Liquor store near me that's open

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* * *
Much like Arlette, Blake didn’t much care for Mizuko’s elf servant. The way she stared at him like he was lower than dirt disturbed him. She was doing just so right this moment while he tried to talk to her... employer? Superior? The particulars eluded him, but he had a feeling that the old woman wasn’t paying the elf much of anything for her loyalty, especially not right now. The Drayhadan—her name eluded him at the moment; Vara? Veri?—reminded her of Simona in a way, which was not a compliment. Really, what had past Blake been thinking? Sure the fervor and hero worship had carried some appeal for a time, but the longer things went, the more she clashed with the others. The woman could still turn the screws on foreign negotiators like nobody’s business, at least.
Blake sat down and removed his helmet. After hearing from Sofie that they’d finished the transcription, he’d given them a few hours to process everything and rest up before he swung by to visit. Now, sitting in the room he’d reserved for their use during the daytime, he grabbed a slice of fruit from a nearby bowl, took a bite, and mentally prepared himself for one of his all-time favorite activities: small talk.
“So, how are you liking your stay here so far?”
“Your hospitality is much appreciated,” the elderly woman replied. She looked rather weary—being around Sofie for an extended period would do that to anybody—and her left arm still hung in a sling, though it seemed that Arlette’s bandage sling had been replaced today with something more genuine. “Everyone has been quite kind.”
“That’s good to hear. Is the fortress to your liking? I hope you haven’t gotten lost; people find the layout confusing.”
“Your home is truly a bold statement. Sofie has been kind enough to show me around, so I have had no issues so far.”
“Good, good. I take it you’ve studied the material? What do you think?”
“I find your argument fairly compelling, in that it very well might be correct. However, I do not see what someone such as myself can do about it.”
“You still intend to travel, then?”
“When I decided to leave Drayhadal, I chose selfishness. I have lived my life in this world largely in service of others. Is it wrong to want something for myself for a time?”
Blake leaned back with a smirk. “Hey, you’re talking to somebody who has been called a ‘selfish asshole’ for his whole life and wears it proudly; I’d be a hypocrite if I said you shouldn’t look out for number one.” The smirk faded into a frown of concern and he took another bite. “Still, it does present a bit of a problem, given the situation. We don’t have the luxury to take things lightly.”
“I know. It burdens me, but if I do not consider my own desires now, I feel that I will never get another chance. I do not know what I could contribute to any of this, anyway. I am but an old woman.”
“You’re selling yourself short, and you know it. Besides, I think I have a solution that will fit us both rather nicely.”
Both Mizuko and the dour elf perked up at his statement.
“Before I arrived here, Otharia was a very insular society—perhaps even more insular than Drayhadal, from what I heard. Now that I’m here, we are less insular, but only barely. We still lack much of any presence outside our borders. We don’t even have ambassadors; all diplomatic conversations occur entirely by Many with people here in Wroetin. We need more direct and better communication, especially given our current goals.”
“You are asking me to fill this need?”
“Yes, a sort of roving ambassador position. You would speak for us as you travel around. I mean, it’s not like you’re going to steer clear of the capitals of the nations while you’re there, right? Wouldn’t want to miss out on all that history and culture and all that.”
“I am just a housewife. I could not possibly take on such a heavy responsibility,” Mizuko demurred. “Besides, I only arrived here a day ago. How could I represent a nation I know nothing about, not to mention my ignorance about the world as a whole?”
“Nonsense,” Blake replied, waving away her concerns. “You’re hands down the most dignified person here, and you have the manners, formality, and tact needed for this sort of thing. I mean, you could have just said you don’t like this place, but instead, you told me it was a ‘bold statement’. That’s absolutely the sort of diplomatic crap we need. Whatever you lack, you can pick up.”
The old woman thought it over for a moment, clearly not sold on the idea, so Blake chimed in again to sweeten the deal.
“Here’s what I can do for you. If you agree to take on this role, I’ll create for you a huge custom transport vehicle that will carry you wherever you want to go in complete comfort. I’m talking something so big that it will literally be a walking house, complete with a bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, you name it. Whatever you want, we can put it in there. We’ll deck it out in luxury, make it as cozy as can be—perhaps even put in an open top deck so you can get a nice, high view of the land as you go. We can even add in a bunch of defenses, just to be sure.
“Think about it. Every night, you can move your house away from people and sleep soundly, not having to worry about impacting others with your dreams. All while enjoying the best possible travel experience you could get on this world.”
That seemed to get her attention.
“And all you would require of me is to serve as your representative when I meet others in my travels?”
“Mostly. There are one or two other small things we’ll need you to do as you go.”
She frowned. “Name them.”
“First, we would ask you to keep an eye and ear out for any other possible people from Earth. Nobody knows just how many of us are here, and that’s a problem if we’re trying to get everybody out before we all go boom. If you do find anybody or even hints of somebody, help them out or pass the word along to me and we’ll take care of it.”
Mizuko nodded. “A fair request.”
“Second, we need you to go do some very specific sightseeing first, before you start meandering wherever your heart takes you. Now that you’re free, we’re gearing up next to rescue another one of us, this time in Stragma. We need to know the state of things there.”
The Drayhadan’s eyes went wide, and Blake could see that she was just barely holding herself back from objecting to the idea.
“You are asking me to be a spy?” the elderly woman questioned.
“No, no, a diplomat and tourist is all. What we need to know is how close they are to packing up and migrating from their spring city, where they are now, to their northern summer home. This dude’s situation isn’t like yours. You were out in the middle of nowhere, in open space, while he’s locked up and surrounded by guards in the middle of a city of millions. This is a legitimate rescue mission; everything we know about his situation says it’s not good. We think our best bet is to steal him away in the middle of the migration, which should be coming soon, but we’re not sure just when.
“All we need is for you to tell us what you find just by visiting the city. There should be signs all over; moving millions of people and property is not the sort of thing you can just keep under wraps. Besides, you’re going to want to tour Stragma anyway; it’s quite remarkable. Ruresni at night is almost surely the most beautiful sight in this world. I’m just asking you to move up to the first item on your bucket list, and to tell me what you see when you get there.”
“Would the Stragmans even welcome me to their land? I imagine they are still quite angry about me.”
“I’ve built up a lot of good will there, with helping the Chos’s crippled husband and all that, so as my representative, that should count for a lot,” Blake considered aloud. “More crucially, though, would they even know who you are? The way the others talk about the battle, nobody actually saw your face.”
The woman paused, surprised realization on her face. “I was inside the palanquin the whole time. I suppose there would be no reason for them to connect the two.”
“Heck, just make up a fake identity and introduce yourself to them as a totally different person. How would they even know?”
“You have a point,” she relented, “and it would feel nice to know that I am not leaving everything about this possible calamity to others. I will agree to your requests.”
“Excellent. How soon are you planning on leaving?”
“It will still be a few weeks,” she told him. “I would like to experience this land first, and I need time for my shoulder to heal before I go too far.”
“Plenty of time to get acquainted with Otharian then, and to learn what you need to know.”
“I suppose you are correct.”
Blake couldn’t help but grin. One more accomplishment on what was unexpectedly turning out to be a very productive day. “Well then, I’m glad we have a deal, Madam Ambassador.”
* * *
“Alright, kiddo. Today we finally get to start on something fun.”
Sam had done well with her studies. She’d been attentive, asked questions, and hadn’t been belligerent in a good while. Blake felt like it was time for a reward, something to catch her imagination. After all, from the start, he’d started teaching her with eventual practical applications in mind. He’d sworn, back then, that he’d show her the folly of her actions, and to do that, she needed more than abstract understanding. She needed to see the knowledge in action.
Blake grabbed a piece of chalk and began to draw on the chalkboard. First, he drew a rectangle. Then, he erased bits on several sides, replacing them with some other things: a zig-zagging diagonal line, two parallel lines perpendicular to the rectangle’s side, and a short line that veered away from the rectangle before terminating.
“This... is what is known as a ‘circuit’.”

Emrys Esports is looking for an **Co-ManageAssistant manager** for our main team. We are a passionate and driven team looking to improve and work on our consistency and fundamentals. Team info: Ranks : Immortal+ -Region: Europe -Committed to a long term project and willing to improve as individuals and as a part of the team. -Mature and sensible team who also has a very good synergy. Team has been together for 6 months now. -Open to feedback and criticism (this is quite important to the players and teams development). -English speaking (org is UK based) -Looking to enter leagues in the very near future. What we would like in a Co-ManageAssistant manager: -Experience is not 100% necessary, open to new Co-ManageAssistant manager looking for a learning opportunity. -Committed to a long term project and willing to improve the Players and the Team as a whole. -Mature, sensible and open minded. while the teams have only been formed in the last 6 weeks. -English speaking (org is UK based) -Salary will be available ONCE the team start achieving consistent positive results. We are a self sustainable org and each team and staff attached must appreciate a salary is earned not just given away. The teams goals are to spend the next 6+ months developing their skills and learning in smaller tournaments/leagues, before pushing for bigger tournaments and then LAN events beginning next year. If you think you have what it takes drop me a DM and we can talk more :)

Helloooo thereeee!
Who's into friendship and genuine connection here? I'm down with you so! 😊
I'm a kind, simple girl, loves to talk with anyone especially if its about life that will help me to gain more knowledge or ideas.
I live in USA (so I preffered people near me), my hobbies are singing, dancing, reading books about life, watching movies, cooking and explore new things in life.
I'm also into making friends with anyone as long as you are kind and gentle then we're good.
I hope I can find my match hereeee! Just dont be shy to msg and maybe we'll learn from each other :)

I [41M] met my [34F] girlfriend online in December of 2020. We had both come out of longish relationships earlier in the same year. I continued to see other people for the first month or so, but we became exclusive in spring 2021. She was somewhat occupationally challenged and hadn't really ever had a professional job. She had also moved out of her 10 year boyfriend's house after breaking up with him (about 10 months before I met her). She has a bad habit of prioritizing others over her own well-being and had really put her life on hold in order to act as a mom to her niece while her (former teen mom) ambitious sister went to school and climbed the corporate ladder, as well as trying to save her needy, depressed, alcoholic ex-bf for those 10 years. She graduated with a bachelor's in her late 20s but for reasons mentioned above, as well as a lack of self-confidence, she didn't really break out of the service industry until being laid off in early COVID. When I met her, she hadn't had any income except unemployment for the better part of a year and was staying with relatives, paying a low but still substantial rent, although she was looking for a room to rent of her own.
I was in a really lonely place after my big breakup in early COVID and running a struggling but promising business basically solo and we hit it off really well, with a lot of affection and extremely good physical chemistry. She moved into her own place within a few weeks of us starting to date and we've been pretty close since, in a very gender-roled way: she came to work at my (at that time) small company and has stayed around since, becoming a key employee as we've grown much more successful and doing a pretty good job.
I pay for pretty much everything for her outside of rent of her place and although I don't live large, we do go on nice vacations, etc. She also looks to me to direct her on many things, like finances and other "grown-up" stuff. I've often felt kind of uncomfortable with the imbalance of power in our relationship, after dating more career-oriented and self-directed women in the past, but I'm still in an entrepreneurial/workaholic mode and it's really nice to see someone so sweet, pretty, and comforting at the end of the day who just wants to take care of me. Sometimes it feels like she wants to be like a geisha for me, massaging, cooking, and extremely sexually open (as in up for anything) and submissive (which is more her thing than mine). She has been an incredibly devoted girlfriend and does everything she can to please me.
I'm a pretty easy-going guy when it comes to sex stuff and never ask any questions about a woman's sexual past, except about STI/birth control related things -- I figure that it's her business unless she wants to tell me.
Anyway, to the point, we took some MDMA on a night earlier this weekend and had an extremely intimate night, she confessed that she loved me and I replied that I also loved her. She said she also really hoped to marry me. We wound up getting pretty physical, having 6-8 hours of alternate snuggling and various kinds of sex. I'll admit that i have little bit of an arousal talking to girlfriends about our sexual pasts and I kind of got this conversation going while we were playing around, by asking her some leading questions, but I didn't expect it to go where it did.
She told me that, in the month before meeting me, she was extremely financially strained after her breakup and job-loss, and her sister (who is married to a very wealthy guy now) suggested that, since hadn't been with any other guys for a decade and needed to have some fun and easily passes for 10 years younger than she is, she date a "sugar daddy" type to help out with things while she got back onto her feet. She went with this idea, creating a profile on a sugar daddy / sugar baby app, and wound up giving her treatment (bath, massage, and sex) to two older guys she met that way. She said that the whole experience made her feel bad and described it as "selling her body", which is I guess what it is. She made it sound as if they were both one-offs, but I didn't pry much and don't know. She did say that she didn't enjoy the actual sex and used condoms. To me, it didn't sound like dating a rich guy and more like straight-up prostitution. She said it was the income from these encounters that had kept her afloat and able to start searching for her own apartment. After the second one, she decided not to do it again. She never interacted with the sugar daddy site after her second "date", which she said was really uncomfortable. She said she never told anyone else about it (not even her sister, who'd suggested it) until that night with me. This happened a couple weeks before we finally met in person and hit it off (we wound up having sex on our third date, in her first night at her new apartment that was paid for with sex). I was really careful not to give any kind of negative impression to her but I'll admit that it's been lingering on my mind.
I have a pretty extensive sexual past, having been a bit of "player" in a few periods in my 20s and 30s, but I've never explicitly paid for sex and have been a bit judgy of guys I know who have. A lot of this is probably ego (like, in a "why would I ever pay? that's for losers" way) tbh. I've also never had any woman ever told me that she's been a literal prostitute but I did have a fling with stripper I met when she was not at work (although my longest ex-gf told me that she had considered being a rich man's mistress at a point in grad school but didn't want to ever tell her future husband about it so decided not to). I don't consider myself prudish at all and totally support all sex workers, in theory, but in practice, I do feel a bit of "ick".
We haven't talked about this since monday night / tuesday morning when we had the experience, and I can't really put my finger on it, but I guess the somewhat transactional/traditional nature of our relationship (she treats me royally when we're home and I, directly or indirectly, fund her entire existence), combined with the fact that she has explicitly made this exchange in the past, makes me a little uncomfortable. I do love her, sometimes in more of taking-caring-of-her kind of way, but am not sure whether I want her to be my wife. She seems completely and hopelessly devoted to me. I'm completely confident in her honesty in everything she's ever told me, as well, as I don't think she has an ounce of guile in her.
Sometimes I do wonder how much my strong income potential (which has really started to play out over the time we've been together) has factored into things. She comes from a family of refugee immigrants (although she and sister are both natural born US citizens) and I think their mom must have raised them to think of their looks and sexuality as assets (they're both extremely attractive women) to be used in order to get by and get ahead by snagging a good provider. I should mention that, although it's implicitly understood that I pay for meals, flights, hotels, etc. (which has been the norm with most women I've dated, most of whom I have been significantly wealthier than) she has never asked me for money or expensive gifts -- in fact, she's actively opposed going to very expensive places.

Can anyone help me understand ways to think about this? I really care about my girlfriend and don't want to hold this against her, even subconsciously.

tl;dr: Did MDMA with my girlfriend, got into talking about our sexual pasts and she told me that she had done sex work to cover her bills briefly, but didn't like it, in the few weeks before meeting me. She has been nothing but great as a girlfriend since, but I am not sure how to feel now, especially since we have a pretty financially uneven relationship after a couple years.

I had played through most of the demo at this point, though I'm still struggling with the boss, but I already have some thoughts to share.
I'd like to know if I am the only one experiencing this frustration. This game is so very close to being really nice to play, it almost hits the same spot Bloodborne did, so having it on PC is really great. There are a couple things which I just cannot love in this game though.
As of right now, I am around 5 attempts deep into fighting the first boss. I've noticed this boss has a pretty BS combo he loves to pull almost every other attack in his second phase. The combo alone wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue if not for these critiques I also have:

• You are entirely immobile while getting up from a stun attack. There is no roll-out mechanic, leaving the player vulnerable for longer with no input and giving the enemy more time to simply... stun you again or just kill you during the recovery animation.
• You are entirely immobile while using the healing item IF your healing item slot is empty (this is moreso a personal complaint of mine, not necessarily something objectively wrong).
• I noticed (though may be wrong) that the dashes you perform to dodge while locked on have a varying range depending on the direction of the dash. It makes the dodge inconsistent and less predictable, leaving me over-estimating my dodge far too often and getting my shit kicked in. (If the dashes all have the same range regardless of direction in your playthrough please let me know, because while fighting the boss I've even sometimes stood completely still while trying to dodge away from right by the boss' legs with a full stamina bar).

My wife and I welcomed our daughter to this world 5 weeks ago. Since we had our daughter, my dog (3yo Corgi) has been super anxious and whining at my feet/trying to jump up on me whenever I'm holding our daughter. She has jumped on our daughters legs a few times and made the baby cry but out of being spooked, not hurt. During changing, feedings or even just holding her. She doesn't do it with my wife, only me. So, she's basically experiencing jealousy over our daughter and her anxiety surrounding the issue is leading to a lot of unfavorable behaviors. Such as whining nonstop whenever I'm around the baby. I don't ever just let it happen. I take safety measures and what not.
But my wife was diagnosed with Postpartum Depression 3 weeks ago and it's slowly getting worse and she's full on blaming the dog. Says that she can't even trust to let me hold the baby anymore because of my dog and she doesn't want my dog anywhere near our daughter because of her "resource guarding". To a point of her telling everyone that I'm choosing the dog over the safety of our kid AND her comfortability. It's been causing fights left and right because now I can't even hold our daughter without my wife immediately at my side and pushing the dog away from me and my daughter OR putting her in her kennel. She says that since I refuse to reprimand the dog or try "helping" the dogs anxiety, the dog is not to be anywhere near our kid or near me when I'm holding our kid.
Anyways, yesterday I'm sitting on the couch holding our daughter and my dog jumps up on the couch and lays half on the baby and half on my chest to get to my face while whining. My wife flipped out. She said either the dog goes or her AND our daughter are gone until I get my "head out of my ass" and see the issue. I told her I'm not choosing between her and the dog and she can do what she wants. She took that as me choosing the dog. She packed our daughter up and left, won't answer my calls or texts but had her mom text and say "She's not coming home until that dogs gone. You had the chance to get the animal help and you didn't so the choice is either the dog goes or Bella stays here with your daughter." AITA?

At this point, Eevee has become nearly equivalent to Pikachu in terms of status as Pokemon's mascot. Because of this, I think it would be interesting if Eevee had counterparts to Pikachu's signature item and signature move, and this is my attempt at making something interesting with the idea.
Firstly, the signature item:
Ornate Comb: When held by Eevee, doubles Defense and Special Defense
While not particularly creative, I think this is an interesting idea that gives Eevee effective defense and special defense stats of 272/332 uninvested or 436/502 fully invested with positive nature. This is somewhat balanced by Eevee's subpar HP stat of 55 meaning it's pretty much forced to spec only in one defense or the other, although it'll be extremely bulky in that defense.
Next, for the signature move:
Unleashed Potential
Type: Normal
Category: Special
Power: 70
PP: 15 (Max 24)
Accuracy: 100%
Uses the user's highest stat to calculate damage. (I'm also considering giving it the effect to change type to the user's primary type)
I think this is a neat concept for a move that fits Eevee's theme and could be useful for Eevee as well as multiple of its evolutions. For Eevee itself, it honestly may be a bit too powerful, as Adaptability makes it a 140 power move coming off of an attacking stat of 502. This sheer power, along with the defensive and supportive capabilities of Ornate Comb Eevee, may make Eevee much better than it really has any right to be. I could see it having use on some of the more defensive Eeveelutions such as Umbreon (although it has Foul Play to already kind of do this) as well as allowing some to invest in stats other than Attack or Special Attack. This is especially effective if the move changes type to the user's type, but I'm hesitant to commit to this effect as the move is interesting enough as is.
What do you guys think of these additions? How overpowered would this make Eevee? Should Unleashed Potential change type with the user? I'm open to feedback and suggestions.

Black, 5’9, 26, straight, overweight, pic on profile. Will share name privately
First I would like to make it clear that I have not been in a relationships. I think it’s important and if that’s something you’re not interested in i understand. I also want to make it clear that I am not fit, I am on a weight loss journey and I’m doing fairly well 😄. My hobbies list of me mainly staying indoors but have a huge love for going to movies, walks and nature. My favorite consists of using my PC, watching movies/anime, gaming and finding new hobbies. The world today is scary, I would love to try going out more and experience new things but anxiety and fear is something that makes me not want to. I’m very emotional and I feel like if you can relate, it would help. At the moment, getting my education is key, I am working towards learning more in the IT field which can be fun… I do not live alone or own a car, these will change in the future. Family is something I cherish but it can bring a lot of stress and depression that I would love to avoid. I had a bad experience with a lot of things so there’s nothing “perfect” which most people seem to seek. Lastly I just want to say, being shy, I can open up to people the more I talk to them. Just give me time and be patient with me. Being weird or awkward isn’t so bad either 😂. We would match easily in that case. I did not mention everything about me and that will be left to who is interested in talking to me.
Trolls or spams please stay away.

Hello, I recently found something very scary. I have a fridge that I use to store beer and wine for long term bottle conditioning/ageing. Anyway, I check on it every few months, as most of the stuff in there is in there for a long time (years, oldest is about 7 years old now). Anyway, when I opened it up, I found out that it had broken at some point, and it was full of (now dead) fruit flies, as one of the newer bottles had leaked and made a sticky mess. There were dead flies, mould, fly goo, etc, all over everything. I cleaned all the bottles, checked the seals with soapy water, and everything seemed fine (except for one which I will mention later) is this dtuff fine to drink?
I would have assumed yes, as if it is gas tight, then surely no flies or mould will get in there, but holding the bottles up to a light, in one of them, there was some stuff floating in it that doesn't look like the typical yeasty bits. I would have normally just blamed it on a weird looking clump that dislodged, but this particular beer was actually purchased from the store. It doesn't seem to have been bottle conditioned, it is otherwise a very clear lambic sealed with a champagne cork. This made me question whether it was salvagable and safe to drink. Any thoughts?
If I had to toss this stuff it would break my heart. Some of my very old brews are in there, as well as imported cassis, vermouths, sake, and some very special belgian triples and imperial stouts that are over 5 years old (that I was saving for my kid's graduation).
Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been at my job for almost 5 years now as a waxeesthetician at a chain salon. Sometimes clients “have to” bring their kids to their appointment if they don’t have child care or whatever. (Even though we don’t charge any fees for last minute canceled or rescheduled appointments)
First let me start with the obvious fact that I feel children watching their moms get hair ripped out of their intimate areas is extremely inappropriate and uncomfortable. Most of the time, kids ages 7+ wait in the lobby while the service is being done, but younger kids always come back in the room with their moms. While not every mom gets an intimate service, with the ones who do they see their moms undress, spread open for the wax, and flinch/yell in pain. I’ve even had moms who had to refrain from making any noise during the service because their child will start crying if they see mom in pain.
Second, we often deal with misbehaved and unruly children. Kids who scream and yell, distract their parents (making it harder for me to do my job), touch everything, come in our workspace, open the door while their mom is fully or half naked, and are just overall BAD!! We have a few clients who are known to bring their bad kids, and, surprise surprise, any employee is always miserable to have one of said clients booked. We discipline them gently as much as we are allowed to, all while the moms give US dirty looks! How dare we tell their precious angel(s) to NOT punch on the mirrors or lick the floor!
Lastly, I straight up do not like kids in my work space or otherwise period, and I feel like that is my right. I can’t focus, I can’t finish my job in a timely manner, I don’t want to talk to your child, I don’t care why you “had” to bring your kids, and my sensory issues with kids in such a small room just fucking explode. I have previously ‘kicked out’ 2 clients before because of their kids’ behavior. Even my coworkers who do like/love kids really hate when they are brought mindlessly and without warning to such intimate appointments.
My job has no policy against bringing kids, the only exception was when we had Covid policies (no more than the client getting serviced could come to their appointment, this included no babies) and no one at higher levels who could change this seems to care. Many employees & managers agree with me on a No Kids Policy, but unfortunately we don’t have the power to change policies. My last hope is talking to someone about how I feel this issue violates our hygiene and sanitation policies. Any advice on points to bring up to corp/how to handle these parents who bring their children is welcome and appreciated.

Hello! I'm visiting Helsinki soon for a business trip, but I'm staying a few days extra to do more touristy things and see more of the city. The number one cultural experience I keep reading about is doing a Finnish Sauna.
For my whole life, I've been a soft/chubby, but nevertheless athletic and a healthy weight (approx 5'3", 130 lbs/59 kg). In the last 6 months, however, I've had a lot of medical events that have caused me to gain a lot of weight very, very quickly. I've never been this size, and though my doctors and I are working on it, I'm extremely embarrassed by the stretch marks and weight gain I've experienced so quickly. Currently, at about 180 lb/38 kg I don't recognize myself! In the U.S., it's uncomfortable for me personally, but I don't feel like I stand out or get pointed at or anything. I've never been to the Scandi region but media has always shown super tall, svelte people.
I really would like to experience a sauna, and I'm okay owning my body as it is right now if I won't be openly mocked or stared at. But if someone my size is so unusual as to garner whispers and stares, I'd rather skip it. So please, be brutally honest here: should I go ahead and plan a sauna experience in Finland next month, or skip the experience?

I’m a (almost) 22 year old female. Never had a relationship, never been on a date/dating app, never had sex. Never even been in the talking stage with a guy. I think the main reason for this is because I’m severely insecure. Insecure with my looks but also my personality and i overthink my words/actions wayyyy too much. I have friends that have been dating for years, have slept with a few people, and are quite open with their sexuality but that’s just never been me. I fear I’m not going to find someone for a long time. I just have 0 confidence. I can never express myself, my emotions, my sexuality… nothing.
I’m scared that some guy will see a photo of me, think i’m cute, then meet me in real life and regret his decision to go out with me. I’m also very modest with the way i dress and i hate showing my arms, legs, stomach… pretty much most of my body. So lord knows how i would be able to deal with a sexual situation😅
Just feeling a bit sorry for myself i guess. I don’t know anyone else that’s as insecure as i am. The thought of someone seeing my body might as well give me a panic attack. I have these really toxic thoughts like “I’ll start dating when i lose weight” or “I’ll put myself out there when i have a glow up/look better”. There have been guys that have expressed interest, but i was either scared or didn’t find them attractive, which probably means I’m punching above my weight with the guys i actually find attractive.
I don’t really know what i need. If i just need to say f it and make a damn tinder account, or actually wait until i feel better about myself, but i have no idea when that will happen. Who knows, maybe 22 is my year lol. Life is too short for me to be feeling like this but it’s a mental block i can’t get around.

Roz, again, the wife of the famous Andinio. A bit more about the May 20th leaders meeting covered in the June 2nd World Tribune.
Mr. Tanigawa's next point was going out to meet people. He said:

We must take on leadership with the resolve to take full responsibility for creating an organization in which each member can joyfully challenge their respective mission for kosen-rufu while winning in their efforts to revolutionize themselves and elevate their state of life.

During the three pandemic years I got used to staying home more. Yes, I took good care of my district but virtual encounters are not the same as real ones. As Mr. Tanigawa advises:

The most practical thing we can do to move in this direction is to go out to meet and talk with each member individually. That’s how we come to know their worries and challenges, how we can chant with and encourage them. In other words, we must visit the members to get to know every inch of our organization.
As we visit each member, we get to know each person and the condition of their faith and daily life. When they start opening up to us about the issues they’re challenging, we can better understand how to chant for and encourage them. Repeating these efforts, again and again, is what gets the blood of our organization flowing.

I saw a good example of this a couple of nights ago. One of my friends is a world class jazz singer who has performed all around the world. Unfortunately, the year before the pandemic she was in a car accident and injured her back. She has been in and out of various treatments but the doctors still haven't figured out how to help her. She finds it very hard to get out of the house and depression has seeped in. (BTW my husband insisted that I get her permission to post what follows.)
She has been a member for many years and we check up on each other frequently. Still, I didn't know what to say to get her to a new point. We have a wonderful new Women's Division leader in our region and I arranged for a home visit.
The leader took a lot of time to share about her life. It seems that her hobby is collecting vinyl records and she talked about a new album that she acquired that had a John Coltrane track with the baritone Johnny Hartman singing "My One and Only Love." As it turns out, Johnny Hartman is one of my friend's favorite male vocalists. They talked and talked about him and the state of pop music these days.
My friend shared many stories about her early career. Even though we have known each other for years, I didn't know most of this background. They found other common interests, especially great nature walks in the Big Bad City here.
Eventually the story led to a discussion of another member who was dealing with a serious type of serious illness. I don't have her permission to share this story on a post but let me just say this woman is enjoying her life greatly and encouraging many other people in the process. My friend was very encouraged by the conversation.
Mr. Tanigawa continued:

[By] taking steps to visit and meet each person on it one by one, we can deliver hand-crafted encouragement to them. This network of personal encouragement is what gets the engine going for expanding and advancing kosen-rufu in our local communities.

To be continued

I'm a 31F lesbian and I'm just so scared it's not going to happen for me. I experienced someone casual and wonderful for 4 months, but we weren't compatible. I secretly wanted a more serious relationship. It ended on a very good note. But I didn't admit I wanted something more serious. When that became clear, I met with her and admitted I did have feelings for her and understood we were in diff places. It led to a bad ending.
I apologized for my part in the bad ending. Shaking off that bad ending has been really hard.
I've gone out on dates and met more people but I feel so rattled and scared. I don't want to be with anyone. I crave that effortlessness, conversation, sex, and communication I had with her. And I'm so scared I won't find it.
Part of me knows this is emotions popping up, because I'm sad. But finding a true spark feels rare. She was the best person I was with so far. I know there are so many people out there. But I'm terrified I won't experience that effortless comfort and chemistry again.
Being with her clarified what I want. I want that comfort, communication, chemistry, but with someone open to growing into something more. And as I date, I'm so scared I'm not going to find it.

I've had experiences of starting to dream while I'm falling asleep but not yet fully asleep and still having full control of my body.
The first one I remember was one where I started seeing spooky faces zooming in and out at me, I opened my eyes, saw reality and when I closed my eyes again, they came back, and at some point it became lucid and I created a city with vibrant neon colors, but I was still capable of opening my eyes and moving irl.
And more recently, I was falling asleep while having an earbud in and watching a youtube video, and after a few minutes I realized my eyes are closed, and I'm only listening to audio and dreaming visuals that roughly fit the audio, and then I opened my eyes and there I am, fully aware and awake.
Anyone can relate? Is there a name for this?

Let's just use the other Tales books and Security Breach to talk about this.
Okay, so, let's start with the Basics, FFPS has a poster for a spookfest showing that FFPS likely takes place in October of 2023.
In the Help Wanted story we see Steve finishes the third game sometime after Valentine's Day, so late Feburary or early March of 2024.
Cleithrophobia starts with a story describing the Pizzaplex as being brand new, as in, likely just opened.
The game has a Quarterly Mag that has 19 issues meaning Security Breach is 4 years and 9 months after they started this magazine. This means the latest the Pizzaplex can open in June, so let's say this Prologue happens in June meaning if 2024 is right, this would be June 2024.
Cleithrophobia then goes back in time 5 months to when the Pizzaplex was still under construction meaning this would be January of 2024. Do you see the problem yet? Let me spell it out. The indie games didn't finish until at least February of 2024. The Pizzaplex only starts construction after Help Wanted happens which is after the indie games are made. Cleithrophobia happens in January of 2024, before the final is made.
But maybe the Quarterly Mags did not start when the Pizzaplex opened maybe they started a while afterwards. Well, let's go with that. Security Breach has to take place in a year where March 9th is a Friday. The next one after 2029 is 2035 which 4 years and 9 months prior would be June of 2030, meaning the Pizzaplex would have been opened for around 6 years by the time the magazine start and 11 years by the time of the games.
The Pizzaplex was not open for 11 years. This is easily provable using GGY. In this story, we hear that one of the school counselors, Mary Schneider has been working there for 3 years with it being pointed that that's how long the Pizzaplex has been open for. So, if the Pizzaplex had only been open for 3 years by the time of GGY then Gregory should be around 19-20 in Security Breach if the Quarterly Magazines are wrong which is definitely not the case. Gregory is still a schoolboy by the time of the games. We know that time does pass between the events of GGY and Security Breach but Gregroy is still a young boy, I doubt he's older than 14 in the game.
This means if the Pizzaplex opens in 2024 then Security Breach must be in 2029 making the Quarterly Magazine pretty accurate when it comes to figuring out when the Pizzaplex opens. This means the Pizzaplex must open in June of 2024 and that Cleithrophobia must happen in January of 2024 if that year is correct. This means that the Pizzaplex would already be under construction and nearly finished before the third indie title released meaning it would be nearly finished before Help Wanted.
The other way to look at this is that the indie games finish development in Feburary of 2024 and the Pizzaplex is nearly done by January of 2025 and opens in June of 2025. While I still think that's a little too tight as I don't see the VR game taking like 4 months to finish with the remainder of the year being spent on the Pizzaplex, it's certainly significantly better than 2024 being when it opened which directly contradicts with other stories in Tales.
Still, the earliest I can see the Pizzaplex opening is 2030 as 2025 would contradict the Quarterly Magazines, and that's without bringing the Stitchline into account which pushes this back by at least a decade assuming you don't believe Jake McNally in Fetch is The Real Jake, if you do believe that, that's an extra 5 years.
In conclusion, the Pizzaplex opening in 2024 would contradict what we hear about in the Help Wanted story, and Cleithrophobia.

Warning in advance, this is gonna be long. I'll try and keep it short as I can without omitting necessary context. This is a fake account, so nobody knows who I am. I'll be using fake names obviously. At this point in my life, I have essentially lost my closest friends and the love of my life, and have never felt so alone and despaired in my entire life. I just need to get this out there and off my chest, as I don't know who to talk to about it and it's been burning away at the very core of my soul for the greater part of three whole years now.
So anyhow. Rewind for context. It's about 3 years in the past when the relevant story begins, maybe a bit more. I'm 27M now, but was probably 24, maybe 25 at the time? I grew up pretty poor, but my parents had a real "you can accomplish anything through hard work" type of mentality, especially once they had their first and only child, me. That same work ethic was pounded into me my entire upbringing, and for the most part, it took. I watched them work from a ramshackle mobile home in the boonies to what seemed at the time to be a suburban castle in an upper-end neighborhood in the span of maybe ten years. I was an exceptional student, and had earned myself a partial scholarship in academics to a university where I was to major in mechanical engineering. Not to brag, but logically speaking, I am a VERY intelligent individual. I'd completed my college calculus, chemistry, and physics classes my junior year of high school. Common sense wise however, I had a LOT of growing up to do. I ended up having a child with a girl I didn't even stay together with my senior year of high school, and washed a large part of my potential down the drain (which I've regretted for some time), but still decided to roll with the punches and make the most of it. My parents, who were now quite wealthy, essentially disowned me for my mistake. Despite this, I ended up going to trade school funded by my employer while juggling new fatherhood, and landed a decent blue collar job where I had potential to make enough money to support myself, even though I had to suffer through two hard years of college working part time for near minimum wage.
This is where Elise came in. She was a few years younger than me, and probably one of the most beautiful women I had (to this day) ever laid eyes on. When we met, I was horribly depressed and spent most of my time avoiding custody with my son in leu of going out and binge drinking and partying. I was mad at myself for squandering my potential. Elise had issues of her own, her parents were horrendously abusive religious extremists, who abused her both physically and mentally. She'd been gaslighted by her parents to the point that they practically dover her to a depression-ridden madness, then tried to lie about her mental state to doctors and psychiatrists to force her into institutionalization at the age of 17. All the while, her male siblings were treated like royalty, with their college being fully funded by their parents, and numerous accommodations made to ensure they succeeded in life. Elise too was VERY intelligent, probably more so than myself, but for whatever reason, her parents treated her like a stray animal which they despised having to even bear living with. For some reason which I still don't quite fathom, she saw something in me. We both were at a point where our lives had hit a slump, and we both were trying (unsuccessfully) to fill the bottomless chasm inside with drinking, partying, and everything in between. What we both needed more than anything was someone to have our backs, a partner to cling to even when the world around us was falling apart. That is exactly what we became.
Elise was by my side when I came back from college and my parents kicked me out. I had nowhere to go, and nobody to turn to, but she let me crash on her couch in her apartment. She never once made me feel like the failure I believed myself to be. She loved and supported me at my lowest, when I had absolutely nothing to offer. My intelligence quickly made me stand out at my blue-collar job, which was commission based pay, and before long, I found myself 21 years old making close to 75k a year. I saved up my money, and with Elise at my side, purchased my first home. I began to fill it's garage with things that I'd only dreamed I'd be able to one day afford- a brand new four wheeler, a motorcycle, etc... It seemed I had finally made it, except for one crucial catch. I was living MY dream. Not Elise's. Mine. See, Elise had dreams of her own, similar to how I did. She wanted to go to school and go into the medical field, and she wanted to own and care for animals (similar to my love for all things 4-wheel and off-road).
This is where it all went wrong, somewhere in the last of the 3 years we spent together. More accurately, this is where I went wrong. I lay awake at night still, three years later, kicking myself about all the things I should have done different. I was so driven by my own success and my own pursuit of happiness, that I kind of just... put her dreams and desires on the back-burner. She didn't really want children at that point in time, but as I had partial custody of my own, I was constantly overruling her plans with plans to do "family activities" with my son, Jack. I constantly criticized her for having "no maternal instinct" or "being incapable of dealing with real world issues". When our weekends weren't consumed by Jack, I was dragging her on some ridiculous adventure of my choosing, often with little regards to what she actually wanted to do. While Elise did not pay any rent, which I had agreed to in order to allow her to devote her income to attending college, I began to resent her for it. Like seriously. What in the actual fuck is wrong with me. The wedge between us was only drove deeper by time, and my own selfish actions. It's worth mentioning too that her family HATED me. They viewed me as trash, which, in itself didn't bother me. It was when her mother reached out to me and told me that she would pay Elise's full tuition if I stopped seeing her. That was really the straw on the camel's back. This is important later on.
Fast forward towards the end of the last year. My selfish bastard energy had peaked at this point, and Elise was mentally and emotionally shelled, from working full time, attending college full time, and dealing with me being the narcissistic ass I was. I was angry because I felt she was trying to drive a wedge between my son and I (a wedge that, later in life I discovered I had been driving myself due to my own harbored resentment against my child and his mother because I blamed them instead of myself for jipping me out of college and consigning me to the rest of my life as an "idiot blue collar worker"). I feel so stupid looking back, as I now realize that it was entirely my fault, and I should have just accepted that instead of blaming my mistakes on everyone around me. Anyhow, the tension finally snapped. We got in a HUGE fight, which is significant, because we never really fought. All of my bottled up anger and depression and everything else spewed out as I shouted and hurled insults like some sort of half-witted drunkard, and halfway through, I realized that my anger scared the absolute shit out of her. It was in that moment, it was like that scene in a cartoon where the imbecilic character finally manages to understand a simple concept. I realized that while I had been so busy blaming everyone around me for my lack of success, it was actually all my fault. Meanwhile, Elise's lack of success actually COULD be blamed on me. I was the one holding her back. It was because of me she couldn't get college funding from her parents and had to work so hard to pay for it. It was my lack of consideration that had always prevented her from adopting animals, or even taking her opinion seriously when I bought the house, with only my best interests in mind. It was my decision to constantly try to force her to fill a "stepmom" role that somehow I had just realized was taking away from her ability to actually pursue her own interests and hobbies. In all reality, it all just kind of hit me. I hated myself. I mean truly hated myself to the core. Some part of me came to the realization that she would be better off without me. Her parents would pay for her school. She could get a degree, a good job, chase her passions... in the end, it was me who broke it off. I just felt it was the right thing to do at that point, rather than drag her down in the black hole of ME. I still remember the evil smirk her mother gave me and she helped pack Elise's things in the back of her car. Not wanting to leave Elise high and dry, I gave her the car we had bought together, which wasn't much, but it was reliable so she could go to school or work or whatever. I also gave her a highly modified 4x4 we had built together. Figured it was hers anyhow, and she could sell it for a decent amount of money if need be.
Fast forward a little bit. Shortly after Elise and I ended things, I met someone else. She seemed equally sweet, and was somewhat attractive. I could not have been more wrong. We'll call her Carrie. She proved to be a raging alcoholic, and ironically, treated me exactly how I treated Elise, but tenfold worse. She was far more narcissistic than I ever thought about being. She would get drunk and ruin my things, throwing my clothes in the yard, breaking my stuff, etc... and would often insult me. She teased that I was smart because I "Must be autistic, and that means I'm some sort of retard", or telling me that I'm a terrible father because I don't fight to see my child more, and I should just give up custody. She told me once that "no matter how hard I work, I'll always be the same trash that came from that trailer park as a child" ...I was still in such a fragile mental state, I just... let it happen. Honestly, a part of me believed I deserved it. I am Agnostic, but still in the back of my head I couldn't help but wonder, "Is God real, and is this his way of punishing me?" I sold my house and moved into a crappy apartment far from my hometown. Honestly I just couldn't handle all the memories of what it had used to be such a happy place but had now turned into a hell I just wanted to escape. I lost my job, and had to take a much harder job for significantly less pay. Carrie had cleverly used my depression to manipulate me and isolate me from my friends, avoid mending bridges with my family, and escalated my custody to the point that I actually lost what little I did have. I was broken. No, I was absolutely shattered. ....but hey, I deserved it, right? I felt so bad about how I had treated Elise that I convinced myself I did. I'd simply cry myself to sleep and try to hold on to whatever happy memory I could of our life together.
It all changed one day. I hit "point fuck it". I had loaded my Mossberg 12-gauge, racked a single shell, and put the weapon to the underside of my chin. I pulled the trigger.
*click*
.
.
.
The gun had jammed. Or misfired. Or SOMETHING. But whatever had happened, it did not fire the shell loaded into it's chamber. About then I heard Carrie open the front door to the apartment. From the bedroom, I quickly hid the gun under a pile of laundry, and lept into bed, pretending to be asleep but silently sobbing into the pillow. I remember thinking to myself "If you're out there, God, than fuck you."
​
Fast forward to PRESENT DAY. If you've read this far, thank you. Seriously.
Following the gun incident, something snapped in me, for the better. I started talking to a therapist (in secret, because I knew it would be a weakness Carrie would exploit to insult and degrade me). I have began to get my shit together, and bought a small home. Shortly after buying the home however, I landed a new job. This is where everything got really crazy. The new job was at a dumpster fire of a company. I quit after 30 days. When I informed my supervisor, he was shocked. I got called into a meeting (which I agreed to) with some guys I'd never seen before, and they began asking me why I wanted to quit so quickly after joining the team. I calmly began to explain everything I thought was wrong with the company. How I could predict based on my own daily gross profit that the entire business must be losing money at an alarming rate, and close to going under if they aren't there already. How management was spineless to make improvements, dismiss toxic employees, etc... This went on for several hours. At the end of it all, a tall man stands up and says, "Do you know who I am?". I sheepishly admit that I don't. "I'm one of the owners of this company". I chuckle nervously. Then he looks me dead in the eyes, and says "You're absolutely right, you know. I can tell by talking to you, you're FAR more intelligent than I would have ever guessed. How would you feel about actually making all the changes you just talked about? How would you feel about running this store?" I. WAS. FLOORED. Needless to say, I didn't think I could do it. But a year later, I've now got the store breaking records for profits. I've got a paycheck that looks like somebody fat-fingered the keyboard, and the owners LOVE me. I've went on to get everything I ever wanted- almost. I've got a vacation cabin with a side-by-side (and even a small one for my kid), I'm mending relations with friends and family, I've continued talking to a therapist (who REFUSES to give relationship advice), I've got a nice truck and drive a luxury car, but, no matter how many material things I buy, there is still a hole inside. The same hole that has been there for the last 3 years. Carrie is still around. She got sober about a year ago, and cleaned up her act. We've been mostly issue free for a year, but somehow, I just don't know if I can ever forgive the horrible things she has done. She's asked about proposal and marriage, but when she does, I get this feeling in my heart and stomach that feels like pure bottled concentrated fear. I still have nightmares about her honestly, and sometimes, on REALLY good nights, I have dreams that Elise and I are together again, in a beautiful home with a beautiful family.
In conclusion, I've got one more really tough choice to make. I could accept Carrie has changed, and lead out my life with her, knowing I will always secretly have a hole inside where Elise used to be. I have no idea where Elise actually is in life now. I hope she graduated college. I hope she found happiness. I know through the small town grapevine that she never did end up settling down with anyone, for whatever reason. Honestly, I wanna take the risk. Even if I fail, at least I can say that I tried. Hell, maybe I'd be able to finally move on after all this time. In doing so, I know I'll burn Carrie's bridge for good, and honestly, part of me doesn't care. Even If she was horrid to me, however, I still can't bear the thought of possibly hurting her. I guess my experiences have made me soften up, arguably a bit too much. So here I sit, on a company paid vacation near the beautiful beaches, bills paid, belly full... ...so why the hell do I still feel so damn empty inside?
All I know is that I've come too far to blow it all now.

At my Starbucks people constantly call in, complain and talk about each other.

 I’ve just started at Starbucks and I keep getting called in because we have a least 1-2 people a day call in. But yet my manager has a problem with me rolling my eyes (I could stalking that milks and a co-worker could walk up and say “don’t forget to stalk the milks”) or I would say something about what another co-worker said to me that day and all of a sudden I have an attitude problem. 

I can tell my store manager clearly does not like me because I stand up for myself. She cut my hours so much but expects me to go in when called. (I just pick up more shifts at my other job) I didn’t answer her 2 phone calls and text messages. Some how I always feel as if I’m in the wrong in this strict environment.

So basically I've spent the last year, year and a half wanting to get out from doing therapy. I work 4 10 hour shifts in community mental health. I was just feeling really burnt out and stressed from seeing clients. I started taking anxiety meds and they actually helped a lot. I don't feel nearly as anxious anymore. My job is 10 minutes from me, no micro management and I work from home kinda sporadically through the week. About a month ago I applied to county for a job with no case load. Basically running an access line, more admin work in a cubicle, making referalls, checking insurance, etc. Main point, NO MORE THERAPY! However, the job is a 30-45 minute commute from me, 5 8 hour shifts, one bridge toll, no remote work for now. They said I can work from home after probation for one day a week. My question is, why am I NOW feeling cold feet? I used to complain about my job so much. I basically hated it. Now that I'm on the verge of leaving, all I see are the benefits of staying where I'm at. Having thoughts like "well therapy isn't so bad". And "clients don't show and the breaks are nice" and "im so close to home". I've wanted a job like the one I applied to for so long. They're rare. And they're paying me the same salary range! I guess I'm worried I'm jumping out of the frying pan into the fire? Any advice helps from people who have made a similar jump or have dealt with feeling cold feet in the last minute?

I'm trying to build a policy using TD3 to solve the bipedal-walker simulation through the OpenAI gymnasium, but after the first few timesteps where it takes random actions, it begins to learn that the best policy is kneeling down and freezing, as opposed to continuing to walk forward.
Currently, my actor and critics are composed of two hidden layers of size 400 and 300, with ReLU activation and a tanh final activation. I'm training using an Adam optimizer set at a learning rate of 0.001 for all three models.
Here's the code for my training loop:
epsilon = .1
num_frames = 0
max_size = 100000
# update_frequency = 10 # Update target networks every 10 iterations
for episode in range(num_episodes):
state, _ = env.reset()
episode_reward = 0
done = False
trun = False
while not done:
if num_frames < epsilon_random_frames:
action = env.action_space.sample()
else:
# Take best action from actor model
action = actor(np.array([state]))[0]
# Apply noise + clipping
noise = np.random.normal(0, epsilon, size=4)
action = np.clip(action + noise, -1, 1)
num_frames += 1
# Store in replay buffer
next_state, reward, term, trun, _ = env.step(action)
done = term or trun
replay_buffer.append((state, action, reward, next_state, done))
# Update the current state
state = next_state
if len(replay_buffer) > max_size:
replay_buffer = replay_buffer[-max_size:]
# Randomly sample the replay buffer
batch_indices = np.random.randint(len(replay_buffer), size=batch_size)
batch = [replay_buffer[idx] for idx in batch_indices]
states, actions, rewards, next_states, dones = zip(*batch)
# Convert the batch data to tensors
states = np.array(states)
actions = np.array(actions)
rewards = np.array(rewards)
next_states = np.array(next_states)
dones = np.array(dones)
# Update Critic networks:
target_actions = np.clip(actor_target(next_states) + np.clip(np.random.normal(0, .2, size=4), -.5, .5), -1, 1)
q_values_next = tf.minimum(critic1_target([next_states, target_actions]),
critic2_target([next_states, target_actions]))
​
targets = rewards + gamma * q_values_next * (1 - dones)
with tf.GradientTape() as tape:
q_values1 = critic1([states, actions])
critic1_loss = tf.reduce_mean(tf.square(targets - q_values1))
critic1_gradients = tape.gradient(critic1_loss, critic1.trainable_variables)
crit1_optimizer.apply_gradients(zip(critic1_gradients, critic1.trainable_variables))
with tf.GradientTape() as tape:
q_values2 = critic2([states, actions])
critic2_loss = tf.reduce_mean(tf.square(targets - q_values2))
critic2_gradients = tape.gradient(critic2_loss, critic2.trainable_variables)
crit2_optimizer.apply_gradients(zip(critic2_gradients, critic2.trainable_variables))
# Update target networks:
tau = 0.005
new_critic1_weights = []
for critic1_weights, target_critic1_weights in zip(critic1.get_weights(), critic1_target.get_weights()):
new_critic1_weights.append(tau * critic1_weights + (1 - tau) * target_critic1_weights)
critic1_target.set_weights(new_critic1_weights)
​
new_critic2_weights = []
for critic2_weights, target_critic2_weights in zip(critic2.get_weights(), critic2_target.get_weights()):
new_critic2_weights.append(tau * critic2_weights + (1 - tau) * target_critic2_weights)
critic2_target.set_weights(new_critic2_weights)
# Gradient Ascent using Actor:
if num_frames % actor_network_delay == 0:
with tf.GradientTape() as tape:
actions_pred = actor(states)
critic_values = critic1([states, actions_pred])
actor_loss = -tf.reduce_mean(critic_values)
actor_gradients = tape.gradient(actor_loss, actor.trainable_variables)
act_optimizer.apply_gradients(zip(actor_gradients, actor.trainable_variables))
new_actor_weights = []
for actor_weights, target_actor_weights in zip(actor.get_weights(), actor_target.get_weights()):
new_actor_weights.append(tau * actor_weights + (1 - tau) * target_actor_weights)
actor_target.set_weights(new_actor_weights)
​
episode_reward += reward
print("Episode:", episode, "Reward:", episode_reward, "Frames:", num_frames)
​
Any ideas on how I can make this work better, or if I'm making any mistakes in my code? The help is much appreciated!

I have always been a walmart stan, I am a sucker for llw prices and overall just enjoy the store. But they just make it more and more inconvenient for customers to shop. We go about once a week or more for groceries and stuff for our family of 5, so we spend quite a bit there pretty often. I'm just getting more and more annoyed with it. I don't mind self checkout very much because it is typically how I would choose to checkout anyway, but it's annoying to have to have the employees do everything for me up until the point that we need to checkout. Or how they will have you pay for different things in different parts of the store. It's just annoying for me to have to pay for my one tube of medicated hand lotion at the beauty aisle where there is a cashier and then have to take my cart full of groceries to the other end of the store to pay for everything else. There isnt even always a person at that cash register either so its just this schrodinger's policy that only applies when they have someone there. And so many things ate being locked behind glass that employees who are hardly even available have to get out for you, and then they have to take it to the front to wait until youre ready to check out. Depending on what you need to buy your trip to the store is just waiting for someone else to get the stuff you want to buy for you before you scan it all yourself and then have to show your receipt so they can see you did it right. It isnt the biggest deal, in reality it is just a small thing every week that annoys me, but I dont even want to buy makeup products or anything from walmart anymore because it is so irritating to me to have to pay for a couple of things over here and then go all the way over there to buy everything else. If they are so concerned avout everyone stealing to the point where the entire experience in the store is annoying them they should just bring back the cashiers because if I cant be trusted to be able to put a mascara in my shopping cart without a key then I shouldnt be trusted to scan it myself either

I am worried, I have been trying to rebuild my relationship with God so that I can be how I used to be. I have been drifting far too much wanted. I know the end seems like it is here, but I am not ready. The spirit was like a flame that just burnt out and no matter how much I try to relight it the matches don’t work. I have tried talking to God but I feel there is no response. I want to be ready I do not want to hear the words “depart from me, for I never knew you.” I feel lukewarm, I feel too worldly for God. I don’t even feel motivated to repent anymore because I know that my sins are out of habit and I’ll do it again. I’ve been reading my Bible every day, but I still do not feel close to God.
I might be a little worked up as well to let you know in advance, I am not on medication for my anxiety but with the wildfires and all, things are starting to make me feel like the end is near, and I’m not ready