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post X-Animals Tshirt Design on Threadless

July 30th, 2010

Filed under: ComiXtrips,Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 11:35 am

I love Threadless shirts. I love that here and there a design like the above is released and I must have one. Here are the X-Men represented as animal counterparts:

Professor X = Brain Mole
Wolverine = Wolverine
Emma Frost = Polar Bear
Shadowcat = Panther
Nightcrawler = Monkey
Storm = Horse
Beast = Gorilla
Jean Grey = Phoenix
Colossus = Elephant
Cyclops = Falcon (I think)

Okay so I’m not sure about Storm as a horse, and maybe there’s a pop culture reference in there I’m missing. Also not sure about Kitty Pride as a large wild cat, I think it’d have worked better if she was a house cat, personally. Finally I’m not sure about the bird for Cyclops… but what else would you do for him? I’m not sure “brain mole” is an actual animal… but it sure as hell was a monster in D&D back in the day if my memory serves me correctly (good chance it doesn’t).




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post Batman: City of Scars Fan Film by Aaron Schoenke

June 19th, 2010

Filed under: Entertainment,Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 2:08 pm

Aaron Schoenke, through his Bat in the Sun Productions, has floored me with 30 minutes of amazing. It baffles me how a fan can put together such a robust short film like this on a “small budget”. I say small in relation to the exuberant Hollywood $$$ figures. The plot in this film is very straight forward which keeps the production clean and easy to follow. The costumes, setting and actors do a great job as well–and come on… SCARFACE is in it? I friggin love Scarface, he’s easily one of my favorite rogues.

Considering the production team pretty much consisted of Aaron Schoenke and his brother, I’m simply going to be floored for years to come just as I was with the first Batman fan film I saw called Dead End. If you have 30 minutes free and wanna to come face to face with ultimate fan dedication, watch this! You won’t be disappointed!




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post Warcraft III: Frozen Throne: “Blade Master” Deluxe Figure… From China

April 9th, 2010

Filed under: Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 2:06 pm

While scanning Ebay for World of Warcraft figures I stumbled upon this embarrasing ripoff… by none other than the world’s friendly neighborhood kings of ripoffs: China. Its even got “official” packaging and everything with DC Unlimited logo and a license badge. They give us the Deluxe Figure of the orc warrior: Blade Master!

I’m amazed at how stuff like this goes on long enough to make a profit. It’s worth being said that IF the quality was ACTUALLY up to par with DC Unlimited World of Warcraft figures I may consider it still worth picking up. But seriously… how could this even pass for something not meant as a 4-6 year-old play toy? And a crappy one even at that. The model is less than heroic in any way, the painting is abysmal to say it kindly, and the fact that a company (or group of individuals) would take the time and effort to hawk it as official is blatantly embarrassing to them, to Blizzard, and to collectors who have to lay eyes on this monstrosity.

(Licensed by Blizzard… really?!)

(Why does this face look like it’s made out of Play-Doh?)

(A grandma lost her necklace making this figure’s accessories.)

Some would say that I’m being harsh about this, and that a sculptor out there spend a lot of time to mold this and paint it, etc, sure… that’s fine. IF this was presented as a fan’s homage it’d get a totally different reaction from me. I might even congratulate the effort and support that artist’s skills. But like the saying goes: “Cover a turd with gold-leaf… and it’s still a turd”… errr… well something along those lines anyways…

Call me a monkey if this is actually LICENSED by DC Unlimited… I ask then: What company pitched this to Blizzard Entertainment as a offshore venture opportunity? How would something of this quality HELP what’s already branded as superbly awesome by DC Unlimited? I tried my Google-fu on this and only got rewarded with yet ANOTHER resin model of Blade Master, in all his unglorious non-glory. Congratulations China.




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post Facebook Monthly Subscription Fee is a FAKE, NOT TRUE, SPAM!

March 20th, 2010

Filed under: Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 8:25 pm

Yesterday a friend of mine pointed out that soon Facebook will be charging to pay a monthly fee to be a part of the social network. Any time I hear news like this I am immediately reluctant to believe it.

The main point being that I simply do not think Facebook–regardless of it’s monumental lead against competitors for user numbers and popularity–has any chance of succeeding after making a choice to charge members a subscription fee. The internet is a vast space with many others willing to fill in a gap left by a social site that no longer matches the exists as a FREE platform.

The quick answer is: THIS IS FAKE NEWS AND SPAM!

Okay, now onto the details I discovered…

I decided to start digging up info on this possible rumor so that I could put it to rest–at least on a personal level. This happened after I receiving a notification about a Facebook group titled “I’m Quitting Facebook Once We have to Pay $14.99/month on July 9, 2010″  devoted to gathering people together (with over 600,000 followers) claiming to leave Facebook if they begin to charge monthly fees. [Yes, I've reported them... as I do to ALL these fakes. Good riddance and I encourage all to immediately do the same!]

This is a petition to stop facebook from charging £/$14.99 a month starting from July 2010.

Because of Facebook’s huge popularity Mark Zuckerberg is getting a lot of offers from people wanting to buy Facebook. People Who WILL turn it into a paysite.

Lets all stick together on this one and let them know that we will leave Facebook if they decide to charge us to use it.

Please join and use the “INVITE PEOPLE TO JOIN” tab on the right hand side and invite all your friends to join.

This message conveniently precedes an block of text suggesting that people click a link for “a free iPad”… folks… seriously… START being more aware! Before believing anything that could be a rumor–research it! By adding all your friends to this group you have succeeded in giving these spammers the exorbitant amounts of traffic that allow them to soak up rewards from people who click on the one ad link.

College Humor is a PARODY SITE that pull off magnificent “news releases” that seem legitimate. They never are. They are for entertainment… and to seemingly create a flood of spam email and viral internet reactiveness. They released a parody news item that looked like a message from Mark Zuckerberg–Facebook’s founder. It included mention of pay-per-use options being added to the Facebook platform. Upon closer reading you will pass the more likely options of “Clicking the Like button = $0.01″ but further down the absurdness of it all is fully laid out with things like charges for “Ugly Picture”, “Lame Update” and “LOLCat” (each getting more expensive to boot.

On February 18, 2010 there WAS an official press release from Facebook concerning a business strategy and agreement between Facebook and PayPal, the internet’s leading financial entity. This relationship is to offer Facebook users an option to pay for Facebook services using PayPal as their financing option. This is for pay services that ALREADY exist and people ALREADY pay for within Facebook. This is NOTHING new and has nothing to do with monthly subscription fees.

In December 2009 and email circulated around that initiated the false news:

There is a website that ahs over 83,000 members of people protesting the following…
WE’RE AGAINST the 4.99 A MONTH CHARGE FOR FACEBOOK FROM JUNE 30TH 2010
See website here…
[URL REMOVED]

Then in February 2010 there was a second spam cycle for this false information:

“NO! I WILL NOT PAY $3.99/MONTH TO USE FACEBOOK STARTING JULY 9, 2010! JOIN.
[URL REMOVED]

The protest page contained links that would initiate a script that hijacked users’ computers. Those taken over would be flooded with objectionable images and malware would systematically attempt to install itself onto their computers. [Source: Snopes]

Hopefully, this wildfire is isolated quickly and this post can at least help another cluster of people to be way WAY WAY more cautious about clicking into internet hoaxes, either via email, or via Facebook Groups, etc.

Here’s to hoping! Now… back to FarmVille and Mafia Wars…




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post Data Crunching FarmVille: The Uber Equation

March 3rd, 2010

Filed under: Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 4:28 am

The following blog post is both a monstrosity and a possible work of genius–well, if you are mad man that is. Perhaps my madness will benefit other FarmVille players–irrationally addicted ones and casual rationals alike.

First off, I want to begin by saying that I am NOT a mathematician, I am not a statistician, I am not and accountant or a finance planner, or any other profession of number-crunching aficionados. I am an artist and a writer–but I have the luxury of also having been trained in logical processes and coding and have been a life-ling gamer conditioned to find patterns when anything metric-based pops up in a game.

My natural tendencies gravitate towards an intuitive path on “best reward” pretty rapidly. Once I begin becoming aware of it, more than I’m aware of wasting my time playing a redundant game for a few weeks, then something in me brain tips over and I start a spreadsheet. I do this to once and for all find an ultimate answer to all the metrics swarming in my head.

With Farmville, there are loads of things to distract you in your day (when you should be working… or sleeping). Some people like a quick rise to power, level fast and open up new things along the way. Others take it more casually and plant day crops so that the game has limited demands on their real life (I should take a hint). You can chase XP… or you can chase financial profit.

I am not going to get into tree and animal harvesting or gift exchange and the benefits of those as well with this crunchathon. My main focus here was to find an “X-SCORE”: An ultimate rating score for each seed’s “value”. And yes, the “X” is also representative of yours truly: XEI… because, well, because it’s MY darn score system!

Alrighty, lets get into some of the foundations for the ultimate equation I’ll present you with. Lucky for you there’ll also be an image with the results for your referral. If new crops come out though you can continue this work on your own–I’d just appreciate a link back here if you build on this any further. Think of it as a Creative Commons License (By Attribution)!

VARIABLES

Seed Cost = Base Cost of Seed
Harvest Time = Required Hours to Harvest
FarmVille Day = 23 Hours = 1380 Minutes
XP = XP Gained per Seed Planting
Plow Cost = Cost to Ploy Soil = 15 Coins
Plant Cost = Cost of Seed + Plow Cost
Sell Price = Seed’s Gross Price
Profit = Seed Sell Price – Plant Cost

VARIABLES WORTH DISCUSSING

The following stuff is when my brain started going to some pretty complicated places–at least for me initially. Places I was aware of but ignored because I just assumed it all floated in a pretty irregular and unpredictable variable that can’t be given a constant metric to. That variable is called LIFE people. It gets in the way and throws these kind of breakdowns right of. But that’s not saying you can’t create a metric value for each seed.

What needs to happen first is a common unit of measurement needs to be reached. Seeing as a FarmVille “day” actually comes to 23 hours, it’s pretty simple to turn every crops into an “hourly profit” variable:

Profit Per Hour = Profit / FarmVille Day = Profit / 23

Next thing to consider is theoretically how many times the crop can get cycled through the day… “theoretically” is important to state here as this variable will absolutely be impossible to achieve in the game. Each cycle requires time which I’ll detail below, but for now all I want is a non-hindered-by-real-time variable:

Possible Rotations = Harvest Time / FarmVille Day

This brings us to a non-constant variable because it has to do with how large a user’s farm area is. I’ve called each plotting area square a “unit”. I then created a variable to capture roughly the amount of time it takes for the process of each action to take effect in real time. I’ve found that each process takes about 1 second; so a total of 3 seconds per unit is required to complete one cycle. The “rotation buffer” then is a variable that takes into account this lost time and turns it into a minutes variable:

Plot Area = Max Units Farmed
Action Process = Harvest, Plow, Seed = 1 Second per Process = 3
Rotation Buffer = (Action Process x Plot Area) / 60 Minutes
= Approx. 12.5 Minutes for 250 Units
= Approx. 25 Minutes for 500 Units

Now that the handicap time is resolved, I wanted to correct the “theoretical” possible rotation cycle. I’ve subtracted the buffer from the possible rotation cycle in order to output a “more theoretical” daily rotation cycle. Again, these things can always get delayed for whatever other reasons, like FarmVille going out of synch (annoying), or you start harvesting animals or trees between the processes, or you close your browser by accident, etc, etc. BUT this is closer and I wanted to at least capture it, even roughly, just to put my mind at peace. The following then also accounts for the new daily profit and hourly profit:

Buffered Rotation Cycle = Possible Rotations x Rotation Buffer
Remedied Rotation = (FarmVille Day Minutes – Buffered Rotation Cycle) / 60 Minutes
Altered Rotation = Remedied Rotation / Harvest Time
Altered Profit Per Day = Units Farmed x Profit Per Hour x Altered Rotation
Altered Profit Per Hour = Profit Per Day / FarmVille Day

BRINGING THE VARIABLES TOGETHER

This last part is where I attempt to condense the variables down further into a ONE scalable variable that can represent the “ultimate value” to each crop. This is not quite the “X-Score” that I’m aiming for (that will come later), but this is the closest to being the most relevant for a FarmVillian to plan their strategies around. My method involved converting financial profit into an XP value. This uses the foundation that you can buy things and generally speaking you gain 1% of the purchase price as an XP bonus. This is incorrect with items under 500 coins as the lowest XP reward seems to be 5 XP. But in general this is the model for that:

Profit XP = Altered Profit Per Day / 100
XP Profit Total Per Day = (XP x Altered Rotations x Plot Area) + Profit XP

THE X-SCORE: THE ULTIMATE FARMVILLE CROP VALUE CHART

Finally, what I was hoping to achieve with all this madness: Some sort of crop score that accounted for as many variables as possible. This would ultimately place all other aspects of the crop aside–XP gain, harvest time, gross profit–none of it would matter, because here you’d have ONE score that would indicate OVERALL where the crop was placed against all other crops.

The factor that still remains mostly random and erratic is crop mastery. There are three variables left to place not this whole uber-equation:

  • How many times you have to harvest a crop to get Mastery of it
  • How much XP each Premium Crop outputs
  • What the percentage of return is for how many crops become Premium crops

Thankfully the first of the missing variables can be found collected already on many sites and forums. There is a definite number of times each crop requires to be harvested. This alters the long-term value of a crop’s importance.

Additionally, the amount of XP a Premium Crop outputs can also already be found in numerous places online (if you dig them up… ha… pun not intended). It’s also not as easy as assuming longer crops have larger payouts. Thankfully I found a Google spreadsheet that collected all the appropriate variables that include not only the Premium Crop bonus XP, but also the approximate percentage potential.

Speadsheet: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t8oPV_Ww0uWQjyBaZxM2kaw&gid=0

So far I’ve returned a result of approximately 40% on Blueberries which is agreeable with the spreadsheet’s breakdown. It is missing Morning Glory, but thankfully this was the second crop I mastered and collected data on my own and so far it’s outputting a whopping 60% Premium Crop wield. On TOP of that, the Morning Glory returned a +6% bonus per Premium Crop harvested. I’m assuming these numbers will be getting updated as new data gets collected, but for now we’ll use the current percentages.

We can add three Basic Variable to the chart:

Crop Mastery Total = Total Required Harvests to Complete
Mastery Bonus XP = Bonus Premium Crop XP
Mastery % Output = Average % to be Premium Crop

With this data we can add another variable to the XP Profit Total per Day that will increase it’s value and give a better representation of the crops overall “X-Score”! Here’s the equation breakdown:

Potential Premium Crops = Plot Area x Mastery % Output
Premium Profit = Potential Premium Crops x Mastery Bonus XP
Premium Profit Per Day = Premium Profit x Altered Rotations
Master Profit Per Day = Premium Profit Per Day + XP Profit Total Per Day

Almost there! Next I had to get a variable out of the length of time it’d take to even get the benefits of the bonus XP from Premium hauls. I resolved figuring out how many days it would take to complete the Mastery cycle:

Days to Master = Crop Mastery Total / (Plot Area x Altered Rotations)

To get the X-Score of the crop I had to create another “benchmark” of time; I decided on 30 days. This gives a range that can be checked against the benefits of focusing on other crops. With that benchmark I was able to get a total profit value by adding the total profits from pre-Mastery and post-Mastery values. The X-Score I decided would be the resulting total. For a smaller number, divide by 100 (really doesn’t matter :) ).

Post Mastery = (30 – Days to Master)
First 30 Day Profit = (XP Profit Per Day x Days to Master) + (Master Profit Per Day x Post Mastery)
X-Score = 30 Day Profit / 100

Huff… huff… huff… ok, I hope you all got all that! Enjoy the FINAL RESULTS!

QUICK CONCLUSIONS

For those who don’t care to filter through the Hows and Why and number crunches–that for the most part are just values with no absolute reflection on the reality of playing through it with human tendencies and life distractions, etc. Like it was stated earlier though, that’s not the point: The point is to just get a value that all crops can compare against in order to get an informed and near-omniscient overview (ha… omniscient indeed…) of how to power-play FarmVille.

The results on almost all levels push the berries up to the top tier (except Cranberries). Black Berries seem to be only slightly better than Blueberries, and after 30 days it still won’t make much of a difference. You can sell a Golden Lawn Gnome to pair up the values after 30 days! My suggestion is PICK ONE and forget the other.

If Super Pumpkins ever come back–concentrate on them and ONLY them. This is when I stated playing about a month ago. I flew past all my Neighbours because I gravitated towards the obvious unchallengeable crop and was proven correct with this breakdown.

The only thing that will absolutely destroy Super Pumpkins by more than THREE times after 30 days is the Super Berry. I wasn’t around for this crop so I don’t know much about it–but if it comes back… I better turn into a robot and catch those 2 hour rotation cycles!

Have fun everyone, and remember, seriously: It’s just a game :) . Get farming!

JUST FOR FUN: Here is the uber-equation

XP = XP
HT = Harvest Time
PA = Plot Area
PR = Crop Profit
CM = Crop Mastery
23 = FarmVille Day
1380 = FarmVille Day Minutes

((((XP+1)*(((1380-((23/HT)*((3*PA)/60)))/60)/HT)*PA)+
((((1380-((23/HT)*((3*PA)/60)))/60)/HT)*PA*CP)/100)*((CM/(PA*P55)))+
((((PA*L55)*(((1380-(I55*((3*PA)/60)))/60)/HT))*
(((1380-(I55*((3*PA)/60)))/60)/HT))+
(((XP+1)*(((1380-((23/HT)*((3*PA)/60)))/60)/HT)*PA)+
((((1380-((23/HT)*((3*PA)/60)))/60)/HT)*PA*CP)/100))*
(30-(CM/(PA*(((1380-((23/HT)*((3*PA)/60)))/60)/HT)))))

DOWNLOAD MASTER CHART PDF

Best Hourly Profit
Best Overall Profit + XP





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post Google Chrome OS: I Want This NOW!

November 21st, 2009

Filed under: Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 3:35 pm

Am I the only one hungry for this and wanting it RIGHT NOW!?! I can’t be. Seriously, how many people out there just need a machine to take with them while on the move–to get email, use the numerous Google web apps like Docs, Calendar, Maps, Gmail, etc? This will be a PERFECT alternative. Fast, simple, less hassle, less encumbersome… did I mention faster? My Asus Eee Pc with a light linux OS is pretty darn fast… but I don’t even want to bother with the additional applications that comes on it that I never use.

I have slowly but surely moved almost everything I do into the cloud–the internet is where I keep all my files and work–I’m not fully there yet, but knowing Google Chrome OS is coming in 2010 makes me want to wrap up the migration process. Having data lost to computer crashes in the last 15 years has finally gotten me to this point–the last 7 or so years I’ve been lucky and have had no crashes, but I’ve also learned to backup everything pretty hardcore.

Still… I’d rather make “backing up” my work, part of “saving my work” somewhere on the web–the cloud–instantly secure… This would be the awesomeness.




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post Soda Pop Shop is a Soda Pop One Stop Shop

November 3rd, 2009

Filed under: Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 11:36 pm

Some times I come across a video that immediately strikes me before I even watch it. This coming from Boing Boing, was headlined as a “video about the world’s greatest pop shop”… and you know what… they’re probably right. Here’s the info from YouTube about the video above:

John Nese is the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lovers destination. About 500 pops line the shelves, sourced lovingly by John from around the world. John has made it his mission to keep small soda-makers afloat and help them find their consumers. Galcos also acts as a distributor for restaurants and bars along the West Coast, spreading the gospel of soda made with cane sugar (no high-fructose corn syrup if John can avoid it).

This guy speaks with such knowledge and enthusiasm that it made me want to fly out to LA, .like, RIGHT NOW, so that I could try some of those damn sodas! I love to experiment with food and drinks. I’ve stopped drinking as much pop as I used to–but let me tell you, if a store like this opened in Waterloo, I’d be screwed.

… Maybe I’ll find some partners and funding and open one…




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post Boosterific Birthday Cake

October 22nd, 2009

Filed under: ComiXtrips,Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 12:51 am

When my friend asked me if I’d be home after midnight tonight I immediately knew something was up. This is a humble guy who doesn’t do “surprises” and doesn’t fit in with the normal mold of folk who celebrate holidays of any kind (to more of a degree than even I). His name is Rui DaSilva, him and I are currently co-creating/writing The Aquatic League of Heroes webcomic and aquatic hero support site.

There’s another under-dog character I defend almost as much as Darkhawk. The character is Booster Gold. One of the first issues I had a few years before I jumped on to comics strong with the Archie Ninja Turtles stuff, and eventually got won over by Darkhawk, was Booster Gold #7.

I’d always remember that issue number because Superman guest stars and whops Booster’s ass. I always respected the lesson I knew would be learned from that experience even if I never got another comic of Booster Gold (until now, 20 years later). Something about the concept of the character intrigued me because it broke the mold of “the norm”. I finally just bought the Essentials collection that collects the first run of the series in the mid-80s. I just read the issue Booster Gold saves President Nixon and Vice-President Bush from an alien shapeshifter assassination/take over. (Go Booster Go! Talk about a guy who now fights to fix time blips huh?)

Anyways… here is the result of Rui hearing me rant one time too many times about my second favorite under-dog comic hero of all time:

Booster Gold Cake

10222009260




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post Battle Cat and Voltron Done as Epic Oil Paintings by Robert Burden

September 30th, 2009

Filed under: Art,Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 3:40 pm

When I saw this oil painting time-laps of Battle Cat by Robert Burden last week, I finally unpacked a couple more boxes, left until the very end since I moved to this new home less than a month ago. What was in them? My 80s toys! I desperately wanted to get my hands back on Battle Cat after seeing it here in epic scale. Unfortunately mine has lost its head armor over the last 2 decades. But at least it’s free again–to adorn one of my library shelves. Yes sir!


[View the Video on YouTube]

He’s done a Voltron time-lapse as well. Ah Voltron… I threw out the Voltron base toy two months ago during the move. Cobwebs and age had finally forced me to just let go of that part of my past. Knowing people like Burden still exist to allow me to re-visit those memories will suffice–as should the movie if it ever actually gets made.


[View Video on YouTube]

Artist Robert Burden goes well beyond the average person’s perception of how much dedication, time and reverence should go into a series of painting based on 80s toys. In truth though, at least across the internet, there are a group of us that DO understand WHY this theme deserves such respect and legendary proportions! These are toys that took over the market when we grew up. Toys that front-lined armies and armies of other attempts to carve a market niche for competitors… before a time when cartoons entered a loud, fast-paced, jarring, manic stage of Japanese-influenced entertainment.

When we return to some of our memorable 80s cartoons, they don’t ring true to our MEMORY of them–but they left a much much longer impression that carries into the generation of children that come from us. A generation of children that can grow up in an age when all OUR childhood dreams are being realized as summer blockbuster films.

I wish much good fortunes on Robert Burden and may he continue to preserve more 80s awesomeness for the future generations to come! Go follow him on YouTube!




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post Baby Dances to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”

September 23rd, 2009

Filed under: Entertainment,Geekdom — NunoXEI @ 1:11 pm


[View Video on YouTube]

You know, when this video became an internet meme and folks all around the world started dancing in leotards with their own rendition of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” I was swept in and amused thoroughly for about 24 hours. Then the amusement of it all faded away… thankfully.

Then I come across this. This needs to one day be my baby. I need a baby that GETS IT early in life. A baby that is comfortable with their sexuality and understands what “15 minutes of fame” means before, well, they know what it means. That kinda baby needs to be MY baby.

My utmost respect goes out to these wonderful wonderful parents for cementing hope into my core.




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