Since we're nearing the one year anniversary of JWD release, I thought it was a good opportunity to share with you the ideas I had for a rewrite of the film. I grouped them in a detailed pitch which I will present this week in a series of five posts. Today's post is about the story's prologue and first act. Tomorrow's will about the second act and so on... This detailed pitch is divided scene by scene and is accompanied by a few notes. It's basically similar to something that someone would present in a pre-production meeting.
However, before you start reading that series of post, I'll suggest that first you check the foreword on this page (https://archiveofourown.org/works/47647999/chapters/120097705) and secondly that you carefully read the paragraph below, as it's about the connection between that JWD rewrite and my previous rewrites (don't worry, you don't have to read the entirety of my stories before this series of posts, just the information below).

Important notes on my AU:

1) For those who didn't read my previous stories
- The stories told in this AU have a darker tone and are more adult than those of the films. Thus don't be surprised by some character actions or events. If they were films, they would be unsuitable for children under 12 in Europe (and the limit would be probably higher in North America). Thus, I would say that the Read at your own risk rule applies here for the younger users of this subreddit. I'm not trying to be edgy or whatever. I'm just an adult writing from an adult perspective. Nothing more and nothing less.
- By the late 2010's and early 2020's, there is still a considerable population of de-extinct dinosaurs and pterosaurs in the Five Deaths. An UN-backed paramilitary organization, the Grey Guard, protects the archipelago and had troops on Nublar up until the fall of Jurassic World.
- The Jurassic World park had feathered dinosaurs and Owen's Achillobator quartet were among those.
- The Fall of Jurassic World happened in 2017 and the Lockwood estate incident in 2019. The Indominus' rampage and the Sibo's eruption happened at the same time while the Costa Rican incident which preceded that of the Lockwood estate happened in the mainland and not on Nublar. Those two incidents are told in Jurassic World: The Red Queen, my FK rewrite (and which we'll abbreviate as TRQ).
- Roberta and the mosasaur died after the Fall of Jurassic World. Thus, they are not in TRQ and The Hegemony of Biosyn. In those stories, Roberta's role is mainly filled by Acrocanthosaurus.
- Claire and Owen aren't exactly identical to their versions from the official film canon. In terms of look, Owen is closer to Jason Momoa than Chris Pratt and Claire, while still being a fair-skinned redhead, is a bit taller and more intimidating-looking than BDH.
- In this AU, Claire is a far more morally ambiguous character than Trevorrow's version. She's more outspoken, and has a the end justifies the means mindset. For a time, she had serious PTSD from the Fall of Jurassic World, during which she was mauled by the Indominus (which clawed her face and bit off one of her arms). She also didn't create the DPG in this AU (someone else did).
​
2) Spoilers of the end of The Red Queen necessary to better understand the context and plot of The Hegemony of Biosyn.
- The Dinosaur outbreak which resulted from the Lockwood estate incident is less severe than in Trevorrow's version. Dozens of dinosaurs still escaped into the Californian wilderness but by the beginning of The Hegemony of Biosyn, they hadn't the time to establish considerable wild populations (except perhaps for the smaller species) while the dinosaur alert is mostly restricted to western North America. Broad strokes, there is no "Dinosaurs are everywhere on Earth. We're in deep shit! You're wondering how? Shut up, it's magic!" at the start of this Dominion rewrite but more sporadic incidents here and there and only beginnings of biological invasions in some areas. Moreover, TRQ's epilogue insists more on the propagation of de-extinction technology.
- At the end of TRQ, Claire and Owen are hired as field agents by the World De-extinction Monitoring Centre (WDMC), a UN agency.
- Maisie isn't adopted by Claire and Owen. In TRQ, she even has limited interactions with them (she gets involved in the incident only when the Indoraptor enters her room) and Owen isn't her saviour in that story. After the incident, she stayed at the manor with the Lockwood estate employees and just before his death, Lockwood entrusted her to Wu.
- In the late 2010's, InGen's biggest rivals were Biosyn and Grendel. At the end of TRQ, a collapsing InGen is bought by Biosyn and Wu hired by the latter's R&D department.
- Wu and Claire became sworn enemies when she became park director of Jurassic World (this relation worsened during the park's fall following some revelations) and while she left him alone at the end of TRQ, she told him she'll show no mercy if he has a share of responsibility in another disaster.
3) Notable differences between The Hegemony of Biosyn and Colin Trevorrow's Dominion.
- Grant, Malcolm and Sattler are absent. I preferred to leave those characters in peace rather than mistreat them (and even after I finished THOB's detailed summary, I don't see how I could have integrated them in a pertinent way, and there is already many... many characters).
- Most of the fan-service towards the first Jurassic Park was flushed down in the toilets.
- Barry Sembène is absent too. Not only the reasons of his inclusion in Dominion's story didn't conviced them (how what seemed to be just an animal wrangler ends up being now a secret services agent?) but in this alternative universe, him and Owen had started to fall out during the fall of Jurassic World and at the beginning of The Red Queen, we learn that he went back to France. I originally intented to make him one of the main characters of a spin-off set in France (and after the events depicted in The Hegemony of Biosyn) and we would have saw him again only then (wishing to leave dinosaurs behind him, he took a zookeeper position in some zoo in Ile de France, where he works with birds of prey. But a crisis in another part of the country force another of the protagonists (a gendarme) to recruit him due to his experience in InGen's IBRIS program). Thus, the role he's having in Trevorrow's Dominion is given to other characters in The Hegemony of Biosyn.
- Some characters have a different fate.
- A longer story, sometimes similar to that of a political thriller.
- Additional characters and subplots. A hypothetical casting for the original characters is available on the Archive of Our Own page linked above.
​
Without further ado, let's dive in the story.
​

Prologue

The prologue is set in mid-2022, in a village of the Austrian Alps, near the Italian border. On the village's outskirts, a man is awakened in the middle of the night by the panicked bleating of his goats. After checking them, he is attacked and killed by a mysterious small predator while one of the goats, a black billy, runs away. Nothing is seen of the predator during that sequence but the two-toed tracks it leaves in the ground.

ACT I: The chessboard and the pawns

Drive-in
After the prologue in Austria, we move to North America and more precisely an Oregon wood where an Acrocanthosaurus (a species introduced in TRQ) is being chased by a Fish and Wildlife Service helicopter. It's basically the drive-in scene from Trevorrow's version except that Roberta is replaced by the Acrocanthosaurus.
News Montage
Soon, the drive-in incident is in the news and we have a news montage with the world situation three years after the Lockwood estate incident. We learn that:
- De-extinction technology is mastered by various organizations across the globe.
- Incidents involving loose de-extinct animals occur from time to time. The controversial Grey Guard, an UN-backed paramilitary organization based in the Five Deaths, has been solicited by various nations to help their authorities deal with those incidents. The USA are however among the nations who refuse to let them intervene on their soil and instead, the US government use the CIA's Dangerous Species Division (which recruited several former InGen employees like Doctor Kajal Dua).
- Mantah Corp fell during those three years while Grendel was considerably weakened after some deadly incidents in Cameroon and southern India (one of their consequence is the outbreak of a dinosaur-related encephalitis in Cameroon, quite similar to one which occurred in Costa Rica in the late 2010s), leaving Biosyn as the number one in the field of genetic engineering.
- All of its biggest rivals now out of the equation, Biosyn has a hegemony and is thriving more than ever despite heavy criticism by some people who bring out the corporation's past controversies (like a certain rabies vaccine test in Chile). In a conference scene, Zoe Murdoch, Biosyn's vice president presents their newest creations, which includes variants from species already introduced in the series (She compares InGen's tyrannosaur, original trilogy's Raptor, Triceratops, Compsognathus and Quetzalcoatlus to Biosyn's. The raptor is feathered, the rex and trike are more in line with modern scientific depictions, the Compy is feathered and docile enough to be sold as a pet, while the quetzal is more pleasant looking than InGen's flying abominations which massacred people during the Fall of Jurassic World). The report also precise that Biosyn created tailored and more docile dinosaurs and use the example of the pack of featherless raptors they made foloaned to motion picture company Europacorp for one of their action films, showing footage of featherless and boxy-headed raptors jumping from roof to roof during a film shooting, where they were handled as easily as trained big cats or even dogs (This use is possible partly because de-extinct creatures have less rights than modern animals).
- Biosyn is also contracted by several governments, including the US, to capture the loose dinosaurs. To their sanctuary and research facility in the Dolomites valley of Auronzo, they sent some of the escapees from Lockwood's estate and their offspring, the animals which escaped Grendel's facilities in Cameroon and India (A group of Nasutoceratops and a 2010's style Spinosaurus are seen during that part of the report), and others... The close ties between Biosyn and the US government are also mentioned (in addition to providing help to the FWS agents, Biosyn has also several important contracts with the government and some people within the Agriculture department and the Food and Drug Administration are former Biosyn employees).
- However, there are some rumours that the Cameroon and Indian incidents were actually triggered by Biosyn and incriminating proofs were brought before the US congress but the investigation commission, led by Senator Christine West, rejected them.
San Francisco
Shortly after this testimony, Guillaume Vuillier, the World De-extinction Monitoring Centre's general director, is seen in the agency's headquarters in San Francisco. Since the US government doesn't seem to be willing to act against Biosyn, he's afraid that the WDMC and its allies have to deal with Biosyn's case alone. After some incidents in the Alps along the border between Italy and Austria involving creatures they presume to be raptors due to the nature of the tracks found, the UN and the Italian and Austrian governments have imposed an inspection on Biosyn's Sanctuary in Auronzo Valley. Vuillier and others suspect that the attacks' perpetrators indeed came from the Sanctuary.
The Inspection
Vuillier travels to Venice, where he meets with Dougal Benett, one of his European field agents, and the rest of the inspection group, which includes Mario Viscontini, head of the AISI (Italy's internal intelligence agency), and Giovanni Pazzi, Minister of the Interior. The inspection group then heads to its rendez-vous point with Biosyn, meets Murdoch and Ramsay (both usually work at Biosyn's HQ in Cupertino, California), and then embark on a Biosyn helicopter which takes them to the Dolomites and the Citadel, Biosyn's research facility (Though it's not as pretty as the building from Trevorrow's vision and a little bit more austere-looking, it's still impressive) which overlooks the Sanctuary.
The group inspect the facility, with head of security Lucrezia Pellegrino explaining how the dinosaurs can't leave the valley (through control chips and invisible fence systems), and even get to meet Dodgson, who made sure to hide anything controversial and have everything look in order. Thus, the inspection group doesn't find anything suspicious and returns to Venice. But the WDMC employees and Viscontini weren't fooled by Biosyn's "Everyone is beautiful. Everyone is nice" presentation, Vuillier points out the Sanctuary's flaws (too small to let a huge number of animals roam it freely, climate is not ideal enough for dinosaurs...) and are aware that controversial, if not illegal research must be conducted in the Citadel's secret wings (as it's way more isolated and hard to access than Cupertino's HQ).
Dodgson is aware of their distrust and both he and Vuillier start moving their pawns on the chessboard.
The DSD
In the CIA's DSD headquarters in San Francisco, the division's leader Isaac Gibbon (and perhaps senator West. I'm not yet sure if I include her in this scene or not. She could be visiting the division about funding matters or something like this) attends a presentation made by one of his agents, Jessica Bigelow. The presentation's topic is Claire Dearing and after summarizing her life (with a few saucy anecdotes and pictures from Claire's youth and early years at JW), Bigelow shows how the fallen park director fascinate some people, especially online, and how she managed to put a part of the public opinion on her side in the recent years after being treated like a pariah in the couple of years that followed the fall of Isla Nublar (Being positively depicted in the DPG documentary Franklin Webb made back in 2019; occasionally making vlogs; appearing on Stephen Colbert's show without her mask and answering his questions with honesty and self-derision...). The CIA agents say that she's the WDMC's most surprising and promising element alongside her fiancé Owen Grady. Both are nicknamed Vuillier's Wolves by them as they, especially Claire, are tend to be ruthless with those who oppose them, especially in unofficial and borderline illegal missions Vuillier give them, consisting in spying and/or sabotaging nefarious de-extinction related organizations. Bigelow also mention that it's highly probable she's also The Ghost of Nublar, a mysterious figure who challenged the Indominus during the Invasion of Burroughs, when Isla Nublar fell.
The ranch
One night, somewhere in the western US (could be Nevada like in Trevorrow's version), a trio of people is seen breaking out in a ranch-like facility. Once they're in its heart, the group split up, with one of its members heading towards another building. The two others, revealed to be Zia Rodriguez and Franklin Webb from the Dinosaur Protection Group (which is led by Zia, as the organisation's founder resigned at the end of TRQ) enters a warehouse which contains rows of cages with baby ceratopsians. While Zia and Franklin film the evidences of the animals' mistreatment, we return to their mysterious companion, whose face is concealed by a balaclava. However, an attentive viewer can recognize her green eyes and her prosthetic hand: It's Claire, who's on an unofficial mission for the WDMC. After avoiding or neutralizing some guards, she breaks out in the facility's offices. There, she discovers documents which might contain indicate a connexion between the illegal dinosaur exploitation and Biosyn (who could be selling embryos, eggs or juveniles to those exploiters before denouncing or sabotaging them years later, being paid by the government for capturing the dinosaurs and finally sending them to their Sanctuary). After this infiltration segment, ensues an action scene where our protagonists have to escape the facility aboard a vehicle stolen by Claire. During this scene, she seriously injures or even kill one guard, something she doesn't care much about at the moment but which will have some consequences.
The following morning, Claire phones Peggy Zubiri (Guillaume Vuillier's assistant, who sometimes act as a "Mission control" person for Claire and her colleagues) to tell her that she has the evidences they were looking for. The former director of Jurassic World then has a discussion with the two DPG members in which Zia laments that despite all her organization's actions, it seems that things aren't evolving in the good direction for de-extinct animals and that the morale within the DPG is at its lowest. They then departs for San Francisco, where Claire has to give Peggy the documents she found before returning to her and Owen's cabin.
The wranglers and the thieves
We then cut to Owen, who's in the middle of a WDMC-US FWS joint operation somewhere in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where they have to capture some dinosaurs (candidates could be Dryosauruses or juvenile Gallimimuses and Hadrosaurs, as wrangling adults on horseback is quite unrealistic to be honest). However, as they are leading the captured dinosaur(s) back to their base camp, our group has an encounter with Rainn Delacourt and his men. It plays out like in the extended version of Trevorrow's film, with Owen and his companions being forced to give the animal(s) to Rainn. However, just as Rainn's team are taking the dinosaur(s) away, Owen tells one of the FWS agents that this situation is only temporary, as Rainn will soon get a surprise...
Maisie
In Orick, Maisie Lockwood exits the estate to go biking in the area. A scene where she encounters some dinosaurs like in the film might be included here. O'Hara (the old lady who participate to her kidnapping in Trevorrow's film) is seen watching her. She returns to the manor just before the evening. The place is not as vibrant as before (it's almost a ghost manor. As it's the autumn, the place would even look ominous), with only a handful of employees remaining, including Theo Lomas, the man who saved her from the Indoraptor three years ago and who now works as the estate's guard. Officially, Henry Wu became Maisie's foster father when Benjamin died but the geneticist, who was assimilated by Biosyn when it bought InGen at the end of TRQ, now lives in the Dolomites facility and his visits to Orick are rare. Thus, Theo became Maisie's true foster father in addition to being the closest thing to a friend for her. He expresses his worries about her long excursions outside but as she's started to become a rebellious teenager, things are tense.
Vuillier's interview
We cut to an interview of Guillaume Vuillier on the French television set just a few days after the Dolomites Inspection. At first, the journalist ask questions about the inspection of Biosyn's complex and the incidents in the Alps before addressing the rumour which says that the masked individual who recently attacked illegal dinosaur breeders might be a WDMC agent, Claire Dearing to be precise (as the colleagues of the deceased guard(s) claimed the attacker was a woman with a prosthetic arm). The journalist brings out another case where Claire made veiled threats to a suspect while on an official mission (with said suspect declaring she almost acted like a Gestapo member or something like this), and as Claire is Vuillier's subordinate, the journalist ask if he intent to sanction her. Annoyed, Vuillier retorts that she acted on legitimate defence and that those people had the choice to cooperate but didn't. Having noticed strange in the journalist's attitude, he suspect that the French government (Due to certain events in TRQ I won't name to not spoil you, the latter has Vuillier and the couple in their radar) paid them and tried to discredit him through that topic. The interview makes some buzz, enough to attract the attention of Odegaard, Vuillier's boss and the leader of the UN environment programme (the character is mentioned but never seen).
Sightings map
We get several little family scenes with Claire, Owen and Sigurd, their four-year old son. One of those scenes shows Owen briefly looking at a map he pinned in their office, depicting California and the neighbouring states. On it, he put Blue's sightings. The last of those was in Yosemite area, where the Raptor Whisperer searched the Achillobator earlier in the autumn but to no avail.
In the meantime, we learn that Rainn was arrested after the authorities followed the tracking chip Owen put in the animal the poacher stole. With the animal seized by the FWS and him heavily compromised on a judicial standpoint, Rainn is raging.
Nyamu
Just after his return to San Francisco, Vuillier receives a video call from Lester Nyamu, a friend and colleague from the UN environment programme's HQ in Nairobi. After that interview in the French media, Nyamu tells Vuillier that Odegaard fears the bad publicity Claire might give to the WDMC and wants to send him to the US at the end of the winter and have him follow Claire in her missions, acting as an inspector. His inspection will decide if they can keep Claire as a field agent or not.
While on an official field mission, Claire is contacted by Vuillier, who tells her about the current controversy. He announces he is forced to send her back home and have her do teleworking and not participate to any field mission, official or not, until further notice.
Resonating Chamber
Stuck at home, Claire takes interest in raptors' behaviour and reads not only her fiancé's IBRIS stuff but also whatever the WDMC has on the topic, including reports from the scientists stationed in the Five Deaths and the testimonies and notes of Alan Grant and Billy Brennan. After watching a video where a group of WDMC scientists and grey guards stops a raptor attack on Sorna by using a resonating chamber identical to the one Brennan made back in 2001, she remembers Owen commissioned a similar one for Achillobators and finds it. She then start learning to use it.
The Palaeontologist
As Auronzo Valley has received its first snow falls, we are introduced to Biosyn Sanctuary's resident palaeontologist, the Scotsman Rod Drummond. Dodgson asked him to act as a tour guide for two teenage girls, the daughters of an investor with which he is negotiating, but they are not interested in the slightest about what's he is saying and are on their phones even though there's dinosaurs outside (a group of Stygimoloch is seen foraging in the snow). Short-tempered (the character is a bit like the lovechild of Gordon Ramsay and Westworld's Lee Sizemore), Drummond grab one of the phones and smash it against the nearest wall. The girls protest but Drummond gives a long rant in which he almost reveal the Sanctuary's true purpose, something he's really uncomfortable with. When they return, Dodgson ask the girls if they're okay (he has a soft spot for children) and yells at Rod but the palaeontologist ignores him and storms off to his office. Some minutes later, he receives the visit from the girls' father, Nathan Quinn. The investor apologies for his daughters' behaviours and tell Rod that he accepted Dodgson's offer in exchange of a seat in the board of directors.
Bailed out
Rainn is bailed out by a mysterious ally and once free, he plans his vengeance upon Owen. He receives a phone call from an unknown woman and first presumes it's her who bailed him out but it isn't the case. She tells him that she has a mission for him, consisting in capturing a particular dinosaur, a blue Achillobator. Having been told about the relationship Owen had with this animal, Rainn accept the mission, claiming he'll succeed where other poachers failed.
Achillobators
There is a time jump to the middle of the winter, just after the New Year. Claire and Owen recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of their meeting and the Raptor Whisperer is in their office, once again studying Blue's moves on the map, trying to discern a pattern or a trajectory. He ends up realizing that she's heading right towards the area where they live. As if to confirm his guess, there is a shot which shows an Achillobator in the snowy woods.
A few days later, Sigurd, Claire's and Owen's son, is playing in the snow when a young Achillobator with blue feathers steps out of the nearby woods. It's about to pounce on the child when its mother, none other than Blue, calls it back, recognizing the boy from the Orick incident (she nearly devoured him during it but changed her mind at the last second when she recognized Owen's smell on him). Owen rushes to grab his son and Blue stands before her young. Claire steps out of the cabin and while walking towards her fiancé and their child, she uses the resonating chamber. At first, it seems to calm Blue but the raptor then decides to retreat into the woods with her young. The family go back inside the cabin and the couple have a talk about what just happened and debate about what they should do with the two Achillobators as they can't be left in the wild, both for their own safety and that of the local animals and people. One of them think about telling the Fish and Wildlife Service but the other retorts that the FWS is likely to send Blue and her young in their complex in Pennsylvania, where the captured de-extinct animals are usually given to Biosyn and flown to Europe, and that they're not sure if Auronzo Valley's sanctuary is truly safe for them. An alternative is suggested, consisting in capturing them without telling anyone but a few trusted people and then bringing them to the local Wildlife Park Owen worked for between JW's fall and the 2019 incidents. This would only be a temporary solution (if Blue kills locals, they're afraid that the park will be targeted) while Claire would negotiate with Vuillier and one of her friends, Lord Francis Clayton, a British aristocrat who owns one of England's largest zoos and wanted to buy Blue during the 2019 auction InGen held at Lockwood estate (a legal one, unlike the one organized by Mills at the same moment). The couple indeed thinks that the two raptors will be safer in the United Kingdom than in the US, where Biosyn's influence is much stronger. During that scene, Owen also gives a name to Blue's young: Victoria, after Victoria Beckham (in TRQ, it's revealed that he originally wanted to name the raptor squad after the Spice Girls). (Thus, bye bye Beta)
The couple starts planning and organizing the capture operation, even asking the help of Zia as they need a veterinarian, but the news of two hunters mysteriously disappearing in the area reminds them of the situation's urgency. And hearing about this, Rainn Delacourt soon arrives in the area.
Wu's call
Wu calls Maisie, telling her he has something important to show her and he invites her and Theo to the Dolomites. As it's about her mother Charlotte, Maisie accepts.
Tragedy in the Sierra Nevada
Zia, Franklin and one or two other DPG members, along with a couple of people from the before mentioned wildlife park and one of the FWS agent from the wrangling scene, arrive at Owen's cabin, ready to offer their help in Blue's and Victoria's capture. The couple and their allies set off.
But Rainn and his men finds the raptors first and lure Victoria into a trap. Blue tries to free her and kills all those standing in her way but Rainn mortally wounds her and leaves with Victoria before Owen can stop him. During the skirmish, one of the DPG members and the FWS agent are also wounded and Claire and Franklin are forced to drive them to the nearest clinic while Owen, Zia and the others search for Blue. When they find her, they realize she's in agony and Zia tells Owen that this time, she can't save the Achillobator. With great difficulty, Owen takes the decision of putting an end to Blue's suffering. She is buried in a secret location deep in the woods and just before he, Zia and their colleagues departs, Franklin tells Claire that this failed mission was the final straw and that he'll leave the DPG and consider a job offer he recently received, arguing that when amateurs try to make things right, innocents gets hurt and that they should let those kind of issues to competent authorities.
Claire then informs Vuillier about the incident.
Leaving Orick
O'Hara, the Biosyn employee dispatched at Orick, picks up Maisie and Theo at the manor and they leave the estate.
​
End of Act I.
See you tomorrow for Act II.

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Please check out our Daily Discussion threads!

Early in 2022, my parents (78M, 75F) engaged a contractor about building them a deck. They provided mockups of the deck they wanted superimposed over images of their house; clearly visualizing what they were looking for. They agreed on $16,000 + materials, with work to commence in the spring.
The bad news: this contractor is not licensed / bonded and there was no SOW / contract signed. The good news (?): All of their conversations happened over Facebook Messenger / text, which clearly details their agreement and events as they unfolded.
Contractor stated he would need a $10k deposit, to be paid when he came around to measure. Upon taking the deposit check, he said he would need another $4k for lumber / materials, which he would purchase. My parents wrote him another check, and they all agreed to store the lumber in my parent’s barn.
Some days later, he showed up with a crew and building materials. Day 1 they set the posts; Day 2 they framed out the deck. A storm rolled in cutting Day 2 short - contractor said they didn’t have time to transfer lumber to barn, but they would be back in a few days to complete the job. I think you know where this is going…
My parents reached out via text after a week, after 20 days, after 30 days - each time asking when contractor and crew would be back. 45 days later they expressed concern about their lumber being stored properly and he replied with a ton of excuses - he had been ill, there was some issue with his son, etc. - he said he would be back out the following Tuesday to complete the job. Nope.
From April to October, my parents texted 20+ times, as well as leaving multiple voicemails. Occasionally, texts / Facebook messages would be marked Read, but he never replied. In early 2023 my parents (finally) informed contractor they were going to the police, and he replied he’d been meaning to get back out but winter makes it hard, and asked if they could set something up for spring. Cue him never responding again - eventually the line was disconnected. He was never coming back to finish.
I am just now learning about this on a visit to my parents, they have been hiding this out of embarrassment. Firstly, I am gobsmacked that my typically savvy parents would just…hand over bags of money to some internet rando. But then, reading through all the message threads, seeing my parents earnestly trying to connect, confused, pleading for any communication at all for months and months…I am beside myself with rage and hell bent on getting justice for them.
This is where I could use some guidance - I don’t know how much justice is possible here. This is no longer about the money. Of course I want recompense, but this is about what he put my parents through. The total dehumanization of fraud. I am livid.
So I went on Facebook through my mom’s account and turned over every rock in this man’s digital life, then ran a background check. Here’s what I have:

1. legal name + alias
2. DOB
3. current address
4. Current phone numbers (landline and cell)
5. current email addresses
6. arrest record (incl. passing bad checks)
7. chat transcripts

My parents want to press charges, so for now the next move is to file a police report for fraud with the above info (unless advised otherwise?)
Additional questions:
Would this violate any state or federal elder abuse protections?
I don’t think he should get credit for the two days’ work. We are currently talking to a (licensed, bonded) contractor about picking up the job. As there was no survey done or permit pulled, we anticipate they will need to tear down the existing structure for a total loss.
We have no receipt for the lumber, and no lumber. Would that $4k be classified as theft? Larceny?
I currently don’t have a ton of faith that my parents’ money will be returned - I want consequences to come from this. If there’s anything I should be considering or including in the charges I would so appreciate your wisdom.
Thanks for reading.

Hey Everyone!
Let’s go….
Newly Covered Today:

1. Atomic wallet got hacked. https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1665080799253733377
2. No surprise: general interest in crypto & Cardano is still pretty low according to google trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=cardano&hl=en
3. Here’s the Weekly Development Update from June 2. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1665394985934499840
4. The Chairs of the House Committee on Financial Services (McHenry) and the House Committee on Agriculture (Thompson) are co-sponsoring a new pro-crypto Digital Asset Market Structure Bill. Currently just a discussion draft. Here’s the summary. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20230606/116051/HHRG-118-AG00-20230606-SD002.pdf
5. Here’s the actual discussion draft. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20230606/116051/HHRG-118-AG00-20230606-SD003.pdf
6. Here’s a section-by-section with exhibits. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20230606/116051/HHRG-118-AG00-20230606-SD001.pdf
7. Cornucopias has released more game footage. https://twitter.com/RobGreig3/status/1665310543589040130

Previously covered, but still interesting:

1. Cardano Native Assets are vastly superior to BRC20 and ERC20 tokens. https://twitter.com/TheOCcryptobro/status/1655673557710692352
2. Rumor: SEC is going to make a move against Binance. Will the DOJ also? https://twitter.com/AP_Abacus/status/1655546961968103425
3. At the end of Q3 of last year, 722 banks reported unrealized losses greater than 50% of capital. https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/files/board-briefing-on-impact-of-rising-interest-rates-and-supervisory-approach-20230214.pdf
4. Wyoming is inching closer to a state stablecoin. IOG’s significant presence there may turn out to be a huge advantage. https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/05/09/wyoming-stable-token-a-multibillion-dollar-opportunity-as-officials-wrestle-with-how-to-make-it-happen/
5. Paypal disclosed almost $1 billion in customer crypto in its latest 10-Q. https://blockworks.co/news/paypal-discloses-1b-crypto
6. MiCA is shifting the balance of crypto investment to Europe. https://twitter.com/paddi_hansen/status/1655883224726241281
7. Today (May 10) will be a joint hearing of the Agriculture and Financial Services Committees on Crypto. The CLO of Kraken will testify. https://financialservices.house.gov/
8. This is a legit point about centralized L2s: the best ones are called Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance. https://twitter.com/el33th4xostatus/1655845787593502720
9. There’s already a new version of Lace Wallet out. https://twitter.com/lace_io/status/1656347737355608066
10. A nice thread on the many strengths of Cardano. https://twitter.com/TobiasIlskov/status/1656388178369212416
11. Remember, lobster traps are a thing. https://twitter.com/TheCardanoTimes/status/1656064744225120257
12. Today (May 11 at 1pm EST) there will be a Messari Cardano Analyst call with Charles & Frederik. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1656272372452954112
13. I think we all love it when they start making our case for us. https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1656379837823561730
14. Ethereum is lamenting many of its poor design choices that Cardano already fixed. https://twitter.com/moo9000/status/1656215016016683008
15. Drunkenmiller says this is the broadest asset bubble he’s ever even studied let alone seen firsthand and we’ve only had a few soft landings since 1950. https://twitter.com/Stephen_Geigestatus/1656416819312222219
16. Live footage of meme coin investors accepting their ROI. https://twitter.com/KaylerSmithTV/status/1656130092966264834
17. Here’s the Messari call from today with both Fred & Chaz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouUhWwF74MM
18. People really seem to be enjoying the CF’s Blockchain Education Alpha Program. https://twitter.com/andreassosilo/status/1644263843743293451
19. The US Chamber of Commerce brief in the Coinbase case is calling out the SEC for acting “unlawfully”. https://twitter.com/MetaLawMan/status/1656737447756038177
20. About that whole self-custody thing we’ve discussed… https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1656706653801136132
21. The SPO poll on K and minFee starts today (May 15)! You should redelegate if your stake pool doesn’t vote the way you would vote! https://cardanofoundation.org/en/news/entering-voltaire-poll-experiment-live-on-mainnet/
22. There are also a series of forum topics for discussion of the various options in the Cardano.org forums. https://twitter.com/Lovecoach_nic/status/1657700010148896770
23. Coinbase spotlights Empowa! May be the first time they’ve ever given such a spotlight to a Cardano project. Tides are turning. https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/1657081243518005254
24. Wow. Leaked “Key Messages” document for the joint committee meeting in the US House last week. Best part: they basically complain about separation of powers in point three. https://twitter.com/EleanorTerrett/status/1656362002577772544
25. Dr. Vanishree Rao on ZK-Rollups. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1657778843854274560
26. Here’s a new Decentralized Identity article from IOG. https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2023/05/11/atala-prism-pioneering-digital-identity-with-decentralized-solutions/
27. There are reasons we’re in a hard capped cryptocurrency like Cardano. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/15/business/argentina-interest-rates-inflation/index.html
28. What is a dRep? This video is for you. There will be additional categories of default dReps that vote abstain or no confidence on every vote. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1658034085401337857
29. The US Dept. of Justice is officially saying they are targeting exchanges. Great. Great. https://www.ft.com/content/5aac457e-cc80-44ae-ac40-9b51d9b601a3
30. Wow! Ledger just made what is possibly the greatest PR blunder in the history of crypto. Trezor will be poppin’ bottles tonight. https://twitter.com/Ledgestatus/1658458714771169282
31. People are claiming that the hysteria is a misunderstanding of cryptography. But, that’s not what’s going on here if Ledger plus one of the other two shard custodians can reconstruct your private key without having to use your private key. https://twitter.com/nimuepool/status/1658517533836574720
32. The Ledger Recover FAQ seems to support this understanding as it suggests you use a brand new device for recovery. https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/9579368109597
33. Wow. Unfortunate timing for this. https://twitter.com/Ledgestatus/1658095051375800321
34. Ken Kodama will be doing a Japanese language interview on CardanoSpot on May 18. https://twitter.com/Emurgo_Ken/status/1658838077136162828
35. The stake pool operator poll on network parameters of K and minPoolCost is live. See the results here. The re-delegation phase will begin on May 25th. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
36. Cornucopias dropped some new in-game footage. As expected, Solace is beautiful. https://youtu.be/j5iwNsQVMDQ?t=1846
37. Wow….the Ledger shards are encrypted with “a master key that is contained in all devices”. Wut? https://twitter.com/P3b7_/status/1658809445965606913
38. Sadly, the Ledger CEO seemed to be denying exactly the above just a day ago. https://twitter.com/_pgauthiestatus/1658508082941403144
39. Here’s why 340 ADA minPoolCost promotes multi-pools. https://twitter.com/ArmySpies/status/1659387255537176581
40. Numbers are emerging on the benefits of K=1000 over K=500. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1659398551917727744
41. Here’s the latest on the Stake Pool Operator poll. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
42. Rep. Tom Emmer is trying to help crypto by cutting crypto assets out of the definition of a “security”. He creates a new non-security asset category called “investment contract asset”. https://twitter.com/GOPMajorityWhip/status/1659291641281146886
43. Prof. Wadler (co-inventor of Cardano’s Plutus) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society joining the likes of Einstein, Darwin, Hawking, and Isaac Newton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOm-dWje-M
44. Huge amount of voting for economic self-interest by multi-poolers in the SPO poll. Earlier today (May 21), 84.73% by stake of the vote for K=500, Min Cost 340 ₳ was multi-poolers. Only 15.6% of the vote for K=1000, Min Cost 170 ₳ was multi-poolers. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
45. Large pools also voted heavily for economic self-interest with the K parameter. 70.02% by stake of the vote for K=500, Min Cost 170 ₳ was pools with delegation over 35 million. Only 30.57% of the vote for K=1000, Min Cost 170 ₳ was pools over 35 million. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
46. Apparently Cardano has its own wiki now! Probably better given our previous treatment by the big wiki group. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1660383700243329024
47. Rep. Tom Emmer is getting some reactions on the bill he sponsored with Rep. Soto. https://twitter.com/GOPMajorityWhip/status/1660329932495486977
48. You’re really gonna hold up a debt ceiling deal because you hate crypto so bad? https://twitter.com/gaborgurbacs/status/1660248530135515138
49. Looks like a few big multi-poolers have voted in the poll since yesterday. Pretty easy to predict what they didn’t vote for. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
50. Reports coming in that DCG has defaulted on the payment owed to Genesis. https://twitter.com/AP_Abacus/status/1660671386388504577
51. Ledger Recover would allow governments to confiscate crypto assets by subpoena? Called “not a real concern in the end.” Really? https://twitter.com/TheBTCTherapist/status/1660677064700178436
52. Frederik Gregaard on DeFi and regulation. https://twitter.com/F_Gregaard/status/1660655806709211137
53. Don’t Forget, the May Cardano 360 will be on May 25th. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1660621805017608194
54. Here’s the daily check-in on the status of the SPO Poll. We have surpassed 590 pools voting (as of May 23). https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
55. The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong has decided to get our hopes up with a proposed regulatory framework for crypto exchanges that could mean more trading for coins like Cardano. https://apps.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/news-and-announcements/news/doc?refNo=23PR53
56. Here’s an IOG thread on the latest out of Atala Prism and Self-Sovereign Identity. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1660904360925188097
57. Here’s an IOG article on Cardano native tokens. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1660975383997448193
58. The difference in decentralization between Cardano and Bitcoin is still…laughable. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1660979639907500033
59. Ledger is finally caving (a little) to the backlash. It’s reported that they will focus on open sourcing parts of their code and only release the “Recover” firmware after that open sourcing is finished. https://twitter.com/NFTherdestatus/1661026174779420672
60. Looks like the Hong Kong announcement yesterday might have been a hint of what’s coming. https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1661391542504902664
61. The Cardano Layerverse is coming to life. https://twitter.com/TobiasIlskov/status/1660697833115385856
62. Wow! Incredible! Thank you for voting in favor of decentralization, 1PCT! https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1661460222203002880
63. Federal Reserve report debunks claim that crypto is not useful to people in the US. https://twitter.com/SebVentures/status/1661063483369177108
64. The SPO phase of the poll is over. Nearly 800 pools voted. Now it’s your turn to see how your pool voted and re-delegate if you think they voted against decentralization and for their own pocketbook. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
65. The May Cardano 360 is out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_bCa_xCoxA
66. Charles dropped an update today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfL2U2hAGWw
67. Sen. Cynthia Lummis declares her opposition to the 30% tax on bitcoin mining. https://twitter.com/SenLummis/status/1661803569341759495
68. Lots of volume being transacted on Cardano recently! https://twitter.com/cwpaulm/status/1662929296329981952
69. Recent subpoenas to the Python Package Index don’t bode well for those hoping to store seed phrases with third-party custodians. https://twitter.com/_jonasschnelli_/status/1662531840606093312
70. Transaction volume is looking very interesting right now. https://messari.io/charts/cardano/txn-vol
71. JPG Store has now launched Android and IOS apps. https://twitter.com/jpgstoreNFT/status/1663281982262919170
72. It’s true. Cardano is straight killing it on the security leg of the trilemma.https://twitter.com/cardano_whale/status/1662987243655684096
73. Just checked. Yep. The centralization in ETH is still staggering. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1663222056870350848
74. There’s a documentary about a 2022 Plutus hackathon in Argentina. https://twitter.com/LarsBrunjes/status/1663111319732535297
75. Pavia is testing NFT gating. This could get very interesting. https://twitter.com/Pavia_io/status/1663153213988823040
76. Marlowe is on mainnet! You can now code Cardano smart contracts in javascript or blockly via Marlowe! This is an amazing leap forward. https://twitter.com/marlowe_io/status/1663480828016435200
77. Don’t forget! We are still in the re-delegation phase of the CF Poll. See how your stake pool voted! If they were voting for their pocketbook instead of decentralization, you should re-delegate! https://twitter.com/Cardano_CF/status/1663564854572244994
78. Wow! Cardano projects are doing big things these days! https://twitter.com/CardanoCrocClub/status/1663468916843114498
79. The CCP has dropped a white paper on how it will develop Web 3 including NFTs and the metaverse. https://twitter.com/milestones_nft/status/1663458500922712064
80. Lace is now open source! https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1663953642045714433
81. Binance is back and apparently they don’t care if someone had that ticker first. https://twitter.com/pool_pm/status/1663809731603906560
82. Summon is now allowing for multichain swaps of ADA & ERG. https://twitter.com/N8iveToEarth/status/1664038846563225600
83. Charles did a Twitter Space with World Mobile. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1663984094252810283
84. Here’s an easy infographic on CIP-1694 Voltaire governance from IOG. https://twitter.com/Hornan7/status/1664007623799185409
85. Apparently, Cardano sushi is a thing! https://twitter.com/Allison_Fromm/status/1663841386074976257
86. This kind of sums up the problems with central bank behavior over the last 20 years. https://twitter.com/JeffWenigestatus/1664012650781585409
87. Interesting news about the currency in one of Cardano’s biggest metaverse projects. https://twitter.com/Pavia_io/status/1664240389610704896
88. Messari has released an article on operational decentralization in proof-of-stake crypto. https://messari.io/report/evaluating-validator-decentralization-geographic-and-infrastructure-distribution-in-proof-of-stake-networks
89. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has MASSIVELY revised their figures on Q4 of 2022. No surprise, the numbers were much worse than they told us. https://twitter.com/FrogNews/status/1664253845399130113
90. Looks like DAOs are getting a little hesitant about fee switches due to possible legal/tax implications. https://twitter.com/FrogNews/status/1664253845399130113
91. We even have Arctic block production. https://twitter.com/Laponia_pool/status/1664226409466740737
92. Questions are being raised regarding the blockspace consumption of dApps still on Plutus v1. https://twitter.com/matiwinnetou/status/1664385383122051073

~Army of Spies

I (24M) broke up with my girlfriend of 5 years in November of 2022. In January of 2023 my current romantic interest (23F) left her boyfriend of 2 years. We are old friends but hadn't spoken properly in the best part of a decade. Towards the middle of March we began messaging and catching up with each other, and by mid-April we had agreed to meet up for a dinner. Everything went great, just a friendly dinner between two people. We followed this up a few days later with another meal which this time led to making out for a few hours afterwards but nothing more. But we had broken the ice I guess as being at least somewhat interested in each other. Since then we have met up multiple times weekly, slept together pretty much every time we've been together, had sleepovers multiple times, dates, met each other friends, messaged every day etc. Everything is very much in-line with how you'd expect dating someone new would be if not perhaps slightly more than that.
However, we did agree early on that seeing as we'd only recently gotten out of relationships we were happy for things to be casual and not necessarily more. About a week and a half ago she asked me what I was feeling in regards to the current situation with her and I admitted that whilst I wasn't asking her to be "in a relationship with me", I'd be unhappy at this point if she slept with someone else and that I had definitely caught some feelings. She said she felt the same but was still adamant on the no-relationship, at least for now, part of the deal. Worried things were getting out of hand she suggested the idea that we just be friends. We had this discussion three days in a row with each time ending up in us sleeping together and spending the night together. The result of the discussion has essentially been to stop worrying about the future for now and just enjoy the present with no promise of commitment.
I have made it clear that I am very much into her at this point as I don't think it'd be fair to see her still under false pretences. This hasn't deterred her from seeing me since. I really don't want to call it a day with her but am mindful that I am perhaps setting myself up for heartbreak. We went out this weekend just gone and after a few drinks she told me that I am what she wants. She also referred to me as her boyfriend a couple of times and more or less tried to fight any woman that looked in my general direction lol. Anyway, just wanted some perspective. Normally I'd work this out for myself but the whole "lets keep it casual" dialog then countered with doing absolutely everything to not make it casual is confusing me. Thank you for any help!
​
tldr: am i wasting time with situationship

March 24, 2023, 12:35 AM UTC
Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS Group AG are among the banks under scrutiny in a US Justice Department probe into whether financial professionals helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Swiss banks were included in a recent wave of subpoenas sent out by the US government, the people said. The information requests were sent before the crisis that engulfed Credit Suisse and resulted in UBS’s proposed takeover of its rival.
Subpoenas also went to employees of some major US banks, two people with knowledge of the inquiries, said.
The Justice Department inquiries are focused on identifying which bank employees dealt with sanctioned clients and how those clients were vetted over the past several years, according to one of the people. Those bankers and advisers may then be subject to further investigation to determine if they broke any laws.
Credit Suisse and UBS both declined to comment.
Read More: Credit Suisse’s Rich Vein of Russian Money is Running Dry
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in expanded sanctions, Credit Suisse was well-known for catering to wealthy Russians. At its peak, the bank managed more than $60 billion for Russian clients, who generated between $500 million and $600 million a year in revenue for Credit Suisse.
At the time it discontinued its business with individual Russian clients last May, Credit Suisse held about $33 billion for them, 50% more than UBS, despite the latter’s larger wealth management business.
The Justice Department last year launched its KleptoCapture task force to enforce sanctions on wealthy Russians who are political allies of President Vladimir Putin. The US government has since seized a number of yachts, private planes and luxury properties.
Last month, the US moved to seize homes in New York, Florida and the Hamptons owned by sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.
Read more: Hamptons, NYC Homes Owned by Vekselberg Targeted for US Seizure
A number of individuals have also been charged with helping oligarchs hide assets — British businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was arrested in October on charges that he illegally transferred $1 million to maintain US properties for sanctioned billionaire Oleg Deripaska. A former senior Federal Bureau of Investigation agent was also charged with helping Deripaska violate sanctions in January.
Banks can face serious penalties for violating US sanctions. BNP Paribas in 2014 agreed to pay nearly $9 billion after pleading guilty to US charges for processing transactions for sanctioned Sudanese, Iranian and Cuban entities. In 2019, Standard Chartered Bank agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle a Justice Department probe, in which a former bank employee pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate US sanctions on Iran.
As the Credit Suisse rescue plan emerged over the weekend, UBS expressed general concerns about taking on its rival’s potential legal liabilities. The Swiss government has said it would guarantee up to 9 billion francs ($9.8 billion) in losses to UBS from the deal.
US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in early March said the Justice Department was responding to the “uncertain geopolitical environment” by beefing up its national security division, which enforces sanctions violations.
“Corporate crime and national security are overlapping to a degree never seen before, and the department is retooling to meet that challenge,” Monaco said.
Source
One solution: Buy GME, DRS from the brokerage to BOOK, and wait for the short squeeze of a lifetime.
If they still make hit piece about the GME chairman only a day before the earnings after years of "it being over" and push out a piece shilling a bank that bought the burden of Credit Suisse (the same Credit Suisse who had Archegos baggage and shorted GME) then they are fukd.

"USA Today" published an article saying, "As early as January 3 (2022), the U.S. government received the first official notification of the discovery of a new virus. In the following weeks, scientists, the CIA, the epidemic Psychiatrists and national security aides have issued warnings. But the administration has publicly dismissed the coronavirus threat, played down the danger, and provided disinformation.”
Omicron

"USA Today" published an article saying, "As early as January 3 (2022), the U.S. government received the first official notification of the discovery of a new virus. In the following weeks, scientists, the CIA, the epidemic Psychiatrists and national security aides have issued warnings. But the administration has publicly dismissed the coronavirus threat, played down the danger, and provided disinformation.”
Omicron

Modes of survival

For certain traits, several populations have a spread of phenotypes, characterised by a Gaussian shape that shows that makeup extremes ar less common than the intermediate phenotypes.
Natural selection could have an effect on a spread of phenotypes in 3 ways.

Directional choice

Directional choice happens once people at one makeup extreme ar at a drawback compared to any or all different people within the population.In response to the current choice, the injurious gene(s) decreases in frequency, and every one different genes increase in frequency. Directional choice could occur once a mutation provides rise to a replacement cistron, or once the surroundings changes to pick against Associate in Nursing existing composition.
​
Modes of survival
​

Industrial disease of the skin

Industrial disease of the skin, a classic example of directional choice, occurred in England throughout the commercial Revolution. deposit records and experiments document however environmental changes affected choice against one composition of the peppered lepidopterous insect, Biston betularia.

Peppered lepidopterous insect population

In the early 1800s, a grey type created up concerning ninety nine of the peppered lepidopterous insect population. That type still predominates in developing northern England and Scotland. In industrial areas of England, a black type replaced the grey type over a amount of concerning fifty years.

This subreddit helped me so much in navigating my debut album release that I wished to share my experience, my approach, and stats as it might help or at least inspire others who are yet to do this.
*Aaaand it is also here to point out mistakes I wouldn’t repeat myself nor would love anyone else to repeat them!
**This is a very long post, sorry!
To give you a little bit of context - I moved to Melbourne from Croatia in mid-2019 and until then I was a front woman in a successful post-punk band.
Arrived to Melbourne without knowing anyone, then the longest lockdown hit and by 2021 I realised I need to pivot and do something solo because there was no way for me to meet people, form a new band and perform live. So I started learning Ableton and now here I am, just released my debut album which is also my debut as a record producer.
The music I do is very niche and specific; most of the songs are bilingual where I combine traditional Croatian/Slavic folk singing into my choruses or intros with experimental dark wave/EBM/even trip-hop elements. I call it Slavic-pop, Slavic-darkwave, a lot of people compares me with IC3PEAK, Sevaliza, FKA Twigs, Slavic Fever Ray/Knife.
This new solo project is called ŽIVA (as in ‘being alive’) and you can find it on all platforms (socials handle is _xziva).
This also means that literally no one knows about me here in Australia except for my 5 friends and my partner, while in the Balkans I do have a decent following and a good media support.
Last thing to take into the account is that like a lot of us here, everything I do is DIY; this is a one-woman show where I do literally everything from song composition, production and live performance, to styling, social media, marketing etc…And since I learn on the go, I’ve made a lot of mistakes that I can now see clearly in hindsight…So keep that in mind as well!
TIMELINE I’ve used for my releases:
April 10th Early access open for single Bad Blood (if you leave your email and follow on Spotify, you get the single video in your inbox 24 hours before everyone else)
April 21st Single out (with video) + album announcement
April 28th Single launch gig (headline) in Melbourne
May 23rd Debut album out
May 25th Album launch gig (headline) in Melbourne
​

1. SubmitHub

For me, this was the biggest waste of money and something I will never ever repeat. Luckily I didn’t spend too much money but I should have listened to my gut feeling as well as most of your posts here. While I actually did have some success and got featured in some of the independent media/playlists, it was not worth either the money nor the time. It feels wrong while I do it and although I can partially see the idea behind having a paywall because journalism has been discredited and underpaid for a long time, this is not a way to go.
I also did an experiment and paid an influencer to put one of my songs up in her video + asked her for stats after, but since there is no way of knowing how many people actually came from her profile to mine, I don’t see the value in continuing to invest in this.
📚Conclusion: Works better for generic songs, nothing too experimental, will never do this again, would perhaps re-consider it if I am doing something more mainstream but even then would need more convincing.
STATS
cost: $80USD
content: 3 different songs
Success rate: 12%
​

1. Facebook & IG ads

This was my first time ever doing these, so a huuuuge learning curve. To teach myself how to do this, I was reading everything on this sub + did a lot of YouTube tutorials such as the one from Andrew Southworth to get ideas.
📚Conclusion: probably your best bet of all ways of
STATS (April 21st - June 3rd)
cost: $1045AUD
campaign objectives: Melbourne gig attendance (awareness + conversion), Spotify streaming, YouTube streams/subscribers
target audience: digital art, electronic music, darkwave/EBM, Blender (my aesthethic is very much combination of traditional look + digital manipulation, 3D rendering, scans)
RESULTS BREAKDOWN:
Spotify
+200 followers
+12,700 plays
YouTube
+170 subscribes
+6500 plays
Bandcamp
+500 plays
Soundcloud
+550 plays
​

1. Publicist

I didn’t use a paid PR / publicist this time because I just couldn’t afford it BUT now I am happy that played that way. Reason being - I was quoted $4000AUD for an album campaign and yet I’ve managed to get a positive response from almost all those media outlets myself (to whom they would have reached out). The biggest drawback from not hiring them is the fact that I didn't manage to get 1(!?) TripleJ Unearthed review and Australian media outlet feature. This is probably the hardest thing I ever wanted to break, I literally have 0 responses from any Aussie based outlet. This is also something I want to crack, just not sure where's the catch - is it that the publicists are gatekeepers or its just too competitive and I am unknown....
Important to note is that I did hire them for a single campaign back in 2022 and while it did yield some features and TripleJ reviews...It was too much work for me. I literally had to write texts for different Aussie blogs that have various topics (name your top 5 artists and why etc)...it ended up being quite a lot of work for me as an artists rather than just chilling while someone else does it. It might be that I have the wrong approach but idk...
Still - I think it is waaaay too expensive and at this stage (until proven otherwise) I will rather grind myself and persevere and send loads of emails than pay this insane amount.
📚Conclusion: Not worth the money, my stand atm is that I will invest in my materials, my music, photos, instagram profile, tiktoks, live performances....and then those outlets will eventually will come to me? 💡 Is is wrong to think this?
​

1. Socials

I’ve literally have never been this active on socials as I am since mid March, early April. I figured that this is the way to go and decided to approach it as part of the job and give it structure which always works for me and leaves out any unnecessary dwelling and procrastination.
TikTok - I barely did anything….and this is my biggest problem atm and something I actually plan to tackle now, sort of post-album release, create some videos about the process etc..this is my weak point and everything would probably be even better if I had resolved this and been active.
But regarding Instagram & FB there are two biggest changes in my approach that seem to change my game completely and yield MASSIVE results.
a) I now actually actively engage with my followers, watch their stories, comment, interact….It actually feels good, I do it in a natural way, interact with content I really do resonate with so it’s actually not hard, just needs dedication & time.
b) I decided to just continue being genuine in my posts and if it doesn’t do well (in the numbers game) - who cares, at least it’s really me rather than something I thought will get viral. This really helped alleviate some of the imposter syndrome feelings which are present whenever I post something.
📚Conclusion: These two combined ended up creating an amazing community of almost die hard fans for me, where every single one of them shared the news about my album.
STATS (April 21st - June 3rd)
cost: $0 (a lot of time though - I dedicate min. 30mins every morning just to go through my audience’s stories/posts etc)
Success rate: 100% :) hehe, not sure how to measure this but I am sure that this was one of the main contributors of converting my followers into my passionate music fans.
Instagram
+ 375 new followers (in this moment I have 2,100 followers)
+average 1,800 reach per post
+average 400 views per story
Facebook (keep in mind that I am not very active on FB, so just trying to keep it alive with occasional posts, 2x per week sharing only relevant stuff)
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1. Spotify Playlisting

USER PLAYLISTS: I took the manual route and this time actually skimmed the entire Spotify to find playlists that could potentially put my song onto their playlist. It took a lot of time but it also yielded incredible results FOR 0 money!
PAID PLAYLISTS: I’ve done just one for the sake of gaining information and doing the math. I paid $15USD to get the following: - placement on two playlists that have 7k listeners combined
- feature/reshare of my single video on an IG profile that has 200k followers
I got around 300 streams from this up until this point (3 weeks).
EDITORIAL PLAYLISTS: No success. I’ve pitched 2 songs (single and then another one I choose from the album) and even included suggestions on what playlists I think I would be a great fit but yeah, zero points here.
📚Conclusion: Knowing your genre is one of the most important thing because it is an information you use to wisely create ads + pitch your music to the right people aka playlisters. I will keep on doing this although its time consuming to go through Spotify and their instagram, but totally worthwhile if you have the right song/genre! Those playlists are your potential fans and they will do it for free!
Thank you for all your help and amazing discussions/advice - it would have been much harder without you! 🖤

My partner and I have been together going on 14 years this year. We have had some struggles, most recently last year. I had distanced myself in the end of 2021 early 2022 without honestly realizing it. He made an effort and continued to let me know he loved me. He would say things like he wasn't ready to lose his family. I admit, I really wasn't focusing on his needs. Fast forward to Spring of 2022, This girl from his past (oh yeah, we split up sometime around 2014/15) decided to come back into his life. She sent him a friend request on social media, which apparently he didn't pay attention to so she took it back. He ended up messaging her during the middle of Summer 2022 and decides to just pretty much leave the home (mind you, kids are involved). Apparently to his defense he "talked" to me about us separating and splitting up but living together till he found a place but continued to sleep in our bed, we were intimate and all the while would tell me we would make our relationship work. That we would do what we had to be in a good place again.
So fast forward, he decided he was going to see how "she was doing" which come on.. Picks up some of his stuff, sees her for a month and then decided he wanted to make it work out. Yes, I took him back, but a lot more has happened since and I feel different. Not in the way I love him, or maybe the way I see him. It was just heartbreaking for me. I know relationships have their struggles, but I feel like I don't even recognize this man anymore. I am struggling. Was I wrong for wanting to make this work?
tl;dr

A year ago I got a retail job. But recently I haven't been getting scheduled to work... and it's been like this since November of 2022 I started working there late June. I work Fridays through Sundays, my manager constantly reassures me they are flexible and are perfectly fine with me working those days. I work part-time and always show up early. But now I hardly ever work. It is June 5th of 2023 and I haven't been scheduled to work since December of last year. I'm still on the schedule chart too... which confuses me. Before this all happened I told my manager since I'm graduating high school and going into college I might look into quitting to focus on school. She got weirdly uncomfortable and tried to convince me to not leave, saying they are flexible with hours and the other employees like me? But I have been treated poorly by them- I could go on but what I really need advice with is... I think they're trying to force quit me. There's only two cashiers working per day which is terrible considering I work in retail and the store definitely needs more than 1 cashier per 5-7 hours. They could use my help? Could I report my manager for not scheduling me if I'm only part-time? Should I quit? Thank you for any advice.