Miss marple the moving finger cast

A lot of people here seem to think cast iron woks are bad for stir fries because they’re too thick for responsiveness and too heavy for tossing. If you look at a traditional Chinese wood-fire stove in the countryside, you’ll see a thick and heavy cast iron wok. High heat capacity is needed here because the fire is weak and unstable. These woks also don’t have handles. They’re never moved during cooking. I think for weak western stoves cast iron woks are perfectly fine for most types of cooking. like this

Obtained by talking to Wekapipo with $50000 and a Wrecking Ball.
[Passive A]: Steel Ball Ammo
The user has 5 Wrecking Balls and certain moves require the use of the steel balls. When the steel balls are used, they will slowly spin on the ground and rotate back towards the user replenishing their “ammo", the user can also manually walk over to them and pick them up and instead of just waiting for the balls to automatically return.
[Passive B]: Spin Charge
The user has a bar which they can fill up by holding (G), the bar will slowly decrease by 2% every second if (G) is not being held or an attack hasn't been used in the past 3 seconds. Whenever the bar is filled up, each 1% of it filled up gives the user a 0.35% attack boost and when it's over 50%, a 20% increase in the AOE shockwaves range, and gives extra effects to some moves and when it's over 75%, it increases the duration of Left Side Ataxia by 35%.
[Passive C]: Satellites
If the user's Wrecking balls hits another projectile, both will stop mid air and the 10 satellites on the steel balls will fire out towards the original destination of the steel ball. If the Wrecking Ball misses, it will land on the floor and still fire out satellites, however, the satellites will have higher spread making it harder to hit. This does 1 damage and slight knockback and if the target is hit or caugh .in the extremely small AOE of the satellites, it inflicts [Passive D] for 3.5 seconds.
[Passive D]: Left Side Ataxia
Certain moves will inflict this passive where the user is unable to see anything on the left side and everything looks like its missing its left side even the user and other player's bodies. This causes their screen to be tilted to the right as they are unable to feel their left side also reducing their movement speed by 35% and their attack by 30%. The user is also unable to use any attacks relating ONLY to the use of the left leg and left arm. This will last for the specific duration stated in the move. If hit by this passive, they will be immune to it for 7.5 seconds afterwards and all moves which inflicts this, their cooldowns only start when the passive is over.
(E): Wrecking Shower
The user takes out two Wrecking Balls and throws them into the air and they clash together firing out 20 satellites towards the user's cursor with each satellite dealing 1.5 damage with a very small AOE. This is blockable and inflicts [Passive D]: for 3 seconds.
-[COOLDOWN]: 13 seconds
(R): Spin Arts
The user has rotational energy spin around their right hand as they punch forward dealing 34 damage and slight knockback. When spin charge is above 50%, when it hits the target they will be stunned for 2 seconds. Breaks block.
-[COOLDOWN]: 9 seconds
(T): Wrecking Havoc
The user enters a free aim state (where they can zoom in by holding RMB) and for 5 seconds, if (T) is repressed they will throw a Wrecking Ball towards the cursor. The Wrecking Ball does 30 damage and slight knockback and inflicts [Passive D] for 5 seconds. Breaks block.
-[COOLDOWN]: 23 seconds
(Y): Homing Ballistics
The user throws a Wrecking Ball towards their cursor and it will curve towards the nearest target in that direction if it misses for 3 seconds, it will do 25 damage if it hits and inflicts [Passive D] for 4 seconds. Blockable. If above 50% spin charge, the ball will track for an additional 2 seconds.
-[COOLDOWN]: 27 seconds
(G+): Rotional Charge
The user slows down by 50% as they rotate their right arm charging up their rotation energy and filling up their spin bar detailed in [Passive B]. This move can be held to fill up the spin bar and will be unable to use any moves.
-[COODLOWN]: NIL
(H): Meteorite Wrecker
The user takes out a Wrecking Ball and throws it in front of him creating a medium sized AOE which ragdolls anybody and inflicts [Passive D] for 10 seconds. Bypasses block.
-[COOLDOWN]: 38 seconds
(J): Spinning Wires
The user takes out a mess of wires and throws it a slight distance when the user represses (J), they throw forward a Wrecking Ball which causes the wires to curl and twist, if anyone is standing in the wires, they will be trapped and entangled in the wires, stunned for 6 seconds.
-[COOLDOWN]: 36 seconds
(B): Rebounding Wrecker
The user raises both of their hands revealing two Wrecking balls for 4 seconds. The user will be immobile whilst doing this and if hit by any projectiles, they will be deflected back towards the target dealing 10% more damage. Blockable/Breaks block depending on the projectile.
-[COOLDOWN]: 28 seconds
[POSE]:
pose 1
pose 2
pose theme 1
pose theme 2
[QUOTES]:
“I was chosen to win... It was a miracle, [Target's Name]."
“If things were so convenient, then anyone could be standing where we are now. Someone else would have this job."
“Be more modest!"
“One step! It seems that I am one step ahead of you."

I cannot for the life of me remember the title of this book I read as a child, 8 or 9 in the early 90s, around 1992-1993. It was in English, paperback, a chapter book, and I remember the cover had a girl and a middle aged/slightly older woman in front of what I think was a moving van, a semi truck or possibly a cabin. I believe the book was set in 80s or 90s, but could possibly even be from the 70s; modern times at least. I think it felt a little dated even then, and I got it from a yard sale.
From what I can remember the child was maybe tomboyish or a trouble maker and was sent to live with her grandmother to "straighten her out", but thought her grandmother was weird. I think she was also strict? She was younger than other grandmothers and smoked (cigars if I remember correctly, but maybe she just chain smoked cigarettes?), and was married to/or living with a trucker. I don't remember if it was the grandfather or if the grandma had remarried, but he was always gone and they spoke on the phone. I don't remember the rest of the story except that the grandmother and the girl started connecting, and towards the end of the novel the routine phone call is missed and they found out he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. I THINK he survives and comes home?
I am on a mission to track down my childhood favorites, any help is appreciated!!

Hey guys. Here is a continuation of what I was writing. Sorry for the formatting, just typing it out in my notes and copy and pasting here.
Our story begins with our friend Jackie Chan and soon to be an unknowingly hero of the people as he journeys through a Bavarian jungle towing with him a group of people, a scholar and exhibitionists who would seek out a treasure to gain fame and attention from the world, either in academia or media attention, to announce to the world and peers that they broke through the many traps that the castle says to contain. Trudging through this weary jungle comes along the castle they seek, our friend Jackie, a lean individual, unassuming and gentle hearted who is deceptively athletic and studies and practices martial arts, continues his journey into the castle. "The mad king Ludwig would invite many guest into the castle but would fall victim to many of its deadly traps" says the scholar "Rude..." an exhibitionist joins in saying. "That's why his name was not Lovable Ludwig or good neighbor of Bavaria - Huh, stand back..." says Jackie. Jackie stops dead in his tracks with his group to follow, well enough light pours into the castle that would lead unbeknownst treasure seekers to rummage the castle recklessly to fall victim to its many traps, with nothing a stir and everything quiet, Jackie finds this to be too eerie and finds in their way a wire, though invisible to those who enter the castle, not invisible to Jackie as his fine tuned senses crafted by his self-discipline and with a sensible sharp mind are at work, lowers himself with aerosol can in hand and makes visible the invisible wire. "What are the odds that these traps still-..." remarks one of the men. Jackie motions over to the exhibitionist and grabbed his hat to drop on the wire, suddenly two walls collide into each other this time only in succeeding in killing a hat. Loud clicking noises and rumblings of the walls suggest that the mechanism for the trap is resetting and moments later the two walls come apart leaving the invisible wire intact waiting for its next victim. The exhibitionist stares in disbelief by the sudden closing and opening wall of death and has his jaw left gaped opened by his astonishment that he nearly just died was closed by Jackie and motions forward leaving an air of unspoken reason that following Jackie's lead may keep them alive. Following hallways left and right leading to a room with pictographs and decorations of stone statues, against the far wall has a human skull that Jackie handles to find a handle that releases the door. Looks of triumph that he beat the castles traps and looks of shock and excitement on the group, Jackie has found the treasure room. As the door rises revealing the treasure room, light pours into the room and Jackie leads forward to light torches along the wall and once was a dimly lit room is now glowing brilliantly with gold, gold coins, golden assortments from goblets to swords, gems and expensive stones covering the floor and piled high. "Ludwig's lost treasure..." remarks the scholar. "I'm sure that the booty is booby-trapped so don't-...." begins Jackie to everyone. With blind enthusiasm, the would be still alive exhibitionist runs towards the treasure picking up a golden sword hilted in rubies, sapphires and emeralds, then the room and door begin to convulse violently, another trap! As quickly as the room begins to rumble and the door jerks downward threatening to close them inside, Jackie kicks up a spear into the air and with a spin through the air, kicks it toward the closing door jamming it open as Jackie shouts "Go! Go! Go!". Motioning everyone out, everyone in a panic stricken run, all begin towards the door until Jackie finds himself running into the door when the spear snaps finding himself alone as the group escaped. Moments later an arrow shoots across Jackie's face and launches himself backwards as arrows after arrows begin ejecting themselves from the walls that would kill any person or persons who gets this far; yelping out the words "bad day! bad day! bad day!" Staggering backwards and leaping into the air, above these arrows, ducking more, spinning mid jump over treasures, in a leap lands over a golden shield emblazoned with some chicken scratch, begins to deflect arrows left and right cornering Jackie. Jackie in danger of never being seen again, looks up, a hole in the wall, Jackie wall jumps into a sliding tunnel and in a panic places the shield under himself to ride the shield down the trail and finally bursting out of the castle and within view the group is spotted to have also exited the castle, with Jackie landing and coming to a stop on the shield sliding on the ground, "Snowboarding works better with snow" says Jackie, relieved for everyone to have made it out alive. From a distance, strange men observing Jackie with binoculars, the seemingly men to appear to be the leaders issuing an order to their men. "Follow him..." "Follow him..."
Jackie returns from his trip to Bavaria to his home in San Francisco. Jackie resides in his uncle's two story antique shop, "Uncle's Rare Finds". In his room we carry on as Jackie blow by blow, ebbs and flows, as he strikes a dummy. In his studio room for his training displays a number of photographs, taken at events or jobs he was hired on to take people on exhibitions, there in all his photographs is a man who never has trouble finding his smile in all of them either as a leader or competitor. Jackie with another day of training in, is summoned by his uncle with the clattering of a bell. Jackie's uncle is a fairly old man, in his signature bright yellow vest, glasses, gray standing hair and his garlic and mung bean smell, that originates by his consumption of garlic and mung beans that he always believes is good for you. From the second story calls out to his uncle, "What is it Uncle?". "Come, give Uncle a hug", Jackie jumps over the railing and effortlessly twist in mid air to land and give uncle a hug, SMACK, Jackie was just struck over the head by Uncle's strong fingers that he uses to scold. "Ow!" Jackie yelps. "You did not make coffee this morning, coffee is the only thing keeping Uncle's ancient heart beating, you want dead uncle? No? Then you make coffee" "Ok" replies Jackie "One more thing" uncle begins again, "You received phone call from the University, they want you to translate parchments" "Ok" replies Jackie "One more thing" Uncle continues before Jackie begins his work, Uncle examines the newly brought in golden shield, talking out loud with his thoughts of the ancient chicken scratch on the shield with an odd encrusted pewter center with a rooster emblazoned on it, "I cannot translate inscriptions, very old writing, I must reference my journals." "Ok" replies Jackie "One more thing" Uncle continues "This is Jade, your niece, she will live with you for a year? Ok?" Jackie with no second thought on his list of instructions from Uncle, "ok" Taken back, Jackie exclaims "I have a niece?" Now discovering the child in plain view by the entrance as she wears a scowl under her black hair that spikes downwards with her arms folded. Uncle explains, "Your cousin Shin's girl from Hong Kong, Jade is not behaving well there, doing poorly in school, your cousin thinks she will do better with you" "Nobody asked me" exclaims Jackie. "Did not want to bother you" Uncle coolly states, then sends Jackie to tackle his new instructions. Jackie nervously chuckles, "Hello, I am Jackie". Jade, stiff as a statue, continues her scowling and looks with contempt for being in this dibilated antique shop. "No English?" Jackie tries another greeting, "Ne Ho Ma-...." Three men enters the shop. Jackie welcomes the new customers and begins exercising his retail sales abilities, as Jackie also helps Uncle in his Rare Finds shop as a salesman. "You're Jackie Chan, the archeologist?" Asks one of the three men. "Oh, I dabble in the study of past civilizations" replies Jackie. "Well, we are aware that you recently dabbled a shield from a Bavarian Castle, our extremely wealthy employer is interested in purchasing the shield"
Jackie seeing this is not the regular customer Uncle's Rare Finds usually receives, wearing a 70's style white suit, all red blazing combed back slick hair and seems to be having trouble clearing his sinuses and seems a bit on edge. His two companions, just as unremarkable and out of the ordinary among usual customers, one quite tall and burly, sporting a wrinkled black jacket, red tie and white shirt with dress shoes that could do with some polishing, Jackie faintly smells alcohol from where he stood and the other, short but stands tall with his bright orange sunglasses and leather coat suggest he may kick you up side along the head at the wrong moment.
Jackie with great suspicions, "I'm sorry, I have already donated that piece to the university" "Really...?" The man in red and white nods to the others behind him to send a small message, pokes out his wild swinging hand and pokes out a finger to drive an antique to the floor but unable to shoot straight misses with a hurried "whoops", tries again, sending two antiques rolling to the floor! Jackie thoroughly shocked, dives across the floor coming to a roll right under the falling antiques and catches them on his back - the shorter of the men with a smirk on his face sends flying an antique, but in a flash Jackie sends off a cushion from a nearby seat, throwing the two in hand and with a bounce with the cushion, Jackie runs forward to catch all three antiques in a snap, antiques in hand, puts them down safely and takes a seat with a smile. Looks of horror and awestruck coves over the three, as well as Jade, whose left speechless of his Uncle's ability, just stood standing in place. "It would be in your family's best interest to undonate the shield, Mr. Chan... places hand over Jades head by this time tomorrow", the three exit without another word. Uncle walks in "did they buy anything?" "No" Jackie answers "You are a terrible salesman!" "Watch the girl and hide the shield" Jackie instructs. "Where am I going to hide a big shield? sputters on where did I put the shield?" Uncle continues on as Jackie exited to follow the men and unknown to Uncle, so did Jade.
Jackie exiting Uncle's Rare Finds finding the vehicle leaving, quick and light on his feet, leaps for the fire escape of the building, leaping gracefully and the mastery of his body to do so, clambers onto balconies and shop signs onto a roof catching up to the vehicle. Running along side the vehicle, Jackie peers in, the man in red and white is hunched over and takes a great deep inhale, crushed powder in forms of lines on a plate is visible to Jackie. The wrinkled out suit man is also clambering with something in hand, Jackie is catching up as the vehicle comes to a stop, running to the ledge, down gutter pipes, SNAP, the pipes snatch free from the wall sending Jackie down BANG. Wrinkled out suit man chokes on the contents of his flask and sputters, finding his breath and the man in red and white being seen hiding his plate and all three wordless, Jackie continues innocently, "That will buff right out" pointing at the ding he has caused as if it's the only problem there. Angry, the gas petal is floored with Jackie and gutter still on top, coming onto and off side walks sending people wildly running in all directions to come to a sudden stop at a fenced playground. The three exit to introduce themselves more physically to Jackie, launches themselves at him. Jackie pulls back from attack, dishes one of his own with the gutter sending them away, Jackie jumps and rolls into the sunroof of the window, the men, SLAMMED by the doors that Jackie kicks open, ejects himself from the vehicle, musters up his strength and leaps over the fench, rolls to a stop, sitting upright begins to mock the men, "Nya Nya!" The three men remain to be unknown to Jackie, had not even realized they were watching him in Bavaria nor did he know that they're extremely wealthy employer has equipped them with military grade electric rods, these men were The Enforcers. The Enforcers leap forward with their electrified rods, melting the fence and sending Jackie backwards. As agile Jackie is, he swerves, ducks, rotates and spins, comes to a semi truck and takes the windshield wipers with him, coming to a landing with a flourish of the wipers in a stance that says I'm ready. With a chuckle of the Enforcers, Tap! Tap! Jackie has struck two over the hands, disarming them and kicked another away. Running off to the still occupied playground, Jackie yells out "No more playtime, Go! Go!". Children running and the enforcers come around, on the right slow going, Jackie kicks a tether ball right around to the man in the wrinkled out suit face and almost lazily falls over. Jackie looks up and finds another lunging from a nearby jungle gym, Jackie kicks and with a loud CRACK, finding a broken nose "that's where I put my drugs!". The third, short yet strong, comes to spare with Jackie, jabbing in and out, showing signs that he learned martial arts is swept backwards onto a rocking horse and sits down dazed and defeated. The other two continues still, after Jackie, they are led to a swing set, "Oh hey! - what the --" Jackie has tangled them together in the swings, stuck together now Jackie jumps onto a jungle gym with continually readiness. "Wow!" Says one "Let's get out of here" says another. The enforcers make a run for it, watching them run, leaps down to discover Jade has followed him, taken aback, "Jade?" We have another man appear from behind and with a weapon that released a gas, renders Jackie unconscious.
"Now he's coming too" remarks the men inside the van Jackie finds himself in, is saying. Jackie opens his eyes, "Aaahhh! Agustus Black!" Jackie opens his eyes and finds a familiar face with the others left in confusion, "hmmm?" Jackie continues "What are you doing here? Ow, what am I doing here?" "I'm afraid its official business, Jackie. Replies Black. "Where have you been? I don't hear from you for six years, BOOM, you're in San Francisco saving me from those thugs" "Jackie, I knocked you out" explains Black. Jackie outraged, the van stops to a screech, Jackie exits. "Why did you do that?" Jackie continues. "Jackie--" Black beckons "I thought we were friends" "We are, Jackie." Replies Black. "I'm sorry but this location must be kept a secret. "Oh, yes, I can see this is some very special garbage, maybe I will see you in another six years" "Jackie--" Black stammers Excuse me, while I call a cab" "Jackie--" Black calls out. Jackie turns to a lone telephone booth amongst the garbage. Enters. Jackie dials, "Oh?" With a sudden jerk, the telephone booth is swallowed by the wall and in a rush Jackie screaming for dear life, the booth is fast tracked along a corridor to a halt and let's out a sigh of relief but without warning it drops. Screaming once again trying to keep himself centered, DING! the booth landed, doors open with Jackie plopping out. "Tried to warn you" Black states. "How did you get down here?" "The stairs... Follow me." "Jackie, Welcome to Section 13." Leading Jackie in, Black shows him around. "I thought you were with interpol" "Even with them I was shepherding this agency in secret" answers Black. "You're a spy?... are they spies too?" "Law Enforcement, Jackie, Elite Special Forces." "So why give me the big tour?" Asks Jackie. "We are aware you've recently acquired an artifact in Bavaria" explains Black. "Why does everyone know that?" Jackie continues, "You are the second one to ask about the shield today" "I was afraid of that" Black leads Jackie to a terminal. "Secrion 13 was founded to investigate large scale international crimes - crimes which often can be traced back to The Dark Hand, a criminal syndicate. The Dark Hand has connections to nearly all criminal activity and their leader is this man pulls up image of a man in striking white long blonde hair that is tied back in a nice Italian suit Valmont. Today you met his cronies that Valmont sends on personal errands around town. Finn, who is Irish and believes disco will never die, another only known as Ratso then there is Chow, as you seen, Chow has some martial arts training. The three known as the enforcers but won't think twice to push over an elderly lady if it meant completing their orders.

I recently bought a new to me home (built 1949) that is a fixer upper. What I didn’t realize is that it would be a money pit.
So what started out as an issue with the kitchen sink waste pipe replacement morphed into repairing the plumbing entire house and I still have more to do.
What needed to be done ( forgive me if I get the language wrong):
• Waste pipe from kitchen sink had to be replaced. Years of Drano use from pushing everything into the garbage disposal caused the cast iron pipe to fail. Lots of pitting on the exterior of the pipe. This pipe had polka dots. I’d never seen anything like this before.
• replace water heater (40 gal BW). The previous water heater was ~9 yrs old and had had some repairs. This was the one thing I knew had to be replaced so was prepared to spend about $1200 here.
• install water softener not having this seemed to be the root cause of a lot of my problems
• replace shutoff valves on main lines under bathroom sink, toilet, kitchen sink, washer, utility sink, water line to fridge
• replaced the exterior frost free sill faucets. I learned the hard way these had failed by having first use this spring flood the basement
• replace the main shutoff valve to my home
• I had cast iron, PVC, copper, and galvanized pipe in my home. Because the home at one time had a beauty parlor in the basement, had a rudimentary shower that no longer worked, and was party central complete with a bar sink with taps that no longer worked. There were pipes all over the place. Now only copper and PVC
• the home has a second kitchen in basement and the sink will be reused as my utility sink
• bathroom fixtures in bathroom shower were replaced
All of this cost $19K
I still have to get the following done:
• replace bath sink faucet ($650)
• replace toilet ($1200) Kohler comfort heigh elongated seat will be used but for this. I have not selected which model of toilet but would like a bidet seat I think. I need to do some more reading about those. I would prefer to have a skirted toilet so that it’s easier to clean but need some advice here.
• replace kitchen faucet ($745)
All faucets are Wolverine brass except for the utility sink that will end up being whatever 6” center faucet I can find. I’m looking at a Union brass model (https://www.chicagofaucetshoppe.com/Union-Brass-174-360H-p/ub-360h.htm).
• move laundry ($4800) the work for this will involve:

• Cap off old water lines for laundry in basement.
  
  • Furnish and install new 2" pvc piping from pt floor laundry room to basement.
  • Furnish and install new 1/2" water line from basement to new location of laundry room.
  • Furnish and install new gas line from basement to laundry room.
  • Furnish and install new flex laundry hose from upstairs to exit outside through brick. (I need more info on this before I agree to having this done.
  • Furnish and install new clear hose from condensate pump to old stand pipe in basement. (Not part of laundry but it’s currently draining into sink and needs to be moved)

So are costs out of line?
I ended up going with this company because I received no response from one other I called. The third had no availability to come out to do an inspection and bid the work. I called first week in April and they could not come until late May.
I am in IL near the Quad cities at IA border.

ROTC makes it clear that when you sign on and they fund you for college, you owe them active or semi-active time. He knew he put in that time, even though war had only been a rumor. Worse, when you have talent, the military sees it and diverts you there. He showed promise as a pilot, so they put him in the simulator. Then sent him to flight school. Talisman wasn’t gunning to be a test pilot or higher fighting school. Not like his wingleader in flight school. Marcus was a decent guy, a career fighter pilot. He deserved the better hardware, he was dedicated to service. Well, so was Talisman…though he thought more of service beyond that of a soldier. Maybe an astronaut? But one’s personality and hopes must be weighted against things that happen in the real world, and Talisman’s wake-up call was a sound: 

BOOM.

It wasn’t a sonic boom…not like a whip-crack pitched down from the mass of a fighter jet being orders of magnitude more massive than the stringy tip of the whip, harnessing the inherent mass and acceleration to power past the sound barrier. No. Talisman had known that sound in the times he flew live rounds on a firing range. Something exploded. Talisman looked up instinctively…his first action was somewhere between primal reflex and trained response. It was a simple sentence… “What the hell was that?!” Talisman ran on the drills. The base wasn’t under attack, but Gracemerian territory was. Reluctant or not, he had a job to do…except… Too many pilots, not enough aircraft. The order came down from the commanding officer. Talisman knew the callsign “Ghost Eye,” and went right to the lead mechanic, who asked him one question. “Can you read Estovakian?” Odd question. It did stir up some memories, but… “Read it, write it, speak it. Why…” “Ghost Eye’s cleared you for Nos.” Apparently, “Nos” was salvage…expertly restored salvage. Estovakia lost a prototype fighter, experiments on a shoestring from their lingering aerospace developement…lingering, after massive asteroid fragments hit Estovakia like a planet-scale claymore mine. Well, Emmeria has some awesome engineers. The intel officer (mechanic) read Talisman in on enough info. They pieced together the wreckage and rebuilt the original…and made it flightworthy. It passed all the tests, and it was ready for reproduction. So they told Talisman after he zipped into the flight suit…that seemed a little heavier than even the advanced G-support used for the Raptor. Talisman looked in disbelief at the machine in front of him, a spear of…titanium reinforced carbon fiber, arachnocomposite (spider-silk weave in rigid epoxy), aluminum, and…insanity. The ordinance techs were maneuvering BRICKS onto its ordinance stations. Bricks. Slabs. Slabs with lots of tubes set flush into the surface. “This thing flies?” He knew it was a stupid question…he’d read up on earlier aircraft with stranger configurations. “It’s flown to the nth degree around four test pilots. You’ve flown the Raptor?” “I did…I’m Navy, though, the Raptor is Air force…” “This bird is as unforgiving for recklessness, that’s why your G-suit is overbuilt. I read your file, and if Ghost Eye says you’re good to drive Nos, I’ll buy it. She’s more stable than she looks, but she’s also VERY nimble. And that SP weapon we’re loading in…” Talisman looked again at the slabs. “Yeah?” “Use them carefully, we don’t have too many rounds in this arsenal.” A reserve pilot going in to war. Talisman felt like he was cannon fodder, never mind that the Squadron commander, Ghost Eye himself, endorsed him to drive a piece of reconstructed and tested machinery salvaged and rebuilt from a crashed original. ‘Still,’ he thought, ‘it works.’ Indeed it did. The cockpit seemed salvaged from some of the original instruments, yet his fluency was enough to interpret the non-Gracemerian labels. The engine startup was the same, the avionics, nav, and tactical were Gracemerian standard, yet the readouts ran so fluidly with the existing hardware, it was more refined than a kludge. It was a testament to the discipline of the Gracemerian pilots that there was nary an interruption at the sight of the odd airframe. It had clear Gracemerian military markings, and the bird emblem of his reserve unit…a mythical firebird from the faith of the first…and only monarch Gracemeria had, the Garuda. ‘Not going to die here…’ Talisman thought to himself. Self-rhetoric, something to keep him from panicking…he hadn’t, but…he was only human. He just knew how to fly the machines he was ordered to learn to fly. Yeah, he was more intelligent than “just following orders,” and he held his shit together. But whatever made him good enough that Ghost Eye would give him code-word clearance to put his ass in this machine…still, a comfortable cockpit, controls on each side so he didn’t need to move around so much… “THEY TOOK OUT KING’S BRIDGE!” Comm chatter, but important chatter. Crap. King’s bridge…he drove over that this morning on his way to the airbase. Talisman settled the nose of his blue-gray spear on the centerline of the runway. ‘I’m lead. How the hell am I even on lead for takeoff?’ The tower gave clearance: “Just do what you always do!” ‘Right,’ he thought. ‘Okay…do what I always do.’ Talisman ran the controls…kick the pedals left and right, run the stick through all the axes. Runway takeoff, so flaps to first setting, hook up, launch bar up…that gave him a measure of familiarity, this was a CATOBAR aircraft, one that needed to be tough just to land. Anti-skid on. Hold the brakes and open the throttle, and as the engines go wet… Nos didn’t have all-original hardware, but the Khesedi afterburning turbofans were more than adequate to the task, with a butter-smooth transition to wet thrust that Talisman almost missed before releasing the brakes. Nos wasn’t being thrown into flight from a carrier, but she seemed to want to pretend. The airframe was tight, and she held the centerline. The fly-by-wire transmitted every flutter back through the controls, so when Talisman felt the tiny nudge from the undercarraige that the wings were grabbing wind…he eased back on the stick. ‘Just do what I always do?’ He took a few breaths on the O2 feed. ‘I haven’t been to war before.’ Not many pilots had until that day. For many of the angels, it was the first dance. 

I have built a tram network simple loop around my city with a depot and end station.
I am trying to create a line for the trams i click each stop in order finishing at the end station the green arrows are moving fine, however when I try to add vehicles it tells me that it must be vehicle of the same type.
The box states it’s vehicle type is Road vehicle and transport type not specified.
However I can select one vehicle use the add new stop option and create a line that way then add what trams i want to the line and set it up that way however the new lines do not show as a line in the list of lines page, the only way to see the line is by clicking a vehicle that is already on the line and selecting view line details.
Is this a bug or am I missing something, while trams do run on tracks are they considered road vehicles?
One more thing if I try to create a new tram line select the depot first then a tram station is says Not suitable as stop in route plan for selected vehicle.
I have checked all the connections and everything is connected and fully powered using only vanilla buildings and vehicles and as I said if I set line for one vehicle then add others to it then they will run to all destinations no problem.

I made a somewhat homebrew map for Kingmaker.
The idea was to create a hexmap that is compatible with the official DM map for Kingmaker, but with expanded borders. The reason for this is that I felt it was a missed oppurtunity to not include parts of Brevoy and nearby River Kingdoms such a Mivon on the map, since they are referenced in the adventure path. From there I somewhat escalated with Numeria, Brevoy, Northern Galt and even parts of Casmaron.
Imgur link
I took a lot of inspirations from other maps, including this one. I made the map using wonderdraft.
I made some homebrew adjustments. I moved Galt more north and added an additional river to seperate it from the stolen lands. I am not entirely satisfied with my rendition of Mendev or how far Port Ice and Chessed are from each other.
The map looks a bit wonky because the orientation is not north, but north east.
The lower part of the map is not to scale at all, but instead is a sort of subway map of the Sellen River.

As the title suggests, I’m currently talking to a new guy, we’ve been doing great and seem to be hitting it off. I haven’t talked to a guy that amazed me this much in a while. We’re set to go on our first date in the next couple of days.
Now the ex situationship story: I’ve connected with this guy through tiktok (cringey I know) and we talked for a very short while and then met. The outing was shit and I hated everything about it. Found out a few days later that he’s been sending girls messages to try and go out with them, the same way he did with me. He doesn’t live in the same country as I am, he came here as a tourist and was going around messaging girls to hangout with him and show him around. I fought with him and blocked him off of everywhere. He apologized to me and begged me to forgive him. I shat over his requests and carried on. Fast forward 1 year later, he sends me texts from a different number and wants to be friends again. I kinda felt pity for him and just carried on, I unblocked him on social media but we never really talked much. He sucks at texting. A couple of months later I find out he’s moving to my country, and as per my analysis, he’s just talking to me now to have company and friends when he finally moves here. I ignored all this and just never talked to him as much. A few weeks ago he sends a “I miss you” text. Then I go like “miss me where? We barely ever talk” he gets mad and then starts shutting around. I ignored him, then removed him from social media a few days later. A week after that I get a call from him asking why I removed him and that he likes me and is attracted to me and wants a second chance, I tell him clearly that I don’t like him back and it’s not going to workout. He then tried to convince me but I still refuse, then he got mad and hung up. Just today, he calls me from a new number, this time from the county I live in, so I naturally answered thinking it could be someone I know, then I get surprised it’s him, and first thing he says is “let’s meet today”, I go like no I’m busy, he then goes like “for the rest of the day ?” Mind you its like 10:30 PM. I then go like no not today then he’s like ok I’ll talk to you later. Do I tell the guy I’m talking to about this situation or is it too early? I want him to know that I’m blocking our potential guys Cz I’m currently talking to him and am interested in the course of the possible relationship.
Tldr: currently talking to a guy I’m super interested in, an ex situationship of one year wants to meet up. Do I let the current guy I’m talking to know about this ?

OK before you flame, HoB is actually really good, the combo changes slightly because you have to get the Water enchant to root ppl in place after you EQW(different Enchant) 3xAAQ is the TLDr the most basic Combo that's pretty fullproof and it does more damage than Electrocute and First Strike. That's from beginning to end, I was pretty shocked when I saw the number difference and all the nerfs have really destroyed her ability to just burst via abilities and im sure all of us have felt it.
What riot did (it appears to me anyways) was they moved more damage into her Empowered Autos when they took away some of her damage, this was what they kinda did consistently so basically kinda of a more on demand Irelia sorta thing.
Anyways the Build!
I HAVE RAN THE NUMBERS btw so don't doubt, just enjoy and get carried
Really simplistic, similar to what you may already be use to but some differences!
1) Stridebreaker
2) Lucidity Boots OR Swifty Boots
3) Serylda's Grudge
4) Manamune
5) Black Cleaver
6) Collector
primary runes
HoB, SI, Eyeballs, TH
secondary runes
pom, last stand (or honestly whatever you want, idc)
The numbers say that this will give you the best early game, the biggest 1 item spike and you will steadily have high item spikes which is always kinda what I am for in my builds. It's a Bruiser Hybrid obviously and familiar things but numbers look really good, just about gettin those Empowered Autos off early tbh, there is a LOT of hidden damage in those Autos, so much more than you probably could imagine!
If I told you that you are missing out on about 50%+ Damage by not using Auto Attacks would you believe me? Well that's about how much you are missing out on when you do a Combo without HoB and using her eAA's! Lv 3 specifically is about 30%, lv 6 50% and it just gets bigger after that, lv 11 was like 65% or something ridiculous but ofc we ASSUME ppl would die in a full combo by then right? Well even if you used 1 or 2 eAA's you would ensure the kill even if you weren't fed! That's what I'm aiming to correct here.
This is simple, clean and effective, don't like it? Don't care! This is the way to build and play her and if you don't like it blame Riot, not me.
The Damage compared from building full glass and this (assuming you weren't gonna auto) is a variance of about 70-90, that's right, +/- 70-90 FROM items specifically so you could even run this with Electro or FS (but those runes are shit, don't run them!), so you are getting MORE utility and HP while trading minimal Damage! BUT you get HOB (each eAA is basically like an Electrocute proc is how you should look at this) as well and because you have Stridebreaker AND SG! That means even if you don't get a Water Enchant you still can get the procs off with your items so you become less reliant on the Water enchant which was my goal for comfort and ease of playability.
This is the Meta Riot has made for us; I get that some ppl may whine about HoB but dood, Electrocute and FS suck big fat dick compared to it, go try for yourself if you don't believe me, LV 3 all in with Hob is just better and at almost all stages of the game HoB is better, even if you just got ONE auto in you would be doing more damage than Electrocute which essentially is just a WEAKER empowered AA, that's how much damage you gain from HoB when you look at it that way.
How much am I exaggerating? not much believe it or not, I maybe putting some spin on this but the numbers say Electrocute and FS are shit, flat out there's no reason to be touching those runes as Qiyana as long as she has a shit ton of damage in her Passive W.
Hey if you like that playstyle of Electrocute or FS and you enjoy playing a suboptimal damage build just because of habit, OK! I'm not gonna twist your arm on this other than this big wall of text I just wrote out.
IF You are using Electrocute or FS you are playing sub-optimally, IF you aren't playing this build you are building suboptimally or pretty dam close to being suboptimal anyways. If you just like playing suboptimal than hey go for it, idc really this is just me contributing as best I can and staying ahead of curve.

Thanks to "Sithking Zero" on the NoP Discord for editing help.
Memory transcription subject: Tellek , Farmer
Date [standardized human time]: January 19th, 2137
Has it really come to this, am I really this desperate?
I was, for all intents and purposes, broke. The last harvest had been terrible, in addition to the one before that, which was practically a deathblow for my new farmstead. The debts and missed payments had started to pile up, and I was one more bad harvest away from going completely bankrupt.
Like so many farmers before me, I was becoming another victim of the 5 harvest curse.
I told you that starting a new farm was a bad idea.
What was I supposed to do, brain, keep working in the office until I died?
I sat on my chair, surrounded by other farmers who were presumably in similar states of desperation, the room we were in akin to the schoolrooms I had been in as a pup; a desk and whiteboard up front sitting in front of the rows of chairs. Most of the twenty or so figures around me were fellow Venlil, except for a handful of Gojid and even a single Yotul who was sitting in the back, all of us awaiting the start of the ‘lesson’.
They claimed they had a solution to our problem, that they knew how to increase our yields. How could a predator know how to fix our farming issues?.
Human. Human Human Human Human. Not a predator.
Yes yes I know, I’m trying to be better about that.
I stopped my train of thought and corrected myself. Ever since the revelations about many of our allies being former predators, I had been making an effort to stop thinking of the world in terms of predator and prey. It was difficult at times, but given that I was working against a lifetimes worth of lies, I thought I was making good progress..
But even if “Predator” wasn’t the curse it used to be, how could a human claim to know how to fix our farming issues? Even if we ignored the differences between our diets, for all their advantages, humans were still far below our technological advancements.
Almost on cue, the door to the room opened up, and the figure of the human who had invited us here entered with an enthusiastic bounce, caring two large cases covered with black cloth
Unlike most, this human was unmasked, its piercing eyes and beaming teeth filled smile visible for all to see. I could feel the room start to fill with panic. Sure, logically I knew I was probably safe, but seeing the unmasked features of an apex predator caused fear to grip the edge of my heart.
I could proudly say I can walk past and interact with masked humans without wanting to flee anymore, but seeing those forward-facing eyes boring a hole into my soul was another task altogether.
Come on, you should be better than this.
I’m trying, ok!
"Hello everyone. My name is Joseph. I'm an ecology student, and I'm here to provide a solution to your farming yields." The human spoke with an unbridled joy, seeming to wait a moment while our translators attempted to explain what Ecology was, stopping half way through and seemingly giving up.
“You might be wondering why I’m unmasked, well we’re going to be covering a lot of ‘predatory’ concepts today, so if you can’t handle this? We’re gonna have bigger problems.” Joseph took a moment to broadly gesture to himself, leaving a feeling of dread to start in the pit of my stomach.
If this was just the start, what exactly was going to happen here?
Silence! Wait and see, knowing humans it’s probably interesting at the very least.
“I’ve finally been given authorization to start a trial of this program. Both the UN and Venlil governments are very interested in increasing food supply for both our people. As you might know we’re kinda at war, and logistics wins wars.”
The human paused for a moment, a shiver running around most of the room as he gave a large beaming smile.
“So to start: paws, claws, or tails up if you know about the ‘5 harvest curse.’”
The room immediately was filled with Federation species all raising their prospective limbs in affirmation. Of course we all knew what it was, that was why most of us were here.
How would the human know about that?
Basic research, simple reading, asking literally any farmer?
“Fantastic! I’m still going to explain it so we’re all on the same page. The ‘5 harvest curse’ is a phenomenon where new farms on Venlil prime often fail within the first five harvests. On a side note, the coincidental fact that five has a religious contention in Venlil culture is neat.”
I could feel an annoyance start to course through me, that the affliction currently driving me to destitution was being described as ‘neat’ by the callous predator. I mean human.
Stupid human.
Joseph either didn’t pick up or ignored my annoyance as he pressed a button, a graph appearing on the whiteboard showing expected yields over time, continuing on in his seemingly endless enthusiasm.
“So in general the five harvest curse follows a standard pattern of yields, with the first two harvests being up to 52% larger than even more established farms, plummeting after that until the business is non-viable and collapses. Officially the reason for this is unknown, with some vague religious stupidity about new farms being too far away from the center of the habitable strip.”
This was nothing new to me, I remembered feeling the joy of the sheer output from my first harvest, of wondering if I could finally make something of myself, a joy that had been whittled down as my last two harvests had been pitiful.
“However there’s an interesting thing, if you also plot the number of predator sightings during this time against the yields, you can see a direct correlation between number of predators and the success of each harvest.”
Wait, what? Is this human trying to say that predators… increase harvest? That can’t be right, that can’t be right at all. That would be insanity.
The data is literally there in front of you.
Yet it was there on the screen, a second graph had appeared on the whiteboard, tracking predator sightings over time in each of the farms afflicted by the curse.
“This tracks with most farms' general lifecycle. You buy a plot of untamed land on the edge of the habitable zone but you don’t have enough money to go full anti-predator. As the harvests come in you end up spending more and inadvertently messing it up.”
This caused a small amount of murmuring and energetic rejection by myself and the other members of the room, wiping away the previous undercurrent of fear. It was insanity, it went against everything I had ever known or been taught about farming and how the world worked. How could a predator of all things be beneficial?
Didn’t the introduction of humans also go against everything I had ever known or been taught about?
“If this effect is so obvious, how has nobody found this before?”
The sound of a Venlil challenging Joseph was greeted by murmurs of agreement from the group, causing the human to give a different kind of smile. Not a smile of joy or excitement as had been seen before, but the smile of someone who had something for this.
“Because you have. 150 years ago, a Venlil named Slavek wrote a paper regarding this. 119 years ago, Vicktal did the same. As well as Traval, Stralan, and Vilkin in between then and now. Those are just the ones I’ve found. Who can guess what happened to them?”
There was a pause, before the uplift in the back spoke up for the first time, a surety in the Yotul’s voice.
“They were diagnosed with predator disease.”
Joseph pointed at the Yotul in the back with both hands, the joy radiating from him.
“Based Space Kangaroo gets 10 points for being correct! Yep the federation has been actively suppressing anything that suggests that predators are more than some kind of eldritch evil, that and your surprising lack of hydroponics causes most planets to be dependent on the core worlds for food imports. Probably by design for control.”
Wait… that’s a good point, why aren’t we using hydroponics?
The human took a moment to switch to the next slide, showing a simple three part cycle.
“Most healthy ecological systems are made up of three parts: Plants, which are eaten by herbivores, which are in turn eaten by carnivores. In reality actual systems are far more complex than these, but as a basic understanding this will suffice. These three parts keep each other in check, each part dependent on the other, which-”
“Are you trying to say that predator attacks are a good thing? Are you suffering from predator disease?! ”
The Venlil interrupted once again to more murmured agreement, causing Joseph to give a sigh of clear annoyance in response. I wished the Venlil would shut up and just let the human talk.
“No, I’m not suggesting we airdrop a bunch of Nissa into the Capital, I'm explaining how natural systems work. Sapience obviously breaks this cycle, which if you deviate too far, you end up with something called trophic cascade."
The human seemed to wait a moment for the translator to once again fail to explain the meaning of the phrase.
I wonder how many basic concepts the federation lacks words for…
"Rather simply, the removal of one of these pieces has wider effects, reducing biodiversity and in many cases causing a complete ecological collapse. An example of this is the dust bowl effect, something the federation is well acquainted with."
There was a moment before the whiteboard changed before showing pictures of desolate barren worlds. Without any explanation I knew exactly what I was looking at. It was one of the… lesser talked about aspects of the federation.
"The Skivit grand herd are a species who go from planet to planet stripping ecosystems bare, devouring everything down to the smallest sapling. This removes important root systems that act as drainage, causing flooding and deserts to form as new plantlife lacks the structure to grow. In many cases these ecosystems are permanently destroyed, turning once lush planets into lifeless husks”.
I couldn’t help but feel sorrow for those planets. It was well known the impact the Skivit had on planets, once thriving planets of beauty. Although if I was following this human’s logic correctly did that mean…
“Now I’m not suggesting that the Skivit need a predator, that would be immoral.” Joseph cut off the thought I was about to have, seemingly understanding the logical thought many of us had picked up on. “But instead this is a real life example of damage an unchecked herbivore can have on ecosystems. If the Skivit didn’t have FTL travel they would have long ago driven themselves to starvation under their current society. It’s also not the only form of this trophic cascade.”
“Surely this doesn’t just apply to prey? Or are you saying prey are somehow inferior?”
The sound of the Gojid cutting in was filled with an unspoken challenge against the idea, inciting general sounds of agreement from those around him. Surprisingly however, Joseph seemed to respond positively.
“That is entirely correct, an overabundance of carnivorous species can also cause their own issues. Keep in mind what I’m describing here is an extremely simplified version, just the addition or removal of a single species can cause untold damage and harm to the diversity of ecological systems as the impacts are felt in the most seemingly unlikely cases.”
With that the human reached under the desk, taking one of the two covered containers he had brought with him and placing it into view.
“In Venlil Prime’s case, while the impact of Federation thinking has been reduced due to the day and night sides being mostly untouched, you still have the problem of overpopulation of certain species, and a lack of reasonable fear response from certain prey species. This has accumulated into the problem you all face.”
With that he removed the cover, causing a surge of fear to ripple through the participants around me until we all calmed down at what was underneath: A small cage, containing a single red bird busily eating seeds.
All farmer’s arch nemesis.
“This is a Flowerbird, a seed eating avian often coming in solid red, blue, or green. They are adorable, dumb as a sack of bricks and food motivated to a fault. They are also one of the biggest causes of farm yield destruction, with these birds alone being responsible for around about 41% of all losses. If we include Voidpins and other similar wildlife, farms can have up to 94% of their yield destroyed before they even get to harvest.”
Everyone in this room was familiar with the cursed avians. While your average city dweller would enjoy the sight of a flock of Flowerbirds, the farming community knew of them as a blight that devastated crops.
Joseph took a moment to open the cage, reaching inside and grabbing the bird. A small part of me wondered if he was about to devour it in front of us, before I tamped down on such an illogical idea. Of course the humans wouldn’t, we knew they didn’t do that. The Flowerbird also seemed completely unfazed about being in the meaty grasp of a predator, simply continuing to eat.
“Even worse, these things have basically zero fear response to noises and large beasts, probably due to all major predators having been removed. As you can see this specimen doesn’t mind a ‘scary predator’ grabbing it. As long as it has food, it couldn’t care less. This makes pest control tricky, as scaring them away is no longer an option. Poisons would be used in such a case, but they can have wider ranging effects, and poisoning prey is considered ‘Predatory’, not that many of you haven’t tried ‘accidentally’ leaving potential pesticides out.”
This caused a sway of discomfort to sweep through the room, tails switching in guilty movements as everyone tried to hide the truth of this human’s words. I knew I personally had considered such actions in desperation.
I mean, would ‘accidently’ leaving out a known poisonous chemical really be a sign of predator disease?
“Ha! I know enough tail language to know I’m right, that’s guilt isn’t it? I’ve read your internet, I know your discussions on loopholes about what is and isn’t predatory!” Joseph cried out in triumph as many of the Venlil of the room reached out to grab their traitorous appendages. “Now normally I would just tell people to stop being idiots, but in this case we can’t do that. Ironically because predators are actually dangerous. Because of your slaughter the only species left are ones aggressive and smart enough to survive. Shadestalkers are legitimately dangerous and can’t be left to interact with the farming community because people will die.”
The words from Joseph all sounded so… reasonable at this point. However, I, along with the rest of the room, were all desperately waiting for the other paw to drop. Because there would be, humans always had something they were about to do.
Almost in response to our thoughts the human placed the second container on the desk, covering up the first in response.
“Humans have dealt with this problem in a simple way, a way that our Yotul friend over there will know of. I need all of you to please remain calm and orderly, and to remember that you’re perfectly safe and there’s no need to overreact or panic. Humans dealt with this pest problem, through the use of safe predators.”
Before anyone could properly react to those words, the cover of the second container was removed, showing… a predator. An actual one, not a human but an actual real threat. Small piercing front facing yellow eyes attached to a brown feline form, sulking from the cage it was being held in.
Speh speh speh speh that’s a PREDATOR, A FERAL PREDATOR
If it was a danger the human wouldn't have-
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO DO NOT LIKE NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
The panic in the room was immediate. Sapient human predators we had gotten used to, but none sapient ones were another deal entirely. Chaos started to spread as the 7 in the front row got up, pushing themselves up against the back wall as everyone else in the room did the same. Three Venlil made the choice to bolt out of the room, rushing past the human and his tiny devourer, while another clean fainted, hitting the floor with a thud. One even decided to take things further, jumping out of the singular window attached to the far wall in a frantic motion.
I could feel fear overwhelm me, desperately staring at the feline and waiting for it to make its move. What was the human thinking, it was going to attack at any moment, it was going to-
“STOP, Stop this stupidity. Right. NOW!”
The stern commanding voice of Joseph caused everyone in the room to freeze. The calm enthusiastic demeanor of the predator was gone, replaced with an emotion I’d never actually seen a human show before: anger.
“It has been six months! Do you really still believe that the UN or the Venlil government would put you in actual danger? You’re still thinking based on your stupid fascist Federation propaganda. Thinking that tells you that the Yotul are primitive, or the Venlil are weak. Propaganda that says genetically modifying people against their will is morally OK”
I knew that humans normally bared their teeth in joy, as a sign of happiness and friendship. This wasn’t the case right now, as everything in Joseph’s body language screamed of rage, of pain, of words spoken through gritted teeth. Nobody in the room was focused on the predator in the cage at this point, instead all eyes staring at the human. Suddenly the feline mattered a lot less than the anger of the human.
“That sort of thinking leads to the belief that killing over a billion innocent people is somehow the right thing to do. You are all presumably intelligent sapient adults able to think things through logically. Could you all please act that way?”
I could see the swishes of shame from the other Venlil’s tails, everyone in the room avoiding eye contact guiltily. Well, apart from the Yotul, who had remained seated and calm this entire time, staring almost joyfully at the feline predator. The human, of course, was completely right. Taking a moment to force myself to think, the predator was safely behind metal bars and was making no move to attack, seemingly content to stare lazily at us.
You finished overreacting?
Shut up, brain.
“Also, at the risk of ruining the angry vibe I’m giving off, is the guy who jumped out the window OK? Jesus Christ, we are two stories up, do we have to call someone or….”
Joseph had relaxed a little in response to the group calming down, allowing the normal empathetic nature of humans to come through once more. Slowly I made my way to the window, looking down to see a singular Venlil running off into the distance.
“I-I think he’s fine.” I responded, causing the human to give a sigh of relief in response.
“Good. Note to self, do this in a room without windows next time… or maybe just the ground floor. So, to continue where I left off, humans have used tame predators as a natural non-invasive form of pest control since we started farming. This is a cat, completely harmless unless you’re a small rodent or bird. They also have this effect.”
With a flourish Joseph removed the covering for the cage containing the Flowerbird once more, the red little avian had been busily eating during the entire presentation so far. However upon spotting the Feline predator did something none of us had ever seen before.
It stopped eating. Wait, the human managed to get a Flowerbird to stop eating! I didn’t even know that was possible…
Giving repeated alarmed chirps it moved as far away as it could from the predator, still trapped inside the small cage, a frantic fear obvious on the poor little thing. Joseph let this go on for a few moments more, before dropping the cover back on and silencing the Flowerbird once more.
Everyone in the room was shocked. You could literally scream and shout all you wanted at the dumb little birds and they would ignore you and continue to devour crops. The fact that the feral predator had managed to stop the bird from doing that simply with its presence… was huge. Was more than huge.
“As you can see, the instincts of the ‘prey’ animal still remain. Presumably, whatever predator used to hunt these Flowerbirds has a resemblance to our cats. Normally it would be sacrilege to suggest introducing cats to an ecosystem, but in this case your ecosystems are so messed up that’s exactly what we want to do: Provide any farmer who wants one with a kitten, in order to quickly reduce yield lost to pests.”
I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t interested. On the one hand having a vicious predator in my house, where my pups would visit seemed like something a predator diseased individual would only consider. On the other hand, nothing else I had ever tried had even come close to the simple effectiveness shown here.
Would I be this desperate and in debt if I had one of these “cats” already?
“So I can see you’re all still a little worried, so we’re going to have a little discussion, for which I need a volunteer-'' The Yotul in the back practically fell over with excitement, with his arm raised immediately as he interrupted, causing Joseph to give a small smile. “One who isn’t a Yotul. I know your history with similar pets, and we are totally going to hook you up with a cat, but for this I could do with a Venlil please.”
The Yotul sat back down, a look of disappointment plastered over his face as the rest of the room shifted uncomfortably. Nobody wanted to be the person to step up and presumably get closer to the predator. Until I found myself raising my hand.
Brain, what the hell are you doing?
You said you wanted to be better, and we’re desperate.
NOT LIKE THIS BRAIN!
In a blur I found myself being introduced to the room and being told to sit at a chair next to the desk in front of the rest of the members here. Then, to my horror, Joseph opened the cage and took the feline predator out of its holding cell. The human took a few moments to fuss over the beast before turning to the rest of us.
“So now that we have our volunteer, let's logically look at our ‘dangerous predator’. The first thing to notice is simply the size. Regardless of anything else, size matters, size matters a lot. It’s hard to feel threatened by something that you can literally throw across the room.”
Joseph took a moment to hold the small creature next to me for context, highlighting just how small the predator actually was: barely the size of a Skivit, like a furry little pup. Logically if it wasn't for the forward facing eyes, I might consider it… cute?
“But what about its teeth and claws? It’s a predator that will tear people apart!”
The voice of the Gojid sounded out, a shrill fearful voice filled with barely contained panic and fear, the source of the sound looking ready to flee even though they weren’t the one sitting next to the predator
“Let's compare these. Tellek can you please extend your paws and show your claws to the group.”
I did as asked, my four black claws visible for all to see as Joseph moved the predator close. He stretched out one of its paws and pressed on a knuckle, a singular sharp claw protruding as he did so, causing a fresh burst of fear to erupt in my heart from being so close to such a thing.
Although if I was to be fully honest, if I was comparing the two, the predator’s claw were…
“As you can see, the cat’s claw, while sharper, is far smaller and more brittle. A Venlil can do some serious damage with their claws, while the worst this cat’s claw could do is break the skin. The teeth are similar, if you could show the group your pearly whites please.”
I again did as asked, feeling embarrassed and weird just having my mouth wide open in front of everyone. I hoped that there was nothing stuck in my teeth. While I did Joseph manhandled the cat again, taking a moment to move the lips and display the sharp needle point teeth, doing so for a moment before the small predator gave a small lazy growl of annoyance, clearly reaching the end of its acceptability.
“Once again we have similar results: Notice the small size of the cat's teeth compared with the Venlil’s. These would pierce skin, the Venlil’s would pulverize bone. Gojid aren’t much better with your literal claws and a back full of knives. Ironically enough the two ‘predators’ in the room are probably the least physically imposing.”
There was a moment as the room seemed to ponder this statement, allowing Joseph enough time to place the cat on the desk next to me, the predator promptly giving a stretch then curling up into a ball. The human was right, even humans themselves were physically… underwhelming, apart from their endurance. No claws, small teeth, no defensive armor or spines.
It’s kinda sad to think the only reason we’re all so scared of humans is their eye placement.
“Now the UN and Venlil government are looking for people to use cats as pest control to increase farming yield, with an initial trial size of about 100 participants. We’re offering a stipend for food, instructional care of your kitten, and as much support as needed. There are risks, for instance you’re going to need warning signs near your property and a containment system, as cats are actually dangerous to the Dossur.”
I could hardly hear Joseph speak, my entire concentration focused on the predator right next to me. I knew logically that the human wouldn’t do something to bring me to harm, but it was difficult to think that with a potentially feral predator right next to me. I saw its eyes fixate onto mine and I quickly looked away.
Maybe if I don’t look at it, it won’t take it as a challenge.
However much to both mine and the rest of the room's shock, slowly and carefully the cat stood up, stretched once before walking purposefully towards me, the room erupting into cries of worry as it leapt off the desk and onto my lap, curling into a ball with me trapped underneath.
“H-h-help…. Help…..!”
The human turned to look at me, breaking into a smile seemingly at my misfortune and giving a small chuckle.
“Awwww, she likes you. As you all can see cats share a lot of characteristics with ‘prey’. They will often seek companionship from others, and have a lot of prey characteristics, being at times skittish due to having many natural predators.”
That was good and all, but didn’t stop me from being trapped under the beast.
I don’t want to think about what could cause a predator to become prey.
“W-What d-do I do?”
Joseph gave a small shrug in response, clearly amused by my reaction.
“You could try petting her. Her name is Sprinkles and I can confirm she likes pets.”
You see brain, this is what happens when I let you do things! Now I'm trapped by a predator and I'm gonna die!
Stop being such a pup, the thing is tiny. Besides, don't humans claim petting stuff is nice?
Slowly I reached out a paw, gingerly approaching the predator, those yellow slitted eyes regarding my exposed arm as I gently placed it on the "cat", running my paw across its back.
I felt my held breath release as the predator did nothing, some of the tension of the room releasing in the instant.
"So interesting thing about cats: they 'chose' to be domesticated."
Joseph had gone back to talking, seemingly happy that I wasn't about to be torn apart. I had stopped listening, entirely focused on keeping the predator satisfied by running my paws across its fur.
Isn't this nice? I gotta admit I understand why humans like doing this.
Fine. I'll admit that this isn't unpleasant, the cat is rather soft.
"When humans originally started farming, that also attracted pests. Cats just turned up, following their food source. They stuck around because humans would feed them and provide companionship."
I was entirely focused on the cat at this point, running my claws through the fur, feeling the predator press itself against my paw, seeming to be enjoying itself. Gently I moved my claw to the back of one of its tiny little ears, scratching behind it like you might do to comfort a young pup. It started to emanate a low vibrating noise in response, causing another wave of tension to emit from the rest of the room.
For some reason, even though this feral predator was sitting on my lap, the sound seemed to vibrate through my heart in a calming motion.
Maybe this is some kind of predatory hypnosis?
Really? Just shush and enjoy this. Being scared of everything all the time is so tiring.
"Nobody needs to worry. That is just the sound a happy cat makes, it's called purring. Although I do need to take Sprinkles back now."
Joseph motioned towards the cat on my lap, a motion I decided to ignore, enjoying petting the purring cat for a few moments more. Eventually the human reached down and removed Sprinkles from my grasp as I momentarily resisted before letting the feline go.
See, that wasn't so bad.
Brain, I will admit- reluctantly- that I would have preferred to keep doing that.
With a small amount of resentment I watched as Joseph placed the cat back inside the cage, before turning back to the rest of the room.
"So anyone who is interested, stick around and we can get the paperwork completed."
—-------------
In the end eight of us remained, 5 Venlil, 2 Gojid, and obviously the Yotul. We had spent the last half a claw having instructions and paper work thrust upon us. Many of the group had immediately left, with others dropping out as various facts of cat ownership became apparent.
Still, those of us who were left behind were now heading to our respective farms, each with a single carry case. Mine was currently containing a gray and black “kitten,” which had been “meowing” loudly during the entire journey.
I looked simply at the little bundle of fur and eyes that peered out from inside the cage I had been given. Part of my mind still screamed danger, but it was a part that was getting quieter and quieter as I continued to look at what was a small fragile bundle of fur that I was now ultimately in charge of.
How could you look at something that’s hardly bigger than your paw, and think it’s a danger?
As I reached my farm, I finally opened up the container and pulled out the tiny predator. My tiny predator. There would be work to do, fences to erect and warning signs to place, but for now I just held the tiny thing in my paws, supporting it in the way I’d been told to. I now knew why humans spent all their time trying to pet things: with the troubles on the farm I hadn’t felt this calm in several cycles.
He was more energetic then Sprinkles had been, but in a way the more skittish nature pulled at my heartstrings, as if it was a small innocent Venlil pup. I sat there stroking it, realizing I still needed to give him a name. He was fluffy, Tiny, innocent, fragile. Yet with an underlying spice as it continued to meow loudly as I held in my paws
“I will call you Fireberry. My little predator.”

I've heard this laughable take from several anti-Israeli publications such Young Turks, Vice News or Al-Jazeera and various individuals as they cast shade on the protests again judicial reform in Israel by accusing the participants of being 'hypocritical fascists' or 'not actually in favor of democracy' because the rallies largely feature Israeli flags, copied Arab Revolt aka 'Palestine' flags are considered provocative, and for not focusing on the occupation.
This makes no sense whatsoever. Why would you want the flag of a foreign, militant nationalist movement whose leaders haven't held elections in decades and which champions wildly far-right, fundamentalist ideals in your gathering for democratic values? As a matter of fact, nobody on planet earth who actually cares about democratic values should be waving the Arab Revolt flag, as that would make them the frauds.
Statistically speaking, I'm sure that at least half of the protesters might support an eventual two-state solution, but that still doesn't mean there's anything good or inspiring about the 'State of Palestine' that warrants any inclusion of their symbolism in Israeli civil society.
As for the notion that unless a Jewish Israeli is perpetually prostrating down to Pro-Palestinian narratives and demanding immediate surrender or compliance with all of Hamas's or Fatah wishes and withdrawal from the West Bank, without any guarantees or indications of good-will from the other side, then they cannot possibly be 'Democratic' while tolerating a military occupation at the same time, that has no precedence either. Democrats ( not the party ) in the U.S did not all instantly stop being pro-democracy in 1946 because German and Japanese civilians had restricted movement and rights, mass civilian deaths, and so forth, at the behest of U.S troops, while U.S citizens had full rights. Hell the U.S even went a step further and put actual citizens of German or Japanese origin under surveillance and in camps which does arguably go against the principle but still called themselves a democracy, recognized as such by the UN, and no history books characterizes them as a 'non-democracy' between those years.
Same goes for every other democratic nation in the planet engaged in conflicts with another group of peoples. The word was simply never meant to apply to non-citizens or foreign elements, it's unrelated. Once again, even so, according to polls it is highly probably that most of the protesters would still be amenable to peace negotiation with the Arab-Palestinian leadership if that sentiment was reflected back from the Palestinian street, they're just not going to waste their time on beating that dead horse when there are more pressing issues in their mind affecting them domestically.
So in short - There's nothing inherently contradictory or hypocritical in the way that protests in Israel have been conducted. Some protesters might secretly be anti-democratic and support say, annexations without citizenship, which is quite unlikely because the far-right largely supports Netanyahu in this, but these would be individual cases, not a widespread 'corruption' like Mehdi Hassan and his ilk bizarrely portray them as because their favorite 'team' is missing from the protest.
Edit: Sorry for the caps in the title, It's just that this subreddit wouldn't allow me to distinguish upper-case from lower-case in Old Reddit format and this happened by accident, mods feel free to fix it if you can.

We broke up on good terms and still talk as friends. It's been about 3 weeks. If I'm honest I moved on quick because of my life and I know I can't grieve forever. They are on my mind every now and again but not all the time like they used to be. I'm at this point where I am unsure on what to do. I gave them 110% of my being and now that they are gone I have this free time. I'm unsure what to do or how to feel, if anything I miss it's being loved.

I am preparing for a career change and will start applying for, and hopefully interviewing for, jobs as a paralegal in about 18 months. (Why wait 18 months? I'm completing a paralegal certificate program, saving money to move back to home country as I live overseas, finishing projects in the overseas country I'm in, and doing internships in new field to gain experience.)
Somewhat regularly, I attend online information or job-fair type sessions put on by different schools offering similar certificate programs, by recruiters that place people in legal industry jobs, and by law firms themselves. All in order to gather info on various firm environments, what skills they find most valuable, general process for applying and interviewing, job contents, and more. It's been very useful as I can go through my non-legal industry work experience to pluck out the same skills and knowledge, and also seek out volunteer or intern possibilities to learn the things I'm missing.
A couple of days ago, I attended a job fair put on by a law firm and I was so impressed that I wished I was ready to apply today! Everything hit right for me- the firm is in the city I would most like to live in, the type of law they practice is my preferred, they want people with international or cross-cultural work experience, people that are bi-lingual, they have a hybrid work style, benefits are good. Almost everything hit my "have that skill" list as well as my "I want that '' list. I did some Google hunting for reviews and opinions on the firm and it all looks good. The end of the session was a Q&A time for queries about the firm, and then we were given an email address to use to apply that is direct, not through a recruiter they also use.
Normally after online info or job-fair info, I just make some notes for future reference and move on. However, for this one, I'd like to send the firm a letter to express my future interest in applying. I'll add that while many online sessions have 30-100 people in them, this one only had 19 ~ so there was more actual interaction with the firm staff than usual.
I'm considering writing and sending something akin to a cover letter - and mention that I'm impressed and interested, mention my international work experience and bi-lingualism, say that I'm keenly interested in that area of law, note that as I'm overseas now and not at point to repatriate, but hope that they might remember me when I do apply in about 18 months. (Also thought I'd put something about being interested in an internship before then if remote is possible. They did mention in the session that they are putting together an internship program.)
Any ideas or advice on this? Anything to mention or not? I know such a letter isn't going to get me a guarantee of future interviews down the road, but I'd like to try to make a connection that might be remembered if I can.

TLDR: I felt that this 'seeing the future' spell with the roll to cast system helps the wizard player become more engaged with DnD because it's her unique spell, it gives her a tiny bit of 'Elven old race' flavour, it gives her more utility for her party (takes away her feeling of being not so useful atm), have her take more risks (magic casting is not guaranteed with the roll to cast system) and help her to think creatively in DnD (if the magic cast fails and what kind of outcomes she desires to see and thereafter strategize on). On my side, I can train to creatively storytell the outcomes while still being in control of the story, what I can and can't spoil and train to ad hoc decide and be more aware of when to let go and when to railroad story moments, and how to tell the wizard what she sees of the outcome. Mechanically, she can't force tip a storyline, but tactically and strategically she can prepare the party better for the outcome that is going to happen within the hour.
One of my 5 players [we are all DnD first timers] wanted a future foretelling spell for her lvl 3 elven wizard PC to help the party in strategizing next (combat) conflicts. She wanted to see slivers of the future e.g. during her meditations or alike. I kept in memory that she finds her lvl 3 wizard PC too weak at the moment and wants to help her party more in her unique ways. I noticed she is a strategic minded person.
First, I told her that 'Foresight' is a lvl 9 spell so I could not give her that yet. Right after I did feel each PC should be allowed to have something unique to them if the player wanted to customize their character more to their liking. Especially because they're using pre-written LMoP PC's. I thought that would help the new player become more engaged with the RPG element of DnD. Rather than saying straight 'No', it would be a Mulligan's 'Yes, but...'. So here's the lvl 4 divination spell, initially suggested by ChatGPT, then tweaked for our PC, our party and adventure. This is my first homebrew spell. Feel free to use it or be inspired to do the same or something similar to enhance your DnD/TTRPG sessions.
[Note that we use 'House DM's' Roll to Cast system: basically DC 10 + lvl spell. DC+1 per cast At higher levels. Roll d20 + prof. bonus + spell casting modifier for the spellcast check. On failure, the spell cannot be used until a long rest. It can be forced with blood damage. The system uses 1 dmg per missing point + long rest after. [[I kind feel this is too lenient at higher PC levels?]] Cantrips cannot be cast at higher levels. We use this system because our players felt the DnD magic system is too tedious and complicated. I like this system because it introduces uncertainty and forces the players to be more creative/flexible when things don't go as planned.]
Augury of Foresight Level 4 divination
Casting time: 2 actions [Notice: 2 actions, meaning she has to wait a turn in combat, or get Action Surge. This allows me to create tension by having monsters target her and attempt to intervene if it made sense. Also nerfs the spell, but still allows her to use it in combat without abusing it] Range: Self Required: S, V, M (divination tool min. 25gp worth, e.g. a magic hand mirror, crystal ball or what you and the DM decide on) Duration: concentration, 10 min.
With your divination tool, you can tap into your divination powers to see the imminent future. You concentrate up to 10 min. on the outcome of a single hypothetical decision or unintervened event that happens within the next hour. Roll (or DM rolls) a d20 to see or feel slivers of the outcome: 15 - 20 (positive) 6 - 14 (positive and negative) 1 - 5 (negative) The outcome is what would happen if the decision or event you concentrate on would happen, if it was not intervened. [For instance, "I want to use Augury of Foresight to see if barging into the seemingly abandoned castle would alert any guards."]. The DM describes what, how and how much you see of this outcome in conjunction with your divination tool. You can prematurely stop using the spell.
At higher levels: you can choose to cast at higher level to gain a more accurate reading. [E.g. at DC 14 success she saw that silhouettes were running in a dark room. At DC 16 success, she would've also seen that they were bug bears.]
I also told her that this is the only spell I will give her for free to use from now on. Even though she is a lvl short. It's her customized special ability to alleviate her current issues and to inforce her DnD mindset. She will have to find, copy, research (lvl up or narratively) or buy spells (scrolls) hereafter as per usual.
So, how do we deal with storylines that are supposed to happen but the outcome contradicts? Well, let's say the wizard successfully uses the spell to DC 14 to see what would've happened if their bard tried to seduce a dragon. The DM can say that the wizard feels entertained or scared but less in danger, or sees slivers of the dragon smirking with its big sharp teeth uncovered. The dragon can still initiate combat or whatever the DM planned for, maybe it takes a bit more narrative talk. It's the same as the DM having the power to not allow a 'nat' 20 become a sausage party. Realizing this power, snap call decision making and creative story telling is something I felt I need to train on and this spell helps me with it when it comes up.
Let me know what you think or how you would improve, change this spell and how you think it would or would not fit in your world and your party. And what cost you would mandate to force a spell cast with blood magic? I feel it should be more like 1/4 or 1/2 hp?

I was born in the Netherlands and raised by Turkish parents. Because my grandfather fought and became a martyr in the Korean war, my interest in Korea, its language and culture has always been great. But, ever since I visited Korea in september 2022, I miss it so much and deep down in my heart I have a desire to move and live there.
So, I was wondering if anyone knows, if there are football coaching/scouting job possibilities in South-Korea, as I am a UEFA-B licence holder and have been working in the academy of several professional clubs in the Netherlands. Also, I have quite a lot of experience as a scout working for several Dutch professional football teams finding talents all over the country.
If someone could tell me more about the possibilities (if there are any), I would seriously consider moving and working in Korea working as a scout or coach.

This part got a little bit away from me. I only intended to have a brief moment between David and Ruk'sa, but it grew a bit more than I planned. It seemed like the right time for David to tell a little bit about his side of things. I hope you enjoy, and once again let me know what you think.
First / Prev / Next (At some point)
CW: Suicidal thoughts/actions
----------
David was all-too familiar with the ceiling of his bedroom. He’d spent many nights staring up at it praying for sleep to take him. Of course, then he had to deal with the nightmares. Tonight, was no different. Well, there were the two fik sleeping on either side of him, but the insomnia still had a firm grasp of him. The following afternoon he was supposed to catch a chartered shuttle out to the boonies for the funeral of a man he didn’t know. He could probably catch some sleep on the red eye, but if he couldn’t even sleep in his own bed…
He decided to stretch his legs. Thanks to a bit of luck, he wasn’t pinned down like last time, so he tried his best to stealthily shuffle off the foot of the bed. He padded silently to the bathroom, closed the door, then flicked on the light. Blinded for a moment, he blinked his eyes a couple times in the mirror until his vision cleared. Between the dark circles under his eyes and how gaunt his cheeks had become; his face took on an almost skull-like appearance.
He stared into his eyes, watching them dilate ever so slightly. Come on, man. You gotta get some sleep. Something. Anything. He ran his fingers through his mop, contemplating whether he should try and find some kind of barber. Perhaps one that could do something about his beard too. Knowing his luck, the aliens probably just grow perfect hair and have no concept of a hairstylist.
Resting his elbows on the counter, he pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes until he saw spots. Just let exhaustion take you. It wouldn’t be the first time.
He flicked off the light and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark once again. Once he could see, he padded back out of the bathroom and into the living room. The fik had overrun the small abode. Half a dozen bodies strewn about peacefully asleep on the floor, the room full of gentle breathing and the occasional snore. Chief Sulta had claimed the couch after being denied the bed by David. She made it clear he could also use the bed, but he didn’t feel comfortable letting a stranger into it. This of course didn’t stop the other two who were with him the previous night. Apparently, they thought they got a pass. He was too frustrated to object. Plus…They were warm…
David carefully stepped over the sleeping forms making his way to his kitchen. The chief seemed alright after a couple conversations. His guardians disapproved vehemently of course, but she seemed honest. A bit too honest. She really intended to do everything she could to keep David safe, but…Well, she wasn’t the sharpest bulb in the box.
Clearing the threshold, he made his way to the fridge for something to drink. As he sipped, he checked the time. It was still a few hours till morning. It was hard to tell on station. This one orbited a moon that orbited a gas giant that orbited another gas giant that all orbited a distant star. There was some kind of galactic standard time, but David could never get his head around it.
“Why are you awake?”
He looked up at Rus’ka leaning against the doorway. She was rubbing sleep out of her eyes.
“I can’t sleep.”
“Why?”
“I just can’t. I have insomnia.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s where I can’t sleep.”
She crossed the room to stand beside him as he turned to lean back against the counter.
“Sleeping is easy. Just close eyes and relax. Sleep come to you. You try too hard, maybe?”
He sighed and reminded himself that they were a relatively young species that didn’t come with countless medical journals or psychology papers. Lucky them.
“If only it were that easy. No. I broke whatever I had that let me sleep.”
“How can you fix?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Well…How did you break?”
He closed his eyes and set his glass aside, “I don’t know…Well, I have some ideas, but I don’t know.”
“What ideas?”
He couldn’t tell if she knew what she was doing or was just stubbornly persistent. Probably a mix of both. “Probably what happened to me.”
“What happened to you?”
He took a deep breath and slid down the counter to sit on the floor. She joined him there. “I told you: a lot.” He looked her in the eyes. She didn’t look away. He didn’t want to talk about this. He’d do anything besides talk about this, but… If she wanted to live here. Live with him, then she should probably know. She’d find out one way or another. When did I accept that?
Looking down between his knees he sighed and began, “I was kidnapped. I don’t remember much of what happened. One minute I’m trying to figure out why my Honda died again, the next I’m strapped to a table.” He shuddered. “I was groggy, but I could still feel them-“ He swallowed, “cutting into me. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t scream. I just felt and watched. They were out of a nightmare. They couldn’t be real. But I felt it. It was real. It hurt. Oh God, it hurt.”
He screwed his eyes shut trying to force the memory down. To think of anything else. Ruk’sa put her arm around his shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. “Then I could hear them. I could understand the snakes.” He fingered the scar behind his ear, “They put a translator in me. Then threw me in a cell. I was a slave.”
*****
As soon as he could move his arms, he began hammering on the metal cage around him. “Let me out! Don’t do this! Let me out!”
In a flash a blade whizzed past his temple scoring a shallow cut. “Silence! You will not speak. You have nothing to say anyway.”
His crimson captor ignored him and returned to the console before them. David took stock of his situation to find any possible way out. He was prone on his back in a metal coffin with a grate by his head, apparently there for easy stabbing access. He took a minute to control his breathing when the guard slithered out the door.
The box wasn’t tiny. It seemed to be made for larger creatures, but it was still a challenge for David to sit up. He grabbed onto the bars and pulled himself up to the hatch. A quick scan revealed the handle just outside. He thrust his hands through the bars, but he couldn’t reach the latch. It was so close. It looked like it turned toward him. All he had to do was pull it.
He sat for a moment contemplating what he had available. All he had on him was his rental tux. He regretted not going for the cummerbund, so the bow tie would have to suffice. He pulled it off his neck and stuck his hands out of the cage. It took a few tries, but he eventually managed to toss one end of the tie around the handle and caught it in his other hand. He didn’t have a lot of leverage, but with a steady pull he managed to pop the latch.
It was awkward twisting and dropping to the floor, but he was free…Free-ish. Now he just had to get out of the room. Glancing back to the wall of cells he realized he was the only one there. That made things simple. He stalked to the iris door and peeked out after it hissed open. The halls were empty, so he ducked outside. The place was massive, which made sense given its inhabitants. He noticed the halls had a slight bow in them. Must have made slithering easier.
He picked a direction and padded away as quietly as his dress shoes allowed. He’d stop at every intersection and listen. He chose the path with the least sound up until some kind of alarm sounded.
“Cell breach. Alert. Cell breach.”
He needed to hide, and fast. Looking around the circular hallway he noticed pipes and vents above him. Using the rounded walls to his advantage, he got a running start and ran up the side of the warped wall. It took a couple tries, but he eventually made his primate ancestors proud and caught a pipe above him. He hauled himself up and began shuffling awkwardly above the hallway.
Below him pandemonium broke out. He saw dozens of snake monsters slithering this way or that, looking for him. Each armed.
David channeled his inner John McClain and pulled a vent off the ceiling and climbed inside. As he crawled, he thought about what he was even looking for. There had to be some kind of escape pod, or shuttle he could steal. Maybe hide out on the next shuttle headed down to abduct some other poor dumb bastard. All he knew was he needed to get home. After scuttling around for a while his luck ran out. He crawled over a vent that couldn’t hold his weight and he fell into a hallway. Hauling himself upright with a groan he stopped dead at what he saw.
He could see Earth through the window. David never believed he could be an astronaut. He thought this view would forever be a dream, but there it was. Earth was beautiful.
Then he felt a sharp stinging pain across his back as a monster slashed him. He convulsed and collapsed, losing consciousness as he was dragged back to Hell.
*****
“I don’t know how long I was there…But that was the last time I saw home…I tried escaping. Many times. I saw home and damn it I was going to get back…Each time they punished me. Each time I ‘lost value’.” He looked over his scared arm then squeezed his eyes shut. Forcing the memories away. He didn’t want to be taken again, but they pulled. He could feel the cuts. The burns.
Ruk’sa rubbed his shoulders and leaned into him. Trying to keep him there with her.
With a shuddering breath, David continued, “Then one day, I was ‘rescued’. I don’t know if they were with the Community or just pretending, but some of those big bastards raided the ship. It got loud and violent. They hauled us off and took us to a little waystation. Refueling, I guess. They kept telling us we were safe. Then one of them…I think he was one of them, told us we needed a medical examination.”
*****
David and a couple of other escapees stared out the window at the strange planet. It was a pale-yellow rock drifting around some distant star. They were let off the ship to stretch their legs while it refueled for the next leg of the journey. David didn’t know where it was supposed to go. He just wanted to go home. He didn’t know or care how he’d explain what happened to him. There were plenty of crazy whack-jobs who claimed to be abducted. He could just roll with them. Or just pretend the whole thing never happened.
One of those big bastards who ripped him out of his cell and tossed him bodily off the ship appeared in the doorway.
“You there. You need a medic to look you over. Come on over here and let’s take a look at you.”
Seemed fair enough. David wasn’t sure how much blood was too much to lose, but the snakes flirted with that line all too often. He and the others shuffled over to the giant and where he directed. David entered the room and was soon pulled up by his arm. It felt like it might pop out of its socket. He struggled and thrashed before a giant fist sent the world to spin.
He woke up in another cell with another man. All he could do was weep.
*****
David didn’t notice when Ruk’sa drew him into her lap. He clutched at her arm to stay where he was. In the here and now. He could still see Sammuel’s face.
“The big bastards didn’t cut. They just hit you. Or starved you. All I could do was hold on. I tried to help Sammuel. Tried to keep him strong. If he was strong then I would be strong. We’d come so far. I held out. I did it once, I could do it again. And I was right. We were liberated once again after God only knows how long. We were free.” He swallowed and wiped away the tears forming in hie eyes.
“I can still remember the blinding light. I was numb when they hauled us off. They took us to some big station and asked where we wanted to go. I told them I just wanted to go home.” He let the tears fall now, “they told me it was gone. ‘What do you mean it’s gone?’ ‘It’s been destroyed. A terrible tragedy.’ I thought they were lying. It had to be another trick to keep me enslaved. I never escaped. They just refuse to send me home…Then they showed me…”
He clutched at her shoulders and buried his face in the nape of her neck, “That was all I had! I just wanted to go home! And they fucking stole that too!”
He wept and shuddered in her grasp. She stroked the back of his head while he collected himself.
“They tried to fix me. I broke down. I had nothing left. So, they sent me away to the loony bin. I just wanted to die. Is that too much to ask? Just bury me with the rest of my kind. But they had to try and fix me. They barely knew me or mine! How can you fix that!?”
*****
He was trapped once again. The fucking snake sat there asking questions like they didn’t destroy his life.
“David. Please talk to me. I’m trying to help you. If you just talk to me, we can help you.”
What fresh Hell was this? Making his tormentors try and fix him? David closed his eyes and refused to speak. If he looked at her, he could only relive what they did.
“I know what you went through was stressful…”
She didn’t know shit! How could she? He wouldn’t give her anything. Never again. He wasn’t a slave. He’d die first. Why didn’t he die? He should be with all the others. What’s left?
“David, please. I’m trying to help you. I just want what’s best for you.”
He knew what was best for him. He was tired of everyone trying to control him. This was no different. Well, no more. He’d seize the last bit of control he had. His hands were bound, but his mouth was still free. He bit down on his wrist. Maybe he could bleed out before someone stopped him.
“Nurse! Nurse! I need you in here!”
*****
David didn’t know how long it had been. Ruk’sa was rocking him back and forth. He felt tired. But he still couldn’t sleep.
“I was trapped there for a while…I couldn’t take it…Once they realized I wouldn’t talk to a snake, I started saying the magic words. ‘Oh, I feel better. I’m moving on. I’ll be fine I promise.’ They didn’t know the first thing about humans. I lied. They let me go thinking they’d done good… When they let me free, I tried taking all the pills they gave me. I tried ending it all a couple more times…They’re too damn good at stopping me.”
Ruk’sa couldn’t stop herself. She clutched David tightly to herself. “Saaaa, no! David, no! You can’t mean that! David must…David must….Saa!” She was ashamed for not having the words. She couldn’t fix him.
“I’m sorry…You just found a broken human…Just let me be broken.”
“No!...We fix you!...We must!” She held him tight as if he’d slip away. She didn’t know what to say. But she’d figure it out. She had to.
They stayed like that for a while before David asked, “Can…Can you hold me? Just like this? Please?”
She nodded, “Forever, if I must.”
David buried his face in her chest while she clutched him tightly. She tried to stop the tears from falling. To stay strong. To hold him and show him he was safe.
She tried her best, all the while a certain albino listened from around the corner, out of sight.

This isn't self-promotion, as I understand it, and I apologize if this post runs afoul of the rules. Fingers crossed.
1972 O’Day 27’ sailboat in Mayo MD
I purchased her in December of 2019 with the intent to live aboard for a few months while I navigated a contentious divorce. At that time I motor-sailed her from Deale to Mayo and noted no issues. The inboard diesel ran flawlessly and she handled nicely.
That spring I fell in love with living on the water and purchased a 42’ project boat with the intent of refitting her as a liveaboard while I stayed on the O’Day. I took the O'Day out of the marina a couple of times that summer. Everything was going well until June of 2020 when I injured my neck and underwent major surgery (C3-C7 fusion). I had to immediately move into a townhouse over an hour away to to recover.
At that time friends moored her where she has stayed with infrequent visits. Last fall my wife and I began refitting her with the intent of taking up sailing again. I purchased a new West Marine dinghy, and a used 2.5hp Mercury outboard as a tender.
Health issues have struck again, plus I need to move over a thousand miles inland to attend to my elderly parent’s declining health.
So, here I am writing about the boat and dinghy that I would rather sign over (zero dollars) to the right person than sell.
I have the full title and paperwork required to legally operate both.
The Good:

• Working inboard yanmar diesel, model 1GM10.
• Two AGM (house & starting) batteries and the typical marine A/B switch.
• Shore power hookup, with both 12v and 120v wiring.
• 4 new 100w solar panels and the necessary solar controllers, wiring, switches that need to be installed.
• The main sail is in good condition, a small section of the grommet reinforcement on the foresail was starting to fray last fall. I have another sail that I haven’t investigated.
• Nature's Head, USCG approved composting head. No sewage holding tanks so the boat doesn’t smell like poo.
• Genoa roller furling.
• Canvas cover for the mainsail is in good condition.
• Comes with a mooring ball that I purchased from the previous owner.
• She is a dry boat.

The Bad:

• Soft spot on the bow.
• The diesel runs fine, but the cool water impeller is fouled. I have several spares, a complete factory manual and an aftermarket maintenance book. She will need the cool water inlet cleaned (round wire brush) and the impeller replaced before she can be motored.
• I started to replace an ancient dual handled throttle / shifter with a modern single handle model. However, I didn’t finish connecting the linkage to the transmission. This should be a 30min task, I forgot a tool and ran out of time.

The Ugly:

• She needs to be hauled out, scraped, and repainted. The bottom is fouled.
• I left her in a hurry, the interior is a mess.
• I dropped a 'temporary' bilge pump in the bilge last fall. It has a dedicated battery and solar panel. However none of this was ‘installed’. I zip tied the wiring in place with the intent of finishing it properly this year. I did this because I was a bonehead the winter before and left something open that should have been closed. No repeat this winter.
• She is a 50yo boat in need of fresh topside paint, interior varnishing, in short - lots of TLC.

This isn’t a turn-key boat, however it isn’t an impossible beyond all hope project boat either. It will require someone who has the time, energy and resources to enjoy her.
DM me if you think you are this person.
Happy sailing.

Hello my friends,
I have a basic question regarding left hand technique while alternate picking.
Lets say I am slowly practicing and trying to get up to speed the following line on high e string:
12-15-14-12-14-15 12-15-14-12-14-15
Do you touch the string with multiple fingers simultaneously or only with one finger at a time.
Say: Index finger touching the 12th fret while picking the e note and stays on the 12th, while ring finger and pinky simultaneously touch the 14th and 15th fret to pick the g note. Then when the 14th fret is picked only the pinky lifts up while index and ring finger still in touch with 12th and 14th fret. And when picking the e again on 12th fret the ring finger lifts up while picking the note.
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Or: After Picking the e, index finger lifts up, while only the pinky moves to the 15th fret, when picking the g note. Then pinky lifts up again and only ring finger moves down to touch the 14th fret and so on.
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This is a very basic question, but I see different guitarists recommending different approaches.
The arguments are, that for first approach, having multiple fingers simultaneously touching the frets, overall less finger motions are necessary, therefore it enables you to play faster.
While the second approach appears more intuitive to me regarding rhythm and hand synchronization.
I am very interested in your input.
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I was admitted to an inpatient behavioral health center in Illinois in may of 2022 for alcohol abuse. It was voluntary and I knew I would be body cavity searched. During admission, I was asked to remove all of my clothing including underwear and was strip searched. The process all went normally, (I have read about others experiences), behind the ears, fingers through hair, under my feet etc, until the “bend, spread butt cheeks and cough” section. One of the nurses conducting the search (there were 2 present), made the following comment after I coughed lightly when ordered; “Cough harder, I need to see you wink”. I asked “ what?” “I need to see your butthole wink.” She responded. Totally Mortified, I hesitated and turned my head slightly towards her before she said to look forward, and then I did as ordered and coughed harder. “Good, again” she said. And I complied. Then I had to squat and hold my arms outward and cough hard another 2 times before given a gown that didn’t even close on the back fully. Is it malpractice for patients to be verbally humiliated in this way? Would I have a case? The rest of my stay seemed totally normal and the staff treated me fine, I was there for 6 weeks. Only searched once upon entry and one other time when a staff members vape went missing. Don’t have that much money for a lawyer but want to pursue Justice. If no lawsuit are there other avenues for complaint? Feel totally humiliated. I had read a lot on forums and never heard anything like this, many people don’t report even being strip searched, let alone subjected to such profane comments. The 2 nurses conducting the search were females, and I had to interact with them throughout my entire stay although I was searched by other staff when the vape was stolen. It was completely embarrassing talking to them right after seeing my most intimate parts, and making myself “wink” on top of that. Do I have a case?