Basically the subject. Every time i get a haircut the barber is different and messes up the hair . Even went to the same place twice, both of the times barber was different and gave a different haircut which wasn’t my original hairstyle . I live in HSR. Please suggest few places nearby
“bhot takleef hoti hai jb koi baal k saath saath chutiya bhi kaat de aur paise bhi”

just moved back to the bay area after some time on the east coast during which i started braiding my hair again. any suggestions on a good salon nearby? i can travel, just looking for some spring twists and a good scalp scrub.
would also take a link to a prior discussion- have only been able to find 2yo posts or barber shops.

I've been friends with my buddy for about 3 years. We spent a lot of time together. Gym sessions, I was his barber for awhile, random hang outs here and there. We were vulnerable with one another. I was there for him through a hard time, and vice versa. He even called me his best friend once. Ever since he got a girlfriend he has been less available. I've understood and gave him space. He moved a couple hours away to go back to school. Again I knew he was busy so I let him be. I tried reaching out several times but he was always, always busy. I was even nearby his place running an errand once and he said he was too busy with school. Keep in mind I drove a couple hours for the errand. Mostly with the hopes that it would be convenient for him to meet and catch up. He sucks at texting. He responds days later. Anyway I came to the realization it was time for me to move away. I told him and he said we should get together before I go. I leave in 3 days and still no attempt has been made on his part. I'm done reaching out. So, so tired of delayed responses or no response at all. It sucks. It hurts. I thought we were better friends than that. How should I respond to this? Just move on? He'll miss me eventually won't he? Might be too late by then. Any advice would be useful

Im a bit confused because so many had transpired in a span of three days.
So i(22) dated this guy(23) last saturday, went to my grandparents under the notion of friends(but they know im gay), realized he was on the same region as my grandma and they got along well. At Sunday we went out because he wanted to gift my grandparents something(he already planned to do that but we just didnt stop by a nearby shop.).
And to my surprise, he bought 3 boxes of donuts(6 per box). And my bum self was a bit surprised by the excessive gift not to mention i have no job yet and wanted a split-the-bill kind of date. But he insisted that it was fine and it was only right since he started the whole date.
After eating lunch, we went to a room(open door and sometimes my grandparents and cousins passing by). Watched vidoes featured on his facebook feed while discreetly caressing eachother. Several moments later the my cousins and my grandparents had slept and we started to be more overt with our affection. Eventually we had sex.
Afterwards we went off to barber to get me a haircut and he paid for it again. Got a call from my father that me and my "friend" should stay at our home. Off we went and he was terrified as my grandma has some beef with my mom and of course told a few biased notions at my parents. It went well and had dinner, went to my room, then sex again after a few hours.
Come monday he and i went off in the morning to get food for breakfast and he left because he had to come home to prepare for work.
Tldr. (Honestly idk which parts of the date i should even mention) Three day date. Went to grandmas as "friends"( they know im gay) for a safer date. Was told by dad to come and stay at our home. Afterwards, was left shocked with the developments.

Shop I work at (less than 2 months in) has 30 minute appointment slots. Im doing well getting my time on point as I haven’t barbered in a shop for a while nor had long career of it before this.
Had a guy come in 15 minutes late to his appointment the other week and it set me behind for the next two hours. People make appointments expecting to be done in a timely manner, so backing up my schedule not only stressed me out but surely some of my clients.
So last week, I decided I wouldn’t take late customers (based on time late + ease of haircut). I don’t want to start letting people cost me $$ nor affect my reputation (clients after the original late guy don’t know he came late and altered my schedule). So I set the boundary.
So Morton calls to make an appointment (a topic for another post ) and arrived 15 minutes late (he walked to the shop from nearby but using a cane and “underestimated how long it would take” (he injured himself months ago he said ).
Sorry Morty, can’t do it. My boss says “you can fit him in” nope. I refuse so she pawns him off on the other barber who is out to lunch. (Long established lack of boundaries- exactly what I don’t want)
She squeezed him in coming early from lunch and told me he was being very picky and particular and caused her to run behind.
I’m just posting bc I’m happy I honored my boundary.
So, what similar boundaries do you have and how long or what circumstances did it take for you to make those?

Trying to get two errands done in one go.
Can also mention such places in Dubai in case someone else wants to know.

I'm not a talkative guy myself, but my barber always tries to talk me, but no matter how we started, after 4 minutes everyone was silent and he calmly did his job. Although nearby barbers were actively talking with their customers. I feel like this is not right..

First
Chapter Two
Chapter Four
An angry murmur filled Sadaf’s ears as she drifted back to consciousness. Somebody was yelling off in the distance, and she wanted nothing more than to tell whoever it was to shut up and let her sleep. No, wait, this couldn’t be normal sleep, something was in her mouth. Something like a mouthguard…
Her eyes cracked open, and she saw a small red droplet floating above her face. It took a moment to realize that it was a bit of her own blood, floating in the clear gel about her. That fact made the Captain snap fully awake with a force of will. She took one look at the display above her and recoiled as much as she could within the confines of her pod. Far too much of her ship’s schematic showed horrific blinking-red damage indicators, especially near its rear.
The indistinct speech clarified into an urgent shouting from Grakosh. “Captain! We need to extend our radiators right now, but I need your direct order!”
She lay back in puzzled irritation for only a moment. Why did he need permission for something so trivial? But then memory returned and Sadaf realized the issue. They were no longer separated by a comfortable few years’ worth of space-time buffer. The Rithro was now right in the aliens’ home system. Any radiation or EM signal they emitted could be detected right away. Even their radiators’ waste heat might be seen, if someone happened to be looking in the right direction.
It was a terrible risk, but they either dumped their excess heat or else they’d cook to death. “Direct order to extend the radiators, Grakosh. What’s our reactor status?”
“Not sure. It put itself in safe mode right after we jumped. I’m still getting a handle on all the other damage reports as well.”
Sadaf called up health reports of the crew themselves and felt a small measure of relief when she saw them all stable, if perhaps a bit banged up. She was grateful in particular to see that the two udhyr of her crew had regained consciousness.
She knew she had to keep her crew mentally healthy as well, and a big part of that was keeping them busy and avoiding any panic about their current predicament. “Well, my lovelies…I suppose that could have gone better,” she subvocalized into the intercom with a breezy, ironic air.
Laughter of various types filled her ears. “At least we’re alive,” said Kifa.
“Agreed,” replied Sadaf. “We’re definitely not fighting anyone for a bit, so let’s secure from battle stations and see how badly we’ve been hurt.”
Sadaf tapped a few more controls, and a faint gurgle sounded around her as the protective gel began to drain from her pod.
__________
“Chao, you gotta minute? I have something you need to see.”
The target of the question looked up from her screen, which at the moment showed a starfield with a couple of brighter stars indicated with white circles. Chao narrowed her eyes in annoyance at the red-haired young man leaning against the entrance of her cubicle.
Eleven months ago, Chao Me Chu had been truly ecstatic to achieve her dream of landing a job at Goddard Space Flight Center. Over the last few months, however, she’d realized that reaching such a dream position at NASA also came with a surfeit of that most dreaded of things, at least for her. Namely, the dreaded need to Interact With Other People.
“I am completely buried, Blake,” she replied. “Corbin dumped a bunch of image processing requests on me and of course he wants it by yesterday. Can it wait until I’m done with this?”
Blake grinned. “It’ll only take a minute. I’ll buy you a coffee.”
The petite Thai woman pointed silently at the large and steaming mug sitting next to her monitor.
“I’ll buy you two coffees! Trust me, you’ll want to see this.”
Chao rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She stood with a grumble and stalked past Blake to his own cube. The carpet beneath her feet, along with the surrounding fabric-clad cubicle walls, formed a medley of vaguely-beige which spoke louder than words the phrase ‘Made by the Lowest Bidder’. At least this particular cubicle farm had some daylight; outside the nearest window Chao could see a beautiful blue sky and an expanse of green trees stretching away from Goddard’s campus. It was a reasonably nice day despite them being in the midst of a Maryland winter.
Blake ignored the irritated set of Chao’s shoulders as he bounced along beside her. “I’m processing some of the latest images from the Webb. There’s a likely candidate for solar system formation and the Berkeley group wanted to get some NIRCam images of it to see if it was getting hotter.”
Working for NASA required one to become fluent in acronym-ese. In this particular case, ‘NIRCam’ was pretty straightforward and stood for the near-infrared camera on board the far-off James Webb Space Telescope. Objects emitting in the ‘near’ infrared, that is to say infrared radiation closer to the relatively narrow window of visible light, were hotter than those in the ‘far’ infrared.
She huffed an irritated breath. “So. You have a bunch of hot gas around a star that may or may not have some planets forming in it. Why are you dragging me into this? I’m serious about Corbin, this guy is emailing me every five minutes for an update.”
Blake jogged ahead of Chao into his cubicle, which was every bit as not-spacious as hers. That meant she had to squeeze in closer to him if she wanted a good view of his screen. It could be worse; at least Blake showered every day and used deodorant. She supposed she should be thankful he was the one bothering her. There were more than a few of her coworkers who thought that the notion of bathing was some kind of sinister conspiracy pushed onto the sheeple by Big Shampoo.
“Have a look at this,” said Blake. The image on the screen was so blown up that it only showed a couple of light gray pixels against a black background.
Chao crossed her arms. “That’s your candidate young solar system?”
Blake shook his head and with a few clicks brought the image back to normal size. “No, that’s over here.” He pointed at a larger, less-pixelated blob in the image center, then he pointed back towards his mystery dot. “This thing caught my eye, since it wasn’t in the previous images. It’s not a star…I don’t think. I mean, I can’t correlate it with anything in the catalog. Pixel artifacts on the detector focal plane, maybe?”
She leaned over his shoulder as he zoomed back in to the object in question. “Might be,” she said. “But those tend to saturate to one hundred percent. This has some grayscale to it…can’t be a comet or a Kuiper belt object, not if it’s radiating in that much in the near IR. Is it in any of the other images?”
“It’s in the next three, then it’s gone. The exposures are about an hour apart.” Blake clicked through the subsequent images to demonstrate. “I mean, the way it vanishes is why I assumed a detector glitch. But if this is a failure mode, it’s one I’ve never heard of.”
Chao straightened back up. “Me either. Huh. Are there any more shots planned?”
“Yeah, Berkeley has time on the scope through tomorrow.”
“Hmm…it must be nice to have that much money to burn. Well, let me know if it crops up again, and we’ll see if we can nail it down.”
Chao tilted her head as she regarded the dot. What the everlasting stink was that? Something about the sequence of images bugged her, but she couldn’t say what. The solution danced right at the edge of her conscious mind…and then her phone buzzed with another anxious text from Corbin, distracting her and pushing the half-formed thought out of her brain.
__________
“Our reactor is still nominal, Captain,” said Grakosh. “It’s running on low-power mode at the moment.”
Sadaf nodded her horns as she extended a suction nozzle towards a floating blob of errant gel. The rest of the crew floated around her, either securing the ship’s bridge from battle conditions or directing the ship’s drones in repair efforts.
She braked herself to a stop in front of the main central display which sat wrapped around the ship’s spine. “That’s one thing gone right, at least. Now show me how bad we’re hurt.”
Once more that hateful damage schematic appeared, with lots of panicked red blinking that showed the many places where the Rithro was wounded.
Grakosh pushed off and sailed his long, limbless body towards the Captain. She caught the smaller creature with ease as he gently bounced into her. His voice was dry as he gestured his tail-hand at the display, but Sadaf could still feel the tension in his body. The engineer was truly upset about the injury done to his pride and joy. “The atomic beam from the Breaker got in a glancing hit on our rear armor; we just got clipped by the outer edges of the beam. If it’d hit us dead center, we would have been fried. Anyways, our rear armor absorbed most of the impacting energy but some of its material spalled in the process. Those armor fragments then sprayed out and damaged one of our fusion engines. That damage is such that I don’t know if we’ll be able to repair it without a drydock. But there’s worse news.”
Sadaf made sure her posture was upright and untroubled, for the sake of the surrounding crew’s morale. “Hit me.”
“The spalling armor also created a lot of punctures in our fuel tanks. The self-sealing mechanisms kicked in, but we still lost the majority of our onboard hydrogen. I estimate that with our current fuel supply we have less than…let me check…yes, less than twenty hours of full-power burn available."
Sadaf eyes widened as she took in the full implications of her engineer's statement. "Wait. The fusion reactors also powers our jump drive. If we have so little fuel left, then..."
The engineer gave a glum nod. "Then we do not have enough power for even a single jump. We're stranded within this star system until we can repair and refuel."
That flat statement made all of the crew pause and stare at the center display.
“Oh, frinx,” muttered the Captain. “Okay. What’s in our immediate neighborhood?”
“A few icy bodies,” replied Tofa. The astrogator pushed off of the wall and sailed over to her acceleration couch to recheck the display. “Yes, there’s one close by that we only need a few meters per second of delta-vee to match with. It’s ten kilometers in diameter, plenty large enough to hide behind.”
Sadaf rubbed one horn. “So that’ll hide us for the moment, but we don’t dare use our drive to get there.”
“We could use the gravitic drives on the landing boats to move the entire ship,” mused Grakosh. “It won’t be very efficient, but it will move us without emitting visible radiation.”
“Do it. We need to get ourselves out of sight before we figure out what the frinx we’re gonna do next.”
__________
Matt hefted the last bag of groceries onto the passenger seat of his truck. As he shut the door a black-and-white SUV pulled up next to him. Matt figured it was Ernie’s car through stunningly intelligent deductive reasoning. Well, that plus the fact that this SUV had ‘KENOSHA COUNTY SHERIFF’ emblazoned upon its side.
The SUV’s driver window whirred down to reveal Ernie’s unsmiling face. Matt kind of suspected what had gotten the sheriff ticked off, but he hoped he was wrong.
“Morning, Toke. Can I talk to you for a moment?” Ernie pointed his thumb at the SUV’s passenger seat.
Matt figured he’d play this casual, so he shrugged and shut his own truck door before climbing into Ernie’s car. He all but batted his eyes in innocence as he asked “What’s up?”
Ernie stared ahead, not looking at Matt. He gripped the steering wheel as if it had offended him personally. “Got a call from a dude in DEA this morning. It seems they have a couple of inside sources who’ve passed them some very interesting information. Ever hear of Javier Venegas?”
“Nope,” replied Matt. “Should I have?”
“He runs a crew out of Pueblo. They do some robbery, maybe a bit of smuggling. But their main income comes from making and selling crank.”
“Ah. This have something to do with those pictures I gave you?”
Now Ernie did look at him, his eyes flat and expressionless. “Why would you think that?”
Matt shrugged. “Hey, you were the one who said it looked like someone was cooking meth at that campsite. It seems like a logical inference.”
The sheriff leaned back in the driver’s seat. “’Logical inference’? Are you sure you’re a Marine?”
“Last time I checked, I eat crayons with the best of ‘em. Ernie, tell me straight. What’s this all got to do with me?”
“The reason is that Javier’s brother is also in his crew. That brother is a little shit-stain who goes by the name of Vincente. Word is, about a week back Vincente got his nose spread right across his face by someone. Javier’s up and declared a Dune-style kanly on whoever did it. According to that DEA source…well, they’re looking in this area for that particular someone.”
Matt stared back at Ernie but didn’t respond. The sheriff finally turned and stared out the windshield again with a sigh. “I know it was you, Toke. I guess I should be grateful you just smashed in that shit-stain’s nose instead of killing him.”
“I-,“ began Matt.
Ernie held up a meaty hand. “No. Just…just don’t say anything. That way you don’t have to lie to a peace officer, and I don’t have to take any official action.”
After a long pause Matt decided to speak anyway. “Do I need a lawyer?”
“Not at the moment. I played dumb with the Feds, told ‘em thanks for the tip. So now I’m telling you, as a courtesy… you need to watch your ass. Hell if I were you, I’d move into town for a while. You know I’ll put you up at my place as long as you need.”
“Thanks for the offer, Ernie. But I can take care of myself.”
“Toke, please. You’re only one guy. I got some idea of what you did in the Marines, but there’s at least four in Javier’s crew, plus there’s some hints that he’s shopping around for extra muscle.”
Matt said nothing.
Ernie rolled his eyes. “C’mon. I know you love doing this whole lone-wolf thing out in the middle of nowhere, but there is a time and a place where you should put some faith in your fellow man.”
“I’ve done that before, and been burned every time,” replied Matt. After a long moment where neither man spoke, he continued. “Can I go?”
Ernie let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a grumble. “Sure.”
Matt hesitated after opening the door. “Um, thanks for the heads-up Ernie,” he said.
“Just get the fuck out of here. And don’t do anything that’ll result in extra paperwork for me.”
__________
The holographic display at the center of the Rithro's bridge showed the planet nearest to their current sheltering chunk of ice; the planet was a moderately-sized gas giant of a deep blue color.
Kexal, their resident udhyr planetologist, stood fully upright and gestured into the display with his two right hands. "It’s simply incredible! This gas giant's spin axis is tilted almost parallel with the star system's ecliptic. This planet must have suffered a truly mighty collision at some point in the past."
Sadaf sighed. "Very fascinating, I'm sure.” She gestured herself and expanded the display back out, showing the multitude of planets of this system along with their estimated orbits. The third planet from the star was circled with a blinking indicator; Nadash said it was the source of most of the transmissions from the natives and it was clearly their homeworld. “My main concern right now is concealing our presence,” the Captain continued.
"I think we have a way to address your concern," said Takh. "As you said, our primary worry is detection. At the moment I have the bulk of our repair drones restructuring our remaining armor material into a light-absorbing shell which we will lay along one side of the Rithro. With the appropriate absorbing material sprayed on top, it’ll look like nothing except a hole in space. It’s not a perfect solution, but at the very least it’ll keep us out of direct line of sight of the natives' planet. If we extend all of our radiators out along the other side of the ship from the shell, then we should be able to keep everything cool enough. That’s even with the landing boats’ gravitic drives at full thrust."
"What about our fusion engines?" asked the captain.
Grakosh now spoke up. "At the moment our maximum acceleration is limited thanks to that damaged engine. I had a closer look at its damage with our drones, and a field repair might be possible but tricky.”
“Noted. Well, it’s a moot point at the moment,” said Sadaf. “There’s no way we can run the fusion drives and still remain unseen. The next worry is fuel. Can we repair the tanks? “
Takh gave an udhyr shrug. "We can always make patches. The question is, will they hold up for ten months of return travel?"
Sadaf's clawed fingers tapped on the display's podium as she thought. "Let's assume for the moment that they will. That brings us to the next issue, that of refueling. This rock we’re hiding behind is mostly water-ice. We could melt some of that and then distill out the hydrogen, yes?"
"We could," said Grakosh. "But that entire process will generate a lot of waste heat and subsequent infrared radiation, and that generation will extend over the course of many months. The radiation will, without a doubt, be noticed by the natives."
"Frinx and broken horns," muttered Sadaf. Why couldn't anything ever be easy? She crossed her arms and stared into the display as she thought. She was stuck between their need to keep hidden and their need to repair her ship and then fulfill her reconnaissance mission. At the moment, it appeared she couldn't fulfill both needs at once.
Sadaf's taloned feet clicked in an uneven rhythm on the deck. "At least we can maneuver with the boats’ gravitic drives," she mused. But where to go? The longer they stayed in this star system, the more they risked exposure. Not to mention their supplies weren’t limitless. They already recycled almost all of their water, but food was always the most limiting factor. The Rithro couldn’t just hide behind an icy boulder forever.
But on the tail side, if exposure was inevitable why not lean into it? Sadaf turned to Nadash. "Can you receive better data on these sapients in our current orbit?"
"I have already received much more information than in the last star system," replied the Exalted. "However, at present they are moving towards a tight-beaming approach to their EM communications. I could get more details on them if we were to get closer." Her silver eyes peered at the Captain. “Which types of data analysis should I prioritize?”
“Societal,” replied Sadaf. “We need to determine if this species is reflexively xenophobic or if they would be amenable to us contacting them.”
Her last words made the entire crew stop whatever they were doing to stare at their Captain. The implications of her last statement weighed upon them all. Takh was the first to speak up, and the XO’s mandibles held a stern set. "Captain? Are you proposing what I think you’re proposing? With respect, that’s far outside of our standing orders. In this sort of situation, they say that we should only gather intelligence on any natives and not to initiate first contact.”
Sadaf's horns rose in determination. "Under normal circumstances I’d agree. But let's go through our options. As I see it, we have two. Option one is to hide here and perform whatever long-range surveillance we can achieve, while we do field repairs and refuel. But refueling carries a significant risk of detection by the natives. If they do spot the Rithro they might try to interdict us. Let’s assume they can’t reach us in time, and we leave without any attempt at communication. What will they assume of us?”
“That we were an advance scouting party for an invasion,” said Dhuz. The auhn biologist rubbed one of her horns in a nervous tic. “That’s what I’d think, if I was in their place.”
Takh said nothing, so Sadaf pressed on. “Therefore, that leaves option two. We try for contact.”
The XO’s mandibles set even more grimly. “And what if it goes wrong? The Bureau’s unofficial motto exists for a reason!”
“We can’t remain hidden forever,” said Moquon, the knuall-toua life-system expert. She was currently riding on Dhuz’s shoulder. She coiled in on herself a little tighter, an instinctive sign of stress. “Even if we go onto strict rations, we only have enough for two, maybe two and a half years at most before we all starve to death.”
Nadash’s emotionless voice cut in, her tone acting to soothe the upset udhyr. "Before we all get into any prolonged argument, let me say that I think the Captain has the right of this. I have been computing the probabilities, and there is a ninety-percent chance that we will be detected even if we try to repair and refuel while staying hidden. That probability is going up as I continue my monitoring. The inner portion of their star system is practically infested with space-based telescopes and other robotic probes. Logic dictates that they have even more detection equipment on their planetary surface. All it will take is one errant look in our direction and we will be found out."
Sadaf raised her hand to further placate her number one. "I'm not saying we just go flying towards their planet with our radiators spread. We need more data. How soon before our ‘stealth shell’ is in place?”
“Another few hours,” replied Takh.
The Captain thought for a few moments. “All right. Once the stealth-shell is operational, we’ll head sun-ward towards that third planet. It’ll take us some twenty cycles or so to get there, so in the meantime we capture what signals we can and analyze them under Nadash’s direction. If the natives don't appear to be reflexively xenophobic, then we'll make a closer approach their planet while still keeping as hidden as possible. We’ll use that time to plan out how exactly to make direct contact."
__________
Blake Hawkins jerked awake when his phone bleated at him. He fumbled around on his nightstand, finally grasped the sought-for device, and then on autopilot answered with a bleary “…hnngnrh?”
“Blake, it’s Chao. Where are those image files?”
“…manfhnng?”
“Wake up, you idiot! The files you showed me today. Send ‘em to me. Now.”
Blake held the phone away from his ear to verify the time, then brought it back to his ear. “Uhrgh…it’s two in the morning, Chao. Where are you?”
“Still at work. Got Corbin’s stuff done and then I realized something about your mystery dot. But I have to see all of the images to make sure. Where can I find them?”
“They’re on the server, but they’re encrypted. I have to access them from my work computer. I’d have to come in to…”
“Then get your ass IN here!” And with that imperious command the call went dead.
Blake let out a whispered curse then set about getting dressed. His foul mood had lessened somewhat by the time he’d reached Goddard and slouched his way into the red brick building which held his workspace. As he entered, a nearby motion sensor tripped and turned on the overhead lighting.
With a buzz of fluorescent lighting the expanse became illuminated. Chao’s head popped up amongst the sea of beige-ish cubicles, her black hair still in a neat ponytail in spite of her being at work for the better part of twenty-four hours. Blake’s remaining irritation faded away completely when he saw the dark circles under her eyes. At least he’d gotten some sleep tonight; from the look of it, Chao was running solely on coffee and adrenaline.
He nodded a greeting at her and headed for his cubicle. She fell into lock-step at his elbow and practically bounced with impatience as he sat and booted up his computer.
“What are we looking for?” asked Blake.
“Call up your four images and boost the contrast.”
He performed as instructed, forming a quartet of pictures on his screen. “Okay. Still not seeing it…”
“Make those pictures into a slide show and then click through them.”
With a silent grumble Blake complied. Any remaining resentment towards Chao washed away as he did as she instructed. That resentment was replaced with excitement.
“It’s…that spot is moving,” he whispered. Under that higher contrast, the few little pixels of their mystery dot now clearly crawled along with each advancing frame. “A planetoid? No…like you said it’s too hot. And a planetoid wouldn’t vanish.”
Chao crossed her arms and nodded in satisfaction. “Exactly. And for us to see motion? With that short of a time between exposures? That means that it has to be close.”
Blake leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. “Yeah, that object has gotta be within the solar neighborhood. If we can figure out its distance, we can work out its speed. So how do we do that?”
She sighed. “First things first. I don’t like the way it vanished. That smells like some kind of sensor artifact. What does the Webb’s NIRCam use for its focal plane array?”
“Mercury Cadmum Telluride…I think? Don’t know much about them, but I know a guy who might know a guy…or gal, in this case.” Blake’s excitement began to be mixed with a feeling closer to…awe? Dread? “Chao…” he started, then paused. “Something close in, moving fast, it’s a lot warmer than any icy body, and it disappeared after a few hours. Could it be, maybe-”
“It’s not aliens,” said Chao with certainty. “It’s never aliens. Let’s just grind through it from first principles before we leap to any conclusions.”
“Yeah, you’re right. What do we tell the Berkeley group? I have to get these images to them within the next twenty-four hours.”
Chao blew out a breath. “Tell ‘em the truth as we know it for now. Flag it as a detector artifact, and tell ‘em we’re still chasing down the exact cause…” She trailed off and continued staring at the screen with such intense concentration that Blake finally waved a hand in front of her eyes.
“Chao? You okay?”
“Other spectra,” she murmured.
“Eh?”
She swiveled her laser-like gaze towards him. “If we don’t see anything in other EM bands, then it’s for sure just a sensor glitch. Send me the Earth-based azimuth and elevation of those images, plus the time. Let’s see if anyone else looking in that direction also saw something weird.”
__________
Thanks to Ernie’s warning, Matt now made sure he had a gun close to hand at all times. While in the workshop or elsewhere on his property that meant a pistol on his hip. As for trips into town, he had to make do with concealed carry to avoid scaring the civvies. He’d also secreted more than a few rifles around his property; like any trained soldier Matt went by the maxim that a pistol was only useful for fighting one’s way to a rifle.
Such preparation only went so far, and during the next few days he made sure to keep his head on a swivel, especially on the one or two times per week that he spent in town. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary the first few times, but on the second week that changed.
It happened as Matt stepped out of the hairdresser’s, bitching internally about having to pay fifteen dollars for a five-minute buzz cut. He remembered with fondness the barber shop which had closed only a couple years ago, which set off another round of mental grumbling about the inevitable gentrification of Manitoba Springs. Damn it all, he’d moved out into the boonies to get away from such fucking nonsense.
His sour mood turned into a cold calm as he recognized the car a few blocks up the road. He’d seen it twice before, always parked on the main drag. It was a slab-sided Cadillac SUV with windows tinted way past legality, but otherwise it carried no other external bling. Matt scratched behind one ear and used that motion to disguise a closer inspection of the vehicle. He didn’t see anyone in the driver or front passenger seats, but there might be someone in the back seat.
__________
Declan plucked the small binoculars away from his face. His hands shook ever so slightly.
“So?” Javier sat way too close for Declan’s comfort, somehow looming over him in spite of the spacious rear seats of the drug lord’s private ride.
“I think that’s him,” replied Declan.
“You think? We need to know, puta. I’m not dealing with heat for months just because you think it’s him.”
Declan closed his eyes and pictured the masked man. It wasn’t hard; he’d seen the same image every night as he tried to sleep. “Those black eyes…yeah it’s him.”
His boss was satisfied for once. “Good. Now we need a name. Ask around and get his address too. If this fucker wants to play with us, well then…we’re gonna play with him.”

My D&D group has been adventuring together since last summer. Our DM has been writing recaps for us after each session, which I'm editing and providing here and on GreaterCrater. The setting background is available here.
Session 1 - The Party Assembles
The Party: Franklin - a young human fighter with uncanny intelligence and a hidden psionic wild talent. Short and stout at 5'0" and 218 pounds, he is quicker than he looks. A former squire, he wears chainmail, wields a longsword, and carries a bow and glaive-guisarme. Remi - a young slime girl cleric/magic user. She has blue "skin" and shoulder length blue "hair" while her eyes are a darker blue. She carries a gold-bound spellbook, leather armor, and a club. Cirolyn - a young (180 y/o) high elf thief/magic user with pale skin and deep black hair tied into several braids. A golden tattoo of swirling lines and runes extends from her left shoulder to her neck. In addition to her spellbook, she wears leather armor and wields a shortsword and dagger. Mayi - a 25 y/o human monk with short cropped brown hair, a goatee, and with several tattoos. In addition to his martial arts, he wields a long glaive-guisarme. Revus - a young human paladin with dark hair, a full beard, and well-equipped for combat with a bow, ransuer, and morning star, although he only wears leather armor. Richard - a young human cleric with sun-darkened skin, straight black hair and blue eyes. He is strong in his faith and wears chainmail, wields a mace, and carries a lucern hammer. Imlasine - a twenty-something looking half-elf (half-drow) with ashen skin, silvery waist-length hair tied in a ponytail, a vertical scar on her cheek, and missing the tip of her left ring finger. She is a well-trained multi-classed fightecleric/magic user. In addition to her spellbook she wears studded leather armor, wields a longsword, and carries a bow. Bartholemew - a 35 year old magic user, pale of skin from many years of studing away from the sun. Tall and slender, at 6'6" he makes a dramatic counterpoint to Franklin. He wears a fancy doublet, embroidered pantaloons, and a brace of pistols for self-defense. Rose - a twentyish looking human assassin from Freshflow with dark reddish hair, hazel eyes, and a nondescript face. She wears dark clothing over leather armor, with a shortsword, dagger, and bow to ply her trade.
Day 1
Some party members met on the crossroads near a ford in the Winding River. Near the ford, atop a bluff, lies what appears to be some sort of castle or other large fortification. Others arrived at Dullwater, a small swampy hamlet, from the north. Within a day, the party was assembled in Dullwater, brought together by the desire to work for the head of the local militia, Captain Umbereye, or at least pursue their own goals while in her employ. Captain Umbereye hired the party to clear out a nearby abandoned keep on the Winding River, Fort Windingford, the same structure spotted earlier by those members who met at the crossroad. The party members would each received 50gp and can keep whatever loot they collect from within.
The next morning, a hideous but accomplished half-orc fighter woman arrived in the hamlet, along with a moneyless would be adventurer (Mayi). Okibroga, as she is known, ingratiated herself to the party, and the party, for their part, spent some time in the morning gathering provisions from the butcher and the baker.
Rose took leave of the party to investigate a personal matter, having come to Dullwater with a contract to locate a stolen elvish scroll. Stopping in the inn, the doctobarbebleeder, and the local shrine to Hags, where she finally got some information from an excited but annoying acolyte. He suggested that, if she were looking for a scroll, the Captain's personal library would be a good start. The Captain, however, was not receptive to Rose's request, citing a fundamental lack of trust and rapport.
The party set out, Okibroga in tow, and camped near Fort Windingford once more. Franklin shot some fish with his bow out in the swamps and thus the party ate well, saving their rations. The next morning, the party climbed the winding path up the bluff to Fort Windingford, facing the looming front entrance of the castle. Mayi attempted to climb one of the gatehouse towers, getting accosted by javelins and yips from the occupying kobolds, who had difficulty getting through his missile dodging skills. Upon scaling it, he was confronted by five of the creatures in melee combat, and charged in rather than lowering the rope to the rest of the party. Mayi was then quickly downed by a kobold's critical hit. The party, who had been shooting a few arrows and such by now, rushed in to help, opening with little difficulty the unlocked gates of the castle, and watching as Okibroga braved the murder tunnel alone, creating an opening for the group to follow. Javelins and stones pelted her, but bounced harmlessly off the half-orcress's platemail.
Though Bartholemew was downed by a thrown javelin, the rest got into the castle's bailey and made straight for the door to the gatehouse, where it became a hostage type confrontation. Franklin valiantly offered his few coins for the life of Mayi, and Okibroga was inspired by this generosity, tossing in her entire purse as well.
The kobolds offered to decamp from the castle for 100gp. The party decided against buying the kobolds out, primarily due to a lack of such funds, and so retreated after a few minutes of discussion.
Okibroga has her doubts about the party now... but may be feeling assuaged by their loyalty to a party member. Thanks to the healing of Revus and Richard, Mayi and Bartholemew lived and are on their way to recovery. Perhaps the party will seek other opportunities in the area, or another avenue of approach, while the two heal?

The Party: Franklin - a young human fighter with uncanny intelligence and a hidden psionic wild talent. Short and stout at 5'0" and 218 pounds, he is quicker than he looks. A former squire, he wears chainmail, wields a longsword, and carries a bow and glaive-guisarme. Remi - a young slime girl cleric/magic user. She has blue "skin" and shoulder length blue "hair" while her eyes are a darker blue. She carries a gold-bound spellbook, leather armor, and a club. Cirolyn - a young (180 y/o) high elf thief/magic user with pale skin and deep black hair tied into several braids. A golden tattoo of swirling lines and runes extends from her left shoulder to her neck. In addition to her spellbook, she wears leather armor and wields a shortsword and dagger. Mayi - a 25 y/o human monk with short cropped brown hair, a goatee, and with several tattoos. In addition to his martial arts, he wields a long glaive-guisarme. Revus - a young human paladin with dark hair, a full beard, and well-equipped for combat with a bow, ransuer, and morning star, although he only wears leather armor. Richard - a young human cleric with sun-darkened skin, straight black hair and blue eyes. He is strong in his faith and wears chainmail, wields a mace, and carries a lucern hammer. Imlasine - a twenty-something looking half-elf (half-drow) with ashen skin, silvery waist-length hair tied in a ponytail, a vertical scar on her cheek, and missing the tip of her left ring finger. She is a well-trained multi-classed fightecleric/magic user. In addition to her spellbook she wears studded leather armor, wields a longsword, and carries a bow. Bartholemew - a 35 year old magic user, pale of skin from many years of studing away from the sun. Tall and slender, at 6'6" he makes a dramatic counterpoint to Franklin. He wears a fancy doublet, embroidered pantaloons, and a brace of pistols for self-defense. Rose - a twentyish looking human assassin from Freshflow with dark reddish hair, hazel eyes, and a nondescript face. She wears dark clothing over leather armor, with a shortsword, dagger, and bow to ply her trade.
Day 1
Some party members met on the crossroads near a ford in the Winding River. Near the ford, atop a bluff, lies what appears to be some sort of castle or other large fortification. Others arrived at Dullwater, a small swampy hamlet, from the north. Within a day, the party was assembled in Dullwater, brought together by the desire to work for the head of the local militia, Captain Umbereye, or at least pursue their own goals while in her employ. Captain Umbereye hired the party to clear out a nearby abandoned keep on the Winding River, Fort Windingford, the same structure spotted earlier by those members who met at the crossroad. The party members would each received 50gp and can keep whatever loot they collect from within.
The next morning, a hideous but accomplished half-orc fighter woman arrived in the hamlet, along with a moneyless would be adventurer (Mayi). Okibroga, as she is known, ingratiated herself to the party, and the party, for their part, spent some time in the morning gathering provisions from the butcher and the baker.
Rose took leave of the party to investigate a personal matter, having come to Dullwater with a contract to locate a stolen elvish scroll. Stopping in the inn, the doctobarbebleeder, and the local shrine to Hags, where she finally got some information from an excited but annoying acolyte. He suggested that, if she were looking for a scroll, the Captain's personal library would be a good start. The Captain, however, was not receptive to Rose's request, citing a fundamental lack of trust and rapport.
The party set out, Okibroga in tow, and camped near Fort Windingford once more. Franklin shot some fish with his bow out in the swamps and thus the party ate well, saving their rations. The next morning, the party climbed the winding path up the bluff to Fort Windingford, facing the looming front entrance of the castle. Mayi attempted to climb one of the gatehouse towers, getting accosted by javelins and yips from the occupying kobolds, who had difficulty getting through his missile dodging skills. Upon scaling it, he was confronted by five of the creatures in melee combat, and charged in rather than lowering the rope to the rest of the party. Mayi was then quickly downed by a kobold's critical hit. The party, who had been shooting a few arrows and such by now, rushed in to help, opening with little difficulty the unlocked gates of the castle, and watching as Okibroga braved the murder tunnel alone, creating an opening for the group to follow. Javelins and stones pelted her, but bounced harmlessly off the half-orcress's platemail.
Though Bartholemew was downed by a thrown javelin, the rest got into the castle's bailey and made straight for the door to the gatehouse, where it became a hostage type confrontation. Franklin valiantly offered his few coins for the life of Mayi, and Okibroga was inspired by this generosity, tossing in her entire purse as well.
The kobolds offered to decamp from the castle for 100gp. The party decided against buying the kobolds out, primarily due to a lack of such funds, and so retreated after a few minutes of discussion.
Okibroga has her doubts about the party now... but may be feeling assuaged by their loyalty to a party member. Thanks to the healing of Revus and Richard, Mayi and Bartholemew lived and are on their way to recovery. Perhaps the party will seek other opportunities in the area, or another avenue of approach, while the two heal?

Curious because I know nothing about fish or the geography of the nearby waterways. Since the major rain, I've occasionally seen what seem like large fish (I'm guessing 12-18+ inches long) splashing around in the SD Creek, particularly behind Bill Barber Park/Civic Center in Irvine. Any ideas what kind of fish these could be and where they would be coming from? My guess is that since the creek is usually pretty dry, shallow, and stagnant, that the heavy rain washed the fish down from other lakes and flooded streams that eventually lead to the SD creek. They wouldn't be swimming up from the Newport Back Bay, right?

​

It all started back in 1999 when I was 19; I had an experience that I can't explain that freaks me out to this day.
My girlfriend and I went up to Poughkeepsie, New York, on a trip to visit her sick uncle, a man nicknamed Floyd due to his profession as a barber (Mayberry reference) although he also was an avid biker. He had lupus and about a thousand other ailments, it seemed.
He lived on a large tract of land that included nature trails that seemed to go back for miles on up into the woods. One morning after breakfast, Cindi (my ex- now) and I decided after breakfast to head out to a location that she remembered going to when she was a kid visiting. She called it the big Indian rock, which she said looked like a profile of an Indian chief.
So at around 10:30 or 11:00 or so, we headed up there. It was a long way up into the woods, but Cindi, after getting some directions, seemed really confident, having not been there in years. After a while, I was almost sure she was lost, but she saw something that she recognized and headed off in that direction.
It was this large white rock with a fort made in the side of it like a kids' fort or something. Her exact words were, "Oh my god, I remember this place..." and then began to tell me how she and her friends, a bunch of boys who lived nearby, had built this one afternoon, and she was totally surprised to see it after all this time.
This was at least ten years later and this poorly constructed fort was still there, which I thought fascinating too at the time.
It consisted of a low lean-to, almost like a box made of rotted plywood scraps. It sat to the side of the huge white rock and had a bundle of dirty camping gear inside of it, sleeping bags and other dirty junk and leaves, cobwebs, etc. Cindi went up to the entrance of the low-to-the-ground fort and looked in at it as I jumped up on the top of the white rock to have a seat.
I looked over to where Cindi was and she had disappeared from view. At first I thought she maybe crawled inside, but on more careful observation, this wasn't the case. I turned to see whether perhaps she had gone around the other side of the huge rock and when I turned I saw two little freckle-faced boys, one taller than the other and staring at me.
One wore a ball cap on backward and the other in a dirty flannel jacket. They just stared at me eerily and then -- it just seemed like time slipped and suddenly I was walking up a wooded path towards a clearing, and there was Cindi telling me to hurry up and come on.
I stepped into the clearing and there was a side of a big rock with, yes, a profile of a face or something, really quite unimpressive, but I suppose it had sentimental value to her.
My first question to her was who were those two boys, and she responded, "What are you talking about? What boys?"
I said, "At the fort..."
She just punched me in the arm and began to point out the face in the rocks and then told me how she was a tomboy and used to ride BMX bikes back there and other such memory lane kinds of stuff.
After a few minutes we headed back to Floyd's place and we were greeted by Cindi's mother who had just arrived. I met her mother and she seemed nice and hung out at Floyd's and had a few beers with him, even though he complained that it didn't mix well with his medication.
So after a while, Cindi came in and we all got to talking and the fort came up and she asked about some kids she knew in the area and if they were still around or whatever happened to, yada, yada kind of thing. Floyd got real dark when Cindi mentioned the "Moriarty" kids.
He said to Cindi, "The two boys and their mother were killed by their father before he took his own life." (Having something to do with a divorce.)
When I heard this, my hair on the nape of my neck stood up as my spine tingled. He went on to comfort her, telling her that they were in a better place, etc. I couldn't dare recount what happened to me at the fort. I just wanted to split out of there; this was too freaky.
I made up a story after calling my roommate back in Bayonne, telling them that I had to get back there and asked Cindi if she wanted to stay but she decided to come with me. While driving back, Cindi kept the two boys as a topic and said that they both had a crush on her. And once even fought over her, and man, that just made me drive faster.
We made record time back to Jersey.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060207220758/http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_july04_som.htm

I’m looking for a barber, I’ve tried a few places and really want somewhere that is a bit more… gritty?
Last place was ok, a bit fancy with the special waxes, sprays, hair wash, hot towels etc. nail in the coffin was a Fucken surprise photo shoot.
I want them to be open to suggesting cuts if I want, also happy for me to chat or not chat. Somewhere with a bit of attitude and not just appeasement. Pretty much just human. Right?
Would be great if I can book ahead and have parking kinda nearby. Too much to ask?

So I haven't gotten my hair cut in a while, mostly because it was incredibly convenient to go to the nearby Fantastic Sams and pay like $20 (plus tip) for a quality, basic trim for guys who like having short hair. Then they closed that location - now I'm overdue. Anyone know a good place I can go in the general vicinity of downtown that would do a similarly good job for a similarly good price? (If it's up to $25, that'd just be inflation. If it's like $50, that's not inflation, that's getting a higher quality service than I, a guy who doesn't really care about his hair other than to keep it presentable enough and out of my face, really needs.)
There was a post recently asking for the cheapest hair cut, but I don't need the absolute cheapest (I actually did go to one of those barber college $10 haircut places once as an experiment, years ago - that experiment didn't go very well). I just don't need a "hair salon", I just need a haircut (just buzz a bunch off the top and a bit off the sides, then make it look generally presentable). Are there really no good places near-ish downtown like that since Fantastic Sams closed, or am I maybe missing some? Thanks!

I am seeing that there isn't any good barber shop around me house. I was thinking of starting one myself as a side income. Was looking for somewhere you would pay around 200 for a trim and cut. Something that looks modern with all the big mirrors and guys wearing some uniform. We had some 3 cent empty land nearby road. Was thinking of constructing a simple modern style shop. Any rough idea on the same and is it profitable ?

I am a little tired of my long, surfer hair and I want something clean cut. I've never really had short hair before. I've always gotten haircuts very infequently, and usually done by a friend I know who is a barber. Who is in a different city now.
So, for making a big change like this, I am not sure what to do? Can your typical, any ol' barber do it or should I go to a high dollar barber (there is one nearby where it would run 80 dollars in total for a "transformational haircut" which since I really don't know what short style I want). Or I could go to a salon.
Not sure how to approach making a big change like this?