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53 Free Coin Counting Machines Near Me - Ultimate Guide
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My Cervelo S5 Review
I think a lot of cycling reviews really let the reader down. They describe a lot of technical details (often taken at face value from the manufacturer without any independent verification) and rarely offer a concrete insight on whether the bike is really worth a buy or not. Likewise I find a lot of first impressions on forums to be a little too broad/shallow in their description, or they fixate on very nuanced or specific topics that would not be relevant to the average buyer. So I am writing this in hopes that it will help at least be a more useful resource for folks considering this particular bike. Background: I am by no means a “fast” cyclist. I am 29 years old, 6 feet, about 160lbs and have an FTP of 260W on a good day. I’ve been cycling since I was 17, dabbled in triathlon when I was in college, and now am cycling recreationally with the hope of being able to do some-kind of fondo, or epic bike ride within the next year or so (whenever COVID calms down). I bought my Cervelo S5 simply because the carbon fiber roadbike I bought in high-school is getting a little long in the tooth. I really love the bike and have the fit 100% dialed in. But it’s beginning to creek and rattle quite a bit, I’ve moved to a hilly area and feel like disc brakes would be a better safety feature to investigate, and I’ve always had the goal of getting a really nice bike for myself so I figured now’s the time to do so! Other Bikes Considered: When I began this search a huge range of bikes were considered. I had a roughly $6K pricepoint, but didn’t mine splurging if I found the right bike. Cable integration and electronic shifting were a must. I also wanted to buy something that would ultimately put a smile on my face for a long time. Knowing that this bike will likely need to last me another 10+ years I was very much looking into more traditional roadbikes and endurance bikes from a longterm comfort and accessibility perspective. The Fezzarri Empire SL was actually at the top of this list with wireless shifting, integrated cabling, and a pretty clever frame design really calling to me for about $4K all in. But when COVID hit they had a 6-month lead time on bikes and that just didn’t work for me. Canyon’s Endurace and Ultimate were pretty compelling but they felt long in the tooth with their exposed cabling. I also considered BMC’s line of roadbikes but couldn’t find one that really “spoke” to me. I looked through a lot of other brands: Cannondale, Trek, Cube, Ribble, Orbea, Giant, Argon, Look, Ridley, Scott, Focus, and a half dozen other boutique brands that I can’t quite recall. All had some options, but nothing that really hit the nail on the head. I then decided to focus more exclusively on aerobikes. Primarly because I think aerobikes look really cool! The main contenders were the S5, 2021 Canyon Aeroad, BMC Time Machine Road, Specialized Venge, Quintana Roo SRFive and Specialized Tarmac SL-7 (which I know technically isn’t a pure Aerobike!). The Aeroad was quickly ruled out due to availability, and I honestly wanted a wide flat aerobar. The BMC Time Machine Road had availability issues, and while the integration it has is really cool, I wasn’t going gaga for the way it looked. Reviewers also said it was perhaps the least “Aero” feeling Aero bike in the sense that it was “fast” but not in a way that was super obvious. The Venge was tempting since it’s one of the “Ultimate” bikes you can get. But I had a hard time tracking one down at a price and color combo that felt right. For how impressive the Venge is I do see a lot of them around me…so it felt perhaps a bit less “special” in some ways. The Quintana Roo SRFive was high on the list due to the fact that it came with great wheelset options, customizable colors, and Quintana Roo is pretty flexible with adding specific componentry for you. However, something about the proportions felt a little off to me, and their aero claims felt a little less substantiated to me. They To be honest the Tarmac SL-7 felt like the perfect bike for me. Roadbike in design, but very aero design cues. However, it’s a pricey bike, availability was nonexistent, and honestly the color combos available at the more “affordable” pricepoints felt pretty garbage. It’s a nice bike! But not worth spending exuberant amounts of money over. I happened across a really well maintained S5 on an old triathlon forum I used to frequent that was priced really fairly (around $6200) and I jumped on the opportunity! The Specs: The bike I purchased came with the following: -2019 S5 Disc black/gray -Size 56CM -Ultrega Di2 -62MM DT Swiss Arc 1450 Wheels -Garmin Vector 2 Pedals You can check it out here: https://postimg.cc/gallery/PfxQhtH Design & Build Quality: I absolutely love the way this bike looks. The handlebar looks so aggressive & unique, while the frame profiles feel sleek. It honestly reminds me of being the “Lamborghini” of bikes…it’s just such a departure from what we’re used to seeing, and feels so abundantly functional, yet “loud” at the same time. I seriously sneak a look at the bike every time I go into the garage…having a bike that makes me want to do that is almost worth the price of admission alone. I also think black is the perfect color for this bike. It feels so classically Cervelo and almost gives the bike a “stealth fighter” feel. Perhaps a small downside of the black paint job is that it tends to show small scratches and imperfections more readily, but the overall package feels so bold that you don’t necessarily mind it. Also in a lot of circumstances a quick wipe down will help to hide or correct whatever imperfections you may see. What I will say is the current colors for the mid-range S5 models are pretty garbage. There’s a gray+black combo and a chameleon blue. The gray+black feels too plain for this bike while chameleon blue only works if you want something really bold. I really wish manufacturers would just always offer a classy “base” color while giving you a couple of different options each model year. Right now the current trend is pretty much polarizing/crappy colors at the lower levels and super nice color schemes at the higher levels, which is rather annoying to me. While I haven’t had the bike for a long time it feels really well built. I remember touching and feeling a Trek Madone not too long ago and everything felt very hollow, cheap, and flimsy to me. The handle bar on this bike feels very “solid” and “stiff” to touch, and the frame as a whole just feels nice to hold in hand. Aside from the cool handlebar and sleek aero profiles there’s not tons to call-out on this bike design-wise, no special storage integration, extra fancy seatpost/suspension system, etc. It’s kind of a no frills bike in that regard but it honestly feels so well built and just “cool” to look at that you don’t really feel like you’re missing out by not having these things. The only thing that would have been cool would have been some kind of clever solution to hide your flat kit+tools. But that’s only because the lines are so clean on this bike that it feels like a sin to put a saddlebag on it. There is the fork-steerer tube design flaw that was called out YouTube. For a lot of people this is a big miss and a big issue. While I haven’t had tons of saddle time on this bike, I’m not immensely worried about it at the moment. Performance: Does this bike feel fast to ride? Yes! Here are the differences I noticed compared to a fairly standard road frame from 10 years ago & compared to an old Cervelo P2SL triathlon bike I used to ride. First off this bike feels really stiff. Not stiff in a jarring, you can’t be comfortable way, but stiff in the sense that you really feel like your pedal strokes are putting power to the ground. This makes the bike feel really dialed in, almost aggressive in nature. You’re not “dancing on the pedals” when you’re on this bike you’re more of a heat-seeking missile. Compared to the other bikes I’ve ridden…I don’t think I’ve actually felt a lack of stiffness that I could properly call out, so I find descriptions of stiffness to be a little hard to quantify. I’d best sum it up as with this bike every ounce of energy pushes you forward, and you don’t quite realize that your current bike isn’t doing that for you until you ride something that is stiffer. I was very curious about the aero properties of this bike. I used to ride a Cervelo P2SL when I did triathlons…which though dated is still a fairly fast frame. I remember consistently being a few miles per hour faster on that bike. For instance 20mph would feel like a decent amount of effort on my old road bike, whereas I could hold 22mph on the P2SL no problem. What’s really noticeable with this bike is as you are accelerating you just don’t feel the wind drag hit you as hard as you would normally expect. For instance I typically start to notice drag really hit around 20mph and it becomes fairly substantial at 25mph+. On this bike when you hit 20mph it doesn’t feel like anything is wanting to slow it down, it’s kind of interesting! From a purely “feel perspective” it basically feels as fast as the P2SL I used to ride just without the aerobar position helping me get more aero. I also feel like the handling on this bike is very responsive. I really don’t have a good benchmark for this (aside from my old roadbike) but I’d say as you lean or steer to change direction you feel the bike immediately start to grab that line. With my old roadbike it would change directions well but would feel maybe a little “floaty” in comparison. There’s just a noticeable increase in precision on this bike. My first ride out with this bike was on a local 25 mile loop with about 1200’ of climbing. I usually average 16-16.5mph on this loop and on the S5 I was averaging 18.5mph with plenty left in the tank if I wanted to push it more. The next day I took the bike on another local loop as a recovery ride basically trying to keep the heart rate around 140mph, and I apparently set a PR on the loop despite not really pushing myself in any particular way. So the speed gains are pretty apparent to me. It’s not going to make you a hero…but I think if you’re coming from something old and non-aero 1.5-2mph is what you can count on and you will notice it. I am not sure if it’s the bottom bracket, the components, the geometry of the bike, or what exactly but I find it very easy to achieve a smooth pedal stroke and a high cadence on this bike even in higher gears. On my old roadbike, if I was in the big chain-ring I’d have to be in easier gears in the back to keep my cadence high, and I’d often just be in the smaller ring to make it easier to accelerate off of stoplights, etc. On this bike it is almost no problem being in the big chainring the whole time even when going uphill on sections that I’d typical use the small chain-ring on. Now what I will say is for all of the positives I just listed above, this bike will not make you fast. Yes I definitely notice the differences and advantages that this frame offers, but I also don’t think if I was out of shape that I’d find this bike to be a huge step up over a normal roadbike. If anything, this bike is so focused on making you go fast that you might prematurely “blow-up” a little bit if riding it out of shape. You’d think you could hold 20mph until all of the sudden you couldn’t. Whereas on a normal roadbike you would find it easier to put around at a pace more in line with your current fitness. Likewise towards the end of a 40 mile ride I was starting to run out of gas, putting around at 14mph and I felt no faster or no better than I would on my old roadbike in such a situation. So when you’re feeling good and pushing hard, you’re going to feel this bike help you, but when you’re having an off day or not quite putting the power down anymore this bike isn’t going to do much to rescue you. So I’d say this bike is best enjoyed when you’re somewhat fit or in shape. Geometry+Ride Comfort: I was actually really worried about the geometry of this bike. I remember seeing one on the trail one-day and noticing that the rider was riding really long and low on the frame. However I also cross-referenced its frame geometry with a bunch of other bikes and it was only a few mm off in stack+reach and other measurements. So in other words, perhaps not as dramatic of a departure as I thought. The head-tube feels really long on this bike and it barely angles up. Compared to my 56cm roadbike the Cervelo S5 is noticeably longer and significantly lower. Crucially however, despite how aggressive this position looks once you’re in the saddle and reaching for the handlebar you realize that it’s not an unobtainable position to be in. Yes you’re reaching a bit more, yes you are lower, but you also feel like you are in a more powerful position and that you have more control over the bike because you have a lower center of gravity. Sometimes being in a tight sportscar is more comfortable than being in a loose sedan and I’d say that feels to be the case here. The handlebars are very comfortable to touch and interact with. The flat aero tops are awesome to put your hands on and wrap your fingers around, while the hoods and drops feel very natural to get to. My bike is equipped with 28mm tubeless tires and everything feels very “smooth” when riding. I am sure this is mostly the wheel+tire combo, but between that and the frame I have no complaints on road harshness by any means. You’re definitely not floating around on a cloud, but it’s not like I’m saying to myself “man I wish this bike was less harsh” In general if you’re worried about comfort on this bike from a geometry perspective or road-harshness perspective I’m confident you’ll be able to make this bike work unless you have some very specific needs. Weight: While I don’t have a scale for this bike, most reports peg this as being in the high 16.9ish-17.6ish lb range depending on size and components. I’d say that feels about right. The bike certainly does not feel like a featherweight, but it’s by no means overly dense or a complete tank to ride. What I’ve noticed with disc brake bikes is the weight feels very heavily concentrated towards the wheels/bottom of the bike. This can make the bike feel heavier than it is because the balance can be a little odd. Likewise, when lifting the S5 you have to almost hold the top tube 80% back for it to feel balanced in your hand, and the point of balance is a very a short range to find. I don’t think this actually matters in any serious capacity, just something interesting to note comparing the other bikes I’ve interacted with. The fact that it’s kind of hard to balance the bike in hand can make it feel like it weighs more than it does, but when you do bike it up balanced you go “hmm it’s actually lighter than I remember” I took this bike up some of my local hills and felt no noticeable weight consequence. If anything, the stiffness and aero properties on this bike are so prevalent, even going uphill, that I would take them any day of the week versus this bike losing a couple of extra lbs. Di2: When I first started looking for bikes I was 100% for a SRAM Force AXS groupset. My current roadbike has a SRAM Rival groupset, which I love, and to me the extra gear range and the wireless technology behind SRAM Force AXS made a lot of sense to me. However, with SRAM Force AXS being pretty new my bike options were somewhat limited in availability, whereas Ultrega Di2 was much more ubiquitous to come across. Obviously…stumbling across this bike with as good of a deal as I was getting I figured it wasn’t worth holding out for SRAM Force any longer than I had to. Here’s what got me to go with Ultrega Di2: -The hood buttons being able to switch pages on a head-unit seemed really cool. -The fact that you could change shifting profiles with the PC app and USB cable in case you didn’t spring for the wireless d-fly module. -The fact that I could basically set it up to shift like SRAM Force AXS would (with the exception of the L+R simultaneous press to change from big ring to small) if I really wanted to. My first ride with Ultrega Di2 was actually pretty disappointing. When I got my bike the battery was completely dead. I plugged it in and it immediately came to life, and I decided to let the bike charge overnight. After getting a full charge on the battery I unplugged the bike for a few days, as the battery is supposed to last several months depending on shift style. Upon finally deciding to take the bike on its first “proper” ride at 6:00am in the morning, I clip in, go down the driveway, turn onto the main street and my shifters are completely dead. I do a quick 1.3 mile loop around the block, of course stuck in a pretty hard gear, and decided to hop on Zwift instead while the battery charged. So the fact that the battery can completely die with no real way to save it or resurrect things mid-ride is a bit of a bummer. But I also would say that it was a bit of operator error on my end, as I must have done something to let the battery drain over night. Now for my first actual ride, Di2 is pretty amazing. I tend to keep my mechanical derailleurs pretty well sorted, but shifting can be a bit of a hassle. If you’re on a climb or not really in the right cadence (for whatever reason) you just hear and feel the derailleurs forcing themselves into gear and it feels very abrupt. Likewise, on longer distance rides, it’s honestly not uncommon for your fingers and hands to get a little tired which just adds to some of the mental anguish you may be feeling 80 miles into your ride! Di2 is just a quick click and you’re in the gear you selected. No drama, no fuss. You want to switch between chain-rings, no problem! Everything about using it is easier and better and I honestly feel like it makes you a safer rider. When coming to a stop-light I’d sometimes not always be able to downshift as much as I’d like, which would make starting up again a slightly hairy process. That’s just not an issue at all anymore with Di2. You can jump down 5 gears in a few seconds and with minimal abruptness or huge shocks to the driveline so to speak. Likewise I’d often find myself mentally staying in gear at less ideal cadences just because mechanical shifting could be a little abrupt or require some effort that could take my focus away from the road. Now I find myself just naturally honing in at a good geacadence for myself because it takes no effort to do so. The front derailleur also makes a pretty badass sound when you use it. It’s an electronic servo whine, but it mentally feels like a turbo-blow off valve going off or hearing a sick supercharger whine on your car. The shift buttons also have a very satisfying range of travel and “click” to them. All in all, though you do lose some of the clanks and sensations that make mechanical shifting feel so tactile, you have other ways to engage the sense with Di2 which makes for a pretty fun and gratifying experience using the shifters. What I probably like about Di2 the most is it feels like the derailleurs work in tandem to minimize friction. This leads to just a silky smooth shifting and pedaling experience that feels really sublime to interact with. I’d say the build quality on Ultrega Di2 is very high. All of the contact points feel very “solid” and you generally get the impression that you’re interacting with a very well built, very precise piece of hardware. I was personally worried about the shifting controls being a little annoying. I’m a SRAM guy and I actually don’t like the way Shimano’s mechanical groupsets shift, but within 5 minutes I got used to Shimano’s dual button layout and I don’t find it to be a problem to interact with at all. Now for the negatives, I do think it’s kind of BS that you need to spend $100-$150 for a wireless module to talk to your cycling computer or phone. All of these electronic groupsets are expensive and they should just come with these built into the shifters. I bought the module and installed it and I also find the phone app to be pretty bad to use and the head-unit control is pretty laggy. Like ½ second after a press laggy to the point where you’d almost be better off taking your hand off the hood to just press the head-unit button as you’d be able to do that whole process faster than you’d be able to using the integrated shifter buttons. Likewise, there is the same amount of lag when your head-unit updates its gear selection…which is less offensive but Di2 shifts so quickly that you can get substantially far down or up the cassette before your head-unit displays your first shift. The junction box where you plugin your charger and check your battery life/shift modes could be designed a tad better to me. The button itself is actually a little hard to press, and when pressed it actually doesn’t come on unless you hold it down for a few moments. This can be a little tricky for new riders, but once you figure it out it’s not the end of the world. In short I’d say that Ultrega Di2 is definitely worth the upgrade over mechanical shifting and I also don’t feel like I’m missing out on tons compared to the SRAM AXS groupsets. It’s pretty clear that Shimano came up with a pretty bullet-proof design at the expense of some UI goodies. You can certainly enjoy riding your bike with a good ole mechanical groupset, but if you’ve done your years on mechanical you’ll be in heaven with the shifting experience that Di2 offers. Disc Brakes: One of my big reasons for buying this bike is because I recently moved to a hillier area and found myself really needing to rely on my brakes on larger descents. To be honest I felt like this was a big safety thing that I really wanted to invest in. In normal braking circumstances, you really can’t feel much of a difference between rim brakes and disc brakes. The two feel so similar that I was almost disappointed in the disc brakes. However disc brakes do feel a lot easier to modulate. On long descents I’d often find myself white knuckling my brakes, whereas on my disc brakes it’s much less of an ordeal. I will also say that in more of an emergency braking situation, I think the disc brakes will ultimately stop quickefaster…it’s just not quite the night and day difference I thought it was going to be. I will say that the brakes on my S5 feel like they are setup quite well. There’s no detectable rub and no hugely problematic squeals or howls. So that’s been a bit of a plus at least. I do actually really like thru-axles though. With rim brakes I always found it a little annoying trying to center the wheel up on the fork and between the brakes. Thru axles just remove that process entirely. The S5 comes with a pretty nifty quick release thru axle system as well…not that if I have a flat I’m going to be worried about precious seconds ticking away, but it’s cool to see new clever designs and systems in place here. I came from a “rim brakes are better” mindset for a very long time. If you have that mindset switching to disc really isn’t going to feel all that different day to day (for better or worse) but in more extreme situations discs are likely going to have a little more to offer in keeping you safe. So I’d say disc brakes aren’t the only reason why should upgrade your bike, and at the same time if you’re on a rim bike that you love you likely aren’t missing tons by not jumping to disc aside from maybe the ability to run some of the newer wheelsets. Wheelset: The bike came with DT Swiss Arc Dicut 1450’s, which are the OEM version of the 1400 series. The wheels are 62mm thick and have a more traditional rim width/profile of 17mm For such a deep section wheel they are actually incredibly light to hold. I have a set of aluminum 28mm wheels that have a claimed weight around 1580 grams and the 1450’s feel lighter even with discs installed. I personally really wanted a loud freehub to help let people know that I am nearby and sadly the freehub is pretty quiet. The good news is that you can pretty easily upgrade the ratchet for around $150, which I’ll probably do at some point. I was a little worried that these would blow around a bit in the wind with how deep they are and how thin the rim width is. However they’ve been fine for me so far on the bike. I’m about 160lbs and 6’ tall so not particularly dense by any means. I think what helps is the bike puts you in a position where you feel like you have a relatively low center of gravity. In terms of speed, they’re a little hard to pick a part as the whole bike generally just feels “fast” to me, but I feel like they’re doing their job, and don’t have any major complaints thus far. I also feel like they are quite comfortable on the road and that fastemore modern wheelsets are definitely out there, but that you’d be paying for gains you may not fully notice. Garmin Vector 2’s: My bike came with some Garmin Vector 2 pedals, which was a bit of a plus for me because I didn’t want to buy a bike and then spend $650ish on a new power meter after the fact. These are a last gen power meter and do have some less than ideal characteristics (like the external pods which could get damaged in a crash). Likewise from what I’ve heard there’s a bit more of a process when changing them between bikes thanks to the pods. But since they’re already on the bike and ready to go I figure they’ll be just fine for me. So far power numbers seem pretty much in line with what I output on my Saris H3 trainer. If they differed slightly, I honestly wouldn’t care all that much. They do provide quite a few cool parameters to look at. Pedaling smoothness, left right balance, torque, and loads more that feel like they are more pedal power meter specific. I was primarily interested in a dual sided power meter to try to detect any left-right leg imbalances that I may have. So far I’ve been pretty much sitting at a 51/49 split most of the time. So if you’re on the fence about getting a dual sided power meter and really want to save a few hundred bucks you’re probably okay doing so! A small plus to me is the fact that these run on coin cell batteries. There’s obviously some advantages of having rechargeable batteries built into things nowadays but it’s almost to the point where I feel like I have to plug in 3-4 things after each ride. So just being able to keep a few coincells in the saddle bag and being able to swap batteries when necessary actually feels much nicer to me than having to plug these in. I was actually pretty hesitant to pickup a pedal based power meter because I’ve been using Shimano pedals and cleats for so long. However I actually like the feel of the Garmin pedals much better. They lock your feet in more securely, even if you have a fairly loose tension, and they seem like they stay balanced a lot better than my Shimano pedals (less trying to chase a spinning pedal when you clip in). The only thing that I don’t like is it feels like the front of the cleat doesn’t quite disengage cleanly on my right foot, which is the one that I use most often when stopping, but my left cleat unclips just fine. There’s likely something I’m doing wrong, and it hasn’t been a huge issue, but I do worry that when unclipping my right foot might get stuck and I’ll tip over. This is actually my first time riding outside with power and I really think the cycling community overhypes how much data you need. As long as you have a watt number to look at, you’re probably good. If you can achieve that with a $300 crank based meter, great! You definitely don’t need to go out and buy some $1000 power meter with all sorts of metrics. What’s also interesting is since most of my actual training is done on Zwift I find power to be a less useful metric outdoors than it is indoors. When I’m outdoors I’m basically going “hmm this feels like 250 watts to me” and then I look down and go “yep that’s 250 watts” and I do find it interesting to see what certain wattages feel like at certain speeds and up certain hills but it feels less important outdoors than it does in Zwift. For instance if I’m riding on a segment of road…yes I can go 400 watts if I really want to, but I’m already going 25mph and going faster may be a little unsafe in a given situation. If you already have a trainer at home, that’s a far better tool to crank out the watts because you can push yourself to whatever wattage you want without having to worry about traffic, road obstacles, etc. All in all I’m pretty happy with these pedals and glad I didn’t have to buy a power meter separately when purchasing this bike. Final Thoughts: When I pulled the trigger on this bike I experienced quite a bit of guilt. I’m not that fast of a cyclist, $6200 is quite a bit of money, what if the geometry is too aggressive? and my old bike is honestly working just fine. However after riding it I am really happy with my purchase. To me, the S5 is really one of the coolest looking bikes released. It’s so nice to look at everyday and when I’m on it I really like I’m riding a Lamborghini. There’s just a real sense of occasion to the bike that is totally worth the cost of admission. Now what I will say is that I really think $6Kish is the absolute most you need to pay for a bike nowadays. $6K should generally get you a high-end frame, decent wheelset, electronic shifting and maybe a power meter, which should be all of the high-end goodies you really need. To me there’s no way in hell a $12K bike is going to be anywhere near twice as good as a $6K bike so you really don’t need to spring for a super high-end build with Dura-Ace or SRAM Red. I’d also argue that the S5 is basically one of the most advanced framesets available today and compared to my 10-year-old roadbike, it’s a substantial leap forward but not a complete game changer in terms of riding my bike. I’d say it adds about 30% more enjoyment compared to what I’m used to experiencing. So if you’re already on a somewhat new bike (say from the last 5 years) you probably aren’t going to notice as much of an improvement in the experience as I did. This bike really feels like a TT bike and a roadbike had a baby. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, because that’s the whole aerobike concept. But it honestly feels as aero as my TT bike, just without the ability to get into the TT position, and it’s not like I’m missing tons of the traditional “roadbike” experience. It handles well, is comfortable, and is generally a pretty responsive bike to be on. So if you’re torn between an aerobike or more standard roadbike, both are probably going to work just fine, but I’d postulate that the aerobike is likely going to be the faster option without significantly compromising your riding experience in any meaningful way. I’m a bit of a lone wolf and I think this bike is perfect for us solo riders. You can cover quite a bit of ground with the extra efficiency this bike provides, but it’s obviously much more versatile than a TT bike as you can use it to hop in a group ride if you need to, and it will feel more comfortable riding it up hills, down descents, etc. Perhaps a con of this bike is that I do feel like I have a bit of a target on my back, and so I subconsciously feel the need to ride fast just so I’m not “that guy” who has the nice bike but sucks at riding. Likewise this bike just really likes to and wants to go fast, so it actually may not be the best tool for noodling around and exploring. I don’t want to say that it’s uncomfortable or anything like that…it’s just very focused on speed so when you’re on it you just want to go fast. All in all, I’m happy with the bike and think it’ll put a smile on my face for a very long time and I’d be happy to answer more specific questions about it if it would help anyone!
Just want a list of things that players can notice happening around them. I'm looking for things that are not plot relevant and do not require player intervention. Edit: I'm starting to think Graham the Hobo deserves a separate list. Standard medieval fantasy stuff
A child is throwing a tantrum in the street. One of their parents is standing nearby, pretending not to notice.
A patron is arguing with a shopkeeper over the price of an item that the shop doesn't sell.
A man is dancing in front of a group of elderly women. As he dances, the women will toss coins into his hat. Occasionally, one of the women will scoff and take some coins back.
Two Nobles are arguing the finer points of cockroach racing.
Neighbors are having a heated discussion about a noisy dog.
Graham the Hobo is performing an acrobatic pole dance.
Town guards are going door to door handing out flyers detailing changes to refuse disposal ordinances.
Three chickens are walking down the street stacked on top of each other.
A group of children are chasing a man with wooden swords. They are all laughing and shouting.
A wizard is seated across the table from an unnaturally large toad. The wizard is frantically flipping through several books.
A farmer is arguing with their cow. It seems the cow is unwilling to go where the farmer wants her to.
Drunken sailors are singing loudly from a tarven while the bar bouncer looks a them. ( u/Encrmites )
A town crier announces a gathering of the local religious group. ( u/Encrmites )
An unmarried couple walks hand in hand. Some passersby look at them and giggle. ( u/Encrmites )
A group of dock workers are team lifting a loaded wagon to reattach a broken wheel ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A woman occasionally checking a small paper as she window shops ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A young boy is selling newspapers on the corner. They aren’t selling well ( u/Pretzelbomber )
Two horse-drawn carts slowly maneuver past each other as their drivers argue ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A small circle of people are gathered around a pair of men locked in a serious match of arm wrestling ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A small child runs through a gathering of pigeons ( u/atomicDaikaiju )
A goose steals a gardener's trowel and is chased for their audacity. ( u/atomicDaikaiju )
Graham the Hobo stands off to the side of the town square holding an old parchment aloft with the words, "Need Money for Ale. Why lie?" ( u/atomicDaikaiju )
A small cadre of druids are working on the community garden, cracking jokes and taking their time. It could be a class on growing but you aren't sure from this distance. ( u/Milkslinger )
A blacksmith loudly scolding his apprentice for a minor mistake. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A very pregnant mother shopping while her son, tied to her by her apron-strings, stomps in every mud-puddle he can reach. The mother doesn't seem to notice how muddy the son has gotten her dress. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A tired looking prostitute on the walk outside the brothel smoking a pipe with a very bored expression on her face. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A loaded haywain blocking traffic outside an inn's stables, the old driver is arguing with city watch, "I ain't movin till (innkeep's name) boys unload my wagon. He paid me for this load, he's gettin it!" ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A down-on-the-heels entertainer sitting in the corner of the inn, muttering to himself as he attempts to compose a ballad. From the snippets the players can hear, the composition is not going well. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
An obviously drunk person in the stockade playing rhyming games with a group of kids gathered around his penitent post. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
While her father speaks with a street merchant, a little girl no more than three years of age saunters over to hug a dog that's taller than her. The towering dog allows it, even resting its head on her shoulder. ( u/SquareBottle )
Two children have taken a ball from a third, who looks to be on the verge of tears. A nearby horse whinnies as the older kids toss the ball back and forth, distracting one of the bullies at exactly the right moment to cause him to be pelted in the face. The younger kid snatches back their ball, sticks out their tongue, and runs away. ( u/SquareBottle )
A young, overdressed nobleman is attempting to woo a lady. He steps in something unpleasant, and the trailing pair of chaperoning attendants struggle to contain their laughter. ( u/SquareBottle )
Graham the Hobo seems to have decided that now would be an excellent time for a bath in a nearby fountain. ( u/SquareBottle )
A small group of friars is administering short blessings and distributing loaves of bread to a queue of downtrodden families and street urchins. ( u/SquareBottle )
An elderly couple quietly sits on a bench holding hands. Two old, feral cats are sitting together on their haunches at the other end of the bench. The old man and his coincidentally corresponding cat sneeze at the exact same time. Neither couple seems to pay any attention to the other. ( u/SquareBottle )
Someone farts, nobody is that bothered ( u/bigfootbob )
Plump teenage girl and her spindly younger brother are setting up fried chicken stand in the town square. There's a big wicker cage of doomed chickens softly clucking. ( u/felagund )
A fella sitting back in a chair, feet up on a table/what-have-you quietly humming a song to himself. ( u/DonnkeyKongJR )
A group of 2 to 4 men unloading a wagon. ( u/catdragon64 )
A flock of birds clustered around a bakery. ( u/catdragon64 )
Local town councilman is putting up posters and shaking hands in the town square, reminding people of the upcoming election. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Two maintenance men lead a horse and cart with tar and cobblestones to repair potholes in the main streets of town. ( u/hcaneandrew )
There's a commotion at the local barbershop as a aging noblewoman with "the vapors" demands the barber to urgently soothe her stomach demons by reading her humors and applying leeches. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Brenda pushes her cart of home grown vegetables through the street toward the farmers market, muttering on about every perceived slight and insult she's received over the years from awful Farmer Mills, the man who has a wheat flour and baked goods cart. ( u/hcaneandrew )
A rat drags a piece of bread larger than it is along the street and into the sewer drain. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Two girls play hopscotch, one is called by her mother to come home. The other one frowns and eventually wanders off home. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Farmer Mills and Farmer Hewson argue about irrigation and water rights as the spring rains have been few and far between. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Graham the Hobo has set up a three card monte table outside a pub with a deck of cards that looks like he found in a ditch. "Try your luck" he shouts. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Graham the Hobo feeds a malnourished stray dog a small piece of bread from the loaf he is eating ( u/cabnoid )
Graham the Hobo sees a woman unknowingly drop a piece of fine jewelry, then returns it to her ( u/cabnoid )
A fisherman is digging up and collecting worms ( u/Narraclamborg )
A gnome tinkers with a toy dragon as a child watches in fascination. ( u/Patergia )
A group of children play as make-believe adventurers. ( u/Patergia )
You notice a child picking the loose portions of a brick from a wall. ( u/bionku )
A well-dressed man with the voice of an auctioneer is selling a miracle cure for diseases no one’s heard of. ( u/Meandtheboys16 )
A young man taking the long way around the block/square or doubling back to peek in a window. He is nervous but doesn't seem to be doing anything wrong. He is sweet on a food vendor who works selling fried dumplings/ falafel and tries to find an opportunity to talk to her ( u/ThursdayTheology )
A young man stop in the street and watch a particularly nice horse go by. He appears to be grocer or general store kind of assistant. His shirt is used but clean and his duties take him inside and outside a shop dusting carpets. If you watch for half an hour he lingers and studies a horse that has been tethered nearby. It's a nicer horse than most people see and you guess he knows how to judge good horseflesh by how he sizes them up. ( u/ThursdayTheology )
There is a man on stilts, whitewashing the outside of a house. He rolls his eyes and is curt with everyone who makes a joke about "how's the weather up there?". He mutters to himself that this is more efficient than a ladder. He openly yells and tells off a group of three kids who clearly are working towards a plan to mess with his stilts. ( u/ThursdayTheology )
A young woman briefly stops to smell the fresh bread as she walks past the bakery. ( u/theswordandstaff )
A man leaves a large building and pauses for a moment. He pats his pockets, sighs in disappointment, then goes back into the building to grab whatever he had forgotten. ( u/ski-doo )
Two men load a cart outside of a home while a nobleman speaks to the homes crying owner reviewing a piece of parchment. ( u/MrDeuteronomy )
Another child is throwing a tantrum in the street, crying about not wanting to go inside. ( u/thorax )
A couple is arguing outside a tavern. ( u/thorax )
A woman stands by the water, washing clothes. ( u/thorax )
A group of three men teasing each other over a dice game. ( u/thorax )
An older fruit salesman demonstrates to a curious onlooker how to use a mallet to crush grapes in a small vat. ( u/thorax )
Two children arguing over a toy, and their mother hanging her clothespins, oblivious. ( u/thorax )
A couple in deep discussion about whether or not to spend their savings on a new property or to continue saving. ( u/thorax )
Two children playing a game of marbles. They are about seven years old. One has a ring of blue, red, and yellow marbles. The other has a ring of green, blue, and purple. ( u/thorax )
Two children playing on top of a hay wagon. They appear to be twin brothers about five years old. ( u/thorax )
Two ducks with ducklings following them. You are confused why they're here in the village, but their wet footprints likely lead back to a small pond nearby. ( u/thorax )
Two ducks are in a pen with their latest batch of babies. One of the villagers say that they are "mill" ducks and how it's such a pity they have been cross breeding them for centuries to attain a perfect egg-laying machine. ( u/thorax )
A small brown hare drinking from a stream. It is quite a ways away from the rest of a batch of rabbits that are gathering near the feet of two hunters. The brown hare also seems to lack the distinctive black ears and white nose of the others. ( u/thorax )
A small fence surrounds a nearly empty plot of land. This plot of land apparently is where the town gallows currently sit. The current hanging dummy, a simple wooden figure of a man, stands with a sign that reads "Thievery." ( u/thorax )
A local town boy is selling a box of potentially enchanted cookies ( u/AVoraciousLatias )
Shopkeeper and his employee brother are splitting up the profits. “Four for me, one for you. Four for me, one for you.” “That’s not fair! I work twice as hard as you.” “Oh really?! But I take all the risk! Alright then. FIVE for me, one for you.” ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
Graham the Hobo deftly stops a child from wandering into the path of a moving wagon ( u/StomicDaikaiju )
A man is talking to a woman. They aren't doing anything important, but a passing man in a hat smiles at them. ( u/thorax )
A child is missing his two front teeth. ( u/thorax )
A little girl leading around a goat with a string. ( u/thorax )
The village blacksmith and his neighbor are talking with each other over the fence that separates their two houses. ( u/thorax )
You see a thatched roof house near the edge of town. A female halfling walks out of the front door and stands on the porch. She turns and says something to someone inside, then turns and shuts the door. ( u/thorax )
A young man is practicing archery by himself. ( u/thorax )
You hear a scream, and as you glance up, it turns out to be someone's shriek of happy recognition as a woman sees an old friend they haven't seen in a while. ( u/thorax )
An old man, with two days of beard stubble and stains on his shirt, stands on a street corner scratching the top of his butt crack and watching people walk by. ( u/OwenMcCauley )
Three people have stopped hanging linens and are arguing about thelyrics to a well known song. Two of the trio insist that the last person is singing the lyrics wrong. The song is about adding to the parts of a tree and repeating previous verses:
' The branch was on the limb, the limb was on the tree, the tree was on the stump, the stump was in the hole...' (In real life it's the song 'Rattlin Bog' if you don't want to make your own lyrics) The two are correct. There's regional variance on certain words, but the third person is just getting the order of the tree wrong. Interestingly, surrounding townsfolk not in the trio begin singing after a few minutes of the trio arguing over the lyrics. ( u/ThursdayTheology)
Three girls are jumping rope and are learning a new trick ( u/ThursdayTheology)
A farmhand or shepard/ranch hand is juggling. She's not passing the hat or anything, she is bored, standing next to a wagon. To a trained eye she is self-taught, and can do columns, cascade, and reverse cascade. Her older sister sits in the wagon, minding the horse pulling it. The wagon sits outside a post-station. The wagon has shovel and pickaxe heads and bundles of appropriately sized wooden staves in the back of it. ( u/ThursdayTheology)
A small group of people have placed a mug on a bench and are attempting to throw rocks into it from increasingly longer distances. ( u/Kondrias )
A father is lecturing his child about having warned them about the sharp rocks and slick footing as the child is whiping away tears with a bloody gash on their leg as the dad wraps the leg in bandages. ( u/Kondrias )
A small cluster of merchants are leaving their office and undoing their coats and ties as they step out into the hot air of the day. ( u/Kondrias )
The local dockmaster cheerily walks by holding a fishing set and tackle. ( u/Kondrias )
The herbalist tends to their small garden taking deep breaths of every crop therein before and after trimming. ( u/Kondrias )
A nobleman attempting but failing to nonchalantly exit the home of a prostitute. He quickly tries to hide his face from anyone making eye contact with him. Smells of liquor and cheap perfume. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
104.Two boys walking down the street. One steps in a pile of dog poop. The other boy laughs at his misfortune before stepping into a much larger pile of horse poop a few steps later. The first boy quickly turns from scowling to laughing hysterically at the second boy. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
A cat licking the ear of a dog that is lying outside the door to a shop. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
A goat standing inside a small pen. A puppy wiggles under the fence and begins nursing from the goat’s teat. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
A very lovable dog approaches your party wanting to be petted. Roughly tries to sniff the crotch of each member before urinating on anyone with any elvish heritage. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
A little girl playing with her dollies acting out an argument she apparently heard between her parents. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
An old woman approaches your party who opens her coat and offers to sell various items of “fine, expensive jewelry”. All items are either made from wood, string and garbage or are completely imaginary. She spits on the party when they refuse to consider her wares. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
I've recently noticed many people confused and frustrated by Tesla's recent decision to purchase $1.5B Bitcoin. I understand that cryptocurrencies are polarizing and confusing. What are they? Why are they so volatile? Are they just a fad or will they gain traction into the future? I believe these are all good questions, but perhaps not the first questions we should be asking. I'd like to use this post to give background on existing 'paper' currencies, and what concerns many people have over them. By understanding the very real and existing problems with paper currencies, we can start to see how cryptocurrencies may offer solutions. First a bit of background on me - I've been around this sub for a little while now.. Long enough to see many of the bulls frustrated to no end by the relentless FUD from bad short-sellers and media men looking for clicks. When TSLA started posting profits Q3 2019, I watched the stock skyrocket, and I remember the euphoria when it hit $420 the first time! I was around when COVID started hitting. I tried to bring attention to it back when people thought it was just in China, and that it was 'no worse than the flu'. (Like here and here, where I guess I was a little more direct than I needed to be. The fallout from that second link actually ended up in one of the mods quitting I believe. I'll try to learn from my mistakes and get frustrated less easily in the future.) I was also around when Tesla hit rock bottom during the fallout from COVID, and hopped back into TSLA when it looked like governments were reacting and preparing 'bailout' packages. I now have a new concern - the condition of the USD, and by extension, all paper currencies on the planet. I've been concerned about this for quite a while now. I share all this, not to inflate my own opinion, but to promote the idea that just because something isn't popular doesn't mean it's not right. Usually most people are confused and skeptical about something until it actually happens. We should all take what we hear for what it's worth. The following isn't advice, do your own research, blah blah blah, haha. Without further ado, here's the history of the USD: In the United States constitution, the founding fathers wrote that nothing but Gold and Silver should be used as legal tender. They said this because they knew of the danger of FIAT currency. (FIAT currency is any legal tender not backed by a real asset that has real value). When a FIAT currency exists, it is very easy for politicians to get their fingers into it and just make more. They do this to fulfill campaign promises, civil works, or to fund war. The end result is inflation. A century later, it was 'determined' that this part of the constitution applied only to states, and not to the Federal government. At the time of this decision, the Dollar was 100% backed by gold. The dollar was an asset. It was a claim check on gold. You could take it to the bank, slap it on the counter, and say 'I want my money, Mitch'. In 1913, that all changed. In 1913 the first seeds of a broken financial system were sown. In 1913, The Federal Reserve was legalized and allowed to operate. One VERY important thing to understand about 'The Fed', is that it is NOT part of the government! It is a private corporation, and it has shareholders. Have a hard time believing this? Check out this Wikipedia article, or The Fed's own website, where they say at the very end that reserve banks pay dividends. In 1913, The Fed began operation and offered to legally print more dollars. The politicians were attracted to this idea because it meant they could deficit spend, and just tax the people. Coincidentally, 1914 was the first year of income tax in the USA. They band-aided things by enacting a requirement that enough gold should always exist to back 40% of the dollars in circulation. Here's an article on it from the Fed. Sure it might create problems later, but not on the politician's watch who legalized it. Meanwhile the Fed and its shareholders get rich off guaranteed interest payments from the US Government, which in used the IRS to collect tax payments from citizens. This went as poorly as you could imagine. The 20's were roaring, in large part to the deficit spending that was happening. Then in the early 30's - the 'Great Depression'. The first sign that something wasn't right in the financial world. Strangely, more millionaires were created during the Great Depression than from any other previous time in history. The working class were being 'taxed', to pay interest to the rich. It was legalized theft and this Ponzi scheme STILL EXISTS today! People keep looking to The Fed for answers to the problem. The Fed IS the problem! As time progressed after 1913, two very fortunate things happened to the US economy: WWI and WWII. Both wars started in other countries, and the US entered the wars comparatively late. At the beginning of both wars, other countries had to send a lot of their food and goods production to soldiers, or convert some of that production to making war machines. This meant they had to buy foods and goods from other countries, and the US had plenty of supply. So the US sent a lot of production to these other countries, in exchange for real metallic gold. The gold reserves increased by a lot, and held the US economy relatively stable all the way until the 1970s. (This is where the concept that war is good for an economy comes from. War is actually very BAD for an economy, it just worked out well a couple times for the United States.) As WWII was coming to and end, it started to become very apparent how the war had impacted the economies of many countries. Many countries no longer had the gold to back their own currencies, and were at risk of a new problem - a bank run which would lead to hyperinflation of their respective currencies. The US offered a solution - The Bretton Woods System. Under this system, every FIAT currency would be backed by the USD, which was backed by gold. The various countries liked this because it allowed them to avoid immediate economic collapse, and the US wasn't opposed because it gave them nearly a monopolistic control over the world's currencies. This worked for a while but by the 60s and 70s, countries started to to wise up to the idea that the US simply didn't have the gold in their vaults to back all the dollars in circulation. There was about to be a bank run on the United States. The tables had turned, and now the US was the one at risk of an economic crisis. President Nixon had no choice - in 1971 he ended the Gold Standard. The USD was no longer required to be backed by Gold, and the USD could no longer be exchanged for Gold. This solved the immediate problem, but again was only kicking the can down the road. Now the entire world was running on FIAT currencies, all depending on the US to not inflate their own dollar too much. Did the US stop deficit spending at this point, now that they were carrying the weight of the world's economy on their shoulders? LOL. Check out https://wtfhappenedin1971.com. The economy being on fire actually resulted in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. 1971 threw gasoline on that fire and the wealth gap accelerated. Now let's fast forward to 2007/2008. We all remember what happened then. What many might not realize is exactly how close the entire world's economy was to collapse. There were too many bad loans out there, made by very big banks. These loans began defaulting, as was inevitable. The biggest banks were all at risk of collapse, which would have had a cascading effect to nearly every bank in existence. It would have taken decades for things to reset and start from scratch again. Remember - banks are shareholders of the Fed. What ended up happening? That's right - with the blessing of politicians, the Fed BOUGHT mortgage-backed securities from the banks. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but if this doesn't reek of a scam, I don't know what does. In reality - what option did the politicians really have at this point? As a way to patch the 'economy', and get dollars flowing again, The Fed was also authorized by the govt to print about 15% additional currency. Here's the chart. In addition to that - a brand new financial model, never before used except in Japan, was legalized and instituted - Quantitative Easing. Quantitative Easing allows the banks to take your dollars in your account, and lend them out to someone else. This is very similar to short selling, where a share is borrowed from an owner, a fake share is created and sold to someone else, and then is covered at a later date. QE has a 'Reserve Requirement', which means that not every dollar in your bank account can be lent back out. If the RR is 50% - only half can be lent out. If the RR is 5% - 95% of your bank account can be lent out. The RR was set at 10% in 2008, where it remained for 12 years. A flood of extra currency was sent into the economy, but the RR kind of kept a cap on things, because the artificial dollars had to be paid back and were destroyed at that point. In addition, the extra currency directly printed by the Fed ended up mostly in bank vaults, as the currency was given directly to the banks and at the same time the banks had restrictions put on them, requiring them to keep a larger vault to avoid this sort of thing happening again. Fast forward to 2020. We all remember how quickly things changed in March and April. The world quickly had to react to a problem it didn't understand yet, and much of the world was even still in denial. COVID restrictions had to be enacted to save lives, but how would people pay their bills? How would business survive? Would the banks go under again? The Fed and the government had to quickly and drastically react to 'save' the economy. 30% more dollars were printed in 2020, and this time they were sent directly to the consumers, not to the banks! This means there's now 30% more currency out there in consumer's hands, ready to be used. Whether people are spending that on rent or on cocaine and booze - it doesn't matter as far as the economy is concerned. The currency is just trading hands, and the next person in line now owns it and can buy whatever they want. The currency exists and now there's more of it in circulation. When 100 people show up willing to buy a $10 item because now they can afford it - guess what happens to that item? It goes to $12. Basic supply and demand. Now, in 2021, it's looking like they'll be printing an additional 10% of currency. We'll have to wait and see what the new 'bailout' package contains. But wait, there's more - remember the QE RR? Guess what happened to it? They set it at 0%. Can't make this up. The banks are now allowed to just create money out of thin air. I deposit $100, the bank can lend $100 of that out to someone else. Then that someone else deposits $100, and their bank can take all of it and lend it to someone else. And on and on and on. But wait, there's more. You'll see in that same link that The Fed is encouraging banks to use their vault dollars from 2008 to lend to consumers as well. So that additional 15% from 2008 is now likely leaking into the economy as well. Someone PLEASE explain to me how this will end well. Right now, 'Money Velocity' is still low, which is why we aren't seeing prices rise yet. Doesn't matter how much people have in their accounts, if they're not showing up to spend it, there isn't a lot of demand, and the prices don't rise. However as the vaccination programs progress and the virus comes under control, restrictions will be lifted and people will feel more comfortable going out to restaurants or booking hotels or buying plane flights, getting that new car now that they're driving again, etc. 'Money Velocity' will pick up quickly in 2021, and with who knows how much more dry powder out there, this can only end in one way - LARGE amounts of inflation. Eventually, people will lose trust in the USD, and in all the FIAT currencies that are STILL tied to it, and start trading with things that have real value again - like gold and silver. (I've heard a lot of people say that inflation isn't a risk, that actually the biggest risk is deflation right now. Hopefully this helps you understand those concerns and put them in context.) Enter Bitcoin. There's a finite supply. Politicians can't control it. It's secure. Companies are starting to accept and purchase it. (Tesla is only the most recent to do so). There's smart people out there who already know everything you just learned, and they're trying to get ahead of the pack. This leads to a common misconception about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, one that even many around this subreddit have - that Bitcoin is a speculative asset, that it's too volatile to be considered a good investment. Bitcoin isn't an 'asset', it is a CURRENCY. It's a digital coin that both buyers and sellers have agreed to exchange in return for real goods and services. It's new, so of course there can be a good bit of volatility. But volatility doesn't mean it's a bad investment. Case in point - TSLA. In addition to a newcomer's natural volatility - there's another thing to consider: the dangers of inflation of the USD. If you look at BTC/USD, the volatility is high. If you look at BTC/Gold, the volatility is less. BTC/Silver, the volatility is even lower. We have to stop using the USD to determine something's value. Really, we should use other things to determine the USD's value. When you do that, the USD is looking pretty horrible right now. Tell this to your grandma or your co-worker at work, and they'll look at you like you're crazy. But now you understand what they don't. EVERY FIAT currency eventually collapses at the hands of politicians. Happened to Rome, to Greece, Germany, Venezuela, etc etc etc. Just so you know, I didn't figure all this out on my own. I learned from the best - Mike Maloney. He has a series on YouTube called 'The Hidden Secrets of Money'. I -highly- recommend investing a few hours and watching every episode! Here's a link to the playlist. TLDR: USD is FIAT and FIATs BAD. Lots of history leading to BAD stuff. BTC good. TSLA now bulletproof. Elon smart. (PS: I don't think cryptocurrencies are perfect. While each crypto does have a limited supply, there's nothing preventing people from just making new types of cryptos, which will inflate the existing crypto pool. Also, regarding BTC in particular - it has scalability issues. If the whole world switched to BTC, it could take days to confirm a transaction, and would require more electricity that the planet produces. A more efficient crypto is desirable. Mike Malony likes Hadera Hashgraph's HBAR. I'm still investigating and thinking on this.) EDIT - Words
The saltiest Among Us game EVER with the hermits and friends. Etho was Imposter 12 out of 21 rounds. Enjoy the clips!
Etho was imposter 12 out of 21 rounds and the lobby became the saltiest I've ever heard them. Etho had a great night killing constantly. Despite the snippiness and saltiness everyone seemed to have a ton of fun and were just laughing the whole time. The times after the Round number are based on Tango's POV, as always. Twitch links altered for youtube links where possible. Youtube: Tango's POV (Tango edited out the first two rounds so the times don't match anymore), Evil's POV, Impulse's POV, Brody's POV Round 1: 25:44Etho/Evil's POV A mess of proximity chat. Bad start to the game and nearly unwatchable. :( Round 2: 35:40Etho/Impulse's POV
Round 5: 51:41 The Endless/Tango's POV Context: In a previous round Endless and Joker just vote Impulse (crewmate) off on a whim so this is Impulse getting Endless back.
Brody: Hi Etho. Etho with a sh!t-eating grin: I caught Brody venting. Brody: How did you catch me venting? When? Etho: Uh, I checked Admin. There was somebody in electrical and then all of a sudden there was someone in Med and when I went to Med there was Brody coming out of it. Brody: Look at you.
Etho has broken everyone and the game devolves into just everyone talking out loud as a pseudo-proximity chat and it's hilarious.
Impulse: You guys suck so bad right now. You voted off Etho as a joke, I finally get imposter and I almost got it! Endless: Was it Etho again, for real? Impulse: Yes! Etho: Unlucky partner there, Impulse. Tango: It was seriously Etho again, oh my god. Brody: You guys remember when Tango gave me grief for voting Etho everytime. Look, he's good at this game, it's just good enough to have him off of here. Endless: I say we play until Etho isn't imposter. Impulse: That's crazy. Tango: Right! That sounds like a ridiculous statement but we play until Etho is not the imposter. Etho: Going all night! Skizz: I have to be somewhere next week. Tango: We may be here until 4am, kids, I'm not sure. Joker: Or until next week. It may take awhile. Evil: Guys, I know there's been some snippiness which has been hilarious but I've been laughing my butt off so hard this last round I'm crying!
Etho: I want to take this opportunity to defend Tango again. Seems like a stand-up guy. Tango: That's cool, 'cause I voted for you. MrsTango: laughs Skizz: Here's what I think is happening. I'm voting for Etho. I think Etho is so next level he's killing slower. Brody: Well, he does that, he does both but I don't think he's doing this time but he could. Etho: Oh good, Tango survived again. Tango: Yeah, that's all that matters to you, Etho. Etho: That's my mission this round. Let's be buddies. Tango: I'm with you Etho, let's go. Etho: I would like to take this moment to defend Tango, my queen! She is innocent. Er, he is innocent. Tango: Voting Etho. Skizz: I'm telling you at this time at this point it's mathematically stupid to not vote for Etho. Evil: You are awful pushy, Skizz. Tango: He called me his queen? What?? Etho: I can't defend Skizz like I can defend Tango so it's up to you guys. Tango: Etho! Queen?? We have to talk, my friend. Brody: More like drama queen, am I right? Tango: Mmhmm. There we go, that's good. Etho: Still voted me... Tango, my queen, I accept your judgement. everybody loses it MrsTango: What is happening! Endless: This game is dumb! It's Etho! Tango: Confirmed. Impulse: Evil, what was it like being partners with Etho? Evil: It was awesome. He's a good guy. Impulse: He is a good guy.
Tango: Etho, this has been an amazing night. You did well. Etho: It was fun. I got my killing satisfied for quite a while. Tango: You're good for at least 3 years. Impulse: After the first like 10 rounds I bet his blood pressure didn't go up anymore after he got imposter. Etho: Just a normal state of being. Tango: Just that frustration: againnnnnn, ahhhh. Joker: He doesn't even clean the knife anymore it's super red. Tango; Right, right, he's just stabbing with a bloody knife at this point. Evil: At some point you start to get imposter's guilt like aw man stop, I don't wanna be it. Etho: I was like, I had a menu: I'm going to kill this person this time and then that person... Endless: Running around like a champion. You go away, Etho. Jerk. MrsTango: It's like the champion prance after the race. Endless: Running around like a boss, you're like 'hey, I'm the best'. Etho: The salt of my victims, I love it.
Old Austin Tales: Forgotten Video Arcades of The 1970s & 80s
In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day. There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters. But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade. I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction. If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student. But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades. It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples. Forgotten Arcade #1 Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe June 15, 1975
ARCADE ENTHUSIASM A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.
ARCADE ROBBED A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.
First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years. Forgotten Arcade #2 Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road May 15, 1984
A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.
I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool. Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4 Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St August 23, 1983
Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe. AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick." VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 . Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants. WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle. "After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating. IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old." Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped." TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them. SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse. "I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products." THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked. Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."
Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd. Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade. We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants. Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7 Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall) The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf March 4, 1982
'Quartermania' stalks South Austin School officials, parents worried about effects of video games A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest. So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School. Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need." A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced. The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider. Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."
Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. Forgotten Arcade #8 Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway February 25, 1982
Arcades fighting negative image Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life. Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County. In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk. In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said. Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol. Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner." While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom. Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley. He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.
This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s. But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area. At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story. I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:
Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m. Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around." "I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops. "I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.
The gameplay looked like this. Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982 Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982 Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984 Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989 Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003
Flatten the Curve. Part 84. Who are the What If Men. What is the People Machine? They Have Been Manipulating Society Using Simulations for a Long Time. The Worst is Yet to Come.
Previous Post Here Rock the vote! Power to the people! Get out and vote. Every vote counts. And the beat goes on. And on. And on. And on. And we buy it. Hook. Line. And sinker. Don't we? But, we live in a democracy! Yep. Sure do. We vote and then they do whatever they have planned. Seriously. Guantanamo Bay? Still there. Rich getting richer? Still happening. Gain of function testing on viruses? Still happening. Nafta? Who actually voted? No. One. Big bank bailouts? No choice. Get it? The illusion of choice is all it takes to pacify the masses. That's it. Our votes are the placebo effect. Do some of us notice? Yes. A few. For all the good that does us. So why are they able to get away with it? Surely at some point we would have noticed. Well we did notice, and they adjusted, and we're still living with the consequences. When did we notice? The Vietnam War. All the pictures of body bags and all the reports of the horrors of war were too much. We questioned why? The answer wasn't good enough. An economic system. Sure they tried to convince us back then that it was because human rights and liberty. Ok. Then we fast forward to present day and we trade with Vietnam. But nobody says, HEY! AREN'T THEY EVIL COMMUNISTS! No. One. Why? Because those in charge learned. All the images of war changed. Now we only see video game targets on screen. Now we only hear of all the amazing technology making war so advanced! War has become a Walt Disney production. Sanitized for the masses. How did they do it? How? Simple. They know in advance what stimulus will have the greatest effect on us, and what effect that stimulus will be. How? Simulations. And it's been going on for a very long time.
Simulations and Scenarios
In this scenario, we don’t want to marginalize the more extreme candidates, but make them more ‘Pied Piper’ candidates who actually represent the mainstream of the Republican Party,” read the memo. “Pied Piper candidates include, but aren’t limited to: • Ted Cruz. • Donald Trump. • Ben Carson. We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to [take] them seriously."
Oh. Ok. So Crooked Hillary's team wanted to pump up Trump. Let me say that again, Pump Up Trump (sounds like a new sex toy, doesn't it? I'll get my people to call your people and lets make this happen. It'll be huge and people will love getting screwed by it!). And then it gets worse.
“Just like everybody, I thought this was a Bush against a Clinton, that’s all it was going to be,” said former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. “When I saw the first set of debates, I would turn them on in an entertainment mode to see what Donald’s going to say today. It was funny." Source Here
Trump is funny. Ha. Ha. Ha. Let's get in some of that new Reality TV show called The Political Apprentice. Right. So is Trump a part of something nefarious? Or is he fighting the Deep State? But what if the answer is more complicated than that? What if all the peices are moved, including President's, on purpose, and with a plan? Crazy? Surely that's just plain nonsense and there's no way that could happen, right? Well, let me show you some additional things before the Internet of Things is in everything and we can't do anything.
They Pick, You Vote, Don't Matter. They Already Know.
What? Preposterous you say? Let's travel back to JFK and the People Machine.
Consider the strange trajectory of the Simulmatics Corporation, founded in New York City in 1959. (Simulmatics, a mash-up of ‘simulation’ and ‘automatic’, meant then what ‘artificial intelligence (AI)’ means now.) Its controversial work included simulating elections — just like that allegedly ‘pioneered’ by the now-defunct UK firm Cambridge Analytica on behalf of UK Brexit campaigners in 2015 and during Donald Trump’s US presidential election campaign in 2016. Journalists accused Trump’s fixers of using a “weaponized AI propaganda machine” capable of “nearly impenetrable voter manipulation”. New? Hardly. Simulmatics invented that in 1959. They called it the People Machine. As an American historian with an interest in politics, law and technology, I came across the story of the Simulmatics Corporation five years ago when researching an article about the polling industry. Polling was, and remains, in disarray. Now, it’s being supplanted by data science: why bother telephoning someone to ask her opinion when you can find out by tracking her online? Wondering where this began took me to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, to the unpublished papers of political scientist Ithiel de Sola Pool. Simulmatics, hired first by the US Democratic Party’s National Committee in 1959 and then by the John F. Kennedy campaign in 1960, pioneered the use of computer simulation, pattern detection and prediction in American political campaigning. The company gathered opinion-poll data from the archives of pollsters George Gallup and Elmo Roper to create a model of the US electorate.
Lasswell, whose research on communication purported to explain how ideas get into people’s heads: in short, who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect? During the Second World War, Lasswell studied the Nazis’ use of propaganda and psychological warfare. When those terms became unpalatable after the war ended, the field got a new name — mass-communications research. Same wine, new bottle. Like Silicon Valley itself, Simulmatics was an artefact of the cold war. It was an age obsessed with prediction, as historian Jenny Andersson showed in her brilliant 2018 book, The Future of the World. At MIT, Pool also proposed and headed Project ComCom (short for Communist Communications), funded by the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Its aim, in modern terms, was to try to detect Russian hacking — “to know how leaks, rumors, and intentional disclosures spread” as Pool described it.
Isn't that odd? Computers making predictions back in 1960. Computers analyzing human behavior in order to predict human behaviours and control the election outcome. And the scientist who it all started with came from MIT. And we wonder how all that Jeffrey Epstein money was spent.
The press called Simulmatics scientists the “What-If Men”, because their work — programming an IBM 704 — was based on endless what-if simulations. The IBM 704 was billed as the first mass-produced computer capable of doing complex mathematics. Today, this kind of work is much vaunted and lavishly funded. The 2018 Encyclopedia of Database Systems describes ‘what-if analysis’ as “a data-intensive simulation”. It refers to it as “a relatively recent discipline”. Not so. Buoyed by the buzz of Kennedy’s election, Simulmatics began an advertising blitz. Its 1961 initial stock offering set out how the company would turn prediction into profit — by gathering massive data, constructing mathematical models of behavioural processes, and using them to simulate “probable group behaviour”.
Do you really think these What-If Men are done and gone, set out to pasture like the cattle they manipulate? Really? Seriously. No. Obviously not. Or there wouldn't be such a fuss about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Same Crap. Different Flies. Only know there are more flies and the crap pile is bigger.
In 1963, on behalf of the Kennedy administration, Simulmatics simulated the entire economy of Venezuela, with an eye to halting the advance of socialism and communism. A larger project to undertake such work throughout Latin America, mostly designed by Pool and known as Project Camelot (Project Camelot, where have I heard that before?), became so controversial that the next president, Lyndon B. Johnson, dismantled it (sure he did). After 1965, Simulmatics conducted psychological research in Vietnam as part of a bigger project to use computers to predict revolutions. Much of this work built on earlier research by Lasswell and Pool, identifying and counting keywords, such as ‘nationalism’, in foreign-language newspapers that might indicate the likelihood of coups. Such topic-spotting is the precursor to Google Trends. Before his early death in 1984, Pool was also a key force behind the founding of the most direct descendant of Simulmatics, the MIT Media Lab. Pool’s work underlies the rules — or lack of them — that prevail on the Internet. Pool also founded the study of “social networks” (a term he coined); without it, there would be no Facebook. Pool’s experiences with student unrest at MIT — and especially with the protests against Simulmatics — informed his views on technological change and ethics. Look forward. Never look back. Source Here
Unrest and protest at MIT against Simulmatics. I guess you could call it Rage Against the Machine. Maybe we should ask Jeffery Epstein if that's a good name? He did invest a lot of money into the MIT Media lab, after all. Surely he has an opinion on it. Too bad he killed himself. Snicker. Look forward. Never back. That sounds suspiciously like a No Regrets policy, doesn't it? The ends justify the means. Let's hurry up and get those vaccines out. We can test for them along the way. It's all good.
Decades before Facebook and Google and Cambridge Analytica and every app on your phone, Simulmatics’ founders thought of it all: they had the idea that, if they could collect enough data about enough people and write enough good code, everything, one day, might be predicted—every human mind simulated and then directed by targeted messages as unerring as missiles. For its first mission, Simulmatics aimed to win the White House back for the Democratic Party. The University of California political theorist Eugene Burdick had worked for Greenfield in 1956, but decided not to join Simulmatics. Instead, he wrote a novel about it. In “The 480,” a political thriller published in 1964, a barely disguised “Simulations Enterprises” meddles with a U.S. Presidential election. “This may or may not result in evil,” Burdick warned. “Certainly it will result in the end of politics as Americans have known it.” That same year, in “Simulacron-3,” a science-fiction novel set in the year 2034, specialists in the field of “simulectronics” build a People Machine—“a total environment simulator”—only to discover that they themselves don’t exist and are, instead, merely the ethereal, Escherian inventions of yet another People Machine. After that, Simulmatics lived on in fiction and film, an anonymous avatar. In 1973, the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder adapted “Simulacron-3” into “World on a Wire,” a forerunner of the 1999 film “The Matrix,” in which all of humanity lives in a simulation, trapped, deluded, and dehumanized.
The Matrix? A people machine. A Total Environment Simulator. Yikes. That sounds extremely far fetched, doesn't it. Trapped. Deluded. And. Drumroll please. Dehumanized.
In 1967 and 1968, at home, Simulmatics attempted to build a race-riot-prediction machine. In 1969, after antiwar demonstrators called Pool a war criminal, the People Machine crashed; in 1970, the company filed for bankruptcy. (Most of its records were destroyed; I stumbled across what remains, in Pool’s papers, at M.I.T.) Source Here
A race riot machine that apparently failed? And look what happened nine months ago? Coincidence? Foreign power information warfare? AI training wheels? Kinda scary, ain't it? And guess what? We're not done yet.
Ithiel de Sola Pool
So the Simulmatics Corporation was responsible for this;
Sept 17, 2020 • In 1960, media reports of dark forces behind John F Kennedy’s winning presidential campaign caused what Jill Lepore calls a “national hullabaloo”. America’s new leader, it was widely reported, had clinched the victory with the help of a “secret weapon”: a super computer that crunched troves of data to profile voters, allowing Kennedy to better target his political messaging before the polls opened.
And now let's look deeper at somebody who worked at the Simulmatics Corporation, Ithiel de Sola Pool.
For all of Simulmatics’ efforts at automating prediction, it is company executive Ithiel de Sola Pool, an MIT academic with a focus on social networks, who in Lepore’s telling proves to be the most accurate prediction machine — foreseeing the “data-mad and near-totalitarian twenty-first century” that he was instrumental in helping to create. “In the coming atomised society, the information the citizen gets will arise from his own specific concerns,” he wrote in 1968, predicting a communications revolution, “customised news feeds” and the dismantling of party politics for a “politics of self, every citizen a party of one”. Source Here
That's extremely prescient. Did he predict the future or make it? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Don't matter. Don't care. Not at all. Because the end result is the same, So what more can we find out about de Sola Pool? How about the fact that he studied Nazis and Communists? Heck, he studied totalitarianist speeches to figure out how words could carry power and influence. Over us. Overload us. But how unethical was Pool? Well, the guy who risked everything to bring us the Pentagon Papers (the papers that proved the Gulf of Tomkins incident was a false flag) thought this: Daniel Ellsberg would later say of Pool, “I thought of him as the most corrupt social scientist I had ever met, without question.” Not cool. Definitely. Not. Cool. Because if you naively believe that Pool’s research isn't being used by the Technocrats today, then more power to you. Believe what you want. Or should I say, believe what they want. And who are "they"? They are the Rockefeller's and Rothschilds, the Technocrats, the World Economic Forum, the Bilderberg Group, CIA, NSA, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Speaking of which.
At that point in his (Pool’s) career, he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, advising several countries around the world. Pool felt that the world was underestimating the importance of communications and technical change. Source Here
Oops. Pool was a member of the CFR advising several countries around the world. Ok. Next step.
2004 • The transformation of the United States into a power able and willing to take a leading role in world affairs was not achieved solely through policy changes in Washington, DC, let alone simply by changes in the structure of world power. This chapter examines the vital role of the CFR in transforming American public opinion from ‘isolationist’ to ‘globalist’ as an important aspect of America’s rise to globalism. In this regard, the Council focused its energies to undermine and marginalise isolationism while promoting its own internationalist views as the best means to achieve the American national interest. Source Here
So if a bunch of unelected officials are officially changing policy, why do you vote? Rock the vote? Don't make me laugh. More like Don't Rock the Boat. They started running simulations back in the sixties. Remember, Nixon was the odds on favorite to win. Kennedy was a long shot. And then, Kennedy was the President. Nixon probably wasn't happy. After all, he was part of the power structure. He went to Bohemian Grove. And then he had the rug pulled out from underneath him. And what did he end of calling Bohemian Grove attendees? A bunch of fags. Oops. Who pissed in his cornflakes? They run simulations. Then they have different scenarios that dictate policy. Then they use the CFR, the WEF, the Rockefeller Group, and other NGO'S to adapt and shape future policy decisions to steer society. Heck. They probably even use the Mickey Mouse Club at this point.
November 21, 1971 • Of the first 82 names on a list prepared to help President Kennedy staff his State Department, 63 were Council members. Kennedy once com plained, “I'd like to have some new faces here, but all I get is the same old names.” Source Here
So a "People Machine" helped get JFK "elected" and his State Department list was mostly comprised of Council members. It's starting to look more and more like our heads of state are manipulated just like us, doesn't it? Let's jump back into the Pool one more time.
In 1965, he wrote "The Kaiser, the Tsar, and the Computer," an essay about a computer-simulated international crisis. Later, his interest in quantitative analysis and communications would contribute to computer models to study human behavior.
Computer Models aren't Playboy Centerfolds
It doesn't matter who gets voted in. They may think they're in charge. They may go along. Or they may think they're making changes. But, I guarantee you the changes they make are the changes those behind the scenes want. Even if our leaders know it or not. No way! Thats crazy! Insane! Ok. Sure. But remember this, in a world of insanity, a sane man is always perceived as being insane. So let's dive into the DEEP END OF THE POOL and see what we can find.
October 2, 2019 • With AI, the models suddenly become more realistic. “One of the things that has changed is an acceptance that you really can model humans,” says F. LeRon Shults, director of the Center for Modeling Social Systems at the University of Agder in Norway. “Our agents are cognitively complex. They are simulated people with genders, ages and personalities. They can get married, have children, get divorced. They can get a job or get fired, they can join groups, they can die. They can have religious beliefs. They’re social in the way humans are. They interact with each other in social networks. They learn from each other, react to each other and to the environment as a whole.”
Hold on. Agent's are cognitively complex? That's scary, isn't it? And this is a very strange situation we find ourselves in, isn't it? Agents. Simulations. Viruses. Sentinels. Didn't they try and block out the sun? Ahem. Bill Gates. And I've read that originally the script didn't have humanity as batteries, but instead used humans as their RAM. In other words, we we're used for our brains ability to think. More on this in an upcoming post. Just think about it for now.
Final Thoughts
The what if men and the people machine. They model society and we see what they want us to see. Kind of like the model in the Matrix wearing the red dress. We're too busy looking for danger everywhere but where we should look. And that's a mistake. This is why we can't dismiss anything. We have to question everything. In the previous post I said that it was called the Sentinel World Simulation. I found the article. I made a mistake. It's called the Sentient World Simulation. Words matter. Always. But I still don't think my mistake alters what's going on. We are being steered by an unseen group. And this is why China + Russia + USA are heading towards a cliff. He who controls AI controls humanity. But who controls who? More soon.
I think this is my first post here. Long time lurker, but a shame it had be this kind of post. Welp, that's it folks. All the BTC I had to to my name has been stolen on 11/13. After checking my wallet a couple of days ago, I noticed an unfamiliar transaction that sent my remaining Bitcoins to some address on 11/13. Not sure if it's a good idea to post the transaction ID, but I suppose I could if it sheds light on anything. After I saw this, a rush of emotions came over me - despair, hopelessness, I had a pit in my stomach that was so dense, I nearly wanted to throw up. I could barely eat or sleep the day after. Even though it's been a few days now, those feelings are still very strong and I feel they probably will be for a long time. I keep waking up and checking the wallet hoping it's some sort of mistake, but it's real unfortunately. It took a while for me to process through the situation just enough to put some thoughts together for this post, but I guess the point of this post is two fold:
It's a bit cathartic for me to be able to get some thoughts out
I hope that other people learn from my mistake - coin holders need to take security seriously. Be patient, learn about security of your coins, and enact what you learn. Be diligent. Convenience is an enemy of security.
The coins I had were originally mined back some time in 2013 if I remember correctly. I really had no idea what I was doing at the time, but a friend turned me on to mining and I figured why not, may as well put my GPUs to use for something else while I wasn't gaming. When he first told me about mining, I thought hmm - I bet all this computing power is going to something like helping the government crack into things, but after some light reading on Bitcoin - it stood out to me as something special, so I decided to do some research, joined a pool and started mining some coins not long after. Over the years, I sort of forgot about them and they stayed within my Bitcoin core wallet what I had used originally when mining, but three to four years ago my interest in the technology renewed and I really started reading more into the details of the technology and talking about it with coworkers. However, after some time I noticed that the Bitcoin core client was becoming quite cumbersome having to store all of the blockchain data and I had moved on to laptops with less storage available than my old desktop and so I started looking at some of the more modern wallets and landed on Electrum. I started using Electrum and it seemed to do the job well for what a wallets was designed for. I guess it's my mistake for not keeping up with the real (security related) news surrounding Bitcoin and wallets and various hacks and scams. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure I fell victim to a phishing attack vector within the Electrum wallet and possibly was led to download an update from a location other than the main site (github releases section seems to be faintly a thing that I remember). It was either this, or maybe my system was compromised some other way - either way it's a painful lesson in how not keep your coins secure. I really should have just put my coins into cold/offline storage. It's a real shame, I was really proud of owning these coins having mined them originally myself and I was hoping one day that I could split them between my two sons when they were old enough to understand and appreciate the technology in 18-20 years and who knows how widespread the technology and understanding will be by then. I feel like I failed them. I'm not really sure where to go from here, still trying to work through that. I've definitely been reading up more on security and how to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again should I find my way back into crypto. I wish I would have taken security more seriously up front, it ended up being a very costly mistake not doing so. I don't have nearly the disposable income to get back what I have lost. At the current price, it'd take years upon years, and it's highly unlikely that the price will retreat significantly. However, I truly still do believe in the technology, I just find it a bit sad that the main way to participate now is to convert USD to BTC - I wish mining was still a thing for the average person. Stay diligent and vigilant people, don't become lax like me. Read up on methodologies and practices for keeping your coins secure. Be patient and take the time to make sure things are done right. If this post helps even one person to take their coins more seriously and read up on better security, then I suppose it would be worth it getting these thoughts out. I wouldn't wish the feelings that I've experienced over the past couple of days on anyone, they are truly feelings of despair and regret. EDIT 1 (12/7): Posting the TxID seems to be a popular request. Here it is: b54a451c19e0a5e69c9c9bc0073d2499118bf574da254937ee698996f58181fb I tried following it myself, but I'm not a blockchain expert, but from what I'm seeing they redistributed the funds through many other wallets which I guess is a common tactic to reduce chance of being tracked. Note that when I got back into the technology 3-4 years ago and talking about it with coworkers, I was made aware of other chain forks and did claim some BCH, BitcoinGold, Clams, and BSV - I followed guides for moving the funds to new wallets after having to give up my private keys. It should only be a couple of hops (4-5?) to see that these were mined back in 2013 or so. All in all, I had mined around 4 total, but traded some away when I got back into it 3-4 years ago around the time altcoins started gaining popularity. EDIT 2 (12/7): Thanks all for the responses. I enjoy reading them all, even the critical ones (as those are the ones that help you grow). I posted this right before I went to sleep last night which is why I was slow to respond to comments and post the TxID. First, I'm not looking for pity here - I realize the mistakes I made are purely my own. First - I should have done my due diligence and researched hardware wallets more seriously. I've always been leery and untrustful of USB devices which is why I irrationally dismissed hardware wallets previously. Painful lesson, but you bet I'll be investing in one of these now for any future crypto holdings. I also made a grave mistake of keeping my wallet on a machine that I used daily for other activities, these are the kind of things that should not be taken lightly and if there's anyone else out there doing this now - stop - read up on better security methodologies like hardware wallets or at the VERY LEAST setting up a separate system/environment purely for your wallet.
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One hat says to the other, "You stay here, I’ll go on a head." How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? Ten tickles. When does a farmer dance? When he drops the beet. When the scientist wanted to clone a deer, he bought a doe it yourself kit. If people ask how many puns I made in Germany I reply, "nein" Did you hear about the invention of the white board? It was remarkable. If Donald Trump becomes president, America is going toupee. Can February March? No, but April May. I hate Russian Dolls, they are so full of themselves. What do you do to an open wardrobe? You closet. The magazine about ceiling fans went out of business due to low circulation. So what if I don’t know what apocalypse means? It’s not the end of the world! Some aquatic mammals at the zoo escaped. It was otter chaos. A backwards poem writes inverse. Getting the ability to fly would be so uplifting. I asked my friend, Nick, if he had 5 cents I could borrow. But he was Nicholas. The soundtrack for Blackfish was orcastrated. Where do you imprison a skeleton? In a rib cage. There’s a fine line between the numerator and the denominator. I used to work at a hairdresser but i just wasn’t cut out for it. Why is metal and a microwave a match made in heaven? When they met, sparks flew. The lumberjack loved his new computer. He especially enjoyed logging in. Garbage collectors are rubbish drivers! When the church relocated it had an organ transplant. Lettuce take a moment to appreciate this salad pun. The scarecrow get promoted because he was outstanding in his field. Sleeping comes so naturally to me, I could do it with my eyes closed. I never understood odorless chemicals, they never make scents. What do prisoners use to call each other? Cell phones. Why was dumbo sad? He felt irrelephant. When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds. Old skiers never die. They just go down hill. Did you hear about the pun that was actually funny? Neither have we. You know why I like egg puns? They crack me up! Want to hear a pun about ghosts? That's the spirit! I used to make clown shoes… which was no small feat. Did you hear about the human cannonball? Too bad he got fired! What happened when the magician got mad? She pulled her hare out! Did you hear about the circus that caught on fire? It was in tents. The one day of the week that eggs are definitely afraid of is Fry-day. A hen will always leave her house through the proper eggs-it. The man who ate too many eggs was considered to be an egg-oholic. All the hens consider the chef to be very mean because he beats the eggs. Eskimos keep all of their chilled eggs inside of the egg-loo. Under the doctor’s advice, the hen is laying off eggs for a few weeks. I had a real problem making a hard-boiled egg this morning until I cracked it. The best time of day to eat eggs is at the crack of dawn. The chicken coop only had 2 doors since if it had 4 doors it would be a sedan. Crossing a cement mixer and a chicken will result in you getting a brick layer. That reckless little egg always seems to egg-celerate when he sees the light turn yellow. Hopefully this egg pun doesn't make your brain too fried or scrambled. Don't ever have multiple people wash dishes together. It's hard for them to stay in sink. People using umbrellas always seem to be under the weather. I dissected an iris today. It was an eye-opening experience. What was Forrest Gump’s email password? 1forrest1. What planet is like a circus? Saturn, it has three rings! Before my father died he worked in a circus as a stilt walker. I used to look up to him. Why did the lion eat the tightrope walker? He wanted a well-balanced meal! I really look up to my tall friends. I hate negative numbers and will stop at nothing to avoid them. Long fairy tales have a tendency to dragon. It takes guts to make a sausage.
Short Answer: You can often find Coinstar machines at large retail and grocery store chains, and some banks also have coin counter machines. Alternatively, you may opt to use your coins in the self-checkout lane or find a bank that takes rolled coins. See the full list of places where you can cash in your coins below. City Market. City Market supermarket is located in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. They offer money services, including check cashing, paying bills, buy money orders, no-contract wireless, and prepaid cards. Call your grocery location to verify a free coin counting machine nearby. A directory of banks and businesses that provide access to coin counting machines. FreeCoinMachines.com - Find a Free Coin Counter Near You! Toggle navigation FreeCoinMachines.com While most national banks don’t offer coin counting machines, you can still find them in many regional and local banks and credit unions. If you’re a bank customer, this service is often free. You can also exchange your coins for dollars using Coinstar kiosks at supermarkets and big-box stores around the country. The map is provided by Google and shows the exact locations of the closest Bitcoin ATM’s to you. About Bitcoin ATM’s. Bitcoin is a growing digital currency and the interest around it is getting bigger and bigger, the bitcoin machine helps users and investors buy and sell cryptocurrency and exchange it with cash, you can use the ATM for bitcoins to get your own now. Genesis Coin (5771) General Bytes (4168) BitAccess (1493) Coinsource (1121) Lamassu (625) All producers; Countries. United States (12789) Canada (1194) United Kingdom (220) Austria (148) Spain (118) Bitcoin ATM Near Me Search. Select operation: Buy Sell Select cryptocurrency: Bitcoin Banks With Coin Counting Machines in Pittsburgh on YP.com. See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for the best Banks in Pittsburgh, PA. Learn which banks offer coin-counting machines and the fees that customers and non-customers have to pay and compare them to serviced offered at supermarkets. Turn coins into cash, NO FEE gift cards, or donations at Coinstar. Find a kiosk location in a grocery store near you.
COIN CASTLE Inside The High Limit Coin Pusher Jackpot ASMR ...
Visit the official site: http://itv.com/xfactorTalk about fashion sense. The Judges got more than they bargained for when Lorna Bliss graced the X Factor sta... Watch to the END to see how much MONEY WE WIN!GET YOUR OLIGHT HERE: https://olight.idevaffiliate.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=318COIN CASTLE Inside The High Limi... Follow my TWITTER @micmetv // Follow my INSTAGRAM @micme_tvMerch store: http://micmetv.cujographyx.comToday I go to the coin pusher. It is filled with $100 d... Hey lovlies! So Enchanted Castle is an arcade I grew up with back in the day. It was awesome to see how much it's changed since I was a kid. Some of the ... Where do you find Coin Pusher that PAY REAL MONEY Near You? I list places to find out, and tips when looking for Money Coin Pushers!Sunday April 2 come check... Today I play the Coin Pushers at the Great Canadian Midway Arcade in Niagara Falls Canada! After trying my luck on a view of them, I stumble across Disco Fev... Featured in this clip is HD stock video footage of a coin laundry mat w/ industrial washing machines and commercial dryers. You'll see both stand up & conve... Follow my TWITTER @micmetv // Follow my INSTAGRAM @micme_tvMerch store: http://micmetv.cujographyx.comToday Carson Claws, Claw Craziness, and MicMe TV all go... Today I am at the newest location for the High Risk Coin Pusher and I found these amazing prizes inside it!Please check out our Merchandise and become huge H... In this arcade experiment we take a coin pusher vs a magnet to see what will happen. I also show you a hidden secret you'll never see in an arcade coin pushe...
