So I’ve just started a band where I will be the sole guitarist, I have a small collection of pedals but most of my tone is done on boss katana tone studio. What loopers are good for playing live? I’ve looked at the RC-5 and that seems good but I’ve never used a looper but Ill need to loop rhythms for solos and ideally I’ll need to be able to turn the looper off and switch tones at with the GC-FA foot switch at the same time. Is this even possible?
Any help is appreciated :)

I'm 39 and I always wanted to play goalie. Yesterday night I finally had the chance to do so on a pickup game. This was my experience:

1. I was absolutely gassed within 20 minutes of an hour-long game, so for me the last 40 minutes were mentally very difficult. Right off the bat I can see two mistakes I made: one, my warmup was too intense and I took too many shots, so when the game started I was already winded and starting to feel exhausted instead of just warmed up. Two, I get the feeling I kept overrating the ability of the offense to take shots. I was jumping into pre-butterfly position as soon as they crossed center-ice, which in hindsight seemed unnecessary most of the time (see point #2).
2. My team was really good on defense. They didn't allow many shots and were rebound clearing machines. They only allowed two breakaways.
3. I made some good saves but also let in some softies, especially towards the end of the match. I was so exhausted that my reaction time plummeted. The most embarrassing was a weak, low shot from the blue line, I tried what should have been a simple stick save and fanned out on the puck.
4. One technical issue I had was butterfly sliding, but the most embarrassing was that I sometimes struggled to get back up when I was down. I had never played with the full gear on, and I ended up looking like a flailing, drunk, upside down turtle. I really need to practice this more. I'm normally an ok skater, but I really underrated how hard is to stand back up with the pads.
5. I took a shot to the face mask during warm-ups literally on the second shot. The guy apologized and it was all good. But honestly, I think it was good that it happened, it removed whatever anxiety I had going in because it didn't hurt at all, instead it made me realize "oh, so the helmet actually works, I guess that's why it costs what it costs". I can at least be proud to say I didn't flinch at any shot during the game (but its also not like I was getting bombarded with 80 mph clappers).
6. At the level I played, I think the butterfly is quite useful even for a 5'9 goalie like myself because most of the shots I got were low. There were a few higher ones, but most were off target. The offense for the most part was trying to tic-tac-toe passes on the offensive zone, and my team was great at not letting them get shots out. I truly think they would have been better off with 6 players given how solid they were.
7. I made my team work extra because I suck at puck handling and didn't even try it, forcing my team to skate all the way back for lost pucks. I'm aware of this but I'm also aware I'm a liability, the goalie paddle is still too awkward for me.

In the end, despite quite a few embarrassing moments I had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to the next game next Thursday.

​
"I can't get it out of my head. I don't know what to do. Mark said you might be able to help me, but I don't know how."
I was sitting by the fountain in the outdoor garden, which most people used as a smoking area. The angel statue held a jug that constantly burbled out water, and I found the patter soothing. I came here to think sometimes, to collect my thoughts, and it was a great comfort to me since the incident with the elevator. I found myself here more and more often these days. Writing this book about the things I've seen and heard in Cashmere Hospital is taking a toll on me, and I think it's impossible to not wonder why I stay in the belly of the beast as I write more and more about the things that go on here.
I was asleep when Mark called me today, dragging myself from the depths to ask what he wanted?
My plans had been to sleep till noon, so I could get up and write a little before going back to sleep tonight. It was my day off, and I wanted to catch up on some sleep so I could spend all day tomorrow writing before going back to work on Wednesday. Instead, I listened to what Mark had to say and got up to make myself a coffee, so I'd be in the right mind to listen to this fellas story.
"He wants to know if you'll meet him at eleven. He sounds pretty bad, and I'm afraid he might not be in the right place to tell you this story for much longer."
The guy's name was Jerry, a "sitter" who'd struck up a friendship with Mark a few months ago.
Sitters are what we call them, but their title is "non-medical caregivers." They sit with patients for six to eight hours daily, and the work is voluntary. Sitters usually hang out with coma patients, patients suffering from catatonia, dementia patients, and most patients who just need someone to sit and talk with them. That was where Jerry came in. Jerry lived primarily off a trust fund, but as he grew older, he wanted to do something with his time besides sit around. So, he committed himself to sit with patients a few times a week, leading him to where he was now.
"They keep calling me to see if I want to sit with another patient, but I can't think of anything besides what he said to me."
I looked up owlishly at him, taking a sip of the coffee I'd bought in the cafeteria before telling him to go on.
"It all started with Mr. Vogner."
* * * * *
Jerry looked at the starring old man without much interest. He was sitting in a bed on the second floor, the long-term stay unit, and staring at the same long crack in the plain white paint that covered a ceiling that had likely not been painted since Reagan was in office.
"This is Mr. Vogner. He's in a coma, but we think he might feel a little better if he just had someone to talk to."
Jerry nodded, "Well, let's get acquainted then,"
After several hours of having a one-sided conversation with the man in the bed, Jerry sighed. He didn't know what he was expecting. Most of the patients in a coma or in a state of catatonia were like this. It was like talking to a brick wall, but you ultimately did it for them. You gave them a voice they could latch onto, a lifeline that might pull them back from whatever sea they are stranded in.
Just because it was dull didn't mean it wasn't noble work.
Jerry had been doing this sort of thing for about a year, and he had never seen anything described by some of the guys in his group. There was a collection of guys in the Sitter program who sometimes got together for drinks and talked about their experiences. Some of the guys talked about watching patients slowly come out of their silent state. Some talked about hearing a patient speak for the first time in years. Some talked about the tear-spotted letters they got from their families or the happy embraces from family members who hadn't seen them move or speak in years. Jerry didn't have anything like this. They told him it would happen, that he would get his own story to tell one day.
He doubted any of them could have known that this dried-up husk of a man would be his one and only story.
Jerry tried another conversational gambit, asking Mr. Vogner who he thought would win the Super Bowl this year?
Mr. Vognar just kept staring at that crack in the ceiling.
Jerry reached for the remote then, thinking some Tv might loosen his tongue. Flipping through the channels, he finally settled on an episode of Pawn Stars and started watching the adventures of Rick and his son, Big Haus. Jerry asked Vogner if he liked Pawn Stars, but he got no answer. Whether he approved or disapproved, Jerry never knew. He turned back to the show, commenting on some of the things they were showing, and the two let the show play out.
They were halfway through the episode, Rick's father talking to a man about silver coins, when Jerry heard the mumbling. He turned the volume down, thinking it might be part of the show, and realized it was coming from the man in the bed. Mr. Vogner was mumbling to the crack in the ceiling, and Jerry turned off the tv as he slid his chair a little closer. The man's chapped lips were mumbling the same thing repeatedly, and as Jerry got closer, he realized it was the same five words.
"He came through the crack."
"Are you okay, Mr. Vogner?" Jerry asked, looking at the door as he thought about calling a nurse.
"He came through the crack."
"Do you need some water?" Jerry asked, hoping for more than muttering.
"He came through the crack."
"Who came through the crack?" Jerry asked on a whim, wondering if it was something more than a random phrase.
When the old man turned his sunken face towards him, his chapped lips flaking as he made the words of an answer, Jerry wished he hadn't asked.
"The man made of stars."
Jerry wanted to pull away but leaned in closer, curious to hear the man's words.
"Tell me about him."
It all began when things started going missing.
It was little things. My paper weight, the pen the college gave me after teaching for twenty years, the pendent from LSU that hung on the wall of my own dorm, and I was becoming angry. I blamed my kids, and I blamed my wife, but they all claimed they had nothing to do with it. I was working on a manuscript and complained that all of this was cutting into my time, but still, things continued to go missing.
When my manuscript started going missing, I fell into a rage.
I changed the locks on my office. I forbade people to go in there, even when I was there. I spent more time in my office, typing and typing and typing away, and barely saw the people who mattered the most to me. I would slink out to get food in the dead of night when everyone was asleep, and even then, I would lock the door and get back to work as quickly as possible.
I was typing one night between midnight and dawn when I discovered what had been stealing from me.
The old man wet his lips again, his head shifting slowly as he looked back at the crack in the ceiling. His voice sounded like a rusty hinge in a haunted house, and Jerry wondered how long it had been since he had spoken? Jerry wanted to get him some water, but he was pulled in by the weird story and the sound of his haggard voice.
"Have you ever considered what we would look like to a two-dimensional creature?"
Jerry was surprised, shook his head, shocked into a response by the strangeness of the question.
"Few do. A three-dimensional creature could reach right into a safe that a two-dimensional creature had secured and take anything they wanted. The two-dimensional creature would have no idea how its valuables had been stolen, and it might not even be able to conceive of a three-dimensional creature."
"Pretty heavy stuff," Jerry said, chuckling weakly.
"Indeed," said Mr. Vognar, "Especially when it's exactly what's happening to you."
I was sitting at my computer, banging away at my missing pages as I tried to recreate them when something caught my eye. It began as a sparkling, like a gem that caught the light, and I turned to look at the crack that had appeared on my wall. It was nothing special, just a normal crack, but there was something trying to push its way through. I… can't…have you ever looked up at the stars on a clear night? Have you ever looked at the constellations and seen the shapes? That one bear, that one a dipper, that one a huntsman? Well, I saw a man made of stars! That's as close as I can describe him, but it looked like a constellation had stepped out of my wall.
I was speechless. Was this the thing that was stealing from me? I was like a statue as it moved across the room. It's hard to describe how it moved. It almost seemed to vanish and reappear with each "step." It was, then it wasn't, then it was again. Watching it move gave me the worst feeling of nausea, and I felt the air hang in my lungs as it came right up to the desk. It stood not five feet from me, and the air hummed with power. I spent a summer working for the power company before college, hanging power lines and helping plant telephone poles. When the wires were live, they felt just like that, and I was afraid that if it touched me, I'd be burnt to a crisp.
I must have made a sound when he picked up the picture on my desk because it turned and looked at me. I say turned, but I'm not quite sure what it did. It folded itself in my direction, and when its shining visage fell on me, it sounded like animals being cooked alive. It sounded like the loudest speaker reverb you've ever heard mixed with a pig being butchered. It made my ears bleed, and I felt blood oozing from my nose and eyes as I stared at it. I watched it lean in closer and closer as the noise fell on me like a heavy weight, and at some point, my mind just couldn't take it anymore.
When I returned to myself, I was here, and I've been here ever since, thinking about the nature of that creature that came through my wall as if it was no more a barrier than the door over there.
Jerry leaned away from the man slowly, the oldster still staring at that crack that stretched across the flat plane of his ceiling.
"Have you seen him since?" Jerry asked, not wanting to know but needing to.
Mr. Vognar never looked away from the crack, but Jerry felt sure that he could see him peeking out of her peripherals.
"Sometimes, late at night, I see colors from that crack up there. I know he's watching. I think he enjoys seeing me suffer. And now you know, too. And now it will eat away at you as well."
He started to laugh, a deep and hateful sound, and it took all of Jerry's strength to fumble out of the chair and run from that room. It wasn't just his fun house laughter or the corpse that was creating it. The idea of some creature that could move freely through his world, seeing it as little more than a game board or a picture made of rice and glue, terrified him the farther it wormed into his brain. They called his name at the nurse's station when he passed, but he kept running. He didn't stop running until he was in his car in the parking lot, but that was when it all truly started.
He saw a crack in the windshield, a simple star made by a stray rock.
He had thought he might be done shaking, but it seemed he had a little more in him as he fell out of the car and scrambled through the parking lot, leaving his vehicle open and abandoned in the parking spot.
* * * * *
"I haven't gone back to check on it since. I assume security has either towed it or secured it for me. I spent the last two weeks spackling every crack in my house. I never realized there were so many until I started. Then I looked at the corners, wondering if they could get in there. Who's to say what a door is to them? They could come anywhere and at any time."
"What will you do?" I asked, unsure how to help this man.
It was hard having knowledge that you didn't ask for.
"I don't know, but every day I think about it, I'm pretty sure I'm one step closer to losing my mind. I wonder now if that's what happened to Mr. Vognar. Did he lose his mind after seeing that thing, or because the thought of things coming in drove him crazy?"
He left soon after that, and I never heard from him again.
I did look up Mr. Vognar when I got to work the next day and discovered he had passed the day after Jerry's visit. The report said he had a heart attack, but they also reported strange burns on his chest during the autopsy. It was written off as an allergic reaction or some odd occurrence, but I can't help but wonder if the strange creature he spoke of finally came back to get him?
Cashmere just gets weirder and weirder the longer I look into these things.
I hardly need an otherworldly being to make me feel like I might be losing it the longer I remain in this Bermuda triangle of strangeness.

"I can't get it out of my head. I don't know what to do. Mark said you might be able to help me, but I don't know how."
I was sitting by the fountain in the outdoor garden, which most people used as a smoking area. The angel statue held a jug that constantly burbled out water, and I found the patter soothing. I came here to think sometimes, to collect my thoughts, and it was a great comfort to me since the incident with the elevator. I found myself here more and more often these days. Writing this book about the things I've seen and heard in Cashmere Hospital is taking a toll on me, and I think it's impossible to not wonder why I stay in the belly of the beast as I write more and more about the things that go on here.
I was asleep when Mark called me today, dragging myself from the depths to ask what he wanted?
My plans had been to sleep till noon, so I could get up and write a little before going back to sleep tonight. It was my day off, and I wanted to catch up on some sleep so I could spend all day tomorrow writing before going back to work on Wednesday. Instead, I listened to what Mark had to say and got up to make myself a coffee, so I'd be in the right mind to listen to this fellas story.
"He wants to know if you'll meet him at eleven. He sounds pretty bad, and I'm afraid he might not be in the right place to tell you this story for much longer."
The guy's name was Jerry, a "sitter" who'd struck up a friendship with Mark a few months ago.
Sitters are what we call them, but their title is "non-medical caregivers." They sit with patients for six to eight hours daily, and the work is voluntary. Sitters usually hang out with coma patients, patients suffering from catatonia, dementia patients, and most patients who just need someone to sit and talk with them. That was where Jerry came in. Jerry lived primarily off a trust fund, but as he grew older, he wanted to do something with his time besides sit around. So, he committed himself to sit with patients a few times a week, leading him to where he was now.
"They keep calling me to see if I want to sit with another patient, but I can't think of anything besides what he said to me."
I looked up owlishly at him, taking a sip of the coffee I'd bought in the cafeteria before telling him to go on.
"It all started with Mr. Vogner."
* * * * *
Jerry looked at the starring old man without much interest. He was sitting in a bed on the second floor, the long-term stay unit, and staring at the same long crack in the plain white paint that covered a ceiling that had likely not been painted since Reagan was in office.
"This is Mr. Vogner. He's in a coma, but we think he might feel a little better if he just had someone to talk to."
Jerry nodded, "Well, let's get acquainted then,"
After several hours of having a one-sided conversation with the man in the bed, Jerry sighed. He didn't know what he was expecting. Most of the patients in a coma or in a state of catatonia were like this. It was like talking to a brick wall, but you ultimately did it for them. You gave them a voice they could latch onto, a lifeline that might pull them back from whatever sea they are stranded in.
Just because it was dull didn't mean it wasn't noble work.
Jerry had been doing this sort of thing for about a year, and he had never seen anything described by some of the guys in his group. There was a collection of guys in the Sitter program who sometimes got together for drinks and talked about their experiences. Some of the guys talked about watching patients slowly come out of their silent state. Some talked about hearing a patient speak for the first time in years. Some talked about the tear-spotted letters they got from their families or the happy embraces from family members who hadn't seen them move or speak in years. Jerry didn't have anything like this. They told him it would happen, that he would get his own story to tell one day.
He doubted any of them could have known that this dried-up husk of a man would be his one and only story.
Jerry tried another conversational gambit, asking Mr. Vogner who he thought would win the Super Bowl this year?
Mr. Vognar just kept staring at that crack in the ceiling.
Jerry reached for the remote then, thinking some Tv might loosen his tongue. Flipping through the channels, he finally settled on an episode of Pawn Stars and started watching the adventures of Rick and his son, Big Haus. Jerry asked Vogner if he liked Pawn Stars, but he got no answer. Whether he approved or disapproved, Jerry never knew. He turned back to the show, commenting on some of the things they were showing, and the two let the show play out.
They were halfway through the episode, Rick's father talking to a man about silver coins, when Jerry heard the mumbling. He turned the volume down, thinking it might be part of the show, and realized it was coming from the man in the bed. Mr. Vogner was mumbling to the crack in the ceiling, and Jerry turned off the tv as he slid his chair a little closer. The man's chapped lips were mumbling the same thing repeatedly, and as Jerry got closer, he realized it was the same five words.
"He came through the crack."
"Are you okay, Mr. Vogner?" Jerry asked, looking at the door as he thought about calling a nurse.
"He came through the crack."
"Do you need some water?" Jerry asked, hoping for more than muttering.
"He came through the crack."
"Who came through the crack?" Jerry asked on a whim, wondering if it was something more than a random phrase.
When the old man turned his sunken face towards him, his chapped lips flaking as he made the words of an answer, Jerry wished he hadn't asked.
"The man made of stars."
Jerry wanted to pull away but leaned in closer, curious to hear the man's words.
"Tell me about him."
It all began when things started going missing.
It was little things. My paper weight, the pen the college gave me after teaching for twenty years, the pendent from LSU that hung on the wall of my own dorm, and I was becoming angry. I blamed my kids, and I blamed my wife, but they all claimed they had nothing to do with it. I was working on a manuscript and complained that all of this was cutting into my time, but still, things continued to go missing.
When my manuscript started going missing, I fell into a rage.
I changed the locks on my office. I forbade people to go in there, even when I was there. I spent more time in my office, typing and typing and typing away, and barely saw the people who mattered the most to me. I would slink out to get food in the dead of night when everyone was asleep, and even then, I would lock the door and get back to work as quickly as possible.
I was typing one night between midnight and dawn when I discovered what had been stealing from me.
The old man wet his lips again, his head shifting slowly as he looked back at the crack in the ceiling. His voice sounded like a rusty hinge in a haunted house, and Jerry wondered how long it had been since he had spoken? Jerry wanted to get him some water, but he was pulled in by the weird story and the sound of his haggard voice.
"Have you ever considered what we would look like to a two-dimensional creature?"
Jerry was surprised, shook his head, shocked into a response by the strangeness of the question.
"Few do. A three-dimensional creature could reach right into a safe that a two-dimensional creature had secured and take anything they wanted. The two-dimensional creature would have no idea how its valuables had been stolen, and it might not even be able to conceive of a three-dimensional creature."
"Pretty heavy stuff," Jerry said, chuckling weakly.
"Indeed," said Mr. Vognar, "Especially when it's exactly what's happening to you."
I was sitting at my computer, banging away at my missing pages as I tried to recreate them when something caught my eye. It began as a sparkling, like a gem that caught the light, and I turned to look at the crack that had appeared on my wall. It was nothing special, just a normal crack, but there was something trying to push its way through. I… can't…have you ever looked up at the stars on a clear night? Have you ever looked at the constellations and seen the shapes? That one bear, that one a dipper, that one a huntsman? Well, I saw a man made of stars! That's as close as I can describe him, but it looked like a constellation had stepped out of my wall.
I was speechless. Was this the thing that was stealing from me? I was like a statue as it moved across the room. It's hard to describe how it moved. It almost seemed to vanish and reappear with each "step." It was, then it wasn't, then it was again. Watching it move gave me the worst feeling of nausea, and I felt the air hang in my lungs as it came right up to the desk. It stood not five feet from me, and the air hummed with power. I spent a summer working for the power company before college, hanging power lines and helping plant telephone poles. When the wires were live, they felt just like that, and I was afraid that if it touched me, I'd be burnt to a crisp.
I must have made a sound when he picked up the picture on my desk because it turned and looked at me. I say turned, but I'm not quite sure what it did. It folded itself in my direction, and when its shining visage fell on me, it sounded like animals being cooked alive. It sounded like the loudest speaker reverb you've ever heard mixed with a pig being butchered. It made my ears bleed, and I felt blood oozing from my nose and eyes as I stared at it. I watched it lean in closer and closer as the noise fell on me like a heavy weight, and at some point, my mind just couldn't take it anymore.
When I returned to myself, I was here, and I've been here ever since, thinking about the nature of that creature that came through my wall as if it was no more a barrier than the door over there.
Jerry leaned away from the man slowly, the oldster still staring at that crack that stretched across the flat plane of his ceiling.
"Have you seen him since?" Jerry asked, not wanting to know but needing to.
Mr. Vognar never looked away from the crack, but Jerry felt sure that he could see him peeking out of her peripherals.
"Sometimes, late at night, I see colors from that crack up there. I know he's watching. I think he enjoys seeing me suffer. And now you know, too. And now it will eat away at you as well."
He started to laugh, a deep and hateful sound, and it took all of Jerry's strength to fumble out of the chair and run from that room. It wasn't just his fun house laughter or the corpse that was creating it. The idea of some creature that could move freely through his world, seeing it as little more than a game board or a picture made of rice and glue, terrified him the farther it wormed into his brain. They called his name at the nurse's station when he passed, but he kept running. He didn't stop running until he was in his car in the parking lot, but that was when it all truly started.
He saw a crack in the windshield, a simple star made by a stray rock.
He had thought he might be done shaking, but it seemed he had a little more in him as he fell out of the car and scrambled through the parking lot, leaving his vehicle open and abandoned in the parking spot.
* * * * *
"I haven't gone back to check on it since. I assume security has either towed it or secured it for me. I spent the last two weeks spackling every crack in my house. I never realized there were so many until I started. Then I looked at the corners, wondering if they could get in there. Who's to say what a door is to them? They could come anywhere and at any time."
"What will you do?" I asked, unsure how to help this man.
It was hard having knowledge that you didn't ask for.
"I don't know, but every day I think about it, I'm pretty sure I'm one step closer to losing my mind. I wonder now if that's what happened to Mr. Vognar. Did he lose his mind after seeing that thing, or because the thought of things coming in drove him crazy?"
He left soon after that, and I never heard from him again.
I did look up Mr. Vognar when I got to work the next day and discovered he had passed the day after Jerry's visit. The report said he had a heart attack, but they also reported strange burns on his chest during the autopsy. It was written off as an allergic reaction or some odd occurrence, but I can't help but wonder if the strange creature he spoke of finally came back to get him?
Cashmere just gets weirder and weirder the longer I look into these things.
I hardly need an otherworldly being to make me feel like I might be losing it the longer I remain in this Bermuda triangle of strangeness.

​
"I can't get it out of my head. I don't know what to do. Mark said you might be able to help me, but I don't know how."
I was sitting by the fountain in the outdoor garden, which most people used as a smoking area. The angel statue held a jug that constantly burbled out water, and I found the patter soothing. I came here to think sometimes, to collect my thoughts, and it was a great comfort to me since the incident with the elevator. I found myself here more and more often these days. Writing this book about the things I've seen and heard in Cashmere Hospital is taking a toll on me, and I think it's impossible to not wonder why I stay in the belly of the beast as I write more and more about the things that go on here.
I was asleep when Mark called me today, dragging myself from the depths to ask what he wanted?
My plans had been to sleep till noon, so I could get up and write a little before going back to sleep tonight. It was my day off, and I wanted to catch up on some sleep so I could spend all day tomorrow writing before going back to work on Wednesday. Instead, I listened to what Mark had to say and got up to make myself a coffee, so I'd be in the right mind to listen to this fellas story.
"He wants to know if you'll meet him at eleven. He sounds pretty bad, and I'm afraid he might not be in the right place to tell you this story for much longer."
The guy's name was Jerry, a "sitter" who'd struck up a friendship with Mark a few months ago.
Sitters are what we call them, but their title is "non-medical caregivers." They sit with patients for six to eight hours daily, and the work is voluntary. Sitters usually hang out with coma patients, patients suffering from catatonia, dementia patients, and most patients who just need someone to sit and talk with them. That was where Jerry came in. Jerry lived primarily off a trust fund, but as he grew older, he wanted to do something with his time besides sit around. So, he committed himself to sit with patients a few times a week, leading him to where he was now.
"They keep calling me to see if I want to sit with another patient, but I can't think of anything besides what he said to me."
I looked up owlishly at him, taking a sip of the coffee I'd bought in the cafeteria before telling him to go on.
"It all started with Mr. Vogner."
* * * * *
Jerry looked at the starring old man without much interest. He was sitting in a bed on the second floor, the long-term stay unit, and staring at the same long crack in the plain white paint that covered a ceiling that had likely not been painted since Reagan was in office.
"This is Mr. Vogner. He's in a coma, but we think he might feel a little better if he just had someone to talk to."
Jerry nodded, "Well, let's get acquainted then,"
After several hours of having a one-sided conversation with the man in the bed, Jerry sighed. He didn't know what he was expecting. Most of the patients in a coma or in a state of catatonia were like this. It was like talking to a brick wall, but you ultimately did it for them. You gave them a voice they could latch onto, a lifeline that might pull them back from whatever sea they are stranded in.
Just because it was dull didn't mean it wasn't noble work.
Jerry had been doing this sort of thing for about a year, and he had never seen anything described by some of the guys in his group. There was a collection of guys in the Sitter program who sometimes got together for drinks and talked about their experiences. Some of the guys talked about watching patients slowly come out of their silent state. Some talked about hearing a patient speak for the first time in years. Some talked about the tear-spotted letters they got from their families or the happy embraces from family members who hadn't seen them move or speak in years. Jerry didn't have anything like this. They told him it would happen, that he would get his own story to tell one day.
He doubted any of them could have known that this dried-up husk of a man would be his one and only story.
Jerry tried another conversational gambit, asking Mr. Vogner who he thought would win the Super Bowl this year?
Mr. Vognar just kept staring at that crack in the ceiling.
Jerry reached for the remote then, thinking some Tv might loosen his tongue. Flipping through the channels, he finally settled on an episode of Pawn Stars and started watching the adventures of Rick and his son, Big Haus. Jerry asked Vogner if he liked Pawn Stars, but he got no answer. Whether he approved or disapproved, Jerry never knew. He turned back to the show, commenting on some of the things they were showing, and the two let the show play out.
They were halfway through the episode, Rick's father talking to a man about silver coins, when Jerry heard the mumbling. He turned the volume down, thinking it might be part of the show, and realized it was coming from the man in the bed. Mr. Vogner was mumbling to the crack in the ceiling, and Jerry turned off the tv as he slid his chair a little closer. The man's chapped lips were mumbling the same thing repeatedly, and as Jerry got closer, he realized it was the same five words.
"He came through the crack."
"Are you okay, Mr. Vogner?" Jerry asked, looking at the door as he thought about calling a nurse.
"He came through the crack."
"Do you need some water?" Jerry asked, hoping for more than muttering.
"He came through the crack."
"Who came through the crack?" Jerry asked on a whim, wondering if it was something more than a random phrase.
When the old man turned his sunken face towards him, his chapped lips flaking as he made the words of an answer, Jerry wished he hadn't asked.
"The man made of stars."
Jerry wanted to pull away but leaned in closer, curious to hear the man's words.
"Tell me about him."
It all began when things started going missing.
It was little things. My paper weight, the pen the college gave me after teaching for twenty years, the pendent from LSU that hung on the wall of my own dorm, and I was becoming angry. I blamed my kids, and I blamed my wife, but they all claimed they had nothing to do with it. I was working on a manuscript and complained that all of this was cutting into my time, but still, things continued to go missing.
When my manuscript started going missing, I fell into a rage.
I changed the locks on my office. I forbade people to go in there, even when I was there. I spent more time in my office, typing and typing and typing away, and barely saw the people who mattered the most to me. I would slink out to get food in the dead of night when everyone was asleep, and even then, I would lock the door and get back to work as quickly as possible.
I was typing one night between midnight and dawn when I discovered what had been stealing from me.
The old man wet his lips again, his head shifting slowly as he looked back at the crack in the ceiling. His voice sounded like a rusty hinge in a haunted house, and Jerry wondered how long it had been since he had spoken? Jerry wanted to get him some water, but he was pulled in by the weird story and the sound of his haggard voice.
"Have you ever considered what we would look like to a two-dimensional creature?"
Jerry was surprised, shook his head, shocked into a response by the strangeness of the question.
"Few do. A three-dimensional creature could reach right into a safe that a two-dimensional creature had secured and take anything they wanted. The two-dimensional creature would have no idea how its valuables had been stolen, and it might not even be able to conceive of a three-dimensional creature."
"Pretty heavy stuff," Jerry said, chuckling weakly.
"Indeed," said Mr. Vognar, "Especially when it's exactly what's happening to you."
I was sitting at my computer, banging away at my missing pages as I tried to recreate them when something caught my eye. It began as a sparkling, like a gem that caught the light, and I turned to look at the crack that had appeared on my wall. It was nothing special, just a normal crack, but there was something trying to push its way through. I… can't…have you ever looked up at the stars on a clear night? Have you ever looked at the constellations and seen the shapes? That one bear, that one a dipper, that one a huntsman? Well, I saw a man made of stars! That's as close as I can describe him, but it looked like a constellation had stepped out of my wall.
I was speechless. Was this the thing that was stealing from me? I was like a statue as it moved across the room. It's hard to describe how it moved. It almost seemed to vanish and reappear with each "step." It was, then it wasn't, then it was again. Watching it move gave me the worst feeling of nausea, and I felt the air hang in my lungs as it came right up to the desk. It stood not five feet from me, and the air hummed with power. I spent a summer working for the power company before college, hanging power lines and helping plant telephone poles. When the wires were live, they felt just like that, and I was afraid that if it touched me, I'd be burnt to a crisp.
I must have made a sound when he picked up the picture on my desk because it turned and looked at me. I say turned, but I'm not quite sure what it did. It folded itself in my direction, and when its shining visage fell on me, it sounded like animals being cooked alive. It sounded like the loudest speaker reverb you've ever heard mixed with a pig being butchered. It made my ears bleed, and I felt blood oozing from my nose and eyes as I stared at it. I watched it lean in closer and closer as the noise fell on me like a heavy weight, and at some point, my mind just couldn't take it anymore.
When I returned to myself, I was here, and I've been here ever since, thinking about the nature of that creature that came through my wall as if it was no more a barrier than the door over there.
Jerry leaned away from the man slowly, the oldster still staring at that crack that stretched across the flat plane of his ceiling.
"Have you seen him since?" Jerry asked, not wanting to know but needing to.
Mr. Vognar never looked away from the crack, but Jerry felt sure that he could see him peeking out of her peripherals.
"Sometimes, late at night, I see colors from that crack up there. I know he's watching. I think he enjoys seeing me suffer. And now you know, too. And now it will eat away at you as well."
He started to laugh, a deep and hateful sound, and it took all of Jerry's strength to fumble out of the chair and run from that room. It wasn't just his fun house laughter or the corpse that was creating it. The idea of some creature that could move freely through his world, seeing it as little more than a game board or a picture made of rice and glue, terrified him the farther it wormed into his brain. They called his name at the nurse's station when he passed, but he kept running. He didn't stop running until he was in his car in the parking lot, but that was when it all truly started.
He saw a crack in the windshield, a simple star made by a stray rock.
He had thought he might be done shaking, but it seemed he had a little more in him as he fell out of the car and scrambled through the parking lot, leaving his vehicle open and abandoned in the parking spot.
* * * * *
"I haven't gone back to check on it since. I assume security has either towed it or secured it for me. I spent the last two weeks spackling every crack in my house. I never realized there were so many until I started. Then I looked at the corners, wondering if they could get in there. Who's to say what a door is to them? They could come anywhere and at any time."
"What will you do?" I asked, unsure how to help this man.
It was hard having knowledge that you didn't ask for.
"I don't know, but every day I think about it, I'm pretty sure I'm one step closer to losing my mind. I wonder now if that's what happened to Mr. Vognar. Did he lose his mind after seeing that thing, or because the thought of things coming in drove him crazy?"
He left soon after that, and I never heard from him again.
I did look up Mr. Vognar when I got to work the next day and discovered he had passed the day after Jerry's visit. The report said he had a heart attack, but they also reported strange burns on his chest during the autopsy. It was written off as an allergic reaction or some odd occurrence, but I can't help but wonder if the strange creature he spoke of finally came back to get him?
Cashmere just gets weirder and weirder the longer I look into these things.
I hardly need an otherworldly being to make me feel like I might be losing it the longer I remain in this Bermuda triangle of strangeness.

Hello, my name is Jitter, I am a highly motivated Melee player looking for a Hardcore / World Progression / World Race group for the 6.4 Savage tier. Ideally, the group’s goal is to clear by day two or three. I can play all 5 melee jobs, in order of preference DRG > RPR = NIN > MNK > SAM I currently have 2 alts available for split clears, and a 3rd being prepared.
Availability: Outside of Week 1, I am available from 6PM - 12:00PM EST Monday - Thursday, 6PM - 3AM EST Saturday, and all day Sunday. As it stands right now, I am unavailable on Fridays due to work.
My Raid Experience:
• Week 1 Eden’s gate: First time doing week 1 prog
• Week 1 Asphodelos: Lead my own group, and cleared Saturday evening.
• Week 1 Abyssos: First time doing WP Group placed world 35th
• TEA: My first ultimate cleared on content
• UCOB: My first ultimate progged, got to golden in Stormblood, but did not finish the fight till late Shadowbringers
• DSR: Cleared June 5th, 2022
• TOP: Made it to sigma trio day 9/10 but had to drop out due to health. Cleared March 7th, 2023
Additionally: I have cleared all the ARR, HW, and Stormblood raids.
What you can expect of me:
• Consistency
• Quickly optimizing my job in new encounters
• VODs (Shadowplay, Twitch, etc.) Can show video footage as needed.
• Fast Learner: Was able to quickly reprog TOP, learned Sigma trio and Omega trio quickly. I was also able to learn PF strats and see p6 in my first lockout in PF.
• Able to raid long hours: Have done hardcore hours before, did 16 hours a day for both TOP and Abyssos, have done long sessions in PF, 24 hours of UCOB, 13-hour sessions of Abyssos PF, etc.
• Extremely motivated to improve, receptive to criticism, and self-critical: I am constantly seeking improvement, speaking to others in the raiding community that have been part of the world racing scene longer than I have, trying to learn anything and everything that I can to improve myself.
• Able to participate in problem solving
Logs:
Main: https://www.fflogs.com/charactena/ultros/jitter%20bug
Alt 1: https://www.fflogs.com/charactena/ultros/little%20jitter
Alt 2: https://www.fflogs.com/charactena/ultros/the%20jitters
Feel free to contact me through discord for questions / more information at Jitter#6533

My ex (32M) would think I (23F) came “5-6” times because my legs naturally shake a little. Especially if I’m close. There were times I did cum once. And other times I’d have to explain to him repeatedly that I didnt cum. And he’d still think I came multiple times.
Recently I was dating someone new (28M) for a while and he thought I came when my legs were shaking. I think the worst part is he assumed I was done and immediately flipped me over into a blowjob, grabbing my neck and pushing. Not only did that feel violating, but its like he was saying I had mine so its his turn next. Another time I thought it would be better if I said I’m close. I said that I’m about to cum, and he said “me too”, then came before me.. and that was it. We stopped dating recently.. but I’m just starting to feel turned off completely from sex, especially having to mention that I didn’t get the chance to orgasm. Frustrated because I’d get close and lose it…. its starting to feel humiliating.

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Chapter 31
Subject: Staff Sergeant Power
Species: Human
Description: Mammalian humanoid, no tail. 6'2" (1.87 m) avg height. 185 lbs (84 kg) avg weight. 170 year life expectancy.
Ship: USSS Liberty
Location: Alpha Centauri
​
I woke at around 0400, ready and raring to start my day. I'd gone to sleep at zero balls thirty, which meant that I got to sleep in. Nice. One of the best parts of being a gen-alt is not needing much sleep. I'd heard that the researchers who created the project actually estimated that we would need MORE sleep, and were shocked when the opposite was the case.
Nowadays there are sleep studies that are trying to prove that sleep is only necessary for children, and the only reason that adults sleep is that it's addictive. Very addictive, complete with withdrawal symptoms. I don't know where I stand on this hypothesis, but the Marine corps has taught me that you can end up facing those "withdrawal symptoms" at any moment. So it's best to catch your forty winks whenever you can.
The current record for unassisted wakefulness is 30 days, after researchers realized that the reason that chronic insomniacs were dying was due to their underlying diseases. There still hasn't been a case of someone being awake to death. The lady who went 30 days ended up getting bored and taking a nap. That nap lasted for 48 hours, though. Don't know what that means for the hypothesis.
Honestly, the technical stuff is a bit above my pay grade. Whenever I try to talk about stuff like this to people who actually know about it I get embarrassed by my lack of knowledge. I should stick to 'pull trigger, make dead'. On the other hand, I'm going to have to retire eventually. I've got one more rank and everything after that is deskwork and terribly hard to get. Plus once you get gunny you get a pretty sweet severance package that includes life-time pay.
That plus my gen-alt lifetime pay will make it to where I won't have to worry about income while I plan my next move. The worrying part is which direction to plan in. I'm in the difficult situation of being smart enough to do just about damned near anything I put my mind to. Trying to find something that I'll love doing for an extended period of time is hard.
I could go to college and get a degree and enter some sort of field of science or medicine. I'm interested in those but I don't know if my interest will help me jump through all of the hoops to do so. Or I can enter the trades, take advantage of my genetic alterations to do hard jobs for better pay than most can get. I could even do that for a couple of years until I get enough to buy a ship and license and start doing freight. There's really good money in that, but I wouldn't get to see my family that often unless I brought them with me.
I can even go into finances. When I was in my twenties I had worked at a bank as a teller and they almost immediately promoted me to banker. I liked helping people understand their money, but hated trying to sell them on stuff that they didn't really need. That was the last job I had before I up and joined the Corps, and where I met my wife.
After I finished my morning routine I did my knocking, making sure the rest of my squad was awake. Our official schedule is an 0500 wake-up, formation at 0600, PT at 07, and then gear check at 08. We did our gear check last night, so we could do the briefing at 08 instead.
The only ones I had to actually wake up was PFC Brint and Corpsman Yunk. Everyone else was already awake, either because they were gen-alt like me or because they'd been in so long their internal clocks woke them up naturally.
We formed up, did our head count, and started PT at 0630. Fifteen early to being fifteen early. Some complaints from the PFCs but they were disregarded. We started with stretches, then a brisk jog through the corridors. Then we did pushups, side straddle hops, crunches, and finally we came to weights. Weights are a favorite among most marines, but can be particularly dangerous with gen-alts involved.
Non-alts are not allowed to spot gen-alts under any circumstances. This was made part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice very quickly after the genetics program hit the fleet. Every marine is prideful, and without the out of it being against regs they'll try to lift 800 lbs off of a gen-alts chest and blow out their back. Meanwhile the gen-alt will be stuck with nearly a ton on their ribcage. That's not healthy to anybody, and had resulted in plenty on non-combat related casualties.
Everyone was paired with someone that could spot them and we began to lift. We were all getting a good workout when suddenly we felt the ship enter warp. A slight lurch and very faint feeling that could almost be called a tingle. If you didn't know what it was then you probably wouldn't pay it any mind. But we all knew what it was. Weights were racked and all eyes went to me.
"You know where we're goin' staffsarnt?" Int asked.
"Not a damned clue. We'll probably get told at our briefing," I said.
"Could put the monitors on," Yunk suggested.
I nodded at Gruff to go ahead as we felt the ship come out of warp. Same sensation but backwards. Hell of a feeling, but it's very fleeting and will only bother you if you focus on it too hard. Gruff got up and tapped one of the mirrors a couple of times, and it changed to an external view of the ship. I always thought this was a better idea than the glass windows you see on bougie shuttles.
"This looks like... Alpha Centauri, I'm pretty sure," CPL Chang chimed in.
"Yeah, there's the shipyards. But... hey sarnt could you activate the highlights?" LCPL Livingstone asked.
"I'm not your fucking remote, marine," SGT Gruff growled as he tapped the screen again.
"Yeah, there we go. We're definitely in Alpha Centauri. All the shipyards, and nowhere else are you gonna see that many... other ships... Wait..." Chang trailed off.
I looked at the screen a bit closer and it took a moment to realize that the ships that were highlighted weren't the typical civilian ships that you'd normally see. There were carriers and battleships, far more than there should be. Even if we had rendezvoused with the rest of Second Fleet there wouldn't be this many. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I could count them. But we were looking at our grouping plus three others, with a fuck ton of ships per grouping.
"Hey staffsarnt, you ever seen more than one fleet in the same place at the same time?" Gruff asked.
"Nope," I said.
"Yeah, me neither."
"What's going on?" PFC Rogers asked with a bit of fear in his voice.
Time to be a leader.
"Who gives a fuck? It ain't none of our damned business until it's made our business, marine," I said with a knifehand for emphasis and more than a little impatience. "Gruff, turn it back to mirror mode. The rest of you, back to sweating."
The rest of our workout was quiet. Nobody said a word even when we hit the showers. Nervous marines are a bad thing to be around. When someone who has been trained to efficiently end a life without hesitation gets nervous, so does everyone around them. This was evident by the silence from everyone that we passed. Either that or they knew more than we did and were nervous too.
We got to the briefing and I made certain everyone sat in the proper order. Highest to lowest by rank and alphabetical order, with top ranks up front. I glanced around. The entire company was here, all ten squads. Right around 130 marines. There was a low murmur in the room as we waited for the CO to take the podium. You could tell everyone was nervous, because it's normally about twenty decibels louder. Didn't usually get quiet until someone shouted...
"OFFICER ON DECK!"
Everyone shut up, stood up at attention, and saluted as our Battalion CO Colonel Hammerstein and Company CO Captain Michaels entered the room followed by some officers from the Navy. One of which was Captain Young, commander of the Liberty.
The other... If I remember my ranks right, is an admiral. Shit. The officers took the stage and returned our salute. The sound of 130 some-odd hands snapping back down was pretty satisfying.
"At ease, take your seats," Hammerstein began. "The current time is 0759, and we're beginning your mission brief. Good morning, Marines."
"GOOD MORNING, SIR!"
"First, introductions. You all know Captain Michaels. Hopefully," he laughed a little and continued with a gesture to the naval officers. "This is Captain Young of the USSS Liberty, and Admiral Archibald, commander of Second Fleet. They will be observing and assisting with this briefing. Oorah?"
"OORAH."
A screen lit up behind the colonel with images of a grouping of alien ships.
"We'll begin with some context. This is the Republic. Or their ships, rather. Sixteen days ago one of their ships performed a blind warp into Sol after taking heavy damage and began emitting an SOS. That ship is the Republic Space Vessel Lowelana, which means something like 'Fights with Honor'," he began.
The screen changed to show different alien ships, including technical schematics.
"This is the Omni-Union. While the U-triple-S Thanatos and U-triple-S Valor were attempting to rescue the RSV Lowelana, two OU destroyers entered Sol and attacked the Valor. These destroyers were terminated with prejudice. Oorah?"
"OORAH."
"During the, very brief, fight the Valor accepted a hail from one of the vessels, assuming they were surrendering and begging aid. The Valor came under cyberattack and briefly lost control of their systems, nearly firing upon the Lowelana before their crew could be rescued. Thankfully AI Tim was aboard to aid with the rescue and was able to fend off the attack. It was at this point we were able to determine that the Omni Union is a Virtual Intelligence Collective. VIC. A soon to be fitting acronym, oorah?"
"OORAH."
"Soon after the crew of the Lowelana was rescued, a small fleet of twenty OU ships entered Sol and began attacking. The Valor was able to escape the ambush and took out six OU ships before returning to the Thanatos. They would have taken out more, but the Omni Union deployed a warp disruption technology dissimilar to what we've seen before. The Thanatos deployed its other frigates, which cleaned up the rest of this fleet. Ten days ago we made diplomatic contact with the Republic and they pledged a defense fleet for Sol. Seven days ago, the Omni Union attacked Sol again with over 500 ships. Part of tenth fleet had been deployed to Sol for defense and was able to successfully defend the system. Oorah?"
"OORAH."
"Since then Fourth Fleet has taken over the defense of Sol and Republic forces have arrived to fortify that defense. Admiral Archibald will take it from here," Colonel Hammerstein finished.
The colonel and the admiral exchanged salutes as Archibald took the podium.
"Good morning, Marines," the Admiral began with a smile.
"GOOD MORNING, SIR!"
"As some of you may have noticed, we are currently in Alpha Centauri along with Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth fleets. Intelligence has identified two things. The first is a target, an enemy stronghold that we plan to take for further intelligence gathering," he paused for a moment and then continued. "The second is damning evidence that the enemy is xenocidal."
The images on the screen changed to pictures of slaughtered aliens with tentacles for mouths and a deep silence fell over the room. Some marines were probably contemplating the stakes. Others were probably remembering the history of the Daluran war. Most were probably thinking of their families, like me. A beautiful wife, son, and daughter were waiting for me back on Elaris station. I felt my face involuntarily scowl at the thought of harm coming to them. I didn't have to look around to know that the faces surrounding me mirrored my own.
"I want to be absolutely clear, gentlemen. We won't know what to expect on the ground until we get in system, and we may not have enough time to share that intel with you before we have to get you on the dirt. This is going to be high stakes. But you've trained for this. You're the tip of the spear. There isn't a single trooper in this universe who can go toe to toe with a United Systems Marine. We don't know if the enemy can fear. We don't know if the enemy can feel pain. But you're sure as SHIT going to find out," Archibald said with a slam of his fist on the podium.
"OORAH!"
"Captain Michaels will outline your part of the mission," he said, and stepped away from the podium.
Captain Michaels stepped up to the podium and said, "I want your complete attention and silence until I finish with this brief. Our company has been tasked with escorting AI Omega planet side."
The screen changed from the dead aliens to an image of a black crate with antennas and such sticking out of it.
"These devices will be Omega's lifeline. The AI will be jumping from box to box as it attacks the Omni-Union inside their own systems. Omega will also be gathering much needed intel as it goes. These boxes MUST survive. Your mission is to escort the box to the surface, protect it, and escort it back to exfil. Omega will be in communication with you and may give further orders as things develop. If it says to move, you move. If it says to bark like a dog, it better be the best impression of a canine you've ever done. To be absolutely crystal clear, Omega outranks everyone in this room."
The screen changed once again to show a view of a solar system.
"There are five Omni-Union planets. OU Alpha, OU Bravo, OU Charlie, OU Delta, and OU Echo," he said as the screen highlighted each planet with their designation. "We'll be going in alphabetical order. Land, dig in, defend, and exfil. To piggyback off of what Admiral Archibald said, we don't have any intel regarding enemy defenses, positions, or even our landing zones. And we won't until we get there. The only thing that we do know is that the Omni Union DO have foot-soldiers that are mechanical and use directed energy weapons. These lasers are expected to be weaker than our own, but you'd be foolish to count on that. Omega will attempt to provide you with intel as we gain it, but remember that Omega has its own mission. Keep your head down and blow off the enemy's, and we'll all go home happy. This operation will commence when our fleets are back up to full strength. We'll let you know before we jump."
The screen shut off and Captain Michaels stepped away from the podium. Colonel Hammerstein stepped back up to the podium.
"MARINES! ATTEN HUH!"
All of us stood to the position of attention, like we'd done so many times before.
"Dismissed."
​
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"I can't get it out of my head. I don't know what to do. Mark said you might be able to help me, but I don't know how."
I was sitting by the fountain in the outdoor garden, which most people used as a smoking area. The angel statue held a jug that constantly burbled out water, and I found the patter soothing. I came here to think sometimes, to collect my thoughts, and it was a great comfort to me since the incident with the elevator. I found myself here more and more often these days. Writing this book about the things I've seen and heard in Cashmere Hospital is taking a toll on me, and I think it's impossible to not wonder why I stay in the belly of the beast as I write more and more about the things that go on here.
I was asleep when Mark called me today, dragging myself from the depths to ask what he wanted?
My plans had been to sleep till noon, so I could get up and write a little before going back to sleep tonight. It was my day off, and I wanted to catch up on some sleep so I could spend all day tomorrow writing before going back to work on Wednesday. Instead, I listened to what Mark had to say and got up to make myself a coffee, so I'd be in the right mind to listen to this fellas story.
"He wants to know if you'll meet him at eleven. He sounds pretty bad, and I'm afraid he might not be in the right place to tell you this story for much longer."
The guy's name was Jerry, a "sitter" who'd struck up a friendship with Mark a few months ago.
Sitters are what we call them, but their title is "non-medical caregivers." They sit with patients for six to eight hours daily, and the work is voluntary. Sitters usually hang out with coma patients, patients suffering from catatonia, dementia patients, and most patients who just need someone to sit and talk with them. That was where Jerry came in. Jerry lived primarily off a trust fund, but as he grew older, he wanted to do something with his time besides sit around. So, he committed himself to sit with patients a few times a week, leading him to where he was now.
"They keep calling me to see if I want to sit with another patient, but I can't think of anything besides what he said to me."
I looked up owlishly at him, taking a sip of the coffee I'd bought in the cafeteria before telling him to go on.
"It all started with Mr. Vogner."
* * * * *
Jerry looked at the starring old man without much interest. He was sitting in a bed on the second floor, the long-term stay unit, and staring at the same long crack in the plain white paint that covered a ceiling that had likely not been painted since Reagan was in office.
"This is Mr. Vogner. He's in a coma, but we think he might feel a little better if he just had someone to talk to."
Jerry nodded, "Well, let's get acquainted then,"
After several hours of having a one-sided conversation with the man in the bed, Jerry sighed. He didn't know what he was expecting. Most of the patients in a coma or in a state of catatonia were like this. It was like talking to a brick wall, but you ultimately did it for them. You gave them a voice they could latch onto, a lifeline that might pull them back from whatever sea they are stranded in.
Just because it was dull didn't mean it wasn't noble work.
Jerry had been doing this sort of thing for about a year, and he had never seen anything described by some of the guys in his group. There was a collection of guys in the Sitter program who sometimes got together for drinks and talked about their experiences. Some of the guys talked about watching patients slowly come out of their silent state. Some talked about hearing a patient speak for the first time in years. Some talked about the tear-spotted letters they got from their families or the happy embraces from family members who hadn't seen them move or speak in years. Jerry didn't have anything like this. They told him it would happen, that he would get his own story to tell one day.
He doubted any of them could have known that this dried-up husk of a man would be his one and only story.
Jerry tried another conversational gambit, asking Mr. Vogner who he thought would win the Super Bowl this year?
Mr. Vognar just kept staring at that crack in the ceiling.
Jerry reached for the remote then, thinking some Tv might loosen his tongue. Flipping through the channels, he finally settled on an episode of Pawn Stars and started watching the adventures of Rick and his son, Big Haus. Jerry asked Vogner if he liked Pawn Stars, but he got no answer. Whether he approved or disapproved, Jerry never knew. He turned back to the show, commenting on some of the things they were showing, and the two let the show play out.
They were halfway through the episode, Rick's father talking to a man about silver coins, when Jerry heard the mumbling. He turned the volume down, thinking it might be part of the show, and realized it was coming from the man in the bed. Mr. Vogner was mumbling to the crack in the ceiling, and Jerry turned off the tv as he slid his chair a little closer. The man's chapped lips were mumbling the same thing repeatedly, and as Jerry got closer, he realized it was the same five words.
"He came through the crack."
"Are you okay, Mr. Vogner?" Jerry asked, looking at the door as he thought about calling a nurse.
"He came through the crack."
"Do you need some water?" Jerry asked, hoping for more than muttering.
"He came through the crack."
"Who came through the crack?" Jerry asked on a whim, wondering if it was something more than a random phrase.
When the old man turned his sunken face towards him, his chapped lips flaking as he made the words of an answer, Jerry wished he hadn't asked.
"The man made of stars."
Jerry wanted to pull away but leaned in closer, curious to hear the man's words.
"Tell me about him."
It all began when things started going missing.
It was little things. My paper weight, the pen the college gave me after teaching for twenty years, the pendent from LSU that hung on the wall of my own dorm, and I was becoming angry. I blamed my kids, and I blamed my wife, but they all claimed they had nothing to do with it. I was working on a manuscript and complained that all of this was cutting into my time, but still, things continued to go missing.
When my manuscript started going missing, I fell into a rage.
I changed the locks on my office. I forbade people to go in there, even when I was there. I spent more time in my office, typing and typing and typing away, and barely saw the people who mattered the most to me. I would slink out to get food in the dead of night when everyone was asleep, and even then, I would lock the door and get back to work as quickly as possible.
I was typing one night between midnight and dawn when I discovered what had been stealing from me.
The old man wet his lips again, his head shifting slowly as he looked back at the crack in the ceiling. His voice sounded like a rusty hinge in a haunted house, and Jerry wondered how long it had been since he had spoken? Jerry wanted to get him some water, but he was pulled in by the weird story and the sound of his haggard voice.
"Have you ever considered what we would look like to a two-dimensional creature?"
Jerry was surprised, shook his head, shocked into a response by the strangeness of the question.
"Few do. A three-dimensional creature could reach right into a safe that a two-dimensional creature had secured and take anything they wanted. The two-dimensional creature would have no idea how its valuables had been stolen, and it might not even be able to conceive of a three-dimensional creature."
"Pretty heavy stuff," Jerry said, chuckling weakly.
"Indeed," said Mr. Vognar, "Especially when it's exactly what's happening to you."
I was sitting at my computer, banging away at my missing pages as I tried to recreate them when something caught my eye. It began as a sparkling, like a gem that caught the light, and I turned to look at the crack that had appeared on my wall. It was nothing special, just a normal crack, but there was something trying to push its way through. I… can't…have you ever looked up at the stars on a clear night? Have you ever looked at the constellations and seen the shapes? That one bear, that one a dipper, that one a huntsman? Well, I saw a man made of stars! That's as close as I can describe him, but it looked like a constellation had stepped out of my wall.
I was speechless. Was this the thing that was stealing from me? I was like a statue as it moved across the room. It's hard to describe how it moved. It almost seemed to vanish and reappear with each "step." It was, then it wasn't, then it was again. Watching it move gave me the worst feeling of nausea, and I felt the air hang in my lungs as it came right up to the desk. It stood not five feet from me, and the air hummed with power. I spent a summer working for the power company before college, hanging power lines and helping plant telephone poles. When the wires were live, they felt just like that, and I was afraid that if it touched me, I'd be burnt to a crisp.
I must have made a sound when he picked up the picture on my desk because it turned and looked at me. I say turned, but I'm not quite sure what it did. It folded itself in my direction, and when its shining visage fell on me, it sounded like animals being cooked alive. It sounded like the loudest speaker reverb you've ever heard mixed with a pig being butchered. It made my ears bleed, and I felt blood oozing from my nose and eyes as I stared at it. I watched it lean in closer and closer as the noise fell on me like a heavy weight, and at some point, my mind just couldn't take it anymore.
When I returned to myself, I was here, and I've been here ever since, thinking about the nature of that creature that came through my wall as if it was no more a barrier than the door over there.
Jerry leaned away from the man slowly, the oldster still staring at that crack that stretched across the flat plane of his ceiling.
"Have you seen him since?" Jerry asked, not wanting to know but needing to.
Mr. Vognar never looked away from the crack, but Jerry felt sure that he could see him peeking out of her peripherals.
"Sometimes, late at night, I see colors from that crack up there. I know he's watching. I think he enjoys seeing me suffer. And now you know, too. And now it will eat away at you as well."
He started to laugh, a deep and hateful sound, and it took all of Jerry's strength to fumble out of the chair and run from that room. It wasn't just his fun house laughter or the corpse that was creating it. The idea of some creature that could move freely through his world, seeing it as little more than a game board or a picture made of rice and glue, terrified him the farther it wormed into his brain. They called his name at the nurse's station when he passed, but he kept running. He didn't stop running until he was in his car in the parking lot, but that was when it all truly started.
He saw a crack in the windshield, a simple star made by a stray rock.
He had thought he might be done shaking, but it seemed he had a little more in him as he fell out of the car and scrambled through the parking lot, leaving his vehicle open and abandoned in the parking spot.
* * * * *
"I haven't gone back to check on it since. I assume security has either towed it or secured it for me. I spent the last two weeks spackling every crack in my house. I never realized there were so many until I started. Then I looked at the corners, wondering if they could get in there. Who's to say what a door is to them? They could come anywhere and at any time."
"What will you do?" I asked, unsure how to help this man.
It was hard having knowledge that you didn't ask for.
"I don't know, but every day I think about it, I'm pretty sure I'm one step closer to losing my mind. I wonder now if that's what happened to Mr. Vognar. Did he lose his mind after seeing that thing, or because the thought of things coming in drove him crazy?"
He left soon after that, and I never heard from him again.
I did look up Mr. Vognar when I got to work the next day and discovered he had passed the day after Jerry's visit. The report said he had a heart attack, but they also reported strange burns on his chest during the autopsy. It was written off as an allergic reaction or some odd occurrence, but I can't help but wonder if the strange creature he spoke of finally came back to get him?
Cashmere just gets weirder and weirder the longer I look into these things.
I hardly need an otherworldly being to make me feel like I might be losing it the longer I remain in this Bermuda triangle of strangeness.

Hello everyone,
I’ve (20M 1m76) started a weight loss journey earlier this year with the goal to lose about 15-18 kilograms (goal 75, 72 kg) while also becoming more athletic, it has been going very well, losing about 1kg a week and exercising consistently.
I’ve been doing consistent cardio and caloric deficit without any issues.
It has been going on for around 2 and a half month and I’ve lost about 9-10 kilograms (not precise as I do not jnow my exact start weight but it was close to 90kg)
This week I’ve been sick, with constant high fever for 4 days and an all around sick state but nothing on the gastric side if not a decrease of my appetite , I’ve come to be diagnosed with some form of tonsilitis.
Because of this and as I had been busy the days prior, I haven’t exercised in little more than a week (the longest since my start), I am still maintaining the caloric deficit wich is even easier as I am not hungry anyways and am still weighing myself daily.
My concern is that during this week, in 5 days only being sick, I’ve lost 2.8 kg so about 3x more than my usual. I am not dehydrated and I do not have fever anymore so I doubt the whole lost weight will come back (though maybe part of it) I’ve read that high fever burn calories so I expected to lose a little more weight but nearly 3kg seems excessive to me. I want to make it clear that I am not starving myself.
My concern is that the weightloss, instead of being fat only/mainly may be muscle weight loss too since I haven’t exercised lately but since I am not bedridden I find it hard to believe to have lost even 1 full kg of muscle but I am not educated on the subject.
If anyone here has had a similar experience or knows about the subject, you a re welcome to enlighten me as I am very confused atm

Unveiling the Enchanted Realm of MOBOX 2.0

As we approach the 2nd anniversary of the mystical MOBOX gaming platform, we embark on a journey through time, reminiscing about the magical achievements and milestones that have materialized within our ever-growing kingdom. This enchanting tale could not have been written without the steadfast dedication of the MOBOX community and our valiant team. With hearts full of gratitude, we reminisce about our past while boldly setting forth our grand vision for the upcoming year.
Two years ago, the MOBOX gaming platform emerged from the shadows and set foot on the Binance Smart Chain. Since then, we have traversed the path from obscurity to fame, now entering a realm of rapid development as we tirelessly enhance our platform and games. Our flourishing MOBOX ecosystem has evolved from humble beginnings to a vast, interconnected matrix teeming with depth and intrigue, boasting a trove of remarkable achievements. Among these treasures are 3.6 million unique wallets, a total value locked (TVL) of up to 440 million US dollars, over 2 million NFTs conjured, and a staggering 400,000,000 BUSD in NFT trading volume.
For the MOBOX team, this moment holds a special magic. Since 2018, we have successfully launched a multitude of influential game products in the Web3 realm. With the inception of the MOBOX platform, we have spent five enchanting years immersed in the Web3 domain. Bolstered by a steadfast team, abundant industry experience, and a relentless, can-do spirit, we have marched valiantly toward our goals. This unwavering commitment has ensured the absence of any major security breaches within our platform. Presently, we eagerly seek to collaborate with exceptional Web3 builders to further manifest the MOBOX vision and mission.

Check out what we achieved in 2022! “MOBOX 2022 Annual Summary” and join us in celebrating our 2nd anniversary as we continue to weave the spellbinding tale of the enchanted MOBOX 2.0 realm.

▣ Abstract
❖ MOBOX cross-chain deployment ❖ New NFT series — Dragon ❖ MOBOX World ❖ MOMOverse ❖ MOBOX Avatar 2.0 ❖ MOBOX game release plan ❖ MOBOX world ❖ MBOX Token economic model 2.0 ❖ MOBOX Fusion Hub ❖ MOMO Mart ❖ Roadmap ❖ Summary
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MOBOX Platform Cross-Chain Deployment

As part of the MOBOX multi-universe plan, the MOBOX platform has officially launched its multi-chain collaborative development strategy in its third year. It is no longer limited to single-chain development on the Binance Smart Chain. To achieve this goal, the MOBOX team is building cross-chain protocols for multiple mainstream public chains, to achieve collaborative operability of NFTs on different public chains, capture and endow more value to MBOX, and enhance MBOX ecosystem compatibility.
This cross-chain collaboration introduces MBOX into the Ethereum ecosystem for the first time, bringing new NFT series to Arbitrum. By integrating with Arbitrum, MOBOX can interact with a large number of Ethereum users and projects. MOBOX users can use their assets and NFTs on Arbitrum and interact with other projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. Similarly, Ethereum projects and users can also use their assets and NFTs on the “MOBOX platform”, “MOBOX games”, and “MOBOX services”.
Through cross-chain functionality and NFT interoperability, MOBOX plans to achieve cross-chain interoperability of all platform products and games. This will allow the use of NFTs from other blockchains on the MOBOX platform and MOMOverse, bringing more choices to users and creating opportunities to attract a more diverse user base and resource channels. It also establishes universal collaborative operability between blockchains and applications.
The first cross-chain gateway of the MOBOX platform will be established on Ethereum and its Layer 2 network, Arbitrum. This not only brings MBOX into the Ethereum ecosystem but also brings new NFT series to Arbitrum. Through cross-chain Arbitrum, MOBOX can interact with a large number of users and projects on Ethereum, achieving more collaborative operability. MOBOX users can use MOBOX assets and NFTs on Arbitrum and interact with projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. Meanwhile, projects and users on Ethereum can also use their assets and NFTs on the MOBOX platform, MOBOX games, and MOBOX services.
Cross-chain to Arbitrum is an important step for MOBOX to expand its ecosystem and realize its vision of creating an interconnected multi-universe. The MOBOX team will continue to collaborate with other mainstream blockchains to develop cross-chain protocols and provide users with broader interoperability and usage choices.
Cross-chain to Arbitrum will bring opportunities and convenience to more users and projects, helping the development of the entire blockchain ecosystem. Through the collaborative operability of MOMO NFT and other public chain NFTs, we will jointly promote the development and innovation of the metaverse.
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Enchanting MODragon NFTs: A Magical World Awaits

The MOBOX team is thrilled to unveil the imminent arrival of an enthralling new NFT series, the mesmerizing MODragon, set to grace the Ethereum Layer 2 public chain, Arbitrum. This bewitching NFT collection merges cutting-edge AI image generation sorcery, beckoning players into a realm of diverse gameplay and captivating interactive experiences within the MOBOX ecosystem.
This is the MOBOX art team’s first NFT creation that combines cutting-edge AI image generation technology. AI has great untapped potential in the creative field, and the MOBOX team plans to utilize this technology in production while ensuring compliance and not violating basic ethical standards. Additionally, the team plans to work with players to create content and participate in and promote the AI technology revolution in future community activities.
As the first phase of the MODragon NFT release unfolds, the MOBOX platform will bestow the gift of Genesis Dragon Eggs upon MOBOX players and devoted users of Arbitrum. These mystical eggs will soon hatch, unveiling the alluring MODragon NFTs that lie within. Keep a watchful eye on MOBOX’s social media and community for announcements detailing the enchanting airdrop rules.
The enthralling MODragon NFT series encompasses six elemental realms: fire, water, wood, earth, light, and darkness. MODragons that emerge from the Genesis Dragon Eggs will be blessed with one of these elemental affinities at random. As players venture deeper into this magical world, they may discover unique dual-element dragons and even the elusive four-element dragons in subsequent hatchings. Engaging gameplay, including hatching, battling, fusing, and nurturing multi-element dragons, will be unveiled in due course, showcasing the unparalleled interoperability of NFTs and adding an extra layer of enchantment to the game.
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This captivating NFT series promises to become an integral aspect of the MOBOX platform, bestowing endless joy and opportunities upon our cherished community. We warmly invite all MOBOX community members to delve into the wondrous and enigmatic realm of dragons and embark on a magical adventure like no other!
As the project steadily develops, there will be more cross-chain interactive gameplay in the future, including interaction with the BNB chain and MOMO players on the BNB chain.
Stay tuned to MOBOX’s official channels for more spellbinding updates on the MODragon NFTs. Thank you for your unwavering support!
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Welcome to the MOBOX World: A Dreamlike World of Infinite Possibilities

With the successful implementation of the MOBOX cross-chain protocol, our team now envisions a captivating MOBOX metaverse world inspired by the mesmerizing MOMOverse. As trailblazers in the WEB 3 domain, we began designing an innovative game four years ago that would revolutionize the blockchain gaming industry. This game empowers players with complete ownership of in-game assets, enabling them to craft and inhabit their very own fantastical multi-dimensional universes.
Our unwavering dedication is to create an immersive and rewarding experience for every player in an open, decentralized environment, encouraging each participant to contribute to community building as a member of a collective working towards a shared vision — an open multi-dimensional universe. As eternal game creators, we’ve identified a disconnect between participants and new social contracts within the existing gaming ecosystem. The MOBOX Universe brings players, designers, engineers, and creators together under a harmonious system of shared responsibilities and incentives.
Throughout the game development process, we’ve recognized the need for a more equitable operating model that breaks down the historical barriers between builders and participants, empowering everyone to create, nurture, enhance, and benefit from the fruits of our collective labor. We also strive to protect these efforts from the influence of intermediaries seeking access to distribution channels.
A fair and thriving community lies at the heart of our game’s future, and every step forward reveals the potential of this enchanting world. We are steadfast in our belief that this is the key to crafting a sustainable game, rich in content and deeply engaging for players.
In this new realm, we’re dedicated to building a truly digital universe that transcends gaming platforms, incorporating a wide array of services, applications, and tools for users to explore, play, and interact. Our grand vision includes allocating a unique continent to each mainstream public chain, home to their native populations. These continents will symbolize their respective public chains, fostering a distinctive digital ecosystem that facilitates communication between users across different public chains.
The MOMOverse, a colossal floating island situated at the center of this world, will feature diverse terrains such as land, floating islands, oceans, and enigmatic creatures. Players can claim a piece of land, build their dream homes, and engage with fellow inhabitants. They’ll have the chance to construct airships, journey to uncharted continents, engage in epic battles with hostile fleets, or trade with merchant fleets voyaging the world.
The MOBOX team is devoted to integrating all products, services, and games on the MOBOX platform into this digital universe. This boundless world teeming with possibilities will allow users to create digital assets, construct homes and cities, develop games and applications, and interact with others. We believe this digital world will not only offer users an entertaining and creative space but also become a genuine social platform that fosters open communication and collaboration between various public chain ecosystems.
Our dream is to cultivate a truly open and equal community in this digital realm, where everyone has the opportunity to participate and create their digital value. Regardless of your public chain affiliation, you’ll discover a sense of belonging and connection here. The MOBOX team will continue to work tirelessly to advance the development and enhancement of this digital world, delivering the ultimate experience and services to our users.
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Embracing MOMOverse: A World of Adventure Awaits

We are thrilled to announce the seamless integration of MOMOverse’s home into the MOBOX Universe. This fusion will provide players with a grander worldview, inviting every MOMOverse resident to delve into a more diverse and vivid world.
Upon the integration of MOMOverse’s home, players can establish their domains, rise to prominence as influential lords, and vie for minerals, resources, and land for their forces. Our team has devised numerous innovative tools and gameplay features, alongside richer background stories and engaging quests.
These elements will allow players to create and explore more freely within the game. Players can enhance their economic power by establishing guilds and constructing buildings, as well as acquiring more treasures and resources by venturing into uncharted territories on the map.
We are confident that this integration process will inject more excitement and challenges into the MOBOX Universe and MOMOverse. We eagerly anticipate unveiling more surprises for our community and players in future updates. Together, let’s expand this boundless world of endless possibilities.
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Introducing MOBOX Avatar 2.0

MOBOX Avatars are the magical embodiments of your virtual self within the wondrous realm of the MOMOverse. As unique manifestations of your digital essence, they bridge the gap between our world and the extraordinary MOBOX digital dimension, where your Avatar will captivate and inspire fellow adventurers.
In the mesmerizing metaverse, an Avatar serves as the cornerstone of all enchanting experiences, and our dedicated team cherishes this responsibility. The initial MOBOX Avatar 1.0 incarnation faced a number of challenges, such as lackluster color perception, limited facial features, subpar model accuracy, and insufficient image differentiation. With MOBOX Avatar 2.0, we’ve conjured a realm of dazzling improvements, including more vibrant colors and striking contrasts, intricate facial features and expressions, smoother contours, and a fully-realized three-dimensional model, ensuring each character stands out from the crowd.
Best of all, players possessing a MOBOX Avatar will be gifted a brand new Avatar 2.0 airdrop, enveloping you in the magic of our enhanced creation. The MOBOX Avatar 2.0 project is nearing its final stages of enchantment and is slated to debut alongside the world map version, inviting you to embrace your dazzling new digital identity within the MOMOverse.
Prepare to be spellbound as we eagerly anticipate the arrival of the “new” you in the ethereal world of the MOMOverse.

MOBOX Game Release Plan

Boasting over a decade of experience in traditional game development and publishing, our team is well-equipped to explore and innovate within the realm of Web 3 gaming. Our financial resources are more than adequate to support our long-term endeavors in this area. In the coming years, we will prioritize the signing of top-tier games with development investments exceeding tens of millions of dollars for release on the MOBOX platform. Additionally, we will actively collaborate with industry leaders to bolster the MOBOX ecosystem’s growth.
In 2023, MOBOX plans to launch three games. Here is some publicly available information about some of them:

New SLG Game — “Dragon Battlefield”

Game Introduction: This game will transport players to an exhilarating world of warfare, where they can assume the role of a formidable commander, lead their army into battle, manage their own city, and amass and train a powerful arsenal of mechanical dragons to secure victory for their empire. By upgrading their city, army, and mechanical dragons, players will attain greater power and triumph in more battles.
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2. Large MMORPG Game — “Project M”
PROJECT M will be the first ever DAO designed and developed MMORPG game on the blockchain. Every major step in the design and development process will be decided through the day including game mechanics, game name, game assets, game skins and more!”
Game Introduction: This is a thrilling MMORPG set in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by a catastrophic event. In this barren world, resources are scarce, and various monsters and dangerous creatures roam the land. As a survivor of the apocalypse, players must face endless danger and challenges. To survive, players need to explore, battle, and produce to obtain the necessary resources for survival and a safer living environment.
To survive and thrive, players need to work together. You can choose different career paths, such as melee, ranged, healing, and mage, each with their own skill paths and growth attributes. By working hard to improve your strength and building a powerful alliance with other players, you can become a force to be reckoned with.
The core gameplay of the game is cooperative real-time combat and rich storyline missions. Players will accept missions from various organizations in the world, team up with other players, and gain experience and rewards. The game provides an open world where players can explore the wasteland, find hidden treasures and relics, unlock powerful skills and equipment, and improve their combat abilities and attributes.
In this open world, players can explore and create their own unique gaming experiences. The game content is rich, and social functions are also well-developed. In this apocalypse, it requires the wisdom and courage of players to protect and continue human civilization, which represents knowledge and creation.
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RPG game — “King of Chaos”

Set in a world teeming with challenges and adventures, “King of Chaos” depicts a realm where magic reigns supreme, and time travelers from various eras and dimensions bring with them an assortment of technologies and knowledge. The Empire Knights represent the traditional ruling class.
Players will embody a warrior, venturing and exploring the tumultuous world, completing an array of tasks and challenges, and unearthing hidden secrets and treasures. The game’s core features include combat, exploration, leveling up, equipment, and synthesis. Players must amass experience and wealth through battles, explore diverse terrains and settings, locate equipment and materials, enhance their skills and attributes, and ultimately ascend to the title of King of Chaos.
In combat, players can select different skills and equipment and combine them to devise the optimal battle strategy. Each character possesses unique skills and attributes, requiring players to choose the most suitable character for combat based on varying situations and enemies. Simultaneously, players can also team up with others to challenge formidable bosses. A range of thrilling adventure quests awaits players, beckoning them to explore and conquer.
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MBOX Tokenomics 2.0

1. Burn
The MOBOX platform is expected to burn about 135,000,000 MBOX tokens (the portion of the planned total production in the second year that has not been produced), which is equivalent to 60% of the planned total production in the second year.
2. Adjustment
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1. The daily output of MBOX in the MBOX-BNB LP mining pool has been adjusted. (As Shown Above)
2. The daily output of MBOX collected by MOMO has been adjusted from 50,000 MBOX to 40,000 MBOX.
3. The output of MBOX produced by the D.S.C trade and the prosperity of the MOMOverse home will remain unchanged.
4. Although the output of MBOX produced by MOMO NFT has been adjusted, the basic consensus that MOMO is the core output of MBOX has not changed.
5. It is expected that the updated MBOX output will meet the expectations of the third-year plan in the MOBOX white paper.

3. New Application Scenarios

1. Cross-chain staking
2. New liquidity staking
3. Use and consumption in the MOBOX world
4. Used in the new Dragon NFT series gameplay
5. Used in the new MOBOX games “Dragon Battlefield” and “End of the World Storm”

4. Explanation of MOBOX Team and Strategic Investment Shares
In the current market environment, many companies face operational difficulties and pressures. In contrast, the MOBOX team has significant differences from other projects. First, in addition to receiving strategic investments from Binance Labs, the team has a stable source of income, including platform profitability, cooperation, and investment returns. These revenues are sufficient to support the team’s development and expansion plans for at least five years, so there is no need to sell any MBOX tokens to survive. Second, in order to achieve MOBOX’s grand vision, we will continue to attract outstanding talents in the industry and negotiate with top Web3 investment institutions to prepare high-quality resources, sign high-quality AAA-level games, and expand the ecosystem.
We firmly believe that the MOBOX platform has the potential for long-term and sustainable development. With the continuous development of products and market expansion the MOBOX ecosystem will become stronger and more dynamic, creating more value for MBOX holders.
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MOBOX Fusion Hub

After completing the integration with multiple mainstream Layer 1 public chains and related Layer 2, MOBOX will launch its final version. We call it the Web 3 Games ultimate solution — MOBOX Fusion hub. Our platform is ready to provide game developers with a series of SDKs and APIs specifically tailored for blockchain games to help them develop and release games based on web 3 technology.
Currently, our Fusion hub platform has launched the first internal test version for game teams and studios related to MOBOX. We expect that games on MOBOX will be upgraded and managed through this platform. The official version of MOBOX Fusion Hub will go live after performance stabilization and large-scale testing.
We believe that blockchain technology and NFTs will play an important role in the future of the gaming industry, and our platform will be one of the pioneers of this trend. Our vision is to become the preferred platform for game developers and contribute to the development of the future gaming industry. At the same time, we will continue to improve and perfect our platform to ensure that we are always at the forefront of the gaming industry. The fusion hub platform will have the following main features:
1. Compatible with Multiple Layer 1 Public Chains
Compared to other GameFi projects, the MOBOX Open Platform can be compatible with multiple Layer 1 public chains, including but not limited to BNB chain and ETH chain. This allows our game developers to choose the underlying public chain that best suits their projects.
2. MOBOX SDK & APIs
The MOBOX game platform provides game developers with a series of easy-to-use development tools to help them quickly build their games and seamlessly integrate them with our platform. Our platform provides the following main functions:
Mature smart contract API: We provide preset smart contract APIs to help game developers quickly write and test game-related smart contracts and use them to process transactions and other game logic.
NFT SDK support and integration: We provide easy-to-use NFT integration SDK to help game developers quickly create their own NFTs and integrate them into the game. Based on blockchain technology, using NFT as the economic currency in the game ensures the fairness and security of the game. In particular, people building NFT dApps will be able to use MOBOX’s built-in NFT market and API services to build a “plug-and-play” market for Web 3 game assets and related NFTs, providing better liquidity.
Risk control: Our platform will use multiple security measures to protect the security of the game and users. We will use multiple security measures including preventing DDoS attacks, cryptographic protection, user identity verification, and asset risk control, to ensure the security and fairness of the game.
Developer funding support: Our platform will provide support funding for game developers through MOBOX METAFund to help them launch and develop their game projects. We believe that supporting developers is the key to realizing our vision.
Developer split NFT: The MOBOX platform not only provides developers with the best revenue distribution model but also provides them with flexible support that is almost instantly credited to their accounts receivable, ensuring that developers have the necessary funds to continue their best development work and help them develop excellent games.
After successfully releasing a game on the MOBOX platform, developers will receive a special non-fungible token (P-NFT indicating) their ownership of the released game. All income generated by the game will be recorded on the blockchain to ensure complete transparency between the platform and developers. The P-NFT smart contract also serves as a revenue sharing agreement between the platform and developers, automatically transferring the income earned by developers according to the agreement to their MOBOX wallet.
Ready-to-use MOMO library: Thanks to the interoperability of MOMO NFTs, they can be used across different public chains and games. Game developers can choose from the high-quality MOMO NFT library and immediately use them in their games, saving a lot of time and money for teams and independent developers, and providing the necessary resources and strong support for their game development work.
MOBOX Community Support: The MOBOX platform provides developers with all possible support, including marketing. Through effective community management, continued platform marketing, and the addition of important ecological partners, the MOBOX platform community provides developers with a powerful marketing channel. This includes fully functional nodes on the MOBOX platform, increasingly active social media, and social media activities through our ecological partners.
By combining the above SDKs and APIs, our platform provides game developers with a better development and publishing experience as well as a wider market and support. Our vision is to become one of the leaders in the future game industry and provide developers with a more fair, transparent, and highly secure game platform.
3. MOBOX Wallet 2.0 — MOBOX Seed Wallet — Securely Sow Your Seeds, Unleash the Power of NFT Gaming!
MOBOX Wallet’s new version will focus on providing a one-stop solution for Web 3.0 game users. Here are the key features of MOBOX Wallet:
NFT Management: MOBOX Wallet is a wallet designed specifically for the gaming market. It helps NFT holders showcase all their unique ERC-721 and ERC-1155 collectibles and game assets in a more efficient and convenient way. MOBOX players can browse and filter all their MOMO NFTs in the new version wallet and quickly list or gift specific MOMO to friends.
EIP 4337 Features: MOBOX Wallet empowers Web 3 Games by combining some new features proposed in EIP 4337. For example, the Social Recovery system allows multiple users to recover the owner’s access to an account, reducing the risk of permanent loss of funds.
Diverse Gas Payment: MOBOX Wallet supports diverse gas payment methods. Game players can use different tokens or even off-chain credit cards for payment, eliminating the need to purchase cryptocurrencies in advance for NFT transactions.
Pre-approval for On-chain Transactions: MOBOX Wallet supports pre-approval for on-chain transactions to increase the smoothness of Dapp and provide a more user-friendly on-chain process.
Bundle Transactions: MOBOX Wallet supports bundle transactions, allowing game players to bundle multiple on-chain operations together. With just one signature, all the necessary transaction processes can be completed, increasing transaction efficiency.
Subscription Mode: MOBOX Wallet supports subscription mode, allowing developers to subscribe to specific events or data updates. When these events or data updates occur, the MOBOX network automatically notifies developers, helping them achieve real-time data synchronization and notification more easily.
Through these features, MOBOX Wallet provides better management and on-chain experience for game developers and NFT holders, and contributes to the development of Web 3 games. We believe that MOBOX Wallet will become one of the essential gateways connecting the traditional gaming market and Web 3.
​
https://preview.redd.it/z3a53w97kopa1.png?width=697&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f717272c669e73dadc26c95cb8fc77a1defc915

MOMO Mart: Bringing the Magic of MOBOX to Life

As part of our commitment to expanding the MOBOX brand and reaching a wider audience, we’re excited to introduce MOMO Mart, a unique retail venture that merges the online and offline worlds. Our goal is to share the essence and values of MOMO NFT with a diverse range of consumers, while offering a tangible experience for trendy toy enthusiasts.
We’ll be launching an exclusive MOMO NFT physical blind box collection, which features exquisite packaging and a diverse array of captivating characters. This product is designed to not only ignite the passion of the MOBOX community but also draw in more trendy toy aficionados to join our growing family.
MOMO Mart’s inaugural brick-and-mortar store will proudly showcase the core values of the MOBOX brand and MOMO NFT. Our design team has meticulously crafted each character, ensuring top-notch quality that leads the industry. Moreover, interactive zones within the store will allow visitors to truly immerse themselves in the enchanting world of MOMO NFT. We’re actively scouting prime locations around the globe to establish our immersive shopping and interactive experience for trendy toy enthusiasts worldwide. We’re eager to explore the potential of Web 3 and the trendy toy market through this strategic endeavor, ultimately bringing even greater value to the MOBOX community.
▣ Roadmap Timeline
2023 Q1 — Research and testnet deployment for cross-chain solution
2023 Q2 — Burn 135 million MBOX
2023 Q2 — Update MBOX tokenomics
2023 Q2 — Test MOBOX game open platform for targeted developers
2023 Q2 — Provide MOBOX game access to game development SDK & API
2023 Q2 — Deploy MOBOX 2.0 to Ethereum and Arbitrum cross-chains
2023 Q2 — Release Dragon NFTs for MOBOX 2.0
2023 Q3 — Release MOBOX 2.0 World Map
2023 Q3 — Launch gameplay related to MOBOX 2.0 World Map
2023 Q3 — Launch “Dragon Battlefield” game on MOBOX platform
2023 Q4 — Launch “End of the World Storm” game on MOBOX platform
2023 Q4 — Launch “King of Chaos” game on MOBOX platform
2023 Q4 — Launch MOBOX game Fusion Hub
▣ Summary
We have Introduced our three-phase plan for the MOBOX game open platform. We aim to “connect multiple mainstream public chains,” “construct a multi-chain digital world,” and “establish a collaborative multi-chain MOBOX Fusion Hub.” These plans and updates will enrich the MOBOX platform, providing both players and developers with an enhanced gaming experience and trading environment.
The launch of the Fusion Hub SDK & API will deliver numerous benefits to the MOBOX platform, including multi-chain integration, cross-chain asset bridging, seamless market API, MOBOX Wallet 2.0, and much more. These features will not only elevate the user experience and security of MOBOX games but also drive the growth of Web 3 gaming.
To realize our vision, we will steadfastly implement these plans. By harnessing cross-chain technology and NFT interoperability, we’ll create a unified multi-universe rather than separate games. Our team will collaborate with other leading blockchains to develop cross-chain protocols that enable MOBOX assets to traverse different blockchains and facilitate the use of NFTs from other blockchains on the MOBOX platform.
Our ultimate goal is to forge a truly interconnected meta-universe — the magnificent MOMOverse. ✨⭐️☄️💥
Please note: WEB 3.0 is a highly variable and risky field. The information provided in this announcement is for reference only and should not be used as a basis for any investment or decision-making. Before making any decisions, please conduct sufficient research and evaluation on your own and proceed with caution.

I know the title might sound scummy so bare with me a second whilst i explain.
I’m a full time student and don’t have a lot of money. Last year, I took a very difficult night shift job for around 2 months just so i could make some money to take her on a holiday for her 50th birthday, which is coming up. My sister, whom i love very much, at the time was 100% certain she was going to be living in another country and working with her, now ex, boyfriend. They’d had a stable relationship for over 5 years at that point.
Long story short, he cheated on her which nobody saw coming and they broke up. She ended up not moving away for work but instead staying home to work for not very much money. My mother is also unemployed due to health issues.
I revealed this holiday recently as a surprise to my mother and her reaction was, shocked and surprised, however the first thing she said was “and Daniela? is she not coming?” Daniela is my sister; Let me make clear that I had looked at adding her to the holiday once she knew she wasn’t going to leave ( not long ago ), but since it was so recent to add her to a 7 day all inclusive holiday was over £400. I just don’t have that kind of money. I explained that and my mum went on a rant of paying me her part back when she can. I said but i don’t have that kind of money spare at all I only have money for my univeristy accommodation rent and a little left over for food.
My mum basically said she wants all three of us to go immediately and told me to look at adding her. I got no thank you, no anything from her all she talked about since then was how excited she was and to add Daniela to the holiday too. Daniela came home and my mum told her immediately to ask her for time off work and that we were all going on a holiday.
I understand that she wants all her kids with her for this holiday, but it upset me quite a bit that i spent so long having this planned and so much money to make this special and all she could say was about my sister going. My mum and Daniela live in the same country, but I live away for Univeristy and only see my mum about twice a year. It’s really hurt me that she couldn’t just be happy going with me and that all everything is ever about to her is that she’ll ‘feel bad going without my sister too’.
Am i just overreacting to this whole situation? i feel like i might be but i can’t help feeling upset about it. It upsets me she couldn’t be happy going with just me after she doesn’t see me for a whole year almost but lives with daniela in literally the same room.

Hello,
I am a Masters student studying at the University of Kent in England. As part of my course, I need to complete a research project. I am interested in looking at the mental health needs in incel populations as well as their views on the behaviour that is usually attributed to them in the media. I have designed an online questionnaire which asks questions about traits of autism, body image, depression, and anxiety, and also asks people their opinions on a range of short stories. All data collected will be kept anonymous.
This is for my control group looking at forums outside of incel forums. You must be aged 18 or over. We estimate that the questionnaire will take no longer than 30 minutes.
If you would like more information or to participate in the study, please click on the link below:
https://kentpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cT6KU16X4cz1Bau
If you have any questions, please let me know at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
I would very much appreciate it if you would take the time take the questionnaire! Thank you.

I am going to be playing gta 5, Forza horizon, msfs, Fortnite, some beam ng with a total budget of $1000 for all parts. I was looking at 3050 or 3060 but I don’t know which to choose for what games and my budget. I’m not sure if Intel or AMD cpu would go best with a 3050 or 3060 and would like a WI-FI motherboard. I have no idea what other parts to pick that would go with the GPU. And would a cpu need aio water cooler? 

Hi! Im new in pc building and I need help in choosing parts for my first ever pc.

• What are you using the system for? gaming (just fps games - valorant) goods na low graphics
• What's your budget? pc unit only Php 30,000 already have handdown gpu (rtx 580)
• If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution / refresh rate? 1080p, 60Hz
• If you’re doing professional work, what software do you need to use? no professional work

I already have a list. Let me know what I can change. Prices are based on DFE store, where I plan to buy all the parts. I may also consider buying online, but I prefer buying from the physical store.

Part		Price (Php)
CPU	Ryzen 5 5600	8,850
MOBO	GIGABYTE B450M-DS3H V2 AM4 MOTHERBOARD	4,595
RAM	16GB(2x8GB) G.SKILL RIPJAWS V DDR4 3600 CL18 MEMORY KIT – BLACK (F4-3600C18D-16GVK)	2,695
SSD	GIGABYTE AORUS GEN4 5000E SSD 1TB	5,095
PSU	COOLERMASTER MWE 550W – V2 80+ BRONZE POWER SUPPLY	2,895
Case	TECWARE NEXUS AIR M2 MATX CASE – BLACK	1,795
TOTAL		25,925

​

https://imgur.com/a/qfU8HZm
Not doing my build. Barre is barely used (I never fired, was told 100 rounds on it, looks good) and all new internals to complete a slide - channel liner also. All Gen 5 17/34 9mm parts
$180 PayPal FF

A few weeks ago I found child corn with YOUNG children on my ex’s phone. We had just broken up about a month or two before because of completely unrelated issues. He has always had an addiction to porn, but it was the usual stuff. Nothing too out of the ordinary. It had been a common cause of arguments between us because his entire phone would always be filled with it. At one point, we went through and deleted every single image and video he had saved. Most of those images contained leaked OFs, old nudes he had received, pictures of women he knew (that were either friends or family) in bathing suits… and more. He swore to me up and down there was no more.
I would say why and how exactly I ended up finding them, but just incase he stumbles upon this post or someone else in his situation does, I’m not going to say. Anyways, I decided to check out of curiosity. When I did… quite literally the worst thing I’ve ever had to see. I’ll spare the details but basically videos of 2-6 y/o’s with grown men. Those images are burnt into my eyes now. I can’t stop seeing them and feeling guilty that I ever even loved him. Throughout the entire 5 year relationship the only reason I stayed with him was because I would tell myself that at the bottom of his heart, he was a good guy. That we just had to get past the addiction.
I can’t stop thinking about those little kids and how THEY must feel. How can someone even look at those images and videos without getting sick, let alone be turned on by them?? It’s DISGUSTING. I filed a police report against him and they’ve already collected their evidence, it’s just a matter of actually detaining him now. I haven’t been able to talk about it incase he tried to run if he finds out someone knows, but I needed to say something… I can’t live with myself having these images popping into my head every second knowing what those poor poor children had to go through and on top of it knowing that I once loved the man that was turned on by them. I know it’s not my fault, but I can’t help but feel guilty about it. I haven’t been able to eat, sleep, or honestly do anything without having flashbacks and feeling like I don’t deserve to be doing those things. This shit makes me SICK.
If you ever find ANYONE or ANYTHING including CSAM material, report it IMMEDIATELY. There’s tip lines you can use. Please help these children if you can, doing nothing is only making it worse.

*This is just an opinion, based on the stories I've read. I'm probably wrong, but this is my belief.
I think to start with at least part of our life is planned. Maybe our family, maybe not, or where we grow up. I don't think we purposely plan to get murdered or get cancer. I've seen people who've just lost a relative to cancer get told she chose to have it. In my opinion, that's insensitive. You may have a different opinion, and that's okay.
I don't believe it matters what religion you are. They all have something valuable to teach. Jesus's life lessons, the things Muhammad said (sorry if the spelling is wrong). Buddhism and Hinduism teaching about the soul and being InTouch with yourself.
I believe in a higher power or God as I call it. I do not believe he intervenes in life except in very very very rare cases.
I do believe he loves us unconditionally. The version of hell we are all taught is incorrect. I do not say it does not exist. I believe we place ourselves there, in our own personal way to purify ourselves.
My belief of the afterlife is you go wherever you feel comfortable. The traditional heaven, the astral plane or wherever it is, whatever is more comfortable for you.
You can see your family again if you wish and you are able to hug and live. Love is the background hum of the universe. It's why we are here.
For me that's probably on a twisty mountain road at sunset in a Nissan Skyline R34 on my way to see my family. The peace of nature and the soul of the engine. It's blissful.
So what do I believe life is? I think life is a discovery of who we are. You can be and do anything in the afterlife, so this mortal life is about discovery (not the Landrover).
We meet people down here as almost gathering a family for the afterlife. Maybe we're collecting things here to experience. We're discovering our passions, our likes and dislikes, our way of love. We're becoming ourselves, whomever that maybe.
I have to address reincarnation. Truthfully, I don't believe it's the norm for every soul. Maybe they want another shot to discover themselves, maybe they didn't find out who they really are. Maybe they want a different family, maybe something else.
I believe that memories of past lives could be connected to a source of oneness. Maybe we're shown lives of others from the past we interpret as our own to move past previous events or to help us on our way.
So I believe that we live in these mortal bodies to discover ourselves through being mortal. Some maybe more than others. We may deviate from the path, I don't think we're supposed or plan to be stupid or hurtful.
But we all end up back home, wherever that may be for all of us. And whether we're happy with that one life, or we feel we need another go.
Life is discovery. It's living in itself. Living, fun and love is the meaning of life, in my simple opinion.
Much love to everyone, whatever you believe. Peace to you all

Expands PlantX Into Additional Plant-based Category: Alcoholic Beverages
The Company's board of directors has approved a share consolidation
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 22, 2023 / PlantX Life Inc. (CSE:VEGA)(Frankfurt:WNT1)(OTC PINK:PLTXF) ("PlantX" or the "Company"), the digital face of the plant-based community, operating a one-stop shop for plant-based products, today announced a comprehensive strategic ecommerce partnership with Vegan Wines, one of the leading 100% vegan wine importedistributors and consumer wine clubs in the U.S. Through this partnership PlantX will continue to serve the plant-based community through an additional product category -- alcoholic beverages - in addition to non-alcoholic beverages and foods.
Vegan Wines (veganwines.com) is a completely vegan-friendly wine importedistributor and wine club founded in 2017 by Frances Gonzalez, a long-time vegan and wine expert. The company offers an exclusive selection of high-quality vegan wines from around the world that are not only delicious but also cruelty-free. It selects its wines with integrity by selecting wines only from vineyards that they have personally visited. The subscription-based club and online wine shop ships to over 41 states. Frances is also the founder and organizer of VegFest Puerto Rico, a nonprofit established in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria that hosts an annual all-day festival dedicated to promoting plant-based living and sustainability with local farmers, artisans, food vendors, and more.
Leveraging PlantX's existing in-house tech team, marketing/SEO experts, and fulfillment operations in Chicago,
PlantX will be assuming management of Vegan Wines' domain and ecommerce operations, building a more user-friendly VeganWines.com website, and adding its full product catalog to PlantX's websites. The partnership also includes an exclusive collaboration for the vegan food hall that is being opened at the Company's Uptown Chicago XMarket location this year that is expected to attract both brands and consumers to what is expected to be the largest all vegan food halls to exist in the Midwest.
"Adding Vegan Wines is a huge win for PlantX as a technology and ecommerce company," said PlantX CEO, Lorne Rapkin. "The brand has a loyal following with many active subscribers who are purchasing monthly packages, and Frances is doing amazing things for the plant-based community. We are excited to offer Vegan Wines' personally selected wines alongside PlantX's own diverse product assortment, and to work with Frances to grow the entire vegan wine category."
Vegan Wines Founder and CEO Frances Gonzalez said, "I could not have chosen a better partner to join me on my mission of making the process of choosing and ordering vegan wine easier for everyone than PlantX."
As part of the collaboration, PlantX and Vegan Wines will co-host a first-of-its kind vegan wine and cheese tasting event at the PlantX Venice store on March 12th from 11am to 3pm PT. Customers are invited to come and explore an exclusive selection of vegan wines. Ms. Gonzalez will be on hand to guide customers through the wine tasting process and help them discover new and exciting flavors.
PlantX will be acquiring a 10% strategic position in VeganWines.com
Corporate Update
The Company's board of directors has approved a share consolidation of the Common Shares on a 10 for one (1) basis. Currently, the company's authorized share structure consists of an unlimited number of Common Shares without par value, of which 36,941,781 Common Shares are issued and outstanding on a non-diluted basis. Following Consolidation and subject to rounding, it is expected that the Company will have 3,694,178 Common Shares issued and outstanding on a non-diluted basis. Pursuant to the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) and the articles of the Company, shareholder approval is not required for the Consolidation. Therefore, the Company will not be seeking shareholder approval for the Consolidation. Further details regarding the Consolidation will be included in a subsequent news release.
About PlantX Life Inc.
As the digital face of the plant-based community, PlantX's platform is a one-stop shop for plant-based products. With its fast-growing category verticals, PlantX offers customers more than 5,000 plant-based products across North America. PlantX also has other brands in the PlantX portfolio, including a juice brand, a coffee company, a plant shop, and brick-and-mortar grocery stores. PlantX uses its digital platform to build a community of like-minded consumers and, most importantly, to provide education. PlantX's digital presence eliminates entry barriers for anyone interested in living a plant-based lifestyle and thriving in a longer, healthier, and happier life.
Connect with PlantX: [Email](mailto:[email protected]) Website Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Instagram YouTube TikTok
For additional information, please contact:
Lorne Rapkin Chief Executive Officer (416) 419-1415
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/plantx-enters-strategic-ecommerce-partnership-123000298.html