Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're well, and I have a warning for you. If you watch the rest of this video, you may end up downloading some new plugins, because I've been scrolling through the latest bargains at Plugin Boutique and as well as having a great effect, a great instrument and an awesome bundle for you to take a look at, I've also got something completely free, but let's start off by taking a look at what I reckon is one of the best compressors ever released. I think the new Smart Comp 2 compressor from Sonnaball is amazing, not just because it's so smart, but also because if you've ever struggled to use compressors at all, I reckon this is a great learning tool as well. I've got it inserted onto this acoustic guitar track, which sounds like this. And in order to start actually compressing, the first thing we need to do is set a threshold, a level at which, a volume at which, we start to compress the signal. So we do that by adjusting this bar here, so I'll just pop that down there. And the other thing we need to set in order to actually compress at all is the ratio. Ratio determines how much compression. So how much we're going to turn down the signal after it's gone over the threshold. The great thing about this plugin is we can visually see what's happening to the signal in real time as we adjust these parameters by looking at the top area here when I play the guitar. Look at the red sort of a graph which scrolls across as I play this. So we can see the compression happening here and if I adjust the ratio and the threshold, we can see how that's affecting the signal. And we can also see at the bottom here are some two gray areas, dark gray and light gray. That's kind of a before and after as well. Now a lot of people are going to struggle when they're using compression with the settings like attack and release. OK, so thankfully again, we can really easily see when we adjust these how it's affecting the signal. Now we do adjust them just by hovering over their values here and then dragging up and down with the mouse to change those values. OK, so let's put this attack all the way down to zero milliseconds. So it's clamping down with the compressor right away and then I'll adjust it up and down and you'll see what's happening to the red area at the top here. So a slow attack and a quick attack. Slow, quick. OK, so you can really easily see that with a quick attack, it really clamps down hard and fast on that signal. OK, likewise with the release, we can adjust that. You can see with a really long release there that it's virtually compressing all of the time. In fact, it's just destroying the dynamics because it's compressing even the sort of next note of the guitar. It doesn't get a chance to breathe. So often that's a mistake we can make as beginners. We can have that release too long sometimes and the compressor bleeds into the next notes and we sort of ruin it that way. This is great that we can actually see what's happening there and adjust accordingly and we can start to see when we've got that release time to the right level at which we can actually allow some dynamics and then start to compress the next note as well, allow some of the transients through. So that is the basics of the controls there. As you can see, it's great plug-in already. But what about the smart features? Well, the smart features are really clever, in my opinion, because I really don't believe in presets with things like compressors at all. Because how can you really set up a preset for an instrument if you don't know what the source material is? Well, Sonoma will get around that by actually having listened to the source material and coming up with a preset for you. But first of all, it's advisable, I reckon, to go up here to what appears to be a preset menu, but it's really a profile menu where we set up the profile for what the smart feature is going to listen to. So this is in this case an acoustic guitar, so I'll select that there. And then I want to click on this Learn button here and play the acoustic guitar. It's now going to analyze that acoustic guitar and come up with some compression settings for me. So I'll click there, then play the acoustic guitar. It's analyzing it, it's not compressing it yet. And then when it gets all the way across. I reckon that's a really great setting. There's some compression happening there, but I'm not really aware of it. It's very, very transparent. Now, the eagle eye, amongst you, will have also noticed that there was something happening at the bottom here in green. This is the spectral compression. OK, what is spectral compression? This is compression which is applied to different frequencies in different ways. A little bit like a multi band compressor in this way, but on a much more micro scale dealing in many, many more different frequency ranges. It's had a listen to that guitar and it supplies adjusted it to something that thinks is suitable for that instrument. Now, I can blend that in and out using this control here. I've also got controls over here for a more clean signal to a dirty signal and also a darker sound to a brighter sound. You can blend those in as you wish. That's the basic controls for this. I haven't gone into much detail about some of the other things. For example, you can set up curves for the attack and release as well as a whole bunch of things actually down here as well for high and low pass filters and that kind of thing. I will let you explore that, but I want to tell you now this is selling an incredible price over at Plugin Boutique at the moment. It should be selling for one hundred and forty one dollars, ninety one, but it's down to ninety seven. That's around about a thirty or thirty one percent saving. But before you do go ahead and click the link in the description down below for this, I encourage you to watch the rest of the video because there's another deal I want to tell you about later on related to this compressor, which may make you think about a different purchase. I absolutely love using transient shapers on my drums, even before use compression and EQ, etc. And this is a free one here called Transberg. You can get it for free at Plugin Boutique at the moment. It's absolutely easy to use. I've got it inserted onto this kick drum track at the moment. Let's say I want to change the attack of that kick. I can, of course, use the attack control here. See what it sounds like when I have a slow attack. It sounds really sort of woofy and then a hard, fast attack. Love that. But I'm bothered by that sort of ring on. There's too much sustain on this kick for my liking. Let's use the sustain here to control that. I'm liking that much better. And I'm just going to get rid of a little bit of that click on the top end. So I'll use this filter up there for that. And that's how easy it is to shape the sound of your drums using this free plug in. Follow the link in the description down below and grab it for yourself now. Recently, I saw this plug in being talked about by Phineas, of course, a great producer in his own right, but probably most famous for being the brother of Billie Eilish and her producer. And he was saying that they use this particular plug in in some of their productions. This is Arturia's Fafeza organ plug in. And I'm just going to quickly play you three of my favorite presets from this, starting off with Mellow Strings. Nice. Let's try Faiz Ghost and something a bit different. Let's try Crunch Lead Knee or Crunch Lead Knee. There's so many different types of sounds on here. I can't possibly play all of them to you, but you get a rough idea of the quality here. Of course, it's very it's very sort of loyal to the original Fafeza and you've got all the same kind of controls that you would have on that there. It also runs through this kind of amp sim here. It's got five pedals. You can adjust all of these, all of the controls on these, as well as the swirl pedal and in the spirit of everything Arturia, if you click on the advanced button here, you've got a whole bunch more controls so you can really tailor the sound to your own needs. Selling at a great price at the moment over on Plug-In Boutique. If we head over there, we can see it's eighty one dollars. Currently, that's 50 percent off down from one hundred and sixty dollars. If you like this kind of retro sound, then this is definitely something that you should be grabbing. So earlier on, I told you about Smart Comp 2, an incredible compressor, not only because of its compression capabilities, but also because of its smart artificial intelligence.  Well, that is what I'm telling you, and it's also at a great price. So let's take a look at the other three products in that bundle. Let's start off by looking at the smart features of Smart Reverb. I'm going to select a profile here, which is guitar, because I've got this applied to a guitar. Then I'm going to click on this learn button and then play the guitar so it can come up with some basic settings for me suitable for this instrument. So we're off to a pretty good start already. Now, you saw a bunch of things move over, move around over here. You can adjust all of these things yourself. But before you dive into that, you may want to try this control over here, which is a kind of a macro control, which does a lot of that for you. OK, if we move this joystick up to the top here, we get a more natural sound. At the bottom, we get a more artificial sound to the right, a more rich sound and to the left, a more intimate sound. Of course, you can move it around to many different areas within that control. So let's try this with a really rich sound. Natural rich sound and a more artificial intimate sound. So that's a great way of just getting the kind of sound you want. But as I say, you can dive in a lot more detail. For example, if you wanted to adjust the high frequencies, this is a time scale at the top here, and this is the high frequencies up here. You can just drag that around there so you get less effect from the high frequencies over time, you could increase the high frequencies like so, get rid of the effect in the low frequencies down here. We just drag all those around yet and you'll hear that now. And likewise, you can adjust things like decay over time. Yeah, with these controls down here, you can adjust the stereo spread so you can make it sound wider over time. Yeah, in that sort of decay of the reverb, it can get wider and wider and you can change the density as well. Lots and lots of fine control as well as some sort of automatic settings which you can use to set up your reverb. I've really only scratched the surface of this incredible plug-in. We've got things, you know, like filters that we can see down at the bottom here. We've got this infinite feature. Have a listen to this. I love that kind of stuff. It's not freeze, et cetera, et cetera. It's just one of the many things that you can do with this plug-in. If you wanted, you could use Smart EQ 3 just as a regular EQ. You could just double click on the line here, create a node, and then you can drag them around and then adjust things like the cue as well, of course, and that would be a very valid way to use this plug-in. But it's the smart features which really attract me. Let's reset that. I have acoustic guitar set as my profile at the top here. I'm going to click on the Learn button and then play the acoustic guitar. I'm going to analyze it and then come up with a suggested EQ curve. Let's do that now. And you can see I can adjust the intensity of that curve that it's suggested, that very detailed curve, I have to say, just by dragging this up and down, or I can even invert it like so and do that sort of thing. That's all very well and good, and you can often come up with a really good result like that. But what if you don't like some parts of that? For example, I'm not sure about the low end of that sound for this song. I could just drag this over here and then just ignore all that low end curve that's created over there, yeah, and just adjust the intensity on the high end there. Or another way I could do it, if I want to keep that low end, but just have it at a different intensity, is just sort of split this. So I've now got two adjustment areas here. Let's just move that one over there, that one over there. Now I can adjust the intensity of the high end and have the low end quite a lot less intense, okay? That's just an awesome way to use this particular feature. I'll get rid of that, and you can also see that you can have that curve and you can add your nodes in as we did earlier, and they will be adjusted, but still use that curve so you can adjust the intensity of that curve at a very sort of more micro level there if you want to. I love all of that about this particular plugin. But my favorite feature of all is where we apply it to several instruments at once. I've got this plugin inserted on a bass guitar track, on some drums, and also on some vocals, and they all together sound like this. Now one of the uses of EQ is to kind of carve out spaces for different instruments so that they can sort of shine. Now you can do this with this plugin by clicking at the top here, join group, okay? So I'll click on join group. I'm going to give my group a name. Let's call it band, oopsie, helps if you can type, band, okay? So we've got my band there, and its first member is that guitar, okay? You can see three different levels here, level one, level two, level three.  So naturally I want the vocals to be right at the front. So I'll just drag those up there like so. I've got some female and some male vocals in there, so I've put those at the top there. I've got the guitar in the middle and I'm going to put the bass and the drums for this particular song at the bottom here, okay? You can obviously just move the guitar down there and just have two levels like so, or do as you wish. What this does, it's subtle, I have to say, but what it does is it just really helps to carve out spaces for these instruments in the mix. So I've got this sound now. I never thought I'd need to. Never let us drift apart. I just love this feature. In the interest of time, I'm just gonna quickly go over the basic features of Smart Limit, a tool which is gonna be super useful to you when you come to mastering your music and making sure that it's loud enough in terms of competing with other songs around it and also that it meets the requirements of the platforms that you're releasing to. I'm gonna start off by using the Smart feature. I'm gonna select a genre of music at the top here. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I'll just go for say pop here, which definitely isn't perfect, but it'll be fine. And then I'm going to click on this learn button.  But as soon as it's done that, it's gonna apply its settings and things are likely to get quite a lot louder. So just make sure you do protect your ears. Let's analyze this song by clicking on this button and playing it.  I never thought I'd need to. Let us drift apart. So as you can hear, it got quite a lot louder and we can see the limiting it's doing with the red information at the top there. You've got your basic settings, which is for the peak limit here and also for your gain. You can also like the other plugin to control attack and release there. And you can also blend in some other options here like saturation at the bottom here. You can boost the bass and all that good stuff. Now over on the right hand side, I have my platform selected here, which is Spotify, okay?  Sometimes like me, you may be releasing to YouTube or SoundCloud, all that good stuff. But I'll be going for Spotify in this case. The lowest value or the recommended lowest value for Spotify is minus 14 dB there. So you can see that showing there. And we can see some information here about the dynamic range in this strip we should expect to be in and also how, where the loudness should be. As I play the song, you'll see this crosshair move a little bit, okay? Let's watch that. You should have killed me from the start. I never thought I'd need to. Never let us drift. When we play it for long enough and we see that kind of settle, then we get an idea of where our actual values are. One of the nice things that we can do is click on quality check here, okay? So I'll click on that and that is analyze this in terms of thinking about it for Spotify. And I've got two ticks here. The peak level is good for Spotify and the input gain looks good for Spotify. But if it wasn't, we could adjust those things. And also on the right hand side over here, it's informing me that Spotify will turn this track down by 4.9 decibels. Now I could go ahead and turn it down myself, but probably I could just leave it there and let Spotify do its work there. But that shows you what you should be expecting as a result there. That's a very, very brief overview of an incredibly good plugin, to be honest with you. That plugin is the last one that I'm gonna talk about in this bundle. And I wanna tell you that of course in that bundle, we have all four of the smart plugins from Sonoball that we've talked about today. That is the compressor, that's the limiter here, the reverb and the EQ. And all four of those are in the smart bundle that we can see over at Plugin Boutique. For all four together, you can currently get them for $218 there, down from $328. When you compare it to similar plugins from other manufacturers, we call them that, then this is really, really well-priced for some plugins. I think you could use across the board in your productions. Absolutely excellent. Make sure you click the link in the description down below.  I made a video all about that and you can click on that on the other side of the logo over there. And by the way, that's also on special Plugin Boutique at the moment, so make sure you check that out right away.


Well, Michelle asset news my name is Rob and usually we don't do a live stream during the week But I thought today we mix it up a little bit especially with what's going on in the market What I'm talking about is if you don't check your portfolio 20 times a day You might not have noticed that there was a little bit of a pullback now I'm be very careful in what I say and how I said I want to say it's a crash I don't want to say it's a dip. We're gonna say call it a pullback. Whatever you want to call It's we're in the red today bitcoins down at there was down everything's down You know in the last 24 hours and some are down. I mean precipitously there We have some some pretty big not like file coins down 6% who apto 7% over the week It's looking even worse 20% for fuck my holy smokes 14% for Shiva, you know and so on and so forth so the big question is why why is this going on and I Mean we can make guesstimations we can check to see what's happening But in all honesty, there's there are things that could lead us to why this is happening But in all honesty, I sometimes I just think it's just whales who just use this as an excuse to take some profits And then just move on move about their business, but if you have to look at one thing I suppose that is something we talked about yesterday. This was a video. We did it was a very short video yesterday It was about eight minutes long. We talked about How coinbase had come out and said look your funds are safe Well, we got this problem with Silvergate and Silvergate Is this bank that is being used by a lot of the centralized exchanges? Mostly for custody accounts and things like that and it looks like they're becoming insolvent and the reason why they're coming in Solvent is because of their association with FTX again. I never thought contagion Would just stop with all the little things that were going on a couple of months ago I always thought there'd be more contagion as time goes on and that's what's happening. So again, we cover this yesterday But this is a recap. This just come out came out yesterday as well later in the night but it says crypto industry distance itself from Silvergate as bank collapses and You know taking a look at this you might just be like well, is this really that awful? Yeah depends on on who you're asking but As far as like the players that are involved He got coinbase Paxos Galaxial Jim and I bit stamp crypto common circle Each issues they've been saying they have cut ties with Silvergate and this is another thing another concern micro strategy I guess they have a somewhat. I don't know how big of a loan it is But they've addressed concerns for its Silvergate loan in the event the bank faces insolvency. So Micro strategy involved again contagion. It's just kind of spreads its ugly tentacles and Attracts to everybody and the and here's one of the reasons why or one of the things that are going on that people may make this assumption Silvergate gave notice late Wednesday night after the stock market closed Of course that it won't meet a March 16th extension to file its annual report and Cast down on its ability to continue as a going concern over the next 12 months Basically, what it's saying is like look we thought we had it and we thought we're gonna make it but probably not So if you can't come out with your annual report on time, especially if you're a public trader company You got problems and that I think could Leap lend its way into the crypto market like we just seen and what happens Well, when there's that much uncertainty what gets happens what happens people panic or Whales sell and they use this as a as a as a prime reason just go. Oh, yeah, it's something else, you know, just this is the reason but When the price goes down you got to see a lot of liquidations and unfortunately You know shorts got got wrecked not too long ago. I mean you could see over here Wow and January 13th, you had almost 500 have a billion dollars of shorts were Wrecked and now it's the longs that get to play that game and they had Around 210 million of the longs were liquidated in a very short amount of time and people just get wiped away That's why I'm not a big Fan of that type of trading. I don't really trade too much, but that's for you.  Who knows me personally? I gotta tell you I'm actually kind of ecstatic this is happening because I've been dollar-cost averaging I switched over from micro DCA to full dollar-cost averaging and when I see these types of days I'm like, oh, thank goodness because hopefully we can go down and I can start to accumulate at cheaper prices and That also leads me to this which is the question then becomes is like well, how long and this is this is Ben's Time and risk bands and I like to take a look at this just to remind myself of just when the times are That we are in some some time frames of when it gets risky because you would think like today We'd be you know more of a risk level because we're down 4% almost 7% in the 7-day Time frame, but if you take a look at time and risk bands and again, this is just the percentage of time that we're in like Precarious position right now bitcoin is currently in the 0.3 to 0.4 risk band That's this 25% of time. This is where it's at So I know when people say, ah, there's a bit of a pullback and this is you know being bad This is awful in all honesty. We're in the same boring range that we've been me personally when I take a look at this I'm looking for risk band time frames like this 0.1 to 0.2 or even 0.0 to 0.1 only 3% of the time in bitcoins existence Has it been in this risk band? Also, if I really want to drill it down and this is when I want to actually buy You know when it starts to get down to these ranges, I start to increase my dollar cost averaging Dynamic dca and when it goes over here When you're in the 0.7 when you get super risky, that's when I think about selling It's not rocket science.  So not a big deal And I'll just think about that in the comment section and then let's finish up With a couple of good news. Well good points. I would say first of all sweat coin Uh, you know, I talk about this a lot because I'm biased and I own them. I own a lot of it so I was kind of surprised because sweat coins. It's a it's a It's a move to earn platform and we did a deep dive over on the secondary channel at dan d gen You can check it out. It's for the more risky plays But I didn't think it was gonna happen But the the sweat coin app which is depending on what where you look at It's either number one or number five of all Of the lifestyle and fitness apps. It's the number one or number five. It's like 200 million plus downloads And it went to web three and within two months it had 20 million Wallet downloads for the crypto wallet itself because it's uh, I think it's a good product but They avoided the us for obvious reasons gary genzler and the sec And they just put this out Yesterday on september 12th sweat and sweat wallet will be available to us users. What does that mean? This marks the one year anniversary on this date us residents, which you know on this show I'm one of those you probably are in my steps challenge and What it means is that the sweat coin that you accumulated which were just Coins were just tokens. You couldn't do swat with them. You could buy like little things on the app On september 12th You're going to be able to use those coins to sell them for whatever other crypto or if you want to get in a fiat You can do that on september 12th on this date us residents will be able to use a sweat wallet To receive their allocation of sweat in proportion to their current sweat coin holdings And start earning more tokens for their steps right away. So again, I'm kind of shocked This is actually going through And uh, I'll have the sweat coin team on I think that's a good news And maybe they know something we don't as far as regulatory issues and then speaking of regulatory issues Voyager just real quick I don't know what the sec is doing and we're going to talk about a story real quick about how the sec chair Gary Thinks that's all the all the crypto exchanges are unqualified custodians, but this wasn't was what happens Yesterday Uh, Voyager, if you don't remember went into bankruptcy and then they were going to get bought up by ftx ftx collapsed And now finance us is is trying to do the deal which would give the people 70 percent back Of what they had on the platform and now out of nowhere The sec shows up at the hearing one of the lawyers and says hey This can't go through because we think that vgx token is a security. That's to what happened So this is what this is what it is Voyager bankruptcy judge says he's absolutely shocked By sec objection to the finance us deal So what they're saying is like if you have a voyager and I don't care if you have or not I mean if you think about this imagine the sec coming and going hey You know, it's great that you're trying to make everybody whole at least 70 percent But we don't want you to do that. Here's what's happening US bankruptcy court judge michael wiles appeared skeptical attempt by the sec to stop a purchase by finance us The securities regulator said the one billion dollar deal should be blocked because voyager's token could constitute an unregistered security And this was a judge said to the sec council goes you're gonna come here and you're gonna tell me That I should stop everybody in their tracks because you might not that they have an issue But you might have an issue and he states this is verbatim. It's kind of a weird objection He said he was absolutely shocked saying it was it was asking you voyager to to prove a negative meaning They have to prove that it's a security with little guidance from the regulator Judge says I got the feeling this objection has been made as kind of a cover So you can say we've raised the issues. You haven't really done anything. I didn't know the specifics So the sec council william up to grove said That creditors had not been sufficiently warned of regulatory risks But the client take a definitive position whether vgx was a security. So again, they're trying to stop this because they think Hey, hey, wait, wait, this is a cure. You can't do this amazing How the the sec operates, but they give no guidance and on a side note Little entertainment here for you. This is from vgx heroes and there was a There was a creditor He was at this hearing yesterday And at no limit all ski and you can follow him at no limit all ski and uh, he got ejected And barred from further proceedings After he stood up and he called judge while as a fraud And all the lawyers were criminals robbing creditors in plain sight. Now, that's the tone down version I can't tell you exactly what he said But this person just stood up in the court and was like you guys are crooks You're a piece of dad and I can't believe this blah blah blah is going on and of course he got he got ejected I just thought it was a fast thing that people Will we'll go to these these limits because I can understand everybody's got their limits I'm reaching mine, but uh, I gotta tell you I followed him just for that. So Let me think about that in the comments I think it's interesting the sec and people are losing their patience which I can totally understand and lastly sec again and I thought this this one was interesting and the reason why is because Maybe Gary's right in this one. I know this is hard to think but listen to this So the sec chair implies that crypto exchanges may not be qualified custodians as a new rule is drafted And really it comes down to this. This is the stuff you're gonna see The round table show. I don't know who they are, but sure And this is the title us sec chief chair gary gambler says crypto exchanges are not qualified custodians Foreign investors assets saying They can't be relied upon must be highly scrutinized calls for congress to grant changes the custody rule If you read it just like that you're like That's so be I can't believe you said it I get it because when I read that I'm like well Here he goes gary, which is what we just talked about in the last one However, this is what he wants He states just because a crypto trading platform claims to be a qualified custodian doesn't mean that it is When these platforms fail fdx celsius Voyager block five investors assets often become property of the failed company And are prone to clawbacks Leaving investors in the line of the bankruptcy court And here's what he wants To be a qualified custodian Just to be a qualified custodian are the on this new rule a firm would need to ensure that all assets are properly segregated Meaning not commingled. Does that make sense to you? Is that reasonable? You have to submit to annual audits from public accounts You know like things we've been talking about Merkle tree audits and uh, which is open to public and also proof of reserves and proof of liabilities And undertake other transparency measures I don't know what that means because they didn't really go into details, but let me ask you a question real quick Let's just say for example brian armstrong And seize you binance come out and they say, you know what we want to do guys We want to make this more transparent because we know there's been some problems and what we're going to do Is we're going to update our terms of service and it's going to specifically say that that we're going to ensure That all assets are properly segregated And we're going to make it very simple for you to see also We're going to submit to annual audits from public accounts And we're going to let you guys see that we can do the merkle tree approvers There's proof of liabilities But also we're going to add another layer As outside third party accounts are going to come in and they're going to do their audit And also We're going to do some other transparency measures to make sure that you feel comfortable with what we're doing to make Sure that the junk that happened with the ftx celsius and voyagers will not happen again Would that be okay with you? If brian armstrong And seize you binance came out did a joints press conference and said that Now flip that around And now it's gary gemtzer that said that The question then is the last question i'll say is this is Is it just a narrative or some of these things right? I don't know let me just think about that in the comments, but that is it for today So look, we hey we did pretty good 15 minutes on a live stream Didn't ramble too much and that is it for today So look we'll do the q&a i'll answer all your questions. That was everybody's favorite part I I can totally get with you on that also if in the Puerto Rico area on sunday We're going to do a meet-up. We walk shelter dogs at amigos de los animales Follow me on twitter and we do that every sunday morning 8 a.m Walk them on the boardwalk on the beach Something good to do We talk crypto. I treat everybody to breakfast afterwards and that's it So look like this video thumbs up subscribe all that good stuff now. Let's get into the fun times, which is qi All right, let's do this. So let's see


We're going to be on the back seat obviously and then our job mainly is to be in control of the air to ground munitions and target those appropriately. So while the pilot is pretty much in charge of the air to ground realm, we're in charge of the air to ground realm. We told them where the bombs are going to go and when we're not doing that we're just backing up the pilot as much as able and serving as a co-pilot for him as well. It's important because every mission is a different scenario that incorporates both the air to ground and the air to ground. So duties are divided between the front seat and the back seat. They're looking at the air to air picture while we're actually targeting those weapons hitting the targets that we need to achieve the double meaning on and then it gets much harder when you're actually integrating with a lot of aircraft in the same airspace. So having to have that readiness up and be able to navigate through all of that really bring heightens our training per se. Yes, pretty much every day we've been integrating with the Hellenic forces with the Italians with the Israelis, all of them actually tackling each one of these scenarios. We've done several different mission sets and next week it's going to get even better. We're going to get to drop live munitions on life ranges which will bring our readiness up even higher. Well, it's very important to actually be able to integrate that closely with our maintenance because they are the ones that get those jets up in the air every day and every night. So they're doing a hell of a job doing that and keeping our combat readiness at a high level right now. Going back to integrating with other forces, it is really important for us to integrate jointly with other foreign nations because not every time other forces will do the job the way we do it. So it's that amount of flexibility that needs to be incorporated into the mission planning as well as to the execution for a greater mission success. I couldn't pinpoint what my favorite part of having to attend any of those having the opportunity to attend this exercise would be but integrating with our allied nations and especially the Hellenic forces which have been hosting this exercise, their camaraderie and their hospitality all across the board has been a great thing. We've loved it and having the chance to also explore the country, their culture, their monuments, it's been amazing as well.


My name is Sam Battenin, and I am the author of Malignancy of Love, Narcissism Revisited. The following piece of short fiction describes the process of swindling. How a conman, a scammer, lures his prey, infiltrates his victim's mind, converts him to the cause in a shared psychosis, tune in, and watch the process unfolding. Swayed in luminosity, we steer with measured competence our amber drinks in long-stemmed glasses. You're weighing my offer, and I'm waiting for your answer with a hushed endurance. The armchairs are soft, the lobby is luxurious, it defeats five-star hotels. I'm not tense, I've anticipated your response even before I made my move. Soon, your temples sheathed in perspiration. You use the outfit's thick paper napkins to wipe it off, and I'm watching. You loosen your tie. You pretend to be immersed in calculations. You express strident dissatisfaction, and I feign recoil as though intimidated by your loudness. Withdrawing to my second line of events, I surrender to your simulated rage. The signs are here. The gestures. The infinitesimal movements that you cannot control. And I lurk. I know the definite look. That imperceptible twitch. The inevitability of your surrender. I'm a conman, and you are my victim. Swindle is unfolding here and now, in this very atrium. Amid all the extravagance, I'm selling your soul, and I'm collecting the change. And sharpened, like a raw nerve, firing impulses to you, receiving yours. An electrical chemical dialogue consisting of your smelly sweat, my scented exudation. I permeate your cracks.  You see, I know you. I know you. And now I've got to meld us into one, as dusk gives way to nights. You trust me as you do yourself, for now I am nothing less than you. I am you. Having adopted your particular gesticulations, I even nod approvingly with every mention of your family. I know you do not like me.  You know me for a bilker. You realize I'll break your heart. And you know, and I know, that we both are choiceless. You comprehend this. You see, it's not really about money. Emotions are at stake. I share your depths of loneliness and pain. Sitting opposed, I see the child in you, the adolescent. I discern the bleeding sparkle in your eyes, your shoulders stooping in the very second that you decided to succumb to me. I'm hurting for what I do to you. And I'm hurting for what I am about to do to you. My only consolation is the inexorability of nature, my nature, your nature, the world's nature, in which we find ourselves in not of our choice. And still, we are here, you know. So, I empathize with you. I empathize with you without speech, without motion.  I am your only friend. I am the monopolist of your invisible cries, your inner hemorrhage of salty tears, the tissues scar that you have become, that has become your being.  I've been abused, you've been abused.   Without abuse, your life is nothing but an anecdotal stream of randomness. And I deal the final overwhelming kudigrass that will transform the torn sheets of your biography to a plot which will imbue your life with meaning. It isn't everyday someone meets a cheat. Such confident encounters can render everything explain. Don't give it up. It is a gift of life not to be frivolously dispensed with. It is a test of worthiness. I think that you qualify. And I am the structure. And I am the target that you've been searching for and seeking. And here I am. And now, we are bound by money. And we are bound by blood. In our common veins flows the same alliance that dilates our pupils. We hail from one beginning. We separate it, or later unite again. At once, in this hotel, this late, and you exclaim, I need to trust you like I do not trust another soul. You beseech me not to betray your faith. Perhaps not so explicitly, but both your eyes are moist. Reflecting your vulnerability in my advantage. So, I gravely radiate my utter guarantee of splendid outcomes. No hint of treason here. Concurrently, I'm plotting your emotional demise. It's your request, not mine. It is an act of amity, of mercy, to rid you of the very cause of your infirmity. I am the instrument of your delivery, your liberation. I will deprive you of your ability to feel, to trust, to believe. When we diverge, I will have molded you anew. You will be much less susceptible, much more immune, much stronger, the essence of resilience. This is my gift to you, and you are surely grateful in advance. Thus, when you demand my fealty, you say, Do not forget our verbal understanding, and when I vow my loyalty I answer, I shall not forget to stab you in the back. And now, the terms completed and understood, Let's go to the transaction. I study you. I train you to ignore my presence, and argue with yourself with the utmost sincerity. I teach you not to resent your weaknesses. So, you admit to them. And I record all your confessions to be used against you to your benefit at a future date. Denuded of defenses, I leave you wounded by embezzlement called contemptible exposure. And in the meantime, it's only warmth and safety, intimacy of empathy, the propinquity of mutual understanding. All these I provide. I provide. I only ask of you one thing. The fullest trust. A willingness to yield. I remember having seen the following in an art house movie. It was kind of a test. To fall, spread ego from a high embankment, and to believe that I will be there to catch you and break your little plunge. I'm telling you that I'll be there. Yet, you know I will not. Your craving is none of my concern. I only undertook to bring you to the brink. And this promise I fulfilled. And now it's up to you to climb it. It's up to you to tumble into the depths of your own abyss, not mine. I must not hold your crash. You have to recompose. It is my contribution to the transformation that metastasized in you long before we met. I do not feel responsible, or guilty, or blame-worthy. But you are not yet at the stage of internalizing these veracities. You still naively link faint geniality to constancy, intimacy and confidence in me and my deeds, proximity and full disclosure. You are so terrified and mutilated that you can't evaluate.  One tear is enough to alter your allegiances.  You crave my touch, my affection. And I crave your information, your unbridled faith. So here is my friendship, here is my caring, my tenderness, my amity.  So go the words of this in the audible dialogue between us. Just give me your utter, blind trust, but limited to one point only.  I need to know about your funds, the riddles of your boardroom, commercial secrets, your skeletons, some intimate detail, a fear, a resurgent hatred, the envy that consumes you. I don't presume to be your confidant, our sharing is confined to the pecuniary. Don't worry, I love you into the relief that comes with much reduced demands. But you are an experienced businessman. You surely recognize my tactics. You employ them too, from time to time. Still, you're both seduced and tempted. The only condition of maintaining independent thinking. Well, almost independent. There's a tiny crack in your cerebral armor, a chink. And I'm there to thrust right through it and into your heart. I'm ready to habituate you. I'm ready to inhabit you. I'm in full control, let's say. So where's the threat? And truly, where's the threat? There's none. There's only certainty. The certitude I offer you throughout our game. Sometimes I even venture, I say, I'm a crook to be avoided.  And when I'm finished warning you, you say, but where the danger lies? My trust in you is limited indeed, but it is there. So I lurk, awaiting your capitulation, inhabiting the margins, the twilight zone to excrete and paranoia. I'm a viral provision, invading avaricious membranes, preaching a gospel of death and resurrection. Your death, your rising from the dead. Assuming the cultures of my host, I abandon you, deformed in dissolution. And there's no respite, not even for a day, not even for a minute. You're addicted to my nagging, to my penetrating gaze, instinctive sympathy. You're haunted, and I don't let go. You're engulfed, cocooned. I'm a sawmaker of eerie insight, unselfish acumen, your body's snatcher. I wish you need myself for your minutest needs. I thrive on servitude. I leave no doubt that my self-love is acceded only by my love for you. So I'm useful, when you are a user. I'm available, when you avail yourself. But haven't you heard that there are no free lunches? My restaurant is classy, the prices most exorbitant. The invoices accumulate with every smile I give, every word of reassurance, every anxious inquiry as to your health, every sacrifice I make, however insubstantial and imaginary. I keep accounts in my unstated books, and you rely on me for every double entry. And the voices I instill in you, you say to yourself, he gives so much of himself through though largely unrewarded. And you feel ashamed, you feel compelled to cope and save you. It is a seed of Trojan guilt. I harp on it by mentioning others who decrypt me. I count on you to do the rest. There's nothing more potent than egotistic love combined with raging culpability. In your mind to do it is a wish. It is your wish that I embody and reify and ultimately possess. And so the vice is tightened. Now it's time to ponder whether to feed on you at once or to scavenge your remains. You're already dying.  And doing it will further make you ill.  You hope against all odds that I'm a soulmate. And how does it feel, the solitude? Feels horrible. A few days with me and you cannot recall how it was. But I cannot remember how it feels to be together. You cannot recall the solitude. I cannot recall our togetherness. I cannot waive my loneliness, my staunch companion. When I'm with you, eat prosperous. And you must pay for that. I have no choice but to have scorned with your possessions, lest I remain bereft. With utmost ethics I keep you well informed of these dynamics and you acknowledge my fragility which makes you deserous to solve my wounds. It is your fault and your fault only that you are here. But I maintain the benefit of your surprise, the flowing motion. Always at an advantage over you because you are interchangeable. I, on the other hand, cannot be replaced as far as you are concerned. You are a loyal subject of your psychic state while I am a denizen of the eternal hunting grounds. There's no limits there, no boundaries. Only the nostrils quivering at the game. The surging musculature, the body fluids, the scent of decadence, the rush of adrenaline. Sometimes, I admit, the prey becomes a predator, but only for a while. Admittedly, it's possible. You might still turn the tables only, but you don't want to. You crave so to be hunted, the orgiastic moment of my proverbial bullets penetrating your willing flesh. The rape, the violation, the metaphoric blood and love you are no longer satisfied with any compromises but your own disintegration. You want to die having experienced this eruption once, this climax. For what is life without such infringement, if not near ripening concluding in decade? What sense does men, apart from beasts, is our ability to self-deceive and swindle others?  And so, I trek the unpaved pathways between my truth and your delusions. What am I? Am I a fiend? Am I perhaps an angel? A weak, disintegrating apparition or a triumphant growth? I'm devoid, devoid of conscience in my own reflection. It is a cause for mirth. My complex is binary, to fight, to flight, well or ill, which would have been this way or I was led astray. I am the blinding merceness that never sets, not even when I sleep. It overwhelms me too, but also renders me far-sighted. It taught me my survival, strike before your struck, abandon before your trashed, control before you're subjugated. Okay, so what do you have to say to all this now? I told you everything. You haven't said a word. Perhaps you knew it all before. You grasp how dire my need is for your blood, your pain, the traumatic coma that will follow. They say that one's death bequiths another's life. It is the most profound destination to will existence, to your pining duplicate. It is an intercourse, physically unplump and short. My face is uncontrived and smiling. When I'm serious, I'm told I'm like a battered and deserted child. This provokes in you an ancient cuddling instinct. When I am proximate, your body and your soul are unrestrained. I watch you kindly in the artificial lighting of this magnificent vestibule, bounces of my glasses. My eyes are cradled in blackened pouches of withered skin. I draw your gaze by sigh sadly and rubbing them with wary hands. And you incline your body. You gulp this fecant libation. You want to shield me. You become protective and you sign the document. You sign the document and then leaning back, you shut, exhaust the dyes. There is no doubt you have realized your error. You know it's a mistake. There is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do about it. The exhilaration of the prey, the exhilaration of the hunt. It's not too late. The document lies there. It's ready for the tearing. But you refrain. You do not touch it. You will not do it. Instead, you ask another drink perhaps. And I smile. My chubby cheeks angelic. My wary glasses sparkle. And I say no thank you.


Hey there friends, how's it going? My name is Kevin and today we're playing some GTA 5 Chaos as you can see for yourself. Unless you thought this was just the normal game, in which case maybe you'll get your eyes checked or something. And then I'll go get my ears checked. Anyway, I've picked out some of my favorite missions from the game that we're gonna try and complete with the Chaos Mod and it's gonna be brutal, so stick around. This should make it nice and easy. I got Super Run and Super Jump.  They're gonna think I'm like a legit superhero. Oh no, I was gonna say I'm saving the damsel in distress, but now I just hit her onto the ground and I'm dying. Okay, that was a bad run. That was a very bad run. That was a terrible start. I was gonna say maybe I should listen to the phone call to see what I actually have to do, but... Hey Molly, I'm outside the studio. Alright. I don't know if I can listen to this. For f**k... My Super Run and Super Jump ran out when I was mid-air and now I'm just ragdolled. Can I just go into this movie? Can I be in this movie? Please, f**k! What?  I think it'll be cinematic. Goddammit, alright, run away, run away. Oh, I don't think the car would be in this no parking area.  Honestly, I could be a lost extra and you're opening fire on me. Out of my way. That gets uppercut for no reason whatsoever. They're chasing me all over the lot. I've just confused them, but I don't know where I'm going. What? What? The effect is nail guns. Why am I stuck? Oh no, he's not stuck. Okay, that's great. Ignite all nearby pets. Music to my ears. God, that was a bit terrifying. But that means I'm free to wander around wherever and just find the car. There it is, right in the middle. Oh, that was lucky. If I didn't get into it in time, all the cars were exploded, including this one. Oh, I got the car resprayed, you know, to cover my tracks. But I don't think they're going to like the respray. All right, I think I've lost them using all these spikes. This is a really cool mission. I like this one. The stardom had me feeling a little blue, but I'm blue again. I'm blue. Okay, I'm happy again. Oh my god. My happiness is turning to frustration and the blink of an eye. All those vehicles honking at me.  As if I wasn't annoyed enough. It's moving up, you know. It's moving up. Everyone on the studio a lot burned to death. All right, mission passed. That was relatively painless. I mean, for me, not the people who burned to death. All right, this mission is minor turbulence. Anything involving planes in the chaos mod is a recipe for disaster. So that's kind of why I had to pick it really. You're a good man. Oh, the Stockholm syndrome really set in quick with her, didn't it? Oh god, where did everything go? Outside is gone. We're stuck in this trailer forever. She's got the ray gun. Wait a second. She's a ray gun too. Michael, be careful with her. She's dangerous. Oh no, one hit KO. That's not good. I'm in first person driving.  Please be a checkpoint. I just have a feeling I'm going to die. I just, okay, no, not too bad. Just allow me vehicles. All right. False alarmy on my behalf then. Oh, there's the plane. It's actually easier to see when there's no sky. I don't know why there's no sky. I don't understand. I don't, it doesn't look like I have any effect that should make the sky disappear. Maybe this is just how the game looked and I've just forgotten everything about how vanilla GTA looks. Disabled forward backwards movement. Please don't kill my plane. Please don't kill my plane. Please don't kill my plane. Oh no, no, it's slowing. It's slowing. It's slowing. Come on. We're off. We're off. We're off. We're off. Come on. Oh no. Now I got to maintain a certain speed. For feck's sake. I can't feck and see anything. This is just awful. I'm just the lonely guy out dusting his crops. Dusting his crops this high in the sky. I got a lot of crops. Really? Shoot me down. Well, that seems a little extreme, doesn't it?  I wouldn't really tempt them here. Passivist. Okay.  I'm honestly worried about checkpoints here. Oh no, no, no. There's people. There's people. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Can you be pacifist too, please? Oh my God. I almost dodged into that one. Okay. I got it. That works. I was a bit worried there. I thought I failed and I was a bit concerned. They're back alive. Okay. Oh yeah. I was a pacifist. Oh my God. I forgot. Please let there be a checkpoint. All right. If you can just wait for me a second. I'm still a pacifist. Please stop pushing up on me. Please stop.  I'm out of here. I'm a pacifist. What do I do? Still a pacifist. Still a pacifist. Still a pacifist. Reloading. Still a pacifist. I'm not a pacifist anymore. I changed my mind. I'm deciding that lifestyle is not for me. The box I was standing on just went bye-bye. I should be careful here. Things are rolling my way. I get up there. I want a checkpoint. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.  Cockpit.  So bad. All right. He's not even dead. Hold on. All right. There we go. He's dead. Oh, there's bees in the cockpit. Bees. I'm dying to bees as I fly this thing. I'm kind of amazed that I didn't die yet so far. Like on the planes. That was nothing short of a miracle. And I don't know lightning can strike twice. I got to make it all the way back in this thing. Spawn random enemy. Wait, hold on. Oh, no. I've been hijacked. Oh, no. Can I just explain it to them? Get out of their jump. Yep. That didn't work at all. Oh, wait. Hold on. Maybe he did. Oh, wait. What? What is going on? Where's that random enemy? Are they going to follow me? Please don't follow me. I think I just broke that mission normally. Chaos mod assigned. I jumped way too soon. I just saw the chaos mod thing was about to happen. So I was like, heck it.  Why did it have to get foggy? I can't see a thing. I think I'm like under the map here in the void or something. All right. There's a tower. That means I'm probably close to the ground, right? Okay. I can hear people. Ah, no. Don't teleport me. Teleport me a few meters. Why couldn't you teleport the shoe with me? And let's try this again. At least I won't have the fog to deal with this time, I guess. I'm saying gravity.  Oh God. He's surrendering. He's done. His legs are just bent. I wish I could open my shoe, but it will not allow me. There you go. I had to land on the shallow end, didn't I? At least the game is punishing me now when the checkpoint isn't too bad. I was a bit more worried in the plane. Like that's why it jumped out so early. Uh-oh. Wait, I can drive this? I did not know you could drive this thing out of here. Let me try it. I'm very curious. There goes the cargo. And there goes the plane. Still no sky. Our first person. Fantastic. I'm jumping out. I do not trust this. Hold on, hold on. This is a little bit terrifying, but I got... Where was my parachute? All right, I lived somehow. That's the main thing. Oh, nature's healing, everyone. Whales are coming back to the lake. They're all dead, but at least they're back. Come on, get on dry land. I want this mission to be over. And this one was a bad idea. Too many opportunities to go wrong. Disabled backwards or forwards movement. Okay, I'll just sidestep my way to safety. There we go. Mission passed. Not too bad. I gotta say that one went kind of okay. All things considered. Just a little bit of torture. Not too much. Oh, great. We're getting this cutscene in portrait mode to make it extra cinematic. This is if my mom shot the cutscenes in GTA V. This is just uncomfortable. Feel like I'm just watching the game through Snapchat. Great. As if it wasn't bad enough, I have blurry, out-of-focus portrait mode. I can't even see them.  Revive deadpeds. Oh, we can just do that spell again if he dies. Lamar will be fine. I like how Franklin's just hanging out in his own house wearing sunglasses just to make himself feel cool. You know, you gotta respect that. And I'm gonna need some help. Well, everyone's invincible, so I'm definitely gonna need some help. Like, if I'm gonna get the whole gang that are invincible, I'm just gonna have to, like, put concrete blocks in their feet and put them in the ocean so they're just stuck there for good. I'm a little worried how quick that solution came to me. I'm really sorry. I don't have any free cars right now. Oh, but I can't move left or right. You gotta help me out here. All right, I guess I'm doing this ramp then. Oh, well, it was fun being alive. Oh, no. Oh, that was too close. Can we just gently use the cliff to turn, perhaps? Slightly. There we go. Okay, now I'm pointing the right way. Please stop jumping. Please, please stop. Please, please stop. Hold on. Do as the sign says. Just stop. The trip is just running in there. I think you got the right idea, to be fair. We got to get this over with. Speed is what you need with the Chaos Mod before it affects you over. Oh, we're doing a night assault. That might be a good idea. Okay, that's just some ruined car. I'm not going with their strategy of splitting up. I just want to go to the closest checkpoint. They're not shooting me amazingly. I just kind of ran in here. Oh, they didn't flip off vehicles. I didn't even take notice that the thing is stuck in the ground. At some point, you just get desensitized to the Chaos. Some things just seem normal. I changed to Trevor and he was shooting Franklin. What was that? Wait, Franklin? What? Betrayal, lad. What? Betrayal of the highest order. I don't understand. Why did you do that? I swapped to Michael. Oh, for fuck's sake. Stop it, Lamar. He's shooting me with a nail gun, and I don't know why. Is it because Peds Riot? Is that it? Everyone's just attacking each other? I can't believe that. I feel so betrayed. And what is it with nail guns and making me turn into a mine? Did he just say he'd catch my bullet? Because if so, he's a man of his word. God, these guys are not very smart. Why is this mission so easy? I thought it was much harder. Oh, return to Lamar. Why is he up there? He's just standing there. Is it because he's blind? Okay, I can't really blame him, then. Lamar, it's me. Can you hear me? Follow the sound of my voice. Get in. There you go, buddy old pal. Let's get out of here. Shit, I'll fly. I'm spraying. Oh my god. That was a lot of screaming. Whoever got hurt there. Um, can I get a cab? Oh no. I'll try and find another car then, I guess. Lamar, I'll be back. I have no vehicle. I can't do anything. I have no car. If only we could take the plane. Great. Mercenaries. Is that plane trying to take off? You know what? At least because of the mercenaries, I have a vehicle. But on the downside of the mercenaries, there's mercenaries. Lamar, could you please get in? I have no tires. Oh my god. Oh, for fuck's sake. Oh, hell, my WQ is stuck. Fantastic. Fantastic. That's great. As if it wasn't hard enough to drive. Come on, go, go, go. This is my only shot at getting into this tunnel.  Oh my god. Look at my health. Jesus Christ. That was too close. Random tire popping. Really? I was just going to say, at least that can affect me. I don't have any tires, but they spawned tires just there popping on me. And there's a train. There's a train and my WQ is stuck. Lamar, get out. Lamar, Lamar, get out of the car. Lamar. It was lovely knowing you, Lamar. You were a lovely gentleman. I gotta say it was great being your friend. Oh, that whole chain of events was just wild. Trevor is still just chilling down there. You know what? I'll take it. Yes, I would like a buzzard. All right, Lamar, get off the car. You're going to get chopped up by the blades.  Please, just cooperate. Thank you so much. Two-timer speed. No, I don't need extra effects. That's not what I need right now. And I don't need a cinematic vehicle. Can't eat it. No, no, no, no, no. Don't sit for the player into random. It set me into the passenger seat and just yeeted Lamar out. Oh, that was too good to be true, I guess.  Yeah. Yeah, yes, he is. Oh, for fuck's sake. He was literally on top of me when I spawned. All right, he yeeted me over here. Maybe I can actually get him now. Why are you not dying? Cleopage and shooting now. Spawned a bus. No, we don't need public transport right now. All vehicles are still invulnerable for a second or two. Can we get into this chopper and get out of here? It's up against the rock, so won't live unless I have that effect. Okay, there we go. All right, hop in. Lamar, Lamar, I swear to God, I will actually just chop you up for fun at this rate. Are you? All right, Lamar, I'll give you one more chance to get inside of my vehicle. Please get in. I think it's making up for me having such good luck with transport earlier by just doing everything bad now. Why is Michael just chilling there? Okay, the engine is failing. Where's the funeral? You're going to have another funeral here in a second when the train comes. Oh, I just hope it's not mine or Lamar's. Is this timed? Is this intentional? Go around, please. No! That timing, that feckin' timing. Oh my God, he feckin' lived somehow. The Chaos Mud just has a way of doing this, where it combines two pretty innocent situations to make something terrible. Oh my God, he looks worse for wear. Was that the train that did that to your face, or was it just the mission in general? God, he looks wrecked. I thought we was homies for life.  I set up these fireworks, Lamar, to celebrate our friendship. That would really save this moment. What's up, playa? Were they just waiting around the corner the whole time? They're sneaky. I guess it's not hard when all those fireworks are gone off to be stealthy. Franklin tired. As soon as it ends, he just collapses on the floor. Lamar down, no Franklin down. All right, we are going to end it there, folks. I hope you enjoyed the video. Let me know if you did. Subscribe if you're new, and I hope to see you tomorrow. Bye for now.


So now that we understand on Etsy, how to set our shipping policies and our return policies, and then we can use those policies when importing those products on our Autodesk account, we can choose that specific policy. What do you actually do once a buyer reaches out to you and wants to return the product? I mean, you've got the policy, but how do you actually go around with the return and replacement? So if you offer free returns in your store policies, as you can see right here in the cheat sheet, all you have to do is coordinate with the buyer through Etsy's messages and send a return label. There are no cases like there are in eBay, so the buyer is simply going to reach out to you and you're going to have to enter them. So providing customer service is one of the most important things when it comes to handling your Etsy seller account. If you want to make your sales and profits and keep your Etsy seller account healthy and active for years and years on end, you have to provide excellent customer service. And the way to do that is to check messages from your buyers every day. I showed you where the messages section is in your Etsy dashboard, so take advantage of that and make sure that at least once per day you're going through your messages to see if you have anything that your buyers need from you. So once again, if you offer free returns, you're going to have to get the return label from your supplier and send it to the buyer through Etsy's messaging service. Then once the item is returned, since you've got the tracking information on the return label, you can track it.  Now if you offer paid returns, which means you will return the product but the buyer is going to pay for it, then in this case, you simply need to send the buyer the return address. The buyer is going to let you know what the tracking information number is and you're going to track the shipment. Once it returns to your supplier, same thing. You're going to get a refund and you can issue the refund to your Etsy customer as well. And if you don't offer returns at all, well, you can just tell the buyer that you do not offer returns and it says so in your policies. But what happens to the fees that you paid Etsy? You already paid the 6.5% transaction fee, you already paid the 4% payment processing fee and any other fee that you had to pay on top of that, maybe an ad fee or anything else. So if you send a refund to the buyer, how about you getting a refund from Etsy? So you don't really have to worry about that because once you send a refund through the Etsy shop manager, Etsy will reimburse your seller account with the seller fees that were associated with that order. However, there are sellers who offer returns for more than 180 days, that's more than six months. So if you're one of those sellers that's giving the customers this great advantage in your service, if you send a refund after 180 days, you cannot send that refund through the Etsy shop manager. It's got a limit of 180 days. Once you exceed that, you'll have to send the buyer a refund through PayPal or any other payment processing service. And in this case, Etsy will not reimburse you for your selling fees. So think really hard before you decide to give more than 180 days returns. In my case, it's best to give 30 to 60 days if your supplier can offer it and that's really all that you need to provide great customer service and gain the customer's trust in purchasing from your store.