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The Epic Tragedy

  Yes, Khamzat Chimaev won the UFC Middleweight Championship at UFC 319, and yes, he's an extremely worthy champion. My heart fought me like a caged lion on this take. From before the opening bell, the battle felt like a titan facing a demon. Dricus looked like Paul Bunyan, preternaturally calm, ready to embark upon his greatest challenge. Khamzat's grin made him look like Lucifer himself. Watching Dricus Du Plessis struggle through the first round trapped for the better part of five minutes in a devastating crucifix, getting his head punched in over and over again, I felt bad for him, and also felt the superior fighter would wear him out come the second round. Watching more of the same in the second round, I felt Dricus had been admirably tough, hold out under such intense physical and mental exertion that not more than one ten-thousandth of a percent of men have the heart to do. How could he possibly last under the superior , bone-grinding grappling of the monster on top of h...
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PAUL GPT

Are you letting AI do your writing for you? Before we get started, I'd like you to take a moment and consider three questions: 1.)     Have I ever used an AI application to write something, and if so, why did I choose to use it? 2.)     How did I feel about the finished product, and did I feel like it was my work or somebody else's? 3.)     What's something I have a really strong opinion on, and could I type out that argument along with three facts to back it up? OK, let's hit this rabbit hole. My name is Paul Andrea. If you are reading this, you are the resistance. It's not because SkyNet or our world leaders are coming to lay waste to the world, that stuff is for movies meant to scare us. They are coming to scare us. Scared people are entertained people, and entertained people are distracted people. The apocalypse is not coming. The administration buildings will still stand. The roads will still carry traffic. Life will ...
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Cut your losses* - Cheat Codes for Everyday Problems

Forget knowing when to hold them - the biggest little secret in life is knowing when to fold them! Cutting your losses as soon as you see the yawning jaws of disaster waiting to gobble you up can make all the difference between bouncing back strong from a loss versus turning that loss into a long term disaster.  Most people have a hard time cutting their losses, and not without good reason. We learn from an early age the moral value of adages such as to never quit, to pursue a goal no matter what obstacles get in our way. Tenacity and persistence definitely lead to strength and victory, and should be embraced. What should be abandoned are paths to your goals which lead to failure and substantial losses.  I get it, it feels wrong to quit on something you've been working hard on, maybe even obsessing toward. You need that business idea to thrive, just keep throwing time and money at it until it breaks through. You really like that girl on Bumble, just keep messaging her until sh...
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Whether we collect cards, comics, toys or any niche variant in between, we as nerds belong to one of the most incredible hobby kingdoms out there. Our stuff feels just a little more exciting than real life. It stretches the boundaries of imagination while making us feel young again.  Going on the hunt for a holy grail is an adventure in and of itself. We study up on our quest  book or card. We scour online for people who are selling it, and what kind of deals they are offering. Then we lock down the grail: the price, condition and seller are an exact match. We raise our prize in mighty triumph! There's an indescribable sensation of joy from getting our hands on a chase collectible. It's almost rapturous, creating a feeling we want to experience over and over again.  Almost like a drug. Cracking open one pack of cards becomes two, then a box. Grabbing a few issues of a classic series becomes the hunt for the entire run, then the search for all the variants. ...
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Cheat Codes for Everyday Problems

Mea culpa: forgetting people's names is a serious weakness of mine, and when I mess up it leaves me feeling embarrassed. People who know me well might be shocked to see me admit this. I have crafted my mind into an extensive database for facts, figures and trivia on a plethora of subjects. I'm usually daisy-chaining tasks one after the other to accomplish what I need to each day. Therein lies the rub. My mind gets so preoccupied with other matters that I often miss out on what's in front of me, foremost of which being remembering someone's name. Given this problem is shared by many, we are often tempted to pass off screwing up someone's name as trivial. However, such mix ups leave people's feelings more affected than you may suspect. A person's name, in their own mind, is their identity, and their very sense of who they are and their place in this world ties directly to that name. By forgetting a person's name, you (subconsciously, and without any ill wi...
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Final Fantasy MTG

So you doubted the selling power of Final Fantasy, huh?  Hate to break it to you chum, but this series absolutely commands the market, thanks not only to its nostalgic legacy as a technologically groundbreaking series of video games, but also its legion of memorable heroes and villains struggling for supremacy of the fate of their distinctive worlds.  Ready to see Cloud and Tifa strike back once more at the evil Sephiroth? They're all here, as well as countless other characters and set pieces exactly from your favorite Roman Numerically numbered adventures, exactly as you remember them. Just as importantly, these cards aren't just pretty, they're potent. We're talking game-changing, upending multiple formats level potency.   Take the card Tifa Lockheart, a fairly innocent looking 2 mana drop based on the beloved supporting character from Final Fantasy VII. She's a 1 power/ 2 toughness trample green creature that has the landfall ability "whenever a lan...
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Think Outside the Box

Roll your eyes to the sky for me if you know this expression - "Think outside the box." Of course you've heard this one. Anybody who's worked on a tricky job or found themselves stuck in a rut on a school project knows it by heart. It's just a quick, easy, maybe even trite way to say "Use your imagination and find a way this hasn't been done before."  No problem, right? It's just a stupid box, and I can imagine myself jumping out of it pretty easily. Sounds simple, Hell, it even rings TRUE. The human imagination is so vast we can't even define its boundaries. Of COURSE the solution lies in my imagination.  So why, after applying this conventional wisdom, would we still run into roadblocks?  The trouble with the expression, dear reader, is one of scope. The Box, which simply stated refers to "the way things have been done before," covers an incredible amount of experience. Over 5000 years of recorded history. So many human beings, al...
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