rambling about Fallout 4 Avery AU things under the cut. I'm throwing my thoughts into text because otherwise I WILL explode.

I've never been the biggest fan of Fallout 4's canon story but I thought the world and many of the NPCs were fantastic. With my last SoSu, he was just literally my courier after the second battle of Hoover Dam.

With Avery though, I wanted to actually keep the pre-war man out of time thing in the picture, but I didn't want him to've been married/have kids/etc etc. Originally I decided he was Shaun's uncle and stepped in as a father figure after his sister's husband bounced. Now though, I think he and Shaun are just completely unrelated.

The whole like... I guess little non-canon setup I put together is that Avery is a pre-war marine who'd been on shore leave for give-or-take a month prior to bombs dropping. The Vault Tec rep knocks on his door at some point in that timespan & gives him the whole spiel on Vault 111, and Avery, being a Major in the American military, thinks he knows more than this guy and basically hits him with a "Sure, bud" and signs up to get him and any other VT reps to piss off. Thinks nothing of it. To him it's like signing up for a newsletter on the latest kitchen appliances.

But ofc bombs do drop.

There’s no time to think, the world is on fire. He’s ushered in vault 111. The doors close, and there is no coming back. He and a swath of other people from the surrounding area are placed in cryo pods under the pretense of waiting out the fallout, only to be awoken when the radiation has died down. 

We know that is not the case.

Vault Tec also failed to provide the staff with adequate rations. Or, well-- By Vault Tec's own standards they did, they just didn't plan on the staff actually surviving all that long. Once the staff die off, their recorded data remains. What happens to the cryo pods? Well, Vault Tec knows that without maintenance, they’ll all slowly fall into disrepair and the people within will die more or less in their sleep.

But it’s not that simple.

The long unmaintained terminal systems and aging, faulty hardware begins to create technical issues, malfunctions and false data. Many of the pods do slowly die off "naturally", though.

Couple hundred years later, the failing and bugged to hell computer system triggers a false alarm for an emergency evacuation. All of the pods thaw and open. You, the Sole Survivor, are the only one whose pod remained intact.

Avery awakens to half-rotted and bloated corpses, or ones that are still frozen but very much dead.

He leaves the vault disoriented and panicked. Start game.

The main plot surrounds Avery joining the only organization he understands due to its militaristic nature, that being the BOS, and his journey that ignites change in the Brotherhood. Ultimately leading to commonwealth chapter completely breaking away from the rest of the BOS, becoming its own faction. Name for said splinter faction is uhhh pending

It also eventually deals with Avery’s brother mysteriously showing up in the commonwealth. Before the war, Bentley Moreno worked in West Virginia as a congressman and was in the Whitesprings resort when the bombs dropped. He survived in the bunker beneath. Bentley is a member of the Enclave, but I haven't 100% decided if that came to be before or after bombs drop. Avery thought Bentley to be dead all this time, LONG dead, but he survived as a ghoul. Bentley finds Avery as his faction becomes more notable and the Enclave’s robust informant network catches wind.

One Commander Moreno hears of a Paladin Moreno with a strikingly similar description to his dead brother.

Avery and Bentley had an excellent relationship as kids, so the betrayal really fuckin stings when Avery finds out who Bentley works for.

Oh, tacking on one more important note. Avery is the catalyst for change but Danse is still installed as Elder once they break away from the Brotherhood proper. Danse has given significantly more of his life to the Brotherhood and, honestly, he's just a more effective commanding officer than Avery. Ave is still bumped up to the rank of Sentinel, though.

AU Thursday: Fallout of Darkness -- Found Alice

All righty -- remember how, in October of last year, while trying to figure out where exactly Alice should be hidden in the Commonwealth wasteland for Victor and Piper to find, my brain suggested the Massachusetts New State House? Well, I have actually gone to the State House in my game (in fact, I’m a good while past it at this point -- Victor and Piper cleared it, went to Goodneighbor, had the traumatic incident at the Memory Den and met the Vault Tec Rep again, went to Park Street Station, saved Nick, and now they’re doing a tour of Victor’s settlements because a couple of them needed repair after attacks or are asking for new beds and such), and having toured the place, I have decided where exactly Alice is staked:

The basement.

No, not in the giant puddle with the Mirelurk Queen -- specifically, she’s in the storage room, where Provisional Governor Graham was hiding all the paintings and statues and other important stuff from the rioters and looters. This room:

It honestly felt like the most logical place, since all the upstairs portions, save for maybe the bathrooms, would have had, you know, people working in them. My thoughts on how Alice ended up in there are as such:

-->Alice entered Boston as part of her travels around the country, and sent notice to the Prince (as Boston seems to be Camarilla country, at least if you go by Swansong) that she was there for a bit

-->Whoever the Prince was at the time, knowing about what happened in L.A. all that time ago, and possibly already having dealt with an attempt on their life recently, freaked out and immediately ordered Alice’s destruction

-->Alice found herself on the run from a kill squad one night distressingly close to sunrise and needed a place to hide out

-->She happened to be in the Common, and noticed the late-night plumbers coming out from working on the pipes downstairs in the State House (since in the terminals you can learn that the place was having real plumbing issues with the toilets); she took the opportunity to slip inside and look for a place to hide

-->She quickly found the storage room and figured that would work for at least a night, wrapping herself up in some old drop cloths and putting a few pictures over herself as a sort of tent

-->And then the bombs fell the next morning, and the shockwaves and all that led to at least one of the already-fragile pictures breaking -- and the fractured frame managing to stab Alice right in the heart.

-->Cut to 210 years later, and Victor and Piper, having fallen through the massive hole in the main floor into the basement, are working on finding their way out and head into the storage room. They find one raider who, upon seeing them, immediately tries to attack them despite Victor protesting they could help each other escape; the dude snaps apart and yanks out the broken chunk of picture frame as a weapon, as he’s out of bullets --

-->Why does this picture frame already have blood on it OH SHIT VAMPIRE

-->And cue Alice draining a raider and hastily introducing herself to the shocked Victor and Piper, just in time for them to have to fight some mirelurks together.

”But Victoria,” you ask, “doesn’t that room have a bunch of rad barrels in it?” To which I reply:

“Why does it have rad barrels in it?” Like, I genuinely don’t understand why that room, full of what Governor Graham considered priceless artifacts, has BIG BARRELS FULL OF RADIATION WASTE in it as well. This feels like a “let’s make it more dangerous for gameplay purposes” choice, so I’m removing them in the fanfic universe. (Also, yes, the only raider you’re supposed to find down there is supposed to be dead, but it’s implied he died fighting the mirelurks -- if they don’t show up until later. . .) The trio are gonna fight a mirelurk queen shortly after getting to know each other, they can have a little break before then!

Oh, and an additional note, based on how I was playing (namely, Victor and Piper were, you know, sleeping at night and taking on the state house during the day) -- while Alice has to make a deal with Ug-Qualtoth during the forced temporary sacrifice of Victor to get sunlight immunity and the ability to ask directly for new powers, she does get a freebie when she’s first unstaked of being able to be awake during the day. She can’t go outside without proper protection, otherwise she’ll burn (Victor ends up sun-proofing a sleeping bag for her at first and making her a little cart so they can pull her around with his camping equipment), but she doesn’t auto-revert to a corpse when the sun rises, allowing her to actually do stuff so long as it’s indoors. This has led to the rather hilarious mental image of Alice commenting on what she can hear going on outside while she’s in her cocoon, and others being like “wtf why is your sleeping bag talking” (PARTICULARLY her commenting that how Hancock runs Goodneighbor sounds like “Anarchs” and calling him “Baron Hancock” when he expresses confusion).

So yeah -- all this has definitely decanonized my initial “First Meeting” fic, but hey, I already warned you all that was far from a final draft. I’ll edit it up into something that fits this new timeline eventually! For now, I think this is the best spot for Alice to be, and the best way for her to meet Victor and Piper.

Twitter

Submission: Adjusting expectations

Okay, guys. Wading in here where it’s possible no-one wants me, but … here goes. 

We - Kaylors - are in a hard place right now. People feel hurt, they feel hopeless. They feel like they were led on by the likes of Spade. I’m not here to invalidate any of the feelings that come from seeing Karlie and Taylor play out this charade.  

But I think we (collectively, as a fandom) need to take a breath and ask if any of this is really as bad or unfixable as we think it is. Because, for me, the recent stunting is hard to stomach but not truly surprising. On some level this is how I expected Karlie and Taylor to handle both the birth of the baby and the launch of the rerecorded albums. As much I wanted to believe in the idea of spring breaking loose and bringing with it a fervent revolution … I could see the pieces still in play on the board and I doubted it was coming. 

I think the problem is that there was a split between the optimist and pragmatist sides of the fandom, over the last year or so. To be clear - I’m not judging the optimist side of the fandom. Not at all. Taylor has pulled wildcard moves before, and emotions run so high in all this, especially with a baby involved now, that I don’t blame people for wanting to believe the best. But it reached a stage where some of the things people were trying to talk themselves into were just wildly unrealistic. And when that happens, of course you’re going to get hurt. It’s inevitable. 

But let’s really look at this for a second. We should have known that neither Karlie nor Taylor was going to be shaving her beard in March. Ditching Jerk right after or just before the birth would have been too soon for Karlie. It’s not unusual for a celeb marriage to fizzle out within a year of the birth, but before the baby even arrives? That would be weird, and would draw attention just when it seems Kaylor don’t want it. They just had a baby. That’s an adjustment in itself, and Karlie is suffering enough social media hate on top of that. I wouldn’t blame her for just wanting to take a break and lie low during this difficult time. And unfortunately, for Karlie, that means maintaining the status quo of the situation she put herself in with Jerk. She may be doing the bare minimum to maintain it, but if she wants to avoid attention, she has to make it seem like everything between her and her “husband” is normal. And that she’s trying to make it work, which I believe will be important later. Good people try to make it work, even in bad relationships. 

Toe wasn’t going anywhere either. Taylor had relied on him so heavily during the promotion of Folklore, with the William Bowery narrative, that she was almost backed into a corner. She had to give some allusion to his air quotes “creative input” and their so-called happy relationship, or her failure to do so would have become the story and overshadowed her night. The headlines would have either been break-up speculation or complaints that she didn’t give him his due. We think the cutesy coverage after she named him in her acceptance speech was bad, but negative headlines have a far longer shelf life and can take on a life of their own. They would have been worse. Whatever we might think of Taylor’s actions, Folklore is one of her best albums and she deserved to have her night. 

So, on to the announcement of the birth. This is a tricky one, and again, I completely understand why people reacted so badly against it. It was everything we as a fandom said we didn’t want. It was Jerk using the baby for personal good PR. But I have to be honest here. I always thought we were kidding ourselves believing he would NEVER be seen with the baby or implied to be the father. I do believe Karlie is doing her damnedest to minimize the digital footprint of his involvement and keep her actual baby out of it. But he was always going to get to bask in the glow of playing daddy for a while. It’s the trade off Kaylor made when they used him to shore up their closet. 

This is also why I increasingly suspect the timing of the announcement got the green light from Kaylor too. If Jerk was always going to be assumed to be the father of Karlie’s baby, then there was always going to have to be a birth announcement that incorporated him somehow - unless the girls were ready to answer awkward questions, and it doesn’t seem like we’re there yet. So the best way to minimize the damage is to have his moment of glory overshadowed by a bigger win for Taylor. It worked pretty well actually. Even on Kaylor blogs the stunt was mostly buried by Taylor content.

I know a lot of fans feel gaslit by all the hints, but I do think there’s a possibility Taylor really didn’t grasp how hurt Kaylors would be. From her perspective, she “fed” fans three times over that night. She gave us a beautiful performance, a gorgeous red carpet moment, and a win to celebrate. I think it’s possible she really didn’t realize the double whammy of stunting that night would make it all feel worthless for many.

Taylor is in an awkward position. As a consequence of Kaylor retreating into the closet, the support base for them has shrunk. (When I use the words “Kaylor fandom”, I refer to this support base.) I would say Kaylor fandom consists of two parts. There is a silent portion, who observe events and comment anonymously, but don’t say anything “on main”. And then there are the small corps of true believers, who think Karlie and Taylor are still together and the baby is theirs. This latter group do most of the actual talking about Kaylor, but they tend to be pretty battle-hardened. They’ve been around for years, they never believe any of the stunts and their capacity to be hurt by them is, as a result, pretty limited. These Kaylors criticize sometimes, but they tend to fall back in line eventually and mostly adopt a “let’s wait and see how this all shakes out” approach. The problem is that I would say these “chilled” Kaylors are the minority. For their own sanity they curate their blog experience and often don’t post the more negative anons they get. Which is fine, but if you were looking at it from the outside, I could see how it might create an impression that the fandom as a whole can roll with the punches. And for a lot of the silent majority, that’s not the case. 

But again, I can see how Taylor might not necessarily know that. She went quiet after the Grammys, when I might have expected more celebratory posts from her. If I had to guess, I’d say she didn’t expect the backlash. I’m especially noticing a backlash against her for allowing Karlie to take so many hits while her own reputation has never been better. And I can’t defend her on that one, except to say I hope she has a plan. But I understand where people are coming from when they say the songs aren’t enough and actions speak louder than words. It’s tough to watch. 

Still, we’re in a position we should realistically have been able to see coming. We should have known Jerk wasn’t going to be out of the picture immediately after the birth. This is one of those things nobody likes, but maybe we all just have to be patient on. I don’t see Karlie busting out of the closet to admit her marriage was a fake, or testifying to the FBI. I think she’ll just let her marriage quietly fall apart, as many real marriages did during the pandemic. And for that to work, she needs to make it look like didn’t throw away a family unit lightly. Hence the “I tried” post, the social media break, and the suggestions of spending time with Jerk’s family. All of this can be spun later into a narrative of Karlie having tried to make it work, only to never really be accepted. The hate online affected her mental health and she gradually realized how unhappy she’d become and decided she needed to break free and find her old self again for her baby’s sake. This is the most likely narrative for Karlie’s freedom and it’s one that could work - but it’s going to take time to unfold. Personally, I’m giving it a year. If we don’t see a separation by then, and definitive moves to a reunited Kaylor, I’ll be bowing out. I’ll still know what I believe the truth to be, but I won’t see the need to devote my energy to defending it. ,

Meanwhile, the masters rerecords are about to be released, and Taylor has invested a lot in their success. Because of this, I can’t envision her coming out until at least the big three (Fearless, 1989, and Red) have dropped. She might drop hints, but I don’t expect anything earth-shattering. Even the order of the album releases seems to confirm this. She’s breaking out the big guns first. 

I’ve seen people speculate that because Rep can’t be rerecorded until 2022, Taylor will hold off on any coming out until then. And I’m not so sure of that. Yes, people listening to the album for clues would give Scott and Scooter money, but if we’re being honest, a fair amount of people are probably listening to those albums already, regardless of the drama. Those sleazeballs are profiting from Rep, full stop. But if Taylor profits more, from her bigger albums, she still wins. And she can still put out a Taylor’s version of Rep with vault tracks and collabs, to seduce people away from the Big Machine version in early 2022. Honestly, I think there’s a good chance Taylor would consider this is a worthwhile trade-off anyway, if it meant she got to live a more open life with Karlie - and most crucially, begin to repair Karlie’s reputation. As children get older and the world begins to leave the pandemic behind, it becomes harder to live behind closed doors. I guess we’ll find out how Taylor finds the reality of such a life, and what she considers worth sacrificing to step away from it. 

All this to say: I can’t predict the future more than anyone else, but I don’t think the situation we’re in now is irreparable, and if we’re being really objective, I don’t think it’s even surprising. I do think Taylor should give us something, if she wants to keep us around. No-one can live on a complete absence of hope, and as I’ve stated, letting the fandom dwindle to this extent has its own dangers. But I think we also need to keep our time frames realistic, even if it means rejecting lifelines like the Spade riddles. We shouldn’t expect Karlie to be free of Jerk for around a year, and we shouldn’t expect Taylor to do anything much beyond general music promo until at least the big three have dropped. Sucks to say it, I know. But at least this way we won’t be disappointed, and if Kaylor do pull a wild card and move towards freedom, we can be pleasantly surprised. 

Just my two cents. 

___________________

Well written and fair arguments on our reactions and expectations. I had typed up more, but I will let others post their comments before I chime in.

What Makes A Will Legal?

Residential Property You Should Not Include In Your Will

Content

If You Don'T Wish To Use A Lawyer

Indication Your Will In Front Of Witnesses.

To Determine Who Will Care For Your Minor Children

Secret Files To Have Together With Your Last Will As Well As Testament.

When Should You Obtain Legal Guidance To Compose Your Will?

Making Older Individuals'S Voices Heard.

Total An Inheritance Tax Type.

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Since Buddhists also turn down agenthood, the standard compatibilist methods are closed to them also. Rather, the Buddhist thoughtful approach is to take a look at the metaphysics of origin. Old India had several warmed arguments concerning the nature of causality with Jains, Nyayists, Samkhyists, Cārvākans, and Buddhists all taking somewhat various lines. In numerous ways, the Buddhist placement is more detailed to a concept of "conditionality" than a theory of "origin", particularly as it is stated by Nagarjuna in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

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If this intuitive photo became incorrect, after that presumably that we can not legitimately be held ethically in charge of our actions. Besides, if I do not have free will in a feeling that involves alternate possibilities, after that I have to pick what I really pick. And also if I have to choose what I perform in reality select, then probably I am compelled so to select, and can not rather be considered morally responsible for my selection. It is extremely possible, after that, to accept something like the "Concept of Different Possibilities", according to which a representative is morally responsible for an action only if he could have done otherwise. If is true, then moral duty needs free choice; and if causal determinism dismiss such different opportunities, it would therefore dismiss ethical obligation.

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In Buddhism it is shown that the concept of absolute liberty of option is ill-advised, since it denies the reality of one's physical needs as well as situations. Just as wrong is the concept that people have no option in life or that their lives are pre-determined. To reject flexibility would be to reject the initiatives of Buddhists to make moral progress. Pubbekatahetuvada, the idea that all happiness as well as experiencing emerge from previous activities, is thought about an incorrect sight according to Buddhist teachings.

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signed by the proprietor of the will and be seen by 2 individuals. " If you utilize an online will package, get it examined by a lawyer or Public Trustee," economic regulatory authority ASIC's Moneysmart.com.au web site states, which adds that a solicitor or Public Trustee are most likely to bill you for doing so.

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Complete An Inheritance Tax Kind.

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Nonetheless, the hope is that many will see this as a chance to aid their preferred cause. The advocate of PAP believes that the lack of the flexibility to choose or else does not by itself explain the lack of moral duty. see this page is because he thinks that when this absence acquires, its getting is itself discussed by, and can only be described by, the event of causal determinism in the actual series of events. The Concept of Alternate Possibilities and also the Frankfurt-type Instances. As I recommended above, we normally think that the future is a garden of forking courses-- that we a minimum of at some essential points in our lives have more than one path branching into the future.

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As soon as this impression is revealed, one's initial conviction that the absence of an alternate choice is sufficient for the lack of ethical duty is vindicated. There can be two various ways in which some variable makes a representative unable to select or do or else. In one way, the factor does not play a role in the actual sequence; it does not flow with the real program of occasions. In one more means, the element does move through the actual series.

Forever The Shield

A request for @wwesarahjaneroszko and I’m sorry it’s late. My arms are sore af from work and I wasn’t in the best state of mind now that Dean is “gone.” Tagged: @queenofthearchitect @wrestlingfae

You were aware of what lied ahead after Fastlane. You knew that a day like this would come. A day where the faction you’ve been apart of for so many years, The Shield, would ride off into your own sunsets. That this chapter of your life would have to come to an end for a new one to begin. And you didn’t want to say goodbye to the boys you’ve had the pleasure of working with for nearly a decade. Well two of them anyway. You did live with one and shared a hotel with him every night on the road.

That honor of being attached to your hip was given to the Architect and Kingslayer himself, Seth Rollins. You two have been through a lot together. You came to the WWE the same time he did from Ring of Honor, having been best friend there. You trained with him in FCW and in NXT. When it was time to form the Shield, you were offered the position as the fourth member of the Shield, serving as manager/valet when the boys competed and you repped the faction when you were competing as a singles competitor in the women’s division. It was during the early days of the Shield you started dating Seth and forged a brotherly relationship with both Roman and Dean. The four of you all became inseparable peas in a pod. 

Right now, you were busy getting ready in yours and Seth’s locker room, lacing up your combat boots that have had countless miles put into them. They were the same pair you wore when you escorted your boys into the arena when they stormed the gates of the main roster at Survivor Series 2012. After that night, you knew these boots were special to you. Even after all these years, you never replaced them. It would have been like erasing all the history you had with these amazing workhorses.

“You’ve been very quiet all day today, babe,” Seth looked over at you from his spot on the couch, a cup of coffee in his hand and his glasses perched on his nose, “Is something on your mind?”

“Nostalgia mostly I guess,” you shrugged as you finished lacing up your boots, “I’m going to miss nights like this. Where we get to be together as unit and dominate this place.”

“I know,” he sighed before taking another sip of his coffee, “But with Wrestlemania on the horizon and Dean about to make his exit, this has to happen tonight. And since we have Ro back from his battle with cancer, it’s a perfect storm. I hate the idea of us four drifting away from each other, but it was bound to happen sooner or later.”

“Well I’m not drifting away from you,” you corrected him as you took a seat next to him, nestling into his side, “You’re stuck with me.”

“I wouldn’t have it anyother way,” he chuckled, “Besides Roman will still be around if he doesn’t get sent to Smackdown during the shake up. Maybe he and I could show up in the tag team scene again and put on clinics like we used to back in the day.”

“So you think you’re going to lose at Wrestlemania,” you teased.

“Oh hell no,” he shook his head and frowned, “I’m going to run the whole division when I liberate that title from the Beast. I’ll work any match that’s thrown at me.”

“That’s what I thought,” you stood up and grabbed his coffee from him, “Now go get ready. We have to go meet up with Dean and Roman soon.

“Well if it isn’t our little brother and sister,” Dean teased as you and Seth entered catering. Both of you were now in full gear. Since you were only managing tonight, you wore the new Shield shirt, a pair of very short denim shorts, and your favorite black leather moto jacket with your trusty boots to top it all off. Seth was not the biggest fan of your shorts, but you enjoyed that he was a little possessive over you. Jealous Seth tended to be your favorite Seth when you guys would retire to your hotel for the night after a show.

“It’s about time you divas graced us with your presence,” Roman joked as you sat down with Seth on the opposite side of the table from your shield brothers, “Excited for this last hoorah before the war with Lesnar at Mania?”

“Hell yeah I am,” Seth smirked with pride, “It’ll be a great way to get some momentum heading into the fight of my life.”

“I’m not,” you replied to Roman, “I don’t want to think about the end of this, of the four of us not being together when the show is over.”

“Oh dollface,” Dean reached over to rub your shoulder, “We all knew this day would come. I’m sorry I’m leaving, but I need to get away from all this for a while. I might considering coming back, but that’s a long ways off for now.”

You knew that Dean was very dedicated to this industry. Ever since he joined up with WWE back during the FCW days, he never stopped for a break unless he got so injured, he had no choice but to take time off. So in a way, he was letting his contract expire to have time away from this crazy grind and decompress from everything.

“I still hate this,” you grumbled, even as Seth leaned over to place a tender kiss on your forehead, “And now poor Roman has no road wife.”

“I have another one,” he looked over at Seth and I gasped.

“No way,” you pointed a finger at him in protest, “You are not taking my road husband and boyfriend Mr. Samoa. He’s mine and I don’t share.”

This resulted in all three of them laughing their asses off. Seth shook his head and lifted you out of your chair and into his lap, wrapping his arms around you tightly.

“You have nothing to worry about, babe,” Seth kissed your cheek, “I’m not letting Ro steal me away from you. After all, you’re my road wife.”

The show is underway now. The four of you are now hiding out in a janitor’s closet close to the entryway you’d be using to head into the arena. The camera guys that were shooting for the network were with you as each of the boys tried to stay limber and get their hair wet and ready to head out. Thankfully, you had your phone with you to stream the show so you can watch how the night was going.

“It’s almost time to head out,” a stage hand said, you put your phone away and looked over at your boys.

“Let’s kick some ass out there boys,” you hugged each of them tightly before leading them out the door.

Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Shield!

And with that, the four of you entered the arena within the crowd. You stood out in front, Seth and Dean behind you with Seth over your left should and Dean on the right. Roman took his place behind Seth and Dean to finish the formation. The four of you took in the crowd before you, letting the moment sink in. This would be one of, if not, the last time the four of you would enter through the crowd into the arena. You felt Seth gently brush his gloved fingers against your arm to signal you to lead the team to the battlefield that lied ahead.

With a heavy heart, you start to descend down the steps, brushing past the fans as you walked. You kept your head held high as you smirked out into the crowd. The bravado of having your boys at your back and ready for a fight gave you the confidence to face the end that was looming in the distance.

The four of you arrived at the barricade at last, the last hurdle before the ring for the most dominate team in the business. Seth came up behind you and hoisted you up so you could clear the barricade and make way for him. Seth leapt over the barricade in his signature roll from the early days of the Shield. Dean vaulted over the barricade before Roman simply swung his legs over one at a time.

Seth, Dean, and Roman climbed into the ring while you casually waltzed over to the corner of the ring that would serve as The Shield’s corner. You enjoyed watching your boys square up to Corbin, Lashley, and McIntyre. You were glad that this last was against these guys. It would show the universe that the Shield is still as strong as ever even after all these years being on the scene in the WWE.

As the fists flew between the six men in the ring, you did get a little worried for Seth. If he got hurt this close to Wrestlemania it would be just like a repeat of his knee injury all over again. You knew just how bad that was for him, and you wish more than anything for that to never happen to him again.

Not long after the fists started to fly, Seth, Dean, and Roman had full control of the ring. You got up on the steel steps by the Shield corner and raised your arms out, encouraging the cheers from the crowd. But you went back to standing next to the steps as Dean and Roman took their spots in the corner as Seth got ready to square up with Lashley. Which was not doing you any favors for your anxieties with this match.

Corbin and Roman were fighting it out as the legal men in the match up as Dean and Seth fought Lashley and McIntyre out into the universe. You had moved out of the corner and into the timekeepers area to keep an eye out for Dean and Seth. You watched Seth climb up into the stands and Dean kept fighting with Lashley and McIntyre. You furrowed your brow, a little worried for Seth and his well being. Because, if he was going up there, that meant he had a spot set up to dive from the top of the stands onto Lashley and McIntyre, maybe Dean too. You were going to be berating him for sure after the match for taking such risks so close to the biggest match of his career.

And like the predictable man that he is, Seth leapt from the stands into Lashley and McIntyre as they held Dean in their arms. Oh he was in trouble with you now.

Dean and Seth did recover and made their way back to you in the timekeeper’s area. You checked over Dean before you shifted over to Seth.

“When we get to hotel,” you warned him as you checked him for any serious damage, “I’m going to give you a piece of my damn mind for that spot.”

“I’ll live,” he kissed your forehead quickly before getting back into the ring side area, “Now get back to the corner before those two lugs come back this way. I don’t want you to get hurt in the finish of the match.”

You obeyed Seth’s direction as things got heated between all men involved. McIntyre attempted to work with his team to steal the triple powerbomb from your hounds onto Roman, but Dean and Seth broke it up and laid into the the three. Before long, your hounds set up to unleash the Cerberus and drove McIntyre through the Spanish announce table, incapacitating him in the process.

The crowd cheered for one more triple powerbomb and Corbin was in the ring, alone. This made him the perfect target. Seth, Dean and Roman flanked the ring as you climbed up onto the apron, clinging to the ropes with a smirk on your face.

“You’re done for Corbin,” you taunted as Seth, Dean, and Roman climbed into the ring.

One superkick, Superman punch, and a dirty deeds later, and Corbin was ready to be laid out. Dean and Seth picked Corbin up and Roman did the signature battle cry, rallying his brothers to lift up the weak and staggering Corbin onto his shoulders. Together, the three of them slammed Corbin down into the matt with authority. Roman made the cover as Seth and Dean took to the ropes to block Lashley and McIntyre from breaking the pin if they had managed to get up.

As the bell rang, you climbed through the ropes and ran over to your hounds, a smile beaming from cheek to cheek. You embraced Dean first before getting a bear hug from Roman. You went over to Seth who kissed you hard before pulling you into his chest. You were so proud of them, making this final match being the high-note ending they deserved.

After the boys finished embracing each other, they stood in the middle of the ring with you at their side. You all put your fists in together, the symbol of excellence closing the show one last time.

This era of your careers was done and dusted. Now it was time to prepare for war with the Beast and whatever else laid ahead over the horizon.

A/N: This is, I think, my longest one yet. It was a labor of love. Hope you enjoyed.

Apple or AT&T—Who's More Evil?

Let me start out by saying that I get it. I really do. Companies have to make money. Successful companies with great products deserve to make money. Apple and AT&T? They both make wonderful products and provide top-notch services. The problem is, for some dumb reason, they both like making as much money as possible. And the easiest way for them to do that is to keep us, the consumers, buying their new crap. Convincing us that we need it and that there's no other alternative. So when a company gets that big, when they can leverage their power against the little people, what stops us from finally getting fed up, throwing our phones in the toilet, and going back to smoke signals? Well, to answer that, I need to tell you what brought on my recent frustrations (as if any specific examples need to be given)…

Problem 1: The Man With the Data Plan

My wife and I went on a cruise a few weeks ago. And like most Americans with 1st-world problems, we had to decide whether we wanted to 1) go a week without cell phone or internet access while we cruised across international waters…yeah, right, 2) buy an international data plan from AT&T, or 3) purchase access to our ship's Wi-Fi access. In the end, it looked like the Wi-Fi package would be the cheapest, so that's what we went with. My wife was careful to turn off all wireless data to all apps and services on her phone (I just kept my phone turned off all week. I would have thrown it in the ocean and never looked back if she'd have let me) as directed on the various FAQs she found, and she logged onto the ship's Wi-Fi without complication. Smooth sailing… or at least we thought so until we received our AT&T bill. Yup, you guessed it—$100 worth of charges for iMessages and calls.

Problem 2: Disposable Phones

My wife and I bought new iPhone 7s two years ago. It was a great time in our lives. I remember the occasion fondly because it was the same day that our sweet Avery (two years old at the time) dressed up in her yellow "Beauty" princess dress and took in her first movie theater experience with Mommy and Daddy. Well, fast-forward two years, and we just paid off those phones. And lo and behold, my wife updated her phone earlier this week and within 30 minutes…it stopped working. Not completely, just the microphone, which, contrary to this smart phone generation's beliefs, is kind of important. And there was "nothing" that could be done to fix it. Which meant, just when we were free from the clutches of our AT&T contract and iPhone debt, we were sucked back in. Sure, the wife would get her fancy new phone, but at what cost?

So off we went to the AT&T store. We spoke with our customer representative (Ayla, which is easy for me to remember because it's the name of a cavewoman character in my favorite video game of all time, but I digress…), and she was great. She upgraded our antiquated data plan, made sure we understood the new plan, showed us where things could be improved to fit our needs, let us know who to contact about the $100 charge on our AT&T bill, and put up with our two insane daughters while my wife got her new phone set up. All in all, it was a great experience, but it was one that should never have happened in the first place. Why? Because Apple is intentionally breaking their older iPhones (if two years is considered "old") so their customers will buy the newest model. If you're not aware of this practice (YES, it's real, and it's confirmed by Apple's corporate reps), read on. If you know about it, feel free to skip the next three paragraphs.

First, imagine a perfect product. Let's use a fish aquarium heater as an example. Its job is simple—heat water to a specific temperature so your tropical fishies don't freeze to death. A company could easily create a heater that would last for decades, but why in the world would they do that? Even if they charged double the price of typical heaters, they would still lose money because in those two decades' time, its customers would by three or four of those "disposable" heaters that crack or short out from routine use. So it just doesn't make financial sense for them to make a durable product when they could make one that works just long enough to keep the consumer coming back for more.

Now, take that principle to the tech world, and we have to look at things a little differently. For those of you old enough, you remember those first Nokia brick cellphones well. Why? Because they were indestructible, their batteries lasted forever, and they had service EVERYWHERE. They were perfect phones. Except, the most exciting game on them was Snake, and within a few years, the Blackberry (and all of it's thumb-injuring successors) had overshadowed the poor, reliable Nokia despite its inferior construction. In this way, the tech world kept consumers buying new products every year because the amazing technology advanced so rapidly. I mean, you'd be insane to use those boring old bricks that could only make calls and use T9 to text when there were newer phones out there that could take pictures and check electronic mail!

Then something happened. The technology started to stagnate. It kept improving, but not nearly as fast. All phones had cameras, internet access, and most importantly, apps. At that point, if a phone didn't break, it could be used forever while the user just downloaded whatever new apps that came out. Sure, the new apps would take up more space and demand stronger processors and whatnot, but a frugal user could make due for years and years. And that kind of return just didn't work for the tech companies. If they were ever going to be able to swim in a vault filled with gold coins a la Scrooge McDuck, they needed to find a way to keep selling new products that consumers had no real reason to buy. And so, they invented the "update." Oh yes, you NEED this update! It'll keep your phone safe. It'll keep it running smoothly with all those new apps. It'll keep it… updated. But we should mention that those updates will eventually fry your phone's "old" processor, forcing you to fork out a grand every couple of years.

I'm not going to pretend to be tech savvy enough to outline every reason for this (and that's not what this blog's about, anyway), but we've all been victims of the sudden battery death, random crashing, and in my wife's case, microphone failure that happens immediately after one of these "updates." And as I said, this practice is documented and admitted. For the big companies, it's essential to keep them afloat. Heaven forbid that they keep giving us actual reasons to buy new products. No, they've already perfected the smartphone, so instead of creating something new, they've found ways to keep selling us the same thing. It's brilliant, in an evil mastermind sort of way.

Okay, back to the story. My wife got her new phone. She was safe for the next couple of years (though it's just a matter of time before MY phone dies of update sickness…), so now it was time to take the fight to AT&T's retentions department and see about that $100 charge on our bill.

Round 1: I called 6-1-1 and I spoke with the level 1 boss, though I didn't catch her name… She told it to me, but I didn't catch it. She was polite the entire time. She explained how there were, in fact, charges on my bill and how those charges were because we'd used data and call services in international waters. I explained (politely) that we hadn't authorized these usages because we turned off all cellular data, etc. and only used Wi-Fi while out of the country, and that I didn't plan to pay these extra charges. 30 minutes later and she let me know that she was going to "send this case up," and I should get an email within 24 hours. "No," I said, again politely, "I think I'll just talk to someone now." Brief (ten minute) pause, then [insert name here] said, "One moment please."

Round 2: Level 2 boss's name was John, and his accent fit his name. He, just like Level 1 Boss, took a good while searching through the charges and getting back to me, but he also remained completely polite the entire time. He explained that the Wi-Fi packages on most cruise ships only cover international water usage, and our AT&T charges had come while we were docked in port in Haiti. Why? Because my wife's phone started using the Haitian towers (instead of the cruise line's Wi-Fi) without our approval. It made perfect sense whether it was true or not, but John went on to tell me that, while he may not be able to get ALL of the charges removed, he would do what he could because we were, "…long-time valued customers." His words, not mine. Five minutes later, John took me off of hold and told me that he obtained approval to take $75 off of the bill, so we would only have to pay $25. Truth be told, I had no intention of paying ANY of that bill, but my interaction with John was so pleasant (I didn't have to ask him to reduce the bill. I didn't have to bring up the fact that we were valued customers, or that we could take our business across the street to Crickett Wireless. He knew all of these things, and he that knew I knew them. And he got the job done, or close to it) that he'd gained my respect. I wasn't going to fight John over the remaining $25, even if it did take over an hour to get that $75 knocked off. Game over. Roll credits.

So here's the thing—I'm a huge skeptic. With everyone I worked with throughout this debacle, I know that there's a possibility that they were all just working off of a script. That they did exactly as they'd been trained, performing damage control and getting every cent possible out of a tough customer like me. After everything, it's possible that AT&T and Apple still won. But at least they played the game. At least these REAL people listened to me and answered my questions, and in the end, the interactions were extremely pleasant. Yes, I get that I'm a number to the companies, but I was a person to their employees. And they treated me with respect. And I did the same with them.

My title poses the question of who's more evil between AT&T and Apple. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to that question, but in THIS case, as much as it hurts me to say it, the bigger evildoer is definitely Apple. Why? Well, in AT&T's case, their charges were legitimate. My wife incurred roaming charges in Haiti because of the cruise line's failure to explain how their services worked. And even if John straight up lied to me about that, his company still only wound up stealing $25 (and one hour) from me. Apple on the other hand… they're openly breaking their own phones so their loyal customers have to buy new ones. And those new phones cost a whole lot more than $25. Yes, our experience in the AT&T store was pleasant while buying that new Apple iPhone (thanks to Ayla), but it should have never come to that.

In the end, we're victims of our circumstances. We're brainwashed by brilliant marketing. We're forced into competition with our neighbors. And there's only one thing I can say as I finish up typing this scathing report on my Apple MacBook Air—Joke's on you, Satan, er, Apple. Money's not real. No one really owns anything anymore. There's no privacy. No Freedom. The only things we have are our experiences, our interactions, and our attitudes. And as the days get longer and the grass gets greener, I can't help hoping Y2K is just running fashionably late (all you millennials should Google Y2K along with The Matrix and Surge soda. There's so much you've missed…). In the meantime, I'm going to go cut my grass with a lawnmower that's older than every piece of technology I own, and believe it or not, it's never had a single update. What a world.

Antes de la Guerra

From a fic request by @emceecapitalc, who wondered - based on this piece of the trailer, made giffy by @tatianagmaslany- how the hell a couple of 50-somethings could fight assassins on no notice after years out of the game ...

It started out as just exercise — a joyless 30-minute pre-dawn burst of cardio at the zero-frills gym one sketchy block from the hospital, three days a week. Kept her weight down and her heart healthy, even if it was broken.  

But later, when she and Mulder fell into spending weekdays at the place she kept in town, he started accompanying her there, and as they regained fitness, the old competitiveness kicked in — they gradually got up a little earlier, stayed a little longer, started adding some weights to the routine.

They never spoke to anyone else there, never looked into any of the gym’s other offerings, just pushed themselves, a team of two again.

Then one frigid spring evening, she has to help subdue a psychotic patient and despite her old skills kicking in, he almost gets the better of her. That’s when she starts asking around (among certain women) for a trainer — who materializes one morning at the gym, seemingly from out of nowhere.

Eduardo doesn’t offer any personal details, not even a last name; his accent (in what few words he does say) is similar to that of Irina, Scully’s best surgical nurse, so they think of him as Honduran, whether or not that’s the case. He’s somewhere around 30, and has two inches and 25 muscled pounds on Mulder — lithe, ripped, and with the wingspan of an NBA center.

He makes them for law enforcement immediately, despite the years since they’ve been in the field, but he asks no questions about their service — or why they need his — and they pay him in cash.

Under Eduardo’s tutelage, four brutally early mornings a week, they both get leaner, harder, more flexible. Mulder quietly gives up his teenage junk-food diet — it won’t support this kind of training — and when Scully finishes the last of the bottles she picked up during BevMo’s most recent 5-cent wine sale, she doesn’t restock. They sleep better, they fuck more, they both stop needing their occasional anti-anxiety meds.

They don’t tell Eduardo when they’re back at the Bureau, but one steaming marshy 5:15 a.m. that summer, he straddles Scully as she bench-presses her last heavy rep and says in his calm but deadly-serious way: “You ready for fight?”

Mulder, who’s right there spotting for her, guides the bar from her shaking arms into the rests before he grabs a fistful of Eduardo’s painted-on tank top. “What the fuck did you just say to my wife?”

The next few seconds are a blur, at the end of which Mulder finds himself on the floor with the other man’s knee on his chest, and Scully held in a chokehold with Eduardo’s free arm.

“I say, you ready for to learn fight? I can teach you.”

He releases them and stands, as unruffled as if he’s just offered them tea and scones.

The things that have been bothering them lately, the feathery edges of paranoia about what lies in the shadows and what they might have to face now that they’re officially back in the mix — it takes but a second for their minds to connect in the old way, one live-wire glance between them, for both to heave out a yes.

Not here, he says; he’ll come to them. He warns them that they’ll get bruises, scratches, headaches, “make your whole house a mess” — they understand, they agree.

Eduardo may be a man of few words, but he delivers on every one of them.

It’s the oddest working partnership they’ve ever had, Mulder reflects one morning as she’s helping him get his arm into the sling that had been necessary after Sunday’s session: “We pay a guy money to come into our home twice a week and kick our asses — a guy whose real name and origin story we do. not. know, I might add — and then we’re so pumped, we have more sex than a couple of horny teenagers. Not that I’m complaining about that last part.” She laughs, agreeing, then scrapes her nails over his newly-chiseled abs — and once again, they’re almost late to work.

A week later, Scully hobbles gamely into the Hoover with a boot cast on her right leg and a yarn about jumping into a too-shallow pool; the fact that she actually sprained her ankle vaulting a stair rail in her apartment building with Eduardo in pursuit seems somehow implausible as an explanation. She’s not sure why neither of them are telling anyone about their increasingly-rough combat and evasion lessons, but they’ve apparently decided to keep it to themselves and pretend they’re just regular middle-aged agents with a normal level of field readiness. It’s that old instinct for cover, she supposes; better to let your enemies underestimate you, no matter how nebulous those enemies are.

She’s forced to explain herself at the hospital, though, when the department head stops her after a meeting for a little chat about how “ever since you’ve moved back in with your husband, Dr. Scully, I’ve been noticing … things that concern me. Now, I’m not judging, or implying — and of course this is off the record — but as your friend and a fellow medical professional, I have to ask: This contusion on your face — can you tell me how you got it?” She’s not sure Dr. Parekh buys the krav maga explanation, but it’s all she’s willing to say.

That evening, out at the house, is the first time she manages to fend off both Mulder and Eduardo, teamed up against her in an exercise Eduardo called “you get attack by two big motherfuckers, they gonna take you and put you in the trunk.” Her feral scream of victory as she stands astride Eduardo’s “dead” body leaves her voice raw; by the next morning, having traded control back and forth all night in bed with Mulder, she can barely speak at all.

The situation gets weirder, but so gradually that they barely notice: Eduardo stops texting in advance of showing up, and sometimes just accosts them — even in public places — with no warning. He turns off the power to the house, makes them fight in the dark, all three against each other. He handicaps them in various ways — handcuffs, zip ties, one of them dragging the faux-unconscious other. They switch from toy-store blasters to their real pieces — unloaded, of course, with safeties on and fingers nowhere near the trigger.

And then one day, they realize it’s been a week since they’ve seen Eduardo. Figuring they should keep in fighting trim, they turn off all the lights, pursue each other in the dark, end up fucking their brains out on the hardwood floor of Mulder’s office.

A week becomes two, then almost three. They improvise workouts, but start to worry that whatever brought Eduardo to them in the first place has found him.

Just when Mulder is about to start putting out feelers, they get a text from an unknown number: tonight 11 Go to the place I find you argue about if that girl isa good actor or no

The parking garage underneath the AMC Bayview 20 Theatres is deserted at that hour on a Monday. They go, expecting to engage — nerves alight, muscles tensed, adrenaline high. But there he is at the farthest, darkest end — not leaping at them from the shadows, but leaning against a ’70s Mercedes in $300 jeans and an ancient wool overcoat, looking like the scion of an old and wealthy family. He holds his arms up, palms toward them in a gesture of harmlessness, as they approach warily.

He gifts them with a rare smile, and they respond in kind, glad to see him unharmed. “I have to go now,” he says. “You not finishing you training yet, but you gonna be ok.”

“Where — why are you leaving?” Scully asks, half-aware of the bad form of asking that kind of question of a person who obviously wouldn’t or couldn’t answer truthfully. Eduardo just smiles again, shaking his finger at her.

“Best you not know. Come here.” He holds his arms out to them both for a hug. Pressed close to them, he murmurs quickly, with some urgency, “You know I am not Eduardo. I am not Adrian either but — is who I am for now. Entiende? I see those scars at the gym, I see how you together against everybody, all the world, is why I teach you fighting. I don’t know who you fighting, but you ready when they come, yes?”

Then he pulls back a little, turns to Mulder, and kisses him deeply, one arm slung low with the palm flat between Mulder’s shoulder blades — though he hardly needs the leverage — and the other caressing the back of his neck. When Eduardo breaks the kiss, he pivots immediately to Scully, brings her in like a dance partner and lifts her almost off her feet as he dips low to kiss her — a soldier going off to war.

His smile when he lets her go is brilliant but profoundly sad. The two of them stand there, blinking and stunned, as he backs away, opening the car door and shaking his head at them. “You should both have kick my ass for that,” he says with a rueful laugh. Then, soberly, he adds, “Buena suerte, my friends.”

“Buena suerte,” they mumble uselessly as he drives off, their hands finding each other without so much as a downward glance; he’s right, it’s the two of them against the world, and in that moment they’re conscious of just how much better prepared they are for whatever might come — will come.

They’ve never been this sharp, not even with the advantages of youth. And a few weeks later, when strange headlights come bouncing up their private road, they find that Eduardo was right: They are ready.

-------------------------------- @today-in-fic

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A simple will is a fundamental will with no expensive stipulations or specifications. You can state exactly how you desire your things given away as well as who gets it.

If You Don'T Intend To Use A Solicitor

Please keep in mind the table is arranged by Star Rating adhered to by service provider name and functions links straight to the provider's internet site. Use Canstar's life insurance policy contrast selector to view a bigger range of policies.

Are online wills legal UK?

In order for a Will to be legally valid in England and Wales, you must sign your Will in the presence of two witnesses, and your witnesses must witness (sign) your Will in your presence; and this cannot be done online. You'll always need a physical document to be signed and witnessed.

Due to the fact that Buddhists likewise turn down agenthood, the typical compatibilist approaches are shut to them as well. Instead, the Buddhist philosophical strategy is to analyze the metaphysics of causality. Old India had numerous heated arguments regarding the nature of origin with Jains, Nyayists, Samkhyists, Cārvākans, as well as Buddhists all taking slightly various lines. In numerous means, the Buddhist placement is better to a theory of "conditionality" than a theory of "origin", particularly as it is clarified by Nagarjuna in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

Who should keep the original Will UK?

1. Leave it with a solicitor. If a solicitor writes your will, they will usually store the original free of charge and give you a copy – but ask them to make sure. Most solicitors will also store a will they didn't write, but there will probably be a fee.

Your will does not need to be a time-sucking headache to produce. You can use a simple will to discuss who obtains your things and who takes care of your children if you pass away.

Check in to get started By signing in, I am signing up for obtain Canstar's Price Checker e-mails as well as Home mortgage newsletter. Specify-- for instance, do not simply leave every little thing to 'my spouse'-- utilize your better half's complete name. The general message is-- just make use of a DIY will if your desires are very straightforward and your financial circumstance isn't made complex. If you cope with your companion, yet are neither wed neither in a civil collaboration, you may want to think about creating a cohabitation contract along with writing a will. While a will establishes what happens to your assets as well as belongings once you die, a cohabitation contract define what happens if your relationship breaks down-- so a bit like a will for the living.

That's since the making it through partner can't change a joint will even after the fatality of their spouse. So if an enduring spouse remarries and has a stepchild, they can't leave anything in the joint will to that stepchild. To learn more concerning making a will-- as well as to see every little thing Nolo needs to use when it comes to intending your estate-- visit our Wills, Trusts & Probate Center. Inform your executor where your will is as well as exactly how to obtain accessibility to it when the moment comes.

You will be asked to leave a gift for the Stroke Association in your will, yet the choice is yours. The Stroke Organization offers a free simple will to over-60s or stroke survivors that are 18+.

TheCancer Study UKFree Will Service allows over-18s to get a complimentary simple will. Please keep in mind that which of the above charities is sponsoring the scheme depends on your location. However, you can choose to leave presents to any type of charity you like. You are under no responsibility to leave a present (known as a 'legacy') to among the Free Wills Month charities.

If you are seeking to change an existing life insurance plan, you should consider your individual conditions, consisting of continuing the existing cover till the substitute policy is provided and cover validated. Your existing policy may have various functions to items currently on the market. Please consider what functions are best for you when comparing insurance products and refer to the provider for more details on a plan. If you decide to obtain Life insurance, you will deal straight with an insurance coverage service provider, and also not with Canstar.

Indicator Your Will Before Witnesses.

How much does it cost to remove an executor UK?

The costs of an application to remove an Executor can amount to as much as £15,000, sometimes more, so this often brings even the most stubborn executor to their senses. When an executor is unwilling to be reasonable an application can be made to the Court to remove them.

Since your will is total, let your beneficiaries and administrator understand you have created a will and where you are maintaining it to ensure that they can access it after your death. If you are married or have kids who live, listing the names of your partner and children and also your marital relationship day. You can create your will either as a published computer system file or handwrite it. Number the web pages of the file (1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, and so on) so that it is clear the number of web pages there are. While a lawyer can be really valuable, you can produce a will on your own if you prefer.

If your youngsters are minors, determine who you want to increase them in the really unlikely occasion that you and their other parent can't. Every will need to call somebody to work as administrator, to execute the regards to the will. Make sure that the person you have in mind wants to serve-- the job should not come as a surprise. Here are the few straightforward actions you need to require to make your will.

You can additionally pick the person who will see to it your will is executed as well as call a guardian for your kids if something takes place to you. And you can also name the individual you wish to look after your favored .

If this intuitive image turned out to be false, then it would seem that we could not legally be held morally responsible for our behavior. Besides, if I do not have free will in a sense that includes alternative opportunities, after that I need to pick what I in fact select. And if I need to select what I do in reality choose, then presumably I am urged so to pick, and can not rather be taken into consideration ethically in charge of my choice. It is extremely possible, after that, to accept something like the "Concept of Different Possibilities", according to which an agent is morally responsible for an activity just if he can have done or else. If holds true, after that ethical duty calls for free will; and also if causal determinism dismiss such different possibilities, it would certainly thereby eliminate ethical duty.

Debt solutions for Aussie Elevate products are supplied by AHL Investments Pty Ltd ACN Australian Debt Permit (" Aussie") as well as its assigned credit score reps. Credit history and any type of applicable balanced out make up Aussie Elevate are issued by Bendigo and Adelaide Financial Institution Limited ABN AFSL/ Australian Debt Permit. ASIC specifies the general public Trustee could not charge to make your will if you are aged older than 60 or nominate the general public Trustee to be your executor. You might intend to consult the general public Trustee in your state or region to understand the requirements that put on making a will where you live. If you're comparing life insurance policies, the comparison table below display screens a few of the policies currently available on Canstar's data source for a years of age non-smoking male working in a specialist profession.

If you do not want your executor to recognize what your will says, you can position it in a secured envelope, and ask that it only be opened up upon your fatality.

However, many individuals do not keep a recurring connection with a lawyer, and it prevails for attorneys to liquify law firms and form brand-new ones, so it may be difficult for your administrator to situate the will when the need emerges.

Because your executor is somebody you trust fund, nobody else needs to understand the components of the will or that it even exists.

Additionally, if you relocate some range away from where your lawyer techniques, it would be more difficult for your executor to obtain the will.

Your lawyer might keep the initial-- sometimes for a small fee.

Such on-line archives may be a good area to store info for an administrator, nonetheless, a probate court might not accept a printed copy from such a digital will vault when an original is needed.

In order to accomplish your obligations as the executor of an estate, you must initially be provided the authority through a letter of testamentary.

If you do not understand who that is or if you are uncomfortable approaching them, you can browse the probate court documents in the region where the dead person lived.

There are business providing on the internet storage space of records and individual details.

In Buddhism it is shown that the suggestion of outright liberty of selection is reckless, since it denies the fact of one's physical demands and circumstances. Just as inaccurate is the concept that human beings have no choice in life or that their lives are pre-determined. To refute freedom would certainly be to reject the efforts of Buddhists to make moral progression. Pubbekatahetuvada, the idea that all joy as well as suffering develop from previous actions, is considered a wrong view according to Buddhist teachings.

To Identify Who Will Take Care Of Your Minor Children

Credit rating solutions for Aussie Select, Aussie Activate as well as Aussie Elevate products are supplied by AHL Investments Pty Ltd ACN (" Aussie") as well as its assigned debt representatives, Australian Debt Permit. Credit for Aussie Select products is provided by Residential Home mortgage Team Pty Ltd ACN, Australian Credit History Permit (" RMG"). RMG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republic Bank of Australia ABN AFSL as well as Australian Credit Score Licence. Debt for Aussie Activate products is provided by Pepper Finance Corporation Limited ACN (" Pepper"). Pepper Group Limited ACN, Australian Credit report Permit acts upon part of Pepper.

The secret is understanding your state's particular demands and also making sure your will fulfills them. It's additionally possible to create a will that serves in every state so that you prevent any type of possible troubles.

Secret Files To Have Together With Your Last Will And Also Testimony.

How much money before probate is required UK?

It's generally considered that if everything the deceased person owned is worth less than £15,000 Probate won't be needed, but this isn't true in every situation. This is because each financial institution has their own limit that determines whether or not Probate is needed. This ranges from £5,000 to £50,000.

When Should You Obtain Lawful Guidance To Draft Your Will?

authorized by the owner of the will as well as be observed by 2 people. " If you utilize an online will kit, get it inspected by a solicitor or Public Trustee," economic regulator ASIC's Moneysmart.com.au internet site states, which includes that a solicitor or Public Trustee are most likely to charge you for doing so.

However, there might be various guidelines in various locations of Australia when it comes to wills, according to the Australian government's australia.gov.au information website. The site recommends that everyone check the rules that use in their state or area before starting any type of deal with a will.

This suggestions is basic and has actually not taken into account your purposes, monetary scenario, or demands. Think about whether this recommendations is best for you, having regard to your own goals, economic circumstance and also requirements. You might require monetary guidance from an appropriately certified adviser. Think about the item disclosure statement prior to making any kind of economic decision. For more information, readCanstar's Financial Services and Credit Score Guide, as well as check out ourdetailed disclosure, vital notes and also responsibility please note.

How much do solicitors charge to execute a will UK?

Some probate specialists and solicitors charge an hourly rate while others charge a fee that is a percentage of the value of the estate. This fee is usually calculated as between 1% to 5% of the value of the estate, plus VAT.

However, the hope is that numerous will see this as a chance to aid their much-loved reason. The advocate of PAP assumes that the absence of the liberty to choose or else does not by itself describe the lack of ethical duty. This is due to the fact that he believes that when this absence gets, its acquiring is itself described by, as well as can only be discussed by, the occurrence of causal determinism in the real sequence of events. The Concept of Alternate Possibilities and also the Frankfurt-type Examples. As https://earley.directwillstrusts.co.uk/explanation-of-terms/ recommended above, we naturally believe that the future is a yard of forking courses-- that we a minimum of at some important factors in our lives have more than one path branching right into the future.

What Is Probate?

It's then examined by a Farewill will expert, that'll send you a web link to download your ended up will, which you'll require to print, authorize as well as have actually witnessed. As soon as you're happy as well as have signed it, Co-op stores your will. When you've done what you can, you'll obtain a follow-up phone call from an expert will writer. You make use of an on-line template, which is after that examined by Co-op Legal Solutions.

What To Anticipate From Your Solicitor

As soon as this impression is subjected, one's first conviction that the absence of an alternate choice is sufficient for the absence of ethical responsibility is proven. There can be Learn about wills Shropshire in which some aspect renders a representative incapable to choose or do otherwise. In one method, the aspect does not play a role in the real sequence; it does not stream through the real course of events. In one more means, the aspect does stream through the actual series.

About a week ago I was talking to @robininthelabyrinth about doing some Rogue-centric comics recaps, starting with the brief time Heatwave worked at Cadmus with Superboy.

For those of you wondering “Why is what is generally a criminal working with a hero?” here’s a brief rundown of things that happened that lead up to this point:

Back in the mid-90s there was an event called Underworld Unleashed in which Nero, DC’s version of Satan, tricked most of the Rogues into attacking key points around… some continent that is literally unrecognizable on a map.  Those points exploded, killing them.  The event went on, Trickster I figured out Neron’s angle and helped the heroes defeat him and the Rogues remained dead at the end of it.  A couple years (real time) later, Flash issues 125-129, Neron is back to his old, manipulating people into giving him unlimited power schtick and brings the Rogues’ souls to Earth, this time as unkillable, power-amplified specters bent on causing as much death and destruction as possible.  Through Linda and Wally’s teamwork and love for each other, Neron is forced to retreat while restoring the Rogues their souls/life.  In the New Year’s Evil special issue, Trickster I tricks the Rogues into going after a sacred treasure in a Zhutan temple when, surprise, Neron pops back up and Heatwave, who emphatically does not want his soul back in Neron’s clutches, convinces the other Rogues to help Tricks and Piper defeat him.  It was a convoluted issue.  After Neron is, yet again, defeated, Heatwave decides to stay with the Zhutan monks, hoping to save his soul by being good.

That is, to my knowledge, the last we see of Mick until his appearance in Superboy 65.  Recaps are taken from issues 65, 76-81, 87-90

For those unfamiliar with this particular run, here are some characters to know:

Superboy/Kon-El: a psuedo-clone of Superman who debuted following The Death of Superman storyline.  Very 90’s teen-with-attitude, he’s one of the founders of Young Justice. His powers weren’t originally copying Superman’s (he was originally a modified human clone rather than half-Kryptonian) but mimics the basic flight/super strength/super durability through the use of tactile telekinesis.  Lives at a Cadmus facility.  At the time, his relationship with Clark was very… hands off.

Guardian/Jim Harper: another Cadmus clone who acts as chief of security and mentor to Kon.  As a clone, his body was modified to be stronger, faster, etc, with accelerated healing.  He also has an indestructible shield.

Dr. Serling Roquette: former head of the genetics division with a sense of style that is both terrible and amazing.  Has a thing for Kon.

Mickey Cannon: Cadmus admin director. Called ‘the Mechanic’, he’s said to be able to fix anything.  Uh… that’s about all I can say about him, really.

Dubbilex: one of Cadmus’s experiments known as a DNAlien, part chaperone and part mentor to Kon.  He is a powerful telepath and can use telekinesis.

Dr. Dabney Donovan: co-founder of Cadmus and creator of various genetic experiments.  You remember that line from Jurassic Park about scientists being so concerned if they could they never considered if they should?  This guy never bothered to hear the second part of that sentence.

Dr. Helen Angelico: head of genetics, called Doc Angel.  Not nearly enough of her.

So we start with Kon crashing a ship into the aptly named Planet Krypton- a superhero-themed restaurant that, thankfully had just been shut down for renovations -with some Challengers of the Unknown.  Who will continue to be unknown because I don’t know a thing about them.  He’d been gone for so long, Cadmus was trying to find someone to replace him as a field agent.

Always fun to play 'Who Can You Name?’

Some heroes decide it isn’t their scene and bounce, others attempt and fail to make themselves look good, and others still- notably Young Justice to the side there -just want some news on Kon.  Steel and Kyle, meanwhile, are there as JLA reps, passing along info about Superboy as it comes (which, at the moment, isn’t really anything).

Guardian, please.  Cadmus hires much worse than a crook with a flamethrower.

After being exposed, Punch and Jewelee take Serling hostage.  Luckily that’s when Superboy finally manages to make it back.

Figuring with Kon back in the picture, a new field agent is no longer needed so the heroes begin to disperse.  Until Cannon decides to hire Mick as a back up agent.

And potential patsy.  Nothing comes of this mental aside.

Jumping forward to issue 76, a little backstory is needed to understand the current situation.  Originally Kon’s genes were modified to stop aging at 16 because of a clone disease, but, immediately proceeding this issue, the events of Sins of Youth caused Cadmus scientists to restart his aging, unfortunately at the expense of his powers leading to Cadmus to call in their back-up agent.

He’s not without his own gadgets, of course- a Legion ring grants him flight and a Cadmus scientist by the name of Gadget Guru gave him a shield that can fold and expand in an instant.  Kon tries asking Harper to train him but Harper declines despite preferring to have Kon watching his back over Mick.

Donovan tries to get Serling to cash in on a favor she owes him but, before she can meet him, gets into a reconstructed space ship with Kon, Cannon and the Guru which takes off into space.  As Cadmus tries to locate them, Rex Leech, Kon’s former very shady manager, comes in carrying his unconscious daughter, Roxy.  Meanwhile, a pair of Cadmus guards are transporting an important blood sample that Donovan, mad that Serling didn’t follow his instructions, decides to take for himself.

Oh comics.

Doc Angel has Roxy stabilized in a containment tank while Rex tries to schmooze up to Mick.

Harper gets an urgent call to get to a storage vault.

For some reason they call Mick “Rory Calhoun”- and it’s not just here.  There’s at least one issue in the Flash- written by the then current writers -where he’s called that.  I don’t know why this is a thing.

Anyway, a bunch of guards dead on the floor, their armor torn open but whatever killed them instantly cauterized their wounds.  On the wall are the words 'Rip’ and 'Jak’.  An alarm goes off, announcing a fire in Lab Three- Doc Angel’s lab.

Quick shout out to Paul Gambi, the Rogues’ tailor, for making some fantastically durable costumes.  Mick’s in particular has been noted on more than one occasion to not only survive some of the hottest temperatures around, but also protects him well enough he barely breaks a sweat withstanding those temps.

Doc Angel is missing but Roxy’s tank was damaged in the fire meaning it’s time for the Guru’s apprentice Tekka to step up.  Harper, meanwhile, explains to Mick that they had a possible sample of Jack the Ripper’s blood and Donovan is the most likely person to make a clone from it.

Tekka finds a hole in the floor that’s venting heat like a volcano.  In true, heroic fashion, Harper and Mick head down.

Ripjak attack!  Turns out that Ripjak’s blood and even touching his skin burns on contact.  Harper says Donovan must have infused Ripjak’s blood with pyro-granulite, something Donovan’s done before. Unfortunately the build-up means he’ll explode, destroying anything or one near him.  They chase him to where Doc Angel is being held. Harper plays bait while Mick frees the doc.

Ripjak does a number on the two before they toss him into the geothermal reactor, including partially melting Harper’s shield and managing to burn through Mick’s suit.

They’re both treated and expected to make a full recovery, and Tekka stabilizes Roxy.

Meanwhile, in Kon’s half of the plot, the bad guy he’d been fighting, Kossak the Slaver, gets beaten out of his own ship and escapes, following a beacon that leads him to Cadmus.  He heads to Lab Three and claims that Roxy is an escaped slave he’s here to collect.  Kon gets back in time to stop Kossak from attacking Doc Angel and, in the ensuing fight, Roxy’s tank explodes.

Roxy is actually possessed by… something, which makes her skin turn bright red and her eyes glow.  She agrees to return to Kossak so long as he leaves all the people in the lab alone and, when she goes to say goodbye to Kon, imparts her power on him.  Which somehow kickstarts Kon’s powers again and Kossack leaves after another butt-kicking.

Superboy, back in costume, visits Harper, passing over the gauntlet with collapsible shield since Harper’s was destroyed.

Roxy is back in the containment tank after giving Kon her power and Doc Angel called in a doctor from STAR Labs, Sarah Charles.  The two promptly get snippy at each other and Kon has them leave to cool off.  Which is, of course, when Roxy busts her way out again as the red sun critter thing, saying she won’t be kept imprisoned.  She flies off, Kon gives chase and when Harper does the same.

She starts destroying property in a town called Kurtzberg and a local cop, with all the logic and protocol of a generic comic cop, calls for the two of them to freeze while simultaneously firing directly at Roxy.  The bullets, however, melt in the heat she’s generating but Roxy doesn’t enjoy the unintentional pun.

I’m not quite sure how Mick managed to get there before Harper who is in a flying car.

Anyway, it turns out the people Sarah called are the Titans who immediately peg Roxy as unstable (as in, unwilling to calm down) and decide they need to use force to contain her.  Kon isn’t having it and puts himself between them.  Tempest uses a hydrant to freeze Kon and Mick shoots off a blast of fire to free him.  

How can you be a jerk to that face, Harper?

Eventually Doc Angel and Sarah make it over and explain how Roxy’s sharing a body with an alien entity and they need the entity to expend its energy to get Roxy out.  The problem is eventually solved through what essentially amounts to the power of friendship.

If you’re wondering how Arsenal got the heat gun, it’s because Nigthwing took out Mick in pretty short order.  Which, really- Nightwing vs Heatwave is no contest.

Mick doesn’t show up again until issue 87 where Harper dies in the line of duty, protecting someone from Shrapnel.  Mick doesn’t have over much to do this issue as Kon feels responsible for Harper’s death (Harper went out on that mission instead of Kon) and gets taken on an astral jaunt with Deadman.  There are a couple choice moments, though.

I should note that Kon’s tactile telekinesis doesn’t work when he’s unconscious, making him as vulnerable as a normal person.

I find it hilarious they gave Mick a flamethrower bigger than his torso.

But, at the end of the issue, there’s a cryptic conversation between Amanda Waller and Lex Luthor (he might’ve been president at this time, I don’t remember) and someone trying to steal Harper’s remains.  Kon manages to take it back and, upon opening the casket, finds there’s a baby inside.

Next issue, the Wall is very unhappy to see that her super-clone cargo has disappeared (aka with Kon) and threatens Cadmus as, being the Secretary of Metahuman Affairs (so yes, Luthor is president), they fall under her jurisdiction.  Cannon, not a fan of the kind of pressure Waller and the new administration is putting on them, decides to get rid of Cadmus.  Literally.  Asides from a hole in the ground, the building is gone.

In the span of a few days, baby Harper grows a couple years, old enough to talk and, with the memory of his previous life returning, worries that he’ll have to fight.  Oracle finds tech and data traced from Cadmus at a LexCorp building and Kon follows her directions to a sewer where he promptly fights tofu critters and finds Mick and Serling.

I gotta say, artists generally make Mick the beefier of the Rogues (when they bother to give them different body types) but this artists really put that heroic build on him.  His shoulders are literally twice the width of his waist!

A random encounter with some sewer ferryman later, the quartet makes it to a weird underground compound where they jump a robot-looking thing and pull the equivalent of three-kids-in-a-trenchcoat with it.  They come across Talia al Ghul experimenting on a gender-flip Superman Blue by the name of Strange Visitor who I know nothing about.  After Talia and Waller’s assistant leaves, the gang bust out of their disguise and take out the guards.  Mostly.

And then this ability was never seen again.

Kon and Mick go to rescue Stranger who very much does not appreciate it.  Talia re-enters and calms down Stranger and the group is captured.  When they come to again, they’re on a space station.  Some guy in a flying chair named General Good makes an army of clones from Harper against Harper’s explicit wishes.  Kon destroys the incubating clones and the quartet is rescued by Sgt Rock who drafts them into the upcoming war.

This issues then follows into the Our Worlds at War event which I never read so if Mick shows up anywhere there, I don’t know about it. Superboy was also canceled shortly after.  In the following year Mick shows back up Flash comics in issues following up to Rogue War where his attempts at reformation are retconned as the Top’s influence in order to tie into the ongoing Identity Crisis event. And these issues are promptly forgotten by everyone and we are all deprived of Kon confronting Mick about going back to the Rogues. Especially egregious when Mick helped kill one of Kon’s best friends.  I mean, yes, Kon was also dead at the time but you’d think that’s one of the things you’d follow up on when you come back to life!

Regicide

A Destiny story Submitted by @a-boros-named-seamus

I sat in my ship’s small hold, preparing my equipment. I wore my armour, most all of it won in the Iron Banner and the Crucible. My Helm was of an extremely costly schematic called “Eternal Warrior”. My chestplate, emblazoned with the same design as on the Iron Banner itself, and my boots were won with difficulty from Lord Saladin. I’d added the arms and the fur collar from the suit I’d won from the New Monarchy by repping them in the Crucible, because I liked how it looked, and it had extra ammo pockets, though I’d added claws on my gloves. The ruff, and the fur on the shoulder pads, were extremely similar to those of Lord Shaxx. It amused him to no end to comment on it every time my team did something like hold down all three points in Control matches. My Mark and my shader were gifts from Eva Levante. She was a good friend, and when I had emerged triumphant from the Vault of Glass, she presented me with them. The Mark of Infinite Victories was a pleated, tartan cloth that encircled my waist and hung to my knees. A kilt, long enough to commemorate defying fate. The shader painted metal dark blue, my Mark myraid blues, and everything else polished metal grey. I grabbed my weapons, and headed to the cockpit, where Brains, my Ghost was piloting the ship. The asteroids of Saturn’s rings streaked by, as I sped towards the black shape of the Dreadnaught Eris picked up when I opened the comms.  "All this was set in motion long ago. He calls out, and the Darkness answers,“ she said. I could feel it, the massing pressure of the Dark, preparing to snuff us out. It sent chills down my spine. Cayde chimed in with “Okay, creepy sidekick. Check. Roguish commander. Check. And then we have the Guardian, my greatest success story. I’d say we’re ready to get this done.” I chuckled. He was always good at that. Breaking the tension in grim times. “Alright. Oryx. Father of Crota. This will be… fun,” I said, attempting to convince myself. “Suuuuuure… fun is a word,” Brains retorted. We drew close. I took deep breaths to calm myself. I was going this alone, and something about the Dreadnaught wormed fear into my heart. My fireteam, and the rest of my clan, and every other Guardian available, including Shaxx’s Redjacks, Crucible competitors, Cayde’s scouts, Ikora’s Hidden, were recalled and directed to fight the Taken, all across the system, and so I was going to face this with only Brains to help me. As felt myself reconstitute after transmat, on the rock that overlooked the hull breach caused by the crashing Cabal ship, the comms crackled to life again. Eris continued to be cryptic, but passionate.  "Push back the dark. End it.“ Cayde started to speak.  "She’s right, Guardian. There’s no doubt in my mind this could possi-” “It WILL work,” I found myself saying, trying to drown my doubts. “It has to.” “Well alright, then. Kick their asses,” Cayde said, sounding uncharacteristically serious. I dashed across the broken field of hull before me. Thrall fell before my shotgun, a reward from Lord Saladin, and my fists, crackling with Arc. For some reason, the Cabal didn’t attack me. Some even saluted. They must have intercepted our comms. As I ran through the hole on the side of the ship, I crashed over and through debris, slamming it aside with my armour. “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Brains said, over my chuckling. “Won’t stop. Working out stress,” I snapped back at him. And I was. Each step, I hardened myself, trying to slough of my fear. I had carried my Light into the Dark and burned it away before. I was preparing to do it again. That calmed me somewhat. “And here’s the rupture,” I said, checking in. “Get it open! Once you’re through send your co-ordinates. We’ll lock down your signal and deploy reinforcements,” Cayde said, voice beginning to slough off all emotion but a laser-fine focus on the goal. I emerged into the Masoleum, the chasm in the back, and shrine to Oryx in the center of the floor. I leapt as I ran through the broken metal, , using my boosters to get up to the platform where the Rupture’s frame stood. Its tines were set apart and bent out at the bottom, before bending to come back towars each other. As I approached, an orb of writhing whiteness, not Light, just flat white, burst into life. Around it, pure blackness, pricked by more flat, dead whiteness pooled betwixt the tines. “The rupture can sense the soul you hold. You are Ascendant!” Eris bellowed at me, urging me onwards. Taken swarmed out of the Rupture, a screaming mass of Thrall, with a pair of Wizards, and a trio of Knights. I tossed a pulse grenade into the mass of Thrall, blowing away the majority of them. I aimed my assault rifle, built on the frame of my Khostov, the first gun I’d picked up and wielded against the Fallen Eliskni in the Cosmodrome, at the Wizards. Using their technology, along with that of the Rhino-like Cabal, I had modified the assault rifle into a juggernaut of destruction, my Light strengthening and shaping it. The first Wizard fell swiftly. Before I could strike down the other, a Knight struck at me, sword cutting into and throwing me. I threw another pulse grenade, hitting the Wizard in the face, killing it. Turning to the Knights, I “holstered” my rifle, my Ghost storing it as Engram, and drew my sword, crackling with an edge of infinite Arc, the blade shaped like that of a katana from before the Golden Age, though straightened out. Shaxx had forged this blade for me from what remained of the shock-sword that I had claimed from Riksis, Devil Archon, and used to become a champion of the Crucible. It shattered when I parried the blow of one of Crota’s Swordbearers with it. Shaxx had asked to see the shards, and he had walked off with them, saying he would make a sword fit for a hero of the Light. And he did, presenting the blade to me in a… meeting that would be improper to recount here. The blade cut throught the Taken Knight who had assaulted me, encountering little resistance. I dashed past the fire, and skewered the other Knight, who carried a boomer. I turned, and walked to stand before the Rupture, and Cayde gave me a few words to send me off.  "Time to go kill a king, eh Guardian? Good luck.“ Just then, three other voices chimed in. "You can do this, Guardian. You are the man who saved the City, broke the Devils, Winter, the Wolves. The City, the Vanguard, has faith in you,” Commander Zavala said, more emotional then I’d ever heard him. Ikora was next. “Your Light burns bright and strong, Guardian. You are the Storm given shape, and no force will stand before you. Even Fate itself bowed to you,” she said, defiant and masking rage over the losses suffered to the Taken. Shaxx was the last one. “Ranulf, make it through this… I lo…” his voice sounded scared, like he was afraid of my death, “I’d love to see you back in the Crucible! We’ve got a lot of rookies to train!” He finished, obviously concerned about more than just his favorite competitor. I turned to face the sea of white-pricked blackness. Brains chimed in, preceded by his usual chiming.  "Well, I’m ready if you are,“ he said, sounding slightly terrified. "Don’t worry. We can do this,” I said, still trying to convince myself. And I stepped through this tear in the fabric of the universe, reality distorting before my eyes. I stepped out into a massive, dark hall. I tried the comms. Naught but static. “We’re going to have to finish this on our own, huh, Brains?” I said almost whispering. He nodded, as much as a Ghost can nod. “My scans are returning nothing. We’re definitely… somewhere, but no sign of Oryx.” I continued on, through the twisting, deathly silent hall, each turn punctuated by a hanging, monolithic thing, suspended above, partially in a hole. I encountered a ball of white something, hanging suspended in front of an archway into a larger area. As I got closer it fled deeper into the Dreadnaught. I saw that the area was a bridge over a massive chasm, the construction reminiscent of the bridge in Crota’s throne. The orb continued over the bridge, splitting and summoning Taken. Multiplying Psions, teleporting and blinding Captains, shielding Goblins, and sniping Hobgoblins. “Well, we got his attention,” I said, drawing my rifle, “Hi, Oryx.” I unloaded a hail of bullets into the crowd, tossing a pulse grenade into them, and running closer. I ducked behind cover, spraying bullets over it, focusing on the Goblins. A bullet hit me, and nearly opened my neck, and so I ducked behind cover, until Brains managed to heal me. Once he did, I switched my rifle for my shotgun, and, drawing upon Solar Fire instead of Arc Lightning, charged. I threw a thermite grenade into a mass of Psions, and it obliterated them. My shotgun, Felwinter’s Lie, chewed up the hobgoblins, and slammed my fist into the final one erupting fire, then drew my blade, challenging the Captains. One of their dark orbs hit me by surprise, but I fought, blades flashing against blades, and stood triumphant in the end. I headed for the massive doors, and as they ground open with a cavernous roar, and as I stepped through, a massive apparition that looked like it was made from the ashy residue of a just-snuffed candle materialized in front of the frame for another Rupture, which stood in the back half of the room, surrounded only by what looked like snapped off pillars, while the lower half looked sandy and full of rocks. It was Oryx. The Taken King. When he spoke, his voice was like a cacophony of dying screams, threatening to drive me to madness and snuff my light. I felt like a candle attempting to brave a hurricane. "You… are the last hope of the Light? I have taken entire worlds! You are not worthy to face me,” he bellowed. When it faded the Rupture opened, that same pin-pricked only black pooling, and the massive Cabal Valus that I had seen Oryx Take stepped out, the Rupture snapping shut behind him. He readied his cannon and I dove behind one of the rocks. He kept walking towards me, continuing to fire, forcing me to keep moving. Just when I thought I had him on the ropes, the massive Ogre that had been guarding Crota’s shattered soul stepped out of the Rupture with a massive roar, surrounded by lesser Taken. At that point, I had to just run and gun, tossing grenades and firing bullets back at the pair of massive Taken. The smaller ones, I dispatched with my fists. Once the smaller Taken were dead, I took cover on the far side of the room, focused on still unfamiliar feeling of Sol’s burning rage mingling with mine, and stepped out, drawing forth a hammer wreathed in fire and forged from Sol’s Light. I sent a volley of hammers right into the Valus’s face, exploding into flame when they hit. He caught flame and his tortured slavery to the Oryx was ended. The Ogre was a bit harder. I smashed another volley of hammers into him, but he weathered them. I felt my the calm, and the Light faded, beginning to recede from a roaring song to a dull beat. I grasped its tail end, and focused on my other constant companion, a raging, mammoth storm contained inside the tiny bottle that was me. Unlike the Light of Sol, I didn’t have to focus. I just roared, making a sound like the bone-shaking boom of thunder, foucusing all my rage, my determination, my being on this Ogre, leaping at it and smashing my fist into its eye, releasing all of that Arc, that rage, into it and destroying it. The Rupture opened. “Guess I proved you wrong, huh?” I quipped at empty air. I stepped through it. I emerged in the Trenchway, the the space between the shell and the meat of the Dreadnaught, on the interior side. I could see where I had first entered this monolithic temple of Darkness in the distance. On the other side of the chasm was a massive door, flanked by two statues, one Crota, and the other was something I didn’t recognise. There was a platform hanging in the void in front of it, rivers of liquid that looked as mist flowing through channels and over the edge. Knights and Acolytes gathered on the platform before the doorway. Oryx spoke as I walked towards the edge, looking for one of the invisible platforms that covered this place. “Come for me, warrior of Light. I will finish what Crota began.” Adrenaline running through my veins, I felt full of rage and courage. Oryx’s voice sounded ice still, but my course was set. He was going to die. He threatened all I loved, and he’d consumed millions of worlds, and for what? Worship? Some delusions of being a master race, like the Nazis of the twentieth and twentyfirst centuries? Some belief that light was a sickness? It mattered not. His atrocities were numerous and horrible, and I would face his dark and burn it away, avenge those innocents that he’d slaughtered. On Earth and across the stars. The bridge materialized before me, and I charged across, burning away the Hive that guarded the door with crackling Arc. The door swung open with a boom. Within stood a statue of Oryx. I stepped around it, and into an utter, velvet darkness, and walked forwards. Above the floor, a ball of white fire hovered, then streaked towards the dark in front of me and climbing a wall before splitting to form Ory’s sigil, fading to a ruddy red as it dif. The wall then split open, revealing a grand chamber, open to the cold, empty void. A membrane of red and black Darkness covered it. Oryx was in the middle, emanating this Darkness. The membrane began to shred and collapse into Oryx, forming wings and his sword. He looked like a moth, drawn to flame. “At last, I will have vengeance!” He bellowed as he summoned his troops. I saw the area clearly as I ducked to cover, a court area of rocks spread before me. To the right, stood some sort of table, concealed by a circle of stone spans and a construction too smooth and sharp to be Hive. The ledge bore a pool of black liquid, ringed by gold with four rough obsidian pillars standing at equidistant points around the circle. As I tore through Oryx’s horde he bellowed at me. “Your Traveler’s Light cannot reach you here!” He boasted as I felt my light drain, unable to summon more than a simple pulse grenade or Arc sheathed punch. Still I persevered. I tore through the Hive, pelting Oryx with grenades while I sprayed bullets and shotgun shells at his troops. Oryx roared again.  “What you call Darkness is the end of your evolution!” I kept fighting until I was nearly out of ammunition. Then, I drew my sword and charged at Oryx, leaping towards where hung over that black pool. As I leapt, he held out his fist, full of black fire. “The Darkness is a gift. Let my will set you free.” Darkness enveloped me, and whispered to me sweetly. “You are a Guardian. Strong, versatile, driven warrior. A hero, a champion, a Titan. You have been Taken. Be calm. There is nothing here that needs protecting. You no longer need to defend the weak. Why did you fight for them? You are immortal, so why do you need them? You are so like us. You kill each other for strength in your Crucible. Death has no permanant hold upon you. You divide into strength, knowledge, cunning. But you still fight nature. You protect that which doesn’t deserve to exist, preserve the shattered remains of the Sky’s false safe places. You know the Sword Logic, that is clear, but you don’t follow its truth. You must become more. There is a knife for you. It is shaped like [you and you alone] Take up the knife. Cut away the weakness that chains you. Take your new shape.” Wait. The voice was enchanting, beautiful, Deep. No. I reached out, fingers beginning to curl. This is wrong. Ready to cut away that Little Light, my link to the Sky. NO! I yanked my hand back, furious. The dark tried to force me forward. It did not succeed. Brains winked back into my armour. “ You wish to dominate me? Change me? To know why? I’ll tell you,” I roared at the howling void. “My purpose is to protect. It makes me strong, not weak. I have to stand and fight. Your Dark is strong, yes, but so is the Light. We stand and fight for our beliefs just like you. Our beliefs seed life and progress and new things. We fight entropy. You embrace it. You kill and slaughter. I reject such an abominable thing. I wield my own knife, as does all of mankind. It is shaped like [all of us together] and you cannot break it.” As I roared those defiant words, words that didn’t quite flow like they did in my head, I dug deep within myself, and exploded with Light. The Dark around me warred with my Light, casting me in twilight that raged like the eye of a storm.around me. Oryx stepped out of the gloom, and swung his sword at me, firing bolts of Dark that I dodged or parried. He charged, and we crossed blades. When I began to push him back, he retreated, summoning Taken to wear me down, before attacking again. Each time I beat him back, the storm of twilight brightening each time, until he was left kneeling in the pool of blackness, sword impaled on the ground in front off him. He summoned the same black flame, and I braced myself, but it never came. Instead, he slammed it into himself, collapsing inwards into it. I was shocked at that, but it didn’t last long. The rush of power faded, and I almost collapsed at how exhausted I became. But if done it. Oryx was gone. Not dead, but sorely weakened and beaten. We would hunt him down later. Brains summoned the ship, and we transmatted in. I sat down at the helm, and set a course for home, the Light washing over me the closer we got. It felt right.

I want to quit. I am angry with myself for wanting to quit - Cardiff Half Marathon

Charlie Spedding, age 28, is a good runner, but not a great one. He sits down in a pub one day, drinks his ale, and reads a story in the paper. A job had been advertised with a salary of £60k – no one applied. The employers re-ran the ad, but took down the salary to £25k – they received dozens of applications. Charlie sips his beer and realises that, up to this point, he was the guy who didn’t think he was worth the higher paid salary. His subconscious is the thing holding him back in races, not injuries, nor lack of training. He writes down some ridiculously lofty goals, leaves the pub, and goes on to achieve them. He becomes GB champ at 10,000m, wins the London Marathon, and gets a bronze at the Olympics in 1984 (incidentally, the last medal that Great Britain have won in the Olympic marathon).

Charlie came to grips with the importance of the mental aspect. He attributed it fully to his success, but also, to his downfall. Age 36, in the Olympic marathon again, Charlie is in 6th place, with 5 miles still to go. He is feeling terrible, and he is being caught up. He wants badly to quit, or at least slow down. In that deep dark point of suffering, on the verge of breaking down, he made a deal with himself. Just finish, and hold onto 6th place, and you will never have to run a marathon again. Charlie kept to his promise. He did finish 6th in the Seoul Olympics. But then, after that, he was still a top pro runner. Having finished 3rd and 6th in Olympic games, and with the running scene booming, he was hot property, and was being offered very lucrative fees to race marathons all over the world. Due to injury, illness, or (as he himself suspects) in honour of that promise, he never did managed to finish one again. 3 months ago, I promised myself I would quit running if I could just finish the Snowdonia Trail Marathon. I did finish. I reneged on that promise a week later, and have, to date, raced five times since. But, as soon as the race starts to hurt, I find myself whisked back on the dark, moody slopes of Snowdon, and I remember the deal I made with myself. I promised myself I wouldn’t have to go through this again. In each race, I start with all the optimism of the ‘old me’. This time I will be back to my old self, I have switched my brain back on now and everything is ok again. But, each race…hurts, want to quit.

Cardiff Half, the weather, the atmosphere, the organisation, it is all incredible. I have been put up by a lovely couple (Gwenno and Dylan), have had a great night sleep, training has gone well, and in the warm up I am feeling light and ready. On the start line, with 27,500 runners behind me, I feel great. 4 miles into the race, we go up a hill. It hurts. I want to quit. I want to quit. I am angry with myself for wanting to quit. I am 4 miles away, if I quit, I will just have to walk 4 miles back. Screw it! I will walk 4 miles if I want to, you think I won’t walk 4 miles? What the hell do I care?! I am a mountain runner, I LIVE in the mountains, why am I the one struggling up this piddly little hill?! I should be devouring this fucker. There are girls infront of me. There should not be girls infront of me. There are guys infront of me who shouldn’t be infront of me. Everyone around me is wearing 4%s. My mum and dad have come to watch, I don’t want them to see me quit again. I miss my little girl. I have to find a way to finish this race, and I have to find a way to enjoy it. The look my little girl gave me when I told her I was going away for the weekend, she might as well have ripped my heart from my chest and stamped on it. I have to find a way to make this all worth it. I will drop back, relax, enough until the pain subsides. I will convince myself I am running a marathon, and then I can drop out at halfway. The above line of thought, all takes place within about 1 mile. As we drop down off the hill and across the Cardiff Barage, a dam type pedestrian walkway over the sea, I am already starting to feel better. 5.20 miling is feeling easy, and I have got my breathing and my rythym back quickly. I let the group of leading ladies go, let any chance of a PB go, and let my ego go too. The mile markers seem to come quicker, I notice the crowds, hear the bands, and I am enjoying myself. I know I can run faster than this, at some points, I am almost overwhelmed with a desire to kick on. I want to catch the women back up, they are just up the road. No Russell, hold! I feel lazy, cruising around at 5.20 pace, I want to shout to the crowds, “I could go faster than this you know!”. I have to remind myself that, mile 4, I had nearly dropped out, so this is a million times good enough.

Somewhere around mile 10, I really start to tune into the simple feeling of my trainers gripping the tarmac, freshly dried by the morning sun. Man I am loving this. We get to mile 13, I am almost in a daze, I am only halfway through, my mum pops out of nowhere and screams at me “Russell you have to go now”. So I might as well, I kick as hard as I can for the last hundred meters and fly past the guy I had been running with, the lactic stings, but it feels good, I relish the pain this time. 68.53. This could be seen as a disaster, considering I was initially targeting somewhere around 2 minutes quicker. But, then, it’s a wonderful success compared to dropping out at mile 4. Maybe my body could have produced better, but my mind couldn’t. So if 68 is where my mind is at, then I’m happy enough with that.

After a wonderful Nandos with my folks, I set off on the stunning drive over and around the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia. I have time to think things through. I realise that, my mental state is fragile. It’s not a word I like to use, ‘fragile’, but none the less, I have to admit it is true. It needs time to heal, and a bit of self-compassion. I can’t expect to just flick a switch and be back to the old me, bulldozing through races and smashing through the pain barrier. I’ve tried that. It’s not working. There is some damage done, I need to realise that first, and then give it the space to heal. I feel like this was the first race that really started that process for me. There are still 3 months of the year left. Plenty of time to build on a 68 half. Maybe next time I can get to mile 5 before I think about quitting! 30/09/2019 AM PM Monday 5 5 Tuesday 6 3 miles @ 5.26 pace. (1km, 600m, 400m) x 3. 2min rest between reps, 5min between sets. 2.54, 1.44, 68. 10 miles total Wednesday REST 4 Thursday 12@ 20kmph tm. 5 miles total REST Friday REST 5tm @ 6min miling Saturday 5tm + volunteer at Academi Drive to Cardiff Sunday Cardiff Half. 68.53. 15 miles total Drive home TOTAL: 60 miles tm = treadmill Non-Running Related Highlight of the Month We take the kids out cycling on the dam underneath a brilliant rainbow

Thing I’m Digging This Week: Alberto Salazar, ex-marathon runner, now infamous coach, has finally been busted for drugs. I was walking from my car to the Cardiff Half start line, and heard lots of runners in the crowds talking about it. It’s a big thing. I am happy he has finally been caught, but a lot of heros were coached by him; Mo Farah, Galen Rupp, Alan Webb, Matt Centrowitz, the list goes on and on. It doesn’t look good for any of those guys. Great article on the subject here Best Thing On The Internet This Week: The World Athletics Championships in Doha. Stupid place to host the World Champs, the desert. The outdoor stadium had to be constantly air-conditioned to make it habitable to the athletes (how about that for a carbon footprint?). The women’s marathon had a third of the field drop out due to the heat. There were nights with less than 1000 spectators. I sat down with my little girl, El, and watched the women’s pole vault. At 3yrs old, she fricking loved it. She is still talking about how she is going to be a pole vaulter when she grows big. The IAAF is so corrupt, bloated and arrogant, that there may not be any pole vault by the time El grows big. But still, the athletes brought it. Dina Asher Smith, KJT, and Callum Hawkins, immense performances for which the GB team can be proud. You can watch all the highlights on the iplayer, if you watch one thing, watch Cal Hawkins come from nowhere to lead the mens marathon with 1km to go. Last night, Callum Hawkins finished 4th in the brutal heat of Doha desert World Champs! Incredible redemption after collapsing with heat exhaustion in Gold Coast Games last year. He did most of his training this summer in his shed with stacks of Aldi heaters. There are no excuses pic.twitter.com/m759UR69nL — Russell Bentley (@russell_runner) October 6, 2019 Read the full article

Looking for an edge, Klobuchar chases Trump voters

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/looking-for-an-edge-klobuchar-chases-trump-voters/

Looking for an edge, Klobuchar chases Trump voters

Klobuchar’s most recent debate performance has made a difference — particularly the ensuing spike in fundraising. The campaign said they are diverting resources to New Hampshire out of the $1 million Klobuchar raised following her well-received debate performance in December though they declined to disclose how much.

Some of the money is being used to double their field staff, from 10 to 20 organizers, and up their advertising budget for January. The campaign’s advertising spending in the Boston media market dropped significantly from more than $500,000 in October to just $20,000 in November and $50,000 in December, according to Advertising Analytics, a tracking firm. They plan to launch a television ad here next week.

Still, even doubling the size of her staff footprinton the ground doesn’t land Klobuchar anywhere near the presence of the top-tier campaigns, some of which have nearly a hundred organizers to knock on doors and make phone calls.

A dozen Democrats and political watchers, including supporters, said a third-place finish here would be a huge victory. They largely agree she is seeing a surge, leading to a renewed interest from voters to attend a town hall, but wonder if it will be enough to vault her from the back of the pack.

With 40 days to go before the first primary in the nation, it would take a massive investment for Klobuchar’s campaign operation here to match the size of better funded campaigns.

“It’s a crowded field and at least five other campaigns have built a stronger ground game — spending months organizing and recruiting volunteers for the final push,” said a senior Democratic campaign operative.

Smith questioned whether the data from polls backed up the recent attention Klobuchar has been getting.

“The media wants something that is new and different, and I think that’s really what is happening with her,” he said. “Other than a little bit of a boost in poll numbers, she hasn’t raised a lot of money, she hasn’t been getting a lot of endorsements, but she’s been getting more news coverage though.”

In the last three polls here —all of which were in the field prior to the Dec. 19 debate—Klobuchar has averaged two percent.

“If you just don’t have the campaign resources that others have, you have to really count on catching fire at the end because you haven’t had an opportunity to build out your campaign operation,” Smithsaid. “They have a bad hand of cards that they’re playing, and they’re trying to play them as best as they can.”

In an interview with POLITICO, Klobuchar said she thinks her ability to win rural, independent voters in her home state of Minnesota translates to New Hampshire.

“These are the things I don’t think people would understand that are my secret sauce for why I could do very well here,” she said, adding that she could rise in the polls if more people heard her speak. “I think not everyone knows who I am, and that would be a big miss for me.”

That style is as familiar and easy to digest as her favorite lunchtime meal: a baked potato. As she spread butter on one during a break in her three-day campaign swing here, she offered up how she may be a sort of comfort food for voters. She said she is closest in style and substance to the state’s top elected Democrats and her policies are most appealing to moderate voters, including independents who may have voted for Trump.

“That’s fair as long as you add chives,” said former state Rep. Jay Phinizy, an early Klobuchar supporter. “What’s impractical about most of the people is that they talk about all these wonderful concepts — not trying to denigrate them — but in the process, no one else has offered a practical application of how to get stuff done. She has experience doing that in the Senate.”

In a single day on the trail, Klobuchar invoked the names of the state’s popular senators, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, more than twenty times. She’s become so close to Hassan they play the New York Times mini-crossword puzzle every day to see who can finish the fastest. (Hassan holds the lead at 11 seconds. “Everything just clicked,” Hassan said in a text message to Klobuchar.)

“I think that people are not always focused on how similar my approach and voting record is to the two senators here,” Klobuchar said. She said the three of them may not be the loudest in the Senate but know how to quietly work the levers to get bills passed.

“Maggie and Jeannie and I are always in the bipartisan groups,” she said.

In style and substance, she matches Shaheen and Hassan on the stump more than the other senators in the race. All three generally avoid rah-rah rhetoric in their speeches, instead focusing on calmly highlighting what they’ve accomplished in Congress. None of them support versions of Medicare for All or free college for all being offered up the more liberal wing of the party.

Klobuchar doesn’t mention that detail in her stump speech but is happy to riff about how plans proposed by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders won’t work if a voter asks.

Her supporters hope she’s seeing a wave and not a peak.

“She’s slow and steady and I think it’s going to be building up to Iowa and New Hampshire,” said former stateAttorney General Joe Foster, who saw 14 candidates before deciding on Klobuchar. “She’s getting attention at just the right time.”

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Top 10 WordPress Mistake that you Should not do

What's up everybody stripping our key fromTechnograpes, our businesses about teaching people how to start a blog. That's profitable and earning money with them. So today we want to talk about 10 common WordPress mistakes that we see as we're coaching people through WordPress. Permalinks Backup Free Themes Resizing Images junkie images Too Many Plugins Passwords Junkie Host Blocking Spam SEO

Permalinks

The first one is forgetting to set up Permalinks. Oh, that's a terrible mistake really is. Permalink is when you create a post or a page on your website your WordPress is automatically going to create a URL or web address for that site and you can set up with the format of that URL is going to look like the way that it usually comes is that the plane one which is like technograpes.com/?p=1235. That might be the default which is a weird code, which I think it has two problems, leaving it believing it that way. First of all, just looks ugly because you have this weird code in there. It used to serve a purpose, years ago. It used to make it faster, but it doesn't anymore. And the other thing is, it hurts your SEO because it's just a long URL and then you can't get those ds in the URL. So what we recommend is to just go with the post name. So you're just going to go into settings change your post name so If you are not doing at the starting of the website then you will be in trouble, So do it now at the beginning of your website if you haven't done it yet. I'm sorry.

Backup

Another Wordpress Mistake is Backing up Your WordPress site is going to get messed up at some point it will happen especially when you're new at WordPress and you're making mistakes. You have to have a backup. I promise you, you will cry like a baby when you lose six months of work because it wasn't backed up just because it's on a hosting company doesn't mean it's backed up now having said that, getting a good hosting company is going to help you like we recommend your first sight should be on Blue Host and the reason is that they keep good backups multiple times, but also you need to keep a local backup one that I've used for this in the past is called default press and it's just a plugin you can install the will do this. Now I'm Updraft but this will definitely do the job. It's one that I would recommend to start out with so backup your website.

Free Themes

All right. Number three, using a free theme free or just super cheap or just ones from not reputable companies, anything you know if you need a good theme and a powerful theme, not having a good theme is going to cause things to break, it's going to cause your site to go slow, it's not going to work well with the plugins that you want. There's just so many problems, you can have by using a bad theme and those problems may not surface at first, but as you get more traffic as you get, you know, plugins and more articles, you're going to run into problems down the road.

Resizing Images

When you put an image on to your post. It's going to make it smaller on the page. So it'll look small it'll look good on your site, but it's not actually reducing the size of that image, the number of pixels in that image. And so the file is still really big. And when that happens, your site, your pages are just going to load really slow. It takes a long time to load those image. So what we like to do. First, you know your smaller images that have the text wrapped around them for your little-featured images we usually go with like a 350 pixel with for full-width images. We're still only talking like 900 pixels on the long side on the horizontal side and that's going to give you kind of a full width on your page it's gonna look really good. But it's not going to be so huge of a file. Yeah. So if you don't use Photoshop. Just take your image and before you upload it to your website please resize it .

Junkie Images

Now two things about this one. You really should get a subscription to Graphic Stock spying stock photos for all of your articles can get really pricey. And so we started using this company and it's just a lot less expensive their, their portfolio wasn't as big as some of the others, but you're not paying like seven bucks an image to get a full-width image. It's $99, a year and you can just download like crazy for the whole year that your podcasting.

Too Many Plugins

Number seven is too many plugins fighting each other. I have a hard rule that I can never ever have more than 15 plugins on a website and every time I try to get fancy and try to just add a couple more plugins that I really wanted because they're really cool. It always causes problems and there's nothing worse than coming to your website it's down. You say, Oh, what is wrong and now you have to go through each plugin and figure out what happened. I would say for your first whole year of blogging no more than eight plugins period. So, you know, if you want to do something fancy for one post and you want this cool feature for a particular post to skip it. Just don't do it because now you've added another plugin and, you know,  You just can't do that for one post only out of the single plugin. If you really have a need plugins or what caused the most problems and WordPress. So only by Rep. The only get reputable ones and use as few as humanly possible that kind of comes back to the theme. If you have a really good team to start with help need so many plugins.

Passwords

Using a password, that's easy to guess in this day and age, there are computers out there that are just running a script to try to guess at your password to get into your WordPress site and they're just going to do that over and over and over again every day, all day. Okay, so you know when you have a small site, you might not see so much of that. But over time, you're going to start to get a lot of password tips so use a unique password that you don't use anywhere else. You know, I recommend using there's a tool called the last pass. Just go to last pass calm there you can create a password vault that you can have across your devices that's that's all encrypted is free. It's totally free and so then you can have it generate passwords that are like 12 or 16 characters long have special characters and, you know, then, then you don't have to worry about it. They're never going to get those passwords. Yeah, my, my WordPress website is getting many attempts at day to crack the passwords, you really do have to be careful. And the cool thing is with like a 12 if you if you have a password. That's like 12 characters long 12 random character random characters that use our alphabet numerically and special characters you have literally over a trillion password combination. It's basically one crack will never get it. Yeah, so the NSA can't crack it.

Junkie Host

Junkie host so several years ago I decided that I was going to try a different host because somebody said they had this fancy host and so I tried it. I'm trying to remember who it was because I would totally call him out. Oh, that's I wrote him in the article storm on demand. I spent five times as much as I did with my good host and my website could not stay online. It was just not managed well the way that my site was implemented on the server was just not handling the amount of traffic. I had. Well, you have to get a good host. There are a lot of good ones most. In fact, are going to be pretty decent but there are a lot of bad ones. And if you make the wrong call, you're definitely gonna regret it.

SEO

SEO your way to traffic. We have a philosophy that is rather than using it trying to use all the SEO tricks and trying to basically trick Google into thinking your site has the content that people want we just write really good content. And the reason for that is, you know, we've tried it. We've done the SEO stuff we've done the link building all the tricks that are supposed to work and really do nothing for you. They do very, very little for you. And really, in the end, all you're trying to do is trick Google. So just write good content having those big media articles is going to do more for you than any SEO link building stuff you do we have a whole article about this. So if you want to check it out again.  so just don't waste your time just make some good content and I think you're going to be much, much better off. \

Junkie Images

now two things about this one. You really should get a subscription to Graphic Stock spying stock photos for all of your articles can get really pricey. And so we started using this company and it's just a lot less expensive their, their portfolio wasn't as big as some of the others, but you're not paying like seven bucks an image to get a full-width image. It's $99, a year and you can just download like crazy for the whole year that your podcasting.

Blocking Spam

Alright. Failing to block spam is one of the biggest WordPress mistakes you can do. There's a big one spam goes crazy on WordPress and we have a plugin recommended here in the article so that's been the best for us. But if you don't do anything to block spam, you're going to get inundated in just the first few weeks so you got to do something that gets spam comments and posts and contact forms, all that stuff all the time depth game.   Read the full article

Magic: The Tilting

I remember the moment that I decided to play Magic: The Gathering. I had become jaded after so many years of online first person shooters and RTS/MOBA games. After competing on various levels over the years I began to hate it. As I got older, I’m 27 now, my reflexes have gotten worse. It may seem stupid but there’s a big difference between my twitch reflex at 16 and now. I commented on how Hearthstone was kind of fun and I was called a filthy casual by a close friend of mine. Long story short the only card game in town is Magic.

When I first got into it I had no idea what I wanted. I started out playing Standard around the time Oath of the Gatewatch came out. I thought Mist Intruders were badass and that Ingest was a sweet mechanic. I was also drawn to Pauper since it’s decks were generally cheaper and I have a thing for older cards. Modern was way out of my league so for the first year or so I avoided it. I’d look at decks like Jund or Affinity and dream of a day where I could justify playing something like that. How could I do that when I barely understood the basics?

Fast forward a few months prior to Peregrine Drake being reprinted as a common and thus warping the format of Pauper. I messed around with various archetypes with my one true love being Mono Black Control, a midrange black devotion deck. I wasn’t very good at it but it broke up the tedium of playing linear decks. Before that I had played Burn and Affinity along with some tier 3 jank and had grown tired of playing aggro all the time. In Modern I built a budget Mono-Red Burn along with some other useless decks that I thought were cool.

I also decided to go to my local LGS since I had just moved to the area and I wanted to see what format they were playing. I wanted to make some friends but I failed miserably. I realized that I barely knew anything about Magic and that Standard / Modern was a foreign land to me. I had a horrible night. I sat there awkwardly with my budget Eldrazi starter deck and was generally treated like pure shit. I know that I look like a total meathead but this was far from what I was expecting. Long story short I decided to concentrate on playing Magic Online, even with it’s incredibly shitty client, because it allowed for more freedom of use, cheaper decks overall and that I could qualify for pro tours or generally play in tournaments in my underwear.

But as time went on I became increasingly displeased with Magic as I hit a huge plateau which led me to taking most of 2016 off from Magic. I played some pauper here and there during the Drake era but I didn’t touch the game until around October of last year. I continued to look at articles, read about the meta and contemplate coming back. But honestly that was the best decision I ever made. Taking a break allowed me to change my perspective on the game itself and whether or not I wanted to really invest my time and money into it. October of 2016 was a strange time for me. I was still reeling from major changes in my life that went back to 2015 but I was finally coming out of the fog. Unfortunately life has a way of throwing more landmines at you as time passes. Crazy ex-girlfriends and health issues of family members became more apparent. But I decided to sell my MTGO collection and buy a modern deck that I could play, one that I had been dreaming of for months, Naya Burn.

I figured if I was going to play this format for the length of years I would want to approach it with a style of deck that I was already familiar with. I played some 300 games between October and December of Burn. Turn 1 Fetch, Shock, Goblin Guide; Turn 2 Fetch, Shock, Monastery Swiftspear and suspend Rift Bolt;, Turn 3 Swing with Guide and Swiftspear (With Prowess) and optimally play Atarka’s Command to pump the squad. Even though I had my games where I couldn’t top deck that final bolt that I needed to win the game I learned some very important lessons during that time. I also found my first true love, Ad Nauseam, during this time. After playing a single game against it I knew that I wanted to play it.

Ad Nauseam was my first combo deck. I feel like it takes the linear non-interactive gameplay of Burn and let’s you put two or three pieces together at the same time, “gotcha” if you will, and win through unfair methods. I was hooked. There was something undeniably cool about going into unlife, sitting at -37 life points and saccing all of my Simian Spirit Guides and lands for a giant Lightning Storm. But I was also faced with the same problem that had plagued me with Burn. There wasn’t a whole lot of room for change. You could play a Mystical Teachings / Peer Through Depths package instead of Spoils of the Vault but that was about as far as customization goes with the deck. Anything else and you begin to dilute the deck and it becomes less optimal.

I also made the mistake of building Eldrazi Tron, or as I call it lovingly, Spaghetti Tron. At the time it was cheaper, with the most expensive parts being Chalice of the Void, and it was exciting to play a new archetype in Modern. Sure people had tried to put Eldrazi into Tron shells for years but it never seemed that great. But it’s ironic now that I see it being very popular and yet I can’t stand the thought of playing it. I hated the games where I had Tron online, sometimes double Tron lands, and no threats to play because I was so flooded. I hated the games where I would land a turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer and still lose because they had answers to everything and I would get flooded out. I found to my horror that it felt worse than playing Burn. I hated playing Tron in Pauper and I honestly have no idea why I built it in Modern.

Again my time in Magic has had some defining moments that worked out in a strange but successful way. Even though my friends criticized me for it, I sold my collection minus Ad Nauseam, and decided to do something crazy. I decided to play fair. I built Jund and Junk from the $985 I had invested into Magic over the course of the past year. I had contemplated getting into Legacy and dropping Modern all together but in hindsight I am glad that I stuck with Modern. Around the same time, after the Golgari Grave Troll and Gitaxian Probe bans, Death’s Shadow Jund became a thing. It was a minor investment to build the deck as I managed to do so prior to the price spikes. I also figured I would decide against waiting for MM17 that way I can have my investment secured instead of trying to procure the pieces for GBx in a fluctuating market.

There is something undeniably pleasing about “Junding em out”. Winning a game through perfection is different from winning through unfair means. Sheer card quality, advantage, discard and answers are my tools now. I never really understood what made Tarmogoyf the poster child of Modern, Bob; The Dark Confidant so famous or why Liliana of the Veil cost so much. I had always been on the receiving end of a turn 1 Thoughtseize not on the side that makes the decisions on turn 1 that can affect the rest of the game. It took me two weeks of pouring over lists, reading primers and testing things out before I decided on a list for both Jund and Junk. I had never put that much time into something related to Magic. I was too used to just picking up a list online and playing it for a few months with the only changes being one or two sideboard pieces. Now I had to learn how to actually sideboards effectively and use the disadvantage of playing a fair deck in a largely linear and unfair format against my opponents.

I am by no means a good Magic player. I am still relatively new to Modern as I can honestly say I’ve only played a little over half a year. But I feel that I have finally found my place in the format. Where I can put my feet up, watch the disparity of the market and ride the ebbs and flows of the meta over the coming years. I still play Ad Nauseam from time to time when I want to relax and not interact with my opponent, but I feel a sense of belonging in the BGx archetype. Old school Jund midrange may be falling in popularity due to the meta but having options between Junk or Jund feels great. Being able to tweak my deck to respond to the meta is rewarding. I still need more time and reps to really understand my lines of play in various matchups because I am still not accustomed to really caring about what my opponent is doing. But I feel like in the long term this will be the way that I want to play. It’s difficult but very rewarding. Not having to really worry about whether or not a piece of my deck is going to get banned is a very comforting thought also. I’m not paranoid and I don’t really care that Splinter Twin was banned because it was before my time. But I do understand that the Mothership has to police formats effectively in order to keep everything balanced. Through looking at the history of BGx, regardless of which variant, I saw that it’s always around in some shape or form. Many say Jund isn’t tier 1 right now but I feel like it’s impossible for it to never be tier 1. Death’s Shadow Jund is a natural evolution of the deck. Somehow through ingenuity Death’s Shadow Aggro and Jund became one. I will always have faith though and I stand by my investments into the archetype. At the end of the day it’s because everyone loves a turn 1 discard spell.