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Going swimming? Here are four local waterways you should avoid this weekend WCBD News 2
No matter what you drive, here’s what you should do if your vehicle catches fire:
• Pull over as soon as you can and shut off the car. This stops the flow of fuel in gasoline-powered cars and shuts down the powertrain and accessories in EVs.
• Get yourself and your passengers out of the car as quickly as possible. The National Fire Protection Association recommends staying at least 100 feet away from the car. It’s also a good idea to stay upwind of the burning car, if possible, to avoid inhaling toxic smoke and to stay out of the path of the potential spread of wind-driven fire.
• Call 911 or have another motorist make the call to get emergency services on their way as soon as possible.
• Attempt to put out the fire only if you have clear access to the source from outside the car, have a suitable fire extinguisher and know how to use it correctly, and can maintain a safe distance away from the car. Only use an extinguisher approved for Class B or Class C fires; a label on the extinguisher will identify which kind of fire it’s suitable for. Unless the fire is small and localized to a specific part of the car, avoid it. Wait for the professionals to arrive if the car is engulfed in flames.
• Never open the hood or trunk if you suspect there’s a fire inside; the additional air flowing in could cause the fire to enlarge.
• Be aware of your surroundings. Never stand on an active roadway. If you’re parked at the side of the road, stay far behind the vehicle to avoid being hit if another car strikes your vehicle.
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The Dark Side Of Melanin And How To Avoid It Happi
The San Antonio Spurs are entering their most important offseason of the past decade and maybe one of the most important in the history of their franchise. Luck already bounced their way at the NBA Draft Lottery, but that doesn't mean they're completely out of the woods yet.
You could forgive Spurs fans for still riding high from their team winning the first overall pick. After all, it's not every day you earn an opportunity to select a franchise-altering player like Victor Wembanyama. But picking Wemby is just the beginning for San Antonio.
Over the last few weeks, we've outlined outside the box ways the Spurs can utilize Wembanyama, free agents they should sign to bring out the best in him, and other first-round caliber players they could move up to take their 2023 draft haul to even greater heights.
As simple as it sounds, the Spurs really just have to avoid a catastrophic screw-up to make this pairing with Wembanyama work. He's that talented. Building around him should be fun, but that doesn't mean it's risk-free either. There are mistakes the Spurs must avoid this summer as they construct a contending team around their star rookie.
In the intricate labyrinth of human behavior, nothing is quite as bewildering or potentially damaging as the insidious tactics of a narcissist.
If you often find yourself doubting your own reality or questioning your worth, you could be a pawn in a narcissist’s subtle game of manipulation.
From romantic relationships to the workplace, discover the sneaky ways narcissists manipulate you and, more importantly, learn how to ingeniously sidestep these traps and regain control.
At the beginning of a relationship, narcissists may shower you with excessive attention, compliments, and affection in a tactic called love bombing.
They do this to make you feel special, gain your trust quickly, and put your guard down.
It’s easy to see why this works. We all love to be showered with attention and love, and once we get it, it’s challenging to take a step back and re-evaluate things. I mean, we’re getting love BOMBED here.
To avoid this trap, you must try to set a healthy pace in your relationships. Ensure you maintain your independence and individuality in your relationships and evaluate the motives of those rushing intimacy.
After love bombing, be wary of this next way of manipulating.
Devaluation, as its name says, is a strategy that manipulators and narcissists use to make you feel worthless in your own eyes. The result is that you become more dependent on them.
To do that, they’ll use criticism, insults, and even neglect.
This last one comes as quite a shock after we’ve been at the center of attention for some time.
To counter their strategy, you’ll need to remember your strengths and accomplishments.
Do not let the narcissist define your worth or make you feel less valuable.
However, be aware that they might want to hook you back in with this next powerful tactic.
Silent treatment often serves as a punishment and a way to make you feel anxious and desperate for their attention.
They accomplish this by withdrawing all communication and affection and basically ignoring you.
DON’T chase after them. I know it’s easier said than done, especially if you’re fighting with reduced confidence and self-worth.
On the other side, you need to prioritize your emotional well-being. Even if they weren’t a narcissist, do you really want to be with someone who just flat-out ignores you?
Perhaps you weren’t a good fit, and it’s time to move on. There’s (still) plenty of fish in the sea.
Projection is a classic way of manipulating people. In most individuals, it happens subconsciously, but it doesn’t make it right, though.
Narcissists often project their own flaws, insecurities, or wrongdoings onto others. If they accuse you of behaviors or motives they possess themselves, they do it to deflect blame and maintain their self-image.
Here are a few examples of projection:
And so on. It’s an endless list, really.
But how do we recognize and counter this classic behavior? It all comes down to recognizing these patterns, knowing yourself, and remembering your own actions and behaviors.
This last point will be extremely important for this next phase.
Gaslighting has gained a lot of attention in recent years. However, it’s not a new phenomenon. If you aren’t sure what it is, it’s when others make you question your perception of reality.
They may deny things they said or did, twist the facts, or make you doubt your memory. If you’ve never encountered this before, it can be quite shocking but also easy to recognize.
To avoid and oppose this highly manipulative behavior, keep a record of key events and conversations to refer back to.
Also, trust your own perceptions and remember that it’s okay to disagree with someone else’s recollection. They aren’t perfect, and neither is their memory or the way they behave.
Triangulation is another favorite tool for those trying to manipulate you. It involves pitting people against each other by involving a third party to create chaos, basically.
Spreading gossip, playing the victim, creating difficult situations, and much more in an attempt to gain control and divide relationships.
For some, this is describing a typical day in the office. I know that it was for me at one point in my life.
It’s a situation that you can only escape by severing all ties with a person like that. You can’t just mind your own business here.
It’s not a solution, unfortunately, and things will only get worse if you don’t maintain open and direct communication with others involved and distance yourself from the manipulator.
By doing that, you’ll avoid one of their favorite tactics – twisting the conversation.
Narcissists often manipulate and twist conversations to their advantage by changing the subject, using false flattery, or playing the victim when they’re called out.
They love to flatly deny any wrongdoing and immediately counter with accusations against you. That way, they attack your character by bringing up past mistakes, or shifting the focus onto your perceived flaws, deflecting attention from their own behavior.
They might also downplay the significance of the issue at hand or dismiss your feelings altogether.
There are many ways, shapes, and forms to manipulate conversations. You need to avoid falling into their trap by staying focused on the original issue, maintaining your composure, and assertively restating your concerns.
We’ve come to another favorite tool in the toolbox of narcissists. They use guilt as a weapon to sway your emotions and behavior.
It includes exaggerated sighs, dramatic expressions of disappointment, or tearful displays to prompt a strong emotional response. By making you feel guilty, they aim to gain control and get you to comply with their wishes.
I’ve met narcissists who like to selectively remember and bring up past mistakes or instances where you fell short.
They use these reminders to fuel guilt within you and maintain a power dynamic where they hold the moral high ground. I can tell you it’s something you don’t want to see for yourself.
Let’s see what else they have in their arsenal.
Now we’re getting even more serious. When narcissists try to isolate you from your friends or family, you know they mean business.
By doing that, they have all the control over you and even make you distrust the people you love the most.
One way they do that is to criticize your loved ones or create doubts about their intentions. They will flat-out tell you lies about them, but for some reason, you will believe those lies.
I know we all act strangely when we fall in love, and we are at the beginning stages of our relationships.
I’ve had friends that would completely fall out of our social circle once they were with someone romantically.
I can’t say that I was immune myself, too. Love is a powerful drug.
However, maintaining connections with supportive people outside the relationship and seeking their perspective is incredibly important.
Moving the goalposts is another form of manipulation where the narcissist sets expectations or goals for you and then changes them once you’ve met them.
It’s like running a marathon, but every time you get to the finish line, you have to keep running more.
This keeps you in a perpetual state of trying to please the narcissist and allows the narcissist to maintain control over you.
You need to have your own personal and professional goals, celebrate your achievements and acknowledge your progress, and make it clear that your achievements and successes are not up for debate or devaluation.
And lastly, we’ve come to a funny-sounding but scary tactic. You see, hoovering is a tactic narcissists use to draw you back into a relationship or interaction when you try to distance yourself or end the relationship. This can happen even after a period of separation.
They will suddenly show remorse, promise change, or use sentimental tactics to make you question leaving or setting boundaries.
The only thing you can do is stay firm in your decision and remember the reasons why you’re distancing or ending the relationship in the first place.
There are no ifs, buts, or maybes here.
We hope this article helped you recognize manipulative behavior you might encounter in your workplace, romantic relationships, or from your friends and family.
As you can see, there are many ways you can counter their sneaky ways of manipulation. There are also many perfect comebacks for dealing with a manipulator.
But perhaps the most important thing you can do is trust in yourself and seek support and affirmation from other people you trust.
dutchmanphotography/iStock via Getty Images
Co-authored with Treading Softly.
Raising livestock is a difficult business. Beyond the day-to-day care and responsibilities, there is the mental aspect as well. Many new hobby farmers get too attached to the individual lives of very fragile creatures. While I'm not advocating for mistreating or improperly caring for animals, getting too attached to a living creature that has a very fragile existence is a recipe for sadness and failure.
One study on recently hatched baby chicks revealed that up to 50% of them will die before adulthood. This means that if you get really attached to a baby chicken, you have a coin flip of a chance of whether or not that chicken will become an adult. It can be emotionally taxing, and many give up their dreams of raising chickens because they fear the risk of loss.
More than one would-be hobby farmer raised cattle or hogs for meat and ended up with permanent pets. In essence, they quit before they receive the payoff.
When it comes to the market, people will often try to cut losses or avoid losses before they potentially occur. Peter Lynch famously said,
"Far more money has been lost by investors trying to anticipate corrections, than lost in the corrections themselves."
The big mistake people make is that they think they need to exit the stock market or leave the economy due to the fear of a recession. When they believe that things will get tough, they quit – never getting the long-term payoff that the market has proven to provide routinely.
What I like to remind members of my High Dividend Opportunities community is that, while a bull market mints millionaires, it's the bear market that decides who those people are going to be when the recovery occurs. As professional income investors, we're here to scoop up income on sale and enjoy it for decades to come. All those people trying to time the market and get out before potential losses or recessions happen are simply providing us with outstanding and amazing opportunities to reap high yields for years to come.
I'd rather be a buyer of great income than lock in losses for no reason other than fear. Today, I want to look at two excellent companies that are on sale and are providing high yields now and will continue to do so going forward.
Let's dive in!
Owl Rock Capital Corporation (ORCC) is the second-largest public BDC (Business Development Company) in the U.S. by market cap. It focuses on lending to upper middle-market companies, with most of its portfolio in sponsor-backed companies. ORCC knocked it out of the park with Q1 earnings, reporting Net Investment Income ("NII") of $0.45, a new record for the company and easily covering its $0.33 dividend and $0.04 supplement paid last quarter. For Q2, ORCC announced it is increasing the supplement to $0.06, which will be paid in June, while the regular $0.33 dividend will be paid in July. ORCC management continues to believe that getting dividends more frequently is better - we agree.
ORCC is achieving these fantastic results while maintaining leverage at 1.21x debt/equity. Over the past year, leverage has ranged from 1.17x-1.21x, essentially flat, even as earnings have grown from $0.31 to $0.45/share.
On top of record NII, ORCC also grew its NAV by $0.16/share. Source
ORCC Q1 2023 Investor Presentation
ORCC focuses on larger businesses than most BDCs do. Like Ares Capital (ARCC), ORCC focuses on the "upper middle market" with their borrowers having an average EBITDA of $176 million. These larger companies are lower risk, contributing to ORCC having very stable credit metrics. Only two borrowers are on non-accrual, accounting for 0.5% of ORCC's portfolio at cost basis.
ORCC Q1 2023 Investor Presentation
ORCC is seeing growing NII, rising NAV, frequent supplemental dividends, and high credit quality in its portfolio. We've been saying for the past several years that ORCC is a high-quality BDC that deserves to trade at a premium to NAV. The proof is in the numbers, ORCC is crushing it. Eventually, Mr. Market will wake up and notice. Until then, we are happy to collect multiple dividends every quarter and buy more shares at a discount to NAV.
SLR Investment Corp. (SLRC) is a BDC that focuses on asset-based and equipment-based lending. This form of lending is lower risk because SLRC has specific collateral that can be seized or repossessed in the event the borrower defaults. As a result, SLRC has frequently outperformed peers in terms of credit quality.
Where SLRC ran into difficulty during COVID was the volume of loans they held. When speaking about "concerns" over leverage, our concern is usually that the company might be overleveraged and taking on too much risk. Over the past two years, the problem for SLRC has been the opposite - SLRC was underleveraged. When COVID happened, companies simply stopped borrowing. So, as SLRC's borrowers were so inconsiderate as to actually pay off what they owed, SLRC saw its earnings decline.
In Q1 of last year, SLRC reported NII of $0.32 with leverage at 0.98x debt/equity, failing to cover the dividend. By Q1 this year, SLRC grew NII 28% to $0.41, meeting its $0.41 dividend. This increase was primarily thanks to increasing leverage to 1.12x, with some help from rising interest rates.
Most BDCs borrow at a fixed rate and lend floating-rate loans. This is the main reason why BDCs have seen significant earnings growth over the past year. Most BDCs have 90%+ loans at floating rates. SLRC has a different profile, with about 2/3rds of its portfolio paying a floating interest rate. Source.
SLRC Q1 2023 Earnings Release
As a result, SLRC is less interest rate sensitive than the average BDC. The positive is that when interest rates start to decline, SLRC will be able to maintain its NII.
While SLRC's leverage has increased from 0.98x to 1.12x over the past year, leverage is still very conservative. Management has indicated they would be willing to bring leverage up to a maximum of 1.25x. We believe the ideal range would be 1.15x-1.2x.
SLRC continued to pay the current dividend through the difficult years, and now they are covering it. As it leverages up more, the dividend will become even more secure.
NAV is $18.04/share, making SLR Investment Corp. a very attractive price opportunity today.
Even if the economy may be slowly approaching a recession or is in the midst of a recession, the economy is still in motion.
If every business was to shut down and every person were to become unemployed, there would be absolutely no economic activity whatsoever. Of course, this is a ridiculous thought, as somebody would have to be doing something for us to be fed or to get water or power – there will always be some level of economic output, even if it's pockets of small regional activity.
These two investments that we've looked at, Owl Rock Capital Corporation and SLR Investment Corp., are both engaged in various sections of the economy. They provide vital financial liquidity and management services to middle-market companies to enable them to continue to operate and provide basic services to you and me.
Don't make the big mistake that so many make, and lock in losses simply because you fear losses. Instead, think like a professional income investor – make the big choices to get the big income and then enjoy it over and over again.
My goal for each one of you is that if you choose to be an income investor, you can proudly wear a shirt that says, "My retirement is paid for by dividends!", and have it be the truth. Nothing beats financial security for a more relaxing and enjoyable retirement. Financial security can be achieved through having excess income that overwhelms and overpowers your expenses.
That's the beauty of our income method. That's the beauty of income investing.
ragamnyakabar.blogspot.com Glen Rose’s downtown — lined with boutiques, antique shops, bookstores and cafes in early 20th century building...
