! it’s also great to write and read/listen your own positive affirmations, such as 'I love my gucci bag’, 'the gucci bag my mom gave me is amazing’ and so on.

thank you again for booking a reading, hope it resonated with you! -libramc

[mollydollyjournals]

Thinking about my lockdown goals still. I just weighed myself and I'm on track to be the same weight again tomorrow as I was today, or possibly a bit more. The only weight that counts in my charts etc is first thing in the morning, and I kind of take a moving average to account for fluctuations. This is just before bed so it doesn't count, but I can use it to estimate what I'll be in the morning. And I don't like it. I know weighing every day is bad but I can't handle not knowing, so I at least usually limit myself to once a day. I shouldn't have weighed myself. It might be because I just drank about 500ml so I'm more hydrated. I hope it's that. But it could also be the gain I was expecting yesterday that I was glad I didn't have, or maybe my body responded badly to what I ate today and I gained and have to eat less than I even thought, or who fuckin knows. I need to stop focusing on it and just make my plan and relax so I can go to sleep and then just see where I'm at in the morning. But my brain is a pos. So.

Anyway. Potential goals for lockdown 2, starting Thursday:

- Maybe a step goal? I would need to see where I'm at and then add more. I have no idea how many I do currently so I don't know what's realistic. So if I do this it might have to start later than the rest, if I get a step counter. I used to have a phone app but I don't know how accurate it is and I don't always have my phone on me. A wat h style one would be better...

- Drink celery juice every day first thing, at least 5x a week but preferably all 7. It's so much effort to make the juice and clean the juicer and all so I'll give myself leeway to not do it sometimes, but I should try to do it every day, no fewer than 5.

- Hydration: there's the 500ml celery juice, then I need to have 1l mineral water (I can't stand tap water), and in the evening I'll have 500ml sugar free squash or 2 cups of herbal tea. If I don't have the celery juice, I add another 500ml squash or tea. More is better but that has to be my baseline. I really struggle to drink enough that isn't alcohol or caffeine so this will still be a challenge.

- Fibre... I know this is a good thing to have and all but I don't really know where to get it from. Unless I do a bean diet. Which I can do but it's so boring and idk. Maybe I should try to eat at least one serving of beans a day and just eat as much as I can elsewhere. I'll think about this one tomorrow.

- Low impact cardio: do this for an hour when I get up, before making celery juice and other breakfast. I know this doesn't burn as many calories as high intensity stuff but with my health being so bad sometimes it's difficult to get up and do something proper without feeling like I'm gonna pass out. Sometimes I end up stuck in bed because my body crashes. So low impact is good, and I'd like to do at least half an hour assuming I'm able to, preferably an hour. I find this makes me feel better throughout the day because I haven't sat around doing nothing, and it does help me lose weight and my waist gets smaller. So this is one of the most important things. I need to try for every day, but will allow for one day off. Hopefully my health will allow that.

- Strength training I'm going to stagger. In wk1 maybe I'll just do a few sit-ups or whatever here and there. I need to focus on doing everything else and there's kinda no point me having muscle tone if it's covered in fat so it's not my top priority. Week 2 I want to do 2x butt and hip toning workouts, probably from Chloe Ting's hourglass program. In week 3 I'll make that 3x a week, and also add in 2x back workouts by BrittneBabe. In week 4 I'll do 3 of each. It'll be a lot so I don't think I can commit to doing it all from the get go, but I do want to get there eventually.

- Bike/spin: this will rely heavily on my being able to do it physically. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to do it for or how often but I'd like to aim for at least 20mins per session, up to an hour; at least 2x in wk1, 3x in wk2, 4x each in wk3 and wk4. This can make me super weak and also it always hurts my butt, so if I need to not do this that's okay, but then I should do something else instead like another low impact cardio or a walk or something, and for longer than I would have been on the bike. I haven't done this in a long time so it'll be difficult but it's the calorie burn I want.

- Flexibility: idk about this one maybe 4x a week? Im so much less flexible than I used to be and I want to get it back, especially if I'm doing other stuff that can make your muscles stiff. I need to find a decent program. Will think on this tomorrow.

- Calories: I'll make myself a schedule with varying intakes from 1200 to 1500 in a day. I've worked really hard to get my metabolism up so I can eat that kind of amount without gaining weight, and of course now I've gained weight anyway for other reasons, but I don't want my metabolism to fuck up again any more. I wanted to go 600-900 but that's where it fucks up. I should still be able to lose weight, given where I'm starting and the physical activity. I'll adjust later if I have to but I think I should at least try to stay around that level. Idk. I'll probably have to adjust this as I go to some extent. The exception will be cheat days which will be at least a week apart - they help me break through plateaus and stay motivated etc so I have to have those allowed, but if I don't feel like I need it then I won't do it and I'll just save it for another time. Just always at least a week apart.

- Alcohol: this one is the most difficult because if it was that easy I'd just not drink at all. And various stressors make it difficult to go without. Sometimes alcohol is the only thing that can take me away from a trauma response or make me not want to kill myself or not feel as horrible in my body or any number of things. Sometimes I really just can't cope without it. But I definitely need to get more alcohol free days in and I won't be able to do any of the other stuff without it. Exercise is near impossible, I'll get sick and exhausted, I'll crave heavy foods, I'll need them probably, and my liver will just stop burning any fat anyway. I have to cut it back. I got to once a week a few months ago so I want to try to get back there. Ideally I want a 2 week break. Well...ideally I want to go the whole time alcohol free but like I said...so yeah. Currently I'm going to let myself drink on Wednesday if I need to and then after that it'll be no more than once a week hopefully. But the main rule is only if I really really need to. I guess it can coincide with my cheat days. Idk. Gonna think more on this too, and it'll depend on whether I get through the next few days etc.

It feels like a lot...it's not that I haven't done it before or done similar, but my health is so bad it's so much more difficult now, and I think I'll get overwhelmed if I do too much at once. I don't want to set myself up to fail. I hate failure. It makes me feel like giving up. So I shouldn't set myself too much to do at first,which is why I've staggered some of it from week to week. I also want to come up with a more precise margin for error with some of it, so if I don't feel like I can do it I don't end up feeling too bad. I have to remember that anything is better than nothing. And at the end of this month, I can evaluate what I managed and what I didn't, and set myself new goals just a little bit more challenging than these, and go from there.

I really need to lose weight. And I really need to stop drinking so much. I need to do this. I need to go to sleep now and get up tomorrow and spend the day and the day after preparing for this 4-week lockdown, and in going to try as hard as I can for those 4 weeks and then regroup. It's temporary. It's not forever. I just have to do these 4 weeks.

[crystalelemental]

While I’m on the subject, here’s a complete list of things that I think would actually help balance the meta in a meaningful way, that will absolutely 100% not make it into the game:

Accuracy checks need to be removed.  There’s no such thing as accuracy.  Moves that are super powerful should just be low PP, and that’s your drawback; lack of sustain.

PP Up and PP Max should not be permitted.  The default is all you get.  When you let a super powerful move have 8 PP at max, you potentially allow something to sweep an entire team with minimal effort.  5PP guarantees you can’t, and reckless spamming of the move can mean you lose 20% of your shots in one reckless attack.  They suffer much greater penalties this way.

A lot of moves need to be dropped to low PP.  Like...a lot.  Protect and Wish, as well as all recovery moves in the game, should be 5PP.  Status moves like Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave should be set to 10, along with things like Leech Seed.  Boosting moves I personally think need to be lowered to 5, but I would hear out an argument for 10.  The benefit to each is: recovery moves losing a ton of PP means stall wars aren’t shit anymore, status losing PP means you can’t spam them indefinitely without consequence, and boosting moves losing PP means you can’t just boost up all the damn time every time you switch something in and have to take consideration of what you’re doing.

Related to the boosting moves thing: Haze should gain priority.  It should be a lot easier to shut down boosting sweepers than it is, and we need something that’s not just slapping Choice Scarf on every fucking Pokemon to solve the problem of speed boosting.  Of course, the trade is 5PP.

In fact, Choice items should scale based on your base stat of what’s being increased.  Pokemon with over 100 in a stat should only gain like 20% from Choice items, while under 80 should give the full 50%.  Maybe that will discourage full VoltTurn Scarfed teams.

Oh, right: annihilate VoltTurn.  Lower their BP to 20, on par with Rapid Spin, or give them negative priority, I don’t care which but they need to die.  Also limit to 5PP.

Status needs nerfed, but not in the way it was.

Paralysis is fine cutting to 1/4th speed.  There is absolutely no problem there.  It stops faster threats cold, and that’s exactly what it should be doing.  But the chance of inaction is way too high.  I say 10% inaction chance.  Almost negligible, but potentially a boon.  It not only fixes the actual problem of paralysis itself, but also limited ParaFlinch strategies, while retaining the main benefit of paralysis (slowing things down).

Burn actually did fine.  Keep doing what you do.

Toxic was a mistake.  There should’ve only been Poison.  I actually can’t think of a single way to fix how awful Toxic is.  My best guess is that it’s the one thing retaining an accuracy check and that the accuracy is severely reduced; lowering to 5PP (which should happen anyway); and/or returning to Gen 1 mechanics by making Toxic shift back to regular Poison when you switch out.

Freeze is dumb, replace it with a different ice-based status that just cuts defenses one stage instead.  Not only eliminates the dumbest of random effects, but also makes stall walls actually hit by something meaningful (Toxic doesn’t do shit when most of them are Poison and Steel types anyway).

Sleep should always be exactly 2 turns.  No more waking up immediately, that’s dumb, but no more sleeping 3 turns and handing over a win either.  You get exactly two.  Make it work.

I doubt anyone would disagree with this one, but fix the goddamn type chart.  Grass should resist and be strong against Fairy, Ice should resist Water and Ground, and give Bug something for god’s sake.

Alterations to certain abilities.  Mostly I’m thinking Protean needs to be after the attack so Greninja, the special snowflake that it is, doesn’t get STAB on every single move it uses by default, and Regenerator being lowered to 20% to make stall take a hit.

In general, just focus your efforts on improving the Pokemon you know aren’t good.  Delcatty, Corsola, Chimecho; those things that are just provably and unquestionably bad in every regard.  They need to be the primary focus here, and they need improvements.  Stat increases, movepool expansion, better abilities, or in the worst case scenario if they’re truly unsalvageable otherwise, a new evolution so they can at least get Eviolite support and an evolution that can be good.  It shouldn’t be that hard.

[jorjathomas]

Current Lifestyle Lecture

As we have previously learned about how certain historical references has influenced certain fashion styles throughout time, it was import we looked as certain factors in todays society which also impacts todays fashion. In this lecture we looked at what these factors were and discussed with our groups how these would impacts fashion and our brand. Below is a summary about what we discussed and what qualities these factors involve which could effect the way clothes are made or worn by the public. These factors are Politics and Power, Social Media, Division of Wealth, Innovation and Sustainability. We was also given a task to create a survey so we are able to get outsiders view on the survey. We created this in the afternoon and posted the survey on our own personal social medias for higher responses. This post will show the results from the survey and how this can help us solidify our ideas.

Sustainability- Since the pandemic, we thought that people have had the time to become more aware about the importance of sustainability. With the help of social media and sharing people may have come across multiple articles relating to this factor as their activity online is higher in comparison to lifestyle prior to the pandemic. Despite coming across many more articles and being educated about the topic better than before, we have assumed that their lifestyle probably hasn't changed. Its hard to break habits especially when people like to online shop to pass their time in lockdown. So although many more people know about this topic and its importance their hasn't been a massive shift in sustainable fashion as people are still feeding into harmful fast fashion brands such as PrettyLittleThing and Shien. Our group has prioritized sharing important sustainable information across our brands platform with hopes of proving that its possible to buy sustainably and still dress fashionable. Meeting both the brands and customer needs.

Social Media- We believe that most businesses are using social media in some sort of way to promote their business. Whether one business uses these apps heavier than the other we think that this has defiantly heightened since the outbreak. We have seen the effects of more brands using the internet in order to reach more consumers through the downfall of highstreets businesses. Many brands such ad Debenhams and Topshop have temporaliy closed and even been bought by online retailers. This shift could cause many other highstreets to decrease and maybe most businesses will be online in the future. Personally I would love a store front on a high-street as it enables new customer markets to enter freely without searching for the brand like you desire online. However due to this downfall we decided it would be best to promote our brand online. We think we will sell on the retailer site Depop or Etsy as these apps are very popular for our younger target market.

Division of wealth- When discussing the previous factor we was curious to see how the designer brands would be coping financially without their stores being open. We realised they wont be doing as well as they would be prior the pandemic as we believe this bigger brands rely on middle class consumers. This is because there are many more people within this class which would want to buy from these brands as a novelty or reward. In comparison to the higher class, these brands aren't as special as they could afford it. Buying from here isn't as special as it would be for a lower income person. only 1% of the higher class contribute to the designer brands. This figure made us realise that middle class people who cant buy from designers a frequently aren't interested in these sort of brands currently. The current events have caused the economy to decrease which also has resulted in these low income consumers to prioritize important  expenditures rather than materialistic items that these designer brands sell. We think that the demand for expensive items is very low and cheaper fashion products are much more common due to the new lifestyle changes. When relating this information to our brand I have become slightly worried when pricing our products. As we are aiming to be sustainable, this will require a higher products price which a younger person may not be able to afford so I think its important that we try and make this items cheaper even if we loose some outcome beforehand.

Politics and Power- Our group began to analyse figures who are considered powerful in your country currently and lead us to believe that our respect for them has dropped significantly in comparison to other political leaders. Leaders like Boris Johnson is commonly seen as a ‘laughing stock’ and most people don't take him very serious despite being the Prime Minister. We think that he isn't as inspiring currently and hindered the idolization of Powerful leaders. This behaviour has caused rebellious change within society. We think that this need to protest against the current leaders will cause subculture style to rise again. We think businesses will find a way to create products with convey this rebellion and clothing could change because of this. Eg punk culture or rebellious merchandise relating to the current political events. I think this shift would be a good time to promote or band as people will be more open in fashion changes which will be perfect for our brand and the change we want to project to our customers.

Innovation- This final factor we discussed was the most shocking to me. We discussed how technology could develop in the future due to the current lifestyle and adaptation to the pandemic. A lot of stores aren't open and businesses are struggling to reach their market. Sushila mentioned that housing companies have introduced the VR, 360 view feature which allows a customer to view the house online. This idea could transfer into the fashion world as time progresses. For example a retailer could incorporate this in a way that a consumer is able to see the physical store online or see if their clothes would fit. Although this hasn't happened yet on a large scale, we believe this could happen soon so the fashion industry can adapt to their changes. For example Fashion shows becoming virtual for the public to watch online rather than in a crowded event is a step in this innovation. 

To conclude this evaluation, the current events have defiantly shifted the way fashion is perceived by consumers and has caused a lot of businesses to switch up their habits in order to receive the best success. Its important we remember about these factors and adapt our business to the current lifestyle of customers. I think this will be easier than other lifestyle changes which have happened before as the pandemic is global. Everyone has been effected by this which makes it easier for us to reach this particular audience.

After discussing and presenting this task, we then began to create some questions for our survey. This will help us have an insight on on customer habits and what they would be interested to buy if we launch our brand. Every group member posted this survey on a social media platform as we thought it will help us reach your younger target market. This was easy to achieve as we fall into our desired target market and most of our social media follows are around the same age range and demographics. Below our results from this survey. After posting the survey we has a total of 192 responses which we were very pleased with. Google docs allows you to analyse the results from the survey in a pie chart form so we could see the the publics results and opinions form our questions.

Reading these results we were shocked that there still is a demand for plastic wrap as almost 22% asked for this. We assumed everyone would be aware of the problems plastic has by now and was shocked we received a figure like this. Despite this the highest percentage of people asked for packaging to be in tissue paper and cardboard which we will provide when packaging our brands products. This is recyclable and doesn't cause as much harm as plastic packaging. The second question I expected these results because of the way the question was written. It was expected that people would prefer the cheapest option of price as they don't have any idea of the products we are trying to sell. Knowing our garment would be of a better quality and sustainable we know the expected price of the piece however the public do not. If this we were able, the best way to get similar results to our expectations, showing a person our products where they are able to feel the quality this could've given more results. Shannen suggested maybe wording the question better where we gave price options to a closer price range rather than the 50 pound difference. Never the less, this has made us realise that we should be reevaluate our price range choices knowing our audience are younger and wants cheaper items. The final question in this image was surprising to me. 38% of people don't seem to treat themselves. This result is a perfect opportunity to promote our brand which will encourage people to take care and priority of themselves. Our main purpose is this and now we know their is a demand, or unawareness of it in society, for it, our group is more likely to follow through with this idea.

The first question has helped us immensely with our idea of combining style to comfortable garments as this result was almost 50/50. This enables us to validate this idea and begin to bring it into existence. This is the same for the third question also as we were interested in creating leisurewear with the same intentions. I am more confident with our groups ideas now analysing these results and believe this brand could be successful in relation to their responses.

 When asking the public how often they buy new clothes 48.4% of people buy clothes less than a month. I expected a higher results from this survey question as I thought people are buying more clothes. This result helps firm my ideas of  limiting stock. I think this idea will be most beneficial because it will slow down fashion and will engage more consumers as it would be considered as rare. Producing stock collections one or twice a month will be beneficial based of these results. This conclusion also correlates with the second question and made us realise that shopping habits aren't as frequent as we believed because there isn't a reason to buy particular clothing due to worlds current lifestyle. The final question helps with choosing how to price our products. Despite demanding low price, 45.5% of people would prefer higher priced clothes because they will be produced to a better quality. I was confused with these results shown on the pie chart as the question gave the opportunity for the public to comment their answer in the ‘other ‘ option and resulted in a section of the pie chart to be inaccurate. Despite the confusion, the public demand for good quality. It is important that we do some good product research for materials in order to meet these targets. I think finding group of different materials and testing them would help us determine which material would be best for the desired attire and most importantly, meet our customers satisfactions. 

To conclude this survey has been successful. With the amount of responses has helped us see the best results to our questions and we was able to discuss what we think is best for the brand. We will use these results as statistical evidence in our evidence when explaining the factors of our brand.

[zhoyoyo]

My year in 2020

Inspired by Alix’s beautiful farewell to 2020, I decided to write mine. 

2020 has been a year of introspective thinking, a year of returning to myself.

For the first half of 2020, the lockdown took away the pressure—which for most of the time I had been unconscious of—of socializing. Absent of the external pressure, I lived on my own terms, only reaching out to people when I felt like to and hearing from people who likewise took the effort to check in on me. I used to socialize a lot more and thought I wanted to. Needs and obligations were not always distinguishable. I felt happier, calmer, more grounded when the external force went away. I identified the relationships that meant more to me and set aside time for them. I also came to realize that the work I'm doing and will continue to do requires less chatter and more time to myself.

My self-contained lockdown experience was disrupted by the layoff in late May. The convoluted event couldn't be traced back to a single day. My priorities in every sense shifted as it unfolded. What it did most to me, looking back, is that it freed up my mind for more wandering thoughts and provided the conditions for experiments. I had worked a full-time job since graduating college eight years ago. The longest break away from work was no more than two weeks, including job transitions. I have always pursued jobs and positions I liked or I thought I liked—that's probably why I'm still doing journalism. But even a dream job comes with restraints tied to the institution and industry. My rationing (of what I want to do, what I should do) has always been bound by the existing and potential paths I could see myself take within the institution and the industry. The loss of a full-time job and day-to-day obligations forced me to erase the rough strokes on my preplanned future canvas and think about what I want to paint next without institutional constraints. In the weeks and months since the layoff day I reexamined the questions that had always existed with a different state of mind. Do I want to code more, draw more, or write more? (The answer: do more creative work and get better at articulating myself.) Do I see myself following the subject area I've been reporting on in the past few years (immigration, global migration) or have my interests shifted? (I don't have a definite answer to the question yet, but I would say based on my thinking over the past six months: It didn't shift, but narrowed.) Do I want to spend 14 hours a day binge watching anime and Chinese reality TV show? (Yes, and I've got some time to do that. The magical effect of pure entertainment content on myself always amazes me.)

***

I went with some friend to Acadia NP in mid-December for a short restful weekend. Having never hiked in the snow, it was surreal to see various formations of water molecules along a lake loop hike in below-zero weather, and later on the cliffs. The wind combed through the snow on the rock, brushing these white soft sands into the sea, and left its traces. The snowflakes fell onto the icy rock crystalizing into half ice. I admired the unbelievable oddity and beauty of the nature and took photos. I didn't think much of them until one day when I was lying on my yoga mat and the images came back to me. I started to visualize the formation. What were the weather conditions that turned water molecules into different forms? How did the rain drop, the wind, the uneven temperature, and the water in the lake come together to transform the view? The scene at the moment of the hike totally absorbed me. It took days before it came back and I started to visualize the process. On that yoga mat I realized that’s how my mind works. Many things that happened in 2020 surprised, amazed, or stunned me at the moment. But it would take some time for these moments to come back and sink in. And only then can I truly understand what really happened. Some moments of realization have occurred already; others will come in the future. There’s no way to capture all of them by the artificial year-end mark. All I can do is to document what has happened, hoping that with a gaze from the future a new moment of realization will come.

***

I started the year with the goal of developing a subject area of expertise in data storytelling. Most of my work this year is to fulfill this pursuit. The pandemic provided some great opportunities to examine the community of "global migrants (immigrants, expats, foreigners)" and their relationships with their home countries and host countries.

I analyzed the announcements by US universities on how they treated international students under lockdown (like most public policies rolled out dealing with migrants amid Covid-19, they were mostly an after-thought and all over the place);

I showed with data that US immigrants were disproportionally affected by the pandemic as more worked in high-unemployment industries and had less access to health insurance;

I looked into how the severe outbreaks in high-income countries affected low-income countries due to the plunge in remittances;

... the impact of the global pandemic on the value of passport at the beginning of the pandemic, and later on, why it's not a good year to be an American.

As the data became available, a reverse globalization could be seen around the world. Foreigners have left the US and other western developed countries.

For one more evidence of the global shift toward favoring skilled immigration, I built a calculator for UK's then-proposed now-enacted points-based immigration system to see who's qualified to migrate to UK post Brexit.

In another story, I charted the global inequality of mobility—a theme I could explore and talk about endlessly—by showing that citizens from richer countries had a higher chance of getting their US visas approved.

After the layoff, my work in the area switched from short-burst newsy stories to more creative, in-depth research and analysis. My ex-coworker and friend Dan Kopf allowed me to visualize the history of Chinese immigrants in the Bay Area on his newsletter (which is in itself a data feast of curious unknown facts about the Bay Area. Highly recommend!) I decided to tell the story through the lens of occupations, dug the data, and created something I'm proud of. The abundance of creative freedom made it a liberating experience. Then entering October, I started working on two longer-term projects—in one I was fortunate enough to be selected as a McGraw Business Reporting fellow to report on the story of the effect of immigration policies on US multinational companies, in the other I enrolled myself in the DCrit at SVA to deepen my knowledge and do research on the evolving forms of citizenship (something I had been contemplating of doing for a couple years). Both of them are still ongoing.

Another significant change in my work of 2020 is that I started freelancing. It was such a different (and educating) experience from having a full-time job. Aside from logistics, technicalities, practical dos and don'ts, what I learned the most is care and love. The few months of freelancing after the layoff made me realize how fortunate I am. This community of friends and acquaintances who reached out to me, helped make connections, and provided me with opportunities is something I did not know existed before. I was filled with warmth that I was not left on my own. Their love and action planted something inside me. I wanted to be like them, capable of loving others and taking action—an ability maybe natural to some, but one I cultivated more this year. My dear Quartz family, my friends and acquaintances from The AP and Graphicacy/Timeplots, from the larger JoC family, from the data visualization community (Data Viz Society), from journo-coders (NICAR, IRE, News Nerdery), and my fellow Chinese storytellers... If I need to name names, the list of people I'm grateful for would be long. I owe a great deal to you. ♡ 

Some stories I contributed to and loved from the short period of freelancing:

I worked on a number of data visualization stories explaining Covid-19 for Vox.com 

One examined the effect of mask mandates on containing the spread of the virus (Masking is effective, but mask mandates do not fit into a single narrative.) 

We surveyed the US population on their behaviors of wearing masks in various social settings. The individual decision of wearing a mask is often times a negotiation with the environment. The survey results revealed the danger of small gatherings. 

Another story looked at the rationing of vaccine priorities among the U.S. states when the first Pfizer/Biotech vaccines just became available and there were a number of approaches of distributing the limited doses. While the consensus was health workers should get vaccinated first, the actual distribution did not follow that rationale. 

I charted how Covid-19 became the third leading cause of deaths at the end of September for Scientific American.

Centro de Periodismo Investigativo investigated the excessive deaths in Puerto Rico after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic with expert analysis and local context. I helped analyze the data, build the charts, and put together the package.

CalMatters investigated toxic chemicals in California's water systems and how a regulation change affected communities living on the water supply. I did the data analysis and created visualizations for the investigation.

2020 has indeed been a year of failed expectations. Most of my plans fell short. I did not fulfill my goals for work or my travel promises to my parents and friends. I did not read more books or learn a new language. My races throughout the year were cancelled and my guaranteed entry to the NYC marathon was wasted. But it is also this year that I started doing yoga and grew more plants. I can clearly picture the multiple moments when I was showered in love and felt the urge to become a more loving and caring person. I learned more about myself and my values and embarked new journeys that I had always wanted to give a try. 2020 has also been a year of warmth and courage, and I would like to think it made me a better person. 

[riverheadbooks]

READER HOROSCOPES FOR AUGUST 2017

Placing bookmarks within the pages of destiny

LEO

Give us a birthday roar, Leo! Don’t be afraid of attracting a little attention -- this is YOUR month, and you’re already turning heads! Your vibe, aura, energy, whatever you want to call it -- it’s off the charts and you’re finding that people are increasingly attracted to your outgoing, vibrant spirit. Put that energy to good use to dive headfirst into those passion projects you’ve been toying with for the past few months! If birthdays are good for anything, they’re for reminding us of how far we’ve come, and how far we have yet to go. Reflect on what you’ve accomplished, and celebrate it! But don’t stop there. You’ve been granted another year, so isn’t it time to make the most of it? That said, the time has come to give yourself a little bit more care and attention. I know this doesn’t come easily to you; you tend to prefer to give rather than take, and feel more comfortable putting others before yourself. Admirable, to be sure, but there are times you need to listen to your intuition, make yourself a priority. You may find yourself in situations where a choice must be made: your happiness, or someone else’s? Draw your inspiration from your lucky book this month, an incredible tale of family ties, and the complications that arise when love is pitted against loyalty. When are our sacrifices worth it? Are some things more important than family, than love? When your allegiances are tested, what holds true? Ultimately, Leo, the choice is always up to you -- and you have another year of wisdom and experience under your belt. Draw from that, and then do your best not to look back.

LUCKY BOOK: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

VIRGO

It’s August, Virgo! Your birthday looms ever closer in the horizon, and you know what that means: time for some deep cleaning. What have you attracted in the past year that you know (perhaps only very deep down) it’s time to let go of? What has been dragging you down and stopping you from living your best life? Whatever those things are, this is your time to attack them with a bottle of your most high-powered cleaning spray and the coarsest washrag you own. You know better than anyone, Virgo, the freedom and joy in scrubbing at some hard-packed grit, and clearing it away to reveal the gleaming surface underneath. Half-hearted commitments, projects that have long soured, fake friendships -- these are all areas you can tackle! It can be very difficult, sometimes almost unbearably so, to let go of the old way of seeing or doing things, especially if you’ve become accustomed to certain negative ideas or people to the point that they feel like home, like normal. But that’s no reason to continue clinging to them once you’ve seen the light. The 14-year-old heroine of your lucky book this month learns this lesson in some of most harrowing ways, but her journey to freedom is one you won’t soon forget. Take heart, Virgo, and remember that you are ultimately the master of your own fate. You hold the power -- and the Windex!

LUCKY BOOK: My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

LIBRA

It’s August, Libra, and rather than succumb to the Sunday blues (it is the Sunday of the calendar year, after all), you’re continuing the summer fun at full throttle. Your current happy place is within a large crowd lately, and lucky for you, we’re still in the heart of music festival season. But there may be more to it than just posing for the street fashion photographers at Lollapalooza and AfroPunk: you genuinely enjoy the sheer excitement and co-mingling of ideas that bubbles from being among a group of creative individuals. Not only are your friends your lifeline this month, offering you constant emotional support and accompanying you on hilarious adventures you can only share on your private blog, but even the strangers you meet may spark some new avenues of creativity you’ve never explored. Follow this impulse to profit from the collective; keep seeking new activities and areas where you can expand. You’re drawing from the most ancient instinct of living things: the compulsion to not only grow, but to change. Each new experience and memory is helping you develop into the person you’re supposed to become, a person markedly different from who you were ten years ago, twenty minutes ago, six months ago. So is it any wonder that your lucky book this month is a fascinating study of the way we think about evolutionary biology? The most minute quirks of DNA mutation can influence an entire species for generations -- pathways that emerge from seemingly nowhere that take life to the completely unexpected places. Every action, every decision you make has an undeniable reverb effect that you may or may not ever discover, so come on, Libra. Let’s see what you’ve got up your sleeve next -- and don’t skimp on the silly group photos, either.

LUCKY BOOK: Improbable Destinies by Jonathan B. Losos

SCORPIO

“I got my mind on my money and my money on my mind.” Wise words from the late great Notorious B.I.G., and your mantra for this month, Scorpio! You’re all about that paper in August: you’ve been working hard, building your network, taking professional risks, and now, getting ready to reap the rewards. What form it will take remains to be seen, so don’t count any unhatched chickens. But one thing is clear: your ambition is going to take you far. Perhaps even history books far. Who knows? But while your career continues to soar to meteoric heights, don’t forget about the people who helped you get there: your friends. Female friendships in particular are going to be crucial this month. After all, you can only work but so much, and an unfortunate side effect of putting in major hours at the office is missing out on some quality time with your chosen family. So whenever you can, be sure to make time for some much-needed gossip fests or movie marathons. You need a counterbalance to the stress of the job, and reveling in the love and appreciation of your besties is a surefire way to not lose your mind during this exciting, but admittedly draining time. And who better to draw comfort from, than your fiercest supporters? Of course, if you’re looking for another source of encouragement, maybe the more literary kind, your lucky book this month is a testament to what the human mind can achieve. Not only that, but the myriad effects that innovation that have on society as a whole. From artificial intelligence, to the barcode, to IKEA’s Billy bookcase, there is a backstory to every object you take for granted, and many of them will surprise you. So, Scorpio, now we have to know...what will your backstory be? How will you make your mark on history?

LUCKY BOOK: Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy by Tim Harford

SAGITTARIUS

The road goes ever on and on, Sagittarius, and this is your month to experience it firsthand! That stirring you’ve been feeling to get out and explore? Now is when you give in. And let’s be clear: this doesn’t mean you should max out your credit card and fly to the opposite end of the globe, swathing yourself in scratchy fabrics and embarking on a life-threatening quest. It is completely up to you (and your budget) where to go, how to get there, what do to there, and how long to stay. Want to spend a weekend in Nantucket? Wonderful! Want to spend a month in your childhood home? Fantastic! Wherever you go, there you are, so use this time of separation from your usual to become even more in tune with yourself and any spiritual, mental, psychological scores you need to settle. Don’t underestimate the benefits of retreating from the typical trappings of your usual life; even if you don’t venture as far as you’d like to this time, take the time to sit still. Look around. Breathe. Say hello to a stranger. If your journey has taken you abroad, try to learn a few sentences in the local language. And most importantly, find a quiet place and comfy chair to disappear into your lucky book this month: the story of a young boy who has also left his home, but (hopefully) for very different reasons. Chased by dark forces, he is forced to travel across a hot, empty desert plain -- completely alone, until he encounters an old goatherd. Their paths thus intertwined, they must learn the rules of this harsh new country together. A thrilling vacation read, cautionary tale, humbling parable -- let this searing story be whatever you need it to be, while you bask in the unknown of your own brand new corner of the world.

LUCKY BOOK: Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco

CAPRICORN

Is it warm in here, or is it just me? Oh, wait -- no, it’s just YOU. Cap, there’s really no other way to put it: you’re hot this month, and if no one has begun shooting you some furtive glances, they’re coming. This is your month for smooth seduction, and there’s absolutely no shame in that! Whether it’s an old flame or a new spark, the romantic interludes will be robust and who knows, may lead to something more. Keep your options open, and do yourself a favor? Save the spicy details for your journal. Active as your group text might be, you don’t need to share every encounter with four of your closest friends, not unless you enjoy the nonstop interrogation that is sure to follow! Sometimes keeping some secrets to yourself can make the most benign affair even more exciting, and after all, don’t you deserve some excitement? That said, Cap, don’t completely lose your head in the whirlwind of these new flings -- keep one eye on your finances, too! Finding a much lower bank balance than expected is a surefire way to bring an ecstatic high to a crashing low, so be proactive and maybe decline some of the more extravagant date invitations...unless the other party is treating, of course! Your lucky book this month is a mesmerizing account of a young girl’s mission to learn her mother and grandmother’s history -- a winding journey through truths and half-truths, memories of love, abandonment, betrayal, and new beginnings -- to, in turn, better understand herself. It’s a beautiful, moving testament to the fleeting nature of life, and the lessons we learn in youth that become invaluable to the generations to come. So go ahead, have some fun this month. Hit it while it’s hot.

LUCKY BOOK: I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This by Nadja Spiegelman

AQUARIUS

Aquarius, Aquarius, Aquarius. You’ve been living large and in charge all summer, and it looks incredibly good on you. It seems like you’ve got it all figured out: job, home, friendships, fitness -- you name it, you’ve conquered it. Well, okay, there’s one area that can use some development. You’ve been so focused on getting yourself in order over the past few weeks (or perhaps months!) that you’ve allowed your independence to push away a potential special someone. Maybe someone came to mind just now, maybe not. But this is the month to open up that part of your heart once more: even if you don’t feel ready to enter into anything serious, consider putting some time and effort towards building or re-building something a person who gets you. Sometimes you just need a person to keep you in check, to support your more wacky ideas, to hold your hands before you take major risk. Knowing that someone you care about always has your back can be incredibly freeing -- not necessarily limiting or confining, as you may have been led to believe. As long as the lines of communication are open, the cards are on the table, and you’re both open to each others’ needs, there is no reason that a healthy, successful life cannot include someone you can call a partner -- with as many or as few stipulations or boundaries as you both desire. Your lucky book this month is a spellbinding and unforgettable collection of short stories that will shed a brand new and sometimes discomfiting light on the nature of our relationships, whether romantic, familial, or otherwise. Sometimes entering a world gone slightly topsy-turvy can help us better appreciate our own -- and avoid the mistakes of the characters we come to know and love, even in the space of a few pages.

LUCKY BOOK: What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah

PISCES

Rise and shine, Pisces! This month, you’re feeling and looking fantastic -- muscles tightening, blood flowing, skin glowing! No more late nights squinting at your phone; you’re tucking in early to avoid being sluggish the next morning. Midday bag of chips? Not for you -- a brisk walk to get a fresh smoothie has become your new habit. Between your improved diet and consistent gym attendance, you’re right on track to achieve the sort of health goals you once found nearly impossible. And it’s a good thing too, considering how things have picked up at work! You need all your wits about you as you go through these hectic days and late nights, so keep up the good work. We do only get one body, after all, and it’s always in your best interests to keep it healthy and happy. And while we know work is pretty intense right now, you know what they saw about all work and no play, right? Even though it may seem wrong to inject some fun into such a go-go-go month, you need to let your hair down once in awhile and give yourself some time to relax and let loose. So that date you’ve been putting off? Just say yes! Enjoy the attention, show off all that exercise you’ve been doing! If you’re looking for some romantic ideas, might we suggest a homemade dinner date for two? You may be committed to new fit lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean all of your meals should be bland and oat-filled all the time. Your lucky book this month is sure to give you some delicious inspiration for some flavorful meals, as well as general tips and tricks for adding a special touch to your cooking, whether the recipe comes out of a book or not. Bon appetit!

LUCKY BOOK: The Art of Flavor by Daniel Patterson and Mandy Aftel

ARIES

Beautiful Aries! This month is YOUR TIME. Your confidence is through the roof right now -- or if it isn’t it should be! You’re turning heads left and right, friends and acquaintances alike are clamoring for your attention, and the dating prospects aren’t looking too shabby either! Basically, you’re totally owning it this month, and we couldn’t be more happy for you. As summer winds to a close, take full advantage of these final few weeks: enjoy a vacation day or two, bask in the sunshine, sip some frozé with a group of friends at noon. In other words, live!!! Enjoy it; life is fleeting anyway! Of course, a word of caution: no matter how amazing you look and feel, using the world as your red carpet can have its drawbacks. Keep a tight grip on your wallet, and be careful of what you post on social media. Money is not everlasting, but that regrettable photo from 4 AM absolutely is! Leave the tabloid-worthy blunders to the celebrities, and recognize when it’s time to leave the party. Speaking of, your lucky book this month will be right up your alley: a whip-smart, hilarious deep dive into the world of celebrity culture, what feeds our obsession, and what effect internet fame has on our culture at large. Walk like the street is your red carpet -- and then enjoy cozying up in bed with this book, comforted by the fact that there isn’t paparazzi just outside your door.

LUCKY BOOK: The Stars in Our Eyes by Julie Klam

TAURUS

Don’t let anyone make you feel bad for being a homebody, Taurus. This month, you’re really into the warmth and comfort (or should we say air conditioning and comfort?) that comes from being safely ensconced at home, surrounded by your books, blankets, and favorite snacks. Maybe you’re finally get around to that deep cleaning you’ve been saying you’d undertake since the beginning of May, or there’s a room that’s just dying for a fresh coat of bright new paint. Or maybe the time has come to say farewell to your current place entirely, and try to find some digs. However you slice it, your priority this month is taking care of your sacred space, and reevaluating what the significance of that space means for you. It is a place of solitude and meditation, where you can escape the endless grind of the outside world? Is it a fortress for you and your closest loved one, where you can all be your unapologetic selves? Is it simply a place of refuge, where you can rest assured that in this tiny corner of the universe, you are safe, independent, and in control? You may find that you have much in common with the protagonist of your lucky book this month, a fiercely opinionated young woman who is on a quest to find a place she can rely on as home. Trapped in that infuriating liminal space between cultures, between countries, and does her best to carve for herself, everywhere she goes, a place that rests entirely under her control, a place where she can feel, even in miniature, that she is in a safe, familiar place. It’s a stunning tale that will put into sharp perspective one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time -- pick it up whenever you feel yourself getting a little bit too serious about paint swatches.

LUCKY BOOK: Refuge by Dina Nayeri

GEMINI

Gemini, what’s good? You haven’t had the best few weeks, but it’s a month, a new day, and life is going to have to come a little harder than that to keep you down. Luckily, this month you’re all about that extra support: partnerships and close friendships are where you’ll thrive, and it won’t feel too crowded, or like a betrayal of your own independence -- we promise. The key is to make sure the people you choose to surround yourself with add a special something that you wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere. Who makes you feel like your best self? Your most capable self? Your most ambitious self? Who lights that creative fire? Understand that while self-sufficiency is important, and your reliance on your own wisdom and wits is one of your best attributes, it can never hurt to solicit input and guidance from someone who can push you to aim even higher, and vice versa! So put yourself out there, be proactive. You can’t expect everything to come to you. Your lucky book this month is a short, trippy examination of race and class that follows a most unusual character in her quest for authenticity. Like you, she wonders who she really is, who she wants to be, and how -- or who -- can help her become that person? While you will undoubtedly avoid some of the more absurd situation she finds herself in, there is much to learn from her internal dialogue as she fumbles for ‘realness.’ Find your person (or people!), Gemini, but don’t lose sight of yourself in the process. You’re smarter and more resourceful than you know. Remember that!

LUCKY BOOK: New People by Danzy Senna

CANCER

Up and at'em, Cancer! You’ve had a leisurely summer, laying back and enjoying the ocean breeze, marathoning your summer shows and sampling mimosas at every brunch spot in town. We don’t begrudge you living the unbothered life to the fullest, but alas, it truly isn’t a party if it happens every night. And unfortunately, it’s time for the party to end -- for the time being. But you were sort of ready to kick it back into high gear anyway, weren’t you? You have a bit too much active energy to spend the rest of the summer whiling away the hours fruitlessly. This doesn’t mean you should throw all of your effort into the first opportunity that presents itself: be forward-thinking, but strategic. Know what you want, and then go after it. Get your feet wet at a few mixers and networking events so you can get some inside scoop on what’s for grabs, who to know, where to show up and show out. So go on, have at it! Dust off that resume, iron that button down. It’s time to start getting yourself back into the game. We understand that the transition back to the real world may be jarring, but you’re not a delicate flower; you can take a bit of unease and horror in your downtime literature. Your lucky book this month is a haunting short story collection that will raise the hair on your arms in the very best way. Both love story and cautionary way, it’s the absolute best selection for this month, when you need to be kept on your toes -- although we highly recommend not saving this one to read right before bed.

LUCKY BOOK: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

[charlieharry1]

A Marketer's Guide to Navigating the Post-Covid19 World

A Marketer's Guide to Navigating the Post-Covid19 World

The coronavirus episode has significantly affected the world market. What's more, in the midst of grave  Digital Marketing Company Sheffield vulnerability and calls for social separating, it isn't astounding that the buyer conduct has experienced a few changes.

The coronavirus flare-up has changed customer conduct and consequently, the manner in which purchasers cooperate with brands in an extraordinary way. With the across the country lockdown, shoppers are compelled to remain inside thus, they can't go out and make buys. Because of this, the general interest has dove in. While most enterprises have seen income drops, a few parts managing in fundamental merchandise, social insurance administrations and media have seen income development, in any event in the short run.

Note that the impacts of such worldwide emergencies are only here and there present moment.

Like other worldwide emergencies before, the pandemic won't simply adjust things until the infection is leveled out however may likewise go about as an impetus for more lasting changes from that point. At the end of the day, while the monetary exercises may continue in a couple of months, the purchasers may rise up out of the emergency with various needs and qualities. For instance, all things considered, utilizing the web more for shopping, gaming, and staying in contact will have become a propensity for huge numbers of us.

Things being what they are, I don't get this' meaning for an advertiser like you?

Short-run and since a long time ago run showcasing challenges

Advertisers no matter how you look at it are confronted with four significant difficulties in the short-run –

Inability to have occasions or grandstand bulletins because of lockdown.

Inability to change from customary promoting channels to elective advertising channels with dexterity.

Inability to consider the lastingness and the broadness of changes in buyer conduct.

Diminished profits for advertising ventures because of low interest.

These will be trailed by longer-enduring difficulties like unexpected social, social, affordable and worldwide approach changes.

Yet, what's going on with different advertisers and all the more critically, what would you be able to do?

Read Also:-  Some common sales objections and their solutions

Beating difficulties - computerized showcasing makes ready

As most conventional types of promoting have gotten inconceivable or trivial, a great deal of advertisers are left with huge showcasing spending plans however with no reasonable way to put resources into. While for most B2C brands it is on the grounds that their clients are not seeing their announcements, for B2B brands it is to a great extent because of abrogation of expos. Whether or not a brand is B2B or B2C, their advertisers are progressively depending on advanced promoting to meet their clients where they are – their homes.

For instance, the aftereffects of a survey, included on Marketing Charts, exhibits where advertisers are probably going to reinvest the spending put in a safe spot for one of the most noticeably terrible influenced B2B channels - expos.

Going to advanced promoting is, indeed, something that you should consider. The speculation light advanced media stages will help you successfully draw in with your clients without pulling down your ROI. Further, since advanced promoting permits you to follow your crowd's conduct intently, it is probably going to furnish you with huge amounts of information and bits of knowledge into how your intended interest group is evolving. This won't simply assist you with adjusting your showcasing rehearses with deftness, yet will likewise direct your drawn out promoting methodology in a post-pandemic world.

The most effective method to use different advanced promoting channels

Email Marketing:

Messages are the least expensive and one of the most productive alternatives accessible to most advertisers. Messages can assist you with imparting how you have been managing coronavirus and how concerned you are about your clients.

Here are some acceptable subjects you can investigate:

How you are guaranteeing that your workers and individuals around you are sheltered

Have there been any adjustments in your activities

Notices on occasion retractions or disconnected choices you are going for

What they can anticipate from you in the coming days.

While discussing coronavirus in a touchy manner can assist you with picking up your client's trust, which will receive you rewards after things show signs of improvement, utilizing coronavirus and sending pioneering correspondences can gigantically fizzle. On the off chance that you are giving any proposals during this time, shun coupon codes like 'COVID19' or 'coronavirus'.

Site design improvement:

Taking a shot at your SEO will assist you with staying noticeable to any potential client who searches for your contribution on search stages. Chipping away at your SEO, along with your site's Conversion Rate Optimization, will help you radically improve your online transformations. Furthermore, in the event that you are a brand with numerous stores, at that point remember to take a shot at your nearby pursuit as it can directly affect change drove activities, for example, calls, lead structure fill-ups, and site clicks. The coronavirus sway on computerized showcasing has driven advanced advertisers to perceive the capability of nearby inquiry. The accomplishment of neighborhood search comes from the way that individuals who perform nearby inquiries (or close by look) are ordinarily in a high purchasing mode. As per Think with Google, 28% of close by look through outcome in a buy. When the interest has plunged, it is a higher priority than at any other time to clutch such high-expected leads by guaranteeing that you rank satisfactorily on all the applicable nearby hunt stages.

Internet based life Marketing:

The coronavirus sway on computerized advertising has maybe unfurled most distinctly via web-based networking media. Internet based life is currently offering brands that have an advertising financial plan with new open doors since traffic has developed and rivalry has decreased. The same number of independent ventures have halted their paid showcasing efforts, paid promotions have gotten a whole lot less expensive and are presently producing a more prominent ROI.

As indicated by Neil Patel's investigation of various brands, the ROI has on a normal expanded by 71%.

On the off chance that you haven't tried paid promotions via web-based networking media out, you should think of it as now.

Content Marketing:

This might be when individuals are not putting resources into utilization, however then again, it is likewise when individuals are extraordinarily putting resources into themselves. Delivering a great deal of instructive and engaging substance will assist you with drawing in your clients and addition their trust. Truth be told, as per research by Conductor, shoppers are 131% bound to purchase from a brand following they devour training content from it. Utilize this chance to make quality substance in various structures like recordings, digital recordings, playbooks, sites, online classes and  Digital Marketing Agencies Sheffield  exploration considers. Plus, these substance guarantees can likewise be utilized for improving your SEO, internet based life commitment, email showcasing efforts and online lead assortment endeavors.

Follow US:-  Facebook,  Twitter,  LinkedIn , YouTube

[kristinsimmons]

Low Value Testing and Unmet Cascades

By ANISH KOKA, MD

Mr. Smith has a problem. 

He can’t see. 

Even this cardiologist knows why.  The not so subtle evidence lies in the cloudy lens in front of his pupils.  He is afflicted with cataracts that obstruct his vision to the point he can’t really do his job refurbishing antique furniture safely.  His other problem is that he hates doctors. He hasn’t had reason to see one for more than a decade.  He’s 68, takes no medications, smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, and is a master of one word answers. He’s in my office because he needs a medical evaluation prior to his cataract procedure. Someone needs to attest to medical safety. I’m it.

He just wants to get out of here.

His annoyance of being in the office is justified.  Cataract surgery is very low risk.  Unless he’s having an acute medical problem, there is little to do.  The problem is that in an age of high volume, super specialized care, the eye doctor can’t attest to this, and the anesthesiologists have little interest in finding out the morning of his procedure that Mr. Smith has been having more frequent episodes of chest pain over the last two weeks.  Perhaps the chest pain is just acid reflux, or maybe it’s because of a pulmonary embolism related to the tobacco induced lung malignancy no one knows about. It’s possible, and highly likely, Mr. Smith will survive his cataract surgery even if he has a pulmonary embolism.  Cataract surgery really is pretty low risk.

But the doctor’s ethos has never been to ‘clear a patient for a cataract’, it is to commit to the health of the patient.  Mr. Smith deserves the opportunity to receive good medical care that isn’t made threadbare just because of the cataract surgery on the horizon.

An ample body of literature has arisen on just what to do with Mr. Smith driven largely by the question of the yield of preoperative testing performed prior to low risk procedures.  The outcome of interest to researchers is the impact of preoperative medical testing on the safety of surgery.  But this outcome completely misses the point of a medical evaluation.  Of course there won’t be any evidence to make never events rarer.  It would be a lot more fun to do a chicken dance in front of Mr. Smith than spend time discussing smoking cessation, and I can guarantee that the randomized controlled trial with surgery safety as an outcome will show that the chicken dance is equivalent to actual medical care.

But never events in low risk scenarios are the perfect place to beat the low value testing drum.

Identifying ‘Low Value Testing’ is the holy grail of the health policy community because a more perfect health economy awaits the surgical excision of these warts from medical practice.

A recent paper now featured in a Washington Post OpEd attempts to use preoperative cataract evaluations to show us the ills of low value testing in a cohort study of 110,000 Medicare Fee-for-service beneficiaries.  Patients were 66 years or older without any known heart disease. 

Researchers compared patients who did receive an ECG preoperatively with those that didn’t.  They discovered that a small number, 11% (12,408) of patients, who had no prior cardiac disease received an ECG prior to a cataract surgery.  Of this group, 15% (1,978) had at least one test done in follow up.  Termed cascade testing, most of the follow up testing involved a cardiac imaging test of some sort, or a visit to a cardiac specialist.

The conclusion of the investigators is that : “Care cascades after preoperative EKG for cataract surgery are infrequent but costly. Policy and practice interventions to reduce low-value services and the cascades that follow could yield substantial savings.”

It’s an interesting conclusion that has been lapped up by a wide audience of head nodding tsktskers.  I say interesting primarily because the data comes from a large Medicare Claims database populated by physician entry of billing codes.  The claims database that this creates is used frequently by researchers as done here, but is plagued by limitations.

For instance, Mr. Smith’s complaint of chest pain during his preoperative visit should generate a chest pain code and a preoperative testing code.  The reality of practice is that the goal for physicians is to do the minimum amount of billing necessary to make life work, not to do the most accurate billing necessary.  If a physician or his staff did not happen to add a chest pain code to a pre-operative evaluation, a completely appropriate further test being done to evaluate his chest pain, would fall under the rubric of low value testing in this paper. 

This limitation would be easier to dismiss as insignificant if 80% of patients undergoing a preoperative cataract evaluation received an ECG.  But the number isn’t 80%.  It’s ~  10%.  What percent of patients had an ECG and an echocardiogram done because a loud murmur was heard? We simply don’t know.  So studies like this should tell us very little in a strong fashion.  But the agenda of some is to publicize research that highlights waste and excess, and so we have strong conclusions built on data that can’t possibly support it in a high impact blue chip journal used to influence policy makers. It wouldn’t matter so much if these papers stayed in the echo chambers of academia, but unfortunately, all that stands between this paper and Elizabeth Warren’s ‘evidence based’ website is a NewYorker deep dive and some publicity from the right kool-aid drinking journalists.

But even if we assume the data is actually robust, and that all or most of the cascade of testing is happening driven only by an untoward ECG, the conclusion being arrived at still misses the mark.

It should be a relief that only a small minority (10%) of elderly patients getting cataract surgery actually get an ECG. As the flow chart above shows, of  this small minority, 1717 (~90%) patients had tests, treatment or hospitalization related to a new diagnosis made of ischemic heart disease, structural heart disease, or an arrhythmia.  The prior limitations of billing codes used for these diagnoses apply.  We don’t know if meaningful heart disease is being found.  But carrying the researchers assumption of the veracity of the dataset forward, it would appear that a low yield test that costs Medicare $18 results in 13%  (1717/12,408) of the screened population being diagnosed with an important cardiac condition that a specialist thought important enough to initiate treatment.  That doesn’t sound like low value.

As mentioned above, pre-operative medical evaluations aren’t solely for the benefit of the surgeon.  The priority isn’t just what a patient needs to safely undergo a specific procedure, its to take care of the patient.  This is all muddled when it comes to cataract surgery, which is one of the very low risk procedures that is done today.  It is indeed the case, that unless a patient is in the throes of a heart attack, there is likely little medical optimization needed prior to these very low risk procedures.  But our mission is to keep patients from harm, not to ‘clear them for their cataract procedure’.  It is the case that the 55 year old gentleman who has been having progressive exertional dyspnea and a loud murmur at his pre-operative visit will survive his cataract surgery.  But this does not mean that the cardiac ultrasound that follows this test to diagnose the severity of his underlying valvular pathology is a wasted test. 

Also spare a moment for the anesthesiologists charged with taking care of these patients during these procedures.  They usually have never met the patient, and are asked to take medical responsibility of the patient.  It may help to know the patient you’re putting to sleep has right ventricular failure with severe pulmonary hypertension.  To say we don’t care because it only affects a small minority of patients, may be good population health, but it’s bad medicine.

But even If the data were to be believed, and that’s a big if because it rests on claims data, the cataract medical evaluation would seem to serve an important opportunity for screening an older population with no prior history of heart disease.  Almost 15% of this particular population screened were found to have important cardiac disease that both patients and their doctors want to know.  Doctors, patients and researchers may want to remind themselves that the biggest danger to the Medicare age population isn’t the incidentaloma, its death from cardiac disease, followed closely by death from cancer.

The real question to ask may be why it takes an evaluation prior to a cataract procedure to find this disease? Perhaps, like Mr. Smith, this represents a population that generally stays away from the medical community, unless ‘forced’ to.  Some of the analysis demonstrating that the screened population is older, sicker, and located in urban areas makes the cataract screening story a victory for medicine, making inroads in areas where it’s needed, rather than one of waste and excess.

But this isn’t the story social policy researchers hopeful for influence over government bureaucrats struggling to lower health care costs will tell. The monotonic message rings true in yet another paper from earlier in the year from the same brain trust published in the same journal based on a physician survey of cascade testing.  Physicians were asked about their personal experiences with cascade testing as a result of incidental findings.

The conclusion of the paper was unambiguous:

“The survey findings indicate that almost all respondents had experienced cascades after incidental findings that did not lead to clinically meaningful outcomes yet caused harm to patients and themselves. Policy makers and health care leaders should address cascades after incidental findings as part of efforts to improve health care value and reduce physician burnout.”

But it requires reading the paper to find that more than 70% of physicians surveyed reported that cascade testing resulted in “finding a clinically important and intervenable outcome” several times a year.  So while ~60% of those surveyed found that cascade testing often found nothing, more of those surveyed found something clinically important.  This describes the clinical practice of the generalist.  Most of the interactions with patients are benign affairs.  The majority of patients the primary care physician interacts with are healthy.  Some are not.  The art and practice of medicine is to find some balance between sending every patient for an MRI, and putting on a blindfold and noise cancelling headphones before entering a patient room. 

Mr. Smith got an ECG. It was normal. There were no further tests prior to his cataract surgery.  There was a cascade planned after his surgery. He’s following up for a high blood pressure, and was convinced to go for another potential cascade initiating event: the first blood work he’s had in 10 years. Hopefully the republic survives.

Anish Koka is a Cardiologist in Philadelphia.

The post Low Value Testing and Unmet Cascades appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

Low Value Testing and Unmet Cascades published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

[lauramalchowblog]

Low Value Testing and Unmet Cascades

By ANISH KOKA, MD

Mr. Smith has a problem. 

He can’t see. 

Even this cardiologist knows why.  The not so subtle evidence lies in the cloudy lens in front of his pupils.  He is afflicted with cataracts that obstruct his vision to the point he can’t really do his job refurbishing antique furniture safely.  His other problem is that he hates doctors. He hasn’t had reason to see one for more than a decade.  He’s 68, takes no medications, smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, and is a master of one word answers. He’s in my office because he needs a medical evaluation prior to his cataract procedure. Someone needs to attest to medical safety. I’m it.

He just wants to get out of here.

His annoyance of being in the office is justified.  Cataract surgery is very low risk.  Unless he’s having an acute medical problem, there is little to do.  The problem is that in an age of high volume, super specialized care, the eye doctor can’t attest to this, and the anesthesiologists have little interest in finding out the morning of his procedure that Mr. Smith has been having more frequent episodes of chest pain over the last two weeks.  Perhaps the chest pain is just acid reflux, or maybe it’s because of a pulmonary embolism related to the tobacco induced lung malignancy no one knows about. It’s possible, and highly likely, Mr. Smith will survive his cataract surgery even if he has a pulmonary embolism.  Cataract surgery really is pretty low risk.

But the doctor’s ethos has never been to ‘clear a patient for a cataract’, it is to commit to the health of the patient.  Mr. Smith deserves the opportunity to receive good medical care that isn’t made threadbare just because of the cataract surgery on the horizon.

An ample body of literature has arisen on just what to do with Mr. Smith driven largely by the question of the yield of preoperative testing performed prior to low risk procedures.  The outcome of interest to researchers is the impact of preoperative medical testing on the safety of surgery.  But this outcome completely misses the point of a medical evaluation.  Of course there won’t be any evidence to make never events rarer.  It would be a lot more fun to do a chicken dance in front of Mr. Smith than spend time discussing smoking cessation, and I can guarantee that the randomized controlled trial with surgery safety as an outcome will show that the chicken dance is equivalent to actual medical care.

But never events in low risk scenarios are the perfect place to beat the low value testing drum.

Identifying ‘Low Value Testing’ is the holy grail of the health policy community because a more perfect health economy awaits the surgical excision of these warts from medical practice.

A recent paper now featured in a Washington Post OpEd attempts to use preoperative cataract evaluations to show us the ills of low value testing in a cohort study of 110,000 Medicare Fee-for-service beneficiaries.  Patients were 66 years or older without any known heart disease. 

Researchers compared patients who did receive an ECG preoperatively with those that didn’t.  They discovered that a small number, 11% (12,408) of patients, who had no prior cardiac disease received an ECG prior to a cataract surgery.  Of this group, 15% (1,978) had at least one test done in follow up.  Termed cascade testing, most of the follow up testing involved a cardiac imaging test of some sort, or a visit to a cardiac specialist.

The conclusion of the investigators is that : “Care cascades after preoperative EKG for cataract surgery are infrequent but costly. Policy and practice interventions to reduce low-value services and the cascades that follow could yield substantial savings.”

It’s an interesting conclusion that has been lapped up by a wide audience of head nodding tsktskers.  I say interesting primarily because the data comes from a large Medicare Claims database populated by physician entry of billing codes.  The claims database that this creates is used frequently by researchers as done here, but is plagued by limitations.

For instance, Mr. Smith’s complaint of chest pain during his preoperative visit should generate a chest pain code and a preoperative testing code.  The reality of practice is that the goal for physicians is to do the minimum amount of billing necessary to make life work, not to do the most accurate billing necessary.  If a physician or his staff did not happen to add a chest pain code to a pre-operative evaluation, a completely appropriate further test being done to evaluate his chest pain, would fall under the rubric of low value testing in this paper. 

This limitation would be easier to dismiss as insignificant if 80% of patients undergoing a preoperative cataract evaluation received an ECG.  But the number isn’t 80%.  It’s ~  10%.  What percent of patients had an ECG and an echocardiogram done because a loud murmur was heard? We simply don’t know.  So studies like this should tell us very little in a strong fashion.  But the agenda of some is to publicize research that highlights waste and excess, and so we have strong conclusions built on data that can’t possibly support it in a high impact blue chip journal used to influence policy makers. It wouldn’t matter so much if these papers stayed in the echo chambers of academia, but unfortunately, all that stands between this paper and Elizabeth Warren’s ‘evidence based’ website is a NewYorker deep dive and some publicity from the right kool-aid drinking journalists.

But even if we assume the data is actually robust, and that all or most of the cascade of testing is happening driven only by an untoward ECG, the conclusion being arrived at still misses the mark.

It should be a relief that only a small minority (10%) of elderly patients getting cataract surgery actually get an ECG. As the flow chart above shows, of  this small minority, 1717 (~90%) patients had tests, treatment or hospitalization related to a new diagnosis made of ischemic heart disease, structural heart disease, or an arrhythmia.  The prior limitations of billing codes used for these diagnoses apply.  We don’t know if meaningful heart disease is being found.  But carrying the researchers assumption of the veracity of the dataset forward, it would appear that a low yield test that costs Medicare $18 results in 13%  (1717/12,408) of the screened population being diagnosed with an important cardiac condition that a specialist thought important enough to initiate treatment.  That doesn’t sound like low value.

As mentioned above, pre-operative medical evaluations aren’t solely for the benefit of the surgeon.  The priority isn’t just what a patient needs to safely undergo a specific procedure, its to take care of the patient.  This is all muddled when it comes to cataract surgery, which is one of the very low risk procedures that is done today.  It is indeed the case, that unless a patient is in the throes of a heart attack, there is likely little medical optimization needed prior to these very low risk procedures.  But our mission is to keep patients from harm, not to ‘clear them for their cataract procedure’.  It is the case that the 55 year old gentleman who has been having progressive exertional dyspnea and a loud murmur at his pre-operative visit will survive his cataract surgery.  But this does not mean that the cardiac ultrasound that follows this test to diagnose the severity of his underlying valvular pathology is a wasted test. 

Also spare a moment for the anesthesiologists charged with taking care of these patients during these procedures.  They usually have never met the patient, and are asked to take medical responsibility of the patient.  It may help to know the patient you’re putting to sleep has right ventricular failure with severe pulmonary hypertension.  To say we don’t care because it only affects a small minority of patients, may be good population health, but it’s bad medicine.

But even If the data were to be believed, and that’s a big if because it rests on claims data, the cataract medical evaluation would seem to serve an important opportunity for screening an older population with no prior history of heart disease.  Almost 15% of this particular population screened were found to have important cardiac disease that both patients and their doctors want to know.  Doctors, patients and researchers may want to remind themselves that the biggest danger to the Medicare age population isn’t the incidentaloma, its death from cardiac disease, followed closely by death from cancer.

The real question to ask may be why it takes an evaluation prior to a cataract procedure to find this disease? Perhaps, like Mr. Smith, this represents a population that generally stays away from the medical community, unless ‘forced’ to.  Some of the analysis demonstrating that the screened population is older, sicker, and located in urban areas makes the cataract screening story a victory for medicine, making inroads in areas where it’s needed, rather than one of waste and excess.

But this isn’t the story social policy researchers hopeful for influence over government bureaucrats struggling to lower health care costs will tell. The monotonic message rings true in yet another paper from earlier in the year from the same brain trust published in the same journal based on a physician survey of cascade testing.  Physicians were asked about their personal experiences with cascade testing as a result of incidental findings.

The conclusion of the paper was unambiguous:

“The survey findings indicate that almost all respondents had experienced cascades after incidental findings that did not lead to clinically meaningful outcomes yet caused harm to patients and themselves. Policy makers and health care leaders should address cascades after incidental findings as part of efforts to improve health care value and reduce physician burnout.”

But it requires reading the paper to find that more than 70% of physicians surveyed reported that cascade testing resulted in “finding a clinically important and intervenable outcome” several times a year.  So while ~60% of those surveyed found that cascade testing often found nothing, more of those surveyed found something clinically important.  This describes the clinical practice of the generalist.  Most of the interactions with patients are benign affairs.  The majority of patients the primary care physician interacts with are healthy.  Some are not.  The art and practice of medicine is to find some balance between sending every patient for an MRI, and putting on a blindfold and noise cancelling headphones before entering a patient room. 

Mr. Smith got an ECG. It was normal. There were no further tests prior to his cataract surgery.  There was a cascade planned after his surgery. He’s following up for a high blood pressure, and was convinced to go for another potential cascade initiating event: the first blood work he’s had in 10 years. Hopefully the republic survives.

Anish Koka is a Cardiologist in Philadelphia.

The post Low Value Testing and Unmet Cascades appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

Low Value Testing and Unmet Cascades published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

[junker-town]

Ex-Patriots quarterbacks won Week 3 of the NFL preseason

Jacoby Brisssett and Jimmy Garoppolo are back in the spotlight.

Jacoby Brissett and Jimmy Garoppolo are cleared for takeoff. Plus Daniel Jones, Snacks, and the other Josh Allen.

Week 2 of the NFL preseason brought us Lamar Jackson doing extremely Lamar Jackson things, a 74-yard punt, and one miserable Cardinals’ performance in what promises to be a string of them.

Week 3, the closest we’re going to get to anything resembling regular-season football until September, saw stars like Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, and Ben Roethlisberger light up the skies for multiple drives. It was the backdrop for Andrew Luck’s stunning retirement at age 29. It gave us an honest-to-goodness 100-yard receiving day from JJ Arcega-Whiteside.

It also gave us one game on an 80-yard field where no one was quite sure what the rules were.

REMINDER: this is a touchdown because the NFL can't figure out how to effectively convert a CFL field to American football specifications pic.twitter.com/53t2cdwY60

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) August 23, 2019

So ... yeah. The league’s latest international expedition leaned harder toward last year’s canceled Mexico City game than any of the contests that graced the British Isles the past decade. It also painted a stout portrait of just how far separated from actual NFL football August still is.

But while Week 3 wasn’t the typical showcase it once was for starters, it still presented some major opportunities for eager young players to show out and older veterans to cement their place on the depth chart. So who wore the NFL’s preseason dress rehearsal the best?

Not considered: Patrick Chung, who turned a potential robbery at his own house into a felony charge for himself

The Patriots’ veteran safety was indicted last Thursday after police officers reportedly arrived at his home to investigate a tripped burglar alarm and found cocaine inside the residence. He now faces a felony charge for drug possession and pleaded not guilty Aug. 26 — 13 days before New England kicks off its regular season with a primetime game against the Steelers. His next hearing won’t take place until November, however.

While the charges will likely result in an NFL suspension of at least four games under the league’s personal conduct policy, the potential loss of a starting safety may not hurt the Patriots’ in their 2019 title defense. Chung is a valued veteran in the secondary, but he’s also begun to age his way out of the team’s future plans. At 32 years old, he’s already hit the annual restructuring/extending phase of his career. Retirement may have been on the horizon even without a drug charge. There’s a chance his legal situation isn’t sorted out until after the season, leaving Chung the opportunity to retire before the league can pass down any discipline for 2020.

If he does miss significant time, New England is ready. The Patriots managed to hold the Rams — 2018’s No. 2 scoring offense — to just three points in a Super Bowl that Chung missed 80 percent of thanks to a broken arm. The club has been prepping for 2019 without him due to that injury and can add some more assignments to Duron Harmon’s homework pile. Chung’s indictment also increases the odds Obi Melifonwu, a 2017 second-round pick once cast aside by Jon Gruden, sticks with the Patriots in an effort to turn his otherworldly athleticism into game-changing defense in the secondary.

Now, onto this week’s actual winners:

7. Matt Nichols, who is still the best quarterback to play in Winnipeg this year

Nichols’ CFL team, the Blue Bombers, played host to Thursday’s Packers-Raiders game — a game in which Aaron Rodgers was set to make his Green Bay debut under head coach Matt LaFleur’s offense. Instead, the two-time MVP was left roaming the sidelines thanks to concerns about Investors Group Field. CFL goalposts, located in the middle of a 20-yard end zone in a 110-yard field, are toward the back of what would have been a traditional NFL end zone. This left a gaping mouth hungry for snapped ACLs:

Officials responded by shortening the field to 80 yards, making the end zone the space between the 10-yard line and the original goal line. Kickoffs were nixed entirely. Touchbacks came out to what was actually the 15, but looked like the 25 if you stared at the field numbers.

The Packers decided to sit Rodgers (and the rest of their offensive starters) and started Tim Boyle in his place. The Raiders countered with Mike Glennon. This may have permanently damaged American-Canadian relations moving forward.

Nichols, meanwhile, has put up a 71.3 percent completion rate, 8.1 yards per pass, and a 15:5 TD:INT ratio in nine CFL games this summer. All hail the quarterback king of Winnipeg.

6. Trace McSorley, who is giving off Taysom Hill vibes right now

McSorley’s path to Penn State was carved by James Franklin, who was one of the few college coaches who saw the 6’0 dual-threat passer as an NCAA quarterback and not a safety. He outperformed expectations en route to 77 career touchdown passes and a Big Ten championship with the Nittany Lions. That track record enticed Baltimore to add him to a roster that already featured Lamar Jackson and Robert Griffin III in the QB room.

The preseason has been the runway for a Swiss Army knife of a player. On Thursday he showed he’s capable of making NFL-caliber throws, even if he can’t yet make them consistently.

Doesn't get much prettier than that, Trace. @McSorley_IX #BALvsPHI pic.twitter.com/nmpWIhTAdX

— NFL (@NFL) August 23, 2019

In the first half of Week 3, McSorley completed 16 of 24 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns while adding another trip to the end zone on the ground. His overall preseason performance is still lacking — he’s completed only 57 percent of his passes and has thrown two interceptions against a run of second- and third-string defenses — but there’s reason to believe he can stick around. McSorley runs a 4.5-second 40 and was one of the combine’s top performers at his position. That athleticism will give him the chance to make an impact across the Baltimore playbook.

Though he might not be in position to back up Jackson in 2019, the careers of similarly athletic-but-inaccurate college quarterbacks like Hill and Joe Webb suggest he can carve out a place in the league. Maybe he won’t be behind center each time he takes the field, but McSorley’s make-it-work talent should earn him a spot on an active roster this fall.

5. Trevor Davis, who excels on an 80-yard field

The trip to the great-ish white north was a boon for the Packers’ fourth-year wideout, who may have cemented a spot on the roster with a big performance against the Raiders. Davis, typically used as a returner in his pro career, had four catches on five targets for 66 yards in the first half alone Thursday night. He caught a beautiful corner end zone route for a touchdown, which hilariously wound up coming down on the 5-yard line due to the league’s inability to correctly plan for the Canada of it all:

ah yes, the classic corner end zone jump ball at the 5 yard line pic.twitter.com/D7vBCj9RqL

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) August 23, 2019

Davis also had a 17-yard punt return, showcasing the versatility that should make him a useful addition to LaFleur’s aerial attack in 2019. All six of his offensive touches for the night — five receptions, one carry — resulted in first downs.

4. Josh Allen. No, the other Josh Allen

Pass rusher Josh Allen. The one your football nerd friend derisively calls “the good Josh Allen.”

For the record, I’m not down with that nickname until we get a couple more looks at quarterback Josh Allen in Buffalo, but I understand the sentiment. Allen went from a two-star high school recruit to an absolute wrecking ball at the University of Kentucky. He represented a major bargain when he slid to the Jaguars at the seventh overall pick. On Thursday he showed he can be the next man up in Jacksonville’s dominant defense.

#WeAreUK Josh Allen was a force in the 1st half #LaFamilia #DUUUVAL #jags #JAXvsMIA #NFL100 #NFLPreseason #NFL pic.twitter.com/hnjrzEPX3B

— Arizona sports fan (@GlendaleCards) August 23, 2019

Allen effectively set up camp in the Dolphins’ backfield, disrupting seemingly every play he was on the field in a 22-7 loss. The rookie looks he can absolutely be a dominant force alongside Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue in the Jags’ pass rush. Though he doesn’t have a sack yet this preseason, he’s got three QB hits and three tackles for loss in roughly four quarters of play — and he’ll be even better when Jacksonville unleashes the full force of its defense in the regular season.

3. The Lions, who made their best defensive lineman happy ...

... while retaining him at a relative discount. Damon Harrison was one of the league’s top interior linemen last season, but he wasn’t paid like one. The former Giant — liberated for the low cost of a conditional fifth-round pick! — made 81 tackles, including career highs in both sacks (3.5) and tackles for loss (nine). Despite that, he was set to make only $7 million.

That led to an offseason holdout. While the burly pocket disruptor made it to training camp, working out an extension was high on general manager Bob Quinn’s priority list. On Thursday, the two sides came to an agreement on a one-year extension that brings $12 million in new guarantees for the man they call “Snacks.”

For Detroit, the extension represents about $5 million in extra cash over the next two years. While that’s a significant increase, it’s still an underpay for a player of Harrison’s caliber. By bumping his 2019 salary up, Harrison jumps from the league’s 16th-best paid DT to a tie for 13th. A scheduled $11 million salary in 2020 won’t even push him into the top 10 at his position.

That’s a major win for head coach Matt Patricia. His second year in Detroit is predicated on rebuilding the kind of defense that made him a rising star in New England. Signing players like Trey Flowers, Justin Coleman, and Mike Daniels can help him get there. Keeping a veteran leader and run-stuffer like Harrison at a reasonable price is a major piece of the puzzle, too.

2. Daniel Jones, who is still making Dave Gettleman look smart

Another week, another rock-solid performance from the maligned Giants rookie. Jones went 9 for 11 with an uber-efficient 141 yards as New York improved to 3-0 this preseason. He’s completed 83.3 percent of his passes this August and has upped his yards-per-attempt average to 12.3 — light years better than the 6.4 career average he carried at Duke. His 140.1 passer rating is the highest in the league this preseason.

That’s all very impressive, but Newsday’s Tom Rock summed up Jones’ unlikely preseason rise with a single image:

The media swarms the Giants’ star quarterback while another nearby player puts his shoes on. pic.twitter.com/BavFoglHFY

— Tom Rock (@TomRock_Newsday) August 23, 2019

Yes, it’s still the preseason ... but the Giants might have been right about Jones this whole time. This could be a banner year for the Cold Takes Exposed Twitter account.

1. Former Patriots backup quarterbacks, who will get the chance to do the damn thing this season

Jimmy Garoppolo is back on the field after suffering a torn ACL last fall. Jacoby Brissett has once again been promoted from understudy to lead with Andrew Luck’s abrupt retirement. Suddenly the two players who made starts for New England during Tom Brady’s 2016 Deflategate suspension are primed for starring roles in the 2019 regular season.

For Brissett, this will be a chance to prove his first go-round as Luck’s replacement was not an accurate reflection of who he can be as a quarterback. In 2017, the second-year pro was thrown into the fire for an Indianapolis team that had few weapons. His first start came just 15 days after he was traded by the Patriots, and he took up residence in the pocket behind an offensive line that allowed him to be sacked a league-high 52 times.

The Colts are a significantly better team now, two years after Brissett went 4-11 as a starter. He’s got better blocking, a strong running game to help suck opposing safeties closer to the line of scrimmage, and an upgraded receiving corps that, for the first time in a long time, isn’t just “T.Y. Hilton and a bunch of fourth wideout types.” With unrestricted free agency looming, a big performance in ‘19 could lead to a massive raise in 2020.

Garoppolo already got paid, but he’s still got nearly as many questions to answer. He’s had the opportunity to realistically earn starts in three of his five seasons as a pro, but suffered injury in two of them. Now he’s back to lead a rebuilt 49ers team to glory — if he can stay healthy.

The Niners QB proved more seaworthy in his second preseason game than his first. His 2019 debut saw him post a pristine 0.0 passer rating while completing just 1 of 6 passes against the Broncos. That brought about varying stages of concern that were quickly swept aside by a 14-of-20, 188-yard, one-touchdown game against the Chiefs in Week 3. If his offensive line can keep him upright and healthy — and clear space for the league’s deepest and most versatile tailback rotation — he can build on the furious 2017 finish that earned him a $137.5 million contract.

Also, Danny Etling led the Falcons in rushing this week. Pretty good!

2019 will be the year the Patriots learn whether they got a good deal for trading away their Tom Brady insurance policies. Of course, that will all be a moot point if the six-time Super Bowl winner continues to play at an MVP level until the heat death of the universe.

[fireteam-ballsack]

As It Ends

You know when you move, and it takes awhile to finally mentally settle in? I had just gotten to that point. The Farm was great. A lot of trees, it wasn't loud and busy like the Tower was. I had my wife, I had a small little house, everything was perfect. We even had the Light again, against all odds. I was perfectly content to stay like that forever.

Then, Cayde showed up.

I didn't think I'd see his dumb ass again. Last I had heard, he'd gotten himself into trouble on some ice rock. Something about some vex. But one day, I was running something to Amanda, and there he was.

“Well, if it isn't my favorite hunter!”

I looked up to see him looking happy. He did looked banged up, but intact. He went down the barn stairs towards me.

“Sara, you have no clue how glad I am to see you have all four limbs. Considering the last time I saw you, everything was on fire and you were running to do God knows what with Rein. Where is he at, anyways?”

I couldn't look him in the face. “He's dead. We went to face Gaul, I watched his ghost get crushed, and then he fell. He was impaled on some rods. I...found him. After I fell.”

“Oh...I....I'm sorry.” There was genuine empathy in his tone.

I shrugged my shoulders. “It happens. Mai made it out, she's getting some stuff for dinner.”

He nodded. “Figured you wouldn't go anywhere without your girlfriend. Maybe I'll swing by tonight.” He looked out the front door to the barn, across the Farm. “Well, I might need your help with something. Just a small mission.”

My eyes rolled as I looked at him. “Cayde, there's never a small mission when it comes to you. What do you want?”

“Okay, you're right. But I still need your help. And Mai. Can you two swing by later? Like after dinner?”

I crossed my arms. “Fine. But I won't promise I'll do it.”

He laughed. “That's the spirit! I'll see you two later. I'll be up in the barn somewhere.”

I left my delivery for Amanda on a workbench, then headed back to the house. What was Cayde up to? What did he want with both of us? My head filled with ideas, half of them something stupid like 'go to this dangerous area and get me a simple object', like he'd tried before the city fell.

Mai greeted me when I walked through the door. I kissed her cheek and sat in a chair in the front room.

“Was Amanda there?”

I shook my head. “No, but Cayde was.”

She sat up and looked surprised. “Cayde-6? Like, hunter vanguard Cayde-6?”

“Yeah. He wants us to go to the barn to meet him after dinner.”

My wife looked puzzled. “But...why? What does he want?”

“He has some sort of mission for us. He wouldn't give me any more details.”

She nodded. “Alright, we should probably eat then and get over there. Sooner we get done, sooner we can get ready for whatever he has planned for us.” She stood up and started going through some cabinets. “Any preference?”

I shook my head. “Just whatever you wanna make. Don't think I'd notice what it tastes like.”

She started pulling things out. I wanted badly to know what he wanted us to do. Was it a simple thing, like 'get in, get out, tell us about it' or something harder? We had some Light again, but I hadn't been in combat since the city fell. Neither of us had been.

Mai worked on making dinner as I pondered. I didn't even notice when she was finished until a plate was set on my lap. She smiled and sat down with her food.

“Thank you, love.” I started eating, still somewhat preoccupied. What could Cayde possibly need us to do?

I finished quickly. Mai set her empty plate down on a counter, then did the same with mine. We didn't say a word as we both left the house, then headed towards the barn. I had a feeling this was gonna involve some heavy work. My wife held my hand as we walked and gave me a reassuring smile.

“Whatever happens, we've got each other. Nobody can destroy that.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Things have been fucked up though. Really fucked up.”

When we walked into the barn, I saw Cayde standing up on a loft, looking down. He waved at us, then pointed to a set of stairs off to the side. We went up, greeted by the vanguard trio and a few other guardians. Zavala looked at us as we drew close and seemed pleased.

“Mairene, it's good to see that you're alright. And you as well, Saradin. Congratulations, by the way. Amanda told us that you two got married.”

“Thank you, Commander.” Mai seemed a bit honored. “It's good to know you all made it out alright as well. What's all this about?”

He looked down at some charts on a table set up. “We've got some intel on the Cabal occupying the city. While we do have a counteroffensive planned, we have a high-priority mission.”

Ikora stepped forward. “The Cabal have a weapon aimed at our sun to destroy it. We're having a team-not you-that will be going up to disarm the weapon.”

I looked at some of the ship schematics on the table. “Why not just destroy it? It'd take care of it a lot more efficiently.”

She shook her head. “We destroy it, it destroys our sun. Disarming it is the only way to go.”

“The perfect defense. So what are we gonna do?”

Cayde leaned against the table. “You're gonna go up and remind Gaul who runs this place.”

I shook my head. “No. Not again. I can't.”

Zavala sighed. “Saradin, we need you. You're one of the few we have who can do this. You won't be alone, we're sending you with a fireteam.”

I turned to him and glared. “My fireteam is broken, Commander. I wanted a teammate die because I thought I could take Gaul on. I can't face him again!”

I heard my yell echo across the barn. Everything fell silent. Both Ikora and Zavala looked shocked. The other guardians seemed uncomfortable. Cayde stood next to me and ran his hands over the papers on the table.

“Sara, we all lost someone. You thought you lost the person you loved the most. We all saw you charge off to go find her, even while everything was literally falling apart around you. You took that anger and used it to fight. The Cabal knew you trashed their command ship. They assumed you died when you fell, we translated some of their comms. What better way to strike fear into them than to show back up and keep raising hell?”

I looked at him. Cayde was known for joking and pranking, not for being serious. For him to do this...they really must need me.

“Alright. I'll do it.”

I heard Ikora sigh in relief. “Good. You'll be with Mai, of course, and another titan. Yen, if you would?”

A taller guy came up to the table and nodded at us. I somewhat recognized him, he also ran the more difficult and high-risk missions for the vanguard, though mostly with teams. I nodded back at him.

“You three will follow us when we enter the city. Cayde has a Vex teleporter that can get you onto the command ship. Gaul will be on there. You are to find him and destroy him. He won't be expecting you to have the Light. And Sara, he won't be expecting you to show back up. Use that surprise. This is for the city, for the people.”

Mai stared down at the schematics. “So...just walk in and kill him? It's that easy?”

Zavala answered her. “Somewhat. We've had other fireteams run missions to make it easier for you. There will be a lot of defenses on that ship, though. You'll need to be careful and brave.”

I nodded. “Okay. When do we do this?”

The vanguard trio all looked at each other. “One week,” Cayde replied. “I'd start warming up and getting ready.”

The next day, I was back in gear. My old armor had been collecting dust in a corner of the house, but we had gotten it fixed up and back on me. We waited near our ships for Yen. The plan was to go into some fallen-infested areas and use them to prepare for the big guys.

“Sara?”

I looked over at Mai. “Yeah?”

She looked worried. “You sure you can do this? I don't want you ending up like you did before. I can't lose you, either.”

I pulled her close and held her tight. “Mai, I can handle this. I'm doing this for Rein. I'm finishing what we started.”

She hugged me and set her head on my chest. “Alright. I love you.”

“I love you too. We're gonna do this.”

I heard someone walk towards us. Looking over, I saw Yen in almost full armor. His helmet was in his hands.

“Alright, I should probably actually introduce myself, Yen Ikawata. I'm one of Zavala's scouts, at least I was.”

Mai held her hand out. “Mairene, but I go by Mai. I worked a base on Mars for awhile, special orders from the Commander.” They shook hands, which felt way too formal for what was going on.

“I'm Sara,” I nodded. “I'm the reason you need approval to own pets. One of Cayde's high-priority mission runners. And Mai's wife.”

He smiled. “Means you have more to fight for. I think I've heard Zavala mention you before, Mai. Anyways, where are we headed?”

“Hawthorne told me about a lot of fallen not too far. Said they'd be great target practice, and taking a lot out would make it easier to get supplies. Two birds with one stone.”

Yen nodded. “Then let's go. Sara, you can take lead.”

We all went to our respective ships. It really wasn't far, just a few minutes of flying. But no way I was trying to walk that distance. It would take too long and I didn't wanna risk being spotted by Cabal. If Cayde was right, showing up alive on Gaul's doorstep would be the best way to be seen.

The flight over was quiet. We stayed low, so we wouldn't be picked up by radars. I didn't even know what I would have said. Things were so much different now. We had lost everything. I had watched someone die for good. Someone I cared about. I thought I lost the only person I could ever love. I watched the only place I'd known as home crumble. I had watched the city I was made to defend be destroyed.

“Sara?” My ghost looked at me. “You're not yourself anymore.”

I sighed. “Is anyone?”

He looked at the landscape passing by. “I guess not.”

We finally got to a safe landing zone near our target point. I watched Mai's ship slowly descend between the trees, then started down myself. As soon as we were on the ground, I jumped out and ran over to Mai. She greeted me with a hug and quick kiss, before we went to meet Yen at his ship. She looked at me as we walked and looked worried.

“You're absolutely sure you can do this?”

I nodded. “Positive.”

We watched him finish landing, then hop out. He had put his helmet on while in his ship, so we both did the same while he walked over to us.

“We all ready?”

“All good,” Mai replied. The three of us headed towards a small town, where we'd been tipped off. I could only hear the soft crunching of leaves and small twigs as we went, and the unsettling silence of the woods around us. Wait, how can I hear silence? Whatever, it was still obvious to me. There were no birds, no small animals, nothing. It was unsettling.

We found the remains of some buildings on the outskirts of the town. I peeked into a half-collapsed store, only to be greeted by rust and weeds. We went back to walking, keeping an eye out for any movement not from the gentle breeze. Something didn't feel right, it was too quiet and too safe. We reached a plaza with a tense feeling in the air.

“Sara, go over to that apartment building and sit in it.” Mai's voice was serious.

“What for?”

She looked at me. “Just go, now.” Her tone told me to listen. I slipped away from the two and into the building, perching near a window so I could watch them. They snuck over to a fountain, hiding behind the edge of it. I looked across the plaza they had been in and saw why she told me to go here. A patrol of Cabal were coming forwards, marching uniformly and looking around. The two titans stayed hidden as they drew closer, and my heart started going crazy.

When the patrol was a few feet from the fountain, Mai and Yen sprang into action. I watched as Mai lept on top of a legionary, fist colliding with his helmet. As soon as he was down, they both filled the other two Cabal with shots, only stopping when they fell dead. There was a pause as they watched the bodies, waiting for any sign of life. When there was none, my wife waved to the apartment building, signaling for me to come out. I quietly did, leaping straight out of the window and landing near them.

“They're dead. Didn't want you to have an episode again.”

She was talking about my panic attacks I used to get, back at the Farm. Long minutes of screaming and crying at the very mention of the Cabal.

“What happened?” Yen looked between us. “Back when the city fell. Cayde mentioned the command ship and Gaul.”

I pushed past him. “Let's go. We need to keep moving.”

He jogged up to me until he was walking by my side. “Sara, why does the Cabal cause problems for you? We need to-”

I turned to face him and pulled my helmet off, which I never did when in hostile territory. “You wanna know what happened?! I thought Mai was dead! I watched them attack the tower I was standing in! I went to beat the living shit out of every last stupid alien on that ship! Then the stupid fuck Gaul found us and took my goddamn Light! I watched the only person I thought I had left be thrown off the edge of the ship after his ghost was destroyed, then I was thrown off! You fucking tell me why I have problems with the Cabal!”

“Sara...I'm sorry...”

I put my helmet on. “Fuck being sorry. Fuck being miserable and scared all the damn time. I'm going to murder every last fucking Red Legion soldier I see when I'm back in my city.”I turned and started walking through the town again. I heard Yen and Mai walk behind me a few paces. Yeah, I was pissed. I remembered everything from when the city fell. And I hated every second I could recall.

I led the way for a few more minutes. There was still silence, and none of my senses told me there was any sign of life aside from us. My ghost constantly scanned buildings we passed, but still nothing. When we came to an abandoned train station, I stopped.

“There's something in there.” My ghost flew up to one of the doors and peeked in, then came back. “Sounds like Fallen. You ready?”

Mai and Yen came up to me. I looked back at them, then to my ghost. After a small nod from me, we all went in. As we went through the halls leading to the platforms, we could hear faint chatter. I slowed down, trying to follow the sounds to figure out where they were. It was something I'd picked up from when I used to run missions, though I probably wasn't as good as I used to be.

At the end of a stairway, I crouched at the edge of the wall. The Fallen had to be around the corner. Mai kneeled behind me, and Yen behind her. I looked back at my wife and nodded. Without waiting for a response, I felt a grenade prepare in my hand. When I raced around the corner, the Fallen all looked at me in surprise. Short-lived, though, as my grenade hit the ground around a few and their bodies scattered. The ones that weren't hit pulled out their guns and aimed at me. Mai came from behind me and met a captain's face with her shotgun. When his headless corpse fell to the ground, I pulled my scout rifle out and stepped back. More Fallen were pouring out further down the platforms, but I'd dealt with worse situations without an issue.

“Yen, get ready for some fun.”

He stood next to me with his gun ready. “Sara, if this is what you call 'fun', I can see why Cayde sends you on the missions he does.”

Mai backed up to be on my other side. “It's also because easier missions bore her, and she starts trouble.”

I threw down a smoke grenade, and the second I became invisible, I sped forward. Yen was close behind me, and before I could pull my knife out to hit anything with it, he leaped up in the air right next to me. He came down in a group of vandals, a wave of arc energy erupting around him. He was pulsing with it as he kept going, and any contact made with an enemy filled them with that energy, but as damage. He cleared a path as he went, leaving me in slight awe.

My awe passed when I realized I was visible again. I started shooting, leaving dead Fallen on the tracks and platforms. Rockets whizzed to my right, as Mai did her best to get some kills in. I looked back to where she had put up a shield, and was shooting over it. She was brilliant, that woman. I turned to face the Fallen again, but was picked up by a rather large captain. He held onto my neck as I scrambled to find a weapon. He shouted something I couldn't understand, then pointed his own gun at me.

“Let go of me you fucking shit!”

Mai called my name out and aimed her rocket at me. The first blast stunned him, but he kept his grip. The second made him drop me, and I grabbed my gun again and retreated back to Mai's shield.

“You okay?” She started to reload.

“Yeah, as long as you've got my back. Remember our first mission? With the priest?”

She looked at me. “Yeah. We're gonna go that route?”

“Yup. I'll try and get the little guys near him so they'll get hit too.”

“Got it. I'll keep him on me.”

As she fired yet another rocket, I cloaked myself again and ran past the captain. I started shooting at all the Fallen around me, trying to take a few out as well as gather them to me. Yen noticed and came near me, doing the same.

“Sara, you got a plan?”

I switched to a machine gun. “Yeah, get the little boys together and then go near that captain. You'll know when to blow the big punches.”

It didn't take long to feel like we had everything around us. I started edging towards the big guy, pulling the crowd near me. Every foot made me more confident in my plan. It had worked before, and I didn't see a reason as to why it wouldn't work now.

Finally, I was ready. I jumped onto a nearby ledge, then into the air above the mass of anger and bad smell. Void light grew in my hand, and I pulled on a thread of it. A bow emerged, and when I let go of that thread, a clear shot hit the captain's feet. He looked down, before it erupted into strings that attached everything around it. Mai fired a rocket, and all I could hear were the sounds of death and explosions. My favorite sounds. But there was still Fallen standing. Yen threw a grenade, then pulled a sword out. He swung at everything moving, taking some out and causing others to endure the shared damage. I landed at started shooting again at the main captain. He was my focus, he was the ringleader. Take him out, and the others would be weaker.

Finally, after multiple rockets from Mai and what seemed like an army's supply of bullets from me, the captain fell. When he did, the whole world seemed to fall still. The three of us all stood, trying to make sure there were no more threats. No dregs crawled out of doors. Nothing stood back up. It was done. I went over to Mai and hugged her. She held me close.

“You okay?”

I pulled my helmet off and smiled. “Yeah. Just remembering that first night, when we went to the bar. You're just as cute as you were then.”

She took her own helmet off and smiled back. “So are you. Come on, we got more practice to do. The Cabal aren't just gonna line up and let us shoot them.”

After days of hard practice, we were finally ready. We had one last meeting in the barn, to go back over our assignments. Everyone who had been given special orders was going to be there. Both completed missions and things to be done. As I checked my armor at the house, I felt some nervousness about the next day.

“Mai?”

I heard my wife in the bedroom, making sure everything there was secure. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

She stood in the doorway, looking at me sweetly. “I love you, too.”

I smiled at her. “No matter what happens tomorrow, I'm always gonna love you. And you're always gonna be the best thing I could have ever found.”

We hugged tightly. I didn't wanna let go of her, I wanted my world to be just what was happening right here and now. But we both knew we had big things to do. We let go, and she unlocked the door.

“Come on, let's go get this over with. We'll need as much sleep as we can get tonight.”

She led the way to the barn. I could see some others there, and that the ships and mechanical stuff had been moved out of the barn. As we got closer, I noticed some civilians with guns. They looked determined, concentrated, and I admired that. It was their city, too. They had every right to fight for it.

When we saw Cayde, he waved us closer to the front. Yen was up there already, in casual clothes. We stood near him, and the Vanguard began talking to the small crowd there.

“Alright,” Zavala started. “Tomorrow is the day we show the Cabal and Gaul who we are. What they're up against. And tomorrow is the day we take back what we built. We have already sent some teams to gather supplies and information to aid us. Fireteam Wisdom?”

A trio of warlocks stepped forward. One in bright robes spoke. “We've taken out one of their higher-ranking agents. We also took some of his intel and stole one of his ships, which will get someone onto the Almighty.” They went back into the crowd, calm and collected.

Ikora spoke next. “A handful of fireteams have been working to disable some systems on the base here in the EDZ. Good work, fireteams Legion, Looters, Rogue, and Northeast. Fireteam Loyalty and Courage, your mission?”

When that group stood, I recognized Bran as one of them. He was the one that spoke.

“We'll be going to the Almighty to disarm it. Our goal is to render it useless to the Red Legion, without destroying it. We'll give everyone the signal to start the assault on the city. We will also be joining the assault once we make sure there is no way the Cabal can arm the weapon in any way that could compromise our attack.”

Ikora nodded, and looked out over the crowd. “Most of you will be leading smaller groups in the assault. Your jobs are simple: take out any Cabal that stands in the city. Even a small psion that you may not think can do anything. Lead your troops and remind them they have an entire city cheering for them.”

Cayde looked at me. “Same name?”

I grinned. “Absolutely.”

He cleared his throat. “And we have Fireteam Ballsack, with the final job for our assault.” There was some laughter, but it was silenced by a glare from Zavala. Cayde continued. “They're the ones with all the weight on their shoulders. They'll be the ones to onto that command ship. They're going to face Gaul, remind him what guardians are made of, and end him.”

There was a bit of a stir in the crowd, then I saw someone come up. To my surprise, it was Ray. He was in his armor, scratched-up and beat, but intact. He looked at me, then at Cayde.

“Cayde-6, I want to thank you for choosing Saradin for this mission. She was my apprentice, and I've watched her performance since she graduated from training. She's proven to be the top person for jobs like this.” He turned to me. “Saradin, you and your fireteam are more than capable of doing this. You've got the weight of the city on you, and I know you can carry it.”

I nodded to him. “Thank you. I'll prove Gaul that you trained me well.”

He went back with his fireteam. Did he really compliment me? After all this time? It was a little weird, but things had been really weird lately.

Zavala stepped back forward and addressed everyone again. “We leave in the morning. As soon as we get the signal, we rush in. Be brave, be careful, and most of all, be merciless. Now go rest, you will all need sleep for what is to come.”

People started leaving. I nodded to Cayde before heading home myself. Mai held my hand as we walked. She looked up at the sky when we got outside.

“We're fighting with the world now,” she murmured. “Not for it. It's a bit different.”

I nodded. “We can do this, though. We're stupid enough to make it.”

She laughed and smiled at me. “Yeah, at least you are. Let's get home.”

The next morning, the house silently sat as we prepared for the attack. The sun was barely peaking over the horizon as we went to check our weapons. We had been given upgrades, since we were vital to the overall mission. Neither of us spoke until we got to the armory. The girl who greeted us had a tired smile.

“Names?”

“Saradin and Mairene. Special orders from Zavala, I think.” I looked at Mai, who nodded to confirm.

The girl went in, then came back out with a scout rifle and an auto rifle. She handed them to us, and I passed the auto rifle to Mai. We waved our thanks and went down to where a small fire pit was, down by the water. I sat down on one of the rocks, and Mai did the same.

“Do you think we'll see this place again?” Her voice was quiet.

I stared across the lake. “Maybe. But it won't feel the same if we do. We either come back victorious, and to gather everyone to go home, or we come back in defeat. Or we just...don't come back.”

Mai gently pulled my face towards her. “We'll come back. We'll win this time. I know we will.”

With her hand still on the side of my face, she kissed me softly. We stayed like that for a few heartbeats, before pulling away. She rested her head against my shoulder. All we could do right now was wait for Yen, then for Ikora to give the order to head to our ships.

“Mai! Mai!”

We heard a small voice come from one of the houses. A familiar boy ran across the grass to us. My wife smiled as he came up to us and hugged her.

“Hey, Thomas!”

His mother trailed behind. She had a long rifle on her back, and some basic armor on. I nodded at her as she approached.

“Mai, mommy's gonna go with you guys!”

The woman laughed. “Well, not in their group. But yes, I'm going back into the city.”

Mai smiled. “She's a good mommy. We'll make sure she comes back, okay?” She looked up at the mother. “Where is he going to be while you're gone?”

“With my brother. He's been living with us since he got here. But Tom wanted to see his heroes before they went out to fight.”

The boy looked at Mai with wide eyes. “Mommy says you've got a really dangerous mission. I don't want you to die, though.”

I leaned over and smiled at him. “We won't die, okay? We're gonna go fight the biggest, baddest guy there.”

He nodded. “Okay. You can do it!”

His mother laughed. “Come on, you need to go back to bed. You'll see them later, okay?” She picked him up and walked back to the house, him complaining the whole way. While they faded into the small crowd, Yen came up from one of the side houses and sat next to us.

“Not much longer. You two ready?”

I watched the fire dance in the morning light. “As ready as I can be.” I pulled Mai under my arm, setting my hand on her opposite hip. She sighed softly, but didn't pull away from me.

“There's no backing out of this, you know. Once we get in there, we have to fight.”

“I don't change my mind on these things,” I said. “They took my city. They killed my best friend. I'm gonna do this or die trying.”

We all sat in silence. The sounds of people calling for their teams and checking their gear was faint to us. Yen was right, though. This was do or die. Once we passed those walls, we had to finish our mission.

Finally, after what felt like forever, we heard Zavala call for us. We quietly made our way to the barn, where he stood. He led us back to the planning table, where there were lists of names.

“You three will be with us. Cayde will be setting up the Vex teleporter once we get close enough to the command ship. Your job is to defend him until it's ready, and the teleporter will take you to Gaul's ship. From there, you'll be on your own.”

We nodded.

“Sara,” he continued, “you'll be taking lead. We want you to be seen first, the guardian they thought they defeated. Leading the assault. Can you handle that?”

“Zavala, I would be glad to.”

A small scuffle in a corner of the barn distracted us. Cayde looked like he was trying to strap a gun to a chicken. Zavala shook his head and sighed in disappointment. “Cayde, put the chicken down.”

The exo put the gun down, but kept the bird in his hands. “Oh, come on! Colonel will do so much good for us!”

Zavala shot him a look, then turned back to us. “Get to your ships, and head out to our meeting point. I'm going to tell the rest to load up.”

The three of us filed out of the barn. Once we were outside, we all jogged to the makeshift airfield. Our ships were loaded with some supplies for a temporary base, plus our personal weapons. I stopped a few feet from my ship and went to Mai.

“Sara, don't take too long.”

I kissed her forehead. “I won't. But once we get there, I won't have time for this.” I hugged her tight and breathed deeply. “No matter what happened, no matter if we win or lose, I'm glad I had this life with you. Even if it gets cut short, it's the best life I could have ever asked for.”

She held me tighter. “I can say the same, love. You're my everything.”

We stood there for a moment, forgetting everything else. I only let go of her when my ghost cleared his throat. She had a brilliant smile on her face, matched by the one on my face.

“Let's go. We've got a city to take back.”

I went into my ship, putting my helmet on before preparing the engines. My ghost turned the ship on and looked at me.

“Please don't die. I'd like to keep fighting with you.”

“Sure,” I laughed. “I'll live so you can see some action.” I switched to the comms between ships. “We all ready?”

Once we all confirmed our meeting point, I took off. It would be a few hours of flying before we made it there. On long trips like these, I usually made small talk with whoever was going with me or whoever was passing through. But now, things were too serious. I didn't even know what I could have talked about. So I sat in silence. Thousands of miles of just my thoughts to pass the time.

I remembered things. I remembered going to a bar with Mai the night we both finished training. I remembered getting drunk one night, at that same bar, and confessing that I loved her. I remembered her sitting quietly for a bit before admitting that she felt the same way. I remembered every time I waited for her to get to the tower, sitting in the hangar impatiently. I remembered going out to dinner at nice places, and the nights we spent just laying in bed and talking about whatever came into our heads. I remembered Rein, how we went out with him a lot. I remembered him trying to talk Shaxx into letting me play just one crucible match.

Most importantly, I remembered why I was in my ship. I was there to make sure I had more things to remember.

When I saw the faint outline of the wall, I descended. The meeting point was just outside the wall, where the Cabal wouldn't see us. I had my ghost transmat the supplies to the area, then I jumped out. Without waiting for my fireteam, I started setting up the base. Mostly monitors that would later be hooked up to radios and the ships, to communicate with both those in the fight and on the farm. I hadn't even noticed Mai and Yen land until they were setting things up around me. There were tents, some crates of ammo, and basic things like food and clothes. When they finally finished, some of the others had started to show up.

Ikora came over, looking over at the wall. “I hope you rested well. This will be a hard battle, both physically and mentally.” She turned to us. “A team is on the Almighty now. When they give us the signal, we begin. If you're not ready now, I highly suggest getting ready.”

Yen spoke for us. “We're all ready, Ikora.”

The warlock nodded, then went off to help the setup. The three of us followed, unsure of what to do until the signal was sent. Looking downhill, I saw just how big our force was. A huge mass of people were running around, both guardians and civilians. Ships were still dropping in, slowly but steadily. I was in awe of how much power we had behind us.

“Do you think they'll expect this many?” Mai was looking at me. I shrugged and adjusted the guns on my back. She sat on the ground, so Yen and I did the same. We didn't know how long it would be until it was time. It could be hours, or it could be a few minutes from now.

After time passed, I saw the Vanguard come up to us. Cayde was still holding the chicken, now with a knife strapped to it. He seemed pleased with himself.

“Hey, you guys! I got our secret weapon!”

I stifled a laugh. Zavala shook his head at Cayde, then turned to us. “They should be calling for the attack soon. We're behind you all.”

We got up. As we did, we noticed the crowd looking up at us. They were all saluting us. I was confused, why us? When I turned to the vanguard, they too were saluting us. Cayde was grinning madly.

“Sara, you're the only person crazy enough to try this, and the only one smart enough to pull it off.”

It was...for me. Me, a sarcastic asshole who was constantly told they didn't work well with others, was the one they were all looking up to. I took a deep breath and nodded at him.

Suddenly, we all heard shouting. Bran's voice came through on the comms. There was some mad laughter, and faint explosions.

“We did it! We disarmed it! Start the attack!”

Without a word, I turned and charged straight at the wall. A massive hole was in the side, where we had escaped through it. Footsteps echoed behind me as I ran. As soon as I was in the streets, at least a dozen Cabal foot soldiers turned to see me. I started shooting, and bodies fell. Shots came from behind me, and more died. I slowed down some, so I wouldn't be too far ahead.

We went through the streets, taking out I don't know how many Cabal. Our goal was to find a high building, so the teleporter would be closer to the ship. We worked our way to some high-rise apartments, at least a block where some were still standing. Cabal shot at us as we went, but we shot back. My only thought was to get onto that ship and end this all.

We got inside, only to be greeted by more Cabal. I got my knife out and went crazy, swinging at everything I could. The sounds of dying aliens filled the air as we pushed through, and bodies fell to the ground. It took what felt like hours to finally reach the roof, where we cleared out the last few legionaries.

“Cayde, get your stupid teleporter set up.”

He went to a corner and fiddled with it. I paced along the sides, looking down to the street. I heard distant gunfire, where other units were defending themselves. My only hope then was that we wouldn't lose too many.

“Almost there...done.”

Looking, I saw a glow around the teleporter. Stepping in would put us right on that ship. The vanguard all looked at us.

“Saradin,” Zavala said, “in case this is the last time we see each other, I want to tell you that you are the bravest hunter I've ever known. And I am very grateful to have had you working for us.”

I nodded. “This isn't goodbye, Commander. I promise you that.” I went to the teleporter, then stepped into it. Reality bent around me, and I found myself back on the command ship. Mai joined me, and after a second, so did Yen.

“We're on our own now,” my wife said. “let's go get this done.”

We went through the halls, looking for any sign of a guard or Gaul himself. We killed a lot of Cabal, but nobody seemed to be of much importance. I grew frustrated, where was he? He had to have known we were here. I didn't want to wait any longer. This ship had bad memories.

Finally, Yen called us over to a corner of a hallway he was peeking around. When I looked, we saw two very fancily-armored Cabal guarding a door.

“Those have got to be his guards,” he whispered. I nodded in agreement, then cloaked myself. I charged straight down the hall, then slammed one of the guards in the face with a grenade. The other got a few shots on me, but Yen took him down with a few of his own shots. I kicked their bodies a few times for good measure.

Mai looked at the door. “He's gotta be in there. This is it, guys. This determines who wins and who loses.”

The air felt heavy as I went over to the door. What if he did beat us? What if I died permanently? What would happen to the city? Civilization? Everyone I was fighting for? I couldn't think about that now. I needed to fight.

When the door opened, we realized that it didn't lead to another room. Instead, we looked out on the top deck. Gaul was standing on the other end, facing the Traveler. He didn't seem to notice us there, so I led us towards him. My fear grew into anger. This was the beast that had killed Rein and countless others. He was the one that had taken my home and months of my time to recover. My anger grew into rage.

“You fucking slut!”

He turned to face me. I pulled my helmet off so he could see just how pissed I was. Booming, cold laughter erupted from him as he saw who I was.

“You have lived. How inconvenient. I suppose I must kill you again, and your friends.”

From behind me, I heard Mai beg, “Please don't monologue, please don't monologue.”

“I have a really bad habit of living. Sucks for you, though, because I'm not here to say hi. You fucking killed my best friend. You ruined my city. You made me powerless and weak. Do you think you can just get away with that?”

He stepped towards me. “You couldn't defeat me before. You cannot defeat me now, I have the Light. I am Gaul, and I will become a god! I will be immortal, and show you how much power I will have!”

I laughed. “You think being a god can save you? I've fucking killed gods! I've killed things more powerful than you could ever hope to be! When the darkness sees me, it runs!”

“You are no more powerful than you were when I struck you down.”

“You're wrong,” I growled. “I've learned. I've learned what hope means. I've learned what it means to suffer, to know defeat. I've seen people come crawling out of the ashes and become greater than they were before. You might be Gaul, but I am Sara. And I'm here to fucking murder your bitch ass.”

He stepped back, and was suddenly surrounded in swirling Light. I put my helmet back on and drew my gun. I heard him yelling out, and the Light receded. He suddenly pulled out a flaming sword, and I saw him glow with solar energy.

“You will die!”

He lunged at me, and I dodged. Mai and Yen both fired rockets at him, but his focus was on me. He kept charging at me, and I did my best to stay just out of reach. Rocket after rocket hit him, but still he tried for me. I only fired enough to enrage him, and it seemed to be working. He constantly screamed at me, trying harder to defeat me.

“I WILL WIN!” His voice was furious. I jumped up onto a ledge above him and flung a grenade at his feet. He stumbled backwards, but then went back for me.

“If you will not fall so easily, then I will prove how powerless you are.”

He turned away from me. Instead, he went for Mai and Yen. They kept firing, trying to back up. Mai skirted around him, but Yen was cornered. He held his ground as Gaul was feet from him. My heart dropped as he was picked up, and Gaul turned to face me.

“You will watch. You lead another friend to their death, and you will see how you cannot save them.”

I froze as Gaul's grip loosened. This couldn't be happening again, I had to be hallucinating. Yen started to slide from his hand. I dropped to my knees. Faintly, I heard Mai call out for him.

But he didn't fall. As soon as he was out of Gaul's hand, his fists exploded in arc energy. He slammed the ground right at the leader's feet, and I saw energy explode over and over. It was stronger than I had ever seen it be, and Gaul fell to his knees. I got up and started walking towards him. Mai ran past me and fired volleys of rockets at him. By the time I approached him, he was weak. We could tell he was weak.

“No...no...” he cried out. “I...am...Gaul..”

I felt void light grow in my hands. “No,” I said coldly. “you are nothing.”

As I shot him in the head with the void bow, a light grew behind me. I turned to see what it was, and the Traveler broke free of its bonds. Light poured out of it. I felt stronger than ever. I turned back to Gaul.

“The Traveler chose us, and we will defend it.”

The last I saw of Gaul before he faded was a look of pure terror.

Months later, Mai and I met Zavala on the top of the newly-rebuilt tower. In the time since we drove the Red Legion out, we had rebuilt a good portion of the city. It wasn't back to where it had been, but it still was glorious.

As we went to the railing where he was at, I held Mai's hand. She smiled at me and gave my hand a small squeeze. We had been living in our new apartment, with bedroom windows facing the new skyline. We had been given first choice on living quarters, due to our service. It was bigger than my old one, partially due to Mai living with me all the time.

The commander turned to us once he knew we were there. He was smiling, something he'd been doing a lot of lately.

“One year ago, the Cabal attacked. They thought they would take our Light and defeat every last one of us. But we proved how determined we are. Thanks to you, we have our home back.”

I went to the railing and looked out over the city. “Is that why you invited us here? Remind us how awful the Cabal are?”

He stood next to me. “No. I feel like it hasn't been proper that I rewarded you on your wedding, so I wanted to present you with a gift.” He nodded to someone a bit away. When we turned to look, a civilian came over with a gold and white puppy. Mai covered her mouth with her hands and tears formed in her eyes.

“Commander...I...”

Zavala laughed. “He's from a litter back on the Farm, they say he's a Corgi. But Cayde said you had been wanting a pet of some sort since you started working the base. Since you're living here now, I see no reason for you not to have one.”

Mai held the puppy close. “Thank you, Commander. We...should go take him back home.”

I nodded. “Thank you as well, Zavala.” We headed down towards the elevator. Mai was smiling still, holding him close but comfortably.

“You're gonna have to name him,” I said.

She looked at me. “I know. I...wanted to name him Rein.”

I nodded. “Rein would love that.”

As I pressed the button for the elevator, my mind seemed at ease. After all the trauma we'd been through, we were finally safe.

[kristinsimmons]

Low Value Testing and Unmet Cascades

By ANISH KOKA, MD

Mr. Smith has a problem. 

He can’t see. 

Even this cardiologist knows why.  The not so subtle evidence lies in the cloudy lens in front of his pupils.  He is afflicted with cataracts that obstruct his vision to the point he can’t really do his job refurbishing antique furniture safely.  His other problem is that he hates doctors. He hasn’t had reason to see one for more than a decade.  He’s 68, takes no medications, smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, and is a master of one word answers. He’s in my office because he needs a medical evaluation prior to his cataract procedure. Someone needs to attest to medical safety. I’m it.

He just wants to get out of here.

His annoyance of being in the office is justified.  Cataract surgery is very low risk.  Unless he’s having an acute medical problem, there is little to do.  The problem is that in an age of high volume, super specialized care, the eye doctor can’t attest to this, and the anesthesiologists have little interest in finding out the morning of his procedure that Mr. Smith has been having more frequent episodes of chest pain over the last two weeks.  Perhaps the chest pain is just acid reflux, or maybe it’s because of a pulmonary embolism related to the tobacco induced lung malignancy no one knows about. It’s possible, and highly likely, Mr. Smith will survive his cataract surgery even if he has a pulmonary embolism.  Cataract surgery really is pretty low risk.

But the doctor’s ethos has never been to ‘clear a patient for a cataract’, it is to commit to the health of the patient.  Mr. Smith deserves the opportunity to receive good medical care that isn’t made threadbare just because of the cataract surgery on the horizon.

An ample body of literature has arisen on just what to do with Mr. Smith driven largely by the question of the yield of preoperative testing performed prior to low risk procedures.  The outcome of interest to researchers is the impact of preoperative medical testing on the safety of surgery.  But this outcome completely misses the point of a medical evaluation.  Of course there won’t be any evidence to make never events rarer.  It would be a lot more fun to do a chicken dance in front of Mr. Smith than spend time discussing smoking cessation, and I can guarantee that the randomized controlled trial with surgery safety as an outcome will show that the chicken dance is equivalent to actual medical care.

But never events in low risk scenarios are the perfect place to beat the low value testing drum.

Identifying ‘Low Value Testing’ is the holy grail of the health policy community because a more perfect health economy awaits the surgical excision of these warts from medical practice.

A recent paper now featured in a Washington Post OpEd attempts to use preoperative cataract evaluations to show us the ills of low value testing in a cohort study of 110,000 Medicare Fee-for-service beneficiaries.  Patients were 66 years or older without any known heart disease. 

Researchers compared patients who did receive an ECG preoperatively with those that didn’t.  They discovered that a small number, 11% (12,408) of patients, who had no prior cardiac disease received an ECG prior to a cataract surgery.  Of this group, 15% (1,978) had at least one test done in follow up.  Termed cascade testing, most of the follow up testing involved a cardiac imaging test of some sort, or a visit to a cardiac specialist.

The conclusion of the investigators is that : “Care cascades after preoperative EKG for cataract surgery are infrequent but costly. Policy and practice interventions to reduce low-value services and the cascades that follow could yield substantial savings.”

It’s an interesting conclusion that has been lapped up by a wide audience of head nodding tsktskers.  I say interesting primarily because the data comes from a large Medicare Claims database populated by physician entry of billing codes.  The claims database that this creates is used frequently by researchers as done here, but is plagued by limitations.

For instance, Mr. Smith’s complaint of chest pain during his preoperative visit should generate a chest pain code and a preoperative testing code.  The reality of practice is that the goal for physicians is to do the minimum amount of billing necessary to make life work, not to do the most accurate billing necessary.  If a physician or his staff did not happen to add a chest pain code to a pre-operative evaluation, a completely appropriate further test being done to evaluate his chest pain, would fall under the rubric of low value testing in this paper. 

This limitation would be easier to dismiss as insignificant if 80% of patients undergoing a preoperative cataract evaluation received an ECG.  But the number isn’t 80%.  It’s ~  10%.  What percent of patients had an ECG and an echocardiogram done because a loud murmur was heard? We simply don’t know.  So studies like this should tell us very little in a strong fashion.  But the agenda of some is to publicize research that highlights waste and excess, and so we have strong conclusions built on data that can’t possibly support it in a high impact blue chip journal used to influence policy makers. It wouldn’t matter so much if these papers stayed in the echo chambers of academia, but unfortunately, all that stands between this paper and Elizabeth Warren’s ‘evidence based’ website is a NewYorker deep dive and some publicity from the right kool-aid drinking journalists.

But even if we assume the data is actually robust, and that all or most of the cascade of testing is happening driven only by an untoward ECG, the conclusion being arrived at still misses the mark.

It should be a relief that only a small minority (10%) of elderly patients getting cataract surgery actually get an ECG. As the flow chart above shows, of  this small minority, 1717 (~90%) patients had tests, treatment or hospitalization related to a new diagnosis made of ischemic heart disease, structural heart disease, or an arrhythmia.  The prior limitations of billing codes used for these diagnoses apply.  We don’t know if meaningful heart disease is being found.  But carrying the researchers assumption of the veracity of the dataset forward, it would appear that a low yield test that costs Medicare $18 results in 13%  (1717/12,408) of the screened population being diagnosed with an important cardiac condition that a specialist thought important enough to initiate treatment.  That doesn’t sound like low value.

As mentioned above, pre-operative medical evaluations aren’t solely for the benefit of the surgeon.  The priority isn’t just what a patient needs to safely undergo a specific procedure, its to take care of the patient.  This is all muddled when it comes to cataract surgery, which is one of the very low risk procedures that is done today.  It is indeed the case, that unless a patient is in the throes of a heart attack, there is likely little medical optimization needed prior to these very low risk procedures.  But our mission is to keep patients from harm, not to ‘clear them for their cataract procedure’.  It is the case that the 55 year old gentleman who has been having progressive exertional dyspnea and a loud murmur at his pre-operative visit will survive his cataract surgery.  But this does not mean that the cardiac ultrasound that follows this test to diagnose the severity of his underlying valvular pathology is a wasted test. 

Also spare a moment for the anesthesiologists charged with taking care of these patients during these procedures.  They usually have never met the patient, and are asked to take medical responsibility of the patient.  It may help to know the patient you’re putting to sleep has right ventricular failure with severe pulmonary hypertension.  To say we don’t care because it only affects a small minority of patients, may be good population health, but it’s bad medicine.

But even If the data were to be believed, and that’s a big if because it rests on claims data, the cataract medical evaluation would seem to serve an important opportunity for screening an older population with no prior history of heart disease.  Almost 15% of this particular population screened were found to have important cardiac disease that both patients and their doctors want to know.  Doctors, patients and researchers may want to remind themselves that the biggest danger to the Medicare age population isn’t the incidentaloma, its death from cardiac disease, followed closely by death from cancer.

The real question to ask may be why it takes an evaluation prior to a cataract procedure to find this disease? Perhaps, like Mr. Smith, this represents a population that generally stays away from the medical community, unless ‘forced’ to.  Some of the analysis demonstrating that the screened population is older, sicker, and located in urban areas makes the cataract screening story a victory for medicine, making inroads in areas where it’s needed, rather than one of waste and excess.

But this isn’t the story social policy researchers hopeful for influence over government bureaucrats struggling to lower health care costs will tell. The monotonic message rings true in yet another paper from earlier in the year from the same brain trust published in the same journal based on a physician survey of cascade testing.  Physicians were asked about their personal experiences with cascade testing as a result of incidental findings.

The conclusion of the paper was unambiguous:

“The survey findings indicate that almost all respondents had experienced cascades after incidental findings that did not lead to clinically meaningful outcomes yet caused harm to patients and themselves. Policy makers and health care leaders should address cascades after incidental findings as part of efforts to improve health care value and reduce physician burnout.”

But it requires reading the paper to find that more than 70% of physicians surveyed reported that cascade testing resulted in “finding a clinically important and intervenable outcome” several times a year.  So while ~60% of those surveyed found that cascade testing often found nothing, more of those surveyed found something clinically important.  This describes the clinical practice of the generalist.  Most of the interactions with patients are benign affairs.  The majority of patients the primary care physician interacts with are healthy.  Some are not.  The art and practice of medicine is to find some balance between sending every patient for an MRI, and putting on a blindfold and noise cancelling headphones before entering a patient room. 

Mr. Smith got an ECG. It was normal. There were no further tests prior to his cataract surgery.  There was a cascade planned after his surgery. He’s following up for a high blood pressure, and was convinced to go for another potential cascade initiating event: the first blood work he’s had in 10 years. Hopefully the republic survives.

Anish Koka is a Cardiologist in Philadelphia.

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[hopefulfestivaltastemaker]

August 30, 2020

My weekly roundup of things I am looking at and working on. Topics include agroforestry, carbon sequestration, wildfires, climate solutions playing cards, vactrains, and two years of marriage.

Agroforestry

I got back to drafting a brief agroforestry section for Urban Cruise Ship.

The image under development is a summary of select studies on the yields of agroforestry systems. Specifically, the metric is the land equivalency ratio (LER), which is the ratio of how much land would be required to grow all crops on separate monocultures in the same climate, to how much is required for the intercropped agroforestry system. The LER metric can be applied to any kind of intercropping system, not just agroforestry, and also to agrivoltaics (mixture of crop and solar PV, which evidently also often has LER>1 but I haven’t looked at yet). An LER>1 means the intercropped saves land relative to monoculture. Most of the studies give an LER>1, with the median seeming to be somewhere between 1.5 and 2.0. While the list of studies in my chart is far from comprehensive--I already know of a few more that weren’t included--I think it is a representative sample.

Agroforestry also seems to be generally advantageous on soil health, nitrogen fixation, and erosion prevention, and a mixed bag on water consumption and runoff.

If agroforestry is so great, why are we not doing a whole lot more of it? I don’t have a firm answer, but my instinct from the last time I thought about the question seems to be confirmed by several sources: agroforestry is also more labor intensive and requires greater specialized knowledge to do right. This seems like the kind of problem for which extension programs were developed.

I might want to develop some tangible proposals, which would require a much deeper dive into the economics of agroforestry. But while the yield and other benefits are good, they are not dramatic in the way that yield gains from, say, greenhouse hydroponics or synthetic agriculture are, and I would probably want to focus my attention on where the biggest gains are. There is also the question of how big and how differentiated the agroforestry market potential is.

Carbon Sequestration and Forests

Continuing on with forestry topics, I also added a bit on the controversial and currently hot topic of carbon sequestration and forestry. There’s a lot to parse, but my read of the major recent studies is that there is a theoretical potential of about 200-600 billion tons of CO2-equivalent potential of carbon sequestration in the soil, with practical considerations no doubt putting the limit much lower. The theoretical limit is about 5-15 years of emissions at current rates. Busch et al. estimate that about 0.49 to 1.84 billion tons CO2e emissions could be negated each year through tropical reforestation as a carbon price ranges from $30 to $100/ton. That’s about 1% to 4% of annual emission. Nothing to sneeze at, but biotic carbon sequestration is hardly at the top of the list of most effective solutions. Kim et al. give a theoretical potential of 3.4 billion tons CO2e sequestration annually from agroforestry, though again a distinction is needed between theoretical potential and practical potential.

Wildfires

Speaking of hot topics, wildfires have been on my agenda for the forestry section, and the fact that I came up to it during the peak of ongoing California wildfires is a coincidence.

I was motivated in part by annoyance over the tendency of climate activists to seize upon the fires as a climate change talking point, when wildfire management is a complex and important issue that deserves to be treated on its own terms. Worldwide, it doesn’t seem that there is a clear trend toward more wildfires, but there is in certain hotspots, including California. Furthermore, it is indeed the case that evidence points to climate change as a driver of wildfire intensity and lengthening of fire season. This study says that over half the increase in aridity--a major driver of fires--in California can be attributed to climate change.

Fire suppression has been flagged by many researchers as a major contributing factor to the increase in wildfire intensity in the US West since the 1980s, and this seems to be a generally known and accepted fact among people who are familiar with the issue. For those unfamiliar, the basic idea is that suppression disrupts the normal ecological process of fire, causing forest biomass to accumulate and therefore increase fire risk in the future. I would be very interested in some good quantification, though. For instance, how does suppression compare to climate change in portion of observed trend explained? I would also like to know how much of a cost deferment can be identified from suppression practices. If we could put a number on how a suppression operation is going to impose costs in the future, then it should help make better decisions, especially if there is a way to incorporate that “fire debt” into the Forest Service’s budget.

Aside from cutting back on suppression, controlled burns and forest thinning--the removal of small trees and other excess biomass--can help reduce the risk. Some people argue on ecological grounds that fire is to be preferred to thinning as a better way of recycling nutrients and maintaining biodiversity. There is also ongoing suspicion (or maybe hope) that thinning is a back door for the timber industry.

There is also the issue of the wildland-urban interface, which is the fancy term for how much human development is exposed to wildfire risk. Since the Forest Service can be relied upon to attempt to defend property, there is a cost of WUI development that is externalized both to the private homeowner and to the city/state governments that make zoning decisions. I think it would be worthwhile to quantify and internalize this cost. Without endorsing all of the proposed solutions, this report goes deeper into WUI development issues.

If I were to pick one reading to recommend (which I am), it would be this one from FUSEE, an advocacy organization for an ecological approach to wildfire management. It goes into detail about the Forest Service’s practice and some interesting history. It’s from an advocacy organization, so I won’t vouch for the objectivity of the report, but it is a good education piece.

Climate Solutions Playing Cards

A whimsical idea: with a good illustrator, I would design and have printed a line of playing cards, each featuring a climate change solution and a line or two of text. If anyone is reading and wants to steal the idea, go right ahead.

I think I would go with the following solutions. For each rank, solutions are presented in the following order: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades, and generally in that order from the most established to the most speculative ideas. The ranks, from Ace to Two, are meant to capture my subjective estimate of the relative importance of the solutions. Aside from the Jokers, I would endorse each idea, though maybe with qualifications or in a limited way. Since there are only 54 cards, I can’t be comprehensive, so my apologies if your favorite solution is left out.

Two: Onshore Wind, Offshore Wind, Building-Integrated Wind, High Altitude Wind

Three: Agroforestry, Precision Agriculture, Hydroponics, Synthetic Meat

Four: Carbon Capture on Coal, Carbon Capture on Gas, Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Direct Air Capture

Five: Afforestation, Enhanced Weathering, Solar Radiation Management, Ocean Iron Fertilization

Six:  Recycling, Energy Efficient Buildings, Urban Density, District Heating and Cooling

Seven: Demand Response, Microgrids, Energy Storage, HVDC Supergrids

Eight: Hydropower, Biofuels, Geothermal, Ocean Energy

Nine: Electric Vehicles, Catenary Wire Trucks, High Speed Rail, Remote Work and Events

Ten: Low Carbon Steel, Low Carbon Cement, Industrial Ecology, Non-fossil Chemicals

Jack: Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Rooftop and Building-Integrated Solar, Space-Based Solar

Queen: Hydrogen Electrolysis, Clean Ammonia, Clean Methanol, Electrofuels

King: Generation III Nuclear, Small Modular Reactors, Generation IV Nuclear, Fusion

Ace: International Climate Agreements, Clean Energy Standards, Public R&D Investments, Carbon Pricing

Joker: Degrowth, Population Control

Trans-Planetary Subway Systems

I came across this paper this week from 1978, proposing a network of deep subway tunnels spanning the Earth and advanced tunneling methods. I have no idea how feasible the idea is, though clearly not much has happened in the 42 years since. Now there is the Boring Company, but I don’t think even Elon Musk is attempting “hypersonic projectile spallation, laser beam devices, and the ‘Subterrene’ heated tungsten probe that melts through igneous rocks”.

I’m all for ideas that are bold and attempt to build entirely new systems, as opposed to merely tweaking existing systems.

Two Years of Marriage

Today my wife and I celebrated our second anniversary. It is customary to use such occasions to talk about martial bliss and the beauty and perfection of it all, but the reality is that I didn’t know going into the marriage if I would be cut out for married life, and I still don’t know.

A person should go into marriage fully aware that it is hard work, that events are not going to go according to plan, and that one’s life priorities will be very different. The same conditions are true of having children, I would assume, though we haven’t gotten there yet.

Anyway, I’m glad we made it this far.