Finished writing my personal statement, and wanted some feedback before I try to submit my MD only app this month.
Profile:
cGPA: 3.81 (upward trend)
sGPA: 3.95
MCAT: 518
State of Residence: NY
ORM, white male
T100 state school, Biochemistry major, anthropology minor
Taking CASPER early June, no PREview.
ECs:
50 hrs Research Award-winning poster
Acknowledgment in publication, no author credits
170 hrs Shadowing immunology/dermatology
200 hrs hospital transport/emergency department volunteering (not sure if I should count this but I started working at the same hospital I did in high school after hiatus due to COVID. Should I carry high school hours over?)
40 hrs non-clinical volunteering (H4H, school club affiliated)
500 hrs Lead school-affiliated tutor
225 hrs Intro bio TA
400 hrs camp counselor Treasurer for medical and chemistry clubs
LORs: 1 from science professor I TA'd for 1 from major dept prof 1 from minor dept prof 3 from doctors I shadowed/did research with
School List:
Reach
Boston University
Brown Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
NYU Grossman
University of Pittsburgh
Yale
Target
Albert Einstein
Hofstra
Mount Sinai
NYMC
Stony Brook
Thomas Jefferson University
University of Miami
University of Rochester
Tufts
"Safer"
Albany Medical College
Buffalo
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Drexel
Eastern Virginia Medical School
FAU
Geisinger
George Washington
Georgetown
Hackensack Meridian
Quinnipiac
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Penn State
SUNY Downstate
SUNY Upstate
Temple
UConn
University of Vermont
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Tech

The Americans have spent a few centuries and various city states have risen. They are disunited and their idea of what was America has blurred over time.
Here are some description on the various cultures that I’m working on:
Amerikajin - the believe that the imperial president residing in the white palace in Washintokyō is the true successor of the presidency. From the first Kami Ojala, the founder George Washington to the current presidential emperor. Of all the Americans they are the strangest but the most innovative. They rediscovered gunpowder and steam engines are not that far away.
The Caliphornyans - they believe that the Caliph residing in Alhamtramk is the true spiritual leader of the Americans. From the Jinn Ojala, Prophet Muham, the founding Caliph George Washington to the current Caliph. They believe in the right to bare arms and are the biggest suppliers of weapons to the National Alliance Trade Organization (NATO). They are pious and see themselves as the protectors of the other American City States.
Mericans - Descendants of various peoples (among them politicians) they rule over the city of Washington Columbia. They are talented and cunning traders and politicians. They are also the most elitist with a desire to see the ruling families rule over a united centralized American Republic. They are like a Noble Republic similar to those of medieval Italy. They pay lip service to both the Caliph and the Imperial Presidency.
Newyoricuans - the least industrialized and centralized of American countries. They are kind hearted and the most democratic. Really talented farmers, lacking in military they weaponize the farm industry to gain political leverage over other city states. Their leader is called a governor and they would also like to see other states become more democratic.
Losians - their city (Los) is the only true multicultural metropolis in the new American homeland. Artist, gamblers, actors, dreamers and criminal triads (Yakuza) from Washintokyō call this their home. Probably the most immoral of all places. Their home is partly inspired on the darker side of L.A. and Las Vegas.
Sunshiners - crazy swamp people. Tamed the local wildlife using their fist, they fish using their own thumb as bait. They live in isolation. Meditate under orange trees and are at war with the Dixi. They don’t worship Ojala opting for the Kami and the Jinns living in the swamps and their orange trees. Probably the most mysterious of all the groups.
This one won’t be an option but I’m including it for the sake of context.
Dixie - they come from the mountainous state of Dixieland. Ignored by all and disliked for their supremacist tendencies. They hate the Caliphornyans, Sunshiners and the Amerikajin. Partially tolerate the Newyoricuans and the Mericans. Would raze Los to the ground if they had the numbers. Probably the smallest of states and the hardest one to get to. As a result they haven’t been conquered by any of their neighbors that are in the NATO alliance.
I’ll mold the world based on the first, second and third option.
Poll link: https://www.reddit.com/useGot_Milf_Commercial/comments/13xh98u/just_a_poll_on_the_world_im_working_on/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1

When we first added my sisters boyfriend to our phones family plan, he didn't pay his portion of the bill for the first 6 months. The bill automatically comes out of my bank account and I assumed he was paying his portion himself on his own accord somehow. I wasn't keeping track at the time. I finally noticed he wasn't paying it, I addressed it, and he paid me back.
This has become an exhausting pattern. Low to zero communication, late payments and overdraft fees. I've expressed to him that I'm not okay with this and it continues to happen again and again. He always pays me back but I feel like it could be 1000% easier than this.
My parents pay on time. My sister pays her own single portion (usually on time), or she will have her boyfriend pay for her portion along with his portion (40-50% on time). He'll also say that he'll pay with PayPal only to give me cash, that he'd pay on THIS date and actually pays on THAT date, and often not paying at all until I bring it up to him. I guess that's what bothers me the most. I know things come up but I'm not a doormat.
I told him that this stuff is really hard for me. Mentally, financially, physically- It's hard for me to even get to my physical bank because it's 30 minutes away, that I get it if stuff comes up but asked him to just let me know. I've told him how my direct deposit and the bill don't always line up well for me, leaving me with overdraft fee's, and how paying on time would really help. I just get a canned, "Sorry! Won't happen again" kind of response.
I finally told my whole family in January-ish after working on this with my therapist, that I was getting my own plan if this kept happening. There wasn't much conversation about this between me, my sister and her boyfriend. Talking to my mom, it was my understanding that they didn't want to deal with this either and that they would go on a new phone plan with me.
Well, this kept happening.. In May, I finally asked my sister to release our phone numbers. So then my sister yells at my mom about my mom always taking my side. Then my mom yells at me ("what have you done!!??") for executing what I understood was the plan we agreed upon. My mom told me that the phone carrier told my sister that I've been "ripping them off for months" now and that my sister asked "why can't she just remove auto pay." The reason being that my mom didn't want the same thing to happen to her or our autopay discount to be removed, I don't know if my mom told my sister that.
So now my parents stayed on the original plan, have autopay set up with their bank account and this same thing will happen to them instead of me and I have my own plan now. I feel like the price increase is worth it, that I tried my best and it just didn't work out. I think I acted with integrity and did what I said I would but I don't know, I have this sinking feeling that I'm the asshole here. Am I expecting too much??

This is possibly the final update to my series of previous posts, "$500k the boring way", “$250k the boring way”, and my original post, "$100k the boring way". Those older posts have all the details but I will attempt to summarize. Also I just wanted to say that I really wanted to make the title "$1000K the boring way" but didn't have enough confidence.

Summary

Reached $1M net worth from a starting point less than -$100k in roughly 11 years, mostly through consistent saving. Net worth chart included below. All salary numbers are gross.

Quick^ish Recap

My wife and I are both 34 and live in the Pacific Northwest. We met when we were 24 and I estimate at the time that we had a combined net worth of close to -$120k. I’m an engineer (EE) and my wife is a public school employee.
On our journey to $500k net worth we:

• Both got graduate degrees.
• Found new jobs and moved from Midwest to PNW to be closer to family.
• Progressed our careers and salaries: $67k to $126k for me and $54k to $90k back down to $70k (part time) for my wife.
• Bought a house and refi'd it twice.
• Received $18k of student loan forgiveness.
• Had two babies.

Updates

It's been a while since my last post - it was definitely weird going back and reading through these previous snapshots of our life. The $500k update was posted in Dec 2020 and even though the pandy had been going on for a bit, (as we all know) we were in for a much longer ride than anticipated.
 
2021: I think it's telling that I had a lot of trouble trying to remember things that happened this year. I hate to call it a lost year because I'm extremely grateful for the extra time I got to spend with my young kids - we really just didn't do much due to having said young kids and an abundance of caution. I went through my phone photo highlights from 2021 to try and jog my memory and they all were geotagged at our house or a nearby town.
I actually found this pretty interesting from a financial perspective - on one hand, sure, there were less opportunities for spending on things like restaurants and social activities, and in the comments of my last update I had noted that our cash had built up really quickly basically on accident. On the other hand, the unknowns and challenges surrounding the pandemic and parenting really shifted my mindset around spending. I found it much easier to justify all types of purchases and spending because "well, whatever it takes to get us through this". I wouldn't say we went overboard or anything like that, more like we accepted a healthy amount of lifestyle creep into our lives. We bought the ridiculous inflatable kiddie pool (no it didn't last long), we started adding more "fun" stuff to our cart at the grocery, paid for little subscription services here and there, etc. For my own mental health, I basically completely stopped tracking spending, stocks, our accounts, bills, and most things finance-related (including this sub^{I'm so sorry}). Ultimately I think doing less during the pandemic plus our increased spending was more or less a wash financially.
At work, I officially maxed out on my salary band, so effectively I didn't get a raise. I'm pretty sure the COLA was also nonexistent this year which they blamed on Covid. I got to work 100% remote with no pressure to bring people back, which I really appreciated. With working a bunch of on-call nights and weekends I ended up at $136k for the year. My wife completed her first full year of part-time work which dropped her from $90k to $60k
We did end up buying a new car shortly after my last post in Dec 2020. Went with a Subaru Ascent (sorry to all the minivan fans from the previous comment section) and it turned out to be really lucky timing because we got it for insanely cheap and 0% interest and then the car market went crazy.
Our youngest joined our oldest at daycare in the fall for a total of $2,150/mo.
 
2022: At my job, I was feeling kind of stuck. At this point I had found that some side projects that I took on for "fun" (I did have a genuine interest/passion) had become basically additional full-time positions. I was getting a ton of recognition and accolades for the work I was doing, but no promotion or raise. The culture at my workplace was to protect/gatekeep the top engineering title at all costs, so my successes were constantly met with "you're doing great, just be patient" or "the optics might not look good to the other engineering departments" or various other BS. Ultimately, it made me start to resent my job that I really loved. I let my supervisor know early in the year that my patience was running low and eventually I would be forced to look elsewhere, which he understood.
On one frustrating day in the fall I decided to just have a quick look at the other similar companies in my area and happened upon a job posting that was kind of my dream role (essentially getting to do some of the extra work I had taken on as my full time job and drop the day-to-day stuff). It all happened very quickly after that: I got a call the morning after submitting my resume, then a week later I got a job offer 20 minutes after my interview had concluded. I asked for as much time to decide as possible, gave the offer to my current employer, and they made me wait a long time before coming back and saying they wanted to but couldn't match right now. So I left ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There's a ton more to say on this topic but probably too much for this post as it is so happy to continue down in the comments if people want. The CEO ended up requesting to do a personal exit interview with me, so that was cool.
Otherwise, 2022 was pretty uneventful financially. Obviously the market was down so not a lot of action or visible progress in our net worth journey. Was one of the first "extended" downturn-type period of time I've experienced in the market. I didn't change anything.
We took a much needed family vacay south of the border. Daycare raised prices by a reasonable 5% to $2,250/mo.
 
2023: I started my new job in late Jan, going from $135k total comp to $160k plus a $12k signing bonus and I no longer have to be on-call overnight. I heavily engineered my start date to make sure I was still able to receive a one-time payout my old employer did at the beginning of the year to make up for freezing the salary schedule during Covid. I also had something ridiculous like 700 hours of PTO paid out (RIP my taxes this year).

Side note: I do not recommend saving up as much PTO as I did, go live your life. I was saving aggressively to prep for us having kids, and then the pandemic happened so barely used any for a couple years. Happy accident that my banked PTO ended up getting much more valueable over the years as my salary was increasing rapidly.

Our house is great but as the kids are growing we are thinking it would be nice to have some extra space. We've talked to our realtor and lender to get the process moving but not in any specific rush. We will have to do some upgrades to the house like exterior paint, possibly the roof, deck upgrade (finished ourselves) but those are needed either way so just going to do them in case we decide to enter the market. The idea of getting a new mortgage right now seems so wild to me, but I know you can't time these things. It definitely would hurt to go from 2.875% to 7%. I'm considering exploring just adding on to our current house, but not sure if that's really feasible at this point.
Daycare is now $2,900/mo lol (this is even with our costs going down slightly as our son has aged into the older classroom). It was actually hilarious to me that they sent out a "We won best daycare in the region" announcement followed very shortly by a 30% price increase. It is what it is though - I think this is pretty solidly reasonable for the area.
We took a family trip to Disneyland a couple days before our son turned 3 so that his park entry would still be free. My mindset going into trip planning was "Disney is expensive, so if you want to go, just accept that". We used a few different little tips and tricks for saving money here and there but overall tried not to worry too much about complete optimization. With that attitude we had a great trip and to me at least the memories and moments with my kids were totally worth it. Do the princess breakfast.

Chart

Here is our entire financial journey summed up in one line. Apparently they don't do the thing anymore where it changes color when crossing over from negative to positive, that's a bummer (the first line on the y-axis is $0, not the x-axis). I really thought it would look like more of an exponential curve by now. There aren't really inflection points anymore besides the Covid 2020 drop, when the app would get confused, or accounts would stop updating from time to time, so here are the relevant dates in list form:

• 7/2/15 began tracking net worth.
• 3/29/16 crossed $0! We are worthless!
• 5/24/17 crossed $100k net worth.
• 8/10/18 crossed $200k net worth.
• 6/11/19 crossed $300k net worth.
• 1/17/20 crossed $400k net worth.
• 8/25/20 crossed $500k net worth.
• 12/3/20 crossed $600k net worth.
• 4/7/21 crossed $700k net worth.
• 8/27/21 crossed $800k net worth.
• 3/26/22 crossed $900k net worth.
• 5/1/23 crossed $1M net worth.

I enjoyed watching the time between milestones get shorter and shorter, and then 2022 happened.

Current Finances

• $100k in cash as an e-fund/new house downpayment savings, $6k in an HSA.
• $550k of investments, mostly lazy index 3-fund portfolio.
• $370k equity in our home
• -$10k of student loans remaining

Our savings rate was 40% from 45% one baby and 55% no babies. Now? I have absolutely no idea. Past me and part of current me thinks that's both hilarious and terrifying - who even am I?? I believe it's likely around the 40% mark still. I think part of me doesn't want to figure it out because it might be lower than I was hoping for and stress me out unnecessarily.

Now what

I told my wife the news that we were officially millionaires (that sounds so stupid typing it out) a few days ago and she asked "what does that mean". I said "literally nothing, lol". We are definitively in the "boring middle" phase of retirement savings, and so I don't expect any substantial changes.
When is enough, enough? I really don't know. I still want to retire early, but as I've grown into my career (and very much^mostly enjoyed the work) I've found myself less eager to leave. I think working from home has had a huge impact on this. It's probably time for a sit down with my wife to talk about our next 5-10 years and maybe map out a number that we would feel comfortable with.
It's for sure time to update the budget soon and get that back on track. My oldest will attend kindergarten in the fall, so that will be nice to cut our daycare bill in half. We may never see that money if it ends up going towards a larger mortgage, but I need to get an updated picture of our finances before we can figure out exactly what sort of house we want to afford.
Our student loans are what initially set me down this path of aggressively saving and investing. I find it kind of funny that despite all of our financial accomplishments, we still have not officially paid off our student loans. I'm holding out hope for the student loan bill to go through, so until there is interest being charged again, the last $10k will just sit there.
Not that I think anyone would remember this, but if you read the last post you know I was planning on making a will and getting some life insurance. It's been 2.5 years and I've made zero progress on those fronts, which I realize is terrible and I really need to get on that. Likewise, I still don't have a specific plan for the kids' college beyond "let's just generically save money and we will cash flow college or figure it out".
For my career, I've got one last level to go as an individual contributor in my field. If I stay at my new company, I'm probably a couple years out from achieving it, but I could probably get it as soon as the end of this year if I go back to my old job. That would allow me to end my career in the $200k range which I think is a solid goal.

The End End

Is this my last update ever? Maybe, who knows. Maybe a retirement update is in order many years down the road, but really I don't expect our path to there have anything new or interesting that I haven't already covered (wasn't that the whole point of this series of updates?).
Looking back on this, I like to think that I successfully made our journey to being millionaires as boring as possible. I was inspired at a young age to learn that the possibility of retiring early could be simple and didn't take an overwhelming amount of skill or knowledge. You just had to be as consistent as possible. I'm not to retirement yet, but I believe in the path we are on and I'm hoping someone will find similar inspiration by me just showing the receipts.
Finally, I want to sincerely thank everyone for reading and commenting over the years. As a loooooong time lurker on this sub I was so nervous for my first ever post and the responses I've received since then have been so uplifting and personally motivating. It means a lot. Back to saving and living our life now. See you around!^maybe

Hi all,
Happy Days you lovely Sons of God! Very long story, please jump to the end for results and details.
I wanted to share my success story on how I manifested a job with the exact job title, for the exact pay and conditions (fully remote).
Rambling about details (PART 1)
This is my manieth job successes, but that doesn't mean it gets any easier. I had preconceived notions based on previous job manifestations that I had from my Law of Attraction phase. This was "the perfect opportunity will come to me". But this equally hindered me.
How, you'd ask?
Well, I couldn't get an interview for the life of me by applying to roles directly, I needed them to come to me in the form of recruiters reaching out. Notice, how I couldn't care less about this limiting belief, I just roll with the path of least resistance. No, you don’t have to follow my limiting belief. This assumption also got me my previous contract at a Tier 1 bank with a 6 figure salary – “shockingly” at the bank I wanted to work at.
Rambling about details (PART 2) I Back story:
I was working at my dream job under my ideal conditions (also remote but not officially in writing, separate success story for a later day) with my 6 figure salary. I was remote, barely having to do any work for the money (as I wanted), but as my 6 months contract was coming to its end, I started hating the place, wanting to move on, I didn't like the politics of this side of the corporate world.
Please keep note how I honor my preference here and go with the flow as opposed to change and assume the politics are fine. It's okay when you don't want to micro manage everything in life, and you actually allow yourself to experience SOMETHING NEW AND DIFFERENT, having said that, if you have an inner inclination to assume different of your current circumstances, PLEASE HONOR THAT, as that's what you are "meant" to do. Consult yourself instead of listening to people saying "persist and change your circumstances because it's law of assumption for a reason" or "change your circumstances because xyz". Think and assume what YOU want.
I actually found myself hoping the contract would end at 6 months and wouldn't be extended. This is exactly what happened. They told me 2 months in advance that they won't have the budget to keep me on. If you're a freelance contractor, you'll know how UNLIKELY it is that you get a 2 months heads up about your contract not extending. Nothing shocking here, I purposely affirmed that I'd see it coming if they wouldn't extend me, especially since my partner always told me he'd often find out a week before his contract would end if he'd be extended or not. I said, nope, not in my world! I reminded myself every time he’d mention this statement, but wouldn’t spend too much time on it.
Now, I found out my contract was going to end and naturally I spent 3-4 days sulking and feeling sorry for myself because I was sad to move on, even though I knew deep down I wanted to. I naturally let the feelings pass, cried it out, I didn't force myself to think otherwise, just full on sulked over it. Then as my emotions lifted from actually letting them come and pass through me, I reassured myself I'll find something else.
My choice of METHOD to get into the STATE:
During my free time, I'd tell myself (a.k.a affirm) that I always get jobs back to back. I had never been unemployed, I'm amazing at finding jobs, I'm different than other people, I am just this lucky because I've always been this lucky.
As I begun to naturally remind myself of these statements, I learned of a new technique from my own being, where instead of trying to FORCE myself to feel it's true, I mentally place myself into having it.
I know Neville says “feeling is the secret “, but I’ve actually learned by successfully applying the law is that he means mental feeling, not actual emotions.
Let me explain – he says to mentally place yourself into the feeling of having it. Well for me, the only indicator of having something is a sense of knowing. I can be happy (emotion) about having a job for three days like yay, I got the job, but after a while it’s all natural, I know it in my “mental space “ that I have the job, it’s natural. I don’t wake up with a yay I got the job every morning, so it isn’t my natural state.
I pondered on what a belief is for me, and asked myself, if I feel as if a thing was true or if I have a sense of knowing? Well, I’m an anxiety ridden person with freshly diagnosed ADHD, naturally I feel a shitton of feelings throughout the day, so no, my feelings are not factual. So a belief isn’t an emotion to me, it isn’t a feeling, well then where is it? It is in my mind, is it not? So that’s where I just put my “assuming effort “.
I used to try to force myself to feel the belief in my heart, well I need to feel a lack of feeling (emotion), whilst mentally knowing my assumption is real and true – and then repeat and repeat and repeat.
How do I do it? I breathe out my tension from my heart, as many breaths as a I need (sometimes one, sometimes three, it doesn’t matter and I don’t care how long it takes) and then focus on mentally knowing, mentally repeating until I naturally have the thought ‘yep, this thought checks out’. Then I move on to my remaining assumptions.
The outcome:
I had a recruiter reach out to me within one week of affirming that I have a fully remote job. I wanted it to be an official remote position with ZERO possibility of being called into the office. I was done being told you can work from home (had two separate positions where I literally went in once every 2-3 months), and come in on a need basis, I wanted that sense of security of never going to the office. The recruiter reached out, said they don’t even have an office in the country.
The role was the exact position, more senior than what I have previously held, in the field I wanted, for the money I wanted. That is saying that whilst I even got low balled at the beginning, but negotiated my salary.
I attached a picture of the number of applicants on Linkedin alone, and the odds I beat whilst the recruiter themselves FOUND ME, I didn’t even have to apply.
I set a time limit of securing my role before the end of May – I got the offer letter on May 31st.
I said I will have easy rounds of interviews and the progression will be super fast – I got hired in 5 days and had 3 rounds of interviews super quickly.
I said I will only have one on one interviews, no board interviews – They wanted me to have an interview with the CTO and Head of Ops together, they scheduled it in, by the night before the interview they said Head of Ops can’t make it, only the CTO.
I said a miracle will happen and I will be offered the job on the spot – when I had my final round of interview, the CTO asked my starting date and literally said to me he looks forward to me joining on said date.
I got low balled, I sent my negotiation email after end of day so they wouldn’t respond, to allow myself to sleep as though I had the offer one last time. As I went to sleep, I thought and mentally knew that I will have the response email around 8:30am, I imagined myself signing the contract with said salary, seeing the email that ‘yes, we can extend the budget’. Well, the email came through at 8:08am stating exactly that.
Moral of the story? I beg of you, don’t ever assume anything is too difficult to have or EVER consider the how. You just mentally place yourself into having it and just be comfortable in assuming it’s done even when nothing is showing. Neville isn’t joking when he says DARE TO ASSUME, it really DOES take daring, but I promise you, it works.
FAQ
HoW Do YoU AssUmE MuLTiPLe ThiNGs? Is IT SaTZ?
Well, I work with my ADHD, I can’t do SATs the way Neville teaches. I have never felt a single thing ‘solidly real’, I cannot hold my attention on the repeating of the same affirmation or scene, so I move on from one to another as quickly as I feel comfortable to do so. Sometimes I might be in the mood to affirm just one thing, then I do that. I keep it fluid, the methods are to fit my lifestyle, and not my lifestyle to fit the methods.
The howness of it is that I structure myself, I don’t ‘trust’ my memory, it takes time for ME for new assumptions to stick. I’ve always scripted (since 8 years old, although it was journaling at the time), so I have an outline for my scripting with themes. It helps me to always write about things I want to experience. I also have a set of assumptions (around 15-20) on my note app that I read before sleeping and right after waking up, mentally knowing their reality (as detailed above). After I’ve done a round of that, I will have my FIVE different scenes I run through briefly without ANY effort whilst I repeat the affirmations on the note. ThAt SoUnDs WeIrD anD NoT a NevILLe mEthOD. Yes, but it works with my ADHD brain, I need my attention to be held by multiple things at once, so I work with how my mind works and this works for ME.
WhY wOuLD yOU asSUMe yoU have ADHD, MaNiFEsT HeALth?!
I grow at my own pace just like everyone else. I have always fit the bill for the criteria and never knew a different world. To me, ADHD is not a disability or ‘sickness’, it’s a characteristic to how my mind works. I work with it, not against it, and if it ever comes upon me that my mind changed, trust that it will be at the forefront of my mind until I find evidence of its reality.

Reposting due to new information - Hi all, I am currently receiving some additional income in the UAE from another employer via the Wage Protection System. It's approximately £1,000 a month and I am paying tax on this via my UK company through the PAYE system. I transferred one of these payments on the 5th April 2023 from my UAE bank account (EmiratesNBD) to my UK Bank Account (Natwest). However, the payment never made it to my UK account. I have previously sent funds to this account without any issue. I have also sent money to my Monzo account, again, without any issue. I have had numerous back and forths with Natwest and EmiratesNBD, both will not help me and will not claim any responsibility. EmiratesNBD say that this has successfully left them and have provided me with a Swift MT103 form which they say proves this. I have noticed on the MT103 form that the BIC (2: and 57A:) shows' Lloyds bank and is not correct. My IBAN Number is correct though. They also have said because this has successfully left them, they cannot recall the payment. Natwest have carried out an investigation and have said they have no evidence of having received this payment at all and as such cannot help. So it seems like EmiratesNBD have maybe sent this to Lloyds bank? I have raised complaints with both bank accounts to hopefully resolve this, but I am just going in circles as neither party seem to want to help me. Does anyone have any other advice here as to what I can do? I have paid a good amount on tax for this, of which I have now not received!

Hello I applied for EU residence as a worker nearly two months ago. And I don’t get any information about this application was considered positive or not.
Today finally I manage to call international house of Copenhagen but they told me that they send paper to my house post box but I didn’t get anything.
Also they mentioned that I should have this in my e-Boks but it’s also empty. Even when i told them my cpr number they cannot find this in system. In the conversation they told me that they resend this to me but still k don’t have anything in e-Boks
And I have no ide what I can’t do right now, I need new yellow card with real cpr number and I need this document to set Danish bank account What I can do right now?

What goes up must come down... unless you have diamond hands. Some cracks are beginning to appear in the recent AI stock rally, with C3.ai (AI) plunging 22% AH on Wednesday after giving a disappointing outlook during its FQ4 results. On an earnings call, CEO Tom Siebel added that the company wasn't "inclined to change expectations" surrounding its guidance, compared to the major boost that Nvidia's (NVDA) stock received following its "jaw-dropping guidance" posted last week.
Snapshot: Other AI players and chipmakers also pulled back yesterday following some impressive runups, but the latest movement might suggest that all companies are not equal when it comes to the "AI supercycle." Investors will have some deep learning to do after being consumed by everything AI this year, especially as they sort through the growing list of companies talking up how they've been AI plays all along. The real thing to consider is how much a firm will successfully capitalize and monetize its artificial intelligence offerings after the meme rallies settle down and huge price swings come to a halt.
"The euphoria is rooted in a very promising underlying technology," noted Robert Schein of Blanke Schein Wealth Management. "Even with the recent market euphoria driven by artificial intelligence, the market is sending a clear signal that artificial intelligence is here to stay, as this technology has the potential to overhaul how companies do business, which has major implications for corporate earnings."
Do your homework: As an example, the overwhelming majority of Wall Street experts believe that Nvidia (NVDA) remains a clear Buy. Seeking Alpha's Quant Ratings system views NVDA with a little more skepticism, labeling the stock as a Hold (valuation represents the key headwind, according to the system of grading quantitative measures). SA analysts have also been sizing up the stock in a series of recent articles. See 11 Billion Reasons To Buy Nvidia, And 2.2 Trillion Reasons To Sell, Bulls Are Way Overestimating AI GPU Demand and Unleashing The Power Of Parallel Computing For AI Dominance.
Fiscal Responsibility Act
The U.S. House last night easily passed the debt-ceiling relief deal as the Treasury heads toward a June 5 deadline, after which the government won't have ready funding to pay its bills. The measure now goes to a Senate also working under a tight timetable and preparing for weekend votes. A number of senators have already expressed the wish to amend the bill, meaning it could return to the House for more approval, but the process is expected to get over the finish line in time. With much of the drama in the rear-view mirror, investors have once again set their sights on central bank policymaking, with Fed officials like Patrick Harker and Philip Jefferson calling for a pause this month and assessing the need for future rate hikes thereafter. (104 comments)
Publisher compensation
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is threatening to pull news links from Facebook and Instagram in California if state lawmakers move forward with the "California Journalism Preservation Act." The company responded in a similar fashion after a related proposal was tabled in Congress in December, as well as in Canada, and briefly blocked news links in Australia before brokering a deal with the government there. Among the amendments was a clause stipulating that digital platforms and news groups would be required to mediate for two months before subjecting them to mandatory arbitration. Canberra also agreed to take into account existing commercial agreements and give digital platforms a month's notice before reaching any final decision on the law's application. Will the same happen again? (4 comments)
Doom and gloom update
While attention has been centered on the remote, but disastrous possibility, of the U.S. defaulting on its debt, investors may want to focus more on corporate bonds. Preparation is underway for a wave of defaults in the high-yield credit markets as the boom-and-bust cycle returns in 2023. Deutsche Bank issued its 25th annual Default Report and sees the default rate on U.S. junk debt spiking to a peak of 9% of issuance by the end of 2024 vs. 1.3% in 2022. See how that compares to other cycle highs like the dot-com crash and the Great Financial Crisis. (47 comments)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan +0.8%. Hong Kong -0.1%. China flat. India -0.3%. In Europe, at midday, London +0.5%. Paris +0.8%. Frankfurt +1.1%. Futures at 6:30, Dow +0.1%. S&P +0.2%. Nasdaq +0.1%. Crude -0.2% to $68.22. Gold -0.4% to $1974.40. Bitcoin -0.7% to $26,946. Ten-year Treasury Yield +4 bps to 3.68%
Today's Economic Calendar
7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report 8:15 ADP Jobs Report 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims 8:30 Productivity and Costs 9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index 10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index 10:00 Construction Spending 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory 11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories 1:00 PM Fed's Harker Speech 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
Has 'greedflation' caused corporate profits to increase?
Job openings unexpectedly rise in April, quits rate ticks down
Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX) shareholders reject climate proposals.
U.S. crude oil slumps to 10-week low, down 11% for May.
Pfizer's (PFE) RSV vaccine, Abrysvo, gets a nod from the FDA.
Retail watch: Nordstrom (JWN) gains on unexpected Q1 profit.
Salesforces (CRM) sinks after earnings; so does CrowdStrike (CRWD).
Amazon (AMZN) settles kids' privacy case and Ring spy claims.
Lucid (LCID) to receive $3B from new investors, including Saudi Arabia.
Ford (F) CEO says EV price parity is unlikely until after 2030.

MS-ISAC CYBERSECURITY ADVISORY
MS-ISAC ADVISORY NUMBER: 2023-054
DATE(S) ISSUED: 05/31/2023
SUBJECT: A Vulnerability in Barracuda Email Security Gateway Could Allow for Remote Command Injection
OVERVIEW: A Vulnerability has been discovered in Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) which could allow for remote code injection. Barracuda Email Security Gateway is an email security gateway that manages and filters all inbound and outbound email traffic to protect organizations from email-borne threats and data leaks. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow for unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the server in the context of the System user. Depending on the privileges associated with the user an attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than those who operate with administrative user rights.
THREAT INTELLEGENCE: Barracuda has stated CVE-2023-2868 has been used to impact ESG appliances as early as October 2022. Barracuda has identified a subset of appliances where CVE-2023-2868 was utilized to obtain unauthorized access, deploy backdoors, and deploy malware. Barracuda notified affected customers via the ESG user interface of actions to take and reached out to those specific customers. Finally, Barracuda deployed two patches to remediate the vulnerability which were applied to all ESG appliances worldwide.
SYSTEMS AFFECTED:

• Barracuda Email Security Gateway (appliance form factor only) versions 5.1.3.001-9.2.0.006

RISK: Government:

• Large and medium government entities: High
• Small government entities: Medium

Businesses:

• Large and medium business entities: High
• Small business entities: Medium

Home users: Low
TECHNICAL SUMMARY: A Vulnerability has been discovered in Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) which could allow for remote code injection. Details of this vulnerability are as follows:
Tactic: Execution (TA0041):
Technique: Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059):

• The vulnerability stemmed from incomplete input validation of user supplied .tar files as it pertains to the names of the files contained within the archive. Consequently, a remote attacker could format file names in a particular manner that would result in remotely executing a system command through Perl's qx operator with the privileges of the Email Security Gateway product. (CVE-2023-2868)

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow for unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the server in the context of the System user. Depending on the privileges associated with the user an attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than those who operate with administrative user rights.
RECOMMENDATIONS: We recommend the following actions be taken:

• Ensure your ESG appliance is receiving and applying updates, definitions, and security patches from Barracuda. Contact Barracuda support ([[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])) to validate if the appliance is up to date. (M1051: Update Software)
  
  • Safeguard 7.1: Establish and Maintain a Vulnerability Management Process: Establish and maintain a documented vulnerability management process for enterprise assets. Review and update documentation annually, or when significant enterprise changes occur that could impact this Safeguard.
  • Safeguard 7.2: Establish and Maintain a Remediation Process: Establish and maintain a risk-based remediation strategy documented in a remediation process, with monthly, or more frequent, reviews.
  • Safeguard 7.3: Perform Automated Operating System Patch Management: Perform operating system updates on enterprise assets through automated patch management on a monthly, or more frequent, basis.
  • Safeguard 7.4: Perform Automated Application Patch Management: Perform application updates on enterprise assets through automated patch management on a monthly, or more frequent, basis.
  • Safeguard 7.6: Perform Automated Vulnerability Scans of Externally-Exposed Enterprise Assets: Perform automated vulnerability scans of externally-exposed enterprise assets using a SCAP-compliant vulnerability scanning tool. Perform scans on a monthly, or more frequent, basis.
  • Safeguard 7.7: Remediate Detected Vulnerabilities: Remediate detected vulnerabilities in software through processes and tooling on a monthly, or more frequent, basis, based on the remediation process.
  • Safeguard 12.1: Ensure Network Infrastructure is Up-to-Date: Ensure network infrastructure is kept up-to-date. Example implementations include running the latest stable release of software and/or using currently supported network-as-a-service (NaaS) offerings. Review software versions monthly, or more frequently, to verify software support.
  • Safeguard 18.1: Establish and Maintain a Penetration Testing Program: Establish and maintain a penetration testing program appropriate to the size, complexity, and maturity of the enterprise. Penetration testing program characteristics include scope, such as network, web application, Application Programming Interface (API), hosted services, and physical premise controls; frequency; limitations, such as acceptable hours, and excluded attack types; point of contact information; remediation, such as how findings will be routed internally; and retrospective requirements.
  • Safeguard 18.2: Perform Periodic External Penetration Tests: Perform periodic external penetration tests based on program requirements, no less than annually. External penetration testing must include enterprise and environmental reconnaissance to detect exploitable information. Penetration testing requires specialized skills and experience and must be conducted through a qualified party. The testing may be clear box or opaque box.
  • Safeguard 18.3: Remediate Penetration Test Findings: Remediate penetration test findings based on the enterprise’s policy for remediation scope and prioritization.
• Apply the Principle of Least Privilege to all systems and services. Run all software as a non-privileged user (one without administrative privileges) to diminish the effects of a successful attack. (M1026: Privileged Account Management)
  
  • Safeguard 4.7: Manage Default Accounts on Enterprise Assets and Software: Manage default accounts on enterprise assets and software, such as root, administrator, and other pre-configured vendor accounts. Example implementations can include: disabling default accounts or making them unusable.
  • Safeguard 5.4: Restrict Administrator Privileges to Dedicated Administrator Accounts: Restrict administrator privileges to dedicated administrator accounts on enterprise assets. Conduct general computing activities, such as internet browsing, email, and productivity suite use, from the user’s primary, non-privileged account.
  • Safeguard 5.5: Establish and Maintain an Inventory of Service Accounts: Establish and maintain an inventory of service accounts. The inventory, at a minimum, must contain department owner, review date, and purpose. Perform service account reviews to validate that all active accounts are authorized, on a recurring schedule at a minimum quarterly, or more frequently.
  • Safeguard 6.8: Define and Maintain Role-Based Access Control: Define and maintain role-based access control, through determining and documenting the access rights necessary for each role within the enterprise to successfully carry out its assigned duties. Perform access control reviews of enterprise assets to validate that all privileges are authorized, on a recurring schedule at a minimum annually, or more frequently.
• Restrict use of certain websites, block downloads/attachments, block Javascript, restrict browser extensions, etc. (M1021: Restrict Web-Based Content)
  
  • Safeguard 9.2: Use DNS Filtering Services: Use DNS filtering services on all enterprise assets to block access to known malicious domains.
  • Safeguard 9.3: Maintain and Enforce Network-Based URL Filters: Enforce and update network-based URL filters to limit an enterprise asset from connecting to potentially malicious or unapproved websites. Example implementations include category-based filtering, reputation-based filtering, or through the use of block lists. Enforce filters for all enterprise assets.
  • Safeguard 9.6: Block Unnecessary File Types: Block unnecessary file types attempting to enter the enterprise’s email gateway.
• Block execution of code on a system through application control, and/or script blocking. (M1038 : Execution Prevention)
  
  • Safeguard 2.5 : Allowlist Authorized Software: Use technical controls, such as application allowlisting, to ensure that only authorized software can execute or be accessed. Reassessbi-annually, or more frequently.
  • Safeguard 2.7 : Allowlist Authorized Scripts: Use technical controls, such as digital signatures and version control, to ensure that only authorized scripts, such as specific .ps1, .py, etc., files, are allowed to execute. Block unauthorized scripts from executing. Reassessbi-annually, or more frequently.
• Remove or deny access to unnecessary and potentially vulnerable software to prevent abuse by adversaries. (Mitigation M1042 : Disable or Remove Feature or Program)
  
  • Safeguard 2.3 : Address Unauthorized Software: Ensure that unauthorized software is either removed from use on enterprise assets or receives a documented exception. Review monthly, or more frequently.
  • Safeguard 2.5 : Allowlist Authorized Software: Use technical controls, such as application allowlisting, to ensure that only authorized software can execute or be accessed. Reassessbi-annually, or more frequently.
  • Safeguard 2.7 : Allowlist Authorized Scripts: Use technical controls, such as digital signatures and version control, to ensure that only authorized scripts, such as specific .ps1, .py, etc., files, are allowed to execute. Block unauthorized scripts from executing. Reassessbi-annually, or more frequently.
  • Safeguard 4.1 : Establish and Maintain a Secure Configuration Process: Establish and maintain a secure configuration process for enterprise assets (end-user devices, including portable and mobile, non-computing/IoT devices, and servers) and software (operating systems and applications). Review and update documentation annually, or when significant enterprise changes occur that could impact this Safeguard.
  • Safeguard 4.8 : Uninstall or Disable Unnecessary Services on Enterprise Assets and Software: Uninstall or disable unnecessary services on enterprise assets and software, such as an unused file sharing service, web application module, or service function.
  • Safeguard 18.3 : Remediate Penetration Test Findings: Remediate penetration test findings based on the enterprise’s policy for remediation scope and prioritization.
  • Safeguard 18.5 : Perform Periodic Internal Penetration Tests: Perform periodic internal penetration tests based on program requirements, no less than annually. The testing may be clear box or opaque box.
• Enforce binary and application integrity with digital signature verification to prevent untrusted code from executing. (Mitigation M1045 : Code Signing)
  
  • Safeguard 2.7 : Allowlist Authorized Scripts: Use technical controls, such as digital signatures and version control, to ensure that only authorized scripts, such as specific .ps1, .py, etc., files, are allowed to execute. Block unauthorized scripts from executing. Reassessbi-annually, or more frequently.
  • Safeguard 4.1 : Establish and Maintain a Secure Configuration Process: Establish and maintain a secure configuration process for enterprise assets (end-user devices, including portable and mobile, non-computing/IoT devices, and servers) and software (operating systems and applications). Review and update documentation annually, or when significant enterprise changes occur that could impact this Safeguard.
• Use signatures or heuristics to detect malicious software. (Mitigation M1049 : Antivirus/Antimalware)
  
  • Safeguard 9.7 : Deploy and Maintain Email Server Anti-Malware Protections: Deploy and maintain email server anti-malware protections, such as attachment scanning and/or sandboxing.
  • Safeguard 10.1 : Deploy and Maintain Anti-Malware Software: Deploy and maintain anti-malware software on all enterprise assets.
  • Safeguard 10.2 : Configure Automatic Anti-Malware Signature Updates: Configure automatic updates for anti-malware signature files on all enterprise assets.
  • Safeguard 10.7 : Use Behavior-Based Anti-Malware Software: Use behavior-based anti-malware software.
  • Safeguard 13.2 : Deploy a Host-Based Intrusion Detection Solution: Deploy a host-based intrusion detection solution on enterprise assets, where appropriate and/or supported.
  • Safeguard 13.7 : Deploy a Host-Based Intrusion Prevention Solution: Deploy a host-based intrusion prevention solution on enterprise assets, where appropriate and/or supported. Example implementations include use of an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) client or host-based IPS agent.

REFERENCES:

Barracuda: https://www.barracuda.com/company/legal/esg-vulnerability BleepingComputer: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/barracuda-warns-of-email-gateways-breached-via-zero-day-flaw/ CVE: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2023-2868

We often hear the question: "Is Player X good enough to be the best player on a championship team?"
Less often, you hear: "Is Player Y good enough to be the second best player on a championship team?"
It's time to give these second bananas their due. We're going through the 2000s and ranking each SECOND best player on the title teams. Their values vary -- some were merely good starters, some were All-Stars, and some were arguably top 5 players in the entire league.
Ranking them isn't easy, but we're going to keep a few caveats in mind.
--- We're ranking based on the second banana's play during the course of THAT SEASON -- not their careers overall.
--- Statistics will be important, but not the be-all and end-all. After all, there's a big difference between stats from 2003 and stats from 2023. As a result, we may often defer to season accolades like "All-Star" or "All-NBA."
With all that said, here are my rankings, but feel free to disagree and explain your own ranks below.

THE BEST (title-winning) SECOND BANANAS of the 2000s

(23) Tyson Chandler, 2011 Dallas Mavericks
The 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks were probably the most unlikely champion of the 2000s, with Dirk Nowitzki and a cast of older veterans who were seemingly on the decline. At the time, Jason Kidd was 37, Caron Butler was 30, Shawn Marion was 32, and Peja Stojakovic was 33.
You can make the case for Jason Terry to be the second banana here. Terry averaged 15.8 points off the bench for the Mavs that year, which is more impressive when you consider the context. (teams averaged 99.6 PPG then, 114.7 PPG now). Terry also pumped his numbers up to 18.0 PPG in their stunning upset over Miami in the Finals.
Still, we'll give the slight nod to Tyson Chandler as the teams' second most impactful player overall. Chandler finished 2nd team All-Defense and his strong playoff showing helped spearhead his DPOY campaign the following season (for the Knicks). Either way -- whether you give the nod to Chandler, Terry, or Kidd -- this would rank at the bottom of our list. None of those players was flirting with All-Star status.
(22) Tony Parker, 2003 San Antonio Spurs
The Parisian Torpedo will be a frequent contributor to this list -- logging a record-setting 3 "second banana" awards for his contributions to the Spurs' incredible run.
Naturally, his first would be his least impactful. Back in 2002-03, Tony Parker was still only 20 years old and in his second season in the league. Still, he was probably their second best player after a prime Tim Duncan. He averaged 15.5 points and 5.3 assists (solid numbers for the era) and held his own against Jason Kidd in the Finals. Parker wouldn't be considered a star yet though -- his first All-Star appearance came three years later.
(21) Andrew Wiggins, 2022 Golden State Warriors
Golden State's title last year was their biggest surprise run, fueled by Steph Curry and a solid-but-unspectacular supporting cast. Among them, you could debate the virtues and flaws of the second bananas -- Draymond Green struggled offensively, Jordan Poole struggled defensively, Klay Thompson missed significant time coming back from injury.
Of that group, I'd suggest Andrew Wiggins was their most well-rounded and consistent second banana. He averaged 17.2 PPG and even made the All-Star team. Better yet, he became a "winning player." He scored more efficiently (39.3% from 3) and played better defense -- particularly in the Finals. That said, Wiggins was probably on the level of a "good starter" more than a typical All-Star. For that reason, we'll rank him below a few others who didn't make the All-Star team.
(20) Tony Parker, 2005 San Antonio Spurs
Tony Parker re-emerges on our list and climbs even higher now in his age-22 season. He still didn't make the All-Star team, but he upped his numbers to 16.6 points and 6.1 assists per game. Again, we have to remember that these averages look better when you factor in the points "inflation" of today. Overall, we'll give him a slight edge over rising Manu Ginobili (who averaged 16.0 PPG off the bench that year), although it's debatable. Of the two, Ginobili played better in the Finals against Detroit. Still, whether it's Parker or Ginobili, the second banana would rank around this same range.
(19) Kyle Lowry, 2019 Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors finally broke through when they rented mercenary Kawhi Leonard for the year, but Leonard was backed up by a very strong supporting cast overall.
Among them, we're giving a slight nod to the old dog Kyle Lowry (then 32) over the rising star Pascal Siakam. Lowry felt like more of the heartbeat to the team. The numbers don't jump off the page (14.2 PPG), but he was a strong two-way player who averaged 8.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
(18) Khris Middleton, 2021 Milwaukee Bucks
We have another second banana debate here, although we're leaning to Khris Middleton over Jrue Holiday. It's easy for our memory to get foggy now that Middleton has struggled post injury, but he was a very good starter before that. He averaged 20.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game (not far behind Jrue Holiday's 6.1).
While the 29-year-old Middleton didn't make the All-Star team this season, he was an All-Star caliber player; in fact, he made the team both the prior year and the year after.
(17) Chauncey Billups, 2004 Detroit Pistons
We're giving the primary "star" designation to Ben Wallace here. While "Big Ben" only averaged 9.5 PPG, his defense was the Pistons' biggest differentiator. In 2003-04, Wallace won Defensive Player of the Year and even finished 7th in MVP voting.
Among the other starters, we're giving the nod to Chauncey Billups over Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace. Hamilton had the slight edge in scoring (17.6 PPG to 16.9 PPG), but Billups led the team with 5.7 assists per game and tended to be their go-to guy offensively when need be. Sure enough, "Mr. Big Shot" would go on to win Finals MVP.
(16) Tony Parker, 2007 San Antonio Spurs
As Tim Duncan aged, Tony Parker got better and better. His best second banana season would come in 2006-07. Now age 24, Parker averaged 18.6 points and 5.5 assists per game and made the All-Star team. He shot less threes and relied more on his ability to drive and convert in the paint. He shot 52.0% from the field overall.
In the Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers had no answer for Parker's scoring. He whipped them to the tune of 24.5 points per game (shooting 56.8% from the field in the process). Parker would win Finals MVP for his part in the sweep.
(15) Kawhi Leonard, 2014 San Antonio Spurs
For their last title, the San Antonio Spurs were more the sum of their parts than any one true star. Tim Duncan was 37, Manu Ginobili was 36. Tony Parker had probably graduated from second banana to their marquee player -- he was their leading scorer and lone All-Star that season.
After him, we'll call Kawhi Leonard their next best player. While Leonard wasn't a big name or big scorer yet (averaging 12.8 PPG), he still had a massive impact on winning. He was an efficient offensive player (shooting 52.2% from the field) and an excellent defender. The raw stats suggest that Leonard should be lower than this, but the advanced stats suggest he was already an elite player. Overall, his BPM of +5.0 led the team. We'll make the playoffs the tiebreaker, where Leonard stepped up his scoring and won Finals MVP. If you want to consider him the team's best player this year (which feels like a bit of revisionist history), Parker would rank around this same range.
(14) Kyrie Irving, 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers
Young Kyrie Irving (then 23) also gets a boost for his excellent playoff performance. In the Finals, Irving exploded for 27.1 points per game and helped the Cavs defeat the 73-win Golden State Warriors.
If you look at his 2015-16 as a whole, it gets harder to rank Irving much higher than this. He didn't play that great in the regular season; in fact, it may have been the worst of his career. He only played 53 games, only shot 32.1% from 3 (a career low), and only averaged 4.7 assists (also a career low). He also missed the All-Star game. In terms of peak performance, Irving was an excellent second banana (particularly for LeBron James), but if we gauge this exercise season-by-season he'd rank around middle of the pack.
(13) Pau Gasol, 2009 Los Angeles Lakers
Kobe Bryant rightfully gets the lion's share of credit for the Lakers' repeat from 2009-10, but history may forget how good Pau Gasol was when he arrived from Memphis to help out the cause.
Right in the thick of his prime at age 28, Gasol averaged 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. His size, skill, and basketball IQ made him the perfect mind meld with Bryant. All in all, Gasol made the All-Star team and even cracked 3rd team All-NBA. He's the first "All-NBA" sidekick we've registered so far, which explains his lofty ranking.
(12) Pau Gasol, 2010 Los Angeles Lakers
The following year, Pau Gasol was arguably even better. He started to control the paint even more, registering 11.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. Once again, he made the All-Star team and 3rd team All-NBA. Between Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom off the bench -- this Lakers unit may have had the best frontcourt depth in the 2000s.
(11) Shaquille O'Neal, 2006 Miami Heat
When Shaquille O'Neal first arrived from L.A., he immediately assumed the mantle of the star of the Miami Heat. That first year, he even finished 2nd in MVP voting.
However, by the next year (2005-06), Dwyane Wade had usurped that mantle. Now 33, O'Neal shifted into more of a supporting role. He still had a major impact -- averaging 20.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks -- but became more of a second option as Wade tore up the playoffs. He appeared to slow down as the season wore on -- averaging just 13.7 PPG in the Finals.
Still, O'Neal's accolades this season rank highly -- he was an All-Star and 1st team All-NBA performer. For that reason, we're going to put him above some of the 3rd team All-NBA sidekicks. Still, you can argue against that as O'Neal was more on the level of a Pau Gasol than a true superstar at this point.
(10) Klay Thompson, 2015 Golden State Warriors
When we think about "sidekicks," you immediately think of someone with the skill set of Klay Thompson (then age 24). He took "3 and D" to the extreme -- nailing 43.9% from deep and contributing 1.9 "stocks" on the other end (1.1 steals, 0.8 blocks).
Like Pau Gasol, Klay Thompson made the All-Star and made 3rd team All-NBA that season. In fact, he even made an appearance on an MVP ballot and finished 10th overall in the voting. For a clear "sidekick," that's an impressive feat.
(9) Paul Pierce, 2008 Boston Celtics
Back in 2007-08, Danny Ainge wasn't cobbling together a team of a star + supporting sidekicks -- he was combining three stars who had gotten used to being "the man" in their previous stops. New arrival Kevin Garnett assumed the role as the alpha dog -- averaging 18.8 PPG, playing excellent defense, and finishing third in MVP voting.
Meanwhile, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen played the role of overqualified "Robins." Pierce averaged 19.6 points to lead the team, shooting 39.2% from three. Like our previous second bananas, he made the All-Star team and the 3rd team All-NBA. You also got the sense there was more in the tank when need be, as illustrated by his averaging 21.8 points and 6.3 assists in the Finals en route to Finals MVP.
(8) Dwyane Wade, 2013 Miami Heat
As we jump back and forth through time like a Chris Nolan movie, it may be hard to keep track of the ups and downs of these superstars. For this spot, we're talking about the Dwyane Wade of the "Heatles" days. In 2013, Wade was 31 years old, maybe a step past his prime, and a clear second banana to LeBron James.
Still, even in that role, Wade had a massive impact. In the regular season, he averaged 21.2 points, 5.1 assists, 1.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks. While he may have to take a backseat to LeBron James offensively, he utilized his athleticism to be a wrecking ball on the defensive end. Overall, he finished as an All-Star, 3rd team All-NBA, and even landed in 10th place in MVP voting.
(7) Kobe Bryant, 2000 Los Angeles Lakers
Again, let's pay attention to the timeline here. In the first three-peat of the Shaq and Kobe days, Kobe Bryant was only 21 years old and not at the peak of his powers. Make no mistake -- this was the Shaq Show early on. In the Finals, O'Neal averaged 38.0 points and 16.7 rebounds (more boards than Bryant had points with 15.6 PPG).
Despite that, Bryant was clearly a star player in his own right. He averaged numbers similar to 2013 Wade -- 22.5 points and 1.6 steals per game. He made the All-Star game, 1st team All-Defense, and 2nd team All-NBA, accolades that put him in this lofty spot on our rankings.
(6) Dwyane Wade, 2012 Miami Heat
We're toggling back to Dwyane Wade now -- in the year prior to our 8th place spot. In the Heatles' first title (and Wade's second overall), he was still 30 years old and arguably still in his prime. He averaged 22.1 points, 4.6 assists, and even better defensive numbers -- 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.
For his efforts, he was named to the All-Star team and to the 3rd team All-NBA. He also cracked the MVP voting again, finishing in 10th place once more. We're going to give him a slight edge on Kobe's first title year, but the two would be razor tight; they were both clearly top 10 players in the league at the time.
(5) Anthony Davis, 2020 Los Angeles Lakers
Say what you want about the COVID year, the bubble, and the "Mickey Mouse" championship, but Anthony Davis was a friggin' beast back in 2019-20. He averaged 26.1 points per game, keyed by his ability to get to the line and convert (84.6% shooting on 8.5 FTA per game). He caught fire in the playoffs, averaging a team-high 27.7 PPG with a 66.5% true shooting percentage.
Davis's defensive impact is what sets him apart from most other second bananas. He averaged 1.5 steals and 2.3 blocks per game, earning 1st team All-Defense and nearly winning DPOY. Overall, he made the All-Star team, 1st team All-NBA, and finished 6th in MVP voting. In terms of season accolades, that would be the best on our list so far.
(4) Kobe Bryant, 2001 Los Angeles Lakers
If 1999-2000 Kobe Bryant was still developing, he looked like a finished product by 2000-01. Now age 22, he was a dominant player on both ends. He averaged 28.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.0 assists, and made 2nd team All-Defense. Overall, this version of Bryant finished 2nd team All-NBA and finished 9th in MVP voting. That ranking would have probably been even higher had he not missed some time in the regular season (only 68 games played).
Looking back, you could see where some of the tension between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal may have stemmed from. After all, it's not easy for a kid who put up 29-7-6 in the playoffs to accept being second banana forever.
(3) Kobe Bryant, 2002 Los Angeles Lakers
In the final year of the Lakers' three-peat, the 23-year-old Kobe Bryant had not only established himself as a superstar, but as one of the best players in the entire league. The numbers don't jump off the page -- 25.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists -- but we have to adjust for the era and the role he played.
The league clearly knew his value. He made the All-Star team, 2nd team All-Defense, 1st team All-NBA, and finished 5th in MVP voting (two spots behind Shaquille O'Neal). He'd jump even higher the next year, overtaking O'Neal as the leading scorer (30.0 PPG) and the leading MVP candidate (3rd overall).
(2) Steph Curry, 2018 Golden State Warriors
Finally, we answered the question that had stumped basketball analysts for years: what would happen if you added a superstar to a team that won 73 games the year prior? Turns out, they'd be pretty good.
For our exercise, the bigger challenge is determining who the "second banana" would be between two recent MVPs Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. I'm going to split the difference and say it was Curry's team the first year (when KD coincidentally missed 20 games) and then got handed over to Durant the following year (when Curry missed 30 games).
Through that lens, we're going to study Curry in that second season. Still only 29, Curry was still squarely in his prime. He averaged 26.4 PPG on a sparkling 67.5% true shooting percentage. Even though he missed 31 regular season games, he still finished 3rd team All-NBA and 10th in MVP voting. You could even argue that he was the most impactful player in the NBA at the time. After all, he had won back-to-back MVPs a few seasons prior.
(1) Kevin Durant, 2017 Golden State Warriors
If we're calling Kevin Durant the "second banana" for the first year in Golden State, he'd rank as the best two-way sidekick in the 2000s. Remember, we're not debating "Kobe vs. Durant" in terms of career achievement here; we're ranking their single-season efforts in a supporting role. Unlike some of our other stars (like a young Kobe), Durant was squarely in his prime at age 28.
In the regular season, he averaged 25.1 PPG on stone-cold efficiency (65% true shooting). Also, outside of Oklahoma City's super-sized lineup, he showcased his ability to protect the rim as well -- blocking 1.6 shots per game. Despite missing 20 games in the regular season, he still finished 2nd team All-NBA.
More than that, Durant demonstrated his true upside in the playoffs and Finals. Matched up with LeBron James and a historically-underrated Cavs team, Durant averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.0 steals, and 1.6 blocks on godly shooting splits of 56-47-93 (a 69.8% true shooting). Durant was arguably the best player in the NBA that year -- and would be top 3 at minimum. For that reason, he ranks at our top spot.
follow up: where would Jamal Murray or Bam Adebayo rank?
This year's Finals may not be Adam Silver's dream, but it's a great one for this exercise. We rarely see a clearer "second banana" in the hierarchy like Jamal Murray for Denver or Bam Adebayo for Miami.
Ranking them among the second bananas would be a more difficult task. Coming back from injury, Murray didn't have a great regular season. He's still never made the All-Star team. Still, his ability to raise his game in the playoffs and make tough shots does feel reminiscent of young Kyrie Irving during that Cavs title run.
Alternatively, Adebayo has a great case as a two-way stud. He's not the type of "back you down" big that some people want him to be, but he can still score in the mid-range, he's an underrated passer, and he's obviously an exceptional and switchable defender. He made the All-Star team and second team All-Defense this year. Among our second bananas, he reminds me most of Pau Gasol during the Lakers run.

I’m moving to Canada with family for 2 years deputation(work permit).
Typical doubts about operating bank accounts, taking care of things back in India, phone numbers, setting up in Canada, buying/renting things in new city.
Please share your experience or pro tips that you can give. I’ll be moving with my wife and 2.5yo kid.

Grab a cup of tea, this is a long one!
It started with me selling a gaming PC to a guy, lets call him Bob. I met up with him and had agreed on 400$ on beforehand. Despite this, he offered my to trade it for the phone he got from work, as he didn't need it and didn't have any money. It retailed for 1000$ new and 700$ used so this was a no brainer after confirming it was not locked or anything. Later that day I sold the phone for 800$ and didn't hear from either Bob or the guy who bought the phone.
A few years later, I sold a graphics card to Bob, not realizing it was the same guy. We made a deal that he would pay within next week and signed a contract for it. This was the first mistake I made. In the following days he upgraded it to a better graphics card that I also sold and paid the 200$ more that this card was worth in cash right away, so we didn't have to mess with a new contract. Later, He wanted to downgrade to a cheaper one that I had for 200$, because he realized he wouldn't get any money. Because I wanted him to buy the more expensive one, I told him I could wait until next payday and scratched the expiring contract. I sent him off with both cards, as he wanted to test and compare them. (second mistake).
A month passed and I contacted him. No response. Shit... I just lost both graphics cards and it is my fault. A few more messages and attempts to contact him through email, text, call and Facebook I gave up and was about to file a police report, but then I recognized Bob while on my way home from work and got to talk with him. He was very apologetic and explained that he got a new phone number and sent me a text so I got his new number. It was all good... Or so I thought...
He didn't have the money now, but told me next week he would. I was too soft and let it go. Then next week, and next week, and next week. There was always an excuse to why he didn't have the money. I said ok let me just get them back and you can contact me when you have the money. Of course he didn't have them anymore. He said it was left at his brothers house, as that's where he tested them (he probably sold them and spent the money). I asked if he had anything else he could pay me with, phone, computer, scooter or anything. I was tired of this crap and didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore. It ended with him buying a phone on a down payment plan and giving it to me as soon as he got it. Fair enough, I went to the post office with him and got the phone right away. Listed it online and sold it for a lot more than what he owed me. I was happy.
At this point, I though Bob was just terrible at economics, but an honest man. Boy was I wrong, it gets worse! A couple moths later he called me and said he needed money today and if I wanted another phone to sell. I didn't want to pay him before I had it in my hand, but in the end we agreed I would pay 100$ now, and the other 300$ when I got it and I could sell it for 900$. I watched him ordering the phone and then gave him the money after seeing myself that the order went through.
While waiting for the phone to arrive, I drove him to friends houses, stores, parties or whatever a few times and he paid well. usually 60-100$ for a 1 hour drive. This got me hooked. I was so obsessed with making this money I started to loose my common sense. The last couple times I drove him, He couldn't pay right away, but promised he would eventually.
He needed some money again and I ended up buying his current phone and sold it for double after using the phone myself for some time. He said he could pay everything he owed me if he could borrow my welding equipment to fix a motorcycle he had, so he could sell it and pay me back. I handed him the 4k worth of equipment I had. Then I didn't hear from him again. Text, calls, email, facebook, nothing. How could I be this stupid?!
Ten the guy that bought the last phone from me contacted me demanding a refund because it was reported stolen. I didn't believe him in the beginning, but after calling my cellular provider, I confirmed it was IMEI locked due to an ongoing police investigation. I showed up at Bob's apartment and luckily, he was home. I asked what the hell was going on? He said someone broke into his apartment and stole almost everything, including the welding equipment and the phone he bought as a replacement. That's why he wouldn't respond. As he reported his phone stolen, he apparently reported the wrong IMEI. The IMEI to the phone that I just sold. I actually looked in his apartment and literally everything was gone. Just a couch and a table left.
Had to pay back the guy I sold the phone to, and have it returned to me. So now I was stuck with a stolen phone and lost 4k worth of welding equipment. This isn't even half the story, but it gets way to long and confusing. It is simply so much mess, back and forth, money here and there, mostly cash and unwritten agreements I wouldn't stand a chance in court. Zero evidence apart from the first 200$ contract and the police case he had for the break-in. But of course, it turned out my stuff was never involved in the break-in. He probably sold as soon as he got it. Now his apartment is empty and for sale and I haven't seen or heard from Bob in about a year, despite trying everything I can to get in touch with him. Police, insurance company, cellular provider, and my bank can't do anything to help me.
​
TL:DR
I was stupid, blinded by my greediness and lost over 4k left with zero evidence. Lesson learned, never sell anything before you have the money, and make sure to sign a contract for anything worth more than you are willing to loose.

Intro
We're working on a new MUD called Song of Avaria, using Evennia as a base code. Hopefully, the game will be opening for a public alpha six months from now: January 2024. This is the sixth in a series of showcases to display the features of our game. In order to properly exhibit the purpose of Song of Avaria, which doesn't quite fit into the existing molds, we're going to demonstrate gameplay by focusing on the story of a character: Emmaline.
Chapter 1: CHARACTER GENERATION
Chapter 2: ARRIVAL
Chapter 3: STORY
Chapter 4: THE POETS' GUILD
Chapter 5: LIVELIHOOD
Cool News! A professional web developer who focuses on accessibility took a very thorough look over our site and game, and gave us a great deal of feedback that was incredibly helpful in making the game more accessible to vision-impaired players. Color themes are configurable now; the default one shown here is called "high-contrast". If anyone prefers the old "muted" one, they can switch to it in the settings. We've also added more text-based indicators of things like general wellness and roundtime in the game prompt, or asterisks as delineators for different sections of text, and more quick individual checks on metrics such as encumbrance, armor value, stats, skills, et cetera. Turning Evennia's native screenreader option on (during account creation, or through settings) will now ensure that a visually-impaired person gets a more tailored and comfortable experience. We're looking forward to learning more about accessibility from players in the future, and always hoping to improve the experience for any player.
Chapter 6: COMBAT
In our last chapter, Emmaline was inducted into the Poets' Guild, which allowed her to take up a job as a Poet at Harmony Hall. Because of that, she's able to easily make her rent and even bought an oud to improve her stringed instrument skills. Here, she's sitting in the garden of the Poets' Guild and playing her oud. Instruments can be played with a variety of commands, from POUND to STRUM, and each type of instrument will tend to make their own set of noises if played well (or other noises if played badly).
Some instruments (large bells, for example) can make quite loud sounds that will resonate over a number of rooms, much like a shout does. This oud is comparatively quiet. And while an instrument may have its mechanical play command, this is mostly intended for flavor and explorative play rather than as a real roleplay tool -- because it's always much more fun to emote the full expression of your character's music! Of course, one should strive to stay within realistic parameters in terms of describing their playing in relation to their mechanical skill level.
At the bench in the garden, Emmaline plays her oud using the STRUM, PLAY, and TWANG commands. She then simply emotes playing a more complicated melody.
As we play the oud, we can see that Emmaline is relatively skilled at stringed instruments, as the sounds she is making are nice rather than jarring or discordant.
Djafira, the other newly inducted Poet whom we got to know over the last two posts, arrives and comes over to sit on the bench next to where Emmaline is playing. Because Emmaline does not trust the other woman, Djafira incurs roundtime by coming closer to the bench, which is Emmaline's own current vicinity. Roundtime is the convention we use to refer to the fact that some actions take time to complete, and thus you cannot execute another similarly time-consuming action until finished with the first. Djafira might be able to move close to Emmaline, but she cannot perform another action until her roundtime ends. This gives us the chance to move away quickly if we felt that Emmaline did not want to allow Djafira near her. But for now, we'll stay cautiously nearby and see what Djafira wants.
Djafira comes along. Her tells are shown in a brighter red, and she certainly seems to be acting off. She gifts Emmaline a pair of nice sandals by way of apology...
When someone gives you something, unless you trust them to a high degree, you will always have the chance to either ACCEPT or REFUSE the gift. Items can also be TOSSed, and if not caught in this instance (or dodged), they will just bonk off you and fall on the ground.
Since Djafira is trying to apologize for her past enmity, Emmaline accepts the gift. She is still a little suspicious though, because she can see Djafira's tells, and the other woman doesn't truly seem very apologetic. Djafira also asks Emmaline for a favor: she's feeling a bit under the weather, and needs Emmaline to go to a tavern called the Breaking Wave and recite a poem there. She passes over a piece of paper on which the poem is written.
Emmaline agrees to do this favor, puts on her new fancy shoes, and takes the paper.
As a side note: Many of the interactions you see from this point on are with automated NPCs that are operating off the logic in their own behavioral code. We have gone to some lengths to make these behaviors seem relatively organic, but only to the extent that this allows a player to suspend their disbelief in regards to the fact that NPCs are different from PCs. Our NPCs do not possess any real artificial intelligence -- not even to the degree of ChatGPT. They have certain behaviors, tendencies, phrases they might respond to, routines and home turf and activities they may habitually undertake, but they are still just traditional game NPCs. We are still at work adding in more behavior types for NPCs and refining their actions to be more sensible and characteristic.
Back in the story: By the time Emmaline is able to get around to the favor Djafira asked of her, it's late in the evening after sunset. Djafira provided some loose directions to the White City (which would be: "through the pillar-flanked gate north of the Plaza of the People"), but Emmaline soon finds that this particular neighborhood is a confusing maze of a place. Even the overheard ASCII map is intentionally not much help in some of the individual neighborhoods of Omrazir. It is purposefully not too easy to stumble off the main roads in the city, to keep new players from accidentally stepping into an area that may be dangerous.
When someone gives you something, unless you trust them to a high degree, you will always have the chance to either ACCEPT or REFUSE the gift. Items can also be TOSSed, and if not caught in this instance (or dodged), they will just bonk off you and fall on the ground.
Since Djafira is trying to apologize for her past enmity, Emmaline accepts the gift. She is still a little suspicious though, because she can see Djafira's tells, and the other woman doesn't truly seem very apologetic. Djafira also asks Emmaline for a favor: she's feeling a bit under the weather, and needs Emmaline to go to a tavern called the Breaking Wave and recite a poem there. She passes over a piece of paper on which the poem is written.
Emmaline agrees to do this favor, puts on her new fancy shoes, and takes the paper.
As a side note: Many of the interactions you see from this point on are with automated NPCs that are operating off the logic in their own behavioral code. We have gone to some lengths to make these behaviors seem relatively organic, but only to the extent that this allows a player to suspend their disbelief in regards to the fact that NPCs are different from PCs. Our NPCs do not possess any real artificial intelligence -- not even to the degree of ChatGPT. They have certain behaviors, tendencies, phrases they might respond to, routines and home turf and activities they may habitually undertake, but they are still just traditional game NPCs. We are still at work adding in more behavior types for NPCs and refining their actions to be more sensible and characteristic.
Back in the story: By the time Emmaline is able to get around to the favor Djafira asked of her, it's late in the evening after sunset. Djafira provided some loose directions to the White City (which would be: "through the pillar-flanked gate north of the Plaza of the People"), but Emmaline soon finds that this particular neighborhood is a confusing maze of a place. Even the overheard ASCII map is intentionally not much help in some of the individual neighborhoods of Omrazir. It is purposefully not too easy to stumble off the main roads in the city, to keep new players from accidentally stepping into an area that may be dangerous.
The overhead map does not show the exit into the White City, but once you go past, you can see the map of the White City neighborhood. (Note: I took this snip on an admin account, because I added this retroactively after the main events of the chapter! That is why you see room numbers. Please ignore.)
Finding a fallen stele, Emmaline stands on top of it for a better view of the area. She tries to get her bearings, but it's still difficult to tell exactly where she is. This part of the city legitimately seems decrepit and broken down...
Maybe it's not such a good idea to wear expensive clothes here? Just as Emmaline is having that thought, a random event occurs. Random events are coded events that happen in rooms when PCs are present. Most of the time, it would be something simple and harmless like an atmospheric room echo, but sometimes -- if the situation is right, and the PC seems otherwise unoccupied -- the random event will be more serious.
Emmaline goes to stand on the stele and look around thoughtfully. A \"somewhat lofty tough\" appears, looking furtively at her and subtly touching his knife...
This time, it's very serious. Emmaline is in the White City, a desperately poor and virtually lawless district of Omrazir. Part of the difficulty in navigation here is attributable to the fact that this area is not meant for the inexperienced and unfamiliar. A small gang of thugs is approaching Emmaline, attracted by her expensive fripperies and apparent vulnerability. Combat is initiated -- they are clearly attempting to mug her. This mugging is an automated random event generated by the interplay of conditions.
Somewhat confused, Emmaline takes her time awkwardly shufflng and then backs away as the thugs begin to close in. She does not depart quickly enough, and a physical altercation begins.
Distance from others in a fight can affect a variety of things, such as the accuracy and damage of certain attacks, or whether some aggressive abilities can be used at all. There are five ranges of distances from another PC. The first is immediate vicinity, which would be in direct contact with them. Then comes general vicinity, which would mean at the same "place" in the room as them. Next there's location, which would mean being in the same room as them, but not necessarily at the same place. Lastly, there is near line-of-sight (one room away) and distant line-of-sight (two rooms away).
Because these ranges can be quite important strategically, there are many ways to change the distance between yourself and an opponent. You can RETREAT or CHARGE in a direction, you can PUSH people or PULL them, you can TACKLE them, GRAPPLE, or DRAG them. You can move your own self from one place to another, or simply DISTANCE an opponent by moving away.
In the beginning, Emmaline attempts to avoid an altercation by quickly edging away from the incoming locals. However, it doesn't quite help -- they've set determined eyes on her nicer things, and she doesn't belong in this neighborhood.
When combat starts, there is a "Writing Break" that allows the PCs involved to type an emote and/or consider what their character would do in that situation. While immersive method acting is of course our favorite style of roleplay, the out-of-character panic that can often accompany in-character physical conflict can sometimes impact roleplay in a negative fashion. In order to avoid that, combat in Avaria is peppered with "Writing Breaks" every time that anything notable happens: such as the initiation of a fight, a strong blow being dealt, first blood, an attempt to flee, any involved combatant falling to the ground, and so on. Note also how the prompt has changed to display more information.
Holding her oud, Emmaline has the sudden idea to attempt to dissuade the muggers through music. Last chapter we explained the concept of "Grounding", where most people who are still "grounded" in accepted reality know about and accept some types of magic, and might be wary of witches and sorcery, but dismiss a great many other kinds of magic as a fabrication or just something totally unlikely to happen to them. Emmaline hasn't completely lost her grounding yet, as we can see when we check the MAGIC command -- so the idea to play music would still be a rather goofy one in her mind.
Using the REMEMBER command, we roleplay Emmaline having the idea to sing a calming tune. Sometimes in time-sensitive situations a player will not have the time to express the character's inner dialogue, but that is why we have writing breaks in combat, so that such expressions feel calmer and more doable. Checking the MAGIC command shows that Emmaline still doesn't quite believe in her own magical potential.
Regardless, this is what she tries to do -- she's desperate enough to try anything. Using her sonomancy ability to project a calming tone, Emmaline begins to sing and play her oud.
Emmaline starts to focus on using a calming tone. She still hasn't said anything with this tone, and she rationalizes it in her mind (using the THINK command) as just thinking maybe the thugs would prefer to hear music than mug someone.
In addition to using a calming tone for her song, Emmaline also makes sure to adopt a defensive stance. It's possible to change a character's stance in and out of a fight, and each stance has its own strengths. Using a defensive stance enables someone to do a better job of dodging and blocking.
We also check our TENDENCY here: most games, especially DIKU-based RPIs, have fights that progress in a more automatic fashion. If you prefer that style of gameplay, you can set your character's tendency to be one of a few choices: fight, flight, or freeze. The "measured" tendency seen here is the default: if you have not input a specific command and it is your turn to move, you will just wait. If you had selected, for example, "fight" as a tendency, you would automatically perform a fighting move based off coded tactics similar to the NPCs.
Taking a defensive stance with the STANCE command causes the next three attacks to miss. Unfortunately, Emmaline's song doesn't seem to be as effective as her stance is.
The muggers don't seem to be affected much by Emmaline's song. This is because her very low sonomancy skill, her voice stat, and her will dice roll didn't outweigh their (likely entirely grounded) magic resistance. Dice rolls happen behind the scenes relatively often, and while there is a configuration setting that can be toggled to show combat dice rolls, it is turned off for the sake of immersion in Emmaline's case. These rolls incorporate stats (such as Voice, Resonance, Will, etc) and skills (such as Vocals, Sonomancy, Gnosis, etc). Other factors moderate the dice rolls, like stances, a character's general state of health, range, positions, and so on. At least, thanks to Emmaline's stance, she is able to avoid a lot of damage from the muggers' reckless attacks.
It might be a good idea to flee, but it can be difficult to get away when your opponent is right next to you -- if they're aggressive, then they will have a very good chance of blocking your escape route. Looking at the COMBAT display will give you a good overall view of your general combat metrics, including who else is in your vicinity. These different metrics can all affect the outcome of a fight in various ways.
Checking COMBAT shows us Emmaline's combat situation: she is mostly doing alright, for now. Two people are attacking her, she is upright, near the exit to go back to the square. She does have a nick on her right hip, but it's not bad enough to really affect her state.
The prompt can also be configured to display many of these metrics. Shown here is the default combat prompt. When the fight was initiated, our regular prompt shifted to the combat version that shows stars and dashes as a small action bar. For visually impaired players this is not very helpful, so if someone has turned on the screenreader, the default prompt will give a health percentage readout and only show important alerts.
Anyway, Emmaline really wants to escape! So, she tries to push one of her opponents away. Actions performed during combat take roundtime. If you want to plan your next move, you can queue up a second move if you're already in combat.
Emmaline has a chance to make another move -- if your combat roundtime completes and you don't have another move queued up, you'll see this message. She tries to shove away one of the toughs, and he rushes straight back at her in a tackle.
SHOVE is one of the many commands useful for strategically changing positions in a fight. Emmaline manages to push the mugger away from her place in the room. She's standing as far from the stele as possible, hoping to go back out to the square -- but the mugger uses TACKLE to close the distance again very quickly! Bad timing.
Now, three muggers came out of the alleys surrounding Emmaline. So far, the third has just been watching, but now he breaks into the fight as well. A new person joining the fight will trigger a writing break, to allow players time to emote. Sometimes these writing breaks may feel like they last too long, while other times they may be too short for you to write the kind of emote you want.
We use WAIT to extend the writing break so that we can finish writing our emote, and then CONTINUE when we're done. Emmaline tries to sing some more, and again it's not effective, and then her calming attunement fades. She isn't strong enough this tme to shove away one of the goons. A stab connects with a solid whack against her kaftan.
You can input WAIT to extend the writing break (once per break per person), or CONTINUE to end the break and go on with the fight (if everyone has opted to continue). We wanted to write an emote during this break, considering that Emmaline has a nick on her hip from the knife of one of the muggers, and we didn't have enough time to act this out. Since all these opponents are NPCs, they will automatically follow the cues of the PCs in the fight and either try to wait or continue depending on the PC's input.
Although we have plenty of time to write what we'd like, it doesn't appear that the fight is going very well for Emmaline. She's not strong enough to shove away a goon, her calming tone has faded without any success, and one of the toughs tried to stab her right in the heart! Thankfully, her well-made kaftan helped to turn the blow into something less catastrophic. Raiment items can get in the way of attacks to covered body parts, and divert some of the damage to themselves. Different equipment types can divert more damage or stand up to damage better, depending on their material.
Maybe there's something else we can do...
Checking COMBAT MOVES provides a readout of the moves that Emmaline can execute at this time. Roundtimes for combat moves are relatively long compared to some games, so that players can use human strategical thinking to plan their next move and understand the flow of combat easily.
We can look to see what moves might be available to us in a fight, depending on the weapon we're wielding and the abilities we have, by checking COMBAT MOVES. It doesn't seem like Emmaline can do much right now beyond punching or kicking. But what if she wants to whack people with her oud? She can do that much at least. Any wielded object can be used to WHACK someone... but the reason that "whack" doesn't show up in her list of available combat moves is because she isn't actually wielding the oud, she is currently only holding it. Shifting her grip will take a moment - costing her a turn in combat, and causing a short delay before her next move (though we can still freely input the command, and have it executed when our combat roundtime completes).
Emmaline wields her oud. This allows her to whack with it (using the WHACK command), and also use it to parry (automatically, using a dice roll behind the scenes based on her stance and parry skill level).
When using an attack in a fight, such as PUNCH, KICK, or WHACK (or other attacks using weapons or abilities, like the SLASH and STAB used by the muggers) you can specify a particular body part of your opponent to aim for. You can also substitute the generic attack emote with a custom-written emote of your own.
Here, Emmaline tries to WHACK the TOUGH IN THE HEAD, while substituting a more flavorful emote for the generic one. She lands a decent blow! Unfortunately, she's surrounded. One minstrel using a musical instrument as a weapon can't honestly defend against three seasoned street bandits.
Having suffered a couple of unlucky hits, Emmaline drops to her knees. Even her kaftan has been ruined by the damage it has taken. Trauma is the metric that governs how injured a character has become. It can cause a character to collapse, like Emmaline has here. The "traumatized" alert will show up in the prompt after Emmaline is struck that hard, signifying that she's in very bad physical shape.
Emmaline is tiring against three opponents, and ends up falling with a heavily bleeding wound.
Sadly, Emmaline is not a strong enough fighter, and certainly not advanced enough in bardic magic, to put a stop to this altercation. She tries to get back up in order to flee, but immediately gets knocked down again. Being on the ground, she then tries to crawl away. But crawling takes a bit of time, and time is something she doesn't have enough of. The next strike not only knocks her out, but... she's dying.
Emmaline tries to get up and is knocked down again. She tries to crawl away but the next stab of a knife knocks her out... and, in the eyes of onlookers, kills her. It's not all that common for a blow to both knock someone out and kill them at the same time, but it's possible.
Bleeding as she is and in a hostile and unfamiliar environment, the most likely scenario is that Emmaline is going to die. A player with a character in this condition can still get a (dimmer) sense of what is happening in the room, and is free to write emotes or dreams... but an unconscious character still takes some time to be able to wake up. Some don't wake up at all.
The muggers take Emmaline's fancy clothes and any valuable possessions, leaving her penniless in her raggedy shift. We just got that oud! How disappointing. It's natural to feel a little bit of emotional crossover in immersive roleplaying situations like this, but it's also important for players to be capable of retaining perspective. We want to be clear about where we fall on the consent spectrum so that potential players can understand whether they might enjoy the game or they might not. Some loss is inevitable when there are in-character consequences for conflict and decisions. The game is mostly non-consent in terms of these kinds of consequences, but this also means there can be a lot of engaging story outcomes as a result. We don't want these to truly function as punishments to the player rather than to the character, though they might sometimes feel like setbacks. But it's helpful to keep in mind that every setback can be an opportunity for an inspiring narrative.
A dim sense of the world beyond her lack of consciousness shows the muggers backing off after taking Emmaline's valuables. If anyone spoke, we wouldn't be able to see what they were saying. But, we're able to send emotes in this state.
No matter the conflict, character death -- which is generally, though not always, the ending to a character's story -- must usually be consented to in order to happen. When a character "dies", if there is any chance at all that they might miraculously survive, the player will get the choice to either CLING to life or DIE, by entering those commands.
In this scenario, it might be realistic for Emmaline to die. But that would be an unsatisfying end to her story, and that's not what we want. The choice is in our hands, and we CLING to life.
The muggers have all departed. It's a hot night. Emmaline clings to life, using the CLING command.
Choosing to die moves characters on to the next world (to become a ghost, and go to the Otherland). Clinging to life allows the dying to continue living, but they will likely be handicapped in one way or another. It may be possible to eventually cure a handicap through stories involving magic or the supernatural, or the long-term efforts of an outstandingly skilled healer. But these consequences are generally impactful and lasting enough that should a character engage in risky behavior, repeatedly having near-death experiences and clinging to life, their story will involve the realistic outcome of their becoming a person who has somehow survived but is broken in many ways. Ultimately, this helps address the potential issue of long-term players becoming nearly invincible in the setting -- while simultaneously providing an opportunity for players who prefer to roleplay character stories comparable in length to a real lifetime, where a player may never see their characters actually die.
For those who do wish to roleplay through the meaningful death of a character, there are still a few different paths they can follow. The character can continue existing as a ghost, or as a distant memory in the Otherland, or they can pass on into the inaccessible final mystery of the afterlife. Reaching these stages of the afterlife can be accomplished by using the MOVE ON command, progressively bringing a spirit through each of these phases of existence until at the very end the character is deleted from the game database. Should one never wish their character to complete the process of moving on, however, they can continue to exist indefinitely in Avaria's Purgatory: the various realms of the Otherland, which can potentially be accessed, with great effort and skill, through the dreams of the living.
The purgatory states can soften the blow of losing a beloved character, and even provide some additional plot twists for both that character and their surviving friends and enemies. The end of a character's story may be a real tearjerker, but hopefully in a good way, not as a traumatic and wrenching blow to the gut. We don't want to brutalize the emotions of any player -- the intention is that playing a game should be an enjoyable experience, with closure in the ending and a feeling of contentment for a story well-played.
But what this ultimately means for Emmaline is that she cannot escape her altercation with the White City thugs scot-free. She is still in a very perilous situation. As we mentioned above, sometimes the injuries that have the ability to cause death can also create severe permanent handicaps in those who choose to live, which might manifest as stat debuffs, loss of limbs, persistent illnesses, and other such tangible physical consequences. Despite clinging to life, Emmaline is unable to return to consciousness immediately. She may very well simply bleed out again.
If we quit the game, she won't die while we're disconnected... but it's still a cliffhanger! Stay tuned for Chapter 7, where we'll showcase healing and further intrigue.

Currently a T-Mobile subscriber here in the US and wanted to get a SIM card upon arrival in Taiwan for a month. Usually, I just make do with 2G but thinking I might need fast data since I'll be up in the mountains at some point during the month.
Instead of buying the 15gb data pass for $50, I was gonna get the SIM for cheaper + I assume using the local satellites for service will be quicker.
However, one thing I just thought about was receiving text messages on the SIM card for instances where financial institutions might need security verification, such as moving money around between banks. I assume the SIM will give me a new phone number so I won't even receive these text messages?
Apologies as I can't remember the last time I purchased a SIM and forgot how it works exactly. Thanks!

Jackie Jensen, "The Golden Boy", was a superstar athlete in the 1940s who seemed destined for greatness as the heir to Joe DiMaggio... only to be supplanted by a different golden boy, the great Mickey Mantle.
Jensen would eventually live up to the hype, but with the Red Sox -- but his career prematurely because, as baseball expanded to the west coast, his fear of flying made road games unbearable!
The Yankees between 1947 and 1964 were utterly dominant, winning 15 pennants and 10 World Series. And it wasn't just the major league team that was successful. The Yankees of this era were loaded up and down the system, from Rookie ball to their two Triple-A teams!
With such a loaded major league roster, the Yankees had many talented players stuck either on the end of the bench or in the minors who would eventually find an opportunity with other teams, including Bob Cerv, Vic Power, Gus Triandos, Lew Burdette, Jerry Lumpe, Bob Porterfield, and Bob Keegan, who would all be All-Stars with other teams. Clint Courtney would be the 1952 A.L. Rookie of the Year runner-up after the Yankees traded him to the Browns, and Bill Virdon was the 1955 N.L. Rookie of the Year with the Cardinals (and then Yankee manager from 1974 to 1975!).
But the most talented player who just couldn't find the playing time in New York was Jack Eugene Jensen, born March 9, 1927, in San Francisco. His parents divorced when he was 5, and he grew up poor, his mother working six days a week, 12 hours a day. Jensen said the family moved 16 times between kindergarten and eighth grade -- "every time the rent came due."
After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Jensen went to the University of California in 1946 on the G.I. Bill. There he became one of the most famous college players in the country, leading Cal to the Rose Bowl. In 1947, he was the starting fullback as well as the team's top defensive back, and in 1948, he rushed for 1,000 yards and was an All-American.
He also was a tremendous two-way baseball player, pitching and hitting for the Golden Bears in 1947 as the won the very first College World Series, beating a Yale team that had George H.W. Bush playing first base. In 1949, he was an All-American in baseball, too.
His blond hair, good looks, and athletic accomplishments earned him the nickname "The Golden Boy."
Halfway through his junior year, Jensen left Berkeley to turn pro. Jensen would later say he couldn't risk playing a career-ending injury playing for free while teams -- baseball and football -- were trying to sign him to big-money contracts.

"There was a money tree growing in my backyard. Why shouldn't I pluck off the dollars when I wanted to?"

Jensen considered a number of offers, including from the Yankees, before signing a three-year, $75,000 contract with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. Jensen said he thought he'd face better competition in the Pacific Coast League, the top minor league of the era, than he would at the bottom of the Yankee farm system. He was right about it being more of a challenge -- he hit an unimpressive .261/.317/.394 in 510 plate appearances with the Oaks.
At the end of the year, the Oaks sold his contract (and that of Billy Martin, another Northern California kid) to the Yankees.
That same year, Jensen married his high school sweetheart, Zoe Ann Olsen, an Olympic diver. (By age 18, she had won 14 national diving championships and a silver medal in the 1948 Olympics.) "Together they looked like a Nordic god and goddess," Sports Illustrated reported. Nicknamed "the sweethearts of sports," they were the Dansby Swanson and Mallory Pugh of their era. More than 1,000 people attended their wedding.
Jensen would start the 1950 season not in the minors but in the Bronx. He joined the Yankees in a time of flux. They though they'd won the 1949 World Series, the Yankees knew they had to make some changes, with 35-year-old Joe DiMaggio nearing the end of his career. And their heir apparent was not Mickey Mantle -- at the time an 18-year-old shortstop playing in the Class C league, the equivalent of A-ball today -- but the 23-year-old Jensen.
But Jensen disappointed, hitting just .171/.247/.300 in 70 at-bats, and only starting in 13 games. Watching from the bench most of the season, Jensen would later lament the lost year of development, saying he'd have been better off playing every day in the Pacific Coast League.
The Yankees won the pennant for a second straight year, and in the World Series he once again was left on the bench. His only action was as a pinch runner in Game 3 as the Yankees swept the Phillies. That "Moonlight Graham" appearance would be his only taste of the post-season in an 11-year career.
The following year would be DiMaggio's last, and Mantle's first. Jensen began the year as the Yankees' starting left fielder and proved he belonged, hitting .296/.371/.509 through the end of July... and then, shockingly, was demoted to Triple-A and replaced with previously forgotten Yankee Bob Cerv.
I can see why they called up Cerv -- the University of Nebraska stand-out was tearing up Triple-A, leading the American Association in batting average (.349), home runs (26), triples (21), RBIs (101), and total bases (261) -- but why demote Jensen, who had a 140 OPS+ in the majors? Maybe the Yankees felt the brash 23-year-old needed to be taken down a peg. In any event, Cerv hit just .214/.333/.250 in August and was sent back to Triple-A, but Jensen also was left down there. He hit .263/.344/.469 and was recalled after the Triple-A season ended, only getting into three games (he went 3-for-9).
Mantle, too, had started the season with the Yankees, and after hitting .260/.341/.423 through the middle of July, was sent down to Triple-A. But he hit .361/.445/.651 in 166 at-bats, and unlike Jensen was back in the bigs by August 24. He would play pretty much every game the rest of the season, hitting .284/.370/.495 in 95 at-bats.
The torch had clearly been passed -- Jensen was no longer the heir apparent to DiMaggio. In the World Series that year, Mantle was the starting right fielder, and Jensen wasn't even on the post-season roster.
Jensen was so disappointed with how the Yankees had treated him in 1951 that he talked to the San Francisco 49ers about switching to pro football, but ultimately decided to stick with baseball.
Never shy about what he said to reporters, Jensen told The Sporting News on October 24, 1951:

"I felt so badly about the treatment that I received from the Yankees that, although I was in New York at the end of the season, I didn't feel like sticking around to even watch the club play in any of the World's Series games."
"I do not feel the Yankees were justified in sending me to the minor leagues. When I was shipped to Kansas City, I was doing as good a job as any Yankee outfielder and better than some of them. I was hitting .296, which was ten points better than Hank Bauer and 30 points better than Joe DiMaggio, Gene Woodling and Mickey Mantle. Yet Casey Stengel didn't give me the chance I felt I deserved."

Despite blasting his manager in the press, Jensen was still the property of the Yankees. That off-season, teams were circling, hoping to pry away the talented but disgruntled outfielder. There were newspaper reports of offers from the St. Louis Browns, the Detroit Tigers, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Washington Senators, the Cleveland Indians, and the Boston Red Sox -- with one rumor being Ted Williams to the Bronx in exchange for Jensen and several other players. (A Red Sox scout called the rumored deal "a lot of hogwash.")
Sportswriters spent the off-season speculating whether DiMaggio would retire, and if he did, whether Jensen or Mantle would take over as the center fielder, as there were still concerns that Mantle, who had hurt his knee in the 1951 World Series, wouldn't be fully recovered by the start of the season.
On Opening Day, April 16, 1952, it was Jackie Jensen in center and Mickey Mantle in right. Jensen went 0-for-5 with a GIDP; Mantle, 3-for-4 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base! Seven games into the season, Jensen was 2-for-17 (.118) and found himself on the bench. He'd never play for the Yankees again. On May 3, the Golden Boy was traded to the Washington Senators along with Spec Shea, Jerry Snyder, and Archie Wilson in exchange for Irv Noren and Tom Upton.
In two years with the Senators, Jensen hit an impressive .276/.359/.407 (112 OPS+), but the team was terrible, and Jensen wasn't happy. Still just 26 years old, he later said he had almost quit after the 1953 season... particularly after a harrowing flight to Japan for a series of exhibition games with a squad of All-Stars that included Yankees Yogi Berra, Eddie Lopat, and Billy Martin. That experience gave Jensen a lifelong fear of flying, a phobia that became so intense eventually he could only fly with the help of sleeping pills... and a hypnotist!
He might have quit if not for the trade on December 9, 1953, that sent him to the Boston Red Sox for pitcher Mickey McDermott and outfielder Tom Umphlett. He was homesick, he hated flying, and he now had two little kids at home. Red Sox general manager Joe Cronin convinced Jensen to come to the Red Sox, telling him that Fenway Park was tailor made for his swing. Cronin was right: Jensen was a career .279/.369/.460 hitter, but .298/.400/.514 at Fenway.
It was in Boston that Jensen finally lived up to the hype, becoming a two-time All-Star and winning the A.L. MVP Award in 1958 and a Gold Glove in 1959. During his seven seasons in Boston, he hit .282/.374/.478 in 4,519 plate appearances. In his MVP season, Jensen hit .286/.396/.535 (148 OPS+) with 31 doubles, 35 home runs, and a league-leading 122 RBIs. During his peak with the Red Sox, 1954 to 1959, Jensen's average season was .285/.378/.490 (127 OPS+) with 28 doubles, 26 home runs, 111 RBIs, 14 stolen bases, and 3.6 bWAR. During those six seasons, no one in the American League -- not Mickey Mantle, not Ted Williams, not Al Kaline -- had more runs batted in than Jackie Jensen.
Of course, Mantle was the far better player -- even in Jensen's MVP season, Mantle had more runs, hits, home runs, walks, and a 188 OPS+ -- but Jensen's 127 OPS+ between 1954 and 1959 would have been an upgrade over the aging Hank Bauer's 110 OPS+ in right or the left field merry-go-round of Norm Siebern (113 OPS+), Irv Noren (107 OPS+), Enos Slaughter (103 OPS+), and previously forgotten Yankee Hector Lopez (101 OPS+). Casey Stengel would later say the Jensen trade was the worst one the Yankees had made while he was manager.
Despite his success, Jensen was sometimes booed by the Boston fans, just as they sometimes booed Ted Williams. There even was an article in Sport magazine, "What Do They Want From Jackie Jensen?", taking Red Sox fans to task for their unreasonably high demands from the Golden Boy. In 1956, in a game at Fenway Park against the Yankees, the hometown fans were razzing Jensen so much that teammates had to restrain him from going into the stands after a fan. Later that same game, Williams misplayed a wind-blown fly ball from Mantle, and the fans booed lustily. The very next play, Williams made a leaping catch at the scoreboard to rob Yogi Berra of a double. But Williams, still furious, spit into the crowd. He was later fined $5,000.
And Jackie was unhappy to be away from home. He and Zoe Ann had bought a house near Lake Tahoe, where they could both ski and golf year-round, as well as hit the casinos. They also had a home in Oakland, and a restaurant there, and each year Jensen hosted a pro-am golf tournament. But the marriage was struggling. Zoe Ann, once nationally known for her Olympic exploits, was frustrated to be a stay-at-home mom in the shadow of her famous husband, and Jackie became angry if she engaged in her favorite outdoor hobbies, suspecting there were men around.
Jensen's fear of flying also had become even more intense. Sometimes he was so drugged up that he had to be carried on and off the plane, fueling rumors that he was a drunk. Other times he took trains or even drove while his teammates flew.
Once again Jensen was talking about retirement, and in Spring Training 1957, the Red Sox allowed him to train with the San Francisco Seals, Boston's Triple-A team, rather than having to go to Florida. But he was still miserable. That year, he told Sports Illustrated:

“In baseball you get to the point where you don’t think you have a family. It just looks like I’m not built for this life like some ballplayers. You are always away from home and you’re lonesome, and as soon as I can, I intend to get out.”

The 32-year-old Jensen announced his retirement after the 1959 season, and he spent 1960 home with Zoe Ann and their children and running his restaurant. But he returned in 1961. After hitting just .130 in April, Jensen took a train from Detroit home to Reno, determined to quit once again. After a week away, he rejoined the team and had six hits in his next 10 at-bats. By the end of the season he was at .263/.350/.392, and this time he quit for good.
After leaving baseball, Jensen invested in real estate and a golf course, but lost most of his money. He then got a job working for a Lake Tahoe casino, was a national spokesman for Camel cigarettes, Wonder Bread, and Gillette, and even tried selling cars. Ironically, Jackie found himself on the road almost as much as he had been as a ballplayer. In 1963, he and Zoe Ann divorced, remarried, and then divorced again.
In 1967, Jensen became a TV sportscaster, married his producer Katharine Cortesi, and eventually teamed up with Keith Jackson calling college football games for ABC and a college baseball coach, first at the University of Nevada-Reno and then at the University of California, and he managed the Red Sox team in the New York Penn League in 1970. In 1977, Jackie and Katharine moved to Virginia and started a Christmas tree farm while he coached baseball at a military academy. About five years later, on July 14, 1982, he died of a heart attack at age 55.
You Don't Know Jack(ie):

• How good would Jackie Jensen have been as a Yankee? Maybe not great. He was a career .279/.369/.460 hitter, but just .238/.326/.398 at Yankee Stadium, which -- especially in that era -- was famously death on right-handed batters. Fenway Park was much more to his liking!
  
• Born in San Francisco in 1927, it's no surprise Jensen's favorite player as a kid was Joe DiMaggio, who made his debut with the San Francisco Seals when Jensen was a 5 years old. When Jensen made his major league debut, on April 18, 1950, DiMaggio went 3-for-6 with a triple in a 15-10 win over the Red Sox. Two weeks later, on May 3, Jensen made his first start, playing left field and batting second, and DiMaggio was in center and batting fourth.
  
• Jensen wore #36 at Cal. When he came up with the Yankees, he was first issued #40, then switched to #27, and finally to #25. (With the Senators, he wore #8, then #4; in Boston, he first wore #30 but primarily wore #4.) Currently, #40 is worn by Luis Severino. Other famous 40's include Chien-Ming Wang (2005-2009), Andy Hawkins (1989-1991), and Lindy McDaniel (1968-1973). #27 has been worn by Giancarlo Stanton since 2018; prior to him, it was worn by Austin Romine (2016-2017). It also was the number worn by Bob Wickman (1993-1996), Butch Wynegar (1982-1986), and Woodie Held (1954-1957). Gleyber Torres has worn #25 since 2018; it also was worn by Mark Teixeira (2009-2016), Jason Giambi (2002-2008), Joe Girardi (1996-1999), Jim Abbott (1993-1994), Tommy John (1979-1989), and Joe Pepitone (1962-1969).
  
• Jensen is one of six major leaguers to graduate from Oakland High School, but the only Yankee. Cal has sent 83 players to the majors, including twenty Yankees -- most notably, early 1990s pitcher Chuck Cary, 1930s infielder Lyn Lary, and 1990 A.L. ROY runner-up Kevin Maas.
  
• The Yankees during spring training in 1951 tinkered with the idea of using Jensen into a pitcher. Jensen had been a star pitcher at Cal, including pitching in the 1947 College World Series, and had pitched in a winter league that off-season. But he was bombed in a handful of spring training innings -- while crushing as a hitter -- and the Yankees decided to leave him in the outfield.
  
• College teammates said Jensen wasn't afraid of flying at Cal. His second wife Katharine said the phobia came from a near-miss experience on a flight early in his baseball career -- he looked out the window and saw another plane coming straight at him! The two planes managed to avoid each other, but he was never comfortable on a plane again.
  
• Billy Martin, who also had grown up in Northern California and was Jensen's teammate on both the Oakland Oaks and the Yankees, was merciless when it came to teasing Jensen about his fear of flying. In 1953, on a flight from Okinawa to Honshu to play a series of exhibition games in Japan, the plane ran into a bad storm and was bouncing pretty hard. Jensen, who wouldn't get on a plane without the help of tranquilizers, was blissfully sleeping through the turbulence. Martin found a lifejacket and put it on, then stood over Jensen and shouted "We're going down!"
  
• Arthur Ellen, a hypnotist that Jensen had used to try to cure his fear of flying, believed Jackie wasn't aerophobic at all. It was really a fear of losing his family. "Subconsciously, it developed as a good reason to leave the Red Sox and go home," the hypnotist said.
  
• Jensen is featured prominently in Norman Rockwell's famous 1957 painting, The Rookie. Jensen is the one seated on the bench tying his shoe in the middle of the painting. Standing behind him is Ted Williams, and sitting on the bench next to him is pitcher Frank Sullivan (#18). Wearing the catcher's mitt in the foreground is Sammy White, and the player with his hand over his mouth to the far right is Billy Goodman. Jensen, Sullivan, and White had gone to Rockwell's studio in Massachusetts to pose for the painting; the images of Williams and Goodman were based on photos. The shirtless player was one of Rockwell's assistants, and "the rookie" holding the suitcase was a local high school student!
  
• Boston sportswriters named Jensen the team's MVP in 1954, when he hit .276/.359/.472 with 25 home runs and 117 RBIs. I guess they were tired of giving the award to Ted Williams, who hit .345/.513/.635 that year, albeit in just 117 games as he had broken his collarbone in spring training. Williams didn't qualify for the batting title that year because he had only 386 at-bats... mostly due to his league-leading 136 walks. The rule was subsequently changed from at-bats to plate appearances.
  
• After Jensen was acquired by the Washington Senators, manager Bucky Harris -- who managed the Yankees when they won the 1947 World Series -- pulled him aside and told him he was the right fielder and he'd hit third. "No pep talk, no nothing, but he made it sound like I was the right fielder and third place hitter for a long time to come," Jensen later recalled. "It made me feel good." The 1950s Senators had a number of ex-Yankees and several of them told reporters that Harris was a much more low-key, hands-off manager than Casey Stengel, and Jensen agreed. "With Stengel it was always 'watch for that curve ball' or 'watch for that change up'," Jensen said. "Bucky leaves you on your own up there." But Jensen would later say Stengel was the smartest manager he'd ever had.
  
• Stengel obliquely mentioned Jensen in his famously long, rambling testimony before the Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee on July 8, 1958. Asked about legislation that would exempt baseball from federal anti-trust laws, Stengel said about 7,000 words without really saying anything. The hearing was held the day after the All-Star Game -- the Stengel-managed A.L. All-Stars won, 4-3 -- and in the American League starting lineup were Jensen and two other ex-Yankees, Bob Cerv and Gus Triandos. Stengel was asked if the Yankees were going to continue to "monopolize" the World Series, and his confusing answer: "Well, I will tell you. I got a little concerned yesterday in the first three innings when I saw the three players I had gotten rid of [Jensen, Cerv, and Triandos] and I said when I lost nine what am I going to do? And when I had a couple of my players I thought so great of that did not do so good up to the sixth inning I was more confused but I finally had to go and call on a young man in Baltimore that we don't own and the Yankees don't own him and he is doing pretty well and I would actually have to to tell you that we are more the Greta Garbo-type now from success. We are being hated. I mean from the ownership and all we are being hated. Every sport that gets too great or one individual -- but if we made twenty-seven cents and it pays to have a winner at home why would you have a good winner in your park if you were an owner? That is the result of baseball. An owner gets most of the money at home, and it is up to him and his staff to do better or they ought to be discharged." After befuddling the committee with answers like that for 45 minutes, Stengel was excused and Mickey Mantle called upon. His opening statement: "My views are just about the same as Casey's."
  
• Casey Stengel later said Jensen plus Spec Shea, Jerry Snyder, and Archie Wilson to the Senators for Irv Noren and Tom Upton was the worst trade the Yankees made during his tenure. But in reality it was pretty much a wash for the Yankees. Jensen, in two seasons, would be worth 4.9 bWAR for the Senators before being traded. Shea, a right-handed pitcher who had been an All-Star with the Yankees as a rookie, pitched four years in Washington and was worth 2.9 bWAR. Snyder was a good-glove, no-hit infielder worth -0.1 bWAR in seven seasons with the Senators. (You must have a really good glove to last seven seasons with a 55 OPS+!) Wilson, at one point seen as a good prospect but now a 28-year-old minor league journeyman, only played 26 games in Washington before being traded. In exchange, the Yankees received the 27-year-old Irv Noren, an outfieldefirst baseman who played five years in New York and was an All-Star in 1954; he was worth 7.9 bWAR, making the trade essentially even by bWAR. (The other player the Yankees received, minor league infielder Tom Upton, never made it back to the bigs.) Prior to the 1957 season, Noren was traded to the Kansas City Athletics as part of a monster 13-player trade that included Clete Boyer, third baseman of the early 1960s dynasty!
  
• The two players Washington got from Boston for Jensen, Mickey McDermott and Tom Upton, were both future Yankees. McDermott was a left-handed pitcher whose father, Maurice McDermott, had played in the minors with Lou Gehrig. Mickey was just 25 years old at the time of the trade but had been in the majors for six seasons, going 48-34 with a 3.80 ERA (114 ERA+). In two years with the Senators, McDermott went 17-25 (but with a 3.58 ERA), then prior to the 1957 season was traded to the Yankees as part of a seven-player deal; he went 2-6 with a 4.24 ERA as a swingman, and closed out the Game 2 win in the 1956 World Series. After that one season in New York, he was part of the trade with the A's that brought back Clete Boyer.
  
• Umphlett, a 22-year-old infielder, was traded back to the Red Sox in 1955, and then the Red Sox traded him to the Yankees in 1962 for infielder Billy Gardner. He would spend 1962 and 1963 in Triple-A for the Yankees, then ended his career in the minors with the Minnesota Twins -- the team that had been the Senators until 1961.
  
• In 1956, the anthology television show Cavalcade of America had an episode called The Jackie Jensen Story. Jackie had a cameo as the adult version of himself, but the 30-minute episode was focused on Jackie's teenage years and the influence of his middle high school coach, a man named Ralph Kerchum who became a father figure. The coach was played by Ross Elliott, a Bronx native whose most memorable role might have been as the director in the Vitameatavegamin episode of I Love Lucy.
  
• Jensen's MVP in 1958 broke a string of four straight MVP awards for Yankees -- Yogi Berra in 1954 and 1955 followed by Mickey Mantle in 1956 and 1957. Nellie Fox of the White Sox won it in 1959, and then the Yankees won it four years in a row again -- Roger Maris in 1960 and 1961, Mantle in 1962, and Elston Howard in 1963. Then a long drought -- the next Yankee to win it would be Thurman Munson in 1976.
  
• Going by bWAR, Mantle should have won it a third straight year in 1958 -- his 8.7 bWAR led the league, followed by Frank Lary at 6.7 and Al Kaline at 6.5. Jensen's 4.9 was 10th that year. Of course, they didn't have bWAR back then!
  
• Jackie won a Gold Glove in 1959; it was just the third year of the award's existence, or he might have won more. "Right field in Boston is a bitch, the sun field, and few play it well," Ted Williams said. "Jackie Jensen was the best I saw at it." Jensen was renowned for his throwing arm -- he twice led the league in assists, and twice led the league in double plays as an outfielder. One Yankee scout said he had the best arm he'd seen since previously forgotten Yankee Bob Meusel, usually said to have the best cannon in baseball history until Roberto Clemente came along.
  
• Jensen was well known for his brashness, especially compared to Mantle's aw shucks attitude. Mantle, asked if he thought he could beat out Jensen to replace DiMaggio in center field, humbly replied that there were three positions in the outfield and he hoped to win any one of them. Jensen, on the other hand, vowed he'd "out-run, out-hit, and out-throw" Mantle, an arrogant answer that didn't go over well with teammates. Joe DiMaggio, asked what he thought of the duel for his old job, quipped that Mantle was "out-quoting" Jensen.
  
• When Mantle was asked what he thought about Jensen's quote, he replied: "I don't know what to make of that guy." Jensen would later say he was misquoted, but reports of his cockiness would follow him throughout his Yankee years. Later in life, Jensen said people mistook his shyness and anxiety for arrogance and rudeness.
  
• According to Sports Illustrated, Jensen is the only player to have played in the East-West football game, the Rose Bowl, the World Series, and the Major League All-Star Game. I'll take their word for it!
  
• As a freshman at Cal, the first time Jensen touched the ball -- on a punt return -- he ran it back for a 56-yard touchdown. Cal quarterback Charles Erb said they'd never seen anything like it. "He was all over the field, dodging and leaping over guys. The rest of us just stood there on the sidelines with our mouths open. Finally somebody said, 'Who in the hell is that guy?' "
  
• Jensen is one of two "forgotten" Yankees in the College Football Hall of Fame -- the other is 1960s catcher Jake Gibbs. (Other Yankees in the College Football Hall of Fame include John Elway, who was in the Yankee minor league system before joining the Denver Broncos, and Deion Sanders, who was on the Yankees in 1989 and 1990.) Jensen also is a member of the Cal Hall of Fame, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, and... ugh... the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.
  
• Despite his speed -- Jensen led the league in triples in 1956 and in stolen bases in 1954, and was in the top five in stolen bases in six seasons -- Jackie also was prone to grounding into double plays, leading the league in 1954, 1956, and 1957. His 32 GIDPs in 1954 was the major league record until Boston's Jim Rice hit into 36 in 1984, which is still the single-season record. Rice also had 35 in 1985. Jensen's 32 is tied for third with four others. The most by a Yankee? Dave Winfield with 30 in 1983, which is tied for 14th.
  
• Jensen lost most of his baseball earnings through a series of bad investments. His ex-wife, former Olympian Zoe Ann, later became a blackjack dealer in Reno to pay the bills.
  
• Jensen had four appearances on the popular show Home Run Derby, and set a record for most home runs in one match when he defeated Ernie Banks, 14-11, in Episode 24. The 25 combined home runs also was a record. He took on Mickey Mantle in Episode 3, with Mantle winning, 9-2, then defeated Rocky Colavito, 3-2, in Episode 25. He rematched against Mantle in Episode 26, with Mantle winning again, 13-10. Jensen set another record in that contest when he became the only player to hit four home runs in a row, and then a fifth home run in a row. That episode was supposed to be the season one finale, but it turned out to be the last episode of the series: The show's host and producer, Mark Scott, died of a heart attack at age 45, shortly after the last episode aired, and two months later the show's 64-year-old director Benjamin Stoloff also died. Rather than replacing them, the show was cancelled.
  
• Jensen's last game came against the Yankees, on October 1st, 1961, at Yankee Stadium. He appeared as a pinch hitter and popped out to shortstop Tony Kubek. In the 4th inning of that game, Roger Maris hit his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record!
  
• Jackie and Zoe Ann had two sons, Jon and Jay, and a daughter, Jan. Jay's son, Tucker Jensen, was a pitcher in the Blue Jays farm system in 2011 and 2012.
  

In 1958, Jensen told Sports Illustrated that the biggest thrill of his career wasn't being an All-American or an All-Star, it wasn't winning an MVP or a World Series. "The biggest is having played in the same outfield with both DiMaggio and Williams."