Eagle river lake homes for sale

Inspiration can be a fickle thing. The muses may guide our hearts towards a particular passion, but they don’t always stick around to see us through it. As a child, Kousei Arima felt a natural attraction to the piano. He could play music by ear, was a gifted mimic, and had boat loads of potential to one day dominate the instrument. With the help and encouragement of a family friend, Kousei’s mom set him on his desired path, but life as a pianist was harder than he thought. Rather than playing for fun and expressing himself through music, she wanted him to be able to make a living through his music, so she went as hard on her little pianist as possible, going as far as to beat and abuse him if he underperformed or tried to play a piece in his own way. By the time the terminal illness she’d hid from him took it’s toll on her, his passion was gone, replaced with the cold, robotic delivery of one who could deliver a piece perfectly, but found no more joy in doing so. He lost his mother, along with his ability to hear the notes he was playing.
Two years later and about three feet taller(I’ll GET to that), Kousei still tinkers around with the piano, but hasn’t played it seriously, to the chagrin of all who enjoyed his work, or just hate to see him so incomplete. It’s at this point, like all down-trodden men who’ve lost their luster for life, that along comes that one girl to bring color back into his world. Her name is Kaori Miyazono, and she’s a violinist who cares nothing for rules or convention, finding childish but somehow wise joy in every aspect of life, and with this one chance meeting, Kousei finds a new muse… A capricious, cheerful beauty whose revisionist musical performances instantly connect with the crowds she plays for, and whom seems singularly obsessed with performing alongside Kousei, and helping him to relaunch the career that he’d so recently abandoned. But her dedication to helping him to overcome his tragedy hides a secret tragedy of her own, and one simple lie she told back in April will live on to define their relationship as they change each others lives through mutual inspiration.
I haven’t seen everything that’s been produced by A-1 pictures, but I honestly can’t remember seeing anything they’ve done that looked outright bad. Sure, Sword Art Online and From the New world looked a little sloppy at times, resorting to broken character models to show fluid motion at reduced costs, but if that’s the worst they can do, then they could do a lot worse. They seem to take a lot of care with their work, putting an admirable amount of effort into quality control, like letting a low budget get the better of them would be an insult to their pride or something, and if that observation is correct, then I like the way they think. I’ve noticed that they generally have a penchant for putting a lot of energy into special effects, and then using just enough budget saving tricks to compensate without going overboard or letting it become noticeable. Key frames are well drawn and pleasing to the eye, and they feature a little more than just flapping mouths, with occasional shifts in posture to keep the characters expressive.
Of course, there don’t need to be special effects in a show about musicians, right? Wrong. Not only are special textures like water given special treatment, but we often get visual representations of the emotions brought out by a piece of music, which use environmental and 3D effects to keep our attention during the sequence, especially towards the end when Kousei and Kaori are playing together in a fantasy sequence, and the camera liberally revolves around a beautifully 3D animated piano. The characters also have a lot of inner monologuing that’s shown to us in artistic fashion, reminiscent of His and Hers Circumstances, but what I found the most impressive was the actual animation of the characters playing their instruments on stage. I can’t confirm this, but I have heard from a few people that A-1 pictures used a technique similar to rotoscoping, and I feel no justification for doubting this rumor, as every movement of the performing musicians, from fingers on the keys to the way the bow’s movements perfectly matches the music of the violin.
It would be so easy to get away with having a still image on screen while only the performers arms moved, and more intense note being played offscreen while only the audience’s frozen faces of adoration are showcased, but as I said, that would be an insult to A-1. Kousei, Kaori and several others put their entire bodies into their performances, losing themselves in it, and you feel every drop of their adrenaline. Character designs are beautifully polished and easy on the eyes, with it’s only major departure from reality being that the musician characters look a little more distinctive and exuberant than non-musicians, like Kousei’s friends. Well, okay, there is one other unrealistic detail that bothered me a bit… The difference in height between 14 year old characters and themselves at 12 is fucking insane. My jaw dropped when they said that Kousei quit the piano at 12, because he was so short that when he sat on the bench his feet didn’t even touch the ground. I could have sworn he was, like, 6 or something. It’s my only real issue with the visuals, but it’s still a pretty jarring one.
The music of the series… Do I even have to say it? It’s a series about musicians, and you can’t do something like that if you don’t have the knowledge or resources to pull it off, and they seriously pulled it off. Not only is it full of classical music, you can tell the difference in the way these pieces are being played, and the music that is meant to inspire and astound people does exactly that to the audience as well as the characters. From what I gather, Yuna Shinohara, a decorated Japanese violinist who was only 21 at the time, played the music for Kaori, and her wealth of training and experience did not go to waste. I can’t find as much information on Eriko Kawachi, who played all of the piano pieces, which is unfortunate. The show’s actual soundtrack was composed by Masaru Yokoyama, and while it isn’t as memorable or powerful as the character-based performances, it’s still solid and well-orchestrated, so it’s a shame it gets overlooked in favor of the insert tunes.
The English dub was produced by Aniplex, and features a lot of newer actors from this decade, alongside a few industry veterans. I’d like to say these newcomers step up and use this show as a platform to make a name for themselves, but I’d be stretching the truth a bit, mostly on account of the many loops that Your Lie’s text throws them for. Their performances were not consistent, which is a direct result of their material not being consistent, and I don’t really think it was fair for them to be thrown into something this eclectic. For the most part, they do a fine job voicing the characters while nothing’s really happening. It’s just characters talking to each other, sounding like natural teenagers going about their lives. Where they really shine is during dramatic scenes, and ho boy are there a lot of dramatic scenes in this anime. There’s a lot of pain, insecurities, confusion, all of that fun adolescent stuff, but with a much harsher but still believable edge to it once you realize the kind of real life circumstances that they’re dealing with.
While some of these issues may be worthy of an eyeroll from the viewer… Most of the characters who are in love with Kousei fall into this category… They’re going through issues that you probably had to deal with as well, and you can scoff at it from your seat as a grown up, or laugh at how silly it is for this obvious harem to try and be something more, they’re feeling something you’ve felt at some point, whether you remember it or not, and they damn well make you feel it. The exception, where several otherwise amazing actors begin to falter… Is with the gag humor, when the characters go SD Chibi for exaggerated reactions, and I don’t think they were ready to transition the specific roles they were playing into it. Max Mittelman, for example, is one of the best voice actors to come out of the 2010’s, and even though he hasn’t been acting long, his voice control and dramatic chops have landed him plenty of leading roles. He can do comedy under the right circumstances… You’d know what these circumstances are if you’ve seen One Punch Man… But he sounds horrible during the gag jokes.
It’s even worse for Erica Lindbeck, who had a tough job playing such a nuanced character as Kaori, whose happy-go-lucky persona hides a darker interior, and she does a great job of it, but the gag scenes just make her sound like a despicable asshole. Smaller characters face the same issue, albeit on a smaller scale, but the few veterans are able to navigate the minefield a lot more skillfully, like Wendee Lee(Who, in all fairness, never has to do a gag scene), Stephanie Sheh and Carrie Keranen. They have the experience to stretch their roles beyond the appropriate tones, which comes in handy here. The adaptive script is loose, but still accurate enough, and changes the vernacular so everyone sounds more like contemporary English, without ever sacrificing the intent of the text. They make a handful of charming and character-appropriate references, like occasional nods to Charlie Brown and The Phantom of the Opera, although they also use the phrase ‘as you know’ a few too many times. They probably should have changes some of the text, as a lot of it, when translated, sounds weird coming from 14 year olds.
Okay, so, here we are again. It wasn’t too long ago that I was calling out modern anime fans for letting their emotions cloud their judgement, saying that they often give perfect scores to any anime that makes them cry. Seriously, you could give a critic a massage, a home cooked meal and the best sex of their life and you’d still be working harder for a 10/10 than most anime do. Back in 2016, I’d just uploaded my reviews of Clannad and Clannad Afterstory, and I asked social media to recommend an anime that had genuine feels… nothing manipulative, nothing manufactured, nothing too formulaic, just an anime that would touch me emotionally and make me cry with sincerity. The overwhelming answer was Your Lie in April, a show I’d been avoiding due to all of the hype. I finally gave it a watch, and did it stand up as a heartfelt masterpiece, or did it offer the same old same old? Well, to be honest,it’s a little of both. My feelings on this show were mixed the first time around, and the second viewing hasn’t changed that.
Unfortunately, Your Lie doesn’t get off to a great start. The first thing we see is a foul ball hitting our man character in the head, lying on the floor and bleeding with what has to be a serious concussion, but not only does he heal immediately, but he shares the blame for the broken window the ball flew through. That’s not just bad, that’s disturbingly bad. It sets an early precedent for him being a sad sack with no will of his own, which I guess is kind of accurate, but it also makes his closest friend look like a monster for taking advantage of it(Trust me, this feeling is only gonna get worse.) I try to move past this, but almost immediately, it becomes apparent that all three of Kousei’s friends are some of my least favorite cliches in anime history. His two primary friends are Tsubaki and Watari, and they are… Respectively… A childhood friend who’s hopelessly in love with the main character, and a girl crazy guy who exists to make the main character feel desirable in comparison. I am so sick and tired of these two archetypes being stuck in orbit around at least half of the main characters in the medium.
And Kaori’s worse, because she’s a trope that I usually don’t see in anime, and I’m not complaining about that. She’s happy-go-lucky, she’s childish, she’s an enlightened soul who’s able to see all of the simple joy in life, and she comes out of nowhere to dedicate her life to dragging the main male character out of the slumps. She is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which is to sexism what the Magical Negro trope is to racism. Granted, she deconstructs the trope a little bit, as she actually has a backstory and a reason to help Kousei, but she makes up for that small silver lining by taking the “Life begins at man” trope to a new extreme, as “Life begins AND ENDS at man.” I’ll give her this, she IS the reason I kept watching the series, as I was entranced by her violin performance in episode 2, and she made me want to keep watching so I could hear more of her work, which sounded even better when she played with Kousei. On top of that, she plays an important… Dare I say instrumental… Role in Your Lie’s deeper themes.
Your Lie in April is a story about inspiration, and it attacks this concept from every possible angle. As annoying and cliched as his friends may be, Kousei is a good character who has a great arc that deals with this theme. He begins as a child, having fun doing something that he’s gifted at, until he stops doing it for fun and starts doing it as a future career, being forced to perfect it and take it seriously by his mother, who pushes him to the point of abuse. She controls his life, making everything he does revolve around the piano, even taking away his cat and abandoning it somewhere so it can’t scratch his hands. He loses the ability to hear the notes he’s playing, and quits altogether to avoid his mother’s tyranny along with the intense pressure she put on him for not being good enough. On the surface, this is a very mature look at child abuse and the way it can have long term psychological effects on the developing mind, such as Kousei’s performance anxiety, and especially the fact that cats pose a trigger for him(And I mean the actual definition of trigger, not the bullshit internet definition), and the abuse in question is realistic, rather than cartoony or melodramatic.
Below the surface, this is a story for anyone who’s ever lost their passion for something they once loved. The idea that expressive and interpretive music is frowned upon, and only literal performances are acceptable in competition, which is enforced by both the competition committee and Kousei’s mother, gives an understandable reason for his loss of inspiration. His music was becoming routine, and pointless. I don’t think his inability to hear the notes he’s playing is realistic at all, but it’s symbolic for that loss of passion. When your work becomes routine, it becomes repetitive, and it finally becomes robotic. When your hobby becomes work, you fall out of love with it, which is why Kaori coming into his life was such a major turning point for him. She showed him that there was another way to play. She inspires him, breathing new life into his abilities, and helps him to separate his passion from the pain and sadness that he’d come to associate it with, and it changes his life in so many ways… He starts playing again, he comes out of his shell, and he even begins teaching a younger pianist… That he winds up inspiring her in return.
They also make an argument that you play even better when you’re playing for other people, and while I’ve never personally agreed with that, they make a compelling case. Your own music, your own performances, are not your only legacy. The music you inspire others with is just as important, as your work also lives on through their work. They make a great point when they say that it’s hard to play the piano when you compare yourself to Beethoven, but it’s not nearly as hard when you remember that Beethoven was once just like you, a rookie trying his best to measure up to the greats who inspired HIM. It’s a shame they had to resort to a manic pixie dream girl in order to pull this off, but it’s largely forgivable, especially considering certain reveals that happen in the final episode. So yeah, this is not a shallow series. There is meat to the story, and something meaningful that you can get out of watching it. I’d be happy to say that the series was also executed well, but sadly, this is where things start to break down.
The text of the series, for example, is severely lacking. The idea of inspiration and Kousei’s character arc are well written and exactly as subtle as it needs to be, but the other subplots… The romantic ones in particular… Are annoyingly obvious, and frankly, kind of arbitrary. I mentioned Tsubaki as a ‘childhood friend’ earlier, and while this should instantly telegraph that she’ll never get her guy… They never fucking do… She does absolutely nothing else to justify her presence. Everything about her revolves around her love for Kousei and why he won’t respond to it. Every aspect of her life ties in somehow to her love for him, and since it amounts to nothing, she could have been written out in the first half of the series. I won’t go into too much detail about the other romantic subplot, or how it offers Watari his only relevance to the plot(although he does have a few moments relating to the theme), but they commit one other huge mistake… They use constant, and I mean constant, voice over narration from the characters as they explain their feelings to the audience. It’s lame, it’s tedious, and it seems to be trying it’s best to keep YOU from thinking too hard about what you’re watching, because it doesn’t want the pointless teenage melodrama to lose it’s effect.
Another huge problem is the gag humor, which feels viscerally inappropriate and out of place. It makes the heavier themes of the show harder to swallow, and not just on an aesthetic level. For example: We see Kousei sustain head injuries during two of these gags, that result in him lying on the floor and bleeding out. We also see Kaori hit him right in the crown of the head with an axe kick, driving her heel down into his skull. Now, if these instances didn’t cause any lasting damage, and the people doing it are supposed to be seen as likable, how am I supposed to feel when his mother beats him in the head with her cane? I’ve seen him shrug off shit like that before, so I don’t care. Am I supposed to feel different because of the tone of the scenes? This isn’t the fucking Looney Toons. Hell, even the Looney Toons had consistency. I can’t be expected to believe that a portion of the material shown to me doesn’t count just because the writer was making a joke. That’s disgusting. I’ve complained about Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood making this mistake, but Your Lie is just as bad.
And then you have the plot, which did not work for me at all. Like, I said the themes were strong in this series, but they suffered one major setback. Kousei’s mother physically abused him and forced him to play music the way she wanted him to, all because she thought it was in his best interest. His friends, however, do exactly the same thing. Sure, they might not take away his beloved pet, but they still harass him, assault him, chase him, break into his room and generally act like complete assholes in order to get their way. He warns that his performance might not be good, he falters due to a psychological breakdown, Kaori has Tsubaki and Watari start roundhouse kicking him, and HE apologizes. How are they any different than his mother? Because it’s supposed to be comedic? I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the interactions he has with his friends make me cringe, with their only justifications being ‘comedy,’ and the fact that they just happened to wind up being right. So the ends justify the means.
And then you have Kaori’s entire plot, which… Okay, I’m going to try not to go into spoilers, but if you’ve seen the show, you know damn well what I’m talking about. And this is the big one, the one that makes everybody praise the show out the wazoo, so I’ll try to be gentle. At the end of episode 4, Kaori faints on stage. At that moment, even though I was trying to enjoy the series despite it’s flaws, I couldn’t help it. I knew where this was going. I said, “Oh fuck, she’s gonna (censored), isn’t she?” I am dead serious about that. The beginning of the fifth episode featured her in the hospital, and folks, I predicted everything. I knew what was going to happen to her, i knew she was keeping it secret, I knew that it was going to be kept deliberately vague all the way to the end, I knew I’d never hear her play again(outside of maybe a dream or fantasy sequence), I knew what her backstory and connection to Kousei was going to be.
Knowing this stuff in advance took a huge damper off of the emotional impact of literally any point of the show. Granted, I did make one prediction that wasn’t true. I predicted we’d never meet her parents, which I wish had turned out true, because her parents are… Brace yourself for this… They’re Nagisa’s parents from Clannad. They are literally that. They own a pastry shop, they’re wacky and over-the-top, they live in said shop, and… Well, there’s one other spoiler connection, but that, along with a painful firefly sequence, made your Lie feel TERRIBLE at foreshadowing. I found myself, in both moments, shouting at my TV screen, “Okay, I get it, she’s gonna (censored), shut the fuck up about it!” So did the big bad tragedy work on me? No, of course it didn’t. The only part I got choked up at was a late scene when a cat died at a vet’s office, because it brought up painful memories for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something here, and it does make the experience a rewarding one, but it just couldn’t stick the landing.
Your Lie in April is available as a Rightstuf Exclusive, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the price is offensively high. Even on sale as part of the site’s holiday deals, it’ll still costed 130 dollars for each HALF of the series, down from 160 dollars regular price. Used copies on ebay go for as low as 60 dollars for each HALF, and I can not recommend you pay that much for an overrated series. You can watch it for free on Netflix, but if you absolutely need a physical copy, I’d actually go against my better judgement and recommend the Malaysian bootlegs on Ebay, which do come with a dub for a fraction of the official price. The manga is available from Kodansha comics, and volume 1 even comes with a sweet exclusive cover if you get it from Loot Crate. The live action movie is probably available stateside, but from what I’ve heard about it, I don’t care enough to check.
Your Lie in April isn’t a great anime, but it’s also not a terrible one. So, overall, is it good or bad? Well, to be honest, I didn’t enjoy the vast majority of it. I found the gag humor annoying and in bad taste, I found the comedic violence way too similar to some of the tragic material, there are too many cliches, and I caught on to some of the more important plot points way too early to fall for them. Having said that, I can’t say the experience was a bad one. The themes of Kousei’s character arc resonated very strongly with me, as someone who’s currently falling out of love with a long time hobby, and while I found his friends to be wholly unlikeable, his piano rivals were much more interesting, and I actually want to see more of him interacting with them. The final tragedy would have been a lot stronger if it hadn’t been so obvious, or if it at least had a proper explanation, and you can’t possibly deny that the audio and visual production went beyond top notch. It had a lot of problems, but honestly, it’s an okay show. It doesn’t live up to the hype, but it’s worth checking out. I’m being generous here, but I’ll give Your Lie in April a 6/10.

I read that during biblical times it was more common for people to drink wine instead of water because the water was often unclean and had lots of bacteria. If I were to take non-purified water from a river or lake, I was wondering if it would would be safer to add alcohol like vodka to it if I was in a pinch and couldn't boil it. Would this work?

We purchased our home in 2011 for $250k on the outskirts of the most desirable area in our city. Those limits have pushed into ours and, for example, about 25 homes within 3 blocks of us have been torn down with $900k-1.2m built in place of them. Many others have been full renovated.
We are on 2.5 lots in this area and if we sold, it’s possible it would be torn down and 3 homes built in place (we’ve seen it happen). We’d expect between $750-850k if we sold. We owe around $180k at 4.1%.
We love the area but our home was built in 1950 and while it’s had moderate upgrades over time and is definitely “okay” inside- the property in general needs work:

• spare bathroom & laundry needs complete rework
• roof needs replacement
• unused recreation room needs purposing
• upstairs loft needs repurposing (isn’t connected to central HVAC)
• property drainage needs addressed
• major landscaping needed (tree removal, grading, irrigation, sod, etc)
• master bathroom needs major update
• plumbing drainage needs attention

In terms of “wants”, my wife wants a pool whether we build it or we move. I want a 30x30 shop.
We are thinking $200-250k to handle all of the above. That puts us in debt around $450k if we refi or do a home equity loan.
Problem is right now all the homes for sale within 30 minutes of us are just not worth it. The homes for $650-700k with a pool aren’t appealing at all and need work themselves.
My dilemma:
Option 1. Do I burn up equity and make this property fit us better long term while dealing with likely long renovation time and still leaving equity in the home?
Option 2. Or do we sell and liquidate all of the equity while buying a home with pool for $650k that needs some love and we use the equity for the DP and slower improvements? This comes with headache of moving and a much higher mortgage payment.
Option 3. Become a landlord and rent our current home but do a refi first to pull out half of the equity for home #2.

Exotic 9mm ammo is creative, to say the least, but is it worth your hard-earned money?
Can you trust your life with unconventional or even wacky bullets? Such as incendiary rounds or external hollow points?
Yes, but I don’t recommend trusting just any exotic 9mm ammo.
Most exotic ammo should only be used in a controlled environment, such as at the gun range, while other rounds are definitely worth loading into your EDC.
Below you’ll find my top 3 picks for 9mm exotic ammo, and then I’ll explain my reasoning behind choosing to shoot exotic ammo.
Let’s get started!

Top 3 Picks for Exotic 9mm Ammo

1. Underwood 9mm +P+ Xtreme Defender - 9/10 - Best Overall
2. G9 9mm 80gr External Hollow Point - 8/10 - Runner-Up
3. Fiocchi 9mm 124 Grain JHP - 7/10 - Best Imported Ammo

Best Exotic 9mm Handgun Ammo Overall

Underwood 9mm +P+ 90gr Xtreme Defender

Specs

• Casing: Nickel-Plated Brass
• Bullet Type: XD
• Bullet Weight: 90gr
• Muzzle Velocity: 1,550 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 480 ft-lbs

Pros

• Hard-hitting for a 90-grain bullet
• Reliable
• Trusted brand

Cons

• Expensive
• More recoil than the average 90gr bullet

Why We Chose It

Underwood 90gr 9mm +P+ XD is the best exotic 9mm ammo overall because it’s ridiculously reliable and packs a punch compared to other 90-grain bullets.
Shooters who aren’t afraid of a little extra kick (comparable to a 45 ACP) will quickly fall in love with these exotic rounds.
This ammo is so dependable because of the nickel-plated brass casing and the high-quality powder Underwood uses.
Nickel-plated brass is stupid smooth, so the empty case is 10x less likely to catch and cause a malfunction.
While you never see the gunpowder, it is one of the most essential aspects of ammo. You need a powder that will light no matter what when the primer goes off, that’s precisely what this Underwood +P+ ammo does.
In case you’re wondering, “What the heck does +P+ mean?” It simply means they put more powder in the case than the average round while maintaining safe pressures. There’s also +P, which we will discuss below.
The downsides to the best exotic 9mm ammo are its cost and the increased recoil from the extra power.
So if you’re sensitive to recoil, these are not the rounds for you. The increased recoil can also make a shooter less accurate as they try to anticipate the recoil instead of squeezing the trigger smoothly.
With that said, I would still trust these rounds in a self-defense situation because I’m not afraid to spend a little extra if it means I’m getting a higher-quality product. I want to stop the threat as quickly as possible, so the extra power will help, especially if they wear thick clothing.
You should test Underwood 9mm +P+ 90 XD for yourself before you need it and don’t have it.

Honorable Mentions

If you’re looking for a round with a little less kick, there’s also Underwood 9mm +P 90 Grain Xtreme Defender. It’s basically the same round with less powder than the +P+, so it has less recoil.
However, that also means it has slightly lower muzzle velocity and energy.

G9 9mm 80gr External Hollow Point

Specs

• Casing: Brass
• Bullet Type: External Hollow Point (EHP)
• Bullet Weight: 80gr
• Muzzle Velocity: 1,480 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 389 ft-lbs

Pros

• High-quality ammo
• No jacket separation
• Excellent barrier penetration
• Low recoil

Cons

• Expensive
• Lightweight bullet

Why We Chose It

The Underwood 90gr +P+ ammo only narrowly beat out the G9 Defense 9mm 80gr EHP because of its high price. However, that should be expected from top-of-the-line ammo that utilizes the latest technologies.
With G9 EHP bullets, you get the piece of mind, knowing there is ZERO jacket separation and incredible barrier penetration, all packaged with little recoil.
G9 Defense EHP bullets have no jacket separation because they’re machined from a solid piece of copper, so there’s no need for a metal jacket like a full metal jacket (FMJ) bullet has. This allows the bullets to be lighter, which means less recoil and higher velocities, but it has a couple of downsides that we will discuss below.
The EHP bullet is also engineered to penetrate drywall and windshields, which is ideal for law enforcement and self-defense scenarios.
While it is “barrier blind,” it’s also designed to “slow quickly in tissue to prevent over-penetration” while simultaneously transferring the maximum amount of energy to the target, making it a prime choice for defensive situations.
As I mentioned, the cons are the price tag and the lightweight bullet. The high price comes from the patented bullet design, so that you won’t find the EHP bullet on any other ammo (but there are similar-looking bullets on the market).
The lightweight bullet can be a pro or con, depending on your take. While it lowers the recoil, which is a pro for many people, it also reduces the energy. Lower energy means less knockdown power. The +P version of these rounds helps eliminate that concern, as well as the bullet design.
Overall, I’m blown away by the G9 Defense 9mm 80gr EHP with its barrier penetrating abilities, reduced over-penetration, and low recoil.
These rounds are perfect for recoil-sensitive shooters who still want to carry a high-quality exotic 9mm round for protection.

Honorable Mentions

The Sellier & Bellot XRG Defense 9mm 100 Grain SCHP is another solid copper bullet. It’s exotic because it’s not made in the USA but is a traditionally shaped hollow point bullet.
It’s priced perfectly for regular practice and carrying it without having to refinance your home. However, the ballistics are not as good as the G9 EHP 9mm Luger rounds, nor does it penetrate through barriers as efficiently.

Fiocchi 9mm 124 Grain JHP

Specs

• Casing: Nickel-Plated Brass
• Bullet Type: Jacketed Hollow Point (JHP)
• Bullet Weight: 124gr
• Muzzle Velocity: 1,100 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 333 ft-lbs

Pros

• Trusted brand
• Ultra reliable
• Dependable bullet design

Cons

• Low muzzle velocity & energy

Why We Chose It

Fiocchi is one of the most trusted ammo brands imported into the US. They manufacture reliable 9mm self-defense ammo, among other calibers.
This JHP ammunition functions flawlessly because it is encased in a nickel-plated brass casing, which is smooth like butter, nearly eliminating all malfunctions caused by sticky brass.
The jacketed hollow point has been trusted for generations to provide solid accuracy while reducing the risk of over-penetration.
These rounds are priced just right for the quality of the ammo you get when you buy a box or case of Fiocchi 124gr 9mm JHP.
I find the velocity and energy a little lacking compared to other rounds. However, this is partly due to the heavier bullet, so we’re not comparing apples to apples in that regard. One might think that the heavier bullet would help with stopping power, though.
Above all, Fiocchi 9mm 124 Grain JHP can be trusted in a home defense situation to end the threat to yourself and your family because of the low probability of a malfunction and the proven effectiveness of the JHP bullet.
Be sure to check how much Fiocchi 124gr 9mm JHP we have in stock today.

Honorable Mentions

If you’re looking for an exotic round that’s made in the USA, then check out CCI 9mm 53 Grain #12 Shot. This is unique ammo because it’s multiple pellets instead of a single projectile, very similar to traditional shotgun ammo.
In essence, you can have some of the benefits of a shotgun in your semi-automatic Glock when you use this ammo. I wouldn’t recommend using it for home defense; you might as well use a shotgun and buckshot for that, but it would be handy for rodents and pests.
I will warn you that the case is aluminum, so your pistol, whether it’s a Glock, Remington, Ruger, Sig, or Walther, might not like it and malfunction more than it typically does.

How to Choose the Best Exotic 9x19 Parabellum Handgun Ammunition for Your Situation

Most of the time, exotic 9mm ammo is used at the range for fun, but some of it is designed for concealed carry purposes. So how do you know which is which?
The best way is to test it and consider your situation seriously.
Let’s continue by defining “exotic ammo.”

What is Exotic Ammo?

Exotic ammo can vary widely and be a tricky term to define. However, after asking many shooting enthusiasts and spending hours researching the term, I’ve concluded that you can define it in two ways.
The first and most popular is the wacky non-traditional bullets. Projectiles like nails, oddly shaped bullets, two slugs or multiple shot sizes in one shotgun shell, incendiary rounds, frangible bullets, and armor-penetrating rounds can all be classified as exotic ammo.
The other way is to take the word “exotic” at its meaning and refer to exotic ammo as any ammo imported into the US. Most gun nuts don’t mean this when they use the terms exotic ammo, but I added a few to the list above, just in case.
That’s why brands like Barnes, Blazer, Federal American Eagle, Hornady, PMC, Speer Gold Dot, and Winchester were omitted above.

Intended Use

Whenever you’re buying ammo for any gun, whether it’s a 357 magnum handgun, 300 Blackout carbine, or 12 gauge shotgun, you should always consider how or why you’ll be using it, as some ammo is better suited for the range over self-defense.
For instance, CCI 9mm 53 Grain #12 Shot might be fun to try and shoot clays using your pistol; however, it makes a terrible protection round as it’s much less lethal than Underwood 9mm +P+ 90gr Xtreme Defender.

Cost

Exotic rounds cost more than regular 9mm rounds because they’re specialty items. It’s unlikely that you’ll need to stock up thousands of exotic rounds, as you would with target ammo, so it’s okay to splurge a little.
Reloading is often an excellent way to save money on ammo, especially for standard calibers like 9mm and 380 ACP, but that is not the case for exotic ammo, as it’s much more difficult to load and, at times, requires special tools. So you’re better off just buying factory ammo.

Reliability

If you’re using exotic ammo for home or self-defense, you need it to be reliable. Reliable ammo goes bang when you pull the trigger and cleanly ejects while cycling.
If you have a lot of malfunctions while testing your ammo at the range, I recommend continuing your search before using it as your concealed carry ammo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there special types of 9mm ammo?

Yes, there are special types of 9mm ammo. There are many different types of bullets, powder configurations, and cases; each combination has specific benefits that make it best in certain circumstances.

What is the most lethal 9mm round?

The most lethal 9mm round is the one you’re most accurate with. Generally, a JHP bullet is precise and lethal.

What 9mm ammo is most powerful?

+P+ 9mm ammo is the most powerful.

Parting Shots

Exotic 9mm ammo comes in many forms, so you’ll find some that provide a fun day at the range or protection based on your needs and budget.
My top pick for the best exotic 9mm ammo is Underwood 9mm +P+ XD because it’s reliable, reasonably priced, and produced by a trusted brand.
Be sure to check out all the 9mm ammo we have in stock at Ammo.com!
Exotic 9mm Ammo: Explained and Ranked by Experts at Ammo.com originally appeared on Ammo.com

My partner and I are incredibly excited for our first visit to Japan in a few months!
Would love feedback on -general thoughts on itinerary
-if I’m missing any absolute must-sees
-if anything on my planned itinerary could be skipped -recs for which areas to book accommodations in -if we’re trying to do way too much - I know it’s jam packed but we get little time off work and I really want to make the most of it!
THANK YOU I so appreciate any help ♥️
Day 0 Flight lands at 8:05pm in Narita
Day 1 TOKYO -Meiji shrine and walk around harajuku a bit - spend a couple hours thrifting in Shimokitazawa - visit Shibuya- see Shibuya crossing and visit hachiko statue, eat dinner here -Go out in Shinjuku (Golden Gai)
Day 2 TOKYO -Explore the akihabara neighborhood (nerd culture) -Go to Asakusa district (Senjo-Ji temple, nakamise shopping street) -Go to Tokyo skytree -evening airbnb experience - food and drink tour by local in Ueno
Day 3 DAY TRIP TO HAKONE → KYOTO -depart Tokyo early am -Visit an onsen hot spring (Tenzan or Yunesson) -Visit the open air museum -Go to Moto-hakone park — views of lake Ashi, hakone shrine, Mt. Fuji -time permitting go to owakudani - volcanic activity. Can try black eggs boiled in the sulphur springs. -head to Kyoto late afternoon
Day 4 — KYOTO [intentionally skipping arashiyama district, higashiyama district, Nara in order to prioritize other things]
-Philosopher’s path (Definitely want to see Nazen-ji temple, can consider Ginkaku-ji temple, honen-in temple, eikan-do temple, toyo-jinja) -Gion neighborhood - hope to see a glimpse of a Geisha (any recs for how/what time of day is best?) -Yasaka-jinja shrine (can see yarayuma park next to this) -Traditional ceremony at tea house in evening
Day 5 KYOTO -Fushimi Inari Taisha (orange gates) -Nijo castle -Golden pavilion (kinkaku-ji) and surrounding gardens
Day 6 KYOTO → OSAKA
-Osaka castle -Dotonbori — (explore, eat takoyaki and okonomiyaki, see glico running man, eat at izakaya in yokocho alley)
Day 7 Saturday 9/2/23 — OSAKA → TOKYO -Shinsekai neighborhood + tsutenkaku tower (don’t need to go up just want to see it) -Kuromon market for lunch -namba yasaka Jinja shrine -back to Tokyo late afternoon
Day 8 TOKYO → home -visit a head spa in the am -lunch at Tsukiji market -open afternoon, head to airport around 6 for 9:30pm flight

In the dawn days of humanity, off the banks of the yet-unnamed Euphrates river, the Shaper sits to meet with Ikat, New Meeter of her band. Today is the day her people put her latest dream into practice, altering their yearly route to coincide with the local goats' movements so they might take a few for themselves and have meat all year round, a practice the Shaper says ought be called "herding." He seems troubled by this development, though, able to see what Ikat cannot in her innocence, the full scope of what this idea will mean for the land all round. He's only here to talk, of course, but with gods it's rarely so simple as that...
My reading partner and I had quite the extensive discussion over whether Clough's characterization of Dream is in keeping with how he's portrayed in the comic. That Dream would feel at all troubled by an idea born in his realm finding fertile ground in which it can grow and spread and begat a millionfold others seems odd given his typical philosophy of letting things play out as they must. The Morpheus we see in flashback during Brief Lives is as distanced from the patterns of intelligent beings and their civilizations from his part in passively shaping their course as Destruction is disturbed at seeing the early stages of a terminal phase play out afresh, for much the same reason between them. Both have done this dance a billion times on other worlds, and feel at that time they will do it a billion times more. To even imply Dream sees herding becoming agriculture becoming civilization spread round the entire globe and thinks, "Hmm, don't know how I feel about this," sorta implies this narrative features a very, very young Dream, and while I'm certain such doubts plagued him the first time something begun in his realm found rooting deep enough to spread past a single tribe uncountable worlds away, the aspect in prominent expression during the birth of herding on Earth feeling so doesn't seem right.
Course, one can take a few tacts to explain the oddity away. The fluid nature of reality in Sandman alone opens the floodgates for saying this isn't necessarily Earth or else Morpheus' exact history isn't strictly set in stone, depending on how each individual beholder is biased to perceive. Seizing on this, I do think the story proves an interesting brief exercise in examining a corner of Dream's character.
Unable to comprehend or so much as see Morpheus' attempted shared vision of the future, Ikat's perspective on her encounter is strictly one of the moment. She's so far away from what humanity will become as a result of her idea, she sees no reason in Morpheus suggesting the nearby river ought have a proper name - names are for personal things, ideas with use, people you know. The river is a river, and otherwise belongs to itself. Still, she is by self-admission given to rambling and self-storytelling as a result of her function as the band's greeter for all things new, so it is through her eyes we understand Morpheus' words of caution translate to discomfort with this new idea on his part, translate to potentially wanting the idea smothered in its crib. And why not, for if the embodiment of dreams manifests physically where he otherwise leaves a light but apposite tread, could it be for any other reason than halting intervention? Ikat is so caught in the idea the Shaper is opposed to her continuing this thread, she interprets her people's discovery of a young boy who spoilt the first herding excursion and looks past her club foot to see a suitable mate as an attempted distraction by the dream god, and resolves to look after her growing brainchild equally well as her future physical children.
But then, the boy was probably already there before Dream made himself known, would have returned home with the others and met and fallen for Ikat regardless what the Shaper said. All what changes is Ikat's priming to think this is some ploy to make her forget about herding. If Morpheus didn't manifest before her, speak his guarded words, show any direct interest in the course of history, is it not possible Ikat WOULD forget her dream and focus entirely on childrearing of a more literal sort, absent the stimuli to gird herself against distraction?
I just find it interesting to contemplate Dream as so inherently tied to those thoughts and ideas from out his realm, a well-meant word of caution primes the future more than if he left well enough alone.
What do you all think?

Hello. Please Chat or PM! Thanks for looking!
I was informed that someone is trying to scam under my name as john_1216 so please be on the lookout. I WILL NOT ask for alternative forms of payment.
-2021 W PCGS PR69 Silver Eagle Rev PR Type 1. Price $95.
-$5.5 Face Barber Quarters. All different dates! X26 face @ $143.
-$10 Face Washington (28) and SLQ (12) mix. Many different dates and mint marks. Very few duplicates. A few SLQs are dateless. X21.3. Price $213.
Shipping: CONUS only. First Class $5 and Priority $10.
Payment: Zelle, PPFF no notes (G and S +3%), and Venmo.
**Once the package is dropped off at the post office, I can no longer be responsible for it, but I will help in any way with issues. I package securely and discretely. I will send you the tracking number. Once we have agreed on the sale, the package will ship no later than the following business day (Friday sales will be dropped off at post office on Saturday) once payment is received. Happy to accommodate additional shipping needs at buyers expense.
https://imgur.com/a/Ck3btau

The story of our National Holiday to memorialize fallen service members is one of division, retaliation and reconciliation and as much as any in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
Memorial Day as a formal date set aside to decorate war graves started in the South to honor Confederate dead; or both sides, depending on who was doing the decorating. In Columbus Georgia, Mary Anne Williams was war widow to Colonel Charles J. Williams (CSA) who had died at home of illness that he caught on campaign. The family decorated Charles' headstone with flowers and the young kids went on to keep decorating all the graves around. Mary was inspired by her children to have all the graves decorated annually. Active in several aid organizations, she leveraged her connections to call that every cemetery in the South decorate their war graves on April 26, 1866. This date was when General Joseph Johnston (CSA) surrendered the Army of Tennessee in 1865 and flowers are in bloom at this time.
*By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray*
Mary Anne Williams didn't intend for Northerners to be included, and signed her letter not by name but with "Southern Ladies". About 10 major Southern cities, and more small ones, had their official commerations between April and June. And not without confrontation and condemnation.
*Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue,
Mellowed with gold, the Gray*
The Confederate Memorial services of April-June 1866 made headlines in the North. General John A. Logan (USA) headed the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veteran's organization. In July 1866, he gave a fiery speech to his followers. He seethed that "...traitors in the South have their gatherings, day after day, to strew garlands of flowers upon the graves of Rebel soldiers." He wrote passionate articles to Northern papers that they should have their own day to dress their war dead, which came to be called "Decoration Day" on May 30, 1868.
*Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Wet with the rain, the Blue
Wet with the rain, the Gray*
And so there were 2 competing days to decorate war graves, often time in the same space. The overwhelming majority of Union war graves are in the South because that's where the war was. Also, not all Southerners were secessionists. Every Southern State except S. Carolina raised multiple regiments of volunteer Union troops, plus Southerners who joined Northern units, local militias, guerillas and spies. Sometimes Union graves were blocked from being treated to flowers. The earliest memorializations, when the only regular, formal events were in the South, were physically intervened by former Confederates who saw it as their holiday only. This new blockade didn't escape the press:
The New York Times in 1868 opined: "The ladies of the South instituted this memorial day. They wished to annoy the Yankees; and now the Grand Army of the Republic in retaliation and from no worthier motive, have determined to annoy them by adopting their plan of commemoration." But not every memorial decoration was a chance to re-fight the war.
*Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray*
During the war Columbus (Mississippi, this time), was a small railroad town that became a large Confederate hospital encampment following the battle of Shiloh. Thousands of dead, including both sides, were buried in a common cemetery. In April 1866, heeding Mary Anne Williams' call to action, the local women adorned those thousands of headstones in flowers. They would not let the Union graves be bare so they treated those headstones as well. This exceptional gesture caught the attention of (Northerner) Francis Miles Finch who was observing the event. The spirit of reconciliation to decorate both sides inspired his poem, one of the most famous to come from the Civil War: "The Blue and The Gray".
*No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray*

Given Democrats’ all-out assault on traditional values and the American way of life, a single-minded focus on the economy—especially at the expense of major social and cultural issues at top of mind for many Americans—isn’t the winning strategy some Republicans might believe.
[...]
For much of the last year, no cultural issues have dominated the political airwaves more than the rise of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender ideology in K-12 education. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s victory last November [...] should serve as a clear sign for conservative candidates everywhere not to hide from the culture wars, but rather to embrace them.
- Seamus Brennan, May 12, 2022

Oftentimes, there are long political traditions that have been dead for years but continue shambling to the frontlines like reanimated corpses, only to be exposed as frauds. Politics doesn't listen to tradition. My favorite example of this is Professor Helmut Norpoth's Primary Model, which basically predicts Presidential elections based on who had the harder time in the primary.
Obviously, this model heavily favors incumbents, who are generally not challenged. It hedges by saying that an incumbent who is facing issues in the primary is in serious trouble. Indeed, it has a fair track record. When George H. W. Bush was rattled in the primary by Pat Buchanan, it was a sign that his tax increases would ultimately come back to bite him. Jimmy Carter's near-defeat to Ted Kennedy foreshadowed that liberals would ultimately defect to moderate Republican John Anderson.
The model gave Donald Trump a 91% chance of winning in 2020, and we all know how that turned out. Political realities change, and sometimes strong predictors for who is going to win are either incidental or outdated. Or both.
Let's keep in mind a tale of two midterms: in 2018 and in 2022, the incumbent President was unpopular and held a trifecta, having passed parts of his agenda but not others. Tradition dictated he was in for an ass-whooping in the midterm.
But the actual picture was far more complex. While Republicans lost the House in 2018 and the year is generally characterized as a blue wave, they actually gained in the Senate. Against all odds, too. Polls showed Missouri and Indiana as pretty close, even blue-leaning, races. Mississippi and Tennessee were supposed to be super competitive. But even as Democrats triumphed nationally, Republicans redoubled their totals with the base and even managed to gain in the Senate.
The Democrats' surprise 2022 overperformance was much more dramatic. Republicans, frankly, got whooped considering the circumstances. Every single incumbent Democrat Senator held on, and one seat, Pennsylvania, flipped despite polls giving Republican Mehmet Oz a lead going into election day. Democrats came very close to winning two seats they'd written off, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Lofty Republican ambitions in New Hampshire, Washington, and Colorado went up in smoke.
What's interesting about both of these elections is that there's one very important thing that doesn't make sense: the economy. Biden and Trump were both unpopular, but things were pretty good when Trump was President. In fact, with the exception of Bill Clinton, it's difficult to imagine any President that was dealt as good of a hand as Trump after World War Two. Under Trump, the economy was better than ever, and it remains the backbone of his electoral strength. Biden, meanwhile, had one of the more difficult terms in recent history. He broke several records when it came to disapproval, at one point being further in the toilet than his predecessor.
The Presidential elections were interesting, too. In 2016, President Obama was just generally popular and the economy was mostly on the right track. However, it was here that Donald Trump managed a huge overperformance that ultimately swept him to the Presidency. True, it is not unheard of for an incumbent party to fumble the ball and narrowly lose to an outsider (2000), but it's certainly rare. Then in 2020, when the country was at the most miserable and leaderless point in recent history, Trump overperformed again and nearly kept the Presidency.
So why did Trump overperform when Obama was popular, get whooped outside of his base when he was in charge and managing an economy most people were begrudgingly pleased with, and then noticeably overperform while having the worst hand of any incumbent since Herbert Hoover? And why did Biden, a well-known, establishment politician, underperform when all the stars had aligned for him but proved surprisingly resilient when everything was against him?
I think the answer is that it's really not about the economy anymore, or at least that the economy occupies a much smaller place in voters' minds than it used to. Another interpretation would be that the economy is now seen largely through a partisan lense-- by which I mean, the Democrats' (they're usually on the ass-end of economy questions these days) dissatisfaction with Biden's economy won't stop them from voting, and even if they are begrudgingly pleased with Trump's economy they'll still vote against him.
A consequence of this is that wave elections are over. In 2010, Obama had a trifecta and entered office with high expectations. However, key parts of his agenda flopped, and in the worst way possible. He managed to trigger the right while deflating his own base. In the 2010 midterms, the right turned out in full force, the left stayed home, and the center figured they weren't happy with the way things were so they might as well give the opposition a shot. Even states like Hawaii and Massachusetts saw breakout Republican success. This is basically the anatomy of a wave election before everything changed, thanks to Trump, and I doubt we're going back.
The matter is of particular importance because right now Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination. We will get the 2024 election nobody wanted-- a rematch.
In 2020, Trump held an absolutely terrible hand. He attracted withering criticism from many sides due to his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conventional wisdom dictated that nice moderate Joe Biden would win just on virtue of that alone. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crash had theoretically robbed Trump of the one thing he could actually tout, and that was an America where he hadn't managed to break anything. The nice, unifying Joe Biden was supposed to sweep him away in an election that resembled 1980, 1992, or 1932. At the end of the day it looked quite a bit more like 1948. Trump ran a bitter, divisive, unpresidential campaign to the fiery end, rallying his base and throwing crude but workable talking points to the suburbanites. He was narrowly edged out after a week of vote-counting in a few key states.
The fact of the matter is, "cultural" issues and a healthy dose of partisanship have at least partially supplanted the economy. At least partially, Trump kept his strength with economy voters because it was impossible to blame him for the country closing down. In 2010, many voters might've abandoned President Obama because he hadn't brought the prosperity he'd promised. In 2020, many voters toughed it out with Trump because (for better or for worse) they were too partisan to blame him for the country's ills. Democrats were destined to do a lot better in 2022 than in 2010 just on this virtue alone. The public now sees not voting like letting cancer win because your doctor didn't cure it in time.
Similarly, culture issues are eclipsing the economy in importance. In 2018, the Trump Administration's shenanigans mostly dictated which way the country voted. Republicans enjoyed miniature waves in a lot of red states, and got absolutely buried in purple and blue states. Similarly, in 2022, when the main issues were Trump's ongoing attempts to subvert the electoral process and red states banning abortion, Democrats were surprisingly resilient. But in solid blue states where those concerns were distant, cultural issues like crime gave Republicans surprise gains. The most infamous was New York, but Republicans also took the House because of strength in states like California and Oregon.
I'm going to close this post by saying that we'll be entering 2024 with the roles basically reversed-- Biden will be the divisive, unpopular incumbent overseeing a shitty America. Trump will be the guy on the outside talking a big game with no real suggestions and banking on dissatisfaction winning out. I had friends tell me the Democrats' 2022 messaging was just January 6th and abortion, and the general expectation (myself included) was that nobody would care about Lake's open declarations that she would overturn the 2024 election if Biden won it, or that abortion really wouldn't weigh on the Wisconsin Republicans.
2024 will be a bitterly partisan race where people will indeed care. If the Republicans nominate Donald Trump, people will care. They will blow yet another perfectly winnable race and hand a desperately unpopular President another term.

I am a student planning to save a little and get the GW4. Still not fully sure if I should buy or not.
So I have some doubts before deciding.
Can I leave my phone at home if I go for a run and workout in the park neatby even on the non lte version?
Also I am seeing many reports of poor battery life. To old users how is the battery degradation after one year and how is the after sales service and repairability?

Hey guys. Here are my PC specs:
Windows 10 Home 64bit
Intel I5 4690K
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 932MHz RAM (I foolishly bought DDR3 for dirt cheap right at the tail end of DDR3's lifespan)
Asus Z97-A Mobo
AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB Model (Bought it new, its not a beaten used miners card)
I just bought Total War Warhammer 3 on the steam sale and those massive loading times have finally made me feel that I need to upgrade my aging HDD. My 6 year old system is using a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD for my boot drive, WD Red 4TB HDD for storage and all my games are on a WD Black 2TB HDD. All my games have loaded fast enough on this black HDD but this game demands more. I don't know if the games loading times are effected by any factor except the speed of your storage drive.
From my research into my old Asus Z97-A mobo, it has a M.2 port. This is my first experience with M.2 NVMe drives so I dunno much. My bios seems to show that it can run M.2 X2. Do you guys think I should just toss this on to my boot drive which will leave 21GB left in my 232GB drive or should I go out to my local Bestbuy to grab one of the M.2 NVMe SSDs that are on sale? Will my motherboard actually be able to utilize the higher speeds of any of these modern NVMe SSDs?
WD Black SN 850X 1TB or Samsung 990 Pro 1TB

Throwaway account.
I desperately need advice on this, at this point I am basically all out of ideas besides pursuing legal action (which I am open to doing). I live in California and I have already reported this to the BBB and Attorney General, but I am not seeing any progress. At this point, I do not even care about the money. I am more concerned about pursuing this further so they cannot do this to someone else who does not have the funds or resources I do. Would like advice on how to proceed, adding a timeline of events below:

• I decided I want to clean out my closet. I happen to enjoy designer things (purses, shoes, watches, etc.) and decide I want to sell them if possible. I contact the online consignment shop TheRealReal as I have bought a few items from the site previously and figure I could easily make some money from cleaning out my closet.
• February 11, 2023 - A representative from TheRealReal comes to my home to pick up the items. I used this service specifically because I didn't want to deal with shipping (and if things were lost in the mail, the liability was not mine. More on that later). The woman shows up, takes pictures of everything I have (20 items total), and sends me a copy of the pictures and a list of everything she took with her. I'm told the items will be up and sold on the site within 2 - 3 weeks. The total of all items I would estimate is over $4000, however I am fine with getting a fraction of that back after selling and commission fees, I just wanted to get the stuff out of my house.
• March 22, 2023 - I reach out to The RealReal via their texting customer service chat inquiring about where my items were at in the process as it had been over 5 weeks and I had no updates. The customer service agent says they will investigate the issue.
• April 2, 2023 - I receive an email indicating they have received my items and are reviewing them for quality and pricing for their website
• April 4, 2023 - I receive another email indicating that they have reviewed and already sold 6 of my items. At this point I assume the items were not lost, but simply not attached to my account. They had been reviewed and sold weeks prior. The 6 items sold were of lower value (maybe $100 - $200 each item). I'm told I will receive a check in the mail for the items sold. (I have since received the check.)
• April 7, 2023 - I inquire again to ask where my higher priced items are at in the process and indicate that I'm unhappy about the updates and progress and would need to pursue more action if I don't receive clear communication. After this email, I am ghosted until I start a new email thread.
• April 14, 2023 - I follow up again asking the same as above.
• April 19, 2023 - I send a letter to The RealReal outlining the above and indicate I will pursue additional action if I do not hear back from someone about the status of my items as it had been 2 months. I sent this via email and via mail.
• April 28, 2023 - I receive the following email:
  • Thank you for your patience. After further investigation, we were unable to rectify our inventory regarding your above items. I can understand how frustrating this may be. Rest assured I am here to help make this right and have begun the payout process for these items. This means that I will send all of the information on file for the items in the package to our Merchandising team (photos, designer, style, condition, etc) so that they may price the items. Once priced, I will let you know exactly when you can expect to receive your payment, and how much it will be for. The RealReal will then "purchase" the item from you, and issue your commission as if it had sold on the website. We’re sorry that your experience with us wasn’t more positive and look forward to rectifying it as much as we can.
• I responded with the following:
  • Though I appreciate the response, the above solution does not rectify the 3.5 months of waiting for your company to come to this conclusion. You accepted a $700 pair of shoes and a $500 scarf, among many of my other items, and lost them. I utilized your in-home pick up service to avoid any issues with shipping. Before payment, I would like a detailed list of what the merchandising team prices the item to be worth, especially for the more expensive items that were sent (hermes scarf, louboutin shoes, amongst others). Based on your policy, items not sold would be returned to me. Because this is not an option (as you have indicated above that The Realreal has lost my items), I am expecting the full amount of the "sale" to be returned to me, as my items can no longer be returned. The "expected commission" is not an acceptable solution when the items cannot be appropriately evaluated because they are no longer in your possession.
• May 7, 2023 - After sending the above email, I have not received communication regarding the missing items. I chose to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in hopes they can move the needle.
• May 9 - 2023 - I receive an email that TheRealReal has received my complaint and are investigating. I receive follow up emails (unprompted) on May 11, 13, and 15 letting me know they are still investigating.
• May 15 - 2023 - I receive a check for the 6 items they were able to account for.

After this, I have no further communication from them. It's almost June and I still have no resolution. They have no accountability for the additional items they lost, and no one has reached out to indicate how much they are planning to "price" my items for.
TLDR: The RealReal accepted $4000 of designer items and lost them. They tell me they will pay me for my items, then ghost me. They have provided no updates or clarification after almost 4 months of back and forth. Need advice on what to do from here. Thanks!

Heys guys…
Listed our home for sale 30 days ago with a company called listing spark. They list on MLS and take pictures for a small flat fee ($1000ish).
We listed the house at $575000 which was on the high end. Zero interest. We lowered price after two weeks to $545000. Interest picked up but zero offers. Have lowered again to $525,000. Interest is higher but no offers yet. Similar house listed at $530,000 on a much smaller lot went under contract a week ago. So I feel like price is OK.
We just found out our 30 year conventional loan is assumable at 2.5%. We owe $300k so buyer would need $200k or so to make this work.
Here are my questions…

1. Does the assumable loan move the needle at all? And if so what is best way to get the word out? I don’t feel like that many people will read description. Would it be better to de list and re list or do a small price drop with updated description?
   
2. Would a realtor help move this faster? Especially if assumable loan is seen as a big positive? Or does the lack of offers come down to what it always does… price.
   

Thanks!