Several people have approached me that they might have endometriosis. Lifelong warrior so thought I would share my tips and tricks I put together for my friends and family to share with you :) Hope this helps someone!
ENDOMETRIOSIS SURGERY FACTS

• EXCISION SURGERY! I cannot stress this one enough. If you have an ablation, it will grow back and likely quick (but consult with your doctors on your case 100%). Excision is when they cut it out vs. it gets burned off. You will have a better success rate and slow rate of growth if they excise. Not all cases can be depending on location so again, please talk with your doctor about your situation. This is not the same for everyone.
• If your doctor cannot do excision surgery. Skip and move on to the next! Trust me, well worth the time to research and find the right doctor. You will thank me later for this one too haha.
• Finding a doctor is stuff. Also tough to find resources. If you cannot find an Endometriosis specialist in your area who does excision, you may need to look out of state, but one tip is exploring gynecological oncologists. Some will take benign cases, but not all so do your research. But it’s a good avenue for help in your area or you want insurance coverage.
• Nanny’s Nook is a good resource for online information regarding endometriosis: https://nancysnookendo.com/
• Dr Seckin’s book called The Doctor Will See You Now is also worth the read (https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Will-See-You-Endometriosis/dp/1681621126)
• Definitely look into Egg Freezing before doing any permanent surgeries. The ovaries are more intact when there is a uterus in place, so I recommend immediately following any excisions with Egg Freezing if you can and if it’s part of your plans. I found my AMH levels low (1.2) but still retrieved 25 eggs, so never be discouraged if this is your future planning path.
• My Symptoms: I experience bloating, constipation, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting as the main culprits. I have irregular periods in regards to the number of days and if it comes or not (even with an IUD). Pelvic pain is probably the worst of all since it accompanies these symptoms and is present a majority of the time. Others may have different symptoms, and there’s many others I didn’t list but wanted to paint the picture of some I’ve experienced.

ENDOMETRIOSIS LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY (WHAT TO EXPECT)
PRE-SURGERY

• List of questions to ask your doctor
• Insurance Information and ID
• Necessary forms or paperwork the doctor requires
• Make sure any medical records are sent that would be relevant

POST-OP PREP

• Eat smaller meals and simple foods days beforehand. If bowel prep is necessary, they also recommend taking a laxative in the days leading up to help prep.
• Pack a bag! Not every surgery is an overnight stay but even if you have a day-of surgery, back an overnight bag. Here’s the essentials:
  • Phone/Headphones/iPad/Kindle/Books
  • Device Chargers
  • Medications that you currently take
  • Glasses (do not wear contacts day of)
  • An extra pair of underwear
  • Sanitary Pads or Always Discreet
  • Comfy pants with light elastic band around the waist
  • Non wired bra
  • Slip on shoes (this is clutch! Recommend slides -https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BL7LJKZW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1).
  • Layers - Sweatshirt, Long Sleeved Shirt etc. - Hospitals are cold!
  • Toothbrush and tooth paste
  • Hairbrush
  • Face wipes, wash cloth, small towel and bar of soap.

SPACE PREP

1. Make sure your bed or couch is prepped. I stayed on the first level for the first 2ish days before feeling well enough to stay upstairs.
2. I used a pregnancy pillow on the bed to help me stay on my back while sleeping and help you feel cozy.
3. Stock the house with foods that will be light for your stomach. Think soups and casseroles! Saltine crackers, broths, rices etc..
4. If you have a raised bed, get a step stool to assist. It’s best to sit on the side of the bed and slowly lay your upper body down while bringing your knees up and over to your back. You will need to use arm strength the first couple of days to get you up and over since you can’t use the abdomen.
5. Water and Beverages stocked at all times. I have a reusable water bottle and avoid carbonated beverages for the time being. They fill you with gas for the procedure so it may make those symptoms worse.
6. Netflix, Kindle, Puzzles, Craft Projects…visits with friends. Whatever makes the time pass, set it up ahead of time so it’s handy.
7. Items to Keep on Hand: Baby Wipes, heating pads, pads/diapers, candles, essential oils, things that smell good haha

BOWEL PREP
This is dependent on the type of surgery you are having, but its good to have Gatorade, Magnesium Citrate (liquid), laxatives and enemas on hand just in case you need these.
ON SURGERY DAY
It’s important to follow the instructions on what to stop taking and/or eating/drinking prior to the surgery. Wear comfy clothes (wide elastic waistband) and slides with cozy socks. Double check your to go bag and breath.
AT THE HOSPITAL

1. Do your check-ins and keep your people with you as long as you want.
2. Make sure to read all the consent forms and ask any questions upfront. Make any advance directives clear.
3. Just try to remain calm as there’s a lot of down time while they do intake. It is about 2 hours of prep before they bring you in for the surgery itself.
4. They will ask you the same questions over and over again, that’s normal and trust me, you want to confirm it’s all being done properly.
5. If you need something for anxiety, they will be sure to give you something if you ask :)
6. You will be wearing a gown, socks, funky underwear and a cool hair net haha wear the gown backward so you keep warm and keep the butt covered.
7. Vitals will happen and the anesthesiologist will come and speak with you to make sure they prep the right meds beforehand. Bring up any concerns here with them!
8. You may be wheeled or walked into surgery. I’ve only ever walked in and laid on the table myself.
9. They will then put the IV in your arm and sometimes will put on a mask, they will then ask you to count backwards and before you know it, you will be awake again!

RECOVERY

• You will wake-up and feel groggy. Totally normal and you will be in a different room. They will likely say a lot really quick about your surgery. Before leaving ask for them to walk through it or see if you can speak with the doctor again when clear headed. RECOMMENDED!
• Your throat will be sore, that’s normal from the tube.
• Just relax and sleep it off if you want, the goal is to be relaxed and pee once before leaving.
• Before you go, eat and drink and pass smoke urine. They’ll provide you with the meds and you’ll be good to go.
• Make sure someone brings you home after :)
• Make sure you have a bag for vomit in the car.
• Bring a small pillow that can be strapped between the car belt and you for maximum comfort on the trip home.
• Pain Med Management: This one is important. I messed up night one and didn’t take it soon enough and was in too much pain so make sure you stick to the schedule the doctors give you to ensure you are comfortable.
• Keep Walking: It seems unnatural to have a surgery then walk, but the sooner you get up and keep moving around the house, the better. Just avoid heavy lifting and immense bending like movements. Stairs are also ok but also consult with your doctor!
• Gas Build Up: I did feel pain in my shoulders from the gas. Just keep moving! It will help get that out of the system but this pain is normal.
• Relax and let people take care of you! Don’t be too quick to recover.
• Keep an eye out for fever, increased vaginal bleeding, or feeling terrible.
• Keep all post op appointments and follow all post op instructions!

ENDOMETRIOSIS MAINTENANCE
Here’s the tips and tricks I found helpful for maintaining my pain and symptoms (GI and back pain related):

1. Pelvic Floor Therapy: This is important for keeping the muscles in your pelvis healthy and strong to maintain your structure and also help manage pain. Consult with your doctor on whether this is right for you.
2. Physical Therapy: I do PT for my back and pelvic floor since it’s all related. We focus on Myofascial Release Therapy to help break up the adhesions and give me more mobility. This helps with temporary pain relief (reduction in number), but that is always welcome :)
3. Acupuncture: I swear by Acupuncture. I don’t know what it does or why, but it works. It’s not a cure by any means, but it's great for relaxation, fertility, digestion, endometriosis, sleep, etc.. I can go on, but it’s not covered by insurance plans all the time so you will need to check and see what you’re able to take on.
4. Diet/Exercise:
   1. Eating high protein, lower fat/carbs (not none just low) helps your body, but overall learn your trigger foods! This will go a long way.
   2. Ginger, turmeric and fennel all help with bloating. I like to drink them in tea form when I’m feeling particularly hard stomached as it’s a good natural way to decrease the bloat. Peppermint also works for some, for me it irritates my GERD.
   3. Chamomile for relaxation
   4. Walking and movement are important. I cannot do anything high impact due to my sacroiliitis diagnosis, so I stick with light yoga and walking.
5. Alcohol/Other Substances: Don’t do it. Don’t touch it. You’ll thank me later on this point.
6. Sleep: Insomnia is a very real thing. I think I went 2 or 3 days at its worst one time and I cannot say enough how important trying to keep the same sleep schedule will benefit you. Waking and sleeping around the same time each day will still feel exhausting but at least you know your body is getting the most sleep it can get.
7. Medications/Supplements:
   1. Ibprofuern: This does NOT work for me. I have GERD and ulcers so I cannot take NSAIDs, but with that in mind, NSAIDs are supposedly the best pain medication over the counter to help you manage it.
   2. Pain Killers: These are AS NEEDED. I try to refrain and leave these for the TRULY bad days which I try to spread out. Not even worth it sometimes, because I don’t like how I feel and sometimes vomit after taking them. But they do help the pain!
   3. IUD/Orilissa: An IUD will NOT do anything. If you are diagnosed, ask your doctor about Orilissa or similar medicines instead of birth control methods. This will not stop the growth, just suppress it. There are side effects and it is only a short term solution.
   4. Linzess: This worked well for me for constipation symptoms when they got severe. Definitely recommend bringing this to your doctor if you’re truly suffering and they have not yet mentioned. I also resorted after trying magnesium citrate
   5. CBD Lotions/Salves: For my pelvis, I use Healing Rose CBD Salve in Orange and Lavender (https://www.thehealingroseco.com/product/orange-lavender-with-chamomile-herbal-salve-300mg-cbd/). For my back, I use a medical grade CBD lotion with menthol (https://cbdclinic.co/clinical-strength-series/). I also use a CBD massage oil from Healing Rose of the same scent when doing myofascial release at home. I also use Somedays Cramp Cream (https://somedays.com/products/period-cramp-cream?variant=42062153842853).
8. Heating Pads and Ice Pack: I have several varieties of heating pads. A cordless travel heating pad (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FPTJL4G?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details), a plug-in heating pad (lhttps://www.hsn.com/products/pure-enrichment-purerelief-xxl-heating-pad-with-9-cord/22188460) and stick on patches (https://www.thermacare.com/ - I use the back patches but reverse them to the front for better coverage). For hot flashes and night sweats (also if you need to relax while anxious) place an ice pack over your chest to help cool or calm down.
9. Self-Care: No joke, massages, facials, epsom salt baths, sound baths, reiki….anything that you find relaxing. Do it. Try it! They also make CBD bath bombs Ive been wanting to check out.
10. TENs Machine: I really want one, don’t have one, but people swear by them (the heating pad linked to MyObi has a TENs version - https://myobistore.com/en-us/collections/my-obi-belts/products/apollo-2-0).
11. Pregnancy Pillow: This one sounds so lame, but I bought a pregnancy pillow for my first endometriosis surgery since I’m a side sleeper to help keep me on my back during recovery. It changed by life! It helps my anxiety and makes me comfortable while sleeping. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YYVRXLM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)..
12. Heated Blankets/Cozy Blankets: Make yourself feel better with a cozy blanket. Do it, I dare you!
13. Endo To-Go Bag: Includes heating pads (travel, plug-in and patches), medications, balms/salves, essential oils and pads/protection items, change of clothes, wet wipes.
14. Sex Life: I’m single, I don’t have a partner to worry about communicating this issue with at this point, but go slow and communicate given eventually this will have to be a conversation. What I have learned is that if you do have sex and feel pain. Immediately stop! If you associate sex with pain mentally in that moment, it may cause fear in doing so down the line so it’s best to stop the moment you feel any pain occur.
15. Work Life: I work a demanding job so it was not working with the appointments and care I needed to manage pain. Always get FMLA from your doctor for intermittent leave based on your company's policies. This protects you from flare-ups and appointments. Short Term Disability is based on your situation with work so talk with them about any leave of absence for surgery and recovery and ensure the medical providers fill out the paperwork appropriately.
16. Friends/Family: This one is the worst. I have to cancel and make plans all the time based on how I feel. I like to line up a bunch of plans for three months out and do my best to make them happen at the beginning of the month when I know I’m most likely to feel good. I just say I’ll make things up to them when I get better and those who have stuck around have been truly amazing friends, but don’t be upset that some might be over the day in and out of what you’re going through. It’s hard for you and sometimes others and it’s just a part of the relationships we’re meant to experience in life. Most people (unless they have endometriosis) don’t understand it so it can feel isolating, but there’s others out there who know what you’re going through and are willing to chat. Just gotta find them and reach out on social media, online etc..
17. Journaling Symptoms: Guilty of not being the best at this always, but it's good to track your symptoms to see how they work and operate. It helps not only you plan for it, but also your doctors in how best to handle your care. Take photos of things that make sense to show your doctors! Discharge, bowels etc..can sometimes help diagnose or judge with the images.
18. Next to Bed Kit: Make sure your nightstand is stocked with the essentials for your bad days. Makes it easier to access the items you need when you just can’t get up and get it.
19. Squatty Potty: Another thing that is majorly life changing on constipation days! Get one or you can make your own :) Take a stack of books and stack them at equal heights on each side and put your feet up. The trick is making sure you’re in a squat with your knees high to your ears.
20. Clothing: Dressing for this is key but you still want to look cute! Joggers with a stretchy waist are my go to pants, but wide leg trousers with a stretchy waist help with ease of removal but also comfort and brings some style to the look.
21. Pads: I wear Always Discreet vs. pads. I find when you need to wear them full time for incontinence it just makes it more comfortable. They have different cuts and styles so definitely check them out!

Several people have approached me that they might have endometriosis. Lifelong warrior so thought I would share my tips and tricks I put together for my friends and family to share with you :) Hope this helps someone!
ENDOMETRIOSIS SURGERY FACTS

• EXCISION SURGERY! I cannot stress this one enough. If you have an ablation, it will grow back and likely quick (but consult with your doctors on your case 100%). Excision is when they cut it out vs. it gets burned off. You will have a better success rate and slow rate of growth if they excise. Not all cases can be depending on location so again, please talk with your doctor about your situation. This is not the same for everyone.
• If your doctor cannot do excision surgery. Skip and move on to the next! Trust me, well worth the time to research and find the right doctor. You will thank me later for this one too haha.
• Finding a doctor is stuff. Also tough to find resources. If you cannot find an Endometriosis specialist in your area who does excision, you may need to look out of state, but one tip is exploring gynecological oncologists. Some will take benign cases, but not all so do your research. But it’s a good avenue for help in your area or you want insurance coverage.
• Nanny’s Nook is a good resource for online information regarding endometriosis: https://nancysnookendo.com/
• Dr Seckin’s book called The Doctor Will See You Now is also worth the read (https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Will-See-You-Endometriosis/dp/1681621126)
• Definitely look into Egg Freezing before doing any permanent surgeries. The ovaries are more intact when there is a uterus in place, so I recommend immediately following any excisions with Egg Freezing if you can and if it’s part of your plans. I found my AMH levels low (1.2) but still retrieved 25 eggs, so never be discouraged if this is your future planning path.
• My Symptoms: I experience bloating, constipation, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting as the main culprits. I have irregular periods in regards to the number of days and if it comes or not (even with an IUD). Pelvic pain is probably the worst of all since it accompanies these symptoms and is present a majority of the time. Others may have different symptoms, and there’s many others I didn’t list but wanted to paint the picture of some I’ve experienced.

ENDOMETRIOSIS LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY (WHAT TO EXPECT)
PRE-SURGERY

• List of questions to ask your doctor
• Insurance Information and ID
• Necessary forms or paperwork the doctor requires
• Make sure any medical records are sent that would be relevant

POST-OP PREP

• Eat smaller meals and simple foods days beforehand. If bowel prep is necessary, they also recommend taking a laxative in the days leading up to help prep.
• Pack a bag! Not every surgery is an overnight stay but even if you have a day-of surgery, back an overnight bag. Here’s the essentials:
  • Phone/Headphones/iPad/Kindle/Books
  • Device Chargers
  • Medications that you currently take
  • Glasses (do not wear contacts day of)
  • An extra pair of underwear
  • Sanitary Pads or Always Discreet
  • Comfy pants with light elastic band around the waist
  • Non wired bra
  • Slip on shoes (this is clutch! Recommend slides -https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BL7LJKZW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1).
  • Layers - Sweatshirt, Long Sleeved Shirt etc. - Hospitals are cold!
  • Toothbrush and tooth paste
  • Hairbrush
  • Face wipes, wash cloth, small towel and bar of soap.

SPACE PREP

1. Make sure your bed or couch is prepped. I stayed on the first level for the first 2ish days before feeling well enough to stay upstairs.
2. I used a pregnancy pillow on the bed to help me stay on my back while sleeping and help you feel cozy.
3. Stock the house with foods that will be light for your stomach. Think soups and casseroles! Saltine crackers, broths, rices etc..
4. If you have a raised bed, get a step stool to assist. It’s best to sit on the side of the bed and slowly lay your upper body down while bringing your knees up and over to your back. You will need to use arm strength the first couple of days to get you up and over since you can’t use the abdomen.
5. Water and Beverages stocked at all times. I have a reusable water bottle and avoid carbonated beverages for the time being. They fill you with gas for the procedure so it may make those symptoms worse.
6. Netflix, Kindle, Puzzles, Craft Projects…visits with friends. Whatever makes the time pass, set it up ahead of time so it’s handy.
7. Items to Keep on Hand: Baby Wipes, heating pads, pads/diapers, candles, essential oils, things that smell good haha

BOWEL PREP
This is dependent on the type of surgery you are having, but its good to have Gatorade, Magnesium Citrate (liquid), laxatives and enemas on hand just in case you need these.
ON SURGERY DAY
It’s important to follow the instructions on what to stop taking and/or eating/drinking prior to the surgery. Wear comfy clothes (wide elastic waistband) and slides with cozy socks. Double check your to go bag and breath.
AT THE HOSPITAL

1. Do your check-ins and keep your people with you as long as you want.
2. Make sure to read all the consent forms and ask any questions upfront. Make any advance directives clear.
3. Just try to remain calm as there’s a lot of down time while they do intake. It is about 2 hours of prep before they bring you in for the surgery itself.
4. They will ask you the same questions over and over again, that’s normal and trust me, you want to confirm it’s all being done properly.
5. If you need something for anxiety, they will be sure to give you something if you ask :)
6. You will be wearing a gown, socks, funky underwear and a cool hair net haha wear the gown backward so you keep warm and keep the butt covered.
7. Vitals will happen and the anesthesiologist will come and speak with you to make sure they prep the right meds beforehand. Bring up any concerns here with them!
8. You may be wheeled or walked into surgery. I’ve only ever walked in and laid on the table myself.
9. They will then put the IV in your arm and sometimes will put on a mask, they will then ask you to count backwards and before you know it, you will be awake again!

RECOVERY

• You will wake-up and feel groggy. Totally normal and you will be in a different room. They will likely say a lot really quick about your surgery. Before leaving ask for them to walk through it or see if you can speak with the doctor again when clear headed. RECOMMENDED!
• Your throat will be sore, that’s normal from the tube.
• Just relax and sleep it off if you want, the goal is to be relaxed and pee once before leaving.
• Before you go, eat and drink and pass smoke urine. They’ll provide you with the meds and you’ll be good to go.
• Make sure someone brings you home after :)
• Make sure you have a bag for vomit in the car.
• Bring a small pillow that can be strapped between the car belt and you for maximum comfort on the trip home.
• Pain Med Management: This one is important. I messed up night one and didn’t take it soon enough and was in too much pain so make sure you stick to the schedule the doctors give you to ensure you are comfortable.
• Keep Walking: It seems unnatural to have a surgery then walk, but the sooner you get up and keep moving around the house, the better. Just avoid heavy lifting and immense bending like movements. Stairs are also ok but also consult with your doctor!
• Gas Build Up: I did feel pain in my shoulders from the gas. Just keep moving! It will help get that out of the system but this pain is normal.
• Relax and let people take care of you! Don’t be too quick to recover.
• Keep an eye out for fever, increased vaginal bleeding, or feeling terrible.
• Keep all post op appointments and follow all post op instructions!

ENDOMETRIOSIS MAINTENANCE
Here’s the tips and tricks I found helpful for maintaining my pain and symptoms (GI and back pain related):

1. Pelvic Floor Therapy: This is important for keeping the muscles in your pelvis healthy and strong to maintain your structure and also help manage pain. Consult with your doctor on whether this is right for you.
2. Physical Therapy: I do PT for my back and pelvic floor since it’s all related. We focus on Myofascial Release Therapy to help break up the adhesions and give me more mobility. This helps with temporary pain relief (reduction in number), but that is always welcome :)
3. Acupuncture: I swear by Acupuncture. I don’t know what it does or why, but it works. It’s not a cure by any means, but it's great for relaxation, fertility, digestion, endometriosis, sleep, etc.. I can go on, but it’s not covered by insurance plans all the time so you will need to check and see what you’re able to take on.
4. Diet/Exercise:
   1. Eating high protein, lower fat/carbs (not none just low) helps your body, but overall learn your trigger foods! This will go a long way.
   2. Ginger, turmeric and fennel all help with bloating. I like to drink them in tea form when I’m feeling particularly hard stomached as it’s a good natural way to decrease the bloat. Peppermint also works for some, for me it irritates my GERD.
   3. Chamomile for relaxation
   4. Walking and movement are important. I cannot do anything high impact due to my sacroiliitis diagnosis, so I stick with light yoga and walking.
5. Alcohol/Other Substances: Don’t do it. Don’t touch it. You’ll thank me later on this point.
6. Sleep: Insomnia is a very real thing. I think I went 2 or 3 days at its worst one time and I cannot say enough how important trying to keep the same sleep schedule will benefit you. Waking and sleeping around the same time each day will still feel exhausting but at least you know your body is getting the most sleep it can get.
7. Medications/Supplements:
   1. Ibprofuern: This does NOT work for me. I have GERD and ulcers so I cannot take NSAIDs, but with that in mind, NSAIDs are supposedly the best pain medication over the counter to help you manage it.
   2. Pain Killers: These are AS NEEDED. I try to refrain and leave these for the TRULY bad days which I try to spread out. Not even worth it sometimes, because I don’t like how I feel and sometimes vomit after taking them. But they do help the pain!
   3. IUD/Orilissa: An IUD will NOT do anything. If you are diagnosed, ask your doctor about Orilissa or similar medicines instead of birth control methods. This will not stop the growth, just suppress it. There are side effects and it is only a short term solution.
   4. Linzess: This worked well for me for constipation symptoms when they got severe. Definitely recommend bringing this to your doctor if you’re truly suffering and they have not yet mentioned. I also resorted after trying magnesium citrate
   5. CBD Lotions/Salves: For my pelvis, I use Healing Rose CBD Salve in Orange and Lavender (https://www.thehealingroseco.com/product/orange-lavender-with-chamomile-herbal-salve-300mg-cbd/). For my back, I use a medical grade CBD lotion with menthol (https://cbdclinic.co/clinical-strength-series/). I also use a CBD massage oil from Healing Rose of the same scent when doing myofascial release at home. I also use Somedays Cramp Cream (https://somedays.com/products/period-cramp-cream?variant=42062153842853).
8. Heating Pads and Ice Pack: I have several varieties of heating pads. A cordless travel heating pad (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FPTJL4G?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details), a plug-in heating pad (lhttps://www.hsn.com/products/pure-enrichment-purerelief-xxl-heating-pad-with-9-cord/22188460) and stick on patches (https://www.thermacare.com/ - I use the back patches but reverse them to the front for better coverage). For hot flashes and night sweats (also if you need to relax while anxious) place an ice pack over your chest to help cool or calm down.
9. Self-Care: No joke, massages, facials, epsom salt baths, sound baths, reiki….anything that you find relaxing. Do it. Try it! They also make CBD bath bombs Ive been wanting to check out.
10. TENs Machine: I really want one, don’t have one, but people swear by them (the heating pad linked to MyObi has a TENs version - https://myobistore.com/en-us/collections/my-obi-belts/products/apollo-2-0).
11. Pregnancy Pillow: This one sounds so lame, but I bought a pregnancy pillow for my first endometriosis surgery since I’m a side sleeper to help keep me on my back during recovery. It changed by life! It helps my anxiety and makes me comfortable while sleeping. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YYVRXLM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)..
12. Heated Blankets/Cozy Blankets: Make yourself feel better with a cozy blanket. Do it, I dare you!
13. Endo To-Go Bag: Includes heating pads (travel, plug-in and patches), medications, balms/salves, essential oils and pads/protection items, change of clothes, wet wipes.
14. Sex Life: I’m single, I don’t have a partner to worry about communicating this issue with at this point, but go slow and communicate given eventually this will have to be a conversation. What I have learned is that if you do have sex and feel pain. Immediately stop! If you associate sex with pain mentally in that moment, it may cause fear in doing so down the line so it’s best to stop the moment you feel any pain occur.
15. Work Life: I work a demanding job so it was not working with the appointments and care I needed to manage pain. Always get FMLA from your doctor for intermittent leave based on your company's policies. This protects you from flare-ups and appointments. Short Term Disability is based on your situation with work so talk with them about any leave of absence for surgery and recovery and ensure the medical providers fill out the paperwork appropriately.
16. Friends/Family: This one is the worst. I have to cancel and make plans all the time based on how I feel. I like to line up a bunch of plans for three months out and do my best to make them happen at the beginning of the month when I know I’m most likely to feel good. I just say I’ll make things up to them when I get better and those who have stuck around have been truly amazing friends, but don’t be upset that some might be over the day in and out of what you’re going through. It’s hard for you and sometimes others and it’s just a part of the relationships we’re meant to experience in life. Most people (unless they have endometriosis) don’t understand it so it can feel isolating, but there’s others out there who know what you’re going through and are willing to chat. Just gotta find them and reach out on social media, online etc..
17. Journaling Symptoms: Guilty of not being the best at this always, but it's good to track your symptoms to see how they work and operate. It helps not only you plan for it, but also your doctors in how best to handle your care. Take photos of things that make sense to show your doctors! Discharge, bowels etc..can sometimes help diagnose or judge with the images.
18. Next to Bed Kit: Make sure your nightstand is stocked with the essentials for your bad days. Makes it easier to access the items you need when you just can’t get up and get it.
19. Squatty Potty: Another thing that is majorly life changing on constipation days! Get one or you can make your own :) Take a stack of books and stack them at equal heights on each side and put your feet up. The trick is making sure you’re in a squat with your knees high to your ears.
20. Clothing: Dressing for this is key but you still want to look cute! Joggers with a stretchy waist are my go to pants, but wide leg trousers with a stretchy waist help with ease of removal but also comfort and brings some style to the look.
21. Pads: I wear Always Discreet vs. pads. I find when you need to wear them full time for incontinence it just makes it more comfortable. They have different cuts and styles so definitely check them out!

Patch 1.5 hit PC today!
Console players should expect to see this patch within a few weeks.
below a few of the new features coming with this patch:
High Level players * DL54 is no longer the peak. DL60-DL100 will provide new challenges
Newer or Struggling players * Resilience provides an additional layer of defense that scales with losses, (20% base, +2% per loss, -1% per win) making the game more approachable. * Addition of the Affinity symbols to spells and gambits to improve understanding for build synergy.
General Changes * Burn stacks Beyond 10 stacks which makes burn a much stronger element. Let it Burn * Replacing auras with the same aura/rarity provides a level up. This allows Common to upgrade to Epic or Epic to Mythic without using the upgrader near Andromeda's Bar. * The Cinima has been added to The Garden. This is a mirror for viewing movies and keeping track of what endings a player has seen. * Players can now ban 3 character spells and 5 common spells, so they will have more control over what they see during a run. * Players may now reroll echoes once per Echo Isle encounter. * Echoes received from The Telescope or the Void Catalyst will be shown to the player at the start of a run.
The full patch notes are available here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1280930/view/4174351172250488640
Feel from to stop by the discord to to ask questions or talk about the new patch!
https://discord.com/invite/hibernian-workshop

Hello! Here's my first attempt at a race recap. Is it a form of post-race therapy for a race that did not go as planned, despite having a great training cucle? Maybe. Perhaps it is also an attempt at inspiring my fellow goal-oriented runners to find the positives, wins, and progression in a race where you did not reach your goals. It's a long one and includes heat exhaustion, unexpected GI distress, and blood sugar woes, so buckle down. Proceed at your own caution.

Race Information

• Name: Leiden Half Marathon
• Date: May 12th, 2024
• Distance: 21.1 km
• Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
• Website: marathon.nl
• Time: 1:35:55

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 1:32	No
B	Sub 1:34	No
C	PB	Yes

Splits

Kilometer	Time
1	4:52
2	4:32
3	4:27
4	4:28
5	4:27
6	4:33
7	4:28
8	4:28
9	4:28
10	4:33
11	4:32
12	4:31
13	4:32
14	4:39
15	4:35
16	4:42
17	4:38
18	4:32
19	4:24
20	4:31
21	4:27
0.1	4:15

Background

To give you some background: I'm a relatively new runner. I have been casually running since mid-April 2024 and more seriously since July 2023. This was my second full training block, the previous one being a 12 week training block for in December. After that, I ran a trail half in January 2024. That was a bit of a wildcard race that I ran on the fly, not to finish it as fast as possible. I hadn't trained for it and ran the first half easy, the second half as an unplanned progression run simply because I felt good. That run brought me to a 1:43:38 finishing time. The Leiden half marathon would thus be my first go at racing a half marathon. With the half in January in mind, on the outset of my training block, I had a sub 1:35 in mind, but still as a very loose aim, subject to change as the training block progressed.
Another piece of important background: I have type 1 diabetes, which affects my running in quite complex ways. I'll spare you the details, but generally I am pretty apt at managing my blood sugar during running, using a continuous glucose monitor and an insulin pump. I hardly ever experience low blood sugar while running, especially not during races, due to the adrenaline rush, which tends to spike blood sugar instead. Foreshadowing: this race did not follow this general pattern.

Training (or "the rise")

I started this training cycle at the end of February, using the Runna advanced half marathon plan. I'd used Runna for my first training cycle as well, so was familiar with the app and general structure, and overall happy with it. It scheduled 4 days of running, one long run workout, one easy run, and two speed workouts. One of those speed workouts I swapped for a track session at my local athletics club. In addition to this, I had two weight lifting sessions at the gym a week.
Despite not having an overt problem with Runna, I second guessed the paces it prescribed and the training intensity quite a lot. While during the 10k training the overall load did not feel excessively high, having two speed workouts, one of which an intense track session, and a long run workout between 18 and 24k per week with significant portions at HM or 10k pace felt a bit excessive. Halfway through March, I struggled to hit paces during my track sessions, whereas in January - February I had no problem with this, and my calves were perpetually tight. Because of this and other reasons, I switched to personalized online coaching from April onwards, about halfway through the training cycle. My coach was great about basing my training on the first half of the training cycle and slowly transitioning me to a different schedule. He transitioned me to 5 runs a week instead of 4, plus a 6th day of cross training, and adjusted the overall intensity to be far more in line with the general recommendation of 80% easy, 20% hard. I felt the effects almost immediately: my calves calmed down, my HR came down during easy runs, I hit paces during my hard sessions again, and could even run 4 days in a row, where before that would always set off my calves and cause shin pain. On average, I ran 54 km a week during the training block, with my peak weeks at 59km a week. During the second half of the training block I felt truly great, without any pain or niggles, even in those peak weeks.
This left me feeling confident and excited for the race. Based on a 20:02 5k time trial in the first week of April, my coach and I decided on 4:25 min/km as a goal pace for the half marathon, which would bring me to a finish time around 1:33. During my peak week long run workouts, (18k with a total of 8k at goal pace and 20k with 10k at goal pace), I could easily keep up with a faster pace of 4:22 min/km, planting the idea in my head that if the conditions were right, I might be able to hit sub 1:32. I knew there would be a chance of hot weather though, so kept 1:35 as a B-goal.
The training also included practicing with fueling on my run, taking gels every 25-30 minutes for my long run, which I never had any problem with, even when running faster. I generally view myself of having an iron stomach, thanks to years of eating at the most random moments to treat low blood sugars. Cue second piece of foreshadowing...

Pre-race (or "the turn")

In the days leading up to the race, it slowly became more and more clear that the weather conditions on race day would be less than ideal, with an expected high of 25 degrees and full sun. And, of course, since it's the Netherlands, decent humidity to boot. The whole west of the country is basically a swamp, after all. Knowing this, I already started managing my own expectations and realized that sub 1:32 would most likely be off the table. All attention to the 1:35 goal, then.
My pre-race days also included my first attempt at a semi-carb load. I call it a semi-carb load given the short duration: using Meghan Featherstun's calculator, I planned on a one/1.5 day carb load, from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon, with a normal dinner on Saturday so as to give my body time to digest all the carbs. The carb loading went surprisingly well; I'd expected that the extra carbs and relative lack of protein and fat would make it difficult to keep my blood sugar in check, but I experienced no significant blood sugar spikes (here's some counter evidence to all the fearmongering around carbs and blood glucose spikes - if I can handle it with synthetic, imperfectly working insulin and human error, a healthy person with a functioning pancreas surely will be absolutely fine).
Race morning? *Cue the stress*. Hectic was how I would describe it. I got up early so that I would be able to take an early train to Leiden, allowing for plenty of time to do my warm up, queue for the bathrooms, etc. My bag was all packed when my boyfriend, who would travel with me to cheer me on, suggested I transfer all my stuff to his backpack, so I wouldn't have to check my bag (this would save some time and allow us to circumvent some of the busy parts of town). Foreshadowing: this was a bad idea. I transferred all of my stuff (I thought) to my boyfriend's bag and off we went to the station. Once we were sat in the train, I reached for his bag to pin on my bib.
Horror struck. FUCK!
I left my bib in my bag at home, in a back compartment! Thank god the train had not yet departed from the station. Just before the train doors closed, I managed to sprint out and race home on the bike to grab my bib. Lesson learned: do not transfer your stuff to another bag last minute. My boyfriend and I ended up making it to one train later, leaving me far less time to get ready, but enough to just make the start.
Emphasis on 'just'; although I had some 25 minutes to spare to get to my corral once my swelteringly hot warm up was done, the queue for the portapotties was terribly long and the whole process was utterly inefficient. When it was my turn, I had 4 minutes before the race started, and I did not even know where exactly my corral was. My boyfriend was a true saint and scoped the way in the mean time, so he ran with me (in the heat, with a backpack and regular sneakers) to the corral, where I managed to wedge myself through an opening in the fencing with 30 seconds left. The adrenaline was already rushing through my veins, I can tell you that.

Race (or "the fall")

Still stressed out from the pre-race situation, the gun went off. Showtime.
The start was quite broad but roughly 200 meters out there was a funnel. It was busy as heck and I had to slow down significantly, but I knew weaving would be a bad choice so tried to be patient and just go with the flow. Within the first five minutes of the race, the trouble began. I could feel my blood sugar dropping. I had a significant amount of insulin on board to account for the usual rush of adrenaline during a race, which generally brings up my blood sugar considerably, so the fact that I was already dropping brought on a slight panic. I downed a gel in an attempt to divert a low blood sugar, almost choking on it in the process. Luckily, I could feel it working and bringing my blood sugar back to a stable trajectory pretty quickly, but knew I wasn't out of the woods yet, as the chances of my blood sugar starting to drop again would be considerable. I also noticed pretty soon that my stomach wasn't too happy about the gel, despite never having experienced GI distress from fueling on my runs ever before. Looking back, I think I was already heading into dehydration territory at this point.
The strategy for the race was to hoover just above 4:25 min/km for the first 5k, settle into a goal pace of 4:20 - 4:25 between km 6 - 16, and empty the tank in the last 5k. The first 5k went fairly well; after the group dispersed a bit, I managed to pick up to a comfortable 4:28. By the 5k mark, however, the heat started to get to me and my stomach was still feeling a bit iffy. At this point, the course had shifted from city to running between the meadows, with little shade. Since I carried a handheld with water + electrolytes that I could continuously sip from, I used the most of the cups at the water posts to dunk the contents over my head. The volunteers also handed out sponges soaked in cold water, and some very kind spectators sprayed cool water with garden hoses, which was truly a blessing. Thanks to these cooling methods, I still felt relatively good at this point, but had a suspicion that I would empty the tank too early by increasing my pace to below 4:25, so I tried to simply stick to the current pace until at least the half way mark. That would still allow me to reach my sub 1:35 goal.
At the 10k mark, the struggle became real, however. Between km 6 and 12, there were no water posts and there was very little shade as well. My stomach still hurt, a weird sensation hoovering between the pain of a side stitch but in my whole abdomen, and nausea. Knowing this could be due to dehydration, I continued to sip water in hopes of it getting better, which eventually did happen. Mentally, I kept reminding myself that I was in control and to keep my form relaxed, but speeding up to goal pace did not seem like a sensible option. The opposite, actually, not dropping my pace was challenge enough. Having fallen back slightly by km 10, I tried to pick up to 4:28 again between km 11 and 12, but hardly managed. And then the trouble really began: by km 13, I could feel that my blood sugar was low. Now, I imagine that for my pancreatically unchallenged pals, it can be hard to understand what running with low blood sugar feels like, so I'll try to explain it: it's like you're moving through molasses, everything feels 10 times heavier than it should be. In addition, your brain is literally lacking the energy it needs to function, causing brain fog and making it difficult to assess a situation. Everything in me wanted to stop, lay down on the side of the road and just stop existing for a little bit. And to that, add a layer of panic: a low blood sugar can get seriously dangerous and can lead to death if not managed well. Now, I would never advise to run through a low blood sugar. I know my body well, however, and with a far too slow working brain, made the following assessment when I had downed a gel:

• The gel should bring me up fairly quickly;
• There's not as much active insulin on board anymore, reducing the risk of the gel not raising my blood sugar to an adequate level or of my blood sugar continuing to drop despite the gel;
• If I keep running, there is the chance that my body will keep producing adrenaline, which causes an additional dump of glycogen in my blood stream, thus also raising my blood sugar, whereas if I stop, this would be unlikely to happen;
• If I feel worse, I can stop at anytime.

I put all of my mental and physical energy into keeping my legs turning over, fighting that overwhelming urge to stop and lay down. I did slow down quite a bit, dropping to a low point of a 4:42 min/km for km 16. But as the feeling was 'stable', if you will, and not getting worse, I kept running, reminding myself that I was over halfway. At some point in this chunk of the race, a spectator yelled at a woman behind me that she was 25th female, which pushed her to overtake me, but to be honest, I was so wrapped up in my own pain that I did not give shit.
Then, as it often goes with blood sugar issues, like a flip of the switch I felt better all of a sudden around the 17k marker. Invigorated by averting blood sugar disaster and by the idea of having less than 5k left, I felt like I could pick up the pace again. Gradually, rather than all at once, but simply the fact that I could pick up the pace again, brought back some of my confidence and enjoyment. Don't get me wrong, it was still hard as hell, but compared to the fog of anguish I'd been running in previously, this was manageable. By km 18, I started slowly picking people to take over. There was one woman in sight who I overtook, but then she overtook me again, and we kept pushing each other to keep going (we even briefly spoke to cheer each other on) up until km 20, when I left her behind me and did not see her again (later, I saw that she finished a couple of seconds after me; in the unlikely event that she happens to read this: thank you for pushing me!!). At this point, I was vaguely aware that sub 1:35 would not be possible anymore, but I tried to win any second I could. The final two 2 were brutal and felt endless, and oh boy was I happy when I crossed the finish line.

Post-race and aftermath

As soon as I stopped running and slowed down to a walk, my legs turned into noodles. I felt quite uncoordinated and nausea hit me like a ton of bricks. Looking back, I think I might've suffered from heat exhaustion, if not mild heat stroke, as these feelings stayed with me for quite a while and I also started shivering, despite being hot still. I received my medal, forced down the banana and orange slices handed out after the finish (this was such a nice touch by the race organization!), as well as two cups of water. Managed to keep it down, and the nausea dissipated after a while. Unsurprisingly, I felt some disappointment over missing even my B-goal, which I'd thought of as squarely within reach. Still, my most intense emotion was relief for making it to the finish line, given the circumstances. I texted with my coach a bit, who also cheered me on. I know that I could've run far faster on a different day, but not on this day, not with the heat and blood sugar issues. I did truly give it my all and left it all on the course, and that is a satisfying feeling, no matter the outcome. I ended up finishing 17th in my age group and 22nd female overall.
To celebrate, I met up with my cheer squad, consisting of my boyfriend and some friends (I call them my cheer squad, but they missed me because the live tracker was lagging) and went for lunch, before heading back home. The rest of the day was spent taking some gentle strolls to aid recovery, relaxing, and eating a ton of good food (with lingering nausea, but hey, with great athleticism comes great eating responsibility, as David Roche says). Later, the rest of the races that day ended up being cancelled because the medical staff could not keep up with the influx of runners suffering from heat stress. The high turned out the be 27 degrees, with constant sun and little wind. Knowing this, I am extra glad I finished safely.
So, just over 24 hours later, what are we left with? Sore legs, that's for sure. I'm lightly bummed out that I did not perform as I had expected, but this is combined with the thrill of still having a goal to chase, that I know is within my reach, especially when I stack another training cycle on top of this. Overall, I am happy with what I managed to do, given the circumstances. I feel confident that the fitness I have gained in this training cycle is an excellent starting point for a new training cycle, and I know that this race experience has taught me a lot, from blood sugar management and not forgetting my bib (hah) to how far I can really push myself. The second half of my training block was an absolute win in itself. Running 5 days a week with an average of 54km seemed absolutely inconceivable a year ago, when I was not even a month into my running journey. It's insane where a couple of months of consistency can bring you.
For now, I'm going to rest and recover, reflect some more and run some easy miles for the next couple of days. After that, I'll shift my focus on the 5 and 10k for a little bit, before hopefully starting the prep for a half marathon redo in the fall. Whatever happens, I'll pick a race with very low chances of hot weather, ha.
Made with a new race report generator created by u/herumph.

Link download: https://bestgraphicai.com/go/fibs-offer-creation-masterclass--perry-belcher

Here’s what you’ll get in FIBS Offer Creation Masterclass

• Why creating offers and copywriting are the most useful abilities in the world
• Even if you're a terrible writer, your material will flow quickly and attract readers' attention thanks to the 6-layer "Hacksaw" editing method.
• The "5 Cult Laws," which control the entire F.I.B.S. process and account for 95% of human behavior and persuasion.
• How to utilize language to trigger each prospect's "Caveman Brain"
• How to activate the "four major brain chemicals" that influence every choice we make. Name them if you can.
• How to price your products according to the intended result using the "Scale Method" to make up to three times the profit.
• Attack the top 55 purchasing motivations (numbers 2, 5, and 7 account for approximately 80% of total purchases).
• The 22 reasons (pricing is number 18) why customers DON'T purchase your products and services.
• How to become an expert at "Micro-Commitments" in the sales process, which can increase the effectiveness of your calls to action by 400%. (Did you locate them in this correspondence?)
• 3X more people will pay attention to your headlines and subheadlines if you use "B.U.D.A."s.
• "Why Bank Accounts Are Sold by Steak Knives" and the premium psychology in your offerings to get 5X conversions.
• To maximize sales, consider the best times, ways, and types of photos to include in your offers.
• Use bold, italic, underlined, and all-caps text to add flair to your offerings. What gets where? (Which embellishment makes action verbs more seductive?)
• There's nothing better than having a TEAM of English majors at your disposal than this "Hands Free" editing tool (FREE).
• I utilize the K.I.S.S. test to generate a skeletal offer and then dictate conversational content to fill it in.
• Make attention-grabbing headlines and stand-alone subheadlines using ALL 72 of the tried-and-true headline formulas.
• Ways to "vaccinate" potential customers against objections long before you approach them about a purchase.
• How to create captivating bullet points (like these) that pique prospects' interest to the point of NEEDING to buy, exactly like you are about to 🙂 (Actually, kind of.)
• The four additional social proof types that are nearly always more potent than endorsements. (Is there one you can guess?)
• How to "Value Stack" your offers in order to make it look absurd to reject them before disclosing your price.
• How to "Bonus Stack" to generate a double whammy of value and make your prospects salivate in anticipation of your price announcement.
• The "TRIPLE guarantee" shields you against needless returns and chargebacks while dispelling any prospect's sense of risk.
• "Upside-Down Scarcity" is a technique that adds actual scarcity to each and every offer. It's not closing, it's not deducting bonuses, and it's not going to increase in cost. (I learned this one from the great Dan Kennedy.)
• How to lock down offer scanners before they can escape using P.S. and P.P.S.
• Even more in editing, such as readbacks with actual people, the C.U.B. evaluation, and the I.O.U. exam.

I have two SVG files that I have laid on top of each other in Tinker. They are both the same size and 1mm high. I wanted to do this to save filament (one is background and the other is raised design). I export them as STL separate objects (for AMS) to stack them in Bambu Studio but they collapse on each other so that they both take up the same space.
If I design it so that the background is 1mm that is around the 2mm design strokes, it works. But that wastes a ton of filament because it switches on each layer. If I stack 1mm on 1mm, it does not work. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

Hello I don’t really know how to talk about this :(

1. I don’t exactly consider myself trans I have a handful of stacking trains of thought that layer in ways that take forever to explain and make me feel self absorbed for putting so much thought into it
   
2. In a constant loop of: okay well I am, but I’m choosing not to for 300 different reasons, but since I’m able to choose not to and keep on churgling ahead means I’m probably not y’know? But also what cis person spends 2-9hrs a day thinking about this
   
3. Am deeply in the closet, had comfortably called myself a cis bi woman until now. Am with a man and I try to pretend to be a mildly conservative but still nice cis het woman. He’s pretty cool about me being bi, and is a little too open about it for my comfort but very supportive. he doesn’t understand trans stuff very well/can be actively hostile and I’ve been trying to think of a cis way of asking to take T. I found one for wearing a binder- (and when I lose about 50-95lbs? I want to do this )which has its own problems that I talk more about in 4.
   
4. We work with a trans guy and a few other queer people (I could be wrong I’m using gaydar and Christmas party to source this ) and tbh I think if I started walking around with no tits he (and other people) may notice. As is he occasionally does stuff that makes me scared he knows anyway. Like realistically I know he does not care about me like that lol but I grew up high surveillance so I’m a lil paranoid, I’m sorry so with that said—
   
5. If you think you may be the guy mentioned here( work at a dirt job in the Midwest , animals, hair) please can we Gmail or tumblr message I struggle with verbal communication. I also outside of this wanna be your friend so bad you seem like the coolest person there.
   

——I feel like I’m going insane lately and there’s a Alexander Avila video that is making this harder to ignore and I just want someone I can talk to. That’s partially why I’m posting this to Reddit, kinda for the chatter.
Thank you.

[First] [Previous] [Next]
Edited by sensei WaveOfWire
- - - - -
Everything had gone exceptionally well for the farmer, despite the daunting task forced into her talons. Kegara had ordered her to begin a march east in search of the expected banished by sunrise—not alone, but in a group of fourteen others. She thought it was too many for such a task, and would assuredly catch the ire of the abhorrent; the more Malkrin present, the more creatures would pursue them…
It was a risk. One she was willing to take if her beloved was safe, but he pleaded for her to find a way to avoid it. Unfortunately, were she to stay, it would land her in the worst of Kegara's rage. The orange-skinned female would have been made a gruesome example for those who disobeyed, tied up in the center of the camp and… She did not wish to think of what ghastly fate would have awaited her.
So, in the dark of night, her and the baker’s plan of escape was struck. Perhaps it was foolish to leave their safety behind, but considering the blood-moon and forced orders, was it truly ‘safe?’ They would gather their pitiful belongings and set off in the direction of the previously ostracized members—the water worshiper, and four others. There was little hope of finding them, less so after the blood-moon, but with so few of them, there was still a chance they evaded the beasts and the warped oddities of the mainland altogether. Maybe if the field hand and her mate could find them, they could start their own settlement. At least, those were her thoughts when she set out…
Her initial reaction to being thrust into the open wilderness was nothing short of horror. Indistinct animalistic screeches, otherworldly hums, and unsettling creaks from trees sent chills down her spine throughout the night. Hazy shadows underneath the dim moonlight crawled like creatures, stalking… prowling around the mated pair. Every step she made was made in pure uncertainty, every pace bringing her further into an abyss of unseen nightmares. Maybe Kegara would not have punished her so severely… Maybe it would have been best to stay where it was safe.
But, she continued. She stayed strong. She had to.
They had already ventured too far, and it was her job to protect her love. Her tail wrapped possessively around his waist as he stuck close to her. Morning would break soon, and they would be far away from the brutish paladin… Free to start anew. It would be difficult, but the two of them were far from incapable of fending for themselves; they learned enough in the way of survival from their time on the mainland and their respective professions, despite both being from the Golden City.
- - - - -
They were able to survive the night, persevering well into the day by making crude implements and harvesting what they could. They had even managed to discover a large cave perfect for their habitation! It was dry and large enough for a fire, though it went deeper than expected. Food and cooking arrangements were their prerogatives, so they elected not to scour it any further as it would only be a waste of their time. They worked tirelessly until the sun set beyond the red expanse of trees. Her love busied himself with making the smooth gray walls into a home by gathering small resources and forming makeshift beddings, while she had gone out to hunt. By the luck of the Mountain God, she managed to bring back not one but two feathered creatures, each of which were more than plump enough to feed the mated pair for the evening.
Her aching feet patted against the grass, the blades poking her worn soles. The vegetation swayed from side to side in the weak breeze, almost appearing to celebrate her small victory with her. The cavern entrance came into view, its shape too small for her frills to fit under. The edges were covered in pinkish moss, giving it a distinct feel compared to the rest of the biome. Perhaps it was a sign of the Mountain God’s will for them to inhabit it. The moist malleable moss stretched further inside, resembling small veins inside the larger chasm.
She ducked underneath the mouth of the cave, appreciating the yellow reflections of an ongoing fire from within, each flick casting long shadows over every rock edge. Yet once she entered the homely cavity, the flames were the only thing present… Her eyes scanned the room for Baker, only finding an unused leafy bed, piles of edible berries, and a stack of wood. A shock of anxiety bolted up her spine, sharply settling on her frills like cold ice. Where was her mate?
She stepped forward, her webbed toes pressing into… liquid. Her eyes shot toward the ground, the orange-skinned female only now realizing how slick the floor really was. Viscous moisture clung to her leg, stretching across like mucus. The room was… dry before. Her initial thought that it was blood, but that was easily proven false by the thin film’s clear color. That did not ease her worries, however; her betrothed was still out of sight. Perhaps he left to forage, or was possibly looking for her?
A deadened wet thwack from further inside the cave echoed throughout the room, drawing her attention and causing her ears to perk up. Baker…?
She squinted down the black corridor, its sturdy stone now only reflecting the low howl of the cavern’s natural wind. Her eyes stayed locked on it as she slowly grabbed a makeshift torch and set it alight with the campfire. It had to have been her mate down there. Perhaps the tunnel curved so that she was unable to see his torchlight? What was he doing in the dark? Was he searching for something? Food perhaps?
She was already heading toward him before she considered any other possibility. Short drips accompanied her footfalls into the talon-width thick liquid that proliferated along the ground, grabbing onto her every time she raised her foot with a disgusting sucking noise. Her skin soon felt a similar spreading moisture from the humid cave, a low heat building up as she went. It would have been welcoming if not for the sick feeling that settled in her stomach.
The flickers of her torch illuminated the smooth cave walls and the ever-present pink moss that accompanied them. The ‘flora’ grew in volume and presence, stretching everywhere in random lines, often crossing and connecting with one another into larger segments. It eventually lost its fuzzy texture, only a moist reflective red taking its place. The way it almost appeared to… pulse in sync with the surrounding ambience only furthered the notion of veins and arteries…
A creeping sense of wrongness etched itself in her mind. Her ears slowly drooped down and her back hunched as her wide eyes failed to make out anything a pace or two in front of her. She scoured the blackness for anything and everything as the stone path ebbed and flowed, bringing her further down into the heart of Ershah.
thwack
A startling yet familiar noise halted her advance. She stepped back, swiveling her head around wildly to locate its source. Nothing made its presence known. There was only a permeating darkness within the… tunnel… She froze. When did the corridor become so large? Just before, she was able to stretch her arms to reach both sides of the walls, but now… Now it was open like the ocean, the blackness surrounding her entirely, obscuring… everything. She couldn’t see the entrance, nor the ceiling. Her pitiful torch illuminated the ground below her and nothing more.
Plip... Plip… Plip. The dripping continued, now suddenly an overbearing presence… like that of a predator’s breath riding down one’s neck.
Her breathing quickened, eyes widening. Was her mind playing tricks on her? Hesitant paces backward drew her into what she presumed was the direction she came from. It was no use. Further and further she went into the abyss, finding nothing but more of the tenebrous expanse.
The only true sense afforded to her was hearing… Every stifled breath, every wet footstep, and every flick of her torch felt deafening and… revealing. She was but a spark in the wider cavern, waving herself down as prey in the unseen eyes of what awaited her. Something could have been right behind her, and she would have been none the wiser… especially with no wall to guard her back…
A shiver ebbed through her frills. Would it be wise to suffocate her only flame to cover her presence? She stopped her palm from doing so, realizing that the fire was her only light. If its illumination perished, she would be trapped in the abyss with no way out… She needed to leave. She had to find the tunnel. It was—
“Fa…r...mer?” a voice croaked out, its intent shaky and bogged down in black tar.
Her shoulders stiffened, back straightening as she turned toward its direction. It was… Baker’s… but it felt uncanny… foreign. Was that even his? It had to be. M-Maybe he was harmed, too injured to move? Perhaps it was a broken frill? It would make sense. She had to find her mate… no matter how much his pained voice terrified her. That was why she was here in the first place…
The thickness of the viscous ground liquid increased as nervous footsteps brought her closer, the air around her getting warmer with each pace. She called out hesitantly, praying for a positive response.
“B-Baker? Are you there?”
Another wet, fleshy sound echoed through the large cavern, followed by a sickening crack. Then, his voice returned. It was much clearer this time, despite the aura of unsettling… distortion to it.
“Come… closer.”
Her steps were tentative, but she continued forward. Everything around her screamed something was amiss, but that painful string in her heart told her to never let her lover go. He was in pain. He was clearly suffering. Why should she ignore the one who warmed her heart with a simple smile just because she was perturbed by unproven nervousness?
Labored breaths filled her ears as she descended a small incline toward her mate. The shin-high murky liquid at the bottom was ignored, only becoming a small nuisance as her long strides carried her across the unknown fluid. Her motions caused it to sway in all directions, the ripples and turbidity preventing her from seeing what caused the squishy feeling beneath her feet. It smelled putrid, though not like that of rot… The scent was something she could not place, yet it was consuming with how it pierced her nostrils with its presence. It hardly mattered. She was close to him, she could feel his very presence in front of her. She could almost hear the breathing of…
Her torch lit up a rock… no… a figure. It was upright, but its head was pointing downwards. She couldn’t see the legs well, but she did notice how its… his familiar gray arms hung limply.
Baker!
Joy and anxiousness ran thick within her intent. “My dear! Are you okay? W-What has happened to you?”
She received no response for an unsettlingly long moment before his head shook… loosely… Like that of a puppet, reminding her of the black abyss that surrounded everywhere his body was not… It hid something.
“Come… Closer.”
“…W-What? No… M-My Dear… I…” In a moment of fear she raised her torch closer, illuminating everything.
Flesh surrounded him wholly, replacing his legs with undulating tubes and wet meat. Tendrils attached to his back, pulsing from their ceiling-bound origins. His limp arms moved slowly… falling… melting. The very skin slopped off onto into the pile of red beneath him with a sick thwack.
She jumped backwards, but the viscous liquid beneath her held tight. She couldn’t move. Her torch flickered and flared as she fumbled with her footing.
Lumps and nodules swelled from that thing’s chest, the very organs within rearranging. Deafening cracks and vile squelching echoed. The skin down his center slowly tore itself apart, strings of sinew breaking like twine to reveal malformed limbs within.
She ripped her legs from the grappling pond beneath, doing everything in her power to turn away.
But it was no use.
Bolts of force perforated her body. Agony seared every surface of her body.
The chest had burst open, sending several tendrils right through her. They squirmed and extended into her, moving like worms. They ripped and melded to her own flesh. Roaring pain flowed through her being like fire and lightning, consuming her wholly.
She screamed, but nothing escaped her lungs. Blood and tissue filled them. She needed to rip at the invading terror, but could not move. The red abomination pulled them for her; a sickening puppet of muscle.
Everything faded. No pain. No breathing. No sight.
The last thing she saw were the sockets in which her beloved’s gorgeous yellow eyes once laid, now replaced with pulsing meat.
She missed them… dearly.
\= = = = =
Several days of ridicule and a merciless sea voyage were sure to have an adverse effect on one’s mental state—being cast out of one’s own religion even more so. Some would perhaps cope with such by lashing out against those higher up the mountain than themselves. Others might resign themselves to prayer and labor, hoping to fit back into place within God’s graces. However, an exceptional case may change the way one perceives their circumstance.
The script-keeper and her village-mates were hardy people, having survived the worst of the Gods’ trials and then some—rogue waves from the water worshippers, grand storms from the Sky Goddess, and great famines brought from those who sinned before the Mountain God. They persevered through their community, pooling what little they had and relying upon one another to get through. She had seen it for fifty winters.
Now, eight of them have been stripped of those they became interdependent on, thrown forth into an uncertain abyss with only the clothes on their backs. Yet, by the luck of the Gods, the very shore they came upon happened to be owned by that of a diety-sent. Perhaps it was a sign from the Gods that there was hope for them yet…
And it took all of a singular night to prove that assumption correct. The four Malkrin that followed the star-sent freely regaled their struggles with the vile wilderness and the cruelty of the only other settlement before they met with the Creator. Their opinions on Kegara’s settlement were duly noted, but not taken to heart as they were just that: opinions. The script-keeper would have to see it for herself; feeble belief in the words of few should not sway the mind of someone, especially with her profession. Still, the stories of the abhorrent were taken much more seriously, since despite the confidence shared by the few females about defeating them, the elderly Malkrin could certainly see their ears droop in disquietude when the topic was broached. Furthermore, the other more elusive star-sent refused entirely to elaborate on her experience with the beasts when the paladin wrapped her into the conversation.
Fine new clothes, filling meals, and protective castles could only do so much… In the splendor and awe, the script-keeper understood it could only cover up the aching wounds each of the villagers had come here with. She knew the lumberjack quite well, commonly having to assist her with purchasing and selling items across the sea… the very same sea that now separated the woman from her mate. God knows how the wood-cutter felt now.
All the elder knew from the sparse conversations she had with the orange-skinned female was that she wished not to think of it anymore. To which, the harvester did just that, delving into the work allotted to her without a second thought, and basking in the benefits of the star-sent. Much was the same for the others from their island—their hopes of returning to the Land Kingdom having already been thoroughly sundered by the inquisitors. The script-keeper was not privy to everyone’s pains, but she knew they were similarly prepared to shelve them away in service of building themselves anew with this peculiar situation.
\= = = = =
Female Malkrin eat a lot. Seriously, all the meal boxes Harrison and Akula had prepared were ran through like crab rangoons at a buffet. There were a few left, but certainly not enough for dinner that night—and especially not for the winter, much to his displeasure. The engineer wasn’t looking forward to cooking anymore than he already had… But, he had a trick up his sleeve. Not only did the green fisherwoman know how to use the kitchen, but their little camp just so happened to have another who was experienced in the culinary arts.
Around the time they put their tools down for lunch, Harrison was approached by the pink-colored chef who was assisting with some of the masonry prior. He was apprehensive, yet his eyes were practically sparkling when he asked about the barbecue sauce, spices, and common vegetables. The engineer had a bit of time before he needed to get back to work, so he gave in. They conversed about it over their meal, the human explaining the ingredients and methods of making several types of dishes while the several Malkrin in attendance listened intently.
That was around the time he got the idea: why not have Akula teach the cook how to use the barrack’s kitchen? She was pretty reluctant to return to cooking… until he reintroduced her to her new sous-chef, giving her the task of overseeing the male’s modern culinary equipment and meat smoking tutorial.
Harrison didn’t know exactly why she seemed happier then. It could have been something about her prejudices, just having someone else to help her, or something… else… That didn’t matter to him. As long as the job was done, he was happy—especially since it meant he could focus on other projects.
Take the entire home they were building for example; it was practically completed by the time the chefs were sent off to make dinner. They were working on it since dawn—the engineer was still incapable of sleeping—digging the foundation behind the barracks, layering the brick walls, and getting the wooden supports down in record time. Having several extra Malkrin around made the labor requirement almost trivial, even if he needed to ensure they were doing the job right by constantly keeping a close eye on them. It also helped how eager some of them were to settle in with their tasks—the fisher twins and the lumberjack specifically.
The new arrivals were definitely a lot more lively than last night, that was for sure. They held onto caution in the morning, but that broke rather quickly after they got more accustomed to Harrison’s group and received basic clothing—literally just sturdy plaid shirts and black pants. Cera’s—the ceramist’s newly accepted name, created by Tracy’s shorthand of her profession—tendency to look out for the group also had a hand in the change from guarded acceptance to genuine and vocal appreciation. She did as much as she could to ease their burden by offering water or a helping hand whenever she and the lumberjack weren’t busy bringing wheelbarrows full of clay to the workshop. The two new males gladly accepted both, but the females were quite set on keeping their honor, completing their share of the work ‘with their own talons.’
Then, there was the juvenile. He didn’t want to force a kid to work, but the decision apparently wasn’t his. She quietly joined her older village-mates in hauling wheelbarrows full of bricks to and from the workshop. She didn’t seem upset nor did she seem too enthused about it. His singular attempt to persuade her otherwise was only returned with a terse shake of her head before she continued working. She didn’t like to show much emotion, that was for sure. Were all Malkrin teens like that, or was it because of her situation? Christ… the fact that she was sent to the mainland without her parents—or at all—rubbed him the wrong way. It was fucked, but at least she would be safe here… or as ‘safe’ as was possible.
That was the other job of the day: defense via the new fabricator. Tracy helped out a good bit with organizing and designing the second barracks for the first half of the day, thoroughly combing through the engineer’s ideas and ripping out the ‘brutalist’ and ‘soul-crushing’ lack of ‘real’ architecture. She inserted her own ideas, further backed up by the input of Craftsman’s prior experience, making for an admittedly more pleasant-looking layout of the house’s exterior and interior. It would end up looking vaguely like a white-brick colonial house, but with less ‘posh noble,’ instead making use of Germanic-style exterior wooden supports. It was just big enough to fit eight Malkrin-sized cots, space for movement between them, and all the basics such as lighting, airflow, and a little bit of storage on top—because, what was a building without storage? Luckily for the tradeswoman, it hardly used any more resources than his original plans, so he allowed it.
After that, Tracy realized there wasn’t much else for her to do, so she returned to their other project. The technician did well in assembling the most basic parts, working well throughout the day to complete the forging and welding components. Again, having someone else to do help with a job that big was a massive blessing, cutting off hours of time he would have had to slave away in the workshop.
Hours of time that he was able to use for overseeing the now-completed barracks, simultaneously teaching the Malkrin and getting a feel for how to best utilize their strengths with a substantial amount of help from the craftsman. The male did a bang-up job at explaining tasks and concepts to the others. Much better than Harrison was able to. Once more, it was a job the engineer was more than happy to let someone else take off his hands. The olive-colored Male was perfect for the job anyway, having the technical know-how and experience explaining similar things to Malkrin back on the islands, so the pioneer trusted the task to be completed with little issue.
Now, the day was finally reaching a close, ending with the settlement eating their dinner by the fire. There were a few more benches made to give everyone a seat. That meant the radius had to be extended somewhat, but that wasn’t anything a bigger fire couldn’t fix. Plus, the alien’s intent meant that he could still hear clearly from anyone around the pyre.
The muted sounds of silverware clanking against meal boxes and plates were muddled by the constant breeze. The flames lazily flickered in all directions, casting shadows along the flowing grass, each person in attendance being doused in a mellow orange. The Malkrin conversed with one another over their meals, each sitting in pairs on the furniture. Shar was out on guard patrol, so Tracy ended up taking the seat beside him. It was a bit of a surprise given how much she preferred to stay in the workshop, but he didn’t mind her taking a break—she deserved it. If anything, it should have been him on the fabrication floor, picking up where she left off.
“…Hey…” Tracy’s soft, worried voice took him from his thoughts.
“Hm?” He lazily looked down at the shorter woman beside him, her legs swinging as they couldn’t quite reach the ground.
She worriedly raised her brows. “You alright, dude? You’ve had some major bruised eye action going on all day. Did you even get any sleep? I didn’t even see you when I woke up.”
“No, I actually didn’t—” He held up a palm, stopping the technician’s troubled response. “—but it’s more because of that potion… thingy… Cera gave me. I don’t feel tired at all.”
Her face contorted in confusion, the shadows cast by the fire’s glow emphasizing it further. “The… potion…? Oh, yeaaaah, right. It was supposed to help you with dizziness, I think, but it also prevents you from feeling tired. How does it even feel? Like taking an energy drink, or something else?”
He held out his arm, tracing a finger along it. “I just feel like I’ve got pins and needles all along my skin… and I don’t feel like sleeping. That’s it really, so sort of like taking a bunch of caffeine.”
Her brows dropped in faux-annoyance. “That can not be healthy for you. Have you checked up on yourself with the scanner? If not for that, then at least the radiation? Maybe the fuzzy stuff is from all those grays of radiation you received?”
“I did… I did, don’t worry. The scanner had nothing besides the usual, so I guess it was just a good bit of caffeine or something… I don’t know. It’ll probably wear off soon, though.”
She nodded, returning her gaze to the fire. Her voice mellowed, just barely loud enough to reach his ears. “Good. The aliens were worried sick about you, yesterday, ya know—Shar ‘specially… and so was I…”
He hardly heard that last part, barely able to piece it together seconds after she muttered it. He wasn’t trying to make them worried, it was just a part of being on this planet. Every day was a new close call. The first blood moon, that pink monster, the workshop ambush, the second blood moon, and now the anomaly field all terrified him, haunting his very dreams with brief flashbacks of those sights and sounds. Though, they all served to teach him, forcing him to stay on his toes and never stay complacent… Which was something he was doing now.
He had plans in the works already—the new fabricator being the crux of at least half of them—but what could he do currently? How could he prepare? Or, at the very least, what could he do to advance the group further?
Their day-to-day jobs had already been discussed, plans for a new wood storage building were already made, and his work on the printer was cut out for him tonight… Okay. Well, what could he prepare for in the future? Defense? Of course, now that people were going to be out doing their own jobs, they would be too spread out to protect everyone at once.
There were two components to any solution for that problem: reconnaissance and protection. The first was self-explanatory. If he had, say, a few dozen drones scouting around where people were, it would take a lot of the surprise out of random swarms. That would give people time to either return to the castles… modules… or prepare themselves to take the bugs on. That led him to the second part. Firearms help to kill spider-crabs, but are also pretty dangerous in the wrong hands… He was more than willing to trust the Malkrin he knew with guns to defend themselves, but he couldn’t just start handing them out to strangers. Maybe in time, though. There were always other means of protection, anyway; Kegara’s camp was apparently alive and well, despite practically being from the stone ages.
Cera, Akula, and Shar were most certainly getting some firepower, that was for sure. He’d have to think about what sort of weapons would suit them. That also brought up the current metal deficit… and his gunpowder was running out quite quickly…
That was definitely something he wanted to get on before the next blood moon. He wanted to revisit that metal cave he saw when the paladin and the fisherwoman got cornered by three colossi. He hadn’t analyzed the chunk of ore he hacked off yet—he’d been pretty damn busy—so it was about time he figured out whether or not he had a nearby source of metals. It would be a damn blessing if it was aluminum or iron, despite only being a surface deposit. No matter what it was, it was sure to be of use.
Then there was the gunpowder issue. The last time he checked, there was enough to last him for at least the next blood-moon, but it wasn’t enough for several other firearms, especially if he wanted anything automatic. There were three main ingredients—potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal—which were essential for the production of any explosives. Charcoal was already solved for them, and potassium nitrate could practically be made out of thin air and water, considering they were right by an ocean. Bless the Ostwald process and acid-base neutralization.
The only real issue was sulfur… Christ, natural elements sucked. Either he had to deal with excessive organic recycling of amino acids… or go and mine the stuff directly, and there weren’t any obvious volcanic deposits or fault lines around. Neither of those methods sounded great.
Again, that would have to come later. He needed that fabricator done first and foremost. Then he could deal with the assorted problems that followed it and, well, every other compiling issue. Material harvesting tools, automatic defenses, larger fortifications, and radio-protectant armor were but a few of the big-ticket items on his mind.
Cera’s concoction was still running through his veins anyway, so he might as well finish the printer while he was at it. It looked like he wasn’t sleeping tonight either.
- - - - -
[First] [Previous] [Next]
Next time on Total Drama Anomaly Island - Hard work. Good company.

I left my job at one of the biggest laptop companies after 2 years, about 2 months ago, and now I am looking for a similar role, but that's the problem, I am so lost...
I was hired as a Test Automation Engineer, but my responsibilities have nothing to do with writing test cases. My department is Hardware Validation, and my manager has many initiatives and POCs that involve machine learning.
And that's why I was hired. I have a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, but I enrolled in ML classes. He asked me to create linear regression, NLP classification, Non-supervised learning tools, and a webpage to host those tools within the company, so the Hardware Validation colleagues can use them to help in their daily jobs.
It sounds good, but the problem is there are no others on the team, it's just me. So I have no one to consult; I just used Stack Overflow, ChatGPT, and Google to learn and search for the things I need and used Python and ASP.NET to write them.
There's no CI/CD pipeline, no code review, no Jira tickets, no Kanban, no scrum master. It's just me using my work laptop to write programs locally after having meetings with electrical engineers and hardware engineers, getting ideas and feedback on what kind of tools and how these tools can help them. After finishing the program, I just used a USB to put the code on a server and deployed it with Visual Studio and IIS. I used Git for local version control, but everything is maintained on Teams folder and Outlook emails, since my manager refused to use Jira or BitBucket.
This is the hardware validation department, so I guess that's why we don't have correct and formal methods to write and deploy code? My manager can't program at all; he doesn't even know basic Excel functions. He has a background in statistics, but I guess that's it. He can't even explain a lot of basic machine learning algorithms.
He can't explain what gradient descent is. He can't explain what convolutional layers do. He can't explain K-Means. He can't explain cosine similarity. He can't explain why, when replace is false, the sample size cannot be greater than the population size.
But his managers LOVE him; he is good at making those presentations and making the initiatives and POCs sound so impactful. He always came to me before he presented anything to his managers since his PPTs are full of mistakes, like: "After we used BERT to transform text into vectors, we applied transformers and used sigmoid for multi-class classification."
So after two years, I quit my job, knowing that staying there with him will probably ruin me after years. I did get hands-on experience on how to apply machine learning into real corporate data, but it's so shallow that it only needs one person to finish; it's so shallow that me looking for answers online is enough.
Now I don't know what to do next, I doubt myself. Do I really even know anything about machine learning? Do I really know how all those NLP, ResNext, and XGBoost work? Or did I just google some simple tutorials and my idiotic manager is just happy?
What even am I? Test Automation Engineer? Because that's my job title. Machine Learning Engineer? Because that's what I did? Full-stack Developer? Because I used ASP.NET to create a website and maintain the frontend and backend? Am I a programmer at all? My master's degree is in Mechanical Engineering. Or am I just a dude who can google? Because that's literally how I do my job.
I want to continue this career, but I feel I am ruined; those 2 years didn't really teach me anything.

Hi Everybody! I have a long list of games I'm selling below. Hit me with any offers on one game or multiple games! Thank you!
Fallout 76 PC (Redeem on Microsoft Store)
Marvel's Avengers The Definitive Edition (Steam)
A Way Out (Origin Code)
Humble Bundle Stand with Ukraine Bundle
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PGA Tour 2K21
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Car Mechanic Simulator 2018
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Humble Bundle Choice April 2023
Not included (Death Stranding Director's Cut)
Aliens Fireteam Elite (Steam)
Rollerdrome (Steam)
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Revita (Steam)
Founder's Fortune (Steam)
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Humble Bundle Choice July 2023
The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition (Steam)
Temtem (Steam)
Yakuza 4 Remastered (Steam)
Roadwarden (Steam)
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Merchant of the Skies (Steam)
Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim 9Steam)
Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate (Steam)
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Humble Bundle Aspyr 25th Anniversary Bundle
Fahrenheit
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Stick Fight
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System Shock 2
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Flynn: Son of Crimson
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Mount & Blade: Warband
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112 Operator
Calico
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Zombie Driver HD
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Monaco
Death Squared
Lust from Beyond - M Edition
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Remnants of Naezith
Planet TD
Firegirl
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Little Orpheus
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Agent in Depth
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stikir
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Sunlight

In a hypothetical situation, if I had [[Juri, Master of the Revue]] on the board with 3 other creatures (lets assume they have no abilities and are not special, lets also assume that Juri is at his base power and toughness and is a 1/1)), and I were to play a [[Hellion Eruption]], what would happen? I was wondering specifically if I could resolve [[Hellion Eruption]] in such a way that Juri would "see" the other 3 creatures being sacrificed and placing the resulting 3 +1/+1 counter on Juri before his own dying trigger would deal damage to any target. In this scenario, I am imagining that Juri dioes not see the other sacrifices and, as such, would only deal 1 damage with his death trigger. However, is there a way I could layer and/or stack the relevant triggers so that Juri could deal 4 damage to something with his death trigger, having seen the other 3 creatures sacrificed. I know that sacrificing does not use the stack, but I was wondering if Juri could potentially see the sacrifices before his death trigger resolves. Sorry if this is wordy and hard to understand, but any help/advice is greatly appreciated!

One would’ve thought I’d be used to this by now – typing with one arm. It takes time to get used to; especially when you’ve spent most of your life in front of a keyboard. Muscle memory digs deep.
A few years ago, I was in a car accident. I was going 60 down an empty road, coming home from a long day of overtime, when some kind of animal came charging out of the woods. Trying to avoid a collision, I swerved off the road. My front left wheel got caught in a ditch, sending the entire vehicle careening off the road; only to smash into the trunk of an ill-placed black walnut tree, driver’s side first.
I have this vague memory of blinking lights and vague shapes in the distance. I was so cold. But at the same time, it was so unreal. I couldn’t even understand what had happened.

I was brought into emergency surgery. My left arm was, literally, hanging by the thread of my jacket. It had come off clean by the socket.
According to the surgeons, I was lucky. Most of my shoulder was intact, so it became a matter of salvaging what they could. The cut had been clean. I did suffer some whiplash damage to my neck and lower back, but considering I could’ve easily died or gotten paralyzed, losing an arm was considered “mild”.
Looking back at it, I am inclined to agree. Considering what could’ve gone down, I was damn lucky. Still, in that luck, I wished I could’ve gotten just a tiny bit luckier. See, I had this gold ring that I’d been given by my later mother. A simple thing with the engraving of a musical note on the inside – a memento of our shared love of music. We played Louis Armstrong at her funeral.
That ring disappeared in the accident. Somehow, that’s what bothered me the most. My arm could be reattached. It could heal. But that little memento was just gone.

What followed was a long period of intense physical therapy, medication, and painful readjustments. It took weeks before I could even move my fingers again, and when I did, it felt like pushing your nerves through an unwashed garlic press. It was this stunning chemical-level kind of pain. The kind where your body just shuts down, begging you to stop.
But over time, I started to get over it. Small movements started to get better. I could tie my shoes. Press the space bar. Hold a knife. I wasn’t about to juggle anytime soon, or play the piano, but I could get by.
Soon enough, I got back to work.

People were glad to see me. I wasn’t gonna be able to work at full capacity in my usual role, but I could still sit in on meetings. I won’t bore you with the details, but most of my work relies on answering e-mails, proofreading, and translation. It’s pretty technical stuff that requires a lot of pitter-patter on keyboards.
At one point, I was stuck in a particularly drawn-out meeting between two clients that we were facilitating. I was there mostly as an observer (to fill the seats), but I was supposed to weigh in if something related to my department came up. Of course, it didn’t, but I still had to act interested. My colleague was trying to draw up a compromise between the two parties, laying out terms and conditions. Meanwhile, I was nursing a cup of coffee and waiting for the day to be over.
Looking over to my side, I noticed something odd. I wasn’t just holding the coffee cup with my left hand; I was stroking it with my index finger. Sort of like how you’d scratch a wary cat under its chin.

It was a strange sensation. I was looking at my own arm, my own hand, and I couldn’t feel what was happening. I couldn’t feel the ceramics tapping against my finger, or the twitch of the nerve as it contracted and extended. It was just happening. An involuntary twitch, perhaps.
But it didn’t feel like it. It felt intended, somehow.
A few similar events took place that day. Grabbing the bathroom door for a little too long. Knocking over desktop decorations. Suddenly letting go of my jacket as I was about to head home. It was just little things. I was still having trouble even using my arm in the first place, so these quirks didn’t bother me too much.
A friend of mine was giving me a ride home. I wasn’t at 100% yet and sitting behind the steering wheel felt like inviting disaster. Instead, I sat in the passenger seat, nodding off as the trees passed me by with a steady rhythm; causing me to blink.

A noise pulled me back. The driver said something, but I wasn’t paying attention. Turning to him, I excused myself.
“Sorry, what was that?” I asked.
“What are you doing?” the driver repeated.
I looked over. My left hand was wrapped around the parking brake, as if ready to pull. I forced myself to let go.
“Nothing,” I said. “Sorry, I don’t… it’s nothing.”
“Right,” he nodded. “Just… don’t do that.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Yeah, no. Sorry.”

That night, I was exhausted. It felt like my lungs had been robbed of breath. I felt weak and trembling. I was cold, yet feverish. Famished, but without an appetite. I went to bed early, faceplanting into the pillow.
I had horrible nightmares, none of which I can remember. I kept waking up over and over, not being able to discern dream from reality. My bed was soaked with cold sweat, sending shiver after shiver up my spine.
By the early hours of the morning, a stray ray of sunshine burned my eyes open. I was lying on my side, looking towards the window, leaning on my left shoulder.
The fingers of my left hand were moving on their own. And not just moving, but bent in every which way; as if lacking bones. They were vibrating, shuddering, like wounded worms fearing a predator.

I grabbed my hand, and my fingers were back to normal. I could move them as usual. For a moment, I was doubting what I’d seen. It was one thing to experience oddities, but that was unreal. I must’ve laid there for half an hour, just expanding and contracting my hand, begging my body to work with me.
“Enough of this,” I begged. “Please. Enough. Please.”
I clapped my hands, cracked my fingers, and ran them through my hair. It was fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. Right?

A couple of weeks passed without any serious peculiarities. I could even work a little. There were a few of oddities, like unknowingly grasping a warm cup, or my fingers pointing in all directions when in contact with cold water. Just strange little things that I could easily get control of.
That was, until one morning at work. We were out of coffee, so I was making myself a cup of tea instead. As the water came to a boiling point, I accidentally spilled some on my arm.
The reaction was immediate.

My arm whipped out to the side, throwing the pot across the room. For a moment, my arm looked like it didn’t have any bones; rippling like a skin-covered liquid. It made me think of it not as a part of me, but as an alien thing attached to my shoulder.
And for a brief moment, in the blink of a heartbeat, I could see my fingers grow and shrink. Fingernails throbbing, like a cat throwing up a hair ball.
Suddenly, it stopped. Looking back, I could see one of my co-workers watching me from the other side of the room. She must’ve heard the crash.
“You alright?” she asked.
“Yeah, just got a burn,” I sighed. “I’ll, uh… I’ll be fine.”
She side-eyed the broken pot on the other side of the room and nodded. Not entirely convinced.

As soon as she left, I looked down on my hand as if shying away from a wild animal. It was alien to me. It was something… other. A twitch was one thing, but this was downright unnatural.
Coming home that night, I had a weekend ahead of me. I ran my symptoms through a couple of online services. While there are a few ways the human body can trick itself, like the alien hand syndrome, or phantom pains, this was different. Physical properties do not rapidly change. Then again, maybe I was imagining it?
I decided to do something crazy. An experiment. I wanted to recreate what’d happened in the break room.

I boiled up some water and poured it into a cup. I held my left hand over my sink, grabbing the cup with my right. I stood there, trying to calm myself. I wasn’t insane. This was a rational thought that I had to play out in order to eliminate an outlandish possibility.
I prepped a cold pack and ran the tap. Then, taking a deep breath, I poured some of the boiling water on my left hand.

Twelve fingers.
My hand split into twelve fingers, lined with raw, open wounds. My wrist rolled, like a cobra fixing its eyes on a prey animal. This was no longer an arm – it was a nest of flesh-colored snakes.
My mind blanked. I fell backwards, smacking at my arm as if trying to kill it. I couldn’t feel a thing. It’s as if all sense of touch ended at my shoulder. I crawled backwards on the floor, trying to wave my arm away, but it clung to me like a parasite fixed on my shoulder.
Seconds later, a searing pain ran up my arm. Looking down on my hand, it looked as it always had. It was just a hand with a burn. I could barely feel it through the pounding in my chest. Every noise in the room was overshadowed by my pulse.
I ran my hand under a tap and wrapped a cold pack around the wrist. It wasn’t a bad burn, but it wasn’t nothing.

I did some research, looking up news from around the time my accident took place. There were a couple of reports, but nothing out of the ordinary. A domestic call, a brawl at a local restaurant, a couple of missing pets. There were a couple of other reports, but they were short and didn’t lead anywhere. A mention of a couple disturbances. Some idiot blasting music in a parking lot.
But there was one more thing I noticed. In one of the reports covering my accident, there was a picture of the car. There was spatter of the blood on the hood, with something meaty stuck in the grille – as if I’d hit an animal.
That caught my interest. I couldn’t remember hitting anything, so what the hell was that about?

The next day, my arm was acting up even worse. It kept going cold, as if circulation was cutting in and out. Before heading out, I wrapped it up in bandages. Partly because of the cold sensation and partly because I just didn’t trust it. There was no way to tell what could happen, or why.
I managed to get a hold of the owner of the junkyard where my trashed car had been towed. I went over there early in the day, just before the fog cleared.
Now, this was long after the car had been crushed and stored, but it was the only lead I had. An older woman greeted me at the gates, letting me in. We had a short chat about the accident as she showed me around, ending up at a stack of metal that could hardly be recognized as anything. The only thing to even hint at my car being in that pile was a thin slice of colored metal from one of the doors.

I dug around there for about 20 minutes; all while being observed by this old woman.
“Yeah, won’t find much,” she said. “If the police didn’t get it, the insurance folks did.”
“Been a lot of people digging around?”
“Not a lot, nah,” she said, shaking her head. “But you ain’t the first.”
And she was right. There wasn’t a drop of blood, or bone, or anything. It was just scrap metal in a pile of even more scrap metal. I was wasting my time.

But as I was about to leave, I noticed something. I hadn’t thought about it, but I could see the old woman was wearing a ring. It looked like a wedding ring at first, but she was wearing it on the wrong finger. I pointed to it.
"You found that?"
"What about it?" she asked.
"It’s got a tune engraved on the inside, right? Like, a, uh… music note?”
There was no response. She just looked at me and sighed. Turns out, I was right. She gave it back.

She’d found it near the hood of the car the night they brought it in. Grabbing it was just a spur of the moment thing, and since no one had come asking for it, she’d kept it. I was a bit annoyed, but mostly relieved that I got it back. But the question remained, how had that ended up at the hood of the car?
“There was all kinds of gunk just kinda hanging there,” she said. “Figured it was an animal.”
“And you’re sure that’s where you found it?”
“Sure as sure can be, yeah.”
I stood there for a moment, feeling an uncomfortable thought forming in the back of my head. There was no way for that ring to go from my broken arm on the driver’s side to a pile of meat stuck in the grille of the car.

But the proof of it had been in front of me all along. I had worn that ring for 12 years. There was a permanent indent on my finger.
Looking down at my left hand, there was no such indent.
This wasn’t my arm.

As soon as that thought settled in my mind, I could feel the arm twist and turn. Hadn’t it been for the bandages, there’s no way to tell what it would’ve done. It squirmed and pulled against me, thrashing like a dying fish on land. The old woman just looked at me.
“You alright? Want me to call someone?” she asked.
“I-I… I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know.”
I had to get to the bottom of this. I hurried out of there as fast as I could.

It was getting late in the afternoon when I got back home. Grabbing an old backpack and a couple of painkillers, I was about to head right back out. But a thought hit me. Maybe it wasn’t as abstract as I thought. Maybe it wasn’t just a feeling – maybe something was really there.
Looking down at my arm, I could feel it stirring, just within my control. Something sleeping, waiting to spring into action. With my right hand on the front door, I stopped, and spoke out loud.
“Whatever you want, just… don’t,” I asked. “Don’t.”
There was no response. No stirring. On a spur-of-the-moment whim, I packed one more thing into my backpack. Just in case. A hail Mary.

Making my way to the scene of the accident, it was impossible to tell anything had ever happened there. I could barely even make out the place where I swerved, or where my wheel got caught in the ditch. I found the general area in the field where my car had spun out of control, and from there it was easy to find the tree I’d smashed into. It was still there.
I spent hours going over it all. Following the path the car had taken, starting from that tree, and working my way back. There was nothing there. Nothing new. It was all just gravel, weeds, and pavement. What had I expected? A signed confession?
As the sun dipped behind the clouds, I could feel a cold wind coming on. I’d lost track of time.

As I turned back, there was a sudden cramp in my arm. A shock of pain crept up my spine, spreading throughout my body like a spider’s web. I could feel my left arm throbbing against the bandage wrap. Something was wrong.
I was in the middle of the field. I could see for miles in every direction. Cars passing by in the distance. Wet grass staining my pants all the way up to my knees. And this one cold wind, cutting straight through my clothes. I shivered, but my left arm didn’t.
Taking a step back towards where I came from, another shot of pain struck me. This one tripped me, sending me face first into the grass. It knocked the air out of my lungs.
I rolled over on my back, gasping for breath. My left hand was creeping up my stomach like a spider with a meaty tail. It stopped over my face, tapping the bridge of my nose with the index finger. I couldn’t feel a thing. Moving to push it off, it instead struck back; grasping my right hand in return.
“Stop,” I wheezed as I sat back up. “Just stop. Stop this.”
But it didn’t. I just sat there. A wounded man holding his arms.

I struggled back and forth for well over half an hour. Getting back on my feet, only to get knocked back down. By the time I’d made my way back to the road, I looked like I’d been hiking for miles. My hair was a mess, and my clothes were covered in grass and mud. I had a handprint across my face, like I’d smacked myself.
I’d trusted myself with a short drive to get there, but I wasn’t sure about going back. It felt reckless to get behind a wheel in my state. Still, I couldn’t just walk all the way back home, and having it towed would be a pain in the ass.
I got back in my car while I thought about it, wiping myself off with a towel from my backpack.

It’d gotten dark outside. The overcast didn’t help, I could almost taste the rain. I contemplated my options and figured that if I kept it slow and only used my right arm, I could carefully make my way home. I put the keys in and turned on the headlights.
There was an elk standing in front of my car.
It sniffed the hood of my car curiously, then proceeded to stare me down. I was just surprised. I got a good look at it. There was something wrong with one of its hind legs – it lacked fur, and there was a sort of spreading baldness reaching halfway up the side of the body.
My arm was slowly rising on its own, as if looking over the dashboard. The elk recoiled, as if in pain, and set off in a troubled three-legged gallop. It disappeared into the woods.

Looking down at my arm, a stray thought hit me.
Was this spreading too?

I painstakingly made my way back home. I dropped my backpack in the hallway, locked my front door, and collapsed into the shower. I was exhausted.
I stood in the shower for about half an hour, looking down at my mother’s ring. I was wearing it on my right hand now, but it just didn’t feel the same. That wasn’t where it was meant to be. Still, it was nice to have it back. Whenever I turned the ring a little, I could feel the engraving against my skin. It was a little gesture I did when I was anxious, as a reminder that it was still there.
I got dressed and ready for a slow evening at home without any further drama. My arm wasn’t acting up. But as I passed through the hallway, something didn’t feel right.

At first, I couldn’t say what it was. Maybe the hum of an old lamp, or some air duct acting up. I wasn’t sure, but it was something. It had to be. I stepped up to the front door.
There used to be a light coming from the hallway outside. That light was always on, and there should be a little light coming in through the peephole. But there wasn’t. Had a fuse blown? I had a closer look.
There was someone just outside my door.

A click.
My left hand had unlocked the door.

The door flung open, knocking me back. A tall silhouette, close to seven feet tall, pushed its way into my apartment. It was dressed in a sort of black poncho, covering its face with layers of bandages. A single frog-like eye stared me down as it pushed forward.
I scrambled backwards on the floor. It was fast. Damn fast. It stepped forward and reached for one of my legs, but I managed to pull away in time. I got back on my feet, barely managing to pull my left arm along. It was trying to grab a hold of something, as if to slow me down.
In a spur-of-the-moment decision I grabbed a lamp from the windowsill, throwing it across the room. The intruder ducked, then came at me again. I ducked under, just in time, and headed for the door.

As I reached the front door, my left arm tried to force it shut. I fought against myself to get out, but it was useless. The door was shut and locked, and my left hand refused to budge. The seven-foot-tall shape came around the corner, slowly approaching. I had to think of something. Anything.
My backpack. It was right there.

I had packed a couple of things earlier. A towel, some bandages, painkillers, and a water bottle. But I’d also packed some lighter fluid. Seeing as how my left arm had reacted so violently to boiling water, I had this stupid idea that the prospect of a straight-up fire would do something even worse to it.
It didn’t seem so stupid anymore.
I grabbed the lighter fluid and sprinkled it on my left arm. The tall shape stopped, seemingly reacting to the smell of it.
I wanted to say something, but all that came out were empty breaths. We were like animals, circling each other, waiting for one to make the first move. I emptied the lighter fluid, grabbing a box of matches. I held the box with my mouth, and a triplicate of matches in my hand. I spilled the rest on the floor.

For a moment, we just looked at one another. A single inhuman eye peeking through the bandage wraps. The vague shape of four, maybe five extremities at its side. How many arms did this thing hide under the poncho?
A flash of realization came to me. This is what I had almost hit with my car.

And with that, I lit the matches. It leapt at me, but it was too late.
The moment the open flame touched the skin on my left arm, it detached. The open nerves just let go of me, and the thing fell off my body. It squirmed on the floor like a dying animal, grasping at whatever its fingers could reach.
Adrenaline forced me out the door. A heartbeat behind me, the seven-foot-tall figure scooped up my burning arm and pushed past me. Within seconds, it was gone – leaving me with an open wound in the stairwell, smelling of lighter fluid.

One of the neighbors called for help. I didn’t even notice how much blood I was losing, but it was bad. They sent me back into emergency surgery; this time without an arm to reattach.
It was deemed that the wound was self-inflicted. A result of some stress-induced psychosis. I wanted to agree, but I saw what I saw. I’ve been trying to convince myself otherwise, but I lived this. This wasn’t any other life but mine.
I’ve since learned to live with a full prosthetic. It’s not much, but I can trust it, and I can wear my mother’s ring the way it was supposed to be. It’s starting to make an indent on the synthetic skin.

I don’t like to think about what would’ve happened if I’d let that thing stay on. But just a couple of weeks ago, I got an answer. I was stuck in traffic, looking out over the fields, when I saw a group of elks in the distance.
One of them had no fur.
None at all.

What I see in you:
Your determination and exceptional intelligence set you apart as you stand as a determined individual as I do. I see remarkable potential within you, a remark I make of nobody almost ever: a potential that, when combined with my own capabilities, can lead to profound achievements through our combined endeavors. Your kindness and empathy stack additional layers of depth and richness to your character, forming a vast potential for our togetherness considering I share similar qualities. As I contemplate the potential future that awaits us, I envision a path marked by growth, discovery, and manifestation of dreams. Together, we can conjoin our intellectual efforts, creativity, and dedication to carry that exact future out, possibly surpassing even our wildest expectations and life desires. I'm thrilled to explore the boundless possibilities which very may well just be laying ahead under the notion that it's just a matter of time. I must now make the next move before this opportunity is squandered

• A

I really enjoy creating immersive shops, diners, bars, even mini-towns. Right now I have Vault-Tiki, a tiki bar and lounge, Dogmeat Mary’s, a diner, a house and a toy museum. I think I’m pretty good at it, and I do often have strangers hang out for an hour or more watching me build, which doesn’t seem fun to me but I’m flattered!
But there are some things about the CAMP system and the objects in it that don’t function in a way that makes sense. For someone who sinks hours into this aspect of the game, it can be pretty frustrating.
Shelves / Displays:
The foremost issue I have is that you can only utilize the top shelf of any shelf or display. You can situate things on the edge of some middle shelves but they are essentially floating in midair, or you can take an hour or so to build a hack in which many objects are stacked on each other and layers of rugs, then slide that into the shelving unit to appear like things are sitting on the shelves.
Second, the issue where craftable things can only be put in Displays, while purchased things can’t be put in Displays. My Mr. Fuzzy collection being split into two ways of displaying them, between ones bought from the shop and ones collected in game, kills me!
Third, the lack of display options. Can we get metal display cases in addition to the wood ones?
Fourth, some of the Shelves are awesome but useless. For instance, can the sleek rounded metal shelving unit be changed to a Display so we can put things in it? I can’t imagine many people want to fill their buildings with empty cases.
Location Boundaries: I understand the need to space people’s camps out from each other and from POIs, but it feels a little excessive and uneven in different places. There are some POIs where you can be right next to the location, and others where you must be quite a ways away before you can build. I enjoy building my shops near busy POIs so I feel like part of the world.
Blocked Blueprints: If my camp can’t be placed when I load in, two weird things happen most of the time:
My blueprinted building refuses to place anywhere period, saying it’s floating. I imagine a single unattached wire, branch from the map intruding through an object, or a single corner of the building being above ground could all cause this. But it’s heartbreaking to have to scrap a whole build and start from scratch. I’ve learned to blueprint in small batches, but maybe this could be a bit more forgiving? Maybe wires automatically are erased from blueprints if they’re the problem?
Second, if my camp can’t place because another players camp is nearby, I get it. But half the time, there is no camp nearby. And my CAMP kit (don’t know what it’s called, sorry) is sitting there on the ground. But the camp is blocked. I load into a new world and it’s the same. I load a third time, and my camp appears. Why does this happen?
Placements: Could placements / object boundaries be made a little more forgiving?
Also, could there be an option to switch off the snapping? The way that things snap to each other?
Prefabs: Ahhh, prefabs. I love them with some exceptions.
Can we put wallpaper and flooring down please?
Why do they need power wired to them?
That’s all I got for now. Anyway, I love the building aspect of the game and if anyone sees my spots mentioned above in-game, give a wave!

So, I have been working in an app that is a web application that displays data to the user, think of it as a annual report of sales. The queries that generates the report are pretty complex and big, and data is created to three different tables according to some business requirements, for that reason, BigQuery was selected and does the job very well.
Then we added the ability to edit certain fields of the report, and the user can submit the new numbers so we generate a new version of the report.
To keep all of it in GCP, we are using Composer (basically a managed Airflow instance), and we also started to use Dataform.
So its like: the UI calls the Airflow DAG via a REST API, Airflow triggers the Dataform pipeline, and data is inserted to BigQuery.
Now, it is taking ~1 minute so the data is generated and shown in the UI. The UI is very fast and the 3 queries are running in less than 10 seconds. The data is created in temp tables and we throw it into the production tables after some basic validation
What I need now is to improve the run time, so the user dont spend more than 10 or 15 seconds waiting for the new version is generated.
I dont see a way of speeding it up using this stack so maybe I need to add some extra layers. I thought of putting a Postgres database with recent data connected to the UI, but I dont know exactly how to handle the creation of new data, then inserting it back to BigQuery, so I am looking for suggestions. What do yall think it can be done? Thanks in advance!

GM DeFi Degens!
Today, let's talk about a general exploration of how Prom will be revolutionizing the blockchain with ZK Proofs. From its innovative ZkEVM to the exciting integration of AI, Prom is setting a new standard for the future of Web3.
Let’s dive deep into this transformative process!
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• Let's explore real-life stories of how both budding startups and seasoned developers are using Prom to push the boundaries of crypto innovation, transforming ideas into impactful solutions.
  

The Convergence of AI and Blockchain with Prom

• Picture this: AI and blockchain, two of the most trendy technologies, coming together under the Prom umbrella. This convergence is was a dream that rapidly evolving reality, especially with partners like Port3 Network now is becoming a reality.
  
• Dive into how this blend of AI-driven insights and blockchain mechanics is revolutionizing decision-making and user engagement within the Prom ecosystem. It’s like having a supercharged assistant who knows exactly how to optimize every operation and transaction over the network!
  
• What’s on the table? As Prom community, we’ll delve into upcoming innovations that promise to embed AI even deeper into crypto operations through platforms like Prom, enhancing everything from analytics to automated responses over DeFi.
  

Prom's Vision for a Unified Crypto Future

• Imagine a world where blockchain boundaries blur, and seamless interaction is the norm. That’s the world Prom is building with its efforts to bridge EVM and non-EVM chains.
  
• A closer look at Prom’s innovative modular architecture and its ZK-Stack shows how these technologies enable smooth cross-chain interactions, expanding the blockchain usage for everyone.
  
• Success stories abound, and Prom will highlight instances where its unification efforts have been simplifying the significantly enhanced blockchain usability and functionality for diverse users and applications.
  

Sustainability and Scalability with Prom's ZK-Stack

• Step into the future with Prom, where its running the future to ZK proofs is making blockchain more secure and more sustainable by slashing computational overhead.
  
• The scalability offered by Prom’s ZK-Stack means transactions are processed more efficiently, reducing costs and enhancing the overall user experience. It’s like upgrading from a congested highway to a smooth, open road. Full throttle!
  
• Prom will connect the dots between the EVM and Non-EVM networks with Prom’s advanced technology and the global movement towards eco-friendly blockchain solutions, showing how sustainability is at the heart of Prom’s long-term vision.
  

Community and Ecosystem Growth

• The great growth of Prom’s community, fostered through its open testnet and DAO structure with active Validator and Delegator Campaigns, is a vivid movement to its dedication to user involvement and ecosystem development and growth.
  
• Hear from team and community members whose crypto perspective has been transformed by Prom’s ZK-Stack technology, making their interactions faster, more private, and more enjoyable. Join to Prom’s Community Channels!
  

Prom is evolving with its greater Modular ZK Layer2 Architecture and its Community, while actively sculpting a future where DeFi will be more intelligent, accessible, and unified than ever before.

Posting anew because it wouldn't let me post this as a comment. Original thread: App stopped working even though the other one with the exact same inputs work : PowerApps (reddit.com) for attention of u/TheWayOfFlow
There are four timers: tmrScroll, tmrRise, tmrFall and tmrCollision. I'll focus on tmrRise and tmrFall as they govern the position of the avatar.
There is a variable named currState which holds the current game state ("Not Started", "Started", "Game Over"). The main button refers to this variable to determine what action to take when the screen is tapped.
When the game is "Not Started", a button press does this:

// store current Y-pos of bird (starting point for rise animation) UpdateContext({currY:imgBird.Y}); // start scroll and fall timers UpdateContext({StartScroll:true, StartRise:true, StartCollision:true}); // move game state to started UpdateContext({currState:"Started"}) 

The variable StartRise causes tmrRise to start. tmrRise has a duration of 300 milliseconds. When it ends, the following code runs:

// save current Y-pos of bird (used to animated its downward fall) UpdateContext({currY:imgBird.Y}); // stop and reset this timer ready for next initiation UpdateContext({ResetRise:true, StartRise:false}); // start fall timer UpdateContext({StartFall:true}) 

This stops and resets tmrRise and starts tmrFall. If the screen is interacted with midway through a rise animation, tmrRise will be reset and restarted, as coded below.

// store current Y-pos of bird (starting point for rise animation) UpdateContext({currY:imgBird.Y}); // stop and reset fall timer UpdateContext({StartFall:false, ResetFall:true}); // stop and reset rise timer (timer will be immediately restarted next) // this is necessary in case a rise is already underway (multiple can be stacked in order to ascend) UpdateContext({StartRise:false, ResetRise:true}); // start timer to govern rise animation UpdateContext({StartRise:true}) 

Note how when tmrRise finishes or the screen is interacted with, the current Y position of the avatar is stored. This is required to animate the rising and falling of the avatar. We need to add or subtract pixels from the start position of the avatar to create the animation, so constantly having an up-to-date position for the avatar avoids jerky animations, or the avatar 'teleporting'.
The avatar begins to fall immediately after a rise animation finishes. Where a 'rise' lasts 300ms, tmrFall has a duration of 1300, as it needs to cover potentially the vertical height of the screen without being too fast.
This all ties into the Y property of the avatar, which is codes as follows:

With( { // number of pixels a single rise will add to bird Y-pos (controlled by a variable for easy tweaking) RiseAmt:varRise, // number of pixels to fall to bottom of screen // this changes based on bird position but will always take same amount of time - falling from a larger height means higher speed FallAmt:Parent.Height - currY }, // are we rising or falling? Switch( true, // rising StartRise, currY - (RiseAmt * (tmrRise.Value / tmrRise.Duration) * (2 - (tmrRise.Value / tmrRise.Duration))), // falling StartFall, currY + (FallAmt * (tmrFall.Value / tmrFall.Duration)), // neither timer in play, just use current Y-pos currY ) ) 

Note the difference in the expressions for rise and fall. The rise logic adds deceleration so the speed slows as the rise nears its apex. Falling is a linear animation. The deceleration is achieved by multiplying the animation value (a number between 0 and 1) by itself subtracted from 2. At the start of the animation, when the value is close to zero, this multiplier will be closer to 2, doubling the overall movement. But as the animation nears completion, the multiplier falls towards 1, so the animation slows (if you have any sliding elements in your UIs then this is a great method to make them seem smoother and slicker).
If neither tmrRise nor tmrFall is running, we can assume the game has terminated and so the avatar stays at its last recorded Y position. This effectively freezes the game's visual state upon a game over, along with the parallax scroll stopping.
tmrCollision checks, on a very short duration, for intersections between the position of the avatar and positions of the pipe objects that form the closest layer of the parallax. It also checks for collisions against the outer bounds of the screen, so if the avatar hits the bottom of the screen during a fall, tmrCollision will put a stop to all actions via turning off the relevant variables. I won't post the collision code as it's long but it should be easy enough to figure out.