How’s it going!? I’m a 31-year-old, 6’1” tall, light-skinned Black guy living outside the Atlanta, GA area, looking for and hoping to find a woman to date long-term! I’m ideally looking for someone who is open to a serious relationship (of course with time after getting to know one another and dating) eventually if things go well and connect between us. More on that below but a bit about me first.

About Me:

• I’m agnostic, liberal/progressive/left-leaning (Covid vaxxed/boosted, BLM, LGBTQIA+, women's rights, etc.), single and monogamous, childfree (I have no kids and never want any - looking for that D.I.N.K. lifestyle - Dual Income, No Kids), not a smoker, and a rare drinker.
• Currently unemployed due to a layoff, working on getting back into the Digital Marketing/UI Design fields.
• I'm a chill, laid-back, mild-mannered, inquisitive, easy-going introvert with mostly "chill" hobbies.
• Cosplay - I cosplay and attend local anime/comic conventions. Recent cosplay photos here and past photos here. I don't consider myself an anime or manga nerd anymore, but cosplay has pretty much been my thing for a while.
• Books/Writing - Occasionally, I read from my book collection, do some creative writing and journaling, and complete word searches and crossword puzzles. I’m also a big fan of Game Show network shows.
• Art – I collect a variety of art posters, prints, and other wall art.
• Movies - Horror, thriller, and (crime) dramas are my go-to genres.
• Gaming – Casually, I play video games on my Xbox Series S and Switch.
• Wrestling – Semi-casually, I watch pro/indy wrestling shows, docuseries, and biographies.
• Recreational Athlete - I enjoy activities like bowling, swimming, playing billiards/pool, mini golf, air hockey, laser tag, and go-kart racing. Would love to have a plus one/player 2/rival in any of these!

About You and What I’m Looking for:

• A woman aged between 24 - 40 (trans/non-binary women are welcome too.)
• Is childfree, monogamous, politically liberal, and non-religious. These are non-negotiable.
• Is open with communication, caring, and takes care of herself mentally and physically.
• Shares a few similar interests with me. I’m not expecting us to have every single thing in common as separate interests are fine, but having a few similar hobbies is welcome.
• Either located in or near the state of Georgia. I’m not opposed to long-distance (within the USA) but do want an in-person connection.
• Is curvy, thick, or a BBW. Not a requirement, but I do have a preference for thicker women.

If you like what you read, fit what I’m looking for, and think that we could be a match for each other, go ahead and send me a DM or chat message!
Please shoot me a selfie or photo of you and a short bio when you message me.

How’s it going!? I’m a 31-year-old, 6’1” tall, light-skinned Black guy living outside the Atlanta, GA area, looking for and hoping to find a woman to date long-term! I’m ideally looking for someone who is open to a serious relationship (of course with time after getting to know one another and dating) eventually if things go well and connect between us. More on that below but a bit about me first.

About Me:

• I’m agnostic, liberal/progressive/left-leaning (Covid vaxxed/boosted, BLM, LGBTQIA+, women's rights, etc.), single and monogamous, childfree (I have no kids and never want any - looking for that D.I.N.K. lifestyle - Dual Income, No Kids), not a smoker, and a rare drinker.
• Currently unemployed due to a layoff, working on getting back into the Digital Marketing/UI Design fields.
• I'm a chill, laid-back, mild-mannered, inquisitive, easy-going introvert with mostly "chill" hobbies.
• Cosplay - I cosplay and attend local anime/comic conventions. Recent cosplay photos here and past photos here. I don't consider myself an anime or manga nerd anymore, but cosplay has pretty much been my thing for a while.
• Books/Writing - Occasionally, I read from my book collection, do some creative writing and journaling, and complete word searches and crossword puzzles. I’m also a big fan of Game Show network shows.
• Art – I collect a variety of art posters, prints, and other wall art.
• Movies - Horror, thriller, and (crime) dramas are my go-to genres.
• Gaming – Casually, I play video games on my Xbox Series S and Switch.
• Wrestling – Semi-casually, I watch pro/indy wrestling shows, docuseries, and biographies.
• Recreational Athlete - I enjoy activities like bowling, swimming, playing billiards/pool, mini golf, air hockey, laser tag, and go-kart racing. Would love to have a plus one/player 2/rival in any of these!

About You and What I’m Looking for:

• A woman aged between 24 - 40 (trans/non-binary women are welcome too.)
• Is childfree, monogamous, politically liberal, and non-religious. These are non-negotiable.
• Is open with communication, caring, and takes care of herself mentally and physically.
• Shares a few similar interests with me. I’m not expecting us to have every single thing in common as separate interests are fine, but having a few similar hobbies is welcome.
• Either located in or near the state of Georgia. I’m not opposed to long-distance (within the USA) but do want an in-person connection.
• Is curvy, thick, or a BBW. Not a requirement, but I do have a preference for thicker women.

If you like what you read, fit what I’m looking for, and think that we could be a match for each other, go ahead and send me a DM or chat message!
Please shoot me a selfie or photo of you and a short bio when you message me.

Hola!
I'm hoping someone might have ideas for me, as I'm frustrated beyond belief. I run EndeavourOS with Hyprland (Wayland) on a Nvidia RTX 3070 (My system stats say it's a Ti, but I'm pretty sure that's wrong). I had previous problems with performance in certain games (notably Satisfactory and DOOM, but also a builder called Fabledom and Timberborn) which were solved by installing the lib32 mesa and vulkan drivers detailed in the solution to this post; suddenly I was hitting 144 FPS on ultra settings at 1080p -- which is all I really need to play at right now. Every game I had worked wonderfully.
Then, yesterday, I upgraded my system. Kernel went from 6.3.4 to 6.3.5, with the relevant libraries and etc updated as well. And like magic, I'm back to unable to produce even 30 FPS consistently. Satisfactory is lucky to get 27 FPS on Ultra 1080p, while DOOM runs the medium settings at ~45-55 FPS. Killing prefixes does nothing, changing Proton versions doesn't work, and moving to different rendering engines in Satisfactory makes no difference. (I've tried Vulkan, DX12 and DX11, no differences in practice. Boot screen goes to 450 FPS in DX12, but once it gets into the main menu it drops to 22 FPS and stays about there.) Fabledom can't get more than 19 FPS, while Tiomberborn stutters like mad and gets ~ 45fps.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it. Or even if anyone else is seeing it, just so I don't feel so alone, lol. I saw that another person was having FPS hits when they moved to 6.3.4, but they had an AMD card, so I'm not sure it's related.

Specs if they're helpful:inxi -SPARM -GCDN -v1 -xGCRS 

System: Host: zeta-midion Kernel: 6.3.5-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.1.1 Desktop: Hyprland Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux Machine: Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Dell G16 7620 v: N/A serial: Mobo: Dell model: 085T23 v: A00 serial: UEFI: Dell v: 1.14.0 date: 12/09/2022 CPU: Info: 14-core (6-mt/8-st) model: 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H bits: 64 type: MST AMCP arch: Alder Lake rev: 3 cache: L1: 1.2 MiB L2: 11.5 MiB L3: 24 MiB Speed (MHz): avg: 1803 high: 2900 min/max: 400/4900:5000:3800 cores: 1: 866 2: 2900 3: 432 4: 2900 5: 745 6: 2900 7: 768 8: 2900 9: 641 10: 2900 11: 628 12: 2900 13: 796 14: 2900 15: 753 16: 781 17: 651 18: 2900 19: 2900 20: 2900 bogomips: 116780 Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx Graphics: Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.2 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 Device-2: NVIDIA GA104M [Geforce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU] vendor: Dell driver: nvidia v: 530.41.03 arch: Ampere bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 Device-3: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB bus-ID: 3-3.2.2:10 Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.1.1 compositor: Hyprland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia dri: iris gpu: i915,nvidia resolution: 1: 1920x1080 2: 1920x1080 API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.1 renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2) direct-render: Yes Audio: Device-1: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 Device-2: NVIDIA GA104 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:01:00.1 Device-3: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB bus-ID: 3-3.2.2:10 Device-4: DisplayLink Dell D3100 Docking Station driver: N/A type: USB bus-ID: 4-3.1:3 Device-5: DisplayLink Dell D3100 Docking Station driver: cdc_ncm,snd-usb-audio type: USB bus-ID: 4-3.3:5 API: ALSA v: k6.3.5-arch1-1 status: kernel-api Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.71 status: active RAID: Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd v: 0.6 bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 Drives: Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 599.7 GiB (32.2%) Partition: ID-1: / size: 100 GiB used: 27.54 GiB (27.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 ID-2: /home size: 1.69 TiB used: 571.9 GiB (33.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 ID-3: /valog size: 100 GiB used: 27.54 GiB (27.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 Info: Processes: 414 Uptime: 29m Memory: available: 31.04 GiB used: 6.53 GiB (21.1%) Init: systemd Compilers: gcc: 13.1.1 clang: 15.0.7 Packages: 1583 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 inxi: 3.3.27
Help or sympathy appreciated, but if not, no worries, it's not really your jobs. Just figured I'd ask!

If this formats weird it's because I'm on mobile. I'm not sure where else to post this somewhat anonymously, but here goes.
I'm a nurse. All of the local hospitals are short staffed and treated like shit from upper management. We aren't able to provide the best possible care because we're so short staffed that we have such high nurse to patient ratios that severely limit the time we have to provide the bare minimum expectations of our job. You as patients suffer and it's dangerous for everyone. New grad nurses are getting short, inadequate training because there simply isn't enough time and not enough staff.
The thing is, everyone in upper management knows about this, they just don't care.
Wesley’s staffing on 6/3 was that all ICUs 6 or more nurses were tripled. They are supposed to be one nurse to one patient, MAYBE two depending on acuity. They had three extremely critically ill patients. Remember- the ICU is where the sickest of the sick land and require the most monitoring and care.
The medical surgical units, where most admissions typically land depending on what's going on, they were flexed to 8 patients to 1 nurse. According to National Nurses United, a safe ratio on a med-surg floor is 1 nurse to no more than 4 patients.
We all work 12 hour shifts, so if we have 8 patients, we are only going to have 1.5 hours max for each patient in a day. That's 1.5 hours to do everything - meds, helping with basic activities of daily living, taking vital signs, and monitoring you in case your condition changes and you need either a different plan of care, or require more close monitoring and have to be shipped off to the ICU. Never mind that you as an individual person need to be educated on what's going on, you might be scared and lonely, your family might have questions, the doctor has questions, if your toilet is broken we have to fix it, your sheets are dirty we have to change them, etc etc. Plus getting yelled at and physically hit by patients and families. All of this falls on one nurse for eight different people. Let that sink in. Wichita sadly isn't alone in this either, it's all over the country.
Our community deserves better. Our nurses deserve better.
We are exhausted and burnt out and begging for help that is falling on deaf ears because profit is the only thing that matters to these hospitals. Nurses are trying to unionize at Ascension, but there's no guarantee that'll improve things either.
I guess this is partially a rant but also a cry for help, and also to alert the community of the BS that goes on in the background of healthcare here. Talk to your community leaders, write emails to the CEOs of the hospitals, the senators, anyone that will listen. If you find yourself in a hospital as a visitor or patient, please just be kind and give some grace to everyone.

TW: Animal death, mental health, self-harm, eating disorders.
Hi, this is my first time posting and please do not judge until you've read my whole post - it's just a crappy situation and I needed to write it out.
For context: I (29F) started dating my partner (30M) about 3 months ago and we fell for each other quickly, he is very loving and kind and the healthiest person that has come into my life for a long time. Before we started dating I had planned to adopt a cat from a local shelter, as I have struggled a lot with mental health issues including binge eating disorder, depression and suicidal thoughts - causing me to leave my job in Autumn 2022 and take a pay cut to become a home based freelancer, as I didnt even have the energy to get out of bed and shower some days. As I love cats and have owned a cat previously I thought caring for a fur baby would make both myself and the furball happy - me providing a loving home and cuddles to a kitty and them giving me a reason to get up and feel happier everyday as I get to take care of and bond with an animal.
So, 3 weeks ago I brought home the cutest grey and white 1.5yr old tomcat who was previously a streetcat and we instantly bonded and loved spending time with each other, with him giving affectionate headbutts and sitting on everyone he met to demand hugs. My partner was also there with him from Day 1 as he helped me pick him up from the shelter and loves animals as much as I do - so he obviously got a lot of cuddles and love from both of us. As I said, he's the best (both the cat and my BF).
However, after about 2 weeks at mine he got into a fight with another cat resulting in an injured paw, which I quickly took him to the vets for and was treated - although he wasn't happy about wearing the cone of shame and had to be continuously monitored, meaning I had to miss a family friends wedding, which I got flack for. On the Monday though, he looked very lethargic and violently threw up despite his medication so I rushed him in again to the vet the next day. He had previously had a UTI before living with me and was fully treated by the slehter, but now had a major bladder blockage and was rushed into surgery and kept for several days. After a few days, they said the damage to his Kidneys was too severe and had to be put down - a complete shock to myself and my immediate circle who I had told about him, as he was so young and I'd only had him for less than a month. I was devastated and lost my goddamn mind, with me having to say goodbye to him 3 days ago with my partner by my side, both of us crying and making sure he knew he was loved and cuddled and giving him lots of treats and love until he passed. I also had to pay over 2k in treatment and cremation costs right after he was gone, which felt like a gut punch as not only had I lost my furry best friend who I grew to love even in such a short time, but the insurance wouldn't cover it as technically the UTI was a previous condition and the insurance I was provided with from the shelter didn't cover it - draining my savings which I needed as I search for a more stable job - wrecking my mental health again. So really just a universal slap in the face from every direction.
Now, as I just feel so bereft at this unfortunate series of events and trying to process everything - my partner tells me he has decided to adopt a border collie/german shepherd cross puppy from his two friends who had a surprise litter, after being persuaded by them and also being a huge animal lover like myself. Although I am so happy for him as I know they'll find such joy in living together and forming the best bond ever, a horrible side of me is very angry and sad that my partner is now going to get to have the relationship with his fur baby that I never got to have with mine and I feel so desperately sad and guilty at these thoughts. I am going to be totally supportive and of course can't wait to have puppy cuddles, but everytime I think about it at the back of my mind I have a horrible pang of anger, jealousy and sadness which I wish wouldn't be there as I only want them both to find the loving bond I did with my adorable kitty, if even only for a short time. I thought I;d post here as I've never been good at processing grief and thought it'd help to write it out, as I want to be as supportive as possible and don't want to put an emotional burden onto his happy time by fully unloading.
Thanks for reading as I know this was long and I wish everyone and their furry, scaly, swimming and insect babies a long and happy time together <3

I have been obsessed with Elliott Smith for almost a decade now. I always wondered if he might have been disordered, BPD or possible vulnerable narc. Any one else a fan?
This post is going to be really hard for me. It is an act of vulnerability. Please be gentle.
Anyways. I guess I am writing about this story as a way of sharing something that a younger version of myself lacked the self-awareness to even question. It now causes me a lot of shame and grief, because it demonstrates just how out of touch with reality I have been my whole life.
When I was 23 (32m now), I used to work in a locally owned cafe/smoothie shop. Kind of a quirky, "hip" place in its day. A girl started working there. She was older, in her 30s, and struggled with an eating disorder. She was very literary, went to an Ivy League college right out of high school, and her life and mental health had recently taken a turn for the worse. She seemed to be in a vulnerable place. Even though she was much older than me, she looked young and had a sort of mousy appearance and was pretty in her own way.
At the time, I was sort of a shift leader or something. I remember the first time I really got to interacting with her, she was crashed out on the chair in front of the register. The place was a DISASTER: freezer doors left open, stuff spilled everywhere, milk left out. She might have been fucked up on something, but whatever was going on, she CLEARLY was struggling to function.
At first, being a shift leader, I kind of had to talk to her about what was going on. I started learning more about her, and she piqued my curiosity.
I was a lonely person, so sometimes I would go in on my days off to grab a smoothie and hang out. Some days, I'd go there and she was there. I got to talking to her more, and I learned more about her life story and her current circumstance. Basically, she had been struggling with her mental health for some time now, struggling to hold down a job. She received a DUI and caused a car accident with a pregnant woman, but everyone involved was okay. Since that point in time, her life had been crumbling apart: she was forced to resign from her job at the courthouse when all of this happened in a particularly humiliating, horrifying, and traumatic way. I really felt for her.
We started becoming friends, and I got to see her many different sides. She had a bit of an "attitude"-- a wholesome, endearing sort of feistyness-- a strength about her. She was wicked smart and funny. She had these silly little ways of saying things. She was religious, which was surprising to me, because (in stark contrast to my religious upbring), she wasn't a prude, was well-versed in music, literature, art, (both high-culture and low-culture stuff, she wasn't a snob), and she also had a really obscene and absurd sense of humor. Overall, I found her extremely endearing and fascinating.
Some days I would come in, and it was like a light had turned on inside of her, her smile would shine. It made me happy. Other days, she seemed bitter, angry, and depressed-- and there was no turning it around. Some days, she just seemed completely checked out, her speech was garbled--what she said often made no sense--and I became really concerned. I remember on those days she was so out of it, she often had a bead of snot just dangling from the tip of her nose.
What a mess. What a beauty.
Savior complex triggered much? Oh yes. Without even realizing, I started idealizing her and becoming completely infatuated.
There wasn't anything particularly wrong with this scenario, up until this point. I had a crush on an older woman who was becoming my friend, and she was in a rough spot in life. It felt like nothing was wrong with it. It felt innocent. It was innocent.
What I didn't realize at that time was that something in my interaction with her was triggering my insecurities, the old "push and pull". I couldn't tell if she just liked being my friend, liked-me-liked-me, or maybe was annoyed/indifferent to me? I would come in, grab a smoothie, start talking to her, and before I knew it, I was basically doing her job for her. On a few occasions, I stayed with until closing time, helped close up the shop, and give her a ride home. I was investing myself into her without even realizing.
Of course, my narcie bits didn't always feel appreciated. Sometimes, I felt a little resentful. To be clear: I don't think she did anything wrong here (especially now). She never asked me for her help. I just came in, saw a wounded little birdie, and instinctively wanted to swoop in and help out. Her vulnerability triggered a very childlike nurturing instinct in me.
What I didn't realize was how this "push-pull" (that was probably mostly imaginary), was triggering me. I started to feel small. I started to feel like everything I was doing to help her wasn't enough, that I wasn't enough.
The more I started liking her, the more I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be smarter, more literary, more funny, more prestigious--just, more. Something that wasn't a lame, abused, sheltered home-schooler. Someone who had life experience, who was intellectual, who had done things in life.
And then, slowly, I started attaching all of my fantasies produced by all of the unmet needs in childhood, to her. I started idealizing her life, her upbringing. I found myself thinking about what her life must have been like in public school, having friends, hopes, and dreams. Almost like a nostalgia over her past. I realize now, the nostalgia I felt was actually the nostalgia from my own childhood fantasies of being connected to the world, of having friends, hopes, and dreams. It was a nostalgia over a past I never had.
I started kind of becoming what I thought was "her". Rationalizing to myself that we shared qualities, traits, and interests. I found out she liked Cat Power. I started liking Cat Power. I found out she liked poetry. I started reading poetry. I found out she graduated high school with a prestigious scholarship. I started rewriting my own history, and later found myself making up stories to people at bars, how I too, had won that same scholarship out of high school.
Admitting even this much of this makes me feel so, so creepy and ashamed.
But that's far from the end of it. I was living and projecting my fantasy onto reality. Certain songs reminded me of her, even though there was no evidence that we had even shared listening to those songs together in reality. "In the Lost and Found" by Elliott Smith was one of those songs I attached this fantasy to.
I started actively changing myself to embody this weird fantasy version of myself. Creepily, I started to dig deeper into her history via her Facebook (which only had scant information about her to begin with). I found an ex-boyfriend of hers. He was a lawyer. She always talked about how she wanted to be a lawyer. Hey, I want to be a lawyer, too!--and then there would be subsequent rationalizations for why being a lawyer was the PERFECT job for me, and for why, clearly, what I was meant to do with my life was become a lawyer. Even more creepy, I started envying her ex-boyfriend, and found myself idealizing and emulating him, too. I saw a picture of him wearing hot pink socks. "How cool, unique, and quirky!". Guess who bought himself not just hot-pink socks, but hot pink SHOES?
I wanted to be like him. I wanted to absorb his qualities, this person that I had never met and only the most superficial, vague information about. My mind filled in the blanks. I found his goodreads account online and saw that he had read something like 200 uber-hip books on post-modernism, post-structuralism, and fashionable French philosophy. Guess who started buying and reading books on postmodernism and french philosophy? Guess who started modeling himself after a person he had never met?
Yikes.
At this point, I didn't even know if the girl cared for these things--by this point I was more wrapped up and concerned with creating this idealized version of myself based upon these internal fantasies of idealized objects, than really anything that had to do with her. She encouraged me to start working at the courthouse in her old role as a courtroom clerk, which I did end up doing for two years, until I realized that being a lawyer in real life actually sucks, and I don't actually want that job. (All of that is very complex--my dad had wanted to be a lawyer too, and I had reasons for wanting to become a lawyer before I met her, like wanting to be better than my dad, etc.)
Over time, we started drifting apart. But my sense of identity had completely changed. One day, a woman briefly walked into my little life at a smoothie shop, and completely changed me.
Or, I changed myself.
Writing all of this is extremely hard to face. It's extremely hard to face the fact that I have been living in a fantasy world for most of my life, and that my sense of self has been markedly shaped by it. That I manipulated myself and lied to myself and others, because deep down, my core identity is so weak, that I am constantly molding myself to be something acceptable, if even only to myself. That it's weak because I believe "being me" (whoever that even is now) isn't enough: I must DO. I must ACHIEVE in order to be worthy of love.
It's horrifying. I feel like such a creepy freak. More than anything, now, it just makes me really sad. It makes me sad that I have spent my entire life trying to become something worthy of love. It feels like my whole personality is made up of failed attempts at being good enough to receive all the things I desperately needed as a child. I was homeschooled, abused, and never even got to interact with the outside world. I never learned how to be a child--I was born into adulthood. I never learned how to make friends or interact with my peers, or how to be a real person in the real world.
It's had devastating impacts. Failed relationships. Addictions. Mal-adaptive daydreaming. Distorted, disturbed identity. Obsessive ruminations. Grief. Just, immense loss and disillusionment, my whole life.
Can I forgive myself? Can I forgive myself for this incessant self-abandonment?
It's hard. I've hurt people in my life. I never meant to, but I have. Most of all, I've hurt myself.
I really want to heal from this. I really want to live in the real world, be a real person. I want to know what it's like to "be me", but I don't even know if that's possible at this point. My whole identity feels like the skeletons of all the people I have tried and failed at becoming.
I'm trying to look at all of this insanity from a place of self-compassion. I can see how I got here. I can see it perfectly. It's just really painful to look at, and it makes me feel hopeless.
How can I ever really get to know "me"? At what point do I know that I have learned that I am good enough for me?

I’m a marketing analyst with 10 years experience working on all the major platforms - GA, GTM, GAds, FB, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Twitter, and others. I have a full time job now but I’m usually done around 2pm and would love to supplement with some contract work. Is there a good website or resource (besides Fiverr or Upwork) to solicit these types of opportunities?

Hello, my name is Luke Wiley, and I’m an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. I am a psychology major, but I want to primarily study issues within the workplace. I’m currently working with Dr. Kristen Jennings Black on my honors thesis, and I am studying the effects of being in a union, particularly on things like stress, burnout, and feelings of financial security. This is a very special and important topic for me because I come from three generations of union members and I am currently in a union for campus workers at my university. It was my grandmother’s ILGWU sewing factory job that helped get her and her children out of poverty and into the middle class. Labor and especially organized labor is often so underrepresented or misrepresented in research. And I would love to be able to help change that. I have been working with IBEW Local 175 to develop the survey, but I would also like to expand it to other unions and locals within the building trades professions. If you are an union member in the building trades, please consider taking this survey. Also if it would be possible, please consider sharing the survey with other rank and file members. I would be happy to answer any and all questions you may have.
Below is a summary of the survey: This research has been reviewed and approved by the UTC IRB ([email protected]). IRB number: 22-099. It will ask about the physical conditions of your job, as well as things like work-life balance, stress, and burnout. We want to create a full picture of what it is like to work in the building trades as a union member. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to study the effects and benefits of being a member of a labor union, and hopefully to provide insight for your local to further understand your experiences as members. I’m also especially curious about the experiences of women in the building trades and how unions do/can help female workers. Your responses to this survey will be incredibly helpful and are very much appreciated. The survey will take around 10-15 minutes to complete and can be found at the link below. It is completely anonymous and no one will know whether you take it or not, so it cannot impact your job or union membership. The link to the survey is:
Union Survey
I look forward to hearing back from you all with any comments and questions!

A friend of mine and I both have goals of investing in property. They have good credit, but little money. I have some investment founds, know many local realtors through my job, plus know the building structures/age/weaupkeep etc, but shit credit. Anyway we have been thinking of partnering up. One of the thoughts I had is since multiple people can own a single property, is it possible, since my mortgage is almost paid off, to sell a percentage to them, and buy another house (for me) using the proceeds as a down payment/settle current mortgage. Or in theory "sell" my house to ourselves (I would cover down payment for over all loan, and in theory write me in as co-owner), at market value, settle the current mortgage, have a significant amount of equity gain, and use that as a down payment on a new place for me, plus a couple cash purchase investment properties, or a few down payments on more loans for properties. This is just my preliminary idea, and I do not have a real estate background. I'm In the trades. I maintain things, I dont necessarily know the ins and outs.

I don’t remember the name of it at all but I know you were in this small village and go into dungeons to gather supplies for the locals for quests they’d even have that gooey light when they have a job for you and you’d run into things like minics ( chest monsters ) and slimes, you could have all kinds of pets and my favorite was a literally floating eye like the eye of beholder from dnd. I’d get so happy opening the game and seeing my character standing there with her huge eyeball pet. It had old Zelda kinda graphics with choppy 3d faces but I still adored it and would love to remember it’s name, I know I can point it out from a picture but i just don’t know it’s name and can’t find any photos of it no matter how hard I try…

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A staredown soon ensued.
One that neither of us seemed to be willing to let up on.
But as far as staredowns went, this one was pretty evenly matched as neither of us really had the ability to ‘blink’, or at least as far as an outside observer could see.
My whole schtick was pretty obvious, the tinted lenses were more or less just doing the job for me, taking blinking out of the equation entirely and adding a solid plus ten to my intimidation base stats.
The shadowy cloaked figure’s approach was just downright bizarre though, as instead of eyes, there were just these two trapezoidal ‘lights’ that I assumed were supposed to be a placeholder for his actual eyes hidden somewhere underneath the shadowy void casted by his hood.
A void which was downright pitchblack, and completely impenetrable to the naked eye.
The figure gave off a surreal vibe as his rogue-like attire, coupled with the hood and the impenetrable shadow it casted, looked like it’d been ripped straight out of a Castles and Wyverns art book or a high-fantasy comic. The pitch-black void that obscured his face, and those two trapezoidal eyes that hovered and shifted with increasing scrutiny, just didn’t look real.
While most would leave it at that, I wasn’t one to leave a mystery hanging, I was a human with an entire visual sensor suite to work with for crying out loud. So before I even knew it, I reflexively went to activate my night-vision cameras. Only to see that the shadowy effect covering up his face was still there.
This led me to only one solid conclusion.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 140% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
A quick localized environmental scan made it clear to me that this was yet another one of the Nexus’ weird mana-fueled acts of tomfoolery.
“What say you, first years? Are you here for healing, or are you here for a visit? For as I have stated, the healing wing is not accepting visits at this point in time.” The hooded figure answered with this strange mix between a sing-song voice and an attempt at sounding gruff and gravely.
“We have an unfulfilled point of personal privilege that requires addressment.” Thacea stepped up to the plate, promptly placing herself by my side, then taking several steps forward. “Along with an unresolved conflict which requires immediate resolution by the party with which the aforementioned point of personal privilege was evoked but was halted due to unforeseen circumstances.” The princess began flexing her courtly-talk with the hooded figure, which clearly seemed to have some effect as he reached up a single gloved hand up to where his chin should be, only to have his fingers disappear as soon as they entered the dark shadowy effect currently covering up his face.
“And with whom is this unresolved matter incurred?” The figure inquired plainly, though the way he spoke shifted to something a bit more accommodating, perhaps even a little bit more hospitable than the gruffer tone he’d initially directed towards me.
“An apprentice, good sir. Apprentice Larial to be precise.” Thacea clarified politely, using what I could only describe as this flighty, chirpy, almost haughty tone of voice that was an exaggerated version of the cadence she used during our first interactions together.
“Hmm…” The hooded figure replied with a concerned grumble. “I was going to waive this particular matter, allowing the fair lady-” He paused, before making a point to stare at both me and Thalmin. “-and her two knights to pass on through, under the points of exceptional circumstances.” He continued in a less restrained, more flighty cadence. “However, you must excuse my inability to do so, my lady. My hands are currently tied via the powers that be, and I simply cannot grant your request.” The man began weaving a string of apologetics, giving Thacea a genuine and polite bow in response. “I must apologize for this discrepancy in expectant decorum.”
This didn’t make things any better for our circumstances though.
And it was clear Thacea understood this as she continued pressing forward.
“May I have your name and title, my good sir?” Thacea chirped lightly.
“Appointed-Deputy Magistrate Sir Arlan Ostoy, Senior Apprentice of the Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. May I have the honor and the privilege of requesting your name, my fair lady?”
“Princess Thacea Dilani, of the Aetheronrealm, First Year and Scholastic Peer of the Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts.” Thacea replied with a full bow, and a half-curtsy of her own.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The shadowy figure bowed yet again.
“The pleasure is all mine, Sir-Magistrate.” Followed by yet another bow by Thacea.
There was some serious song and dance going on here, and one that I was observing with bated breath.
“Might I inquire further as to the particular reasoning behind this unfortunate and unseemly inability to respect the rights of expectant decorum?” Thacea quickly shot back.
“As I have alluded to, your highness, the powers that be prevent me from furthering the natural solution to your particular grievances. If this were any other instance in time, at any other location or place, I am sure this matter would have been resolved in an expedient and timely fashion. This situation, as you have alluded to yourself, results from a very particular set of unforeseen circumstances. Circumstances which currently dictate my actions in a manner which just so happens to be in conflict with your points of personal privilege, your highness.” The man’s posture, the way he stood, even the way he talked seemed very particular when addressing Thacea.
It was at that point that something changed. I didn’t know what, and I wasn’t sure why, but Thacea seemed to be shifting towards a tactical retreat, as she clacked her beak several times before addressing the both of us. “This is absolutely preposterous, I will need a moment to clear my mind but when I do return…” Thacea turned towards the magistrate/guard/apprentice person yet again. “There will be words exchanged.”
At Thacea’s prompting, we all left the room, but not before slamming the door behind us shut in a similar manner to Ilunor’s drama-filled exits.
We continued walking away from the medical wing at a steady pace, until another privacy screen was suddenly brought up.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 275% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
“I have a plan.” Thacea began. “And this is entirely relying on you two having the physical prowess to back up your military backgrounds.” She continued ominously.
“Oh princess, you sully the Havenbrock name if you believe my mercenary heritage is in any way, shape, or form a mere decorative mantlepiece.” Thalmin responded with a sarcastic, yet excitable tone.
“I assure you, Thacea, I think my training has almost every eventuality accounted for.” I added with an affirmative nod.
“So what’s the plan?” Thalmin barked out excitedly as we stopped right in the middle of this long, wide hallway connecting the main castle with the medical wing. Thacea was quick to answer this question by wordlessly gesturing to a lone door on the right side of the hallway.
Windows lining either side of the hallway made it clear that this entire structure was just an elevated bridge connecting the main castle to an entirely separate compound.
This made the presence of a door smack-dab in the middle of its length sort of bizarre.
Upon entering it though, we were treated to an open-air rooftop terrace with a few seats and benches. The whole outcropping gave us an unparalleled view of the roaring waterfall beneath the Academy, and a direct line of sight to the medical wing and its five distinct towers.
The princess continued walking silently as we reached the edge of the terrace’s balcony, overlooking the sheer cliff face at a height that more or less put me in mind of your typical open-air rooftops on your typical Acela Corridor skyscraper.
“I’ve observed that the medical wing seems to consist of a large tower-atrium, with several more towers connected to it via additional corridors. Similar to spokes on a wheel. As you can see from this vantage point, it seems as if most rooms have private balconies. If we cannot make our way to the apprentice via conventional channels, then I plan to reach her via more unconventional means.” Thacea turned towards me with a hardened look in her gaze. “Emma, is your… insect artifice ready for use?”
My eyes widened at that, as I nodded affirmatively. “Just for the record, we call it a drone.” I quickly corrected Thacea. “But, yes, I can designate individuals and targets for it to track down or follow. However, I can’t just have it poking around in every room since there’s no guarantee that the drone will be able to get a lock on them. There’s too many variables involved that would get in the way of the drone actually being able to zero in on a person’s face. From the beds facing the right way, to bandages possibly covering up her face, to-”
“I don’t want your artifice to observe every balcony and window, Emma. That will most certainly take too much time, and as you’ve stated, there’s no guarantee of actually identifying a face considering the multitudes of factors involved.” Thacea interjected. “What I plan to do is to return to the Deputy-Magistrate, and to attempt to reach a compromise that he will abide by. I plan for him to take us, or rather, your drone straight to the apprentice.”
“And how will you accomplish this?” Thalmin whined,his head tilted in curiosity.
“I will draft a letter, addressed directly to the apprentice, and request that it be taken straight to her room. This way, the Deputy-Magistrate will in a sense be able to accomplish his obligations to the Expectant Decorum, and in doing so he will lead your insec-, drone, straight to the apprentice’s room.”
I stared at Thacea with wide eyes, as her back and forths with the deputy-magistrate began taking on a completely different meaning in this new light.
“That way, we can find out exactly which room the apprentice is in.” I replied bluntly.
“Correct. However, from there, I cannot say my plans are in any way foolproof.” Thacea replied with a sullen coo.
“Well go on, princess, it sounds pretty good so far!” Thalmin urged.
“Ascertaining the apprentice’s room is only half of the stated objective. Actually getting there is another matter entirely. Because depending on where the apprentice is located… my idea for the latter half of this quest involves you two scaling your way towards her room.” The princess spoke with an immense level of trepidation. “On the exterior aspect of the castle, if that needed to be said.”
My heart skipped a beat as the princess laid out her plans. I looked across the absurdly spindly hallway-bridge that this little terrace was somehow attached to, and towards the five towers that made up the medical wing.
Thalmin did the same, although his face seemed to indicate that he was at the very least, considering the plan at least somewhat seriously.
“Alright.” I muttered out loud, instinctively trying to place a palm on my forehead, only for the glove to bonk straight off. “I have several ideas. First, we might be able to do this remotely. I’m thinking once we find out which room she’s in, we fly in a larger drone, one carrying with it a deployable holographic projector or some other two-way communications device so that we can talk to her remotely.” As soon as I spoke that idea out loud however, things started to fall apart. “But because of how thick the walls are, and considering the distance between the tower and our dorm, I might have to deploy repeaters in order to daisy-chain the connection all the way back to the dorms. I mean, we can’t just set up shop out here in the open after all. At which point we’d have a continuous chain of signal-repeater drones flying all across the Academy… which wouldn’t be ideal. No, scratch that, that won’t work.”
The pair stared at me with varying degrees of confusion, but seemed to have collectively decided to ignore the idea after I’d scrapped it.
“I say we just climb it!” Thalmin yelped out, but not before another idea hit me. One that could work, but that required me consulting Thacea first.
“I mean, we could, but…” I turned to face Thacea. “What’s the Academy’s policy on noise? Or rather, do you think we could get away with something really really loud, buzzing outside of the towers?”
Thacea once more stared at me with a look of just utter confusion, but shrugged it off and went with it anyways. “I would highly recommend against generating too much noise for this particular quest, Emma. It would most certainly garner a lot of unwanted attention.” Thacea spoke plain and simple.
I couldn’t help but to groan internally in frustration at that.
That makes flying over there a no-go… it would’ve made things so much easier though…
“Alright, well, that more or less places us in a very awkward situation with not a lot of options available to us, huh?” I thought to myself outloud again, as I craned my head over to an excitable Thalmin.
“I guess I have to climb on over.” I stated in no uncertain terms.
“Wait, I?!” Thalmin responded with a shocked and incredulous bark. “There’s no way I’m allowing you to climb over there yourself without assistance or-”
“Thalmin, there’s no need for you to climb on over with me.” I interjected. “This whole mission is hedged on me talking to the apprentice one-on-one. Remember the gardens? The apprentice wouldn’t allow you anywhere near us when we started talking. It’d be a waste of time, energy, and more importantly… a huge risk to your safety. I don’t want to risk your life needlessly, Thalmin. Not especially for a fight that isn’t your own.”
“Well you’re part of our peer group, so it’s my fight as well.” Thalmin replied with a dejected growl, but eventually relented. “But you’re right, Emma. I hate to admit it, but you’re right.”
I nodded at Thalmin’s slowly. “Besides, there’s an important job I need you to do.” I began scrounging through one of my pouches, and began palming for my spare in-ear earpieces. “I need you on lookout, to keep me aware of anything fishy developing in case I need to pull out.”
Thalmin looked over the side of the terrace, towards the raging waters beneath this side of the Academy as he let out a sigh. “That shouldn’t be too hard. Hardly anyone will be passing by this terrace, and beyond that there’s no way anyone can spot you from below, given there’s nothing but the cascading rapids below us. There’s no one that can spot you from here, save for perhaps the foxes in the library. We’re most certainly on the right side of the Academy for this quest, that’s for certain.” Thalmin pointed at the library in the far distance.
“Oh, I’m not too worried about anyone seeing me. I’m more concerned about someone compromising my extraction point, i.e. this little terrace here.” I acknowledged.
“But, surely you must be worried about someone seeing you scaling the walls…” Thalmin scanned me up and down, as if wanting to comment about my size but- “You’re massive.”
“Okay, first off, rude.” I spoke sarcastically, and raised both hands up for added effect. “But in all seriousness, I have another device that can mask my visual presence.” I pulled out a plastic-like poncho from one of my pouches, activating it, and revealing its active-camo properties as it projected whatever was behind it, albeit with some imperfections. “It isn’t perfect, but from afar it should actually work pretty well.”
Both Thalmin and Thacea stared at each other in utter shock as they saw this.
“A mana-less-”
“I think… this is a matter worth discussing another time, Princess.” Thalmin interjected with a polite exasperated breath. “But I expect a good explanation for this one, Emma.” Thalmin pointed a finger right at me.
“In any case, I will be diverting the Deputy-Magistrate’s attention by preoccupying him with needless and vapid chatter. This should take attention away from the apprentice and your intrusion, Emma.” Thacea quickly added, and promptly tied this whole impromptu operation up nicely.
“Alright, let’s get this show on the road then. We’ll head back to the dorms and get that letter drafted so-”
“Already done.” Thacea interjected, bringing up a parchment that she promptly began sealing into an envelope.
“Wait, when did you-”
“Whilst we were talking, I used a dictation spell. The letter is written and signed.” Thacea spoke nonchalantly, as she held a neatly sealed envelope in one of her talons.
“Wait, what, when did you, how did you-?”
“I carry a quill and extra parchment in my bag of holding. This is to account for any eventuality where a statement in writing, a legal affidavit, or a notarized letter may be required.” Thacea responded a-matter-of-factly.
“Alright then.” I tapped the pouch with the INFIL-DRONE, the small little thing peeking its head out much to the visible disgust of the pair. “So we’re ready for phase one of the operation. Misdirection and information gathering. We’ll go in, drop the letter, and have the drone do its thing. After that, we wait for the drone to return, and we’ll take it from there on whether or not we can continue with Phase Two: penetrating the enemy lines.”
“What would be stopping us from continuing with phase two?” Thalmin quickly asked.
“Well, simple. If the apprentice is still conked out from her injuries, there wouldn’t be any point in attempting to meet her. So hopefully, she’s going to be in a good enough state to talk to. We’ll know when we get the drone footage back.”
“Fair point.” Thalmin nodded.
“So, is everyone ready to begin?” Thacea asked.
A series of affirmative nods later, we began our quick walk back over to the atrium.

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts, Extraction Point Alpha (Open Air Terrace Overlooking the Medical Wing). Local Time: 1420 Hours.
That took way more time than I’d initially thought.
In fact, it took so long that I was beginning to wonder how two people could have an unending conversation where nothing of value was spoken and nothing of value was gained.
It was basically elevator small talk, but written by the same writers who wrote Bridgerwesson Lane, and adapted to a theatrical release with a trilogy that ended with a movie arbitrarily cut up into a two-parter.
I honestly zoned out for a few moments during those hours, as I decided to use the spare time to review the grappling hook and mountaineering gear I’d be using on this little quest.
Eventually however, the Deputy-Magistrate relented, at which point I let loose the INFIL-DRONE to do its thing.
It’d been twenty minutes since we left and made our way back to this open-air terrace, and all of us were waiting with bated breath for the results the drone had in store.
“So, how fast can that drone of yours fly anyways Emma-”
Thalmin was immediately cut off as the drone in question buzzed right by his ears, causing them to flick this way and that, before flattening out entirely.
“Speak of him and he will come.” I chuckled, as I outstretched a gloved hand over for the little drone to perch atop of.
Once again, the pair stared at it with a look of mild disgust, and then panic as it crawled all the way back into its docking port, and began uploading the data we needed.
“Alright, let’s see what we have here.” I spoke to no one in particular before shifting my attention to the EVI. “EVI, isolate and replay relevant footage, and calculate the target’s location.”
“Acknowledged, parsing…”
“Location Parsing. Footage isolated. Play Footage?”
“Affirmative.”
I immediately pulled out my data-tab for the gang to be able to watch as well, as the footage began just as the Deputy-Magistrate, and by extension the drone, arrived at the apprentice’s room.
The door, and all details posted in the front were all captured, and so too was the state of the apprentice revealed to us in short order as I braced myself for a mangled and bandaged-up mass of broken bones.
What I instead saw, was… still a heavily bandaged up figure. However, the most important thing was that they were awake.
And what was remarkable, was the fact that they were able to move without assistance. As the apprentice reached over to receive the letter wordlessly, shifting a bit in bed as she did so.
“This is a letter addressed from a Princess Thacea Dilani of the Aetheronrealm. I have fulfilled my duties and obligations as per the Expectant Decorum. I will now take my leave, Apprentice Larial.” The deputy-magistrate spoke with the same air of overbearing properness, seriously making me consider whether or not this was how he was all the time.
Whatever the case may be, the apprentice seemed to be healed enough to move her arms at the very least, as she grabbed the letter and spoke hoarsely back in response. “Thank you Senior Apprentice.”
There wasn’t much to the footage beyond those interactions, but it was good enough for the purposes of this mission.
“Alright.” I spoke, as I pocketed the tablet. “We have our answer. The apprentice seems healed up enough to speak to, so phase two of this operation is a-go.”
The pair nodded in response, just in time for the EVI to be done with whatever calculations were needed to determine the apprentice’s precise location.
I turned to the tower, as the room and its balcony was highlighted.
It was just about five stories above from where we were.
Meaning it’d be a hell of a climb.
“The room’s about five floors up.” I announced with a sigh.
“Are you sure you can make that journey, Emma?” Thacea responded worryingly. “I… I will be honest, Emma, I am having some second doubts about this whole idea. The concept just came to me as flying between tall structures and towers is just second nature to us Aetheronrealmers. Considering the heights involved, and your inability to fly, I’m wondering if this whole quest was a folly of my own shortsighted-”
“It’s fine, Thacea.” I cut the avinor off. “I can do this, trust me.” I placed a single hand on the princess’ shoulder, and squeezed it once for effect.
Meanwhile, the EVI began doing what it did best: attempting to minimize the risk associated with my hairbrained schemes, as it deployed the suit’s primary lookout drone in order to start mapping out the best possible route forward.
This spooked the pair yet again, as they both jolted backwards.
Thankfully, the drone was deathly silent, so it shouldn’t bring too much attention to it.
It was at this point that I brought out a pair of earpieces I was scrounging my pouches for earlier, one for Thacea, and another for Thalmin.
“These will help you stay in contact with me throughout the climb.” I stated plainly, as I attempted to latch it onto my own ear for demonstrative purposes, only to realize that I could not, given the suit was in the way.
I sighed, as I turned towards Thalmin. “Do you mind if I put it on for you?” I asked sheepishly.
“Erm, what is it, Emma?”
“It’s…” I paused, as I attempted to find the best way to describe this without taking up too much time. “It’s a communication artifice, Thalmin. It’ll allow us to talk to each other remotely, relying on that drone there-” I pointed at the lookout drone still flying away from us. “-to relay our voices to each other.”
Thalmin, as expected, looked at me with an expression of partial dumbfoundedness whilst Thacea seemed completely transfixed by the earpieces I held in my hands.
“So it’s like a hearing-sense?” Thalmin responded with a questioning bark.
“Look, I’ll just demonstrate.” I managed out with a sigh as Thalmin reluctantly nodded and allowed me to begin hooking in the earpiece, looping it around his fluffy triangular ears.
This inevitably resulted in my hand brushing over the lupinor’s fluffy head a few times, which seemed to elicit some large tail-wags and a dulcet rumble.
I tried to ignore that, as I pulled back and began demonstrating. “I’ve turned off my speakers, can you still hear me, Thalmin?”
“Yes, I can.” The lupinor spoke after clearing his throat.
I turned my speakers back on immediately after. “Alright, I’ll get into the specifics of how it works later, but as for now, just know that I can hear whatever you say.”
“I’m afraid I don’t think that artifice will be compatible with my… anatomy, Emma.” Thacea spoke calmly, as she pointed at several aspects of the earpiece that required an actual ear canal to fit into, and an earlobe to loop around.
“This complicates things a bit, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. How long do you think you can keep up the distracting conversation with the deputy-magistrate for, Thacea?”
“We just went through several hours discussing nothing in particular, I can most certainly continue that trend from dusk till dawn.” The avinor spoke confidently, and frankly, rather proudly. “The issue lies not in how long I can manage to maintain the conversation, but in how long it will take you to accomplish this quest, Emma.” Thacea shot back.
“An hour.” I nodded confidently. “Twenty minutes to scoot my way over there, twenty to talk to the apprentice, and twenty to get back.”
“I’ll make that two hours then.” Thacea responded without a second thought. “We need to account for potential complications, and an extra hour of senseless dialogue will most certainly not be an issue for me.”
With an affirmative nod from me, and an approving glance from Thalmin, I now turned towards the exterior of the two hundred foot corridor leading to the concourse, and the extra five hundred feet it would take to get from the atrium to the tower in question.
It was at that last minute that the EVI brought out another suggestion, one that was formulated with the aid of the new datasets provided by the FEBNPMS lookout drone that had been busy mapping out the best route forward.
It was… an inherently riskier approach, one that my aunt would definitely not approve of, but it definitely beat scaling a wall and wedging spikes into it.
“Actually… I have a better idea than simply scaling the walls.”

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts, En Route to Medical Wing Tower C, Room 705. Local Time: 1430 Hours.
“Grapple secure.”
I will never forget the feeling of falling.
The very wrong feeling that came with leaping off of solid ground into empty sky, of suddenly seeing and feeling the world whizzing by me.
It was a visceral feeling, a gut-churning sensation, dominated by an overbearing sense of impending doom that takes over your terrestrial brain that wasn’t designed to feel the ‘freeing’ sensation of being unbound to the ground beneath you.
Leaping over from the edge of the terrace was the worst part of it. But after that tentative jump, things started to become just a little bit easier.
The Academy’s proclivity for over-aggrandized architectural design would finally serve a purpose beyond just decorative aesthetics.
Because it was clear that the walls weren’t really designed to ward off anyone daring to scale them. As there existed several, if not hundreds of these little greebles and outcroppings that served no purpose but to act as decorative pieces on the side of the castle. Some held stone flowers, whilst others had lamps or other light pieces of varying designs.
No matter what they were, or what meaning they held, all were equal and valid targets in the eyes of my grappling hook.
As I dangled there from the first outcropping, held in place by a single high-tensile cable, I looked up to see Thalmin looming over the edge “EMMA?!” I heard him shout in a panic. It was clear that he was unable to see anything, as my light-refraction cloak was currently doing its job well.
“I’m still here, Thalmin. You can’t see me but I’m dangling from this weird outcropping that looks like an overinflated vase.”
“NEXT TIME, BE SURE TO INFORM ME AS TO THE NATURE OF YOUR IMPOSSIBLE ARTIFICES BEFORE USE, UNDERSTOOD?!”
“Of course. You’ll know if I’ve fallen if you hear a long scream followed by a large splat.”
“That’s not funny!”
I chuckled nervously in response, before turning to face the grueling, gut-churning journey ahead of me. “Humor’s my way of dealing with stress, and trust me, I have a lot of stress to work through right about now.”
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(Author’s Note: Hey guys! Time for some unconventional solutions courtesy of Emma and the gang! We're going to meet the apprentice one way or another! I hope you guys enjoy! :D The next Chapter is already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 34 of this story is already out on there!)]

I think I have a decent application. I know I may be limited because of my score. I just can't decide on any more beyond my in-state schools (Kentucky and Louisville). I'm planning to only apply to MD with a preference for nearby states. Any help is appreciated
Marked Disadvantaged:
~$70,000 for a 4-person household most of my life
One of my parents worked in a different country for a few years, so I had to become a primary caretaker for a sibling.
cGPA: 4.0. sGPA: 4.0
MCAT: 509 (128/124/129/128)
Clinical Experience:
Salvation Army Clinic Triager - 20 hours
Telehealth Scribe - 200 hours (Counted this as clinical because of COVID limited patient interaction when I started)
Nursing Home Volunteer - 110 hours - 120 projected over summer and the next year
Clinic Pharmacy Volunteer - 34 hours - 70 hours projected (Most of my job is working with patients to solve insurance issues, not filling prescriptions in the back)
Nonclinical volunteering:
Student-led Meal Assistance Organization - 160 hours (Promoted to paid research coordinator officer position after a year and a half)
Neuroscience Outreach and Student Mentoring group - 50 hours - 16 hours projected
Leadership:
Co-founded Undergraduate Journal Club, which now has 50+ members after a year: 110 hours - 100 projected
Shadowing:
84 hours with two physicians
16 hours rotating in a local Emergency Medicine Department
12 hours with Music Therapist
Research:
Biology research lab: 1000 hours - 300 hours projected
Student-led Meal Assistance Organization Research Coordinator: 500 hours - 480 hours projected (working there this summer) (second-author, first undergrad author publication about to be sent.... only mentioned briefly in-app)
2 fourth author publications from a short-term project I conducted with a course (not a big deal)
Hobbies:
Weightlifting: Listed ~500 hours - 300 hours projected
Choir: 180 hours - 180 projected (joining a second choir next year)
Bollywood Dance Team - 220 hours
Letters of Rec. One from the doctor I spent the most time shadowing, One from my research coordinator PI, one from PI who I worked with for the 2 publications, and 3 from professors I'm close with.

Can locals please recommend GOOD and reputable contractors in central Maine, north of Augusta area. We have several possible projects, but the most pressing is climate control. We bought a fixer upper last year. The baseboard heat isn’t getting the job done. Looking to add HVAC and ductwork. Thanks in advance!

“Hey Raz, I got one!” Raz’s voice was cut by static as he called back, “Great! …at quarry …die.” Well, that wasn’t ominous at all, I thought to myself as I adjusted the rear-view mirror to check on the operator I had just blown past. They were doubled over coughing, their gas mask swayed side to side on the ground next to their feet. I don’t know what compelled me to not flatten what I had thought to be an AQ soldier, but I’m glad I didn’t.
I slammed my hummer in reverse, coming to a stop next to the helpless operator. “Hop in bud, we can get you to final exfill yet.” He slowly hauled himself into the bed of my hummer, landing with a dull thud and a groan as he fell onto his back. We cleared the gas, and I was immediately put on edge as my passenger started to gain consciousness. If he was planning anything nefarious, there wasn’t much I could do about it now. “You good back there? Normally I’d stop to send an invite but given the situation that might have just caused more problems.” He leaned through the non-existent rear window, “Nah, I understand man. When we get further from the gas we can stop and squad up. Don’t need to risk lighting each other up if things get hot at the exfill.” I couldn’t help but chuckle, “I don’t think that would be much of an issue regardless. Hey, we didn’t leave any of your friends back there, did we? I know we peeled out pretty quick.” I saw him shake his head and point to our left in the rear-view mirror. “We got split up, but they were running for a car, so I wasn’t too worried.” I followed his finger, a white hatchback cruised along parallel to us, swerving through buildings trying not to eat too many AQ bullets. “Hey boys, Dutch here is gonna roll with us to final. We’ll squad up when we get there.” I was barely able to make out one of his squad mates call out “Tight!” over his earpiece.
“Hey, listen, I’ve got friend I’m rolling with. His name’s Raz, he’s gonna meet us at final. If you see a red, white, and blue LTV, don’t shoot alright.” Raz chimed in, his radio finally clear of the static, “That’s very kind of you to tell them not to shoot me Dutch.” Before I could respond, a black turreted LTV slid out of Said City ahead of us. “Is that your boy Dutch?” I wanted to give my passenger the benefit of the doubt, it is windy in the box after all, he might not have heard me. “Nah man, wrong colour, and he didn’t have a turreted LTV last I saw.” The black LTV continued North along the main road as we cut away into the quarry proper. “Raz, company is headed your way. Looks like it’s just a solo in that truck but you can never be too careful.” “Thanks for the heads up Dutch.”
I rolled to a stop at the base of the helicopter ramp, gently flattening a couple of AQ who were getting a little to close to the bird for comfort, just shy of the battery running dry. The other two operators in the hatchback slid to a stop just down the hill from us. I got out of the hummer, a tad worried that my good fortune was about to come to an end at the hands of these fellas. As they ran up the hill, the notification finally popped. I accepted and ran down the hill to grab the hatchback, breathing a sigh of relief. “Wait, where you goin’ Dutch?” One of my clients called out. “Raz and I will run interference while we wait for the chopper to take off. Any AQ or unfriendly operators are gonna have to go through us.” “You keep talking about this Raz guy, but I’ve yet to see anyone other than that black LTV.” Almost on queue, a black LTV flew up the hill narrowly missing my hatchback. My clients went into a frenzy. “Operators pushing us! Take ‘em down!” The LTV spun in the sand in front of me, a glorious and perfectly oiled moustache glinting in the Al Mazrah sun. “Hold your fire! It’s Raz!” I called from below my clients. I sent an invite to him which he had hopped out and accepted faster than any of these guys could pull the trigger. “You see the operator that was in that earlier?” Raz shook his head, “No, I pulled up on it and they were gone. Must be out on foot somewhere.”
With 5 seconds left on the clock, there wasn’t enough time to go find them, our clients now panicking as they realized we weren’t on the bird. “What are you two doing?!” They shouted from the air as we waved goodbye. “Al Mazrah is our home gentlemen. That bird was never meant for us.” I gave Raz a pat on the shoulder as the gas rapidly approached, another successful day had come to a close.
The clack of a Kastov charging handle was almost unmistakable. We both turned to see the operator from the LTV standing there, rifle honed on us. “Well shit.” Their rifle dropped towards the dirt as they looked back over their shoulder at the nearly out of sight exfill chopper. They pushed through us, wandering towards the North side of the quarry. Raz and I locked eyes, shrugging in unison. That was one of those moments where we really wouldn’t have blamed them for their decision, whatever it might have been. “We better get back to HQ, Compton said I.T dropped off something for you.” Raz said as the gas engulfed us.
“I’m going back to the island boss.” My hands were shaking as I gripped the file folder that I.T had left for me. “Twitch.” “He’s back, it took him a bit, but he’s managed to re-take the castle and hunker down since we last saw him. And if he’s back then we might finally be able to get some proper intel on those blue tracers, direct from the source.” I handed the folder to Raz. He took it, turning to no doubt address the rest of the crew. I grabbed his shoulder, stopping him before he could speak. “Not everybody, not this time. They’ve doubled the defences; we’d be walking into a slaughterhouse.” “Well, you can’t go in there alone, we look out for our own Dutch, you know that.” Raz’s brow tightened, I could tell he was already trying to figure out what my plan was. “I’m bringing Maze and Alex. They’ll provide sniper cover while I infiltrate the castle. I still have my old uniform. As long as they haven’t drastically changed up their callsigns, I should be able to get in undetected.” I could tell Raz wasn’t convinced. “Dutch, like you said, you’d be walking into a slaughterhouse. How does you going in solo make that any better.” “After what happened in the complex…I’m not putting anyone else at risk, I can’t. The Bomb Maker…Twitch, I’ve gotta face him myself. Look him in the eyes so he knows I crawled out of Hell to drag him back down there.” “Alright, I couldn’t really stop you if I wanted to, could I?” Raz shrugged. “No, not unless you shot me, and honestly, I’d take those odds.” I punched his shoulder and started heading for the breakroom to grab Maze and Alex. “You keep that up I’ll be moving you back out to that sea can of yours.” Raz smirked.
The locks took a bit of fighting to get open. While this footlocker had only been on Ashika Island for a few months, the constant spray of salt water had worn away what little integrity it once had. The black uniform, emblazoned with the Rook and Spade of Shadow Company, was still in excellent condition, save for a bullet hole just under where the plate carrier would sit. I paused for a moment, holding it up in the air, memories of the past flooding in. “Not a lot of fond memories in that uniform I take it.” Maze called out from the catwalk in our home away from home. “I think part of the problem is that there are good memories. It’s a little concerning that such fond memories can hide out amongst so much evil.” “We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of. Some of us just did things other people also wouldn’t be proud of either.” Alex chuckled to himself as he cleaned his rifle on the cot next to me. I grimaced, mostly because he was right. I slipped into the old black fatigues and strapped on my old plate carrier. My weapons were all still intact too, I pulled my Taq-56 out of the footlocker, running my fingers over the engraving in the side, ROOK-XLIV. I cycled the charging handle a few times before loading in a fresh magazine and setting it on the cot next to me. I pulled out a pistol belt, two pearl handled revolvers, one with an ebony Rook on the grip, the other, an ebony Spade. Umbra Catavae engraved along each barrel. Maze had come down from the rafters now, a look of mixed intrigue and concern on her face, “I take it those don’t invoke fond memories.” I had done a poor job of hiding my look of disgust. “No, unfortunately they do.” I felt a wave of guilt wash over me. “Each of these was given to me for completing outstanding performance in the field. I did things I’m not proud of, and I was rewarded for it, handsomely. Holding these in my hands, I feel the same pride I had felt when they were first handed to me. It makes me sick.” I strapped the belt around my waist. The pearl handles shining against my all black silhouette. Alex piped up again, “Hey, at least you are trying to make amends for your sins, not many can say the same.” I let out a long sigh, “I suppose you’re right. You both remember the plan?” “Get to the radio towers and start lighting the place up when shit inevitably hits the fan.” Maze grinned. “Close enough.” I pulled my balaclava up and headed for the door.
The guard at the gate didn’t immediately shoot me which gave me some spark of hope that this might work. “In position!” Alex and Maze called out almost simultaneously. “Jinx, you owe me a beer!” Maze rejoiced. “What? Why would I give you a beer for that?” Alex sounded genuinely confused. “Hey, cut the chatter you two, don’t need to give them any reason to not let me in alright.” The guard held up his hand. “I don’t recognize you, let’s see your I.D.” I held up my old I.D card. “Well I’ll be damned, look who crawled out if his grave.” He pulled my mask down to confirm. “You look pretty good for a corpse, though your I.D card is out of regulation. You might want to stop by the I.T guy to get a new one made.” “Thanks, I’ll head right over.” The first thought that came to my mind was Bob. There’s no way he still worked for these assholes, is there.
“You used your old I.D?! You mad man!” Maze cackled over the radio. “Ok, I’ll admit, this wasn’t my greatest plan. I honestly thought they’d just capture me after seeing who I was.” Alex cut me off, “Go with the flow I suppose.” “Spade-499 up one-two.” The local radio channel began to drown out my squad’s comms. “Rook-3468 down one-one” “This is some odd radio traffic Dutch.” Alex quipped. I watched as a Shadow Company mercenary approached a stairwell, each step primed and ready to pop a leg off whichever unfortunate soul chose to ascend. “Spade-5454 up one-two.” “It’s how they know to deactivate the traps.” I whispered into our secure line. I approached the same stairwell. “Rook-44 up one-two.” I could hear the traps audibly click off. The guard at the to put his hand out as I reached the top step. “Sorry, no ghosts allowed on the second floor.” “Ghost? What…” He bent over laughing. “I’m just messing with you man. They said you died holding off the ULF while Bob and Twitch escaped, going out in a blaze of glory. Clearly, they didn’t have their facts straight. Glad to have you back.” I’m glad I had the balaclava on because I was struggling to hide my confusion. Last I checked I was the scape goat for the largest backstab in Shadow Company history, not a hero. I was never a hero when I worked for them. “I take it you are going to see the boss, call up two-zero, we don’t want people to be just guess on the fly, just in case someone tries to sneak in.” If only he knew.
“We don’t have eyes up there Dutch. Whatever happens, you’re on your own.” I could hear a tinge of worry in Alex’s voice. “Just make sure whoever is in here doesn’t get reinforcements.” “You got it!” Alex and Maze both called out in unison. “Jinx, you owe me another beer.” “There’s free beer at headquarters, why would I owe you a beer for that.” Alex called back clearly still confused. “Radio silence please. I’ve got a rat to kill.” I took a deep breath, pulling my Bryson from its sheath, the chrome exterior brushed over with a dull grey to blend in. “Rook-44 up two-zero.”
“Well, well, well. I was wondering when I’d see you again after our last encounter. Urzikstan and Al Mazrah clearly hadn’t kicked your ass enough so you decided to come crawling back to me for another round.” The traps clicked off. “Come on up, I’ve been looking forward to this.” I slowly ascended, keeping my Bryson trained at the top of the stairs, my eyes scanning each stair for an actual trap. As I crested the stairwell, my eyes were immediately drawn to him. His back turned to me, Trophy Systems whirring and clicking around him. “I missed you Dutch. Well, the old you. The one that would shoot through a hostage just to prove a point, the one that would dangle captives from buildings by their collar until they squawked like a bird, and then still dropped them anyways. I miss the Dutch that smoked Keller because his gas mask worked and yours didn’t when we those crazy Russian’s tried to hit us with mustard gas. I still get a little nauseous when I think about you peeling his face out of there.” “I’ve changed Twitch, I’ve moved past all that. I found a calling that doesn’t require me to be a conniving bastard.” Twitch laughed as he turned around, his hands empty. I kept my Bryson trained on him. “That’s what you think I am huh? I prefer shrewd businessman, but if that’s what helps you sleep at night.” He walked to one of the barred windows. “You really think what you and those taxi driving hooligans are doing matters?” “Clearly it does, or you and the Chemist wouldn’t be working so hard to sabotage us.” I took a few steps towards him. “Well, I suppose it matters to one of us. The Chemist and Raz go way back, but you know that. What I care about is the money, and I get a lot of money for helping that crazy bastard try to wipe out your little band of Merry Men.” “And Women. This guy just loves the sound of his own voice. Can I remove his head already? He’s looking right at me, practically begging me to pull the trigger.” I could hear the contempt in Maze’s voice. Twitch always did love a monologue. “You can still fix your mistakes Twitch. Gives us what info you have on those tracers of yours and I might consider not killing you.” I snarled. “When you went soft Dutch, you lost any respect I might have had for you. We are long past the point where you can intimidate me. Besides, any info I did have, is with the Chemist. He paid a handsome sum to get the formula, and really, it was becoming a logistical nightmare to ship enough of those little blue gems across the sea. Better for everyone to have it made close to the front lines.”
“Spade-101 up two-zero.” Bob’s voice cut through the tension. “Well I’ll be, it looks like we are gonna have a little family reunion.” Bob’s head poked up the stairs, “Hey boss, another server bank has shorted out from the sea air, I told you we should invest in better waterproofing the housings but if you still…” He trailed off as I dropped my Bryson, the sling catching it just before it hit the ground, and drawing my two revolvers. “Oh, hey Dutch. Nice to see you too.” Bob stammered. I cocked the hammer on each one, keeping one trained on each of my old squad mates. “Really Bob? Really! I understand you sticking around the day of the heist. But now? After everything that Shadow Company has done to these countries. To its own people.” Before he could respond, a siren blared over the intercom system. “Defensive positions! Hostile operators have breached the perimeter.” “Dutch you’ve got six operators approaching the castle, I think it’s time to bounce.” Maze was drowned out by her own gun fire, her Signal .50 raining death into the courtyard. “Looks like our time is up here Dutch. Since you clearly don’t have los cojones to pull the trigger, you might as well see yourself out, and let me and my men handle this.”
“Fuck it.” The hammer of the first revolver slammed down, dropping Bob instantly. I turned to face Twitch, his face a mix of surprise and pride. “Maybe I was wrong, the old Dutch still lives.” I charged forward, tackling him through the window and off the roof. Both of us lay on the ground, groaning as the chorus of gunfire roared around us. He dove for one of my pistols, but unfortunately for him, I had managed to hold on to the other, putting a round through his arm just before he could grab the gun. He rolled out of the way of the second round, bringing his one working hand up to the radio on his chest. The explosion from the castle threw both of us across the courtyard, debris raining down around us. I felt like I was reliving one of the worst days of my life all over again. I hauled myself to my feet, Shadow Company mercenaries and operators wandered aimlessly through the ashes. Everyone seemed too disoriented to fight. “I think it’s time to leave Dutch.” “I second that.” Maze and Alex were barely audible over the ringing in my ears. “Regroup at the boat. If I’m not there in 5, go without me.” I never heard a response, even if they tried, they wouldn’t have convinced me to leave, not with him still breathing.
I combed through the smoke and fire, carefully checking every nook and cranny I came across but the slippery rat was nowhere to be seen. “Looks like you 3 aren’t thick as thieves after all, eh Dutch. Poor Alex here was left all alone on the beach, no boat to be seen.” Twitch was sucking in air between words, no doubt kept standing by adrenaline. “You lay a finger on him, and I’ll make you wish you had died in that explosion.” I spat into my mic. “Don’t make me wait too long.”
I limped over a hill towards the beach where we were supposed to regroup. “Alex! Where’s Maze?” I called out as I stumbled down the sand bank. Alex didn’t respond, his head held in a tight headlock by Twitch, my second pistol against his temple. “She abandoned you both, and now I get the pleasure of killing you both after yet another betrayal. When will you learn Dutch. This world is a cruel place. Only the strong survive, clearly Maze knew that.” Twitch cut me off before I could retort. “Save the fight me with honour B.S that I know you are gonna spew.” I’m gonna kill you and your buddy and salvage what little I can of this operation. Then maybe retire to Cuba. I do love a good cigar.” “Adios, pendejo!” Alex brought his arm down, the knife concealed in his hand connecting with Twitch’s thigh. Twitch let out a high-pitched yelp, letting loose a round from the revolver which narrowly grazed Alex’s hair. Alex dove into the sand right as Twitch’s shoulder exploded in a pink mist followed shortly by the unmistakable crack of Maze’s Signal .50. I squinted trying to see where the shot came from, all I caught was the glint from her scope in the sun, the boat hardly visible in the rolling surf.
I limped forward, Bryson in hand, chrome starting to show through the worn grey paint. I kicked the revolver away from Twitch, placing a boot on his chest and the barrel of my Bryson against his forehead. He began to mumble and cry, hardly able to string together an understandable sentence. “Save it, you’re gonna need your energy for what comes next.” Our boat slammed into the shore, Maze hopping off, rifle raised and ready. “Oh shit I actually hit that!” “I’m not gonna lie, I thought you’d actually just bailed.” I laughed as she helped Alex to his feet. “You still go those claymores?” I asked Maze as Twitch continued to writhe in panic under my boot. “You wanted the old Dutch, eh Twitch. Ask and you shall receive.” Maze handed me the claymores, while Alex kept sidearm pointed at Twitch. I planted 4 around him, just far enough away that they wouldn’t go off unless he moved. I drew one of my revolvers, popping the cylinder out and emptying all but one round. I gave the cylinder a spin before flicking it closed. I tossed the revolver at Twitch. “Don’t waste that on me. You’ll only regret it in about an hour.” I took my other revolver, and hurled it towards the sea, the pearl grip glinting in the sun as it spun through the air, disappearing into the crashing waves. “Good riddance.” I sighed, that chapter of my life finally ended. Twitch was silent, his whimpering now just deep, laboured breathing. I turned back before I stepped onto the boat, watching as his hand slowly moved to the pistol in the sand next to him. “Well played Dutch, well played.”

I just moved to the UK and received a lowball offer by an employer (we have known each other for more than 10 years in our previous company. He was the MD of London office while I worked in the Singapore office).
He invited me to work with him and gave me a lowballed offer. The salary he offers me was my pay 10 years ago!
If I accept this role just to get my foot in the UK market to gain local UK experience, and then move on to another job if a better job comes by, will accepting this lowball offer affect my future prospects?

I lived in Jax and Lakeland in the 90s until I was a teen then moved to Ga. I have recently moved back and secured two regular W2 jobs but I have to wait until my background checks come back to start and obviously it’ll be a couple weeks until I get a check.
Apart from Uber are there any other options that could help with daily income until I get paid? I have some savings but it’ll run out in a few days after paying for our hotel ❤️‍🩹 and I don’t wanna borrow money or get a loan if I don’t have too
Thank you so much!

Welcome to all GMs and AGMs to this years' edition of the /hockey annual offseason sim!

Spreadsheets

I will be personally editing all the spreadsheets, keeping them updated throughout the sim and they can all be found on the sidebar as well as in the chat channel.

• Rosters
  
• General (Draft, RFA/UFA Lists, Trades, Depth Charts)
  

Please message sandman730 if anything is incorrect or you wish to make changes on your roster sheet.

Tentative Sim Schedule

Mon. June 12th - Sim Discord Invites
Thu. June 15th - Sim Begins and Rosters Frozen (2pm ET)
Sun. June 18th - Deadline for GMs to Submit Plans (2pm ET)
Mon. June 19th - Trade Period Begins (2pm ET) (Provided GMs have an Approved Plan)
Mon. June 19th - Buyout Period Begins (2pm ET)
Thu. June 22nd - Deadline to Submit Trades Involving Players/Prospects for the NHL Draft (8pm ET)
Fri. June 23rd - NHL Draft Rounds 1-3 (8pm ET)
Sat. June 24th - NHL Draft Rounds 4-7 (2pm ET) (No Trades Allowed)
Sat. June 24th - Last Chance to Place Players on Waivers for a Buyout (2pm ET)
Sun. June 25th - Deadline for Qualifying Offers (5pm ET)
Sun. June 25th - Buyout Period Ends (5pm ET)
Sun. June 25th - Last Chance for Clubs to Sign UFAs to an 8 Year SPC (11:59pm ET)
Mon. June 26th - Free Agency Roster Freeze (12pm ET) (Discussion allowed, but no moves finalized)
Thu. June 29th - Free Agency Begins (12pm ET)
Wed. July 12th - Qualifying Offers Expire (5pm ET)
Thu. August 3rd - Waiver Window Opens (2pm ET)
Fri. August 11th - Last Chance to Place Players on Waivers (2pm ET)
Sat. August 12th - Rosters Due (5pm ET)
Sun. August 13th - End of Sim (Reviewing Rosters/Making Recaps/Etc.)
Google Calendar

CBA

For information about the cap and CBA, read this post and feel free to ask sandman730 any questions.

IRL Moves

Since we are in sim-mode, IRL moves do not apply to the sim, except for five key exceptions:

1. Players retiring (if they retire IRL, they're out of the sim and cannot be signed),
   
2. Player suspensions (ex: Slava Voynov),
   
3. Transactions involving a foreign professional entering NHL,
   
4. An NHL player signing in another league (ex: Liiga),
   
5. Players being placed on long-term injured reserve.
   

Regarding the 3rd point, if the player announces he is officially returning to the NHL or he signs IRL with an NHL team, then he is available to sign. Until then, he cannot be signed.
Coach hirings/firings, AHL contracts, relocation, etc. are not part of this sim.

Keep it Realistic

You can't be perfect since plenty of teams could go many ways. If your team is clearly rebuilding, you should continue to rebuild and help the process.
Try not to acquire guys just for the purpose of flipping them later. We're not outright banning it since it happens IRL sometimes, but it's super uncommon, especially for bigger names. Rebuilding teams rarely take cap dumps to help out other teams in exchange for late round picks. If it is a fair trade, it can still be accepted. There will need to be incentive for teams to acquire cap dumps. Don't include unnecessary pieces or trade picks too far out (trading picks after 2024 will require a compelling reason). Don't trade the rights to retired players.
We are asking each GM for an initial offseason plan. This plan includes basic things like which direction the team is headed this summer, but with slightly more detail such as whether they will hope to pursue more options via trades or free agency, how they will deal with their cap space (or lack thereof), etc. You will not be able to sign or trade anyone until your plans are submitted and approved. If you wish to amend your plan, submit it via mod mail, including your reasoning for the amendment.
[GM Plan Form]()
Throughout free agency, the mod team will reach out to GMs to see if they are changing their plans due to transactions that have taken place in the sim (i.e. missing out on free agents, changes in the trade market, etc.).
THIS NOT FANTASY HOCKEY, DO NOT TREAT THIS AS FANTASY HOCKEY OR NHL 23 BE A GM

Trades

We realize GMs want to be more active than their real-life counterparts but we will be pretty strict on allowing trades in the sim. When you submit a trade or signing, both parties must send the trade in to the office of the commissioner (via mod mail). You also must include a justification as to why the trade makes sense for your party including how it will affect the cap, lineup and future roster decisions. Please use the below template. All players, picks, additional terms, rights to players, and salary retention amounts must be specified and identical in both parties' submissions.
Before making a trade, we encourage you to find multiple comparable trades which will convince us that the trade is realistic. Please do not compare each trade to the Matt Duchene to Ottawa trade and say "Well, it's more realistic than that one".
We will do our best to announce the trades right away as they come in. Do not post pending trades in other threads until they are posted. Please allow us at least 24 hours to approve trades and for graphics to be prepared.
Try not to blow your load, especially on the first day. Be patient, especially with trades. Just try. You'll thank us later. Those who follow this advice usually will find incredible bargains and can take advantage of other GM's mistakes.

Trade Submission Template

We would like teams to use the following template when submitting trades to ensure all relevant information is included.
Team A receives:
Team B receives:
Corresponding moves: (players sent down, called up, or put on waivers; answer "none" if not applicable)
Cap/salary implications:
Goal:
Justification:
Comparables:
Other options pursued:
Long-term implications:
I certify that I own the assets I am trading away; my team remains roster & cap compliant; I have complied with any no-trade lists; etc.

Example

NYR receives: Tyler Motte
WPG receives: 2023 4th Round Pick (WPG)
Corresponding moves: None
Cap/salary implications: The Rangers can take the remainder of Motte's $1,225,000 cap hit.
Goal: The Rangers are looking to add depth for a playoff push. The Canucks are looking to acquire future assets for a player on an expiring contract.
Justification: The Rangers are solidly in a playoff position and are looking to buy at the deadline. Motte can fill a 4th line role.
Comparables: SEA traded Mason Appleton to WPG for a 2023 4th before the 2022 TDL. MTL traded Nick Cousins to VGK for a 2021 4th before the 2020 TDL.
Other options pursued: The Rangers also tried to acquire Derick Brassard and Vladislav Namestnikov, but were unable to make a deal work.
Long-term implications: The Rangers are willing to give up a mid-round pick to add depth now.
I certify that I own the assets I am trading away; my team remains roster & cap compliant; I have complied with any no-trade lists; etc.

No-Trade/No-Movement Clauses

These will be handled by TBD. If you wish to trade a player with a No-Trade or No-Movement Clause, you must message them, requesting a list of teams a player can or cannot be traded to, or if a player would be willing to waive his No-Movement Clause. Please give them at least 24 hours to fulfill such requests.

Trading UFA Rights

We have tried this in the past and some agents felt obligated to have the UFA sign in the city that acquired the players' rights. We feel it would be best if every team gets a fair chance so this year we will NOT be allowing trading for UFA rights. This will also hopefully lead to fewer trades and more UFA signings.
Additionally, we will not allow you to sign and trade UFAs or pending UFAs.

Conditional Picks

You cannot trade picks with conditions, with some exceptions:

• Lottery protection
• Higheloweetc. of multiple picks in a given round
• Settling scenarios based on previous trade conditions

We realize it happens in real life, but it is hard to track from experience and hopefully it will cut down on the amount of unnecessary trade conditions.

Unfair Value

To avoid exploitation and chaos in the trade market, we sometimes need to step in to preserve the sim's integrity. This may be somewhat subjective, so the trade committee will discuss and vote on most trades. Your trade will go through more smoothly if you provide ample justification and can offer comparable trades. Some common issues include:

• Undervaluing cap space or salary - Since there is no real money involved in this simulation and no accountability to owners or future cap issues, people can undervalue these assets. Please provide examples of comparable trades.
• Undervaluing future draft picks - Similarly, since there is no accountability within the sim for these assets, unnecessarily adding late draft picks or too high draft picks can be problematic. Again, provide examples of comparable trades.
• Differing opinions on the value of players or prospects - These usually will go through, but may require further explanation.

Vetoes

sandman730, meatb4ll, and TBD are gonna be the “veto panel” and we are gonna take it very seriously. If the vote is unanimous 3-0 either way, then we will accept/reject the trade or signing. If it is 2-1 either way, then we will ask TBD for their opinions and votes. We will then come to a decision with the majority winning. There are a number of reasons why a trade or signing may be vetoed by the trade committee:

• Violates the CBA (ex: puts a team over the contract limit)
• Involves NTCs (i.e., the player would block the trade)
• Puts a team over the cap or roster limit (or under the floor), without them having a clear plan for how to get back under (or over)
• Violates other house rules (ex: trading UFAs)
• Unrealistic (see above)
• Unfair value (see above)
• Goes against their plan (or goes too far all-in on either the present or future)

meatb4ll will communicate veto decisions and discussions.

Entry Draft

Rounds 1-3 of the draft will take place on the chat channel on Fri. June 23rd at 8pm ET. We kindly ask that everyone attends this in the chat since it will go a lot smoother not having to wait for GMs and it is one of the most exciting parts of the sim in terms of trades and activity. This is the one day we hope to have all GMs and AGMs alike participate since we require your cooperation. Draft day trades involving players/prospects must be submitted 24 hours before the start of the draft (Thu. June 22nd at 8pm ET). Trades made during the draft (involving draft picks) must be submitted via DM to the commissioners.
On Sat. June 24th at 2pm ET, we will host Rounds 4-7 for those who would like to participate. It is not mandatory, you will just be auto-picked if you don’t show up. There will not be any trading allowed for this portion of the draft.
If a GM cannot make it either night, you are welcome to appoint an AGM to draft for the team, submit a custom auto-draft list, or respect our auto-draft list (Bob McKenzie, then Future Considerations). Please confirm this via mod mail or (if mid-draft) via DM to the commissioners.
Please make your selections as promptly as possible to ensure the draft runs smoothly for everyone. Do not delay your selection to make a meme/image (you are welcome to post them afterwards). We will allow 2 min per selection for Rounds 1-3 and 1 min for Rounds 4-7. Each team will be allowed a 2 min timeout (one per team). We also will take a brief intermission (~10 min) between rounds.
If you wish to draft players not listed on the Elite Prospects Draft Board, you must petition the commissioners via mod mail before the start of the draft.

Qualifying Offers

GMs will need to submit a list of who they are sending Qualifying Offers to, among RFAs, and who they are letting test free agency (becoming UFAs). We will have a thread for this and they will be due by Sun. June 25th at 5pm ET (don’t pull a Dale Tallon). If you have further questions about this process, read about it in the CBA post and message a commissioner or leave a comment if you have further questions.

Free Agency

We will have 3 RFA agents and 4 UFA agents who have chosen the clients they will represent. Not every RFA/UFA will need an agent and you can find the lists on the spreadsheet, but generally, if the player played 15+ NHL games last season, he will require an agent. For the rest of the RFAs (those marked "Commissioners"), if they were qualified both in the sim and IRL, we will wait until they get an IRL contract and match it in the sim; if they were only qualified in the sim, they will be signed for their qualifying offers. For the rest of the UFAs, message the commissioners (via mod mail) with a contract offer. Please include a justification as to why the signing makes sense for your party including, for GMs, how it will affect the cap, lineup and future roster decisions. Please use the below template.
When both a GM and agent have come to a finalized deal, both sides need to submit the contract offer to the mods (via mod mail).
This contract offer must include the cap hit, term, any no-trade clauses, and any performance bonuses. Please keep it realistic as it could cause a domino effect when using comparables.
There will be the possibility for offer sheets, however, right now we are not sure the best way to determine who the player would actually pick. Ideas are encouraged. That being said, it’s more likely a player would choose a contender, hometown, long contract, good place in the lineup, or high salary rather than just picking at random. We also want to mention how rare offer sheets are in real life.
Agents have been sworn under the Oath of Bettman that they will be honest, realistic, and of course fun.
NHL CBA contract rules apply (more information here). Signing a player in free agency and then trading the player is prohibited.

Signing Submission Template

We would like teams to use the following template when submitting signing to ensure all relevant information is included.
Team:
Player:
Year(s):
AAV:
Other clauses: (NTC/NMC, performance bonuses, etc.; answer "none" if not applicable)
Corresponding moves: (players sent down, called up, or put on waivers; answer "none" if not applicable)
Cap/salary implications:
Goal:
Justification:
Comparables:
Other options pursued:
Long-term implications:
I certify that my team remains roster & cap compliant.

Example

Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
Player: Jack Roslovic
Year(s): 2
AAV: $4,000,000
Other clauses: None
Corresponding moves: None
Cap/salary implications: The Blue Jackets still have ~$22.8M in cap space for 2022-23, which should be sufficient for our needs.
Goal: The Blue Jackets are looking to keep a local player who has played well for the team.
Justification: While Roslovic had an excellent 2020-21 season, he regressed in 2021-22. A short term deal allows him to demonstrate that he can continue to be a valuable player without hamstringing us with a burdensome contract should he underperform.
Comparables: Ryan Spooner signed with NYR for 2yr x $4M in the 2018 offseason. Chris Tierney signed with OTT for 2yr x $3.5M in the 2020 offseason. Ryan Strome signed with NYR for 2yr x $4.5M in the 2020 offseason.
Other options pursued: None, Roslovic was a RFA that we wished to keep.
Long-term implications: While this contract will walk Roslovic to UFA status, we hope that he continues to perform well and we are able to sign a more long-term extension with him once Voracek's contract is off our books.
I certify that my team remains roster & cap compliant.

Extensions

Players with one year remaining on a multi-year contract are also eligible for extensions. We are allowing each team to extend one such player, provided the AAV is over $6M. Message the Commissioners (via mod mail) with a competitive offer, and an explanation for why you want to extend the player.

GM vs Assistant GM

The GM is the one who makes the final decisions and who other GMs should message. You are encouraged to speak to anyone including Assistants, but for trades and updates on where they stand, please contact the GMs. The assistants are here to serve as a second opinion, fill in on things the GM might have made unclear, and ultimately serve as backups in case the GM needs to be replaced, for example on draft day.

Respect

PLAY NICE. If people act like dicks in trade/FA negotiations, particularly in agreeing to something and then going back on their word, PM the admins and we'll take care of it. Repeat offenders will get removed from the sim. Racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry will not be tolerated. No politics.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or DM any commissioner. If we need to clarify some things, we will do so.

25F here with 18K CC debt, 14K of student loans and 27K on car note. I have a great job and live in a fairly affordable city (Fort Worth, TX). My loan payments for Student Loan and Car amount to just under $900 a month, and may take home pay is about $4K. I do get a quarterly bonus of $2,500 before tax and this year plan to put all that money toward CC debt. About a year ago is when I had to get the car and since then my CC debt has gotten out of control even though my income went up significantly during that time. With loan payments and CC minimums getting taken out monthly, along with rent and utilities of about $1250 I just feel like I’m completely drowning. I feel like no matter what I do, that CC amount is just going to slowly creep higher and higher.
I’ve come to the realization that the reason I am in this hell hole of credit card debt is simple—I’m addicted to shopping. Little trips to stores like Home Goods, Target, Ulta/Sephora and local antique stores have left me in a position where I just feel completely hopeless. I hate that I’ve wasted all this money, time and energy on STUFF. Even when I push myself to do no buy for a week, I end up ordering something on Amazon or pick up something from Target and justify it as necessary to maintain our house (I rent a 2 story apt with my boyfriend, it takes SO MUCH to keep the place clean).
I grew up with divorced parents who were always one upping each other. I just saw my parents spend and spend on things, buying new instead of replacing, and I just assumed as an adult I could do the same. My parents definitely used buying as a way of showing affection. I never felt like I needed to budget because in the past I always had savings and was able to pay off my cards. Something switched this last year though and I am treading water.
My plan of action is to go completely no buy on clothes and beauty products through the end of this year (I have sooo much unused makeup) and try to attack the CC’s. I already have my $1,000 emergency fund but will keep adding $50 each week there. I want to have $5k in case of job loss or other emergencies. For my CC’s I am trying to pay $500 a month and throw all of my quarterly bonuses at it. I also do catering events on the side on weekends and can bring in an extra $600 a month at most to help.
It’s crazy to me that I’m in this situation so young, but I know I can get out of it. Realistically I think I can pay off the credit cards in 18 months while continuing to pay my loan amounts. I just need some encouragement as I work through the realization of my situation. Right now my net worth is -$9K, but if I can hit all my financial goals in 13. months I’d be looking at a net worth of about $20K. I look at my financial year from when promotions happen at my job (April 31st 2023-April 31st 2024). I expect my yearly salary to increase by $5-8K at that time next year and hope to only have $5K of the CC debt left at that time.
This group is amazing and we are in this together!

I've already got good experience (about 6 years working with PPC, and I work on one of the biggest e-commerces of latin america, managing >1million dolars/month)
I'm paid Well in our local currency (about 3k dolars/month) so I think there is little perspective to win more While working for a Brazilian company, but I could probably Take a big step forward if I manage to gain in dollars or euros.
From your experience, is thie belief correct? Are there Jobs posts paying on euros/dollars that would allow me to work remotely from Brazil?
How would you guys approach looking for these companies?
I'm fluent in portuguese (naturally), and have advanced English and spanish

Right now I (31F) am stuck in a dead end office job. I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in Fine Art back in 2018 with goals of going into art direction/graphic design. Due to covid and other factors I ended up in a dead end office job going on 3 years now. I don't make much money but the job is stable and has benefits, which is why I have stuck around for so long. At this point I don't even want to pursue my original goal of going into graphic design as a career, I feel like that dream has died and it's no longer for me.
There's a program at the local community college that allows people with bachelor's degrees to become licensed teachers, and I have been thinking a lot about teaching art, particularly at the high school level.
From what I've heard lately all over the internet and from teachers that I know, is that the profession is no longer worth it with today's wild kids and poor support from administration. I want to get more opinions from real teachers currently teaching, whether it's art or something else at the high school level. Teaching is something I have always considered since I was younger and have been told by many people that I'm good at teaching (like when training new hires, and tutoring work that I've done) and while teaching is never going to make me rich, it does pay decently more than I currently make.
Please give your honest thoughts on the current teaching landscape.

Hi Reddit.
Please Help: I think my small town does their own secret background check. Please read this post with the theme song to Twin Peaks in your head.
10 years ago, I found out my husband (a minister) was on drugs and selling it in our very small town, population about 1,000. I was stupid to think the cars stopping in front of my place where looking at how cute my house was. No, No, they were there to buy drugs. I caught him selling it one day when I forgot my purse and had to quickly turn around to get it. Anyway, he works for a very large prominent business here in the area..
The first job I applied to after raising my kid and finding out I'd be on my own (was a sahm), I was hired and everything was falling into place to start work in a week. Processing ebay listings for a large local business. They were just waiting on my background check. two days after I submitted my information for the background check, this business completely ghosted me. I tried calling them to get info on what time to show up and they wouldn't even answer the phone. They blocked my phone number, it rang and rang no matter how many times I called. I never heard from them again. I didn't care enough to march down there and demand an answer. I was honestly all set to start. I should have demanded a reason.
Second. Applied for work at the college in my town. I would be working with the chief of police's wife and one other woman. Again, when they ran the background check and the two women I worked with completely changed tunes and began acting scared of me, talking in whispers around me. I did get the job, though, but it was only part time. They always kept their distance from me.
I finally found work at another company 1hour and 15 min away in the nearest big city, background check and everything, no problems. I still work there and love it . I also volunteer, and passed that background check just fine. That involved every type of legit background check there is.
Fast forward to today. My kid is now a teenager. He applied for a job at a local store. They LOVED him and begged him to work there because he's smart and good with people, hard working. He worked last summer at a different business and they loved him. He started work at the new place, but he needed to do a background check within two weeks after starting.
The woman who was in charge there began acting like she was scared of my ex-husband and I when we went to sign some papers for the kid. The manager's voice was inexplicably very nervous. It was so odd. My son noticed before I said anything. "Mom why was she so scared of you guys?) She pretended so many times to fumble with the background check; she asked my son if it was possible that he shared a name with another family member. No, he has a unique name. The manager kept pretending to fumble so much with that background check, stalling. Well, after he had worked there 4 weeks, they inexplicably fired him. the manager lied and said I had refused to sign the background check authorization form, but she never told me to check my email, or that it was even being sent! They also made up another complete lie about something he did, which would be video. I did a search in my gmail after the fact, and I had the email in the inbox from 1 week before he was fired. They had been fumbling with that background check for 3 weeks. One other thing, is a few days before he was fired, they changed his schedule overnight in the app that does the scheduling. It appears they were trying every which way to find a way to fire him, but decided against that one.
I know that small town people can be weird and awkward, and this whole thing might boil down to me being a race that isn't white and everyone in this town is white, but I just wondered:
Have you ever heard of a secret or private, small town "background check" that involves some key prominent businesses who know things about people that wouldn't be on a background check? I KNOW my son doesn't have a record, and I KNOW I don't (I passed an extensive volunteer background check recently).
Thanks in advance!

Bit of background for myself:
Started in IT in 2019 at an MSP doing helpdesk, gained a bunch of experience in the 18 months I was there and then went to internal IT. Better money although still the same service desk job title, I was told given it was a small IT team, I was offered so much flexibility and could do any work/project if I was up to it.
Disaster struck in the form of a cyber attack, and it was decided we'd replace all on-prem infrastructure with cloud based alternatives, I lead the Intune roll-out to 300 Win 10 devices, a little over 200 users. We had a 3rd party support contract but I only ended up contacting them for assistance twice (for best practice advice, and they confirmed I was doing things the right way), and the project was complete in little over 6 weeks. It was a fairly vanilla setup, nothing too special.
I recently got made a job offer at a much larger (local govt organisation) to be their go-to senior technician for anything Intune/AAD related. Despite feeling under qualified & way under experience, they offered me the job and I accepted, on what I feel is incredible pay compared to previous jobs. I start tomorrow, and I'm seriously worrying about being well out of my depth. The device count & user count is 10x larger than my previous job, and is multi tenanted so the configs aren't as vanilla as the one's I've set-up previously.
Any advice is really appreciated, whether on a technical or personal basis. I really want to make this work as the workplace offers so many benefits it would be a huge shame to waste such an opportunity.
Thanks for listening folks.