u/Sweaty-Olive-9856

So I'm at a place where several of my storylines seem to be wrapping up but there's still a ton of stuff I haven't even begun to crack. I've tried tiptoeing through walkthroughs to see how much I have left without spoiling anything and it seems like I've done a lot of stuff out of order, or rather progressed further on some pieces and not much on others. Here's a rundown of where I'm at, would love to get some sort of ballpark of how much I've got left or if I've missed any major things along the way.

Off the top of my head (obviously major spoilers ahead):

- reached 46

- 3 of 8 sanctums opened (the safe house, the reservoir and the music room), 2 solved (The sigil from the Secret Garden and the one from the rune book)

- chess puzzle solved, buff unlocked, Castle wall opened but I haven't done the Castle thing yet

- 6 trophies

- unlocked all outer areas, only one microchip, no idea where to find the others

- got to the exam but didn't ace it

- 3 safes/letters (Office, Boudoir and Shelter). I cannot for the life of me work out the others and I can't tell if I'm missing something or just an idiot. Tried every possible interpretation of "small gaits" for example, tried every date I've found on every safe to no avail.

- three lockboxes, all have been passports so far

- maybe 12 letters in the mailroom, all of them were hints for things I've long since worked out

- unlocked Lady Epsen's diary which took so much work and was so underwhelming ha ha

- Solved the Baron Baffler puzzle but have no idea what to do with the solution, is it related to the Castle puzzle? Was really hoping it was the password for the outdoor control center thing but no dice.

- All books purchased. New Clue is full of stuff that is clearly helpful but I haven't been able to parse any of it. The directions on the signs for example are clearly pointing to something but without being able to leave the estate I have no idea what to do with it.

- No idea where to find the machine in the wall the Gardener refers to in his journal, have tried running power to the outside rooms but nothing has come up yet, nothing I can knock down outside.

- Haven't lit the dynamite in the Trading post yet but I'm hoping that's an option

- Pretty sure I have all but one of the rooms unlockable from the drafting studio

- unlocked Planetarium but have no idea what it is besides the star buff

That's all I can think of at the moment. Hard to tell if I'm 80% through or 30%. Any thoughts? Don't need solutions just yet unless there's anything major I've skipped on accident.

Thanks in advance!

It's honestly insulting how tedious, opaque and finicky the Mets Connect system is. How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways:

- Takes 30 taps to get to a barcode that every single cashier in the park is somehow unprepared for and has to ring everything in again

- You never have good reception so half the time it won't load and the people behind you are annoyed

- Completely unclear as to whether it is ever saving you anything or whether points are being used or accrued at any given time. Is there a reason to use them on every purchase? Is there a reason to save them? Is anything anything? Who the fuck knows.

- The barcodes for parking, mets connect, season ticket... perks? My account information, my payment info are all different things in completely different wings of the Ballpark app? Why? Are they actually different? Is there any reason they shouldn't just be the same fucking barcode?

- No way to combine a mets connect code with a payment, that's a separate barcode which means more taps and more annoyed people behind you

- Sometimes it just doesn't work despite all of this being in place!

- And when it does work, what exactly is it doing? Who cares about any of this? What is happening? You get zero information. Am I supposed to show my MC barcode? My season ticket barcode? My ticket? Do they all do the same thing? Why not?

Now listen - I'm fully aware that the Occam's razor here is that they intentionally design it to be a hassle so that people don't use it as often and you just end up paying full price and never getting the most out of it (whatever "the most" even is). Maybe Citi employees get a training video where they are instructed explicitly to pretend to be surprised every single time anyone tries to use it. That would certainly make a lot more money which apparently is the only goal in this miserable life.

But hey Citi Field: You know how to make people spend more money? By making it EASY to spend money, and by making whatever little carrot the Mets Connect thing is supposed to be easy to understand the value of. People sign up for Mets connect, they get a physical card. If you're a season ticket holder maybe instead you get a cool fob. Or a bracelet. Or a keychain. You put your credit card info in there if you want. You get a beer, you tap your fob, you choose whether to apply your points or earn them, you walk away with your beer, which means you're that much closer to buying another beer. There's a section in the app that shows how many points you have, and - and this is critical - it tells you what the fuck points even do or are.

DO NOT make this something a cashier or parking attendant has to explain (or more accurately have no idea how to explain) in the moment. Make spending and saving points easy and we will spend more money. Make it hard and you get more money per customer over the long run, but we all fucking hate every second of it and it makes us feel devalued as fans.

We all know bands whose best work is deep cuts, bootlegs or B-sides, but what's a band where casual listeners and hardcore fans both agree that the hits are the best ones?

Maybe this is a silly question but I'm obviously trying to differentiate from a one hit wonder or someone only made one good song or album, and a band that has a deep discography and rabid fans who pore over everything, but the most well known songs are still at the top of their lists.

The only band I can think of off the dome that fits this description is Steely Dan.

I’ve been trying for 40 years. Am I stupid?

This situation has taken years off my life, so I'd love some input from people with more expertise here than myself. I feel like I'm going insane.

Two months ago I listed an item here on reddit for about $3000 and got a message from a buyer who wanted me to ship it to Singapore. I said sure, and he sent me the money through PayPal. Then I saw that the address on his PayPal account was in Hong Kong, not Singapore - so I told him that it was against PayPal's policy for me to ship it to a different address than they have on file. He made some excuses about wanting to avoid higher import fees and working in Singapore but living in Hong Kong, and how he somehow can't log in and change his address, etc. (Also FWIW the name in his email address, the name he gave me, and the PayPal name were three totally different names.) I told him that for my own safety I just couldn't make an exception, so he said never mind, don't ship it. Fine.

I tried to refund his money. The refund didn't go through and returned an error message. I tried several times and got an error each time. I even contacted PayPal several times and they tried to refund it on their end, got the same error. Finally I contacted PayPal yet again, they said the best bet was to send the money directly to him rather than as a refund. I asked if that was safe considering I had multiple red flags suggesting maybe this guy wasn't legit, and their response was, well, if the email is the same, it's the account holder, so you have nothing to worry about. "We'll make a note of it in case anything goes wrong."

So I send the money directly to him (through "Send Monday" rather than "Issue a Refund." It finally goes through after a few days, I email the buyer to confirm that it landed in his account. He replies, yes it did, thank you. Okay, case closed.

A couple days later (mid-April) I get an email that a chargeback dispute has been filed by this person's bank for the amount he sent, which I already returned and was no longer in my PayPal balance. I call PayPal AGAIN (this is now the 5th time) and they assure me that it's all good, these things take a few days, it's probably already resolved, it just hasn't changed in the system yet. I fill out the online form in the Resolution Center, send screenshots of the guy's emails and an explanation of the above. A couple weeks later, another email saying the dispute is still in process. I call for, now, the 6th time, and am told the same thing - relax, the money isn't in your account anymore, he's got it, it's all good. And hey great job for noticing the red flags, you're a hero, thanks for being a PayPal user. Each time I explain that if this guy is a scammer there is no evidence to suggest he'll do the right thing and leave me alone once he got his money back, but they keep saying you did all you could, what could go wrong, relax.

Saturday I get an email that the chargeback dispute has been decided, by the buyer's bank, in the buyer's favor. Of course it's Saturday so I can't call anyone, so I call this morning for the seventh time, and PayPal tells me there's nothing they can do, it's the bank not them, they have no control over it. I ask this person explicitly - what happens now? Is this person's bank going to come after me? Am *I* now being flagged for fraud? Is this person going to get $3000 from me somehow? What do I do? She tells me it's probably fine, you don't have the money anymore, and even if it's not fine, it's out of PayPal's hands, they have no information, my best bet is to contact the buyer and ask him to withdraw the dispute. "The Buyer," as if he's an actual person.

I am stressed and angry and anxious. I would like to know - genuinely what DOES happen now? What steps can or will this person's bank take against me, and if PayPal by their own insistence knows nothing and can't help at all, what can I do to protect myself? What purpose does PayPal serve if not to help its customers in situations precisely like this one?

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any guidance you might have.