For context I work a full time job and in the office from 7-5 mon-thur. Those of you who work corporate jobs know how little time we really have for ourselves and is really something I value as an introvert. With the commute I get home around 6pm and that gives me 2-3 hours to workout or enjoy some of my hobbies then just wind down after. I essentially dont have the time to just “chill” with friends on a workday as my workouts and hobbies is essential for my physical and mental health.
Now I have a friend who has been texting me every day to hangout. Because I work the same schedule everyday, he’ll text me right when I’m off and expect me to just do random and pointless shit with him. I’ve been golfing a lot lately and he’ll ask me everyday if I’m going to the range but when we do go, I end up stuck there for hours as he uses my clubs and balls. Now I dont mind hanging out with my friends if they also have the same hobbies and we can enjoy them together. Problem is, every single thing we do he shows up late, then when he shows up he has to smoke which takes another 30min. By the time we start, its already nearly an hour+ past the agreed time when if I went alone, I would’ve been done on time. I go with friends who also work corporate and we always finish in a reasonable time then go our own ways home to wind down.
I never lie to him or make excuses as I tell him exactly what I’m doing but he’ll try to tag alone which ends up screwing up my schedule and the few hours I have in a day for myself. Is there anything else I need to tell him as I’ve made it clear multiple times that I dont just “hangout” on workdays. He’s high 24/7 so sometimes I feel like he just forgets but hes one of those stoners that believe that weed doesnt effect their day to day life and that he’s better high.

Cashwalk is an app that accrues coins that you can trade in for gift cards. It maxes out at 10,000 steps a day. The equivalent earnings are maybe $0.25-$0.30 (USD) per day, but it adds up. You can join from the US, UK, Australia and a few other countries. You can find more info on the beermoney sub.
Apologies for the off topic post, but wanted to share! PS - This (FC2ZN) can get you an additional 100 coins ($0.25) for signing up.

I know a lot of stuff submitted on the internet is fake, but trust me. This really happened.
I drove into the parking lot to grab Chipotle and (accidentally) tripped and spilled my Agua Fresca onto his car’s windshield. Of course he and his wife saw. They were about 50 feet from the car once I had gathered my belongings. I quickly apologized and offered to clean it up for them.
Safe to say that Chris had enough of it. Without blinking a single time he walked towards me, stared me dead in the eyes and snarled at me. White foam started to form at the edges of his mouth. Guy started beating his chest and howling at me, and dozens of small children pulled out their iPhones to record. This was only a bluff however, and he got into his car without cleaning up the mess. His wife Jada gave me the dirtiest look and quickly buckled up her crying daughter in their 2011 Subaru Forester. I naturally thought this whole thing was over and ran to the car to leave. They were forced to drive next to me as they scurried out of the parking lot because I parked near the exit. He rolled down his window and didn’t look upset anymore. Nor did he look happy. He was emotionless. Dude gave me a 20 second death stare as he blocked the other parents exiting the parking lot. Didn’t even acknowledge the angry moms honking behind him. He eventually let me off the hook, sped off and we haven’t met again to this day.

https://qctimes.com/news/local/contractor-said-he-warned-of-davenport-building-collapse/article_35faacaa-858c-5ca2-a26a-365e6704e7e5.html
Reporting on the days before the collapse.
City is holding a press conference at 10am tomorrow (Thursday) and while I'm not sure of the actual plans from the ground right now, it would be great to see the community come together against this obvious negligence.
Another hot day, especially for those who have been on the scene daily so hydration, sunscreen, umbrellas, all that good stuff is highly suggested. Crowd tends to gather at 4th and Harrison in Davenport in front of City Hall.

Hello everyone!
My dream has come true. My boss has tasked me with deciding the official emergency hurricane headlamp supply. I'm the supervisor for a Safety & Security team at a resort in Orlando.
From my experience with having cool flashlights and showing them off to my security officers, I have learned that they honestly don't care about "cool" features, and definitely dont carebto learn something like Anduril. I also only have a budget of $20-$25 MAX. Here's what I'll need:
Right angle headlamp/180⁰ tilt under $25 (I cannot budge here).
SIMPLE UI! High-Med-Low-Off is perfect. Nothing more complicated. Mode memory optional.
Water resistant enough for torrential rain and wind.
Not horrible CRI (80+ CRI/Neutral white is more than enough, could budge outside these parameters if I have to)
No harsh blue tint. What comes out of a Stylus Pro is fine.
No hat clip lights.
No cheap plastic "walmart" headlamps.
AA batteries, as we have a nearly unlimited supply. AAA could work if necessary.
Reliable.
Mix of flood and throw. Can lean more flood than throw if I have to.
Will need enough lumens to light up a pitch dark room and enough ground to walk around in severe weather conditions.
Amazon avaliblity strongly recommend, not a deal breaker.
I realize I've narrowed it down to a point that may not exist at my budget. Please tell me if I get to be the flashlight hero I've always wanted to be.
Thanks in advance.

Played a Hunter main back in SoA, and through Lothlorien before taking a 12 ish year break. I was on Silverlode and unfortunately lost most of my toons when they closed those servers down.
Tried Treebeared and liked the slower pace but recently moved my character to Arkenstone since it was a bit TOO lonely on Treebeard. Now I'm 42 on my Loremaster, and still trying to take it a bit slow for on level content. I really liked Angmar, and the Mistly Mountains through Moria when it was new.
Questions: 1. Missions, the rewards for the weekly quests are great, but are they worth grinding past 45 / week for the weekly quest?
I turn off XP while running them so I dont overlevel. Anything past 45 per week is just more rep/barter tokens, at 130 will I be glad to have made a grind of it?
Any particular group of missions that's MORE beneficial than the rest?

1. Skirmishes, these were the missions back in the day. Are they pretty much worthless now besides XP and some seemingly very difficult / grindy deeds?

Again, I'm happy to pass on them and level slow, but don't want to get stuck without critical rep or barter items at 130.

1. Expansions, I'm VIP, and bought Fate of Gundabad. Am I missing anything worthwhile not buying the Before the Shadow xpack before I get to max level?

I think that about covers it. Definitely enjoying being back and re-experincing middle earth!

What doses are people on, and what dose did you start at? I started at 10mg. I had miserable constipation the first few days. Then diarrhea returned. It did decrease the gurgling a bit. Zero improvement in bowel habits (I have only diarrhea 24/7 for 6 months now). Tried going up from 10-20mg. No improvement. Noticed sexual side effects (like zero interest in sex) plus some apathy. Been at 20mg for 2 months. Gurgling worsened again. Debating going up again as I’m low on options. But I’m hesitant since I have a long history of antidepressants making me more miserable. And tapering off is a pain if it makes me a zombie.

So while I was unemployed last year and really at my wit's end, I applied for a job that ended up being with a temp agency and to my surprise the job was working for a company that I had desperately been trying to get hired by. I felt I screwed up the interview and I didn't really have the experience necessary, but they hired me anyways and since day 1 have been excelling and exceeding their expectations. It was never explained that it was temp to perm, only that in the event they have an open position, they can potentially hire me. The assignment was for 6 months and after multiple conversations with my supervisor, she knew I wanted to get hired on full time and she had every intention of doing so at the end of the assignment.
5 months in and she pulls me aside advising that they're wanting to extend the assignment. Not her, but the higher ups. I was pissed, and she knew full well I would be and was on my side, but after talking it out they said it would be for another 3 months and they provided me with work from home equipment to use on the days I work from home (computer, keyboard, monitor, mouse, headset, etc).
My team consists of me, my supervisor and one other person who's a company employee. Recently, they let him go, and my supervisor advised me that she had been speaking to the higher ups to get me hired on asap. Things were looking up. Today, I found out that they're actively hiring for my former co-worker's position and interviewing rather than offering it to me. The higher ups are wanting someone with a minimum of 5yrs experience (whereas I came in with barely 6months from 20yrs ago) for the position, which means I'm not eligible. There are no other open positions in my department and my supervisor says that she's beeen asking about creating a new position for me to continue to do the role I was contracted to do, but she keeps getting the run around. HR is redirecting her to upper management, upper management says they need to get approval and then she never hears back. I was visibly shaken and upset by the new today and it effected my mood to the point that I told her I was leaving early (all my duties were done for the day at this point). I also found out that the contract's extension was verbal, so I'm basically day to day at this point.
I love my job, I like what I do and the people I help. My responsibilities extend to several of our locations in the US, so I get to network with a lot of people, the people in the office are really nice and fun to be around. This is the highest paying job I've ever had and we're literally spoiled rotten. Despite being accepted by the people in the office, the company itself does not recognize me as an employee and makes an attempt at every turn to remind me that I'm a temp (my email address literally says 'Temp' after my name, as does my user login. We're excluded from any company events, but we're made fully aware of it, we don't get PTO, so any days off we take end up costing me, no holiday pay, so paycheck is short, and we don't get any sort of benefits from the agency.
I'm now just past 7 months as a temp and the lack of commitment from the company to hire me despite my stellar performance is very disheartening. I don't want to leave, I'm hopeful that it'll turn around, but at what point do I say enough is enough and walk away?

So long story short, my boomer parents hate it when I do nothing on my days off from work and think I should always be on the move because that’s how you end up being depressed.

Clothes generally either fall into super cheap, don't fit right, only wear once, or they are expensive but the cut and construction were more thought out. Is there a middle ground for this? Like, instead of spending $5 for a dress from shein, or $60 from name brand, is there a $20-25 option that maybe might last a few more wears or fit better? And not just clothes, what about knock off electronics that aren't total junk?

I (19M) have been talking romantically to a girl (17F). She is so sweet to me. I got out of a toxic relationship and she came in. I thought she would be great for me. I hit it off and went for it but the next day I regretted it. I started too soon. I struggle with mental health issues. (Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, among others). Long story short, I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was. I just can’t make myself feel attracted to her physically. I just can’t, I don’t know why. She’s everything someone could want. But I just can’t. I don’t think I want a girlfriend right now. I was molested in my past and it has effected my relationships. Especially lately. I just got over a very dark spot mentally that caused me to self harm and be off work.
We have hung out and she likes to touch me. I’m okay with it. But I can’t get the feeling of him away right now and I just don’t feel romantically back. I can’t. She is my pastors daughter and goes to my church. That’s part of the reason I have been scared not too. My family’s loves her and thinks she would be good for me. I just can’t.
I don’t know what to do. I can’t go back to church. She’s sat by me and they know. I feel depressed now. I cut it off and told her about my rape.
But this just goes more deep then that. I associate her with it. I can’t help it.
I have so many emotions going through my head. I just don’t know. I can’t feel the same back and I just don’t know why. Anxiety is definitely part of the reason why. She also struggles with it so that makes it worse. Any advice would be appreciated, I feel so wrong.

This occurred with a therapist back in the fall, but I just found this sub and am curious what you all think about this situation.
I got out of a four year abusive relationship last July and after a couple of months of isolating and feeling frozen, I sought help and immediately found a therapist I could start seeing.
I’m a 33 F. The therapist was a 50ish M.
It started off fine. I thought we clicked well and I felt comfortable with him. But things started to change in ways I didn’t understand.
My ex was mentally abusive, often belittling my intelligence which I communicated to the therapist. He began complimenting me on how “smart” I was. I just laughed and said, “Thanks for helping build back up my destroyed ego”. Okay, he could tell I needed that. Then, he wanted to hug me at the end of each session. Fine, I could use a hug, he can tell, all good. After the first session he asked me to go have coffee, citing he thought I was “interesting”. Okay, a bit weird, but I can try to accept the self esteem boost. I need it. He can tell. Harmless.
In the second session, he compliment my physical features and winked at me. Okay, I can use that. He knows it. It’s part of the game here. He sat next to me on the client couch, legs touching, showing me a book. Okay, now I’m feeling uncomfortable for real. Then he says, let’s go have lunch. I say, sure. I didn’t know what else to say.
In the third session, he spends 20 mins showing me pictures of the “really big fish he caught that weekend”. Okay, it’s rapport building. He tells me about his current and ex marital issues. Okay, maybe he thinks this is trust building. (Side note: it was him and his wife in practice together. She was right next door).
Fourth session, we do a reiki session. He was a holistic type of counselor. He asks after if I found it to be intimate. Considering I had just gotten out of an abusive relationship, I clearly have intimacy issues which I assumed he was testing for. I said, sure and brushed it off.
Fifth session, he talks about the group (cult) Landmark Forum and recommends I join as he has participate in it. I looked it up after and that’s a hell no from me.
Sixth session, it’s just the same stuff going on and at the end he asks me to go on a day long kayaking trip with him. Going as far to out loud ideate on how his friend could drop us off at the top of the river and he would park his car at the end.
At that point, I still wasn’t mentally great and it was all too much. I told my family what had been going on and they all said they were concerned that he was yeah, grooming me.
So, I ghosted him. Texted him before the next session, claiming to be sick and said I would reschedule and just didn’t. I didn’t think it was worth explaining why I wasn’t coming back.
I know none of this way okay, but it still baffles me what his real motives were. Either he was manipulating me for a reaction (which, I get the value in that) or he was trying to get me alone in a remote area for…well, idk what for. But if freaked me out.
Anyone have any reasoning that would make these things make sense in the context of being for the good of me, his client?

Dear mom...the mom who I LOVE, who I LOVED! I just want you to let you know that as your grieve this "loss" of your child, falling into the cult of gen-Z queer "wannabes" I want you to know im so proud of you, I love you. I love you with all of my cuts and scars and bruises. Love me, love me the way you used to when I was 6, with flicks and spankings and screaming and throwing. Love me with your "why can you fucking pick up slob" and your "your fucking making it up." Love me again with that laugh when I told you who I am, and then love me after with that cry, with "my child is dead, this was my kid's room, they're gone now." Love me with those eyes that looked right through me when I asked if she was ok, and told her I was there but didn't see me. Love me with every time you screamed at me, and yelled, threw, and hurt, and told me that I was just experimenting when a girl i didn't want to steal my first kiss and I had no choice. Love me that way because im so crazy, craving that special kind of love. That special love that told me that true love isn't unconditional, but turned. I crave that painful love. That bitter, terrifying, spiteful, angry, absent love. Cover my neck in kisses like you usually do and when I pull away go back for more, cover me in bruises that you put time and heart into making against my skin. The way you yell at me and then say I made it all up, made up all by the way you hate that I love you; altho Ill never love as much as all the love you gave to me, that special kind of love. So give it all to me mom. Until Im bruised and crying, on the floor, and my clothes are torn and my thies are scared and I haven't eaten in days...that special kind of love. Mom's love.
​
And now ill return all that love today. All that mother's love with all of me. So you can feel each loving "punch" when I say no. To feel that loving scream for "this is who I am." For that Love so powerful you want to scream and cry when I say "Iv moved on." So you know all the love you gave me because, after that, the love turns into a stranger's love. But before I go, leave you to join a cult of flags and pride and color and the smell or churros and turkey legs, mixed with cheap men's cologne and cheery laughs and smiles and healed scars....Love me again Mom. Love me for the whole world to see, and if you can't, love me for me. Because ill get down on my knees for it and beg for it and pray for it, and chop off all my limbs for it and kill myself for "I love you, my kid, my son..." or maybe if i dig out my eyes and give you by still pulsing heart so you can live two times for "im sorry for what I did, it was wrong..."
And I tried it all, and got nothing. Nothing in return, and I want to scream; "MOM LOVE ME, LOVE ME LIKE A CHILD LOVED BY A FATHER IN A PICTURE BOOK, GOD PLEASE LOVE ME! LOVE ME, UNCONDITIONALLY, I NEED TO LOVE YOU MOTHER CALL ME YOUR CHILD..."
but its to late, so Im going to return the love by embracing myself in the hug I never got from you, and, smiling of my own, not forced by you. And then ill walk away, into a light that you were supposed to me my light, but now I have my own. So I can be my own lantern, to step into my own light, and walk into my own future, owned by me, owned by my love. I love you mom

Hello I am currently a CSR at a vet hospital about 30 minutes commute from me. Today, I had to put my 12 year old black lab down that I've had since Iwas 17. Now, where as the majority of the staff was very supportive and loving including the doctor that put my baby girl down today, management was a nightmare. My hope was to put her down tomorrow, on Thursday. Take a half day and then have a three day weekend for my mental health. My manager decided that needed to put her down today, take Thursday off and be ready to go to work my full shift on Friday. This is due to being short staffed, because she allowed two of our 6 receptionist cut their hours for personal reasons, one of which got attacked by a dog and is on medical leave at the moment, so this would leave 2 receptionists on Friday when there would usually be 3. She did not even look me in the eye today or say goodbye to my pet. She also tried to control what time my pet would be put down and what time would go home. spoke with my dogs doctor about this, and she was dumbfounded by the fact that management is not putting this dog down, she is so why is she making these decisions? Anyhow. I am livid. What can I do about this? Has anyone gotten a doctor's note from emotional distress from losing a loved one? I feel like I'm going to take a sick day on Friday anyways, which is my last legal paid sick day of the year. What are the legal cons of this?
Practice is privately owned and operated by Doctors onsite, not a corporation.

I know it sounds bad because some people have terrible break ups but me and my ex only broke up because I had to move out of state with my family. I am a teen girl that's in high-school, my ex just graduated. I still have feelings for my ex and recently went on a trip to surprise my ex and my friends at their graduation, it was fun and I was happy for once, moving schools and starting fresh has been very difficult for me especially when I have trouble making friends and have social anxiety. I met my ex at a school funded summer camp. My school was for grades kindergarten to 12th, and everyone was allowed on every field trip, which was every Friday. When we met, I acted like a gremlin to test if he could handle the weirdness of my small friend group. He found it funny. That day, he sat with me and my friends at lunch instead of his usual friends, I warned him that my group was the weird kid group, but he didn't care. Over a few months, I grew attached to him mostly because he didn't mind my constant need for physical touch. I teased him a lot with stuff he did and he just accepted it and over time I gained a crush on him.The day I told him I was moving in under 4 months out of state he hugged me, later that day I confessed my feelings for him, he told me it was obvious but he also had a crush on me. We didn't make anything official until my birthday where I led him into an alley in my neighborhood and attempted to kiss him, but I chickened out, so he pulled me close and kissed me instead. After we made it official, I started to give him gifts that I know he would like, I only gave him 4 in total. Soon, he started showering me in gifts and paying for me even when I told him not to and that I could get it for myself. The day I moved, we both decided to break up to give each other freedom and stay friends. When I visited for my friends graduation he walked away when he saw me and was kinda avoiding me at first but when I brought myself to talk to him we were back to being side by side for the entire event. The next day I went to see him and he told me he missed me, I never lost feelings for him so I was happy and hugged him. I went to his guitar concert the day after that and saw him in a suit for the first time, I really liked it. After his performance we went to the resort I was staying at and went swimming, he cheered me on when I playfully strangled the 19 year old boy that my sister who is in middle school is a little too colse for my comfort zone. Ever since me and my ex and I broke up, he's been working out, so that was a nice treat for me. When we left my mom told us to dry off on the balcony and I only wanted a hug to feel safe for once but then we kissed and I wish that day wasn't the last day I saw him before flying back to were I moved to. I really wish I could get back together with him, but I don't want to put him in the cage of a long-distance relationship. What should I do, I know I can't get over him unless I start to hate him. He's still a close friend of mine and one of the only reasons I keep going.

[Flying Sparks

Pre Order Now](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flying-sparks-a-novel-of-dragon-bear-and-boy/coming_soon)
Chapter 2 “Hazardous? I’ll show that manipulative, misanthropic, anti-establishment cretin just what hazardous means if he thinks I’m going to fold on this!” The sound of vigorous guitar riffs made a fitting accompaniment to the angry tirade despite originating on opposite sides of the communal area. Ama was glaring at a laptop that sat on a stained oak desk shoved against the large table near the kitchen. She tapped a fingernail on the wood as she read through the alert. “And what violation of basic human dignity has her royal prudishness’s undies in a bunch?” Em demanded with an affected sneer without looking up from his guitar scales. “Oh you’ll agree with this one tree-hugger,” Drake muttered from where he sat oiling his work boots. “Yeah,” Donny piped up, “Finney is trying to kill a perfectly healthy fir.” “What!” Em demanded, carefully placing his battered old acoustic guitar down in its case and darting over to look at the computer screen. “You mean apark tree?” Despite her simmering frustration Ama allowed a small smile to flicker across her face as she continued to type. “Get out of your pajamas and I’ll tell you,” Drake ordered pointing towards the bathroom door with a stained rag. “School starts in forty-five minutes and you still have breakfast and chores. That goes for you too Pip-squirt.” “I hope you washed your hands before you touched our food,” Em said with a frown. “Boot grease makes a great source of fatty acids.” Drake retorted. “Now go!” The two smaller boys muttered in annoyance but stumbled off to follow orders. “So what is up?” the youth asked as he bent his head back over the smooth leather of his boots. “Mrs. Finney wants that tree down that’s blocking her perfect view of Crescent Lake.” Ama replied in a dry tone. “One that’s clearly on park property?” Drake asked. “Indeedy-do.” Ama replied giving the paper in front of her a glare. “So how’s she justifying it?” Drake asked. “As a safety hazard to her house.” Ama replied. “And?” The biologist groaned and rubbed her face. “As far as I can tell the trunk is perfectly healthy. There is an old trash can lid grown into the trunk and a little discolored sap is leaking out there.” “Frass?” “Watch your language!” Donny interjected as he darted up to the table. “Frass is not a bad word,” Drake stated. “Have you let the chickens out?” “Yes, what does frass mean?” Donny asked as he started piling stir-fry onto his plate. “Look it up.” Drake ordered him. “Emerald! Breakfast ends in ten minutes! Get your tukus down here!” “It’s bad health to rush meals,” Em snapped out as he came down a narrow stairway with deliberate slowness. “It’s even worse for your health to skip meals altogether,” Drake growled threateningly. “Shut it and give me some eggs.” Em snapped back. “Emerald Waters Undersun,” Drake hissed out through gritted teeth. “You are going to get your own eggs.” The boy threw himself into a chair and glared at Drake with challenge in every line of his body. “Emerald,” Ama said in a calm tone. “I think you should apologize to your cousin now.” “Sorry I disturbed you Ama,” he offered without breaking eye contact with Drake. “Not me, him,” Ama said. “Sorry you had to hear that Donny.” Em said. Ama heaved a sigh and closed her computer. “Emerald,” Ama said. “Do you want to eat or go hungry?” Drake demanded. Ama glanced at him with a familiar uneasy look in her eyes and Drake fought down a wince. “Now, Em.” she said in a patient tone. “I’ll go hungry,” Em snapped, jumping up and stalking over to the couch. Donny kept his eyes fixed on his plate. Ama heaved a sigh before turning back to her computer. Em wriggled on the couch for several minutes before skulking back to the table. Drake moved to intercept him but Ama stopped him with a look and he let Em serve himself. Drake cast irritated glances at the wall clock as the time crept more and more into school time. Ama closed her computer and stood, then sighed, sat and opened it again. “I need to pick out their report topics,” Ama muttered. “I could do it,” Drake offered. “You do quite enough,” Ama replied briskly, as she scanned the news. “Here you go. For Donny, malfunctions at the Lewis- McChord Air Force Base air show.” A frown creased her face. “Wow, this is pretty serious. It looks like the F-16 demonstration team nearly got killed.” Drake whistled and leaned over her shoulder. “Multiple system failures,” he read out loud. “I am pretty sure that isn’t supposed to happen.” “Nope,” Ama agreed. “Here is a topic on big game management for Em.” “Reports due by next week?” Drake asked as the old printer on the desk began to squeal and grumble as it powered up. “Same as usual,” Ama confirmed. Drake put the printouts on top of the homework pile and moved to wash up the breakfast dishes. “I need to get to work early today so you two be good for Drake,” she called out placing a quick kiss on top of the smaller boys’ heads and giving Drake’s shoulder a friendly squeeze. “Good luck with Mrs. Finney, and stay safe.” Drake called out as she went into her room. The table was cleaned off and wiped down and the clink of forks gave way to the steady scratch of pencils on paper. They broke for a recess after religion and then lunch after history and math, and by the time the Grandfather clock in the corner struck two the younger boys twitching with energy. Drake made certain the internet was disconnected at the router, and chased Donny and Em out into the garden. “And don’t come in until dark,” he ordered tossing two snack bags out after them. Donny as usual snatched his food and disappeared into the small orachard. Low grumbles about troglodytes and the Amish wandered out into the high corn following Em and Drake shook his head in exasperation wondering, not for the first time how the dark haired princeling came from the same gene pool as his little brother. The kitchen being mostly ordered Drake was turning to put the last random dirty sock in the hamper when a gnarled hand clutching a cane head appeared in the corner of his eye, causing his heart to make a valiant attempt to bolt out of his throat. “Abuelita!” he gasped forcing his hands down from the guard position. “Where did you come from?” Smoldering black eyes ran searchingly over the tall youth. An impossibly long mane of streaked silver and black hair was barely contained in a thick braid. A sharply pointed nose perched over a small wrinkled mouth. A vibrant red horse-hair serape hung over her shoulders concealing everything except her brown and gnarled hands which currently clutched the old tree branch she used as a cane. Drake had been more than a little comforted by the fact that both Em and Donny had admitted to having the thought ‘witch’ every time time they saw her as well. “From the hand of God by the bodies of my sainted mother and father,” she replied after a long, uncomfortable silence. She always spoke in a low husky voice that suggested years of smoking, though Drake had never smelled even stale smoke on her. “Right,” Drake blinked and grinned at the response; the one she always gave. “So you are here for their Spanish lesson? I have their grammar books ready and-” The narrow end of the tree branch rapped against the concrete of the floor causing Drake to jump. Abuelita glared at him, locking his gaze and holding him in place with it for a moment. “I am here for their lessons,” she finally stated, “and you are there for my payment.” Drake thought longingly of the repair and maintenance manuals in the cab of the truck and the new tool he was itching to try, but he forced a grin on his face. “Yes ma’am,” he said. “What can I get you today?” Abuelita pulled out a bag of woven grass from under her serape causing the indistinct patterns on the cloth to shift and change. “Take this,” she ordered him, “and collect me the cobalt blue berries that grow on a single stalk close to the ground. They must come from the mountain to the south east of here by the crystal brook.” Drake nodded, and took the little bag, he didn’t quite manage to infused his gestures with enthusiasm he supposed. The old woman, probably wouldn’t have noted it anyway. She turned and moved towards the garden door without waiting for any other reply. However she called out over her shoulder as he turned to find his own way out of the rambling structure. “Don’t dawdle little one. A storm brews in the distance.” He tried not to roll his eyes at that, the weather forecast was clear and eighties for the next week according to the morning fire report Ama had printed. The youth only nodded and slipped around the corner. He circled the barn and pulled a set of loose tan pants and tunic out of the cubby. The soft worn leather almost perfectly matched the forest floor for color as did the moccasins he pulled on after them. His morning running clothes were modern stuff that wicked the sweat away from him and let him speed through the forest. These were his free day clothes. The ones that let him disappear into the forest and wander. Abuelita, for all of her demands, would tend Em and Donny until he returned no matter how late that was, and with the Park’s yearly budget talks still under way it was highly unlikely Ama would be home until long after the sun had set. Despite still hearing the call of the half restored truck he felt something lossening in him already. The soft cotton and smooth leather rested easily against his skin and Drake slipped into the forest. Freedom; for the moment at least, blissful freedom. Pushing aside the guilt that accompanied the thought as well as any lingering worries about his charges the youth let his legs carry him through the trees. He shunned the man made paths, following the faint animal trails. This close to the barn they were as clear to him as if they were named city streets. Being animal trails, they invariably led him to water. Today he stopped at a trickling stream, took off his moccasins, and rolled up his pants legs. The youth turned and followed the thin flow of icy water upstream, letting it steal the heat from his body through his feet. Some distance upstream, the stream widened and pooled under a boulder. There Drake paused and pulled an old black compass out of his pocket. Behind him he knew every trail and tree. Ahead was a broad swath of National Wilderness he would have to cross, or possibly Bureau of Land Management or even state managed forests where he more rarely wandered. It was hard to tell where the boundaries were from the ground. The clearing he wanted for the berries was solidly in BLM land and he still had quite a ways to go to get there. The stand of timber that stood between him and his goal was dense with young tree and branches that frequently formed impenetrable hedges he had to track around and he checked his compass regularly as he climbed in elevation. Even so the youth found he had wandered too far off his route and had to correct when he spotted the boundary fence. However he was in no hurry and he reached the clearing long before the sun told him it was time to turn around. Sometime in the past some unknown force had carved a shallow trench across the side of one of the small mountains that that dotted the wilderness. It had puzzled Drake at first. The scour was at the wrong angle to be an old rock slide, and terminated in a near perfectly circular clearing at the lower end. Centuries old Douglas Firs abruptly gave way to a second ring only a few decades old. Those were in turn beginning to produce cones and a smattering of knee high saplings. The rest of the space was completely given over to wildflowers. No matter what season Drake visited it he found a riot of life. There had been an early spring and many herbs that normally would have waited a month or more were already in full bloom in the mountain meadow. A white wave of foamflower washed in from the deep forest surrounding the clearing, sending up knee high stalks covered in the delicate white blooms. Late trillium hid close to the roots of the great firs, many having shed their white corollas and begun to put forth their bulbous seed heads. Fuzzy white baneberry blossoms nodded gently in the breeze. A riot of yellow and purple spread across the ground as vetch and buttercups and a host of clovers competed for space in the open sun. Great stalks of lupine as high as his head thrust up their purple and blue proudly from thick clusters of palm shaped leaves. Pink shooting stars and violet harebells crouched under the protection of the larger plants. Indian paintbrush lit the scene with flames of red and orange. Where a spring seeped into the meadow elephant’s head flared neon pink and corydalis bushes put forth blushing blooms. Pale green wild orchids stood along the wet spot and the swarms of bees danced from them to the glacier lilies. Sometimes, as he bent over a tiny blossom and traced the intricate network of veins in the petals, drank in the scent, and felt the smooth surface of the leaves an otherworldly feeling would come over him. It was as if there was another world just out of range of his senses. If he could only really look, the thin illusion that was blocking him would slip away and reveal the real world underneath it. “Look Awiegwa,” his father would whisper, pointing at a deer mouse perched on a fallen log. “What does it see?” Awiegwa would screw up his face and squint. Trying to find the answer to the question. Awiegwa had often wondered how so many flowers had come to be in the relatively small area. He had identified dozens of species and there were more he had yet to determine. The clearing was always the first place to bloom and the last to go dormant. Many of the flowers seemed to utterly defy their usual blooming patterns. However, as time passed he had simply come to accept it. It was one of the small good things that brought back the memories of his father. If it didn’t quite follow the rules Ama had taught him, well an impossible clearing in the mountains wasn’t a place for rules. The particular bloom that Abuelita had requested had taken full advantage of the early sun and had already put forth a few cobalt blue berries; easily spotted at the edge of the clearing in the delicate sea of white flowers. However before he left the shade of the forest for the meadow the youth paused and closed his eyes. Bole wasn’t always here, but he was often enough that Awiegwa always checked for him. Carefully he reconstructed the clearing in his mind; marking every tree and boulder on the edge. Three years he had been coming here and each time it was easier to recreate the clearing. Breathing evenly he opened his eyes, letting the mental image merge with the actual. There was a brief moment of confusion as details like the play of light through branches and the trembling of small clusters of flowers fixed themselves but there was only one truly jarring note. Awiegwa didn’t let his eyes focus on the disparity; he never did anymore, but a warm smile spread across his features as he slipped silently into the meadow. He was here. As the youth moved in a low crouch, gathering the first fruits of the Queen’s Cup, he let his peripheral vision linger on a particular snag. There was nothing obviously interesting about it, other than the fact that it had not been there the last time Awiegwa was here. He had named the wanderer Bole, because it most often appeared as a thick tree trunk; sometimes living, sometimes dead. Occasionally it would be a boulder or simply a mound in the dirt. Often it wasn’t in the clearing at all. If the youth moved forward and tried to closely examine it he could never find anything to suggest it was something other than a tree or rock. He had thought about taking a sample occasionally, had taken his knife out to do just that more than once, but something always held him back. Bole was a part of this place. Dissecting him would be too much like attempting to dissect his sense of his father’s presence here. The youth had never told anyone about this place, not even Ama with who could get most things out of him easily enough. Down at the house, in town, when he was Drake; solid, reliable, first up in the morning, two grades ahead in school with a penchant for science Drake, a productive member of modern society with a promising future and his mother smiling at him. Here he could be Awiegwa. Here he could believe in the ancient medicines his father had dug out of dusty old tomes and brought to life from the forest litter. Every time Awiegwa left the clearing and headed back towards home reality would reassert itself. Bole would resolve back into a figment of his imagination, created from pride in a somewhat better than average memory and what the social workers had called an “intriguing imagination”. When he reached the house and become solidly Drake again flickers of embarrassment would begin eating at him for letting his senses trick him like that, but as long as the blooms nodded around him in this garden Bole could exist even on a Thursday. The little woven grass bag filled up with the berries fairly quickly and Awiegwa soon stretched out of his crouch and let his gaze wander contentedly over the clearing. As it always did, the warm space was working its special magic. Worries about Em getting out of his schoolwork, of not paying enough attention to the quiet Donny, of letting Ama see his petty resentments: it had all melted away from his muscles, thoughts of college costs and abandoning his duties dissolved into an acute sense of the now. The leaves rustled softly in a barely-there breeze, the heavy scent of some unidentified blossom filled his lungs, a dozen shades of green framed the rainbow of flowers, and over and above it all the creaking of the firs as the wind played over them. It was at times like these that he felth he could almost see into heaven; that something wonderful that existed just beyond his senses, and all he had to do was reach out and claim it. The youth took a deep breath and let himself fall backwards onto a handy rise in the forest floor. His path had taken him to the foot of the snag and he shifted slightly to align himself with the gnarled roots. One hand gripped a time smoothed root. “Ama trusted me enough to go out of state,” he murmured. “That’s the first time she’s done that. Usually she has Abulita stay with us to fend off the Harsh, but she said it’s long past legal now.” It was his imagination of course that made him think the root vibrated in his hand in response. Many a long hour he had spent in this clearing with the wanderer. He had poured out his frustrations and anguishes over life’s injustices, had shared his secrets as he grew, and had shouted his triumphs. Sometimes he felt closer to Bole than to any of his human friends. However, something that sounded like his mother’s voice warned him that there was something odd about this and that awareness was the main reason he had kept this place secret from Ama. Their mother hadn’t exactly liked stuff like that. She had never objected to his father’s digging up the old stories of her people. Making cross generational connections between elders, who more often than not lived isolated lives, and the next generation, was an admirable goal in of itself in her eyes; objectively a social good. Storytelling was only the natural course for these relationships to take, but subtle looks had warned even a very young Drake that it was best to cautious what he shared with his mother. At least of those things that couldn’t be placed on a microscope slide. So this was Awigewa’s place, and while his father’s spirit wanders the flowers with he had never felt his mother here. He let his focus drift up, and up. Dark blue Lupine nodded over his head framing the faint crisscross of jet contrails that threw a light haze over an otherwise cloudless sky. His clothed grew deliciously hot from the spring sun. The ground too had eagerly accepted the energy and now it conducted the heat into the muscles of his back. Bole’s wood beneath him was warmer even than the surrounding ground and an idle thought traced across Awiegwa’s awareness; something about it being odd for the light colored wood and relatively dry wood to retain more heat than the darker soil surrounding it. His mind was filled with the impression of a goal. He had been meaning to do, something. Something fun, yes, exploring, he’d meant to see if whatever had dug that den by the second boulder was cubing this year. He would just get up and do that in a minute. His back was so warm and comfortable.

[“Flying Sparks”

Another foray into the lives of Drake McCarty, Ama Love, and the rest of their siblings as they discover that something alien is out in the forest around their home.](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flying-sparks-a-novel-of-dragon-bear-and-boy/coming_soon)[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flying-sparks-a-novel-of-dragon-bear-and-boy/coming\_soon](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flying-sparks-a-novel-of-dragon-bear-and-boy/coming_soon) #FlyingSparks #ScienceFiction #Scifi #Story #novel #book #DrakeMcCarty #AmaLove #Donny #Em #Bard #Bole #Aliens #Spaceships #Crystals #fireflies #NPS #NationalPark #Doctor #Sever #family #storm #writing #reading #drama #literature #author #BettyAdams #DyingEmbers #Dragons #ThingsThatGoBoomp #Indiegogo #CrowdFunding

I’m a single mother who wasn’t cut out for hard labor. I’m to ugly to do porn but I’m to pretty for Burger King. I’m just existing until opportunity comes into my life through the back door.
Let’s start somewhat in the beginning- I was born in Mendocino County California. Directly on the coast in Fort Bragg, on February 10th, 1998. I’m 25 years old, but I will leave the rest of the boring details of an uneventful and traumatic childhood for a different “poor me” post.
For now, I’m going to tell Reddit all about my chronic laziness problem and inflated expectations/ego. I need to tell someone in depth why it is that I get fed up with a aspiring relationship before I even go out with a man, but also, why it is that I can’t find a man that wants to put up with me for the rest of forever. Firstly, I not a worker, I have not ever thought about what I wanted to do in terms of a lifelong career because, well, that just seems like a really long time to have a job to me. I worked in the legal cannabis industry trimming weed for a distributor, but I started talking to this man on the dating app Plenty of Fish, one thing led to another and I quit my trimming job because I got offered an opportunity to “audition” for porn.
I didn’t have my own vehicle so I bought a greyhound ticket and told my mom I was going to meet a guy in the city to try out for a part in an adult film. I should mention that the man that I was going to see in the motel for my… interview lol… was not the man that I had talked to on Plenty of Fish, the guy on plenty of fish set me up with the opportunity to meet the guy in the hotel. My mom was obviously upset by the fact that I was so willingly to jump at this chance and didn’t even think twice about how I could probably end up getting murdered by this man-in- a-motel-room. So naturally, she drove me down to the city because she didn’t want to seem unsupportive and she got a room in the same hotel as me.
I probably don’t need to say this but I’m going to just in case some of us are a little slower than others… Yes, I slept with the potential murderer. He had me show him what I could do lol, my mom and I stayed in the city for two days while I was interviewed and then we left and he said he would put together a small script and work me into a part then he would get ahold of me when we were ready to film. If we are still a little behind, no, he never called me back with a script, I got porn catfished! I made an Onlyfans account after that and was in the 10% of creator’s for a long time, but it was hard to find and keep subscribers and my boyfriend at the time started focusing all of our content on his genitalia and that didn’t fly with my subscribers who came to see my solo content.
I know that I’m not a 10. I am fully aware of the fact that I am not all that and a bag of chips and I am definitely not everyone’s cup of tea because I’m probably a fat dab. In my own mind I’m pretty enough that one day I will find someone who will want to take care of me financially, put up with my bad ass attitude and accept the fact that my attitude will never change. I am the woman that will wake up with you everyday at 4:30 AM to make coffee and packs your lunch before sending you off to work. I will take care of the kids, do all the household chores and perform oral sex every night as long as I don’t have to work anymore, but I also won’t even consider a relationship with anyone I find less attractive than myself no matter how lavish the lifestyle and that has caused a dilemma.

Between May 4th and May 8th 1942, the first naval battle that occured beyond the visual horizon took place. While the Battle of The Coral Sea was somewhat indecisive, with both the Japanese and Americans seeing significant losses although the Japanese largely ceded the body of water thereafter, the kind of engagement it typified bears remembrance, one where neither side directly sighted each-other with surface vessels. You cannot hit what you cannot see, a lesson the Japanese learned all too well a month later near a small sandy dot called “Midway”.
Eighty years hence and the lesson remains the same. It doesn’t matter how impressive or unstoppable your weapon is, if you do not know what you are shooting at, it is useless. Where in the past scout planes would make visual contact with the enemy, tools like RORSATs, NOSS, SOSUS, Over The Horizon and Synthetic Aperture Radars, and more have become the staple for detecting, classifying, and tracking contacts.
The mistake common among most people and even military enthusiasts is to assume the greatest weapon a carrier has in its defense is its fighters. Consider the Survivability Onion (not pictured). While this statement can be somewhat true, from a certain point of view, the carrier’s ability to detect the threat via their AWACs, and the ability to attack beyond the visual horizon is its greatest defense. Both of these steps allow the Carrier to remain hidden. In most cases it is fairly easy to track a Battleship that has come to shell you. Even if it is doing so beyond the horizon, counter-battery radar can give you a good picture of its location just based on the trajectory of its shells, potentially good enough to fire a spread of anti-ship missiles at it. By using deceptive return paths, a carrier can make such tracking more difficult, not to mention more dangerous with a CAP.
To remain hidden is what keeps ships alive. Spaceborne ISR platforms have stripped this fog of war back somewhat, but the basic concept of the horizon is critical to understanding how to utilize carriers in Star Wars.
Putting the “A” in “CVA”
There are a number of real life carrier doctrines to consider as each approached usage slightly differently. NATO nations, led by the United States, viewed the carrier as largely an offensive tool. Of the three major NATO carrier nations, the U.S., the U.K., and France, the U.K. would eventually lose it’s offensive capability with the retirement of the last of the Audacious and Centaur Class carriers and their Phantom and Buccaneer aircraft while France would maintain the offensive role of their carriers though to a more limited capacity due to simply having fewer of them. That being said, outside of the U.S. for much of the Cold War and early 21st century, carriers were largely used as a method of ASW and point-defense interception. For the Soviets this was their Kiev Class with Yak-38 and Yak-141 interceptors and rotary wing ASW and AWACs aircraft, meant to protect their SSBN Bastions from hounding P-3 Orions and NATO SSNs. Even the later Kuznetsov, if it ever actually works, is a defensive tool with the aircraft largely lacking in the capability to attack targets. For the Brits the effect of their transition was demonstrated in the Falklands where Harriers constituted much of their fleet air defense but lacked the range, speed, and loiter time to perform fully in the “Outer Air Battle” or to perform much in the way of strike or air support.
This difference is best illustrated by the designation American Fleet Carriers possessed for a time, CVA*, the “Attack” Carrier. CVA is not a physical change in an aircraft carrier, CVs were changed to CVAs and back again depending on era, rather it denotes its usage. This originated in early nuclear weapon doctrine where carriers were viewed as forward airfields to launch nuclear strikes into the Soviet Union. Later this evolved to attacking the SSBN Bastion in the Barents Sea along with targets on the Kola Peninsula with a similar arrangement with the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka Peninsula in the Pacific.
To further understand this, it is important to look at the kinds of aircraft used by the U.S. Carriers and Supercarriers, most importantly their attack aircraft. The first of the long-range attack trend was the AJ Savage, meant as the first dedicated carrier nuclear delivery platform, with a range longer than the B-25. This trend continued with other dedicated nuclear delivery platforms such as the A-3 Skywarrior and A-5 Vigilante, with notable exception in the small A-4 Skyhawk but a trend which culminated in the A-6 Intruder and later Tomcat Quickstrike proposal.
So why bother? Why should such long-range strike platforms be developed even if they are going to attack relatively coastal installations? Well the answer is simple. Range is the carrier’s best armor but it comes at a cost. The longer the range the less ordinance an aircraft can carry, needing external fuel tanks. Maybe they need buddy tankers which reduces your strike force. Either way you are doing less damage and hitting fewer point targets. By using larger aircraft you can compensate for this, not needing to sacrifice pylons for fuel stores. At the same time by being far away you are harder to detect and engage. Both by shore installations and by reconnaissance aircraft. If they can only search X number of square kilometers per hour, by increasing that area you reduce the likelihood of being found by simple probability. With that kind of safety a carrier can be used in a high-intensity offensive capacity without undue risk to it. Sure, you could load up a Harrier with drop tanks and daisy chain buddy tankers to achieve the same range as an A-6 but the A-6 could probably do it without needing to sacrifice much in terms of payload, of which it carries far more and without or with only limited tankers support, freeing up more aircraft to carry out tasks. One is a gimmick, the other is an offensive tool.
*CVA is not a U.S. exclusive term, indeed the ill-fated British CVA-01 program bore the same designator.
Hyperspace: The Great Equalizer
In Star Wars, starfighters have two clear categories. Those with hyperdrives and those without. A starfighter with a hyperdrive is much like a long-range aircraft such as an F-14 or A-6, even if the crew requirements and footprint are nothing alike. An A-Wing has more in common with a Tomcat in this respect than a Tie-Bomber does, even if the Tie-Bomber was loaded up with anti-starfighter missiles. Those without hyperdrives are your Harriers or Yak-38 equivalents, limited in range and largely relegated to point defense.
Hyperspace creates a horizon behind which a carrier can hide. Simply a jump or two away and off the major hyperspace lanes, and they are beyond sensors and effectively untouchable unless the enemy has thousands of probes to search every nook and cranny you may have hidden. At the same time, if the carrier has hyperspace capable starfighters they have the ability to hit any given target within a fairly massive bubble with impunity and with a relatively low transit time. Conversely, if you were to use spacecraft without hyperdrives to attack a target you would leave the carrier detectable and thus vulnerable to attack by the enemy, losing the greatest advantage of a carrier: its stealth.
Consequently this is why hybrid Carrier-Battleship approaches in real life and in Sci-Fi generally fall short. To act as a Battleship, the Carrier gives up its stealth. There is a minor exception where the fighters are used to augment the air-defense of the "Battle-Carrier" rather than as offensive tools but this is the exception that makes the rule. Ironically, this exception makes the TIE fighter a good design for the Imperial Class to carry as the Star Destroyer doesn’t lose much by getting within detection range of a target while having smaller and cheaper starfighters to augment its air-defense.
To properly utilize a dedicated carrier with Hyperspace technology, not only should they be at the back of the formation, but the carriers should be completely disconnected from the ongoing conventional battle, operating in an entirely different region of space.
The Air Defense Problem
In real life the air defense of a battlegroup can largely be divided into three sections.
First is the outer air battle. This task is carried out by the Defensive Counter-Air Combat Air Patrol (DCA-CAP) ranged out along the threat axis to destroy the enemy force before they either detect the Battlegroup or get within their weapons employment zone. This task is supplemented by extremely long-range Surface to Air Missiles such as SM-6, with several Cold War programs going so far as to propose a Surface-to-Air Boost-Glide Vehicle (LORAINE) to hit scouting aircraft at over 500 nautical miles away. Additionally use of SAM traps, ships that are not emitting and have targeting cued off of other platforms such as fighters and AWACs, further supplements the use of fighters in this theater of operations. Obviously these SAM platforms are at risk but the most valuable unit of a battlegroup is the carrier so the potential sacrifice of one is seen as a worthwhile trade if it can break an incoming raid.
Moving on we have the inner air battle, or area air-defense, which is within detection range by the enemy force and typically within their weapon employment zones. This is handled by the fighters that are assigned to point-defense and by the medium range SAM systems such as RIM-66 and earlier versions of RIM-67*, SM-2MR and SM-2ER respectively. Oftentimes this is typically engaging weapons such as incoming anti-ship missiles.
Finally is the point-defense arena where weapons such as CIWS and ESSM take play and is exclusively, with a few exceptions, dedicated to engaging incoming weapons and largely centered around the self-protection of the ship in question.
The ranges for these engagement envelopes are highly dependent, variable based on range of enemy detection, range of your own sensors, range of weapons, and other factors.
Star Wars complicates the matters somewhat with how Hyperspace interferes with the situation. For this we must first divide the situation into two independent bubbles of space. First is the space around the enemy installation, ship, carrier, etc, and second is the space around your own battlegroup.
In general, the entirety of your own bubble of space is the “inner-air battle”. In this area your point-defense fighters can engage the enemy along with most of your defensive systems depending on how you interpret the range of weapons in Star Wars. At the same time the enemy can detect you and there’s a good chance you are within their own weapons employment zone if you can hit them.
So where is the “outer-air battle” in this scenario? Well that’s complicated. Typically the thinking is that you intercept the enemy force as they try to make their way to you. The problem is, in Star Wars this is impossible to do in hyperspace without specific tools. This tool is an Interdictor vessel. Such a vessel, if placed along the threat axis, would prematurely pull the enemy force out of hyperspace, allowing you to engage with your own hyperspace capable fighters while not putting your own force at risk. Of course the Interdictor is at risk, much like the AAW ship in a SAM trap but that is a calculated risk that must be made to force an engagement that isn’t ideal for the enemy.
There is an obvious issue with this usage. You don’t know where the enemy force is going to come from if they are willing to probe around for alternative hyperspace routings. This makes your chances of actually intercepting them exceedingly low as they aren’t really operating on limited fuel unless you’re engaging forces halfway across the Galaxy and even then it would be easy to take other hyperspace routes to avoid your interdictor screen. So, with general standoff defensive measures void, logically the best defense in case of a Raid Warning is to simply go to hyperspace and make a couple jumps to a pre-planned secondary or tertiary location thus voiding any targeting information provided by the enemy ISR. In this respect detection of a carrier group would be hard but pinning them and attacking them if an Interdictor isn’t immediately available is basically impossible.
As a result the traditional Outer-Air Battle, in the vast expanses of space between the enemy airbase and your own carrier, doesn’t really have the opportunity to take place. However, there is one place you know the enemy force will be, around their own carriers/airbase. This is the equivalent of a U.S. carrier force sending F-14s to blast Backfires over the Kola Peninsula. Not impossible but generally ill-advised as now the enemy can use all their fighters, long-range and point-defense while you only have access to your long-range fighters.
At this point, if you are getting that close to the enemy you might as well engage their carriers to more efficiently destroy their strike generation capability. This turns the Defensive Counter-Air (Counter-space? IDK, I’m going to stick with the Earthling lingo) mission into an Offensive Counter-Air mission where you compensate for your lower numbers by hitting them on the ground or in the ship. This divides yourself into two kinds of engagements. First is protecting your own fleet before they get to hyperspace and second is to attack and destroy the enemy fleet before they go to hyperspace.
This gets to the problem of invading or for that matter, defending a planet. If you park your carrier in a planet’s orbit you are reducing the volume you could be into a tiny pinprick, you’ve basically done half the enemy’s targeting for them. Even worse, depending on how close you are, you may not be able to go to hyperspace immediately, meaning that disengagement could be impossible at the worst time. You may as well have a land base as at least that would be more survivable in the kinetic sense and be easier to work on than a ship.
*Later versions of the RIM-67 and the RIM-156 (also designated SM-2ER though this was launched from the Mk-41 VLS instead of the older twin-arm launchers that the RIM-67 used), would employ active radar and terminal IR seekers. This allowed engagement beyond the horizon against low-flying targets based on cuing by AWACs, potentially into the range where it would fall into the Outer Air Battle.
Conclusions:
Hyperspace creates a unique set of circumstances that make offensive action against fixed positions/fleets very easy while making mobile and evasive battlegroups very difficult to engage. This sort of doctrine is best seen in the Rebel Alliance and their employment of hyperspace capable fighters, striking with relative impunity at Imperial targets without risking their major fleet assets. There is no reason this cannot scale up to major Galactic powers as it provides a disproportionate offensive and defensive capability for the practitioners of the doctrine.

So 2023 is over, good, bad, or ugly that shit show is done with.That paper made one thing clear and that is we cannot trust absolutely the following entities

1. Coachings (the bigger the name the less they care, every year its new freshers, new cycle same day, new cash cows)
2. free ka knowledge giving YouTubers (sherlocking, hogwarding, abracadabra elimination etc)
3. people who made it on the border and ultimately failed (nobody gives a fuck unless you are in the top 100) (you know which YouTubers I am talking about who will make a strategy video every 30 days and booklist or imp topics video every day)
4. People who cracked this exam who are now YouTubers. (these guys are attention-deprived and cringe af)
5. fucking dumb toppers who cleared this exam by marking D for sci and tech questions and solved 8th std maths for CSAT

(this doesn't mean they are useless, we always need a data sample of how noise looks like to filter it out)
no matter how the matrix (coaching business industry) puts it THE OLD CONTENT IS IRRELEVANT NOW!
We need to have a peer and experience-based dialogue, completely communal in nature and for the sole reason of cracking this exam, those who have cracked prelims 2023 (getting good marks) and those who have written mains multiple times or given Interviews please give in your insights let try to gather as much collective experience as possible and extract some purified wisdom for ourselves and innocent souls like our past selves (those who did everything from scratch without guidance from chacha, senior, bhai, didi who were already in service or whose daddy is an army, police, IRS, IPS, IAS and has access to a social network for their child) who get butchered in this process.
We all know that optionals are just mug-up competitions based on PYQ solutions, Mains is just "answer building" from PYQ, mugging up and vomiting it in the exam, things like these aren't directly said by toppers as their facade of geniuses will fall off, nobody wants that. conceptual clarity is very important but after a level of preparation, most things can be boiled down to simplistic procedures (Eg - mug up Lucent for history, monthly mags are a scam if you do not know how to use them, GS4 is basically lying with 100kg of sugarcoat and writing like you are in 9th std).
let's keep this thread purely technical and no how luck fucked us up in 2023 and UPSC did mushrooms while making 2023 paper, we'll have another thread for that.
After this thread dies down, I hope someone or I can summarize the content from the comments and keep updating it on a periodic basis.
May the best get selected, and the ones lost find their way in or out of this exam. (No andromedas in the comments please)