What do we do when there isn't enough football action to satisfy our betting needs? Well we turn to basketball of course. This happens mostly during the international breaks, but we should constantly place bets on basketball, as we can get some amazing value. Our Basketball Betting Advice Service has ROI +13.73 after two weeks of NBA action. Follow this link and learn more about our service http://www.clubgowi.com/sportsbettingadvice/bbc-basketball-service-update-2

What is a teaser? For those unaware, teasers are a special type of bet that most books will allow on basketball and football games. There's multiple games on your teaser ticket sort of like a parlay, but the key difference is that you're moving the line several points in your favor. For example, the Chiefs are favored by 9½ tonight but you might be able to get them at -3½ on your teaser ticket.
How much does a teaser bet pay? It varies by book. There used to be a time when 2-team, 6-point teasers on pro football paid at -110 odds. Unfortunately, it seems like -120 is more common to see these days. (Payouts will also differ based on the number of teams and points, but my focus is on 6-points.)
Are all teasers equal? Certainly not. Notice that many football games end with a final score margin of between 3 and 7 points. For example in the NFL last year, 101 games out of 267 (37.8%) ended with a margin of 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 points.

Margin	Frequency
0 points	1 game
1	11
2	12
3	27
4	12
5	10
6	20
7	32
8	12
9	1
10	15
11	6
12	2
13	6
14	13
15	4
16	9
17	12
18	11
19	1
20	7
21	8

Teasers that go through these frequent final margins are a better bet.
Blackjack expert Stanford Wong suggested a strategy for playing teasers that said to only play underdogs of +1½, +2, or +2½ points (teased up to +7½, +8, or +8½) and favorites of -7½, -8, or -8½ (teased down to -1½, -2, or -2½). These so-called Wong teasers have had a 100-37 record in the last three years in the NFL.
In comparison, teasers that go through zero (e.g., teasing -3 down to +3) have had a 76-64 record.
Is that good? A 100-37 record is a 73.0% win percentage. If the teasers paid -110, then the threshold required to break even would be 72.4%. At -120, the threshold required to break even is 73.9%. In either case, the percentages are too close to say we've found a definitive pattern.
Can we get better? A hot topic among Wong bettors is whether or not to bet underdogs of +3 points (up to +9). Let's break down the data even further and look at how the bets performed at each spread.

Bet	Record
+1½ → +7½	30-7	81.1%
+2 → +8	19-10	65.5%
+2½ → +8½	10-3	76.9%
+3 → +9	117-38	75.5%
-7½ → -1½	30-8	78.9%
-8 → -2	10-7	58.8%
-8½ → -2½	1-2	33.3%
-9 → -3	18-9	67.7%

In the last three years, it seems like the underdog +3 has been a good bet and that underdogs in general have been pulling their weight better than favorites.
Do totals matter? Another word of advice that some Wong bettors give is to only play games with low totals. The idea certainly makes sense: points are harder to come by in a low-scoring game, so the 6-point tease is worth more. But what does the data say about this in the last three years?

Bet	Record
Underdogs +1½, +2, +2½, +3	176-58	75.2%
Total 49 or under (dog +1½ thru +3)	142-45	75.9%
Total 42 or under (dog +1½ thru +3)	44-14	75.9%

Bet	Record
Favorites -7½, -8, -8½, -9	59-26	69.4%
Total 49 or under (fav -7½ thru -9)	48-19	71.6%
Total 42 or under (fav -7½ thru -9)	16-6	72.7%

Does it matter who is at home? There's some people that tell you not to tease road favorites, but the data hasn't shown that to be good advice in the last three years.

Bet	Record
Underdogs +1½, +2, +2½, +3	176-58	75.2%
Road dogs +1½ thru +3	99-28	78.0%
Home dogs +1½ thru +3	77-30	72.0%

Bet	Record
Favorites -7½, -8, -8½, -9	59-26	69.4%
Road favs -7½ thru -9	17-6	73.9%
Home favs -7½ thru -9	42-20	67.7%

So what does this all mean? Honestly, I'm not sure. Right now, I don't have enough conclusive evidence to say that Wong teasers are indeed a winning strategy in 2020. Besides, all of this seems very data-miney and that makes me uncomfortable.
I'll be using this year to track, in real-time, how these Wong bets are doing. For my tracking this year, I'll be counting underdogs and favorites separately. I won't be paying attention to totals or home/road splits. I'll be including underdog +3 in my tracking, so it probably makes sense to track favorite -9 as well.
What are the Week 1 plays being tracked? I'll be using Bovada's closing number as the determining factor in whether it counts in my tracking or not.
As of the time of this post, the Chiefs are -9½ tonight. If they come down to -9 by kickoff, it counts in my tracking. Otherwise, it doesn't.
As far as Sunday and Monday games go, these are the plays that will be tracked according to the lines as of the time of this post. However, the final list may be slightly different since I'm using the closing number as the determining factor.

Carolina +3 → +9
Atlanta +2½ → +8½
Chicago +3 → +9
Green Bay +2½ → +8½
Cincinnati +3 → +9
LA Rams +3 → +9
Denver +2½ → +8½
Baltimore -8 → -2
Indianapolis -8 → -2

Back in 1978, "The Gambler" Kenny Rogers gave all NBA general managers some sage advice. "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em."
Golden State decision makers Bob Myers and Steve Kerr are clearly fans of Rogers, because they acted quickly and decisively this season. As soon as they saw the writing on the wall that a playoff push wouldn't happen this year, they made sure to rack up as many losses as possible. As a result, they'll enter the offseason with a 15-50 record, in the catbird seat with the # 1 slot in the draft heading into the lottery.
When a strong team winds up with a high pick like this, there's a natural reaction: this is the Spurs and Tim Duncan all over again!"
Realistically speaking, that's not what's going to happen here. After 4 years in college, Tim Duncan came into the NBA as one of the most pro-ready prospects of our lifetime. As a rookie, he averaged 22-12 with 2.5 blocks and earned All-Star status right out of the gate. He even finished 5th in MVP voting (as a rookie!). Golden State shouldn't expect that. More realistically, you're looking at a top pick that could be an "average" player as a rookie, and hopefully work their way to All-Star status in year 3 or 4.
The question for Golden State is: can they afford to wait that long? Steph Curry is 32. Klay Thompson is 30 and coming off a serious injury. Draymond Green is 30 and perhaps on a decline already.
Given that, the Warriors have a choice to make. Should they utilize this top 5 pick as a way to supplement their playoff roster now, with the expectation that the prospect could develop into their next franchise player down the road? Or should they cash in their draft assets for a "win now" approach? In order to answer that question, let's take a look at more of the specifics.

What kind of package can they offer?

There's no way the Golden State Warriors will trade Steph Curry or Klay Thompson, especially given how well their skill sets should age over time. In theory, they could debate trading Draymond Green (still owed 4 more years) for younger legs, but I imagine he's too important to the franchise from a culture and historical standpoint.
Other than that...? All bets are off.
As we peek through the Warriors' cupboard for potential assets, here's what we find:
THE LOTTERY PICK. Currently slated at # 1, there's only a 14% chance it stays there. That pick could land anywhere from 1-5, with 3 or 4 being the most likely outcome. While this isn't a very strong draft, there's inherent value to a top 5 pick. I would estimate that the top 3 is especially valuable this year, with three potential bluechip prospects emerging from the pack in SG Anthony Edwards (Georgia), C James Wiseman (Memphis), and PG LaMelo Ball (facebook).
Minnesota's 2021 R1 pick. This had been included in the D'Angelo Russell deal. The pick is top 3 protected, but could still be a valuable asset. Under Ryan Saunders, the Timberwolves have gone 36-70 overall. With Karl-Anthony Towns and a full season of D'Angelo Russell (not to mention another top 5 pick), the Wolves may get closer to .500 range, but there's also a good chance the pick lands in the top 10 regardless.
Andrew Wiggins. Sadly, Young Mr. Wiggins would be used mostly as contract filler at this stage. He's not a bad player, but he happens to be overpaid on his current contract. He'll get $29.5M next season, $31.5M the following year, and $33.5M in the final year. He'll need to take a massive step up in efficiency to be worth that type of money.
Eric Paschall. The forward from Villanova had a solid rookie year, averaging 14.6 points and 4.6 rebounds. Realistically, there may not be a huge amount of upside left in the tank for the 23 year old, but the price makes him appealing. He's only due $1.5M next season and $1.8M the following year.
Kevon Looney. The 2019-20 campaign was a lost season for Looney due to injury, but he's still a potential asset on his current contract ($4.8M + $5.2M player option.) When last healthy in 2018-19, he averaged about 12-10 per 36 minutes of action. He's one of the few "middle class" contracts on the books, so he's going to be a common throw-in to trades.
Damion Lee. Steph Curry's brother-in-law is a personal favorite of mine. He's worked his way up through the G-League and 10-day contracts and proven to be a legitimate rotational player. The Warriors locked him up on a team-friendly contract ($1.7M + $1.9M) that makes him a positive asset as well.
Marquese Chriss. Amazingly, mega "bust" Marquese Chriss flashed some improved play for the Warriors last year. Teams will still be wary of trusting him, but his salary ($1.8M) makes him a decent throw-in and flier.
Alen Smailagic. The 20-year-old Serbian only played 139 total minutes for the big league club this year, but did pretty well (15.2 PPG in 25.9 minutes) in the G-League. He's a decent flier of a prospect who at the very least can be an extra contract ($1.5M) to throw into a deal.
other picks. The Warriors also own the # 48 and # 52 picks in this year's draft, and could throw in future R1 picks of their own as well.
If we throw in ALL of these players (hard to do with roster constraints), we're talking about a salary package of about $40M. More likely, you can make anywhere from $30-35M work presuming you include Andrew Wiggins as a major component of the trade.
Overall, I'd say the Warriors have three levels of trade packages to offer.
THE GOLD PACKAGE: Would be this year's lottery pick + Wiggins (for contract purposes) + a solid young player like Pascall
THE SILVER PACKAGE: Minnesota's pick next year + Wiggins (for contract purposes).
THE BROWN/TURD PACKAGE: Wiggins + minor picks and assets (but no high picks.) With this package, the Warriors would be looking to acquire other "toxic" assets more than anything else.

Potential deals for the THE GOLD PACKAGE (Wiggins + this year's lottery pick)

Bradley Beal (WAS) ($29M + $34.5M + $37M player option)
Look, I don't want to do this any more than you do, but the United States Congress just passed legislation (Provision BB-3) that requires every single trade post to mention Bradley Beal.
For this to actually happen, a number of events would have to fall in line. The first is that Beal formally demands a trade, forcing Washington's hand. His recent extension makes that unlikely, but not unprecedented given today's NBA climate. Secondly, the Warriors would have to grab a top 3 pick -- likely # 1 or # 2. If they do that, then they would have a legitimate offer to make the Wizards for Beal: that top pick + Wiggins + maybe Eric Pascall as an additional piece. They could even throw in a future R1 pick to sweeten the pot if need be.
You may question whether another shooting guard (emphasis on shooting) would even fit on Golden State, but we shouldn't overthink this one. Shooting is like peanut butter -- it goes with everything. Moreover, Klay Thompson could easily slide out to SF if need be. The defense would take a hit, but the offensive firepower would be devastating enough to make up for it.
Myles Turner (IND) ($18M + $18M + $18M) + $10M in trade filler
If the Warriors' pick lands in the 4-5 range, they may have to set their sights lower in trade talks, and look towards near All-Stars like Myles Turner instead.
The Indiana Pacers went into this season with an unconventional two-big lineup, and it actually worked pretty well overall. That said, they've been playing without Domatas Sabonis in the bubble, and it's given scorers like T.J. Warren more room to operate. Looking ahead, perhaps the team decides they need to break up the big guys in order to maximize their spacing and spark their offense (ranked 18th pre-bubble.) And hey, maybe they decide they don't want to pay Victor Oladipo (a FA next summer) big money and lock into a core that may top out as a 4-5 seed no matter what. Acquiring a young starter like Andrew Wiggins and a top 5 pick would give them some more options and potential upside.
From the Warriors' perspective, Myles Turner (or Sabonis) would give them a very good center that can play without the confines of their offense. Turner is also particularly stout on defense, and would pair with Draymond Green for a formidable duo inside. Originally, I had listed Jeremy Lamb ($10M + $10M) as the trade filler to make it work, but his ACL injury complicates that math. Presumably, the Warriors would like some healthy bodies to help a team that would be dangerously thin. They'd likely prefer Doug McDermott ($7.5M), but may have to settle for lesser white dudes like T.J. McConnell ($3.5M) and T.J. Leaf ($4.5M) instead.

Potential deals for the THE SILVER PACKAGE (Wiggins + MIN 2021 pick)

Blake Griffin (DET) ($37M + $39M player option)
Blake Griffin has been in the NBA for 10+ years now, but he's still one of the more misunderstood players in the league. He still has the rep as an athlete/dunker, despite the fact that he's a highly skilled ball-handler and passer as well. When last healthy in 2018-19, he averaged 24-7-5 and helped push the Pistons into the playoffs. Griffin's (offensive) potential on this Warriors team would be terrifying.
From Detroit's perspective, this would represent a reset and rebuild. They'd hand the reins of the PF spot from Griffin (31 years old) to Christian Wood (24) and go with a younger approach. Andrew Wiggins may never be the All-Star we hoped, but he still fits that timeline at 25 years old, and has proven to be more durable than Griffin (who isn't?).
With this "silver package," the Pistons would also get that Minnesota draft pick to help their rebuild. There's some uncertainty to that pick, so they may prefer some type of pick swap this season instead. For example, let's say Golden State lands at # 2, and Detroit comes in at # 4. The two teams may negotiate some deal that would allow the Pistons to jump up to 2 and grab their preferred prospect.
Aaron Gordon (ORL) ($18M + $16M) + Terrence Ross ($13.5M + $12.5M + $11.5M)
After six seasons in the league, it may be time to give up on the idea that Aaron Gordon will develop into a go-to scorer. Instead, he may be best served as a 3rd or 4th starter who's going to be a movable piece on defense and an energy scorer on offense. That doesn't sound like what the doctor ordered in Orlando (with Jon Isaac already there), but it could fit well in Golden State. Gordon and Draymond Green would be a "small" PF-C combination, but it's a mighty switchable tandem. Terrence Ross would be included for salary and depth, although Orlando may try to push for Al-Farouq Aminu instead.
Why would Orlando be interested in Andrew Wiggins? They wouldn't, necessarily, but this package would also offer them that extra Minnesota draft pick. Moreover, it would help clear some logjam in their frontcourt. Aside from Jon Isaac, they also have Nikola Vucevic, Mo Bamba, and this past year's rookie Chuma Okeke. Personally, I'm excited to see what Okeke can offer when healthy next year.

Potential deals for the THE BROWN/TURD PACKAGE (Wiggins + minor picks and assets)

Kevin Love (CLE) ($31M + $31M + $29M)
Can we possibly go full circle here? Andrew Wiggins started his career by being traded for Kevin Love, so it'd be fitting for the two to swap places once again.
From the Cavs' perspective, this move would be all about a rebuild. Kevin Love (31 years old, turning 32 in September) never felt like a great fit for their very young team. While Wiggins isn't an ideal building block, he's younger and easier to slide into a lineup at the wing. They'd also be getting off a contract that's naturally risky given Love's age and injury history.
The Warriors had resisted adding Kevin Love before (for Klay Thompson), but his "fit" would be interesting right now. Offensively, his ability to rebound and stretch the court would make their lineup even more potent. Defensively, your hope is that Draymond Green could cover for any potential weakness he may have. Love is also a good team-first player who shouldn't have any problem fitting in and chasing another ring.
Al Horford (PHI) ($27.5M + $27M + $26.5M)
Another skilled big man in his 30s, Al Horford could be an option if the Warriors want to make a quick push to win now at the expense of their future. Horford is past his prime, but he's still a heady player who would fit into the offensive system and culture well.
That said, Horford carries sizable risk to him given the length of his contract. He recently turned 34, so he'll be paid $20M+ into his age 35-36 seasons. It's almost guaranteed to be an albatross contract by the end, but perhaps the Warriors can talk themselves into it if they believe their window is only 1-2 more years anyway.
For the Sixers, Andrew Wiggins isn't ideal either (as a mediocre shooter), but he'd at least offer them more depth at the wing. Paying a big man like Al Horford to go along with Joel Embiid never made a ton of sense in the first place.
LaMarcus Aldridge (SA) ($24M)
The San Antonio Spurs haven't embraced a full-on rebuild yet, but they're verging on that territory. That'd be especially easy at center, where Jakob Poeltl is more than ready to man 25-30 minutes. Given that, LaMarcus Aldridge would be an easy piece to push aside. Would the Spurs want a player like Andrew Wiggins back in return? Probably not. Still, they may have the faith that their player development system can get Wiggins to tap into his full potential.
From the Warriors' perspective, this would be another push to "win now." Despite being 35 years old, Aldridge can still be an offensive weapon, as illustrated by his 18.9 points per game this season. In some ways, he could be a bootleg version of what Kevin Durant gave the Warriors -- bailing out their offense in half-court possessions when needed. Defensively, he should be able to play alongside Draymond Green as well.
While LaMarcus Aldridge may not sound like a needle mover at this stage, this is a good time to remind the reader that these latter packages don't include those valuable draft picks.
Julius Randle (NY) ($19M + $20M) + SG Wayne Ellington ($8M)
You're not going to find more polarizing players than Julius Randle. The raw stats suggest he's a star (he neared 20-10 again with averages of 19.5 and 9.7 this season.) The advanced stats suggest he's a net negative. Still, you'd like his chances of success playing with this Golden State offense. Randle is an underrated ball-mover himself, so he may fit in well with their lineup. For his part, Wayne Ellington would be a contract filler and a potential depth play.
Would the Knicks want Andrew Wiggins? Eh. He's probably a little better than Julius Randle, but he's about the same age (both 25) and would be on a more expensive, longer-term deal. Their decision here may come down to the draft. If they have a chance to take another big (be it James Wiseman or Onyeka Okongwu) they may want to jettison Julius Randle sooner than later to clear room.
Kyle Anderson (MEM) ($9.5M + $10M) + Gorgui Dieng ($17M)
This would certainly be the lowest profile trade option, and it would essentially be the Warriors' way of admitting that they never wanted Andrew Wiggins in the first place. I like the idea of "Slo-Mo" Kyle Anderson on the Warriors given his basketball IQ, while Gorgui Dieng may be good enough to give them 20 minutes a night. Still, the only reason the Warriors would make a trade like this would be if they viewed Wiggins as a toxic/negative asset.
From the Grizzlies' perspective, this deal would represent some risk as well. This is a young and talented team that doesn't necessarily need more help on the wing. They have a full plate already with Dillon Brooks, Justice Winslow, Grayson Allen, Josh Jackson, etc. Still, it's never easy for a market like Memphis to draw in "big names," so perhaps they view Wiggins as that type of star material.

Who is Rick Smith Jr?
When you're an entertainer, you need to find something that makes you stand out from the rest of the pack. This is also true for performers in the magic industry. With magic man Rick Smith Jr, it's easy to see that he has what it takes to stand out from your run-of-the-mill magician. To begin with, Rick has three Guiness World Records.
But it's not just that Rick Smith Jr is a world record holder that makes you sit up and take notice, but it's especially the kinds of records that he holds. Rick is an expert in throwing playing cards, and holds the record for the furthest distance ever thrown with an ordinary playing card. But that's just one of the ways he's made headlines with his card throwing skills. He's also developed an incredible accuracy with his card throwing, and his insane skills have seen him hit the big time in a "trick shots" collaboration with Dude Perfect, which features his card throwing. The video went viral, and at the time of writing it has around 150 million views! In the summer of 2020 he made a return visit to Dude Perfect, the result being this latest video with even more amazing stunts.
With his unique fusion of magic and card throwing, Rick Smith Jr is in high demand around the world. He's performed on television many times, for some of the biggest names in the business. Each year he does more than 600 shows for a steady stream of clients, who want to bring his exciting brand of magic and card throwing to their homes, businesses, and events. With a background in marketing, Rick is well placed to serve the needs of corporate customers, while entertaining them with an unforgettable performance at the same time.
Rick has been amazing audiences for around 20 years, and with his remarkable skills and talents, he knows how to use playing cards in a way that few others do. We're grateful that he was willing to do this interview with us, giving us the opportunity to get a unique insight look at his world, and get some helpful pointers for taking our playing cards to the next level - literally!

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THE INTERVIEW
For those who don't know anything about you, what can you tell us about yourself and your background?
Well, I've been performing magic for over 30 years. I perform close to 600 magic shows a year right now, with my card-throwing being a niche of my act. So I'm not just a card thrower, but I am a professional entertainer. I was an NCAA pitcher in college, and I developed my strength of my card throwing by throwing a baseball 90-plus miles per hour.
What can you tell us about the Guinness World Records you have set?
I have three Guinness Book world records for throwing playing cards. My first world record was set in 2002, for throwing a playing card 72 yards at a speed of 92 miles per hour.
My other two world records were set in 2015 and 2017, one for throwing a card the most accurate, which was 46 out of 52 cards to a target in under a minute. The other world record was for throwing the highest, which was 70 feet and some odd inches straight up in the air.
What does a typical day or month in the life of Rick Smith Jr look like?
Typically, I have been a prize for a fundraising company for the past ten years. I would perform three school shows during the week, Monday through Friday. My weekends, I would travel. I would perform for different companies and corporations around the world, and the school tour thing lasted for ten years. There was 400 shows a year.
An average day: I'll try to come up with some new material, perform the shows, post on social media, and hang out with family and friends when I can. I work a lot.
What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of magic and throwing playing cards?
Going to sporting events. I was a baseball player, and we're from Cleveland, so we go to different Cleveland Indian games. I played baseball up until a couple years ago, after I had an elbow injury, where I had to have surgery, which was both baseball and card-throwing-related. So I gave up baseball.
Also four-wheeling, hanging out with family, cooking on the grill - those are my hobbies right now.
Aside from your world records, what would you consider to be your biggest accomplishments, and things you're most proud of?
I guess my girls. I have a three-year-old, Aubrey, and I have a five-year-old, Averie. Having kids now, it's changed my life. When I'm not performing, I'm going to dance recitals and taking them for swimming lessons and Little Gym and getting them into sports and baseball and soccer and basketball. So I'm spending a lot of my time with those two, and there's one more on the way in August. So it's going to change my life even more, coming up.
What instructional videos have you produced that we should know about?
If you want to learn some magic and some card-throwing, I have a free tutorial and some more tutorials on my YouTube channel. I also have some behind the scenes of the card-throwing and some in-depth training on a DVD called Velocity, which is available on my website.
What playing cards have you personally been involved with producing?
I developed the whistle for the Banshee throwing playing cards. Banshees were created by Murphy's Magic, while the whistle was created by me. So Banshees and Banshees Advanced are playing cards that you can throw that have a measuring system. I used the Chrome Kings that De'Vo developed for most of the first video for Dude Perfect. In my second collaboration video, I used my new Falcons, which have a gold and silver edition. We just released a cool Kickstarter for the Falcon Razor deck.
What playing cards do you use for performing magic?
My magic deck is still Bicycle. I still prefer them over any other deck that I've used for performing magic, unless I'm at a really high-end event and I want to have a fancy deck of cards. I will browse my collection and grab one of De'Vo's earlier decks. I'm not against other companies though, and I have decks from David Blaine, Art of Play, and Theory 11. I probably have thousands different decks of cards, if not more. Some decks of cards, other magicians give to me. Some decks of cards, I've received as gifts. So I like playing cards all around.

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When did you first get involved in magic and what first sparked your interest in it?
I was seven years old. I always did card tricks. My dad knew one card trick, my uncle knew a coin trick, and that was what really sparked my interest - being able to handle cards and being able to do one-handed cut and shuffle the cards and be able to do little tricks, where I could do some betting things with family and friends. That's how I really got into card magic. The coin trick was just the scotch and soda trick, and that was the trick that my uncle knew and taught me. He ended up giving me the coins to be able to perform that trick for my friends. So that got me interested to it.
Back in the day we also had World's Greatest Magic every Thanksgiving. That sparked an interest from illusions to close-up magic to all those other things that just got me into magic even deeper.
How have your own performances and shows changed since you first became involved in magic?
I've made myself more of an entertainer. I'm not the best or most technical magician in the world. But I feel that I'm a good entertainer. I'm out there performing and doing things that are not easy to figure out, but they're also fun. They're not drawn out, and they're exciting.
I try to create some magic tricks that would fit in with my card-throwing For example, there's my own version of a card stab and instead of using a knife I do this: I have someone select a playing card, lose it in the deck, throw the cards in the air, and then I throw a playing card and pin their sign card to a board.
I also create tricks that fit in with my personality, which is just have a good time, make sure the audience is having a good time, and keep people entertained. I'm always there to talk with my audience. And if people see me at a show, I'm the same person that they would see if I was just walking down the street. Those are the people that got me into magic, and I'm always there for those types of people as well.
How has technology impacted the magic industry over the last couple of decades, and is this good or bad?
I think it's enhanced the magic community a ton. I use technology magic in my act now, and I don't see a weakness in it yet, other than someone thinking that it might be an app. But if you can use somebody else's cell phone or somebody else's technology in their hands and end up doing something with their props, you can sometimes just get rid of that whole idea of "That was an app" or "That was something that had to do with technology." If you're a good storyteller, you can kind of work around that.
Do have any good stories you can share about an epic "fail" that you experienced?
I haven't really had any card-throwing things gone wrong, aside from not hitting the target the first time. But I did have one epic fail. At the end of my shows, I would throw playing cards as far as I could, for example at an outdoor show in the summertime. If it was a kids' show, I'd tell the kids: "Whoever catches this card wins a deck of cards, one of these Chrome Kings" (or a Bicycle deck or whatever I had at the time). I would throw the card as far as I could or as high as I could, and outside it would definitely travel sometimes farther than world record distance because of wind and things like that.
Well, one day, I had two kids run into the card at the very same time, and they kind of ran face-to-face, ran into each other. The one kid's tooth popped right out. So that was an epic fail. I was pretty upset about that. But they went to the hospital, and they got the tooth back in, and I never heard from that family again, even in a bad way. But I felt bad.
I guess the first show ever I ever did in my entire life was an epic fail as well. I was 15 years old. I thought flash paper and smoke powder and sparkle dust type of stuff that was flammable would be a cool idea to set on fire in somebody's living room. Well, it started sparkling and sparkling and sparkling, and it never stopped until it hit the floor and then burned a nice quarter-inch hole in their carpet. This was a housewarming party for their first house that they ever bought. Now they have a quarter-inch burn hole in the middle of their thing! 20 or more years later, they come up to me, and say: "That burn hole is still there, and we love that you're performing still. We tell everybody that you did it."
What advice would you give to a young person just starting to learn card magic for the first time today?
Just practice. Don't necessarily practice in front of a mirror. It's good to practice your angles, but practice on your family. Practice on your brother or your sister, your aunt or your uncle. The more that you're out there, performing these tricks on people, the better you'll get.
I've seen some of the best magicians in the world technically who can show the most incredible card move that I've ever seen in my entire life, but they don't have the courage to walk up to a real person and perform that trick. Even though they would blow me away technically, they don't have the social or people skills. So develop your people skills. It's going to help you with school. It's going to help you with presentations in college. It's going to help you with anything. The more that you can be in front of people and the more that you feel comfortable with people, the better you'll get with your act. People will see that you're comfortable, and they'll like you as a person, as well as your act.
Do you have any thoughts and opinions on cardistry?
I think cardistry's pretty cool. I have a lot of friends that do cardistry. I know De'Vo was one of the first to do extreme card manipulation, and he popularized it. Then it became cardistry, and then the Buck twins made it a little bit more popular, which is great.
Back in the day all of those fancy card moves were used as performance pieces. Nowadays they're used as things added to enhance your performance. While you're performing a trick, you do a little bit of cardistry in the middle of it, finish your trick, and you're done. It just gives you something you can do with cards that no one else can.
What has been your experience with social media, and what role do you think it plays for your career?
I never liked social media. I hated that kind of stuff. But I guess I followed just on what everybody was doing. I thought, "I don't want to be left behind too far. I'll post here and there." Now I have an audience of over half a million people. It's not a lot yet, but it's getting there, and it's growing every day. I'm getting sponsors from different companies, and I'm doing sponsored posts. I'm becoming an influencer. I'm making money on YouTube. I'm making money on Instagram. So I'm going to continue to do that, because, as of right now, during this time in the world [COVID-19 crisis] it's the only way for an entertainer to make money.

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Do you have any goals or accomplishments that you would still like to achieve in your lifetime?
That's a tough one. Just keep performing. I feel like I've accomplished so much, so young. I would love to build up my YouTube subscribers. I would love to continue that and present card-throwing, magic, and tutorials to the younger people out there in the world, give them a place that they could learn and collaborate with others. I would like to just continue doing what I'm doing, collaborating with different artists, making different trick shot videos, trying to always get better. That would be the goal, never to let it get stale, never let it get old.
I had a mentor as a kid when I went on Ripley's Believe It or Not say, "Enjoy your 30 seconds of fame, because it's not going to last more than a couple of weeks." When that mentor said that to me, I was like, "Well, I'm going to prove him wrong." I've been doing card-throwing now for 18, 19 years, making a significant living off that and off my magic. So it's been going on for 18 years. Ricky Jay did it his whole career. I think I can keep enhancing it and making it better, keeping it popular.
What should we know about Magic Gives Back, which you founded and are the director of?
Magic Gives Back is a platform that I created for my Las Vegas-style magic show. Originally for ten years I was performing at 400 schools a year, as a prize for a local fundraising company. Kids would sell magazines, cookie dough, and wrapping paper and I was the prize for their reward. Instead I basically made Magic Gives Back, the ultimate family night, as a fundraiser. I grabbed 15 of my closest friends, from lighting engineers, sound engineers, to special guest entertainers to dancers to assistants, built some of the best illusions from big magic builders in Las Vegas, like Magic Ventures, and I have tons of different illusions from around the world. We put all that stuff together.
We ended up going into schools, offering them 50% of the profit. So instead of kids selling magazines and cookie dough, they would sell tickets to the show. They would be the promoters to the show, and then we would bring that show to their facilities, their auditoriums. In one night, we could raise anywhere from $20,000-$40,000 and split the money, with the school perhaps doing absolutely nothing. And we had a sold-out show and were able to perform our Las Vegas Dallas show without ever having to spend any money on advertising. So it was a win-win for everybody.
Where can people go to see you perform today?
Most of my shows are private. We do probably 15 Magic Gives Back shows a year. Just say keep an eye out on my social media. If there are public appearances, I put them on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, and if they want to come to a Magic Gives Back big show, the next shows will be in the spring, 2021.

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CONCLUSION
There's no doubt that Rick Smith Jr is a unique individual with a remarkable set of talents. He has shaped himself into an entertainer like no other. His path to the record-setting top has been shaped by a few key events, especially his baseball background, his first world record, and his Dude Perfect collaboration video. But he's also not afraid of hard work, as his busy schedule of 600+ shows a year makes clear. He's honed and polished his craft, enabling him to do things with playing cards that nobody else in the world can do.
But even if we're not about to contest Rick Smith Jr for his world records, that doesn't mean we can't have fun with playing cards in unusual ways. So why not grab a deck of playing cards and give card throwing a shot yourself!

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Author's note: I first published this article at PlayingCardDecks here.

Bryan Colangelo had one more burner account most fans did not know about, although it was in plain view this whole time. Marc Eversley. The Sixers former assistant general manager who just recently departed to become g.m. of the Chicago Bulls. Hired by Colangelo back in 2017 after having groomed him in Toronto during Sir Collarz’ reign there, Eversley remained in Philadelphia after Colangelo was ejected after ‘his wife’ was caught secretly dishing dirt about the organization and its players. Despite the Fultz and Pasecniks fiascos, among other mis-evaluations, Josh Harris had no intention of firing Bryan Colangelo up until then. By keeping Eversley, hiring Elton Brand as a general manager in training, and insisting the Sixers do things collectively, Harris was able to channel Jerry and Bryan’s non-championship winning ways. Elton Brand was put in the position Harris wished for Hinkie, the guy who would be nominally in charge, while Harris and the Colangelo Advisory Group approved or vetoed any significant move. I have no inside information, but it would not surprise me in the least bit if way down deep in the Sixers’ contract bin is one for consulting services from Bryan, Jerry or both.
Now Elton Brand has been put way out front, with everyone assuming he has been granted more autonomy and authority. How does he get more power after a disappointing season? Without explicitly stating it, the logical reason would be that his advice on certain matters should have been followed instead of vetoed. The Colangelo blueprint Josh Harris and presumably Marc Eversley were married to continued to fail. We can only speculate where the divergences were. But the players acquired before June 2019 look somewhat different than the ones acquired beforehand. The common thread between Matisse Thybulle, Josh Richardson and Al Horford is that they are all better defenders than they are offensive players. Boosting Elton Brand’s case for more power is thatthe only trade that has unequivocally worked out for us recently was the promise made to and the trade up for Matisse Thybulle--which we should not forget was almost universally decried by Sixers fans and analysts who openly questioned whether Brand was over his head. Meanwhile, the Sixers sold more draft picks, which has always been Harris’ modus operandi.
Conversely, the Colangelo era featured the acquisition of offensive players who could be passable on defense. And paying premium prices for them to boot. From Sergio Rodriguez (9m) to JJ Redick (21m) to Tobias Harris (33m). We are still speculating about the details leading to Jimmy Butler’s departure. We have no idea whether giving Tobias Harris a max deal was a consensus decision or divided. But Jimmy Butler matches Elton Brand’s trademark player, while Tobias Harris is in line with Eversley-Harris-Colangelo. This quote also suggests Eversley-Harris favored Tobias over Jimmy: “A few years ago, Eversley was explaining to a Philadelphia reporter the hazy road to finding successful players. ‘There’s no blueprint, no magic to this,’ he said. ‘It’s about fit, feel and character. Dudes who play hard, who you don’t have to manage every single day.’” Jerryd Bayless, Gerald Henderson, Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova, etc. Oh yeah, players Bryan Colangelo immediately traded when he first got to Philadelphia: gifted defenders with limited offensive game, Jerami Grant and Nerlens Noel.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. Eversley and his degree from Colangelo College of Basketball is now the head guy with the Chicago Bulls. I think it is fair to assume ownership there has charged him with ‘correcting’ their sputtered youth-centered rebuilding process. They’ve tried to build their core through the draft like the Sixers have, but Lavine and Dunn and Hutchinson and Markannen and Carter have not led them to the playoffs. They did not even make the Orlando bubble. With the #4 pick in this year’s draft, Bulls fans may be in for a ride, given what we experienced when Colangelo and Eversley conspired on the move for Markelle Fultz. I think it’s a safe bet that a) defense-first players will be eschewed, b) as will players with character concerns, while c) offensive minded players with good character will be sought after. You see where I’m going here.
Although Sixers fans are justifiably upset, Marc Eversley getting hired just this past May suggests very strongly that NBA executives do not believe Tobias Harris or Al Horford got terrible contracts. The Sixers were praised at the time. One can question their fit with Embiid and Simmons, but Horford and Harris proved to be skilled, durable and of high character. I would be wary of trading Horford, only because Joel Embiid will always have injury concerns for which a premium insurance policy like Big Al is always necessary. The Toronto series showed how much we need a competent backup five, Joel will always have to have load management days, Horford had to start numerous games this year, and the Sixers do not have a reliable younger option. On the other hand, Tobias Harris may be considered expendable because Matisse Thybulle is destined to start for the Sixers. If Marc Eversley was the architect for acquiring and maxxing out Tobias Harris for the Sixers, if he was hired in part because of it, if he gave $23m dollars to JJ Redick to help mature The Process, then it is well within his track record for him to come and get Tobias to fill the Bulls tremendous hole at small forward with a high character veteran shooter.
Because the Colangelo Clique traditionally love shooters, I have no expectation that Eversley would ever consider trading Zach Lavine, but who knows what his reputation is inside the building. Can Cobi White and Lavine coexist as a starting backcourt? I highly doubt a Colangelo protege could possibly let Israeli wunderkind Deni Avidja slide past them at #4. At the same time, it seems they have no problem trading future picks for busters like Anzejs Pasecniks--another guy who they thought would be a skilled shooter with passable defense. Otto Porter is an oft-injured defense first player who has a $28m contract that the Bulls could use to make salaries match. Kris Dunn is a restricted free agent who they may let walk, or who they could sign and trade. Daniel Gafford, who admirably took over the center position after Wendell Carter went down again, is explosive but has a very limited offensive game, like Richaun Holmes (a Hinkie draftee). Cristiano Feliciano has an $8m expiring contract. The Bulls also have Thaddeus Young’s $13m deal on their books for this year and next. Tomas Satoransky was signed by the last administration to a 3y$30m deal, and made little to no difference towards winning. Seems like a Colangelo type player though.
I really think something is going to go down between the Bulls and the Sixers this offseason. I’m not going to predict what it might be, although I have a good guess, given the Colangelo’s disdain for defensive players and Elton Brand’s affection for them. Personally, I would take advantage of the fact that Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, for all their flaws, are phenomenal defenders, as is Thybulle and Josh Richardson, and double down on defense by flipping Tobias Harris for Otto Porter if we can get either Daniel Gafford or Kris Dunn in the deal. Maybe Eversley is the guy who banged the table for Zhaire Smith? Sure plays a lot like Timothe Luwawu-Cabareault. If he has any value remaining, it would be with the guy who drafted him. I just hope that Marc Eversley is the man who made the Sixers what they are today, so that he can come get what he wrought and impose it on the people of Chiraq.

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Discord
Wallace
Valentine was still dozing on the couch when I got back upstairs- Maybe I should rephrase that.
I returned to the spacious penthouse, so large that it occupied one whole wing of the luxury hotel. On the right was the dining area, with a table large enough to seat twelve. The floor to ceiling windows gave the diners a superb view, and I suspected that the nearby gas fireplace, suspended above the hardwood floor by the smooth metal chimney, was more for ambience than heat.
In the middle and a bit further back, was the kitchen with its hardwood cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and granite countertops. At the rear of the kitchen was one of the few walls in the very open-concept penthouse, and seemed to exist mostly to hang the cabinets off of.
And on the left was the living room, with its grand piano, and a U-shaped couch large enough to seat twenty, facing a home theatre that was stretching the definition of 'home'. And laying sprawled out on that couch, clad in very little, was a fey noblewoman.
Still standing just inside the door, I gazed about the room, wondering, not for the first time, how the hell I'd ended up here.
I shook my head and carried the two packs over to the kitchen where I set them down against one of the cabinets. While I'd been fetching the packs, I'd also tossed Valentine's flight suit over one shoulder. I figured she might need something from one of the pockets, so I brought it over and set it on the coffee table near her.
She was laying on her back, with one hand on her stomach, and one forearm over her eyes. Her tank top had ridden up a little to expose her midriff, and I felt a bit guilty as my gaze lingered over her.
I glanced at her face, expecting to find her with one eye open, a biting remark at the ready. But she slept on, her expression peaceful.
Gingerly, so as not to wake Valentine, I settled my weight on the couch. The bobby pins still lay on the floor where I'd dropped them, and I gathered them up and spread them out on the coffee table. I'd promised to restrain my experimentation if she wasn't around to guide me, so I stuck to the basics.
I found the box, 'One pound, bob pins' it declared, and I turned it over in my hands. Val had said an ounce was worth about an hour, and a pound about a day, but I didn't exactly feel like trying to count them all just to figure out how much one weighed. There it was, written on the underside among the small print. 'One pound box, approx. seven hundred and forty-two pins' it read, along with warnings about not sticking them in sockets or letting children play with them.
Seven hundred and forty a pound, so about fifty an ounce. If an ounce is an hour, then one pin is one point two minutes. One point two minutes is... So one pin should power a spell for about seventy seconds.
I'd rerun the numbers once I had some stationery, but it was a decent working figure for the moment. The experiment then would be simple. I'd try the same spell as before, and see how long I could hold it.
I broke one of the pins in half, and with barely a conscious thought, began the spell. I'd been keeping the mental and physical separate for my entire life, dealing with my own unique psychology. At the end of the day, magic wasn't much different.
I counted as high as thirty before the spell failed, and the pins I'd been holding hit the carpet.
I shrugged. It wasn't a bad second showing. Assuming the whole ounce to an hour thing was the average, I was a little less than halfway there.
I tried the same drill about a dozen more times but didn't see much of a difference. The count kept coming out to about thirty or so, and granted, I wasn't a metronome, but it gave the impression of consistency.
I glanced over at Val, who was still happily dozing on the couch. I had a couple more tests in mind but knew that most of them would be more than a little noisy, and I didn't want to wake the little princess.
The bedroom, or sleeping area, I suppose, was behind and above the kitchen. It was raised about six and a half feet above the rest of the penthouse, giving some modicum of privacy, and was accessed by a shallow staircase.
There was a king-sized bed with two nightstands, a couple of comfy chairs bracketing an end table, and two large wardrobes. I'd need to rearrange some of the furniture, but I was confident that I could fit a second bed up here.
That was a matter for later. For now, all I needed was the bedspread. I tucked Valentine in and turned down her torch until it was just above its lowest setting. I made sure it would be within reach if she woke up and closed the door gently behind me as I left the penthouse.
I'd taken a basic inventory of the hotel once already, mostly just poking my head into each room to get a look around, but I'd yet to start scavenging.
The dream, of course, would be to find a typewriter and an old-style mechanical calculator. I could write everything out long-hand if I needed to, but I would feel a lot more secure in my calculations if I had them done by machine. Now that wouldn't be a big deal for the time being, but if my big goal was to power the building with magic, then I needed to get those numbers right. If a single house circuit was a hundred and twenty volts at fifteen amps, then I could only imagine how much power the entire building had the potential to draw.
I found some of what I needed down by the front desk. The building was far too modern for typewriters or mechanical calculators, but I found some writing materials and several electronic pocket calculators. They were the cheap plastic sort with the little solar panel, but they still had battery power and would do for now.
I found myself trying not to make too much noise as I gathered up the papers and rifled through the drawers. It wasn't as if this was my first time in a hotel late at night. I'd paid my way through school by appearing on stuff like 'Real Life Superheroes', and other tv-documentary type stuff, so I'd travelled a fair bit. But the atmosphere here was different somehow. Like a mall after hours, or being in a school late at night.
The front desk creaked as I leaned against it, gazing out the hotel's large glass doors. I smothered the torch and let my eyes adjust to the darkness.
I'd been thinking of things in the context of post-apocalyptic survival, and to be honest, it kind of fit. A couple of people, scavenging supplies and squatting in an abandoned building, it was all very walking dead. But post-apocalyptic wasn't quite the correct characterization. From what Val and Temerity had alluded to, things hadn't exactly gone smoothly in Caniforma, Parabuteo, and Pelignos, right after the Calamity, but it wasn't as if society had regressed. It wasn't post-apocalyptic, it was medieval to early-modern. And when I viewed things in that context, what I had wasn't an abandoned hotel, it was a fortress.
I honestly wasn't sure what I'd do with a fortress, but it wouldn't be long before someone like Temerity noticed I'd joined the local fortress owner's club without filing the proper paperwork. When that time came, I needed to be ready.
I sighed and shoved off the desk.
I just want to learn magic. Yet somehow I keep finding new trouble for myself.
The lobby up on the twelfth floor was as well-appointed as the one down by the front desk, if a little smaller. The carpet was still the usual hotel fare. It had a boring pattern and was not so much 'short pile' as it was a layer of cloth glued to the floor.
The penthouse's double doors, dark stained wood with polished brass fittings, waited at the end of the hall to my right. I didn't hear Valentine moving around in there though, so I elected to let her sleep. As tough and hard-headed as she might be, she'd taken more than her fair share of abuse and didn't need me shaking her awake to ask her more about magic.
On my left was the presidential suite. It lacked the penthouse's open-concept design. Instead, it was set up more for function and security than luxury, though it's not as if it lacked in that department either.
I guess I'll need to change the sign, the 'noble suite' maybe, if we go ahead with making a fortress of the place.
I grimaced. That raised yet more issues. Two people did not a fiefdom make. To hold onto this place, I'd probably need to accept that I'd be taking on the role of de facto ruler of the surrounding territory. And to do that, I'd need people. Probably a lot of people. Which wasn't an idea I was super fond of, because I don't like a lot of people.
I pushed open the door to the conference room one. One of the four arranged opposite the bank of elevators. The windows, facing both out onto the balcony and back into the lobby had blinds that could be drawn if the occupants needed privacy. The sturdy conference table and many whiteboards promised a decent place to work, and I began to rearrange things to better serve as my office.
Once I had the office chairs- fancy ergonomic models -out of the way, stuffed into one of the other conference rooms, I found an armchair that looked like it could bear my weight and brought it over from the presidential suite.
I sketched out a map of the hotel so I'd have an idea of what I had to work with. I had two problems. The first would be getting the hotel into proper shape. The second was that I didn't want to do any chores right now and just wanted to focus on learning magic. But sometimes, when you have two problems, you have a problem, and a solution. The hotel was full of stuff I could use for mana, and with magic, I'd hopefully be able to do all the work the hotel required on my own.
Two hundred and sixteen rooms, a penthouse, a presidential suite, a restaurant, a bar, a pool, plenty of space for storage, a parking tower with some newish cars, and plenty of open parklands. Now, where the hell do I start?
Food, water, shelter. I had all three, and in this case, shelter could be extended to mean defence as well. The question then, was how time-sensitive each was.
Water? Well, not exactly. I'd checked the water tower up on the roof, and found it to be enormous. Not to mention the swimming pool down on the first floor, and the second water tank, which fed the fire suppression system. So we had a ton in reserve, hell, enough for regular showers even, but no source of new water.
Food? We had a stockpile of that as well, but it wasn't quite as comprehensive as our water situation. There was our original pack with its rations, which would have had us covered for a couple weeks. Then there was the backpack full of granola bars and junk food from the gas station, and while I hadn't gone through and figured out exactly how long that might keep us going, I guessed it would be a while. Lastly, for the time being, there were all the dry goods stored in the hotel. More junk food, oats, flour, soup stock, that sort of thing. Junk food and ingredients really. All told, we had a hell of a lot of calories. The trouble was all the rest of what made up proper nutrition. I didn't know how it worked for the fey, but eventually, I was going to need some fruit and veg. Our rations included some, and there was some dried fruit in what we'd looted from the gas station, but that would only last so long. There were the freezer and fridge of course, but the contents of the refrigerator had mostly gone off, and the freezer's content was primarily meat. Another case of having a large stockpile, with no new supply. Refrigeration was an important point, though. Even if meat wasn't what I needed now, the sooner I got the temperature in the freezer under control, the better. Perhaps Val and I would be able to work out a spell to cool the surrounding environment. It would be a good stopgap until we got the building powered.
And that brought things to shelter and defence. Power would be nice, along with all the luxuries that came with it. I'd kill for a hot bath right about now- the tub in the penthouse was even big enough to fit me -but that was more of a want than a need. What we needed was a way to control access. Access up from the ground to the top of the block, and from the block into the hotel.
Blocking up the way into the hotel would mostly be a matter of moving heavy stuff to cover the windows and doors. There were a hell of a lot of windows though, and the doors were glass. Better then to work on the first layer of defence. The easiest and quickest thing would be to repair the manhole cover and figure out some lock for it. But damn, here was another reason I was gonna need more people.
It was one thing to devise a security system that relied on a person on the inside to let you in. That could be made foolproof to the point where the only way in would be social engineering, or the physical destruction of whatever was blocking the way. It was another matter entirely to set up a system that allowed a valid user from the outside to enter, without letting in just any idiot. Most decent locks can keep a skilled lockpicker out for a couple of minutes, while most common locks can't even manage that. And I needed something that would keep people at bay for as much as a week if Val and I took a trip to the city. I also really didn't want to crawl through that storm drain again.
I considered the pages scattered across the conference table. I needed a way to control temperature, a way to fix the manhole cover, and a way to move big heavy things. Maybe the addendum to that last one would be 'in a way I can finely control'. I'm crazy strong, but I've only got the two hands. Building fortifications or a ramp down from the block would be a lot easier if I had an extra pair of hands.
Fixing the manhole cover, I guess that would be Heal Metal? Though I could see the case for Transform or Control.
I found the note I'd taken on what Val had told me of mana types. The Metal mana could come from any old metal, and actually, it looked like Heal would be pretty straightforward. There were other materials, but copper would do the trick. It would be an interesting test to see if a pair of pennies would be enough to fix the cover.
I've got to find a little baking scale to measure this stuff, but if pennies provide Greater Metal and Healing mana, then I bet that'd be enough to fix it, even if it'll only last a minute or two.
Moving heavy stuff, I guess that'd just be some Movement mana from a bit of iron, and then either Plant, Earth, or Metal mana depending on what the heavy stuff was made of.
Temperature control, now that would be a trick. Strengthen and Weaken Fire, maybe? Control Fire? That'd be a question for Val, once she was awake.
There were just so many unknowns, could Fire stand in for heat as a concept, or did I need to do something more convoluted? Something like Control Water or Transform Metal, for example, used to move the thermal energy out of the air, and into a bunch of water or block of metal. For all I knew, either was possible.
My knees protested as I pushed myself to my feet. Following up a couple of days hiking with several runs up and down twelve flights of stairs had not been good for my joints. I was starting to think Val had the right idea, magic's cool, but laying around in bed all day held a certain appeal as well.
I turned the handle carefully, so as not to let it snap back when I closed the penthouse door behind me. Val was still asleep when I returned, and I found myself pondering whether or not it would be a good idea to wake her. With the notes I'd taken, I knew more or less what materials I'd need to try my new spell ideas, but I'd promised to consult with her before I tried anything. I wasn't going to be trying anything too risky, and it wasn't as if I answered to her, but her advice would be helpful. Besides, I had promised.
But there was always the risk that Val might respond poorly to being roused from her slumber. I might try to shake her awake, only to find a wild animal chomping on my arm. So I hatched a plan.
From the backpack, I fetched one of the big European style chocolate bars, and slowly unwrapped the dark purple wrapper. It smelled of mint, and I smirked as I brought it over to where Valentine slept and wafted it under her nose.
Her nose twitched, and she murmured softly as she shifted in the blankets.
I inched it a little closer to her nose. She squirmed a little more, and her murmur turned to a soft growl. Then she pounced, dark purple hair flying about, and the chocolate bar disappeared from my grasp.
She gnawed on it greedily, holding it with both of her little hands as it disappeared bite by bite. She didn't pause to speak, and I wasn't about to interrupt her intimate moment.
I took a seat in the corner of the couch opposite Val with my arms across the back of the sofa, and I felt more than a little voyeuristic while I waited for her to finish.
"Gods, that was amazing, um-"
I grinned, "There's paper towels in the kitchen."
Val finished cleaning herself up and came over to lay down on the couch next to me. She rested her head on my thigh and shuffled around a little until she was comfortable.
"My, isn't the little princess feeling cuddly," I observed.
Valentine pulled away as if she'd been burned. She sat up, her hair still messy from sleep and her rendezvous with the chocolate bar, the set of her shoulders very rigid.
She turned her head until I could just see her in profile, "Sorry, I did not mean to impose."
"That wasn't a complaint," I said gently, "Come on, it's okay."
She laid back down and gazed up at me with some hesitancy. She chewed on her lip, and after a moment asked, "How exactly is courting done among humans?"
I sighed, Now there was one hell of a question.
I shrugged, "I don't really know. It's not so formal as it is for the fey- at least, I'm assuming it's formalized," I guessed, and Val nodded in reply, "I kinda just talk to people I like, and sometimes things work out?"
"Sounds something like the way the goblins court each other. It doesn't quite present the same opportunities for theatre and subterfuge as fey or elf courting though."
"What, like noble balls held at big fancy palaces?"
She turned her gaze away, to the piano that sat nearby, seeming to stare through it, "Gods know I've had enough of those."
I chuckled, "Back in high school," I began, "I can't remember what class it was, physical education I think? Normally that means basketball or whatever, but there was this one week where they taught us dance. Just boring traditional stuff, probably the sort of thing you'd see at a human ball. Back when those were in any way relevant," I shook my head, "I tried to get out of it. I can't imagine what they were thinking, but in the end, I had to do it. Man did I look silly, hunched over so I could put my hands in the right places."
She still had the piano fixed with a thousand-yard stare, but I saw her start to smile, "Did you find it difficult to locate a dancing partner?"
"Oh god, I-," I put my head in my hands, "Okay, So there's this fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast. The title kind of explains it, but the Beast is all hot for Beauty. Secretly he's also a handsome prince or something. I can't remember if he kidnaps Beauty, but at some point, she decides she's into him too. Also, I think there's dancing."
"Quite the storyteller," she observed, "I feel as if I'm there at this very moment."
"It's not that important," I insisted, "The point is, there was this one girl in my class who was really into Disney stuff. Disney meaning fairy tales."
"So you had an eager dance partner," Val guessed.
"Did I ever," I grimaced, "For all of two days."
She turned back to me, a wry smile on her face, "A magical two days, I'm sure."
"She certainly seemed to think so," I agreed, "She acted as if I'd only need to learn how much fun dancing was and the brutish beast would become the handsome prince."
"Had you ever danced before? I can only imagine how many times you stepped on her feet," she giggled.
"Just the once," I replied evenly, "Broke every bone in her foot."
"Wallace!" Val exclaimed.
"I didn't mean to, of course," I insisted, "But, you know, I'm kinda heavy. Man, was she ever pissed. She was on track for a soccer scholarship, and I ruined any chance of that happening."
"Scholarship?"
"A prize that pays for university," I clarified.
"Oh dear, what did you do? Did your family have to compensate hers?"
"Hell no," I said dismissively, "They were loaded, my family didn't even have the money to send me to university. Her dad threatened to sue, my dad told him to fuck off, and I didn't have to spend any more time dancing. So it all worked out in the end."
"The girl was okay?"
"Nah, I think she still walks with a limp."
Val giggled as she thumped me on the chest with one tiny fist, "You're the worst!"
"Eh, she's rich. She'll be fine."
"What exactly was the point of this story?" she smirked, "Warning me never to ask you for a dance?"
"No- well, kinda -but it just sounded like you're not a fan of dancing either. I was just trying to help you look on the bright side."
"The bright side being that I never accidentally crippled anyone?" she asked incredulously.
"Yeah," I agreed cheerfully, "That."
"We could widen the shaft," Val offered.
She'd struggled into her flight suit and had taken the stairs down under her own power, though we'd stopped several times to give her a break. We stood now by the god awful access shaft to the god awful storm drain that was our only god awful way down to ground level.
"It's concrete."
"It's concrete now," she insisted, "This is just what's occurred to me so far, but Transform Earth, or Weaken Earth should be sufficient. Moderate Earth mana from Steel, and Greater Transform or Weaken mana from Zinc or Lead. Moving bobby pins around hardly scratches the surface of what is possible, Wally. I don't think you really realize how much power is at your fingertips."
"Do I need to worry that some asshat with a pocket full of quarters is going to come along and start taking the place apart?"
"They'd need some awfully large pockets. Magic would allow us to work much more quickly than if we, or rather, you, had to attack it with a pick. But it still takes time. Assuming we had enough mana," Val glanced up at the hotel, "Which we likely do," she admitted, "It would take most of a day to widen the shaft by a foot or so."
"Let's hold off on that for now. We've still got to figure out how we're getting up and down from here. For all we know, we might want to block this up once we've got a ramp or the like built. For now, let's just fix the cover."
"As you like," Val replied lightly.
I paused. Glanced at her, then at the broken halves laying on the ground, and then back to her, "So, uh, how exactly?"
She arched an eyebrow, "You have all the copper you could need. What, do you desire me to hold your hand? Just cast the spell already."
I knelt and pushed the two halves together, "Bossy little girl," I muttered.
She booted me lightly in the side, "Lazy lumbering oaf."
"I'm not the one who's been sleeping all day," I retorted.
She raised one hand and flicked her wrist at the sky, "Day?"
"Whatever, you know what I mean."
I turned my attention back to the manhole cover, and without any other guidance forthcoming, I mostly just imagined the cover wasn't broken, and willed it to be.
There was a soft clink, and I stared blankly at the cover for a moment until I registered what had happened.
"Wow. I was expecting that to be a lot more difficult."
Val rolled her eyes, "It's not that complicated Wally."
I picked up the manhole cover and pushed myself to my feet. I gripped it tightly in both hands and torqued on it to test the repair.
Val patted me on the arm, "You're very strong," she patronized, "Now would you put the damned thing back?"
I dropped the cover over the hole and nudged it into place with my foot.
"I'm not showing off," I insisted, "It's just- Why don't people use magic for everything all the time?"
Val gave me a wry look and gestured for me to follow as she headed over to a nearby bench. The planks creaked as I sat down beside her, and she leaned against me.
"For one," she began, after taking a moment to gather her thoughts, "Those two coins you used to fix the iron plate you broke, would have been about as much money as a common person might see in a week. To be fair, the common folk in Parabuteo are a little better off. Though that means they'd only be spending half a day's wages on the same spell."
I took the roll of pennies out of my pocket, the paper torn at one end.
"And all the cheap ways of doing magic are secret," I realized.
"Yes. And two of the most powerful verbs, Control and Create, are entirely unknown."
"Here I thought it wasn't a big deal that most mana sources are a secret since the best are public. But all it means is that magic runs on money."
Val nodded, "You'll find more elves working magic than just about anyone else, though a great many mana-poor novices bolster their numbers."
"Hmm, is that so," I mused.
"Thinking deep thoughts?"
"Well, we want more people here, right?"
Val leaned away from me slightly, "We do?" she frowned.
I gestured at the nearest edge of the dislocated city block, "We're sitting on top of a thirty-foot wall, made of steel-reinforced concrete," I said simply.
She furrowed her brows, then I saw the realization hit her, and she sighed. Val slumped back against me and was just barely able to circle my waist with her arms.
Her voice was muffled with her face pressed against my chest, "I thought this was too good to be true," she murmured.
I slipped a comforting arm around her shoulders, "We've got some time," I said gently, "It's not a problem yet. But once this becomes a problem, we'll have a tough time fixing it."
"I don't want anyone else here," she lamented.
"No?" I frowned, "I mean, I understand-"
"No, you don't," she said firmly, "You don't have to be afraid of anything. Even when I can use my necklace, I'm still... small. Before, I had the protection of being a fey noble, and the penalty for laying a hand upon a fey noble is death. But now, what happens if some servant or guard we hire, or whoever it is you think we should invite to join us, decides they like the look of me?"
"Jesus Christ, Val," I breathed.
"This is a real concern, just because you're a-"
"Hey, hey, it's okay. You don't need to justify yourself to me," I promised, "How do you want to deal with this?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know who's safe to trust?"
"No, I mean in general. The broader problem. We accidentally ended up with a castle, how do you want to handle this?"
She chuckled softly, "Accidentally ended up with a castle," she repeated, "You want to give it up?"
"Not particularly, but maybe? I do kinda like it just being the two of us, but this is a hell of an opportunity to walk away from. But I can work with either. Besides, I'm still trying to do the whole bodyguard thing, so you're the boss."
Val was silent for a while, and I gazed up at the stars as she took the time to think.
It wasn't long before a glittering blue gem caught my eye. Not The Father, as Val called it, this was far smaller. Not quite the size of the moon as it was visible from Earth, I could see faint white swirls on its surface, and little patches of green and yellow.
I fought the urge to leap to my feet and start going into unnecessary detail about how fantastic it was that there was a habitable world so very near. Now wasn't the time. Besides, I appreciated having Val so close, her slight weight pressed against me, near enough that I could hear her soft breathing and feel her silky hair brush against my arm.
"If I asked for your guidance, you'd tell me that it made the most sense to stay," she said eventually.
"I would?"
It wasn't that she was wrong, but I hadn't really the time to think over the alternatives yet.
"You'd tell me that we'd not have to risk interacting with anyone else if we decided to leave, but we'd take on a great many other risks. Foremost among those, would be trying to find somewhere else that was safe to stay," she explained, "While if we stay, and we're careful about who we allow to join us, we'll be safer here than anywhere else," she looked up at me and shrugged, "I was trying to think things through the way you might."
I nodded, "That's probably how I'd figure it too."
"You seemed interested when I mentioned all those mana-poor novices. I take it you want to hire from among them?"
"Yeah, I bet none of them are full-time spellcasters, and we can make that work for us. We need staff of all kinds, and a way to pay them. All the money we need is in the building, and it'd be a bitch to get it back to the city to pay people. Far easier then, to get some would-be spellcasters who are happy to spend the money, so to speak, right here."
"Starting up our own little mage's guild in the process," Val realized.
"Pretty much. We still need to figure out who to invite and who not to, but it's a start."
"Once I'm feeling better, maybe the next Long Night, we'll see, we can head back to Parabuteo."
"Will that be safe?"
"For me? It should be as safe as anywhere else. The servant who came after us with those mercenaries will be a problem, but the rest of them will likely be preoccupied trying to find me hiding in Caniforma. If the servant makes another run at us, I'd rather meet him out in the wilds and deal with him there. The less he can share about our new home, the better. Once we get to the city, I'll just have to keep clear of any fey who are there by happenstance. You might have to watch your ass for Temerity though," she added with a smirk.
I let out a long sigh, "She's gonna be pissed."
"It'll be fine. She'll find some way to make your life difficult, both of our lives maybe, but if it came to it, we could go to her for help if we have any trouble with other fey."
"So Temerity is one thing, but there are other issues we're going to need to deal with if we're gonna do this. Namely, a water source. The tower will run out eventually, especially if it's not just the two of us. There's food as well, that's actually the next spell I wanted to try. If we can get refrigeration going, then we could just import what we need for the time being."
"I still wish we could do this on our own," Valentine grumbled, "It's not that I'd be embarrassed to be seen with you, I just, it's private. Does that make sense?"
"It's perfectly fine Valentine," I promised, "I'm the same way."
Valentine let go of me to stretch her arms skyward, wincing a little as she did. She shuffled around until she was kneeling on the bench beside me, which brought us to almost eye level, and she put her arm around my neck.
"Paramour is perhaps the wrong term," she mused, "But the two of us are..." she trailed off.
"Together," I said simply.
She leaned in and kissed me lightly on the cheek, "I like the sound of that."
"Explain to me again, what it is you want to do?" Valentine asked.
We'd returned to the hotel restaurant to have lunch- at least I think it was lunch, the constant darkness was playing havoc with my sense of time -stew once again. After which, we'd taken a seat at the bar. Or rather, I'd taken a seat at the bar. Valentine had found a bottle of red wine and had taken a seat on the bar, sitting beside me, lazily swinging her legs while she drank from the bottle.
I spread my hands, "I'll begin at the beginning, feel free to jump in if you've got questions. We've got no Control or Create mana, and don't even know where to get any."
Val nodded and took another swig.
"But we need to bring the temperature inside the freezer and fridge down. Ideally whatever we come up with would be permanent, but the freezer is insulated well enough that a stopgap would be enough for now."
"To keep the food that's in there from going off?" she interjected.
I nodded, "So, I cast a spell. Movement, Transform, Air, Water."
She spread her arms, the neck of the wine bottle still gripped in one fist, "And this is where I require an explanation."
"Okay, Air and Water are there because that's what we're messing with," I began, "What we want is to take the heat out of the air, and put it in the water."
"How can such a thing be possible?" she demanded, "It doesn't even make sense as a statement. You act as if heat is something that can be picked up and moved somewhere else. As if you were moving it from one box to another. It's not that simple. The air is as warm as it is, and the water is as cold as it is. You may as well say that you want to cast a spell that will take the red from an apple and use it to colour your hair. It makes no sense."
"But you know that heat transfer is possible generally," I pointed out, "A block of ice will eventually melt, and the inside of a forge, with all those hot coals and red hot metal, is quite toasty."
She tilted her head from side to side, "True, I suppose. But in both cases, the level of warmth between the two is different and is drawing to an even level. Unless you have some ice to hand, I do not see how you might cool the inside of the freezer."
How do I even begin to explain how a fridge works? I mostly don't even know, something about a state change in the refrigerant?
"You remember those guys I told you about? Newton, Einstein?" I prompted.
She shrugged, "I suppose."
"They were physicists, and in the field of physics, there are several different types of energy. Kinetic, electrical, potential, chemical, and importantly for us, thermal energy. If something is hot, it's because it has a lot of thermal energy. So when two things are at different temperatures, yeah, they'll naturally reach equilibrium as the energy spreads out. But if you're clever," I insisted, "You can create a machine that will move that thermal energy around in ways that it wouldn't naturally."
"As you like," she replied begrudgingly, "I'll have to take your word for it."
"The idea, and I have no idea if this makes sense, is for Transform to 'transform' the amount of thermal energy, and for Movement to get that energy from the air to the water. If we had some Control mana, I'd use that instead, but I think Transform and Movement can stand in. At least for what I'd like to do here."
"Wally, I don't know that any of what you've said makes sense," she paused, gave the bottle of wine a look, and then took another draw from the bottle before continuing.
"Perhaps it's the wine," she admitted, "If your understanding of this thermal energy is correct, then I don't see why Air, Water, and Control couldn't be used in the manner you describe. Whether or not Transform and Movement can replace Control, is an entirely different question."
"Well, that's why I'll try some experiments before I go and do it to the freezer. Have you still got that roll of quarters?"
"Those are the large zinc coins?" she asked, already unzipping a pocket on her arm, "I think they're in here."
She handed over what was, indeed, a roll of quarters, and then offered the bottle of wine.
"You might find it easier to test your theory if you only have three mana types in play," she suggested, "And it would be best if this were done outside."
I took the bottle and put the coins in my pocket.
"A fair point," I agreed.
I scooped up Val in one arm and set her down next to me. She fixed me with an exaggerated scowl, and I grinned at her and patted her head.
Val swiped at my arm, "No pats, no pats!"
I chuckled, and she yowled and swiped at my arm as I tried to go in for another head pat. She followed me through the kitchen, working very hard to be angry but not quite managing it. I tucked the bottle under my arm, and filled two glasses with water from the sink.
I pushed open the back door and knelt to set both the glasses and the bottle on the concrete.
I tapped one of the bobby pins out of the box and into my palm, and unwrapped the end of the roll to take out a single quarter. With those in hand, I picked up one of the glasses and shuffled back a bit on my knees.
A glass of water, a bobby pin, and a quarter. Man. Magic is weird.
The quarters were zinc, mostly, and would do for Transform mana. Movement would come from a bobby pin, and the Water was self-explanatory. As for what I wanted to do, I visualized the bottle- no, the liquid inside -being absent of thermal energy. The water inside the glass would be hot, but not boiling, maybe fifty or sixty degrees?
I glanced back over my shoulder. Val was standing there with her arms crossed, glowering at me and trying not to smirk.
I turned my attention back to the glass and the bottle. I focused my thoughts on what was and what will be, and let the magic flow from the objects I held, through me, and into the objects on the ground before me.
I threw my arms up in front of my face as both the bottle and glass exploded. I felt the water and wine splatter across my chest as I fell back, and I huddled on the ground with my eyes squeezed shut.
"Gods, oh gods Wally," she cried.
I felt her hands on my shoulders. Moving very carefully, I gingerly felt at my eyelids. They were wet with something, but it didn't hurt, and I couldn't feel that anything had got in my eyes. I opened them slowly, revealing Val's wide eyes and worried face.
I tried to maintain a certain level of composure, but my voice came out tight, and I found it hard to keep my breath from gasping out, "I think I'm okay, just a little messy."
Val's legs wobbled, and she sat down heavily on the concrete in front of me. Her shoulders slumped, and she had her arms out behind her to support herself.
"Gods Wallace," she breathed, voice quavering, "If you hadn't been so lucky-"
"Whoa, it's okay," I said soothingly, which was a bit of a trick since my heart was still hammering in my chest.
"It's not okay!" she squeaked, "You were a split second from being made blind."
I wiped at my face with the sleeve of my shirt, and it came away stained dark red with wine.
"Val, we couldn't have known. What we just got was a wake-up call, magic is dangerous. I don't think either of us will forget that any time soon."
She shook her head, "I could have known. Movement covers all of telekinesis, including making things explode. I should have realized that if your spell didn't work, you might find yourself kneeling in front of a bomb."
I pushed myself to my feet and brushed the glittering grains from my shirt and pants. Unfortunately, that just got wine all over my hands, and trying to wipe it off on my pants only made it worse.
I began to get my voice and breathing under control, "Chalk this one up as a learning experience, Val. No sense in beating yourself up over it."
I offered her a wine-stained hand and hauled her to her feet.
Glancing over, it wasn't hard to see where the bottle and glass had been. There were two piles of glass, left where the explosion had driven the base of the bottle and glass into the concrete. Curiously though, the burst of red wine seemed to be centred on the remains of the water glass, rather than the greenish powder left by the wine bottle.
Val inspected her hand, then gazed up at me, "Come on inside, Wally. I'll help you get cleaned up."

My mother is barely involved in the planning which is how I want it. But every time I say something small or I try to be nice and loop her in on something my fiance and I decided on, she has this incredible way of belittling my comments and making me second guess every single thing. Whether it is something big like the date of the wedding or something small like a passed item during our late night menu, I end up feeling like everything is fucking wrong and my wedding will be shit.
Some background. I have a rocky relationship with my mother and she has spent my whole life making me feel bad about myself. Up until I started graduate school, I legitimately thought I was dumb (my perception of the world was fairly warped) because she said some truly unforgivable things to me throughout my life (like that I had the lowest IQ in the family based off of a test from when I was FIVE years old compared to her IQ at the age of TWENTY FIVE). Despite graduating from a top 5 public university for both my undergrad and graduate degree, I constantly felt the need to prove everything I do and say to my family. Nothing is ever enough for my mother. Meanwhile, my 31 year old brother graduated from a mediocre college with a 2.7 GPA, has never had a full-time job, and she very much prefers him and it is painfully obvious. I think my mother is jealous of me and cuts me down continuously because of this. Every time a friend of mine or my fiance's gets married, she creeps on the Facebook photos and picks their weddings apart. Regardless of the budget of a wedding, this is a mean thing to do. It is especially mean because these are close friends and not just random co-workers. The two weddings we went in 2019 were both elaborate and beautiful weddings that looked like something out of Pinterest. I couldn't find anything wrong with either weddings (well, finance and I did joke about one of the weddings being bad purely because our college basketball team lost to our rival during one of the last games before March Madness. Forgive us, we are huge college basketball fans and our alma mater is a damn good basketball school). Anyway, my mother found a number of unkind and petty things wrong with the weddings. My fiance was a groomsmen in one of the weddings and the other was a close childhood friend. The appropriate thing is to say the wedding (that you were not invited to and just creeped on the photos...) was beautiful and congrats to our friends.
I have been engaged a month. We are getting married in July 2022 because of COVID and we want to keep as close to our anniversary of dating as possible. My mother yelled at me and said a two year engagement was embarrassing and that she would not have told people I was engaged if she had known it would be such a looooong engagement. Well, we live in a popular city for weddings in our state and a lot of people actually have destination weddings here. Venues book up fast and a bunch of 2021 dates are booked because of COVID weddings getting rescheduled. Sure, it would be nice to get married sooner but there is a freaking global pandemic going on.
Last night was the final straw with her. She sent me engagement pictures of all the royal family members in the past 50 years and said I could wear a cream shirt just like Diana and Kate when I get formal engagement pictures done. Lol no. I will wear what I want and I will wear what looks flattering on me. She keeps harping on having a formal engagement announcement in the newspaper and says it should just be a picture of me. Uh...I don't care if they did that 35 years ago when you got married. Am I engaged to myself? Why is it just me in the engagement announcement?
Then after telling me I needed to look royal in my engagement pictures...she reminded me that I was breaking her heart by not getting married in a church. I said "Well, fiance and I aren't religious and haven't been in a church since February 2019 for our friend's wedding. They said they only got married in a church because her parents paid for the whole damn thing. Plus busing people from a church to a venue is another expense we are not interested in. If we did that, then we would definitely need more time for a photographer and that is even more money since that's 30 minutes of travel when we could be taking pictures!" and then...this bitch actually said "Ugh why even discuss this with me? MOM LIVES MATTER. DO I GET ANY SAY IN MY DAUGHTER'S WEDDING???"
First off, stop making a freaking Civil Rights Movement about you. You are the reason why people talk about 60 year old white women as 'Karens.' You also COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT of what Black Lives Matter means. How is your 27 year old child wanting to get married at the same ceremony/venue space cause for that response? In her mind the only ~appropriate~ place for her daughter to get married is an Episcopal Church followed by a reception at a country club. Here's the thing EVEN IF I DID THAT (which I am not and it is the antithesis of the type of wedding that my fiance and I are planning), she would find SO MANY other things to pick apart. It wouldn't be good enough if I relented and picked the ceremony/reception space she wanted. She would find so many things to yell at me for my choices. My choice of food, alcohol, my dress, my bridesmaids, my invitations, my flowers. Nothing would be right unless it was exactly what she wanted. The tiny bit of information I give her about my choices remind me that she does not know who I am as a person. She does not care about what my fiance and I want. She just wants a redo of her own wedding because she and my dad got pregnant and had like a two month engagement and her mom planned the whole thing. She even said at one point while giving me unsolicited advice on wedding planning, "oh you can do peach flowers and peach dresses!" which is exactly what SHE had at her wedding. Excuse me? Peach? Have you EVER seen me wear peach after the age of 3 when you stopped dressing me? I wear black or navy blue every day. Even in August when it is 100 degrees and humid outside. You, dear mother, are the one who likes peach. I wear black and navy after being traumatized over bright colors and Lilly Pulitzer. No thank you.
So I hang up the phone. She texts me and asks what processional and first dance song I am thinking of. Well, I have thought of that because I've been planning my wedding since I was 15. I tell her "I don't think we should talk about that." and she responds "Fuck. What is it?" I stupidly tell her "First dance: Hold My Hand by Hootie and the Blowfish. Processional is an instrumental version of Songbird by Fleetwood Mac." She responds with "Smiling and nodding."
THIS BITCH SAYS THAT TO EVERY SINGLE THING THAT SHE DETESTS. And she always says this after I say something like "I don't want to talk about this." or "I am taking a break from wedding planning." And guess what, mother, you aren't actually smiling and nodding. You say that as a condescending and rude comment to voice your dislike of every decision, big or small, but you want to seem like you are supportive all while reminding me that I am a disappointment. This woman has also never smiled or nodded about anything. She has an opinion about everything. And an opinion that is usually petty and mean. Her dislike of the music is also just ANOTHER thing that reminds me that she does not know me OR my fiance and doesn't want to try to know anything about us. I used to live in South Carolina and Hootie and the Blowfish was formed there so it's a nod to a different time in my life and they are a band I like a lot. Also, my fiance LOVES the show South Park and this past season had a joke about the song "Hold My Hand." I work in education so we often joke that if I were a character on South Park, I would be Vice Principal Strong Woman. "Hold My Hand" plays repeatedly when the PC Principal sees Strong Woman and develops a crush on her. Additionally, Fleetwood Mac has been my favorite band for a decade. I frequently try to get my fiance to dress as Lindsey Buckingham for Halloween or costume parties because half of my wardrobe is flowy black dresses and when I wear my hair naturally curly/wavy, I resemble a young Stevie Nicks. Everyone knows I love Fleetwood Mac and the fact that they even have a few songs, like Songbird, that aren't about breakups and rough relationships is quite a rare find and took some time on my part to think about their actual love songs.
I am taking bets on the next thing she'll get mad about. She's already annoyed that I am not doing letterpress stationary (like I can afford it). She's annoyed I have a vegetarian food option (I try to limit my meat intake AND many of my friends are vegetarians). I can't wait for her to through a fit when I refuse to take out my second piercing and my cartilage piercing for the wedding.

I began to wonder how the Apex Games were funded and began to make a list of possible sources of income the syndicate has.
TV Rights : based of our real world events we know that the Apex Games is broadcasted throughout the frontier, with this comes cash for the syndicate. The Apex Games being such a big franchise it collects a massive viewer base and broadcast agencies would pay big bucks for the content to be displayed on their specific sites /television /studio (or how it gets to the consumer).
• From the build to season 4, we know the OTV (Outlands Television) broadcast special reports and interviews with legends. • From the Crypto's work order made from Q.W(lore piece retrieve from the Crypto-ARG confirmed to be Canon), we know ABMS(Apex Broadcasts Monitoring Systems) hired TJP(Crypto) and Mila to desgin drones for easy access stream to the games.
Betting : One of the syndicate biggest incomes.
• From the S4 Loading Screen, `Dining with Dino’, the food critic says he may need to place a few bets in the Thunderdome to afford his next visit to the restaurant (Tenmei), and uses the phrase “Kuben all the way!”. This tradition could've very well been carried to the current Apex games.
• From the Crypto trailer 'forever family' TJP(Crypto) and Mila discover a prediction algorithm which lead them to figure the syndicate is rigging the games.
On a normal basis the syndicate would make a fortune on betting alone, adding to the fact they rig the games allows them to guarantee a heavy profit. BBC news outlet reports that the footballing industry makes billions of dollars a year on betting . One can now only imagine how much the syndicate makes of out this.
Merchandise : Before a legend gets announced a legend they have to a sign a contract, doing this allows the syndicate to have image rights, with the availability to produce merchandise exclusive to the the syndicate only.
• In the opening cinematic, a newspaper article describes how people became fans of Bloodhound and such bought masks in favor of their favorite legend.
• From the S3 cinematic trailer, Mirage room suggests he has a HEAVY fanbase, which includes artwork and even statue of himself which could very well may be a collectable.
• Crypto trailer 'forever family' has a massive range of merchandise including a Caustic poster, Bangalore advertisements and nessie dolls.
Scotland makes nearly €41 million on loch ness yearly. Adding nessie dolls, legend merchandise, event exclusive items the syndicate sits on gold throughout the seasons.
Sponsorships : sponsorship are a great way to introduce new content into the Apex Games and the syndicate has it all planned.
• Hammond robotics sponsored construction to world's edge bringing now terrain to the Apex Games.
• Titanfall companies names /logos on varies skins for weapons /legends (of course this is not confimed to be Canon but a neat addition to the Apex Games)
In the 2017/2018 season the NBA(the nation basketball association) generated $1.12 billion from Sponsorships.
From Lifelines extra story we in fact know that the syndicate is actually the mercenary syndicate. After the war their contracts fell and were in need of money.
Credit to u/SPEARHEADPR for providing invaluable advice and prestigious lore.
Please leave any other sources of income for the syndicate that I may have missed.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 12%. (I'm a bot)

DraftKings Inc said on Wednesday basketball legend Michael Jordan will take an undisclosed equity stake in the fantasy sports and gambling company and join its board as a special advisor.
Shares of the company jumped more than 13% to $41.86 in premarket trading.
Jordan, a six-time NBA champion who led the Chicago Bulls' dynasty in the 1990s, is a Basketball Hall of Famer who owns the Charlotte Hornets.
An autographed and well-worn pair of his Nike Air Jordan sneakers fetched a record $560,000 at an auction in May. Jordan has agreed to take an equity interest in DraftKings and will provide strategic and creative advice on areas including product development and marketing, the sports betting company said on Wednesday.
DraftKings was taken public earlier this year by an entity founded by Hollywood executives Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan in a deal that valued the company at $3.3 billion.
There has been long-term optimism in the growing market for U.S. sports gambling, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to broadcast networks and sports leagues either postponing or rescheduling games and seasons.

Summary Source | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: company^#1 sports^#2 Jordan^#3 DraftKings^#4 year^#5
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NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

Target audience for this post:
I wish I had seen a post like this when I was starting step szn cause it would’ve relieved a lot of stress and anxiety. I hope it helps many of you out there. This post is for anyone who didn’t start Zanki/Lightyeaother decks from day 1 and never kept up with reviews. Scoring high despite not doing the latter, however, comes at a cost. That cost is working your ass off(going all in, working 8-10 hrs/day, all day everyday) starting ~6-7 months out. This also requires that you built a strong foundation of fundamentals and principles of thinking in your pre-clinical years. What I mean is: Not only did you learn everything properly the first time around, but are you actively making connections and seeing the bigger picture every time you learned something? Can you integrate concepts well, and apply them into clinical thinking?”. Keep in mind that a lot of what I did is only necessary if you want that 260+. The only issue is that Step 1 is so variable and is an any given day test. That said, the goal is to raise your floor so that the worst case scenario can still be a 250+. If at least 75% of this describes you, this write-up is for you. Let’s get it.
Philosophy:
People love saying: “Stick to a few resources and do them well, do not try too many resources”. This is true, but I stepped that up a notch. I used as many resources as I possibly could and took the best parts of each resource to fill in my self-identified knowledge gaps. More to come on this below. The point is, if you want a 260+, you want to start off by identifying your weaknesses early and using however many resources you need to become an absolute expert in that subject. Again, this will all make sense when I talk about how I used specific resources below. Just to give one example: I was one month out from my test, and I was trash at reproductive path and I was also always forgetting the little details/etiologies/characteristics of the RTAs, ATN, and glomerulonephritides. One of my friends, who scored 250+, swore by sketchy path and said it helped him know all of path cold. So I went to sketchy path for renal and repro and immediately knew everything that I used to forget cold. Seriously, this one move worked wonders for me. This brings me to my next point.
The key to success on this plan is to constantly tweak and modulate your plan/study schedule. I would re-assess where I stood on a daily basis. Is what I am doing working? What types of questions am I missing? Is it subject based, or is it something else? What resources can I use just for that small area to become an expert in it? Basically, you’re going to need constantly re-evaluate and change your plans, and that is completely okay.
Next, know and understand who you are. Everyone is different. Please do not blindly follow someone’s advice when you know it goes against your philosophy or learning style. There are many different paths to success on this test, and you will only do well if you optimize your plan based on your own personal style. I have not seen anyone do the things I did, and I would always question myself and wonder whether I was royally fucking up. But no. Only you know what’s best for you, and find a way to learn all the resources in a way that you learn best.
Last but not least, everyone says Step is a memorization test, and it largely is. But, if you want to take it to the next level and kill it, it really helps to understand the in depth pathophys of everything and how it all connects together in the big picture. You need to be able to form connections between the things you are learning. This will help tons on hard questions where you need to reason. There’s obviously a ton to memorize on this test and I am not denying that. But I always told myself: Memorize as little as possible. If you learn something by brute force memorization, say goodbye to it unless you matured Zanki from day 1(which I did not). I forced myself to stop at every new fact I learned, and really understand the why behind everything. Is there some sort of connection I make to another topic I already know? If so, there’s a great chance this will stick in my head. So in a sense, you are still “memorizing” but it is actually going to stick in your brain now cause you took the time to actually process that information. I felt like this tactic greatly helped in both my pre-clinical school tests, and Step 1. That being said, there’s a ton of stuff like micro and pharm that need to be straight up memorized which sucks, but Sketchy and Anki can do the trick for those. Another thing that greatly helped me when I needed to brute force memorize things was making mnemonics. I had a knack for coming up with clutch mnemonics on the spot for things, and those really stuck in my head, so I would recommend that. Again, you’re going to have to memorize a lot, but make sure it isn’t blind memorization.
Strategy:
M1:
I go to a mid-tier US Medical School. We have non P/F number grading and ranks, so I went hard purely studying in house PPTs and not doing a lick of step. Our subjects in M1 were the basic sciences + Cardio and Neuro. Did not know anything about step at all during M1. Some ppl I knew were doing something called Zanki, to which I was like: “I got no time for that rn”. Lol. I would study as much as possible for in house, and then all other free time I had would be devoted to working out, hanging with my friends, playing basketball, and getting lit. Absolutely not a single thought about step. I used to always regret this, cause the in house tests and PPTs are just so out there and a lot of times there is not much overlap with Step 1 material. But after this whole process, in house material is what helped me get a lot of questions that others “have never seen before”. I worked very hard and did very well, ranking in the top 1% in both M1 and M2. I am inherently a lazy person who only works hard if there is a need to. If we were not graded, I would not be writing this post today with a 266 score. I also want to add: whatever your plan is for step, please enjoy free time in M1. You will regret it if you don’t. You will never get time like that again. Main point: In-house material differentiates the good scores from the great scores(most of the time). Second point: Enjoy M1 and don’t stress about Step so much. Save it for M2 cause you’re going to need to go hard. Save up that energy.

Summer after M1:
Research by day, chill by night. Thats all. Did not do a single thing for Step. Original plan was to start Zanki for Cardio and Neuro and keep up with reviews but I got too lazy and did not do any of that. Looking back, that summer was great, and in hindsight, it was okay that I didn't do any step.

M2:
In my M2 year, the school wanted to add NBME exams to our testing. This was great for me because step was looming and it would be a great way for me to be forced to learn the material as well as possible to do well on the tests. The only problem was that our tests were now mixed in-house + NBME questions. So we had to study double. No lie, 1st semester M2 was crazy cause of that. I started doing Zanki for each organ module in M2 along with B/B, Pathoma, FA, Sketchy Pharm, and the USMLERx questions for that module. All while also studying all of the in-house material super in depth. In 1st semester M2, we had derm-ophtho, respiratory, GI, Renal, Biostats/Epi, and MSK/Rheum. My regret here is that I only did the Zanki in one-pass for each organ module as a study resource. Never did any reviews at all after we moved onto the next module. Lowkey regret this, cause any free time I had away from studying, I would use it to drink, chill with friends, or relax lol. I did very well in all the modules and learned everything very well. The problem was that I didn’t remember jackshit about anything I learned before cause I never did any reviews. I felt like I forgot all of Cardio, Neuro, Derm, Ophtho, Respiratory, GI, and Renal. I hated myself because all my friends and all of reddit seemingly had kept up with reviews. And now I was 6 months out from my test as Winter break approached. In hindsight, I realize that the good thing was that I had learned everything well the first time. Shit comes back quick the second time, so even if you feel like you don’t know anything or you forgot everything, trust that it’ll be okay.
M2 Winterbreak and beyond:
My plan was to relax and party during the first week of winter break because that would be my last taste of freedom for a while, and we had just come off of a school test. In the second week of winter break, I started sketchy micro and finished it right as second semester started. I used the pepper deck for micro. Yep you read that right, I never used lolnotacop. I would constantly second guess that decision of not doing it, but it ended up working out. My advice to you is to do lolnotacop because it is just a safer route.
After talking to many upperclassmen, and seeing reddit posts, I felt like my best bet was to start Uworld immediately and just learn the shit out of it. I was planning on making cards while doing Uworld and reviewing those cards daily. It was now January and my test was in June. We started our infectious disease module right after break which was perfect because I had just completed sketchy micro during break. But remember, there is also an in-house component of the test. But I told myself, that I had to go all in on step and couldn’t spend as much time on in house anymore. From then on till step, I would study step full time(atleast 8 hours/day) and then study for the in-house portions the last 2 days before the test. I started off in January aiming to be done with all of Cardio and Sketchy Pharm(with Pepper Pharm deck) by February. The resources I used for Cardio were B/B, Pathoma(supplemented with Duke Pathoma deck), Zanki Physiology(only one pass, no reviews). I purposefully didn’t do a pass of Zanki Path because I felt like I would see it all in Uworld, and I was doing the Duke Pathoma deck. Quick shoutout to the Duke Pathoma deck. Exceptional deck that is short, concise, and still fairly comprehensive of all of Pathoma. I really felt like I knew Pathoma in and out cause of this deck. Also it is not a cloze deletion deck like Zanki so it forces you to do more thinking. You may be wondering why I keep doing one pass of Zanki with no reviews. Well at this point, theres no point cause Zanki is too big to start 6 months out. Also I didn’t want to read FA as a book, so I was basically reviewing it in flashcard form. I would do 20 Uworld questions a day in cardio. I did it in non-timed tutor mode. Took 10 minutes per question and went super in depth into everything and made super detailed cards. Was extremely thorough with it. I continued with this approach through all of cardio, Heme/onc, and endocrine. I did heme/onc and endocrine after cardio because those were the 2 organ systems we were on during that time.
The time is now mid April. We are all home for coronavirus. My test is still schdeduled for June. I still have one more organ system left in school: reproductive. The big problem was that I had only reviewed 3 organ systems since January: Cardio, heme/onc, endocrine, and it was now mid-April. FML. I was highkey freaking out. I had 8 weeks left and I still had to do Neuro, Resp, GI, Renal, MSK, Reproductive, Derm, and all of basic sciences, biostats/epi, ethics, etc…..I was completely regretting my decision of going thru Uworld slowly from the beginning. I made a plan and schedule and gave myself 3 weeks to cover all the material I had left, and the remaining 5 to complete Uworld and do any other miscellaneous things. In those 3 weeks, I watched B/B, Pathoma, one pass of all the Zanki cards for each organ system, finished up ~20% of sketchy pharm that I had not done yet, and did pixorize for biochem/immune.
Pixorize
Yep, this is so great it gets its own section, and no I didn’t get paid to say this. Seriously this resource is gold. Boosted my score double digits from before to after it. And because of this, I never had to do Zanki for biochem/immune which are both fat decks. A lot of ppl don’t fuck with it, but I love this resource and lowkey believe it should be talked about like UFAPS/BB. Not much to say here, cause I can go on and on about it. Just do it, and thank me later. I used part of the pixy stix deck and part of the adytumdweller deck. Both are great, but I would recommend pixy stix cause it actually gets you to memorize the entire picture which is what you really need.
Coronavirus/Dedicated:
I got cancelled 5 weeks out. I had been working nonstop with no breaks since winter break. This couldn’t be happening to me. I had put it all on the line, and now it seemed I wouldn’t even be able to prove my worth. I missed out on all of life for 7 months, and all for what? What’s worse is most of my friends weren’t cancelled like me. Shoutout to Mamba and Jordan for helping me hang in there. The Jordan documentary came out around this time and he allowed me to enter an entirely different game mode. This was adversity that I would not let define or stop me. I was going to get thru this, and I was going to have the last say no matter what. There was no stopping me and there was no time to mope around in self pity and sorrow. Also shout-out to the entire step1 reddit community. Many of us were in the same boat and all the inspirational posts made me feel like I wasn’t in this alone. After around 2-3 weeks, a lot of spots started opening up again and now I was scheduled for early July. Just the feeling of being allowed to take the test felt so great to me.
For the last 5 weeks, I did 80 Uworld a day and finished 95% of Uworld. Finished with a 92% correct. Did not do anki at all the last 5 weeks. Literally woke up, did Uworld, reviewed, and went to sleep. That’s it.
Test day:
I worked out the day before and went to bed at 11pm. I randomly woke up at 2:30 AM and could not fall back asleep. Was kind of nervous/stressed about only having 3.5 hrs of sleep but I had done too much to be stopped now. There was no way I was letting that screw me over. I came to the test center strapped with Monster, coffee, water, protein bars, and sandwiches. Taking a swig of monster after each section really helped me stay in the zone and not feel tired at all. I would recommend taking a short break after every section. Go to the bathroom during every break and take a small bite of food and drink something so you never crash or feel hungry during the test. Test felt like free120 mixed with the new NBMEs(like NBME22/23 especially). Did not feel like Uworld. By far harder than any practice test I took. Much harder than any of the NBMEs or Uworld. Came out feeling like I did my best, and performed to the best of my ability. So I was at least happy I did my best. But still was worried because my test was killer. As the days passed after the test, I got more and more worried that I didn’t do well. Easier said than done, but really just try not to think or worry about shit after cause its over. Just forget it and enjoy yourself. You just finished the hardest test of your life.
PRACTICE TESTS SCORES
UW Percentage - 92% (1st pass)
NBME 21 (254) - 8 weeks out
NBME 22 (255) - 7 weeks out
NBME 23 (254) - 6 weeks out
UWSA1 (273) - 4 weeks out
NBME 18 (269) - 3 weeks out
NBME 24 (263) – 1 week out
Free 120 (92%) - 5 days out
UWSA2 (269) - 5 days out

Yesterday I made a post here, and even though the comments and reception were overwhelmingly positive, the mods decided to remove it. I tried to get in touch to ask why and didn't get a reply, but I assume it's because I linked to my Medium blog post.
So, because I don't care about the Medium traffic that much and because my main goal was to share my personal experience with likeminded people, I'll post again today with the whole gargantuan text copied here.
(I'll still give the original link at the very bottom because the sub doesn't allow pics in the text post, and I specifically made comic strips to make the post easier to read and hopefully funnier (and there are a couple of screenshots). Feel free to ignore it.)
- - -

5 Lessons from 2 Failed Startups

7years ago, on my last year in university, I unwittingly embarked on a startup journey. Here are the five most important lessons that I picked up the hard way.
(comic 1)
The main reason I wrote this piece is so that I don’t repeat the mistakes I list below, but I’m publishing it in hopes that my experience will have a positive externality — that someone out there will internalize these lessons without paying the cost of money, time, and tears.

FIRST STARTUP What it was: the first premium educational platform for a popular competitive video game (Dota 2); My role: main content guy — I wrote most of the content and worked directly with our influencer partners, but with time got more and more involved; Timeline: created platform and developed content; launched successfully and found decent traction; slowly faded into obscurity due to lack of sufficient funding;

LESSON 1: Be prepared for different levels of success

Naturally, when we started the project we had great expectations for its future financial performance. We also kept in mind that it could crash and burn, as we knew most innovative products fail.
The two options in our heads were either:

great success — the business supports itself just fine and grows
or total failure — we close down and search for “real” jobs.

What we failed to anticipate is the vast land in between those two extremes. That’s where we ended up. When we launched we started making enough money to indicate we are onto something, but not enough to fully support and grow the business.
(comic 2)
When you hear something along the line of “90% of startups fail”, you imagine that 10% of startups hit the jackpot while the other 90% lose their money and close their doors instantly. However, this statement lacks a time dimension and a grayscale between the whiteness of success and the blackness of failure. It could be useful to investors, but it is misleading if you are a founder.
I’m sure some startups lose their money very fast and are left with no choice but to close operations. Yet, I’d wager a big chunk of the unsuccessful 90% spend a long time trying to navigate mixed signals from the market. The problem is that in such conditions decision-making is not straightforward. Are you wasting your time, or are you on the brink of something worthwhile? Not an easy call to make.
When faced with such decisions, pessimists quit too early, while optimists tend to believe success is just behind the corner perpetually. Both mindsets are wrong.
If you quit too early, you are cutting short the chances that you’ll hit a lucky breakthrough.
But if you fight for too long, it could get you stuck in a terrible limbo people in the startup community call “the land of the living dead”. You make ends meet, barely, but in reality, you are just wasting your time, potential, and testing the patience of all the people with a stake in your success or failure (people in both your personal and professional life). A business is, generally speaking, not a worthy cause for martyrdom.
In our case, we ended up in the second option. We had over-promised so our investors and business partners were unhappy with the performance, yet we were not ready to give up yet because we still saw a lot of potential.
At the same time, without the full support of the inventors and partners, we had no chances to succeed. We spend over a year in this state. You need to be realistic about these things, and in startups, the business of selling dreams, this is harder than it sounds.
Plan for success, plan for failure, plan for everything in between.
Retrospectively, what we had was a successful proof of concept which required further funding to grow and become a real business. Our failure to anticipate this outcome meant that neither we nor our partners or investors were prepared, which spelled the slow and agonizing death of the project.
If you’re a founder, you need to be granular in defining success and failure. You need to have a timeline everyone agrees upon (not only the founders but all stakeholders) and a definition of different levels of success so that nobody quits too early or leads a lost war for too long.

For example: Great outcome: X months after launch, we’re making enough money to support the business. We agree to reinvest and grow it slowly to avoid dilution (lifestyle business route) or to fundraise to grow fast and search for an exit (startup route). Good outcome: X months after launch, we’re making money, but not enough to support the business. This is expected — proof of concept. We’re in the process of fundraising. If we succeed to fundraise until month Y (money runs out) — great. If not — we close the business. Bad outcome: X months after launch we’re making very little (if any) money. We pivot if we still have resources, if not — we close the business.

LESSON 2: Find a mentor

The three main components people talk about when evaluating startups are usually the team, the product, and the market.
It’s hard to argue if any of the three is more important than the others. Usually, you need all three to be good enough to reach success.
In our case, we were lucky enough to have a favorable market — demand for what we were offering and lack of any real competition.
The product was so-so: it could have been much, much better considering our lack of experience & resources, but it was good enough to attract the early adopters and with time it could have evolved.
The team, however, had 0 experience.
We did this straight out of university (I worked on the project part-time until I finished my masters). The founder was the technical guy and he was a junior developer at best. I was the content marketing guy and even though I had some marketing courses in uni (which mostly focus on traditional, big businesses), I had 0 real-world experience.
Our lack of technical/marketing experience proved not to be fatal — we were learning on the go and managed to push out a working product and to reach our customers. We had vision, passion, some domain knowledge, and the willingness to work hard.
What was fatal, however, was that we had 0 experience running a business. Honestly, we had close to no knowledge about startups and what to expect of these kinds of projects. Doing the actual work takes thousands of hours, and the minutes spent making a bad decision can easily invalidate all your efforts.
If present-day-me could advise and mentor this startup, I’m certain it would have become a successful business.
(comic 3)
If you are a young entrepreneur, you need a mentor. An official one, with a small share in the business in order to have skin in the game. Ideally — an entrepreneur who has some startup experience behind his back or at least someone who has been deeply involved in such businesses. Turn to your local startup community and it won’t be that hard finding someone interested: after all, most people like giving advice as well as getting free shares in companies.
[If you don’t have an official mentor, at least make sure you’re getting mentorship from other places intimately familiar with your business (investors, startup groups or communities, etc.).]
Embarking on your first startup journey without a mentor is like trying to become an MBA star without ever having a basketball coach. Unless you are incredibly lucky, you will simply fail. You’ll make fatal mistakes like the one above (and many more I can list, but it would take forever). Frankly, even nowadays, being much more experienced, I doubt I’ll ever work on anything innovative without a mentor.

SECOND STARTUP What it is was: a monetization platform for video game influencers and content creators in the same niche My role in it: founder Timeline: fundraised (a bit more ambitiously this time, $90k); created platform and developed content; launched and found 0 traction; turned the website into a profitable gaming blog for a year; tried to pivot in the meantime, unsuccessfully;

LESSON 3: Market expertise doesn’t trump startup common sense

As you’ve probably noticed, startup one and startup two are connected. What happened is that the founder of startup one finally had enough and bailed. I still had a chip on my shoulder, however, and managed to convince one of the old investors (and a few new ones) that there is merit in having another go at the market with a new (more ambitious) concept. Naturally, things didn’t turn out as planned.

“Fail fast, fail cheap, and leave yourself time to pivot.”

That’s probably the most frequently repeated startup advice. And probably the most valuable one you can get. The one that you need tattooed on your forehead if you’re a founder.
So, even though I was aware that the biggest startup mistake is to spend all your resources developing something no one needs, I made exactly that mistake. Like many a startup, I burned through 90% of our bank to acquire the validated learning that there’s no demand for the product we’re making.
What led me astray was the belief that I was an expert on this particular market niche and knew intimately its needs.
(comic 4)
The confidence I had, obviously, was false.
What’s true is that the previous startup validated that the market actually exists, which is a good start.
What’s not true is that the previous startup validated in any meaningful way the new product we’re developing. We had a new concept, a new marketing approach, etc. Equally importantly, the market had changed since the first project — competition was starting to pop up, etc. I was probably one of a handful of people on the planet intimately familiar with this small market niche, and yet my ideas weren’t bulletproof anyway.
After we launched and saw 0 traction, I tried to pivot with a new idea based on the market feedback. The problem was that I had to validate it on my own with no budget and no team. I couldn’t do it properly, and I still don’t know to this day if this idea would have worked out if I had more resources to test it.
Looking back, if I had focused on being an expert on running a startup as much as I did on being an expert on the market, things could have turned out quite differently. I could have tested the waters for plan A with 20% of the budget. That would have left me with enough resources to try out at least three more different approaches. We were working from Eastern Europe (Sofia, Bulgaria) and mainly with freelancers, which meant that our burn rate was quite low.
Failing fast and cheap would have made the company four or five times more likely to succeed. I suspect that this number is even higher because the accumulated expertise by smashing your head into the wall (market) repeatedly means that plan B is usually better than plan A, plan C would probably be better than plan B, and so on.
Every startup needs to be lean (test your assumptions with minimal resource investment) and agile (be ready to continually change your concept/priorities base on market feedback). This is simply not negotiable if you want to succeed no matter how much of an expert you believe yourself to be.

“Startups almost never get it right the first time. Much more commonly you launch something, and no one cares. Don’t assume when this happens that you’ve failed. That’s normal for startups. But don’t sit around doing nothing. Iterate.” — Paul Graham

LESSON 4: Don’t regret correct decisions that didn’t turn out your way

After launching and finding 0 traction with almost no money left in the bank the realization where things are headed hit me hard. I wasn’t ready for a second failure just yet, however, so I poured all my efforts into finding a source of income for the business to give us some breathing room.
Content marketing was my biggest strength, so I made a content strategy and started churning out articles. I managed to grow the traffic of the website significantly (reached 240k unique monthly visitors at its peak), and at the same time, I was doing cold outreach to any viable business that might want to advertise with us long-term.
(Google Analytics Screenshot)
I deliberately made some of the content well suited to advertise a certain type of business in our niche. Eventually, I managed to close a deal with such a business, which gave us just enough income to keep our head above water.
During this time, an unexpected opportunity presented itself. A new game closely related to the one I was writing about pupped up and started gaining popularity (Auto Chess, which later turned into Dota Underlords). I was in a great situation to start writing about it and to turn our website into the main authority site on the subject, and slowly but surely I managed to rank our website in the first place in Google SERPs for most relevant keywords.
(SERP screenshot)
The hope was that the game was going to continue to grow (and our traffic along with it). This, in turn, would allow me to land bigger advertising contracts, giving me the needed funds to bootstrap a team and continue the validation experiments related to this new market and our newly acquired audience (I was trying to get the business into a positive feedback loop).
Then this happened:
(steam charts screenshot, player base falls)
Dota Underlords (the game we attached ourselves to, our market) fell from over 200k to about 10k concurrent players. Naturally, as I had invested most of my time into Dota Underlords content, our traffic started falling as well, which invalidated the authority site plans and made new advertising sales much, much harder.
You could argue I should have diversified our content to avoid this situation, but the reality is that you have limited resources and you need to plan how to use them. The business was created as a startup, it had investors, which by definition demands at least some level of ambition. Surviving as a niche gaming blog wasn’t going to cut it for the people involved, so I decided to go all-in on the opportunity I saw.
It didn’t work out, but that’s OK. As mentioned, most startups fail. Sometimes they fail because of avoidable mistakes (as demonstrated above), but sometimes they fail because the educated bets they make don’t work out.
Making educated but risky bets is what startups do, so don’t regret the second kind of failure when the risk is anticipated.

LESSON 5: Accept full responsibility

(comic 5, this one's not that funny :( )
It’s quite easy to blame the circumstances when you’re looking back at past failures. It’s a great way to protect your ego. Going back to my own journey as an example:

Startup environment: access to mentorship, funding, and know-how would have been much better if I was located in Silicon Valley. Yet, I tried to play the game of startups in Eastern Europe. Paul Graham sometimes mentions the concept of the Milanese Leonardo. In two words — there is no such thing, all great 15th century painters come from Florence, not Milan. So where are the Milanese painters? The theory is that the environment in which you develop trumps any kind of talent and probably even hard work. Maybe I’m a hardworking genius, but simply failed because of the unfavorable environment half-a-planet away from the Valley.
Influencer partners: our two key influencer partners for the 2nd startup project bailed just before we launched. Surely they are to blame for the failure at launch, not me?
Crisis in Ukraine: speaking of partners, our main business partners for the first startup were a Ukrainian esports organization. Shortly after launch, the political crisis in Ukraine happened and naturally, they were unable to fulfill all of their promises related to our project (they had bigger problems of their own). Surely we couldn’t have predicted geopolitical events while managing an esports startup?

I could go on, we’re all masters at making excuses. However, this is a fool’s game. Analyzing your past circumstances is important, but only in the light of taking valuable lessons into the future. An excuse means you learned nothing from an important event.
All of the above seems like it’s something I don’t have control over, but I’d argue that’s not true.

Environment: I didn’t want to move to SV, but there are other ways to solve this problem at least partially. E.g. I could have reached out to people to ask for remote mentorship. “We have funding, we’re building this product, we want mentorship (weekly/monthly Skype calls) and we’re ready to give you a small share in the company to commit.” That’s not a bad offer and a viable way to make a connection to the real startup world.
Partners: I could have done a thousand things to keep them more interested or involved in the project to minimize the chance they’ll quit. Even that aside, I could have made sure we’re not as reliant just on those two and involved more partners in advance.
Crisis: sure, I couldn’t have predicted the geopolitical events, but I could have prepared for potential problems with our partners (same point as above). If someone is so important for your business that you fail if they underperform, you better have some plan to mitigate this risk. As a startup founder, you constantly operate in a high-risk environment. It’s your job to protect the project against the most critical and most likely of those risks.

Past failures are a blessing — put them on your shoulders and they will make you stronger.
Future failures are the ones you want to avoid, and your past failures are the best tool for the job.
- - -
If you were crazy enough to read all of it, I hope it was useful.
(Here's the original Medium link if you want to see the images, feel free to ignore it.)

And prepare yourself, after all, we’re about to become friends! >:D
Greetings and salutations to all of you beautiful people,
My name is Chelsea. I’m from Sydney, Australia.
I’m 18, I’m lonely as h e c k and I would love for someone (anyone, god please) to talk to.
I have a very erratic sleep schedule so talking with me is like playing Russian roulette - you never know what you’re going to get.
(To all the gamblers out there, yes, I’m looking at you, with lockdown kicking in and the casinos closed betting on when I come online is going to become the next best thing, I promise you)
About me and what I have to offer;

Personality; I vacillate between calm and coherent to vague and being the actual physical embodiment of the cat buffering meme. If we end up meshing with each other you’ll find that I have a lot of energy to give. Movie nights, LAN nights, DnD sessions or just a general period of time where we sit together in the DMs and vibe - I’m basically down for whatever! :>

Manga and Manhwa; I unashamedly have around (from what I can remember) 800 series under my belt. I like to think that I don’t discriminate against any genre so I’d love to hear your recommendations. Currently I’m re-reading Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond, Junji Ito’s Uzumaki and Urushibara Yuki’s Mushihi. I’ve recently finished Shin Angyo Onshi, Kokou no Hitou, One Outs and Angel Denetsu and I’m looking finally get up to date with One Punch Man and Haikyuu.

Gaming; please don’t ask me about the new Animal Crossing, I have no Switch and I have $1.67 in my bank account - it’ll just depress us both. As of right now, my main focus is on League of Legends (someone pls play with me), Minecraft and Don’t Starve. I have an unhealthy appreciation for Skyrim, Dragon Age: Inquisition, FFXV and the entirety of the AC series and Pokemon - as long as we’re talking about the best generation (Gen 4 - otherwise get out of my DMs). On a side note; FPS makes me sick so CSGO and Overwatch are a no-no for me.

Sports(?); if we talk about this I will be legally required to tell you of my failed career as an athlete. As a child that was obviously budding with talent (also read; I have Asian parents with high expectations) I did ballet, gymnastics, figure skating and basketball. I do not remember most of the intricacies involved in each sport with the exception of basketball, but I am wholly willing to complain about the pains and the aches and the injuries.

K n o w l e d g e; I know, from what you’ve read, I sound like a dumbass but I am genuinely interested in learning about new things. Tell me about the complexities of what you do! I will willingly sit there and listen to you bounce financial statistics off my head and I Will. Be. Excited. For. It. If there are any history nerds out there, hit me up, I need someone who will laugh at Caesar and how he described his red cloak in Commentarii de Bello Gallico with me. I will also at one point be asking you about the loopholes of Cannibalism so just throwing that out there.

Mental/Emotional support; Let’s face it boys and girls, the world is going to absolute doo doo. If my previous points have yet to entice you, then surely this will. If you need a vent buddy or someone to talk to about your feelings I will be there for you whether it’s if you need a shoulder to cry on or advice from a third party. If it’s love troubles I’m more than happy to commiserate with you on that as well - pity parties I find are much better when not done alone.

My preference for communication would be through Discord. I’m open to vcing and in the future if I’m comfortable enough with you I wouldn’t mind video calls either ^^
So don’t be scared and HMU!
Quick disclaimer; I’m not looking for romance. At all. I repeat, I am not looking for a relationship.

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