Hello everyone currently I am staying at my dads place (got out of a apartment a year ago saving 2k in extra income doing that). Currently I am saving for a downpayment on a condo looking in the down town Chicago area and my question is should I used my saved money to use as the downpayment or tap into my 401k savings?
hoping to put down at least 5-10% currently have 27k saved up

It’s a two-part issue and surprisingly my skin color is a big part it. My gf and I are supposed to be moving in together Tuesday morning. Her mom knew we were together but her dad is super homophonic so she kept it to herself.
Her mom slipped up and mentioned it by accident and he’s pissed, and the thing about her mom is that she backs whatever her dad feels/says/does at the expense of her kids. He’s mad about her dating another woman but also mad that I’m darker skinned (Idris Elba kinda tone) and “I don’t want people thinking my grandchildren are hoodlums for looking like that.” And of course he doesn’t want another woman raising his grandkids. First of all…I can’t make a baby??? Either way it’s a trash thing to say.
They were going to pay her half of our apartment deposit so she could focus on a student loan and get started at her new job. Now they’ve taken that back and told her to leave. My lease ends Tuesday so we’re gonna have to sleep in her car because we can’t come up with $600 extra in just a day, which I’m sure is gonna screw us over because the lease is signed already. We’ve saved for all these fees but this puts a huge whole in our plan.
Part of me is of course mad that he could be so bigoted, but the other part is…happy I found out how he feels about darker people? But to screw over his own child like that is insane.
Anyone got family like this? I’ve honestly never experienced something to this degree. I’ve heard of ppl treating their kids different based on skin tone but this time it’s is personal and I’m kinda in shock.

Long post but alot to explain.
Where to even start with this. I'm using a throwaway account as the people I know, might know who I'm talking about. Bare with me I'm going to try and give as much detail as possible (very highly stressed at the moment and might not be as clear as I could be).
Based in the UK
In the last year of uni I started living with a girl (lets call her Linda) who was a mutual friend of my best friend at the time. Didn't really know her except being told she smoked a lot of weed.
This was a bit of a Beige flag for me as I don't smoke or drink (mental health reasons its just not good for me fine if you do etc). I didn't have anyone else to live with so just went along with it which was alright.
When we were there for the year we were pretty close and both had alot of health/mental health issues going on. I had just been made homeless before returning to uni so my head was a bit all over the place.
Meaning I coped with the third year in kind of a mess. I started to smoke alot and eat alot of weed and drank to the point of addiction, when the fun stops, stop. I didn't stop, I had unprotected intimacy with a man and I'm not proud of it (took morning after pill, he didn't cum but yano just in case), it was a real wake up call. I had to get myself in order.
Linda, wouldn't drop that (because I was trying to stop) I wasn't being fun anymore, and that I was just a bit boring now, that I was trying to stop before it go worse.
Anyways, we left uni and then I kinda drifted and separated myself from her a bit as there was this toxic pressure to be the party girl. There were nights were it was fun but yeah, fuck me for trying to be sober.
2013 hits and I'm moving out of uni and met this new guy and I was a huge emotional wreck at this point and moved to a place far away from home in another County and yeah, didn't know anyone besides partner at the time and I drifted from this Linda girl and my best friends.
Linda didn't contact me until about 2015/2016 when I was due to visit home and make me feel guilty for not drinking and not having the party spirit I once did, the whole night I could order soft drinks and she would be pouring spirits from a hip flask into them (i was furious and accused her of being a date rapist).
She dropped contact with me and stayed as a back ground facebook friend. Just occasionally sending me messages with unsolicited tarot readings consistently and I believe in all the spiritualism things but, god did this get on my nerves.
2019 I break up with the guy in a different county and I head home. I see Linda a few times at the local gigs and stuff, nothing too intense.
THEN Covid hits, I started dating my current partner and moved into my own flat. In the same home town as Linda and one my best friends.
Because of Covid I checked up digitally with everyone and ran weekly quizzes on zoom which was great, kept the moral spirit going and people really liked them. I was so happy because I stayed sober and had been doing really well...
Before the stressed up me, returned again. Linda was very insistent that because we lived in the same town that we bubbled ( I have vulnerable family and my partner did too) so I had my 6 people and stuck to it religiously.
Anyway, the pressure began to rise, she started fancying a friend of mine we will call him Dan and got kinda obsessed with him.
2021 they share a few intimate text messages and then that was it in terms of intimacy and flirtation. She got obsessed with Dan.
She was making me the middle man, making mine and hers friendship seem like we were best mates. Which truthfully after uni I never really felt that close due to previous actions.
She wanted to get closer to Dan and Linda was driving me mad as ALL the messages had that ulterior motive of "Hey how are you... I wanna bitch about Dan"
When I say she is obsessed with DAN I mean it. Accusing him of things that are wild and beyond what actually happened.
Bear in mind due to previous actions I was trying to separate myself from Linda, she got pally in 2021 with this other girl called Sammy who is so toxic. And basically since that friendship Linda turned into a bit of dick.
Sammy has blocked me on social media because I called her out on being a dick.
I feel that Sammy has influenced her and the company she keeps is nasty.
In late 2021 I found out I was expecting my son and found out super late into the pregnancy and told my "friends" over zoom about this and that I was worried and scared.
2022 had the baby and because I had, had that night of upset and off loading, Linda held it against me and was supportive but also very draining emotially on me.
Always wanting to see the baby, hang out etc and again I kept her at arms length and kinda deteriorated mental health wise quite a bit.
I wasn't good health wise and was diagnosed with Post-partum depression, PTSD, psychosis and DID oh and anxiety (cause fuck yeah get all the diagnosis I've got a dark sense of humour applogies and I'm seeking help for this and need to be on meds too for it so I'm good for my son he is literally everything)
I couldn't cope and isolated mostly, I tried my best and made a group chat so that I could just say things the once and again tried to be there for people if they reached out to me.
But again a month post partum Linda asked about how I was and was again ulterior motive about Dan.
So I tried my best to be supportive, I was on alot of drugs to recover from the c-section, I was also yano busy being Mum, so things slipped a bit friend wise.
I know I'm not a neglectful friend as I contact and reach out where and when I can. I've always been mindful of checking in on people.
Linda was very needy and I explained in that friend group chat what I can and can't do. Emotionally and physically. And said please don't DM personally
But she kept on and on and then messaged my partner Andy and on and on it went and then more tarot readings and more and more about me, Andy and my son Allan. All the time
I don't feel like I have to justify having a life and prioritising my son and being accused of being neglectful is a bit rich really.
Am I the asshole?

The user has the ability to use cursed energy to materialise luck as as shikigamis in the form of white chicken (good luck) and black chicken (bad luck) in their passive state, which can then be morphed into 'weapons', with good luck as a 'shield' and bad luck as a 'sword'. The materialisation of luck does not necessarily have to be a sword and shield per say, but good luck has to the user's defence (eg could also be an armour in a white aura) and bad luck has to be offence (eg spear, bow and arrow, boxing gloves, knuckle dusters, etc covered with dark purple aura). However, their primary forms are a white chicken (for good luck) and a black chicken (bad luck).
The effect of this in the battlefield is that any attack on the user will be absorbed by the 'shield' which will then create an opening for the 'sword' eg when encountering a cursed sorcerer, the user's good luck will allow them to deflect the attack and also gives the user the needed opening to use bad luck ie sword on the cursed sorcerer. Once the 'sword' pierces the target, the cursed sorcerer will be affected by their surrounding eg hit by a car, truck, fall over and break a bone or a concussion, etc.
However, to ensure that the 'shield' is always polished (ie good luck is never deplected) and the 'sword' is always sharpened (bad luck generation is not depleted) the user will have to steal luck from those around them by summoning his shikigami (black and white chicken) and making them roam free, and whoever they touch, the luck is stolen. In extreme cases, the user can kill the target and steal their residual luck instead.
Maximum Technique - A GAME OF CHANCE - The user using RCT can reverse the luck of those around them, controlling the traffic of luck in a 100m radius. This will greatly deplete the CE of the user and leave them in a vulnerable state when this is done unless a powerful RCT user is nearby.
Domain Expansion - WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD? - in the barrier, there are 2 roads intercrossing with eachother, and the user is at all four corners of the roads simultaneously watching the target. The target simply has to get to the other side of the 'road'' in order to survive the DE. However it is not that simple, as the user can throw bad luck in the way of the target. Thus, the target must dodge all incoming obstacles, which can range from a pot hole, a drunken driver to a piano falling from the sky. If the target gets hit by any of these, its a sure hit, and the target's luck is stolen along with a fragment of their CT eg if the target's CT was fire-based, fire would be an element in the use of the 'sword' in future fights. If the target manages to survive, their CE depletes greatly, and so does their good luck, making them vulnerable to attacks.

Follow-up to my last post:
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An Attenborough documentary on dinosaurs with the same CGI that made The Jungle Book so lifelike? I couldn't think of a greater sell. But was it worth it? Would it give me the same sense of wonder that I felt when Walking with Dinosaurs came out 22 years earlier?
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The first episode, "Coasts", is overall the strongest episode of season 1. Starting immediately with a swimming t-rex (Tyrannosaurus rex) leading his children to an island where he smelled a dead archelon (species unknown, as no Maastrichtian-age archelon was ever found in the fossil record), that first scene showed the promise of the show as a whole. Seeing CG baby t-rexes interacting with live-action baby turtles is both concerning (as sea turtles are currently endangered) and entertaining, as they are demonstrated pretty goofily. But after that, we are done with dinosaurs for the rest of the episode.
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We cut to the one scene that, while endearing with a riveting soundtrack by power couple Anže Rozman and Kara Talve, does give me pause. The pterosaurs featured in that episode were based on bones so fragmentary that they couldn't be diagnosed. How can we be sure that Barbaridactylus was a member of the antlerwing family, Phosphatodraco a member of the simurgh family, or even Tethydraco a member of the pteranodon family? How do we even know what Alcione even looked like? Also, the score doesn't really match the slower, less urgent movements of the pterosaurs.
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The next scene was described as "the sunken continent of Zealandia", which is a refresher to see the lost continent bearing recognition for a change. Here, a family of plesiosaurs (Tuarangisaurus keyesi) comes to the coast to gulp themselves on anti-buoyant rocks, while the males ceremoniously poke their long, heavy necks up to the surface, the only good moment in an otherwise generic sequence.
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After a quick focus on coral, we get treated to a Hoffmann's mosasaur (Mosasaurus hoffmanni) relying on fish and shrimp to give him a good, proper scratch, only to be pushed out of turn by a younger male. This sequence sticks out to me because it shows mosasaurs being portrayed as animals, not as monsters to shadow Nigel Marven or kaijuified Blackfish bootlegs.
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The next scene shows a dazzling, mesmerizing mating ceremony of ammonites ("scaphitids", they were called, but that doesn't determine specific species, as it was a very huge family). They glow in the dark and mate very particularly. If the male's flashes don't sync with those of the female, he'd be rejected. Complimenting this alien but still soothing scene is Rozman and Talve's equally alien and soothing score.
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Back in Zealandia, we end with plesiosaur pod mentality, as the whole group defends a pregnant mother from a kaika taniwha (Kaikaifilu hervei). As with the previous plesiosaur scene, it wasn't a scene that I got too crazy about.
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The next episode, "Deserts", isn't really as impactful as the Planet Earth episode of the same name, both in regards to execution and the musical score, and it was riddled with confusing scene decisions. The first scene demonstrates a lek of dreadnoughts (Dreadnoughtus schrani) acting like a combination of elephant seals and frigatebirds, right down to the pops on their necks. The score in that sequence is definitely memorable, as it (literally) highlights the weights that the males take to demonstrate their fitness to attract the gaggle of girls in the audience. Though I'm left wondering--did the upstart beat the veteran because he was stronger, or because he popped one of the veteran's neck balloons, as male frigatebirds would do to ditch the competish?
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Once the sauropod show is over, we now move to what was presumed to be Nemegtia, but it was portrayed to be as dry as Djadochta, which leads to the next problem. While there was evidence of Maastrichtian-age velos in Central Asia, calling them "Velociraptor" is just wrong. I grew up watching Walking with Dinosaurs, which means I watched "Giant of the Skies", which featured Utahraptor in the wrong place at the wrong time. And while the American cut justifies this with a demonstration of a land bridge that connected North America to Europe, I don't know how much water that holds, and that doesn't seem to be relevant anyway, for the damage has already been done. So having in Velociraptor, a genus of velos that went extinct 71 million years ago, in Nemegtia, which was set 66 million years ago, is just a rehash of that previous mistake. In short, Prehistoric Planet has Utahraptor'd the Velociraptor. And besides, hasn't the picture of pack-hunting raptors already been discarded?
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The next scene, the one with the Nemegtian mononych (Mononykus olecranus), is cute but not top-notch memorable, and its color choice is teetering way close to the point of plagiarism.
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Afterwards, the brief but violent rains have created a watering hole in the middle of the desert, luring in dinosaurs and pterosaurs from miles around, including a wandering khan (Tarbosaurus bataar). The reason that scene is so low was that it was just a near-identical rotoscope of the Water Truce sequence from The Jungle Book, right down to the herbivores making a clearing for the khan.
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Then we go high up to see more Barbaridactylus. This scene I wasn't aware was a problem until Unnatural History Channel brought it up in his video, but the females were shown to be oddly consensual towards the similar-looking sneaky males, who use their feminine appearances to sneak past the larger, more impressive males. This is a problem, apparently, because the more extreme the sexual dimorphism, the more likely the sneaky male will be rejected and therefore resort to assaulting the females.
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The last scene is an interesting one, albeit one that suffered an unmemorable score in the soundtrack. Apparently, salty southern duckbills (Secernosaurus koerneri) can thrive on dunes of gypsum, but when rains hit the coast, they rely on both their tenacity and their know-how of the sky to get to more productive grazing. This scene stands out to me because I question why any large animal would choose to thrive on such a taxing environment. It'd make sense for an animal as small as the cryptile, the scrofa and the gryken from The Future is Wild, but not for a duckbill bigger than 16 feet long.
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It is unanimously agreed upon that "Freshwater" is the weakest episode in the first season. Apart from the humpbacked false duckbill (Deinocheirus mirificus) getting a scratch in the swamps of a more accurate Nemegtia and the devil frog (Beelzebufo ampinga) making a snack out of a baby whacktooth (Masiaksaurus knoplferi), the habitat itself has been relegated to the backseat, which is why the mating scene of the t-rex and the laying magnificent simurgh (Quetzalcoatlus northropi) are on the C tier, good scenes that have been damaged by simply being in the wrong episode. Speaking of the latter, memes have popped up in which the faces of dinosaurs have been pasted over two shots of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with either Masiakasaurus or the Planet Dinosaur model of Majungasaurus being Galahad and the Quetzalcoatlus being the French taunter ("What are you doing in Africa?" "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!") when, really, that meme is more applicable to Velociraptor being in the Maastrichtian. On that topic, not only is it STILL in the wrong time, there is another problem, one I didn't pay attention to until Unnatural History Channel brought it up on his video. Instead of showing audiences raptor prey restraint (or "RPR"), the storytellers relied instead on mountain cats to show the velos hunting the pterosaurs (species unknown). Like the Deserts episode, Planet Earth has a far stronger "Freshwater" episode.
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"Ice Worlds" didn't excite me as much as "Spirits of the Ice Forest" did, which is a shame, because dinosaurs in the snow is a refresher by default. We start at Prince Creek, which I couldn't ask for a worse place to start because the cast list is very fragmentary. In the opening scene, a pack of raptors (species unknown, though modeled after the pitbull raptor), shadows a herd of ugrunaaluk (Edmontosaurus sp.) for a long-delayed meal. Again, the picture of raptors hunting in packs has been debunked for a very long time now. Why insist on resorting to old cliches?
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The Ornithomimus scene (can't think of a vernacular for them), while the designs look cool and add distinction to overall character, is still just a rotoscope of the Adelie penguin sequence from "Frozen Planet". Next.
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The sequence with the swanneck (Olorotitan arharensis) is even less impressive. Are horsetails really more nutritious than grass? If so, then why have grasslands been the dominant plains since the Miocene?
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The reason the scene with the tro-o is relatively low on the tier list is that it should have been longer, because a dinosaur with the intellect of a fire hawk is a very interesting prospect. But the final scene was just too short and too bland to show off any real gold.
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We have spent so much time in the north that I question the necessity of a quick detour to Antarctica, rendering the scene with the polar macahutiul (Antarctopelta oliveroi) my least favorite of the series.
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The final scene demonstrates the predator-prey dynamic between the northern boss (Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum) and the nanook (Nanuqsaurus hoglundi). The scene is great, the score has some very rhythmic moments, but what puts it low on the B tier are the nanooks themselves. From a distance, they look as good as most of the others. But in closeup, they look kind of fake, especially when they're running. Which brings up to the next problem--the story is based on fossil footprints of different lines pointing in the same direction. But how do we know that those parallel tracks were made at the same time and not separated within hours, days or even weeks of each other? And while it is true that nanooks were smaller than t-rexes, their portrayals in the show were just too small. More recent consensus shows that one nanook could easily match a boss in size, if not overtop it.
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"Forests" is an everywhere kind of episode. The opening scene with the austroposeidon (Austroposeidon magnificus) is not long enough to get me invested.
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Then a herd of trikes (Triceratops, species unknown) visits a cave to visit a clay lick to neutralize the poisons from their plant food. But why clay? Why not salt? Herbivores can clearly deal with poisonous plants without problem, but plants lack sodium, which is why the elephants of Mount Elgon (the inspiration behind that scene) scrape the caves not for clay, but for salt.
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This next scene has gotten everyone talking. A male minotaur (Carnotaurus sastrei) clears the stage to wave his arms around to impress an impossibly stoic female. Everything about that scene--from the choreography to the score--is very goofy, and that is what makes it work so well.
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While it is nice to finally see the Pinocchio-rex (Qianzhousaurus sinensis) in the flesh, its hunt for bright blue corythoraptors (Corythoraptor jacobsi) is not a scene I'd be in a hurry to revisit.
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The fire scene is oddly slow, the only memorable moment in the whole sequence being my first official introduction to Atrociraptor marshalli...literally just one short week before Jurassic World: Dominion predictably ruined it.
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The scene with the baby Therizinosaurus is passable. While it is cute to imagine babies having a taste for honey, it just wasn't executed memorably.
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The final scene, the one set on Hateg Island, slogs on in pace, with the greatest focus being a bunch of odd-looking baby zalmos (Zalmoxes robustus) running and hiding from the real star of the episode, the robust simurgh (Hatzegopteryx thambena), looking more proper than how it looked in Planet Dinosaur. One question, though--weren't pterosaur wings supposed to be rounded at the tip? Sure, they've got the hands pointing backwards, but the pointed wingtips is now believed to be an outdated picture.
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So it goes without saying that years of watching a moderate quantity of Attenborough documentaries has made the watching experience of Prehistoric Planet, at least in comparison to the original Walking with Dinosaurs, a bit numb. The creature designs are good, the CGI has not faltered in its photorealism from The Jungle Book, and even the soundtrack has enough of a score to make it memorable. But it's the stories that amount to the overall numbness of the first season. They hadn't opened my eyes in the way that Walking with Dinosaurs did.
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When season 2 was announced literally one year after season 1, I had my doubts. Planet Earth 2 came out literally a decade after the first Planet Earth, and the differences in filming technology and musical score clearly show that. Same for the 16 years that separate The Blue Planet from Blue Planet 2. Dynasties 2, by contrast, came way too soon after the first Dynasties, and the end result is sloppy, from the stories being set at the tedious start rather than at the steady prime to the score from the first Dynasties being reused so often that the only episode to have any new music was "Meerkat". So to find Prehistoric Planet 2 come out literally one year after Prehistoric Planet, I was concerned that it'd be as shorthanded as Dynasties 2 was. The opening episode, "Islands", kind of suffered that, but it thankfully wasn't as severe a problem.
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The first segment of that episode struck me as odd because the adult zalmo looks weirdly identical to the baby model from last episode.
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While it is cool to see the robust simurgh being expanded upon, I personally wish we'd stayed at Hateg Island, where they'd hunt the Transylvanian dwarf duckbill (Telmatosaurus transylvanicus) and not the funky combbill (Tethyshadros insularis).
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One of season 1's most recurring complaints is "no crocodiles", which is pretty apt when you consider how diverse they were during the Cretaceous period. So to see the Malagasy armadillo (Simosuchus clarki) at all, let alone stand up against a mahjong (Majungasaurus crenatissimus), is one to remember for the ages.
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This next scene is actually pretty interesting, in which we see Adalatherium, which wasn't a true mammal, but rather something hovering closely outside the taxonomic boundaries. It's a long sequence, which is just as well, because this is as new a clade to me now as the cynodont was when Walking with Dinosaurs came out.
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As with in "Ice Worlds", a quick detour to Antarctica doesn't seem necessary to me, as the hunt between the Imperobator and the Morrosaurus feels more like a skim.
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The last scene in the episode is my personal favorite, in which a male robust simugh stands on a sandbar to do whatever it takes to impress a mate.
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"Badlands" stands out in that there are only two settings. The first one is the strongest because of how the Deccan Traps, long reputed to be the co-culprit to the fall of the dinosaur empire, has been repurposed into prime nesting estate for a herd of sauropods (Isisaurus colberti). The journey seems reckless, but volcanic sand is hot and toasty, something that a modern species of dinosaur, the megapode, also exploits as it lays its egg in the hot volcanic sand of the Solomons.
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The next scene hasn't fixed on last year's problems, in which Velociraptor is still there and it still hasn't performed RPR--it just kicks an herbivore off a cliff, and that was that.
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The nesting Corythoraptor scene didn't interest me, but what really bugged me was that the antagonist of that sequence was a kuru (Kuru kulla), a raptor who, like the pterosaurs on the "Coasts" episode, was based on incomplete, fragmentary specimens.
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The sequence with the tarchias (Tarchia, species unknown), is a refreshing detour from the previous sequence because we have a better idea as to what they would have looked like. And to see them slog around for an oasis is a second highlight (next to the Deccan nursery).
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This next scene has nothing new added from either "Time of the Titans" or "Alpha's Egg", in which a herd of baby sauropods gets picked on by larger predators on their way to the safety of the forest.
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The majority of the "Freshwater" sequences I feel fit better in "Swamps". The same unnamed pterosaurs from "Freshwater" have reappeared, this time trying to fly past an approaching population of alligators (Shamosuchus djadochtaensis).
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The next episode features a grizzly bear gathering of austroraptors (Austroraptor cabazai) hunting gar. It stands out as highly as it does because it shows a species of raptor that looks and acts differently from the usual velo or nych. Plus, we know many miles more about austroraptors than we do about Spinosaurus, so that is a relieving plus.
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The devil frog stands out in this episode, and to see a grumpy male try to fight off a herd of goavambe (Rapetosaurus krausei) is humorous. It also deviates from the usual picture of "the frog that eats dinosaurs".
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This next sequence I was very concerned the moment I saw it in the ads. Thanks to Jack Horner, the poorly-known family Pachycephalosauridae has been under very hot fire with the notion of bone sponginess being a taxonomically viable method of identification, which it really isn't because all amniotes have spongy bones in their teens. But very thankfully, this sequence does not resort to Hornerism. It shows that older males do get longer horns on the backs of their heads, not the other way around. Also, new evidence has shown that the domes may have been covered in shiny skin, so this has me asking--is the dome a boys-only trait? Could that dracorex (Pachycephalosaurus hogwartsia) skull that I saw at the Black Hills Museum just be a girl entering her sweet 16 when she died? Could those stygimoloch (Pachycephalosaurus spinifer) skulls just be those of high school footballers?
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"Swamps" ended on a high note with a couple of t-rexes hunting an anatotitan (Edmontosaurus annectens) in the dark. One just walks to the duckbill, and the animal, in its panic, goes right in the direction of the other t-rex in hiding. This perfectly reflects the current understanding that t-rexes exchanged fast running for better walking. Now can we see some duckbills fighting back, please?
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On May 26, The Little Mermaid came out in theaters. A day earlier, "Oceans" came out. If I were to choose, I'd stick to the latter, simply because we're treated to fresh new stories with a wider variety of mosasaurs and ammonites than any of the Walking with programs ever did. The scene with the hesperorns chasing bait fish only to have themselves be chased by bulldog fish (Xiphactinus) is a classic, but a good one. However, "X-fish"? What's wrong with "bulldog fish"? But the highlight, no doubt, is the final sequence, in which a Hoffmann's mosasaur killed a juvenile plesiosaur simply by ramming it great white style.
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"Freshwater" was weak due to being sorely unfocused. "North America", by contrast, is even weaker for being too rushed. Also, the "scars make the man" narrative with the trikes bugs me the most. What justification is there for that?
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This has been a very exhaustive review of Prehistoric Planet, and it's way too early for me to worry about a season 3 coming out, if there is going to be one.

My partner and I just arrived to our new upper east side apartment and the floor is HALF polyurethaned? The fridge is rank and there is a roach inside the freezer????
There are tools, paint, clothes, beer cans, and miscellaneous items absolutely everywhere and the bathtub is totally covered with cardboard and tape!!
The place is a disaster and it's a Sunday so no one is answering (landlord or broker). We won't be able to shower.
We signed the lease in May with the intention of moving in the end of May or start of June. We let the landlord, broker, and super know and they all agreed. The landlord company staff and broker let us know all listed repairs/replacements would be ready my mid-May before we moved in.
Repair summary:
New lighting New kitchen cabinets New stove All floor polyurethane New bathroom medicine cabinet New bathroom base cabinet Bathtub reglazing Doorknob replacement Complete paint job
The reason we signed in May is because the broker let us know that the landlord may choose another applicant that is willing to move in earlier if we apply to move in June.
A month has passed and the unit is a mess and approximately half of the work promised was done. Not to mention the workers left all their tools, trash, and personal belongings all over the place.
We sent an email to the landlord company requesting completion of the work, and that we are unwilling to continue making monthly payments if the work is not done. Hopefully we will hear from them tomorrow which is a business day.
What can we do? We are truly horrified at the scene of this place, and cannot move in our furniture or anything until it's ready and the truck will be here this week!
We are thinking about requesting our first month's rent back, what an offensive way of conducting business!

I knew things were hot right now, but this is simply wild. My wife and I are looking at homes in south/southwest city and parts of the county. Nothing special, just your typical 3 bed/1.5 bath, 1700-2100 sq ft, middle-class home. We've put in multiple bids on properties so far and every single one has sold for at least $50k above asking on the first day on market. Many entry-level homes are now approaching or above 400k in areas where in 2020, the last time we looked, they were going for under or just above 200k.
What scares me is that we are in the top 3% income percentile in the area and save exceptionally hard. If even we are uncomfortable with the purchase price of an entry-level home, how in the heck are these people able to afford these purchases? Seems like a house of cards, but I keep holding off and prices just keep going up.

Over the last few months i fell really deep into depression, I ended up cutting everyone off but my dad. Just a few days ago, he died unexpectedly. At first I wasn't able to belive it. Nothing felt real, i completely disosiated. Until last night, idk what it was, but I was drawing and all the sudden it just hit me so hard, maybe it was the music, maybe it was the drawing, but it hit me all at once rjght then. I haven't really cried, like deeply cried since I was a little kid, but last night i did. I kept repeating over and over again "i don't want to be alone". It was really rough. My dog came to me in the middle of it and that helped alot. But this really made me look at life in a whole new light. I don't want to be alone. As of today i have reached out to everyone and am finally starting to connect with people again socially. I'm scared it won't last tho, when you go through stuff like this you get special treatment, but it's been so great to wake up to messages, make phone calls, and plan hangouts. Obviously I'm not okay, this isnt something i can get over in just a day, but i think this really put life into perspective. I really want to have friends again, and learn what living is like. My social anxiety is basically non esistent right now for the first time in forever, because I just have to much to deal with to care what people think of me. I don't ever want it to return. When I think about my dad there's alot of things that come to mind, but the coolest thing about him is that everyone he met loved him. When I was growing up we were pretty poor, so we had to get creative. We made a bow and arrows out of gardening tape and a sticks, we made 5 wooden swords based on the comic books john carter war lord of mars. We painted them and handed them out to all my friends. They were all specialized for each of us. One time we bought these thin metal poles and we used pliers to bend them into tiny circles and we made me a full chainmail shirt that weighted like 15 pounds and made this amazing link outfit for holloween. When I was growing up my dad was a hero. As I got older we really started to grow apart. We had our diffences, but in the last few months of his life i finally felt like I was reforming that old bond. I'm so thankful our last conversation was so great, it means i dont have a whole lot of regret.
Dealing with death like this has really made me want to live. I have a history of (tw) self harm, and suiside attempt, for along time all I wanted was to die. But these cuts & scars on my arms i cant stand anymore. I don't want to cope with alcohol or videogame anymore It's been awhile since I seriously did alot of that, but I dont want to go on living with regret and pain. I don't think this will solve everything, but I think its a step in the right direction in learning to live.
I dont want to be alone anymore, so I'm going to try and make this change and hold onto these connections. I want to make new friends and start a relationship again for the first time in years. I'm scared tho i will fall back into my anti-social, isolation. How can I make sure this doesn't happen.

Single, 26, No kids, LCOL, Renting. Income around $77k-82k (base $57k and bonus $20k-$25k)
ASSETS
$37.6k brokerage (60/40 FZROX/FZILX)
$25.6K Roth IRA (60/40 FZROX/FZILX)
$41.3K 401K (let my company manage it for free)
$8.9K HSA (let my company manage it for free)
$14.1K Cash ($12k emergency in HYSA $2k checking)
DEBT
$17.5K federal student loan
If you want to include vehicles and other materials my NW is around $150k. I’m still at the beginning of my career and it’s safe to assume. I’ll be making more than $100k within 5yrs. I max out my Roth IRA and HSA. My 401k contributions are pretax (Roth is offered) and should be close to the $22.5k limit. I put 50% of my bonus (most allowed) and 20% of my base. Then any extra money I put in my brokerage account. My company will pay off up to $15k of my student loans, so I’m not worried there. Company match is 100% of the first 7% and profit sharing is typically 7%-10%.
The end goal is to put away as much as possible. Without ruining my standard of living (which is already low). Then retire as soon as possible. Let me know what you think and if there’s anything I could do. That I am missing or not considering.

We got hit pretty hard with taxes this year, and now I’m looking for some ways to earn some money. I’m wondering, what sort of service-based “side hustles” would succeed in Saskatoon? Both my partner and I are willing to do some things for our neighbours to make some money, but I don’t want to try something that the area doesn’t use/need.
My main skills are sewing/crafting (I can fix nearly anything made of fabric and I am an advanced crocheter), clothing alterations, baking (mainly cupcakes but I could do other things), and house/closet organization. My partner’s skills fall mainly in the handiwork area (putting together IKEA furniture, fixing stuff around the house), he is capable of lifting very heavy things, drawing/art/graphic design, and he also does 3D printing. We would also consider other things like pet care, personal shopping, or even household chores (laundry, light cleaning, etc). We would also be open to possibly learning something new.
We are in an apartment, so don’t have the machinery needed to do things like lawn care or pressure washing, and we would prefer to keep it close to where we live (Blairmore). Do people need these services? If not, what do they need? Where do they need it?

In this game, players are tasked with designing and managing their own museum. The challenge lies in creating captivating exhibits for a simulated population with their own taste and preferences. This population will determine the visitors and income for the museum.
The simulation aspect includes managing budgets, hiring staff, conducting research, and expanding the museum's collection according to the population simulated taste.
Each exhibit is unique and based on real pieces of art or items really available in museums. The players can gain new pieces for their exhibitions by scouting them. A sort of lottery will then extract a few randomised items that can be purchased. Every once in a while an exhibit can be donated by NPC's and the player can accept it or refuse it. Players can also exchange their collection items as each item is unique. So only one player will actually have the mona Lisa for example.

​
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Happy Monday, Barkada --

The PSE gained 81 points to 6512 ▲1.3%

Thanks to Dividend Pinoy for the positive feedback on the new format of the MB REIT Index and MB IPO Tracker images (an update was waaaay overdue), to Rami Hourani, Jing, and CHARToons for the meme love, to Kristoffer Notario and cryptomarcus for feeling my distaste for FILRT, to PHValueInvestor, Joel, Jesley Tan Uy, CFA, and SnooTomatoes5312 for the discussion on the MPI tender situation, and to ACT for the interesting context on the MPI valuation delay.
Shout-outs to Dividend Pinoy PGG, MikeyPylo97, Kristhan Quebec, Jonathan Burac, Chris Darko, Justn, Evolves Capital, Inc., LanAustria, CHARToons, DV Dindo, PNLperShare, KingArk, koninja, Vie, arkitrader, Tenkan Sen, Pao, Technimentalist, Jayman6000, Palaboy Trader, Lance Nazal, Chip Sillesa, and Jing for the retweets, and to CW Sale, Marvin Quezon, Genesis Umali, Evolves.co, Jayvee Menil, and Mike Ting for the Facebook shares.

▌In today's MB:

• COMING UP: The week ahead
  • May CPI data
  • CREIT Q1 div ex-date
  • FILRT Q1 div ex-date
• SPNEC suspended (public float)
• Figaro coffee biz gets PEZA nod
• Top Frontier getting P10.9-B from RSA

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Main stories covered:

• [COMING_UP] The week ahead... This week is going to start quietly and then get a little weird on Tuesday when we hear from the Philippine Statistics Authority on our Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading for May. This is the data that we use to calculate inflation. Tuesday is also the ex-date for CREIT’s Q1 cash dividend. Then we have nothing until Friday, which is the ex-date for FILRT’s Q1 cash dividend.
  
  • MB: The BSP was initially full of bravado when it first hit the pause button last month, but it seemed to quickly walk back comments that it would pause for several periods in a row to say that it would still probably just follow what the US was doing. If the CPI data comes in hot (surprisingly high), then the BSP might be relatively quiet, but if the CPI data comes in cool (surprisingly low), then we might get another round of chest-beating about our ability to remain independent of the US on interest rate hikes and continue our pause. I don’t know which way it will go, only that the CPI data itself isn’t coming down that much on a month-to-month basis; the inflation “gains” that we might see could be low-base effects from the alarming acceleration of inflation that started this time last year.
• [NEWS] SPNEC suspended by the PSE for float violation... SP New Energy [SPNEC 1.46 suspended] [link] was suspended on Friday by the PSE for violating the PSE’s minimum public float rule. The suspension was announced after SPNEC disclosed that the SEC had approved SPNEC’s increase in authorized capital stock from ₱1 billion to ₱5 billion. The PSE appeared to base the suspension on SPNEC’s February 2022 disclosure that said the increase in authorized capital stock was meant to facilitate a massive share swap with SPNEC’s parent company; however, this understanding of the larger transaction doesn’t appear to align with SPNEC’s most recent telling of the deal’s structure from May 8, where SPNEC said that it would acquire the projects from its parent company using cash as payment (not shares). According to Nicky Franco, the head of research for SPNEC’s underwriter, despite the PSE’s misunderstanding of the larger picture, SPNEC is still in violation of the minimum public float requirement, and will still need to sell additional private placements to get its public float up above 20% before it can have that trading suspension lifted.
  
  • MB: This is kind of an ugly situation that caught a lot of people by surprise, and the confusion caused by the PSE’s disclosure only seemed to add to the uncertainty. To be clear, the PSE’s misunderstanding isn’t material: SPNEC regardless of whether the full deal is a share swap or a cash purchase, SPNEC still needs to have more of its shares sold to non-controlling entities for it to complete the transaction. It doesn’t matter whether those shares are sold by SPNEC directly or by SPNEC’s parent, the key here is that “the public” just owns too little of the company for the PSE to allow it to be traded as a public company. The problem for investors is that we don’t know how long this situation will last. SPNEC could crush out a deal or two over the weekend, or it could hit a few snags and/or get side-swiped by some external event, and the situation could take weeks to resolve. We just don’t know.
• [NEWS] Figaro gets PEZA approval for coffee production facility... Figaro [FCG 0.74 ▲8.8%; 174% avgVol] [link] disclosed that it received approval from the board of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for FCG, under its wholly-owned subsidiary, Figaro Innovation and Development (FIDI), to produce roasted coffee at its Laguna Technopark facility as an “Ecozone Export Enterprise”. This will give FCG’s coffee project a 5-year income tax holiday, with an additional 10-year “special” 5% corporate income tax once that holiday expires. FCG said that its primary goal for FIDI is to make “trailblazing products and processes” to “level up the F&B industry”, and to “promote Filipino brands, products and raw materials globally.”
  
  • MB: These tax holidays are significant, but they’re only as significant as the volume of the activity that is being taxed. FCG’s plans with respect to the export of its coffee are not particularly clear, considering the old “CTRL-F” of “innovation” (for the subsidiary), “PEZA” (for the plan to acquire tax-free privileges), and “export” (for the plan to export products globally) returned zero hits on the company’s most recent Annual Report and its two latest Quarterly Reports. The global coffee market is massive (~$500 billion/year), and is expected to grow modestly year-on-year (5% CAGR), but it’s hard to attach a potential value to anything without knowing more. The market didn’t care about them pesky details, pumping the stock 9% on the news.
• [NEWS] Ramon Ang pumping ₱10.9-B into Top Frontier... Top Frontier Investment Holdings [TFHI 120.00 ▲8.1%; 41% avgVol] [link], the parent company of San Miguel [SMC 106.90 ▲0.2%; 83% avgVol], disclosed that its board had unanimously approved the sale of 45 million common shares to Far East Holdings (FEH), at a price of ₱241.42/share, for a total price of approximately ₱10.86 billion. The per-share price of the deal is 117% higher than TFHI’s previous closing price of ₱111.00/share. FEH is owned by Ramon Ang, and the deal would increase Mr. Ang’s stake in TFHI to approximately 35%. The purchase will make Mr. Ang the second-largest TFHI shareholder behind Inigo Zobel. When asked about the purchase, Bloomberg reported that Mr. Ang said: “It’s a good investment”, and then added that he has “extra funds”.
  
  • MB: As the Bloomberg article mentions, FEH made some money in 2022 when it sold its holdings in Eagle Cement to SMC. In this game of “follow the money”, we’ll just have to wait and see what TPHI does with the new injection of cash. What we don’t have to wait for is the use of this deal as a contrast to how Manny V. Pangilinan has conducted the Metro Pacific [MPI 4.35 ▼0.5%; 463% avgVol] tender offer transaction. I wonder if COL Financial is going to send me a breathless email about TPHI’s upcoming shareholders’ meeting, too?

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Hi all, I’m trying to figure out my life and it’s not going so well. Here’s the deal: I want to buy a townhouse. They start at $500k in my area. My fiancée and I have $30k saved so far. Household income (gross) ~$165,000. We both have student loans but she’s working in the public sector and so we expect hers to be forgiven eventually (also why our combined isn’t higher). When my payments do resume they’ll be around $1100-1300/month. Rent/utilities/etc currently $2500 and should be stable for the next year. Trying to figure out when based on this info (and whatever I haven’t thought to include) we’ll be able to finally get a place and stop lighting that $2500 a month on fire. Thank you.

I recently completed a RTW award on ANA and wanted to share my experience to help others with this amazing award. I spent a long time researching before going through with booking --Hope this can help the next person! I did make a few mistakes/learnings along the way hope some can take into consideration. Overall, I spent 125,000 points transferred from Amex MR & ~$950 for 8 segments going East from the US in Business.

Routing

DEN-YYZ-LHR, VIE-BKK-SIN-DPS-SIN-HND-SFO - can paste into GCMap which results in a total of 21,526 mi; within the 22,000 Business Category.
​

Routing	CarrieClass
DEN (Denver) - YYZ (Toronto)	AC (Air Canada) / Economy
YYZ (Toronto) - LHR (London)	AC (Air Canada) / Business
VIE (Vienna) - BKK (Bangkok)	BR (Eva Airways) / Business
BKK (Bangkok) - SIN (Singapore)	SQ (Singapore) / Business
SIN (Singapore) - DPS (Bali)	SQ (Singapore) / Business
DPS (Bali) - SIN (Singapore)	SQ (Singapore) / Business
SIN (Singapore) - HND (Tokyo)	NH (ANA) / Business
HND (Tokyo) - SFO (San Francisco)	NH (ANA) / Business

The total portion of my time is about a month, with a majority of my time spent in Europe between LHR and VIE, a small portion of time in Bali to break up flights, and about a week in Japan before flying home.

Research Process

I had been targeting Spring/Early Summer 2024 for this award for awhile but hadn't nailed down a particular date. I wanted to travel during shoulder season to maximize value, crowds, and decent weather across these regions. I was just waiting for the award calendar to open up for most of the carriers. I started looking about a month out (April) and doing some random searches/looks to see what flights were coming available and possible routings. In my research I found that most flights leaving from the US to Asia booked up fastest right after being released at the edge of the booking window (ex: ANA opens up bookings on its metal 355 days out; and within say 3-4 days of release most of these flights are snatched up and go into Waitlist status in Business). I had originally been planning on flying West from the US and starting in Asia, however, after doing a few mock bookings this soon became apparent it would be near impossible (Especially since Japan in spring is peak season with the Cherry Blossoms, festivals, etc). I would occasionally find a random flight departing from the US to Asia within a month of the edge of the booking window; and try to plan flights around that going westward, but it would disappear extremly quickly and my plans would be spoiled. As a result I found for this time of year it would be easiest to go east from the US through Europe first, and then ending in Asia and snatching my return flights at the edge of the booking window when ANA's flights opened/other carriers.
I would definitely recommend being flexible and don't have your heart set on going one direction originally due to concerns about time in the Air vs. Jetlag etc. I had been reading a few articles/discussions about the best direction to take and really had my heart set on going westward originally; but would say after going through this process to ignore choosing a direction initially and try to do a few samples in either direction to see what is easiest. I think I wasted a-lot of time/frustration originally trying to go westward rather than just seeing what was easiest with the most connection opportunities.
Another research point is that domestic US Business availability/North America is extremly hard to come by. United basically was only offering Economy segments domestically; I didn't see any J fares. AC Departures from US up to Canada was nearly the same thing. I did randomly see consistent J availability from SMF - YVR on a CRJ AC was offering nearly every day, and from ORD on a few dates but didn't think going out of my way was worth it. It was at a bad time and on a relatively undesirable (IMO) CRJ so I could see why that route had wide open availability. The problem was once you made it to YVR; you usually had to connect to YYZ or YYC internationally and I had the same issue finding J space domestically in Canada; so it was a dead end. I ended up just booking my first segment in Economy on AC up to Canada - didn't want to waste valuable hunting time looking for a short segment in J domestically when the biggest fish looking for space was internationally. Don't obsess over having every segment in J especially your first flight. If space opens later you can always switch into a higher class on the same flight.
For research and booking I used FlightConnections to get routing ideas based on Star Alliance carriers. I then used United's monthly award calendar (without being logged in) to see Saver availability, and then confirmed this on ANA's website. I was going to use some other tools but didn't find them useful. I paid for a day trial of point . me but found it slow and cumbersome without the filtering I needed. I didn't find Aeroplan that useful either. If I was to do this again I would explore paying for ExpertFlyer Pro and using that to search more easily.. would have probably been faster. The trial wasn't long enough to be that useful for when I was researching/booking, but it did give me some ideas - and looking back I would have easily paid for a month or two of Pro Membership to speed up my searching. Overall though, I just stuck to FlightConnections + United + ANA confirmation.

Booking Process

The time had come to where the edge of the booking window was approaching the dates I wanted. I had a few routings in mind and had saved multiple variations targeting the 22,000 mileage cap. I had a few options but nothing nailed down; so I started the process to transfer 125,000 points from Amex to ANA. Even though as a "best practice" most say to not transfer until you have the flights chosen or held, I had read some conflicting points online stating ANA does not do holds, so didn't want to risk this. I was confident based on my research I would be able to piece something together as I had a-lot of backup options chosen. I attempted to transfer late on a Friday afternoon online but got the message the transfer was unsuccessful and had to call Amex; did that early Saturday morning and they completed the transfer for me manually. Turns out I didn't have a "Call Center Pin" setup; so make sure you go into your account and set one before trying and the transfer online should go through, according to the agent. This ordeal added to my stress during the process -- if you are going to be transferring MR please make note!
I was on edge waiting for the points to deposit the entire weekend, and kept tabs on my various options. US - Europe had a-lot of options on AC; and I also had a few backup options on TAP. The "riskiest" flight for me was VIE-BKK as I really needed to get out of Europe to Asia; and there weren't many options since I was booking really close to the edge of the booking window. I couldn't see any long haul availability on Turkish/Ethiopian/other European Star Alliance carriers; so I was pretty much banking on EVA with my backup as Egyptaiothers. I noticed that Singapore seemingly doesn't publish any saver J availability to partners on long haul flights; but it does have pretty decent availability in J on short haul interasia flights. It seems like the cutoff is around 4.5 hr; but found good availability from some cities in India and even Dhaka in Bangladesh to SIN I could have used to connect to with a mix of EgyptAir / Air India / Singapore if EVA didn't work out but honestly this was a last resort and I didn't want to; but at least I had a plan. During the weekend my original VIE-BKK flight selection disappeared; but luckily they had another flight the next day I was able to book into instead. They also had other options within Europe I could have fallen back on like LHR and AMS. I didn't want to depart from LHR unless absolutely necessary as the UK Departure tax would have been ~200 pounds; something that can be avoided if possible. Definitely look into 5th freedom routes for "hidden gems"; I know Ethiopian offers some too. Apart from this; within Asia there were alot of options, and I wasn't concerned about getting back to the US from Japan because I was purposefully booking on the edge of the booking window for ANA to ensure I had availability.
Points were finally deposited early Monday morning sometime between 1am - 9am EST. I saw them in my account when I woke up early which was perfect as I was targeting calling the ANA Call Center around then, some posters online had said calling around this time resulted in the shortest wait. I waited about 1.5 hours and got a nice agent who helped me. Of note; when I called the very first thing she confirmed was my point balance. It seems like they won't even entertain booking something for you (or at least this agent in particular) if you have 0 points; so I am glad I transferred my points before. She was very helpful in quickly researching and confirming the flights -- at the same time I was on the ANA website with the multi city booking tool confirming the space was there too alongside her. She questioned at first about me backtracking by going from SIN - DPS - SIN but realized I had to do this to connect with SIN - HND as there weren't any direct flights from SIN and was fine with it. At the end of feeding her the flights she said the routing I desired was greater than 22,000 miles (~23,5000 miles) and would trigger the next bucket to be 135,000 points -- my heart sank.
This is where my mistake came in... Originally I had 2 inter-european segments, and also wanted to fly from HND - IAH instead of HND - SFO. The entire time I had been researching with gcmapper to get the distances; I had been using nautical miles (nm) in the calculations rather than statute miles (mi)! The nautical mile calculation had been below 22,000 so I thought I was in the clear the entire time. The agent was super helpful and understood my mistake and I did some research in the background for a few minutes. I ended up dropping the inter-european segments and switching from HND-IAD to HND-SFO which made my routing 21,526mi which was below the 22,000 threshold according to gcmapper. She came back to me and quoted 21,523mi, so we were pretty close in our distances after this... 3 mile difference hah. Disaster averted.
After she confirmed all the segments had availability she put me on hold and calculated the taxes and fees ~($950). The majority of the taxes and fees were from the 2 ANA segments at the end of my trip; with fuel charges. I got sent to an automated phone system to input my card info, and returned back to her (don't hang up!). She told me that she had to have the fare desk ticket the itinerary and I should be getting an email or callback. Sure enough ~2 hours later she called me back and said I had to re-enter my card info as they had some issue with their system; the flight hadn't yet been ticketed. I took the opportunity to change one of the segments during this callback to a better time I had found and she helped me change it since It hadn't yet been ticketed -- I was flustered on the first call when she said the milage was too high.
Something interesting I noted is during the time between calls I was able to see the reservation on the ANA App; and an alert said "Complete Payment by *date*" which was 3 days from the present. So it looks like technically they will "hold" a reservation for up to 3 days while waiting for card payment. It sounded like the Agent was willing to work with me as well when I needed 135,000 points instead of 125,000 points; but I didn't want to spent more or risk the timing with transfers. I wouldn't bank on this at all. Just FYI though. After this second call I got an email about a half an hour later with my receipt and ticket/itinerary and PNR. I was able to select seats and finally relax after the ordeal.
After all of this, I probably spent about 12 hours spaced out during 3 days of the booking process plus my previous research over about a month. Definitely set aside some time for yourself during booking and research.

Change Process

Something I hadn't seen much of online was the process for making a change to an existing RTW booking - I ended up doing this as well, so hopefully this can help some.
About a week after booking I noticed one of the flights opened availability from SIN-HND on ANA at a better time. I was originally flying overnight but wanted to fly during the day to help minimize jetlag, and jumped at the chance. Also I wanted to spend more time in Singapore so this helped. Note you can only change the date + time of a flight; it must be the same routing and carrier and class (except you can move up a class if one becomes available and your original ticket allows for that class). I called around 2PM EST and it only took about an hour to get through this time. The agent simply told me I would owe the difference in taxes/fees for the change. There wasn't any penalty or call center charge assessed for this. I had read somewhere that apparently you'd be charged a 1,000 point fee for the change but this wasn't the case for me. The difference amounted to some small amount around a dollar or so which I happily paid. The agent shared something helpful to me -- she asked I save a card on the ANA website to my account rather than doing it on the phone. This would help the Fare Desk charge faster without needing to call me back like last time, I guess they have issues with their credit card system on the phone with some credit cards. I ended up doing this with her on the phone guiding me and she confirmed she could now see my card. The change ended up going through an hour later with a new ticket/itinerary and recipient emailed to me; no second call necessary.
According to the fare rules denoted on my PNR; you can do a similar change with date/time only up to 4 days (96 hours) before departure - also during the trip itself I believe as well. (full endorsements/restrictions on the ticket: NO MILEAGE CREDIT/NH FFP/NON END/RRT/DT CHNG UPTO 4DYS B4 NEW FLT)

TLDNeed to know Tips

• Successfully booked ANA RTW in Business at 125,000 points transferred from MR ~950 in taxes/fees. ANA was the culprit for majority of costs with fuel surcharges on 2 segments I flew.
• Don't have your heart set on going a particular direction upfront - go with what is easiest to book, and be flexible!
• Make sure you have Call Center Pin set in Amex if using MR before transferring to ANA to avoid issues.
• ANA seems to not hold for RTW for point transfer time if you have no points; I was asked upfront if I had the points before the agent would assist me. I had to transfer before.
• You can store a card online in ANA's system before calling which can help the Fare Desk/agent speed up processing to avoid callbacks/payment issues. You can store up to two cards. They were willing to hold itinerary up to 3 days awaiting card payment, and possibly for more points (but not with 0 points in my account) - did not test this. Use this info at your own risk. I wouldn't bank on it with points -- risky.
• Used United's award calendar without being logged in + FlightConnections; consider paying for ExpertFlyer too, also be savvy about the booking window(s) of carriers and book against the edge for the best availability especially with ANA.
• When calculating distance with gcmapper use statute miles (mi) not nautical miles (nm)!
• You can change flight(s) after booking as long as its simply a date+time change - no change in routing/carrier. Class change upwards is allowed if your original ticket allows for it. I was not assessed a penalty/fee for the change like some claimed online - could depend though.

I hope this was helpful - pardon the length - just wanted to be as detailed as possible and give back to the community after all the help I received. Since this is all fresh in my mind please feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer. I sincerely feel all the effort was worth it for the value I received - best of luck booking!

So...stats;
Loner, started @ Cordon. Veteran 23001. 33 days elapsed. 550 Mutants Killed, 350 Stalkers, 200 Stashes. 45 Emissions. 250 Tasks. Few hundred thousand in the bank with like 800kg of shit stored the Train Hangar, but no Expert Tools to repair anything requiring them (so Med Armour and a KS23/Kriss Vector and M4 Tactical atm but Ash12/Scablah blah just waiting)
But...only 14/33 levels visited. I only disabled the Brain Scorcher the other day, like 28? days in, still yet to go further North than the Army Warehouses or Yantar, because I'm subconsciously avoiding Dead City and Red Forest despite wrecking most things down South. Not entered any underground areas apart from X16. I seem to be in a loop of ''set out from base at Garbage > find cool shit to store or sell and get overburdened nearly > return back to Garbage > complete tasks that involve me heading even further South like gigantic 12kg shipments to return to Cordon > repeat". I've been in that loop around the South West almost this whole time -- and that includes barely any time in Darkscape, Dark Valley and Truck Cemetery.
Am I insane and literally going at snails pace up the map? I have no frame of reference really, so I wonder how the 'average' players would stack up at this point, but tbh I play most games in a similar fashion taking ages to build up be it strategy games or getting hugely over-leveled, so yeah. Still massively enjoying myself though.

It’s a two-part issue and surprisingly my skin color is a big part it. My gf and I are supposed to be moving in together Tuesday morning. Her mom knew we were together but her dad is super homophonic so she kept it to herself.
Her mom slipped up and mentioned it by accident and he’s pissed, and the thing about her mom is that she backs whatever her dad feels/says/does at the expense of her kids. He’s mad about her dating another woman but also mad that I’m darker skinned (Idris Elba kinda tone) and “I don’t want people thinking my grandchildren are hoodlums for looking like that.” And of course he doesn’t want another woman raising his grandkids. First of all…I can’t make a baby??? Either way it’s a trash thing to say.
They were going to pay her half of our apartment deposit so she could focus on a student loan and get started at her new job. Now they’ve taken that back and told her to leave. My lease ends Tuesday so we’re gonna have to sleep in her car because we can’t come up with $600 extra in just a day, which I’m sure is gonna screw us over because the lease is signed already. We’ve saved for all these fees but this puts a huge whole in our plan.
Part of me is of course mad that he could be so bigoted, but the other part is…happy I found out how he feels about darker people? I already knew he was a homophobe so whatever. But to screw over his own child like that is insane.
Anyone got family like this? I’ve honestly never experienced something to this degree. I’ve heard of ppl treating their kids different based on skin tone but this time it’s is personal and I’m kinda in shock.

This is mostly just a vent but I finally realized the increasing reaction I've been having all week was due to my (OTC) benadryl and (rx) hydroxyzine. I also have reactions to oral (rx) prednisone.
A compounding pharmacy is not an option for me. My doc said there's very little chance that medicaid will cover it because changing the formula makes it "off label use". It quite literally took me a year to get enough money to pay for a $10 vitamin D supplement last year. I am living off SSI while my partner is currently trying to get SSI and has no income.
I've already had to stop taking my POTS, ADHD, and anxiety/chronic pain meds. I'm at my wits end and about to beg my doc at my appointment tomorrow for a permanent IV port because insurance is more likely to cover IV forms of my meds and I have a reaction to literally every oral form regardless of manufacturer due to various fillers.
The allergist I saw didn't even mention cromolyn or ketotifen or anything other than zyrtec+inhaler+famotidine+hydroxyzine. My doc can only do so much but there's basically no one in my state that actually is an expert in MCAS and I have no money to travel out of state.
On top of this my GI issues are degenerating badly and at this point I'm worried my APAP machine may just be a mold breeding ground because it has a humidifier. My sleep is fucked because I keep having apneic episodes that come from throat/nasal swelling from what seems to be a mix of mild anaphylaxis and using the machine (the swelling and irritation go down throughout the day and are always worst right after I wake up.
On top of that, hives, joint pain, lungs on fire every morning - I'm not sure my asthma is controlled at all - acid reflux, diarrhea, nausea... it feels like my whole life is just being sick right now. I don't have energy for anything else. On a good day I can read and that's at least a nice escape from my body that feels so broken (I know it's doing its best but it's still hurting).I don't leave my apartment anymore if it's not for doc appointments because it's too painful and the summer heat sets off my POTS and hives anyway. My doc is lovely but insurance won't cover desperately needed mobility aids without attending physical therapy that I literally am incapable of doing right now, considering I can't schedule my bad days and on my worst I can't get out of bed.
Like I know all this is from more than just MCAS, but I also know a lot of us are multiply chronically ill and so know the struggle, at least. As usual, if anyone has any advice to give it is always welcome. Fwiw I am in therapy as well, I'm lucky to have a very good therapist who, while she doesn't always understand, is very willing to learn and is able to provide good coping techniques regardless. That being said, sometimes you just need to vent to other people who get it, y'know?

I'm (20M) looking for two others to split a 2-3 bedroom apartment in Fairfax County. The budget would be $1800-2100. Please leave a comment or send a message! Thank you.