EDIT: Credit to u/james5007_nt , IONWNBA.com has a text version of a broadcast map. The Chicago @ LA game will be national tonight, so everyone will get at least two games.
Well, it's ION night folks. Tonight we have 5 games, all being broadcast on one channel. However, unlike last week, we have 3 games being broadcast in the early round, and 2 games in the late round. So there is no automatic national game, all games are being determined by your TV zone tonight.
A reminder of how the broadcast rules work for ION games:

• There are two rounds of games, early and late. Everyone will get 2 games, but the specific games you get will be determined by your TV zone, or lack thereof
  
• You will ALWAYS get your local team's game. For example, if you live in Georgia, you will ALWAYS get Dream games.
  
• If your local team is not playing, or you are outside of a team's TV zone entirely, you will get the designated national game. Everyone except for markets where other teams are playing simultaneously will get the national game.
  

Here is how the games will be broadcast tonight:
EARLY GAMES (3 Games)

• New York @ Atlanta - 7:30 PM ET - LOCAL
  
• Phoenix @ Dallas - 8:30 PM ET - NATIONAL
  
• Indiana @ Minnesota - 8:30 PM ET - LOCAL
  

LATE GAMES (2 Games)

• Chicago @ Los Angeles - 10:00 PM ET - NATIONAL
  
• Washington @ Seattle - 10:00 PM ET - REGIONAL
  

Source
For the first round, Most of you will get Pheonix/Dallas, however others will get New York/Atlanta or Indiana/Minnesota. Second round, most of you will get Chicago @ LA, however others will get Washington @ Seattle.
The day when we can have simply TV broadcast rules will be the day when pigs fly. or when RSNs die.

I'm excited to go to my first Buffalo Bills game. I'm searching hotels and I was wondering if anyone knows if LaQuinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Lackawanna has a shuttle to Highmark Stadium. Thanks in advance.

Hindi naman ako masamang tao? Pero why do I feel like I'm being punished by God. Growing up Ako yung klase ng bata who has to prove himself everytime. Nothing is freely given to me. I have experienced things that no child should have ever experienced. At the young age of 19 years old (I am now 26) I was diagnosed with diabetes, and every day for the rest of my life I have to take numerous tablets a day just to live. Sobrang sama ng loob ko. Why of all people sakin binigay to. Feeling ko wala na patutunguhan buhay ko. Why bother if probably maggng miserable lang naman ang buhay ko because of this. But then I saw a reason to fight. To hold on. I met my ex-gf of 5 years. I thought maybe ito yung reason kng bakit need ko lumaban at wag sumuko. I finally have something to live for. A future to look forward to. This woman left me for another man. Probably because alam nya na hirap lang ang dadalhin ko if this disease progresses. Gumuho mundo ko. I nearly killed myself because of this. Time have passed and I slowly recovered from an attempt to take my own life. I have met someone so different. Someone who understands me. Someone who thinks like me. Someone who got very close to me. I grew attached to this person only to be taken away from me again (I wont go into much detail as the wound is still fresh).
And somehow, my family wants me to be a believer. How can I believe something who has been very cruel to me. Hndi ako masamang tao, I do good deeds without expecting something in return. Pero kng totooong may Diyos, why would he be so cruel? Why? How can I believe kng puro ganto. I've heard all the "it's all part of his plan" responses. What plan? Plano na maging miserable ang buhay ko? Im growing tired of it all everyday.

Friday:
Live After 5 -- Outdoor Concert Series at Old Town Public House - Old Town Public House - Friday at 5:00PM
Free baseball clinic for kids: Charlotte Knights PLAY BALL Clinic - Knothole Foundation Tuckaseegee Dream Fields - Friday at 5:30PM
2nd Friday Street Festival in Old Town Cornelius - Oak Street Mill - Friday at 6:00PM
Live From the Boileryard Music Series - Camp North End - Friday at 6:00PM
Live Under the Oaks music series - Birkdale Village - Friday at 6:00PM
Drive-In Movie at Badin Road Drive-In (price is per person) - Badin Road Drive-In - Friday at 6:30PM
Pineville Rock'n & Reel'n: Pandora's Box - Pineville Lake Park - Friday at 7:00PM
Fortune Friday - Red Clay Ciderworks - Friday at 7:00PM
Huntersville Movies in the Park - Veterans Park (Huntersville) - Friday at 7:30PM
Trap & Paint + Karaoke - Superstarz CLT - Friday at 8:00PM
Sports One Uptown CLT Free Friday Night RSVP LIST - Sports One Charlotte - Friday at 8:00PM
​
Saturday:
Free Yoga in the Park in Rock Hill every Saturday - Fountain Park, Rock Hill - Saturday at 8:00AM
Saturday Morning Yoga - Lenny Boy Brewing Co. - Saturday at 10:00AM
2nd Saturdays in the Park: Fishing - Camp TN Spencer Park - Saturday at 10:00AM
Summer NoDaHood Market - Divine Barrel Brewing - Saturday at 1:00PM
BEST OF ALL WORLD'S DAY PARTY (DEAR SUMMER) - Imperial Lounge & Rooftop - Saturday at 4:00PM
Tega Cay Concert Series: New Local - Runde Park, Tega Cay - Saturday at 6:00PM
Rockin' The Burg: Blue Monday - Harrisburg Park - Saturday at 6:30PM
Town of Dallas Summer Concert Series: Coming Up Brass - Historic Dallas Court Square - Saturday at 7:00PM
Comedy Open Mic at The Landing - The Landing at 4th Ward - Saturday at 7:30PM
Dress Like Your Grandma/Grandpa Party (plus, live music) - CityCade, Gastonia - Saturday at 8:00PM
Belmont Movies in the Park: The Princess Bride - Stowe Park, Belmont - Saturday at 8:30PM
SOIRÉE SATURDAYS: SEXIEST SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY - Blow City Charlotte - Saturday at 9:00PM
​
Sunday:
A Walking Vibe Presents: Look Good! Heal Good! (donation based) - Weathered Souls Charlotte - Sunday at 12:00PM
Sunday FunDay Free Lunch - NoDa Company Store - Sunday at 12:00PM
Maker's Market CLT at Primal Brewery Huntersville - NoDa Brewing North End - Sunday at 1:00PM
Free Live Tunes Every Sunday - Free Range Brewing - Sunday at 3:00PM
Summer Concert Series at Seoul Food Meat Co. South End - Seoul Food Meat Co., South End - Sunday at 3:00PM
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra Summer Pops: The Music of John Williams - Symphony Park at SouthPark Mall - Sunday at 8:15PM
​
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Any other fun things happening this week? Let us know your plans in the comments!

I’ve seen a handful of posts on this subreddit in the past where people typically list their favorite wing place with little to no description about what makes them great. I figured this would be a great way to not only see the different variations that we all have with one another in a particular order, but for people to also check out amazing places that are good and local spots to you. I’ll start out with mine: 1. Charlie’s (Somers Point): Great local bar with the best wings I’ve ever had, hands down. They’re always perfectly fried to be just crispy enough on the outside while soaking up the sauce perfectly, and they’re always moist on the inside. Good sized wings, nice lineup of sauces to choose from (tail gun is perfect), and they always come out piping hot. I come here all year round since I spend the majority of my time in Margate, but it’s worth the commute if you live far away or if you spend the day around Ocean City. 2. Dominic’s Tavern (Bellmawr): I have to say, their wings are exceptional. They’re big and meaty with great flavor, and they’re crispy while still absorbing the sauce. Their fat daddy sauce is the best wing sauce around, and I can’t rave enough about how good that sauce is. Personally, I like the way the bread them by applying it as a light and thin coating, but if breading is a problem then just ask for the wings to be naked. 3. The Golden Nugget Tavern (Berlin): Classic country dive bar with live country music and incredible wings. They’re average size but the crispiness is just right. Their traditional sauce is really good, it’s a great combination of slight sweetness and spiciness, but not over the top in either category. Wednesdays and Thursday nights they also have all you can eat wings for $16.00, pretty solid deal. I can only recall one time where I thought the wings were just okay (they were small, too crispy, and not hot), but other than that they’ve been exceptional. 4. Pic-A-Lilli Inn (Shamong): The fame for their wings is well deserved. The size of them may be slightly smaller, so they’re very crisp and not too greasy or fatty. They’re sauces are amazing and they have a wide variety to choose from, I would say that the sauces are a little better than Golden Nugget. Wednesdays they also have all you can eat wings for $15.00. This place can be a hike for many people, but trust me you won’t regret it. 5. The Jug Handle Inn (Cinnaminson): A great hometown dive bar with that “uncle’s basement” feel, and the wings are to die for. They’re really big, crispy, and juicy, and packed with flavor. Heard good things about the Tony Bruno sauce and I’m looking forward to trying it out in the near future, but they also have a ton of great flavors to choose from. I also want to point out that the wings are breaded if breading isn’t your thing.
Honorable mentions: Pine Hill Tavern, Buffalo Bills Barbecue, Chegg, and P.J. Whelihan's Pub.
Places I want to try: Doyles Pour House, Dolsot House, Wing It, and Sharky’s.

Been working a hotel desk for 2 years now have had a many arguments with people but never have i encountered a real llife karen.
Omg. Claims the mid shif said she can check in at 9am on a sold out previous night. We never guarantee a early check that early. If its a slow day then yea ill do it but not a friday and sat.
Wanted to know why people arent completely checked out by check out time. Lady i still have 20 rooms not gone. It takes time to flip rooms. Not my fault someone lied to you that wasnt even our property.
Check in is at 3 you arent even granted early check in due to you being a prepaid res.
I apologize for getting an attitude but you being that hostile over something i dont have because you decided to come in 6 hr early is not my problem.
But i am not apologizing for something i do not have.
She kept saying the guy told her and guaranteed a 9am check in.
Lady idk who told you that but it wasnt anyone at this property.
She sad she will talk to the guy at 3 and if he said she could check in am i going to apologize.
The fuck?? Hell no. I have nothing to be sorry for. Since im not the one who told you that. You are more than welcome to do that
I told her she was talking to the reservation line. Or the 3rd party site.
Claims she would have talked to them she called the hotel directly.
That may be so however if we are busy and dont answer then the automated line will pick up.
"I just drove 2 hrs from dallas"
Ok and??? Thats my fault how???
Smh what is wrong with people.
Then has the audacity to tell me to give her the mid shift guys number so she can bitch him out. Hahahaha no i dont think so lady.
She saw 2 people leaving and seriously asks "what about their room?" Mam they just left its a double youre in a queen i cant modify a prepaid reservation. (I can but we arent supposed to. And its sold out tonigbt so i have no wiggle room).
She kept saying "i understand that i understand that",
do you karen do you really cause im at the point of repeating myself.
I might can get soemthing by 130 but not going to rush housekeeping.
I need rooms done right.
Finally got her in and then rudely placed her cards on the counter instead of my hand.
Yea thank god its only for 1 night.
Stupid bitch.
Prob gonna get a online complaint.
Had my blood a flowin.
I can see the complaint now. " the rude heavy set lady wpuldnt let me check in at 11 when they told me i could check in at 9am i was coming from dallas had an important conference meeting and needed to get into my room. Blah blah blah blah"
Finally gor her in and she didnt even say thank you rolled her eyes and walked away.
Its supposed to be a peaceful day full moon was last week

(Before I start, all this info was shared on the social media accounts of TheCup.us - which I help with)
The USASA Region III Amateur Cup kicks off tonight in Plano, Texas. Ten teams will play three games over two days for a spot in Sunday's knockout rounds. The participants represent six states (five state associations and the National Premier Soccer League) and are as follows:

• ASC New Stars (Texas South)
• Cobb United FC (Georgia)
• DFW United (Texas North)
• Ice FC/Black Ice (Texas North)
• Kader Boys FC (Georgia)
• Santos FC (Texas North)
• Sharks FCA (Florida)
• Tobacco Road FC (North Carolina)
• Tulsa Athletic (Oklahoma)
• Xolos PV Nuevo Laredo (Texas South)

The ten teams have been split into three groups. Two groups of three teams each (Groups A & B) and a four team group (Group C). Each team will play three group stage matches.
Group A

• DFW United
• Tulsa Athletic
• Xolos PV

Group B

• Santos FC
• Sharks FCA
• Tobacco Road FC

Group C

• ASC New Stars
• Cobb United FC
• Ice FC/Black Ice
• Kader Boys FC

Group C teams will have simple round robin against one another. Groups A & B will play each member of the opposing group. The top finishing team from each group and the best runner-up will advance to Sunday morning's semifinals.
Points for standings are non-standard. A team gets six (6) points for winning. They also receive an additional point (1) for a shutout and one (1) point for each goal up to three goals. A draw is worth three (3) points & a loss is worth zero (0) points.
Tie breakers are: 1) Head-to-head, 2) Greatest goal differential (capped at a 3-goal differential), 3) Most goals scored (capped at 5 goals), 4) Penalty kick shootout. Tie breakers for the runner-up/wildcard spot are similar but replace the first tie-breaker with "Most points".
TheCup will be keeping track of USASA Region III Amateur Cup match results and more on its Twitter account. This is a really weird tournament that:

• Has teams play multiple games a day, in the summer, in a region with dangerous heat
• Incentives blowout wins against weaker teams (many of which didn't even qualify by winning state cups and therefore feel like replacements)
• Has half the field comes from the host state to make up the numbers
• Has a champion who competes in the National Amateur Cup finals, two wins away from a 2024 U.S. Open Cup spot

Thought people here might like to know how funky things get. lol

The story starts, as so many seem to, in an inn. But this is not just any inn, but the cleanest, friendliest inn in all of Emon - The Bright Vagabond - owned and operated by a halfling named Tarlan Hillspark. As he prepared to open for the day, a young baker's apprentice named Sliver entered nervously and was gestured to a seat at a large round table marked 'Reserved'. Soon, others gathered; a tall half-elf named Garrick with a symbol of the Raven Queen on his shield, a cheerful gnome named Ashrina dressed in bright colors, and a lanky humanoid called Kid, who wanted nothing more than a fresh cup of bean juice. All had received a mysterious summons from an organization known as The Clasp; though Sliver was concerned about this development, the others all seemed unsurprised to be there.
As they gathered, a woman entered who seemed far too frightened for the bright surroundings and was introduced as Dr. Dannell, who they had been instructed to meet. The group excused themselves upstairs to less spacious, but more private, surroundings - Ashrina's room at the Vagabond. There, the doctor admitted to being terrified of her benefactors, but with no other place to turn for help. A disgraced researcher in antiquities, she recently found a large stone on a dig - an egg, she claims, spawned by an eldrich horror. No one believed her, of course, and the egg was set to go on display at the Natural History Museum tomorrow. With one catch: tonight, it will hatch, and hundreds, if not thousands, would die. Conveniently, there was a gala opening for the exhibit that very evening, and the good doctor managed to procure tickets. She also offered to pay for new outfits so the group will fit in at the party. Not one to let a good deed go unrewarded, Ashrina also gave Dr. Dannell the opportunity to donate her bag of holding to the cause (of Ashrina having a sweet new interdimensional purse).
Spurred on mostly by curiosity and the Clasp's instructions, not to mention the promise of a swanky shopping spree, the group decided they will go ahead and save Emon after all, though they're not all convinced the egg is real. Sliver, for his part, isn't keen on the idea of killing a hatchling, even a freshly hatched eldrich horror. The professor's plan, as described, involved stealing the egg and then imprisoning it in a crystal that she just happens to have in her rooms. This will spare Sliver the moral quandary involved in killing something that has just hatched. He's also quite gratified that he's been summoned to steal something - he thought it was going to be something difficult.
After not deciding on a plan, the group headed for the Erudite Quarter to spend the good professor's hard earned money at Aura, a bespoke clothier. There they were greeted by the owner, the most fabulous kobold to walk the streets of Emon, and the group outfitted themselves with party attire after some haggling and paying a small fortune of someone else's gold for same-day service. All outfitted themselves well, but Sliver outdid himself in a purple jacket and green flared pants, intending to dress himself as a waiter for the gala and save the finery for another day.
On the way, the team decided that they were not going to steal the egg at the gala unless the perfect opportunity presented itself, and so Sliver's hopes of sneaking in as a waiter and walking out with the egg were dashed. After a quick walk around the block to find the museums' entrances and exits, they entered the museum and began admiring the exhibits on the ground floor. Garrick chatted up a bored museum employee in hopes of getting an in with the staff, learning of her side gig as a horror poet, while Kid found the staff entrances remarkably unsecure and Ashrina discovered a janitor exiting a secret room in one of the exhibit halls. Sliver purchased a museum badge from the gift shop, and promptly began bossing around the staff and escorting wealthy-looking patrons upstairs, not really listening to them except to glean information about the exhibit or any valuables on their persons. Tarlan, bemused, stayed behind to keep an eye on Sliver.
Finally, the group headed upstairs to where the exhibit would take place. Garrick headed directly for the privy-rooms to try and find a way to break the wall to get into the exhibit room with the egg. Tarlan examined the Allosaurus exhibit, found a panel, and asked Kid to take a look. Stealthily as can be, Kid opened the panel and found dials and levers, seemingly to control the dinosaur exhibit. Ashrina spotted a conveniently-placed and completely unsecured vent on the exhibit room wall. Not content with merely being extremely useful, she then snuck into the attic and unlocked the museum's skylight while Kid kept watch on...something else entirely.
The party began, with the curator opening the exhibit room and slipping the key into her clutch, which Kid noted she keeps to hand at all times. The group kept watch for signs of any party-goers under the influence of the egg's eldrich occupant, but saw nothing. Kid sidled up to the egg, finding the magical defenses on its pedestal. Garrick concerned himself with the doors, satisfied that the security mechanisms could be blocked with the furniture if need be. While Ashrina ate and drank merrily, Tarlan began speaking with a down-on-her luck noblewoman attending the party to find a suitable suitor. Noting Tarlan's suit from Aura, she seemed newly interested in his company, until Tarlan admitted that he doesn't regularly shop there and that parties makes him nervous. Sliver circulated, serving food and drinks to the patrons he'd scammed earlier and learning that the basement of the museum is full of valuable riches that no one does anything with. Ashrina, having seen the museum curator leave the room upon receiving a mysterious note, snuck after her, confirming both that the curator is a creepy doll enthusiast, and that she keeps the key to her office in her clutch.
At some point during all of this, Sliver left the party and wrote a vaguely threatening note to the curator on a bar napkin, reminding her that she's been warned of the consequences of putting the egg on display. He instructed a server to deliver the note, then removed his jacket and makeup and headed downstairs, away from the aftermath. As requested, the note was delivered, which the rest of the group saw the curator read and crumple up angrily. Tarlan then approached the curator, asking about the stone on display and insinuating that he'd seen something similar in a book. A book about eggs. Angrily refuting this assertion, the curator placed both hands on the stone, and a wave of energy rocked the room. Many party-goers became ill, including Ashrina, who broke out in a sheen and felt dizzy and weak momentarily. The chaos passed quickly, but it was enough for the curator to decide that in fact a gala opening for an eldrich horror was not a good idea and usher everyone out.
Back on the street, the group reassembled to ready themselves for the heist. But before anyone could say anything, Tarlan, staunch cleric of the Dawnfather and firm moral center of the group, held up the clutch he stole from the museum's curator during the commotion, and asked if anyone had forgotten their purse.

Looking for a vanilla PC Livonia server? Peter's Pure Vanilla Extract brings the vanilla experience of Official to a no-mods privately owned community server available to the public! Come and enjoy all that DayZ has to offer, from the throes of surviving the fields and forests to the depths of navigating the underground bunker on Livonia.

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By popular request we have enabled the in-game map that Bohemia included with the server config files to allow our newer players an easier time orienting themselves while playing. Players will still need to rely on their survival instincts to figure out where they are, but now they can pull up the map by pressing "M" in-game.
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SERVER INFO:
Server name: Peter's Pure Vanilla Extract - Livonia (Z Team) 1PP / Bases / PvP&RP
Server IP: 192.154.229.177:2302
Server info: 30 player slots, no mods, build anywhere enabled via gameplay files, cheats not permitted, DALLAS, TX server location.

Hello to you, fellow ingrates.
Year 6 of DABR Defends the New York Giants from Criticism has arrived.

Season Recap

tl;dr: The Giants had their most successful season since 2016, and arguably since winning the Super Bowl in 2012 (if the draft spot/playoff success is the measurement) and went into draft night with the latest selection they've had since 2012, the first outside the top 11 since 2016.
Giants fans didn't really expect to win that many games this year. There were still some hopefuls for Daniel Jones but most people had come to terms with new GM Joe Schoen and new HC Brian Daboll pretty much setting up to replace him, declining his 5th year option.
It was the first year of this regime, they hadn't really been able to fix up the roster fully, etc. Most Giants fans I know were expecting a 4-7 win season, not sniffing the playoff race. Ha.
It all started week 1 vs Tennessee. It was honestly a story Giants fans have gotten familiar with. Look absolutely horrible in the first half of the game, but somehow struggle back into it in the second half, only to be dramatically disappointed at the end of the game. After Daniel Jones threw a red zone interception with just under 9 minutes to go, we thought that was pretty much it.
But then with 4 minutes left, Saquon Barkley rips off a 33 yard run, Daniel Jones converts a 4th and 1, and the Giants score a TD to pull them to just a 1 point deficit. Most Giants fans are thinking "okay he's gonna kick it, play for overtime, I respect that, we didn't think it would be that close anyways."
And then we see the offense staying on the field...uh oh. The offense wasn't exactly clicking on all cylinders to that point in the game, having been shut out in the first half. If we don't get it, the game is pretty much lost. Daboll calls a shovel pass, Saquon gets it, it looks like it's completely doomed...I'm thinking "here we go again, his first game and the media is already going to be all over him for going for it"...but Saquon fights his way in! Giants take the lead for the first time in the game. We're feeling good, Daboll's huge balls in that situation giving us some confidence.
Then the Titans methodically work the ball down the field (along with a couple of assists from Austin Calitro and Darnay Holmes), setting up a 47 yard field goal for Randy Bullock to win the game.
Now, I'm thinking, "of course this is what happened, they gave us some hope, now it's going to get ripped away from us, just like always. Story of the last few years at times."
...and then Bullock missed the kick. That was the start of what turned into a magical first half of the season, the Giants getting off to a 7-2 start, all 7 wins coming by a 1 score margin (though the Bears and Texans games were a bit cleaner than the final scoreline suggests), and 5 of them really coming down to big time plays in the last 5 minutes of the game.
The Titans story, taking the lead with 3:38 left in the 4th quarter and Julian Love sacking Baker Mayfield to force 4th and 15 the next drive against Carolina, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Xavier McKinney batting down Aaron Rodgers' passes in London, Love intercepting Lamar Jackson to set up the game winning score against Baltimore, McKinney and Love stopping Christian Kirk at the 1 yard line on the last play against Jacksonville.
All of those games are games that go against us in previous years. But this year was just different. And somehow through it all, there were Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones as well. Saquon was the focal point of the offense early in the season, Jones being efficient in a heavy, limited, play action focused passing attack.
All thoughts of the Giants earning a top pick and replacing Daniel Jones pretty much went out the window by week 4, and hope for Jones maybe finally becoming the QB he was drafted to be started to blossom in some parts of the Giants fanbase.
Things came crashing down a bit the next 4 weeks. Awful losses to Detroit, Dallas, and Philly, with a tie against Washington in there too that many Giants fans felt they deserved to win capped off a 1-4-1 stretch where the Giants simply did not look good. They looked more like what we expected the team to look like coming into the year. The playoff spot was no longer guaranteed, at 7-5-1. But a flexed SNF game against Washington would pretty much decide the season.
And the Giants took that win against Washington and ran with it. A close loss against the Vikings that was probably the best passing attack game of the season to that point, a dominating win against the hapless Colts that locked the Giants into the playoffs, and a surprisingly tight and scrappy game between the Eagles starters and the Giants backups gave Giants fans some hope headed into the playoffs. We didn't expect to win a Super Bowl, but the matchup against the Vikings seemed winnable.
And winnable it was, as in classic 2023 Giants fashion, they took a lead about halfway through the 4th quarter, and a couple of clutch plays on defense by Cordale Flott and Xavier McKinney ended the game.
Then we went to Philly and got absolutely ass blasted, ending our season.
That left the Giants with the 25th pick in the class, entering an offseason with a lot of business to take care of.

Free Agency Recap

The Giants had a lot more room to operate in free agency this year than last year, and Schoen was relatively creative in how he wanted to go about it.
The first step in that process though was figuring out the status of his pending free agents; most notably, the two who led the way on offense most of the year: Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. The Jones negotiations were tense, Jones asked for the moon and the team was not having it. Eventually (literally right before the tag deadline) they settled on a 4 yr, 160m extension with 82m fully guaranteed and a boatload of incentives that could push the value up to almost 200m. That allowed the team to tag Saquon Barkley, whose extension talks are reportedly still stalled, as Barkley declined an offer worth almost 14m during the Giants' bye week, and continues to find the Giants' offer(s) unpalatable.
Speculation is that Barkley is seeking more guaranteed money from the Giants (greater than the sum of 2 franchise tags), but Barkley's camp is not leaking much (reportedly because Saquon doesn't want them to). And according to most reporters, Saquon is too competitive to actually sit out the season, removing his last bit of leverage.
Possibly the biggest addition of the Giants' free agency period was actually a trade: The Giants traded the Chiefs' 3rd rounder (acquired for Kadarius Toney) for TE Darren Waller. This is a huge move because the Giants were dead last in explosive pass play rate by a WIDE margin. Only like 6 individual team seasons since 2010 had fewer explosive passing plays than the 2022 Giants. That's something that Schoen and Daboll immediately set out to fix, and Darren Waller is one of the best explosive pass weapons in the league, leading all TEs in explosive pass plays this season despite playing just 9 games this year. Reports out of OTAs are that the Giants are expecting Waller to basically fill a "WR1" role for them; not necessarily in alignment but being the focal point of the offense, high target share, etc.
Schoen and Daboll followed that addition up with two more explosive pass play options: retaining Darius Slayton, and adding Parris Campbell to the room. Slayton is a solid WR, he's good for 600-700 yards when he gets run. His hands are inconsistent, but he makes up for it often. Campbell finally broke out having a healthy season for the Colts this season. I think Campbell is mostly insurance for Wan'Dale Robinson, who is coming off of a torn ACL, but if healthy should get primary run in the slot.
The Giants' other two main moves came on the defensive side of the ball, adding LB Bobby Okereke to a LB room that comprised of: Jarrad Davis, Micah McFadden, and Darrian Beavers (coming off a torn ACL). Much needed improvement in that room. The Giants also added Rakeen Nunez-Roches and A'Shawn Robinson to the DL room to improve the depth there; Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams were playing too many snaps, and the Giants were really bad against the run last year.
In the process though, the Giants lost both of their starting centers from 2022, Nick Gates and Jon Feliciano, as well as S Julian Love, who had been a consistent staple of the defense the last few years.

Draft Needs

The Giants roster was in much better shape this year than last year, but the team still had a number of problems:

1. CB was still a HUGE need for the Giants, and one that had not been properly addressed yet. Adoree' Jackson had another very good year in 2022, but the spot across from him had been a mishmosh of misfit toys: Fabian Moreau had a nice little run, but struggled down the stretch. Nick McCloud got a lot of run at CB2 after being claimed on waivers from the Bills. Cordale Flott had been drafted as a nickel defender but got some run there. And the slot position wasn't much better, as Darnay Holmes continued to be a liability there. This position needed reinforcements. I've been a relatively vocal minority in the Giants fandom saying this has been the BIGGEST need the team had for a couple of years now (basically aside from the one year that we had Bradberry and Jackson both on the team).
2. Despite adding Slayton, Campbell, and Waller, WR was still something the team needed. Specifically someone who could develop into a WR1 type player. The Giants WR room is relatively deep, but just adding Campbell and Waller and running back last year's group didn't feel sufficient. The team clearly was putting an emphasis on speed, separation, and yards after the catch ability.
3. Center was a massive need. The Giants basically didn't have a center on the roster who had played meaningful NFL snaps. Ben Bredeson could move to center if needed, but it wasn't that solid of a plan. And in what seemed like a good center class, this seemed like a good way to solve that problem.
4. LB. The LB2 spot currently will be either Jarrad Davis, Micah McFadden (who basically lost the job last year to Jarrad Davis), or Darrian Beavers (who tore his ACL last year). I think that says it all.
5. RB: Saquon is on the tag, so you feel okay here, but the team has been seeking a solid compliment for him for a while. They were in on a few of the RBs last year and the value never lined up, and Matt Breida and Gary Brightwell didn't really cut it last year. They don't want to run Saquon into the ground early in the year like they did last year, so having a compliment for him is big.
6. S: Losing Julian Love is a tough one. He played a lot of snaps and wore a lot of hats for this defense last year, especially with McKinney missing time with a hand injury. The team likes Jason Pinnock, and drafted Dane Belton in the early 4th last year, but more depth and competition here would be very welcome.

So let's get into the picks:

1.24: Deonte Banks, CB, Maryland

Seems like maybe Schoen agreed with me!
It was a lot harder to try to predict what the Giants would do this year, just by virtue of having a later pick. But the general consensus among the beat seemed to be that the team wanted to get a CB or an offensive playmaker with that first pick. I was a little skeptical of CB being an option, seeing how many mocks had all 5 of the top CBs off the board, but that often left WRs available.
So right after the Jets took Will McDonald at 15, if you looked at the board, only 1 CB had been taken and no WRs had been taken. That felt pretty good for the Giants.
Then Forbes and Gonzalez come off the board, and the top 4 WRs come off the board from 20-23.
That left the Giants feeling a little antsy. They had one guy they really wanted left, and negotiated a trade up one spot with the Jaguars to secure their guy: Deonte Banks.
This pick is perfect for what the Giants want to do on defense. Wink Martindale's reaction should say it all, if you go watch the Giants' behind the scenes videos on the draft process.
Banks is a tall, long, and athletic corner, which are all important traits for Wink's press man heavy defense. He's super fluid and smooth in his hips. He tested absolutely crazy. He also plays with a swag that I think Wink and Giants fans will come to really appreciate. He plays confident, he plays fast in terms of processing, and he plays physical.
He still has some development to go, I'm not saying he's going to be a top CB in the league from day 1. He wasn't a super ball productive corner, but that's not something Wink necessarily needs. It will take some time for him to get comfortable with the complexity of route runners in the NFL. But the tools are all there, and the Giants get a perfect scheme fit.
Banks will come in and immediately be the starter at CB across from Adoree' Jackson, and the trickle down effect that will have on the Giants depth chart at CB will be tangible.

2.57: John Michael Schmitz, OC, Minnesota

As this pick was coming up, Schoen and Daboll were discussing who to pick, and basically said "okay we're either going with Schmitz or (we'll get to that later ;) )".
Then the Bears traded up to the pick before the Giants pick. And Joe Schoen said "oh fuck." Daboll tried to calm him down and said "well I guess we're getting ."
Then the Bears took Tyrique Stevenson (good pick!), leaving the Giants the choice between the two players. And the Giants went with Schmitz.
Full disclosure: I was not a huge JMS fan in the draft process. I thought he was super solid all around, but he wasn't really impressive to me, there weren't a lot of overwhelmingly positive reps or traits in my eyes. I thought he was maybe a little heavy footed, especially in pass pro, and his testing kind of backed that up, and I didn't really see full unlocked power either.
I was probably a bit harsh on him in terms of the grade though. Like I said, he's a super solid player. There's relatively little to really complain about. He's smart, he's experienced, and he made few mental mistakes. His snaps were consistent. He is pretty strong though not crazy so. His anchor is really good, and he plays nasty and competitive, which is something the Giants are definitely looking for. It helps he had a really good Senior Bowl week too.
Was Schmitz my favorite center in this class? No. But he was for many people, and for some good reasons. Schmitz will come in and immediately start at center for the Giants, bringing the dead snap with him. If he can be the 3rd best player on this unit (behind Andrew Thomas and hopefully Evan Neal taking a step forward this year and being healthy), it'll be an immensely calming and steadying presence that should raise the OL play of the whole unit.

3.73: Jalin Hyatt, WR, Tennessee

So you may be wondering: Who was Player X?
Well immediately after drafting Schmitz, Schoen looked around the room and pretty much said "what if we can still get ?" He decided that the price he was willing to pay was the Giants 4th round pick. And he and everybody else in the room started calling.
That included Brian Daboll, who leaned over and said "hey should I text [Rams HC Sean] McVay?" Schoen said "yeah sure go for it." And Daboll officially negotiated the Giants trading up from 89 to 73 to select Player X: Tennessee WR Jalin Hyatt
Hyatt is a really fun player to watch. The speed blows you away on tape. It's the kind of speed that even if you're not throwing it to him all the time, defenses have to take note when he comes on the field and play him differently. He's not necessarily slippery or elusive after the catch but (and I'm scared to frame it this way but I'm doing it anyway) the speed and acceleration gives him credibility there, the way that Odell was such a YAC threat on slants just getting to full speed and outrunning everyone.
He's a little high cut I think, and that leads to a little bit of trouble with crisper routes. He wasn't asked to run a very complex route tree at Tennessee, though I do think he has the skills to improve in that sense. The biggest concern for me is just how quickly we can get him up to speed beating press and playing through physicality. When he has room to work, he can beat CBs in a few ways, but NFL DBs will knock even very good WRs off their routes at times. And that follows through to contested catches.
The Giants' WR room is so crowded it's hard for me to say exactly what Hyatt's role will be starting out. The Giants started last year trying to use different WRs in different ways on a game to game basis. Then the wheels fell off obviously, with Shep, Wan'Dale, and Toney being hurt and Golladay stinking and all that. So I wonder if we see a return to that.
Hyatt can be a threat in a lot of ways, end arounds, screens, etc in addition to the obvious "go long" situations. Just how many reps he can carve out will be fun to track in training camp.

So the Giants come out of the first 3 rounds with 3 players who were commonly mocked to them at 25. Pretty good business! But let's get into day 3:

5.172: Eric Gray, RB, Oklahoma

The Giants traded away their 4th round pick to get Hyatt so they went 99 picks without making a selection.
Like I said earlier, the team has been looking for a compliment to Saquon Barkley for a long time, and they find it here with Eric Gray.
Schoen said he sees Eric Gray as a 3 down back. And you can definitely see why. He caught 88 passes over the last 3 years at Oklahoma and only dropped 2. He's also strong and physical, willing to pass protect. That physicality carries over into his running style, he runs hard and is willing to run through guys. He's bursty in short areas and has pretty solid vision in my opinion.
He's a compact guy, just 5'9 207. He's not super slippery or elusive, and he's not really a home run hitter. But in terms of finding a backup RB on day 3 to feed some of those tough yardage carries to and keep Saquon fresh, you could do worse than Eric Gray for sure.
The Giants ran a fair bit of "Pony" type formations in 2022, using 2 or even 3 RBs at times. The competition between Gray and Matt Breida for the true RB2 spot will be fun to see. Breida brings a little more explosiveness to the table, but Gray will certainly give him a run for his money. And depending on what happens with Saquon Barkley's contract situation, we may see even more of Gray down the line.

6.209: Tre Hawkins, CB, Old Dominion

When asked about what is different this year from last year, what improvements or what has gotten easier now that he's been in the chair for a full year, Joe Schoen talked a lot about really getting a good handle on what his coaches look for in players. And he singled out Wink in that respect because him and Daboll have worked together so much.
The Giants selection of Tre Hawkins really highlights that. Like with Deonte Banks, Hawkins brings a ton of physical traits. He tested through the roof. He has the length that the Giants look for. He's also super physical in both phases, run and pass, which Wink loves. ODU let him just play press man, so he's comfortable doing that.
He's a little slim still, so his frame needs some reworking, but that's common with CBs and especially ones from outside the P5 schools. He also has a lot of technique and FBIQ stuff to clean up. His footwork is messy, he's not always patient enough with his punch. His ball skills still leave something to be desired. He's still learning to read routes and manage space both in man and zone.
I figure Hawkins will come in and be a depth player and core STer for the Giants. If his play strength holds up against NFL scrutiny, he can definitely be a day 1 punt gunner. Wink has started calling Jerome Henderson the best DB coach in the league, so it'll be fun to see what Henderson can do with a ball of clay like Hawkins. Even if he ends up just being a STer and CB5 type guy, that's still a pretty good pick in the 6th round like this.
Also, sorry Patriots writer :)

7.243: Jordon Riley, DL, Oregon

Beating a dead horse at this point, but this is another pick Schoen highlighted as an example of his understanding of what Wink is looking for.
Obviously Riley is a flawed prospect, it's the 7th round. He was a 6th year senior who spent time at 4 different schools, starting at UNC, then going to JUCO for a year, then Nebraska for 2 years where he barely played, and finishing his college career at Oregon. PFF lists him as having just 534 career snaps in college despite the 5 years he spent at the P5 level. He wasn't very productive, partly because he barely played and partly because he's just not very good. He's not a good athlete.
What Riley does have, though, is size, strength, and knockback power. And that's what Wink is looking for in a depth NT. He eats blocks, stuffs up lanes, and just is hard to move.
Schoen put it this way:
"It’s hard to find these guys. When you get into the seventh round, you are looking for guys that maybe it will be hard to get at different areas. And another guy we spent time with, big run stopper in there, 6-foot-5, 330.
You walk out to practice, and there’s this 6-5, 330-pound guy, who piques your interest right there. Again, some of these guys in different schemes may not have the production, the tackles, the sacks. But for what Wink looks for in terms of size, length, knock-back — he possesses those traits.”

7.254: Gervarrius Owens, DB, Houston

Last pick in the draft and the Giants go back to the DB room. They took two CBs already, but some depth/developmental guys at safety would help. Enter: Gervarrius Owens.
Owens is a former CB turned S from Houston. The CB in him flashes to me on tape, I thought his ball skills as a safety were good. He's athletic enough to play pretty much any safety spot, including that single high spot that teams find difficult to fill. He's super physical and willing to play downhill and tackle. He's super experienced, he was a team captain and 4 year starter for Houston.
He makes a lot of mistakes, however. The angles he takes to the ball in both phases are super inconsistent. He missed a ton of tackles in college, so that technique needs to be worked on. The ball skills turned into PBUs rather than INTs; Wink won't mind that but some of them were like "he really should have just caught that."
Owens is another guy like Hawkins who looks primed to earn his roster spot on special teams and provide solid depth for the team's DB room. Wink likes to play 3+ safety sets, especially when he feels like he has a good group there. And the Giants' S room right now is basically Xavier McKinney and a bunch of question marks, so it's entirely feasible that Owens can come in and beat Dane Belton, Jason Pinnock, and Bobby McCain to earn playing time early on.

UDFAs

The Giants UDFA class included a few notable names. 5 total players who got 100k+ in guarantees:

1. Bryce Ford-Wheaton, WR, WVU: The Giants gave Bryce Ford-Wheaton a LOT of guaranteed money for a UDFA: 236k, which is the full season PS salary plus 20k. BFW was one of "my guys" this year I was hoping for the Giants to get. He's got the size and athleticism to be really good, but he's a little one note right now. In a crowded WR room, I kind of doubt he'll make the roster without some injuries (or Wan'Dale/Shep being on PUP) but like other late rounders/UDFAs, if he can find some value on special teams, he's a fun upside swing.
2. Dyontae Johnson, LB, Toledo: Another guy who got a lot of guaranteed money. The Giants needed some reinforcements at LB and clearly didn't find them in the draft. Super productive in college, very instinctive player, but I'm not sure if he can run with the league. He'll compete with the Giants mishmosh of LBs to play on special teams.
3. Ryan Jones, TE/FB, East Carolina: The Giants have been searching for a kind of H-Back type for a while now. Last year they brought in Jeremiah Hall from Oklahoma, that didn't stick. Andre Miller, who was a WR at Maine, seemed like he was getting run at that spot in camp last year, but a broken arm ended his season. Chris Myarick ended up taking some of those reps. Ryan Jones kind of fits that mold as well.
4. Habakkuk Baldonado, EDGE, Pittsburgh: The Giants' pass rusher depth is...not great. Behind Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari, it's Jihad Ward, Oshane Ximines, and Tomon Fox. And Ojulari missed a lot of time last year. Baldonado could potentially come in and earn a spot over Ximines/Fox. He's got good play strength and power and fits what the Giants would need as more of an edge setter and run defender to give Thibodeaux/Ojulari a rest rep before letting them loose to rush the passer.
5. Gemon Green, CB, Michigan: Another tough and physical corner. I don't think there's really a spot for him on this roster with the additions of Banks and Hawkins, and I think he's not quite the athlete the Giants look for at CB, but as a last resort/STer he can potentially get somewhere.

Final Takeaways

I did this last year because it was Schoen's first year here, but I like the idea of doing it every year. What can we learn from the way Schoen drafted this year that we can file away and learn for the future? What can mockers learn from this to inform them of who makes sense for the Giants.
And it's pretty similar to last year:

1. Athleticism. Once again, pretty much every player the Giants drafted, and the UDFAs generally, were excellent athletes who tested well. The main exceptions being JMS (who was still a solid athlete) and Jordon Riley this year; where the exception last year basically was just DJ Davidson. This team has faith in its coaching staff and wants to give them players they can work with.
2. Scheme/Roster Fits. I talked about it a lot with the defensive picks, but every single one is a "Wink Martindale" guy. What does Wink want for his system? This can be a little dangerous considering Wink was in the running for a HC gig last year, and another strong year might finally get him the HC job he has been looking for. If he leaves and the scheme changes, these players need to be able to match the new scheme too. But it's clear that the FO values the input of the coaching staff and there's really clear communication there. This also applies to the offensive side of the ball, where it's super clear that the team wanted more speed on offense, which pointed to Hyatt a little bit.
3. Youth. This one is a little less applicable this year as they did draft a few older players, like JMS and Riley, even Eric Gray who turns 24 in November or Tre Hawkins who turns 23 over the summer. But Banks just turned 22, Jalin Hyatt will turn 22 in late September. It feels like maybe they felt more attached to the age stuff when they thought this was a full on rebuild, but now that they're hoping to be a playoff team again, they need some more instant contributors.
4. Aggressiveness/willingness to trade. This is a newer one, as last year the Giants only traded back. But this year the Giants traded up twice, giving up 3 day 3 picks in the process. Schoen is not afraid to make trades in either direction. Up to secure guys he really wants (Banks/Hyatt), or down if there's nothing there. Schoen talked about having trades lined up in both directions with the first round pick, he had a trade down ready if there was no one he wanted left.

The Giants went into the 2022 draft clearly rebuilding, 5 picks in the top 81 and making 11 selections. This year, the team came into the draft with 10 picks and came out with just 7. Clearly the team thinks the depth is improving and wants to focus on building the championship contender they are looking to be.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the lack of SP depth at AAA so I thought it would be a good time to dig deeper then that and highlight some names in AA (and lower) that might not be as far away as some would think. The AA rotation deserves a bit of a spotlight with the performances of some of the pitchers there.
There has been a lot of criticism of the organization drafting and developing of pitching prospects (much being very fair) but we really might now be seeing some of the results coming through.
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I have excluded a few guys who are years away from making a real impact who are below AA but I will make some notes on them. Brandon Barriera (#2 Prospect) in A-Ball is looking very good and is being brought along slowly after his injury so has pitched just 13.1 IP. Dahian Santos (#12 Prospect) in A-Ball might be the biggest sleeper pitcher in the organization. His fastball-slider combination is electric but is extremely raw overall as a pitcher. He is learning a changeup and is gaining muscle fast in order to take the next step in the organization. CJ Van Eyk (N/R Prospect) still has the raw tools to be a good pitcher but has pitched just 7.0 IP over the last two seasons and is on the IL again.
Adam Macko, Yosver Zulueta, Hayden Juenger & Hagen Danner are honesty still very talented pitchers but all seem destined to be relief pitchers at this point in their development. This post focuses more on pitchers who have good odds of remaining as SP. Don't sleep on these guys though, they all have electric bullpen arms and might see some of them in our bullpen come next season.
In terms of the 2022 draft it is of course much too early but there are some really interesting names and notes: Ryan Jennings (Round 4) who can throw 99 mph as a reliever and that seemed like his career path BUT has had surprisingly good results as an SP at the moment in A-Ball. Insane fastball-slider combo but needs a third pitch. Mason Fluharty (Round 5) has been tearing through the minors and is already in AA as a reliever. Unique but effective cutter-slider combo. Rocking a sweet 1.25 ERA & 0.83 WHIP this season. T.J. Brock (Round 6) dominated A+ in 20 IP to a tune of 1.77 ERA and is already in AA. Electric fastball-slider combo. Devereaux Harrison (9th Round) is an SP turned RP turned SP again in A+ with a 2.63 ERA. He struggled with his control as an RP but it has vastly improved as a starter.
Ian Churchill (Round 10), Pat Gallagher (Round 11), Nolan Perry (Round 12), Bo Bonds (Round 13) & Ryan Chasse (Round 17) are the others pitchers from the draft class but they are just getting things started but all look fine-to-good in small sample sizes in Rookie or Low A. The early returns on this draft class are really positive and probably deserve a spotlight post on its own.
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New Hampshire Fisher Cats Rotation:
Ricky Tiedemann (Age 20):

• 91st Overall in 2021 Draft // 1st Ranked Prospect
• 4.97 ERA / 1.62 FIP / 2.18 xFIP
• 16.34 K/9 - 4.97 BB/9 - 0.00 H9
• 1.26 WHIP & 0.205 OBA

We have all read dozens upon dozens of articles on this guy. There really isn't too much to say on Ricky. He has missed most of the season due to injury. He really is as good as advertised though with top of the rotation potential. His injury likely pushes he debut back until mid-way next year at best. He still needs to refine his control and get a little deeper into game. Be excited though, I do think his injury has killed a lot of the excitement people had in following the AA team which does still have an excellent staff...
Adam Kloffenstein (Age 22):

• 88th Overall in 2019 Draft // N/R Prospect // Peaked @ #8 in 2018
• Nickname = King Kloff
• 3.12 ERA / 3.61 FIP / 3.37 xFIP
• 11.08 SO/9 - 3.81 BB/9 - 0.87 H9
• 1.29 WHIP & .231 OBA

Probably the biggest story from the Blue Jays minor leagues this year. A prospect who was once deemed a steal at his draft position who quickly become one of the better valued prospects in our system to falling off the map in 3 years and likely on his last chance to be a starter has become one of the most stable pitchers in the entire organization. A former power pitcher came into the year losing some mph on his velocity in order to get some proper control and it has paid off for him.
He leads the entire Eastern League in strikeouts & is second in innings pitched behind only a pitcher turning 27 this year. This season he has gone 5.0 IP+ in 8 straight starts now of which half have been a QS. He has allowed 0 ER or 1 ER in 7-of-10 starts. The Blue Jays in recent years have struggled developing pitchers who can pitch deep into games; coming into this season 6 of the 10 pitchers on the Blue Jays Top 30 list are very likely or already on their way to becoming RP; Zulueta, Macko, Juenger, Danner, Hernandez & Carter.
His strikeouts are up, his walks are down, his HR allowed are down, his BABIP is reasonable and his FIP is in range of ERA. He ranks near the top of the league in most statistics and only turns 23 later this year. He has been very consistent on top of everything. This is looking like a real breakthrough rather than a fluke.
The concern with him moving forward include avoiding losing much more velocity or he needs even more improved location to compensate as well trying to develop a third above average pitch as he currently heavily sticks with his effective two pitch combo. The Blue Jays will likely keep him in AA so he can continue to build confidence after 3 years of struggles but a run in AAA and becoming Major League starter depth next season is very much in play if he keeps it up.
He will very likely be added to the 40-Man this off-season with the team lacking SP depth there.
Paxton Schultz (Age 25):

• 433rd Overall in 2019 Draft // N/R Prospect // Never Ranked
• 3.30 ERA / 3.07 FIP / 3.75 xFIP
• 10.49 K/9 - 3.69 BB/9 - 0.58 H9
• 1.32 WHIP & .236 OBA

As I was writing this Schultz actually had his AAA debut; pitching 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB & 6 SO in an excellent debut.
Schultz was not actually a Blue Jays draft pick...he was acquired from MIL as a PTBNL for Blue Jays legend Derek Fisher. May have won the trade all these years later. He has always been considered a "low-ceiling" prospect and always put together solid but unspectacular seasons which meant he never really caught the eye of scouts. This year he kind of has put everything together and went from career minor league player to someone who could be that 6th to 8th starter depth we have been really needing in the minors. He doesn't have overpowering stuff by any means but he is really smart and does not allow very much hard contact.
His numbers have been great across the board. Career bests in pretty much everything and has improved in his consistency from years past. He has allowed less than 2 ER in 8-of-10 AA starts. He has actually been a tad unlucky this season as well rocking a BABIP higher than his used to. He also tends to avoid very much disaster starters; in his career of 55 starts he has allowed 5 runs just 3 times (never more) and over the last 2 years has pitched under 4 innings just 3 times. Pretty much an ideal from a #5/#6 starter.
All this has earned him a promotion to AAA now where if he keeps up the same level of consistency he very likely works his way into becoming the teams 6th starter and likely finds himself on the 40-Man roster. If an injury occurs to the rotation Schultz might be the guy to fill in.
Sem Robberse (Age 21):

• International Free Agent in 2019 // 6th Ranked Prospect // Peaked at 6th in 2022
• Nickname: The Pitching Dutchman
• 4.73 ERA / 4.96 FIP / 4.00 xFIP
• 9.45 K/9 - 3.38 BB/9 - 1.69 H9
• 1.18 WHIP & .217 OBA

Don't let the ERA fool you, he has had a much better season than that would suggest. At quick glance his WHIP and OBA are some of the best in the league. Most of the damage coming from an increase in HR allowed this season which is something he is trying to work on. Otherwise his numbers are on par with or better than they have before.
He is considered by many to be the smartest pitcher in the organization. He spent most of COVID studying pitching sequencing and strategies needed for a pitcher. Dude has zero ego to his game and embraces being taught which makes him loved in the organization. Robberse is one of the prospects that we will see play for the Blue Jays one day, whether it will be as a mid-rotation pitcher or as the odd spot stater remains to be see. Probably the "safest" starting prospect in the organization.
He has 5 pitches with his slider and curve be his good ones and throws some decent heat at 92 mph+ but one of his goals is too increase that. He was at 185 lbs last season and is aiming to get over 200 in hopes of increasing his velocity as well as help with his durability although he is already a rather good innings eater being behind Koff.
His major concern is when he does lose control he starts getting hit very hard...which doesn't happen all too often but something he is trying to cut back on. There is a legit claim for him to be the organizations #2 pitching prospect.
Chad Dallas (Age 22):

• 121st Overall in 2021 // N/R Prospect // Peaked at 28th in 2022
• Nickname: Cheese
• A+: 2.03 ERA / 3.09 FIP / 3.71 xFIP w/ 0.94 WHIP & .146 OBA (12.49 SO/9 - 4.05 BB/9 - 0.3 H9)
• AA: 2.42 ERA / 3.76 FIP / 4.52 xFIP w/ 0.85 WHIP & .128 OBA (8.06 SO/9 - 3.63 BB/9 - 0.40 H9)

This is the dude to be excited about and his seemly quick and easy transition into AA which is considered to be the hardest jump for a pitcher in the minors is only more reasons to be excited. In his 5 A+ starts he allowed just 6 ER in 26.2 IP...4 of those 6 came in a single bad start 4.2 IP...he dominated with easy in his other 4 starts which earned him the quick promotion. He loves to just pound the zone and go after hitters.
It is easy to see where his success comes from. Having 4 pitches all very decent including a nasty, nasty slider...a very good curveball, a fastball that touches 95 mph and a changeup he is working on heavily. His control is what really hurt him last year but he has for the most part vastly improved in the matter.
His AA debuts was one of the best I have seen: 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB & 9 SO. Since then he had three more starts; one where he lost his command in struggled and another 2 dominating outings where he has allowed 1 total ER in 11.0 IP. There was a lot of "bullpen" risk when he was drafted but he put a lot of that to rest with having no trouble hitting 5-7 IP constantly this season. In his 9 starts he has gone 5.0 IP in 7 of them with the other two falling short (4.1 / 4.2 ) due to struggles not stamina.
He does struggle against LHP hitters and it is something to monitor. His two big outlier blunder starts this season were with lineups that were lefty heavy. Which is the main reason for him wanting to improve his changeup. His cutter and curveball are killer against RHH but don't have the same effect on LHH.
If he does not rocket up prospect boards this season then I have no idea what scouts are looking for anymore.
Trenton Wallace (Age 24):
He hasn't pitched in AA yet but was the one who got the call-up to replace Shultz. He is on the older side but was just drafted in 2021. Has caught the attention of scouts with his performance in A+ but AA will be the big test for him. Cruised through A+ with a 1.79 ERA / 3.20 FIP / 4.18 xFIP with an elite WHIP of 0.82 and 0.155 OBA. There is a good chance we are talking about him a long with the rest of the successful AA pitchers in month time.. A mid- 90's fastball and mesmerizing slider is what gets the job done for him. 5 of his 8 starts he allowed exactly 0 ER including an outing where he thew 5 perfect innings.
He is looking like a massive steal being drafted in the 11th round of the 2021 draft.
The other name in AA are Jimmy Robbins (Age 25); he was very solid last season in between A+/AA but was a tad over-age and now in his full season in AA has lost the strike-zone and is averaging 6.65 BB/9 which has lead to a ERA of 5.40. Even with his success last season; never really caught the eyes of scouts and wasn't protected in the Rule 5 draft even though some fans argued he should. Seems to have been the right call.
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Tiedemann - Kloffenstein - Robberse - Dallas (+Wallace) might be the best rotation we have had in a single level of the minors in a very long time. All are no older than 22 as well so even with some bumps in the road they have time on their hands. All 4 are going to be very exciting to monitor. Paxton Schultz is also worth watching as he might have leap frogged his way right into the 6th SP role with other options in AAA falling apart or being converted to relievers.
Our upper minors pitching depth has been a big concern to fans but they depth coming from AA and below might soon change that.
Who wouldn't want a future rotation of King Kloff, The Pitching Dutchman, Cheese & Ricky Titty?!?

Sorry about the formatting. Will try to fix it later. Heading into a work meeting.
We were on campus yesterday for new student registration and orientation. We drove from TN the previous day, stayed at the Hampton Inn on University Dr, parked at the hotel for the whole day (even though we checked out at 8AM), walked to the Illini Union for an 8:15AM check-in.

• There was separate check-in for parents and students. Each were given their own agendas. I can share if anyone is interested.
  
• There were tables representing University Housing, Private certified housing, study abroad, parent programs, ROTC, Health centers, Tech Zone, Bus system, Champaign area tourism and more. PNC bank did not show up in the morning but was available later at another location. My wife texted me to pick up as many freebies as possible and I came home with a lot of pens!
  
• The room was quite full. I would guess about 200 students and parents
  
• There were activities for students and parents where people were forced to make new connections. It wasn't too bad.
  
• Students were taken to different locations based on their areas of study. Engineering students' parents remained in the Union while the students themselves went to Grainger.
  
• Students and parents were given presentation by their colleges. Students later met with advisors to review their course worksheets.
  
• Engineering students registered for their courses in the Grainger library after meeting with their advisors.
  
• Student i-Cards were issued at the student bookstore. It was advised to do so now rather than when school begins because of the volumes (200 versus maybe thousands later). We were done in about two minutes.
  
• Students had lunch at ISR dining hall. Parents went to IKE. Food was so-so. I was disappointed. Each student gets one free food ticket for their guest. If you need more, you can buy at $10 each.
  
• The walk from the union to IKE took about 15 minutes. You had the option to take the bus as well. Both groups arrived at pretty much the same time. It was great to walk and see the sights.
  
• We were done by 4:30PM. Some students had registration issues due to AP scores not being available and holds being placed. My son still has a hold on one course. But there was good assistance to help resolve it. It should be resolved today.
  
• Stopped by Costco and picked up some alcohol since the Costcos in TN do not sell liquor. Was surprised at the low cost.
  
• We had dinner the previous night at Tres Nopales. My son's choice. The food was good. The place was pretty much empty.
  
• Visited the local Goodwill as well to check out if there were any college related tchotchkes to take back. Didn't find anything interesting.
  
• Reached home around 11:30PM.
  
• This was my third visit to UIUC and I really enjoyed it. Now, paying the tuition is going to be another matter altogether!
  

I've worked here for 9 going 10 months already. It's a small company, kaya kilala namin lahat ng employees. More or less, nasa 30 lang kami. I've had no problems for the past few months, except sa 3 days RTO na wala sa initial kong contract. But this week was special: they announced a team outing* sa Enchanted Kingdom.
Tapos, yung TL namin, she asked sa GC ng department kung may hindi raw ba makakasama kasi nagfi-final count na yung HR para siguro sa tickets. Initially, gusto ko namang sumama e. Pero I heard from a friend outside the department na parang gusto ng boss, isang bungkos kami pagpasok ng EK, like, bawal magkaroon ng sariling agenda or humiwalay. So sabi ko hindi na lang ako sasama, together with 2 other co-workers in the same department.
Nagulat kami, biglang nagpatawag ng urgent meeting yung HR. Pagpasok sa call, galit na galit agad siya. Wala raw kaming utang na loob sa dami ng considerations (bare minimum) na binibigay sa'min ng company namin. Tapos kami raw, isang araw lang na outing, ayaw daw naming sumama.
I was like??? Didn't they ask us kung may hindi ba sasama? I figured it was a yes-or-no question, and that we have an option to say no. Hindi naman sinabing mandatory pala. My 2 workers and I were willing naman na mag-work na lang kesa sumama, pero ayun, galit si madam.
I was planning to hit a year, but now, I'm not so sure. Ang babaw, pero ayoko nung sa edad kong to, wala pa 'kong karapatang tumanggi. Patawa sila.
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Edit: To clarify kasi may gago sa baba HAHAHAHAH Hindi ko naman ni-request na humiwalay completely. Kahit sana i-allow lang kami mag-deviate from the group, kahit for an hour lang ganon. Kasi plano ng mga boss/management mag-rides, and hindi naman lahat gusto yun gawin. Some of us like to chill lang sana, take pictures, hang out in parks, play games, or eat sa food court. Kaya ko lang natanong if we can pursue other locations habang nakapila yung iba sa rides, para di sana patay yung oras while waiting for them. And they called it "outing" pala instead of team building. My co-worker got reprimanded for using the word "team building" kasi outing daw yun, as emphasized by the HR. So yun.

This is not a post about finding the best view. I recently stayed in a Days Inn near Sacramento and was kept up the whole night by what sounded like a live WWE match in the room above me. Some nicer bougie hotels charge more for the top floor but if you’re closer to the Average Joe like I am and staying somewhere more economic it never hurts to ask.

A yarn incoming, be warned. :) But I hope a fun one. I really hope you enjoy it, I love this story.
I'm 53, which means I was around when the internet became a thing. I was online before AOL was a company. That means although 53 isn't chronologically old, but it is old as fuck in terms of the Internet's lifespan.
So, when I was still in middle school, my friend Danny and I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. There were video games then on the Amigas and such that you could (if you had a lot of money) or the Atari systems if you didn't have enough money for a computer, but he and I envisioned MMO type play. Dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of users playing together at once. We didn't have the knowledge or skills to make it happen, maybe only a few people on Earth did back then. Back then it was games on huge floppy disks and talking to folks on BBS's.
Fast forward more than 10 years. Danny and I are both out of the Army, and we reunite with another high school friend, Richard. Our love of D&D in high school comes up, and Richard mentions that his brother runs a MUD. It seems his Dad had a T1 line dropped into his home and is running a private internet provider and hosting this MUD. I hadn't heard of a MUD.
MUD: Multi-User Dungeon. A 100% text based game for potentially hundreds of people at once. No graphics. Example:

You are in a room. In front of you is a pool of clear water. It seems to call you. To the left, you see an exit from this area, leading to an unknown fate.

At this point, you might type, "drink water" and get ambushed by a monster or "exit left" and something else scripted would happen. You can run entire dungeons that way, leveling up, collecting equipment and unlocking abilities. They all had different rules. Some only allowed you to kill monsters (PvE or Player vs Enemies) and others let you kill both (PvP or Player vs Players, which also includes enemies like monsters hostile.) The MUD that Richard's brother ran was the Wild Wild West - No rules at all besides not hacking the MUD itself. There were specific areas where you could not be killed, but almost anywhere else you could be.
When I made an account and logged in over my 56k dial up modem for the first time, it was amazing. There were safe areas inside the cities and where you couldn't be attacked. One step outside the city, and another player would kill you and loot your corpse before you could log back in. It was BRUTAL. If you couldn't read fast, you were dead. If you couldn't type AT LEAST 80 wpm and memorize a shit ton of keyboard shortcuts, you were dead. Players would kill you just for the joy of it, even if they didn't need your gear. Life was harsh.
I would get up in the morning, hit a couple of classes at the college, maybe play Magic the Gathering in the smoking lounge, do a few hours in the computer lab on internship, then head home to eat, chain smoke and fight. (I am so glad I gave up smokes - seriously. Fuck tobacco.)
The worst part was that on this particular MUD, there were clans. The largest and most powerful was The Toadies. They were a group of students at Georgia Technical University who where absolute fascist assholes as far as the MUD was concerned. Only a few other clans that existed since the MUD started were allowed to exist. Independent players were fair game, and new clans that formed were hunted and destroyed by The Toadies. They went so far as to not allow players weren't in The Toadies to kill certain bosses and get certain gear. They would hunt you, kill you, and loot that equipment from you if they learned you had it. And because they had been there forever and were so large, they could do it. A group of four or five of The Toadies would log in, hunt you down, and kill you in seconds.
One of the tactics they used: There was an Inn that was a safe area on the second floor, but if you went to ground level, the innkeeper would kill you. You had to type incredibly fast to get out of there safely, either going upstairs to the safe area or leaving that safe area to the safe outside though the dangerous open room. So The Toadies would wait until someone was lost. That person would broadcast something like "Hey, I need a teleport back to town." Then the Toadie would quickly run upstairs, teleport that person back to town, then wait. The person would read the room, see the exit down, then leave. They would get killed by the inkeeper if they didn't exit fast enough. The Toadie would run down, type "Loot all" and run back upstairs or out of the Inn.
Then one day, it all changed. I met Erabus when he joined the MUD.
Erabus was an older adult in college like I was. We had similar schedules. We partied up on the MUD together often. We both hated The Toadies. So we said, "Fuck it, we are making a new clan and fighting. These assholes don't get to make the rules" It also pissed us off that the admins (like Richard's brother) who ran it didn't care that a small group of players was fucking with everyone else. He loved the chaos and drama.
Because we are poor white trash, we called our new clan The Dukes of Hazard and changed our flair. We quickly recruited 10-15 others to join us after we convinced them we had a plan, and set about leveling them up. The first few hours we hung around in the main area, people saw our flair and were talking about it. "OOOOOOoooohhhh - The Toadies are going to kill you." We gave no fucks. We were tired of being pushed around. We set about leveling up our new comrades and getting them equipment and spells to compete. Start by getting everyone the special falchion. Then the armor they need. Get that mage his staff. Oops - that staff is embargoed by The Toadies and they took it from my clan mate. Time to get him another one.
What resulted was four months of spectacular warfare. We grouped up during hours they weren't online and made runs to gear us up with the best weapons and armor. We stayed in safe areas when The Toadies were on. After a bit, we were leveled up and equipped enough we could fight quickly.
It started out by scouting. The really cool thing about this MUD was you could be logged in twice, so you could run two different characters. So imagine, I have two different text windows open and I'm switching back and forth between characters. We could find a Toadie out by themselves and jump them, loot them, then rush back to safe zones. We got the first four or so before we lost one. This tit for tat went on until we were strong enough to go 1v1. It became a months long hate fest.
One day I logged in and didn't see a Toadie on, so I took out my Mage and Ranger. My mage was the one who did the damage. My Ranger fought the enemies and kept the Mage safe. While they were following each other, I get a message that a portal opens in front of me and steps out in front of me. (I don't remember his name.)
My heart rate spiked. The adrenaline that hit me was almost nauseating. I cast several spells in quick succession between switching back to my ranger and beating the shit out of him with my mace. Then I fucked up. I didn't know it, but I had managed to beat this leader of The Toadies to about 10% health. He had done enough damage to my two characters that I panicked and noped out of there. So he survived that encounter, but we got him a few days later.
In the end, the Dukes of Hazard won. The Toadies either quit or mostly graduated GTU and gave up on the MUD after months of fighting. I lost a few, I won a few. By time I graduated and quit playing, I was typing over 100 words per minute just to stay alive. Lol. I can't type nearly that fast any more, but I still do a respectable amount.
That is how video games started. Reading INCREDIBLY fast and typing even faster to stay alive. Good times.

I am a forever DM, have been since 1995, after nine years of being part of a mostly stable play group where we all took turns DMing. Don’t get mushy about it, we played under a philosophy that is considered pure poison today: the DM is your enemy, it’s his job to kill you, and it’s your job to thwart him. Naturally, as we matured, our views grew beyond this, but we were a bunch of hoodlums back then, and we had a great time.
Currently, I run a weekly play group every Saturday night. My wife chose that night for me because she believes that I desperately need to get in church as quickly as possible after “inviting the devil into our lives”, I mean playing Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t just DM, I also host. Sessions start at 6pm. I prepare for my sessions by making dinner and snacks, chilling some beer, and getting out the scotch whiskey. Hands off the scotch. It’s mine.
So far so good, right? Don’t get too comfortable. I host a very particular kind of group. All of my players are problem players. I refuse to host good players. I only accept players who have been kicked out of multiple other play groups because of behavior problems. Also, I only host men at my wife’s insistence. She has been cheated on in the past, not by me, but by several past boyfriends, so she doesn’t allow me to have anything to do with other women. Nothing. As in she thinks any words that come out my mouth to another woman must be flirting. As she says, “An affair starts with hello.”
Guys, don’t cheat on your women. This is the kind of harm you do to them, and then the man who truly loves them has to pay the price for your transgressions.
Oh, trans women are fine. According to her, and this is a quote: “They aren’t really women, and you’re not gay.” Make of that what you will. I just find it odd.
So, after all that foundation, why do I do it? Well, the noble reason is that I actually do the work of rehabbing them. I never kick anyone, but some would rather quit than learn. For the ones who don’t quit and go through the often very painful process of having their sins burned out of their very souls, they eventually move on to be excellent players elsewhere.
Again, don’t go all mushy on me. The things I must do to whip these players into shape would be considered supremely toxic for any normal player group. I genuinely break all the rules of good DMing to handle the crazy crap that my players bring to every session. I resolve out of game issues in game, where it hurts. I railroad JUSICIOUSLY. I keep two sets of sats for every NPC, normal stats, and god tier LVL 20 stats in case anyone goes murder hobo. I keep a codex of cursed items that I have been developing for over 20 years. Ditto for death traps. Ditto for unfair conditions and kills. But holy shit, these guys grow and develop into some amazing players if they stick it out.
In case you were wondering, I run 4-6 players in a group, and it’s usually 6 because my group is always full, and I fill new openings with supreme ease within a few weeks. I could fill them faster, but there is an interview process where I make absolutely certain that the player I accept is a massive problem. Minor issues are easily handled by the player just finding a group that’s a better fit.
I’m sure that many of you are wondering about exactly what goes on in my group, and maybe one day I will tell you, but this post is not about that. This post is about how I came to become a rehab DM.
It was the summer of 2021, and I was still bitter and grousing about the demise of the THAC0 system. Actually, I’m still bitter and grousing about that. I loved first and second edition. At this point, the only remaining player from my childhood group was Gorelash. Everyone else had either moved away . . . or in the case of Shagnasty, died. Drug overdose in the back of the van he was living in in 1996. It sucked. He is still one of the best friends I ever had despite his personal problems.
Sorry. I had to take a few minutes there. I’ll continue in a new paragraph.
So, I had a group ranging from Gorelash to a year in. I had my fill of horny player shenanigans in middle school and high school. I was done with them, and I’m still done with them. We were having an RP session. The kind where rolls are forbidden. Everything had to be truly interactive. I acted out all of the NPC’s, and they acted out every interaction. I then decided if the things they said would persuade, convince, coerce, etc. the NPC’s based on the personality of the NPC. If you’ve never done this in your games, I strongly suggest you try it. It’s a much richer experience than simply “roll a charisma check”.
But, as I said, I was very done with sex anything in my games. I still am. Berrian was a bard, and in this session he decided he was dead set on seducing the cute barmaid at the inn he was performing in. The performance was great because he was an excellent guitar player and singer in real life. He literally RP’d his performance by performing Gordon Lightfoot songs at the table. Everyone loved it.
The problem happened when he turned his conversation with the barmaid flirty. I quickly shut it down and reminded him that my games are asexual. How did he respond? He told me “No problem bro. I won’t make you RP a barmaid being seduced with me.”
Like you probably are right now, I breathed a sigh of relief . . . until he told us all to be quiet, pulled out his cell phone, one of those flip phones there were all the rage before the iPhone changed the world, called his girlfriend, put her on speaker, and proceeded to spend the next half hour literally having graphic phone sex with her. She had no idea she was on speaker, and we all heard her . . . finish before he ended the call.
The whole time I was stunned. I stared at Berrian the whole time in utter disbelief. When he hung up he looked at me with genuine pride and told me “There. You didn’t have to role play the barmaid.”
That was the moment that something in me snapped. On pure instinct I reached back into my hoodlum D&D days where the DM was the player’s prime enemy.
“Roll. For. Save.” I said in sharp, measured tones.
“Huh?” he asked.
I glared daggers at him. “I didn’t stutter. I said roll for save.”
“What kind of save?
I scoffed. “What kind? Okay, let’s do constitution.”
“But that’s my worst stat!”
“Then you shouldn’t have used as your dump stat! Roll for save!”
He rolled a 2. With his constitution modifier it was a 0.
I paused, my hands clasped in front of my mouth for an uncomfortably long time as I stared at Berrian. “You have a massive heart attack. By the time the barmaid can bring help you died.”
The argument that ensued was loud, and lasted longer than his phone sex session with his girlfriend. The meat and potatoes are that he thought I was being unfair and punished him excessively, and I thought he was so far out of line with what he did that he should consider himself lucky if I don’t creatively murder every character he creates until the campaign ends.
Eventually, he relented and followed the rules. It wasn’t immediate. There was pushback, but never as bonkers as having literal phone sex with his girlfriend during a D&D session. Over the next few months, it vanished, and we got to have two more years of great sessions before life intervened, and I had to move away.
I moved with a new mission. To take problem players and train them up to become great players. It’s been twenty years now, and I haven’t bothered to keep count of the number of players who have graduated and moved on. I have moved to a new state twice more in that time. I won’t dox myself, but there are now four regions where if you play with a former problem player who tells a tale of a crazy DM who took him in and with both patience and brutality trained him up to dump his problem behaviors, get incredibly creative, and function in gaming groups, or her if it was before I got involved with my wife, you might be playing with one of my former players. If you are, you’re welcome. You have no idea how much of a nightmare it was making him into the player you know and love.

The Connecticut Sea Music Festival, successor to the Mystic Sea Music Festival, is the 42nd such annual event (with pandemic gaps) since 1980.
It will be held over 3 days, June 9-11, in Essex, Connecticut, USA, on the Connecticut River. WEBSITE
The tradition of which this festival is a part represents one of the premiere gatherings, globally, for (English-language-centric) maritime music performance and appreciation. From the days when Stan Hugill was an annual feature, to the shipboard practical demonstrations, to the academic dimension in the form of a scholarly symposium, the Connecticut Sea Music Festival stands out as the site where maritime music of this type has been nurtured, where the real life sea music community has developed (amongst truly knowledgeable and experienced people), and where turns in the "genre" have occurred.
There's a good chance that a song you know, or the version you know, was introduced by an attendee at the Festival. Many performers have gotten their start at the event, and many more have taken seeds from the festival to sow and grow other sea music communities elsewhere. In short, south/southeastern Connecticut is a Mecca for sea music fans.
Official festival programming is followed, unofficially, by late night open sings in the 18th-century vintage tavern, The Griswold Inn. That's were a lot of the new stuff happens.
The scholarship piece, the Symposium on the Music of the Sea, which precedes the music-making events, will occur FRIDAY, June 9, beginning 9am Eastern Time. It will be live-streamed on YouTube.

First, Previous, Next
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Victor sat at his kitchen table and stared at the tablet in his hand as he blew on his morning coffee. It had been a busy week, setting up areas for construction with enough room for the nano-forge, then using it to build auto-factories to build more mining drones and more forge spiders to gather more resources and clear out more areas.
Thus far he had Ingot Storage 1 complete and the forge spiders pathed to bring back and sort them. Then Hydroponics 1 was complete, the auto-farmers were programmed and with any luck in about six weeks he’d have wheat, oats, barley, corn, beans, rice, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, okra, mushrooms, squash, and many more fruits and vegetables.
Today he was working on Meat Lab 1. Set up was pretty straight forward, the equipment and power were in place, and the specimens were brought from dimensional storage to the grow labs, it was just the pathing necessary to cultivate, harvest and can the meats. His budget was limited here, he had chicken, beef, and pork cultures, and that was it.
Who would have thought his life savings, his parents life savings, and the sale of his ancestral home still couldn’t get him everything he wanted to start a new life on a colony world? He tapped his tablet a few more times before he was satisfied with the pathing, he pretty much copied it over from Hydro 1, they both canned the food in the end anyways.
He then checked on his mining drones, they were busy little beavers, and had found a remarkable amount of usable materials. More than even the satellite estimated for this location, he sent a few of them two days ago to cut a shaft down to the petroleum reserves, it appears that they had indeed succeeded in locating it.
He brought up the auto-factories that he had built from the nano-forge, numbers three and seven were idle, so he started constructing hauler drones to pump the raw petroleum into their internal tanks and then bring them up to Storage 1, where they can unload into new tanks. This will solve my plastics issue… I hope.
Yup, everything was going smoothly. Even if he never made it back to the empire, at least here he could have a little piece of it, with all the modern conveniences he was used to. “Screw living in places like Wuzhen. They didn’t even have indoor plumbing!” He muttered as his attention was brought to a notification on his tablet. INTRUDER ALERT. ____________ Pan ran as though her life depended on it. Well, actually it did, for the instinctive Ox-Kin that were chasing her would kill and eat her if she were caught. Being Rabbit-Kin her small and agile frame allowed her speed and maneuverability, but the Ox-Kin instinctuals didn’t have to run around trees, they could just push them aside!
Her wagon and all her goods were lost, she was dirty and scared. There was a clearing up ahead and her heart dropped, nowhere to hide, and the stream would slow her down, she was trapped now! She frantically looked from left to right as she continued to run, looking for some way out as the Ox-Kin roared behind her tearing up the ground as their razor sharp hoofs slammed into the ground.
She heard a sound as if there were thunderstorm raging, but it did not end, it simply got louder. She looked up in time to see a black figure on wings of fire plunge towards the ground. She didn’t stop, if it would distract the instinctuals then she would use it to her advantage and hopefully escape this terrible fate.
Suddenly she heard a sound as if someone were rubbing the rim of a meditation bowl, only hundreds of times louder, then screams of pain, several thuds, and then silence. She turned her head to see the black figure stand upright and to her astonishment, all the Ox-Kin were down.
No, not down, dead. Cut in half, obviously in mid gallop for the halves of their bodies were separated by meters. She slowed to take in the strange figure, its helmet magically disappeared behind him, showing a foreign face with short cropped black hair and eyes she had only seen on portraits of the Eternal Empress. _____________ “It’s ok, they’re all dead now. Waste of good beef if you ask me, but it’s a little too close to cannibalism for me. Had enough corpo-starch in the guard to last me a lifetime.” He said as she stopped to take a breath. He slowly started walking over to her.
Pan backed up, rather involuntarily, as this man had just slaughtered half a dozen instinctual Ox-Kin in the blink of an eye.
“Whoa, calm down, not gonna hurt you. Just want to ask you a few questions, I’m Victor by the way, what’s your name?” He asked, hands out to show he meant no harm.
Pan finally caught enough wind to take her hands off her thighs and straighten up, one of her bunny ears fell across her face, a sign of how exhausted she truly was. “I’m… Pan… Sorry, still trying to catch my breath.”
The strange man cocked his head to the side and she noticed it wasn’t just a helm he had been wearing, At first she thought he was wearing all black clothing, but it was actually armor, very intricate armor. “Are you a cultivator? I’ve never seen a male cultivator before.”
Victor chuckled, “I’ve been getting that a lot lately. The answer is… complicated. Now, about those questions. Shall we walk back to your home while I ask?”
Pan shook her head, “The only home I had was my wagon. I was a trader who bought and sold goods. The instinctuals destroyed it while I was gathering water. I heard my Ox bellow and when I came up from the stream it was being eaten, the wagon destroyed, my wares nothing more than shredded trash.” She looked down and started to cry as the realization that she had just lost everything took hold.
Victor put on his officers face, oh boy. Here come the water works. “Shh, calm down, it’s only a wagon. It’s a thing, and things can be replaced.”
She looked up to him and lowered her hands, “Perhaps to a powerful cultivator, but I am but a lowly peasant girl. I will have to sell my self on the streets to eat now!” She buried her face back into her hands and wailed.
“Oh for Emperors sakes!” Victor thought as he scooped the small woman up in his arms. This prompted a sharp “Eeek!” From her as he activated his jump jets. _____________ Pan was terrified. Rabbit-Kin were not made for flying. The strange cultivator had scooped her up in his arms as though she were a small child and launched them into the air. She tried to scream, but the air screeching by her face seemed to carry the noise away. Though she doubted anyone could have heard over fire erupting from his wings.
Suddenly they landed and she was set down. She looked around and saw they were on a ledge, far up the mountain where the Ox-Kin had chased her. The ledge had a metal rail all the way around it but she saw no way to reach it other than flight.
The strange man must have brought his helmet back up before they launched into the air, because he had it up now. He turned to the mountain and it split open before him! After retracting his helm he simply said, “Follow me, since you don’t have a home, I’ll bring you to mine.”
She followed him into the mountain, expecting it to be dark and cold, but to her surprise it was warm and light shown down from the ceiling as if it were daylight! The walls were smooth stone, and after a few meters in the mountain closed behind them, only it seemed to do it twice, once inside and once outside.
She continued to walk until they came to a strange door with a wheel in the center. The cultivator spun the wheel and opened the metal door. She had never seen so much worked metal in all her days. Even the blacksmith shops lacked the amount, or skill she saw here.
After she entered into a small chamber, Victor closed the door behind them and walked to a strange outcropping on the wall and turned around. The armor up close was neither new nor perfect, she saw dints and dings, and scorch marks in places. Then she jumped back as it split in half and Victor stepped out in nothing more than short pants covering his man-hood.
She blushed and diverted her eyes, but not before noticing the rippling muscles, scar tissue, and little round metal discs at regular intervals all over his body. He covered himself with a very plush white robe and slippers before opening another door that was identical to the first. “Should I wear slippers as well, Master Cultivator?”
Victor looked back, “That won’t be necessary, the cleaning drones will handle any mess we cause.” Pan pondered on what a drone was. A servant perhaps? Was that why he brought me here, to be one of his servants? Or was it something else? Oh no, she mentioned having to sell herself, did he expect her to be one of his mistresses? She wouldn’t be opposed, for he was a handsome man, but what kin was he?
She almost missed what was said next. “This is my humble abode, you’re welcome to stay here for a time while I get my bearings on this land.” Victor said as he walked over to the table and picked up a piece of see-through glass. Magical runes and pictures flared into existence as he tapped at it before setting it back down.
Pan could barely speak. This place was what she would expect in the Imperial palace. There was no kang, or open fire, but it was the perfect temperature and humidity. She saw a large couch, tables, chairs, cabinets of wood, a countertop with a strange steel bowl and what looked as if it were a well pump above it.
The back wall had multiple doors, the two that were open showed one to be a bed room, with a huge bed, the other was tiled with a white chair, it almost looked like a throne? How strange she thought as she peered into the room to see a chamber of fogged glass also inside the room.
Victor noticed her curiosity, “That is the bathroom. Come here, I’ll show you.”
Pan followed Victor into the bathroom as he demonstrated the toilet, explaining rather embarrassingly how it worked and how to use it, he then showed her the glass chamber with the odd steel handles.
“This one is hot, and this one is cold, you turn them both on until you get the temperature just right to clean yourself. On the wall there is liquid soap, shampoo, and conditioner, though I keep my hair close, so the conditioner wouldn’t be as necessary as say someone with your long hair.” He explained.
Pan was shocked as the saw the stream of water pouring from the wall. What manner of magic was this? “I have never seen a male cultivator, but it is known they are master craftsmen, can you all create such magical wonders?”
Victor shrugged, “No idea, I’ve never met another, uh, male cultivator.”
Pan considered, “Could I, maybe use this chamber to clean up? This mornings activities have left me a little soiled.”
Victor nodded, “Of course.” He reached into a small cabinet and produced a large piece of fluffy cloth and placed it on another steel rail outside the chamber. Before placing a smaller version of it inside the chamber on a rack. Finally he reached back into the cabinet and produced a robe much like he was wearing and placed it on a hook behind the door.
He then pointed to the small one inside the chamber, “That is a wash cloth to clean yourself with the soap, use the shampoo here on your hair, and then after rinsing it out, rub the conditioner in and let it sit a bit before finally rinsing it out. Then dry yourself off with this towel, and put on the robe I placed on the door.”
Pan nodded, “What will you do with my clothes after I remove them?”
Victor sniffed “Probably burn them.” He thought to himself. “I will provide you with clothes to lounge around the house.” He turned around and closed the door behind him.
Pan used the ‘toilet’ surprised at its efficiency to clean itself with water before turning on the water stream and adjusting the knobs until it was pleasant. She took to cleaning herself with gusto, for she had never had such luxury. Even the tubs at the inns she could sometimes visit were not this nice.
She heard the door open, and through the smoked glass she could see that Victor seemed to be gathering her things from the floor and leaving behind something on the ‘toilet’. After getting herself more clean that she thought she ever had in her entire life she sighed and decided she needed to get out.
After fiddling with the knobs and nearly freezing herself before turning them the proper way she reached out and grabbed the ‘towel’ and found it did an amazing job of drying her. Afterwards she tied the cloth up in her hair, careful not to get her ears and examined the clothes he brought her.
There was an article of clothing like what he wore, the short pants, but smaller, and tighter. She assumed it was for the same purpose and put it on, then she found a soft pair of pants, like men would wear, but of much finer and softer material. Finally, there was a form fitting shirt that she found left little to the imagination, but she had little choice to but to put it on. Finally there were thick, luxurious slippers on the floor and the robe on the back of the door.
She came out of the bathroom to find him at the strange counter, cooking. “A man who cooks for a woman? I know he is a foreigner, but I have never heard of this happening.” She thought as he waved her to the large table.
“I missed breakfast this morning, your little tussle with the Ox-Kin ladies kind of put it on hold, have you eaten?” He asked.
Pan felt the hunger pains when he asked as she shook her head.
He chuckled as he continued his work, “No, I guess you didn’t get a chance to eat this morning either.
How do you like your eggs?”
Pan was confused, “Um, I prefer them cooked?”
Victor looked back before saying, “Scrambled it is then.”
After a few minutes and some toiling around the cupboards he dropped off a huge plate in front of her. “Normally I’d let the auto-cook prepare the food, but since I’m getting everything up and running at the moment it’s missing a lot of ingredients. So, I worked with what I had, scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, and toast.”
She stared down at her plate, it mostly looked familiar, but the white porridge was a bit different. He handed her strange utensils before pushing two strange bottles with seasonings in them with holes punched in the top. She watched as he used the utensils to eat, and attempted to do the same.
The spoon was easy, she had used those for soup, but the tiny pitch fork and knife were difficult. Victor noticed this and stood up, went to a cabinet and pulled out a drawer and brought back metal chop sticks.
Pan stared at them, they were perhaps brass, possibly even gold, her mouth dropped, these utensils would have been worth more than her wagon! Victor looked up from his food, “Is everything ok? Is there something wrong with the chopsticks?”
Pan hurriedly put the chopsticks to work grabbing up the slivers of pork. “No, no. This lowly peasant girl was merely in amazement at the quality of the utensils.”
Victor nodded as he watched her eyes go round with amazement after chewing on the bacon. Before she dug into the eggs and tried the grits, deciding they needed the seasonings, which she found was salt and a form of pepper, she nodded before cleaning her plate.
Victor sat back, his own plate clean, “Now that’s a healthy appetite, I wasn’t sure a girl your size could finish a plate like that.”
Pan flushed, a bit embarrassed, “It was no doubt due to your cooking expertise. But I still don’t know why you brought me here.”
Victor stood and took her plate and utensils and opened a strange metal door under the counter and placed them into a metal chamber before closing it back. “You said you were a traveling merchant, which means you go places and hear things. I’m new here and have questions. Therefore we can help each other.”
He ushered Pan to the plush couch and sat down, she took the time to pull her hair out of the towel and he took it from her and went into the ‘bathroom’ a strange name as there was no bathtub inside it and returned to sit at the opposite side of the couch.
Pan let him sit before asking, “Ok, you have questions, what do you want to know?”
Victor took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking, “Why do you have rabbit ears? Why do people in the villages have monkey tails or goats eyes? And what the hell is up with these instinctuals that are more animal that people?” _______________ It had been hours and Pan was actually feeling mentally drained. The man before her was not a cultivator. Whatever he was, she doubted many cultivators except the Empress could hope to match him. The more he showed her, the more she was certain his powers were unlimited. She didn’t know whether to bow in awe, or run in terror.
Not from this plane of existence is how he put it. Meaning from the realm of the divinities maybe? She did not know for sure.
“So, this Eternal Empress came along a few thousand years ago, united the lands, built a wall and a government, and now uses her armies and cultivator sects to maintain law and order across her lands?” He asked.
Pan nodded, “Yes, before her we were broken into tribes that warred against one another constantly.”
Victor paced in front of her, “So she is immortal, like me. That’s good and bad, good in that she may have the knowledge to get me home. Bad, that she could see me as a threat and has tons of resources.” He suddenly stopped pacing. “I’m hungry, are you hungry?”
Pan was not going to say no to a free meal, as she literally had nothing to her name now. Not even her clothes. “I could eat master… er Victor.”
He started off to the ‘kitchen’ and opened the top to the large metal door and produced a round item wrapped in flexible glass? Or was it cloth that looked like glass? “Victor is fine, I’m going to make a Pizza, I doubt you’ve ever had one, but trust me, they’re great.”
As he worked they continued the questions, “So cultivators are broken up into sects, each one with its own goals and agendas, but all loyal to the Empress?”
Pan nodded, “Yes, and then the Iron Legions are armored mortals who keep the peace throughout the empire, although none of the towns around here are large enough to boast a garrison.”
The metal and glass hinged door was opened and the round cake like object that was placed on a pan was put into it and the door closed. “Ok, twenty minutes and we eat. So tell me, what kin is the Empress?”
Pan looked confused, “The Empress is the Empress, she has no kin.”
Victor wiped his hands on a small dish towel, “So you are rabbit-kin, I’ve met tiger-kin and boar-kin, and others, but she has no kin?”
Pan made a sudden connection, “No, she is like you. She has no kin.”
Victor dropped the dish towel on the counter, “So she’s human.” ________________ “Curse that damnable Victor Cane!” Mei swore as she and Xiang pushed the wagon to free it from the mud once more as the Ox pulling it simply lacked the strength to free it.
Xiang looked to her sect sister, “My my, Mei.” She chuckled at her own word play. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were getting fixated on the male.”
Mei stared daggers at her companion, she knew she could feel the killing intent, but as they were both second tier, it did little. “The male was aloof, arrogant, cared nothing for face, and ignored me on the battlefield!”
Xiang grinned even more as she climbed aboard the wagon and took the reins. “Don’t think the rest of your sisters haven’t noticed the way you talk about him, you cover your interest with complaint, but it is a thin sheet.”
Mei reached down to her left hand, “He put his hand on mine in the Inn before he flew away on wings of fire. He was trying to comfort me on the loss of our sisters.”
Xiang turned her head sharply, “You didn’t put that in your report, this is the first any of us have heard of it.”
Mei sighed, “I don’t know what to think of it. Male cultivators are so rare, just seeing one outside of the the sect inner circles is a rarity. Most of us never get to even speak to a male cultivator unless we ascend to a high tier within the sect, making us worthy of being in their presence. I wanted to cherish it.”
Xiang smiled as she looked back to the ox before snapping the reins, “I would cherish it too, this is a hard life, mortal men would break in our embrace, but a cultivator male would not. He was a good looking man for a foreigner too.”
Mei shuddered, “That he is, even if a bit rugged, he is evidently a soldier after all.”
Xiangs mischievous grin was back, “I knew it, you were pining over this Victor!”
Mei’s killing intent was definitely felt by Xiang this time as she laughed uproariously at her friends discomfort.
“Fear not my OLDER sister, for in one passing of the moon we will be in the Celestial City and you can deliver your prize to the Empress. I am sure after this you will get to see your handsome soldier again. That is, if the Empress doesn’t take him as her own.” Xiang sang the last part with glee.
Mei stopped glaring, “You don’t think she would do that do you?” She asked.
Xiang laughed so hard she almost fell off the wagon.

Hello, fine folks of Reddit! Lately I have been super disappointed in the persistent emptiness of my mailbox, and I hope some of you will help me change that! I also really need a way to use my ever-growing collection of fountain pens and inks! (what's up, fountainpens)
So what am I like? Well first of all, to be up front at the top, I am a Christian. (Scary to admit on the internet but it's true.) I saw a post a few weeks ago in this sub that very specifically did not want to write to Christians, which made me laugh. At least they were honest about it! I guess that will be important information to other people in this sub as well. I'm open about my faith, but I will never force my views on anyone or condemn anyone for living a lifestyle that isn't the same as mine. I'm not about that. I'm open to writing to anyone from all walks of life, we all have things we can learn from each other.
If you're still reading this, thank you! Some more things about me: I'm married, and my husband is my best friend. We have two cats, and they are our favourite little buds too. They are not always best buds with each other, but you know. Cats. They is what they is.
I love reading, and I love to talk about reading and books. I love Victorian fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction and historical fiction and sci-fi and fantasy and gothic fiction and books that make one feel cozy. The book I've read the most times in my life is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Other favourite books include Station Eleven, Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, The Chronicles of Narnia, LOTR, the Mistborn series, Anne of Green Gables, Fahrenheit 451, The Hunger Games, The Martian, and so many more that I can't think of right now. The last book I finished was The Chrysalids by John Wyndham and it blew my mind, just a phenomenal read. Basically I read anything that's not scary body horror or full-out smut. Even if our reading tastes don't overlap, I still love to chat about books and reading!
I also love movies and tv. My husband and I tend to watch our favourite shows over and over. We've watched The I.T. Crowd, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Corner Gas, the Office, New Girl, Chuck, Parks & Recreation, and The Disastrous Life of Saiki K multiple times each. We are obsessed with Taskmaster: that show got me through the panorama, seriously. We recently watched Downton Abbey for the first time last winter and I would honestly die for Matthew Crawley. (As an aside, I will never forgive Dan Stevens, and also why are most of his movies so bad when he is such a good actor?) Movies, oh movies, I could talk about movies for ages as well. My favorite movie is the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie, but I have so much love for the BBC adaptation as well. All the Jane Austen love here. (I didn't even think the Netflix adaptation of Persuasion was bad. Unpopular opinion, I know! I'm just full of unpopular opinions!)
I'm a knitter - gotta do it every day or my hands/brain feel wrong. I dabble in so many other crafts, but knitting is my one true love. If you are also multi-craftual, I think we will have a lot to talk about.
Do we have time to talk about music? My favourite singer of my whole life is Josh Groban. If you are also a Grobanite, we're already friends. My music tastes are all over the place - I'll listen to Abba and then the next song will be some kind of folk ballad, followed by a show tune, a lofi mix, and then some angsty rock from the 2010s. Spotify has been the most worthwhile subscription service for me, let me tell you.
As you can tell, I am rambly. If you like a long, rambly letter, you've found the right person to write to. I have self-diagnosed ADHD, which you could probably guess by how random this whole post has been. DM me if I haven't scared you off, and let's get the ball rolling! Okbai!

Looking for a vanilla PC Livonia server? Peter's Pure Vanilla Extract brings the vanilla experience of Official to a no-mods privately owned community server available to the public! Come and enjoy all that DayZ has to offer, from the throes of surviving the fields and forests to the depths of navigating the underground bunker on Livonia.

"Peter's pure vanilla extract - Just like momma Peter used to make!"

By popular request we have enabled the in-game map that Bohemia included with the server config files to allow our newer players an easier time orienting themselves while playing. Players will still need to rely on their survival instincts to figure out where they are, but now they can pull up the map by pressing "M" in-game.
Now with build anywhere enabled via in-game config files, you can base anywhere you please with more options to build your ideal survivor's home. Explore, build, fight, and join a group of players ranging from totally new to long-time veterans of the game to play DayZ in all its vanilla glory. Friend and foe await you!

SERVER INFO:
Server name: Peter's Pure Vanilla Extract - Livonia (Z Team) 1PP / Bases / PvP&RP
Server IP: 192.154.229.177:2302
Server info: 30 player slots, no mods, build anywhere enabled via gameplay files, cheats not permitted, DALLAS, TX server location.