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21 knives, mostly customs, some production (GiantMouse, Spyderco, Chaves, QuietCarry, CRK, Shirogorov, Strider, Les George, Ed Cope, Anso, Dervish/TAD, Kingdom Armory, SG Knives, RMJ)

Gents,
First off, happy Thanksgiving. Hope all y’all are happy and healthy this holiday.
I can only carry one knife a day, and over the past couple months I’ve found a few “home run”, all-time-great knives for me that I want to carry all the time. Which means about half my collection, including some really lovely pieces, is not getting carried at all. So it’s time to sell em.
NOTES
Everything here is priced aggressively. I’m more interested in getting these out of my hands into good homes than I am squeezing every dollar I can out of em. If we’ve worked together before, or you want multiples, message me! Looking to sell. The only things I will consider trades for are John McNees, John Gray or Ed Cope Customs. Last note: Shipping on Monday. I have commitments all weekend that prevent me from getting to the post office. I will probably have things packed before then, but they won’t be on the road til then.
Y'all, I'll be cheffin, eatin and with family until about 8PM PST, so I'll be checking timestamps when I get back for the most part. I WILL get back to everybody, so please, if I don't get back to you right away, don't be too concerned! Remember, clear yolos take precedent over offers / asking questions. Thanks!
ALBUMS Folders Fixies
KNIVES
Knife Price Condition Notes
Chris Reeve Large Inkosi, Insingo, FDE 450 B I love love love LOVE the way this guy looks and feels, but I simply don't like the Insingo blade shape for my needs. I've got a DLC Tanto Inkosi coming, otherwise I couldn't bear to part this one. Even then, priced close to MSRP (has been lightly used, carried a couple times) just because I've gotta get some decent cash to part with it.
Shiro F95T 650 B Bought off this post, second F95T I've owned and this was the better example. Great action, as expected, and other than the marks noted in the previous post, looks and feels pretty darn new. I may not have the box and card anymore, I'll have to look. The F95T is an amazing blade, but I like my flippers smaller than this one.
Strider AR .75 Tanto 3V 650 B The only hype knife drop I've ever been lucky enough to get in on. Super-limited MonkeyEdge AR .75 in 3V, probably one of the toughest folders you'll ever find. Kills me to sell it, but my 3V Demko has always been the one I've grabbed. Unused except for a couple tests BUT there's some surface rust on the engravings. Haven't tried to do anything about it, it might scrub right off.
Les George VECP v3 Flipper 375 SOLD B Can't believe I'm selling this, but as much as I love this knife, I don't carry it. Newer version of the VECP (from this year) running on bearings, extremely smooth action, and a blade that cuts and cuts and cuts. Would make an incredible workhorse. Has been carried like, twice.
Ed Cope LR6 650 B- Gorgeous knife from the Tom Mayo protege...3.5ish inches of Vegas Forge dammy, old-school-smooth action, literally faultless construction. Only problem is the beautiful mirror edge on here right now is literally dull as a brick, so it'll need sharpening before it gets used. Green schmutz is a brief attempt to strop it, which lasted about 3 seconds before I realized I don't know what I'm doing. I don't think it did a darn thing to the blade.
Anso Haddock G10 1000 B Lightweight utility EDC from Jens Anso with really interesting patterned G10 handles. This isn't a "hard use" blade, but the sheepsfoot profile comes down to a screaming sharp edge that glides through most materials. Never thought I'd sell this one, but I've got another Haddock on the way from ens, don't need two, and I haven't been reaching for this as much as my various tantos. That said, if this one doesn't sell at this price, I'll keep it and just sell the new Haddock when it comes in.
Anso Casino, Bronze 650 B+ Just about new from Jens, carried once. The blade shape just doesn't work for what I need from a friction folder. Faultless construction, SUPER slicey blade, bronze gives it a little heft. Just a gorgeous, gorgeous piece. Would cost you $1050 to order the same build from Jens direct.
Anso Monte Carlo, FatCarbon 650 B Similar to the other, gorgeous piece, but I just don't have enough use cases for it. Really interesting little pattern on the CF, super useful blade shape. If this one doesn't sell at this price or close to it, I think I'll just keep it for now.
Dervish Triple Aught Dauntless 1000 B Nearly new, 1 of 3 in the world. Carboquartz and marbled CF scales, super-drop-shutty, huge-ass 20CV blade running on bearings. Not the sharpest thing in the world, but it's not meant to be. WAY lighter than it looks, would probably be a great semi-outdoors user knife.
Kingdom Armory Rook 700 B- Somebody buy this fucking custom, seriously. $1500 table price, Hugin dammy with copper bolsters. Chonky. Only downside is the blade is super thin BTE but not all that slicey. With a bit of sharpening work, should make for an exceptional EDC. Some small marks near the front of the blade from light use.
SG Knives Murai 450 B Got in a trade, lighter-than-it-looks, super flicky full custom from an Indonesian maker. Seen a lot of building hype around this guy, and it's earned...this thing rocks and would make a great EDC. Blade shape is like a bigger Sebenza flipper.
RMJ Jenny Wren 350 B All 3 fixies are in one video. Nearly-new-but-for-some-kydex-scuffs lightweight RMJ hawk in the limited "Explore More" colorway. Super cool little piece that I thought would be a nice "shop axe"...cept I don't have a shop, and what do I need a shop axe for.
Strider DB-L, 3V 400 B Such a hype-y little piece, but it's for a reason...this little mouse is as close to indestructible as anything you'll hold in your hands. Enjoyed having it around, but never used it, so I'll pass it on.
Strider WBMod10 400 B This thing is just MEAN. S35VN, from the drop either this year or last year, forget exactly when. I'm second owner, but I never used it, and I don't think the last guy did, either. Probably not much you can't do with this guy...stab, pry, maybe even cut! Cord-wrapped handle is super comfortable. Never used.
GiantMouse Ace Grand 185 SOLD B Recently bought off here, it ABSOLUTELY lives up to the hype. Action, ergos, blade shape are all exceptional. GM killed it. Hasn't been used by me cept for a couple cut tests.
GiantMouse Ace Nimbus V2 175 SOLD B Got lucky enough to score one of these from BHQ. Like the Grand, totally lives up to the hype. Surely will be a perfect EDC, and the action is smooooth. Really really nice piece.
Spyderco PPT, S90V 175 SOLD B Best blade for the price in my collection. WICKEDLY sharp, will bite you if you're not careful. As secure in the hand as anything I've ever used, and the blade shape works exceptionally well for most EDC. Can't recommend the PPT enough.
Chaves Ultramar Liberation G10 275 SOLD B The most EDC-able Chaves of em all - light, slim, slicey, while still having decently thick bladestock and that sweet sweet Reate action.
QuietCarry Drift, Knurled Orange Ti 225 SOLD B The knife that really put QC on the map, in the boldest and most practical of colorways. Was carried a few times, loved how slicey this blade was, but hasn't seen pocket time since I got my Terrain365 Mako. This one is lighter and slicier, though.
GiantMouse Ace Biblio Bronze 175 SOLD B Another EDC monster from GiantMouse, wonderful little sub-3" flipper that thumb-rolls great, too. More useful than I ever thought it was going to be, and I like the extra heft the bronze gives it.
Strider DC 475 SOLD B Strider's new-ish chonky boi. Similar blade length to an SNG with bigger, bulkier, full-Ti handle. Really cool, and I'd be keeping it if I didn't have two SNGs...but I do, so out it goes. Still needs to be broken in.
Anso Neo 750 SOLD B Gorgeous flipper from Jens with, like all his other work, an exceptionally useful and slicey blade shape. Note, typical for Jens, it also has an extremely strong detent and lockbar tension, so you gotta keep your fingers off the lockbar to launch it...but if you do, it FLIES out. Not drop-shutty, more smooth and even. Here in his gorgeous "cuprum" finish, which is greey with hints of blue and bronze...it's like nothing else out there, and the micro milling completes the look.
Strider (Medford) AR .75 Tanto S35VN 400 SOLD B No idea what market is for these things these days, so don't yell at me if I'm off. Lightly used, fantastic grind, little bit of rust-lookin stuff in the thumbhole. Beautifully broken in.
submitted by Callusing to Knife_Swap [link] [comments]

I am 36 years old, make $66,900, live in Portland OR and work as a Data Coordinator.

Section Zero: Background
Hello all, happy hoildays! I stumbled upon this subreddit not long ago and have enjoyed the commentary and experiences everyone's shared. Wanted to add another perspective from a mid-30s first-gen American. I've had some missteps regarding careers and finances, but I feel like I'm in a slightly better place now. I tried YNAB in the past but I wasn't consistent enough with it. These days I use Mint to monitor my finances and have a "Finance Friday" each month to review all my accounts and spending. I currently live with my partner TJ and his dog RR. We do not combine finances, but he has been unemployed since March. I have helped him with some bills and basic necessities here and there until he finds his next job or career.
My current financial goals are to just maintain a status quo and not get any debt until pandemic times are over. Then I will focus on a house remodeling fund and savings for taking care of my parents.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances? My parents taught us about money from a frugal perspective. They are immigrants who worked in food service/factories. There was always this “save save save” mentality. Even when they started their own small business, we saved like there was no tomorrow. In high school, my calculus teacher bought us all “The Millionaire Next Door” book and had us read it as an assignment - that was my first structured introduction to finances.
Did you worry about money growing up? No, there was always food on the table and a roof over our heads. I knew that our extended family would support us if needed.
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it? Yes. My dad didn’t finish the high school-equivalent in their country, while my mom did finish high school, but no college. My older and younger siblings took a different path in life after high school. I am the first and only in my family to graduate from college. My parents covered all tuition for my two bachelor degrees with the agreement that I support them fully during their retirement and send them gifts/extra money whenever I can. I feel very lucky and privileged that they were able to provide that education for me.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net? 24 when I went on a work holiday abroad. My family was always available to help when needed, but the experience abroad helped me stand on my own feet. As an adult, I also inherited that “save” mentality and put a lot of my earnings towards savings. I didn’t date until my 30s, lived frugally, didn’t go out to eat/hangout with people, shopped thrift stores, and had very few hobbies. I am starting to “live a little” now though.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? Aside from the tuition, my parents have helped with a down payment for my first house and living costs during periods of unemployment.
​
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance
If the place I was working at offered a 401k, I would always contribute up to the company match. I started my IRA in my mid-20s and would try to contribute the yearly max. I've stopped that the past 2-3 years though. My Other Brokerage is some play money, but I got tired of staring it and switched to index funds. I haven't contributed anything to it in a few years.
Equity if you're a homeowner
Purchased my first home for $382,000 with 20% down, right before lockdown earlier this year. Perfect timing, right?? I plan to live here until my retirement. My parents contributed $15k while I used most of my savings for the rest.
Savings account balance: $3,073
Checking account balance: $7,800
Credit card debt: I charge everything on my credit card for the points, then pay it off each month using my checking account balance.
Student loan debt: Traditionally no student loan debt as mentioned in Section Zero.
​
Section Two: Income
Income Progression (listed as gross income with cost of living area):
High School
College and first “career” job
Mental health break
College (again) and second “career” job
Third “career” jobs
​
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
Monthly Net (paid bi-weekly): $2,758
Deductions:
Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
No side gigs at the moment, but I am thinking of signing up on Upwork.com and doing Excel/data entry projects to help pay the mortgage.
Other Income: TJ’s friend will be staying with us for a month in January, who will pay rent of $800 including utilities. Depending on how that goes, we may take on a roommate in the spare bedroom long-term.
​
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage - when I bought the house, the plan was that I would charge TJ a portion of the mortgage costs as “rent”, but since his unemployment I am now covering it all myself.
Regular Monthly Payment: $1677.57
HOA: $30/year
Retirement contribution: Nothing additional than what's been mentioned.
Savings contribution: I used to do $50-100/month, but since COVID I’ve stopped contributing to my savings account.
Investment contribution: None at this time.
Debt payments: $100/month towards TJ's credit card balance of $2,307.
Donations: $10-20/month, usually towards Omaze or Planned Parenthood.
Utilities:
Cellphone: On my parents plan.
Subscriptions:
Gym membership: Pre-COVID I did Orangetheory for a year. I started to pick up free exercise equipment from Craigslist this year, so we have a small garage gym now and utilize YouTube exercise videos instead.
Pet expenses: $10/month. TJ has stockpiled some Costco canned dog food before unemployment, but once that runs out I will likely cover the costs. We also started to make homemade dog food to help supplement.
Car insurance: $460 every 6 months. Car is paid off.
Regular therapy: I will start in the new year. Not sure what the costs are yet, but I will use my HSA to pay.
Vitamins/Medications: $20/month
Groceries & household items: $75/month
Miscellaneous (eating out, house purchases, gifts, etc): $100/month
​
Section Four: Money Diary
Monday
6:30am Neighbor starts up their truck. We joke that it's our natural alarm clock. They idle for about 15 minutes before heading off. I go back to bed.
9am My real alarm goes off. I put the electric kettle on for some morning tea. While it's boiling, I do my morning routine: drink glass of water, take synthroid, use bathroom, brush teeth, quick shower. I then make tea - Jasmine Pearl English Breakfast with dark forest mix. I started ordering loose leaf tea in large amounts back in March instead of small bags or single serving packets. Seems more economical since I drink it daily. I let the dog out into the backyard so he can do his morning routine.
9:30am I go through my daily tasks for work. They entail checking processes and reports to make sure they ran successfully overnight. I then answer some emails and catch-up on Slack channels.
12pm Lunch is leftover roast chicken and quinoa from Saturday. I heat it up in the instant pot. Love that thing! Almost every meal of ours involves the instant pot. We hardly use the stovetop. We then walk the dog to the business park across from our neighborhood. There's a very short trail that runs along a drainage creek by the business park. It's quite muddy, but has a nice woodsy feeling. Over the summer, we saw sumac trees there as well. Free sumac spice!
1:30pm Department meeting on Zoom. Our director announces his resignation on the call. Everyone is shocked! Layoffs were announced for next year but this was not a part of it. I think it's a good move for him and he doesn't have to have this worry of layoffs over his head.
3pm I meet with an engineer from another team and talk about a data source they are in charge of. He helps me out in understanding it and we identify most of the fields that I need for a project I’m starting.
5:30pm I check in with my partner. He's been watching LinkedIn tutorials on internal recruiting, job coaching and general computeoffice skills. It's a career change that he wants to make - something where he can talk to and help people. He doesn't have a bachelor's, only an associates, and hopes these tutorials will get him a leg up in the job search. I sent him some entry level HR admin roles the other day and remind him to apply. I then heat up leftovers: homemade chana masala and rice. I add some butter and coconut milk to thin it out, so there's enough for both of us.
10:30pm I take some magnesium, vitamin D and Airborne. I say goodnight to the dog who sleeps in the office. Then I say goodnight to TJ. He sleeps in the spare bedroom on weeknights due to his snoring keeping me up. I'm a light sleeper while he is a pretty deep sleeper.
Daily total: $0
Tuesday
9am I check Reddit Secret Santa. My match seems like a really good person. Not sure what to get, but most likely will purchase something off their wishlist. I wish I was more creative with my gift giving.
11am Meeting with business stakeholder. She submitted a few changes to an existing data process about a month ago. I make the change while on the call and have her test. Success! Marking it off the todo list. I love when we can finish things directly on a call.
12:30pm I come out of my office to make lunch. I notice my partner is not home. I check my messages and see that he's stepped out to pick up a few things. I ask for celery, carrots, and kombucha. $17. I make a quick charcuterie board for lunch: Costco salami, cheese, homemade hummus and Triscuits. It's a simple, fast meal that’s always in our rotation.
2pm My partner is back and we take the dog out for a walk and quick round of disc golf at a nearby park. We mask up and play only a few holes. Disc golf is a pretty frugal activity, you only need 2-3 discs to get started. TJ remarks that my throws are getting better, but then again they weren't great to start with. We talk about Christmas/Birthday gifts on the way back home since he was born on New Years Day. He mentioned snowshoeing but asked to not spend that much. I'll do some research!
5pm I think about personal career projects. Should I put up a portfolio of projects somewhere? I decide to try and pull some Yelp data. There’s not a lot of data points that I was interested in. Regardless, I tinker with it for an hour. TJ asks if I'm hungry. I said not so much, but felt thirsty. Maybe some ginger soup tonight?
7:30pm Dinner is served - ginger carrot soup made in the instant pot. We eat some rice crackers with it. Lately I feel like we've been eating more vegetarian dinners. It definitely helps stretch our food budget. We end the evening by finishing Fargo season 3 on Hulu.
Daily total: $17
Wednesday
1:30am I'm woken up by the dog. He's been sneezing a lot and wheezes at random intervals. TJ doesn't have the money for a vet visit but I've offered to pay as long as he calls to make the appointment. I give the dog some coconut oil, rub his belly until he seems better and go back to bed.
7am Garbage day. We usually put it out the night before but I forgot. I get up to go, but TJ handles it. I think, at least. I'm too sleepy to pay attention and go back to bed.
9am I wake up and rinse some dishes that have piled up and put them into the dishwasher. We both grew up in households that had a home dishwasher, but forbade from using it. It was drilled into us that hand washing saves more water, unless you had a restaurant/industrial dishwasher. I think with modern home dishwashers, that's changed, so I wanted to try it out with our dishwasher and monitor the water bill. Don't have any dishwashing pods or powder, so I put some OxiClean in it.
12:30pm I overhear TJ on a call with a recruiting agency. It seems to be going well, lots of laughing. I heat up some taco lasagna that I freezer meal-prepped last month.
2pm Collaborate on a project at work with an engineer. My manager put me on this project since I was asking for an assignment on a more technical team. I'm learning tidbits here and there, but I don't feel like it's structured enough.
5pm I do an Orangetheory-At-Home workout and try to break a sweat. It's not the same as going to their studio.
6pm Charcuterie for dinner. Our fridge is full of store-bought and homemade pickles that go super well on a charcuterie board.
Daily total: $0
Thursday
7am I wake up tired. The house has been feeling more cold, which woke me up a few times. We keep the temp at 72F during the day, at night around 68F since we thought the bedrooms keep the heat in pretty well. My mistake!
9am I do my usual morning routine and login to work. My team mostly spends the morning sending each other emojis.
11:30am Lunch today is mini quiche, frozen chicken and veggie entree, and hot dogs. Not the most cohesive meal, but it fills the belly.
12:30pm TJ heads out to his mailbox that's 30 minutes away. He is still waiting on his tax return and a 401k withdrawal. His taxes had to be filed by mail for some reason, then the IRS office shut down due to COVID. So he wanted to see if it arrived yet at the mailbox. He also takes the dog to the vet's urgent care on his way. They didn't have any regular openings available until the end of the year, and the dog seemed to be getting worse. I give TJ $40 to mail a gift package to a friend in France and also reiterate that I'll cover the vet bill when he gets it.
4:30pm I pay some bills, my favorite activity (not)! Sewer bill: $59.44 (billed every 2 months). Geico bill: $459.60 billed every 6 months. Then I follow up with my mortgage officer over email. I had sent her some documents for a refinance quote last week, but haven't heard back. Rates keep dropping, so I'm told, but what does that really mean? I do some research on realestate.
5pm TJ messages me and says he'll be back for dinner. I ask him to pick up some Popeyes via drive thru since we both don't feel like cooking today. Popeyes is currently our fancy “going out to eat” food. $24.17 for a 4pc dinner meal and a 2pc dinner meal.
Daily total: $583.21
Friday
8:30am Busy morning at work. My phone is buzzing with emails and Slack messages. I try to answer them while I make tea.
10am Zoom Department happy hour. We reminisce about our director and then play those Jackbox party games. Some of them are hard!
11am TJ asks if he can make me anything for lunch. He suggests savory oatmeal, quick and easy. I tell him that I really appreciate him making meals/doing chores/etc without me prompting. We've been having conversations about "house project management" and mental load because I did most of the chores or I had to continually remind/tell him to do it. I'm really happy to see us progress on this front. I decide to work through my lunch break so I can end the day early. I don't often do that, but I'm ready to get the weekend started.
2pm I check on TJ in the spare bedroom and ask if the dog has been fed yet, since he was nipping at my feet. I notice something off about TJ and ask how he is doing. TJ is depressed about his personal life, career, finances. He doesn't know what to do, spends half the day meditating and reflecting on past trauma. I've been prodding him to get a therapist but he is confused about his insurance. He makes an appointment with a primary care doctor first. I feed the dog some homemade dog-friendly beef stew.
4pm My mom swings by the house (but doesn't enter). She currently works at a school who distributes free USDA food boxes since March. There's often many boxes leftover that would go to waste, so she will grab a box for us. Onions, potatoes, beets, turnips, eggs, cheese, butter, frozen veggies and frozen chicken. She also brought her vintage pasta maker. I asked last week if she ever used it these days and her reply was “no, feel free to have it”. I love pasta and noodles and figure it would be great to make it ourselves as a frugal hobby.
8pm We catch up on Mandalorian and watch silly Youtube videos before heading off to bed.
Daily total: $0
Saturday
9am I open up my web browser and look at Craigslist and NextDoor for free stuff. I've been scouring for free landscape rocks, pegboards, and wood for house projects. I had this grand ambition to redesign our backyard. It faces our neighbor and currently the fence is pretty low. They can see into our kitchen and bedroom and we can see them. But y'know, COVID and going from dual income house to single income means it all has to be put on hold. So I've been looking for free items in the meantime. Over the past months, I've gotten planter pots, plant cuttings, a raised bed, stepping stones, all from free listings. I don't see anything worthwhile so I go and make some tea.
11am I look at Amazon and make some purchases for Reddit Secret Santa. A foodie kit, DVD of their favorite movie, and some cute pens for their writing hobby. $54. I hope they like it!
12pm TJ heats up leftover stir-fry for lunch for us. I put on some Binging with Babish and we watch how to make pasta. We have a plan - TJ makes the pasta, I make the sauce. Perfect date night activity at home. We watch some more videos on pasta and noodles to educate ourselves.
4pm I start prepping veggies. Big batch of onions, canned tomatoes, ground beef and butter in the instant pot. Meanwhile, TJ works on the pasta by following Babish's instructions.
7pm We gorge on fresh made pasta and bolognese sauce. It's so good! We end up watching Fargo.
11pm Usually I'll be in bed by now, but it's a Saturday and not tired yet (probably because of all that pasta). We play some Kirby's Dream Course on the Switch.
Daily total: $54
Sunday
10am Quick walk around the neighborhood with the dog. He's on a new routine now with the medicine he's taking. It seems to be helping his breathing issues.
11am The pasta maker and flour is still out since we didn't clean up yesterday. There's some old pie crust in the fridge so I roll it out with the pasta machine for mini quiches. (Sally's Baking Addiction blog is my go-to place for her all-butter crust and quiche recipes btw). TJ helps by mixing up the eggs.
3pm I play some Genshin Impact (GI) on my phone while TJ plays Starcraft in the office. I don't usually play gacha games, but the Zelda BotW-style of GI appealed to me. A gacha game is a game with randomized characteitem boxes that you use real-money to purchase a “pull” or to spin the wheel. I know the gacha parts of the game can be a real money sink if you get addicted to them, it’s almost like gambling. My main team is Fischl, Bennett, Barbara and Noelle. I level up to AR 22 and look up free-to-play tutorials for the game.
6pm There's some leftover pasta from yesterday, enough for both of us. I throw in some roasted beets to round out the meal. We watch more Fargo while eating. Almost done with Season 3!
10pm I find a tour operator who offers a small, socially-distant snowshoeing tour up on the mountain. I reserve for two people - this will be TJ's Christmas/birthday gift. $75. Off to bed for another workday.
Daily total: $75
Weekly Total: $689.79
Section Five: Reflections
Aside from the car insurance bill, this was a typical week for me, COVID or not. We make the majority of our meals at home and usually splurge on drive-thru/delivery once every other week. I may have overspent on the Secret Santa gift, but I don't often give gifts out to friends. It's not something our family does either. For TJ’s Christmas/birthday gift, we usually talk upfront about costs. I’ve gifted him fancy restaurant experiences the past 2 years, since we can share that experience, but obviously can’t do that now. Snowshoeing is a nice change of pace.
The conversations with TJ this week have given me thought on how to approach him differently about finances and working together in a relationship. I’m still unsure about the future financially, particularly as my parents near retirement age and that TJ has pulled out his 401k to pay his debts. I don't know if I can support both my parents and TJ together, so I am finding ways to upskill and/or side hustles without becoming a workaholic or bogged down by stress.
Writing this money diary was also the first time where I really paid attention to my past income and current income. I might be contributing too much into ESPP that could go towards the 401k or mortgage instead? I also seem to have been underpaid for what I did in past jobs, even in a LCOL area.
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PRICE DROPS: Customs & tough guy fixies (Ed Cope, SG Knives, Anso, Dervish, Strider, Kingdom Armory, RMJ)

All,
Thanks knife_swap for buying some of my stuff already. A lot of the "big guys" are left, and I'm dropping prices across the board to try to get them sold before I hit the post office on Monday. By this point, everything is priced well "below market".
New Timestamp
Looking to sell. ONLY trades are for John McNees, John Gray or Ed Cope Customs.
ALBUMS (note: Albums are same as last post, and so contain some previously-sold knives...see links below to jump specifically to videos of remaining knives) Folders Fixies
KNIVES
Knife Price Condition Notes
Strider AR .75 Tanto 3V 600 B The only hype knife drop I've ever been lucky enough to get in on. Super-limited MonkeyEdge AR .75 in 3V, probably one of the toughest folders you'll ever find. Kills me to sell it, but my 3V Demko has always been the one I've grabbed. Unused except for a couple tests BUT there's some surface rust on the engravings. Haven't tried to do anything about it, it might scrub right off.
Ed Cope LR6 600 B- Gorgeous knife from the Tom Mayo protege...3.5ish inches of Vegas Forge dammy, old-school-smooth action, literally faultless construction. Only problem is the beautiful mirror edge on here right now is literally dull as a brick, so it'll need sharpening before it gets used. Green schmutz is a brief attempt to strop it, which lasted about 3 seconds before I realized I don't know what I'm doing. I don't think it did a darn thing to the blade.
Anso Haddock G10 900 B Lightweight utility EDC from Jens Anso with really interesting patterned G10 handles. This isn't a "hard use" blade, but the sheepsfoot profile comes down to a screaming sharp edge that glides through most materials. Never thought I'd sell this one, but I've got another Haddock on the way from ens, don't need two, and I haven't been reaching for this as much as my various tantos. That said, if this one doesn't sell at this price, I'll keep it and just sell the new Haddock when it comes in.
Anso Casino, Bronze 600 B+ Just about new from Jens, carried once. The blade shape just doesn't work for what I need from a friction folder. Faultless construction, SUPER slicey blade, bronze gives it a little heft. Just a gorgeous, gorgeous piece. Would cost you $1050 to order the same build from Jens direct.
Anso Monte Carlo, FatCarbon 600 B Similar to the other, gorgeous piece, but I just don't have enough use cases for it. Really interesting little pattern on the CF, super useful blade shape. If this one doesn't sell at this price or close to it, I think I'll just keep it for now.
Dervish Triple Aught Dauntless 900 B Nearly new, 1 of 3 in the world. Carboquartz and marbled CF scales, super-drop-shutty, huge-ass 20CV blade running on bearings. Not the sharpest thing in the world, but it's not meant to be. WAY lighter than it looks, would probably be a great semi-outdoors user knife.
Kingdom Armory Rook 650 B- Somebody buy this fucking custom, seriously. $1500 table price, Hugin dammy with copper bolsters. Chonky. Only downside is the blade is super thin BTE but not all that slicey. With a bit of sharpening work, should make for an exceptional EDC. Some small marks near the front of the blade from light use.
SG Knives Murai 400 B Got in a trade, lighter-than-it-looks, super flicky full custom from an Indonesian maker. Seen a lot of building hype around this guy, and it's earned...this thing rocks and would make a great EDC. Blade shape is like a bigger Sebenza flipper.
RMJ Jenny Wren 300 SOLD B All 3 fixies are in one video. Nearly-new-but-for-some-kydex-scuffs lightweight RMJ hawk in the limited "Explore More" colorway. Super cool little piece that I thought would be a nice "shop axe"...cept I don't have a shop, and what do I need a shop axe for.
Strider DB-L DB, 3V 350 SOLD B Such a hype-y little piece, but it's for a reason...this little mouse is as close to indestructible as anything you'll hold in your hands. Enjoyed having it around, but never used it, so I'll pass it on.
Strider WBMod10 350 B This thing is just MEAN. S35VN, from the drop either this year or last year, forget exactly when. I'm second owner, but I never used it, and I don't think the last guy did, either. Probably not much you can't do with this guy...stab, pry, maybe even cut! Cord-wrapped handle is super comfortable. Never used.
submitted by Callusing to Knife_Swap [link] [comments]

[USA-NJ] [H] 2DS Console, games for most Nintendo consoles, PS1/2, Nintendo Powers, collectibles [W] CIB's: Fire Emblem, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Mega Man X Command Mission with card, list, offers

Adding a bunch of items since my last post!
I have 90+ confirmed trades. Also, fair warning, these lists are long, I have a lot of stuff for trade! Looking to do fair value but where I have an item that is worn / in poor shape I value that lower than eBay averages due to condition. Also bolded items are hard trades and I usually only trade limited print Switch games for other limited print Switch games (with some exceptions).
p.s. "CIB" means complete, as in including all the booklets and such that were supposed to come in there, otherwise I will clarify what is included. "NIB" means New In Box, aka sealed, "brand new," in the shrink, etc.
p.p.s. If we are going to trade, all I ask is please be honest about the condition of your items. I can provide pictures for anything I have, please be willing to do the same! Thanks!

HAVE

Switch games, accessories, cards
3DS console, games, accessories
3DS boxes and manuals (no games)
DS games and accessories
Almost every boxed game below has some minor wear to the box
DS boxes and manuals (no games)
GBA games and videos
GBC games and more
GB games and more
Wii U games and packaging
Wii games and accessories
GameCube games, accessories and packaging
N64
N64 boxes and manuals
NES games and accessories
PS3 boxes and manuals (no games)
PS2 games
PS2 boxes and manuals (no games)
PSX games
PSX boxes and manuals (no games)
IBM Tandy
PC
Strategy guides
Collectibles and posters
Comic Books
Random Stuff

WANT

The high priority stuff, all should be CIB unless noted:
The rest:
Pre-order bonuses
Amiibo (want loose)
LRG Cards
Cards for Flinthook, Furi, Slime San, ToeJam and Earl, Golf Story, Dragon's Lair Trilogy, PixelJunk Monsters 2, Lumines Remastered, Yooka-Laylee, The Escapists and Saturday Morning RPG
Limited Print Switch Games (prefer CIB but also fine with NIB, also fine with Best Buy retail versions when applicable)
Other Switch Games (looking for CIB and clean)
3DS Games
DS
GBA
GBC
GB
Wii U
Wii
GameCube
N64
PS3
PS2
PSX
Strategy Guides
I'm happy to look at lists, but these are my priority wants.
submitted by MiamiSlice to gameswap [link] [comments]

From Conspiracy to Fact: An analysis of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Information Control, and the New World Order (Appendix includes hundreds of citations) - PART 1

PLEASE NOTE: This article may be updated periodically with new information and links as they become available. All referenced information and a whole lot more is indexed and linked in the related appendix posts. Please feel free to crosspost, share, and take from my ideas to build your own. Namaste.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Appendix A | Appendix B
​
Hello. My name is Chris. I am nobody, really. An average citizen. I am an overweight 42 year old white male from the Midwestern suburbs of the US who has been fortunate enough to live a pretty comfortable life. I used to be a freelance graphic designer with a focus on small businesses, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that that career and part of my life is more than likely over in light of current events. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
I've always been concerned about social injustice and tried to stay politically informed, even dabbling in some activism here and there. At times I've stepped away from paying attention for my own mental health, or due to laziness, defeatism, whatever. But I've never stopped caring, or trying, to fight the good fight and do the right thing.
The news recently has of course swept us all up, and touched all our lives in some way or another. The world has never seen anything like the "Coronavirus Pandemic," and it's clear that our society will be changed forever when we finally come out the other end of this mess. But I've had the luxury of time recently, and in reading the news about things that were going on, I couldn't help but notice the patterns, and that a lot of stuff didn't exactly make sense.
So, here we go, with the "conspiracy theory."
I hate that term, because although it's technically accurate, it's been demonized and weaponized by the media and society at large to take on a bad connotation. Tinfoil hats, alien abductions, crazy people muttering to themselves, etc. You've no doubt got a lot of images in your mind of a conspiracy theorist.
And make no mistake, what I'm going to tell you here is all currently very popular conspiracy theory. However, I think that by removing opinions and conjecture from it, and focusing on facts and things that have already happened, I can present this huge amount of overwhelming, disparate information in a way that makes it less a "theory" and more a "research project." And so that is how I have approached this.
I have spent the last week doing little else besides reading every news and opinion article I could find, saving and organizing hundreds of links, and assembling a coherent, logical outline to organize and present these theories, and more importantly, facts. There are a lot of less-than-reputable sites and publications out there, and I have tried when at all possible to provide sources from verifiable news sites, with a wide range of slants and focuses, to illustrate that what is happening is not part of any one particular political agenda.
I hope that you take the time to check the links, really look into the information presented here, and form your own opinions. Please do not just take my word for it. To that end, there are also a few links mixed in that are labeled as having come from conspiracy. These are well-written and well-reasoned posts from other concerned citizens that I think are worth reading, and relevant to the discussion here.
One last thing - If you are new to most of these ideas, the information presented here is more than likely going to seem overwhelming at first. I encourage you now, and always, to take mental health breaks for yourself, and put down your phone or turn off your computer. The information will be here when you come back. And as you'll soon understand, what is happening is an unstoppable tide, truly a force of nature at this point, and there is nothing you can do to fight it, so try your hardest to relax, put on some chill music, hug your dog, and most of all...
BREATHE.
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If you start researching conspiracy theory, you're going to find a lot of information. Some much better or worse presented than others, and some much more plausible or unbelievable than others. Despite the seeming ridiculousness of some things you might read, I encourage you to always approach new information with an open mind.
That said though, I have one main principle that guides all my beliefs about conspiracy theories, and that is the "Filter of Likelihood." Essentially, you have to ask yourself how possible, how likely, and how feasible a piece of information is. Furthermore, you need to ask yourself what the motivation would be. In many cases, it's quite easy to see how something makes a lot of sense based on other known info, whereas some theories seem rather implausible no matter how you look at it.
I am interested only in the plausible, and where possible, the already actualized. Additionally, there's a lot to be said, and a lot that has already been written on many of these topics, so I will focus on current events and simple concepts.
I will also ask you to open your mind to possibility. Please consider this as you evaluate new information:
  1. Do you believe there are things going on in the world that you don't know about yet?
  2. Do you believe that there is technology and science you've never heard of?
  3. Do you believe that society is progressing at an increasing rate?
  4. Do you believe that as populations grow, we require new societal strategies?
  5. Do you believe that those with power and money want to retain their power and money?
Of course you believe all these things, and none of these are wild or unusual concepts. Rather, these are very basic concepts that apply to everyone, and always have. They are all part of our shared human experience, and undeniable facts of life. Populations grow, societies evolve, technology advances, and the world changes. And most important to our discussion here, people, families, and empires constantly jockey for power and control, while fighting for resources, power, fame, and...
MONEY.
We all hate TicketMaster, right? Who do they think they are, what the hell is this bullshit "service fee," etc. It's something everyone can get behind. But did you know that TicketMaster willingly cultivates that image? That venues, teams, and artists, in their pursuit of more money, raise fees and then let TicketMaster be the bad guy and take the heat so their reputations remain intact?
There are many more people, organizations, and other entities in the world playing that same role for those who really have the money, who really call the shots. And those who call the shots work very hard and spend absolutely unfathomable amounts of money, time, and blood, to make sure that you don't ever realize who's actually taking your money.
They do this in the simplest, easiest way. If you simply control information from the top down, and disseminate it when and where you see fit, you can effect great societal change without lifting a finger.
Please imagine... really, try to imagine... You just read an article, saw a video, whatever, from a very, very reputable source. And it just informed you that an asteroid was 83% likely to impact the Earth next month. What would you do? What would happen in the world?
Hopefully an asteroid will not hit next month, but it's important to really imagine what would happen and why, and how. Because a huge amount of information would be generated and published, people would panic, society would crumble, and the world as you know it would change forever in an instant, the moment you read that headline.
Control of information is one of the most powerful tools known to mankind today. A person living in 2020 can easily encounter as much information in a day as someone in Medieval times might have encountered in a lifetime. And it comes at you from all angles, in all forms, non-stop, 24/7. Much like the water in the pipe, the information is always there, and one needs but turn it on.
Disseminating the information then becomes a practice all its own, and to be sure, information processing accounts for more than half of the US GDP. And the rate at which it's spread, and way it is handled makes a huge difference in the societal repercussions. So a few different techniques are used:
It might be the greatest understatement of all time to say that there has been a lot of information passed around about COVID-19, the "Coronavirus," recently. In fact, there has never been anything like what we are currently experiencing in all of human history, and not by a long shot. And this unprecedented turn of events has caused a lot of people to react in a lot of ways, and say and do a lot of things, for better or for worse.
Full disclosure: In particular, if you look up conspiracy theory, you'll see a lot of stuff suggesting that the "Coronavirus is a hoax." (You'll also find a lot of poorly-written rambling) I want to be clear that I DO NOT believe that. I am 100% sure that there is a Coronavirus, that it is making people sick, that a lot of people are dying, and that our medical professionals and many other undervalued workers are overwhelmed, and breaking their backs every day to do their best to keep their friends, families, and loved ones safe. I am extraordinarily grateful for them and admire the resolve and bravery that so many have shown in the face of this disaster. I do not think it is a hoax at all.
However, I think that literally everything else that is happening surrounding the "pandemic" is.
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The Pandemic
In the first week of January this year, I got sick. Really sick. I know when I got it and who I got it from, and honestly the exact moment I got it (I only was in proximity of the dude for a few minutes). He had warned me that he was really sick, and I blew it off. I started feeling sick a day or two later, and a day or two after that I felt like I was dying. Fever, chills, aches, extraordinary fatigue. And literal, nonstop, 24/7 coughing. I had every single symptom of what we now know as COVID-19. I commented to anyone who would listen that I didn't recall ever feeling that sick before in my entire life. The most memorable part of it though was that after a couple days, I completely lost my sense of smell and taste. Joked a lot about how you could feed me onions and soap cause I'd have no idea. I try to have a good attitude about being sick.
I spent a week sleeping on the couch before I finally went to the doctor. She gave me a Prednisolone steroid pack (which has worked well for me in the past), some Trazodone to knock me out, and Benzonatotate for my cough. As soon as I took the first dose of steroids I started to feel pretty fucking great, and it was more or less a non-issue after that.
I spoke to a lot of people about it then and after, and man, I can't tell you how many stories I personally heard from people I know that said the exact same thing. Then I started reading the same story over and over again on Reddit:
We didn't start really hearing about the Coronavirus in the media until the beginning of March, and we didn't hear about the "Pandemic" until just a couple weeks ago. And what a couple weeks it's been since then. But I am quite certain that it's been around for a lot longer and that I, and a lot of other people I know, had it - and DID NOT DIE FROM IT - way back in January.
We now know that the first documented case in the US was on January 19th, but that word "documented" is so, so important here. That means that we had identified the virus, developed a test, and tested a person with the symptoms that day. It does NOT mean that was when the virus reached the United States. How sick do you have to be before you take a day off work? Before you go to the doctor? With America's healthcare system or lack thereof, it's almost certain that many people had this virus before we determined what it was, and how infectious it really was.
There is also the matter of the statistics of severity vs the regular flu. This is a highly contentious topic and I am no medical expert, and do not wish to make any assertions. However, what I can tell you from my personal experience is this: I had a horrible "flu" in January, got basic medicine, got better. So, either I had the flu, or perhaps I did indeed have the Coronavirus.
We will never know because I was never tested. But the important thing is that it doesn't matter. Either I (and many others) had the Coronavirus and it did not kill us (calling into question the severity of the infection) or we just had a bad cold or flu, but it had the exact same symptoms as COVID-19 (calling into question the extent of Coronavirus diagnoses). But logically, one of those two statements is true.
Furthermore, the data keeps changing, and I don't mean increasing on a daily basis. I mean up and down, back and forth, it is deadly or maybe it isn't, etc. On January 14 the WHO told you it couldn't spread from human to human. But then on Jan 19 we saw the first case of Coronavirus in the United States. Then it turns out that the Wuhan market outbreak began earlier in December. And then it's an "epidemic," but most people will only get mild symptoms. What are you supposed to believe? And it sure does seem to come at you as a firehose, and it's hard to even think about anything because OHMYGODTHECORONAVIRUS!
But let's stop and look a couple basic facts. As a matter of fact, I'm going to let Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi explain this one to you. This is a very informative 10 minute video, watch it:
Sucharit Bhakdi - Very clear math showing that the COVID statistics are being manipulated
So 80% of people only experience mild symptoms, and we're crashing the economy for this? The statistics aren't any more extreme than many other illnesses we've had over time, and we're crashing the economy for this? It doesn't make sense until you consider that there are other factors besides just the virus at play.
Wolfgang Wodard - Explaining how the statistics are being manipulated to cause panic
The media, and society at large is inundating you with terrifying information about the Coronavirus. But if it's not as bad as we originally thought, then why? We don't freak out about every illness that comes along, and we've certainly never in the history of civilization had over 1/3 of the global population locked down under mandatory quarantine.
And then there's the debate about where the virus came from. We believe it came from a meat market in China, under unsanitary conditions. The science behind a coronavirus making the leap from one species to another is well-established and researched, and it is a very likely scenario. There are also conspiracy theories that state that China released it on its people intentionally, or even that the US military released it in China. Again, we will never know exactly where this Coronavirus came from. It may be natural, it may be man made, and there are very plausible paths for both. I don't know what to believe myself. So here I ask you to make your own judgement based on likelihood.
What we do know though is that the state of the world this virus has been unleashed on has played a major factor in its spread. In 1950 the global population was 2.5 billion, and that has exploded to almost 8 billion people in 2020. As a matter of fact, population growth has been exponential since about the time of the Industrial Revolution.
With all these people on the planet there are sure to be many disagreements and conflicts, and there indeed have been. As a matter of fact, 2019 saw global protests on an unprecedented scale, in Hong Kong, France, Syria, and many other countries. Citizens have literally been fighting police and military with rocks, clubs, arrows, and molotov cocktails.
Did you know that? Despite my seeing headlines and pictures every day of the riots in Hong Kong, I have been shocked to learn that multiple of my close friends, intelligent and aware people, had no knowledge whatsoever of the protests even existing. But that is far from a coincidence; rather, it is quite by design.
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Billionaires and Coincidences
Another major talking point over the last 5 to 10 years has been the "1%" - the handful of super-rich individuals who posess and control the vast majority of the Earth's wealth and resources. Where it used to just be a numerical term, "Billionaire" is now a dirty word, and one of the nastiest. We all hate billionaires. They are evil, and profit off the exploitation of the rest of the world.
The "Illuminati" we call them, in pursuit of a "New World Order." Crazy stuff, right? Mysterious symbols and people in black robes doing nefarious things in secret meetings, and running the world from behind the scenes. We love the Illuminati, it's a huge pop culture thing now. The subject of endless speculation, they are made fun of in the media, movies, and now Taco Bell commercials. It's so far fetched it could never really be true. And the fact that you think that is by design as well.
So, we don't know where the Coronavirus came from, but it's certainly here, and there are lot of other things unfolding in the world around it. Many different current events from all different places and fields of study. Some of it seems a little too coincidental. It is certainly very coincidental that this economically destructive Coronavirus entered the world right as there were global uprisings, protests in the street, and a growing public hatred for billionaires.
Well, here are a few other coincidences: Hundreds of CEOs of major companies stepped down from their positions in recent months. Multiple US Senators sold stock right before the market crashed. Even the boss of the New York Stock Exchange sold his own stock right before the crash. Did they know something they weren't telling us?
Here's another coincidence. In 2010, The Rockefeller Foundation published a selection of future-predicting scenarios in the name of "exploring the ways that technology and development could co-evolve." One of these four scenarios, entitled "Lock Step," eerily predicts a global viral pandemic and the resulting hypothetical consequences, which almost exactly mirrors the COVID-19 pandemic we are in the midst of today.
Also coincidental: The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in China on November 17th, 2019. Literally one month earlier, The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. In this exercise, they discuss the potential implications and consequences of a novel Coronavirus, including an economic crash, martial law, and of particular interest, the control of information. (You can view some published highlights here)
The World Economic Forum is comprised of the richest of the rich. The 1%. The Billionaires. CEO's, politicians, business owners, and many other powerful and influential figures. They meet regularly to discuss topics of global concern, and strongly control the dissemination of information. And of primary concern to many of them is maintaining their wealth and power in a rapidly-changing world.
And finally, here's one more coincidence: At the exact same time as the Event 201 exercise, The World Military Games was held in Wuhan, China, Oct 18-27, 2019. It was the largest military sports event ever to be held in China, with nearly 10,000 athletes from over 100 countries competing in 27 sports. Wuhan China was, as we now believe, the source of our current global COVID-19 outbreak.
Whether you think it is a "conspiracy" or not, that is all certainly coincidental, to say the least.
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"Why didn't I hear about any of this?"
That's an excellent question, and one that likely has multiple answers. For starters, how much do you really pay attention? Where do you get your news from? Do you research things you hear or just accept them on hearsay? Critical thinking skills are paramount in making sense of the chaos unfolding all around us.
As I mentioned before, I can tell you that I personally know multiple people who had no clue whatsoever about the riots in Hong Kong last year. As you read this, you may be one of them. And it may seem like something that is happening far away, and "could never happen here." Or you may have been aware of it but just that it was happening. But please, consider for a moment: millions of average citizens risked their lives and safety in the streets of Hong Kong for months on end, fighting police and military, and transforming the city they lived in into a warzone. WHY? Why would people do something like that? Regardless of their motivations, that many people were banding together to fight for something they believed in. And that is worth considering.
It's not really your fault though that you may not catch wind of all this news. The "mainstream media" that you hear about all the time deliberately controls information - downplaying threats and overreacting to silly things - in order to make sure that you hear the version of the news that they want you to hear.
Did you know that only 6 corporations control 90% of the media In America? That number is reduced from 50 companies in the 80's. And literally all the news you see on TV, at the very least, is 100% owned and controlled by these companies. Lately, distrust is growing for cable news networks, and many people turn to their local hometown station for trusted news. The problem with that though is that your hometown station is probably owned by Sinclair Media, one of the most powerful broadcast networks in the country that you've never heard of.
Please watch this very brief video, illustrating the chokehold that Sinclair Media maintains over your nightly local news broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI
Of course, not every piece of news is pre-programmed but a lot is. The real news is out there, but sometimes you have to look a little deeper than the infographics on TV news. Even if information is being directed from the top down, the boots on the ground tend to be passionate people with a variety of interests and agendas, and they are still doing their best to do real journalism despite corporate oversight.
Think of those who are directing the information as steering an impossibly massive ship with a rudder. You can slowly adjust the course of direction, however it is slow to react. If you want to stop, you have to start thinking about stopping wayyy ahead of time. And similarly, once it gets underway, it is then influenced by an inertia all its own. Micro controls and adjustments aren't really possible.
Our society is this giant ship. There are 8 billion people on this earth - that is 8000 million. An incomprehensible number that grows rapidly every day. As civilization grows and advances, so does our medicine, our technology, our cultural norms. These are all natural processes that are necessary to manage an increasing number of societies all around the globe. And many of the advances we're making have exciting potential benefits for humanity, although as with all tools, they also inherently possess the potential for abuse.
Here are some other things happening in society right now, some you may be aware of and many you may not:
There is an interesting chicken or egg relationship between science fiction and real world science. Sci-fi writers are inspired by the real science of the day, then they apply their creativity to imagine what might be in the future. Young scientists encounter these fantastical ideas and think they are worth pursuing, and then set about to make them a reality, and the cycle continues.
Futuristic concepts are then preempted and introduced through the media to the conscious mind, as we include them in books, movies, TV, video games, and more. Eventually we start seeing headlines of these new technologies and developments happening in other places, usually Japan and China first due to their prevalence in the industrial and technological sectors of our global economy.
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Continue to Part 2

submitted by SquarePeg37 to conspiracy [link] [comments]

"The Devil & Max Sullivan: Book 2" (Fiction)

I dropped a thousand on 8 and shook the dice, tonight’s the night I can feel it in my bones. Taking my shot I watched the dice tumble across the board and come up short, “Shit” I took the last of my chips and walked away, Vegas was looking more and more like a mistake every day. Strolling through the casino looking for a hot table I spotted a familiar frame passing through the crowd, I only saw her for a second but there was no mistake, it was her. I didn’t waste a second looking around, I cashed out and headed for my room. As I got on the elevator an older guy stepped in with me, something about him gave me a bad vibe, he never spoke but I couldn’t shake the feeling he was watching me. The elevator stopped on the 6th floor and the old man got off, as the doors slid shut he turned to face me, his milky white eyes were the last thing I saw as the door completely shut.
The doors finally opened on my floor and as I stepped out I spotted a kid coming out of one of the rooms. I didn’t think much of it as we passed one another in the hall but just as I got to my door I heard his voice. “Hey mister you dropped something.” Instantly recognizing it I turned around, but there was no one there. I unlocked the door and rushed into my room, as soon as the door slammed shut I started packing. I set my bags by the door then called the front desk to let them know I was checking out, there was no answer. I hung up the phone and started to walk out, just as I grabbed my bags someone knocked. Releasing my grip, I pulled the pistol from my waistband and clicked off the safety, easing up to the door I looked through the peephole staying as quiet as possible. Three rough looking types (great) I stepped away from the door and called out, “Who is it!?” I heard someone clearing their throat. “Room service.” I had to smile, these guys were clearly watching too many gangster movies I tried to remember exactly where they were standing as I took aim and fired. I could hear them scrambling in the hall as I shut off the lights and got in the closet near the door, with a loud boom they came crashing in waving guns around. They didn’t even bother to look in the closet (amateurs) I stepped out and shot the one closest to me in the back of the head, the other two put their hands up and stopped moving. “Turn around slow.” They did as they were told and the second they were both facing me I shot the one on the left, smiling I stepped closer and pressed the barrel to the last ones forehead. “What seems to be the problem here boss?” He shifted his eyes to me without turning his head,” You killed our brothers and kidnapped our VP’s old lady.” Flashbacks of dragging a woman into a black room fluttered through my mind, taking a deep breath I stepped back and pulled the trigger, I was on the elevator and headed for the parking garage before the bodies could get cold. The elevator dinged as it came to a stop on the 6th floor, the doors slid open to reveal that same old man standing exactly where I’d seen him last. He didn’t move, he just stood there staring at me with a strange expression on his face, “You getting on or not old man?” he responded by smiling at me then opened his mouth releasing a wave of earthworms and dirt spilling down the front of his suit, flipping him off I mashed the button to close the door….
Once I finally made it to my car I tossed my bags in the back seat and hopped in, the second I slid the key in the ignition I heard her chuckle. Slowly glancing up I saw her reflection in my rearview, she was in the back seat. “Hello Max.” I closed my eyes and put my head down, “You gotta be kidding me. What do you want?” She smiled that wicked smile, “Oh nothing, I saw you were in town and thought I’d pop in to say hello.” Taking a deep breath and shaking my head I started the car, “Go away. I don’t have time for your bullshit.” She smiled and in the blink of an eye she was gone, I cruised the strip for a while before I hit the road. A few hours later I was pulling up to a motel just off the highway, once I was settled in I walked to the vending machine for a coke. I stood there gulping down my ice cold soda when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, “Excuse me sir, but could you spare a couple of dollars?” I turned around to see a teenager, he was 17 possibly 18 years old. His hair was long dirty and matted, his clothes were tattered old rags that looked like they’ve never seen the inside of a washing machine and he was barefoot. “Christ kid, you can’t go around sneaking up on people like that, it’s a good way to get yourself killed.” He stepped back and smiled, “My fault, I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just hoping I could maybe get a few bucks for something to eat.” Looking around I put my hand in my pocket and thumbed a few bills. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you 500 dollars if you can do something for me.” He stepped back with an angry expression on his face, I already knew what he was thinking and I had to laugh. “Calm down there Skippy, I’m not trying to buy your hole. I need someone to keep an eye out while I’m staying here.” I saw him relax as a curious smile slowly eased across his face, “So you’re gonna give me 500 bucks to be a look out? Who am I supposed to be looking for?” I took another swig of my soda and pulled out the money. “Bikers specifically, but if you hear anyone looking for Max I need to know about it. We got a deal?” The kid nodded his head and I gave him 200, “You’ll get the rest in the morning, I’m in room 14 knock twice if you see anything.”
I went back to my room and fell asleep, after an hour or so the smell of something rotten pulled my out of my dreams. When I opened my eyes it seemed like the smell got worse, I sat up to see that old man from the elevator standing in the corner of my room. A writhing pile of earthworms and dirt stood knee high around his legs and when he spoke his voice sounded like there were dozens of people talking in unison. “You have been” I didn’t let him finish talking, I grabbed my gun and fired causing him to explode and cover everything (including me) with the worst smelling sludge I’ve ever come across. “What the fuck!?” some of it got in my mouth and I almost threw up as I got to my feet. The second I stood up the room started to vibrate with a low hum that made my teeth rattle, as the sound got louder I found myself fighting to stay awake and before long I was falling to the floor splashing down into a pool of that black sludge. There was a moment of absolute silence, I was floating in an ocean of darkness looking up at a star filled sky, a tapping sound cut through the silence and the world around me started to spin. White light blinded me for a second then I was back in my room lying face down on the cheap motel carpet. (Tap, tap) The sound that brought me back was coming from the door, I got up looking around the room realizing the goo was gone but I could still taste it on my tongue. I didn’t bother looking out the peep hole I just flung the door open to see the kid standing there looking nervous. “There’s a group of guys asking questions at the front desk. I think they’re looking for you.” The kid came in and closed the door while I grabbed my things. “Damn it stinks in here. What’ve you been doing?” I looked at him for a second then dug in my pocket for the rest of his money. “Thanks for the heads up, you better get moving before they get here.” as I handed him the cash the door came crashing in.
There were five of them all together, the first one through the door pistol whipped the kid and the other four rushed me, they were in the middle of beating me to death when I heard that low humming sound and everything went black. I don’t mean I blacked out, I was completely conscious, I just couldn’t see anything. Over the next few seconds all I could hear was them screaming along with the sound of bones breaking and blood splattering. When it was over I sat there watching the darkness ooze down the walls slowly revealing the light as it pooled in the center of the room forming itself into the old man from the elevator. He smiled then vanished leaving me with an unconscious kid and a room full of dead bodies. Sirens whaled in the background while I woke up the kid, he sat up and wiped the blood off his face looking around the room. “Holy shit! What happened? Did you do this?” I grabbed my bags and headed for the door, “The cops are coming, you better get moving.” about half way to my car he came running up behind me. “Hey wait! Can I get a ride? You can drop me off at the next town, I can’t deal with the cop’s dude. Please man, I gotta get out of here.” I shook my head and hit the alarm, “Get in.”
We were on the road for an hour before either of us said a word. “So what’s all this about? Why’re those guys after you?” I grabbed my cigarettes off the dash and lit one up, “It’s a long story. What’s your deal, why’re you running from the cops?” he smiled and let the seat back. “They ask too many questions.” We didn’t talk much after that, I drove till the sun came up then stopped to get gas. When I got back from paying the kid was gone, once I finished fueling up I hopped in and started pulling off. I was just about to pull onto the highway when the kid came running up to the passenger side tapping on the window while franticly pulling at the handle. “Let me in, let me in!” the second I popped the lock he dove in laughing as we peeled out of the parking lot. I glanced over to see him counting a wad of 20s and 10s, “What’d you just do?!” he smiled, counted off 50 and stuffed it in the cup holder. “Got some gas money.” Getting comfortable in the seat he chuckled a little, “I saw some guys shooting dice on the side of the store, so while you were chatting up the cashier I took your gun and robbed them, speaking of which.” Leaning back in his seat he pulled my gun from under his shirt then slipped it back in the glove box…
Chapter 2:
The kid’s name is Sam, I was supposed to dump him in the next town but he’s managed to make that a lot harder than it should be. We were speeding along the back roads somewhere in Texas when a state trooper lit us up, pulling off the highway I already knew how this would play out but what happened next threw me for a loop.
As the trooper approached the vehicle I glanced over to see Sam was gone, after the usual line of questioning I was pulled out of the car and placed in cuffs. The trooper was walking me to the squad car when I heard Sam’s voice from behind us, “You should’ve let him go.” before he could turn around a hand gripped the top of his head and in one swift motion mashed down. There was a wet crunch as his spinal column compacted and his skull caved in, his lifeless body crumbled to the pavement revealing Sam standing there with a huge smile plastered across face. Laughing and kneeling down wiping his hands on the officer’s uniform he chuckled, “That was awesome, I didn’t think it would work. Bet you’re glad I’m here now aren’t you?” Watching him retrieve the keys from the officer’s pocket I noticed a slight wisp of black smoke coming from his eyes. “You’re one of hers aren’t you?” Sam glanced up at me with a disappointed look, “Why does everyone think we all work for her? As a matter of fact I can’t stand the old bat, no matter what happens she gets all the credit.”
While he rambled on I was planning my escape, the second the cuffs came off I bolted to my car, jumped in and sped away. Zipping down the highway I saw someone step out into the road ahead of me, it was Sam. I mashed down the accelerator and gripped the wheel to keep control, I was going to leave him splattered across the highway, the closer I got I braced myself for impact. As my front bumper made contact the little shit phased right through it grabbing me by the shoulders and snatching me out of the car, in a split second I was standing on the road watching my car veer off the pavement and slam into a tree, there was a loud whoosh as it burst into flames taking my money with it. “What the fuck man!? Why won’t you go away?!” Sam stood there shaking his head dusting himself off, “You are one ungrateful bastard, aren’t you? I’ve saved your life, and kept you out of jail, do I get a thank you?” As he finished dusting himself off his clothes transformed from rags to a nicely tailored solid black suit. His filthy matted hair turned to dreadlocks as he passed his fingers through it. “No, instead you try to ditch me then you tried to run over me with your car!” he smiled and nodded his head. “I can see why she picked you, here’s the deal Max, I want you to kill her.”
“She’s been hiding here for a long time and.” Sam paused in midsentence then shook his head as black smoke started pouring from his eyes, “We’ll talk later.” He turned to walk away and vanished in a cloud of smoke as a familiar voice sent chills up my spine. “Hello Max, how’ve you been?” Turning around to face her there was a loud pop and I found myself standing in an office. Her back was to me as she stood there looking out over the city, I couldn’t help but to admire her figure for a second and before I could stop myself she chuckled, “You really shouldn’t look at me that way people might get the wrong idea.” She turned to me with that wonderfully wicked smile, “I have a new offer for you Max, my competitors think they can run the show and I need them dealt with. In return I’ll give you back what you’ve lost and toss in a little extra for your troubles, do we have a deal?” Laughing to myself I started towards the closest door, I paused to glanced back to her. “Why me? I’m sure you could handle this on your own, why do you keep dragging me into your shit?” The smile slipped from her face as she stepped over to the desk and took a seat, “Do we have a deal?” Patting my pocket I found my smokes, got one out and lit it then opened the door, “No, I don’t think we do. See you around.” As I stepped into the hall the door slammed shut behind me and as it did I was back on the highway standing a few feet away from my burning car.
I walked till the sun came up eventually coming to a town called “Ravens rock”. Stopping to rest under an old tree I fished the last of my money out of my pocket and counted it. A hundred and fifty Bucks, it would have to do till I could come up with a plan, as the morning rolled on and the sleepy little town came to life I started attracting attention. Strolling along I realized everywhere I went at least one person would openly stop and stare at me, the really odd part was no one seemed to notice. After seeing it three or four times I decided to walk up to the next person I spotted staring at me. Walking to the end of the block I turned right onto another street and as I made the corner I spotted an old man standing in front of a hardware store. He was in the center of the sidewalk, puffing on his cigar staring directly at me. From a distance I didn’t recognize him but as I got close enough to see him I realized I’d seen him before. He blew out a heavy cloud and scowled at me, “Leave my town or I’ll kill you myself. I’ve good thing going here and I don’t need you screwing it up.” I nodded my head looking around the street for a second then punched him in the nose so hard I heard it snap. Grabbing him by the collar I hurried him inside the store and locked the door behind us, long story short, I drug him in the back and beat him to death with a hammer then cleaned out the registers and got out of there.
I was two blocks away when the old man popped up again, puffing his cigar he blew a huge cloud that immediately engulfed me transporting us both to a bar. As the smoke cleared I spotted him pouring two cups, “Have a seat Max.” judging by the look on his face I wasn’t sure I wanted the drink but considering he probably could’ve killed me already I took the chance. “I am Stolas, and unlike the majority of my kind these days, I’m neutral in all this.” Tipping his glass to me he emptied his cup then poured another. “That’s the only reason I haven’t killed you. After your little temper tantrum at the hardware store I was tempted, but I’m sitting this one out.” sniffing my drink I finally took a sip. It went down warm and smooth coating my mouth with the sweet aftertaste of honey. I downed the rest of it as the old man slid the bottle over to me, “What is all this, Stoli?” He frowned at me and took another sip, “Its Stolas, and I don’t know. What I can tell you is, there’s a lot of bad news headed your way. Ask your little pal Samael he knows, from what I hear he’s in the middle of it.” Refilling both of our cups, he paused and looked at me. “So Max, what do I have to do to get you out of my town?”……..
Chapter 3:
Stoli agreed to give me a car and keep his mouth shut about seeing me. Heading north the day turned to night as the miles drifted by, since my money was gone the plan was to link up with an old friend of mine and pull a job or two for some fast cash. Passing through Colorado I came to a crowded truck stop, the parking lot was packed, people were walking around drinking and having a good time, I just needed gas. Once I got a pump I went inside for supplies, grabbing a few things I made my way up to the counter. “So what’s going on around here, is it always this busy?” The cashier an older lady smiled and glanced out the window as she rung me up. “Its Friday, all the locals go to the little club on the other side of the lot, things usually die down around 2 or 3 in the morning.” As she turned to grab my cigarettes from the rack I noticed a tattoo on the back of her neck, I didn’t recognize the symbol but something about it gave me a bad feeling.
Fueling up and watching the crowd move through the lot I figured a drink might do me some good, besides I was in no hurry to get back on the road. Once I had a parking spot and made my way inside I grabbed a beer and found a quiet corner far away from the dance floor. Scanning the crowd for marks and picking a couple of easy targets I spotted a crew casing the place. There were four of them, the point man or woman in this case was standing near the end of the bar, she was talking to a couple of different people but they didn’t seem involved. Two gunners, one by the restroom and the other near the front door, by the looks of them this wasn’t their first run. Looking around I found the ring leader, center stage in the middle of the dance floor, he was dancing with a group of people while the others waited for the signal. Polishing off my beer I got up from my table and walked out, as soon as I hit the parking lot I started searching for the getaway car, it didn’t take long. I put on my best fake drunk walk and staggered over patting my pockets looking for my cigarettes. Once I got to the trunk I pounded on it with my hand calling out to the driver, “Hey man, you got a light?” He glared back at me opening the door to get out, “Did you just hit my car, get the fuck out of here! No I don’t have a light!” Fumbling with my smokes I dropped them as he got closer, staggering leaning forward to pick the pack up I braced myself and as soon as he was in reach, I punched him in the balls so hard he lifted up on his toes. He wheezed and doubled over as I stood up grabbing the back of his head kneeing him in the face until he crumbled to the ground gurgling and spitting out teeth. Once I was done stomping his skull in, I put his body in the dumpster and checked the car. I found one fully loaded AR 15 and a Chiappa Rhino along with a few extra rounds in the center console, I took the guns and was planning on taking the car when the sound of gunfire from inside the club let me know it was show time.
Hiding behind some parked cars I waited for them to come out, it wasn’t long before they came running. As soon as they stopped to look around for the driver I opened up with the AR. The first few shots dropped two of them, I ducked down and moved to another position as the others fired blindly not knowing where I was. Circling around to my left I could hear one of the downed men screaming while the other two yelled to one another in the confusion. Creeping over to another cluster of cars and taking a quick look, I could only see one of them it was the woman from the bar. She was clutching a 9 in one hand and a bag in the other as she nervously looked around, taking a deep breath I popped up and dropped two shots on her center mass then immediately took cover and moved to another spot. The guy that was bleeding out in the dirt was still screaming his head off, pausing to listen I heard the last one yelling, by the sound of it he was close. Using the strap I put the AR on my back and pulled the revolver. Moving slow and low I kept closing in on the sound of his voice. When I spotted him I had to smile, he was clutching a second bag (Must be my lucky day) he popped up from his hiding spot and made a break for the car. Taking aim, I let him run for a second then put one through his lower back and he hit the ground screaming.
There wasn’t much time left I could already hear the sirens echoing in the distance, rushing I grabbed both bags then booked it back to my car and got the hell out of there. I was a couple of towns away when I finally stopped to check the money, not a bad haul a couple of thousand at best but it was more than enough to get me where I was headed. Before I could pull off there was a tap at my window, grabbing the pistol off the seat I turned to see Sam standing there peering through the window at me. “You gonna let me in or what?” My first thought was to throw the car in drive and smash the gas but then I remembered what Stoli said and unlocked the door.
Getting in looking around the car Sam Laughed. “Where’d you get this piece of shit? Come on Max, you’re letting me down, I had such high expectations for the old lady’s number one draft pick. So far I have to say I’m not impressed, I mean seriously, stick up kids and low budget bikers? What does she see in you?” Shaking his head Sam reached for my cigarettes on the dash and I grabbed his wrist before he could touch them. “The way I see it, you have two choices. I can beat you to death or you can tell me what going on.” Sam looked at me smiling as black smoke filled his eyes, he tried to shift away from me, when he couldn’t his smile was replaced by shock. Using my left, I grabbed my knife from the door panel and drove it through the back of his hand pinning him to the dash. “Holy fuck that hurts!! How did you?” I cut him off by bouncing his skull off window a couple of times then snatched the blade free and plunged it into his leg. “So Sam, What’s it gonna be?”
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OBLIGATORY FILLER MATERIAL – Just take a hard left at Daeseong-dong…11

Continuing…
That being handled, I leave a wakeup call for 0430 as I want a shower and a couple shower-sunrisers before we leave. It takes me about 10 minutes to pack. I call home to let Es know what’s going on. She’s not in, so I leave a message. Same for my friends Rack and Ruin of the Agency. They’re thrilled so far with my reports.
The security forces here are absolutely going to freak if they reverse-review my phone records once we leave.
Covert? Schmovert. I’m too old for playing such games.
The next morning, after a sudsy shower and a couple of vodka-infused shower-beers; I’m in the lobby with all my kit, checked-out, and waiting on the tour leader. My passport was stamp-stamp-stampity-stamped here at the hotel, which I thought was weird, but after spending time in this here country, not all that unusual.
At 0545 on the dime, the tour bus pulls into the lot. Without a word, bellhops grab near all my kit and escort it out to the waiting bus.
After tipping each extravagantly, I fire up a huge cigar, and wander around outside, loitering by the bus. I see members of my team at the front desk, checking out. Everything’s been paid for already, they just have to sign documents that they’re not secreting hotel towels or televisions or errant nationals in their luggage.
It’s a weird country.
I see them loading box breakfasts for us as well as box lunches on the bus.
Hell, they’re actually doing ‘field trip’ correctly.
If the bus us fueled up, we can go for days at this rate. There are several coolers bearing the hotel’s brand and I sidle over to see what they’re carrying.
Case after case of iced-down beer and a couple of cases of various high-octane potables; and over there? A couple of boxes of mixers…ah, soda…pop…carbonated citrusy goodness.
“OK”, I sigh, “All is as it should be. Now the field excursion may begin.”
My teammates filter outside as does their luggage. I suggest they get out and keep what is necessary for preliminary outcrop excursions; such as a backpack or knapsack, hammer, acid bottles, field notebooks, Brunton compass, lighters, cameras, personal tobacco products, and the like in the bus. That way, we don’t have to go tearing through all the luggage at every stop.
I pull out a bundle of 100 Hubco™ large geological dual-sample bags. That’s right: ‘dual’ sample…
I distribute these to everyone on the team. I ask that they devise their own numbering system and make absolutely certain I have a copy of it when we’re done. I’ll be correlating and curating all the samples when we get back to the world.
I ask that a cooler of drinks are left on board the bus, rather than in the hold. It’s humid, sticky, and muggy today. We must expend valiant effort in remaining hydrated and this will help.
Luckily, the bus has on-board lavatory facilities.
We are seated on the bus, my 10 collective team members, myself, our 4 ‘guides’, ‘Yuk’, ‘No’, ‘Man’, and ‘Kong’; our driver, relief driver, one incredibly shy national geologist, Myung-Dae Soo, and four of the shiny suit clan.
The hotel wheels out a large cart laden with pastries and a huge coffee urn. A bit of a “Bon Voyage” from the casino and bar crowd, as they put this together for us when they heard we were leaving.
“Hey. That’s really nice of them.” Dax notes.
Dax handed over our raw “elevator waiting” funds as we didn’t have time to run it through the casino-machine before we left. We donated over 75,000 won to our friends at the bar, casino, and massage parlor. The ones delivering our going away present assured us it would be divided equitably.
“It best be”, I laughed, “You never know when one of us might be back!”
There was a collective horrified look on their faces for the merest moments. Then they all laughed and said that they hoped we would return someday soon.
“Nice folks”, I thought, “Stupid as shit country, but nice folks.”
We had all separately left tips for the room maids, bellmen, and matrons back before we checked-out.
There was a flurry of handshaking and goodbyes. Not a bad hotel experience here in the so-called land of Best Korea.
Serious dark coffee was passed out amongst the riders, but Ivan, myself, and Dax were already giving one of my emergency flasks a workout.
Ivan smiled and said: “We drink our coffee the Russian way. That is to say we had vodka before it and vodka afterward. HA!”
Ivan and I are cut from the same bolt.
Faux-doughnuts, pseudo-bear claws and fake-long johns all distributed; the bus is fired up, and rumbling. We are exhorted to watch our drinks as we pull away from the hotel and into the wilds of Northern Korea.
I’m humming away:

On the road again -Just can't wait to get on the road again,
The life I love is bashing rocks in the field with my friends.
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again.
Goin' places that we've never been,
Seein' things that we may never see again…
--
“Rock?”, Dax inquires.
“Yes?” I reply.
“Do please shut up.”
“Music hater”, I muse and comply.
We’re rolling down the highway, as it were, headed generally north. We all have cameras of one kind or another; and rather than relieve us of them, they quietly and without much fuss, slowly darken the windows.
They claim it’s to keep the sun out and temperatures down, but just before things go all black, we’re seeing sights and scenes of the true North Korea. They’re trying to keep us from seeing that en route to the outcrops.
This new bus has some sort of electronic tint-control gizmo for the windows. However, if one has a pair of polarizing sunglasses, as all good field geologists do, you see right past that and can view the passing scenery unencumbered.
I return from a quick beer-recycling loo trip and am amused to see 10 Western scientists, sitting in a blacked-out bus, all wearing polarizing sunglasses.
It was just the surreal note this trip needed as we left the confines of the capital city.
We traveled north, and the empties pile began to grow. We had a few trash bags we had liberated from the hotel, but the shiny suits were very insistent that every empty can, bottle, and bag, yes they had beer in bags…had to be repatriated to a box in the far back of the bus.
Evidently, they either were paid a bounty on each container or were accountable for each vessel. They were soon to realize just the capacity for drink that a group of 11 seasoned very Senior Field Geologists, and one stowaway geologist-in-training can amass.
As we ply our way northward, we see the agricultural side of North Korea. The contrast between rural areas and the capital was striking. There were miles of rice paddies being harvested by people with sickles in their hands. And no cars on the highway. It was most destabilizing for this Westerner.
I think we saw a maximum of three tractors, as most of the work was done with ox power, there was very little evidence of rural electrification. Oh, hold on. We saw many more tractors, I should correct that: we saw three running and not rusted into oblivion tractors.
The farmers we see are using equipment that is quite literally medieval - single-share plows pulled by large, cranky bovines; sweeping sickles to bring in the harvest, and twin-engine, bilateral, botanical-fired ox-carts to transport it. It’s hard to believe that this third-world level of poverty exists in the same country that’s capable of building rockets, nuclear weapons, and tall, well-appointed hotels.
But when we stop at a motorway service station for fuel - a bizarre alien spaceship-like building squatting over the empty carriageways - we do encounter a jangmadang, or semi-official market. Here they are selling cans of knock-off Vietnamese Red Bull and Malaysian-made King Cobra™ Cola.
It reminds me of Russia right after the wall fell. Off the Trans-Siberian Railway in Krasnoyarsk, the Gateway to Eastern Siberia. You can buy Chinese hams, Chinese sodas, Chinese knock-off liquor, and those bloody delicious little bullets of Vitamin-C, Chinese mandarins.
Here, it’s similar. You can get most anything you desire, except it isn’t of Korean manufacture. That stuff is even too shitty to pawn off on tourists.
Instead, it’s knock-off Malaysian, Chinese, or Indonesian beer, wine, or soft drinks.
“Tiger-brand energy drink. Now with 40% more real tiger.” Here? I believe them.
Vodka from everywhere not known for its vodka distilling prowess. Rural hotel shops sell nastily stale crisps, gummy gummies, filling-ripping ‘chewy’ taffy or caramel, and biscuits with a severely limited choice. Rural hotels do not have full electricity so beer is warm and often tossed on the table, waiting for tourists to arrive - as is the food. We were warned to be prepared for cold rice, cold fish, cold potato – and plenty of kimchi and tofu.
Back on the road again, we’re passing small burgs that are not on any of our maps; even the ones we traded for back in the hotel that are specially marked: “For Internal Use ONLY!”.
They were amazingly the same. Clean. Bright. Uncluttered. And attended by cadres of prim, uniform-clad, though non-military people. They were all doing a day’s work keeping everything neat and clean.
There were no cars, trucks, forklifts…only rickshaws and ox-carts. However every one of these ‘towns’ were identical, and exactly, as Ivan pointed out, ‘X’ number of minutes apart.
“Watch! Is so!”, Ivan said. We passed one of these villages, and exactly 3 minutes later, an exact copy. Three minutes later? Another one. 3 more minutes? Xerox-city.
“What the fuck?” Dax asked.
“Potemkin village.” Comrade Dr. Academician Ivan replied.
A Potemkin village is any construction, literal or figurative, whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a country which is faring poorly. It is for making people believe that the country is faring better, although statistics and data would suggest otherwise.
“Russia pioneered the process,” Ivan noted with no small amount of pride. “During Cold War with West, entire cities were built, moved, raised, and razed. Ever hear of Krasnoyarsk-25? Atomic Research City? Supposed place of weapons study and manufacture. Huge ‘accident’. Entire city demolished, total populace relocated supposedly, after massive nuclear calamity.”
“Is that true? Cliff asks.
“No. Not at all.” Ivan smiles, “Deliberate misinformation. At least for K-25. It was diversion for actual towns where accidents; nuclear, biological, or worse, had happened. West so concerned about K-25 because it was big, near big capital city of Krasnoyarsk and suitably located out in the taiga. Easy to spot, easy to watch. Kept Western satellites busy while real towns of I-33, U-10, and AR-13 out in the forest were quietly demolished and people relocated or mass buried after some horrible, horrible accidents...”
“You think it’s the same here?” I asked Ivan.
“No, Dr. Rock”, Ivan smiled, and helped himself to my freshly constructed, but untouched, Yorshch, “This is all fake and bluster. Make West think everything is all A-OK, is that right idiom?”
“Yep.” I reply, “Precisely.”
“Make West believe all is OK and green”, as he winks at me, “And bustling and growing. Cover up what is real case here. We all see it and we see right through. Shoddy even for Asians.”
We all had to snicker and smirk as the shiny suit squad, who sat up at the front of the bus, and were not supposed to be listening; reacted like every cell in their bodies were just hit with a drop of pure lemon juice.
“Comrade Dr. Academician. Decorum, please.” I snickered.
“Oh, fuck them!”, Ivan replied, “I am old Russian. They try and pull burlap over my eyes? St. Petersburg? Moscow? Krasnoyarsk.? I’ve been there, seen them. They think this display of tawdriness…Even goofy American and Canadian can see the fakes they are. Britisher? I’m not so sure…”
“Damn, Doctor., I said to Ivan, “You’re just making friends all over the planet today.”
We all knew it was in jest; but the shiny suit squad certainly had their feathers ruffled and either didn’t care or wanted us to know we were under their observation.
“Fuck them twice”, Ivan said, “Ask them for bottle opener. I’m too lazy to search for my field jackknife.”
I hand him my pocket Leatherman and he pries the top of another bottle of ‘Budveiser’ beer.
“They can’t even make fake the name correctly”, he smirks and drains the bottle.
‘Town’ after ‘town’ and even that parade gets uninteresting. We’re headed north and finally come to a crossroads.
The bus driver, who must be a regular paranoid-maniac because he actually stopped to look for oncoming traffic, which we have seen precisely none since leaving the capital city, made a hard right. We’re heading back and up into the hills, leaving the bright lights of the big city far behind.
After an hour or so of driving, we pull off to the left-hand side of the road.
“Rock, Ivan, Cliff…holy shit, look at this!” Dax was uncharacteristically excited.
It was an open field that leads to a series of low outcrops of polychromatic, obviously sedimentary rocks. Magentas, greens, purples, rust-reds, browns, blacks, olive greens…holy shit. A real sedimentary pile.
We filed out of the bus with our field gear. The shiny suit squad started in with a bullhorn.
“You will wait for tour guides!”
“You will listen to group leaders!”
“You will not stray from the designated paths set up…”
No one heard them as the group of 11 remaining Western geoscientists were already across the highway and hieing for the exposures like outcrop-seeking multiple-warhead re-entry vehicles.
“You must wait!” we heard from exasperated voices back at the bus. “You must stop!”
“You must piss off!” Cliff said, “This is what we’ve been waiting over two weeks to see!”
“They are very angry with us”, Myung-dae the young Korean geologist said. “I find that just too bad.”
“And you are?” I asked.
Myung-dae Soo, the young Korean geologist, introduced himself.
“Well”, I said, “Welcome aboard. I’m Dr. Rock.”
“They are very, very angry”, he repeats.
“So? Are you tagging along to give them internal reports?” I asked.
“No, Doctor”, he replied, “I too am a geologist. I want to get away from those assholes and see some real rocks.”
“Who are you with?” I ask, “What group?”
“I am 5th-year student at Pyongyang College. I am not officially here. We were told in class that you were coming. I decided to see if I could join you. This morning, I was standing by bus and they thought I was hotel worker or orderly. I was given cooler full of beer and told to find place for it on the bus. I did and after that, just stayed in the back. I am stowaway. I am ashamed, but I had to see for myself. But, I like Western field trips so far!”
“No shit? Well, then”, I said, “Double welcome aboard. None of this ‘I am ashamed’ shit. You’re a geologist, but you haven’t even worked through your first field-evening get-together with us. But this is no pleasure cruise. It’s real work, real geology, real serious science shit. You savvy?”
“Yes, sir, Doctor Rocknocker from Sultanate in the Middle East.” Myung-dae smiled.
“And you fucking stay close to me”, I smirked.
I fired a couple of BLAAATS! from my portable air horn.
“Field Meeting! Field Meeting! Assholes & Elbows!” I called aloud.
Everyone gathered within earshot.
“OK, guys, here’s the deal. We do not know how long we’ve got here. So, let’s split up into teams. Geophysicists, go do your structural thing. Stratigraphers? Field relations. Geologists? Let’s go talk to some ronery-rooking-rocks. No offense, Mr. Myung.”
Myung-dae was laughing up a storm. He got that reference. He later told us all around the campfire he thought ‘Team America’ was a “fucking hilarious movie.”
Oh, we are going to be a real bad influence on this poor kid.
The groups spontaneously broke up into 4 or 5 sub-groups. They headed for areas they thought were important and they were photographing, measuring, pounding on rocks, and arguing within minutes.
“No, you idiot! It’s continental. Look at those adhesion ripples.”
“The fuck you know. It’s only a little low-level eggbeater tectonics. Where the fuck would you get continental collision-size energy around here?”
“Oh, the fuck you say. It’s non-marine. Those are mud cracks. Look at the sandy aeolian infill, fer chrissake.”
Formal? Proper? Detached Doctors of Geology?
Not when you’re in the field. It all goes out the window when different opinions collide like subducting plates.
“The music of my people!” I said to Morse.
“I thought that was the ‘Safety Dance’?” he chided.
“We’re a big family. We can have more than one.” I snickered.
We’re wandering around the site, with individual purpose.
We are looking for or looking at items of interest.
We’re hacking at the outcrops.
We’re all looking at…things.
It’s hard to describe. Get a load of geologists or geology students out of the office, lab, or classroom; stick them out on a bare expanse of heavily weathered rock and it’s simply…numinous.
We’re rebuilding worlds here.
This rock says this.
This rock says that.
And you’re not fluent in that dialect. Here, let me interpret for you…
We’re at each other’s throats, in the academic-metaphorical sense. Tempers have been known to run hot. There has been the occasional bloody nose or rocks sailing down an outcrop without the obligate “HEADACHE!” call. Hammers and Marsh Picks have ended up swimming without the owner’s knowledge.
But once we’re back; settled in the hotel room, tavern, or around the campfire, we’re all a Band of Brothers again. It’s an odd thing to watch; as if you’re not of the clan, you’d need an interpreter. It defies all boundaries: political, sexual, educational, geographical, linguistic, social, et cetera.
We’re all geologists first. We share the common scientific bond of Geology.
That’s why Geology is the First Science.
Plus we tend to drink a serious fucking whole bloody awful lot.
We’ve all been on that ‘crawlin’ home puker’.
We’ve also been to the ends of the earth: the deepest depths, the highest heights, we deal with the greatest pressures, the hottest temperatures; we’ve been to the mountain, we’ve seen the elephant, and we’ve held a bear’s nose to dogshit.
We wear the scars attained in our travels like badges of honor.
We’re God-Damned Scientists.
Back off, man. Geologist comin’ through.
Anyways, I’m looking at the bedding-plane boundaries between the purple unit and the underlying olive-green unit. The upper unit it looks, to me, continental in origin. Fluvial, perhaps. The lower unit is much finer-grained. Marine mudstone, perhaps? But what age?
The cadged Korean Geological maps are worse than useless. They never would go down to the outcrop scale. Consulting them, they don’t even note these exposures in a field sense.
Myung-dae, who is working about 35 meters down-section from me calls out, “Doctors! Sirs! Look here! I’ve found something!”
We all wander over as he is hacking away at the dusty, eroded rock. He stands and dusts off his find.
It’s a very large, nearly 1-meter diameter, coiled fossil cephalopod.
I wander over for a closer look. Dax, Cliff, Morse, and Ivan do as well.
“Blimey! Will you look at that? Outstanding, Mr. Myung!” Cliff says.
“Well, that confirms it. This layer, at least, is marine. Look at that suture pattern”, I say, dusting off an unweathered bit.
“Look at the radius of coiling.”, Cliff joins in.
We’re slowly wresting information out of this silent witness.
“Ornamentation?”, Dr. Ivan asks. “Knobs, bosses, and excrutions?” Oh, yes.”
In unison, we declare: “Hyphoplites!”
Morse adds, “And therefore…these rocks are middle Cretaceous. Marine. Not bad…”
“Need to get some samples for geochemical analysis. Dig deep, gentlemen, we need unweathered samples for TOC (Total Organic Carbon) content.”, Dr. Erlen Meyer notes.
With that, we have a relative age of the rock, a good idea of its depositional environment, and therefore extent, ideas of field relationships, and an indication of some of its fauna.
Could it be source rock worthy?
Samples? Best get diggin’, Beaumont.
That unit is right smack in the middle of this pile of rocks. Dax and I will work up-section and Ivan and Cliff will work down-section. We’re going to see what lies above, what lies below, what trends we can discern, and develop an idea of what happened here some 100 million years ago.
This is what happens when you get geologists out in the field with the proper amounts of field gear, outcrops, and alcohol.
Overall, the deeper down-section, and therefore, earlier in geological time you go, the more marine the rocks are. Conversely, the higher you go in the column, i.e., up-section, into younger rocks, the more continental it appears.
We find fragments of marine fish fossils, sea-crocodile scutes and teeth, heaps of mosasaur coprolites, i.e., fossil shit piles, and other indications that the lower, older rocks are Lower Cretaceous ocean basin-fill.
But up higher; we find mud cracks, rain prints, land turtle shells, land-snails (Bellerophontid gastropods), and what may actually be a fossil feather. All indications of a more continental, i.e., fluvial (river), floodplain, lacustrine (lake), and paludal (swamp) deposition.
That’s my particular bailiwick.
I’m ‘elephant walking’ along the upper outcrops looking for fossils. You basically bend over at the waist and sweep from left to right as you take exaggerated step after step, scanning the ground looking for…well…it takes years, but once you see it, you never forget it.
“Fossil sign”.
A disjunct endemism. Something not in situ. Something out of place. A bit of a different, out of context color. Out of context texture. Out of context size. Out of context context.
Something that looks like it shouldn’t ought to be there.
I’m picking up 1 cm. square hunks of what look like an ordinary rock. I taste them. Well, I stick them to my tongue. If it liquefies and runs away, it’s ordinary mudstone, shale, or the like.
If it sticks…well, it might just be fossil bone.
“PTWTWOO!”
“Damn right, Rock”, Cliff says from behind me, “Fucking North Korea tastes terrible.”
“Still, it’s the best way I know to…” I paused.
“Got something?” Cliff asked.
“Look here.” I said, “Anthill. Big, nasty buggers. Look around the edges. Pieces of flat, cream-colored rock on this gaudy purple stuff. Tongue test? They stick like cockleburs. Let’s look upslope, see if there’s a drainage…”
There it was, a nice little drainage incised about 1.5 meters deep into the nearly horizontal rocks we were walking on.
“Any float?” I asked.
“Not yet,” Cliff said.
We followed the weak, little drainage that was cut into the outcrop, up another couple of meters.
There were very scrappy, very small, very scattered pieces of that same cream-colored rock. Some were ornamented with a scroll-work or some sort of striations. Most un-geological. More biological. We followed the trail, up here, around here, over there.
Cliff noticed it first, a soccer-ball sized lump of completely out-of-place crème-colored ‘rock’ working its way out by gradual erosion of the variegated pastels of the continental rocks upon which we were treading.
I got there first and began to clear the area with my Estwing.
“Careful. Careful”, Cliff admonished.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mind your Mincies. [Mince pies = eyes]”, as I’m swinging away at the reluctant, reticent, rocks.
The excavation grew, slowly. From the rounded dome, we could see small sutures that had developed…
Then condyles, fenestrae, then more ‘bone’. Then a jaw, teeth, vertebrae…
“HOLY DOUBLE-DAMN SHIT!” I tootled my air horn. We needed the group to see this.
It was a skull. A dinosaur skull. A small, non-avian dinosaur skull.
Everyone has crowded around and looked at the small quarry we had just built.
“Whatcha got, Rock? Cliff?” Joon asked.
“Fuck me, but I think we’ve got us a dinosaur skull,” I said.
Professor Doctor Academician Ivan walked over and cleared the area.
As Professor Emeritus, he had pole position priority.
“I agree.” is all he said.
I cleared the area and let others take a whack at opening up the quarry.
We may have been low on power tools, but we had a surfeit of opinions.
“OK,” I said, “Let’s look at the facts…”
  1. Age? Cretaceous. Probably lower to lower-middle Cretaceous.
  2. Continental deposits. That’s very fine sand we’re hacking away. Fluvial, without a doubt. Or, possibly aeolian; there’s no such thing as a geological certainty. Dunes? Ephemeral creeks? Low floodplain? Geo-talk… .
  3. Small size. Potentially a juvenile?
  4. Nope. Not a juvie. Sutures are closed, fused. This is, well was, an adult; perhaps a subadult, given its size.
  5. In situ? In place? Or washed in?
Hard to tell when all you’ve exposed is half the critter’s brain box.
“Look at that!” Myung-dae exclaimed, “Squamosal bones and the inner parietals…temporal fenestrae. It had a frill; a small one.”
“OK,”, I said, looking closely at the exposed scrappy remains, “Fucking-A Bubba. Nailed it.” I said, giving him the thumbs up.
“Ceratopsian. Look at those greens-grinder molars. There’s some small osteoderms on the skull; knobby old bastard. Early critter.” I continued.
Others looked around and confirmed my observations.
“Reminds me of Protoceratops from when I was back in Mongolia,” I said.
Dax chimed in with, “Looks something like Psittacosaurus from back in the Cretaceous Belly River of Canada.”
Drs. Ivan and Morse agree. “Most assuredly. It is definitely proto-ceratopsian. Young adult, as Dr. Rock notes by the cranial sutures. Do they have a record of proto-ceratopsians here?”
Myung-dae replies, “I have read reports of Korean proto-ceratopsian found in South Korea. Not long ago, 2019, it is called…ah… Auroraceratops. It is a genus of bipedal basal neo-ceratopsian dinosaur.”
“Bipedal?” I query. “Well, there’s a fine how do you do. All the proto-ceratopsians I’ve known were obligate quadrupeds.”
“Well”, Ivan, Dax, Cliff, and Morse agree, “That should give the shiny suit squad something to report. That’ll keep them the hell out of our hair for a while.”
We photograph each step as we excavate the critter. It’s more or less in situ, buried where it fell. Probably killed by a sand slip off a dune, or a river sandbar slip and burial. It’s not complete, but we do have the skull and a good portion of the post-cranial elements to about just before the pelvis. A good pectoral girdle, skull, jaw, frill, forelimbs, forefeet…easily half-a cute little herbivorous dinosaur. About the size of a smallish Highland Coo or large Great Dane.
We flag it with the team particulars, it’s GPS position, and carefully rebury the animal. We don’t have any of the equipment nor time to excavate it properly, but we can conserve it. Of course, we’ll be informing the proper authorities of our discovery.
I have an absolutely ancient Polaroid instant camera. Before re-internment, I take several pictures of our “Koreasaurus”, as we’ve dubbed the animal, with items for scale; like a hammer, cigar, and oddly enough, a photographic scale. Then I get a photo of the whole crew standing around, drinking warm beers from their individual day packs, smiling about the find ‘they‘ made.
We hear the melodious tootle of the bus’s horns. We make sure to pack out all our trash and wander back to our terrestrial transport.
“You were gone too long!” the chief shiny suited character goes all ballistic on me.
“Watch yourself, Herr Mac.”, I calmly said, “You’re going to burn your nose on my cigar.”
“You left without your handlers…err…guides!” he fumed.
“Hey, Scooter. Cool out. We’re geologists. We never get lost.” I said.
It sometimes just takes us longer to get back than it took us to leave…
“Your impertinence will be reported.” He smoldered.
“Report this, Mother Chuckler”, I observed and held out the pictures of our newly discovered Koreasaurus.
“Show those photos to your handlers,” I said in a mocking tone. “We found a brand new species of God-damned dinosaur for you geezers. It took us less than two hours. You can spin it that it’s a new, never-before-seen species of very specialized dinosaur found right here in beautiful Korea del Norte. Be quite the scientific coup, don’t you think? Trust us. We won’t say anything.”
He immediately shut up and went into conference with the rest of the shiny suit squad.
“Doctor”, one of the clan covert asked, “This is a new dinosaur?”
I had a thunderbolt of an idea.
“Oh! Yes, it is. I’d stake my reputation on it. You’ve had no concerted search here for the beasts and well, with the normalizing of relations between your country and the world, it allowed your specialists to perform real science. In fact, on the bus is the young North Korean geoscientist who made the discovery.” I said. “Give me a minute. I’ll go and get him. I think he was off taking a shi…ah, using the lavatory. Just give me a minute.”
I did have an idea. A wonderful idea. A wonderfully evil idea.
Back on the bus, I ordered the doors closed.
“Gentlemen! Ears and eyes! Please.” I said loudly.
Continuing…
“The shiny suits have their knickers all a-twist because we don’t want to listen to them; the assholes. Fuck that. I’ve got an idea. Let’s make our young acolyte here, Mr. Myung-dae Soo, a national hero. He would probably get his ass in a crack for sneaking on board the Western bus today the way he did. Well, double fuck that. Let’s all say he found the dinosaur. Let him take the glory for the homeland. No one else will ever need to know.” I said smiling.
“Fuck Yeah! You bet! Замечательное! Ihmeellisiä! Maravilhoso! Geweldig!”
Good to know we’re all on the same page. Geologists. You can always count on them…
“Mr. Myung-dae Soo? Front and center. Time to go and become ‘Hero of Best Korea’.” I smiled.
He was absolutely terrified.
“Doctor…I …don't…wait…no…” he stammered.
Cliff, Dax, Ivan, and I trotted him out to confront the shiny suit squad.
“Don’t worry, Myung. We’ve got your back. Trust us.” I said in a low conspiratorial tone.
The shiny suit squad turned as one and gave Mr. Myung the Stink Eye treatment.
“Here you go. The man of the hour. Mr. Myung-Dae Soo, young geologist and up and coming paleontologist.” I say loudly and with the utmost honor.
They look at him and the Korean erupts in rapid-fire staccato bursts.
Cliff just wanders in and interjects, “Yes. Righto. Top form. Found the float. Tracked down that dino like he was on safari. Highest marks. Good man!”
Dax adds more fuel to the fire. “Like he knew where to go, knew where to look. He’s a natural.”
Dr. Academician Ivan blustered forth: “Excellent scholar. Excellent field man. Banner geologist.”
I couldn’t have added more. The shiny suit squad was gobsmacked.
I asked Myung-dae what they were saying.
“They were talking about reprisals. Reporting to authorities. Then, they stopped. You have them completely confounded.” He said.
“How so?” I asked, quietly.
“Between an international incident where we don’t listen to our handlers and this potential important scientific discovery.” Mr. Myung-dae reported, trying hard to parse the evolving situation.
“Yes”, I added to Ivan’s bluster.
To the shiny suits: “I’ve worked as visiting Dinosaurian Vertebrate Paleontology Curator at all the major American museums. This is a find quite unlike anything known. It is a watershed discovery. It will help unravel the evolution and distribution of the clan Dinosauria for the whole Korean Peninsula. Perhaps, even with international impact on the recent finds in China.”
I laid it on with a trowel.
I hit all the buzzwords.
“Yes. Yes, perhaps.”, the head shiny-suiter said. “I will report this bit of very good news to the proper authorities. Myung-dae, with us. We require more information.”
“Ah, we’d prefer him to ride in back with us if you don’t mind. Scientific courtesy, old man. He needs to be classically de-interviewed after such a find.” I insisted, making certain I stand as tall, wide, and menacing as possible while smiling like a damned Cheshire cat, one smoking a very large cigar.
“Very well. We are not far from our evening stop. We can talk later.” He agreed.
We all moseyed, laughing silently, back to the bus; literally supporting our young hero Mr. Myung-dae as he seemed to have gone all wobbly of late.
Myung-dae was ashen-white. He looked like he had just given birth to a basketball. He was visibly shaking.
We get on the bus and I whip up a stout Yorshch for the young hero of the hour.
“Here! This is for you. If you’re going to be a world-class geologist, you’d damn sure better start acting like one.” I smile broadly.
There were hoots, cheers, and cat-calls.
Beers were popped, bottles uncorked; cigars, cigarettes, and pipes lit.
“Damn Skippy!” some anonymous reveler added.
Myung-dae slurped a good half the drink. I offered him a cigar. He stopped shaking enough to accept the novel offer.
Remember “crawlin’ home puker”? He’s taken his first step into a larger world.
OK, just to recap. Here are the dramatis personae left on the bus…
Bus driver (Kim) and his relief (Won).
My team and I. That’s 11 Western geoscientists: Morse, Cliff, Volna, Ack, Viv, Graco, Erlen, Dr. Academician Ivan, Joon, Dax, and myself.
Then there are our guides: Yuk, No, Man, and Kong.
Our stowaway hero geologist-in-training: Myung-dae Soo, aka, “Mung”.
And the four members of the shiny suit clan: Pak, Mak, Tak, and Jak. At least, that’s the names we used when we addressed them.
The bus was rumbling down the deserted highway. We were headed more or less due east, passing the occasional Potemkin Village. They knew we cracked their code long ago, so they didn’t bother with darkening the windows any longer.
We are passing a series of highway road cut outcrops. We’re only going approximately 35 or 40 miles per hour. Suddenly, Morse jumps out of his seat and runs up to the driver.
“STOP! STOP! Back up! We almost missed it!” he barks in heavily Russian inflected English.
The driver, shaken to the core, just slams on the brakes. The bus grinds to a stop. Good thing there’s no traffic out here.
Or anywhere else, for that matter.
Jak of the suit clan jumps up and asks “What is the problem?”
“How could you miss that?” Morse shouts. “Huge fault. Mineralization. I saw that from a glimpse. We must return to investigate.”
“Is not possible. We have appointment at the hotel.” Jak replies.
“Fuck that!”, Morse shouts. I guess he’s just really into faults…
I wander up and try to defuse the situation.
“OK, guys, cool out. Let’s be reasonable. Do it our way. Go back to that road cut. We spend a half-hour there then we go on to the hotel. The hotel will still be there when we arrive, won’t it? Even if we’re a bit late?” I ask.
Jak looks to Pak, who converses with Mak and Tak. They know they’re outgunned.
The driver shifts the bus into reverse and we back down the luckily deserted highway over a mile to the outcrop in question.
We had to admit, it was a mother beautiful normal fault. In perfect, textbook cross-section.
Morse and Joon were on it like white on rice; given the mineralization along the fault plane. All sorts of implications for the thermal and geological history of the area. But with just one exposure like this, more or less just a real interesting geo-oddity.
We spent precisely 30 minutes at the exposure, and when our handlers requested we re-board and head to the motel, we complied like nice, normal sort of folks.
I believe the appropriate maxim here is: “Lull them into a false sense of security…”
Once more down the road we travel. Beers popped, bottles uncorked; you know, the usual.
Forty-five minutes later, we pull into, I kid you not, a replica US of A 1950s Motor-Inn.
“Mr. Myung”, I ask, “What the hell is this?”
To be continued…
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