🔸No incentives given for this review
🔸TS Linda WeChat ID HG188198
🔸Paid 3500 RMB for the Jumbo and 2900 for the Medium CF (GB discount included)
🔸Shipping carrier DHL 580 with box and 420 no box
🔸 Order Timeline: 6/27enquired on GB and paid for 2 Jumbos 7/3was advised no LGHW available on Jumbos. Changed order details** 10/4 Received PSP of Medium CF 10/27** was advised Taupe leather is out of stock, offered refund or wait another month 11/18 *Received Medium CF *12/26 Received PSP of Jumbo CF 1/10Received Jumbo CF

Photos

Jumbo and Medium Size Comparison
GF Medium CF comparison to Auth

God Factory

👜Lamb Skin Quilted Jumbo Double Flap Taupe Beige Clair RHW
No factory photos, it was a special order from the GB.
Factory Photos in size C25 GHW
PSP
My Photos
Auth same colour but in caviar
COST 3500RMB GB Price=$560USD
👜Caviar Quilted Medium Double Flap Light Pink LGHW
Factory Photos in regular GHW
PSP
My Photos
Auth in Beige
Auth Reference from 2014 Cruise Collection. It’s a pale light pink that almost look nude
COST 2900RMB GB Price=$450USD
I have always wanted to try out God Factory since joining this sub. Linda’s Group Buy gave me the push to do it.
Being able to special order any Chanel is a dream! I remember being in the Chanel Boutique inside Bellagio in Vegas, they had the biggest hidden wall FULL of classic flaps with the most sizes and colours I have EVER seen. I think these special order GBs are just as good lol.
Originally, I picked out 2 variations I wanted in the Jumbo size. I was quoted 2-4 weeks at least. I asked for 2 Jumbos in LGHW on Light Pink Caviar and LGHW on Taupe Lamb skin.
A few days later, Linda messaged to tell me that they don’t have LGHW in the Jumbo size, I settled for a medium size in the light pink and changed the Taupe Lamb skin to RHW. The Jumbo was 3500RMB so I banked 600RMB for future purchases. The medium GB price was 2900RMB.
For those of you whom have participated in Group Buy, you would know that the wait time is longer than usual! Linda is usually pretty speedy with her orders. Like same week PSP and same month delivery kind of speedy. The GB took much longer.

Joint Quality Assessment

J U M B O

Quality - Rating 9.5/10

M E D I U M F L A P

Quality - Rating 10/10

Construction: (-0.5) the side of the Jumbo was damaged (minor) during shipping. The leather was creased. I think I can get it to smooth out with usage. The damage was not in the PSP so I assume it happened during transport.
Craftsmanship: excellent all around. I use to own a lamb skin Jumbo from 187 and the overall feel is very similar. Here are the pictures from when I had it. If I had to compare, I think 187 was a tiny bit better in my option. Both medium and Jumbo CFs were very well made.
Leather finishing: Medium shine and softness. I think the puffiness of the quilting is perfect for my preference for both sizes.
Durability: Excellent as well. It definitely feels well made and very high quality for both.
Stitching: Clean and straight. No loose stitch. For both.
Hardware: Both LGHW and RHW are very shiny and beautifully plated.
Weight: Substantial but not heavy.
Scent-slight fufu but not obvious so no points deducted.

Accuracy Assessment

J U M B O

Accuracy - Rating 9/10

Measurement (Shape and proportion) consistent with Auth: GF Jumbo Measurements Base Length: 11.75 in Height: 7.25 in Width: 3.5 in Drop: 13.5 in Drop: 24 in
Diamond quilting alignment: front and back both have continuous and uniform alignment.
Back Pocket: After further investigation, there are many variations in the back pocket placement in authentic Jumbos. Not deducting any points. Reference photos Here and comparison photo Here.
Colour: I couldn’t find an exact authentic reference but the taupe is consistent with the 20 series.
Interior: interior fully leather lined. No creasing, no glue.
Hardware tone and shape: Consistent with auth. The double chain strap have substantial weight with the leather threaded through it. Clean stitching like auth.
Grommets: (-0.5) they are a tiny bit thicker than auth. in the Jumbo but no variations in the Medium CF.
Chain Mechanism: Deducted (-0.50) because the double strap does not move freely between the 2 lengths when the flap is in a closed position.
Engravings: “Chanel Made in Paris” correctly engraved on the front button and back plate of the front flap. Photo of back plate
Logo hot stamps and Type face: Correct Font on foil stamp. The font on the serial sticker is correct but not perfect. I have never seen them perfect from any factory.

M E D I U M F L A P

Accuracy- Rating 10/10

Measurement (Shape and proportion) both consistent with Auth: GF Medium Flap Measurement Length: 10 in Height: 6 in Width: 2.5 in Drop: 9.25 in Drop: 17.5 in
Diamond quilting alignment: front and back both have continuous and uniform alignment. See comparison photos in photo section.
Colour: I couldn’t find an exact authentic reference but the light pink with LGHW is consistent with the 2014 Cruise collection. In some lighting it looks light beige but it’s definitely light pink in real life.
Interior: interior fully leather lined. No creasing, no glue.
Hardware tone and shape: Consistent with auth. The double chain strap have substantial weight with the leather threaded through it. Clean stitching like auth. The grommets size are consistent with auth as well.
Chain Mechanism: Chain move freely between the 2 lengths when the flap is in a closed position.
Engravings: “Chanel Made in Paris” correctly engraved on the underside of the CC turn lock flap.Photo of Back Plate
Logo hot stamps and Type face: Correct Font on foil stamp. The font on the serial sticker is correct but not perfect. I have never seen them perfect from any factory.

Satisfaction - Rating 9/10

God factory is exactly what I expected. The quality is high tier and I’m happy to have gotten the GB discount. Minus (-1.0) because I couldn’t get the LGHW in the Jumbo size. That would have been perfect.

Seller Communication and Service - Rating 9/10

I honestly don’t think Linda forgot my order or anything but God Factory seems to be extremely difficult to work with. First they said okay to the Jumbo LGHW and than it’s not available. When the Taupe Jumbo was “being made” , the leather ran out of stock 4 months later (what???) ...it took 5 months to get the Medium CF and 6 months to get the Jumbo made and delivered. I’d highly advise against GB if you can’t wait. (-1.0). I was okay to wait and knew about GB delays so I still gave Linda a high score.
Both of these bags are fantastic. I’m definitely going to pick up a Jumbo from God Factory in caviar in the future. If you have one I’d love to see you link some photos in the comments. On the initial group buy post, they mentioned we don’t see as many God Factory reviews because they don’t have as many GBs. The quality is no less than 187 in my opinion.
And that’s it from me! Stay tune for another Chanel review I’m working on. See ya!

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and you should always do your own due diligence.
Disclosure: 926 commons (9th biggest SPAC holding, <5% of account). No positions in SKLZ (sold at $18 sad boi noises).
TL;DR: ACAC has a DA with Playstudios (PS). Edit: Accidentally said playstation studios instead of Playstudios. Definitely seems undervalued with near NAV share price. However, this is a very different company/value prop than SKLZ and has had no DAU growth in the last 3 years (although revenue growth is strong) which doesn't give it a lot of short term growth potential like other SPACs. There is potential long term value if online gambling is legalized.
Context/Summary:

• I was confused why ACAC is at <11 after DA (it did go up to 14 in AH) thinking it was similar to SKLZ so I read through the investor presentations to see what's up.
• The value prop of the two companies is extremely different. PS is a game developer with <10 games while SKLZ is a gaming platform integrating with 1000s of game developers.
• PS actually has better financials with ~10% more revenue in 2020 and similar growth rates the next couple years. They are also profitable unlike SKLZ. However, SKLZ as a platform has a ton more growth potential in the coming years.
• The most troubling aspect of PS is that they have had no DAU growth in 3 years, however they could be a long term hold if PS is able to smartly use the cash they're raising to acquire games/users.
• Final judgement: If you're throwing money at SPACs close to NAV but don't like waiting, this could be a smart play to get a 20-30% pop in the next month or two as the merger nears instead. This could also be a good long term play as the earnings multiple is extremely conservative. However, this is not going to 2-5x your investment like an EV play or have the upside of fintech plays.

Here are the links to the investor presentations:
PS: https://playstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PLAYSTUDIOS-Presentation_Public_2021-2-1.pdf
SKLZ: https://investors.skillz.com/overview/default.aspx
​
High level value prop:
PS: Surprised to see that they only have like 6 mobile games, but their value prop is a strong real-world loyalty program where users can redeem rewards at well known partners such as MGM, Bellagio, Royal Cruise Lines, Cirque du Soleil. This is what's driving their strong revenue growth.
SKLZ: Integrates with iOS and Android games to allow players to compete with other players. So this is a full blown platform with them partnering with over 10,000 partners, 1.6B in GMV (note: NOT revenue, just volume of interactions which they take a cut out of) and 2B tournaments per year. This potential to expand as a platform is why they're valued a lot higher than PS even with similar revenue numbers in 2020.
Financials:
Revenue:

• PS: 2020Expected -> 2022Expected: 270M -> 435M
• SKLZ: 2020Expected -> 2022Expected: 225M -> 555M

AEBITDA:

• PS: 2020Expected -> 2022Expected: 30M -> 90M
• SKLZ: 2020Expected -> 2022Expected: -47M -> 8M

Transaction details:

• PS:
  • ACAC has 215M in trust and will be giving PS a 1.04B evaluation which is 4x revenue
  • 12 month lockup and investors include BlackRock, MGM
• SKLZ:
  • FEAC had 690M in trust and gave SKLZ a 3.5B evaluation which is 15x revenue
  • 24 month lockup (didn't include major PIPE investment)

The good:
PS:

• Strong revenue growth the last 4 years, averaging about 19% y/y
• 52 minutes per DAU, more than TikTok, YouTube, FB

SKLZ:

• Strong revenue + game developer growth. Growing # of games with > 1B worth of market transactions on the platform.
• 62 minutes per day, more than Tik Tok, YouTube, Facebook, etc.

The bad:
PS:

• FLAT DAU growth the last 3 years, in fact it looks like they have slightly less DAU now than they did in April 2017
• No economies of scale. They need to keep churning out games to succeed IMO as otherwise players will get bored and go somewhere else. This is why their revenue multiple is probably so low compared to SKLZ.

SKLZ:

• None really based off the investor presentation, there are usual risks to their strategy (competitors, scaling costs), but otherwise they look like a promising company (although idk about their current price, and didn't focus on whether or not I should buy their stock).

Forward looking strategy (Playstudios only):
The DAU growth trend is extremely troubling, but this is what's in the pipeline for them to reverse the trend: They already have two games close to launch, one of them being Bingo and apparently Bingo is super popular with the boomers. They'll also be using the 215M they're getting in cash to acquire new games and users. Basically their future will be heavily dependent on their success of acquiring new games/expanding developing abilities.
The positive takeaway from their presentation is that they have strong cross platform growth (as in players from one game go to new games) and all their games had 150K+ sustained DAU on the new games within 3 weeks of launch.

I spent several hours this past week coaching traders at my prop firm. And something caught my attention…
Every single one of these traders needed help with the same thing.
It has to do with what I call the “reverse” gambler’s fallacy. And it’s something many traders struggle with.
Today, I’ll show you how to get this common obstacle under control… and start earning more consistent returns year after year…
What Most New Traders Get Wrong
The obstacle I’m talking about is trading psychology. It’s a very broad term used to describe the emotional side of trading.
Almost all new traders believe the most important part of trading is being able to analyze markets like a pro.
On the surface, this logic makes sense. After all, if you can reliably forecast which direction to take on a trade, the money should take care of itself… right?
What these novices don’t yet understand is that something special happens the moment you commit your money to a trade…
You start feeling things.
Whether it’s fear, excitement, anxiety, or a mix of all three, no one is immune to these emotions. And they can wreak havoc on even the best planned trades.
You may be able to call the direction, the timing, and the target price to perfection… But it can all be for nothing if you are unable to stick to your trade plan.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen traders plan out a great trade… But then ended up somehow losing money, or not being in the market when the move they’d forecast played out.
So how do you beat your emotions to become a better, more consistent trader? It comes down to the three key parts of trading. Let me explain…
The Three-Legged Stool of Trading
I think of trading as a three-legged stool.
Your methodology/strategy for picking trades is the first leg. Your risk- and trade-management strategy is the second leg. And the third leg is your trading psychology.
In my experience, most traders focus on the first leg (strategy and methodology), and they neglect the other two legs. But the stool needs all three legs to stand on its own.
Over the years, I’ve honed my own proprietary method to develop well-rounded traders. Here’s what I’ve learned…
The first fundamental building block of a profitable trader is to establish a proven strategy/methodology you can use to identify good trades. In my experience, everything follows from this foundation.
How you manage your risk and your trades should be determined by the strategies you employ. Your trading psychology likewise will be influenced by your approach to risk and trade management.
I’ve seen other trading instructors assign arbitrary percentage values to the three legs of the trading stool. Usually these values are divided up like this: 30% to the level of importance on the analytical strategy, 30% to risk and trade management, and 40% to trading psychology.
But I don’t believe that any one leg is more important than the other. And yet I’ve found that, more often than not, traders neglect risk/trade management and psychology.
So how do you stop neglecting these two important areas to become a more well-rounded trader? That’s where our reverse gambler’s fallacy comes in…
​
Time to Ditch the Casino Mentality
There is one block that seems to stop traders from progressing to working on the other two legs.
That is, they don’t know how to flip the switch from thinking about their trades as individual trades in a vacuum… to thinking about them as a collection that relies on a statistical edge to net a profit.
Most traders run into this problem at some point in their careers. And if you’re frustrated with your trading right now, chances are you may be struggling with this, too.
It’s known as the casino mentality. And it’s the same mindset that amateur gamblers will take with them into Caesars Palace or the Bellagio.
It doesn’t matter if they’re seated at the blackjack table or standing over the roulette wheel. Most gamblers believe that the hand or spin they are about to play is the opportunity to hit a winner.
After all, if the roulette wheel has landed four black spins in a row, the next one surely must be red, right?
In reality, the chances of the roulette ball landing on black or red is even, at about 47.4% each. This means each spin is independent of the last.
This is also known as the gambler’s fallacy. What’s interesting is that I’ve observed a kind of reverse gambler’s fallacy from many traders…
This occurs when a trader, who does in fact have a statistically proven strategy, goes on a losing streak… And then instead of continuing to trust their strategy, they abandon it altogether.
How to Avoid the “Reverse” Gambler’s Fallacy
I saw this logical fallacy in effect this past week during one of my coaching calls.
The trader I was coaching had recently taken a technical setup that simply did not work. He was convinced he had done something wrong and wanted my help in improving his analysis.
But his analysis was great.
He didn’t do anything wrong in identifying the setup, which was textbook in nature. But the setup looked so good that, when it resulted in a loss, the trader was convinced that he was the problem… That he did something wrong.
The lesson I imparted to him, which I now want to pass on to you, is this very simple truth…
Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever takes a trade thinking it is going to be a loser. Every single trade you take will be because you thought it would make you money.
Despite this feeling of confidence, out of 100 trades, you’d be lucky to win 50% of them.
That’s why a great trader is not defined by what percentage of their trades end up as winners or losers. A great trader is defined by whether or not they are net profitable after taking 100 trades.
If you win roughly as many trades as you lose, but your winners make you 2x or 3x the amount of money you give back on your losers, you will end up with a nice profit at the end of the year.
Remember, nobody ever takes a trade thinking it is not going to work out. This is why it is absolutely crucial to abandon the idea of thinking about your trades as individual trades.
Instead, start taking a more data-driven, statistical approach to your trading. What do I mean by that?
Keeping a longer-term perspective on your trading is the key to longevity in this business. What your numbers look like over the next 100, 200, or 300 trades is far more relevant and important than losing your cool because you lost a handful of trades in a row.
Of course, to be able to make it to 300 trades, you must have a rock-solid risk management plan in place.
I don’t see gamblers at the casino take a professional approach very often. It’s rare to see someone bet small and stick to the odds on every play. It’s far more common for gamblers to be all over the place with the size of their bets.
They may start off betting small, but after winning a couple of hands of blackjack, they get overconfident and take an outsized bet. Sure enough, on that next hand they go bust while the house just happens to hit blackjack.
This is how casinos make money from gamblers. And it’s how the market parts amateur traders from their capital.
No doubt, it takes a lot of hard work and discipline to make the transition from amateur to professional. But, I promise you, the rewards make it all worthwhile. Until next time.
Regards,

Tried uninstalling and reinstalling the AMD driver but am receiving errors. It was giving me trouble just booting, but in compatibility mode I just uninstalled the amdgpu from the terminal. I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong, though not sure what exactly. Below is the system info & log showing the errors. Could use some help, thank you in advance.
System:
OS : Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon
Cinnamon Version: 4.8.6
Linux Kernel: 5.4.0-65-generic
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor x6
Memory: 31.4 GiB
Hard Drive: 2048.4 GB
Graphics Card: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/-5600 XT / 5700 / 5700 XT]

./amdgpu-pro-install --opencl=pal,legacy,rocm deb [ trusted=yes ] file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local/ ./ Get:1 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ InRelease Ign:1 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ InRelease Get:2 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ Release [816 B] Get:2 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ Release [816 B] Get:3 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ Release.gpg Ign:3 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ Release.gpg Get:4 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ Packages [106 kB] Ign:5 http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyssa InRelease Hit:6 http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyssa Release Hit:8 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease Hit:9 http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable InRelease Hit:10 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease Get:11 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [109 kB] Hit:12 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kdenlive/kdenlive-stable/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kritalime/ppa/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/lutris-team/lutris/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/obsproject/obs-studio/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/oibaf/graphics-drivers/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:18 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:19 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease Get:20 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease [101 kB] Hit:21 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:22 https://repo.steampowered.com/steam stable InRelease Fetched 210 kB in 4s (53.0 kB/s) Reading package lists... Done Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Selected version '20.20-1098277' (localhost [all]) for 'amdgpu-pro-pin' The following NEW packages will be installed: amdgpu-pro-pin 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/6,004 B of archives. After this operation, 32.8 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-pro-pin 20.20-1098277 [6,004 B] Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-pro-pin. (Reading database ... 446640 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../amdgpu-pro-pin_20.20-1098277_all.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-pro-pin (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up amdgpu-pro-pin (20.20-1098277) ... WARNING: This package was intended to be installed on Ubuntu 20.04 and may not w ork as expected on Linux Mint 20.1. Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following NEW packages will be installed: amdgpu-pin 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/2,684 B of archives. After this operation, 25.6 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-pin 20.20-1098277 [2,684 B] Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-pin. (Reading database ... 446653 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../amdgpu-pin_20.20-1098277_all.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-pin (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up amdgpu-pin (20.20-1098277) ... Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: amdgpu-core amdgpu-dkms-firmware amdgpu-lib amdgpu-pro-core gst-omx-amdgpu libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1 libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:i386 libdrm-amdgpu-common libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1 libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:i386 libdrm2-amdgpu libdrm2-amdgpu:i386 libegl1-amdgpu-mesa libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:i386 libegl1-amdgpu-pro libegl1-amdgpu-pro:i386 libgbm1-amdgpu libgbm1-amdgpu:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-pro-appprofiles libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-pro-ext libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx:i386 libglapi-amdgpu-mesa libglapi-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libglapi1-amdgpu-pro libglapi1-amdgpu-pro:i386 libgles1-amdgpu-mesa libgles1-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libgles2-amdgpu-mesa libgles2-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libgles2-amdgpu-pro libgles2-amdgpu-pro:i386 libllvm10.0-amdgpu libllvm10.0-amdgpu:i386 libomxil-bellagio-bin libomxil-bellagio0 libopencl1-amdgpu-pro libosmesa6-amdgpu libosmesa6-amdgpu:i386 libwayland-server0:i386 libxatracker2-amdgpu libxatracker2-amdgpu:i386 mesa-amdgpu-omx-drivers mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:i386 mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers:i386 opencl-amdgpu-pro-comgr xserver-xorg-amdgpu-video-amdgpu Suggested packages: libglide3 libglide3:i386 libomxil-bellagio0-components-base Recommended packages: libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0 | libtxc-dxtn0 libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386 | libtxc-dxtn0:i386 The following NEW packages will be installed: amdgpu amdgpu-core amdgpu-dkms amdgpu-dkms-firmware amdgpu-lib amdgpu-lib32 amdgpu-pro amdgpu-pro-core amdgpu-pro-lib32 clinfo-amdgpu-pro gst-omx-amdgpu libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1 libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:i386 libdrm-amdgpu-common libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1 libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:i386 libdrm2-amdgpu libdrm2-amdgpu:i386 libegl1-amdgpu-mesa libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:i386 libegl1-amdgpu-pro libegl1-amdgpu-pro:i386 libgbm1-amdgpu libgbm1-amdgpu:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-pro-appprofiles libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri:i386 libgl1-amdgpu-pro-ext libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx:i386 libglapi-amdgpu-mesa libglapi-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libglapi1-amdgpu-pro libglapi1-amdgpu-pro:i386 libgles1-amdgpu-mesa libgles1-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libgles2-amdgpu-mesa libgles2-amdgpu-mesa:i386 libgles2-amdgpu-pro libgles2-amdgpu-pro:i386 libllvm10.0-amdgpu libllvm10.0-amdgpu:i386 libomxil-bellagio-bin libomxil-bellagio0 libopencl1-amdgpu-pro libosmesa6-amdgpu libosmesa6-amdgpu:i386 libwayland-server0:i386 libxatracker2-amdgpu libxatracker2-amdgpu:i386 mesa-amdgpu-omx-drivers mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:i386 mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers:i386 opencl-amdgpu-pro-comgr opencl-amdgpu-pro-icd opencl-orca-amdgpu-pro-icd vulkan-amdgpu-pro vulkan-amdgpu-pro:i386 xserver-xorg-amdgpu-video-amdgpu 0 upgraded, 67 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/192 MB of archives. After this operation, 1,244 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Get:1 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-dkms-firmware 1:5.6.0.15-1098277 [4,437 kB] Get:2 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-dkms 1:5.6.0.15-1098277 [5,493 kB] Get:3 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-core 20.20-1098277 [2,216 B] Get:4 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libdrm2-amdgpu 1:2.4.100-1098277 [35.6 kB] Get:5 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libdrm-amdgpu-common 1.0.0-1098277 [4,620 B] Get:6 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1 1:2.4.100-1098277 [21.1 kB] Get:7 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1 1:2.4.100-1098277 [22.3 kB] Get:8 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libllvm10.0-amdgpu 1:10.0-1098277 [15.2 MB] Get:9 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers 1:20.0.5-1098277 [2,187 kB] Get:10 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libglapi-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [25.2 kB] Get:11 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri 1:20.0.5-1098277 [7,263 kB] Get:12 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libdrm2-amdgpu 1:2.4.100-1098277 [38.0 kB] Get:13 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1 1:2.4.100-1098277 [23.7 kB] Get:14 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1 1:2.4.100-1098277 [23.8 kB] Get:15 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libllvm10.0-amdgpu 1:10.0-1098277 [17.3 MB] Get:16 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers 1:20.0.5-1098277 [2,054 kB] Get:17 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libglapi-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [24.8 kB] Get:18 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri 1:20.0.5-1098277 [7,129 kB] Get:19 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libxatracker2-amdgpu 1:20.0.5-1098277 [1,417 kB] Get:20 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgbm1-amdgpu 1:20.0.5-1098277 [26.5 kB] Get:21 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libegl1-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [102 kB] Get:22 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers 1:20.0.5-1098277 [4,344 B] Get:23 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgles1-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [8,288 B] Get:24 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgles2-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [12.0 kB] Get:25 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx 1:20.0.5-1098277 [141 kB] Get:26 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libosmesa6-amdgpu 1:20.0.5-1098277 [3,609 kB] Get:27 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers 1:20.0.5-1098277 [2,611 kB] Get:28 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ mesa-amdgpu-omx-drivers 1:20.0.5-1098277 [2,201 kB] Get:29 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ xserver-xorg-amdgpu-video-amdgpu 1:19.1.0-1098277 [58.1 kB] Get:30 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ gst-omx-amdgpu 1.0.0.1-1098277 [58.5 kB] Get:31 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-lib 20.20-1098277 [2,140 B] Get:32 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu 20.20-1098277 [1,688 B] Get:33 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libxatracker2-amdgpu 1:20.0.5-1098277 [1,212 kB] Get:34 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgbm1-amdgpu 1:20.0.5-1098277 [28.0 kB] Get:35 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libegl1-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [109 kB] Get:36 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers 1:20.0.5-1098277 [4,344 B] Get:37 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgles1-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [8,292 B] Get:38 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgles2-amdgpu-mesa 1:20.0.5-1098277 [11.9 kB] Get:39 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx 1:20.0.5-1098277 [150 kB] Get:40 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libosmesa6-amdgpu 1:20.0.5-1098277 [3,414 kB] Get:41 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers 1:20.0.5-1098277 [2,515 kB] Get:42 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-lib32 20.20-1098277 [1,832 B] Get:43 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-pro-core 20.20-1098277 [5,556 B] Get:44 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-pro-appprofiles 20.20-1098277 [21.9 kB] Get:45 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx 20.20-1098277 [189 kB] Get:46 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libegl1-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [27.6 kB] Get:47 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgles2-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [19.5 kB] Get:48 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libglapi1-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [72.8 kB] Get:49 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-pro-ext 20.20-1098277 [86.4 kB] Get:50 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri 20.20-1098277 [10.5 MB] Get:51 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [5,332 B] Get:52 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx 20.20-1098277 [193 kB] Get:53 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libegl1-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [34.4 kB] Get:54 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgles2-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [34.6 kB] Get:55 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libglapi1-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [63.6 kB] Get:56 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri 20.20-1098277 [11.6 MB] Get:57 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ amdgpu-pro-lib32 20.20-1098277 [5,088 B] Get:58 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ libopencl1-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [13.3 kB] Get:59 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ clinfo-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [149 kB] Get:60 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ opencl-amdgpu-pro-comgr 20.20-1098277 [27.5 MB] Get:61 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ opencl-amdgpu-pro-icd 20.20-1098277 [21.5 MB] Get:62 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ opencl-orca-amdgpu-pro-icd 20.20-1098277 [29.2 MB] Get:63 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ vulkan-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [5,946 kB] Get:64 file:/vaopt/amdgpu-pro-local ./ vulkan-amdgpu-pro 20.20-1098277 [6,013 kB] Extracting templates from packages: 100% Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-dkms-firmware. (Reading database ... 446666 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../amdgpu-dkms-firmware_5.6.0.15-1098277_all.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-dkms-firmware (1:5.6.0.15-1098277) ... Setting up amdgpu-dkms-firmware (1:5.6.0.15-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-dkms. (Reading database ... 447044 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../0-amdgpu-dkms_5.6.0.15-1098277_all.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-dkms (1:5.6.0.15-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-core. Preparing to unpack .../1-amdgpu-core_20.20-1098277_all.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-core (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdrm2-amdgpu:i386. Preparing to unpack .../2-libdrm2-amdgpu_2.4.100-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libdrm2-amdgpu:i386 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdrm-amdgpu-common. Preparing to unpack .../3-libdrm-amdgpu-common_1.0.0-1098277_all.deb ... Unpacking libdrm-amdgpu-common (1.0.0-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:i386. Preparing to unpack .../4-libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1_2.4.100-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:i386 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:i386. Preparing to unpack .../5-libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1_2.4.100-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:i386 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libllvm10.0-amdgpu:i386. Preparing to unpack .../6-libllvm10.0-amdgpu_10.0-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libllvm10.0-amdgpu:i386 (1:10.0-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:i386. Preparing to unpack .../7-mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libglapi-amdgpu-mesa:i386. Preparing to unpack .../8-libglapi-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libglapi-amdgpu-mesa:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up amdgpu-core (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libdrm2-amdgpu:i386 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Setting up libdrm-amdgpu-common (1.0.0-1098277) ... Setting up libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:i386 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Setting up libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:i386 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Setting up libllvm10.0-amdgpu:i386 (1:10.0-1098277) ... Setting up mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri:i386. (Reading database ... 449002 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../0-libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdrm2-amdgpu:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../1-libdrm2-amdgpu_2.4.100-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libdrm2-amdgpu:amd64 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../2-libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1_2.4.100-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:amd64 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../3-libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1_2.4.100-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:amd64 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libllvm10.0-amdgpu:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../4-libllvm10.0-amdgpu_10.0-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libllvm10.0-amdgpu:amd64 (1:10.0-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../5-mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libglapi-amdgpu-mesa:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../6-libglapi-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libglapi-amdgpu-mesa:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up libdrm2-amdgpu:amd64 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Setting up libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1:amd64 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Setting up libdrm-amdgpu-radeon1:amd64 (1:2.4.100-1098277) ... Setting up libllvm10.0-amdgpu:amd64 (1:10.0-1098277) ... Setting up mesa-amdgpu-va-drivers:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri:amd64. (Reading database ... 449038 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../00-libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-dri:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libxatracker2-amdgpu:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../01-libxatracker2-amdgpu_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libxatracker2-amdgpu:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgbm1-amdgpu:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../02-libgbm1-amdgpu_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libgbm1-amdgpu:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../03-libegl1-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../04-libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgles1-amdgpu-mesa:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../05-libgles1-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libgles1-amdgpu-mesa:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgles2-amdgpu-mesa:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../06-libgles2-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libgles2-amdgpu-mesa:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../07-libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libosmesa6-amdgpu:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../08-libosmesa6-amdgpu_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libosmesa6-amdgpu:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../09-mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb .. . Unpacking mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libomxil-bellagio0. Preparing to unpack .../10-libomxil-bellagio0_0.9.3-4.1ubuntu1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libomxil-bellagio0 (0.9.3-4.1ubuntu1) ... Selecting previously unselected package mesa-amdgpu-omx-drivers:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../11-mesa-amdgpu-omx-drivers_20.0.5-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking mesa-amdgpu-omx-drivers:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package xserver-xorg-amdgpu-video-amdgpu. Preparing to unpack .../12-xserver-xorg-amdgpu-video-amdgpu_19.1.0-1098277_amd64 .deb ... Unpacking xserver-xorg-amdgpu-video-amdgpu (1:19.1.0-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package gst-omx-amdgpu. Preparing to unpack .../13-gst-omx-amdgpu_1.0.0.1-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking gst-omx-amdgpu (1.0.0.1-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-lib. Preparing to unpack .../14-amdgpu-lib_20.20-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-lib (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu. Preparing to unpack .../15-amdgpu_20.20-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libxatracker2-amdgpu:i386. Preparing to unpack .../16-libxatracker2-amdgpu_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libxatracker2-amdgpu:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libwayland-server0:i386. Preparing to unpack .../17-libwayland-server0_1.18.0-1_i386.deb ... Unpacking libwayland-server0:i386 (1.18.0-1) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgbm1-amdgpu:i386. Preparing to unpack .../18-libgbm1-amdgpu_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libgbm1-amdgpu:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:i386. Preparing to unpack .../19-libegl1-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:i386. Preparing to unpack .../20-libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb . .. Unpacking libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgles1-amdgpu-mesa:i386. Preparing to unpack .../21-libgles1-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libgles1-amdgpu-mesa:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgles2-amdgpu-mesa:i386. Preparing to unpack .../22-libgles2-amdgpu-mesa_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libgles2-amdgpu-mesa:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:i386. Preparing to unpack .../23-libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libosmesa6-amdgpu:i386. Preparing to unpack .../24-libosmesa6-amdgpu_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking libosmesa6-amdgpu:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers:i386. Preparing to unpack .../25-mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers_20.0.5-1098277_i386.deb ... Unpacking mesa-amdgpu-vdpau-drivers:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-lib32. Preparing to unpack .../26-amdgpu-lib32_20.20-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-lib32 (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package amdgpu-pro-core. Preparing to unpack .../27-amdgpu-pro-core_20.20-1098277_all.deb ... Unpacking amdgpu-pro-core (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgl1-amdgpu-pro-appprofiles. Preparing to unpack .../28-libgl1-amdgpu-pro-appprofiles_20.20-1098277_all.deb . .. Unpacking libgl1-amdgpu-pro-appprofiles (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../29-libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx_20.20-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libegl1-amdgpu-pro:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../30-libegl1-amdgpu-pro_20.20-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libegl1-amdgpu-pro:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libgles2-amdgpu-pro:amd64. Preparing to unpack .../31-libgles2-amdgpu-pro_20.20-1098277_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libgles2-amdgpu-pro:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Selecting previously unselected package libglapi1-amdgpu-pro:amd64. 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Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.4.0-65-generic (amd64) Consult /valib/dkms/amdgpu/5.6.0.15-1098277/build/make.log for more informatio n. dpkg: error processing package amdgpu-dkms (--configure): installed amdgpu-dkms package post-installation script subprocess returned erro r exit status 10 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of amdgpu: amdgpu depends on amdgpu-dkms (= 1:5.6.0.15-1098277); however: Package amdgpu-dkms is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing package amdgpu (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Setting up xserver-xorg-amdgpu-video-amdgpu (1:19.1.0-1098277) ... Setting up mesa-amdgpu-omx-drivers:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up libegl1-amdgpu-mesa:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-mesa-glx:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up amdgpu-pro-core (20.20-1098277) ... 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Package amdgpu-pro-hwe is not installed. dpkg: error processing package amdgpu-pro-lib32 (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Setting up libglapi1-amdgpu-pro:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libglapi1-amdgpu-pro:i386 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-pro-dri:i386 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-pro-appprofiles (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libegl1-amdgpu-pro:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libegl1-amdgpu-pro:i386 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:amd64 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up libegl1-amdgpu-mesa-drivers:i386 (1:20.0.5-1098277) ... Setting up libgles2-amdgpu-pro:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libgles2-amdgpu-pro:i386 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-pro-glx:i386 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up libgl1-amdgpu-pro-ext:amd64 (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up amdgpu-lib (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up clinfo-amdgpu-pro (20.20-1098277) ... Setting up amdgpu-lib32 (20.20-1098277) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-0ubuntu9.2) ... Errors were encountered while processing: amdgpu-dkms amdgpu amdgpu-pro amdgpu-pro-lib32 E: Sub-process /usbin/dpkg returned an error code (1) 

With 42 crisp hundreds lining my pocket and child-like wonder pulsating, Vegas was summoning me from the bowels of hell. But first, I had to take a little detour by Morongo Casino for no particular reason other than recently reading up about Jackson's Seminole Wars and Cherokee policy; felt like the right thing to do.
I smoke a few bowls from my apple piece and do some Tai Chi in the parking structure to immerse into the zone. Within the zone, I am as objective as a poker player as I can comprehend; once the zone crumbles to ego, I am a PLO donk from the pit of eternal suffering and going all in on long shot stock options. It's a perplexing duality to rationalize and live with, though I wouldn't have it any other way. I lost a wee bit under 10k two weeks before with said degeneracy; regardless, there I was harnessing my Chi in the parking structure to redeem myself - maybe I should have been volunteering at a soup kitchen or raising malnourished kittens instead of this self centered quest, but the journey had already commenced..
The only game with an open seat is a 5/10 and I sit down with $666 for my own amusement. The villain of this hand had accidentally revealed his cards to my peaking eyes a few hands before where he floated 2x and bombed a paired board with nothing against a nit. Having known this, I flatted his 3b to 105 with my QQ's because his range is too wide to rip it and checked to him when the board came T95 rainbow, surprisingly he checks back. Turn is a 4 (bringing in clubs) and I lead for 60 to hopefully induce - he flats. River is an offsuit Ace and I check it, he insta rips all in for 550 effective. I ruminate on quantum theory and my mother's abuse, then make the crying call only due to the fact that I saw his donkalicous play before. Sure enough, he flops over 57h and the trip is off to a BANG. After playing tight for another hour and as the table slowly began to break, I walk out with nearly a grand more to my name.
I sat in my Volvo wagon with an American spirit fading to my finger tips and Bach's E Major Partita emitting from mere mm's of my phone's speakers, I realized I had completed the most objective objective of this trip.. The only reason I set off was because my cello "broke" the day before and the degen tingles were too convincing without a bow in hand, now I had more than enough in profit to get my baby tuned up. But who the fuck has the time to act upon their conscience, I'm tryin to GAMBOL! "Vegas, here I come darlin."
I stopped in Barstow to force myself to vomit and then gently placed a tab of LSD under my tongue in ode to Dr. Gonzo. I tried deciphering some meaning in the vast array of stars as I wandered the barren Mojave and after coming up short, I was back to flooring it on the 15. My optics were melting a tad and the road did permeate with my breath, but not an ounce of fear radiated within. I sang my favorite songs from "O Brother Where Art Thou" and didn't think about my ex at all with "You Are My Sunshine," baby steps. With the dusk hue fading as rays of light mustered over the horizon, our beloved capitalist wasteland was within eye shot. Before I could render the inclination of a responsible thought, I was in the Bellagio parking lot smoking weed with some drunk broad beggin for a few bucks to throw on slots - "Ganja is the only charity I provide hon."
After a few orbits at 5/10 with a far too many regs that I recognized and getting a walk with Aces, I stand up right there n then and get the hell out of that nit fest. My soul was aching for 4 cards and there's no forsaking such a ravenous urge, Aria was my destiny.
Due to the fact that live 1/2/5 PLO is actually abbreviated for BINGO, most of my play was incredibly standard and not worth typing out. There was only one hand for which wasn't a cognitive snap decision against a 10/20 pro for whom I had top set and let 3 potential straight combos get there from foolish slow play; after a minute of deciphering the hand and his perception of my image, I called his $400 river bet and got the good news. Aside from that single hand, any domesticated chimp could have been in my seat and it wouldn't have made a difference; the hands played themselves out. After 72 hours of continuous grinding and gettin lucky at 5/5/10, I reached the sacred $4,200 in profit and doubled my trip's first stop loss amount (which I had no intention of adhering to).
With 84 mildly crumpled hundreds in my pocket and that same child-like wonder pulsating; here I am wandering the strip looking for the stories in all these confused faces. But conceptualizing the seemingly infinite dimensionality within even the simplest of folk is futile when I am just as confused; I hope the find what they are looking for or find that the looking is the fun part, who the fuck knows. I appears as though the next leg of my journey is to visit my childhood home in southern Utah and commit Felony arson in spite of my mother - or I might just keep degening away. Only time will tell.
​
Safe travels comrades.

SO at the beginning of this week, I got my first Stereoplasm order today and I think I am hooked.
First: the package was so fun to open and there were so many goodies. Candy, tea, samples, and, um, just a whole bottle of maple syrup! I am thoroughly delighted. Everything was wrapped beautifully, as well!
Second, TAT: I’ve been interested in Stereoplasm for a long time, but never ordered because I was worried about the shipping from Canada. I shouldn’t have worried, because shipping was free (on orders over $100) and fast via FedEx. I placed the order late 11/6, got a tracking number on 11/12, saw that the package was picked up on 11/16, and had it in hand on 11/18- 8 business days from order to delivery.
I ordered three of the 5-piece sets (Dawn, Baking, and Darkest Hour), which seemed like a good deal and a nice way to try a variety of scents, plus 4.5 ml bottles of The Autumn People and Pickerel Frog. Then there were a whoooole bunch of stacking freebies and tons more samples on top of those!
I tested some of these fairly early on, so where necessary I have updated the reviews after a few days of resting!
About my tastes: I am very into resins, incense, smoke, woods, leather, and dark musks. I don’t usually want to smell like a straight up cupcake, but I can do foodie scents as part of a complex gourmand perfume where they are balanced by musk or other notes. A lot of sweet and dessert-type notes go super plasticky on my skin, and I have trouble getting any perfume to last very long (2 hours is a LONG time for me). I dislike most florals, but again, if they are balanced properly, I can appreciate them.
My favorites: Sunday Morning, Mourning Glory, Gone Gnome, Snow Leopard
Least favorites: Nocturnal Light, Stretchy Cat, The Ghost Rockets, and Dark, Dark
Overall impressions: This was a great experience all around! I loved the packaging and I am a sucker for fun extras- there were plenty here! I also feel like Stereoplasm has some incredibly unique scents in the indie world. On one hand, this made it challenging to decide what to try, but on the other, it forced me out of my usual scent comfort zone and I tried and liked some perfumes I never would have gone for otherwise! My favorites from this order were totally unexpected.
Here’s the whole haul and my reviews:
DAWN:
Sun Blush (Nearly-naked (and perfectly ripe) fresh peach slices with a hint of ginger root, mulled Rosé wine and fresh marshmallow crème.) 7.5 ml
Sun Blush reminds me of a delicious rosé sangria! The wine note is the most prominent, dry and delicious. There is a bit of the peach and not much ginger. I want to smell the marshmallow, but I’m not picking up on it! This has really good throw until it fades on the later drydown, leaving behind a creamy peach skin scent.
Sunday Morning (*Banana popsicle, vintage furs, edelweiss and salted margarita.) 4.5 ml
I was scared of the banana popsicle note, and I will tell you why. Warning: this is TMI. When I was 10, I had my tonsils removed. When I woke up, I felt queasy, but I was told that I wouldn’t be able to go home unless I could eat something. “Something” ended up being a banana popsicle (a flavor I would not have chosen on my own). I ate the popsicle and immediately felt about 10 times sicker. When the nurse came back to check on me, I reached peak queasiness and vomited a mixture of blood and banana popsicle all over her. This was the first and only time I have ever eaten a banana popsicle. ANYWAY, the banana here is nice and mild and behaves itself. It combines with the salty margarita for a nice tropical feel. I wonder if a banana margarita would be any good? There’s a soft fuzzy musk underneath. This smells sunny and happy, but also soft and comfy and I like it WAY more than I thought I would. It’s a beautiful sunny morning and I am snuggled into soft blankets while a breeze flutters in through my open window. The Velvet Underground start playing in my head every time I sniff my wrist. I love this, and I might no longer have a negative association with banana popsicles! Good throw, and lasts for ages.
Autokinesis (Blueberry ozone, wild ravensara, crushed daisies, silver fir and phenolic catnip.) 4.5 ml
This smells like something from Lush, but I can’t figure out what. Maybe it just smells like a Lush store! I had to look up what ravensara is and apparently it has earthy citrus and licorice notes. The end result is that there is a little bit of everything in here- berries, citrus, pine, herb, florals, and a bit of a powdery vibe. I think that might be why, as it dries down, it just literally smells like a giant box of bath bombs. I don’t dislike it! It’s clean, complex and sort of tickles my nose. Decent throw, long lifespan.
Lights Across the Sky (Circles of sun-bleached wheat, twilight musk, English lavender and upturned fennel bulbs. Shaking saucers under steaming cups of Earl Grey sink into comforting vanilla cream.) 1.8 ml
Dry, grassy wheat, blending seamlessly into Earl Grey tea. The dryness makes me think of tea leaves and not actual cups of tea. This has great sillage when I first put it on! The fennel starts to come out, but it isn’t quite as fresh as I was hoping it would be. There is maybe a hint of creamy vanilla underneath everything, but this is mostly dry and herbal. The late drydown is lightly sweetened fennel tea; as it dries, it doesn’t have much throw. It’s very pleasant but I was hoping for something stronger and longer-lasting.
Stretchy Cat (Soothing green tea garnished with fresh lemon, mint and tangerine peel served with a big bowl of bergamot-zest sorbet)
The citrus here is overwhelming and astringent to the point where it smells like a cleaning product. There is a lot of mint, too, which has a cooling effect but kind of adds to the overall chemical vibe. It has a LOT of throw. Admittedly, I am a slatherer, but I feel like any moment my dad is going to knock on the door and complain that my perfume is too strong, and he is several rooms away at the moment lol. It gets mintier as it dries and the bergamot goes kind of bitter. After a little while, it starts to smell medicinal... like a cough drop. Oh well, I was probably never going to like this because mint/citrus is just not my thing.
BAKING:
Jam Tart (Spanish Seville & ginger marmalade, shortcrust pastry, carmine, crepe paper, drops of belladonna and rose petal rouge.) 7.5 ml
I thought this was going to be super foodie and thus instantly turn to plastic on my skin, but it’s actually very nice. I don’t get much, if any, of the pastry. I mostly get sweet, gingery marmalade with just a touch of rose. Really pretty and nice for spring, I think! As it dries, it’s less jammy and more perfumey, with some papery musk. Decent throw, moderate longevity.
Banilla Cloud (Banana, fresh marshmallow, vanilla cream, white chocolate and hazelnut.) 4.5 ml
At first sniff: I want to eat my wrist. I get a sweet, creamy blend of banana and hazelnut, and I know it’s supposed to be white chocolate but that combined with the hazelnut is giving me a Nutella vibe. The banana fades super fast and then the marshmallow comes out. It never goes plasticky on me, but the drydown is mostly sweet marshmallow with a little bit of hazelnut. It fades super fast though, and is 95% gone in about 30 minutes.
The Ghost Rockets (Fresh marshmallow, candy rockets, cuckoo bread, meteor dust, lily of the valley and hazel.) 4.5 ml
What is cuckoo bread? What are candy rockets? I have no idea, and I don’t think I am likely to find out because all I smell is LILY OF THE VALLEY. This is all old lady floral perfume and powdery sweetness. I’m extra sad because when I first tried it (unrested, fresh from the mailbox), I smelled some yummy marshmallow and had high hopes. After a few days, the marshmallow is still there, but buried underneath a mountain of flowers. Rip. The flowers are tamed as it dries, but the result is a very powdery/papery scent. No marshmallow 😭
Mayflower Fleece ((spun sugalight chamomile/candied gingeearl grey) - fluffy orange clouds of sweet and zesty mayflower fleece (the official treat of the Mayweed Festival).) 1.8 ml
Ginger and chamomile, a touch of zesty citrus (I guess this is the bergamot from the Earl Grey?). Fluffy and sweet! The chamomile goes a little floral but the overall effect is pleasant and spring-like. It gets even more sugary as it dries! Yum. I will keep my sample, but probably won’t upsize.
Soft Cat (Sunday morning biscuits, sticky marshmallow fluff, warm vanilla toe beans and soft mews under piles of sun-dried cashmere.) 1.8 ml
Fresh toasted bread, dry vanilla and soft snuggly musk. This is not very sweet, which I appreciate, and it is as warm and cuddly as the name and description would suggest! There is the faintest hint of plastic (my eternal curse when it comes to foodie scents) as it dries and I am really hoping it doesn’t take over.
Update: after about 15 minutes, it smells waxy and fake, like a cheap vanilla candle. This was SO nice at first... I’m sad 😭
DARKEST HOUR:
Mourning Glory (Thick black velvet curtains, bruised palmarosa leaves, Shanghai spice, wilted white carnations and bible leather.) 7.5 ml
At first sniff, I am surprised at how much I like this. I got mostly carnation and spice, with soft leather underneath. There is a heavy, almost dusty vibe that suggests the curtains. I would also not be surprised if there was some vetiver in there somewhere. Something about it makes me think of funeral flowers, which is probably appropriate given the name. It has a pretty good throw and just smells really well-blended. It’s dark and elegant and gives off a mysterious vibe, and lasts quite a while. I really like this. I feel like I should be dressed in an elaborate Victorian mourning gown, wandering the halls of a haunted manor. I would never have bought this on its own, but I really like it and I’m glad I have a big bottle!
Candle in the Window (Melting beeswax candles, linden honey, chilled air from an open window, freshly-rolled tobacco cigarettes and flint.) 4.5 ml
I get a lovely beeswax note but then there is something really strong that reminds me of cleaning products- like literally Windex or something. I think it must be the “chilled air” because it is a very fresh, cool scent. I want more of the warm beeswax because that note is gorgeous! I am in luck, because the windex scent evaporates after a little while. The dry down is much heavier on the beeswax! The linden honey adds a prominent floral component. I don’t get any tobacco, sadly. Long term, it stays fairly close to the skin and the floral notes mostly fade to pure warm beeswax.
Nocturnal Light (Glowing red amber, star anise, mandrake accord, Egyptian tagetes and blue cypress.) 4.5 ml
Starts out with heavy amber, a teeny bit of anise and something very herbal (the tagetes? I’m not sure). The drydown is earthy, dark and, weirdly, very smoky- verging on acrid. Low throw, but it has a lot of longevity. I’m not a fan of this one.
Dark, Dark (Roasted chicory root, protective rock salt, rugosa rose, ancient myrrh and carnation petals.) 1.8 ml
I get something sharp and herbal- I think it might be the chicory mixing with the rose. There is a toastiness and something that smells dusty and old. I get a lot of myrrh in the background. There is a layer of salt over everything and it’s a particular kind of salt note that makes me think of laundry detergent. This one is not for me! It has good throw and lasts forever. Of course, only scents I don’t like want to stick around on my skin 😂
Snoozy Cat (Soft cotton candy purrs of sweet baby's breath, french lavender, dreamy garden thyme and a hint of chamomile.) 1.75 ml*
I am a big fan of sweet, cuddly lavender scents for sleep, and at first, this is just dreamy. It’s not quite as sticky sweet a lavender as Poesie’s Sleepy Ghost, nor is it quite as herbal as BPAL’s TKO- this is somewhere in between. Lavender is the star here, with hints of thyme and chamomile in the background. It’s sugary and very relaxing. Once it dries, though, this goes super powdery. It’s actually still kind of pleasant, in this nostalgic “this smells like a body spray I would have worn in middle school” way- purple, sugary sweet powder. It fades quickly after that stage, but I guess if I’m using this as a sleep scent, I don’t really mind.
Then, I made two individual bottle purchases-
Lithobates Palustris (Pickerel Frog) (Night blooming jasmine, wet grass, algae, and tomato leaf.) 4.5 ml
So this is a departure from my usual scents, but I’ve come to appreciate jasmine in certain contexts and I thought this could be interesting with the addition of tomato leaf. It has a MASSIVE throw, and the grass and tomato leaf definitely dominates the jasmine. The jasmine is there, and it’s not the jasmine that smells like cat pee (thank god), but it’s also not the sweet, heady pure jasmine that I really like. It smells a bit like fancy soap. It’s actually quite pretty, but a bit too strong and overwhelming lay flowery for me! Still, I am going to keep this around and see what happens to it as it ages.
The Autumn People (Grinning jack-o-lanterns, dripping red wax, fallen leaves, croaking mulch, shivering cardamom pods, a freshly hanged juju bag glittering in the rafters and an old page from the Witch's Almanac.) 4.5 ml
Mostly I get a blast of dry cardamom, maybe some wood in the background- but it could mostly be a cardamom single note. I think maybe this needs to rest.
Update: It’s all cardamom. I am going to keep letting it rest, but all I get, in the bottle and on my skin, is straight up cardamom! Where is the pumpkin? Where are the leaves?!
Now, onto all the freebies! There are a lot; Stereoplasm is super generous with samples!
Early Reflections (Pink grapefruit, melted shea butter, warm skin, yuzu rind, ripe guava and crushed pineapple.) 1.8 ml (bonus!)
This was one of the first Stereoplasm scents that caught my eye- I don’t normally like fruity scents, but I’ve become obsessed with guava lately and I love yuzu as well, so I was really intrigued by this description! I would have bought a full size unsniffed tbh, but it was unavailable at the time I placed my order. Sooo this is really good. I get a lot of tart yuzu at first, and some sweet guava and pineapple. There is not a lot of grapefruit. Underneath is soft shea butter, which warms everything up and smooths out the bright fruit notes. It smells KIND of like something I would buy at Bath and Body Works as a teenager, but like the last time I made this comparison, that is not necessarily a bad thing. This also just might be my personal association with fruity scents, because I don’t typically wear them. This has a bit more depth and “pizazz” than your standard body spray! I really like the combination of shea butter and the brighter fruity notes; it adds creaminess without foodieness. I do wish the guava was more prominent. This stays close to the skin with low throw.
Enjoy Your Waffles (A welcoming breakfast of homemade waffles with plenty of maple syrup, coffee and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Superseded by manipulative whispers from a garden of white daises, heliotrope and magnolia.) 1.8 ml (GWP)
Super buttery in the bottle, but on my skin it’s wildflowers with toasty waffles and a hint of coffee. Hear me out- this smells like going to a brunch buffet in a nice hotel. The lobby is full of beautiful flowers and the smell of breakfast is wafting out of the dining room. The orange juice is not really detectable on its own, but adds a little citrus zing that brightens everything up. This has a ton of sillage and seems to last quite a while!
Update: I retested this after letting it rest for a few days and the hotel association is even stronger now. I think it might be reminding me of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with the garden in the lobby? The orange juice has also become much more prominent. There is a soft coffee note that emerges in the later stages, but it’s still heavily floral. The dry down is back to buttery breakfast foods and softer florals, but I don’t think I can get past being blasted in the face with flowers at the beginning.
Gone Gnome (Top notes of cilantro and key lime rooted in fresh garden basil, english cucumber and melon blossom.) 7.5 ml (GWP)
This is so not a list of notes I would EVER choose for myself but wow, this is SO fresh and green and I kind of feel like I smell like a salad- but in a good way. (It’s a really fancy salad, with edible flowers and lots of interesting herbal micro greens.) This smells like SPRING in a bottle! The cilantro and basil somehow just work with the tart fresh lime and cucumber. The melon blossom adds a little sweetness but this is a green, grassy, herbal blend, not really floral at all. I can almost taste this perfume. It has a crazy throw at first, but dries down to something softer, like the way your hands might smell after working in the garden for a while, and that stage lasts for a surprisingly long time.
The Great Owl (Ancient amber, frankincense, benzoin and champaka in a hollow draped in thick cobwebs, glowing citronella and vetiver root.) 1.8 ml (GWP)
ALL CITRONELLA. At least no mosquitoes will bother me? It’s November, though, so that probably wasn’t an issue to begin with. I sort of get some soft resins underneath, but they are being completely smothered by the screeching citronella. The citronella gets toned down a bit as I wear it, but wow, it is still pretty strong. I guess I will hold on to this to see if the amber and resins come out a bit more with some aging.
Last Dance (Vintage amber, creamy heliotrope, bubbly champagne, and freshly picked wildflowers.) 4.5 ml (GWP)
Mostly soft amber (light and dry, maybe white?) and white florals- it definitely has a bit of an old-fashioned perfume vibe, with a bit of champagne, just enough to add some fun fizziness. Dries down to a dry amber, low throw but quite nice.
Lovesick Lake (Bright pink and heartbreakingly optimistic; cotton candy served with thick strawberry cheesecake and sour lemon squares on a hot rainy day.) 1.8 ml (bonus!)
Lemonheads and cheesecake! Fades depressingly fast to a sugary lemon with a teeny hint of sweet strawberry. It stays in that soft, candy-like skin scent zone for a little while, and I like it a lot! Over the long term, though, it fades to lemony plastic. Sometimes I really hate my skin chemistry!
Moon Milk (Crumbs from almond tuiles and lavender sugar dust, one last sip of Fortuna tea leaves left behind in a porcelain cup reveal chilled chiffon cream illuminated by a single flame glinting off the gold filigree.) 1.8 ml (bonus!)
This was on my to-try list but I was a bit worried about the almond note. I shouldn’t have been concerned; this is a beautiful scent! I get mostly sweet lavender with a sort of cool creamy lemon and tea, and maybe a hint of an almond cookie note. Great throw, too. It reminds me a bit of Fantôme Kensington, but more tart. The dry down is unfortunately a little flat.
No Skin On (Squishy pumpkin entrails, candy cigarettes, dry forest needles and cobweb glue) 1.8 ml (bonus!)
Pumpkin guts! Un-spiced pumpkin notes are usually a little buttery, and this is no exception, but there is also a genuine fresh pumpkin scent here that I don’t usually get. There’s a little bit of sweetness from what I assume is the candy cigarette note (I don’t actually know what candy cigarettes smell like, though) and faint pine. The pumpkin is still a bit too foodie, but this is getting closer to the pure squishy raw pumpkin innards that I want. I want to try layering this under other blends when I need an extra blast of pumpkin!
Orange is Technocolour (Orange blossom petals with shea butter, house-distilled tangerine oil and apricot jam.) (bonus!)
AGGRESSIVELY ORANGE. Even the oil itself is orange! The tangerine is extremely bright and juicy and there is that nice shea butter note underneath. The apricot jam adds a little more sticky sweetness. I can’t adequately express how realistic this is! I feel like I can smell every part of the fruit- the zest, the pith, the flesh, it’s all there. I never thought I would want to smell like an actual tangerine, and yet here we are. I like it! It dries down to pure orange juice.
Rubies From Your Lips (Twilight musk, smoked wood sage, carnation corsage, holy water, green clove, damp soil and grave moss.) 1.8 ml (bonus!)
Soft musk with spicy clove and carnation, maybe a hint of smoke. The carnation here is stronger and more intensely floral than in Mourning Glory. It dries down to verrry soft clove and carnation petals, but stays super faint (in direct contrast to Mourning a Glory, which lasts for hours)! I get absolutely no moss or soil.
Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia) (Soft woodsmoke, hot toddy, mountain ozone and mint chutney.) 1.75 ml (Monthly animal - GWP)
A really nice smoke note with fresh minty air and a warm booziness from the hot toddy! This is so perfect for the holidays without actually smelling like a “Christmas” scent. It’s rich and multi-faceted and I like it very much. The later drydown is mostly sweet woodsmoke that lasts for a long time.
The Star Leaf (Morning dew, rich soil, nurturing chamomile, mossy stone, fresh herbs and all the star leaves you can eat.) 1.8 ml (GWP)
WHOA, this is an extremely realistic garden scent. If Gone Gnome is all freshly picked greens and herbs, this is the garden they came from. The soil, water glistening on bright green leaves, everything! It’s a teeny bit grassier than I would like, but this kind of just adds to the backyard garden image it creates in my mind.

As of late, this sub has been flooded with trolls, saboteurs, instigators, and (for the faint of heart, please skip this line) actual literal poûrés.
In order to maintain the integrity of this sub, we will only allow verified members to post here. We cannot become another FatFIRE which is flooded with larpers and joke accounts (anyone who calls mere 7 digit income “fat” is clearly trolling).
We believe this will greatly improve the quality of discussion and allow posters to have their safe space to ask sensitive questions such as “killed another prostitute in my deluxe suite at the Bellagio, what do??”
In order to become verified, you will need $1.50M income or $100M in assets. There is no set number to be a fijerk except that there totally is a number. You can verify yourself by sending me your login details to your accounts so I can take a look and confirm your status as a fellow human being and not a sub-human wage earner who still pays taxes.
Sincerely,
Some random dude on the internet

ok , I promise not your standard " will this be open?" questions. We're still under Corona Rules, this is known, and literally everything is up in the air in Vegas in regards to what will be available.
​
So, I'm turning 50 this year. As such, my wife and I who pre pandemic were fairly regular Visitors 1-2 times a year for several years running have been staying home, with the exception of one pre craziness trip last June. Realizing afterwards that particular trip was a bad decision, we decided to hold off until Nov of this year for my 50th. We invited a few couples as well, thinking that we would be able to make a group trip of folks, hopefully in a much better corona managed Vegas by then. As it stands we have 6 folks, 3 couples definite, with 3-6 other folks holding off until we see how the virus restrictions are doing in NV. Obviously, we want to start some light planning around hotels, exploring what is needed for group rates if possible, and some other options. Our group is planning 4 nights, 5 days and my wife and I usually stay at the Venetian, but we are open to other upscale venues ( Aria, Cosmo, Wynn ) for the group depending on rates, etc ( We are not opposed to spending money for what is likely our only Trip anywhere in '21, but not all of our friends are financially in the same position we are).
With all that said, whats our best path forward? Do we need to try and find a host to help us, and if so, whats the best way of doing so, or is our group too small to even bother with that route? Who would we check with in regards to getting a block of rooms at some of these hotels? As for interests, We are your general type Vegas visitors, We gamble a little (blackjack mostly ) , Like to run the speakeasies ( Mob Museum and 1923lv @ Mandalay are some fun places we like) and some of the signature bars at the casinos ( Elektra/ The Dorsey At Venetian, Vanderpump At Caesars, Lily at Bellagio, Whiskey Down At MGM, etc) not too much into the Nightclubs ( I'm late 40's people, I'm not the Creepy old dude at the club type). And real talk, we want to make this not only a birthday trip to remember for me, but a Trip to remember for our Friends, some of whom have never been to Vegas before, so they don't know what it used to be like, or what they are missing from the Pre COVID days.
I'm open to any and all suggestions and advice, and yes, I am fully aware that this all may be a moot point even in November with the COVID unknown still lingering. If it isn't safe, we'll cancel in a heartbeat, but it isn't even October yet, so save the "cancel now and stay home" comment trolls.

If you are planning to go to Las Vegas in February2021
Best Things To Do:
If you have been planning a trip to Las Vegas, you have probably noticed that the city offers plenty of diversions. Las Vegas is still the gaming capital of the world, but you do not have to be a gambler to enjoy your visit.
Holidays:
- Valentine's Day Feb. 14
- February 15 President's Day
​
The 3 Best Romantic Hotels in the Las Vegas Strip:
1 – Bellagio Hotel and Casino
2 – The Venetian Las Vegas
3 – Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino
​
3 Romantic Shows in February:
1 – Extravaganza
2 – Late Night Magic
3 – Fantasy Show
​
What To Do In Las Vegas in February
1 – Eiffel Tower Viewing Deck
2 – The High Roller in Las Vegas
3 – VEGAS NIGHTS Helicopter Tour

Hello all,
I had been struggling for the past week to play Overwatch on Arch Linux using Lutris. It started fine, but after some time I started getting constant crashes when I would join a game. (I may have switched from 144hz to 60hz and that might have worked for awhile before I switched back to 144 - I tried so many things that I can't remember them all)

What shows up in my journalctl when it crashes Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: [drm:amdgpu_dm_atomic_commit_tail [amdgpu]] *ERROR* Waiting for fences timed out! Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: [drm:amdgpu_job_timedout [amdgpu]] *ERROR* ring gfx_0.0.0 timeout, signaled seq=183918, emitted seq=183920 Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: [drm:amdgpu_job_timedout [amdgpu]] *ERROR* Process information: process Overwatch.exe pid 8202 thread Overwatch.exe pid 8302 Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: GPU reset begin! Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: [drm:amdgpu_ring_test_helper [amdgpu]] *ERROR* ring kiq_2.1.0 test failed (-110) Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: [drm:gfx_v10_0_hw_fini [amdgpu]] *ERROR* KGQ disable failed Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: [drm:amdgpu_ring_test_helper [amdgpu]] *ERROR* ring kiq_2.1.0 test failed (-110) Oct 03 12:38:22 arch-desktop-nh kernel: [drm:gfx_v10_0_hw_fini [amdgpu]] *ERROR* KCQ disable failed Oct 03 12:38:23 arch-desktop-nh kernel: [drm:gfx_v10_0_hw_fini [amdgpu]] *ERROR* failed to halt cp gfx 

​

Crash steps/info: - Start Overwatch with lutris - Join game - Sometimes it would hang while choosing character, sometimes it would hang after running into a firefight - Game hangs, audio continues - after ~10sec, screen goes black and then flashes back to Overwatch, but there are green artifact patterns all over the screen - Mouse is visible and can move but all other functions (alt-tab, etc) don't work - switching to TTY2 allows me to log in - If I wait long enough, I will eventually be brought to my SDDM login screen - Some instances, I could reboot from TTY2 - but some would hang during shutdown and never finish. This may be related to how long I waited to reboot (if I did it after SDDM relaunched then it worked - I know that) 

But, after searching through forum posts from 2014 to 2020 (apparently driver issues like this are quite common and have been around for awhile) I pieced some info together, I found one reddit post from last year stating that compiling mesa-git and llvm-git will make it work. I attempted to do this, but only managed to install mesa-git (+ lib32-mesa-git), since llvm was throwing a build error (missing file, I couldn't figure out why). Installing mesa-git also removed vulkan-radeon (as they conflict), but in the Lutris/Overwatch Git dependencies page, they mention that this is required.
It was also suggested to me to underclock my GPU a little bit to see if that would help at all. I attempted to last night, and played a game to test (on medium, it worked). NOTE: this was the first test after installing mesa-git, so I know that I needed to test things further.
This morning I tried playing a few games, with no underclocking active. I seem to have stability (for) now, and started ramping up the quality until I was at my computer's comfy limit.

10:05:38 ❯ uname -r 5.8.13-zen1-2-zen ~ 10:06:25 ❯ yay -Qi mesa-git lib32-mesa-git Name : mesa-git Version : 20.3.0_devel.129017.3b3a3af9c76-1 Description : an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification, git version Architecture : x86_64 URL : https://www.mesa3d.org Licenses : custom Groups : None Provides : mesa opencl-mesa vulkan-intel vulkan-radeon vulkan-mesa-layer libva-mesa-driver mesa-vdpau vulkan-driver opengl-driver opencl-driver Depends On : libdrm libxxf86vm libxdamage libxshmfence libelf libomxil-bellagio libunwind libglvnd wayland lm_sensors libclc vulkan-icd-loader zstd expat llvm-libs=10.0.1 Optional Deps : opengl-man-pages: for the OpenGL API man pages clang: opencl [installed] compiler-rt: opencl [installed] Required By : gst-plugins-base-libs gtk3 lib32-mesa-git libglvnd qt5-base steam virglrenderer xf86-video-amdgpu zoom Optional For : ocl-icd tigervnc vulkan-icd-loader Conflicts With : mesa opencl-mesa vulkan-intel vulkan-radeon vulkan-mesa-layer libva-mesa-driver mesa-vdpau Replaces : None Installed Size : 131.23 MiB Packager : Unknown Packager Build Date : Sat 03 Oct 2020 12:57:41 PM Install Date : Sat 03 Oct 2020 02:08:31 PM Install Reason : Explicitly installed Install Script : No Validated By : None Name : lib32-mesa-git Version : 20.3.0_devel.129017.3b3a3af9c76-1 Description : an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification, git version Architecture : x86_64 URL : https://www.mesa3d.org Licenses : custom Groups : None Provides : lib32-mesa lib32-vulkan-intel lib32-vulkan-radeon lib32-libva-mesa-driver lib32-mesa-vdpau lib32-opengl-driver lib32-vulkan-driver Depends On : mesa-git lib32-gcc-libs lib32-libdrm lib32-wayland lib32-libxxf86vm lib32-libxdamage lib32-libxshmfence lib32-elfutils lib32-libunwind lib32-lm_sensors glslang lib32-vulkan-icd-loader lib32-zstd lib32-llvm-libs=10.0.1 Optional Deps : opengl-man-pages: for the OpenGL API man pages Required By : lib32-gtk3 lib32-libglvnd steam Optional For : lib32-vulkan-icd-loader Conflicts With : lib32-mesa lib32-vulkan-intel lib32-vulkan-radeon lib32-libva-mesa-driver lib32-mesa-vdpau Replaces : None Installed Size : 97.91 MiB Packager : Unknown Packager Build Date : Sat 03 Oct 2020 02:10:33 PM Install Date : Sat 03 Oct 2020 02:19:20 PM Install Reason : Explicitly installed Install Script : No Validated By : None 

TL:DR; mesa-git saved me from constant crashes. although it removed vulkan-radeon (which I thought was required). Overwatch is the only game I've known to crash my system like this
edit to add: I used amdgpu-clocks to underclock, which requires amdgpu.ppfeaturemask=0xffffffff to kernel parameters. maybe this has an effect on things too

This list is a little longer than it should be due to some very overdue thank yous courtesy of some dysfunction at the Jerk household where cards got all mixed together and put aside in a big pile in the office by someone who was not me. But, this should catch me up for the most part. I have a handful of cards that didn’t have user names (and a couple that had illegible user names). I will try and do some detective work and figure out who should be thanked.
Without further ado – buckle up, here we go!
Apologies and thanks in advance to u/CanaMeow for any and all misspelled user names.
u/twerptwo – thank you for the beautiful Christmas card! A little over two months away! Where has the year gone? Oh yeah….that.
u/soft_distortion – I love the Hamily Jihoon card! I’m kinda bummed to hear what’s been happening with them. I don’t think they realize some day their kids are gonna Google all this drama ☹ I hope the card I sent you in return has arrived! Lots of drama with them as well! -Gets popcorn-
u/Buttercupfields – such a cute Halloween card! I bought five bags of Halloween candy at the grocery store because it was $1.99 if you bought at least four bags. But, we won’t be handing out candy so not sure why I did that.
u/mikepenpal6 (x3) – somehow I missed thanking you for my card to celebrate my 500 flair! Also, despite having way too much superhero washi I find myself coveting the Spiderman washi you used – don’t tell me where you got it because I won’t be able to resist. And lastly, I loved your Coco Chanel themed card! So gorgeous! I never think to artistically tear the paper before using it – I love the effect!
u/enguyenn – such a beautiful card! I was surprised to see it was of Tennessee for some reason.
u/zedhead90 – loved the Goosebumps postcard – I miss being a kid and getting excited at reading a new book.
u/josephineismyhero – I loved your hometown postcard! I suppose the theater in the picture has been closed for the last several months – so sad to see all the places still closed.
u/welshfancy (x6)– I always love your cards you make! I didn’t realize there is a Dot Day! What a fun reason to make a card! (Oh and Go Pack GO!!! Hahah….looking forward to the upcoming 49ers/Packer game and our wager haha) and I loved your Halloween cards!!
u/babyraspberry (x2) – Arrrr! Thank you for the Talk Like a Pirate Day card and the super cute puffin card! I hope my Pirates Day card made it there – it’s a little bigger card than I usually send and our mail has been so weird lately so fingers crossed I did the postage correctly.
u/orangewolpertinger – thank you for the adorable card and the goodies!!!
u/soxgal – I love the washi tape you used on the envelope – I have bad washi envy but have way too much of it already. I’ve also had the same problem you did in getting sunburned by the pool on an overcast day. Not fun!!!
u/kimmylubs – Okay, more washi envy! I loved the green sparkly heart washi! Also, I loved the hot air balloon card. I would love to go to the big New Mexico hot air balloon festival some day. Also, I have sent on u/ninajyang’s travelling card to the next recipient!
u/CapnCobbler – more overdue thanks for a beautiful card celebrating my 500 flair. I hope you’ll be able to accept mail again soon! Keeping my fingers crossed things are going smoothly to get things back in order – you are definitely missed!
u/Loko_Lo – thank you for the beautiful card and Minocqua sticker! I’m really really wanting to take a drive up north to see the leaves change.
u/tashsmash – such a beautiful card! I can see why you want to use some as prints!
u/eclecticeccentric (x2) – thank you for the Arizona and Utah desert postcards. I just love how peaceful the desert is.
u/lmnoporcupine – Omg I had to look at your postcard like three times to make sure it wasn’t a junk advertisement! It totally cracked me up!!!!! “Equinophobia therapy” – that isn’t a real thing (is it?)
u/schoii – thank you for the postcard from Lichtenstein! My first one from your country! I just love learning about other countries – especially now when we can’t really travel.
u/snailmailmom – thank you for the card and the plethora of cute stickers! I hope potty training is going better now. I am going to send you a card with a funny potty training story – it’s too embarrassing to put it on the internet haha.
u/ColleenES – I just LOVE Scooby Doo – such a cute postcard. I used the last of my Scooby stamps but kept the pic of him that came on the stamp sheet. I might make it into a card – or just keep it for myself lol
u/Silverinkblotv2 – I loved hearing about the ecofriendly store! I love shopping in cool shops like that – well, I love shopping period but even more so when it is interesting!
u/frogreads – such a cool postcard of the musical fountain! I think the only thing even close to that here is in Las Vegas with the Bellagio fountains – but I am sure they pale in comparison to the one in your country!
u/littleverdin – very overdue thank yous for such a cute card and stickers. I also loved the birds sitting on a wire washi. I have some Alfred Hitchcock postage stamps and they would be fun to put with your washi (since he directed that film the Birds hah)
u/rebeldisco – more overdue thank yous for the adorable Bugs Life postcard!!!
u/tepr – so glad you enjoyed the birthday card! Thank you for the Bristol postcard! I love getting postcards of other places.
u/Scottie0319 – thank you for the postcard from your travels! My husband loves watching shows about Big Foot so I am not going to tell him there is a whole town devoted to BF because otherwise he’s gonna want to visit it.
u/tigerlady13 – I loved the Norwegian postcard! My three year old niece (who loves Frozen) has been learning about her ancestors from Norway. She is not convinced they are from there haha. I’m just impressed she can grasp the concept of ancestors!
u/banancreampiee – I loved the card you sent – I am totally looking up the group it is from. Good luck in your classes – I hope the semester is uneventful for you (so you have time for carding haha)
u/buttersushi – I loved the Snoopy card and stickers! Also, I used to work for politicians and have helped pass a lot of laws so I hesitate to say we have weird ones here. I will have to remember to mail you a personal story about a law I helped a former boss pass and that a family member inadvertently violated – they would kill me if they knew I posted it on the internet lol.
u/DNA_ligase – oooooh I just loved the sparkly ghost card you sent! I see why you had to buy it. I love all Halloween decorations so it’s hard to pick a favorite!
u/pozzledc - I love the card you made from a repurposed book from a charity shop! I am about to make some cards from some party invitations I am repurposing that I also got from a local charity shop. Love sustainability!
u/all-tyedup – such a cute pink card and I think that was a Van Gogh sticker on the envelope. I have seen them online and been tempted to order them but didn’t know what they would look like in person. Must resist purchasing haha
u/travellincat – (x2) thank you for the “vote” postcard – I need to know where you got the super duper adorable mail washi tape. (As I commented to several people – I get severe washi envy) Also, see luau update below.
u/beckstabber (x2) – I am just in love with the watermelon card you made. Like I told you – I am definitely framing it! (see Luau update below)
u/wereagainstyou313 – I may have gotten your user name a little off so I am hoping u/canameow can fix it if I did. I loved the card you sent and agree that “the sea was angry” is at the top of Seinfeld quotes! And to think, that show almost got cancelled after it’s first season!
u/travel4me22 – I am so glad I am the recipient of your September meta challenge food card! It’s so adorable!!! (plus – scratch and sniff washi! Yay!) Also, I feel for you on the snoring issue. We can’t sleep in the same room because we each accuse the other of snoring like freight trains – only one of us is telling the truth haha.
Thanks to the following people who I have yet to thank for RSVPing to my virtual luau. I have been holding off on sending the cards in return until I got all the RSVPs back but since it’s been some time now I’m going to assume I won’t be getting them all so you all will finally get your cards! A late party is better than no party, right? u/travellincat, u/travel4me22, u/gettysburging (hope you’ve finally escaped from Alcatraz for the party lol), u/J-Binx, u/beckstabber, u/redwest98 (and such an adorable crocheted pineapple!!).

🌿I'm pretty sure at this point of my life at 46-years old, my mind is set on becoming a licensed Landscape Architect. The niche I'd like to work in: green roof designs, vertical gardens, and urban planning for sustainable architecture. I'm just uncertain what degree will be the best foundation when obtaining a 2nd baccalaureate degree, as my current undergraduate degree is in accounting.
Right now I'm unemployed at the moment being as part of layoffs back in JUN-2020 from working with a resort's accounting dept. I am wondering if I should pursue the Landscape Architecture route, Global Geodesigns route w/ a minor in Landscape Architecture, or Architecture route. I realize one doesn't need to know it all, as you're just a piece of the puzzle when taking part in group construction projects. I'm just uncertain which track to pursue for the best foundation in my career change (to come into fruition much later in life). I don't intend to stop w/ a 2nd Bachelors, but I'm determined to pursue an MLA as well from a recognized and accredited program.
Wherever I land work, will be the towne I sign up with to join their local Toastmasters.
As for my current work situation the following are a few of the positions out there I want to apply for:
-- Remain living w/ parents in San Diego. Apply to an unpaid (6-12 months) Development Assistant post w/ The Water Conservation Garden while taking community college courses at Cuyamaca College for a Certificate in Sustainable Urban Landscapes. I was thinking doing both of the above during the daytime, while I work nights as a Night Auditor for a hospitality establishment.
-- Work as an Accountant for the next 5-years with the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.
-- Work as an Accountant with the University of Southern California. Eventually, become a student in their Global Geodesign program + minor in Landscape Arch. It may be quite a stretch, but hoping to intern w/ WET Design in L.A. (the global leader in fountain designs, and creator of the Bellagio fountains and The Jewel water vortex in Singapore's Changi Airport.)
-- Work as a Financial Accountant III with Texas A&M. Hopefully, get a tuition discount if accepted as a student to enter their Landscape Architecture program for a 2nd bachelors.
-- Work as an Accounting Manager full-time in Bozeman, Montana for a good number of years to save up to be a full-time student at Montana State University.
-- Other options...
In a nutshell, the National University of Singapore tops my list for graduate studies down the road in Landscape Architecture. It is an absolutely stunning country! Although, I do have to research more about the university's program. I don't believe in retirement. My aim is to live and work in Singapore for a globally-recognized Architecture firm.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.🌻

A while ago I made a post with a title like "7-10 days trip in Northern Italy". Here's my report. Be prepared, it's long. I'll start with what I saw and did, then will do a small part on my mood and mental health during th e trip.
First, thank you all for the advices. I'm still in the trip, but have only one day left which will be for chilling and no intense visiting.
Also, it's Italy. It's always a good idea to go to Italy.
My initial plan was : Milan - Lake como - Bergamo - Lake Garda - Lake iseo.

MILAN

I started with 2 days in Milan. I have friends there, so it was an obvious staring point. My Italian friends there don't like the city, but I quite enjoyed it. I have to admit that for once, the covid situation is making things better as there are less tourists, and hotel prices are lower. I stayed at the hotel Flora near the central station. 55€/night. Not good, not bad. OK for solo. I really enjoyed the city. The architecture, the different neighbourhoods, the people,... Really loved it (my feet after 26km,a bit less). I saw the Duomo of course, which was pretty much empty. Really impressing, and the galleries near it as well. I did pretty much all the Da Vinci museums / places, except the church with the last supper, as it was closed for the afternoon (?!). I also did a lot of churches, parks, places, the Milan University (where you can have beers every night right in front the beautiful main building), etc. I spent the last evening in the navigli area, with a beautiful sunset over the river and the colorfull bars and restaurants. I then moved to Lake Como.

LAKE COMO

I had booked 2 nights in Bellagio, at the hotel Fioroni. Around 65€/night, family run. Really nice place, had a double room for myself with a tiny balcony, absolutely stunning view on the mountains, could see a bit of the lake on my left. Just imagine, waking up, having the sunrise on the yellow houses and the lush green mountains, with an absolute silence. Paradise. Good breakfast too and free parking. 15 minutes walk from the city center, either by following the road with view on the lake, or from inside the village, which makes you arrive on the other side of bellagio. This city/village is really really great and beautiful. More tourists than in Milan though, on a Sunday evening. The Monday was totally empty. Amazing food, stunning view on the lake.
For food, try the enoteca cava turaciolo. Simple and good set of cheese and ham, but it's the wine that you go there for. I took a tester of 3 wines, 2 reds and one white. One of the red just blew my mind. Sfurzat carlo negrid. Just, wow. Waiter took the time to explain the origins, how to pour it properly, and we descussed a bit.
All the little narrow streets are super cute, and for the Instagram fans, that's where you can take a lot of the empty narrow streets pictures.
The next day, I went to visit Como. Quite nice town, about an hour drive from Bellagio. They have an hydroplane club, nice and cute city center. The Duomo is quite impressive as well, but that's for the walk on the pedestrian alongside the big villas that you go there. Simply beautiful. Makes you wish the time stops. I just stayed an one bench for 20 minutes, lookking at the opposite side of the lake, without thinking to anything. Only disturbed by a chopper bringing construction material to what i guess is the future villa of a rich person.
Then I drove to cernobbio. Equally beautiful and much more peaceful, but smaller. I also could have gone there on foot from como. I did not stayed there too long, but still enjoyed it. And, as everywhere on Lake como, the view is just splendid.
The last evening I went back to my hotel in bellagio, and I went for supper to the hotel métropole. I wish I had not. I should have checked Google before. I just saw they had the traditional fish risotto from that area. They rushed everything, I got the dish while I still had my aperitivo. Then the wine. I ordered the same whine I had the day before (the surfzat) at the enoteca. They did not serve me what I ordered. I got a low grade headache-inducing shitty wine. The fish on the plate was, I'm pretty sure, reheated in a micro wave oven. That really took my mood down. Shame because I was in a pretty good spirit by then.
At least, I could enjoy one of the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen in my life.
Anyway, I got the fuck out of there and we t back to my hotel, prepping for the next day, which was departure day to Bergamo, just for the day and spent the night in garda, on the lake of the same name.
When I woke up, I did not want to go to Bergamo. I was just too in harmony with the lake como, and I wanted to see the villa del barbianello, which I could not visit before as it was closed on Mondays. So I figured, let's go to varena, and take a boat trip from there.
The drive was really enjoyable, loads of little cute villages.
When I arrived in varenna, I was instantly charmed by the place. This is the typical lakeshore village, absolutely stunning, cute, loving, insert any adjective here. I absolutely love the place. Made me think I want to spend my retirement there.
As the streets are a bit narrow, not many tourists still felt like a bit more than in the other places. But it's as idealistic as you could expect.
Got a pizza at the bar il molo. Fairly priced, and OK for quality. Spirits are cheap too. The ice cream was ginormous and cheap.
In the end, I did not go to the villa del barbianello, as I'd prefer spending more time in Varenna.
But still, around 3pm,i had to take the road for the 2hours drive to Garda.

LAKE GARDA

The drive to Garda (the city) was a bit less pleasant then around Lake Como, but that was expected, as it's a good chunk of highway.
Instantly, I felt like I should have started with garde then como, as the landscape is quite a downgrade. Don't get me wrong, it's also really nice and beautifully, but the scenes are less grandiose than on Lake como.
Many many more tourists there, and if the prices are much lower than on lake como, the quality is too. The bars are more rushed. Hotel is meh.
I'm not feeling confortable here. I want to leave. I'm writing these lines "enjoying" a spritz on the harbor.
One think that is really nice, is the sunset. There a small cliff going down slowly to the water surface and the sun drops being it, showing you wonderful colors and a stunning view. Can't complain about that at all.
I've been trying to go to a restaurant two times, but it seems like they don't like solo travellers. That pissed me off more than I'd care to say, because I really wanted to go there.
Tomorrow will be driving to lake iseo, a hotel in iseo and a short night before going to the airport around 5m to come back to my no-so-sweet Belgium.

MENTAL HEALTH

first of all, I'm not what we can say a very stable person. I have my moods, and they can change quite quickly. That being said, I'm still quite rational or I'm trying to be.
If you've read what i wrote before, you've deduced that everything was going pretty well until that first disgusting restaurant in Bellagio. That started to bring my spirit down. But I spoke to friends through fb and it went OK.
Globally, I chilled while I Was visiting everything, stopped when I wanted to stop, ignored what I wanted to ignored, and just did wathever I wanted without caring for anything or anyone. This is a wonderful feeling.
I did not go into deep thoughts. Just left a blank in my brain. Looking to nature or whatever was in front of me, and to nothing else.
Basic rule, don't look at your emails. Don't look at the news. Cut yourself from everything. I've partially failed at that for the news. But did not checked my mails.
Now, in garda, my mood is really down. I just want to be over with this place. Not enjoying it at all. I went to sirmione today, but Barelystayed 2h,to see and go.
Yesterday evening I just took spritz on spritz, not being drunk, but just to occupy my mind. Which is not good. I told my self I'd not do that today... Well, I've just finished my second one. But I'll go for food now and not take alcohol.
I just don't know what to think, or how to improve my frequent depressed mood.
One think that cheers me up for after the trip though, is that through a friend we have in comon, we'll go to a concert with a girl a fancy. (My friend will be there too, but that's totally ok).
Now the sun Is slowly going down, revealing a beautiful scene, and that's cool.

CONCLUSIONS

some places were lovely, others stunning, others not so much. But overall a quite nice stay.
I guess I have to work a bit more on my mindset and how to improve it to enjoy more the time I spend alone, and go over micro setbacks more easily.
I haven't met anyone, and did not desire too, so that's cool.
I've probably left things aside, so feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers.
Edit : here's the report for the last 1.5 days.
So last day I went to the lake iseo, as it was planned originally and I've often seen online that it's sort of a hidden gem.
It is.
There an island (actually, 3 islands) in the lake, one being much more massive than the others (like it is 9km circonference). It's quite lovely, and the water is really clear. Haven't seen anyone swimming though. I went on the island with the ferry from sulzano. 5.5€ for a return ticket, takes 5 minutes to go to the other side. Runs every 20 min. Monte Isola, the big island, is really lovely. Nice colors, quite chill. Again, September + covid made it quite empty of tourists, just a few here and there.
I did not do the whole tour of the island, nor the climb up the castle. I was following my feet, and they brought me halfway up, then wanted to go back down and have a beer, enjoy the view and the very warm weather.
I spent in total something like 2h there, but it's worth spending more. Apparently in June and July they place some floating paths between the islands, so you don't have to take the boat. They were not installed anymore yesterday.
After taking the ferry back to sulzano, I went to the charming little village of Iseo, where I had booked my last hotel. Hotel ambra, 65€/night. Quite nice actually. Had to wake up at 4.30 to gety plane in milano, and they offered early check out and breakfast by the on duty person for the night. Really appreciated.
Iseo itself looks quite touristic, but the inside has some old style Italian feelings, which I always like.
Just spent the evening looking at the lake, got a nice (big!) ham cuts as starter and a pizza as main, to properly end up my Italian stay (had the pasta yesterday at the bussola restaurant in Garda).
Now, enjoying an iced coffee at the only Starbucks in Italy at milano malpenza Airport, waiting for my flight.
There you go, report complete.
Cheers x2.

Hello everyone,
The questions about timing:
when should I match Caesars TR to Wyndham When should I match Wyndham to Caesars TR
When should I match M Life to Hyatt When should I match Hyatt to M Life
To keep this status matching going?
Backstory:
In late October I got the new Wyndham Business Earner card which gave me Diamond status. I status matched that to Caesars on 10/30/20 online.
Yesterday 11/21/20 When I arrived in Vegas I took my Caesars Diamond printed from Planet Hollywood and matched it to M Life Gold at the Bellagio. I combined my wife’s M Life account with mine at the Bellagio and got her M Life Gold. Then we went to Harrah’s and since she never had a Caesars account we matched her new gold to a Caesars Diamond.
What I’m trying to do
Get my wife’s online account to show Gold so I can get her Hyatt account to Explorist because she has the Hyatt credit card.
My online M Life account does show Gold, but my actual wives online account shows Pearl. Since they can’t actually combine them.
Another question:
I think in order to show her online account as Gold. I would have to unlink her M Life account from mine and then status match her new Caesars Diamond to M Life Gold.
Would this be correct?
Why all this?
Because I want to and it’s fun to try the status matching game. I also didn’t get the Wyndham business card in her name because she didn’t want to, so I did.

Hello everyone.
I am a Canadian student that just landed a big-N internship. Obviously I'm very pleased, but with the covid thing going on the salaries for Canadian students are lower than normal due to the remote work situation. Now, what's special about this company is that they asked me where I will be living when my internship starts. I'm incredibly tempted to try and lie about my residence and say I'm going to be living in the states, but obviously there are a lot of moving parts to this.
Is there some sort of Danny Ocean Bellagio heist tactic I can use here to achieve this goal? Is it even possible in theory? What would I actually need to do to pull this off? If I can pull this off by actually moving to the states I would probably do that too but staying in Canada is preferable.

Potentially looking to stay in Vegas for at least a night on a road trip from Salt Lake on our way to Joshua Tree and maybe San Diego. What should we expect in Vegas? Are casinos open? Bellagio fountain doing its thing? Naked street performers on Fremont Street? I’m wondering if it’s gonna be Vegas as usual or to just skip it altogether. I know I know, I’m traveling during a global pandemic but I’m actually trying to be as safe as possible. Hence why we’re doing national parks and outdoor activities.

This is going to be a long post. My life story almost. It all started in 2010 when I was introduced to poker. Yada yada yada, I got hooked.
Naturally a tight passive player, I was able to stretch each $20 deposit a long way.
I slowly started adding aggression. Betting with flush draws, etc.
Ran it up to around 3k.
Booked a flight to LA to go visit my cousin but it was really just an excuse to go to commerce casino (my first live experience).
Didn't know about their $40 buy in structure. Lost 3k in 1 week.
quit playing for a while.
black friday happens.
Dream is offically dead.
Oh wait, what are these off shore sites. Bodog? sportsbookpoker? intertops? cake? wtf. lets check them out.
Ran good on intertops. Turned $20 into 4.3k in 1 week by running like Usain.
Played against a guy named ivysaurus for my entire roll at 25/50 headsup.
Lost.
Called it quits again.
got a job at a restaurant.
worked there for 2 years.
saved up 10k.
moved to vegas in 2016.
played live 1/2.
played too loose.
Lost about 2k the first month.
Switched over to playing 1/3 at bellagio.
better results started happening.
wpt diamond is starting.
Cameras all over the place in bellagio.
poker tables all full.
The sportsbook is filled with tables now.
My roll is at 16k.
I try to get into a 1/3 game. Waitlist too deep.
2/5, same story.
Theres an open seat at a 5/10 game.
eh why not, im running good lately.
I sit down. Called down 2 streets 2nd pair.
My heart is racing. Villain checks river. I check back. I win.
$300 profit in 1 hand.
New villain sits down at table.
Hes a tv guy that plays 25/50 on poker night in america. I forget his name. Arabic or armenian lookin dude with curly hair.
He wild.
Hes splashing cuz hes just trying to pass the time until he gets into the bigger games.
I win 2k off him in like 30 minutes. He gives me the death look and mutters some curse words. Floor comes over, tells this man his seat is open. He gets up. Floorman picks up his chips for him cuz he a bitch.
Game seems to be too tough now. Actually its the same game, but Im sitting on a 4k stack. I get nervous and cash out.
my bankroll at like 19k now. Highest point of my life.
Fell in love with a hooker. Down 3k.
bankroll 16k.
Refocus.
Go to aria to play some 1/3.
Crush it.
Lots of noise at a plo table in the corner near the bathroom.
I get on the waitlist for that game.
Im addicted to plo now.
Ran good at first. Won like 5k my first week playing 1/3/5 plo.
Then my ev started leveling out. I was never a winner at plo.
Lost the 5k right back and then some.
dont worry, losing 5-7k in a week isnt that bad.
or is it?
damnit it was.
This was the moment I should have gone back to 1/3 nl.
but nope. Plo more fun.
kept playing. learning on the fly. didnt do that bad looking back on it, but it was still bad.
my bankroll was down to 14k at one point and I remember feeling so defeated.
I might as well have had $100 to my name, cuz thats what it felt like. I do not know why. Mental issues.
It was all down hill from here.
the chase begins...
fill in the blanks
you know how this story ends.

Uh, I beat the pot like Joseph beat Mike and Jermaine One came out light, one came out dark But they smokin' the same I break a 50 on blunts and give my smoker the change That nigga flexin', VVS every stone in the chain Gold body, my jewelerHhe black mummy me I be all in these bitches' stomach like flat tummy tea Crackers came to Africa, ravaged, raffled, and rummaged me America was the name of they fuckin' company Stackin' niggas like cargo over and under me Pick cotton bails and the coca leaf off the money tree Niggas won't let you live in peace But love to see you rest in peace Broke and poppin' and drinkin' on the rest They got the best of me I'm choppin' it up on the table 'Cause there wasn't no label gon' invest in me These niggas'll ride your wave And wouldn't go sit that time in the fed with me Eventually, when I got indicted I took a minus Niggas that I fucked with went on hiatus so I decided I should make a couple decisions like Sean made I'm feedin' Jhené Aiko-lookin' hoes in the Sprinter thing (They fuckin' with the Kane) Black nigga, jack tripper, pack flipper Step out the kitchen and step in the booth And drop heat on these rap niggas Without a cosign, you probably be fillin' my grocery bag, nigga Poison flow, I send the POTUS from riches to rags, nigga (Gangsta Kane) Gold body, my jeweler, he black mummy me I be all in these bitches' stomach like flat tummy tea Crackers came to Africa, ravaged, raffled, and rummaged me America was the name of they fuckin' company Gold body, my jeweler, he black mummy me I be all in these bitches' stomach like flat tummy tea Crackers come to Africa, ravaged, raffled, and rummaged me America was the name of they fuckin' company (Kane) Uh, chain give me whiplash, my neck glass Shave a lil tax off the package, pay my connect fast Bellagio with quatro hoes, stack like Connect 4s Niggas don't own no land Or fine art but got all the retros Obama can't make the law retroactive, What the fuck happened? Congress cock-blockin' niggas From comin' home to they family If you lucky, when he left out of office You got a pardon, overtime cut Soft or that hard, you fucked up regardless Made my mind up Then incarceration my destination, I would wind up Addicted to medication, just poured another line up Overdosed with a styrofoam cup, how they gon' find us? Slave movies every year Yeah, the master gon' remind us If we don't take it, we don't deserve it back (Yeah) And six-thousand years done ran up The kings of the earth is back (Earth is back) Supreme mathematics, I'm on the right course (Yeah) Took the sword and knocked white Jesus Off of that white horse (Yeah) Yeah, my nigga, I'm on the right course (For sure) Took the sword and knocked white Jesus off of that white horse (Uh-huh) Fuck Spike, he mostly show Malcolm on coke and white whores (Fuck Spike) Did the shit so he can get fundin' up from them white boys White girl magic, cocaine, the white whores (Yeah) I was in Joliet serving heroin to them white boys (Yeah) Top five rapper alive and that's on Vice Lord Took the sword and knocked white Jesus off of that white horse Damn, somebody callin' me, fuck Damn, I hate when people do that Let me put my phone on airplane mode, let me do that over

Cirque des Souvenirs

One year ago today, the very first part of the Swan Crossing Project was posted on nosleep. It was the third story I ever posted on Reddit, the second I posted on nosleep, and the first that showed me that strangers on the Internet could read my work and want to read more.
To this day it remains my most popular post by a healthy margin.
Since it’s the first anniversary of the fated encounter between Bryan Herring and Alexander Chase, I thought I would share some of my author’s notes and fun behind-the-scenes facts about the writing of the Swan Crossing Project.
Proceed with caution, of course, as this post contains heavy spoilers for the story.
Let’s talk about the Swan Crossing Project.
I mentioned at some point that Arc 2 (The Children of Swan Crossing) was meant to be the whole story. In the planning phase of the story - which really just involved me daydreaming at especially boring moments of my mostly mundane everyday - there was little context as to how Bryan arrived in Swan Crossing, and there was no great escape. Naturally, that version of the story had a very different beginning and end.
I wrote The Children of Swan Crossing almost in its entirety before I came up with the idea of a prequel and a sequel. So before Arcs 1 and 3 came along, Arc 2 was already a complete story. I was working a full-time job at the time, but I wanted to write at a good pace, so my daily routine was mostly work, eat, write, sleep. I finished in about two weeks.
Compared to the two years that the story had been slowly brewing in my head, it was an alarmingly short time.
Part of me thinks this early version of The Children of Swan Crossing would have been a holistically better story than the completed Swan Crossing Project, in terms of narrative cohesiveness and momentum. The tone of the story would be more consistent, the genre would be less confusing, the plot points would be better held together, et cetera.
Of course, I’m not downplaying the contributions of Arcs 1 and 3 to the story. They add a narrative big picture and contain a lot more excitement and intrigue than the relatively sedate Arc 2. I think a lot of people who enjoyed the Swan Crossing Project would have found my original take boring.
In the end, the story is what it is now.
Frankly, in the big picture, I don’t want Swan Crossing to keep being my most popular work. I want to aim higher than that. I’ve already written some stories that I'm happier with than Swan Crossing that haven't necessarily been as popular.
I don’t ever want popularity to be my sole gauge for how good my stories are. I want to keep writing what I want to write.
So I’ll just keep striving to be a better writer, and hopefully people will be there to enjoy that journey with me.
Anyway, enough of that cheesy stuff.
Let’s talk about Bryan Herring.
I always called him Herring in my head.
It must be because I started writing Swan Crossing with Arc 2, and in Arc 2 everyone calls him “Mr. Herring”. But all the readers seemed to prefer Bryan. So I call him Bryan now, too.
His last name wasn’t even Herring when I started. It was Lancaster. I changed it to Herring because I wanted the names of all my characters to be distinct, and I didn’t want there to be another name that started with an L and ended with -er when there was also Luther. I loved Luther’s name so much when I first came up with it that Lancaster had to go.
The name is still around, though. It shows up in another one of my stories as a little easter egg.
Back in the early Children of Swan Crossing draft days, Bryan was going to be much older than how I imagine him now, because part of the inciting incident of that draft was his retirement from the stage.
Let’s talk about Alexander Chase.
You have two things to thank for him.
One was an early morning bus ride. I was on the way to a poster conference at about 7AM. Normally I would have fallen asleep but I was writing The Children of Swan Crossing at the time so I was idly thinking about the story when the idea suddenly struck me, seemingly out of nowhere.
Even in the early draft, Nix has a long-lost little brother. His name is scratched on Caliban’s door and our heroic demon child mentions him as he explains the workings of the scorpion flowers to Bryan. He says that Vio was taken by the lab coats, experimented on, and killed.
On that bus ride, the thought occurred to me: what if he didn’t actually die?
The other is this thread on AskReddit. If you scroll down a little, you’ll see a description of a paranormal circus that may or may not sound a little like the first description of the Mirage Carnival. That thread, which I must have read at breakfast that morning, inspired the character of Alexander Chase.
I think somebody actually commented somewhere on my nosleep posts that the descriptions of the Mirage Carnival reminded them of the AskReddit thread linked above. If you’re reading this, good job. You have a keen eye for detail, and a similar Reddit feed to mine.
I’m a big sucker for subverting tropes. You can see it quite often in my stories, in instances like this creepy mermaid story and this heartwarming zombie story. Swan Crossing was always meant to have a myriad of surprising characters, including the sweetest vampire and the heroic demon.
Fairies don’t get treated in modern literature as much as they should be. They’re too much of the small, giggly, mischievous, sparkly, pretty little delights of folklore.
If I was going to have a fairy in my story, of course I had to make him a sinister master of dark magic.
Once I had an idea of who Vio (or as I would soon start to call him, Alex) would be, I knew I absolutely had to write more than just the draft I had. In fact, his character was so compelling that I even gathered up the courage to share the story on Reddit.
Let’s talk about Caliban.
Named after the Shakespearean monster, his first appearance promised so much trouble that readers absolutely hated him.
Some of the initial comments about him actually made me concerned, because he was supposed to become the hero of Arc 2 and I was scared people wouldn’t warm up to him. Introducing Caliban was an entire adventure, because the story had just pulled away from Alex and I was trying to work in a new deuteragonist that wasn’t nearly as likable.
The best I could do was weave a bit of mystery into his character and hope he would be forgiven for burning down the attic.
And boy, am I glad that worked out, because I really like Caliban.
Let’s talk about Peverell.
Her signature item was going to be a red ribbon at first. She would carry it wherever she went so people knew she was there, and she would communicate solely through messages on dusty windows and mirrors.
That sounded nonsensically impractical, so I gave her an actual writing implement. I don’t know if it ever became relevant in the story, but her chalkboard was given to her by Miss Morgan.
Her name comes from Sampford Peverell.
Let’s talk about Topaz Brooke.
Now there’s an interesting character.
What’s her deal? On the surface she looks like just another character playing her part in this story, but once you start looking deeper, it almost looks like she’s bigger than the tale of Swan Crossing…
Anyway.
Topaz was initially just supposed to be a plot device. I needed someone to exposit about Scarlet Fantasia, and a journalist character is always useful because she has eyes and ears on exclusive news. When I wrote her into the story in Arc 1, I never thought she would come back in Arc 3 with literal guns blazing.
What’s she hiding, anyway?
If Alex is Swan Crossing’s supernatural mystery, Topaz is its subtle, human mystery. She certainly has a backstory, but whether you will find it is a different question altogether.
Let’s talk about magic tricks.
It’s such an interesting topic, isn’t it? Not magic, the (probably) imaginary craft, but magic tricks, the clever subversion of the mind and the watchful eye. Magicians are practitioners of a beguiling form of art. I loved that about the idea of having magicians be the main characters of Swan Crossing, because it’s such a naturally compelling and curiosity-inducing subject.
Because of the limits I set for myself to keep each part of the story concise and purposeful, I ended up deleting several scenes where Bryan actually performs magic, or uses his skills in diversion and sleight of hand to subvert the watchful eyes of the Swan Crossing administrators. Sometimes I wish I could have left more of those scenes in.
Aside from the obvious significance of magic, there is also a meta-theme of magic and trickery woven into the story. While I was writing the release draft, I took care to make at least one scene in each part play out like a magic trick in itself. There had to be something unexpected, twisted, mysterious and dazzling in every single update that I hoped would surprise the reader. The culmination of these tricks decorate the entirety of Arc 3, and I’m especially proud of the last three parts of the story because of that.
Let’s talk about other stories.
There’s a little novel by Ransom Riggs called Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I read it a long time ago, and frankly, I can’t say I enjoyed it to any great extent.
Yet somehow, it still ended up influencing the Swan Crossing Project in its theme, setting, and characters. I think many of these influences happened subconsciously, because I didn’t realize they were happening until one day I took a step back and the similarities hit me over the head.
There’s a young lady who appears in Miss Peregrine’s named Bronwyn Bruntley. She is absolutely the inspiration for Peverell.
There are numerous other sources of inspiration, many of which I’m probably not even aware of.
I can’t say I’ve experienced many things that happened in the story, but there are some small things I was able to draw from experience to write.
When I was little I got to see a Cirque du Soleil performance at a local stadium. Certainly a very different circus from the Mirage Carnival, but it gave me even a tangential firsthand experience, which is like a treasure trove for a writer.
I’ve been to Vegas once. I did watch the Fountains of Bellagio. They did not play The Ecstasy of Gold, although it is on the list of possible songs. And I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but there is no sky-high lounge that overlooks the fountains. The architecture of the Bellagio doesn’t work like that.
Lastly, I think the movie The Greatest Showman achieved so much of that dazzling, sweeps-you-off-your-feet excitement reminiscent of magic tricks with its cinematography. It’s a movie about a circus to boot. Also very different from the tone of the Mirage Carnival, but a heaping helping of mystery and thriller can always complement excitement.
Let’s talk about writing.
Compared to some writers on nosleep, I certainly take a long time to put out stories.
I have a notes document on my phone where I jot down ideas whenever they come to me in the form of a couple of words or short phrases. Some are as simple as Parrot or Fish bones, others as extensive as Strange things inside fortune cookies. These notes chiefly serve to let me remember interesting ideas that could be the beginnings of stories, and I choose the best ones to expand and craft into a complete tale.
I don’t delete these notes, so the one that I wrote down on that early morning bus ride is still there. It reads Violet, dark circus magician.
Sometimes I come up with an idea and immediately know the story that comes out of it is going to be good. Others start out iffy but in thinking about them I come up with interesting plot points that could make a fun read.
For a series (of which I’ve made very few), I usually create a bulleted outline of the plot points. For a one-shot, though, I just start writing. Sometimes that’s a slow grueling process where I get distracted every other minute, and sometimes it’s a straight run through.
Once I’m done, I always try to let the draft sit for a day or two, so that I can proofread it with a clear head and know it’s the best that I can make it.
I don’t consider myself a great horror writer, and I admit my stories sometimes teeter on the edge of nosleep’s posting guidelines. For me what’s interesting about horror stories is the mystery and intrigue often contained between the lines, and I wanted my stories to have the same sort of effect.
Let’s talk about what’s next.
I think the Swan Crossing Project is complete.
The perfect story for me is one that leaves you guessing. Imagining. Theorizing. When each reader thinks about a story beyond what was contained in the pages, the story becomes infinitely bigger than itself.
I think that unnecessarily serializing a story or producing sequels just for the sake of more content detracts from the value of the original journey. So even though a lot of people have asked me for sequels or other Swan Crossing tales, I’ve been very careful about expanding the main storyline in any way, and I will continue to be.
So unless I change my mind drastically down the line, there will be no direct sequel to the Swan Crossing Project.
I’m sorry.
Lastly, let’s talk about me.
The children of Swan Crossing first appeared in my head years ago, when I was going through some of my darkest days.
I have a habit of casting my troubles into imaginary people with faces and names. Perhaps it’s because then they become easier to observe and listen to, or maybe I was just trying to distance my problems from myself.
The silent heavy sorrow that weighed down my chest, the desperate attempts at turning that sadness into anger, the incessant nervous buzz that wouldn’t go away, the nightmares that repeated themselves, the fear of hurting others, the yearning to just be oblivious to it all, they all appeared as people.
Those were the children of Swan Crossing.
When those imaginary characters grew realer and they slowly made up a story among themselves, I decided to write it down because I thought it could be read as an interesting work of fiction.
I never once expected that other people would find solace in the caricatures of my problems.
For those readers who have found deeper meanings in the residents of Swan Crossing than as fictional characters, or even seen a reflection of yourself in their faces and their voices, you are not alone.
I’ve received many, many messages from people who have told me that Swan Crossing has helped them get through a difficult time or given them the courage to face another day. What you might not know is that those voices have lifted me up, more than I would like to admit. They’ve shown me that I’m not alone, either. That there are people out there who find empathy in my storytelling. That I have the small power to help them to their feet.
So thank you for that.
I thought I said enough of that cheesy stuff.
Whoops.
I read all of your comments, I really do. If I don't respond to your questions, most of the time it's because I want to avoid overexplaining and detracting from the story.
Most of the time.
Some of the time it's just because I'm weirdly nervous about talking to people.
But if you have questions you'd like to ask me (or if you'd just like to discuss the amazingness of breakfast foods), post your thoughts here and I will do my best to answer, sort of like how I did for the first Swan Crossing Q&A.
Thanks for reading.
Always.
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...
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I tapped my foot. My toes felt stiff in the oxfords I wasn’t used to wearing. The button-down shirt, the slacks. I bet I looked like a junior professor.
The single earbud in my left ear blasted Blink-182’s Not Now in a futile attempt to calm my nerves with incessant pop punk riffs. My fingertips brushed the side of the worn wooden bench like they missed the neck of a guitar.
My right ear registered footsteps coming down the hallway. I quickly pulled out my earbud and put away my phone.
“Are you Adrien Leclere?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The professor nodded. She pulled out a small bundle of keys and opened the door to her office.
“Please come in.”
We sat down in the cramped office space, full of old bookshelves that smelled like yellowed paper. Hung up on the wall among posters about Piaget’s cognitive theory and the stages of emotional development was a framed diploma.
The University of Texas at Austin has conferred on ROBIN BROOKE the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
“So, Adrien.”
I snapped back to attention.
“Tell me about why you’d like to join my lab.”
“Well, I-”
I swallowed. Took a quick breath. Reminded myself I was just here to talk about myself, no need to get nervous.
“I’ve been interested in developmental psychology since… high school, really,” I said. “Always knew it was something I wanted to study. I was looking for ways to get hands-on research experience as an undergraduate student, but it seemed like I wouldn’t actually be allowed to interact with kids as a psychologist so early in my studies. Then I found your lab.”
“And you don’t think it’s strange that I do allow undergraduates ‘psychologists’ to interact with children?”
I blinked.
“Well, I…”
“You should always exercise caution before making commitments to other people,” Dr. Brooke said.
“What do you mean?”
“It means you’re in, Mr. Leclere.”
“In?”
“Yes,” she said simply, as if that explained everything. Then to my bewilderment, she stood up and began gathering her things to leave.
“Please meet me here at my office at 3PM sharp on Friday. We will go from there.”