Serpentine belt replacement cost

How do you approach home improvement when you know you’re not in your “forever home”?

2023.06.05 15:17 1000mlPeter How do you approach home improvement when you know you’re not in your “forever home”?

I recently bought my first home with my wife, and while I do love our house, I struggle to justify pouring all of my spare time into home improvement knowing that we’ll probably buy another house in the next decade.
I’m not a handy guy, so I’ve been learning as I go and it’s intimidating. We replaced old carpet with vinyl flooring and installed new baseboards, now we are building faux beams and painting soon. Bless my wife but she is able to just come up with these ideas and I’m the one who has to learn how the hell to do them.
Then I get this feeling of paralysis. Why am I doing all of this if we’re going to move one day? It adds small value to the home, sure. But at what cost? All my free time, all my weekends? Because that’s what it costs if you really want to get things done.
I have a friend who works on his home A LOT. But, he intends on staying there forever. So I’m envious of the fact that he knows he’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor for decades to come.
I know that anything could happen. We could end up staying in this home for 20 years, he could end up needing to sell in 5. But that’s not enough to get rid of this feeling.
When I’m trying to relax all I can think about is all the things that need done, and when I’m doing things all I think is that I should relax since this is our starter house.
Ahhhhhh help!
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2023.06.05 15:17 Zealousideal-Pin1498 Philosophical question: what is more important in replacing an item - the cost or the size?

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2023.06.05 15:11 spunkymuffmonkey Kitchen Sink Taps Replacement

Kitchen Sink Taps Replacement
I’m looking for some advice on replacing these taps that sheer willpower and the blessing of the gods are keeping from leaking!
My first question is what are those fixings called that link the water pipes to the tap fitting?
Most instructional videos that I can see are for replacing mixer taps, due to cost I’d like to replace with single taps again. I wondered if anyone knows of any good videos or tips for replacement of these style of taps please?
Also, as a project would it be worth improving the plumbing situation here (I only have novice level skills) by maybe reducing the hot/cold pipes vertical size and replacing with some other more modern piping?
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2023.06.05 15:06 C4ESIUM Strategy Tips for Dune (General and for each factions)

This post is a compilations of tips I saw on BoardGameGeek, Jack Reda's Youtube videos, and personal experience. Feel free to comment your own tips so I can add them to the list. I only cover the base game and first extension (in advance game mode), but I might add the other factions later if I ever have the opportunity to play with them. English is not my native language, so pardon my French if I made mistakes.

General tips

Shipping, resurrecting, fighting is expensive (unless you play Fremen). Dune is a game of opportunity, you have to be ready to attack at the right moment, and recognize these moments (from experience, and with the help of this tips).Each faction advantage is very strong, so you should abuse them at every moments. Choose your traitor wisely : Picking the strongest might give you more spice, but player are usually less likely to use them all the time because of the traitor risk. But bluffing/double bluffing your traitor choice will also depend on the table, who are the players, how often do you play with them... Avoid keeping an Atreides traitor, because once the KH is out, it might be a dead card. Choose your alliance by looking at the board for a quick win if you see that you might be 1 stronghold away from victory with someone. Or choose your alliance by combining fancy powers for the long game. Also look at who owns what tech tokens, you might want to avoid allying with someone who has some when you have some as well.

FREMEN TIPS

You are like the Zergs is SC2, you come with a massive number of forces, and even if someone destroy you, you can still come back. Often underestimated, use the overconfidence of the players to your advantage. You might lose lots of battle due to the lack of combat abilities, but you can win the war (the game) with your ability to recover very easily. In order to make your enemies commit to you to lose resources, you must be annoying, all over the place (thanks to your 2-territory movement).
SETUP: Start with 5 in Sietch Tabyr (because it's a stronghold, you should already occupy it) and 5 in False Wall South (because you can't really deploy in this side of the map so it's always good to have some options here). No need to split more.If you play with tech token, then you also have an interesting thing to do after the first storm: Bribe someone for 2 or 3 spice. No matter what it is for, you will get this right after the CHOAM Charity. Try buying a card at the beginning, before everyone gets too much spice, and after some have spent their starting spice. You don't need to keep any spice to deploy or fight so all your spice can be spent into treachery cards.
INCOME: Harvest Spice ! This is your best source of income. And with spice harvest comes the worm riding possibility. This is where the Atreides come to be helpful. If you manage to get a deal with the Atreides player, in order to know when he sees his first sand worm in the spice deck, you will have multiple information at once: As long at the Atreides does not see any sandworm : only the second spice blow per turn can have a worm, so focusing on this location give you more chances to get to ride it. Plus, if a sand worm does appear, you can move your troops to the location of the first spice blow of the turn. This mechanic makes you focus on only half of the spice blow, so you might still want to harvest both spice blows per turn if you can. You can also pretend to make a deal with another faction to let them the first spice blow in exchange for bribes. But in the end, if you control the spice blows, and don't let anything to Atreides/Harkonnen/Ixians, you have the advantage and weaken them. Last way to gain spice if by selling information. Same as everyone, you could know safe leaders, of cards in hand, but you also have the storm deck, and that can be valuable especially to Harkonnen and Atreides who might also be trying to harvest spice. Once your hand is full, you don't need spice anymore, so use it to bribe players.
COMBAT: You can bring large amount of troops, and make them fight full strength, at no cost, so you are a force of nature. You also have the strongest leaders if they are not killed in battle. Keep your best ones for when you have defense cards, but also be careful: Stilgard is 7 spice to whoever have the Traitor card corresponding, he is almost never put aside if a player draws him.
ALLIANCE: Gain spice harvesting control with Atreides, or Ixians (More secure income, and less obstacles for spice harvesting, good card knowledge that can be leveraged in combat).Gain the ability to become a never-ending wave of troops with Emperor or Bene Tleilaxu revival bonus (Better income, can heal lots of troops). Gain combat supremacy with Harkonnens traitors or card knowledge, or with Bene Gesserit's voice (low income, but still great in combat). Or play the long game and prevent others from winning with the guild (good income, but not very beneficial for the Fremen)
BONUS: Using a Karama card to bring a worm to an enemy army is devastating. Using it to reposition your own army could also be worth it, but be careful not to go too far or you won't be able to reinforce. You can also use your ability to only lose half your troops in storm to cancel a victory when a stronghold is inside the storm. Once the game is at turn 9-10, start to think about your alternative win condition, with the help of you ally.

ATREIDES TIPS

You are the scholars, the Littlefinger of this game. If you keep your notes clean, you won't even need prescience in combat, because at some point, you can know the entire hand of every player. Your factions advantages are great, but not always easy to take advantage of. Atreides are social, you can manage good relations with players by selling information, but don't give too much or your advantages will be worthless.
SETUP: Start by finding both kinds of attack and/ or defense, buy the right treachery cards in order to better use your prescience. If you have both options for killing a leader or protection yours, you can start battling. Going for spice in the first turn is great for either... getting spice or battling others for it and losing the 7 troops needed for KH.
INCOME: Sell Intel! People going for spice blows want to know about the next, people buying treachery cards want to know what they are bidding on, people going into battle want to know if they have a safe leader. You also want to harvest spice, and win battle, but you have economic faction in the game so they are your main market for selling intel. You can make deals with some players where I wink to them if a specific card they ask is on the auction, but make sure that the bribe is worded in a way you can keep information from them, or high enough so you can have a steady income.
COMBAT: Once you have both kind or weapon or defense, you can kill enemy leader or protect your own. But if you keep track of what cards each opponent have, you might know that some players don't have both kind, and that using prescience to see their weapon/defense is useless. This is when you can ask for the numbers they put in combat and minimize the troops you will lose. You can also step up in other players combat before they reveal to sell valuable information about the opponent hand of treachery cards, and even make the opponent pay you more to not give the information. Knowledge is power.
ALLIANCE: Gain the ultimate combat power with Bene Gesserit (Voice + hand knowledge of you opponent is the most powerful ability in the game), but I would advise not to make this alliance, not because it's not strong, it's obviously the strongest, but because it's less fun for opponents as every battle you play take away their control on the game, and this can be VERY frustrating for the other 4 players. Gain the perfect card knowledge with Harkonnen or Ixian (They will know what cards are not seen by your prescience).Gain the market control with Emperor (buying all the good cards, leaving the others to the poor ones).Gain the spice blow monopoly with the Fremen (and be sure to let none to other factions).Other alliances might not be very beneficial to you.
BONUS: Use Karama cards for disabling other powers, because your cunning effect is not that useful once you have a clean note on hand knowledge. I would mostly keep a Karama to instantly buy a powerful card I can't afford since I know I won't waste it. Because the bidding phase is your moment to shine, you can influence other players to spend more or less on a card, by bidding yourself. The player before you just bid 4 and you know it's worthless, bet 6 so the next think it's worth it. You see a great card and bid second, pass this time and hope the bid make another round to make people think this is worthless. Making players spend spice on bad cards is how you get the good ones.

HARKONNEN TIPS

You are the mean antagonist, the space Orcs, and your abilities make players afraid to lose a battle against you, or even fight you at all. You might not have a lot of spice income, but once you can spend a little on treachery cards, you become a killing machine. This faction is train that is harder and harder to stop once it gains speed, but very hard to put back on rails if stopped once (I find this faction to be the most unforgiving)
SETUP: Stay in Carthag with your troops until you have enough resources to fight. If a spice blow is near, you can take a small number of troops to harvest it. But if you leave it with too little troops, you might lose it. Buy 1 or 2 cards on the first auction, so your hand is almost full, you will have options, or at least make people afraid of fighting you.
INCOME: Win battles! If you win battle, you harvest the spice of the killed leaders. And if you don't capture a leader, you send it to the tanks for 2 spice. So winning your battles is your way of gaining a lot of spice, as well as suppressing lot of enemy leaders. You don't even need spice to get your leaders back if you capture some of your enemies. You can also look for spice blows, but splitting your army is risky because without army to win battles, you lack income, and without income, you can't heal/deploy your army back. Every victory is a heavy loss for your opponent if you capture a good leader, so you can also receive bribes to not fight them. You can also sell information on your traitor hand, but that might make you lose power.
COMBAT: You don't have combat ability, so you must bring lot of forces in order to be sure to win. Try attacking players that played before you in storm order so they can't run away from you. Focus on faction with traitors you own, for an easy fight without sacrifice. You don't choose your traitors, but you can bluff enemy players on how to make them pick the leader you want. If you have a low strength traitor, harass this player to make him think you have a traitor of him, so he might avoid using his high strength leaders. If you have a high strength traitor, you can bait this player into attacking you, but be careful to have enough forces to make him use the high strength leader in question. Sometimes you might not call traitor (if you win anyway, if you lose but only 1-2 troops) in order to make the player think his leader is safe against you... but you might not get the chance to call it again, so be careful with this bluff.If you have the Cheap Hero traitor card : Ally with Bene Gesserit for some funny wins (since BG can use the voice to force your opponent or their opponent to use a Cheap Hero card)Without using traitors, you still have lot of treachery cards to assassinate and protect. And Atreides can't really sell info on them to help your opponent.
ALLIANCE: Gain all the money you need to fight with Emperor and Guild (Getting Treachery cards even when you got destroyed can really help you get back on track, it's your golden parachute).Gain the ultimate card knowledge with Atreides, but an even stronger alliance is with Ixians and their ability to setup the best card on the top of the deck for you to get when you buy any card. Gain the Traitor monopole with Bene Theilaxu (up to 7 leaders out of 20, that's a third of you opponents leaders that they "can't" play, this is very frightening), and it's also an economic faction that will help you. Gain some help in battle with the Bene Gesserit, but unless you have the Cheap Hero traitor card, it's not the best choice, you will lack income. On the other hand, having the voice in battle is always helpful. I don't see any reason to have an alliance with Fremen.
BONUS: You can use a Karama card to force a treachery card exchange, this can be used in 2 ways : Exchange worthless cards with your Bene Gesserit ally, or exchange your worthless cards with an enemy (except BG) that is not in an alliance with Atreides, in order to mess with the note of the later. Once the Atreides player has 2-3 unknown cards (in addition to your bonus cards), your hand is a mystery to him, and you can really surprise him. You can also simply use a Karama to steal a Poison blade or a Shield Snooper from another player in order to win even more combats. And if using a Karama card gets you a free card during bidding for someone, for you this is 2 free cards, so it’s worth it.

EMPEROR TIPS

You are not the enemy people see in battle, but you are the puppet master pulling the strings. Your lack of fancy abilities is why you pay players to do the dirty job for you. Use your large amount of spice to bribe the game in your favor in order to strike when you really need to. Patience is your second-best ally, the first one being money.
SETUP: Don't do much at the beginning. You don't have to be on the planet, you don't have to combat early, you can take Habbanya Ridge Sietch if you like but don't need at first.
INCOME: Make the bids go high ! Your income may be passive, you should be active during the bidding phase. Try to never have your hand full, in order to be able to bid, and raise the price a little higher. If only one player can bid, it's only 1 spice for you, so be the other buyer that tries to steal that card. And if you pay the Atreides to know the card, it's even more realistic if you try to have the card and it will make the opponent want it even more. Remember that the spice you spend is even more spice you don't get. Once in an alliance, you can have the help of your ally to influence the auction. And if your hand is full but have a cards can be used instantly (Ghola, Truthtrance,...) you can use it to free a hand slot and manipulate the auction again. Keeping the other players poor is your way to victory.
COMBAT: You have the advantage in battle, your Sardaukars, and your spice. You can "doomstack" on a territory and be sure to win even with your leader killed (and if you dial high enough to win like that, don't put your best leader in battle, it would be a shame to lose it for nothing). But your best option is to make players kill each other’s by bribing them, and then get the strongholds once their remaining forces are low. Just because you are rich, does not mean you should waste your spice.One last thing people often forget about spacing guild, is that you can ship from Dune to Dune, this can be an opportunity for you to get 2 stronghold with 10 forces each on 1 turn, and at the end of every players round, ship 9 of them to a 3rd stronghold for the win on an easy target.
ALLIANCE: Gain the fancy power you don't have with any faction that is not economic and allow them to shine with your spice. Or you could even ally with another economic faction and crush the other players with your wealth, but that's not always the best strategy. In general, players will ask YOU for an alliance so pick the one you prefeis in best position for the win.
BONUS: You can use a Karama card to get troops back (or a Leader but that's less valuable), that is only useful if you failed something (or got a traitor card played on you) and need to get back on your feet, but it's even more impactful if you prevent a fancy combat ability to bring others to your level and beat them with spice.

GUILD TIPS

You are the French policeman of this game, you maintain order and prevent players from taking too much power, but if you like you can shoot their eyes and explode their hands to take the win for yourself. Your control of the turn order makes you able to slow down some players that might win. This is a very valuable power but also your only (besides, of course, being rich).
SETUP: With only 5 forces in Tuek’s Sietch, you might want to reinforce, but you can also wait and see if someone tries to attack you. With only 5 spice at the beginning, it can be difficult to have a lot of treachery cards, but after turn 1 you might have more to spend.
INCOME: Make them fight! You don't have a lot of control over your main source of income, since if you attack someone to make him ship reinforcement, you also lose spice in the process, you can't really take advantage or your own combats with such a low revival rate. But influencing players into fighting each other’s (by bribing or just convincing them) is great for busyness.
COMBAT: You have the lowest strength leaders, you must "doomstack" if you want to win, by bringing lot of forces and paying them with your spice, so even if you don't kill the opponent leader you still win. On the bright side, your leaders are so bad and you are so underestimated that they might never be a traitor (except if Harkonnen drew some, or if they are facedancers).
ALLIANCE: Gain the fancy power you don't have with any faction that is not economic and allow them to shine with your spice. Or you could even ally with another economic faction and crush the other players with your wealth, but that's not always the best strategy (unless maybe Bene Tleilaxu, that can help other players to get back more troops to ship and benefit you both, but no need to be allies for him to do so). In general, player will ask YOU for an alliance so pick the one you prefeis in best position for the win. One alliance is particularly great in order to win with your alternative victory condition: Bene Gesserit. You can use your ability to go first to put 1 troop against someone in a stronghold, so no one else can attack him, in order to "protect" him against someone that might want to win this turn. The Bene Gesserit can also do the same by flipping an advisor. Together you can hold some strongholds in stasis in order to stall until the end of turn 10.
BONUS: Your cunning effect of a Karama card is one of the best! Preventing a player from shipping this turn can turn a perfect winning plan into a waste of spice if they all in elsewhere. But like the emperor, you can prevent a fancy combat ability to bring others to your level and beat them with spice.

BENE GESSERIT TIPS

You are the ninja of this game, staying in the shadow until you want to strike, and Leto II knows you strike very hard. The hardest faction to play, and the strongest (judging by its win rate). You have lots of very fancy abilities that can really turn a game in your favor, but in beginners’ hand they might not get you anywhere. These tips are the hardest to write because there are so many things to be said about this faction, and yet not a single easy receipt for victory.
SETUP: With 1 advisor wherever you want, you might want to target a stronghold, and maybe one where there will be lot of shipping (Carthag or Arakeen for example). At turn 1, you don't really care about keeping spice for shipping or fighting, don't think about it until turn 3. You are 5+2 spice at the first round, and you want weapons and defenses to kill leaders with your voice. You begin as the 4th most fortunate player, so buying a card can be crucial in turn 1, because after some spice harvesting and battles, you might end up the poorest. And since no card is really worthless to you, you risk nothing by bidding blindly during auction.
INCOME: It's complicated! 2 spice per turn with CHOAM Charity can't be your only source, you need alternative ways of earning spice. First and most obvious, is combat, because the voice can make you 100% sure to kill the opponent leader, and if you also win, you get the spice from it. But there is also another way to use your abilities for money: You can threaten a player and expect spice for not executing the threat. For example, you can say to a player "I could flip my 5 advisors for the movement phase, and then you will have to fight me and spend a lot of spice into this combat, or you can bribe me a little less so I won't do it this turn". Or make players pay for your services, with the opposite mechanic "if you pay me 5 spice I flip this advisor to a warrior and leave the territory at the end of my turn, so the [insert a faction playing before you] cannot attack you here". This can be quite complicated to pull, but you may find a lot of creative ways to make spice out of your powers. If you manage to take Carthag or Arakeen, this also could be your solution for your lack of spice and mobility.
COMBAT: Your best field is the battlefield. If you manage to get even 1 weapon, you become a killing machine, and if you have a poison blade or a shield snooper, you are the ultimate killing machine (and don't even need Atreides to be sure to kill the opponent leader without losing yours). If you manage to remember some cards played in previous battles, you can be very creative with your voice, by making them play worthless cards in order to choose between playing a weapon or a defense, or making them play a worthless hero so you only have to protect your leader. You can also bluff (especially at the beginning of the game) to make players thing you can kill their leaders ("don't play a poison defense") when you don't even have a weapon, in order to make them play a low strength leader and have a chance to win anyway. But don't prevent an enemy from playing a type of defense, if you have a high strength traitor of your opponent, because if they know their leader is going to die, they will sacrifice a low strength one. Speaking of traitor, the cheap hero traitor card is a great pick if you have it in your starting hand, this can lead to very funny battles against armies if you manage to know who has a cheap hero treachery card. Sometimes, if you are sure to win a fight and know some cards if you opponent’s hand, you might force them to play a specific card you can counter (like a projectile weapon) in order to make them lose it.
ALLIANCE: Gain the ultimate combat power with Atreides (Voice + hand knowledge of your opponent is the most powerful ability in the game), but I would advise not to make this alliance, not because it's not strong, it's obviously the strongest, but because it's less fun for opponents as every battle you play take away their control on the game, and this can be VERY frustrating for the other 4 players. Gain the leader eraser alliance with the Harkonnen (that can remove 2 leaders per combat with the right treachery cards).The rest of the alliances might not benefit you very much, but since you have the best alliance power, player will ask YOU for an alliance so pick the one you prefeis in best position for the win.
BONUS: You have a very funny alternative victory condition, that I will try to give tips about. Ixians, Atreides, Harkonnen and Fremen can have an early win (turn 3-5) since they start with strongholds and have great combat abilities. Guilde, Emperor, Bene Thleilaxu on the other hand, may not win before turn 5. As for the rest, it's more about the players than the factions. Aim for the most experimented, and on a not too early turn. Once you set your prediction, you have two ways: 1. Wait for an alliance (that's why you don't set it too early, once in an alliance you have twice more chances of successful prediction on the faction), focus the alliance you prediction is not in, and hope the faction you predicted come out on top after your battles. For this to happen, you can influence a bit in its favor the same way the Guild can prevent a player from winning: you can protect the stronghold they own by flipping an advisor and leaving after your turn. 2. Ally with the faction you predicted (my favorite strategy, but not the easiest), and try to win normally but on your predicted turn, so you can steal the victory away from you ally and win 1v5 mouhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaha If you play against a Bene Gesserit player, that can be fun to ask them if the faction they are in an alliance with is part of their winning condition. If they answer yes, their ally may become paranoid if they are about to win, and if they say no, their ally might lose trust.But your prediction is not only useful to steal a victory, but also to prevent a victory with a good bluff. You see someone going for the win this turn and can’t really win one of the battle ? If it’s not the last battle, you can say “I don’t use the voice” and never say why, the player might think that’s you let him win in order to fulfill your prediction, and might throw this battle or the next one just in case.About shipping advisors, it’s better to not go all overs the board, focus only on 2-3 strongholds because if you even have 2 advisors on each, it’s already half your army that is split.Your ability to avoid combat when another faction enters a territory you are in makes you the best at keeping tech tokens, so going tech token hunting during the game can be an excellent strategy.

BENE TLEILAXU TIPS

You are spider that waits for its web to trigger, you are patience, you are scary, you are Bene Tleilaxu. Your face dancers presence makes every fight dangerous.
SETUP: Wait. You don’t need to rush anything; you can wait until you have good treachery cards. Some people try to force combat at the beginning to make enemies lose troop and start your economy, but you might lose your tech token, so I won’t advise it unless you are sure to win the combat.
INCOME: Make them fight! Same as the Guild, you win more spice if the other players fight each other’s. But you can also increase the number of troops your enemies can revive, and allow them to revive their leaders early, and you can make them pay for it. Leverage this favor for spice, or information. Your face dancers are another source of information that can be sold, these are “safe” leaders from traitors, and you can see a lot of them during the game. Keep track of them and if you see a high strength leader, you might want to keep it.
COMBAT: You can wait until a face dancer is revealed, or you can put troops yourself. Zoal is a tricky leader to use, but his simple presence in your roaster will make your enemies paranoid when fighting you. Bluff about your hand, your ability to kill your enemy leader and make them think you will play Zoal, and they might use a low strength leader against you to minimize the spice you will gain. If you manage the early leader revivals of your enemies well, they might only have good strength leader to put into battle. Since you don’t have fancy combat abilities, make your stronghold difficult to take by reinforcing them with lot of troops. You can always use them to replace another army after a face dancer reveal, if needed.
ALLIANCE: Gain the Traitor monopole with Harkonnen (up to 7 leaders out of 20, that's a third of your opponents’ leaders that they "can't" play, this is very frightening). Moreover, you can offer to early revive opponent leader that are you ally traitors for even more treacheries. An alliance with the Bene Gesserit could be good if you have the Cheap Hero Traitor card, but other than that there is not much synergy here (It’s always nice to have the voice in combat, but will you combat often ?) Or you could even ally with another economic faction and crush the other players with your wealth, but that's not always the best strategy (unless maybe the Guild, since you can help other players to get back more troops to ship and benefit you both, and the more troops you allow to be back on the planet, the longer the game last). In general, players will ask YOU for an alliance so pick the one you prefeis in best position for the win.
BONUS: You can use a Karama card to prevent a player from doing revival can be strong against the Emperor (and their alliance), but in the end it’s your source of income, and that might not change a lot.If you draw a face dancer from your faction, or the cheap hero, you will want to discard them at the mantat phase. But keep this information, it might become useful for you. Once you reveal a face dancer, this leader is in the tanks and on the next turn, you can revive it (if you have less than 5 leaders) to enjoy a safe leader on your side.

IXIANS TIPS

You are the rich kid that has all the fancy toys before everyone else in middle school. You start hard and need to focus on staying at the top before other factions get their moment to shine. You can’t take notes like the Atreides, so you must focus to remember the cards you see, and the cards played by other players, in order to take advantage of your starting card (or in case you even get in an alliance with the Atreides to complete his notes in order to know the full hand of everybody).
SETUP: Out of the 6 cards you will see, you can look for a couple of them that might be the most helpful. The poison blade and the shield-snooper are the best attack/defense of the treachery deck. But a simple projectile weapon can be as deadly if there are no shields in the other 5 cards. So even if there are no special treachery cards, you can try to maximize your efficiency in combat by keeping track of the potential defenses from your cards. And at every auction, you can put away one of the cards that might cause you trouble. Keeping this “monopoly” on what can counter you is the best way to keep your starting advantage long enough to win. A weapon “monopoly” is better than a defense “monopoly” for you. Then you place your Hidden Mobile Stronghold (IMS), away from Carthag and Arakeen so no one can ship there, steal Ornithopters and get into your IMS. The first key to keep it is to make it expensive to get into. One of your first target might be the Fremen, to steal their tech token, and since they have so little spice, they might not get a lot or treachery cards to defends themselves against you at first.
INCOME: Vacuum it hard! Your IMS is the main source of spice for your faction, but sometimes you will have to get some alternative income since you won’t always be 3 territories away from remaining spice. You could make deals with other spice harvesters, but they might not let you. Protecting your IMS is crucial to keep your spice income. This is where killing heroes come handy and having great treachery cards is a nice advantage.
COMBAT: If you get the right set of cards in the starting 6 and can put aside the right one on the first auction, your combat will be easy since you can kill enemy leader for sure (because you know that you can waste less troop in dial if you don’t have to worry about the enemy leader). You also have the Cyborg/suboid mechanic to reduce the cost of battles. To make it simple, use your cyborg only in battle, but ship 1 suboid for each cyborg you put in battle to absorb the loss. So, to fight with 8, you ship 4 cyborg and 4 suboid, pay 4 spice for the cyborg, and only lose 4 suboid if you lose. The first turn is difficult for everyone because they have so little spice to dial high, you won’t need that many cyborgs.
ALLIANCE: Gain some overwhelming cyborg revivals (3) with the Fremen faction (and together you can share the spice blows each turn in order to maintain control over spice income). Or ally with the emperor to make him pay to resurrect 3 more cyborgs, or the Tleilax to only pay them half price.Gain the perfect card knowledge with Atreides, or on the opposite, because the perfect counter to Atreides by allying with the Harkonnens (giving them the best cards on the top of the deck).Gain a better advantage in battle with Bene Gesserit, if you don’t fear being broke. Gain some economic support from the Guild, but you might both be better with someone else.
BONUS: You can use a Karama card to move your IMS, but it's even more impactful if you prevent a fancy combat ability to bring others to your level and beat them with better treachery cards.
submitted by C4ESIUM to DuneBoardGame [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 15:02 randomwellwisher The Man Reimagining Disney Classics for Today’s World

The Man Reimagining Disney Classics for Today’s World
Profile on Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production
——
Concerning Johnny and Pirates:
Restarting the five-film “Pirates of the Caribbean” series is another priority, although nothing official has been announced. “We think we have a really good, exciting story that honors the films that have come before but also has something new to say,” Mr. Bailey said. Will the franchise’s problematic star, Johnny Depp, return as Captain Jack Sparrow? “Noncommittal at this point,” Mr. Bailey said, seemingly inching the door open.
——
Entire text:
By Brooks Barnes
June 4, 2023
For more than a decade, Sean Bailey has run Disney’s animated film “reimagining” factory with quiet efficiency and superhero-sized results. His live-action “Aladdin” collected $1.1 billion at the box office, while a photorealistic “The Lion King” took in $1.7 billion. A live-action “Beauty and the Beast” delivered $1.3 billion.
Disney likes the cash. The company also views Mr. Bailey’s remake operation as crucial to remaining relevant. Disney’s animated classics are treasured by fans, but most showcase ideas from another era, especially when it comes to gender roles: Be pretty, girls, and things might work out.
The reimaginings, as Mr. Bailey refers to his remakes, find ways to make Disney stories less retrograde. His heroines are empowered, and his casting emphasizes diversity. A live-action “Snow White,” set for release next year, stars the Latina actress Rachel Zegler as the princess known as “the fairest of them all.” Yara Shahidi played Tinker Bell in the recent “Peter Pan and Wendy,” making her the first Black woman to portray the character onscreen.
“We want to reflect the world as it exists,” Mr. Bailey said.
But that worldview — and business strategy — has increasingly put Disney and Mr. Bailey, a low-profile and self-effacing executive, in the middle of a very loud, very unpolite cultural fight. For every person who applauds Disney, there seems to be a counterpart who complains about being force-fed “wokeness.”
Many companies are finding themselves in this vise — Target, Anheuser-Busch, Nike — but Disney, which has a powerful impact on children as they are forming life beliefs, has been uniquely challenged. In this hyperpartisan moment, both sides of the political divide have been pounding on Disney to stand with them, with movies that come from Mr. Bailey’s corner of the Magic Kingdom as prime examples.
Consider his remake of “The Little Mermaid,” which arrived in theaters two weeks ago and cost an estimated $375 million to make and market. The new version scuttles problematic lyrics from the 1989 original. (“It’s she who holds her tongue who gets a man.”) In the biggest change, Halle Bailey, who is Black, plays Ariel, the mermaid. Disney has long depicted the character as white, including at its theme parks.
Support for Ms. Bailey, notably from people of color and film critics, has been offset by a torrent of racist commentary on social media and movie fan sites. Others have blasted “The Little Mermaid” for failing to acknowledge the horrors of slavery in the Caribbean. A few L.G.B.T.Q. people have criticized Disney for hiring a straight male makeup artist for the villainous Ursula, whose look in the animated film was inspired by a drag queen.
Disney has long regarded these kinds of social media storms as tempests in teapots: trending today, replaced by a new complaint tomorrow. In 2017, for instance, a theater in Alabama refused to play the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” because it contained a three-second glimpse of two men dancing in each other’s arms. It became a global news story. Ultimately, the fracas seemed to have no impact on ticket sales.
The upshot? Disney hoped “The Little Mermaid” would generate as much as $1 billion worldwide, with the furor evaporating once the film arrived in theaters. Feedback scores from test screenings were strong, as were early reviews. “Alan Menken just told me that he thinks this one is better than the animated film,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said at the film’s premiere last month, referring to the Oscar-winning composer.
Instead, “The Little Mermaid” will top out closer to $600 million, box office analysts said on Sunday, largely because the film faltered overseas, where it was “review bombed,” with online trolls flooding movie sites with racist one-star reviews. The film has done well in North America, outperforming “Aladdin” and receiving an A grade from ticket buyers in CinemaScore exit polls, although attendance by white moviegoers has been soft in some parts of the United States, according to analysts. Support from Black and Latino audiences have made up the slack.
Mr. Bailey declined to comment on the racist responses to the film. “While the international opening was softer than we would have liked, the film is playing exceptionally well which we believe sets us up for a very long run,” he said on Saturday.
Mr. Bailey, 53, has survived box office shoals that were far worse, including misfires like “The Lone Ranger.” The less said about his live-action “Mulan,” the better. But Disney has always supported him. “I’ve taken some big swings and had some big misses,” Mr. Bailey said. “I’m grateful that the leadership of the company understands that is part of any creative business.”
(Cont’d in comments)
submitted by randomwellwisher to JusticeForJohnnyDepp [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:43 Krell356 Design questions

So I've barely touched the design system since I was worried about making things a little too easy, but I think I'm ready to start messing around now. I've been looking in at some of the great designs people have made and had a few questions and was hoping I could get them answered or at least pointed in the right direction before I start. Since I don't mess with duplication experimentation is a little expensive for me.
-Are there any materials or fused gear that could replace a shock emitter for even lower energy cost in motor builds? -Has anyone figured out how to make an automated combat bot that stays at optimal distance from the target? Because while I've found some that will stay away, they won't get into range if the target doesn't keep pursuing. -I know fans have around a 30 minute timer before they expire, however I never experienced it myself and was curious if all long lasting parts have this same limit.
submitted by Krell356 to HyruleEngineering [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:32 Highball69 Garmin at its lowest

Today I had an unfortunate dealing with both Garmin and Amazon support.My wife bough from the USA the Garmin Fenix 6 pro solar, we're based in Bulgaria( country where you can't buy anything or its super expensive to cover the cost of the "poor" store owners) The watch came and we discovered that the display wasn't working and it showed two menus, then a weird grey line and finally 2/3 of the display dimmed out. We tried all types of troubleshooting and turned to Garmin and Amazon support. It was an unending circle of both companies telling us that the other should handle it. We reached out to our local Garmin service/repairs and they informed us twice that Amazon should handle it. So in summary Garmin(the manufacturer) told us to reach out to Amazon(seller) to get a replacement with shipping cost and everything else we'll be paying double for a new watch. But get this Garmin will repair it for 200$. Even though the watch has full warranty we need to pay so that they can fix it.
Does anyone have any ideas how I can get this seen by more people and to avoid getting scammed like this?
submitted by Highball69 to Garmin [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:28 sonofabutch No game today, so let's remember a forgotten Yankee: Truck Hannah

The entirety of Harry "Truck" Hannah's major league career came with the New York Yankees -- all three years of it. But if you include his participation in the minors, he had a long career, beginning in 1909 with the Tacoma Tigers in the Northwestern League and ending in 1940 with the Memphis Chickasaws in the Southern Association. He is one of only a handful of players to have a hit in five different decades!
Of all the forgotten Yankee with memorable nicknames -- No Neck, Stanky the Yankee, Sailor Bob, Spud, Slow Joe, The Mummy, Birdie, Bump, and Grandma Johnny -- there's something to be said about the sublime elegance of a big, brawny catcher nicknamed Truck.
James Harrison Hannah Jr. was born 134 years ago today, on June 5, 1889, in what was then the Dakota Territory. (It would become the state of North Dakota about five months later.) By age 2, the family had moved to Seattle, Washington.
As a kid, he was called Harry, but by the time he was playing baseball, he was universally known as Truck. There are several stories as to how he got the nickname. Some said it had to do with his imposing size -- he stood 6'1" and weighed a solid 190 pounds -- and others because of the way he could block the plate as easily as a truck could block a street. Other sources say the nickname wasn't comparing him to a motor vehicle but to a horse, or rather a truck horse, as horses that pulled heavy wagons were called at the time. His daughter, Helen, said he got the nickname simply because he was "big and slow."
Another explanation, a little less colorful, was that Hannah paid the bills in the off-season by working as a truck driver!
Hall of Fame Umpire Billy Evans said Hannah was adept at the catcher's trick of distracting the batter with a steady stream of banter while behind the plate:
"Truck Hannah always has been an object of interest to me when catching. Aside from always doing a pretty good job receiving, he never failed to have a line of conversation that would make a bigger hit on the vaudeville circuit than some of the stuff used by some monologue artists. Hannah keeps up a continual chatter from the time the game starts. Of course, his conversation is largely directed at the batter, in the hope that his line of talk will take the mind of the batter from his work, the making of base hits. He seeks to keep the batter from concentrating, and from the many strikes slipped over by the New York pitchers, I would say there was merit in his system. Hannah's conversation is never objectionable. He usually has the batter laughing at some of his talk, rather than sore."
But Hannah used more than just banter to distract batters. As the pitch was being delivered, he would sometimes spit tobacco juice onto a player's shoes, toss pebbles onto the plate, or throw dirt at their hands on the bat!
Hannah got his start in professional baseball as a 20-year-old third baseman with the Tacoma Tigers in the Northwestern League. When the team needed an emergency catcher, Hannah was put behind the plate and stuck there for the rest of his career. Over the next five years he played for five different teams in four different leagues, until in 1914 finally catching on with the Sacramento Wolves in the Pacific Coast League. The PCL at the time was considered by some to be a third major league, or at least the minor league closest to major league competition, and Hannah was regarded as one of the best catchers in the league. He drew interest from several major league teams, including the Tigers, Phillies, and Browns. But it was the Yankees who finally acquired him, paying $4,000 to acquire his rights after he hit .292 in 569 at-bats in 1917.
Truck pulled into the Polo Grounds -- not Yankee Stadium, which wouldn't be built until 1923 -- as the foundation was being laid for a dynasty. Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast Huston purchased the Yankees in 1915 and immediately set about reversing the fortunes of what had been for years one of the worst-run teams in the American League. The Yankees, as they became known in 1913, had only winning season in the last 10 years.
The new owners set about making changes, acquiring a number of valuable players: Wally Pipp, Home Run Baker, Ping Bodie, Aaron Ward, Urban Shocker, and previously forgotten Yankee Bob Shawkey.
After the 1917 season they made the biggest change of all, firing well-liked manager Bill Donovan and replacing him with former St. Louis Cardinals manager Miller Huggins, who over the next 11 years would lead the Yankees to six pennants and three World Series.
Huggins made another move, acquiring from the St. Louis Browns future Hall of Fame pitcher "Gettysburg Eddie" Plank and veteran second baseman Del Pratt. The latter would be a good player for the Yankees, hitting .295/.348/.394 (106 OPS+) over the next three seasons, but the 42-year-old Plank refused to report and retired instead. In return, the Yankees shipped out five players... including starting catcher Les Nunamaker, who had been with the Yankees for four seasons.
And so, needing a catcher to replace Nunamaker, the Yankees paid the Salt Lake City Bees $4,000 for Hannah. He was expected to battle 22-year-old Muddy Ruel to be the backup to the 25-year-old Roxy Walters, who had been Nunamaker's understudy since September 1915, but Ruel would be drafted into the U.S. Army and Walters broke his finger in an exhibition game 10 days before Opening Day. By the time Walters was ready to play again, Hannah was hitting .288/.432/.356 and had thrown out 19 out of 34 basestealers; over the rest of the season, he would maintain that pace to lead the league in CS% (55%) as well as in double plays as a catcher (16). His batting average would fade dramatically, however, dropping all the way to .220 by the end of the season, but he was still contributing with a .361 OBP in 312 plate appearances. Walters's bat never got started at all, and hitting just .199/.239/.236 in 205 plate appearances.
Technically a major league rookie when he joined the team, the 29-year-old Hannah was treated like a veteran from his four seasons in the well-respected Pacific Coast League. In addition, he was -- literally as well as figuratively, at 6'1" -- one of the few players on the team who could see eye-to-eye with the 6'2" Babe Ruth when he was acquired prior to the 1920 season. When Ruth got into squabbles with diminutive manager Miller Huggins, it was often Hannah's duty to keep the peace.
Yankee shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh, the Yankee captain from 1914 to 1921, described one such incident to long-time Yankee PR man Marty Appel in 1974:
"Once we were leaving Boston after a tough loss, and Babe was drunk, and he said he was gonna throw Huggins off the train! He was heading for his drawing room. On the way he stopped in the men’s room and punched this huge mirror. It fell into a million pieces. Me and Ernie Shore and Truck Hannah pulled him down to the ground and sat on him until he passed out. Truck — a big guy — puts him over his shoulder and moves him to the next car."
At the end of the season, the Yankees were happy enough with Hannah that they traded Roxy Walters to the Red Sox. For the next two years, the catching duties were almost evenly split between Hannah and Ruel, who was back from the Army with the end of World War I.
The "Muddy-Truck" tandem was colorfully named but disappointing, with Ruel hitting .255/.325/.306 (71 OPS+) in 560 PA and Hannah .243/.313/.317 (70 OPS+) in 553 PA. Catcher in those days was very much a defense-first position, and both had good gloves, but the Yankees (even with the newly acquired Babe Ruth having an 11.7 bWAR season) finished three games out of 1st in 1920.
Ruppert and Huston asked Huggins what the team needed to win, and his answer: a catcher.
At the end of the season, the Yankees sent Hannah back to the Pacific Coast League, and traded Ruel to the Red Sox for previously forgotten Yankee Wally Schang, the first in the long line of great Yankee catchers. In his five years with the Yankees, the switch-hitting Schang hit .297/.390/.406 (105 OPS+), and in the 1923 World Series -- the first of 27 won by the Yankees -- Schang played every inning of every game, went 7-for-22 (.318) with a double and three runs scored, and allowed just one stolen base.
Hannah would stay in the Pacific Coast League for the next 22 years as a player, coach, and manager. He had a great year with the Vernon Tigers in 1923, hitting .346 with 23 doubles and 6 home runs in 370 plate appearances. His final plate appearance came on May 19, 1940, when he was managing the Memphis Chicks. Two weeks shy of his 51st birthday, with both his catchers injured, Hannah caught both ends of a doubleheader and went 1-for-6.
Hannah retired from baseball two years later after his St. Paul Saints lost 15 games in a row -- 11 of them by one run! He said he couldn't sleep anymore, replaying every loss in his head over and over, second-guessing every decision he made as manager.
He retired to his ranch in Southern California, but remained active enough in the regional baseball scene that when the Los Angeles Angels played their first major league game in 1961, Hannah was selected to catch the ceremonial first pitch.
Truck Hannah died on April 27, 1982, five weeks shy of his 93rd birthday. His wife, Helen, died in October, a month before what would have been their 70th wedding anniversary.
Keep On Truckin':
Near the end of his career, Truck Hannah was interviewed about the rigors of being a catcher. He said during his 30 years in baseball he'd broken every finger on his right hand at least twice. "What the hell, it's all part of the game," he said. "It sure was fun while it lasted. Even with busted hands and fingers and everything else, I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
submitted by sonofabutch to NYYankees [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:23 vrdsinc Unlock Your Potential: Green Belt Champion Training at VRDS Inc.

The Green Belt Champion Training at VRDS Inc. provides participants with the skills and knowledge to be effective Green Belts. Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the principles of Lean Six Sigma and be able to apply their skills and understanding in their respective areas of responsibility. The course covers a variety of topics such as project identification and selection, data collection and analysis, linking projects to business strategy, process mapping, improvement and implementation, and cost savings. In addition, they will learn to identify and address potential project risks.
submitted by vrdsinc to u/vrdsinc [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:16 raxrb Spending lots of money on translating videos should be declared illegal, given GPT is here.

Hi Everyone,
I am building an App to convert English Youtube/shorts videos to other languages like Spanish, Hindi, etc, or vice versa.
The voiceovers generated using AI are of good quality and can be a good substitute to get your content out in multi-languages.
Obviously, it won't be able to replace the high-quality voiceovers generated by professional voiceovers, but it will be a good substitute to get good quality content at a fraction of the cost to the professional voice-over artists.
The Alpha version is most suited for educational videos or tutorials or product demo videos etc.
If you are interested to try, Comment below and I will send you the link to the tool.
Here are some of the audio content generated by the app.
submitted by raxrb to ChatGPT [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:04 prasana2 Are you looking for Suppliers of UPVC Windows & Doors?

Welcome to Senthur glass house (Thanjavur) -The Glass House is best understood as a pavilion for viewing the surrounding landscape. Invisible from the road, the house sits on a promontory overlooking a pond with views towards the woods beyond. The house is 55 feet long and 33 feet wide, with 1,815 square feet. The Aluminum composite panel also popularly known as ACP is considered today as on the most popular and preferred material used in construction.Every architecture implementing modern day interior designs today requires the use of aluminum composite panel or ACP elevation. ACP Elevation & Facade Work in Thanjavur a new- age cladding material that's used for building front elevation (facades), interiors, signage,modular kitchen and many more. It is available in a wide range of colors and textures like wood, stone, sand, 3D etc.The unique design of double-glazed products insulates against heat and cold up to four times more effectively than single-glazed windows and doors. The space between the two panes of glass acts as a thermal barrier between your home and the outside environment. There are advantages and disadvantages of single glazed windows. The main advantage is the lower cost compared to double or triple glazing. The main advantage is the poor energy efficiency, which can lead to heat loss, higher heating bills and condensation. Double Glazing is when two panes of glass (separated by a layer of air), are used in a home's window. Single & Double Glazing Doors In Thanjavur, this provides another layer of insulation for your home, decreasing heat loss through your windows.304-grade stainless steel may be the best choice for a railing system designed for both indoors and outdoors – especially if your application is away from large bodies of salt water and won't be exposed to extreme conditions. The price of Steel Railings products is between ₹700 - ₹800per Feet .When it comes to strength and durability, steel is, hands-down, the winner. However, steel, particularly stainless steel, is the most expensive railing material. Casement windows are the most popular type of frame frames. They are also known as crank windows. These windows have hinges on the side walls structure frame that allow them to swing inwards and outwards Generally, the per sq ft cost for UPVC windows ranges between Rs200 and 550 for fixed windows and Rs 250 and 700 per sq ft for casements. UPVC Premium Windows and Doors Manufacturers .The combination style is around Rs 340-460 per sq ft and the sliding style comes at Rs 280-700 per sq ft.Typically lasting around 20 years, which can vary between 10-35 years depending on the quality and upkeep, if your UPVC windows were installed around 1999 it's likely that they could need,replacing or at least repairing by now. Though made from plastic, UPVC windows and doors are not susceptible to warping and cracking when subjected to heat. The frames come reinforced using galvanized iron, which means that they'll always retain their shape and size.
submitted by prasana2 to u/prasana2 [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:04 DarkPuzzleheaded3367 What’s this sound?

What’s this sound?
2013 Mazda CX-5 GS FWD with just under 125k miles. Bought As Is from the dealership so they weren’t willing or able to speak on any issues. It’s making this strange trickling/tinkling/chirping type sound that seems to be coming from the front driver side, hard to tell if it’s from the wheel area or under the hood. Got a pre-purchase inspection from one garage who said it just needed front wheel bearings. Then got it MVI’d at another garage who just said it needed a serpentine belt and rear strut mounts. Does it sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas what it might be? Thanks.
submitted by DarkPuzzleheaded3367 to autorepair [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:03 DarkPuzzleheaded3367 What’s this sound?

What’s this sound?
2013 Mazda CX-5 GS FWD with just under 125k miles. Bought As Is from the dealership so they weren’t willing or able to speak on any issues. It’s making this strange trickling/tinkling/chirping type sound that seems to be coming from the front driver side, hard to tell if it’s from the wheel area or under the hood. Got a pre-purchase inspection from one garage who said it just needed front wheel bearings. Then got it MVI’d at another garage who just said it needed a serpentine belt and rear strut mounts. Does it sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas what it might be? Thanks.
submitted by DarkPuzzleheaded3367 to Cartalk [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 14:01 structura1 HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO REMODEL A BATHROOM IN LOS ANGELES?

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO REMODEL A BATHROOM IN LOS ANGELES?

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COST OF YOUR LOS ANGELES BATHROOM REMODEL

Ready for your renovation?! Do you feel like you need more information before you can say yes to your bathroom remodel? The team at Structura Remodeling is here to support you. Having provided accurate estimates for bathroom renovations for over 16 years, we understand the details that go into creating a dream California bathroom. Today, we’ll explore the average cost of a California bathroom remodel in Los Angeles.

THERE ARE A FEW KEY THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN RESEARCHING THE COST OF A BATHROOM REMODEL.

1. Bathroom Size – The size of your bathroom will dictate the cost of materials and labor necessary to complete a renovation. Once you know your bathroom dimensions, you can estimate the pricing for flooring, cabinets, etc. This is where you have the most opportunity to control the budget. Whether you choose high-end, median-priced, or budget fixtures, cabinetry, and flooring will determine the pricing of your bathroom remodel.
2. Los Angeles Trends- Know what’s going on in your neighbourhood. If you plan to stay in your house for the next thirty years, then It’s ok to use any style and materials that make you happy. If you plan to sell within the next five to ten years, find out what is popular, looks modern, and appeals to most people when you sell your home. Go to a few open houses or check with a local realtor. They should be happy to help. After all, you could be a future client.
3. Budget – Again, your choices will affect your budget. Will you choose prefabricated cabinetry or high-end custom cabinets? The custom cabinets are more expensive but will last longer and give you more design options. Are you installing a stand-alone tub and shower or just a shower? Marble tile flooring or laminate? Whatever your taste, budget, and choices are, remember always to have a 10-15% contingency plan for unexpected expenses. For example, if you open up the walls and find plumbing or electrical that is not up to code and needs to be replaced. This is common in renovation projects.

HOW TO FEEL CONFIDENT IN HIRING A CONTRACTOR

Hiring a contractor can be a confusing process. You hear stories from friends and family about frustrating experiences they had in hiring the wrong contractor. Here is how to avoid the mistake of hiring the wrong contractor.

  • Check credentials- California has specific requirements for Contractors. Make sure that anyone you hire is licensed, insured, and bonded. Check online with the Contractors State License Board website. Also, if you are a member of Angie’s list, you can check with them.

  • Online review and referrals- Make sure the contractor has been in business for at least five years so you can check their track record with customers and the Better Business Bureau. Business owners can buy online reviews, so make sure they are from actual customers. Speak to neighbors and friends. Get referrals from satisfied customers.

  • Get three bids to compare. – The more specific you can be about your choices for cabinets, fixtures, flooring, the more accurate the bids will be. You have to be able to compare apples with apples. If you get a low-ball bid, ask the right questions to see what’s included and what’s not. What is their experience? Do they have licensed electricians and plumbers on staff?

HERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL HELPFUL HINTS:

Know the square footage of your space. The size of your bathroom can play an important factor in the estimate of your renovation. Are you planning to remodel your master bath? Or do you have a half bath that needs an upgrade? In either scenario have the square footage is a great first step.
What’s your style? Do you tend to appreciate modern, clean lines, or do you love the look of shabby chic? Knowing your style will help get an estimate of the fixtures, materials. This will also help with the initial bathroom design.
Are you looking for a walk-in shower, or are you more excited by having that perfect bathtub where your Los Angeles bathroom turns into your spa? A shower vs. a bathtub will also affect the average estimate you receive for your renovation.

https://preview.redd.it/dhr7b2qtx64b1.png?width=746&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5c2c3170ef7d20b09badb8a51910c307e5443e1

AVERAGE COST OF A LOWER-END BATHROOM REMODEL:

Consider you are looking to remodel your Los Angeles bathroom and work within a budget. There are options to keep your estimate for your renovation on the low end. An average price for a lower-end bathroom remodeling works out to be between $12,000 and $15,000. With Structura, financing is always an option. The simplest way to adjust your renovation cost is by selecting prefabricated or re-purposed counters and cabinets. Fixtures come in a wide variety of finishes and price ranges to fit every budget. Lighting fixtures are a good place to save money. Often there are copies of higher-end fixtures that will give you the look you are craving. Also, remember that costs are equated to square footage for both labor and materials. That’s why there is a price difference between remodeling your mater bath vs. your half bath.

https://preview.redd.it/na74xgkux64b1.png?width=701&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d972b70fd7d294e593de2cab9f355e740a45a40

THE AVERAGE COST OF A MID-RANGE LOS ANGELES BATHROOM REMODEL:

If your renovation budget is more flexible, there are some things that you can achieve within the mid-range bathroom remodel. The average estimate for a mid-range bathroom remodel is approximately $22,000 to $30,000. Some of the differences you’ll see with a renovation at this price point are wood cabinetry, up-leveled shower fixtures, and the opportunity to play with more variety of titles and stones for counters, flooring, and showers. The tile selection opens up huge design possibilities, especially when considering your bathroom flow and ensuring that you’re honoring California design trends.

https://preview.redd.it/l8e4kf9vx64b1.png?width=705&format=png&auto=webp&s=aa169bb097defa1d52a23ea7bf4bfdcc057cc499

THE AVERAGE COST FOR A HIGH-END BATHROOM REMODEL:

If you’re ready to invest in creating the bathroom of your dreams, you may find yourself in the higher-end budget for the cost of your bathroom remodel. The average estimate for a high-end bathroom renovation is between $55,000 and $75,000. Remember, financing is available, especially if you’re a Veteran or a Senior Citizen. If your Los Angeles remodel falls in the high-end, you can pretty much expect to dream…design and build your perfect bathroom.
You’ll most likely have the square footage to include both a stand-up shower and a soaking tub. Explore all the new technology. Customize your shower with light, sound, and temperature settings that operate by voice controls or your iPad. Get your morning news, weather, and stock market report with your morning show, or call up your morning playlist. Add a steam function to your rain shower. Also, add the perfect mood lighting for your new home spa experience. Choose Eco-friendly materials and heated towel racks. You may want to choose high-end stone, marble, or glass counters and contemporary designs that fit the California vibe as well as the upgraded fixtures. Wake up and step into your master bathroom, take a rain shower and end your day with a long soak in your tub. Enjoy a glass of wine and rinse off the day’s stress at home.
If you're looking to redesign your bathroom in Los Angeles, finding a reputable general contractor is essential. A Los Angeles general contractor for bathroom redesign can help you create the perfect space that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations.
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2023.06.05 14:00 dreftzg [Daily News] This Frederique Constant Is THE Rolex Oyster Alternative At 1/5th The Price, Porsche Design Celebrates First Porsche, Norqain Is Summer Ready With Ice Blue Dial And A Miffy The Rabbit Watch Is Perfect

It's Monday and there's not much going on today. But still... here it is. I'll take a brief moment and say thanks to everyone here that subscribed to the newsletter. That thing blew up and in three months got to numbers I would be happy with after two years. I hope you enjoy these updates, even on days that are slow like this one.
Also, I have a new giveaway with the newsletter - a Hamilton Khaki Field - so check it out if you're so inclined.

What's new

1/
Frederique Constant’s New Highlife Automatic Is An Interesting Rolex Oyster 36 Alternative At 1/5th Of The Price
Ask on a forum what would be a great alternative if you weren’t ready to spend about $10.000 on the really nice and colorful Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36, and the two most likely answers you will get are the Tissot Gentleman (which lacks the range of colors) and the Casio Tsuyosa (which is all about color). And these are two mighty fine watches. But they are also sub $500 (depending on where you shop). And it’s very clear that they are not luxury watches. Now, if you want a great alternative to the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36 that is trying to make a break towards the luxury watch market, take a look at the new Frederique Constant Highlife Automatic. Not only are they introducing a bunch of great colors, they also have a very interesting dial. And they’re almost 1/5th of the price of the Oyster Perpetual.
Frederique Constant might be a watch that’s not on your radar every day, but they offer great value for money, entry level luxury - especially in the Highlife Automatic - with some pieces that can get up there in price. Their entry into the same realm as the Oyster Perpetual comes up a bit short, at 34mm, but with the trend of customers wanting smaller and more vintage-looking watches, this is a great option. Most of the case is brushed, with polished links on the integrated bracelet. The watch also comes with a white rubber strap.
Where the watch majorly differs from any competition would be the dial. It comes in ice blue, champagne gold, and blossom pink, with a subtle pattern which looks like the grid around a globe. This is a pattern found on many FCs. Inside the watch is the FC-303, based on the Sellita SW200.
The Frederique Constant Highlife Automatic watches in the new colours are unlimited and available now, priced at $1,895.
2/
The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Celebrates 75 Years Of Porsche’s First Car
75 years ago, Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche built one of the most influential cars to ever exist - the Porsche 356 Roadster. Not only did that car change the car world by itself, it also set the groundwork for one of the greatest sports car brands in the world. 24 years later, Ferdinand “Butzi” Porsche (yeah, they weren’t all that creative with their names, Ferry’s dad who constructed the Beetle was also named Ferdinand) created a company called Porsche Design, a production design studio that will take the Porsche ethos and apply it to stuff that isn’t cars. One of the things Porsche Design perfected is watches, and to celebrate the anniversary of the 356, Porsche Design is releasing a new version of their Chronograph 1 – the 75 Years of Porsche Edition
The original Porsche Design Chronograph 1, manufactured by Orfina, wasn’t just popular because of its looks, but also because of its technological advancement. It was the watch that pioneered the use of PVD treatments on watch cases, making a fully black watch. It also appeared on the wrist of Tom Cruise in Top Gun. The new model isn’t a replica of the old one, but look at them side by side and you see a clear evolution.
The Chronograph 1 – the 75 Years of Porsche Edition is made out of titanium, 40mm wide, once again gets a matte black finish and paired to a textile leather strap with light-blue decorative stitching and a central red stripe or the included black leather strap with matching black stitching. The anti-reflective, matte-black dial was inspired by the dashboard in the cockpit of the Porsche 911, but the case has been updated to titanium instead of the original stainless steel used in 1972
Interestingly, the old Chronograph 1 was powered by the Valjoux 7750, and the new one has the WERK 01.140 which is, in essence, a modernised version of that movement. Very modernised, very upgraded. It has a flyback chronograph functionality, black-coated decoration and COSC certification that ensures accuracy within +6/-4 seconds per day. Also, the automatic winding rotor has taken the shape of the legendary Fuchs wheel with a Porsche crest
The watch is limited, frustratingly to 475 pieces. Yes, I get you would like to sell more watches, but 475 doesn’t mean anything. 75 means something. 356 means something. Anyways, sale starts June 8 and it’s priced at $11,000.
3/
Chopard L.U.C. Full Strike Gets An Update In Full Blue Sapphire
The Chopard L.U.C Full Strike is an award winning watch, and it’s no wonder why. Introduced in 2016, it was the brand’s first minute repeater and just look at it. It’s a perfect blend of tradition and innovation, exhibiting exceptional construction and decoration. Now, Chopard is releasing a new version of the watch - this time in a blue sapphire case. So, if you ever wanted to get the Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Blue Sapphire, but wanted an actually fantastic watch, here it is!
To use the biggest cliche of them all - this is not a revolution, it is an evolution. But it really is an evolution, as it is a color update to last year’s Full Strike Sapphire, with the 42.5 mm case, and crown with its integrated minute repeater pusher made of sapphire. It still has the same insane sapphire crystal gongs, machined from a single sapphire block.
The dial is made of sapphire, too, with the movement in full view. For easy reading, the railway-type minutes track was engraved and painted on the crystal, and eight rhodium-plated, shaped hour markers, positioned from 12 to 7 o’clock, were applied to make the chapter ring.
The L.U.C 08.01-L hand-wound movement is COSC certified and bears the Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark. It comprises 533 parts, beats to the frequency of 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 60 hours.
Unlike the Hublot, which comes on a full sapphire bracelet which many watchmakers have called an impossible dirt trap, the Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Blue Sapphire is offered on a blue alligator leather strap and it’s limited to just five pieces. The price is on request, but last year’s clear sapphire version was rumoured to cost $450.000
4/
The Norqain Freedom 60 Chrono 40mm Ice Blue Limited Edition Is A Summer Ready Baby Blue Watch
Norqain is only five years old and yet, it currently has more than 50 different watches in their lineup. Started by Ben Küffer who brought over a bunch of people from Breitling, where he worked, one of their early successes was the Freedom 60 Chrono, housed in a 43mm case. People loved the watch, but they loved the 40mm version launched last year even more. Norqain is now releasing a limited edition of the 40mm chronograph with an ice blue dial.
It’s the same old watch as it was last year - 40mm in diameter and 14.9mm thick, with a box-type AR sapphire crystal and 100-metre water resistance rating. There are three strap options and Norqain is proud that they are all animal cruelty-free - a stainless steel bracelet, a black Perlon rubber strap and a linen Nortide strap made of recycled plastic recovered from the ocean.
The dial has a tri-compax layout and gets a new color palette with a sunray brushed ice blue dial, with black subdials and silver applied indices. There’s a colour-matching angled date at the unfortunate position between 4 and 5 o’clock. Inside the watch is Norqain’s calibre NN19, based on the Sellita SW510, a cam-operated chronograph with 27 jewels, 28,800vph (4Hz) and a power reserve of 62 hours. This is an update last year’s 40mm model, which had an ETA based movement.
The Norqain Freedom 60 Chrono 40mm Ice Blue Limited Edition is limited to 300 pieces and retails for CHF 4,250 with the steel bracelet, CHF 4,150 with the rubber strap and CHF 3,990 with the Nortide strap.
5/
Revolution’s Latest Collaboration With De Rijke & Co. Gives Us A Whimsical Miffy Watch With A Sapphire Dial And Great Price
If you are by chance, like me, a parent to a little girl, you know all about Miffy. If you are not, all you need to know is that Miffy is cult Dutch cartoon bunny created by Dick Bruna, whose books have sold more than 100 million copies since 1955. Miffy being Dutch is appropriate, since this watch is made by De Rijke & Co, a relatively young Dutch watch brand that was started after it’s owner Laurens de Rijke in 2013 took his fifty year old Vespa scooter for a trip on the Silk Road, covering a distance of 11.000 kilometer, he past countries like Azerbaijan. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Born from this trip was an inspiration to create a watch, and it’s very interesting. While many brands want to create a fully modular watch, it always ends up being cumbersome. De Rijke went another path - he created a two part case that allows you to spin the internal part that holds the dial, crystal and movement, up to 90 degrees, allowing it to be positioned wherever you wanted for comfort. The lugs of the watch are also unique, solid and made for straps to pass through them. All of this gives the watch almost as much modularity as a modular watch, while still being a good watch.
Also, this is not the first time you will find Miffy on a De Rijke & Co. watch. They have a completely sold out collection of four Miffy watches differing only in color and limited to 25 pieces per color. The watch is powered by the Sellita SW 288-1, a movement that has been seen modified for the MING 37.05 Moonphase and unmodified in the Farer Moonphase. All of this makes sense, as the De Rijke & Co. Miffy watch is a moonphase watch, where the moon is replaced with an illustration of Miffy.
And now, here comes Revolution magazine with their special edition of the De Rijke & Co. Miffy, but this time it’s the Double Moonphase. This version of the watch has a translucent sapphire dial, which allowed them to add a second Miffy, which turns the watch into a dual-hemisphere moonphase indicator.
Production will be limited to 100 pieces and the watch is priced at EUR 3,100, which is EUR 400 higher than the already sold out Miffy’s which don’t have the sapphire dial. Available for purchase on 6 June 2023, 10pm SGT 4pm CET 10am EST
6/
The Romain Gauthier Introduces The C Titanium Edition Four In Black And Blue
There’s a certain type of watch one expects from an independent watchmaker. Serious, classical, with all the watchmaking talents on display and highly personal. Romain Gauthier took all of those characteristics and applied them to his watches. Then he decided to create the Continuum, which is, in fact, an independent’s version of a sports watch, filled with Gauthier’s trademark touches. The model was later renamed C by Romain Gauthier, but the series retained the essential idea and continued to evolve aesthetically. The brand has just revealed the new edition of the C by Romain Gauthier Titanium in a Grade 5 titanium case coated with black ALDC.
If you follow the work of Romain Gauthier, the new C by Romain Gauthier Titanium Edition Four will look very familiar to you, for the watch sports the same 41mm x 9.55mm, 50m water-resistant case crafted from Grade 5 titanium, with a black diamond-like carbon coating, as the Edition Two from last year. All of the titanium used also gives the watch incredible lightness and the whole thing weighs just 55 grams.
The new reference is distinguished mainly by coloured elements. The crown at 2 o’clock features a blue rubber ring. The main dial plate in black Grade 5 titanium received a straight-graining finish; the slightly off-centred hours and minutes are indicated with the white Super-LumiNova-filled 18k white gold hands and applied numerals and hour markers.
But all of this is secondary to the movement. It is a contemporary in-house calibre, manually wound, with exceptional decoration and finishes. The movement with signature Gauthier-reinterpreted historically typical finger-style bridges in natural titanium and rhodium-treated gears is the same as in the previous Continuum editions. It beats to a frequency of 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 60 hours.
The C by Romain Gauthier Titanium Edition Four is a limited edition of 38, and comes on a black textured rubber strap with satin-finished and polished Grade 5 titanium pin buckle coated with black ADLC. It’s priced at CHF 38,000 and while this is an insane amount of money for a watch, I can think of many mass produced watches with less impressive materials and movements that will ask you for much more money.
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On hand - a selection of reviews

1/
A review of the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days watch, ultra-thin and all-titanium
2/
Hands on with the very controversial Patek Philippe Calatrava 6007G
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Watch Worthy - A look at an offbeat, less known watch you might actually like

Classy, With A Touch Of Sportiness; The Moritz Grossmann Power Reserve Vintage
Made out of solid silver, the finishing is outstanding. The elongated black Roman numerals exude elegance and are embraced with a very fine minute track. Look closely and you can see small blue markers at every five-minute increment, a touch of colour that ties in with a key element on the dial: the power reserve indication. This simple little horizontal display is very practical on a day-to-day basis when dealing with a hand-wound watch (which this is).
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People loved the Seiko Alpinist! That's why I'm doing a new one. This time, we're giving away four Hamilton Khaki Field Automatics in a color of your choice. Head on over to the newsletter if you would like to enter.
If you would like to receive some additional watch-adjacent content, as well as this news overview, every morning Monday-Friday in the form of a newsletter feel free to subscribe. However, there is absolutely no need for you to subscribe, as all the news from the newsletter is posted here. It is only if you want to receive a couple of daily links that are not strictly watch-related and want to get this news overview in your inbox.
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2023.06.05 13:59 DarkPuzzleheaded3367 What’s this sound?

What’s this sound?
2013 Mazda CX-5 GS FWD with just under 125k miles. Bought As Is from the dealership so they weren’t willing or able to speak on any issues. It’s making this strange trickling/tinkling/chirping type sound that seems to be coming from the front driver side, hard to tell if it’s from the wheel area or under the hood. Got a pre-purchase inspection from one garage who said it just needed front wheel bearings. Then got it MVI’d at another garage who just said it needed a serpentine belt and rear strut mounts. Does it sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas what it might be? Thanks.
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2023.06.05 13:58 DarkPuzzleheaded3367 What’s this sound?

2013 Mazda CX-5 GS FWD with just under 125k miles. Bought As Is from the dealership so they weren’t willing or able to speak on any issues. It’s making this strange trickling/tinkling/chirping type sound that seems to be coming from the front driver side, hard to tell if it’s from the wheel area or under the hood. Got a pre-purchase inspection from one garage who said it just needed front wheel bearings. Then got it MVI’d at another garage who just said it needed a serpentine belt and rear strut mounts. Does it sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas what it might be? Thanks.
submitted by DarkPuzzleheaded3367 to mechanics [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 13:56 Snudwoner With Fervor and Bayonets Only - Chapter 4: Push-Back

Kayles, Soldier of the United Kingdom, Subject of His Majesty, King George V
Date: [Standardized Human Time] June 29, 1915
Hot balls of lead death send splinters flying as I ducked into a dugout. Miles was close behind, clutching his helmet with his free hand. He had used all of his grenades in blowing apart the barbed wire, so we only had rifles at our disposal. Even though he towered well above my eye level, I still could see the fear in his visage.
Shouts in German rounded the corner, and Miles looked at me wordlessly. Run!, his eyes seemed to say. His fleeing deeper into the tunnel system confirmed my position.
My paws pattered on the dirt floor, as gunfire sounded from outside.
”Miles!” I hissed, determined not to make any noise. No reply
Fuck! I lost that blasted human again. Now, here I was, in a pitch-black German bunker.
I stepped forward, my paw pads shifting the dust on the floorboards like bread dough on a floured cutting board. Thankfully, I appeared to be totally alone in this tunnel complex, given that the soldiers pursuing us weren’t in earshot. My ears were still ringing faintly, however, and I couldn’t be sure if I was truly alone.
The next few minutes consisted of me bumping into bunk beds as I stumbled my way through the dugout, no source of light except for one dim lantern left in the corner by its operator. I stepped over and grabbed the brass loop tightly in my forepaw, and lifted it off the hook, granting me a light source.
The next few minutes attempting to navigate the tunnels were uneventful, as the sounds of battle filtered in from outside. Eventually, the dim glow from the lantern was replaced by daylight as I found an exit. Immediately, I was greeted by a pair of German soldiers frantically operating a machine gun.
The cylinder of death was chattering away as it chewed through its ammunition, the belt being held aloft by the soldier that wasn’t operating the weapon. I raised my rifle, and I fired.
The machine gunner’s head jerked to the side as crimson gushed from his neck, the fiend falling to the ground as his comrade wheeled, dropping the ammunition belt and rushing to unholster his sidearm. I fired again after ratcheting the bolt, and that was two down. The machine gun stood silent. Where were all the other Germans?
Gunfire nearby alerted to the potential whereabouts of the absent soldiers. Hefting my stolen rifle, I grabbed an ammunition clip from my satchel, and racked it into my rifle. Combat awaited!
But wait, what was that? Is that… cheering? Why would cheering erupt in the middle of a battle?
My confusion grew as I turned, startled at several English soldiers storming around a corner.
“WE DROVE THEM OUT!” One of the Terrans shouted deafeningly. Next to him stood a familiar spiky form, acting just as excited and eager; a Gojid.
I knew that the Gojid species was in short supply on Earth, but seeing one on the frontlines of this damned hell was definitely strange. The spiky fella seemed to be completely in tune with the humans. It was likely his parents raised him next to the omnivores.
He introduced himself as Bratip, and I fell into this squad, now representing three separate species. From what they told me, the Germans had dedicated a large portion of this line to attacking our position, and when we countered, their meager defenses collapsed. It explained the lack of Germans I saw in the dugout.
As the smoke from the fires of war drifted over the horizon, I pondered the fate of that Miles kid, and my friend, Barlek.
First Previous ——-
Hey guys, Snudwoner here. I’m sorry if this chapter doesn’t exactly keep up with the action of the past two, but I’ve been busy with end-of-school exams and whatnot, and I really needed to finish up the current battle, and get ready to transition the story to another point.
But, we now have confirmation that Terran Gojid exist on Earth in this AU, and the English forces have pushed back the German Line! Stay tuned!
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2023.06.05 13:55 DarkPuzzleheaded3367 What’s this sound?

What’s this sound?
2013 Mazda CX-5 GS FWD with just under 125k miles. Bought As Is from the dealership so they weren’t willing or able to speak on any issues. It’s making this strange trickling/tinkling/chirping type sound that seems to be coming from the front driver side, hard to tell if it’s from the wheel area or under the hood. Got a pre-purchase inspection from one garage who said it just needed front wheel bearings. Then got it MVI’d at another garage who just said it needed a serpentine belt and rear strut mounts. Does it sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas what it might be? Thanks.
submitted by DarkPuzzleheaded3367 to MechanicAdvice [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 13:53 DarkPuzzleheaded3367 What’s this sound?

2013 Mazda CX-5 GS FWD with just under 125k miles. Bought As Is from the dealership so they weren’t willing or able to speak on any issues. It’s making this strange trickling/tinkling/chirping type sound that seems to be coming from the front driver side, hard to tell if it’s from the wheel area or under the hood. Got a pre-purchase inspection from one garage who said it just needed front wheel bearings. Then got it MVI’d at another garage who just said it needed a serpentine belt and rear strut mounts. Does it sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas what it might be? Thanks.
submitted by DarkPuzzleheaded3367 to mechanic [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 13:45 DistinctBig2417 Philosophical question: what is more important in replacing an item - the cost or the size?

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2023.06.05 13:42 PromotionCreative806 Philosophical question: what is more important in replacing an item - the cost or the size?

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