This won't be news, of course, but apparently Trump and his allies lied a lot about who won the 2020 election. There are a lot of lies on the left, as well, that burn my beans to a greater or lesser extent - calling not wanting to use government money to buy books "book banning," for example, or seeming to imply (by calling others racist) that you think you're not one, or that doing so is going to reduce racism by one or two iotas, or calling a climate change bill an Inflation Reduction Act. (Just letting you all know, I know there are lies on both sides, and this is all relevant to centrist politics.)
The Economist last week had a couple of articles on the topic. It was interesting to learn that in poor countries (the newspaper didn't name any names) you can make a profession of building up user accounts to 100,000 followers, or so, and then selling them. That fake followers can apparently be bought in bulk. That our government has numerous agencies that work to oppose disinformation. (Apparently DARPA funds various efforts in this regard, and the State Dept has at least one agency that works on it.)
One thing the articles didn't mention is freedom of speech. Does it matter, to you, who is lying to you? Whether it's a Russian bot or our President? Should we oppose the one but overlook the other? Does it really matter, any of it? I mean, suppose Russian interference works to elect Trump, and Chinese interference works to elect Biden (I'm not suggesting that it did, just that it might) - isn't this really just giving people a voice who feel they ought to have one? I mean, our government's decisions impact the whole world. Do citizens of other countries really have no right to a say in that? Talking about right and wrong, now, not something we could potentially legislate about... I know, it's not well focused, but I'm hoping some of you will have interesting ideas....

With all the new players entering the game as of late, a lot of the same questions get asked - specifically, ones like "How can I make the perfect team for classic/endless/etc.?". The guide ahead is an attempt at answering more common questions on the former end, from the perspective of someone who almost exclusively plays Classic and many wins under my belt in doing so. Community feedback welcome; hopefully something like this can expand into something like a wiki/full guide so we can help new players down the line, too!
Classic and You: Starting Out
So you just picked up the game, but not sure where to start. "Which starters are best?" "What team should I go with first?" "I unlocked [x] - can I beat Classic with this?"
Let me reassure you: you can beat Classic with anything. (Yes, even something like Caterpie.)
That said, it's understandable to not know where to start, especially if you don't know all the starters, or maybe haven't played all the various generations of Pokemon through the years. Many of them have their own strengths and weaknesses, and some are built stronger than others. For example: Fuecoco is commonly the #1 recommended starter out of the base selection you get when first starting the game. Why? His final evolution, Skeledirge, naturally learns Torch Song, which is a hard-hitting fire move that guarantees a Sp. Attack buff each time it hits. This lets you snowball fairly quickly, as each attack makes you stronger and stronger during battles. Many starters have "specialty" tricks like this that give them an edge - Sprigatito's final evolution, for instance, gets Flower Trick, a hard-hitting grass move that always crits (and therefore always ignores opponent defensive boosts and/or your own negative debuffs). Even with all these being the case, though, there's no "perfect" team to start with that will guarantee a win - and in fact, getting a win on your first run can be exceedingly difficult. Your starters all only have 10 IVs, neutral natures, and no egg moves - they're the bare bones minimum to get going. And that's okay. But it means you need to temper your expectations.
Pokerogue is a rogue-like - and in classic rogue-like form, you build upon what you start with little by little. Your primary goal shouldn't be to get a Classic win at the start. It's certainly doable, but even if you win, you're still likely without any reliable starter to take on Endless just yet, so there's no sense in rushing there. Instead, focus on that concept of building - specifically, building your starter pool. Every time you catch something, you unlock it as a starter (if you don't have it yet). You also get candies, which can be used to power up those starters by either unlocking a passive ability (unlocking additional features) or reducing their point cost, letting you bring more starters to each run (or more powerful ones!). Catching things with higher IVs also make your starting stats better - catching a 31 Speed IV Pidgey, for instance, means your Pidgey starter now permanently has 31 Speed IVs. More stats = more power, and getting higher IVs on your starters is probably the biggest early jump you can get on pushing your team further.
With this in mind, making a "perfect" team is less important than just making A team, so that we can go out and catch some things. As for what to catch, though, here's a list of things I'd keep an eye out for:

• Anything with a missing and/or "dark" pokeball under their name. Just like in some of the main Pokemon games, Pokemon in Pokerogue will be marked with a pokeball if they've been captured before. If it's missing, and you want it as a starter, catch it! More importantly, though, is the "darkened" icon of the pokeball - this indicates that you've unlocked the starter, but this one has something you don't have yet; maybe a gender, or maybe an ability you don't have yet. For instance, a Meowth starter that you have may only have Pickup, but the one in battle before you now has Technician. Catching these "darkened ball" pokemon will unlock more options for your starters, letting you switch between these unlockables at the pokemon select screen when you start your later runs. I generally recommend catching as many of these as possible - in the beginning, it'll seem like every pokemon has a dark ball, but that's because you don't have many things unlocked yet. As you unlock more things, they'll get rarer - and more importantly, when you start looking for those elusive Hidden Abilities (HAs), these darkened balls will help you discover them more easily when you have everything else already unlocked. Remember, this is a rogue-like - we're building our starters here for future runs!
• Anything "rare". This is somewhat subjective, because "rare" can mean anything from "hard to find" to "legendary". In general, though, I recommend keeping an eye out for things you don't see often - starters, for instance, or legendary/pseudo-legendary/ultra beast/etc. "boss" monsters at the end of every 10 waves. But catching duplicates serves a secondary purpose - remember, it also gets you candies, which you can use to power up those rare pokemon starters you have later. Getting candies from friendship is certainly doable, but especially for rarelegendary pokemon, this can take a loooooong while. Catch them if you can to make it easier on yourself later. (A sub-point of this: If a rare or starter is available in a daily run, consider "farming" the daily run over and over to catch them again and again! Many of the daily run guides point these out intentionally for this reason - daily runs can sometimes be the best way to target farm candies in this way.)
• Anything you plan on using a lot. Somewhat of another sub-point of the above, catching duplicates of things you know you'll use often can be useful for candy collection. Specifically, this works well for things you know you'll use often - your first few shinies, for instance, or general-use pokemon that have Pickup. Build your Zigzagoon army! Candy collecting is especially useful for these to reduce costs, letting you take more of them with your legendary into Endless mode when you get to that point.
• Any shiny. This goes without saying for many, but shinies are the lifeblood of Pokerogue. You need them...a lot of them. They come in three flavors - starting from the weakest, a yellow shiny (Luck 1), then blue (Luck 2), and finally red (Luck 3), with the color being the "star" marker of the shiny pokemon on their HP bar. Eventually you'll want as many Luck 3 shinies as you can get your hands on, but when you're starting out, you're building from 0 - so catch any you see, even if it means failing your Classic run to do so. A new run takes an hour to start back up; a new shiny could take days or even weeks to find in Classic. (Ideally, though, don't be afraid to refresh/"save scum" to try and find a way to catch it without sacrificing your run if you can, and if you're willing. No sense in wasting all that work.)
• Don't neglect your team. Remember, our eventual goal is to win Classic...but more importantly, we're hoping to get as far as we can, and 190 if possible. The sprint from 180-190 is the most profitable floor in Classic for egg vouchers, with each Elite 4 member & the Champion at 190 giving them upon victory (Plus, first time wins get you bonus achievement vouchers too - two for one!). With this in mind, you want to make sure to balance your team out as you go, and don't neglect it as you progress. Perhaps your team needs a good rock-type wall to throw in the way of hard-hitting trainer pokemon. Maybe you're looking for a Ground-type to soak all those electric moves you keep running into in the electrical biomes. Good team building will carry you further than any IV or egg move ever could. Even the strongest legendaries can fold to a weakness.

This "starting out" phase doesn't have a specific length of time to get past - everyone progresses at their own pace, and some will get luckier with egg pulls and catches than others. Don't get discouraged. Just keep building on what you have - that's your initial goal, and it only gets easier as you do it.
As you start going through your Classic runs, the main resource you're looking to accumulate at first is egg vouchers - as many as you can get your grubby little new player hands on. Beating gym leaders, Elite 4 members, the Champion, and beating Classic all reward you with them. Doing the Daily Run each day also rewards you with a 10x pull voucher. Rarely, they can even show up after beating a stage in the item choice rewards - if so, pick them, usually over most anything else. Eggs build on your starters, and usually with either massively boosted IVs or egg moves to give them considerable bumps in power. Rarely, you can even get shinies from them.
And speaking of the egg gacha: only pull from the Shiny gacha at first. The entirety of your goal as a new player should be accumulating shinies. The legendary gacha is misleading - you only get increased odds for the shown legendary, not all of them (at least as of this post), and even then legendaries often have a huge starter cost tacked onto them, making teambuilding difficult early on. Once you build up your starter collection with a good few handfuls of shinies, and are cruising along in Endless vacuuming up vouchers, you can spend some on the other gachas for specific niches if you like (move gacha for egg moves, legendary gacha for legendaries), but for the most part the shiny gacha is where the money's at. Besides, the shiny gacha can hatch legendaries, too - so you're not missing out on legendaries by not hitting its specific gacha.
I Got a Few Shinies And Legendaries - What Now?
Alright, so you've been cruising along, catching everything you see and building your starter pool like the rockstar rogue-like player you are. Keep building from here, but now you have more options - you can start bringing shinies on your Classic runs to improve the quality of item rewards you get at the end of each floor; you can maybe even bring a legendary/ultra beast along to have an easier time against the end boss and get that first win. At this point, if you haven't gotten that first win yet, now's the time to start knuckling down and making a serious go at it. Some general points of advice for Classic success I haven't yet covered:

• Early on, focus on 1-2 pokemon. Ignore the rest. Same advice as in Endless works here. This perhaps sounds counter-intuitive, but until at least floor 30-40, try your absolute hardest to only focus on leading with 1-2 pokemon (and that second one should ideally only be necessary to cover the weaknesses of the first). Your immediate early-game hurdles are the two rival battles at floors 8 and 25 (and maybe a Gym Leader battle at 20), and if you try to level everyone evenly you're going to find it harder to win. The Exp All and Exp Charms you get from rival battles and item rewards will more than catch your team up later even if you don't ever use them...so don't worry about them for now. Right now, you're creating the Ultimate Early Game Juggernaut(s) to get you through the initial hurdles.
• Be frugal with your money in the beginning. In Endless, it's common practice to reroll often to look for specific items - candy jars, rare candies, etc. That's because in that mode, once you get set up you have almost unlimited income. In Classic, your income is much more limited (usually hovering ~$100k or so by the mid to late floors), and you don't have the luxury of blindly rerolling for optimal results. The option to "save scum" your re-rolls exists, if you were willing - after winning a floor, check the rerolls, and if you don't like any of the offerings, refresh the page. This will "start the floor over", resetting the rewards and refunding your money. This isn't really necessary, though; in fact, I rarely reroll rewards at all until floors 180-200, and often settle with generic healing/item rewards. Why? You'll notice through your runs that in the midgame (floors 50-150, mainly), you'll accumulate quite a bit of gold; instead of using this gold for rerolls then, where it doesn't help much, you should instead wait for the later floors where you start to take on the toughest opponents of the run - the Elite 4 and Champion on floors 180-190, the final rival battle at 195, and the final boss at 200. Specifically, 180-190 is where you'll buy more healing items than perhaps the rest of the run combined (to keep your team healthy in between each Elite 4/Champion battle), and 190-200 are where you really want to look for things like X [stat] items to give your team that extra "oomph". Even the strongest legendaries fear a Butterfree packing +4 X Specials and an X Speed. Money saved early on lets you dump it into rerolls later where it matters most. (Don't ruin your run by being *too* frugal, though - if your party is near death early on, spend it. You can't spend it later on if you're dead.)
• Pickup is NOT necessary (but it is helpful). I see a lot of general advice in posts on pokerogue that tell new players to stack Pickup team members on Classic. This isn't necessary, or even arguably desirable past maybe the first 20-30 floors unless you're running a very strong carry that can solo all 200 floors (which is extremely unlikely, and far more difficult to boot). I've won Classic many times without using Pickup at all, and I can't say as I miss it when I don't have it. More importantly, you need to be cautious which items you're picking up - the end boss can and WILL use them against you, so things like Sitrus/Enigma/stat boosting berries that you picked up along your 200 floors suddenly seem a lot less useful when they're in enemy hands. That said, if you bring someone along with Pickup, be generous with handing out berries and other items to your party regularly using the "Transfer" option, so you can reap the benefits all throughout your 200 floors. Sitrus, Enigma, and the speed/attack boosting berries in particular are great in trainerival battles where you expect to take hits and want to revenge kill things. In the endgame against the final boss, though, perhaps load everything on a party member you hope never to bring out (such as your Pickup mon) so they don't get stolen. (Hot take: I prefer to use no berries at all in my Classic runs if possible, with one exception: Lum! Lum is amazing for healing status effects, especially when it feels like some trainers have all the hacks against you, and it doesn't feel bad if/when it gets stolen later.)
• The same goes for Pokerus. The biggest advantage to having pokerus is capping out your levels faster; even without it, in the later floors you'll still cap your levels by each final stage so long as you pick up a charm or two along the way (which you'll usually do, pokerus or not). It's also a decent help for that floor 11-25 range where you're at your weakest and that second rival challenge comes knocking. In Endless it's common practice to take a pokerus pokemon so your carry can keep up with the level gains of the floors until you get fully set up; in Classic, the scaling doesn't feel nearly that punishing. If you can bring a good pokerus pokemon, though, it's more helpful than not - just don't go out of your way for it or feel like it's "necessary".
• Understand how biomes work, at least somewhat. Many of them chain into each other naturally, which is part of where the memes come from regarding "endless water biomes" or similar. As you start to expand your starting 2-3 into a full 6, know what biomes you need to look for and what to avoid. This is part of why the Map is one of my favorite item rewards to pick early on - it lets you target farm the remaining members of your team much easier, and towards the last 50-80 floors you can choose the easier ones to coast through while you finish building your team. In particular, routes you need to keep in mind:
  • You always start in "Town" and move into "Plains"; this is 100% guaranteed in every Classic run. This means the first 20 floors are always weighted heavily to normal- and grass-types. When building your starting team, it's helpful to keep this in mind - for instance, picking up things strong against these two types (shoutout to Flamigo/Hawlucha!) and maybe not bringing a grass type knowing that you're likely to catch one early on if you're desperate for filler.
  • "Metropolis" vs. "Lake" vs. "Grass": Moving out of Plains, these are your three options available if you have the Map by now. The biome you leave Plains for is the biggest observation you can make for your run - it will dictate how you form the rest of your team as you progress into the midgame. If you get diverted to Lake, but need an Electric-type (for instance), you need to find a way to get the map to divert to "Construction Site" or loop back to Plains, or you may be hard pressed to find an Electric-type at all in your entire run. The same goes for Fairy- and Steel-types - "Fairy Cave", the biome with the largest quantity of fairy types, is only accessible through "Meadows", which requires you to go through the forest biomes first. If you're not looking like you're going through those areas, you'll need to be less picky about what fairy-types you come across if you hope to snag one. (I recommend visiting the wiki for their nice little flowchart diagram if you ever want a more nuanced look into each path and where they can potentially lead, along with what spawns in each.)
• Build a well-rounded team. Building mono-type teams is cute, but ultimately extra work. Focus on coverage and being able to handle anything that comes along - remember, the last floors feature a variety of Elite 4 members and the Champion, all of which will require a varied approach on what types of Pokemon to bring for best results. By floor 100, you should either have most of your team set or a plan to fill the rest out by the time you reach ~170. By 180 it's likely too late (with the exception of maybe getting a last Mushroom or TM to fill out a moveset).

Hello fellow members
Been trying to get the hang on Quarto. I am trying to create a document in the format of a pdf. The project will definitely be long so I’m tryna split. How do I merge documents together like:
My main document is “doc1.qmd” for example
I may have “doc2.qmd” and “doc3.qmd”
How do I merge this document in order? I wrote down on the line {r, child=“document name”} but it ain’t working.
Thanks for ur time.

My name is Alberto Bianchi, and I'm offering my expertise in dropshipping to help those who are looking to start from scratch in this field. With years of experience in dropshipping and having helped hundreds of individuals kickstart their journey and build a supplementary income stream, I'm here to provide guidance and support.
In my consultation sessions, I'll be selecting winning products for you free of charge and showcasing successful store examples that my team and I have built over the years. Whether you're completely new to dropshipping or looking to refine your strategy, I'm here to assist.
You can avail of this consultation for free through my Fiverr profile. Simply click the link below and reach out to me directly there.
https://linktr.ee/ShopifyExpertFiverr
Looking forward to helping you embark on your dropshipping journey!
Write Dm Me in the comment if you are interested

My name is Alberto Bianchi, and I'm offering my expertise in dropshipping to help those who are looking to start from scratch in this field. With years of experience in dropshipping and having helped hundreds of individuals kickstart their journey and build a supplementary income stream, I'm here to provide guidance and support.
In my consultation sessions, I'll be selecting winning products for you free of charge and showcasing successful store examples that my team and I have built over the years. Whether you're completely new to dropshipping or looking to refine your strategy, I'm here to assist.
You can avail of this consultation for free through my Fiverr profile. Simply click the link below and reach out to me directly there.
https://linktr.ee/ShopifyExpertFiverr
Looking forward to helping you embark on your dropshipping journey!
Write Dm Me in the comment if you are interested

I will not discuss any gameplay any movements/cast mechanic since it's probably the biggest topic when you compare the two games and have been discussed enough, so here's a list of Gameplay related mechanics that I think differ from the previous game.
Also, there are very heavy spoilers of this EA, so I recommend to read only if you have beaten the final boss at least 5 to 10 times
Boons:
1) Getting a high rarity boon is A LOT easier in Hades 2. The fountain keepsake, Hera boon that randomly gives you 2 heroic (quite strong on the surface since the there aren't many encounters if you ask me), the guaranteed upgrade when you have a God's Keepsake on and a general sense of higher chance when choosing a boon and more non-binded reroll make you have an average Epic rarity. I never was picky with the boon rarity, but this games makes you that. Also, some boons are also very rarity and level dependent (Ephaestus can be useless and broken depending on that) while others don't make much of a difference (Hera's magic Regen is broken in every shape or form).
2) With every new mechanic we have, it seems that the number of boons the game offers is heavy-RNG dependent. You can have like 20 boons in the second biom or arrive in the third with some core boon missing. You can manipulate it well, but I usually like to see what the game has to offer more than trying to go for a certain build.
3) Duals/Legendary: I still haven't tried every legendary boon yet, but they don't feel as powerful as in the first game. Zeus' 7% chance fo kill someone randomly is just meh, Demeter's is the same and I'm kinda sad about that. Ephaestus' can be tuned to a +2 for almost any weapon except some aspect of the staff or the blades. Duals are in the same league of Hades 1, some are really good, some have a niche use and some are useless.
Poms: While your boons are "stronger" I feel like it is harder to pome them. Idk if that's just fewer pomes offered, but they're more rare in the shop since there are a lot more things to buy now (armor, selene's hex, magic potions and so on) and when you're in the last biom and get offered the three pomes you often don't have a lot of rerolls or have too many boons in the pool.
Keepsakes: I feel like this game has stronger keepsake in like 80% of the cases. Every God keepsake is stronger since you can rarify a boon of your choosing and not have that 15% more rare chance. Artemis and Hermes' ones are quite fun and can have a some gimmicky use. Icarus' keepsake can be equipped in the third biom and gives u a random hammer that can make your build broken (heavy rng but when it happens it's fantastic). The fountain one almost gives you an heroic boon, Odisseus' one gives you 15/20% damage reduction against bosses
Weapons: First of all, I was stunned that we already have 5 different weapons to choose from. And I was also more astonished when I discovered there were 2 more aspects for each weapon other than Melinoe's one. So while I sincerely think this is ridiculous amount of content, I still think that the weapon is the point they need to work more in the next updates. Almost any weapon needs to be polished in some way, for example the Axe always needs to make a normal attack before the omega, and being that slow it often causes you to take damage. The torches are kinda wacky, you cannot choose the opponent to attack and they don't give much reward for the high risk damage output you can are exposed too. The skull also doesn't have a defined role rn, it feels like the cast from the first game, but when you used the cast you could have also used the attack, special, dash and call while now you only have that and Melinoe's cast. The staff and the blades are broken if you compare them with the others since there are more "high tier" builds that can work with them and have more interesting aspects. The aspects of the other 3 kinda feel the same but it's okay right now, as I said I was shocked we had so many weapons/aspect
Resources/Grinding: While there are some new mechanics in the game like harvesting, mining and clearing shadows, they don't really have a defined curve. You can have 10/15 runs where you can't upgrade anything and then upgrade 3 things, do some "magic" stuff in the big pot (idk the English name since I'm Italian) with only one run. Also, the spawn of materials to collect during runs is too low, specially for the resources locked behind later bioms. I did not find one obsidian rock to mine in 3 runs and getting rewarded with only 3 pieces is not enough. I do not want to rush or anything, but if I have to equip a determinated tool, I at least want the thing to happen when I arrive to that biom. Also, bosses' object don't have a use rn. I have over 30 Scylla's pearl and can't exchange them or at least I haven't found how to use them, so if you know something pls tell me.
Minor thing:
Armor: rn it feels okay at best, Arachne is quite skippable unless you have low health or no magic Regen. Ephaestus' boon that gives you 75 armor is the same.
NPC during runs: They have a bigger pool of objects/boon to offer and Idk if that's a bad thing or not since we have more of them. Icarus' +20 raw special damage can be absurd on some builds and I'm glad he doesn't offer it every time. Still, you often need some death defiance from Echo and she just says no...no...no... I also don't like how they treated Artemis: she was the base for every crit based buil and having her give only one boon per run (especially when they're the same of Hades 1) is almost useless.
Surface: I know they probably overturned it since it's only two bioms for now, but holy sh!t. The Cyclop and Eris are still easier than Chronos but you don't have a build as strong as the one you have when you go against him. In the end, I like this mode a lot since kinda feels like a boss rush, where you can kinda choose your build before entering the encounter and the go slain the boss.
In the end, I think I like this game more than I initially liked the first installment. I know that it's because I know what to expect from Supergiant and from an Hades game, but the lore feels deeper and more serious than before and I really, really like the characters introduced, but damn I miss Dionysus.
Edit: Grammar

People are acting as though they've never watched a 'true story' movie or TV show before.
These shows and movies are made for our entertainment, so of course they add things which didn't happen, and exaggerate the things which did - to make it interesting enough for screen.
People seem to be dead-set on finding out if Fiona actually did go to jail - and if not, have decided the entire show must be fake - but how else was a show about a stalker going to end?
If in reality, she one day just stopped harassing him, or he moved away (not saying either are what happened, but are most likely how things ended if she didn't go to jail) both would be pretty disappointing/unsatisfying endings for the show and the characters. And the fact that the characters have different names to the real people, surely they're able to make more artistic decisions and changes.
Other examples of this are how both the Versace and Gucci families have slated that 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace' and 'House of Gucci' are complete fiction, stating that basically everything in their respective show/movie was a lie (contradictory to sources) - just like how Fiona is.
Marcia Clark didn't cry in the courtroom during the OJ case when the judge mocked her appearance, but it was a big plot point and the focus of an entire storyline in 'OJ vs the People'. In reality, the Press were mean about her new hair etc, but the scenes in the show were added and exaggerated for dramatic effect - just like how a bunch of things from Baby Reindeer would have been.
Rose and Jack didn't even exist, but the Titanic still hit an iceberg and sank.
In 'Pam & Tommy', the stress of the sex tape scandal caused Pamela to suffer a miscarriage, but in real life, this happened in June 1995, the tape was stolen in November 1995, and wasn't leaked until mid-1996.
If it is discovered that Fiona didn't go to jail, that doesn't mean that the entire show was fake, or that Gadd is 'lying'. It just means that scene was added for TV. The events of what happened between the two of them are basically a less exciting version of the show - but the 'general' storyline would have been the same.
If not, Ryan Murphy must be the biggest liar around.

Tarkov does actually have licensing for a large majority of russian firearms and likely some foreign ones.
However that is rarely necessary in this day and age because KRISS for example, (the guys behind vectors), openly encourage people to model and accurately name vectors in their game with no fee. Why?
Because it's free advertising. Free advertising that could be bypassed legally by just changing the name of the gun. It would be perfectly legal to take an m4a1, perfectly model it from irl and call it the "B4a3", avoiding the requirement to pay licensing fees to begin with because "it's not the m4, it's the lore accurate version of the gun called the b4a3".
So, most gun devs at this point just embrace the free marketing and only enforce trademarks if the game deals with heavily controversial topics, like if only the "terrorist" side of a game could purchase a colt python or something, or if the vector was used specifically to shoot civilians, etc.

I remember in all the centers I lived in, there were plenty of pictures of JME, Don Alvaro, JME's parents and "Aunt Carmen", his sister around the place, but numeraries never had photos of their blood relations on display in their rooms. This rule must have been given to us when we joined but I can't remember now. I found this sad article in Opus Libros from a num in Spain who remembers an instruction came out from OD in the late 80s on this issue - no personal photos on display in bedrooms.
Opuslibros - Familia de Sangre.- Edu
The whole article is worth reading as it shows how Opus Dei's practices "detached" this man so much from his family that he didn't shed a tear when either of his parents died, and gradually lost all feeling for his siblings. He was allowed to go the burials of his parents but not the funeral masses. He makes the point about how OD's practices hardly line up with the 4th commandment to honor one's parents.
As for me, I took this in my stride as I had a deeply fractured and traumatic relationship with my blood family, which I had hardly begun to process by the time OD offered me a spiritualized escape from it. I would never have put up photos of my family anyway but looking back, the idea that we had photos of JME's blood relations all around but none of our own says so much about how cultish OD is. If I had had to explain that to someone outside OD, I think I would have balked at it or been embarrassed. It's disturbing beyond measure.
It also got me thinking about the other nums I knew. It's not like we chatted much about our families, but I picked up that a fair share had the loss of one parent as a child, two had alcoholism in the family, some had been to boarding schools, and many others were emotionally stunted by parents who were not emotionally available. So in a sense, it would have needed that kind of distance and family trauma to not care about the prohibition on displaying family photos.
What are others' experiences and feelings? Have the rules changed in recent years? Thanks

I'm somewhat open about my political views and I have a lot of friends who are members of the cantonal PLFDP and JLJF sections, and I lost count of how many times people (especially teenagers and 18 year olds from the JS/JUSO) called me a fascist or a nazi without any foundation or explanation simply because I have friends from that party.
I can understand the bad rep towards the UDC/SVP (even though I don't justify the name calling), but why does the PLFDP hold the same title as the UDC/SVP, if we're anything but intolerant like the UDC/SVP? I can also understand a lot of initiatives held by the PLFDP are not ideal (for example the rising of the retirement age, which is a whole other subject), but I don't really believe that justifies the negative rep we get out there. One thing I have to agree is that the PLFDP complains a lot but never gives concrete solutions, but once again, that's not a justification.

I'm a big fan of R6S and put a ton of hours into this game. I've compiled a list of the desired features I would truly like the devs to implement into R6S.
In my opinion, many more features can still be added to make this game even better, as you'll see below, that can help Ubisoft not only gain more financially to ensure the shelf life of this game and to show our support (aside from whats already there aka battle passes and cosmetics).
So without further ado:
'Voice Guy' Alternatives So you know the voice of the guy that says things between rounds like "Down to ten seconds." "We failed to disable the defuser..." I think it'd be pretty cool if we could purchase different voices. Just imagine if the voice was replaced by Morgan Freeman or Jack Black. You might be saying 'the rights and costs to get a celebrity's voice might be too high. Well, to that I'll say, A) Look at many of the outfits already available for purchase in the R6S store from different franchise IPs. Halo, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Dead By Daylight, Rick and Morty, Yakuza, etc. B) Ubisoft can just get some of their devs to voice-record them as they already do for some/many operators if they want to save on the rights and costs.
Circle Chat Wheel This feature would benefit console players the most who don't use microphones and you might even see a huge uptick in Deimos' usage too. Currently in R6S, pressing up on the D-Pad on consoles or a certain key on PC would ping a spot. It would be nice to hold up on the D-Pad or a certain key on PC to bring up a chat wheel and select from prewritten set of text messages. Prewritten text can be edited in settings and up to 6 max can be slotted in the wheel. For example, you can prewrite something like 'Someone is roaming the first floor' or 'They're in bombsite B'. For those who worry that trolls can abuse this, A) Only 3 max prewritten messages can be used consecutively before a cooldown timer kicks in requiring players to wait to use it again. B) You can just text mute them. (ps. even though this feature might not benefit PC players as much, it should be there for both console and PC players who prefer it over typing during a tense game for example)
Universal Outfits Currently, I feel as though Ubisoft is losing potential money from a lot of the outfit bundles available in the R6S store. For instance, I love the Master Chief elite bundle, but do I really want to buy it and be forced to use Sledge everytime I want to show it off? No. Going forward, I'd like to see more universal bundle outfits that can be used by any operator the player wants to assign it to (or all if they desire).
Flashlights! More on this later, but allow this as an attachment to weapons that serve one of two purposes (or both). A) Another alternative to blind enemies instead of flashbangs or B) (Again, more on this later, I promise!).
Attackers Spawn Points Freedom Currently, attackers can only choose 2-4 designated spawn points during the operator selection phase and drone phase. Instead, It'd be nice if attackers could choose any spot on the edge of the maps (that allows it) to spawn. This would give attackers more of an advantage from defenders who know the map really well and like to spawn peek the most popular spawn points. It'll add another layer of competitiveness.
Good Standing Immunity I think most people will hate this one, but in my opinion, when you have a good reputation (players with the little fire indicator), they should be immune from mundane reports like 'Report Griefing' to prevent trolls from reporting just because 'they can'. Right now in R6S, someone can just report a player with a good rep for some idiotic reason like the player didn't avenge their death or plays how they want them to. The only way how someone with a good rep can be removed from immunity is if they TK a certain amount of times. No offense to the devs, but you have to put yourselves in the shoes of trolls and not allow them to abuse things like this.
A new operator named Blackout This would require the devs to make every map daytime, no night maps (like Favela or it would need to be adjusted into daytime maps). This attacking operator can turn off the lights entirely in all rooms and corridors, meaning it would be pitch black for everyone if Blackout uses his ability to jam the lights. This ability would last for 15 seconds and can be used twice, and when initiated by Blackout, the lights will start flickering for 5 seconds to allow defenders time to anticipate their strategy. All the other four attacking teammates would be automatically equipped with night vision goggles after the droning phase if Blackout is chosen and they can turn them on/off whenever they please during that round. The only way to see again during Blackout's ability is in use is if, A) Your operator is equipped with a flashlight attachment. B) Defenders break barricaded windows or doors to allow outdoor lighting in. C) You've chosen one of the following defenders: Mute/Bandit/Kaid any lights close to their devices will not be turned off. Solis will be able to see where Blackout is during the blackout when her electro sensor is enabled. Pulse can detect where Blackout or any opponents are if they're close enough. Goyo/Tachanka's fire can add slight visibility to the area. Valkyrie/Maestro's cameras. Defenders can also throw a C4 or Impact grenade at a window to instantly blind the attackers when they have their night vision goggles on. This would add a whole new dynamic to Siege and would make the game feel more tactical.

I volunteered a few months ago to handle our raid group's loot and was turned on to the Gargul addon for everything it does to assist with loot distribution. When I found that I could export loot logs as a .csv string, I wanted to find an easy way to link loot logs on our Discord. Gargul pointed me to TMB, but that seemed a little too heavy for what I was looking for.
I recently started to get into coding, so I made a little app that took the .csv strings and grabbed the item names from wowhead. Then, it would output the new log into a nicer excel log I could post on Discord. The group liked it, so I decided to develop it further, clean it up, and host it. I learned how to store logs on unique IDs so we could link back to the logs when they were generated.
I've been using it for SoD with Gargul, but it would probably work for .csv strings generated with other addons in other versions of WoW that use the same format (date, character, item #). I plan to keep tweaking it as it is my little hobby project.
http://www.lootloggerlite.com
Here is an example of the output once a string is entered and submitted: https://www.lootloggerlite.com/result/d308b843-ce31-46ec-aa18-5e3540f6bfe5

Hello! I just started dabbling with Python and came across a script on Github that I want to try. The issue is it requires me to pass the location of a source file as well as a location to place downloaded files and I'm not quite sure how to do this. I've tried different things like attempting to define variables in different ways, but no luck as I'm consistently getting syntax errors or what I've done is not defining it properly. The script is the following and the Github states to pass the source file as the first argument and the download location as the second argument. Would someone be able to help me understand where this should be defined and how to do so? Again, very new and inexperienced with Python and I get that this is probably advance for a beginner. Edit - Formatting

#!/usbin/env python # -*- encoding: utf-8 """ Download podcast files based on your Overcast export. If you have an Overcast account, you can download an OPML file with a list of every episode you've played from https://overcast.fm/account. This tool can read that OPML file, and save a local copy of the audio files for every episode you've listened to. """ import argparse import datetime import errno import filecmp import functools import glob import itertools import json import os import sqlite3 import sys from urllib.parse import urlparse from urllib.request import build_opener, install_opener, urlretrieve import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET def parse_args(argv): """Parse command-line arguments.""" parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__) parser.add_argument( "OPML_PATH", help="Path to an OPML file downloaded from https://overcast.fm/account", ) parser.add_argument( "--download_dir", default="audiofiles", help="directory to save podcast information to to", ) args = parser.parse_args(argv) return { "opml_path": os.path.abspath(args.OPML_PATH), "download_dir": os.path.abspath(args.download_dir), } def get_episodes(xml_string): """ Given the XML string of the Overcast OPML, generate a sequence of entries that represent a single, played podcast episode. """ root = ET.fromstring(xml_string) # The Overcast OPML has the following form: # #  #  #  #  # ... # ... #  #  # # Within the  block of XML, there's a list of feeds # with the following structure (some attributes omitted): # #  #  # ... #  # # We use an XPath expression to find the  entries # (so we get the podcast metadata), and then find the individual # "podcast-episode" entries in that feed. for feed in root.findall("./body/outline[@text='feeds']/outline[@type='rss']"): podcast = { "title": feed.get("title"), "text": feed.get("text"), "xml_url": feed.get("xmlUrl"), } for episode_xml in feed.findall("./outline[@type='podcast-episode']"): episode = { "published_date": episode_xml.get("pubDate"), "title": episode_xml.get("title"), "url": episode_xml.get("url"), "overcast_id": episode_xml.get("overcastId"), "overcast_url": episode_xml.get("overcastUrl"), "enclosure_url": episode_xml.get("enclosureUrl"), } yield { "podcast": podcast, "episode": episode, } def has_episode_been_downloaded_already(episode, download_dir): try: conn = sqlite3.connect(os.path.join(download_dir, "overcast.db")) except sqlite3.OperationalError as err: if err.args[0] == "unable to open database file": return False else: raise c = conn.cursor() try: c.execute( "SELECT * FROM downloaded_episodes WHERE overcast_id=?", (episode["episode"]["overcast_id"],), ) except sqlite3.OperationalError as err: if err.args[0] == "no such table: downloaded_episodes": return False else: raise return c.fetchone() is not None def mark_episode_as_downloaded(episode, download_dir): conn = sqlite3.connect(os.path.join(download_dir, "overcast.db")) c = conn.cursor() try: c.execute("CREATE TABLE downloaded_episodes (overcast_id text PRIMARY KEY)") except sqlite3.OperationalError as err: if err.args[0] == "table downloaded_episodes already exists": pass else: raise c.execute( "INSERT INTO downloaded_episodes VALUES (?)", (episode["episode"]["overcast_id"],), ) conn.commit() conn.close() def _escape(s): return s.replace(":", "-").replace("/", "-") def get_filename(*, download_url, title): url_path = urlparse(download_url).path extension = os.path.splitext(url_path)[-1] base_name = _escape(title) return base_name + extension def download_url(*, url, path, description): # Some sites block the default urllib User-Agent headers, so we can customise # it to something else if necessary. opener = build_opener() opener.addheaders = [("User-agent", "Mozilla/5.0")] install_opener(opener) try: tmp_path, _ = urlretrieve(url) except Exception as err: print(f"Error downloading {description}: {err}") else: print(f"Downloading {description} successful!") os.rename(tmp_path, path) def download_episode(episode, download_dir): """ Given a blob of episode data from get_episodes, download the MP3 file and save the metadata to ``download_dir``. """ if has_episode_been_downloaded_already(episode=episode, download_dir=download_dir): return # If the MP3 URL is https://example.net/mypodcast/podcast1.mp3 and the # title is "Episode 1: My Great Podcast", the filename is # ``Episode 1- My Great Podcast.mp3``. audio_url = episode["episode"]["enclosure_url"] filename = get_filename(download_url=audio_url, title=episode["episode"]["title"]) # Within the download_dir, put the episodes for each podcast in the # same folder. podcast_dir = os.path.join(download_dir, _escape(episode["podcast"]["title"])) os.makedirs(podcast_dir, exist_ok=True) # Download the podcast audio file if it hasn't already been downloaded. download_path = os.path.join(podcast_dir, filename) base_name = _escape(episode["episode"]["title"]) json_path = os.path.join(podcast_dir, base_name + ".json") # If the MP3 file already exists, check to see if it's the same episode, # or if this podcast isn't using unique filenames. # # If a podcast has multiple episodes with the same filename in its feed, # append the Overcast ID to disambiguate. if os.path.exists(download_path): try: cached_metadata = json.load(open(json_path, "r")) except Exception as err: print(err, json_path) raise cached_overcast_id = cached_metadata["episode"]["overcast_id"] this_overcast_id = episode["episode"]["overcast_id"] if cached_overcast_id != this_overcast_id: filename = filename.replace(".mp3", "_%s.mp3" % this_overcast_id) old_download_path = download_path download_path = os.path.join(podcast_dir, filename) json_path = download_path + ".json" print( "Downloading %s: %s to %s" % (episode["podcast"]["title"], audio_url, filename) ) download_url(url=audio_url, path=download_path, description=audio_url) try: if filecmp.cmp(download_path, old_download_path, shallow=False): print("Duplicates detected! %s" % download_path) os.unlink(download_path) download_path = old_download_path except FileNotFoundError: # This can occur if the download fails -- say, the episode is # in the Overcast catalogue, but no longer available from source. pass else: # Already downloaded and it's the same episode. pass # This episode has never been downloaded before, so we definitely have # to download it fresh. else: print( "Downloading %s: %s to %s" % (episode["podcast"]["title"], audio_url, filename) ) download_url(url=audio_url, path=download_path, description=audio_url) # Save a blob of JSON with some episode metadata episode["filename"] = filename json_string = json.dumps(episode, indent=2, sort_keys=True) with open(json_path, "w") as outfile: outfile.write(json_string) save_rss_feed(episode=episode, download_dir=download_dir) mark_episode_as_downloaded(episode=episode, download_dir=download_dir) def save_rss_feed(*, episode, download_dir): _save_rss_feed( title=episode["podcast"]["title"], xml_url=episode["podcast"]["xml_url"], download_dir=download_dir ) # Use caching so we only have to download this RSS feed once. @functools.lru_cache() def _save_rss_feed(*, title, xml_url, download_dir): podcast_dir = os.path.join(download_dir, _escape(title)) today = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d") rss_path = os.path.join(podcast_dir, f"feed.{today}.xml") if not os.path.exists(rss_path): print("Downloading RSS feed for %s" % title) download_url( url=xml_url, path=rss_path, description="RSS feed for %s" % title, ) matching_feeds = sorted(glob.glob(os.path.join(podcast_dir, "feed.*.xml"))) while ( len(matching_feeds) >= 2 and filecmp.cmp(matching_feeds[-2], matching_feeds[-1], shallow=False) ): os.unlink(matching_feeds[-1]) matching_feeds.remove(matching_feeds[-1]) if __name__ == "__main__": args = parse_args(argv=sys.argv[1:]) opml_path = args["opml_path"] download_dir = args["download_dir"] try: with open(opml_path) as infile: xml_string = infile.read() except OSError as err: if err.errno == errno.ENOENT: sys.exit("Could not find an OPML file at %s" % opml_path) else: raise for episode in get_episodes(xml_string): download_episode(episode, download_dir=download_dir) 

Hey guys!
I like a girl since we were in class 6th!
Lambi story hai dosto, don't judge me!
She left school in 7th grade, just as I realized I liked her. Despite struggling academically, I unexpectedly came 2nd in 8th grade. I tried reaching out on Facebook and WhatsApp, but conversations were sparse. In 9th and 10th, I switched schools to an all-boys institution, where I found her on Facebook through mutual friends. Despite her limited activity, I maintained contact through Facebook and WhatsApp groups. Through Polytech and Btech, our communication sporadically continued. In my 4th year of Btech, we reconnected and began sharing topics, including collaborating on articles for my website. Despite our busy schedules, we stayed in touch, and she even used me as a professional reference during a job switch.
I kept talking to her, sometimes flirting, while also pursuing my passion for guitar and posting songs on Instagram. She would often ask for song recommendations and even requested songs dedicated to her. Additionally, she asked me to edit her videos, showing a growing level of trust and connection. She eventually moved to Pune for a job, and we remained in contact as she searched for accommodation, even engaging in video calls. When her company allowed remote work, she returned to town, sparking strong feelings in me.
Feeling like everything she said was a green light, I decided to confess my feelings. One day, while chatting on WhatsApp, she asked for a caption for her display picture, and in my nervousness, I opted for a light-hearted response instead of revealing my true feelings.
After that I asked her that I have a crust on someone! and want to tell her, will she like me!She asked me do you talk to her? I said yes. She said - daily baat hoti hai? I said - casually! jese tere se baat hoti hai! kabhi lagta hai hint hai kabhi nahi lagta! She said - 2-3 din cut off krke dekh and see her reaction I said - mai agar msg na kru to hafto tak uska msg na aae. She said - fir nahi hai kuch, agar wo like krti hai to she will message you chahe busy hi kyu na ho! and if you like her, tell her about your feelings.
And I saw that she deleted her photo for which she asked caption! I asked her why she said mind changed and not posting now!
Next day we are talking about games and she said to play truth and dare first ques she asked is who is your crust tell her name? I said - 'her name' she thought thatw as a joke and we move on!
Now after that I asked what are my chances if I ask my crush? She said - I don't know, and I don't who is your crush I said - you are She said - tu majak krra hai I said - mai majak kru karunga She said - no chances then😂.
That was the message and I broke down! It was midnight and it is light raining!
After that I tried to maintain the talk but it was not like before! Basically I have't said her clearly so that was a mistake of mine!
Now is been 2 years, we just casually talks in months! and last I messaged her is a year ago.
Now since I never go into any relation after that! The feeling are not that strong but I still kind of like her. sometime it feels I should tell her again and ask her out! and sometime I fear if she I really want her!
So what should I do? I am still confused and I might know what to do, but still have doubts!

So, I have a long-standing interest in and identification with the peasant “class” of people irl. I appreciate the underdog, the every-person. I think that the peasant type in MTG does a great job of depicting the humanity of regular people, and I love that, so I want to make an EDH deck that tells a story about the peasant experience as people with limited resources, who have been historically exploited, and have had to act collectively to take back power. See this article about Wat Tyler’s 1381 peasant revolt for an interesting example:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants'_Revolt
I am not sure what commander and themes I want to use to tell this story. For reference, here are all of the 46 peasants in MTG currently.
https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=type%3Apeasant+%28game%3Apaper%29+legal%3Acommander
They are centered in red and white with some black and green, and a couple blue.
I have thought about going with Mardu [[Caesar, Legion’s Emperor]] to hit on the theme of exploitation (there are also some death matters themes among peasants) but I would love other ideas about how to highlight this unique card type. What cards would you include outside of those with the peasant type to flesh out the deck? Maybe some aristocrats that also benefit from the exploitation of peasants? [[Cartel Aristocrat]] What do you think? Thanks!!

Background
The Dunmer population of Windhelm is composed primarily of refugees (or born of refugees) who escaped Vvardenfel’s disastrous living conditions after the eruption of the Red Mountain in 4E 5, known as the Red Year. The migration of most of these refugees likely took place in the years following the disaster. In the roughly 200 years since, they’ve built a sizable community within Windhelm’s ghetto, formerly known as the Snow Quarter. The squalor they live in during the present time (4E 201) is indicative of their long struggle to integrate with the Nord majority. Now, why has there been such a struggle?
According to a variety of non-Dunmer NPC dialogue, the common sentiment is that the Dunmer keep to themselves, they do not try to integrate, they do not work hard, and they do not get involved with the war effort. The in-game book Scourge of the Gray Quarter by Frilgeth Horse-Breaker makes many complaints on the Dunmer’s existence in Windhelm, reiterating such sentiments and claiming they do not contribute to the city. That the book makes reference to Ulfric as jarl, it can be assumed that these are at the very least the sentiments of the present time.
The Struggle
The book notably compares the Dunmer of Windhelm to the Dunmer of Riften, claiming the Dunmer of Riften are able to integrate because they are more hard working and engage in honest labor. In this explanation the writer (quite obviously) shows their bias in they neglect the crucial detail of describing the cities themselves. The people of Riften do not have the same level of xenophobia that those in Windhelm do. They do not have a jarl whose actions encourage the separation of multiple “outsider” groups and Nords. The people of Riften engage with the Dunmer like they would anyone else, contrasted with Windhelm where a Dunmer is more often than not labeled as an “outsider”.
The treatment of Dunmer refugees in Riften also differ in that they were not relegated to a ghetto. This is not to say that Windhelm explicitly forbids Dunmer from buying homes outside of the Gray Quarter (although dialogue of Aval Atheron might suggest so), but rather they are not afforded social mobility as a whole. According to Malthyr Elenil ‘s dialogue, the Quarter “wasn't always so bad”. Judging by the architecture relative to the rest of the city, I’d argue that this Quarter was a slum prior to the Dunmer arrival. In essence, it was a slum before they got there and it remains a slum today (if not worse), but is it the fault of the Dunmer? According to the dialogue of Scouts-Many-Marshes, an Argonian living on the Windhelm docks, it is implied that an Argonian working in Windhelm makes 8 septims per day plus lodging, presumably a tenth the wage of a “proper Nord worker”. Whether or not this “tenth” is an exaggeration or not, Scouts refers to this level of pay as akin to slave labor. Comparing the squalor of the Argonians and the Dunmer, and taking into account the kind of jobs available to them in this city, it can be fairly assumed that the Dunmer do not make much more money than the Argonians when working for the Windhelm Nords. Contrasted again with Riften, where no such race based pay gap seems to exist. How can the Dunmer be expected then, to adequately maintain their neighborhoods on a pay that is a mere fraction of a Nords?
Trying to make a comparison of “work ethic” between the Dunmer of Riften and Windhelm is inherently unfair when you ignore the near diametric social conditions of the two cities. This is also indicative of the Windhelm Nord’s refusal to acknowledge the roots of Dunmer issues. The old jarls of Windhelm may have accepted the refugees, but the Nord citizens have clearly endeavored to keep them at an arm’s length, leading to the segregation of the Windhelm Dunmer we see today.
The “Good Ones” and the Model Minority
Many might look upon Beylyn Hlaalu as proof that any Dunmer can work their way out of poverty. He is the only Dunmer land owner in Windhelm, a proud man who credits his success to his hard work and resents the poorer Dunmer for complaining. But what many fail to consider is that he is a descendent of House Hlaalu, a former Great House of Morrowind. Although House Hlaalu at this point has lost all major political power, they’re still a family of considerable wealth and influence in Raven Rock, albeit under a fake name. I find it rather likely then, in a culture who so values clanship, that Beylyn Hlaalu has had monetary support from his wealthy relatives in order to at the very least kickstart his farm. And although there are no explicit pieces of lore that support this, one must wonder if it is truly coincidence that the shining example of Dunmer success is one born from a not too distantly historically powerful family.
The successes of the Altmer residents in Windhelm are also cited as proof of Dunmer failings. They are Nurelion, Niranye, Ulundil, and his wife Arivanya. Niranye is presumably the newest Altmer migrant to the city, saying she's only just arrived from the Summerset Isles. She is the only one of the Altmer to make references to mistreatment by Nords, claiming that it was difficult at first but she'd eventually proved her usefulness. Clearly she has been able to integrate with Nord society, and once again it is credited as her own hard work. But is that completely true? There are three factors for her ease of integration that are being ignored here: Unlike the Dunmer, the Altmer arrived as business minded merchants and not as refugees, There were already well established and respected Altmer living in the city prior to her arrival, and her business is unfairly propped up by her dealings with crime guilds. Her business directly competes with that of Ravyn Sadri, a Dunmer general goods merchant. By acquiring her goods through her criminal connections and selling at absurdly low prices, she is able to quite easily undercut Ravyn’s business, who operates honestly.
Referencing Scourge of the Gray Quarter again, the writing finishes by claiming that Windhelm Argonians should be the model for Dunmer behavior and acceptance. They write that the Argonian “has learned how to best contribute to their new home…toiling with utmost efficiency and bright smiles”. Once again this text omits crucial details. The Argonians are forbidden, by decree of Ulfric Stormcloak, from entering the city. And make no mistake, this segregation is not because of the racial tensions between Dunmer and Argonian. According to dialogue from Brunwulf Free-Winter it was primarily due to Ulfric’s distrust of foreigners and Nord stubbornness. They are only permitted to reside on the docks and, as stated before, make a mere fraction of the pay of a Nord worker because of the explicit reason of not being a Nord. This is the proposed model for acceptance? Exploitation, racial hierarchy, and wage slavery? Who reads Scourge of the Gray Quarter, looks at the Argonians, and genuinely thinks they’ve successfully integrated?
When holding these so-called examples of Dunmer failures to light, it’s clear to see that they hold little water. The successes of the “good ones” are not wholly the result of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, but likely by benefitting from pre existing privileges that gave them an advantage over the Dunmer as a whole. And the proposed solution for those without such privileges? Becoming servile and catering to the Nords at the Dunmer’s own expense. In the face of mistreatment and mistrust by the majority group, an administration that refuses to listen to them, racially biased pay gaps, a competition that cheats them, and wage slavery: how rational is it to say all they need to do is “work harder”?
Another Man’s War
A common criticism of the Windhelm Dunmer is that they refuse to join Ulfric Stormcloak’s war effort. Many claim that it is their duty as residents of Windhelm, that they owe a debt to the city for taking them in as refugees 200 years ago. But I ask you this, why should they fight on behalf of a system that harms them? It should first be said that the Stormcloak Rebellion’s primary function is to release Skyrim from the rule of the Empire, so that Skyrim’s people may solely be governed by those who live in Skyrim (Ignoring for a moment that Ulfric’s rebellion was set in motion by the Thalmor to weaken the Empire, according to the Thalmor Dossier). An admirable sentiment, but it has manifested itself as highly xenophobic and oftentimes hostile (most commonly verbally) to those who are not Nords. In the case of the Windhelm Dunmer, it has led to the local Nords being more distrustful than ever before. More dialogue from Brunwulf indicates the escalation of racial tension in the city is primarily the result of Ulfric’s “Skyrim for the Nords” rhetoric. This paired with Ulfric’s complete apathy towards the issues faced by non-Nords in his hold communicates a hatred towards them and systematically harms them.
Many players are under the impression that the Dunmer received free housing and live tax free due to what is written in the Decree of Monument."untithed to any thane or hold, and self-governed, with free worship, with no compensation to Skyrim or the Empire”. I’d argue the text is referring to taxes rather than housing, and no other in-game source makes reference to the housing situation either. But does that mean it is true that the Dunmer don’t pay taxes? One of the outcomes of Revyn Sadri’s quest results in him having to pay “increased taxes” to the city of Windhelm, implying that yes, the Dunmer are currently paying taxes. I do not think it is likely that only Revyn or only some Dunmer are paying taxes. It can be fairly assumed then that at some point between 4E 20 (when the monument was placed) and the present time of 4E 201, the Dunmer were made to pay taxes like any other citizen. As for housing, I find it unlikely the Dunmer received the Gray Quarter for free. As stated earlier, it was likely a slum to begin with, meaning it would’ve been considerably cheap to move in. Perhaps offered to them at a reduced price. It is important to note that the Dunmer being refugees at the beginning does not automatically mean they were penniless upon arrival, likely poor, but it would be unrealistic to assume all of them had nothing at all. Realizing now that the Dunmer of Windhelm are tax paying citizens who are continually ignored and othered by their ruler, it surely must be understandable then why they would refuse to fight on behalf of a system that at this point only takes from them. They owe the Nordic administration no loyalty
Conclusion
With a ruling majority that will more often than not shun, insult, or exploit them, It is no wonder then how the Dunmer of Windhelm as a whole have not been able to integrate, that they “keep to themselves”, that they “don’t contribute to the city”. For how can one integrate with those who refuse to ever fully accept them? If you wonder why they do not leave, with what funds could they start anew? If you wonder why they dont help the Nords in their war, why would they fight for a cause that harms them? The system is as the system does, and that system is racism.
Author’s Note
Idk what I wrote all this for lmao. Ive been playing skyrim for over a decade so I guess I thought it would be interesting to engage with the game in another way that's new to me. It was only recently that I got more interested in actually talking to NPCs, learning more about the game world, not just in it for the cool fights and jiggle physics mods (tho i do love em). There's a good degree of guess work here, which I suppose is to be expected with what few pieces that are available we can put together. But I tried to cite as much from official lore as I can. Was def fun trying to take a more nuanced lens to this fantastical game world.
But what do you think? Do you think my analysis is accurate? I'd love to see your opinions on the topic!
SOURCES
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Year
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Scourge_of_the_Gray_Quarter
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Malthyr_Elenil
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Aval_Atheron
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Scouts-Many-Marshes
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Belyn_Hlaalu#Conversations
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/House_Hlaalu#Fourth_Era
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Vendil_Severin
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Niranye
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Revyn_Sadri
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Brunwulf_Free-Winter
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Thalmor_Dossier:_Ulfric_Stormcloak
https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Decree_of_Monument

This is an old story some of my friends told me (29F) I should share here.. so here I am. Sorry for the long text, but there's a lot to unfold.
This started a few years ago, after I got ghosted by my ex, I decided to switch careers and took the proposal of my brother to work for one of his friend in an organic grocery store in my area. I was 22ish at the time, maybe 21 turning 22, but anyways.
I started working in the fruits and vegetables aisle. Despite having a crazy director, I liked my job and my department manager. After a few months, I got the title of "third key" which is basically I'm the assistant manager when the assistant is gone. Then, they decided to hire a new customer service manager that I will call Linda. That woman was CRAZY. While I was 23 at the time, she was only 20 acting like she owned the world.
To give you an idea, in the span of 8 months being here, she got 11 employees fired for stupid reasons and since our director at the time was just as crazy... it was easier for her to get her way. Also, when I say stupid reasons, I'll give you a few examples: Benji got fired because he was "talking too loud" in the break room and it was disturbing her peace and supposedly making her harder to rest to come back fully ready to finish her shift. Marie got fired because she HAD to take off work to go to a relative's funeral and couldn't give her 2 weeks notice. Rose got fired because she was getting "too old to do her job properly and it was ruining the pace of the team's work" (which is bs, I've never seen someone cut veggies and fruits as fast as her). And I could go on. Yes, some of them could've been able to be protested against and even file a complaint against her. Mind you, outside of Rose, everybody was too young to just wanting to fight for a grocery store job. Even Rose just decided to take her retirement earlier and fucked off the work world lol.
Anyways, she took it too far when she tried to mess with me. To give you the context, we had a huge special on lemons and sometimes, those fruits can get rotten and you don't notice it because there's no smell. The only way you'd know is by going through the several small boxes of like 10ish lemons and look at them all one by one. Which I did regularly, but hey, I'm not a robot, sometimes some of them slipped out of my eyes. I was leaving the backstore with more boxes when I saw Linda with a customer that seemed more than pissed. So I go see both of them because mind you.. she has a LEMON box and I work in the fruits department. So it's kind of my job to help IF I CAN. That's when I asked her "Hey Linda, do you need help with the lemons?" And right away she told me "Fuck off, I don't need your help, I already spoke to your manager. Go do your job for once." My face was literally like this 😳 as I went to my department. Even the pissed customer did a bombastic side eyes.
A few minutes later, I go back to the backstore to fulfill the missing products and my manager pulls me aside. "Hey OP, stay out of Linda's business. I can't protect you all the time for talking back." I stopped him right away asking what does he means cause as soon as she told me to fuck off, I did fuck off. He looked at me surprised and said he'd come back to me with it, but only tomorrow because he's finishing his shift and for some personal reason, he can't stay longer to solve the issue. Since Linda was the manager on guard that night, he told me to stay in the back as much as possible to stay in her good graces. That's what I did.
One hour after my manager left, I heard my name being called in the front office (shared by the customer service manager and director). Big wtf. I go in the front and all of my colleagues are looking at me like I'm a prisoner going to their death sentence. Mind you, I know my laws and my rights. I might be young, but as soon as I got called, I started reciting in my head the main laws and rights she has to respect. I open the door's office and Linda is FUMING. And she is alone. She asks me to close the door and I tell her "No, it is my right to have someone in the room with us for this talk. I am not comfortable being alone with you." She starts freaking out and starts to speak louder, on the verge of screaming. "Linda. This room is recorded 24/7 and the customers can hear you talking to me like that. Lower your tone and find a witness to be in the room or I'll go back to work." She stands up to look outside the office and sees that indeed, there's a line in front of the cash looking to the office's direction. She takes a few deep breaths and calls Gabrielle who takes care of the finances of the store so she can be a witness. From the moment Gab got into the room, she seemed like she wanted to get away, so do I.
Gab took a seat in the back and Linda starts her whole speech. I'll be paraphrasing cause the meeting took almost an hour.
L: You know why I brought you here, right? OP: Not really, I've been in the backstore minding my business. Why? L: Well you disrespected my authority in front of a customer and that's a big no no for the company. OP: For the company or for you? L: OP, this is not the topic. You shouldn't be disrespecting authority in front of customers. It makes the managers look bad. OP: I was honestly just trying to help because you had a box of products from my department. I just wanted to help because the customer looked pissed and I didn't want him to ruin your fragile mood. L: My fragile mood?! Are you fucking serious?! OP: Linda, we are being recorded and we have a witness. I'm asking you to stay polite and not scream or I will file a complaint against you. L: Are threatening me??? OP: No, I am stating my rights and making you aware of where your attitude will lead you. I won't accept being talked like that by someone that ain't even my manager. L: Okay OP, let me remind you where your position stands in this business.
That bitch started to draw a triangle, put her name at the tippidy top and mine at the bottom. I didn't even let her finish what she had to say, I stormed off the office, went into the employees lockers, took my stuff and headed out. Linda ran after me, yelling like a psycho "YOU CAN'T LEAVE LIKE THAT! YOU'RE STILL SCHEDULED FOR THE CLOSE!" I stopped on my steps, making Linda almost run into me and said with the most blank expression I could have "Linda, you crossed a line and since you're so good at your job, close my department for me. I will be filing a complaint against you." And left the work place.
Next morning, I came to work as usual and had to see my manager and the director. I explained them the whole situation and showed the papers I was about to send to file a complaint against Linda. Also, this dumb bitch didn't even throw her pyramid in the trash. It was still on display when the director came in to work and asked me what it was. I asked her to look at the cameras, put the sound on and listen to the whole meeting. We watched it to my director's horror and who came in to work in the middle of our screening time? Linda! She came into the office and Linda being a poc turned white as a ghost. I've never seen her being so so pale. "W-what are you doing?" The director asked Linda to sit down and we watched again the video. Mind you, it took us one full hour to watch because she was in a never ending power trip. She used to be smart when she was bullying and making stories about past employees, doing it far from the cameras and usually using the other office that doesn't have cameras or a microphone, but she wasn't with me. I guess she got comfortable or whatever, but check mate on her ass.
My director said I could go back to work with my manager, that she would take care of the rest. Two weeks later, Linda still had her job, but our director resigned from her job right away. Which was hella weird, but whatever. We got a new director, she was a total sweet heart and she noticed Linda's crazy power trips right away. She decided to launch an intern investigation, but sadly, all the employees Linda bullied were fired. There was only me and my little complaint waiting to be served. When Nancy, our new director, came to me asking if I knew anything about Linda. I gave her the file, the time stamps of the video tape, all the employees she fired for stupid reasons with the old director and also phone numbers of those employees.
Flash forward 2 weeks later, Linda left work earlier, balling her eyes out yelling how Nancy was a bitch and didn't deserve her job. How she always came in earlier, put in the work and yadi yada. Nancy waited a few more days before asking me to come into the office and again, I'll be paraphrasing because a lot have been said.
N: HI OP, don't worry, you're not in any trouble. I just saw your CV and noticed you've had a lot of experience in customer service. OP: Yes, I used to be a cashier for almost 5 years, it was my first job. Why? N: I've seen your file, your CV and how you managed the conversation with Linda. We are actually looking for a new customer service manager since Linda have been let go. OP: What about my actual position? N: It's easier to find a fruits and vegetables commis than it is to find a competent service manager.. as you experienced.
I ended up accepting the position and all my co-workers cheered for my raise. I don't want to brag, but I've always been the one to defend everybody in the place, making sure I'll keep my job in the process and following the laws and rights. A few months later, Linda came back to the store as a customer and the look she had on her face when she saw me at the cash with the manager uniform was priceless. It was even more priceless when she asked me when I got the promotion and I told her the exact date, which matched her departure. "So you got my position when I left?" I just nodded and asked if I could do anything more to help have a better experience in the store. She didn't answer to that and just left after paying her things.
To this day, it's still one of my favorite moments to have been through. I'm not a petty person, but if I can ruin you in the process of me trying to defend my people, I'll be more than happy to do so. Last I've heard of Linda, she was working for the competitor, but never had any promotions.

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