Most dog food manufacturers create life stage diets. This indicates that the diets have been designed to offer the proper amounts of nutrients to assist your puppy as they mature into adulthood and subsequently as senior dog.
Large and giant breed dogs may take much longer to attain adult size than small breed dogs, who tend to do so quite early. This needs to be mirrored in how we feed our dogs in order to encourage proper growth, the development of lean muscle, and the maintenance of healthy joints.
By about 10 to 12 months of age, the majority of small- to medium-sized dogs are ready to switch to a meal designed for young adults. This nutritional modification is typically not appropriate for huge and gigantic breed puppies until they are 12 to 18 months old. Your veterinarian's staff will be able to advise you on the best time to gradually introduce adult food.
You should already be aware of the feeding preferences of your puppy. Perhaps you give dry kibble, or perhaps they like a combination of kibble and pouches. You should be able to select an adult dog food that your puppy appreciates as they mature because, like puppy food, there is a vast variety available. It's a good idea to take stock and make sure you're giving your puppy the best nutrition you can even if you decide to remain with the same kind of puppy food you're presently using. So how do you decide what to eat?

Hey All,
I'm new here (this sub was suggested to me by someone over at scifiwriting) and pretty new to Reddit in general, so apologies if I'm doing this wrong, and thanks for your patience. I've written a sci-fi novel and have been shopping it around with pretty limited luck — I just can't seem to get past the query stage. Those that have actually read the manuscript all seem to really enjoy it, so I think maybe I'm hosing up the query itself. Hence, why I'm here.
This is actually the 3rd or 4th version of the query (I did a workshop at a writer's conference not too long ago), but I haven't shared it with anyone yet, so y'all are my test audience (and I appreciate it very much). FWIW, I'm a published author but only short stories in a couple of mags and I have no representation of which to speak.
----
Dear [READER],
Foxhound, a steadfast mercenary transporting a prisoner from the edge of the solar system back to Earth, is compelled to answer an SOS from a cultist colony ship orbiting a remote mining asteroid. She’s informed that eviscerated bodies, the very marrow ripped from their bones, have been found aboard the city-sized vessel and that the cultists already have the suspected serial killer in custody. But when she boards the colossal ship, she discovers that the suspect in question is actually a young orphan girl—one that Foxhound finds disturbingly familiar.
But before she can piece together who the girl is, how their lives intertwine, and what—or likelier who—orchestrated their implausible rendezvous, a group of violent prisoners aboard Foxhound’s own starship breaks free. And the once-peaceful cultists have taken up arms in response. Amid the chaos, Foxhound must team up with her mechanized AI assistant and two of the cult’s wayward members to stop the barbaric escapees, elude the grasp of the cult’s enigmatic, radicalized leader, and protect and extract the mysterious, potentially dangerous girl.
THE MARROWER (70,000 words) is a character-driven science-fiction action-thriller intended to be inclusive, accessible, and diverse, meeting the requirements of both the Bechdel and Mako Mori tests. The book will appeal to lovers of sci-fi in the tradition of James S.A. Corey (The Expanse), Pierce Brown (Red Rising), Battlestar Galactica, Bungie’s Destiny video game series, and Star Wars (especially The Mandalorian).
[REDACTED BIO, 80 WORDS]
I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time and attention.
----
FIRST ~300 WORDS
Prologue
Location: Unknown
Survive.
Move.
Survive.
Observe. Examine. Analyze. Extrapolate.
React. Retreat.
Survive.
Dodge. Guard. Protect.
Faster.
Advance. Attack. Annihilate.
Survive.
Slash. Maim. Rip. Crack. Devour.
Digest.
Satisfy. Nourish. Sustain.
Evacuate. Escape.
Survive.
♁
“Where the hell is everybody?” Corporal Vasquez, a senior officer of Deadwood Mining Corporation Security, said out loud to no one in particular.
In his four years working for DMC-Sec’s boots-on-the-ground District Management Team, he had never seen a security substation so empty. Even for Deadwood—one of the smallest backwater mining asteroids, floating around the Kuiper Belt so far beyond the reach of the sun’s rays—it seemed unusual, concerning even. There wasn’t even an officer stationed at the reception desk.
“How should I know?” replied his captive, a gaunt, worse-for-wear man known around the station only as “Fink.”
“Wasn’t talking to you.” Vasquez shoved Fink, sending the bald, slender man shoulder-first into one of the security substation walls.
“Hey, watch it, man,” the prisoner whined, righting himself. He shook his wrists, jingling the cumbersome cuffs that kept his arms secured behind his back. “Kind of at a disadvantage here.”
In the short time they had been together, Vasquez had already begun to understand why some of his fellow officers chose to use violence as a means of keeping the rabble around the station in check. It wasn’t his style. In fact, it was a point of pride to Vasquez that he never bent the rules when it came to enforcing what limited laws there were on Deadwood, but Fink had pushed him to his limits through sheer annoyance and indignation.
Vasquez had picked up Fink while undercover on a human trafficking sting. The skeletal man hadn’t been the target, and the corporal had blown his cover by bringing him in, but Vasquez simply couldn’t ignore the flagrance with which Fink had approached him. Worse, Fink was offering up children for sale. The conversation between them had lasted mere minutes before Fink was in cuffs and Vasquez was marching him back to the security substation for processing.

Preface
The old man has finally left… As a Bucs fan I have to just start by thanking Tom Brady by giving me some of the best years of Buc’s football I have seen in my 22 years of life. From eliminating the Saints and retiring Brees to winning the SB the Bucs teams from the Brady era will always be special to me. But saying that this move had to happen as with Brady the Bucs would not be able to rebuild the roster to the degree that is needed.
While a roster top loaded with talent the Bucs are in a huge deficit of depth through the roster even before Brady left. During this season we saw the effect of this lack of depth with the amount of injuries we had throughout the interior of the O-line and through the entire defense. Injuries to Ryan Jensen and Aaron Stinnie forced inexperienced players upfront which led to the biggest problem of the season which was pressure from the interior of the line. While backup Center Robert Hainsey held up and gave the Bucs fans hope for a post Ryan Jensen O-Line first year player Luke Goedeke was a detriment in his first year at guard to the point the Bucs will be switching him to RT for next season. For the defense we saw injuries throughout it from our depleted CB room to our barren safety room to our ravaged EDGE room to our destroyed IDL room… you get the point. Injuries were the main thing that destroyed the Bucs last season and during this offseason the Bucs lost even more depth.
The main positive about the Bucs lost season was GM Jason Licht firing OC Byron Leftwich from his role. While seemingly a good guy Leftwich might have been the worst OC in football last season. Continually calling plays which seemed to be against the players and the team's best interest. At times watching Leftwich call games was similar to spamming the A button in Madden and letting the game decide what play you were calling for you. It was infuriating his constant tirades he would go on about during the season when asked why he never called play action when we were one of the best play action teams in the league. Along with his thought process that the run game has to be dominant to set up the play action game which continually caused 3 and outs as he would call to run plays up the gut and an over schemed passing play on 3rd down. Replacing Leftwich was paramount, and I truly do believe Jason Licht found a good one in Dave Canales coming from Seattle. Canales was the WR coach for the Seahawks from 2010-2017 before becoming QB coach and passing game coordinator from 2018-2023. Canales is a Carroll disciple being part of Carrolls tenure at USC. Canales should bring life to the Tampa Bay passing game and with his already raving reviews of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin it should at least be a fun year for the Bucs.
New Coaching Hires:
Dave Canales (Offensive Coordinator)
Brad Idzik (Wide Receiver Coach)
Skip Peete (Running Back Coach)
Thad Lewis(QB Coach)
George Edwards(OLB Coach)
Notable Arrivals
QB Baker Mayfield
G Matt Feiler
IDL Greg Gaines
S Ryan Neal
RB Chase Edmonds
Summary: The Bucs additions this off season are nothing to write home about. Mayfield joins Tampa looking to win his final opportunity to show he is a starting QB in the NFL he will be in a stiff competition with Kyle Trask who Dave Canales is hyping up. At the end of the day I believe Trask will win the QB competition and be thrown into a sink or swim situation like Sam Howell and Desmond Ridder. While Gaines and Neal are phenomenal value signing with both being immediate contributors on the Bucs defense with Gaines being projected to rotate with Vita Vea along with playing next to the behemoth and Neal seemingly replacing Mike Edwards role at SS opposite of AWJ these players aren’t gamebreakers. Feiler and Edmonds should be nice depth pieces with Fieler competing to be the starting LG. Overall the Buc’s didn’t make any splash signings in free agency but with the limited cap room they had the moves they made were more than fine.
Notable Departures
LT Donovan Smith
S Mike Edwards
RB Leonard Fournette
G Shaq Mason
TE Cameron Brate
CB Sean Murphy-Bunting
K Ryan Succop
Summary: With this offseason the Buc’s ended up losing a ton of starters on both sides of the ball. On offense the Bucs lost their starting LT, RB, RG, TE and K. While Donovan Smith was a liability in pass protection his departure does mean the Bucs will now be shifting All-Pro RT Tristan Wirfs to LT which causes hesitation in people. I believe this move will be fine in both the long and short term for Tampa but it is still something to note. On defense the Bucs lost both starting SS Mike Edwards and NCB SMB. These moves leave the Bucs secondary especially thin at the CB position with Zyon McCollum slotted to start at NCB now.
Bucs Draft Selections
1.19: Calijah Kancey IDL Pittsburgh 6’1 281lbs
RAS Score: 9.60 Draft Grade: A
While some people believed that taking a OT here was a must with the top 4 OT’s all gone before the Jets pick the Bucs were put into one of the most interesting situations in the draft, seemingly picking between defensive players at this point GM Jason Licht stated that at the top of board they had to players one being “The Linebacker who went to the Lions(Jack Campbell) and Calijah Kancey'' with Kancey being BPA after the OT’s were taken. In a draft class with very few true top end talents I see this as a major win for the Bucs taking a top 10 player on the board and a premier pass rusher from day 1.
Kancey from day 1 should be a menace on the interior of the Bucs D-line paired with the best NT in football Vita Vea. Kancey doesn’t just win with his elite first step; he is an extremely refined player in every aspect of rushing the passer. From hand usage, leverage, pass rushing moves and intensity Kancey makes up for his miniscule size and arm length with his athleticism which is otherworldly. The comparison to Aaron Donald is over blown, Kancey doesn’t play with the functional strength that Donald had or the run defense ability that Donald has. Personally, I can see Kancey becoming a in between of Aaron Donald and Prime Sheldon Richardson a pass rushing specialist who will collapse the interior and will develop into a 3-down player as his career and body develop in the NFL.
2.48: Cody Mauch G North Dakota State 6’5 302lbs
RAS Score: 9.32 Draft Grade: B
Mauch is very much a Jason Licht pick. Small school guard with a mean streak and tons of athleticism. Mauch is not just a meme because of his missing front teeth he is a legitimate RG prospect similar to Alex Cappa and Ali Marpet for the Bucs. With how the O-Line is shaping up and Licht seemingly happy to move Goedeke from LG to RT, Mauch makes complete sense to shore up the RG position giving the Bucs a much younger and deeper interior then they had last year where every single projected starter interior lineman was hurt at some point.
With Mauch on tape I can see exactly what Licht loves in his linemen with a player who has aggressive hands and a base when pass blocking. Mauch has shown that he is a coachable player making the switch from TE to O-Line. You can sense the traits and upside that Mauch has over some other guard prospects in this class. I do believe that the Bucs switching to a zone blocking scheme which Seattle runs will aid the young O-Line and play to Mauch’s strength which is his athleticism. Playing beside Ryan Jensen makes this pick a B-B+ for me, a big addition especially if Goedeke is the answer at RT.
3.82: YaYa Diaby EDGE Louisville 6’3 263lbs
RAS Score: 9.87 Draft Grade: A
Diaby is a tale of untapped potential. Playing completely out of position at Louisville Diaby was forced to play with his hand in the dirt. Diaby is one of the most athletic players the NFL has ever seen from the EDGE position with his initial quickness and long arms Diaby should be able to develop into at minimum a role player for Tampa. Playing behind Shaq Barrett and Joe Tryon should help Diaby develop into the premier EDGE player he can be. He shows flashes on tape of just using his superior size and athleticism to overpower linemen and his speed to get past them.
For the Bucs I think Diaby will play a rotational role at the moment similar to Anthony Nelson’s role as a smart rotational EDGE that Bowles will use on unique blitz packages which push JTS or Shaq into a 4-3 stance. I have massive hope for Diaby in this defense as a future foundational piece for the Bucs who will more likely than not have to move on from Shaq Barrett next off season.
5.153: SirVocea Dennis LB Pittsburgh 6’1 226lbs
RAS Score: 7.28 Draft Grade: A+
My favorite pick in the Bucs draft I have Dennis as a top 5 LB in the class. Dennis is a do it all LB who is able to not only tackle well but is able to blitz the passer from the ILB position better than anybody in this class. His biggest deficiency to his game is his lack of experience in coverage but he wasn’t a player who was dominated there either. On film you could see him being put into situations in coverage which he couldn’t make the play. In Tampa Dennis will be mentored by one of the best coverage LB’s in the NFL for over a decade in Lavonte David. And with Bowles coaching the defense Dennis will be able to use his ability to rush the passer from the ILB position to its full effect.
With Dennis I can see this being one of the best picks in the entire draft. Dennis’s fit in Tampa is like a glove and with the situation with Devin White where we aren’t sure if he will be a Buc next season I can see Dennis being put into a starting position next to Lavonte David and like former Bucs Kwon Alexander taking it and never looking back.
5.171: Payne Durham TE Purdue 6’6 253lbs
RAS Score: 6.58 Draft Grade: B-
Durham is a big TE who is good at everything but a master at nothing. Very similar to what the Bucs had in longtime player Cameron Brate. Durham at Purdue was a team leader for the offense he set the tone playing an aggressive brand of football dragging defenders wherever he went with the ball. Durham runs decent routes and has decent hands but was never a player who took the top off a defense. With Durham you are giving Mayfield or Trask a reliable receiver in the passing game and a decent blocker to boot. For his size Durham was able to produce decent YAC at Purdue rumbling his way down the field in a similar way that Jason Witten was able to do for the Cowboys during his tenure.
For the Bucs Durham joins one of the youngest TE rooms in the NFL with last year's pick Cade Otton and Ko Kieft being the only players that seem to have roster spots in that room at the moment. Durham should compete with Kieft to be TE2 for this season, but he should be able to still carve a decent role for himself in Tampa with how new OC Canales uses TE’s. Where each TE has a specific role and was able to contribute with Geno Smith at QB.
6.181: Josh Hayes NCB Kansas State 5’11 189lbs
RAS Score: 4.82 Draft Grade: C
The biggest surprise in the Bucs draft was grabbing Josh Hayes, a prospect most people didn’t even have a priority free agent grade on in the top of the 6th. Hayes for all intents and purposes is a prototypical Bowles NCB. Hayes has the speed to play in the NFL and on tape you can see he has adequate tackling skills from the NCB position which he played in college along with the S position. With Hayes you have to believe that the coaching can turn this player into a solid starter because if not the CB room and S room take a massive hit forcing Winfield Jr into NCB full time.
Hayes' best film in my opinion was for North Dakota State where he was a former teammate of Bucs 2nd round pick Cody Mauch. At NDSU you can see the making of a very good CB prospect with how he is able to play in both Man and Zone coverage. At Kansas State he was never forced to be CB1 or even CB2 at times but he did hold his side of the field down and was able to put up some decent performances as a Wildcat. To me this C grade is more of a “I trust Bowles to develop CB’s/S’s” grade.
6.192: Trey Palmer WR Nebraska 6’0 192lbs
RAS Score: 6.18 Draft Grade: A+
A great value pick for the Bucs with their depleted WR core. Palmer has serious upside as a deep threat and even as a return man for the Bucs. Past Evans, Godwin and Gage every spot in the receiver room is wide open and Palmer seems to have the talent to set himself apart as WR4 by the end of the year. Palmer does have reasons for falling this far in the draft though as he has serious drop issues and apparent character issues which have set him back before. I don’t see this as a big problem in Tampa with Evans and Godwin being locker room leaders and his past season at Nebraska.
With Palmer you can see the obvious talent that is there but you can see the reasons he was drafted in the 6th round even when he has Day 2 talent in this class. And with this talent I can see him developing into a player similar to MVS for the Packers and now the Chiefs. A good deep threat that can blow the top off of a defense and isn’t scared of making plays on contested passes even if they aren’t the biggest receiver on the team by any means.
6.196: Jose Ramirez EDGE Eastern Michigan 6’2 242lbs
RAS Score: 8.10 Draft Grade: B
When you watch Ramirez on tape it’s hard to not like what you see. At first when looking at this pick, I thought about how our EDGE room was already a bit full with Diaby but in hindsight I like the Ramirez pick more and more from a talent standpoint. Ramirez is never going to be the most athletic guy on the team but he makes up for it with his effort, timing and technique. Extremely similar to how Shaq Barrett plays for the Bowles defense Ramirez has a talent for being the first guy to get into the QB’s area with his blend of pass rushing moves and leverage. Ramirez was dominant at Eastern Michigan being one of the best players to ever play for EMU.
For a dart throw pick Ramirez should bring the effort needed to truly succeed in some capacity in the NFL and being mentored by the player your game is most similar to in Shaq Barrett is a plus as well. Ramirez should find a role as a utility pass rusher but I don’t see him playing much at all this season and having to compete against Cam Gill for EDGE 5 on the roster.
Key UDFA’s
Sean Tucker RB Syracuse 5’10 205lbs
RAS Score: N/A
Jeremy Banks LB Tennessee 6’1 232lbs
RAS Score: 8.90
Luke Haggard OT Indiana 6’6 297lbs
RAS Score: N/A
Rakim Jarrett WR Maryland 6’0 190lbs
RAS Score: 7.89
Chris Inzen S Rutgers 5’10 200lbs
RAS Score: N/A
Projected Final Roster
Offense(26)
QB(2)
Baker Mayfield
Kyle Trask
RB(4)
Rachaad White
Ke'shawn Vaugn
Chase Edmonds
Sean Tucker
WR(7)
Mike Evans
Chris Godwin
Russell Gage
Trey Palmer
Deven Thompkins
Rakiim Jarrett
TE(3)
Cade Otton
Ko Kieft
Payne Durham OT(4)
Tristan Wirfs
Luke Goedeke
Brandon Walton
Luke Haggard
OG(4)
Cody Mauch
Matt Feiler
Aaron Stinnie
John Molchon
C(2)
Ryan Jensen
Robert Hainsey
Defense(24)
IDL(5)
Vita Vea
Calijah Kancey
Greg Gaines
Logan Hall
Pat O’Connor
EDGE(5)
Shaq Barrett
Joe Tryon
Anthony Nelson
Yaya Diaby
Jose Ramirez LB(4)
Lavonte David
Devin White
SirVocea Dennis
KJ Britt
CB(6)
Carilton Davis
Jamel Dean
Zyon McCollum
Josh Hayes
Dee Delany
Don Gardner
S(4)
Antoine Winfield Jr
Ryan Neal
Nolan Turner
Chris Inzen
Special Teams(3)
K(1)
Chase McLaughlin
P(1)
Jake Camarda
LS(1)
Zach Triner
Final Thoughts
For what seems to be a retooling/rebuilding year I actually liked what Jason Licht and the Bucs did. For me this draft was easily the best draft they have had since drafting Tristan Wirfs and Antoine Winfield Jr in 2020. With this draft you get an elite pass rushing DT that pairs perfectly next to Vita Vea. Cody Mauch who should be a starter at RG for years to come and fits this team's identity. YaYa Diaby who was a great value pick with Pro Bowl upside at EDGE. SirVocea Dennis who I think can easily become one of the best LB’s in this class and maybe even the league. Then the rest of the draft contained high floor prospects who can contribute to a rotational role in some way or form. Overall, the draft for the Bucs was a massive win in my books.
For this offseason I would also say it was a win if not adequate at worst. As an organization we know we needed to retool the roster and slowly claw ourselves out of cap hell in some way shape or form and using this season to get out of it is a good way to do it. There are 2 ways this season will go for us with us either being a team similar to the Seahawks that is able to dominate a weak NFC South, or we are one of the worst teams in the league and are in contention for Drake Maye and Caleb Williams. Either way I am looking forward to watching this season play out for the Bucs. David Canales should bring life back to our offense and Mike Evans should continue his campaign towards the most consecutive 1000-yard seasons.
Overall, I am happy with this off season and especially the draft that came with it. Let me know what you guys think! This is my first time defending the draft and I hope this isn’t terrible and if it’s not I would love to do this again next year! Go Bucs Go!

A strange object flying in space and land on earth. It is a large blade with alien text on it. A man who has witness the large blade, he immediately call the Silver Team. The Silver Team is Science Intelligence Investigation team. An advance team with high technology to research something strange that happen on earth. The captain, Aoi order Hiroshi and Kagura to investigate about the large blade.
They arrive at the location and amaze the size of the blade. They try to take a piece of the blade but it was too strong and cannot break. Hiroshi see the weird text on the blade. He scan the text and send it to HQ to try translate the text. Akio try to use many code to translate the text. Aoi tell Hiroshi and Kagura to stay there to make sure nothing dangerous happen. Kagura still try to understand the capability of the blade.
Then, Kagura got shock with electric when he touch the sharp part. Hiroshi try to help him but it seems like Kagura doesn't have any serious injury. Hiroshi look closer at the sharp part of the blade. He notice that the sharp part is really hot and penetrate the ground and he notice that the blade is slowly goes underground. He immediately tell captain about the blade but the blade suddenly fall underground.
"Sir, the blade has fall into the ground and it digging in rapid speed" says Hiroshi. "Both of you come back to HQ. Hayate take the HUDM-05 to drill underground and track the blade with Hiroshi and Kagura.Tatsuya and Yumi take SW Wings. Patrol from the above the location if something emerge from underground. "SILVER, GO!"-Aoi "YES SIR"-everybody. Hayate, Hiroshi and Kagura go to the underground to locate the blade while Yumi and Tatsuya patrol above the location if emerge from underground.
When Hayate drill the ground, Kagura notice something weird about the rock movement. He notice that some rock is moving forward when they drilling. "Sir, I guess we have found a way the blade"-Kagura "Good but be careful, it may damage the machine"-Aoi. After a long way, the finally find the blade. "Sir, we found the blade but it seems like it collect a bunch of rock to make bigger.....rock? It use the heat to connect"
"I don't think it's just a big rock, it's a monster"-Hiroshi. Then the big rock turn out to be a monster and it emerge to the top. "Sir, the monster is controlled by the blade on its head"-Akio. "Tatsuya, Yumi fire the blade on its head. Now!"-Aoi. "YES, SIR"-Tatsuya and Akio. They their guns target to the blade but the blade make a shield. Hayate manage to get out of the hole.
"Kagura, Tatsuya you guys attack the monster. I'll go to the SW Wheel to prevent the monster go the village"-Hiroshi. Hiroshi rush to the SW Wheel. Attacking the feet of the monster so it don't go to the village while others try to attack the blade. The monster is annoy by Hiroshi so the monster attack Hiroshi until the car explode. Luckily, Hiroshi manage to get out of the car. "I guess I have no other choice then"
Hiroshi take out the transformation and say "ULTRAMAN CRYSTAL". Hiroshi transform into Ultraman Crystal. "Finally, the hero arrive"-Tatsuya. Crystal try to separate the blade from the monster but the blade blasting a fire energy to Crystal. Crystal realize that the monster is slow and only defense itself, doesn't attack much. So Crystal flip in the air and separate the blade using chop technique in midair.
Once the blade separate from the monster, Crystal attack the monster with Crystal Kick and the monster turn back into a pile of rock. Crystal grab the blade so it doesn't make another monster. So, Crystal destroy it with Crystal punch and the blade break into pieces and the blade energy is gone. Crystal turn back into Hiroshi. After the fight, all of them go back HQ. Akio make an announcement that she has translate the text from the blade.
"It says that, This is my first monster I've summon to kill you. The Megalo blade. A blade that can make a monster only using the planet source. Don't be too happy if you able to destroy it. Soon, the Megalo blade will kill you". They think who or what has a grudge against them until it wants to kill them. "Could this blade is summon by Zarlim"-Hiroshi "Zarlim? The Frightening Winged Raider?"-Tatsuya "Isn't that thing dead already?"-Kagura
"If that thing is dead, this fight wouldn't happen. It probably somewhere inside earth waiting to revive and seek revenge"-Aoi. Zarlim is one the most powerful Silver Team and Crystal has ever fought. When Zarlim die, it plant one of it organ so Zarlim can revive. The organ is in the core of the earth, waiting to revive and seek his revenge.

I typed all of this up right as I woke up from this dream so I apologize for any and all grammatical errors.
Had a dream that I went to a high school to work on something and all of the high schoolers were doing the thing they normally do when they see someone new. I basically showed them I was there for work and didn’t really care what they did. One kid had came up to me and was wondering what I was doing so I showed them that I was trying to put together some sort of presentation. I saw others putting together tables and they were going to need the tv so I started to try get my stuff together and get out of the way. They all started singing what seemed to be some song to do with their school spirit, and this one person who I thought was a student sat next to me and was clearly trying to impress the stranger they had just meet with singing. They kept looking over to me and singing and I just kept awkwardly smiling and nodded with approval so they didn’t feel weird about singing near a stranger. After a while I realized this was a teacher then the presentation started, the lights dimmed and everyone was watching whatever was on the tv that I was trying to use, which for some reason was crooked. I spotted all my things and started trying to gather them when the teacher sort of suggestively asked me if I had done Rocky horror picture show. To her, it seemed she knew who I was and she was trying to remember, while also sounding like she wanted me to remember as well. I explained that I hadn’t done that show with her because I was not from there, at this point the teacher was a very small (like smaller than a water bottles size small) and was not happy when I said that Rocky Horror isn’t a good high school show. She insisted it was and I insisted it was her own selfish opinion that made her think that. I explained that there was suggestive themes such as sex, death, and cannibalism that just was safer left not done in a school, but she insisted. I started to try and gather all of my things but I couldn’t find all of my parts to my pc. I tried not to worry about her constantly trying to reason with why she thought it was ok to do the show and look for my computer and peripherals so that I could leave and be out of the way of everything going on and get back to work. At this time, I kept losing track of where this tiny woman was while I was talking to her, my focus would shift from a rogue popcorn, to a doll on the ground, and then finally to her when I could spit her (this for some reason felt normal). I couldn’t find my monitors and all my things were scattered. I found my small bag but, nothing was in it. I started picking up things and putting them in the bag as I moved around looking for my stuff. I managed to pile together my pc and some other things but strangely while I was putting stuff in my bag I could feel something strange happening and my underwear came out of one side of the leggings of my pants. Embarrassed, I tried to hide them back in my pant leg because this teacher and I had been back and forth arguing about the Rocky Horror thing. I slid them back up my pant leg trying to get out as fast as I could but upon passing an area with a whole lot of electrical lost and found items, I searched for my monitors. In looking I picked up a few things that I found interesting like a GameCube controller which I thought was cool, so I picked it up and started seeing how well put together and how quality it was. One of the students noticed this and shouted that I was trying to steal it. I placed it back down and kept trying to search for other things of mine so I could leave asap. I found my old iPad that I haven’t used in years and I remember thinking “why is this here?” right before the now full sized teacher grabbed it out of my hands. Her now towering over me, I claimed that it is mine and she asked if I could prove it and I was confident I could find some proof that this is my old iPad. I grabbed it from her to show her and she asked if I was “some kind of professional” to which I replied that “I was”. I spoke to her explaining my level of expertise and why this iPad and equipment was mine and how I could prove it, while at the same time walking back to the other side of this cafeteria toward where my pile of stuff had been, trying to look through emails or any other way to prove my legitimacy. Once I got to my pile of stuff, all but my monitors were there, but there was now a sword on top of my computer. Staring at the sword, puzzled, I looked back across the room towards the teacher and she had grown bigger once again but this time an upwards of 9 feet. She started moving towards me and as she did her legs turned to something snake like and she began slithering toward me as her upper body began to change. I grabbed all I could and went towards the door that when opened, showed a swirling blue void that seemed unending. I decided to take my chances jump. I eventually fell into a similar but much older looking room. The walls were constructed of bricks and the lunch tables now long dining benches. Candle lights lit the room and a lady came to me and asked if I was ok but all I could think to ask was “where are my monitors?”. She looked extremely puzzled at my question and I could tell she had no idea what I was talking about. I took a closer look around and I immediately started to realize that I had traveled to the past.
Lmk what you think! -My thoughts are that the two places where the same but in a different period of time. The fantasy in my wants to believe I went back to the origin of the shapeshifting snake lady. How do y’all interpret this?

https://bruib.prodibi.com/a/m4606268q6r54l1
My workflow was an utter mess! I've spent a week on this, experimenting and playing. I started with a photo of the island, photoshopped a basic pyramid into it, and started prompting.
Control Net Lineart and Tile were the backbone of the changes. I would get a result that was doing the right thing and then take the CN lineart image into photoshop, and edit as needed. Then I would fix prompts as required and generate again. Repeat.
That makes it seem a lot less chaos than what really happened. The size of the image, and my newb status, caused so many issues. In the end, I had to chop up my image and process it in 4 bits, then rejoining in photoshop. Keeping things consistent was a trial during that stage.
The single hardest bit to get right (and I never did, really) was the water. I made a crucial mistake early on, that cost so much time later. The mistake was moving the island up in the frame. I wanted the gap of water to be bigger. Later, when I was attending that part of the image, it seemed like my moving of the island caused a discontinuity in the landscape structure.
I spent 2 days fighting water that would turn into sky. The water near the island was water. The water near the mainland was sky. My neg prompts were a thousand variations on 'sky' 'clouds' 'horizon' blah blah, but still, I would get sky. Eventually I got what you see and gave up there. It looks so much nicer with better water, but I could not get there!
70% satisfaction rate. I would have liked it to be a bit more coherent. The overview is a bit 'junky'. I was never trying to make something real, but there are many weirdness in there. Odd perspectives and distorted scales. The statues don't have good faces. The sky was kinda an afterthought, as I was very ready to get this finished. And fuck the water.

I run a small web hosting agency in The Netherlands. We mainly focus on small - medium size businesses that don't have a dedicated IT person to manage everything. We run their websites / webapps on our servers, deliver technical support and help with custom development if needed. The idea is to give clients a true "set and forget" service for their IT.
We've been growing quickly to now 500+ websites under management, I've been looking for webdesign agencies that want to build websites but not have to host and manage websites and want to sell them. Also maybe people who want to retire or go bankrupt.
My idea was to offer these agencies a deal where we'll take over their hosting clients and we'll payout a yearly 10% commission in perpetuity. Unfortunately it's tricky finding agencies willing to sell their clients. The agencies that do sell almost always ask for crazy money. (they make 21.000 a year from hosting, and they ask 300.000, like... There's no way your business is worth 14 times revenue.)
Any ideas how to find agencies willing to sell their client-base? And any ideas on providing them with a good offer which seems reasonable for both parties? Also, how would I be able to verify the "quality" of the clients?
Would love to hear.

Here’s what happened to me. Guide pulley broke. (Pulley nearest the muffler).
Replaced it and every time I tried to start it, the belt would jump off
Searched YouTube and got a lot of good info but nothing seemed to work or be the problem
Found out that it had sheered all but two of the tranny fan blades.
They would fold up and get between the tranny pulley and the belt
Cut them off and tried again. Stayed on
Replaced fan blades. Good to go
FYI

I am hoping someone here may know of a bra that fits all of my criteria! I've just joined here recently and am on the hunt for some good fitting bras. I recently lost about 25lbs and my bra size has gone down so I'm starting all over here... I don't really know all of the terms here yet and I'm not sure I understand how to figure out my "roots"(?) and all of that but my measurements are: Loose under: 30.5 Snug: 30 Tight: 29.5 Standing bust: 34.5 Leaning: 37.5 Lying: 34.5 I know that I have pretty soft tissue based on the 3inch difference between standing and leaning plus the fact that I don't hold a shape really, tend to wrinkle in the cups and can spill out of bras when bending over. I have researched bras that are good for soft tissue but many of the ones I am finding (Envy, Jasmine etc.) have a lot of lace, seams etc. and I HATE that. Seams always show through my shirts and I have sensitive skin that lace tends to irritate. Based on my measurements in the calculator, I'm leaning towards a 32DD (?) but I'm hoping to find something that is 1) Good for containing soft tissue 2)Seamless, lace-free and maybe a little stretchy? 3) Not over $50 Is that going to be possible?

I have a 40mm reversible LV belt but im not a fan of the buckle (the LV initals). Does anyone know if I can buy a different type of buckle from LV? Or does anyone know a good place to get a replacement buckle?

Hello everyone!
I have been running in circles in this rabbit hole of trying to find a standing desk for my specific needs.
Of course I would love something affordable. But I also want something durable, and reliable.
I put my desktop on my desk. A Lian Li 011 XL. It weighs nearly sixty pounds. This would be either on the left or right side of ny desk, on the edge.
I have my two monitors plus mount, lets give it a nice 40lbs.
Then I have my audio/video stuff. Mixers, dslr camera on a tripod etc. Rounded up to another good 50lbs just for good measure. Plus of course if I put any weight on my arms while the desk is in standing position.
I need a minimum desk size of 64x25 but would prefer 70x30.
Ive looked at everything from progressivedesk, rockymountain, flexispot, ergonofits, hell even the new secretlabs magnus xl.
Id like to be around 1200~ give or take, all in with taxes and shipping..
If anyone else has plunged into this rabbit hole and come our victorious, I would love any sort of feedback/recommendations etc.
Halp.

I am still relatively new to warhammer, and I just bought whatever I thought looked cool. I've tried a few 1k armies before but I am still not sure what is good. I'm still learning to balance my points bewteen how much hq, troops, or elites I should bring. Here is a full list of all units I own to use: https://pastebin.com/E5yNfDt8
Here is the List I devised. Please let me know if I am balancing the points badly and if there are more optimal unit choices.
[b]++ Arks of Omen Detachment (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Black Templars) [58 PL, 2CP, 998pts] ++[/b]
[b]+ Configuration +[/b]
[b]Arks of Omen Compulsory Type:[/b] Elites
[b]Battle Size [6CP]:[/b] 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)
[b]Chapter Selection: Black Templars[/b]
[b]Detachment Command Cost[/b]
[b]Game Type:[/b] 5. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen
[b]+ HQ +[/b]
[b]High Marshal Helbrecht [8 PL, 140pts]:[/b] Warlord
[b]Primaris Chaplain on Bike [8 PL, -1CP, 135pts]:[/b] 2. Psalm of the Remorseless Persecution, 6. Oath of Glory, Chapter Command: Master of Sanctity, Litany of Hate (Aura), Stratagem: Hero of the Chapter, Wise Orator
[b]+ Troops +[/b]
[b]Primaris Crusader Squad [10 PL, 158pts]:[/b] Bolt Pistol and Astartes Chainsword
. 3x Primaris Initiate w/Chainsword & Heavy Bolt Pistol: 3x Astartes Chainsword, 3x Frag & Krak grenades, 3x Heavy Bolt Pistol
. 2x Primaris Initiate w/Power Fist and Heavy bolt pistol: 2x Frag & Krak grenades, 2x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 2x Power fist
. 4x Primaris Neophytes: 4x Frag & Krak grenades
. Primaris Sword Brother: Heavy Bolt Pistol, Power sword
[b]+ Elites +[/b]
[b]Bladeguard Veteran Squad [10 PL, -2CP, 140pts][/b]
. 3x Bladeguard Veteran: 3x Frag & Krak grenades, 3x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 3x Master-crafted power sword, 3x Storm Shield
. Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant: Heavy Bolt Pistol, Stratagem: Champion of the Feast, Stratagem: Revered Repositories, Sword of Judgement
[b]Primaris Apothecary [5 PL, -1CP, 100pts]:[/b] Chapter Command: Chief Apothecary, Selfless Healer, Stratagem: Hero of the Chapter
[b]Redemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 185pts]:[/b] 2x Storm Bolters, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Onslaught Gatling Cannon
[b]Vanguard Veteran Squad [7 PL, 140pts]:[/b] Jump Pack
. Vanguard Veteran: Power axe, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Power axe, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Power axe, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Power axe, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran Sergeant: Relic blade, Storm shield
[b]++ Total: [58 PL, 2CP, 998pts] ++[/b]
Created with [url=https://battlescribe.net\]BattleScribe\[/url\]
I plan to run Helbrecht with the crusaders/bladeguard and have the bike chappy and vanguard vets be my mobile unit for points/picking off targets.

So, we already discussed what DC was doing to match the tenor of the early years of the War on Terror: A grim, smarter-than-it-thinks miniseries full of gratuitous rape that was meant to take the shine off the Silver Age by showing the darker side of its greatest heroes. Marvel, on the other hand, was trying to find a way to capture the zeitgeist of a post-9/11 era of existential threats, constant government surveillance, and the idea that if you weren’t with America, you were against it. A Captain America storyline saw Cap wrestle with the very concept of Guantanamo Bay; like any story arc that involves Cap doubting whether America lives up to its ideals, this made certain conservatives pissy, to the point that bad movie cataloguer Michael Medved wrote an entire article asking if Cap was a traitor. Avengers Disassembled briefly saw the Avengers face down their demons, as the Scarlet Witch goes crazy (again) and starts killing team members, her reality manipulations causing fault lines to form among Marvel’s greatest superteam. But there hadn’t yet been a storyline that would tie the entire Marvel Universe together with the burning question, “Which side are you on?”
Yeah, it’s got nothing to do with the Sokovia Accords. We’d be a lot better off if it did.
Part 1: Mark Millar’s March to the C-Word
Content Warning: Sexual assault. None of this is germane to the topic of the drama, so feel free to skip ahead to Part 1.5 if you don’t want to deal with this. Tl;dr: Mark Millar, the writer of the event, has a near pathological need to be a 3edgy5u contrarian.
Every comics crossover is ultimately a chance for one creative in the stable to shine or falter. The editors pick a writer who has turned out dependable work and give them a chance to try to alter the status quo but good. And for Civil War, Marvel’s EiC Joe Quesada decided the best person to lead the charge was Ultimates writer Mark Millar.
But who is Millar? Well, we could say “edgelord” and leave it at that, but we’re trying to dig deeper. Millar came up in comics alongside fellow Scot Grant Morrison, long before Morrison said the only time they want to bump into Millar on the streets of Glasgow is while going at 100 miles per hour. This antipathy is alleged to have stemmed from Millar copping several ideas from Morrison that went into Superman: Red Son. But after getting a start on Superman Adventures and as a cowriter on parts of Morrison’s JLA run, Millar soon branched out to WildStorm, where he took over The Authority from departing creatowritesex pest Warren Ellis.
The reason I bring up Red Son (for those non-geeks, an alternative universe comic premised on “What if Superman’s rocket had landed in Soviet Russia?”) is to frame a constant refrain about Mark Millar. He has good high-concept ideas… which often get trammeled up in an almost Pavlovian urge to shock, disturb, and/or titillate the reader. For instance, in The Authority, Ellis had introduced Apollo and Midnighter, two close companions who just happened to share the rough power sets and demeanors of Superman and Batman, with a few tweaks. Then he revealed they were boyfriends, which was a pretty bold move for a late Nineties comic book full of widescreen action and lovingly-rendered eviscerations.
In Millar’s first arc on the title, centered on a villainous Jack Kirby clone sending out a team of baddies who totally aren’t the Avengers, Apollo is subdued and is strongly implied to have been raped by someone who’s not Captain America. Apollo gets revenge by destroying EvilCap’s spinal column with his laser vision, then leaving him to the tender mercies of Midnighter, who is strongly implied to have sodomized him with a jackhammer.
In case you can’t tell, Millar loved him some rape. And it kept showing up in his creator-owned titles as well, all of which were basically written as Hollywood pitch docs. Wanted asks the question, “What if the supervillains won and secretly ruled the world from behind the scenes?” Well, an Eminem clone would take the opportunity to step into his dead villainous dad’s shoes and commit a lot of rape (yeah, there’s a reason the movie version replaced this with basically the Euthanatos from Mage: the Ascension getting orders from a magic loom). Chosen asks the question, “What if Jesus were born today?” Well, in a blatantly obvious twist, it turns out he’s actually the Antichrist, and part of his journey into realizing his evil nature involves being raped by all the demons of Hell.
It’s not that Millar can’t write innocent or restrained; he got started on the Superman: the Animated Series comic spin-off, and some of his titles such as Huck and Starlight have been praised for being relatively wholesome (keep in mind Huck is basically “What if Superman was Forrest Gump?” when I say “relatively”). And, as mentioned above, his works are made for high-concept log lines. You might recognize some of his various pitch docs: Kick-Ass, The Secret Service (source for the Kingsman movies), and, as mentioned above, Wanted. It’s just there’s this unctuous contrarian streak to a lot of his titles, a tendency to focus on venality, grotesquerie, and sodomy, with an air of pop culture edge. This also leaked into his image outside of his writing, with comments like “Games are for pedos” and ventures like the creator-owned comics periodical CLiNT (yes, the kerning is intentional). This streak continues to this day, as The Magic Order, a title that emerged from his deal with Netflix, features a magical escapologist who, she feels it very important to tell the reader in a direct monologue, escaped her own abortion. Bottom line, Millar has a sense of vision, but it’s betrayed at times by this reflexive desire to prove he’s smarter than the reader, to rub your face in the contradictions and make you a party to the artifice of it all. Usually with a dash of rape.
But at Marvel, Millar was riding the lightning of the Ultimate Universe. His Ultimates title was drawing on the wide-screen action image of JLA and The Authority, creating the cinematic language that would come to define the MCU. The choice to fantasy cast Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is why we have Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. He also painted the Hulk as a cannibalistic monster, cemented Hank Pym’s reputation as a wifebeater, and gave us Captain America yelling “Surrender? Do you think this A on my head stands for France?”, so let’s just keep that in perspective.
But the Ultimate Universe was its own pocket universe. Millar was being tapped to write a story for Earth-616, the main Marvel Universe. And he had a vision:

“I opted instead for making the superhero dilemma something a little different. People thought they were dangerous, but they did not want a ban. What they wanted was superheroes paid by the federal government like cops and open to the same kind of scrutiny. It was the perfect solution and nobody, as far as I'm aware, has done this before.”

Yeah. About that.
Part 1.5: What Has Come Before
Ultimately, the crux of Civil War is something that has been explored lightly in the past at Marvel: The idea that, instead of being unlicensed vigilantes who decide the best solution of societal issues is to beat up assholes in spandex, superheroes become licensed government officers that register their true identities with Uncle Sam and solve societal issues by beating up assholes in spandex. In Marvel’s history, it hasn’t gone well. The reality of government liaisons to superhero bodies has ranged from Valerie Cooper, who worked with government mutant team X-Factor but still found herself backing the genocidal Sentinel program as a big “Yeah, but what if…?”, to Henry Peter Gyrich, an inflamed obstructionist asshole who had to be held back from flipping a switch that would depower every superhuman individual on Earth. The idea of heroes themselves bristling against a government they disagreed with had a long history, as there was a period where Steve Rogers quit being Captain America, and the government had to find a replacement while he rode around on a motorcycle in a surprisingly slutty costume. But the idea of registering with the government has usually ended up on the “No” side due to one big cohort at Marvel: Mutants.
Ever since the days of Chris Claremont, a general conceit of the Marvel Universe is that mutants are a stand-in for your minority group of choice. Hated and feared, born different and feeling alienated, painted as an existential menace and threat to the status quo. Of course, it’s long been pointed out that the metaphor breaks down on the general grounds that, say, gays can’t shoot laser beams out of their eyes. I have my thoughts on that which I might share in the comments if someone pokes me hard enough, but it’s been general editorial consensus that people with powers, especially those of persecuted minorities, being compelled to share their true names, addresses, and natures with the federal government is a “That train’s never late!” move. Not only that, it’s a slippery slope. The classic X-Men story “Days of Future Past” is entirely premised on the idea that a government program of genocidal robots built to wipe out mutants will eventually run out of mutants… and then start turning on humans who could give birth to mutants, and then it’s Skynet all over again.
Another running meme in the Marvel Universe is that the X-Men usually exist in a Schrodinger’s cat situation with the rest of the superhero universe, both coexisting and in their own worlds. Yes, mutants have served on the Avengers, and yes, Thor intervened when the Morlocks were nearly wiped out in the sewers under New York. But Captain America, for all his proud statements of living up to America’s ideals, has a habit of missing the plot whenever the US government (or Canada, seat of all the Marvel Universe’s governmental evils - no, really) decides it’s Genocide O’Clock. And when the mutant nation of Genosha was completely wiped out by said murder robots, the Avengers seemed to be all “New phone who dis?” But when the two do intersect, there’s usually support for the mutants. One story in Fantastic Four had Reed Richards - Mr. Fantastic, stretchy man, greatest genius in the Marvel Universe, guy who’s probably being cucked by a fish-man - get tapped by the US government to make a device that detects mutants and other people with powers. He does… and then uses it to show why the government probably doesn’t want it, as it pings several members of Congress as having just enough genetic variation to qualify as “mutants,” even if they don’t have powers.
All in all, while the argument has some merit, for years, Marvel has come down on the position that asking people with powers to reveal their identities to the federal government is something that could go really bad if somebody with a hate-on for superheroes ends up in power. Something that would never happen oh yeah it totally did. But before it all went to Hell, Civil War at least gave an opportunity to reexamine the concept and see if it had merit.
It might have. But not with this argument.
Part 1.75: What Else Has Happened Before?
And now, some things that will ultimately give context for what happens next:

• In the pages of Thor, all of Asgard eventually runs headlong into Ragnarok. Thor and the rest of the Asgardians give their lives to save the earth, taking Thor off the board… for now.
• As mentioned above, the Avengers experience a critical fault due to Wanda going batshit (a common lament). With Avengers Mansion destroyed and the team at odds, it is eventually reunited under Tony Stark, who put the Avengers up in a tower he built.
• Nick Fury has vanished due to doing some skullduggery in the pages of the miniseries Secret War (no, not Secret Wars, this is different). Acting head of SHIELD, the all-purpose super spy squad of Marvel, is Maria Hill, who can’t seem to draw her pistol without shooting herself in the foot.
• Due to Wanda continuing to go batshit, the House of M crossover event ends with her casting a spell: “No more mutants.” While the damage is staunched, Earth-616’s population of mutants (which was recently established to be somewhere around 16 million) is reduced to 200, the rest being depowered or dying as a result of being depowered. This was because, as Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said, the idea of mutants being everywhere made them “boring.” The fact that mutants were starting to be written less as a minority stand-in and more as an actual minority group with fashion, culture, music, and neighborhoods might have had something to do with that. From the wake of this event emerges Sally Floyd, a journalist whose own mutant daughter died before the mass depowering due to having a power that was more curse than blessing. The series Generation M follows her as the viewpoint character as she investigates the stories of former mutants.

Part 2: Connecticut Can’t Catch a Break
The big kick-off for Civil War involves the New Warriors, a team of teen heroes who have, as of a recently canceled series, been trying to make it big as reality TV stars. They get in a fight with a bunch of villains in the small town of Stamford, CT, when exploding villain Nitro goes positively nuclear, resulting in a blast much bigger than any he’s generated. [1] Not only does this mostly wipe out the New Warriors (save for kinetic energy-absorbing goofball Speedball), but it also happens to hit a nearby school. In the end, 612 people are dead, many of them children, and the nation wants answers.
With public opinion turning against the New Warriors, former member Hindsight starts leaking secret identities to get the heat off his back. This only makes things worse. Secret identities have only recently stopped being a thing for some heroes: Captain America only came out a few years ago, it was only recently that Tony Stark stopped pretending Iron Man was his bodyguard, and Daredevil was almost outed in the pages of his book. But something needs to be done, so Tony helps work with Congress to pass the Super Human Registration Act, which requires that all people with powers or working as vigilantes register their identities with the government to receive training and oversight. If you don’t? Believe it or not, jail, right away.
Fault lines quickly develop in the superhero community. While Tony is leading the “pro” side, alongside Reed Richards (yeah, we’ll get to that), Captain America, usually painted as the embodiment of the dream of America despite its compromised history and many sins, is against it. He’s lived through Richard Nixon being a secret fascist and shooting himself in the head after being fingered as mastermind of a vast criminal conspiracy (yes, that happened ); he knows how badly this could go in the wrong hands. Needless to say, Maria Hill and SHIELD hear his concerns, understand his problems with it, and are willing to iron out the kinks through reasoned debate.
Just kidding. Before the law has even been signed, Maria sics SHIELD’s elite Cape-Killers squad on Cap with the intent of getting him behind bars. Cap swiftly goes underground and starts his own group of anti-registration superheroes.
The fight continues for the next few issues. Spider-Man, caught in the middle, reveals himself to be Peter Parker at a press conference, declaring his support for the SHRA. Doctor Strange is so powerful that he tells the government to fuck off, and somehow, Maria Hill doesn’t decide to go charging up his asshole. Ben Grimm, the ever-loving blue-eyed Thing, is so sick of all the conflict he goes to France. But things are still at a stalemate, and while SHIELD may be acting like a bunch of merry assholes, it seems like there’s a debate to be had that could still be resolved reasonably… except for one key factor.
Part 3: I Fought the Law, and the Law… Huh?
No one ever really defined what the Super Human Registration Act, the legislation that tore the Marvel Universe’s superhero community asunder, did. Every book that had an issue that touched on the event seemed to have a different understanding of its principles, as well as just how fascist it might be in the long run. In the pages of She-Hulk, attorney Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk argues the law is a net good, as it gives heroes the backing and resources they need to not have to go it alone, while also having some measure of government oversight. In the pages of Civil War Frontline (oh, and we’ll get back to Civil War Frontline, don’t you worry), Wonder Man is told by the government that he needs to do a job for them, and if he refuses, well, one thousand years dungeon.
Which then leads into the other issue behind the SHRA. Namely, that everyone in favor was either starting to swing towards fascism or embracing bootlicking as a lifestyle, not a kink. In the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, Peter asks Reed Richards, who has always bucked authority and once stopped the US government from doing something just like this with mutants, why he’s pro-registration. Reed then reveals that an uncle who has never been mentioned before was called before HUAC; he refused to name names, his career was ruined, and he killed himself. From this, Reed - the man who stole a rocketship because the government said “no” to his planned space voyage - has learned that the government is always right, especially when they could step on your neck (this was received so badly that a later comic revealed he’d actually borrowed the concept of psychohistory from Asimov’s Foundation, he’d made it work somehow, and his calculations showed that this was the only way to avoid a greater disaster). This comic also revealed that people who were in violation of the SHRA were sent to a literal extradimensional Gitmo, a prison in the Negative Zone that later comics would reveal was overseen by… Captain Marvel. No, not that one. No, not that one. The Kree superhero Captain Mar-Vell, who had famously died of cancer decades before. How did he come back from the dead? Fuck if we know.
This “the law says what you want it to say” approach spread across various books and miniseries meant to cross over into the event. In the pages of a crossover mini between the Runaways and the Young Avengers, this meant SHIELD Cape-Killer squads were using lethal force against teenagers. The second-to-last issue of the mini ends with several members of both teams in extradimensional Gitmo, about to be dissected by a guy who’s horny for torture. The fact that all the captive heroes were the queer members of both teams? Total coincidence. Honestly.
So, it quickly becomes clear that the editorial control on this event is less than cohesive. There are different ideas all over as to what the SHRA does, and some of those ideas are tacking pretty fashy. But if the law is being painted as that bad, then clearly, there must be some greater statement of freedom vs. security. Maybe Millar’s really painting a subversive picture of what happens when you trade liberty for control, right?
Part 4: Why Do You Hate the Good Thing?
After the publication of Civil War #3, Millar would say in an interview he was actually pro-registration. I can’t find that interview, but here’s a similar sentiment shared years later:

“Weirdly, some of the other writers would often make Tony the bad guy, which I thought was a strange choice because I was actually on Tony’s side... In the real world, if somebody had superpowers, I’d like them to be registered in the same way that somebody who has a gun has to carry a license. But a gun can kill several people while a superhero can kill several thousands of people, so on a pragmatic level I’m 100% on Tony’s side. Maybe on a romantic level, Cap’s position makes sense but I don’t think anybody in the real world would really want that."”

And again, here’s the thing: He’s not entirely wrong. As said above, the idea of civil liberties for all and “free to me you and me” falls down a little when one of your neighbors can blow up a city block by thinking real hard. But Millar is fighting against years of ideological inertia in the Marvel Universe, as well as painting Captain America, the guy who has always embodied the ideal of a righteous, just America, as in the wrong. He needs to make one hell of an argument.
So here’s what happens in the pages of Civil War #3 to sell the audience on the SHRA:

• Thor comes back from the dead… and he’s on Tony’s side! Well, not really. Tony and Reed both realized that having one of the most beloved gods of the Marvel Universe come out on their side would be a big win… if only he wasn’t dead. So, they cloned him. Or rather, they T-800’d him, putting cloned divine flesh on a robot skeleton. But I’m sure he’s perfectly under control, and - oh, he just killed Goliath. In the next issue, one of Marvel’s black male heroes, frozen at the size of a small townhouse in death, will be buried in a gigantic ditch, wrapped in a tarp and chains. You’d think Hank Pym could grow a large enough coffin, at least.
• With Cap and the anti-registration side escaping once again, Tony decides he needs a dedicated team that can track down fugitive superhumans. To do so, he creates a new version of the Thunderbolts, a concept long associated with “villains acting like heroes.” And who does he put on this team? Venom, the Spider-Man villain who eats people’s brains; Bullseye, the Daredevil villain who will kill anyone for the lulz; and Norman Osborn, a.k.a. The Green Goblin, who famously murdered Spider-Man’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy.

Again. Tony’s in the right. The SHRA is good.
Part 5: Yadda, Yadda, Yadda
The next few issues of Civil War might best be described as “They fight, and fight, and fight and fight and fight.” The anti-registration side picks up The Punisher, Marvel’s most avowed murderer of criminals - and Cap is somewhat shocked but not entirely surprised when two minor villains join the anti-registration side and Frank promptly kills them on sight. Spider-Man starts realizing things are weird on the pro-reg side and defects, after he has set his entire life on fire. The X-Men have continued to stay out of this whole mess. In the lead-up, Emma Frost called Tony out on the Avengers’ complete absence when Genosha got nuked. Later, Carol Danvers (then Ms. Marvel, now Captain Marvel) will show up at the Xavier School to pitch the SHRA just after a massive terrorist attack kills dozens of students. Emma responds by telepathically dogwalking her.
By the final issue of the miniseries, the SHRA has expanded out into the Fifty States Initiative, wherein each state gets its own superteam. There’s a big final battle, Hercules kills Robo-Thor, and Cap nearly takes out Tony, only to be stopped by… the heroes of 9/11. No shit, Captain America is subdued by cops, firefighters, and paramedics. And when that happens, Cap finally takes a look around, realizes their big ideological street brawl has resulted in collateral damage, and surrenders. The SHRA wins, though Tony feels a little bad about it. Cap is ready to stand trial and to argue that, while he may have done something wrong, he did it for the right reasons.
Once again: Yeah. About that.
Part 6: MySpace Tom Didn’t Die For This
Running alongside Civil War is Civil War Frontline, a street-level book written by Paul Jenkins that managed to capture this world-breaking conflict through the eyes of people on the street. Though it has side stories, its main leads are Ben Urich, Peter Parker’s journalist buddy at The Daily Bugle, and the aforementioned Sally Floyd. Throughout the series, they start to realize there’s a story underneath the SHRA, as if somebody is playing the angles.
Before we talk about that conclusion, let’s talk about a side story. Remember how we said part of the comics community saw Identity Crisis as a driven effort to make things less “wacky” and intentionally darken the DCU? Well, that same tonal approach led to one of the more laughable moments of a pretty laughable arc. See, despite the fact that, as established, it was Nitro who blew up Stamford, it’s Speedball, the only survivor of the New Warriors, that views himself as responsible and is held up as a scapegoat by the general public. In addition, the blast screwed up his powers. Now, he doesn’t absorb and reflect kinetic energy; rather, he generates energy based on pain. So, he builds himself a new, extreme outfit lined with 612 spikes, one for each person who died in Stamford. This will drive his crusade to make things right - not as Speedball… but as Penance.
It was so laughably DeviantArt “OC do not steal” that no one could take it seriously. Look what you did, you took a perfectly good goofball and gave him an emo streak. The turn is swiftly mocked in other Marvel books, and it’s eventually revealed that Speedball still had his original powerset and always intended to put Nitro in the Goofy Suit of Dark Inner Torment as punishment for his crimes. But this turn gives you a sense of the tone and heft Jenkins was bringing to the proceedings.
Anyway, back to the main plot. Ben and Sally follow the thread as Namor, as he is wont to do, declares war on the surface world after an Atlantean diplomat is shot. But it turns out the assassination was arranged by Norman Osborn, who decided it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission and manipulated Atlantis into war so that Tony could have another piece of evidence for getting superhumans on a leash. And the two journalists deduce that, on some level, Tony had to know this would be an inevitable outcome of giving state backing to an unhinged mogul who dresses like a Power Rangers villain. Weighing what to do with this information, Ben and Sally, who are kind of sick of the collateral damage by this point, sit on it while they go in for an interview with Captain America, now in custody and willing to tell his side of the story.
And then. And then. The monologue. If you want a lesson in how to assassinate a character in 30 seconds or less, this monologue is a great example. Sally Floyd calls Captain America out as completely divorced from American values. Now, again, Captain America has long served as the beating liberal heart of the Marvel Universe. He has always represented an America that reckons with its legacy of things like internment camps, Manifest Destiny, and Jim Crow, in order to transcend these scars and embody the promise offered by Emma Lazarus’s New Colossus, carved on the side of the Statue of Liberty. Why is he out of touch with Americans at the dawn of the 21st century?
Well, he’s never heard of MySpace. [2] He doesn’t watch NASCAR. He doesn’t follow American Idol. There are pop culture moments that have aged like milk; this one had all the permanence of an ice cream cone in a blast furnace. But despite the inanity of Floyd’s argument - and trust me, there are fan edits dedicated to Cap pointing out how full of shit this argument is - it’s clear it represents something else. This is a post-9/11 world. Fuck civil liberties, we have a no-fly list and Gitmo, and if the American people really cared, they’d do something other than watch Simon Cowell read aspiring singers to filth. What does Captain America stand for in this moment of crisis?
Nothing. Because he just looks away from Sally Floyd. No doubt thinking, “Oh my God this bitch.” But to underline the argument in question, Sally storms out of the interview, Ben in tow. She still has that information on Norman Osborn’s false flag operation… and while she and Ben confront Tony on everything that went down, they decide the story should never see the light of day. Because they wouldn’t dare jeopardize the SHRA, because security is more important than the truth.
Oh. And then Cap gets shot. And dies. He totally dies (except he doesn’t but we’ll get to that). If ever there was an unintentional thesis statement for this event, running in the late stages of the Bush era, it would be this: “It’s better to trust that the powers that be who oversee the new America will keep you safe, even when they stage false flag operations, stick you in a gulag, and put their trust in monsters. All that civil liberty stuff was the old America. And the old America was hopeless. It wasn’t even on MySpace.”
Epilogue: Consequences Keep Consequencing
As you can tell from that last paragraph, a lot of the fan reception to Civil War likely had a lot to do with the period. This was the Bush era, a time where you were for America or against it. We were in the shadow of the Patriot Act, Gitmo, and widespread wiretaps, paranoid about what civil liberty we’d be asked to put on the pyre next in the name of Freedom. A story all about the warm, clenching fist of government control that tells you to ignore the collateral damage… well, it wasn’t great for the cultural moment.
The ideas of Civil War aren’t necessarily bad ones. I frame Cap as the liberal dream of what America could be, but there are good arguments to be made that America has never been that and Cap is just copium for liberals. His most recent title, Sentinel of Liberty, opens with Steve saying he is out of touch with the average American - not because he doesn’t watch NASCAR, but because he’s a WWII veteran who looks maybe 30 years old at most and whose best friends are all superheroes or spies. A narrative that has him on the wrong side of the issue and detonates his beliefs isn’t impossible, but it probably shouldn’t be one where people who got powers due to a fluke of birth or a radiation accident are told by the government, “Join with us or we’ll send supervillains after you.” Hell, as the Civil War movie proves, there is a way to tell a story about a superhero community torn in half by the idea of mandatory registration as government-controlled actors, and just why people would think that could be a bad idea (“Hey, remember when a good chunk of our intelligence apparatus turned out to be Nazi stay behinds?”).
But in the context of the era, and coupled with the execution, Civil War felt like a hard sell, and you could feel the thumb pressing on the scale every second while reading it. The moral center of the Marvel Universe is wrong, the winning side employs sadistic murderers and has an extradimensional Gitmo, and the writer is telling you that any sane individual would be on Team Green Goblin Employer.
So how did that all work out? Well…

• With Cap seemingly dead, shot by his brainwashed love interest Sharon Carter as part of a plot by the Red Skull, Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier becomes the new Cap. Only it turns out Steve wasn’t killed, but shot with a time bullet that Billy Pilgrims his ass. He eventually comes back.
• Thor comes back, finds out what Tony did, and beats his ass all the way across post-Katrina New Orleans.
• The Secret Invasion event happens next, which leads to Skrull infiltrators hitting everything (this is also the explanation for Captain Mar-Vell’s miraculous resurrection: He was a Skrull all along). With Tony caught with his pants down and Norman Osborn seeming to save the day, Norman - who has been losing his shit for some time - takes over the Initiative and forms his own fascist cabal, HAMMER. To try and stop Norman from learning everything on every hero ever, Tony goes on the run and actually starts deleting his own brain, which he then reassembles with a backup from before anyone even thought of the SHRA. The fact that getting rid of Tony’s “Oops I did a fascism” period came out alongside Iron Man hitting theaters is a coincidence, I’m sure.

As for Spider-Man? It might not shock you, but having a hero without the resources of Tony Stark out himself to the world carries liabilities. An assassin who tries to kill Peter instead hits Aunt May, and it appears she’ll die of her injuries. All this leads to One More Day… and if you thought the fans hated Civil War? Oh, BABY.
[1] This is eventually explored in the pages of Wolverine, of all books, as Wolverine decides maybe somebody should track down the person who actually killed hundreds of children. It’s revealed that Nitro was given power-boosting drugs by the CEO of Damage Control, Marvel’s designated “clean up after the super-battle” corporation, as a way of generating business. In a sign of how little this matters, Wolverine tells Maria Hill to her face that the person responsible for a mass casualty event is the pawn of a powerful conspiracy, and she basically says, “Not my problem.” Cobie Smulders must thank the gods that her Maria Hill is written as somebody with basic human decency.
[2] Hilariously, when Sally Floyd was brought back during Nick Spencer’s Captain America run because no one had piled enough dung on her corpse, this line was retconned to her asking him about Twitter. Given everything Elon’s been doing lately, we’ll see if that ages just as poorly.

Hi, everyone! So I was searching for a way to replace Evernote for some time now and it is quite complicated to get an accurate overview of the actual features that each apps is supposed to have... So I'm here to ask for help to find any solid alternatives (the pinned post is useful but not comprehensive enough for some features I think). I found Notion which is really feature packed but the fact that it's only web-based and doesn't seem to save anything locally is totally a deal breaker.I found Joplin but it's pretty bland, the reordering of notes is limited and the tag organization is pretty basic and there's no "search by tags" options.
So here are all features that I'd really like for the app to have :

• Free or at least a free tier
• Unlimited notes and notebooks for free tier (I can bear with monthly upload file size limitations similar to evernote)
• Favorites/Bookmarking of notes and Dark Mode :v
• Option to backup and solid (and preferentially automatic) sync option
• Android app and option to sync back and forth between desktop and android
• Overall, clean interface that's easy on the eyes, responsive, interactive and all the fancy styling that makes it easy to find and organize notes in an intuitive and fun way
• Import notes from other apps or at least markdown files while keeping :
  • date of creation, modification date, tags, image files, foldenotebooks structure and markdown data
  • If there's not direct import tool, I can also code a tool that converts notion or joplin exported markdown files into the appropriate importing format and syntax as long it keeps all the information and folder structure cited above (had no choice but to do that for the Notion > Joplin transition lol. I can upload the script if anyone wants it)
• Tags, tags reordering and tag groups, search by tags
• Ability to freely reorder and organize notes in notebooks and unlimited sub-hierarchies (notebooks inside other notebooks)
• solid note searching tool with search tags (like search by date, interval, word etc...) and also note sorting (creation date, modification date, alphabetic etc...)

​
I don't care about team tools, table or graph stuff but linking notes, search in pdfs and images and flashcards would be a good addition but totally optional!
Thanks in advance!

I'm in the market for a new bike after a collision relegated my current one to turbo use only. Does anyone have recommendations for bike fitters in London that are geared towards sizing for new bikes? My previous frame was a bit large, and I'm looking to substantially upgrade so want to be sure that the sizing is right to start with. Some degree of agnosticism towards later purchase decisions is also good - I have my eye on a couple of frames/models and whilst I'm happy to be encouraged towards others, I'm cautious of hard selling to a particular brand/to clear stock etc.
All recommendations welcome!

Hey there, I'm Huxxy. I'm 33 and use they/them.
I can really struggle with specific auditory stimuli and that has made finding the right group for me a bit difficult, but I still try because TTRPGs are one of my favorite activities. I have about 15 years experience, with a majority of it being 5e. I have experience with a lot of different virtual tabletops and have no preference.
I'm currently available most any time between mornings and afternoons, and maybe early evenings between Monday to Wednesday. I think I'd prefer to play every other week, but I'm okay trying out weekly.
I'm fine joining an existing group, or one that's just getting off the ground. I don't have it in me to put one together myself, though.
My preferred playtime is about 3-4 hours, and preferred player size is about 4-5 people. I'm looking for a mix of roleplay with meaningful combat.
So with these specific conditions, what can I bring to the table? Well, I'm a bit of a goofball. I'm a creative, kind soul who loves telling jokes and making people laugh and smile OOC. In character I'm a fair bit more serious and don't have any issue staying in character for as long as needed. I take pride in being well versed in the rules/guidelines and take great effort to know what my character can do and is capable of. I try to be helpful where I can, whether it's towards the other players or the DM. I also do my best to show up on time, and if I can't, to at least give ample warning.
I also have a very good mic and practice good mic etiquette.
I'm okay with NSFW content, and I can handle most darker themes as long as they make narrative sense.
Thank you for reading, and if you think I'd be a good fit, or you just have any questions, comments or concerns, I'd prefer you reach me on Discord at Huxxy#6734 but here is okay, too.

Heyy, I've been stretching my septum for a while and I'm nearly at my desired size, I was wondering what are good sites to buy nice quality tapers for my septum?