Burj Khalifa: Start your Dubai adventure by visiting the iconic Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Take in breathtaking views of the city from the observation deck on the 148th floor.
Desert Safari: Experience the thrill of a desert safari, where you can go dune bashing in a 4x4 vehicle, try sandboarding, and even enjoy a camel ride. End the day with a traditional Bedouin-style dinner and entertainment under the stars.
Dubai Mall: Explore the vast Dubai Mall, which offers a world-class shopping experience along with various entertainment options. Don't miss the mesmerizing Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, located inside the mall.
Palm Jumeirah: Visit the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island shaped like a palm tree. Take a monorail ride along the trunk and enjoy the luxurious resorts, beach clubs, and restaurants that line the crescent.
Dubai Creek: Take a traditional abra (water taxi) ride along Dubai Creek, the historic heart of the city. Admire the blend of old and new architecture, visit the Dubai Museum, and explore the vibrant souks (markets) selling gold, spices, and textiles.
Miracle Garden: Wander through the Dubai Miracle Garden, a stunning floral paradise featuring intricate designs and structures made entirely of flowers. It's a visual spectacle that is sure to leave you in awe.
Atlantis, The Palm: Indulge in a day of luxury at Atlantis, The Palm. Enjoy the thrilling Aquaventure Waterpark, interact with marine life at The Lost Chambers Aquarium, and relax on the pristine beaches.
Dubai Marina: Stroll along the Dubai Marina promenade and enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of this waterfront district. Admire the impressive skyline, dine at exquisite restaurants, and take a sunset cruise to fully appreciate the beauty of the area.
Ski Dubai: Experience the ultimate contrast by visiting Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort located in the Mall of the Emirates. Enjoy skiing, snowboarding, or simply play in the snow in this unexpected winter wonderland.
Al Fahidi Historic District: Step back in time at the Al Fahidi Historic District, also known as Bastakiya. Explore the narrow alleyways, visit art galleries and museums, and learn about Dubai's rich cultural heritage. Don't forget to enjoy a traditional Arabian meal at one of the charming courtyard cafes.
Please reach out to us on the link below or call us on M:+919775084000
Link : https://tours.tripmaza.com/packages/?&q=dubai

Top 10 things must do in Dubai!

https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/1968/10/08.htm
https://aklatangbayan.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/great-anti-imperialist-revolutionary-cause-of-asian-african-and-latin-america-peoples-is-invincible.pdf [PDF]
It is nearly a year now since Comrade Ernesto Che Guevara, an indomitable revolutionary fighter and a true internationalist champion bom of the Latin American people, died a heroic death on the battlefield of Bolivia. The Korean people, together with the revolutionary peoples throughout the world, are commemorating the first anniversary of the passing away of Comrade Che Guevara, with a burning hatred for the enemy and in deep grief.
Che Guevara took the path of the sacred struggle to bring freedom and liberation to the peoples, holding aloft the banner of anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle early in his youthhood, and devoted his whole life to the revolutionary cause of the oppressed peoples.
Over a long period up to now since the curtain rose upon the prelude to the bloodstained history of modern bourgeoisie, in which the exploitation camouflaged by medieval religious and political illusions was replaced by a naked, shameless, direct and cruel one and man's dignity turned into an exchange value, numerous Communists and revolutionary fighters on the globe have shed their blood and laid down their lives in the midst of the revolutionary tempest to sweep away all that is obsolete and corrupt and reorganize the whole structure of society in a revolutionary way, to overthrow the upper strata of that cursed old society and prepare the cradle of free and happy, new society. Che Guevara dedicated his precious life to this sacred struggle and thus became an honourable member of the ranks of world revolutionary martyrs.
Che Guevara was an indefatigable revolutionary who was tireless in struggle and a true internationalist champion who was completely free from narrow nationalist sentiments. Throughout his life he showed a fine example of a steadfast revolutionary fighter and real internationalist.
Along with the Cuban revolutionaries led by Comrade Fidel Castro, Che Guevara unfolded a heroic armed struggle, thereby contributing greatly to crushing U.S. imperialism and the dictatorial regime of Batista, its lackey, and attaining the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. In 1965 Che Guevara, burning with revolutionary zeal, left the triumphant land of Cuba to move the arena of his struggle to a new outpost where manifold difficulties and stern trials awaited him. Everywhere he went in Latin America, he organized and mobilized the masses of the people to armed struggles against U.S. imperialism and its minions and fought bravely to the last moment of his life in the forefront.
The revolutionary activities of Che Guevara made a tremendous contribution to further consolidating the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and stepping up the advancement of the Latin American revolution as a whole.
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution is the first victory of the socialist revolution in Latin America and a continuation of the Great October Revolution in Latin America. With the Cuban Revolution emerging victorious, the Red banner of socialism now flies high over Latin America which was regarded as a hereditary estate of U.S. imperialism only until recently, and the socialist camp has extended to the Western Hemisphere and grown in strength a great deal. Today the Republic of Cuba which marches on firmly in the forefront of the Latin American revolution is the lighthouse of hope for the fighting Latin American peoples and throws the rays of victory on the road of their struggle. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution shook the colonial system of the U.S. imperialists to its very foundation in the Western Hemisphere and has thrown the whole Latin America into a revolutionary tempest, forcefully arousing the peoples in this area to the sacred struggle for independence and freedom. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution signified, indeed, the beginning of the disintegration of the U.S. imperialist system of colonial rule in Latin America, the stern judgment on U.S. imperialism which had exploited and oppressed the peoples in this area for a long period and its condemnation to ruin.
Consolidation of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution is not only an important problem which decides the life and death, the rise and fall of the Cuban people but also a key problem which sways the destinies of the general development of the Latin American revolution.
Revolution begins with brilliant successes in one country but undergoes a considerable period of painful throes. The countries whose proletariat has grasped power in the encirclement of international capitalism are not free from the danger of imperialist aggression and restoration of capitalism during the entire historical period of revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism. The overthrown exploiting classes always attempt to recover their lost positions and foreign imperialists incessantly engage in armed invasion and intrigues and manoeuvres for political and ideological subversion.
The U.S. imperialists and the reactionaries of Latin America deeply hate and fear the very existence of the Republic of Cuba and are manoeuvring stubbornly and maliciously to stifle it. They are working hard to get rid of the Cuban Revolution so as to drive out the "spectre" of Communism haunting the Western Hemisphere and check the liberation struggle of the peoples which envelops Latin America like a prairie fire. While scheming to strangle Cuba by directly mobilizing then- armed forces, the U.S. imperialists are instigating the reactionary Latin American regimes of dictatorship under their domination and subjugation to bring political and economic pressure to bear upon Cuba in order to suffocate her with the policy of blockade.
For the attainment of the ultimate victory of the revolution, the peoples who have gained power in the encirclement of international capital, while reinforcing their own internal forces in every way, should receive solid support from other detachments of the world socialist revolution and should receive broad international assistance from the working classes of all lands and the oppressed peoples of the whole world. In other words, revolutions should take place consecutively in the majority of countries of the world, in several adjacent countries at the least, to replace imperialist encirclement with socialist encirclement, the barriers of imperialism that surround a socialist country should be torn down to open the path of turning the dictatorship of the proletariat into a world-wide system and an end should be put to the isolation of the socialist fortress of one country in the encirclement to form the strong ties of militant solidarity of the international working classes and the oppressed peoples of the world. Only then will it be possible to prevent completely armed intervention by the imperialists and their attempt to restore capitalism, and say that the ultimate victory of socialism has been secured.
As the forces of capital are international, so the liberation struggle of the peoples is an international movement. The revolutionary movements in individual countries are national movements, and constitute part of the world revolution at the same time. The revolutionary struggles of the peoples in all countries have the relationship of supporting and complementing each other and join together in one stream of world revolution. The revolution which has emerged victorious should assist the revolutions of those countries which are not yet triumphant with its experiences and examples and render active support to the liberation struggle of the world's peoples with its political, economic and military power, while the peoples in the countries which have not yet won the revolutions should struggle more actively to defend the victorious revolutions of other countries against the imperialist policy of strangulation and hasten victory for their own revolutions. This is the law of the development of the world revolutionary movement and the excellent tradition already formed in the course of the people's liberation struggle.
The Cuban Revolution is an organic part of the world revolution and, particularly, constitutes the decisive link in the chain of the revolution in Latin America. To defend the Cuban Revolution and to consolidate and follow up its victories is not only the duty of the Cuban people but also the internationalist obligation of the oppressed peoples of Latin America and all the revolutionary peoples of the world. Just as the defence of the gains of the October Revolution in Russia which made the first breach in the world capitalist system was an important question decisive of the fate of the development of the world revolution, so the defence of the gains of the Cuban Revolution which made the first breach in the colonial system of U.S. imperialism in Latin America is an important question decisive of the fate of the Latin American revolution.
It is of great importance for the defence of the Cuban Revolution to advance the revolutionary movement in those Latin American countries neighbouring on Cuba. If the fierce flames of revolution flare up in many countries of Latin America where U.S. imperialism sets foot, the force of U.S. imperialism will be dispersed and sapped as much and the attempts of the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys to strangle Cuba by concentrated force will inevitably fall through. Further, if the revolution emerges victorious in some other Latin American countries, Cuba will get out of the encircling ring of imperialism with which she is confronted on all sides, there will be opened up a favourable phase in the revolutions of Cuba and Latin America, and the world revolution will be stepped up still more.
For a revolution to take place, the subjective and objective situation should be created for it. The revolution in each country should be carried out to suit the specific realities, in which the objective revolutionary situation is created. This, however, by no means signifies that the revolution can develop or ripen of itself. The revolution can always be advanced and brought to maturity only through an active and hard struggle of the revolutionaries. If an active struggle is neglected, only waiting for a favourable situation to arise by reason of the arduousness of the revolution, revolutionary forces cannot be fostered. Revolutionary forces cannot be prepared spontaneously without any struggle, they can be fostered and strengthened only through a hard struggle. If preparations are not made to meet the decisive hour of the revolution by preserving the revolutionary forces against the enemy's suppression and, at the same time, constantly accumulating and building them up through a positive struggle, it will be impossible to win victory in the revolution even when the objective situation has been created. To turn away from the revolution on the pretext of avoiding sacrifices is in fact tantamount to forcing the people to remain in lifelong slavery to capital, forcing them to tolerate for ever the cruel exploitation and oppression, unbearable maltreatment and humiliation, enormous sufferings and sacrifices. In general the acute pain experienced at a revolutionary turning-point is always much easier to endure than the chronic pain caused by the ulcers of old society. The social revolution cannot be achieved as easily as proceeding along a royal road in full daylight, nor can it progress as smoothly as a boat sailing before the wind. On the path of revolution, there may be rough thorny bushes and turns and twists, and there may be temporary setbacks and partial sacrifices. To flinch before difficulties and to hesitate in the revolution for fear of sacrifices is not the attitude befitting a revolutionary.
It is the task for the revolutionaries of each country to lay down a scientifically-motivated, careful way of struggle on the basis of a correct assessment of the internal and external situation and a proper calculation of the balance of forces between friend and foe, accumulate and build up the revolutionary forces by rearing the nuclear elements and awakening the masses of the people in the trying crucible of the revolution, unfolding an active struggle and yet going around the snags and avoiding unnecessary sacrifices at ordinary times, and make full preparations to meet the great revolutionary event. And once the revolutionary situation is created, they should not miss the opportunity to rise without delay in a showdown to shatter the reactionary regime.
The forms and methods of revolutionary struggle, too, are determined not by the wishes of individuals, but on all accounts by the subjective and objective situation created and the resistance of the reactionary ruling classes. The revolutionaries should stand prepared for all forms of struggle, and should effectively advance the revolutionary movement by properly combining various forms and methods of struggle such as political and economic struggles, violent and nonviolent struggles, legal and illegal struggles.
Counter-revolutionary violence is an indispensable means of rule for all exploiting classes. Human history not yet knows an instance of any ruling class submissively turning over its supremacy, or an instance of any reactionary class meekly waiving its power without resorting to counter-revolutionary violence. In particular, the imperialists cling ever more desperately to violent means to maintain their rule as they approach nearer to their doom. The imperialists, while suppressing the peoples of their own countries, check all the revolutionary advance of the oppressed nations in a sanguinary way with their military forces for aggression and plunder against other countries.
In these conditions, the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples cannot emerge victorious without using revolutionary violence to crush foreign imperialists and overthrow the reactionary dictatorial machinery of the exploiting classes at home that work hand in glove with them. It is imperative to meet violence with violence and crush counter-revolutionary armed forces with revolutionary armed forces. The revolutionary flames now raging furiously in Latin America are the natural outcome of the revolutionary situation created in this area.
The absolute majority of the Latin American countries have been placed under the complete domination and bondage of U.S. imperialism. Pro-U.S. dictatorships have been established in many Latin American countries and the economy of these countries has been turned completely into an appendage to the U.S. monopolies. The U.S. imperialists' policy of aggression and plunder towards Latin America constitutes the major fetters impeding social progress in this area, and has plunged its peoples in unbearable mishaps and distress. The U.S. imperialists and the pro-U.S. dictatorships in Latin America extensively set up various repressive apparatuses including the army and police and suppress all forms of revolutionary advance of the people in a most brutal way.
It is obvious that unless the ill-clad and hungry, oppressed and humiliated people in Latin America bravely rise in arms in the struggle against the oppressors, they cannot attain freedom and liberation.
It is quite justifiable and admirable that under the banner of proletarian internationalism, under the banner of anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle, Che Guevara, together with Latin American revolutionaries, unfolded an active, heroic revolutionary struggle in various Latin American countries with arms in his hands in defiance of sacrifice in order to defend the Cuban Revolution and hasten the day of liberation for the oppressed peoples in this area. The revolutionary peoples of the whole world express deep sympathy with the brave act of Che Guevara who waged a heroic armed struggle together with Latin American revolutionaries. The brilliant example of Che Guevara is a paragon not only for the Latin American peoples in their revolutionary struggle but for the Asian and African peoples in their liberation struggle, and inspires them to heroic exploits.
Che .Guevara is not with us now. But the blood he shed will never be wasted. His name and the everlasting revolutionary exploits he performed will go down for ever in the history of liberation of mankind and his lofty revolutionary spirit will be immortal. There will appear thousands of, tens of thousands of Che Guevaras on the scene of decisive battle in the revolutionary struggle in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the revolutionary cause which he left unaccomplished will surely be achieved by the struggle of the Latin American revolutionaries and the revolutionary peoples the world over.
Today Asia, Africa and Latin America have become the most fierce anti-imperialist front. Imperialism has met with the strong resistance of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples and suffered the heaviest blows from them. Nevertheless, imperialism is desperately trying to maintain its old footing and regain its lost positions in those areas.
The cause of liberation of the peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America has not been completed. So long as imperialism exists on the globe and oppresses and plunders the people, the people cannot leave off the anti-imperialist struggle even a moment. The struggle must continue till all shades of colonialism are wiped off the face of the earth once and for all, till all the oppressed and humiliated nations build their independent states and achieve social progress and national- prosperity.
Imperialism will never give up its rule over colonial and dependent countries before it is kicked out. It is in the nature of imperialism to perpetrate aggression and plunder. If there ever is imperialism which is not aggressive, it is no longer imperialism. Imperialism will not change its aggressive nature before it dies. That is why one should dispel all illusions about imperialism and fight it out. Only when a. principled stand is maintained against imperialism and a staunch anti-imperialist struggle intensified, can the oppressed nations win freedom and independence and the liberated peoples check imperialist aggression, consolidate national independence and achieve prosperity for their countries and nations.
U.S. imperialism is the most barbarous and most heinous imperialism of modern times, and it is the chieftain of world imperialism. It is not the Asian and Latin American countries or the African countries alone that have their sovereignty and territories infringed upon by U.S. imperialism or are under the menace of U.S. imperialist aggression. There is no place on the earth to which U.S. imperialism has not stretched out its tentacles of aggression, and where U.S. imperialism sets foot the people always shed blood. The U.S. imperialists pursue the invariable aim to put the whole world under their control. It is to realize this aim that the U.S. imperialists incessantly perpetrate armed invasion and subversive activities against the socialist and newly-independent countries, and brutally suppress the liberation struggle of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This wild aggressive design of U.S. imperialism must be frustrated decisively. It is clear that world peace cannot be safeguarded, nor can national liberation and independence or the victory of democracy and socialism be achieved, apart from the struggle against U.S. imperialism. To fight U.S. imperialism is the inescapable common duty and the first and foremost revolutionary task for all the peoples of the world.
For the successful defeat of U.S. imperialism, it is necessary to penetrate into its world strategy thoroughly.
The basic strategy of U.S. imperialism for world aggression at the present stage is to destroy by force of arms the small and divided revolutionary socialist countries and newly- independent countries one by one, while refraining from worsening its relations with big powers and shunning confrontation with them as far as possible and to intensify ideological and political offensive against, and subvert from within, those countries which are weak ideologically and not willing to make revolution but spread illusion about imperialism among the people clamouring only for unprincipled coexistence with imperialism, and desire to live on good terms with imperialism.
On the basis of this world strategy, the U.S. imperialists are increasing their armaments extensively and further reinforcing their military bases and aggressive military alliances to attack the socialist and the progressive countries. The U.S. imperialists have openly embarked on "local war" and "special war" in Viet Nam and some other places, while preparing total war and nuclear war on a large scale.
Simultaneously with this, the U.S. imperialists resort to a new form of cold war to encourage "liberalization" and "democratic development" in certain countries, while running wild to bribe and make a cat's-paw of the cowards within the ranks of the working-class movement who are afraid of revolution. They clamour for the "most favoured nation" treatment and the expansion of the "East-West contact and interchange" and, with this as a means, seek to infiltrate their reactionary ideology and culture to degrade the peoples ideologically, hamper economic development and thus undermine those countries from within. The imperialists are carrying out sabotage and subversive intrigues to tear the newly- independent states away from the anti-imperialist front one by one. While resorting to force overtly, they penetrate into the newly-independent countries with "aid" as a bait and meddle in their internal affairs. The U.S. imperialists whip together the right-wing reactionaries and pit them against the progressive forces, and seek to sway certain newly-independent countries to the road of counter-revolution.
Namely, wielding an olive branch in one hand and arrows in the other, the U.S. imperialists manoeuvre to swallow up the revolutionary countries one by one through armed aggression and subvert the ideologically weak countries through ideological and cultural aggression, combining nuclear blackmail with "peaceful penetration" and repression with appeasement and deception.
The peoples of the whole world should maintain sharpest vigilance against such intrigues and manoeuvres by U.S. imperialism and should be fully prepared to counter enemy's possible aggression of all forms.
In order to develop the anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle vigorously, it is important to cement to the maximum the militant unity of all areas, all countries, all parties, all people and all forces opposing imperialism.
The revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples go on closely linked with each other for the community of their desires and aspirations. When Latin America groans under imperialist yoke, the Asian and African peoples cannot live in peace and when U.S. imperialism collapses in the Asian and African areas, a favourable phase will be created for the national-liberation movement of the Latin American peoples, too. The militant unity and close ties of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples will multiply the anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. revolutionary forces several times, scores of times and will become an invincible force which can frustrate successfully the aggression of the imperialists and the united front of international reaction. Therefore, the peoples in all regions where U.S. imperialism is entrenched should pool their strength and strike it hard.
In Asia, Africa and Latin America there are socialist and neutral countries, and big and small countries. All these countries except the puppet regimes of the imperialists and their satellite states constitute anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. forces. Despite the differences of state socio-political systems, political views and religious beliefs, the peoples of the countries in these areas, as the oppressed nations who were suppressed and exploited by the imperialists and colonialists, have the common goal and aspiration to achieve national independence and national prosperity against imperialism and old and new colonialism. The differences of state socio-political systems, political views or religious beliefs can by no means be an obstacle in the way of joint struggle against U.S. imperialism. All countries should form an anti-imperialist united front and take anti-U.S. joint action to crush the common enemy and attain the common goal.
True, there may be various categories of people among those who oppose imperialism. Some may be active against imperialism, others may vacillate in the anti-imperialist struggle, and still others may join in the anti-imperialist struggle reluctantly under the pressure from their own people and the peoples of the world. But, whatever their motives, it is necessary to enlist all these forces except the henchmen of imperialism in the anti-U.S. joint struggle. If more forces, though inconsistent and unsteady, are drawn into the anti-U.S. joint struggle to isolate U.S. imperialism to the largest possible extent and deal blows to it by joint action, that will be a good thing and by no means a bad thing. Those who avoid the anti-imperialist struggle should be induced to turn out in the struggle against imperialism and those who are passive encouraged to be positive in the anti-imperialist struggle. To split the anti-U.S. united front or reject the anti-U.S. joint action will only bring a serious consequence of weakening the anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle.
To fight down U.S. imperialism, all countries, big and small, should strike blows at U.S. imperialism. Particularly important here is that small countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America should give up flunkeyism tended to rely on big powers and take an active part in the anti-U.S. struggle. It is wrong to think that U.S. imperialism cannot be beaten down unless big countries fight it. It would be better certainly if big countries join small countries in fighting against U.S. imperialism. That is why small countries should endeavour to unite with big countries. But, this is by no means to say that no country, unless it is big, can fight and defeat U.S. imperialism. It is too obvious that one cannot make revolution if he depends on big countries and sits idle and that others cannot make revolution for him. Even small countries can defeat big enemy, once they establish Juche, unite the masses of the people and valiantly rise in battle despite sacrifice. This is a very plain truth of our times which has been borne out by actual life.
The experience of the Korean war proved this truth, and the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the heroic war of resistance of the Vietnamese people against U.S. imperialism and for national salvation have proved this truth.
Moreover, when many countries, though small, pool their strength to fight imperialism, the peoples will be able to beat the enemy however strong he may be, with a decisively overwhelming force. The peoples of the countries making revolution should join efforts to tear left and right arms from U.S, imperialism, tear off its left and right legs and behead it eventually everywhere it stretches out its crooked hands of aggression. The U.S. imperialists are bluffing now, but when the revolutionary peoples of the world join in mutilating them, the U.S. imperialists will become impotent and bite the dust in the end. We small nations should unite and counter the strategy of U.S. imperialism to swallow us up one by one, each chopping off its head and limbs. Such, it can be said, is the strategy of struggle for small countries to defeat U.S. imperialism.
The Korean people have fought against the occupation of South Korea by the U.S. imperialists and for the unification of the country for more than 20 years. The Korean Revolution is part of the international revolutionary movement, and the revolutionary/struggle of the Korean people is developing amid the joint struggle of the peoples of the whole world for peace and democracy, for national independence and socialism. The Korean people are fighting to accomplish their cause of national liberation and, at the same time, are doing everything in their power to accelerate the advancement of the international revolutionary movement as a whole. Our people unite with all forces opposing U.S. imperialism and consistently support the peoples of all the countries in their struggle against U.S. imperialism. We regard it as an important factor in bringing victory to the Korean Revolution.
Imperialism is a moribund force whose days are numbered, whereas the liberation struggle of the peoples is a new force which aspires for the progress of mankind. There may be uncountable difficulties and obstacles and various turns and twists on the way of the liberation struggle of the peoples, but it is the inevitable law of the development of history that imperialism is doomed to ruin and the liberation struggle of the peoples is sure to be crowned with victory. Though the imperialists headed by U.S. imperialism are running amuck in an attempt to check the surging liberation struggle of the peoples, it is nothing but the death-bed tremor of those who are condemned to destruction. The more frenziedly the U.S. imperialists act, the more difficult their position becomes. U.S. imperialism is going downhill and confronted with the fate of a setting sun. The U.S. imperialists will definitely be forced out of Asia, Africa and Latin America by the liberation struggle of the peoples. The great anti-imperialist revolutionary cause of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples is invincible.

Top 10 things must do in Dubai!

• Burj Khalifa: Start your Dubai adventure by visiting the iconic Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Take in breathtaking views of the city from the observation deck on the 148th floor.
• Desert Safari: Experience the thrill of a desert safari, where you can go dune bashing in a 4x4 vehicle, try sandboarding, and even enjoy a camel ride. End the day with a traditional Bedouin-style dinner and entertainment under the stars.
• Dubai Mall: Explore the vast Dubai Mall, which offers a world-class shopping experience along with various entertainment options. Don't miss the mesmerizing Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, located inside the mall.
• Palm Jumeirah: Visit the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island shaped like a palm tree. Take a monorail ride along the trunk and enjoy the luxurious resorts, beach clubs, and restaurants that line the crescent.
• Dubai Creek: Take a traditional abra (water taxi) ride along Dubai Creek, the historic heart of the city. Admire the blend of old and new architecture, visit the Dubai Museum, and explore the vibrant souks (markets) selling gold, spices, and textiles.
• Miracle Garden: Wander through the Dubai Miracle Garden, a stunning floral paradise featuring intricate designs and structures made entirely of flowers. It's a visual spectacle that is sure to leave you in awe.
• Atlantis, The Palm: Indulge in a day of luxury at Atlantis, The Palm. Enjoy the thrilling Aquaventure Waterpark, interact with marine life at The Lost Chambers Aquarium, and relax on the pristine beaches.
• Dubai Marina: Stroll along the Dubai Marina promenade and enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of this waterfront district. Admire the impressive skyline, dine at exquisite restaurants, and take a sunset cruise to fully appreciate the beauty of the area.
• Ski Dubai: Experience the ultimate contrast by visiting Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort located in the Mall of the Emirates. Enjoy skiing, snowboarding, or simply play in the snow in this unexpected winter wonderland.
• Al Fahidi Historic District: Step back in time at the Al Fahidi Historic District, also known as Bastakiya. Explore the narrow alleyways, visit art galleries and museums, and learn about Dubai's rich cultural heritage. Don't forget to enjoy a traditional Arabian meal at one of the charming courtyard cafes.

Please reach out to us on the link below or call us on M:+919775084000
https://tours.tripmaza.com/packages/?&q=dubai
​

"Burj Khalifa: An Iconic Landmark Defining Dubai's Skyline"

Making good photos takes time, attention, technique and a lot of work. Knowing your stuff is step one, training your eye to see possibilities is step two, but working the photo will always be part of taking photos.
what is working a photo?
Let's say you're at a nice beach, it's a half hour before sunset and you have a camera and tripod... what to do?
queen of hearts
First I would look around to see what is there... I'm looking for things that will make my photo more interesting, pleasing... and I have time to do this. A pier could give me leading lines if it's directed the right way, some nice stones could give me a nice foreground, ships could be nice but it's early for that. I look for structures in the sand, water for reflections, colour of sand.
Now I'll choose a spot, and make a test photo. The sun is still to high but I can project it's path to imagine where it's going to go under...
Now, in my testphoto there is a trashcan, a woman under an umbrella, some birds sitting round water. I want the sun big so I use a longer lens, getting farther away from the woman to fit her in the right place in the frame, the sun will set next to her umbrella now, great. Do I shoot horizontal or vertical? Horizontal in this case, it fits the scene
queen of hearts
I don't want to see the trashcan, so I move or zoom to put it out of frame. The woman is just where the sun will go under so I move a bit to place her in the opposite side of the photo of where the sun will go under, she fits my story perfectly. I lose the birds that way but that would be a completely different photo, I had to choose.
Now the sun is getting close to setting so I make some test photos again to get my exposure right. I know it's going to get a bit darker near sunset so I put that in my thoughts and wait for the moment of perfection... hoping the woman doesn't leave, knowing I can change to the birds with ease if that would happen
The sun is nearly touching the sea, I make my photo, check the preview and histogram, it's good, I have my shot.
Making good photographs is never point and shoot, it's reviewing the viewfinder or previewphoto and finding the problems. It's about using your gear, knowledge and technique to fix those problems, to improve the photo each time untill you've made the best photo you can make at that time and place. The photo where your review says nothing can be improved anymore, only at that time you go find the next photo.
Things to consider:

• subject focus
• subject isolation
• subject light (quality, colour, angle, softness, ...)
• background
• cutoff
• framing/composition
• distractions
• lines (leading or crossing)
• lens problems (flare)
• angles (is the photo level, are the buildings straight)
• subject expression and pose if a person or animal
• ...

This is the reason reviewing peoples work is important, critiquing is important, because it teaches you to critique your viewfinder, a scene before ever taking a first photo...
and don't be afraid to NOT TAKE a photo when you know you'll throw it out in post... I can do an entire photowalk and come home with 10 pictures... 9 are keepers on a really good day, but I considered, and decided not to make, hundereds of potential photos that I would have tried to make and fail 5 years ago... now it was all done not using the camera at all
For a more visual way to explain this, watch the "crush the composition" video by Scott Kelby. I can't seem to find a free working link but it's worth the watch and price if it's reasonable.
the assignment

Hello all. Long post ahead. My first time posting here so I would like to know your thoughts on my scenario regarding my wife.
Me and my wife had been married for 9 months but we've been together for 7 years. I'm working for the family on a WFH setup and she's a housewife who takes care of our 2yr old son tapos tulungan kami sa gawaing bahay. Mataas ang kita ko sa work ko and if may needs and wants sya lahat naibibigay ko (expensive gadgets, appliances, etc) and almost every weekend nakkpagshopping / stay sa mga resorts if trip namin.
So ayun everytime na magaask ako ng permission to hangout with my close friends kahit isang gabi lang tapos balik lang mga midnight hindi tlga sya pmapayag. I always ask her the reason why, kasi itong mga close friends ko almost 10 years na kaming magkakasama and all boys naman and kilala naman nya na lahat (groomsmen sila sa kasal namin) and wala ako ibang set of friends. Her reason will always be is silang dalawa mag ina lang ang matitira sa bahay kahit magvolunteer na ako na patutulugin ko muna ang bata before ako aalis, ayaw tlga nya. Iba kasi tlga na you want to destress from work and have a drink outside with your good old buddies. And hindi naman ako parati nag aask permission every weekend, mga 1-2 times lang per month.
Ngayon I'm planning to go with my close friends na magcar camping sa beach ng 1 night kasi gusto ko magtry ng bagong hobby tapos magccamp din kaming mag family, kaso di nanaman pinapayagan ni misis. Kahit snsabi ko na pwede syang sumama at si baby kaso gusto niya is kaming tatlo lang. Gusto ko muna sana madami muna tapos pwedeng kami nalang 3 kung nasanay na. Last time I went scuba diving with my close friends and gusto ko tlgang maexperience and baka maging hobby tapos eto si misis di tlga pumayag and what I did is umalis nalang ako ng bahay kasi nabook ko na at nainis na ako. Then pagbalik ko ng bahay sa hapon galit tlga sya d kami nagusap for how many days kahit kaming tatlo lang sa bahay.
My wife is hindi tlga sya nkkihangout sa mga friends nya and do some stuff outside kahit snsabi ko sakanya na she should do it tapos ako na muna bahala sa bata or pwede namin iwan sa parents nya. I always encourage her to do this kaso pag ako na, ayaw tlga nya. Always reason is "O tapos kami iiwan mo lang kami dito sa bahay etc.." kahit kaya lang naman tlga nyang magisa muna for how many hours or pwede nya rin iwan muna ang bata sa parents nya. I'm kind of adventurous and wanted to try a lot of stuff kaso my wife is not letting me do those things.
Ganito ba tlga pag kasal na? Di na pwedeng magtry ng new hobby / always same routine? Wanted to ask married people here what they think and if pumapayag ba sila sa partner nila pag ganito?
Thanks

Greetings, Huntsmen, Huntresses, and gender neutral Hunters! Welcome to another week of writing prompts! If you are new here, this is a community-driven weekly event, and the purpose is primarily to generate creativity and have fun while doing so (whether you are a 100% real-meat person or not, we don't judge).

What will be involved Special Note for Spoilers!:

Each week, three RWBY-related topics will be posted (subject to ties and special events!). Participants can write a short piece of fiction or dialogue based on that prompt. When writing, the suggestion is to aim for 1k-3k words, however, this is not a requirement. There is no goal - this is not a popularity contest - just write and have fun! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! :)
SPOILERS:
Reminder that the spoiler embargo for Volume 9 and the Justice League movie has been lifted! You are all now free to make posts about the two without needing to spoiler tag it.

Rules (gore, NSFW, spoilers etc.)

The rules are the same as the sub's posting guidelines. Nobody here wants to see your story taken down, so please refer to them before contributing! If someone chooses to ignore these rules, the post will be removed.

Additional information

Pre-writing is welcome! /rwbyprompts is a sub with writing as a focus - there you will find an archive of all the threads as well as a somewhat fleshed-out wiki with odds and ends. :) A detailed spreadsheet of WPW things is here! Keep in mind that this houses a lot of the old prompts, but it also has links and things like early participation to previous WPW threads. We're trying this whole week-to-week thing in the face of the bajillion prompts we had built up. We might do something with them, or people might cycle them back in, who knows what could happen??
Find us on Discord at The Qrow's Nest! The permanent invite has been deleted due to Discord bot shenanigans, so dm shand if you want an invite!

The Prompts!:

• RWBY vs the HOA.
• RWBY vs the trains.
• [Insert Character] orders a pizza.

Optional prompts that must be combined with one or more of the above:

• Team RWBY has to run tests for Raven's Aperture Science Co-op tests.
• The truth is, every Huntsman and Huntress is an android. Penny was just the first to find out.
• [Insert character] explains the differences between canon, theory, prediction, headcanon, etc.
• Urdnot Wrex discovers and adopts Ren and Nora.
• In an odd twist, it was Summer who gave birth to Weiss.
• Jaune tries to help Mercury regain his semblance.
• Due to low funds, RWBY resorts to sponsorship and product placement to make ends meet.
• WBYJNPR is stuck in a time loop. The reason? Ruby.
• Sun had been working for the White Fang all along.
• Cinder as the new winter maiden arrives in the Atlas Vault, much to Ironwood's suprise and horror.
• Huntsman: Atlas Asylum (RWBY/Batman Arkham crossover)
• Jaune's sisters may all look amusing in their family photo, but they were all actually badass Huntresses in their own right. Jaune reflects on his predicament.
• Salem tells a young Tyrian that his mother Tock was brutally murdered by a huntress with Silver Eyes.

Next Week's Poll:

The Poll!

Last Week:

The thread
The Prompts:

• Odd jobs Mercury and Tyrian do while short on cash in Vacuo.
• Penny has learned a new word and keeps using it in conversation. None of her friends have figured out what it means, and they’re dying to know.
• The many, many deaths of Oz.

Alternate-Secondary Prompts:

• Team RWBY and JNPR form a baseball team to play Team CRDL and some OC's for bragging rights... and Jaune's dignity.
• Fate/Grand Order & RWBY crossover event.
• “This is why we can’t have nice things.”
• It turns out that an alliance between Menagerie and a displaced Taiwan meant becoming the worlds next superpower.
• Cinder becomes the new Pumpkin Pete mascot.
• The many ways Glynda and Ironwood express their... very professional and platonic friendship.
• Cinder and Pyrrha talk. I'll let you decide what about.
• Tyrian is actually a massive fan of H.P. Lovecraft. Surprisingly, so is Cinder.
• An AU where instead of aura and semblance, hunters use the Force.
• Ruby Rose accidentally uploads the entire seventh volume of RWBY on the CCT.
• Qrow makes a deal with the devil and has Marcus Black take his Semblance.
• The incident that got Jaune kicked out of the Imperial Academy on Vale.
• Raven tries to figure out what "hugging" is supposed to be good for.

Upcoming Events:

Fourth of July FFA is just around the corner! Huzzah! :D

Important Stuff and Things!

I have managed to rescue /RWBYFanfiction from an untimely demise! If you would like to share your fanfic or make recommendations, head on over there! I know that I've said something special was coming for this, but Ruby on Rails is hard and not cheap to operate. The fanfiction indexer that I was trying to set up just isn't working and probably needs someone with more experience in RoR programming/design. I haven't completely put it to bed, but it might be a while before I can circle back to it. In the meantime, the fanfic sub has actually had a decent amount of postings - head on over and say hi! :)
No matter how bad things may get, words will always have meaning. Now get out there and write something, but most importantly, have fun! :)

When I was brand new to NovelAi I had no idea how 2048 tokens really looked as text. So for anyone looking at the tiers, trying to decide how many tokens they want for Clio with the new update, I've tokenized Part of The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald (public domain since 2021).
That way new users can more easily visualize what the AI's maximum context is for each tier. According to the UI Clio uses the NerdStash Tokenizer, as different tokenizers will convert text to tokens their own way.
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In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.
And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point I don’t care what it’s founded on. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the “creative temperament”—it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we’re descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather’s brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today.
I never saw this great-uncle, but I’m supposed to look like him—with special reference to the rather hard-boiled painting that hangs in father’s office. I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War. I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm centre of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business. Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man. All my aunts and uncles talked it over as if they were choosing a prep school for me, and finally said, “Why—ye-es,” with very grave, hesitant faces. Father agreed to finance me for a year, and after various delays I came East, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two.
The practical thing was to find rooms in the city, but it was a warm season, and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees, so when a young man at the office suggested that we take a house together in a commuting town, it sounded like a great idea. He found the house, a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month, but at the last minute the firm ordered him to Washington, and I went out to the country alone. I had a dog—at least I had him for a few days until he ran away—and an old Dodge and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.
It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man, more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road.
“How do you get to West Egg village?” he asked helplessly.
I told him. And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler. He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighbourhood.
And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
There was so much to read, for one thing, and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air. I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew. And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides. I was rather literary in college—one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the Yale News—and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the “well-rounded man.” This isn’t just an epigram—life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.
It was a matter of chance that I should have rented a house in one of the strangest communities in North America. It was on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York—and where there are, among other natural curiosities, two unusual formations of land. Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They are not perfect ovals—like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end—but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual wonder to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size.
I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion. Or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name. My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbour’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month.
Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.
Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savours of anticlimax. His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach—but now he’d left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.
Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. This was a permanent move, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn’t believe it—I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game.
And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran towards the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sundials and brick walks and burning gardens—finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run. The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon, and Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch.
He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty, with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body.
His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.
“Now, don’t think my opinion on these matters is final,” he seemed to say, “just because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are.” We were in the same senior society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.
We talked for a few minutes on the sunny porch.
“I’ve got a nice place here,” he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly.
Turning me around by one arm, he moved a broad flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden, a half acre of deep, pungent roses, and a snub-nosed motorboat that bumped the tide offshore.
“It belonged to Demaine, the oil man.” He turned me around again, politely and abruptly. “We’ll go inside.”
We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-coloured space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-coloured rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.
The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.
The younger of the two was a stranger to me. She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall. If she saw me out of the corner of her eyes she gave no hint of it—indeed, I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed her by coming in.
The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise—she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression—then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room.
“I’m p-paralysed with happiness.”
She
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laughed again, as if she said something very witty, and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see. That was a way she had. She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I’ve heard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.)
At any rate, Miss Baker’s lips fluttered, she nodded at me almost imperceptibly, and then quickly tipped her head back again—the object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little and given her something of a fright. Again a sort of apology arose to my lips. Almost any exhibition of complete self-sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.
I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.
I told her how I had stopped off in Chicago for a day on my way East, and how a dozen people had sent their love through me.
“Do they miss me?” she cried ecstatically.
“The whole town is desolate. All the cars have the left rear wheel painted black as a mourning wreath, and there’s a persistent wail all night along the north shore.”
“How gorgeous! Let’s go back, Tom. Tomorrow!” Then she added irrelevantly: “You ought to see the baby.”
“I’d like to.”
“She’s asleep. She’s three years old. Haven’t you ever seen her?”
“Never.”
“Well, you ought to see her. She’s—”
Tom Buchanan, who had been hovering restlessly about the room, stopped and rested his hand on my shoulder.
“What you doing, Nick?”
“I’m a bond man.”
“Who with?”
I told him.
“Never heard of them,” he remarked decisively.
This annoyed me.
“You will,” I answered shortly. “You will if you stay in the East.”
“Oh, I’ll stay in the East, don’t you worry,” he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more. “I’d be a God damned fool to live anywhere else.”
At this point Miss Baker said: “Absolutely!” with such suddenness that I started—it was the first word she had uttered since I came into the room. Evidently it surprised her as much as it did me, for she yawned and with a series of rapid, deft movements stood up into the room.
“I’m stiff,” she complained, “I’ve been lying on that sofa for as long as I can remember.”
“Don’t look at me,” Daisy retorted, “I’ve been trying to get you to New York all afternoon.”
“No, thanks,” said Miss Baker to the four cocktails just in from the pantry. “I’m absolutely in training.”
Her host looked at her incredulously.
“You are!” He took down his drink as if it were a drop in the bottom of a glass. “How you ever get anything done is beyond me.”
I looked at Miss Baker, wondering what it was she “got done.” I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before.
“You live in West Egg,” she remarked contemptuously. “I know somebody there.”
“I don’t know a single—”
“You must know Gatsby.”
“Gatsby?” demanded Daisy. “What Gatsby?”
Before I could reply that he was my neighbour dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.
Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out on to a rosy-coloured porch, open toward the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.
“Why candles?” objected Daisy, frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. “In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year.” She looked at us all radiantly. “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.”
“We ought to plan something,” yawned Miss Baker, sitting down at the table as if she were getting into bed.
“All right,” said Daisy. “What’ll we plan?” She turned to me helplessly: “What do people plan?”
Before I could answer her eyes fastened with an awed expression on her little finger.
“Look!” she complained; “I hurt it.”
We all looked—the knuckle was black and blue.
“You did it, Tom,” she said accusingly. “I know you didn’t mean to, but you did do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a—”
“I hate that word ‘hulking,’ ” objected Tom crossly, “even in kidding.”
“Hulking,” insisted Daisy.
Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire. They were here, and they accepted Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained. They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening too would be over and casually put away. It was sharply different from the West, where an evening was hurried from phase to phase towards its close, in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.
“You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy,” I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret. “Can’t you talk about crops or something?”
I meant nothing in particular by this remark, but it was taken up in an unexpected way.
“Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read The Rise of the Coloured Empires by this man Goddard?”
“Why, no,” I answered, rather surprised by his tone.
“Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.”
“Tom’s getting very profound,” said Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness. “He reads deep books with long words in them. What was that word we—”
“Well, these books are all scientific,” insisted Tom, glancing at her impatiently. “This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”
“We’ve got to beat them down,” whispered Daisy, winking ferociously toward the fervent sun.
“You ought to live in California—” began Miss Baker, but Tom interrupted her by shifting heavily in his chair.
“This idea is that we’re Nordics. I am, and you are, and you are, and—” After an infinitesimal hesitation he included Daisy with a slight nod, and she winked at me again. “—And we’ve produced all the things that go to make civilization—oh, science and art, and all that. Do you see?”
There was something pathetic in his concentration, as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned towards me.
“I’ll tell you a family secret,” she whispered enthusiastically. “It’s about the butler’s nose. Do you want to hear about the butler’s nose?”
“That’s why I came over tonight.”
“Well, he wasn’t always a butler; he used to be the silver polisher for some people in New York that had a silver service for two hundred people. He had to polish it from morning till night, until finally it began to affect his nose—”
“Things went from bad to worse,” suggested Miss Baker.
“Yes. Things went from bad to worse, until finally he had to give up his position.”
For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened—then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.
The butler came back and murmured something close to Tom’s ear, whereupon Tom frowned, pushed back his chair, and without a word went inside. As if his absence quickened something within her, Daisy leaned forward again, her voice glowing and singing.
“I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a—of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn’t he?” She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation: “An absolute rose?”
This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose. She was only extemporizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her, as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words. Then suddenly she threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into the house.
Miss Baker and I exchanged a short glance consciously devoid of meaning. I was about to speak when she sat up alertly and said “Sh!” in a warning voice. A subdued impassioned murmur was audible in the room beyond, and Miss Baker leaned forward unashamed, trying to hear. The murmur trembled on the verge of coherence, sank down, mounted excitedly, and then ceased altogether.
“This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbour—” I began.
“Don’t talk. I want to hear what happens.”
“Is something happening?” I inquired innocently.
“You mean to say you don’t know?” said Miss Baker, honestly surprised. “I thought everybody knew.”
“I don’t.”
“Why—” she said hesitantly. “Tom’s got some woman in New York.”
“Got some woman?” I repeated blankly.
Miss Baker nodded.
“She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time. Don’t you think?”
Almost before I had grasped her meaning there was the flutter of a dress and the crunch of leather boots, and Tom and Daisy were back at the table.
“It couldn’t be helped!” cried Daisy with tense gaiety.
She sat down, glanced searchingly at Miss Baker and then at me, and continued: “I looked outdoors for a minute, and it’s very romantic outdoors. There’s a bird on the lawn that I think must be a nightingale come over on the Cunard or White Star Line. He’s singing away—” Her voice sang: “It’s romantic, isn’t it, Tom?”
“Very romantic,” he said, and then miserably to me: “If it’s light enough after dinner, I want to take you down to the stables.”
The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom the subject of the stables, in fact all subjects, vanished into air. Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit again, pointlessly, and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at everyone, and yet to avoid all eyes. I couldn’t guess what Daisy and Tom were thinking, but I doubt if even Miss Baker, who seemed to have mastered a certain hardy scepticism, was able utterly to put this fifth guest’s shrill metallic urgency out of mind. To a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing—my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police.
The horses, needless to say, were not mentioned again. Tom and Miss Baker, with several feet of twilight between them, strolled back into the library, as if to a vigil beside a perfectly tangible body, while, trying to look pleasantly interested and a little deaf, I followed Daisy around a chain of connecting verandas to the porch in front. In its deep gloom we sat down side by side on a wicker settee.
Daisy took her face in her hands as if feeling its lovely shape, and her eyes moved gradually out into the velvet dusk. I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.
“We don’t know each other very well, Nick,” she said suddenly. “Even if we are cousins. You didn’t come to my wedding.”
“I wasn’t back from the war.”
“That’s true.” She hesitated. “Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical about everything.”
Evidently she had reason to be. I waited but she
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didn’t say any more, and after a moment I returned rather feebly to the subject of her daughter.
“I suppose she talks, and—eats, and everything.”
“Oh, yes.” She looked at me absently. “Listen, Nick; let me tell you what I said when she was born. Would you like to hear?”
“Very much.”
“It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about—things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’
“You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow,” she went on in a convinced way. “Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.” Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. “Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!”
The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.
Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light. Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of the long couch and she read aloud to him from the Saturday Evening Post—the words, murmurous and uninflected, running together in a soothing tune. The lamplight, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms.
When we came in she held us silent for a moment with a lifted hand.
“To be continued,” she said, tossing the magazine on the table, “in our very next issue.”
Her body asserted itself with a restless movement of her knee, and she stood up.
“Ten o’clock,” she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling. “Time for this good girl to go to bed.”
“Jordan’s going to play in the tournament tomorrow,” explained Daisy, “over at Westchester.”
“Oh—you’re Jordan Baker.”
I knew now why her face was familiar—its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach. I had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.
“Good night,” she said softly. “Wake me at eight, won’t you.”
“If you’ll get up.”
“I will. Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you anon.”
“Of course you will,” confirmed Daisy. “In fact I think I’ll arrange a marriage. Come over often, Nick, and I’ll sort of—oh—fling you together. You know—lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of thing—”
“Good night,” called Miss Baker from the stairs. “I haven’t heard a word.”
“She’s a nice girl,” said Tom after a moment. “They oughtn’t to let her run around the country this way.”
“Who oughtn’t to?” inquired Daisy coldly.
“Her family.”
“Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. Besides, Nick’s going to look after her, aren’t you, Nick? She’s going to spend lots of weekends out here this summer. I think the home influence will be very good for her.”
Daisy and Tom looked at each other for a moment in silence.
“Is she from New York?” I asked quickly.
“From Louisville. Our white girlhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white—”
“Did you give Nick a little heart to heart talk on the veranda?” demanded Tom suddenly.
“Did I?” She looked at me. “I can’t seem to remember, but I think we talked about the Nordic race. Yes, I’m sure we did. It sort of crept up on us and first thing you know—”
“Don’t believe everything you hear, Nick,” he advised me.
I said lightly that I had heard nothing at all, and a few minutes later I got up to go home. They came to the door with me and stood side by side in a cheerful square of light. As I started my motor Daisy peremptorily called: “Wait!”
“I forgot to ask you something, and it’s important. We heard you were engaged to a girl out West.”
“That’s right,” corroborated Tom kindly. “We heard that you were engaged.”
“It’s a libel. I’m too poor.”
“But we heard it,” insisted Daisy, surprising me by opening up again in a flower-like way. “We heard it from three people, so it must be true.”
Of course I knew what they were referring to, but I wasn’t even vaguely engaged. The fact that gossip had published the banns was one of the reasons I had come East. You can’t stop going with an old friend on account of rumours, and on the other hand I had no intention of being rumoured into marriage.
Their interest rather touched me and made them less remotely rich—nevertheless, I was confused and a little disgusted as I drove away. It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms—but apparently there were no such intentions in her head. As for Tom, the fact that he “had some woman in New York” was really less surprising than that he had been depressed by a book. Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.
Already it was deep summer on roadhouse roofs and in front of wayside garages, where new red petrol-pumps sat out in pools of light, and when I reached my estate at West Egg I ran the car under its shed and sat for a while on an abandoned grass roller in the yard. The wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life. The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and, turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone—fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbour’s mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens.
I decided to call to him. Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction. But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.
II
About halfway between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.
But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to
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So my husband wants to take a trip to Myrtle Beach next weekend. I’m currently 22 weeks pregnant and will be 23.5 for the trip if we went. Basically, I don’t really want to go. I’m physically and mentally exhausted, can’t last past 8 p.m. most nights. It’s going to be 85 degrees and so I don’t want to be out in the sun all day dehydrating and overheating. I’m already anxious flying pregnant, as I don’t want something unexpected to pop up and have to go to the hospital while there. I had an ultrasound last week and they couldn’t get a clear picture of the baby’s kidneys or heart, so I’m worried something could be wrong there. Plus, we have an 18 month old, so we would have to pack a pack ‘n play, stroller and car seat all for a 2-day trip. She’s never flown either so we don’t know her plane temperament. It’s just a lot to hand when your pregnant. It seems more exhausting than relaxing.

So my husband wants to take a trip to Myrtle Beach next weekend. I’m currently 22 weeks pregnant and will be 23.5 for the trip if we went. Basically, I don’t really want to go. I’m physically and mentally exhausted, can’t last past 8 p.m. most nights. It’s going to be 85 degrees and so I don’t want to be out in the sun all day dehydrating and overheating. I’m already anxious flying pregnant, as I don’t want something unexpected to pop up and have to go to the hospital while there. I had an ultrasound last week and they couldn’t get a clear picture of the baby’s kidneys or heart, so I’m worried something could be wrong there. Plus, we have an 18 month old, so we would have to pack a pack ‘n play, stroller and car seat all for a 2-day trip. She’s never flown either so we don’t know her plane temperament. It’s just a lot to hand when your pregnant. It seems more exhausting than relaxing.

Mods, I hope this is okay.
I realize all the members of this Reddit are likely spread out all over the northern hemisphere. However, I thought it would be helpful to do an “in search of” and/or list some of the items we’ve found in our local BBWs in case some of us are local to others. I’m sure we’re all looking for that one thing that might not be available online (or maybe you just don't want to pay for shipping!).
Of course, you’re participation will depend on your level of comfort with sharing your location. I completely understand not wanting to do that!
The following locations and stores local to me have an abundance of these products:
GA, Metro ATL - South Lake Mall
Poppy Lotion
Gingham Love Body Scrub
Gingham Love FFM
Gingham Love Body Cream
At the Beach Shower Gel
You're the One Shower Gel
Disco Day Dream FFM
Disco Day Dream Shower Gel
Pure Wonder FFM
Pure Wonder Shower Gel
​
GA, Metro ATL - McDonough (Jonesboro Rd.)
Hello Beautiful Lotion
Hello Beautiful Body Cream
Groovy Watermelon FFM
Groovy Watermelon Lotion
Sun-Ripened Raspberry FFM
​
ISO: GA, Metro ATL: Strawberry Pound Cake (the old packaging on sale)! Good God, where is it?!?!
EDIT: don’t forgot to list your location if you’re looking for something or if you’re listing a find!

I'm not really looking for opinions on my progress (although I'm expecting to hear them lol!), but mainly for others who are just starting out or thinking about starting out on an EUC, I wanted to share a personal milestone and some things I've learned along the way.
After about a month of riding almost daily (a few off days here and there mainly due to schedule and weather), I finally got out on a regional bike path today and used up the whole battery on my V8 and hit the tiltback speed, around 21 mph I think, for the first time.
Could I have hit that speed sooner? Absolutely, but I have been what I think most people would consider "super cautious". I have two young kids, and I'm just not at a point in life to be a big risk taker right now (besides riding an EUC in the first place!).
My main takeaways after one month of riding are:

• You will get it faster than you think. You'll start off thinking there's just no way the EUC is going to do what you see other people doing on it. It'll just feel so foreign and weird when you start, your expectations from watching YouTube videos will not line up with what you're experiencing in real life. There will be cognitive dissonance. You'll know, logically, that it's possible, and may even have faith that you'll get there, but part of your body and mind will just think, it can't be done. It can, and it will, all it takes is practice. If I can learn it - trust me - anyone can. My only prior experience with this kind of activity is as a bicyclist and motorcyclist, and while helpful, there isn't a whole lot that translates other than the overall sense of horizontal balance and being comfortable having your body exposed at high speeds. I think if you were a skateboarder or a snowboarder, you might pick it up a little easier, but it's going to be a weird feeling no matter who you are when you first step on an EUC. Just hang in there.
• If you can, learn from someone else who already knows how to ride. If you can't (like me), watch every YouTube video. There are two main schools of thought about learning:
  • One approach is to start with assisted mounting (a wall or railing) until you know how to ride at speed (i.e. 5+ mph), even if that is a week or more. This is what Monocat (Wrong Way's girlfriend) did, and she rode something like 100km before ever learning to free mount, which seemed crazy to me when I first heard it. This approach is much more feasible if you're learning with someone else who has their own EUC, because they can help you mount anywhere.
  • The other - which is what I did - is to get off the wall/rail ASAP and learn to free mount in an open space (and, by necessity, to learn to maneuver at low speed) before you learn to go faster. This is the approach you will see in a lot of the "learn to ride an EUC" videos you're likely to find on YouTube.
  • Both approaches are viable, but ultimately if I had it to do over again I would probably go with option 1 because of a few main reasons:
    • It took me longer to gain the confidence to go faster, which slowed my overall learning curve.
    • Learning to free mount before you feel comfortable on the wheel is extremely tiring, because you're stepping on and off so often, and maneuvering at low speed for a long time is also tiring. Learning these skills "up front" probably takes longer than waiting until you are forced to - i.e. when you encounter a group of pedestrians, or you have to mount somewhere without assistance. But, it's probably less stressful and embarrassing to learn these skills in your driveway than on a crowded sidewalk.
    • If you lack patience, this approach is much more likely to cause you to give up altogether.
    • From what I've heard, learning to free mount is easier after you've kind of worked your way "down" in speed rather than working "up" - as a result you spend less energy learning to ride overall.
  • There were some pros to learning to free mount first however:
    • Knowing how to free-mount dramatically expands the areas you can go on your own, because you don't need to walk your EUC to a railing or a wall every time you step off. (If you're learning with a friend, like Monocat was, this is much less of an issue.) I was able to keep my EUC in my trunk and just pull over and practice on any good looking parking lot or big grass field that I saw, which was nice.
    • I gained the confidence to get on the wheel and maneuver at low speeds first, which helped me build the fine motor control needed to safely control the wheel at both low and high speeds, before ever going fast.
    • Ultimately I think this approach may be a bit safer than the first approach for that very reason - going 10-20 mph on an EUC without knowing how to free mount or maneuver at <5mph, do tight turns, figure eights, etc., is inherently more dangerous and could result in a crash, at worst, or possibly ingrain poor riding habits (such as poor foot placement, riding without carving and shifting your weight, etc.), because you don't have full confidence in your ability to control the wheel.
• Get a good starter wheel. This could be different things to different people, but I personally found a $400 used V8, and like I said, I only just today (one month later) reached the limits of its potential. I expect it to be sufficient for me to help me build my skills and take me as far and as fast as I need to go for at least a few weeks more, and it'll be a great wheel to keep in my car or at work, and also to teach other people on. I do want to get a bigger, faster, longer-range wheel soon, but I am glad that I learned to ride on a smaller and lighter wheel. I have not yet ridden the 16X, but from everything I've seen, it appears to be the sweet spot in terms of a wheel that's small enough to learn to ride on and be nimble at low speed (and thus less tiring when you are developing the necessary muscle groups and muscle memory), but also has a lot more headroom in terms of speed and range. There are probably other wheels in this same category, like the V8F or the V10F (and some of the other King-Song 14-16 inch wheels), but I would recommend getting a used wheel first if you can because you're going to drop it and beat the shit out of it A LOT when you're starting out. A 16X with a case on it would probably stand up to the abuse of learning just fine, but you have to be willing to grind your new toy on the pavement. Starting with a big, heavy, top of the line wheel just seems like a bad idea to me, but I know that some people do it. I wouldn't learn to ride a motorcycle on an R1, and I wouldn't try to learn how to drive a stick shift in a Ferrari.
• The riding surface matters - a lot. Practice on grass or turf early on if you can. Not only will you be able to go faster with less risk if (and when) you fall off, but riding on a slightly irregular surface helps you build fine motor control much more quickly which translates into better riding skills both on and off-road. Also, riding around a big grass field with a few bumps is just a lot of fun, and it's a totally different experience than riding on pavement. As a new rider, this experience is great. It engages your upper body a lot more and is generally a nice departure from cruising on the road. It also helps you realize that the EUC is capable of handling a lot crazier terrain than you will initially expect, which helps you build confidence and trust in the wheel. Once you've graduated to being able to reliably keep your wheel where you want it to be on a trail/sidewalk/road - which for me was after about two weeks - find the best quality surface you can. You'll be shocked how much of a difference it makes. Poor road surfaces diminish your confidence and limit your growth potential when you're first learning. You might think your local street or bike path is good enough, but if it has a rough surface with lots of bumps, gravel, and potholes, the first time you get on a proper bike path or a freshly paved parking lot, you'll suddenly be able to go much faster with more confidence. Then you'll get back on those shittier surfaces and think, oh, this isn't so bad - mainly because you'll feel comfortable going faster. Don't avoid poor surfaces entirely, because you need to learn how to handle them eventually and you don't want to handicap yourself - just find a good place where you don't have to worry about that and put it in your rotation of places to practice early on.
• Learning is both physical and mental. There are, and are not, shortcuts. I've heard it said that the speed at which you learn EUC is directly proportional to your willingness to overcome fear. There is some truth to that. If I were completely fearless, I probably could've hopped on the wheel with some help from a wall and dashed 20 yards at full-lean until I wiped out into the grass. I'd have hurt myself and my pride a little bit, but I'd have found the limit and might have been able to shorten the overall learning curve by a couple of weeks. Some people learn this way, and more power to them. Becoming a truly competent rider, however, is something that simply requires experience, no matter who you are. This experience has both physical and mental components. Riding an EUC takes strength in muscles that you don't often use, especially your feet. Building this strength and the fine motor control to be a safe and competent rider at any speed takes time, and there is no shortcut to developing it. Mentally, learning how the wheel responds to input in all directions, learning which movements of your upper body will and will-not impact the movement of the wheel, learning how and when to bend your knees to absorb impact, learning how much distance you need to stop, learning which riding surfaces will make your wheel lose traction, learning how to take a sharp turn onto a curb ramp, learning how to ride on and off a curb confidently - and so much more - all of these things are skills that can only be developed with time and practice. There is NO SHORTCUT to becoming a truly competent EUC pilot. To truly master it, like any other skill, will probably take you 10,000 hours! If true mastery of EUC is even possible. I don't care if you're already an expert snowboarder or skateboarder, although I have no doubt that those skills would shorten your initial learning curve, as well as give you more "willingness to overcome fear" (or just less fear to begin with).
• Dress for the slide, not the ride. There are countless threads of new riders asking about gear on this subreddit. I'll share my loadout, and my opinions. Take them as you will.
  • Triple Eight Hired Hands Gloves
    • Wrist guards are considered essential equipment for riding EUC, since pretty much any fall is going to impact your wrists, even at low speeds. I tried these wrist guards first, but they did not fit me well (too small on the wrist, even at XL), and didn't like how they left my whole hand exposed. The Triple Eight Hired Hands Gloves are much more robust, with hard armor on the front and the back, and only slightly more difficult to take off (and actually easier to put on). Some people recommend full finger gloves, like the Hillbilly Wrist Guard Gloves - Full Finger, and I'm sure these are great, although I like being able to easily use my phone and also prefer having the brace on both sides of my wrist.
  • Triple Eight Bumsaver Men's Padded Shorts
    • Most people probably don't wear padded shorts when riding, and I don't always either - it's actually the one piece of gear that for whatever reason (probably inconvenience) that I consider "optional". That said, the one place that I have fallen and significantly hurt myself thus far is on my tailbone, and I was wearing (a different set, Bohn body armor) padded underwear at the time. I was still in pain on my tailbone for probably two weeks. Also, most people say that when you fall at speed you almost always take some impact or at least road rash on your hip. Therefore hip padding and tailbone padding is highly recommended, especially if you're going to be traveling at speed, but I can attest to it being useful even when you're going very slow (you can always fall backwards).
  • Triple Eight EP 55 Elbow Pads
    • I usually don't wear these because my motorcycle jacket (see below) has integrated elbow pads. But when I'm not wearing my jacket, I wear these.
  • Giro Switchblade MIPS Adult Mountain Cycling Helmet
    • A full face helmet is essential equipment for EUC - that's my opinion, take it or leave it. This is what I wear for head protection most of the time, since my current wheel doesn't go any faster than 20 mph, and I ride primarily on bike trails and sidewalks and within my neighborhood. When I get a faster wheel and ride on bike lanes or larger roads, I will use my Scorpion helmet (see below). I love this helmet because it is super comfortable and lightweight, and it's also modular so you can easily take off the chin bar to drink some water or blow your nose or whatever without having to take off the helmet. You can also use it as a bicycle helmet if you wanted to, with or without the chin bar. Airflow is great (I am yet to break a sweat in it, which is saying a lot for me), MIPS is a great feature, and the visor has an integrated camera mount. Plus the color options are good.
  • SHIMA SX-2 EVO Motorcycle Shoes for Men
    • I've tried a lot when it comes to shoes for the EUC. I have tried full on hard calf motorcycle boots, which I know some people use, but I don't recommend. They give you basically no feeling for the road or the pedals, and I'm convinced they led to my fall where I bruised my tailbone. I've also tried regular height sneakers, which feel good, but leave your ankles totally exposed, and I've already hit my ankle hard with the pedal when losing control of the wheel on grass. I happened to be wearing high-top sneakers at the time, which were an improvement, but still not enough to prevent ankle impact injury or to stand up to being dragged along pavement. I eventually found these casual style motorcycle shoes which look great and can be worn all day comfortably but also provide hard armoring at the ankle, toe, and heel. They are soft enough on the bottom to feel the pedals - although probably not enough for some people - and they should stand up to any threat of road rash. Any other similar style boots from Dainese or others should work equally well, but I have found these have a wide fit, which is good for my feet (unlike Dainese which is a more narrow fit). Alpinestars makes some good ones too I hear.
  • O'Neal 0256-206 Unisex Pumpgun Knee Guard Carbon Look
    • Knee pads are essential equipment for riding EUC. If you fall, you're going to land on your knees (and your wrists), watch any crash video. I wear these knee pads all the time, they are comfortable and flexible, but they will make your legs a little sweaty (although not obnoxiously so). I have started crossing the top two straps behind my knee at the recommendation of people who say these kind of guards will slide down in the event of a crash. I have ordered some Revit Airwave 3 Pants which can fit over your regular pants and include both knee and hip protection. If I like these, I expect to wear them in lieu of the knee guards and the Bumsaver shorts in most instances.
  • Scorpion EXO-AT950 Ellwood Helmet
    • Some people will say an ADV or street motorcycle helmet is overkill for an EUC. I have been a motorcyclist for many years, and I've tried and own all kinds of top of the line motorcycle helmets (Arai, Shoei, HJC etc.). All of the ones I have that are focused on sport riding I find to be too hot and too narrow field-of-view for riding EUC. I saw She Rides an EUC on YouTube recommend this Scorpion helmet, or one very similar to it. It's an ADV helmet, so it has a removable visor and a front vent in the DH MTB style, except it can be closed. It's also modular, so you can flip up the chin guard super easily. It has other great features like a flip down sun visor, and obviously a full face shield. It is extremely comfortable and has a much wider field of view than my sportbike helmets. When I ride faster and/or ride next to traffic, this will be the helmet I wear, and it is an appropriate level of protection and comfort for my purposes.
  • Dainese VR46 Air-Tex Jacket
    • This jacket is discontinued, but I linked a similar style of jacket from Dainese. Any textile mesh summer motorcycle jacket will do the job. Mine has CE 1 elbow and shoulder protection, and I added a CE 2 back protector (this was my summer motorcycle jacket). I might upgrade to CE 1 elbows and shoulders at some point. I have yet to find it to be too hot in any situation when I'm able to maintain a constant speed above 5 mph. In the absolute heat of summer, I might need to just use my Triple Eight elbow guards and my Boblebee backpack in lieu of the jacket, but I haven't had to do that yet. I also have a Fox Baseframe Pro D30 Chest Guard Jacket which is meant for dirt track riding and intended to be worn under a jersey, but I doubt I will use this often unless I know for sure that I won't be riding on the street at all, because it offers basically no abrasion resistance. Anyone who has crashed and slid on the road (or on gravel) knows that abrasion resistance is as or more important than impact resistance, especially on the kinds of crashes I have seen involving EUC. Only purpose-built gear like a motorcycle jacket or Lazy Rolling Kevlar-reinforced outer layer will provide this. From what I can tell, even the Lazy Rolling Performance Hoodie is hotter than a mesh motorcycle jacket, so unless you really prefer the casual style of the Lazy Rolling, I would recommend a summer mesh moto jacket.
  • Boblbee GTX 25L Hardshell Backpack (Hi-Viz Yellow)
    • First, all my gear is black/hi-viz yellow, so I had no choice but to get this. Some will say back protection is not essential gear for EUC, and as long as they never crash and impact their spine, they're right. As long as I prefer not being paraplegic to some slight inconvenience, I will wear a back protector when riding at speed. If I'm not wearing my jacket with a back protector, and/or when I want to carry gear (even if it's just water and a camera, or whatever), I'll wear the Boblbee. Yes, it makes you stick out like a sore thumb when you're riding, but A) that's the point of the hi-viz yellow version, and B) you already stick out like a sore thumb when you're riding an EUC. Might as well take it to the next level. And it is the best back protector in the world, so it's kind of a no-brainer for me when it comes to EUC equipment.
• Trust the wheel (to an extent). This is probably the biggest takeaway overall. Most of your hesitation when learning will come from just not believing, or understanding, that the wheel is capable of seemingly magical things. As long as it's working as intended, and you are standing on it properly, grabbing it firmly but not aggressively with your legs, and not flailing yourself around, it will just roll on straight across things that will initially surprise you, at speeds that you will initially think are totally insane for something so small and squirrely. You'll be able to turn in an incredibly tight circle at such a low speed that you'll think to yourself, "How the HELL am I not falling over right now?" You'll be able to glide over scary gaps in the pavement and absorb them with your knees to the point that you barely notice them, even at 20 mph. You'll be able to make long gliding turns and wave your arms around like you're a bird flying through the air and little kids will laugh at you. All of these things will seem incomprehensible when you first step up on the wheel, and maybe even for a few weeks after. Some of these magical feats are thanks to the EUC technology - being able to lean or sit down at comical angles while keeping your feet balanced, for instance, thanks to the gyroscope - but mostly it's just due to the basic physics of a wheel in motion. Simply put, it's more stable than you think it is, and you have to learn to trust both the wheel itself as well as the technology that supports it. That said, and paradoxically, EUCs and unicycles generally are also inherently unstable. The main thing that will throw the EUC out of balance is not itself, nor something in the road, but YOU. Your unintended or unplanned movements of your body are the most likely culprit of something that throws you off the wheel, in whatever axis it may be. You have to learn to relax your body overall and move only in ways that don't upset the balance of the wheel, and this is something that takes time and practice. The technology of EUCs is also, ironically, both stable and fragile at the same time. As PEVs go, they are very simple, with relatively few failure points and a low-maintenance design that means they can function for a long time in adverse conditions with relatively little trouble. However, unlike 2+ wheeled vehicles, you are COMPLETELY at the mercy of the hardware and software to keep you from crashing. This is just a fact. On a bike, scooter, or car of any kind, if everything failed at once, you'd still have the opportunity to just roll to a stop. On an EUC, if ONE THING FAILS, you are immediately and without any warning put directly onto your face.
• You don't have any mechanical means of stopping. This is something that's very important to understand, especially if you are used to riding basically any other vehicle. You're completely dependent on the motor and battery to decelerate, along with your own physical and mental skill at applying rearward pressure on the pedals, which is harder to learn than leaning forward. Even when applying full braking pressure, your stopping distance is MUCH GREATER than on any mechanically braked device. This is something that you need to be constantly aware of when you are choosing how fast to go and what situations to put yourself in. No matter how good of a rider you are, if someone cuts you off, you're much more likely to run into them on an EUC than on any other vehicle at the same speed. Your risk of this is exponentially greater when you are first learning, so just don't put yourself into those situations until you have absolute confidence in your ability to apply maximum braking power, and even then - be conservative about where and how you ride. This is a fundamental limitation of the device, and something that - like it or not - you have to accept and understand.

So, if you've made it this far, you're probably a real geek and super into the prospect or reality of learning how to ride an EUC. Do it! You're never too old or too scared to suck at something new! :-p And you will suck at it at first, most likely. But you won't suck forever, and in fact, if you are diligent about it (which again, if you've read all of this, you probably are), you will get better at it sooner than you expected.
And then you'll be able to literally glide through time and space on the most whimsical and remarkable vehicle that mankind has ever come up with. You'll make a spectacle of yourself wherever you go, so lean into it - literally. Imagine yourself leaving a trail of rainbow dust behind you that lifts the spirits of everyone you see.
In many ways, learning to ride an EUC is a metaphor for life. You start off completely overwhelmed and thinking that you don't have control over anything. Eventually, gradually, and with a fair share of mistakes and sudden breakthroughs, you learn that you're actually a superhero and you can do anything. But you also never stop learning and improving and finding more ways to have fun.
Welcome to the ride of your life!

My friend and I (34M) had been planning on a pool day, and today wound up happening to be that day. It's worth noting that both my friend (~30s F) and her daughter (5F) have Type 1 Diabetes. They manage their condition with a device called a PDA, (Personal Diabetic Assistant) and some patches that get applied to their skin that are evidently waterproof. This device happens to look exactly like a phone, but doesn't do much other than monitor blood sugar levels and alert the user if they need something more than the insulin in the patch. This takes the form of either something that looks like a candy, or a juice box.
Other thing to notice is, my friend works in the adult entertainment industry and is both very, very comfortable in her own skin and has been fresh out of fluffs to give since she was about 18 years old. Not to say she acts or dresses immodestly (especially around her daughter), just that she appreciates being appreciated and looks amazing in a bathing suit. As for the fresh out of fluffs? Well, you'll see.
My gym, for obvious reasons, has a rule about no recording devices of any kind being used in the locker rooms or pool areas. That's not to say there's a no cell phone rule, because there isn't. It'd be both unenforceable and impractical. You can have your phone, but you'll be escorted off the premises if you're caught taking pictures of people or recording video. There's also a rule about no outside food being brought in, as they've got a restaurant/cafe inside and frown upon people bringing their own lunches in. Happily enough, there's an exception for diabetics and other such medical conditions, because that's kind of federal law that such things must be allowed.
So, my friend and I arrive, and we post up on a pair of deck chairs. One of us keeps an eye on the tot, and today it's mostly me since she enjoys the sensation of being cooked by the sun slowly and I have trouble sitting still. After a little while, my friend flags us down, as the little one needs a juice box.
Me, being a mature and responsible adult, naturally stole said juice box and tried to do a runner. The little girl squeals and says something like, "HEY! That's MY juice box! You give it back!" and me doing my best greased up deaf guy voice from Family Guy reply, "You're never gonna catch me!" and there's a little bit of a spectacle as she chases me down.
Finally I let her catch me and return the juice box, and we both walk back over to where my friend has been keeping an eye on us. She moves her enormous sunglasses down to the tip of her nose and gives me an eye roll, and asks, "Did I bring one child in here? Or two?"
I plead the fifth, and have a sit and chat while the little one slurps down her juice box. My friend then whips out her daughter's PDA, which has a hot pink case on it with a label on it that says, "Little B." This is to differentiate it from my friends, which also has a hot pink case on it that says "Bad Bitch" on it. (It used to say Little Bitch, but that was frowned upon when she had to give it to the teacher for Kindergarten, so Little B. it was.)
We chill until the device has been appeased, and then I take the little one off for some more trips down the water slide while my friend flips over and undoes the back of her bathing suit so she's cooked evenly. Before we can make it very far, a middle aged woman complete with the Karen haircut comes over and starts to squawk, "You need to cover up! There are children here!"
My friend rolls over and keeps her bathing suit in place with an arm, and points at me with her free hand "I know. There's two right there. Don't let the size fool you, the big one's the less mature of the pair. What's your problem exactly?"
Karen puffs up a bit, "My son won't stop staring at you! You're... you're tempting him!"
Without missing a beat, my friend replies "Oh, really? Why don't you try telling someone who gives a fuck. You're in my light, this is a pool, I'm wearing a bathing suit. Have a fantastic day." and then rolls back over onto her front.
The Karen makes a gobbling sound, apparently at a loss for words, and stomps off with her fists clenched, presumably in search of a manager.
Me and the little one go off for the water slides, which I was secretly looking forward to. A man in his 30s going down a water slide by himself? Rather odd. Going down a slide with a four year old in front? Totally normal.
After about an hour of impersonating a fish, I look for my friend and see her standing up, looking around with a very concerned expression on her face. I pop the little one onto my shoulders and we go check in.
Apparently at some point my friend had managed to doze off despite the noise, and the big bag of stuff she brought in was missing, and she kind of needs it right now, her sugars feel off and she's dizzy.
I leave the little one with her mom and think for a moment, then I have a thought, and figure going over to the check in desk might be step one. An attendant looks up at me with a smile and asks how he can help. I explain the situation, that there's a big bag missing. Pretty standard beach fare bag, so he asks if I can identify anything inside.
"There should be two hot pink things that look like phones inside. One says Bad Bitch on it." The attendant covers his guffaw just barely, and then brings up my friend's bag. He explains that a woman brought the bag over, claiming the person whose bag it was kept on using the devices inside to take pictures of her and her offspring. The guy knows that we probably didn't do anything wrong, but he had no idea to whom the bag belonged and also didn't want to get into it with that woman. I couldn't blame him.
I take the bag back to my friend, and she starts digging through it. And then the digging becomes rifling, as things are rapidly ejected haphazardly from the bag. And then she looks up at me, "That BITCH." She says in a rather alarmingly cold tone.
I said something clever, sounded a lot like, "Huh?"
"ALL of the juice boxes and candy are gone and my sugars are hitting the floor. I'm going to kill her."
Today I Learned that irritability is an understatement as far as a low blood sugar symptom goes.
My friend stands up, scans the area, and sees something. She stalks over, and happens upon a rather smug and familiar looking woman laid up on a lounge chair, with a rather timid looking boy of about 12 in the next chair over. The Karen opens her mouth to say something, and manages to let out another squawking sound as my friend without any preamble or warning, grabs the woman's bag and dumps the whole thing on the ground.
The woman inelegantly falls off of her chair, frantically scrambling to collect all of her stuff while my friend bends over and picks up some candy wrappers and a single empty juice box. And then my friend says something in a tone that sends shivers down my spine when I think about it. "You stole my baby's medicine? And then ate it?"
There's always something alarming about something said in a tone that SOUNDS calm, but is not at all calm. Sensing imminent violence, I placed myself between myself and my friend and started shouting for help. A couple lifeguards ran over, one speaking into a walkie talkie urgently.
While all this is going on the Karen is frantically cramming her things back into her bag, oblivious to her surroundings. Finally she finishes, realizes what's going on, and immediately stands up and starts shooting her mouth off about indecency and rule breaking and if my friend didn't bring enough to share she shouldn't have brought any at all.
At this point, my friend shakes me off and thrusts the candy wrapper in her face. "Do you understand what this is FOR?! My child is DIABETIC. *I* am diabetic. Do you go around and steal shit from every girl here whose skinnier and prettier than you? Or just the ones who don't put up with your bullshit?"
At this point several other staff members have arrived and separated the parties. My friend is taken promptly over to the cafe for the first and to my knowledge only instance of free food being given out by the place. Once her sugars had leveled out she had to tell her side of the story to those who needed to know. I don't really know what happened to the Karen. I did ask, but the staff member I asked said they couldn't say.
We had to leave after that, as it's fairly important for diabetics to have sugar on hand, and neither of us really felt like paying 3.50$ for a glass of orange juice. Plus the mood was kind of ruined.
People these days. Ugh.

For sale, for Steam gift cards (or gifted Steam Wallet balance):
​

• Dark Souls™: Prepare To Die™ Edition (removed from Steam Store; $350 $400 or best offer)
• Fall Guys (removed from Steam Store)
• Fall Guys - Dragon Hugger Pack (removed from Steam Store)
• Fall Guys - Icy Adventure Pack (removed from Steam Store)

​

• Humble Hunie Sakura Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Australia Fire Relief Bundle or similar))
• Humble Sekai Project Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Stand with Ukraine Bundle or similar))

​
For trade:
*tentatively up for trade, assuming I buy the bundle
​

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
• Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition

​

• Bionic Commando: Rearmed
• Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
• Lost Planet 3 - Complete
• Mega Man Legacy Collection
• STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®

​

• Aground
• Calico
• Evan's Remains
• Lake
• StarCrossed
• Teacup

​

• Into the Radius VR

​

• Aliens: Fireteam Elite
• Founders' Fortune
• Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp

​

• Nomad Survival
• Scarlet Tower

​

• The Citadel
• Forgive Me Father
• Viscerafest
• WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

​

• The Blackout Club

​

• BIOMUTANT
• Edge Of Eternity
• Golden Light

​

• Call of the Sea
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

​

• 112 Operator
• 911 Operator
• The Amazing American Circus
• Armello
• Backbone
• Calico
• Cris Tales
• Euro Truck Simulator 2
• Farming Simulator 17
• Ghostrunner
• Gotham Knights
• Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
• Lust from Beyond: M Edition
• Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
• Orbital Racer
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition
• PAYDAY 2
• Pilgrims
• Soulblight
• Space Crew: Legendary Edition
• Starfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo key) and Starfinder Adventure: Junker's Delight (Paizo key)
• Strange Brigade
• Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
• System Shock 2
• System Shock: Enhanced Edition
• Ticket to Ride
• XCOM® 2
• X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack

​

• Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
• Fallout 76
• Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
• Othercide
• Shady Part of Me

​

• The Last Campfire

​

• Sakura Swim Club

​

• Summer in Mara
• Townscaper

​

• The Long Dark: Survival Edition

​

• Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands

​

• Conan Chop Chop
• Grow: Song of the Evertree

​

• Styx: Shards of Darkness

​

• Hard West
• John Wick Hex
• Phantom Doctrine
• Red Solstice 2: Survivors

​

• Arizona Sunshine

​

• Backbone
• Blade Assault
• First Class Trouble
• Super Magbot

​

• Golf Gang
• Maid of Sker

​

• Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest

​

• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

​

• Baldur's Gate: Faces of Good and Evil
• Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
• Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

​

• Crown Trick

​

• Guts and Glory
• Hello Neighbor

​

• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• STAR WARS®: Knights of the Old Republic™ II

​

• Duke Nukem Forever
• PGA TOUR 2K21
• WWE 2K Battlegrounds

​

• Emily is Away <3
• In Sound Mind

​

• Little Big Workshop
• Not Tonight

​

• Brigador Deluxe Edition
• Verdun

​

• Resident Evil 0
• Resident Evil 6
• Resident Evil
• Resident Evil Revelations

​

• EVERSPACE™

​

• Dreamfall Chapters

​

• Cultist Simulator
• GWENT: The Witcher Card Game - Ultimate Starter Pack (GOG key)

​

• The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie Video Game

​

• 2064: Read Only Memories

​

• Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager
• Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense

​

• STAR WARS™: Squadrons (Origin key)(?)

​

• Bionic Commando
• Street Fighter V

​

• As Far As The Eye
• Impulsion

​

• Orcs Must Die! 2 - Complete Pack

​

• Bartlow's Dread Machine

​

• Blaston

​

• White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

​

• The Walking Dead

​

• Total Tank Simulator

​

• Archangel: Hellfire - Fully Loaded

​

• XCOM® 2

​

• Black The Fall
• Goetia

​

• Highway Blossoms

​

• Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition

​

• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• This War of Mine

​

• Tom Clancy's The Division™ (Uplay key)
• Tom Clancy's The Division™ - Survival (Uplay key)

​

• Highway Blossoms
• HunieCam Studio
• KARAKARA
• Sunrider Academy
• Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain's Edition

​

• Civilization VI - Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI - Vikings Scenario Pack

​

• A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met

​

• Hacknet
• Satellite Reign

​

• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

​

• The Elder Scrolls: Legends: 2 Card Packs (Skyrim) 1 Event Ticket 100 Gold 100 Souls
• ESO Vanity Pet: Bristlegut Piglet and 15 Days of ESO Plus

​

• Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal-
• KARAKARA
• Memory's Dogma CODE:01
• Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
• Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project - Season Pass

​

• A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met
• Sakura Angels
• Beach Bounce
• Beach Bounce - Soundtrack
• Blue Rose

​

• Lionessy Story
• My Personal Angel
• Natural - Beyond Nature -
• Postmen Of Horizon (removed from Steam Store)

​

• The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 — Prelude

​

• Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards]
• Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle
• Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle : School Girls Edition
• Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold'em
• Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire

​

• Guns of Icarus Alliance
• Guns of Icarus Online
• Impossible Creatures Steam Edition
• Lethal League
• Tempest: Pirate Action RPG
• Tempest - Treasure Lands
• Tempest - Original Soundtrack
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf
• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide

​

• For The King
• Book of Demons
• PlateUp!
• Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition
• Kingdom Two Crowns
• White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
• Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
• Steel Rats™
• Hue
• Sifu Deluxe Edition Upgrade Bundle (Epic key)
• Gal*Gun: Double Peace
• The Invisible Hours
• Synergia
• ROCKETRON
• Project Nimbus: Complete Edition
• Dead Age
• Dusk Diver 酉閃町
• Spirit Hunter: NG
• Slain: Back from Hell(?)
• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
• Tower of Time
• Danger Scavenger
• Survive the Nights
• The Beast Inside
• Valfaris
• Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
• This War of Mine
• My Time At Portia

​

• Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition
• Knights of Pen and Paper 2 - Here Be Dragons

​

• 112 Operator
• 911 Operator
• Book of Demons
• Broken Age
• Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
• Crying Suns
• Crying Suns
• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• Driftland: The Magic Revival
• Liberated (GOG key)
• Moon Hunters
• Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
• Rustler (Grand Theft Horse)
• Wanderlust: Travel Stories (GOG key)
• WARSAW
• X-Morph: Defense + European Assault, Survival of the Fittest, and Last Bastion DLC (I believe this redeems as the linked Complete Pack, minus the soundtrack)
• ΔV: Rings of Saturn(?)

​

• Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
• Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
• Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
• Deliver Us The Moon
• Morkredd
• Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
• Space Crew: Legendary Edition
• Spirit Hunter: NG
• Survivalist: Invisible Strain
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2
• ENDLESS™ Space 2
• Surviving the Aftermath
• The Long Dark

​

• Blade Assault
• Founders' Fortune
• Hokko Life
• Monster Crown
• Fallout 76
• Othercide
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition
• ScourgeBringer
• Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
• HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED™
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Sonic CD (removed from Steam Store)
• LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®
• Bionic Commando
• Full Metal Furies
• Ultra Street Fighter® IV
• Starbound
• Mafia III: Sign of the Times
• Outlast 2
• BioShock 2
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
• The Mean Greens - Plastic Warfare
• Crusaders of the Lost Idols Legendary Starter Pack
• Project CARS (removed from Steam Store)

​
WANT:
​

• 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
• A Hat in Time
• Avernum: Escape from the Pit
• Bendy and the Ink Machine
• CrossCode
• Dead Rising 4
• Dungreed
• Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition
• NBA 2K Playgrounds 2
• NECROPOLIS: BRUTAL EDITION
• Omensight: Definitive Edition
• Submerged
• Tower Unite
• Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
• Zombie Army 4: Dead War

​
IGS Rep Page: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/ti26nz/mizznos_igs_rep_page/

All games are obtained by ME. If the game has a region lock, it will be locked to EU region.

Paypal F&F or G&S - fees on you. PRICES IN EURO

Lower rep goes first.

Googledocs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x939dac0XlG3tRhyYX_9Lf93usR0uqyVHPCYmB7RRys
Discount at purchase
5% @ €15-29
7% @ €30-59
10% @ €60+
12% @ €100+
15% @ €150+

Game	F&F (€EU)
112 Operator	0.30
112 Operator	0.30
2064: Read Only Memories	0.60
7 Billion Humans	4.50
911 Operator	0.30
911 Operator	0.30
A Little Golf Journey	2.50
A Long Way Down	1.00
Aeterna Noctis	4.00
After The Fall	15.00
Agent in Depth	0.20
Aground	4.00
Alchemist's Castle	0.20
APICO	7.00
Arcade Paradise - Arcade Paradise EP	0.20
Arcade Spirits	0.20
Arise: A Simple Story	2.50
Arizona Sunshine	6.00
Armello	1.20
Aviary Attorney	0.20
AWAKE - Definitive Edition	0.20
Baba Is You	5.00
Back 4 Blood	9.00
Backbone	0.20
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition	2.00
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition	2.00
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition	1.00
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition	2.00
Baldur's Gate: Faces of Good and Evil	1.00
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear	2.00
Batora: Lost Haven	2.00
BattleGroupVR	1.00
Bean Stalker	2.00
Beasts of Maravilla Island	2.00
Beat Hazard 3	6.00
Ben 10: Power Trip	1.50
Bionic Commando	0.20
Blade of Darkness	3.00
Blaston	1.00
Breathedge	2.50
Broken Age	0.20
Calico	0.20
Calico	0.20
Call of the Sea	1.00
Car Mechanic Simulator VR	1.50
Cats and the Other Lives	0.50
Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder	2.00
CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience	1.50
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare	1.50
Click and Slay	0.20
Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues	0.50
Combat Tested	1.00
Control Ultimate Edition	6.00
Cook-Out	1.00
Corridor Z	0.10
Crash Drive 2	1.00
Creaks	1.00
Cris Tales	0.50
Crying Suns	0.50
Cube Escape Collection	2.50
Dagon - The Eldritch Box DLC	0.10
Dark Deity	1.50
DARQ	1.00
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition	-
Death and Taxes	2.50
Death Squared	0.20
Desolate	0.50
Detached: Non-VR Edition	0.50
Devil May Cry 5 + Vergil	6.00
Devil May Cry HD Collection	6.00
Disaster Band	3.00
DmC Devil May Cry	3.00
DOOM 64	1.00
DOOM VFR	3.00
Doughlings: Arcade	0.50
Doughlings: Invasion	0.20
Draw Slasher	0.10
Drawful 2	0.10
Dread Delusion	4.00
Dreamscaper	1.50
Driftland: The Magic Revival	0.10
Epistory - Typing Chronicles	0.80
Eternal Threads	3.50
Euro Truck Simulator 2	5.00
Evan's Remains	0.10
EXAPUNKS	1.00
Expeditions: Viking	1.50
Explosionade	0.20
Farming Simulator 17	2.00
Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R	1.50
Field of Glory II	1.00
Flynn: Son of Crimson	1.50
Forgive me Father	1.00
Forgotton Anne	7.00
Frick, Inc.	3.00
From Space	4.00
fsongs	0.20
Fury Unleashed	0.50
GameGuru Classic	-
Gauntlet - Necromancer	-
Gauntlet Slayer Edition + DLC Necromancer	1.50
Ghostrunner	5.00
Gift of Parthax	0.20
Gigantosaurus The Game	1.20
Go Home Dinosaurs!	0.20
Golf Gang	0.50
Gotham Knights	15.00
GRAVEN	5.00
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload	0.40
Guns & Fishes	0.20
Hack 'n' Slash + Soundtrack (& Spacebase GIFT)	0.20
Hacknet	0.50
Hamilton's Great Adventure	0.10
Harmony's Odyssey	0.50
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice	4.00
Homeworld Remastered Collection	1.00
Human Resource Machine	5.00
Hyper Gunsport	0.50
Hypnospace Outlaw	3.00
ibb & obb - Best Friends Forever Double Pack	2.00
Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure	4.50
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition	1.00
Impaler	1.50
Indivisible	2.00
Influent	2.50
Into the Pit	1.00
Into the Radius VR	7.00
Izmir: An Independence Simulator	0.20
Jumanji: The Video Game	1.50
Just Die Already	1.00
Killing Floor 2 Digital Deluxe Edition	4.00
King and Assassins	0.20
Kingdom Two Crowns	2.50
Labyrinthine	4.00
Lair of the Clockwork God	1.00
Lake	2.00
Last Resort Island	0.50
Learn Japanese To Survive - Hiragana Battle	0.40
Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat	0.40
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War	0.40
Learning Factory	3.50
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4	1.80
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7	2.20
LEGO Jurassic World	1.50
LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes	1.50
LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes 2	1.50
LEGO MARVEL's Avengers	1.50
LEGO The Hobbit + 3 DLCs	2.50
LEGO The Hobbit DLC 1 - The Big Little Character Pack	-
LEGO The Hobbit DLC 2 - Side Quest Character Pack	-
LEGO The Hobbit DLC 3 - The Battle Pack	-
LEGO The Lord of the Rings	2.50
Lighthouse Keeper	0.20
Little League World Series Baseball 2022	0.50
Little Orpheus	2.00
Loot River	3.00
Love Letter	0.20
Lust from Beyond: M Edition	0.50
Magicka	0.50
Maize	1.25
Marooners	0.20
Melody's Escape 2	0.70
Meow Express	0.40
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition	3.00
MirrorMoon EP	0.10
Monaco	0.50
Monument Valley	1.50
Monument Valley 2	1.50
Moon Hunters	0.20
Mordhau	5.00
Mortal Kombat 11	6.00
Mortal Shell	4.00
Mount & Blade: Warband	2.00
Murder by Numbers	0.50
MY LITTLE PONY: A Maretime Bay Adventure	10.00
Nanotale - Typing Chronicles	3.00
NecroWorm	0.20
Neverout	0.20
Neverwinter Nights: Dark Dreams of Furiae	2.50
Neverwinter Nights: Infinite Dungeons	1.00
Neverwinter Nights: Pirates of the Sword Coast	1.00
Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea	1.50
Neverwinter Nights: Wyvern Crown of Cormyr	1.00
Neverwinter Nights: Darkness Over Daggerford	3.50
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition	3.50
Newt One	0.30
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl	1.00
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix	0.50
Nightmare Reaper	6.00
No Straight Roads: Encore Edition	4.00
Non-Stop Raiders	0.50
Orbital Racer	0.10
Orbital Racer	0.10
Out of Reach: Treasure Royale	0.10
Pandemic: The Board Game + Mutation + Roles & Events	4.00
Pathfinder: Kingmaker	4.00
Patron	2.50
PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls	2.50
PAYDAY 2	1.00
PAYDAY 2: F*ck Cancer - Big Mike Mask	-
Perfect	0.50
Pikuniku	0.50
Pilgrims	0.30
Pill Baby	0.20
Pixplode	0.10
Pixross	0.20
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition	1.50
Planet TD	0.20
PlateUp!	7.00
PLAYNE	5.00
Police Stories	1.00
Praey for the Gods	3.00
Princess Farmer	2.00
Project Arrhythmia	1.00
Project Chemistry	1.00
Propnight	2.00
Quadrata	1.50
Radio Commander	0.20
Railway Empire	1.00
Rayon Riddles - Rise of the Goblin King	1.00
Red Faction: Armageddon	0.50
Remnants of Naezith	0.30
Renowned Explorers: International Society	0.50
Rescue Party: Live!	1.50
Rise of the Slime	2.00
River City Girls	4.50
Roarr! Jurassic Edition	0.10
RPG Maker VX	0.20
RUMBLE	4.50
Rym 9000	0.10
Sable	1.50
Salt and Sanctuary	3.50
Sands of Aura	3.00
Say No! More	0.20
SCP: 5K	5.00
SHENZHEN I/O	2.50
Shing!	-
Shooty Fruity	1.00
Slinger VR	0.10
Small World 2 + Be not Afraid + Cursed + Grand Dames	2.00
Songbringer	0.30
Songs of Iron	3.00
Soul Axiom Rebooted	2.00
Soul Searching	0.20
Soulblight	0.10
Soulflow	0.20
Soundfall	4.00
Space Crew: Legendary Edition	0.50
Splendor	1.50
Stacking	0.10
StarCrossed	0.30
State of Decay 2	9.00
Staxel	2.00
Steel Rats	0.20
Stick Fight: The Game	2.00
STONE	1.50
Strange Brigade	1.50
Strange Brigade	1.50
Street Fighter V	2.50
Strider	0.50
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones	0.30
Sunlight	0.20
Superfly	0.20
SUPERHOT VR	7.00
Supraland Six Inches Under	5.00
Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon	0.20
Syberia - The World Before	4.50
SYMMETRY	0.20
System Shock 2	0.40
System Shock: Enhanced Edition	0.40
Takelings House Party	0.50
Tales of the Neon Sea	1.00
Tannenberg	1.25
Teacup	0.50
Teacup	0.50
Telefrag VR	0.10
Terra Alia	2.50
The Almost Gone	1.00
The Amazing American Circus	0.10
The Amazing American Circus	0.10
The Anacrusis	0.50
The Blackout Club	2.00
The Citadel	2.50
THE GAME OF LIFE 2	5.00
The Hong Kong Massacre	2.00
The Inner World	0.30
The LEGO Movie - Videogame	1.00
The LEGO NINJAGO Movie Video Game	2.00
The Mortuary Assistant	7.00
The Smurfs - Mission Vileaf	6.00
The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia	0.50
The USB Stick Found in the Grass	0.10
The Wizards - Dark Times	2.00
Them and Us	2.00
Ticket to Ride	0.50
TIS-100	2.00
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition	3.00
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove	0.10
Trombone Champ	8.00
Turbo Golf Racing	3.50
Ultra Street Fighter IV	1.50
Until You Fall	3.00
Vagante	1.20
Vault of the Void	5.00
Verdun	1.50
Vertigo Remastered	1.50
Visage	8.00
Wanderer	1.50
Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War	2.00
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus	1.00
Warhammer: Vermintide 2	2.00
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)	0.10
West of Dead	0.30
while True: learn()	2.50
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School	1.75
Winkeltje The Little Shop	4.00
Worms Rumble	1.00
WRATH: Aeon of Ruin	1.00
Wytchwood	4.00
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack	0.20
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack	0.20
XEL	0.40
Yoku's Island Express	0.50
Yonder The Cloud Catcher Chronicles	3.00
You Can Kana	3.50
Zenith MMO	6.00
Zombie Army Trilogy	2.00
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition	0.10

Barter
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Hi Go Wild Friends! In case anyone wants to know about beautiful Costa Rica I went there using my Go Wild pass so I thought I would do a story about what happened in Costa Rica. There aren’t really a lot of travel tips in here, its just the wild shit I got into in Costa Rica. I did another write up with actual tips about South Beach in Miami on a budget here if you want to read that one.
Okay, Costa Rica, so fuckin amazing! I want to fly to all the international places Frontier goes so I decided to do Costa Rica second (Cancun is an easy trip for me in Kansas City, they go nonstop there every weekend). The hardest part about Costa Rica is just getting there, I took a bit of a circuitous route.
I always take a big vacation each year after tax season, its fun for me to turn my phone off and go somewhere off the grid and not even think about work. Last year I went to Argentina and Uruguay and it was wild but honestly, this year was even better! I first wanted to stay with my brother and see my nieces and nephews in Orlando so I booked a one way flight from St. Louis to Orlando for only $19 with my Go Wild pass. I got to take a train from Kansas City to St. Louis, it was only $37 and I loved it actually, something about trains is so fun for me, probably because I took one to Chicago in college and stayed in a homeless shelter, my first real experience solo traveling, I loved it!
I spent the afternoon in St. Louis riding around downtown on those fun scooters and eating chicken wings and walking around the baseball experience place they had, it was a good afternoon. I had a late flight to Orlando but I fucked up the terminal (don't google which terminal is Frontier, its wrong). I went through security and bag check only to find out I was in the wrong terminal so that stunk but I had plenty of time for two security checks so no big deal. The flight was delayed so I didn’t get into Orlando until almost 2am and there was a long line for the rental car. I regret not doing the one you can pick up without talking to an agent so much, it was only like $5 more, do the self check car rental if possible. Orlando was fun, got to see my nieces and nephews and my brother and his wife put a little guest bedroom in the shed, easy to get into at 2am without waking anyone up.
After two days in Orlando it was time for my big flight to Costa Rica! So excited! This flight was only $51 with my Go Wild pass, an absolute steal. It stopped in Atlanta and then I was in Costa Rica in no time. On the plane a bunch of us were excitedly talking about our Go Wild passes, its kind of fun to do the spiderman meme thing and be like, you have a Go Wild pass? Me Too! The ringleader told me there were wild sloths if I went to a place called Manuel Antonio. I said what the fuck did you just say, wild sloths? Oh yes! I literally had no plans for a whole week so I mentally added sloths to the list of things I wanted to see. I have a travel buddy I met in Mexico to visit in San Jose and I wanted to see the volcano and the beaches of course but that was it.
At the airport you will want to get some cash, they have an ATM right there when you walk out. Don’t do the currency exchange, those people were giving really shitty rates. After you get cash walk around outside the airport to the backside, it’s a short walk and that’s where all the city buses come. There are buses to San Jose every 15 minutes, just jump on one of those its only like $1.50 and it goes 25 minutes to downtown. I have a huge aversion to taxis in Latin America, I’ve been ripped off a lot and airports are especially bad.
Once in San Jose you can walk most places, it’s a fun city to walk around. I stayed at the Costa Rica Backpackers hostel which I do not recommend for one big reason. Its so fuckin hot. I didn’t even think about checking for air conditioning, most places have it now. Also, I like hostels and the common areas and the hammocks and I always set up my chess board and play at night with beers. But I really like to have my own room at a hostel. This private room was I think $35 a night which is pretty good but it did not have air conditioning, just a fan recirculating hot air and it was right off the street so yeah, no recommendation for that one, I only stayed one night. That’s the fun thing about how I travel though, no reservations and no plans, if its not great I just go to a different place. I hung out with my travel buddy that night and we smoked a lot of um… cigarettes and went to this place where locals hang out. It was like some fuckin fast and furious movie but with Ticos, guys were just flying around on motorcycles on wheelies. I bought a huge meal for my friend and me, empanadas, a bunch of other Costa Rican food, it was so fuckin good and the whole meal was only $7, ha!
The next morning I set my chess board out at the hostel and I put $10 out on the money clip like I normally do when I travel. It’s a fun way to get people to play, if you beat me you get $10 if I win, nothing. My chess is kind of like a parlor trick too because I play in less than 5 seconds every move so everyone is thinking through it and Im having beers and going quick, usually at a hostel there gets to be a crowd and Im playing four dutch people on warm night in Mexico, so fuckin fun. On this morning a kid came up to play and I was teaching him chess for awhile nervously, I didn’t see his mom anywhere and secondly who brings a kid to a hostel? I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen one. He starts just taking my pieces off the board and then he takes the $10 and says welp I guess I won. I laughed and I said alright then, good job buddy. Just then his mom hobbled over, a Danish hippy with a broken foot. She thanked me for hanging out with him and told me the doctor said not to walk too much but it was hard with a six year old. I said sit down, sit down and I got her breakfast and helped her out. We talked for a bit and I told a funny Mexico story and helped them get their stuff together and she said oh you have to come to our hippy community in Puerto Viejo, you can stay in our shack by the ocean. I said oh that sounds fun today Im going to see a volcano but maybe later. She said they are the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, one is entirely black sand. I said Im listening. She said they were poor in a little shack by the rainforest and they have monkeys and sloths in their backyard. I said um what the fuck did you just say? Wild sloths? She said yeah, tons of them. I booked a ticket right away for the 6am bus the next day. I went with my friend to the active volcano and then he dropped me off at my hotel. I booked the Radisson the second night because I really wanted Air Conditioning. Im soft like that, sorry. And it had a hot tub. I’ve never seen that many people in one hot tub, ha. At night I did a Tinder date, I found out all the cabs are pretty much $6 in San Jose so it was easy to get there and back and I went out with a fun lady who told me in Costa Rica they eat chicken wings with gloves, did you guys know that?
I got up at 4:30am and packed up for my 6am bus. At the front desk I asked them if they could call me a cab and they said its an additional $30 US. I was like nah, fuck that, $30? What a ripoff, I’ll just walk, its only 2 miles. So I walk pretty far into downtown San Jose and whoooooooosh, a bottle explodes near me! I go what the fuck and look up, theres a drunk Costa Rican man in a soccer jersey like two blocks away screaming at me in Spanish! I had so many questions, the first of course was who is balling out of control at 5am in the morning? The second was, who the fuck is that Latino Roger Clemens? I could barely see the guy from two streets away and he was (presumably) drunk getting that close to me with a full bottle of beer? The last question of course was who is drunk and throwing FULL bottles of beer? I walked away from his direction and then saw that there was a whole bar full of drunk soccer fans like him and I noped the fuck out and ran to the taxi stand and got a taxi. I said you know what, a taxi isn’t such a bad idea!
I regretted not Googling anything because my phone didn’t work at all in Costa Rica. They said I could buy a sim card but I didn’t want to, I kind of liked being off the grid. But I really wanted to find wild sloths. Maybe the person beside me will help I thought as I stood in line for the 6am bus. Damn, I hope its not someone rapid firing Spanish at me though, my Spanish is not great. Most of my Spanish I’ve learned from the music of Bad Bunny. I was relieved to see my seat in 44 was next to a Japanese man in 45. Oh that’s awesome I thought, he will struggle with Spanish too and we can find wild sloths together. Nope, turns out Im a racist asshole, he was a Japanese Argentinian who spoke perfect Spanish and no English, none. His phone worked too and he was putting all these upside down house letters in Japanese and beautiful beaches were popping up, I really needed his help. I tried to befriend him but they speak a different kind of Spanish in Argentina, cajes instead of calles and so fast, so fuckin fast! His had like a little stall in it before it winded up too, like a UUUUUU mi esposa no esta aqui! His wife was either sleeping back in San Jose or dead, I couldn’t really understand. I noticed he had a bear avatar on his phone so I knew he liked animals so half way through the ride I decided to try to tell him they had sloths there. Hay peresozos en Puerto Viejo I said but he didn’t understand what I was saying. I said peresozos again and put up three fingers mimicking a sloth and then I panicked, I was like shit, what do sloths do? Its an animal famous for not doing anything. I pretended to hang up side down and he is (loudly) guessing animals in Spanish and Im like no, peresozos! Maybe I was saying it wrong but I had no Google so I said es posible tu telefono? And I typed in sloths and all these upside down houses came up and the words Oso Peresozo. And he goes UUUUUU OSO PERESOZO! I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a bus traveling through rural Costa Rica and seen a Japanese Argentinian get excited in Spanish about wild sloths but it is… ADORABLE!
Si SI! Oso Peresozo! I yelled. People are turning around now, they are like why the fuck are the American and Japanese guys back there in 44 and 45 playing charades two hours into a 6am bus ride? I said juntos? (Together) and he said si si! He told me where we could get bikes to rent and what to eat, he was the perfect travel partner! He said Yelp dices Jerk Chicken is the best to eat here. I said thanks Juan, you are my favorite travel partner! We had an amazing day in Puerto Viejo, beautiful beaches, monkeys, wild sloths, God damn that was an amazing day. He even showed me where my hostel was and I dropped off my bag. This hostel was called 456 hostel which I also do not recommend because no AC and there are weird animals running on the roof but I didn’t care, I just wanted to throw down my bag and get back to looking for wild sloths. The lady said we can’t just take your bag you need to check in first, I said listen lady you see that God damn excited Japanese man out there? We got wild sloths to find! I had no desire to spend one second in that hostel but Juan goes “Esta bien, cerveza” and then he had a beer by the ocean while I checked in. I joined him for a beer and it turns out that is a beautiful setting for a hostel. Still don’t recommend though, so fuckin hot.
Juan and I had an amazing day in Puerto Viejo, God damn that place is beautiful. We saw wild sloths, monkeys, and had an amazing time on the beach. I was sad to see him go, what a great travel partner! He pointed to where my hostel was but I said I would ride back into town with him. To be honest, I forgot to write down the name of the bike rental and there was like a hundred in Puerto. I turned my bike in with his to his surprise because we had rented for a full day but I told him I wanted a motorcycle. He used his expert Googling skills to get me to the cheapest motorcycle place. It was only $30 a day for a motorcycle which I thought was very reasonable. And I didn’t have enough cash on me and they didn’t take cards so the rental guy just said no worries man, take de bike to the ATM. That was pretty trusting! I came back with the money and got the bike and I can’t tell you guys the drugs part because the mods said no talking about drugs.
That was such a fast motorcycle. I turned my Bluetooth speaker up all the way and floored it and zoomed down the coast in time for the sunset, so God damn beautiful! Something about that warm Costa Rican sun on your shoulders and the sound of Khalid and the smell of salt in the air riding along the beautiful ocean, it will change your life. After the sunset I went to Cat’s house and her beautiful German friend Alina was there. There were three kids too and as soon as I got there they went riffling through my bag looking for candy. I had two caramels but was one short so I gave the little kid my chips. This was her sad face for not getting candy!
Cat was hobbling around on crutches so Alina and I said sit down we will take care of dinner. I went to the store down the street and got so much stuff for that poor family- toilet paper, rice, peppers and Barbies for the kids and a soccer ball for Marcello. Gringo santa claus when I came back, both the ladies cried, Alina said her girls had never had a Barbie doll. Alina and I cranked up the music in that little hippy house by the ocean and made dinner and drank wine and laughed while the kids played with their new toys and Cat relaxed and finished her remote work. We ate the food and drank the wine and smoked…cigarettes and had an amazing night. Alina asked if I wanted to share the Tuk Tuk and I said yes. She said it in kind of a mischievous way so I thought maybe she wanted to make out. And she was very beautiful so I said yes. We got in the Tuk Tuk and rode back towards town passing my hostel, she winked and said your hostel was back there you know and then put her hand on my arm.
I thought Cat was poor but Alina was super poor. She told the tuk tuk driver to turn left by the trash dump and we pulled up to an even tinier house right next to the rainforest. She said wait out here and I’ll put the kids to bed. So I waited on the porch. The kitchen was actually outside, a little refrigerator and a little stove and a sink. I sat in the chairs and she came out and we smoke a um cigarette together and then she said wait here. I was like fuck, wait her for what? Is she going to rob me or something but she didn’t seem scary, she seemed sweet. She came back out with a big giant mattress and threw it on the porch floor. Then she took off her shirt and said in her German accent, “Un now we share our bodies.” I thought that was a pretty sexy thing to say so I took off my shirt too and joined her except I didn’t want to have unprotected sex with a hippy so we just made out.
Sometime after she slipped back inside so I was alone on the mattress on the backporch by the rainforest. I thought that was a pretty good place to spend my first night in Puerto Viejo and I looked up and saw a hundred million stars lighting up the sky and fell asleep. But not too many hours later, God damn I awoke to a caucophony of jungle sounds! So many monkeys, just fuckin howling. And there were these weird rat things running around, they weren’t small at all, if you’ve ever seen the Princess Bride fucking ROS. (Rodents of Unusual Size). I honestly thought the monkeys were coming on the porch, that’s how loud they were.
I jumped up and leaned the mattress against the house and started walking, past the trash dump and out to the ocean. The first beach I came across was the black beach, it was amazing and I sat there until the sun came up. I had no watch or anything and my phone was dead so I walked for a long ways until I found a Tuk Tuk driver who took me to Cats. I got my motorcycle and went back to the hostel but when I charged my phone I found it was only 6am so I went back to sleep. But the hostel had no AC and there were some fuckin animals on the roof right over my head so I couldn’t sleep much. I went to the beach and found more wild monkeys and then sent Cat a WhatsApp message to see if she needed my help since she had the broken foot and Marcello was home, it was some kind of Costa Rican holiday.
She said sure come over and so I drove my motorcycle back down the coast and went back to the store and got more supplies and cooked them a big lunch. I had asked before if they eat meat because some hippies don’t and she said sure but its expensive here I don’t know if you want to buy it. It was $4 ha, I got some ham and rice and peppers and made a huge lunch and drank some beers and cooked while Cat did her remote work. She took a picture and I asked if she mind taking a short video of me cooking. IT wasn’t for social media or friends or anything, that video was for me so I could remember when I could be happy. A trip to Costa Rica for only $51 with my Go Wild pass and I got to be by the ocean and I met new friends and I was actually helping someone, I realized that day that’s what made me the most happy, that’s why I wanted the video.
After lunch I cleaned up and then Marcello and I played some chess. She asked if I minded watching Marcello while she ran to town with a client and I said sure, no problem. I was wrong, it was a huge fuckin problem! She said she would be back in an hour and then we could go to the hippy get-together on the beach. She was NOT back in an hour and I fuckin panicked. I didn’t know this lady’s last name, I didn’t know Marcello really, I called Cat and she didn’t answer and I tried texting her, nothing. I thought fuck, she must have abandoned me with this kid. And I don’t know how to get ahold of the authorities and it was a holiday, this shit was basically the plot to the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy. I started pounding beers because I was so nervous. I asked Marcello if he knew Alina’s number and this little dude said, and I quote, “Who’s Alina?” What the fuck? I said buddy, the lady that was here last night with the kids? He said he didn’t know them very much. Oh my God I thought, I’ve definitely been saddled with a kid. But then I was thinking, you know what, I could raise this kid, wouldn’t be that bad, live in this $400 a month house by the ocean, sounds good. But I have my own kids back home in Kansas City and that made me panic even more, now Im fuckin slammin beers so worried. Every car that goes down this little side road Im like oh please be Cat. Now this kid is starting to yell at me to come back out in Norwegian, I don’t know Norwegian and he wants me to read him books, which are also in Norwegian, Im full panicky at this time.
Finally Cat came back I said Cat, I wasn’t comfortable with that, I don’t even know your last name or anything. She goes, why, whats wrong? And goes running in to see Marcello, I said oh no, he’s fine, nothing happened its just that I thought you left and weren’t coming back. She said why would I leave my kid I love him more than anything in the world. I said I know, okay, its just that I was panicking. She said calm down, all good, lets go to the hippy fire circle. I was not going to go, I was going to get the fuck out but I really wanted to go to the fire circle, I was hoping they would let me spin the fire. So we went to the fire circle, Marcello and Cat with the client and me following behind on the motorcycle. We relaxed on the blanket and then up came beautiful Alina looking like a million bucks in the sun tucking her brown hair behind her ears. She got on the blanket with us close to me and I retold the story about how I thought Cat abandoned her kid with me and we all laughed and smoked again and had beers and then watched the sun go down. I didn’t know Marcello didn’t know how to swim so I showed him how to swim a bit, a little lesson in front of the beautiful sunset. After the sun went down it was time for the fire circle and the main guy said brother, thank you for helping Cat, you are in our circle now, whats ours is yours. I said oh man thank you so much can I do the fire spinning? And he said that you can not do. Damn.
So I watched the others spin it jealously and then I got us some appetizer snacks from the restaurant. After the fire circle and the singing and everything we decided to have a picnic at the black beach. They went to the store to get the food and I went to go get my motorcycle. When I got back I guess Alina had stolen something from the store because the workers were all around her and the police were coming. It was equally sad and scary. They took everything she bought away and Cat said its okay she had enough so we all walked to the black sand beach and I gave Alina a hard time for being a thief until we all were laughing. We had a great night by the ocean and then they both got Tuk Tuks and I got on my motorcycle and drove back to the hot hostel and fell asleep and I never saw those hippies again. The end.

Hi all,
Will be staying at Helea during in a couple of weeks before summer. I’ve read that it’s package tourism, well we bought a holiday package if that is what the term means. Nevertheless would love to enjoy to the fullest!
Put in chatgpt some tips, but as we just stay only 1 week.. Does this make sense?
Here's a suggestion for two day trips, leaving plenty of time to enjoy your all-inclusive resort:
Day 1: Old Town Rhodes and the Surroundings

1. Start your day by exploring the Old Town of Rhodes. Wandering its medieval streets is free, but visiting the Palace of the Grand Master will cost about €10 per person.
   
2. Enjoy lunch in one of the local tavernas in the old town. Budget about €15-20 per person.
   
3. In the afternoon, head to the Rhodes Archaeological Museum. Entry is about €8 per person.
   
4. Round off your day with a visit to Therme Kallithea, a unique beach with beautiful architecture, and relax. Entry is about €5 per person.
   

Estimated total budget for Day 1: €80-€90 (for two people, excluding transport)
Day 2: Lindos and its Surroundings

1. Start your day by visiting Lindos. The Acropolis of Lindos entry fee is about €12 per person.
   
2. Have lunch in Lindos with an estimated budget of €15-20 per person.
   
3. Spend your afternoon at St. Paul's Bay for some snorkeling. This is a public beach, so there's no entry fee.
   
4. If there's still daylight and energy left, finish your day by visiting Tsambika Beach, another beautiful public beach.
   

Estimated total budget for Day 2: €70-€80 (for two people, excluding transport)
The cost of transport will depend on the type of transport you choose. The bus will be the most economical, but car rental offers more flexibility.
The above are rough estimates, and actual prices may vary. Always check current prices before your visit.

You know, there was this one kid from St. Louis, Lawrence Peter Berra was his name, but everyone around town knew him as Yogi. Funny nickname, isn't it? Ah, but that's a story for another day. Now, where was I? Oh, right. So, it was June 6th, 1944, a date as indelible as a birthmark on the face of history, and young Yogi, a stripling of a mere 19 summers, was riding a tin can across the choppy waters of the English Channel.
This wasn't any old pleasure cruise, mind you. Yogi wasn't bobbing along on a sunset sail, with the wind gently tousling his hair. No sir. This was D-Day, and the "D" didn't stand for daydream or dandelion or any such fluff. It stood for Decision, Destiny, Doom...you get the picture. Our Yogi was a member of a landing craft crew, speeding not towards sun-soaked shores but towards the fearsome, bullet-laden beaches of Normandy.
Now, the story takes a turn for the rough. Amidst the ear-splitting cacophony of war - the crash of waves against metal hull, the roar of machine guns, the screams of men - young Yogi took a bullet right in the hand. You heard it right, ladies and gentlemen, he was shot by some faceless enemy, hiding behind the smoke and the fear. But did he wail or whimper? No. He gritted his teeth, held on, and did his duty. His gallantry did not go unnoticed - for this grim badge of honor, Yogi earned himself a Purple Heart.
So, remember this: next time you're feeling down about a stubbed toe or a paper cut, just think of Yogi, his hand pierced by a machine gun round, sailing towards the belly of the beast. It's men like him who are the real heroes, even if they don't make the front page of the paper every day. So let's raise a glass for Yogi, shall we? He deserves a good toast, don't you think?