Quick Data

Current Price: $11.06
Shares Outstanding: 93,729,980
Market Cap: 1.037 billion
TTM Revenue: 0.91 million
Price/Sales: 1140x
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Background

Facedrive is a ridesharing company that is designed to incentivize and empower the green and socially responsible consumer through the use of its carbon neutral ridesharing platform. The company was founded in January 2016 by Imran Ali Khan and Junaid Razvi but only became operational in late 2018. In August 2019 Facedrive completed a reverse take-over with High Mountain Resources and listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Since listing on the TSX-V Facedrive has also completed a number of small acquisitions to expand its offerings both in the rideshare market and other "Facedrive Verticals".
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Value Proposition

In its IPO filing statement issued 14 months ago Facedrive outlined a number of growth initiatives including:

• entering the markets of Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver by the end of 2019
• entering major US markets including San Francisco, Seattle and Austin by the end of 2020
• further expanding into Boston, Philadelphia, and New York in 2021, and Europe and the UK in late 2021
• achieving 3% market penetration by August 2020
• creating new platform offerings including commercial delivery (courier service), executive delivery (subscription service for business executives), and health care delivery (prescription delivery and patient transportation)

As of today Facedrive has only achieved one of these objectives - entering the Ottawa market. In fact Facedrive has yet to expand out of Ontario with its operations limited to the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Hamilton, London, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Orillia. Since the beginning Facedrive has been incredibly slow in rolling out their app to targeted cities. Despite being founded in January 2016 and receiving a Toronto license in 2017 the app only became operational in late 2018.
As for 3% market penetration Facedrive's gross revenue for the first 6 months of this year was $999 thousand. The rideshare market for Canada this year (adjusted for Covid) is $1.52 billion ( https://www.statista.com/outlook/368/108/ride-hailing-taxi/canada). Since Facedrive only operates in about 20% of Canada's markets, population adjusted, the current addressable market is closer to $300 million. Extrapolating Facedrive's gross revenue out to a full year would result in $2 million of revenue or less than 1% of market penetration.
But what about Covid? In the 2nd Q Lyft and Uber reported decreases in rideshare billings of 69% and 73% respectively. Meanwhile Facedrive's gross revenue dropped from $999 thousand in Q1 to $147 thousand in Q2, a drop of 85%. This signals that their market penetration is actually decreasing quarter over quarter.
Value proposition for riders? Facedrive's green initiative? The company began with the initiative to 1) offer electric vehicles); and 2) counter emissions from gas vehicles through an offset program. As of today there is nothing to differentiate Facedrive's offerings from its competitors as both Uber and Lyft now have electric vehicle options. There is no dedicated fleet of electric vehicles driving for Facedrive. Facedrive did donate $2,105 to Forests Ontario in Q1 2019 but there has been no mention of any offset program contributions since the company went public. The main benefit of rideshare programs is still convenience. For Facedrive to compete with Uber and Lyft they need drivers. At this point there are just not enough drivers to produce reasonable wait times. Reviews of the app consistently complain about wait times of up to half an hour. And with the green initiative not being robust enough to differentiate it from its competitors it is just not worth the time.
Value proposition for drivers? Over the last year Facedrive has paid out anywhere from 75% to 83% to drivers. This is slightly higher than Uber and Lyft which average around 75%. But not enough of an incentive for a driver to use Facedrive exclusively. I expect that pretty much all of the revenue Facedrive generates comes from drivers who use multiple platforms.
Conclusion: Facedrive has consistently failed to meet growth targets. Its current market penetration is less than 1% and possibly decreasing. There is no incentive for either drivers or riders to continue using the app when Uber and Lyft are perfectly suitable.
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Facedrive Verticals

After its IPO Facedrive used a combination of cash and shares to acquire stakes in a number of other ventures which they plan to incorporate into their "ecosystem". Buzz words however do not make a company. None of these ventures generate significant revenue or offer much potential for growth so I'll only cover them briefly.
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HiRide
This is a carpooling app similar to Poparide except no one uses it and it doesn't generate any revenue. There is also a trivia app HiQ which claims to be a social app that you can enjoy while social distancing (in your carpool?). HiQ claims to have 2 million downloads (Facedrive press releases all of the major milestones) and yet it doesn't rank in the Trivia category for both IOS and Google. I downloaded the app and played for 15 minutes. The app is beyond basic with the most elementary social element. I tired messaging some other players based on similar interests but no one responded. After 15 minutes of answering both outdated and at times repetitive trivia questions I was ranked 794th all time and earned $1. I am also 74th on the weekly list which leads me to believe the app has less than 100 active users. Reading the reviews on Google Play it is a combination of obvious fake reviews (multiple reviews showing up the same day with similar broken English) and people complaining they didn't get their money for answering the trivia questions.
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Facedrive Marketplace
This launched in May and generated $7 thousand in revenue. The only products available are apparel from Westbrook Inc. (a content company affiliated with Will Smith). Facedrive partnered with Westbrook last year by purchasing a $1 million convertible note. In return they have the right to sell exclusive Westbrook products to their ridership. Curiously Facedrive failed to disclose at the time of the transaction that Westbrook Inc owned 192,338 shares in Facedrive at the time of its IPO. This is a recurrent theme - I give you shares, you give me shares.
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Facedrive Foods + Food Hwy
Facedrive Foods consists of assets purchased out of bankruptcy from Foodora Canada. The cost was $500K. The assets Facedrive received were Foodora's restaurant and customer list. Customers however had to opt in through e-mail in order for their contact details to be released to Facedrive. Facedrive can not use Foodora's name nor did they acquire any of Foodora's technology. The Facedrive Foods app was developed from scratch and going by reviews it is not that good. The restaurants available are mostly second tier chains listed on pretty much all the food apps. On IOS the app is ranked #157 in the food category currently - they have no market penetration.
Food Hwy is probably the closest thing to a real business Facedrive has acquired. It is another food delivery app, quite niche as it caters to the foreign student market. Facedrive paid $9.1 million in cash and shares for Food Hwy. It expects it to generate $10.5 million in revenue in 2020. No mention of profit, growth rate, or its revenue from prior years. Just an expectation.
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Facedrive Health
Facedrive Health is pretty much an app + wearable bracelet called TraceScan. Through bluetooth technology it can determine if you have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. Ontario already has a contact tracing app that works through bluetooth and can be downloaded onto one's mobile phone (no need for a bracelet). The official Ontario app only has 8% market penetration despite its ease of use. Facedrive is currently running a pilot with Air Canada for their bracelets but the market for these bracelets is so limited when the free Ontario app does a perfectly fine job in 99% of interactions.
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Tally Technology
Facedrive invested $3 million in cash and shares in this sports prediction company founded by Russell Wilson. Tally's main asset TraceMe was sold last year to Nike. Nike had no interest in the tech that remains under the Tally umbrella. All the top execs at Tally also left for Nike so it is unclear at this point what potential the remaining assets have. https://www.playtally.com
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Steer Holdings
An electric vehicle subscription platform based out of Washington D.C. Another company on the verge of bankruptcy where Facedrive offered up $3.25 million USD worth of shares and in exchange the parent company of Steer purchased $2 million USD worth of shares - I give you shares and you buy some of them back. Again no mention of revenue, profit margins, growth rates or anything in the press release. Just a bunch of buzz words concerning the total addressable market.
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Key Management

Does Facedrive have the management in place to successfully take on the behemoths of Uber and Lyft? Or to penetrate fresh verticals and successfully create a socially responsible ecosystem?
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Junaid Razvi
Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Facedrive, Razvi currently owns 8,751,930 shares or 9.3% of Facedrive. Prior to founding Facedrive Mr. Razvi was the CEO of an IT company in the Middle East https://www.panarabia.ae . Not much else is known other than they have a horrible website.
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Sayan Navaratnam
Current CEO of Facedrive and owns 32,395,180 shares or 34.75% of Facedrive. He assumed the position of CEO in March 2019 just prior to Facedrive's TSX-V listing application. Mr. Navaratnam at first glance has a respectable resume. He was CEO of A.C. Technical Systems, specializing in security and surveillance systems. From 2014-1019 he was the CEO Connex Telecommunications Corporation. He has an investment arm called the Malar Group which purchased control of both A.C. Technical and Connex. Between 2017 and 2019 Mr. Navaratnam and Malar also took a substantial stake in Facedrive. I suspect Mr. Navaratnam connected with the co-founder Mr. Razvi as they both worked in the IT telecommunications sphere. It appears Malar has an impressive portfolio of companies but most of them are subsidiaries of Connex. Both Mr. Razvi and Mr. Navaratnam are telecommunication and hardware experts who are trying to create a social enterprise digital ecosystem geared towards milennials. They are not millennials.
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Heung Hung Lee
Current CFO of Facedrive. Ms. Lee has been working with Mr. Navaratnam since 2004 when she was the CFO of A.C. Technical Systems. She then became the CFO of Connex before taking the position at Facedrive. Ms. Lee has never been employed by a billion dollar corporation let alone been the CFO of one. Perhaps this position is too overwhelming as Facedrive has failed to file their last 2 quarterly financials on time.
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Jay Wilgar
Jay Wilgar was appointed the chief strategy officer of Facedrive earlier this year. Formerly he was CEO of Newstrike Brands (cannabis company) and prior to Newstrike he was CEO of both a pharmaceutical and a renewable energy company. He has a history of building companies and selling them at opportune times. However he has no experience in technology and again has never been responsible for growing a billion dollar company.
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And that's pretty much it for the brains of the company.
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Shady Dealings

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Mr. Navaratnam's Cash Cow
Prior to becoming a public company, Mr. Navaratnam was generating significant revenue for his companies by billing Facedrive for his companies' services. Mr. Navaratnam's companies under the Malar Group were responsible for not only developing the Facedrive app, but also providing customer and driver support, leasing office space, and marketing the app. Talk about an ecosystem! Here are some snippets from Facedrive's filings:
As at September 30, 2019, $917,236 (December 31, 2018 - $436,626) was due to Dynalync 2000 Inc., a related company controlled by our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The amount owing is a result of the related company providing consulting services and product development, and the amount is included in the Company’s trade payable. The total expenses charged to the Company for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 were $1,200,300 (2018 - $397,100), which were included in research and development expenses of $702,300 (2018 - $241,300) and operational support expenses of $505,000 (2018 - $155,700).
Facedrive also engages DependableIT through Dynalync, a related company controlled by Sayanthan Navaratnam, the CEO, director and co-founder of Facedrive, to provide call center services to Facedrive.
Facedrive subleases office space in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Scarborough, Ontario, North York, Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario and Kanata, Ontario from Connex pursuant to a sublease agreement dated April 1, 2019 for $5,000 per month plus applicable taxes.
Since Facedrive has gone public they have moved most of their operations in house and hired their own developers cutting off the related transactions. But what this does show is that Facedrive basically began as a vehicle for its CEO to enrich himself, not only through the issuance of cheap stock (more on that later) but also through Facedrive's expense account.
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Stockhouse
There is a group of posters on Stockhouse that just post the same gibberish day in and day out. Their only posts are on rideshare and big tech bullboards. These are not typical Stockhouse pumpers who own shares as they show up at the same time each day and in collaboration each cover a different talking point. No rocket emojis or "to the moon" memes - just buzz terms taken from press releases spun in a positive light. And they don't discuss any other stocks. You can find some of them here https://stockhouse.com/members/shirleyarman https://stockhouse.com/members/tylermathew https://stockhouse.com/members/xavier https://stockhouse.com/members/tianaa https://stockhouse.com/members/richardsondilam
Their grammar and erudition are also very similar to the fake reviews on the app stores.
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Stock Promotion
The most egregious example of Facedrive's stock promotion is their agreement with Medtronics Online Solutions. Supposedly this is an arm lengths company and yet Google returns nothing. Pursuant to a Consulting Agreement, Medtronics provided and performed marketing and strategic consulting services for and on behalf of Facedrive. In return Medtronics received $8.2 million worth of stock or 800,000 shares.
Medtronics may be responsible for not only market making services (propping up the share price) but also various paid promotion that Facedrive has been engaged in. An example, https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-30-Trillion-Trend-Thats-Bigger-Than-The-Entire-US-Stock-Market.html
You may have also seen Facedrive heavily promoted on Motley Fool as the next Uber or Tesla or whatever is in vogue that week.
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Misleading Press Releases
Pretty much all of Facedrive's press releases are misleading or overly promotional in one way or another. Take for example the press release announcing the appointment of Jay Wilgar. The release states,
Mr. Wilgar launched renewable development firm AIM PowerGen Corporation (“AIM”) and built it and successor companies into energy projects worth approximately $2.5 billion before AIM was acquired by global renewable power firm International Power Canada (IPR-GDF Suez) in 2009
AIM was acquired by International Power in 2009 but not for anywhere near $2.5 billion. In fact AIM was acquired for USD $109 million https://www.evwind.es/2009/10/23/international-power-canada-acquires-aim-powergen-from-renewable-energy-generation/1936
Then there are the HiQ press releases, first announcing 250K downloads, then 500K downloads, then 1 million, then 1.5 million, and then 2 million. From the July 14th press release,
The App has ranked Top 10 Trivia App in over 100 countries, and ranked Top 10 App in over 50 countries. Additionally, HiQ has ranked as the Number 1 Trivia App in Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, Nepal, and Pakistan.
None of this is true. The app is lucky to have 100 active users. Furthermore there is no AI algorithm involved as is claimed nor is their any matching based on interests even though this would be incredibly easy to program. The suggested friends appears completely random.

True Value of Facedrive

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Is it worth $1 billion?
The market, both private and public has never valued the company anywhere near $1 billion. Since 2017 Facedrive has issued stock at the following prices (all issues are split adjusted to correspond with the current share count, and converted to CAD):
2017

• 4,248,012 shares at 13.7 cents
• 970,839 shares at 13.2 cents

2018

• 22,480,113 shares at 2 cents
• 1,923,529 shares at 39 cents

2019

• 247,299 shares at 39 cents
• 1,236,498 shares at 8 cents
• 5,427,724 shares at 9.1 cents
• 9,915,581 shares at 9.9 cents
• 2,596,653 shares at 39 cents
• 741,900 shares at 39 cents
• 4,429,555 shares at $1.58

The shares issued at $1.58 were issued in connection with the amalgamation agreement (IPO). The shares issued at 39 cents were all shares for debt transactions.
Think about this for a second. 22,480,113 shares or 24% of the outstanding shares were issued at a price of 2 cents! The price today is $11.06. What has changed since these shares were issued other than Facedrive has failed to meet any growth objectives and its market penetration along with brand power has dwindled to pretty much irrelevance.
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Why is Facedrive trading at a $1 billion market cap?
As at June 30, 2020, the Company had 85,593,657 Shares subject to contractual lock-up restrictions which will be released on a rolling basis beginning March 16, 2021. 15% of the shares will come out of lock up on March 16, 2021, and for each subsequent 3 months another 15% will become free trading until September 30, 2022 when the final 10% will be released. This leaves only about 8 million shares in the current public float. It does not take much to move the share price in either direction.
Secondly, Facedrive has been promoting the stock in absolute desperation. They have enlisted an army of users to promote the stock on Stockhouse; they have posted fake reviews on both the Apple and Google app stores; they have paid for promotion in various investing publications; they have hired a mysterious marketing company to provide services in exchange for $8.2 million worth of shares. And yet they have done nothing to actually make a dent into their main competitors. Since its listing Facedrive has been more concerned with propping up its share price through stock promotion than it has been promoting its actual business to end users.
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But, but intangibles!
There are none. There is no genius at the helm; there is no disruptive tech; there is no vision. Facedrive's best chance for success was to carve out a niche in the sustainable ridesharing market - capture the 1% of people that would be willing to wait 30 minutes for a ride in an EV. Not a billion dollar proposition but maybe something. Instead they opted for an endless dictionary of buzz words and delusions of grandeur.
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Conclusion
So what is Facedrive's true value? The core of their operations, the ridesharing app, has made virtually no progress since it was developed in 2017. The ridesharing market is indeed a duopoly, and despite Facedrive's worst efforts to promote itself as an eco-conscious alternative it has failed to resonate with its target audience. If Uber or Lyft would be generous enough to purchase Facedrive's customer base (the tech is worthless to them) they might pay 20x net revenue or $20 million.
Given that management has done nothing to grow the business and its business plan is non-existent at worst and schizophrenic at best, it is hard to ascribe any value beyond what Facedrive has paid for the distressed assets they have purchased this year. So maybe another $15 million here (being extremely generous).
Then there is cash on the balance sheet which as of today given the recent acquisitions and burn rate is maybe $5 million.
So $40 million total. This actually sounds like way too much money for what one is getting but it still only equals 43 cents/share. Facedrive is currently trading at $11.06. Even throwing in another $50 million margin of error would still result in a 90% return from a short position.
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BRIEF HISTORY: I have been using the A series of Samsung starting from Galaxy A10 to the A30, but the one thing that bugged me about Samsung phones especially the A series, was that they weren't giving enough value to their customers. I'm not a big camera guy, so I don't take any selfies. The main priority for me was having a big battery and a performance that didn't lag while i switched between 2-3 apps (Mainly Tidal for music streaming, Whatsapp and Instagram).
The Galaxy A10s on regular use gave me a battery timing of 4-5 hours till I had to plug it back in the charger. After a few weeks of searching, I found some very interesting Xiaomi's phones, the prices with the features they were providing were giving Samsung phones a run for their money. But I was still hesitant as my uncle bought the Xiaomi Mi A3, which tbh, in that price range was an overpriced phone which gave my initial impression that All phones must be like that. But boy oh boy was I wrong.
The Phone Itself:
I bought the Xiaomi Redmi 8A for less than $98. 2 gb 32 gb variant with a 5,000mAh battery with a support for 18W Fast charging. The only gripe I had was the fast charger isn't included in the box. Powered by Snapdragon 439 chipset, which imo is SOOO much better than the Mediatek A22 shit chipset. After buying the phone I did two things to improve the overall quality:

• Since I'm living in Pakistan, I chose the region to be United Kingdom as Xiaomi's phones start throwing ads in the device if you choose your region to be India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or any country in this region to earn extra bit of money. But if your'e living in Europe you're fine.
• I uninstalled all the bloatware that came with the phone with Xiaomi's Fast ADB Tool. The whole process took less than 2 minutes.

But, after all of this, I can safely say this is the BEST phone I have gotten so far. The battery backup is insane. If I use the phone at 9 am, use it heavily all day either on wifi or 4g, doesn't matter, the battery will still be at 45-50% at 3:45 am. A whopping 16 hours+ on continuous usage.
When you remove the bloatware, it frees up alot of RAM and your phone feels like it's a 4GB Ram variant and not 2GB. Im not a fan of gaming like PUBG, never played it. So don't know how the phone will perform on gaming.
P.S, I've never been able to completely drain the battery of this device. It's a MONSTER.
My final verdict:
If you want a KILLER device for your day to day use, you're a battery conscious person like me, want to gift it to your parents, or need to give a gift to somebody that won't break your bank, then this DEVICE is a BEAST. I HIGHLY recommend you invest in Xiaomi and you won't be feeling sorry. I do recommend getting the Xiaomi Redmi Note series if you can as those devices are the midrange killers. But if you want to stay on a budget level, then this device kills all other devices.
Peace my Xiaomi family :)

Baker and June approach each other and they lock up in a collar and elbow tie-up, and June quickly gets an upper hand and pushes Baker back as he falls back against his corner!
Crowd: WOOOOOO!!!! JUNE! JUNE! JUNE!
Baker looks equal parts pissed and frightened as he immediately tags out to Flux!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Flux meekly enters the ring and sees a very determined June staring down at him, and he takes a second, pulls out a half-eaten baby carrot from his pocket, munches it down, swallows, then motions for June to come at him! June approaches and the two now lock up in a collar and elbow tie-up, and June pulls Flux in and pulls him up in an early attempt at a uranage that Flux wriggles out of behind June! June turns around and tries for a massive lariat that Flux narrowly ducks by leaning back like he’s playing Limbo, before diving and smacking the hand of Baker, who looks displeased he’s been tagged in and takes his sweet time sloooowlllyyy leaning through the ropes into the ring.
Paisner: June is a brick wall tonight! She’s not letting any of the out of the ring distractions stopping her from bringing it!
Woodbridge: She nearly took Flux’s head off right after she nearly planted him! She seems bent on turning these two inside out!
Baker has finally made it into the ring as Mia makes sure to stand between him and June, who wanted to get her hands on Jim while he was on the ropes. Baker barks at Mia to keep June off him as he keeps one hand on the ropes, and eventually, June backs off and Baker takes his hand off the ropes and now circles June, and as they circle each other they eventually meet in the middle and Baker quickly gets the go-behind on June, grabbing her arm and yanking it into a hammerlock as he wrenches Junes arm behind her back. June reacts quickly, reaching up and grabbing the head of Baker like a snap mare, before pulling herself down to one knee, rolling on her shoulders, and now powering out of the hold to put Baker in a side headlock!
Crowd: LET’S GO GAZERS! clap clap clapclapclap LET’S GO GAZERS! clap clap clapclapclap
Jim Baker looks caught off guard by the strength of June, grasping at the arm around his neck, and he tries pulling her arm off, but June swiftly transitions with a side takedown of Baker! Baker is now on his back in the headlock, but he lifts his legs with a headscissor and takes her down, pinning June’s head to the mat! But she kips up and out of the hold, then grabs the leg of Baker and rolls on top of him, pinning him beneath her! Mia drops down for the cover, but before she can get a 1 count Baker kicks out hard! Now both competitors get to their feet and Baker goes for a clothesline, but June ducks and gets momentum off the ropes now before charging at Baker, who ducks a forearm and grabs the hair of June, throwing her down to her back!
Crowd: BBOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
The referee scolds Baker with emphasis that she will disqualify him the next time he does that, and he puts his hands up as if to say ok, before soccer kicking June in the midsection!
Woodbridge: Ooof, I heard that one clear as day!
June clutches at her ribs, getting to her feet while attempting to put distance between her and Baker but she is now in the enemy corner as Baker launches himself with a corner splash that sandwiches the Stargazer between the turnbuckles while Baker tags Flux simultaneously. Baker keeps June in the corner, launching a knee into her gut that doubles her over right as Flux jumps off the ropes and hits June with a bulldog!
Paisner: It’s worth mentioning that these two, Baker and Flux, have never tagged before in a ring! Flux and The Milkman have tagged, but this duo of The Horde hasn’t seen the ring together. They have to be considered immense underdogs in the face of the nearly half a year reign of the Stargazers.
Woodbridge: They’re doing pretty good for themselves right now though!
Flux brings June up to her feet and hits her with a standing arm drag, keeping control of the arm and hitting her with a cross armbar! June doesn’t let it last long though as she grits through the pain and gets to her knees, lifting the smaller Flux up off his back and into the air, but Flux lets go and flips back onto his feet, and popping up and hitting June with a enzuigiri! June is taken down to one knee!
Paisner: The Horde really does have June reeling here!
Now Flux runs sees June on one knee, and Flux gets a running start back onto the ropes, tagging Baker, and coming off the ropes and hitting June with a running neckbreaker that slams her onto the mat, while Baker now enters the ring and comes down with a running elbow to the chest of June! Baker jumps up and stretches his arms out wide to unanimous boos from the crowd!
Crowd: BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
Woodbridge: ELBOW TO THE BOOB! We saw a glimpse of Baker showing some respect, now we get a front row seat right back to how he acts with people he doesn’t. But I think he oughta cover instead of pissing off this crowd even more!
Crowd: BA-KER SUCKS! BA-KER SUCKS!
Baker now looks pissed off in return as he now proceeds to stomp on Kat over and over, kicking her midsection, then grabbing her arm and driving a knee into her bicep! June cries out in pain and Kat seems to look over from the apron for the first time in the match, looking distressed to see June in pain! Baker now sits June up and slams a knee into her back, before stretching her arms back in a surfboard stretch, and June is still in it but looks in agony as Baker wrenches her arms and shoulders further and further from where they should be! Kat leans over the top rope and yells to June!
Kat: Come on, June!!! Fight back!
June seems to perk up at the sound of Kat’s voice, and a second wind comes to her as June now begins to fight back against Baker, gradually pulling her arms back from Baker’s grasp, but he now cocks back his knee and drives it into the back of June, causing her to collapse back and Baker now pulls her arms even further!
Crowd: PLEASE DON’T TAP! PLEASE DON’T TAP!
Mia So Hung is right on top of June asking her if she wants to quit! June staves off the question, refusing to quit but looking wore down from the hold! Kat on the apron now stomps on the mat to get the crowd to clap and rally for June, and the whole venue is stomping their feet cheering on June to break free of the hold, and she takes on more burst of strength, pulling the arms of Baker in and throwing him over her head, before rolling back and leaping to tag in Kat Anavae-Emery!
Crowd: YEEAAAAA!!!!!
Kat now looks entirely focused as Baker gets back to his feet, and Kat jumps to the top springboard and clears half the ring to catch Baker with a hurricanrana that flips him hard onto his back! Kat kips up notices Flux trying to enter the ring but she takes him out with a jumping leg lariat that sends Dexter over the ropes flying to the outside!
Crowd: YEAAAAAAAA!!!!! KAT! KAT! KAT!
Kat gets to her feet in the ring but is pushed face first into the corner by Baker, and now Baker charges at her but Kat grabs the top ropes and jumps back into the air, floating over Baker before grabbing his shoulders and bringing him down into a backstabber!
Crowd: OOOOOHHHHH!!!
Baker is now down in his own corner with no teammate on the apron as Kat gets to the top rope, and she looks over at June on the opposite corner, who puts up a heart shape with her hands! Kat looks at June, seemingly hesitating to return the gesture, when she suddenly topples to the mat when Flux hops onto the apron and dropkicks her ankles, and she lands on the back of her neck in a scary fall!
Crowd: OOOOOHHHHH!
Paisner: Kat can’t let what’s happened outside of the ring get to her right now! This is not looking like the same team that won the titles!
Baker is still clutching at his back but has enough wherewithal to make a cover on Kat, hooking the leg!
1!
2 NO, June dove to break up the pin! June brings Baker to his feet and kicks him in the gut, and lifts him up into a powerbomb position, and June yells for Kat for the double team, but as June holds Baker up, she realizes Kat hasn’t gotten up as Mia is now checking on Kat, and Baker takes advantage of the delay and jabs a thumb right into the eye of June as she lets go of Baker, who lands on one foot and DECKS June with a forearm that knocks her back into the ropes!
Crowd: OOHHH!
But she bounces off the ropes and hits the Lover’s Lariat that turns Baker inside out!!!
Crowd: YYEAAAA!!!!!!!!!!
June now checks to make sure Kat is okay, as Mia asks Kat if she is able to continue. Kat is coming to and June offers a hand to lift Kat to her feet, but we now see Dexter Flux hit the ring as Baker has rolled out, making Flux the legal man as he whips June out of the ring, leaving just him and Kat as he pulls her up and hits a modified victory roll pin!
1!
2!
KICKOUT!
Paisner: Kat NARROWLY avoids losing the titles there to The Horde! Flux had the element of surprise with the crafty pin but even in such a dazed state Kat has it at the forefront of her mind what’s at stake here!
Flux attempts to quickly follow up, grabbing her arm as she sits up and rolling her up with another pin combination!
1!
2!
NO! June has entered the ring again and breaks up the pin, and she pulls Flux off Kat and pulls him up onto her shoulders! June has Flux over one shoulder but Flux is flailing as chaotically as he can, and now we see Baker slide into the ring and chop blocks June, as she falls to one knee again and Flux falls to his feet! Flux kicks June in the gut as Baker then snapmares her, and Flux hits a dropkick to the seated June as Baker now goes to kick Kat out of the ring!
Paisner: It’s just Baker and Flux in the ring with June! They’ve cleared the ring and now June looks yet again in peril!
Dexter Flux now goes to the top rope and signals for the elbow drop! He jumps off and lands it square on the chest of June Emery-Anavae, and Baker looks like he’s celebrating on the apron now as Mia drops down to count!
1!
2!
3-NO! KICKOUT!
Crowd: YYEAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Woodbridge: SHE’S NOT DONE YET!
Baker holds his head in disbelief as Flux looks up at him as if to ask what to do next. Flux walks over and tags Baker, and Baker now enters the ring and puts June’s head between his legs, and lifts her up for the powerbomb, and slams her down!
Paisner: Those tag titles are on the edge of changing hands right now! Things are looking dire for the Stargazers tonight!
Baker now spreads his arms yet again and trash talks everyone in the audience who are booing him relentlessly while he brags above the body of June! Baker gets behind June as she slowly begins to come to, barely able to bring herself to one knee, and Flux yells at Baker to go for it already as Baker waits til the very last second for June to rise up!
Woodbridge: Don’t turn around, June!!!
June is drowsy on her feet as she turns and Baker scoops her up!
Paisner: Here it comes- The Baker Bomb- WAIT, Kat’s back in it!
Kat has now hopped on the apron and grabbed the foot of June, preventing Baker from slamming her down! Flux is quick to stop Kat though, lifting Kat onto his shoulders as he begins spinning her on the apron in an airplane spin! But in the ring, June has now wriggled out of the slam, and to roll up Baker in a small package!
1!
2!
KICKOUT!
June looks over to her corner, and Kat is still being spun around in the Airplane Spin on the apron! June sees Baker approaching and she ducks a right swing, and June fires back with a forearm to Baker’s face!
Crowd: YEAAA!!!
But Baker fires back with a right hand that rocks June!
Crowd: BOOO!!!
June stumbles, but maintains her balance and comes back at Baker with a forearm that snaps his head back!
Crowd: YEAAAAAA!!!
Baker swings back, but this time it’s a straight up slap to June’s face!
Crowd: OOOOOHHHHHH!!! YOU FUCKED UP! YOU FUCKED UP!
June looks incensed, as she swings once more with everything she has, but Baker dodges and knees June in the gut!
Crowd: BOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Baker looks over at Flux on the ring, who is STILL spinning Kat around!
Baker: DEXTER!!! TOSS HER IN HERE!!!
Flux hears the call and attempts to toss Kat into the ring, and he does, but after he lets go, he is so dizzy he falls off the apron onto the outside! Kat now lays in the ring looking like she doesn’t know what year it is, as June looks over at Kat, and for a brief moment they make eye contact, and as Baker looks over at his partner who spilled to the outside, June gets a running start off the ropes and hits Baker with an uppercut to the back of the head!
Paisner: UPPERCUT! And if Kat can hit the swinging neckbreaker, they’ll connect with the same tag team move that won them the tag titles in April!!!
Kat props herself up on the ropes, and she lines up her sights on the stunned Baker, before running at Baker, but she’s too slow and disoriented as Baker is able to grab her by the hair as she charges and throws her right into June, and the two collide with a CRACK as their two skulls connect!
Crowd: NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
June falls back onto the mat and spills onto the apron as Baker rolls up Kat Anavae-Emery!
1!
2!
3!
DING DING DING!
Crowd: MASS NOISES OF CONFUSION
Baker: YYEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!
Baker pumps his fist to the air repeatedly as he stumbles over to ringside and snatches the two tag titles to hold up in the middle of the ring!
Paisner: I’m.. speechless! I can’t believe we just saw that!
Woodbridge: Did Jim Baker just pin one of the Tag Team Champions, Paisner?! Did that just happen?
Javier: Your winners, at a time of 17:30, Jim Baker and Dexter Flux: THE HOOOORRRDEEE!!
Crowd: WOOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Baker simply smiles under the avalanche of booing fans as he has his hand raised by Mia So Hung and he now slides under the ropes to the outside as he shows both the titles to the still-disoriented Flux, who barely seems aware of whats happening. Baker shows off both titles to fans in attendance as they jeer him and give thumbs down to the ecstatic champion. Baker outstretches both arms with either tag title in grasp as he yells to the world that he is now 2 and 4.
Paisner: I… I know I said anything could happen in WiR, but I honestly don’t think I believed myself when I said it! Jim Baker and Dexter Flux are Tag Team champions!
We now see Kat in the ring, being checked on by Mia as she clutches at her head, slowly taking in what’s happened. June is also discombobulated on the apron, and the two exchange a pained, unsure glance at each other as Kat averts her gaze to Baker on the outside.
Paisner: Ladies and gentlemen, after that title exchange, we’re gonna need a break to take in what happened just now. We have new Tag Team Champions.
We see the ring and ringside clear out. As after a moment, we see Javier enter the ring, ready to announce more.
Javier: Esteemed Guests, the following is a match to crowd the Interim WiR World Champion, it is a 25 minute 6 man championship scramble match, and is is your main event of the evening!
Crowd: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Javier: The rules are that in a championship scramble, pinfalls and submissions can happen many times up until the final time limit, where upon the person with the final victory will be crowned champion!
U Mad (Clean Version) by Vic Mensa BLASTS through the speakers, as Dan Smith comes out onto the entranceway. Wearing a button up with the jamacian flag on it in addition to his normal ring gear that he quickly takes off. As he looks focused and ready to go, pumping up the crowd as he begins to sprint his way down.
Crowd: YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Paisner: Now a man who’s been waiting for this for a long while, and the biggest underdog in the match. The Stormin’ Mormon Dan Smith finally gets his title opportunity he earned after a victory over Austin Balandran. And honestly? I may peg him as having better odds in a match like this than a one-on-one. An experience gap between wrestlers may really shine in a one-on-one, but with so many more factors going into a six man match? There’s much more chances for an unexpected winner to slip on through.
Smith slaps hands with fans along the way, as he makes his way to the ring apron quickly, slides in, head to the turnbuckles, and does a few excited fist bumps to hype himself and the crowd up.
STUPID by Ashnikko sounds throughout the venue, as GiGi skips out onto the entranceway, clad in a bright neon blue wig, with a significant dose of similarly colored e-girl make-up. She waves to her fan section, as she continues skipping down.
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Paisner: Now we have GiGi down to the ring, in terms of physically matching up, certainly an underdog with being shorter and especially lighter than everyone else here. But with here craftyness, and a rabid as hell fanbase inspiring her on, whether as a genuine good feeling of having people who like you or just knowing if u win they’ll give you even more money is the thing about that that would inspire her….up to speculation. And of course, even if they won’t sweep after last match, she can walk out of here with Simp Squad carrying both of our singles titles!
Woodbridge: And Pais! Think about the exposure she’d bring to the brand as our top champ! She’d bring in even more fans than she already has, and that’s not only more money for her, that’s more tickets and merch sold, so that’s more money for all of us here! And my local breweries have all been raising their prices recently so I could damn well use a raise! So even with her questionable tactics, I would not mind her winning one bit!
GiGi reaches where her fan section in the crowd, pulls out her phone, and smiles wide to take a selfie with all of them! All her fans screaming in varying mixes of admiration and horniness. As GiGi continues to skip down to the ring, with as soon as her face is turned away from her fan section, her smile drops to show a brief expression of disgust, before cracking a smile again once she has to turn around once more. She reaches the ring, taking out her phone again to take selfies with the whole crowd in the background, as we see a glimpse of her posting the photos with the caption “Bout to win a championship for all you sweeties! <3”
The strings of Repent by Shaggy sound out through the venue signaling the arrival of Ikbal Rizwan from behind the curtain. Feeling out the rhythm of his entrance music for a momen, before turning his head up, and focusing on the ring ahead of him, the people in it, and the task ahead of him.
Crowd: YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Paisner: Out steps out our first former holder of a world title level belt, with the former QWF Champion out onto the stage. Losing it a few months back in the match where it unified with the title he’s going for tonight. And this could be a major moment for him, not only for glory, to show he can rebound, but to show anyone who doubts how hard that QWF title was to win and hold that he truly is on that level.
Rizwan takes a deep breath, as he marches down to the ring. Slapping hands with some fans along the way, but not actually taking his eyes off the ring, as he reaches the apron, steps on then steps in, as he awaits the remaining competitors.
Nitroglycerin by CrazyEightyEight pumps throughout the arena, as Joey McCarty walks out from behind the curtain, looking down, hitting himself on the head a few times, before taking a deep breath, lifting his head up, and stares intently at the ring as he makes his way there
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Woodbridge: Our second former world champ onto the stage, and our first former holder of the title belt he’s gunning for tonight. And I gotta say, a betting man may put it all on Joey tonight. He specializes in captializing on chaotic bullshit, and when you got a 6 person free for all match? There’s more than plenty of opportunities to steal the win right from under someone’s nose.
Paisner: Plus, some extra motivation, he and the rest of the cardinals had allied with Scott before his visa issues, so he’s got a chance to hold down the fort for The Vanguard until Scott sorts out his travel issues. Which could be extra pressure as well, but Joey isn’t one to break under it.
McCarty makes his way to the ring, ignoring the jeers thrown his way, as he enters the ring, finds one corner still free, burying his head on the turnbuckle, before hopping up onto the middle buckle and letting out a pumped “LETS GO!” Before jumping off, looking very ready for what’s up ahead.
MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY buzzes through the venue, as we see one remarkably confident man step out from behind the curtain. Big Money Maverick with the world’s smuggest smile on his face, clad in his usual dollar bill pattern/dark green designed gear, but with one twist, lines of gold across said gear.
Paisner: Now comes a man with all the confidence in the world, but one may wonder with a recent loss to Mark Dutch, and the shadow of Brendan Byrne seemingly behind his back, is how genuine is this? Is there any facade being put up to mask recent troubles?
Woodbridge: Perhaps a bit, but still, this is our longest reigning world champion ever. And he did all of that clean, now combine that natural skill with a willingness to play dirty? There’s more than plenty reason to always be at least somewhat genuinely confident in your skill and ability to show up in these big moments and walk out with the prize.
Maverick soaks in the boos as he makes his way to the ring, cockily jawing with fans, and proudly boasting his confidence in a wing tonight. He makes it down to the ring, rolls in, as he heads to the center, making a “Making It Rain” hand gesture to the jeering crowd, as we await our final man..
Paisner: Alright, our final competitor, we’ve know who’s coming for everyone else, but this last competitor’s name went unlisted. Who will be the 6th wrestler with a shot at glory tonigh-
YOU’RE GOING HOME IN A FUCKING AMBULANCE!
Crowd: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
We take a look in the ring, where we see Maverick in particular’s face go from smug confidence right into a mix of shock and fear, as we see the man emerge from behind the curtain, Brendan Byrne coming out onto the entranceway. With a patched leather jacket gone through much wear and tear, with a just as beaten up white t-shirt underneath. A solid block, rather stompy pair of boots, and one more thing, a pipe in hand.
Paisner: AND THE 6TH MAN IS BRENDAN BYRNE! MAKING HIS FIRST IN-RING APPEARANCE SINCE LOSING THE TITLE! AND THE MAN WHO COST HIM THAT TITLE WHO HE’S BEEN THREATENING FROM THE SHADOWS SINCE DOES NOT SEEM PLEASED IN THE SLIGHTEST!
We see everyone else in the ring grow a new certain kind of determined intensity on their faces knowing another former world champ is in the match, while we see Mav’s initial shock and fear turn to anger at Byrne’s presence, as Byrne rushes down to the ring! Only stopping for a moment to set down his pipe, before sliding into the ring, and stareing Maverick right in the eyes. As Javier readies his announcements.
Javier: Introducing first, from Moab, Utah. Weighing in at 210 pounds, this is DAN SMITH!
Crowd: YAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Smith waves to the crowd with a wide smile on his face, looking pumped for this opportunity, as Javier continues on.
Javier: Introducing next, from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Weighing in at 120 pounds, and sponsored by Monster Energy Drinks, here is GIGI!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
GiGi goes over to look at her fan section, and blows a kiss to all of them, as Javier continues to go.
Javier: And introducing next, from Islamabad, Pakistan, weighing in at 310 pounds, he is a former QWF Champion, IKBAL RIZWAN!
Crowd: YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Rizwan gives an appreciative salute to the crowd, as the announcements continue.
Javier: And next up, from Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. Weighing in at 232 pounds, he is a former WiR Tag Team Champion, former WiR World Champion, JOEY. MCCARTY!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Joey sounds out the crowd noise, as he bounces around, looking impatient to get going.
Javier: And the next announcement. From Dallas, Texas, weighing in at 225 pounds, he is a former WiR Independent and WiR World Champion, BIG! MONEY! MAVERICK!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Maverick stares back at Byrne, a frustration palpable in his eyes, as Javier goes to wrap up the announcements.
Javier: And our final competitor. From London, England. Weighing in at 225 pounds. He is the winner of AMUDOV IV, and a former WiR World Champion, BRENDAN. BYYYYRNNNEEEE!
Crowd: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Byrne keeps his gaze locked solidly on Maverick, intensity oozing off of him, as we then hear Wong call for the bell!
DING DING DING
There’s a moment of tension as all six men stand in the ring, waiting for someone else to make the first move. This moment is brief, however, because Byrne, noticing nobody else has moved yet, charges across the ring and punches Maverick square in the jaw! Mav stumbles back, as the sea of wrestlers parts a bit, and Byrne follows up, pushing Mav into the ropes and then taking him over with a clothesline!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAY!
Paisner: Byrne’s starting off aggressive here, taking Maverick out of the ring , focusing on who he thinks might be his biggest threat!
Woodbridge: Byrne’s calculated, sure, Allen, but I think this is just good old-fashioned hatred.
Meanwhile in the ring, the other four men face each other, before Dan Smith charges at Ikbal with a flying forearm! Ikbal steps out of the way, but GiGi sees a moment of opportunity and steps forward, catching Ikbal’s exposed arm and tossing him to the mat with an uchi mata,
Paisner: GiGi with a HUGE throw on Ikbal there, taking advantage of his distraction.
Woodbridge: You know, GiGi has to pick spots like that to have a chance in this match, as the least physically intimidating wrestler, but she’s definitely got some dangerous throws here.
Gigi keeps the arm hooked, and drops a knee on it, before transitioning into mat wrestling. Smith hits the ropes and comes back, looking for a target, but Joey is nowhere to be seen, presumably having powdered out of the ring. Gigi tries for an ASMR armbar, but Ikbal is faster than that, and rolls out of danger and quickly back up to vertical, before tossing Gigi with an armdrag!
Paisner: Normally I’d question going for a finishing move this quickly, but in the chaos of a 6 man scramble, it’s a good idea to try for a quick win, and play defense from then on!
On the outside of the ring, Byrne and Maverick are trading punches back and forth. Maverick shoves Byrne to the ground, getting a moment of separation, and tries to scan the ring, but Byrne is immediately back up, and this time catches Maverick with a huge kick to the gut!
Woodbridge: Byrne, on the other hand, has opted for the “beat up someone and then move on” strategy.
Mav doubles over, and Byrne catches him in the side of the head with a mean roundhouse!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAY!
In the ring, Smith catches Ikbal with a dropkick immediately after the arm drag, and Gigi rolls back to her feet, only to get caught with a second Mormon dropkick! Smith is fired up, and as Ikbal stands up, he goes for the exclamation point, springboarding off the ropes for a flying forearm - NO! Ikbal steps into him and powers Smith halfway across the ring with a belly-to-belly!
Crowd: OHHHHHHHH!
Paisner: What a suplex!
Smith skids along the mat, holding his back, and GiGi sees her chance to go for a quick backslide!
1!
2!
Rizwan kicks out at 2!
Byrne isn’t finished with Maverick on the outside, absolutely laying into him with a hail of punches! Mav fights back to one knee, then catches Byrne with a single punch - one right to the dick - before rolling back into the ring and to relative safety!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Byrne collapses to the mat, and Maverick goes straight for Ikbal with a swinging neckbreaker! Ikbal hits the mat, Gigi catches Maverick with a headscissors, and blows a kiss to the adoring fans watching on stream -
Paisner: Gigi with an early advantage - if you can call it that this early in the contest!
Maverick is definitely feeling the effects of Byrne’s assault, and he’s slow to get up. Gigi struts to the ropes, showing off for the crowd -
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOO!
But doesn’t see Joey McCarty slithering into the ring! Joey with a quick roll-up!
1!
2!
Gigi tries to kick out, but Joey firmly plants his feet on the ropes!
3!
DING
Paisner: JOEY WITH THE FIRST FALL!
Javier: And your current interim champion, at a time of 1:14 - JOEY MCCARTY!
Gigi gets up, absolutely livid that her moment was ruined, but Joey’s already back out of the ring! He takes a moment to stomp on Byrne, who is still holding his crotch, then keeps his distance.
Woodbridge: See, Joey’s not at all worried about the flow of this match any longer - he picked his moment, and now all he’s doing is playing defense for the next 23 or so minutes.
Ikbal is up to vertical first, and GiGi plants, before running forward with a spinning heel kick! Ikbal is aware, though, and ducks the kick, before running off the ropes!
Paisner: GiGi looking for another big shot with that Vine kick - 6 seconds is all she needs after all.
Woodbridge: ... phrasing, Paisner.
GiGi lands on her feet, but catches a clothesline to the back of the head from Maverick, who is in turn absolutely steamrolled by 300 pounds of Pakistani crossbody! Rizwan hooks the leg!
1!
2!
McCarty is into the ring to break the count, and immediately starts working on Rizwan, laying an impressive series of punches into the back of his head! Rizwan goes flat to the mat, but Joey keeps on laying into him with punches!
Crowd: BOOOOOO!
Woodbridge: Yeah, sure, but it’s good logic. Joey doesn’t want anyone standing up, because if someone’s standing up they can go for a quick pinfall!
Paisner: Good logic doesn’t mean the fans are going to agree - look!
Dan Smith gets to his feet, and notices Joey on one knee, before a smile crosses his face. He charges forward, leaps into the air, and catches Joey with an absolutely DEVASTATING curb stomp!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Smith starts to go for the cover, but Gigi has gotten up and stops him with a quick thrust kick, sending Smith to the mat and going for the cover herself, placing one foot on Joey’s chest and pulling a phone out of her tights to get a perfect selfie angle!
1!
2!
3-NO!
Joey manages to roll a shoulder up, but is obviously not anywhere near cognizant of his surroundings as he continues rolling his way out of the ring! GiGi, on the other hand, is ready for Smith to get up and this time levels him with another spinning heel kick!
Paisner: OOH! Dead video site, but that kick might have killed Dan Smith!
Crowd: YAAAAY!/BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
That One Guy: STEP ON MEEEEEE!
Smith hits the mat hard, and GiGi gets to her feet - only to be caught by Maverick from beind! Mav whirls her around, but GiGi is prepared, and turns Maverick’s attempt to hit a Chainsaw Massacre into a Northern Lights Suplex!
1!
2!
Maverick kicks out, and rolls to his feet!
Woodbridge: GiGi is taking control of this contest so far, and with Joey unconscious on the outside, this is the best chance to take a quick fall.
Paisner: Sure, but Maverick isn’t going to go down easy, that’s for sure!
GiGi is able to keep Maverick off balance with a series of quick strikes! Maverick staggers back after a quick solebutt, and GiGi goes to the ropes, going for a springboard - NO! GiGi eats a huge fucking roundhouse kick from Brendan Byrne as she leaps for a springboard, and craters back down to the mat!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Maverick is not pleased by this turn of events, and starts stepping backwards, but Byrne’s not having any of it, and hops over the top rope to confront Maverick! Maverick goes for a huge haymaker right hand, but Byrne takes it right on the chin, barely flinching before knocking Mav back into the ropes with a huge side kick!
Paisner: Byrne is back in action, and he’s not going to stop for anything!
Byrne takes a crow hop forward, plants, and sends Maverick toppling over the top rope with a stiff-sounding roundhouse kick!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAY!
As Ikbal starts to stand, Byrne is measuring, and he hops over the top rope, before flipping onto Maverick’s prone body with a beautiful Asai Moonsault!
Crowd: HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!
Paisner: Byrne crashing from 10 feet into the air right onto Maverick to take him out of the match!
Rizwan looks around, before lighting on the slightly stirring Dan Smith! Rizwan pulls Smith from the ground smoothly into a vertical suplex position, before planting and POWERING Smith down with a chokeslam!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Rizwan falls directly into a cover!
1!
2!
NO! Joey’s here, he’s angry, and he’s not going to let Ikbal steal his title! He pulls the referee out of the ring, then rolls into the ring himself. This time, though, Rizwan is ready, and breaks the pin to catch Joey with a fireman’s carry!
Javier: There are 15 minutes remaining in this contest!
Paisner: Rizwan with some technical trickery, but Joey’s got the fall advantage, and you know he’s not Joey hits the mat, and Rizwan immediately transitions into a chokehold! Joey struggles free, but Rizwan is one step ahead and plants Joey back down to the mat with a huge chop! Joey hits the mat, and Rizwan is quick to transition to a headscissors submission! Joey has trouble getting free from the mountainous thighs of Rizwan, and Rizwan puts his entire focus on choking Joey out!
...
This turns out to be a bad move, as GiGi stirs, pulls herself to the corner, and lands back-first across both opponents with a gorgeous Swanton Bomb!
Paisner: 360 NOSCOPE!
Woodbridge: Of course there’s no scope, it’s a dive!
Paisner: No, Mark - it’s a gamer thing -
Woodbridge: And it ain’t even a 360 either. grumbles
Rizwan rolls away, clutching his knees in pain, and GiGi goes for a cover on Joey!
1!
2!
3!
DING
Javier: Your NEW Current Interim Champion, at a time of 11:21 - GIGI!
On the outside of the ring, heedless of the chaos happening inside the ring, Byrne gets up, hobbling slightly as his knee seems to have been tweaked from that moonsault, but with the intensity of a man possessed. He hauls Maverick up to vertical, and THROWS him into the steel steps! Maverick crashes through the metal limply, but Byrne isn’t finished! Right by the steel steps, Byrne spies his pipe, and an evil smile crosses his face.
Paisner: GiGi with the pinfall! She’s in a great position to win this match as half the participants are entirely incapacitated!
Woodbridge: And Byrne is going after Maverick with what looks like surgical fury - I don’t think I’ve seen him this vicious in a long time!
GiGi is distracted on the inside of the ring by a slowly rising Dan Smith, and she tries to get rid of him quickly with a quick superkick, but Smith ducks! Smith transitions into a back suplex hold, which GiGi kicks out of quickly!
Paisner: GiGi hasn’t taken much punishment in this match so far, unlike almost everyone else - Smith knows this and he’s trying to wrestle a more measured pace.
Woodbridge: It might be a better idea to just take his shot now, though - don’t let GiGi take control back!
On the outside of the ring, Byrne has hobbled over to his pipe, and stands over a prone, somewhat lifeless Maverick, raising it high into the air!
Crowd: FUCK HIM UP, BRENDAN, FUCK HIM UP! clap clap
There’s a moment where Byrne raises the pipe high up into the air, ready to bring it down onto Maverick’s skull -
Paisner: Byrne - come on - don’t do this, that’s legitimately murder!
A bit of doubt flashes across his face, and he repositions. The pipe still comes down with all the fury of an executioner, but this time the target is Maverick’s right knee! Maverick howls in pain as the pipe impacts onto his knee, and he rolls away, clutching his knee in agony!
Woodbridge: Oh god! Byrne’s proven adept with that steel pipe, and that shot could have broken Maverick’s leg! Sure - it’s justified - but my god Byrne is giving into violence here!
Byrne follows, raising the pipe again and bringing it down on the back of Maverick’s right leg! We cut to inside the ring - Smith is up before GiGi, and he sees this happening on the outside. With no hesitation, Smith charges, hopping up to the top rope, and leaping off with a gorgeous plancha onto a distracted Byrne! Byrne topples to the mat, his knee buckling yet again, and Smith is almost immediately back up, fired up!
Crowd: WOOOOOOOOO!
Paisner: This match has devolved into utter chaos! Rizwan is just beginning to stir, Joey’s down, Byrne’s down, Maverick might be permanently down - it’s Gigi and Smith right now!
GiGi gets a run-up for a dive onto Smith, but he’s a step faster, having done this for his entire career! He leaps onto the apron and catches the diving GiGi with an enzuigiri, sending her ricocheting back into the ring for a second time tonight!
Woodbridge: GiGi has gone high risk twice this match - both times she’s gotten kicked in the head. Something to keep in mind for the next time around!
Javier: There are 10 minutes remaining in this contest!
GiGi hits the mat hard, and Smith sees his opportunity! He pulls himself onto the apron, and clambers to the top rope. At this point the adrenaline is obviously wearing off, and you can see the pain each motion brings him, but he makes it to the top rope, and takes flight, crashing down onto GiGi’s prone form with a beautiful leg drop!
Paisner: COUGAR SUPREME! DAN SMITH COULD BE OUR NEXT WORLD CHAMP!
Smith bounces off GiGi, and clutches his back in pain, but stifles it for long enough to hook a leg!
1!
2!
3!

I’m the guy that made fun of the #teamtree proof. Timestamp of the podcast. Emotions got the better of me and when I heard Ethan quoting me, I was taken a bit aback that I wrote something so… bad… As a big h3 fan I need to clarify some stuff. ^{And I'm ashamed that I wrote such a hateful comment}
EDIT march 2020. After posting here, I took this post and made it in a comment format. It was the most awarded comment of december 2019 100+ awards And it is also on medium It is easier to share
I know it may be a bit boring but please bear with me 5 minutes. You wait 5 minutes for the coffee to be done. 5 minutes is eating a nice salad. It took me hours and hours to write the below. So go, make your coffee, take your salad and please read the following. And please read it with an open mind.
I’ll try to sum up why planting trees is a marketing stunt and we are past the saving point. Everything in here is backed by sources and not some “doomsday” fantasy stuff. Here you have an image of the likelihood of SHTF events of happening. So we are not talking about some alien stuff, war or EMP, but global warming.
I’m the same age as Ethan and I’m a Ph.D. in int.relations with a specialization in climate conflicts(I have other masters too). If you look at my top comments on reddit most of them are well researched. Bear in mind, English is not my mother tongue. 10 years ago I was the guy chained up to a tree, 5 years ago I was the guy blocking the street trying to get your attention to stop eating meat. I was arrested, ridiculed and "roughed up". Now I’m just resigned and I’ll try to present you with some graphs and news and then sum it up at the end.
Most people don’t want to read white papers because they are too boring. On the other hand, journal articles are backed by private corporation’s money and they try to minimize global warming. nconvenientnews created a great post about the latter, on how the billionaires are discrediting the climate activists. Good GQ article on how the billionaires caused the climate change and in here you have 20 firms behind 1/3 of CO2
For all you white paper junkies, here you’ll find 30,000 scientific papers about how F*cked we are.
For all audio lovers here you have a 30 minutes talk about why everything must collapse. "There's no infinite growth"

Let’s get to it.

5 years ago there was a tv show called The Newsroom. It was mostly a serious tv show with some comedic tones about the world of media. There is a famous 5 minutes clip about climate collapse. It was "comedic" back then however now it is the reality.

Why tree-loss prevention is more important than planting them.

On this chart you have all the CO2 levels, CH4 levels, N20 levels, Temp and sea level.
There’s too much CO2 in the atmosphere that planting trees can no longer save us. However Scientists estimate that we need to plant 1 trillion trees to mitigate the GW. WITHOUT LOSING ONE SINGLE TREE because a burning tree is releasing all the CO2 back. The amazon is losing 3 football field’s PER MINUTE thanks to fire. If you prefer an interactive map. At the moment we are losing 13-15 million hectares per year in South America and Africa and south East Asia because it is converted from a forest to agriculture land. Source.
So, if we assume that 1M trees’ planted is one step that you make, then 20 meters is 20M trees right? 1 trillion trees are like 2.5x from where you're standing to the International Space station. Not to mention all the pollution by delivering the seeds (or small trees from tree farms), all the logistics in preparing the ground for planting and all the promotion waste etc.
“I do think eliminating deforestation is more important than planting new forest,” says Stanford University professor Rob Jackson, who chairs the Earth System Science Department and Global Carbon Project and is an author of a forthcoming study on the ability of forests to store carbon as more CO2 enters the atmosphere. But “it’s not an either-or, of course,” he says. “We can do both. ”When trees are cut down, he says, it can release years of a forests’ stored carbon back into the atmosphereSource. and Leaving trees alone might be better than planting new ones
20M trees is a feel-good thing but by the end, it is a marketing stunt. Everybody now talks about Youtube, Elon and MrBeast. Just look how the views number exploded since Mr.Beast announced this movement. From 5M a day to 20M a day. Additionally, GOOGL had an earning call on the 28th of October, 4 days after the teamtree was announced. Sure the movement had no impact on the earnings but some greenwashing won't hurt the marketing.
And Mr. Beast is not really known to care for the environment. He often litter thousands of ballons I bet his channel generated multiple times more Co2 than the 20m will ever "capture". An example - I Put 100 Million Orbeez In My Friend's Backyard. Not to mention everything was imported from China on a cargo ship. I bet he recycled all of it /s. Or How he drove 1000 times through the same drive tru with his massive Ford truck. And his world's largest cereal bowl? I bet some starving kids will feel good about his #teamtree now. And can you even recycle a pool of slim?. Yes, he definitely created way more CO2 by doing his stunts.
So yes, he is greenwashing himself using your money.

Global Warming:

The below is based on this collection of sources and the doc here
According to a 2018 report the have the current global temperature is above 1C the pre-industrial mean. What will happen with every 0.5? The climate action tracker shows we will reach a 3.5C with the current policies by 2050. Climate stripes- look at the jump in 1995
Graph showing the Carbon emissions per continents. Look at the explosion in Asia

1.5 degree of warming:

This used to be the point at which scientists thought we were OK. In 2018 the IPCC wanted to stop global warming at this temperature predicting we will hit it with a 10% chance by 2023. At this temperature, heatwaves across the globe will happen every single year, and these 'new' heatwaves will be as hot as the Sahara Desert. There will be massive crop destruction, 70% of coral in the ocean will be bleached, and drought will affect 360M people. source. Guess what according to the month-old IPCC 2019 report we are at 1.5C already . The number of loss events (Tsunamis, storms, flood, wildfire) between 1980-2015 has QUADRUPLED.
Historically, every climate summit missed their target of limiting GHG emissions by a lot. Another angle.

Biomass and 6th extinction

Earth appears to be undergoing a process of "biological annihilation." Up to half of the total number of animal individuals that once shared the Earth with humans are already gone. A 2017 study looked at animal populations across the planet by examining 27,600 vertebrate species — about half of the overall total that we know exist. They found that more than 30% of them are in decline. Some species are facing total collapse, while local populations of others are going extinct in specific areas. Moreover humans wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970 Source
Insects are dying off at record rates. Roughly 40% of the world's insect species are in decline, according to one study. Insects aren't the only creatures taking a hit. In the past 50 years, more than 500 amphibian species have declined worldwide — and 90 have gone extinct — due to a deadly fungal disease that corrodes frog flesh. Source
And Plants are going extinct up to 350 times faster than the historical norm
On the other side, Look at the explosion of domesticated animals between 1950 and 2000. Cattle is one of the causes of global warming. Ie. The Amazon is being cut down not for lumber but to make room for cattle SourceOur hope in her is all the Beyondmeat, Impossible burger which are not using animal protein and are way better for the environment.

Population

The steep steep curve of population. If our numbers grow by 228,000 on an average day, then in one week, we will have added about 1,589,000 extra persons to world population. And five days after that we will add another million and then another and another, and we are on track to continue this way repeatedly into the foreseeable future. Never before in human history have we asked our governments, infrastructure, social institutions, earth's environment, and the social fabric of our civilizations to respond to and accommodate such mammoth increase numbers in such compressed periods of time. Source. To prepare for it Humanity must produce more food in the next four decades than we have in the last 8,000 years But we are wasting so much food and losing so much water in irrigation that taking all this into account Society will collapse by 2040 due to catastrophic food shortages. The results show that based on plausible climate trends, and a total failure to change course, the global food supply system would face catastrophic losses, and an unprecedented epidemic of food riots. Source

2.0 degree of warming:

Permafrost and Methane

At this level we expect 6.6 million square kilometers of permafrost to thaw. And create a feedback loop of releasing a lot of methane which means that melting ice caps and permafrost becomes a self-accelerating extinction. Already boiling with Methane But that is also terrifying because we know that there are pathogens frozen in that permafrost - pathogens like anthrax. Zombie antrax.

Illnesses

As the rest of the Earth warms, animals will be forced to migrate en masse. This means animals carrying tropical diseases (such as malaria. To give you an idea of why this should really scare you is because diseases like camel flu have a mortality rate of 36%. And the world’s hospitals are not ready for the health challenges of climate change
Nearly unbeatable and difficult to identify fungus has adapted to global warming and can now survive the warm body temperature of humans. With a 50% mortality rate in 90 days, meet Candida auris, the first pathogenic fungus caused by human-induced global warming
Report from the WHO "World at risk"here. They listed dozens of illnesses which the experts suggested had the potential to trigger an outbreak which could spiral out of control, among them plague, Ebola, Zika virus and Dengue. A flu-like deadly pandemic could sweep the world in hours and kill millions because NO country is fully prepared, report claims. A century ago the Spanish flu pandemic infected a third of the world's population and killed 50million people.source

Topsoil erosion

We are running out of topsoil Source, by 2055 we will have none of it video. That's the warning of "Surviving the 21st Century" author Julian Cribb to an international soil science conference in Queenstown, New Zealand on Dec 15, 2016. "10 kilos of topsoil, 800 litres of water, 1.3 litres of diesel, 0.3g of pesticide and 3.5 kilos of carbon dioxide – that's what it takes to deliver one meal, for just one person," Cribb says.. And it takes 2000 years to form 5cm of topsoil
If ecosystems start to break down, that means bees will eventually die. Which means that we will stop having pollination. Which means plants will die. Which means our crops will die. If you don't think this will affect you...just you wait until food becomes the rarest commodity on Earth. If you think you have seen human barbarity, just wait until those same humans are starving and desperate for food. This won't mean millions starving. It will mean billions starving. Including you.

Scarcity of freshwater

India has 5 years to solve the water crisis, South Africa has the worst drought in 1000 years, Zambia has 2M of brink of starvation thanks to regional drought. According to the UN report in 10 years, 4 billion people will be short of fresh water, 2 billion will be severely short of fresh water.

The Blue Ocean event

A Blue Ocean Event means that huge amounts of sunlight won't get reflected back into space anymore, as they previously were. Instead, the heat will have to be absorbed by the Arctic. As long as the Arctic Ocean has sea ice, most sunlight gets reflected back into space and the 'Center-of-Coldness' remains near the North Pole. A Blue Ocean Event will not only mean that additional heat will have to be absorbed in the Arctic, but also that wind patterns will change radically and even more dramatically than they are already changing now, which will also make that other tipping points will be reached earlier. This is why a Blue Ocean Event is an important tipping point and it will likely be reached abruptly and disruptively by 2022.source The arctic ice volume over the years in one chart. It is a Death spiral. Oh, and rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously hought

The ice sheet feedback loop

And when it comes to rising ocean levels its becoming increasingly difficult to predict because not only are we heating the air, heat is getting trapped in the oceans too which means that ice sheets in the Arctic circle and Greenland are melting from above and below - meaning they're melting much MUCH faster than we estimated even in our most extreme estimates. Vice news video about it. This will mean that Florida and New York could be completely underwater. If you're worried about refugees from Central and Latin America or Africa, you'll want to start thinking about the tens of millions of people that will be fleeing inland as climate refugees to escape the inundation of their homes. Warming oceans doesn't just mean rising ocean levels either - it means more ocean water gets evaporated, which means larger, faster and deadlier hurricanes and torrential disastrous downpours.

Wet bulb event

Extreme heatwaves that kill even healthy people within hours will strike parts of the Indian subcontinent unless global carbon emissions are cut sharply and soon, according to new research. Even outside of these hotspots, three-quarters of the 1.7bn population – particularly those farming in the Ganges and Indus valleys – will be exposed to a level of humid heat classed as posing “extreme danger” towards the end of the century. The new analysis assesses the impact of climate change on the deadly combination of heat and humidity, measured as the “wet bulb” temperature (WBT). Once this reaches 35C, the human body cannot cool itself by sweating and even fit people sitting in the shade will die within six hours. There are already part of thw world above 32-33

Ocean Acidification

oceans are absorbing a large portion of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere—in fact, oceans are the largest single carbon sink in the world, dwarfing the absorbing abilities of the Amazon rainforest. But the more CO2 the oceans absorb, the more acidic they become on a relative scale, because some of the carbon reacts within the water to form carbonic acid. If acidification decreases marine emissions of sulfur, it could cause an increase in the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth’s surface, speeding up warming—which is exactly what the Nature Climate Change study predicts. Researchers estimate that the pH of the ocean will drop by 0.4 pH units by the end of this century if carbon emissions are not stopped, or by 0.15 units if global temperature rise is limited to 2C. source And plankton and all fishes are plunging. There is a mass extinction in the oceans right now

Migrations

Tens, hundreds of millions of climate refugees. MIT source. By 2050 there will be 1.5B migrants. Yes, it’s in 30 years. And it will increase the potential for conflicts and violence. A study by the Pentagon confirms in 100% there will wars caused by migrants. Just an example of top of my head. India could block the river Indus and kill hundred of millions of Pakistani source. Both countries have WMD.
There will be a rise of fascism and concentration camps on the borders. Trump already tried this with the camps south and China is doing terrible things to Uighurs my comment about the crimes against the Uighurs. We will see a rise of this over the next 30 years. In dresden, Germany this week they declared a state of emergency over the rise of Nazism
And yes, U.S. Military Could Collapse Within 20 Years Due to Climate Change

Feedback loops and tipping points.

1 hour presentation about the feedback loops

Conclusion

We have at most 30 years if we stop completely CO2 emissions. Every powerplants needs to stop today. Today. Not tomorrow, not by 2025, not by 2030. I know it is impossible that’s why we have at most 30 years. But the sooner we accept it the sooner we may make peace with it. By continuing on this path, we are creating more feedback loops that are out of our control and forest fires, migrations, wars may happen sooner than expected.

The super-rich

The rich know that it is too late and they will be the only one to survive the global warming article. They are building bunkers and buying NZ passports to fly there when SHTF happens and that’s why they are getting richer and richer exponentially. For example Canada, Norway and Brasil will flood the world with oil just to profit at the maximum Article from NYT from today "Flood of Oil Is Coming, Complicating Efforts to Fight Global Warming". And if anything happens they will just buy Visas and passports for 1M+ and bug out while migrants are put into concentration camps.
there is also a very extensive campain against the extinction rebellion movement and Greta. You may disagree with their tactics but at least by disrupting everything they make enough noise around them that the normal Joe starts reading about global warming.

Why going green is not the solution.

Costs of going green are insane and the global economy is unable to bear the brunt of this mass switch. Going 100% green energy is not possible with the current consumption. Earth lacks enough metals to produce solar panels, batteries and ways to distribute energy around the globe. Building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of plastic. Solar power requires even more cement, steel and glass—not to mention other metals. Global silver and indium mining will jump 250% and 1,200% respectively over the next couple of decades to provide the materials necessary to build the number of solar panels, the International Energy Agency forecasts. World demand for rare-earth elements—which aren’t rare but are rarely mined in America—will rise 300% to 1,000% by 2050 to meet the Paris green goals. If electric vehicles replace conventional cars, demand for cobalt and lithium, will rise more than 20-fold. That doesn’t count batteries to back up wind and solar grids. Source A periodic table of elements that we are running out of And China controls 90% of all rare minerals source
A single electric-car battery weighs about 1,000 pounds. Fabricating one requires digging up, moving and processing more than 500,000 pounds of raw materials somewhere on the planet. The alternative? Use gasoline and extract one-tenth as much total tonnage to deliver the same number of vehicle-miles over the battery’s seven-year life.
The new green deal is not enough. The Developing World Is Increasing Emissions At Such A Rate That Any Emission Reduction By The Developed World Will Be Offset. Even if we imagined that the political will could be found in both the United States and the European Union to spend trillions on a Green New Deal, and we made the somewhat generous assumption that these plans would be successful in achieving net zero emissions by 2030, it would really have no meaningful impact on global carbon emissions. The rapidly industrializing developing world is increasing emissions at such a rate that even if the US and the EU achieved zero emissions by 2030, it would be entirely offset.
Same with a meat tax. We can impose a tax on meat in the developed countries but China, India or South america are eating more and more meat by the day. According to Asia Research and Engagement's report "charting Asia's protein journey", meat and seafood consumption in Asia will rise 33# by 2030 and 78% from 2017 to 2050

Peak Copper

An international team of researchers has looked at the material demands and pollution that would result from a push to get the globe to 40 percent renewables by the middle of the century. The analysis finds that despite the increased materials and energy demands, a push like this would result in a dramatic reduction in pollution. And for the most part, the material demands could be met, with the possible exception of copper. 40% Green Energy requires 200% more copper 100% green energy requires 500% more copper. We move some 3 billion tons of earth per year to get 15 millions tons of copper. We cannot recycle it into existence. Substituting aluminum for copper takes 5X the energy and is less safe. And there is no substitutes for the metals

Financial Black Swan event

The Next Recession Will Destroy Millennials Millennials are already in debt and without savings. After the next downturn, they’ll be in even bigger trouble. How CEOs got so rich – buybacks. Student debt is massive. Minimum wage didn’t move for the last 40 years. The productivity-pay gap. The gap between productivity and a typical worker’s compensation has increased dramatically since 1979 If you want to read about wealth inequalities please see here

Why nobody talks about collapse?

Why does nobody talk about collapse? Because a world without hope is a burning world. Imagine 7B people realizing they don’t have 50-70 years of life but 20 or 30. It’s pure chaos. Additionally, the wealthy of this world are trying promoting such work ethics that you don't have the time to read, watch or study the above. This endless cycle of working-buying stuff-sleeping is damaging our society. We are becoming more and more ostracized from each other by using technology like FB, instagram, twitter or Tinder. Moreover, some countries or politicians are trying to destabilize the world as we know, to create confusion and conflicts between us. Divide and conquer. Why do you think Russia stands behind Brexit, the Blacklivesmatter movement and the rise of fascism in Europe? Russia influenced the American elections by creating hundreds of facebook groups to vote for Trump. Russia paid facebook to run "patriotic maga" ads. If you want to read more about Russia's violations of law here is my 1.6k upvoted comment
If you want to read my comment about the destructive power of Automation please see here
Good article on how the future will be seized by corporations. From private taxation to schools, corporate cops and judges. It’s beginning in Toronto
Why do you think there are so many protests going around? Chile, South Africa, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Haiti, Syria, Iraq, Algeria. Here are all the major protests happening around the globe right now. Why so many people are protesting
The 20 worst Global Warming consequences
What we need is mass civil protests and not another Youtube marketing move with #teamtree
Papa bless & I love the podcast.
Edit: Some additional facts on why last 30 years were so important and why it is getting worse:

1. We have increased fossil fuel use more this century than in the last two decades of the 20th century. More than half of all fossil fuel emissions released over the previous 25 years are more than was released in all of recorded history before 1990.
   
2. Even though we have had over 21 international conferences on fossil fuel reduction, and we had international treaties since at least 1993 pledging we would reduce global warming, we still are about 67% higher in carbon emissions than the early 1990s. (Atmospheric carbon emissions is probably the best way to measure future global warming.)
   
3. In 2018 carbon emissions increased another dramatic 2.7% and they are projected to rise once again in 2019.
   

Edit2: Someone asked me what’s the most crazy SHTF thing that may happen but is backed by science? My personal favorite a Carrington-level solar storm. “A Carrington-level, extreme geomagnetic storm is almost inevitable in the future. The total U.S. population at risk of extended power outage from a Carrington-level storm is between20-40 million, with durations of 16 days to 1-2 years “ Source. According to unpublished FEMA documents obtained by Government Attic, a FOIA database and non-profit organization, the Department of Homeland Security agency once mapped out a disaster plan for the occurrence of another geomagnetic "superstorm," noting that the rare—yet "high-consequence"—scenario has "the potential for catastrophic impact on our nation and FEMA's ability to respond." Source
Edit3: What can you do to prepare for collapse?

1. buy land, build a community around it and enjoy life. (nearly impossible as you need a lot of money)
2. become a prepper, learn skills, stockpile food and water.

EDIT4: thank you for the plat, gold and special (?) award! For any future donator, instead of gilding please donate to Cool Earth link. They try to save the rainforest, David Attenborough supports them and they are the most cost-effective charity to date which works on mitigating climate change through direct action. Thank you! (And my response to the anonymous note with the plat award - I'm a member ;) )

It might possibly answer your question regarding why the nation is effective in whatever it puts its own eyes onto. 1 possible reason can be, them relying less on oil production as they know it’s likely to run out and instead; providing merchants and traders lots of investment and startup opportunities to prove their mettle admits the UAE’s booming entrepreneurial scene.
This blog covers the aspect of various profitable business opportunities in Dubai for this season. Are you considering starting a company in the Emirate? This article is just the answer you’re looking for.

Best Businesses to Start in Dubai

1.E-Commerce
This business has seen a sudden boost in recent years. Even though the e-commerce business in the area isn’t as developed as in Europe, the US, or China, what is fascinating is that there are a lot of shoppers that can be targeted. Dubai has a varied population and varied taste because of that an industry such as e-commerce will last for the long run.
2. Structure
New buildings and skyscrapers are erected every new day in Dubai. This opens a massive chance for engineers and other specialists in the building and constructions sector. Dubai’s plan for expansion in infrastructure due to the upcoming events like Dubai Expo 2020 is also providing continuous traction for its growth.
3. Retail Business
This industry has been growing at a scorching pace with each passing year because of the factors like increase in population, robust economy, increased quality of living and continuous influx of foreign visitors. Therefore establishing a storefront, sales office or warehousing centre can be very rewarding in a nation like Dubai.
4. Recruitment Agency
The Emirates is reeling beneath the lack of manpower due to more and more companies establishing in the country. Having a fast-growing economy, a lot of skilled workers are needed to keep businesses in a variety of businesses going. Countless people from India, Europe, and Pakistan search for Work in the UAE and so they approach such hiring firms.
5. Travel Agency
Dubai is a haven for tourists. It has emerged as a powerful sector with an economic effect of around 6.5 trillion U.S dollars worldwide. It has managed to increase year on year enticing individuals from throughout the globe offering a plethora of exciting elements like shores, skyscrapers, resorts, shopping malls etc.. Hence launching a Travel and Tourism Company could be a profitable option.
6. Healthcare
Healthcare sector is rising, and there’s a high demand for professional and skilful physicians and clinics.
7. Company Consultancy Service
This is one of the most profitable and sought after business sectors in the UAE. When it could demand extensive expertise, the advantages outweigh the challenges. Before you begin a consultancy business in Dubai, be sure to have all the applicable licenses from the government.
8. Online Trader
It is precisely like general trading but you save price on having a physical office for this small business. All you need is an inventory and delivery support. You can even start trading on third party sites to grab a larger market in less time. It is also possible to build your own site and encourage it to get direct clients.
9. Maid/Cleaning Service
Dubai has lots of working people and they find it really difficult to do the household things on their own. Housemaids in the UAE are a simple and inexpensive luxury nonetheless, people prefer hiring them through professional service/business. Preparing a maid service or cleaning company is simple and can end up being a success in a brief time.
10. Cafe or Restaurant
Having substantial disposable income and good purchasing power makes it a lot easier for people in the Emirates to dine out frequently. The only thing one needs to research would be to check the environment in which you intend to run the cafe or restaurant and decide on how you intend to attract clients to your restaurant. There are numerous cafes who are ready to be purchased as a business opportunity. check out various profitable cafes for sale in Dubai
11. Advertising Agency
This is a tricky business venture, but as soon as you get the grip of this, this company will fetch you profits for the long run. One thing you need to decide is the sort of marketing agency you want to start or the services you intend to offer you. For instance, if you would like to be known for generating viral videos on YouTube or for mad print commercials, allow one of your services to be viewed as a flagship for the remainder.
12. Beauty Salon
Beauty parlour or beauty salons provide products and services that improve the client’s physical appearances and mental relaxation. This is only one of the most trending beauty business ideas from the retail segment. You have to check the requirements for starting this business prior to taking the plunge.
13. Webpreneur (Web Development)
It includes online ventures like mobile app development, online advertising, content service, online PR business etc.. E-commerce and internet development are interlinked. Growing in one industry will give increase to growth in a different sector.
14. Transport Business
There are many unexhausted opportunities in Dubai transportation sector. Beginning a transportation business may yield a remarkable return for a passionate entrepreneur. The opportunities vary from trans-city transport services to local taxi services. The economy of the nation is expected to grow in 2019, thus there’s a high chance that this will have a direct impact on critical sectors such as transportation.
15. Security
There are fewer safety issues in the UAE than most of the developed nations but people and companies do not take a chance with their assets. Hence there was an increase in demand for safety guards or personnel in the country. If you cannot manage to start this company, it is still possible to make money in the security industry by selling safety devices such as alarm systems and surveillance cameras.
16. Jewellery Making
Dubai is also called the Mecca of Gold’ and Dubai Diamonds’ are always the most sought after by tourists as well as other nationals. You can set up shop as a jewellery maker, bead manufacturer or jewellery merchant.
17. Apparel
The International Textile Industry, especially the Apparel Industry has witnessed remarkable changes in the past couple of years. Tourists around the world flock in Dubai for tourism and shopping. Hence setting up an apparel company in the city if you have good taste in clothing and are updated with the newest style, you’re good to start this business.
18. Documents/Attestation Service
Most of the people visit Dubai either for work or to begin a new venture. A number are unaware of the legal formalities that shall be undertaken while registering for the business. This is the area where documentation or attestation support comes into the picture. This becomes termed as profitable from the UAE market
19. Entertainment
The entertainment business is a glamorous business and tactical planning with knowledge is required to be successful in this organization. Dubai certainly has an exciting audience and can be welcoming to each sort of amusement. You can get an Ad or Filmmaking business, career expo, dance studio, night bar etc..
20. Education
On account of the existence of a huge ex-pat people in Dubai, there’s an immense chance for anybody who would like to set up schools and colleges. The principal requirements that you need are certifications, licenses, and infrastructure. If you don’t want to begin a new college, you can buy a franchise.
21. Real Estate
Today, the property is one of the booming industries in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is home to the tallest building in the world,’Burj Khalifa’. So, you will find opportunities in a variety of sections of the real estate. It is possible to opt to venture into real estate development, land management, or brokerage.
22. Financial Services
There are lots of large-scale businesses in the Emirates and there is also a massive demand for professionals that offer financial services such as auditing, accounting, and accounting. If you have a solid background in one or more of these fields, you should definitely begin this venture.
23. Courier Business
Supplying bundles can help you earn a good deal. In case you have got a good car and telephone then you may start this kind of business. It is possible to get as many clients as possible and be known for timely delivery to be successful in this sort of business.
24. Night Club
Owning and running a nightclub could be fresh and exciting. In today’s world, people want to interact with others and would be happy to pay to use a gorgeous place dedicated to this purpose. Success in nightclub company is very much possible if performed properly; it demands dedication and meticulous attention to every facet of your business. In case you’ve got these things, then you can go ahead with this business.
25. Day Care Schools
This company option can be started due to the high rate of working couples in Dubai that can’t manage to take care of their child when working.
Now that you have understood the various business opportunities in Dubai which can be profitable, you should start exploring the ones that interest you. However, remember that the achievement and the profitability from the business depend on how well you do it. if you do not enter enough time and effort, you may wind up losing it.
Have you got any queries?
Contact us today– we’d be pleased to help you.

Hi, everyone! I'm posting very early because of the 14 hour time difference. I'll be around late afternoon US EST to answer any questions. Enjoy!
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Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $183,040. Our combined balance between Australian superannuation and US 401K. Life insurance and disability insurance policies are paid out through my husband’s super account at $1,150.00 annually.
Home Equity: $493,000 on a 2 bed/1 bath apartment with a large courtyard in the inner Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The property was purchased by my husband prior to our relationship for $273,000 with $70,000 down. He is a frugal person and works in a lucrative field, so he saved a ton in bachelorhood to make the investment. He rented it out while living in the US for several years to cover mortgage payments. We are now joint owners and the unit was appraised at $600,000 this past year (who knows how that will drop in the looming recession but we don’t plan to sell).
Savings Balance: We pool all of our money into an offset checking account so that the interest on our mortgage loan is reduced. Once we finish the mortgage, we will be moving our emergency fund ($50,000) into a HYSA and then look at sinking funds for our other savings, which include an annual travel fund ($6,000)*, gift/holiday savings ($900)*, pet medical expenses ($300)*, and vehicle maintenance ($600)*.
\Reflects the current balance at the time of the diary, not the total annual amount saved.*
Checking Balance: $65,000 but this includes our savings due to the fact that it’s an offset account. We’ve taken a few big blows this year because we both left our jobs for a two month US road trip 10 months ago, prior to me getting pregnant/moving to Melbourne (YOLO it was worth it). We also had the cost of a shipping container for the move ($6,500) and vaccinating/shipping our cat ($5,700) to Australia. Additionally, we bought a 2014 SUV in cash when we moved here ($10,000) because new cars are absurdly expensive in Australia and I didn’t want yet another monthly expense.
NOTE: I also hold a US checking account in only my name as a stipulation of staying at home with our kid(s). It’s got $10,000 to get out and back to the US in a rental with any kiddos, which I feel is just the smart thing to do. We also have wills and a post-nuptial agreement regarding the division of assets.
Investment Account: We only have one so far for a total of $5,000 through Vanguard. We’re refocusing our savings towards investment now that we have our emergency fund full.
Family Trust Account: We have a trust for our son to use in adulthood. The balance is $50,000 and it is all from an inheritance my husband received from his late godfather.
Credit Card Debt: N/A, we pay the balance in full each month and use points for family travel.
Student Loan Debt: N/A, this has recently been paid off. The total was approximately $130,000 for a combination of 2 Humanities Bachelor’s degrees, 1 STEM Bachelor’s degree, 1 STEM Master’s degree, and 1 Humanities Master’s degree. If you divide it by the total number of diplomas, we got a good deal (lol kill me). We both have/had careers directly relating to our degrees, so it wasn’t a total waste but definitely my personal greatest financial mistake (guess who likes the Humanities?).
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Section Two: Income
I work as a Freelance Transcriptionist/Soon-to-Be Stay at Home Mom (currently v pregnant). Prior to quitting my job, I was the director of my department and working in Information Management. My husband works in Implementation for a software company. I am paid on a weekly basis and my husband is paid monthly.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
Husband: $10,410.00 + $1,500.00 superannuation contribution by the company.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
Me: ~$750.00 after I set aside a portion for taxes but it varies.
Monthly Take Home Total (excluding superannuation): $11,160.00
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Section Three: Expenses
Monthly Fixed Expenses
Mortgage: $1,826.00 - we have $107,000 left and will own outright in five years
Council Rates: $175.00 - billed quarterly
Owner’s Corporation Fees: $165.00 - billed quarterly
WateHot Water: $81.00
Electricity/Gas: $100.00
Husband Private Health Insurance: $198.00 - paid to avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge at tax time, which would be $4,500+.
NBN Internet/Two Cell Phones: $182.00
Home Contents and Car Insurance: $104.00
Kayo Sports Subscription: $14.00 - we share a basic account with a buddy who pays $11 monthly for his portion.
Netflix: $13.99
Other Subscriptions (Cloud Storage and Amazon Music): $9.50
Annual Expenses: $26.50 - we have annual expenses such as pet registration with our Council, footy club memberships, etc. and I just include the monthly portion of the total annual cost.
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Monthly Savings Contributions
Home Savings: $2,000.00 - New category since we’ve replenished our emergency fund. We want to save to build a larger home in about five years. All leftover discretionary money is put here.
Travel: $1,000.00
Gifts/Holiday: $150.00
Pet: $50.00
Vehicle Maintenance: $100.00
Investment Accounts: $2,000.00 - We have just started dipping our toes in investing and do so in blocks of $5,000.
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Day One: Sunday June 9
4:30 AM: I wake up because my kitty has turned her head to snore directly into my right ear. Since I’m 7 ½ months pregnant, any waking up means I’m now committed to staying up for at least the rest of the morning so I turn on my heated blanket, take thyroid medication with a pint of water, and grab a coffee.
6:00 AM: Text back and forth with my husband (S) since he’s currently in the US on a work trip. He’ll be back in a couple of days and I miss him but I’ve been enjoying having the bed (mostly) to myself. I update him on North Melbourne’s footy game from last night while eating muesli and yogurt. Once we say goodbye, I stream the replay through my Kayo app to our bedroom TV. We don’t pay for cable (basic service is free here) but I follow the NHL, my husband follows Australian cricket, and we both follow the AFL and US college basketball. We can stream live games from every league to our smart TVs, so it’s a huge value for us sports nuts.
10:00 AM: I doze in bed for a few hours and complete one transcription project through Rev, which pays out $30 for an hour total of work. There are far fewer jobs on the weekends but it’s also easier for me to claim them on US-based sites because of the time difference. I’m going to my friend’s (J) dinner party tonight and have offered to make desserts, so I need to get my ass in gear. I shower and complete my AM skincare which consists of: Fresh soy face cleanser, Timeless Vitamin C serum, Klairs moisturizing toner, a royal jelly essence whose origins I can’t trace, Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel moisturizer, and Biore Bright Milk SPF 50+.
2:00 PM: I’ve finished making a disappointingly small apple pie and huge pan of triple chocolate brownies. I go to our office/nursery and pick up another transcription job, which is shorter than the last and pays $27. All of my earnings are untaxed, so I automatically divert a portion of every month’s profits to pay US taxes as an independent contractor. I never owe a lot because I don’t earn much; transcription is more a way for me to retain a sense of independence and keep my brain sharp than a huge income source. When I brought up staying at home, S helped me figure out a setup that made sure I kept parts of my life separate from being a mom and wife.
3:00 PM: My husband FaceTimes me from NYC so I can talk to one of my best friends and his husband (who is one of S’s best friends). They’re hosting S for the fun part of his US trip and it’s so good to talk to them. We chat for almost an hour and it’s actually really painful to finish the call but they all need to go to bed. I decide to text my friend to schedule a regular call because he expressed feeling really isolated since we moved.
6:00 PM: J’s husband (M) swings by to pick me up for the dinner party so I don’t have to get a cab. We lent our car to my in-laws this past week as they’re driving family from out of the country to see Adelaide. M is a very long-term friend of my husband’s and they work together too - we have predictable friendship patterns. These two are my favorite Aussie couple and some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. They’ve really bent over backwards to make me feel at home in Australia.
1:00 AM: J outdid herself with an amazing lamb roast, roast spuds, and a spinach and feta pie. I got to meet a few other friends of hers, spend time with lots of cute kiddos, and had such a good time. We stay up super late talking about work, politics, and life in general but I’m dead on my feet, so I call a car and head home. ($10.93 - Transport)
Daily Total: $10.93
Day Two: Monday June 10
9:00 AM: I’m finally up and feel like I’ve been hit by a bus. Is there such a thing as a lack of sleep hangover? Kitty escorts me to the kitchen for medicine, water, and coffee. I get back in bed when my mom asks to FaceTime, so I talk to her for a bit but it leaves me super upset due to some really cruel/critical things she says. My relationship with my parents is tenuous at best due to a long history of abuse and this conversation really pisses me off. I text my sister for advice and open up to my mom about my issue over a text message. I get an “I’m sorry that’s how you feel” and decide to just freeze her out of my life further. I’ve been slowly putting limits on contact with my parents for a while now at the suggestion of a therapist and haven’t gotten any signs from the universe that it’s a bad idea yet.
11:00 AM: Stress eat peanut butter toast and an apple.
12:30 PM: Take a bath and text with S while he’s waiting to catch his final plane out of San Francisco. We talk about the stuff with my mom and he doesn’t think I’m overreacting, so I feel a bit better about my decision to be honest with her even though I didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for. I suspect my stress is more of an anxiety attack since I’ve had to go off of my SSRI during pregnancy. In general, it’s been pretty manageable but I’m more easily impacted by negative interactions. I do a few loads of laundry and tidy the apartment to distract myself.
2:00 PM: A flat-faced cat rescue that I follow posts on Facebook about a GoFundMe campaign that they’ve started to pay for medical treatment of three special kitties. I make a one-time donation and share the link. ($50.00 - Other)
7:00 PM: I’ve done two small transcription jobs for a total of $46.00. It’s already dark outside since we’re in winter, so I reheat some pappardelle ragu for dinner and curl up in bed again with kitty. We start watching Happy! and I’m hooked - Christopher Meloni is amazing.
8:30 PM: I go to bed early after so little sleep last night. The baby is not on board and seems to think he’s Lord of the Dance as soon as I turn over.
Daily Total: $50.00
Day Three: Tuesday June 11
6:30 AM: I wake up to a text from S saying that he has just landed. A short time later he calls and offers to pick up Macca’s breakfast on the way home because he’s an angel. I order a sausage and cheese McMuffin, hash browns, apple juice, and large skim cappuccino. ($25.93 - Food + Drink)
7:40 AM: He’s here with our car - and food! We kiss hello and immediately get down to breakfast and gossip.
11:00 AM: I’ve managed to eat basically everything in the house over the past week so we head to Cole’s for a big shop. We end up with kiwis, bananas, strawberries, apples, oranges, lemons, broccoli, iceberg lettuce, carrots, brussel sprouts, asparagus, double chocolate muffins, tomato and cheese rolls, shredded tasty cheese, string cheese, ramen noodles, wet cat food, chocolate chips, 0% Greek yogurt, salsa, salted butter, chocolate Fibre One bars, ranch dressing, taco seasoning, low carb tortillas, a two plug adapter, dryer sheets, garbage bags, frangipani soap, laundry detergent, fruit and nut muesli, unsweetened almond milk, frozen veggies, beef mince, salmon steaks, streaky bacon, chicken breast, scotch fillets, soft drinks and cordial, regular and garlic pappadums, gummies, shredded coconut, bread, and flavored popcorn. ($187.67 - Food + Drink)
3:00 PM: I complete a lengthy transcription job which pays $70.00. Some of the material I get is so bizarre and fascinating — it definitely keeps an otherwise monotonous job interesting. This audio was a podcast interview of psychic mediums and it made me feel like a super grounded person, so that’s always good.
6:00 PM: S and I have both been grazing all day so I just roast brussel sprouts with bacon and honey for a light dinner. Our upstairs neighbor keeps beehives at a family farm just outside of the city and we got a big jar of local honey from her that I’m crazy about.
8:00 PM: I want some alone time so I shut myself in the office and setup my drawing easel. I’ve drawn my entire life and especially enjoy doing portrait work - I can get lost in the process for hours and it’s so meditative. Once my back hurts too much to keep going, I pack up and resolve to find a life drawing group in Melbourne to replace the weekly sessions I did in NYC.
Daily Total: $213.60
Day Four: Wednesday June 12
4:30 AM: Kitty wakes us both up by sprinting in circles around our bed and screaming for food. She is promptly booted out the door and we try to get back to sleep but it takes me until 6.
7:30 AM: Wake up again and put on the morning news while I enjoy a double chocolate muffin and a cup of coffee. I check my email to find out that I was granted a personal lot in our community garden ballot! The annual fee will be $100, due in August, and I’m going to be growing produce to supplement our food shops. S has moved to working from home most days (we share the office when I pick up transcription work), so I run to chat with him about the garden until he needs to get on a conference call.
9:50 AM: I am converting my US licence to a Victorian one today, so I catch an Uber to VicRoads in Carlton. My driver and I chat a lot about Melbourne’s infrastructure, the differences between Australia and the US, and the experience of immigrating. We arrive in no time and I’m even early for my appointment. ($12.62 - Transport)
10:40 AM: Success! I have no idea how heinous the picture came out but I’m going to receive my 10 year Australian licence in a week or two. ($276.70 - Other)
11:00 AM: I catch another Uber back home and this ride is silent, so I scroll through Reddit and my emails the whole time. Once I’m home, I heat up a frozen meat pie for S and eat a tomato, cheese, and bacon roll for my own lunch. ]($11.78 - Transport)
3:00 PM: A friend of a friend swings by to drop off a box of baby items that she put together for us. We just met a few weeks ago and she’s kindly gifting us all the leftover baby supplies from her two kids, including a nice carrier and tons of adorable clothing. I offer her a cup of coffee but she has to run back to work, so I say goodbye and happily lug the box inside.
5:00 PM: It’s hella early but I’m so hungry already. I make beef soft tacos with a side salad for dinner and eat them on the couch while balancing the plate on my belly. I also pull a butter chicken base I made last week out of the freezer to thaw overnight.
6:00 PM: We spend the rest of the night watching the news and then the Australia vs. Pakistan match of the Cricket World Cup. I humor the cricket because my husband rubs my feet the whole game.
Daily Total: $301.10
Day Five: Thursday June 13
4:30 AM: Welp. I’m up because I passed out really early, so kitty and I head to the kitchen for medication and water.
5:45 AM: I eat a bowl of muesli and yogurt while browsing baby items on Amazon. My US jewelry insurance provider refunded me a portion of my premium from last year ($57) after I cancelled the policy, so I’m going to get a couple items to use up the credit on my AmEx. End up with a baby bath, hooded panda towel, bag hooks for our stroller, and a NoseFrida (ahhhh, parenthood!). ($56.19 - Home & Health)
9:00 AM: We are in the midst of working to have our owner’s corporation manager removed and will also be taking her to court in the future for monetary compensation but this kind of shit takes so long. I’m in charge of collecting ongoing evidence of her lapses in service, so I fire off an email that I know will get completely ignored. She hates me and is pettying herself into a financial pit but that’s not my problem.
12:00 PM: I go to our garden to measure the perimeters for a sketch I’m working on. My in-laws have a handyman neighbor that’s between jobs right now and we’ve been wanting to revamp the yard anyway, so I’m working on what amounts to a set of before and after blueprints for him to reference during the renovation. While I’m outside, I rake and sweep up halfheartedly since a storm will undoubtedly come soon and undo it anyway. Back inside I eat a double chocolate muffin, an apple, string cheese, and garlic pappadums for “lunch” while I draw.
3:00 PM: I actually got a response from the body corporate manager which answers none of my questions but does state that I am horribly behaved and rude because I haven’t adapted to Australian customs. Super normal reply to a request for files; I’m saving this one for later. Did I mention we pay this old bat’s salary?
6:00 PM: Completed two transcription jobs for a total of $42 today. It’s dinner time so sous chef kitty helps me make butter chicken with garlic naan and cauliflower rice. Since I stay at home, I obviously cook dinner more often and have been maintaining inventory sheets for our freezer and pantry. They help to cut down on food waste and double purchases, especially for tinned goods and meat.
10:00 PM: We head to bed after staying up late (hahaha) to watch a footy match. I do my PM skincare routine before falling asleep which consists of: DHC oil cleansing, Cerave Hydrating Cleanser, Klairs moisturizing toner, Laneige overnight lip mask, and Creme de la Mer. Slug life.
Daily Total: $56.19
Day Six: Friday June 14
5:30 AM: Wake up and do the normal morning routine. Once I have coffee, I head to our office because S said he was going into work today instead of remotely. This week has been a bit slack on the transcription, so I claim two jobs in a row for $57 and get moving.
9:00 AM: Break for yogurt with strawberries and muesli. S comes in to kiss me goodbye and I go take a shower once he leaves.
10:30 AM: Do some grooming on kitty and then get back to work. So many of the files today sound like they were recorded inside a toilet tank but I finally find a really long focus group video to work on. It’s a verbatim job, which entails capturing every single stutter, false start, and interruption. These are my specialty because they pay the best and are the least popular. I tend to include too much detail in my transcriptions naturally, so I prefer verbatim requests. The job is $75 for 3 total hours of work.
1:45 PM: Make a beef and cheese quesadilla with a side of roasted broccoli for lunch. That file was rough listening so I decide to call it a day early.
3:00 PM: I bake peanut butter cookies and listen to The Adventure Zone podcast.
6:00 PM: S is home and I get started on dinner. He also hands me his receipt from lunch at the fish and chippy so I can log it in the spending spreadsheet for June. I make scotch fillets with harissa/garlic roasted carrots and asparagus. Kitty sits in the high chair and patiently watches the process; I like to think I’m The Barefoot Contessa of cats. ($13.00 - Food + Drink)
8:00 PM: The rest of the night is dedicated to footy. We do manage to go over S’s billable hours since he’ll be taking his four weeks of annual leave when the baby arrives. He’s been maximizing his hours over the past few months to ensure a good bonus (typically an additional $10,000 to $20,000 annually). The bonus is never accounted for in our budget since it’s variable, we just throw it in savings when it arrives.
Daily Total: $13.00
Day Seven: Saturday June 15
7:30 AM: Kitty and I wake up on the couch because we moved out here around 4 AM. Our bed retains so much heat and I couldn’t fall back asleep after my customary late night pregnancy pee. I take my medication and make coffee. S is up too and the three of us crawl back in bed to watch the morning news.
9:00 AM: S makes bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast in bed. Once we eat, I help him organize his receipts and submit expenses from his work travel.
11:00 AM: There’s a super saver matinee deal going on at the nearby cinema so we make plans to see _Men In Black: International_ this afternoon. S buys the tickets online and also purchases vouchers for a regular soda and popcorn each through our bank’s app. They have a deal with Hoyt’s Cinemas on discounted tickets and concessions for credit card customers. The bank tickets are always cheaper than those through the cinema but are only available for weekday movies and anything before 2 PM on weekends. It would be truly frugal to bring our own drinks and snacks since Hoyt’s allow you to carry in anything, but I am obsessed with movie theater popcorn and fountain soda. I’d rather spend the extra money and make the trip more enjoyable. ($47.36 - Entertainment)
1:45 PM: We get to the theater, grab our food, and have our parking ticket validated. That’s the big thing I miss about Brooklyn - we didn’t ever have to drive/find a park and I consistently walked 5+ miles a day.
4:30 PM: The movie was cute but it’s basically a standalone and hardly seemed to be part of the original franchise. S and I chat about the stoned kid next to him who ate an entire bag of gummi worms during the previews and browse the shops. It’s the end of the financial year here so everybody is doing huge sales.
4:45 PM: Grab an adorable fleece onesie with little bear ears on the hood at Cotton on Kids. We discover afterwards that there is also a little tail on the butt. ($15.00 - Clothing + Beauty)
7:00 PM: We meet J, M, and their kids out for dinner at a Ichi Ni Nana. S and I get spicy edamame, miso soup, wagyu sliders, veggie gyoza, barbecue pork bao, and a banoffee dessert to share. S also has a couple beers and we throw in cash for our portion. ($90.00 - Food + Drink)
9:00 PM: Home and in a food coma. We talk to the baby for a little bit and fall asleep with kitty in between us.
Daily Total: $152.36
Weekly Total: $797.18
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Spending Breakdown
Food + Drink: $316.60
Clothes + Beauty: $15.00
Home + Health: $56.19
Fun + Entertainment: $47.36
Transport: $35.33
Other: $326.70
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Reflections
Aside from the cost of my licence conversion, this week is fairly typical although we would normally have an additional night out. It’s winter here and the weather is crap, so we stayed in more than usual and I’d estimate we typically have another $50 in food/drink expenses per week from a pub night.
I’m happy with our current planning and think we’re on the right track for our financial goals. I’m challenging myself to hit a record high with my transcription income next month before the baby comes but that’s just a personal goal.