1. >**What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.**
2. *Mainly Valorant at a high level, CSGO, Fortnite, GTA as a casual
3. >**What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?**
4. *1,300$ could upgrade if any significant performance boost
5. >**When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.**
6. * Next few weeks
7. >**What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc\)**
8. Everything but the monitor mouse and keyboard
9. >**Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?**
10. * USA - North Carolina. And no microcenter near me.
11. >**If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.**
12. * Not reusing any parts
13. >**Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?**
14. * Maybe overcloking down the line but not in a extreme way. GPU and CPU
15. >**Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)**
16. * Minimum of 1TB ssd would be appreciated
17. >**Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?**
18. * would prefer a mid tower and color doesnt really matter as long if is not flashy
19. >**Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?**
20. * Windows 10 PRO
21. >**Extra info or particulars:**

Please keep an open mind after all no one knows what’ll actually happen
1.01 CAR: C.J. Stroud, QB Ohio State
Despite the current lack of receiving talent, Carolina is a team ready to compete right now. They were active in free agency, signing Miles Sanders, Vonn Bell, Hayden Hurst, Bradley Bozeman, and Shy Tuttle, among others. They’ll need to find more WRs, but it feels like the main core is here now. Stroud is tall and accurate, with a good blend of poise and playmaking ability. He’s pro-ready. New QB coach Josh McCown raved about Stroud on Underdog Fantasy’s channel before he was hired in Carolina, and compared Stroud to Joe Burrow. My gut feeling is that they prefer Stroud.
1.02 HOU: Bryce Young, QB Alabama
IND Receives: 1.03 ARI Receives: 1.04, 3.79, 2024 Rd4
1.03 IND: Anthony Richardson, QB Florida
The Colts are in a dangerous position behind the Cardinals who could very well trade the 3rd overall pick to a QB needy team. I have the Colts playing it safe and jumping up one spot. I would love to see Richardson with the coach that helped turn a total project QB in Jalen Hurts into MVP runner up. Obviously Hurts himself had the most to do with that, but if Indianapolis is confident Richardson will put in the work to learn, they should absolutely take him. At the very least Steichen and Richardson would turn the Colts into a top 5 rushing attack in football, at best Richardson turns into a shiftier Hurts with a more powerful arm. Scary to think about. The Colts are one of the only teams reportedly interested in signing Lamar Jackson, which almost certainly will not actually happen, but it goes to show that Steichen is justifiably very interested in that mobile QB archetype.
1.04 ARI: Will Anderson Jr, ED Alabama
With Jalen Carter’s stock falling fast, Anderson might be the only real blue chip player in this class. Anderson also happens to fill a position of dire need for Arizona, as their current best defensive lineman is probably Cameron Thomas? The 87th overall pick last season. It’s bleak. Theres not much to say other than they need help on the DLine and Anderson happens to be the best player for that.
1.05 SEA: Tyree Wilson, ED Texas Tech
The Seahawks sorely need talent on their defensive line. Late in the season, Seattle’s run defense totally fell apart, prompting Pete Carroll to remark that the defensive issues were “killing him.” Seattle allowed the most rushing yards in the league from week 12 onward. Tyree Wilson is a long, powerful edge rusher from Texas Tech who was productive stopping the run and rushing the passer despite his technical flaws. Wilson is a 6’6 freak of nature and it sounds like some teams may even have him above Will Anderson on their boards; with all the bad press Jalen Carter has gotten recently, it’s not unthinkable that Wilson is selected ahead of Carter, despite the talent gap.
1.06 DET: Jalen Carter, DL Georgia
Selecting Carter is getting riskier and riskier, but he may be too talented to pass up here. Detroit had an explosive offense, but the defense couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain. Detroit desperately needs a difference maker next to Alim McNeill inside. Houston and Hutchinson were a productive edge duo last year, and with the complete overhaul in the secondary, DT is the most glaring need on the defense. Detroit seems to have the strongest culture in the league. Maybe they could help Carter get back on track. It could very well be a worthy gamble. Carter is the best player in the draft.
1.07 LV: Christian Gonzalez, CB Oregon
Aside from Nate Hobbs, this CB room does not have a reliable corner. The Raiders aren’t afraid to play some aggressive man coverage. Vegas doesn’t really have the personnel to play this way though, as they were 30th in the league in EPA/pass attempt. Gonzalez is a fantastic corner prospect with easy long speed and elite change of direction ability. His extreme versatility + a healthy Nate Hobbs could help Patrick Graham’s vision come to life.
1.08 ATL: Devon Witherspoon, CB Illinois
Atlanta needs more help in that secondary. AJ Terrell is a top corner, but one side of the field being locked up doesn’t help much when offenses can just throw somewhere else. Atlanta was still the second worst defense in the league vs the pass, allowing +0.11 EPA/dropback. He measured in pretty small at only 181 pounds with a 73 inch wingspan, and on tape he doesn’t necessarily look like a top top tier athlete. However, it’s tough to argue with the results. Witherspoon was as lockdown as it gets in 2022, allowing a 25 passer rating when targeted. He’s physical with a great burst coming downhill and outstanding ball skills.
1.09 CHI: Paris Johnson Jr, T Ohio State
It seems like the Bears believe in Fields as their guy. Johnson Jr had experience playing guard and tackle at Ohio State. He could play right guard year one, move to tackle later, all while working with the best offensive line coach in the world. He’s very raw, so he’ll need time, but he has the perfect frame and the movement skills to match. He could be the next great Eagles tackle with the right development. The Eagles hosted Paris Johnson with one of their top 30 visits, so there is interest here.
NE Receives: 1.10 PHI Receives: 1.14, 3.76
1.10 NE: Peter Skoronski, T Northwestern
The projected starting tackles for New England are Riley Reiff and Trent Brown. With many teams needing Olinemen ahead of them, it could be a good idea to trade up to get your guy. Brown has some right tackle experience if you want to keep Skoronski at his college position of left tackle. Skoronski could also be a guard, which could help in the future. Many are concerned about his small arms, but here’s a direct quote from legendary New England offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia about arm length. “that shit is overrated.” Skoronski is a flexible and intelligent tackle prospect and if you can stomach the short arms, I assume he’d be high on your board. Scarneccia is retired now, but I’m sure his philosophies still matter in New England.
1.11 TEN: Broderick Jones, T Georgia
The Titans sorely need to create some displacement in the running game. NextGenStats has them allowing 1.17 yards before contact, 25th in the league. Derrick Henry was running into brick walls snap after snap, especially towards the end of the season. Henry isn’t the type of runner who can really make guys miss in the backfield. The line isn’t looking any better post free agency. Dillard-Radunz-Brewer-Brunskill-Petit Frier isn’t moving anybody. Jones has a five star, SEC pedigree with ideal size, good footwork, and a nasty streak. He can help build up this really bad line.
1.12 HOU: Quentin Johnston, WR TCU
With the recent trade of Brandin Cooks the Texans don't really have a surefire number one receiver. They brought in a Shanahan guy with DeMeco Ryans, that means monster skill position players. I’m more sure Addison and JSN will end up being good pros, but Johnston has the ability to take a slant to the house, or take the top off the defense, opening up space for crossing routes. With hardly any starter worthy receivers, picking one here is probably necessary.
GB Receives: 1.13, 4.112, WR Elijah Moore NYJ Receives: QB Aaron Rodgers, 5.149
1.13 GB: Lukas Van Ness, ED Iowa
Smith, Van Ness, Gary, and Clark would be a great group with so many different skill sets, body types, and versatility there. The knock on Van Ness is his pass rush plan. He has one! But it’s only one. Bull rush bullrush bull rush. Van Ness is just a power rusher at this point, but I’ve seen flashes of high level coordination with his hands, and he’s just so strong.
1.14 PHI: Myles Murphy, ED Clemson
With the resigning's of both star cornerbacks Darius Slay and James Bradberry, CB is no longer a position of need at pick 10 or in this case, 14. Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox are getting old and are due to regress sooner than later. I think NFL teams will be higher on Murphy than the draft community seems to be. At 270 pounds with plenty of explosiveness off the line, Murphy has a lot of potential as a power rusher and the frame that would fit with what the team likes.
1.15 GB: Dalton Kincaid, TE Utah
After letting Tonyan walk in free agency they have no answer at tight end. Kincaid is probably the best tight end on the board, a smooth runner with soft hands and a lightning quick transition from catcher to runner. Jordan Love will be under a lot of pressure and it's best to give him as much help as possible. Kincaid is too wiry to be a great inline blocker, which may hurt his case a bit. Although he does give good effort there so he could always line up in that spot
1.16 WSH: Will Levis, QB Kentucky
The Commanders are currently rolling into the NFC East, where 3/4 teams made the playoffs last season, with Sam Howell and Jacoby Brissett. Brissett played fine last year, but is he enough to avoid the basement of this division? That might not be a bet Rivera can afford to make. If he is here at 16, they should sprint to the podium. Will Levis played in a pro-style system in college, has easy arm strength, some mobility, and great toughness. Eric Bieniemy helped harness Patrick Mahomes’ raw talent, and Levis’s down 2022 is somewhat reminiscent of Justin Herbert’s situation his last year at Oregon. I doubt front offices are this low on him but maybe this can work.
1.17 PIT: Joey Porter Jr, CB Penn State
The Steelers let recent breakout CB Cam Sutton walk in free agency to the Lions. In return they signed 32 year old Patrick Peterson. While the signing isn't terrible it likely won't last long. Joey Porter Jr to Pittsburgh feels like such an ideal fit. After all, he is the son of former Steelers LB, Joey Porter. Porter’s wingspan is over 80 inches long, putting him in the 97th percentile for cornerbacks. He is exactly the kind of player to be lining up opposite Peterson. His length, speed, and play strength scream Steeler, it would be hard to pass on him.
1.18 DET: Deonte Banks, CB Maryland
With both Jeff Okudah and Moseley in the final year of their contracts, the Lions could use this opportunity to draft an elite-level corner without feeling the need to rush him to the field. Banks only allowed a 43.3% completion rate in coverage last year and crushed the combine. He’s 6’0 with 4.3 speed and a 42 inch vertical. Easy first round CB who could very well go higher than this.
1.19 TB: Brian Branch, S Alabama
Although offensive line is probably the biggest need, Tampa simply doesn’t have many functional defensive backs under contract. Branch is more of a nickel/box safety than someone who’s going to be ranging over the top, but he has great instincts to cover up his zones and the movement ability to mirror slot receivers in man. As long as Bowles is in charge, you may be asked to line up anywhere and do anything on any given snap. Branch feels like a good fit.
NYG Receives: 1.20 SEA Receives: 1.25, 3.89
1.20 NYG: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR Ohio State
The Giants have been lacking a WR1 since OBJ left in 2019. With arguably the best WR in the draft still on the board, I could see them jumping the many other receiver needy teams to take JSN. Smith-Njigba is my personal WR1 because of his ability to shake man coverage with his change of direction ability and uncanny sense of where to settle in the open zone. His long speed is not good as we see on his tape, but he’s crafty, balanced, and smooth, more of a slot guy. He'll step in and be Daniels Jones' most reliable receiver right away.
1.21 LAC: Zay Flowers, WR Boston College
Zay Flowers is exactly what the Chargers need. They don’t need a huge piece, they’ve got Keenan Allen to exploit zone and Mike Williams to win contested catches and dominate in the red zone. What Justin Herbert and this offense could really use is someone who can take the top off the defense and turn underneath passes into explosive plays. Flowers isn’t great at everything, but he’s great at that. LA doesn’t
1.22 BAL: Jordan Addison, WR USC
Todd Monken won’t be able to get the desired results in the passing game without better pass catchers. Despite an underwhelming combine, Jordan Addison is still a good prospect. He’s smooth, he doesn’t give away his breaks, he can win deep, and he has some wiggle after the catch. Addison doesn’t have the play strength to ever be considered a “tier one” threat that you can build an offense around, but he’s a very safe bet to be a nice piece for years to come.
1.23 MIN: Nolan Smith, ED Georgia
Nolan Smith is a good player. He could probably even move off ball and replace Kendricks, but I think the tape is good enough that you could keep him at EDGE. Especially in Brian Flores’ scheme that gets people flying through gaps, tracking down QBs as a free rusher, and dropping into coverage no matter what position you play. I can’t think of someone more dangerous as a free runner than Nolan Smith. With his 4.3 speed and elite change of direction ability, not many players could reliably make this guy miss. Smith’s athleticism makes him a great potential dropper when they get in those zero looks. Nolan Smith feels like their guy.
1.24 JAX: Darnell Wright, T Tennessee
With Jawaan Taylor leaving in free agency this team is in need of a replacement. He plays with great balance and is outstanding as a run blocker. Wright has issues with his hand placement but his size and phenomenal movement skills leave you tantalized about what he could be. Wright did well vs top competition this season and won the offensive line practice player of the week award at the Senior Bowl. He’ll be an upgrade over Walker Little
1.25 SEA: O’Cyrus Torrence, G Florida
While there are other needs, specifically at the WR and Center positions, by the way the board has fallen, Torrence is the best option. With Gabe Jackson being cut and Damien Lewis entering the final year of his deal next season, they're gonna look to upgrade at guard. O’Cyrus Torrence is a massive interior lineman who dominates down blocks, doesn’t commit penalties, and holds up well in pass protection. It feels like he’d be a good match.
1.26 DAL: Bijan Robinson, RB Texas
With Zeke getting released the team should look for a second RB. The generational running back talent has obvious ties to Dallas as a Texas Longhorn. Even with Pollard under the franchise tag, that’s just a one-year deal. The future of the Dallas ground game can be an elite pairing between Robinson and Pollard in 2023. Robinson finished the 2022 college season as PFF’s second-highest-graded rusher in the FBS, tallying 18 rushing TDs and 1,575 rushing yards. He forced 104 missed tackles (40% broken tackle rate) – a metric that has shown to be super predictive of success rushing at the NFL level.
1.27 BUF: Michael Mayer, TE Notre Dame
Buffalo’s supporting cast was exposed in the playoffs. They had no second tight end worth playing, so all year they had to live in 11 personnel even though the receiving core wasn’t that deep. Buffalo was 32nd in the league in frequency of 12 personnel looks. They didn’t have much personnel versatility, and by the end of the year, the offense seemed stale and totally reliant on the “Josh Allen go do something” play. Michael Mayer has been super productive for a major school from a young age. He’s got the route running savvy to create separation, and the physicality to make contested catches and key blocks. The Bills should just be looking to add any kind of real second threat next to Diggs. Mayer could be that guy.
1.28 CIN: Anton Harrison, T Oklahoma
La’el Collins will never be the same. He looked completely washed this season after injuring his back. The addition of Orlando Brown was a good deal and will hopefully pan out well for them. Harrison is an extremely young, yet technically proficient pass protector with quick feet to stay balanced and a strong punch to stile and stay connected to rushers. My only issue is that he only played LT in his college career. Orlando Brown seems 100% serious on staying at LT which could go badly if Harrison can't keep his same production on the right side.
1.29 NO: Calijah Kancey, DL Pittsburgh
The Saints struck early in free agency by signing former Chiefs DT Khalen Saunders and former Jets DT Nathan Shepherd. However, neither of those offers the interior pass rush ability that Calijah Kancey does. Kancey is arguably the best pure pass rusher in the draft when you consider just how deep his bag of moves is, and his ridiculous 22.7% pass rush win rate. Should be a no-brainer her for the Saints
1.30 PHI: Bryan Bresee, DL Clemson
A bit of a project guy here but worth taking the risk. At 6'5" 300lbs he's a monster on the line. He plays with unique speed, length, and power giving him a shocking burst to throw the lineman off his balance. His versatility might be his greatest strength. He has the playstyle to play anywhere along the line and still perform the same. His injury risk is a bit concerning but the eagles seem to have a good medical staff to keep him healthy.
1.31 KC: BJ Ojulari, ED LSU
The Chiefs need a replacement for Frank Clark who simply is not getting it done. Carlos Dunlap is also not a lock to return, and Mike Danna is a free agent after the 2023 season. George Karlaftis looks solid, but there’s not much after him. B.J. Ojulari has the speed to complement Karlaftis’ power. He has an explosive first step and has demonstrated numerous swim moves to attack offensive tackles

TL;DR - I'm a contractor and my vendor employed me to a large IT firm. My client side manager made ungrounded complaints about my performance to my employer and refused to provide feedback on how I can improve. My employer considers this person a "Problem Client". I want to file an anonymous report against them. Will this have consequences?
The background:
I'm have 6 years of successful contracts with a client who is a major IT provider. Because the department I worked with lost head count, I was laid off.
My vendor company liked me so much that they hired me to another manager in a different part of that client's organization.
That client side manager was hostile to me from the first day. They gave me little in the way of work, less in the way of training (like 4 hours total), and assigned me projects that could not reasonably be completed in time. Like, six month long processes done in six weeks juggling multiple branches of the organization's requirements.
Early in my second week, they demanded a daily work summary. I was baffled by this as they'd basically thrown at a shared drive and left me to fend for myself.
Halfway through week two, the complaints began:
I didn't use the right descriptive text for hyperlinks. I sent an email to a contact and was told that I shouldn't have contacted them in spite of them being listed as a contact in a current process document. They accused me of not producing any work in spite of multiple documents submitted to them which my vendor side manager was cc'd on. They accused me of poor work but refused to provide feedback on where I could improve. At this point, they told my vendor side manager that they wanted to look at other resumes.
Halfway through week three I filled out a template document that literally said in the first line "use this as a template" and was accused of stealing work. I was fired the next day.
My vendor company is behind me on everything 100%. They've seen the work that I've done and they know this is all B.S. Everyone knows this person has a reputation for workplace bullying.
Obviously, they're not about to do much about it. Money is money and this is a big client.
The client has this whole anti-harassment policy and an allegedly anonymous tool through which one can report workplace grievances, including harassment.
Will reporting this damage my reputation with this client? Will it damage my career? If there's an investigation, aren't they going to call all those people at my company? So aren't all those people going to know that I filed a report?
Could that damage my career more than this person already has? It's important to me to stand up for myself when I can. If this is just tilting at a windmill and no harm will come to me for reporting, it's worth it to me to report it. But if I'm going to come out of this in worse shape than I am now, I don't think it makes sense to report.

There could be various reasons why Theta Network nodes are not yet running on their partner's hardware, such as Samsung and Sony. Some possible reasons include:

1. Technical integration: Integrating Theta Network nodes into partner hardware might require significant technical effort, including developing custom software, addressing security concerns, and optimizing performance. It could take time for the partners to collaborate and complete the integration process.
2. Business priorities: Both Samsung and Sony are large corporations with multiple divisions and product lines. It's possible that they have other business priorities or ongoing projects that take precedence over the integration of Theta Network nodes.
3. Strategic planning: The implementation of Theta Network nodes on partner hardware may be part of a longer-term strategic plan, and the rollout could be scheduled for a later stage in the partnership.
4. Contractual or legal considerations: There might be contractual or legal issues that need to be addressed before the partners can proceed with implementing the nodes on their hardware. This could include negotiating terms, resolving intellectual property concerns, or ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
5. Market conditions: The partners may be waiting for the right market conditions or customer demand before launching products or services that incorporate Theta Network nodes.
6. Testing and validation: The partners may be in the process of testing and validating the integration of Theta Network nodes into their hardware, which can be a time-consuming process to ensure proper functionality, security, and performance.

Please note that these are speculative reasons, and the actual reason for the delay might be different or a combination of factors. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, it is recommended to consult the official channels of Theta Network, Samsung, or Sony, or monitor announcements from these companies regarding their partnership and plans.

For context, I’m from Malaysia whereas 1 USD = 4.47 MYR and 1 EUR = 4.80 MYR. I’m currently working as a janitor at a gas station with a monthly salary of 1200 MYR (268 USD/250 EUR). That explains why I’m on such a tight budget. Do ignore the price on the PC part picker since I won't be buying from Amazon since there is no Amazon where I live and it will be too expensive with the delivery charge.
I have been playing games since I was 12 years old (I’m 27 now). I’m currently using an ASUS X550LD laptop that I bought back in 2014 and it is starting to show its age.
The PC I want to build is to be mainly used for gaming. I play games like Minecraft, Dota 2, League of Legends, TFT and Albion Online.
The reason I chose the Ryzen 5 3600 is that I saw a local store selling it at about 78 USD/72 EUR. I think it is cheaper than what I remember.
I’m unsure about which motherboard to pick, so I watched videos on YouTube and decided on B550. I’m planning to use this board so that I can upgrade my CPU to Ryzen 7 5800x3D later on. Do suggest to me a brand or model that is a decent price for performance. It can be other than B550 if it suits my needs.
I’m fully aware that the M.2 NVME is marginally better than the SSD I choose. But that is what I have on my laptop right now and I’m going to use it for the time being. I will change it when I have the budget.
As for the GPU, I couldn’t decide between RX 580 or GTX 1660 Super or TI since I can get those fairly cheaply in the used market. RX 580 is currently being listed at 75 USD/69 EUR and GTX 1660 Super or TI is at 111 USD/104 EUR.
I have no idea what PSU I should use. I’m looking for a recommendation for that one.
As for the Case.. I think I would just get any Case that is available at my local store.
I think that’s about it. If you have any idea or improvement to be made. I’m open to the suggestion.
[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6sLX8r)
​
TypeItemPrice
:----:----:----
**CPU** [AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9nm323/amd-ryzen-5-3600-36-thz-6-core-processor-100-100000031box) $107.00 @ Amazon
**Motherboard** [ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/NT7p99/asrock-b550m-pro4-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-pro4) $139.98 @ MemoryC
**Memory** [Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/p6RFf7/corsair-memory-cmk16gx4m2b3200c16) $42.98 @ Newegg
**Storage** [Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/h3tQzy/crucial-mx500-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-ct1000mx500ssd1) $51.99 @ Amazon
**Video Card** [MSI RX 580 8G Radeon RX 580 8 GB Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/HxDzK8/msi-radeon-rx-580-8gb-video-card-rx-580-8g) -
**Power Supply** [Corsair RM650x (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WJM48d/corsair-rm650x-2021-650-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020198-na) $104.99 @ Amazon
*Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts*
**Total** **$446.94**
Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2023-03-20 22:10 EDT-0400

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter.
.

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 92% of Zillennials prefer to shop in-store despite being digital natives. They are also leading the charge in consumer demand for cross-channel experiences. – According to PYMNTS .
2. Shopify is in talks with Amazon about adding its Buy with Prime service as a payment / fulfillment partner. When speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom Conference earlier this month, Finkelstein said, “I'm optimistic we'll get there with Amazon. We have a good history and a good relationship with them.” However Finkelstein later added that if a deal were to get done with Amazon, it would be on Shopify's terms — leaving merchants in control of their customer and order data. .
3. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a report analyzing the financial profiles of consumers who use BNPL. The report found that BNPL borrowers on average are more likely to be active users of credit cards and payday loans, more likely to exhibit signs of financial distress, had higher usage of loan products compared to non-borrowers, had a higher frequency of reported delinquencies in other accounts, and had average credit scores in the sub-prime range of 580-669 versus the near-prime range of 670-739 of non-borrowers. In a statement released with the report, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra noted that there is a common misconception that BNPL borrowers lack access to other forms of credit and that the survey data instead indicates that BNPL borrowers are more likely to use a wider variety of credit products than non-borrowers. .
4. The Biden administration is planning to take action on at least three of its half-dozen investigations of Amazon. POLITICO spoke to more than 10 people with direct knowledge of the investigations by the FTC to learn how the agency is now pursuing Amazon, why it didn't take action on the One Medical acquisition, and what's likely to happen in the coming months. .
5. eBay competes with Facebook Marketplace, but NOT with Facebook's social network — at least that's what it told a judge last Monday. eBay filed a motion to quash Meta's deposition subpoenas, claiming that it had already worked with Meta for a year and already disclosed nearly 2,500 pages of internal records to the company. eBay's lawyers said, “Meta's discovery gluttony confirms its request of eBay is not worthy of the burden Meta seeks to impose. The breadth of the subpoena is alarming.” .
6. Klaviyo laid off 10% of its workforce, or approximately 140 staff members across all teams including engineering and design, in what they said is an effort to reduce redundancy and recalibrate their areas of investment for the future. .
7. Fetch Rewards, a shopper rewards startup, also laid off 10% of its workforce, comprising of around 100 employees. Fetch was impacted by the SVB situation, but a spokesperson for the company said that the decision to restructure was in the works prior. .
8. Anchorage Digital, a fintech that offers prime brokerage services and custom API integrations for financial institutions, laid off 20% of its staff, or about 75 employees, citing regulatory uncertainty, crypto market volatility, and macroeconomic headwinds. In December 2021, the startup raised $350M in a Series D round, valuing the company at over $3B. .
9. Twitch announced it would be laying off over 400 of its 13,600 employees, also pointing to the current macroeconomic and missed projections as the cause. The layoffs come a week after cofounder and CEO Emmett Shear stepped down from his role. .
10. In addition to those lay offs at Twitch, its parent company Amazon also announced another 9,000 lay offs, bringing its total to around 27,00 since late last year. Most of the cuts will be from AWS, advertising, and human resources. .
11. Amazon sent a survey to users asking detailed questions about which features would convince them to download and try a new desktop browser from Amazon. Users were asked to rate the important of features including text to speech, extensions, data syncing across desktop and mobile devices, and blocking third-party cookies. This would not be Amazon's first attempt at a browser. The company launched Silk browser in 2011, which is built on the Chromium Project and used for its own products including Fire Tablets, Fire TVs, and Echo Show devices. .
12. Amazon Go stores have no cashiers and instead use a system of cameras, sensors, and motion detection software to track customer shopping. New York City customers are now suing Amazon in a class action lawsuit which claims that Amazon collected data on the shape and size of customers' bodies, as well as scans of some customers' hands, without proper warning. .
13. Meta rolled out blue ticks in the US, costing $11.99/mo via web or $14.99/mo via app store. Web sign ups only receive the blue checkmark on Facebook, while the mobile app sign ups includes the blue checkmark for both Facebook and Instagram. .
14. Paramount Global is rolling out a mountain of merchandise from Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV, BET and Comedy Central to Nickelodeon and Showtime. The site launched on Wednesday under the tagline “Where Products Are Paramount.” .
15. Lands End reported that their e-commerce net revenue decreased 10.1% to $1.1B for the fiscal year, primarily driven by lower consumer demand caused by the global supply chain challenges in the first half of fiscal 2022. Gap also reported a 10% drop in online sales for Q4, however, the company's e-commerce revenue is still up 29% compared to pre-pandemic 2019. .
16. Amazon will discontinue distributing Kindle Newsstand subscriptions in September and is no longer selling new Kindle Newsstand subscriptions for magazines and newspapers as of this month. Starting in June, Amazon will no longer alow users to manage print subscriptions either, and subscribers will have to deal with the publishers independently. .
17. Ulta Beauty is transforming its e-commerce operation with Google Cloud, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Anthos cloud-based managed services solution, which will enable the company to save several hundred thousand dollars in additional licensing fees. The company is relaunching its e-commerce platform with multiple, distinct microservices to perform unique functions. .
18. ALPHV, a ransomware group, claims to have breached Amazon Ring and is threatening to publish its data. Since Ring devices support E2EE in most countries, which means that neither Amazon, law enforcement, nor ransomware groups could access uploaded footage, it is possible that ALPHV exfiltrated corporate or customer data rather than video. .
19. About You, a German fashion e-commerce platform, introduced a minimum order amount of €30 to obtain free shipping, while customers with smaller orders will have to pay €4.90. The new feeds are already in effect in Germany, and will eventually be rolled out to all markets. Last week I reported that their parent company, The German Otto Group, was disbanding its operations of MyToys.de by next year. .
20. AliExpress launched its AliExpress Choice service in Spain, which will offer a curation of the best value products the platform has to offer and a new monthly shopping event “Choice Day”. The marketplace has been offering a nine-day delivery time for customers since the beginning of this month, and hopes to have 7,500 pick-up locations throughout Spain by the end of the month. .
21. Wix partnered with Forter, a US-based trust platform for digital commerce, to increase approval frates for merchants while minimizing fraud. Forter will deliver its real-time decisions to Wix merchants in certain regions using an identity-based decision engine. .
22. Searchspring, a specialist in site search and e-commerce personalization, appointed Alex Kombos as CEO to head up its next stage of growth. Kombos previously served as CEO at Pressable, which is part of Automattic. .
23. Brightcove, a streaming technology platform, introduced new integrations with Shopify, Instagram, and Salesforce Sales Cloud to its video cloud platform. The integrations enable merchants and content creators to leverage live and on-demand video content. .
24. WooCommerce 7.5.0 was released this week with three new blocks for the Product Archive templates including a new Store Breadcrumb block, Product Results Count block, and a Catalog Sorting block. The release includes two database updates, 278 commits to WooCommerce Core, and rolls in 170 commits from the WooCommerce Blocks plugin. .
25. Some eBay affiliates were hit with hefty bank fees after Impact, the company that eBay uses to manage its affiliate program, used wire transfer instead of ACH transfer to distribute funds to affiliate's bank accounts. eBay was responsive to affiliates and said that it will reimburse those who were unexpectedly charged wire transfer fees by their banks. .
26. Plus 13 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Stripe's $6.5B raise from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs, and Temasek at a $50B valuation, a steep discount from its record valuation of $95B in 2021. .

For more details on each story, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/shopify-buy-with-prime-bnpl-demographics-apple-specialists/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
See you next week.
-PAUL

Hi ecommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry pretty closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter.
.

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 92% of Zillennials prefer to shop in-store despite being digital natives. They are also leading the charge in consumer demand for cross-channel experiences. – According to PYMNTS .
2. Shopify is in talks with Amazon about adding its Buy with Prime service as a payment / fulfillment partner. When speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom Conference earlier this month, Finkelstein said, “I'm optimistic we'll get there with Amazon. We have a good history and a good relationship with them.” However Finkelstein later added that if a deal were to get done with Amazon, it would be on Shopify's terms — leaving merchants in control of their customer and order data. .
3. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a report analyzing the financial profiles of consumers who use BNPL. The report found that BNPL borrowers on average are more likely to be active users of credit cards and payday loans, more likely to exhibit signs of financial distress, had higher usage of loan products compared to non-borrowers, had a higher frequency of reported delinquencies in other accounts, and had average credit scores in the sub-prime range of 580-669 versus the near-prime range of 670-739 of non-borrowers. In a statement released with the report, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra noted that there is a common misconception that BNPL borrowers lack access to other forms of credit and that the survey data instead indicates that BNPL borrowers are more likely to use a wider variety of credit products than non-borrowers. .
4. The Biden administration is planning to take action on at least three of its half-dozen investigations of Amazon. POLITICO spoke to more than 10 people with direct knowledge of the investigations by the FTC to learn how the agency is now pursuing Amazon, why it didn't take action on the One Medical acquisition, and what's likely to happen in the coming months. .
5. eBay competes with Facebook Marketplace, but NOT with Facebook's social network — at least that's what it told a judge last Monday. eBay filed a motion to quash Meta's deposition subpoenas, claiming that it had already worked with Meta for a year and already disclosed nearly 2,500 pages of internal records to the company. eBay's lawyers said, “Meta's discovery gluttony confirms its request of eBay is not worthy of the burden Meta seeks to impose. The breadth of the subpoena is alarming.” .
6. Klaviyo laid off 10% of its workforce, or approximately 140 staff members across all teams including engineering and design, in what they said is an effort to reduce redundancy and recalibrate their areas of investment for the future. .
7. Fetch Rewards, a shopper rewards startup, also laid off 10% of its workforce, comprising of around 100 employees. Fetch was impacted by the SVB situation, but a spokesperson for the company said that the decision to restructure was in the works prior. .
8. Anchorage Digital, a fintech that offers prime brokerage services and custom API integrations for financial institutions, laid off 20% of its staff, or about 75 employees, citing regulatory uncertainty, crypto market volatility, and macroeconomic headwinds. In December 2021, the startup raised $350M in a Series D round, valuing the company at over $3B. .
9. Twitch announced it would be laying off over 400 of its 13,600 employees, also pointing to the current macroeconomic and missed projections as the cause. The layoffs come a week after cofounder and CEO Emmett Shear stepped down from his role. .
10. In addition to those lay offs at Twitch, its parent company Amazon also announced another 9,000 lay offs, bringing its total to around 27,00 since late last year. Most of the cuts will be from AWS, advertising, and human resources. .
11. Amazon sent a survey to users asking detailed questions about which features would convince them to download and try a new desktop browser from Amazon. Users were asked to rate the important of features including text to speech, extensions, data syncing across desktop and mobile devices, and blocking third-party cookies. This would not be Amazon's first attempt at a browser. The company launched Silk browser in 2011, which is built on the Chromium Project and used for its own products including Fire Tablets, Fire TVs, and Echo Show devices. .
12. Amazon Go stores have no cashiers and instead use a system of cameras, sensors, and motion detection software to track customer shopping. New York City customers are now suing Amazon in a class action lawsuit which claims that Amazon collected data on the shape and size of customers' bodies, as well as scans of some customers' hands, without proper warning. .
13. Meta rolled out blue ticks in the US, costing $11.99/mo via web or $14.99/mo via app store. Web sign ups only receive the blue checkmark on Facebook, while the mobile app sign ups includes the blue checkmark for both Facebook and Instagram. .
14. Paramount Global is rolling out a mountain of merchandise from Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV, BET and Comedy Central to Nickelodeon and Showtime. The site launched on Wednesday under the tagline “Where Products Are Paramount.” .
15. Lands End reported that their e-commerce net revenue decreased 10.1% to $1.1B for the fiscal year, primarily driven by lower consumer demand caused by the global supply chain challenges in the first half of fiscal 2022. Gap also reported a 10% drop in online sales for Q4, however, the company's e-commerce revenue is still up 29% compared to pre-pandemic 2019. .
16. Amazon will discontinue distributing Kindle Newsstand subscriptions in September and is no longer selling new Kindle Newsstand subscriptions for magazines and newspapers as of this month. Starting in June, Amazon will no longer alow users to manage print subscriptions either, and subscribers will have to deal with the publishers independently. .
17. Ulta Beauty is transforming its e-commerce operation with Google Cloud, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Anthos cloud-based managed services solution, which will enable the company to save several hundred thousand dollars in additional licensing fees. The company is relaunching its e-commerce platform with multiple, distinct microservices to perform unique functions. .
18. ALPHV, a ransomware group, claims to have breached Amazon Ring and is threatening to publish its data. Since Ring devices support E2EE in most countries, which means that neither Amazon, law enforcement, nor ransomware groups could access uploaded footage, it is possible that ALPHV exfiltrated corporate or customer data rather than video. .
19. About You, a German fashion e-commerce platform, introduced a minimum order amount of €30 to obtain free shipping, while customers with smaller orders will have to pay €4.90. The new feeds are already in effect in Germany, and will eventually be rolled out to all markets. Last week I reported that their parent company, The German Otto Group, was disbanding its operations of MyToys.de by next year. .
20. AliExpress launched its AliExpress Choice service in Spain, which will offer a curation of the best value products the platform has to offer and a new monthly shopping event “Choice Day”. The marketplace has been offering a nine-day delivery time for customers since the beginning of this month, and hopes to have 7,500 pick-up locations throughout Spain by the end of the month. .
21. Wix partnered with Forter, a US-based trust platform for digital commerce, to increase approval frates for merchants while minimizing fraud. Forter will deliver its real-time decisions to Wix merchants in certain regions using an identity-based decision engine. .
22. Searchspring, a specialist in site search and e-commerce personalization, appointed Alex Kombos as CEO to head up its next stage of growth. Kombos previously served as CEO at Pressable, which is part of Automattic. .
23. Brightcove, a streaming technology platform, introduced new integrations with Shopify, Instagram, and Salesforce Sales Cloud to its video cloud platform. The integrations enable merchants and content creators to leverage live and on-demand video content. .
24. WooCommerce 7.5.0 was released this week with three new blocks for the Product Archive templates including a new Store Breadcrumb block, Product Results Count block, and a Catalog Sorting block. The release includes two database updates, 278 commits to WooCommerce Core, and rolls in 170 commits from the WooCommerce Blocks plugin. .
25. Some eBay affiliates were hit with hefty bank fees after Impact, the company that eBay uses to manage its affiliate program, used wire transfer instead of ACH transfer to distribute funds to affiliate's bank accounts. eBay was responsive to affiliates and said that it will reimburse those who were unexpectedly charged wire transfer fees by their banks. .
26. Plus 13 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Stripe's $6.5B raise from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs, and Temasek at a $50B valuation, a steep discount from its record valuation of $95B in 2021. .

I hope you find this news recap helpful. See you next week!
-PAUL

Howdy, y'all. I've been dogshit at reposting all this stuff, and now there's more stuff, so here goes. More or less in order of most to least expensive. If you want to bundle some shit, let me know and we can work out a discount. If you REALLY want something and want to shoot your shot, go for it. I want this out of my house.
https://imgur.com/a/GMZWJUe

1. Crye JPC 1.0 Multicam, Large. Includes mag retention inserts if you want to use this without the bungee pull tabs. $225 shipped and insured.
   
2. Primary Arms SLx Full Size Magnifier on Vortex Micro mount. Genuinely the best magnifier on the market. Unfortunately it just doesn't work with my Unity FTC, so it has to go. $200 shipped and insured.
   
3. Surefire Glock 17 Threaded Barrel. Made by Zev. Nearly new and unused. Tried to fit it on a pistol and it didn't work. It's my understanding these work in Gen 1-4 Glock 17s, but not 5. $150 shipped and insured
   

4. Ballistic Advantage M4 Profile 14.5" Barrel. New and unused. Will include a barrel nut, end cap, and A2 FH. If you want an M4gery and provide a new FSB, I can mate the two for you and assemble it, too. $120 shipped and insured. If you ship parts in for assembly/work, we can work out a deal.
5. Stormwerkz/Manticore Arms AK Stock. Don't know much about AKs and no longer own one, so don't need this. $110 shipped and insured.

1. Spyderco Delica Wharncliffe with Wise Men Company Fang. In-laws got me an Emerson Delica for Christmas. Don't need this anymore. $110 shipped and insured.
   
2. Crye Drifire Field Shirt. Large regular. Includes Airflex elbow pads. Had name tapes and badges sewn on. Those have been removed. $110 shipped and insured.
   
3. Zaffiri Precision Glock 19 Threaded Barrel. Unknown round count, don't have thread protector anymore. $100 shipped and insured.
   
4. Surefire E2T-MV Tactician. Great EDC light, but I can make do with a Macrostream for most tasks. $95 shipped and insured.
   
5. Shadow Systems DR920 Trigger. Had 200 rounds or so through it before I upgraded to an Alpha trigger. Nonetheless, a nice upgraded Glock 17-pattern trigger. $95 shipped and insured.
   
6. Agilite Pincer Placard. Just didn't like the overhang of the chest rig loops and went back to a Daeodon. Nonetheless one of the best mag shingles on the market and the fact it allows you to adjust the ride height is very nice. $60 shipped and insured.
   
7. Crye cummerbund off a JPC 2.0. It came off a large carrier, so I think this is the L/XL setup. $50 shipped and insured.
   
8. Massif combat shirt, OCP, medium. $45 shipped and insured.
   
9. Truglo Glock 19 Night Sights. Don't let the packaging fool you, they're not Ameriglos. Will also install these for you if you'd like. $45 shipped and insured.
   

15. Arisaka Inline Scout Mount. Very mild wear. $35 shipped and insured.

1. Microbat Systems Tentacle Lanyard in multicam black. 2 available. $30 shipped and insured.

17. Safariland UBL and QLS. Would prefer to sell as a package. $30 for both, $20 a piece? Not 100% sure on these.

1. Magpul MOE FDE handguard. Midlength and carbine available. $30 shipped and insured each.
   
2. Some kind of belt-mounted multicam IFAK. $25 shipped and insured.
   
3. Black A2 grips. Free in any package, just ask for one in addition to anything else you want to buy.
   

As always, feel free to discuss any headlines that went down in kpop this week — including, but not limited to: comeback announcements, touring news, controversies, achievements, business moves, the latest social media outrage, you name it.

COMEBACK NEWS & RUMORS

• SHINee’s Key Drops Cool Retro Teaser + Sneak Peek Of Game-Inspired Album Packaging For “Killer”
• TNX Is Pretty In The Sun In New “Love Never Dies” Comeback Teasers
• TXT Embarks On A “Sugar Rush Ride” In Mystical Comeback MV
• THE BOYZ Moves Their Comeback To An Earlier Date
• NCT 127 Sings “Ay-Yo” In MV For Repackaged Album
• STAYC Unveils 1st MV Teaser For “Teddy Bear” Comeback
• PURPLE KISS Bewitches In Alluring Comeback Teasers For “Sweet Juice”
• TWICE Announces Comeback Date With 1st Teaser For “READY TO BE”
• Hwang Minhyun Announces Solo Debut Date With Intriguing 1st Teaser For “Truth Or Lie”
• NMIXX Kicks Off A New Era With Magical Teaser Video
• ATEEZ Gears Up For Next Chapter With Cinematic Epilogue Film For “SPIN OFF: FROM THE WITNESS”
• ONF’s Hyojin Announces Special Valentine’s Day Single + Drops 1st Teaser

AWARD SEASON 2023

• NCT’s Doyoung And (G)I-DLE’s Miyeon To Host Circle (Gaon) Chart Music Awards
• TWICE To Receive Breakthrough Award At 2023 Billboard Women In Music Ceremony
• Hanteo Music Awards 2022 Announces 3rd Lineup Of Artists
• BTS And BLACKPINK Score Nominations For 2023 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards

CONCERTS & TOURING

• Stray Kids To Headline Lollapalooza Paris 2023
• KCON 2023 Thailand Announces 3rd Performer Lineup
• 2PM Confirmed To Be Preparing For Full-Group Concert
• Inaugural We Bridge Music Festival In Las Vegas Announces Lineup
• ASTRO’s Moonbin&Sanha Announces Dates And Cities For First Unit Fan-Con World Tour “DIFFUSION”
• BLACKPINK Announces Additional Dates And Venues For “BORN PINK” Concerts In Mexico And Australia

CHARTING, SALES & STREAMING

• NewJeans’ “OMG” Debuts On Billboard’s Hot 100, Making Them Fastest K-Pop Artist In History To Chart Multiple Entries
• Red Velvet Officially Becomes Million Sellers With “The ReVe Festival 2022 – Birthday”
• NewJeans Becomes Fastest K-Pop Group To Achieve Million-Selling Album With “OMG”
• TXT Becomes 1st Group In Melon Top 100 History To Chart All Songs From A Mini Album In Top 10 Simultaneously
• TXT Becomes 1st Foreign Act To Top Oricon’s Weekly Album Chart With 7 Consecutive Albums
• NewJeans Becomes 1st Idol Group In History To Rank In Top 3 Spots On Melon’s Monthly Chart

HEALTH

• DRIPPIN’s Alex To Temporarily Halt Activities For Health Reasons
• ITZY’s Yuna Sits Out Schedule + Postpones Event Due To Health

GENERAL NEWS

• Red Velvet’s Wendy And MeloMance Sing Of A “Miracle” In Breathtaking Live Video
• YG’s New Girl Group BABYMONSTER Introduces Japanese Member Asa With Live Performance Video
• Billlie’s Moon Sua And Tsuki + woo!ah!’s Nana Confirmed As New MCs For “Show Champion”
• SEVENTEEN Launches New UNESCO Donation Campaign To Support Education Of Underprivileged Youth
• NCT’s Haechan To Resume Activities Starting With NCT 127’s Comeback
• J-Hope Releases Teaser For Documentary “j-hope IN THE BOX”
• Meta Idol Group MAVE: Debuts With “PANDORA” + To Showcase First Performance On “Music Core”
• All 6 MOMOLAND Members Part Ways With MLD Entertainment
• YOUNITE’s Woono To Sit Out Schedule After His Grandfather Passes Away
• YG’s New Girl Group BABYMONSTER Puts Spotlight On Member Rora In Live Performance Video
• DAWN Signs With New Label
• Girl’s Day’s Hyeri, (G)-IDLE’s Miyeon, LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Chaewon, Choi Ye Na, Leejung, And Patricia To Star In New Variety Show
• Weeekly Announces Official Colors AS Orchid Bloom, Banana Cream, and Beach Glass
• VICTON’s Seungsik Personally Announces Military Enlistment Date
• BlockBerryCreative Confirmed To Have Submitted Petition To Suspend Chuu’s Activities
• YG’s New Girl Group BABYMONSTER Showcases Thai Member Pharita In Live Performance Video
• Chuu Personally Addresses The Slanderous Reports And BlockBerryCreative’s Claims Against Her And LOONA Members
• N.Flying’s Cha Hun Announces Military Enlistment Date
• “Boys Planet” Contestant And Woollim Trainee Jang Min Seo Drops Out Of Show
• LE SSERAFIM’s Hong Eunchae Confirmed As New “Music Bank” MC
• LOONA’s ViVi And HyunJin Confirmed To Have Filed Injunctions To Suspend Contracts With BlockBerryCreative
• THE BOYZ’s Agency Apologizes For Featuring Hat With Rising Sun Flag In Group’s Latest Vlog
• C9 Shares Detailed Response Debunking Rumors Of Bullying Within CIX + To Potentially Take Legal Action
• SM And HYBE Warn Fans About Fraudulent Event Using NCT, SEVENTEEN, And ENHYPEN’s Names
• EXO’s Baekhyun Is DIscharged From The Military + Shares Messages With Fans
• YG’s New Girl Group BABYMONSTER Introduces Final Member Ruka With Live Performance Video

UPCOMING RELEASES

ARTIST	TITLE	RELEASE DATE	RELEASE TIME (KST)
BSS (BooSeokSoon)	Second Wind	February 6	6 p.m
NCT DREAM	Best Friend Ever (JP)	February 8	TBD
tripleS	ASSEMBLE	February 13	TBD
Key	Killer	February 13	6 p.m
STAYC	Teddy Bear	February 14	6 p.m
TRI.BE	W.A.Y	February 14	6 p.m
LIMELIGHT	Honestly	February 14	TBD
Hyojin (ONF)	Love Things	February 14	6 p.m
PURPLE KISS	Sweet Juice	February 15	6 p.m
JAY B (GOT7)	Seasonal Hiatus	February 15	TBD
TNX	I Need U	February 15	6 p.m
OnlyOneOf	chrOme arts (Jp)	February 15	TBD
THE BOYZ	BE AWAKE	February 20	12 p.m
Stray Kids	THE SOUND (Jp)	February 22	TBD
CLASS:y	TARGET (Jp)	February 22	TBD
Hwang Minhyun	Truth Or Lie	February 27	6 p.m

Background Thoughts
Leading up to the NFL Draft, it feels like Washington will either draft a CB or OT in RD1. The CB prospects at the NFL Combine with Round 1-2 considerations which spoke to the Commanders were the following:

• Joey Porter Jr.
• Christian Gonzalez

Between these two, the CB it seems Washington invested a substantial amount of interest during the combine toward Joey Porter Jr from Penn State. During media sessions, Porter Jr. acknowledged he spoke with the Commanders "a lot." This would make sense as Washington had spent a substantial amount of time scouting the WR position last season which resulted in Jahan Dotson being selected in RD1. Since Penn State is within the Big Ten with other universities such as Ohio State, it would make sense for Washington scouts to have watched a lot of Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson tape vs Joey Porter Jr. They also had a large presence at the Ohio State pro days and pre-draft hype relating to Chris Olave. This would be reminiscent to how Ron Rivera said through scouting Dyami Brown in 2021 the team became interested early-on with Sam Howell's tape prior to 2022 NFL Draft preparations.
With OL prospects, Washington met with 19 prospects at the combine with 8 of them being OT prospects. The following OT prospects they had interviews with have RD1-2 considerations:

• Darnell Wright
• Dawand Jones
• Anton Harrison
• Matthew Bergeron
• Paris Johnson Jr.
• Broderick Jones
• Peter Skoronski

In my opinion, the disproportionate levels of interest shown between OL and CB seems to hint strongly at the organization's focus. Last offseason, Ron Rivera and Martin Mayhew were transparent about adding talent to the WR group to help Terry McLaurin and help with explosive play potential as the offense struggled to score consistently. This offseason, Rivera and Mayhew have been transparent about adding younger talent to the OL group and based on their free agency moves their draft focus will be OT.
A very interesting move was the signing and subsequent discourse around OL Andrew Wylie. Wylie played most recently at RT but he largely played OG prior to 2021:

• 2020 - 874 snaps at RG
• 2019 - 686 snaps at LG
• 2018 - 574 snaps at RG

Andrew Wylie didn't share any details on which position he would play during his Washington media availability after signing his contract with the team. In this article from August 2022, Wylie said he still practiced at OG to maintain versatility. For followers of PFF, his best overall player grade was in 2019 during the season he predominantly played LG - earning him a 67.4 grade. Last year as the starting RT, he allowed 49 pressures and 9 sacks (third most at the position). While he and the entire Chiefs OL had a strong Super Bowl performance, I don't think he's viewed as an ideal option for OT vs a solid backup at OT. This is similar to how Wes Schweitzer is not a franchise option for Center but a solid backup when needed. This is also why I think he received a contract that's understandable for an OG but suspiciously low for a starting OT. His new contract is ranked #32 for OT compared to #19 for OG. This leads me to my draft night theory...
Commanders Draft Theory
I believe Washington wants to trade down during RD1 with a team interested in a CB in order to draft an OT prospect. A trade-down would follow the strategy shown last year which Ron Rivera and Martin Mayhew were very excited about as the extra picks as they became Brian Robinson, Sam Howell, and Cole Turner. Washington has extra motivation for a trade-down as they're missing a RD3 pick from the Carson Wentz trade. They received a compensatory RD3 pick but that feels more like an extra RD4 pick based on it's selection spot.
Joey Porter Jr. and Christian Gonzalez are both highly valued prospects at CB with some mock drafts having them both gone before Washington's pick. This makes their value, should one of them fall to Washington, elevated in terms of supply vs demand. It's highly likely that only one of them would be available by the time Washington selects as a run on CBs is expected around pick #10. It's also weird that Washington didn't interview CB prospects beyond Gonzalez and Porter Jr. as any potential draft with them both gone by #16 likely means Washington pivots to OT in RD1.
Teams drafting after Washington that have shown needs at CB are the following:

• Pittsburgh Steelers (#17)
• Detroit Lions (#18)
• Jacksonville Jaguars (#24)

The following are reasons that each team could make sense for a trade-up:

• Pittsburgh has a lot of ties to Joey Porter Jr. via his dad (Steelers alumni player) and they expressed clear interest in him during the combine.
• Detroit has an extra pick in RD2 from Minnesota (#55) and RD6 from Denver (#183), which may help them part with their RD3 pick to trade ahead of Pittsburgh.
• Jacksonville has extra picks in RD4 and 6, which could be attractive alongside their RD2 or RD3 selection as this would be the largest trade-down before our divisional rivals select players - New York (#25), Dallas (#26), and Philadelphia (#30).

The ideal trade partner would be Detroit at #18, as Washington would be able to leverage Pittsburgh. This type of trade happened in 2021 when the Eagles traded up from #12 to #10 to select DeVonta Smith ahead of the Giants at #11, knowing they also wanted a WR and likely him with their selection. DeVonta Smith was the last Tier 1 WR prospect left at that point as Ja'Marr Chase and Jaylen Waddle had already been selected.
This would translate to Washington getting the following trade package from Detroit:

• RD1 - #18
• RD3 - #81
• RD6 - #194

Washington would then draft BPA at OT which should be a strong list of prospects as likely only LT prospects would have been selected thus far. Whoever Washington drafts would become the new starting RT while Andrew Wylie moves to LG. Andrew Norwell, who is 32 years old and would presumably be a post-June 1st release which saves $4.3M in cap space or relegate to backup LG. John Matsko, who is no longer the OL Coach, was a noted reason for Norwell joining Washington besides his relationship with Ron Rivera. However, the offense is Eric Bieniemy's show now.
I think TE Coach Juan Castillo will become the new OL Coach based upon his previous 12 year history as an OL Coach under Andy Reid in Philadelphia. Besides that he has several more years as an OL Coach with other teams before becoming Washington's TE Coach last offseason. Andy Reid was so impressed with Castillo he offered him an Assistant Head Coach position when he went to Kansas City, which Castillo declined for a Run Game Coordinator & OL Coach in Baltimore. He also had a similar role in Buffalo during the 2017-2018 seasons under Sean McDermott - who is from the Andy Reid tree.
TL;DR:

• Washington wants to bait a team like Detroit into trading up over Pittsburgh for a CB prospect such as Joey Porter Jr. - allowing them to regain lost draft capital from the Wentz deal
• Washington, after a trade-down, would draft a OT prospect to be the starting RT
• Andrew Wylie is going to play LG for Washington
• Juan Castillo becomes the OL Coach based upon his experience as a OL Coach in Andy Reid's offense

In October, I was driving at 11am when a driver hit me head on. The repairs took over 2 months and with the cost of the rental and repairs it was about $18,000 billed to the insurance. I felt they should have totaled the car seeing how close it was the the value of it. I have top of the line Liberty Mutual insurance. I have been a policy holder for a decade, zero accidents or claims and not even a ticket on my record. My insurance policy covered accidents of uninsured drivers.
At the scene of the accident he admitted fault and gave insurance info.
It turns out he did not have insurance. I did a background check after his insurance policy said he was dropped. The guy had 13 criminal charges, including DUIs, resisting arrest, drug charges etc.
I have a Chevy Tahoe LT 2015 valued at around $20-25k prior to the accident. I could not find a comparable vehicle under $24k.
We have dealt with NINE different customer service claims managers at Liberty Mutual. It changes every month and there has been zero follow through. It has never been made clear who exactly is in charge and handling the claim. I have asked many times and pleaded for someone to call me to assist me with the issues and can never get through with them.
When they returned the car in Dec, I had to send it back immediately two times. They made some errors at the body shop that needed to be fixed (took of the appliques and forgot to put it back on) and then when it moved to the dealership for internal things, they apparently did a thorough check and we personally paid $2300 to just be done and move on. I had zero issues prior to the accident. Within one day of them returning the car, there were several electronic alerts going off, the air conditioner was not working and the brakes were making a funny noise. I returned it immediately and they said these issues had nothing to do with the accident and must have happened in the 2 hours and it was just random. I said there is no way. One week later I returned again for more issues. They wanted $1500. I said this was just checked last week and we paid $2300. Surely we cannot pay any more. They argued and then finally agreed it was their error and fixed it for $200. We paid for the part of something they apparently did not catch.
I am a stay at mom and do not commute so have driven perhaps 1000 miles or less since the accident. Within the last month, my car has broken down 3 times. I was stranded with my toddler 2 times while my husband was out of town. Triple A was able to get it one time but then again the next day. It is back at the dealership repair shop that was selected by insurance and they want $1800 to get the auto theft malfunction working. It is not even drivable and completely dead.
At this point, I cannot drive the car. It is unsafe. It has hugely diminished in value due to being in a major accident (they wanted to give me a diminished value claim of $1000). I do not want to pay $1800 and have it towed as a trade in I won't even receive HALF of the $25k it was worth the day before the accident. I cannot keep this car. What are my options at the point of suing the insurance company?
The reason they are screwing us is because they have no one to go after so they are giving us as little as possible. All I want is a fair situation where I am compensated somewhere in the ballpark of what my car was worth prior to being hit by this drunk driver. I have been quoted $6-7k due to all the issues. I believe they should have totaled the car immediately and given me a check. I do not find it acceptable to have an undrivable car returned to me. PLEASE HELP!!
​
Adding details: Why is the insurance at fault? I am using the contracted body shop and repair shop Liberty Mutual has selected and will not allow me to get a second opinion. THE CAR IS NOT RUNNING AT ALL. It is their responsibility to give me back the car in the same condition it was prior to the accident. I have paid into this insurance for a decade without a single claim, accident or traffic violation.
​
They "fixed" the car but it is not running at all. It was a car perfectly running pre accident now I am stuck with a car that doesn't work at all. The pre accident value was about $25k. It is worthless. The body shop wants $1800 to work on it after we have spent 2 months, insurance has covered $20k in repairs and we have personally paid $3300 to this repair shop since they said it's unrelated to the accident. Except the car was working just fine, no issues prior to the accident. They day the repair shop returned it I called to say it's not working correctly, brought it back, they made additional fixes. Then 2 months later and just a few hundred miles more on the car it has broken down 3 times with the same exact issues that occured within hours of driving home when it was discharged as fixed. It was never resolved or fixed after the accident and is not running. The purpose of insurance is in an accident to bring the car to the same condition it was prior to the accident. I am left with a worthless car that is undrivable.

Education:

• BS in Ecology, graduated 2020. I absolutely loved college.
  
• Graduated high school early at 16, for what it's worth. I was great at the academic part, they eventually let me do Independent Study. I was awful at the "sit still - stay in your seat - don't be disruptive - do what you're told" part. Plus due to some home life stuff I had to grow up very quickly. I was a very oppositional and difficult teenager, I've tried working on it a lot over the years.
  

Work background:

• Fast food [quit this job within 2 months, my hatred for it motivated me to go to college].
  
• Part time groundskeeper at my community college [3 years. I loved this job, I even considered just taking an Associate's and seeking a full time position here].
  
• Part time construction helper [Concurrent with groundskeeping job and college. Quit after ~2.5 months, schoolwork started slipping].
  
• Landscaping and landscape construction. [Amicable split after 1 year, I was doing both this and the Student Research Assistant job for my last summer here].
  
• Student Research Assistant, in an Ecology lab. Summer was spent leading field excursions to collect samples. Fall time was split between greenhouse work and simple sorting and data entry. Spring time was collecting specimens for a Taxonomy class and setting up labs. Then Covid happened and this job went away. [~1 year here].
  
• Gardening supply store [Quit within 2 weeks. Concurrent with Student Research Assistant and going to school full time, repeated a past bad idea].
  
• Road crew for a public lands agency. Lots of truck driving, trailering, heavy equipment operating, and semi-skilled general labor. I didn't consider until my temp was almost up that they had me doing Class A CDL stuff even though I didn't have one. So I'm capable of doing that sort of thing but not credentialed. [temp job, just under 1 year].
  
• More landscape construction, eventually got to foreman status. I got diagnosed with cancer while here. Left this job because my body couldn't handle the hard labor anymore and my small employer didn't/couldn't make a different position for me. [1.5 years]
  
• Junior EstimatoProject Engineer. Very chaotic MEP contractor. I had 4 managers in the span of 4 months (2nd one was the CEO because there just wasn't anyone else for a while). Lots of assistant project managing and even solo project management at first. After I was out for tumor removal surgery, they started teaching me estimating. I'm apparently terrible at estimating and anything accounting related, plus I wasn't getting along with my 4th manager very well. I was put on a Performance Improvement Plan and I handed in my 2 weeks shortly after. [Just over 6 months].
  

Disabilities:

• Diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer in 2021. My 2nd go at landscape construction was disrupted by kidney removal surgery and radiation (out for 5 weeks), and my last job was disrupted twice due to needing a rib removed (out for 3 weeks) and my thyroid removed (out for 1 week). I still have weekly mental health appointments, a monthly immunotherapy infusion, and other sporadic appointments. I'm very concerned about how difficult it is to get time off for treatments without it being an issue.
  
• When I sought mental support after getting diagnosed, I also learned I have ADHD and probably CPTSD from some childhood stuff. So I struggle socially and emotionally sometimes.
  

I'm now unemployed and not really sure what to do next. I've had some interviews and was even offered a Vegetation Management Inspector role with a local utility, but my GF was unwilling to move so I turned it down. I haven't had much luck on the job hunt since then. Many of the jobs I find for my degree require moving, physical labor, and/or low pay. Lately I've been taking breaks from applying to plan out a couple business ideas; one is a garden service, and the other is basically a general repair service. I'm good at fixing mechanical things and still physically capable of doing light to moderate labor.
Frankly, I'm feeling pretty lost and unsure of what jobs I should even consider. I really hated having a desk job and found myself having functional problems not experienced since high school, and I know I'm not great with customer service. I'm 25 and I've had 9 jobs, I know that doesn't look great, so I don't list them all on my resume. I feel like my body is too broken to do the only thing I'm really good at, and I guess my personality isn't really compatible with customer service. I'm hesitant to try jumping into another construction company as an APM/PE. I am an extremely hard worker and I pick skills up pretty quickly (unless it's Estimating and office politics, apparently).
I always got steller grades; I'm wondering if I'd be qualified for something technical, where I'd be working solo or from home a lot? I don't have a big data analytics background but I'm willing to look at certifications and stuff. And sadly the role would need to be flexible and accommodating to my cancer treatments.
Thank you if you took the time to read this and consider my conundrum. I appreciate it.

Hi. This will be quite a long post. No TL;DR. I am totally ok if you don't read my post :)
​
I am 23, and will be 24 later that year. I have mental health issues since summer 2021, right after I got my Bachelor of Science. The following year, I thought it was a burnout issue (the previous uni year was exhausting due to lockdowns and all) and low self-confidence about a very demanding competitive exam I am kind of obliged to attend if I want to get the job of my dreams, notably because there are OBJECTIVELY a consequent amount of participants performing better than me academically. I quickly told some of my family members about my issues. They advised me to see a therapist, and it is what I am doing since then. They all think I am going a lot better for a whole year.
​
But in reality, it only got worse over time until just 3 weeks ago. My therapist told me I have symptoms of depressions, but he does not diagnose me with depression because my mood does not stay low long enough. Basically my mood level has become a huge mess: most of the time my mood is lower than neutral but not low bottom, however I have periods of very low mood every 2/3 days that last only few hours, and I have also periods of high mood once a week that also last few hours.
​
Maybe you are telling yourself "you are quite lucky that your very low mood periods last only few hours", and you are right if I compare myself to a lot of people struggling with depression, but I feel that these few hours are still too much for me. During these hours, I just feel that I am worthless, broken, weak, and that I will no longer achieve anything at life. Until few weeks ago, mad thoughts were even growing inside my brain when I was alone (more precisely, thoughts of screaming and harming people, accompagnied with a sort of feeling of pleasure by thinking about it).
​
When I am at my periods of high mood, I have an outburst of self-confidence, I feel like I can lift up mountains and achieve everything, and I am always fooled with the thought that everything is finally solved. Of course, these good moments always end in a matter of hours.
​
At least, thanks to my last therapy sessions and some self-reflection, I realized that:

• The job I am aiming at for more than 5 years is still and really the job that makes the most sense to me,
• Even before these mental health issues started to appear, I had a wrong perception of many basic things, and these wrong perceptions were catalyzing the decaying my mental health. For instance, because I started to study seriously at the late age of 16, I thought since then that work was always supposed to be extremely exhausting, hence I thought I was nothing but lazy during days when I did not feel unexhausted (even if I study more than 10 hours almost every day out of vacation since I am 16), and it became a real problem because like every work, I am less and less exhausted by it as I am more and more used to it.
• In order to get better, I really need to move from mother's home and have the job I want for so long (fortunately, this will happen in 4/5 months if everything goes alright in the meantime).

Also, I am still able to think about it in my periods of very low mood.
​
About the last point. I still live in my mother's house because I do not have enough money to live on my own. Why not having a temporary job right now? Because I still need to get my Master of Science and this task requires too much time to even keep a part time job. So I have no choice but staying at mom's house until I get my MSc and (then) my job contract next summer. Why is it a problem for my mental health that I still stay at mom's house? Because her overprotective nature prevents me from building basic aspects of life at my age. She always wants to know and control everything about my life at the point it is a struggle to perform most activities (e.g outdoor hobbies, hanging out with people, or even BASIC HOUSEHOLD TASKS) that even a teenager could do if they were living with normal parents. And do not count on anyone to convince my mother to become less intrusive in my life: she is the Queen of Stubornness. Fortunately, I have some sense of resourcefulness when it comes to independancy: I have been able to keep a household clean by myself for 6 months without struggle. So I think the day I will finally move out won't be a problem in the absolute. But OF COURSE I think the exact opposite during my periods of very low mood. I really hate my brain during these moments.
​
Nobody but my therapist knows a single thing I wrote above. Especially, I do not want my mom to know it because she went through a 5-year severe depression, when I was a kid, after a terrible event that happened to her (however her overprotective habit is not linked to this event and roots actually from the way her parents educated her), hence I do not want to make her depressed because of my own issues. I also do not want people from my university to know my about my internal struggles because I am scared that it could threaten my future job contract (and thus ruin my last years of hard studying in order to achieve my professional goal).
​
But I still needed to share my situation and struggles, so I am here. And thank you for reaching the end of my post.
​
EDIT: Added few words in the middle of the post.

AK-12: https://imgur.com/a/9jggdGm
SVU: https://imgur.com/a/oXZzBdu
recent firing video for the AK-12: https://imgur.com/a/0QcgAyv
I'd be happy to take more detailed/specific pictures, take shooting videos, provide timestamps, etc.
Would accept an offer for SRS parts + cash
Not really looking to trade the AK-12, (definitely interested in a silverback MDR though) except for some GBBRs and NGRS models, but feel free to offer whatever you want
......... AK-12:
This is a build I made around late December 2021. It's in great condition externally and internally since I'm the first owner and it hasn't seen a single game (I've only been to one game since I built it, but used my scorpion evo since I don't have extra mags for the AK-12 ;-;)
Despite having a chonky bolt, the trigger response on this is snappy, and with the mass of the mock bolt, it's pretty fun to fire. You won't be able to trigger spam it with the EBB set up (the steel EBB piston installed) because the Leviathan would prevent it before completing a cycle, and because the system literally couldn't cycle that fast without causing PME issues. With the EBB installed, I wouldn't recommend pushing the RoF past 85% (adjusted with the Leviathan app through Bluetooth.)
The EBB can be disabled by just removing the LCT piston and replacing it with a standard V2/V3 piston, and swapping the gears to a standard ratio/ non-high torque (unless you want to run a different half-rack piston for some reason.)
Like I said before, it's in great/ near-new condition (standard wear like the usual AK selector switch mark and marks on the dust cover rail paint from installing and removing optics.) Throughout the testing, I noticed almost no internal wear, surprisingly, since I had heard that previous LCT EBBs would wear the gearbox shell down. I did take some precautions like smoothing the machined edges on the rear of the mock bolt piston pickup tang, and greasing the top and inside of the GB shell well, so that might have something to do with it.
Parts list:

• LCT EBB AK-12 - $420
  
• Jefftron Leviathan V3 - 135
  

-Warhead 35k brushless motor - $150
-Lonex enhanced hopup unit - $20
-Lonex mushroom double o-ring cylinder and piston heads - $30
-Extra LCT EBB steel piston (so 2x in total. Both are modified to lighten them a bit and to reduce friction) - $38
-SHS 32:1 steel gear set - $30
-Lambda 6.03 x 420mm steel tbb - $37
-G&G green bucking flathopped - $6
-Angel Custom 6.03 flat hop patch - $3
-Matrix M120 irregular pitch spring - $10
-RA delay chip - $4
-RA skeletonized flat-faced CNC aluminum trigger - $15
-PTS Enhanced Polymer Stock - $45 (original AK-12 stock included, but not recommended for use because of battery space limitations)
-LCT PP-19 vityaz motor grip - $22 (original AK-12 motor grip included)
-PTS EPG cut to a short length - $12
-Leviathan rewired to the rear with 16 ga silver wire - $8
Total: $985
Asking $825
Exps3 not included
...... Upgraded SVU
First off, this is almost completely functional, it just needs a new sector gear, although I'd recommend getting a Begadi CNC SVD gearset if you can.
This is a project I started a while back and kind of dropped off. The project part was mostly trying to create an EBB function by cutting guides in the gearbox shell and using a steel guitar string to move the mock bolt when the piston cycled. While it did work well, I wasn't able to get it to function smoothly with the dust cover installed, so I just kind of lost interest as I already hadn't been playing airsoft for a while at that point.
Before that, though, I put a lot of work into moderately upgrading the internals, namely creating a mosfet/ETU with cycle detection to get the most out of the dmr platform. It pretty difficult, but worth it, since the Perun ETU++ I used allows for a good amount of programming options, other than the cycle detection. Wired to mini deans and completely rewired with much better 16 ga silver wires and Gate signal wires. I wired an inline programming button to the ETU, which is stored in the handhuard with the ETU++ and battery.
Internally, it has an SHS gold MP5 o-ring aluminum air nozzle sanded down and polished to fit the SVU, Retro Arms full steel rack SR-25 piston modified to fit the SVU gearbox (half tooth piston), aoe corrected, shimmed, greased, Teflon taped cylinder head (only option available), etc. I think I also put a Maple Leaf 70° Mr hop bucking and lonex flat nub in it, but I can check to make sure if you'd like.
Externally, I removed the mock suppressor and bipod, added a PETG printed muzzle break, then installed a metal optic rail that mounts level and securely to the handguard and rear sight block. The mock suppressomuzzle break device and bipod are included. Also includes three 80 round midcaps and one 120 round highcap.
In new condition and has never been used in a game.
Asking $275 + shipping
Again, feel free to message me with any questions/offers - I'm always happy to help.
Thanks for looking

Happy Tuesday, Barkada --

The PSE lost 19 points to 6451 ▼0.3%

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on yesterday's "very special episode" about PH bank risk. I know that these kinds of specials are not always as popular as the regular content, but I feel like they're important to talk about.
Thanks you to John for pointing people toward the Very Special Episode, to Terence for spotting the errors in the analysis of the comparison between FDIC and PDIC (more on that in CORRECTIONS), to King Emmanuel Cantillo for spotting that the US Fed decision will happen early in the morning on Thursday, and to Raymund and diggory2003 for reminding me that I completely forgot to do an ALTER IPO Allocation Survey!
Click this link to tell me how many shares of ALTER you requested, how many you got, and drop your email address at the end to enter the P500 Grab Food gift card give-away that I'll draw on the morning of the ALTER IPO.
Shout-outs to JET, avenmicjohn, Pao, MiUMaO, Market Babbler, Aretha Miley_fx, CHARToons, meloi, Jay Agonoy, arkitrader, Lance Nazal, Rolex Jodieres, Evolves Capital, Inc., Xavier, Kuya Carl, creeptocrypt, Dan Villegas, Dividend Pinoy PGG, Chip Sillesa, and Jing for the retweets, and to Genesis Umali, Evolves.co, and Mike Ting for the FB shares!

▌In today's MB:

• Max's Group FY22 net income up 38%
• Moody's thinks PH inflation "uncomfortably strong"
• Upson added 1k shares to IPO to meet float minimum
• EastWest FY22 net income up 42% (excluding one-offs)

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Main stories covered:

• [FY22] Max’s Group FY22 “organic net income” up 38%... Max’s Group [MAXS 4.90 ▲1.2%] [link] teased that its FY22 “organic net income” of ₱622 million, up 38% from its “statutory” net income of ₱451 million in FY21. MAXS said that this level of profitability is higher than its pre-pandemic heights, and out performs its pre-pandemic levels by 63%. System-wide sales were up 41% to ₱17.6 billion, while “local” same store sales grew 43% and “global” same store sales grew 36%. MAXS reported a stable profit margin, despite “market volatility and rising commodity prices” thanks to counter-measures like a strengthened internal supply chain and its new “consolidated” commissary.
  
  • MB: The press release comes off a little thesaurus-y, but that’s probably just the pride in the results seeping through. “Organic” net income is net income from the company’s existing business (excluding businesses that were acquired during the period), almost like a “same store sales” but for overall net income across all income streams. “Statutory” net income is just (as far as I know) a weird way of distinguishing MAXS’s subset of organic net income from its regular (statutory) net income. It’s interesting to see that MAXS exhibited the same disproportionate growth as Jollibee [JFC 222.00 ▼0.5%] did coming from the Philippine region as compared to the rest of its global operations. I am curious to see how MAXS’s recovery as a “casual restaurant” might differ from JFC’s as a “quick service restaurant”. I’m definitely interested to get a closer look at the full financials when they're released.
• [UPDATE] Moody's thinks PH inflation is “uncomfortably strong”... Moody’s Analytics (MA) [link] said that Philippine inflation is “uncomfortably strong and has likely not peaked”, despite noting that inflation “eased” to 8.6% in February. MA said that it seems likely that the BSP would raise rates by 25 basis points on Thursday. Romeo Bernardo, an economist with US-based analytics company, GlobalSource Partners, said that he sees overall 2023 inflation reaching 6.5% (as compared to 5.8% in 2022), driven by the “political dimensions” of the food shortages that have caused prices for basic necessities to rise, and that the projected electricity shortages would likely push power rates up through the hottest months of the year. Mr. Bernardo also projected that the BSP would raise rates by 25 basis points, but “but cannot rule out another 50bp hike.”
  
  • MB: The BSP’s take is that inflation has already peaked, and that it will either raise by 25bp or pause rate hikes at the meeting this Thursday, while the US-based analysts think that inflation has yet to peak, and that the BSP is likely to announce a 25bp hike with an outside chance at a 50bp hike. About the only thing that both the BSP and these analysts agree on is that a 25bp hike is the most likely thing. That said, their disagreements are not all that material. Both the BSP and analysts put the onus on the government to demonstrate the wisdom needed to realize that a large portion of the problem is actually within its scope of control, and to generate the courage to execute on making improvements on the food shortages that have plagued the markets for months.
• [CORRECTIONS] That's my bad...
  
  • (1) Yesterday I incorrectly said that the PDIC provides $500k/bank of coverage to Americans. The real amount is $250k. This means that FDIC covers approximately 50% of the average non-rural home price, and that it would take two accounts to fully protect that amount.
  • (2) Yesterday I incorrectly referred to FDIC when I meant to say PDIC, with reference to what the PDIC offers to Filipinos.
  • (3) The MB Market Calendar incorrectly said that the US Federal Reserve decision would be known on March 21, when it actually will come down in the early morning of March 23. As the only writeeditor of MB, I appreciate it when readers spot these errors to allow me to correct them!
• [NOTES] Quick takes from around the market...
  
  • **Upson [UPSON 2.40 pre-IPO] had to add 1,000 shares to its IPO to reach the PSE’s minimum public float requirement of 20%. The amended deal size of 625 million shares represented just 19.99% of the company, post-IPO. The extra thousand pushed it up into compliance.
    • MB Quick Take: Many thanks to the UPSON IR team for that quick response. I knew there had to be some good reason for adding just ₱2,400 worth of stock to a ₱1.65 billion deal. Mystery solved!
  • **EastWest [EW 7.20 ▲2.0%] [link] teased FY22 net income growth of 42% to ₱4.6 billion (excluding one-off items in FY21). EW said that revenues were up 12% due to its “improved earning capacity” thanks to its 20% growth in its loans book. EW said that its earnings were helped by “higher yielding consumer lending”, like credit cards, business loans, and salary loans.
    • MB Quick Take: *The growth in consuming lending was part of my “middle class explosion” thesis in the pre-pandemic times, and while it’s been somewhat miraculous to see this growth trend continuing despite the punch in the face everyone took with the disastrous COVID lockdowns, the growing concern for the amount of consumer debt being put toward just “making ends meet” in a high-inflation environment makes me nervous. I feel like I’ve been waiting for the one-two punch of COVID and high-interest rates to show up in negative consumer lending metrics, but those two factors have just done to banks (and smaller banks like EW) what I thought they would. *

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The results are in for Match 4. The winner is…
“Tell of the storm-tossed manager, O Muse, who wandered long after she sacked the… whatever it was she sacked. Many the monsters whose towns he saw, whose ways she proved; and many a pang she bore in her own breast at sea, while struggling for her life and her Stand’s safe return. Yet even so, despite her zeal, she did not pass through unchanged,” said a blue Stand, watching over the wine-dark sea. A glimmer of sand, of sea spray, of myths told and retold glinted in the ocean sun as Al continued their cross continental journey. Their exaltation faded to naught but a whisper on the breeze.
“Of this, O goddess, daughter of Zeus, speak as thou wilt to us.”

Val Yao, with a score of 80 to Dirty Ghost’s 69!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Valentine Yao	12 (2.5+2) - 18 (4.5+2)	Voters greatly enjoyed both strats, but ultimately the fates smiled more fortunately upon Valentine!
Quality	Valentine Yao	21 (7 7 7) - 24 (8 8 8)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Valentine Yao	26 (7 10 9) - 28 (8 10 10)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	No length penalties here!

Val Yao and Dirty Ghost would still be at sea for many weeks to come, but Izuru Boniface Marianus had not been completely correct in his claim that none save themselves knew where they were and what they were up to. The spirit of Dead Drop Bay watched their epic journeys across the sea, recording it in their glowing azure coins.
Dirty Ghost lashed their ship against the oncoming storm, knots pulled taut and boards reinforcing the vessel, even as Val Yao’s painting came undone, progress washed away each night by the salt sea. Their initial rations kept both well-nourished for now, but each still would need to restock and prepare for the further challenges awaiting them on the horizon…
If you're not sick of all this water, there's a "friendly spar" between an idol and a figure skater in a desert oasis!
Scenario: Ibiza, Spain — 11:03AM
In a cafe on the shores of the island of Ibiza, Jamir took a sip from his café con leche and let out a contented sigh. A weight had been lifted from his shoulders—for the first time in roughly two years, he was free from the grip of the Millennium Collection and the Atrocity Exhibition. No more evading Frederick’s omniscient gaze, no more babysitting Marione to make sure she didn’t turn into a world-ending monster again, no more Dirty Ghost and…whatever it was doing. None of that mattered. He felt, for the first time in a long time, hope; genuine, no-strings-attached, hope.
His worries weren’t tempered completely, though. Izuru seemed to be slipping closer and closer to the edge by the day, and he had the nagging feeling that something big was coming over the horizon. To borrow a phrase from Izuru, the “final act” was approaching. Jamir did his best to keep a finger on the pulse of Dead Drop Bay, searching for opportunities outside of the reach of the bloodthirsty dogs of the Millennium Collection. At least now he felt better equipped to deal with whatever fate threw at him next.
Speaking of keeping a finger on the pulse, the phone conversation in the next booth over sounded very interesting. The person on the phone, a peacock of a man, appeared to be a part of the Rinascita Artist Collective, judging by his fancy dress, his obnoxious demeanor, and the fact that he mentioned Rinascita by name loud enough for Jamir to hear.
“Yeah, I just watched the concert vid you sent,” he said through a mouthful of food. “Mid as hell. Like someone ate a gallon of rainbow food coloring and took a shit on stage. Complete disgrace to call that horseshit anything close to art.”
Ibiza…that performance with Izuru, Neon and Atlas was only a few months ago, but it felt like years with how hectic Jamir’s life had become. Good times.
“Anyway, you still good to come to the party at Valencia with me?” the artist continued. “Anyone who’s anyone at Rinascita’s gonna be there. I can only bring one plus one, so you better decide quick.”
And just like that, an opportunity. Jamir casually leaned over the booth and tapped the artist on the shoulder.
“I mean it - hold on, I’ll call you back.” The artist glowered at Jamir. “What do you want?”
“Apologies, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. You see, I’m an artist, and I believe I saw that performance at Ibiza that you mentioned. Personally, I think it was an artful display of creativity and passion-”
The artist laughed loudly and obnoxiously. “You’re shitting me! You call that consumerist drivel “art”? It’s all just fancy lights and colors meant to appeal to an audience too stupid to appreciate real art. The art world’s going down the fucking toilet.”
“Ah, but who’s to say that a toilet cannot be a piece of art itself?” Jamir wondered aloud. “Take Duchamp’s Fountain—obviously, a piece which an artist like yourself has probably studied a hundred times over. A urinal turned on its side, submitted for an exhibition but banned for its artist’s perceived lack of effort, caused an uproar that shook the foundations of modern art and gave birth to a whole new movement of conceptual art. To evoke an emotion, any emotion, in its audience…is that not the mark of true art?”
The artist stared at Jamir, mystified. “Well, ‘true art’ ain’t worth shit if people aren’t paying to see it, right? I’ve sold a few paintings you could buy a house with.”
“Oh yes, I suppose you’re correct. Though, if I recall, a copy of Fountain sold for $1.76 million in 1999, so someone must have seen it as ‘true art’. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“M-man, you’re seriously pissing me off,” sputtered the artist, his confidence clearly shaken. “How do you know what ‘true art’ is, huh?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t,” Jamir sighed. “I was hoping to find answers from a more successful artist than I. And that ‘party’ you mentioned sounded like a wonderful opportunity to talk to one.”
The artist huffed. “I’m a member of the Rinascita Artist Collective, dude. You’re nothing. You wouldn’t be invited to the party in a hundred years.”
“I suppose not. What a shame. I was looking forward to learning under an accomplished artist like you.”
The artist tapped a finger against the table, annoyed. Jamir innocently sipped his café con leche.
“Fine,” the artist growled. “You want to see real artists? You got it. The party’s in two weeks. Get ready.”
Jamir smiled thankfully. That was almost too easy.
Scenario: Málaga, Spain — 6:03 AM
10538-2095 found herself back at the scene, the Picasso museum. Last time she’d been here, she’d found herself fused to a teammate into a superior being, a cyborg she and Ninian, at least in the moment, would have preferred to remain. But where this fusion and return had given Ninian answers, even cracked the Scot’s egg, if 2095 understood the metaphor correctly, it had left the android only with more questions. Returning from Type-03’s victory, 2095 had gone catatonic.
After the events in Türkiye and her time on the trail of the information-broker ｢Aerials｣, both for the Sultan of Swing and Ashen Memoriam, she’d found some peace, the ability to focus on moving forward, living in the now, rather than hunting through her data for lost memories. She’d made friends beyond just the scope of the Bastards and really begun establishing a sense of self. But really, 2095 knew she was just running from that overwhelming deluge she’d felt last time she was here, the experience of dozens of lifetimes of sensations all at once.
So why had she been continually drawn here? It wasn’t mere ‘gravity’, the series of coincidences that drew Stand users to one another, but some other, more primal instinct. The urge to return to the scene of a past trauma, overpowering the desire to run away… A biological explanation, but not one impossible to render in code.
2095 would have continued to spiral like this had another figure not entered her field of view, and a familiar one: Doctor Dott, the Rinascita artist who had fused her to Ninian in the first place.
“Hello!” cried the not-actually-a-doctor. “You’re back!”
“Indeed,”replied the android, perhaps relieved her conversation partner spoke in as clipped a manner as herself. “I suppose I could say I returned in search of further understanding of ‘true art.’ Or art at all.”
“It’s an interesting subject,” Dott agreed. “I’ve thought about it many times. After our last collaboration I’ve been considering the nature of ‘shocking art’.”
“Shocking art?” 2095 asked.
“Art meant to bring out a sort of shock or surprise from the audience. It could even be horrifying!” Dott explained. “Our exhibit was probably shocking to some people! Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0 would be another example.”
The name sounded familiar. Perhaps in her knowledge banks there was something…

Marina Abramović Rhythm 0 was a six-hour work of performance art presented in Naples in 1974. The work involved Abramović standing still while the audience was invited to do to her whatever they wished, using one of 72 objects she had placed on a table. A sign next to the table explained that anyone who sat across from her could do anything they liked with the objects with her bearing full responsibility for their actions. There were no separate stages; the purpose of the piece, she said, was to find out how far the public would go: "What is the public about and what are they going to do in this kind of situation?"

“If I understand correctly, the artist was repeatedly assaulted throughout the night,” said 2095.
Dott nodded. “Her clothes were shredded with razor blades. One attendee even tried to shoot her. They were stopped by another audience member. But even this was ‘art’: if it invokes an emotion in you, it’s art, no matter how shocking it might be. And in this case the emotions were shock, fury, violation.”
“And in our piece, would the emotion I felt be pain?” 2095 wondered aloud.
Dott’s face immediately fell. “I’m sorry. I screwed up. At least Abramović knew what she was getting into. Here,” she continued, thrusting an envelope into 2095’s hands. “It’s an invite to a party. Lots of other Rinascita folks will be there. I didn’t feel like going anyway. Too many people. Too many fake smiles. But maybe it’ll be good for you! Get your mind off things. You know?”
2095 nodded, not completely understanding, but appreciating the gesture. Speaking to Doctor Dott was always a confusing enterprise, but somehow she felt this had given her a bit more self-insight. Maybe the party would be good for her, in some way. Pain refused to be ignored, but in a situation like a party, surrounded by new people…she had to exist in the present moment, process the pain differently than just sitting with it. Meeting new people, making new memories. This would be an anvil on which to undeniably forge her identity.
Scenario: Valencia, Spain — 9:54 PM
In a private ballroom in the Feria Valencia Convention and Exhibition Centre overflowing with laughter, gossip and drink, the wealthiest members of the Rinascita Artist Collective delighted in elegant revelry. The ballroom was a kaleidoscope of colors, each guest’s outfit more extravagant than the last—exotic bird feathers, loud color palettes, and altogether impractical capes and headdresses filled the space like an overgrown jungle path.
For once, Charvet Champagne didn’t feel like the center of attention, and he thanked whomever was watching for that. The anonymous invitation promised a night of fun, food and a private performance from famed Spanish guitarist Carmelita Salmorejo. While Charvet’s connection to Rinascita was tangential at best, he didn’t mind getting away from his hectic schedule. His stomach growled, staring at the plates of fine tapas on display at the all-you-can-eat buffet table. They wouldn’t mind if he sneaked one bite, would they?
“Oh my god, is that Charvet Champagne?” An unfamiliar voice trilled. “Come here, I simply must hear about your skincare routine in person!”
…shit. Next time, then.
He grumbled to himself and brushed past 2095, awkwardly holding a glass of wine with no idea what to do with it. She smiled politely at anyone who stopped to stare at her and did her best to make small talk. Dott was right—approximately 94.7% of all of the smiles directed in her direction were fake. Seemed like the guests weren’t interested in straying outside of their cliques. Time for plan B.
2095 listened intently to the conversations around her, auditory receptors tuned to pick up any common words or phrases that she could link to important figures in Dead Drop Bay. After a few minutes, two names caught her attention. The first was Lucetta Domani, the head of the Rinascita Artist Collective—every single guest at the party appeared to be linked to Lucetta in some way. The second was somebody called “the Czar.” While 2095 didn’t recognize the name, the main topics of gossip revolved around him and Lucetta. According to the chatter, the Czar had been involved in a feud with her for some time, and some theorized that this party was an olive branch meant to be the first step in resolving the feud for good. 2095 stored the information in her memory banks for later, and downed her glass of wine in one gulp.
On the other side of the ballroom, Jamir half-listened to his artist companion’s rambling as he surveyed the crowd himself. Unlike 2095, he knew exactly who the Czar was; he had hoped to meet the enigmatic Erasmo el-Amin in-person, in fact. But he was mysteriously absent from his own party.
“...and that’s how I got my membership in Rinascita,” the artist said through a mouthful of chorizo. “Course, Lucetta helped get my foot in the door, but everything after that was all me.”
“Interesting,” Jamir lied. “I need to go to the bathroom. Excuse me for a moment.”
Jamir weaved through the crowd, making introductions and glad-handing along the way. His artist friend was not alone, it appeared—almost every member of Rinascita present at the party got their start in the Collective because of Ms Domani. Why invite them, and not her?
He gently pushed on the exit door, intending to make a stealthy exit to snoop around some more. Nothing. He frowned and pushed again, more forcefully this time.
“Hm. That’s a fire hazard,” he joked to no-one in particular. A cursory examination of the frame and the hinges revealed no faults whatsoever, at least from this side. The door didn’t seem stuck at all, but it still wasn’t budging…as if it were sealed shut.
Before he could investigate further, the house lights dimmed. Spotlights lit up the stage on the other side of the ballroom, and the party chatter petered to a halt. The performance was about to begin.
The curtains rose, revealing a person sitting on a stool with an ornate flamenco guitar in hand. Their black Cordoba hat was cocked to one side, their wavy brown hair reaching down to their shoulders. He wore a tailored black-and-gold suit vest over a white button-up dress shirt; a long red traje de flamenca dress covered his bottom half. Her dark-skinned features were scattered with vitiligo markings which stretched across her arms and down to her fingers. The party guests applauded appreciatively as she leaned down to speak into the microphone stand in front of her.
“Hello, I’m Carmelita Salmorejo,” she smiled. “I hope you enjoy the show.”
After accepting the next round of applause, Carmelita settled into her stool and began to play. Their fingers danced across the strings, following the quick tempo that they tapped out with their dress shoes. 2095 had downloaded a few flamenco performances before the party to study in case she needed to make more light conversation. This piece sounded like an original song, one which required quite a bit of technical skill required to play it this well.
Suddenly, 2095 sensed movement. All around the ballroom, a dozen humanoid figures shimmered into existence. They appeared to be made entirely of water, with completely blank facial features and deep blue traje de flamenca dresses that flowed behind them like liquid. They stepped forward in perfect time to the music, clapping along to the beat as they advanced towards the unaware guests.
2095 rose from her seat, summoning ｢Yours Truly｣ to her side. Behind her, the only other two guests who could see the figures followed suit—Charvet gasped, the tiny rat units of ｢Freakum Dress｣ crawling onto him, and Jamir arrived at his seat with a wry smile.
“Jamir, where’d you go?” His artist companion swiveled around, wine glass in hand, clearly not his first or even fifth. “This is a hell of a show-”
CRACK!
A flamenco shoe smashed into his jaw, sending his drink flying out of his hand and spilling over the floor.
All at once, pandemonium erupted. Guests screamed and scrambled over tables and chairs to get to the exits, only to be knocked out cold by swift kicks from the watery dancers. 2095 dodged out of the way of one dancer and slammed her fist into its torso—in a spray of water, it burst and disappeared. Strong, but fragile. Good to know.
“Look out!”
2095 ducked, avoiding a crescent-shaped blade of water that sailed over her head and sliced the champagne glass tower on the buffet table clean in half. The dancers twirled and spun and more projectiles shot out of the edges of their dresses. But just as soon as they did, many of the dancers exploded into a burst of liquid, tiny objects speeding through their “heads”. Another Stand?
“Mes Freakums, attaquez!”
She heard Charvet’s voice before she saw them. Tiny mice crawled onto the dancers and began to spin, their pointed noses becoming a drill that they used to dig themselves into the liquid bodies of Charvet’s attackers. The Stand bodies swam into the dancers, forming internal whirlpools that twisted and contorted their once-perfect forms into a mass of collapsing liquid flowing across the floor. Five, six of them collapsed at once, and another few were already disintegrating before Charvet laughed defiantly.
“Oh ho ho ho! That’s right, I defeated you beasts! I, Charvet Champagne, will no longer let ruffians push me around! From this day forward, mes Freakums et moi will blaze a trail forward and set my own path in life!” Charvet proudly declared, beginning to twirl in place. “I will dance to the beat of my own rhyt-”
Charvet’s declaration was cut off, as he stepped forward and slipped on one of the puddles he had so proudly created a moment ago, falling on his face.
With a flourish, Carmelita strummed their final chord and, for the first time since their performance began, looked up at the ballroom. She gazed at the groaning, mangled bodies of the party guests with a look of mild disappointment.
“Tough crowd,” she muttered. Then, a slow applause began, and their expression brightened.
“What a song. What a performance!” Jamir exclaimed as he sauntered to the middle of the dance floor. “I have heard much about the great Carmelita Salmorejo, but nothing compares to hearing you in-person.”
2095 stared at Jamir in confusion. “She almost killed us all. She almost killed you.”
“If it makes you feel something, it’s art. Fear, exhilaration, the thrill of a near-death experience…how could I not applaud a piece like that?”
“Finally, somebody who appreciates my work!” Carmelita grinned, flicking his hair out of his face. “Whenever I perform, I want everyone in the audience to dance along, not just my Bailaoras. Sometimes, they just need a little kick up the backside. Gwee-hee-hee-hee~”
Jamir grinned back. Carmelita bought his ruse hook, line, and sinker. He took a step closer, extending his hand to shake.
“Jamir O’Santos. A pleasure to finally meet.” Internally, Jamir primed ｢Planet Home｣’s fist to strike at Carmelita the moment they got in range.
Smiling, Carmelita extended her hand towards Jamir. But at the last second, she pulled back and strummed another chord on her guitar. In an instant, a line of faceless dancers sprang in front of the stage, forcing Jamir to leap backwards to avoid concussion via shoe.
“Sorry, O’Santos. No handshakes until the end of the set.” Carmelita regarded 2095 with a glint in his eye. “That goes for you too, señorita.”
2095 met her eyes from underneath the brim of her cap, steel in gaze and spirit.
“Ah, but you will not live to see it,” Carmelita sighed melodramatically. “How unfortunate that I am under strict orders to ensure the deaths of everyone in this ballroom. Until you are broken under the beat of my ｢Corazón Espinado｣, this performance cannot end.”
“Unless…we give you what you want,” Jamir called out. “A performance of a lifetime. A dance of audience and artist, merging together as one. Right?”
2095 almost slapped Jamir before she realized what he meant. “If we dance with you, will you let us go?”
Carmelita rested her chin on her hand, thinking hard. “Hm…that does sound like an interesting idea…and if he asks about it, I can always lie…”
He shrugged. “Eh, what the hell.”
A dramatic strum summoned even more Bailaoras, spread across the ballroom floor and around the shattered tables and spilled wine.
“Just to make things interesting, I’ll be ordering my Bailaoras to attack you for the rest of the performance. Whoever destroys the most Bailaoras when my song ends wins…something. I’ll figure it out later.”
Jamir glanced at 2095, noting her grim expression. “Hey, could be worse. Least we don’t have to fight each other for once. No hard feelings?”
2095 nodded hesitantly. “No hard feelings. Best of luck.”
Carmelita spun their guitar, a manic grin spreading across her face. “As the saying goes; dance ‘til you drop!”
OPEN THE GAME! (Shoutouts to u/TreeTurtle_852 for the match art!)
Location: A ballroom, the area here is 32 by 32 meters (2x2 tiles) with 2095 and Jamir represented by their character tokens.
The Brown circles are dining tables and the Brown shapes in each corner of the map are long tables. The tables are furnished with table cloths, chairs, silverware, wine bottles, and small food platters appropriate for the venue.
The Blue faces are Carmelita’s Bailaoras, Stand created constructs/minions made out of water. More info under Additional information.
Goal: Defeat more of Carmelita’s Bailaoras than your opponent before she finishes her performance! The full performance is 10 minutes, or until both players are defeated, whichever comes first. Direct combat between players is disallowed.
Additional Information: The Bailaoras have C Power, B Speed, and D Durability. They all fight and move to the pace of the music, though there is no set tempo given flamenco music’s structure of being able to gradiently and suddenly shift from slow to fast and vice versa. (We highly encourage both teams to listen to a few example pieces to get a general feel for the driving rhythms.) Although they are otherwise objects, they are treated as “non Stand using persons” with respect to ｢Planet Home｣’s and ｢Yours Truly｣’s abilities; specifically they thus cannot be contracted with or rewinded.
Generally their movements follow a choreographed dance routine, moving through the room rather than chasing after players, but they will position themselves in such a way where they can attack players in their dance’s path.
In terms of dancing, the Bailaoras are able to ‘improvise’ to dodge glancing blows and avoid stationary obstacles/obstructions while moving in time to the music. Their choreography is structured in such a way that they do not go past a 5 meter radius of where they initially spawned (though you can expect them to make full use of the area they are given).
Their primary method of attack is to use their feet to stomp and kick at anything within arms length of them with C POW force. They can also spin their dresses to create short ranged water cutter projectiles with C POW cutting force around them, effective up to 2 meters. The sleeves of their dresses can also fire these projectiles with their movements. They always attack in rhythm to the music, coinciding with major beats and fast paced sections of the song.
Their bodies are composed of a loosely-solid water. If you hit it with a strong enough force, the impact will cause the impacted area to break apart. However all their attacks cannot harm one another.
During slow sections, the Bailaoras enter a flowing state where all physical attacks will harmlessly pass through their watery bodies as they gracefully move and dance around the ballroom.
As the match progresses, Carmelita will summon more Bailaoras on cue to song transitions roughly every 30 seconds. Each wave of additional Bailaoras is more or less evenly distributed across the map and contains 12 more Bailaoras, meaning that more than twelve may be on the stage at once.
For the purposes of this match, the players both effectively have a 2 skill in Flamenco dancing.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Bastards of Barcas	10538-2095	"Four steps...Five steps." You’ve watched others dance and socialize, now it’s time to put what you’ve learned into motion. Express yourself through dance, movement, and positioning!
Atrocity Exhibition	Jamir O Santos	"Wait. Why did he take only 5 steps?" There’s style to be had in simplicity and reservation! Express yourself through dance, movement, and positioning!

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Late again for the party. And somehow, my obsession with counting calories when I shop for my food seemed to have found its way to just about everything in my life. I have to read reviews on just about everything, from movies before I watch them, games before I buy them and now songs before I listen to them.
This habit is what made me stay away from Set Me Free Pt2 by Jimin. I've been lurking on all these Kpop Reddit subs regarding new releases, and it seems there's a widespread agreement that this song was terrible--someone even posted it was unlistenable.
But it piqued my interest. I haven't heard a bad solo song from Jimin, and many people seemed so disappointed by this new song so much that they'd dedicated posts about it that I finally decided to listen to it now. (I sound so gaudy, anyway)
After listening to it, I was immediately convinced this was a masterpiece.
Important points I got from the criticisms:
1. The autotune
I get why people are put off by it--especially Kpop stans. Incorporating heavy and distorted autotuning is relatively new in Kpop, probably only 6-7 years. If a person mainly listens to Kpop or similar genres like modern pop, chances are they will be appalled by this style. But saying, “they should have lessened or removed the distorted autotune, and it would sound better,” is truthfully ludicrous.
You're just not into this type of style. And that's okay. It's unlistenable, TO YOU, because it doesn't fall on your preference, but saying it is unlistenable because of the autotune as if it is the unwavering truth is almost comical.
Also, I have beef with people who say, they like heavy auto-tuning in songs, but this wasn't done right, then proceed to say absolutely nothing to suggest how it should have been done. This type of comment reminds me so much of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is when a person might have the slimmest bit of awareness about a subject yet, believe that they are an expert.
Another thing about this point, a lot of people say they should just have let Jimin sing as he does because he sounds good. Of course, he sounds good! But where are the people who look at the whole context? I think the man is singing about breaking free. How can it be done when he'll sing sweetly for the entire 3 minutes?
2. The overbearing grandiosity
I don't exactly know what people consider grand because this MV, at least to me, was rather simple. If there's anything grand about it, it would be the performance of Jimin and the backup dancers, but I can't seem to know why people would complain about that. I don't remember a time when Jimin hasn't been all out with his performances. If it is the MV, I'd suggest looking into their ON official music videos (no offence, armys). That MV was too much.
3. The repetitive lyrics
Interestingly, this was the best part of the song for me. I love the constant repetition of “SET ME FREE” because it almost sounded like a willful plea.
Why do I consider this a masterpiece?

1. This song is a deep dive into Jimin opening himself to uncharted territories in his artistic and music career. This song sounds foreign because he hasn't done anything similar. I can only assume it's difficult, yet he still did it because that is what his artistry demands. I felt Jimin’s sincere motives and intentions.
   
2. The usage of texture to differentiate parts of the song tells an average person like me that there has been a lot of time and effort put into the making and mixing of the piece to tell a story better.
   
3. Most notably, the performance was out of this world.
   

At the end of the day. I AM THE BIGGEST CLOWN for allowing myself to be influenced by these critics. Honestly feel like crap right now. I might watch Turning Red after this, it might also be a good one.
Edit: AHHH THAT TYPO IN THE TITLE IS KILLING ME. Can’t edit now.

Part 1 here if you haven't read.
Chapter 3: A Fallen King
After the shock events in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 10, Omega has one thing on his mind, Devitt's IWGP Heavyweight Championship. During Fantastica Mania, Omega sets the challenge out to Devitt after winning a 6-man tag with the Young Bucks against Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii. Omega is later announced as the number 1 contender to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, with a match set for The New Beginning in Osaka.
The New Beginning in Osaka:
Kenny Omega def. King Devitt (c) to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
At The New Beginning in Osaka, Omega and Devitt wrestle for 33 minutes with Devitt LOSING TO OMEGA!! OMEGA HITS DEVITT WITH A ONE WINGED ANGEL AND TAKES THE IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP HOME WITH HIM! THE KING HAS BEEN DETHRONED! Devitt's first reign with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship ends at 221 days.
New Japan Cup:
Next for Devitt is the New Japan Cup, where in the first round he is placed against Hiroyoshi Tenzan, who he beats after a Bloody Sunday in a 12 minute bout. In the quarters, its a fierce confrontation against Bad Luck Fale, who he also beats. In the semis, its a wonderful performance from Hirooki Goto but its not enough to beat Devitt. And now, the finals of the New Japan Cup 2016 is Prince Devitt vs Tetsuya Naito and after 25 minutes Prince Devitt is SUCCESSFUL IN WINNING THE NEW JAPAN CUP, PINNING NAITO FOR THE 3 COUNT AFTER HITTING HIM WITH A BLOODY SUNDAY! When asked who he wants to face after his win, the answer is as clear as day. HE WANTS THE FUCKING OMEGA REMATCH AT INVASION ATTACK!
Invasion Attack:
Kenny Omega (c) def. Prince Devitt to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
At Invasion Attack, the Prince has the perfect opportunity to get rid of the Cleaner by embarrassing him and taking his belt away on his first defense. A 21 minute bout, Devitt finds himself on the losing end once again after a trifecta of V-Triggers and a One Winged Angel. Devitt lashes out after the loss, pushing away Taguchi who tried consoling his tag partner and storming away from the arena.
Devitt disappears for a few months, until his return at Destruction in Tokyo, attacking Omega after a successful defense against Hiroshi Tanahashi. Devitt is painted red, later revealing its a symbol of the demons that were contained inside of him, but now? They're free. This sets up a match at King of Pro-Wrestling where if Devitt loses, he can't challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as long as Omega is in New Japan.
King of Pro-Wrestling
Kenny Omega (c) def. Prince Devitt to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (As Devitt lost, he can no longer challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as long as Kenny Omega is in New Japan)
Despite a killer contest between the two, with Devitt kicking out of multiple V-Triggers and Omega kicking out of the Bloody Sunday, ITS ADAM FUCKING COLE BAY BAY! Cole runs in and hits Devitt with the Florida Keys on the outside and rolling him back in the ring so Omega can finish Devitt off once and for all with the One Winged Angel, retaining his title and ensuring Devitt can no longer challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for as long as he's there.
Chapter 4: Foreign Excursion
Devitt has a clear goal in mind now after being restricted from obtaining the biggest prize he could have won. Or well, what he thought was the biggest as it turns out the man that fucked him over at King of Pro-Wrestling is the ROH World Champion. Devitt finds himself travelling across continents for his next pursuit. He invades Glory by Honor, attacking Cole after his 8-man tag match and demanding a ROH World Championship match. Cole tells Devitt this isn't Japan and if he wants the title match, he has to properly earn it. Devitt says he'll do it by any means necessary. This leads to Devitt's inclusion in a Survival of the Fittest qualifying match at the aforementioned PPV against Punishment Martinez.
Survival of the Fittest:
Prince Devitt def. Punishment Martinez to earn a spot in the Survival of the Fittest elimination match
Devitt finds himself unlucky on paper in this encounter, coming up against one of the toughest men in ROH. It makes no difference to him however, as he beats Martinez with a Bloody Sunday to put him one step closer to that ROH World Championship.
Prince Devitt def. Lio Rush, Bobby Fish, Jax Dane, Dalton Castle and The Punisher to win the Survival of the Fittest elimination match for the No.1 Contendership to the ROH World Championship
Devitt runs riot over the members of the ROH roster, eliminating every single one of them with a Bloody Sunday in quickish fashion to earn the right to face Adam Cole for the ROH World Championship. Cole came out after the match, mockingly congratulating Devitt on his win. Devitt invites him to share the ring with him which Cole does. He then extends his hand out to Cole as a sign of respect. Cole surprisingly goes for it BUT WAIT... DEVITT HITS HIM WITH THE BLOODY SUNDAY! Devitt picks up the ROH Championship and raises it above his head as the fans chant Devitt's name.
Road to Final Battle:
Cole and Devitt meet in the ring on the last ROH show before Final Battle, where Cole decides to add a little twist to the mix. He calls for the match to be a No Holds Barred match to which Devitt is more than willing to participate in. The two reluctantly shake on it before butting heads with each other.
Final Battle:
Prince Devitt def. Adam Cole (c) to win the ROH World Championship
Devitt's pursuit for gold since losing the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the start of the year has been tough, but after 27 minutes in the ring with Adam Cole, Devitt can now consider himself the NEW RING OF HONOR WORLD CHAMPION! Devitt pinned Cole for the 3 count after hitting him with the same Diving Double Foot Stomp to the head that he put Anderson down with. Cole offers his hand out to Devitt after the match and Devitt accepts, showing a respect for each other. Devitt's celebration doesn't last long however, as a man who made his debut earlier in the night, Cody, came out to the ring, supposedly to challenge Devitt to a match. Cody completely avoids Devitt however and has his sights set on Cole. Cody grabs a mic and asks Cole for a match at the ROH 15th Anniversary Show. Cole accepts the match and the two shake on it. Cody pics up his mic again and says "Oh, and one more thing.." before HITTING DEVITT WITH A CROSS RHODES! Cole laughs as Cody reveals himself as the newest member of Bullet Club. Cole then tells Cody to pick up Devitt near the corner, allowing him to hit a Panama Sunrise.
Road to WK11:
On an episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, Cole decides to invoke his rematch clause against Devitt, wishing for the match to occur at Wrestle Kingdom 11. Devitt initially declines his offer but after a video is played on the titantron of The Young Bucks beating up Taguchi, he has no choice but to accept it now it's personal.
Wrestle Kingdom 11:
Adam Cole def. Prince Devitt (c) to win the ROH World Championship
Devitt's reign as ROH World Champion comes to a very premature end, losing the title in just over a month to the man he beat for the title at Final Battle. Cody screws Devitt in this match, hitting him with a Cross Rhodes on the outside and tossing him back in the ring before Cole added the final touch, hitting a Panama Sunrise to end the Prince's reign of Ring of Honor.
Chapter 5: The End of the Prince
Fantastica Mania:
Prince Devitt, Rysuke Taguchi, Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Kyle O' Reilly def. Bullet Club (Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson and Cody)
Devitt, alongside Taguchi find themselves acquiring the services of Matt Sydal and Ricochet, as well as the No.1 Contender to Cole's ROH World Championship, Kyle O' Reilly. The match lasts 16 minutes and ends with Sydal picking up a pinfall victory over Nick Jackson after hitting him with a Shooting Star Press. After the match, Devitt decided to lay into Cody a bit more, hitting him with a Bloody Sunday and putting the offer out for a match at The New Beginning in Sapporo. Cody grabs the mic while grounded as the winning team exit and accepts Devitt's challenge, calling him a coward bastard.
The New Beginning in Sapporo:
Cody def. Prince Devitt
Devitt's singles woes continues as he suffers another loss to Cody, who puts him away after a trifecta of Cross Rhodes. Cody adds insult to injury by injuring the shoulder of Balor by slamming it with a steel chair repeatedly. This causes Devitt to have to take time out, meaning he'll miss the G1 Climax and potentially big PPV's such as Dominion.
King of Pro-Wrestling:
Ryusuke Taguchi def. Cody (c) to win the IWGP US Championship
After reaggravating his injury, causing him to spend a while longer on the shelf, Devitt made his return to New Japan at King of Pro-Wrestling, aiding Taguchi in defeating Cody to win the IWGP US Championship. Devitt then extends the offer to one more match at Global Wars, which Cody accepts, before getting hit with a Bloody Sunday
Global Wars:
Prince Devitt def. Cody
Devitt finally avenges his loss at The New Beginning in Sapporo by beating Cody in this 17 minute match. Devitt successfully got the pinfall on Cody after a Reverse Bloody Sunday from the 2nd rope. Devitt decides to return the favour from Sapporo, injuring the shoulder of Cody with a steel chair before the Bullet Club come out to save Cody.
Power Struggle:
Prince Devitt def. Hangman Page
Hangman Page decides to step up to the plate in order to avenge his fallen teammate by beating him at Power Struggle. 22 minutes later however and Hangman Page finds himself laid out on the mat after getting hit with a Bloody Sunday and pinned for a 3 count. Cody appears on the titantron and says he wants to finish this at Wrestle Kingdom 12, in the same way he finished AJ Styles off 2 years prior, in a Loser Leaves NJPW match. Devitt says one less member of the Bullet Club is a success for him and accepts the challenge without thinking about the potential consequences this may bring towards him.
Wrestle Kingdom 12:
Cody def. Prince Devitt in a Loser Leaves NJPW match
Despite hitting 2 Bloody Sunday's in this spectacular encounter, Devitt finds himself coming up short in this 36 minute match, getting pinned for the 3 count after an out of this world Cross Rhodes from the second rope. After the match, Omega, the Bucks and Page come out, supposedly to send Devitt out of New Japan painfully. Surprisingly not, as Omega offers his hand out to Devitt as an ultimate sign of respect. Confetti begins spraying across the arena as Devitt is reduced to tears. Cody is against all of this and after Devitt, The Bucks and Page leave the ring, he HITS OMEGA WITH A CROSS RHODES! BULLET CLUB IS IMPLODING! The Bucks and Page run to the ring to confront Cody but NICK TURNS ON MATT, HITTING HIM WITH A SUPERKICK! While all this commotion occurs in the ring, Devitt watches from the rampway, smiling as he leaves New Japan with his main goal the past 4 years finally completed.
Epilogue:
Who knew that all it would take to destroy the Bullet Club would be a handshake? A 4-year rivalry which will go down in the history books, Devitt fought to the last 3 seconds, hoping that one day he'll find his own creation being destroyed. And while Bullet Club would eventually reunite, Devitt still managed to achieve part of his plan. Throughout this rivalry, he found himself butting heads with many members of Bullet Club, including Omega, Styles, Anderson and Gallows, Omega (again), The Bucks, Takahashi, Page, Cole and most importantly Cody. During that time, Devitt managed to pick up his fourth IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship, his first ROH World Championship as well as winning the 2016 New Japan Cup. Overall, wherever this version of Devitt goes to next, you can guarentee he'll tear the competition down.

Hi everyone,
I will be visiting a friend who lives in a different country this summer and I want to build him a PC as his laptop is dying. My budget is around £600. He will not be able to purchase any more components after the initial build so an upgrade path is not necessary.
I chose a 5600G due to the integrated graphics meaning that if somewhere down the line the GPU fails the PC will still be useable.
He will be using the build almost exclusively for gaming (WoW and Civ are the two main games) at 1080p.
Any advice on the following build would be greatly appreciated!
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor	£114.67 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	£90.99 @ Box Limited
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	£40.99 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Patriot P300 512 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	£29.99 @ Amazon UK
Video Card	ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card	£235.19 @ Newegg UK
Case	Montech AIR 100 LITE MicroATX Mid Tower Case	£36.94 @ Box Limited
Power Supply	Corsair TX550M Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	£63.95 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£612.72
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-20 21:28 GMT+0000