#good luck to all the participants!!! results will come out the next day voting is over (with voting for round 2 soon to follow)

[everhoodbracketpolls]

[dajaregambler]

AAside - Gyroaxia Band story - Chapter 4 (full)

Translation of Gyroaxia’s band story from the game ‘Argonavis from Bang Dream! AAside’.

This post contains all parts belonging to Chapter 4.

(Recommendation to read this along the ingame band story, since it’s all fully voiced!)

Part one - “Joint declaration”

-----At GYROAXIA’s sharehouse

Reon: Kenta-san, have you seen this?

Kenta: What?

Reon: How members of Fantôme Iris are dissing us, and that from there fans started to fight each other…

Miyuki: I saw it too. Like, how Fantôme’s comments started it all, although I’m suspicious if they actually did say that

Reon: I was thinking so too but….

Reon: On the contrary, our fans went out to get revenge after Fantôme’s live had ended…

Kenta: I’m aware of it. I had shrugged it off as baseless rumors that would disappear on their own soon.

Kenta: And then it turned out to be a bigger commotion than I had expected it to.

Miyuki: What’re we gonna do? Are we gonna leave it be or

Kenta: The leader of Fantôme shall be coming here tonight. I intend to discuss what we should do about it.

Miyuki: Haha, always first on the move ain’tcha now

Reon: It’d be good if it didn’t influence the voting for the starting live, but…. today they’ll be announcing the results, right

Kenta: What now, are you not confident?

Reon: That’s not….

Miyuki: Well, I’m not worried about our ranking, it just doesn’t feel too good thinking how these strange rumors still out there

Kenta: I’ll be taking care of it. Leave it up to me

Miyuki: Yeah, yeah. Please do so, Kenta-sensei

-

----A few hours later

Felix: ---Then, I shall be taking care of the draft for the statement. Could you verify it for me once I had sent it after returning home as soon as possible?

Kenta: I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll respond as soon as possible.

Felix: I could say the same. Ah… that reminds me, I had forgotten to mention something

Kenta: What may it be?

Felix: Congratulations on reaching first place at the starting live. It’s still an amazing accomplishment, even without the impact of the rumors.

Kenta: Thank you very much. However, I believe that you are not intending to leave things as they are now, right?

Felix: Why of course. We may have ended up last now, but one could say it was a mere warm up for next time.

Felix: It ought to not take long before we get tired of staring down on your backs.

Kenta: …..GYROAXIA will not lose.

Felix: I see… fufu. Now then, I suppose it’s time to---

(Door opening)

Nayuta: Any coffee

Nyankotarou: Nya~

Felix: Good evening, Nayuta. Pardon my intrustion. And hello to you too, you must be Nyankotarou

Nayuta: …..A guest, eh

Kenta: You seem to be well informed, to the point of knowing his cat’s name. 

Felix: Only because I have checked the official blog of your band. A fan ought to know this much, or am I wrong?

Kenta: Haha

Felix: Now, I shall be taking my leave. I would love to sit down and have a nice chat with you when possible, Nayuta

Nayuta: ………

Felix: À bientôt. And to you too, Nyankotarou

Nyankotarou: Nya~

-

Nayuta: …..What did you talk about

Kenta: I had consulted him about what we should do about these baseless rumors. Nothing that should concern you.

Nayuta: ‘Kay

Kenta: Ah, right there is coffee. I’ll go make some right now

Kenta: (Even though I’m doing everything I can to not distract Nayuta with any unnecessary trouble, it has to blow over as soon as it can.)

Kenta: (If... this would put an end to it, though...)

Part two - “Joint interview”

-----At an office

Miyuki: Soft and fluffy chairs, some way too delicious coffee…. at last, the kind of treatment we deserve

Nayuta: ….Oi, Sakaigawa

Miyuki: Mh? What’s up, Nayuta?

Nayuta: It’s time. Let’s leave

Miyuki: Eh? I mean sure it’s been a while since it was supposed to start but… wouldn’t it be good to wait for a bit at least!

Nayuta: Tch….

Miyuki: The management of the Fes had set this interview up for us too. Hold it out just for a bit, okay!

Miyuki: Handling advertising is also an important part for the Fes, didn’t Kenta say so too?

Nayuta: Where is he

Miyuki: He said he suddenly had a meeting to attend and is at the office now

Nayuta: ………

Miyuki: I’ll contact the person in charge too, c’mon sit down!

Interviewer: Excuse me. My sincerest apologies for being late!

Shu: So sorry for bein’ late. Was busy with school an’ all that 

Reiji: Forgive us for making you wait.

Miyuki: Eh? You guys are Epsi’s….

Nayuta: ….What’s the meaning of this

Miyuki: Wasn’t it supposed to be Nayuta’s interview today or...

Interview: Huh? Have we not informed you about it? That it’s a joint interview with the frontmen of the participating bands...

Shu: Aah, that’s ‘cuz I asked to not let ‘em know. Wanted to get a good scare outta ‘em!

Nayuta: ….We gotta leave

Miyuki: Heey hey now! This kinda interview isn’t too bad, is it! And it’s not like you speak a lot on your own to begin with!

Reiji: My deepest apologies for spoiling the mood. Ujigawa has a tendency to enjoy pulling suck pranks...

Shu: Aw c’mon, stop talkin’ as if I’m some lil’ kid

Interviewer: We are very sorry for the lack of communication on our part! I promise it will not take too long, so please….!

Nayuta: ………

-

Interviewer: ----Now then, could you tell us what you think of each other’s bands?

Nayuta: Got nothing

Shu: Eeeh, that’s makin’ me sad. I’mma big fan of Gyro! Nayuta-san’s vocals are a given, but the rest of the band---

Miyuki: Wonder if it’s okay for Nayuta to act like that….

Reiji: Isn’t it more exciting to have an interview with a feeling of tension in the air

Reiji: It’s quite interesting, like Asahi-san himself

Miyuki: Haha… A relief to hear that then

Reiji: ….Speaking of which, that secret live from the other day was exciting too wasn’t it

Reiji: Somehow to the point of Asahi-san collapsing from singing too much….

Miyuki: Hm, aah… that. Yeah, Nayuta just went a bit overboard with giving his all

Reiji: Is his physical condition stable?

Miyuki: All good, good! Not a big deal at all!

Reiji: Then that is fine…. The vocalist collapsing must be undeniably troublesome for the members too.

Miyuki: Well… honestly, what came after that was more troubling than him collapsing

Reiji: Had something happened?

Miyuki: Nah well, it was more silly if anything you know, like a whole coup d’état was being staged! 

Reiji: Coup d'état…. Haha, that does indeed sound quite funny.

Reiji: If you don’t mind, could you tell me more about it?

Part three - “Stand and talk”

Miyuki: ---And with that, the whole coup fell apart. And one way or the other we all got back together again.

Miyuki: See? Told you it was silly, right?

Reiji: ….It’s necessary for the surprise attack to land its mark, if one wants a coup to succeed.

Reiji: For that moment, you have to bow down to those in power and patiently await your turn to strike...

Miyuki: Uum… What’s that about?

Reiji: ….History that I had learned in class about.

Reiji: Either way, thank you very much for talking with me.

Reiji: We’re respectively having our own fair share of issues due the nature of our frontmen, however we shall be doing our best for the Fes going on forward.

Miyuki: Seriously mature for your age, aren’t you….

Nayuta: Let’s leave, Sakaigawa

Miyuki: Sorry, sorry. Got caught up in talking. So, how did that interview go? 

Nayuki: Dunno. You’ll see tomorrow when we get back

Shu: Nayuta-san, good work. Was plenty of fun to talk with you!

Reiji: Thank you for your time too, Sakaigawa-san. I wish you good luck at the live tommorrow.

Miyuki: Ah, hold on Nayuta! Sorry for this, we’ll sit down to talk again some other time

Reiji: ….How did it go with him?

Shu: Wasn’t fun at all. That mister wouldn’ react at all despite pushin’ his buttons

Shu: Anyway, you seem to have heard somethin’ interesting?

Reiji: Yes. Exactly the kind of thing you enjoy.

Reiji: I’ll go collect evidence from the livehouse and hospital at once. I’ll be able to have it done in a few hours.

-

-----At GYROAXIA’s sharehouse

Ryo: Ah, Miyuki-kun and Nayuta, welcome baaack

Kenta: Welcome back, good work today

Miyuki: Huh, you got back too?

Kenta: Yes, it was a simple meeting. More importantly, how did the interview go?

Miyuki: It was… the whole thing turned out different than expected. Nayuta had to do a joint interview with Epsi’s Ujigawa-kun

Kenta: With Ujigawa Shu.... Was there anything strange that happened? 

Miyuki: Nah? It went pretty smoothly, right Nayuta?

Nayuta: Don’t remember. Don’t care

Kenta: Then, that’s fine….

(Door opening)

Reon: Ah, Kenta-san! Did you check online!?

Kenta: What is it, have fans started arguing again?

Miyuki: We commented on it, shouldn’t it have calmed down?

Reon: Not that! Look, it’s about this!

Miyuki: Uuum… “GYROAXIA’s vocalist, Nayuta Asahi has been spotted at the hospital! Troubles arise regarding the continuation of the band”---- 

Ryo: “Which leads to tension between the band members! Are they on the verge of breaking up with LR Fes right around the corner!?”

Miyuki: ...What, what the hell!? Where did all of this come from?

Kenta: I had assumed the possibility about hospital-related rumors spreading but…. not that it would reach about the state of the band itself.

Reon: It’s strange right! And way too detailed! To the point of a coup being mentioned!

Nayuta: ….What’s the meaning of this?

Kenta: I can only think it was one of us that had leaked it. But, how…. doesn’t anyone here remember this?

Miyuki: Think about it, going out of your way to talk about th--

Reiji: If you don’t mind, could you tell me more about it?

Miyuki: ….Eh? Don’t tell me….him!?

Kenta: Is there something you know, Miyuki

Miyuki: ……..Shit! Sure did it this time!!

Part four - “Reiji’s strategy”

Miyuki: While… Nayuta was doing the interview, I had talked to Epsi’s drummer…

Kenta: The drummer…. Karasuma Reiji

Miyuki: But, we didn’t talk too long ago, and I didn’t say anything about Nayuta’s asthma either!?

Kenta: There was more than enough time to spread rumors online about it.

Reon: It’s about an illness, and with how he collapsed at a live, you can make up as much as you want about it….

Kenta: ….There were a lot of awful rumors about Epsi when they were in Kyoto. How they’ll do anything to crush whoever piques their interest, and the like

Kenta: Which makes me suspect that they’re the ones behind our trouble with Fantôme.

Ryo: Why…. why would they do such things?

Kenta: To cut down the amount of rivals for the Fes…. I wouldn’t know for any other reason why.

Reon: Still, to go like that about it… it’s way too foul!

Kenta: They’re still middle and highschool students, but have plenty of funds and human connections to make use of.

Kenta: An example of what happens when a child who doesn’t know any better becomes drunk on power, I suppose

Nayuta: ……….

Miyuki: Goddamnit….!!

Reon: What do we do? Make another statement?

Kenta: Compared to last time, these rumors aren’t completely baseless. Any wrong moves will increase our amount of problems….

Miyuki: I’m sorry, everyone…. All because I just can’t keep my mouth shut….

Kenta: Apologies are for later. We need to focus on what to do about this right now...

Nayuta: Ain’t gonna do a thing

Miyuki: ...Eh?

Nayuta: We’re gonna rehearse. Get ready

Reon: Is it really fine to just leave it at that!?

Nayuta: Don’t give enough of a fuck to play around with some shitty brat

Kenta: Still… will the fans agree to it?

Nayuta: As if I know

Reon: “As if��� you say….

Ryo: Then… wouldn’t it be better to admit to everything?

Miyuki: …..Eeeeh!?

Ryo: Let’s admit it at the beginning of the live. About Nayuta’s illness, and our coup d’état too

Kenta: …..Isn’t that asking to invite even more chaos?

Ryo: It’ll be all good!

Reon: How even

Ryo: ‘Cuz we’ll be doing a live right after it?

Ryo: Once our live starts, everyone’s worries will fly right out of the window and they’ll become happy!

Miyuki: What’s with that…

Kenta: ….I see

Reon: You’re agreeing with him!?

Kenta: Because… it might be a chance to demonstrate our power. Rumors and facts, GYROAXIA’s music will bring it all to the ground

Kenta: If it goes smoothly, we’d be back on track for the Fes...

Nayuta: ……..

Miyuki: Nayuta, I’m sorry…. It’s my fault that your fans came to know about your illness…..

Miyuki: But, it’s as Ryo and Kenta said… If it’s with you…. with our performance, everything will be blown away

Nayuta: Cut it out with the whining….

Reon: You’re so….!

Nayuta: I’m only gonna sing

Part five - “What about it?”

----At the livehouse

Gyro fan A: Hey, did you see it? Those rumors online. Like, “Gyro in a crisis of disbanding” and all… 

Gyro fan B: Isn’t that fake? And, Nayuta’s illness….

Gyro fan A: Yeah but… there’s also how Nayuta collapsed during the last song at this secret live the other day, right?

Gyro fan B: Yeah… and it does seem that the members often fight too….

Nayuta: …...Listen

Gyro fan A: Eh…. He’s gonna talk? Isn’t this unusual!?

Nayuta: Everything online, those shitty rumors--- All of it is true

Nayuta: I have a respiratory disease. There’s guys that started going on about quitting

Nayuta: But… what about it?

Nayuta: Even if I fall, I’ll sing. Even on my own, I’ll sing.

Nayuta: As long as I live

Nayuta: …...GYROAXIA

-

Reon: (All you had to say or what… still… it really fired up everyone!)

Miyuki: (Amazing, eh… that it wasn’t “us” either.)

Ryo: (Yeah, this feels nice… everyone looks happy)

Kenta: (Go, Nayuta…. crush them….!)

-

Gyro fan A: GYROOO!!!

Gyro fan B: NAYUTAAA!!

Gyro fan A: Hey, is that illness part true!? He’s still going at full power during the encore!!

Gyro fan B: The instrumental part was amazing too! No way that they’re breaking up!

Ryo: Aah, how nice… this kind of atmosphere… it’s very happy….

Reon: Haah..haah.. alright! The best performance…. yes… yes!!

Miyuki: Fuuh... for real, he’s some kinda monster... the fact that he pulled off a live beyond flawless

Kenta: You did it, Nayuta…. Alright, time to wrap it up

Nayuta: …….

Kenta: Nayuta….?

Nayuta: Oi… dunno if you’re here… some damned guy that has the nerve to pull some shit---

Nayuta: Whatever you wanna do, don’t drag me in it

Nayuta: That shit won’t crush my music

Nayuta: Still, you’re an eyesore. Don’t get in my way a second time. And if you wanna keep going...

Nayuta: I’ll destroy you… at the Fes battle

Miyuki: Haha… As if he’s some pro-wrestler

Reon: He.. was considerably angry

Kenta: Really? Isn’t that---

Ryo: Yeah, it’s the Nayuta that we know

-

Gyro fan A: That was so awesome! But… what Nayuta said at the end there...

Gyro fan B: “I’ll destroy you at the Fes”.... does this mean that a participating band spread rumors?

Gyro fan A: Seriously… that’s straight up awful

Reiji: ………

Reiji: (Failure, huh… No, they turned the tables around….)

Reiji: (There’s many other bands that aren’t this straight-forward… Well, whether it succeeds or not, either is fine.)

Reiji: (As long as Shu has been entertained)

[hatari-translations]

Matthías interview about the new constitution - translation

A couple of days ago Matthías was interviewed on Útvarp Saga, mainly about the new constitution - but he also unexpectedly confirms the new version of “Dansið eða deyið” is coming at the end! Full translation below.

HOST: We're talking about the new constitution and admiring the young people stepping up as well as those in the older demographic. We just spoke to lawyer Ósk Elvarsdóttir, and now I've got Matthís Tryggvi Haraldsson on the line, a musician better known as Hatari, don't we? He's from the band Hatari which was a hit last year and represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest. We've got him on the line, and he's traveling, as I understand it. Good afternoon, Matthías.

MATTHÍAS: Yes, good afternoon.

HOST: Greetings!

MATTHÍAS: You're right, I'm in Borgarnes. I got to sit in the car and talk to you while my girlfriend is getting groceries.

HOST: So you sent her in. Does she have a mask on and everything?

MATTHÍAS: Yeah, she's taking appropriate precautions, and is getting groceries for us. We've got a summerhouse near here, lucky enough to have access to that.

HOST: Oh, cozy!

MATTHÍAS: Now with the pandemic.

HOST: You've been part of this petitioning and activism for the new constitution. What made you - one perhaps thought a musician would just think about music, but now the new constitution is top of the list.

MATTHÍAS: Right, yeah. I am interested in music, but I'm also interested in relevant issues that touch us all, and really this referendum in 2012 was kind of my introduction to Icelandic democracy, the first time I voted. And I felt - as the years go by, I feel like my introduction to Icelandic democracy and participation in Icelandic society was to just be ignored, for eight years or so. That was kind of my experience of participating in this referendum. I was so optimistic when I showed up in 2012, and then the issue just kind of fizzles out for eight years. I'm really happy with people like Ósk, who you talked to earlier, and the Women's Society for the New Constitution. We've got some energy back in the discussion about this, which is great.

HOST: Yeah, the Constitution Society, they've been all over the place, Katrín Oddsdóttir and company, a lot of women, and everyone, men too.

MATTHÍAS: Yeah!

HOST: It's great to see it.

MATTHÍAS: Women and men, and it's also great to see the news yesterday about this poll, where 60% support a new constitution this term, and it's fun to look at the demographics. There's more women, and it's more the capital region, but it's still a majority everywhere. Women, men, capital, rural - more or less everywhere there's a majority in favor of changing the constitution.

HOST: Yes, exactly. Doesn't it also tell us that people are being stifled even if they don't always talk about it, that people are fed up with a lot of things we've been given, and finally get this chance to express their opinion?

MATTHÍAS: Definitely, without a doubt. And you can read the new constitution from that perspective - a lot of things in it are kind of an echo preventing - I guess I won't name examples because I'm not well-read enough or have a good enough memory to get into detail, but the feeling is that the new constitution has these failsafes for all kinds of things we've been bumping into in the past years. It forbids curtailing media freedom, and there's this eternal discussion on natural resources and that they should belong to the nation, and a bunch more that I'm probably forgetting, and they're kind of an echo of things that we've gone through as a nation since the 2012 referendum, and that were being discussed then.

HOST: That's been discussed a lot, of course, with the natural resources. There is this tendency to distribute the country's natural resources, and you're kind of insecure in who's going to be taking it all, aren't there any laws preventing that? We see it with land and with fishing quotas, with the quota ending up in the hands of a few people even though it should be owned by the nation.

MATTHÍAS: Yeah. It's kind of a buzzword, I feel, in parliament, speaking of the resources being owned by the nation, but then the feeling you get is that this isn't really enforced. The section on natural resources, the most popular section of the new constitution, or was in 2012, is being watered down in parliament, so that the phrasing loses its edge, and that's not what's being called for. The call for a new constitution was not a call for dull phrasing that doesn't really change anything. It's dangerous to fall into mediocrity. Then you might as well skip it.

HOST: Yeah, you're sharp on this, Matthías, I can see. What's the general zeitgeist around you? You must be around a lot of musicians and so on.

MATTHÍAS: Well, unfortunately I'm not really around a lot of people, as a result of this pest! But, well, I follow the zeitgeist on the internet and so on, and am in contact with friends and family, and you see there that there's a lot of enthusiasm for a new constitution. I think we had several thousand new signatures yesterday. They've been streaming in like a gas pump.

HOST: Right now, as we're talking, it's coming up on 36,000. You're most of the way there.

MATTHÍAS: Wow! Awesome! And these are confirmed signatures from voters - you're used to thinking of it as a proportion of the national population, which is 330... it's a proportion of something much smaller, it's voters, with the right to vote, and who have signed in with an Íslykill [a kind of national login system]. It's a huge number! I'm thrilled.

HOST: Yeah, it's these electronic signatures. And now they're helping people who can't sign in through the internet, and it's great women like Vilborg, who's helping, and another in Akureyri, Ásdís Árnadóttir.

MATTHÍAS: Yeah? Awesome!

HOST: People are just - you can't keep up with all these strong individuals helping everywhere.

MATTHÍAS: That's great.

HOST: But hey, Matthías, you have to tell me a bit about Hatari. Aren't you playing something or doing something with the music?

MATTHÍAS: Well, it hasn't been much, thanks to this virus. There was a brief window where we could have played a concert, this summer or whenever, but we were too late to use it, and then everything's locked down again. But we'll be at Iceland Airwaves, the music festival. It'll be a bit different this year, there'll be streamed concerts...

HOST: When is that?

MATTHÍAS: I don't know... I'm such a terrible media person for the band, not remembering this. But somehow you should be able to buy access to that concert. You should be able to look into it on the Iceland Airwaves website, presumably - it's going up next week.

HOST: So there's at least a bit going on.

MATTHÍAS: Sure, and there are ideas, long-term ideas, churning away, without spoiling anything.

HOST: That's fun! But still, I have to know, do you have some new song that we can hear before Christmas or anything?

MATTHÍAS: Well, hopefully before Christmas! There's a new song called "Dansið eða deyið", a song of revolution, perhaps appropriate for this petition. It's a song about uniting behind a cause, but of course in that Hatari presentation. The world it presents is pretty dark, as the nation heard in Eurovision.

HOST: It's a short path between life and death there. But that's nice, "Dansið eða deyið", the next thing coming from you, and then now the main thing is to sign the petition to push for the new constitution to be implemented. A message from Hatari.

MATTHÍAS: Definitely, and reminding parliament that they can't just ignore these things and water them down. It has to be taken seriously and you need to be decisive when it comes to the constitution.

HOST: That's exactly it. Matthías Tryggvi Haraldsson, Hatari. We're going to reexperience your song from Eurovision...

MATTHÍAS: Great!

HOST: Good luck with everything, and you keep up your voluntary quarantine in Borgarfjörður.

MATTHÍAS: Yup, thanks, I'll do that.

HOST: Thanks a lot, goodbye.

MATTHÍAS: Goodbye.

[greekletters]

it’s that time again..

Here’s the next one shot! Also posted to AO3 and FF.net for those who follow there. 

Prompt: Stop trying to cheer me up. 

It’s monos, as always.  ---------------------------

It had been nearly a week. The entire team had been walking on eggshells. All because of this stupid Dust Theory exam.

The exam that Weiss Schnee failed.

But it hadn't been one of those nearly there failures where you scored ten percent or less from a passing grade. No, it was one of the ones where your first answer determined whether you got the rest of the questions right. And Weiss got the first question wrong. So she ended up getting all the questions wrong.

After Goodwitch had returned the exams back to you, there was that moment of initial shock. The 'how could Ruby AND Yang score higher than Weiss?' kind of shock. You know, the one that no one has ever experienced before and probably will never again.

Once that had settled down, Weiss seemingly entered into some really odd form of a grieving process. What was she grieving for exactly? Who knows, at this point it might as well be your sanity. Because it was all downhill from there.

Of course there had been the obvious denial that she got the question wrong, that the exam was flawed. That somehow all of you but her managed to get the same answer, but hers was actually the correct one.

There were also some short lived attempts at trying to bargain with Goodwitch. All of which were futile. "The results are final, Miss Schnee." That was the response when she asked to retake the exam. Or when she offered to correct the exam and hand it back in for partial credit. "The results are final, Miss Schnee." Every. Single. Time.

And you had done your best to try and help her work through this. But she wanted no assistance getting over her loss.

"It's just one exam Weiss. It's not the end of the world. We have four more exams left in the semester. You have plenty of time to boost your grade."

"Blake, you have no idea what this does to my average! It will literally destroy my untarnished record."

"How terrible that must be." You cared that she was upset. You just thought her reasoning was a little ridiculous.

Striving for and expecting to achieve academic perfection was a little unreasonable of a goal to have. No one was perfect. Not even Weiss Schnee, although you would fight anyone that attempted to suggest otherwise.

"Do you understand how this looks?"

"Like you made one mistake, just like any of us could have just as easily made?"

"Not just that! I am a Schnee. I failed a Dust Theory exam. My family IS Dust Theory."

"So, you basically failed yourself twice?"

That was the absolute worst thing you could've possibly said. Because the onslaught of tears and boisterous sobbing that followed was heart wrenching.

From there, Weiss sank down into the gutter of depression. She barely ate anything. She slept all day when you all weren't in class. She didn't talk to any of you unless it was some mumble of yes, no, thank you or no thank you.

And you had to give Ruby and Yang credit. At first they respected her space. Ruby brought Weiss coffee every morning. Sometimes she drank it, sometimes not. She reminded Weiss to shower and take care of herself.

And Gods bless Yang. It took all she had to just be quiet. And she did it for a solid four days. She didn't bother Weiss at all. No puns. No shoulder bumps. No outrageous gestures of any kind.

And you, you just gave her space. Any attempt to ask if she was alright or needed anything was always met with a hushed "no" or "I'm fine."

But silence is temporary. Very temporary if Yang Xiao Long is nearby. So when the three of you are sitting at the lunch table together on the fifth day of The Silent Schnee, Yang finally breaks.

"I can't do it anymore."

"No one is making you eat vegetable soup. There were plenty of other options." You gesture towards the food line with your spoon before dipping it back into your own soup.

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Weiss."

"I agree." Ruby's participation pulls your attention from your soup and up to the table in front of you. "It's unnatural for me to have to remind Weiss to study and do her homework. It needs to stop. We have to do something."

"See? Helping Weiss wins, two to one. You're outvoted, Blake."

"I never voted. I'm abstaining. You two can do whatever you like. Just don't come crying to me when she freezes you to a wall, or sets your hair on fire." You grab your tray from the table and start to make your way to the trash to clean up after yourself.

"Oh come on Blake, you aren't going to help us at all?"

"Ruby is Weiss' partner. She should be able to handle it. And you, well, just good luck."

"I know I'm her teammate and combat partner but you're her…"

"Her what?" You look at Ruby, unamused by her not so subtle suggestion.

"What Ruby is trying to say is, you are Weiss' non combat partner."

"Ha. Well, since I'm non combative, I'll be in the library."

The days that followed were filled with over the top gestures of kindness, jokes, puns, tons of junk food and overall loudness. All of which seemed to do nothing but agitate a stoic and ever silent Weiss.

Honestly, it was annoying you. So you could only imagine what it was doing to Weiss. She had repeatedly asked that Yang lay off. And insisted that Ruby not bother. Then finally, one day when you were returning from the library late one evening, you hear it. The moment you knew would happen.

"Quit it Yang! Enough is enough." You can hear Weiss' voice echo down the entire hallway. "Let me go!"

"Nope. Sometimes you just need someone to hug you when you're sad! I'm not gonna let go until you say you aren't sad."

"I'm not sad, I'm FURIOUS!"

Ruby's voice cautiously fills the air.

"Maybe, Yang maybe you should just let her go?"

You can see the eyes of Nora and Jaune peeking through a sliver of a crack in the doorway of the room across the hall from your own. And you can hear what you are fairly sure is Pyrrha trying to pull them away, insisting they not be so nosy.

You roll your eyes to yourself as you slowly open the door to your room, trying to balance the books you have in your other arm as you push the door open.

When you step into the room you see what looks like the aftermath of a war. Stuff is everywhere, books on the floor, the curtains and corners of the bedposts look like they've briefly caught fire at some point, and there's coffee spilled all over the desk. You remain in the door way because you aren't really sure where to go.

"Stop trying to cheer me up!" Weiss yells as she squirms to get out of Yang's grasp.

"If I let you go, will you stop setting stuff on fire?"

"Fine!"

Any other time, you would've believed Weiss would honor her word. But as soon as Yang releases her from her bear hug, all you see are shards of ice heading directly for you from out of clouds of dust.

Without thinking, you use your semblance and end up landing halfway on a pile of books. Next thing you know, you scream out as you slip and fall to the ground. Reaching out for anything that can break your fall. Only finding the edge of an open dresser drawer, which follows you down to the ground. Which is where you lay, groaning in pain with multiple books underneath you, the ones you were carrying are now covering your body and the drawer you dislodged lays beside you, broken into three pieces.

"Oh Gods! Blake!" You hear Weiss call out as you close your eyes.

"Good job Snowflake! You killed my best friend."

"Are you okay, Blake?" Ruby calls out to you. And all you can do is give her a small thumbs up, not even bothering to open your eyes.

When you finally do open your eyes, you see Weiss kneeling down beside you, with Ruby and Yang standing over you, behind Weiss. There is a look of concern on the sisters' faces. But Weiss has her lips pursed together like she's, wait, is she laughing?

She grabs onto your hand and pulls it to her chest, leaning her head back as she continues laughing. Yang exchanges a worried glance with Ruby.

"I think you broke her, Blake."

"I think the only thing I broke is my back. Maybe my ribs. I can't tell. It all hurts." Weiss begins to pull the books off of you as she continues to giggle. Once you can sit upright, she stands up and offers you her hand and helps pull you from the floor to your feet. "I'm glad my clumsiness has provided the necessary humor to knock you out of your funk, but can you please help me get to the nurse's office?"

"Of course." She says, sliding her hand around to the other side of your waist to help support your weight.

"Do you want me to help? I can carry you."

"I think you've done more than enough helping today, Yang. You and Ruby have Grimm Studies homework that's due tomorrow and I know for a fact that neither of you have even started."

"Old Weiss has returned." Ruby says, throwing her fist into the air in victory.

"And the two of you can clean this mess up while we are gone too."

"Oh yeah, Weiss is definitely back to her old self. No fun." Yang mumbles as the two of you make your way down the hall towards the nurse's office.

"You don't have to help me walk, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? That fall was pretty bad."

You take an agile jump forward. Completely unharmed by your fall. The benefits of Aura.

"Blake Belladonna," she fakes a gasp, "were you faking it?"

"Maybe?" You give her a smirk. "But I got you to hold my hand."

"Look at you, ever so sneaky."

"I also have some good news for you." Your smirk turns into a full blown smile.

"And what would that be?"

"I talked Goodwitch into dropping our lowest test grade of the semester." You nudge your shoulder against hers.

"Are you serious? How?"

"It took me a while to convince her. I prepared a speech and demonstrated the benefits and how the alleviation of stress helps students perform better over the duration of the semester and some other stuff that I found while I researched in the library."

"You did research for me? How sweet."

"Well, you are Ruby's combat partner. But as Yang likes to say, you are my non combat partner."

"That's quite suggestive, though not inaccurate."

"I'm sorry that I said you failed yourself. It was thoughtless and I didn't intend to upset you."

"Thank you. Although I must admit, your apology is mostly unnecessary. If only for the fact that I grossly overreacted the past week. Being overdramatic doesn't suit me. Far too much work."

"So you think we can stop by the cafeteria on the way to the library, or is that far too much work too?"

"Absolutely not, I'm starving."

"I'm not really hungry, but I'd love something to drink."

"Coffee?" You roll your eyes, knowing she's just teasing.

"Tea."

[livesingaporetogelfuei213]

Where Realize Tennis In Singapore

There are a millions of people, who are working in the lottery game. Everyone is looking to get lottery tickets across the year. There are many places like shops and malls where tickets can often be purchased for lotto. The process for lottery is so simple that you simply need to get the ticket and pay because of it. You are also required to select a number and then go home and wait for results of the lottery. Once, you are selected, you need wait for the amount of money. It is the shortest way to make good money, if you're lucky enough.

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After a quick rest, we proceeded take pleasure in the various shows and malls the actual world hotel. Encounter was awesome with brilliant lighting and colorful exuberance emanating from all over. First World Plaza adjoining the resort boasts 500,000 sq feet of indoor theme region. The outdoor park is also quite large with some nerve-wracking as well as gentle rides. Parents with kids in tow from various countries could possibly be seen in both these park. We walked around enjoying the scenes as well a 4D show which was fantastic. Each walk around offered some sort of experience. The values of items were tiny on the higher end the actual KL. We checked right out of the hotel day after today around 11.30 am after a sumptuous breakfast which was part for this package. Meals ranged from Chinese and Indian to European.

The driver offered us a spread of going to Putrajaya about 25 km from KL by capturing a deviation. But we decided against it since there were to Helpful site check in at the airport by 12 pm. This city houses a involving administrative buildings of Malaysian Government. Finally we bid goodbye to Malaysia and boarded the air Asia flight to Kochi. We spend 5 days and 4 nights in Singapore followed by 3 days and 2 nights in Malaysia. Cost wise these destinations are great for Indian tourists eyeing a great holiday. The memories which we carried, I am sure will linger for next several years.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Pluralistic: 27 Mar 2020 (Mar-a-Lago Virus, plutes cash in on stimulus, postal voting vs USPS collapse, "civility" and the Confederate playbook, Bojo has covid, reasonable covid food-safety advice, SF cocktail delivery, flu pandemic photos, free hi-rez covid stock art, Warren campaign frees its software)

Today's links

The US is now the epicenter of the pandemic: Trump has murdered millions.

Plutes cash in on stimulus: $170B for real-estate tycoons.

States prep for postal voting: But the GOP has all but murdered the USPS.

"Civility" and the Confederate playbook: The right's call for "civility" has a long, dishonorable history.

Boris Johnson has coronavirus: He greenlit national pox-parties, now he has it.

Reasonable covid food-safety advice: Sanitize your hands and your cart, practice social distancing, and…you're done.

San Francisco cocktail delivery: Courtesy of the DNA Lounge.

Flu pandemic photos: Mask-slackers beware!

Free hi-rez covid stock art: Make your pandemic more visually varied.

Warren campaign frees its software: Free, open and universal campaigning tools.

This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

The US is now the epicenter of the pandemic (permalink)

The US is now the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, henceforth known as the Mar-a-Lago Virus. It has the highest number of infections of any country in the world.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

There have "only" been 1,000 US deaths so far. The "only" is there because there are so many more to come, when the vast number of incubating cases start manifesting symptoms and begin to die.

Trump wants the country to go back to work by Easter, because in his version of the Trolley Problem, the most important thing is saving the trolley.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/25/21193670/trump-easter-coronavirus-isolation-relax-rules-economy-social-distancing

We had so much warning. But the president said it wasn't anything to worry about.

Now, a lot of people are going to die.

Most of the dead will be old – from the demographic most likely to have voted for Trump (which isn't to imply that only Trump voters will die, or that they deserve to die – only that Trump chose to put his base at risk).

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/24/grandparents-optional-party/#turkey-shoot

Many will have contracted their infections by deliberately seeking out crowded public places as the pandemic started spreading, because Fox News told them that doing so was a way to own the libs.

Fox News viewers – who skew elderly, even by the standards of TV watchers – are also disproportionately at risk from coronavirus. Fox News is now a suicide cult.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/19/gb-whatsapp/#fox-cult

But so many people will die because of this. Old people. Young people. People with disabilities. People who just had very bad luck. Kids.

And that's before you get to all the people who have car wrecks or heart attacks or slip-and-falls and can't get treatment in overloaded hospitals.

When Hoover fucked up by giving in to plutes and crashed the economy, he got tent cities, or "Hoovervilles."

Trump's fuckup will end with mass graves. Trump Mausoleums? Mar-a-Plague-Pits?

We will get through this. But Trump will have murdered so many of us before it's over.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/26/21196267/coronavirus-usa-cases-covid-19-pandemic-china-number-positive-trump

Plutes cash in on stimulus (permalink)

The stimulus package that the GOP Senate passed has the largest-ever giveaway for real-estate plutes in US tax history: $170 billion in tax-cuts over 10 years for couples with more than $500K in annual capital gains.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/business/coronavirus-real-estate-investors-stimulus.html

The President who will sign the bill into law is a real-estate investor who stands to make a fortune from it. His inner circle is packed with similarly situated rentiers.

It's the second-biggest giveaway in the stimulus package, and it will also give windfalls to wealthy oil and gas investors.

The House is expected to vote on it today.

(Image: Rich Brooks, CC BY, modified)

States prep for postal voting (permalink)

States are scrambling to prepare for a postal ballot-based election next November.

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/03/23/states-begin-prep-for-mail-in-voting-in-presidential-election

Postal ballots tend to benefit Democrats, whose voters are disproportionately unable to get off work to vote, and who are more likely to live in regions where GOP statehouses have closed polling places, adding long drives and long queues for in-person voting.

That's why Red States often have state laws that prohibit unrestricted postal voting, insisting that voters must provide a "good reason" for their desire to exercise their franchise to a bureaucrat who gets to decide whether or not they can participate in elections.

Of course, if Trump throws hundreds of thousands – or millions – of (disproportionately GOP-voting) seniors into the coronavirus volcano to appease the market-gods, the survivors may be gunshy about voting in person, even if they continue as fully paid-up Trump cultists.

There are serious challenges to reorienting towards a largely postal election, including mobilizing printing resources during a lockdown.

But even more challenging is the post office itself, which is on the verge of collapse.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/23/coronavirus-postal-service-june-145683

The USPS is a miracle of self-funding resilience, a universal, small-d democratic institution that serves the whole nation. But its existence is a thorn in the side of shareholders UPS and Fedex, who donate lavishly to Congressjerks who fuck with the post office.

Requiring the post office to fund pension liabilities for workers who aren't born yet is transparent fuckery. Combine that with a sharp decline in mail usage during the lockdown and the service is now on the brink.

That would be bad news, and not just for elections. The USPS is key to America's emergency preparedness, and has been since the Cold War, when it was projected to serve as a survivor-counting/corpse-hauling service after nuclear armageddon.

It's the only institution that could deliver covid meds to every household in America in a single day.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/25/national-emergency-library/#going-postal

"Civility" and the Confederate playbook (permalink)

You may have heard conservatives insist that the reason they stick up for eugenicists and other cryptofascists is that they're standing up for "civility" against the "social justice mobs."

This rhetoric isn't new: it's literally the same thing that slavery apologists said in the runup to, and aftermath of, the Civil War: "we're not in favor of slavery, we're just opposed to the shaming and social exclusion of slavery advocates.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/29/conservatives-say-weve-abandoned-reason-civility-old-south-said-that-too/

When we learn about the antebellum slavery debate, we hear about slavery's defenders – but the mainstream debate over slavery wasn't about its merits, it was about the incivility of abolitionists, and how that compromised the free speech of enslavers.

Slavery advocates were cast as a disfavored minority, shouted down by mobs who refused to hear them out. But discrimination against slavers was a funny kind of discrimination: half the millionaires in America were slavers in a single southern town.

Likewise, the right-wing figures who today claim that they are censored and cast out by the intolerant left are millionaires who fill arenas and appear regularly on Fox News, the most popular cable network in America.

They publish books with Big Five publishers and go on multicity tours. They're courted by "progressive" news outlets as paid on-air commentators to provide "balance." If that's discrimination, sign me up.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, professed love of Black people, and claimed he was animated by anger at the suppression of honest debate on racial politics, unable to share "my thoughts or sentiments" about slavery in polite society.

Slavers cast anti-slavery rhetoric as "orthodoxy" and cast themselves as realists who were willing to speak truth to power.

Does that sound familiar?

The abolition movement – including Lincoln – focused on these slavery apologists, understanding that they provided the cover for the continuation of slavery.

Lincoln insisted that Douglas go beyond lamenting the angry rhetoric of abolitionists and instead describe what he stood for – beyond his support of slavers' right to "choose how they wanted to live."

He demanded that Douglas go beyond his campaign speeches against "mob rule" and state plainly whether he wanted an America with or without slavery.

In her Washington Post op-ed, Eve Fairbanks suggests that we do the same for the "reasonable right" – pin them down. Sure, you don't like "cancel culture," but what do you stand for? What kind of world do you want?

(Image: Anthony Crider, CC BY)

Boris Johnson has coronavirus (permalink)

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has coronavirus.

https://twitter.com/borisjohnson/status/1243496858095411200

Under Johnson's leadership, the UK pursued a month-long plan to turn the nation into a giant pox-party, hoping to attain quick "herd immunity."

He was following a promising strategy devised for less-lethal, less-contagious flus, which was manifestly unsuited to coronavirus, as experts argued at the time. As a result, infections now rage out of control in the UK.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/fnl0n6/im_a_critical_care_doctor_working_in_a_uk_high/#fla1iq6

During the planning of this "herd immunity" strategy, Johnson's chief advisor Dominic Cummings acknowledged that it would likely murder elderly people: "if that means some pensioners die, too bad."

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/24/grandparents-optional-party/#death-panels

After Johnson tested positive for coronavirus, Cummings was seen fleeing Number 10 Downing Street at a dead run.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/dominic-cummings-seen-running-no-114514496.html

(Image: Think London, CC-BY, modified)

Reasonable covid food-safety advice (permalink)

There's a viral (ugh) video going around in which an MD in scrubs (at home!) shows you what you should do when you come back from the grocery store. It's frankly terrifying. It's also wrong.

As Don Schaffner, a food microbiologist, notes in his thread, not only is this advice wrong, it could make you very sick — either because you ate the soap that you washed your food in, or because you left your groceries on your stoop for 3 days.

https://twitter.com/bugcounter/status/1243319180851580929

There's no evidence that washing your food with soap will kill coronavirus, and even less evidence that you can get the virus from eating. There is, however, millennias' worth of evidence that you can die from food poisoning.

Schaffner's advice for groceries boils down to: wash your hands before and after grocery shopping. Wipe down the cart handle. Shop efficiently. Keep your distance from other shoppers.

You know, common sense.

(Image: Lyza, CC BY-SA, modified)

San Francisco cocktail delivery (permalink)

Hey, San Francisco! Craving a cocktail? The DNA Lounge will deliver a mason jar's worth (~3 servings) of Black Manhattan (w/Slow and Low honey & orange infused rye), Sazerac, brown sugar margarita (w/a little orange) or lavender lemonade gin cooler.

https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2020/03/26.html

The DNA is a San Francisco institution, one that runs on a shoestring and is continuing to pay its employees, even as other SF venues (snapped up by predatory corporate behemoths) shut down.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/22/preppers-are-larpers/#help-dna

They've also got a bunch of livestream events coming up, including a benefit for the Gay Gaming Professionals, a Death Guild set, and Hubba Hubba Revue's Burlesquerpiece Theatre.

Flu pandemic photos (permalink)

During the 1918 flu pandemic, California went on lockdown. The governor ordered statewide shutdowns, and "mask slackers" who refused to wear masks faced arrest.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/flu/0030flu.0009.300/1

The California Sun has rounded up an amazing set of images of California life during the 1918 flu from libraries, museums, and other sources," in gorgeous hi-rez.

Free hi-rez covid stock art (permalink)

If this image seems familiar, that's because it's one of the only open-licensed images of the novel coronavirus, courtesy of the CDC. It's been used millions of times in just a few weeks.

https://tinyurl.com/u457y2d

An effects house called Covert has stepped in to fill the visual gap with a collection of gorgeous,crazy hi-rez covid renders: "No licensing, royalties or any credit is required for their use."

https://wearecovert.com/free-covid-19-animations-renders-images/

Warren campaign frees its software (permalink)

Elizabeth Warren's campaign has released seven of its sophisticated campaigning tools as free/open software.

https://medium.com/@teamwarren/open-source-tools-from-the-warren-for-president-tech-team-f1f27d2c7551

The Warren campaign had a large cohort of software developers and created a suite of outstanding tools, as well as making improvements to standard tools, including improvements to the texting tool Spoke that reduces the cost of using it by ~97%!

https://www.wired.com/story/elizabeth-warren-campaign-open-source-tech/

The projects are hosted on Github:

https://github.com/Elizabeth-Warren/

This isn't just an opportunity for campaigns, but also for small shops that provide integration and support to them. Obviously election campaigning is in a mess at the moment, but this is seismic.

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Nepali media crackdown thwarted by bloggers https://web.archive.org/web/20050328204722/http://insn.org/

#10yrsago LibDem MPs won't fight for debate on Digital Economy Bill https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2010/lib-dems-tories-and-labour-pledge-to-ram-disconnection-through

#5yrsago Top homeland security Congressjerk only just heard about crypto, and he doesn't like it https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150327/07312030462/congressional-rep-john-carter-discovers-encryption-worries-it-may-one-day-be-used-computers-to-protect-your-data.shtml

#5yrsago NSA-proof passwords https://theintercept.com/2015/03/26/passphrases-can-memorize-attackers-cant-guess/

#5yrsago Welfare encourages entrepreneurship https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/welfare-makes-america-more-entrepreneurial/388598/

#5yrsago Here's the TSA's stupid, secret list of behavioral terrorism tells https://theintercept.com/2015/03/27/revealed-tsas-closely-held-behavior-checklist-spot-terrorists/

#5yrsago San Francisco Sheriff's Deputy ring accused of pit-fighting inmates https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/S-F-jail-inmates-forced-to-fight-Adachi-says-6161221.php

#1yrago Elizabeth Warren's latest campaign plank is a national Right-to-Repair law for farm equipment https://medium.com/@teamwarren/leveling-the-playing-field-for-americas-family-farmers-823d1994f067

#1yrago Mystery solved: why has a beach in France been blighted by washed-up parts for toy Garfield phones for more than 30 years? https://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2019/03/27/l-affaire-des-echouages-de-telephones-garfield-en-bretagne-enfin-resolue_5442290_4832693.html

#1yrago McDonald's will drop opposition to increases in the federal minimum wage https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/26/mcdonalds-lobbying-minimum-wage-1238284

#1yrago Front-line programmers default to insecure practices unless they are instructed to do otherwise https://net.cs.uni-bonn.de/fileadmin/user_upload/naiakshi/Naiakshina_Password_Study.pdf

#1yrago Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez schools Republicans on the true costs and beneficiaries of the Green New Deal https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1110700996282343424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/), Slate Star Codex (https://slatestarcodex.com/), Kottke (https://kottke.org), Advertising Pics (https://advertisingpics.tumblr.com/), Fipi Lele.

Currently writing: I'm getting geared up to start work my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: Data – the new oil, or potential for a toxic oil spill? https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/23/data-the-new-oil-or-potential-for-a-toxic-oil-spill/

Upcoming appearances:

Quarantine Book Club, April 1, 3PM Pacific https://www.eventbrite.com/e/quarantine-book-club-cory-doctorow-tickets-100931360416

Museums and the Web, April 2, 12PM-3PM Pacific https://mw20.museweb.net/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commerically, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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When live gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

[snkpolls]

SnK S3E13 Poll Results (Anime Only Viewer Version)

The poll closed with 130 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note this is the anime only viewer version of the poll. Manga readers, please click here for the results of the manga reader poll!

RATE THE EPISODE 120 Responses

With only one person voting negatively about the episode, it’s safe to say that the hype is back up for the next arc of the series!

H Y P E

shinzou wo sasageyo!

RATE THE OP 118 Responses

Overall the new opening is well liked among viewers, although perhaps not everyone’s overall favorite. 

I know the OP teased the basement but I swear to Sina if Season 3 ends with them walking down to the basement or not revealing what was in there I’ll lose it. Like it could be fucking nothing in there and I’ll be (somewhat) okay, JUST GET TO THE DAMN BASEMENT!

RATE THE ED 117 Responses

Similarly to the new opening, the new ending is well liked enough, but doesn’t stand out as an overall favorite as a whole. 

WE GOT A FEW NEW SAWANO TRACKS. HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT THEM? 119 Responses

Overall viewers are hyped up for new tracks by the series’ composer Hiroyuki Sawano! A few feel they need to hear more of the new music to decide how they feel. 

godworks

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT? 118 Responses

The largest group of voters (at 33%) favored the scene which kick started the action-filled cliffhanger when Levi attacked an emerging Reiner on the wall. Followed behind that at nearly 20% was the Beast Titan appearing with a titan army around him. 10% of respondents loved so much of the episode it was hard for them to settle on just one scene to favor. 

ON A SCALE OF ARMIN TO ERWIN, HOW GOOD ARE YOU AT GIVING ORDERS? 118 Responses

The largest group of respondents fell somewhere in the middle between being timid about giving orders to feeling confident in what needs to be done. Although overall respondents lean more toward relating to Armin on this front.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO GO HORSEBACK SURFING? 117 Responses

Honestly, we didn’t expect a serious response to this question. But 32% of voters would be willing to give horse surfing a try, while 29% are in the “hard no” category on that one. 

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ANIMATION QUALITY IN PART TWO SO FAR? 119 Responses

Nearly 70% of voters are feeling good about the animation quality of the first episode (and we hope that WIT keeps it up). 27% fall somewhere in the middle - not great, but not awful. A small amount of respondents don’t think the animation is all that impressive. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE CG COLOSSAL TITAN IN THE OPENING? 119 Responses

The majority of respondents don’t care whether the Colossal Titan is in CGI or not. 19% are certain it’s the worst thing WIT could ever do with it, while 16% actually find the CGI effect pretty rad.

WHAT DO YOU THINK DIFFERENTIATES THE TITANS THAT CAN MOVE AROUND AT NIGHT? 115 Responses

61% of respondents, plus one write in, believe that these new types of titans are connected to the Beast Titan in some way or another. 20% feel that they are simply just a new type of titan that the Survey Corps had not discovered previously, and 14% believe that all titans have the ability to move around at night under the right conditions. 

Beast titan can summon these special titans

DO YOU THINK THERE ARE MORE ENEMIES OTHER THAN REINER, BERTOLT, AND THE BEAST TITAN? 117 Responses

The overwhelming majority are certain that there are more enemies involved in this battle than just the three we have seen so far. 6% are unsure about it, and even less are certain that we’ve seen every enemy that will be present. 

WHERE DO YOU THINK BERTOLT IS HIDING? 116 Responses

42% of voters believe that Bertolt is likely hiding in an object somewhere. 20% don’t want to say for certain where he may be. 19% feel confident that Bertolt is in another area of the walls like Reiner was. 

I think Bert is inside the backpack,ready to be thrown and to completly annhilate the scouts

HOW DID REINER SURVIVE LEVI’S ATTACK? 117 Responses

The majority of respondents are confident that Reiner used another titan ability, as Levi suggested, to avoid certain death. 20% believe he just got lucky and wasn’t hit in just the right places. 16% don’t want to say either way. 

WHERE DID ALL THE TITANS COME FROM? 113 Responses

37% of respondents believe that the titans fighting with the Beast Titan are additional forces from beyond the wall. 23% are unsure, while 15% feel that they are more victims from inside of the walled territory. 

SOME PEOPLE NOTICED A TITAN WITH A BACKPACK BEHIND THE BEAST TITAN. THOUGHTS? 115 Responses

At 42%, just under half of responses feel that this strange titan is another intelligent titan like the Beast Titan. 23% are just horrified and believe it’s nightmare fuel. 18% of respondents didn’t even catch this detail at all! 

Backpack Titan was called best girl several times by manga readers, so it's obvious who it is or what's inside it. The only logical character that is called best girl and is not here shinganshina.

WHO DO YOU THINK WILL HAVE THE UPPER HAND IN THIS BATTLE? 114 Responses

43% of voters feel that the Warriors and their titan army are going to have the upper hand in this fight, while 31% believe it will at least be an even match. With the least amount of votes, only 12% feel that the Survey Corps will have more of an advantage this time around. 

I think the Scouts are gonna suffer a fuckton on losses again.  The post credits scene in S3Ep12 is a disagreement over who will use that Titan Turning Serum.  Just a guess

WHO OF THE FOLLOWING, IF ANY, DO YOU THINK HAS A CHANCE OF DYING IN THIS BATTLE? 106 Responses

Erwin being down an arm has the majority of the fandom on edge about his potential fate in this battle. Falling closely behind is Marlowe, likely due to his minor character status. Bertolt is another popular option, with Reiner, Connie and Sasha falling closely behind him. A small 7.5% of optimistic voters are confident that this battle will not have any casualties at all.  

ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW QUICKLY THE WALL WAS SEALED BY EREN? 115 Responses

Just as Eren was, the majority of viewers were legitimately thrown off guard at how quickly and easily Eren was able to seal the hole in the wall. Perhaps we should listen to Mikasa and believe in Eren’s strength! 

HOW DID THE CLIFFHANGER MAKE YOU FEEL? 116 Responses

Unsurprisingly, the cliffhanger left viewers feeling hyped and excited for the arc to unfold! 11% were simply just pained that the episode was over and waiting for more. A small amount didn’t care much either way and one person could only scream at us:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE OR THEORIES ABOUT WHERE WE GO FROM HERE?

We know Eren ends up on a beach somehow, so whatever's inside the basement must be reeeally important to make our crew want to venture beyond the Walls afterwards. That or Eren gets kidnapped yet again, business as usual.

Thoughts// Levi is about to go fkn off

We go to the damn basement, then the ocean.

better and longer battle than battle of winterfell

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 109 Responses

We asked manga readers if they had any parting words or advice for the anime only viewers. Here’s what some of them had to say:

You're in the Endgame now.

Good luck make sure you have tissues

Avoid spoilers and don’t over think what others say, enjoy!

They're in for a wild ride, and I really hope they all come to appreciate this story as much as we do ♥

Baseball is an okay sport, I guess.

SUSUMEEEE!!!

Good Luck.

Do you have a glue? My heart condition is about to worsen

stay safe be strong drink water and sasageyo

Do your best to not get spoiled for this season and the future events. What should you do? Avoid using websites that has AOT (especially YouTube, don't check there)? Get yourself an another account for non-AOT related stuff? Whatever you do, don't get spoiled

just ignore it every time a manga reader says "you're not ready for this" because you are ready for this

How have you held back for so long?

Good fucking luck

Like Dead Pool says: everything will go sideways in the most collosal way. Enjoy while this ephimeral "easiness" lasts, because you will suffer. A. LOT.

You may be super stoked for the next episode, and want it all as quickly as possible. but remember, once the 10 episodes are over, they're over, you'll never be able to experience them for the first time again. Enjoy the time you have with the show, rather than getting frustrated over the weekly wait.

Good luck, have fun. It's gonna be a rollercoaster.

This isn't even as wild as it gets. The real Attack on Titan is about to start.

Who do you think the real enemy is?

Good luck. Be glad you will only need to wait a week for a conclusion to each new cliffhanger unlike the many months us ol' manga readers hadda endure.

Have a comfort item nearby

Good luck lmao

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in a few days!

[survivorhephaestus]

CAPTAIN’S LOG, DAY 06: Immunity Challenge #3

Come on in, astronauts.

Lovelace, get your first look at the new Minkowski team - Jay voted out at tonight’s Space Council.

Let’s get to today’s Immunity Challenge! This one will be, hopefully, short and sweet.

I’m sure that you’ve been learning a lot about each of your respective spaceships over the course of the last six days - where to find supplies, which rooms are safest, how to operate the various cranks and levers and mysterious buttons everywhere. Right? One of the things you might not have learned yet is that spaceships... well, they break. 

A lot.

There’s a lot of things around here that need to be maintained properly, and that can fall into disrepair over the course of just a couple hours. Tonight, as it turns out, you’re each facing this problem - some of the vital circuitry in your ship’s engine has been knocked out of place, and it’s your job to put it back together before everything comes apart!

And quickly, quickly - time is the key.

Tonight’s challenge is called Pass the Toolkit. In order to fix your broken engine parts, you’ll have to work as a team to get the job done by passing your repair equipment to one another. Consider it a relay race of sorts. One person will start with the wrench, and pass it to the next person in the line without dropping it; they’ll pass it to the next team member, and so on until it reaches the end of the line successfully. Then you’ll repeat the process with a screwdriver, and then a hammer to knock it all into place. Easy enough, right?

Except, oh yes, I did say time is key. The winner of this challenge will be the team that finishes in the shortest amount of time. It’s a race to the finish line, starting at 8:30 EST.

This challenge will be taking place in each of your team chats. Here’s an example of what the messages should look like:

Isabel: I pick up the wrench from the toolkit and hand it to Doug. Doug: I take the wrench from Isabel and hand it to Daniel. Daniel: I take the wrench from Doug and hand it to Alexander. Alexander: I take the wrench from Daniel and hand it to Alana. Alana: I take the wrench from Alexander and use it to fix the engine. Alana: I hand the wrench back to Alexander. Alexander: I take the wrench from Alana and hand it to Daniel. Daniel: I take the wrench from Alexander and hand it to Doug. Doug: I take the wrench from Daniel and hand it to Isabel. Isabel: I take the wrench from Doug and put it back in the toolkit.

Your messages must use the exact phrases above and the correct names of who you’re taking the tool from and handing it to. No editing or deleting messages is allowed, and no messages unrelated to the challenge while it’s happening, please. If someone messes up, you must start over from the beginning with the tool you’re on (i.e. if you’ve completed the wrench but mess up on the screwdriver, you’ll start over by picking up the screwdriver from the toolkit). Once you’ve made it to the last round, you have to fix the engine and then return the hammer to the toolkit in order to complete the challenge.

That is, your last message will be something like:

Isabel: I take the hammer from Doug and put it back in the toolkit.

Once you think you’ve finished, let Ari know (if they don’t immediately verify you) and they’ll check your work as soon as possible. The team that finishes first will win immunity, while the other team will have a date at Space Council. (If neither team makes it through the whole challenge before the deadline, whoever has gotten the furthest will win.)

Sound good? Please make sure you read this post in full and have an understanding of the challenge before you begin. When you’re ready to start, send the first message (picking up the wrench) in your team chat.

Lovelace, you’ll need to choose two sit-outs before you can begin. The rest of you must participate - everyone needs to be included in the line of relay - but the order in which you post is up to you, it just needs to remain consistent.

This challenge is due at 8PM EST tomorrow, February 24th, but results will be posted immediately as soon as a winner is determined. Good luck!

[survivorozarks]

Day 17- Individual Immunity Challenge #1 Results

Alright y’all, welcome back! Thank you to everyone for submitting all of your lists early! Let’s take a look at the crazy lists and the breakdown of what happened!

Well, congratulations to Gabe and Derek for coming out on top! You both have won immunity and have guaranteed your spots in the final 10!

Not only was this challenge a fun way to force you all to connect, but if you really take the time to analyze this list you may find some insights that will help you in tomorrow night’s tribal council!

Tomorrow’s tribal is not only important because it is the first tribal as a new La Croix tribe, but the person voted out will also hold major power that will affect the next round of our game! Though being on tribal is obviously optional, we HIGHLY ENCOURAGE that all of you are online to participate because you will not want to miss seeing what this power is!

Your votes are due tomorrow, April 2nd at 8PM EST! Good luck!

[android-for-life]

"The 2020 Doodle for Google national finalists are here"

When we opened the Doodle for Google contest in January of this year, we couldn’t wait to see all of the fantastic doodles that students across the country would submit for our 2020 theme “I Show Kindness By...”. We received tens of thousands of submissions from students in all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Today, it's so important to show kindness and compassion, and this year's contestants shared the multitude of ways they demonstrate empathy in their communities. 

After carefully reviewing all of the submissions, we announced our 54 state winnersand opened up public voting on our website. And today we are happy to share that the votes are in and the judges have deliberated. We’re ready to announce our five national finalists for the 2020 Doodle for Google contest! 

Our finalists were chosen based on a combination of our judging criteria (which includes artistic merit, creativity and how well participants communicated the theme in their artwork and written statement), as well as the results of public voting. Each of these artists truly committed to spreading a unique and powerful message of kindness,  so let’s meet our finalists:

K-3 National Finalist: MacKenna Hughes Honolulu, Hawaii

Title: I show kindness by picking up trash & microplastics on the beach Artist Statement: “In my artwork, I repurposed trash that I collected from my favorite beach. Animals eat these microplastics and they can kill them or make them very sick.”

4-5 National Finalist: Sharon Sara Frisco, Texas

Title: Together As One Artist Statement: “I show kindness by sticking together with my friends in tough times. I drew people coming together and not thinking about the outside but being together because of their personality.”

6-7 National Finalist: Yewon Lee Fort Lee, New Jersey

Title: We're All Neighbors Artist Statement: “I show kindness by treating all different kinds of people as my neighbor.”

8-9 National Finalist: Gwenith Madhan Tulsa, Oklahoma

Title: Kindness & Captions Artist Statement: “I show kindness by...not engaging in negativity on social media, and instead focusing on using positive, kind words to lift people up and add a smile to their face everyday.”

10-12 National Finalist: Morrah Burton-Edwards  New Orleans, Louisiana

Title: Love Made Visible Artist Statement:  “Kindness is love made visible, so I show kindness by showing my family I love them. But also, when I show strangers and others that I care about them even when they are unkind to themselves is me being kind. A simple act of kindness like a hug can light up someone's day. But most importantly, I show kindness by loving those even when they are unkind to me. That is the most important time to be kind and the most difficult, but those people need kindness the most.”

Congratulations again to MacKenna, Sharon, Yewon, Gwenith and Morrah! As National Finalists, our student winners will receive a $5,000 college scholarship, Google hardware for the school year and some fun Googley swag. Check out their artwork, along with all 54 of the state winners on our website gallery. 

In the next and final stage of the contest, our judging panel will determine which of our five national finalists will be chosen as the national contest winner. The winner’s artwork will be featured on Google’s homepage for 24 hours, they’ll receive a $30,000 scholarship and a $50,000 technology package for their school. 

Good luck to our national finalists, and stay tuned to find out who our 2020 contest winner is!

Source : The Official Google Blog via Source information

[shandragdotson]

Samurai September: Welcome To Your Financial Cheat Month

After gaining 12 lbs during my freshman year in college, I had to spend $35 to buy a pair of new jeans. $35 might not sound like a lot to you, but it was a lot to me at the time because I only made $4/hour working at McDonald’s.

Wasting 10 hours of my life because I couldn’t resist the buffet line pissed me off. So of course I did a lot of dieting research and discovered the magic bullet to weight loss: eat less.

With such simple logic, I decided to keep track of what I ate and slowed my food intake as I approached 2,000 calories. I also educated myself about world hunger. Knowing there are over 700 million malnourished people in the world became harder to stuff my face.

By the middle of sophomore year, I was back down to my fighting weight of 160 lbs. Given I’m not an infallible machine, I’d have a cheat day once a week. This release day has helped keep my pant size the same for the last 22 years. Although I admit, old jeans are getting very snug nowadays!

Samurai September: Your Financial Cheat Month

If you’ve been following Financial Samurai since 2009, you’ve seen your net worth surge higher because you’ve been focusing on saving and investing as much money as possible. The S&P 500 is at a record high and most real estate markets around the world are also at record highs.

While many people were spending big bucks on cars, clothes, and other things they didn’t need, you’ve been feeding your investments like a hungry hippo and watching your returns compound like a champ.

Heavy spenders missed out on one of the biggest recoveries in history. As a result, they are stuck in the muck, while you’ve come that much closer to financial freedom, if you’re not there already.

Since many of you have done so well since the financial crisis, I’d like to propose a brief respite from your financial ways. At the rate you’re going, you will die with way too much money, or you might simply burn out. It’s time to course correct a bit and spend more than usual.

Let’s not let all those people who take on massive credit card debt to fund their fabulous lifestyles have all the fun!

Samurai September Challenge Rules

The Samurai September Challenge simply encourages you to spend more than you usually do on yourself and the people you care about for one month, once a year.

Samurai September is a challenge because after years of practicing good financial habits, it’s hard as hell to spend up. Samurai September is also a challenge because in order to participate, you must meet at least five of the following conditions:

1) Grown your net worth by at least 100% in five years

2) Read Financial Samurai for three years or longer

3) Saved at least 20% of your after-tax income for five years or more

4) Tracked your net worth every month for at least 12 quarters

5) Own your primary residence for at least three years

6) Have a side hustle that earns at least $100 a month for at least two years

7) Worked on building an after-tax passive income portfolio for at least five years

8) Spent no more than 1/10th your gross income on your current car

9) Have a net worth of at least $250,000

10) Maxed out your 401(k) for at least five years

11) Maxed out your IRA for at least 10 years

12) Haven’t blamed anybody for your failures for at least three years

13) Got a graduate degree part-time while working full-time

14) Spent at least 20 hours a year volunteering

15) Donated at least $1,000 to charity for at least five years

16) Negotiated a severance instead of quitting

17) Did not vote on a law to raise taxes on others without paying more yourself

If you’ve met at least five of these conditions, congratulations! You are now free to spend more money for one month. If you haven’t met at least five conditions, better luck next year.

To those eligible for the Samurai September Challenge, here are some guidelines for how much more you can spend in Samurai September compared to usual. The goal is to reward your performance and enjoy life a little more.

Net Worth Growth Condition

Boost spending for one month by 5% if you have increased your net worth by 100% over the past five years.

Boost spending for one month by 10% if you have increased your net worth by 200% over the past five years.

Boost spending for one month by 20% if you have increased your net worth by 300% over the past five years.

Boost spending for one month by 50% if you have increased your net worth by 400% or more over the past five years.

For example, if you increased your net worth from $200,000 to $600,000 since 2010, you can now spend $500 more this month on whatever you want if your normal monthly spending is $5,000. But if you increased your net worth from $200,000 to $1,000,000 since 2010, then you’re free to increase your spending by 50% to $7,500 in Samurai September.

Savings / Investing Condition

If you have been saving and investing at least 20% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 5% in Samurai September.

If you have been saving and investing at least 30% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 10% in Samurai September.

If you have been saving and investing at least 40% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 20% in Samurai September.

If you have been saving and investing at least 50% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 50% in Samurai September.

For example, if you have been maintaining a 50% after-tax savings rate every year for five years and have plowed a majority of it into the stock market, you are free to raise your monthly spending from $10,000 to $15,000.

Home Ownership Condition

If you’ve owned a primary residence for two years, you can increase your spending by 5% in Samurai September.

If you’ve owned a primary residence for three years, you can increase your spending by 10% in Samurai September.

If you’ve owned a primary residence for four years, you can increase your spending by 20% in Samurai September.

If you bought a primary residence between 2010 – 2012, you can increase your spending by 50% in Samurai September because you bottom-ticked it baby!

If you’ve been renting since 2010 when you could have bought, then you need to go run a marathon and think about what went wrong.

Car Ownership Condition

If you purchased a car for up to 30% of your gross annual income, you can buy yourself a cookie.

If you purchased a car for up to 20% of your gross annual income, you can increase your spending by 10% in Samurai September.

If you purchased a car for up to 10% of your gross annual income, you can increase your spending by 20% in Samurai September.

If you don’t own a car and use public transportation and the occasional rideshare, you can also increase your spending by 20%, provided that you’ve also increased your net worth by 100% over the past five years.

Depreciation Chart

Starting Your Own Side Hustle / Business

If you started a side hustle this year, you can treat yourself to a nice business expense dinner.

If you started an online business last year and stuck with it, you can spend 10% more in Samurai September.

If you started an online business two years or more years ago and stuck with it, you can spend 20% more in Samurai September.

If you’ve had a side job after normal work hours for a year, you can spend 10% more in Samurai September. With Fivver, Upwork, Craigslist, Task Rabbit, WordPress, Uber, and Lyft, it’s easy to make extra income if you want to.

I firmly believe that anybody who sticks with their online business or side hustle for at least two years will see meaningful financial reward. You will learn from your failures, build your endurance, and find your “lucky” break.

Boosting Spending With A Combination

The above items are not mutually exclusive. If you increased your net worth by 200% since 2010 (+10% spending boost), consistently saved 20% of your after-tax income since 2010 (+5%), bought a primary residence in 2013 (+20%), purchased a car that cost 20% of your gross annual income (+10%), and started a side hustle in 2015 (+20%), you are free to increase your spending percentage by 65% in Samurai September or until you spend 100% of your after-tax income, whichever comes first.

You are encouraged not to spend more than 100% of your after-tax income during Samurai September because then you might turn into the average American who lacks impulse control and gets easily triggered by other people’s opinions. Seriously folks. It’s important we never relapse!

Moderation is key.

The typical American is doomed to financial misery with a median retirement balance of less than $100,000.

Excessive spending is one of the reasons why roughly 41% of Americans can’t come up with $400 in an emergency according to the Federal Reserve. I can’t fathom this to be true for the Financial Samurai community.

Have Fun, Don’t Get Carried Away

September is the chance for you to buy or do those things you’ve been putting off because you’re overly frugal. Use this month to have fun! And if you can’t stand spending more on yourself, you can always spend more on other people in need.

Here are some small and large things I plan to spend money on this September:

* New boxes of daily contacts for $200. I’ve been reusing my daily contacts to save money for years. Now I plan to use a fresh pair even if I just use them for several hours playing tennis.

* Flights for parents and in-laws for $1,000. Given I don’t want to travel on a plane with our boy until he’s at least three, I’m happy to pay for my parents and in-laws to come visit us.

* Supreme unleaded fuel for $10. I drive around 150 miles a month. My vehicle gets about 20 miles a gallon. Hence, I’m willing to see if using supreme fuel makes a lick of difference. It probably doesn’t, but who cares. It’s only $10.

* Toro sashimi for $200. Tuna belly tastes so good, but paying $10+ per slice feels like highway robbery when I can get a filling In N’ Out cheeseburger for $2. But gosh darn it, one evening I’m gonna eat to my belly’s content.

* Tinted windows in the house for $1,400. It turns out having magnificent western-facing ocean views has some downside: heat and glare. Although the new windows I installed in 2015 have some tint, I’d like to have more. It was a scorcher last Fall.

* New jogging pants with zippers for $130. Nowadays, I just like to wear athletic gear. But I need pants that have zipper pockets. Otherwise, my wallet will end up falling out, and that would be a disaster.

* Two couple massages for $400. Massages are the best, especially if you work out a lot or play sports. I have an app on demand that sends the masseuse with massage table to our house for $99 / hour, including tip.

* New air conditioning units for my parents in Hawaii for $8,000. My dad told me several of the AC units in their house died due to geckos getting stuck in the units. Ouch, this is a big expense.

* Take four personal days to save my sanity: priceless. Recently, I’ve had too many 6am – 1am days due to my writing schedule, reader and business requests, and fatherly duties. Fall is the time to take it easy since San Francisco weather is so good and the kids are back in school.

Total cash outlay: $11,439, $9,000 of which is going to my parents and in-laws. Hmm, I think I need to come up with more things to spend on my family! Any ideas? The only thing I really want are more good experiences. This challenge to spend more money than normal is going to be harder than I thought.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Related posts:

Practice Taking Profits To Pay For A Better Life

The Ideal Withdrawal Rate In Retirement Touches No Principal

Readers, are you ready to join the Samurai September Challenge? With the stock market and real estate market making us so rich since the last recession, how do you ensure your consumption level is appropriate to your situation and you do not die with too much?

The post Samurai September: Welcome To Your Financial Cheat Month appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/samurai-september-your-financial-cheat-month/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[miketendo-64]

It is one of those days where the news just keeps coming and with so much Fire Emblem Heroes content making its way online, it’s getting a little hard to keep track of it all, so here’s us simplifying it all and sticking all of today’s news into one post!

  Fire Emblem Heroes’ Hero Fest Event:

First and foremost, Fire Emblem Heroes was on the receiving end of some new content today, thanks to the addition of a new Focus Banner and yes it is a special banner indeed. Why? Well it is comprised of some fantastic Heroes (Hector, Takumi, Azura and Ryoma), but also, the starting appearance rate for the 5★ Summoning Focus is a whopping 5% compared to the usual 3%. Not only that, but as well as the new banner, there is a full on Hero Fest event as well, which will see players reward with 2 Orbs a day for every day they log in during the entire duration of the event (runs from today until 08:59 CEST on the 8th of May.) Also there is a Double SP event in parallel, so also during the Hero Fest event, players can expect to earn twice as much SP and that is where the first part of today’s content ends.

Fire Emblem Heroes’ Livestream Video:

So onto the next bit and it concerns the Fire Emblem Heroes livestream (called FEH Channel) we reported on the other day. The stream has aired on YouTube and as expected, it revealed a whole ton of details to get us all more so excited about the app, but it is all in Japanese so while we are sharing the actual video beneath this paragraph, we will also be sharing details taken from a superb English summarisation that was shared on YouTube. So if your Japanese is not up to par, the written summary is something you’ll want to check out: 

Grand Hero Xander:

Although the “just this day revealed” Hero Fest did feature in the livestream, having already covered in this very article, we will not be talking about what was said, and therefore instead focus on the upcoming Grand Hero Battle. As previously disclosed, the next Grand Hero Battle will be against Xander from Fire Emblem Fates and he is armed with Siegfried, which allows him to counterattack at any range, just like Hector. Xander can also learn the skills Armoured Spur Defense and Blazing Light and that the Grand Hero Battle will begin on the 2nd of May for Europe and Japan. A photo of his allies can be found below:

Battle of the Mages:

Just in case a Grand Hero Battle isn’t enough to keep us satisfied, a new Voting Gauntlet is on its way and this time it is the battle of the Mages, as Linde, Sanaki, Tharja and Julia are going head to head against Robin, Henry, Merric and Leo. Only don’t go expect your usual Voting Gauntlets as the mechanics have been changed somewhat to help out struggling players. If players are on the losing team, which has been behind on points for an hour, players score after a successful battle will be tripled. It feels like an unnecessary tweak, but it is certainly one that will affect results.

Permadeath is Coming:

Permadeath is a huge part of the Fire Emblem series. For some it is the very reason they enjoy the games so much and for others, it’s the bane of their existence, but it is coming to Fire Emblem Heroes and it comes in an interesting way!

Players will be able to create multiple teams from their Hero roster, whom they would then use in a series of consecutive battles and just as soon as one team dies players will move onto the next one and just in case you’re wondering who exactly it is you’ll be going up against, it is the Heroes antagonist herself, Princess Veronica!

As tough as the whole thing will be though, the rewards are bound to be worth it, as it seems a 5★ Masked Lucina could be among the rewards we can expect should we prove successful and yes, this event will have a scoring system of its own.

Other Changes we Can Expect Implemented:

As well as everything above, other changes are also on their way as special maps are also inbound and that these maps will also be available in the Arena and they will have a special feature as well, as they will have terrain effects and if you need an example, we’ve got one. When a Hero is stood on a “Fortress Square,” they will actually sustain less damage.

Omikuji:

Remember the Choose Your Legends event we had before the release of Fire Emblem Heroes? It was hosted on the Fire Emblem Heroes events site  and now a new event has gone live and it is called Omikuji. (Fortune Telling.)

The entire text for the event on the event page is in Japanese, but everyone can take part and by clicking on the red button, participants can get their future “told,” which is represented by one of the characters from the game.

Your fortune could reveal Bad Luck, Good Luck and even Supreme Luck and there is a reason to participate as there are rewards if certain goals are met. (500,000 rolls means 2 Orbs for every participant. 1,000,000 rolls results in 3 Orbs and 2,000,000 gets us 5 Orbs, but that’s not all. Depending on how many “Great Luck” rolls participants get, as long as 100,000 are obtained, everyone gets 500 Hero Feathers. 1500 for 300,000 Great rolls and 3000 Hero Feathers for 600,000.)

Lastly, different characters are set to appear during the event, as a different colour will appear every day. (Today and on the 2nd of May, Red Heroes will appear. Blue Heroes will appear on the 3rd of May and Tomorrow, whereas Green will appear on the 30th of April and the 4th of May. Colorless Heroes are set to make an appearance of their own on the 1st and 5th of May and on the 6th and 7th a gold Orb will be shown.) It is not known what the Gold Orb represents, but an answer should come soon enough, but until it does, the common assumption is that it just means random characters from all colours will appear.

  And just like that, we have at long last come to the end of today’s length Fire Emblem Heroes coverage. We hope you enjoyed it and will see you the next time we do this!

  Source: Fire Emblem Heroes (Mobile app), reddit & Nintendo Mobile (YouTube)

Everything #FireEmblem Heroes! Hero Fest, #FEHeroes Livestream Reveals & Much, much More It is one of those days where the news just keeps coming and with so much…

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Good news for the housing market, at least for now (Bloomberg) Armed with the lowest mortgage rates in history, Americans are feeding a suburban buying frenzy, one driven by urban exiles hunting for space to quarantine in comfort, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. The effort however is being helped by policymakers who have temporarily frozen foreclosures, cut borrowing costs and flooded the economy with bailout cash.

US faces opposition to demand to ‘snap back’ Iran sanctions (AP) The Trump administration ran into immediate opposition after its top diplomat officially informed the United Nations it is demanding the restoration of all U.N. sanctions on Iran, with allies and opponents declaring the U.S. action illegal and doomed to failure. Russia and China, along with European allies Britain, France and Germany, who often disagree, are united in declaring the U.S. action “illegal” on grounds that you can’t withdraw from a deal and then use the resolution that endorsed it to re-impose sanctions. How this dispute plays out in the weeks ahead remains to be seen, but Thursday’s U.S. move set the stage for a showdown in the United Nations that could lead to a crisis of credibility for the Security Council, its most important and powerful body. As soon as Pompeo delivered the letter invoking “snap back,” Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, tweeted: “Looks like there are 2 planets. A fictional dog-eat-dog one where US pretends it can do whatever it wants without ‘cajoling’ anyone, breach and leave deals but still benefit from them, and another one where the rest of the world lives and where intl law and diplomacy reign.”

Poor Planning Left California Short of Electricity in a Heat Wave (NYT) Everybody had known for days that a heat wave was about to wallop California. Yet a dashboard maintained by the organization that manages the state’s electric grid showed that scores of power plants were down or producing below peak strength, a stunning failure of planning, poor record keeping and sheer bad luck. All told, power plants with the ability to produce almost 6,000 megawatts, or about 15 percent of the electricity on California’s grid, were reported as being offline when temperatures surged last Friday. The shortfall, which experts believe officials should have been able to avoid, forced managers of the grid to order rolling blackouts in the middle of a pandemic and as wildfires across the state were spreading.

Pandemic pushes expansion of ‘hospital-at-home’ treatment (AP) As hospitals care for people with COVID-19 and try to keep others from catching the virus, more patients are opting to be treated where they feel safest: at home. Across the U.S., “hospital at home” programs are taking off amid the pandemic, thanks to communications technology, portable medical equipment and teams of doctors, nurses, X-ray techs and paramedics. That’s reducing strains on medical centers and easing patients’ fears. The programs represent a small slice of the roughly 35 million U.S. hospitalizations each year, but they are growing fast with boosts from Medicare and private health insurers. Like telemedicine, the concept stands to become more popular with consumers hooked on home delivery and other Internet-connected conveniences. Eligible patients typically are acutely ill with—but don’t need round-the-clock intensive care for—common conditions including chronic heart failure, respiratory ailments, diabetes complications, infections and even COVID-19.

Western religious decline (Foreign Affairs) Since 2007, there has been a remarkably sharp trend away from religion. In virtually every high-income country, religion has continued to decline. The most dramatic shift away from religion has taken place among the American public. From 1981 to 2007, the United States ranked as one of the world’s more religious countries, with religiosity levels changing very little. Since then, the United States has shown the largest move away from religion of any country for which we have data. Near the end of the initial period studied, Americans’ mean rating of the importance of God in their lives was 8.2 on a ten-point scale. In the most recent U.S. survey, from 2017, the figure had dropped to 4.6, an astonishingly sharp decline.

Renewing Your Passport (Lifehacker) Given the lingering coronavirus threat and the ongoing travel restrictions, it may be a while before your next international getaway. But that doesn’t mean you should wait to apply for or renew your passport, because there may be a long line ahead of you. As USA Today reports, the State Department cut back on passport operations from mid-March through early June as part of the efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19. As a result, the application backlog ballooned to 1.8 million by the time workers returned in June. The State Department isn’t at full capacity—and those applying for non-emergency passports will still experience a delay. “All applicants should continue to expect processing delays of several months as we work to get through a high volume of applications,” the agency said in a tweet on August 10. Even if your passport doesn’t expire for several months, you should begin the renewal process now. It may save you from the stress of waiting for your passport to come through after you have already booked a trip—and you may avoid paying extra for expedited service later.

Mexico’s Political Elite Engulfed by Scandal as Document Leaked (Bloomberg) Three Mexican presidents and over a dozen former ministers and legislators were accused of bribery, according to a document attributed to a key witness, in another chapter of a growing corruption scandal that is shaking the country’s political elite. Former presidents Enrique Pena Nieto, Felipe Calderon and Carlos Salinas de Gortari are among 17 Mexican politicians and a journalist named by Emilio Lozoya, the disgraced ex-head of state oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, in his purported testimony to Mexican prosecutors, according to a leaked copy of his deposition seen by several media organizations. While the Attorney General’s office wouldn’t confirm the authenticity of the document, stamped Aug. 11, it opened an investigation into how it was leaked to reporters.

Greenland ice melting (AP) The numbers are in, and in summer 2019 Greenland lost 586 billion tons of ice to melting, the highest on record, or approximately 140 trillion gallons of water. That’s up from the yearly average of 259 billion tons since 2003, and north of the previous record of 511 billion tons in 2012. This would cover the state of California in four feet of water.

Shipwreck in the Mediterranean (Foreign Policy) At least 45 migrants died in an Aug. 17 shipwreck off the coast of Libya, the deadliest such incident this year. The boat’s engine exploded off the coast of the city of Zuwarah. More than 300 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya this year, according to the United Nations, but the real figure could be much higher. Local fishermen rescued 37 people from the wreckage, who were detained by Libyan authorities. On Wednesday, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees and the International Organization for Migration called for international search and rescue efforts to be stepped up. The European Union has shied away from launching its own rescue operation.

Boris Johnson is splitting the check with millions of Britons who dare to dine out (Washington Post) They say there’s no free lunch. But in Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is willing to split the check—for the entire country. In an audacious (panicky?) scheme designed to save the country’s flagging hospitality industry and tempt people fearful of the coronavirus out of their home-bunkers, the British government is offering half-off on fish and chips—and everything else on the menu, sticky toffee pudding included. The “Eat Out to Help Out” campaign, as it is officially known, has been wildly popular. In its first two weeks, the government has subsidized more than 35 million meals at 85,000 participating eateries. As the Treasury Ministry put it, that’s “the equivalent to over half of the United Kingdom taking part and supporting local jobs.” One in 10 of the country’s restaurants have signed on. So, if not the New Deal, it’s a Happy Meal. Instead of a make-work program, it’s a make-dinner program.

Navalny flown to Germany after suspected poisoning (NYT) A prominent Russian opposition figure was flown to Germany for treatment of suspected poisoning on Saturday, his spokeswoman said, after a day of delays. The opposition leader, Aleksei A. Navalny, who had been in a coma since Thursday, was flown from the Siberian city of Omsk to Berlin on a Challenger 604 air ambulance arranged by the foundation of a movie producer based in the German capital. The evacuation came after a team of German doctors, who had arrived in Omsk on the air ambulance, stated unequivocally on Friday that it was safe for him to travel. After Mr. Navalny’s arrival at the hospital in Omsk, his family and associates were bitterly critical of the authorities, who refused to release detailed information on his condition, denied he had been poisoned and contended that he was too unstable medically for travel.

‘Telegram revolution’: App helps drive Belarus protests (AP) Every day, like clockwork, to-do lists for those protesting against Belarus’ authoritarian leader appear in the popular Telegram messaging app. They lay out goals, give times and locations of rallies with business-like precision, and offer spirited encouragement. The app has become an indispensable tool in coordinating the unprecedented mass protests that have rocked Belarus since Aug. 9, when election officials announced President Alexander Lukashenko had won a landslide victory to extend his 26-year rule in a vote widely seen as rigged. Peaceful protesters who poured into the streets of the capital, Minsk, and other cities were met with stun grenades, rubber bullets and beatings from police. The opposition candidate left for Lithuania—under duress, her campaign said—and authorities shut off the internet, leaving Belarusians with almost no access to independent online news outlets or social media and protesters seemingly without a leader. That’s where Telegram—which often remains available despite internet outages, touts the security of messages shared in the app and has been used in other protest movements—came in. Some of its channels helped scattered rallies to mature into well-coordinated action.

Thailand Police Arrest Activists, Escalating Protest Crackdown (NYT) Dechathorn Bamrungmuang, a member of the Thai collective Rap Against Dictatorship, was arrested on Thursday on charges of sedition, human rights lawyers said, part of a mounting crackdown by a government seemingly allergic to dissent. A day earlier, the authorities took into custody for the second time a lawyer who had publicly called for the Thai monarchy’s powers to be reined in. At least six pro-democracy activists were also arrested on Wednesday and Thursday on charges of sedition, a crime that can carry a seven-year prison sentence, the organization Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said. Another rapper was taken in, too. Yet more student activists were served with papers that appeared to indicate they could be imminently detained. The legal actions followed weeks of protests by students that culminated on Sunday in the largest street rally in Thailand since a military coup six years ago.

Doctors strike in Nairobi over pay, lack of COVID protection (Reuters) Doctors in most public hospitals in Kenya’s capital went on strike on Friday to protest against delayed salaries and a lack of protective equipment when handling patients who may have COVID-19. The strike began at midnight on Friday, said Thuranira Kaugiria, secretary general for the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union. He said 320 doctors employed by the Nairobi County government were taking part in the strike because they had inadequate health insurance, poor quality protective gear and too few isolation wards to treat COVID-19 patients.

[elizabethcariasa]

Military tax considerations and tips

(Pixabay via Pexels)

When you're in the military, taxes are likely far down on your list of concerns.

Members of the military, however, bear the same tax responsibility as do all U.S. citizens.

The one bit of good tax news here is that the tax code and Internal Revenue Service take into account the special circumstances that armed services personnel face.

Here are some tax highlights for military taxpayers.

Affected armed forces: Military tax benefits typically apply to active duty or reserve members of the armed forces. The eligible forces are:

United States Army (including Army Reserve and Army National Guard)

United States Navy (including Navy Reserve)

United States Air Force (including Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard)

United States Marine Corps (including Marine Corps Reserve)

United States Coast Guard (including Coast Guard Reserve)

Recently retired or separated members may also be eligible for benefits.

Service abroad means more filing time: If you're stationed in the United States, your tax returns are due on April 15. If, however, you're posted overseas, like other U.S. taxpayers living abroad you get two more months — until June 15 (or the next business day if that falls on a weekend) to file your taxes.  

And if you're deployed to a combat zone, Uncle Sam definitely doesn't want you worrying about your taxes. In these hostile situations, tax deadlines automatically are extended, both for military personnel and those posted there to directly support these operations.

The deferral for combat zone service ranges from 60 days to up to 180 days after the end of their active service in the zone. It covers not only filing of forms, but also the payment of any due tax.

Your command will notify the Internal Revenue Service of your deployment so that you can receive the automatic federal tax return extension. Double-check that the IRS does have your correct combat information by e-mailing combatzone@irs.gov with your name, stateside address, birth date and date of deployment.

And when you do file, you may still want to write "COMBAT ZONE" in red on top of your tax return.

More combat considerations: Being in the line of fire means you get added combat pay. Uncle Sam, however, gives enlisted service personnel, warrant officers and commissioned warrant officers a tax break here.

These military members don't have to include active duty combat pay as income for tax purposes.

The IRS also allows a similar tax exclusion for imminent danger/hostile fire pay; re-enlistment bonuses if voluntary re-enlistment occurred during a month while serving in a combat zone; pay for accrued leave earned while serving in a combat zone; and pay while hospitalized as a result of your service in a combat zone.

Commissioned officers also are allowed to exclude part of their combat pay, but that amount is capped.

Earned Income Tax Credit choice: Not owing tax on combat pay is a welcome benefit in most cases. However, sometimes a little extra could help out and not just for covering day-to-day expenses.

Whey you claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), you want enough earned income to get you the most benefit allowed by this tax break. In these cases, EITC-eligible military members can opt to include combat pay amounts for purposes of figuring the tax credit.

As with other tax situations where you have a choice, military taxpayers should calculate their taxes both with the nontaxable combat pay as earned income and without the nontaxable combat pay as earned income to find out what's best for you. Check the IRS' webpage for this special EITC situation and other factors to consider when considering combat pay in the claiming of this refundable tax credit.

Residency and state taxes: Military members also must deal with state taxes. That can be complicated and confusing when your service means you are deployed around the country.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act provides protections in this regard. Active-duty service members can file state income taxes in their state of legal residence. They are not required to change their legal residence when they move to a new state solely due to military orders. They may maintain their legal residence in a state where they have previously established it.

(Wyatt via Pexels)

The Military Spouse Residency Relief Act (MSRRA), which became law in 2009, allows military spouses to keep the same state of residency as that of their military spouse, regardless of which state they currently reside. In addition, the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018 amended the earlier military spouse residency law to allow husbands and wives to choose the same state of residence as their service member for tax filing and voting purposes, regardless of whether they have ever lived in the state. Prior to the 2018 change, spouses could only claim the same state of residence if they and their service member were from the same state.

For example, notes Army Capt. Capt. Thomas Sandbrink of the Fort Knox Tax Center, a Texas service member marries a spouse from North Carolina. When they moved to Fort Knox, the service member could continue claiming Texas residency under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, but the spouse's income would be taxed to Kentucky, requiring the couple to file separate state returns. Under the new law, both are able to claim Texas.

Home-sale profit tax exclusion extended: Most homeowners know that the sale of their homes is one of the best tax breaks around. If you meet some relatively easy eligibility rules, you don't owe any tax on profits of up to $250,000 if you're a single home seller or double that for married couples who sell a residence.

How long you've owned and lived in the home help determine whether you get this primary home sale capital gain tax exclusion. Generally, you must have owned the house for at least two years and lived there for at least two of the last five years. While that's not a problem for most civilian homeowners, military members tend to be more mobile and with little control over their departures. In these relocation situations, service personnel get some leeway.

Tax law allows for home qualified active duty sellers facing an ordered Permanent Change of Station (PCS) to suspend the ownership and residency period when you’re on qualified official extended duty. IRS Publication 523 has details and examples of how this works.

Military moving tax break: Military personnel still are allowed to deduct unreimbursed moving expenses related to PCS transfers. True, the Department of Defense usually covers most of these expenses for service members. Sometimes, however, there are unreimbursed expenses and service personnel, unlike civilians who move, still can deduct them.

Reservists travel deduction: For non-permanent travel, military reservists whose reserve-related duties take them more than 100 miles away from home, each way, get a tax break, too. They can deduct these unreimbursed travel expenses. They must file Form 2106 to do so, but that amount then is listed on Form 1040's Schedule 1. There's no need to itemize to claim these military-related costs.

More military tax resources: These are just a few quick hits of military tax considerations and potential tax breaks.

You can find more in the IRS' recently updated Publication 3, Armed Forces' Tax Guide. It covers the special tax situations of active members of the U.S. military.

You also should check out the information and help available at Military OneSource, a program offered by the Department of Defense. It provides a range of free resources, tax and otherwise, for military members, veterans and their families.

You find Military OneSource services at its website, at MilitaryOneSource.mil. If you prefer, you can call the service toll-free at (800) 342-9647.

(Pixabay via Pexels)

Military tax filing options: When it comes to filing your return, check out MilTax, Military OneSource's tax service. It provides online software to electronically file a federal and up to three state tax returns for free, regardless of income.

Military personal also can review the offerings at Free File. This IRS-private tax software industry partnership allows taxpayers to prepare and e-file their taxes for free. Military filers and their families who meet the $69,000 adjusted gross income limitation may choose from nine companies without regard to additional eligibility requirements. To access this option, head directly to IRS.gov/freefile.

If you prefer more personal help with your taxes, there are free face-to-face tax preparation services are available thanks to IRS-certified volunteers. These Volunteer Income Tax Assistance participants offer free tax return preparation and e-filing to those who earned less than $56,000 in 2019.

VITA services are found on many large military installations worldwide. Military.com's Base Guide can help you contact your local installation for more information about tax centers, hours of operation, scheduling appointments and necessary documentation.

I hope this overview helps alleviate some of your concern about meeting your tax responsibilities while simultaneously fulfilling your service obligations to our country.

Thanks for your commitment and sacrifices and good luck with your taxes!

You also might find these items of interest:

Gold Star families get eventual widow, kiddie tax fixes

End-of-year hires of WOTC workers could provide a tax benefit for businesses

U.S. Coast Guard, created to collect some taxes for a young America, turns 229

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[ecotone99]

End of Holi-Days Contest 2019!

Well, this is awkward. Seems like in my celebration of the holidays, I kinda forgot to post the contest for the Holiday's this year...

Yeah, I'm an idiot, and I apologize for messing it up. However, every mistake is an opportunity to adapt and overcome.

So here's what we're going to do:

If you have posted a Holiday themed story, please leave it in the comment section of this post, and it will be grandfathered into the new contest. However, if it isn't posted below, there's no way for me to be able to find it since there isn't any tag in the title.

Since the holidays have passed and I don't want to force anyone into continuing to beat a dead horse, this contest will be dual themed. Authors may post stories about the Holidays (stories themed around Christmas, Hanukkah, or Holiday themed) or our other theme, The End of Holi-Days; basically, stories themed around the end of the world. Zombies, robots, aliens, bugs, or bacteria, it all counts just as long as our world comes to a terribly depressing end. If authors want to write about a holiday-themed apocalypse, knock yourselves out!

As this is the season for giving, the Top Runner Ups will also receive prizes, so there's a much higher chance of winning something if you don't come out on top.

RULES AND REGS

Stories must be Holiday or Apocalypse themed. If you want to do both, go right on ahead! All contest entries, whether Holiday themed or Apocalypse themed, must be tagged with [End of Holi-days 2019]. No-tag. No qualify. Please ensure your tags are as seen, with a capitalization of the "E" in "End" and the "H" in Holi-days, and the full tag. No abbreviations. Yes, this seems rather anal and restrictive, but aside from my typical madness, there is a reason for this. Reddit's search feature is rather "specific" on search results, so some stories don't come up unless it is tagged correctly.

All entries must adhere to the standard subreddit rules. Entries not meeting the guidelines will be disqualified and removed. There is no re-submission on these.

Multiple entries are allowed. One every 24 hours as our rule is typical.

Previous contest winners and author of the month winners are allowed to participate. They may select which flair to continue with should they win the contest. Or we can work it out. I'm open to suggestions!

Top 5 Upvoted Stories are the winners. If there are any ties or if Reddit's vote fudging makes determining a placement too difficult, authors will split the placement, and the next highest upvoted story will take the next placement until we have a winner's circle.

If a single author claims multiple Top 5 placements, the next highest upvoted story will be added into the winner's circle among authors. We don't want to punish good writers for placing multiple times, but we also don't want to have an entire winners circle made up of the same person or people. Some contests in the past have had up to 7+ authors included in the winner's circle due to ties and multiple placements.

Top Winner Prizes:

Customized flair - "End of Holi-Days 2019 Contest Winner" or something cooler than that. We'll talk and decide!

Free eBook copy of Horror d'Oeuvres - Bite-Sized Tales of Terror or Horror d'Oeuvres - It Came From the Snack Bar! or Horror d'Oeuvres - Unjust Desserts. This trilogy of books makes up the /r/ShortScaryStories Charity book projects which have raised $2000+ for Scares That Care, an approved 501(c)(3) that fights the REAL MONSTERS of childhood illness, burns and breast cancer by helping families that are experiencing these extraordinary hardships cope with the financial burden.

A copy of The Red Son donated by /u/Maeltopia

$5 Amazon Gift Card (Donated by me, /u/Human_Gravy) and a $5 Amazon Gift Card Donated by /u/SolomonRambling

Top Runner Ups

Free eBook copy of Horror d'Oeuvres - Bite-Sized Tales of Terror or Horror d'Oeuvres - It Came From the Snack Bar! or Horror d'Oeuvres - Unjust Desserts. This trilogy of books makes up the /r/ShortScaryStories Charity book projects which have raised $2000+ for Scares That Care, an approved 501(c)(3) that fights the REAL MONSTERS of childhood illness, burns and breast cancer by helping families that are experiencing these extraordinary hardships cope with the financial burden.

A copy of The Red Son donated by /u/Maeltopia

As for the beginning of the contest, it starts as soon as you finish reading this bunch of malarkey.

Contest Ends on January 2nd, 2020, at 11:59 PM Eastern time.

Good luck, everyone!!! Questions? Comments? Story Submissions? Random gifts? Leave'em below!

submitted by /u/Human_Gravy [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/comments/efy7gu/end_of_holidays_contest_2019/ via Blogger https://ift.tt/37azxXt

[samuelfields]

Samurai September: Welcome To Your Financial Cheat Month

After gaining 12 lbs during my freshman year in college, I had to spend $35 to buy a pair of new jeans. $35 might not sound like a lot to you, but it was a lot to me at the time because I only made $4/hour working at McDonald’s.

Wasting 10 hours of my life because I couldn’t resist the buffet line pissed me off. So of course I did a lot of dieting research and discovered the magic bullet to weight loss: eat less.

With such simple logic, I decided to keep track of what I ate and slowed my food intake as I approached 2,000 calories. I also educated myself about world hunger. Knowing there are over 700 million malnourished people in the world became harder to stuff my face.

By the middle of sophomore year, I was back down to my fighting weight of 160 lbs. Given I’m not an infallible machine, I’d have a cheat day once a week. This release day has helped keep my pant size the same for the last 22 years. Although I admit, old jeans are getting very snug nowadays!

Samurai September: Your Financial Cheat Month

If you’ve been following Financial Samurai since 2009, you’ve seen your net worth surge higher because you’ve been focusing on saving and investing as much money as possible. The S&P 500 is at a record high and most real estate markets around the world are also at record highs.

While many people were spending big bucks on cars, clothes, and other things they didn’t need, you’ve been feeding your investments like a hungry hippo and watching your returns compound like a champ.

Heavy spenders missed out on one of the biggest recoveries in history. As a result, they are stuck in the muck, while you’ve come that much closer to financial freedom, if you’re not there already.

Since many of you have done so well since the financial crisis, I’d like to propose a brief respite from your financial ways. At the rate you’re going, you will die with way too much money, or you might simply burn out. It’s time to course correct a bit and spend more than usual.

Let’s not let all those people who take on massive credit card debt to fund their fabulous lifestyles have all the fun!

Samurai September Challenge Rules

The Samurai September Challenge simply encourages you to spend more than you usually do on yourself and the people you care about for one month, once a year.

Samurai September is a challenge because after years of practicing good financial habits, it’s hard as hell to spend up. Samurai September is also a challenge because in order to participate, you must meet at least five of the following conditions:

1) Grown your net worth by at least 100% in five years

2) Read Financial Samurai for three years or longer

3) Saved at least 20% of your after-tax income for five years or more

4) Tracked your net worth every month for at least 12 quarters

5) Own your primary residence for at least three years

6) Have a side hustle that earns at least $100 a month for at least two years

7) Worked on building an after-tax passive income portfolio for at least five years

8) Spent no more than 1/10th your gross income on your current car

9) Have a net worth of at least $250,000

10) Maxed out your 401(k) for at least five years

11) Maxed out your IRA for at least 10 years

12) Haven’t blamed anybody for your failures for at least three years

13) Got a graduate degree part-time while working full-time

14) Spent at least 20 hours a year volunteering

15) Donated at least $1,000 to charity for at least five years

16) Negotiated a severance instead of quitting

17) Did not vote on a law to raise taxes on others without paying more yourself

If you’ve met at least five of these conditions, congratulations! You are now free to spend more money for one month. If you haven’t met at least five conditions, better luck next year.

To those eligible for the Samurai September Challenge, here are some guidelines for how much more you can spend in Samurai September compared to usual. The goal is to reward your performance and enjoy life a little more.

Net Worth Growth Condition

Boost spending for one month by 5% if you have increased your net worth by 100% over the past five years.

Boost spending for one month by 10% if you have increased your net worth by 200% over the past five years.

Boost spending for one month by 20% if you have increased your net worth by 300% over the past five years.

Boost spending for one month by 50% if you have increased your net worth by 400% or more over the past five years.

For example, if you increased your net worth from $200,000 to $600,000 since 2010, you can now spend $500 more this month on whatever you want if your normal monthly spending is $5,000. But if you increased your net worth from $200,000 to $1,000,000 since 2010, then you’re free to increase your spending by 50% to $7,500 in Samurai September.

Savings / Investing Condition

If you have been saving and investing at least 20% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 5% in Samurai September.

If you have been saving and investing at least 30% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 10% in Samurai September.

If you have been saving and investing at least 40% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 20% in Samurai September.

If you have been saving and investing at least 50% of your after-tax income every year for five years, you can boost your spending by 50% in Samurai September.

For example, if you have been maintaining a 50% after-tax savings rate every year for five years and have plowed a majority of it into the stock market, you are free to raise your monthly spending from $10,000 to $15,000.

Home Ownership Condition

If you’ve owned a primary residence for two years, you can increase your spending by 5% in Samurai September.

If you’ve owned a primary residence for three years, you can increase your spending by 10% in Samurai September.

If you’ve owned a primary residence for four years, you can increase your spending by 20% in Samurai September.

If you bought a primary residence between 2010 – 2012, you can increase your spending by 50% in Samurai September because you bottom-ticked it baby!

If you’ve been renting since 2010 when you could have bought, then you need to go run a marathon and think about what went wrong.

Car Ownership Condition

If you purchased a car for up to 30% of your gross annual income, you can buy yourself a cookie.

If you purchased a car for up to 20% of your gross annual income, you can increase your spending by 10% in Samurai September.

If you purchased a car for up to 10% of your gross annual income, you can increase your spending by 20% in Samurai September.

If you don’t own a car and use public transportation and the occasional rideshare, you can also increase your spending by 20%, provided that you’ve also increased your net worth by 100% over the past five years.

Depreciation Chart

Starting Your Own Side Hustle / Business

If you started a side hustle this year, you can treat yourself to a nice business expense dinner.

If you started an online business last year and stuck with it, you can spend 10% more in Samurai September.

If you started an online business two years or more years ago and stuck with it, you can spend 20% more in Samurai September.

If you’ve had a side job after normal work hours for a year, you can spend 10% more in Samurai September. With Fivver, Upwork, Craigslist, Task Rabbit, WordPress, Uber, and Lyft, it’s easy to make extra income if you want to.

I firmly believe that anybody who sticks with their online business or side hustle for at least two years will see meaningful financial reward. You will learn from your failures, build your endurance, and find your “lucky” break.

Boosting Spending With A Combination

The above items are not mutually exclusive. If you increased your net worth by 200% since 2010 (+10% spending boost), consistently saved 20% of your after-tax income since 2010 (+5%), bought a primary residence in 2013 (+20%), purchased a car that cost 20% of your gross annual income (+10%), and started a side hustle in 2015 (+20%), you are free to increase your spending percentage by 65% in Samurai September or until you spend 100% of your after-tax income, whichever comes first.

You are encouraged not to spend more than 100% of your after-tax income during Samurai September because then you might turn into the average American who lacks impulse control and gets easily triggered by other people’s opinions. Seriously folks. It’s important we never relapse!

Moderation is key.

The typical American is doomed to financial misery with a median retirement balance of less than $100,000.

Excessive spending is one of the reasons why roughly 41% of Americans can’t come up with $400 in an emergency according to the Federal Reserve. I can’t fathom this to be true for the Financial Samurai community.

Have Fun, Don’t Get Carried Away

September is the chance for you to buy or do those things you’ve been putting off because you’re overly frugal. Use this month to have fun! And if you can’t stand spending more on yourself, you can always spend more on other people in need.

Here are some small and large things I plan to spend money on this September:

* New boxes of daily contacts for $200. I’ve been reusing my daily contacts to save money for years. Now I plan to use a fresh pair even if I just use them for several hours playing tennis.

* Flights for parents and in-laws for $1,000. Given I don’t want to travel on a plane with our boy until he’s at least three, I’m happy to pay for my parents and in-laws to come visit us.

* Supreme unleaded fuel for $10. I drive around 150 miles a month. My vehicle gets about 20 miles a gallon. Hence, I’m willing to see if using supreme fuel makes a lick of difference. It probably doesn’t, but who cares. It’s only $10.

* Toro sashimi for $200. Tuna belly tastes so good, but paying $10+ per slice feels like highway robbery when I can get a filling In N’ Out cheeseburger for $2. But gosh darn it, one evening I’m gonna eat to my belly’s content.

* Tinted windows in the house for $1,400. It turns out having magnificent western-facing ocean views has some downside: heat and glare. Although the new windows I installed in 2015 have some tint, I’d like to have more. It was a scorcher last Fall.

* New jogging pants with zippers for $130. Nowadays, I just like to wear athletic gear. But I need pants that have zipper pockets. Otherwise, my wallet will end up falling out, and that would be a disaster.

* Two couple massages for $400. Massages are the best, especially if you work out a lot or play sports. I have an app on demand that sends the masseuse with massage table to our house for $99 / hour, including tip.

* New air conditioning units for my parents in Hawaii for $8,000. My dad told me several of the AC units in their house died due to geckos getting stuck in the units. Ouch, this is a big expense.

* Take four personal days to save my sanity: priceless. Recently, I’ve had too many 6am – 1am days due to my writing schedule, reader and business requests, and fatherly duties. Fall is the time to take it easy since San Francisco weather is so good and the kids are back in school.

Total cash outlay: $11,439, $9,000 of which is going to my parents and in-laws. Hmm, I think I need to come up with more things to spend on my family! Any ideas? The only thing I really want are more good experiences. This challenge to spend more money than normal is going to be harder than I thought.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Related posts:

Practice Taking Profits To Pay For A Better Life

The Ideal Withdrawal Rate In Retirement Touches No Principal

Readers, are you ready to join the Samurai September Challenge? With the stock market and real estate market making us so rich since the last recession, how do you ensure your consumption level is appropriate to your situation and you do not die with too much?

The post Samurai September: Welcome To Your Financial Cheat Month appeared first on Financial Samurai.

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