Presents for 75 year old woman

I know this question has been asked a million times before, but I have to be sure for myself.
So long story short, I've crossdressed in the past, and things didn't end up well with my partner (my fault). So I stopped and I managed to convince us both it was just a fetish. 5 years later, and I see someone who at the time was also crossdressing, now fully transitioned.The biggest kicker is that people used to think we were the same person a few times and I've done a double take before too.
I would say the biggest argument towards being trans is that for the first time in my life I was so intensely jealous of her that it made me question everything again. I also consume a lot porn, not as much nowadays. It's usually exclusively bimbo/bimbofication or femboy/sissy stuff. It also makes me question if these feelings are sexually motivated.
But the biggest argument against it is that I don't have dysphoria. I really don't mind my body and honestly since I've been going to the gym I've been proud of how muscular I've gotten. But I'm not sure if I would've been so motivated if my partner didn't say they liked that. But then again I'm a bit lazy. I also wouldn't say that imagining myself doing regular things as a woman is particularly exciting either. I would say it's probably on the same level as it is now?
And I put on makeup for the first time in 5 years and I have to say I like my smile a lot better. But I know men wear makeup all the time and it doesn't make them trans.
I'm scared that I'm convincing myself I'm trans and I know that sometimes I'm too good at rationalizing things for myself. I've also read the "is it just a fetish?" article. It helped a lot, but it just makes me question even more. I'm not really sure I can say I'm wholeheartedly a woman at heart. I not sure what that really feels like. I just feel like me.

Hi guys, my steam deck is turning one year old in a month and I would like to buy a cover for a change. I already own a cover with stand included that covers all the back and the contours of the deck but leaving the surface part uncovered, got it on Amazon and it has a good quality because it also has non-slip on both sides of the grip however now I would like a cover that also covers the surface part and the bezels of the screen. I looked around a bit but all the ones that cover the front part seem to be of low quality so I wanted to ask if anyone knows of a good quality one. Possibly in the European market. Thanks!

Phil Aston: Hello and welcome to the Now Spinning Magazine podcast with me, Phil Aston. And in this episode, I’m absolutely delighted to have with me Tony Martin, one of the UK’s most underrated rock vocalists. You’ve had a really varied career, but what we’re going to talk about today specifically is Black Sabbath and the new “Anno Domini” box set. So, welcome, Tony. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tony Martin: Thank you. And thank you for having me on the show. Very cool.
Phil Aston: A bit of context, because I think this is kind of helpful for you. My son is 30 now, but when he was 15, he set up a Facebook group, kind of saying, “One day, please can we have the Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums released?” That was 15 years ago. He was still at school, half his lifetime ago. And I think in the early time when he set this up, he may have reached out to you and you might have said something like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen, Dan.” And here we are, all these years later, and it’s not only happened, but it comes out this Friday. How does that feel to know that these albums are now going to be available again?
Tony Martin: Well, first of all, well done to your son. It took 15 years, but he got it done. To be honest, there’s been a few periods when I didn’t think it was happening. In fact, about a year ago, Tony Iommi’s manager called me and said, “You know what, this is just so complicated. I don’t think we can do this.” So I was resigned to it not happening myself. It’s all to do with band politics, really. There are so many people involved or have their fingers in the pie that they all have to be on board. And there were allegiances changing all over the place, left, right, and center. So in the end, it was getting a bit tiring, but well done to Tony Iommi and BMG. My God, the patience they showed to get this thing together and actually get it out there. Wow. But how does it feel? It feels brilliant, to be honest. I’m very excited. I haven’t actually had these albums in my own hands physically for the past 25 years. I gave all mine away thinking I’d be able to get some more, and I didn’t. They just stopped making them. So to actually physically hold them again is really cool. What a great job they’ve done of it. So I’m thrilled and excited. And I’m helping out now because I’m not in the band, obviously, anymore. So I just offered my help to promote it and they said, “Great, let’s do it.”
Phil Aston: Isn’t it amazing? Because I’ve done quite a few reviews about Black Sabbath box sets and stuff, but this one, within about 12 hours, there’s literally 12,000 views of the review. The love for this period of Black Sabbath is actually huge. It’s grown. It almost feels as if the profile is higher now than it was at the time.
Tony Martin: Yeah, there is a kind of reason for that. Partly people have got over the “it’s the new guy” thing, and also it’s been 25 years since. So now we’re reaching out to a whole other group of people, in addition to those that were already there. But to the outside world, it looks like there was a huge gap, and to me it felt like a huge gap. But actually, the fans were always there. I’ve been waiting myself as well to get this back out there. And it’s just band politics, really. That’s all it is.
Phil Aston: Because you had that period when it was almost as if this part of Sabbath’s history was hidden because of band politics. None of this really happened, which I think probably stirred up more interest and kind of people wanting to find out more.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it could be. It’s an old famous thing, you know, if something ain’t around for a while, people start talking about it. But yeah, it’s a strange thing, the music business. You’re either in fashion or you’re not. But I am just thrilled that they’ve got around it. Just the patience they’ve shown to actually put this together. At one point they were just saying, “We can’t do it.” But I’m really chuffed anyway.
Phil Aston: I imagine there’s been compromises along the way. Lots of fans probably don’t understand how complicated the politics and all the different licenses and everything that goes on over the years, they become more and more entangled. People say, “Where’s Eternal Idol?” But of course, that was a different record label. Different people own it.
Tony Martin: Yeah, absolutely. It’s owned by somebody else. And also Eternal Idol, or “Eternal Idiot,” as we call it, was kind of reissued not that long ago. Really.
Phil Aston: That’s right. With the two CD version, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. So they were kind of thinking, “Well, there’s no real panic because that’s already been done and let’s just move on.” Because that would have wrapped them up in contracts for centuries, I think. I can’t even think that they’ll ever get them to let that go. But they were struggling to get the people involved with these four albums to make up their minds and do stuff. I’ve been all for it all the way along, I have to say. Obviously, because it’s my career, my history. It’s not just the band’s history. It’s ten years of my life that went AWOL. So, yeah, I’ve been up for it all the way along, but some people don’t and it’s taken them a while to get on board.
Phil Aston: I think it’s fantastic. The first one was Headless Cross. You joined one of the biggest rock bands with all that history behind it. You were an established singer with the Alliance. But this was a chance, as you say, with Eternal Idol, you went in and it was already prepared. You sang it, but this one was where you could really put your mark on it, your personality lyrically as well as musically. Can you remember what it was like actually being at the beginning of that? Did you feel comfortable around Iommi and Powell and thinking, “Right, what kind of lyrics am I going to do by Headless Cross?”
Tony Martin: Yeah, I was comfortable by then. Well, kind of. The thing is, with Eternal Idol, if I can just backstep a little bit. The Eternal Idol wasn’t the first call up. The first call up was in 1986 when they were doing the Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes. And that scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. They put me on standby back then, so I’d sort of tentatively had an introduction to Tony Iommi. Then in ’87, they got me in for the audition, and that was the next introduction to Tony Iommi. But because Eternal Idol was already written, that gave me a whole year plus a bit more to find out what this thing was. What the hell was I supposed to do? So just doing Eternal Idol like that was fine by me because I didn’t have to discover anything myself back then. It gave me a chance to get my feet in. So by the time it got to Headless Cross, now I know all the guys, and I kind of know what’s expected of me. I still had to find the “me” that I needed to find. I went around it the only way I could, by focusing on things I was interested in. I couldn’t do the lyrics and melodies that Geezer was writing for Ozzy because that was a generation before me. The stuff that Ronnie was doing was fantastic, but I couldn’t get inside his head. So I had to think about what I was going to do. I had an interest in the old gothic death stuff, like Dracula and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley type writing, and of course, in England, we have Shakespeare. Nobody speaks English like that anymore, that old English text. I thought, “Old English text, gothic death, and Black Sabbath. That might work.” So I put them all together and came up with Headless Cross, which is where I lived. I lived in a village called Headless Cross.
Phil Aston: Yeah, you put that on the map. They weren’t pleased about it. The most recognition I’ve got is my name on a bus stop. And Cozy Powell thought the album needed more death, didn’t he?
Tony Martin: Oh, that’s true. That’s actually true. We were recording “When Death Calls,” and he was in the studio playing, and he suddenly stopped. We went, “You alright?” He went, “Yeah, just remind me, what’s this song called again?” I said, “It’s called When Death Calls.” He said, “I don’t think there’s enough death in it.” And he carried on playing. So, okay, maybe he’s taking the piss, but isn’t it such a great sounding album? As Tony Iommi says, he never left Black Sabbath. So when people criticize him, saying, “You should change the name or whatever,” he never left. So it was still Black Sabbath. The riffs, the guitar sound was reaching new peaks of excellence around this time.
Because when it was just him and Ozzy, for example, it was guitar, that was it. When Geoff Nichols joined during the Dio period, it introduced a few more keyboard things. That allowed Iommi to play solos against those keyboard pads and chords. And then you come along and start sticking 50 tracks of vocal harmonies on it, like in Anno Mundi and stuff like that. It just kept developing. Sabbath isn’t really known for vocal harmonies and keyboards, but underneath that was still Tony Iommi. And it still sounded like Sabbath. We were happy to do that. We just wanted to make Tony happy and do the best for him. It was his band. So we were happy to seek out that Sabbath sound and make sure it did what it said on the tin. A couple of times, like with the Seventh Star thing, he ventured a little bit away from it. Songs like Heart Like a Wheel don’t really make the Black Sabbath sound, but it’s still good stuff. I have great respect for all of the eras that went before. I had to sing all of the songs. So I do have great respect for it. And it’s been an honor, you know, like being part of the whole story. But he was the only one that stuck it out. And we respected him for that. You’re right, they did ask him to change a couple of times. He said, “No, I can’t change now.”
Phil Aston: The next one, if I pronounce this right, it’s Tyr.
Tony Martin: Yeah.
Phil Aston: Because when it came out, me and my friends, actually, because there was no Internet back then and nowhere to go and check it, we did call it Tyr. To be.
Tony Martin: Yeah, Tyr.
Phil Aston: Watch you find in Birmingham. You know what I mean? So it actually rhymes with beer, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It is, yeah. Actually, it’s Tiw, which is Scandinavian for the son of Odin or something.
Phil Aston: Well, this is almost as close, probably, to Sabbath getting into almost a concept album. Isn’t it? This is a collection of songs that in another time and space you probably as a band would have gone out and performed the whole thing.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it wasn’t meant that way, but they were struggling to find a name for the album. We were recording and getting towards the end and the management called us up and said, “We really need a name for this album.” And Cozy said, “I’ve got one. Let’s call it Satanic Verses.” We went, “What, like Salman Rushdie thing?” He said, “Yeah, it would be great publicity.” We said, “Yeah, but we’ll all be dead.” So we did struggle, but they happened across the artwork. We’d done Anno Mundi, we’d done Gates of Valhalla and all that sort of stuff. They went, “What if… Tyr?” It was fine by me. So it took on the Viking sort of theme. By that time, I was thinking, once I’d done Headless Cross and started to have an interest in the Vikings and stuff. As you know, the Vikings haven’t been particularly good for us. They came over and stole all our women and sheep and whatever. But I had an interest in them as well. So I was thinking, every culture, every religion has its dark side. There’s always a devil type in a god type. I thought we could go around the world and I could do this. You could pick up on all sorts of cultures and pick out the dark side of various things. But it was the last kind of… I still did that with various other songs and various other artists. But Tyr was leaning towards that theme.
Phil Aston: It’s an excellent album. Then of course, the strangeness of the politics in Sabbath. Dehumanizer comes along and Dio re-enters the scene. You obviously had an opportunity because every cloud has a silver lining. You can go off and do your solo album at this time. But you did kind of like… It sounds like it was almost a forced relationship, the way that he was and he wasn’t. I mean, how was that period for you? Because you did demo some of the tracks, didn’t you?
Tony Martin: Firstly, it was a shock. I didn’t see that coming at all. Literally just walking out the door to the next writing rehearsals. My managers called up and said, “They don’t want you to go.” From what I recently found out, although I had my suspicions, Tony Iommi said the record label just wasn’t supporting it. They weren’t getting behind us at all. Then they started banding about all different names and stuff, and Ronnie’s name came up. They thought they’d give it a go. He said it was all on and off all the time. After they let me go, it wasn’t too long before Tony called me back and said, “Can you come back?” I said, “No, I can’t. I’m doing my solo album.” More time went by, and he called me back again and said, “Are you sure you can’t come back?” I said, “I’m doing my solo album. I really can’t.” He said, “Do you want to come down and try?” So I did. I went down and tried putting my voice on some of the songs, but it would have meant rewriting everything, and they weren’t going to do that. So I said, “The best thing is if you finish this with Ronnie, get this done and out of the way, then maybe we can talk again later.” So that’s kind of what happened. By that time, I’d done my solo album, which I wanted to get as far away from the Sabbath thing as I could at the time. I went back to doing what the Alliance and some of the bands I’d been with, that middle-of-the-road AOR type stuff. But when they called me back to Sabbath, Polydor dropped my solo album like a brick. They said, “We can’t do this if you’re going to go back with them.” So that got stopped. It’s so confusing. By the time I got back with the guys to Cross Purposes, it didn’t feel that much of a gap for me, because I’ve been talking to them and working with them through the Dehumanizer thing.
Phil Aston: Stylistically, that album, because it was on the IRS label, I know some people have said, “Well, it should be in there.” Stylistically, musically, it’s very different. I mean, you take it out. These four albums in this set, excluding Eternal Idol, they sound like a progression. Dehumanizer sounds like a kind of sidestep. Even the way the riffs are done in the songs, it’s changed. You take the vocalist out, but the music continued. You took you out and it was very different.
Tony Martin: I suppose it does a bit. If I go back and think over it, I guess that’s what it was. It was kind of an interruption into the flow of things. When we were doing Tyr, I thought we were doing really well. I thought we were onto something. Dehumanizer, in that sort of respect, does feel a little bit like an interruption. But there was some good stuff on there. Ronnie’s always been a good singer. I don’t quite know how they feel about it, but it was kind of nothing to do with me. I just let them get on with it.
Phil Aston: After that, Cross Purposes is probably, out of the four albums in this set, my personal favorite. Geezer’s back in the band now, so you’ve got his bubbling bass in there. And again, lyrically, it’s all you. Did you feel any kind of, “Oh, Geezer’s back. Will he want to help out?”
Tony Martin: I did ask. He just said, “No, you can do it.” So I just carried on.
Phil Aston
The reason why I love this album is that it’s varied. A lot of people think of Black Sabbath as the Godfathers of heavy metal, and heavy metal is always heavy metal. But if you think back to albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the seventies, they weren’t all heavy metal. There were all sorts of things on there. There were keyboards and light and shade. This, I felt, connected to that album, because you had light and shade on it. So there were more dynamics in the lyrical delivery and the song delivery, in the way that Iommi is weaving his riffs around the melodies. What are your thoughts looking back on this album now?
Tony Martin: I think you’ve just summed it up. It did sort of shift up a notch. Not only that, but the sound they were getting with Leif Mases producing it, it sort of grew up. It lifted somehow out of what they’d done before. It felt like, “Oh, this sounds good.” The songwriting and the exploring we were doing with the songs and stuff. At the time, Geezer Butler said that’s the best album he’s ever been on. He never said that again, but he said it at the time.
Phil Aston: I can imagine him saying just that.
Tony Martin: But it was good. Having Bobby Rondinelli in the band as well. Technically amazing. Brilliant player. His drums close in, and he plays with his wrists. Very technical. Whereas Cozy’s drums are stretched out far and wide. He’d lean over and hit them. But great to have them both in. What an honor. I mean, it’s Geezer Butler as well.
Phil Aston: When you got to South America, Bill Ward was in for a few gigs, wasn’t he? That must have been quite surreal. Bill Ward and Geezer playing songs like Headless Cross, which they had nothing to do with.
Tony Martin: They had nothing to do with. We were kind of weird because once we’d started to get Geezer and Bill back in, they wanted to start doing more of the older songs. That just makes you look, read between the lines going, “What’s going on? Where’s this going?” Once it’s happened to you, you know it. Then you’re reading between the lines. You start to feel it. Then you go, “Ah, right.” You can feel it. They’re clearing up. I did ask if they were going to do a reunion with Ozzy. Iommi was always denying it. Said, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But I didn’t mind. The reason for that is because I knew what I could do in the future then. I thought, “Well, if they just tell me, that’s fine. Cause then I can plan.” The first time it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do. But I was kind of keyed up for it the next time. But he kept going. They got Bill in. I love Bill. I think he’s brilliant. We did some shows with him. But for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, I mean, I can tell you Iommi loves Bill. He regaled so many stories about when they were out there and how funny it was. I never understood why they never gave him time to get back in it. When you think of Def Leppard, they made a drum kit for a one-armed drummer.
Phil Aston: Yes, very true.
Tony Martin: Surely they can find time to get Bill settled back in. Whatever problems they’ve got. I mean, come on.
Phil Aston: You would think, yeah, very true.
Tony Martin: Get on with it. I thought, “Right, this is going to go south again.” But it didn’t. We carried on with Forbidden, and then Cozy came back after his accident. It was really up and down. Confusing. People in and out. During the time I was in the band, there were eight different lineups.
Phil Aston: It was very much a revolving door, wasn’t it? Before we move on, I just want to ask, because I know a lot of fans ask this. In the booklets in these box sets, there’s an image of Cross Purposes Live. That was a VHS tape and a CD. Is there a reason why that wasn’t included in some way? Is that game politics?
Tony Martin: I did ask about that, and they were just keen to get on with it. They said, “Come on, let’s go, let’s do it.” What they told me was that they’re going to take their time now to see what else they can gather and do an additional thing to this along the way with more of that in it. With the Cross Purposes Live and some other stuff. There’s a track that I recorded with them when Eddie Van Halen came and did Evil Eye.
Phil Aston: Yes, yeah, Evil Eye, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. I used to take the track out. I had it everywhere. Writing sessions, recording sessions, rehearsals. I just happened to be there. I didn’t even know who was coming. Iommi just turned up with Eddie Van Halen. I went, “Holy hell, it’s Eddie Van Halen. What’s he doing here?” He did some rehearsals with us and then disappeared. Never saw him again. But I got the recordings of the rehearsals that we did.
Phil Aston: Oh, wow.
Tony Martin: So I sent them to Tony Iommi. I said, “Use these. Get these on.” He said, “No, no, we can’t.” The reason they said was anything that has the slightest newness about it looks like a new Black Sabbath track or album track. They’re not allowed to release anything new under the Black Sabbath name. So even if it’s historical, they couldn’t allow it. It’s really weird.
Phil Aston: That means there must be lots of live stuff recorded. More bands were recording live stuff from the nineties onwards that you just couldn’t work on because it would go out under the Black Sabbath name.
Tony Martin: Not just live stuff. I’ve got about eight tracks that we never released. Just from the writing sessions and rehearsals and stuff that we used to do. They just can’t get out. They just won’t allow it.
I don’t understand. Well, I kind of understand. When you’re trying to protect your name, your mark, your image, your everything, which is where the band politics comes in, they won’t allow you to do anything that they think. And there’s all kinds of… Everybody from Ozzy to Dio to everybody. They don’t want their thing to be diluted or taken away. I do understand that. There are people involved all along the way that have an objection of some kind or another.
Phil Aston: But I guess, hopefully, this box set’s going to sell out really quickly and will show there’s a demand for this material and for this part of Black Sabbath history. There’s a lot of love for it. A lot of people worked really hard within it, like yourself. They’re great albums, wonderful songs. If there’s other music waiting in the wings, whereas we all get older, thinking through the eyes of the fan, it would go down so well, wouldn’t it? But I am, as you are, very grateful that these four albums have arrived in a box.
Tony Martin: Yes, it’s an important thing for me. It’s an important thing for the band, and it’s a great thing for the fans. I’m thrilled. It’s been an honor to be part of the story. I love the fact that it’s out there now. They did say there is no limit to the box sets. They have sold out on day one.
Phil Aston: I’m not surprised.
Tony Martin: They said the way they do it is they tend to poll the outlets and stuff and say, “How many do you think you can sell?” And they put their numbers in, and they’ve gone way past that. So now they’ve got to go back and produce more. There’s no limit to it. I love what they’ve done. There’s more in the box set than just the albums. Posters, programs, and everything.
Phil Aston: And then Forbidden. I’ll be honest, Tony, when I heard this for the first time back in the day, I didn’t like it. I tried, but I didn’t like it. My son liked it because I think probably because his dad didn’t. But now the remix, it’s as if someone’s released the drums and the guitars. It sounds like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It does. It’s brilliant. I love the fact that they’ve dismantled it and put it back in a way that they couldn’t or didn’t with the other three. Forbidden needed it for all kinds of reasons. It was done under a sort of cloud where a lot of us weren’t really into it very much. But it was also an attempt at trying to give Sabbath a kind of acceptable twist to the youth. It didn’t work.
Phil Aston: The nineties were weird, weren’t they? The nineties were strange for heavy rock.
Tony Martin: The problem was we were fast heading towards great new bands like Nirvana and eventually Green Day and Metallica doing stuff. We were going and they were trying to change the sound to fit in. It didn’t work. We didn’t think it would. But there are people out there that love Forbidden as it is. I said that to Iommi. Last time I saw him, there are people out there that love it. He said, “They’ll probably love this version now.” But shaking the chains, guilty as hell, rusty angels, forbidden. And of course, “Loser Gets It All” is a great track. That wasn’t even on the album originally.
Phil Aston: It’s brilliant.
Tony Martin: Yeah. Strange. I absolutely love it now. It does sound like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds like it should be there in amongst the others. They’ve done a great job. Tony and his engineers have really pulled it together. It’s slightly more guitar and slightly less keyboard. They’ve done Cozy’s drums. Fantastic job on those.
Phil Aston: They’re just unleashed, aren’t they?
Tony Martin: Yes. They haven’t changed anything. They’ve mixed it and given it a new attitude, which is brilliant. They’ve given it more space. It sounds bigger. I just love what they’ve done to it. I’m really proud of it now. I didn’t like it then. There’s still a couple of tracks where I would love to have gone back in and…
Phil Aston: Yeah, you know.
Tony Martin: I thought at the time, because I was that off it at the time, my head just wasn’t quite there. A couple of tracks I thought I could have done better. I did sort of say when they were doing it, “Can I go back in?” They said, “No.”
Phil Aston: I suppose because that might edge towards it being a new recording then.
Tony Martin: Yeah, tricky. I’m not going to tell you which tracks it is, but there were a couple in there that I wasn’t quite happy with. But on the whole, it’s a great job they’ve done.
Phil Aston: Because when you were playing live, there were more songs from your period in Sabbath coming into the set, weren’t there? You were a unique vocalist in many ways for the band. You could cover Ozzy, Dio. You probably could have done Ian Gillan. Anything. You could have the ultimate set list, really, going through every era.
Tony Martin: That was a bit of a mistake. I told them I could sing anything, really. They thought, “What can we give him to sing?” They threw all sorts of stuff at me. I had a shot. Fortunately, I’ve got the kind of voice that can get around most things, and that’s a result of being in so many different kinds of music. I’ve been involved in everything from reggae to rock.
Phil Aston: Who were your key vocal influences growing up? As you say, outside of this Black Sabbath badge, your voice can go in any direction. So who were your influences? Was it blues, soul, rock?
Tony Martin: It kept changing. Everything I listened to, I thought, “That’s good. That’s good.” Each couple of years, something else took my attention. I’d really pour my soul into it. When I started off with reggae, believe it or not, I worked with Musical Youth and Dexys Midnight Runners in the studio. I was a guitarist back then. Then I loved blues. I got into prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Then it shifted to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. That led to Rush and bands like that. Then I had to come down out of that prog rock technical stuff because Sabbath is much more honest and basic and straightforward. To a point. When you’re in the band and you find out how he does it, it’s stunning. I never even gave it a thought. I thought, “It’s got to be easy.” It wasn’t easy at all. Iommi can put seven, eight different riffs into one song, and each one of the riffs could be a song on their own.
Phil Aston: Very true.
Tony Martin: So, wow. You get your head around it. It’s weird. Plus, the time signatures he was throwing at us. There was a 14/4 and a 15/8 or something he was throwing at us. How he gets his head around it, I just don’t know. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a really good job on this.” I said, “Thanks, man.” He said, “I actually don’t know how you sang over some of this stuff.” I said, “Neither do I.”
Phil Aston: Just mad, isn’t it? You could try anything. I might have thought, “That means you might be able to put some of the songs in that Ozzy couldn’t do into the set. Or I can try something that I’ve never been able to do before because Tony says he can do anything.”
Tony Martin: It’s because I showed willing. I told them I’d have a go. And I did have a go. I did put into it. The songs, the writing, the live shows, whatever. I kind of made a rod for my own back in some ways because it was hard flicking between all of the different vocal techniques. But I did my best. It sort of came across okay. The problem is when you try to do stuff like that, it can sound a bit like a tribute act. But we got it nailed, I think. Especially having people like Cozy Powell, Geezer Butler, and all those guys in the band. We were willing to seek out that Sabbath sound, and we were conscious of it. So we were all aiming for the same thing. From outside, it might have looked like a chaotic mess. But on the inside, it all had a focus. We were all willing to give it a go. That’s what I think they saw in me. I knew they liked my voice, but I think that’s what they saw, a willingness to have a go and see if you can make it work. All those different time signatures and riffs that I had to go, looking back, to me, it’s Black Sabbath. Like,
Phil Aston I’m a Deep Purple fan, and every lineup of Deep Purple is still Deep Purple. I know Black Sabbath, there’s lots of politics in the way some of the fans look at it. But I think, which is why they had Heaven and Hell later on instead of Black Sabbath, because of the politics. But listening to these four albums, one after the other, you brought to life Viking mythology and song. More death. Just your passion and the way you projected the lyrics and your phrasing makes these albums unique. An important part of the Sabbath story. Finally, do you feel like this outpouring of love for this lineup is validating everything? Any doubt that might have been back then?
Tony Martin: Yeah, doesn’t it just? The biggest validation is from Tony Iommi himself. It wasn’t regarded that highly until he sat and listened to it without the bickering going around. When I went down a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a great job on this. There’s fantastic songs on here.” I said, “I know.” It’s just that validation that he gives it. The fact that the fans are returning to it. The fact that we’ve got new fans coming to it. Whole new record labels. I think it’s Rhino in America. It’s BMG in the UK, Europe. The record labels are coming back to it and getting behind it. They see something in it. The management sees something in it. So it’s all coming together. Which is a shame because I’m not in the band anymore.
Phil Aston Who knows? Maybe you and Tony will think, “It’d be great if some of this other stuff can come out at some point and we don’t have to wait another 25 years.”
Tony Martin: If he was going to do that, he’d say, “Let’s just write some new stuff.” But from what I’ve been told, Tony’s touring dates are done now. He won’t be going out on the road again. That’s probably out of the question for writing. I did tell him I was interested if he wants to do something. But he’s got so much going on. He’s still busy. Doing stuff. He had that ballet, the Black Sabbath ballet.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that’s true.
Tony Martin: Never saw that coming. No, he’s working on all kinds of stuff. He’s writing new material for something else now.
Phil Aston: So what about you, Tony? Have you got any plans for another solo album?
Tony Martin: I never actually stopped. For the past 25 years, my career took me into the studio and writing for people. My voice appears on 89 albums and projects now. It’s been good for me. I owe everything to Black Sabbath because that’s how the world got to hear my voice. People know what they’re talking about when they talk to me. “Can you write, can you sing on this?” They already know what they’re hearing or expecting. I always try to make it better than what they give me in the first place. A lot of that is me in the studio, and I’m happy, and I still am, happy doing that. But I do tend to choose what I do these days.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Martin: So I’m still doing the odd thing for people now. I did have a solo album a couple of years ago called Thorns.
Phil Aston: Great album.
Tony Martin: Yeah, totally unknown guitarist from America, Scott McClellan. I only met him because he kept badgering me on Facebook. He kept sending me stuff. I was like, “Go away.” He said, “Listen to this. What about this one?” In the end, I listened to it and it was brilliant. So I gave it a go and it turned out really well. But then Covid interrupted that and we couldn’t get out there with it. Some countries were saying, “Yeah, you can come,” and other countries were saying, “No, you can’t.” It all got distracted. I haven’t finished with Thorns because they wanted to do a vinyl for it. They said we had to take some tracks off to get it to fit on the vinyl. I don’t want to take any tracks off.
Phil Aston: Make it a double.
Tony Martin: Yeah, make it a double. Write some more. I wasn’t prepared for that. I’m pacing up, trying to write some new songs. Scott has sent me loads. We’ve got enough tracks for Thorns 2, but I haven’t finished Thorns 1 yet. I’ve got to come back to that. I do want to finish that off and get that done. Then if we can do the next Thorns thing, who knows? We’d like to try and get it out on the road. Getting out on the road for me is so different to the Sabbath thing. The Sabbath machine is huge. They only have to mention it and all the cogs start turning all at the same time all the way around the world. It all starts fitting into place within days, within weeks. On your own, it’s different. I can’t do that. I have to hire other musicians to go out on the road and rehearse the whole thing and start again with a brand new show. It’s a lot harder for me, but I would love to get back out there. My career took me into the studio, so I’ve got more to do. But I just tend to choose now.
Phil Aston: If people want to get Thorns, is it DarkstarRecords.net? Is that the best place?
Tony Martin: No, Battle God. They are the main label. Darkstar were involved and they’re still there, but they’ve had some troubles in the past couple of years. They were on board and I did two versions of it from between the two territories. I liked that. But mostly now, Battle God is the label to grab hold of it. It’s still available and I’m still signing them. People send me the stuff to sign.
Phil Aston: But I haven’t finished yet, so there’s more to come.
Phil Aston: Brilliant. Well, thanks very much, Tony, for all of your time today. Everybody, make sure you go and get a copy on CD or vinyl of this Black Sabbath Tony Martin years box set, “Anno Domini.” It’s absolutely superb.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it is good. I’m just smiling. I think it’s brilliant.
Phil Aston: No, that’s it, isn’t it? Whatever anyone thinks, these albums are available again. People can hear just how awesome this time for Sabbath really was.
Tony Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Phil Aston: All right, take care, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again in the future.
Tony Martin: Thank you. All right, Phil, thanks, mate. Cheers.
Phil Aston: Well, a huge thank you to my guest, Tony Martin. That was fantastic. I’m almost lost for words in knowing what to say to sum up that interview because I know a lot of you are really interested in this box set, “Anno Domini” by Black Sabbath, which is out on CD and vinyl. Just as I thought, it’s sold out already, but there’s going to be another pressing. I was able to ask some of the questions I know some of you have been wanting to know, like why weren’t there extra tracks? Why wasn’t the live Cross Purposes included, etc. So now you know. Some of it is really exciting because it means there might be a companion set with some outtakes or live stuff as well. That’s really exciting.
Tony Martin is a fantastic vocalist, really passionate, really imaginative with his lyrics and his vision of how he writes his music. These four albums are essential. They’re Black Sabbath albums, okay? That’s what they are. They sound like Black Sabbath albums. Wasn’t it interesting that Geezer Butler said Cross Purposes is the best album he’d ever played on? It is a truly remarkable album. But they all are: from Headless Cross, to Tyr (which I can now pronounce correctly), Cross Purposes, and Forbidden, which has been given a new lease of life. Seriously, it is incredible. Just stunning.
Thank you again to Tony Martin for joining me here on the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. Please keep spinning those discs, whether they are vinyl or CD. Check us out on the podcast. We’re on every platform you can think of, from Apple to Spotify to Amazon. Of course, we’re on YouTube. Please subscribe and check out the website at nowspinning.co.uk. Remember, music is the healer and the doctor. So take care and I’ll see you all very, very soon.
Watch the full interview here
Phil Aston Now Spinning Magazine

We were planning to go to Salalah with a bunch of friends during the eid break . Everyone bailed due to various reasons.
I have a relatively new car (3 year old ) that was recently serviced and in good condition.
How advisable is it to drive to salalah from muscat alone . It would be myself , my wife and 8 month old baby . My wife does not have her license yet so I will have to drive alone and plan to stay in salalah for 3 days .
How is the weather there now ? Is it worth it ? Is all remote places on our way to salalah ? How likely is it to get stranded ?
Ate there any alternative destinations in oman that we can drive to ?

This post looks at the success of countries at UEFA competitions during the 21st century (2001-present). This list is for club football.
Finals represented by two teams from the same country are counted as wins for that country, as two distinct finalists, and as one final.
Unique clubs are the number of unique clubs participating in finals from that particular country: eg., Portugal has had four clubs compete in EL finals, therefore their number is four.
Also, note that the EL and UEFA Cup refer to the same competition.

EL/UEFA Cup Finals

Country	Total Finals Contested	Total Finalists	EL Finals Won	EL Finals Lost	Unique finalists	Win%	Notes
Spain	13	15	12 Wins	1 Loss	7	92%	Alaves lost in 2001 to Liverpool via the Golden Goal rule.
England	8	9	4 Wins	4 Losses	6	50%	Middlesborough and Fulham have both contested EL finals.
Portugal	5	6	2 wins	3 losses	4	40%	Porto has won the EL twice this century, including an all-Portuguese final in 2011.
Russia	2	2	2 Wins	0 losses	2	100%	Russian clubs (CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg) won their finals in 2005 and 2008.
Germany	4	4	1 Win	3 Losses	4	25%	Dortmund, Leverkusen, Frankfurt, and Werder Bremen have made the finals, but only Frankfurt won.
Italy	3	3	1 Win	2 Losses	3	33%	The first EL final for Italian sides this century was in 2020.
Netherlands	2	2	1 Win	1 Loss	2	50%	Feyenoord defeated Dortmund in 2002
Ukraine	2	2	1 Win	1 Loss	2	50%	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, the Ukranian finalist in 2016, has since become defunct after falling into bankruptcy in 2018.
Scotland	3	3	0 Wins	3 Losses	2	0%	Rangers (2 finals) and Celtic (1 final) have made the EL final this century.
France	2	2	0 Wins	2 Losses	1	0%	Marseille is the only French team to make the EL final in this century, losing both.

• France is the only country with only one unique finalist.
  
• Post-2001, Spain has been undefeated in EL finals.
  
• There have been five final penalty shootouts.
  
• Spain's 7 participants is the highest number of finalists. The teams are: Sevilla, Atletico, Valencia, Villarreal, Athletic Club, Espanyol, and Alaves.
  
• England's four final losses have all come against Spanish sides.
  

CL Finals

Country	Total Finals Contested	Total Finalists	CL Finals Won	CL Finals Lost	Unique finalists	Win%	Notes
Spain	13*	16	11 Wins	1 Loss	4	92%	While Valencia and Atletico have played 4 finals this century, 3 came against Real Madrid.
England	12	15	6 Wins	6 Losses	6	50%	The most unique teams (Spurs, Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and City).
Germany	7*	8	3 Wins	3 Losses	3	50%	Leverkusen lost in 2002 to complete being runners-up in all 3 club competitions - the league, the cup, and the CL.
Italy	7	8	3 Wins	4 Losses	3	43%	The finalists from Italy have participated in at least two finals this century - Juventus (3), Milan (3), and Inter (2). Juventus is the only one not to win once this century.
Portugal	1	1	1 Win	0 Losses	1	100%	Porto won in 2004
France	2	2	0 Wins	2 Losses	2	0%	Monaco and PSG have both loss finals this century

• France is the only country to have made the final this century but not win.
  
• Spain is undefeated following Valencia's 2001 defeat to Bayern on penalties.
  
• There have been six final penalty shootouts.
  
• Except for one loss (2007), England's final losses have come against Spanish sides (5 losses).
  
• Three clubs have made multiple finals but are winless this century: Valencia (2), Atletico (2), and Juventus (3).
  

Summary of EL/CL

Country	Total Finals Contested	Total Finalists	Finals Won	Finals Lost	Unique finalists (EL+CL)	Win%	Notes
Spain	26	31	24 Wins	2 Losses	9 (11)	92%	Undefeated in finals since 2001 when Alaves lost to Liverpool (5-4 via golden goal, EL) and Valencia lost to Bayern on penalties (CL).
England	20	23	10 Wins	10 Losses	10 (12)	50%	English teams have lost and won exactly 50% of finals in the EL and CL respectively.
Italy	9	10	4 Wins	5 Losses	5 (6)	44%	Atalanta became the first Italian team to win the EL this century.
Germany	11	12	4 Wins	6 Losses	6 (7)	40%	CL final to be played
Portugal	6	7	3 Wins	3 Losses	4 (5)	50%	Portugal was the first country to win both the EL and CL this century.
Netherlands	2	2	1 Win	1 Loss	2 (2)	50%
Ukraine	2	2	1 Win	1 Loss	2 (2)	50%
France	4	4	0 Wins	4 Losses	3 (3)	0%	France has failed to win any EL or CL finals. Monaco and PSG have lost in the CL, while Marseille has been beaten in the EL.
Scotland	3	3	0 Wins	3 Losses	2 (2)	0%	Rangers (2 finals) and Celtic (1 final) have made the EL final this century.

• The longest streak for consecutive EL/CL finals contested by country is England between 2005-2013, where at least one English club made either final.
  
• Spain has the most European doubles (EL+CL) with five this century. England is the only other country to have won both the EL/CL in the same season (once, in 18/19).
  
• Inversely, England, Italy, and France have had clubs qualify for the EL and CL final(s) in the same season but subsequently lose both. France lost in 2004 (Monaco in the CL/Marseille in the EL), England in 2006 (Arsenal in the CL/Middlesborough in the EL), and Italy in 2023 (Inter in the CL/Roma in the EL). Germany can do the same in 2024.
  
• The biggest loser (with at least 3 finals against) vs a particular country is England against Spain, with a loss percentage of 90% (9/10 finals lost).
  
• Spain has won the EL/CL at least every other year since '98.
  

By Club (min. 2 finals)

Club	Country	EL Finals	CL Finals	Total Finals	Wins (Win %)	Loss	Notes
Sevilla		7	0	7	7 Wins (100%)	0	Undefeated in all seven EL finals.
Madrid		0	7*	7*	6 Wins (100%)	0	Match in hand vs Dortmund
Atletico		2	3	5	3 Wins (60%)	2	Both losses vs Madrid
Barcelona		0	4	4	4 Wins (100%)	0	One of the few remaining clubs to win the CL multiple times, but not the EL.
Valencia		1	2	3	1 (33%)	2	Lost both CL finals
Chelsea		2	3	5	4 (80%)	1	Sole loss came against United in 2008 CL
Manchester United		2	3	5	2 (40%)	3	Losses against Barcelona (x2) and Villarreal
Manchester City		0	2	2	1 (50%)	1	Finals in 2021 and 2023
Liverpool		2	5	7	3 (42%)	4	Losses against Madrid (x2), Sevilla, and AC Milan.
AC Milan		0	3	3	2 (66%)	1	Miracle of Istanbul...
Juventus		0	3	3	0 (0%)	3	The most consecutive CL losses without winning this century.
Inter		1	2	3	1 (33%)	2	Inter was the first Italian team to compete in an EL final (2020) this century.
Bayern Munich		0	5	5	3 (60%)	2	Losses in 2010 and 2012 CL
Dortmund		2*	1	3	0 (0%)	2	CL final to be played
Leverkusen		1	1	2	0 (0%)	2	The only club to make the EL and CL this century, but not win either.
Porto		1	2	3	3 (100%)	0	The first club to win the EL+CL this century
Benfica		2	0	2	0 (0%)	2	Losses against Chelsea and Sevilla in back-to-back years.
Marseille		2	0	2	0 (0%)	2	Loss both EL finals
Rangers		2	0	2	0 (0%)	2	Losses against Frankfurt and Zenit St. Petersburg

• Sevilla holds the longest winning streak this century with seven consecutive final wins (all EL). Madrid will match them with a win vs Dortmund.
  
• Porto is one of four teams to win the EL + CL this century: United, Porto, Liverpool, and Chelsea.
  
• These teams have won all their finals (min. 3): Porto, Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona.
  

Hi. Last weekend made a 386% profit in just a couple of hours, but I'm also feeling career burnout in the process. It was hot out and I had this idea - people need cold lemonade. I am 8 years old and have never had a lemonade stand. I had my pops take me to the store and I bought some cups, lemonade mix, and ice. I borrowed the table and made a sign with some construction paper and crayons I already had. The lemonade, ice, and cups cost me like $16.78 I think, and add a little for rent on the table and chairs and some for marketing, so maybe $20 max. I ended up with like $72 dollars plus tips. That's in about 3 hours, so $24 per hour. If I can sub the business out to Timmy, and do the same on three other blocks, and charge $10 an hour for the business licensing, can I FIRE on this by the time I'm 12?

This is going to be a long one so bear with me please. I am also giving a lot of backstory and past issues bcz I feel they are relevant to the matter and also I feel like ranting. Also this is in India so the currency is Rupees. Before we start I just want to say that I am not perfect in any way or form and I have done any fair share of mistakes. I(20F) have been in a relationship with my bf Jake(22M)(fake name) for roughly 5.5 yrs now. My family is not rich but we do have a lot of money bcz both my parents are doctors but I did not realise we have this much money until 2yrs ago. (Am not very street smart as U will see in this post). Since after abt 1.5 years of relationship (May 2020)when lockdown started his family fell on hardtimes as his family owns a shop and bcz of the Pandemic they weren't able to run it. At first it was bcz one of his friend got into an accident so he needs money and he told me he will give it back etc (i don't remember if he ever did as it was yrs ago). At the time I had money saved up so I helped out the first few times with my own money. Then when I ran out of money then he said to ask my dad or mom, or steal from my house and give him some. A lil back story here, my mom and dad are separated so they did not used to talk about finances so I would take extra money from my dad than what was actually required and give the rest to jake. For e.g I required 3k for a parcel or smrg then I would ask for 5k, give my mother the 3k(I live with her, my father lives separately) and give the 2k to jake. I also gave him cash many times by essentially stealing from my mother's closet. When I used to say NO he hurled abuses at me and called me every name in the book which a person can imagine, guilt tripped me and pushed me very hard and I gave in almost every time. He told me he will give me back eventually, he has made an investment,etc. Basically all stupid lies to have more time, then one day during an arguement I pressed on when he is gonna return the money and after a lot of time he told me there is no investment and he used the money in his family's shop. After 2.5 year of this in October-Nov of 2022 we both got admissions in universities which were around 2 hours away from each other. Till then this pattern continued and his family was still struggling bcz of his father's brother divided the joint business or something else. Before this when we were at out respective homes he told me he got some operation done for smtg in his abdomen. I gave him 10k from my mother's closet for that and even when I went to meet he had an area bandaged (was very unprofessionally done my dumb self should have understood that it was also fake) one of his friend also confirmed that he had operation done and I was coordinating with him on the said dates when he was supposedly admitted. He also used to frequently tell me that he has suicidal thoughts and he will end himself etc . After we went to our respective colleges once we had a big fight and next day he told me that he tried to end himself by jumping of the balcony but his friend (who he was staying with at the time),Luke, stopped him worrying for him I called Luke later and told him I was worried for Jake and to pls take care of him. He was confused by this and asked me why what happened. I asked him abt last night's attempt, he told me nothing of that sort happened. This opened a can of worms where it was revealed that he was making a fool out of me, guy owned a fucking Iphone and was telling me that his family was on hard times and taking money from me. This is also when I found out that their was no operation. I don't remember what else I found out that night but felt like a huge betrayal and I talked to 3 of his friends that night for quite a few hours where a lot of lies were revealed. I broke it off with him, at this point I had lent a total of Rs.75-80k. He begged me for weeks for forgiveness, at first I laughed in his face but as weeks went by I started to miss us. He came to meet and win me back a few times at my uni. Eventually, a month later I forgave him on some conditions like he wont lie and share everything with me, won't tell me who or who not to be friends with (he did that before a lot). Few months later the cycle started again, I was back to giving him money from the monthly spending amount I used to get(it was a lot at first bcz I was just settling in,now my monthy allowance is wayyy less). He did not like the friend group I was in so I stopped talking to them (bcz they knew abt our situation as I broke down crying in front of them when I found out abt all this so he felt like he lost respect and They didn't respect me etc, admittedly they weren't good and I would have distanced myself eventually anyways maybe cuz the vibe didn't match but that should have been my call I feel) and he still (>1 year later) yells at me if he suspects that I am casually talking to them. My college is in a much smaller city so I go to meet him once to twice a month as he shares a flat with few ppl and the city has more activities to do. Other than the first few times (when we got back together) I pay almost if not all bills like gas (for his 2 wheeler) and food. It's very frustrating at times but I understand that he does not has enough money as his father does not send him enough to cover rent, food and expenses or so he says ( sighs IDK anymore guys what's true and what's not). Jake says his family is still struggling bcz his sister went to UK last year to study and that took a huge chunk of money and they have loans to pay, etc. I can believe this is true. Also he says they have virtually almost no savings left bcz business isn't doing great hence his father sends him rent t food expenses andsays to manage The rest on his own (he does not has a job so guess where the money comes from 🤡). In the Past few months admittedly he has not asked for money frequently but when he does its like a huge chunk. He has also taken loans (with interest) from some of his friends without telling me. He has done this multiple times before after I have repeatedly asked him to stop. (Embarrassingly I admit there are more instances when he has acted like a red curtain but I think I can write a book at this point if I list them all out so let's move on to the latest problem).
Onto The current issue Almost 3 days ago now, Jake called me (we already have been fighting for I don't even remember how many days at that point a week maybe?) and we told me that he was told by his dad that they have been unable to make payments for the loan they took from a person keeping their shop as collateral, they have to pay half the amount (Total amount was 5 lakhs) and interest which was 64k tomorrow to that person, they have arranged most of the money but are short by abt 30k. He asked me can I do something (steal or ask my dad). I refused as there is no money in my mother's closet anyway and I haven't talked to my dad in abt 3 months now. (ofcourse I did not outright refuse and just gave him my reas oning buz I'm a doormat 🥰🤡🤡). I pressed me to pls talk to my father about money and tell him I need it for my tablet (I bought one just a few days prior). I refused and said he won't give me money anyway. He asked what about my mother's bank account, it must have something. One account is linked to UPI ( It's for making online payments in India) and one is not. The one that is linked does not have much money bCz my mother's salary has not been credited in 4 months. The other account has money but as it does not has UPI activated online payments cannot be done.I told him all of this. He asked can I activate the UPI if my mother's asleep and plz transfer him the money (also said to transfer it first to my own account so if she finds out then I can say my friend needed it so I have lent some for a month or two🙂 ) I mean maybe I could if I really wanted to but I have had enough, I do not want to steal. Now his family is potentially loosing the shop and he is blaming me for it. I have repeatedly tried to reason with him and told him that if I had the money in my account I would have given him (My account had 1k and I transferred him that😔). He says his blood relatives (his father's siblings refused to pay even a dime, I mean they and their children all are grown ups and have jobs and if They didn't pay how does he expect me, who does not has never had a job give him money, probably it's my fault I have enabled him enough every down time by giving him money so how he just expects everytime that I'll help bcz I am family).
He is still pressing me to give like 5k now bcz now he wants to go to another city and talk to the lender's brother to pls provide them with some Time. But I do not have the money 😕. He says that 'if I would have really wanted then I could but I did not think of his family as mine ', " U will understand my pain when U will loose something of yours for lesser value Than it really is " (The shop's market valve is 4O lakhs and they lost it for 5 lakhs) Also has called me quite a few names since then. He arranged 1K and said " I'm going today there I'll see what to do after reaching there." Says he wants to breakup ( it's pretty normal to say it's over after fights so I don't really know if he is even serious) for 2 reasons - 1. I did not give him money 2. When he will go to uni he won't have any spending money so he'll expect are to help out, and he knows I won't and he does not want that disappointment.
I mean TBH I wouldn't care if it were a few hundred rupees but it won't be, additionally I will be The one covering The costs as usual when I go to meet him. I won't have any money left for my own. And I really want to start saving up again. I have spent outrageous amounts of money in The past year (go figure the reason) and saved up nothing. Today he was still begging (he used the word) me to pls arrange the money. He said I leave for uni in 2 days after summer vacations so I'll get my allowance, technically I can ask for it in advance and give him. But I don't want to after he has treated me. Everytime I tell myself that this is the last time, I'll leave the next time he does this but I just stay. I know I'm not responsible for him and his family but I still feel really guilty about not giving him the money. I know I should end things but it's just difficult to leave something which you have been attached to for so long, it just feels natural to you. Rn he owes me I don't even know how much but it's maybe around 1 lakh something. Not counting The amount of gifts (some he guilt tripped me into buying 🙄 ) I have bought him and the money I have spent on my trips to visit him. IDK if I'll ever see that money again probably not. Please also give me advice on how should I proceed with the breakup, I don't want him to do anything drastic like come to my house or call my mom to tell him abt our relationship (frowned upon in India).
I know the answer but still need the answer should I give him some money from my allowance and WIBTA if I don't ? (Sorry for any errors in writing, I'm writing on tablet with a stylus)

1,000 days! This was my next big personal goalpost after 1 year. But today is bittersweet because my senior cat and I are waiting on some critical results. He’s fading. I might have to make a big decision for him on Monday. But - I’m not drinking about it. And for the past 1,000 days I have been present for him, home at night and I’m so grateful for my sobriety and the gift it gives back. Pray for the comfort of my boy: Dr. Spaceman. He was with me for my party days (I found him in a dumpster at a bar) and he’s now seen me through my 20s and pretty far into my 30s. He’s a fantastic cat I’m glad I could really be there for him when he’s needed me the most over the past two years. IWNDWYT. I’m proud of myself, I haven’t even wanted to. 🖤

My family and I are looking for sunny holiday destinations for mid October from on a direct flight from New York, ideally no more than a 5 hour flight. It will be my parents who are in their 80’s but able to get around pretty easily, my siblings that are all in their 30’s/40’s and two kids (one is three years old and the other will be four months old). We’re looking for somewhere with sun where we can pretty much relax with a pool/beach but want a place where we can have meals catered/all inclusive. Also, because it’s October we are thinking it would be best to avoid hurricane prone areas. Does anyone have recommendations of areas/resorts I should check out?

Hey Guys, Okay I am going to share the My deepest secret here. I am a 26 Year old Male from India. I have discovered that my Dick is very small (4-4.5) inches, I am fat, ugly obviously. Also I have discovered that I ejaculate very soon maybe within a minute when I masturbate. So I have come a conclusion that I would not be able to satisfy any women in this world. And why will women even be with me when I can't give them basics. I am just an average guy earning average money .And I have left hopes on this life. I am just surviving thinking I must not voluntarily kill myself (Also that would be a bad name to my parents) but to keep eating and becoming fat and one day I will die cause of obesity heart attack. always dreamed of having a small family good wife and kids and earning for them. But I am so doomed in life cause of the problem which cannot be fixed

I'm struggling a little bit with Scooterjoring. My girl is a little over a year old. A few months ago we started Scooterjoring, and she loves it. She's pretty good at it, and we've got the basic commands down (Hike, Gee, Haw, Easy, Woah, etc.). In general she's very well behaved, and with an On By! command I can get her to ignore most things that may be off in the distance. The problem comes when a squirrel or other animal comes across her path in close proximity. When that happens she forgets all of her training and will try to drag me off the path or in the middle of the street to get it. I don't really know how I should be correcting her in those situations, and it is difficult to predict ahead of time because critters sometimes pop up right in front of her.
We also recently started lure coursing and Fast CAT. My girl has an extremely high prey drive, and she LOVES doing these sports. I'm not sure how to balance encouraging her prey drive and chasing behavior in one context but discouraging it in another, or how to set up situations where I can have her practice restraint while Scooterjoring and reward her for it.

1. A question for the UK Bogleheads here, I have a SIPP with Vanguard and i'm curious what your portfolio choices and weightings are?

Currently i'm 100% in equities with VHVG, the FTSE developed world ETF (ACC).
At 33 years old I generally dont contribute towards this SIPP and just use it to combine my work place pensions whenever I leave that employment. I didn't really fuss too much about bonds with my investment horizon but i'm open minded and interested in those of you who advocate for asset diversity, whether it be for an all weather type reason or other.

1. As a bonus to all lurkers of this post, I was planning on a single broad based accumulation index fund as I have mentioned above for my SIPP, but I'm also using a Lifetime ISA (LISA) where I do contribute regularly for retirement. This is tax free and I'd rather put my cash there as a first port of call. In this fund I was going to go a bit more aggressive and aim for overweighting/underweighting some funds. The weightings are approximations at the moment and I'm open to suggestions:

• VUSA at maybe 50%
• A global small cap Value fund, overweighted to 15%
• Commodities at 10%, metals, agriculture or renewables specialised fund (I know this isnt commodities, but its in the same little extras category, just for the purposes of my list)
• A rest of the developed world (ex US) for the remaining 25%
• failing a rest of the world fund ex US (because they seem to be rare here) I'd probably split between developed Europe and Developed Asia, with a slither of Developing or EM.

My LISA is with AJ Bell
Thoughts?

Below, I am posting the list of everything I've read in the last few years, organized by author. Please, help me find something new. An author I don't know, a fresh take on an established subgenre, an exceptionally well written piece, something I just missed somehow, or a unique story/perspective I haven't seen yet. I've been on a bit of a sci fi kick lately and want to come back to horror. I'm currently reading Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons and Fairy Tale by Stephen King. Should be done with both pretty soon. Your recommendations will be added to my queue! Thank you in advance!
Author Title
Agustina Bazterrica Tender is the Flesh
Alex White Alien: The Cold Forge
Andrew Shanahan Before and After
Ania Ahlborn Seed
Anne Rice Interview with the Vampire
Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand The Fountainhead
Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Bram Stoker Dracula
Bret Easton Ellis American Psycho
Brian Hodge The Immaculate Void
Brian Hodge I’ll Bring You the Birds From Out of the Sky
Brian Hodge Skidding Into Oblivion
Brian Hodge The Darker Saints
C. S. Humble All These Subtle Deceits
C. S. Humble The Crusade of the Black Cross
C.S. Lewis The Magician’s Nephew
C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis The Horse and His Boy
C.S. Lewis Prince Caspian
C.S. Lewis The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
C.S. Lewis The Silver Chair
C.S. Lewis The Last Battle
Carlton Mellick III The Big Meat
Carson McCullers The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Cassandra Khaw Nothing But Blackened Teeth
Catriona Ward The Last House on Needless Street
Charles Bukowski A .45 to Pay the Rent
Christopher Buehlman Between Two Fires
Christopher Buehlman The Lesser Dead
Christopher Buehlman The Suicide Motor Club
Christopher Buehlman Those Across the River
Christopher Covello HowExpert: Guide to Obstacle Course Racing
Christopher Golden Ararat
Christopher Priest The Prestige
Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk Lullaby
Cixin Liu The Three-Body Problem
Cixin Liu The Dark Forest
Cixin Liu Death’s End
Clay McLeod Chapman Whisper Down the Lane
Clive Barker Books of Blood Vol. 1 to 3
Clive Barker Imajica
Clive Barker The Damnation Gam
Clive Barker The Hellhound Heart
Clive Barker The Thief of Always
Clive Barker Weaveworld
Clive Barker Coldheart Canyon
Clive Barker The Scarlet Gospels
Clive Barker Books of Blood Vol. 4: The Inhuman Condition
Clive Barker Books of Blood Vol. 5: In the Flesh
Clive Barker Books of Blood Vol. 6: Lord of Illusion
Clive Barker Mister B. Gone
Cormac McCarthy No Country for Old Men
Cormac McCarthy The Road
Dan Simmons A Winter Haunting
Dan Simmons The Terror
Dan Simmons Summer of Night
Danielle Vega The Merciless
Dave Pelzer A Child Called “It”
David Duchovny The Reservoir
David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest
David Goggins Can’t Hurt Me
David Goggins Never Finished
David J. Lieberman You Can Read Anyone
David Seltzer The Omen
Dean Koontz Darkfall
Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Edgar Allan Poe The Raven
Edward Lee Teratologist
Elan Gale You’re Not That Great
Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights
Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front
Ernest Cline Armada
Ernest Cline Ready Player One
Ernest Cline Ready Player Two
Ernest Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls
F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis
Fyodor Dostoyevsky Crime and Punishment
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell Animal Farm
Gerald Brom Lost Gods
Glenn Beck Common Sense
Grady Hendrix My Best Friend’s Exorcism
Grady Hendrix We Sold Our Souls
Grady Hendrix Horrorstör
Grady Hendrix The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Gus Moreno This Thing Between Us
H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells The Invisible Man
H.P. Lovecraft The Alchemist
H.P. Lovecraft At the Mountains of Madness
H.P. Lovecraft Azathoth
H.P. Lovecraft The Beast in the Cave
H.P. Lovecraft Beyond the Wall of Sleep
H.P. Lovecraft The Book
H.P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu
H.P. Lovecraft The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
H.P. Lovecraft The Cats of Ulthar
H.P. Lovecraft Celephaïs
H.P. Lovecraft The Colour Out of Space
H.P. Lovecraft Cool Air
H.P. Lovecraft Dagon
H.P. Lovecraft The Dunwich Horror
Herman Raucher Maynard’s House
Hideaki Sena Parasite Eve
Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
J. M. Barlog God of War
J. Sheridan Le Fanu Carmilla: A Vampyre Tale
Jack Ketchum Off Season
Jack London The Call of the Wild
Jason Arnopp The Last Days of Jack Sparks
Jay Anson The Amityville Horror
Joe De Sena The Spartan Way
John Grisham The Firm
John Langan The Fisherman
Jon Robson The Psychopath Test
Jonathan Janz Exorcist Road
Jonathan Janz Exorcist Falls
Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Jules Verne Journey to the Center of the Earth
Jules Verne From the Earth to the Moon
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man 0.5: The Hospital
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man 2: Safari
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man 3: Hellifax
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man 4: Well Fed
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man 5: Make Me King
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man 6: Mindless
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man: Prequel
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man: 2nd Prequel
Keith C. Blackmore Mountain Man 7: Skull Road
Keith R. A. DeCandido Alien: Isolation
Kristina Streva The Inked
Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five
L.I. Albemont A Haunting: The Horror on Rue Lane
Lauren Beukes Ungirls
Lee Mountford The Demonic
Lee Mountford The Mark
Lee Mountford Forest of the Damned
Leo Tolstoy The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow
Mary Doria Russell Children of God
Mary Higgins Clark I’ve Got My Eyes On You
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Michael McDowell Cold Moon Over Babylon
Michael McDowell The Elementals
Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie
Neil Gaiman American Gods
Neil Gaiman The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Neil Gaiman Coraline
Nick Cutter The Troop
Nick Cutter The Deep
Nick Roberts The Exorcist’s House
Patrick McGrath Asylum
Paul Tremblay A Head Full of Ghosts
Peter Straub Ghost Story
R. L. Stine Red Rain
Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Rex Stout The Golden Spiders
Richard Laymon The Traveling Vampire Show
Richard Matheson A Stir of Echoes
Rick Poldark Primordial Island
Rick Poldark Return to Primordial Island
Rick Poldark Cryptid Slayer
Robert Browning Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
Robert Louis Stevenson Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Robert Masello The Night Crossing
Ronald Malfi Black Mouth
Ronald Malfi The Night Parade
Ronald Malfi Come With Me
Ryan James Girdusky They’re Not Listening
Ryu Murakami Audition
S. E. England Father of Lies
Sara Gran Come Closer
Scott Kenemore The Grand Hotel
Shirley Jackson The Haunting of Hill House
Silvia Moreno-Garcia Mexican Gothic
Stephen Graham Jones The Only Good Indians
Stephen J. Dubner Freakonomics
Stephen King The Shining
Stephen King Doctor Sleep
Stephen King It
Stephen King Everything’s Eventual
Stephen King The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition
Stephen King On Writing
Stephen King Hearts in Atlantis
Stephen King Salem’s Lot
Stephen King The Mist
Stephen King The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger
Stephen King The Dark Tower 2: The Drawing of the Three
Stephen King The Dark Tower 3: The Waste Lands
Stephen King The Dark Tower 4: Wizard and Glass
Stephen King The Dark Tower 5: Wolves of the Calla
Stephen King The Dark Tower 6: Song of Susannah
Stephen King Insomnia
Stephen King The Talisman
Stephen King Black House
Stephen King The Dark Tower 7: The Dark Tower
Stephen King The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
Stephen King Pet Sematary
Stephen King Quitters, Inc.
Stephen King In the Tall Grass
Stephen King The Dark Half
Stephen King 11/22/63
Stephen King Under the Dome
Stephen King Rage
Steven Pressfield Gates of Fire
Sun Tzu The Art of War
Susan Hill Dolly: A Ghost Story
T. Kingfisher The Hollow Places
T. Kingfisher The Twisted Ones
Tess Gerritsen Vanish
Theodore Sturgeon Some of Your Blood
Thomas F. Moneleone The Resurrectionist
Thomas Hardy The Return of the Native
Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs
Thomas Harris Hannibal
Thomas Harris Red Dragon
Thomas Harris Hannibal Rising
Thomas Olde Heuvelt HEX
Tom Wolfe The Bonfire of the Vanities
Truman Capote Breakfast at Tiffany’s
V. Castro Goddess of Filth
Vladimir Nabokov Lolita
Walter Tevis The Queen’s Gambit
Washington Irving The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
William Peter Blatty The Exorcist
William Peter Blatty Legion
William Shakespeare King Lear

Hello my fellow sufferers. I just had a couple questions about conservative healing as I feel like I've been getting worse over the last year. I'm not sure when exactly I herniated my L4-L5, because I was having discomfort before I was diagnosed, but it would come and go before. This was after I took a job helping disabled folks find mobility solutions (how ironic), which required a lot of bending, twisting, and sometimes stupidly, lifting people in their wheelchairs to get them positioned correctly to secure them to the floor of minivans. It wasn't until after I did all the heavy lifting on a move to Japan through an airline, a year ago today, that I started noticing tingling in my left foot and some mild dull pain in my left thigh when I sat on my new cheap leather sofa. Shortly after that I was diagnosed with the herniation and put on pain meds with the hope that I would heal eventually by being careful but no PT.
Well I think it was kinda working or I was just distracted by a congenital heart condition I was dealing with (that is fixed now thanks to the brilliant EPs in Japan), but after that something reaggrevated it (last Feb), and it's just been getting worse ever since.
I guess what I'm wondering about is if anyone's found that laying on a sofa is not a good way to relieve this type of injury. Also wondering about toilet seats. We ended up with pretty cheap toilet by Japan's standards, and I want to upgrade the seat. Just wondering if I should look into something padded or not? I tend to feel a bit worse after I sit on our toilet, so I want to make sure I get that right. I also have a 2 year old toddler with tons of energy, and I always try to be careful, but should I not be picking her up at 26lbs? Is it okay to squat down and crawl around with her, or do I really need to be a lame dad for a few months? Like I said, I'm not even sure if the sofa is helping or hurting. Sometimes she likes to jump up on my belly, and I can definitely feel it in my lumbar when she does. I'm starting to think a lot about surgery, because then I would at least have that healing time in a medically approved bed, and feel less guilty about being a lame dad, haha.
Sometimes it's hard to communicate with Japanese doctors, so any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Looking at the Honda Civic Advance (2022-2024). I’m a 30 year old male and my wife is 31.
This will be my first car (I’ve always used my dad’s cars) and I want something that has a reputation for reliability and is comfortable with all the mod cons and good mpg.
We will live in the city centre and WFH so won’t use it during the week too much but more for getting around on the weekends with some potential drives to Italy every year or two.
We look to pay cash for this and can be used with budget of 25-35k.
Does this suit my criteria or are their suitable alternatives? I am also looking at a Corolla for example.

Black Sabbath : Anno Domini : Deluxe Box Set Unboxing Review
Black Sabbath Anno Domini Box Set Review – Why the Tony Martin Years Were So Special
This set spans the period from 1989 to 1995 and includes some of the most underappreciated albums in Black Sabbath’s extensive catalog.
The “Anno Domini” box set is available in both CD and vinyl formats, each celebrate this unique era of Black Sabbath.
CD Box Set Four CDs: Newly remastered versions of “Headless Cross” (1989), “Tyr” (1990), “Cross Purposes” (1994), and a remixed “Forbidden” (1995). Tour Program Replicas: Includes a miniature version of the original tour book for “Headless Cross”. Softback Book: Filled with photos, artwork, and liner notes. It features a mix of new interviews and historical insights, providing a comprehensive look at this period. – The lyrics are not included. Bonus Tracks: Cloak and Dagger (Headless Cross) What’s The Use (Cross Purposes) Loser Gets it All (Forbidden) Poster: A reproduction of a vintage Black Sabbath tour poster.
Vinyl Box Set Four CDs: Newly remastered versions of “Headless Cross” (1989), “Tyr” (1990), “Cross Purposes” (1994), and a remixed “Forbidden” (1995) Each vinyl album pressed on high-quality vinyl, complete with polylined sleeves for protection. Tour Program – Full-size replica of the original Headless Cross tour program. 60-Page Softback Book: Similar to the CD version but in a larger, vinyl-sized format – this does include the lyrics and the inner sleeve details Poster: A large, fold-out poster included.
The Albums
Each album in this box set represents a significant chapter in Black Sabbath’s history, showcasing the versatility and creativity of the band during the Tony Martin years.
Headless Cross (1989): This album marked a major comeback for Black Sabbath, featuring Tony Martin on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar, Cozy Powell on drums, Laurence Cottle on bass, and Geoff Nicholls on keyboards. It reached #31 on the UK Albums Chart and includes powerful tracks like “Devil & Daughter” and “When Death Calls”.
Tyr (1990): A concept album heavily influenced by Norse mythology, “Tyr” featured Tony Martin, Tony Iommi, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray on bass, and Geoff Nicholls. It peaked at #24 in the UK and includes standout tracks like “Anno Mundi” and “The Sabbath Stones”.
Cross Purposes (1994): This album saw the return of Geezer Butler on bass, alongside Tony Martin, Tony Iommi, Bobby Rondinelli on drums, and Geoff Nicholls. It reached #41 in the UK and features tracks like “I Witness” and “Virtual Death”.
Forbidden (1995): Often considered a misstep at the time, this album has been newly remixed and sounds significantly improved. The lineup included Tony Martin, Tony Iommi, Neil Murray, Cozy Powell, and Geoff Nicholls. Notable tracks include “Get a Grip” and “Kiss of Death”.
While the Tony Martin era albums didn’t achieve the same commercial success as some of the earlier Sabbath releases, they have garnered a dedicated following and are celebrated for their musicianship and innovation. “Headless Cross” and “Tyr” performed well in the UK charts, reflecting their importance in the band’s discography.
Overall, the “Anno Domini” box set is a must-have for Black Sabbath fans, particularly those who appreciate the Tony Martin years. Despite a few minor quibbles, such as the absence of inner sleeves in the vinyl set and the softback book format, the quality of the music and the presentation make this a worthy addition to any collection.
The remastering work is superb, breathing new life into these albums and ensuring they sound better than ever. Whether you choose the CD or vinyl version, you’ll be treated to a fascinating period of Black Sabbath’s history.
If you’re a fan of this era or just discovering it, I highly recommend grabbing this box set while you can. The limited production means it might not be around for long, so don’t miss out on the chance to own a piece of heavy metal history.
Phil Aston

Falsch pressed the switch and the glowing red timer of the Facility Implosion Bomb began counting down.
5:00
"It's the only way. The portal has to be destroyed." Falsch reasoned.
"Damn it!" Zysind slammed his fist onto the table, the sound was heard over the communications device.
"..." Schlect stood silent as he stared down onto Falsch tired on the floor, preparing himself to eliminate the anomalies of this world once and for all.
"What is the meaning of this, Falsch?" Duvist, confused, spoke over the infuriated Zysind.
4:44
"I had a great time with you all in this base." Falsch reminisced. "Tell Bonas my thanks for pulling me outta that hell, once he wakes up from his coma that is. I got to live a second time because of him. Veru....sorry lass, but Papa has to leave. Be a good girl for me.``
“God damn you Falsch! You can’t do this! Bonas has done so much work for this.” Zysind yelled at the comms.
“God already damned me once Zysind. The Sealing Team should still be at the surface. Project Portal has to be stopped for Humanity’s good. "
Falsch muted the comms. He took a deep breath and drowned himself in thoughts.
Falsch already anticipated that it would come to this, he knew that the reason why the demons kept popping up was because of a sinner’s soul, his soul, that escaped Hell. The demons want to hunt the escaped soul and bring it back to it’s rightful place as sinner in the depths of hell.
Back then, was a lonely agony in the infinite field of darkness. He cannot remember how many years he spent over there. The looming hatred that tortured him, Schlect, was with him in his hell, constantly reminding him of his failures and mistakes in his first life.
The hell portal that emerged in Limbo that Dr. Bonas accidentally created in studying the hell portals through the Helios artifact was nothing short of an absolute miracle. Falsch entered the other side to a different Earth. Though Falsch received Hell as his punishment for his first life's sins, he got to enjoy earthly life once more for 10 years.
The world that Falsch entered was different to his yet so similar. It was like an alternate earth. As someone foreign and potentially hazardous to this world after coming out of a portal, Falsch was quarantined.
Veru was a sweet little kid at the base, a child of Dr Bonas’ sister who lost both of her parents at an early age. Veru was the person that gave Falsch his humanity over the years after decaying in Limbo. She had an innocent curiosity to what is essentially a dead man from hell. Young Veru approached Falsch after his quarantine and gave him something unexpected, something he hasn’t felt from someone for a long time. Kindness, something long forgotten by Falsch, sparked to him when Veru wanted to play with him with a doll named Molly. Ever since that day, Falsch started to feel like a regular human, and not a sinner from hell burdened by his sins. He felt good, and the weight of his regrets started to feel lighter with Veru’s company. Before then, Veru became like a daughter to Falsch, and Falsch was like the missing father to Veru.
Things would’ve been a whole lot better if it weren’t for Schlect being attached to me. But as a sinner sentenced to Limbo, I am to suffer in darkness with nothing but my dark thoughts. Schlect never fails to belittle, insult, or spite me in every single waking moment. But, I persevered and strived to become a better person for everyone here, especially for Veru.
“Sins crawling on your back sinner? Finally realized the cost of your little vacation here in this Earth? Pathetic.” Schlect sneered.
“You’re wrong, Schlect. This is my repentance and it’s for the good of everyone. I do regret that I won’t be there for Veru.”
“You aren’t just a terrible person but also a terrible father. You don’t deserve Veru.” Schlect insulted.
“Don’t put Veru into this conversation.” Falsch eyed Schlect in anger.
“Or what?”
“...”
“Idiot.”
3:17
The red emergency lights blared ever since the self-destruction countdown began. The heavy metal doors of the facility lowered down and shut all the available paths to the surface, sealing the Demons invading into their concrete coffin. The Demons screamed in anger and hatred as they tried to futilely scratch the impenetrable doors of the underground facility.
Falsch held the Helios artifact. The artifact which allowed the creation of the Hell Portals after Dr Bonas’ exploits with it. The end result… a sea of demons searching for me. Old man better not die so he could take care of Veru, otherwise i’ll be his demon in hell.
Falsch smiled to himself.
Schlect kneeled down and grinned in malice.
Falsch frowned and stared at Schlect at the sudden gesture.
“You’re still incompetent even at your second. You flipped the switch too quickly, idiot." Schlect implied something Falsch forgot.
Zanya and Tyler.
Falsch went wide-eyed, fear and anxiety coursed through his heart.
2:51
Damn it! I forgot about them. I let them do their own thing, while I supposedly did my tasked Implosion mission on the other side of this base, since I couldn’t convince them to not take the Helios artifact. Zanya and Tyler were tasked to a retrieval mission for the research data and artifact. I bloody forgot to inform them.
"You are pathetic and incompetent, Falsch. And you call this your repentance?" Schlect mocked.
Falsch unmuted his device.
"Zanya and Tyler got out right???" Falsch asked in panic at the device.
“FALSCH! YOU BETTER NOT-”
“PLEASE CONTACT ZANYA AND TYLER. THEY’D BE STUCK IN THE IMPLOSION BOMB RADIUS!” Falsch asserted.
“You haven’t even informed them yet of your suicide plan???” Duvist asked, astounded from Falsch’s negligence.
"Confirm Zanya and Tyler's signals!" Duvist commanded.
"Putting their audio in speakers right now!" Zysind followed. “
2:20
"Retrieval team, do you copy?"
Sounds of something collapsing could be heard. Struggling and bated breaths are heard in the comms.
… Silence
"Retrieval team, I repeat, do you copy?" Duvist
"Fuck! Tyler you good buddy?"
"Arghhh, I sprained my damn foot." Tyler complained in pain.
"Retrieval team, are both of you fine?"
"Yeah, we're fine and the data is with us, but not the damned artifact! We're on the surface and we're leaving here as soon as possible. Why did Falsch already activate the Implosion Bomb? What happened to his team? Are they on the truck already?"
“What the hell? Are those the Sealing Team on the truck?” Tyler asked.
1:45
Falsch smiled in relief that both of them are fine. He dropped the device from his ear and pressed it on mute.
"Good... Hehe..." Falsch lightly laughed. "You sick bastard, Schlect. You got me good, you son of a bitch." He continued.
“Laughing even after endangering their lives. Your hands deserve to be stained in blood.”
1:30
“Shut it Schlect. We got one more thing to do.”
Falsch moved and climbed into an air vent leading to the giant laboratory where the Hell Portal was located.
58
He kicked down the vent grate only for it to fall and get crushed violently to the sea of Demons.
“Oh–woah. Hello there!. Looking for me?” Falsch waved at the screaming waves of red muscular and bony beings.
“You should jump to the demons, you Idiot. You sinner. You-”
“One last thing.” Falsch interrupted Schlect’s words and just ignored his continued attempts at malicious conversing.
Falsch configured his communication device to connect to Veru.
The signals clicked and the connection established.
“Papa?” Veru called in sorrow.
30
“Hey there, little girl. Yes, it’s me Papa.”
Veru cried.
“Schlect, you may be half right about this! But, I want you to know, Veru, that Papa Falsch very much loves you alright?” Falsch joked around. “So don’t forget about me okay?”
“Why do this?”
“I already told you why before, sweetheart. I don’t belong here.”
“B-but, you could just throw the artifact to the portal and come back.”
“I know, but it won’t end up good. The Demons would only come soon after, and I don’t want a world where my Veru would be encumbered by me.”
“...” Veru understood.
“Love you Veru.” Falsch cried.
“I-I-I love you too Papa.”
“Goodbye.”
Falsch disconnected regretfully.
5
“Goodbye, everyone!” Falsch announced to anyone that could hear.
Falsch jumped into the portal, alongside the Helios Artifact. As he almost fully crossed the portal, the implosion bomb detonated leaving nothing but a giant crater of which the base of Project Portal was constructed.

I have an 8 year old Fantail Goldfish that is very special to me. He currently lives in California and we are moving to Alabama. What are my best options for transport? Should I ship him or should I bring him on the plane? I would be heartbroken to leave him.

Hey there! I am a 23 year old guy, and im looking for my special someone.
I am 190cm(6'3) tall, I have short black hair, hazel eyes. My hobbies are driving, working on my car, going to the gym, play video games, listen to music and watch YouTube videos, and also play with my dog too :D I go to university to be an IT Engineer and also work part time aswell.
I am a very cuddly person, very loyal, honest, and I like giving all of my attention to the person who's important for me. If we'd get closer, I'd love to spend all my freetime with you and chat/voice call a lot, and hopefully develop a long lasting relationship, and hopefully it'll turn to irl in the future.
I'm looking for a girl who's also cuddly, clingy, kind, sweet, and who'd also be a good Passenger Princess 😋
If you'd be interested in chatting and getting to know each other, send me a message :)

I had my period when I was 9 years old. My mom thinks that's abnormal. So she keeps on finding doctors, to find anything that can stop my period. Most of the doctors said I was fine and I was 155cm at the time. Only one doctor said I could use Leuprorelin.
That injection is expensive in my country. When we went to another famous hospital in our country. That doctor offers my mom a free injection if I participate in the experiment. Of course, he didn't say that it was an experiment.
He said they would just collect some blood for 3 days, after the injection. I am a stem person and want to be a scientist. From the book I read, I know that's an experiment. I told my mom I didn't care about my height. I didn't want to get the injection. Don't sign the paper.
However, I am a 10-year-old kid. All I could do was look at her signing the informed consent paper.
I am now 165cm and luckily I don't have many side effects. My mom is really easy to fool, stupid and mentally ill. That doctor better goes to hell, for taking advantage of a 10-year-old and a mom.