Missouri hunter safety course online

stick and pokes!

2012.01.29 05:54 stick and pokes!

The do-it-yourself, machine-free tattoo community dedicated to educating and participating in the art of stick’n’poke tattoos. They may not be good looking, but they are also not well done. And that’s fine.
[link]

2011.12.13 16:20 Trevj opsec

OPSEC is the process and practice of Operations Security. Although it has roots in the military, OPSEC can be applied to any venture requiring secrecy and survival, from business security to personal safety. OPSEC is a mindset of critical thinking and safe habits. Read the sidebar below for more information!
[link]

2013.10.01 23:51 Hunting with a Canadian focus

This subreddit was created to be a companion to the /Hunting subreddit, and to give Canadian hunters a space all of their own to discuss those things that pertain particularly to the Canadian hunting experience. All are welcome, of course, but topics with a Canadian tilt will be the main focus.
[link]

2023.05.30 00:04 Friendly-Yogurt-1358 My boyfriend is fraternizing with Saudi Princes and accepting lavish gifts from them

And I’m worried for his safety.
** We just broke up, so he’s now an ex boyfriend - referring to him as bf to make it easier. Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I’m posting here because ultimately his life choices are his own and there’s nothing I can do to get him out of trouble if it arises. **
My bf is a filmmaker based in Mexico City who, lately, parties more than he produces anything. He comes from a well respected family that is wealthy. I’ve come to the conclusion that he is always looking for a way out of doing real work, and has severe discipline and focus issues. Despite this, he has an incredible network in the industry that continues to grow due to his gregarious personality and social skills. He’s working on raising money (I.e., sourcing investors) for a film fund.
His business partner is a flamboyantly gay severe alcoholic and regular coke user, and is out all night every night. Something about him is alluring, though, and he has the skill of showing people a good, memorable time in the city - he cuts long lines, he knows people who know people - and people are drawn to it. Despite this, I have no idea how he makes money, and he owes my bf a huge amount. (My bf is also in debt, and his mom has been paying him large amounts to keep him afloat during this fundraising period.) His business partner somehow became buddies with Saudi princes, who flew him to Saudi Arabia along with a few other people. They just opened movie theaters there, as a way of becoming more “modern”. My bf thinks the princes could be major investors in the fund, and has been prioritizing them in his life by organizing his schedule around potential meetings and parties with them.
Saudi princes. The royal regime. Aka people capable of smuggling drugs, beheading people who cross them, oppressing and literally shitting on women, holding the wealthy hostage. People are not afraid to violate human rights for gain. Are they all like this? Probably not. Would I ever go to Saudi Arabia? Fuck no. Would I ever want to be indebted to a Saudi prince? Fuck. No. Most producers with a brain would turn down money from ethically questionable sources. Investments are not without control/puppet strings.
Supposedly they have all been invited to be flown out and party in Ibiza with them this summer, all expenses paid. My question is - why? What do the princes get out of this situation? Will they ask for a favor later? Of course they will! I don’t expect powerful people to give lavish gifts without expecting a favor in the future. Besides, everything I have read about the parties thrown by Saudi royalty contains 2 elements - cocaine and prostitution. Cocaine use is punishable by beheading in Saudi Arabia, yet princes have gotten away with smuggling cocaine in their private jets and are above the rule of law in most cases.
2 weeks ago, my bf told me that he did coke at an industry dinner with his business partner and writers/producers and plans to do it again, and that I’m not a priority to him - that was my final straw to dump him, so I did. I went to his mom about the situation and found out that she was going to invest a major amount of money in his fund but she’s also concerned about his behavior. We’ve both noticed him getting more aggressive and mean in his comments, and his health getting worse. We are both worried about him. He has said that he’s “beat the game” and talks about how wealthy he will be, while actually doing very little film-wise. Any decent investor with eyes would steer very clear of him and his fund.
When he’s home with family, he enjoys spending time with them, biking, being in nature, going to the movies. He has a good heart.
I’m afraid he’s losing himself in the trappings and false allure of extreme wealth, extreme power, and toxic social ties. I don’t recognize this blinded version of him and I want nothing to do with him anymore.
Now my question for you all - what do you think the princes are getting out of this situation?
submitted by Friendly-Yogurt-1358 to offmychest [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 00:02 Creative_Hospital_73 Lottery ticket tight ends: Which cheap tight ends are you buying this off-season that you think can be serviceable and possibly even finish as a TE1?

When it comes to the tight end position in fantasy football there's no sugar code to it, it mostly stinks. Each year there's usually only 5ish high end guys that preform consistently (might even be less some years). Other than those couple of guys it becomes super thin very quickly. So it's hard to work the tight end position because unlike QB, WR or RB there really is no certain mid tier guys to target that you can be confident in to produce solid numbers that are worth the cost. So the best way to try and move around this is to try and buy cheap tight ends you think can have big years the next year so you won't have to waste that investment into buying into a mid tier guy.
So after saying all that, who are some of your guys you like as cheap buys? I'll list several below I personally like.
Dalton Schultz Schultz emerged as a capable fantasy asset with Dallas in 2020 finishing as the TE12 and then going onto finish as the TE3 in 2021. Schultz from a real life perspective as a player isn't anything amazing and he isn't the most athletic either but he can be a solid fantasy producer which matters the most at the end. Schultz did leave the Cowboys this off-season which many people believed to be the only reason he had the production he had. While that may be true, Schultz did land on a Texans team which obviously isn't as good as the Cowboys are but Schultz should see a ton of targets since rookie CJ Stroud doesn't have a ton of great options to throw to. Schultz can probably easily be had for a late 2nd/early 3rd possibly even a throw in from a bigger trade and should provide very solid numbers this year on the Texans.
Trey McBride Sort of a post hype rookie here, McBride was draft in the 2nd round at pick 55 by the Cardinals just last year. Of course being a young rookie TE McBride didn't do a ton year one but he for sure did show flashes when Ertz went down which is always great to see for a rookie TE. The Cardinals are obviously going to be a disaster this year and possibly entering a new phase after releasing Hopkins. That should not prevent you from trying to see if you can buy Mcbride cheap as there is a shot Ertz gets traded sometime this season given his age and the Cardinals timeline and if/when he does McBride will be the TE1 for a Kyler Murray (or Caleb Williams) led offense.
Mike Gesicki Last year was a year to forget for Gesicki, posting some of his lowest numbers since his rookie season back in 2018. It really wasn't his fault though as the Scheme fit on the dolphins didn't do him any favors as McDaniel wanted a tight end that could block and Gesicki obviously might be one of the worst tight ends in the league at blocking. It was clear he needed a new team quickly and he got one in the Patriots. While many may instantly barf, I think the patriots are is a very good landing spot for Gesicki. The patriots made the investment into Gesicki knowing he won't block at all so he will primarily be a "big WR" while Hunter Henry will be the inline guy. With the patriots lack of WR talent it would not shock me to see Gesicki possibly lead this team in targets. Gesicki can probably be had for basically free in most, if not all leagues.
Luke SchoonmakeJake Ferguson/Peyton Hendershot As I mentioned before, Dak and the Cowboys love using their tight ends. That may turn out to be a bad thing though as if Schoon, Ferg and Hendershot are all used almost like in SEA last year then there's probably no shot one of these guys are serviceable fantasy producers this season. Although if one of them can separate themselves from the group there could be something brewing here. Out of all these tight ends I listed one of these guys could potentially have the highest upside assuming they can get the starting role. The reason I say you should buy into all three is because their all very cheap. Schoonmaker you can easily get in the mid to late 3rd of rookie drafts and Ferguson and Hendershot could possibly be on waivers in some leagues depending on league size of course.
Irv Smith Irv Smith has a had a very disappointing career so far for his draft capital in the 2nd round. He's dealt with a ton of injuries and just overall could not find a consistent groove in Minnesota. The bright side is he goes to a very good Bengals team this season. Irv may not have the highest upside in that offense given he's likely 4th in demand for targets behind Chase, Higgins and Boyd but given how good the offense is he should still have fantasy value with a solid floor and if one of those three big WRs were to go down with an injury or miss any time Irv would likely see an increase of target share.
submitted by Creative_Hospital_73 to DynastyFF [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 00:02 silverlucifer Free Online Summer Course on the History of Canadian Colonialism

Tyler Shipley, a respected political science/cultural history professor at Humber College in Toronto, is offering a free online course about his book Canada in the World. It’s meant to be a primer on the history of Canadian colonialism and how Canada became as an imperialist power—kind of like the Canadian version of J. Sakai’s Settlers
Course will run from June 28th to Aug 30th every Wednesday from 7:30 - 9:30 pm. No charge, grades, or assignments. Just a chance to read a book together chapter by chapter with other like minded leftist readers. You can choose to contribute something at the end of the course if you really enjoyed it. He can also offer you a discount on purchasing his book, or a PDF link.
DM him on Twitter @ le_shipster, or email him at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), to get on the class list and read more about the syllabus. Feel free to share with any friends too who might be interested!
submitted by silverlucifer to canadaleft [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 00:01 CrewBitt Succession, Survivor, and the Social Game

Succession, Survivor, and the Social Game
(Spoilers for the season finales of Succession and Survivor 44.)
Left: The Roy siblings. Right: The Tika Three.
It's been a tense few months for fans of cutthroat TV. Last week saw the finale of two hugely popular shows: HBO's Succession and CBS's Survivor. The two shows have highly engaged online audiences – at the time of writing, they each hold the number one spots for scripted and reality television, respectively. HBO has banked heavily on Succession over the past two years, and Survivor was just granted even longer episodes by CBS. It's safe to say the two programs are popular – likely because of the fascinating ways they examine humans engaging in high-stakes, interpersonal politicking.
Both shows spent their respective finales barreling towards similar scenarios: a tightly knit trio, after a number of bickers and quarrels, faces a vote in which each hopes to be crowned the sole victor of the games they're playing. In Survivor, three members of the Tika tribe ally to vie for a chance to convince the jury of their merits as a player. In Succession, the three children of Logan Roy and Caroline Collingwood collude to stop Swedish tech billionaire Lukas Matsson from acquiring their father’s company, pitching themselves to Waystar's board as a preferable alternative.
The Tika three and the Roy siblings differ in a number of ways, but their fundamental dynamics are strikingly similar. Carson and Roman flourish in chaos and work the hardest to keep the trios together, displaying emotional vulnerability despite their conniving maneuvers. Carolyn and Kendall are both social media favorites, volatile protagonists with a humanizing history of addiction. And, of course, there are Yam Yam and Siobhan – always on edge and in danger, they try to use charisma to keep threats against their interests at bay.
The metaphor isn't a perfect one. Doesn't Shiv's relationship with womanhood draw a tighter parallel with Carolyn, who shares her mother's name? Is Matsson Jeff, or is he Logan? Is there a way to talk about Greg or Danny in this piece? (Answer: Likely not.) There are a myriad of interpretations, but one thing is clear: both shows demonstrate the weight of politics and relationships in building a winning social coalition.
Left: The Survivor jury observes tribal council. Right: The Waystar board prepares to vote.
The vote counting is constant. Yam Yam talks about reviewing rocks in the sand to get a clearer understanding of the composition of the jury. Shiv and Ken rattle names off at each other, each insistent that they're on the side with the winning numbers. The jury and board have loomed large over Survivor and Succession since the finales of their first seasons, where Kendall shot for the king (and missed) and Sue likened her tribemates to rats and snakes. The jury and the board are filled with actors with a variety of stakes, investments and preferences – Frannie says Carolyn "changed her life" and Stewy says he's "team Ken, baby."
The paths to victory were not simple for any of our protagonists. Unforeseen twists tripped them up at every turn, from idols to advantages to deaths. Working together – and against one another – they're able to position themselves right up at the finish line, attempting to fend off "clumsy interlopers" like Heidi and Tom.
Left: Tom Wambsgans. Right: Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt.
Of course, viewers know how that worked out. Though Heidi only came in second, her record time in the firemaking challenge burned Carson's chance at a winning game to a crisp, his fear of public failure similar to Roman's self-immolating eulogy at his father's funeral. Just as Carson is pushed out, Roman, too, steps out of contention, leaving Ken and Shiv to compete for the coveted crown. Their arguments throughout the series are sometimes a smokescreen, but their closeness and familiarity with one another also creates very real tensions – reminiscent of the fights between Yam Yam and Carolyn.
Unfortunately for the Roys, this competition gives Matsson space to use Tom as a reliable CEO option. Like the sole survivors of past seasons, Tom knows how to play a strong social game with the hand he's dealt. Following in Heidi's footsteps, he pitches his humble background and hardworking attitude during a "hang" with Matsson, a choreography that mimics that of a strong final tribal council.
His relationships within the show are integral to Tom's victory within the realm of Succession, but there is a broader context outside of the confines of the two stories. While the winners may have won votes and taken power within the narratives of the shows, there is another game of favoritism playing out with the show's audience. This game of hearts and minds is won by strengthening the audience's connection to the characters on their screens – and reflects the parasociality at the heart of contemporary social media.
Left: Triumph of the Conheads. Right: The Yam YamTram.
Just look at Reddit and Twitter after the finales. While the Yam Yam and Connor trains chugged on, Carolyn stans and Kenheads witnessed a tale of brokenhearted loss. These characters dominated their stories, introducing the audience to their lives and allowing us to witness the massive ups and downs of their journey – both times culminating in cathartic swimming montages.
Beyond the fiction of Succession, there is no Kendall Roy. Carolyn Wiger is, in the words of College & the Electric Youth, a real human being – and a real hero. In recent seasons, Survivor has shied away from controversial cast members, and for good reason. Unlikeable or villainous characters may make good reality TV, but they're often maligned, misrepresented, and even doxxed by viewers who don't approve of their in-game decisions and personalities. Even Sandra, the Queen of Survivor, has had to contend with angry Parvati stans on her Instagram account. In contrast, the Tika Three and their castmates are eminently likable, from Jamie's boundless positivity to Frannie and Matt's adorable showmance. These are real people, but the meanness is excised – and so winning the social game with the audience is an easier process. Reality TV contestants are now all but expected to rack up major follower counts and brand deals online, making a positive relationship with an audience a potentially lucrative prospect.
And yet, Succession has managed to turn the most onerous people into babygirls and faves. A fascist pervert, a defender of sexual abuse, and a murderous, neglectful father should not make for a likable trio. But seeing them gleefully concoct the world's worst smoothie conjures enough joy in the audience to make them forget, even momentarily, the characters' worst actions.
Left: Members of the Survivor 44 cast. Right: A Zoom Q&A with the cast of Succession.
Maybe that's because, like the real-life cast of Survivor, the cast of Succession is adored. There is a difference here between fact and fiction, and a creation of two social games. One exists on an island in Fiji and a New York office building, where bastards cut each others' throats and toss the bodies overboard. The other springs to life with forums and fancams as audiences have spent the shows' running times speculating about winners and losers, spurred on by sly commentary and misdirection from both casts.
submitted by CrewBitt to SuccessionTV [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 00:00 AutoModerator John Anthony Lifestyle - The Leads Machine (Course)

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submitted by AutoModerator to JohnAnthonyTips [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 00:00 CrewBitt Succession, Survivor, and the Social Game

Succession, Survivor, and the Social Game
(Spoilers for the season finales of Succession and Survivor 44.)
Left: The Roy siblings. Right: The Tika Three.
It's been a tense few months for fans of cutthroat TV. Last week saw the finale of two hugely popular shows: HBO's Succession and CBS's Survivor. The two shows have highly engaged online audiences – at the time of writing, they each hold the number one spots for scripted and reality television, respectively. HBO has banked heavily on Succession over the past two years, and Survivor was just granted even longer episodes by CBS. It's safe to say the two programs are popular – likely because of the fascinating ways they examine humans engaging in high-stakes, interpersonal politicking.
Both shows spent their respective finales barreling towards similar scenarios: a tightly knit trio, after a number of bickers and quarrels, faces a vote in which each hopes to be crowned the sole victor of the games they're playing. In Survivor, three members of the Tika tribe ally to vie for a chance to convince the jury of their merits as a player. In Succession, the three children of Logan Roy and Caroline Collingwood collude to stop Swedish tech billionaire Lukas Matsson from acquiring their father’s company, pitching themselves to Waystar's board as a preferable alternative.
The Tika three and the Roy siblings differ in a number of ways, but their fundamental dynamics are strikingly similar. Carson and Roman flourish in chaos and work the hardest to keep the trios together, displaying emotional vulnerability despite their conniving maneuvers. Carolyn and Kendall are both social media favorites, volatile protagonists with a humanizing history of addiction. And, of course, there are Yam Yam and Siobhan – always on edge and in danger, they try to use charisma to keep threats against their interests at bay.
The metaphor isn't a perfect one. Doesn't Shiv's relationship with womanhood draw a tighter parallel with Carolyn, who shares her mother's name? Is Matsson Jeff, or is he Logan? Is there a way to talk about Greg or Danny in this piece? (Answer: Likely not.) There are a myriad of interpretations, but one thing is clear: both shows demonstrate the weight of politics and relationships in building a winning social coalition.
Left: The Survivor jury observes tribal council. Right: The Waystar board prepares to vote.
The vote counting is constant. Yam Yam talks about reviewing rocks in the sand to get a clearer understanding of the composition of the jury. Shiv and Ken rattle names off at each other, each insistent that they're on the side with the winning numbers. The jury and board have loomed large over Survivor and Succession since the finales of their first seasons, where Kendall shot for the king (and missed) and Sue likened her tribemates to rats and snakes. The jury and the board are filled with actors with a variety of stakes, investments and preferences – Frannie says Carolyn "changed her life" and Stewy says he's "team Ken, baby."
The paths to victory were not simple for any of our protagonists. Unforeseen twists tripped them up at every turn, from idols to advantages to deaths. Working together – and against one another – they're able to position themselves right up at the finish line, attempting to fend off "clumsy interlopers" like Heidi and Tom.
Left: Tom Wambsgans. Right: Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt.
Of course, viewers know how that worked out. Though Heidi only came in second, her record time in the firemaking challenge burned Carson's chance at a winning game to a crisp, his fear of public failure similar to Roman's self-immolating eulogy at his father's funeral. Just as Carson is pushed out, Roman, too, steps out of contention, leaving Ken and Shiv to compete for the coveted crown. Their arguments throughout the series are sometimes a smokescreen, but their closeness and familiarity with one another also creates very real tensions – reminiscent of the fights between Yam Yam and Carolyn.
Unfortunately for the Roys, this competition gives Matsson space to use Tom as a reliable CEO option. Like the sole survivors of past seasons, Tom knows how to play a strong social game with the hand he's dealt. Following in Heidi's footsteps, he pitches his humble background and hardworking attitude during a "hang" with Matsson, a choreography that mimics that of a strong final tribal council.
His relationships within the show are integral to Tom's victory within the realm of Succession, but there is a broader context outside of the confines of the two stories. While the winners may have won votes and taken power within the narratives of the shows, there is another game of favoritism playing out with the show's audience. This game of hearts and minds is won by strengthening the audience's connection to the characters on their screens – and reflects the parasociality at the heart of contemporary social media.
Left: Triumph of the Conheads. Right: The Yam YamTram.
Just look at Reddit and Twitter after the finales. While the Yam Yam and Connor trains chugged on, Carolyn stans and Kenheads witnessed a tale of brokenhearted loss. These characters dominated their stories, introducing the audience to their lives and allowing us to witness the massive ups and downs of their journey – both times culminating in cathartic swimming montages.
Beyond the fiction of Succession, there is no Kendall Roy. Carolyn Wiger is, in the words of College & the Electric Youth, a real human being – and a real hero. In recent seasons, Survivor has shied away from controversial cast members, and for good reason. Unlikeable or villainous characters may make good reality TV, but they're often maligned, misrepresented, and even doxxed by viewers who don't approve of their in-game decisions and personalities. Even Sandra, the Queen of Survivor, has had to contend with angry Parvati stans on her Instagram account. In contrast, the Tika Three and their castmates are eminently likable, from Jamie's boundless positivity to Frannie and Matt's adorable showmance. These are real people, but the meanness is excised – and so winning the social game with the audience is an easier process. Reality TV contestants are now all but expected to rack up major follower counts and brand deals online, making a positive relationship with an audience a potentially lucrative prospect.
And yet, Succession has managed to turn the most onerous people into babygirls and faves. A fascist pervert, a defender of sexual abuse, and a murderous, neglectful father should not make for a likable trio. But seeing them gleefully concoct the world's worst smoothie conjures enough joy in the audience to make them forget, even momentarily, the characters' worst actions.
Left: Members of the Survivor 44 cast. Right: A Zoom Q&A with the cast of Succession.
Maybe that's because, like the real-life cast of Survivor, the cast of Succession is adored. There is a difference here between fact and fiction, and a creation of two social games. One exists on an island in Fiji and a New York office building, where bastards cut each others' throats and toss the bodies overboard. The other springs to life with forums and fancams as audiences have spent the shows' running times speculating about winners and losers, spurred on by sly commentary and misdirection from both casts.
submitted by CrewBitt to survivor [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:59 juliusnov Uc berkeley bootcamp

I’ve been doing some research for a bootcamp and so far UC Berkeley Coding Bootcamp is leading in terms of matching my schedule.
The curriculum doesn’t look bad - I’m confident I can make something out of it. For reference, I already work in tech and have somewhat of a network so career services aren’t my biggest sell. I just need to plug some skill gaps
I’ve explored other bootcamps and online and the reviews seem to be to stay away from EdX programs.
I’m curious on opinions of based on my needs, if this program would be a decent decision?
My absolute last resort is doing JS and Python courses from GA to supplement a bootcamp lol
submitted by juliusnov to learnprogramming [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:59 smartybrome List of FREE and Best Selling Discounted Courses

Courses for 30 May 2023

Note : might expire anytime, so enroll as soon as possible to get the courses for FREE.
GET MORE FREE ONLINE COURSES WITH CERTIFICATE – CLICK HERE
submitted by smartybrome to udemyfreebies [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:59 smartybrome List of FREE and Best Selling Discounted Courses

Courses for 30 May 2023

Note : might expire anytime, so enroll as soon as possible to get the courses for FREE.
submitted by smartybrome to udemyfreeebies [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:58 Naru_the_Narcissist My review of Your Lie in April

Inspiration can be a fickle thing. The muses may guide our hearts towards a particular passion, but they don’t always stick around to see us through it. As a child, Kousei Arima felt a natural attraction to the piano. He could play music by ear, was a gifted mimic, and had boat loads of potential to one day dominate the instrument. With the help and encouragement of a family friend, Kousei’s mom set him on his desired path, but life as a pianist was harder than he thought. Rather than playing for fun and expressing himself through music, she wanted him to be able to make a living through his music, so she went as hard on her little pianist as possible, going as far as to beat and abuse him if he underperformed or tried to play a piece in his own way. By the time the terminal illness she’d hid from him took it’s toll on her, his passion was gone, replaced with the cold, robotic delivery of one who could deliver a piece perfectly, but found no more joy in doing so. He lost his mother, along with his ability to hear the notes he was playing.
Two years later and about three feet taller(I’ll GET to that), Kousei still tinkers around with the piano, but hasn’t played it seriously, to the chagrin of all who enjoyed his work, or just hate to see him so incomplete. It’s at this point, like all down-trodden men who’ve lost their luster for life, that along comes that one girl to bring color back into his world. Her name is Kaori Miyazono, and she’s a violinist who cares nothing for rules or convention, finding childish but somehow wise joy in every aspect of life, and with this one chance meeting, Kousei finds a new muse… A capricious, cheerful beauty whose revisionist musical performances instantly connect with the crowds she plays for, and whom seems singularly obsessed with performing alongside Kousei, and helping him to relaunch the career that he’d so recently abandoned. But her dedication to helping him to overcome his tragedy hides a secret tragedy of her own, and one simple lie she told back in April will live on to define their relationship as they change each others lives through mutual inspiration.
I haven’t seen everything that’s been produced by A-1 pictures, but I honestly can’t remember seeing anything they’ve done that looked outright bad. Sure, Sword Art Online and From the New world looked a little sloppy at times, resorting to broken character models to show fluid motion at reduced costs, but if that’s the worst they can do, then they could do a lot worse. They seem to take a lot of care with their work, putting an admirable amount of effort into quality control, like letting a low budget get the better of them would be an insult to their pride or something, and if that observation is correct, then I like the way they think. I’ve noticed that they generally have a penchant for putting a lot of energy into special effects, and then using just enough budget saving tricks to compensate without going overboard or letting it become noticeable. Key frames are well drawn and pleasing to the eye, and they feature a little more than just flapping mouths, with occasional shifts in posture to keep the characters expressive.
Of course, there don’t need to be special effects in a show about musicians, right? Wrong. Not only are special textures like water given special treatment, but we often get visual representations of the emotions brought out by a piece of music, which use environmental and 3D effects to keep our attention during the sequence, especially towards the end when Kousei and Kaori are playing together in a fantasy sequence, and the camera liberally revolves around a beautifully 3D animated piano. The characters also have a lot of inner monologuing that’s shown to us in artistic fashion, reminiscent of His and Hers Circumstances, but what I found the most impressive was the actual animation of the characters playing their instruments on stage. I can’t confirm this, but I have heard from a few people that A-1 pictures used a technique similar to rotoscoping, and I feel no justification for doubting this rumor, as every movement of the performing musicians, from fingers on the keys to the way the bow’s movements perfectly matches the music of the violin.
It would be so easy to get away with having a still image on screen while only the performers arms moved, and more intense note being played offscreen while only the audience’s frozen faces of adoration are showcased, but as I said, that would be an insult to A-1. Kousei, Kaori and several others put their entire bodies into their performances, losing themselves in it, and you feel every drop of their adrenaline. Character designs are beautifully polished and easy on the eyes, with it’s only major departure from reality being that the musician characters look a little more distinctive and exuberant than non-musicians, like Kousei’s friends. Well, okay, there is one other unrealistic detail that bothered me a bit… The difference in height between 14 year old characters and themselves at 12 is fucking insane. My jaw dropped when they said that Kousei quit the piano at 12, because he was so short that when he sat on the bench his feet didn’t even touch the ground. I could have sworn he was, like, 6 or something. It’s my only real issue with the visuals, but it’s still a pretty jarring one.
The music of the series… Do I even have to say it? It’s a series about musicians, and you can’t do something like that if you don’t have the knowledge or resources to pull it off, and they seriously pulled it off. Not only is it full of classical music, you can tell the difference in the way these pieces are being played, and the music that is meant to inspire and astound people does exactly that to the audience as well as the characters. From what I gather, Yuna Shinohara, a decorated Japanese violinist who was only 21 at the time, played the music for Kaori, and her wealth of training and experience did not go to waste. I can’t find as much information on Eriko Kawachi, who played all of the piano pieces, which is unfortunate. The show’s actual soundtrack was composed by Masaru Yokoyama, and while it isn’t as memorable or powerful as the character-based performances, it’s still solid and well-orchestrated, so it’s a shame it gets overlooked in favor of the insert tunes.
The English dub was produced by Aniplex, and features a lot of newer actors from this decade, alongside a few industry veterans. I’d like to say these newcomers step up and use this show as a platform to make a name for themselves, but I’d be stretching the truth a bit, mostly on account of the many loops that Your Lie’s text throws them for. Their performances were not consistent, which is a direct result of their material not being consistent, and I don’t really think it was fair for them to be thrown into something this eclectic. For the most part, they do a fine job voicing the characters while nothing’s really happening. It’s just characters talking to each other, sounding like natural teenagers going about their lives. Where they really shine is during dramatic scenes, and ho boy are there a lot of dramatic scenes in this anime. There’s a lot of pain, insecurities, confusion, all of that fun adolescent stuff, but with a much harsher but still believable edge to it once you realize the kind of real life circumstances that they’re dealing with.
While some of these issues may be worthy of an eyeroll from the viewer… Most of the characters who are in love with Kousei fall into this category… They’re going through issues that you probably had to deal with as well, and you can scoff at it from your seat as a grown up, or laugh at how silly it is for this obvious harem to try and be something more, they’re feeling something you’ve felt at some point, whether you remember it or not, and they damn well make you feel it. The exception, where several otherwise amazing actors begin to falter… Is with the gag humor, when the characters go SD Chibi for exaggerated reactions, and I don’t think they were ready to transition the specific roles they were playing into it. Max Mittelman, for example, is one of the best voice actors to come out of the 2010’s, and even though he hasn’t been acting long, his voice control and dramatic chops have landed him plenty of leading roles. He can do comedy under the right circumstances… You’d know what these circumstances are if you’ve seen One Punch Man… But he sounds horrible during the gag jokes.
It’s even worse for Erica Lindbeck, who had a tough job playing such a nuanced character as Kaori, whose happy-go-lucky persona hides a darker interior, and she does a great job of it, but the gag scenes just make her sound like a despicable asshole. Smaller characters face the same issue, albeit on a smaller scale, but the few veterans are able to navigate the minefield a lot more skillfully, like Wendee Lee(Who, in all fairness, never has to do a gag scene), Stephanie Sheh and Carrie Keranen. They have the experience to stretch their roles beyond the appropriate tones, which comes in handy here. The adaptive script is loose, but still accurate enough, and changes the vernacular so everyone sounds more like contemporary English, without ever sacrificing the intent of the text. They make a handful of charming and character-appropriate references, like occasional nods to Charlie Brown and The Phantom of the Opera, although they also use the phrase ‘as you know’ a few too many times. They probably should have changes some of the text, as a lot of it, when translated, sounds weird coming from 14 year olds.
Okay, so, here we are again. It wasn’t too long ago that I was calling out modern anime fans for letting their emotions cloud their judgement, saying that they often give perfect scores to any anime that makes them cry. Seriously, you could give a critic a massage, a home cooked meal and the best sex of their life and you’d still be working harder for a 10/10 than most anime do. Back in 2016, I’d just uploaded my reviews of Clannad and Clannad Afterstory, and I asked social media to recommend an anime that had genuine feels… nothing manipulative, nothing manufactured, nothing too formulaic, just an anime that would touch me emotionally and make me cry with sincerity. The overwhelming answer was Your Lie in April, a show I’d been avoiding due to all of the hype. I finally gave it a watch, and did it stand up as a heartfelt masterpiece, or did it offer the same old same old? Well, to be honest,it’s a little of both. My feelings on this show were mixed the first time around, and the second viewing hasn’t changed that.
Unfortunately, Your Lie doesn’t get off to a great start. The first thing we see is a foul ball hitting our man character in the head, lying on the floor and bleeding with what has to be a serious concussion, but not only does he heal immediately, but he shares the blame for the broken window the ball flew through. That’s not just bad, that’s disturbingly bad. It sets an early precedent for him being a sad sack with no will of his own, which I guess is kind of accurate, but it also makes his closest friend look like a monster for taking advantage of it(Trust me, this feeling is only gonna get worse.) I try to move past this, but almost immediately, it becomes apparent that all three of Kousei’s friends are some of my least favorite cliches in anime history. His two primary friends are Tsubaki and Watari, and they are… Respectively… A childhood friend who’s hopelessly in love with the main character, and a girl crazy guy who exists to make the main character feel desirable in comparison. I am so sick and tired of these two archetypes being stuck in orbit around at least half of the main characters in the medium.
And Kaori’s worse, because she’s a trope that I usually don’t see in anime, and I’m not complaining about that. She’s happy-go-lucky, she’s childish, she’s an enlightened soul who’s able to see all of the simple joy in life, and she comes out of nowhere to dedicate her life to dragging the main male character out of the slumps. She is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which is to sexism what the Magical Negro trope is to racism. Granted, she deconstructs the trope a little bit, as she actually has a backstory and a reason to help Kousei, but she makes up for that small silver lining by taking the “Life begins at man” trope to a new extreme, as “Life begins AND ENDS at man.” I’ll give her this, she IS the reason I kept watching the series, as I was entranced by her violin performance in episode 2, and she made me want to keep watching so I could hear more of her work, which sounded even better when she played with Kousei. On top of that, she plays an important… Dare I say instrumental… Role in Your Lie’s deeper themes.
Your Lie in April is a story about inspiration, and it attacks this concept from every possible angle. As annoying and cliched as his friends may be, Kousei is a good character who has a great arc that deals with this theme. He begins as a child, having fun doing something that he’s gifted at, until he stops doing it for fun and starts doing it as a future career, being forced to perfect it and take it seriously by his mother, who pushes him to the point of abuse. She controls his life, making everything he does revolve around the piano, even taking away his cat and abandoning it somewhere so it can’t scratch his hands. He loses the ability to hear the notes he’s playing, and quits altogether to avoid his mother’s tyranny along with the intense pressure she put on him for not being good enough. On the surface, this is a very mature look at child abuse and the way it can have long term psychological effects on the developing mind, such as Kousei’s performance anxiety, and especially the fact that cats pose a trigger for him(And I mean the actual definition of trigger, not the bullshit internet definition), and the abuse in question is realistic, rather than cartoony or melodramatic.
Below the surface, this is a story for anyone who’s ever lost their passion for something they once loved. The idea that expressive and interpretive music is frowned upon, and only literal performances are acceptable in competition, which is enforced by both the competition committee and Kousei’s mother, gives an understandable reason for his loss of inspiration. His music was becoming routine, and pointless. I don’t think his inability to hear the notes he’s playing is realistic at all, but it’s symbolic for that loss of passion. When your work becomes routine, it becomes repetitive, and it finally becomes robotic. When your hobby becomes work, you fall out of love with it, which is why Kaori coming into his life was such a major turning point for him. She showed him that there was another way to play. She inspires him, breathing new life into his abilities, and helps him to separate his passion from the pain and sadness that he’d come to associate it with, and it changes his life in so many ways… He starts playing again, he comes out of his shell, and he even begins teaching a younger pianist… That he winds up inspiring her in return.
They also make an argument that you play even better when you’re playing for other people, and while I’ve never personally agreed with that, they make a compelling case. Your own music, your own performances, are not your only legacy. The music you inspire others with is just as important, as your work also lives on through their work. They make a great point when they say that it’s hard to play the piano when you compare yourself to Beethoven, but it’s not nearly as hard when you remember that Beethoven was once just like you, a rookie trying his best to measure up to the greats who inspired HIM. It’s a shame they had to resort to a manic pixie dream girl in order to pull this off, but it’s largely forgivable, especially considering certain reveals that happen in the final episode. So yeah, this is not a shallow series. There is meat to the story, and something meaningful that you can get out of watching it. I’d be happy to say that the series was also executed well, but sadly, this is where things start to break down.
The text of the series, for example, is severely lacking. The idea of inspiration and Kousei’s character arc are well written and exactly as subtle as it needs to be, but the other subplots… The romantic ones in particular… Are annoyingly obvious, and frankly, kind of arbitrary. I mentioned Tsubaki as a ‘childhood friend’ earlier, and while this should instantly telegraph that she’ll never get her guy… They never fucking do… She does absolutely nothing else to justify her presence. Everything about her revolves around her love for Kousei and why he won’t respond to it. Every aspect of her life ties in somehow to her love for him, and since it amounts to nothing, she could have been written out in the first half of the series. I won’t go into too much detail about the other romantic subplot, or how it offers Watari his only relevance to the plot(although he does have a few moments relating to the theme), but they commit one other huge mistake… They use constant, and I mean constant, voice over narration from the characters as they explain their feelings to the audience. It’s lame, it’s tedious, and it seems to be trying it’s best to keep YOU from thinking too hard about what you’re watching, because it doesn’t want the pointless teenage melodrama to lose it’s effect.
Another huge problem is the gag humor, which feels viscerally inappropriate and out of place. It makes the heavier themes of the show harder to swallow, and not just on an aesthetic level. For example: We see Kousei sustain head injuries during two of these gags, that result in him lying on the floor and bleeding out. We also see Kaori hit him right in the crown of the head with an axe kick, driving her heel down into his skull. Now, if these instances didn’t cause any lasting damage, and the people doing it are supposed to be seen as likable, how am I supposed to feel when his mother beats him in the head with her cane? I’ve seen him shrug off shit like that before, so I don’t care. Am I supposed to feel different because of the tone of the scenes? This isn’t the fucking Looney Toons. Hell, even the Looney Toons had consistency. I can’t be expected to believe that a portion of the material shown to me doesn’t count just because the writer was making a joke. That’s disgusting. I’ve complained about Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood making this mistake, but Your Lie is just as bad.
And then you have the plot, which did not work for me at all. Like, I said the themes were strong in this series, but they suffered one major setback. Kousei’s mother physically abused him and forced him to play music the way she wanted him to, all because she thought it was in his best interest. His friends, however, do exactly the same thing. Sure, they might not take away his beloved pet, but they still harass him, assault him, chase him, break into his room and generally act like complete assholes in order to get their way. He warns that his performance might not be good, he falters due to a psychological breakdown, Kaori has Tsubaki and Watari start roundhouse kicking him, and HE apologizes. How are they any different than his mother? Because it’s supposed to be comedic? I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the interactions he has with his friends make me cringe, with their only justifications being ‘comedy,’ and the fact that they just happened to wind up being right. So the ends justify the means.
And then you have Kaori’s entire plot, which… Okay, I’m going to try not to go into spoilers, but if you’ve seen the show, you know damn well what I’m talking about. And this is the big one, the one that makes everybody praise the show out the wazoo, so I’ll try to be gentle. At the end of episode 4, Kaori faints on stage. At that moment, even though I was trying to enjoy the series despite it’s flaws, I couldn’t help it. I knew where this was going. I said, “Oh fuck, she’s gonna (censored), isn’t she?” I am dead serious about that. The beginning of the fifth episode featured her in the hospital, and folks, I predicted everything. I knew what was going to happen to her, i knew she was keeping it secret, I knew that it was going to be kept deliberately vague all the way to the end, I knew I’d never hear her play again(outside of maybe a dream or fantasy sequence), I knew what her backstory and connection to Kousei was going to be.
Knowing this stuff in advance took a huge damper off of the emotional impact of literally any point of the show. Granted, I did make one prediction that wasn’t true. I predicted we’d never meet her parents, which I wish had turned out true, because her parents are… Brace yourself for this… They’re Nagisa’s parents from Clannad. They are literally that. They own a pastry shop, they’re wacky and over-the-top, they live in said shop, and… Well, there’s one other spoiler connection, but that, along with a painful firefly sequence, made your Lie feel TERRIBLE at foreshadowing. I found myself, in both moments, shouting at my TV screen, “Okay, I get it, she’s gonna (censored), shut the fuck up about it!” So did the big bad tragedy work on me? No, of course it didn’t. The only part I got choked up at was a late scene when a cat died at a vet’s office, because it brought up painful memories for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something here, and it does make the experience a rewarding one, but it just couldn’t stick the landing.
Your Lie in April is available as a Rightstuf Exclusive, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the price is offensively high. Even on sale as part of the site’s holiday deals, it’ll still costed 130 dollars for each HALF of the series, down from 160 dollars regular price. Used copies on ebay go for as low as 60 dollars for each HALF, and I can not recommend you pay that much for an overrated series. You can watch it for free on Netflix, but if you absolutely need a physical copy, I’d actually go against my better judgement and recommend the Malaysian bootlegs on Ebay, which do come with a dub for a fraction of the official price. The manga is available from Kodansha comics, and volume 1 even comes with a sweet exclusive cover if you get it from Loot Crate. The live action movie is probably available stateside, but from what I’ve heard about it, I don’t care enough to check.
Your Lie in April isn’t a great anime, but it’s also not a terrible one. So, overall, is it good or bad? Well, to be honest, I didn’t enjoy the vast majority of it. I found the gag humor annoying and in bad taste, I found the comedic violence way too similar to some of the tragic material, there are too many cliches, and I caught on to some of the more important plot points way too early to fall for them. Having said that, I can’t say the experience was a bad one. The themes of Kousei’s character arc resonated very strongly with me, as someone who’s currently falling out of love with a long time hobby, and while I found his friends to be wholly unlikeable, his piano rivals were much more interesting, and I actually want to see more of him interacting with them. The final tragedy would have been a lot stronger if it hadn’t been so obvious, or if it at least had a proper explanation, and you can’t possibly deny that the audio and visual production went beyond top notch. It had a lot of problems, but honestly, it’s an okay show. It doesn’t live up to the hype, but it’s worth checking out. I’m being generous here, but I’ll give Your Lie in April a 6/10.
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2023.05.29 23:53 NoiseyTurbulence Accommodation form question

I have a question about the accommodation form that you fill out online.
The question, was this accommodation request caused by an injury or illness at Amazon, but your doctor is not sure yet, ankle/foot issues that started and progressed with wearing safety shoes, is it a yes or no?
Anyone been through this? I have mobility issues right now and can’t do stairs at the moment while dealing with treatment.
submitted by NoiseyTurbulence to AmazonFC [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:49 xbox15497 Recommendations for returning player

Last time I played Star Wars The Old Republic was about 5-6 years ago.
My experience with the game is completing the Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, and Sith Inquisitor stories but I didn’t go any further and haven’t since.
During my time playing in the past I knew there were things I didn’t know and since then ALOT has changed so there’s less I know.
If anyone knows of online guides for gear, leveling, specing, etc. I’d appreciate it. Or if you have your own personal recommendations. With WoW I like to go for mounts and good looking gear. It would probably be better to say I enjoy collecting things. Not sure if there’s anything I can do there or if it’s mainly centralized in the cartel market. I have a couple things unlocked in the legacy global unlocks if there’s anything in there that would be highly recommended I get just for quality of life stuff. I’m also pretty much just a solo player.
Appreciate any assistance!
submitted by xbox15497 to swtor [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:48 VampiricGarlicBread Looking for a React programming buddy

I'm looking for a mentor, I suppose. More aptly someone I can pick their brain on whenever I run into a wall somewhere. I've been going through a self-learning route through online tutorials/courses and it has been a smooth ride for the most part. But I'd definitely like to have someone in my corner that I can message through discord that is able to help me with React if I run into a head-meets-wall scenario
If it helps, my timezone is EST.
Thanks in advance!
submitted by VampiricGarlicBread to ProgrammingBuddies [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:46 Blue_humming_birds Development Economics or Public Policy

Hey guys, hope you are having a lovely day.
I saw someone else already posted a similar question with mine recently, but mine is slightly different and here it goes.
So I have no Math courses taken at university level, my academic (Masters)/professional backgrounds is development (including field works) and then just recently I got quite interested in Development Economics. I took Micro/Macro economics classes at Bachelor's so I know basic concepts in the field, I would say.
The problem is that even though my math was great at high school, I do not have any proofs from university courses. I thought about taking some online course which includes a test but I also read somewhere that it wouldn't help much. FYI I am an international student from a country where the Math curriculum at primary/secondary education is quite intense - would this appeal to the admission office? Haha
If Dev Econ PhD is too not feasible for me to apply, I should be applying for public policy, I guess.
I would appreciate very much any comments or tips. Thank you :)
submitted by Blue_humming_birds to PhD [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:45 Drakolf Dragon Rising- 2. Collapse

The Anomaly was stable.
That's what the government called it, the magic field around the town that turned people into Kobolds. The rules we had ascertained at the beginning of this were still consistent, a Human could enter and leave as many times as they liked and they would remain Human, there was no known process to reverse this, except a spell called True Polymorph, but that would take years, perhaps even decades, of experimentation, innovation, and- possibly- killing, if the players were correct.
It was the realization that I wanted to remain a Kobold that had allowed me to realize I had been fixated only on my kind, our little village in the town. I distinctly remembered living as a Human- even though the memories caused me nothing but grief- knew how to navigate, how to speak with our Human neighbors, how to use technology.
My understanding of the world wasn't being overridden, it was just that, culturally, me and my people were regressing, and even understanding that, we couldn't stop because we didn't want to stop, it felt more comfortable.
The term 'medieval stasis' was tossed around, the idea of a setting remaining locked in a culturally and technologically medieval state. This didn't feel true to me, if I had a microwave that didn't take up a shit ton of space, I'd definitely use it over cooking over a fire. The flatscreen in my old house was practically like sitting in a theater, the bed was disproportionately huge, like going from a twin to a really long queen size.
I didn't see it as technological regression, so much as nothing was made for us, there was no way to accommodate us in a modern society. Even just going to the nearby city was distressing because we're really fucking small, and even scampering across a road on all fours was just asking for someone to get run over or stepped on.
Not to mention, the Humans were also distressed at our presence, even though it was explained what had happened. That said, there were people who came to our town, people who specifically wanted to become Kobolds. Even knowing that it was a very permanent and life-changing experience, even having us explain that there was nothing to accommodate them out in the wider world, they simply accepted that, yes, we were very much a minority in the world that couldn't possibly be accommodated because we were so rare.
But they were insistent, they were fully willing to abandon their prior lives for this, and reluctantly, they were allowed in.
The process was always painless, they just walked in, shrank, and turned into a Kobold, and could just walk over to us and fit right in. The people who wanted this just seemed to be more natural at it, or maybe they were just aware of what we were supposed to act like and knew how to do it, unlike me, who had been completely blindsided.
It was a month into the second year, when one of the Human kids to the Kobold parents turned into a Kobold. Of course, everyone freaked out because it was against the rules, this was an illegal action and changed everything.
Except, it didn't.
The kid simply didn't want his parents to be alone anymore, so he started trying to figure out how to become a Kobold. Well, we had already established anyone who wanted to become a Kobold, aside from that initial mass transformation, would become one, he wanted it, so he became a Kobold. His brother tried as well.
Simply saying he wanted it didn't work, but when he became distressed that he couldn't to it. Pop! Instant Kobold.
Throughout all of this, Brutus just stuck to my side as a very good boy and just did not seem to mind or care that people were changing into Kobolds around him.
I woke up one morning from a sudden surge of magic within myself. At first I was freaking out, thinking I was going to explode, but then I felt myself calming down as the power settled.
Everyone freaked out when I got onto the roof of the nearest tallest building. I mean, even I was a little freaked out because this was entirely new to me, but I ran and took a flying leap off, and with a big-add feather in hand, I spoke a word, and my rapid descent slowed until I touched the ground.
Of course, everyone was pissed at me, told me that I should never do something so recklessly stupid again. Seeing everyone's concern filled me with shame, and I explained that I knew it was stupid, but I felt I had to do it. That if I tried to tell anyone, they'd just lock me up in a room or something.
How do you rationally explain you want to throw yourself off a building so you can make yourself glide to the ground?
The anger turned into excitement as people realized that meant I knew another spell, that I had hit second level and that I should be able to restore the spell I just used, which I was able to.
This of course led people to give me a player's handbook for D&D and told me to read it because my sudden growth of power meant it was absolutely consistent with it and that I should be able to figure out what all I could do.
Which I did.
It certainly outlined a lot of stuff, but it wasn't particularly useful for me, and I had a feeling that at best it was an abstraction of what our reality was, and at worst, an unreliable guide into life. So I just kind of set it to the side, said "That's nice." and went about my life.
It was the third month of the first year that the mine collapsed.
It was a dull roar, a distant rumble.
We all knew what it was the moment it happened, and every single one of us ran to the mine. Human or Kobold, we all lived in constant fear of a collapse. Our family members were competent, this was a generations-long job that a large portion of us learned just to keep the economy going.
I remembered the sound of someone screaming, there was someone trapped under a large boulder, still alive, but unable to get himself out.
Now, I had never bothered to learn the trade, that was something my father did that I was too terrified to do. I remembered, at that moment, that even though a lot of the people who became Kobolds had been miners, they refused to go into the mine, saying they just didn't feel safe in it.
We'd all just passed it off as an understandable fear that a small creature like us could get easily lost in there. But as I looked at the pile of rubble, I knew how to get him out without causing the whole thing to bury him.
I didn't hesitate, I ran forward, throwing off my clothes because I felt they would get in the way, and grabbing hold of rocks I was absolutely certain were stable, I began to climb and began grabbing the rocks that were most likely to fall and potentially kill the man and got them out of the way.
I only registered there were other Kobolds with me when I handed the rock to one of them, who passed it on to another, and another. We cleared out the immediate danger first, while other Kobolds jerry rigged something to get the boulder off the man and drag him to safety.
It goes without saying, that if I could use magic as what the players called a Sorcerer, others could use magic as something called a Cleric, and well, if the man being healed wasn't a sign that there actually was some sort of divine force in the world, I didn't know what was.
We continued to clear out the entrance, not even one rock fell as we instinctively grabbed what would cause a rock slide and got it out of the way.
When I began to feel exhausted, another Kobold came up and told me to rest. I did, carefully climbing down and only passively realizing I'd been up there for a solid four hours just working my ass off to clear the rubble.
It only occurred to me then, as I drank some water and ate some meat, that my father was down there. Saving him hadn't even been on my mind, all that ran through my mind was that I had the knowledge to help, so I helped.
A tool used for smashing the larger rocks to pieces snapped, I barely registered I was running over to them, I just took the broken tool from them and fixed it.
It didn't even matter that I was fucking exhausted and sore, I was up and over there because I was the only one that could use magic to fix things.
Nobody stood idle, There was a group of Kobolds who were waiting, certainly, but they were watching intently, hopping up and running over to relieve someone who was getting exhausted, or running food and water to someone who needed it.
We saw the first hand poking out of the rubble six hours into clearing up the entrance, focus shifted to getting them out immediately, because they were still moving, Within minutes, they were being carried down the rocks to the ground, it was clear to me they were in critical condition, and if they weren't healed, they were going to die.
The spell used on him was called 'Spare the Dying' according to the players. He instantly stabilized, the worst of his wounds- while still bleeding- simply stopped oozing out blood.
I overheard one of the nurses from the nearby city's hospital remark that- by all rights- that man should be dead. It only occurred to me that people from the hospital had come the moment the news of the collapse reached them. None of them had turned into Kobolds, but I could see on their faces that it hadn't even been a concern.
I continued fixing any tools that broke, which allowed everyone to use them again when they did break.
I saw a rock suddenly break loose, I didn't even register the word I spoke, or my hand flying out. All I knew in the next moment was my Magic Missiles hitting the rock head-on. Once, to knock it off course, and the other two times to ensure it completely missed hitting anyone. A few Kobolds looked at me with surprise and gratitude.
I simply nodded, continuing to repair things as they broke.
We found more people, most of them still hanging on by a thread, the Clerics standing by to stabilize them before having them moved over to the doctors and nurses, who were doing their best to make sure they were in a position to be taken to the hospital, where their injuries could be more properly addressed.
The fact of the matter was, we didn't have enough spells to go around to heal everyone, even among the more naturally inclined Druids.
There were people who had died. Family, friends, every time we found them, there was a pause in our work before they were dug out and brought out. We kept working, bolstered by the wails of the bereaved.
We couldn't save everyone, but we'd be damned if we didn't try.
We heard the first muffled voices of the survivors who had managed to avoid being crushed under several tons of stone. We didn't work faster, we kept up the sustainable pace we had, because hurrying would just lead to injuries.
The first hand that reached out from the darkness was briefly grasped before drawing back in. The hole was gradually widened, those of us who could fit went in, working from the inside to safely widen the hole, to shore up the unstable mine enough to keep people safe.
One by one, the trapped miners were carried out, but it wasn't even half of them.
"The rest are still in there." One of them said. "The whole thing is unstable, there's no way we can safe them."
"There's no way you can save them." Kassa, one of the Kobolds who had been a miner, said. "But we're sure as hell going to try."
I could feel the weight of the earth above me as I entered the unstable mine. It terrified the shit out of me that at any moment, it could cave in and probably kill me instantly.
Still, they needed me to fix their tools, because they were sure as hell going to break again.
It was ten hours into the rescue, we had only just gotten maybe a fourth of the people out, and a further fourth of them were dead. We had instinctively known the mine was going to collapse, we avoided it like the plague, but we didn't realize it at the time.
The earth shifted above us, small stones raining down on us. I set to work repairing the cracked timbers, I could feel that weight lessening slightly, it bought us maybe minutes, maybe seconds, but it was enough to get support struts in place.
The plan was simple, we all knew it needed to be done. We would rescue the miners, and then we would collapse the mine.
The Humans argued that the mine was our lifeblood, that without it, the town would dry up, there would be nothing.
"We can always dig more mines." I said. "We can't waste more lives on one that's just going to collapse."
As hellish as it was to make our way down into progressively more dangerous tunnels, being out of the sunlight was doing wonders for my stress. We knew where it was the most unstable, the miners knew where to put the struts to be the most effective, and when we came to the first collapse, we worked our tails off to clear it out.
We silently passed the dead along, those unlucky few who had been crushed. but the survivors who managed to cling on to life were stabilized and taken out with yips and yaps of encouragement and comfort.
When we broke through and saw the wide, terrified, yet hopeful eyes of more of the miners, we immediately knew if we proceeded, their section of the mine was going to collapse, rendering all of our hard work moot.
"We need to pass them a strut." Kassa said. "Listen, and listen carefully. We need to pass a strut through this hole to you. You need to ensure on your end it does not hit the rocks, otherwise, the section you're in will collapse."
"Just pass it through."
It was easily the most stressful thing I'd ever taken part in. Dozens of small hands keeping the damn thing stable, while the miners on the other side tried their damnedest to keep it steady. Kassa directed them to where to put it, and once it was firmly in place, we cleared the rocks out, urging the miners to get out.
They looked back at us when we didn't follow.
"No, absolutely not. You are not going in there." One of the miners said.
"Kobolds don't abandon family." My brother, Tallyn, said firmly. "We'll all die before we consign them to death."
Even though our every instinct screamed at us to turn tail and run, we pressed onward, the struts only barely keeping the ceiling above stable.
I began to hyperventilate, requiring someone to help calm me down. I was welcome to go, but I needed to stay, I needed to be present to ensure our tools could be repaired.
As if to illustrate my point, one of the struts broke, the mine groaned, and I immediately leapt up to repair it.
We went deeper.
The next collapse was reasonably stable, for what it was worth, we were able to clear it out, and thankfully without any other casualties. I had to resist the urge to run over to my father and hug him, but I did grab his arm and gave it a squeeze.
I think that was the first time he'd ever looked at me with such pride in his eyes.
Eighteen hours into the rescue, we reached the end and got everybody out. The sudden jolt of terror that ran through my body told me we needed to leave immediately. We ushered the miners out, tried not to panic as we slowly ascended to the surface. Struts began to crack, it was all I could do to keep them whole while everyone got out.
I began to smell fresh air, and that's when the mine behind us began collapsing. There was no time to waste, we ran for the surface, my exhausted and hurting body screamed at me to move, but just as I was almost out, I felt something heavy hit me, and then I was buried.
I wasn't afraid anymore. I knew I was going to die, but the moment I realized that, all fear of dying just... went. I had stabilized the mine for as long as I could, I had worked my tail off to keep things going, and I was proud of what I had accomplished.
Still, I only had the merest trickle of air, and my brain was still in survival mode.
I fell unconscious at some point, I wasn't going anywhere, and I was too tired to fight it. But when I opened my eyes, it was to the faintest shaft of light peeking in, the sounds of rocks being moved.
It was just me in here, the chances of me being alive right now was completely slim, I would have forgiven them for leaving me to tend to the wounded, but they resolutely kept working.
They had to be exhausted, at the end of their rope, there was nobody capable of continuing.
There was nobody who could save me.
"I don't care if he's dead, I'm not leaving my boy in there!" The voice was muffled, but it brought tears to my eyes. I tried to call out, but all I could manage was a weak sound.
Still, I kept breathing, kept trying, even as the rocks shifted around me dangerously, threatening to finish me off.
There was a brief pause, an indistinct voice, and then silence.
I cried out, my voice barely a audible even to me, there was no way they could hear me.
Still, I cried out, I couldn't manage a single word, but I tried regardless.
"Did you hear that?"
I cried out as loudly as I could, and then I could hear the rocks moving again, I felt the weight around me shift, I could get more air in. I cried out, louder, straining to push myself out, and then, the finally gave way.
All I could manage was pushing my snout out into the fresh air and managing another sound, I felt a hand on it, smaller, a Kobold's hand. They were still trying to reach me.
I was pulled out, my breath rasping, my body in utter agony, I was blind in one eye, and against the hellish light of the bright morning sky, I saw a Kobold leaning over me.
"Family doesn't abandon family." He spoke with my father's voice.
I felt relief as my body was healed, but I was still absolutely weak from fighting to survive.
"You became... a Kobold..." I rasped.
"I kept thinking to myself, if only I knew how to get to you." He said. "If only I could find you. I could feel myself on the cusp of transforming, and I ran headlong into it because it was the only way to save you." He hugged me, crying, overwhelmed with relief.
Of roughly 2,000 Humans, 786 died.
The miners had found a new vein, silver, certainly more than enough to keep the town going.
But they dug too deep, they weren't careful enough.
There was no resentment from the Humans for us not realizing the mine was unsafe. We didn't know at the time what the aversion was, so it was just chalked up to fear due to being in an unfamiliar situation
With the mine utterly collapsed, there was no real way of salvaging it, it would probably cost more to excavate it and make it stable than that silver vein would be worth.
Incidentally, the moment everyone was out and safe, every single Kobold had 'gained a level', the players explained that we had solved a significant crisis, and that gaining a level was usually the result of such.
They then said, with the kind of manic grin I only saw from gamers who liked games with punishing gameplay, "It's only going to get harder to earn them from here."
Getting used to life with a blind eye was a bigger adjustment than learning how to live as a Kobold was. Still, it was a small price to pay for saving as many people as we could.
We started scoping out another location for a mine, somewhere close enough that we wouldn't have to go far.
When the Human miners heard that we had an instinctive sense of when a mine was safe or not, they all instantly transformed. Even the merest prospect of having that kind of ability had led to such a strong want for it, that they just flat out changed.
Of course, like my father, they had to adjust. Some of them were upset that it happened, but like me, they learned to accept it and appreciate it.
I threw myself into honing my spellcraft, every day I practiced, getting creative with my spellwork and just generally improving in my reaction times.
My fellow Kobolds all looked at me with respect and gratitude. We all knew that my dogged insistence on going with the rescue party to make sure our tools were in top condition had prevented a lot more deaths.
It wasn't that they thought I was the only reason we succeeded, but they understood my absence would have led to catastrophe.
Having achieved this third level of power, I had gained access to something called 'metamagic', as well as second level spells.
I didn't really have any control over which spells I gained insight into, but I could sense that any spells I knew prior I could change one of them into something else.
Thus, I gained an understanding of the spells 'Witch Bolt, Vortex Warp, and Enhance Ability'. Which meant I could conjure a steady stream of electricity, teleport someone to another spot near me, and enhance someone's physical and mental attributes, of which there were apparently six.
The 'metamagic' that I learned granted me the ability to cast certain spells near-instantaneously, and to extend the duration of an effect.
There was a hard limit on what I could do, but it was useful when applied correctly. If someone was going to be doing heavy lifting, I could bolster their strength for an hour- two, if I used metamagic- or bolster the intelligence of someone who just couldn't figure something out.
The scientists who had come to study us wanted to make exclusive use of this, but I very firmly told them, "Unless you're absolutely stuck on something, and nobody else needs it before I need to sleep, then I'll do it."
That being said, I did absolutely test the spell on myself so I had an idea as to what it did.
That all being said and done, we did have a town meeting.
The Players had something important to tell us, something we needed to be aware of, before we did anything with the dead.
"There are two spells we do not have access to yet, that can return the dead to life."
Resurrection, a 'Seventh Level' spell, and True Resurrection, a 'Ninth Level' spell.
"As a Cleric, I will be devoting my all to reaching Level 13, which is the earliest that Resurrection can be learned. It is entirely likely it will take more than a year to even learn this spell, let alone get to a point where I could cast it more than every long rest."
"Roughly eight hours of rest." Another Player helpfully clarified.
"I want you all to understand, it may be entire years until I can learn it. At that point, I will only be able to restore three people to life per day. It would then take a little over nine months of non-stop effort to bring them back."
"We did the math, three people per day with just one person, that's twenty-one per week, or eighty-four per month. Seven hundred and eighty-six people divided by eighty-four is- rounding up to the nearest tenth- nine-point four."
"This is with the understanding that there is no guarantee of bringing them back. If the soul is free and willing to return, then they will return to life. Otherwise..." The Cleric trailed off.
"Otherwise, they will remain dead." His aide spoke solemnly.
"I want everyone to weigh the choice I give. I can't say they'll be appreciative of being brought back, they'll more than likely be upset that they've missed years of their life, or even if they will get the missing years back."
He looked at everyone, who sat in silent shock. "Either make your peace with the dead and move on, or wait knowing that as long as I draw breath, I will bring them back." He paused. "I will be conducting a funeral at the end of the day. May the Platinum Dragon grant you comfort, and may any Gods you worship do the same."
With that, he bowed his head and left.
​
[Navigation for 'Dragon Rising'- [1] [2]]
submitted by Drakolf to DrakolfsWritings [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:43 stuff-mcgruff [British Columbia, Canada] Online casino and sportsbook recommendations.

I'm not sure about the online gaming landscape in BC but I'm familiar with the laws, which are fairly permissive.
This does mean we miss out on U.S. sportsbooks in Ontario like DraftKings, MGM, Caesar's, etc. I'm fine with this for two reasons: BCLC's profits get rolled into the provincial budget or distributed as community grants, and U.S. sportsbook ads on Sportsnet/TSN broadcasts have made NHL and NBA games unwatchable.
I know there's PlayNow.com which is BCLC's online casino, plus the big grey market names (bet365, Unibet, Betway, Ignition, Bovada, 888, Bodog) and of course crypto like Stake and Roobet.
Which sites are recommended for each of the categories (slots (including Crash or Plinko), online poker, video or live table games, sportsbook), and why? Which sites would you not recommend?
Thanks.
submitted by stuff-mcgruff to BetWorthy [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:42 BeginningFlatworm117 Open Myomectomy Tips - Part 3: Post-Op Home Care

Okay! I am almost 5 weeks post-op and feeling better all the time so I'm finishing up my 3-part post about prepping for surgery.
First, I want to say this is a time to pamper yourself and allow others to pamper you. Tell loved ones what they can bring/do/make to make your life easier. There is a lot below but about half of it was gifted to me in some way.
Secondly, while overall recovery has been smooth for me, remember that pain management isn't entirely linear. There's all kinda of discomfort that will ebb and flow from nausea, constipation, gas, nerves/numbness, swelling, back strain from being on bed rest, the cramps from your first period...some of the meds gave me reflux and the antibiotics gave me a yeast infection. As one kind of discomfort resolves, another one may start to feel worse. Be patient.
​
Honorable mentions to things I had but didn't use:
I know financing the surgery itself can be tough - I saved up for a year. That said, if you can afford it, I think the recommendations above are generally "better to have and not need rather than need and not have." Consider the worst case scenario for your living situation. For example, on an earlier post I talked about getting a walking cane and someone said that "canes aren't necessary". Except, I live in a face-paced city where we walk everywhere and the cane has been very helpful in signaling to folks to slow down around me, offer a seat on the metro etc. Things you don't use you might be able to return or pay it forward to someone else in need. Or even use again if you have a C-section. And if you're trying to find these items for cheap, check your neighborhood message board/FB groups. There may be someone looking to get rid of one of these items.
And as always, do your own research and be in collaboration with your care team. Good luck!
submitted by BeginningFlatworm117 to u/BeginningFlatworm117 [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:42 xSiberianKhatru2 Who are the most controversial presidents?

In July 2021, YouGov asked 3000 U.S. adult citizens to share their favorability on all 45 presidents. You can see the results here. They paint an interesting picture of how Americans perceive their presidents.
Now, what if we used those results to estimate how controversial each president is? I thought that would be a fun experiment, so I took some time to devise a formula that could give some kind of "controversy score" using the approval and disapproval ratings of a given subject.
The first task to define what "controversy" means and what a "controversy score" should represent. A common misconception is that "controversy" is more or less synonymous with "unpopularity", which is not true. Rather, "controversy" is the level of division around a subject; in more mathematical terms, the lack of difference between the approval and disapproval of that subject. In presidential terms, a president with 50% approval and 50% disapproval is a controversial president. A president with 100% disapproval is not, because everyone is in agreement about their negative opinion of him.
Though this is probably the initial approach for many, measuring controversy is unfortunately not as simple as measuring the difference between approval and disapproval. At first glance, this may seem like a good idea, with a 50-50 president (the most controversial) having a difference of 0 (the minimum possible output), and a 100-0 or 0-100 president (the least controversial) having a difference of 100 (the maximum possible output), and everyone else being somewhere in between. It would then be intuitive to rank the presidents by controversy score on a spectrum of 0 (most controversial) to 100 (least controversial).
But this only works when there are only approval and disapproval choices, which is not the case in our poll. The poll has six choices: "very favorable", "somewhat favorable", "somewhat unfavorable", "very unfavorable", "don't know", and "have not heard of them". Even if we combine the first two into "approve", and the next two into "disapprove", we are still left with two troublesome variables that substantially disrupt our math. If we stick to the plan of simply measuring the difference between approval and disapproval, and ignoring the other variables, we will find that a president who has 50% approval, 50% disapproval, and 0% "don't know" is just as controversial as a president who has 0% approval, 0% disapproval, and 100% "don't know", with both having differences of 0. This is obviously nonsense, so our formula needs to be adjusted.
It took some messing around and a good deal of research to find a formula that accounts for this. I ran into a lot of complicated statistical examples and explanations online, most of which went over my head. The simplest example I could find was C = (A*D)/A-D, where A is approval, D is disapproval, C is controversy score, 0 ≤ A ≤ 100, 0 ≤ D ≤ 100, and A + D ≤ 100. This seemed mostly alright, disregarding the risk of dividing by 0 if A and D were equal, which could be resolved with a slight adjustment to C = (A*D)/(A-D+1). This was a much better formula than the initial C = A-D.
From here, it was just a matter of controlling the range of outputs. C = (A*D)/(A-D+1) resulted in 0 ≤ C ≤ 2500, which was a bit too high of a range. I found by applying the results of that poll to this formula that the numbers got much more spread out as they got bigger, so I put the formula into a square root to curb this effect somewhat. C = sqrt((A*D)/(A-D+1)) returned 0 ≤ C ≤ 50, which was much better. To reduce the range to 0 ≤ C ≤ 10, I considered simply dividing the output by 5, but this resulted in C < 5 for all but 2 presidents. With some more tinkering, I found C = sqrt((0.4*A*D)/(A-D+10)), which also returns 0 ≤ C ≤ 10, to be more satisfactory.
To calculate the controversy score for these presidents, I put all their approval and disapproval ratings into a file called scores.txt, with each line having the format "N:A/D" where N is name, A is approval, D is disapproval, 0 ≤ A ≤ 100, 0 ≤ D ≤ 100, and A + D ≤ 100:
Washington:70/10 Adams:46/11 Jefferson:62/15 Madison:39/9 Monroe:29/12 JQA:44/9 Jackson:34/29 MVB:15/14 WHH:18/14 Tyler:14/14 Polk:16/17 Taylor:16/13 Fillmore:11/14 Pierce:15/15 Buchanan:15/21 Lincoln:80/9 Johnson:24/25 Grant:44/15 Hayes:18/15 Garfield:20/14 Arthur:13/13 Cleveland:21/18 Harrison:16/14 McKinley:18/15 TR:62/12 Taft:21/19 Wilson:32/25 Harding:15/23 Coolidge:24/19 Hoover:26/31 FDR:58/17 Truman:51/14 Eisenhower:58/11 JFK:73/14 LBJ:37/35 Nixon:27/57 Ford:41/30 Carter:45/32 Reagan:54/31 Bush Sr.:44/44 Clinton:45/42 Bush Jr.:43/43 Obama:54/41 Trump:39/54 Biden:47/44
I then wrote a short C++ program that could read this file and output the controversy scores, in descending order, into a new file called results.txt:
#include  #include  #include  #include  #include  //written by u/xSiberianKhatru2 //rows in scores.txt must be in format "N:A/D", where N is name, A is approval, D is disapproval int main() { std::fstream f; std::vector> v; std::string s; f.open("scores.txt"); while(getline(f, s)){ std::pair p; p.first = s.substr(0, s.find(':')); double a = stof(s.substr(s.find(':') + 1, s.find('/'))); double d = stof(s.substr(s.find('/') + 1)); p.second = sqrt(0.4*a*d/(abs(a - d) + 10)); //will be between 0 and 10 v.push_back(p); } f.close(); //bubble sort *trollface* for(int i = 0; i < v.size() - 1; i++){ for(int j = 0; j < v.size() - i - 1; j++){ if(v[j].second < v[j + 1].second) swap(v[j], v[j + 1]); } } f.open("results.txt", std::fstream::out); for(int i = 0; i < v.size(); i++) f << i + 1 << std::fixed << std::setprecision(2) << ". " << v[i].first << " - " << v[i].second << std::endl; f.close(); return 0; }
And this gave me the following ranking of controversy scores:
1. Bush Sr. - 8.80 2. Bush Jr. - 8.60 3. Biden - 7.98 4. Clinton - 7.63 5. LBJ - 6.57 6. Obama - 6.21 7. Trump - 5.80 8. Jackson - 5.13 9. Carter - 5.00 10. Ford - 4.84 11. Johnson - 4.67 12. Hoover - 4.64 13. Reagan - 4.50 14. Wilson - 4.34 15. Nixon - 3.92 16. Taft - 3.65 17. Coolidge - 3.49 18. Cleveland - 3.41 19. Polk - 3.14 20. Pierce - 3.00 21. Hayes - 2.88 22. McKinley - 2.88 23. Buchanan - 2.81 24. Tyler - 2.80 25. FDR - 2.78 26. Harding - 2.77 27. MVB - 2.76 28. Harrison - 2.73 29. WHH - 2.68 30. Garfield - 2.65 31. Grant - 2.60 32. Arthur - 2.60 33. Jefferson - 2.55 34. Taylor - 2.53 35. Truman - 2.47 36. JFK - 2.43 37. Monroe - 2.27 38. TR - 2.23 39. Fillmore - 2.18 40. Adams - 2.12 41. Eisenhower - 2.12 42. Washington - 2.00 43. Lincoln - 1.89 44. JQA - 1.88 45. Madison - 1.87
This is a very interesting output, and I think there's a lot to be observed from it. The modern presidents are mostly at the top, the unknown ones are mostly in the middle, and the uniformly popular ones are mostly at the bottom, which seems about right. Most of the presidents are still C < 5; this makes sense, as most of the presidents had high "don't know" responses in the poll. Washington and Lincoln, the popular presidential giants, are comfortably near the bottom.
There are also a few problems. Few would agree that Bush Sr. is the most controversial president. This is because we don't just define controversy in terms of approval and disapproval; we put a lot of weight into how much a president gets discussed when deciding if he's controversial, something neither the poll nor our formula takes into account. The number of people who have heard of Bush Sr., and who have concrete opinions of him, is not terribly far from those who have heard of and have concrete opinions of Trump and Biden. But these opinions are generally quiet, and rarely the topic of heated arguments, something our formula doesn't take into account.
Despite these shortcomings, I think this was a fairly good effort at finding a measurable way to determine how controversial our presidents are. Of course, this formula can be applied to a lot more than just presidents, but I've left it at that for now.
submitted by xSiberianKhatru2 to Presidents [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:40 Firefly-Fan-7 A relaxing life (Short story)

I'm taking a course on creative writing, and came up with this short story. Hope you like it.

A relaxing life

I wake up to the ship alarms, “Warning. Hull integrity at twenty percent.”
Through the canopy I can only see the grey rigged surface of a massive asteroid. It’s blocking my entire field of view, some of its surface glowing incandescent. I turn off the mining laser and I pull the thrusters on full reverse, watching the asteroid moving slowly away from me, rotating on the horizontal axis. It has a huge protuberance on the left, and it’s getting closer to the left side of my ship. If I can’t get out of its reach, it’s going to hit me again.
This would be easier in a smaller and faster ship, but in a Type-9 this was almost impossible. Being 100 meters wide and long, piloting this ship is like piloting your own city block. I roll the ship to the left, trying to bring the left part of the ship down and evade the asteroid’s arm. I avoid a direct hit, but I’m not fast enough and we take a glancing blow. I can feel the soft tremor when the protuberance hits the ship, “Warning. Hull integrity at fifteen percent.”
The ship is as fast as it could be on reverse gear. We slowly get out of immediate danger, the massive asteroid still in front of us but no longer blocking my view. The asteroid sea surrounds us. Left, right, up, and down, there are asteroids of every size and shape in all directions. I feel a sudden punch behind me as the ship hits another asteroid, this time on our back, “Warning. Hull integrity at six percent.” I curse myself and push the throttle a bit forward, parking the ship between the two asteroids. Now I’m fully awake.
Laser mining was supposed to be relaxing and safe. Sometimes it became even too relaxing. This was not the first time that I fell asleep while mining, but it was the first time that I hammer the ship into an asteroid in the process. And without the shields, the hull took all the impact. Cmdr. Peta was surprised when I said that I ditched the shields in my mining ship to save internal space, which allowed me to get more cargo. He will find it funny that I almost blow the ship while mining alone in a desert ring.
I didn’t like to hunt anymore, so I left my bounty hunting days behind me. No more boosting the agile Fer-de-Lance, the favorite ship of bounty hunters, inside a station like an irresponsible teenager, just to hear that low-frequency hum, cut by high-pitched turbine-like whine that anticipates the fierce roar and the huge acceleration of the ship, while you maneuver it gracefully through the station entrance that resemble so much a mail slot, getting a warning from the authorities for dangerous piloting. No, the Type-9 is a massive brick that requires patience, concentration, and attention to detail. Piloting this inside a mining asteroid ring requires some kind of humble respect for the massiveness of the objects involved. I like this.
I begin to assess the situation. My cargo was at 90 percent capacity. I push away the temptation to keep mining to reach 100 percent. With only six percent of hull integrity, even the slightest hit would tear us apart. If I had put even a small capacity shield, I would probably be carrying roughly the same amount of cargo, but without the danger of getting the ship destroyed. The irony.
I think that whatever course of action, it is best to leave the ring for now. I slowly push the throttle forward and pitch the ship upwards, dodging the asteroids. We get out, my field of view expanding to contemplate the white planetary ring, reflecting the distant star’s light. It’s like a peaceful wide road, going straight for millions of kilometers, until it turns right and disappears behind the light-purple gas giant that it’s orbiting.
I make a cup of coffee, stretch my legs, and start looking for stations with good selling prices. I find one, only one jump away, in a high population system. In other words, risk of pirates. Maybe the system has good security. I come back to my chair, “Sorry girl,” I said, while checking the controllers. “We’ll arrive in a station in no time, you’re getting repaired and will be as good as new, how about that?” I engage the Frame Shift Drive, and we jump to the station’s star system. We’re now only a couple hundreds light-seconds away from the station, traversing in supercruise mode. In normal space this would take months, but in supercruise it’s a matter of minutes.
The station is just a few light-seconds away when I notice two ships behind us, getting closer. The familiar acute noise announces the interdiction, revealing that another ship is trying to get me out of supercruise. I concede to the interdiction, preventing my FSD to overload, thus making reboot faster. When we drop into normal space we are soon followed by a Python ship, and I can see it aiming at us. The pilot opens a communication channel, “Give me some of your cargo or this gets real interesting.” These guys don’t even bother to type the messages themselves; it is always this cold copy-paste communications. His friend doesn’t drop by our location for any reason. If I had shields, I could endure some shots while the hyperdrive charges and boost away. But I look at the bottom right panel, showing the hull integrity “6%”. Any shot and we’re blown to pieces. The best option is to comply.
I start to ditch the results of my honest work to this douchebag, thinking about the time that I spent in the asteroid ring. At least if the ship survives, I won’t have to buy another one, with all the right pieces, and start anew. The truth is that the ship is worth far more than this single cargo. A few moments later two Federal Assault Ships drop to normal space, “This is system security, please comply.” The battle between them and the pirate starts soon after that. Great, now I’m in the middle of a gunfight.
I hold the throttle and look at my cargo floating in space, abandoned by the pirate. The other ships are busy fighting, and I still have some collector limpets. I shouldn’t be this greedy, but I open the cargo hatch and release all my limpets, recollecting my hard-earned materials. The three ships pass beside us, and I hope that we’re not hit by mistake. When we are almost finished picking up all the materials, another ship drops to normal space. The pirate’s friend with another Python. I close the cargo hatch, engage the FSD, push the throttle all the way forward, and activate the engine’s boost. The deep rumble and the throaty roar announcing that the ship is using its full power, making the hull vibrate. I’m not betting on those cops now. I shout aloud in celebration when the hyperdrive gets us into supercruise. Take that Cmdr. Peta, who needs a shield now?
We get out of supercruise at the station location, the massive structure always rotating to provide artificial gravity. I ask for dock authorization, which they grant automatically. I’m hovering my finger on the panel, almost turning the docking computer on. The docking computer can save a lot of work and, nine out of ten times, lands the ship safely. But sometimes it miscalculates the station’s rotation and grazes the Type-9 on the mail slot. This is usually not a problem, but with only six percent of hull integrity I’m not taking any chances.
I take manual control and carefully pilot the ship to the station’s entrance. When we’re right in front of it I synchronize our rotation to the station’s, adjusting it every second. Getting a one hundred meters city block through this portal is not an easy task. I can already see the station’s interior, the two-kilometer-wide hollow cylinder. The internal surface is filled with spaceports, highways, and even leisure parks.
We’re halfway through the gate, entering the internal atmosphere when I hear the familiar low-frequency hum, cut by high-pitched turbine-like whine. I look forward and see a Fer-de-Lance boosting directly towards me. The pilot, probably a teenager, didn’t bother to check which ship was entering the station. Any other ship and he could pass beside us, but the Type-9 takes almost the entirety of the mail slot. He hammers us, his shield absorbing the hit, but to my shieldless ship this was the final blow.
I’m ejected, propelled into the station’s atmosphere, flying away from my ship. I turn myself around, floating alone inside the station, just to watch my ship exploding with hours of mining work and hundreds of millions in equipment.
I try to chuckle, thinking that Cmdr. Peta is going to laugh at this. Next time I’ll use a shield.
submitted by Firefly-Fan-7 to EliteDangerous [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:38 clarkkentshair Never Have I Ever - Season 4's IRL 'Premiere / Screening Event' hub thread!

In a few days, hundreds (maybe thousands?) of fans will get to attend the fourth and final season's premiere / screening event!!
This is a consolidated 'hub' thread to chat leading up to the event: about questions, logistics, meeting up*, etc, and for discussing after the premiere / screening. (*Please be careful for your personal and online safety if you plan to meet up with anybody from the internet... we don't need you to have a weird pizza incident with u/TheRealPickleRick69!)
BUT this consolidated 'hub' thread for the premiere event is only for non-spoiler, non-episode/characteplot-discussions. This is the only way to make sure that any possible spoilers from anybody who went to the event doesn't ruin the show and suspense for other fans.
If you post any episode details or spoilers here, you may be timed out from the subreddit community for at least a week or more, meaning you probably won't get to discuss any of the episodes until at least after the July 8th premiere of the full season of episodes.
Non-spoiler photos and videos from the the premiere event can be posted as a new submission to the subreddit, or shared here in this thread -- up to you!
Premiere event details
Thursday, June 1st
7:00 PM (Pacific timezone)
Los Angeles, CA
Request tickets here, but admission is not guaranteed, even with a "ticket": https://1iota.com/show/1543/never-have-i-ever---season-4-premiere
From the ticket request page:
Please Note: These tickets are not guaranteed admission. We overbook this event in order to secure a full house. Admission is based on a first-come-first served basis. Netflix reserves the right to refuse admission.
The first 300 fans lined up onsite will be given a spot on the carpet to greet the cast as they arrive!!! (But don't worry, we'll have plenty more seats available inside the theater beyond the first 300.)
From Netlix's 'Tudlum' article:
Following the screening, fans can also walk the red carpet, where they’ll find lots of Insta-worthy photo ops.
To actually discuss details and spoilers from the screening, i.e. the episodes, plots, what happens to the characters, etc: below will be links to episode discussion threads that will open up on July 1st to start to discuss episode-by-episode.
Links will be here after July 1st
Warning for those that click on the episode discussion links between July 1st and July 8th -- other 'Never Have I Ever' fans will already be discussing spoilers in those threads prior to the premiere/release of the full final season on Netflix on July 8th!
submitted by clarkkentshair to NeverHaveIEverShow [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:38 69rockysullivan Called out my boyfriend for being on Scruff. He played the victim, said I was spying on him. Don’t people have any shame?

My boyfriend of 5 months and I were exclusive, and had conversations about monogamy (we agreed to be exclusive), and the apps (we agreed to delete). Last week, I was helping him navigate some things on his phone browser. We hit one of those 404 pages, and when I hit the back button to take us back to where we were, I instead landed on a page about how to restore a Scruff profile. I felt like I had invaded his privacy, and tried to act like I didn’t see it it. Of course, I couldn’t ignore it, and a few days later downloaded Scruff myself. There was his profile, complete with several pics. His profile said he was single, and open to relationships, dates, and random play/NSA. I checked back a few times, and he was online, several times, over the weekend. I confronted him about it. He showed his true colors, saying “well, if my profile shows up, that just means it’s on my phone”. Of course, that’s a lie, because Scruff tells you when someone is online, and I told him I saw him online and off over the course of two days. “So, you’re spying on me”, he says. Like I’m the bad guy. I was not spying him, I was following up on a red flag that somehow the universe wanted me to find. God knows what I would find if I really did spy on him. This was a guy I trusted (unprotected sex, unfortunately, because we agreed to exclusivity), and who always seemed like an upstanding man. His deceit and subsequent lying were a shock. Bros, if your man is on one of those apps, don’t second guess it. It’s total bullshit and disrespectful. Confront him. You may think he’s a great guy, but he’s showing you who he really is (and believe that version). If he’s on an app and said he wouldn’t be, he doesn’t deserve you. Of course, I’m going to get tested. And I dumped his repulsive ass.
submitted by 69rockysullivan to AskGaybrosOver30 [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 23:36 thisisathrowawayy1 Row of cars all damaged - suspected keyed

Cannot be certain when, but I suspect last night - 4 (likely 5) cars have all been scratched on the same side relative to where it was parked in spaces, at the side of the road.
This is in a housing estate, they’re designated spaces with a pavement between the space and the house, and the road is level with the pavement so it all seems “pedestrianised” but it isn’t.
Initially I thought I’d just caught my car with a bag or on a stiff branch, but when I spotted 3 of my neighbours also damaged in a consistent way, that went out the window.
I’ve reported it online to the police, but nothing can so far be seen on Ring cameras.
What’s the likely course of action here? How are things likely to play out?
I don’t expect anything re finding out who did it, just wondering what I should expect to happen/not happen!
Edit: in England
submitted by thisisathrowawayy1 to LegalAdviceUK [link] [comments]