Two weeks ago, I spoke on the phone with Tom Ono, the manual writer for Heroes of Might and Magic III. As usual, Tom asked how things were going. I said things were good... then proceeded to whine and complain for the next five minutes (much to Tom's amusement).
When the conversation concluded, Tom said, "Don't complain too much. Some people would give their eyeteeth to be in the game industry." I responded, "Who are these people and why haven't they been beaten for their own good?"
My name is Gregory Fulton, game designer for Heroes of Might and Magic III (developed by New World Computing, published by 3DO). You may call me Greg. Like most game designers, I'm sure you'll find me a bitter and cynical man, aged beyond my years, full of sarcasm, and inexplicably drawn to the horrors of game production like a lobotomized moth to the "pretty" flame.
As I guide you through your weekly tour of my memories, I promise the recollected images will be truthful and sincere but written with a smirk and a wink.
Undoubtedly, we will interact with the following animals: artists, level builders, managers, producers, programmers, testers, and monkeys. To help ensure your safety, I request you fasten your seat belts, keep your hands to your sides at all times, and be sure to not make any quick and sudden movements. Remember... we will be passing through the game production process.

12/05/98
It's Saturday. I'm at work with three other members of the Heroes3 team. I'll be in again tomorrow.
Smells like "crunch time."
Everyone in the game industry knows the term "crunch time." Those not in the industry may ask, "What is crunch time?" Long hours: 10-18 each day. We're starting our fourth crunch month. We have at least one more after this.
Bad take-out food: Mexican and Chinese food are New World's favorites. Today we had Taco Bell and Domino's pizza as part of NWC's "work for food" program.
Social Life: To work in the game industry you must already have some form of social retardation. When crunch mode begins, you may only speak in code to coworkers. Immediate family and friends may be seen on brief occasions so they don't file a missing-persons report. I'm one of the lucky ones; I don't remember having any friends or family.
Hygiene: Haircuts and showers become optional in favor of more sleep time. For me, showers are a must, but my hair is sprouting wings and a tail. Pretty soon I'll look like the lead singer from Flock of Seagulls.
Stress: Anger and frustration are frequent companions. If bridges are burned, this is usually the time. Earlier this week morale was low. In a fit of anger concerning team interactions, I was heard shouting, "I feel like a kindergarten teacher. Can't everyone just keep their hands to themselves and play nice!"
Murphy's law: Any potential hazard will be encountered. I'm writing this diary from the NWC conference room. My computer refuses to function for more than five minutes without seizing up.
12/06/98
This weekend I'm taking care of my PR duties (hence this diary). Not the most exciting stuff, so I'll relate a short story from earlier this week.
David Mullich (producer), Mark Caldwell (NWC vice president and programmer), Jon Van Caneghem (NWC president, creator of all things Might and Magic, and company design visionary), and I found ourselves crowded into the sweltering office of Scott White.
Scott did all the town screens in Heroes III except the Rampart, Necropolis, and Fortress. Since he finished his 3D duties, he's turned his skills to the game's interface. Believe it or not, we were in Scott's office arguing about color: interface colors and player colors.
After much arguing about the interface colors, we decided to leave it virtually untouched. Player colors were a different subject.
Originally, we used light blue, dark blue, red, green, purple, brown, black, and white. These colors needed to change. Light blue looked like the blue used in the main menu. Brown clashed with the brown used in the general game interface. Game text disappeared against white. Black and green disappeared with the terrain colors shown on the game mini-map.
OK. We agreed some of the colors needed to change. After this, the agreements stopped. I don't know what is more ridiculous... arguing over what colors to use or the twisted logic behind the arguments. Red, blue, and dark green were safe choices. We still needed five other colors. The conversation went something like this....

"I don't want yellow. Yellow is the urine color."
"What about brown?"
"I don't like brown."
"Brown is the s**t color."
"What about pink?"
"Pink is a sissy color."
"We won't call it pink. We'll call it 'rose'."
"Rose?"
"The rose player?"
"I don't know. If I saw a pink hero, I'd turn and run away. You know any hero secure enough to use pink as his color is bad ass."
"What about magenta?"
"What about cobalt? What about cadmium?"
"Have we accounted for all the fecal colors?"
"What about orange?"
"Phelan (our art lead) doesn't like orange. It looks bad."
"So. I don't think it looks bad."
"Fine. You tell her you want orange."
"She'll kick your ass."
"Oh. Fine. We won't use orange."

So it went. Fifteen minutes later everyone agreed to disagree, and Jon was made the final judge. Here are the final colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, aqua, and rose (pink).
12/07/98
Today we stopped all map production. From here until we ship, I join the mapmakers and testers in playing maps and writing bugs... or so I thought.
Today, I had dropped into my lap the assignment of converting the 144-plus pages of the game manual into a help file. Anyone who has written a help file knows how huge this task can be. I could probably finish it in a day, but it requires no one bothering me for an extended period of time. Ha!
At this late stage of the production cycle, my entire day is spent meeting with people, making sure people are doing their work, and confirming that what is being done is correct. I don't have time for work. I've made the ugly evolution from game designer to middle manager.
It wasn't like this at the beginning of the project. At the beginning of the project the game designer is the screaming prophet, lost and alone in the desert (or the design process if you prefer).
In the middle of the production process the prophet is being screamed at by all his fellow coworkers who are wondering what to do because the design doc is behind schedule.
At the end of the project, everyone's a screaming prophet, and everyone is screaming at everyone else.
Sometime in the middle of all this screaming I've got to write this help file. Maybe I could give the assignment to Christian Vanover (H3 assistant director). Isn't it the job of a middle manager to delegate?
12/08/98
Yesterday I was wondering where I would find the time to write the game help file. Today I have the answer.... I think I have the flu. This doesn't feel like any 24-hour "see-ya-bye" flu either. This feels like "kneel before Zod!" flu.
All right. I've got a story for you.
Earlier today we "officially" stopped making maps. From here on out, we play, test, and polish the game. This could mean a little, or a lot. If the maps play well the first time out, revisions will be minor. If we end up chucking whole maps, we may find ourselves back to making maps. Thus, we started playing them today. JVC (Jon Van Caneghem, New World's president) ended up playing a notorious map named "Barbarian Breakout."
Ten minutes after he starts, JVC pages me over my phone intercom: "Hey Yoda." (He's been calling me Yoda lately. I don't know why. I'm not sure if I should be honored or offended. On one hand, Yoda is wise and he trains Jedi Knights. On the other hand, he is a short ugly green dude with big ears.) "Enemy hero with six behemoths (one of the highest-level creatures) knocked on my front door on week two, day one."
"Oops. I'll be right there."
As soon as I walked into JVC's office, the razzing began.
"What's with the six behemoths? Is this one of the balanced scenarios?"
"OK, OK. Something's wrong. Turn off the fog."
Jon restarts the scenario, turns off the fog of war, ends turn four times in a row, then right-clicks the enemy hero to see the extent of his forces. Aside from his other three stacks of creatures... he has one stack of six behemoths. Oops.
"All right. Open the map in the editor."
Jon opens the map in the editor. What do we discover? First, the enemy hero starts at level three, and the mapmaker (Dave Botan) has given him four stacks of creatures. In addition, the enemy hero's starting town has three of seven creature generators already prebuilt.
No wonder the enemy was able to recruit behemoths on day four.
Remember the story about the father who comes home from a bad day at work and yells at his wife? She in turn yells at her kid. The kid in turn kicks the dog.
At this point, I'm looking for a dog to kick. So, I hunt down Dave Botan. Immediately, Dave states his defense.
"Everyone says the map's too hard. It isn't. The AI's cheating." (Recently, we discovered the artificial intelligence was exploiting an undiscovered bug allowing it to recruit more creatures than were actually available.)
"The AI doesn't need to cheat. It's already got a huge advantage."
"There's a bug."
"Doesn't matter. Set all players to normal starting conditions."
At this point everyone begins to playfully dog-pile on Dave telling all the reasons why his maps suck. In the end he relented and fixed the map.
12/09/98
I'm not writing from work today. I'm writing from home. I have seven-way-straight-from-the-bottom-of-the-Amazon-flu.
With this kind of flu the logical course of action would be to rest, drink lots of fluids, watch lots of movies, maybe see a doctor. However, I am a game designer and unfamiliar with the ways of logic. A day at home with the flu means I have the opportunity to finish the H3 help file.
Wow.
How pathetic can you get? On my day off to rest and get better, I use the uninterrupted time to convert a 144+ page manual into a help file.
I should get sick more often. I get more work done.
12/10/98
I'm back at work today. Good news... I finished the help file. Bad news... I still have the flu, and because I was so efficient in writing the game help file... I've been given the task of writing the map editor help file. Oh yeah, finish it by Monday.
Monday? There's so much pressure in my head, when I sniff, my eyes want to flee their sockets. My voice has the auditory consistency of sandpaper. Monday? Sure, I'll have it done by Monday.
12/11/98
Well, it's Friday night, and I have yet to see Star Trek: Insurrection. Doubt I'll be seeing it anytime soon.
One of the unmentioned symptoms of crunch time is cultural unawareness. In my time at a previous company I almost missed the entire O.J. trial. I haven't seen a movie since Starship Troopers. I'm not kidding.
12/14/98
I shouldn't have come in to work Thursday and Friday. It really pushed me over the edge. For the past two days I've been laid up with fever and chills. Remarkably, it was the one thing to take my mind off work. Aside from a froggy throat, it seems to have passed.
Enough about my illness. From here on, assume I'm always ill with the flu.
12/15/98
Today NWC (New World Computing) took a brief pause from game development to listen to Trip Hawkins (president of 3DO, NWC's parent company).
Twice a year, Trip makes a formal visit to talk about the company and where we're going as a company. It's a nice break from things.
However, Trip wasn't half as exciting as David Richie (our tools programmer) who sat next to me. Turns out David is coming down with the flu.
Over the course of the meeting, the air conditioning didn't turn on. With over 50 people crammed into a room, it got hot very fast. As the minutes passed, I could see David slowly whither.
I thought he was going to vomit. So basically, for most of the meeting, I sat envisioning how I was going to get out of the way when the volcano erupted.
Luckily, the volcano did not erupt. David left in the middle of the lecture and I haven't seen him since.
12/17/98
Welcome to the end of another working day at NWC. There is still no sign of David Richey. Another one of our programmers, John Krause, called in sick today. David Mullich (the Heroes III director) was ready to take bets on who would call in sick next. Of course, everyone blames me for getting them ill.
As far as your average NWC workday goes, this one was hectic and full of revelation.
Revelation?
Yes. Revelation. Only today did I look at my calendar and realize Christmas was next Friday.
Hectic?
Yes. Hectic. Every now and then I need to wipe my desk clean. This means catching up on all the hand-scrolled notes and stray post-its littered about my desk. When my desk is clean, I'm caught up.
This very act of cleaning makes for a semi-chaotic day. There is much gear shifting and subject changing to close dangling issues.
Add to this my usual parade of visitors, and my first chance to test multiplayer, and it takes great effort to avoid turning into a screaming monkey. Yes, I said screaming monkey.
Frequently, I find myself held hostage in my own office as a line of visitors (testers, programmers, artists, producers, etc.) quickly assemble outside my office in a short period of time, all wanting a piece of my brain.
Today it happened to occur while I was in the middle of a multiplayer game with Jeff Leggett (H3 multiplayer programmer). Simultaneously, I had three people show up and cram themselves into my small office. Each began jockeying for position to ask a question. Meanwhile, Jeff waited on the phone intercom, with Heroes III continually chiming in the background, letting me know it was my turn to play.
At this point you may apply the screaming monkey metaphor.
Despite the great potential for chaos, I asked Jeff to wait, gave my three suitors a number, told them to wait in line, then answered each of their questions.
On the surface, everything looked under control. Little did these poor souls know there was a screaming monkey, trapped in my mind's steel cage, wildly thrashing about in a desperate attempt to escape and turn me into a volcano of anger and lunacy.
When it was over, I took a deep breath, noted the walls weren't sprayed with the blood of innocent coworkers, and returned to my multiplayer game with Jeff.
Heroes II multiplayer wasn't friendly in the least. When it wasn't your turn, all you could do was sit at the computer and stare at the screen like a moron.
Well, thanks to our wonderful network programmer, Jeff Leggett, a moron you will no longer be.
Jeff has finished implementing multiplayer support. Now we're on a bug hunt. So, today, Jeff and I played a multiplayer game in the background while we went about our work.
I must admit, I had a blast. Moments like this make me forget my job is serious work.
12/18/98 Friday
Today I actually managed to catch up on all my notes. Next up, International Translation Kit. It can wait until Sunday. I don't get to enjoy these moments of accomplishment very often.
Being a game designer is nothing more than a life of delayed gratification. You spend the first month of the project "being creative," then spend the next 17 as a bricklayer implementing low-level details and boot-strapping the game design when unforeseen consequences arise.
Tomorrow we have our annual company Christmas party. I won't be going. I see my coworkers every day at work. I don't want to see them in a social environment. It'd be too weird. They'd have, like, spouses and dates and stuff, and wear dress clothes.
We've been told we can dress formal or casual. To me this means torn jeans and a food-stained white T-shirt. To everyone else, this means dress formal, because no one wants to underdress.
I don't want to see any of my coworkers dressed up. The thought frightens me. We're a bunch of geeks. We don't look good in casual wear. Formal wear will only amplify our geekiness.
Only one thing could entice me to go to the Christmas party - seeing the wives go off on the management for working their husbands so hard. I'd pay to see that... provided I wasn't on the receiving end.
By the way... hello to Chris Cross and Brian Reed, two friends I made when I briefly worked at Dreamworks Interactive (I didn't work on Trespasser). They called me today. They'd read the first entry in the Designer Diary and called to tell me what they thought. They then tied me up on the phone for the next 30 minutes while simultaneously sending me e-mail with bizarre and obscene attachments.
01/02/99 Saturday
Well, I'm back at work. The Christmas break was needed. I spent the first three days drinking eggnog, sleeping in 12- and 16-hour shifts, and watching Clinton get impeached.
After I was well rested, the eggnog was all gone, and Clintion was impeached, I did what any game design loser would do... worked on the game while on vacation. Ugh. I'm so pathetic.
My initial goal was to play existing maps. After playing five maps, it was obvious the AI hadn't been fully tested. It tended to sit back and never struck out until it had enough forces to guarantee a win.
This made for very extreme game experiences. Either you never saw the AI, or it came storming out of nowhere, knocked on your door, and politely introduced itself as your doom.
When our AI programmer (Gus Smedstad) gets back from vacation, I'll need to share my findings with him.
Well, seeing as I couldn't really play the game, I turned my attention to our 144-page game manual... much to my horror.
It turns out our second draft of the manual was full of errors. So, with red pen in hand, I promoted myself from game designer to fact checker. Over the next three days, I proceeded to bloody the pages of our beautiful manual.
To say it was tedious would be an understatement. When it was all over, I couldn't read anything if it wasn't written in fine print.
01/04/99 Monday
Today was another screaming monkey day. Why? One word: programmers.
I won't say who, but one of our programmers came into my office and proceeded to yell at me over a feature request he'd been given to program.
Why was he yelling at me? On the surface, it was because I hadn't given him enough details, or I hadn't thought through its impact enough. Or it could have been because it was simply a stupid feature, I didn't know what I was doing, and I was ruining the game.
The real reason? He wasn't sure how to program the task he'd been given, and the specified time frame was short. Instead of calming down, thinking it through, and telling me whether it could or could not be done in the given time frame, he panicked, and chose to vent at me.
Programmers are a unique breed. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Some of my best friends are programmers.
I must admit I am fascinated. I've watched each of our team programmers code. It's very amusing. How they code gives me a unique insight to their personality. For instance...

John Bolton (lead programmer): When John programs, it looks like he's playing chess.
David Richey (tools programmer): David doesn't code. Beforehand, he thinks about his task in depth, like contemplating philosophy, then simply writes it up. Quite often you can look through David's office window and see him bent over in his chair, chin on fist, like The Thinker.
Mark Caldwell (NWC VP): You need to know Mark to really understand, but when Mark codes, it's like he's in a boxing ring, ducking shots, trading blows, and trash talking with the program.

Now take such individuals and do the unthinkable... Make them into a team. Worse yet, force them to have meetings in which they must interact on a social level and agree to work together. Worse yet, force them to interact with right-brained artists and game designers.
It's a wonder any games ever get made.
Join designer Greg Fulton as gives us his very last Designer Diary entry, which tracks the last days of Heroes of Might and Magic III. In these last few days, the team waited anxiously to approve the gold candidate. But there is no rest for Greg, as he mentions a little something about the expansion disc. Join us as we count down the final development of Heroes III.
01/07/99
Ever heard the phrase "thousand tile stare"?
It's a phrase used by our mapmakers. You get the thousand tile stare from making H3 maps all day long.
Today I got the thousand tile stare after making a map for our eventual game demo.
It's a very simple, small map, letting players experience a portion of the game. Hopefully they'll experience enough and feel compelled to buy the game. I've been calling the map "Dead and Buried."
When I finished, I gave it to Chris Vanover (H3 assistant director) to play. Chris is an expert Heroes player. He's a good gauge of the map's difficulty.
Watching Chris play was a lot of fun. It allowed me to take a break from work and finally see the game in action. However, I am the worst person to have over your shoulder when you play.
Why? I'm a backseat driver. It's a bad habit from playing console games with friends.
Thus, I watched Chris play and second-guessed him all the way. We were like two old men spitting and complaining about the best strategy as Chris clicked his way through the game. It was rather humorous.
01/08/99
Today I gave the Dead and Buried map to a few select people to see if anyone could beat it in the allotted time frame of four game weeks.
One of my candidates was Jen Bullard. Jen is the only female tester in the QA area.
Upon entering the test area, I found Jennifer burning a candle at her desk. She wasn't afraid to comment aloud how everyone else in the test area doesn't wash their clothes often enough. She thinks they stink.
No sooner did I sit down to watch Jen play than the verbal bantering between the testers began.
Ryan Den, another one of our testers, was sure he found a bug and asked aloud if anyone had encountered the same bug. No one had. Immediately everyone began shouting "user error." Ryan thought they were all high... until he realized it was user error. Everyone then proceeded to playfully tear into Ryan yet again.
I must admit, our testers are pretty cool. Their interactions are quite amusing. They banter with the voracity of a knife fight, but it's rarely cruel.
01/14/99
Last night was my last chance to revise the game manual. Thus, I decided to pull an all-nighter to finish it. This was my first time being at NWC so late. I also experienced something completely new.
I had been drinking many free Cokes when my bladder reminded me who was really in charge. Without hesitation, I raced to the bathroom. I opened the door. It was dark. This is not unusual. The lights are hooked up to a motion sensor. To save energy, they turn on and off based on the presence of a moving body. Confident the lights would turn on, I strode into the bathroom.
The lights did not illuminate.
Fumbling around in the dark, I was able to find the light switch and flip it on.
Nothing.
Fumbling around some more, I found the door handle and exited the bathroom.
Moving quickly to Mark Caldwell's office (Mark and George were also working late), I told him, "The bathroom lights won't turn on." He said, "Yeah. The bathroom lights don't turn on after midnight." I asked, "How do you go to the bathroom with the lights off?" He answered, "Usually I just feel my way to the urinal."
"I need to take a crap."
"Hey, I wouldn't know anything about that. Get the flashlight from George."
"I need a flashlight?"
"Yeah."
So, I walked to George's office.
"I need the bathroom flashlight."
Giggling to himself under his breath, George reached into his desk and gave me a pocket flashlight. With flashlight in hand I returned to the bathroom where everything went according to plan.
I know game production has its odd moments, but... this one was really odd.
01/18/99
In the last days of a game's production, the game designer makes a desperate attempt to prevent features from being cut to make the deadline. However, if I got all the features I wanted, the game would never ship. Thus, there is always a tug of war between the game designer, management, programmers, and artists, to decide what gets into the game and what gets pushed back to the expansion or sequel.
Today I was doing my best to get a new hero into the game without too much additional programming or art. I realized I could get the results I needed by simply adding a new graphic and customizing an existing game hero. Even better, I could get the graphic from existing art in the intro movie. All the artist had to do was crop a freeze-frame from the movie and give it to our asset manager to be put into the game. I could customize the hero in the editor. All the programmers had to do was recognize the character's unique identification.
Well, we did.
I wonder how much longer I can push my luck.
01/19/99
I have become the Walmart floor manager.
No. I haven't quit my job.
Let me explain.
At this stage in the making of the game, I find myself spending most of my time walking the halls with my Notepad of Oppression waiting for people to call out my name.
The notepad is a list of issues needing resolution. Most people find the notepad humorous unless their name is on it. Ironically, I end up putting my name on the notepad more than anyone else's (I'm oppressing myself).
Regardless, when I am walking the halls and someone calls out my name, I duck into their office to answer their questions. Sometimes this means getting on their phone and calling someone else to clear up an issue. If I don't have the answer, I'm the intermediary.
Thus, I feel like the Walmart floor manager, roaming the isles, taking care of arising issues. All I really need is the blue vest.
01/20/99
For a moment, consider most game manuals. Usually, a manual details the game interface and introduces you to the various game elements. Rarely do these manuals give you true game statistics.
For Heroes III , we wanted to buck this trend. Using the Heroes II strategy guide as a model, we decided to make a big manual loaded with information. This is exactly what we did - 144 pages.
Today we signed off on the manual. Well, no sooner did the ink dry than we discovered some errors. It was terrifying. I literally sat at my desk, looking at the errors I had discovered, and heard the manual mocking me with the chittering of a wild hyena.
There was nothing I could do. It was carved in stone. Now understand, most manuals ship with some errors. This is what the Readme is for. However, several people had gone over this manual time and again, and still there were errors.
I'll never make a big manual again. It's too much upkeep considering the fluidity of game design.
I'm sure I'll lose some sleep over this.
1/25/99
Today the Coke machine caught fire.
Let me repeat this.
Today the Coke machine caught fire.
Since we started crunching, around 7:00pm each night, Mark Caldwell (NWC VP) has been unlocking the Coke machine for free drinks to go with our evening meal. We don't continue pressing the selection buttons for the various drinks. Instead, we literally open up the front half of this big, red, half-ton refrigerator, made to withstand the assaults of the most juvenile of delinquents.
Now, I'm not exactly clear on the details, but one of the testers pulled open the front door to grab a soda from inside. Apparently, some of the electrical wires were sheared, followed by fire and smoke.
Upon seeing the fire and smelling the smoke, the tester grabbed Ben Bent (NWC office manager and part-time game director). He then pointed out the fire in the Coke machine.
With perfect calm, Ben simply unplugged the Coke machine. Poof. The fire went away.
I must admit, I can't help but see the fire in the Coke machine as a metaphor for Heroes III in production. A fire starts, someone panics, and someone else calmly solves the problem.
Truthfully, it's the story of the game production process.
2/07/99 Sunday
Today could be the day.
We've decided to make a "final candidate" CD-ROM for 3DO approval. A final candidate is what we consider "ready to ship." We then send the final candidate to 3DO for them to do shrink-wrap testing.
Tonight, no one leaves the building until the game is finished.
2/08/99 Monday
It's 5:00am Monday morning.
We just started burning the final candidate.
About half the team is still here.
We've been crunching too long. Everyone's burnt.
About 15 minutes ago, Mark starting broadcasting Money For Nothing over everyone's speakerphone.
Ironic.
02/13/99
I am literally weak-kneed. Except for writing this entry, all I intend to do is just sit in my office chair and do everything I possibly can to do nothing.
As of 8:30 Saturday, February 13, we're calling it good Barring last-second crash bugs, the game is done.
It's 9:30, and with the realization the game is done, already I'm beginning to crash.
After crunching for so long, the crash is the aftereffect. This is the time when you finally realize you can relax and return to a somewhat normal life. This is also the flag signaling the release of all the pent-up stress and illness you've been holding off by sheer will for the past six months. Thus... crash.
Wow.
We're done.
02/14/99
Four days after announcing Heroes has gone gold, we're already talking about the expansion pack. Already, I've assembled my map makers. They're good people. With H3 under their belts they should make even better maps for the expansion.
The downside? Chris Vanover is moving onto a different project. Technically Chris was H3's assistant director, but I adopted him as my assistant designer. He was a big help in many of the grunt areas. I was hoping to hand the expansion off to Chris so I could concentrate on the next Heroes.
No such luck.
Ultimately, this means vacation must wait.
(whimper)
Where is a monkey boy when you need one?
02/19/99
David Mullich's (Heroes III director) wife was pregnant and expecting about the same time as E3 last year (Atlanta '98). So, he couldn't go and demonstrate the game.
I was the next logical choice. I know the game better than anyone else, and when needed, I can turn on the charm.
Now don't get me wrong, when I have demoed the game, it has been a delight. Yet, as a game, Heroes III doesn't demo well. It's a turn-based game. It's not a first-person shooter or real-time strategy game. There's no real immediate reward for your attention span to latch onto.
However, Heroes does have a very large, very dedicated following. Thus, most people who want to see Heroes are already fans. This was the case at E3.
At E3 I did the vast majority of the presentations. I did so many I ended up losing my voice. Almost all the people who saw the game were fans of Heroes and liked what they saw. We were so successful, people were taking chairs from the other game stations to sit in front of ours.
Well, the downside to my work at E3 was... I became the demo guy. The downside of being the demo guy is traveling.
I hate traveling.
Once I arrive at my destination, there's no problem. I'm just impatient by nature. I'm also 6'1" and hate sitting in supercramped airline seats.
So, today I got to fly up to 3DO with Peter Ryu (MM7 producer), Keith Francart (MM7 director), and Jeff Blatner (new Heroes producer) to give presentations on MM7 and Heroes III to our Ubi Soft partners and a smattering of European journalists.
As much as I hated getting up at 5:30am and traveling to San Francisco (less than one week after going gold), the trip was amusing for a number of reasons.
Since I have been at New World, Peter Ryu has always worn shorts and sandals. For the presentation, Pete was ordered to wear pants and shoes. Throughout the day, he was wincing as the shoes rubbed his feet raw.
The other amusing part was hanging out with the French chicks from Ubi Soft and the European press.
Last time I was at 3DO I did an H3 presentation to a number of European journalists. Not a French woman among them. It was different this time, and dare I say, worth the trip.
02/22/99
David Mullich (H3 director), George Ruof (H3 programmer), and I are the only members of the team in the building today. Everyone else is on vacation.
Over the weekend I began my self-rehabilitation for returning to the real world.
When you do nothing but work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week, and then it all comes to an abrupt halt, you suddenly find you have all this spare time on your hands.
Ultimately, you become bored. You don't know what to do with yourself because your "normal" situation meant working on the game... but the game is finished. Normal has become different and no longer normal.
A logical assumption for curing this boredom would be a vacation. Not yet. I've got to write the design for the expansion disc. I've got two weeks before it is due. After hammering out the specs, everyone will be briefed, then I can go on vacation.
I've got it all planned out. I haven't seen my parents since Christmas of 1997. So, I'm going to go back home and sit in the rocking chair in front of my dad's big-screen TV and watch nothing but cable television for at least two weeks. You heard me. Nothing but CNN Headline News for two weeks. If by then I'm not properly vegetated, I'll watch it for another week. Then I'll track down my old high school girlfriend and see if she's still single.
I've set up an e-mail address for your feedback about the game when it hits the shelves. This e-mail is merely for player feedback and suggestions. I will be the one reading the e-mails, and most likely, I won't be answering any of them. So, don't flame me if I don't respond. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
I've enjoyed writing these diaries. I wish I had been able to dedicate more time to them.
My apologies to Elliott Chin (who made these diaries possible). Elliott wanted me to talk about the design philosophy behind H3. After practicing design philosophy 12-14 hours a day, I couldn't bring myself to write a diary about it. So, I thought I'd do "a day in the life." I hope you enjoyed my tongue-in-cheek account.
I leave you with the following words I once heard the great Jon Van Caneghem speak, "When it's all over you'll forget how hard it was and do it all over again."
He's right. We will.

Credit for the original story goes to u/spacepaladin15. This is the final chapter of NoP 2177, although I personally consider it more of an epilogue. Either way, I hope you enjoy!
[First] [Previous]
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Memory transcript subject: Tressa, Venlil outlaw
Date [Standardized Human Time]: January 5th, 2178
Location: USS Washington, dark side of Venlil Prime
A bloodcurdling shriek echoed through the hall, followed by the sound of claws scrabbling against the metal floor. A frantic chase ensued, a blur of fur and scales flying down the corridor at breakneck pace. But it was over before it began. A connecting door slid shut with a quiet hiss which silenced all hope of escape, leaving the terrified predator at the mercy of an increasingly impatient prey.
“Hy, we’ve been over this. You need to take baths, or your scales will get all yucky and stop growing. You don’t want that, do you?”
Hyacii was still frantically searching over the door for some way to open it. Her lovely gray coat, matted in oil from some ill-advised exploration through the ship, left streaks of iridescent sludge across the polished floor which would need to be cleaned up. But that could wait.
“Hy…”
Finding no escape from her grim fate, the young Arxur finally turned around to face her captor. “N-no! I don’t wanna!”
“Hyacii, I’m giving you ‘till the count of five. If you don’t come with me when I hit zero, I’ll go get Sasha and she’ll bathe you instead. Fiiiiiive…”
“NO!”
“Fourrrrrrr…”
“I’ll tell Mama! I’ll tell her you’re being mean to me!”
“We’ve talked about this with her, remember? Little Arxur need to keep their scales clean to grow up big and strong. You want to grow up all big and strong like she is, right?”
“She wouldn’t say that! I want to see! I want to see what she said!”
“Sweetie… you’re just stalling. You can’t read big Venlang words yet like she uses.”
She cast her head to the side in a pout. “Yes. I. could! I’ve been practicing with Trish, this much!” To emphasize her point, she stretched her little arms out as far as they’d go.
“Threeeeeee…”
Hyacii swept her tail across the floor in frustration, further smearing oil everywhere.
“Twoooooo…”
With time running out, she employed her final weapon, an expression which Sasha referred to as ‘Puppy dog eyes’. While normally adorable, it now only served to highlight the dark smears across her face.
“One and a half…”
Her full arsenal depleted, Hyacii finally capitulated and stormed over to Tressa’s side with exaggerated stomps. She allowed herself to be picked up, trying and failing to suppress an adorable noise of comfort as Tressa rubbed the scales around her shoulders. He’d need to shower later anyway, so the sludge staining his ragged fur was hardly a concern.
—
The little Arxur squirmed playfully in his arms, kicking up splashes which cut through the layer of bubbles to soak his bedraggled wool as he tried to dislodge more of the thick oil.
“Are you enjoying your bath, sweetie?”
“Yes!”
“I thought you hated baths.” He took a moment to stop scrubbing, and stretched his arms out wide. “This much, right? Isn't that what you said?”
“N— Yes! I do, they take so long, and they’re so… I hate them!”
“That so? What are you doing enjoying one, then?”
Hyacii had no response, which he took as his cue to get back to washing. He carefully cleansed the iridescent sludge, revealing a dense pattern of gray scales which shimmered like a rippling pond. She giggled as he washed around her snout, swishing her tail in a motion which was normally adorable but now only served to push more water out of the bathtub and onto the floor.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you earlier…” He started, pointedly ignoring the irritating feeling of water soaking into his fur and pooling at his ankles, “...but James’ll be out for the next couple paws. He took Beast with him, so no checking on the garden for a little while, OK?”
She grumbled for a moment, before a curious look flickered past her eyes. “Why does he and Sassa keep leaving?”
“Why do he and Sasha keep leaving, not ‘does’. Anyway… you know how we can’t eat the same food you eat?”
“Right! That’s why you’re build— uh, growing the garden!”
“Yeah, but the garden isn’t all grown yet. Until then, we still need to get food from the city. Once our garden grows, we can stay here all the time for you. Remember how we talked about patience?”
“But I don’t wanna be patient! I want him to be back now!”
“So do I, but everybody needs to wait for things. If you keep busy, he’ll be back before you know it!”
Hyacii pouted. “You’re just trying to trick me into practicing more words, aren’t you?”
“I might be. But you want to talk to your mom all on your own, right? If you keep learning with Trish, you can tell her all about the horrible baths we make you take. Speaking of… here, ready?”
After getting a human-like nod of affirmation, Tressa lifted her from the tub and onto a towel. They weren’t sure if the heat of an air dryer would harm her scales, so getting her dry was almost as laborious as getting her clean. It was worth it, though; she enjoyed the feeling of being towel-dried almost as much as she enjoyed tearing around the halls at Mach two. A muffled peal of delight issued from the heap of towel that used to be an Arxur, as he set to work wiping the water from her scales.
—
The USS Washington was once a proud human starship, one of several hundred which had so briefly encircled Venlil Prime to act as defense. Sasha talked about that brief period sometimes, usually when she was drunk; though it lasted only months, enough history was made in that span that it felt like a full decade.
Long, beautiful months for some; the ones who talked reverently about Tarva as though she was still Governor, who made dumb jokes about the Venlil’s behavior on first contact when they still regarded humanity as violent and strange creatures. Sasha, naturally, was one of these people. She’d go on and on about what a magical time it was when they realized the universe was far bigger than they ever knew, and how incredible it was to make friends among aliens. Her closed-lipped smile, a habitual remnant of a time when most Venlil froze in terror at a human’s teeth, spoke of how much humanity was willing to give up for the chance at intergalactic acceptance.
Miserable, chaotic months for others; those who talked about it as a time of strife and mistrust, when Venlil lived in fear of predation and humans suffered the agony of constant rejection and hate. Only following the first bombing of Earth did things begin to change in earnest, and even then it was hardly a clean transition. Refugee shelters and human-friendly businesses went up in flames in a grim foreshadowing of the fate that would befall Venlil Prime as a whole, the planet condemned to burn for sheltering uncured and unpacified humans. Of course, the fact that they were sheltered instead of willingly led to slaughter painted a somewhat softer view of the time period than many would admit.
Both narratives ended the same way. There was no debate over the justice of the Federation’s rule for the generation that remembered a time before; those city-scorching flames still burned fresh in everyone’s mind. Nor was there any debate over the trustworthiness of humanity, not among the Venlil who remembered the invasion.
When an exterminator fleet descended upon Venlil Prime, the UN pulled back the resources it desperately needed elsewhere to defend the planet. Earth itself was left all but unguarded in the effort to save a species that humanity had been allied with for less than a year, a task they set to with a desperate fury that hinged on madness. Hundreds of ships flung themselves at the enemy in suicidal charges once vital systems were crippled, targeting bombers and ensuring that the Venlil could not simply be annihilated from orbit.
​
The USS Washington was not one of those brave kamikaze vessels. It was one of the ships in orbit as a passive defense, knocked out of the fight with relatively minimal damage and able to make a hasty emergency landing on the dark side of Venlil Prime.
In the time Tressa had spent getting systems up and running, he’d never come across a single skeleton; the ship had been thoroughly picked clean by shadestalkers, or perhaps the crew had managed to evacuate without casualties. Or at least had the time and people needed to move the dead off the ship and hold proper burials. Whatever the reason, it made the difficult work of repairing the ship much less gruesome.
They’d fried any records for obvious security reasons, but left the backup power operational. They’d left a number of vital systems operational; if they had evacuated, they’d done so in a rush. Or perhaps they expected victory, and didn’t anticipate the need to scuttle the ship. Either way, Tressa’s job was a hell of a lot easier for it.
Restoring water had been a far simpler job than he anticipated. He’d been dreading the prospect of digging a well, but equipment scavenged from the ship itself had made that process far easier, and the onboard supply alone was enough to last months. With this abundance, they could even afford such extravagant luxuries as baths. Hyacii really didn’t know how good she had it.
—
Once he’d gotten the little Arxur all cleaned up and given her a stern talk about not crawling around the ship’s filthier corners, she was free to ignore his advice and go straight back to sprinting around the labyrinthian behemoth they called home.
He often wondered, watching her stalk around the ship, if this exploration of territory and practice sneaking through shadows was as vital to her development as physical contact was for Venlil children. Sometimes he wondered if so much affection was even natural for her species, or if they were smothering her every time they pulled her in for a hug.
She did enjoy it, but… not everything enjoyable was good for her. When she was younger and had no concept of restraint, they’d have to physically hold her back from gorging herself on berries which would make her violently ill, which she’d keep eating anyway because she loved the taste too much. Maybe it was the same thing with their parental love. Maybe they’d have to teach her how to be more independent for her own good, however difficult that change would be for all of them.
Ultimately, the idea was speculation. Depriving her of warmth would be cruel unless they were absolutely certain it would aid in her development. And the fact was, they had no idea. Despite their best search efforts, records concerning Arxur child rearing were nonexistent.
The Dominion actively suppressed any behavior seen as ‘weak’, so growing up under their reign was a harsh and loveless process; at least, that was what they’d been told by an Arxur who lived through the process, and they had no reason to doubt her. There wasn’t a way they could verify the fact, though. The Federation didn’t want anyone thinking of predators as people, so any records that might’ve existed were long since turned to ash.
As cruel as the Dominion could be, they had an interest in keeping their subjects healthy enough to fight. Without those records, and with only someone else’s faint memories to go by, they were largely on their own in regards to physical development.
Was their little Hyacii eating right? They’d been feeding her using an organ printer they’d managed to repair, but perhaps there were nutrients in bones and skin that she wasn’t getting. Her scales were getting slowly lighter; maybe malnutrition, or maybe that was a natural part of her development. Was she sleeping right? Lately, she’d been complaining about grogginess, though it didn’t seem to stop her from tearing around the halls.
And psychologically? There, they were completely in the dark. All species had different needs, especially at a young age. Venlil cubs needed a level of attention that most humans would find smothering. Human children required forms of play that reflected long-obsolete hunting instincts, games which involved chasing and manipulating projectiles. What types of play did a growing Arxur need? They played hide-and-seek with her (as best they could, though it was rapidly approaching the point where she could neither be caught nor hidden from), but that was hardly a replacement for hunting. Was she languishing without prey to chase?
A hundred different worries, a thousand different questions, and not a single easy, reassuring answer. On that fateful night, Tressa had assumed that living alongside a “true predator” would be the hardest part. In fact, that had come easy; how could anyone feel threatened by such a sweet little star?
No, the most difficult part was coming to terms with the fact that they would make mistakes. In their lack of knowledge, trial and error was the only way to gain ground. And “error” meant hurting Hyacii. No matter how much they loved her, they couldn’t help but hurt her. It was a difficult truth to swallow.
But it was a truth they had to accept. Ultimately, all they could do was try. Try, and love her, and hope that was enough to cover for their failures. Hope that one day, someone else would be insane enough to learn from their mistakes. Hope that their little Hyacii wouldn’t be both the first and last Arxur of her generation. Hope that one day, they wouldn’t have to hide. She wouldn’t have to hide.
​
In the cold shadow of Venlil Prime, it wasn’t enough to have power and heat. Plenty had fled to the frigid wasteland in search of respite, only to die cold and alone despite their physical needs being met. They’d simply lay in bed with no will to survive, waiting as their body gave up on life. It was once believed that the dark side was haunted by vengeful spirits, though modern science put the blame on Herdless Depressive Disorder combined with the harsh physical toll of living in such an inhospitable environment.
Someone with a herd could stave off death’s embrace for quite a while longer, up to months. Many on the twilight edge lived this way, dipping in and out of the darkness as their job demanded. However, they knew not to stay for too long; even with the warmth of companionship, the dark side of Venlil prime claimed all eventually. Life was impossible without light.
​
How fortunate then, that the USS Washington was flooded with light. A light like a ghostly lantern, darting through the hallways and crawling through obscure corners of the ship to come back covered in sludge. A light like a burning star, which filled their hearts with warmth every time it closed in for an embrace. The light of hope; what a strange twist of fate that it would take the form of an Arxur.
---
[First] [Previous]

I want to keep a journal of my journey with my traeger I bought 2 years ago. Or my cooking journey in general.
I don't remember the very first thing I smoked on it, but I did smoke a brisket. "smoked"
​
Guess what you have to do to a brisket before cooking it? prepare it. You gotta trim the fat off it? Pffft, just season it up and throw it on. I don't remember what seasoning I used. I ended up staying awake until 2 am trying to get that brisket smoked because it kept stalling. I know now it's because the fat would do whatever it does and bring the temp back down, so it wouldn't cook. Real interesting stuff, now that I think back on it. I got so tired out that I ended up throwing it into the oven and that mother fucker was still raw in the middle. Imagine the audacity of this bitch.
​
I've cooked steaks. I used to season my steaks with dried marjoram. My first steaks look sad and depressing now that I look at them, maybe I'll post pictures eventually. These were in the oven, which is probably why they were sad HEH. Then I used montreal seasoning. I hate this, it's gross. Mom loves it though, so I'll adapt. It wasn't until I bought some blend from costco that really resonated with me. This was delicious! If I had time, I'd low temp smoke the steaks and then grill them. Now I grill them because I typically make them when I don't have time to wait. Steaks are chef kiss though. I prefer ribeye. I've done sirloins, cause they cheap, and I've also done tomahawks because they showed up at Costco. What decadence, I've never even heard of tomahawks before seeing them. Or I have in passing. I used to cook a lot of tenderloins, but I think I prefer ribeyes at this point.
​
Traeger has a seafood broil on their recipe list. I did that. Having Kielbasa twice now, I don't like it. I made my mom season the seafood broil. She didn't season it enough. The shrimp was on too long. So, with overcooked shrimp, it was still pretty decent. Maybe I'll do it again eventually. Having a butter sauce would be nice if I'm not actually going to broil it.
​
Beer can chicken. There's a recipe where you rub lemon juice, fresh rosemary, and stick a beer can up a chicken's hoo haw and that's it. I put onion powder and garlic powder on this chicken. It good. Produces juicy chicken. Flavorful, great. Chicken makes me hella nervous though cause I'm not trying to provide uncooked chicken to myself or my mom.
​
I did pork for the first time, costco sold pork tenderloins for like 5 dollars for the whole thing. Fucking steal! I bought 2. One is still frozen in the freezer right now. I did some cocoa bullshit that traeger has on it's recipe list. Didn't like the rub. Cocoa on meat isn't my thing. Good to know. EVERYONE ELSE loved it and assured me it was good. That's fine but it doesn't change the fact that I don't like it. Otherwise it was beautiful, beautiful smoke ring, perfectly cooked. I think, I don't know. I'm not a doctor. I think because the tenderloin was split into two, it's huge, I might do 2 different rubs for the next tenderloin.
​
I've cooked a blueberry cake thing, also a traeger recipe, and I didn't like that. Everyone else did though. No comments to this, really. I think I did have issues blending it all together, or the prebake part, but whatever. No memories of a year ago.
​
Brisket #2. I made my own rub. My uncle makes his own rub, which inspired me. I don't remember if I liked the rub, I did taste it as I went, so I assume so. All our knives are dull so I used this little cutco steak knife to trim all the fat off. Fuck, I was there forever. Whatever. Got it on the grill, smoked. Did burnt ends with butter and...honey? I don't know, I followed some recipe. I still don't know if it was right. One day I'll figure it out, maybe. I don't like brisket as it turns out. Either I don't like the cut of meat or the brisket I made. It had a smoke ring, it worked, unlike the first time.
​
While grilling steaks, I decided to just toss green beans on the grill also. Just olive oil, salt, and pepper. Holy fuck, fucking perfect. Best green beans. I've made it like 5 times now, straight from frozen.
​
Threw some shrimp on with my steaks in a little pan of butter and salt. Ended up finishing on the stove because we trying to eat here, not starve.
​
Also, cooking baked potatoes on the traeger is one of the best things ever. Covered in olive oil and kosher salt. Perfect. No more salt needed. Butter added and just amazing.
​
I think that's it. I found a brisket elote that I want to make, eventually. I should probably stop making the same things and do new things. I want to learn and just do.

Hi everyone! We are changing our end-of-life asphalt roof to standing seam metal to prepare for solar panels. We received quotes from 3 different roofing companies and there is one we are very close to deciding on because it's the most affordable. The other quotes were at least $13k-$15k higher. It's quite an investment and I'm hoping to get some expert eyes on it here.
Our roof is about 2400 SF and our house is built in 1951, a typical Cape Cod style with 16" rafters on center. We are in the Northeast, so snow about 6 months of the year.

Here's the quote we are thinking of going with:
Reputable local roofer that looks like they're part of a nationwide brand/group. They install asphalt and other types of metal roofs too.
$23k for roof + $2300 to reframe rafters to fit a curb-mounted 45" x 46" FS SO6 Velux skylight over kitchen (exterior work only, no interior framing or finishing included)
1 layer of shingles tear-off. Repair or replace plywood at $325 per 10' x 10', if needed. (Roofing specialist went up on roof and walked around and doesn't think we have any to replace.)
26ga STRIATED Galvalume with Akzonobel coating (I think this is a siliconized resin coating) over 1 x 4 purlins over existing 1/2" roof decking with synthetic underlayment. We are choosing a dark brown frosted finish.
Ridge vent, snow bars, reflashing chimney, vent kits, side wall flashing, corners and gable trim, closures and gaskets included.
Metal has a 40-year warranty and the paint has a chalk/fade warranty of 30 years. Roofer provides 10 years of workmanship warranty.

We drove around to look at houses they've installed similar roofs on and there are definitely noticeable striations. We don't dislike it though we prefer a flatter (minimal 2-pencil rib) look but not $15k more in preference.
I asked about 24ga version of our panels and he said that will oil-can badly, possibly no striations on 24ga? It wasn't very clear. I also asked about Kynar-coated panel option and he said that we would need to replace our roof deck with a thicker decking for proper installation.
Does this sound like a decent choice? Is there anything else we should be aware of or ask about? Thanks so much!!

Never smoked on a Traeger before. Smoked a few briskets on an offset but that's about it. Cooking for 15 people this weekend. I've never trimmed a packer brisket before and considering I'm cooking for so many people, I'm leaning towards 2 flat briskets. Was going to inject with meat church holy cow injection kit and season with 2:1 ratio of holy cow rub and holy gospel rub. Any thoughts on temp and time to cook? If/when to foil? Should I use foil or butcher paper? How long to rest and in towel or in cooler or both? So many things to consider!!!

Hello all. I have a question about skin + beard care.
I have a very short, neat trimmed beard. In my goatee area I seem to have a cyclical problem. My skin seems to shed every two months or so, but in pretty thick flakes. The beard sort of keeps things from shedding, so the flakes build up and almost are like dry scales. If I try too hard to remove it, the skin gets very irritated, red, and may even bleed. So I mostly shampoo and gently massage in the shower with a lot of rinsing, and occasional beard conditioner, but I certainly don't oil or condition often at all.
But I feel like the whiskers are keeping my skin under the beard from properly exfoliating. Or maybe my beard is harboring a fungal infection that causes thickening/plaquing of the skin? I don't know.
By contrast Curology has done fairly well for my forehead and T-zone. But maybe I'm missing something. My skin does well with the Cereve moisturizer. Perhaps work that into my beard and the skin under it? Again, it is a VERY short and close beard. Lol maybe I should make a mix of the moisturizer and the beard oil.
Thanks very much for anyone's help. I'm not sure I've even posted here before, so I appreciate it.

If you are interested in something, lmk and I can send or upload pics and pull model numbers. If you are interested in a bunch, we can setup a time to come by.
Sometime the week of 6/12 whatever is left will be donated to the tool library/maker spaces/Habitat Restore.
Corded power tools in great shape with storage cases if they came with them.

• Makita 5007MG 7 1/4" circular saw + a variety of blades, several brand new
• HPT corded 1/2 drill
• HPT grinder, brand new
• Dewalt sawzall
• B&D Jigsaw
• HF Belt Sander
• Bosch fixed & plunged base router kit, opened but never used. Includes a dozen or so router bits.
• 12 inch Hitachi c12rsh dual bevel sliding compound mitre saw + custom rolling base & cabinet with 4 foot foldable extensions (one for each side) & some blades (new/used)
• 12 inch harbor freight (chicago electric) dual bevel sliding compound mitre saw with blade, used for a few cuts.
• Tons of 12 inch blades, lightly used or brand new
• 1 rockwell oscillating saw
• 1 oscillating saw (forget brand, acquired at costco)
• Several dozen new oscillating saw blades
• 20 year old craftsman 1/2 inch drill, well used but very reliable

Large corded tools:

• Dewalt D24000S 10" wet saw with blade, clean water bucket, pump, slides, stand, power source, etc.
• Delta 10" contractor table saw model 34-444 with base. Original fence & rails as well as 50" biesemeyer clone fence & rails, blade guard, etc. Cast iron table is perfectly flat, unpitted, no rust. Includes original stamped wings in good shape. It's the last model made in USA before Delta closed the tupelo plant.
  • Tons of blades including Forrest Woodworker II (needs manufacturer reconditioning which is like $75 + shipping), various others new & lightly used) & some Diable blades
  • Also has mitre guide, stacked dado set, low insert plates for some of the blades, paste for the top, lube/grease for the mechanisms, other extras
  • I may have some planejoint & other jigs that will be included if they can be located.
• Older Delta DC-380 15" four poster planer in good shape & working, dust extraction hookup & feed tables. Needs plug replaced as it was damaged when relocating. Will consider it a part out piece if I cannot replace plug before you come to look at it.
• Older craftsman radial arm saw on mobile base, + 7 or so blades

Pneumatic tools

• Porter Cable 16, 18, finish nailer & pin nailer pneumatic nailers
  • tons of unused nails
• Porter Cable 5 gallon oilless compressor, lightly used
• Sanborn Magna Force 25 gallon oil compressor, good shape. Needs the regulator knob replaced ($40 part online) but working otherwise
• Several air compressor cords, various lenghts 10 ft to 50 ft.
• HPT stapler & staples
• Freeman pneumatic flooring nailer, opened never used.
• Ramset w/ nails & powder cartridges

Wood/Woodworking

• 1400 - 1600 sq ft of 3/4 inch x 3.25 inch rustic white oak solid hardwood flooring, new in bundles. A couple bundles were opened. Includes a dozen packs or so of oak splines, possibly underlayment.
• A variety of stain-grade wood including red oak, white oak, maple, poplar, hickory, walnut. Mostly oaks & maple (some but not much tigeburled maple). It's all full dimension 1x1, 1x2, 1x3 in 8'-16' lengths for cabinet face frames. Stacked together, it would be 6-8' tall x 2.5' wide. Most of it is longer lengths.
  • Can include a lumber storage shelf that is 16' l x 3' w x 12'.
• Large chemical resistant work table & base, 3'x7'
• 20 or so rough sawn 1x6 or 1x8 ~16' local blue stain pine boards.
• A dozen or so pairs of Bessey 3/4 inch pipe clamps, 4-8' long
• A few pairs of 1/2 pipe clamps, 4' long
• 8 pair folding saw horses

Remodeling

• Never installed 60" inch vanity, white with separate molded counter & sinks. Will include delta faucets new in box if I still have them
• Several vanity style mirrors 2x4
• Black granite single basin large & deep sink with American Standard garbage disposal & kohler commercial style pull down faucet (stainless). Installed then pulled. I think the sink is Frankie. Never caulked in & I believe we have the top mount & flush mount hardware & cut templates.
  • Also have a matching black granite baprep sink. Opened, never used. Includes installation templates, etc. Frankie brand
• American standard garbage disposal new in box
• New door handles, hinges, hardware in aged bronze (color matched to Kwikset handles & Delta fixtures). Also matching curtain rods, other hardware, new. Also some matching 3 or 4 light wall mount light fixtures.
• Paper backed bat insulation for 2x4 & 2x6 exterior walls. Never opened.
• Never installed light grey large format tiles, enough for 1.5 5' tub surrounds (front, back, side)
• 1 gallon flexcolor CQ grout in light steel grey unopened
• 2 pieces 1/2" x 3' x 5' durock cement board
• 2 @ 1 gallon AquaDefense unopened
• 1 @ ~20 lb bag Easy Sand 90 joint compound unopened
• 1 @ 50 lb bag Planitop 330 Fast wall leveling compound unopened
• 1 @ 50 lb bag ultraflex LHT mortar unopened
• Several pieces of new 4'x8' 1/2 & 5/8 inch drywall
• 1 pack of drywall shims
• Bunch of 4" mdf trim 8' or 10' lengths. New
• 2 pair extendible/adjustable halogen work lights (2 lights each)

Appliances

• Set of 2 year old LG stainless steel kitchen appliances. 25 cu ft fridge, gas range + gas convection oven, dishwasher. Verifying length left on extended warranty.
• 36 inch black range hood exhaust. Opened never installed.
• Whirlpool commercial standup garage freezer, 28 cu ft, white, approximately 12 years old. Great shape.
• Danby 20ish cu ft garage freezer, 2 years old.
• 20 year old whirlpool clothes washer & dryer. Well maintained, 3 year old heater core. Washer has a $4 coupling (still available on amazon) that has to be replaced every 7 years or so. $20 because nobody ever seems to take it when it's "free"

Networking/electrical

• Dozens of new work/old work outlet boxes
• New circuit breakers for GE panels including AFCI & 80-100W breakers
• 14 gauge romex rolls, 100' or 250'
• Heavy duty 25' electrical cords, used for 20 amp tools
• 2 spool of cat 6 ethernet. About 150' on each. Will include fishtape, pull rods, connectors & pull reiliefs, crimp tools, line testers, etc.
• A 2 post network rack, full sized
• Server cabinet, full-sized with fans.
• Rackmount power ports
• 2 24-port gigabit switches (Cisco). I believe they are POE. Will verify when I get the model #s

Storage/furniture

• 6' x 2' x 7' steel adjustable storage shelf. Great shape used for steel/metal storage, never been able to overload.
• Various other wood/basement storage shelving sized for 45 gallon storage tubs. 6-8 long, 8' tall
• T5 grow adjustable shelf with 3 @ 4'x8' T8 light fixtures. Can convert to LED by removing the ballasts. Built out of pine 1x4s.
• Folding 3'x6' Costco composite table
• Solid Oak child's low dressor & high dressor. Painted white.. Needs a bit of cleanup but built like a tank.

Misc Tools

• 6-8 foot i-beam & box levels, like new
• Ridgid shop vac
• Husqvarna battery operated string trimmer with charger, string
• Worx corded blowevac
• Dozens of unopened caulk & sealent.
• 28' warner aluminum extension ladder
• several aluminum or fiberglass extension & step ladders 10-18 feet
• Plumbing tools
• Large variety of drywall knives
• Variety of cement/tile/mortar hand tools

Miscellaneous

• Oreck XL Gold stand up vacuum
• Several Cabela's rod with various bait casting or spin casting reals. Spooled & ready.
• Pair of harbor freight loading ramps, 7.5' long
• Heavy duty furniture dolly & wheeled furniture movers
• Variety of unopened SW paint. Also some opened containers of paints, stains, primers, cleanup materials, thinners, etc. It's all been set aside at the shop so no more of the unopened buckets will walk off
  • Unopened:
  • 1 @ 5 gal SW ellie grey super paint
  • 1 @ 1 gal SW ellie grey super paint
  • 5 @ 1 gal SW silver plate super paint
  • 2 @ 1 gal SW pure white pro classic
  • 2 @ 1 gal SW alabaster pro classic
  • 1 @ 1 gal site white SW resilience exterior
  • 2 @ 1 gal network grey SW resilience exterior
  • 1 @ 1 gal sundried tomato SW resilience exterior
    • Most of the above have a few to several 1 gal partially used if you want them.
  • Opened:
  • 1 @ 5 gal kilz original oil primer, ~3 gal left
  • 1 @ 1 gal kilz original oil primer 80% left
  • 1 @ 1 gal zinsser cover stain primer 90% left
  • 1 @ 5 gal BM white ceiling paint, 4 gal left
  • Several 1 gal containers of exterior stains, 50-80% left.
  • Lacguer thinner, mineral spirits, paint thinner, wood conditioner (pre-stain), floetrol, penetrol.
• Tons of new roller covers/brushes purdey & wooster mostly
• Some heavy duty paint tarps
• 1 roll 12' x 100' 4 mil clear plastic sheeting

Edit: had a work issue come up this AM. Getting back to it. I apologize & thx for your patience!

Thanks for checking out my post! I am selling a good part of my collection and backup products. I am a reliable and trustedseller on reddit with lot of history. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE POOR FORMATTING - REDDIT IS BEING CHALLENGING
Some rules:

• Free Items with purchase only.
• Minimum of $30 spend before shipping. Bundles take preference.
• Discounting:- Take $5 off every $80 spent ; $10 per $140 (before shipment fees)
• Shipping is $6 for USPS First Class Mail, anything that is over 12 oz will need to be mailed USPS Priority Mail. The cost of that is $8 + and varies based on your location. Please be understanding about shipping costs for heavy packages. This is not under my control.
• I will only wait 2 hours for a payment before moving to NIL- Paypal Goods and Services only- I live in a pet free/ smoke-free /covid free home- if no condition is listed the item is new. Feel free to ask any ?
• Happy Shopping :)

​

• BLUSH / BRONZERS: https://imgur.com/a/wpgYiPt
• CHARLOTTE TILBURY Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Cream Bronzer , Medium BNIB $32
• CHARLOTTE TILBURY Blush Sex on Fire BN $25 now $22
• CHANEL Blush Comete, Coral Etoile BNIB $48
• CLINIQUE Cheek Pop Trio, Warm Up. Swatched. $30
• DANESSA MYRIKS Colorfix Mattes, Latte, Swatched $8
• GLOSSIER Cloud Paint, Storm, probably 70% left. $5.
• GXVE Bronzer Contour Duo, Heat Wave. Swatched. 8.
• ILIA Liquid Blush, Before Today. 80% Left. $5
• LILAH B Bronzed Beauty, Used Twice. $20
• KOSAS Blush Duo, Velvet Melon. Used 3x $8
• KOSAS Blush Duo, 8th Muse. BNIB $10
• KULFI BEAUTY Mehndi Moment Blush, Blessed Berry BN $15
• MARC JACOBS lush and Libido used 3x. $10
• MILK Baked Bronzer, Dazed $12 BN
• PAT MCGRATH Skin Fetish Divine Blush, Nude Venus. Used Twice. $20
• PIXI Honey QUartet Quad BN $7
• PIXI On the Glow Bronze Rich Glow, New. $8.
• PIXI On the Glow Bronze Warm Glow. Swatched. $8
• SURRATT Blush La Vie En Rose $24 $20 New
• WESTMAN ATELIER Peu de Soleil. Swatched. $45

​
BLUSH / BRONZERS / HIGHLIGHT 2: https://imgur.com/a/lighqGI

• BITE Daycation Blush, Coconut Rum. Swatched. $10
• CHANTECAILLE Radiance Cheek Duo, Rose. New. LE. $85
• NUDESTIX Matte, Sunset Strip. Used 3x $8
• ROSE INC Solar Radiance Refill, Brilliance. New. $10
• PAT MCGRATH LABS Nude Venus Divine Blush and Glow Cheek Palette, Highlighter Swatched $30
• SURRATT Blush Tu Mai Face Rouger Used Once $20
• SURRATT Blush, Parfait, BN $25
• TATA HARPER Blush, Charmed. Used 2x. $10
• TAN LUXE The Face Illuminating Drops Light - Med $25
• LYS Blush - Kindness. Used 3x. $8

EYE MAKEUP: https://imgur.com/a/cxlVmdW

• BOBBI Brown Long Wear Eye Stick - Bone - used 2x $10
• BOBBI BROWN Dual Ended Cream Shadow Stick - Golden Pink / Taupe BN $20
• CHARLOTTE TILBURY Legendary Lashes Mini Mascara. $8
• COLOURPOP Zodiac Shadow, Libra, Swatched. $10
• KULFI Shadow - Bronze Brocade BN $15
• HOURGLASS Curator Invidividual Shadow: LUX. New. $20 $10
• HOURGLASS Custom Curator Palette 5 pan with 3 swatched shadows as shown $30
• KULFI Zari Eyes Eye Shadow Bronze Brocade BN $12
• NUDESTIX Rustic Grotto Mini New. $5
• PERSEPHONE Shadows - FREE JUST PAY SHIPPING
• PAT MCGRATH Eye Dolls - Rose Venus - $20
• RARE BEAUTY Discovery Palette BN $16
• URBAN DECAY Primer Potion, Eden, Swatched $10

EYE MAKEUP ALBUM 2 https://imgur.com/a/a08o8cC

• BOBBI BROWN Long Wear Gel Eyeliner Chocolate Shimmer Swatched $15
• BOBBI BROWN Dual Ended Long Wear Shadow Stick Bronze Pink / Espresso BN $15
• CHANEL Les Beiges Warm Glow. BNIB $50
• CHANEL Les 4 Ombres Spices BNIB $45
• FENTY Mascara BNIB $10
• NUDESTIX Rustic Grotto. Used Twice. $5
• GLOSSIER Play Eyeliner, Disaster Class, BNIB $25
• Lilah B, B Stunning Quad. Used 3x. $25
• NATASHA DENONA Yucca Palette. BNIB. $48
• OLAPLEX LashBond Serum. BN $35
• RMS Eyelight, Sunlight, BN $15

EYE MAKEUP ALBUM 3: https://imgur.com/a/vPqDB9Y

• FENTY True Neutrals Palette, missing light shade, other shades used 3x $5
• HOURGLASS Curator Invidividual Shadow: ACT. New. $20 $10
• RARE BEAUTY Brow Harmony Duo. Taupe. $10
• GLOSSIER Boy Brow. Blonde. Used 5x. $5
• GLOSSIER Lid Star, Cub. Used 3x. $8-----------------------------------------------------------------------

COMPLEXION PRODUCTS- Foundation/PowdeHighlightePrimer: https://imgur.com/a/miukwg3

• CHARLOTTE TILBURY Nudegasm, Swatched $95
• DIOR Face and Body Foundation, 1W, 90%+ Left. $20
• FENTY Pro Filter Soft Matte Foundation Shade 175 BNIB $2
• HUDA Concealer , Vanilla Swirl BN $15
• LAWLESS Perfecting Setting Powder, Light, BN but a scratch (came like this) $25
• KOSAS Cloud Set Powder, Comfy (has box, not shown), swatched. $20
• MILK Cheek Stick, Werk, Swatched $8
• OLE HENRIKSEN Banana Bright Stick, Banana $10
• PAT MCGRATH Concealer Shade 5. Used 5x. $10
• PAT MCGRATH Concealer Shade 6 BNIB $17
• RARE Beauty Always an Optimist Powder, Deep, New. $5
• RITUAL DE FILLE Highlighter, Solar Flare, Used Twice $12
• SURRATT Perfectioniste Corrector Palette Shade 6. New. $3
• PURLISSE BB Concealer, Fair BNIB $10
• SEPHORA Best Skin Ever concealer Swatched 17.5N $5
• TOWER 28 SOS Spray Used 3x $10
• YENSA Super Serum Silk Foundation Fair 3 BNIB 15
• YSL NEU Bare Tint Mini. Shade 5. $5

​
COMPLEXION ALBUM 2 https://imgur.com/a/d9Yb852

• BOBBI BROWN Skin Full Cover Concealer, Warm Ivory. Swatched. $10
• BY TERRY Brightening CC Serum Apricot, New. $35
• BITE Changemaker Foundation. L15. Swatched. $7
• COVERFX Concealer, Shade G1. Maybe 50% left? FREE
• CHARLOTTE TILBURY Flawless Filter Shade 2 Swatched $25
• ESTEE LAUDER Double Wear 1N1 ivory nude BNIB $25
• FENTY Matchstix Mini. Sinamon. Used 3x. $5
• GLOWISH Bright Light Concealer Fair Light Swatched $10
• IT COSMETICS Bye Bye Undereye. Light Golden. Light Use. $8
• KULFI Concealer, Rose Rush. New. $15
• MAKEUP FOREVER Mist and Fix BN $20
• MILK Future Fluid Concealer 3N. Swatched. $15 $10
• OLE HENRIKSEN Banana Bright Stick Pumpkin BN $15
• PATMCGRATH Skin Fetish Concealer L6 BNIB $17
• PAT MCGRATH Skin Fetish Under Eye Powder Light $15
• PIXI mind your own glow palette. $5
• REM BEAUTY Sweetner Concealer. Fair 6n. Swatched. $10
• 0REM BEAUTY Sweetner Concealer Light 2n. Swatched. $10
• SURRATT Concealer Shade 3 Swatched. $28
• SURRATT Surreal Skin Foundation Wand Shade 4. Used Once. $35

COMPLEXION ALBUM 3 https://imgur.com/a/8eSagXH

• ANASTASIA Pro Pencil Shade 1. Used 3x. $10
• BOBBI BROWN Skin Long-Wear W-026 Warm Ivory. BNIB. $20
• ESTEE LAUDER Futurist Hydra Rescue 1W1 Bone. Swatched. $15
• PETER THOMAS ROTH Instant Firm Primer 30ml New $25
• RARE BEAUTY Positive Light Tinted Moisturizer 20W swatched $18 $15
• GIVENCHY Prism Libre Matte W245 Used 4x, pump is finicky but works fine $20
• GUCCI Luminous Matte 5ml Mini. Shade 220W. $8
• GUCCI Luminous Matte Foundation 160N BNIB $45
• HOURGLASS Veil Powder FS BN. $30
• ILIA Super Serum Skin Tint Shade 4. Exp 5/24. $30
• ROSE INC Softlight Concealer LX030 Swatched $15 $10
• ROSE INC Softlight Concealer LX040 Swatched $15 $10
• ROSE INC Skin Luminious Tinted Serum 040 used 3x $25
• ROSE INC Sunscreen Mini. 5.
• SHISEIDO Synchro Skin Radiant Lifting Foundation 160 Lace. Swatched. $22
• SUPERGOOP Glow Setting Powder. BNIB $20
• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LIPS; https://imgur.com/a/Ir0bAoy

• JONES ROAD Golden Shimmer Cool Gloss $10
• KAJA Balmy Bento 01. $10
• RMS BEAUTY Flirtation of Color Lip Palette New $20

LIPS ALBUM 2: https://imgur.com/a/5MdNdDY

• CHARLOTTE TILBURY Collagen Lip Bath BNIB Refresh Rose. $20
• GXVE Mini Lipstick, Original. $5
• GXVE Lightweight Longwear Matte Lipstick, Tomboy. BN $10
• MILK Lipstick, CREAM. Light use. FREE
• RARE Beauty Lip Liner, Fun, Used once. $9

​
VARIOUS: Brushes / Hair / Body Care https://imgur.com/a/Ti3AHAP

• CHARLOTTE TILBURY Eye Blender Brush $10
• NECESSAIRE The Body Cream BN $20 (heavy)
• PAT MCGRATH Concealer Brush. New. $15
• SEPHORA PRO #45 brush $10
• SURRATT Sculpting Brush, new. $65 now $55
• SURRATT Artistique Foundation Brush, New. $60 now $50
• SURRATT Artistique Concealer Brush Grande New $35 now $30
• ST TROPEZ Luxe Tan Tonic Drops $25
• ST TROPEZ Luxe Body Serum $20 (heavy)

HAIR ALBUM 2: https://imgur.com/a/XOUqehv

• AMIKA Water Sign Hydrating Hair Oil $17 $15
• DAE Monsoon Moisture Shampoo $10 heavy
• GISOU Honey Infused Hair Mask 75ml BN $15
• VEGAMOUR Hydr-8 Deep Moisture Repair Mask BN $30 heavy
• VEGAMOUR GRO Serum BN $35

FRAGRANCE ETC https://imgur.com/a/PqiIhwF

• DIPTYQUE Dancing Ovals LE Roses Candle. NEW $100
• DIPTYQUE Kyoto EDT - Sprayed 3x. LE. $250
• DIPTYQUE Do Son Eau de Parfum 100ml - 95% left $150
• DIPTYQUE Do Son EDT 3.4 oz LE blue Bottle. $110
• HENRY ROSE Queens and Monsters. BN. $75
• NEST Grapefruit Mini Candle $5

​
-SKINCARE ALBUM 1 https://imgur.com/a/UT4JTZE*AVENE

• Cleanance SPF 50 (bought in France) New exp 2025 $20
• CAUDALIE Premier Cru Serum BN $60
• CLARINS Total Eye Lift New. $40
• DRUNK ELEPHANT Protini Cream BN $40
• DR ZENOVIA Benzoyl Peroxide 5%. New. $5
• FARMACY Waterless Vitamin C used 2x $10
• FRESH Black Tea Advanced Age Renewal Cream BN $40
• HYLAMIDE Pore Flush 95%+ Left $10
• OLE HENRIKSEN Strength Trainer Cream BN $20
• PIXI Nutri Eye BN $10
• PEACE OUT Repairing Moisturizer BN $15
• PETER THOMAS ROTH Max Vitamin D Fense SPF 50 BN $20
• SUPERGOOP Glow Setting Powder BN $20
• WISHFUL Yo Glow BN $15
• YENSA pink Lotus peptide cream. New. $10

SKINCARE ALBUM 2 https://imgur.com/a/doHPaep

• DRUNK ELEPHANT Baby Facial Used once $30
• DRUNK ELEPHANT Protini Powerpeptide Serum 5ml $8
• FRESH Kombucha Facial Essence BN full sz $50 (heavy)
• ISLE OF PARADISE Mini Self Tanning Drops FREE (1 each)
• LANEIGE Retinol Firming Cream BN $25 $20
• NEOGEN Cranberry Foam Cleanser $10
• DR ZENOVIA Advanced Retinol Night Repair $20 $15
• REN Limited Edition AHA Tonic. Used Once. $10
• THE OUTSET Caffeine Micro Polish BN $20
• SUNDAY RILEY CEO BN $45
• ​

SKINCARE ALBUM 3: https://imgur.com/a/ATUTAKv

• KATE SOMMERVILLE Hydrat Kate Recharging Serum BN $35
• KIEHLS Ultra Facial Cream SPF 30 BN $10
• KLAIRS Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop BN $10 exp 1/2025
• KOPARI Face shield spf 30 BN $15
• PEACE OUT Dark Spots Serum BN $15
• THE INKEY LIST Succinic Acid Treatment BN $5
• STRIVECTIN Multi Action Super C Retinol, 75% left $15
• SUNDAY RILEY B Nice $40
• TATA HARPER Regenerating Cleanser Mini 15ml $8
• YOUTH TO THE PEOPLE Superberry Dream mask BN $30 $25 (heavy)
• ​

SKINCARE ALBUM 5 https://imgur.com/a/T1Xt9AT

• CHANTECAILLE Eau de Rose 90% left. $30
• DR DENNIS GROSS Vitamin C BN $55
• FRESH Black Tea Overnight Mask 30ml. New. $20
• FRESH Rose Mask 1 oz. New. $12
• FRESH Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask. 1 oz. new. $20
• INNIS FREE Green Tea Seed Cream BN. $15 (heavy)
• KORA ORGANICS Plant Stem Cell Serum $35
• MARIO BADESCU Facial Spray - $5
• MARIO BADESCU Brightening Eye Serum. $10
• PIXI Rose essence oil - FREE
• - PAULA CHOICE C5 Super Boost Cream. $20
• PAULAS CHOICE Hyaluronic Acid Booster BN $20
• PAULAS CHOICE 1% BHA Sensitive SKin. $25
• PAULAS CHOICE Healthy Glow Invisible Sunscreen Oil. 20.
• THE ORDINARY HA 60ml bottle used once. $5
• ​

SKINCARE ALBUM 6 https://imgur.com/a/viZEcDb
ALPHA H Balancing Cleanser, NEW. $20 $10

• PAULAS CHOICE C5 Super Boost Eye Cream. $22
• BANILA Clean it Zero BN $10
• JOSIE MARAN Pineapple Enzyme Cleanser BN $15 heavy
• THE ORDINARY Salicylic Acid 60ml BN $6
• THE ORDINARY Multi Peptide HA Serum BN $15
• SUMMER FRIDAYS Midnight Ritual Retinol BN $35
• NECESSAIRE The Body Retinol BN $25 heavy
• SUPERGOOP Unseen Body Sunscreen BN $25

SKINCARE ALBUM 7 https://imgur.com/a/ZmLaI8N

• ALGENIST Liquid Collagen Gift Set - 10 day results kit $88 at sephora - BN $30 (heavy)
• BELIF Aqua Bomb 25ml LE design. $15
• CLARINS Beauty Flash Peel $20
• DR DENNIS GROSS Fill and Repair Serum $45
• DERMALOGICA Circular Hydration Serum MIni FREE $10
• PIXI Volume Infusion Sheet Mask BN FREE
• PIXI Collagen Tonic FREE (heavy)
• ST TROPEZ Self Tan Whipped Mousse and mitt, new $20
• JLO Booty Balm BN $20 heavy
• MURAD Correct and Protect SPF 45 exp 5/24 BN $28
• ​

📷Dopp Kit: The 5 Must-Have Items for Your Everyday Grooming Routine As men, we often overlook the importance of a well-stocked dopp kit. Whether you're traveling or just need to freshen up after a long day at work, having the right essentials in your dopp kit can make all the difference. In this article, we'll explore the 5 essential items every dopp kit needs for everyday use. 1. Cleanse: The Foundation of Your Grooming Routine The first step in any grooming routine is cleansing. A good facial cleanser will remove dirt, oil, and impurities from your skin, leaving it feeling fresh and clean. Look for a cleanser that's gentle enough for daily use and suits your skin type. Whether you have oily, dry, or combination skin, there's a cleanser out there that's perfect for you. 2. Moisturize: Keep Your Skin Hydrated and Healthy After cleansing, it's important to moisturize. Moisturizers help to hydrate your skin and prevent dryness, which can lead to irritation and premature aging. Look for a moisturizer that's lightweight and non-greasy, so it won't clog your pores or leave your skin feeling oily. A good moisturizer should also contain SPF to protect your skin from the sun's harmful rays. 3. Shave: Get a Smooth, Close Shave Every Time If you're someone who shaves regularly, a good shaving cream or gel is a must-have in your dopp kit. Look for a product that's designed to protect your skin from razor burn and irritation, while also providing a smooth, close shave. A good shaving cream or gel should also be easy to apply and rinse off, so you can get on with your day. 4. Trim: Keep Your Facial Hair Looking Sharp For those of us who prefer a more rugged look, a good trimmer is essential. Whether you're maintaining a beard, mustache, or goatee, a trimmer can help you keep your facial hair looking neat and tidy. Look for a trimmer that's easy to use and has adjustable settings, so you can customize your look to your liking. 5. Freshen Up: Stay Fresh and Confident All Day Long Finally, no dopp kit is complete without a few essentials to help you freshen up throughout the day. A good deodorant or antiperspirant will keep you smelling fresh and confident, while a pack of mints or gum can help you keep your breath fresh. And don't forget a small bottle of cologne or aftershave to help you smell great all day long. In conclusion, a well-stocked dopp kit is essential for any man who wants to look and feel his best. By including these 5 essential items in your everyday grooming routine, you'll be able to maintain healthy, hydrated skin, get a smooth, close shave, keep your facial hair looking sharp, and stay fresh and confident all day long. Related Websites: - Men's Health: https://www.menshealth.com/grooming/ - GQ: https://www.gq.com/style/grooming - The Art of Manliness: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/category/grooming-style/Why don't we learn about dopp kit.

First Chapter
Chapter Fifteen
“Thank you, Ms. President, and Mr. Secretary-General. It’s my privilege to come and speak to everyone present during such a momentous time in human history. One which, I hope, will lead to a brighter future for us all…”
US President Correa’s boilerplate beginning flowed out as she scanned the room. Behind her rostrum sat a larger dais tiled with green marble, behind which sat the UN President, Secretary-General, and Under-Secretary-General. Two huge screens flanked the dais, and those screens now showed Correa’s face as she continued.
“…and we are committed to our country’s pledge to finding a peaceful and just way for Coalition technology to be incorporated worldwide, and to not attempt any reverse-engineering of our own. Make no mistake; we do not do this out of any sense of altruism or fairness, as pleasant as that may sound. We will hold this pledge sacred for the simple reason that, if the United States were to attempt such efforts the rest of the world would, without a doubt, find out. That, of course, would lead to a great instability.”
‘Great instability’ was diplomatic-speak for ‘the rest of the world then gangs up on the USA and then everything goes to hell’.
“I know there has already been a great deal of debate in this august hall as to the best way to proceed forward, in a fair and impartial manner. We believe that we have found what one might call a ‘trial run’ which will allow us to work out such matters.”
The general murmuring from the many semi-circular rows of desks in front of her increased.
“To begin with, during the first weeks after first contact we wanted to make sure our guests from the Coalition would not starve to death. Much like humanity’s own ships during the Age of Sail, Coalition exploration vessels store enough provisions for years…but such provisions never last. They have very advanced recycling, but mostly for water and even that is only a stop-gap measure. It is unknown even at this time as to how long it will take to repair the Exultant Finger of Rithro, and we did not want to risk the crew running out of food.
“Therefore, we undertook an emergency effort to have their ship’s medic examine various Earth foods to determine their compatibility with our guests’ varied biochemistries. I am pleased to report that there are quite a few Earth foodstuffs which are indeed compatible, although there are some specific items which act as allergens amongst some of the Coalition species. During these efforts, we did learn a bit about how their alien biochemistries work…information which has been duly published and is now openly available. We also began to get glimpses of something wonderful, and asked the Coalition crew for more details. They supplied us with some general ideas of what their medical technology can accomplish; I must emphasize that we do not possess any knowledge of how they can perform such miracles.”
Now the murmuring got quite a bit higher, but not quite to the point where they’d have to call for order.
“Yes, I use the word ‘miracles’ advisedly. For example, take Captain Sadaf. You have all seen her, and how she moves like a person in the prime of their life. Now. What if I told you that she is a little over four hundred years old?”
The murmuring died down into a shocked silence.
“Her species, the auhn, is no more long-lived than we are…but they are able to regenerate and remove the effects of aging. I hope the esteemed ambassadors can see what I am driving at. I propose that we set up a research institute, international in scope, to be placed at a neutral location which is still to be determined. The purpose of that institute will be to study and adapt Coalition medical technology for use in humans.”
Now the murmuring started again; she hoped they were actually listening instead of hatching side-deals with each other.
“You all have families and friends. I’m sure you have at least one family member, one good friend, who died of some horrible and unnecessary affliction. Think of what this means to the world, to us. It is also an excellent way to determine the inevitable issues and frictions which will arise from such a concerted international effort, and that, in turn, will inform our efforts in mutual reverse-engineering of other Coalition technology.
“I know this is, in many ways, a frightening time. Change can be frightening. But I am convinced that you will all know the right way forward, and that you will all see the need for us to unite in this matter, even if others may not be so clear-cut. I thank you for the opportunity to speak.”
As she stepped away from the rostrum, the UN President cleared his throat.
“We will now begin the debate on Madame President Correa’s proposal. Paper copies, with specifics of the proposal, are now being distributed to you all. We’ll now begin the debate period…yes, the gentleman from Portugal…?”
__________
Correa’s Chief of Staff was a shorter, tubby man with an olive complexion by the name of Pablo Rosas. He and Correa sat in a White House conference room, staring at a big screen which now showed the results of the UN vote. “Well, I suppose that went about as well as we could expect,” said Rosas.
“Yep. I was surprised they even agreed with our asking them to kick in some money.”
Rosas chuckled. “Keep in mind that all of this new medical tech will be available for anyone patent-free. Should be air-tight legally, since nobody here on Earth invented it; we’re merely adapting it. I think that was the sweetener we needed to get it passed.”
The president gave a brief nod, then tapped a few keys on the controls in front of her. The screen now showed a world map. “Now we just have to figure out where to put the damn thing without everyone getting butt-mad about it.”
“Hmm.” Rosas laced his fingers over his substantial gut as he regarded the map. “Someplace not ‘the usual’, then.”
Correa growled in frustration. “I keep thinking Switzerland, but I know there’s gonna be a lot of shit flung about that it’s too European-centric. Taiwan would be great; they’ve got both a good tech base and excellent transport infrastructure.”
“But way too controversial, for obvious reasons,” replied Rosas. “Japan?”
“China will, again, kick up a fuss. Huh. New Zealand?”
“That might work. They tend to be more neutral…but then again some might say they’re in too close with Australia, and that this whole effort is too Western-centric.” His eyes flicked back to north on the map. He was about to move his gaze elsewhere, but then he paused. “What about Iceland?”
“Iceland?” Correa almost scoffed, then looked more thoughtfully at the map. “Okay, they’re a NATO member which is a minus. But they tend to remain mostly neutral, which is a plus. Decent transportation infrastructure…don’t we have a naval air base there?”
“I think so, let me check…” Rosas tapped at his phone. “Hey, Jack? What can you tell me about any US naval air bases in Iceland? Just the highlights.” After a couple of minutes, he responded with a curt, “Okay, that’s enough, thanks.”
He put his phone away. “We kinda-sorta have one, at a place called Keflavik. The base there used to be a lot bigger during the Cold War. Then we shut it down after the Soviets were no longer a going concern. Iceland uses it now, and they allow us to fly submarine-search aircraft out of there, but a few years ago they nixed the DOD’s request to rebuild it into a more permanent base.”
“That does work in their favor. It makes for better optics if they’re known for keeping NATO at arm’s length.”
Rosas sat up. “Think the UN will go for it?”
“We can only try. I’ll have our ambassador in Reykjavik make some discreet inquiries, let’s see if they’d be okay with our proposing them as a candidate.”
The Chief of Staff smiled. “If it goes through, this institute will be pumping well north of a billion dollars per year into their economy. That should make it more than ‘okay’.
__________
Agent Cécile Savoie sat in a secure-location breakroom, silently grumbling as she held an as-yet un-drunk mug of coffee in her hands. As the agent-in-charge of the security detail during the Camp David incident, she’d been put on administrative leave, right alongside every other agent who’d been there. But it wasn’t like she had much down time; the inquiry board into that incident now summoned her damn near every other day for yet another round of tedious questioning.
“Hey,” said Hanson as he strolled in, looking just as sour as she felt.
She looked up in surprise. “Hey yourself. I thought you were assigned to the alien detail.”
“I was,” he said as he seated himself across the circular table from her. “Guess being in Alabama when the shitshow went down wasn’t far enough away to be completely out of suspicion. I just finished running my own gauntlet. But the rumor is, I’m getting it easy compared to everyone who was at Camp David, including the special forces people. Especially you.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty much a colonoscopy every day,” she muttered. “Going over the timeline, where I was at which times, who I had direct line of sight on, who I was in radio contact with.” She finally sipped her coffee.
Hanson’s sour expression deepened. “Do you really think it was one of us?”
She sighed. “It has to be. My gut tells me that there’s more than one mole and I told the inquiry board as much. The fuckers who got in knew too much about our patrol patterns, where everyone was, when they’d have a clear shot at an infil. That means someone with access to our methods and comms, and as to the latter we don’t use CB radios.”
The other agent leaned back. “Fuck. I wish I knew why any of us would do that. We’re supposed to be quiet professionals, not frothing radicals.”
Savoie turned the mug in her hands. “Not to tell tales out of school but, through the whisper network, they’ve been leaning hard on the captured dudes from the attack. Apparently one of their main ‘objections’,” and here she made some one-handed air quotes, “is that they think the whole Breaker thing is a ruse. It’s all smoke and mirrors, so that we’ll beg the Coalition to come and save us. And then…well, it gets vague after that but I guess they claim that at best we’ll get turned into the galactic equivalent of a Native American reservation. Worst case, we all get harvested for our precious bodily fluids.”
Hanson stared at her for a moment in disbelief. “That is, if you will forgive the uncouth term, utterly retarded. For chrissake, the Hubble got some beautiful shots of their ship once they’d spun that shield around to reveal it to us. I mean, I’m no spacecraft expert but even I could tell it had gotten the shit pounded out of it.”
She responded with a shrug. “Hey, Flat Earthers are still a thing.”
“Flat Earthers don’t stage FUCKING mortar attacks in our nation’s capital,” snapped Hanson. Then he subsided and spoke more softly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be so on edge. This whole thing just pisses me off.”
“Join the club,” said Savoie as she sipped more coffee. “I just don’t get it, though.”
Hanson made a gentle ‘continue’ wave of his hand.
She leaned forward. “Okay. Our comrades in the CIA managed to identify the four who made it into the compound. They were all mercenaries, each with at least ten or fifteen years of experience in kicking ass around some of the worst hot spots in the world. Syria, Burma, bunch of places in Africa. One of ‘em even turned out to be ex-Wagner group.”
“Okay?” It was a leading single-word question, but not an unkind one.
“So why was the rest of the attack made up of nothing but a bunch of goddamn shit-kickers? And that includes the aborted attempt in Decatur. I’ve seen the files of those we rounded up in the Camp David attack. They were all low-life idiots just banging around, maybe they might have once held a gun in their lives. Hell, from what I’ve heard, the shootings that triggered the alarm at Camp David were an accident; those intruders were supposed to sneak around that patrol, not kill them. They all had the same top-of-the-line kit, so we know whoever is behind this has deep pockets. Why not hire an entire bunch of competent people instead of doing it onesy-twoseys?”
“It is a puzzle.” Hanson got up and set a styrofoam cup of water into the nearby microwave. As the cup turned within its electromagnetic prison, he leaned against the nearby counter and pondered her question. “Maybe the team in the woods was intended just as a distraction?”
“That’s what I thought at first, but then I reconsidered. I mean, what if the four who went in failed? You’d still need a proper backup plan. Same thing with the Decatur bunch. By the way, did they ever catch them?”
Hanson let out a dark chuckle. “Decatur PD found a pile of vests and rifles, hastily wiped down. They were able to pull a few partial prints off of ‘em. My guess is they’ve fled to the proverbial four winds, hoping to lay low for the rest of their lives. We’ll nab ‘em eventually.”
The microwave dinged and he retrieved his hot water, then pulled a tea bag out of his jacket pocket as he re-seated himself.
Savoie smiled. “I never figured you for a tea guy.”
He unwrapped the bag and with a bit of ceremony dunked it into his cup. “Well, I used to be a coffee guy, but my gut doesn’t agree with the acidity.”
“We do have tea here, you know.” She pointed to the storage bins behind him.
“Yeah, but it’s cheap-ass stuff. The brand I like is expensive, but worth it…” Hanson’s eyes widened as he trailed off.
She raised an eyebrow. “Hanson? Do you smell burnt toast?”
“They couldn’t afford it,” he said in a near-whisper.
Savoie was about to tell him to stop being overly dramatic, then she realized he might be on to something and that she didn’t dare distract him. “Keep talking.”
He leaned forward, his forearms on the table. “Okay. Imagine you’re a hard-bitten mercenary. You’ve been in the literal shit, in every nasty conflict anyone cares to name. Somehow, someone finds you and comes to you. They say ‘hey, these aliens are bad news, do you want to kill them?’ Even if you, as the hypothetical mercenary, are down with the cause…”
“From what the intruders were yelling, they were,” said Savoie.
“Yeah but even then, our mystery financier is asking you to infil and exfil out of one of the most heavily guarded pieces of real estate on the planet. Oh, and kill a bunch of special-forces-maybe and aliens-definitely in between. What do you do then?”
She replied with a grim smile. “If I’m that mercenary, then I ask for a metric fuck-ton of money. And there were four of them, they would have all done the same. Hell, they must have been doing collective bargaining.”
Hanson dunked his tea bag as he thought it through. “Okay, so our mystery mastermind has a lot of money, but not billions on hand to hire a literal army of hard cases. Huh. So those other dipshits might indeed have been a distraction.”
“Maybe. They must have also spent quite a bit on the mortar attack. That wasn’t made by some hobbyist in their bedroom, they knew what they were doing. Given that nobody saw them set up the launcher or leave, they were more pro.” Savoie hoped that the FBI’s efforts to track the various mortar components turned up something soon. Thus far, those efforts were bogged down; as it turned out, quite a few companies had ordered the identified components, and tracking the subsequent second-hand purchases was time-consuming.
“And those mortar-making pros would be more expensive.” Hanson sipped a bit of tea. “Did they ever get anything off of the launcher itself?”
“Sadly, no. Turns out the whole damned thing was homemade, constructed out of tubing and other off-the-shelf components. It was also wiped down thoroughly, no prints. Like I said, pros.”
“But limited in resources,” said Hanson. “Which explains one of the things that’s bugged me. Namely, that our OPFOR didn’t use some proper artillery. If they have a couple of moles in the Secret Service, then it should be easy to recruit and pay some military dudes to slip ‘em some gear and alter the logs. They could stow a howitzer inside a semi-tractor-trailer. You could park that thing anywhere up to 25 miles away. Use a single 155mm Excalibur GPS-guided munition, boom. That would have pretty much obliterated the stage and everyone on it. Then you just re-stow the howitzer and toodle off all innocent-like, right when everyone is freaking the hell out.”
“So they couldn’t afford that type of arty strike,” she said. “Or they simply didn’t have the contacts to pull that off. Hmm. I wonder if our moles are getting paid at all?”
Hanson resumed his thousand-yard stare. “The mortar attack must have been planned first. The other two attacks feel much more like rush jobs.”
“Eh? Oh, I get it. Sadaf’s speech was known well in advance. It was going to be one of her first big public appearances since the initial presidential speech. They were broadcasting it online to the world. Having her get turned into chunky red salsa, in real time, would be one helluva statement. So that’s what they focused on.” She drank a bit more coffee, and now it was time for her eyes to widen. “Our mole or moles didn’t arrive at Camp David until after Sadaf’s speech was announced.”
“That…oh, yeah, that makes sense. Originally the mortar attack is the OPFORs’ only focus, but yet somehow they’ve suborned one or two Secret Service agents and they have ‘em in their back pocket. Then one, or better yet both, of the moles gets assigned to the Camp David detail, and they realize that now that they have a golden opportunity to get at the other aliens as well. So they go off and hire four pros for the actual attack inside, plus a bunch of chucklefucks to act as a distraction, because that’s all they can afford since the four pros are asking for some serious money.”
Savoie leaned forward. “When did Chao and Grakosh leave Camp David?”
“It was, ah, three? No, four days after we got everyone settled, both the aliens and the special forces types.”
“Okay, so then the OPFOR gets word, courtesy of our moles, that one of the aliens is now heading to Alabama. But now they’re stretched so thin that they can’t afford anything other than to hire another bunch of dipshits to make a run at them and hope for the best.”
“And then the second bunch lets the FNG drive.”
They both laughed, but that humor settled down as they both thought through the chain of inference.
“It is pretty thin,” said Savoie at last. “There’s a lot of assumptions in there.”
“Yeah. But I do like the idea of our moles getting assigned at the last minute.”
She rubbed her forehead. “We had a bunch of new people come in when they decided to stow the Rithro crew there. Seven, no eight in all.”
“It’s a place to start,” said Hanson. He finished his tea. “C’mon, let’s see if we can get a meeting with the inquiry board.”
__________
A little while later and not very far away, three people sat in a well-lit but otherwise deadly dull room. At least the chairs were somewhat comfortable. Matt and Martinez sat at two chairs against one wall, while across from them McCoy sat sprawled sideways on another with a foul look on her face. She glowered at the far beige-painted wall. “This completely sucks. Why can’t we have our phones? I could at least play some mahjong.”
“This is a secure location, Corporal,” replied Matt. “Ixnay on the onephays.”
Martinez’s leg jittered. “How long are we gonna sit here? They said they’d call us in, like, an hour ago!”
“Dunno, it’s some kind of last-minute interview thing,” replied Matt with Zen-like calm.
The corporal looked over at Matt. “I don’t get you, man.”
Matt grinned. “Nobody gets me. I’m like the wind, baby!”
“That’s not…I mean, I watched you open up a dude like he was a bag of fuckin’ Doritos using nothing but a fuckin’ knife. Now you’re being all Caine from ‘Kung Fu’.”
“It’s good to know that the classics are still appreciated,” said Matt.
Martinez pointed at him. “If you start calling me ‘Grasshopper’ I will shoot you.”
McCoy turned her glare to the ceiling. “Maybe it’s a psychological test. They want to see if we crack under pressure and start yakking secrets.”
“I mean, I’m sure they’re recording us right now,” replied Matt. “But it’s merely as a precaution. I am also five-nines certain that none of us are suspects. We weren’t integrated into the compound’s overall security, and thus it would be unlikely that we could have let our four attackers in.”
“Not to mention, we were the ones to kill ‘em,” added Martinez. “Well, except for the one that Takh took care of.”
“Yep. This is…I won’t call it a formality, but the board just wants to know where you were and what you saw. Walk them through your personal timelines, understand? Tell them only what you know. If you don’t know something, then say so.”
McCoy turned herself around so that she now sprawled the other way. “This whole bullshit just bugs me. Takh and the others are off with a bunch of strangers and I…I mean, we aren't there to help protect them.”
Matt and Martinez shared a meaningful glance. “From what I heard, Takh is quite capable of taking care of himself,” said the latter with a grin. “You told me he pitched that one dude across the room like he was throwing a softball.”
For once, the petite corporal looked a bit flustered. “Yeah, but, I mean, what if some other potential bad guy gets the drop on him with a gun? I don’t like not being there. I just wanna know that he’s okay. I should be there, just to make sure.”
The smaller man snapped his fingers in the face of the taller, who sighed and took out his wallet. With great ceremony, Matt pulled out a five-dollar bill and placed it upon the now-upraised palm of Martinez.
“Told ya,” said Martinez with a grin.
She sat up and glared at them both. “That doesn’t mean anything! Takh is a good guy!”
“Nobody said he wasn’t,” replied Matt as he stowed his wallet. “He is indeed a good guy.”
“Yeah, seriously, we’re glad you two hooked up,” added Martinez. “Takh’s solid. Hell, I’d let him date my sister.”
“I. Am. Not. Hooked Up. With ANYONE.” McCoy now looked furious enough to chew nails.
Martinez stroked his chin. “Kissing might be a problem, though.”
Matt performed a similar chin-stroking action. “Hmm, indeed, Corporal, I do believe it might be a serious issue. One has all of those mandibles to contend with.” He hooked his fingers next to his mouth in an approximation of an udhyr’s face. “Still, I think that, with enough will and effort, one could figure it out. Like the man said, life finds a way.”
“But how much tongue is he packing?” posed Martinez. “You know what the man also says. Big dude, big tongue. Could make things more interesting, all around.”
The woman did not look amused. “Martinez, Toke? You are now both officially gigantic flatulating assholes.”
“C’mon, McCoy!” protested Martinez. “Think of it this way. A few years from now, let’s say we filthy humans are now part of the Coalition and I’m at some meet ‘n greet, and I just so happen to spy me an oh-so-very-fiiine udhyr mamacita from across the room. Now, I wanna do my bit for my species and approach her, and get some good old inter-species cultural interaction going on. But there’s all sorts of questions. How do I compliment her without insulting her culture? How am I supposed to get in good with her? How do the mechanics work? How do the various bits line up? We need details! You’re at the tip of the spear, we all need good intel!”
McCoy slumped back into her seat. “Over seven hundred billion Dimmadollars of defense spending, and yet somehow I wind up stuck in a room with you two fuckos…oh, by the way, Toke,” she added, pointing a finger at Matt, “why the hell can you and Sarge never go back to Okinawa?”
“Nice distraction, McCoy,” said Martinez. “My guess is some sort of wet-work shit.”
Matt just smiled. “Oh for fuck’s sake, I don’t kill everyone I meet. I was a Second LT at the time, managed to somehow leapfrog my way into officer ranks all the way from enlisted. Anyways, the Okinawa affair was merely a case of, well, one particular case of rye whiskey. The good sergeant…was he a sergeant then? Oh yeah, we had done some other stuff I can’t tell you about in someplace I can’t tell you where, and we were celebrating Shaw getting his third stripe. We’d got ahold of the previously-mentioned case of whiskey and then we began toasting to each other’s good health. We did a lot of toasting. Quite a lot of toasting. As you can imagine, the toasting went on and on until we, um, well we did some unwise things. It started out with us sparring-for-fun with each other in public and escalated from there. No locals were harmed, and nothing we did was hella illegal, or I would’ve never made Captain. Buuut the local government would definitely throw a shitfit if me or, God forbid, both of us set foot back on the island.” He chuckled. “Hell, the Okinawan customs people probably still have both of our pictures taped up inside their booths with a big old sign saying ‘DO NOT ADMIT THIS PERSON, YOU FOOL’ written above them.”
“What did you do?” asked Martinez. His eyes were big and soulful, like a kid asking for yet one more story before bedtime.
Matt shrugged. “I mean, I don’t remember much for obvious reasons. I’m almost sure we didn’t piss on any monuments, that would have definitely been cause for a serious demotion. We did do a number on some shrubbery, that I do remember. We decided it needed to be trimmed back, and so we did so. Using our bare hands. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
A fearsome light came into McCoy’s eyes. “Martinez, do you know what this means?”
He looked at her all uncertain. “Um, Toke and Sarge have cast-iron livers?”
“No, you fool. Blackmail material.”
Matt pointed back at her. “Hey, now, I told you that in confidence. Besides, Shaw has a lot more to contend with right now.”
The reminder of the sergeant’s current crippled state brought the elevated atmosphere of the room back down. McCoy nodded as her smile faded. “Right. Hey, did you see the Prez’s speech at the UN?”
“Yep,” said Matt. “From what I’ve read, the political wrangling after it seems pretty tame compared to the usual.”
Martinez snorted. “No shit. Did either of you see the laundry list of shit that we might be able to do? Anti-aging, limb regrowth, cancer treatments which work well and which don’t half-kill the patient…hell, maybe even Alzheimer’s could be in our rear-view mirror. The grand high muckity-mucks are falling all over themselves to get that out into the world, for themselves if nobody else.”
“You’re way too cynical, Martinez,” said Matt.
“Oh fuck off. What if…okay, I know this sounds like a cheesy sci-fi concept, but what if they hoard all of the good shit for themselves and we peons get just the crumbs?”
Matt lapsed back into his meditative demeanor. “In that case, my dear corporal, you or I or McCoy or someone like us will show those hypothetical elites that, while they are indeed long-lived, they are not in fact immortal.”
The trio fell into silence for a few minutes. Then Martinez leaned over towards Matt. “Ah, a little birdie told me you were involved in questioning the prisoners we nabbed at Camp David.”
“I merely facilitated certain conversations,” replied Matt.
Martinez sighed. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies…Corporal.”
McCoy let out a growl. “Well, I heard these terrorist assholes are saying that the Breakers aren’t real, that it’s all fake videos from the Coalition.”
“Just to play devil’s advocate,” said Matt, “our AI image and video generation is already getting to the point where, soon, we puny humans could manufacture such evidence.”
“What?” Martinez looked as if he was about to launch himself at Matt.
Matt held up a calming hand. “I’m not saying it is fake. The Hubble pics are damned convincing.”
Martinez hiked up one foot to place it on his seat, then rested his chin on his knee. “Fuck. I guess it didn’t convince everyone.” He mused for a few moments. “Wait. What if we made it even more convincing?”
“How?” asked Matt.
“We send some humans up to the Rithro. Two or three at least. The boats can still make it up to the ship, right?”
For once Matt looked uncertain. “I think so? Dunno how many times they can come and go without recharging, we’ll have to ask ‘em.”
“Right, so we set up an even better publicity stunt than the Hubble pics. Choose a few people, from all over the world. We have ‘em travel up to the Rithro, take pics and video up close showing the damage. Even take ‘em inside the ship and get a full tour, maybe…if the crew is okay with that, of course.”
“Huh.” Matt sat back and pondered the idea. “That’s a really good idea, Martinez. I guess you aren’t as dumb as you look.”
The corporal responded with a slight smile at the verbal jab. “We’d need to choose the right people, though.”
“They’d have to be trustworthy…or at least someone that the entire world will consider trustworthy,” said Matt.
“Well known,” added McCoy. She no longer looked vengeful. “With recognizable faces and voices, and then they can go on all the talk shows after and say that, yes indeed, I got a tour of the ship and it is indeed quite banged up.”
Martinez stared at the far wall. “Some kind of celebrity? Heh. You think Tom Cruise would be up for it?”
Matt laughed. “That beautiful maniac? Hell, he’d insist on shooting an entire movie up there, with at least one action scene where he’s hanging off of the outside of the ship.”
They all smiled at the resulting mental image.
“Chao could work,” said McCoy into the silence. “She’s kind of a celebrity now. After all, she was the first human to come into contact with aliens, eh?” She gave Matt a big and very un-subtle wink.
To skirt the rather…unconventional methods used to achieve a positive First Contact, Matt’s role had been very much demoted in the official story. Now every recounting of the tale included a bit of ‘…oh, and there was also another person who stumbled across our brave woman in the midst of her attempts at informational exchange with the aliens…” His exact identity was also not published, under the screen of ‘he wishes to remain anonymous’.
“Oh bite me, McCoy, it’s fun,” replied Matt. He waggled his eyebrows. “Besides, I work better in the shadows!” He threw his forearm across his face like a half-assed Count Dracula trying to hide behind his cape.
Then he dropped his arm. “Yeah, Chao would be good as a current social-media darling. Of course, she might not want that. She strikes me as more of the wallflower type, for the most part.”
“We need more people,” said Martinez, as he stared at the floor. “Chao might be good on her own, but she’s got that motor-mouth talking thing when you get her going. It’s one or the other. Either she’s trying to shrink into a corner and take up as little space as possible, or suddenly you’re getting pulled into another corner for a doctoral dissertation on how minimal-energy transfer-orbits work.”
Matt pondered for a moment. “Wait, when did she do that? I never sat through one of those lectures.”
Martinez looked away and…well, Matt hoped that their supposed overlords were indeed recording this particular moment in time because the hard-bitten Hispanic special-forces corporal actually blushed.
McCoy, of course, realized a golden opportunity for payback and immediately pounced. “Why, Corporal Martinez,” she purred. “Doooo tell us. When did Chao Me Chu, heh, pull you into a corner? Hmmm?”
“She’s…she’s just real nice, that’s all,” replied Martinez. “I asked her a couple of questions, and she answered them. That’s all. We both love classic sci-fi, like Asimov and shit. I guess we bonded over that.”
Matt cleared his throat. “Aaaaand may I remind you two and everyone listening in that we have all been cooped up nuts-to-butts for awhile? Don’t mistake familiarity for romantic bullshit.” He pointed over at Martinez. “But you. If you can follow at least half of what she talks about, then you are absolutely without-a-single-fucking-doubt wasted as a corporal, even if you’re in a low-drag high-speed outfit like this. You hear me?”
“Um, yes sir.” It was the first time in McCoy’s memory that anyone had addressed Matt as befitting his perhaps-former rank.
“Good. You get your ass into college, somehow. You’re a smart guy, you’ll figure all that shit out. And as for Chao? Just give it room to breathe. Let her know you’re interested, but don’t press the matter.”
“Let her know?” For once Martinez looked completely lost. “How do I…” he trailed off. “I mean, I like her…and yeah, I mean I like her in that way, but she’s so damn smart and pretty and I’m just some dipshit meathead.”
“Hey, don’t sell yourself short,” said Matt. “You’re our dipshit meathead.”
McCoy’s vengeful smile faded. “Martinez…no, Luca.”
Martinez looked up in surprise at her use of his first name.
She continued. “Just talk to her. Neither of you have any clue as to what ‘normal’ social interactions look like. In your case, it’s because you’ve been a soldier for all of your adult life. In her case, it’s because she’s, well, because she’s Chao. So just walk up to her and be straightforward. Trust me, it’ll be like a breath of fresh air for her to not have to navigate social cues. Just say something like ‘Hey, I really like you, do you like me and do you want to go get a coffee sometime’? Start with that. Chao’s good people, the worst thing she’ll do is say no. She won’t yell at you or talk shit about you online. Buuuut, some sixth sense is telling me she won’t say no to getting some coffee with ya.”
Matt smiled. “McCoy, I think you might have a calling after you leave the military.”
She snorted. “Oh yeah, I’ll hang up my match-making shingle on the internet and start raking in the big bucks. Martinez is right, though. If we try to do a publicity stunt up at the Rithro, then we’ll need somebody alongside Chao to win the world over. Somebody well-known, but preferably someone not in the traditional Western pop-culture sphere. That’ll make it more palatable…”
Her voice trailed off and she stared into space. The two men now looked at each other in genuine concern until she spoke again a few moments later.
“Guys? I think I just had the best idea ever.”

Hello fellow canyon enthusiasts, I have a 2018 All Terrain. From what I can tell it is essentially a Colorado z71. And like many of you fine folks, I want some big knobbies on it. So after the factory warranty vanished like my desire to keep the stock tires, I started the research process. I scoured Reddit posts on both this subreddit and the Colorado one. I looked at forums and YouTube videos, all in an effort to see what I could fit and how to do it. As one could imagine there was quite a bit of contradictory information on if 33” tires would fit or not. So I settled on bilstein 5100 adjustable shocks up front set on the top setting and 5100’s in the back with a 1 inch block. I also purchased the front bracket that moves the fender liner forward, and I followed a cab side trim guide from YouTube to move the back fender liner back and remove some metal around the pinch weld. Then, I got on CustomOffsets and set my vehicle information and chose “leveling kit” and “no rubbing” just to make sure that what I got would fit. Sure enough, they said I could be put some big boys on there. And I got excited. So I picked up some Reika 17 inch rims. I believe they are 8.5 wide with zero offset. And Falken wild peak at3w, 33 inch tires. They come in and I slap them bad boys on the truck and they look fantastic. I start checking for hot spots by making full turns. I have acreage on the front gap. I turn it the other way, and I’m rubbing all over like a high school dance. And it’s metal. The cab mounting point to be precise. I don’t know if you can grind that part, but I’m not going to. I’m going to drop the tire size and try again.
Moral of the story, don’t rust the internet. Don’t trust the people trying to sell you something. Everyone’s setup is not the same. Sometimes there is no direct answer. I can include links to the YouTube trim video, the front bracket, struts, etc, and I can take pictures of stuff if you guys are interested. I spent a lot of time looking so if this helps anyone I am happy to.
Happy driving!

Like many of you here on this sub, and other hair care subs, I had an issue with my hair and couldn't resolve it. I tried multiple solutions and finally found one that worked for me and I hope this can help you.
My hair: Type 1B or 1C when it's shorter and 2B when it's longer (past shoulder length). It is greying around the temples and underneath. I had some wonderful highlights done which were screwed up when my colorist called out sick and the salon felt comfortable allowing someone else to do my next session. My hair felt like doll's hair - super stiff and plasticky. They tried to fix it in house, but couldn't. All my money was refunded and then the salon asked me to not return after they screwed it up so bad. I had to cut off over 10 inches. Found out later they allowed the receptionist to apply and rinse out my toner and hair treatment while the colorist took a trip to Starbucks for a Frappuccino, I didn't know at the time, but found out after the damage was done. Right now it finally made it passed 'bob' length and almost to my shoulders.
Covering the grey: After cutting off all my hair after that disaster of a color mishaps, I decided to go back to my natural hair color while growing out, grey hair and all. As it grew, I would get trimmed off what remained of the hair dye/colored part and really tried to take care of it. When it finally got to bob length I decided to go back in to get the roots/grey covered up. After two different sessions of the colorist 'warming up' my color, which I never asked for, I decided to just do my grey areas at home on with a Demi permanent color about every 2 months on my roots and just the grey area.
Problem with the ends: I was still having a LOT of issues with the ends of my hair though - despite all the deep conditioning masks, using hair oils, etc, it just was SO brittle and dry on the ends only. I've always had a super oily scalp and dry ends. I made the mistake of listening to advice from a hairstyling YouTuber and spent a waste of money on Redken's Volume Injecting Shampoo (seriously, if you have medium or thick hair, avoid....this guy said to use it on medium hair). Same stylist said to use a leave-in condition, which actually did help, but not the brand he recommended. My ends were just SO tangled and dry.
How I tested and failed and solved this issue:
- I have oily roots. As much hate as there is for sulfates, my roots need sulfates. I always always shampoo twice. I started to use a sulfate shampoo first to really clean my scalp and shampoo with a non-sulfate shampoo second. If my hair is really greasy or oily, I'll shampoo twice with the sulfate shampoo.
- Condition in the shower but I also use a spray leave in conditioner after it's towel dried. I found less is more for my hair overall, BUT I do spray extra on the part of my ends that tangle. I found using a gentle vent brush to go through my hair afterwards helps distribute.
- Blow dry spray is key - again, I found out through trial and error that I don't need a lot, just a good light mist. I used to air dry my hair ALL the time, but it got thicker and more tangled when I did this and I could tell my hair shaft was swelling up and staying that way. I found it was more damaged - plus it takes over two hours to air dry and I cannot show up to work with sopping wet hair. If I shower at night, I find this is okay, but I try not to wash my hair at night. There are some of these combined with leave-in conditioners that work well for my hair too.
- THE BIGGEST CHANGE - using the right brush to blow dry. I used to just use a flat vented brush or a paddle brush while blowdrying my hair. It looked just fine, but it didn't have a lot of movement and still felt stiff regardless of what products I put in my hair. Shifting back to a rounded blow dry brush was the biggest game changer. I HATE using it and I'm going to state that. My arms get tired, I start sweating while using it because my hair is thick and it takes effort, I have to work in sections, but damn it makes my hair smoother and shinier and my hair moves! I can run my fingers through my hair without tangles and it feels good. I only blow dry and style on the day I shampoo and wash my hair. I don't use heat on the other days, I just adjust how I wear my hair that day.
Caveat - I don't like that massive one-step hair dryeround brush that is all the rage a few years ago. I found that particular tool did way too much damage to my hair because it seems to be hotter. Just a plain hand-held round brush in the largest barrel for your hair if I plan to wear it close to straight. There are a few smaller barrel ones that are meant for styling only in a lower heat setting, I use those at the end only, not for drying my hair.
- Hair oil - Using hair oil on my ends after blowdrying and using what little bit is left on my ends to go over my baby hairs up front has made a difference. I also put a bit of hair oil on my ends only about an hour before bed. I don't use a lot, just enough to prevent drying out.
- Hair oil before shampooing or overnight. I've read this on this sub and others and it actually works wonders. I use the OGX extra strength coconut miracle oil for this, but I'm sure there are others. I've used the Kerasate and even Argan oil. I prefer the coconut one for the price point. Either 2 hours before shampooing, best over the weekend, or the night before, put a lot of oil in your hair on the mids and ends. If doing the night before, either be prepared to change your pillowcase in the morning, or sleep with a sleep cap. When shampooing out, you do need a sulfate shampoo or clarifying shampoo to help wash off the excess oils for the first shampoo. Doing this once a week has really helped.
- Slumber cap. This has helped tremendously. There are loads on Etsy and amazon. I have a favorite I found off Etsy (as an example only) because I like it's adjustable. You can look and choose one for your head and hair length. I cannot speak enough how much a silk or satin bonnet for sleeping has helped with my hair health.
- Limit dry shampoo. Since I have oily roots, I can maybe go three days before I have to shampoo again, even using dry shampoo.
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My favorite products that have worked for me during all this. They do range in price point and I use drugstore and higher end.
Shampoo:
Paul Mitchell Shampoo Two
John Frieda Blue Crush for Brunettes <- only when my hair starts getting brassy
Kristen Ess Signature Shampoo
Trader Joes Tea Tree Tingle
Redken Hair Cleansing Cream <- omg, HG. I bought the mini size to try and a month later I still have product in it, you DON'T need a lot. Worth it.
L'Oreal Ever Pure Bond Strengthening Shampoo <- new find, very happy with this so far
Kerastase Bain Satin 2 <- I use this mostly in the winter
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Conditioner:
Matching conditioners to John Frieda products
Kerastase Nutritive Masquintese irisome <- have purchased for over 6 years. You only need a half walnut size glop even with longer hair. Less is more.
Hask conditioners in those packets you get at CVS/Walgreen. I can usually get two uses out of each packet
Nexxus conditioners in those packets, I like those too. Basically any deep conditioning drug store packets, even the keratin ones I find are good for a once a week or once a month deep conditioner
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Dry shampoo:
Eva NYC Freshen Up <- have repurchased for years. I have brown hair and it doesn't leave white marks
Not Your Mother's Clean Freak
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Leave in conditioneblow dry spray:
It's a 10 Miracle Silk Leave in
L'Oreal Ever Pure 21-in-1 color caring spray <- new find, I love this one
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Hair Oils:
Verb Ghost Oil
Olaplex No.7
OGX coconut miracle oil
Kerastase Elixir Ultime <- lasts forever HG
Paul Mitchell Smoothing super skinny serum
Hask Argan Oil
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Hair Cream:
Olaplex No. 6 (I mix this with the Paul Mitchell skinny serum sometimes, it's fabulous)
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Brushes:
Honestly, they are all Conair brand from Target. My oldest one is hitting 6 years.
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Round brush with hot air tool (doesn't get super hot for styling only):
Conair Infiniti Pro
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Covering up those grey hairs without resorting to box dye:
Moroconnoil Color Conditioner in Cocoa (there are other shades) - use a hair color brush to apply to grey. Leave on about 15 minutes then add more to the rest of the hair to even out the color. The grey turns more of a light blondish color, but blends well.
Christophe Robin Shade Mask in Ash Brown - this does ashy brown SO well, but damn it's expensive.
John Frida's Brilliant Brunette Collection. Great if you want to go a bit deeper. Again, apply to the roots first and wait, then work through the rest of the hair.
Color Wow Root Cover Up - okay, I made fun of this at first but it's become a favorite now. If I pull my hair back and got some grey poking through around where my hair meets the top of my ears or want to tidy up the part in my hair, this stuff works great. AND it sticks around if you don't shampoo the next day. Once you get the hang of how to apply it, you can do it fast and it honestly does look pretty natural.
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Hope all this help you on your hair journey. My goal is to grow it back to bra strap length. Since we're going to be moving in a few months I'm putting off going to a salon for color touch up and wait until we get to our new location.

Hello, so I recently got myself a katana for display. It's made from actual carbon steel and is sharpened. I didn't get the cleaning kit since it was expensive. My question is, can I use rubbing/90% alcohol to remove the old oil and then apply mineral oil instead of doing the uchiko and the so called "blade oil" thing? I searched on all internet but couldn't find if it was a good idea.