SumUp enables businesses to get paid easily, process orders quickly, sell online instantly, and manage their money more efficiently.
As a Backend Engineer in the Purchase Squad (Growth Tribe), you’ll work on our purchase flow's e-commerce and logistics backend applications (Go, event-driven, modular monolith service architecture). You will help thousands of new and existing merchants across the globe to buy a new SumUp hardware device or service. You’ll subsequently have a significant impact on our merchants’ lives! All of this with state-of-the-art backend technologies and in a collaborative environment.
You’ll be great for this role if

You have extensive experience with backend technologies and database technologies You are interested in learning Golang and ideally already have first experience with it You are a pragmatic problem solver and are fearless in taking the lead in finding the right solution to a problem. Provide thoughtful testing for your features before shipping them. You have excellent communication skills, are good at technical writing, are passionate about software design, care about the right abstractions and clean APIs, and radically prioritize simplicity. 

Nice to have

Previous experience in E-Commerce and some expertise in Typescript/Javascript. 

Why you should join SumUp

We’re a truly global team of 3000+ people from 60+ countries, spread across 3 continents. We get together regularly for breakfasts, team events, office parties, and sports. You’ll receive a budget for attending conferences and external training. We offer a corporate pension scheme, 28 days’ paid leave, free German and yoga classes, subsidized Urban Sports Club membership, a stock option plan, and other great benefits. We offer visa and relocation support for you, your family, and your pets. You’ll be based in the heart of Berlin, one of Europe’s leading tech hubs and most vibrant cities. You’ll attend global offsites and/or hackathons. 

About the team
The Purchase Squad (Growth Tribe) mission is to provide a seamless shopping and delivery experience that inspires confidence in new and existing merchants to enable them to be part of the SumUp ecosystem.
At SumUp, all squads are cross-functional and co-located product teams. We empower every member to impact feature design, prioritization, and delivery significantly. You’ll be able to help shape the future of the team and the future of SumUp’s Engineering and Product organization.
We work with state-of-the-art backend and frontend technologies, scalable services in Go, and building great web applications in NextJS (Typescript). We make features that significantly impact and are used by millions of SumUp merchants worldwide. A lot of our work is done through experimentation and A/B testing.
About SumUp
We believe in the everyday hero. Those who have the courage to follow their passion and who have the strength and determination to realize their dreams. Small business owners are at the heart of all we do, so we're creating powerful, easy-to-use financial solutions to help them run their businesses. With a founder’s mentality and a 'team-first attitude' our diverse teams across Europe, South America, and the United States work together to ensure that small business owners can be successful doing what they love.
SumUp is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that proudly pursues and hires a diverse workforce. SumUp does not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, colour, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other basis protected by applicable laws or prohibited by Company policy. SumUp also strives for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibits harassment of any kind.
Job Application Tip
We recognise that candidates feel they need to meet 100% of the job criteria in order to apply for a job. Please note that this is only a guide. If you don’t tick every box, it’s ok too because it means you have room to learn and develop your career at SumUp
Read more / apply: https://www.golangprojects.com/golang-go-job-gnk-Backend-Software-Engineer-Berlin-SumUp.html

Welcome back, fellow mobile gamers :) As per tradition, here are my weekly mobile game recommendations based on the most interesting games I played and that were covered on MiniReview this week! :) I hope you'll enjoy some of them.
Support these posts (and YouTube content + development of MiniReview) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NimbleThor <3
This episode includes a great racing game, a fun arcade platformer, a great deck-builder roguelike RPG, an arcade casual game, and a neat deck-building dungeon crawler.
New to these posts? Check out the first one from 216 weeks ago here.

Let's get to the games:

Art of Rally [Game Size: 2.3 GB] ($4.99)

Genre: Racing / Simulation - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by NimbleThor:
Art of Rally is a rally racing game with an amazing atmosphere, several fun game modes that range from casual to hardcore, and deep gameplay customization settings.
The main career mode has us play through several years of rally history on tracks all around the world, unlocking new cars and skins as we progress.
In addition to the campaign, however, there is a custom rally mode, a time-attack mode where we can try all of the game’s vehicles, a free-roam mode where we drive around a large open world to collect items, and daily and weekly online events with leaderboards.
What I like the best about Art of Rally is that it can be as casual or hardcore as you want. Free roaming is a fun laid-back experience while the time-attack modes are incredibly challenging. And even in the career mode, we can pick the difficulty of our AI opponents.
The touch controls are okay but lack different options. Thankfully, the game plays perfectly with a Bluetooth controller, and there are lots of customization options for everything from the HUD to the interface and gameplay, including changing the steering sensitivity, enabling anti-lock braking, and much more.
The game has a great atmosphere, and the low-poly art style and minimalistic UI fit nicely. Unfortunately, loading between menus and levels is slow, and I ran into a few minor bugs - so the game isn’t perfectly ported from PC.
Art of Rally is a $4.99 premium game with a single $1.99 optional DLC that adds additional map areas.
It’s a game more about precision than driving super-fast, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I think you’ll enjoy Art of Rally – especially if you have a controller to play it with.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Art of Rally

Level Devil - NOT A Troll Game [Total Game Size: 87 MB] (Free)

Genre: Platform / Arcade - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by Ark:
Level Devil is an easy arcade platformer with no surprises or frustrations at all… or is it?
The game has us move left, right, and jump to navigate seemingly simple one-screen stages. But as we progress, the game starts trolling us in lots of unexpected ways.
Floors suddenly disappear beneath our feet, spikes spawn at what looks like safe spots, and the game sometimes even changes the rules of physics by lowering the gravity or reversing it altogether.
So you better be prepared for some rage-inducing deaths. But to me, the game’s main appeal is exactly these unexpected twists. The game quickly becomes all about anticipating the next troll attempt, and nothing beats the satisfaction I got from outsmarting a level in my first attempt.
There are 80 stages in total, with the game autosaving every 5 stages. And while some stages are challenging, they’re all short and concise. The controls are also simple and responsive. Unfortunately, there is no music at all, and the graphics are very minimal, with just a single yellow-reddish color scheme that gets old in no time.
Level Devil monetizes via occasional forced ads between levels and deaths, and a $0.99 iAP to remove these for good. Thankfully, I didn’t personally find the ads to be too intrusive, even with me dying a lot.
Despite being a troll game, it balances overall fun vs. overall difficulty very well. So I was able to complete it relatively easily without getting too frustrated. You could say I had a "devilish good time" beating the game.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Level Devil

Loop Hero [Game Size: 250 MB] (Free Trial)

Genre: RPG / Deck-Builder / Roguelike - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Some
tl;dr review by JBMessin:
Loop Hero is a mobile port of an incredibly unique tactical roguelike that mixes lots of gameplay elements, including deck-building, auto-battling, resource management, and city-building.
We begin the game in a place outside space and time on a dangerous path that forms a loop. Our character traverses the loop on his own, automatically fighting the enemies that spawn every day. These encounters provide us with loot that we equip to grow stronger and cards that are used to alter the loop.
Playing a card somewhere on the path changes what happens every time our hero walks through that part of the loop. For example, we may place a grove that spawns a rat every 2 days, which we then fight to grow stronger. This ability to customize the loop is one of the most unique aspects of the game, and I really enjoyed it.
After our first campfire is built, we begin to meet heroes who are just as lost as we are. Through short dialogues with them, we start to learn about the game’s light city-building mechanics. There are plenty of buildings to construct that offer all kinds of new and interesting gameplay mechanics - and even new classes to go on expeditions with.
What I immediately appreciated about Loop Hero was its top-notch soundtrack reminiscent of early 8-bit games like Castlevania, and the sprites that are stylized to match the gloomy setting but still vibrant in their design.
The biggest downside is that my large fingers sometimes made it hard to see where I was placing things. The game is definitely best enjoyed on larger phones.
Loop Hero is free to try, with a single $6.99 iAP unlocking the full game.
If you enjoy excellent roguelikes with unique gameplay mechanics, I think you’ll enjoy Loop Hero.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Loop Hero

Tumble Rush [Game Size: 159 MB] (Free)

Genre: Arcade / Casual - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by NimbleThor:
Tumble Rush is a fun, fast-paced marble maze arcade game where we guide a ball through small top-down levels while avoiding obstacles, traps, and holes.
Apart from rolling around with our sphere character, the only other thing we can do is tap an interaction button that activates/deactivates doors, turn on fans that let us get over obstacles, and much more.
Despite the additional puzzle elements introduced along the way, the game is very easy in the beginning – maybe even to a fault. I quickly grew bored with the early levels. But thankfully, if you stick with the game, it eventually becomes much harder.
The coins we collect in each level are used to unlock new cosmetics for our character. But what’s really cool is that they also completely change the design and theme of every level. So unlocking cosmetics quickly became my primary objective.
While the standard mode is relatively easy and lacks a bit of variety, the game also features a much more challenging time attack mode, where we attempt to finish levels fast enough to earn three stars. And if we get bored with that, there’s an endless mode where we earn more and more gold the further we get.
The standard gyroscopic controls work alright, but I personally preferred one of the touch control options.
Tumble Rush monetizes by showing ads between levels. They appear relatively frequently but can thankfully be removed via a single $1.99 iAP.
It’s an arcade game that gets better the further you get. So if you’re looking for a fun game that can be played as casually or competitively as you want, I think you might like Tumble Rush.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: Tumble Rush

SOULVARS (Game Size: 346 MB] ($4.99)

Genre: Deck-Building / Dungeon Crawler - Offline
Orientation: Portrait
Required Attention: Some
tl;dr review by AlexSem:
SOULVARS is a futuristic mix of a jRPG and a deck builder, where we fight demonic creatures using a deck of cards produced by the gear we equip.
Working for a secret government organization, our job is to maintain peace by engaging in bloody confrontations with hungry spirits that invade the human world via spontaneous portal-like breaches.
The combat system is quite elaborate. First of all, our deck is defined by the gear we equip, and each card lets us execute an action, such as using a shield, performing various elemental attacks, or dealing different types of physical damage.
Picking two different types of cards allows us to perform devastating combo actions. But we must also pay attention to our enemies’ resistances, constantly charge our “burst” meter to eventually turn into a powerful monster, and link together attacks of multiple characters. And this is just a small portion of the game’s many combat mechanics.
Mindlessly executing random moves works for a while, but we eventually face enemies so strong that this tactic isn’t enough. This is where the game's complex combat systems comes into play, and we need to learn all its intricacies and meticulously manage our equipment to win. This will be too challenging for some players, but a joy for others.
The exploration part of the game consists of navigating maze-like rooms, interacting with the environment, collecting loot, talking to people, and engaging in random battles - an old jRPG structure that is apparently still popular among certain audiences.
SOULVARS is a premium game that costs $4.99.
While the game’s repetitiveness and unengaging plot eventually make the gameplay a bit boring, there’s more than enough entertainment for fans of complex combat systems.
App Store: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (review score + user ratings):: SOULVARS
NEW: Sort + filter reviews and games I've played (and more) on my mobile games discovery platform, MiniReview: https://minireview.io/
Special thanks to the Patreon Producers Wrecking Golf, "marquisdan", "Lost Vault", "Farm RPG", and "Mohaimen" who help make these posts possible through their Patreon support <3
Google Sheet of all games I've played so far (searchable and filter-able): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bf0OxtVxrboZqyEh01AxJYUUqHm8tEfh-Lx-SugcrzY/edit?usp=sharing
*The newest mobile games (with gameplay) on my YouTube channel: * https://youtu.be/8wX-9SW4Z8o?si=j0PNTWf08xd8mwEQ
Episode 193 Episode 194 Episode 195 Episode 196 Episode 197 Episode 198 Episode 199 Episode 200 Episode 201 Episode 202 Episode 203 Episode 204 Episode 205 Episode 206 Episode 207 Episode 208 Episode 209 Episode 210 Episode 211 Episode 211 Episode 212 Episode 214 Episode 215 Episode 216 Episode 217

Welcome back, fellow mobile gamers :) As per tradition, here are my weekly mobile game recommendations based on the most interesting games I played and that were covered on MiniReview this week! :) I hope you'll enjoy some of them.
Support these posts (and YouTube content + development of MiniReview) on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NimbleThor <3
This episode includes a great racing game, a fun arcade platformer, a great deck-builder roguelike RPG, an arcade casual game, and a neat deck-building dungeon crawler.
New to these posts? Check out the first one from 304 weeks ago here.

Let's get to the games:

Art of Rally [Game Size: 2.3 GB] ($4.99)

Genre: Racing / Simulation - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by NimbleThor:
Art of Rally is a rally racing game with an amazing atmosphere, several fun game modes that range from casual to hardcore, and deep gameplay customization settings.
The main career mode has us play through several years of rally history on tracks all around the world, unlocking new cars and skins as we progress.
In addition to the campaign, however, there is a custom rally mode, a time-attack mode where we can try all of the game’s vehicles, a free-roam mode where we drive around a large open world to collect items, and daily and weekly online events with leaderboards.
What I like the best about Art of Rally is that it can be as casual or hardcore as you want. Free roaming is a fun laid-back experience while the time-attack modes are incredibly challenging. And even in the career mode, we can pick the difficulty of our AI opponents.
The touch controls are okay but lack different options. Thankfully, the game plays perfectly with a Bluetooth controller, and there are lots of customization options for everything from the HUD to the interface and gameplay, including changing the steering sensitivity, enabling anti-lock braking, and much more.
The game has a great atmosphere, and the low-poly art style and minimalistic UI fit nicely. Unfortunately, loading between menus and levels is slow, and I ran into a few minor bugs - so the game isn’t perfectly ported from PC.
Art of Rally is a $4.99 premium game with a single $1.99 optional DLC that adds additional map areas.
It’s a game more about precision than driving super-fast, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I think you’ll enjoy Art of Rally – especially if you have a controller to play it with.
Check it out on Google Play: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (website version):: Art of Rally

Level Devil - NOT A Troll Game [Total Game Size: 87 MB] (Free)

Genre: Platform / Arcade - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by Ark:
Level Devil is an easy arcade platformer with no surprises or frustrations at all… or is it?
The game has us move left, right, and jump to navigate seemingly simple one-screen stages. But as we progress, the game starts trolling us in lots of unexpected ways.
Floors suddenly disappear beneath our feet, spikes spawn at what looks like safe spots, and the game sometimes even changes the rules of physics by lowering the gravity or reversing it altogether.
So you better be prepared for some rage-inducing deaths. But to me, the game’s main appeal is exactly these unexpected twists. The game quickly becomes all about anticipating the next troll attempt, and nothing beats the satisfaction I got from outsmarting a level in my first attempt.
There are 80 stages in total, with the game autosaving every 5 stages. And while some stages are challenging, they’re all short and concise. The controls are also simple and responsive. Unfortunately, there is no music at all, and the graphics are very minimal, with just a single yellow-reddish color scheme that gets old in no time.
Level Devil monetizes via occasional forced ads between levels and deaths. Thankfully, I didn’t personally find the ads to be too intrusive, even with me dying a lot.
Despite being a troll game, it balances overall fun vs. overall difficulty very well. So I was able to complete it relatively easily without getting too frustrated. You could say I had a "devilish good time" beating the game.
Check it out on Google Play: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (website version):: Level Devil

Loop Hero [Game Size: 250 MB] (Free Trial)

Genre: RPG / Deck-Builder / Roguelike - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Some
tl;dr review by JBMessin:
Loop Hero is a mobile port of an incredibly unique tactical roguelike that mixes lots of gameplay elements, including deck-building, auto-battling, resource management, and city-building.
We begin the game in a place outside space and time on a dangerous path that forms a loop. Our character traverses the loop on his own, automatically fighting the enemies that spawn every day. These encounters provide us with loot that we equip to grow stronger and cards that are used to alter the loop.
Playing a card somewhere on the path changes what happens every time our hero walks through that part of the loop. For example, we may place a grove that spawns a rat every 2 days, which we then fight to grow stronger. This ability to customize the loop is one of the most unique aspects of the game, and I really enjoyed it.
After our first campfire is built, we begin to meet heroes who are just as lost as we are. Through short dialogues with them, we start to learn about the game’s light city-building mechanics. There are plenty of buildings to construct that offer all kinds of new and interesting gameplay mechanics - and even new classes to go on expeditions with.
What I immediately appreciated about Loop Hero was its top-notch soundtrack reminiscent of early 8-bit games like Castlevania, and the sprites that are stylized to match the gloomy setting but still vibrant in their design.
The biggest downside is that my large fingers sometimes made it hard to see where I was placing things. The game is definitely best enjoyed on larger phones.
Loop Hero is free to try, with a single $6.99 iAP unlocking the full game.
If you enjoy excellent roguelikes with unique gameplay mechanics, I think you’ll enjoy Loop Hero.
Check it out on Google Play: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (website version):: Loop Hero

Tumble Rush [Game Size: 159 MB] (Free)

Genre: Arcade / Casual - Offline
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review by NimbleThor:
Tumble Rush is a fun, fast-paced marble maze arcade game where we guide a ball through small top-down levels while avoiding obstacles, traps, and holes.
Apart from rolling around with our sphere character, the only other thing we can do is tap an interaction button that activates/deactivates doors, turn on fans that let us get over obstacles, and much more.
Despite the additional puzzle elements introduced along the way, the game is very easy in the beginning – maybe even to a fault. I quickly grew bored with the early levels. But thankfully, if you stick with the game, it eventually becomes much harder.
The coins we collect in each level are used to unlock new cosmetics for our character. But what’s really cool is that they also completely change the design and theme of every level. So unlocking cosmetics quickly became my primary objective.
While the standard mode is relatively easy and lacks a bit of variety, the game also features a much more challenging time attack mode, where we attempt to finish levels fast enough to earn three stars. And if we get bored with that, there’s an endless mode where we earn more and more gold the further we get.
The standard gyroscopic controls work alright, but I personally preferred one of the touch control options.
Tumble Rush monetizes by showing ads between levels. They appear relatively frequently but can thankfully be removed via a single $1.99 iAP.
It’s an arcade game that gets better the further you get. So if you’re looking for a fun game that can be played as casually or competitively as you want, I think you might like Tumble Rush.
Check it out on Google Play: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (website version):: Tumble Rush

SOULVARS (Game Size: 346 MB] ($4.99)

Genre: Deck-Building / Dungeon Crawler - Offline
Orientation: Portrait
Required Attention: Some
tl;dr review by AlexSem:
SOULVARS is a futuristic mix of a jRPG and a deck builder, where we fight demonic creatures using a deck of cards produced by the gear we equip.
Working for a secret government organization, our job is to maintain peace by engaging in bloody confrontations with hungry spirits that invade the human world via spontaneous portal-like breaches.
The combat system is quite elaborate. First of all, our deck is defined by the gear we equip, and each card lets us execute an action, such as using a shield, performing various elemental attacks, or dealing different types of physical damage.
Picking two different types of cards allows us to perform devastating combo actions. But we must also pay attention to our enemies’ resistances, constantly charge our “burst” meter to eventually turn into a powerful monster, and link together attacks of multiple characters. And this is just a small portion of the game’s many combat mechanics.
Mindlessly executing random moves works for a while, but we eventually face enemies so strong that this tactic isn’t enough. This is where the game's complex combat systems comes into play, and we need to learn all its intricacies and meticulously manage our equipment to win. This will be too challenging for some players, but a joy for others.
The exploration part of the game consists of navigating maze-like rooms, interacting with the environment, collecting loot, talking to people, and engaging in random battles - an old jRPG structure that is apparently still popular among certain audiences.
SOULVARS is a premium game that costs $4.99.
While the game’s repetitiveness and unengaging plot eventually make the gameplay a bit boring, there’s more than enough entertainment for fans of complex combat systems.
Check it out on Google Play: Here
Check it out on MiniReview (website version):: SOULVARS
NEW: Sort + filter reviews and games I've played (and more) in my app MiniReview: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.best.android.games.reviews
Special thanks to the Patreon Producers Wrecking Golf, "marquisdan", "Lost Vault", "Farm RPG", and "Mohaimen" who help make these posts possible through their Patreon support <3
Episode 281 Episode 282 Episode 283 Episode 284 Episode 285 Episode 286 Episode 287 Episode 288 Episode 289 Episode 290 Episode 291 Episode 292 Episode 293 Episode 294 Episode 295 Episode 296 Episode 297 Episode 298 Episode 299 Episode 300 Episode 301 Episode 302 Episode 303

If you live in London you might have seen Forest (or is it HumanForest?) ebikes on the streets.
Here's a Forest referral code to enter when you sign up to give you £20 free credit.
Download the app (from Google Play store or Apple App Store) and enter my code in the "promo code" box when signing up:

nbpVckYB

You get 10mins free riding every day.
Trips have a £1 parking fee. If you park in a designated parking bay you get 2mins free credit, or a 50p discount if parked in Camden bays.
Referral credits are only valid for 7 days.
Please note: While the free minutes cover the cost of riding, any parking fees incurred during your ride are not covered by the free minutes.
Terms
Non-ref

We have a lot of guys on the roster that carried over from Rivera where it's somewhat unclear if they're actually shitty players or if they just looked like that due to the circumstances they were surrounded by. I was wondering about some of them earlier:
Jamin Davis: We all know he was a reach, and we've been upset since he was drafted because there were better options and Ron Rivera is a moron. He has great physical traits though - he's huge for a LB and very fast/athletic. The question was always whether or not he could get properly coached up and "get it", which we assumed was happening because fucking Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio were linebackers, and Ron coached one of the best linebackers in recent memory down in Carolina. His first two seasons were rough, but the entire defense was dogshit last season and Jamin looked actually pretty decent in a lot of situations. He was smarter in coverage, smarter in run support, and actually got to showcase his athleticism on a handful of occasions. He's going to be playing next to Luvu who is the opposite of him - a guy without major physical gifts who managed to grind his way to being a good NFL starter with high motor plays and intelligent positioning, and a future hall of famer in Bobby Wagner. We didn't pick up his rookie contract options, and that was intentional to motivate him to show this new staff something. I think that he has a chance to actually be used as a disruptive player and get him into the backfield where he belongs, I think he will have a surprisingly good season this year.
Forbes: He's been sort of talked to death. Does he even have the size necessary to play on the outside at this level? Does he have the skill? Can we un-do whatever the fuck that high school DB coach "taught" him last season and put him into positions where he can succeed, preferably where he can ball hawk and not where he's matched up with a 230 pound physical monster of a WR who kicks his ass all over the field? I'm not so sure on this guy. I don't think there's really a place for him at this level or with what I expect our defensive staff to want to do in the secondary. He's not nearly good enough of a tackler to use him as a FS and let him ball hawk, he's not big enough to play man coverage. If I had to guess, I'd say he's probably going to have a rough year and be a rotational guy, but I'd be ecstatic to be proven wrong about that. Dan Quinn's defenses have always screamed "physical" in the secondary, and this guy is the opposite of that. I don't know if they're expecting to use him as the 2nd CB and put him in those outside situations opposite St-Juste, but I don't really envision that going particularly well if they do. I don't know who you go with if it's obvious in camp that he's not panning out. Sainristil is a tad on the small side to put on an island outside (though I think he'd handle it better than Forbes at least). Maybe they see Michael Davis doing that and will only use Forbes and Sainristil inside? I have no idea.
St-Juste: I think this guy could have a better upswing than anyone else in the secondary because of his size and the way he plays. He's the most physical corner we carried over, and I expect to see him put in a lot of situations close to the LOS in man coverage, which is how a guy like him should be used. I don't know if he can actually lock a #1 WR down consistently, but I think with his traits he has the potential to have a much better season than we've seen out of him in the previous 3.
Quan Martin: I expect him to really take a step at safety. I really liked what I saw out of him, but I also hated the idea of taking a guy who was a very solid college safety and trying to turn him into a CB. I see him as the deep cover safety who roams and supports over the top vs. Chinn who is clearly here to get in the box and hit. I see him in the Kam Chancellor role vs. Chinn's Earl Thomas mostly because he has a good nose for the ball. I think he has a chance to surprise a lot of people.
Jahan Dotson: He's an odd case. His rookie season where he caught 35 passes for 523 yards and 7 TDs was seen as excellent, which it should have been. He really ran crisp routes and looked awesome in space. We all understood that he was doing especially well considering he was catching balls from Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke. Then this past season he caught 49 for 518 and 4 TDs and it's seen as a catastrophe outside the fanbase. I think that most of us believe that something weird went on with him and Howell and Bieniemy. His production was pretty much the same, in fact, contrary to popular opinion that Sam Howell didn't look for him, or Bieniemy neglected to design plays for him, in 2022 we threw the ball 531 times, and he was targeted 61 of those times (11.4% of all passing coming his way). In 2023, we threw the ball 601 times, and he was targeted 83 of them (13.8% of all passing). His receptions went up, his yardage and TDs went down. Was this because of poor play design? Did Bieniemy send him on routes that just didn't make a lot of sense for the type of receiver he is? Did he have trouble getting open? When he was open, did Sam Howell hold on to the ball or have a hard time finding him? I can't really say. I want to believe that he's going to progress into an 800-900 yard deep threat and or YAC machine, because he looked like he was going to become that guy after his first two seasons. He could just be a single competent quarterback or OC away from a breakout year, or maybe he's just that 500 yards and 4-6 TD kind of guy and that's all he'll ever be. I really have no idea. My wishful thinking and hope says he's going to break out and Kingsbury will utilize him correctly. There isn't a great analogue to Jahan's situation from his time in Arizona.
That's just the stuff off the top of my head, feel free to add, disagree, or fill in some blanks. I know it's all just pointless speculation, but what else are we here for?

How to Free Watch PGA Championship 2024 live? Golf fans, get ready, because it's time for the men's second major of the year: The 106th PGA Championship. Returning to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, for the fourth time (and the first time since 2014), the 2024 PGA Championship will see big names, including defending PGA champ Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy — fresh off his Wells Fargo title win — Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods competing for the $17.5 million purse.
Watch PGA Championship 2024 Live
The 106th PGA Championship begins Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. The field features 16 former PGA champions, including Brooks Koepka, who won the 2023 PGA Championship and looks to repeat. Justin Thomas has returned to his hometown, seeking his third PGA Championship.
The first two rounds are set for Thursday and Friday, and the initial field of 156 golfers will be cut to the top 70 players and ties after the second round. Are you ready to follow all the action on the green at Valhalla? Here’s how to watch the 2024 PGA Championship, including the full TV schedule and more.
How to watch the 2024 PGA Championship:
Date(s): Thursday, May 16-Sunday, May 19
Location: Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, KY
TV channel: ESPN, CBS, Golf Channel
Streaming: ESPN+, Paramount+, DirecTV Stream
What channel is the 2024 PGA Championship on?
For US viewers, the PGA Championship will air mainly on ESPN and CBS. There will be select coverage streaming on ESPN+, and the Golf Channel's alternative coverage airing on its network and streaming on Peacock.
ESPN will air the majority of the first two rounds of the tournament on Thursday and Friday, and then ESPN and CBS will share the third and final rounds on Saturday and Sunday. ESPN+ will have early coverage before the ESPN and CBS broadcasts all four days of the tournament and will also stream the practices Wednesday before the tournament begins.
Who is playing in the 2024 PGA Championship?
Brooks Koepka is the defending PGA champ headed into the 2024 tournament. Koepka will be joined by Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and more big names in golf.
How to watch the PGA Championship without cable:
To watch the PGA Championship 2024 without cable, you have several options. Firstly, check the official PGA Championship website for any live streaming options they may offer. Many major sporting events now provide online streaming services for viewers without cable subscriptions.
Secondly, consider signing up for streaming services that include sports channels. Providers like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, Sling TV, and fuboTV often carry channels that broadcast golf tournaments, including the PGA Championship. These services typically offer free trials, allowing you to test them out before committing.
Thirdly, explore network-specific apps. Channels like NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and ESPN frequently offer live streaming through their apps or websites. If the PGA Championship is airing on one of these networks, you may be able to watch it without cable by logging in with your internet service provider credentials.
If you're in an area with good reception, you might also try using a digital antenna to pick up local channels broadcasting the tournament. This can provide a free option for watching the PGA Championship without cable.
Stream the PGA Championship on Paramount+
For streaming the PGA Championship coverage on CBS, you'll need the Paramount+ with Showtime tier, available for $12. The subscription is ad-free and includes live access to your local CBS channel.
In addition to sporting events like the PGA Championship, March Madness, Premier League and Champions League games, Paramount+ offers a host of other hit shows, new and classic movies and live sporting events. Unlike a lot of other streaming services these days, Paramount+ still offers a one-week free trial — so new subscribers can sign up to watch the tournament this weekend and check out the rest of the Paramount+ library totally free for seven days.
Stream the PGA Championship on ESPN+
For ESPN+ subscribers, early PGA Championship coverage will stream daily through the tournament. An ESPN+ subscription starts at $11 a month and grants you access to exclusive ESPN+ content, including all UFC PPV prelims, select F1 races, other live events, fantasy sports tools and premium ESPN+ articles.
Watch the Golf Channel's Live From the PGA Championship Peacock
While Peacock and NBC may not be airing the 2024 PGA Championship, the platform will have the golf Channel's Live From the PGA Championship coverage streaming live on the platform. A $5.99/month ad-supported Peacock subscription lets you stream live sports and events airing on NBC and thousands of hours of shows and movies, including beloved sitcoms such as Parks and Recreation and The Office and even recent theatrical releases.
Or for $12 monthly, you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Is Tiger Woods Playing in the PGA Championship?
It's hard to say Tiger is guaranteed to play due to the injuries he's been battling over the past few years. However, the 15-time major champ has confirmed he's going to take a crack at the 2024 PGA Championship. Tiger was recently spotted practicing at Valhalla course and has told several outlets be plans to participate. Woods has won the PGA Championship four times in his career (the last time he won was in 2007). The 48-year-old is not expected to take the trophy this year but will no doubt be one of the biggest names to watch.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream in The US
Golf fans in the US can watch PGA Championship live streams on ESPN and CBS. ESPN has coverage of all four days, while CBS will broadcast Saturday's third round and Sunday's final round.
No cable? No problem. Try a cord-cutting service like Sling or Fubo to watch the golf. There are no long contracts with these services, so you can try them and cancel whenever you've had enough. Fubo has the advantage of including both ESPN and CBS (as well as NBC's Golf Channel) in its $79.99/month Pro package – alongside 178 other channels.
The ESPN Plus streaming service will also host live coverage of the 2024 PGA Championship across all four days. A subscription costs $10.99/month or $109.99 annually. And you can watch CBS's coverage of the 2024 PGA Championship on the Paramount Plus streaming service. You'll need a Paramount Plus with Showtime subscription to watch the CBS Sports live stream. That will set you back $11.99/month or $119.99/year.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream From The UK
In the UK, Sky will be your destination as Sky Sports Golf will televise action from the PGA Championship. A Sky Sports subscription will give you access to all nine Sky Sports channels, with the option to view in 4K and HDR (provided you have an HDR-ready Sky Q box and HLG-compatible TV).
Another option is Sky's Now Sports streaming service. You can get 24 hours of viewing for £14.99, or month-long access for £34.99 – though cheaper deals are often available.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream From AUSTRALIA
In Australia, the most comprehensive golf coverage is offered by Kayo Sports where you can check out Fox Sports, which broadcasts the PGA Tour coverage. Not only can you watch a PGA Championship live stream from Kentucky, it's also the place to go for all the PGA Tour and DP World Tour events, and the other Majors. You can watch events from the LPGA Tour, too.
On top of all that, Kayo Sports offers access to over 50 sports live and on-demand, with some its big name channels including Fox Sports, ESPN, and beIN Sports. It's also good value at either $25 for Kayo One or $35 for Kayo Basic. Basic lets you stream sport on two devices at once.
2024 PGA Championship broadcast schedule:
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Live From the PGA Championship: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Practice rounds: 12-3 p.m. (ESPN+)
Live From the PGA Championship: 7-9 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Thursday, May 16, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 1: 7 a.m.-12 p.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 1: 12-8 p.m. (ESPN)
Live From the PGA Championship: 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Friday, May 17, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 2: 7 a.m.-1 p.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 2: 1-8 p.m. (ESPN)
Live From the PGA Championship: 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Saturday, May 18, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 3: 8-10 a.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 3: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (ESPN)
PGA Championship, Round 3: 1-7 p.m. (CBS)
Live From the PGA Championship: 7-9 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)

Where Can I Streams Free PGA Championship live? Golf fans, get ready, because it's time for the men's second major of the year: The 106th PGA Championship. Returning to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, for the fourth time (and the first time since 2014), the 2024 PGA Championship will see big names, including defending PGA champ Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy — fresh off his Wells Fargo title win — Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods competing for the $17.5 million purse.
Watch PGA Championship 2024 Live
The 106th PGA Championship begins Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. The field features 16 former PGA champions, including Brooks Koepka, who won the 2023 PGA Championship and looks to repeat. Justin Thomas has returned to his hometown, seeking his third PGA Championship.
The first two rounds are set for Thursday and Friday, and the initial field of 156 golfers will be cut to the top 70 players and ties after the second round. Are you ready to follow all the action on the green at Valhalla? Here’s how to watch the 2024 PGA Championship, including the full TV schedule and more.
How to watch the 2024 PGA Championship:
Date(s): Thursday, May 16-Sunday, May 19
Location: Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, KY
TV channel: ESPN, CBS, Golf Channel
Streaming: ESPN+, Paramount+, DirecTV Stream
What channel is the 2024 PGA Championship on?
For US viewers, the PGA Championship will air mainly on ESPN and CBS. There will be select coverage streaming on ESPN+, and the Golf Channel's alternative coverage airing on its network and streaming on Peacock.
ESPN will air the majority of the first two rounds of the tournament on Thursday and Friday, and then ESPN and CBS will share the third and final rounds on Saturday and Sunday. ESPN+ will have early coverage before the ESPN and CBS broadcasts all four days of the tournament and will also stream the practices Wednesday before the tournament begins.
Who is playing in the 2024 PGA Championship?
Brooks Koepka is the defending PGA champ headed into the 2024 tournament. Koepka will be joined by Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and more big names in golf.
How to watch the PGA Championship without cable:
To watch the PGA Championship 2024 without cable, you have several options. Firstly, check the official PGA Championship website for any live streaming options they may offer. Many major sporting events now provide online streaming services for viewers without cable subscriptions.
Secondly, consider signing up for streaming services that include sports channels. Providers like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, Sling TV, and fuboTV often carry channels that broadcast golf tournaments, including the PGA Championship. These services typically offer free trials, allowing you to test them out before committing.
Thirdly, explore network-specific apps. Channels like NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and ESPN frequently offer live streaming through their apps or websites. If the PGA Championship is airing on one of these networks, you may be able to watch it without cable by logging in with your internet service provider credentials.
If you're in an area with good reception, you might also try using a digital antenna to pick up local channels broadcasting the tournament. This can provide a free option for watching the PGA Championship without cable.
Stream the PGA Championship on Paramount+
For streaming the PGA Championship coverage on CBS, you'll need the Paramount+ with Showtime tier, available for $12. The subscription is ad-free and includes live access to your local CBS channel.
In addition to sporting events like the PGA Championship, March Madness, Premier League and Champions League games, Paramount+ offers a host of other hit shows, new and classic movies and live sporting events. Unlike a lot of other streaming services these days, Paramount+ still offers a one-week free trial — so new subscribers can sign up to watch the tournament this weekend and check out the rest of the Paramount+ library totally free for seven days.
Stream the PGA Championship on ESPN+
For ESPN+ subscribers, early PGA Championship coverage will stream daily through the tournament. An ESPN+ subscription starts at $11 a month and grants you access to exclusive ESPN+ content, including all UFC PPV prelims, select F1 races, other live events, fantasy sports tools and premium ESPN+ articles.
Watch the Golf Channel's Live From the PGA Championship Peacock
While Peacock and NBC may not be airing the 2024 PGA Championship, the platform will have the golf Channel's Live From the PGA Championship coverage streaming live on the platform. A $5.99/month ad-supported Peacock subscription lets you stream live sports and events airing on NBC and thousands of hours of shows and movies, including beloved sitcoms such as Parks and Recreation and The Office and even recent theatrical releases.
Or for $12 monthly, you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Is Tiger Woods Playing in the PGA Championship?
It's hard to say Tiger is guaranteed to play due to the injuries he's been battling over the past few years. However, the 15-time major champ has confirmed he's going to take a crack at the 2024 PGA Championship. Tiger was recently spotted practicing at Valhalla course and has told several outlets be plans to participate. Woods has won the PGA Championship four times in his career (the last time he won was in 2007). The 48-year-old is not expected to take the trophy this year but will no doubt be one of the biggest names to watch.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream in The US
Golf fans in the US can watch PGA Championship live streams on ESPN and CBS. ESPN has coverage of all four days, while CBS will broadcast Saturday's third round and Sunday's final round.
No cable? No problem. Try a cord-cutting service like Sling or Fubo to watch the golf. There are no long contracts with these services, so you can try them and cancel whenever you've had enough. Fubo has the advantage of including both ESPN and CBS (as well as NBC's Golf Channel) in its $79.99/month Pro package – alongside 178 other channels.
The ESPN Plus streaming service will also host live coverage of the 2024 PGA Championship across all four days. A subscription costs $10.99/month or $109.99 annually. And you can watch CBS's coverage of the 2024 PGA Championship on the Paramount Plus streaming service. You'll need a Paramount Plus with Showtime subscription to watch the CBS Sports live stream. That will set you back $11.99/month or $119.99/year.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream From The UK
In the UK, Sky will be your destination as Sky Sports Golf will televise action from the PGA Championship. A Sky Sports subscription will give you access to all nine Sky Sports channels, with the option to view in 4K and HDR (provided you have an HDR-ready Sky Q box and HLG-compatible TV).
Another option is Sky's Now Sports streaming service. You can get 24 hours of viewing for £14.99, or month-long access for £34.99 – though cheaper deals are often available.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream From AUSTRALIA
In Australia, the most comprehensive golf coverage is offered by Kayo Sports where you can check out Fox Sports, which broadcasts the PGA Tour coverage. Not only can you watch a PGA Championship live stream from Kentucky, it's also the place to go for all the PGA Tour and DP World Tour events, and the other Majors. You can watch events from the LPGA Tour, too.
On top of all that, Kayo Sports offers access to over 50 sports live and on-demand, with some its big name channels including Fox Sports, ESPN, and beIN Sports. It's also good value at either $25 for Kayo One or $35 for Kayo Basic. Basic lets you stream sport on two devices at once.
2024 PGA Championship broadcast schedule:
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Live From the PGA Championship: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Practice rounds: 12-3 p.m. (ESPN+)
Live From the PGA Championship: 7-9 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Thursday, May 16, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 1: 7 a.m.-12 p.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 1: 12-8 p.m. (ESPN)
Live From the PGA Championship: 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Friday, May 17, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 2: 7 a.m.-1 p.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 2: 1-8 p.m. (ESPN)
Live From the PGA Championship: 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Saturday, May 18, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 3: 8-10 a.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 3: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (ESPN)
PGA Championship, Round 3: 1-7 p.m. (CBS)
Live From the PGA Championship: 7-9 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)

How can I find PGA Championship live Streams Options? Golf fans, get ready, because it's time for the men's second major of the year: The 106th PGA Championship. Returning to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, for the fourth time (and the first time since 2014), the 2024 PGA Championship will see big names, including defending PGA champ Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy — fresh off his Wells Fargo title win — Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods competing for the $17.5 million purse.
Watch PGA Championship 2024 Live
The 106th PGA Championship begins Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. The field features 16 former PGA champions, including Brooks Koepka, who won the 2023 PGA Championship and looks to repeat. Justin Thomas has returned to his hometown, seeking his third PGA Championship.
The first two rounds are set for Thursday and Friday, and the initial field of 156 golfers will be cut to the top 70 players and ties after the second round. Are you ready to follow all the action on the green at Valhalla? Here’s how to watch the 2024 PGA Championship, including the full TV schedule and more.
How to watch the 2024 PGA Championship:
Date(s): Thursday, May 16-Sunday, May 19
Location: Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, KY
TV channel: ESPN, CBS, Golf Channel
Streaming: ESPN+, Paramount+, DirecTV Stream
What channel is the 2024 PGA Championship on?
For US viewers, the PGA Championship will air mainly on ESPN and CBS. There will be select coverage streaming on ESPN+, and the Golf Channel's alternative coverage airing on its network and streaming on Peacock.
ESPN will air the majority of the first two rounds of the tournament on Thursday and Friday, and then ESPN and CBS will share the third and final rounds on Saturday and Sunday. ESPN+ will have early coverage before the ESPN and CBS broadcasts all four days of the tournament and will also stream the practices Wednesday before the tournament begins.
Who is playing in the 2024 PGA Championship?
Brooks Koepka is the defending PGA champ headed into the 2024 tournament. Koepka will be joined by Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and more big names in golf.
How to watch the PGA Championship without cable:
To watch the PGA Championship 2024 without cable, you have several options. Firstly, check the official PGA Championship website for any live streaming options they may offer. Many major sporting events now provide online streaming services for viewers without cable subscriptions.
Secondly, consider signing up for streaming services that include sports channels. Providers like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, Sling TV, and fuboTV often carry channels that broadcast golf tournaments, including the PGA Championship. These services typically offer free trials, allowing you to test them out before committing.
Thirdly, explore network-specific apps. Channels like NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and ESPN frequently offer live streaming through their apps or websites. If the PGA Championship is airing on one of these networks, you may be able to watch it without cable by logging in with your internet service provider credentials.
If you're in an area with good reception, you might also try using a digital antenna to pick up local channels broadcasting the tournament. This can provide a free option for watching the PGA Championship without cable.
Stream the PGA Championship on Paramount+
For streaming the PGA Championship coverage on CBS, you'll need the Paramount+ with Showtime tier, available for $12. The subscription is ad-free and includes live access to your local CBS channel.
In addition to sporting events like the PGA Championship, March Madness, Premier League and Champions League games, Paramount+ offers a host of other hit shows, new and classic movies and live sporting events. Unlike a lot of other streaming services these days, Paramount+ still offers a one-week free trial — so new subscribers can sign up to watch the tournament this weekend and check out the rest of the Paramount+ library totally free for seven days.
Stream the PGA Championship on ESPN+
For ESPN+ subscribers, early PGA Championship coverage will stream daily through the tournament. An ESPN+ subscription starts at $11 a month and grants you access to exclusive ESPN+ content, including all UFC PPV prelims, select F1 races, other live events, fantasy sports tools and premium ESPN+ articles.
Watch the Golf Channel's Live From the PGA Championship Peacock
While Peacock and NBC may not be airing the 2024 PGA Championship, the platform will have the golf Channel's Live From the PGA Championship coverage streaming live on the platform. A $5.99/month ad-supported Peacock subscription lets you stream live sports and events airing on NBC and thousands of hours of shows and movies, including beloved sitcoms such as Parks and Recreation and The Office and even recent theatrical releases.
Or for $12 monthly, you can upgrade to an ad-free subscription which includes live access to your local NBC affiliate (not just during designated sports and events) and the ability to download select titles to watch offline.
Is Tiger Woods Playing in the PGA Championship?
It's hard to say Tiger is guaranteed to play due to the injuries he's been battling over the past few years. However, the 15-time major champ has confirmed he's going to take a crack at the 2024 PGA Championship. Tiger was recently spotted practicing at Valhalla course and has told several outlets be plans to participate. Woods has won the PGA Championship four times in his career (the last time he won was in 2007). The 48-year-old is not expected to take the trophy this year but will no doubt be one of the biggest names to watch.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream in The US
Golf fans in the US can watch PGA Championship live streams on ESPN and CBS. ESPN has coverage of all four days, while CBS will broadcast Saturday's third round and Sunday's final round.
No cable? No problem. Try a cord-cutting service like Sling or Fubo to watch the golf. There are no long contracts with these services, so you can try them and cancel whenever you've had enough. Fubo has the advantage of including both ESPN and CBS (as well as NBC's Golf Channel) in its $79.99/month Pro package – alongside 178 other channels.
The ESPN Plus streaming service will also host live coverage of the 2024 PGA Championship across all four days. A subscription costs $10.99/month or $109.99 annually. And you can watch CBS's coverage of the 2024 PGA Championship on the Paramount Plus streaming service. You'll need a Paramount Plus with Showtime subscription to watch the CBS Sports live stream. That will set you back $11.99/month or $119.99/year.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream From The UK
In the UK, Sky will be your destination as Sky Sports Golf will televise action from the PGA Championship. A Sky Sports subscription will give you access to all nine Sky Sports channels, with the option to view in 4K and HDR (provided you have an HDR-ready Sky Q box and HLG-compatible TV).
Another option is Sky's Now Sports streaming service. You can get 24 hours of viewing for £14.99, or month-long access for £34.99 – though cheaper deals are often available.
How to Watch PGA Championship Live Stream From AUSTRALIA
In Australia, the most comprehensive golf coverage is offered by Kayo Sports where you can check out Fox Sports, which broadcasts the PGA Tour coverage. Not only can you watch a PGA Championship live stream from Kentucky, it's also the place to go for all the PGA Tour and DP World Tour events, and the other Majors. You can watch events from the LPGA Tour, too.
On top of all that, Kayo Sports offers access to over 50 sports live and on-demand, with some its big name channels including Fox Sports, ESPN, and beIN Sports. It's also good value at either $25 for Kayo One or $35 for Kayo Basic. Basic lets you stream sport on two devices at once.
2024 PGA Championship broadcast schedule:
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Live From the PGA Championship: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Practice rounds: 12-3 p.m. (ESPN+)
Live From the PGA Championship: 7-9 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Thursday, May 16, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 1: 7 a.m.-12 p.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 1: 12-8 p.m. (ESPN)
Live From the PGA Championship: 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Friday, May 17, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 2: 7 a.m.-1 p.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 2: 1-8 p.m. (ESPN)
Live From the PGA Championship: 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)
Saturday, May 18, 2024
PGA Championship, Round 3: 8-10 a.m. (ESPN+)
PGA Championship, Round 3: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (ESPN)
PGA Championship, Round 3: 1-7 p.m. (CBS)
Live From the PGA Championship: 7-9 p.m. (Golf Channel/Peacock)

I need some advice on how to diffuse some rage that's built up inside me.
I live in Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Yesterday while I was crossing the street, two guys on a scooter tried to run me over while shouting homophobic slurs at me. I think they saw the large rainbow sticker on my phone. They then sped away.
In the evening, with my boyfriend, I visited a friend who was redoing his garden. There were loose bricks lying around, and one was absolutely covered in moss. My friend let me take it home (I FUCKING LOVE MOSS). While I walk home, my boyfriend has his arm around me for a second to comfort me after I explained what happened earlier. As he does this some guys in a car yell "k*nker homo" (Dutch gay slur). I had immediate thoughts of throwing the brick at that car, but I didn't. But I was fucking shaking. When I got home I shouted loudly and it made me feel a bit better. Big hugs from my boyfriend helped too. But now these homophobes are living rent-free in my head.
When I was younger these events didn't bother me so much. I brushed them off. I'm peaceful. I live in way that I can be helpful and loving to others while taking care of myself. I grow orchids and moss FFS. When these events happen now I briefly feel rage that's almost blinding, and I don't like that. I don't want to make a fight because generally I'm outnumbered, I don't know who has a knife, but I'm also scared I'll lose control of myself.
Suggestions please: how do I de-escalate myself? What can I do to help me stop replaying these things in my head?
Someone suggested I that start doing a martial art like Krav maga, or take up boxing. Not for violent reasons, but to learn how to physically channel rage. I have mixed feelings.

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First Prev
Anglestan
Augustus 5, 1923
Facility 9, Mancheston
Colonel Jacobs
His hands flew through the folders General Jorgenson and Colonel Thatcher had. There were dozens of them, stacked upon each other all filed in alphabetical order. It had only been a few days since he had woken up from his coma and visited his home— now his mother’s grave. He clenched his fists at the thought. The grief and rage threatened to bubble and spill over once again. He took a deep breath and dragged out the exhale, almost to the point where he had emptied out his lungs.
He was the only one with clearance, and so he couldn’t disclose any of what he learned with his team. They would simply have to trust him and his judgment. Which he was sure they would do. His hands went over one of the folders skimming through it. There were multiple secret projects, but the ones with the most notes were Project S.T.A.R, Project L.U.N.A.R.I, Project R.E.V.I.V.E, Project D.A.W.N, and Project T.E.M.P.L.A.R.
The colonel decided to start with the most notes and papers. Project D.A.W.N.
He skimmed through the notes, reading through some of the details and highlighted words. Project D.A.W.N, the espionage project Thatcher had started placed two spies in Verlin who were to report directly to a Crescent general named Sienna Moretti who was apparently on humanity’s side.
So I was right. There was an espionage element. With the recent attacks and Thatcher’s death, however, it’s safe to assume that it had somehow failed. Either they got found out or they betrayed us. Both seem very likely, but if they were found out, it would be possible that they had died.
He read through all of it before setting the folder down. There were no new notes recently. He sighed and assumed that Project DAWN was a failure. Whether or not the agents were still alive and well, it was too risky to check if they had been compromised. It was better to assume that they had been and cut all contact. The only way to find out now was to go there himself and check. I can’t contact them again. There’s no telling if it would still be Moretti or the agents who would see my messages. It’s a big risk, and judging by the state of things, best to assume it failed.
He picked up another folder. This one had the label ‘under development’ on the folder. Project Templar. He opened the folder and was instantly met with a blueprint and drawings of a massive bipedal machine. It looked humanoid with strange proportions and was supposed to be standing at an impressive 30 meters, or 100 feet. The Titanic Engine Mech for Personal Land Assault and Reconnaissance.
It was apparently a joint project with the Church of Sol, utilizing new and advanced technologies he hadn’t heard of. A 203mm Gatling cannon on one arm, while the other had three different weapons. A massive firestarter that utilized a new type of fuel mixture that could theoretically spew flames a kilometer away using a high-pressure nozzle. The fuel was ignited using an electrical spark. The second weapon was a high-powered light weapon that fired a single powerful beam of focused light that was even further amplified by layers of focusing lenses that could increase its output several times. Its third weapon was… a dust domina?
Mark read through the specifications of the so-called ‘sand cannon’ weapon. It was a massive cannon that accelerated tiny particles several times. Each particle was to be electrically charged, and it would travel at immense speeds. Near impossible speeds. The resulting impact of a microscopic particle at such speeds would be enough to form a small crater and punch through armor like it was nothing. This weapon would fire multiple at the same time, which could literally eat away at anything on the opposing end.
In terms of secondary weapons, the titan had two missile launch chambers in front of its shoulder each containing about 40 missiles, and two massive howitzer cannons on top of it. Both are 800mm in caliber. It had massive stumpy legs that served as bunkers for a small platoon on each leg. Each leg had machine dominas and 155mm cannons. Its chassis held two nuclear reactors inside providing for its power and weaponry. Its armor was the thickest and most ridiculous he’d ever read. Two meters of heavy steel armor.
How far are we in terms of technology? This thing looks like it came out of an H.G. Wells sci-fi novel. He thought, shaking his head. It was over the top, but there was no denying its combat capabilities. If it was already under-developed then it must be the first prototype. This has already been approved. Guess I better see it for myself later and check how it's coming along. Construction apparently started just a few months before the invasion.
Next was project L.U.N.A.R.I. It was a project involving Six. “Huh,” he said, continuing to read on.
The Light Undone: Nocturnal’s Adaptive Resistance Initiative. As he read further, his eyes widened. The reason why Six was so special wasn’t just because of her immunity to all strigoi weaknesses, but because of her impressive ability to turn any true born strigoi like her. She could transfer her strain like any other strigoi and transform them into a version of hers. It however only seemed to work for naturally born strigoi. The new species of ‘half-breeds’ were called ‘Blessed Children’ as Thatcher had coined in the folder.
The plan was to turn all willing true-born hemolite strigoi into these blessed children. Able to withstand the sun. Immune to silver. Free from the dependency on blood. They could remove all the weaknesses of the strigoi and after the war— make it possible to integrate them into society as normal citizens living on the surface. The project folder also made mentions of a city-wide draft in Dante and highlighted the possibility of turning all Dantenite true born strigoi into these blessed children and renaming them as ‘Lunari’. A mix of the dark and the light. The light of Sol reflected in the children of the night.
“Thatcher, what the fuck have you been up to…” Mark whispered to himself.
While it was true that it could help in the war effort by utilizing Six and the dantenite population, it would also invite some unforeseen problems and consequences. Would humanity be okay with the Lunari? Would the world even be ready for them? Strigoi who were immune to the sun. They wouldn’t be impossible to kill, but they would be immensely more powerful if we were to take away their inherent weaknesses. This is a gamble. Its gain would only be seen during the war period, but its unintended effects on society could be catastrophic.
He frowned, setting the folder down. It was obviously Thatcher’s main plan; seeing as all her moves could be traced to the path of the eventual completion of this project. It seemed dangerous in the long run, but the duskwalkers and dantenites had been monumental in the war effort. Maybe it was the time the world started to accept them more. Isolation and segregation was definitely not the way to disperse fears and foster understanding.
If Thatcher thinks this is the next step forward… then I’ll put my faith in her plans.
Next up was Project S.T.A.R, or the Superior Tech and Adaptive Resistance. An upgrade to the current hemolite weapons and gear by using new researched studies. The Starfire Pattern Domina. The SFD-23 This thing features a new loading system and magazine, ditching the rotating cylinder most domina used, or the rotating helix magazine design of the current hemolite standard BM-16 domina.
The new domina had its magazine like a box… a strange design but it was certainly easier to handle than the bulky cylinders the helical mags used. In terms of ergonomics, it was smoother and fit more. Its placement however was on top of the domina, just above the barrel. Most of the weapon were to be made of lightweight polymers and the barrel itself were to be crafted out of reinforced aluminium. In addition to that, it had a 10-inch bayonet attached to it.
There were other new things as well, such as the composition of the bullet. Looking at the conceptual cross-section designs, Mark read through its description and how it would function. A .308 cased telescoped bullet covered in a silver jacket with break-away petals surrounding the main body. Inside the jacket was a penetrator core that was to be made of depleted uranium. It had a small amount of incendiary compound and… powdered white phosphorus behind an explosive compound. The thin silver jacket would deform and trigger the explosive compound inside the body. It would blow up causing massive internal damage and release the incendiary materials into the body with the flecks of powdered white phosphorus. The penetrator core could still potentially keep going and hit a second target, or punch through heavily armored targets.
Part of the new Project S.T.A.R was overhauling the armor and gear of not just the Hemolites but the Hunters as well. Starfire Mk 1. Carapace Armor. Carapace? It looked like plates of steel covered in a rubberized coat. It was supposed to be slipped on over the original hemolite body armor. It added a spring-loaded wrist blade to the gauntlet, a thicker coat made of resistant materials, and added extra padding for the knees, shoulders, and elbows.
However, the hemolites weren’t the only ones mentioned in the folder. It was to serve the Hunters as well. “Hunters…” Mark said. “August’s group is part of this initiative too.” He flipped through some of the pages. There were blueprints and drawings of an armored suit. A mechanized suit even smaller and more compact than the jotunn units. The Mark 1 STR battlesuit. It was supposed to hug the wearer’s frame and increase their overall power. It was supposed to be built of titanium alloy and a heavy steel frame with composite armor. It had a cooling system, life support systems that could recycle bodily fluids, and an exoskeleton frame that could increase the wearer’s strength and speed.
However, the real eye-opener was Thatcher’s notes. She had been ranting about the new human evolution, and how the Hunters were the first of the ‘Solari’. She wanted to enhance human genetics and push past the peak of human ability to reach greater heights. Implants and restructuring of the anatomy to make it more efficient. Using the blood of the goddess herself. She must have lost it. These are the ramblings of a lunatic. At least… if she didn’t mention the goddess. Why was the goddess important here?
The writings ended with the words: “See Project R.E.V.I.V.E, for more details.”
Mark eyed the final folder. His hands shook as he reached out to take it. Flipping it open, his hands nearly dropped it in shock. The goddess Helena was alive. There were pictures of her naked form floating in a giant tube of fluid. There were more of Thatcher’s ramblings and excited rants about the possibilities of such a discovery. Resurrection, Enhancement, and Veneration: Implementation of Visionary Evolution.
The goddess is alive?! According to the file, she’s currently under the Cathedral of New Lundun. Not only that, but the file also detailed the extraterrestrial tech that lay beneath the cathedral. So the goddess is real and she’s— not really a goddess, but rather, a vampyr who created herself a human body to stand in the sun, and decided that it wants to be on humanity’s side… what the fuck.
Mark’s frown and confusion only increased as he read on. Thatcher’s notes seemed to nearly descend into madness as she had written about creating ‘the first hundred’, alluding to the 100 members of the Hunters division. Her plan was to revive the goddess, and with her help and expertise in genetics— use her DNA to transform the Hunters into demi-humans. Super soldiers. Literal children of the goddess Helena. They would then don the STR battlesuits, the first of the superhuman warriors to defend humanity. Solari.
Their lightning-speed advancement into technology was heralded by studying the alien tech, which deepened the understanding of physics and engineering. Nuclear technologies, chemical warfare, new material sciences, the mechs, and walkers, it was spearheaded by trying to reverse-engineer technology centuries ahead of our own… for the past hundred years. It wasn’t completely stolen, however. More or less borrowed ideas that had been made into our own with our own designs and implements. Still, the speed at which the Church and the military had deciphered such advancements all by themselves was… impressive to say the least.
Still, the fact that the goddess was alive, and could be brought back was big news. Checking the file for details, he found that the previous general, Jorgenson, had already approved this project. It was their next step as soon as they returned from New Amsterdam; which never happened.
If Helena was alive, then she could end this war swiftly, or at the very least help greatly like she once did during the War of Darkness. Having the goddess back would throw a massive wrench in the Crescent’s plans. It would certainly be something they wouldn’t expect. Not even I expected this, since many sources say that the goddess had already ascended to watch over humanity, while conspiracy theorists claim she had died in battle and that the Church was worshiping a corpse. This could be the trick up our sleeves that no one would even consider.
The colonel quickly got up from his seat and gathered the main files he had read. He placed them in a bag and rushed outside of his office in Facility 9. He went over to a nearby room and flicked the lights on. “We need to go,” he said. In an instant seven hemolite soldiers got up from whatever they were doing and instantly stood in line.
“Sir! Whatever you need of us, sir,” the group said in unison.
They were Hemo-1. His former squad members. He had taken up Louis' suggestion that they be his personal security detail. It was a shame that he had basically placed the best hemolite team out of commission, but after all he had been through he convinced himself that he could be just a little selfish. He didn’t want to lose any more friends. Not on his watch. Not while he was in an office, and they were out fighting.
“We’re going to New Lundun. Better pack up, it’s going to be a long night.”
“Mark,” Olivia said.
Jacobs turned to her direction and gave her a nod.
“Colonel, sir, may I ask where in New Lundun?”
“Liv, you don’t need to do that with me. Please. I give all of you special permission,” the colonel groaned. “It’s so weird. I mean, ‘captain’ was bad enough, but now you’re acting like I’m an authority figure.”
“You… are, though,” Emma shrugged.
“I’m your friend, and Liv I’m literally your partner. Unless you have some kind of weird fetish, save it for later.”
Olivia grinned, shaking her head. “Duly noted!” she chirped.
“That’s better,” Mark chuckled. “Now come on, we have a cathedral to visit.”
“Uhh, I’m not sure if you noticed, but we’re kinda… strigoi?!” Louis groaned. “I’d burn the moment I step in that place! Plus, it’s coated in silver! Anything I even touch will give me burns!”
“Oh come on, Lou. You have fucking gloves on. As long as you’re not a clumsy dumbass you’ll be fine… oh wait.’
“Uh huh, just sayin’ what I think, boss.”
The group headed out and Mark said something on his radio. He then sat on the ground, making his joints pop. The rest of the squad shrugged and followed his example, sitting down on the grass and waiting for… nothing. Charles and Zach looked at each other in confusion. “Uh, sir?” they asked. “Aren’t we supposed to be heading out and traveling right now?”
“Oh yeah, we’re just waiting.”
“Foooor…?”
The colonel gave them a smirk as a loud noise began to make itself known. A hummingbird transport appeared out of the distance and stopped right above them, slowly descending into the grass. “Being colonel has its perks,” Mark said with a smile. He stood up and hopped inside the hummingbird as soon as it landed. “Come on now! We’ve got work to do! Last one aboard buys everyone food later!”
Emma zipped in before Mark could even finish his sentence, followed by Olivia, Phineas, Charles, Zach, and then Louis, who sadly took too long to process what the colonel said, and lagged behind.
“Aw, man! Fuck this shit.”
“Rules are rules, Lou. Prepare your wallet later.” Mark grinned.
With a smile, the colonel pulled Olivia to his side, who blushed for a moment before shaking her head. “Take us up! New Lundun Cathedral! How long would it take?” he asked the pilot.
“About an hour and a half!” The pilot replied. “Less if you want to get there as soon as possible!”
“Take your time! The night’s still young.”
The hummingbird started to lift up, taking them into the air. The group settled down in their seats and watched outside the open. Mark opened up a bag inside the hummingbird and took out some ear muffs built for a strigoi. Extremely loud noises were damaging for a strigoi’s enhanced hearing, so the military started implementing ear muffs for them after complaints from early deployments of the hemolite squads.
The trip didn’t take too long. In only an hour and twenty minutes they had arrived at the safe zone of New Lundun, heading straight for the cathedral. The night mass had just ended and people were leaving the cathedral. “Looks like we made it in perfect time!” Mark smiled. They hovered for a few minutes in the air before eventually landing down right in front of the statue of Helena.
As soon as they landed, the colonel and his group left the hummingbird. Mark instructed the pilot to wait for them. He went straight for the cathedral with his group following behind. He entered inside, clearing his throat. “Hello?”
“Well this is surely unexpected,” an old man said, walking up to greet them.
“Great Grandfather Aurelius. It’s uh, an honor.”
“Please. The honor is mine… I see you’re the new colonel. Yes, I’ve heard the news,” he said. “Would you mind telling me your name, young man? As well as your companions, if they feel so. I usually don’t allow duskwalkers here but, I have nothing against them. I’ll make an exception for your group.”
“Thank you, Great Grandfather,” Mark replied. “I am Colonel Mark Jacobs. These are my friends and security detail. Olivia, Zach, Phineas, Charles, Emma, and Louis.”
“I see, and what brings you here?”
“Since Thatcher’s demise, I was given access to her research and project folders upon taking up the title. I’ve learned about what’s under your cathedral,” Mark cleared his throat. “Would it be alright if we could see it? I’d like to check it for myself. Of course, under your permission and guidance, Great Grandfather.”
The church head looked from Mark to his companions. He pulled a slight frown and hummed. “Do these companions of yours have the clearance? Surely, we wish to keep our secrets hidden,” he said. Mark nodded.
“They do not have clearance to know what is in Thatcher’s folders and her findings,” the colonel nodded. “However, I give them permission to accompany me, and should they discover things for themselves, then you have my word and my trust that I can keep them from spilling state secrets.”
The Great Grandfather gave a short pause before ultimately relenting. “Very well,” he let out a sigh. “Follow me.”
Aurelius walked behind the altar and pulled the same lever, which opened the same staircase leading underground, where Jorgenson and Thatcher had once gone. “Over here, colonel,” he said. “I do not know you completely yet, but this is a big deal of trust I am giving you. Perhaps you would be the one to do things that Thatcher could not have.”
Mark nodded, he and his group followed the Great Grandfather down the staircase. It led down to a massive underground facility, with numerous priests, researchers, and scientists. Libraries, records, instruments, and artifacts of old. It was a treasure trove of learning.
“So,” Aurelius cleared his throat. “What would you like to know about?”
“This isn’t all of it,” Mark said. “Thatcher mentioned a living, breathing, Helena.”
His group behind him let out a soft gasp, but they tried their best to hide their surprise.
“Hm,” the Great Grandfather nodded. “Perceptive young man aren’t you? Very well.”
They were then led into another room, behind a set of heavy blast doors. If the whole group were trying to hide their surprise then, now they could barely contain it. Even the colonel stared awestruck at the things he had seen. Despite the near-magical objects around them, the true shock was the massive starship at the end of the hallway. “It’s impressive isn’t it?” Aurelius said. “All of the goddess’ artifacts and items at our disposal, to use and learn from, to integrate into our own. This is why Anglestan is the most powerful nation in the UHT in terms of development. When it comes to industry, however, that would go to the UNA. But we share our secrets with them. All our advancements are handed to them first before any other nation.”
“This is all amazing, Great Grandfather,” Mark replied. “But this is not what I’m here for.”
“No, it’s not.” Aurelius nodded.
He led them to another room, one that was sterilized and sported advanced machinery. Things that Mark had never even seen. There were screens with luminous green texts that appeared in front of it. Large panels with numerous keys, levers, and dials. Graphs of all sorts and beeping monitors. In the center, was the very thing he had come all this way to confirm. A large cylinder filled with liquid, sporting tubes and pipes connecting to its base. Inside was a woman of large proportion. Four arms, two legs, and six wings. In her bare chest was a symbol of the sun that seemed to glow dimly.
“There she is, there’s you goddess.”
Neither Mark nor his group spoke a word. He walked up to it, eyeing the woman inside. It really is her. Down to the last details. Golden hair, six limbs, six folded wings, and she looks massive. Probably as big as her statue just outside the cathedral. This is it. The very goddess in the history books, the one spoken about in legends and the one worshiped in the Churches of Sol.
“Can we free her?” he said.
The Great Grandfather nearly choked on his spit upon hearing those words. “Free her?! That could kill her! We don’t even understand this technology, let alone control it!” he said pointing at the panels. “The machines you see here are the best and most advanced we have based on what we can reverse engineer, but even then, the consequences of tampering with its functions may be disastrous!”
“I understand, Great Grandfather,” Mark said. “But we are in a dire situation, and the goddess may be our hope of turning this around. Whatever secrets of her tech that you don’t understand, wouldn’t she be able to teach us directly? What good is she floating around in Sol knows what?”
“That is her miraculous healing fluid. She had already built this contraption centuries ago in case anything were to happen to her, that her body’s natural healing could not sustain,” Aurelius said. “During the War of Darkness, Helena was struck with a weapon so deadly, her very cells began to tear away. The Reaper. Dealt to her by Absolem the progenitor. Her flesh was peeling from her body, and she began to decay whilst she still breathed. She entered this contraption and gave strict instructions to the Great Grandfather at the time, not to interrupt the healing process. The machine that monitored her, however, began to fail over time.”
“So this… these screens and panels…”
“Is only what functions we can understand. We took it upon ourselves to rebuild and study it the best we could. What we have right now is only a cheap imitation of a technology we do not fully comprehend,” he said. “It took us decades to even figure out the fundamentals and create a working prototype of this machine. By some miracle, the goddess’ healing process had remained even while we replaced components of technology ahead of ours.”
“But you know how to free her, don’t you?”
“I… yes.”
“Great Grandfather Aurelius,” Mark began. “We can end this war. Imagine what we could do with the goddess fighting on our side. We could advance even further, we could finally end the bloodshed, and we can show humanity that there is still hope. Imagine how people all over the world would feel seeing as their goddess has returned.”
“I wish I had your enthusiasm,” Aurelius said. “But it is simply too risky. The Church’s duty is to protect Helena and her legacy. We keep her alive, literally and figuratively. She nearly died the last time she was involved in a war. Would you risk losing the goddess?”
“Would you risk humanity losing?”
The Great Grandfather fell silent, looking back at Helena floating inside the tube, then to the panels that controlled it. He frowned and let out a long sigh. “The goddess said that we should not interrupt it. That it would end as soon as it was finished. Maybe we should trust her words.”
Mark shook his head. “I don’t spot a single blemish on the goddess. Not a single scratch,” he argued. “You said it yourself that the machine had begun to fail and you replaced components. How would you know that the thing that’s supposed to wake her up was not tampered with? Think about it. What you may think is a useless piece may be integral to the whole machine. Or maybe your replacements were not up to the task. Just because nothing’s happened doesn’t mean its functions have remained whole.”
“Young man, we simply cannot gamble with the goddess’ life here.”
“Have you no faith? Great Grandfather?”
Aurelius stepped back in shock. Mark’s companions looked at each other, clearly surprised as well. “Mark… I don’t think we should keep arguing with—” Olivia tried to say.
“No,” the colonel said firmly, cutting her off. “Great Grandfather Aurelius, do you think that Helena will not be able to pull through if we wake her? How long has it been? A century? How much longer will we wait? She may be immortal but humans aren’t.”
“I'm sorry, but the chances of failure are too high. The probability of her—”
“I don’t care about the probability! Would you rather put your faith in a statistic?!” Mark raised his voice. “I lost my mother to this war! My friends! My job! My eye, and almost my life! I’ve put mine on the line out there! You don’t know what it’s like out there! Was my mother’s death just a probability too? Was she just a statistic to you?! That as long as the numbers are good, no matter how many are lost, we are ‘winning’?!”
“Mark—!”
“No, Liv! He needs to know what’s really going on out there!” he spat. “Great Grandfather, with all due respect, but you don’t have a damn clue what it’s like to be in the field. You’re a man of faith, aren’t you? Take a risk. Everyone else has.”
Aurelius stood there, dumbfounded. He bit the inside of his cheeks and clenched his fists. “For your insolence, I would have had you flogged and stripped of your rank,” he glared at the young colonel. However, his features slowly softened, letting out a soft sigh. “But I have never seen such conviction. Mighty is your faith.”
The Great Grandfather moved over to the panels and reached into his robe, pulling out from around his neck a key with the symbol of the sun. He inserted it into the machine and turned. A beep sounded, right before Aurelius pulled a lever. In an instant, the fluid inside the glass chamber began to drain out into the tubes under it. Slowly, the chamber emptied and all that was left was the nude form of the goddess sitting in the glass.
“Did it work?” Louis asked, stepping forward and looking at the woman.
Aurelius stayed silent, his hands shaking in anticipation. Mark moved toward the glass chamber, when suddenly, the glass opened up like a door, releasing a fragrant mist. They stood there, watching for a whole minute. Nothing. At first nothing. The Great Grandfather looked like he was about to break down. His knees shook as he covered his mouth, thinking that he was responsible for the death of Helena.
That was when… a soft sound was heard. Movement. Olivia immediately went over to Mark and stood in front of him. Ready to protect him should anything happen. Slowly, the goddess moved more, her arms inched to the side.
Then, her eyes opened.

i live in india and i recently found my father's old nikon f75/n75 and i found a roll of 200 film from fomapan.
the issue is i visited some temples and there cameras are not allowed so i kept it in the car. after about 45min i returned and the car was all hot about 40⁰C - 55⁰C (similar to arizona for westerners). i fear that the chemicals on the film might have degraded and or something must have happened.
this is my first time ever shooting on film and its damn expensive here and there is only 1 developing studio in 50km radius. so i just wanted to ask nothing much. plus i didnt find any temperature ratings on that box that the film came in.
feel free to give any suggestions or share any experiences.

Folks,
Need some advice regarding finalizing decision on whether to go ahead with new facelifted kia seltos or not? Probable contenders: VW twins
Points in favor: 1. Value for money quotient with regards to features 2. Exhilarating power & torque 3. Fuss free ownership 4. Sturdier suspension set up + traction modes (required for those frequent mountain trips good enough for 2wd) 5. Great family car with relatively more spacious than vw twins
While the above points simply checks all my boxes except for one which is safety. There is a questionable safety quotient. Although have been reading recent accident reports where the car has performed quite well as compared to pre-facelift model. This seems confidence inspiring with Kia now focussing on safety by giving more safety features. I also read that they have worked on improving overall structural strength by adding necessary reinforcements.
This is where there is ongoing tussle of heart vs mind.

Disclaimer: this is very speculative and only one of the many possible interpretations of DFV's tweets so far.
Over the past few days we have witnessed the overture, the beginning, distraction, made you look phase of the plan. Everything panned out like our heroes wanted. MSM was baited in, all the bots got activated, shillery for different tickers etc. Hopefully the DOJ and SEC paid close attention.
This morning I ran into this post from 5 months ago:

QUOTE

https://twitter.com/DominosJack/status/1731032291244146806
---
In January of 2021 #GME ruffled a lot of feathers, triggering an event that posed a systemic risk to the global financial system, a risk equal to the corruption that facilitated its emergence.They haven’t forgotten, nor has Ryan Cohen, neither has the discerning retail investor, the SEC, the DOJ, Congress, Carl Icahn, Mark Cuban, Larry Cheng, Elon Musk and many more.You don’t expose a criminal’s greatest weakness to the world and expect them to fall for the same gambit again. The sequel has to be exponentially more calculated than the original.And there was Bed Bath and Beyond, another sitting duck retailer with a bought and paid for CEO, enormous short interest, pandemic fatigue and a prime candidate for cellar boxed tax free gains.GameStop 2.0 was never the play here. They were caught off guard the first time, this would have to be a ground breaking market maneuver and it would require a retail presence far more risk tolerant than anything seen before. The only way to collectively synthesize that level of risk tolerance is by building, brick by brick, an information devouring juggernaut capable of jumping from one social media platform to the next without skipping a beat.The brilliance of this play can be summed up in fairly simple terms.Every single corporate action from the moment Ryan Cohen sold his shares resulted in two diametrically opposed results:

1. Signal the algos to short
2. Speak to the retail investor in language AI is yet to comprehend. Speak not in white lines but in the spaces between. Distract AI with the Woman in the Red Dress, keep Retail focused on every move Mr. Smith makes.

There it is in black and white. If you think the Matrix reference is hyperbolic, you’re not paying attention. To say the gamification of the markets is an issue is the understatement of the century.They turned the markets into a real time videogame by handing the keys over to the algos with no way of getting them back. Ryan Cohen and company, along with the select group of retail investors wise enough to read between the lines, are in the process of returning the markets to the collective unconscious which, when challenged, has embedded within it a wealth of resources far superior to any binary code system built to transfer wealth from the masses to the corrupt, unworthy few.They built a global financial video game and somehow missed the fact that a generation of gamers would be their opponent. That is why they are the Dumb Stormtroopers.And so what you have here is a necessary hack into a system that not only imbues almost no inherent value to society but will continue to metastasize until it creates a true dystopian reality. That shit is not gonna happen on Ryan Cohen’s watch or on ours. This is a team effort against a singular minded machine.The importance of the #BBBYQ play cannot be overstated. They must be stopped, they will be stopped and the power will be returned to the players 🏴‍☠️

END QUOTE

The 'no fighting' meme stood out to me. Warning the communities against internal strife perhaps? Should we expect there to be a reason for strife?
There was also braveheart dying, shouting GameStop. A meme where we were told not to fear the reaper (song). Lots of references to mirroring and reversal everywhere. There's two of them talking to each other (there's two stocks in play?). With the hindsight of these memes it does seem plausible that the real plan will involve Bobby as the main gambit. I do think Jimmy will run, but I also think the main offense might originate from Bobby.
The Jason Bourne tweet mentions 'i can't run with you, they know who I am' (Jimmy is controlled, all eyes are on it). He says this to the actress who also plays the lead in the Run Lola Run movie. The color on the mini was edited to red with the steering wheel saying "I'm In". But they park the red car and get out. The car is now black (Jimmy profitable in the black) as Ryan gosling exits and blends in with the crowd.
The quoted post even mentions "keeping everyone focused on the woman in the red dress" and we have a meme with Emma stone attracting everyone's attention while wearing a GameStop logo. GameStop is the woman in the red dress.
It feels right to me; these past days short term profiteers with capital have jumped on Jimmy. These are not the kind of people RC wants to reward. Bobby is inaccessible, only available to our crazy lot who dug into the paperwork and went through the bankruptcy deathspiral. There's no possibility for FOMO. The bad guys are all locked in here with us, without an exit.
TLDR; memes warming us up to the idea that bobby is the main play? Jimmy will become a forever hold, being very valuable and worthwhile but not nessecarily giant moass numbers?

https://libriincogniti.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/kommunistisches-programm-national-revolution-and-downfall-of-cambodia/

The Events after the Fall of Phnom Penh and the Programme of Khieu Samphan, the Peasantry and the Enablers of Capital
With the end of the Indochina war in 1975, not much remained of Cambodia’s economy either. More than half of the rice fields lay fallow, and the few industrial enterprises, the port facilities in Kampong Som, the railway lines and the bridges had been destroyed by US bombs. Although the figures are not unambiguous, their magnitude alone shows what heavy blood sacrifice imperialism also demanded of this people: In the five years of war, around 800,000 people were killed, more than 40,000 were maimed, almost 200,000 were wounded.
The constant flow of refugees inflated the capital from its original population of around 600,000 to over 3 million, meaning that by the end of the war almost half of the Khmer people were crammed into their metropolis. As is well known, the imperialist world press howled in horror and disgust when it learned of the forced exodus of this human aggregation. The US bombardment drove people from the countryside into the cities – the revolutionary nationalists had to force them back. Both actions were cruel and devastating for those affected, because both times they happened under terrible conditions, the first time under the imperialist hail of bombs and the coercion of its local police, the second time under the pressure of hunger and the state coercion of the newly installed revolutionary patriotic power. But for the imperialist propaganda machine there were no connections here. Of course, it only saw the terror of the Khmer Rouge, so supposedly of Communism. Here again was a wonderful opportunity to play out the bourgeois farce of humanism and love of one’s neighbour to the full. No mention of the mass murders in the imperialist war against the Southeast Asian peoples, no mention of the unspeakable destruction of these only weakly industrialised agrarian societies. These sacrifices were noticed at most when the insane war spending of the USA threatened to drag the entire imperialist West into the vortex of economic problems as a result of the currency crises caused by it. After all, to this day, these gentlemen are consistently proud of their efforts to preserve “freedom”.
Cambodia became the main object of these friends of mankind over the next few years. Here, indeed, all cherished values and conceptions were thrown overboard. A state without money, without postal services, without cars and motorbikes, without public transport, without telephones, television, books and the cities extinct. Only “communists” could have committed this crime; as is well known, they can be trusted with anything inhumane and in Cambodia they truly acted as the incarnation of “darkness” and “evil”. What was perpetrated before in the name of the heroes of “light” and “reason” – not a word about that, of course. It was a central organ of the imperialist offensive on the human intellect – Reader’s Digest – that first announced in 1977 that at least 1.2 million people had been murdered in the two years since the fall of Phnom Penh. Ever new figures were quickly added, which journalists claimed to have learned from the numerous refugees. It is not necessary to assume that all these reports were forgeries, because in fact the Khmer Rouge set an extremely radical course from the beginning, which certainly brought much horror, misery and also deaths. But today’s sated imperialists should perhaps sometimes look at the history books: What misery, what terror, what torment against the population is archived there – and that over centuries. The French Revolution also produced at least 100,000 deaths in the most important four years – and it did so with a machine specially designed for the purpose. It was not by chance that it was the steam engine and the guillotine that inaugurated the industrial age in a revolutionary way. But do the distinguished British gentlemen, who even then scoffed at these butchers in Paris, have fewer lives on their consciences? Those who still don’t know have to have it written on their cheat sheets all the time: The establishment of bourgeois rule has always been brutal and extremely bloody. The destruction of the traditional smallholder form of economy, the annihilation of small-scale trade and crafts always passed over those affected like a merciless steamroller. And under unspeakable tortures, the majority of these people who were expropriated without compensation were pressed into the factories and, if necessary, forced by brutal violence to slave as many hours of their day as possible for the lowest possible wages. All that was not so long ago. But it is always amusing how hastily today’s representatives of capital pretend that these are youthful sins of foreign predecessors. And this process of constant dressing for factory labour, of the destruction of both man and nature, continues both in depth and in breadth. It will only come to an end when this capitalist basis has been revolutionarily annihilated because of the contradictions it constantly produces.
...
However, if one wants to understand the “mysterious” processes in Cambodia, one has to be clear above all about the material and social conditions. A devastated country that was still largely worked by small peasants; a chaotically bloated capital city to which the majority of these same peasants had fled. The terror of the bombs had charged this population, once peaceful and living in the eternal grind of farm labour, with fear, but above all with unbridled rage and blind hatred. Hatred against the city in which they had to take refuge, anger against the American bombers which destroyed their existence, but particularly anger against their own corrupt aristocracy, the military as well as the city dwellers in general who sought to prolong their raison d’être by making a pact with imperialism. Now the old mixture of foreignness, subservient spirit and unease found its general discharge in a primal hatred of the rural population for their oppressors in the cities. A frenzy of revenge arose, which certainly accounted for most of the brutalities in the first year of liberation.
In order to understand this social side of this revolution in Cambodia, which gave it the ferocious expression of blood, revenge and chaos that one encounters in practically every revolution carried out mainly by peasants, one must always bear in mind the social structure already described. The strong urban-rural divide was not between agriculture and industry – the latter was practically non-existent – but it was the extreme contrast between agriculture and all the ominous trades that bourgeois statistics usually classify under the heading of “services”. Here, actually “unproductive” administration and trade – moreover, predominantly created and nourished in the service of imperialism – and “productive” agriculture faced each other. Of the “peace population” in Phnom Penh of about 600,000, this included about 200,000 Vietnamese and over 100,000 Chinese, out of a total of about 800,000. So the Cambodians did not even make up the majority of the population in their capital. Aristocracy and officials on one side, poor peasants on the other, too poor to make a living in the countryside, coming to the city because they hoped for a job, or later bombed into it. Cambodians were almost completely excluded from the trade and merchant sectors. These sectors were mainly in the hands of the Chinese and Vietnamese.
In this approaching whirlwind of social unrest on the part of the peasants, which is growing in strength, another social force tries for its survival. Young intellectuals, most of them educated in Paris, the educational centre of the former colonial ruler, want to break the corrupt tangle of local aristocracy and foreign power by force. Without any reservoir in the own ranks of the urban bourgeoisie, for the latter is practically non-existent and if it is, then hardly to be enthused for nationalist accumulation programmes with a more rigorous cut; without a proper bourgeois class, these petty-bourgeois radicals lead a practically hopeless struggle for change. Forced very soon into the rural underground by Sihanouk’s authoritarian regime, they try to implement their programme of industrialisation based on agriculture with the help of the only social class that counts – namely the rural population, the small peasants and farm workers.
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One simply has to quote these illuminating passages of the Khmer Rouge’s “chief ideologist” at length, because after all the imperialist wailing, one probably does not think it possible that these “monsters” can think at all. (A Trotskyist group, persistent in its obtuseness, even opined that these “monsters” were the embodiment of… a return to feudalism!) One thing is immediately quite clear: these petty-bourgeois intellectuals, widely referred to as Marxists, communists, etc., are never ever in the tradition of the “German” Karl Marx, but of the German Friedrich List, who, under the slogan “Freedom is the goal, limitation is the necessity”, set his protectionist credo against the imperialist ideology of the free traders in the last century. The Khmer Rouge leaders are thus spiritual sons of the ancestors of today’s imperialists, those imperialists who now see in them the personified devil of communism, although they only wanted to be flesh of their flesh.
These views of Samphan and thus the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were also quoted at length because they are so popular today. In the face of the growing exploitation of the countries of the so-called Third World by Western imperialism, theories are emerging everywhere that vehemently propose the same position of “cutting off” the “underdeveloped” countries from the dominance of the world market ruled by Western capital as a panacea. And it is certainly no coincidence that one of the main representatives of these academic “revolutionaries”, the Egyptian Samir Amin, raves about the radicalism of the Khmer Rouge even after their expulsion and predicts a chain of new “Kampucheas” for the African future. Against the massive reality of the increasing internationalisation of capital and the growing global control of Western and increasingly Eastern imperialism, such “progressive” petty-bourgeois theorists place their faith in autarky, national accumulation and so-called autocentric development. Against the capitalist propaganda of progress and prosperity through freedom of trade and capital investment, which in reality in fact produces nothing but growing pauperisation and exploitation, the Good News on the other side says: Only if one can free oneself from imperialism at least for as long as it takes to be able to develop one’s productive forces independently, only then will one achieve prosperity and security for humanity.
In this respect, both sides represent only two sides of the same coin. Both claim to be able to achieve “the greatest happiness for the greatest number” within the framework of and through capitalism – as the forefather of these bourgeois tendencies, Adam Smith, already formulated this elementary lie of capital.
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The utopians of capital have to acknowledge time and again that, contrary to their proclamations, the social antagonisms both within the “developed” and “underdeveloped” countries and between these countries are becoming increasingly acute. And while capitalism is pushing the development of the productive forces ever more sharply in order to satisfy its insatiable hunger for surplus value, it is precisely because of this highly productive technology that it is less and less able to transform the pauperised masses into active proletarians, i.e. to force them to the machines or into the office. While the imperialists, in their frenzied mania for surplus value, are at least throwing the whole world into growing unrest and undermining ancestral immobile relations ever more thoroughly, the heralds of an apparently radical autarky are causing nothing but confusion in the ranks of the pauperising masses. They talk of economic independence, stable economic cycles and adapted technology – all concepts that really bring out their illusionist anachronism.
And to see Cambodia of all places as a concrete approach or even an example for the feasibility of such utopias seems almost tragicomic in view of the results that are now available. But it is also a total misreading of the factual development under the Pol Pot government. Demonisation and idealisation of the Khmer Rouge have the same basis. They assume that the measures taken after the conquest of power in Cambodia were deliberate and planned. One side sees only the terror and coercive measures with which the leaders, supported by relatively small armed forces, tried to get a grip on a witch’s cauldron of panic and violence and to escape the total catastrophe of starvation – and the chaos that would ensue in turn. They see this terror and these coercive measures as completely detached from the economic and social emergency. The others confuse the factual state of extreme social backwardness in Cambodia and the emergency measures taken with an economic and social programme.
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We have outlined the devastating situation in Cambodia shortly before the moment of liberation. However broad and deep the peasant unrest in the countryside may have been at the time, it must be remembered that a large proportion of these peasants stayed in the capital out of necessity during the main phase of the fighting. In any case, the Khmer Rouge, hardly more than 70,000 men anyway, fought for a long time mainly in the sparsely populated outskirts of Cambodia.
When the Khmer Rouge troops approached the capital in 1975 – likely with only about 20,000 men – it soon became clear that it was imperative to deal radically with this hopelessly bloated big head. Estimates vary, but it can be assumed that of the 7-8 million Cambodians, at least 2.5, but probably over 3 million were crammed into the capital (“peace population” as mentioned 600,000). With the severing of the umbilical cord to imperialism, Phnom Penh was up in the air as its former bridgehead. There was no possibility whatsoever to control or even feed this veritable hell of collaborators and starving refugee masses. The general shortage of rice had driven prices to dizzying heights: from 10 riel per kilo in December 1971 to 125 riel in December 1973 and on to 300 riel in early 1975, reaching a record 340 riel in mid-February. The retreat of the imperialists and the advance of the Khmer Rouge must have acted as a double signal: On the one hand, to storm against the hated parasites and the urbanites in general, on the other hand, to return to the countryside in chaos. The Khmer Rouge had to evacuate the city and channel the returning flow to avoid a total catastrophe. The fact that the displaced people left a wide trail of blood behind them on their way out of the city (for the time of the Khmer Rouge government, there is consistent talk of at least 1 million deaths) was unavoidable under the given conditions. It is significant that the majority of the massacres affected the urban population and certain national minorities: precisely intellectuals, military officers of the old Lon Nol regime, Sihanoukists, capitalists, merchants etc., and apart from the Cham (Muslims) almost exclusively the Vietnamese and Chinese minorities, whose social situation we have already pointed out.
Whether it was spontaneous peasant terror or executions organised by the Khmer Rouge, it was partly revolutionary violence against the supporters of the old regime, which as such does not speak against but for the Khmer Rouge, and partly pogroms, which the leaders at most accepted and tried to direct in the interests of the state monopoly on the use of force. But it is not so important whether the Khmer Rouge leaders had to accept or order these massacres. What is decisive is that they were forced by material development to eliminate or to have eliminated precisely those strata on which they wanted to rely. This, together with the evacuation of the cities, deprived them of any social support other than the peasantry. Thus they were at the mercy of this peasantry, which had to be disciplined for the actualisation of their “programme”. The conflict with it was therefore programmed for the time after the famine had been averted.
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After the worst of the chaos had been overcome, it was attempted to use these structures, which had prevailed in a rather primitive way during the hunger phase, for one’s “industrialisation programme” by maintaining and further intensifying collectivisation. Necessity was to become a capitalist virtue. The complete lack of such “civilisational” achievements as the intercourse of money and commodities was supposed to make for an ideal, indeed classic, “truck system”, i.e. payment in kind alone. The peasants were forced into ever new production battles, because now surpluses were to be produced for export – i.e. for exchange with foreign means of production – which indeed happened and animated the leaders even further. The general command was under the iron slogan: “Work hard and try to achieve maximum results with a minimum of investment”, and the focus was on absolute labour effort.
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Once a sufficient level of production had been restored, however, the whole construction was bound to collapse completely sooner rather than later. Anyone who has even a pale inkling of the travails of the infamous Stalinist collectivisation in Russia – and the Russian state was on an incomparably higher social level and had quite different means of power at its disposal – can easily imagine how the intellectual would-be enablers of capitalism in Cambodia, then practically hanging in the air, would have to perish in an orgy of violence – unless, with the help of a foreign power, they could get a grip on the chaos and create more stable conditions through a series of concessions to the peasantry. Most likely, however, they would be finished even then, like a man trying to hold on as long as possible to a wildly thrashing bull and then falling to the ground exhausted. In any case, the arena crowd was already eagerly awaiting the outcome of the tragedy.
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Sovereignty, neutrality, non-alignment – this credo runs through all declarations as a complement to “autarky”. But already in the face of the first offensive by the Vietnamese, it must have slowly become clear to the Khmer Rouge leaders that these fine words could only have one meaning in our unpleasant world, namely to place themselves under the protection of the People’s Republic of China. In Pol Pot’s interview, which we have just quoted, a strange acronym appears: CPK. This means “Communist Party of Kampuchea”. And yet, to the boundless amazement of bourgeois commentators, the Khmer Rouge had never tried to dress up their declarations or their constitution with Marxist or pseudo-Marxist vocabulary – which is certainly very sympathetic to us. On the contrary, they have displayed an obvious and pedantic aversion to these concepts. Neither “vanguard of the proletariat” or “communist party” nor “proletarian internationalism”, neither “classless society” nor “dictatorship of the proletariat”, but also not “new democratic revolution”, “mass line”, “creation of a new man”, “peaceful coexistence” etc. etc. had ever been spoken of. If similar contents had to be expressed, they were paraphrased with other words. But this did not happen because the Pol Pot folks would have been particularly honest and wanted to do us Marxists a favour. This happened because in their dogged nationalism they wanted to distance themselves clearly from their neighbours Vietnam, but also China, who professed to be “socialist”. The national character of all these revolutions and states, the national character of their confrontations and of their whole politics is expressed even in the fact that the weakest link feels compelled by the instinct of self-preservation to dispense with the “Marxist” or “socialist” cloak for the capitalist programme! This is what “socialism in one country” has come to! And the adoption of the “Marxist” “vocabulary” here is a sign of the surrender of the so sacred national sovereignty. If, as already mentioned, no announcement had ever mentioned a party or revolutionary phases (there was always talk of a “revolutionary organisation” and even of “Angkor traditions”), Pol Pot told his astonished people and all those who wanted to know the following story on 27 September 1977: the CPK had already existed in Cambodia since 30 September 1960 and had achieved this miracle of a national-democratic revolution. He told it the day before he left for Beijing, on which, fighting a losing battle against the Vietnamese, he has been completely dependent ever since.
As a “plaything of foreign powers”, the nationalist intellectuals of Cambodia perished. The peasantry, largely decimated under the pressure of the imperialist frenzy and its consequences, as now under the pressure of Vietnam’s national expansion, is an example of the fate that capitalist society reserves for small and weak peoples in its emergence and development. To such peoples the proletariat alone would and will secure the right of self-determination, because unlike the bourgeoisie it does not seek national privileges but wants to abolish them, because unlike the bourgeoisie it can create voluntary union, because unlike the bourgeoisie it liberates itself not by exploiting others but by abolishing all exploitation.

I wanted to post this because I see many going through a similar, tough buying time. I hope my story gives you a boost and helps you keep going. There is my sad backstory that you can skip to "Dec, 2020" that starts the home journey. This post is extremely long but emotional for me. Please be kind.
The only house i ever lived in was my uncles, for 2 years (age 3-5) before he removed us.
My mother suffers from many tribulations, and it was reflected in life. We apartment hopped for all of my childhood. I'll never forget how hurt I was, leaving behind my valuables everytime we downsized, (dressers, my desk, doll houses etc) being cramped, no pets allowed (i love animals), neighbors banging on their ceilings when I played, hearing families fight as if they next to me, smoke coming in the windows, constant new neighbors, roaches and other infestations due to neighbors, etc.
My mom would drive around and say, “this is going to be our new house!” And get my hopes up, but it never happened. My sister (she's 5 years older) said she would buy a house for us all, and that lasted a few months before we were evicted again, moving to another apartment.
I asked constantly when we could get a house like my uncle or sister. My father had one (my parents divorced when I was an infant), and when I visited, I wished I had my own backyard, pets. I was jealous of my friends who lived in houses. I would pretend vacant homes were mine, walk to the new homes being built, and watch their progress. Imagine my future in it where my kids would know stability.
After Bullying in school (from 4th - 12th grade), SA from my father, (i was 15) neglect, abuse, depression, self harm, apartment hopping, I was desperate to move out and away once I turned 16 (emancipation). I moved from NJ when i was 18 to FL and started my own downhill spiral of DV, homelessness, repossessions, and other mentally and physically draining circumstances that pushed my limits, money, and everything
In 2017, I picked up my pieces and gathered them, alone, to AZ into the best apartment and neighborhood i ever had. I told myself that after a year, I was going to buy a home there. In 2018, I reached out to realtors and was told all I needed to do was pay off 2k of credit card debt to qualify for 250-300k. The dumbest decision I ever made was saying spending 2k was stupid. I wish I had the recourses, support, anything, or anyone to tell me to do it. had I done it, I could have bought my dream home then for 200-275k
In Dec 2020, I had been with my now husband for 3 years, went through hell in the apartments he wanted us to move to for more space, away from that neighborhood I loved. Someone stole our bikes, smoked weed next to our window, and then our new car was stolen and required 3k in repairs. I was miserable. I wanted to end the cycle of apartments and putting away my wants and needs, so we decided to begin paying things off to get pre qualified. Then came the new battlefield.
As you all know, 2021 until today, it hasn't been a buyers market. I had no idea what any of that meant until I was told I was approved to start putting in offers in January 2022. We were pre approved for a max of FHA 350k from a lender that I was sure had our backs after getting tons of denials and pisspoor brokers who couldn't care less about my childhood dream. I pulled up the MLS and saved about 30 homes a week, if not more, that were 375k and below, all the way down to 150k trailer homes, condos, townhomes, and houses.
Half of those listings were sold (pending) within 5 days. the other half we were bidding upwards against. I couldn't believe it. I was told the market is hot, lots of people selling their homes in bordering states and putting higher end offers on the homes in our price range because they were selling their homes for 500k and using the differences to buy the cheap homes. The others were investors.
After doing all of the work for my husband and roommate and then some to qualify, I was now battling 15+ people on one home multiple times. I was told to try going further out. The market I was in was too desirable. I was like, REALLY? PEOPLE GET SHOT HERE ONCE A WEEK, HOW IS THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, "HOT"??? I was told to shop beneath my budget, shop outside the location I wanted, everything you are all being told today to, "land a home, stay in it for five years, then sell it and get what I want." But I heard none of it, I wanted my DREAM home on my first buy, which wasn't a lot.
All I wanted was a 1300-2000sqft home with a front and backyard for my dog and kids, a house that didn't need a crap ton of repairs, and a neighborhood I felt comfortable in so that I wouldnt have to deal with all the things I did since I was little. I didn't care if it was upgraded, carpeted, or tile, old or new, I just wanted space, safety, a yard.
It didn't matter. Even if I sacrificed a yard, square footage, whatever, I was getting outbid. Every home I could afford was being bought in cash, waiving inspections, having a 14 day close, and/or being bought 25k to upwards of almost 200k over asking even if it was a fixer upper!! I could not compete.
In April, I FINALLY had an offer accepted in a town that was 30 minutes from work, building up, and beautiful. I was willing to sacrifice commute time and everything for this beautiful house that checked all the boxes. It was 2,060 sqft, upstairs and downstairs, a 5k lot, in a beautiful neighborhood. We were able to get a third cosigner (lomg time friend) to up our income and get to 375k. But then I found out my preapproval wasn't so pre approved.
Having a 3rd co signer meant nothing. We needed to reserve money that we weren't informed about, DPA wanted us to pay off more debt, and we needed more income than the THREE of us had. I was livid, why didnt they tell us any of this? Why did they say our income was enough, and the DPA would cover everything?! I knew nothing, I tell you, nothing, and I should have researched more. But I was desperate.
My grandma stepped in. First, she needed a credit score. She opened up an unsecured credit card for 300. Bought gum, paid it off. We did a rapid rescore, and it shot her up to 7 freggin 735, SEVEN THIRTY FIVE LMFAO, and then we needed her social security letters. Which took two weeks too long, pushing back a close the seller REALLY WANTED TO CLOSE ON, which my realtor convinced them to hold off. Well, guess what? My grandma doesn't have a government id. She hadn't updated her id since 2005. No biggie, we'll get her to the DMV, which we had to reschedule online to 3 different locations. Well, guess what? Her mail, old id, her social security card, AND BIRTH CERTIFICATE all had DIFFERENT VARIATIONS of her name, and DMV couldn't verify her identity.
It would take two months to correct those issues. I threw my phone, scratched my arms to oblivion, fell on my knees, and cried. The lender said there was no way the loan was to be approved without Grandma. My sweet Grandma of 4 different names. I feel the tears, even now. I lost it. I fought for a home all my life and lost it because of being uninformed, way too broke ( I know I know), and then some. I felt like the universe was against me.
So May comes around, and my realtor says, "Listen, let's try this. Let's do rent to own. They pay for everything, and then you save, fix your credit, and buy the house back at the value of the contract paying the difference in appraisal if need be."
I was so broken that I did it. Back to the MLS, we still couldn't get a home in our price range in the neighborhoods I wanted. Rental price was going to be 3,100, so... we stuck to the 30-minute away neighborhood, and oh god, was that a new mistake. The first house we put an offer in on was accepted immediately. It was the smoothest process I'd ever seen in comparison to the hell I'd just gone through. I checked the MLS every day, watched homes I saved while I rented go pending or under contract in a week, or sell for over asking.
My heart sunk when all the homes I wanted and lost out to were back on the market as a rental property, or were slightly updated prices 50k-100k higher than before. Homes were being sold by opendoor, or rental from the very people I used to buy to rent from. I couldn't believe to this day how many homes I lost out to, sitting vacant for MONTHS prices dropping and dropping as the feds raised the interest rates. I went to open houses, asked what people wanted for offers (so I could be informed when I was ready), and knew my chances were getting slimmer and slimmer.
All the while, my commute was the devil. Traffic galore, accidents making my drive time go from 30-2 hours to and from. It was far from family, the mileage on my car grew so fast, my tires were wearing faster. The home was way too big for us (2765 sqft) and difficult to maintain. Beautiful home and town, but not for me.
The rent was also too high. It said it would be 2500, but wound up being 3100 after all of the damn fees they didn't disclose until AFTER WE WERE UNDER CONTRACT sflkghskg The electric bill was 6x the amount (bad company. People in that town are begnning to organize), water bill company demands 100 dollars no matter the usage (we only use about 60$), and the gas prices increased so high I was putting 60 dollars every 3 days in my car.
Then, my precious cat that followed me from NJ to AZ that had been with me through all of the DV, mental breaks, homelessness, had suffered from strokes. She was a stick, walking in circles, giving nothing but love. I tried everything I could, paid thousands to save her, but in the end, all I did was prolong her and my suffering. She passed in my arms. I love you and miss you, Emma.
Other life things happened, and by December, I had 200 dollars in the bank. When my income tax came, I applied for loans and said Im going to try the DPA and stuff again, It was either that, or rent a smaller house or apartment but seeing the market repeat my 2021 experience, I had to try with what I had. My goal was to get back to the neighborhood I wanted. NO EXCEPTIONS.
So I switched realtors based on a recommendation from FB. Random person said this lady would fight for me like no one else would. This realtor recommended me a lender, she said it could make miracles happen. I almost didn't do it because I had been let down by 2 other lenders before this one in 2023, but screw it. I followed his advice to the T of what to pay down, what to keep, and what to negotiate with. We gave him our 401ks info, our paystubs, had 3 of us on the loan, and explained we had no downpayment, just money for closing costs.
The market, at this point, slowed down due to the interest rates but was beginning to pick up. A lot of the homes we put offers on didn't like our asks. Which was disappointing, but I understood. What seller would want to pay closing costs for us so our payment assistance would go strictly to the home when they could accept the few cash, investor, or better conventional loan offers? The homes were going below listing, which was cool, but not quite in my 365k max range.
Until I gave way a little bit. There were 2 townhomes. One that was detached and had the most gorgeous yard Id ever seen for where it was at, and the inside was completely upgraded and bigger than it looked with a gorgeous mountain view from the master. But it was in a neighborhood that gave me goosebumps. No wonder they would accept 365k and pay everything should we put in our offer lol I couldn't do it, though. I didn't want to sacrifice being comfortable in my home safely to have a house. It was the first and only time I was picky.
At first, that seemed like a mistake, as the only other home I thought would accept our offer in my dream neighborhood said the seller had a specific number they wanted to sell at, which wasnt 365k, it was 375k. I wasn't going to get a home after all. I knew my ask was tough, and I wasn't going to get a house despite trying for another 3 months. I gave up. But then... I thought about something. That townhome in the neighborhood of my dreams, they wanted 375k? I restructured our ask to get to that 375k. A few hours later, my realtor texted me if she could call. It was urgent.
I was at work and went into the office and called. THE SELLER ACCEPTED OUR OFFER, THEY ACCEPTED OUR EFFING OFFER! THEY ACCEPTED IT!!!! I cried so hard, hyperventilated, cried some more, and told myself I wasn't going to get excited. I had this happen before, after all.
Well, guess what? Long story short, after hurdles during this closing as well, needing to push it back for this or that, WE CLOSED!! WE CLOSED ON THE HOUSE, IT WAS MINE!!! IT IS MINE!
The seller paid for all of the closing costs. DPA paid the downpayment at 3%. The rate was 6.85%, DPA loan at 8%. I paid for the appraisal and inspection, that's it. Only 1100 out of pocket. Monthly payment was 2865, my max, but it is MINE and EVERYTHING I wanted besides having a huge yard (it's still a decent sized yard) and open kitchen Home is 8 min from work (bye bye crappy commute!),community has incredible amenities, sub division has a pool, HOA covered roof (it was new anyway), new AC, new dishwasher, freshly painted, 3 beds 2 and a half baths, 1400sqft, 2 car garage with driveway, upstairs and downstairs like I always imagined, and so much more.
Every hurdle, every tear, every breakdown, taught me what I needed to know and led me to home. After saving for a year with the cheaper electric, water, gas prices, and mortgage, we just refinanced. Got a 5.75% rate (I thought it was 5.32, but after we closed today, it was 5.75%), the home appraised for 395k with no changes besides adding a fridge and new oven. The equity paid every penny of the refinance and the DPA loan. My mortgage is now 2550. For us, this is affordable now that we are debt free and still have savings!
I got my home with the most undesirable circumstances. I may be an exception, not the rule, but if my pathetic self can do it, i promise. You can, too. Don't be defeated. Don't let the investors win.
You need to win.

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I'm considering staying at a youth shelter from September to January and working to save money. During this time, I plan to rent a PO box at USPS to receive mail and apply for jobs. I will also get a gym membership to take showers, rent a vehicle storage unit for my car, and store my belongings. Additionally, I will rent a box at the bank to keep all important documents safe. Then, I'll complete all the necessary paperwork to establish residency quickly, such as changing my Virginia driver's license to California, updating my car's registration, and opening a bank account. I believe I can secure a job that pays $20 an hour, and I plan to work 25 hours a week due to my mental health. This should allow me to save around $1,000 a month. Then, in January, I will attempt to join the Transitional Age Youth (TAY) program. It will be challenging because I will turn 25 in December, so I won't qualify for many TAY programs since most have an age requirement of 18-24. If I get in, I believe I will be able to get free or lower rate housing. From January 2025 to January 2026, I will be participating in Year Up. During the first six months, I will only earn enough from Year Up to cover food expenses, but the last six months should be sufficient to cover my monthly costs. After Year Up, I plan to start community college again. I've looked into SMC, and they have a Promise Program similar to the scholarship I had at NOVA, which fully covers my tuition. I plan to join their Scholar Program as well to have a chance at more scholarships, but it might be tricky since one of the first requirements is to be a first time college student, so I'm unsure how the policy applies to someone like me.
The only problem with the whole plan is whether I get into the youth shelter or the TAY program. At this stage, I have 2-3 months to prepare myself for the move. Is there any paperwork I need to complete at NVCC before moving to another state? I would be grateful for any advice on my plan and on anything I can do to prepare.