Your Monday daily deals. Give a shout in the comments (so others can upvote) if there is something you would like me to look for or sign-up to get these via email, below.
GOLF CLUBS
$444 $257 Rogue ST MAX LS Driver: MINT Callaway Driver available right handed with stiff shaft 65-75 grams. No coupon code needed. Shipping is 9.95
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APPAREL
$53 $32 Greg Norman Freedom Micro Pique Classic Stripe Men's Shirt: Available in 7 colors in sizes M-XXL. Use code Golfer2023 at checkout. Shipping is 6.99
$30 $13 PGA Tour Men's Surprise Polo: Comes in 8 colors. Sizes range from S-3XL. Use coupon code BDPGASP-FS at checkout. Shipping is free
$30 $9 Srixon Golf Tour Original Adjustable Hat: Available in Black/Gray. No coupon code needed. Shipping is $6
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GOLF SHOES
$120 $50 Skechers GO GOLF Arch Fit Set Up Golf Shoes: Available in Grey/Red in sizes 8-13. No coupon code needed. Shipping is 10.99
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OTHER
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Friday's deals - click here in case you missed it
EVERGREEN (non-expiring) DISCOUNT CODES:

• Use GOLFER2023 at GlobalGolf.com for 10% off
• Use HOLEINONE at RockBottomGolf.com for $10 off $50
• Veterans / First Responders (approximately 15% off across each): Taylormade, PXG, Dunlop brands - Srixon, Cleveland, XXIO, Callaway, Wilson all offer discounts
• *Help me expand this list*

Note: I may earn commissions on these deals when you make a purchase. This income helps cover the costs involved in building scraping tools / identifying these deals. This is cleared with the mods.

Globally acknowledged as, ‘The Big Apple’, ‘The Never Sleeping City’ and sometimes also as ‘Gotham City’, New York is primarily known for its extraordinary scenic beauty, gratitude for being situated on a natural harbor, and the cityscape that brings life to the building after sunset. If you are planning to visit NYC with friends or family do look for a deal/offer with a reputed airline, for instance, Southwest Airlines Vacation Packages. However, New York has incalculable attractions including sky-scraper buildings amazing museums, lush parks, vibrant streets, restaurants, shops, and much more, the city has many things to offer to every visitor. Besides, charming college towns upstate, gorgeous lakes, and even world-famous waterfalls are just unique spots and centers of top attractions.
New York City is one of the top-visited 5 destinations in the world. So, visiting this dynamic city will just rejuvenate your mind exceptionally. This content contains five highly visited and most popular sights that no traveler should ever, ever, miss at any cost. This trip is going to offer you a wonderful memory forever, keep reading the post till the end.
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1. The Statue of Liberty

America's most famous sight, the Statue of Liberty is at the highest point of each and every first-time traveler's places to visit in New York list. Interestingly, it was actually a gift from France to America. Inaugurated in 1886, it still symbolized a world freedom icon and is known as one of the USA’s top attractions.
Being a 152 feet tall structure from the base to the light, it is popularly known to be one of the world's biggest sculptures, weighing roughly 450,000 pounds. You can see the sculpture from land, with especially great perspectives from Battery Park, on the southern tip of Manhattan.
To genuinely see the value in the Statue of Liberty, the best thing to do is to go on a short boat outing to Liberty Island and see it very close. Go for a soothing walk around the base, and on the off chance that you have reservations, enter the platform or the crown. The crown has now been opened for visitors, yet book well ahead of time to partake in this unique experience.
On a visit to the Statue of Liberty, you have the choice to stop at Ellis Island and explore the Migration Gallery. This phenomenal gallery is situated in the noteworthy movement station complex, where a great many outsiders were handled prior to entering the US.
2. The Central Park
A walk, carriage ride, and pedal through the crisscross ways of Central Park is a must-do on every traveler’s NYC visiting schedule. During the winter, you might bind up your skates and glide across Wollman Rink. This colossal park in the downtown area, a half-mile wide and 2.5 miles long, is something that makes NYC such a delightful and decent city.
Other than being an extraordinary spot to encounter a little nature, Central Park includes numerous attractions inside its lines, and the greater part of them are free, making it one of the thrifty and exceptional modest activities in New York City. The absolute most famous spots to visit incorporate the Belvedere Palace, Strawberry Fields, the Central Park Zoo, and the soothing Lake. In the event that you are looking for the recreation area all alone, begin by getting a guide at one of the guest places and schedule your road map.
You may apply one of the smart options to book cheap air tickets online. Experts also suggest preferring Southwest Low Fare Calendar would be a great way to reserve seats for New York City. Although, booking a flight of your choice is not restricted but this is an online tool that shows low-fare flights on different dates of a specific month. You can book a flight of your preference using this online tool with a very minimal budget too.
3. American Museum of Natural History
One of the most iconic museums for a family outing in NYC is the American Museum of Natural History has something to engage everybody. Eight extremely durable display halls boast all that is intriguing about the natural environment of the earth, from science and the climate to creatures and fossils.
This magnificent museum hosts unique shows that run for a pre-scheduled time. A portion of the ongoing displays that are definitely worth seeing remembers one for sharks, highlighting models of these astounding animals that you can really contact. Another interesting showcase is the exclusive 22-carat Okavango Blue Precious Diamond.
A feature of any visit is a walk around the Butterfly Studio. Inside this humid and warm environment-controlled house, you will share the space with more than 500 species of fluttering and colorful butterflies. However, visiting the American Museum of Natural History brings a fascinating experience and a sweet memory forever.
4. Times Square
Fixed with enormous, splendidly lit boards and screens, Times Square is the spot to go in NYC at night, yet exciting whenever of day. This is the area where New Year's Eve Festivities are organized and the renowned ‘ball drop’ at sharp 12 PM when the square and encompassing roads are loaded up with both foreign travelers and locals.
Times Square is a very fast location with densely crowded travelers however it scatters an allure of its own. This unique spot is recognized as an incredible place to enjoy some time off and pay high value to the amazing scenery around it. In general, most people prefer Southwest Low Fare Calendar to book flights online in advance. However, you may book a flight that justifies your preferences adequately.
Previously it was known as ‘Longacre Square’, but in 1904 it was renamed after the New York Times tower. The daily read English newspaper previously posted current titles along its moving sign, the first of its sort on the planet, in 1928.
On the off chance that you've had your fill of sitting on the seats and are searching for something enjoyable to do either collectively or as a couple, walk around to Madame Tussaud's Wax Gallery. The shockingly life-like wax dolls highlight New York City symbols like Jimmy Fallon and the arrangement of The Tonight Show, Broadway cast individuals and shows where you really get to spruce up and partake. The glass of the building dome distends over Times Square for magnificent views.
5. Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Met, as it is popularly known, was established in 1870, and is quite one of the most popular museums in the USA. The super durable collection of The Met contains about 2 million artworks, spanning an extensive time frame of more than 5,000 years.
Albeit the Museum consists of three sites, the focal point is The Met Fifth Avenue. Features of this assortment incorporate the Decorative Arts of America, arms and armor, war outfits, Egyptian craftsmanship, ancient instruments of music, photos, and considerably more. Continuously changing shows bring a portion of the world's most well-known works to general visitors.
The Met Cloisters, situated in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, is another very famous New York exhibition Museum. This part of the Metropolitan Gallery of Art, housed in a remarkable design, beautified in medieval orders, sanctuaries, and lobbies, centers around the middle-age workmanship and architectural expertise of Europe.
Concluding Notion
The appealing beauty of New York City and truly exceptional sights will bring you a wonderful memory forever. However, experts suggest booking a flight always in advance to avoid the rush that usually occurs at the 11th hour and early booking is also a great way to save money on airfares. In this respect, you may also speak to an authorized executive to know about Southwest Airlines Vacation Packages or any ongoing offedeal. Moreover, booking hotels in advance is also an act of wisdom to escape unnecessary complications after reaching the destination.

Everything in my inventory is up for trade. The most valuable items are listed here, the rest you can find in My Inventory

Feel free to Add Me or even better send a Trade Offer. Open for any suggestions: upgrades, downgrades / knives, gloves, skins / stickers, patterns, floats.

All Buyouts are listed in cash value.

KNIVES

★ Butterfly Knife Freehand FN #1, B/O: $2500

★ Butterfly Knife Ultraviolet FT, B/O: $822

★ Butterfly Knife Scorched FT, B/O: $616

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★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth MW #1, B/O: $1300

★ Bayonet Autotronic FN, B/O: $1050

★ Bayonet Tiger Tooth MW, B/O: $629

★ Bayonet Bright Water FT, B/O: $326

★ Bayonet Safari Mesh BS, B/O: $233

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★ Karambit Lore FT, B/O: $1110

★ Karambit Damascus Steel FT, B/O: $840

★ Karambit Freehand MW, B/O: $784

★ Karambit Bright Water MW, B/O: $759

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★ M9 Bayonet Fade FN, B/O: $1801

★ M9 Bayonet Fade FN, B/O: $1801

★ M9 Bayonet Damascus Steel FN, B/O: $751

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★ Nomad Knife Fade FN, B/O: $1156

★ Nomad Knife Slaughter MW, B/O: $544

★ Nomad Knife Blue Steel WW, B/O: $318

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★ Flip Knife Marble Fade FN, B/O: $646

★ Flip Knife Doppler (Phase 4) FN, B/O: $574

★ Flip Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 1) MW, B/O: $552

★ Flip Knife Case Hardened FT, B/O: $257

★ Flip Knife Freehand FT, B/O: $255

★ StatTrak™ Flip Knife Bright Water FN, B/O: $287

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★ Huntsman Knife Lore FN, B/O: $461

★ Huntsman Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 4) FN, B/O: $436

★ Huntsman Knife Doppler (Phase 3) FN, B/O: $353

★ Huntsman Knife Autotronic FT, B/O: $212

★ Huntsman Knife Bright Water FT, B/O: $129

★ Huntsman Knife Forest DDPAT MW, B/O: $129

★ Huntsman Knife Forest DDPAT BS, B/O: $123

★ StatTrak™ Huntsman Knife Rust Coat BS, B/O: $127

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★ Bowie Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 2) FN, B/O: $375

★ Bowie Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 1) FN, B/O: $363

★ Bowie Knife Tiger Tooth FN, B/O: $269

★ Bowie Knife Crimson Web WW, B/O: $192

★ Bowie Knife Bright Water FN, B/O: $159

★ Bowie Knife Ultraviolet FT, B/O: $126

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★ Stiletto Knife Slaughter FN, B/O: $616

★ Stiletto Knife Crimson Web FT, B/O: $412

★ StatTrak™ Stiletto Knife Night Stripe FT, B/O: $227

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★ Falchion Knife Lore FT, B/O: $214

★ Falchion Knife Autotronic FT, B/O: $192

★ Falchion Knife Scorched WW, B/O: $105

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★ Survival Knife Crimson Web BS, B/O: $216

★ Survival Knife Case Hardened FT, B/O: $198

★ Survival Knife Scorched FT, B/O: $111

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★ Shadow Daggers Fade FN, B/O: $368

★ Shadow Daggers Doppler (Phase 3) FN, B/O: $228

★ Shadow Daggers, B/O: $201

★ Shadow Daggers Damascus Steel FT, B/O: $108

★ Shadow Daggers Ultraviolet FT, B/O: $105

★ Shadow Daggers Black Laminate FT, B/O: $99

★ Shadow Daggers Forest DDPAT FT, B/O: $85

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★ Gut Knife Doppler (Sapphire) MW #1, B/O: $1700

★ Gut Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 1) FN, B/O: $223

★ Gut Knife Marble Fade FN, B/O: $203

★ Gut Knife Doppler (Phase 2) FN, B/O: $191

★ Gut Knife Case Hardened BS, B/O: $127

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★ Navaja Knife Doppler (Phase 4) FN, B/O: $199

★ Navaja Knife Doppler (Phase 4) FN, B/O: $199

★ Navaja Knife, B/O: $138

★ Navaja Knife Damascus Steel FN, B/O: $111

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★ Classic Knife Urban Masked FT, B/O: $146

★ StatTrak™ Classic Knife Stained BS, B/O: $168

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★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Phase 3) FN, B/O: $476

★ Ursus Knife, B/O: $375

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★ Skeleton Knife, B/O: $1137

★ Talon Knife, B/O: $608

★ Paracord Knife, B/O: $305

★ Survival Knife Forest DDPAT FT, B/O: $97

GLOVES

★ Moto Gloves Transport MW, B/O: $204

★ Moto Gloves Polygon BS, B/O: $142

★ Moto Gloves Blood Pressure BS, B/O: $84

★ Moto Gloves Blood Pressure BS, B/O: $84

★ Moto Gloves 3rd Commando Company BS, B/O: $63

★ Moto Gloves 3rd Commando Company BS, B/O: $63

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★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Kimono WW, B/O: $1215

★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike FT, B/O: $672

★ Specialist Gloves Lt. Commander FT, B/O: $305

★ Specialist Gloves Lt. Commander BS, B/O: $140

★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web BS, B/O: $137

★ Specialist Gloves Buckshot FT, B/O: $75

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★ Driver Gloves Crimson Weave FT, B/O: $359

★ Driver Gloves Imperial Plaid BS, B/O: $229

★ Driver Gloves Overtake BS, B/O: $77

★ Driver Gloves Racing Green FT, B/O: $48

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★ Sport Gloves Omega FT, B/O: $739

★ Sport Gloves Amphibious BS #2, B/O: $733

★ Sport Gloves Arid BS, B/O: $292

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★ Hand Wraps Giraffe MW, B/O: $212

★ Hand Wraps Leather FT, B/O: $160

★ Hand Wraps Desert Shamagh MW, B/O: $101

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★ Broken Fang Gloves Yellow-banded MW, B/O: $185

★ Broken Fang Gloves Needle Point FT, B/O: $67

★ Broken Fang Gloves Needle Point WW, B/O: $59

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★ Hydra Gloves Case Hardened BS, B/O: $65

★ Hydra Gloves Emerald FT, B/O: $65

★ Hydra Gloves Emerald BS, B/O: $62

WEAPONS

AK-47 Case Hardened BS, B/O: $130

AK-47 Bloodsport MW, B/O: $79

AK-47 Fuel Injector BS, B/O: $76

AK-47 Fuel Injector BS, B/O: $76

AK-47 Bloodsport FT, B/O: $70

AK-47 Neon Rider MW, B/O: $60

StatTrak™ AK-47 Aquamarine Revenge FT, B/O: $72

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AWP Fade FN, B/O: $1039

AWP Asiimov FT, B/O: $139

AWP Asiimov FT, B/O: $139

AWP Wildfire MW, B/O: $95

AWP BOOM MW, B/O: $93

AWP BOOM MW, B/O: $93

AWP Duality FN, B/O: $81

AWP Asiimov BS, B/O: $79

AWP Asiimov BS, B/O: $79

AWP Chromatic Aberration FN, B/O: $60

StatTrak™ AWP Hyper Beast FT, B/O: $68

StatTrak™ AWP Hyper Beast FT, B/O: $68

StatTrak™ AWP Electric Hive FT, B/O: $55

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Desert Eagle Blaze FN, B/O: $623

Desert Eagle Emerald Jörmungandr FN, B/O: $241

Desert Eagle Cobalt Disruption FN, B/O: $81

Desert Eagle Cobalt Disruption FN, B/O: $81

Desert Eagle Cobalt Disruption FN, B/O: $81

Desert Eagle Printstream FT, B/O: $54

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M4A1-S Blue Phosphor FN, B/O: $434

StatTrak™ M4A1-S Bright Water MW, B/O: $55

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M4A4 Poseidon FN, B/O: $1465

M4A4 Asiimov BS, B/O: $55

M4A4 Hellfire MW, B/O: $50

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USP-S Kill Confirmed MW, B/O: $72

USP-S Printstream FT, B/O: $69

StatTrak™ USP-S Kill Confirmed FT, B/O: $139

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AUG Flame Jörmungandr FN, B/O: $234

P90 Run and Hide FT, B/O: $147

Five-SeveN Candy Apple FN, B/O: $61

Trade Offer Link - Steam Profile Link - My Inventory

Knives - Bowie Knife, Butterfly Knife, Falchion Knife, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Huntsman Knife, M9 Bayonet, Bayonet, Karambit, Shadow Daggers, Stiletto Knife, Ursus Knife, Navaja Knife, Talon Knife, Classic Knife, Paracord Knife, Survival Knife, Nomad Knife, Skeleton Knife, Patterns - Gamma Doppler, Doppler (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4, Black Pearl, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald), Crimson Web, Lore, Fade, Ultraviolet, Night, Marble Fade (Fire & Ice, Fake FI), Case Hardened (Blue Gem), Autotronic, Slaughter, Black Laminate, Tiger Tooth, Boreal Forest, Scorched, Blue Steel, Vanilla, Damascus Steel, Forest DDPAT, Urban Masked, Freehand, Stained, Bright Water, Safari Mesh, Rust Coat, Gloves - Bloodhound Gloves (Charred, Snakebite, Guerrilla, Bronzed), Driver Gloves (Snow Leopard, King Snake, Crimson Weave, Imperial Plaid, Black Tie, Lunar Weave, Diamondback, Rezan the Red, Overtake, Queen Jaguar, Convoy, Racing Green), Hand Wraps (Cobalt Skulls, CAUTION!, Overprint, Slaughter, Leather, Giraffe, Badlands, Spruce DDPAT, Arboreal, Constrictor, Desert Shamagh, Duct Tape), Moto Gloves (Spearmint, POW!, Cool Mint, Smoke Out, Finish Line, Polygon, Blood Pressure, Turtle, Boom!, Eclipse, 3rd Commando Company, Transport), Specialist Gloves (Crimson Kimono, Tiger Strike, Emerald Web, Field Agent, Marble Fade, Fade, Foundation, Lt. Commander, Crimson Web, Mogul, Forest DDPAT, Buckshot), Sport Gloves (Pandora's Box, Superconductor, Hedge Maze, Vice, Amphibious, Slingshot, Omega, Arid, Big Game, Nocts, Scarlet Shamagh, Bronze Morph), Hydra Gloves (Case Hardened, Emerald, Rattler, Mangrove), Broken Fang Gloves (Jade, Yellow-banded, Unhinged, Needle Point), Pistols - P2000 (Wicked Sick, Ocean Foam, Fire Element, Amber Fade, Corticera, Chainmail, Imperial Dragon, Obsidian, Scorpion, Handgun, Acid Etched), USP-S (Printstream, Kill Confirmed, Whiteout, Road Rash, Owergrowth, The Traitor, Neo-Noir, Dark Water, Orion, Blueprint, Stainless, Caiman, Serum, Monster Mashup, Royal Blue, Ancient Visions, Cortex, Orange Anolis, Ticket To Hell, Black Lotus, Cyrex, Check Engine, Guardian, Purple DDPAT, Torque, Blood Tiger, Flashback, Business Class, Pathfinder, Para Green), Lead Conduit, Glock-18 (Umbral Rabbit, Fade, Candy Apple, Bullet Queen, Synth Leaf, Neo-Noir, Nuclear Garden, Dragon Tatto, Reactor, Pink DDPAT, Twilight Galaxy, Sand Dune, Groundwater, Blue Fissure, Snack Attack, Water Elemental, Brass, Wasteland Rebel, Vogue, Franklin, Royal Legion, Gamma Doppler, Weasel, Steel Disruption, Ironwork, Grinder, High Beam, Moonrise, Oxide Blaze, Bunsen Burner, Clear Polymer, Bunsen Burner, Night), P250 (Re.built, Nuclear Threat, Modern Hunter, Splash, Whiteout, Vino Primo, Mehndi, Asiimov, Visions, Undertow, Cartel, See Ya Later, Gunsmoke, Splash, Digital Architect, Muertos, Red Rock, Bengal Tiger, Crimson Kimono, Wingshot, Metallic DDPAT, Hive, Dark Filigree, Mint Kimono), Five-Seven (Neon Kimono, Berries And Cherries, Fall Hazard, Crimson Blossom, Hyper Beast, Nitro, Fairy Tale, Case Hardened, Copper Galaxy, Angry Mob, Monkey Business, Fowl Play, Anodized Gunmetal, Hot Shot, Retrobution, Boost Protocol), CZ75-Auto (Chalice, Crimson Web, Emerald Quartz, The Fuschia is Now, Nitro, Xiangliu, Yellow Jacket, Victoria, Poison Dart, Syndicate, Eco, Hexane, Pole, Tigris), Tec-9 (Rebel, Terrace, Nuclear Threat, Hades, Rust Leaf, Decimator, Blast From, Orange Murano, Toxic, Fuel Injector, Remote Control, Bamboo Forest, Isaac, Avalanche, Brother, Re-Entry, Blue Titanium, Bamboozle), R8 Revolver (Banana Cannon, Fade, Blaze, Crimson Web, Liama Cannon, Crazy 8, Reboot, Canal Spray, Night, Amber Fade), Desert Eagle (Blaze, Hand Cannon, Fennec Fox, Sunset Storm, Emerald Jörmungandr, Pilot, Hypnotic, Golden Koi, Printstream, Cobalt Disruption, Code Red, Ocean Drive, Midnight Storm, Kumicho Dragon, Crimson Web, Heirloom, Night Heist, Mecha Industries, Night, Conspiracy, Trigger Discipline, Naga, Directive, Light Rail), Dual Berettas (Flora Carnivora, Duelist, Cobra Strike, Black Limba, Emerald, Hemoglobin, Twin Turbo, Marina, Melondrama, Pyre, Retribution, Briar, Dezastre, Royal Consorts, Urban Shock, Dualing Dragons, Panther, Balance), Rifles - Galil (Aqua Terrace, Winter Forest, Chatterbox, Sugar Rush, Pheonix Blacklight, CAUTION!, Orange DDPAT, Cerberus, Dusk Ruins, Eco, Chromatic Aberration, Stone Cold, Tuxedo, Sandstorm, Shattered, Urban Rubble, Rocket Pop, Kami, Crimson Tsunami, Connexion), SCAR-20 (Fragments, Brass, Cyrex, Palm, Splash Jam, Cardiac, Emerald, Crimson Web, Magna Carta, Stone Mosaico, Bloodsport, Enforcer), AWP (Duality, Gungnir, Dragon Lore, Prince, Medusa, Desert Hydra, Fade, Lightning Strike, Oni Taiji, Silk Tiger, Graphite, Chromatic Aberration, Asiimov, Snake Camo, Boom, Containment Breach, Wildfire, Redline, Electric Hive, Hyper Beast, Neo-Noir, Man-o'-war, Pink DDPAT, Corticera, Sun in Leo, Elite Build, Fever Dream, Atheris, Mortis, PAW, Exoskeleton, Worm God, POP AWP, Phobos, Acheron, Pit Viper, Capillary, Safari Mesh), AK-47 (Head Shot, Wild Lotus, Gold Arabesque, X-Ray, Fire Serpent, Hydroponic, Panthera Onca, Case Hardened, Vulcan, Jet Set, Fuel Injector, Bloodsport, Nightwish, First Class, Neon Rider, Asiimov, Red Laminate, Aquamarine Revenge, The Empress, Wasteland Rebel, Jaguar, Black Laminate, Leet Museo, Neon Revolution, Redline, Frontside Misty, Predator, Legion of Anubis, Point Disarray, Orbit Mk01, Blue Laminate, Green Laminate, Emerald Pinstripe, Cartel, Phantom Disruptor, Jungle Spray, Safety Net, Rat Rod, Baroque Purple, Slate, Elite Build, Uncharted, Safari Mesh), FAMAS (Sundown, Prime Conspiracy, Afterimage, Commemoration, Dark Water, Spitfire, Pulse, Eye of Athena, Meltdown, Rapid Eye Move, Roll Cage, Styx, Mecha Industrie, Djinn, ZX Spectron, Valence, Neural Net, Night Borre, Hexne), M4A4 (Temukau, Howl, Poseidon, Asiimov, Daybreak, Hellfire, Zirka, Red DDPAT, Radiation Hazard, Modern Hunter, The Emperor, The Coalition, Bullet Rain, Cyber Security, X-Ray, Dark Blossom, Buzz Kill, In Living Color, Neo-Noir, Desolate Space, 龍王 (Dragon King), Royal Paladin, The Battlestar, Global Offensive, Tooth Fairy, Desert-Strike, Griffin, Evil Daimyo, Spider Lily, Converter), M4A1-S (Emphorosaur-S, Welcome to the Jungle, Imminent Danger, Knight, Hot Rod, Icarus Fell, Blue Phosphor, Printstream, Master Piece, Dark Water, Golden Coil, Bright Water, Player Two, Atomic Alloy, Guardian, Chantico's Fire, Hyper Beast, Mecha Industries, Cyrex, Control Panel, Moss Quartz, Nightmare, Decimator, Leaded Glass, Basilisk, Blood Tiger, Briefing, Night Terror, Nitro, VariCamo, Flashback), SG 553 (Cyberforce, Hazard Pay, Bulldozer, Integrale, Dragon Tech, Ultraviolet, Colony IV, Hypnotic, Cyrex, Candy Apple, Barricade, Pulse), SSG 08 (Death Strike, Sea Calico, Blood in the Water, Orange Filigree, Dragonfire, Big Iron, Bloodshot, Detour, Turbo Peek, Red Stone), AUG (Akihabara Accept, Flame Jörmungandr, Hot Rod, Midnight Lily, Sand Storm, Carved Jade, Wings, Anodized Navy, Death by Puppy, Torque, Bengal Tiger, Chameleon, Fleet Flock, Random Access, Momentum, Syd Mead, Stymphalian, Arctic Wolf, Aristocrat, Navy Murano), G3SG1 (Chronos, Violet Murano, Flux, Demeter, Orange Kimono, The Executioner, Green Apple, Arctic Polar Camo, Contractor), SMGs - P90 (Neoqueen, Astral Jörmungandr, Run and Hide, Emerald Dragon, Cold Blooded, Death by Kitty, Baroque Red, Vent Rush, Blind Spot, Asiimov, Trigon, Sunset Lily, Death Grip, Leather, Nostalgia, Fallout Warning, Tiger Pit, Schermatic, Virus, Shapewood, Glacier Mesh, Shallow Grave, Chopper, Desert Warfare), MAC-10 (Sakkaku, Hot Snakes, Copper Borre, Red Filigree, Gold Brick, Graven, Case Hardened, Stalker, Amber Fade, Neon Rider, Tatter, Curse, Propaganda, Nuclear Garden, Disco Tech, Toybox, Heat, Indigo), UMP-45 (Wild Child, Fade, Blaze, Day Lily, Minotaur's Labyrinth, Crime Scene, Caramel, Bone Pile, Momentum, Primal Saber), MP7 (Teal Blossom, Fade, Nemesis, Whiteout, Asterion, Bloosport, Abyssal Apparition, Full Stop, Special Delivery, Neon Ply, Asterion, Ocean Foam, Powercore, Scorched, Impire), PP-Bizon (Modern Hunter, Rust Coat, Forest Leaves, Antique, High Roller, Blue Streak, Seabird, Judgement of Anubis, Bamboo Print, Embargo, Chemical Green, Coblat Halftone, Fuel Rod, Photic Zone, Irradiated Alert, Carbon Fiber), MP9 (Featherweight, Wild Lily, Pandora's Box, Stained Glass, Bulldozer, Dark Age, Hot Rod, Hypnotic, Hydra, Rose Iron, Music Box, Setting Sun, Food Chain, Airlock, Mount Fuji, Starlight Protector, Ruby Poison Dart, Deadly Poison), MP5-SD (Liquidation, Oxide Oasis, Phosphor, Nitro, Agent, Autumn Twilly), Shotguns, Machineguns - Sawed-Off (Kiss♥Love, First Class, Orange DDPAT, Rust Coat, The Kraken, Devourer, Mosaico, Wasteland Princess, Bamboo Shadow, Copper, Serenity, Limelight, Apocalypto), XM1014 (Frost Borre, Ancient Lore, Red Leather, Elegant Vines, Banana Leaf, Jungle, Urban Perforated, Grassland, Blaze Orange, Heaven Guard, VariCamo Blue, Entombed, XOXO, Seasons, Tranquility, Bone Machine, Incinegator, Teclu Burner, Black Tie, Zombie Offensive, Watchdog), Nova (Baroque Orange, Hyper Beast, Green Apple, Antique, Modern Hunter, Walnut, Forest Leaves, Graphite, Blaze Orange, Rising Skull, Tempest, Bloomstick, Interlock, Quick Sand, Moon in Libra, Clean Polymer, Red Quartz, Toy Soldier), MAG-7 (Insomnia, Cinqueda, Counter Terrace, Prism Terrace, Memento, Chainmail, Hazard, Justice, Bulldozer, Silver, Core Breach, Firestarter, Praetorian, Heat, Hard Water, Monster Call, BI83 Spectrum, SWAG-7), M249 (Humidor, Shipping Forecast, Blizzard Marbleized, Downtown, Jungle DDPAT, Nebula Crusader, Impact Drill, Emerald Poison Dart), Negev (Mjölnir, Anodized Navy, Palm, Power Loader, Bratatat, CaliCamo, Phoenix Stencil, Infrastructure, Boroque Sand), Wear - Factory New (FN), Minimal Wear (MW), Field-Tested (FT), Well-Worn (WW), Battle-Scarred (BS), Stickers Holo/Foil/Gold - Katowice 2014, Krakow 2017, Howling Dawn, Katowice 2015, Crown, London 2018, Cologne 2014, Boston 2018, Atlanta 2017, Cluj-Napoca 2015, DreamHack 2014, King on the Field, Harp of War, Winged Difuser, Cologne 2016, Cologne 2015, MLG Columbus 2016, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019, RMR 2020, Stockholm 2021, Antwerp 2022, Swag Foil, Flammable foil, Others - Souvenirs, Agents, Pins, Passes, Gifts, Music Kits, Cases, Keys, Capsules, Packages, Patches

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Hello everyone, This is my first post here. I have bought a brand new ACER Aspire7 A715-51G-794M (the i7 version) on the 1st of June. It's my first time buying an ACER product and I bought it because it has a very good hardware compared with its price. It came with DOS and I installed Windows 10 Pro latest version. Anyway, since I've bought it, I faced many issues that really bother me.
1st issue: Sometimes when I shut down the laptop or even restart it, it shows the acer logo and the screen goes black. I can realize that the windows really boots but the screen is black and I can hear the windows sounds when I use keyboard shortcuts or receiving notifications or even the keyboard lights are on. I searched on youtube through my phone and found a fix for this problem which is whenever I face this problem I turn off the laptop through holding power button then connect the power cord to the laptop and press this combo together: (Win + B + Power Button). I do not really what this combo does but it really makes the windows boot normally. If anyone has an explanation please tell me because this issue really bothers me
2nd issue: The colors of the screen is yellowish. Since I have bought the laptop, I noticed that its screen colors are not natural and are warm. I tried to calibrate the colors through calibration tool in windows 10 to make the colors look cool not warm. I successfully calibrated the colors and it became more cool than before but still not like what I want it. I compared the colors with my old LENOVO laptop that I bought in 2019 and noticed that the old one has more natural colors and high brightness than the new one. I have the latest drivers for my both intel UHD and nvidia RTX 3050 graphics cards.
3rd issue: The sound of the laptop speakers is very low. I need to raise the volume to 100% to just listen to clear proper sound of any content whether online or offline. Is that normal? because on my old LENOVO laptop I just used 30% of the volume to listen to a normal clear sound. I am using latest drivers from the acer support webpage for my laptop. Any help???
4th issue: Since the new laptop has a good graphics card, I tried to run a game on it just to test it. I installed Marvel's Spider Man Remastered with its latest updates and found out that my RTX 3050 is using just 50% or less of its power which causes frame drops, the fps don't even reach 60 fps with low settings, and whether upscaling is on or off, the fps still don't reach 60.
Finally, I know that I have many issues, but these issues for a brand new laptop with such hardware really bothers anyone. THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Hey all. I write small snipits, usually game and theme setting material. In a group I'm with now, there is an individual who has chosen to be a genderless character. I'm trying to reveal their origin to the group and in this setting the characters share their origins as memories. This person wanted me to write something for them and I'm having a bit of difficulty.
Specifically I don't know how to write a genderless story. I think I have a decent starting point but I'm worried I'm overlooking something on that front.
Additionally, with the added constraints in how I need to write this. I want to make sure the introduction sounds good by itself as well. I don't want to get too bogged down in the genderless writing aspect and make a weaker piece.
Looking for any comments and critique related to what I've come up with. Hopefully about either the genderless language or the intro itself. But anything is welcome!
They came across a sound. A soft scrape, as though the wind had shifted. The world was still. Every instinct told them danger was near and they needed to move. As silently as they could muster, they slid back into the shadows. In the stillness, they heard the scrape again, closer, as though shifting its focus to their new position. The towering hulks of trees formed a looming wall of observers in the small clearing. Breathlessly, endlessly, they waited. Just when they resigned to move, believing the sound was indeed the wind in the still night, they saw it. A flicker of movement, a slight coloration, and light. Soft at first but growing as it revealed itself. Standing before them was a stag, majestic in its existence and unapologetic for the nobility it conveyed. Stark white with moss covered points towering with its size into the overhead. As though they were merely a curiosity, it strolled forward. Each step conveying a silence and majesty unknown to them. As it reached where they hid, frozen in the gaze of the being before them, they remembered. A memory, fuzzy with age, yet powerful in conviction. A tale long of the forest. A way to inherit its will. Having the conviction of understanding they moved. Slowly and deliberately, they emerged to face it. As they stood, vulnerable in the light of it, it spoke. Not of words and language, but emotion and will. They felt its will, its pain, and its anger. Terrible anger filled with rage, pain, and loss. Images of sacrifice and mercy filled their existence. Then, as if a dream, the silence returned. With the message given, it took its leave. Unbothered and unhurried, it continued its travel through the trees as was its right. They understood. They understood who they were and what they must do.
Thanks for giving this a read!

“But it sounds like it was invented while you were at school,” Harry persisted.
”Not necessarily,” said Lupin. “Jinxes go in and out of fashion like everything else.”

Magic existed in the oldest human civilizations:

It’s amazing here in Egypt. Bill’s taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn’t believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them.

And in nature, in certain creatures and plants, presumably before hominids ever spread around the globe.
Magic is old, very old, but never static. Spells go in and out of fashion. Distinct disciplines are discovered, invented, developed, and forgotten. Magic is primordial, like the powers studied at the Department of Mysteries, but the methods used to harness magic evolve constantly. Those methods could generally be called “spells,” but they include other types of enchantments, potions, broomsticks, invisibility cloaks, and other applications of magic.
Magical Common Ancestors
Continuing on an evolution theme, and this gets more tinfoiley, one can start visualizing the structure of a possible magical tree of life. I call this the theory of magical common ancestors. An example could be the Patronus Charm and the magic of the Pensieve. Imagine these share a magical common ancestor that is silver-colored, and based in the power of memories. Memory, under this theory, is a natural, magical force, in the same way that the wind and the rain are, and the same way love and death and fate are. The Patronus Charm and the Pensieve are merely applications of this primordial memory magic.
To create a Patronus, one must focus on a memory:

“And how do you conjure it?”
“With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory.”

The memories of the Pensieve are invariably described as silver:

Harry hesitated, glanced at Fawkes, then got up, walked across the office, and pulled open the cabinet door.
A shallow stone basin lay there, with odd carvings around the edge: runes and symbols that Harry did not recognize. The silvery light was coming from the basin’s contents, which were like nothing Harry had ever seen before. He could not tell whether the substance was liquid or gas. It was a bright, whitish silver, and it was moving ceaselessly; the surface of it became ruffled like water beneath wind, and then, like clouds, separated and swirled smoothly. It looked like light made liquid — or like wind made solid — Harry couldn’t make up his mind.

What’s also interesting to me is the amorphous quality. Neither liquid nor gas. Neither formed nor unformed. Able to become distinctly formed when the right conditions are met. Patronuses are described in somewhat similar terms: spewing forth like a spray when weak and when strong, fully formed. These two magical tools are not the same, but maybe they are sourced from the same type of magic.
I wondered too if ghosts are the same, as they are, in a sense, the living memory of a person who died. Ghosts are also described as silver and silvery:

Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver.

…

Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other Houses, eyeing one another’s new haircuts and robes.

Both as gases:

One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

And as a liquid:

The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he’d just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.

Formed:

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Yet also appearing transparent and indistinct. I don’t know if ghosts are a manifestation of this primordial memory magic, but it’s fun to think about.
Secret-Keepers and the Chamber of Secrets
Unplottability. When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret remains as it was at the moment of their death. Everyone in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but no one else. If I was the Secret-Keeper of my house and told no-one the location, and died, the house would continue to exist but remain hidden indefinitely.
I wonder if the Chamber of Secrets works in a similar way, except that the secret could be accessed by any Heir of Slytherin. A Secret-Keeper can reveal their secret though, and the Heir can give access to the Chamber to anyone. Secrets lose their magic the more people know them, thus Ron is able to get inside the Chamber in Deathly Hallows - he’d been there before with Harry. Likewise, the security of the Fidelius Charm is compromised the moment the secret is shared with multiple people - just ask the Potters. I speculate that the ancient magic that hid the Chamber of Secrets may be a cousin of the complex Fidelius charm. I speculate that they both operate using an older magic, the magic of secrets.
Boggarts, Dementors, and Poltergeists
These three are all unalive spirits. They float, at times invisibly, and they seem to personify certain emotions, fear, depression, and mischief. Are there other spirits like them, for other emotions?
So what?
I don’t know about all this, but it’s fun to speculate. The subjects taught at Hogwarts could be the basic building blocks; Transfiguration for example is quite distinct from other classes, follows fundamental principles, and could descend from a universal transformation magic that governs change.
What are your theories? From whence came magic?

Response to "China's interception of U.S. aircraft" Li Shangfu: All countries manage their own warships and aircraft
cross-strait
2023-06-05 08:29:45
both sides of the strait
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(Reported by Hong Kong Wen Wei Po reporter Ge Chong in Beijing) At the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue yesterday, someone raised the so-called issue of "Chinese military planes and ships intercepting US military planes and expulsing US warships". In this regard, Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Li Shangfu asked back, why did the questions you raised just now happened near China's airspace and territorial waters, but not near the airspace and territorial waters of other countries? This is because China's military aircraft and warships Never go to the airspace and territorial waters of other countries to do so-called navigation hegemony. The Chinese Defense Minister stated eloquently that the best way is for countries to manage their own warships and aircraft well.
◆Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Li Shangfu delivered a speech on the topic of "China's New Security Initiative" at the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue yesterday.
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Li Shangfu said that China and many relevant countries have formulated rules for sea and air encounters, these are to avoid unnecessary dangers during encounters.
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A fierce confrontation between China and the United States will be an unbearable pain for the world
​
Li Shangfu delivered a speech on the topic of "China's New Security Initiative" at the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue yesterday. According to CCTV reports, when it comes to Sino-US relations, he said that Sino-US relations are related to global strategic stability and are also the focus of attention of all countries.
​
Li Shangfu said that China believes that China and the United States should live up to expectations and follow the trend of the times. The significance of Sino-US relations has long gone beyond bilateral relations and has global influence. The international community generally hopes for the healthy and stable development of Sino-US relations, and worries about conflicts and confrontations. It is undeniable that if there is a fierce conflict and confrontation between China and the United States, it will be an unbearable pain for the world. China believes that a big country should behave like a big country, and should not provoke confrontation between camps for temporary selfishness. It should take into account the overall situation, resolve differences through exchanges and cooperation, and respond to the expectations of various countries. History should not be forgotten and lessons learned.
​
Li Shangfu pointed out that China and the United States have different systems and great differences, but this does not prevent the two sides from seeking common ground while reserving differences to develop bilateral relations, nor does it prevent the two sides from deepening cooperation based on common interests. History has proved time and again that China and the United States both benefit from cooperation and lose from confrontation. China has been seeking to establish a new type of major-country relationship with the United States, but this requires the United States to show sincerity, match words with deeds, and take practical actions to meet China halfway, so as to promote the stabilization of the relationship between the two countries and the two militaries. Find a way to get along without fear of difficulties. In the past few years, Sino-US relations have hovered at a low point after the establishment of diplomatic relations. Everyone knows the reasons for this difficult situation. The world is big enough to accommodate the common development of countries in the region, including China and the United States. The three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation are the correct way for China and the United States to get along with each other.
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Countries outside the region try to disrupt the South China Sea for profit
​
Regarding the South China Sea issue, Li Shangfu said in his speech that with the joint efforts of countries in the region, the situation in the South China Sea is generally stable and exchanges and cooperation are deepening. At present, tens of thousands of ships from various countries pass through the South China Sea every year, and the total value of goods transported to the world is as high as 3.5 trillion U.S. dollars. It has never been heard of a ship whose passage is blocked or its safety is threatened. On the contrary, some countries outside the region are exercising "navigation hegemony" in the name of "navigation freedom". They want to disrupt the South China Sea for profit. We need to be highly vigilant and resolutely resist.
​
Li Shangfu said that it is normal for neighbors to have differences, and everyone is communicating and negotiating to resolve them properly. However, some countries outside the region are sowing discord behind their backs. We must distinguish between interests and remain sober. China is willing to join hands with countries in the region to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, actively promote consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly build the South China Sea into a sea of ​​peace, friendship and development.
​
The Asia-Pacific does not need to form cliques and "cliques"
​
Li Shangfu also pointed out that facts have proved that wherever the hand of hegemonism and power politics is extended, there will be no peace and wars will abound. China believes that only by respecting each other and treating each other as equals can we live in harmony. Resolutely oppose imposing one's will on others, putting one's own interests above others, and basing one's own safety on the insecurity of others. Some countries wantonly meddle in other countries' internal affairs and regional affairs, resort to unilateral sanctions, force coercion, launch "color revolutions" and proxy wars everywhere, mess up a region and then walk away, leaving a mess. We must not let this happen Things are being replicated in the Asia-Pacific.
​
He said that some major powers once again proposed the so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy". China believes that no matter what the strategy is, it should not draw lines based on ideology and use so-called "imaginary threats" to build exclusive military alliances, otherwise it will easily fall into a "self-fulfilling prophecy." Attempts to promote "NATOization of the Asia-Pacific" are essentially kidnapping regional countries and exaggerating conflicts and confrontations, which will only plunge the Asia-Pacific into a vortex of division, disputes and conflicts. History has proved that bloc politics and division and confrontation will not bring real security, but will only aggravate tension and undermine regional stability. What is needed in today's Asia-Pacific is an open and inclusive "big cooperation", not a "small circle" formed by cliques.
​
In addition, at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Li Shangfu also mentioned the lyrics of an old song "My Motherland" widely sung in China: "When a friend comes, there is good wine. If the jackal comes, there is someone who welcomes it." Shotgun!"
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The Chinese army is not afraid of any opponent
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Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Li Shangfu said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore yesterday that if someone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate in the slightest, will not be afraid of any opponent, and will resolutely safeguard the country no matter how much it costs. sovereignty and territorial integrity.
​
China must be unified and must be unified
​
According to CCTV reports, regarding the Taiwan issue, Li Shangfu said in his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue that the Taiwan issue is the core of China's core interests, the Taiwan issue is China's internal affairs, and the one-China principle has become a recognized basic norm of international relations. Any act that blurs or hollows out the one-China principle is absurd and dangerous.
​
Li Shangfu said that the world can see very clearly that the DPP authorities "coerce foreign powers to seek independence" and external forces "use Taiwan to control China" to interfere in China's internal affairs are the root causes of tension in the Taiwan Strait and the biggest trouble in changing the status quo of the Taiwan Strait maker.
​
Li Shangfu said that China must be unified, and it will inevitably be unified. This is the aspiration of the people and the trend of the times. We are willing to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and best efforts, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force. If someone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate in the slightest, and will not be afraid of any opponent. No matter what the price is, the Chinese military will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
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[Expert Interpretation] China's attitude is resolutely beyond the past
​
Wang Yong, a professor at the School of International Relations at Peking University and director of the Center for American Studies at Peking University, pointed out to Hong Kong Wen Wei Po that State Councilor and Defense Minister Li Shangfu fully demonstrated the firm determination of the Chinese military to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity during the Shangri-La Dialogue, showing that China In order to safeguard the core interests of Taiwan, the core Taiwan issue is not hesitant to fight. If someone dares to split Taiwan, I believe that the Chinese military will never hesitate. The expert believes that China's statement is more resolute than in the past, and it should be aimed at the current US stepping up its deployment in the Taiwan Strait.
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The US security order is an exclusive security order
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According to Wang Yong's analysis, China and the United States have different views and opinions on the security order in the Asia-Pacific region. China advocates cooperation among major powers and coordinates a new security concept of mutual benefit and common security among regional countries. This is completely different from the so-called liberal international order advocated by the United States and its so-called leadership responsibilities in the Indo-Pacific region. Wang Yong pointed out that the essence of the security order in the United States is to maintain its own hegemony, to engage in "small circles", and to create an exclusive security order.
​
Recently, the U.S. side has made frequent announcements, expressing the obvious willingness of several government officials to visit China. According to reports, the Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in East Asia and the Pacific will visit China on the 4th. Wang Yong believes that, as China has repeatedly emphasized, the most important thing in the future is that the United States should change its strategic perception of China, correctly understand China's rise, respect China's core interests, and not play the Taiwan card or "use Taiwan to control China."
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The United States must truly respect China's core interests
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Regarding the direction of Sino-US relations in the next step, Wang Yong believes that the next step in Sino-US relations is expected to usher in opportunities for adjustment and improvement. He said that if Sino-U.S. relations continue to develop along the line that the U.S. side was too tough before, it may eventually lead to tragic results. And results that the international community does not want to see. However, how China-US relations will go next depends on the determination of the US government.
​
Wang Yong emphasized that what the U.S. government should do now is to truly respect China's core interests, truly match words with deeds, and focus on cooperation in areas where the two sides can cooperate, so as to jointly benefit the two peoples and at the same time help maintain regional peace. and stability.
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Wang Yong believes that Sino-U.S. relations may be facing the last window to improve relations before the U.S. election. China and the U.S. now have many common interests. As long as the two sides seize this opportunity, gradually resume dialogue and gradually build consensus during the dialogue, The relationship between China and the United States is still expected to recover from the decline, thereby avoiding the path of conflict and war.

Read THE Z TEAM: Book 1 on Amazon in ebook/print/Unlimited here!
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Book 1 Sample Start Book 2 Start Previous
***
The space station Ascension passed through the terminator to bathe in the sun-kissed face of Preemona. It was one of the newer Commonwealth-sponsored designs; a fat cylinder that tapered to a cluster of comms towers. Spire arms lined with airlocks and shiplocks sprouted out of the hull like branches reaching for sunlight.
Beneath it, the thick puffy clouds of a monstrous spring storm swirled on the planetscape. It had gathered its power over the Great Northern Ocean before unleashing its fury a few hundred kilometers from the Royal estate. Projections had it traveling northward, sparring the Provenance grounds from the worst of the wind and rain. Even with the benefit of forewarning and technology, hundreds would perish and billions of damage would be left in its destructive wake.
But the storm wasn’t the focus of Imperatrix Rragustus’s gaze. He sat on his throne in his observation chamber, observing the twinkle of approaching lights out of the expansive viewport. The unassuming luminance of his greatest enemy.
Councilor Traveska and his diplomatic fleet had arrived, carrying with him the wretched collection of opportunists, dissidents, traitors, and Sisters Celescia, the troublesome troupe nestled in a cocoon of blasphemy, seducing malleable minds with their salacious propaganda.
He viewed the ships in the station’s scopes. Colorful icons highlighted each of the approaching vessels. Knife-like Fleet warships lurked on the periphery in defensive positions, with the carrier positioned near the center. Though its hull bristled with weaponry, its innards carried a far more destructive assortment of arms. Days prior, one of its drones had destroyed a freighter who refused to veer off an intercept course with the diplomatic fleet. None of the ministries had ordered the aggressive act, and the Kosmogenic liaison had denied involvement, leaving the likely culprits as religious zealots or third-party saboteurs.
But the incident served as a further distraction to the Commonwealth’s mission, something Rragustus was fine with. It also made him envious and longing for the day when the Pree would build a comparable vessel of their own. The Provenance, after all, would have to ensure that pirates or raiders wouldn’t dare cause trouble in Tyrcellus again when the Commonwealth was booted from the system.
Directly in the center of the formation were the diplomatic ships. His eyes were drawn to the Eternal Spirits, his stomach sick at the thought of the Acculturation rot who hijacked the beautiful vessel. The graceful hull lines reminded him of the songbirds that swooped among the trees of the Royal grounds.
Rragustus had the pleasure of traveling aboard the cruise liner once. Having Acculturation steal it was an embarrassing failure on the part of the Provenance. Enough where capital punishment was levied against the security supervisor who botched the operation. Ghehandris had already made plans for the traitorous crew, with the rogue Captain Leross at the top of the list. When the ship was back in the hands of the Provenance, Rragustus would travel to Tyrcellus with the ministers and the loyal regents. A goodwill tour to promote civility and reunification to smother the divisiveness of the charter controversy.
He had yet to lay eyes upon the Commonwealth’s diplomatic flagship, though he’d seen plenty of media coverage as Councilor Traveska paraded it around the galaxy. Unlike the sculpted grace of the Eternal Spirits, the Good Omen had a beauty derived from its utility and function rather than aesthetics. Rragustus could appreciate the ship’s purity and capability despite loathing what it stood for.
The ship’s diplomatic tours had kept the Commonwealth together, bombarding members with all manners of incentives and promises for buying into the grand bureaucracy. It worked, until the still-unresolved destruction of Auturia had the Commonwealth teetering on the brink of dissolution.
“I wonder what will come of it once the Commonwealth unravels,” Rragustus pondered.
“What does your instinct tell you, Imperatrix?” Ghehandris said. He stood beside Rragustus, scrolling through a datapad, monitoring the storm and other matters.
“My guess is one of the member states will hijack it and claim it as rightfully theirs. Knowing the exorbitant cost, they will likely end up selling it for parts.”
“That is a valid theory, Imperatrix.”
“And what is yours?”
“I believe the ship will be converted to a habitat. Trade and docking fees should make it economically viable.”
“That…sounds promising.” Rragustus opened the ship’s specs from its public hub. “We should discuss this with our Kosmogenic friend. That would be an avenue to continue our mutually beneficial relationship.”
“An excellent idea, Imperatrix.”
Rragustus stood from his throne and went to the window. His gaze swept over the endless stars as he thought of the channel network. Used all advanced races, yet their true nature remained a mystery. Many claimed a long-lost elder race created them before they either perished or ascended to another dimension. Rragustus knew the truth; the channels were a gift from the Spirits, and such a blessing wasn’t meant to be left to the oppressive oversight of the Commonwealth.
He still harbored a small fear that the charter vote would pass. Acculturation had proven to be more formidable than expected. Regent Anncellis and her ruthlessly loyal coalition bribed, coerced, and even threatened other regents into joining with them, rendering the voting margin now too close for comfort.
Though the Provenance held an advantage on Preemona, outside its boundaries it was on the defensive. Every non-native entity operating in Tyrcellus wanted the vote to pass so they could keep the status quo. And the Commonwealth still claimed presumptuous neutrality in the whole affair. Councilor Traveska even addressed the matter publically: the Commonwealth was simply there to run the vote and honor the results whatever they may be. Behind the scenes was another story, as Commonwealth agents pushed every boundary to support Acculturation.
The success of the singers was an unpleasant surprise that grew in magnitude over many cycles. Strategically they shouldn’t be such a threat. They were entertainers. But their captivating presence was a force multiplier, a more potent weapon than even the carrier bearing down upon Preemona under the guise of peace and protection.
No matter what the Provenance did, the singers couldn’t be stopped. Disinformation and smear campaigns only seemed to empower them. There was no denying the troupe had become a cultural powerhouse and surpassed their predecessor, Lady Starlight, whose voice had lost its influence with her pullback from the public eye.
Yes, Acculturation was strong, but the Provenance had the odds in their favor.
The loose ends around Project Fidelity had been all but taken care of. The Kosmogenic liaison reported that the stolen equipment aboard the Eternal Spirits had been destroyed. Without it, the Commonwealth had little chance of unraveling the secrets of Project Fidelity.
The joint operative team now worked to implement the project’s final phase. They would clean up the remaining loose end in the chaotic aftermath of the failed vote. And when Sisters Celescia was taken into custody and the stolen compound retrieved, they would have one chance at changing their allegiance. If they chose Acculturation, then they seal their fates.
Rrghatutus smiled. Even with the star power of Councilor Traveska, Regent Anncellis, and Sisters Celescia, the Commonwealth and Acculturation would fail.
Still, there would be challenges following the charter’s defeat. Removed of a unifying cause, his political enemies would set their sights on him. Tryssnym in particular would be a major thorn in Rragustus’s side. He’d been continually hostile since his kin had gone missing from Sanctum station. Rrghatutus directed Ghehandris to have the Ministry of Security look into the matter, knowing full well the answer: Tryssnym’s kin was a project asset that went rogue. The operative team addressed the problem. Permanently. The investigation would go nowhere.
The Imperatriz suspected Tryssnym knew this but didn’t have evidence to prove it. Not even his politically savvy mind could contain his emotions roiling beneath.
“Imperatrix,” Ghehandris said, “I’ve received confirmation that the shuttle carrying your distinguished guest has just launched. The storm changed course and gave them an opening.”
“Excellent,” Rrghatutus said, still gazing upon the fleet.
Ghehandris came to Rrghatutus’s side. “Let the image burn into your memory, Imperatrix. This is a historic day. One that will be etched on stone on the palace walls. The Commonwealth comes upon us in the pride of their existence, escorted by pawns of their subjugation. They are so blind in their arrogance that they cannot see the trap they are about to step in.”
“I thank the Spirits for that daily. Otherwise, our victory wouldn’t be possible.” Rragustus stood there with his advisor. He watched the approaching fleet, observed the few orbital cargo operations in sight, then gazed upon the stars.
“It is time to prepare for the ceremony, Imperatrix,” Ghehandris said.
Imperatrix Rragustus took one last look at the stars, then faced his chief advisor, flooded with the thrill of imminent victory. “We will need to discuss which wall to etch once this is over.”
Ghehandris smiled. “I’ve already scheduled a meeting.”

Hello everyone, I'm planning to take lsd for the first time in a week. I have a 75μg tab, is it okay as a first time dose? It will be me and two friends, close ones, and one guy who I have never seen who has tried acid many many times though and my friends told me he's the best person you would want around because he knows how to handle any situations, so I'm quite chill about him being with us even if I don't know him.
The set will be a valley full of lakes on the mountains, quite a nice spot. My plan was to go camping. So reaching the valley by car, set up the tent, preparare a meal, eat and start walking. I'll take with me a backpack with a bluetooth speaker, at least 2L of water, fruits and a power bank. As we start to walk, we'll take the tab.
The walk isn't that long, luckily is a circle of 6km and it passes next to 100 lakes. it's going to take us 2/3 hours max. This means that the peak will happen when we'll be back to our tent where we'll have the already prepared food.
We'll peak at the tent. In front of it there's a very nice lake. I was wondering if it is safe to take acids near water. I really love to swim so I might come up with the idea of taking a swim. Do you suggest me to stay in the tent or do you think I'm capable of swimming under LSD effect? I think it would be sick to swim under acid but since I've never tried I don't know if it could be dangerous.
then, we'll stay and trip near the lake until sunset and we'll eventually stargaze if the sky is clear. It is one of my wishes because I want to trip whilst watching at the stars. then, when we'll want to, we'll go sleep in the tent.
I'm just concerned that I'll trip my shit out thinking we are surrounded by bears. I mean on the mountains there are bears, wolves, snakes.... So there's always a chance to encounter them. Do you think it would be dumb to trip on the mountains with the possibility of bear encounter?
I would really appreciate any other suggestion from you guys, I was thinking about taking some weed with me too. Is lsd + weed a good combination? I smoke weed almost everyday, sometimes though it makes me paranoid, not in nature too, it depends by where I Smoke it...

I hope this is the right place and someone can tell me what may have been going on in my village. I moved here a few weeks ago. It's a small village in the heart of Russia and my parents and I came here because things start to get really bad in Moscow and my father lost his job. I don't know why we had to move to this isolated village, so far away from civilization. Maybe my parents wanted peace and quiet? To escape the things in that city, the poisoned minds?
The houses here had all been far below average in price. Almost everyone who lives here has moved here recently.
But, there are crazy rumors about this village that people tell each other. It was found abandoned in the mid-nineties. Where everyone went, no one knows. They say that no signs of people were found at all, nothing. But... everywhere in and around the village… strange patches of earth had been discovered, circular and smooth. Not only in the forest or on the road, but also in the dilapidated wooden houses. At our new neighbors' house, one of the mysterious spots had supposedly been found right in the living room floor, where the floorboards had been just cut away.
These rumors scare me. I am afraid of this village. But yesterday... I was redoing the floor in my room with my father and there... I found a notebook under the old boards. I hid it from my father, I don't know why... Someone must have left it there.
Last night... that's when I read it. I read it and now I'm incredibly afraid of this house and this village. Of the fields and the woods that surround me. The notebook apparently belonged to someone called Ilya Vasiliev. I have tried to translate what he wrote, hoping that someone here can help me find an explanation for the rumors. For this uneasy feeling that I have since I moved here...
***********
I am fine. I want that to be clear from the beginning. My story is strange and in huge parts troubling, but I am still in the best state of mental health.
I am fine!
My story begins seven months ago, in December 1979, when deep winter was upon our village. We were preparing for Christmas, the first Christmas to be celebrated publicly throughout the village, after years of having to practice our faith in secret because the Soviet government did not allow religions. Only in the last few years did the Reds' view loosen and they allowed small islands of faith. One of them was my village, which finally dared to celebrate and praise the Lord.
I have been a believer all twenty years of my life, an exemplary Christian, just like my parents. Faith had kept our family line alive in times of terror and misery. Death had always been close to us, as the fields where most of the population of our village had worked for generations had once brought the end of hundreds of people. Many years ago, on those fields, atrocities had occurred that had finally given them their present name: The Fields of Death.
I myself had not been born back then, not by a long shot, but my grandparents had spent their childhood there, a childhood full of hunger and depravity. My grandfather Fomenko often told me and my sister the stories he had experienced and how faith had saved everyone. There had been a long, cold winter and the grain had been confiscated by the government to be taken to the cities for distribution. After all, the grain belonged to all the people, not just those on the farms who planted it, tended to it, and harvested it. And so, the only food of that time left my grandfather's village and never came back. Some of his neighbors had once tried to hold back some grain, to hide some sacks, but when they were caught, a hail of bullets determined their fate. People lived in fear, not daring to stop working, not daring to keep for themselves the food that was destined for the common good. In those days, horrors happened in my village that I cannot truly picture today, not even when I hear my grandfather's usually clear voice begin to tremble. When I see in his eyes that he would rather forget, in order to experience a peaceful sleep once again… someday.
He told us about those horrors to warn us of how quickly life can plunge from safety into infinite terror. Winter had reigned. The grain was being hauled away. They still shot all those who tried to keep back pieces of it, be it a sack or some husks that had fallen from a cart. In time, hunger began to drive people in our village insane. Parents locked up their children so they wouldn't be taken by neighbors to feed their hunger. Friends turned their backs on each other and killed each other in fights for the last livestock that was still breathing. The streets reeked of decay and death, of misery and suffering. One day, my grandfather told us, he had hidden in the back room of his house while his parents dragged themselves, emaciated, to the fields to pick the last scraps of grain from the furrows with their dirty, half-frozen fingers. He had come across a book there, a book that had saved his life.
The word of God. An old Bible.
My grandfather had learned to read at an early age, one of the sad advantages of living in the Soviet Union.
It was in the room I now live in that Grandfather Fomenko had found the dusty book. Actually, he had been looking for something to eat, the days before he had found some sawdust. But despite his hunger and the grumbling in his stomach, eating the book was out of the question. Books were sacred, and no book as sacred as this one. He had begun to read and learned about the greatness of the Lord. Of the miracles his Son had performed. And of the magic of faith. His stomach had growled, but he had ignored it. The words gave him comfort.
The next day he immersed himself in the book again, disappearing into better worlds and times, hearing wisdom and encouragement. But around noon there was a knock at the door. My grandfather emphasized each time that he had not been afraid, that he had known that the Lord would protect him, when the old neighbor gained entrance to our house armed with a cleaver. It was clear what he wanted: Meat. My grandfather told us each time about how the neighbor had looked more undead than human, stinking and with sunken eyes, smelling like death from his mouth, the cleaver trembling in his hand.
"I'm sorry, boy," was all the man could get out.
My grandfather tried to mimic this poor man’s voice at the end of his wits, to express his pain through words so that we understood that poor fellow a little.
The Lord's words had given courage to my grandfather in his most terrible moments. He had stood up and firmly said:
"Away with you, the Lord protects the inhabitants of this house!"
But the intruder did not care, coming closer. And so, my grandfather again sought comfort and prayed. He prayed for mercy and peace and for his life. He would serve the Lord for the rest of his days. Trust Him blindly.
Suddenly, like a gruesome miracle, the famished intruder let out an inhuman groan and collapsed, lifeless and debilitated. There had been no hunger for my grandfather and his family for a week after that. My grandfather had been praying to the Lord since that day, thanking Him for His mercy. The story spread around the village and out of desperation or hope, in the next few days everyone secretly knelt in front of small wooden crosses they had made themselves and prayed to the Lord. A week later, like a miracle, the long-awaited delivery of grain arrived, along with spring. There had not been another bad time since then.
These events are the reason for the faith in our village... and our family. The psalm my grandfather had prayed as the hungry neighbor attacked had become the guiding psalm of our faith. All these years we had not been able to celebrate Christmas with the other families, but since the restrictions on faith communities had been relaxed, we had all finally decided to celebrate the holy festival in the village square. And so, we started the preparations.
There, in those evening hours, my part of the story begins. I and my younger sister Zarina, together with other youths and young adults, were fetching wood for the fire that was to burn in the center of our village. So, we went out into the night, dressed with thick pelts, to fetch logs from the edge of the fields that some men had prepared.
My breath could be seen as an icy breeze in the dawning darkness and I was already looking forward to dancing around the fire with everyone later, drinking good drinks and eating sumptuously. I was glad that we didn't have to walk across the fields themselves, but could stroll along their edge to get the logs.
You can feel death when it has hit a place. I was glad that I didn't have to work the fields myself, and had learned the carpentry trade. Therefore, I was spared from having to wander around there every day, among the echoes of past atrocities and sadness.
We were all in good spirits, strolling over the muddy ground, when all at once Zarina pointed up and into the clear night sky.
"Look, an angel is descending!" she exclaimed excitedly.
We all looked to where her outstretched hand pointed. A round light glowed in the night sky, glaring yellowish and shining strangely cold.
"It's singing! At Christmas! The Lord puts our feast under his sign!" Zarina cried.
We stopped and listened into the silence of the night. At first, I could hear nothing, at first, everything remained quiet, and only the distant beating of axes and the rustling of the wind in the treetops were audible.
But then, there in the wind, I could hear it, briefly but clearly. It was a kind of melodic whisper, joyful, yet also strange and otherworldly. It was heard only very briefly, and soon died away as the glow flew out of sight and disappeared somewhere far away.
"Let's go find the angel! Let's..." Zarina cried, continuing excitedly, but I interrupted her.
"We have to get the wood. We can report back to the village later, if it hasn't already been noticed there too," I said.
"You heard the singing! Surely that was an angel. Shall we leave it there? It may have gotten hurt, it must have hit something!" Sasha murmured.
Sasha was my oldest friend and one of the boys who worked on the fields. He had always been very caring and had always tried to help where he could. His parents were long dead and the old lady who had raised him was no longer around, either. So, he struggled along, working the fields, but the rest of us looked out for him.
"Shouldn't we go and look for it, Ilya?", Sasha continued to urge me anxiously.
We thought about it for a long time but decided to leave the decision to the others in the village. Trusting the Lord to guide our actions, we quickly moved on in the direction of the woodcutters to complete our task.
We were not the only ones who had seen the glow. When we returned to the village square loaded with logs, everyone was in great excitement and full of joy that the Lord had sent us this sign of His greatness. Not everyone agreed whether it was an angel or a return of the poinsettia that had been witnessed, but everyone was sure that the Lord had sent us encouragement. So, we celebrated our first Christmas full of joy and pleasure, with good food, dancing and singing, full of happiness and under the protection of the Almighty Lord. I will always think back to those days, always keep in my heart how I glimpsed a part of the Lord in the sky.
We all talked about the event and even the older people were fascinated and inspired. Even my grandfather and the others who had witnessed the worst death and misery in the world seemed to slowly find a spiritual peace they would never have dreamed of otherwise. They were happy and strengthened in their faith. However, we were not sure if it had really been an angel who had come down and so we hesitated to go and look for the creature of God.
But in the night, after the light had shone in the sky, I was awakened by Zarina crying in her sleep. I straightened up and slowly paced over to her bed, where in the semi-darkness she began to squirm, shaken by spasms.
"No, no, no..." she moaned painfully.
I began to shake her to wake her up. Zarina did not respond to me. Her face was like a distorted mask hiding something bad underneath. Her breathing became shallow, and she began to whimper. I was terrified and began to pray. The Lord had to save her, He just had to save her!
Zarina twitched more and more, started coughing and whimpering louder and louder. Slowly, the rest of the family woke up and my parents and grandfather huddled tightly around her, praying for her to open her eyes.
"Please, don't take our child! She has only been in your world for fourteen years..." my father cried, as panicked and desperate as I had ever seen before.
His thick, black mustache trembled with fear.
Then, abruptly, Zarina stopped convulsing.
For a terrible moment she just lay there, her hair disheveled, her face pale in the glow of the candle my mother held over her.
"Mom, Dad, Ilya, Grandpa... what's wrong?" she suddenly asked sleepily.
For a moment it was as if nothing had happened, as if I hadn't just seen my sister almost die, but then she began to cry.
"What's wrong, dear?" my father asked, just as pale in the face as Zarina.
It took a while before she found some calm and was able to talk to us.
Finally, she croaked:
"I saw the angel. I was with him."
A revelation? Had the Lord touched my sister?
We all said another prayer and finally, filled with awe, I asked:
"Where did you see the angel? Is it here? With us?"
She looked at me briefly, seemed to hesitate for a little moment, and then reported:
"I was with it… in a dream. It was in a white village, a village made of angel dust. I saw it. It didn't have wings and that's why at first I wasn't sure if it was an angel. However, soon it spoke to me."
"What did it say, Zarina?", I asked tensely.
"It said it was not God, but 'the Witness'. It sounded like a man and a woman and a child and a baby and... It felt peaceful. Calm and carefree. Then I woke up."
"An angel. Angels are the witnesses of God, that's how it must be!" my father said enthusiastically.
Suddenly, everyone seemed to be talking at once.
No one knew what Zarina's words meant, but we were sure that they contained something incomprehensible that we, as ordinary people, could not understand. But everyone was delighted. Everyone was caught in a beautiful dream.
The next day, the adults sat together in the large barn near the edge of the village, which was used for community events. Most of them found seats on the lined up wooden benches and the rest stood crowded against the old walls, some of which were already rotten. Dimitri, probably the closest thing to a mayor, sat at a heavy pine table at the end of the room, staring at the crowd, while my parents and Zarina sat on old chairs in front of him. Tensely, the crowd looked at them, waiting for someone to say something. Finally, Dimitri cleared his throat thoughtfully.
"You... all saw or heard about the falling star. It was brighter than the others that keep crossing our sky and much more... melodic. Some even heard the singing. Whoever still doubted that the Lord sent us his messenger... doubts are now useless. Zarina has received a vision. She has seen how the angel, who was sent by God, walked on our earth, and visited a village and consecrated it with its grace. She has seen the angel marching to spread holiness in these lands..."
"Are we sure?"
Mary, the dressmaker, had stood up. She was still young, my age and Sasha's, and she always wore her blond hair carefully braided, her dresses self-made, blood red and flashy, with silver embroidery. As always, she wore makeup - a luxury not many could afford. In other places she would have been considered a lady, but she was also a skeptical person, and I had not liked her very much since childhood, because she often made insinuations that seemed to go against the Lord. Also, she had never played with us outside and had always thought of herself as someone… better. I was shocked that she now so obviously doubted the Lord's actions.
"Mary. Zarina has seen a vision. The Lord spoke to her through her dreams! An angel has joined us. How can you deny it?" my father asked coldly.
"I'm not denying it, I'm just saying, what if there is something dark that the angel was sent to fight? What if it is going into battle against some unknown evil? The angel may be spreading sanctities, but we have no idea if it is trying to redeem us or defend us..."
"It said it was a witness of God," I noted.
"That's what Zarina said when she woke up."
"Then it is benevolent to us! We must find it!" someone shouted from one of the back rows.
An excited murmur began to spread through the room.
"Silence!" Dimitri thundered.
His face looked hard but determined.
"We have to get to it! If it is a message from heaven that the angel wants to bring us, we must hear it! How many can we spare? Who would even want to voluntarily leave the village? We don't know how long the journey will be, and you yourselves know how dangerous this area can be..."
A loud commotion broke out. Everyone shouted at once and volunteered. I also jumped up and loudly offered to go out to look for it.
The angel. The Witness of the Lord.
I imagined meeting it in a clearing, under a full moon. Hearing its bright voice, gaze in awe at its graceful form, and fall to my knees in prayer before it.
"SILENCE!" Dimitri shouted.
"You can't all go. The kids wouldn't make it in the deadly cold out there. Let seven go. Seven is the Lord's number, there must be seven! Seven workers from the fields! We can't spare any more!"
"You can't be serious!" I cried out.
Cold anger boiled up inside me.
"I want to go, too. We all want to. You can't just stand there and make a decision like that!"
Others joined in.
"SILENCE," Alexeij now thundered, the master blacksmith.
"We need you! Daniil, Ilya, Nikita, you have a job to do! We can't get by without you! You can't go, be reasonable!"
"But if the Lord wills it, he will make sure that everything here will work out. That nothing will happen!", I tried to argue, still boiling with anger.
"No. Winter is tugging at our huts, we need you," my father said slowly.
"So do the others. Without you, it's going to be tight. The fields lie under the snow, but everything else will be weakened by time and storms. We can only spare the field hands. Besides, they're the ones most likely to withstand the cold and the wilderness; after all, they're constantly out on the Fields of Death, toiling in the wind and rain. They'll all make the trip!"
I tried to change his mind, and several came to my aid, all those who were also forced to stay.
"You can manage without a dressmaker! I want to go too!" Mary cried defiantly, her cheeks red with anger, her nose wrinkled.
This young woman really believed she deserved the sight of the angel! She really believed her hypocrisies would deceive the Lord, despite her obvious doubts about His divinity!
Others also complained, young and old, many who didn't deserve to go and even those who did.
But it didn't help.
Dimitri was in charge. Everyone knew that. If we started to contradict him, our village would soon end up in chaos. And deep down I knew that I had to stay. That I had to take care of my sister, who would not survive a trip in the snow. That I had to repair the huts that the storms would eat away at.
Sasha was a field worker, he was allowed to go. Sasha and Sofia, Anatoly and old Igor, Ivan and Yulia and Mikhail. When the decision was made, a decision many of us accepted only with heavy hearts and which brought out deep envy in several faces, some of the chosen ones began to cry. They were happy, fulfilled... satisfied. They would see the messenger of the Lord, hear its melodious voice, sing its hymns.
Why wasn't I allowed to go? Why was the world so unfair? I had always believed in the Lord, prayed to Him, been subject to Him and lived according to His will. Why hadn't he chosen me to see his messenger? I had been so proud back when I had been allowed to learn the carpenter's trade and thus had not to go to the Fields of Death to toil there. At that time, I had felt like someone better when I saw Sasha and Sofia setting out early in the morning with all the other workers, with their old-fashioned plows and thick, shabby clothes.
Was this the punishment for my arrogance?
The Lord knew everything. He had seen what repulsive thoughts I had had, how superior I had felt to the others. Perhaps it was my punishment that I was not allowed to go. Perhaps the Lord was no longer favorable to me and I would have to prove myself to Him.
The next day, the seven set out north. They were seen off with singing and dancing; they were the center of the village’s attention. Envy threatened to drown me.
Why not me? Why wasn't I allowed to go? Why did I have to stay here?
And I knew: it was because of these thoughts. I wasn't pure enough. I had to get better, work on myself.
As the others disappeared from sight, as the small group seemed to be swallowed up by a patch of forest between distant trees, an icy chill ran down my spine.
What if they really did encounter evil? What if Mary had been right?
I prayed to the Lord that they would return home safely: Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
He would bring them home safely, our pilgrims. I did not begrudge them their happiness. I was not a selfish person, was not complacent like Mary or some others in the village. I lived by the word of the Lord and I would not begrudge them.
They would all return home safely.
I continued to stare into the distance for a long time as my suppressed envy sought to consume me. But I was winning.
For darkness is as light to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even though the days and weeks passed, I never forgot to think of all those who had set out to witness the glory of the Lord. The cold winter had passed and frost and cold left the land, so that soon we could begin to prepare the fields for sowing. Since the sighting of the angel had caused us to let some of the farm workers leave, and they stayed away longer than we had expected, I had to join others in helping to plow the Fields of Death. The work was exhausting and made me physically very tired, since I still had to work in the carpenter's shop as well. We could not afford tractors, so we still had to resort to older tools. So, it happened that one day I was driving one of the hand plows through the dirty ground and was lost in my thoughts and full of sweat.
I was quite far away from the village, as the nearby surroundings had been worked shortly after the beginning of the thaw. The fields were extensive, partly reaching further than the eye could see. Only in one direction the dense forest extended, which introduced the beginning of a dark hilly landscape, that finally merged northward into high, alien mountains, whose white peaks rose high into the sky and, like once the tower of Babel, blasphemously tried to penetrate the heavens. But next to these distant giants there was only the plain, the vast plain that had to be tilled.
I hated the field work. And I hated the fields.
Every time I even thought about this piece of hell that had become reality long ago, my stomach turned. All the events that clung to this dark place, all the human lives and suffering that had sown the ground with death and blood here many years ago....
It was even worse when you stood in the fields yourself, truly being there on your own. It was as if I could smell it in the air, the rot of the starving and the hot blood that had watered the soil. It was as if I could still hear in the air the cries and wailing of the people who had met their end here, who had pleaded for their lives and the lives of their children and friends. It was as if I could see them in the early morning fog banks that lay on the Fields of Death, the shadows of people past, crawling and cowering, weak and starved. I had to pull myself together and look away, into the forest. A place does not forget, a place always remembers the days gone by and the cries that had been.
The plow pulled through the ground, ripping a furrow behind it. It was almost a bit comforting to imagine I was gutting this place of horror with my labor, inflicting deep wounds. Hypnotized, I stared down over and over again, watching the ground swirl to one side, smelling the fresh earth being pushed to the surface. But never could I escape my terrible feelings and the forebodings, never could I forget what kind of place I was at.
The few times I looked to the forest beside me, my thoughts wandered enviously to all those who had set out to find the angel. Had they reached it yet? Had they already learned from it what needed to be done for God's power on earth to be strengthened so that false prophets and promises could be swept away? How to drown the selfishness of the state? What needed to be done to serve the Lord?
Oh, how I would have loved to be there! How I would have loved to go with them, but I also understood the decision not to send everyone, and I understood my family's objections. I was needed here. I could serve the Lord here by tilling the fields and taking care of the soil and the sowing. I had to care for my sister.
I had already made several furrows when noon came. The sun was almost not visible, just a murky spot behind the clouds, and the fog had not lifted either. The world looked pale and apathetic. But amongst all the desolation I could suddenly hear something, something that seemed to come out of the forest.
It was at first just like a rustling in the wind that sounded a bit too regular, such that it triggered a natural uneasiness in me. I looked into the forest, but could hardly make out anything through the dense plants and the still lingering fog. That is why it was left to my own thoughts to imagine what was there, what was producing this strange noise.
I could not remember any animal that made similar sounds, was at a loss.
Suddenly, a bang echoed through the forest, accompanied by a panicked scream that broke inhumanly from the trees and spread across the fields.
Then, something new joined the sounds in the air.
The trees and bushes rustled, almost seemed to be torn apart.
Something was running through the forest, something seemed to be... coming right at me.
Was it perhaps a startled bear, an elk, or a wild boar?
Had one of the hunters from the village accidentally startled an animal, scared it in the wrong direction and now wanted to warn us with their cry? But then, why this panicked sound...?
I paused, took my hands off the rusty handles of the plow, and turned toward the forest. Still, I could only see fog, I could only hear rustling, but slowly I could also make out grunts and groans coming to me from the fog. It sounded heavy and panic-stricken.
Was I in danger? I began to pray to the Lord and ask him for assistance. I was not a fighter and so I had to hope that nothing would reach me from the depths between the trees that could easily tear me apart.
Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
My baptismal motto gave me courage. The Lord saw me, even in my darkness, and would be with me.
For darkness is as light to you.
Then, someone burst out of the bushes and the fog and rushed toward me.
It was Sasha.
I almost didn't recognize him. His skin was pale, almost snow-white. His black hair stuck to his sweaty face. His pants and jacket were almost completely torn, so I could see his dirty shirt and his cut and bruised legs through the holes. There were also some small cuts on his face that worried me. Sasha's eyes twitched searchingly, panicked, and in his hand, he held the rifle that he had taken with him when he had once set out. Apparently, he had run through brush and thorns, had gotten scrapes and wounds from stones and branches.
When he saw me and looked at me with his big, panic-filled eyes, I became horridly afraid.
It was as if… behind his eyes there was no Sasha anymore, but only an animal. As if instinct had taken over his thoughts when an unnamable terror had entered his world. An animal inside him, which had enabled him to escape from... something.
Sasha staggered out of the forest, it was almost as if all strength left him now that he was back home. The rifle fell from his hand and dug into the mud beneath his feet. He limped slowly toward me, not taking his eyes off me. Then, suddenly, he wheeled around and looked back into the forest and the mist.
Only for a moment.
Again, he let out a shrill scream and sprinted the last few meters. When I looked into the forest myself, I saw nothing, only the fog.
But, didn't I feel a presence there, in the bushes? Between the trees?
I didn't see anything.
Sasha had reached me and collapsed. I quickly knelt down next to him and called for help. But the other field workers had already rushed over, obviously attracted by the rifle shot. I was in a trance, seeing only Sasha lying there, supporting his head. His eyes were still twitching around and despite my proximity he didn't seem to recognize me. He looked at me, confused.
"Sasha, what happened?", I asked, feeling his forehead.
Despite his paleness, he was uncomfortably hot.
A fever raged in his body. Who knew how long he had been running around there among the trees, his protective, warming jacket torn? With wounds that had not been tended and some of which were still bleeding?
Then another horrible thought occurred to me.
"Sasha, where are the others? Sasha, where are the others?"
This question apparently brought back some clarity that his gaze had not possessed before.
"They... they took them. Took all of them... All of them. All our brothers, all our sisters... all of them," he gurgled.
*********
So, this is the first part of what I found. I will hurry to translate the rest! But I will definitely stay out of the woods for now... They are still as creepy as described by Ilya in this document and fog ist still around every morning... Also, I don't know what to make of Ilya himself as well, is he just a religious nut and that is the explanation? I just don't know...

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This happened a few years ago. My gf at the time (now wife) and I used to vacation in Asheville, booking cabins through a rental company. She grew up there and loved it, plus she had friends/family in the area that we would visit while there.
One of the rules the company had was that no extra guest were allowed to stay overnight, or there would be a fee. This rule never bothered us, as we never planned on having that. But, we did invite a couple of my gf's friends over to hang out for a little while. They got there around 7-8 and stayed until about 11pm before heading home. We finished the trip, had a great time and went home thinking all was good.
A couple days after we got home, I got an email from a woman in the rental company who claimed that their maintance guy saw that we had people stay over and we were being charged an extra $200 for breaking "occupancy" rules! Next came a back and forth between her and I where I told them noone stayed overnight, and that they left around 1030-11pm. But she claimed to me that "Occupancy" is anyone being in the cabin at all, which made no sense I looked up the legal definition of occupancy which did not side with her, but she told me it didnt matter and they would charge me the extra 200. Que the Revenge.
Between my gf and I, we got about 8 people with 20 different google accounts all leaving 1 star reviews on the company's google page. This took their rating of around 4.4 all the way down to the mid 3 stars (it was a local company). Well someone higher up must have gotten wind of this and they knew exactly who did it. Within a couple hours, I got several emails from the original woman and her supervisor apologizing for the misunderstanding and asking how they could get us to take down the bad reviews.
After telling them it was clearly not a misunderstanding, I told them to kick rocks since they wanted to treat us that way, and long story shorter than it could be, we ended up getting an offer of 200 off our next visit if we took the reviews down (and they obviously refunded me that extra 200 plus another 100 off that stay). Karen, I hope you understand what occupancy means now, if you still have a job.

Hi all, new landlord here so I apologize in advance for what may be a stupid question. I have my current property (in Upstate NY) rented out for the first time and the current tenant has been living there for 7 months as of June 1st. I live in NYC so I manage it remotely, but still get upstate fairly often. I ran into an issue where I noticed rent wasn’t coming in, so I reached out to him and for months he would tell me it was “issues with his bank” or he “tried to make payments and they failed” but continued to assure me that he would rectify it and that they would be made.
Now I tried to be patient and understanding by letting him know it’s okay for now but just to make sure they go through, I continued reminding him etc. Being on the younger side, I may not have been nearly as firm with him as I should have been and after the first month of him not paying I should have put my foot down but I clearly did not, so I take full responsibility for that part. But part of the issue is that he has not responded to a text in over a month at this point, so I haven’t heard from him at all.
My question is essentially what are my options? Obviously eviction is the first thing that has come to mind, but he owes me a decent amount of money, so I was wondering what are the in terms of getting him to pay? Is this something I should be suing him for, and if so can you sue someone for payments in arrears? I apologize if this is long winded or doesn’t make sense, I’m just very lost and a little frustrated so I’m looking for some kind of advice on what to do.

Basically the title. I have SC for shoulder strain due to a few tear outs and botched surgeries in 2015-2017. When I filed my initial in 2018, I used a VSO and he only included the strain and left out a few things but I shut up and colored because I was in school and just needed something to help with rent since the GI Bill was taking its sweet time too.
Recently, I've realized that a few conditions were left off the initial claim to include subluxation, and a fractured glenoid that were never added but are well documented from when I was in. Should these be treated as an initial instead of a secondary? There's always been noticeable differences between the good and bad shoulders showing the injury/atrophy
I put them in as a secondary since I basically said screw it and have now been in PDA since last Wednesday waiting. Feel like I will need to reroute this for backpay once the smoke clears.

As the world grapples with the challenges of climate change and the need for sustainable development, renewable energy has emerged as a key solution. In this context, the TDP's Contributions of N Chandrababu Naidu, the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), have been instrumental in driving the renewable energy revolution in the state. This article explores N Chandrababu Naidu's sustainable energy initiatives, highlighting the TDP's Achievements and TDP's Contributions to renewable energy development in Andhra Pradesh. Under the leadership of N Chandrababu Naidu, TDP MLAs have consistently championed the cause of renewable energy. They have actively worked towards creating a conducive policy environment and implementing initiatives to harness the abundant renewable energy potential of Andhra Pradesh. The TDP's focus on renewable energy reflects its commitment to sustainable development and its recognition of the economic and environmental benefits it can bring.
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Andhra Pradesh has become a leading state in solar power generation, thanks to the visionary efforts of N Chandrababu Naidu. During his tenure, the state witnessed the establishment of the world's largest solar park, the Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park, with a capacity of 1,000 MW. This landmark project has not only contributed significantly to the state's renewable energy capacity but has also attracted investments and created job opportunities. Recognizing the potential of wind energy, the TDP government implemented policies and incentives to promote wind power projects in the state. Under N Chandrababu Naidu's leadership, Andhra Pradesh witnessed a substantial increase in wind power capacity, with the establishment of multiple wind farms across the state with the help of some of the Top TDP Leaders. These initiatives have bolstered the renewable energy sector, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and enhanced energy security. N Chandrababu Naidu's government formulated and implemented a comprehensive renewable energy policy framework that provided a clear roadmap for sustainable energy development in Andhra Pradesh. The policy emphasized the importance of diversifying the energy mix, promoting decentralized generation, and attracting private investments in renewable energy projects. It also aimed to create an investor-friendly environment and streamline the process for obtaining approvals and clearances.
The TDP government invested significantly in developing the necessary infrastructure to support renewable energy projects. This included the establishment of transmission and distribution networks, grid integration facilities, and renewable energy testing and research centers. These efforts have facilitated the seamless integration of renewable energy into the state's power grid, ensuring a reliable and sustainable energy supply. The TDP government prioritized capacity building and skill development programs to create a skilled workforce for the renewable energy sector and went live on TDP Live Updates. It collaborated with academic institutions and industry experts to offer specialized training and certification programs in solar and wind energy technologies. These initiatives have not only generated employment opportunities but have also nurtured a pool of skilled professionals driving the growth of the renewable energy industry. The TDP government actively encouraged public-private partnerships to accelerate renewable energy development in Andhra Pradesh. It facilitated collaborations between government agencies, private investors, and technology providers to leverage expertise and resources.