The day seemed like it would be ordinary until the aeronautical community’s most sought after document showed up on my doorstep.
It came wrapped in brown kraft paper tied off with twine, and the exterior packaging had no return address nor any indication of a postage stamp. It was as though it had been simply bundled up and dropped into my wall-mounted mailbox by a random passerby.
No part of me was willing to surrender the strange parcel without opening it first. Regardless of who its contents truly belonged to, my eyes would be the first to see it. I removed the twine and then dug a thumb under a fold in the packaging paper before clawing it away to expose a brown tan notebook circa 1900. It was full grain buffalo leather with a crisscross of cord for the spine and a thick hand cut string keeping it sealed shut.
When I undid the string, the pages that had been gripped tight by the leather fanned out gently then returned to their original position, my eyes landing on the front page. It was without a printer’s mark and read in big handwritten type: “THE DIARY AND RECORD OF HENRY H. HELGELAND.”
I knew in that instant the package was in the hands of who it was rightfully sent out for. Not just because I’d recently lost my job as an associate at our city’s art museum but because of a separate, much deeper connection to the diary’s author.
Perhaps it’s in my best interests to turn it over to the National Archives, or the US Arctic Research Commission, or maybe even the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, but at the risk of seeing it blue-penciled to death, I’ve elected to instead share it here and now.
The world needs to know what happened.
---
Henry H. Helgeland — my great grandfather — was a severe looking man with a walrus mustache and a bone to pick with anyone who ever doubted him. He was born in Oakland, California in 1871 and was, by all available accounts relayed to me, well-behaved and well-liked. His father worked a lucrative job in the shipping industry, transporting timber between San Francisco and the Central Valley. Two years into Henry’s life, his mother would contract a fatal case of diphtheria and die shortly thereafter; when he was old enough to understand what had happened, Henry “yearn[ed] fervently for a reunion to mend [his] great anguish and sorrow.”
Near the turn of the 20th century, Henry attended Stanford University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he learned everything from thermodynamics to machine design. But it was a lecture about polar transportation that would ultimately kindle his interest in a separate enterprise: arctic exploration. Indeed, the race to the North Pole was well underway, with naval officers, geologists, and aeronauts around the globe vying for the chance to make history. My great grandfather, like many of his peers, propounded the theory that he, and he alone, would be the first to reach the Great White North.
In 1895, Henry graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and sought to expand the member list of the so called Ascension Society, a student organization he’d assembled to aid engineering graduates with materials science. Many of its constituents had engaged in research projects and experimental setups to hone their craft of mechanical systems, but in time, however, the venture would instead prove a hotspot for investors and philanthropists. Donations averaging up to $5,000 helped fund and promote the fantastic ambitions of my great grandfather. So long as the Ascension Society was gracing him with their support, he’d be the first to reach the North Pole.
In early 1898, armed with enough capital, Henry used the proceeds to purchase the materials required for the balloon.
---
A notable circus at the forefront of traveling attractions in the early twentieth century was The Fielding Troupe. With its impressive lineup of talent — from fire eaters and aerialists to equestrians and strongmen — the ensemble drew crowds from nearly every town in western America during its historic run. Its wide reach would ultimately reel in many notable faces, including my great grandfather.
Prior to a performance in Oakland, the Fielding Troupe led a procession through the town around Stanford University, announcing their arrival with a parade of wagons, floats, and animals. The strategy, as it were, was to drum up as much publicity and fanfare as possible. Evidently it worked, as a healthy fraction of the faculty and student body at Stanford made the trip over to Oakland in order to see the troupe in action.
Surrounding their arena with two hundred feet of heavy duty tent canvas, the troupe put on a show for the ages the night Henry was in attendance, with extravagant acrobatics, trained animal performances, and a special appearance from Curtis the Clown. Following a skillful display of juggling and good natured audience ribbing, Curtis’s master stroke was an intricate stunt involving balloons and wire flying. Firstly, he would inflate several multi-colored balloons and tie them off with string, securing them firmly in his grip. They served as a flashy distraction from the piece of flexible metal snaking out from the harness he had concealed under his equally flashy costume. Then, with a whisper of strength, a couple stagehands hoisted the balloon-carrying clown thirty feet into the air to make it appear as though he was levitating by virtue of the balloons alone. A separate performer — a marksman — showed off his sharpshooting skills with a Winchester model rifle and gunned down the balloons, exploding each one as the stagehands loosened their hold on Curtis’s harness until he was eased to the ground.
Henry watched the routine with eager delight. Seeing Curtis the Clown float above a hundred or so onlookers helped stir within him a plan. The ceiling of the Big Top Tent where Curtis had concluded his ascent represented more than the centerpiece of a traveling circus.
“Ascendancy,” Henry muttered to his wife Ruth. “This is how we get to the top of the world.”
---
The spherical vessel measured sixty-five feet in diameter, with a capacity of over 200,000 cubic feet. Its construction was overseen by Henry and a couple french engineers who installed in its gondola three berths and ample ballast to keep it stable. The gondola, a carefully constructed assemblage of wicker and chestnut wood, was built as such to bar any interference to the magnetic instruments of the explorers. Keeping it shielded against severe weather conditions was a varnished silk calotte and a vaselined net composed of over four-hundred hemp cords. A bamboo pole was attached bellow the carrying ring to attach the side sails and, perhaps most notably, the balloon was fitted with hemp and cocoa nut fiber guide ropes to help steer and maintain a consistent altitude.
After two years of exhaustive construction, work on the balloon was completed in 1900. Henry named it Ascension, after the society that funded its creation.
---
What follows are several selected passages lifted directly from Henry’s memorandum, transcribed by me. The first entry reads:
“At nine o'clock on the forenoon, May 5, 1900, under the auspices of the Ascension Society, we embarked from the 71st parallel on our quest of the Pole. Our great journey sets off from Point Barrow, Alaska following a grueling adventure aboard the steamer Sursum. I, Henry Helgeland, travel forth, accompanied by Charles Ringvold, esteemed navigator, and Edward Meyer, long celebrated physician, into the arctic wilderness. Together, our efforts will generate a most formidable team and an unwavering spirit. We will ascend.”
Indeed, the SS Sursum disembarked from a port in San Francisco in mid May of that year; it offered easy access to the Pacific Ocean and sailed through the Bering Strait, covering over 3,000 nautical miles before reaching Point Barrow on July 2.
When the balloon took off, carried by a fierce north east wind, it was to a thunderous applause from those that had come to bear witness to the bold endeavor. Among them were crew members of the SS Sursum, high ranking associates of the Ascension Society, and carpenters tasked with helping the balloon reach its initial phase of liftoff.
As it elevated to 300 hundred feet and passed around an onlooking whaler, Henry was reported to have shouted: “To the top of the world, hurrah!”
---
36 hours would elapse before a second entry was made.
“July 4, 1900, Lat. 77° 48' N, Long. 143° 4' W. We are soaring at a height of 600 feet above the Earth's surface, traveling at a speed of approximately seven kilometers per hour. Our morale remains similarly aloft. Charles relayed to me that, God willing, we anticipate reaching the pole in roughly 800 miles. Beyond the drag ropes lending their ballast to our journey, optimism is our guiding force. We will ascend.”
Turbulent air currents had a different plan in mind, however.
“July 5, 1900, Lat. 80° 8' N, Long. 138° 37' W. Alas! Our aerial journey came to an abrupt halt yestereve on the 80th parallel. We voyaged as many as 500 miles before a forceful downdraft spun our vehicle on its vertical axle and compelled it into a sharp descent; we had lost what we estimate to be just over 100 cubic feet of gas.
“Edward suffered severe injuries during the initial impact and claims his vertebrae have been shattered, leaving him immobile. We’re at the mercy of the floe on which we now rest, at the mercy of the Polar Sea. Should we face the specter of death, we shall meet it with unwavering honor. We will ascend.”
---
“July 6, 1900. We find ourselves solitary in the barren expanse, accompanied only by bergs, ice-fields, and majestic glaciers. Our rations encompass a container’s worth of hardtack, enough salted beef for approximately one week, canned stew, dried apricots, some chocolate bars, and seven bottles of ale.
“Edward’s outlook remains grim; he suspects he’ll never walk again. In witness of his current state, I’m beginning to share in such apprehensions. Edward, whom we have reposed on on of our sledges, fears that the opportunity to make known the great love he holds for his mistress Rebecca is one he’ll never be granted. ‘You shall be reunited at once,’ I assured him. ‘Our journey to triumph will not be thwarted by minor inconveniences.’
“We’ve plotted the course to our next destination: that being Herschel Island, located off the coast of Canada in the Beaufort Sea. Charles — who shares in Edward’s dismay — estimates a three month footslog spanning just under one thousand miles is in store for us, perhaps more given Edward’s ailment. I am determined to see this mission to its completion, yet survival remains a paramount desire. Who’s to recount our extraordinary journey should we fail?
“While establishing our encampment and scouting the local flora of the area for additional sources of sustenance, I happened upon a plant of an unknown species. Half a meter tall, bulbous tubers, and thin roots terminating in clusters of white flowers; intuition suggests this is a water hemlock, which precludes it from edibility. Nevertheless, I shall regard this finding as one of great fortune. A portent of divine value. We will ascend.”
---
Two days later, gold prospectors off the Alaskan coast at Nome beach were in the process of emptying their sluice boxes when from the sky flew a carrier pigeon directly to their mining site. It bore a label with the inscription “Helgeland” and contained the following dispatch:
“July 7, 1900. First dog watch. Three southerly traveling carrier-pigeons were sent off at approximately 7 h. 40 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the following among them. This is Rear Admiral Charles Ringvold of the United States Navy and the Helgeland Balloon Expedition of 1900. Our hopes of reaching the pole have been reduced to naught. Assistance urgently needed. Our destinies have hitherto been unknown, and now my fears have been actualized. GO IN TERROR OF HENRY HELGELAND. He is not who he proclaims to be. I volunteered for a man of honorable stature and venturesome drive. The man before me betrays neither.”
The remainder of the message was a hasty scrawl, decrypted only by the best in linguistics and modern codebreaking.
“UNASSISTED WE WILL PERISH HELPED WE WILL PERSEVERE PLEASE GOD HELP US HENRY WILL KILL US ALL DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT HE PROCLAIMS.”
The communication was immediately passed off to the Smithsonian Institution, where word fell within the earshot of Ascension Society proponents and additional members of the US Navy. A follow-up expedition — a rescue team led by Captain S. P. Matthews — was put together at once with the authorization of the Secretary of War.
Months later, after a congressional bill introduced to secure grant funding for arctic exploration — and thereby a rescue mission for Helgeland’s lost expedition — was successfully passed, the USS Greenwich departed from the San Francisco Naval Shipyard with a crew of thirty boatswains, medics, and deck officers among others.
What they would ultimately uncover puzzled them all.
---
“July 7, 1900. The team has fractured. We are without our provisions and without the morale that has served us thusly.
“Charles and I set upon the pursuit and capture of a walrus, a most strenuous task in the Arctic Circle. Furnished with a Winchester model .40-82, the sport skews in our favor but we are in no short supply of peril. These are one ton beasts with the strength of a hundred strongmen as they stave the ice, and yet it is not them I should have feared.
“’I can’t allow you to proceed further.’ I heard the click clack racket of the Winchester as Charles chambered a round and raised the rifle, training its twenty inch barrel toward my back after I had volunteered — quite ignorantly — to take the vanguard.
“’Charles?’ I managed between clattering teeth.
“’You’re a man of bold stature. An honorable man at that. But not honorable enough to die for. And that’s it, Henry. I will not die for you.’
“’You speak out of distress, not rationality.’
“’I’m as rational as one permits when I say we won’t all make it to Canada. You can’t expect us to sledge Edward for the next month and retain our strength. Our sanities.” I could hear him gulp, ‘our lives.’
“’You’re not who you say you are.’ I realized in that moment. ‘Not even an ensign would renounce his own crew. Who are you really, Charles?’
“His credentials were a farce; a clever scheme to scrape through the expedition’s vetting process. He was no navy-man nor expert nor navigator and if you piled his life’s accomplishments on top of one another, they’d be equal to that of a cretin.
“’Doesn’t matter any more, Henry.’
“’Then why haven’t you shot me?’
“I sensed beyond his terror a hint of reluctance and felt within him the trepidation of an amateur. The man had never wielded a firearm in his life and wouldn’t start hence.
“’In Your infinite mercy, hear my prayer. In Your boundless grace, grant me Your forgiveness,’ he muttered below his breath. I could’ve believed he’d have squeezed the trigger if not for the unexpected convulsion that suddenly brought him to his knees. Befallen by the strange attack, Charles unhanded the Winchester and collapsed to the ice in the midst of a crippling seizure. And in a matter of moments, he had succumbed to death.
“With some activated charcoal or perhaps an emetic, he could have eluded such a painful demise. I stepped over to look upon his body, his pupils dilated to the size of dimes. Reviewing the immediate symptoms, intuition tells me he’s become the latest victim of hemlock poisoning, the kind of amateur mistake I’d expect from someone such as Charles. Ideal timing, if I may speak candidly.
“Hope remains alive. I will ascend.”
---
Investigators with the crew of S. P. Matthews found everything except answers.
It took them all of three months to zero in on the campsite left behind by Helgeland’s expedition. Any prospect of finding the balloon itself was dropped by the wayside to preserve manpower and time.
The camp was discovered on the 79th parallel, not in any particular state of disarray but with enough evidence to suggest conflict had broken out between the members. Edward was discovered in a tent with the rest of the rations and a bullet hole stamped in the side of his head. There was no telling how long he’d been dead for.
Forty-five meters away from the camp, buried under a stalagmitic gathering of ice and snow, was the body of Charles Ringvold. A followup inquiry would prove my great grandfather’s claims that he was a fraud, but like Charles himself, the truth is buried deep under the surface. Edward and Charles are commemorated for their failed — albeit honorable — efforts in the face of great opposition.
The body of my great grandfather, however, was never found. Theories thus abound in the saga of Henry H. Helgeland and we are no more the wiser now than we were a century ago. He is remembered for murdering his men in cold blood, deserting them, and then yielding to the elements somewhere in the frozen hell of the arctic. The carrier-pigeon message sent by Charles corroborated the apparent facts.
But I know the truth. Because only I have the answers.
“July 8, 1900. All that remains is me, for everyone else has vanished. Edward and I regaled each other with stories of our mistresses as night fell upon our place in the arctic wasteland. Rebecca, Edward’s beloved, works as an expert seamstress in San Francisco and will no doubt be devastated when news of his fate reaches her. But the great memories they shared together, I assured him, will serve her well in the years to come.
“‘You shall be reunited at once,’ I whispered to him once more before executing the dying man with the Winchester. It is my turn to face whatever awaits me on the ice.
“My great anguish and sorrow have been mended.
“Ruth is calling to me now. Our son promptly requires our presence.
“I shall go to them."
The fruitless search for my great grandfather peaked at last with the unearthing of a path of footprints snaking away from the tent where Edward’s body lay. Investigators followed them for approximately ten meters before they abruptly ceased. Captain Matthews is quoted as saying: “it was as though the walker had simply floated away.”
And indeed, it was our family that won in the end, for my great grandfather received exactly what he wanted. The final, undated entry of his diary is comprised of but three simple words:
“I have ascended.”

Hey everyone! 💛
I’m 7 weeks post op from breast lift and I suffered from a HORRIBLE infection due to the open wounds combined with really intense heat where I live (Thailand).
My scars look so, so intense compared to other photos at 7-8 weeks post-op.
DUH, I’m not supposed to compare and I’ve kind of come to peace with the fact that I just had a horrible infection and the scars will take much longer to fade than someone who didn’t have the same infection - so comparison is a waste of time and energy.
But my questions now are, has anyone found an amazing scar treatment?
I’m using dermatix as recommended by my doctor, in the 4 weeks I’ve used it - I see zero improvement at all.
Silicon sheets are complicated here in this heat and when I started using them the first time is when my wounds Re-opened and got horribly infected. I was on an antibiotic IV for 7 days straight!
Finally things are healing and I’m wondering if anyone has found an amazing gel, even something DIY like aloe Vera, laser treatments or even tattoo work that has helped with really bad scarring?
My right breast incision line has a scar about half an inch wide and my left and right nipples are completely different sizes AND uneven and I’m just feeling even more insecure AFTER surgery than I did BEFORE surgery 😂
Please help! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

https://minimalfreaks.co/2023/06/simon-dunmore-defected-selectors-june-2023/

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134. ANOTR, Abel Balder – Your Mind (Original Mix) 05:40 130bpm Gm
135. Rodney Hunter – Temperature’s Rising (Original Mix) 03:51 118bpm Dm
136. Pugs Atomz, Inkswel, Eliza Dickson – Why Don’t You Listen (Fred Everything Remix) 06:02 119bpm Fm
137. Folamour – Fearless (Original Mix) 05:23 122bpm Gm
138. Mr. Flip – Hit Different (Afefe Iku Remix) 04:51 113bpm Dm
139. Jonny Miller, Kid Fonque, ASAP Shembe – Connected Beings feat. ASAP Shembe (Jazzanova Remix) 05:56 120bpm C
140. Carlo Gambino – Dance For You (Original Mix) 07:27 122bpm Am
141. Gerd – We Bring U Muzik (Warehouse Mix) 06:08 126bpm Ab
142. Joeski – Rude Boy (Original Mix) 06:20 125bpm C
143. Musta, Venessa Jackson – Loving Me (Hot Toddy Remix) 08:00 84bpm Am
144. youANDme, Kristina Sheli – Moment 04:35 124bpm C#
145. OVEOUS, Don Kamares – Legacy (Original Mix) 05:35 123bpm Dm
146. KE, Risk Assessment – Feel That (Franck Roger Remix) 06:28 124bpm Ebm
147. Paperclip People – Throw (Original Mix) 06:47 127bpm C
148. Austin Ato – When Love Is Tender (Original Mix) 08:42 127bpm Ab
149. Francisco Allendes – What You Do (Original Mix) 06:49 127bpm D
150. Particle – Let It Go (Original Mix) 06:34 87bpm Cm
151. Afefe Iku – Sista Georgia (Original Mix) 11:35 122bpm Dm
152. Mike Steva, Stevo Atambire – Destiny Song (Pa’ala) feat. Stevo Atambire (Original Mix) 05:54 121bpm Bm
153. PAWSA – Room Service (24 Hour Mix) 04:44 130bpm Am
154. Kerri Chandler – Coro (DJ Spen Kaoz Re Edit) 06:30 124bpm Dm
155. Awen, Caiiro – Your Voice (Adam Port Remix) 04:20 122bpm Gbm
156. Inaya Day, Harry Romero – Rise Up (Extended Club Mix) 06:19 127bpm Cm
157. Pig&Dan – Rock You All Night (Original Mix) 03:27 123bpm Bm
158. Yousef, The Melody Men – Hear That Sound feat. The Melody Men (Club Mix) 05:56 128bpm D
159. GruuvElement’s – Boom Room (Original Mix) 06:39 94bpm Em
160. Dam Swindle – All I Want (Edit) 03:56 124bpm Dbm
161. Mike Dunn, LOA. – When The Dust Clears feat. LOA. (MD MixX) 03:42 124bpm F
162. Seamus Haji, Phebe Edwards – Better Come Again 04:00 120bpm Em
163. Suzanne Palmer, Mark Picchiotti, Craig J. Snider, The Absolute – I Believe feat. Suzanne Palmer feat. Craig J. Snider (DJ Spen & Michele Chiavarini’s Higher Love Dub Mix) 06:15 124bpm Eb
164. Paul Kalkbrenner – Bengang (Original Mix) 05:30 128bpm Dbm
165. Louie Vega, Robyn – All My Love (feat. Robyn) 05:58 127bpm Gb
166. Daniel Steinberg – Groove People (Original Mix) 05:29 125bpm C
167. Purple Disco Machine, Kaleta, Bosq – Wake Up! (Extended) 06:56 122bpm Dm
168. Kon, Fiorious, Saturday Love – 2 B Free (Oliver Dollar Remix) 04:31 123bpm Em
169. Lady Blackbird – Lost and Looking (Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy Cosmodelica Remix) 03:42 120bpm G
170. Kerri Chandler, Bluey Robinson – Tenacity (Main Vocal Edit) 04:25 124bpm D
171. Honey Dijon, Ramona Renea – Love Is A State Of Mind (Original Mix) 03:13 125bpm Cm
172. Adam Port, Alan Dixon – Forms Of Love (Original Mix) 06:03 122bpm Bb
173. Jamie Jones – My Paradise (Original Mix) 03:31 128bpm Bbm
174. Fka Mash, Sio – Bumblebee 03:38 116bpm Gm
175. Dennis Cruz – Ready For The Blues (Original Mix) 05:00 128bpm Cm
176. Ramin Rezaie – Searching (Original Mix) 03:57 131bpm Am
177. Tony Lionni – Out Of Sight (Special Edit By Jerome Sydenham) 06:15 124bpm C
178. HRDY, Paulo Maria – Connected (Original Mix) 05:42 124bpm Gm
179. Dario D’Attis – Tanzstube (Original Mix) 07:44 120bpm Bbm
180. AMP Fiddler, Andrés, Dames Brown – What Would You Do? feat. Andrés feat. Amp Fiddler (Two Soul Fusion Remix) 03:07 125bpm G
181. Low Steppa – Closer (Original Mix) 04:57 125bpm Bbm
182. Fred Everything – Searching (Original Mix) 08:03 120bpm C
183. Sophie Lloyd, Pauline Taylor – Angels By My Side feat. Pauline Taylor (Floorplan Remix) 03:28 125bpm Fm
184. S.A.M., Sarah Ikumu – Spotlight feat. Sarah Ikumu (Mousse T. Shizzle Mix) 03:20 123bpm Gbm
185. Malone – Time To Move (Original Mix) 03:08 125bpm Em
186. Steve Bug, Mr. V – Back To ’95 feat. Mr. V (Cinthie‘s ‘Just A Vibe’ Remix) 06:12 124bpm Gm
187. Khan, Julee Cruise – Say Goodbye feat. Julee Cruise (LoSoul ‘She’s Homeless’ Mix) 07:08 116bpm F
188. Dam Swindle – Hey Mister 03:59 126bpm Am
189. Julien Jabre – Voodance (Original Mix) 07:29 123bpm Dbm
190. B Beat Girls – For The Same Man (Nic Fanciulli Remix) 03:34 127bpm E
191. Mark Broom, Riva Starr, Star B – Fire (Ron Bacardi Remix) 05:42 126bpm Bb
192. Make A Dance – I Need Somebody (Original Mix) 03:20 122bpm Bm
193. Beyonce – BREAK MY SOUL (Original Mix) 04:38 115bpm Abm
194. Zach Witness – Frankie & Levan (Original Mix) 03:41 127bpm Am
195. Danny Tenaglia – The Brooklyn Gypsy (Original Mix) 07:41 153bpm Dm
196. Beau – Losing You 03:23 124bpm E
197. Felipe Gordon – The Love (Original Mix) 07:38 120bpm Gbm
198. Ferreck Dawn, Izzy Bizu – Life (Original Mix) 02:51 125bpm Cm
199. Kimberly Davis, The Shapeshifters – Love’s Been Waiting (7″ Version) 02:48 123bpm Gbm
200. ANOTR, Sebastian Kamae – Time To Smoke (Original Mix) 08:46 130bpm Gb
201. Daniel Anthony – Endless (Original Mix) 07:03 126bpm Dbm
202. Jamie Jones, AMEME – Pliva 04:04 123bpm Fm
203. Darius Syrossian, DJ Supreme – I’m The Joker (Original Mix) 02:36 129bpm Gm
204. Oliver Way – Stained Glass Shadows (Robert Hood Remix) 06:54 128bpm D
205. Sailor Jane, R.E.A.D. – Where’s My Phone? feat. Sailor Jane (Marco Faraone Remix) 03:35 128bpm Fm
206. Daniel Steinberg – Take My Hand (Original Mix) 05:17 130bpm Gm
207. AMP Fiddler, Andrés, Dames Brown – What Would You Do? feat. Andrés feat. Amp Fiddler (Folamour 12″ Remix) 04:30 121bpm Am
208. Brian Burnside – This Generation (Franck Roger Mix) 08:20 127bpm Dm
209. Chymamusique, Colbert, LaTique – Above My Head (Radio Mix) 04:34 118bpm Gbm
210. Brooklyn Baby – NYC (Original Mix) 05:04 128bpm Em
211. Marlon D – Jesus Creates Sound (Original Mix) 05:30 126bpm Ebm
212. Kiko Navarro – Dope High (Vocal Mix) 07:52 92bpm Fm
213. Franck Roger – Don’t Ever Luv Me (Original Mix) 06:44 124bpm Dm
214. 40 Thieves, Qzen – Don’t Turn It Off (Original Mix) 04:38 117bpm Em
215. Linkwood – Tears (Original Mix) 08:39 96bpm Bm
216. Mr. V – Somethin’ Wit Jazz (Dario D’Attis Extended Remix) 07:08 122bpm Bbm
217. David Morales, Elle Cato – Holding Me Touching Me feat. Elle Cato (Extended Mix) 06:58 126bpm Bbm
218. Bassfort – Moon Shadow (Joe ‘Joaquin’ Claussell Remix) 11:26 124bpm G
219. Close Counters – GET DOWN! (Original Mix) 04:17 122bpm Ebm
220. Steve Lawler, Marco Lys, Joy Farrukh – If Only You Knew feat. Joy Farrukh (Extended Mix) 05:37 126bpm Am
221. Todd Terry, Riva Starr – This Is The Sound (Original Mix) 06:07 126bpm Gm
222. Honey Dijon, Dope Earth Alien – It’s Quiet Now (Original Mix) 03:02 123bpm Cm
223. Jon Cutler, E-Man – It’s Yours (Kyri Markou Extended Remix) 05:39 126bpm Am
224. Thakzin – The Magnificent Dance (Original Mix) 07:05 88bpm F

1. "I messed up a jump skydiving. I was able to correct the situation and pull the pilot chute for my canopy, but I was very, very close to having my reserve go off. The reserves are generally reliable, but it’s still nothing I want to test. Landed fine and then got a very stern talking-to for pulling so low."
2. "Just google 'Levey PCH,' then ask away…I’ll be very surprised if anyone can beat what happened to me. THANK WHOEVEWHATEVER you believe in for Apple, Scorpion, UCLA, and the LA County Fire Department and Sheriff's Department."
3. "Minutes before it happened, I was under the Cypress structure that collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in California (which was a magnitude 6.9). I was traveling north underneath the double-layered structure and felt creepy and claustrophobic on the brightest day. I raced to get out, as I always did, because I hated being under it. After getting out, I felt like my tire had gone flat and started to weave around in my lane, then I noticed that everyone else was losing control and hitting their brakes too. That was the earthquake. I didn't find out until later about the collapse, and felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I'd never felt so close to death before."
4. "I was rappelling off the top of the tallest building in Bangkok (200 meters, or 656 feet) as a promotional stunt. I was supposed to rappel down to the 10th floor, land on a small balcony, and then traverse over to another building. The wind shear off the building was enough to blow me 20–30 feet away from the side of the building. Picture a spider hanging by a thread in the wind. As I got close to the 10th floor, I noticed that my rope had been cut and no longer reached the balcony, let alone the ground. The rope was about 10 feet short of the landing. So, still blowing away from the side of the building, off and on I waited until I was just above the balcony and dropped the last several feet onto the deck. Super pissed but alive."
5. "Going to school in San Francisco, I got off the bus to get cigarettes and a soda at a liquor store. I stopped at the trash can on the way out to open my cigarettes and soda and walked half a block up the street when a crane fell off the roof right where I'd been standing 30 seconds before. The crane operator was killed, and half a minute earlier, I would have been as well."
6. "Although being an ironworker comes with its fair share of risk, as long as you don’t become too incompetent, things can be safe. But that is easier said than done, seeing as the days are long and the work is physically draining. One day, I was about 60 feet in the air rigging a beam to be lowered to the ground. I signaled the crane operator to 'cable up' (lift the beam), but the beam wasn’t budging. I decided to look down the beam to see what was wrong...BANG! Before I knew it, the beam broke free and came up at my face with about 2,000 pounds of force. It knocked off my hard hat and hit every edge of my safety glasses, missing the side of my face by a quarter inch. I thought I had died, it was so sudden. I should never have put myself in what we call 'the line of fire.' I’ll never forget how close my kids were to losing their father that day because I let my judgment slip. Still gives me goosebumps talking about it."
7. "I got hit by a car and walked away with no injuries. The Sunday before final exams during my last semester of college, I went to the library at 6 a.m. to study. At 2 p.m., I needed a break and started walking back to my car. At an intersection, I stopped, made eye contact with the driver of a car at a stop sign, and started walking across the street on a crosswalk. The next thing I knew, I was up on the windshield of a Jeep Grand Cherokee. He hit the brakes, and I rolled off the hood of his car and landed on my feet. I was so freaked out that I told the guy I was fine and left. Later that afternoon, I went to the hospital to get checked out and had no injuries. The doctor told me to buy a lottery ticket on my way home because I was so lucky."
8. "While I was doing the dishes, my hip bumped the dial on my stove, turning it to ignite, but I didn't notice, so the stove was leaking gas all night. In the morning, I could tell something smelled off, but I have a hard time smelling things, so I just figured it was some old cauliflower rice I had thrown out the night before. To deal with the smell, I lit not one, but two candles, one of which was right next to the stove. Later, after coming back from running errands, as soon as I opened the door, I felt instantly violently ill, like a migraine and the flu all at once. Probably 20 minutes later, I finally saw the knob on the stove and realized what was happening."
9. "One time, I was watching TV in my lounge room and I was sitting on the floor eating. We have a really big TV and we had an earthquake, but I thought it was a train passing by. It wasn't. I ran out of the room as everything started to wobble, and the TV nearly fell on top of me."
10. "I went to summer camp when I was 15, and for our last weekend activity, they took us to Martha’s Vineyard and rented us bikes. Now, I loved riding bikes in the park as a kid but had never ridden in the street. But since 'you never forget how to ride a bike,' I figured I could do it. I headed out and tried to go up a street that was very steep. I started to lose control of the bike, and I fell into the street in between a truck that was hauling a trailer (I fell in front of the trailer). I saw this huge wheel coming at me, and my leg was stuck from the fall. I screamed as hard as I could and hoped it wouldn’t kill me (others told me they heard it a few streets away). The driver luckily heard it and slammed on the brakes; I was scuffed up but otherwise fine. You can indeed forget how to ride a bike."
11. "I got hit by a train. I was living and working at a college that has train tracks running through it and only a stop sign before you cross them at the vehicle intersection. You had to cross the tracks to leave campus. I was headed to the gym in July, and the windows were rolled up and the AC and radio were blasting. I’d crossed that crossing a thousand times, so I stopped a bit, passed the stop sign, and looked right, but the train was coming from the left. Its horn blew, but I panicked when I heard it, so I hit the accelerator but braked immediately. I was already on the tracks. It only hit my front end and dragged me about 200 feet down the tracks. I only had a broken rib, three cracked ribs, and a pretty gnarly cut on my finger. The people at the next crossing probably thought they saw someone die."
12. "My last day of driver’s education class, we were just about back to school. We were all feeling pretty good because we’d passed our tests that day. I was in the rear driver’s seat and had a classmate driving, one next to me, and a teacher in the passenger seat. We went through a green light at LITERALLY the last intersection before school when a car blew through the red light going 55 mph and slammed into us on my side, just a few inches back from where I was sitting. It spun our car into the intersection and kept going! We were all concussed and had to be taken to the hospital, but that was it. When we went to retrieve my bags from the trunk of the wreckage at the salvage yard, the shop owner admitted he hadn’t answered my ringing phone because he didn't think we had survived, and didn’t want to break the news to everyone calling me. Two inches between me and being crushed alive. In driver’s ed!"
13. "I was walking to class one day, and the shortest route went under a viaduct. It had been snowing and melting on and off for the past few days. The viaduct is about 100 feet high, and just as I was about to walk from under it and onto the pavement, a 6-foot icicle fell those 100 feet and smashed into the ground in front of me. Suffice to say, I took that as a sign not to go to my lecture and turned back home!"
14. "I was asleep in the passenger seat of a car on a highway when we flipped going about 80 mph. We rolled a few times and landed in a ditch. Airbags did not go off, and I shattered the passenger-side window with my skull. I literally walked away from it and didn't go to an ER until a few hours later. I literally had a concussion and one teeny bruise on my right arm, but nothing else. The nurses told me that if I had been awake for the accident, my neck would have snapped and I'd have died immediately. Whenever I tell people, they're always stunned — imagine my reaction waking up to a missing side window and a crushed car and being fully functional! I feel lucky every day that I was asleep and still have my life."
15. "There was one time my sister and I were driving down a long road with a huge cemetery. I thought it would be funny to hold my breath because people say if you don’t, the spirits of dead people will haunt you or something. When I held my breath, my sister slowed down to torture me. I was a little annoyed, but at the stop sign at the intersection, this car going really fast didn’t even bother to slow down. They even swerved into our lane, so my sister had to barely dodge. I swear, though, if my sister hadn't slowed down to torture me, we would have been in a bad wreck. Now I’m not annoyed that she did that, I’m lucky."
16. "This isn't dramatic, but it's continued to impact my life on a daily basis. When I was 11, I was playing baseball with the rest of my gym class. We took a time-out to argue about who was batting next, and I stood behind home plate, staring into left field. Play resumed, and no one told me to move. The strongest guy in the class laid down a single...and hit me in his backswing...with the baseball bat...in the middle of my forehead. I suffered skull fractures and a brain bleed. To this day, I have anxiety driven by the traumatic brain injury. The neurologist said that the fact that he hit the ball saved my life. Had he swung and missed, I would have died."
17. "I was in college and I had just finished my last class of the day. It was a short walk to my car that consisted of crossing a pedestrian crosswalk on the street separating the school from parking. On each side of the crosswalk were speed bumps so cars were forced to slow down. At this time of day, a good number of students were getting out of class, and a large herd of us started crossing the street at the crosswalk. There must have been 30 of us. I was stupidly looking down at my phone and was walking rather slowly. I didn’t realize that I was lagging behind. Everyone else was on the other side and I was still in the middle of the street. At the same moment, I noticed a freaking DUMP TRUCK whizzing by in front of me. It was probably 1–2 feet in front of me. Either he didn’t see me still crossing or he didn’t care. After I got to my car, all I could do was sit there in silence for a while and contemplate what could have just happened. Even as I write this, I shudder."
18. "This is definitely not the craziest cheating-death story, but it was definitely scary. I was at a waterpark with my family, and I don’t do well with heat and stairs — something about the combination makes me faint. We went on a waterslide that uses tubes, and it was a long trek up. I apparently was so sick from heat exhaustion, I passed out as I was next in line and hit my head on the tube. If it weren’t for the tube, they aren't sure I’d be alive right now."
19. "It was during Christmastime, and my mom, my little brother, and I all wanted to go look at Christmas lights near the middle school. There was a hill and then a lane where you would wait for the light to turn green and then you had to turn left. Well, the main light had turned red, so it was our turn to go, and thank god my mom checked before going, because if she hadn’t checked, a truck would have hit us, going like 60 mph, straight through the side of our car where my little brother was sitting."
20. "I was 4 or 5, and we were living in Estes Park, Colorado. At that time, I was challenging myself to go closer and closer to a river they have there. I was caught by the current and would’ve run into several rocks and a waterwheel if it weren’t for my cousin, who reached down, grabbed my arm, and saved me."
21. "I survived hitting an elk in the Canadian Rockies and going down a mountain 15 times end over end, stopping 20 feet short of a whitewater river. I gave myself first aid. Doctors said I would never walk normally again and I'd have brain damage. I sent one of them a picture of me with three gold medals around my neck."
22. "In the fall of '15, I was riding my motorcycle to work on a foggy morning. A truck with an enclosed trailer ran a stop sign in front of me while I was driving on a 55 mph road. I was unable to stop, ran into the trailer, and was pinned underneath the trailer, being crushed to death. A farmer was on his dirt bike behind the truck going to meet another farmer for coffee who lived on the corner of the intersection. Once he realized I was pinned, he ran to get his friend and his friend's skid-steer loader. They then used the skid loader to lift the trailer off of me and began CPR. Luckily, right as they started, a sheriff's deputy arrived on scene and took over. I owe my life to those two farmers. If they hadn't acted, I would have died underneath the trailer, as there would have been no way for first responders to lift it off of me (it had thousands of pounds of equipment in it) in time."
23. "I've always been handy with tools and taught myself how to do things; I've been changing flat tires for anyone who'll let me. However, one day when I was about 18 years old, my buddy came over to chill, and he had his dad's brand-new Tacoma. So we chilled for a couple of hours, and when it was time for him to leave, we noticed that his front tire was flat, so naturally, I volunteered to change it (no prior experience with independent suspensions). I placed the jack on the frame and started to go at it — lifted the car enough to take the flat out. But when the fully inflated wheel was fitted, it didn't have clearance. My first thought was to get a second jack. Half my body was underneath the car, putting the jack in, when I heard a creek, and the next thing I knew, the car slipped. The car ended up with the front end touching the ground, and I got a big scrape mark on my shoulder. To this day, I don't know how or why I did not die under that Tacoma."
24. "I lived alone with my dog. There was a hole in my gas heater, so it was leaking carbon monoxide, but of course I didn't know that at the time. My dog woke me up one morning, barking and whining, and I thought she had to go out to potty. When I sat up in bed, I got so dizzy and thought I would throw up. I ended up passing out twice, once hitting my head on the bathroom cabinet, very close to my temple, and once hitting my chin on the toilet seat. I called my boss — the only phone number I remembered at the time. (This was before cellphones.) She called 911 and they came to get me. They figured out I had carbon monoxide poisoning, and I was in the ER for eight hours that day. The doctor told that when blood gases are at a certain amount, the victim goes into a coma, without fail. Mine were more than double whatever that number was. He said no matter how much my dog was barking, I should not have woken up."
25. Finally, "I was at the beach with several of my friends, my sister, and my mom. Mom was sitting on the beach watching us. We were around 11–14, I believe, but no younger than 9. Kind of out of nowhere, we started getting sucked under the water in a rip current. I was being sucked under the pier and slammed my face into the barnacles. We were screaming for help, but at first, no one came. As I was being dragged under the water and coming up screaming for help, I could see people just staring and could hear my friends also screaming for help. Finally, people started jumping into the water to save us, including my mom. She jumped in and instantly got sucked into the current but managed to grab one of my friends. She used her body to shield him from the razor-sharp barnacles."

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I have a cabinet that I am looking to climate control. Moisture issues aside, it I need to seal a door that doesn't involve hammering plywood to the front of it. I am leaning the route of creating a tambour door since I need ever sq. inch of space inside the cabinet. Additionally it would have to be vertical since I want no tracks on the bottom.
I have also thought about folding doors, but again, I need to be able to seal the door as much as possible and not have any decrease in accessibility. Vertical folds would work, but I can't find or think of any hinges that would lift a 44" door, let alone doing it with only 4" of depth to move the door out.
What would you do to maximize space and seal the front?
Obligatory first time poster long time lurker as I feel my projects don't measure up to what you all do.

hey all, in the process of getting ready to sell my 2009 Jk Unlimited Rubicon Wrangler with half doord and trying to find a good price point to sell it. I've tried looking at Craigslist and ebay to find a comparison and the prices for something similarly equipped ranges from $12-$19k. Trying to be fair in pricing so any help would be appreciated, but would asking $17k for this rig be too much or too little?
For the specs here's what I have: The good: -2009JK Unlimited Rubicon with roughly 104,000 miles -ExterioProtection -JCR Rock Sliders &JCR Front Bumper -Ramsey Patriot 9500 Winch with synthetic rope -Icon Rear Tire Carrier -New front upper windows -Newer soft top -MetalCloak Rear Diff skid -EVO Oil pan skid, EVO Automatic Transmission skid, EVO Connection Skid -Poly Performance Cross member
Suspension & Steering Poly Performance Stage II 2.5 inch lift with adjustable UCA & LCAs, Fox 2.0 Reseviour shocks PSC Big Bore Steering box Poly Performance Tie rod & Drag link Poly Performance Track bar mount brace Newer Teraflex ball joints (installed 2022)
Axles, Tires and Brakes Rubicon Axles with 4:56 gears Tires/Brakes 35 inch Faulken ATs Powerbrakes Tow package f/r Pro-Comp wheels
Other
-New battery, New Starter, Rock lights -Viair Onboard Air system w/2.5 gallon tank -Newer radiator installed in 2021 -Pro-Comp Front drive shaft
The bad: -will need new tires in the next few months, soft top leaks on corner near driver's side, dent from small fender bender, cracked wind shield and the paint is scratched and the clear coat is coming off from the hood and window frame. A/C will need to be recharged and new hoses swapped out. Touch screen on stock stereo doesn't work but stereo still does with a MIDI cord to an iPod.
Here's the link to the gallery for photos.

Welcome to Camp Redwood! The feel-good camp for ALL AGES.
We toast marshmallows around the fire, tell spooky ghost stories, and hide in random secret military bunkers under the campgrounds! Because SOMETHING IS HERE WITH US.
Camp Redwood is the PERFECT PLACE for a summer getaway where we start EVERY DAY with a CAMP REDWOOD SMILE. Where our counselors disappear every five minutes, and our campers disembowel us for funsies! Did I forget to mention our littles aren’t actually eight years old, but fully grown adults?
We hope you enjoy your fucking stay!
We are also not responsible for any counselors revealing they are not who they said they are—and not who they appear to be.
...
So. There’s a LOT to tell you and not a lot of time to tell it.
Right now, I suppose you could say we are under lockdown—if that is the word. I want to go over the last several days to get you up to date. That’s all I can do right now. I can hope and pray the thing with Teddy’s voice does not get in here, and once again cry out for help—that I know is not coming. Not from the authorities, at least. But hey, if any of you fancy coming to rescue us, we’re in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. The closest rest-stop is maybe three fucking hours away. So have fun. Has it really almost been a week since I posted? Well, we’re still here!
And surprise, surprise, help is not coming. So, please excuse the salt. I am seventeen years old and I have been abandoned by the adults who were supposed to be looking after us.
Who were supposed to act under protocol if something like this happened. I know they were waiting for it—there are specific fucking guidelines on an emergency evacuation for counselors if this ever happened. But then the little shits took over before we could do anything. I guess I’ll start by letting you know that there are two of us left. (three, if we count Rowan, but I’m not). What I thought was going to be a quiet summer getaway with kids my age has turned into a nightmare.
For one, we have been cornered inside the head counselor’s underground secret bunker. If you want to know why she has a secret military bunker, I guess you should keep reading.
Because shit gets weirder than animal crackers having the power to turn adults into kids, and vice versa. When I made my first post, I thought that was it for us. I thought for sure there must have been a self-destruct somewhere—which meant whoever was running this camp was waiting for something like this. I was sure we were going to die, so after making the post, I have to admit with ya’ll—I just slept. I curled up, tried to ignore Harry and Carmel calling our names through childish laugher, and went to sleep with the thought in my head that I was completely at peace with what I had done with my life.
Sure, I was young. Seventeen years old is too young to be ripped apart by littles who are in fact grown adults. But as I was falling into slumber and allowing myself to fall, with my head resting in my lap, my head turned towards a separate pile of files on the other side of the room—I realized I really wanted to know how this was possible. There was so much I needed to know. Why did eight-year-old Eleanor Summers have a file where here birthday dated back to 1979? Why had supposedly innocent sugary snacks turned our adorable littles into mini psychopaths?
These kids were not kids, somehow. But how? How was that even possible? Could it be that the files were wrong?
1979 was definitely 45.
But Eleanor Summers couldn’t be 45 years old. I knew what 45 looked like. I knew that they thought like. They spent half of their time on Facebook laughing at outdated memes, and the other half… I don’t know, working? They have job’s! They’re happily married with kids, maybe soon grandkids! That was not Eleanor Summers. Because Eleanor Summers was most definitely eight years old. I had played several rounds of teddy-bears picnic, and spent hours reassuring her that Harry's ghost stories were in fact not real, enough times for me to know that this little kid was little—and a kid.
But something was bothering me. More than the secret military bunker, and magic age-regressing animal crackers. When I first signed up to Camp Redwood, one of the tag-lines to gain attraction had been, “Solve mysteries in the woods in the dead of night, with nothing but a flashlight and your fellow campers!” I had no idea I would be solving this thing on my own, trapped inside a bunker.
“What are you doing?” Rowan, who was still looking through Allison’s dinosaur laptop, turned to me with half lidded eyes, when I slowly got to my feet, careful not to make too much noise, and crept over to the pile of separate files which seemed to be crumbling apart from age. He kept his voice low, but it sounded almost like a whine. He could have been scared, but from the way he was sitting, cross-legged with a frowny face, I figured something must have been going on with him. The guy looked tired. More tired than normal.
The bags under his eyes were practically shadowing his face, and were an odd contrast to unusually ashy colored cheeks and slightly dilated eyes. Still though, Rowan refused to look vulnerable. I caught glimpse of Harry’s raybans sitting on his head, pinning back thick dark brown curls from falling in front of sleepy eyes. Maybe he was finally losing his cool and breaking out of the well-constructed façade he had been hiding behind since Teddy disappeared.
We had just narrowly escaped a crowd of psycho littles high on age-regressing sugary snacks who were doing who-the-fuck knows to the other counselors who had been captured, so I didn’t blame him looking like that. I guess he couldn’t look me in the eye, because in Rowan’s mind, he was the reason why this happened. He was the leader, and the camp had fallen to psychopathic little eight year olds who had taken half of the counselors hostage, and the other half—most likely taken apart in the physical sense, after what we had witnessed in Cassie’s cabin. Still though, it wasn’t Rowan’s fault. He could sit there and pull a face all he wanted, it’s not like I was going to blow up at him for getting us stuck down here. He actually saved us.
And trapped us, judging from the footsteps upstairs, Carmel and Harry still bouncing around looking for us.
It was a game in their heads. The little’s thought it was cat and mouse. Harry and Carmel were the oblivious cats prowling, while we were the mice, hoping to fucking GOD we weren’t caught and eaten. Ignoring Rowan, I glimpsed what looked like a box full of DVD’S—all of which were labelled with dates and names. I saw familiar ones, my heart racing into my throat. Phoebe. Eli. Cassandra.
Each DVD had one of the kid’s names scribbled on the front, as well as a date.
I found Eleanor’s right at the back of the box.
Eleanor Summers.
08/05/2021. (PM)
Before I could hesitate and think what I was doing, I slid the DVD into the portable player attached to the MacBook. Rowan, to my surprise, didn’t move. But he did make an acknowledging noise when the screen flickered to what looked like video footage. Peering at the screen, I found myself staring at a small white room. There was no door. Only a wooden desk and a chair, and sitting on it was a middle aged woman with dark blonde curls tied into a strict ponytail. She was wearing what looked like a prison jumpsuit.
Her eyes were eerily glued to the camera, unblinking. Her wrists were cuffed in front of her. Though from the look on her face, she saw the restraints as a game. Her eyes lit up with intrigue and I could practically see the cogs in her mind starting to turn as she struggled with them.
As soon as I saw this woman, I felt all of my nerve endings set alight. I wanted to turn the screen off, or look away. But once I was looking at the screen, I couldn’t bring myself to tear my eyes away. “Let’s try this again.” There was a woman offscreen. She sounded young. Too young to be in that kind of authority. I figured there was no way teenagers were being hired as special ops agents, but I guessed I was wrong. She cleared her throat. “It is 4:35 exactly. August 5th 2021. My name is Agent Lemrac,” she stated. “I am asking once again for you to comply with us. As I have said several times, the court are willing to lessen your sentence if you plead guilty with insanity.”
The woman surprised me with a snorting laugh. She seemed to come alive, leaning forward with animated features, her brow reaching her hairline. She was acting like a child, bouncing up and down in the seat, her lips stretching into a wider grin. “What did you just say?”
There was a pause. I could tell the woman was intentionally antagonising the interviewer.
“It means you have been legally declared insane,” the interviewer stumbled over her words slightly. “Mrs Summers, it would be in your best interest to work with us to lessen your current sentence which at the moment is standing at,” the sounds of shuffling paper crackled through the speakers. The interviewer cleared her throat again rustling paper. “Thirty six years. Without parole.”
The woman didn’t speak, only continued to smile—and the interviewer delved further into the sentence. “If you do in fact plead guilty with declared insanity, you will be sentenced to a program which is in the process of supporting and rehabilitating people with your…” she caught herself for a moment. I could tell this interviewer had a biased opinion and it was definitely showing through her interviewing style. I could hear the rapid intakes of her breath as she hurried through what seemed to be a script she was reading from. “Conditions.” She finished. “The Redwood program aims to help people exactly like you.”
Redwood? I thought.
Like… Camp Redwood?
Rowan whistled behind me. I guess I could call that a reaction. The guy was probably still in shock after seeing Café de Teddy splattered all over little Cassie’s cabin floor. I should have known those little bitches weren’t playing Operation for eight hours straight. Turning my attention from Rowan and back to the screen, the woman in the jumpsuit appeared to have changed tactics. Her expression twisted into nonchalance. She leaned back in her chair. “I am not pleading insane because I am not insane.”
“Mrs Summers—”
The woman cut her off. “I am not crazy.” She raised her hands “I am doing what needs to be done.” She leaned forward. “Humanity suffers in the skin. We age and die— and how is that fair? What if we want to see the next millennium? And the next two millennia after that? Why should our bodies dictate our lifespan? Why should we sit here and wait to rot and wither and die when we have the intelligence and mindset to do it? If nobody else is willing to throw ethics aside to take a step forwards in human evolution, I should do it myself.” She folded her arms across her chest, again, like a child. “I did what was to be done.”
“Dr. Summers.” The interviewer’s tone grew stiff. “You and your colleagues conducted illegal and unethical procedures on your family and friends—as well as four other victims.”
The woman inclined her head. “You have a daughter, am I correct? I have a son.”
“A child you killed, Dr Summers.” The interviewer retorted in a hiss which was definitely expressing emotion. She ignored the mention of her daughter, but I could tell it had rattled her to her core. Her voice had cracked. This case was close to her.
That was obvious. Without seeing the interviewer herself, I could sense how uncomfortable she was, shuffling in the chair. Every so often I would hear the sound of her rubbing her hands on her knees and tapping her shoe against the chair leg. She oozed anxiety, not just from her tone of voice, but the way the frame seemed to move with her. “Dr. Summers, you used your son in your research, along with several of his friends. This was not science.” Her voice shook. I heard her sharp inhale. Unprofessional, but very human. Instead of staying stoic and keeping to script, this agent was cracking apart. “It was murder.”
“Agent Lemrac, concentrate on the interview only.” An official voice crackled through what sounded like an intercom on screen.
“Got it.” She spoke through her teeth.
The woman was finding wounds and pressing on them. She was scanning the interviewer for vulnerabilities and preying on every insecurity. She leaned back speaking through a sigh. “Without my son’s sacrifice we wouldn’t have created an answer to death. To growing old and dying, and leaving loved ones behind.” Her voice softened into a murmur, but I didn’t trust it.
After identifying the shattering pieces of this interviewer which were very clear visible in her view, the woman was taking advantage.
“Agent Lemrac, you have a daughter. Am I correct in saying her name is Mari?
“That… that is not relevant.”
“Glioblastoma.” Dr. Summers lips curved into a sickening smile hidden behind mocking sympathy. “A sickness of the brain--which, unfortunately, I cannot fix. If your daughter’s brain was in my hands, I would try. However, not even a brand new body would help her. One which would never age or grow sick. And for that, I am deeply, deeply sorry.” She reached her cuffed hands forwards. “My condolences, Agent Lemrac. Honestly. I have to hand it to you. You are incredibly brave for coming here today and talking to me while abandoning your sick child.” She shook her head.
“Your daughter is dying of an incurable illness, suffering inside fragile skin which will break and fall apart and be unable to keep her standing for much longer. While my son will live on forever. He will see every millennia, a planet which will crumble and build itself back together. And maybe the end of the universe itself.” There was a twitch in her expression and a glitter in her eye I did not recognise. Insanity.
She was fucking insane. I was seeing the pure of it, the depraved and disgusting gleam in eyes empty of remorse and regret. This woman did not care what she had done. I could tell from the look on her face. If she had the chance, she would do this again.
But there was no way they were trying to say her cruelty and complete disregard for her son’s life was due to insanity.
“You are sick, Dr. Summers.” The interviewer said after a moment of gathering herself.
The woman shook her head with a chuckle. “I told you. I am not sick--”
“Sick in the head!” The interviewer’s voice exploded through the speakers in a shriek—a terrified cry she had been trying to hold in. I finally saw her—or at least the back of her. She was a young woman with light blonde hair falling loose on her shoulders. She was trembling. Slamming her hands down on the table, she screamed at the orange jumpsuit woman.
“You are psychologically fucked in the head! You psycho bitch! That is my sister!” She spoke through strangled sobs rattling her whole body. “Mari is my little sister. She is not my child.”
Her breaths were strangled and harboured. I noticed figures looming in the background, but she was continuing. “You killed your own fucking son,” she spat. “You are not legally insane, you are sick!” she shrieked. “You planned and put this together! You sit there and you talk about your son like he’s a… like he’s a tool! You deserve to rot. Do you hear me?” I noticed the orange jumpsuit woman was still smiling, satisfied with the interview’s reaction. Her words were spoken in a vicious poison as she leaned forward and spat directly in orange jumpsuit’s face.
“Agent Lemrac!” Whoever her superiors were—were panicking. “I told you not to turn it off. I knew this was going to happen. Can we stop the demonstration, please? Human emotions present inside an Aceville soldier are too powerful—"
Voices were murmuring in the background, and Agent Lemrac raised her hands. “I want to stop.” She choked out, her hands trembling. She spoke like she still had control over the situation and wasn’t being apprehended. “I want to stop. Do you hear me?” The interviewer was crying, I realized. “Stop the recording! I can’t do this. Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick—”
When the footage ended in a burst of static, I found myself backing away, something slimy creeping its way up my throat.
The woman in the orange jumpsuit who had murdered her son and countless others in what sounded like an attempt at playing god, was Eleanor Summers. I thought back to Teddy’s corpse, and the surgical precision of every organ’s removal. The young interviewer had mentioned colleagues of Eleanor.
Was it possible that Camp Redwood was in fact nothing more than a rehabilitation camp for murderous criminals? There was a loud bang from above, and I was torn from my thoughts.
I turned to Rowan, who had been unusually quiet. And I realized why, when I twisted around to find him three inches from my face, his laboured breath tickling my cheek.
The boy jumped back with a chuckle—like me noticing him was some kind of game, before diving back into the chair. I did notice something odd, as my thoughts spiralled. Rowan couldn’t sit still. Slumped in the leather spinning chair, he fingers tapped a rhythm on the armrests while his feet jumped up and down. In the dim light of the bunker, I glimpsed a sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead and the flesh of his neck. He looked to be… feverish—and now that I was looking at him properly, all of my attention on the boy, I noticed small things which seemed… off about him.
For one, he wasn’t coming up with a plan. Rowan always had a plan. Even if he wasn’t completely sure of it, or was completely winging it. This time though, he was strangely quiet. I found my voice when he stuck out his tongue at me. “What are you looking at?”
“Rowan.” I spoke softly, careful not to garner attention from above us where Harry and Carmel were still clamouring around, playing games. “Are you… feeling okay?” I asked, when he turned back to the laptop, manically biting his fingernails.
“I dunnnooooo, Josie! Am I feeeeeeling okaaaaaayyyyy?” He surprised me with an uncharacteristic laugh.
But I did know it.
I knew it from earlier when he reacted to Allison’s bunker and I had been too freaked out to realize that I was dragging along the enemy with me.
Because the fucking idiot had consumed animal crackers. I had seen him for myself earlier, pouring a pack into his mouth for a snack. Which meant either the ‘kids’ had intentionally dosed him with mind altering sugary snacks, or the more likely, he could not resist those preservatives which was the equivalent of caffeine. It’s not like I could blame him when he harboured the weight of an entire camp, but come on, did he really have to sacrifice his own fucking mind to keep himself awake?
Rowan wasn’t just biting. His nails. He was gnawing. Which he previously thought was a filthy habit. He had yelled at a camper for chewing on her nails a few days earlier.
Now that I was noticing it, I couldn’t… stop noticing it. The boy’s whole demeanour had changed; the way he was sinking into the chair, instead of sitting up straight like usual—- I used to call it having a stick up his ass. The boy started typing on the laptop, ignoring me. But when I watched the pattern of his fingers, he was just typing gibberish. Footsteps pounded above us, Harry and Carmel acting as the kid’s’ brainwashed foot-soldiers. Or, more likely somehow, if the animal crackers had caused the littles, or I guess, the fully grown forty year old criminals, to relapse in age-- then maybe it was possible for the same thing to happen to us. To Rowan.
I could feel myself starting to back away, but there was nowhere to run. I just slammed into a cupboard. My gaze flicked to Rowan again, who was tapping a beat on the laptop tracking pad, swaying back and forth, his eyes elsewhere before his gaze found mine. “Marcoooooo!” Harry shouted from above, giggling with Carmel.
I had to guess their mental age had to be at least 8-10 years old. Which meant I wasn’t just dealing with a camp full of forty-year-old psycho’s, I was also dealing with mentally relapsed counselors acting like toddlers.
Rowan seemed to jolt in the chair, twisting his head around, his eyes suddenly incredibly childlike and playful, and very Un-Rowan, were finding the ceiling, his mouth stretching into a smile, like he was seeing butterflies. His eyes flashed to me, and I caught a twitch in his lip. I knew that look. It was the look on my seven year old sister, who knew mom was mad at me, and wanted to make it even worse.
His cheeks were starting to blossom scarlet from what must have been the overwhelming urge to laugh. Rowan pressed his lips together and held in a breath like a hamster, and the asshole was fucking with me. Waiting for me to beat him to it by accident. Kids were fucking ruthless, but there was something terrifying about an 18 year old with a little kid’s mind.
I lifted my index to my lips, miming for him not to even try, but the boy just mimicked me, bugging out his eyes and pressing his finger to his grinning mouth. “Don’t you fucking dare.” I managed to whisper. The boy was definitely playing his own game, moving in twitching movements, baiting me. When he cupped his mouth, I almost let out a cry, but then he dropped his arms with a giggle, as if to say, “I’m just kidding!”
Slowly, I turned around, grabbed the salt I’d found in Allison’s cupboard, and a flat can of soda. Without making too much movement, I poured a handful of salt into the can. But Rowan seemed to know exactly what I was doing. Because in the time it was taking me to advance towards him with the can of salty soda, one arm shakily ready to grab hold of him, and put him into a headlock, he was cupping his mouth, all logic and everything adult, everything he had been as our leader, igniting in playful eyes, leaving me the last one standing.
“Pollloooooo!”
By the time Rowan had managed to reveal our hiding place in a spluttered laugh, I had hold of the squirming boy, one arm wrapped around his neck, my other forcing the can of soda into his mouth. I had definitely miscalculated his strength. During camp Redwood activities, he was always the last one to come back from the trail, holding his knees and panting. I figured he was unfit. However, I was wrong. Underneath his shirt, the guy had some serious muscles.
It was like attacking a brick wall. However, Rowan was mentally a kid. So, I had my intelligence and logic on my side. When it became obvious I wasn’t going to get anywhere with brute strength, I resorted to tickling him, which made him squirm, squeaking out a laugh. When he opened his mouth to yell at me to stop, I took my chance, thrusting the can into his lips and holding his nose so he swallowed it down.
“No!” His laughter turned into muffled yelling, as he batted his fists at my chest. “No, no, no! Get off, get off!”
His body convulsed as the salt did its job, causing the boy to lurch to his knees and choke up forbidden animal crackers in a gooish sludge which turned my stomach. By the time Rowan seemed half himself and half not, still kneeling, his head pressed against the floor, Harry was poking his head through the door with a goonish grin. “Found you!” He giggled, before forcing the door open, allowing Carmel and Callen, freshly caught and mentally turned into littles, to advance down the stairs with equally terrifying grins. There was something wrong with Harry’s face, and I only realized it when the guy himself was hauling me from the bunker, Carmel dragging a barely responsive Rowan. There was nothing in Harry’s expression, only blind childish excitement at winning the game. When he dragged me out of Allison’s cabin and threw me to the ground, I realized he too had insane strength I had not been expecting. But that thought quickly retracted when I was seeing his face in the light of a crescent moon lighting up the sky an eerie glow. Harry’s cheeks were puffy and swollen, his right eye way bigger than it should have been.
When he spoke, his voice was more of a lisp. This was something far more realistic than magical animal crackers fucking with his brain.
“He needs help!” I managed to choke out when Carmel wrapped jump-rope around my wrists. Next to me, Rowan was refusing to get up, still choking up salty soda, groaning into his hands. Every time Callen tried to restrain him, he hissed out like an animal.
“Do you hear me?!” I struggled violently. “Harry needs—”
BANG.
Is what it felt like. The feeling of something—what felt and sounded like a toy car—colliding with my temples, sent me onto the ground, my head spinning itself off of its axis. I remember lying on my back and frowning at the moon which almost looked like it was getting closer to me, blurring into a white ball of light—before reality sunk in, and it was in fact Carmel’s converse coming down to finish me off. I didn’t stay knocked out for long. But I did dream.
I think you can call it a dream? I was lying in bed at home; my room drowned in the dark. I was cosy, curled up in my blankets, when a clammy hand slammed over my mouth, rousing me from slumber. There were two figures in my room. They didn’t have faces. They just existed as shadows, silhouettes. Before one of them raised something above their head, and… impact.
It was the same impact as the toy car hitting me, snapping me back to that night. It wasn’t a dream. Because I remembered his clammy fingers over my mouth, and his hisses for me to shut up as he dragged me from my room.
My parents stood in front of me with expressions of sympathy. Basked in warm light, my mom and dad looked almost otherworldly. “For the best.” Was what they mouthed when my own phantom screams slammed into me. I asked them why, and they didn’t reply, allowing him to pull me further and further from what I knew, from my life as I knew it. But.. that couldn’t be real. I had memories of getting on the bus to camp Redwood. I could recall the whole journey. So, why… why was my tangled mind saying otherwise?
When I gathered myself, the first thing I realized was I was sitting down. I was outside, cool night air grazing my bare arms. There was something attached to me, jerking violently, And it took me several disorienting blinks to understand that I was tied back to back with Rowan. My head pounded, and something wet and warm dripped down my temple. Great. I could add head injury to the long list of things to worry about.
“Let me go you little fucking witch.”
Rowan was back to himself, though from the muffled hissing and the sound of choking—I had to guess he was being force-fed animal crackers.
“Let me—mpphmmm. little…. fucking… mphmmphhmhppmm!”
“Rowan.” I managed to get out in a croak. Through flickering eyes, I caught glimpse of a familiar figure dancing around us. Shivers rocketed down my spine, and I wrenched at the jump-rope restraints, but they did a surprisingly job of restraining my arms behind my back.
Eleanor was with Rowan, while Eli was knelt in front of me. Looking at him, the boy had definitely aged in the face—and I couldn’t help wondering what exactly he had done as a forty something year old to be sent to this place.
“Josie!” Rowan responded in a wail. “Josie. Wake the FUCK up.”
“Stop swearing.”
Eleanor spoke with the cold tone of her actual age.
“Oh, yeah?” Rowan spluttered. “Fuck you.” The boy’s laugh was still rough from almost vomiting his insides out from too much salt intake. “I’m sorry, you were a fucking boomer all along?!” He wriggled in the restraints, lunging forwards, which sent me backwards.
“Stop swearing, Rowan.” Was all the girl responded with calmly.
“Like I’m going to listen to you!” He sneered. “Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fucking fuck!” What are you going to do, huh? Bite me with your false teeth?” The sound of saliva hitting skin made me wince. He was pissed. I had no doubt his completely rational anger was going to get us killed. Rowan was also somehow getting mixed up between forty and eighty. Though he was unwillingly snacking on mind bending sugary goodness.
“Fudge, Rowan.” Eleanor spoke in a giggle.
“What?!”
“Say fudge. Not fuck.”
“No.”
His hiss of pain caught me off guard. I don’t know what she was doing to him, but it was hurting him.
“You fudging fudge! I’m going to fudging kill you when I get out of these fudging ropes—“ his manic cursing became a muffled yell.
“Say fudge,” Eleanor hummed, followed by his hiss when the palm of her hand skinned his cheek. “Fuck is a bad word. You even said so yourself and you’re my favourite counselor.”
He heaved out a breath.
“You fudge,” Rowan spat. “When I get out of this, I am going to fudging kill you, you fudging—” His manic ranting morphed, once again, into muffled yelling, after another fistful of animal crackers were forced into his mouth. When I risked twisting around, I could see his rebellion slowly starting to simmer out as he relaxed slightly. I wanted to yell at him to keep a clear head before cold fingers were dipping under my chin and forcing my head around where I found myself face to face with Eli.
“I like you, Josie,” he said, before untying me and pulling me to my feet. Now at the age of nine or ten, he was a lot stronger. When I tried to pull away, the cruel blade of a knife grazed my gut. I caught his grin. “But we don’t need you.” Eli pointed to Rowan.
“We just want them.”
I followed his pointer finger which went from Rowan to Harry and Carmel, who were just standing there like fucking idiots, probably awaiting the next game. Harry’s face was getting redder. It looked like he was suffocating, and yet his grin was growing wider and wider, splitting his lips apart. “Rowan Atlas.” Eleanor said, dragging him to his feet. Something was stapled to his forehead head, which caused him to howl in pain, hissing another strangled line of “Fudge”. but I couldn’t read what it was.
“Camp leader. Intelligent, and problem solving skills.”
“Harry Carlisle.” Eli nodded his head with a smile. “Quick thinker. Strong minded.”
“Carmel Locke.” Cassie spoke behind me. She had her arms folded, a wry smile on her lips. “Smarter than she makes out—- an independent learner, and can work well under pressure.”
Looking at these kids, I felt sick to my stomach. They were planning something—and had the intelligence of renowned scientists, which was what I gathered from the footage on the MacBook. “What?” was all I could hiss out, as Eli prodded the blade of the knife into my back, ushering me to walk. “What are you talking about?”
“Duh.” He spoke in a more tweeny giggle. “Like I said, Miss Josie. You’re my favorite counselor but we don’t need you, so I’m going to use you for parts.” He laughed when a shiver spiderwebbed down my spine. “See! I told you I was going to show you my collection!”
“But… what do you need them for?”
Eli pressed his index finger to his lips with a laugh before forcing me to face forwards. “That’s a secret!”
When I didn’t, or couldn’t move, he shoved me into a stumbling power-walk, and I managed to turn my head quickly, making feverish eye contact with Rowan.
“Rowan.” I said calmly through the gutter in my throat. “Get…. Get help.”
If I was going to die, I needed him to get a hold of himself and somehow alert the outside world what was going on.
“From whom, Josie?!” He wailed back—and as I was dragged away, I could once again sense the childish undertones in his voice.
I had no choice but to obey Eli’s orders. If I didn’t want a knife in my back. He took me to the main lunch cabin, which, when I set foot inside, almost sent me to my knees.
Something lurched inside me, and I was screaming with no voice, staggering backwards, only to be shoved onto my face. In front of me was what had been the lunch hall, fully converted into the beginning of a laboratory.
What had been cafeteria tables were fashioned into makeshift gurney’s and beds, and I was looking at all of the missing counselors. Yuri and Noah had been skinned completely, their faces laid out on a makeshift surgical table. Joey had been ripped open, his heart and brain removed, a glittering metallic substance creeping its way across his forehead. It was then when I remembered Eleanor Summers words.
She wanted to prevent death and preserve the human mind. Looking at what was in front of me, this was the start of it. There was equipment I had never seen before. Lily’s body was empty, carved out completely, tubes forced inside her. When I glimpsed her fingers move and begin to ball into a fist, I saw red. I saw fucking red. The exit was so close and yet Eli, fucking Eli, wielded his knife. I think that is when part of me gave up. My brain just stopped. It short circuited. Seeing my friends murdered and yet somehow being kept alive through playing god, my body slumped to the ground. I was numb. Completely numb.
I’m not sure what would have happened if those bloody saws and instruments which had been used on my friends were used on me too.
Luckily, that did not happen. Before Eli could get his slimy hands on me, he crumpled to the ground in an almost cartoon-like fashion, and standing over me was Harry. Who was looking better. When he grasped hold of me and helped me up, I only had one word. “Out.” And he was nodding, his eyes glistening as he drunk in our friends’ fate.
“How?” I managed to sputter out, when we made it out of the cabin, ducking behind a tree. Harry turned to me, motioning for me to shut up. There was a group of now ten to eleven year olds already running around, searching for what I guessed was him.
“I’m allergic to peanut butter,” Harry murmured, his grasp tightening on my wrist as he led me across the camp, the two of us stumbling.
“What, and you just magically healed?”
He didn’t respond to that, which bothered me.
“The bunker is our best shot,” I hissed out. “I think we can get in contact with someone down there.” I paused, unable to stop myself. “What makes you so important?”
“Dunno. Maybe I’m their favorite.”
When we found Allison’s cabin, which was more of a safehouse (an exposed safehouse) I found Rowan sitting on the wooden porch with his legs swinging over the side. “Rowan!” Harry groaned. I found it hard to believe their roles had been switched. Now he was the one yelling at the camp-leader. “I told you to stay inside!”
He ushered the boy inside, before barricading the door with some hefty looking equipment. I could tell from the grin on his face that our so-called leader was once again no longer himself.
I had to bite back a groan. “You’re kidding.” I said, pointing to Rowan, who buried his head in his knees and blew a raspberry. “Does he look and act like our leader right now?!”
“It’s Rowan, Josie.”
“He’s a liability.”
“He’s our friend! Wouldn’t Rowan do the same?”
Yes, he would. But. He would also realize we’re lost causes.
“Gag him with something.” I said. “If he makes any more noise, we’re dumping him.”
“He’s a kid!”
“Just the mind of one.”
I don’t know how animal crackers worked, but his age seemed to be progressively younger. This time he just sat with wide eyes watching us.
Harry almost tore apart the place looking for means of communication, before an old fashioned ringing sound made me jump.
“What was that?” Harry turned to me with his lip curled.
“How am I supposed to know?!” I hissed. “Keep looking!” But when I ducked under the table, my hands crawled under the desk, finding a wire—and attached to that, an ancient looking phone which looked straight out of a 1940’s movie, a bright green rotary phone.
Hesitantly, I answered it, lifting the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Did you awaken the subjects, Agent Salta?"
The voice on the other end was a woman, an oldish sounding woman with the tinge of a British accent.
“What?” I shot a look at Harry before shaking my head. “No. My name is Josie Greenfield. We’re at Camp Redwood, and we need help.”
The woman paused.
“Where is Agent Salta?” She cleared her throat. “This line is reserved for communication with agents only.”
“I don’t know who the fuck you’re talking about!" I squeaked out. “My name is Josie, and whatever is happening here, we need help!”
“Josie. Did you awaken the subjects?”
I paused after a moment, shooting Harry a look when he tried to take the phone off of me. “Yes.”
“And… are our agents unavailable?”
“I don’t understand.”
“When a health and safety breach is activated, our agents are awakened to deal with the Project Spearhead subjects if they were to ever go rogue, or become conscious enough to think. Josie, can you tell me what is in front of you? Describe it to me.”
I held my breath. Next to the hidden phone under the desk was what looked like mismatched wires, all of which had been severed. I lowered myself slowly, poking at mess. “Wires. I see… cut up wires.” I whispered. “Does this mean they know about you?”
She hummed. “Ah…That makes sense. The only way to activate our sleeper handlers would be to send out the signal. You appear to have been sabotaged. Unless activated manually, our agents cannot help you. I am sorry. They are your problem now.” The woman paused.
“If I were you, I would hope and pray they have not sabotaged the self-destruct. If you find that, then you may be able to save yourselves and find peace.” She cleared her throat. “Thank you for your service, Josie Greenfield.”
“Wait.” I managed to get out. “Wait, no! You can’t just… you can’t leave us! We need help!”
I found myself yelling at nothing when the phone went dead. The dull tone of the dead ringtone was clanging in my ears before footsteps from up above. “Fuck this.” Harry picked up a lead pipe. “They’re still little kids, right? I mean, their head must still be partly kids—- so let’s fucking beat their heads in.”
He noticed something, then, starting forwards towards the mess of files I had left earlier. Harry knelt on the ground and picked up Eli’s file, his eyes wide. But he wasn’t staring at the dates confirming the little boy’s age.
Instead, Harry pointed at the bottom of the file. “I don’t want to freak you out, Josie,” he whispered. Initially, I didn’t know what he was trying to show before I glimpsed notes scrawled at the bottom of the file, followed by a signature. “But I’m pretty sure that is my fucking writing.”
Harry was right.
I pulled the paperwork off of him, flicking through each file before turning my eyes to him. “Who the fuck are you?”
A clanging sound from above broke the tension, and whatever Harry was about to reply with was strangled in his throat. He slammed a hand over his mouth.
“Guys?”
The voice twisted me up inside, threatening to release a shriek from my mouth I had managed to clamp shut.
Teddy.
“Are you down here?” His voice was strained, and had an odd tone to it. “I can’t… I can’t see you.”
…
Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?! It’s been a blur of a week. We’ve managed to stay down here, surviving off of Allison’s rations. Rowan isn’t getting any better. He seems to have stopped mentally de-ageing at the age of maybe six. Harry has spent the last few days trying to get in contact with anyone, but it’s like they are IGNORING US.
I’ve been looking through everything I can find on Project Spearhead, but nothing points to Harry being involved. So. How is his signature all over the files? How is it possible that two friends I thought I knew several days ago, are now complete strangers?
Teddy keeps coming back.
He’s crying out to us.
I think he’s… in pain.
My god, I can’t stand this anymore. Please. CAMP REDWOOD NEEDS HELP.

Staked: 193.15u, Profit/Loss: +8.41u, ROI: 4.36%, Parlay Suggestions: 51-21
Scroll down for UFC 289 Breakdowns. Below is just a review of last week’s bets.
UFC Vegas 74
Staked: 18.70u
Profit/Loss: -3.31u
Parlay Suggestions: 3-2
✅ 2u Alex Caceres to Win & Arlovski/Mayes Over 1.5 Rounds (+100)
❌ 2u Jim Miller & Jamie Mullarkey to Win (-125)
✅ 2.5u Jim Miller ITD (-105)
✅ 0.5u Jim Miller in Round 1 (+235)
❌ 2u Abubakar Nurmagomedov to Win (-105)
❌ 1.5u Andrei Arlovski to Win by Decision (+200)
❌ 2u Muin Gafarov to Win (-125)
❌ 3u Luan Lacerda to Win (-125)❌ 1u Luan Lacerda to Win by Submission or Decision (+100)
✅ 2u Philipe Lins to Win (+140)
Once again I was my own worst enemy, making some good reads once I initially dropped the preview (Lins, Caceres, Elliott) but consistently made tweaks in the build-up that sent things south. I really need to be more disciplined and block out the noise once I’ve made my initial conclusions. I remember when I started posting here I was tipping about four bets maximum…now I apparently have action across almost every fight.
Going forward I think I’ll stop analysing each bet in this section, as no-one seems to really comment on that stuff and it just eats into the overall character count.
So let’s get into the PPV.
UFC 289
This is a weird, weird PPV card. I guess they kind of have to have a title fight at the top of the billing over a number-one contender bout as co-main, but to see Mike Malott, Nate Landwehr and Eryk Anders perform before Charles Oliveira…and then Amanda Nunes as the main event, is quite funny. Canadian MMA has been in ruins since GSP and Rory MacDonald left the UFC, and none of the guys on this card are not the one to restore its glory.
I know I say it every time the PPV event rolls around, but MMA oddsmakers are very sharp for these higher profile events. Once again I find myself coming to very similar conclusions for a lot of the fights here, so I very much expect this one to be a much smaller slate for me. Definitely a good idea given what I said in the review of last week.
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Amanda Nunes v Irene Aldana
There’s a very loud narrative surrounding Amanda Nunes these days, and it’s a hard one to ignore. Having been in the UFC for a decade and holding a title for 7 years, there’s literally nothing left for her to do. She’s had the big money fights that Women’s MMA can offer (Rousey, Cyborg & the “redemption” sequel with Pena), and she doesn’t seem interested in setting up another fight with Shevchenko (who, to be fair, she’s beaten twice). What else is there for Nunes to be motivated for?
Outside the cage, She’s started a family with Nina Ansaroff, who also retired very recently and has spoken about wanting a second child with Nunes. The Brazilian has spoken quite candidly about her aspirations to retire very soon as well, and I believe that she would have laid her gloves in the centre of the Octagon if she’d beaten Pena in their initial meeting. She had to right the wrongs in the sequel, but a victory over Pena at UFC 289 to make it 2-1 in the series was probably enough of a narrative for Nunes to put her career to bed then and there. It’s a bold prediction, but I have a hunch that Nunes has done this whole training camp knowing it’s going to be her last.
Unfortunately, Pena was forced to withdraw and Irene Aldana steps in to challenge for the belt instead. Mexican MMA is absolutely booming right now, with three champions in the last few months, and the stage really feels set for Aldana. She’s always had very impressive boxing, as well as some opportunistic submissions…but her inability to stuff takedowns has often been her undoing in her career. Given that Nunes has relied heavily on her wrestling in recent years (20 takedowns in her last 4 wins), I think it’s fair to say Nunes should once again be favoured here.
Women’s Bantamweight and Featherweight have been underdeveloped weight classes for some time now, where the same names that were competing for the belt in like 2019 are still in the top 5 (looking at you Holly Holm!). The next generation seems to have broken through at Flyweight, with Valentina losing her last two title defences (not officially, but I scored the first one quite confidently for Santos). Nunes has been fortunate enough to govern over a division that doesn’t have many of those up-and-coming prospects yet, but those on the rise are still training and competing in a modern MMA context more frequently than the champion – which makes me think the changing of the guard could happen sometime soon. (For more on this, I asked a hypothetical question in the comment section).
So, overall, I think there are a lot of valid asterisks on Nunes’ name at the moment, and I think her career is coming to an end sometime soon, if not after this fight. However, if she’s fighting at her optimum then Aldana’s weaknesses can certainly be exploited, and are enough to deem her the Champion as favourite. With that said, I actually think Aldana could more than hold her own in the striking, so I would already be lining this one closer than Nunes normally is…and after adding in the narrative that surrounds the fight I think it gets even closer.
Therefore, I’ll be playing a 0.5u “value bet” on Aldana. It’s not something I expect to win, but I think her chances of winning are much greater than the odds available.
How I line this fight: Amanda Nunes -175 (64%), Irene Aldana +175 (36%)
Bet or Pass: 0.5u Irene Aldana to Win (+300)
Notable Props: I'd encourage you to play Nunes by Submission or Decision if you wanted to play her.
​
Charles Oliveira v Beneil Dariush
Oh this is a spicy one. Charles Oliveira holds a special place in my heart as being my favourite fighter of all time, and he’s the fighter I’ve definitely made the most money on in my time betting on MMA. At the start of that massive win streak he went on, you could get a decent price on Oliveira ITD against so many prelim guys, and the underdog prices available against Kevin Lee, Tony Ferguson, Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier were even better.
But, as we know, Islam Makhachev exists and did a sensational job against Oliveira. Such a good job in fact, that I expect it to be footage that Beneil Dariush and his camp have dissected in great detail.
Dariush is an equally exciting fighter to watch. He’s got a brilliant skillset, but he’s not particularly athletic which makes him a very unassuming fighter. He looks like some bloke that works in HR in your office…not an elite Lightweight UFC fighter.
I think Dariush’s BJJ abilities are going to be the key to this fight, as we’ve seen many times in his career already. High level BJJ is a brilliant quality because not only does it make you dangerous at finishing fights, it also improves your defence and provides the platform for a wrestling based offence. We saw Dariush make full use of this in his wins over Tony Ferguson, Carlos Diego Ferreira (x2) and Thiago Moises, as well as his takedown defence on display against Gamrot. I feel like he’s going to be able to dictate where the fight takes place here.
What interests me is the competitiveness of the striking. If you’ve been watching this sport religiously for over seven years, you’ll still remember when Dariush was thought to have a glass jaw, where the likes of Alex Hernandez, Drew Dober and Drakkar Klose hurt him badly with strikes. I feel like Dariush has had quite favourable matchmaking against that weakness on his recent streak, and Oliveira is potentially one of the biggest threats he’s faced on the feet in recent years in terms of power.
On the flipside, Oliveira is still as reckless as ever, and has been knocked down or hurt in each of his last four title fights. Only Makhachev came away with a win in those fights, because his grappling was at a good enough level that he was happy to follow Charles down to the mat when he knocked him down, and capitalised fully to secure the submission soon after. Dariush has sneaky power himself, and if he is able to land a knockdown on Oliveira then I think we see him capitalise too.
The volatility is going to be massive in this fight, as both men are hard hitters with durability concerns (maybe not in a fight ending sense, but they frequently get rocked). With that in mind, I think any sort of finish is going to be very live in this fight. If not, I think you have to give Dariush the decision winning potential, as I think his ability to find top position is greater than Oliveira’s. It’s enough to make Benny the favourite, but not by a whole lot. I think the books have got this one priced spot on, actually.
How I line this fight: Charles Oliveira +110 (48%), Beneil Dariush -110 (52%)
Bet or Pass: Pass
Notable Props: FDGTD is probably a decent parlay piece at -200 or better
Live Betting Lean: I think the longer this fight goes, the more it favours Dariush due to his round winning superiority.
​
Mike Malott v Adam Fugitt
Honestly the fact that I’m breaking down this fight straight after Oliveira v Dariush is hilarious. I wouldn’t even question it if this was on the prelims of an Apex card.
I underestimated Mike Malott in his last fight against Yohan Lainesse, and my take was so bad that I looked like an idiot. He impressed me a lot, and I think he impressed the UFC too for them to give him this spot on the main card.
Malott looks to have really good submission ability, but I’m still a bit concerned that his striking might be a few too many steps behind. People will say things looked improved in the Lainesse fight, but I think that was more a case of Lainesse having no real interest in engaging or committing to his strikes in the early goings (he has become gunshy as to manage cardio). The fight against Mickey Gall was a massive, massive red flag for Malott…no one in the UFC should really be getting outstruck by Gall. That footage was from a year ago though, so there’s a chance he has improved things since then…but I don’t think you can really use the Lainesse fight as evidence of that.
Malott faces Adam Fugitt, who took the ‘sacrificial lamb’ approach to entering the UFC when he was paired up with Michael Morales – who is lowkey a very bright young prospect. It’s important not to judge a fighter by their performance in that type of fight, it’s best to instead treat their sophomore fight as their ‘real’ debut. We saw that with Fugitt, as he dominated Yusaku Kinoshita as a +260 underdog earlier this year.
I was quite impressed with Fugitt in his loss to Morales. His striking clearly wasn’t on Morales’ level, and he’ll have to be careful of Malott’s powerful hands, but he showed decent defensive awareness and had a couple of moments of his own. Fugitt’s a bit too kick heavy for my liking, but it looks like it confuses opponents and actually works well at establishing range. It did exactly that in his Solomon Renfro win.
Malott’s fight against Renfro however, despite only being 90 seconds long, really sums up his abilities as a fighter. He was getting tagged on the feet, but managed to find one moment to land a powerful shot and sinked in a choke in the blink of an eye. He was losing 98% of that fight convincingly.
The big question for this fight revolves around Fugitt’s grappling ability on bottom, and initial takedown defence, as that’s where most of Malott’s win equity is going to be. Unfortunately we have not actually seen him defensive grapple, so honestly it’s impossible to accurately line this fight given how integral it should be. The only inclination I have is that Fugitt’s takedowns have looked really good in his two fights. DC was very impressed with how he got Morales down, and his trips were also looking on point against Kinoshita. He did great work on top as well when he did establish position, and worked his way to a finish efficiently.
However, there can sometimes be a big disparity between a wrestler’s grappling ability on top vs on bottom, which is why BJJ is so important to MMA (see the breakdown of Dariush!). Therefore, complimenting Fugitt’s top position grappling doesn’t mean a whole lot, as he could be atrocious on bottom, and even if he does use wrestling himself he’s going to dive headfirst into Malott’s nasty guillotine.
So in conclusion, you can’t have super strong opinions on this fight, but you can deduce that Malott has more ways to win. If Fugitt isn’t winning via striking, it’s likely he’s not winning at all. Malott, on the other hand, could win with a big shot on the feet, through takedowns and top control of his own, or even from a guard submission on bottom.
Therefore, with Malott being the hometown hero and likely taking all the betting action on the moneyline, I think the books have the liberty to juice his odds a fair bit. -200 is probably an example of that, but it’s not too far off where I’d line this fight. There are still enough unknowns about both men that I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Fugitt pull off the upset, but I think the +170 available on him in return isn’t providing a whole lot of value. Smart work by the oddsmakers.
How I line this fight: Mike Malott -175 (64%), Adam Fugitt +175 (36%)
Bet or Pass: Pass
Notable Props: Malott by Submission would be the bet I’d make at +200 or better if someone told me I had to. Won’t be playing it though.
​
Dan Ige v Nate Landwehr
Well it seems the UFC matchmakers have confirmed their position on Dan Ige. He’s a top 15 gatekeeper now! His string of losses to Evloev, Emmett, Korean Zombie and Kattar did put one too many nails in his title aspiration coffin, but those bounce-back performances against Gavin Tucker and Damon Jackson were pretty impressive to me.
Ige is still a very, very tricky fighter to beat because he’s so well rounded, as most of the top 15 at Featherweight are. Ige faces Nate Landwehr, who has been on an entertaining run of form in the UFC – beating the likes of Ludovit Klein, David Onama and Austin Lingo. Whilst running through his record, it is important to note he went to a close decision in a striking bout against Darren Elkins, and also lost to Herbert Burns and Julian Erosa.
As I say quite often in higher level FeatheBantam/Fly-Weight breakdowns, they’re very tricky divisions to identify skill gaps in. The elite in the division are all very well-rounded offensively and defensively, so it often feels like you’re splitting hairs when you’re trying to find attributes that favour one fighter over the other.
The same can kind of be said here, except Dan Ige has the much better record in terms of actual wins and overall experience. If I imagine Nate Landwehr competing against Ige’s last eight opponents, I genuinely think he might win 1 or 2 of them…whilst Ige has won 4, not been finished in any of the losses and given a good account of himself on each scorecard (except the Evloev loss).
So honestly, the only real thing I feel I can reference here in terms of differentiating between both men is ‘levels’…but I genuinely think that’s enough for Ige to be about -200 here. You can’t go any further than that because this fight should still be reasonably competitive, but given what Ige has done to the opponents he’s stepped down in competition for (Damon Jackson, Gavin Tucker), I think you can have a certain degree of confidence that he should find that extra 10% to clearly win this fight. That equates to around -175 in my mind.
How I line this fight: Dan Ige -175 (64%), Nate Landwehr +175 (36%)
Bet or Pass: Pass
Notable Props: Ige ITD could be of some interest, as he’s started showing real power in his hands, and Landwehr is quite finish-able in his losses.
​
Marc-Andre Barriault v Eryk Anders
Eryk Anders is one of the most frustrating guys to watch. He had so much athleticism and decent skills, but just doesn’t put his best foot forward. Barely any evolution to his game, poor fight IQ…but the occasional glimmers of potential – enough to stop you from writing him off despite his constant underdelivering.
Marc-Andre Barriault is kind of the opposite really. He’s a jack-of-all-trades, master of none…but he will do everything in his power to maximise his advantages to turn the fight in his favour. He isn’t a physical specimen and doesn’t really have much power…but he can hustle hard for 15 minutes and use a mixture of striking, takedowns and clinch work to win rounds.
Anders has actually had some of his better performances in recent fights, looking in great shape and form against Kyle Daukaus, arguably beating Jun Yong Park by decision, and outpoint + KO’ing Darren Stewart (x2) beforehand.
If this fight was happening two years ago, MAB would be like -200 here due to his reliability to out-hustle Anders, but his recent performances have been a little bit lacklustre (Hernandez ragdolled him and Chidi Njokuani folded him like a deckchair). Couple that with the fact that Anders FINALLY looks to be growing into the potential he’s always been on the cusp of with a recent change in training camp…I think you’re looking at a closely lined fight here.
I predict this one ends up being a 29-28, possibly split decision type of fight. One man has activity whilst the other has power. The subjectivity of judging will be in full effect and everyone will call this one a robbery, depending on who they bet on.
How I line this fight: Marc-Andre Barriault +100 (50%), Eryk Anders +100 (50%)
Bet or Pass: Pass
Notable Props: Barriault by Decision would probably be my preferred choice.
​
Jasmine Jasudavicius v Miranda Maverick
Miranda Maverick is a Women’s MMA fighter that I hold in very high regard. The back-to-back losses put a real halt to her hype train, but I think she’s easily got Top 10 potential and got robbed against Maycee Barber anyway. I think her style is one that can very easily exploit a lot of opponents in her division. Her striking’s okay, but her wrestling and top pressure are very dominant tools.
She takes on Jasmine Jasudavicius, who has also used her wrestling ability to good effect in the UFC/DWCS so far. Neither woman is a particularly good striker, and I expect this one to turn into a bit of a scramble fest pretty quickly.
Their statures have been very important factors in their grappling successes so far, but for different reasons. JJ is basically a size bully at 5’7 and will have a 4 inch height advantage once again. Maverick, on the other hand, is going to be the stronger of the two during those close quarter engagements, because she’s pretty damn jacked.
I think Maverick should be favoured overall as I think her wrestling is the superior of the two and should lead to more time in top position, but I’m definitely not keen to play her at -275. Miranda’s strengths are also her opponent’s strengths, and facing the lanky size of Jasudavicius could cause her problems when it comes to securing the initial takedowns against those long legs, or keeping safe from guard submissions or maintaining that dominant position in the first place. Also, if they do somehow end up choosing to strike for significant portions, I can’t actually guarantee that Maverick is the better on the feet (reach disadvantage plays a part too).
I do however like Maverick to win this one, but not by the confidence of the current odds. I’m expecting this one to go the distance, but I highly doubt we get a good line on it as Maverick couldn’t even finish Shanna Young last time out.
How I line this fight: Jasmine Jasudavicius +188 (35%), Miranda Maverick -188 (65%)
Bet or Pass: Pass.
Notable Props: Fight goes to decision. It's probably like -400.
​
Blake Bilder v Kyle Nelson
There are a couple of fights on this card where one guy is clearly more populasuccessful/in-form than their opponent, but they’re still only around -200 (Dan Ige & Mike Malott are the best examples). Blake Bilder is the third. Before I jumped into research for all three of these bouts, I was instinctively thinking that I could easily want to bet all three at -200, as that didn’t seem short enough by my initial perception of their names. I came away from Ige and Malott agreeing with the line and feeling grateful that I looked into it…but I still think Blake Bilder’s odds are providing a bit of value.
Kyle Nelson is one of those fodder guys. The UFC are keeping him around to give to prospects and home-town fighters in the hope that they can invest in the future or the event itself. Jai Herbert notched a win for Team UK against Nelson on a UFC London card, Doo Ho Choi got given a softball to get him back on track for a card that was supposed to be in South Korea. Billy Quarantillo got given Nelson to put his name on the map with a highlight reel finish..and now Blake Bilder is being presented the chance to extend his UFC record to 2-0.
Bilder’s already fought a better opponent in the UFC when he beat Shane Young in February. We saw a very high pace being set in the third round of that fight, with both men landing 100+ significant strikes across the fight and Bilder also attempting 7 takedowns. His cardio is clearly quite decent, which will immediately give him the advantage over Nelson – who has often wilted in the latter half of a fight when the pace has been hectic.
Bilder’s a very well-rounded combatant, and has great BJJ once he gets established time on top. He’s a bit of a concern defensively though, where he can be taken down and can also get caught with strikes.
Kyle Nelson, on the other hand, doesn’t really seem to know what kind of fighter he is. He’s been a brawler for all of his UFC career, but comes out to land five takedowns and is seemingly not interested in striking with a Doo Ho Choi who has questionable durability. He didn’t do much at all with those takedowns either and actually put himself in danger in R1 by insisting on grappling.
If Nelson comes out looking to wrestle Bilder, I think they’re at different levels in the grappling and Blake should be able to turn things around in his favour. If they’re striking, I am aware that Nelson’s got fight ending power, but Bilder’s been much more patient and cerebral in his last couple of fights, so I trust him to stay safe and look for his openings. We saw him reactively find a takedown off of Shane Young’s kick, and Nelson’s offense is very body kick heavy.
Overall, I just think Bilder is the better fighter in pretty much every facet of MMA except one-punch power and, as long as he doesn’t get flash KO’d, I think he rolls here. -200 isn’t quite short enough, and I expect money to come in on him between now and fight night. I’ve already got my money down, just in case.
How I line this fight: Blake Bilder -300 (75%), Kyle Nelson +300 (25%)
Bet or Pass: 5u Blake Bilder to Win (-200)
Notable Props: Bilder ITD or R3 could be interesting. I'd probably be interested in that if I didn't have a lot of exposure already.
Aiemann Zahabi v Aoriqileng
There was a time where Aiemann Zahabi was considered one of the worst guys on the roster. Crazy that the standard of UFC fighter has gotten so much worse that that statement seems ridiculous now. To be fair, Zahabi did pull off a respectable upset in beating Ricky Turcios in his last fight..but it seems to be unanimously agreed that Ricky fought like an idiot in that fight and actually beat himself.
Aoriqileng is quite explosive and clearly hits hard, but he’s a bit too keen to hunt for the KO and it hurts his minute-winning ability. Against someone like Zahabi, who is quite composed and process driven (how could you not be when Firas is your family and coach), and I see that being a pretty key part to this fight. The big moments will side with the Mongolian, but Aiemann could just put together the more cohesive performance if he doesn’t get troubled by that explosiveness.
Overall this is just a pretty low level fight between guys who don’t compete very often. I didn’t have a whole lot to say prior to watching tape, and I’ve come away feeling equally uncertain of how this one’s going to end. An easy pass when there are more active and popular fighters for us to form a stronger opinion on.
How I line this fight: I don’t really know.
Bet or Pass: Pass
Notable Props: None
​
Nassourdine Imavov v Chris Curtis
This one instantly feels like a pretty close fight, solely based off both men’s most recent losses. Imavov getting outstruck by Sean Strickland across 25 minutes was a bit of a shock to everyone, myself included. I expected him to lose via cardio dump, but it was actually just lesser volume, a lack of takedowns being attempted and obviously not landing anything of significance on Strickland.
It’s widely known that Chris Curtis and Sean Strickland are close training partners at Xtreme Couture, which I think makes for an added element to this fight. On six days notice, Strickland and the team managed to devise a pretty genius striking gameplan with disruptive rhythm that completely threw Imavov of. Can Chris Curtis do the same? Probably.
Curtis himself has problems of his own in the striking though, namely that his volume and output just aren’t where they often need to be. I’m not sure whether it’s the managing of his gas tank or what, but he just doesn’t seem able to commit to matching his opponent’s tempo across 15 minutes. He threw the first round away against Gastelum, and it cost him the fight. He bitched and moaned about it on Twitter, but social media’s been telling the guy what his problem is for as long as he’s been in the UFC haha.
I do suspect that there’s a little bit of recency bias on Imavov here, as the guy was a pretty well-respected prospect prior to the loss to Strickland. Some will tell you it was misplaced faith, but he certainly doesn’t have tempo issues in the latter half of fights and should probably have the higher volume across 15 minutes. I don’t see him taking Curtis down either, given the 100% takedown defence and the fact Imavov seemingly abandoned it in his last fight. It would be great if he did though!
So yeah, it’s a bit of a close one this. Off pure skillset I lean towards Imavov at like -150, but the asterisk of Curtis’ team being able to easily design a gameplan against the Frenchman gives me enough pause to not want to pick a side here. I’d be more interested in betting overs, if a decent price is available.
How I line this fight: Nassourdine Imavov -137 (58%), Chris Curtis +137 (42%)
Bet or Pass: 1.5u Fight Goes to Decision (-137 or better)
Notable Props: I think this one goes to decision at a pretty high clip.
​
Diana Belbita v Maria Oliveira
My initial thought was “What would compel someone to bet on this fight?”, then I remember I placed 100 quid on Chase Hooper a few weeks ago…and it was a great bet haha! Given how most of my handicapping for this card has seen me in complete agreement with the books, perhaps looking into a lower level fight with significantly less interest could be the place to a strong opinion!?
Nope. I can’t do it. One quick glance at their records was enough for me. Belbita got 30-25’d by a wrestling Molly McCann and submitted by Liana Jojua, whilst Maria Oliveira got soundly beaten on the scorecards by Vanesa Demopoulos and voluntarily asked to stop fighting after 3 minutes against Marina Rodriguez.
This one isn’t good enough to open an Apex card, let alone sit on a PPV. I usually really dislike all the WMMA bashing on this sub, but this one isn’t worth the time.
How I line this fight: No.
Bet or Pass: No.
Notable Props: No.
Live Betting Lean: You could do something productive with that 15 minutes. Lift some weights, make some food, rewatch Ngannou v Lewis instead?
​
Bets
0.5u Irene Aldana to Win (+300)
5u Blake Bilder to Win (-200)
1.5u Imavov v Curtis Goes to Decision (-137 or better) (Might not get this kind of price).
Parlay Do’s: Dan Ige, Blake Bilder, Imavov/Curtis GTD, Maverick/Jasudavicius GTD
Parlay Don’ts: Amanda Nunes, Mike Malott, Miranda Maverick

Doing about a 4" lift on my truck and I don't want to do a sway bar drop bracket. I found a set of 2-4 inch adjustable end links by Stryker Off Road, but no other real alternatives. Anyone know any other brands? I would love a set that's 3 to 5 inch adjustable.

I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but the last few years have been wild for airline travel. It seems like not even a week can pass before a new viral video is circulating the internet, showcasing some idiot on a plane or airport screaming, shouting, and even starting fights with other passengers and flight staff for no apparent reason.
I’m sure it’s entertaining when you’re sitting at home and come across these videos while casually scrolling through Reddit or Twitter. You might laugh, or shake your head at the stupidity and not give it a second thought. Unfortunately, this isn’t an option when you’re the one on the job.
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had to call security to deal with a rowdy or straight-up violent customer in the airport over the last couple of years. Most of the time, the things that set people off are surprisingly minor and avoidable issues.
They want to board now but it wasn’t their turn so they start harassing me and my co-workers. Another passenger looked at them funny so they get into a screaming match. A baby is crying so the grown adult starts whining even louder. The person in front of them took the last chocolate donut with sprinkles from the airport bakery so they start throwing punches.
You would not believe the stuff I’ve seen. Needless to say, I got tired of it. Getting up to go to work, wondering what kind of unhinged maniac was going to make a problem for me lost its appeal. So, I started to look for a new job.
A few weeks into the job search, I began to get doubtful that I would find a suitable replacement. Seeing as my only tangible skills and experience were in the airline industry, I didn’t have much more than other airline jobs within realistic reach. Though I didn’t have a problem with relocation, if it meant I was going to end up in another major airport, I had no interest.
During one 3 am job search after my long shift at the airport, running on nothing but the jittery movements from the room-temperature coffee, I found a new job listing. One Pine Airport, a rural airport in the midwest. I sat up and took another sip of coffee. The pictures for the place gave an idea of the size and it looked tiny. Only a couple of runways, a single terminal, and a cute internal design reflective of the forestry that surrounded it. Perfect for me, I thought. I imagined there would not be nearly as many people to deal with.
I scrolled down to the job details and to my relief, it was for the exact same job I had already been doing. The only difference was that it required frequent night shifts. I had done plenty of night shifts before, but doing a few more of them made no difference to me. Surprisingly listed was the pay. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were offering more starting than I was being paid at the airport I had been at for over three years.
Now wide awake, I eagerly uploaded my resume, filled out all of the application questions, and even spent the next hour crafting an unnecessary cover letter. I headed to bed with the hope that my days at overflowing airports might be over. The next day as I was getting ready for work, I opened my phone to scroll through notifications and check emails.
To my disbelief, I had one from the job I had applied for only hours earlier. The manager at the airport, who had posted the job, requested an interview over Zoom. I quickly replied and we settled on a time during my lunch break that very day.
The first few hours of work breezed by and as I boarded flight after flight of passengers, I couldn’t help but think about the upcoming interview. When it came time, I was nervous as hell but my fears were diffused within the first minute. A bald, well-kept, and well-dressed man joined the meeting room and greeted me with a warm smile. He introduced himself as James.
I couldn’t have asked for a more friendly interviewer. He welcomed me and after some small talk and a few questions about my relevant experience, he gave an overview of the job's details, that being the same job I already had with better pay but more frequent night shifts. No problem with me. After affirming that I knew all the details of the job, James cracked another wide, friendly smile and asked an unexpected question.
“When can you start?”
I spit the out sip of coffee I had just taken back into the cup. I looked back up at James and tried to find the right words but I was unprepared.
“You uh… aren’t gonna give me a call back like later or something? Don’t you have more interviews and… and paperwork waiting to clear and, and…?”
James waved his hand dismissively at his webcam.
“You’re the only applicant we have, and we couldn’t have asked for a better one. As for the paperwork and such, we’ll figure that out when we figure it out. The job is yours, whenever you can start, that is. Preferably soon?”
Though the feelings of shock and confusion remained, they were pushed to the side by my excitement. Throughout the remainder of our conversation, James and I reviewed our schedules and set up a start date before ending the call. I sat back in my break room chair with a sigh of disbelief and a chuckle.
I am well aware that it is standard to give at least a two-week notice to your employer and moving across states for a job is supposed to take quite a bit of planning but I was dying to get out of my current job. Through both eagerness and maybe a little stupidity, we settled on a day only a little over a week away.
At the end of my shift that day, I let my manager know I had to be done in a week. Though she wasn’t happy, she assured me it wouldn’t be a problem.
My final day was nothing short of horrendous. A couple had come up, demanding and screaming that I refund their tickets for no apparent reason. On top of that, they still wanted to fly. After hearing that no, they would not be able to fly for zero cost, the husband, followed by the wife, both started shouting threats. Security was quickly called to the terminal.
As soon as they arrived, I checked my watch to find that my shift was over. I let out a sigh of relief and excitedly walked away. As deprived of sleep as I was, with a long and undoubtedly stressful drive ahead of me, I was still more energetic and in higher spirits than I had been in a long time.
Surprisingly, the drive went off without a hitch. I arrived earlier than expected and checked into the motel room I rented for the week so I had time to get the move figured out. After dumping a few boxes of personal items and a suitcase of clothes into the room, I turned off the lights. I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I energetically awoke that evening to prepare myself for my first shift. I quickly got dressed and started the drive in hopes of arriving plenty early. Naively, I hadn’t considered how my unfamiliarity with the roads would slow me down, and after a staggering amount of wrong turns, I arrived at the little airport with only minutes to spare.
The airport was even smaller in person than I had imagined it to be from the pictures. I quickly walked through the entrance and was greeted by the small team of security. After notifying them that I was there for work and that James had been waiting for me, they hurried me through without so much as a question. The security, the architecture, the beautiful scenery that surrounded it, nothing about this airport couldn’t have felt more welcoming.
I walked through to find the single terminal inside, devoid of any passengers, with James sitting behind a counter at the end. After a moment he looked up and upon making eye contact with me, his tired face lit up. I was about to apologize for my tardiness but didn’t have the chance as he rushed to show me the employee locker room where he had my new employee uniform and badge waiting inside my very own locker. He told me to get changed and to meet him outside right away.
I did as he asked and within a couple of minutes, I walked out to find him back behind the console at the counter, gathering his belongings. He noticed me approaching and glanced up, thanking me for showing up and starting so soon as he handed me a fresh cup of coffee. He also apologized for not being able to stick around long for my shift but he sounded sure that he wasn’t all that worried.
“I have to be going now, I’ve been on duty for 17 hours. I know you’re plenty familiar with our systems and software, you know what you’re doing.”
He assured me with a pat on the back before walking out from the desk. He turned and added
“It’ll be a quiet night for you anyway. No flights scheduled. Just sit back, relax, and uh... Oh yeah. Most importantly, I nearly forgot”.
He reached into his bag and pulled out a single sheet of laminated paper and held it in front of me.
“Give this a read as soon as you can. Go over it a few times if you need, don’t deviate from it”.
I took it but before I could even get a look, I noticed James begin to walk toward the exit, along with every single one of the security guards and the cashier who had just closed down the only shop in the airport. I then noticed that all of the scanners and metal detectors at the security gate were shut off. I started to panic.
“Hey! James? Where is everyone going?”
I shouted. The first words I had managed to speak to my new boss since arriving. He stopped and turned back again
“Oh yeah. Another thing I ought to have mentioned. Everyone except whoever is working the night shift in, well, your position takes off right around now. Don’t worry, security will be back sometime around 5 am. You’ve got this place to yourself. Grab a magazine from the little store in there if you get bored. Feel free to snag yourself a couple of snacks too”.
He began to walk away again before briefly turning and pointing at me.
“But before you do anything, read that list. You’ll need it”.
I stood, dumbfounded as I watched my new boss along with all of the other airport staff leave. I started to wrap my head around the fact that I had an empty airport to myself for 10 hours, with nothing to do and no one to deal with, all while I was getting paid the highest wage I had ever earned.
As much as thinking about it delighted me, I turned my attention turned toward the sheet of paper I almost forgot I was holding on to. James said to follow whatever list was on it, so I figured I ought to take a look. I walked behind the airport counter and sank into one of the seats behind it. I took a sip of coffee and finally took a serious look.
A total of 6 rules were neatly spaced on the sheet.
Rule 1: All lights in the airport are to stay on at all times. If one is off, or if you are to accidentally turn one off, turn it back on as soon as possible. If a light seems to be broken or is out and unable to turn back on, calmly exit the area. Report the outage to James or maintenance when possible. Do not listen to the sounds. Do not listen to the voices.
Rule 2: Rule 2 pertains to rainy or stormy weather. If it is raining or storming outside, disregard rules 3, 4, and 5. They will not be a concern during these types of weather conditions. Stay inside at all times. Do not use the men’s restroom and avoid going near it entirely if possible.
Rule 3: Sometime between 11 pm and 1 am, a young woman will walk out of the women’s restroom. She will enter the terminal and sit, occasionally getting up to walk around or change seats. Her name is Elizabeth. She will attempt to make conversation but you must not reciprocate. You may look at her, you may give nonverbal communication such as a head nod, you may write as a means of communication, or you may shake her hand but do not speak to her. If you refuse to speak to her, Elizabeth should be gone within a few hours. If you happen to make such a mistake, go to the men’s restroom and wait for her to leave.
Rule 4: At around one or two in the morning, a janitor in blue coveralls will arrive at the front entrance. Crack open the door and ask for his name. If he says his name is Simon, let him in. If he gives you any name other than Simon, shut the door and lock it without another word and walk away. If the janitor is Simon, he will attend to the janitorial needs of the airport. If he asks to clean where you are standing, oblige him. Simon will not interfere with your duties otherwise. He is not hostile or dangerous. You may engage in conversation with Simon. He will leave the same way he came when he feels it is necessary.
Rule 5: At around 3 am, you may notice that a black and red Cessna Skyhawk has landed on one of the airstrips. You will never see it land, and you will never see it take off. It will just appear when you’re not looking. After spotting the plane for the first time, do not look at it again. Avoid looking in its general direction if at all possible. There is a picture of the exact plane displayed inside the terminal, behind the counter.
Rule 6: Later in the night but sometime before dawn, a group of men claiming to be from TSA may arrive at the airport. They will have their own key and let themselves in. Some could be armed. Often, they exhibit panicked behavior. They may search through the airport, sweep room to room, and ask questions. They are permitted to search anywhere in the main airport building that they please, and you may oblige to any questioning but under no circumstances are they permitted to enter the sky bridge. They will not enter without verbal approval and they cannot harm you.
After reading over it a few times, I set the laminated sheet down and leaned back further into my seat before taking a long sip of coffee, wondering what on earth I had just read. I hadn’t taken James to be the imaginative type. Most of all, I hadn’t taken him to be anywhere near the unprofessional type. Though as I thought about it, it was unusual how rushed this all was and how he left in such a hurry, leaving so few details.
I began to wonder if I was being pranked, I considered that maybe this was all some sort of messed up joke or setup. I ruled that out pretty quickly. This was, in fact, a real airport. I had done plenty of research by the time I got here. At least a few real flights were coming in or going out each day. James has been working here for years and I couldn’t think of a reason why he would jeopardize his job or reputation just to get a scare out of me.
After chuckling to myself at the absurdity of my situation, I decided to indulge and see what would happen. Maybe it was a “test” for me as a new employee. Maybe James wanted to see if I could follow orders.
After glancing at the list once more and realizing the impact rule 2 had on the number of things I would have to keep track of, I brought up my phone to check the forecast. Clear skies, not a chance for rain or storms all night. Great, I thought to myself. I had to watch out for these Elizabeth and Simon characters to show up and I suppose “not” be on the lookout for a random plane to appear on the runway.
I stood up and grabbed my coffee, walking to the glass panes. I took another sip from my cup while admiring the lit runways along the airfield. It sure was a pretty nice sight. As I was raising my cup to finish what was left, I began to hear the click of shoes on the floor somewhere behind me.
Startled, I spun around abruptly, dropping my cup and spilling the remainder of the coffee in the process. At the other end of the terminal seating stood a young woman, around her mid-twenties in my estimation. She was holding two large leather suitcases in each hand and had an old-fashioned sense of style with a skirt and heels. Most surprising was her stunning beauty and welcoming smile.
“Oh I’m sorry dear, didn’t mean to scare you”
She expressed with a sincere tone. I opened my mouth, ready to assure her that everything was fine but I stopped myself. I recalled the list. At this point, I was certain that she was here at James’s request, a paid actor determined to make me break the rules. I was more determined not to. Instead, I simply fixed my posture, straightened my uniform, and looked back with a smile.
She walked to the counter where she placed her leather suitcases on the ground before closing the distance between us.
“Looks like we’ve got this fabulous airport all to ourselves. I am Elizabeth”
She said, reaching out her hand. I shook it, but she didn’t seem quite satisfied.
“And your name?”
I continued to smile and lock eye contact. Her grin grew for a moment before she remarked
“You don’t seem to be much of a talkative one”
And with that, she turned and started to walk away. I returned to my seat behind the counter, watching her closely as I did. Elizabeth proceeded to the unattended airport shop and after a couple of minutes of looking over magazine covers and occasionally taking a peek inside, she returned carrying a small stack of reading material. She approached my counter before placing a National Geographic magazine in front of me.
“I figured you might like this one. Enjoy”
She said, winking before settling on a seat in the first row of the terminal, straight across from where I had been sitting.
Remarkably, her intuition was spot on. I may have lived in cities all of my life but I loved nature, despite how little of it I had gotten to see. National Geographic was a favorite of mine, one I had been familiar with and enjoyed on work breaks from time to time. Rarely was I given this long to be able to read. I was almost tempted to break the rule and thank her for her rather thoughtful act, though I didn’t. I stuck to the rule.
The next couple of hours were uneventful. Elizabeth and I read through our magazines, occasionally looking up at each other to exchange glances and smiles. Within that time, she had attempted to get me to talk at least half a dozen more times. I almost gave in when she asked me if I wanted another magazine.
At a little past 1:30, I could hear a knock at the front entrance. Elizabeth and I both looked before she remarked
“Oh, that must be the nice cleaner man”
With a giggle before returning to her magazine. I walked over to the front doors and sure enough, there stood a man around his mid-thirties, sporting a blue janitor suit waiting patiently at the door. I unlocked the door and opened it. As he took a stride to enter, I remembered the most important detail from rule 4. I closed the door halfway and sternly commanded
“Wait”
The man looked up at me with a surprised look. I asked him the question.
“What is your name?”
The man stared back at me as an innocent smile formed on his face.
“I’m Simon!”
He announced excitedly.
“The Janitor here. Did James let you know I was coming tonight?”
I stood there for a moment, thinking over the rule, before nodding my head and opening the door once again to let him in.
Once inside, Simon walked with purpose to the janitor's closet which was positioned near the men’s restroom. I followed him somewhat suspiciously for the next few minutes as he began to clean but I eased up once I got the feeling that he was just the janitor around here and that James made up the whole “ask for his name thing” to make into one of his rules.
I returned to my counter in the terminal and continued to read. Occasionally, Simon would pass by, off to do his duties in some part of the airport or Elizabeth would stand up to look at the various pictures and paintings on display in the terminal. A good half an hour of this would go on before Simon approached the terminal counter with his mop in hand. He seemed to be eyeing up the two leather suitcases Elizabeth had set there.
Assuming he wanted to clean where they were, I got up to move them. I grabbed each one by the handle but failed to lift them off of the ground. Confused, I stepped back to see if they were stuck on something. They were not. Just two suitcases, left right where Elizabeth had set them.
I tried to lift just one. Again, I failed. I tried both hands, putting my back and legs into it with all that I had. It wouldn’t budge.
I looked back up at Simon who nodded his head in Elizabeth’s direction. I turned to look at Elizabeth, who after noticing my stare, and my apparent inability to move her luggage, smiled and stood up.
“Let me get that for you”
She insisted. With ease, she lifted both leather suitcases and moved them closer to her seat before lowering them, this time letting them drop a few inches. When they hit the ground, a boom echoed through the airport and I flinched in surprise. I looked back at Simon, who hadn’t seemed shocked at all. He just continued to mop.
I slowly made my way back to my seat, not taking an eye off Elizabeth for one second as I did. After a few minutes, she looked back up from her magazine, noticed my stare, and returned to her reading with a grin. She seemed to find my shock amusing. Eventually, Simon noticed my surprise as well. He paused his mopping and approached me before raising his head.
“I know, I know. Stick to the rules and everything will be just fine, trust me”
He stated quietly. I nodded my head in response.
Simon went back to his cleaning. A few minutes passed before Elizabeth had something new to say.
“What a remarkable aircraft!”
She exclaimed, looking out the glass panes facing the runways. I followed her gaze to the lone, black, and red airplane positioned on the runway. I turned around, looking at the picture displayed behind me. It certainly looked like a match. I turned back to the window and felt my heart sink. A silhouette of a person now stood next to the plane, facing the airport and the windows of the terminal.
“Stop looking at it”
Simon sternly muttered from behind me. I looked back at Simon who quickly cowered, seemingly ashamed to have raised his voice at me but I was grateful he had. I read over rule 5 again, specifically where it stated to not look at the plane twice. I murmured insults at myself under my breath but they didn’t have much room between my now heavy, frantic breathing. My eyes darted through the other rules. I chose to focus on that sheet of paper. At least it was something other to look at than the plane outside.
This went on for a good ten minutes or so and my breathing started to calm down. I had begun to pray in my head that whoever and whatever that was would go away when Elizabeth suddenly approached my counter. I snapped my head up in a jittery movement to make eye contact with her.
“I’m going to get some more reading material. Want another one of those?”
She asked, reaching a hand out to my National Geographic magazine. I looked up and nodded, forcing a smile. As She moved away, my gaze didn’t, and once again I found myself looking at the plane on the runway, the silhouette now standing hundreds of feet away from the plane, even closer to the building, and still staring in my direction.
Chills ran up my spine as I snapped my gaze back to my desk. I began to shake with fear and the manic breathing returned. Moments later, Elizabeth returned and placed a new magazine on the counter before running a hand over my shoulder, seemingly to comfort me. Simon then put his hand on my back.
“He’ll be gone soon and so will the plane. Just don’t look at it again”
He assured me.
“Mind if I clean here?”
He then asked.
I got up and walked to the end of the counter, watching Simon thoroughly clean the floor before I looked up and let out a soft
“Thank you”
He nodded and smiled back.
“What was that?”
Elizabeth asked. I turned towards her.
“Oh, I was just thanking Simon for-”
My error occurred to me before I could finish speaking. My eyes locked on Elizabeth as she stood up from her seat and her smile faded. Her eyes and nose began to bleed profusely as she started to sob, lightly at first, then hysterically. She let out a bellowing screech, a mix of pain and anger. She picked up one of her suitcases and hurled it at me, I barely dodged the ridiculously heavy object before it crashed into the wall behind me.
Luckily I was quick thinking this time and made a run for the men’s restroom recalling rule 3. She chased after me but I slammed the door shut in her face and locked it. Elizabeth pounded on the door with furious anger a few times but gave up quickly.
“So that’s how you dance, is it love? I can play that game”
She snickered before flipping a light switch outside of the bathroom. The clicking of her shoes faded away. A few minutes of silence passed before laughter started to become audible from the other side of the door.
One voice grew to two, two voices grew to three, three grew to ten. While others continued their now hysterical laughing, some began to scream. I crumbled to the floor, covering my ears as the voices went on, only stopped by another flip of the switch. Light beamed through the bottom of the door.
“It’s over now. She’s gone, and so is the plane. I’ve gotta be getting out of here soon”
Simon’s calm and friendly voice called out. I reluctantly exited the bathroom and followed him back to the counter, where he had prepared another coffee for me.
“Wish I could have done more there but you’ll come to find out that when Elizabeth gets angry, you just gotta let her do her thing”.
I looked up at him, still with my distraught face, at a loss for words. Over the next few minutes, Simon finished cleaning Elizabeth’s blood from the floor before putting everything back into the janitor's closet. He looked down at his watch.
“I better get out of here. Good luck with the rest of your night. I hope I’ll be seeing you soon”.
He said, letting out a sigh as he again looked at me in pity. I think he knew how shaken up I was. It was like he had seen people in my position before. Something told me he doesn’t have a choice on when he leaves. After I watched him exit the door, I returned to my seat behind the counter. I began to feel alone and afraid, but the loneliness wouldn’t last at least.
Only minutes after Simon left, the doors swung open and men in tactical gear, most of which had their faces covered in masks and goggles, rushed through the door. I sprung back up from my seat and watched as they did, with not much else I could do. They swept room to room, checking every nook and cranny at gunpoint, ignoring my existence at first.
As they cleared the entire building, the twenty or so armed men made their way to the terminal seating area. A lone man in a suit, whom I had not noticed enter, made his way to the front of the group.
“I’m with TSA, I’m going to need you to answer some questions for me”
He demanded. I nodded in affirmation.
“How many individuals have you seen in this airport since the security team left the building?”
“Besides myself, 2 Inside, one outside”
I answered confidently.
“Was the individual outside next to a black and red Cessna Skyhawk?”
“Yes”
I again responded confidently. The man in the suit nodded and paused for a moment before making another demand.
“We’re going to need to search the air bridge”.
I glanced back at the sheet of rules on the counter. Making sure I had read it right before. I took a step forward and straightened my uniform.
“No”
I replied. The man in the suit looked irritated.
“If you do not step aside and give us permission to search, I’m afraid I’ll have to detain you”.
Already tired and worn out, I wasn’t going to break the last rule. I decided to give a not-so-smart remark to the man in the suit
“Looking a little well-armed for TSA, wouldn’t you agree?”
He ignored my comment.
“Last chance, step aside”
“No”
Again, irritated by my response, the man in the suit turned to his right and raised his chin to give a signal. Gunshots rang out and I collapsed to the floor. I felt as though my life left my body before it all faded to black.
The next thing I remembered was the feeling of my hand gripping a water bottle. Then came James’s voice.
“I see you made it through the first night intact. Looks like you got to meet Simon. He’s a nice guy, you’ll get to like him. And Elizabeth, she’s…well, she’s something else, isn’t she?”
I opened my eyes and looked up at James.
“Am I dead?”
I asked in a raspy voice. James chuckled in return.
“No! No, you did great. You’re fine. It does, however, look like you might have been a little assertive to our undead TSA special forces wannabes. I would recommend sticking with the less aggressive tone and word choices, maybe I ought to edit that into the rules sheet… In any case, they can’t hurt you but they can still get a jump out of you, as you saw”.
Once again, I was at a loss for words. I slowly made my way back to my feet from the ground and looked at the sunrise over the airfield. James held out an envelope for me. I opened it, revealing a stack of crisp $100 bills.
“A little bonus for your first night. It sure is a lot to go through for the first time but I promise, you get used to it all”.
I turned to James with an angry look and finally spoke up.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What makes you think it’s okay to put someone through this without any warning? I'm done, keep your damn money. I’m gonna go call the cops”.
I started to walk towards the exit when James stepped in front of me.
“Look, I know it isn’t fair for you but it wasn’t fair for me either. It wasn’t fair for any of us. It’s not okay, I know. But what do you expect me to do? Someone needs to be here for the night shift. You wouldn’t believe any of this if I told you ahead of time. You would have thought I was some sort of nutjob and the police will think of you the same if you tell them. I needed you to see it for yourself”
James was starting to get worked up and stoppeto breatheth before continuing.
“This money is yours, no strings attached. You’re free to leave now and never come back, there will be no shame in it”
I also started to calm down but I couldn’t bring myself to look James in the eye yet.
“If you choose to stay, I’ll see you in my office to finish up your paperwork”.
And with that, James walked away. Facing the front of the airport, I watched the first passengers of the day come through the entrance. I just stood there for a few minutes. Whether I was ready for this job or not, I knew right then I sure as hell wasn’t going back to another overcrowded city airport.
I turned and headed for James’s office.

So I have a 1999 chevy Silverado 1500 z71 and my 4lo isn’t working 4 hi will and I just got a new transmission put in and the transfer case was fine before we dropped it off same with the actuator it was all working why isn’t my 4lo working?

I’m actually wondering if some of the people who post in here just let there piecer, pierce whatever and wherever without checking where they have marked is down properly.
For me personally, ALL of my piercers have marked down exactly where they were going to put the needle through and if the placement was okay. I have corrected them before saying more in the middle or more down etc. and they have fixed it up every time or given me a good reason why they placed it there. Now if it was pierced wrong after the markings were correct then yuh big fuck up on there part.
Now the reason I bring this up is because of the amount of fucked up belly button piercing I see everyday in this community. I got my belly button pierced almost less then a year ago and I stood there after he had marked it, checking myself out for a whole minute or two. Moving around, checking the angle, lifting up my belly and squishing it to make sure it was where I wanted it. I even mentioned how it might be slightly, a little too over to the right and he ensured me that it’s bc my belly button kinda goes “ \ “ he’s going to piece it just slightly over the the right so the jewelry would sit in the middle and not to the side.
So do y’all really not see that the piercer marked like 4 inches above your belly button?? Or do you really blindly let them do there thing?? Even if they made a shitty excuse that it’s because you’re “chubby” why sit there and get pierced by someone like that?? I just don’t get it

Arsenal 22/23 A Season Review Part 1 Of 3: August-World Cup: A Stunning Start.
After a blistering start to the season, Arsenal had now managed just 4 goals in their previous 5 games, they needed to find their shooting boots again and quickly. They had the opportunity to do that at home to Nottingham Forest, but it didn’t look likely when Bukayo Saka was forced to leave the field, having been unable to shake off an early knock he picked up from the usual defensive treatment he received. Though even in the brief time he was on the field, Saka did notch an assist finding the head of Martinelli to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead. For the rest of the first half though, Arsenal struggled to re-find the killer instinct that had deserted them recently. In the second half, it returned, with Saka’s replacement Reiss-Nelson, on for his first league minutes of the season getting his first goal of the campaign, which will have done much-needed wonders for his confidence. 3 minutes later and Nelson had his second with Arsenal really flourishing now, the volleyed finish coming from a Jesus cross after a neat link-up between him and Ødegaard. 5 minutes later and Partey added yet more gloss to the scoreline, giving Nelson an easy assist, as this goal was all about the Ghanaian midfielder’s excellent strike, of a similar calibre to his one against Tottenham. Jesus got his second assist of the day when Ødegaard made it 5, twinkle-toeing his way into the box before letting fly into the top corner. This concluded Arsenal’s busy month of October which saw them in action nine times. Xhaka’s 3 goals in October took his total for the season up to 4, and he picked up the Arsenal player of the month for a second consecutive month.
Arsenal began November by bringing to a close their Europa League group campaign against FC Zurich, knowing a win would secure them top spot. Zurich was merely playing for pride, their chances of progressing were already over. Tierney gave Arsenal the lead in the 17th minute with a fine strike from outside the box, expert technique from the left-back giving the keeper no chance. Arsenal’s old problems returned however with their failure to kill the game, by passing up good chances in both halves. In the end, they had to sweat somewhat for their win, holding on whilst Zurich pushed desperately for a famous equaliser. Arsenal held firm though and with 5 wins from 6 games, they had secured their path through and knew they now wouldn’t have to worry about the Europa League again until March.
Next up for Arsenal was a trip to Stamford Bridge to face Graham Potter’s Chelsea, whose woes were just beginning, having lost 4-1 at his former club Brighton the previous week. Arsenal made all of the first-half chances, dominating possession. The best chance came with a move that began in Arsenal’s own penalty area, with sharp one-touch passing they were in Chelsea’s half in seconds, with the ball reaching Martinelli down the left flank, he cut inside and was inches away from finding the unmarked head of Gabriel Jesus. Had Jesus been able to connect, it would have gone down as surely the finest team goal of the season.
The second half continued in the same vein, with Arsenal’s press suffocating the Chelsea players, forcing them to give up possession time and time again. The visitors continued to push for an opening goal, and it eventually came just past the hour-mark when Saka’s corner beat everyone and looked to be on its way straight in until Gabriel made sure by hitting it into the roof of the net from on the goalline. Arsenal managed 14 shots to Chelsea’s 5 and should have won by more, but as 1-0 wins go away at Stamford Bridge, it could not have been much more comfortable or straightforward. On the rare occasions, Chelsea reached the final third, they had no idea how to progress the ball in order to create a dangerous situation and Arsenal was content to see the game out for an excellent away victory.
Arsenal’s time in the Carabao Cup was short-lived, ending just as it began at home to Brighton in the 3rd round. Nketiah gave Arsenal the lead, but it lasted just 7 minutes when former Gunner Danny Welbeck equalised from the spot. 2 unanswered second-half goals from Mitoma and Lamptey ensured Arsenal’s exit, but there was a feeling from many that the club had bigger targets this season than the League Cup. Due to the first-ever winter World Cup, the Premier League would be halted for six weeks after Arsenal’s 14th league game of the season, which would be away at Wolves. Earlier that day City had slipped up at home to Brentford, this presented Arsenal with a great opportunity to go into the World Cup 5 points clear at the top. The best chance of the first half went to Jesus after he’d done brilliantly to make room for a shot in the box. However his luck in front of goal had deserted him, this being his 11th appearance without a goal, his last one coming against Spurs. As usual, though, he was one of Arsenal’s best performers in the first half, with Saka and Martinelli more subdued than usual. Perhaps understandably, they seemed to be somewhat preoccupied with thoughts of the World Cup, and with it now so close they didn’t seem keen to risk injury with their usual dribbling runs.
So in the second half Arsenal needed someone to step up, and that man was Martin Ødegaard. With Norway having failed to qualify for the World Cup, Arsenal was his one and only focus, and he delivered a captain’s performance. The opening goal came when a clever pass from Jesus found Vieira who had replaced the unwell Xhaka, he squared it across the six-yard box having drawn the goalkeeper out, and Ødegaard beat Saka to the tap-in. The Norwegian made sure of the win with a quarter of an hour to go when good play from Martinelli allowed him to backheel a pass through to Zinchenko who was unmarked in the box, his cross was cleared as far as Martinelli who forced a save from Sa, but he could do nothing about Ødegaard’s follow-up, his touch and shot leaving the keeper with no chance.
There had been reluctance from some, Arsenal fans or otherwise to accept the team as a true title contender. This was a club that after all had not even qualified for the Champions League in 5 years. As well they had the youngest manager and youngest team in the league. However, more and more doubters were turning into believers as Arsenal backed up a win over Spurs by beating Liverpool, and went away to Chelsea and won. Now due to the World Cup being played mid-season, Arsenal would sit 5 points clear of the rest on Christmas Day, and at this point, their title credentials could no longer be denied. They had won 12 of a possible 14, and when the chance to go into World Cup 5 clearly came up, they held their nerve and got the job done away from home. The World Cup gave me the chance to reflect on the season Arsenal had thus far and it had undoubtedly been an outstanding one, with all reasonable expectations surpassed. This mid-point gave time to assess Arsenal’s key individual performers in the Premier League and there had been many stand-outs in that regard.

Arsenal Player Ratings Up To The 2022 World Cup Break:

Ramsdale 8/10- His reliability and quality with the ball at his feet is essential to the way Arsenal play, and there are few better in the country when playing out from the back than the young English keeper. His standout performance came against Leeds, with his back against the wall, he refused to concede a goal.
White 9/10- After a good first season at centre-back, White went up another gear in this right-back slot, showing excellent quality with the ball at his feet, and the defensive side of his game was never found wanting either. Arsenal’s November player of the month.
Saliba 9/10- It was thought the young centre-half was special before he’d even kicked a Premier League ball, but he somehow managed to exceed expectations in his first 14 league games in Arsenal colours. The club’s best defender in the first part of the season.
Gabriel 8/10- He began the season with a few sloppy mistakes, but quickly got up to the level of his teammates. A goal at Chelsea and a big performance at Wolves ensured Arsenal went into the break sitting pretty at the top.
Zinchenko 7/10- Sadly the Ukrainian was injured for half of Arsenal’s league games, but when available Zinchenko demonstrated some of his quality, with the promise of more to come.
Tomiyasu & Tierney 7/10- As reliable as you could wish your full-back deputies to be, injuries meant they were often called upon, especially the Japanese International, and he was always up to the task be it in his more accustomed right-back position, or when deputising at left-back.
Partey 9/10- Injuries in previous seasons had prevented Partey from ever really hitting his top level, his performances in the first part of this season showed the midfielders considerable class this campaign however. 2 outstanding goals vs Forest and most memorably Spurs were the icing on the cake.
Xhaka 9/10- Fairly or unfairly Xhaka seemed to typify much of what was wrong with Arsenal between 2016 and 2021, too often he appeared an average midfielder in an average side. Here he was reborn, in a new role which gave him more of an attacking license, he was contributing goals, and assists and Arsenal fans were seeing the leadership qualities of a man loving his football.
Ødegaard 9/10- After making his loan move permanent in the previous summer, the captain has continued to prove himself one of Arsenal’s best signings in recent times. Possessing the quality of Ozil without the flakiness, Ødegaard has rightfully become a real fan favourite.
Vieira 5/10- The 22-year-old arrived from FC Porto for £30M. Scored a beauty on his first league start, but often struggled with the pace and physicality of the league and brief substitute appearances have not given him much time to adapt. Finished with some grounds for optimism after coming on in the first half away at Wolves for the unwell Xhaka and performing reasonably well.
Saka 9/10- The darling of the Arsenal faithful, Saka has received rough treatment from opposition full-backs and little protection from match officials, but he is too brave, determined and talented to let this stop him from scoring, assisting and tormenting almost at will. He seems to be improving on an almost monthly basis which is scary.
Martinelli 9/10- Quickly formed a devastating partnership with fellow Brazilian Gabriel Jesus. His directness, pace, hunger and finishing qualities made him just as difficult to stop as Saka in the opening part of the season.
Jesus 9/10- He’s a striker who went 11 games without a goal, yet his contributions to the team are so vital he remained un-droppable. That is the uniqueness of Jesus, for the goals may have dried up, but his quality never did. Match after match, he was relentless in his refusal to give opposing defences a minute of peace. His technical ability has been the key ingredient in lifting Arsenal up to another level. Along with Saliba, Arsenal’s best player of the first part of the season.
Arteta 10/10- The managers’ contribution cannot go unmentioned. He has demanded high standards and set the conditions which have enabled them to be realised. This has led a club that has been outside the Champions League for five years to set a pace that not even Guardiola’s City could match. He has been the catalyst in making a divided and despondent fanbase the most passionately engaged in the league, uniting everyone behind his players and staff.

I've been playing like 40 hours of this game, loving it so far, however I've been experiencing some baffling behavior with my AI allies. I'm hoping someone out here in our wonderful community can shed some light on these mysteries for me.
Firstly, when an AI ally declares war on another ruler and I valiantly agree to join their crusade, I've noticed a curious (and frankly, frustrating) phenomenon. As I'm dutifully trudging my units across the land to attack, my so-called 'ally' seems to be content letting me do all the heavy lifting. It's as if they suddenly contracted a severe case of pacifism when it's time to get their hands dirty!
Take this one instance for example, where my AI ally declared war, I jumped in, sieged and decimated the enemy ruler... all by myself. Not a single unit from my 'buddy' lifted a finger to help. And then, plot twist: my ally actually got annoyed at me for conquering the enemy HE declared war on (asking me to join)! I even intentionally waited a few rounds at the city ruins to see what they are going to do now. I'm still scratching my head at that one.
Secondly, I haven't been attacked a lot yet, but when I find myself on the receiving end of aggression, my AI allies appear to be, well... completely indifferent. When there is bigger enemy armies walking through my lands being all threatening, my allies seem to be on a perpetual coffee break, not moving an inch to lend a hand.
So, to all you Age of Wonders 4 veterans and wily tacticians, what gives? Is there something I'm missing here? Is there an in-game 'Hey, how about actually helping me?' button I need to press? Is there some secret protocol or AI strategy I'm not aware of?
I’m all ears for your advice, anecdotes, or even hilarious stories of AI behavior.
Cheers!

Genre: House, Tech House, Deep House, Melodic House & Techno, Progressive House, Minimal / Deep Tech Label: Defected Release Date: 2022-06-04
DOWNLOAD in 320kbps: https://sharing-db.club/djs-chart/436905_va-defected-selectors-simon-dunmore-june-2023/
Tracklist: 1. Henrik Schwarz - Leave My Head Alone Brain (Osunlade Remix) (7:52) 2. Bobby Womack - How Could You Break My Heart (5:17) 3. Ultra Nate - Joy (5:17) 4. Air Power - Be Yourself (6:16) 5. James Brown, The J.B.'s - Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose (Remix) (6:10) 6. Aretha Franklin - Jump (2:19) 7. MJ Cole - Sincere (Re-Cue`d) (5:38) 8. Fela Kuti - Shakara (Oloje) (13:25) 9. Chaka Khan - I Know You, I Live You (4:27) 10. Guru, Ronny Jordan, DC Lee - No Time To Play (4:54) 11. Donald Byrd - Places And Spaces (6:19) 12. Prince - Sign 'O' the Times (5:02) 13. Mr. Fingers - Mystery of Love (7:10) 14. Stevie Wonder - Living For The City (7:22) 15. The Salsoul Orchestra - Ooh I Love It (Love Break) (7:49) 16. The Reese Project - Direct Me (Joey Negro Mix) (6:50) 17. Tom Misch, Zak Abel - Beautiful Escape (4:36) 18. Soul II Soul, Rose Windross - Fairplay (3:58) 19. Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (3:10) 20. Sounds Of Blackness - The Pressure (Frankie Knuckles Classic Mix With Intro) (8:24) 21. David Bowie - Young Americans (2016 Remaster) (5:13) 22. Bobby Womack - Give It Up (4:38) 23. Gabriels - Love and Hate in a Different Time (Original) (4:42) 24. Digital Underground - Doowutchyalike (8:53) 25. Nuyorican Soul, Jocelyn Brown - It's Alright, I Feel It (3:22) 26. Etienne de Crécy - Prix choc (8:52) 27. Inner Life - Moment Of My Life (12" Version) (6:32) 28. Daft Punk - Alive (5:16) 29. First Choice - Let No Man Put Asunder (Shep Pettibone 12" Mix) (8:01) 30. Dennis Ferrer, Danil Wright - Church Lady (feat. Danil Wright) (7:19) 31. Masters At Work, La India - To Be In Love (MAW '99 Mix) (11:54) 32. Clivilles & Cole - A Deeper Love (A Deeper Love Mix) (12:04) 33. Archie Bell & The Drells - Where Will You Go When the Party's Over (4:05) 34. Womack & Womack - Baby I'm Scared of You (5:38) 35. The Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods (3:37) 36. Kathy Sledge - Take Me Back To Love Again (Shelter Me Mix) (6:51) 37. Ashford & Simpson - Love Don't Make It Right (4:23) 38. Blaze, Palmer Brown - My Beat (feat. Palmer Brown) (5:19) 39. Eighties Ladies - Turned on to You (5:26) 40. Blaze - Wishing You Were Here (6:56) 41. Coati Mundi - Que Passa / Me No Pop I (6:21) 42. Massive Attack - Safe From Harm (2012 Mix/Master) (5:19) 43. Incognito, Jocelyn Brown - Always There (David Morales Remix) (6:36) 44. Lee Fields & The Expressions, Lee Fields - Ladies (4:17) 45. Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (5:26) 46. Cece Rogers - Someday (3:50) 47. Honey Dijon, Annette Bowen, Nikki-O - Downtown (feat. Annette Bowen & Nikki-O) (Louie Vega Raw Dub Mix) (3:33) 48. Quartette Tres Bien - Boss Trés Bien (5:28) 49. Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass - Don't Leave Me This Way (feat. Teddy Pendergrass) (6:03) 50. The Staple Singers - Trippin' On Your Love (4:27) 51. Curtis Mayfield - Back to the World (6:49) 52. The Specials - A Message to You Rudy (2015 Remaster) (2:52) 53. Black Coffee - Turn Me On (7:25) 54. Bob Sinclar - My only love (Original) (4:34) 55. Love Unlimited - Move Me No Mountain (3:55) 56. River Ocean, India - Love & Happiness (Yemaya Y Ochùn) [feat. India] (12" Club Mix) (9:51) 57. Henrik Schwarz, Bugge Wesseltoft - Leave My Head Alone Brain (8:00) 58. D'Angelo - Brown Sugar (4:22) 59. Roisin Murphy - Incapable (Extended Mix) (8:25) 60. Honey Dijon, Channel Tres, Sadie Walker - Show Me Some Love (feat. Sadie Walker) (3:52) 61. Bobby Wilson - Deeper and Deeper (6:22) 62. Sharon Ridley - Where Did You Learn to Make Love the Way You Do (4:51) 63. Alice Clark - Don't You Care (2:49) 64. Earth, Wind & Fire - Devotion (Live) (4:52) 65. Sharon Redd - Try My Love On for Size (5:08) 66. Ten City - Right Back to You (Extended Version) (9:10) 67. Incognito - Always There (David Morales Remix) (3:36) 68. Public Enemy - Can't Truss It (5:22) 69. Luther Vandross - Sugar and Spice (I Found Me a Girl) (4:57) 70. Grace Jones - La vie en rose (7:25) 71. Ashford & Simpson - It Seems To Hang On (5:12) 72. Mr. Fingers - We Can Work It Out (5:43) 73. Loleatta Holloway - Love Sensation (6:06) 74. Adeva, Paul Simpson, Carmen Marie - Musical Freedom (6:22) 75. Yazoo - Situation (12" Remix) (5:45) 76. Jamiroquai - Blow Your Mind (8:32) 77. Arrested Development - Tennessee (4:32) 78. Trussel - Love Injection (7:56) 79. Mary J. Blige - My Love (4:12) 80. De La Soul - Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge) (3:25) 81. Maze, Frankie Beverly - Joy And Pain (Remastered) (7:14) 82. Soulsearcher - Can't Get Enough! (Vocal Club Mix) (6:52) 83. Whitney Houston - It's Not Right but It's Okay (KCC's Release The Love Groove Bootleg Mix) (7:02) 84. Patrice Rushen - Haven't You Heard (6:45) 85. The Salsoul Orchestra, Loleatta Holloway - Seconds (feat. Loleatta Holloway) (8:58) 86. Lady Blackbird - It's Not That Easy (3:00) 87. Mass Order - Lift Every Voice (Take Me Away) (Classic Boot Mix) (7:25) 88. Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch (4:42) 89. Junior Jack - Hola (4:12) 90. Celeda, Danny Tenaglia - Music Is the Answer (Original Extended 12-Inch Mix) (14:09) 91. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime (2005 Remaster) (4:19) 92. Jungle Brothers - What "U" Waitin' "4"? (4:04) 93. Kings Of Tomorrow, Julie McKnight - Finally (feat. Julie McKnight) (Extended Mix) (5:58) 94. SuperShy, Wayne Snow - Change (4:50) 95. Hannah Wants, Clementine Douglas - Cure My Desire (feat. Clementine Douglas) (Extended Mix) (6:38) 96. Channel Tres - Just Can't Get Enough (5:03) 97. El Payo, Ziyon - Tailor Made (5:22) 98. Close Counters - SNAP TO IT! (3:30) 99. Three Kings, Jaygun, Bashy - Shake Dat Booty (feat. Jaygun & Bashy) (7:34) 100. Chris Trucher, Felix Da Housecat - Chicago Love (5:05) 101. Benny Mussa - If You Want (Luke Solomon's Body Remix) (7:07) 102. Beyoncé, Madonna - BREAK MY SOUL (THE QUEENS REMIX) (5:56) 103. Daphni - Cloudy (6:51) 104. Larse - A Part Of (Extended Mix) (4:38) 105. Virginia - Funkert (4:27) 106. ANOTR, Abel Balder - Vertigo (4:16) 107. Sable Sheep - Upon Burning Skies (8:24) 108. Dam Swindle - Good Woman (Edit) (3:35) 109. Ezel, Rona Ray - Don't Know Yet (7:26) 110. Honey Dijon, Channel Tres, Sadie Walker - Show Me Some Love (feat. Sadie Walker) (Extended Mix) (5:51) 111. Shiba San, Tchami - I Wanna (Tchami Remix) (3:35) 112. Jamie Jones - My Paradise (Vintage Culture Extended Remix) (5:33) 113. OFFAIAH - Find A Way (Extended Mix) (6:29) 114. Mr. V - Jus Dance (Dennis Quin Remix) (3:36) 115. Alister Fawnwoda, Tyesha Blount - Starlight (5:59) 116. Mistura, Dave Lee, Jimpster, Jemini - Want Me Back (Jimpster Peak Time Deepness) (6:27) 117. Girls of the Internet - Sound Asleep (3:45) 118. Tom Middleton - Cicadas (Maya Jane Coles Remix) (6:24) 119. Rampa, chuala - Les Gout (5:44) 120. Crackazat - Demucha (Edit) (4:15) 121. Mary J. Blige - Good Morning Gorgeous (Kelly G Morning Pose Dub Remix) (3:27) 122. Butch - Same Like Dope But Different (4:41) 123. Kabbala, Dave Lee - Ashewo Ara (Dave Lee Afro Fusion Mix) (5:59) 124. Simon Adams, Max Millan - Mr. Franklin (Miguel Migs Salty Rub) (6:15) 125. Beanfield, Marzenka - Alone (7:29) 126. Delano Smith - Feat. Diamondancer - A Message For The DJ (5:36) 127. Clive From Accounts - 4 Time (5:38) 128. Jerk House Connection, Akram Sedkaoui - Each & Every Day (Life Goes On) [feat. Akram Sedkaoui] (Rocco Deeper Mix) (8:35) 129. ANOTR, Abel Balder - Your Mind (5:40) 130. Rodney Hunter - Temperature’s Rising (3:51) 131. Inkswel, Eliza Dickson, Pugs Atomz - Why Don't You Listen (Fred Everything Remix) (6:02) 132. Folamour - Fearless (5:23) 133. Mr. Flip - Hit Different (Afefe Iku Remix) (4:51) 134. Kid Fonque, Jonny Miller, ASAP Shembe - Connected Beings (Jazzanova Remix) (5:56) 135. Carlo Gambino - Dance For You (Original Mix) (7:27) 136. Gerd - We Bring U Muzik (Warehouse Mix) (6:08) 137. Joeski - Rude Boy (6:20) 138. Musta, Venessa Jackson - Loving Me (Hot Toddy Remix) (8:00) 139. youANDme, Kristina Sheli - Moment (4:35) 140. Oveous, Don Kamares - Legacy (5:35) 141. Risk Assessment, KE - Feel That (Franck Roger Remix) (6:28) 142. Paperclip People - Throw (6:47) 143. Austin Ato - When Love Is Tender (8:41) 144. Francisco Allendes - What You Do (6:48) 145. Steve Bug, Cle - Let It Go (6:33) 146. Afefe Iku - Sista Georgia (11:35) 147. Mike Steva, Stevo Atambire - Destiny Song (Pa'ala) [feat. Stevo Atambire] (5:54) 148. Kerri Chandler - Coro (DJ Spen Kaoz Re Edit) (6:30) 149. Caiiro, Awen - Your Voice (Adam Port Remix) (4:20) 150. Harry Romero, Inaya Day - Rise Up (Extended Club Mix) (6:19) 151. Pig&Dan - Rock You All Night (3:26) 152. Yousef, The Melody Men - Hear That Sound (feat. The Melody Men) (Club Mix) (5:56) 153. GruuvElement's - Boom Room (6:39) 154. Dam Swindle - All I Want (Edit) (3:56) 155. Mike Dunn, LOA. - When The Dust Clears (feat. LOA.) (MD MixX) (3:42) 156. Seamus Haji, Phebe Edwards - Better Come Again (4:00) 157. Mark Picchiotti, The Absolute, Craig J. Snider, Suzanne Palmer - I Believe (feat. Suzanne Palmer & Craig J. Snider) (DJ Spen & Michele Chiavarini's Higher Love Dub) (6:15) 158. Paul Kalkbrenner - Bengang (5:35) 159. Louie Vega, Robyn - All My Love (feat. Robyn) (5:58) 160. Daniel Steinberg - Groove People (5:28) 161. Purple Disco Machine, Bosq, Kaleta - Wake Up! (feat. Kaleta) (Extended) (6:56) 162. Saturday Love, KON, Fiorious - 2 B Free (Oliver Dollar Remix) (4:31) 163. Lady Blackbird - Lost and Looking (Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy Cosmodelica Remix) (3:42) 164. Kerri Chandler, Bluey Robinson - Tenacity (Main Vocal Edit) (4:25) 165. Honey Dijon, Ramona Renea - Love Is A State Of Mind (feat. Ramona Renea) (3:13) 166. Adam Port, Alan Dixon - Forms Of Love (6:03) 167. Jamie Jones - My Paradise (3:31) 168. Fka Mash, Sio - Bumblebee (3:38) 169. Dennis Cruz - Ready For The Blues (5:00) 170. Ramin Rezaie - Searching (3:57) 171. Tony Lionni - Out Of Sight (Special Edit By Jerome Sydenham) (6:15) 172. Paulo Maria, HRDY - Connected (5:42) 173. Dario D'attis - Tanzstube (Original Mix) (7:44) 174. Dames Brown, Amp Fiddler, Andres - What Would You Do? (feat. Andrés & Amp Fiddler) (Two Soul Fusion Remix) (3:07) 175. Low Steppa - Closer (4:57) 176. Fred Everything, Jinadu - Searching (Deetron Remix) (8:03) 177. Sophie Lloyd, Pauline Taylor - Angels By My Side (feat. Pauline Taylor) (Floorplan Remix) (3:28) 178. S.A.M., Sarah Ikumu - Spotlight (feat. Sarah Ikumu) (Mousse T. Shizzle Mix) (3:20) 179. Malone - Time To Move (3:08) 180. Steve Bug, Mr. V - Back To '95 (Cinthie‘s 'Just A Vibe' Remix) (6:12) 181. Khan, Julee Cruise - Say Goodbye (Losoul »She's Homeless« Mix) (7:08) 182. Dam Swindle - Hey Mister (3:59) 183. 189 - Julien Jabre - Voodance (7:29) 184. B Beat Girls - For The Same Man (Nic Fanciulli Remix) (3:34) 185. Star B, Riva Starr, Mark Broom - Fire (Ron Bacardi Remix) (5:42) 186. Make A Dance - I Need Somebody (3:20) 187. Beyoncé - BREAK MY SOUL (4:38) 188. Zach Witness - Frankie & Levan (3:41) 189. Danny Tenaglia - The Brooklyn Gypsy (7:41) 190. Beau - Losing You (3:23) 191. Felipe Gordon - The Love (7:38) 192. Ferreck Dawn, Izzy Bizu - Life (2:50) 193. The Shapeshifters, Kimberly Davis - Love's Been Waiting (feat. Kimberly Davis) (7" Version) (2:48) 194. ANOTR, Sebastian Kamae - Time To Smoke (8:46) 195. Daniel Anthony - Endless (7:03) 196. Jamie Jones, aMEME - Pliva (4:04) 197. Darius Syrossian, DJ Supreme - I'm The Joker (feat. DJ Supreme) (2:36) 198. Oliver Way - Stained Glass Shadows (Robert Hood Remix) (Robert Hood) (6:54) 199. R.E.A.D., Sailor Jane - Where's My Phone? (feat. Sailor Jane) (Marco Faraone Remix) (3:35) 200. Daniel Steinberg - Take My Hand (5:17) 201. Dames Brown, Amp Fiddler, Andres - What Would You Do? (feat. Andrés & Amp Fiddler) (Folamour Remix) (4:30) 202. Brian Burnside - This Generation (Franck Roger Mix) (8:20) 203. LaTique, Colbert, Chymamusique - Above My Head (Radio Mix) (4:34) 204. Brooklyn Baby - NYC (5:04) 205. Marlon D - Jesus Creates Sound (5:30) 206. Kiko Navarro - Dope High (Vocal Mix) (7:52) 207. Franck Roger - Don't Ever Luv Me (6:44) 208. 40 Thieves, Qzen - Don't Turn It Off (Mixed) (3:49) 209. Linkwood - Tears (8:39) 210. Mr. V - Somethin' Wit Jazz (Dario D'Attis Extended Remix) (7:08) 211. David Morales, Elle Cato - Holding Me Touching Me (Extended Mix) (6:58) 212. Bassfort - Moon Shadow (Joe 'Joaquin' Claussell Remix) (11:26) 213. Close Counters - GET DOWN! (4:17) 214. Steve Lawler, Marco Lys, Joy Farrukh - If Only You Knew (feat. Joy Farrukh) (Extended Mix) (5:37) 215. Riva Starr, Todd Terry - This Is The Sound (Extended) (6:07) 216. Honey Dijon, Dope Earth Alien - It's Quiet Now (feat. Dope Earth Alien) (3:02) 217. Jon Cutler, E-Man - It's Yours (Kyri Markou Extended Remix) (5:39) 218. Thakzin - The Magnificent Dance (7:05)

2.26.0.36 -> 2.26.0.40 Part 1

• VBCI 2 (MCT-30) : Max field repair time lowered
• Game parameter changes :
  • New Burn mark parameters :
    • Ship radius = 7
    • Ship position push multiplier = 5
    • Ship direction push multiplier = 1.15
  • Ground TWS is now called TWS GTM
  • Damage Model parameter changes :
    • Visual Shrapnel Inner Radius : 0.15 -> 0.05
    • Radiators :
      • Repair speed lowered by 65%
      • It can now be repaired to 100%
  • Physical material parameter changes :
    • All, except Bricks, Concrete, Metal, Wood and Football ramp : "iak" : 0.2 -> 0.5
    • Football ramp : "iak" : 0.2 -> 1
    • Track friction on concrete : 0.9 -> 0.95
    • Wheel friction on concrete : 0.8 -> 0.95
• Sound changes :
  • Tank engines : Max sounds in the 20-400 m radius : 8 -> 16
  • Tracks : Max radius : 200 -> 300 m
  • New engine sound : BTR-80
  • Some long-rod APFSDS now use the APCR loading crew voice

Aircraft changes :

• A6M3 :
  • Added custom loadouts
  • New loadout : 1x Drop tank (stock)
  • Loadout changed : 2x 60kg : Removed Required modification 9 in (mod30)
• Buccaneer S. Mk. 1, Kfir Canard : Updated cockpit
• D4Y3 : Loadout changed : 3x 250 kg : Bombs are now dropped separately
• F-4C, F-4E, F-4EJ (all), F-4F (all), F-4S : Drop tank :
  • Fuel mass : 2271 -> 1850 kg
  • Now visible in menu
• F-4E (ISR) : Drop tank :
  • Fuel mass : 2271 -> 1850 kg
  • Model : US -> ISR
  • Now visible in menu
• F-4E Kurnass 2000 :
  • Updated cockpit
  • Engines : Engine armor -> Jet engine armor
  • New loadout : 6x Python 3
  • Loadout changed : x Empty (stock) -> 1x Drop tank (stock)
  • Removed loadouts:
    • 4x AIM-7E-2
    • 4x AIM-7F
  • Custom loadout changes :
    • Slot 3, 9 changed : Added 2x Python 3 option, can't be equipped together with 3x AGM-65D on slot 2
    • Slot 4, 8 changed :
      • Removed 1x AIM-7E-2 option
      • Removed 1x AIM-7F option
    • Slot 5 changed :
      • Option changed : 1x AIM-9G (stock), can't be equipped together with 1x AIM-7E-2 on slot 4 or 1x AIM-7F on slot 4 or 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6 -> 1x AIM-9G (stock), can't be equipped together with 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6
      • Option changed : 1x AIM-9L, can't be equipped together with 1x AIM-7E-2 on slot 4 or 1x AIM-7F on slot 4 or 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6 -> 1x AIM-9L, can't be equipped together with 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6
      • Added 1x Python 3 option, can't be equipped together with 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6
      • Removed 1x AIM-7E-2 option
      • Removed 1x AIM-7F option
    • Slot 6 changed : Added 1x Drop tank (stock) option
    • Slot 7 changed :
      • Option changed : 1x AIM-9G (stock), can't be equipped together with 1x AIM-7E-2 on slot 8 or 1x AIM-7F on slot 8 or 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6 -> 1x AIM-9G (stock), can't be equipped together with 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6
      • Option changed : 1x AIM-9L, can't be equipped together with 1x AIM-7E-2 on slot 8 or 1x AIM-7F on slot 8 or 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6 -> 1x AIM-9L, can't be equipped together with 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6
      • Added 1x Python 3 option, can't be equipped together with 2x BLU-27/B on slot 6
      • Removed 1x AIM-7E-2 option
      • Removed 1x AIM-7F option
• F-4J :
  • Added ejection seat
  • New loadout : 1x Drop tank (stock)
  • Custom loadout changes :
    • Max load : 7257 -> 7400 kg
    • Slot 6 changed : Added 1x Drop tank (stock) option
• F-4J (UK), Phantom F.G. Mk. 1, Phantom F.G.R. Mk. 2 :
  • Added ejection seat
  • New loadout : 1x Drop tank (stock)
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 6 changed : Added 1x Drop tank (stock) option
• F-14B :
  • Targeting pod camera moved
  • New loadout : 2x GBU-24/B + 1x LANTIRN
  • Loadouts changed :
    • 4x AIM-9L + 320x Flares / Chaff -> 4x AIM-9L + 640x Flares / Chaff
    • 1x GBU-10/B : Required modification changed : GBU-10 -> GBU-10/24
  • Custom loadout changes :
    • Slot 2, 5 changed :
      • Added 160x Flares / Chaff option
      • Added 160x Flares / Chaff + 1x AIM-9L (stock) option
    • Slot 3 changed :
      • Option changed : 1x AIM-7M, can't be equipped together with 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 -> 1x AIM-7M, can't be equipped together with 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 5
      • Option changed : 2x AIM-7M, can't be equipped together with 1x AIM-54A on slot 5 or 1x AIM-54C on slot 5 or 1x 500lb on slot 5 or 1x 1000 lb on slot 5 or 1x 2000lb on slot 5 or 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 or 1x Mk. 82 AIR on slot 5 or 1x Mk 83 AIR on slot 5 -> 2x AIM-7M, can't be equipped together with 1x AIM-54A on slot 5 or 1x AIM-54C on slot 5 or 1x 500lb on slot 5 or 1x 1000 lb on slot 5 or 1x 2000lb on slot 5 or 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 or 1x Mk. 82 AIR on slot 5 or 1x Mk 83 AIR on slot 5 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 5
      • Option changed : 2x AIM-54A, can't be equipped together with 1x 2000lb on slot 5 or 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 -> 2x AIM-54A, can't be equipped together with 1x 2000lb on slot 5 or 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 5
      • Option changed : 2x AIM-54C, can't be equipped together with 1x 2000lb on slot 5 or 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 -> 2x AIM-54C, can't be equipped together with 1x 2000lb on slot 5 or 1x GBU-10/B on slot 5 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 5
      • Added 1x GBU-24/B option, must be equipped together with 1x LANTIRN on slot 7
    • Slot 4 changed : Added 1x GBU-24/B option, must be equipped together with 1x LANTIRN on slot 7
• F-16A-10 (ISR) :
  • New loadout : 6x Python 3
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 changed : Added 1x Python 3 option
• G.91 3 :
  • New loadout : 2x Canon de 30mm DEFA 552 + 2x Mk. 82 Snakeye
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 2, 5 changed :Added 1x Mk. 82 Snakeye option
• G.91 4 (all) :
  • New loadout : 4x Machine Gun, Caliber .50, AN/M3 + 2x Mk. 82 Snakeye
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 2, 5 changed : Added 1x Mk. 82 Snakeye option
• G.91 Y :
  • New loadouts :
    • 2x AA.20
    • 2x AS.20
    • 2x AS.30
    • 4x Mk. 82 Snakeye
  • Custom loadout changes :
    • Slot 1, 4 changed : Added 1x Mk. 82 Snakeye option
    • Slot 2, 3 changed :
      • Added 1x Mk. 82 Snakeye option
      • Added 1x AS.20 option
      • Added 1x AA.20 option
      • Added 1x AS.30 option
• G.91 YS :
  • New loadout : 4x Mk. 82 Snakeye
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 2, 3, 4, 5 changed : Added 1x Mk. 82 Snakeye option
• GL 832 HY :
  • Float offset : 0.6 -> 0.4
  • DM rewritten
• Harrier G.R. Mk. 7 : Sight zoom : 1.51x / 1.86x -> 1.88x -> 6x
• Il-2 (1941) :
  • Loadouts changed :
    • 4x FAB-100 + 4x RBS-132 -> 4x FAB-100 + 8x RBS-132
    • 4x RBS-132 -> 8x RBS-132
    • 4x ROFS-132 -> 8x ROFS-132
    • 4x ROS-132 -> 8x ROS-132
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 1, 6 changed :
    • Option changed : 2x ROS-132 -> 4x ROS-132
    • Option changed : 2x ROFS-132 -> 4x ROFS-132
    • Option changed : 2x RBS-132 -> 4x RBS-132
• J8 (all) :
  • New loadouts :
    • 2x 500-4
    • 2x Model 500-3
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 2, 6 changed :
    • Added 1x Model 500-3 option
    • Added 1x 500-4 option
• Kfir C2 :
  • Updated cockpit
  • New loadouts :
    • 76x 2.75-inch FFAR Mk. 4 + 4x 500lb + 2x Python 3
    • 4x 500lb + 16x FFAR MK 32 MOD 0 + 2x Python 3
    • 4x 1000 lb + 2x Python 3
    • 2x 2000lb + 2x Python 3
    • 8x M117 + 2x Python 3
    • 2x Python 3
  • Removed loadouts :
    • 76x 2.75-inch FFAR Mk. 4 + 4x 500lb + 2x AIM-9G
    • 4x 500lb + 2x AIM-9G + 16x FFAR MK 32 MOD 0
    • 4x 1000 lb + 2x AIM-9G
    • 2x 2000lb + 2x AIM-9G
    • 2x AIM-9G + 8x M117
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 1, 7 changed : Added 1x Python 3 option
• Kfir C7 :
  • Updated cockpit
  • New loadout : 4x Python 3
  • Custom loadout changes : Slot 1, 2, 6, 7 changed : Added 1x Python 3 option
• Ki 45 Kai Tei, Ki 84 (all) : Loadout changed : 2x 250 kg : Bombs are now dropped separately
• MiG-23 (all), MiG-27 (all) : Drop tank fuel mass : 800 -> 650 kg
• Mirage 2000-5F : Targeting pod zoom = 6.15x / 98.21x
• N1K2-Ja : Loadout changed : 4x 60 kg : Bombs are now dropped separately
• PBY-5A (late) (FR) : Side turrets : 12.7 mm AN/M2 -> 12.7 mm AN/M2 (late)
• Su-17 (all), Su-22 (all) : Drop tank fuel mass : 1600 -> 1300 kg
• Su-25T :
  • Drop tank fuel mass : 1600 -> 1300 kg
  • Targeting pod NVD :
    • Resolution : 500x300 -> 900x500
    • Light multiplier : 12 -> 8
  • New loadout : 4x S-25L
• Su-39 :
  • Drop tank fuel mass : 1600 -> 1300 kg
  • New loadouts:
    • 1x Kopyo-25 + 2x R-60M (stock)
    • 2x R-60M + 4x S-25L
• TB-3 : Cockpit is now considered open when it comes to sounds
• Tornado G.R. Mk. 1 :
  • Loadout changed : 2x PGM 2000 -> 3x PGM 2000
  • Custom loadout changes :
    • Slot 3, 9 changed : Added 1x PGM 2000 option
    • Slot 4 changed :
      • Added 1x PGM 2000 option, can't be equipped together with 1x PGM 2000 on slot 8
      • Removed 1x PGM 2000 option
    • Slot 6 changed :
      • Option changed : 1x 1000 lb, can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slots 4, 8 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8 -> 1x 1000 lb, can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 4 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 8
      • Option changed : 1x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117, can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slots 4, 8 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8 -> 1x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117, can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 4 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 8
      • Option changed : 1x 1000 lb, can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slots 4, 8 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8 -> 1x 1000 lb, can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 4 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 8
      • Option changed : 1x MK 13 MOD 0 (Paveway), can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slots 4, 8 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8, must be equipped together with 1x TIALD on slot 4 -> 1x MK 13 MOD 0 (Paveway), can't be equipped together with 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb Mk.13 No.117 on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 2x 1000 lb on slots 4, 5, 7, 8 or 1x PGM 500 on slots 4, 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 4 or 1x GBU-24/B on slot 8 or 1x PGM 2000 on slot 8, must be equipped together with 1x TIALD on slot 4
• BO 105 CB-2, Ka-29, Mi-24P (all), Mi-24V, Mi-28A, Mi-35M, UH-1B, UH-1C : Maximum number of simultaneously guided missiles is now limited to 1
• SA 342 L, Z9 (all), Z11WA : 12.7 mm gunpod : Mass : 130 -> 42.25 kg

Sensor changes :

• AI Mk. 24 Foxhunter (all) : ACM lock range : 9250 -> 18500 m
• AN/APG-66 (all) :
  • Transceiver antenna : Elevation : Angle of half sensitivity : 3.5 -> 4.8°
  • Narrow search pattern :
    • Pitch stabilization limit : 30 -> 60°
    • Period : 0.35 -> 0.65 s
    • Search zone : 5° x 20° -> 8° x 20°
  • Medium search pattern :
    • Elevation limits : -30° / 30° -> -60° / 60°
    • Pitch stabilization limit : 30 -> 60°
    • Period : 2 -> 3.8 s
    • Search zone : 10° x 60° -> 8° x 60°
  • Wide search pattern :
    • Elevation limits : -30° / 30° -> -60° / 60°
    • Pitch stabilization limit : 30 -> 60°
    • Period : 2 -> 3.8 s
    • Search zone : 5° x 120° -> 8° x 120°
  • HUD lock pattern :
    • Elevation limits : -30° / 30° -> -60° / 60°
    • Period : 1.3 -> 1 s
    • Search zone : 20° x 20° -> 19.2° x 20°
  • Vertical lock pattern :
    • Elevation limits : -30° / 30° -> -60° / 60°
    • Period : 1.3 -> 1 s
    • Search zone : 9.9° x 40° -> 9.6° x 40°
  • Acquisition pattern :
    • Elevation limits : -30° / 30° -> -60° / 60°
    • Search zone : 5° x 20° -> 4° x 20°
• AN/AWG-9 (TISEO) : Name : AN/AWG-9 / TISEO -> AN/AWG-9 / AN/AXX-1 TCS
• Kopyo-25 :
  • Ground standby : Name : PD HDN standby -> GTM standby
  • Ground search : Name : TWS HDN search -> GTM search
  • Ground TWS search : Name : TWS HDN search -> TWS GTM search
  • Ground TWS acquisition : Name : TWS HDN acquisition -> TWS GTM acquisition
  • Ground track : Name : PD HDN track -> GTM track
• Thales RDY, Thomson-CSF RDI :
  • PD modes replaced with MPRF and HPRF modes
  • All patterns : Elevation limits : -55° / 55° -> -60° / 60°

Naval changes :

• New vehicle files :
  • Émile Bertin (FR)
  • Marceau (FR)
• AF 99, AF 128, Krischan der Große, KS 5, LS (all), MZ 1, R 41, R 130, R 301, S 38, S 62, S 100 (all), S 204, S 701, SF 05, SF 07, VS 8, VS 10 : Removed 1 skin
• Ise : Engine Max Speed : 47.16 -> 46.8 km/h
• Freccia (P 493) : Loadout changed : 2x S.I. 270 L : Required modification changed : Stock torpedoes -> Torpedo tubes
• Aigle, Vautour : Moved Center of Gravity
• Chacal, Panthere :
  • Radio station, fire control room HP increased
  • Shell and charge ammo storage HP lowered
  • Added Two Fuel Tanks
  • Turret Armor : Antifragmentation armor -> RHA
• Colbert :
  • Horizontal armor above the steering : 30 -> 18 mm
  • Main turret floor : 30 -> 20 mm
  • Rangefinder HP lowered
  • Moment of Inertia : [62, 1500, 930] -> [70, 1710, 1050]
  • Moved Center of Gravity
  • Engine Acceleration Increased
  • Rudder area : 24 -> 30 m
  • Moved Cameras
  • Ammo Outside First Ammo Stage of third and fourth main turrets : Reload Time Multiplier : 1.5 -> 1.2
• Duguay-Trouin, Primauguet : Moved Camera
• Jeanne d'Arc :
  • Removed Free Respawn
  • Moved Center of Gravity
  • Engine Acceleration to 16.2 km/h lowered
• Leopard :
  • Secondary Guns can no longer be fired together with primary cannons
  • Moved Center of Gravity
  • Engine Max Speed : 65.736 -> 58.32 km/h
  • Armor Reworked
  • Added two 20 mm cannons
  • Removed two 40 mm, four 12.7 mm, four 13.2 mm cannons
  • Depth charges : WBG -> Mk. VII
  • Added ammo storage data
• Lorraine :
  • Now rearms in batches
  • First part of angled belt armor in the nose removed
  • Angled belt armor : Thickness : 70 -> 42 mm
  • Moved Center of Gravity
  • Engine Max Speed : 39.636 -> 38.124 km/h
  • Engine Acceleration lowered
  • Rudder area : 28 -> 38
  • Moved Cameras
  • Detection Height : 53.4 -> 42.4 m
  • Breaches :
    • Water Mass Multiplier : 280 -> 160
    • Additional Water Should Die Percent : 26 -> 21 %
    • Side Center Of Mass Offset Percent : 12 -> 10 %
• Milan :
  • Moved Center of Gravity
  • Added 6x 13.2 mm/76 Mle. 1929 Hotchkiss machine gun
• Paris :
  • Armor Reworked
  • Moved Center of Gravity
  • Engine Acceleration lowered
  • Rudder area : 28 -> 38
  • Moved Cameras

Ground vehicle changes :

• M4 (T26) : Added 8 Shell (in the ammo storage, it had less than the gun could use)
• T1E1 : Hull machine gun : Horizontal Limits : +/- 0 -> +/- 15°
• SPz 12-3 (Typ 3Z 8DLA) "Raketenautomat" :
  • Added servo turret turn sound
  • No longer has a magazine reload
  • Added Replenishment Delay = 4 s
  • Added Replenishment Time = 15 s
• BTR-80A :
  • Hull Top : 8 -> 6 mm
  • Gunner Hatch : 8 -> 19 mm
  • Turret : 13 -> 23 mm
  • Hull Top Hatches : 8 -> 6 mm
  • Engine Grille : 5 mm Structural steel -> 6 mm RHA
  • Water Shield : 13 mm RHAHH -> 5 mm Structural steel
  • Turret roof : 13 -> 23
  • Added small plate just under Gunner's Hatch to DM as 23 mm RHAHH
  • Engine Sound : MCTA V6 -> BTR80
  • Turret Turn Sound : Servo -> Manual
  • Added NVD projector
• Vickers Battle Tank Mk. 1 : Added Gun Mask to DM as 50 mm CHA
• Vijayanta :
  • Added Gun Mask to DM as 50 mm CHA
  • Added 4 Skins
• VBCI 2 (MCT-30) :
  • Almost all aluminium armor had their HP increased from 1000 to 10000
  • 1 Front plate inside the hull front : 45 -> 35 mm
  • Lower Hull Sides : 20 -> 35 mm
  • Inner Rear hull : 15 -> 35 mm
  • Plate above tracks : 15 -> 35 mm
  • Crew compartment floor : 15 -> 35 mm
  • Rear Door : 50 -> 35 mm
  • Turret : 40 -> 30 mm
  • Hull roof : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Front Hull Corners : 50 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • Hull floor : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Armor around the Gun Breech : 25 -> 30 mm
  • Second layer of Upper Hull Sides : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Gun Mantlet : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • First layer of upper Hull Side : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • Armor plate inside turret : 10 -> 30 mm
  • Armor in the middle of the turret ring : 25 -> 30 mm
  • Driver hatch : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Inner Part of the hull rear : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Inner Part of the rear door : 50 -> 35 mm
  • Small armors on the UFP : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Lower LFP : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Add-on UFP armor : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 5 mm RHA
  • Plate around rear Door : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • Boxes next to turret : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Boxes on the front of hull : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 5 mm Structural steel
  • UFP : 5 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • Front Hatches : 5 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • LFP : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • Little Armor Box between wheels : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Part of the door : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • 1 front plate : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • Engine Grilles : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Armor behind wheels : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 12 mm RHAHH
  • 12.7 mm Support : 25 -> 20 mm
  • Gun Mask: 65 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Turret sides: 42 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Turret back : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Turret Roof : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Front of turret : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Rear of turret upper plate : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Bottom of turret : 20 -> 30 mm
  • Part of turret ring : 25 -> 35 mm
  • Turret rear corners : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Turret roof hatches: 25 -> 30 mm
  • Plates next to gun : 25 -> 30 mm
  • Turret front corners : 25 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A -> 10 mm RHAHH
  • Sight Support : 25 -> 30 mm
  • Part of turret ring : 5 mm Structural steel -> 30 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A
  • Gun support : 5 mm Structural steel -> 30 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A
  • Gun barrels :
    • HP : 200 -> 100
    • 35 -> 10 mm
  • Added plates between turret crew and driver compartment to DM as 10 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A
  • Added plates between the engine and turret crew, and in front of the driver to DM as 5 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A, visible in X-Ray
  • Added plate between 1st and 2nd wheels on the right side to DM as 12 mm RHAHH
  • Added Driver periscope to DM as 5 mm Structural steel
  • Removed 4 plate of 25 mm, 3 plate of 30 mm and 1 plate of 65 mm Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A, 5 plate of 5 mm Structural steel, 4 optics
  • Cannon breech, horizontal turret drive, transmission and ammo can no longer be overpressured
  • 30 mm Bushmaster 2 Mk. 44 cannon :
    • Horizontal Speed : 30 -> 60 °/s
    • Vertical Speed : 8 -> 60 °/s
    • Vertical Limit : [-8, 20] -> [-10, 45]°
    • Added 2 Plane Stabilizer (mfw first french IFV and first french Stabilized vehicle is a premium ))))
  • 12.7 mm M2 HB : Sight can now use NVD
  • Added Commander Sight (Also Stabilized)
  • Second and fourth set of wheels now have 10° steering
  • Zoom : 10 -> [2, 14.74]
  • FoV : 3.9 -> 17°
  • Added Target Tracker
  • Gunner Thermal :
    • 500x300 -> 1200x800
    • Noise Factor : 0.05 -> 0.04
  • Added Commander Thermal :
    • 1200x800
    • Noise Factor = 0.04
  • Driver NVD :
    • 800x600 -> 1200x800
    • Light Multiplier : 5 -> 7
  • Added Ammo Storage data
• Sherman Mk. IVb (M3) : Added a First Ammo Stage of 23 shells (Reload x 1.33 beyond)
• Magach 6 Bet Gal : Added Delay between Smoke Salvo = 0.5 s

Current Dev version : 2.26.0.40
Current Dev-Stable version : 2.25.1.135
Current Live version : 2.25.1.135

Total budget (in local currency) and country of purchase. Please do not use USD unless purchasing in the US:

• 1000 to 1500 GBP/EUR, UK, Europe

Are you open to refurbs/used?

• No

How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life?

• build quality, performance, battery life, ultrabook

How important is weight and thinness to you?

• not so much

Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A.

• 15.6 inch

Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run.

• CAD, MATLAB, simulations, data analysis, cooding and connecting to controllers

If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want?

• No

Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)?

• Separate numeric keypad, touch-screen, plenty of USBs to connect external controllers (USB or ethernet connection)

Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion.
​
What I liked about my old:

• Dell Aluminium casing and inside also aluminium
• Gorilla Glass touchscreen
• Separate numeric keypad
• 4 USBs
• 1TB HHD
• 2 slots for RAM
• 15.6 Inches
• Above-average battery life

Back then in 2014, it was marketed as a high-end and I paid equivalent of ~$1700. That would be now ~$2100.
Can you please suggest something similar that will last me for the next 10 years? All I upgraded so far is RAM from 8 GB DDR3L-1600 to 16 GB DDR3L-1600.
Also, if possible, to have a separate SSD and HDD as I do lots of data simulations (MATLAB, etc.).
All I noticed laptop boots a bit slower and MATLAB starts a bit slower (~1 to 2 minutes). I was thinking of replacing HDD with SSD, but I read that if you do lots of data writing/deleting then it is better to do that on a separate HHD and keep programs on SSD. Not sure if there is now space in my Dell laptop for HDD and SSD.
​
Edit: filled the form from https://www.reddit.com/SuggestALaptop/wiki/form/

Intro:
I test drove a Taycan Turbo a couple of years ago and absolutely fell in love with the car. It had this amazing blend of performance and technology that really appealed to me, but unfortunately was very much out of my price range.
I was fortunate enough to get some lucky rolls of the dice financially and was able to add a C8 Corvette to my garage while still maintaining a Model 3 Performance as a daily driver. I had long thought that this was the ultimate price performance power combo. The Model 3 Performance punches way above its weight class for the price. While the C8 provides the supercar driving experience for a fraction of the money. Though the power combo is a match that I am very lucky to have in my garage, all isn’t perfect. I spend the vast majority of my time in my Tesla and there are a lot of instances where it doesn’t quite feel special or unique enough nowadays. Likewise, I hate buying gas for my C8, and despite its overall driving prowess it does actually feel a little slow compared to my Model 3 due to its lack of instantaneous torque that I’ve grown accustomed to. I also feel like I have a lot of money being spent on a C8 that I only get to experience on the weekends so have been curious if there’s a way to experience a bit more of that “specialness” day to day.
I then looked at some used Porsche Taycans randomly one day and noticed that used 4S models and used Turbo models were well below the combined price of both of my Tesla and Corvette. So for the past few weeks I became obsessed with the question of whether a single Taycan could give me the best of both my Model 3 and Corvette in a package that was ultimately cheaper than the combined cost of both cars.
I decided to rent a modestly specced Taycan 4S on turo and arrange for an unscientific shoot out amongst all three cars.
About the cars:
https://imgur.com/a/UozILRv
I unfortunately do not know much about the Taycan 4S I rented on Turo however it looked to have the premium pack equipped, the larger performance plus battery, and not much else. It came on the car’s stock standard 19” aero rims.
The Model 3 Performance is a 2022 model year with the refreshed interior.
The C8 is a 2021 2LT with the Z51 package, Magnaride, and front end lift.
Handling (all three)
The handling and ride comfort on all three of these cars is quite good but the Taycan and Corvette are a clear notch above the Tesla. When competing head to head the Corvette beats out the Taycan as a whole due to its weight advantage, but it’s surprising how close the Taycan is to the Corvette.
The Tesla has the least sophisticated suspension of the bunch, but it has quick and darty steering which makes it feel especially agile with its low center of gravity and punchy acceleration. Unfortunately on the twisties the Tesla begins to really lose confidence and starts to wash out somewhere between the 70-80mph range, whereas the other two cars feel planted and ask you to push them further. Likewise, the Tesla’s brakes really aren’t up to the task of bailing you out of any situation once you get into that 70-80mph range on the twisties. Interestingly the Model 3 does weigh about 800lbs less than the Taycan and you can very much feel that weight advantage when throwing it into turns and other tight maneuvers.
The Taycan has the most sophisticated suspension of the bunch with an adaptive air suspension that can adjust both ride height and stiffness. Taycans with more performance options included can also have rear wheel steer, advanced torque vectoring, and anti-roll control, but my Taycan was not equipped with these luxuries. The big elephant in the room is the Taycan’s weight, which can be anywhere between 4800lbs-5100lbs depending on your model, options, etc. Around town you very much feel the Taycan’s extra weight, but it simultaneously also does a good job hiding it.
For instance, my neighborhood has a small roundabout that I had each car take at about 30 mph. Both the Tesla and Model 3 had no problem coming out of the roundabout in a relatively tight and controlled fashion, whereas the Taycan definitely felt like it was having a hard time committing to the line the other cars could take. On the flip side, with more curvaceous terrain (say a canyon or moderate twisties) the car feels very planted, confidence inspiring, capable, and it asks you to push it further. The brakes also feel like they are very capable of bailing you out of any situation. You notice the Tesla’s 4000lb weight with its brakes more than you notice the Taycan’s 4800lbs under braking. Steering in the Taycan is very direct and responsive, but due to the car’s weight and size it can actually feel a little boat-like compared to the other cars when driving them back to back.
As an overall package the Corvette yielded the best result in terms of handling. The steering is quick, easy to place, and communicative compared to the other cars. While I typically feel like the Corvette is a large car, it began to feel very small compared to the Taycan. The biggest difference was its 1100lb weight advantage which allowed it to transition and set itself up much more quickly compared to the other cars in all facets of a corner. The brakes on the Corvette are also superb and legitimately feel like you’re dropping an anchor when you put full pressure on them. Now I will say the Taycan wasn’t far off the Corvette’s mark as a whole, especially on the street, but you could typically feel the Taycan needing to sort itself due to its weight whereas everything felt like it came much more naturally to the Corvette.
Ride Comfort (all three)
I put this in a separate category because I find ride comfort makes a big impact on performance and how hard you can push a car, but also has a lot of implications for how the vehicle accomplishes day to day tasks.
The Taycan is the overall winner of ride comfort here, while the Corvette is not too far behind, and the Tesla is last.
The Tesla has the least sophisticated suspension of the bunch so it’s not exactly a fair fight. While I personally do not find the Tesla to be harsh to experience day to day, on longer trips it can be a fatiguing car to be in, and you do realize what you are missing in the Model 3 after riding in the Taycan and the Corvette. Still I find the Tesla to have a really nice blend of sportiness, comfort, and control.
The C8’s ride quality is superb with magna-ride giving the car a noticeable adjustment in personality and handling characteristics between, tour, sport, and track modes. The C8’s suspension makes it incredibly comfortable to be in for long periods of time, and highway cruising very much feels like a dream on this car. That being said, I do find that certain imperfections can unsettle the car and oddly the car has a tendency to shift diagonally or to the side as opposed to absorbing a bump vertically. This hasn’t ever really caught me off in serious driving, but it can be slightly disconcerting feeling the car shift in what feels to be an unintuitive way. In spirited driving a noticed very little difference between the Taycan’s suspension and the Corvette’s. This isn’t to say that there weren’t differences, just both cars provided a seemingly comparable amount of confidence and ride comfort.
The Taycan does edge out the Corvette in ride comfort because it does present a much smoother ride in normal, day to day conditions. Again, it’s not like the Corvette has a bad ride by any means, but the Taycan’s air suspension does provide a high degree of isolation, and you very much feel like you’re on a cloud whereas the Corvette does transmit a small degree of imperfections and can give the impression of being stiff in some instances compared to the Taycan.
What I found with the Taycan is increasing suspension aggressiveness (ride height, and damper settings) never seemed to actually compromise ride quality, it just improved the level of control and how “tight” the car felt overall. Whereas in the Corvette tour mode can feel a little too soft and floaty, sport essentially allows you to take everything with a single controlled “bump”, and track tightens things up but also transmits a bunch of imperfections that don’t exactly give you more feedback about what the car is doing, nor help improve your confidence.
Again, this isn’t to say that the Corvette’s ride quality is bad by any means…it’s pretty fantastic. In my opinion the Tacyan has the best performance oriented ride quality I’ve ever felt, and the Corvette just happens to be second best.
Acceleration (all three)
I would say the acceleration amongst all three of these cars is a dead heat on the streets. They each deliver an incredible amount of power and speed but they do so differently and I think anyone will find joy in how these cars accelerate.
If we were to do a drag race the Tesla would be the quickest of the bunch. It has a very “bursty” amount of speed and torque that it’s happy to deliver in immense doses from anywhere between 0-80mph. The Model 3 also obtained the highest “G” acceleration out of the three cars. With a .9 G from a dead stop and .7 G being delivered with a full stab of the throttle at speed. Though the Tesla definitely feels the quickest on the road, it does lose steam at around 80mph and the car generally doesn’t feel like it wants to go much faster than 100mph. The beauty of the Tesla’s power delivery is how easy it is. Just press the pedal and you’ll get the full beans no matter what you’re doing.
The Taycan has an interesting approach to its acceleration. It has a 2-speed gear box which allows the car to deliver a bit more torque at higher speeds. This gearbox does give the Taycan a very healthy amount of pull at 80mph, and the car doesn’t feel like it’s running out of steam past 100mph. That high-end speed does come at the expense of some low-end responsiveness. When at a dead stop and mashing the pedal, the car will sometimes hesitate for a split moment as it tries to decide which gear to use. Likewise the Taycan’s acceleration feels much more linear. The Tesla wants to melt your face off right from the get-go, but the Taycan keeps pushing you back in your seat the longer you use the pedal.
I’m really not a fan of using launch control on the street, since I just find the setup procedure to not always be appropriate when other traffic is around. However the Taycan’s launch mode is an absolute treat. It rockets you back initially and then the 2nd gear kicks in several seconds later and you get another surge of speed. Where a Tesla’s launch feels like it’s probably good for about 4 seconds worth of enjoyment, a Taycan’s feels like it’s good for about 8-10 seconds worth of fun.
The Taycan pulled .8 G in launch mode but could only manage to pull .4 G when mashing the pedal at basically any speed, I think this .4 G acceleration is due to the car’s weight and how linearly Porsche decides to deliver the power.
The Corvette decidedly feels the least torquey of the bunch, but has the best power to weight ratio and has no problem letting its speed climb to very high numbers with seemingly little effort. I rarely use launch control in my C8, so while I don’t have a launch G-force to compare to, the Corvette was regularly pulling .55 and .65 G’s doing 3rd and 4th gear pulls. It did pull .7 G’s on a second gear pull, but due to how the torque builds the .7 G’s did not feel nearly as strong or as aggressive as Tesla’s .7 G’s.
So to describe the acceleration characteristics broadly.
The Tesla is the 0-80mph champion and the quickest off the line. The Porsche is slower and less responsive off the line, but gives you a much better pull 80mph+ and has a more satisfying torque/acceleration curve all around. Despite being a torque monster of an ICE vehicle, the Corvette feels the least torquey all throughout but feels like it’s the quickest and easiest to hit high numbers in. It particularly loves 3rd and 4th gear pulls.
Canyon Carving (all three)
I took all three cars through a nearby canyon that I essentially drive every weekend and did the same loop in each car. Trying to push it as much as I felt comfortable/safe to do so.
The first car up was the Taycan. After driving the Taycan around town and feeling its weight in certain corners and a slightly hesitant acceleration in some instances, I was ready to write it off compared to the Corvette. Boy was I wrong.
The Taycan attacks canyon corners with a supreme amount of confidence and is happy to load you up on a variety of G-forces. Its suspension, even in its stiffest “sports plus” setting never felt rough or punishing, it simply provided more control over the vehicle. Despite the car’s weight, the brakes felt completely capable of keeping me out of trouble. I honestly thought the Taycan would start to let off or give up the more I pushed it, and instead it was very happy asking for more.
What I particularly enjoyed was the fact that the silent EV motors let me push the car quite a bit without drawing too much attention to myself. Likewise if I got stuck behind slower moving traffic, it felt more “okay” than it did in the Corvette because I wasn’t burning gas, and the car is a little more suited to normal driving.
With EV’s there’s also very much an “invisible safety blanket” that the electric motors and traction control feel like they provide. They are so fast to respond to everything, that you really do feel like you can never get yourself into trouble. The Corvette has a healthy amount of aides as well, but they feel like “Orc” technology compared to an EV’s “Elven” technology.
I will be honest in saying that I was probably able to push the Taycan harder than I was able to push the Corvette and it made me feel like a bit of a superhero in the car. I honestly couldn’t believe that a car that had 4 doors was able to essentially give me a very comparable canyon carving experience to my Corvette. My neck and back were actually tired due to the G’s I was able to pull in the Taycan and I’ve yet to feel that in the Corvette.
I then hopped into my Corvette and it was like having the best college football team play against an NFL team. Yes there’s a ton of talent on that college football team but the NFL team is just operating at a whole different pace. The Corvette was able to take everything I threw at it with ease. If I had the Taycan operating at 7/10ths the Corvette was able to achieve those speeds at what felt like closer to 5/10ths for it.
The C8 felt much quicker to respond to every input and felt like it was always ready to continue accelerating due to its lighter weight, whereas the Taycan would almost take a moment to settle itself before rocking you back with its power.
As mentioned above, I did have a hard time pushing the Corvette as hard as the Taycan for two reasons. First the exhaust very much announces how hard you are pushing the car and there’s only so much you can do while still appearing somewhat outwardly responsible. Secondly, the Corvette doesn’t quite feel like it has the “invisible shield” of the Taycan which will not only bail you out of any problem, but will also prevent you from getting into any problem to begin with. This isn’t to say that the Corvette isn’t confidence inspiring, or doesn’t do a lot to help you as a driver, but you get the sense that Corvette can find itself in a situation where it really can’t help you, and the Taycan makes it feel like that’s never a possibility.
Though the Corvette felt like it was much more of a natural in the canyons (and rightfully so), that next level of performance in the Corvette feels like it’s something you have to explore at the track, whereas the Taycan feels like it can give you everything its got in the canyons. In a way the Taycan feels like it is much more optimized to be fun, fast, and enjoyable in a canyon, where the Corvette has a lot of track capability that translates well to the canyons, but some of that track capability is an edginess that you don’t really want to explore on the streets and doesn’t exactly translate to driving fun as directly as the Taycan’s driving experience does.
The Tesla was the least impressive of the bunch in the canyons. It had the most rapid acceleration, but would consistently wash-out around 70mph or so. Whereas the other two cars would give you what you asked for and then ask you to push them more, the Tesla would kind of go “I gave you an awesome acceleration, what do you mean you need me to do something else?”
The regenerative braking on the Tesla also makes it hard to push.. Whereas the Taycan and Corvette could just carry quite a bit of momentum after an acceleration, the Tesla wants to slow down immediately after you left off the accelerator. Now in track mode you can decrease the amount of regeneration that you encounter (which I did), but you then begin to experience the fact that the brakes feel underpowered without the regen present. So it was very hard to connect the corners as seamlessly as you could in the Corvette and Taycan. The Tesla was very much “let’s slow down going in and accelerate like crazy going out…only to slow back down immediately after corner exit” whereas the Corvette and Taycan were just flying between corners and transitions without any hesitation.
This isn’t to say that the Tesla isn’t fun or can’t be fun in the canyons. In fact I’d say it could pretty handedly curb stomp say a stock C6 Corvette in a canyon. But it very much makes its limitations known and is the least eager to be there.
I would say the Corvette is the winner here by virtue of its talent, but the Taycan is actually the more impressive car to experience in the canyons. You’ll feel like you’re going faster, puling more G’s, and are ultimately safer in the Taycan than you will in the Corvette.
Fun Factor (Corvette vs. Porsche)
This is a tricky one where both cars trade quite a few blows but the Corvette ultimately wins.
The Corvette displays a lot of personality. It is flashy to look at, the engine can draw a lot of attention, and the car presents itself as being totally focused on going fast. You very much do get quite a bit of the supercar experience in the Corvette.
However, the Corvette’s flashiness does have some legitimate downsides. People automatically assume I’m a jerk when I’m in it, traffic is noticeably less accommodating, and I’ve had people go out of their way to try to screw with me. Likewise when you encounter slower traffic in a Corvette it feels like a complete let down. This isn’t to say that the car isn’t comfortable at slower speeds or anything like that, it’s just that the Corvette needs some open space around it for it to really start to show itself and that can be hard to find in a world full of Priuses and folks who like to text while driving.
Interestingly, the Corvette’s comfortable suspension and ability to really back down its aggressiveness in tour mode, makes it a really enjoyable cruiser. Some of my favorite moments in the car have been putting around small little neighborhood roads at 25 mph exploring places I’ve never been to before with some good tunes playing in the background.
In a world full of EV’s the lack of instant torque does make the Corvette feel like it’s missing a bit of an edge in its performance. The C8 is still incredibly fast by all marks and measures, but it isn’t quite satiating me with its acceleration like Corvettes used to in a world prior to EV’s.
The Taycan very much brings you into its own elegant world. When you get inside the car there is almost a deliberate pause, and then the screens burst to life, the seat pushes you towards the steering wheel and you get the sense that the car is ready and willing to take you on its own specially curated trip now that you’ve entered it.
There is a strong level of enjoyment for how nice the car looks and feels on the inside and the perceived level of quality it is able to provide. Every passenger I had in the Taycan kept remarking to themselves “Oh man…this is nice”. I also personally feel like this is the best looking Porsche on the market. It feels properly futuristic, striking and timeless. It very much holds its own compared to the Corvette and you’re always going to enjoy walking up to it and turning around to get one more look before walking away.
The Taycan feels like it can switch itself into a bonafide sports car at any point. I’ve had many occasions where I’ve unexpectedly found myself on a nice stretch of road in my Tesla and wishing I could be in my Corvette. With the Taycan it’s a simple switch to sports mode and you’re there. You can also drive the Taycan much more aggressively without bringing as much attention to yourself. It feels like your own private sports car when you’re inside of it, almost like you’re going undercover so that you can drive however you want in peace.
The Corvette in contrast is very good for those times when you want to give everyone around you the proverbial middle finger. I’ve had times when I’ve been upset at work or situations in life, and just seeing how mean and aggressive the Corvette looks and to experience how pissed off it can sound has made me feel better. It’s a cathartic car to be in and it can really inspire you to keep fighting when you’re feeling a little down.
Lastly, the Corvette has one major advantage over the Taycan and that’s the fact that the roof can come off. There’s just some days where things are better with the top off,the Corvette gives you the option to experience that whenever you need to and I’ve found it to be incredibly gratifying.
Range (Model 3 vs Taycan)
I’d also say that range is a pretty contested topic between these two cars. The Tesla has a very impressive EPA rating of around 300 miles, but most owners (myself included) feel like they do not get anywhere near that range. The Taycan has an objectively abysmal EPA rating of around 220 miles, but most owners feel like the rating is more accurate in the real world or that they can beat the rating by hefty margins.
I did a healthy amount of driving in the Taycan when I had it and subjectively felt that the range dropped about as fast as it dropped in my Tesla when driving like a normal human being. But when I drove the Taycan just a bit more conservatively its range seemed to hold a bit longer than the Tesla’s so I personally feel like that behavior lends credence to what a lot of Taycan owners claim.
I did a few comparisons to measure each car’s range consumption. I unfortunately did not have the time to measure the cars on the exact same route for all of the tests etc. But I drove each car in conditions that I would typically encounter in real life and I feel like this gave me a good enough sense of what I could encounter if I were to buy a Taycan.
One thing to note, the Taycan very much likes to adjust its range estimate based on what mode you’re in and how you’re driving. You can set off for the day with 120 miles of indicated range, put the car in sports mode to take a freeway onramp, and you can come back to normal mode having only 95 miles of range simply because of that sports mode flip and how the Taycan re-estimates its range under sports mode driving conditions.
The Tesla on the other hand seems to stick to its indicated range no matter what but it ops to have it drop much quicker to adjust to your driving style. You’ll never see the Tesla go from 120 miles to 95 miles in an instant like you would in the Taycan, but the Tesla will very quickly subtract down from 120 to 95 miles over the course of say 6 miles if it thinks you’re pushing it hard.
Range Test:
I did an “economical” driving test on both the Taycan and Tesla.
For the Taycan I drove 36 miles on mostly range mode with the speed limiter set to 85 mph. Traffic varied between 70-85mph and the car was generally just keeping up with the flow of traffic, not trying to hyper mile, not trying to push itself.
The car departed with 45% state of charge with a 112 mile range indicated and arrived with a 29% state of charge with a 77 mile range indicated. Interestingly the Taycan’s range estimate was pretty spot on being only 1 mile off.
Considering I got 36 miles for about 16% state of charge I’d have around 225 miles of range with this style of driving.
In the Tesla I did a 25 mile highway drive with similar conditions and speeds. Not trying to hyper mile, not trying to push, just keeping up with the general flow of traffic.
The Tesla left with a 58% state of charge and 169 miles of indicated range and arrived with a 48% state of charge and 140 miles of indicated range. The Tesla’s range estimate was a bit less accurate in this particular scenario, but not offensively so. If I were to extrapolate the 10% state of charge per 25 miles of range I would end up with about 250 miles of range with this style of driving.
Lastly I took both cars on an identical 30 mile canyon run loop. The goal here was to push each car about as hard as I felt comfortable doing. So it included several full throttle accelerations, and just lots of aggressive driving.
The Taycan departed with a 49% state of charge and 132 miles of indicated range and returned with a 28% state of charge and 82 miles left of indicated range. Given the approximate 21% stage of charge loss per 30 miles the Taycan could expect to get around 150 miles of range with this style of driving.
The Tesla departed with a 76% state of charge and 221 miles of indicated range and returned with a 61% state of charge and 177 miles of indicated range. Given the Tesla’s 15% state of charge loss per 30 miles one could expect to get around 190 miles of range with this style of driving.
My general takeaway is the Taycan can hold its own on the highway when driving normally, but the Taycan seems to dump energy much faster than the Tesla when driving aggressively. Likewise, though the Tesla seems to subtract its indicated mileage much faster per state of charge percentage, the Tesla is subtracting from a larger number of miles altogether at around 300 miles of range so you don’t feel like you’re really in any range trouble until you get to the 50 mile mark or so. Whereas in the Taycan you can hit that 50 mile remaining number much more readily and feel the range anxiety set in.
I actually think a big issue with the Taycan is how readily it dumps power when you do push it in a canyon environment. I sometimes have to drive 40 miles to a canyon or twisty road so I can see the Taycan dumping a substantial amount of charge in the canyon itself and not having enough juice to get back.
As a whole I’d probably have to think about range a bit more in the Taycan than I would in the Tesla so the Tesla is the winner here, but I do think I could get the Taycan to work for a lot of situations that I normally encounter.
Cargo Space/Practicality (Model 3 vs Taycan)
A big appeal of the Taycan is the notion of having a pretty sporty driving experience without having to quite sacrifice all of the space that one would in a traditional sports car. While the Taycan does an admirable job on this front the Model 3 does edge it out by a noticeable margin.
I have (5) bags that I keep in my car at all times for work. In the Tesla these are split between the frunk, trunk, and under trunk storage. While things can get tight in the Tesla between these bags I can arrange them in a way where I still have room for something else or a few grocery bags if necessary.
While the Taycan did accommodate all (5) bags it felt maxed out once I got them all in there and I had to arrange the trunk in a particular way to get everything to fit so the trunk could close whereas that is not necessary on the Tesla.
Critically the Taycan’s frunk actually looks to have more storage potential than the Model 3’s thanks to its extra depth, however several of my bags were just ever so slightly too wide to make use of that extra depth. This is likely an inches vs centimeters thing and some slightly different sized bags would likely solve the problem, but I do think it’s something other folks with bags that use Imperial dimensions would run into.
Surprisingly both the frunk and trunk in the Tesla are much nicer to operate compared to the Taycan’s.
The Taycan’s frunk requires you to slide a safety latch to open it while neither the Tesla or Corvette’s frunk requires this. Likewise Tesla’s powered lift gate appears to move faster, does not make an annoying “beeping” noise as it is closing, and the hard plastic interior liner on the backside of Tesla’s trunk is much nicer than the Taycan’s carpeted liner.
Inside the cabin the Tesla has much more space for the rear seats as well as more leg and head room. Likewise the Tesla’s center console offers loads of storage potential plus convenient wireless charging for two. Whereas the Taycan has a janky wireless charger included (that is hard to access and didn’t seem to work for me) and much more limited storage options throughout the cabin.
This isn’t to say that the Taycan’s storage offerings wouldn’t work for most people. But a Tesla owner would have to make decisions about what to not include if moving into a Taycan. There’s something to be said about the Model 3 having smaller dimensions all around and more space to put stuff.
Parking Lot/Tight Spaces (all three)
I personally work in downtown LA frequently and have to navigate my car through tight parking areas and other urban gems. Likewise, I find that parking lots can generally be stressful, especially in nicer cars like a Corvette or Taycan, so an ease of navigating through them does make a marked difference in one’s overall enjoyment.
Here I would say the Taycan and Model 3 are a dead heat whereas the Corvette is a few steps behind both cars.
I have a particular turn around point in my neighborhood cul-de-sac that I consistently have to navigate through. Both the Taycan and Model 3 were able to clear the turn around point at comparable distances whereas the Corvette had to do a 3-point turn.
Supposedly the Corvette has a tighter turn radius than the outgoing C7 but it honestly does not feel that way to me. In tight quarters or parking lot situations, the Corvette feels like it’s a bit helpless to maneuver and I’ve had myself get into trouble with it on a few occasions. Nothing particularly damning or impossible to get out of, but instances where cars are looking at me and are wondering why I’m not making a turn when their car feels like it has enough space in the parking lot.
The Tesla does feel a bit easier to place due to its smaller size and I also find that its parking sensors and rear view camera do a lot to assist you. The Model 3 is frankly the easiest car I’ve had to park and I have no complaints about its turning radius, size, etc. in these situations.
Considering the Taycan’s extra dimensions its turning radius feels like it’s better than the Tesla’s inch for inch, but the extra dimensions do make it a bit less seamless to place and the cameras/driver assistance features do not work consistently enough to rely on. But you can park the car without being too far off the mark of the Model 3, and you are nowhere near the silly situations that can be encountered in the Corvette.
While my particular rental did not have rear axle steering equipped, I do feel like a rear axle steering equipped Taycan would be comparable to place compared to a Model 3 on all accounts and the Taycan without rear axle steering was plenty easy to generally park and maneuver around parking lots despite its size.
Traffic/Daily Driving Comfort (Model 3 vs Taycan)
So this is a major point of emphasis for me between Model 3 and Taycan because I do find myself driving in all sorts of traffic conditions and just need the car to be easy to deal with no matter what I encounter.
The Tesla is a smaller vehicle, has a default ride height that basically never scrapes, has a very helpful nav and parking sensors, and things like one pedal drive and auto hold make for a very “zen-like” driving experience. I’ve basically never encountered a driving situation that made me feel uncomfortable in my Tesla. Likewise the smaller size and instantaneous torque makes it very easy to just slot oneself in wherever needed.
The Taycan is a larger vehicle and it does not offer a one pedal driving mode, both of which made me worry about the Taycan’s overall comfort. However I actually did not miss one pedal driving nearly as much as I thought I would on the Taycan. The lack of one pedal drive allows the car to just glide along somewhat effortlessly, and though you do need to be more aware as a driver, it somehow feels less frenetic than the Tesla. I can’t say it’s preferable to one pedal driving, but it works well enough that I don’t mind not having one pedal driving accessible in the Taycan.
I had a harder time slotting the Taycan into tight spaces compared to the Tesla. This is partially because of the Taycan’s size and partially because its throttle response is not as instantaneous. Likewise, I did have to be mindful of ride height in certain situations, which did add a layer of stress that I am not as used to anymore in my daily commute.
Something about the Taycan does feel like it protects you from the outside world a bit more than the Tesla. The ride is a lot more insulated, helping you arrive in a fresher state and the car drives in a way where it feels like it never really has to assert itself. In the Tesla I feel like I often have to get scrappy to get myself into a position that I’d like, but the Taycan never really calls for it.
Visibility between the Taycan and Tesla is pretty comparable, but the Taycan’s mirrors do feel like they are in a better position to see behind you, and the blind spot warning system gives you an immediate level of awareness that the Tesla does not offer.
After going back and forth between both cars the Taycan’s steering across all modes feels a bit more weighty and effortful. This becomes a disadvantage on the streets because you do feel this steering weight along with the car’s actual weight when making tighter maneuvers, but on the highway the Taycan feels much more sure footed and its steering works better there compared to the Tesla’s.
As an odd point of consideration, I do think the Tesla is a nicer cabin to be in when the car’s not moving. It feels a little more spacious and I’ve had no problems working on my laptop in the front seat or taking a nap in the rear seat. I think taking a nap in the rear seat of a Taycan would be hard to accomplish because of how the rear seat is shaped. While the front seat offers plenty of space to work if needed, the car generally feels like it wants you to drive it, whereas the Tesla is okay with you hanging out in it. However the Taycan actually feels like the nicer to cabin to be in when you are moving. That protection and insolation from the outside world just really gives you a sense of comfort and escape which is nice.
A big thing that helps the Taycan is the fact that it does have a “hold” feature if you press the brake pedal down strongly when at a stop. Now the Tesla can do this for you every single time your car comes to a stop, but I found that being able to have the option to “hold” in the Taycan was a minor tipping point in daily driving/comfort that helps it compared to the Tesla.
All in all I’d say the Tesla wins this particular category. But the Taycan is not as far off in this category as I remember it being.
Highway Driving (all three)
The Taycan is the best highway driver of the three. It is smooth, well insulated, and happy to give you a strong shove of torque no matter what speed you are going on the highway. One of my worries with the Taycanwas the lack of one pedal driving making it feel less comfortable to drive on the highway, but I actually found its auto recuperation mode to be a big win.
Auto Recuperation essentially allows the car to coast when it is not near other vehicles, helping to optimize range, but when it is near vehicles it adds regen and frictional braking to help keep a safe distance. With this on I found that I actually had to touch the pedals less than I had to when in the Tesla, and found that the system did a good job keeping me at safe distances and generally out of trouble.
The Tesla is the next best of the bunch. It does have noticeably louder wind and road noises at highway speeds, but it has a punchy torque delivery from 60-80mph which makes it very easy to slot itself into small gaps in the highway. However the Tesla’s power does seem to fall off past 80mph compared to the Taycan. One pedal driving on the Tesla is very much a treat, as it makes it very easy to respond to changing road conditions (just take your foot off the pedal and you’ve scrubbed 10mph off your speed in a few seconds). Likewise in stop and go traffic situations it makes everything very easy and comfortable to manage. However you do find yourself having to constantly apply the throttle pedal to maintain highway speeds. So while the Tesla does a great job on the highway, the Taycan feels like it is much more optimized for it as a whole.
The Corvette is very comfortable on the highway thanks to its adaptive dampers and you can tell that it’s a car that is happy to eat miles for you. I’d say it’s definitely one of the easiest and most relaxing sports cars to take on a longer road trip. Unfortunately, you begin to really miss EV torque when on the highway with the Corvette. You can drop a few gears, rev like crazy, get yourself up 100mph and it feels like nothing happened compared to how much instantaneous torque the Taycan and Model 3 offer at highway speeds. Likewise I’m often happy to push the Model 3 to higher speeds on the highway because of how quiet the car is, but past 80mph the Corvette’s style and exhaust essentially announces “Come look at me I’m breaking the law!” or in some people’s eyes “I’m a douchebag”. So you do have to be much more mindful of your throttle usage.
The Corvette does also have an odd size and seating position that just makes it hard to really feel confident shooting a gap on the highway. So the lack of instantaneous torque and its odd shape/size makes it the least enjoyable highway cruiser, though it still does an incredible job for an ICE sports car and is by no means bad by other measures.
Conclusion:
So can the Taycan best a C8 Model 3 Combo?
The Taycan’s driving experience really is good enough where it is an incredibly tempting proposition. I personally think you get very close to the experience of how a Corvette cuts up canyons, with a lot of the convenience and practicality you’d expect from an EV. In my eyes it's currently as close as you can get to a sports car while having 4 doors. For me a big source of its appeal is being able to experience the speed and specialness of the Corvette a lot more frequently in day to day driving scenarios and to experience that speed in a way that draws a lot less attention and feels generally safer on the streets.
However this math only makes sense looking at the used market. Used Taycan Turbo and 4S models can be had for $110Kish, and really the Taycan Turbo is the one to make a move on at that price range. However at around $140K new for say a well optioned 4S the C8 and Model 3 combo makes more sense.
All in all the Taycan really is the first proper "do it all" car that I have encountered and I think we have a lot to look forward to with a plethora of of EV options coming to market soon.

Background info: 26F in TN, wrecked my old car in December of 22 and had to quickly buy a replacement car. I stupidly went alone to a dealership after finding a car on autotrader I wanted to take a look at. A 2021 Hyundai Elantra with 8600 miles.
I was talked into getting it that night. The car wasn't starting that night which the salesman assured me was due to the lights being left on. I bought it that night anyway. Yes I know I am stupid. I know in the future to get an inspection on a used vehicle before buying.
I took a loaner home that night. The salesman was texting me the next day saying that there were some "fuse" issues that needed to get looked at with Hyundai and they would schedule it but I could take it home in the meantime. I went and picked it up. Yes I know I am stupid.
I noticed the blind spot wasn't working and the reverse sensor wasn't either. These were the "fuse" issues. I scheduled an appt with Hyundai the soonest available in March. When I finally got it checked out by Hyundai (4 months after buying) they told me the car had been in a wreck (not on the CarFax) and there was no blind spot module and the bumper had bondo in it. Hyundai recommended replacing the bumper. That plus a new blind spot would cost $4,000.
I called the original dealership and spoke to them and they told me to take it to them to check it out. I brought it in and they had it for 3 weeks and they did replace the blind spot but that is it. I asked them to take back the car for what I paid for it (nicely) and he (nicely) said that they would not because it had been so many months. (This was because of scheduling issues with Hyundai)
I was okay(ish) with all that (except feeling stupid about the damaged bumper). Until I was cleaning out my trunk today and lifted the trunk liner and there was about two inches of standing water around the spare. I had noticed my stuff in the trunk kept getting moist but I assumed that I spilled something or a drink can had burst at some point. So there must be a leak somewhere, possibly in the damaged bumper?
Anyway, I don't feel like I should go back to the dealership because I feel like they are washing their hands of me and they won't fix it. (because they don't have to because it is an as is sale).
Here's the details of the sale: Purchase price: $25,500 Downpayment: $3,000 Taxes: $2,800 ish warranty: $2,500 (later refunded) Gap: $1,000 (refunded due to refinance) Insurance paid out on my totaled car: $8,000 Total financed in the beginning: $29,000 ish After the refunds and insurance money I now owe: $16,500 ish My monthly payment: $338.02
I don't want to keep the car any longer because of the sour taste in my mouth on the whole deal. I am wanting to downgrade cars and get something around $15k-$20k.
I want some advice on whether I should just keep my car or trade it in on something cheaper.
KBB says it is worth around 21,000. If I trade it in now, am I losing the original sales price (25,500) minus the current value (21,000) so 4,500? Or should I include the taxes as a loss too? Is this a lot to be out? My new monthly payment would be around $200, so would save $138 a month.
What are some other things to think about?