We have seen Rick in action for a couple years, for him to allow this amount of promotion on social media outlets, tells me the bottoms in. Tear down restructure phase nearing the end. Time to level up the pyramid. I'll continue to add sub a dollar every chance I get.

In the past I've often traveled with another person who has a Delta Skymiles Gold Amex card that gives both of us a free 1st checked bag plus carry-on and personal item. But I'm traveling abroad later this year without the other person but purchased the Delta ticket with their card.
We did it this way because they had this $150 off a $600 or higher international Delta flight offer that I wanted to take advantage of, that my Delta Skymiles Gold Amex card didn't have. But because I'm not traveling with them but used their card, I don't get a free 1st checked bag and it's now $75.
I usually travel light enough that a carry-on and backpack are enough for me, but I might want to bring some gifts with me as I'm visiting family, so I might need a checked bag this time. I was wondering if there's some loophole that I can use to get Delta to comp me a free 1st checked bag.
Alternately, I was thinking of cramming as much as I could into the carry-on and backpack and putting all the additional items into a large shopping bag or two and perhaps wearing my heaviest jacket and maybe a sweater to get through security, then putting it all into a collapsible duffel bag that I stuffed into the carry-on and gate checking it. Or does Delta make you pay to gate check a second carry-on?
We're not talking about a full 50lb large suitcase, but more like what would fit into a small carry-on or medium-sized backpack. If I really needed to get a full suitcase full of stuff to where I'm going, I'd spend the $75 for it. But it seems silly to pay that much for say 20lb or so of stuff.

https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-founder-of-chewy-com-on-finding-the-financing-to-achieve-scale

​

The Founder of Chewy.com on Finding the Financing to Achieve Scale

by

• Ryan Cohen

Most people assume that the high point of my professional career came on April 18, 2017, when the owners of PetSmart paid $3.35 billion for Chewy.com, the pet retailer I had cofounded six years earlier. No doubt, that day was incredible. It represented the culmination of a dream and a tremendous amount of work. But believe it or not, another handshake—another deal—mattered even more to me.
That one happened on September 26, 2013. I had launched Chewy two years earlier with Michael Day, using our own cash and small loans, but my vision was to build a large business, and I knew that significant capital would be required to finance the growth. We approached dozens of VC firms—I even flew out to Silicon Valley from our South Florida headquarters and went door-to-door on Sand Hill Road explaining how Chewy would succeed by delighting customers and running an ultra-efficient operation. But everyone turned us down.
Larry Cheng at Volition Capital was one of the people we pitched our company to. We first met him in 2012; he was en route to Disney World with his family and agreed to make a quick stop at our office. I remember that he asked me, “Who’s going to take this company to $100 million in sales?” I was 26 and probably looked even younger, but I confidently answered, “I am.” He didn’t invest.
He followed up with us about six months later, though. We’d beaten the sales projections that we’d previously given him, and he was impressed. A few days later he signed off on a $15 million investment in Chewy. The satisfaction of that victory was even greater than the pride I felt following the eventual multibillion-dollar sale. After two years of building Chewy—and more than 100 conversations with VCs that went nowhere—I’d finally found someone who believed in me and our business model. Larry had validated our idea.
From that point on, the mission was larger. I was even more committed to making Chewy an industry leader, because it was no longer just our own money on the line. Larry had gone out on a limb for us. I felt that responsibility.
I approached every subsequent round of financing, including PetSmart’s acquisition, in a similar way—by underpromising and overdelivering on sales. Our mission was straightforward: to build a best-in-class, customer-obsessed pet retailer. We also wanted to leave everyone who’d backed us a winner.

An Early Pivot

I’ve been working since I was 13, when I started building websites for family members and local businesses. From there I moved into affiliate marketing. I met Michael in an online chat room discussing website design and computer programming. We hit it off immediately and started talking about collaborating on a business.
I’d always wanted to build an e-commerce company, so we settled on what we thought was a terrific idea in an industry ripe for disruption: online jewelry sales. We built the website, set up the delivery systems, bought the inventory, and even put a safe in the office to store it.
But about a week before our scheduled launch, I had a revelation. I was in a local pet store with my toy poodle, Tylee, asking the owner about the most healthful food I could buy for her. That’s when it hit me: I was getting into the wrong business. I didn’t care much about jewelry, but like many dog and cat parents I knew, I was passionate about what I bought for Tylee. The pet industry was big and growing, moving from mass market to premium. It was clear that the opportunity was huge.
So although we were only a week away from launching the jewelry business, we pivoted. We sold all the rings, necklaces, and bracelets—and the safe—and started learning everything we could about the pet industry. We built a new website. We found a local distributor and partnered with a third-party logistics company nearby. In June of 2011 we launched. In just three months we went from my epiphany at the pet store to running a pet-supplies business.
We intended to build a best-in-class, customer-obsessed pet retailer.
People sometimes ask if I worried about following in the footsteps of Pets.com, in 2000 one of the highest profile failures of the dot-com bubble. I didn’t. For one thing, I was 15 when that company declared bankruptcy, so I wasn’t very familiar with the story. Second, Pets.com existed at a time when most people had dial-up internet and weren’t comfortable making purchases online. By the time we started, e-commerce was second nature for most consumers.
I also got questions about Amazon, and, of course, it was a real competitor. It had an incredible infrastructure, established relationships with customers and suppliers, and endless capital. But I knew that other companies, including Zappos (later acquired by Amazon) and Wayfair, had found success in specific product categories. Their secret was offering a differentiated customer experience. I thought we could do something similar in the pet space.
With limited resources, we served as our own C-suite. I was CEO, Michael was CTO, and my longtime friend Alan Attal was COO. We knew that superior customer service had to be one of our core competencies if we wanted to deliver the same experience I’d had at the neighborhood pet store, so our first priority was building a team to work the phones, live chat, and emails in our call center so that we could stop doing all that ourselves.
From the outset we reinvested all our cash from operations in the business, but eventually we needed the larger pools of money that VC firms offered. After months of searching, we finally found Larry and Volition.

Scaling Up

We closed the series A financing round on October 24, 2013, and I’ll never forget the moment the money hit our bank account. Although we had signed the term sheet, part of me was still skeptical that it was all going to work out. But when I saw the transfer confirmation, it became real.
With that money we could invest in developing the systems, technology, and teams needed to scale up. We could also bring stocking and shipping in-house. We already recognized that if we wanted to create a multibillion-dollar business, fulfillment had to become another core competency.
Consultants had told us that it would take a year and a half to build a warehouse from scratch. But with 300% growth year over year, we didn’t have that much time. The logistics company handling fulfillment couldn’t keep up, so the Chewy customer experience had begun to deteriorate. We needed more control, and fast. We knew we had to make the transition within a few months.
We started scouting potential sites in February of 2014, focusing on the northeastern United States because so much of the country’s population lives there. The location we chose—Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania—would allow us to provide overnight delivery to customers in the densely populated tristate area of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. By that summer we’d opened a 400,000-square-foot facility full of bags and cans of dog and cat food, carriers and cages, leashes, litter boxes, toys, and treats.
Although we managed to get up and running in less than six months, it certainly wasn’t easy. Everything that could go wrong did. We couldn’t hire people to work in the warehouse fast enough. When we were finally staffed, the scanner guns would stop working, or the Wi-Fi or warehouse management system would go out. We were tackling issue after issue 24/7 until we worked out all the kinks.
We also focused heavily on marketing. From day one, we invested almost exclusively in direct response ads, so every dollar spent could be tracked—no Pets.com-style Super Bowl commercials for us. We expanded by investing in the team and processes to effectively acquire the right customers at the right cost. Our governor of growth was free cash flow. Our sales more than doubled from $205 million in 2014 to $423 million in 2015.
Our new hires played a big role in scaling up the company. I realized early on that I’d need to use my time efficiently and focus on hiring. At first recruiting was a challenge. Alan and I spent countless hours reaching out to candidates on LinkedIn, explaining how quickly the company was growing and describing what we intended to build, but 98% of them didn’t bother to respond.
Surprisingly, that turned out to be a useful filter. The 2% who did write back were true believers, team players, and business builders who were excited for the opportunity. They all had tremendous heart, fire in their bellies, and a will to win. We hired for passion. Many people quit stable jobs and relocated with their families from across the country to join us. It was a tremendous sacrifice that we never took lightly.
Ultimately we raised six rounds of financing totaling more than $350 million from T. Rowe Price, BlackRock, Greenspring, Lone Pine, Verlinvest, and the investment bank Allen & Company.

The Next Level

Our revenue was $901 million in 2016 and growing 100% year over year. That got us thinking about an IPO for our next round of financing. We had about 7,000 employees and six warehouses, with plans to add another two in the next 12 months. From an operational and strategic perspective, the company was strong.
As we prepped for the IPO, Petco, one of the biggest U.S. pet retailers, approached us about a merger. It couldn’t meet our terms, so we shook hands and parted ways.
In early 2017 PetSmart, Petco’s primary brick-and-mortar rival, also reached out. I received an email from Raymond Svider, a partner and the chairman of BC Partners, the private equity group that had completed its acquisition of PetSmart in March of 2015. He said he was interested in buying Chewy and wanted to talk. We had met previously but didn’t know each other well.
PetSmart was one of our top competitors, so we proceeded carefully. I explained that we were preparing for an IPO, so we expected a certain price in an all-cash, public-style deal. In view of the competitive dynamics, we weren’t going to give away our proprietary information and start a lengthy due-diligence process. I told Svider that if he wanted to make the acquisition, he would need to do it quickly. To his credit, he did. In April of 2017 we signed an agreement to sell the company for $3.35 billion. It was the largest e-commerce acquisition in history.
Our investors were happy too. The early-stage ones made huge gains, and the later-stage ones earned significant money. Investing in Chewy had made a lot of careers, and I’m proud of that. Those investors put their trust in me and my vision, and I repaid them with returns. The same would soon be true for BC Partners and PetSmart.
Chewy’s revenues continued to rise post-acquisition, hitting $3.5 billion in 2018, while its losses narrowed to $267 million. In June of 2019 PetSmart spun Chewy off into a publicly traded company at a valuation near $9 billion, close to three times the sale price only two years before.
I left the company in March of 2018. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I felt I had done all I had set out to do. The company was sound, the foundation strong, and the vision set. But I was no longer in full control. And I didn’t want a boss. I’m a business builder, not a manager. My work was complete.
When I think back to why raising the money to help grow the business was one of the best moments of my life, I realize it’s because the journey was far more exciting than getting to the finish line. I relished the challenges of disrupting an entire industry and trying to delight customers to a degree that had never been achieved before. The excitement I felt from putting together a world-class team of employees and investors, succeeding against all odds, and building a multibillion-dollar retail leader from nothing was unequivocally the greatest of my career.

Lisa hummed quietly while she worked in her kitchen, maybe it was William’s influence, or maybe Rebecca’s, but she still liked making coffee the old fashioned way. Not that any of them minded using preground beans, but no technology has replaced the power of freshness.
So while I sat waiting for her to return, I simply watched what was already on her screen. It was an animated drama of some sort, maybe horror, there was a demon weeping over a grave at least, could have been anything, really.
And I just listened while she hummed along with the coffee grinder, those things have changed a lot over the years, now they were near totally silent, I saw one in an Earth museum once that made a tremendous racket, but these had only the faintest hum as the beans were reduced to powder.
I didn’t know the tune Lisa was humming, but it felt strange to hear her let out a little tune after I told her I was leaving, and of course I couldn’t know if I’d be coming back.
She and I [Redacted], and we really did like each other, a lot, actually. Of course we both knew it couldn’t last forever, we were quite literally from different worlds, and we wanted different things out of our lives.
But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have something good for a time. I had to wonder if she was thinking about this as the time to let go? Humans have a habit of putting a brave face on things, they have a whole philosophy called ‘stoicism’ which is basically just putting a show of strength on while enduring a lot of unpleasant shit.
I can’t say I liked that philosophy very much, it reminded me too much of my homeworld’s view of things. I suppose it had a valid point when it came to hard times, but it seemed too much to like hard times. At least as I understood it, perhaps I was wrong in that regard. I’m sure the subject will be hotly debated over for years.
Regardless, at that moment I was just enjoying the noise of her preparations, watching out of the corner of my eye while she brewed coffee the old fashioned way. I pause for a moment here to tell you, in addition to the supply of alcohol that went to Dlamias, at my suggestion, Bonny Red also dropped a large supply of coffee off at the neutral trading station where she had to deliver her goods. Along with directions for how to prepare it.
Now, in the capital of Dlamias, I knew for a fact that a small number of ‘coffee bars’ were starting to open up. The stay awake juice was used by a number of government employees to help keep them focused, and… well, in the Earth middle ages coffee was banned in an empire because people stayed up late talking politics while drinking the stuff. Coffee shops became hotbeds of political dissent.
It was one more little monkey wrench I’d thrown into the gears of Dlamisan society. Awake for longer and with time to talk, I had absolutely no doubt that the buried frustrations of my people would start to bubble up as surely as the water was boiling in Lisa’s pot right now.
I know my government, they’ll use the stuff to extend labor hours and keep people working harder, and they’ll put it together with food for convenience…
And my infection will spread. Longer hours, but also time to complain, and with the first humans settling in too…
The dam would burst and change would be forced. I did wonder if they would try to use military force to quell dissent. But I doubted it, especially now. In a way, this danger with the return of the Rogue World and the disappearances and the threats from the Praeda, couldn’t have come at a better time.
Concessions would be the government’s only option, and once that began, there would be no stopping it.
‘Even if I die out there, my will, will be done no matter what.’ I thought, and made the evil finger pyramid of doom with my hands.
Lisa returned a moment later with coffee in hand and a smile on her face. She sat beside me on the couch and asked, “Did you enjoy the show?”
I hadn’t really paid much attention to it, but it seemed alright. “I haven’t seen that much, but… it looks alright.”
“It’s based on an old novel, that demon,” she pointed to the ashen figure, “lost his wife to human invaders, his village, everything but his daughter. This season is based on one of the sequels in that series, he’s finally reclaimed the land where there village was, and he found her body still buried in the rubble of their home. So he had her buried there and all the grief hit him at once, everything he kept buried while he worked to raise their daughter.”
“Oh… so humans are the villains in this one?” I asked.
“Sort of.” She said as she leaned back and slipped her arm over my shoulder from behind while she drank from her glass cup. “Like, the humans started it, they built the first cities and needed labor so they started conquering nomads and villages to work their farms and whatnot. So that’s bad, but not all humans are the bad guys. Some demons are shown as bad, same for some of the elves and dwarves… I guess you could say that their ‘governments’ do bad things to each other.”
“Oh, so everybody is kind of bad sometimes?” I asked.
“Yeah, kinda.” She sipped, “A lot of gray there, most of what happens that’s bad after a certain point, happens because everybody is too afraid to stop. They don’t want to keep fighting, but they’re afraid of what happens if they pull back.”
“That’s interesting.” I said as I brought the cup to my mouth. It was hot, rich, fragrant, the rich steam rose from within and I inhaled it with the vigor of somebody bursting from beneath the water after nearly drowning and finding air again.
I made a mental note to bring some of this with me when it was time to leave, Lisa was quiet, seemingly waiting for me to explain. A lot would be necessarily classified and, reckless as I may be, I knew better than to let things like this slip.
“I’m going on a peace mission, actually, not just me. The whole family is. It’s… complicated, but Bonny Red is taking us to a neutral zone where we can talk to the Praeda, all of them, or most, at least.” I shifted a little in my seat, I didn’t want to tell her how dangerous it might be for us, but I hated keeping secrets.
“Do you know when you’ll be back?” She asked, her wide eyes fluttered a little, “Is this one of those ‘gone for decades and I’ll be an old lady by the time you get back’ talks?”
I snorted my coffee just a little and smacked my chest a few times. “No… I mean I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but it will take months just to get there, it’s over thirty-thousand lightyears away, so even at the fastest possible speed through thick space, we’re looking at nine months travel without doing any jumps.”
She whistled long and low, “So… what you’re saying is, I’ll need to pack my toothbrush, and a pair of replacement heads for it?” She asked.
“Say what now?” I asked and my ears twitched.
She turned to the side and propped her head up in her hand, then gave me a quirky smile and said, “You’ve got all those ears and still didn’t listen to me? Alien or not, you’re definitely male.” She laughed at her own joke while I could only cock my head in confusion.
“Say what now?” I asked again.
“I want to go too.” She clarified, “Listen, Bonny Red and I have had a nice arrangement going for a while now, but alien or not, I know that woman and she’s definitely planning on spending a lot of time on Earth after all this, she’s been in the void for a few years now and I know how sailors, pirates or not, get when they finally hit a safe port. The easiest thing for all of us is if I just go along. Besides,” she held up her arm and waved one hand around her room, “I don’t really have anything holding me back. I have my degree, my job won’t go anywhere, I can sublet my apartment. And how many people get a chance to go out that far?” She asked.
“Wait, you’re serious?” I asked. I definitely wanted to know what she was talking about when it came to Bonny Red, but the more pressing matter was her thought of coming with us.
“I don’t have to be part of your envoy, I’ll just join her crew for a year or so. I’m no stranger to hard work or military stuff, you know that.” She said.
“Well, I mean, that’s up to Bonny Red, not me… but… why would you…” She stopped me by putting a hand on my chest.
“Because you and I both know this can’t last. You’ll live for hundreds of years, your stages of life are in line with mine right now, but that’s going to change. I’ll grow older, faster, maybe I’ll want to start a family of my own, something we can’t do, but even if I don’t do that, time changes all humans, faster than you know. You saw how Fauve has grown up, right?” She asked.
I could only nod. She was in her twenties now and while there were echoes of the child I knew, she was like a tree that I’d watched grow from a sapling. I could still recognize her for what she’d been, but she was not the same.
“That’s how it will be for me from my twenties to my thirties, and thirties to forties. I’m going to change, I won’t be the twenty-something who gets hammered with her friends on weekends anymore, but you’ll still be the you that you are right now, when I’m old, gray, and thinking ahead for my funeral.” She chuckled, “From my perspective, you’re kind of like if Peter Pan was a college student and not a young boy.”
I only vaguely knew the story, but I got the gist of what she meant, I just didn’t know what to say to it.
“To you, nine months, two years, three years, those may not sound like a lot. To me, they’re big bites out of my life, and when we’re done, those days won’t come back. So, if you don’t object…” For a moment she looked quite vulnerable, like she thought I very well might refuse her, inching herself away a little but leaving her hand where it was over where my hearts were beating faster by the moment.
“I’d want to go with you. If I can. If I can’t… then I have to be honest, that’s too much of my life to slip by to wait on something that can’t really last anyway.”
She wasn’t wrong. I did my very best to never think about the differences in our lifespans, but clearly that wasn’t something too far from her mind. “It’s not really up to me, but… if she refuses to let you sign on…” I didn’t want to finish that sentence.
“Right. I think she will. She understands a lot about things not lasting.” Lisa smirked a little, “I will have to figure out what to do with my hair on this trip though, there aren’t exactly seasons in space.” She ran her free hand through the long strands, and I suggested… “You could have it done like stars, put the night sky design on there instead of the season?” I suggested, and realized that in saying that, I more or less acknowledged that I wanted her to go along. I knew she was right, this might very well be the last of our times together, she was in her mid to late twenties now, I think. Twenty-five or twenty-six, even if we got out there and stayed for one day and came back, eighteen Earth months would have come and gone, and that’s if we stopped for nothing. In reality we could be gone for a full two years with ease.
“You’re a genius, Bailey.” She said and set her cup down with a smirk, “I’ll make sure to pick up enough dye for the trip, and I’ll send an ‘application’ to Bonny Red before she gets here.”
Humans do not move slowly, that much is for sure. As far as she was concerned, the matter was settled.
I wasn’t sure if Bonny Red would be alright with this, but she was frankly as strange as Lisa. For some reason, unbeknownst and inexplicable to me, I always end up surrounded by oddballs and outliers.
And you know what?
I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/community_focus_cbgray
Happy time zones Guardians, and welcome to this week's Community Focus. Today we are hanging out with CBgrey, a content creator, self-proclaimed potato, and a PvE shepherd. So, let’s get into it.
Hi CB! First up, let’s talk about who you are, what your pronouns are, and what got you into gaming in the first place?
My name is Christian or CBgray but most just call me CB for short! My pronouns are he/him.
The name CBgray was a name that some of my friends called me growing up, that was just my first and middle initial and my last name! I am from Virginia originally, just outside of Washington, D.C., which will always be home to me. About a year ago I moved to Austin, Texas.
Growing up in the 90s, what really got me into gaming was Nintendo. There was something so magical about playing Pokémon on the Gameboy Color and seeing the birth of 3D gaming with games like Mario 64. I think that is what really birthed my love for video games. As I continued to get older, I had a dream to work as a game developer for Nintendo. In terms of what got me into content creation, I always wanted to try YouTube and even took a few stabs at it in high school with my cousin, Lena, and in college with one of my best friends and roommates, Gramm. Nothing really stuck though until I discovered Destiny.
Oh, I love a good cliff hanger. So how did you find Destiny?
I saw Destiny for the first time during E3. I thought the game looked like nothing I had seen before, and I recognized the name Bungie from Halo. However, despite that, I had never really played an FPS game seriously so I never would have imagined that I would fall in love with the game and still be playing it almost 10 years later. My brother, Evan, got the game on PS3 and I got the game on PS4 when it came out. I remember I was trying to win the white PS4 bundle in the Taco Bell promotion from way back when. When I started playing the game, I was hooked. I played through the whole campaign in a night with one of my best friends, Lamar, with two TV's side by side and we played all night. I had never experienced anything in gaming like that.
Around the time I started my channel, near the end of the Taken King expansion, I was going through a rough time, and I just wanted to try to create a family and a space where other people that enjoy Destiny could come together and help each other out with things inside the game and outside of the game. I had completely fallen in love with the game at this point and sank more hours in it during college than I probably should have with the amount of computer science work I had at the time, but I was really just hoping to form friendships with others and just provide an atmosphere where we could take our minds off things.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that would happen, so I'm really grateful. I can't thank my friends and family for believing in me when it could have looked like I was just wasting my time. I’m especially thankful to my mom who, without even knowing what it was, bought me an Elgato in 2016 when I couldn't afford it. Streaming was still a new concept in 2016 so I really appreciated their support. Thank you mom, dad, Evan, Kashema, Lamar, Tyler, Quan, Gramm, Nate, and so many others.

Through good and sad times, Destiny seems to be a way a lot of people find their community, and it’s really neat to hear about another one forming.
Speaking of building a community, you recently left your job to do content creation full time. How had that changed the way you play the game, create content, and interact with your community?
I did! It was a scary leap, but it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Honestly, I don't think it changed the way I play the game as much as it's allowed me to enhance what I was already doing, just putting my 100 percent info focusing on interacting with our community and making content on the game we all love. I have always wanted to see what my content could be like if I could just give it my best shot, so I am very grateful to the community for putting me in a position to do this as a job and to do what I love.
That’s really great to hear, keep on keeping on CB!
So, what type of content do you tend to focus on? Are you a PvE shepherd or a PvP no scope 360 kind of player?
For streams I mainly focus on helping players with PvE related activities! For example, I have 900 total helps for the Whisper and Zero Hour Missions. I love those missions so much, but even more than that, I love helping players cross the finish line on activities that they may have been struggling with or maybe just couldn't find players to game with. This type of content will always hold such a special place in my heart for myself and many others that I met along the way like Pause, Skarrow9, and so many others in the YouTube streaming family.
In terms of YouTube videos, we started off making helpful guides for players in the game as well as theory videos (as we would call them) where I along with Vet, Sweat, and so many others would hunt for things like Whisper of the Worm before it was out. More recently on YouTube, my focus over the past few years has been short-form content where I really just am trying to put a smile on people's faces for 60 seconds. It's mainly just a mixture of me being a goofball and trying to provide players with quick helpful information. That has kind of been my main niche for videos since Covid. I love these videos and it makes me happy to see people's reactions to them.
My next focus is on my Pokémon styled Destiny challenges, but we will talk more about that later!
Before we get to that, we have to know what your main character is, and your favorite loadout.
Titan for sure, it's been my main character since 2014.
My favorite loadout is a hard one but I'll just name some of my favorite things over the years. For armor, Lion Rampants (my babies), Twilight Garrison, and Precious Scars with the ornament to make it the tinfoil hat. (Important in our community.)
For weapons, the D1 Touch of Malice was my favorite gun in the game. Some other guns include Whisper of the Worm, Legend of Acrius in Vanilla D2, and the Duke Hand Cannon.
Alright, we’ve got a few questions left, let’s hear about the vibe of your channel for people who might want to stop by.
The vibe my channel brings is a chill escape. I try to make sure the channel feels like a place where you can just come to have a good time, feel welcomed, and not have to worry about anything else that might be going on. Just a place to hopefully leave with a smile on your face. Our community has lifted my spirits so many times that I just hope that our channel can reciprocate that for others who may need it.
Love that, truly.
What is something you wish you knew before starting Destiny?
I feel like there are things that probably could have been beneficial to know before starting Destiny, like maybe having a deeper understanding about FPS games like Halo and other games or the realm of possibilities with content creation. I genuinely didn't think I had much to offer to the community. That deterred me from starting sooner. Even to have this conversation with y’all feels like I am dreaming. So maybe if I knew what was possible, I would have started earlier. But with that being said, I'm glad I didn't know because it allowed me to follow the exact path that led me here and I wouldn't change that for the world. Also not having that much knowledge in the FPS space made for such a new and fun journey in gaming for me that felt so new.
So, I guess my actual answer is, I'm happy with what I knew.
That is a rad way to think about it. Having an understanding would have been helpful at the time, but it would have changed your experience.
So, what’s next for you and your community? Anything fun coming up or any events you are particularly excited for?
More Pokémon challenges in Destiny 2! I just recently did an ExoticDex challenge (what I call it) where I did a subathon stream where I collected all 222 obtainable Exotics in one stream! It took 16 days, but it was one of my favorite streams ever! I plan to bring more challenges like these to our community over the coming months on Twitch and YouTube side! I'm so excited and really feel a fire to try to innovate as much as and I am grateful to our community for putting me in a position to give it my all! Also, thank you to my team working behind the scenes for making that event possible.
That is absolutely wild CB. Such a neat thing to come up with.
Now having the experience that you do with Destiny, what do you want to tell any of the New Lights out there reading this?
Don't stress and play the game how you want to play it. There are so many fun memories to make in this game and that should be the focus. Everything else will fall into place as you go. Also realize that some of the friends you make in game will be friends you have for life. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be living with two people I met through Destiny, but I couldn't be happier to now share a home with Sweat and Evan. It blows my mind how much Destiny has changed all of our lives. It's just the power and magic of Destiny.
Where can people find you?

• YouTube
• Twitch
• Twitter
• Tiktok
• Instagram

Anything else you want to add?
I just need to give a big thank you to our community. I would not be having this interview without them. I want to thank you, and everyone at Bungie for creating a game and a community that has changed my life, I'm really grateful. I thank god every day that I picked up this game and got to meet all the amazing people I've gotten to meet. This game and community has saved my life. A million thank you’s wouldn't be enough. I'm grateful for the opportunity. To anyone discouraged with anything in life, follow your dreams and don't give up. Anything is truly possible with patience and persistence.
And there we have it, this week’s Community Focus. Be sure to swing by CB’s channels and give him a follow if you want to check out his content for yourself. And don’t forget to check out our Community Focus with [email protected] and Plumli. Thanks for hanging out with us!
Stay Crafty,
Sam

Hii, we reset our bedrock realm for the update, and are looking for active members to join us. We've been established for a few years. Our community will have a shopping district and nether hub. Dm me for an invite

Hello lovelies!!!
I split my order into 2 in May to receive both options for the $80 GWP options. There was a men's Givenchy cologne sample in option 2# that I gave to my husband without paying attention to the actual name. I have the cardboard cutout from order 1# for the Prada Ocean Luna or what have you. Well. Of course he just loves it, and threw the sample bottle out at work without saying anything to his loving wife about it, except that he really loved it. That was him saying, "BABE. This is awesome stuff and I'd love to have it." He is so hard to shop for, so him discovering that he likes both samples was a great boon to me. It didn't come with a cardboard cutout so I don't have that either. I can't find anything useful online.
Does anyone know and can help a friend out? It's awfully hard trying to find out what a cologne is based off of what a sample bottle looked like. Especially when you have zero experience with men's Givenchy cologne 😂😂😂
Thank you so much in advance!!

I used to play in college as a DM and would love to get back into it as a DM or a PC. Is there any groups or people who want to play near Swords ? Most people on discord play over the internet which just isn't it for me. Everything provided just need people.

I have a very nice problem, my husband will be taking me to a local yarn shop for my birthday, I don’t usually get specialty yarns and when I do, I always want to have a pattern in mind. This time I’m coming up short and can’t find a pattern that excites me.
I often make shawls and blankets, but I can’t imagine getting enough for a blanket and I already have a lot of shawls that I’ve either completed or are upcoming projects.
Does anyone have suggestions of patterns that would be great for either fingering/DK weight yarn? Thanks!

It used to be the only food I ate, I loved it so much. Now I can't have it near me without the whole thing being gone and it's so easy to purge. How to do I fix this? I miss ctg cheese. I need to have it in moderation again

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I have an older Specialized Carve Expert (link to bike below). I want to make it into a 1x as I only ever use the smaller gear in the front.
https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Specialized/Carve-Expert-Mountain-Bike-2013/1RK6
I have never used the bigger gear. I have done some research but am not sure on what all I would need to make this happen and was hoping someone on here could lay it out for me. Don't really have a shop super close by that I think could handle this so have to take matters into my own hands. I was thinking a 30T narrow-wide chainring up front and either a RD with a clutch or a chain guide to start if I can get by with that until I can get a rear derailleur with a clutch. And maybe it's not even worth doing the conversion on this bike but it's the only one I have and will have for a little while. Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

Nearly one in three Gen Zers want the government to install surveillance cameras in everyone's homes
Patrick Henry was 38 years old when he said, "Give me liberty or give me death."
#BigBrother #1984 #SurveillanceState #Communism
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/nearly_one_in_three_gen_zers_want_the_government_to_install_surveillance_cameras_in_everyones_homes.html

My normal maximum budget for any week of racing is around $400, which I am comfortable with losing should I not hit a race. While I personally do not like to lose that much any week, the only other options are to bet less money or pass the races entirely. Playing less money will cause me to far short of my monthly and/or yearly goals and not playing at all is like the saying goes "You have to be in it for any chance of winning." On big race weekends, I will budget more, not to spread out my risk anymore, but to bet more of the better races and fuller fields that comes around only so often. Good Luck and hopefully you can knock down a big score which is so much more enjoyable than trying to nickel and dime the tracks to death (never works long term).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 1: Maiden Special Weight --- Purse $90,000 --- 3 YOs & Up F&M ---- 6 Furlongs Turf:
2) Get Respect (8-1) is making her first start of the year. However, with maidens, they do not have to be the fittest a trainer can get them because most are not anywhere near their full potential until after a few races of experience. This one has 7 works for her first start this year, the first two were leg stretchers, the next four were decent and has the look of a trainer trying to get horse fit and the last work, 3 days before scheduled start, simply an exercise to keep her happy until race day. 3x5 to Storm Cat.
6) Quiescent (15-1) has started twice this year, setting the pace to the top of the stretch before tiring slightly to finish third while losing the photo finish at the wire to the Brown entry just above her, then setting the pace for a half before tiring badly in her last race which obviously her first start of year took enough conditioning out of her that she was still tire when entered back despite one average work after that first start (better known as a bounce). Now she has one good work, indicating she is not tired now and expect a rebound in this start. 5x5 to Mr. Prospector but also has a crossing influence to Never Bend through the dam line of Arch on her sire side and thru the 3rd dam, Stiff Breeze, a daughter. Fifth dam, Whirl Right, is a full sister to 1941 U.S. TC winner Whirlaway.
3) Roman Goddess (12-1) has started once this year and stumbled at the start which basically eliminated her from having any chance to impact the race. She has five more works since that effort and most of them were designed only to give her some leg stretching exercise. 4x4 to Mr. Prospector & Danzig.
10) Cindylouwho (15-1) has started 4 times this year, with 2 third place finishes in 5 furlongs grass sprints her only board finishes and the starts on dirt with little effort put into each race. She now has 3 placings in 4 lifetime attempts on grass and only needs to produce a race similar to any of them to be a major factor against these. She has what looks like two good works since her last, but both came on the Palm Meadows training track which is one of the fastest training tracks in the nation and those works are average at best. However, based off her actual races, she fits with these. 4x3 to A.P. Indy, 5(C)x5(C)x4(F) to Northern Dancer, 5x4 to Mr Prospector, 5x5 to Secretariat & Roberto.
My Risks: $8 WP 2, $5 Ex Box 2-6, $1 Tri Box 2-3-6, $.20 Super Box 2-3-6-10, $1 Super Key 2 with 3-6-10 with 3-6-10 with 3-6-10. Total Risk $42.80.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 2: Allowance --- Purse $80,000 --- 3 YOs & Up F&M NY Bred N/W $18K 1x or N/W 2 Races Lifetime --- 7 Furlongs Turf:
8) Silver Skillet (10-1) has one start this year which he chased the early pace for 6 furlongs before tiring, which is a typical first start back for most front runners after getting five months or longer break. Trainer put one easy or leg stretching type work in her since that start simply because he already saw her speed was still there in works prior to her first start back. This will be her first start on grass in her career. See a likely gate to wire effort for her against these. 5(C)x5(F)x5(F) to Mr. Prospector.
6) Lisa's Vision (8-1) has started once this year where she sat mid-pack early edge herself up to the edge of being a serious contender into the stretch before flattening out and stalling. Again, this is a typical first start back for a horse with this running style and you should expect improvement this out. Her last two efforts just before the break in races with same class, distance, and surface, she was nearing an effort to move on to the next condition or better races. Trainer has put 5 more works in her since her last effort, an easy work followed by 4 decent to good works. If she gets a little help with a pressured early pace which she did not get in her first start back, she could easily win this. Contender. 5x3 to Storm Cat.
7)Royal Dancer (12-1) has one start this year where she was eyeing the early pace as two ahead of her duel for a quarter, then the leader shook free and open a clear lead, forcing this one to pick up the chase much earlier than preferred, but then chase the loose leader to the top of the stretch before tiring after breaking from the 12th post, a slot that has very little chance to win in NY grass sprints. Trainer has put 5 more works in her since that effort, mostly leg stretching type works but a couple that could prove very helpful, including a bullet work five days before this start. She has two NY bred stakes placings on grass before she broke her maiden. Has some talent. 4(C)x5(C)x5(F)x5(F) to Northern Dancer, 5x4 to Fappiano.
1)I'mhavingamoment (5-1) has four starts this year, the first race was a state bred stakes race which she was overmatched against coming off a maiden win, then finished second and then 2 thirds after a drop down in class and a slow rise back up into condition allowance in her last start while also her first effort on grass. Has two works since that last effort, a good work followed by a decent and useful work. 5x4 to Danzig, 5x5 to Cyane, 5(C)x5(F)x5(F) to Northern Dancer. Her 5th dam is U.S. Champion Filly, Tempted, who has a stakes race named in her honor for 3 YO fillies.
My Risk: $6 WP 6, $5 Ex Box 6-8, $1 Tri Box 6-7-8, $.30 Super Box 1-6-7-8, $1 Super Key 8 with 1-6-7 with 1-6-7 with 1-6-7. Total Risk: $41.20.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 3: Pass on betting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 4: Allowance --- Purse $85,000 --- 3 YOs & Up N/W $18K 1x or N/W 2 lifetime --- 7 Furlongs:
4) Bezos (50-1) has started 4 times this year, has flashed front running speed in all of them but then tired badly. In his last start, he carried his speed further than he has all year long or since he was last in his best form. This type wins only when they can control the early pace and he looks like he found a spot where he can do just that. Most of these horses have not tried stakes races in their career but the few that have has done so against young 2 YOs or 3 YOs, except this one when he set the pace in a G3 and a listed stake race against proven older horses. In addition, he will carry light race in the field due to his jockey receiving a 7 lbs. apprentice break. May seen foolish but will take a shot with this one with the speed to top of the stretch angle I have used successful plenty of times.
9) Twelth Man (6-1) has started three times this year with a second in his first start his only board finish this year. However, his current form cycle began with his last start last year after a 7-month break and he returned in close to same physical form as when he was stopped on. After a couple of pretty good efforts, he had a couple of not so good efforts. He is working on his third race since a good effort, and this is an angle I read about years ago that suggested betting horses back in their third start after a win if next two starts were not as good as his winning effort, but tweaked this angle to include all horses that gave a solid effort because it worked more often that way and with higher odds than the third race after a win.
2) Shipsational (15-1) has started 4 times this year with a second in his third start back as his only board finish this year. Next two races were poor and would normally be enough to consider a horse has tailed off his best form. But he has 5 works since that last effort, all of them decent to good that were also likely very useful. His current form cycle began in October last year when he came off almost a 7 month break after a second and third effort in a G2 & G3 stake races that obviously knocked him off his best form.
My Risks: $5 Ex Box 4-9, $1 Tri Box 2-4-9, $2 Quinella 2-4, $2 Quinella 4-9. Total Risk $20.00.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 5: Poker Stakes(G3) --- Purse $200,000 --- 4 YOs & Up ---- One Mile Turf:
3) Mackinnon (15-1) is making his first start of the year. Has six works to prepare for this start but also a trainer that brings his trainees back in top form often. 4x5 to Storm Cat.
1)Chez Pierre (1-1) threw easily a career best in last. A bounce candidate for sure. Under no circumstance would I accept 1-1 odds or less on a horse whose biggest win in the U.S. before his last race was a listed stake and has shown he is vulnerable against this class.
5) Anaconda (8-1) looks in best shape of the rest in a weak field for a G3 stakes race.
My Risk: $8 Exacta Straight 3-1, $1 Tri Box 1-3-5, $6 Tri Straight 3-1-5. Total Risk $20.00.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 6: Brooklyn Stakes(G2) --- Purse $250,000 ---- 4 YOs & Up --- 1 1/2 Miles:
6) Forewarned (20-1) has five starts with one win and one third his placings this year. I normally try to find horses that run late in these marathon type races, and he looks like he maybe can though this far is a question mark for him like every other horse in this field.
11) Code Runner (50-1) was originally trained by Asmussen and showed a little ability but not enough to impact graded stakes races. Horse was eventually put in hands of a trainer that has shown no ability or idea of how to properly prepare or get a horse fit. So, his race record looks much worse than it should and in a race like this, anything can and usually does happen.
9) Calibrate (10-1) won a stakes race at this distance two back while finishing in front of a couple of these, then was kept wide by the jockey throughout in his last start when beaten by several of these (per equibase footnotes). Switch of trainers and two good works since his last start. Which one will show up today? Guess right and you could make a decent score.
7) Warrant (5-2) won his last start under a drive after stalking and putting only front runner away heading into the stretch. Will likely have more pace to run at in here, so if jockey times his move slightly later, he will have a better chance of holding the late runners safe. A move a little early, like his last, likely results in a board finish only. 3 works since his last start, an easy leg stretching type work followed by two good works suggests he will be antsy to go earlier than usual.
My Risks: $4 Exacta Box 6-11, $1 Tri Box 6-9-11, $.30 Super Box 6-7-9-11. Total Risk $21.20. (a wild guess).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 7: Ogden Phipps S(G1) --- Purse $500,000 --- 4 YOs & Up F&M ---- 1 1/16 Mile:
1)Pass The Champagne (8-1) ran a monster type race when just getting caught at the wire by the eventual Ky Oaks winner in the Ashland Stakes in her very first start against winners two years ago. However, that race not only knock her off form, but she needed almost a year off after a dull effort in the Oaks, then won an O/C race in her only start before taking another year break. A typical scenario of being asked to do too much too soon. She has four starts this year but in her last start, she suggested she has returned to her best form. Two useful works since her last start and she is sitting on go. 3x4 to Mr. Prospector, 4(C)x5(C)x5(C) to Northern Dancer.
4) Secret Oath (2-1) has started three times this year, winning her first start and then just missing in both of her next two starts, finishing 2nd in each race. Her Ky Oaks win remains her only G1 triumph through she has placed 2nd or 3rd in six more G1 races, all in her last 10 starts. 4x3 to Fappiano, 5(C)x5(C)x4(F) to Mr. Prospector.
2) Search Results (4-1) has started once this year and finishing third after trying the length of the stretch to get by the top two with no results. She has three works since that start, a good work followed by two useful works. Complete outcross in her first five generations. However, 8th dam, Iron Maiden, a daughter of War Admiral, produced 1957 Ky Derby winner Iron Liege and is 2nd dam of 1955 Ky Derby winner, Swaps.
6) Clairiere (6-5) has started twice this year, finishing second in the first start and then turning the tables on that rival in their next start. Both again shows up for the next major test for older females and either one could win without it being a major shock. She has 5 works since her last start, 2 easy leg stretching type works followed by two good and useful works and then another leg stretching type work 6 days before scheduled start. 3x4 to Mr. Prospector, 5x5 to Northern Dancer.
My Risks $5 Ex Box 1-4, $1 Tri Box 1-2-4, $3 Tri Key 1 with 2-4 with 2-4, $2 Super Key 1 with 2-4-6 with 2-4-6 with 2-4-6. Total Risk $34.00.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 8: Woody Stephens Stakes(G1) --- Purse $400,000 --- 3 YOs ---- 7 Furlongs:
2) Gun Pilot (20-1) has started five times this year with 1 win and 2 seconds his best finish. In his last start, lasix was removed from him for the second time and for the second time he ran a flat race, especially in the stretch but this time it was an even race where his late kick was missing. It will be interesting to see what he does when lasix is remove for the second race in a row for the first time of his career. He has four works since that start, an easy leg stretching work followed by 2 bullet 5 furlongs works then another blowout type work 5 days before his scheduled start. Sire, Gun Runner, was a late developer mostly because he was thrown against top competition that set him back a few months, but trainer has brought this one along more slowly and waiting for the light to click on for him. 4x3 to Storm Cat, 4x4 to Quiet American, 5(C)x5(C)x5(F) to Fappiano. His 5th dam, Ocean's Answer, is a full sister to Storm Bird who developed her own important line and is named a Reine-de-Course mare because of her influence on the breed.
13) Drew's Gold (8-1) has started four times in his career, winning all 4 starts, including 3 this year. Now, he will get the acid test to find out just how good he might be. Many of you probably do not know this trainer, but he started his training career in Southern California and a few years later was sending horses back & forth to compete in Florida and California. But he, like several others, closed their California barns due to workers compensation laws that cause many good barns to struggle, then practically disappeared for a decade before resurfacing again in Kentucky & then NY. He has one workout since his last start, a bullet work 10 days before scheduled start. Contender. 5x4 to Storm Bird, 5x5 to Northern Dancer, Secretariat, & Blushing Groom. His dam line traces back to La Troienne which simply means this is a dam line influenced by Domino as 10 of her 11 daughters and one son was bred to Domino line sires.
11) Victory Formation (10-1) has started 3 times this year, winning a listed stakes in his first start followed by a poor effort in a G2 stakes race and then leading until deep stretch before finishing 3rd in another listed stakes. However, if you look at the distance of all three races (1 mile, 1 1/8 mile and 1 1/8) and then you look at his dam line, you will see his problem. His 2nd dam is a daughter of a solid sprinter and good sprinting sire, 4th dam, White Jasmine, is a granddaughter of Crimson Satan and his 6th dam, Sister Satan, is a 1/2 sister to Crimson Satan. Crimson Satan hails from the Domino sire line who was best known by how fast he was sprinting. He has four works since his last start, the first two good works followed by 2 decent works where trainer looked intent on trying to get him to rate by slowing his works down, something he did for the first time. 5x3 to Mr. Prospector, 5x5 to In Reality, 5(C)x5(C)x5(F) to Seattle Slew.
4) General Jim (7-2) has started three times this year, finishing unplaced in his first start though blocked most of the stretch run, then winning his next two starts in a G3 and then a G2 stakes races. He has three works since his last start, a leg stretching type work, then a good work, followed by another leg stretching type work six days before scheduled start. Looks as ready as any in here to me. Outcross in his first 5 generations but has plenty of Mr. Prospector & Northern Dancer influences on both sides.
My Risks: $5 Ex Box 2-13, $1 Tri Box 2-11-13, $.30 Super Box 2-4-11-13, $1 Super Key 13 with 2-4-11 with 2-4-11 with 2-4-11. Total Risks $29.20.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 9: Jaipur Stakes (G1) --- Purse $400,000 ---- 3 YOs & Up --- 6 Furlongs Turf:
5) Dr, Zempf (8-1) has started twice this year with his first start being a win in an O/C race on a GP turf course that played much faster this year than normal. Then tried G1 stakes company in his next out, set most of the pace to the top of the stretch before tiring at one mile on Keeneland's grass course. Believe he will enjoy the cutback to 6 furlongs. 3x4 to Machiavellian but sire line and broodmare sire line flows back into Northern Dancer.
13) Front Run The Fed (30-1) has started once this year in an allowance race, was near the back early, then started his rally soon after a half was complete and came with a rush in the stretch and was up and clear in time for the win. Has two leg stretching type works since that start. The stretch-out to six furlongs should suit him even more but will need to avoid trouble for best opportunity. 4x4 to Rahy, 4x5 to Mr. Prospector, 5x5 to Roberto.
10) Big Invasion (6-1) has two starts this year, winning his first start in a listed stakes at 5F on grass, then finishing unplaced in a G2 stakes race at 5 1/2 furlongs on grass but had trouble near the eight pole that likely caused him a better finish. Has 2 decent and useful works since his last start. 5x4 to Mr. Prospector. His 5th dam, Really Blue, is an unraced full sister to 1969 G1 Ky Derby & Preakness winner Majestic Prince and 2nd dam of 1998 Ky Derby & Preakness winner, Real Quiet.
6) Ice Chocolat (30-1) has three starts this year, the first to at 5 1/2 furlongs on grass and he finished unplaced in both of them, then switched to the AWT and stretched out to six furlongs when he edged closer to the leaders in the stretch run but a closing late kick was lacking. Now his fourth start of the year and one good work since his last start should help him find that needed punch late. 4(C)x5(C)x5(F) to Northern Dancer, 5(C)x4(F)x 4(F) to Mr. Prospector, 5x5 to Special.
My Risk $5 Ex Box 5-13, $ 1 Tri Box 5-10-13, $.30 Super Box 5-6-10-13, $1 Super Key 5 with 6-10-13 with 6-10-13 with 6-10-13. Total Risk $29.20.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 10: Metropolitan H(G1) --- Purse $1,000,000 --- 3 YOs & Up One Mile:
6) Zandon (5-1) has started once this year and finished second in what obviously trainer considered a prep for this start. The total purse for that race was $175K and no real help in raising a stallion's value, the purse for this race is $1M along with a likely raise in a stallion's value. He has three decent to good works since that effort and follows exactly the type of works he put in the horse before that race. 4x5 to Mr. Prospector.
2) Slow Down Andy (10-1) is making his first start of the year. He has 8 works to prepare for this start, the first 2 blowout type 3 furlongs works followed by 3 4 furlongs works that were simply leg stretching type works then a good 5 furlongs work and 2 good six furlongs works, none of them too fast to suggest he may leave his race in his works but not too slow to get no help from them. For reference, you can look how he brought Goldencents back off a 7-month break after winning the previous year BC Dirt Mile and finished 2nd to Palace Malice in the Met Mile. The favorite beat him last year in the BC Dirt Mile but his trip in the race (stumbled at the start, then became rank when rushed) before heading to biggest race of his life was a major reason why and usually knocks top horses off their best form. 5x4 to Mr. Prospector.
1)Cody's Wish (7-5) has made one start this year and made it a decisive win in a G1 stakes but everything in there were not of G1 quality except him which made an average win look like a romp. These are much tougher and trainer is acting concerned by how fast he has worked the horse since that race. 3 blistering fast works. Normally, horses that works this hard in works are tosses for me but I have not seen Mott put these types of works into his trainees in decades (thought he learned the hard way that super-fast works rarely works). He might run away and hide but the opposite happens way more than not. Am using caution. 3(C)x5(F)x5(F) to Mr. Prospector.
My Risks: $5 Ex Box 2-6, $3 Tri Straight 2-6 with 2-6 with 1, $5 Tri Key 6 with 1-2 with 1-2. Total Risk $26.00.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 11: Manhattan Stakes(G1) --- Purse $750,000 --- 4 YOs & Up --- 1 1/4 Mile Turf:
3) Warren Point (5-1) has one start in the U.S. this year where he was near the back early closed with a rush and taking a brief lead into the stretch before hanging and dropping back to fifth at 3-5 at 1 3/8 mile on the grass. Horse has shown he would much prefer the 1 1/4M distance as all 4 of his grass wins have come at that distance and his one 1 1/2-mile win was on the AWT. He has three works since that start, a leg stretching type work on dirt followed by two bullet works on grass around the dogs. 4x4 to Mr. Prospector, 5x5 to Northern Dancer, but also has a crossing to Never Bend through his grandsons Shirley Heights and Irish River.
10) Highest Honors (20-1) has one start this year where he was near the back early, was in a grind mold throughout the race but never really reach serious contention to finish 4th. Trainer has put 11 works in him, the first 5 works a little faster than he normally puts into his trainees, then gave the horse 13 days before returning to the work tab for six more weekly works, all of them good and decent though again faster than what he usually asks from his trainees. Likely as ready as he can be without a race in between some of these works. 4(C)x5(C)x4(F) to Mr. Prospector, 5x3 to Northern Dancer.
5) Soldier Rising (12-1) has one start this year where he sat mid-pack early, then eased back to last nearing the far turn while he waited for others to offer their best move, then came with a rush down the stretch to finish 2nd though no threat to winner who got away while he waited. Has 2 works since that race, a bullet work followed by a leg stretching work 6 days before scheduled start, both on grass around the dogs. 3x4 to Sadler's Wells & Danehill, 4(C)x5(C)x5(F)x5(F) to Northern Dancer, 5x5 to Special.
1)So High (50-1) has three starts this year and has not placed yet this year though he has carry his speed to the top of the stretch in each race. This race is lacking on front runners who has shown ability to beat good horses but this one will likely be the last one to stop. He has run respectable in a G1 stakes race last year at 1 3/8 miles but was never going to beat Channel Cat who won several big G1 grass stakes in his career. 4x5 to Northern Dancer, 5x5 to Northern Dancer.
My Risks: $5 Ex Box 3-10, $1 Tri Box 3-5-10, $.20 Super Box 1-3-5-10, $.60 Super Key 3 with 1-5-10 with 1-5-10 with 1-5-10, $6 Super Straight 3-10-5-1. Total Risk $30.00.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 12: Belmont Stakes(G1) --- $1,500,000 --- 3 YOs --- 1 1/2 Mile:
1)Tapit Shoes (20-1) Has three starts this year, the first two in o/c races where he finished 4th, then 3rd and then finished 2nd (by a head) in a stakes race at OP that offered an all fees paid to the winner to enter the Preakness S. But before that start, trainer had him under consideration for a start in the Blue Grass S by working him three times at Keeneland including on the day of the race but opted to wait while he tried to qualify Verifying for the derby. He worked again on Lexington Stakes Day which suggests that race was also under consideration before deciding on the race he did race in. Since that near miss, he has 4 more good works and this horse is sitting on a big effort. 4(C)x5(C)x5(F)x5(F) to Mr. Prospector but has a Seattle Slew crossing in the sire line and as grandsire of the 4th dam, Trithenia.
7) Hit Show (10-1) has started three times this year, winning a G3 stakes in his first start, then missing a G2 win by a nose when second followed by a fifth in the Ky Derby after getting caught in the melee near the rail turning into the stretch. Has three works since that start, a leg stretching type work followed by a good work and them another leg stretching type work one week before scheduled start. 4x5 to Fappiano, 5x5 to Mr. Prospector.
8) Angel Of Empire (7-2) has three starts this year, finishing 2nd in a listed stakes then winning his next 2 starts in a G2 and a G1 stakes races following by a fast closing third in the Ky Derby. He has three works since his last start, a useful work followed by two very good works but not too fast that it takes anything out of him. 4x5 to Miswaki, 5x4 to Mr. Prospector.
3) Tapit Thrice (3-1) has 4 starts this year, winning his first three starts in an o/c race, then a G3 win followed by a G1 win. In his last start in the Ky Derby, he was never able to get involved because his Blue Grass win caused him to use to much fitness trying to catch a speed type on Keeneland's notorious speed favoring track. A blunder his trainer makes almost every year that has caused him several derby wins. He has three works since that race, a useful one followed by a good work and then a leg stretching type work one week before scheduled start. 3x4 to A.P. Indy & Unbridled.
My Risks: $5 Ex Box 1-7, $1 Tri Box 1-7-8, $4 Tri Key 1 with 7-8 with 7-8, $.30 Super Box 1-3-7-8, $1 Super Key 1 with 3-7-8 with 3-7-8 with 3-7-8. Total Risk $37.20.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 13: Allowance --- Purse $80,000 ---- 3 YOs & Up NY Bred N/W $18K 1x or N/W 2 Lifetime --- 1 1/16 Mile Turf:
9) Curly Larry And Mo (8-1) has started three times this year and has not placed. However, all three starts came against open bred and he should relish the return to NY bred foes. He has no works since his last race but expect him to set the early pace and play a catch me if you can game, much like he did in last year's one mile BC Juvenile Turf S. Complete outcross in his first 5 generations but has a Caro crossing in the sire line and in the broodmare sire line as sire of the dam of Maria's Mon, who is the broodmare sire. Also has Crafty Admiral influence through Danzig and Crafty Admiral himself as the sire of the 4th dam, Won't Tell You, dam of Affirmed.
6) Mighty Atlas (30-1) has started twice this year, the first in a state bred o/c race where he trailed for a half mile then put in a run to get into contention into the stretch but could not chase down the gate to wire winner at one mile on dirt. Next start was in a state bred allowance, also at one mile on dirt, he never got involved after two works just before that race were on the dull side also, indicating he regressed slightly off that first effort. Now has two more works since his last start, a good work followed by a leg stretching but useful work and will now make the first grass start of his career. Good shot at upsetting this field. 5x2 to Capote with crossing help from the influential broodmare Alanesian.
8) Barrel Of Quests (15-1) has started twice this year, the first which he made a move to get into contention going into the far turn but had no further response in his first start in seven months in an open bred condition allowance race, as should be expected. He then shipped back to NY and was entered in a state bred allowance and cut back to a mile on grass when he ran an even race but again had no response in the stretch run. Will likely keep moving forward and is not far off his best race, so any improvement off his last likely results in a board finish. Complete outcross in his first 5 generations but has plenty of Domino blood on both sides of pedigree.
2) Let's Go Big Blue (4-1) will be making his first start of the year. However, last year, hew broke his maiden in his first start, then his next three starts came against open bred stakes horses, and he held his own in the first two before by far the worst race of his career when blinkers were added. That last experience did not help, and trainer will remove the blinkers for this start, and he will go with first time lasix. He has six works for this start, the first 4 were leg stretching type works followed by 2 good works. Will be tough to deny if he comes back anywhere close to the fitness he had when he took a break. 4x4 to Al Hattab.
My Risks: $5 Ex Box 6-9, $1 Tri Box 6-8-9, $.30 Super Box 2-6-8-9, $1 Super Key 6 with 2-8-9 with 2-8-9 with 2-8-9. Total Risk $29.20.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Race 5 $3 Triple Play: 3 with 5-10 with 3-10. Total Risk $12.00
Race 7 $1 P6: 1 with 2 with 5,10 with 2,6 with 3 with 1,7. Total Risk $8.00.
Race 8 $.50 Mandatory P5: 2 with 5,10, with 2,6 with 3,10 with 1,7. Total Risk $8.00.
Race 9 $.50 Late P5: 5,10 with 6 with 3 with 1,7,8 with 2,6,9. Total Risk $9.00.
Total Risks All Bets: $397.00.

You may be used to seeing headlines extolling the tax revenue of Cannabis in recent years[1][2][3]. Cannabis sales generated billions in revenue for states over the last few years, and the states have put the revenue of those sales into different social programs like education or racial equity funds. This makes it seem like the legal cannabis markets are thriving in these states, but I'm here to tell you that some of these markets are actively collapsing
In California, the state approaches new dispensary licensing as "may-issue". You are not guaranteed a license, and whether or not you can open a dispensary in your area is also up to the municipality. The lack of licenses has made it difficult for MSOs (Multi-State Operators) who operate at a more efficient economic scale to get a foothold in the market. As a result, some MSOs have willingly exited the California market (the largest cannabis market in the United States) entirely[4][5]. The lack of licenses and high excise tax (15% in California), the burden of which is placed on cash-strapped retailers, has made it difficult for legal retailers to compete with a still-thriving illegal market:[6]

Voters passed a law in November 2016 making recreational marijuana legal. But today, the vast majority of the market remains underground – about 80-90% of it, according to experts
...
In the places that do allow pot shops and grows, business owners say high taxes, the limited availability of licenses, and expensive regulatory costs have put the legal market out of reach. And many of the Black and brown entrepreneurs who were supposed to benefit from legalization have actually ended up losing money. Meanwhile, consumers remain confused about what’s legal and what’s not.

This is compounded by a political culture in California which is afraid of enforcing the law on the illicit market. In Michigan, similar pressures have led to a collapse in prices which has affected growers[7]:

The industry has, for the past year or so, tried to sidestep the oversupply issue by pointing to illegal marijuana making it into the legal market.
The theory is that mass amounts of distillate, used in making vapes and edibles, is being shipped in from out of state at a steep discount and finding its way to store shelves. The other gripe is that marijuana grown by individuals is finding its way into retailers and growers without being entered into the state's tracking system.

Because it has proven historically near-impossible to enforce marijuana laws in the United States, the illegal market continues to out-compete to legal market at every level (retail, distribution, growing). States have responded not by increasing enforcement or deregulating, but by doubling down on restricting supply. San Francisco, in order to prevent the market from lowering its prices to compete with the illicit market, has recently announced that it will not issue any new licenses until 2028 [8]:

“If there is a continued illicit market and a continued saturation, many of these businesses that we’ve put effort and energy into won’t survive,” said board member Ahsha Safai, who wrote the moratorium bill.
Safai said that roughly 60% of the cannabis trade in San Francisco is illicit and that stalling new licenses will help the existing businesses stabilize.

It seems San Francisco will try anything other than enforcing the law or deregulating. Growers in California have also suffered from increased regulation[9]:

As a result, the state is now awash in tax revenue, much of it from the industrial-scale farmers and retailers, and in marijuana, a market glut that has gutted wholesale prices and left farmers such as Barber unable to break even. The state rules and omissions have also empowered a still-thriving black market for marijuana — once a chief target of state regulators — whose growers sell their product illegally across state borders and still fetch a lucrative price.

The net result of the collapsing cannabis market is that Cannabis tax revenue has slightly decreased between 2021 and 2022[10]:

“In addition to the persisting illicit market and plummeting wholesale prices, extreme delays in local licensing have been cited as a cause for the decline,” the report said.

In summary, the pressures on the California market (and other states) are almost entirely government-imposed. Growers and retailers would benefit from wholesale deregulation. I believe the following measures should be taken:

1. Issue an unlimited number of licenses to whoever complies with health and safety regulations. Become a will-issue state instead of a may-issue state
   
2. Remove the excise tax on marijuana and charge the regular state sales tax. Slash taxes between growers, distributors, and retailers, where as much as 40% of the value is captured by the state [11]
   
3. Regulations on cannabis sales and growing should only cover product quality and safety. Cannabis should be tested for THC levels to guarantee a high quality product (which is another issue in many states)
   

Of course, it should be said that the largest threat the the cannabis market is federal regulation, where cannabis is still considered to be more dangerous than cocaine. Federal banking and tax regulations continue to prevent cannabis retailers from accepting credit card payments and requiring them to operate entirely through cash transactions, many still unable to use even debit card transactions.
Cannabis retailers are also unable to take advantage of many tax breaks available to other businesses, such as writing off the cost of marketing expenses on their yearly taxes. This has ripple effects on other businesses (such ad advertising companies) which serve the cannabis market, but don't directly sell cannabis themselves.
Passing the SAFE Banking act[12] would legitimize these businesses at the federal level and lead to economic growth on the sidelines of the cannabis industry as well by allowing them to take advantage of these tax incentives.
References
[1] California cannabis tax revenue totals more than $200M in first quarter of 2023
[2] Colorado Earned $423 Million In Marijuana Tax Revenue Last Year
[3] Michigan reaps $271M total marijuana revenue
[4] Trulieve to Shutter Operations in Massachusetts, California
[5] Curaleaf Announces Closure of Operations in California, Colorado and Oregon
[6] California legalized weed five years ago. Why is the illicit market still thriving?
[7] A Reefer Recession? The forces behind Michigan’s plummeting cannabis prices
[8] No New Cannabis Business Licenses in San Francisco Until 2028
[9] The casualties of California legalizing pot: Growers who went legal
[10] Adult-Use Cannabis Delivers $15 Billion in Tax Revenues
[11] How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart
[12] SAFE Banking Act

Nearly one in three Gen Zers want the government to install surveillance cameras in everyone's homes
Patrick Henry was 38 years old when he said, "Give me liberty or give me death."
#BigBrother #1984 #SurveillanceState #Communism
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/nearly_one_in_three_gen_zers_want_the_government_to_install_surveillance_cameras_in_everyones_homes.html

Hi all, I’m 24 transbian from Bangkok Thailand, 2 years into HRT, pre-op.
I am really anxious about an upcoming event tomorrow evening which is basically an extremely rare lesbian-only event that is being hosted near me. Lesbian bars and clubs dont exist here so for a clubbing event like this to happen was something I thought I couldn’t miss.
I have already bought the entry ticket to the event since last month and invited 3 sapphic friends to join me. All was going to plan until all three of them cancelled on me 3 days before the event for frankly very disappointing reasons (they forgot etc). In my head, I was reassured because I would have friends to enjoy my time with while also feeling somewhat safe (like I have friends who could pull me out of situations in case something goes south), but now since none of them are coming and I don’t have anybody else to go with, I’m freaking out.
Now, Thailand, and Bangkok in particular, is very LGBTQ+ friendly, and according to many friends and strangers I meet, I pass very well. The only true downside is that I haven’t trained my voice well enough to use for long extended periods of time (not exactly stealth). Also, I know many sapphic friends internationally that are very okay with who I am - in fact, I never have faced problems online regarding discrimination/harassment from sapphics regarding being a transbian myself. However, I don’t actually know if Thai sapphics think the same (are okay with transbians) because I have been studying overseas all my life and only came back within the last decade, and that transbians are extremely rare here (I have yet to find anyone else like me, and there is no Thai content online regarding Thai transbians at all).
As a result l, I have this possibly irrational fear of getting discriminated at the event with nobody to back me up in case it does happen. I’m genuinely scared but a part of me also knows this is an event in which I could have the opportunity to make new connections if things turn out well, and maybe enjoy myself too.
What do you all think? Should I still go? Am I really overthinking things? What are your honest opinions? Do you have any advice for me, whether on how to calm down when anxious or any tips when I am at the event?)
All thoughts and responses are welcome 🥺💜