Hi all - I'm an Editor for the VG Tribune (www.vgtribune.com), and one my main focuses of writing is anything retro. I currently have a series, where I aggregate all retro stores in a major metropolitan area in a single article. These articles act as a central hub for all retro gamers from that metropolitan area to access, should they want to visit a store nearby them. I've only covered Texas cities so far, but am looking to expand. Is there any interest for a specific city to be covered? It'd be great to get some feedback from fellow retro gamers from outside Texas that would like to see an article written for their major city.
http://vgtribune.com/blast-from-the-past-a-guide-to-local-retro-video-game-stores-dallas-tx-edition/

Howdy Reddit! There is a new game store opening in North Dallas this Friday. Here are the particulars:
Gunslinger Games 11110 Petal St Dallas, TX 75238
Store Hours: Tues - Fri 5 pm to Midnight Saturday - Noon to Midnight
They have drinks and snacks for sale. You can bring your own food in, but they prefer you buy drinks at the store to help support it.
FNM is$5 a person. Prize pool is 2 packs per person.
FNM is swiss based on number of people with a cut to Top 8. Top 8 will be played out. Top 8 could also split the prize pool if they all agree too.
This store is owned and operated by Vincent Johnson a long time Magic player and level 1 judge. Vincent used to manage Xmax Games in Dallas before it closed down in October. We were averaging 30 layers before the close and plan to have 15-30 people again starting on Friday at the new store. If your in the area and want to check out a new store this is the one you need to be at!

Portalarium Part I - The Fall and Fall
 
Mr. Richard Garriott de Cayeux has always complained about restrictions and expectations from publishers, customers, fans and press.
Was Richard really a better designer and manager when he had total freedom with Portalarium, free from the shackles of other people, release dates, marketing and investors?
 
Visions
Mr. Garriott promised that Shroud of the Avatar would be an unofficial Ultima X, a new Ultima Online, an epic game with a deep story and consequences, an MMO without being an MMO. He delivered nothing.
Instead the Portalarium team plundered the Unity store, bought cheap assets, abandoned singleplayer, and tried to sell houses and deeds for thousands of dollars. Because Real Estate will be a good investment.
Some people have said that Richard always wanted to make an Ultima game, while Starr Long (Executive Producer) wanted to make an MMO.
This is utterly false.
Richard handpicked the whole team for his studio (including CFO Dallas Snell, EP Starr Long, Technical Director Chris Spears) to create "social and mobile games" when this kind was hyped back around 2010. Consequently, Ultimate Collector, Richard's first game, was an abomination for Facebook. Even though 3 years in the making, it shut down after 6 months.
He knew Starr Long since his time with Origins. Richard has been a close friend of Starr since the 90s. They worked together on Ultima Online (an MMO) and Tabula Rasa (an MMO). Starr went on to produce mobile phone and multiplayer apps for Disney.
When Richard hired his friend Starr, he knew exactly what he was doing, and what Star would do with Shroud of the Avatar. But Richard still baited the Ultima I-IX fans to get their money.
In 2017, Richard jumped on another hype train and advertised for a new crypto currency, Neverdie Coin. This did not end well for the people who actually bought NDCs, with a Return of Investment of minus 99%.
 
Publishers
Richard has always stated that publishers held him back, and attacked EA for hindering his creativity.
Despite his public rants, Richard sold all of his studios to publishers (Origins in 1992 to EA, Destination Games in 2001 to NCSoft) and worked with low reputation or shady publishers (2012 Zynga, 2015/2017 Black Sun/Travian Games). He didn't find a buyer for Portalarium (Travian probably bailed out), so he sold SotA to... Portalarium's then CEO and President, Mr. Chris Spears.
Without pressure from publishers, Richard also missed every goal and broke many promises - from physical and virtual rewards, to Episode 1 (out of 5) that was "finished" (still unpolished) in March 2018 (ETA 2014), while Episode 2 has not been released yet (ETA October 2015). Episodes 3 (ETA 2016), 4 (ETA 2017) and 5 (ETA 2018) haven't been mentioned for a long time.
The game itself has been a mess, lacking creativity, depth, QA, enthusiasm, innovations and ideas, with a Metascore of 57 and many disappointed KS backers and former Ultima fans.
 
Employees
Although Richard loved to talk about diversity and supporting women in STEM in interviews and on Twitter nonstop, he didn't as an employer - he worked with and hired old friends for all senior and management positions: Starr Long (white, male), Executive Producer / Dallas Snell (white, male), Founder and COO / Fred Schmidt (white, male), Founder and Director / Rick Holtrop (white, male), Associate Producer / Chris Spears (white,male), Lead Programmer / Tracy Hickman (white, male), Lead Story Designer / Michael Hutchison (white, male), Art Lead / Scott Jennings (white, male), Senior Designer / Leo Taylor (white, male), Lead Audio Director / Scott Jones (white, male), Senior Environment Artist.
In July 2012, Richard received $7 million from investors, and shortly after launched the infamous Ultimate Collector. In December 2012, most of the employees were sacked, while Richard was partying the year away.
In the weeks before the official release of SotA (March 27, 2018), the most crucial time of development, Richard was busy with preparations for his holiday family trip to the North Pole. Less than 3 months later, half of the staff was sacked.
When it became clear that SotA wouldn't be a cash cow, Richard distanced himself from his own project and abandoned his game and employees, gave up his office, appeared less and less on streams, moved to Manhattan, travelled around the world to work on his legacy and became a Twitter lecturer about environmentalism, inequality and poverty.
 
Customers
Despite all the talking about virtues, integrity and company culture, Richard didn't treat his paying customers and loyal fans very well.
Mr. Gattiott immediately vanished from Kickstarter after collecting $2 million in 2013, and he did not write a single line in the following 5 years.
Despite his promise to create the next Ultima and that "our primary objectives are to tell a story even more compelling than Ultimas IV-VII", with 5 epic episodes, each "greater than 40 hours of focused, story driven content", singleplayer content has been completely ditched, with most Ultima fans and backers having left SotA.
Richard claims to be a collector, but he certainly does not care about other collectors. Instead of signing manuals, he simply signed stickers that were later attached to the manuals. Instead of producing CE boxes (which sold for $150), he put a CE sticker on the retail box ($20 on Amazon). Instead of printing the SotA book (paid for 6 years ago) or investing a few thousand dollars of his own money (while he was offering his ranch for $45 million), he ignored or told those collectors to move on. Bad luck.
Lord British (who hasn't logged in for more than two months "last seen: Oct 23, 2020") made exactly 2 postings in 2020 on the official forums - about a Macaroni &Cheese "recipe" and a one-sentence follow-up. Ironically, this posting was the longest and most detailed (complete with pictures) he ever wrote on the forums, in more than 7 years.
As a final blow to his customers, he sold Portalarium's assets in 2019 and distanced himself completely from SotA, leaving KS backers behind who will never get some of their virtual (custom head) and physical (book) rewards, and Seed investors, who gave him $800,000 and have been ignored by Mr. Garriott, will never see the SEC filing for 2018 (which Portalarium (now defunct since September 2020)) were legally required to do).
 
Ten years at Portalarium have shown that Richard isn't a good designer any longer, that he lacks managerial skills, work ethics, ideas and innovations, empathy and respect towards customers, employees and loyal followers.
If Richard Garriott ever was the wise, humble, honourable Lord British - he certainly isn't LB anymore.

Hello, i have some things for sale today. Prices are OBO, include shipping unless item is listed as local only and i can give you a discount if you buy multiple things. ** THINGS WILL BE MARKED OFF IMMEDIATELY ONCE SOLD, SO PLEASE CHECK TO MAKE SURE WHAT YOU WANT IS STILL AVAILABLE. I WONT RESPOND TO MESSAGES FOR THINGS THAT ARE SOLD. THANKS!**
Local is 75228 Dallas TX.

What I have	Price	Description	Sold
Budget Gaming PC	$310 Local OBO	Pc includes the following specs: i5-3570k oc to 4.4 ghz, 16gb 1600mhz ram, Gigabyte Z77 Motherboard, Deep cool tower cooler, EVGA Gtx 980 Ti 6gb, 600W EVGA power supply, NZXT S340 case, 80gb msata ssd, 500gb hard drive. Nothing wrong with the computer, i just have so many spare parts that i never use. I can also include a 1080p monitor for a little extra if you want. Will come with the power cable only. I'm open now to parting it out, send me offers for parts if you're interested. I can ship if you want but be warned depending on where you live it'll be $50+ to ship.	Available Sold to u/wingsnut71
PS4 with 500gb ssd and 1 dualshock 4 controller	$125 shipped	I managed to beat the bots and get a ps5, so this ps4 is living it's life as a stand for my monitor now. Will come with the power cord and dualshock 4. On the latest firmware IIRC.Just for transparency, i got the ps4 broken with the white line of death back in september 2019. I fixed it by opening it up, cleaning it out, replacing the thermal paste and putting 4 washers on the apu clamp to put more pressure on the chip. The console has worked flawlessly since, and i have no reason to believe it will have problems any time soon.	Available Sold to u/enesup
Ryzen 5 1600 AF Bundle	$310 Shipped	Comes with cpu original box and stock cooler. Mobo will come without box, and with the wifi antenna and io shield. Ram is 2666 mhz. Not sure which model the noctua cooler is, but it's quiet and works fine on the 1600. Also not pictured is a 256gb patriot nvme ssd installed on the back.	Available Sold to u/FlyBoyNinja
Kraken X41	$40 shipped	Works, problem is it's 140mm and doesn't fit in my Coolermaster elite 110. Only includes intel mounting.	Available
Cable extensions	$18 shipped	1x24 pin cable, 1x8 pin cpu cable and 2x8 pin pcie cables.	Available
3X120mm fans and 1x140mm fan	$22 shipped	Removed from my case when i changed out the fans. Only will sell together.	Available Sold to u/MrPick3ls
Lepa Exllusion 240mm AIO	$35 Shipped	Is a refillable aio with clear tubing. Comes with all the mounting hardware shown and 2 fans.	Available Sold to u/Tupuno
Coolermaster Elite 130	$20 local pickup	In good condition. Comes with all the hardware pictured and a fan i found lying around installed in the front. I would be willing to trade this locally for a matx case if you have a spare one you don't want anymore.	Available
Dell Optiplex 740	$20 Local ONLY	Works fine. If you replace the hard drive and put a cheap single slot gpu into it it can work alright as a office pc. Has a Phenom x3 8750, 6gb ddr2, 80gb hdd(very slow, trust me), integrated graphics on the chipset(also very slow).	Available
HD 7750	$15 shipped	Card works, but the fan will need to be replaced since it makes a grinding noise when it's running.	Available

I'm also on the search for a variety of pc components. If you have something to offer please pm me (i don't always receive chats for some reason) with timestamps and a price and we can work something out from there.

item i'm looking for	Price	Description	Purchased
8+ core Ryzen 3000 or any Ryzen 5000 chip	Send me offers	I'm upgrading my mini itx pc with my current 3600, so i want a new chip for my main pc	No
B550 or X570 ITX board	$200	Not pick on brand, just looking for a good deal if y'all got one	No Purchased
16gb 3200mhz ram	$50	Not pick on brand, looks don't matter either since it's not going to be visible when it's installed	No
120mm	$40	Has to be 120mm to fit inside my elite 110 and mount to am4. A nice fan included with it would be nice.	No Purchased
500gb+ nvme ssd	Send offers	It's gonna be the only drive in my mini itx pc so it has to be at least 500gb.	No
The disk drive for the OG 2001 Xbox	$20	I'm trying to repair my thrift store $15 Xbox. I got two from the thrift store but only one worked. When researching online for my error code, i discovered that a faulty disk drive was a possible cause for the error. When i swapped disk drives between the two, the broken xbox worked just fine. I know somebody on here has to have made a custom pc inside an xbox chassis. If you kept your parts and happen to have a working disk drive, please let me know!
Old gen gpus(680,7970,Dual gpu cards like gtx 690,hd 6990 )	Send offers	Just looking to pick up some older gpus from back in the day that i wish i could of gotten. I would prefer if they worked.	No
Wiimote, nunchuck, sensor bar, wii power brick	Send offers	Got a wii in another thrift store pickup and i'm looking to get a controller and cables to test it out.	No

Hello, i have some things for sale today. Prices are OBO, include shipping unless item is listed as local only and i can give you a discount if you buy multiple things. If you buy tonight i can ship out tomorrow afternoon. ** THINGS WILL BE MARKED OFF IMMEDIATELY ONCE SOLD, SO PLEASE CHECK TO MAKE SURE WHAT YOU WANT IS STILL AVAILABLE. I WONT RESPOND TO MESSAGES FOR THINGS THAT ARE SOLD. THANKS!**
Local is 75228 Dallas TX.

What I have	Price	Description	Sold
Budget Gaming PC	$310 Local Only OBO	Pc includes the following specs: i5-3570k oc to 4.4 ghz, 16gb 1600mhz ram, Gigabyte Z77 Motherboard, Deep cool tower cooler, EVGA Gtx 980 Ti 6gb, 600W EVGA power supply, NZXT S340 case, 80gb msata ssd, 500gb hard drive. Nothing wrong with the computer, i just have so many spare parts that i never use. I can also include a 1080p monitor for a little extra if you want. Will come with the power cable only.	Available Sold to u/bjackson171
PS4 with 500gb ssd and 1 dualshock 4 controller	$125 shipped	I managed to beat the bots and get a ps5, so this ps4 is living it's life as a stand for my monitor now. Will come with the power cord and dualshock 4. On the latest firmware IIRC.Just for transparency, i got the ps4 broken with the white line of death back in september 2019. I fixed it by opening it up, cleaning it out, replacing the thermal paste and putting 4 washers on the apu clamp to put more pressure on the chip. The console has worked flawlessly since, and i have no reason to believe it will have problems any time soon.	Available
Evga CLC 240	$65 Shipped	Works fine, i just got a bigger cooler for when i get a beefier cpu. Will come with mounting for intel/am4 and the original fans.	Available Sold to u/bigsnyder98
Ryzen 5 1600 AF Bundle	$310 Shipped	Comes with cpu original box and stock cooler. Mobo will come without box, and with the wifi antenna and io shield. Ram is 2666 mhz. Not sure which model the noctua cooler is, but it's quiet and works fine on the 1600. Also not pictured is a 256gb patriot nvme ssd installed on the back.	Available
Kraken X41	$40 shipped	Works, problem is it's 140mm and doesn't fit in my Coolermaster elite 110. Only includes intel mounting.	Available
Cable extensions	$18 shipped	1x24 pin cable, 1x8 pin cpu cable and 2x8 pin pcie cables.	Available
3X120mm fans and 1x140mm fan	$22 shipped	Removed from my case when i changed out the fans. Only will sell together.	Available
Lepa Exllusion 240mm AIO	$37 Shipped	Is a refillable aio with clear tubing. Comes with all the mounting hardware shown and 2 fans.	Available
Coolermaster Elite 130	$20 local pickup	In good condition. Comes with all the hardware pictured and a fan i found lying around installed in the front. I would be willing to trade this locally for a matx case if you have a spare one you don't want anymore.	Available
Dell Optiplex 740	$20 Local ONLY	Works fine. If you replace the hard drive and put a cheap single slot gpu into it it can work alright as a office pc. Has a Phenom x3 8750, 6gb ddr2, 80gb hdd(very slow, trust me), integrated graphics on the chipset(also very slow).	Available
HD 7750	$15 shipped	Card works, but the fan will need to be replaced since it makes a grinding noise when it's running.	Available

I'm also on the search for a variety of pc components. If you have something to offer please pm me (i don't always receive chats for some reason) with timestamps and a price and we can work something out from there.

item i'm looking for	Price	Description	Purchased
8+ core Ryzen 3000 or any Ryzen 5000 chip	Send me offers	I'm upgrading my mini itx pc with my current 3600, so i want a new chip for my main pc	No
B550 or X570 ITX board	$200	Not pick on brand, just looking for a good deal if y'all got one	No
16gb 3200mhz ram	$50	Not pick on brand, looks don't matter either since it's not going to be visible when it's installed	No
120mm aio	$40	Has to be 120mm to fit inside my elite 110 and mount to am4. A nice fan included with it would be nice.	No
500gb+ nvme ssd	Send offers	It's gonna be the only drive in my mini itx pc so it has to be at least 500gb.	No
The disk drive for the OG 2001 Xbox	$20	I'm trying to repair my thrift store $15 Xbox. I got two from the thrift store but only one worked. When researching online for my error code, i discovered that a faulty disk drive was a possible cause for the error. When i swapped disk drives between the two, the broken xbox worked just fine. I know somebody on here has to have made a custom pc inside an xbox chassis. If you kept your parts and happen to have a working disk drive, please let me know!

Hello, i have some things for sale today. Prices are OBO, include shipping unless item is listed as local only and i can give you a discount if you buy multiple things. If you buy tonight i can ship out tomorrow afternoon. ** THINGS WILL BE MARKED OFF IMMEDIATELY ONCE SOLD, SO PLEASE CHECK TO MAKE SURE WHAT YOU WANT IS STILL AVAILABLE. I WONT RESPOND TO MESSAGES FOR THINGS THAT ARE SOLD. THANKS!**
Local is 75228 Dallas TX.

What I have	Price	Description	Sold
Budget Gaming PC	$325 Local Only OBO	Pc includes the following specs: i5-3570k oc to 4.4 ghz, 16gb 1600mhz ram, Gigabyte Z77 Motherboard, Deep cool tower cooler, EVGA Gtx 980 Ti 6gb, 600W EVGA power supply, NZXT S340 case, 80gb msata ssd, 500gb hard drive. Nothing wrong with the computer, i just have so many spare parts that i never use. I can also include a 1080p monitor for a little extra if you want. Will come with the power cable only.	Available
PS4 with 500gb ssd and 1 dualshock 4 controller	$150 shipped	I managed to beat the bots and get a ps5, so this ps4 is living it's life as a stand for my monitor now. Will come with the power cord and dualshock 4. On the latest firmware IIRC.Just for transparency, i got the ps4 broken with the white line of death back in september 2019. I fixed it by opening it up, cleaning it out, replacing the thermal paste and putting 4 washers on the apu clamp to put more pressure on the chip. The console has worked flawlessly since, and i have no reason to believe it will have problems any time soon.	Available
Evga CLC 240	$70 Shipped	Works fine, i just got a bigger cooler for when i get a beefier cpu. Will come with mounting for intel/am4 and the original fans.	Available
Ryzen 5 1600 AF Bundle	$320 Shipped	Comes with cpu original box and stock cooler. Mobo will come without box, and with the wifi antenna and io shield. Ram is 2666 mhz. Not sure which model the noctua cooler is, but it's quiet and works fine on the 1600. Also not pictured is a 256gb patriot nvme ssd installed on the back.	Available
Kraken X41	$40 shipped	Works, problem is it's 140mm and doesn't fit in my Coolermaster elite 110. Only includes intel mounting.	Available
Cable extensions	$20 shipped	1x24 pin cable, 1x8 pin cpu cable and 2x8 pin pcie cables.	Available
3X120mm fans and 1x140mm fan	$25 shipped	Removed from my case when i changed out the fans. Only will sell together.	Available
Lepa Exllusion 240mm AIO	$40 Shipped	Is a refillable aio with clear tubing. Comes with all the mounting hardware shown and 2 fans.	Available
Coolermaster Elite 130	$20 local pickup	In good condition. Comes with all the hardware pictured and a fan i found lying around installed in the front. I would be willing to trade this locally for a matx case if you have a spare one you don't want anymore.	Available
Dell Optiplex 740	$20 Local ONLY	Works fine. If you replace the hard drive and put a cheap single slot gpu into it it can work alright as a office pc. Has a Phenom x3 8750, 6gb ddr2, 80gb hdd(very slow, trust me), integrated graphics on the chipset(also very slow).	Available
HD 7750	$15 shipped	Card works, but the fan will need to be replaced since it makes a grinding noise when it's running.	Available

I'm also on the search for a variety of pc components. If you have something to offer please pm me (i don't always receive chats for some reason) with timestamps and a price and we can work something out from there.

item i'm looking for	Price	Description	Purchased
8+ core Ryzen 3000 or any Ryzen 5000 chip	Send me offers	I'm upgrading my mini itx pc with my current 3600, so i want a new chip for my main pc	No
B550 or X570 ITX board	$200	Not pick on brand, just looking for a good deal if y'all got one	No
16gb 3200mhz ram	$50	Not pick on brand, looks don't matter either since it's not going to be visible when it's installed	No
120mm aio	$40	Has to be 120mm to fit inside my elite 110 and mount to am4. A nice fan included with it would be nice.	No
500gb+ nvme ssd	Send offers	It's gonna be the only drive in my mini itx pc so it has to be at least 500gb.	No
The disk drive for the OG 2001 Xbox	$20	I'm trying to repair my thrift store $15 Xbox. I got two from the thrift store but only one worked. When researching online for my error code, i discovered that a faulty disk drive was a possible cause for the error. When i swapped disk drives between the two, the broken xbox worked just fine. I know somebody on here has to have made a custom pc inside an xbox chassis. If you kept your parts and happen to have a working disk drive, please let me know!

Things to do lists are just too fraught for me these days, so here's a list you can actually use. Unless otherwise noted, all the places on this list offer some type of online or not-in-person shopping.
Please add your own suggestions to the comments!!

Toys

Froggie's 5 &10 - Note: Not much can be purchased online. This store will be moving in 2021 so they are offering discounts on pretty much everything in the store.
Toy Maven - Toys, games, novelties, and lots more.
Toys Unique - Games, puzzles, arts & crafts and lots more.
Twig & Olive - Boxed sets that encourage creative play with no batteries, buttons or screens.

Bikes

Red Star Bicycle Shop - Family-owned bicycle services, repairs, sales, and rentals.
Richardson Bike Mart - Founded in 1962, this local shop has grown into a small chain with stores in Richardson, Frisco, Dallas and McKinney. Their website has multiple holiday gift guides and online shopping.
Oak Cliff Bike Synergy - New and used (some vintage) bicycles.
Preston Hollow Bicycles - Local bike store selling a variety of bikes, accessories, utility items, apparel and more.

Sports/Outdoors

A J Vagabonds - Outdoor & Sporting Goods store in Bishop arts with a motto of “Go Outside Y’all.” They have fun stuff and great gift ideas on their Facebook page, but it looks like most of it cannot be purchased online.
Buddy’s Sporting Goods - In business 40+ years, focus on team sports equipment and apparel.
Dynamic Discs - This company wasn’t “born in Dallas” and isn’t headquartered here, but it’s family-owned and has a small footprint with a strong presence in Carrollton and Lewisville. If you’re into disc sports, you’ll want to shop here.
Not Just Soccer (Dallas & Fort Worth) - locally owned and operated business specializing in everything youth sports.
Play it Again Sports (Plano) - Locally owned, new and used sporting goods and gear.
Ray’s Sporting Goods - The iconic Dallas guns and more store on Singleton.

Plants

Ruibal’s Plants - Locally owned and managed with four (beautiful!) locations in Dallas.
North Haven Gardens - Sustained a hard hit from the tornado, got up and dusted itself off and got back into business. Truly deserving of your support!

Books

Deep Vellum - A nonprofit publishing house and literary arts organization. Order books they’ve published through DeepVellum.org or request any book you want and they will order it for you through DeepVellum.com.
Half Price Books - OK, they’re a huge chain but they belong to Dallas.
Interabang - Another tornado recovery story, their online shopping system is quite robust.
Lucky Dog Books - Used book stores in Mesquite, Oak Cliff, and East Dallas. No online shopping site, but you can call or email requests to see if they have something you want in stock and they will ship it to you.
The Wild Detectives - To provide an online shopping experience, they’ve leveraged Bookshop.org, which offers a large selection, great service, and supports local bookstores with the proceeds of sales.

Specialty

Bettie Lou’s - Sister store to Froggie’s Five and Dime, they offer gift baskets online.
Bishop Arts District Merchants - This website has links to many of the retailers in the Bishop Arts District. Use the links there to check out which ones offer online shopping.
Bullzerk - Undoubtedly the coolest store in Dallas, offering entertaining, Dallas-themed stuff. Shop online and consider checking out the Charity Shirts category to also support the Dallas Zoo and other charities.
Favor the Kind - Apparel, accessories, and gifts. Cyber sale thorough Monday.
Lone Chimney Mercantile - Dallas-themed art, kitchen linens with salty sayings, fun accessories and gifts. Order gifts from their online store or choose art prints and canvases from the ownephotographer’s Etsy shop.
Lucky Franklin - T-shirts, sweatshirts and more for dog and cat moms, plant lovers and other wonderful people.
Mosaic Makers - Multiple local makers under one roof (and in one online shop!)
Scotty’s Bowties - Pet bowties, bandanas and more.
Uptown Pet Wear - Doggie wear, leashes, harnesses and more.

More suggestions:

Buy merchandise (T-shirts, hats, etc.) online from restaurants, bars, small music venues, coffee shops, breweries, distilleries and more. Just visit the full website of your favorite places and look for a link to “shop.” Or if you’re in a place to do so, make a donation to some of the hardest-hit places. They could use your support.
Hardware stores under the True Value and Ace brands are usually locally owned and operated. My favorite is Rooster Home and Hardware because George the Rooster lives there. Online shopping is through TrueValue.com.
Shop local from dozens of area makers at Etsy Dallas. Use the links on the page to go to the Etsy stores that interest you.
Also, here’s a large list of local businesses offering gift cards, compiled by the Dallas Morning News in cooperation with USA Today.
Next week my list of great gifts of wine and spirits from local producers and shops is coming to the Dallas Observer Food and Drink section. Stay tuned!!

Obligatory disclaimer: “predicting is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future”, and I’ve been very wrong before (most recently about the market rebound). But it’s fun to have a discussion and what else is there to do now that it’s cold with a COVID surge?  
Full disclosure: Despite my arguments below, I hold modest positions in several of the apartment rental REITs. One reason is simply to hedge against me being wrong. I also think there’s a gap between the eventual modest decline in valuations and the 40-50% decline we’ve seen in luxury coastal apartment REITs (Essex, Avalon, Equity). The public REITs have investment grade credit rating, and several of them (Equity, Avalon) have recently issued debt at ~2% due to the accommodative corporate credit environment. Many also have suburban portfolios which could prosper from the urban departures.
 

Intro

There’s been a great deal of hysteria in the popular press / investment forums about “the death of cities”.
This is clearly ridiculous. “Cities” are the engines of economic growth in every developed economy. The 100 largest metropolitan areas contain 65% of the US population and 68% of total economic activity (and closer to 75+% of patents, intellectual property development, etc). Cities as a whole will continue to grow and expand in the United States as they have for the past 200 years.
On the flip side, not all cities are created equally. I think a very reasonable question to ask is how will the multifamily real estate markets in very high cost of living cities (VCOL), loosely defined as San Francisco, NYC, Boston, and maybe LA fare in the near future?
I’m personally a big believer that external shocks very rarely generate new trends but tend to accelerate existing underlying ones. And when looking at the future of VCOL areas we have a story about demographics, affordability, schools / child care, job dispersion, supply, and immigration.
 

Thesis

My thesis is that VCOL, and in particular the dense urban cores, will see flat to negative growth in populations, rent, and condo prices as Millennials age into child-rearing years and move to areas with more affordable housing / better schools. Older generations will continue their preference for warmer, lower tax areas while foreign immigration remains depressed. This trend will be compounded by the increase in luxury rental units as projects initiated in 2018, 2019, and early 2020 move onto the market. More flexible work from home policies will also contribute modestly to this trend, but is not the main driver. Single family housing, even in VCOL areas, will likely be unaffected due to severe supply constraints.
 
I see Millennials primarily moving to 3 distinct areas of the country:

• Cheaper areas outside the urban core in Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), e.g. Worcester MA in the larger Boston metro area, suburban areas in NJ adjacent to NYC, etc.
• Smaller, emerging high-tech cities such as Pittsburgh, Boise, etc. that offer relatively affordable housing, walkable communities, and often close proximity to national parks, ski areas, etc.
• Sunbelt / Southern “mega-cities’ such as Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, etc. with affordable housing and booming populations

What do the public markets say?

One of the features (not a bug) of private real estate is that it moves much more slowly and is oftentimes uncorrelated with public markets. Case in point, residential housing prices peaked in the US around 2006-2007 and then decreased until 2012 (i.e. 3-4 years after the stock market and other public markets fully reflected the valuation shifts). Luckily for today’s investors, one major difference between 2008 and today is that we have large, national, publicly traded REITs in both the apartment and single family rental sectors. Even better, the apartment housing REITs have different geographic concentrations and economic consumers (i.e. luxury, affordable, student, etc.). We also have large, publicly traded companies involved in single family home building / renovations that are also great proxies for the single family housing market.
 
So, how are apartment rental REITs in VCOL locations doing? The first one to consider is Essex Property Trust (ESS), a member of the S&P 500. They have luxury apartments primarily in LA & San Francisco (~75%) and also in Seattle (~25%). They are down ~40% from their all time high in February. Next up is Avalon Bay (AVB), the largest apartment REIT, which owns luxury apartments in VCOL coastal areas in Boston, NYC, SF, etc. They are down ~40% from their all time high. Equity Apartments, similar to AvalonBay but with a slightly worse credit rating of BBB+, is down ~50%. UDR, another coastal luxury apartment REIT, is also down ~40%. If you read the most recent earnings calls from Equity / Avalon, one thing they both cite is their high rental collection rate (~98%) and the high household income of their tenants (~$150,000).
 
Let’s contrast that to the sunbelt / mid Atlantic luxury REITs: Camden Property (CPT) and Mid America Apartments (MAA). These REITs have extensive holdings in Texas, Florida, Phoenix, etc. Mid America is down ~22% while Camden is down ~25%.
 
The market is currently discounting luxury apartment rentals in VCOL by almost 2x the rate as more affordable sunbelt / Southern cities. This is despite the fact that rental collection rates remain high and that these properties have affluent tenants who are least likely to be affected by the recession.
 
The contrast is even more stark when comparing against single family rental REITs, the largest of which is Invitation Homes (a spinoff of Blackstone, INVH). They own ~90,000 homes across the Sunbelt, upper mid-west, and more affordable areas of the West. They are down only 9% off of all time highs. The US home construction ETF from I-shares (ITB) which tracks home developers such as Lennox and home supply stores like Lowes actually set an all time high in September 2020.
 
The bottom line is that public markets suggest that luxury, apartment rental housing companies have lost 20-50% of their pre-pandemic value, with VCOL losing almost twice the value of luxury rentals in booming sunbelt / southern cities. In contrast, single family home rentals remain extremely strong with valuations of home building companies trading at all time highs.
As an aside, if you’re bullish on VCOL areas I would strongly suggest purchasing these REITs. The dividend yields are ~4.5% which is the widest spread over 10 year treasuries (0.8%) in many years. If you listen to the earnings call from Equity, Avalon, etc. you’ll also hear the CEOs cite the high private market valuations of their properties. If the market is wrong you’ll lock in relatively high dividend rates with price appreciation.

Demographics

Even before the pandemic, VCOL had stagnant or modestly declining populations. Government census records estimate that NYC lost ~76,000 residents in 2019, a drop of around 0.4%. It’s worth noting that NYC has for years experienced net negative domestic migration, but foreign immigration balanced out the departures. The Boston metro region stayed flat while San Francisco declined slightly (~0.2%). While economically vibrant, the populations of these cities had clearly started to plateau and even modestly decline prior to the pandemic. There’s a nice graph at rent cafe that summarizes the metros with the highest and lowest net migration over the past decade. NYC and LA top the list, with Boston at the number 8 position. In contrast, the metros with the highest migration are Phoenix, Dallas, and Austin in the Top 5.
 
If we look at the composition of these cities, the largest age bracket is from 25-44: 37.5% in San Francisco, 33.2% in Boston, and 33% NYC. This essentially encompasses the millennial generation, who the census defines are born between 1981 - 1997 (~23 to 39). The millennial cohort comprises ~75 million individuals and is the largest generation since the baby boomers and significantly larger than the next generation, Gen-Z.
 
The millennial cohort entered their mid-20s during and immediately after the Great Recession. Millennials with technical or advanced degrees flocked to the new “knowledge” jobs in tech, consulting, marketing, etc. at employers clustered in VCOL areas. With significant disposable income, these millennials fueled a rise in service industries that attracted other millennials to work as baristas, waiters, etc. At the same time, new single family home construction declined significantly due to the fallout from the housing bust.
 
As a consequence rents held relatively steady during the financial crisis than surged during the recovery. As one data point, rents increased ~50%+ from 2010 to 2019 in SF. As Millennials willingly paid rapidly rising rents in these VCOL, a narrative emerged that millennial were somehow different. They were comfortable renting forever, they didn’t need much space, they believed in the sharing economy and wouldn’t purchase cars, etc. The data appeared to support this data, as the number of renters earning $150,000 increased at twice the rate as home owners.
 
Unfortunately there is increasing evidence against this narrative. A linked MIT Sloan study suggests millennials may actually utilize vehicles more than older generations. The linked survey from ApartmentList suggests that over 90% of millennials want to own homes eventually. Millennials, based on all the studies and surveys I’ve seen, have similar aspirations as older generations. They want to eventually own, not rent, a residence and personal vehicle while raising children. All of these goals have simply been delayed due to financial constraints.
As we’ll see in the next section, these aspirations are effectively impossible for the vast majority of millennials in VCOL areas.

Affordability:

There’s a popular stereotype that the average millennial is a 4 year college graduate, making $100,000+ in tech, who walks around in Patagonia vests sipping $5 lattes (fuller disclosure: this stereotype hits uncomfortable close to home). According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) only 44% of millennials even have 4 year or higher college degrees. Moreover, at age 39 (i.e. the oldest millennial), an income of $100,000 is in the top ~25% of incomes. The median net worth of the prime home buying aged millennial (30-34) is only $35,000 (including home equity), while the 90th percentile of this group is only ~$260,000 (including home equity). In 1989 (when baby boomers were the equivalent age of Millennials today) they held about 21% of the wealth in the US. In contrast, Millennials today have ~3%.
 
For the median millennia household, who has an income of ~$69,000 pre-pandemic, buying even a modest apartment in a VCOL is difficult to impossible without extensive family assistance. Let’s assume that most millennial households want to have at least 1 child (a Gallup poll found ~87% of millennials without children eventually wanted to have them). That means long term millennials are likely to settle in at least 2BR and more likely 3 BR and up apartments / homes.
 
The median priced condo (not house) in VCOL areas (pre-pandemic) is approximately ~$1.2 million in SF, ~$650,000 in Boston, and ~$667,900 in NYC (Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens). This understates the lack of affordability, because these prices reflect a mixture of studios to 3+ BRs. I couldn’t find detailed sales pricing for condos segmented by number of bedrooms, but glancing at Zillow / Redfin the prices for 3BR apartments or single family homes across all VCOL areas seems to be at least $800k and above depending on quality, location, etc.
 
Rents are luckily far more transparent. According to Zumper, the rents for 3BR apartments and above in VCOL (pre-pandemic) areas were ~$5,000 in SF, ~$3,500 in Boston, and ~$4,000 in NYC. As an aside, if we use a 30% rent to income ratio than a millennial household would have to make at least $10,500 per month (or an annualized salary of $126,000) to rent a 3 BR in the cheapest VCOL area. For households with families in 2017 between 30-35, an income of $126,000 is at the 80th percentile. As we’ll see in the next section, childcare dramatically adds to a households costs.
 
So let’s focus our analysis on the wealthiest 10% of millennials (who coincidentally are also most likely to have affluent parents who can assist with a home down payment). These millennials, particularly those in the prime family formation years of 30-35, make over $170,000+. Given the well documented trend in associative mating, they are also likely to partner with other high income millennials. Let’s assume that ~5% of millennial households make >$200,000 per year (for comparison, the top 10% of all households made over $200,000 in 2019). These households can easily afford even San Francisco rental prices. And at first glance, a millennial household making $200,000 could save for a downpayment of a $1 million dollar home (~$240,000) within ~6 years if they saved 20% of their gross income. But what about affording the monthly mortgage payment?
 
As rough numbers, a household making $200,000 in Boston, MA would be left with $148,712 after taxes. If they maxed out their 401k, they would have $121,135 or ~$10,000 per month. Redfin estimates that a $1 million home in Boston will cost ~$4500 a month based on a 3%, 30 year mortgage and including home insurance + property taxes. If we assume maintenance + furnishings + misc expenses we can probably assume a total housing cost of ~$5500 per month. Our hypothetical household is thus left with ~$4500 per month to spend on food, entertainment, vehicles costs, etc. while also maxing our their 401k.
Let’s assume there are roughly 31 million households between 25-39, so back of the envelope math suggests that there is a pool of 1.5 million households available to buy real estate in VCOL areas (5% of 31 million) if they could afford the down payment or receive family assistance.
There is one giant impediment to that math though: affordable childcare and public schools.

Child Care

The biggest single reason in my opinion that millennials will leave VCOL urban areas is the the cost of childcare (averaging $2000 per month) and the persistent poor performance of public schools.
 
The premier public school districts continue to remain in the outer suburbs of urban areas. A list of the top 15 public school districts in America shows numerous school districts in suburbs surrounding Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia. In contrast, public school districts in dense urban areas often receive mediocre ratings.
The simplest alternative to these urban public schools is to pay for private school. Private school tuitions in VCOL areas range widely between ~$25k and ~$70k per child. These means a family of 4 could easily pay $50k or more in combined tuition, on top of the $66k ($5500 monthly) in housing expenses noted above. These two expenses alone would effectively consume the entire after tax income of a household making $200,000 per year.
 
The crushing expense of childcare shows up in declining birth rates in VCOL. Since 2011, the number of babies born in NYC has declined 9%. San Francisco has the lowest share of children of any of the top 100 metros. Families with children older than 6 are in decline in high density urban areas. (There’s a great Atlantic article from Derek Thompson linked below)
 
The bottom line is that for all but the wealthiest ~5% of millennial households settling down and raising a family in a VCOL area is essentially unaffordable without significant tradeoffs or parental support. Buying a modest home in a VCOL area, sending your children to private school, funding your retirement, and owning a modest vehicle combined requires a household income of close to $300,000.
 
Before the hate mail begins, the key word in the sentence above is trade-offs. I’m well aware the maxing out a joint 401k is puts a household ahead of almost all other American families. Unlike some personal financial columnists, I’m in no way suggesting that earning $300,000 per year is close to poverty or any other nonsense like that. Clearly, earning $300,000 a year as a household is a rare privilege that lets you enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle.
The point I’m making is that in a VCOL a $300,000 salary does not make you feel affluent. You’re still likely stressed about money, still having to save for years to afford a down payment, driving a modest vehicle, etc. Meanwhile, any of your friends who live in Austin, Denver, etc. are able to enjoy a more stereotypical upper middle class life. Not to mention that your friends who move to Boise, Pittsburgh, etc. likely feel flat out wealthy.
 
Taxes are also worth a passing mention. Households making $200,000 in salary, maxing out both partners 401k, pay ~$10k in state / local taxes in VCOL areas (LA, SF, NYC, Boston). It’s worth noting that RSUs, i.e. the bulk of employees compensation at Big Tech firms, are taxed as regular income. Texas, Florida, Nevada, Washington, and New Hampshire all have no income taxes and most have booming metropolitan areas. The recent tax law changes passed by President Trump have also compounded the situation by increasing the standard deduction to $24,000 for married couples and capping the state and local tax deduction to $10k.

Job Dispersion:

As I mentioned above, the VCOL areas had stagnating or modestly declining populations even in 2019. In stark contrast, the sunbelt & Southern cities are booming. Austin, TX experienced a 2.8% population increase in 2019. Denver, CO experienced a 1.5% population increase. Boise, Idaho was the fastest growing city in the US over the past decade. Even Orlando, FL is growing at over 1% a year.
 
And employers are more than happy to open offices in lower cost, “business friendly” locations. Palantir announced its intention to shift to Denver, CO. Tesla plans to open up its Gigafactory near downtown Austin. Startup funding in Austin continues to rise (albeit from low levels).
Even well established Silicon Valley offices have rapidly growing satellite offices in Austin, Denver, etc. Facebook has 1200 employees in Austin (compared with ~15,000 in San Francisco). Google has > 1500 employees in Austin as well. Google also employs 1500 employees in Denver / Boulder.
 
Many of these regions are anchored on world class research universities as well. The University of Texas at Austin has top 10 computer science and engineering programs. Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh is a Top 5 computer science school and leader in Artificial Intelligence research. The University of Minnesota has a top 2 Chemical Engineering program.
 
We unfortunately can’t discuss job dispersion without addressing the vociferous work from home debate. I frankly don’t think the pandemic will significantly impact the work from home trend long term. Many high paying sectors have already moved towards flexible work arrangements. Glancing at McKinsey’s website, we see that many of their positions list 20+ major metros as possible locations, including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, etc. Snowflake, the hottest company of 2020, lists 237 open positions on their website. Only 86 of those are in listed as San Mateo (their SF Bay Area headquarters), mostly in engineering / internal operations. The reason is obvious: over 125 positions (i.e. 55+%) are in customer facing roles in sales, professional services, etc. Companies want a geographic dispersion of these roles both across the US and internationally.
 
It’s also worth mentioning that “elite” companies, who provide a disproportionate number of the jobs for high income millennials, frankly don’t have that many employees. Alphabet and Facebook combined have only ~200,000 employees despite a market cap of approximately $2 trillion dollars. Bain & McKinsey combined only have ~30,000 employees. JP Morgan chase has 256,941 employees, but only 37,000 (14.4%) are in New York. The largest single office for JP Morgan is actually in Columbus, Ohio and houses 11,050 employees.
We’re also seeing a bit of a “resource curse” for VCOL cities as the extremely high costs of living / business drive out firms who aren’t as profitable per employee. McKesson, #8 on the S&P 500 list by revenue, moved its HQ from San Francisco to Dallas in 2018. Charles Schwab, is leaving San Francisco while expanding its offices in Denver & Dallas.
 
The bottom line is that the trend was already clear pre-pandemic. The leading companies, who pay the highest salaries, are actively investing in satellite offices or remote positions across the United States. For tech and management consulting companies, this helps distribute their customer facing sales and service teams. For financial and other companies, they are able to lower their costs by moving back-office operations outside VCOL areas. Meanwhile, companies who aren’t able to match the compensation packages of elite firms or want to lower their cost of business are relocating to cheaper areas.
As a final point, Forbes has an interesting article about the top 15 metro areas ranked by revenue of Fortune 500 companies headquartered there. While the New York metro area dominates the list with 65 companies that earn $1.7 trillion in revenue, and the greater SF / San Jose area is second with ~$1.5 trillion, the next 2 spots are Dallas ($996.2 billion) and Chicago ($842.2). Minneapolis and Houston also are in the top 7 spots, above either Boston or Washington DC.

Supply:

Concerns about multifamily supply had already started in mid 2019. Years of low interest rates and strong rental price growth had led to dramatic booms in apartment housing. Fannie Mae (the government agency) has detailed insights into the multi-family market across major metros. Helpfully they also include rent growth predictions from 3 large real estate analytics companies.
 
The Boston, MA core urban area had a projected ~10,000 units in the pipeline for 2020 (estimated at 4-6% new supply). Rent price increases were estimated at average of 2% and trending downward pre-pandemic.San Francisco had planned delivery of ~5,000 new unites in 2019 and 2020 with a projected increase in vacancy rate of 5% (trending towards balanced). New York City already had a glut of luxury apartments in 2019, with stagnant or negative rent growth projected pre-pandemic.
It’s worth noting that while single family home construction has continued to lag demand, multi-family home construction rebounded to pre Great Financial Crisis levels by 2013. By 2015, multifamily construction had hit the highest level since 1987.
 
We can see the effect of supply in the fact that average rental prices in several VCOL had started to plateau around late 2018. Boston, MA saw rental price growth of only ~2-3% annually between 2016 and 2019 according to RentCafe. RentCafe also shows San Francisco average rents increasing from $3450 in Nov 2016 to $3683 in Nov 2019, for an annual increase of 2-3% as well. Brooklyn, NY average rents increased from $2603 in Nov 2016 to $2928 in Nov 2019 for a total increase of 12% or ~4% per year. One thing to keep in mind is that these average rents don’t take into account hedonistic adjustments, i.e. people moving into nicer, new luxury apartments and paying slightly more.

Immigration / Baby Boomers / Gen Z:

With evidence pointing towards a modest decline in the number of millennials in VCOL areas, could other groups offset their departure? What about foreign immigrants?
 
Regardless of your thoughts on the Trump administration, it’s clear the administration has kept its promise to reduce foreign immigration into the United States. In 2018, the New York Times reported that net immigration to the US was only 200,000, the lowest level since the Great Recession. The same article, along with a related article from PBS also notes in particular that Chinese student attendance has dropped significantly due to concerns over visas, geo-political tensions, and violence. The current pandemic and recent trade tensions are likely to only exacerbate the situation. The Department of Homeland Security websites shows that “Persons obtaining lawful residence in the US” dropped by ~150,000 between 2016 and 2019 (or ~10%). This is a problem for VCOL which have relied upon foreign immigration to make up for net domestic migration. Foreign investment has often followed this migration.
At the moment, there also isn’t an obvious political constituency to argue for increased legal immigration into the US. The Democratic Party’s immigration policy is largely focused on legalizing the Dreamers, i.e. children born to undocumented immigrants. The Republican Party’s immigration policy has largely focused around halting illegal immigration.
 
What about baby boomers returning to the cities for their golden years? The New York Times cites census data which indicates that 17.8% of 54-72 year olds live in urban areas (defined by density). This compares with 21.6% in 1990. Moreover, while more baby boomers are renting, they seem to prefer to do so in suburban areas.
 
Well, what about Gen Z (those born after between 1997- 2012)? First of all, the generation is smaller than millennials by about 5 million individuals. Second, a Pew research study has found that for the oldest Gen Zers (18-23), over 50% have reported that they or someone in their household has lost a job or pay in the recent recession compared to 40% of millennials and only 25% of Baby Boomers. Last, but likely most important, the millennials successfully revitalized and then gentrified large parts of the VCOL urban cores. As a consequence, to borrow a phrase, the rents are already too damn high. Gen Z will enter the workforce already facing sky high rents in VCOL while dealing with a weaker labor market due to the COVID induced recession.
 
The bottom line is that there is no obvious group to replace the millennials if they start exiting core VCOL urban cores in large numbers.

Final Thoughts:

Whew, if you made it this far congratulations! I started writing this as a way to organize my thoughts, then frankly became fascinated in the topic.
If I were to summarize this article, I would say “demographics is destiny” or “the pandemic accelerates, but does not change, existing trends”. The 2010s saw the largest generation since the Baby Boomers delay the traditional milestones of adulthood to focus on their careers, education, and finances. Millennials preference for dense, walkable urban areas with deep job markets led to the urban renaissances of VCOL areas and accompanying spike in rents. A boom in multifamily construction followed as real estate developers rushed to deliver luxury rental apartments to cater to this new class of affluent urban dwellers.
 
The 2020s will see VCOL areas deals with the consequences of their success. Most millennials simply cannot afford to raise families in VCOL areas. Even before the pandemic we saw net migration increasing out of VCOL towards the booming Southern / Southwestern areas of the country. Companies are more than willing to follow suit, either by moving directly or by opening satellite officers to take advantage of cheaper real estate and lower taxes. Unfortunately this increase in departures is occurring exactly as multifamily supply continues to increase in VCOL areas due to a multiyear boom in construction. And there is no evidence that I've seen of any other demographic group who will rush to fill the vacancies generated by millennials. Baby boomers continue to prefer warm, low tax, suburban areas. Foreign immigration is depressed and likely to remain so for a variety of factors. Gen Z, with ~5 million fewer members than the millennials, is graduating into a depressed labor market with rents already inflated far past what the median salary can afford.
 
I want to emphasize that this is a modest shift in population, not a panicked flight. A number of affluent millennials will continue to reside in VCOL areas and even purchase long term residences (particularly with parental aid). Millennials who were able to buy in 2012-2014 have enjoyed significant real estate appreciation and are also likely to remain in those areas. But these modest population decreases will lead to a flat to negative rent price growth in VCOL areas as the market struggles to absorb additional luxury supply.
 
Unfortunately, as has been a recurring theme during this pandemic, the pain will be felt most acutely by small-scale landlords who bought properties recently in VCOL areas. Residential Real Estate is in some ways a zero sum game in that each tenant can usually only occupy one unit at a time. The large, publicly traded coastal REITs are currently tapping the corporate credit markets to push out their existing debt maturities and raise additional capital at historically low rates. They can, and are, offering deep concessions for their luxury units to attract tenants. They also typically have diversified into suburban areas and can invest opportunistically into high growth areas (notably Denver). They also have historically attracted the more affluent tenants who are willing to pay a premium for amenities (concierage, gyms, etc.) and are least affected by the pandemic.
 
To end on a positive note, I think the migration of millennials to more affordable, emerging cities is a net positive for the United States. Entrepreneurship, measured by small business formation in the US, has been dropping for years. I think part of the problem is that millennials in VCOL are locked into high paying career paths to afford rent, childcare, etc. Likewise spreading economic growth across the country and revitalizing other areas of the US may help bridge some of the bitter partisan politics.
 
P.S. If I post links in my posts they usually get blocked. I generally used NYT, Fannie Mae, the GAO, RentCafe (part of Yardi), and the Atlantic for my sources. If you're curious about a particular source I'll post it

​
​
this is a book or tv show that want to write its about a girl that plays in a rock band and dress in edgy clothing her name is katrina she discovers that there is a world beyond the internet called the dark net she becomes a powerful being that has a magical smart phone that turns her into a superhero that helps stop cyber threats
​
​
Prologue
Technology is part of our lives, it makes us who we are shape us, and it gives us a voice to express ourselves
but what if there was a way to tap into the internet and use is as a weapon to make something good and evil what if there are things we don’t understand in the dark web.
Everyone uses Facebook and Instagram some people share their bullshit abound but why can’t we just
use real picture or talk face to face, have we lost a part of ourselves. There is a darkness to the internet what if we could tap in to the net what if there is something evil out there but something we don’t understand.
But are we going to be slaved to tech or we are going are going to be free. Music is how we entertain ourselves it makes life better even when things go bad. This is my story the story of how I feel in love with heavy metal and other genres of the musical spectrum. This is also a story about how I got to harness the power of the internet. I’m not one of those teenagers that always on my phone all the time if I did that I would have no life I also live in Dallas Tx. A place that’s a world of its own I don’t get to travel much for that I live in far north Dallas. Its middle class with nice house some is 3 bedroom and other for I am an only child,
Most of the other students at my high school think I'm weird or a freak I want to try to be a great people I have a lot of friends it's just not the friends that you may like
Chapter 1
8am a typical north Texas April in north Texas the weather can be pretty fucked up sometimes.
It’s a Friday on a April afternoon. I just got home after dealing with the hell that is high school and since I don’t have school tomorrow and homework needs to get done. I like school I like to create things that's why I took art classes because it allows me to express my self through my creativity and my art, I’m a musicians I love music and art and fashion and anything scary. every girl grows up to be the high school cheerleader or the bitch from some rich kids fucking family. Im a metalhead a term for people that like heavy metal music.some people think I’m creepy but let me introduce myself my name is Katrina I’m 18 I play in a band called glitchteeth I try my best to have a socal life even though some of the kids like to treat me like shit. When I was in elementary school I discovered all kinds of alt music I’m Nordic by decent, I'm 5.ft 9 ft My father is originally from Norway And I look like a cross between Wednesday Addams and Marilyn Manson. Some People say I look like a freak. But I don't think i'm a freak I think I'm unique’ I have piercings i have a bellybutton piercing and a nose ring I have purple hair. I like to dress like a weirdo When I was 16 my dad took me to get my belly button pierced it hurt very bad. I might get my first tattoo soon now that I’m 18. live in far north Dallas and I go to school in Sunnyside high school my high school is a typical public high school.
A jungle full of people trying to get ahead of them self. we have the girls that act like there better than everybody else. The music I like to play and listen to is metal music it’s a genre that never gets any respect. I am also an artist with big ambitions I own 3 guitars and I also want to buy a bass. My dad had a lot of vinal records for the most part my dad was a rock star he was never really famous he played for 15 year until his band broke up. When my dad got married my mom was his tour manager and managed all his shows my dad was never into drugs like other rock stars he wanted to live a clean living lifestyle. After I was born he continued to tour for a while until I was 7 I understand what his job was. After I was 13 my dad got a job in a oil company. The money was better that’s my dad took the job.
Flash back 7th grade 2012
I discover hard rock and heavy metal when I was in middle school there was this kid in my art class, he was weird I mean he looked weird some times, he dressed like he was a vampire always wore black and a hoodie with a band called motionless in white for anyone who don’t know they are a rock band they are signed to roadrunner records one of my favorite rock labels. There music is a mix of aggressive metal there lyrics are aggressive but they do write great music I wish they were more popular.
There was this boy who I guss looked like your emo boy he always had a skateboard with him I was at the hallway in my middle school I was dressed in white baggy pants and a nofx tshirt
He always wore black. When we were in class during our art session.he would like to draw some creepy things like jack skeleton from THE NIGHMARE BEFORE CHRISMAS and CORPES BRIDE.
He wore shirts of bands that I never herd of with band names that were a little crazy. The shirt he was wearing was a band called Whitechapel. When class was over I followed him to his locker and I talked to him
hey nice shirt, katrina said thank you” the boy said. Where did you get it, I said, the boy was wearing a the shirt of a band called motionless in white he just came back from the show the next day from a concert. Being that we were 13 he had to go with a parent.So is the band any good Katrina said, well it depends on your taste in music its aggressive. The boy said, Well I like aggressive music, I said have you herd of metal core.
Its basically hard core that’s more metalbased hardcore is very basic there is very few solos and is very fast metalcore has more solos, I went to the warped tour with my brother and my dad the boy said. We saw a lot of bands that I don’t remember one was a local dallas band called he is mercy they play a hip hop based rock music the singers is of Latin origin and speaks Spanish and English talk about how diverse the music at the warped tour was.
When I was in middle school I wanted piercing my dad that it was cool that that he let me dressed whatever I wanted
I thought its was the shit but people always made fun of me but I did not give a fuck, because I wanted to be different there was this girl heather she was a cheerleader her family was one of the riches in dallas and she always got nice thing she was one of those cheerleader sluts that could sleep with every boy they wanted to. Like most teenagers I have tried to fit in at school I have many friends and I or I have tried to, but the truth is that my pale skin and strange appearance might put people off.
I convinced my dad that I wanted purple and blue hair.
I thought its was the shit but people always made fun of me but I did not give a fuck, because I wanted to be different that those stupid.
cheerleader sluts that could sleep with every boy they wanted to. Like most teenagers I have tried to fit in at school I have many friends and I or I have tried to, but the truth is that my pale skin and strange appearance might put people off. I want to get tattoos one day but my 18th birthday is a year off.
I want to get tattoos one day but my 18th birthday is a year off My dad is into classic rock and other guitar rock and roll my dad works in the live music industry when I get older he is going to give me a job I want to start a musical project too. The boy said whats your name. katrina said just call me vergil” my name is karina nice to meet you
That was when I was in 7th grade I discovered hard rock and heavy metal ,
present day
to this day I have not seen Vergil I wonder where he had gone when I enrolled in Sunnyside highschool I could not find him its been 4 years
when I was 12 years old my dad took me to warped tour it was how a discovered a subculture
that I knew never imaged. My dad was always the cool dad that would let me dress how I want as long as I was not looking like a slut I always wore band shirts from bands that I liked in the metal scene. I was the emo kid in middle school and all the other kids would bully me for how I looked. I liked music that is was not mainstream. My dad took me too the warped tour for the first time my mother would never have let me do that. My mom was a very conservative. My dad knew about it but he would never tell her that he worships satin and my dad room had a lot of satanic imagery person. Ever since my dad took me to the warped tour for the first time in my life I felt like I fit in ever since 7th grade I had a problem fitting in maybe it’s because I always dressed up in crazy getup. I like to were a spiked dog collor and leather pants with studs.
I started experience with gothic fashion and then I tried that punk fashion I had a black dress that had a skull on it and some other weird shit.
I don’t go to hot topic. I go to a local place in deep ellum or I just go to a thrift store. I earn money by helping out in my dads guitar shop. I help him out with cleaning and answering phone calls my dad worked for a oil company for many year my family was from oslo Norway
its just me and him now my dad divorced my mom when I was 9 it was the worst time in my life I always blamed It on myself
I am now 17 now and its Friday and I must go to Kristen’s house, and practice I also have homework to do
Chapter 2
I wake up after I here a loud knock What is it my father knocked on my door Hey my little sweet devilish Angel, I just made you breakfast? Coming I said; after I woke up I check my laptop cloak its 9:30 in the morning I got undressed I looked in my mirror I was naked now that I'm out of puberty I don't have to worry about my body changing anymore, I walked to my closet where I have more than 10 different kinds of shirts I take on my white Chapel shirt since Whitechapel is my favorite band and then I put on my underwear and skirt, I decided to put on some black tights. I brush my hair into pigtails and then I decided to go to my kitchen
where my dad was sitting at the kitchen table checking his iPad and dressed in black pajamas. Making me pancakes and scrambled eggs with blackberry jam on top of my pancake. I sit at the table and my dad said eat up sweet angel.’ At the table, my dad said. so how was the show; it was shit I said, we played for 20 minutes and not many people show up. I said in disappointment. Well your band has not been around that long. My dad said do not be disappointed it takes time you’re the new guys in the dallas music community. Dad said. Well dad thank you. Her father was her biggest supporter.
Dad why did mom left us was it my fault” my mom left me when I was 8 year old, I have not seen her since then. No at the table my father came and gave me a big hug and told me it was not your fault I was tearing up was just things did not work out with your mother and I and you should not ever blame your self ever. Thanks dad, Katrina said. Katrina walked back into her room the wall in her room was panted purple with posters of every hard rock and metal bands that most people would not ever give a fuck about.
well neat and clean she just vacuumed the day before, in her room was a bookshelf full of comic books and magazine and the year book from her past year. When she was a freshman she was bullied for her looks.
but then she met Brittney a black girl that dressed like her she was gothic like me. The first year I met her. She was dressed in black leggings with a purple skirt and an evanescence shirt. She found evanescence because someone recommended on Facebook.
It was from that meeting that how are band formed Brittney new someone that played drums, that was the foundation of how glitch teeth was born. Katrina writing songs on her lab top she has 19 songs. Some are good and some are simply better, and some that I have written better than others. I checked my email addressed and I got a strange message it was from some weird email address I wonder if it was spam or someone was trying to hack me. But even weirder the email text was in blue and black in some strange code could someone be fucking with me I deleted the email. I don’t get many emails anymore. Facebook and Instagram are my new mode of communication. I closed my laptop and I cleaned up my room. It was kind of a fucking mess. I try my best to keep it clean but its hard when you have carpet, I want to tell my dad to replace my carpet. I want black because I love black, I have black nails black piercings and black screens on my laptop. All of a sudden, I got a call from Brittney.
Hey my Viking bitch. She like to make jokes about my Nordic heritage do you want to come over. Sure, I said I am done cleaning my room. Hey Kristen, did you get a strange email like I did” I said no I did not hmmm strange I wonder” Kristen said with a weirded-out face’ don’t worry about it its probably just someone trying to fuck with you. I get plenty of people from high school trying to creep me out there is a lot of fucking people trying to fuck with me.
Can I come over! Kristen said sure bring your guitar over
I got a sick new drum kit I am sick of fucking playing bass. I am not good at drums but I think if I try, I will be better than I would be on bass. well thank you i just got done cleaning my room. I will be there in a minute I said, i got my backpack and my guitar I did not have a car so I decided to take the bus her house was only 6 miles away I have a bus pass it make its a lot easier than having change to pay the driver. I went to my dad dad was in his workshop building a guitar for a client it was in the beginning stage of production. In my dads’ workshop there was assortment of tools that were very fancy and expensive it was bright with a white tungsten light you need good lighting in a guitar shop.
My dad had his safety glasses on the guitar was for a local band that my dad was friends with. Hey dad yes dear. I am going to Kristen house I’m taking the bus I need money can you give me some. Sure, but all I have is 50 bucks. But one day your going to have to get a job I have connections, yes dad’ I know can you help me sure I will talk to some people. thank you I said. My dad got back to work on the shop was loud with the sounds of a belt sanders.
I got my guitar and I brought a change of clothes it was June the 10th in Texas that means hell. I got my guitar and my backpack. I walked to the bus station I was wearing a skirt and a black tang top. It was 4:00 in the afternoon traffic was bad the bus pulled up with a crowded bus. I got on the bus and showed my pass. It would take about 20 minute its going to be a long shitty day.
Chapter 3
After a bus trip that seemed to take forever, I got off Kristen was waiting for me at the bus station. When I saw her, she was sprouting a blue Mohawk and earring and a big nose ring. She had sunglasses and short shorts on like the kind that looked like trailer trash we both like to dress in our outrageous shirts just to offend people, hey girl like my mohawk its fucking bad ass, Katrina said yeah I do I it looks good on you yeah I got it done at my friends barber. She helps spike it up and shaved the sides of my head my parents are fucking worried how I will get a job I just got my 3rd tattoo this month want to see. Kristen and I were walking back to her room her house were. A single-story house that her parents just bought. They got a great deal on it the last owner moved away to a small town. they said they were tired of the problems of Dallas. Dallas was not a city for everybody like most big city it has bad parts of town everyone knows southeast is the ghetto. Deep vellum is where all the clubs are my dad took me to my first concert when I was 12 he wanted to share his love of good music, as we were walking to Kristen kitchen I Kristen got to here fridge and took out some beer and Mexican food that here parents. Sorry I do not drink oh that’s fine even though I was underage I have had a little vodka since my father was from Norway drinking is part of the culture. I am too young for that but Kristen parents are okay with it. Me and her went to her room. I brought my backpack and my guitar. Carrying both of those can be heavy. After I got off what felt like a longer than fucking average of 20 minute on a bus I was finally in some air-condition room it was 80 degrees outside not helping that I was wearing black clothing I just might need a change of wardrobe. Kristen’s parents were working her dad works for a bank. hey girl I said I took out my guitar and a stack of notes from school and our band I needed help with my science class. Kristen took out her backpack got out her science homework I to wright a paragraph about the theory of evolution in proper grammar, as we were working on our homework I was brainstorming idea for new songs for glitch teeth. But for now, I was typing on her desktop computer when suddenly I got a weird black screen. What happen the screen when black and some weird letter pop on what is going on is there something wrong. The letters were strange. They looked like Greek letter and it displayed these in flashing purple then the computer went back to normal: What the flying fuck was that. Whatever it was I do not like the way it looks. The screen then displayed a strange image like the computer is going crazy Kristen gave an angry look. I think there is something wrong maybe a virus. But now things are fine. Kristen walked to her guitar case in her guitar case was a notebook full of lyrics that she had written, she wrote 20 lyrics for songs. Then she got out her guitar. It was a new guitar that her dad had custom build for her she got it for her birthday it was a dark purple with her name engraved on the back. It had a silver humbucker with a 24 fret Katrina had big fingers so she like the jumbo frets. When Kristen looked at the guitar wow. That was awesome. Do you have a amp that I could hook up yes? Even though Kristen played bass she also plays guitar. Do you want to play right now? I would love to play anything for my best friend. For the rest of the afternoon Katrina and Kristen played together until. The late afternoon one of the songs they were rehearsing was a fast pace aggressive dance song called ;tell me you love hate me we rehearsed it with just guitar and bass. No drums but I think it dos does not need live drums I think a drum machine is simply fine. I will tell Zena my drum ideas
Katrina gets a call from her father. Hey, my dark princess does you want me to pick you up. Yeah, I would I have been rehearsing for a long time. I was physically tired sure I will pick you up in 20 minutes my dad says, hey Kristen I just got a text from my dad can you send me song file thru google email sure, Kristen said, I got my stuff packed my custom guitar that my dad gave me my backpack with my iPad. It was already dark outside. I gave Kristen a hug and I said my goodbyes.
My dad arrived in a used black BMW car nothing fancy. Being that my dad was from Norway,
but anyway, if you want to know the name of my dad. Its Olaf. My dad was named after the Norse god in Norway
Hey my daughter how was Kristen house, It was wonderful, I said we rehearsed some new songs hey I got good news for you, yes my dad said, I talk to the promoters at one of the clubs at the bomb factory they want your band to play: really I said with excitement. Yes really? Glitch teeth has only been around for 2 years we never took ourselves seriously, but I found that my passion for music is what I want to do I don’t want to be famous for get a record deal. But hey if you got any homework. That needs any help then I will help you thank you. I’m still a junior in high school and I still have another year, after we get back to my house I put down my guitar in our closet hey Katrina do you want to make you a salad and crackers. Sure, I need to shower right now. I was sweaty from 2 hours of playing. Tomorrow I must call my other band mates for a full band practice. I might need another member I have Kristen” Zulu” Zena.
I might ask the boy in my theater class; his name is Doro and he might just love me. I go to my room and I notice something strange outside three dogs or four now outside my window they were sitting outside staring at me there eyes were blue and they. And where were flickering like they were on a computer, I glanced to me be and back at the window they were gone. Was I seeing things I hope the coffee that Kristen gave me was not spiked with mushrooms?
Chapter 4
I wasn’t sure what I saw I saw 4 dogs that did not look like they were from this reality. I got on my bed and I undressed my self-taking off my sweaty smelling outfits. I got my bathrobe and jump in the shower being that it was hot outside I took a cold one the cold water hitting my hot body felt so good but suddenly I got a weird flash back like it was a dream there was this figure what is happening what’s going on it was very brief. What was that. After I washed myself, I got out of the shower before I went to bed I left my mac laptop on sleep mode I got my hair dryer the heat felt so refreshing. I got my pajamas one I went to bed I closed my eyes and drifted out to sleep as I drifted asleep something felt weird I suddenly woke up I don’t know where I am what the flying fuck is going on I was in some kind of white room. It was like in the matrix when neo was in the white room but unlike the matrix the room I was in was kind of like a white screen was I in my computer oh My god? I ran and ran in fear trying to find out what is going on id I eat something am I dead. I was incredibly stressed from school I have some homework on my art project, no matter how much I ran there was nothing to go to the room kept going on and on. But then suddenly a black kind of goo just raised form the ground the black goo was remnants of tar it changed shaped it becoming a human like person it was in the shape of a man and finally looked like a person. It was in the shape of a man that looked like someone from a video game what am I in a fucking video how cool is that. Greeting my friend, it said. You speak hey can you tell me where I. am the unnamed man spoke to me.
Katrina. He knew my name. my name is deros, wow cool name I said I choose you because let me explain there are force at work. I am a guardian of the internet or what you call cyberspace. the dark net is a living thing made up of data bits that control everything that you humans use. The dark net is a force that can be used for good and evil. Why do you need my help I am computer savvy but I also play in a band? so am I dreaming or not can you wake me up suddenly I woke up, what the fuck did I just see did I look at was I on acid I don’t use drugs
Chapter 5
Monday morning far north dallas tx
The next morning I woke up to go to school my dad took me to school and picked up Kristen we had our back packs and iPads I will be getting out of school early On our way to school I did not tell Kristen what happen just now I did not think she would believe me. What should I tell my friends that I got sucked into a hidden world that no one knows about that technology has a dark side what I do know is that what I saw could change how the internet is view its hard to believe that behind our screens is a world inhabited by other beings that exist in another reality. the way to school was packed with end of school traffic as I waited it was not a long drive. I had just got done with some homework for my art class I hope to graduated early this year I only had a three class today it was the last three weeks of school and
I was excited to start summer, the last 3 weeks went buy like a lighting next year will be my last year of high school I will be going to a art school in downtown Dallas im not sure what it will be but im going to pick up. Me Kristen and zulu and Sheena are rehearing for our upcoming show for a show in at trees in dallas we are opening for a band called creeper I have never herd of them but they are from English they are not as heavy as we are we are not the most aggressive band but we like to used downturned guitars. Sheena just got a new set of drums from here brother. Her brother is out of college and works for a computer firm.
I was talking to both zulu and sheena zulu was teaching sheena a little Japanese. They are best friends just like I am best friends with Kristen I hope we can continued the friendship after high school So far glitchiest had 20 songs written some of them are straight up heavy metal songs but we wanted to be a synth metal industrial we don’t like to be put in a box some of our song sound like nine inch nails. We are very inspired by 90s industrial and modern acts. Now that summer is here me and my band mates can fully focus on glitchteeth, im glad my dad was here to pick me up from school. I was riding in a suv that my dad had just bought a month ago it carry my stuff and my bandmate after a long hot afternoon we finally made it to my dads recording studio. My dad made a lot of money in a oil firm and he used that money to build us a recording studio besides his guitar business he also produces’ other bands we came prepared to record 15 songs for our spotify playlist.
Chapter 7
The day everything changed
Me and Kristen were still at the studio playing around with sounds on our equipment we have been communing back to the studio for and we recorded 18 songs for our up coming album we spent 8 hours in the studio like most people spent at their workplace. Each of us store our songs on a hard drive. after a long day at the studio we called it a day wow I’m so god dammed tire,I said
Kristen was playing around with her bass amp trying to get the right sound for one of our song im t trying to get more distortion. Kristen said. Kristen was dressed in white pants with purple hair and a slayer t shirt. She was recording bass track. Sheena and zulu went home as it was 7:00 at night we were tired and hungry we would order pizza at her house. since her house was not that far we decided to walk home, after we cleaned up everything we locked the doors and I turned on the security alarm. Kristen house was not far my dad gave me the keys to his business and I have to keep it safe. We walked on a bike path towards a park being it was late we hope there was a place to eat open we came across a food truck that sold gyros the perfect meal we needed the energy for a mile walk. Me and Kristen ordered a lamb gyro with cucumber middle eastern food was our favor. Hey Kristen I said as we walked along the trail along a paved bike path . I check my phone I got a message from my dad he sent me a article from the local news. It was chilling and made my jaw drop hey Kristen check out your phone. My dad was not the kind of dad that was worried about me walking at night in a park in dallas I had pepper spray I don’t live in fear. The news article shows a crime sense.
It read missing jogger attacked and stabbed by somebody what made it weird was that there were no footprints no nothing police looking for suspect. Okay do I need enough to be scared of sorry to scare you my dad texted I just wanted to warn you I texted back im okay. Me and kristan were holding hands we talked to each other in confort. Hey girl you should not worry about anything were are no longer little girls were women now were fearless and not scared plus I got a black belt in karate Kristen said you never told me that. Well I was but we were so focused on Glitchteeth and high school Katrina Kristen zeena and zulu were all there for each other no matter what. Me and Kristen were walking along a paved path it was a well lit walkway with joggers and cyclest as we were walking me and Kristen were talking about taking some college courses for school. I want to attend a arts school for musical gifted people like me. Hey girl I said what do you think of me working at a music studio or being in the music industry I was thinking of being a anr director! Suddenly something got our attention I saw a flashing light in the woods of the pathway. Should we check it out I said. Kristen and I looked at each other with a stern face. We go closer and closer to whatever that was the light was blue and bright once we saw what it was I picked it up it’s a smart phone but nothing I have never seen it was a little bigger than your average phone I said it looks like something from the future “Kristen said but there was no buttons no anything I tried turning it on but I could not find a way. We walked along the trail to Kristen’s house it was suddenly strangly quits. Weird no sounds like police sirens helicopters or other people the paved trail we were on was usually busy. We stick to the crowded trails for safety a big city like Dallas that’s just living in a urban environment the park we were walking through was along the katy trail a urban trail it was no central park like in new York but I think it would be cool if dallas had its own central park. Suddenly in the distance 4 strange dogs were in the distance there eyes were glowing they looked like something from resident evil they were about 100 feet from us they started walking my heart was pounding. Runnnnn I screamed me and Kristen were running as fast as I can the strange dogs were not chasing us strangely they were not even following us we ran as fast as we can then there were gone. What the fuck did we saw. Kristen said we got to Kristen’s house in highland village we were sweating from all that running. Then suddenly I got a text message from dero. Who are u I texted back are you real I texted. Yes im very real you were not dreaming. I was huffing and puffing Kristen was scared as shit those dogs. So It was real I said, yes dero texted me back. Its hard to explain come out side, suddenly dero appeared from my front poarch how did you!!!. What are you I am a being of a different place Kristen followed your not a threat are you no. what are you your not human are you I sad. he spoke in a strange voice there is a place that is beyond cyberspace your internet has created another dimension a place called the dark net. hear he took out a smartphone much like the one I found a portal appeared wow I said it was blue and glowing like a black hole. The device I left you is called a dataphone it power of the dark net. whats the dark net I said it is a unseen world where that humans cannot fathom it is powered by databit in our world we are made of databits and trigabit. So like tron kind of yes dero said like tron, he said with a monatone voice What about those dogs. Those are not dogs they are wreaths they are ghost of the dark they appear in dog form to blend in now take out your devise and put it on your wrist, are you sure I can trust him Kristen. Yes you can trust me dero said I am going to guide you and train you the dataphone need a human to bond to when it glows I want you to put it on your arms. Suddlen it started to glow katrina are you sure you want to listen to him, Kristen; there is only one way to find out I took out the phone. It suddenly jumped on my arms. What the helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll; Suddenly my there was this strange blue fluid coming over me aaaahhhhh whats happening to me my body had a pulse of electricity there was a blue glow all around me my hair was chainging from a black to a bright blue my skin was bemoming more whiter my skin was pale enough I was becoming something else. Kristen was looking in horror dero whats happen to her the iphion she is where is boding to her mind and body. Katrinaaaa Kristen sayed are you all right. the light faded when I looked at my hands I was covered in some kind of armor that was not like anything I saw my shoes where like motorcycle boots I looked like a power ranger but a less cheesy one it was light like air your suit is made up off thousands of polygons dero said ohh your data phone can conjure up anything you can imagine for as long as you
only what was I my hair changed from a dark black to a glowing blue dero made a mirror showed me a what I look like. I look awesome dero told katrina thathe dataphone I gave you gives you power that no mortal man only beings like me you posesed the power of the guardians like me
I want you to use your powers to fight the evils of cyberspace hey wait I said and just like that dero disappears
CHAPTER 8 NEW ARMOR
I was back to normal dero was gone my armor was gone, hey katrina Kristen said what the fuck was that, did we take any drugs or anything Kristen parents came out of the house are you okay yes were just tired do you want any dinner Kristen parents said no thanks we went to Kristens room Kristen house was a two story house her parents were in finance and owned a two story house in

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.
· I'm a full-time stock trader and I put very heavy loads on my machine with multiple trading platforms, running other multiple programs, and a screen capture recording my screens during market hours. I’m a very heavy multitasker and put heavy loads on my machine. I will NOT be using this PC for any gaming. It’s strictly a work PC for heavy multitasking and stock market trading.
· If this helps the trading programs I use are Think or Swim, Scanz, Stocks To Trade, and Etrade Pro.
· I’m looking for a substantial, noticeable difference to my current build from April 2014 below. Currently, I experience jitteriness and lagging even after a clean install of Windows.
· 2014 Current Build:
Falcon F-52X F-52 Cases: The Atlas with superior cooling F-52 CPU/Processor: Artic Storm Air Cooled quiet cooling on i7-4820K Intel 4-Core CPU @ 4.2GHz Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (max 16GB memory) Memory: 16GB DDR3 Memory F-52 Power Supply: Standard Duty 650W Power Supply Monitor Connections: 4 Monitors Supported -MaxView 630 display (2 video cards) OS Drive: 250GB Samsung 840 EVO 81,500iops & 530MB/sec Additional Drive(s): 1TB Standard Duty hard drive for daily backups
2018 Upgrade: AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 2GB GDDR5 PCIE 1XDP 2XMDP
What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?
· I was planning on spending between $2,000-$3,000 and I might be willing to spend up to $3,500. I would like to spend the least possible, without sacrificing the performance I need for multitasking, trading programs, and screen recording, etc.
When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.
· Immediately.
What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)
· I only need the Tower and Windows 10 installed.
Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?
· I live in Dallas, TX USA and I’ve never heard of Microcenter, so I looked them up, and there’s one 20 minutes from me which is exciting. I haven’t checked the prices compared to cyberpowerpc.com which is the only one I’m familiar with, but Microcenter may be even better, assuming the prices are reasonable, since it looks like I won’t have to wait weeks like I would with cyberpowerpc.com.
If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.
· The only thing I think might be worth using (but not sure) is the AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 2GB GDDR5 PCIE 1XDP 2XMDP I bought in April 2018. I would prefer not to use this card, if a better one wouldn’t be extremely expensive, so I don’t have to swap it out and I can keep my second machine as a working backup.
Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?
· I don’t really understand overclocking but heard it can cause premature wear and extra heat. I’m thinking it may not be necessary since I’m willing to pay for either the I9-10900K or the AMD 3950X which was recently recommended to me for my use but again I’ll leave that to your advice.
Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)
· I need a fast hard-drive. I was told that PCIE NVME is faster than SSD but I’ll leave that up to your suggestions, and whatever you recommend. The size of the hard drive is not important I don’t think since I have 230GB and still have 108GB free.
· I store most of my files on a secondary internal drive and external drives with the exception of what in documents.
· I would like to have either 1 or 2 good internal drives that are a total of 16TB to store everything I have and to use daily since all my working files will be in there (word, excel, etc)
Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?
· I don’t have any specific preferences so whatever you think is best. It would be nice for it to run quiet but it’s not that big of a deal unless the fans are extremely loud.
Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?
· I need Windows 10 Home loaded on the system.
Extra info or particulars:
· I need to purchase this computer built (I can’t build it myself). I have some configurations through cyberpowerpc.com and now I’ve learned about Micro Center. I’m open to any other suggestions of other companies that might be good at looking at to have a pc built.
· I have heard mixed feelings of liquid cooling and the risks of water leaking so that sounds scary to me but again I’ll leave that to your suggestions.
Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it and it means a great deal to me since this machine is extremely important for my stock trading and daily multitasking.