What are your favorite places to eat in Hatteras? Both upscale and casual appreciated. Always looking for a great fish taco.

How many of you use the "Find Me Gltuen Free" app? I love that app. My wife travels for work and i go with her, so its my job to find places to eat at for dinner. I find it is a great place to start, and then i read the ratings and reviews, which is very helpful. But I usually with call some of the places and see if they use nut flours in their cooking/ baking. I cant risk dying just for a meal.
I also want o give you all a big virtual hug! This is group is AWesome sauce! yes, that is gluten free stuff from scratch!
Chicken dinner in half the time!

My bloody parrot fish is on his side with his head and tail curved down. His gills are bulging. Based on my research it seems like it’s probably a swim bladder issue. We cleaned the tank and replaced the water but it didn’t help. We put some boiled, peeled, peas in the tank so maybe he would eat one. I’m not going to give him any fish food for a few days. Is there anything else we should do?

Hello everyone!
We just adopted a 10 month old mixed breed dog (Australian Shepard, Jindo, and other breeds) and as the title says, she is absolutely terrified. When we took her out of the car and I was holding her to carry her inside, she peed and pooed. We brought her in and laid her on our old dog's bed until our dog crate arrived.
It has been less than 24 hrs, I know it takes time, but please read on I have been trying to leave her alone, not making eye contact and just throwing treats near her. She doesn't take them right away, but eventually she eats them. I have put a bowl of her food with her and a water dish nearby and she hasn't touched either. I have to physically take her out to go potty and she just freezes and pees and poops right where she is standing, then tries to run.
I don't want to stress her out by doing this anymore. She is obviously terrified and hyperventilates for a bit and grinds her teeth. The crate came, so now if she does have an accident, it will be much easier to clean.
A vet told us in the past to get a dog to hydrate, give them plain chicken broth. We were thinking about doing that and adding it to some of her food for it to be more enticing. Right now she is in the crate (door open) with a cover over it. I don't plan on bothering her as I know it takes time for them to acclimate to their new environment, so I don't expect her to cuddle with me by tonight, just for clarification.
Does anyone have any advice on getting her to go potty, eat, and drink without me stressing her out more than she already is? Thank you for any help!

Join G(anondorf)M Matthew Mercer and players Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Robbie Daymond, Omar Najam, and Emily Axford for a special one-shot in the land of Hyrule, sponsored by Nintendo of America.

Tune in to Critical Role on Twitch http://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole at 7pm Pacific!

My bloody parrot fish is on his side with his head and tail curved down. His gills are bulging. Based on my research it seems like it’s probably a swim bladder issue. We cleaned the tank and replaced the water but it didn’t help. We put some boiled, peeled, peas in the tank so maybe he would eat one. I’m not going to give him any fish food for a few days. Is there anything else we should do?

Please use this thread to ask any questions you have about the game. Please search though the comments section as your question may have been answered already or through the search bar.

General Resources

• General Database - Good for seeing Stats of Students, Drop Rate, Raid Stats
• Gameplay Help Overview - Great for New Players
• Min-Turn Stage Guide - Text Version, Japanese Website
• Min-Turn Stage Guide - YouTube Video Version
• PvP Guide -
• Raid Guide - More in-depth description on each Raid's Mechanics
• Raid Character Guide - Recommended Students for each Raid
• Unique Equipment Guide - More detailed stats number for Equipment
• Upcoming Banners
• Student Skill Level Up Priority - More in-depth guide for Student's skill level up
• Midokuni's Student Insights - General Overview of Students
• Global Event
• Gameplay Overview (Legacy Content)
• Upcoming Banners (Legacy Content)

REMINDER: Bind your account!

Please remember to bind your accounts and take note of your UID, member code, server location, and any information related to your account (e.g. amount spent, student roster, etc). If anything happens to your account (e.g. losing access, unauthorized access), you will need to provide as much info as you can to Nexon's customer support email. Guest accounts that are unbound will be extremely difficult to recover, perhaps impossible.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

[01] When does the server reset?
For global, dailies reset at 19:00 UTC and weeklies reset on Sunday.
[02] Should I re-roll this account?
This will depend on your priorities with PvE, PvP, or both, but you can generally see the “ideal” units as Iori, Hibiki, and Tsubaki for most content, while Shun and Haruna are great for PvP.
[03] Who should I spend my elephs on? Who should I mystic unlock?
At the start, prioritize spending your blank elephs on getting Serina to 2-star for the increased healing stat, Tsubaki to 3-star for the extra tankiness when she is reloading. It is generally advised not to spend your elephs on increasing characters to 4-star and 5-star ratings, since there is only a stat increase and the amount of elephs needed is quite high.
[04] What do my support students’ stats do?
Aside from increasing the stats of their own skills, support students will provide additional stat boosts to your striker team. The specific increase(s) can be viewed by clicking on “Support” on the right side of the team formation screen.
[05] What should I buy in the shop?

• Credit Shop - Buy out the bottom row of materials, then the first two tiers of enhancement stones as needed. Feel free to buy the higher tiers of enhancement stones if you feel that you have an excess of credits, which is very common.
• Eligma - This will depend on you, can reference question [03].
• Total Assault (raid) - Prioritize Maki’s elephs (until you unlock her) and save the rest of your currency for future updates that will add more low-rarity students to the shop, meaning you can unlock mystic for them without spending your eligma. You can also purchase the skill discs/blu-rays depending on your needs.
• Tactical Challenge (PvP) - Buy out the energy drinks as needed (warning: they are instantly consumed, they won’t be moved to your inventory). Many suggest to save these for events in order to buy drinks, refresh the shop, and repeat.

[06] What does the “leader” position do?
This is purely cosmetic, as it changes which student’s chibi shows up on the map.
[07] What benefits are there to joining a club?

• 10 AP are given daily and deposited automatically on teacher's mailbox, upon checking in.
• A maximum of two assistant can be set for Total Assault and Joint Firing Drill respectively.

1. Students assigned to assist with TA cannot also be selected to assist with JFD.
2. 20 credits are rewarded every minute by setting assistants.
3. The specific unit that is borrowed can be only used once a day.
4. There's a fee of 40,000 credits, when borrowing a assistant student.
5. The donor receives 50,000 credits instead; even though the fee is 40,000 credits.
6. The fee can only be received 20 times a day.

• It can be unlocked after clearing Mission 3 Act 4

[08] How does the pity system work?
You need to pull, at a minimum, 200 times in order to get 200 recruitment points that are redeemed for the character you want. The recruitment point system does not carry over from banner to banner, it is only shared between banners that are concurrently running.
[09] Why can’t I find my friend’s club?
While the servers’ updates are separated from JP and global, the global servers are separated further into smaller divisions. You need to be on the same server as your friend, which you can check from the home screen: top-right menu button > account > version info. The server must be the same.
[10] When is X banner coming? Should I save for X student?
We never know for sure, due to the fact that global servers are on an accelerated schedule compared to JP. Please refer to this guide for some more info.
[11] Should I use Pyroxenes to refill my AP?
If you want to prioritize progression, the first three daily refills are decently valuable, this is because the Pyroxene cost of refilling will increase for every three refills. If you are focused on character collection or future banners, you should be saving your Pyroxenes.
[12] Why can’t I buy X student’s eleph in the shop?
You can only buy elephs of students you own.
[13] What should I craft?
At the start, prioritize crafting cafe furniture until your comfort is maxed out, then students’ gifts, then whichever upgrade materials you need. The crafting system is the only way to get furniture and gifts at the moment.
[14] What is the “Anniversary” in account settings?
This is your birthday, used for characters to wish you happy birthday.
[15] When will the beginner guide missions for Nonomi end?
This is a permanent addition, so feel free to take your time with the tasks.
[16] What is the best place to farm EXP?
You can run any map to farm EXP, as the EXP gain is equal to the amount of AP spent (i.e. 10 AP spent = 10 EXP gained). You should be looking at the stages that drop the equipment upgrade materials that you need.
[17] What is the “Secret Tech Sheet” in the Total Assault shop?
This is used to upgrade a student’s (non-EX) skill to level 10.
[18] Is it worth doing a raid if I can’t pass X difficulty level?
It is always more efficient to clear the highest difficulty you can finish instead of failing/forfeiting a higher difficulty.
[19] Can I claim the Limited Students through exchanging Expert Permits? How often does the Expert Permit shop resets?
You cannot get the limited students via this method. You will still need to pull for them. There's no specific mentioned but it's expected to be monthly.

OthePast Megathreads

• Daily Questions
• Weekly Club Recruitment
• Weekly Kivotos Lounge
• Weekly Storytelling Plaza
• Technical Issues

Please have patience with other members of the community and be as polite as possible. Everyone has to start somewhere!

I know this is a controversial topic. And yes, I know there are no 'bad' foods. No, we don't talk about our bodies or other people's bodies with our kid around - not even if they're in the house and we assume she's sleeping. We don't moralize food around her. I think we have the bare basics down. Just didn't want all the responses to be the usual Reddit platitudes.
My husband doesn't have an ED. He's healthy and works out. He knows about my ED. He thinks I've taken the 'no bad foods' thing too far with our daughter. She's 7.
I know what an 'ideal' way of eating for a child would be, but I don't think it's realistic. I don't want there to be any forbidden foods. My husband thinks the house should be stocked with plenty of variety, but all of it healthy.
Food that's stocked specifically for her: Individual bags of Gold Fish and Cheez Its. She also has Nutrigrain bars, Chewy bars, Froot Loops, Bagel Bites. Other foods she eats are pancakes, waffles, biscuits, white bread that I bake, peanut butter, and cream cheese. There's still leftover chocolate from Easter as she ended up with quite a few pounds of it. The only things she eats that he approves of are apples, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, oranges, cheese, and pretzels. She refuses to eat meat, yogurt or vegetables. She's been asking for ice cream for weeks but that's where my husband really draws the line as far as keeping sweets in the house.
Also, we DO have her try a new fruit, vegetable, or healthy meal every week. She has never liked one. Generally, if it's not highly processed she thinks it's disgusting.
She receives a school lunch every day. I know they're notorious for being bad, but her school is VERY well funded and serves great food with a nice variety. She'll only eat bread, fries, and pizza. They offer a wide variety of meats, tofu, Impossible burgers, yogurts, healthy snack bars, fresh (yes, really) fruits and vegetables. She's not interested.
Most of my husband's family are severely obese, including the kids. Most of my family is severely obese as well. He thinks my stressing about giving her an eating disorder is going to cause her to grow up relying on hyperpalatable foods for comfort, entertainment, hunger, everything. She does have plenty of entertainment and hobbies. We do play with her. But she'd gladly choose Cheez its over playing.
I don't know who's right. Should I slowly phase out most of the less than healthy foods?
I've seen these discussions on Reddit countless times and there's never a specific opinion that seems to win the majority.
I just want an outside opinion. I don't want to be screwing this up.

"Get back to work."

Death

Created from the deepest void, the entity known as "Death" has existed since the dawn of time alongside his equals, Time and Life. His work in the universe started out as a small family business, reaping the souls of the living by his own bony hand over billions of years. But over time Death had grown weary and his scythe elbow had only gotten worse; that's when he had the brilliant idea to create the Sorrows, beings of death who would do the work for him, while he took his spot as CEO of Death Incorporated. Unfortunately, the Sorrows have begun to grow out of control and are more focused on reaping as many souls as possible, causing Death to literally become buried in paperwork. So it's time for Death to take up his loyal cloak, his magical Pitbook, and his trusty scythe once more so he can remind the Sorrows whose in charge and take down the mysterious being who seeks to use his Sorrows to depose him as CEO of Death Incorporated.

Direct Feats

Strength

• Can break through walls with his weapons or by dashing through them.
  
• Can swing weapons that are bigger and heavier than his own body
  
• Can shatter the head of Rocksters which are solid stone
  

Durability

• Can tank a nuclear ballistic missile
  
• Is completely unharmed from a blast that destroys the Modern Warfare Department which is big enough to have its own artificial sky
  

Speed

• Can dodge RPG shots
  
• Can dodge bullets from machine guns
  
• Can temporarily outrun a ballistic missile
  
• Can dodge lightning from a living storm cloud
  

Scaling Feats

• Defeated the Natural Disaster Department's Sorrow, Catherine Immamura, who can cause solar winds, floods, and cause meteors to rain down with just a snap of her fingers
  
• Defeated Time who is powerful enough to destroy a being capable of manipulating a quantic distortion, which is an alternate timeline, with a wave of his hand
  
• Defeated Life who was created from infinite energy
  

Weapons

Death may have started his career with nothing more than his basic scythe and a handful of magic spells. but over the years he's expanded his repertoire of deadly weapons. What's more, Death has a variety of different scythes (and some non scythes) to choose as his main weapon due to its transformation feature. Though Death has countless weapons at his disposal, we only see 71 in the game. Every weapon also has its own Frenzy attack which is a super powerful move that is charged up as Death deals damage.

The Scythe:

His trusty blade that can cut through space, time, and the elements. Death can summon his blade by holding out his hand as it flies towards him or he can simply have it teleport to him. Death can also stand in place to charge up his energy for a powerful charge attack

• The Diss Scythe: A variation of the basic scythe that allows Death to attack from further away.
  
• Twinsie: A variation of the basic scythe that prioritizes power over speed due to its second blade.
  
• Sickles: A pair of sickles that allow Death to attack at higher speeds in exchange for less range.
  
• Billhooks: A pair of blades that Death can throw at enemies before they return to his hands just like a boomerang
  
• Parasol 1.0: An enchanted parasol that can not only stab through foes with brutal efficiency but can also act as a shield/deflector.
  
• Seletine: Has slower attack speed but by slamming the mace end into the ground, Death can boost the power of his next attack.
  

The Cloak:

A sentient flying cloak that prefers to stay wrapped around Death's shoulders, the cloak not only lets Death turn invisible but can also transform into a variety of deadly weapons. It even protects him from the elements.

• Behammorth: A powerful hammer that's bigger than Death himself that hits hard in exchange for its slow attack speed.
  
• Brutumhammer: An upgrade of the Behammorth that lets Death slam it into the ground, launching stones all around him.
  
• Shake Spear: A long range spear that Death uses to attack foes with a three-pronged combo.
  
• Jabelin: A spear that Death uses to launch himself forward towards enemies, impaling anyone in his way.
  
• Sisword: A blade that Death uses to quickly jump in the air before diving at foes at lightning speeds.
  
• Drageanor: The sister to the Sisword, this blade allows Death to launch sharp projectiles with each swing.
  
• Slaymore: A giant sword that Death swings as he jumps in the air before slamming it down on the ground.
  
• Slaygore: Similar in size to the Slaymore, the Slaygore allows Death to slam the blade into the ground and send out an electrical shockwave. Can also be used to launch projectiles when swung mid air.
  
• Whirl Daggers: A pair of poisoned blades that Death uses to stab anyone nearby.
  
• Daggust: Death uses powerful gusts of wind to move back and forth in a flurry of sharp blades.
  
• Kaze-Kunai: Death throws out pairs of rapid-fire daggers (that are sharper than any metal on the surface) in a straight line. Death can summon an unlimited amount of these weapons.
  
• Arashi-Kunai: Death summons half a dozen daggers in front of him before launching them in a straight line. Death can summon an unlimited amount of these weapons.
  
• Ferral Fists: A pair of powerful arms that crush whoever is between its giant hands.
  
• Raparrier: A rapier that Death uses to brutally stab anyone in front of him. Should anyone wield this object then they will be consumed by an unstoppable rage until they stab someone with this blade. Death is immune to this effect.
  
• Dirty Dagger: A small dagger that, if stabbed in the back, injects you with a metallic substance that attacks your vital organs.
  
• Rocket Launcher: A rocket launcher that holds a malicious soul within, amplifying its power.
  
• Revelation Bow: A deadly bow and arrow shot with extreme efficiency. Death can summon an unlimited amount of arrows.
  
• Fire Bow: Similar to the Revelation Bow but with a slight homing effect on its arrows. Death can summon an unlimited amount of arrows.
  
• Death Star: A vicious looking morning star that Death had made after almost getting into a fight with a strange, cloaked, old man who kept bragging about his new "secret" space base while at a seminar.
  
• Murray of Crows: Death summons a murder of crows to surround him, damaging anything nearby.
  
• Vampire Battery: Death electrocutes himself and anyone nearby while also shooting out electrified bats at random. Death is not harmed by this.
  
• Beasteel: Death summons spider-like limbs from his back before jumping onto nearby enemies. Can also shoot out projectiles when used mid air.
  
• Excavor: Giant steel blades surge out of the ground around Death, impaling anyone nearby.
  

Pitbook:

A fireproof, floating, magical book that is filled with all kinds of magical spells that Death has learned over the years. It follows Death around like a loyal dog and if opened by anyone else other than Death, the only text visible will read: "WOOF! WOOFWOOOF! GRRR!"

Each of Death's spells consume a portion of his max mana reserves that automatically fills back up unless fully drained in which case it refills after a few seconds. While he starts the game with a low amount of mana that can be increased with items, this appears to be a gameplay mechanic as he is described as being able to increase his mana reserves at will and far beyond what the game will allow with the Focus spell.

• Fire Arrow: A simple fireball spell.
  
• Dark Talons: Summons a clawed hand from a creature named Charlie that grabs foes and pulls them closer to Death.
  
• Explosion: Causes an explosion.
  
• Poisoned Gift: Death throws two balls of venom made up of all the venoms of every snake found on the surface, poisons excreted from all the most lethal spiders who have ever existed, and a hint of wild mint for flavor.
  
• Boomerang Hex: Death shoots curved pure mana that then comes back around like a boomerang. Can launch more than one at a time.
  
• Myriad of Stars: Death summons a handful of miniature stars that then fly forward.
  
• Shockwave: Death releases an energy wave all around him.
  
• Spitfire: Pitbook shoots out a trail of fire on the ground.
  
• Poison Mist: A poison cloud of gas so powerful that it can poison a being made of pure toxic sludge. Can summon more than one cloud at a time.
  
• Boulderain: Summons boulders out of thin air and rain down on enemies.
  
• Mordicine: Death ingests a pill that hurts him in exchange for increased damage.
  
• Sacrifix: Death deals slight damage to himself over a period of a few seconds in exchange for two cups of Koffee (healing items)
  
• Vladislaw: Heals Death but reduces his maximum health with each use.
  
• Aleistar: A magical time bomb.
  
• Dark Claws: Summons Charlie's claws to rip and tear at foes.
  
• Bees: Death summons a pair regular bees that chase after foes. Can summon more than one pair at a time.
  
• Moskillto: A pair of magically enhanced mosquitos that chase after foes. Can summon more than one pair at a time.
  
• Star Raving Mad: Summons a meteor shower to rain down on foes.
  
• Skyfall: Lightning bolts rain down in front of Death.
  
• Makeshift Rockets: Death shoots a magical firework that explodes on impact.
  
• Piercing Ray: Death shoots out beams of light that home in on foes.
  
• Spiteful Chomper: Summons one of Charlie's mouths that crawl forward, chomping on anything in their path. Can summon more than one at a time.
  
• Starry Halo: Summons two stars that temporarily spin around Death, damaging anything that comes near. Can summon more than one pair at a time.
  
• Firescreamer: Pitbook shoots out a stream of fire in front of Death.
  
• Soul Razor: Opens a vortex that damages enemies within while enhancing Death's damage.
  
• Focus: Temporarily increases Death's mana regeneration speed while also temporarily increasing his max health and mana reserves.
  
• Voracious Burst: A spell that lowers Death's maximum health in return for summoning a spectral mouth in front of Death that heals Death equal to the 15% damage dealt.
  
• Ganglion X-4: Summons spiked balls that can bounce around for a few seconds before disappearing. Can summon more than one at a time.
  
• Frostbreeze: Shoots out a freezing gust of wind that also inflicts Frozen which slows down foes
  
• EyeSeeYou: Summons one of Charlie's eyeballs that acts as a turret, shooting projectiles at an enemy before disappearing after a few seconds. Can summon more than one at a time.
  
• Wishtorm: Shoots down golden bolts of lightning powered by wish magic that can destroy every layer of reality.
  
• Frostoxic: Causes a bunch of ice spikes to shoot out of the ground.
  
• Tempus Abjuratum: Traps foes in a bubble of stopped time.
  
• Sepulchral Ray: Fires a beam of damaging purple energy that inflicts the Arcane effect which deals additional damage after five layers of arcane are applied to a foe.
  
• Troublecross: Shoots two rays of energy that move in a crisscross formation.
  
• Wizzalch Barrage: Brings down several lightning bolts on the foe's head.
  
• Tornadmin: Launches a Mach 2 cyclone at foes that is full of sharp edged papers.
  
• Lyberis Skulls: Summons exploding skulls around Death, damaging foes.
  
• Nihilaser: The strongest laser in Death's arsenal, it can destroy all forms of existence in the universe when used correctly.
  
• Anvilaunch: Death uses telekinesis to rip out one ton's worth of metal from the ground and throws it at foes while it's in the shape of an anvil.
  
• Void Rift: Tears a hole in the fabric of reality above a foe's head as several of Charlie's fists come flying through, smashing anything beneath them.
  

Miscellaneous Powers

• Time Travel: Various weapon lore entries make mention of Death's ability to travel through time and space at will.
  
• Healing: Death can heal 15% of his total health with the use of bursts of life essence called Animas. Death can only hold three of them at a time.
  
• Resurrection: Death is never the end for this CEO and if his body should ever be destroyed then Death will reappear right back at his desk, ready to give it the old college try once again.
  
• Head Removal: Death can remove his head without issue.
  
• Damaging Non-Physical Beings: It's no surprise that Death can attack ghosts, but he's also capable of hurting and killing living fire, living water and living clouds as well
  
• Resistance To Time Manipulation: Time's own time stop attack can only hold Death for a few seconds
  
• Dashing makes him immune to damage, allowing him to dash through enemies and attacks
  
• Can float above the ground
  

Curses

Death can also gain various curses which (despite the name) amplify his stats, scythe, cloak, magic, or give him new abilities outright. As there are 243 curses available, I will only be including those that aren't reliant on gameplay mechanics and can be translated into lore (such as a curse that doubles defense) and will only include the best version of a curse (meaning that if there is a curse that triples Death's damage then I will not post a curse that only doubles his damage).

• And My Axe!: Every time Death uses a Cloak based weapon, an axe is launched from his cloak.
  
• Knave of Swords: Summons a small flying scythe that moves around Death.
  
• Praised Be The Bombcloak!: Every time Death uses a Cloak based weapon, a bomb is launched from his cloak.
  
• MC Scythe: Death can ignore pain while attacking.
  
• Astral Claws: Every few seconds, the foe (or a random foe if there is more than one) will be attacked by invisible claws.
  
• Soul Sucker: After taking damage, a percentage of any damage that Death deals in the next two seconds is gained as health.
  
• Tyrannical Boss: After taking damage, the next attack that Death lands deals 200% more damage
  
• Social Toxicity: All of Death's attacks inflict poison on foes.
  
• Burning Up: Death's attacks burns foes.
  
• Perish The Thought...: Death's attacks inflict Frozen on foes, slowing them down.
  
• Millanima Eye: Death gains two extra Anima slots.
  
• Burn-Out Channeling: Being damaged increases the Frenzy gauge.
  
• A Spoonful Of Suger: Every attack has a 10% chance of freezing an enemy in time. Both this curse and Tempus Abjuratum are strong enough to work on Time himself.
  
• Anima Lambic: Consuming an Anima grants Death temporary regeneration.
  
• Eye For An Eye: Being damaged grants Death temporary regeneration.
  
• Tooth For A Tooth: Being damaged grants Death a 30% chance of gaining an Anima.
  
• Straw Helm: Doubles Death's defense.
  
• Animoolah: Golden Animas fully heal Death.
  
• Corvus Nefas: Being damaged launches crows towards the nearest foe.
  
• Flash Of Brilliance: Every attack causes the target to be struck by lightning.
  
• Conflagrations: Using a spell causes explosions to appear around Death.
  
• Iranima: Using an Anima fills up Death's Frenzy bar by 50%.
  
• Crow Cover: Using a spell launches crows towards the nearest foe.
  
• Imminent Burnout: The Cloak periodically launches crows towards the nearest foe.
  
• Social Security: Death is invincible for one second after taking damage.
  
• Imminent Reverie: Death periodically creates another Anima.
  
• Zeus's Wrath: Being damaged causes the foe to be struck by lightning.
  
• Static Electricity: Using a Cloak based weapon causes the nearest foe to be struck by lightning.
  
• Stroke of Luck: Death will survive a fatal attack as long as he's not one hit away from death. This effect will continue as long as this is the case.
  

Now that as an employee you know everything there is to know about the CEO himself it is high time that you got to work filtering souls for the great beyond. So swallow your feelings and put on a smile because the first day of the end of your life begins...now.
Welcome To The Afterlife

Hi. Every time I try a new recipe and really hype it up and get every psyched for it, I INVARIABLY do one stupid thing to mess it up. This time I used two chicken breasts to make chicken salad but followed a recipe that called for at least three, and put in the corresponding amount of (way too much) mayo. It’s inedible unless I make more chicken. What’s your stupid mistake that ruined what was supposed to be perfect?

I used to see him everyday, now that school is out I know I won't see him until at least school starts back up again if he's still working there anyway. Last time we talked I wanted to ask him out, but I chickened out at the last minute and changed the subject cause I felt like he was annoyed I stopped him to talk (he was leaving somewhere) Maybe I'm just super sensitive but if I notice even the slightest difference or minor annoyance I retreat entirely. I have horrible anxiety in that situation. For context I think we both like eachother but neither of us know how to express that. I'm pretty sure he was going to ask me out at one point but chickened out too... Maybe us liking each other isnt exactly ethical? (I'm a parent he works at the school) I'm a little more ballsy and have made it pretty damn obvious that I like him, but now there's no contact and I would honestly rather take the rejection vs this wondering and being full of regret. I just wish that wasn't our last conversation cause I felt like the weeks before that were great 😕 It's been a week and I wish I could get out of my head about this. He's the first guy I've liked since ending a 9 year relationship. Been separated for a year. Dating wasn't even on my mind at first but man there's something special about this guy and I'm really feeling like I messed things up. He's an anomaly here, at least for me. I've been in this state 10 years and haven't met a soul like him. I'm crushed 💔

So I’ve mined, fished, volcano’d, dug up, Solved all the puzzles, found every hidden walnut. And I’m at 125/130 and all the bird says is hidden in the pages of journal. If anyone has anything to help it’s appreciated!

I’m aware this will be of zero interest to some, mild interest to others and high interest to those of us with fried chicken loving souls- Raising Cane’s on White Bridge had their soft opening today- full open tomorrow so next time you’re going to Trader Joe’s- that’s the latest reason for the traffic.

An Unusual Offer It wasn’t often that Blackie had anything to bark about this early in the morning, so when, at just after 8:00 AM, Johnny heard the dog raising a loud commotion outside, he knew there must be something unusual afoot. In a few moments he was out the front door. He was greeted by the sight of two men standing outside a little car parked on the weed-grown gravel driveway, speaking in what were meant to be calming tones to the dog. But it was having little effect. Blackie, a large labrador retriever with short (and fittingly jet-black) fur, did not typically react well to strangers. ‘’Here, Blackie! Come!’’ Johnny called out loudly. The dog gave Johnny a brief glance, but kept on barking. ‘’Come, Blackie!’’ he said again, trying to sound as authoritative as possible. No good. In an instant he was at the dog’s side. He had just gotten Blackie by the collar and was beginning to attempt to drag him away from the parked vehicle—not an easy task, as the black lab was more than a hundred pounds—when he heard his father’s voice saying: ‘’Now, now, Blackie, enough of your barking! That’s good, Johnny. Take him back and tie him to the leash.’’ “Hello, there! Are you John Creighton?” the shorter, and slightly heavier, of the two strangers, said. “Jim, not John,” the farmer answered, as they shook hands. ‘’You’re speaking to him.” By now Johnny had successfully led Blackie back to the farmhouse and slipped a leash onto his collar. The dog was no longer barking, but he continued to eye the strangers with suspicion. “My apologies,” the man who had spoken first said. ‘’Well, it’s very nice meeting you, Jim. My name is Morgan Stevens, and my friend here is Nathan Philips. We’re photographers, you see.’’ ‘’Nice meeting you,” the other man said. Johnny, now getting his first good look at the two men, had a rather less than favorable impression. They looked like city people, with immaculate clothing and plastered-over haircuts. In fact, he thought that there seemed something vaguely artificial about them. “Well, was is it you fellows want?” Johnny’s father asked. ‘’As I was saying, we’re photographers,” the man who had first spoken, whose name apparently was Morgan Stevens, repeated. ‘’We‘ve been doing a series of photos of cornfields. We were looking into it, and we found that you have some of the largest uninterrupted cornfields in the whole state of Iowa! We would like to ask you permission to spend a few days—a week at most—taking pictures in and around you cornfields. In fact, we’re even willing to pay you for the opportunity.” “Pay for the—well, how much money are you talking about?’’ “We’re offering $3,000 for a maximum of seven days’ photo-shooting,” the other man, whose name was Nathan Philips, broke in. ‘’$3,000?” Jim Creighton’s eyebrows raised. That was indeed a ridiculously high sum of money. In fact to Johnny, who had by this time returned to the driveway and was standing nearby, it bordered on unbelievable. Who ever heard of paying $3,000 to take pictures of a cornfield? ‘’We’d pay up front, of course,” Morgan added. “Pay up front,” the farmer repeated. Johnny knew his dad must be trying to take it all in. And who possibly pass up that much money? “‘For a week of photographing? It’s a deal,” Jim said without a moment’s hesitation. “Thank you very much, Mr. Creighton,’’ Nathan said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a check with had three thousand dollars written on it—in very neat lettering, Johnny observed. ‘’And we promise, we won’t be bothering you. Or your pets, hopefully!’’ he added with a chuckle. ‘’Is there anything we could do to make this dog stop barking at us, in case you’re not around? Is he always tied up?” ‘’Blackie will be tied up for as long as you’re here,” Jim said. ‘’What hours of the day will you be doing your photography, do you reckon?’’ ‘’Well, uh—“ Nathan paused and glanced sidelong at his partner. ’As far as that goes, I….” “That all depends on a lot of factors,” Morgan broke in. ‘’Some days we might be here a few hours, and some days we might be here all day. There might even be some days that we would be wanting to take pictures in late evening—I hope you can understand. I guess we wouldn’t want to be too close to your yard then, though! The dog there might think see us and think we were intruders. Does he ever range far from home? I mean, say, clear all the way to the other side of the cornfields?’’ “Sometimes he might, but usually only if he’s with Johnny—this here is my son, Johnny,” the farmer answered. ‘’But I can tell you up front, and Johnny, you listen up, he’ll not to go anywhere close to wherever these here photographers are taking their pictures. Now that’s a promise,” turning back to the two men. ‘’You just let me know where you’re taking the pictures beforehand, and it’ll be taken care of.” “That sounds good to us, Mr. Creighton. We won’t be taking any pictures today, but we’ll be back tomorrow with our photographing gear. Thank you again!” Morgan said as the two men got back into their car. It appeared to be one of the modern electric cars, which was the reason it had made little enough sound as to not awaken Blackie, Johnny now realized. It didn’t look exactly like a normal car, but it was smaller and somewhat boxy in shape. Throughout the conversation, Johnny had been thinking how strange it all was. Something about the men struck him as not quite right, though he really couldn’t say what that was. And when he heard his father say “It’s a deal,” he was a little perturbed. The prospect of having the two photographers hanging around the property for a week wasn’t something he looked forward to. He thought to himself that he should keep an eye on them over the next few days—or for however long they stayed. His mother, whose name was Wilma, walked out onto the front porch just as the strange black car was driving off. ‘’Now Wilma,” Jim said, holding up the check in his hand. ‘’You see this? This is good for three thousand dollars; now why in the world they wrote me a check for this much money I can’t say. But here it is. I’ll deposit it in the bank tomorrow. They say they are photographers, and that money is all for nothing more than being allowed to take photos of the cornfields! Can you imagine that?’’ He laughed out loud. “Three thousand dollars?’’ Wilma said with incredulity. ‘’That does sound ridiculously high.’ “You can say that again! I guess they must be convinced they’ll be able to make the money back in sales of those photographs of theirs! Or at least I assume they must think that—or else why would they have paid all that? But you know, we really do need the money,” he added. And that was true enough. Johnny’s father was reasonably well off as far as farmers go, but only as far as that. He had never been anywhere close to wealthy, in any event; and the last few years there seemed to have been nothing but inclement weather, from floods to droughts. It had all taken a toll on the financial situation. “I just hope they don’t go walking around in the cornfields and trample everything,” his wife replied. She was one of those people who tended to be suspicious of strangers, especially if she thought their behavior was out of the ordinary. ‘’Now, dear, I assume they’ll be just as careful as they can be,” Jim said with an effort at sounding reassuring. ‘’And again, this will do wonderful things for our bank account.’’ ‘’And Johnny,” he said, turning to his son. ‘’I want to repeat to you what I said a little earlier: you’re not to take Blackie with you on any of your traipsing through the fields, do you hear that? I don’t want you all running right into those photographers and having the dog barking at them.” “Aw, heck, Blackie wouldn’t bite anybody,” Johnny answered. ‘’At least he never has yet.’’ ‘’I didn’t say he’d bite them, but he would bark; and that’s not something I’m going to allow. They’re paying good money to be out there, and I promised them that I wouldn’t be letting Blackie anywhere near them. So now you know, too. And now son,’’ he added, “I think it’s time you were doing your chores. It’s going to get really hot today, in the mid-nineties, and you won’t want to be outside in the middle of the day, I imagine.” Johnny had to admit to himself that he did not want to be outside in the middle of the day. Already, it was beginning to feel hot and humid, as it usually is in Iowa in late June. As his parents returned inside, closing the door behind them, Johnny went to untie Blackie. A bizarre way for the day to begin! he thought to himself. So the photographers would be back tomorrow. As if there weren’t thousands of other cornfields they could take pictures of! No question about it, he would have to be keeping an eye on those men…. That night, Johnny had a nightmare. It didn’t begin as a nightmare, but on the contrary as a mere ordinary dream. The only thing abnormal was how vivid it was—it felt more real than real, far more so than most dreams are. Johnny dreamt that he was flying at night, flying under a sky a-glitter with stars like jewels, over a vast, misty sea of corn. Only it was really more like floating than flying…. But suddenly, amidst all the serenity, he felt himself falling—falling, falling, still hopelessly falling downwards. And he knew that he was headed for the cornfield and something terrifying buried beneath it; but what it was that was buried was he had no idea. He felt himself hit the ground—though obviously, he didn’t actually feel anything, since he was dreaming—and the ground itself gave way underneath him and he found himself wrapped in utter darkness. For a moment he could see nothing—literally nothing at all. And then, although he could never be certain of this when he remembered it later, he began to feel for some reason as if he were underwater, or possibly underground, but a part of the underground that was liquified, like close to the center of the earth. And he thought that the darkness became a little less so—no longer pitch black but merely extremely dark, such as it would be somewhere deep in the ocean. And then the worst part of his nightmare happened, for in the distance, he saw something huge and menacing coming, or swimming, towards him. Its shape wash very hard to make out from the distance he was seeing it from and in the murky almost-blackness, but it looked like a shark or whale; only he could tell that it was much larger than any ordinary sea animal. As it came closer, it seemed to be coming faster and faster. He could see now with horror that it was headed straight towards him at breakneck speed. He tried to turn to run or swim away, but he found that he could hardly move at all. He didn’t know how long it was before the creature had reached him, its massive jaws opened, he was swallowed whole like by suction, and then—— That was when he woke up with a start. He didn’t know how long he lay there in bed, as if paralyzed. It might have been a few minutes or a few hours. He almost felt too scared to fall back asleep again. What if he had another awful nightmare like the one he had just woken from—or maybe one even worse? It had been all so vivid, so life-like. It had felt REAL. Not like normal dreams. In fact he felt surprised that he was not dead and in the belly of a sea-monster, or earth-monster, whichever it had been. Yet eventually, somehow or other, tiredness did come back over him, and he drifted off again to sleep. He had no more nightmares, but his sleep was uneasy for the remainder of the night. He woke up fairly early, around 7:00, the next morning. Unlike as with most dreams, the memory of this one did not lessen at all over time. He still remembered it with as much clarity and vividness as when he had been in the middle of it. Once that morning his mother asked him why he seemed upset, but he brushed it off with a ‘’I don’t feel upset. What makes you think I am?” But he managed to be outside right at the time that the two photographers returned in that electric car of theirs. He wouldn’t have seen them arrive had they not chosen to park the car pretty close by—but they did, fortunately; only about a quarter of a mile from the farmhouse, in fact. Espying this from a distance, and double-checking that Blackie was tied up (he was), Johnny decided to take what he acted as if were a mere leisurely stroll right around where the photographers had parked their vehicle. As a matter of fact, he did often like to take walks along the gravel road in the cool morning hours, so this was nothing unusual for him, and his parents wouldn’t reprimand him for snooping. Or at least he hoped they wouldn’t. As he was coming closer, he kept glancing out of the corner of his eye at the men as they were unloading. And they had a lot of it. Johnny had a hard time not staring, with mouth wide open, as he saw what strange devices they had with them. They had something that looked like a big electric generator, and something else that looked rather like a satellite. A satellite?! he thought, stupefied. They also had all of what photographers would usually have: cameras, tripods, etc. But he didn’t have nearly as much time to look as he would like to have, since, after all, he couldn’t stop there on the road and stare. So he merely went along on his way, casually. But what he had seen had served to rouse his suspicions all the more. And in fact, he half thought that he had seen one of the photographers, the slightly taller one, glancing up at him with an expression that was not all the way friendly. Although that might have been his imagination. But still…. As Johnny walked on along the road, he shrugged and shook his head, thrusting his hands in his pockets. The more he thought about it, the more he thought that those men were not real photographers at all—no, they were something else. But he had no idea what. And the $3000 they had paid—to take pictures of a cornfield! made it all seem the more suspicious. There must be something else about those fields that was important to these people. His mind was filled with all kinds of wild possibilities. But none of those possibilities seemed any more credible to him. They all seemed silly. He decided that he should tell his parents about this. He thought they should know, after all, what was happening on their own property. That evening at supper, he brought up what he had seen, or thought he had seen. Both his mom and dad appeared to be quite dumbfounded. “What in the world did you say, dear?” his mom asked, as if she hadn’t heard what he had said. “Yeah, what WAS it you said, Johnny?” his dad repeated. “I said those photographers have some strange kind of cameras with them!’’ Johnny said. ‘’They have something that looked like a satellite, but I have no idea what it really is—and what they’re planning on using that for, why, I couldn’t guess.” ‘’Satellite?” his father said. ‘’Well, that does sound out of the ordinary. Do they have solar powered cameras or something?” ‘’I’ve never heard of a sola powered camera!” Johnny rejoined. ‘’Or if there is then they must have been the ones that invented it. All I know is, I saw those photographers taking it out of the trunk of their car. Right as they were setting up their cameras next to the cornfield. But it was a little bit different than a satellite; I don’t know what it actually was.’’ ‘’You’ve been spying on them, Johnny?’’ his dad said. ‘’No, I wasn’t spying. I was just curious is all.’’ ‘’Hmmm. I guess I’ll have to take a look myself,” his dad grunted, shaking his head. ‘’Johnny, I hate to say I think you may be imagining things. But anyways, there’s no question those are strange people, they are. I suppose they’ll be back tomorrow. But as I said earlier, they’ll be gone in a week at latest. And I figure we can put up with some abnormality for three thousand dollars, for a little while, anyway. But Johnny, now, I don’t want you snooping on those photographers, do you hear? Just keep your distance from them.” “Yes, Johnny, you just stay away from the photographers,” his mom repeated. ‘’Let them do what they’re going to do.’’ Johnny remained silent for the rest of that supper. He was deciding that talking to his parents, at any rate ( or for that matter any other adults), about the photographers wouldn’t do much good. But who then could he talkt to? He immediately thought of George Benson. George was the son of Jason Benson, the Creighton’s’ closest neighbor. ‘’Closest’’ being still a solid three and a half miles away; but this was the country, after all, and especially in this part of the country, people lived pretty far apart. Yes, Johnny decided, that was exactly what he should do. Tomorrow, hopefully. It was with some trepidation that he climbed back into bed, around 10 o’clock. The dream from last night was still in his mind, just as clearly as it had been this morning. He didn’t want another one like it. Although he didn’t pray much ordinarily, he prayed now, that he wouldn’t have any nightmares, that he would be able to sleep well. And perhaps his prayer was answered, for he didn’t have any nightmares. But he was restless in bed all through the night, tossing and turning, tired and yet unable to sleep. Unsurprisingly, he was somewhat exhausted when he awoke the next day. It was warm, but not hot as it had been the last few days. There was rain forecasted for the coming night, but only a little intermittent sprinkling until then. At least the rain would turn the grass greener, Johnny thought; the last few weeks it had browned considerably under the scorching heat of the summer sun. Jim Creighton went early to go and check if the photographers were back. Indeed they were; but when Jim returned he said he had seen none of that bizarre equipment Johnny had spoken of. Johnny overheard him saying this to his mom. But in any case, he said, he had asked the photographers if they had gotten the pictures they wanted yet: they replied that they hadn’t. They said it’d probably be several days yet, and during different kinds of weather and lighting, before they were satisfied Eavesdropping on this conversation, Johnny’s suspicions were growing at a rapid rate. He knew with certainty that he had seen what he had seen yesterday morning. The fact that those strange devices were no longer to be seen only made it seem all the more shady. Those men must be hiding something, but what? In fact he was coming to the disturbing conclusion that the “photographers”, whatever they really were, were running some kind of con game. But still, what they were doing out there, what their objective was, remained as mysterious as ever. All of this merely gave him all the more determination that he should go and talk about this to his friend George. Johnny knew he would be interested in the story he had to tell. It was not unusual for him to bike to the Bensons’ farm-house, anyway, so this would not seem like anything out of the ordinary. Johnny called him first on his cell phone and asked if they could meet in private in the east barn (as it was called) of the Bensons’ property. The ‘’east barn’’ was a decrepit old structure which had used to house horses but now was largely unused. They had talked there many times before. George was thirteen—about half a year older than Johnny. He agreed to it, but he sounded quite surprised at the urgency in Johnny’s voice. Half an hour later, Johnny was recounting to George everything that had happened. After hearing about it, he agreed that it did seem unlikely the so-called photographers were actually in the cornfields to take pictures. There must be a different motive; possibly a sinister one. In fact George suggested that they head over and investigate the matter, as soon they got the chance. ‘’What about it? Maybe it would be best if we went over and looked into it. Sitting around here talking about it won’t do much good,” he said. George wasn’t somebody easily afraid. He was also impulsive, even to the point of rashness. Johnny, on the other hand, wasn’t so eager. ‘’Those people could be dangerous. And what would happen if we got caught? My dad said I wasn’t supposed to to go snooping around those fellows. And he meant it, too. If he ever found out….” ‘’Well, obviously we would have to make sure that we didn’t get caught,” George answered. ‘’We would make sure the photographers (or whatever they really are) never saw us. Not even the slightest bit of suspicion. We obviously wouldn’t walk right up to them along the road; no, we’d have to sneak up on them, from inside the cornfield itself. We’re both small enough we could easily crawl along those rows unseen, I would think; and if we were really careful we wouldn’t make much noise.” “Not much noise is still some noise. And there’s another thing I didn’t tell you about yet.’’ “What?” “This dream I had the other night,” Johnny shook his head. ‘’A really terrible dream.” He told George all about it—-although he said he really didn’t know if there was any special meaning to it. Maybe it was a coincidence. Or maybe it was directly caused by the coming of those two men, in some way…. ‘’I mean I don’t want to be superstitious, but that nightmare was much more lifelike than any other dream I’ve ever had. It felt as real for me as it does right here and now. I can still see that animal’s mouth open; it could have easily swallowed several full-grown people at once. And its’ teeth, why, they were almost as tall as I am.” ‘’Hmm. But how the heck do you think those ‘’photographers” (I know they’re not actually that) could have caused something like that? Do you think they have mystical powers or something?’’ “‘Well,” Johnny said hesitantly, “I don’t know…. It seems ridiculous, I admit. But all I know is, the dream wasn’t natural. It was almost, well…” He trailed off. “Well what?” Johnny remained silent for a while, then muttered “Supernatural.” “Supernatural?” ‘’I know, I know, it doesn’t seem possible. I can’t explain it.’’ ‘ I don’t know what to tell you,” George said, shaking his head. There was silence, before he cleared his throat and went on, ‘’But like I was saying, I think we should head over to the cornfield and see what we can see. What do you say?’’ ‘’I don’t know” Johnny said uncertainly. ‘’Well if you’d rather not, that’s up to you,” George said, springing up. ‘’But I am going to go over there. Are you coming?’’ Johnny stood there a moment, silent. He now wondered whether he should even told his friend George about the matter in the first place. He glanced out through the open doorway of the barn, at the pale, gloomy gray sky. A few rain drops could be heard falling with a soft pitter-patter sound on the metal roof overhead. On the other hand, he thought, he really would feel guilty, not to mention a little cowardly, if he were to not go with George. But who knew what those men might do if they found two kids spying on them? And what if they really were criminals? Then they would be really dangerous. They might even be armed, in which case…. ‘’Well, all right,” Johnny said finally and with not a little reluctance. ‘’I’ll go—but we’ve got to be REALLY careful, you know. Those people have got to never suspect we were anywhere close by, like you said. We’ve got to do it stealthily.’’ ‘’Right. As I said, what we’ve got to do is crawl in from another part of the cornfield,” George said. ‘’It’s a little bit windy today, so that’ll help any noise we might make even better.” ‘’Well, but what happens if they do notice us?” said Johnny. “If that were to ever happen, we would obviously have to get out of there as fast as possible. I don’t think we’d have to worry about those people trying to come after us, since we could probably outrun must adults in a cornfield. After all, they’re taller and would have to stoop lower than we would to run under all the corn stalks. By the way, which part of the field are they at?” ‘’I don’t know, I think they’ve been moving around some. Wait, no, I think my dad say to my mom that they’re right around where the old corn crib used to be; that’s about a mile south from our house. But boy, that sounds like an awful lot of crawling.” ‘’Well, you want answers, don’t you? This is the only way to get those answers. All right then, so we’ll have to head for the old corn crib,” George resumed, briskly. ‘’What time is it; do you know?” Johnny looked at his wristwatch. It was one twenty-two o’clock. Despite the ever so faint sprinkling of rain, the ground was still for the most part dry, which was good. Obviously they wouldn’t want to spend an hour crawling on wet soil! ‘’The sun usually sets around nine o’clock, this time of year,” George said. ‘’So we have plenty of time ahead of us.” ‘’Well I sure hope our parents don’t see us,” Johnny said. ‘’My dad told me I should keep my distance from the photographers. And I’m sure he’d be real mad if he found out about what we’re going to do.’’ ‘’Well, are we going to get going or aren’t we?” said George, dragging his bike out from a dusty corner of the barn. ‘’Let’s go and figure out if we can what’s going on over there. Your parents should be grateful we’re going to do this. We’re doing them a service.’’’ It was with some reluctance that Johnny re-mounted his own bike and pushed its’ kickstand up. Together the two of them rode out from the barn. “If anyone asks us what we’re doing, we can tell them we’re going fishing,” George said as they were heading down the Bensons’ driveway. ‘’We’ll just say we’re going over to your house to get the rods and bait.’’ “All right,’’ Johnny said, but he barely heard what had been said. Inwardly he was dreading what they were about to do. What if there WAS something supernatural about those photographers? It did seem ridiculous, it seemed impossible. But how else could he explain what had happened? How else could he explain the nightmare? He thought back to the faces of the two men. Pale faces, without much expression. They seemed smiling and friendly, but there was something about them that seemed artificial, contrived. That did not seem real. He shook his head, as if to shake away the thoughts. Far from warming up as the day went on, it was actually getting a little bit cooler. Closer to eighty than eighty-five degrees now, Johnny thought; for which he was grateful. In fact the weather was actually pretty pleasant, although dreary. Crawling around in a cornfield in ninety degree weather, with no cloud-cover, would have been very unpleasant. By now the boys had left the Bensons’ farm-house well behind them, and they were on the gravel road headed straight south. There were cornfields on either side of them, but these did not belong to the Creightons. Most of them were the Bensons’, some belonged to the Sawters (other neighbors of theirs). This part of Iowa was quite flat, and they were able to pedal along at a pretty decent speed. The closer they got to the Creighton farm, the more misgivings Johnny felt rising up inside him. It wasn’t like him to feel this afraid about anything, he trie to tell himself. He couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. It was as if the nightmare of two nights ago had left him with an unending, incomprehensible fear. But, he tried to tell himself, he would feel better if and once they were able to get to the bottom of the so-called photographers’ true purposes. Or at least to have a much better idea of them than they had now. And he didn’t have long to wait. By now the cluster of buildings of the Creighton property was coming into sight. Beyond lay all the expanse of the Creighton cornfields, and in them the mystery they were attempting to unravel. 

.

Looking to buy any of these kits. Can do Paypal of course and can also do local to Sacramento, or San Jose this weekend