Hello fellow Brisbanians!

It's (almost) that time of week again. What are you doing this weekend?
Looks like it's market week across Brisbane. Some markets have specified being cashless. Some may ask for a gold coin donation - it's always wise to take *some* cash/change to a market day.
Personal pick of the week has to be the The Temporary Route Tour by the Transport Museum - I'm an anorak at heart. Don't forget to take a Boogie Break this Saturday afternoon. Boys - Free Men's BBQ at New Farm Park on Sunday. Get warmed up for the weekend with Women's Origin this Thursday.
There are some gaps on the list - Thursday needs fleshing out. Also missing are some live/local music and smaller sports clubs. As time goes on, I should hope to find more of these events for this list. There's also a plethora of local pubs doing all kinds of things throughout the week - does your local stand out above the rest? Let us know.
As always, feedback is welcome - and don't forget to check the comments for any events I've missed!

About Me

I do this for, firstly, it's nice to do something for your community and secondly, a wee bit of market research. I hope to get myself in to the events business after 20 years of working in, on and around food and beverage service. Until then, I'm half-employed - working the NRL this weekend, as a guard. (Please be nice! I'm nice. And bring your ID!) I also sell movies on eBay - the list is short until I can fully develop a disc cleaning process to offer a proper Playback Guarantee for the physical media fans. Lastly, I'm hoping to join the Australian Self-Employment Scheme soon in an effort to get out of the dole hole - for good. Until then, you're welcome - but you're under no obligation to - donate via PayPal.
Let's get on with it.

Thursday

What: Women's State of Origin Where: Suncorp Stadium When: Thurs, Gates at 1815 Price: From $20 Tickets: https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=WORIGIN124

Friday

What: Brookfield Show Where: Brookfield Showground When: Fri 0900 - Sun 1800 Price: From $30 Tickets: https://www.brookfieldshow.com.au/shop/
What: NRL Magic Round - SOLD OUT Where: Suncorp Stadium All Weekend. Details: https://suncorpstadium.com.au/what-s-on.aspx
What: Ipswich Show Where: Ipswich Showgrounds When: Fri, Sat, Sun Price: From $25 Adult Ticket: https://www.ipswichshow.com.au/purchase-tickets
What: Local's Weekend Where: Brighton Hotel When: Fri - Sun Bookings Recommended - https://brightonhotelmotel.com.au/events/locals-weekend/
What: Town and Country - Country Music Festival Where: Regatta Hotel - 543 Coronation Drive When: Fri 1500 - Sun 2000 Price: Free Entry https://regattahotel.com.au/events/town-and-country/
What: Brazilian Styles Dance Workshop Where: 163 Boundary Street, West End When: Fri 1930 - 2330 Price: from $10 Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/friday-night-mixed-brazilian-styles-social-night-with-samba-workshop-tickets-894096866797
What: Hanksy Motorcycles and Hans Coffee Cup Cafe Where: 13/58 Bullockhead St, Sumner When: Fri - 1730 - 2130 Price: Free
What: Brookfield Show Where: Brookfield Showground When: Fri - 1800 Price: From $30 Adults Tickets: www.brookfieldshow.com.au

Saturday

What: Paniyiri Greek Festival Where: Musgrave Park When: Sat 1200 - Sun 2100 Price: From about $17 Ticket: https://tickets.paniyiri.com/outlet/event/a293ee70-d8d1-4da4-9201-a170f6f385d2
What: Distillery Road Market Where: 124 Distillery Road, Eagleby When: Sat 0900 - Sun 1600 Price: From $18 Ticket: https://www.thecollectorsmarket.com.au/event-details/the-collectors-market-may-2024
What: CaBBaret Shine Bright Like A Diamond Where: The Rosie Theatre When: Sat 1800 - 2200 Price: From $25 Ticket: https://events.humanitix.com/cabbaret-shine-bright-like-a-diamond
What: Warehouse Clearance Furniture Sale Where: 72 Donaldson Rd. Rocklea When: Sat 0900 - Sun 1600 Price: Free
What: What We Design Market Where: Coorparoo Square When: Sat 0900 - 1300 Price: ?
What: Doggo Day Where: Vend Virginia When: Sat 0900 - 1300 Price: ?
What: Food Truck Night Market Where: Mt Gravatt Showgrounds When: Sat 1600 - 2100 Price: $3 Adult Entry Ticket: On the door
What: A Night At The Museum Where: QLD Museum When: Sat 1715 - 2030 Price: Family Tickets $115 - Cashless Event Ticket: https://qm.t.qtix.com.au/qm/events/018a4549-e927-08f4-a97e-5ea613e044b0
What: Carseldine Market Where: 532 Beams Road, Carseldine When: Sat - 0600 - 1200 Price: ?
What: Pawfect Day on the Green - My Crosby Markets Where: 770 Mount Crosby Road When: Sat 0900 - 1400 Price: ?
What: The Temporary Route Tour - Transport Museum Where: Muller Road, Adelaide St or Gympie Rd When: Sat - 0715 Price: $20pp - Bring lunch money Ticket: Call QOCS Member Peter Donaro on 0476 838 012
What: Modern Jive in the Wild Where: Kangaroo Point Lower River Terrace When: Sat 1430 - 1730 Price: FREE Ticket: Come and go as you please
What: Southside Collective Markets Where: 270 Kelvin Grove When: Sat 0800 - 1200 Price: ?
What: Eight Mile Plains Satellite Hospital - Open Day Where: 59 Levington Road, Eight Mile Plains When: Sun - 1000-1300 Price: Free - TOURS BOOKED OUT Ticket: https://pahospital.eventsair.com/eight-mile-plains-satellite-hospital/reg/Site/Register
What: Slow Food Market Where: 44 Wolverhampton St, Stafford When: Sat 0730 - 1200 Price: ?
What: Cars and Coffee Where: 107 Fison Ave, Eagle Farm When: Sat - 0630 Price: ?
What: Weaving is Healing - Two Day Workshop Where: 152 Mt. Coot Tha, Mt. Coot Tha When: Sat - 1030 - Sun - 1530 Price: $220 Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/weaving-is-healing-two-day-weekend-workshop-brisbane-part-1-tickets-849242526257
What: Ars Nova to Impressionism - One Equal Music Where: St. Brigids Church When: Sat - 1900 Price: U30 $30 - Adults $60 Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1177930
What: Clay Class and Speed Dating - BYO - AGE: 25-37 Where: Wesley Taylor Art Studios When: Sat - 1830 Price: $49 Tickets: https://ignitesocialbrisbane.com.au/event/clayspeeddating/
What: Napoleon Champagne Dinner Where: TAMA Dining, 740 Ann St When: Sat 1900 - 2200 Price: From $299 Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/napoleon-champagne-dinner
What: TeamMoto Kawasaki Demo Day Where: 2 Kensal St, Moorooka When: Sat 1000 - 1400 Price: ? Tickets: https://www.teammoto.com.au/blog/teammoto-kawasaki-demo-days/6669/
What: Lions vs Richmond When: Sat Where: The Gabba Tickets: https://thegabba.com.au/Events/Brisbane-Lions-v-Richmond-(2).aspx.aspx)

Sunday

NB: Many markets are still accepting vendors. Contact directly.
What: Adoption Day at PetBarn Where: 2021 Wynnum Road, Shop B4, Wynnum Plaza When: Sun - 1000 - 1500 Price: Free
What: Bowl Carving Workshop - SOLD OUT Where: Armoured Heaven, Station Road, Yeerongpilly When: Sun - 1300 - 1600 Price: $160 Tickets: https://plantempire.com.au/collections/workshops/products/bowl-carving-workshop-19-may-2024
What: Walking in Wartime Where: Museum of Brisbane When: Sun - 1030 - 1200 Price: $25 Adult Tickets: https://www.museumofbrisbane.com.au/whats-on/walking-in-wartime/
What: Redcliffe Markets - Stone Tree Collection Where: 79 Redcliffe Pde When: Sun 0800 - 1400 Price: ?
What: Little Monsters @ Netherworld Where: Netherworld, Fortitude Valley When: Sun 930 - 1130 Price: $10p/p Tickets: https://www.netherworldarcade.com/event/little-monsters-3/
What: UQ Social Runners Club Where: New Farm Park When: Sun - 0700 Price: ? Tickets: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScY8N9vovDDEpSPqSn-_FWObazs58r6j-0qhrwLowOrfwGZOA/viewform
What: Spice World Where: New Farm Cinema When: Sun - 1600 Price: $14 - $19 Tickets: https://www.fivestarcinemas.com.au/new-farm/movie/spice-world-the-movie
What: Free BBQ for Men Where: New Farm Park When: Sun 1030 - 1200 Price: Free Ticket: None. RSVP FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1002051341045618/1002051371045615/?active_tab=about
What: Valampuri's Exhibition & Sale (Indian Retail) Where: Darra Motel & Conference Centre When: Sun 0930 - 1600 Price: Free Ticket: None - RSVP FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1175219386750361/
What: Main Street Orion - Springfield Markets Where: Orion Springfield Central When: Sun 0900 Price: ? Ticket: None
What: Japanese Sunday Market Where: 123 Charlotte St When: Every Sunday from 1000 Price: Free Ticket: None
What: The Curated Market Where: Floor 10, 53 Vernon Tce, Teneriffe When: Sun 0800 - 1100 Price: $5 Cashless Event Ticket: On the door
What: Suitcase Rummage Where: Brisbane Square When: Sun 1200 - 1700 Price: Free to attend Ticket: None (as buyer)
What: Vintage Exchange Market Where: 102 McDonald Road, Windsor When: Sun 0900 - 1400 Price: ? Cash Welcome
What: Slowly Made Locals Market Where: 37 Collingwood Street, Albion When: Sun 0800 - 1500 Price: ?
What: Winter Warmers Pop-Up - I Want A Greyhound Where: 9 Saint Amand St, Sinnamon Park When: Sun - 0900 Price: ?
What: Her Wardrobe Markets Where: Mt Gravatt Showgrounds When: Sun 0800 - 1200 Price: Free Ticket: None, www.herwardrobe.com for more info
What: PX Model Swap and Sell Where: Albany Creek State School When: Sun - 0900 - 1300 Price: $5 Entry / $25 Sellers Ticket: Contact https://www.facebook.com/ipmsqld
What: CavRoad Markets Where: 12 Cavendish Road When: Sun 0700 - 1300 Price: Free - Parking Available
What: Dungeons and Flaggons Where: The Alliance Hotel, Spring Hill When: Sun 1400 - 1900 Price: FREE Tickets: Bookings may be required, contact venue

So typical you might think! Yes, but i just wanted to get it out, and if you have an opinion that’s awesome.
I never liked a friend before, im 23F and two years ago I left my country for 3 months to work in a ski resort in the united states. There i met some amazing people, loved my job loved my coworkers, at the end of the season i started talking to this guy at work that always showed himself as shy so we never got to talk too much before, I discovered he was super nice and funny (really important) started to get along and hang out outside work with my other two friends, we would party at his house and stuff and then we all left because we were all mostly foreign, except from him.
After that experience I wanted to go back for the next season as I really enjoyed my stay there and all the amazing people I met and experiences I had. I was also excited to see this guy again as I knew he was also coming back, but none of my other friends were. At that point I realized I liked him but I wanted to think of him as a friend. We have so similar taste in music which is a big thing for me because i love and connect through music, i get really excited when someone else likes the same as I, and we also had the same sense of humor which was really cool.
When I went back for the other season we started hanging out way more often, I would go to his apartment all the time, we would do everything together even go to the supermarket which is really simple, but I enjoyed his company a lot. Often we would stay until late just talking. Everyone started noticing and thought we were together which started me wondering. He is a great guy, he’s the type of guy that has difficulties talking to girls, he would never try anything romantic by his initiative, he’s not disrespectful or a guy that’s always into girls and basically simp, not at all. He’s really funny and nice, he trust few people and keeps a small circle. At work we connected a lot with each other, every time something fun happened we would look at each other and smile or laugh, or would go to tell the other that something happened with a smile on our faces and laugh about it. I loved my other co workers but he was the only one i shared this complicity with. We would start making plans with other people but ending up alone somehow. He always remembers stupid things that I told him long ago and makes jokes about it in a smart way, which drives me crazy. He opened up to me with lots of things about himself, we noticed we have a lot in common. The thing is, we did a lot of things together, connected and he was always there to help me, specially because i broke my leg so he would always pick me up and help me get up and down my stairs and stuff. I remember he once mentioned that a girl friend of his tried to tell him that she liked him and he didn’t felt the same and thought that was annoying when a friend falls for you and stuff, which made me feel insecure because I do like him and he is my friend, but i don’t know if he does like me.
I ended up really confused. I don’t know if what we had was just a really good friendship or if he had feelings for me too. Once i went to a party and saw his roommates, he wasn’t there cause he is not a party guy, but they basically told me to tell him to come, that if i told him to come he would do it, which also got me overthinking.
I don’t know, he was never clear with intentions, or i was too confused, he didn’t had that relationship with no one else there, he didn’t treat the others the same way, but still, there were some times when he had opportunities to get closer to me and he didn’t.
Now i’m already in my country and i miss him like hell. Even tho he was a great friend we don’t text too often, cause he doesn’t text too much. Every little conversation we had on text I started it, he seems to answer friendly but he doesn’t talks to me by his initiative . Recently it was his birthday, i texted him told him i missed him, nothing too crazy, and he never responded me, which ended up breaking my heart and making me feel super bad. He did responded to the work gc when others texted there later in the day.
That’s basically it but compressed. I don’t have the guts to tell him anything and i don’t want to ruin anything or make it uncomfortable. It just makes me really sad because i think we get along really well we’re really alike, have similar thoughts, similar taste, i think we’re compatible and he’s the kind of guy you don’t find everywhere, so it’s been difficult for me to pursuit something with someone else romantically, cause i always think of him.
I’m screwed basically.

Just to preface, I'm not very close with my parents at all for various reasons and I especially don't usually get along with my dad. With that being said, I was going to decline like I always do when they ask if I want to go anywhere with them, but this time it was a whole Mother's Day thing and they were going out for dinner so I figured I'd be an asshole if I declined. Rather than driving myself separately I joined my parents in their car.
For context, I was part of my family's discounted cellular plan. I had to pay my dad on time, but I failed to do so which was admittedly my fault. He told me he would take me off their plan which I thought was completely fair. I decided to try a different carrier and my dad gave me a code to transfer my number. He made it seem like transferring the number wasn't related to cancelling the line, but turns out it actually was. I was doing a free trial with the new carrier so I didn't transfer my number right away in order to avoid complications, which was probably not a good idea in hindsight.
On the ride home my dad got to discussing how their carrier was still charging them for my line. I then him I still had service from the carrier they dropped me from, which I thought was just technology being weird since I watched my dad cancel the line and there was no mention of him getting charged after that until now. I didn't think to mention it to him at all which I guess was my mistake. He then told me I had to pay the $50 for the line which I objected to because he never said transferring the number is what cancels the line. Had I known that transferring the number is what cancels the line I would've transferred the number. He has a bit of a tendency to say one thing and then change it later to get his way which I suppose he does because he knows I'm not very good at remembering what people say verbatim, so this is what I thought was going on. At first my voice was raised a little, then he raised his over mine to where he was nearly yelling, but then my mom diffused it a little and both of us stopped talking. He went back to arguing about it and accused me of doing this "just to get back at his old man" which not only sounded absurd but absolutely wasn't true so I told him to drop it, which seemed to have really pissed him off.
Holding the wheel with his left hand, he raised his right hand threatening to hit me across the face. Initially I wasn't afraid at all since I thought there was no way he'd do this while he was driving on a highway with himself, his wife in the back and son in the passenger seat along with other traffic around, but he actually did it. He didn't sock me square in the nose or anything but there's a bit of bruising on my left eye from it. I raised my arms to block whatever he was going to do after that (he did nothing else) and eventually he pulled over to the side of the road and told me to get out, so I did and he drove away. There were no rideshare services around at the time so I was going to just get my steps in and walk home, but eventually my mom came back to pick me up. On the ride back and after we got home she essentially told me he hit me because of the "way I was talking to him" and that I needed to go talk to him about it, or in other words, apologize. The way I saw it, he had no reason to go from zero to a hundred in the first place nor did he have to get physical with me over it. In addition to this, when he apologized for flying off the handle at me for accidentally using a little too much soy sauce he said "we might do stupid shit but we're still you're parents" so I decided to just not apologize or say anything to him about it, which my mom told me I was "immature" for and that I was "making a big mistake" and just generally trying to make me feel guilty about it so that I'd apologize.
Me and my dad didn't speak to each other for a few days, but today he told me to come talk to him. Basically, he told me as a father he didn't regret striking me in the face because I'd been "disrespectful towards both of them for awhile" and that I was "talking to him like some punk off the street". He also claimed I was swearing at him saying "I'm not fucking paying it", which he insists I was doing but I'm almost certain I wasn't. He then said me saying "do it then" in response to him threatening to hit me is what made him do it and that next time he'd "close fist" me and kick me out if I disrespected him like that again since "it's the only way you're going to learn", even though I'm 99% sure I was saying "drop it". Then he admitted that if I told anyone else what happened, they probably wouldn't agree with what he did, but that as a father he felt he made the right decision. Finally, he said that if we butt heads again (which he also admitted would most likely be soon), he expects me to "open up the dialogue" between me and him. But considering the fact he just threatened to punch me, someone who's comparatively weaker than him, in the face if he detects what he considers "disrespect", I'm not really interested in opening any type of dialogue with him.
TL;DR dispute over cellular plan with my dad gets physical

I have two siblings with disabilities. One is legally blind and the other is a brittle diabetic with pain issues. Both have made bad choices in their lives both have made bad choices in their lives many bad choices.— many bad choices. My older sister and her husband and my husband and I have worked hard and have a decent income and standard of living. We are all over 60 with my oldest two sisters 65+. Within the past five years I moved to a southern state and interestingly enough, all of my siblings came and live near me. In fact, my disabled sister lived with me for three years, and I went away on vacation and my brother appeared to my home as well! my older sister and her husband built a lovely home and took my brother in. When my daughter came to live with me while her husband was deployed (to get help with her children) my other sister moved in with the oldest sibling. We are now all going to inherit a decent amount of money from an older relative, and instead of trying to get some independence, my disabled sister has decided she’s going to give money to her children — who are basically low functioning because of their own bad choices. My brother receives his medical care through Medicaid, which he will lose if he takes the inheritance. he lives a very nice lifestyle with my older sister, and has become accustomed to upper middle-class living. They each only pay about $400 a month for room and board. My one sister is constantly going to the doctor. My brother spends his money on musical and sound equipment. He constantly has people over and expects my brother in law to feed them. My husband has said he does not want to have my siblings living with me anymore. My brother-in-law feels the same. My oldest sister has many health problems and he is in charge of her care. He told me he did not plan to take care of my other siblings. We feel my brother should decline the inheritance so it will be divided among us and then we can give money toward helping to buy a home for them to live together. My oldest sister and I are more than willing to do this. My brother doesn’t want to do that and my sister wants to give her money to her children. (Her two have mega issues). The will is in probate and won’t be settled until the fall. At this point, I don’t know what to do. We are not against helping them, but feel that they need to start taking responsibility for their lives. They don’t appear to want to do this. I feel if my one sister gives money to her children then she needs to move out and take responsibility for herself. She most likely will need care is a few years. Right now she drives (a car I helped her to get). We are not against helping them, but feel that they need to start taking responsibility for their lives. They don’t appear to want to do this. I feel if my one sister gives money to her children then she needs to move out and have a deadline to do so. My brother in law is worried my brother will go through his money quickly and end up on his doorstep again (if he does move). He appears to be involved with a 38 year old woman who is troubled (he is almost 61). My older sister is tied up in knots about the whole thing. I don’t know what to do. I am the executor of the will and have no say in what they do with the money except to say they’re not living with me. This puts a great deal of pressure on my brother-in-law. Any suggestions?

Ethernet has landline 1900s phones two pairs wires reserved in the spec sheet its 8 or so wires when crimping the ends uses like two with one for ground and one seemingly empty and then has two for phone and some unused, with old 10/100 baseT coax with terminating ends exactly like optical or coax 90s cable TV with optical fiber 99% of the way just your block has coax to the rest which uses the 'same'DOCSIS data over cable standards as fibre optic.. just slightly worse latency and bandwidth is calculated by latency things like wifi lan has like 11 channels or 15 channels of frequency which optical calls wavelengths of light. A 2015 or around there linus tech tips video of him going to a swedish lan party called dreamhack had a bunch of multiple redundant 8Terabit or was it bytes of fibre optic internet they explained with light having 7 colors but having 8terabytes of bandwidth with different wavelengths of light called frequencys or a better term for optics is known as LASER ARRAYS of light at fixed frequencys that often plugs into the PC via ethernet cables or whatever for a gamer lan party or home/residential or small businesses at realistically within budget of anything with enough users to require that bandwidth or 'web hosting or web servers' you dont need to be an undersea cable or international link with 200terabits plus for an internet exchange to your main CBD or the fastest like the netherlands IX...
So the problem im trying to solve is, here in australia we got our undersea cables done wrong they kept breaking and we didnt have a navy or defense force securing our countrys communications to prevent war crimes and keep us connected to the global banking systems or whatever.. and then when our biggest telcos cable or fibre all had dialup speeds for around 2 weeks in the early years 2000s to force us to pay other countrys to connect to their links and be ' end of the line' maybe paywalled or proxied off the internet randsomewared to connect to and borrow bandwidth from other countries satellites and other countries undersea link cables which truly were indestructible to any cruise liner ships anchors whatever being flexible giant steel braided cables big as a CAR when australia finally paid to lay small sections of that stuff to link up to others and not pay randsome to internet butt bandits or have private businesses and multi nationals run their own links and ignore the public our lack of a defense force actually let somalian pirates literally somehow pick up and walk off with our expensive undersea car sized cables filled with a few arms thick of hair thin fibre optics which is cheapest clear resin enamels plastics about $3 not sure if USD per kilometer and resembles modern glass/glazing. How does anybody steal that stuff without people noticing like you cant just load it onto a truck and drive away? or a boat? if only satellites and some sort of defense organization existed to prevent us from being impersonated or whatever.. So now in australia ANYTHING with words like gigabit costs a fortune for a mainboard or switch or ethernet hub.. but the ancient 1900s 10/100 telephone land line wires of ethernet 10/100 clock in at a whopping 13 or so mhz sometimes 27.. and 60 or more mhz for like gigabits and whatever it increases shockingly fast with each mhz clock cycle as its units of work over time in nano seconds or zeptoseconds you see billionths of a second nano second RAM and PC with windows realtime kernel actually uses like ryzen hardware negative latency faster than reality freely syncing with any device in the universe and fixed mhz frequency bus can drive like 50 to 100 or thousands of GPU's and HDDs and monitors or whatever from the one modern multicore PC or whatever.. 90s AMD business server still holds world records for most connected devices though it had stackable CPUs opteron and would have used infinity cache type stuff probably software 3dnow and evolving game worlds tech of 80s and 90s AMD gaming evolved advertising.
So in australia anything gigabits costs hundreds of dollars for a switch router some thousands for lots of ports.. but its the shittiest weakest bandwidth ever with mhz and performance miles short of a raspberry pie or whatever. I had to pay a fortune for a mainboard with 10gigabit LAN port and everytime i got a high speed LAN port its been broken or missing so some pricks can sell ebay routers or switches for thousands here.. not knowing why its so expensive is youre paying fortunes for any real bandwidth because australia has to pay literal somalian pirates for their internet connections or privately owned businesses like telstra for access to their private links and glares at countries like new zealand and hawaii for being super technologically superior.. a cheap USB ethernet adaptor costs under 10 bucks on ebay or whatever and is maybe gigabit and your switches and routers 90% of the time you want the cheapest UNMANAGED switch possible. Yet the mainboard i recently purchased ASUS pro art creator x670E i recall had an issue with some asshats trying to steal pathetic measly 40gigabit USB4 chips from all the boards at the computer store to sell on EBay as other junk, when anything in the universe with an M.2 ULTRA slot does 40gigabits since PCI express 3.0/4.0 as PCI express 3.0 SSD drives famously use a specific I/O controller chip which gives them 38gigabits of the ultra M.2 slots 40gigabits of bandwidth. But for a couple years when AMD had pci express 4.0 and better than M.2 ultra intel was playing catch up on PCI express 3.0 and still had regular m.2 in all their boards until AMD was ready for pci express 5.0 my friend on intel bought the same NVME drives and complained they had corruption errors or issues i later learned his board wasnt fast enough and he was maybe trying to use the samsung magician RAM disk and enable NVME features and functions intel maybe did not yet support.
So.. why is USB 4 so many years late and why is it so dang expensive when terabits of ethernet or anything optical is like the cheapest stuff ever and comes with every internet connection since the 90s at the lowest cheapest mhz and 1900s land line wire telephones ever, remember digital isnt a physical thing and everythings literally analog with a sensor or multimeter whatever mathematically translating it to a graph or algebra equation mapping it into different values digitally +10 -10 whatever using microphones or camera sensor whatever. the gigabits tax and uhh LAN port taxes for dumb gay australians being literally see it via satellite outerspace levels dumb and gay astrogaylian should not apply to the cheapest of raspberry pie free 3d print or laser CNC yourself something computery like risc V for the cheapest of USB flash drives or memory cards etc.
I get intel pretends to have invented court ordered USB to probe their hardware after it was proven to have used other peoples code and chips by the chip makers and them selling computers with keyboard and mouse hardwired in so you bought a whole new computer when a key broke on the keyboard couldnt replace them.. and every other device had USB but theirs didnt free open standard and it kinda being the only way to connect any device in the universe and freely sync with it (mics/phones whatever).
why is 1900s phone tech ethernet so dang expensive to go from 20mhz ranges to 80 or whatever mhz ranges or use something very similar to 90s optical audio SPDIF output or anything remotely like a laser in australia? and who would be dumb and gay enough to be so financially retarded as to think that USB 4 was expensive or special as to steal it? am i... missing something?
also before you complain, but ethernets not the same as USB you cant power over ethernet or use your houses electrical wires as ethernet. You also cant use ethernet for monitors or displays, and its not like you can extend HDMI range limit of a about 10 to 15 meters by swapping its ethernet wires with optical ones for it to maintain its HDMI 0 latency spec or type C USB 0 latency spec. USB lets you connect heaps of devices you cant do that with an internet or ethernet for things like keyboard and mice or monitors or whatever. I understand what you mean power over ethernet or PPOE standards suck theres no way those are a thing. using devices over the internet and not the intranet who does that? thats so dumb. remote administration, theres no such thing youre mistaking malware or rootkits im sure. you cant connect a heap of devices up or entire computers to a ethernet port thats the dumbest gayest thing i've ever heard in my entire life! My gaydar is going off and it looks like the wifi symbol.

I (17F) have a coworker who is (17M) and i can’t tell if he likes me (as in wants to date) or just wants to hookup. Recently we have been going out a lot, such as driving him home most nights or hanging out on a hill and watching plans take off while cuddling. This past saturday we hung out and we cuddled on a playground and he kept caressing my face and fixing my hair. He holds my hand when i’m scared (when we walk in the dark) and gives me his hoodie if it’s cold. Keep in mind i currently have one of his hoodies. We ended up making out in the backseat of my car that night, and he kept mentioning to me that he was worried I would regret doing that, and he was very persistent about me not telling anyone about what happened. My friend slyly asked him about his, to which he responded that we were nothing and weren’t talking or anything. Then just tonight I drove him home from work again, this time I told him I was confused on the situation. He said he didn’t really think about it and he doesn’t want it to be a one time thing and that he wants to hangout again this friday. He also said that he would text me and talk about it afterwards. I mentioned to him that I’m being careful since I don’t want to get hurt like my past relationships, to which he responded he wouldn’t hurt me. I dropped him off and he said goodnight.
My question is.. does he want a relationship with me or is he just doing all of this for just a hookup? I really like him, and I would 100% date him. But i don’t want to go for it if he’s just gonna blow me off if we hookup.

1. I want to start by discussing the "colonizer" narrative. By definition, colonizers are a group of aggressors sent from an immensely powerful nation to forcefully settle one they have no claim to currently. In the case of Israel, Jewish people had occupied what is today Iran, Iraq and Israel for millennia. When what is now Iran (and much, much later the state of Iraq) formed governments hostile to Jewish people, they ended up in Israel because it was the last place Jewish people had already settled for them to go. The "colonizer" narrative is either uneducated or a willful ignorance made possible because of intolerance for Jews.
2. The voices who are the driving thrust behind wanting to bring down Israel as a state, and the people who are the driving thrust of anti-Semitism are the same people. Half a decade ago, when I was at a large, prestigious university in the Northeast, I heard very pathetic neo-Nazi types rail on, saying the most heinous things about Jews and Israel at the free speech wall. Today, I hear those same talking points at high school and college graduation demonstrations, and even on major news network broadcasts. I have to admit - I probably did not think we could sink this low as a nation.
3. Israel is one of the few legitimate nations in the region, meeting all the major tests of a legitimate state. They have defended their territory and won it from belligerent offensive forces several times. They have been recognized by all relevant international trade and cooperative organizations. They have a Declaration of Independence that was not, and is not, successfully contested. In real terms, the only other nations that satisfy these main tests in the Middle East are Turkey and the UAE. Iran meets some (but not all). All of the rest are, objectively, completely illegitimate nation-states drawn on a map by true Western colonizers with no real regard for cultural or ideological differences. They don't truly satisfy the tests for a legitimate nation. Pakistan, Iraq and Libya in particular must be fully dismantled before we can even begin to question the legitimacy of any of (Israel, Turkey or the UAE).
4. Not withstanding 1-3, aligning yourself with neo-Nazis, Islamic extremists and terrorist organizations on issues of great importance will not age well. When you are a US citizen and the Israeli government isn't even in your circle of influence, you are effectively shouting at trees on Israeli vs Gaza relations. Given this is the case, one has to wonder why a person would dare be overheard shouting such offensive things at trees in public - whether it be from a lack of education/awareness or true anti-Semitism.

My view is that we have to stop platforming and accommodating this. People can shout at their trees all kinds of heinous things. But that does not mean we should televise it or dignify it with a response. To be clear, people are free to say uneducated or offensive things. But my view is that people are being given platforms or holding onto platforms to spew ignorance and hate when they should not be able to do so - and that is something we can fix quickly and completely by not meeting these people where they are. We can refuse to engage with people when they are very uneducated or hate-filled - and force them to rise to our level if they wish to have a platform.

I think I just miss the person because they are gone and I can’t have them, but I don’t even want them. We stopped talking 4 months ago on my part. We were friends for 4 years and he was pretty flirty to me always as we briefly dated. However, distance and holding each other back was the reason of break up. We remained friends. I had to leave because I was starting to get too attached again. He had a girlfriend, she hated me and wanted me gone, so I gave her what she wanted despite her being so rude to me. He didn’t tell me about her for a year and he didn’t tell me about her. I guess he was keeping me for “back up” and that’s why she hated me. Also bullied me about my life and appearance because she was insecure and she knew he found me very attractive. She send him my profile picture and said “so this is why you’re friends with her” and snarky comments.
He said some not so nice things to me and also did some morally wrong things I couldn’t agree with (being in the car with someone drink driving, things like that) So in my head i’ve romanticised him and I don’t know why. Does anyone know how I can move on and get past this? I know I don’t want him back in my life either. So i’m confused why I feel this way.

Hi, I am a big fan of Gigantic. I have been playing this game for the last couple of weeks and was thoroughly enjoying every second of it. Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz around this game, specifically from people complaining about it not being free-to-play. Instead, this game has a price tag of $20 with no microtransactions.
Many people believe that this $20 price tag is hurting the game and that turning it into a F2P game with microtransactions might help the player base grow. And while I’m sure that these people have some valid points to support their case, I believe I can come up with a good enough counter-argument as to why the F2P model might not be the best way to go moving forward. After some careful consideration and a bit of research, here are my two cents on the issue:
Argument #1: Gigantic have tried going F2P before and it didn’t help them one bit.
Back when Gigantic was first released in 2017—where it was first developed by Motiga—the game was initially released as a F2P game. Despite that, at the time, it did not help the game whatsoever in terms of acquiring a sizable player base, which led to it shutting down a year later. Now, you might argue that Gigantic’s initial shutdown can also be attributed to other factors such as having to switch publishers mid-development, causing it to have a rocky launch. Another possible contributing factor is also the timing of its release, where games like Overwatch have already gained a massive following—taking most of the attention away from Gigantic.
With that said, some of you might still think that the F2P model might work for Gigantic this time around. However, I don’t believe that is very likely. Currently, Overwatch 2 still dominates the market of hero-shooter games and League of Legends is still going strong as one of the powerhouses of the MOBA genre. The current situation is more or less the same as it was back when Gigantic was first released. If nothing has changed before, do you honestly think the developers and publishers of this game would want to risk making the same mistake again? If it already didn’t work the first time, what makes you so sure that it’s going to work the second time?
Of course, there's still a chance that the F2P model might work, though it is not a guarantee. I believe many people out there are highly overestimating the effect of the F2P model on a game like Gigantic, thinking that it might miraculously turn this whole situation around when there is clearly already evidence that suggests otherwise.
Argument #2: There are examples of similar games out there that are massively popular despite not being F2P when it was first released.
I’m going to use Overwatch again, as it is the game that most people would compare Gigantic to. Remember back when Overwatch first released, it was priced at $40, and that was only the bare-bones version on PC. If you get the “Game of the Year” Edition, the price goes up to $60. If you get the “Collector’s Edition”, it goes up to a whopping $130. That didn’t stop it from being one of the most popular games at the time, now does it? Of course, Overwatch had only turned into a F2P game after it had gained its massive popularity as Overwatch 2.
And then there’s TF2—another game that is often compared to Overwatch. Back then, before it turned F2P, TF2 as a stand-alone game cost $20. If you buy it as a bundle with the Orange Box, it costs $50. Yet another game with a price tag that only got turned into a F2P game after it got popular, not before.
In both of these examples, putting a price tag on a game clearly did not deter customers from buying them. These games did not need the F2P label to be popular, so why should Gigantic be any different? Why is Gigantic so viciously hated for putting a modest price of $20 on a game when there are similar games who had done similar things and ended up becoming massive successes? When you look at it from that perspective, it simply does not seem fair.
Argument #3: The F2P model with microtransactions is shady as hell, even at the best of times.
Of course, there are also massively successful games that started out as being F2P from the get-go, the most notable ones being League of Legends. Out of all the games out there, many consider LoL to have one of the best F2P monetization models. The items that you can buy with real money are mainly cosmetic items and are not pay-to-win. You can play the game as much as you want without spending any real money. And if you do have some extra cash to spend, you are welcome to buy any of the skins to make your champion look just a bit cooler. It’s a pretty good system overall. Surely, if LoL can benefit from it, Gigantic can too, right?
That is until you realize that LoL players spend an average of $92 per year on this so-called “free-to-play” game. (Source) And that’s only an average! There are more extreme cases of people spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year on this game. When compared to that, $20 for a game like Gigantic might as well be a drop in the bucket. How is it possible that, for a supposedly “free-to-play” game, people on average are spending more money than they do with traditional games in the long run? It’s ridiculous!
Now, I’m sure that there are some of you out there who have enjoyed playing LoL for years without spending a single penny. If you are one of those people, good on you; you have more self-control than most of us. I’m sure that, from your perspective, paying $20 for Gigantic just doesn’t seem worth it to you. That is a fair and valid point and I completely understand. However, if the statistics are to be believed, most of you LoL players out there are not that type of person.
Most of you do not have that kind of self-control. Eventually, FOMO is going to hit you hard and you'll cave into that pressure. Eventually, you will be inclined to spend more money than you should and even lose track of how much you are spending. Eventually, the act of paying money itself becomes a habit and then, all of a sudden, you’re playing the equivalent of a down payment of a car on this game—a game which, may I remind you, does not require you to pay any amount of money to play in the first place! Is “free-to-play” actually free to play if you’re just going to end up paying money anyway?
Try as you might, you’re going to give into that temptation eventually. That’s how F2P games are designed. They manipulate you psychologically. Games like LoL did not get as big as they did on a gaming community that is good at self-control with their money. Sure, maybe the F2P model is a financially sustainable model if done right. That doesn’t change the fact that F2P games are shady at its core even at the best of times and are downright predatory and exploitative at the worst of times.
Sure, maybe you think that all that money you’ve spent on the game is worth it. Maybe you bought all those skins with absolutely no regrets whatsoever. If the game is good, then it totally deserves whatever amount of money you’re paying it, right? To which I ask you this: if you’re already willing to spend that much money on a F2P game like LoL, why would you be so apprehensive to spend $20 on a full game like Gigantic? Is $20 really that big of a deal when compared to all the other gaming-related purchases that you’ve made throughout your lifetime? Plus, that $20 is a one-and-done deal, after which you don’t have to pay any more money. You literally cannot toss in the down payment of a car into this game even if you wanted to!
The team behind Gigantic are probably aware of the negative reputation of microtransactions. While I don’t know for certain, I suspect that they have heated debates amongst themselves before settling with the final asking price of $20 as the best compromise in order to rid the game of any microtransactions. Even though $20 might seem a lot at first when compared to its F2P competitors, on average, playing Gigantic is going to cost you less money than playing LoL in the long run. That’s because Gigantic is designed like a real game, not a glorified Skinner box.
For a long time, people have been complaining about microtransactions in video games—so much so that not even games like LoL are completely free of criticism. Gigantic dares to take a step towards the right direction by introducing a reasonably priced game that doesn’t have any microtransactions even when it probably should. Assuming that the team did so under genuinely benevolent reasons, Gigantic should be praised for taking such a bold step, not condemned, and I just really want to get that out there to all of you guys.
+++
Of course, on the off-chance that Gigantic might actually go F2P in the future, all the points I’ve made so far will be rendered moot. And while I might be a bit upset at their decision to do so, if they truly think it is what’s best for the survival of the game, I have no right to stop them. At the end of the day, the point I’m trying to make here is that Gigantic’s $20 price point with no microtransactions is not without its merits. Plus, Gigantic is just a really, really good game in general that totally deserves $20. Make of that what you will.
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TL;DR
Gigantic tried going F2P before and it didn’t work
There are examples of non-F2P games of a similar genre that end up becoming successful
Seriously, fuck microtransactions!

Hey this is my first time posting here so I'll try to include everything but I'm sure I'll miss something so you can ask anything I forgot haha
I'm Jake! I'm white, 6'1, 290lbs (I like food lol), I have blue/green eyes, and light brown wavy hair.
I work in IT at my alma mater and I'm for sure a nerd lol I enjoy videogames, DND, cooking, and watching movies/shows. I stay home most of the time and I'm pretty introverted but I do enjoy being with friends and stuff and I enjoy calling so I'd like to do that a lot if we end up doing long distance for a while. I do want to be able to meet up after a bit but I'm okay doing a year or two online just depending on the situation of course! I'd prefer if you're in the US just cuz time zones suck but I'm open to anyone if we connect :) I like where I live and I like where I work but I could be convinced to move - just depends on what happens cuz that's life.
I play games on PC but I do also have a switch and it would be sweet to meet someone who also enjoys games but it's for sure not a dealbreaker or anything, it'd just be something else we can do together! I'd like to call and watch stuff or I could stream my game or we could just call and chill I just enjoy quality time a lot.
I like scifi, adventure, horror, and comedy movies/shows the most but I'm down to see new things of course! I'd love to watch something you enjoy a lot :) For music I usually just listen to stuff when I'm playing a game or driving but I like metal and rock a lot but I kinda listen to a wide range of stuff just depending on if I like the specific song or not tbh. My fav band is Sabaton tho :)
As far as what I'm looking for in a partner: honestly I like all body types and stuff I'm not picky in that way it's really just how good our connection is. I want someone that can be my lover and best friend - someone I can talk to about anything yaknow? That's the dream anyway.
I hope to hear from you :)
P.S. I would appreciate an intro of yourself and we can trade selfies whenever since I know physical attraction does matter loll

Warning: This post contains chapter 261, so only read it after you've read that chapter! Also this post is 10% cringy, 50% analytical, 40% theory crafting. Hope you enjoy!
Now that Kaiser's flashback is over, it's time to analyze where Kaiser's character arc seems to be heading this match.
Kaiser's proof of originality I think what's most interesting about Kaiser is that while the backstory explained Kaiser's mentality, we've been seeing signs of who Kaiser is as a person even before the backstory. His way of speaking theatrically, his constant obsession with sinking other players into despair, his self-harming attitude, and even the way he treats Ness as a person. All of what we've been seeing as been building up to the current backstory that we're witnessing unfold in our eyes.
Now, let's talk about the originality of Kaiser.
https://preview.redd.it/gt93j21qfh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=c74caf91fb7bdccb3636ab3cf66af7d62aefb1e9
Kaiser is a complex character, but if I were to sum it all up. His environment brought out the monster known as malice. He's someone whose perception of love has been warped due to him being constantly tortured by his father. To him there is no such thing as kindness. In the world he lives in, you can only show kindness through the act of malice.
The act of hurting others and destroying their dreams brings him one step closer to being human. It explains the actions of Kaiser throughout the NEL, he isn't the type to play nice with others. While others would introduce themselves with a simple hello, he would rather introduce himself by challenging others to a fight as seen at the start of the NEL).
https://preview.redd.it/7uwrquwgjh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=69609b27a2f203221f32ea7c263c29835267917d
We've seen before that certain players in Blue Lock come from unfortunate homes and soccer is a means of escape to them. For Kaiser, it's no different and it's warped the way he views football. It is impossible to play football as a single person, soccer as a sport is one that requires you to communicate with your teammates and to craft plays to crush the opposition.
In order to counteract this level of teamwork, he created a single weapon to prove his individuality and sink his opponents into despair. That weapon being known as the Kaiser Impact. A weapon not born out of love, but pure malice. Even with such an invincible weapon, it's still a sport played by 11 people. Most people in his situation would have realized that they need to make a friend or at least a teammate they're on friendly terms with.
https://preview.redd.it/xdtvobcxkh0d1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=d242eba1fc3f30b0fc299e2b77da7537f661ee39
But instead, he decided to find someone that would be loyal to him to a fault. Somebody that couldn't challenge his ideas and wouldn't question him. Someone he could bring hope to and easily corrupt their heart. And that person being Ness, now before I dissect more into Ness and Kaiser's relationship. Let's take a quick moment to answer a question that a few people are wondering in this match. Even though Kaiser is such a talented player, why is his current level of play not as satisfactory?
Ultimate performance
https://preview.redd.it/e4qt3lpglh0d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=2fde1a2243319caab7603b596af2460e953eaa2c
So far in the current match, we've had 2 goals scored and each of them were done by a clash of peak performances. The first goal being a clash with Shidou and Charles pulling a similar move as the final goal scored in Ubers. And the next goal being scored by a clash of three players colliding their ultimate performances in order to score in this match.
Each of these goals were scored by following the proposed formula that Hiori explains in the panel above. Hunger -> Suitable Goal -> Flow -> Ultimate Challenge -> Peak Performance. Let's use Kunigami as an example! His hunger was destroying Shidou which transformed into his suitable goal of man-marking him. Leading him to reach the state of flow and having successfully completing his ultimate challenge of stopping Shidou, he reached his peak performance allowing Isagi and Hiori to make use of this.
If you've been reading so far and paying attention. In order to succeed in this match, you need to fulfill two simple conditions.

1. Reaching your peak performance
   
2. Collaborating with someone else's peak performance to score.
   

And so far, Michael Kaiser has failed at reaching both of these conditions. So, let's start with condition one and how his character arc is leading to that.
The path to being human
This section of the post was inspired by this comment from u/Zukiinis: Inspiration!
https://preview.redd.it/kdz4qdpxoh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=449f55e823606d2442e6a55d8bdbac538b04f834
There are a lot of things eating at Kaiser right now, but if I were to name the biggest one. It's the fact that his current ego is not the one that will lead to his best performance. This ego of hurting others through malice is something that is eerily similar to that of his father when he was heartbroken. It's an ego that was born as a result of that day.
But this current ego leads him to seeing himself as not human and to plunge all of his foes into despair and to reign over his teammates as a tyrant. It's one that dissociates himself from reality and leads him to believing he's someone not worthy of love. Which has given him a warp sense of view on his relationship with Ness and one that was possibly blooming into a friendship. It's true that Kaiser approached Ness with the intent of using him as nothing but a tool. But is that how their relationship has stayed throughout everything?
https://preview.redd.it/4vrtxt7dqh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=8ca8a1b5b71f7b7f694481de80f2c79ba698759d
If Kaiser considers Ness as a tool, then why is he openly laughing with him? Why would he allow someone else to touch his hair and get close to him? Better yet, why would he open his heart to someone else and reveal that part of his past? In Kaiser's mind he may consider Ness as nothing but a tool (currently), but his heart and actions are speaking differently. He's treating Ness as more of a friend, something that Kaiser has never had before in his life and has no way of knowing how to act with a friend. I'm pretty sure the concept of friendship is foreign in Kaiser's mind. So, where am I going with all of this?
https://preview.redd.it/ym8az2xyqh0d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=e593a01e66020d8eb3043eb192a3618157b10f6a
I (and many others) believe that Kaiser is on the verge of an awakening. When Kaiser first awakened his ego, it wasn't out of despair as Kaiser seems to believe. But it was out of the fact that he wanted to protect the one thing in his life that he learned to love, the one thing that his father was attempted to take away from him. A soccer ball, Kaiser didn't awaken his sense of identity due to malice as he seems to believe, but due to the fact that in the first time in his life he learned to love something.
I believe that Kaiser at the end of this match will learn to view himself as human and will start to learn of the concept of love. And for that to happen he needs to receive a similar trigger and that trigger will be when he's on the verge of losing Ness. Which I'm not sure how that would happen, but what better way to awaken Kaiser fully by having his rival Isagi stealing Ness temporarily by forcing a pass out of him. Which will potentially spiral Kaiser to despair and lead to the birth of his evolution.
https://preview.redd.it/0yk5udvqth0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5bc553ccc75879d92c01066dddca83dd4e424e4
So, why do I think Ness being almost taken away from Kaiser is the key to his evolution? I think the ball in the flashback is literally just Ness and is foreshadowing the future for this two. The current Kaiser is very abusive to Ness and simply treats him as the ball in his flashback. Someone who is there to just be obedient to Kaiser and not make up a fuss. But I think what's really interesting is that the ball (Ness) is Kaiser's only companion and the moment he was about to lose that companion. It sparked the birth of his ego and prompted him into action.
Interlude: Ness's evolution So, if Kaiser's evolution is linked to Ness being taken away, then what is the key to Ness's evolution? I believe Ness's evolution will come before Kaiser's evolution and the key to that will be seeing Kaiser in despair and being on the verge of almost giving up. This will spark Ness to unleash his creativity and try to make a play that will allow for both him and Kaiser to succeed. But Isagi will be the first one to notice this change and will run to the perfect pass course forcing the pass out of Ness as he hoped Kaiser could have read him. Once Kaiser sees this interaction of Isagi stealing Ness's pass, that will be when Kaiser will awaken.
Honestly, I imagine it'll be a mix of Bachira's evolution for Ness and a Barou like conqueror moment for Isagi.
Now, let's move on to the final act of this post
A weapon not born out of malice, but pure friendship
https://preview.redd.it/ooh9acuyvh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=82c7aedf44f2577e18efc51ba199513bcc2d00ea
Kaiser's whole character arc seems to be heading in a direction where he's being forced to discover who he really is as a player and to understand what he wants. And in order to do that, he's being constantly met with the same level of despair that he forced onto others. In order for Kaiser to reach his peak performance, he has to fight with the same intensity of ego as he felt first when he discovered himself for the first time.
And I think one of the main things that needs to happen is Kaiser is taking a moment of introspection (possibly on the bench after Noa swaps with him). Understanding that behaving like his father isn't the best way to move forward in life. Him being constantly obsessed with putting others in despair is clouding his judgement and leading to him making reckless mistakes that he would normally avoid. And most importantly to realize that he no longer sees Ness as a tool, but as a friend for the first time in his life. Leading to him accepting Ness's creativity and to stop berating him.
And if Kaiser does possibly get benched, I think it'll be the moment he goes back to analyzing the field and planning his moves accordingly. Which will lead to Kaiser utilizing Ness's imagination on the field and leading to both of them succeeding in their ultimate challenge. Which is...
Making the Kaiser Impact: Magnus succeed.
https://preview.redd.it/t7zig57qsh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=82c34d109d5ef278b2edd7dfe60056c33cb4e0e7
If Kaiser Impact was a weapon born out of an individual talent to drive those into despair. The Kaiser Impact: Magnus will be a weapon born out of a collaboration of peak performance to turn a 0 into 1. In order for this weapon to succeed, there are two main conditions that need to be fulfilled.

1. The ball must not be in motion
   
2. Kaiser has to perform the Magnus
   

Each of these conditions are absurdly difficult to perform in a moving game and it's almost impossible. But with someone who loves unexplainable things and another that loves trying the impossible. It's quite the perfect challenge for them, isn't it? Anyway, I'm sure many of you see where I'm going with this. But for this shot to work, Ness will have to perform a godly maneuvepass utilizing those ankles of his to lead the ball into having zero motion. While Kaiser will have to arrive at the perfect spot in time to use the Kaiser Impact: Magnus and unleash it.
This weapon will be born out of Ness and Kaiser's peak performance. I imagine that once Kaiser and Ness scores the final goal, this two will be on better terms and Kaiser will actually put effort into treating Ness as a friend. The path to being human isn't easy, but all it takes is one single friend to make you human. Ask Ray Dark, he knows what I'm talking about.
My face after completing this post
And that's the end of my theory/analysis. I hope you enjoyed it, let me know your thoughts!

Just test drove a 24 MT... and wow. For the price, this car does everything so well. Was very impressed at how fun it was to drive for not being the fastest thing in the world. And how kia fit such a large front seat, rear seat, and gigantic trunk in such a small package is beyond me.
This was my third time driving manual, so I stalled twice and stayed away from all traffic but this makes me want to learn manual even more now.
For those of you who learned manual on this car, how long did it take you to get used to it? Any tips and tricks to learn on this specific car? The first few weeks are going to be rough going to and from work, but I'm determined to purchase a 24 MT and make this work. So rewarding, I now see what everyone was ranting about. I've driven a dct elantra N and even though it's not nearly as fast, the manual paired to the quick suspension and solid interior make this a value proposition that I cannot pass up. I will say, the sound system was pretty underwhelming in the bass department, so if anyone knows of any decently cheap audio mods, throw them my way so I can start planning!

I'm not out to many people, and I just needed to get this outta my head. Maybe I'm overreacting, I don't know.
Today I went to get my blood drawn for my levels, it was actually my second time going to get it done. The first time I was actively dreading it, having to go to an office and someone I do not know potentially figuring out I'm trans. I was a nervous wreck that whole morning until I went to get it done. Luckily, the medical company was requiring masking in their facilities, which made me feel somewhat better about it. I chose a small office and went at a slow period. It honestly wasn't even bad, the woman confirmed my tests, and my heart still was going a mile a minute when she said "estradiol". But all she did was say she wanted to check it didn't need drawn at a particular time, as they don't get those much. The rest of the time at the lab went smoothly and uneventful.
This morning, I decided to go get my blood drawn again before my endocrinologist appointment next week. Since last time went so easily, I figured I'd just go back to the same facility and deal with the same two women. Nothing happened a few months ago, I figured it'd be just as mellow this time. Now, I decided to wear a mask going inside, seeing as I was unfortunate enough go get COVID for the first time ever a few weeks ago. I'm negative now and asymptomatic, but seeing as the lab shared a waiting room with a doctor's office, I just decided to be cautious. The woman calls me into the small lab office from the waiting room, and asks me what she can help with. Without a second thought, I tell her my endocrinologist sent some labs over and I just needed them done. Naturally, she asks me my name to pull me up to see what needs drawn. After she does she asks me if there's a reason I'm wearing a mask, as they aren't required anymore. In response, I tell her what I just said... had COVID, negative now but just being cautious and courteous. She said she appreciates it and then goes "So I have a... metabolic panel, testosterone and Estradiol?", whch I confirm. As she starts typing, she confirms my address and some other information, then tells me I can sit in the waiting room while she gets all the slips ready. Since she just came back from lunch, she's signed out of all her systems and it's just taking a bit. Thanking her, I walk back out and sit back in the chair I was originally in.
Now, I'm the only one waiting on the lab side, so I'm by myself. After a couple minutes she comes into the doorway, looks at me and goes "Can I ask you a question... in private?". Immediately my heart sinks because I know what is going to happen. Seeing as I haven't had many physical changes I feel are noticable and I'm trying to boymode as best I can while I get things done like laser and voice training before I socially transition and can legally update my name and gender markers. Earlier, I provided my obviously masculine name and my chart has an M gender markers. My watch tells me my heart rate went from around 80bpm to 120bpm as I walk into the lab office again, and ask her what I can do for her. Holding the papers with my required labs on them, she goes "So I need to know. What... is your sex assigned at birth?". Even though I knew what was coming, I still felt my cheeks burning like they could sear through my mask. "...male." I reply. "Okay, so I needed to now because there are two different estradiol tests, and the doctor sent over the female one, and if you look here...", she puts down the top slip of paper that has my name, address and gender, pointing at the M. As quick as I can I tell her that I know and that is the correct test they sent. "Alright, I just need to fix the paper work I did then. I know that was probably uncomfortable, just wanted to make sure in case anyone asked me. Thought maybe they wrote down the wrong test".
The rest of the appointment goes by fine, no one says anything, they're just asking me if I knew how I got COVID now, if I was really sick and so on. When everything is done, I walk out to my car and leave. I don't... think she meant to offend or make me uncomfortable, but I also got these exact same tests done three months ago and the same woman checked me in then too, she didn't ask about my birth sex then. As I drove back to work, I still did feel a bit exposed and uncomfortable. I've never been asked that since I started transitioning back in October, and even if it was innocent and she was just making sure a mistake wasn't made, I still ended up feeling, embarrassed, I guess.
Maybe I am just overreacting, I don't know. It just dragged me down a bit and without many friends who know I'm trans, I needed the weight off my chest. If you read that all, I appreciate you 🙂

I accidentally posted this to my username instead of my subreddit so here is is:
The Mortgage, Part 3
“Fuck,” I said as I drove to work in the old beater that only started on the fourth try because it could tell that I was pissed off. Ray’s case started at two o’clock, and I was heading to the office to get ready. “Fuck fuck fuckity fucking fuck. Fuck.” I’d wanted to tell Angela about Ray’s case, and how I was sorry that I hadn’t wanted to help him, but now I would, I would help him, and I would win, but then I’d gotten her all riled up on something else, something totally different, something way more serious.
My wife had given me a triple ultimatum: fix things up with her father, save idiot Ray from Sy-Co Corp., and somehow find a downpayment for the place she wanted to buy, in the little townhouse infill project in Bixity. It was like demanding I do a double bank shot, and then run over to the baseball diamond and hit a home run after first pointing to where it would land, Babe Ruth style.
Angela was mad at me, seriously mad. She’d slipped out that morning before I was even awake, sliding quietly past me on the couch. I didn’t realize she was gone until I heard the faint click of the front door closing. I jumped up, tripped over a blanket, and by the time I got up and my robe on, the elevator down the hall dinged, and Angela was gone before I opened the apartment door.
I swore at myself some more and pounded the steering wheel, “I fucked up,” I said, several times as I hit the wheel over and over again, until I accidentally honked it, and then looked all sheepish when the guy in front of me gave me the finger. I reached my office without further incident, but instead of walking in the front door, I went further down the hall, and into the office of Mark Cecil-Rowe, Barrister, LL.D, the man with the finest speaking voice I ever heard. When I entered his office I forgot for a minute about Angela and her father and sleeping on the couch the night before. I forget about everything, except the reason that I had come to Cecil-Rowe’s office: to stump him with a legal problem that I had solved, but which I was pretty sure he could not. In other words, I had come to preen and to brag and to boast. No one likes a showoff, and I had come to show off. I put my hand on the door and turned the knob. After a brief pause, I flung open the door.
“I’m a goddamn genius,” I said as I strolled into the older man’s office.
I noticed the echo of a hastily closed desk drawer hanging in the air. In Aaron’s office, where I rented space, a sudden act of concealment implied cocaine, but with Cecil-Rowe, the item in question was probably a mickey of vodka. I had the sense that he’d been drinking a bit before I arrived, but his powers of observation were unimpaired, and when he looked into my face, his expression showed sympathy, and actual pain.
“What have you done now?” he said, as set the papers before him to one side, and readied himself to hear my latest tale of legal brilliance.
“I’m a genius,” I said.
“Oh dear. Have a seat.”
“No really, I am. I’m a genius. I got this case that everyone says you can’t win, but I’m gonna win it, and when I do, I’m gonna look like a genius.” Cecil-Rowe gave me a sad indulgent smile.
“Whenever you tell me you’re a genius, I am always concerned about what is to follow. When you get wrapped up in what you call your genius, you tend to ignore the more mundane things we lawyers have to do to win a case. You think you’re going to win by genius alone.”
“Let me tell you why I’m a goddamn genius.” With effort I wiped the smug, self-satisfied expression that was on my face.
“Tell me why you’re a genius,” Cecil-Rowe said, “while I pour us a coffee.” He heaved his bulky body up from his chair and shuffled over to a counter. He picked up a carafe of hot coffee sitting on a hot plate, and poured two cups. “Speak,” he said, handing me one. I took a sip of the coffee, and told Cecil-Rowe the tale of Cousin Ray: his purchase of a franchise from Sy-Co Corp, its swift demise, the crash and burn in Commercial Court, the Minutes of Settlement, the seventy-one kilometer limit, and lastly, Sy-Co’s motion scheduled for two p.m. that very day, seeking an interim injunction shutting down Ray’s place.
Cecil-Rowe absorbed all this without the need to take notes. Instead, he sat back while he eyed me, taking the occasional sip of coffee, and smiling at the extravagant flourishes and details that brought out Ray’s story to full effect.
“Obviously Ray is dead on arrival,” he said, “but I guess this is the part where you tell me how you’re going to win.”
So I told him how I was going to win, but it didn’t have the desired effect. “I told ya I’m a genius, Mr. C,” cueing him to applaud, to admit what a brilliant lawyer I was. But there was no applause from Mark Cecil-Rowe. He looked at me without so much as a smile.
“You can cling to that genius notion as a consolation prize, after you get whipped this afternoon in court.”
“No way,” I said, “not a chance. I got this thing won hands down. I’m gonna kick ass in court today and--”
“And how exactly do you plan to do that, if you don’t have evidence?”
“What?”
“Evidence, Calledinthe9os. It’s what lawyers like me use to beat geniuses like you.”
“But I’m gonna win without proof. I don’t need proof. The argument I’m gonna make, relies on simple facts that are totally obvious, so the judge is gonna--” Cecil-Rowe stuck up his hand.
“Stop right there. I know what’s coming. You’re going to ask the judge to take *judicial notice.”
And he was right. That was exactly what I was going to do.
There are some things so obvious that you didn’t have to prove them, things that everyone knew. You didn’t have to prove that water froze at zero degrees and boiled at a hundred, or that Bixity was between West Bay and East Bay.
“You got it,” I said, “judicial notice all the way.”
“You’re going to tell the judge that the centerpiece of your argument, the lynchpin of your case is a fact known to pretty well everyone, and so you don’t need proof.”
“Exactly,” I said. Cecil-Rowe took another sip of his coffee, and left me hanging in the silence for a while before he spoke.
“If that’s true, then why does coming up with that argument make you a genius?”
“Oh, I said,”I didn’t think of that.”
“It is acceptable to rely on judicial notice for minor, ancillary points. But you never should walk into court thinking that the court will take judicial notice of your entire defence. It’s just too risky.”
“But how am I going to rustle up a witness in time for this afternoon?”
“Worry about that after you leave my office. I can’t help you with that. What I want to know, is why you’re doing this at the last minute.”
“What makes you think I’m doing this at the last minute?”
“Because you never would have resorted to judicial notice if you were properly prepared. If you’d opened this case a bit earlier, you’ve have everything lined up. But you got to work on it late, and so you want to rely on judicial notice. You’ve messed up, Calledinthe90s, and you know what my rule is when you mess up.” Cecil-Rowe didn’t extend aid to me, until I admitted the error of my ways. It was infuriating, but he was inflexible. So I fessed up.
“My idiot cousin Ray’s been trying to retain me for almost two weeks, but I was putting him off because I was mad at him. So now my wife’s mad at me, and if I don’t win this case, I’m dead. Plus her dad’s mad at me too and --” My brain roared into overdrive, a mess of family and law and fear, and at the centre of it, thoughts of Angela’s anger and her father. My mind took off, and then came to an instant halt at a helpful destination.
“Yes?” Cecil-Rowe said.
“Sorry. I just realized how to solve the evidence problem. Look, can I ask you about the thing I actually came here to ask you about?”
“You have a problem that’s worse than having no evidence? What could be worse than -- oh. You don’t have a retainer. Your client doesn't have any money.”
“Exactly. How do I get paid? That’s the problem.” I explained that Ray had no money, as in none, and that if he did have money, he wouldn’t spend it on me. Instead, he’d go back downtown and throw his cash at some big firm, who would take on his case, and proceed to lose it in a calm, careful, sober manner, ending in a reporting letter to Ray telling him that he’d lost.
“Now that’s a problem I can solve,” Cecil-Rowe said.
“Really? ‘Cause I can’t see a way around it. I think I’m gonna have to do this for free, and that really pisses me off.” Cecil-Rowe shook his head.
“You may or may not get paid, but you can set things up so that if you win, you’ll win pretty good.”
“How? Ray’s a deadbeat. Tapped out.”
“But is he desperate?”
“Totally. The first time he failed, he lost his own money, but if he goes under this time, he’s taking family money with him, and he’ll be the black sheep forever.”
“And he’s using family to emotionally blackmail you into helping him?’
“Like no shit. That’s the part that pisses me off the most. I’m like a goddamn slave, being forced to work for free.”
“Never fear, young apprentice. I have just the thing in mind.” He reached into a drawer, and pulled out a form. “Fill in the blanks, and have him sign.”
I looked it over, and saw that the document was a retainer agreement. I whistled. “Holy shit. If he signs this, he’s almost my slave.”
“Close, but not quite” Cecil-Rowe said, “the Latin term for this is "contractus pro venditione animae"”. It’s the ultimate retainer agreement. Once Ray signs that, you own any cause of action he has against the person suing him. You can settle the case on any terms you like, and you get to keep whatever proceeds there are.” Cecil-Rowe placed the folder back in a drawer, and from his manner you could tell that the interview was over.
“Awesome, Mr. C. I’ll call you from Commercial Court when we’re done.”
“Commercial Court?” he said.
“Yeah, Commercial Court.”
“This just keeps getting worse. Take notes, Calledinthe90s, while I school you on Commercial Court. Commercial Court is a jungle, and without preparation, you’ll get savaged.”
“That’s what happened to Ray when--”
“Take notes, young apprentice,” he said, tossing me a pad and a pen. He started to lecture, and I took notes that I have with me to this day, in a safe deposit box downstairs in the vault at Mega Bank Main Branch.
* * *
By the time Cecil-Rowe finished schooling me, it was close to ten, and the case started at two. I didn’t have much time. I ran down the hall to my office, and called Ray’s restaurant. No answer. Then I called Ray’s house. I expected to get Ray’s wife, but the man himself answered.
“You’re not at work. Why aren’t you at work?”
“Sy-Co Corp served all my employees with a cease and desist letter. They all got scared and took off. The place is shut down.”
“You gotta fax machine at home?” He did, and asked why.
“I’m taking your case, but only if you sign the paper I’m about to send and fax it back.” I sent the fax, and five minutes later it came back signed, and it was official: Ray had sold me his legal soul.
I went out to the parking lot, got into my beater and drove fast. In less than thirty minutes I reached my destination. I knocked on the door, and when it opened, my diminutive mother-in-law poked out her head. “What a pleasant surprise,” she said.
“Sorry, Mrs. M, but I’m in a super hurry. I gotta rush to get to court to help Ray. But first, I gotta speak to Dr. M.”
“He’s not here,” she said.
“Not here?”
“He’s on his way to his bridge game. He left just a few minutes ago.”
“Where’s the club?”
“He’s walking there,” she said, and pointed down the street.
“Thanks.” I got into my car and headed where Mrs. M had pointed, passing big houses and new project with an “Opening Soon” sign. And walking past it was the figure of Dr. M.
“Hey, Dr. M,” I called out the window. He stopped and looked around, startled. But he didn’t see me, not at first.
“It’s me, Dr. M. Me, Calledin90s.” He leaned forward as if to see me better. I got out of the car.
“Is something wrong with Angela? Or the baby?”
“No, no not at all, sorry to scare you, it’s nothing like that. I need your help.”
“Oh.” He started walking again, and now it was my turn to be a bit stunned, watching my father-in-law walk away from me. I caught up with him in a few quick strides.
“Listen, I really need your help.”
“And I really need to get to a bridge game.”
“This isn’t about me. It’s about Ray.” That brought him to a halt. He turned to me, angrier even than he’d been the night before.
“Did you drive all the way out here just to make fun of me? To remind me of how you won, distracting me with nonsense about Ray’s case?”
“I mean it,” I said, “I can win Ray’s case. I can prove it in a few words.”
“Prove it, then.” So I did. I spoke words, only a few words, but they were the right words to speak to Dr. M, for the words I spoke were in his language, words that he understood perfectly.
“I understand,” he said, “you’ve come to boast some more, to prove that you were right after all.”
“I want to win Ray’s case, but I don’t have any proof of what I’m saying.”
“You don’t need to prove that two plus two is four.”
“This, I gotta prove, and I need you to help me prove it. I need you to come to court with me, as my witness.”
“I can’t do that. I didn’t witness anything.”
“As my witness. My expert witness.” Unlike a normal witness, an expert witness can give an opinion. An expert is there not to advocate, I explained to Dr. M but to instruct, to teach.
“My bridge partner won’t be very happy,” he said.
“But Ray will, and so will Mrs. M and Angela and--”
“Very well. Do you have a cell phone? We can call the bridge club from my car.”
* * *
We were on the highway getting close to the downtown exit, when my wife called my cell phone. Back then cell phone service was super expensive and my wife only used it for emergencies. Or when she was really angry. I picked up the phone, wondering which it would be.
“I’m so happy that you made things up with my father,” she said.
“How did you know?”
“My mother called. She says you took him with you, that you went out together.”
“He’s with me right now,” I said.
“Where are you going?”
“To court. Going to court to win Ray’s case for him.”
“And you brought my father with you to watch?” She was so happy, I could hear in her voice that she was smiling. “That’s a great way to bond with him, Calledinthe90s. Look, I’m sorry I got so mad at you earlier, I really am. My dad’s a bit too sensitive and--”
“Sorry, Angela, your dad’s not coming to watch me.”
“Why is he with you, then?”
“He’s my witness,” I said.
“What?”
“His expert witness,” Dr. M said, loudly enough for Angela to hear.
My wife’s anger exploded into the phone. She wanted to know how I could expose her elderly, vulnerable father to the stress of a court case. I tried to tell her how I needed him, how there was literally no one else I could turn to, that her father was an expert, a true expert, and the judge was legally bound to believe him, but Angela heard none of this.
“Look,’ I said, “I promise you that--” And then I lowered the phone and pushed the red button, terminating the call. I’d learned that the best way to hang up on someone, was to do it when I was doing the talking. That way it looked like the call had dropped.
“I’m going to steal that move,” Dr. M said.
We rolled into the parking lot. I grabbed the cloth bag out of the back of my car, the bag that held my law robes and shirt and tabs, plus the other stuff I needed for court. It was one-thirty, still thirty minutes to go, not a lot of time to get robed and ready for court. It was just past one-forty five when I, with Dr. M in tow, opened the door to a courtroom on the eighth floor of an old insurance building that had been converted into a courthouse, the home of Commercial Court.
“Commercial Court is an exclusive club,” Cecil-Rowe had explained to me earlier that day, “the legal playground of the rich and powerful. They’ll know instantly that you’re not one of them.” And he was right. It was clear from the moment I walked in that I did not belong, for I was the only lawyer in robes. Everyone else was wearing a suit, and not some cheap thing off the rack like I wore.
There were a half-dozen lawyers present, and after they saw me, they exchanged knowing looks about the stranger amongst them. I ignored them, and walked up to the Registrar. I told him the case I was on, and he signed me in.
“First time in Commercial Court?” he said, eyeing my robes. “You know you don’t have to be robed in Commercial Court.” In other Superior Courts, you always had to bring your robes and get all dressed up. But Commercial Court had its own set of rules, and in the court for rich people, their lawyers did not have to wear robes.
“You’re here on the Sy-Co case?” a young woman asked. She was a junior like me, give a year or two either way. She was dressed in the finest downtown counsel fashion, some designer thing that Angela would know if she saw it.
“Just got retained,” I said.
“You know there’s no adjournments, right? We don’t do adjournments in Commercial Court. I’m just trying to be helpful, because I don’t think you've been here before. You know you don’t have to be robed, right?
“So I heard.”
“So where’s your material? You haven’t served anything, so how do you plan to argue your case?”
“I gotta witness,” I said.
She smiled. “There’s no viva voce evidence, either. Affidavit only.”
“We’ll see what the judge says.” There was a knock from the other side of the door to the judge’s chambers, and then the man himself entered.
I was amazed to see that even the judge wasn’t wearing a robe; instead, he was wearing a light coloured suit and a bright blue bow tie. He was dressed as good as the lawyers, all part of the downtown Commercial Court club, the playground of the richest and most powerful corporations in the City.
“Commercial Court’s not like other courts,” Cecil-Rowe told me earlier that day, explaining that most cases were over in fifteen minutes or less. A plaintiff showed up with some papers, and had a short consultation with the judge. The judge signed an order granting an injunction, or taking away a man’s business, or freezing his money. Commercial Court is where you went to get quick and simple court orders that eviscerated your opponent before the case even got going.
Defendants would appear sometimes in Commercial Court, Cecil-Rowe explained, but it was usually their last time up. Defendants always died a quick death in Commercial Court.
The judge took his seat, and then looked over the lawyers before him. His eyes moved along, and then stopped when they reached me, the one lawyer who was not like the others.
“You don’t need robes in Commercial Court,” the judge said to me.
“I’ll remember that for next time,” I said.
“What case are you on?”
I told him.
“He’s filed no responding materials,” my opponent said, “nothing at all.”
“I’m just vetting the list,” the judge said, “I’ll circle back to you two in a few minutes.” I listend while the judge vetted the rest of the afternoon list: a Mareva, plus a Norwich order, with counsel on those cases sent away in a matter of minutes.
Now the courtroom was almost empty, just the judge, two lawyers, the registrar and my star witness and father-in-law, Dr. M, who sat in the back of the courtroom dressed in an old business suit, put on hastily at his place two hours earlier, when I urged him to hurry it up, to not waste so much time on picking a suit.
“Back to you,” the judge said, addressing my opponent, “I thought this was an uncontested matter. That’s what your confirmation sheet said.”
“I’m sorry, Your Honour, but I didn’t know until I got here that the case was defended.”
“I got retained at the last minute,” I said, “barely three hours ago, the day after I read the papers. But I’m ready to go, ready to argue the case on the merits, so long as you grant me an indulgence, and let me call my witness, to let him testify in person instead of by affidavit, there being no time for me to draft anything.”
Opposing counsel was on her feet. “That’s not how things are done in Commercial Court,” she said, “or any court that I know of, for that matter. My friend (that’s what they make lawyers call each other in court, ‘my friend,’ even though you might hate the other guy’s guts),” the lawyer said, “my friend should have served his responding materials and filed them with the court. Instead, he’s taken us totally by surprise.”
“I’m sorry my friend is surprised by opposition,” I said, “but then consider, it’s my client’s livelihood that’s at stake. If my friend gets her injunction, Ray Telewu’s business is dead, and he loses everything. So yes, my client opposes the injunction, and yes, I’d like to call evidence.”
The judge didn’t consult the papers before him nor the books, but instead, he looked up at the big white clock on the courtroom wall. Its hands said two-fifteen.
“How long will your witness take, counsel?”
“In chief, ten minutes.” I’d practiced with Dr. M on the way in, and I was pretty sure he could do it in five, but I gave him a bit of extra time, just in case.
“We’ve got about two hours,” the judge said, “but I want to be fair to you and your client. Let’s take a fifteen minute recess so you can get instructions. Either we go ahead today with viva voce evidence, or we adjourn, and that will give Calledinthe90s time to file responding materials.”
When everyone came back, the junior’s boss was there, Senior Counsel, a heavy weight, one of those big guys downtown. Plus they brought this guy from Sy-Co Corp, the head of some bullshit division, with some bullshit title, Head of whatever, so that’s the title I’ll give him here. He was The Head. He was the man, the big cheese, the signer of the affidavit on which Sy-Co relied that day.
“What’s he doing here?” I asked Senior Counsel.
He stared at me, all lean and steel grey, looking every inch the hard hitting lawyer that commanded the biggest fees. “If you’re calling a live witness, then so can we. The Head will give evidence today, in advance of your client, so that the judge hears it from him first.” His junior smirked at me, and the two of them sat down, delighted that they’d thought of a way to one up me.
Except that they’d done it by exposing their client to cross-examination. The judge came in, allowed the Head to testify, and when he was done, I stood up.
“Just a few questions,” I said. Senior Counsel was stunned for an instant, and then he stood.
“This serves no purpose, Your Honour. The witness has confirmed the simple facts of his affidavit, and there’s no disputing it. Ray Telewu opened a restaurant less than seventy-one kilometres from Bixity City Hall, and that’s in breach of the Minutes of Settlement he signed.”
I did not bother to respond. Instead, I just stood, and I started to ask questions.
“Have a look at that map in your affidavit,” I said, and he did. I picked up my copy, and tore the map out of it. I passed it up to him.
“What do you notice about this map?”
“That it’s accurate,” the Head said, repeating his evidence in chief, amplifying it, talking about how the map contained perfect measurement.
“You will notice that the map is flat,” I said, laying it on the witness box before him.
“Of course it’s flat. That’s what maps are. Maps are flat.”
“But the earth is round,” I said, “or more properly, a sphere.” Senior Counsel was on his feet in an instant.
“What difference does that make?” he said.
“What you’ll hear from my expert witness, is that a flat map cannot accurately show Earth’s curves. A flat map distorts distances, and in this case, reduces them.”
“But that can’t be by very much.”
“In this case, by just over twenty meters,” Dr. M said from the back of the court.
“That’s my expert witness, the esteemed Dr. M.” I didn’t actually say Dr. M. Instead, I said his real name. But I’m not going to use the real names of my family here, so I’ll just keep calling him Dr. M. “Dr. M was a professor of Physics at the University of Bixity for almost thirty years. He has published numerous papers on particle physics, and is the first Canadian winner of the Wolf Prize for physics.”

• * * *

It went downhill after that for Sy-Co Corp. My father-in-law testified, explaining in simple language, language that even a child could understand, that the Earth was a sphere, that the shortest distance between two points on Earth was a curve, not a straight line. He summarized his calculations in plain English, dumbing down the math, so that everyone present imagined, if only for the moment, that they shared his understanding of a difficult mathematical equation.
Senior Counsel tried to cross-examine Dr. M, but it did not go well, my father-in-law indulging him, gently chiding him, continuing his explanations until the lawyer sat down, defeated by Dr. M’s mastery of the subject,his own lack of preparation and his inability to improvise. When counsel said that he had no further questions, the judge addressed us all.
“I’m not going to reserve, and I don’t think I need to tell everyone why. I think it will take about a minute for me to write a decision saying that the Earth is not flat. I’ll give you some more time after that, but after fifteen minutes, I”ll be back to render my decision.” He rose, everyone bowed, and he disappeared behind the door to judge’s chambers.
I pulled a piece of paper out of my file, and slammed it on the desk before Senior Counsel and his junior. “Fill in the blanks, and sign,” I said.
Dr. M’s head shot up at the commotion, and he shuffled over to see what was going on.
“What’s this?” Senior Counsel said, picking up the paper I gave him..
“Minutes of Settlement. You fill in a number, a big number, for the costs you gotta pay me. Your client signs, and then we’re done.” Senior Counsel opened his mouth to bargain, but I overrode him.
“You know your client’s going to lose; the judge made that obvious. Hurry up if you want to settle; we don’t have much time.”
At the end of most Canadian court cases, the loser has to pay at least part of the winner’s legal fees. That’s the way it’s been since forever, and I think it’s a good rule. Sy-Co Corp had lost, so it had to pay a good chunk of Ray’s costs, and Ray’s costs were somewhere between whatever bullshit figure I claimed they were, and where they actually ought to be. Senior Counsel took the paper over to his client. There was a brief discussion, and then they came back, with the form signed, and a number written in the blank space.
I’ll give it to Sy-Co Corp and their lawyer. It wasn’t a bullshit number, a low ball number. They gave me a real number, a number more like something I’d actually accept, a number that made sense to pay me in costs, in light of the success I’d had, and how I got it. It was a respectful number, a common sense number, and I appreciated it an awful lot.
I tossed the paper back at them.
“Add a zero,” I said, continuing on when Senior Counsel blanched, and his junior retreated a step. “I know what’s going on here. Your client sold mine a bullshit franchise, one with a history of failing.” The franchise had opened up again under a new owner not long after Ray had lost it and then it promptly failed again. Like I said at the start of this story, it’s an old story. It’s how some franchise companies make money. “Your client makes more money selling bullshit franchises doomed to fail, then it does from the honest ones that make money. So add a zero to that number, or Ray’s gonna sue you, class action and all that, for all the people you’ve fucked.”
The Head stepped forward from the benches and spoke to me.
“We get threats like that all the time, but no one follows through. They don’t have the money to fight us, and neither does your client. So go ahead and sue.”
“It’s true that Ray doesn’t have jack shit,” I said, “not a pot to piss in, but he’s my cousin, Ray is, and even if he doesn’t have money, he’s got me. Ray’s family, and for Ray, I’ll sue you guys for free. Hell, I’ll even pay the expenses. Plus I’m gonna put a jury notice in, too, come to think of it, ‘cause juries--”
Senior Counsel cut me off, and moved his client to the back of the courtroom. There was a brief discussion, and then they came back. I watched as Senior Counsel wrote a single digit on the Minutes, a zero, written right where I wanted it.
“You’ll have to initial the change,” I said to the Head of Sy-C0, and it gave me great satisfaction to watch him sign.
“Don’t forget,” I said the moment his pen stopped moving, “for the settlement to be valid, I need to get the money today. Right now.”
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” the Head said.
“Not if you want the settlement to stay in place. I’ll follow you back to your office, and you can put a cheque in my hands.”

• * * *

“What’s this?” my wife said when I entered the apartment later that day, after I’d driven Dr. M home, stopping first at a local pub for beers.
“It’s an absurdly expensive bunch of flowers,” I said, “although no flowers, however beautiful, however expensive, could expiate my--”
She took the flowers, and gave a kiss.
“My mom called. She told me what happened. You fixed things with my dad.”
“Yup,” I said. I had certainly done that. I’d made Dr. M a professor again, if only for a few minutes. Not only a professor, but an expert witness. The judge had declared him an expert in plain terms and Dr.M had beamed when he’d heard those words.
“And you won Ray’s case, too. But my mom didn’t know how, and I don’t know how you did it either.”
“I’ll tell you over dinner tonight,” I said.
“But we agreed no more dinners out; we have to save money, now that a baby’s coming.”
I passed her the envelope that I’d received a few hours before. She opened it, and took out a cheque, a cheque drawn up for an amount I specified, made payable to Mr. and Mrs. Calledinthe90s.
The moment I got that cheque, all I could think about was how my wife would react when I put it into her hands. I could not wait to see her eyes bulge, to hear her voice say “oh my god,” to hear her laugh.
She did none of these things. Instead, she cried.
“Does this mean we can buy a house?” The money wouldn’t be enough to buy a house, not nowadays, with prices being so crazy. But things were different back then in the 90s. Sure, the internet was barely a thing and cell phones were super expensive and a lot of things sucked, but I’ll give the nineties one thing: houses were cheap.
“I think so,” I said.

I'm building a gaming PC for the first time. This is what I have so far. I had some help from buildapc. I decided to switch the PSU from what I had originally. Does it still work with the rest of the components? Thoughts, advice, and opinions? Also, I need help deciding on a good monitor. Some of the games are shooter, competitive, and adventure-type on PC.
I originally had "Be quiet! Straight Power 12 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply". I switch to MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fsWqn6)
**CPU** [AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor]
**CPU Cooler** [Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler]
**Motherboard** [Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard]
**Memory** [G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory]
**Storage** [Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive]
**Video Card** [Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB Video Card]
**Case** [NZXT H9 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case]
**Power Supply** [MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply]
**Operating System** [Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit]

Capturing User Location in Google Forms Seamlessly

Integrating geolocation functionality into Google Forms can significantly enhance the data collection process, enabling a more dynamic and context-aware approach to surveys and forms. This capability allows form creators to automatically capture the geographical location of respondents without requiring manual input or verification of email addresses. The process leverages Google Script, a powerful tool that extends the functionality of Google Apps, including Forms. By embedding custom scripts into Google Forms, developers can programmatically retrieve geolocation data at the moment of form submission, enriching the dataset with valuable location-based insights.
The application of geolocation data in Google Forms is vast, ranging from academic research to customer feedback and beyond. This approach not only streamlines the data collection process but also opens up new possibilities for analyzing and utilizing the collected data. For instance, understanding the geographic distribution of survey responses can help in tailoring services or products to specific regions. However, implementing this feature requires a careful consideration of privacy and consent, ensuring that respondents are aware of the data being collected and have agreed to share their location information. The following guide aims to demonstrate how to seamlessly integrate geolocation capture into Google Forms using Google Script, without the complexities of email verification or additional permissions.

Command	Description
HtmlService.createHtmlOutputFromFile()	Creates and serves HTML content from a file in the Google Apps Script project.
google.script.run	Allows client-side JavaScript to call server-side Apps Script functions.
Session.getActiveUser().getEmail()	Retrieves the email address of the current user (not used for geolocation, but relevant for context).
Geolocation API	Web API used to access the geographic location of a device.

Deep Dive into Geolocation Integration

Integrating geolocation into Google Forms through Google Script offers a compelling way to enhance data collection by embedding geographical intelligence into responses. This technique allows form creators to capture the respondent's location data automatically, adding a new layer of depth to the insights that can be gleaned from the responses. The process involves the use of client-side JavaScript for geolocation detection, which is then passed to the server side via Google Script. This seamless integration bridges the gap between simple form responses and geospatial data analytics, enabling a myriad of applications such as market research, event planning, and even educational activities. By leveraging the native geolocation API available in modern web browsers, developers can ensure that this functionality is broadly accessible without the need for external plugins or tools.
The application of geolocation data capture in Google Forms transcends mere data collection; it facilitates a nuanced understanding of demographic distributions, behavioral patterns, and logistical planning. For businesses, this can translate into targeted marketing strategies and optimized service delivery based on geographic insights. In educational contexts, it offers a unique approach to field studies, allowing for the collection of data points that are automatically tagged with location information. However, it is crucial to navigate the ethical considerations associated with geolocation data, including privacy concerns and consent. Transparent communication with respondents about what data is being collected and how it will be used is essential to maintaining trust and compliance with data protection regulations.

Integrating Geolocation in Google Forms

Google Apps Script & JavaScript

Enhancing Forms with Geolocation Insights

Implementing geolocation functionality into Google Forms via Google Script is an innovative approach to gather enriched data from form respondents. This method not only captures traditional form responses but also collects valuable geographical information, providing a multifaceted view of the data. The integration of geolocation enhances the utility of Google Forms in various sectors, including research, retail, and social sciences, by enabling the collection of location-specific insights. For instance, researchers can track environmental data submissions across different regions, while retailers can understand the geographical distribution of customer feedback, tailoring services to meet regional demands more effectively.
The technical aspect of integrating geolocation involves utilizing browser-based geolocation APIs in conjunction with Google Script to process and store location data alongside form responses. This process is transparent to the user, requiring their consent to share location data, thereby adhering to privacy standards. The approach not only enriches the data collected through forms but also opens up new avenues for analyzing data through a geographical lens. For example, educational institutions can map out student survey responses to better understand regional variations in educational needs or interests. The ability to automatically collect and analyze location data adds a powerful tool to the arsenal of data analysts and form creators alike.

Frequently Asked Questions About Geolocation in Google Forms

1. Question: Can geolocation data be collected without user consent?
2. Answer: No, collecting geolocation data requires explicit consent from the user as per privacy laws and regulations.
3. Question: Is it possible to collect geolocation data for all respondents?
4. Answer: It depends on the user's device and browser settings. If geolocation services are disabled, it won't be possible to collect this data.
5. Question: How accurate is the geolocation data collected via Google Forms?
6. Answer: The accuracy of geolocation data varies based on the device and the method used for locating (e.g., GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular networks).
7. Question: Can geolocation data collection be integrated into all types of Google Forms?
8. Answer: Yes, with the proper scripting and user permissions, geolocation data collection can be integrated into any Google Form.
9. Question: How is the collected geolocation data stored and can it be exported?
10. Answer: Collected geolocation data is stored within the Google Forms' responses or linked Google Sheets, from where it can be exported for analysis.
11. Question: Are there any privacy concerns with collecting geolocation data?
12. Answer: Yes, privacy concerns are significant. It's essential to inform users about the data collection and adhere to GDPR or other relevant privacy regulations.
13. Question: Can geolocation functionality affect the user experience or form submission rates?
14. Answer: While it may add an extra step for consent, if communicated effectively, it should not significantly impact submission rates.
15. Question: Is programming knowledge required to implement geolocation data collection in Google Forms?
16. Answer: Yes, basic knowledge of JavaScript and Google Script is necessary for integrating geolocation functionality.
17. Question: How does geolocation data collection comply with GDPR?
18. Answer: Compliance involves obtaining clear consent, informing users about the data collection, and providing options to opt-out.
19. Question: Can collected geolocation data be used for marketing analysis?
20. Answer: Yes, with proper consent, geolocation data can be a valuable asset for targeted marketing and regional analysis.

Wrapping Up Geolocation Integration

The integration of geolocation functionality into Google Forms represents a significant leap forward in data collection and analysis. By capturing respondents' locations, form creators can unlock new insights and tailor their strategies more effectively. This approach not only enriches the data collected from surveys and forms but also opens up new possibilities for targeted analysis and decision-making. However, it's crucial to navigate the ethical and privacy considerations associated with geolocation data. Ensuring transparency and securing consent are paramount to maintaining trust and compliance with data protection laws. As technology advances, the potential applications of geolocation data in Google Forms are bound to expand, offering even more innovative ways to harness this valuable information for research, marketing, and beyond. The key to successful implementation lies in the seamless integration of technology while respecting user privacy and leveraging the data responsibly to drive informed decisions.
https://www.tempmail.us.com/en/geolocation/implementing-geolocation-capture-in-google-forms-via-google-script

I guess this could also be delayed grief. I have no idea what I’m even trying to say in this, I just can’t imagine speaking these thoughts to anyone in my life right now because I just can’t stand the way people look at me or speak to me or go quiet when I talk about him. Today just sucks.
I thought it would be last year that would suck, being ten years without him. And it did, but it sucks as much as it always does. Right now feels particularly hard.
I’m just thinking about how unfair it all is. I was 10 when I lost him, and I’m just thinking about how much I’ve missed out on with him. How much he has missed out on in his kids lives. Which doesn’t feel fair, because he had some shitty fucking things go on for him throughout his life and I think he at least deserved to watch his kids grow up. And it’s not fucking fair for me either. I looked up his obituary impulsively at work, and someone had left a story there about him that I’d never seen or heard. And I can’t imagine how many stories I’m missing out on, or how many things he could’ve guided me through. And I just feel so angry and tired about it all.
I just got my first apartment last year, and my moms boyfriend helped me build the bed and get it up all the stairs. He’s a sweet guy, we aren’t close, and it’s not his fault, but that should’ve been my dad. I don’t want men to do anything for me because it just fucking sucks because that should be my dad helping me, it shouldn’t be some fucking guy it should be him. I should be able to introduce him to all my partners, I want him to walk me down the aisle, I want to hear all his crazy stories, I want to show him stupid Tik toks and let him meet my cat. I wish that he had been there when I dropped out of school, when I went to detox, when I was couch surfing and trying to stay sober. I wish I could’ve gone to him. I wish he could’ve been there when I finally graduated, and when I got my dream job.
I want him to embarrass me in front of my friends, I want to make fun of him for being old, I want to listen to his ridiculously mish mash mixtape that was way too long, I want to show him what music I like. I want to show him all my tattoos, I want him to be disappointed in my new stupid tattoo ideas. I wanted him to be there when I was being a stupid teenager and tell me to stop being an idiot.
I want to scream at every man who tried to father me for daring to try and take his spot when that was his job and that was for him nobody else deserves to take that role from him just because he isn’t here.
I want to go back to when I was little, and we were sitting in his car just us and playing around with the new speech to text and he was reciting the jabberwocky poem, and we couldn’t stop laughing at the nonsense it typed out, and I want to stay in that car forever.
Today sucks. And FUCK cancer.

Last week, General Motors announced that it would end production of the Chevrolet Malibu, which the company first introduced in 1964. Although not exactly a head turner (the Malibu was “so uncool, it was cool,” declared the New York Times), the sedan has become an American fixture, even an icon, appearing in classic films like Say Anything and Pulp Fiction. Over the past 60 years, GM produced some 10 million of them.
With a price starting at a (relatively) affordable $25,100, Malibu sales exceeded 130,000 vehicles last year, a 13% annual increase and enough to rank as the #3 Chevy model, behind only the Silverado and the Equinox. Still, that wasn’t enough to keep the car off GM’s chopping block. The company says that the last Malibu will roll out of its Kansas City, KS, factory this November; the plant will then be retooled to produce the new Chevy Bolt, an electric crossover SUV.
With the Malibu’s demise, GM will no longer sell any sedans in the U.S. In that regard, it will have plenty of company. Ford stopped producing sedans for the U.S. market in 2018. And it was Sergio Marchionne, the former head of Stellantis, who triggered the headlong retreat in 2016 when he declared that Dodge and Chrysler would stop making sedans. (Tesla, meanwhile, offers two sedans: the Model 3 and Model S.)
As recently as 2009, U.S. passenger cars (including sedans and a plunging number of station wagons) outsold light trucks (SUVs, pickups, and minivans), but today they’re less then 20% of new car purchases. The death of the Malibu is confirmation, if anyone still needs it, that the Big Three are done building sedans. That decision is bad news for road users, the environment, and budget-conscious consumers—and it may ultimately come around to bite Detroit.
When asked, automakers are quick to blame the sedan’s decline on shifting consumer preferences. Americans simply want bigger cars, the story goes, and there’s some truth to it. Compared to sedans, many SUV and pickup models provide extra cargo space and give the driver more visibility on the highway. In a crash, those inside a heavier car have a better chance of escaping without injury—although the same can’t be said for pedestrians or those in other vehicles. (That discrepancy inspired a headline in The Onion: “Conscientious SUV Shopper Just Wants Something That Will Kill Family In Other Car In Case Of Accident.”)
This narrative of the market’s dispassionate invisible hand tossing the sedan aside holds intuitive appeal, but it leaves gaping holes. For one thing, federal policy has, in many ways, ]distorted the car market to favor larger vehicles](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24139147/suvs-trucks-popularity-federal-policy-pollution). Fuel economy regulations, for instance, are more lenient for SUVs and pickups than they are for smaller cars, nudging automakers to produce more of the former and fewer of the latter. Another egregious example: Small business owners such as real estate agents can save thousands of dollars by writing off the cost of their vehicle—but only if it weighs more than 6,000 pounds, a stipulation that effectively excludes sedans entirely.
Carmakers, for their part, powerfully influence consumer demand through billions of dollars spent on advertising. Because SUVs and pickups are more expensive and profitable than sedans, manufacturers have a clear incentive to tilt buying decisions away from small cars and toward larger ones (which helps explain ad campaigns designed to confer an undeserved green halo on SUVs).
Even those who don’t want a big car may feel pressure to upsize, if only to avoid being at a disadvantage in a crash or when trying to see what lies ahead on the road. Such people find themselves trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma, preferring that everyone had smaller cars, but resigning themselves to buying an SUV or pickup since others already have them.
For all these reasons, modest-size sedans like the Malibu are disappearing from American streets, supplanted by SUVs and pickups that seem to grow bulkier with every model refresh. (The Chevy Bolts produced at GM’s Kansas plant will be bigger than the previous Bolt model, which was retired last year.) This pattern of ongoing vehicle expansion, a trend I call car bloat, is especially advanced in North America, but it’s visible worldwide. In 2022, SUVs alone comprised 46% of global car sales, up from 20% a decade earlier.
From a societal perspective, the decline of the sedan is a disaster. Consider road safety, an area where the U.S. underperforms compared to the rest of the rich world, especially for pedestrians and cyclists (deaths for both recently hit 40-year highs). Larger cars have bigger blind spots, convey more force in a collision, and tend to strike a person’s torso rather than their legs. They’re also heavier, with propulsion systems that guzzle more gasoline (or electrons) to move, producing more pollution in the process. Their weight also catalyzes the erosion of tires and roads, spewing microscopic particles that can damage human health as well as aquatic ecosystems.
Despite the myriad problems of car bloat, the federal government has taken no steps to restrain it. In the absence of regulations or taxes, carmakers have ample reason to abandon their sedan models in favor of SUVs and trucks. The higher margins of larger cars is especially precious now, as the Big Three scrabble for money to invest in electrification and autonomous technology, as well as to pay for the rising costs of wages and benefits that they agreed to last fall during negotiations with the United Auto Workers.
Realistically, it would be a Herculean task to pivot back toward selling small cars, even if American automakers wanted to. Although adept at selling high-priced, feature-laden SUVs and trucks, they’re far less experienced at the low-margin, high volume business of producing cheaper small cars. That is one reason (though hardly the only one) that China’s booming market for EVs, including many modest-size and affordable models, is sowing fear throughout Detroit—and in Washington, too.
Where does the shift from sedans toward SUVs and trucks leave everyday Americans? With a strained wallet, for one thing. With its MSRP starting at $25,100 the Malibu has been one of the most affordable U.S.-produced cars, costing barely half as much as the average new vehicle, which exceeded $47,000 in February (the Malibu is also at least a few thousand dollars cheaper than the Bolt that will replace it at the Kansas factory).
Especially when factoring in higher interest rates and spiking insurance premiums, cars are becoming a financial strain for many Americans. According to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the average annual, inflation-adjusted cost of owning a vehicle and driving it 15,000 miles hit $12,182 in 2023, an increase of over 30% in just six years.
Over time, the elimination of sedans leaves the Big Three vulnerable if consumer preferences shift away from enormity. “Legacy car companies haven’t done a great job of thinking long term,” said Alex Roy, a cohost of the Autonocast podcast. “Gutting lineups is probably good for manufacturing efficiency, but not having one vehicle in a given product segment is short-sighted.”
Due to sprawled development patterns and woefully underfunded transit, many American families will still want a car even as they become more expensive. But, as I argued previously in Fast Company, a surge in vehicle prices could compel some households to swap a second or third car for a minicar or e-cargo bike that offers limited range, but costs only a fraction as much. Already, golf carts are popping up in places far removed from the retirement and beach communities where they have been a mainstay: In New Orleans, they’ve become so popular that the city is adopting new ordinances.
With the Malibu’s death, is clearer than ever that Detroit has abandoned the affordable sedan. They may yet live to regret it.

O.J. Simpson is gone-dead from cancer earlier this year. Rewind back to the 90's. O.J, or not O.J. depending on who you ask, stabbed his ex-wife and her boyfriend to death in Los Angeles. The whole country was subsequently held hostage with round the clock O.J. coverage in the wake of the murders*. Its all anyone talked about and there was no way to escape it. There weren't thousands of channels to flick to, or dozens of streaming services available to seek refuge-in far away from the insanity.
However, after his acquittal he seemed to simply fade from public view-absorbed back into the stained fabric of American society. That was of course before he was locked up for nine years in 2008 for attempting to rob his own memorabilia at gunpoint. So what was he doing with his freedom in the years prior?
Nothing. Well, almost nothing. In 2006, executive producer Rick Mahr, famous for the highly-cerebral Backyard Wrestling series, decided it would be a good idea to tap into the reality show boom with an MTV Punk'd themed prank show featuring O.J. Simpson.
It was a one-hour special that featured O.J. himself engaging in a series of pranks ranging from dressing in rags while selling oranges on the side of a highway, to him serving and insulting fat customers in a fast-food drive thru. At the end of the gig, he'd come clean and tell the victim with a smile "you just got Juiced!" Most of the pranks fell flat on their face: people sometimes didn't recognize O.J. or didn't understand the prank, or the whole idea was just too damn stupid.
But the icing on the cake was the skit where O.J. attempted to sell a replica of his white Ford Bronco, which incidentally was discontinued for years after the murders (but that's another story, you can see below for a few more details). The Bronco even sported a real bullet hole, which The Juice himself signed right above it.
O.J. seems to reflect on the whole Bronco chase as simply comical. Is this some dark type of new-age therapy? "It has great escapability!" he keeps informing customers. Does he admit that there was a dead body in the car? Was it him who placed it there? I have never heard O.J speak so candidly about details from the aftermath of the murders.
Here are some exchanges between O.J. and potential 'customers' as reported in the NPR This American Life episode 564-Too Soon?:

Man: Is there $10,000 in here?
O.J: Nope, Nope. No $10,000,
Man: ...You were carrying it, you know?
O.J: Naw, naw. They say that, I was carrying about $3.
Man: $3?
O.J: Yeah, that's why they never brought it up in court.

In another exchange:

O.J: It was good for me.
Man: Yeah?
O.J: Got me out of harm's way.
Man: ...Ok, I'll sit in it...there was a dead body in there.
O.J: Yeah. Well, um, hopefully there's no bodies in this thing. And I can guarantee you, the car has escape-ability. I mean, if you're ever getting into some trouble, and you've got to get away, it has escape-ability.
Man: (Laughing)

He'd be locked up soon after this aired. Apparently only about 100 DVDs ever sold, and there are no other details about the profits made from the pay per view event, or O.J.'s fee for appearing in the special.
All in all, it was a completely ill-conceived idea with even worse execution that somehow was spewed into existence. It reeks of a desperation for money from all parties involved, none of whom seemed capable of creating any well-written gags for the camera. However, it is memorable in the shock-value of seeing an accused murderer making light of the truck he rode in after he supposedly stabbed his wife and her boyfriend to death.
Most humans will live a rich, full life never knowing this even exists. For the woeful few who do see it, you can't help but leave with an overwhelming feeling that O.J. was a twisted and broken man at this point, straining to grasp at even the the slightest hint of his former celebrity and adoration.
\To most people born post 1980s, OJ Simpson was a famous athlete accused, then acquitted of murder who'd later serve time for a completely unrelated crime.*
But to the rest of us, OJ is the single most infamous athlete name of our lifetimes--the shockwave that was sent through the country when it was announced that his ex-wife and her boyfriend had been murdered in Los Angeles, was unprecedented.
Its impossible to recreate the magnitude of this mono-cultural event that was the OJ Trial, and words don't begin to describe the fall from grace of one of the most beloved sports stars ever.
We'll never be able to forget the image of the low-speed white Ford Bronco chase with dozens of police cars in not so hot pursuit, or the inhumanly long trial that fractured the country along racial lines, or the glove that don't fit (so you must acquit!).
To the younger generation: try to imagine waking up to read that one of the Manning brothers had been accused of bumping off their significant other. Maybe that serves to illustrate the disbelief that we were all hit with that one night in June, 1994.
After the 8 month murder trial (yeah, how many of you had forgotten it lasted that long?), OJ was a free man. Images of him happily golfing sent waves of anger through white America, who felt like justice was cheated by a slick defense team that highlighted the racist tactics of the LA police department. On the heels of the Rodney King video and subsequent riots, this was not only a brilliant strategy, but one rooted in a great deal of truth.
A civil lawsuit followed in which OJ was found responsible for the death of Ron Goldman and ordered to pay his family $33 million. To my knowledge, they never received a cent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOEcsIghRpg

My(27f) last relationship was 4 and a half years.. It was serious and we purchased a home.. not even 2 months after we closed, he didn't have enough money to cover his part of the mortgage and other bills.. turns out he was doing heroin, he was acting wild and took money that was for the bills and spent it on drugs.. That's when I ended things. He(24m) was also physically abusive throughout the relationship.. There were multiple occasions where he hurt me.. He went to jail a couple times.. I always took him back because I wanted to believe he would change. Classic domestic violence, trauma bond situation.. It was just a lot to deal with.. I should have known better than to buy a house with this man. Long story short.. Since we broke up - I've been paying everything for the house and my own bills. I've taken on all the debt including loans we were supposed to split for furniture & renovations.. My quality of life was significantly impacted. I made the most money I've ever made in a single year last year. Over $90k and I feel like I have nothing to show for it. The equity in the home is my only hope to try and recuperate finances that I've invested and pay off other debt so I can sell the home and move on with my life.. BUT since he is a "co owner" - he gets 50% when the house is sold and he has to be involved in the process.. Now.. we agreed that I will get all of the money when the house is sold but I can't trust him to give me the money, so he agreed to sign a written legal agreement that I paid $1000 to my attorney to draw up. His attorney was sent the agreement almost 3 weeks ago and not a single update. He changed his phone number, workplace and address.. moved out of his mom's house where he spent the last year and a half paying $0 to live. He was able to do whatever he wanted with his money.. and now he's just avoiding this business we have to take care of.. moved in with his new girlfriend and I think he's going to try to steal money from me basically... by not signing the agreement and I’m worried I won't be able to sell the house if he doesn't communicate or he can't be found..
I'm honestly not doing so well.. I'm in a very unfortunate situation that has totally effected my life and mental health.. I've been single for a year and a half.. but still feeling so lost as to who I used to be before or who I'm supposed to be after so much trauma. I'm trying to heal.. but I spend some days doing absolutely nothing.. I sit in my bed and stare at the walls or doomscrolling random reels.. I don't dance as much.. I feel like I was using dance as an outlet and that was great, but it kind of kept me from feeling things or taking care of things.. maybe? I'm really frustrated. Like I said I just feel trapped. I broke up with this man a year and half ago and I'm still dealing with a form of abuse. He's told me he would sign it. He's told me "I'm not going to fuck you over" and he's literally doing the exact thing I wanted to prevent from happening. He’s now found a new girlfriend after stringing me along with the idea he would do the work he needs to for himself and we would work things out. He lied when I straight up asked him and deliberately told me that he was not dating other people.. He changed entirely and I had a hunch but stupidly believed him again and after a month of barely speaking we met and hooked up twice.. in my car.. 2 days later he said he needed to talk to me and told me that he’s been seeing someone since the last week of February ! Since then he has changed everything and has moved on.. leaving the house still unsettled.
I just want the money that's rightfully mine and to get out of this house. I'm stuck in this place physically, financially and it's affected me mentally. I've stayed to myself. I haven't opened up to anyone. I haven't dated because I don't want to bring any of this into the next part of my life. And I feel like it hasn't started yet because I'm still in this house and he still has some kind of control over my mind because knowing he can steal money that he does not deserve, out of spite, drives me absolutely mad.
So it's crippling depression and anxiety because I've worked so hard my whole life for every thing I've acquired. It's been my work, my drive, my dedication, my money.. and for all of it to be for nothing, for it all to be abused, taken for granted and then used against me! Extremely defeating and I don’t know what to do about it.

Okay I know how this sounds, but hear me out first. Buckle in it’s gonna be a long one. My boyfriend, R (23M) and I, CK (24F) been together a little over a year and a half although it certainly hasn’t always been easy, we get along pretty well. My only complaint is that he is nice, too nice. He always bends over backwards for people who don’t deserve it AKA, his family.
My boyfriend is in college, drives a beater car, and works part time and a convenience shop, so to say he is broke is kind of an understatement. That doesn’t matter to me though, because I love him madly. This relationship is the most constructive and healthy connection I have ever been in. Anyway, we both live at home because rent prices, among other things are way too expensive. My boyfriend loves his family. It’s one of the qualities that really attracted me to him, because I do not have a good relationship with my own family. Although it was endearing at the start, I now think they are taking advantage of him.
He is a personal chauffeur to his unappreciative little sister. He is constantly cutting our time short to go take her to hair appointments that he pays for, work, school, shopping, and anywhere else she wants to go without any notice for FREE. I don’t think I have ever heard her say thank you to him. Half of the time we are together when she calls him so he has to use my car to take her places. More of the same with his parents, when they call he magically transforms into an InstaCart shopper or a DoorDasher before my eyes (cue eye roll.) They also think we spend too much time together, so they have recently enacted a curfew which I think is outrageous considering he is a 23 year old MAN and he does so much for them. All they do is command him to do things, and he does it no questions asked.
His birthday was last week right before Mother’s Day. Unsurprisingly, no one in his household bought him a present for his birthday. I, of course, got him a gift and a mini cake for his birthday to make him feel special and appreciated since he does a lot for me and my son. He took it home and placed in the fridge and jokingly said “I hope no one eats it.” When he said that it absolutely ticked me off, and of course a day later before he could even have a piece, they demolished it. I know it may seems minor but, his family has a habit of taking things from him without permission. For context, one Christmas I bought him a set of cologne and planned the two of us a trip for new years. We had an amazing time together and it really solidified that this is what I wanted in a relationship. Long story short, we came back from our trip, he went into his room to see that the very expensive cologne I bought him was now missing. My heart sank when he told me this. I told him straight up he needs to stand up for himself and if this continues he is allowing them to continue this behavior. But as always he turned it into a joke.
Anyway, we had plans today. We were both off work, which is rare. We haven’t really had much time to celebrate his birthday from last week because like I said previously he works at a convenience store and has crazy hours, while I work a 9-5 as well as caring for my son who is in Pre-K. We have both been raving about a posh little restaurant downtown that we have wanted to go to for quite some time now. I wanted to make a reservation for lunch because I knew for sure his sister and my son would be in school, so we were completely free for a little while. I mean it sounds like it would all work out right? WRONG. It never does.
His sister typically gets out of school at 3:30 PM then she goes home to get dressed for work and needs to be dropped off there around 4:00-5:00 PM. Keeping this in mind I set our reservation for 12:30 PM. Anyway we get there a bit late, but we were still able to be seated and our lunch went well. We were near a mall with time to spare, so we decided we would stop by to window shop. We walked around for a bit and the time flies by. Suddenly it was 2:30 PM his sister goes absolutely crazy and blows his phone completely up. I asked him was everything okay and did we need to leave since we drove my car there together. He insisted everything was fine and we continued our shopping. I curiously asked him what time he planned to leave and he said we would go at 3:00 which was fine with me.
We lost track of time and we ended up leaving later than intended at about 3:15 PM, but we were only about 20 minutes away and we wouldn’t have her waiting very long. As we’re driving she is still going crazy blowing his phone up constantly asking where he was as he was driving. I was getting annoyed because we were going to go and get her in my car, when she’s so unappreciative of her brother and his efforts to keep her happy and to help her. I held my tongue though because I could hear the agitation increase within his voice as they spoke and I felt as if I would only make things worse. My boyfriend is very sweet and it isn’t often that he gets angry, so she was really pushing his buttons.
She called him a whopping 10 times during a 20 minute drive, and at one point they had a screaming match on the phone and he told her, “You knew I was busy and not at home, why didn’t you ask one of our parents to get you if you wanted to be picked up without having to wait?” Their house is only 8 minutes away from the school so I was beyond ticked off and annoyed at this point. When we finally arrived at her school admittedly a little late, she is nowhere to be found. We waited for a while for her and he called to see where she was, apparently she caught a ride from a friend to be dropped off at her aunts house. The rage I felt in that moment was unparalleled. If they could take you to your aunts house why didn’t they take you home?!
Anyway within the commotion I asked him to swing by my son's school so we could pick him up. I then asked him which one would “come first” purely referring to the geographic location of each person considering I didn’t want him to waste any more of my own gas. I guess I used the wrong choice of words.
He replied to me with something that stung me down to the core. He said, “My sister and my family will always come first.” He saw the surprised and hurt look on my face and quickly added, “but this is your car we can go get him first.” I was taken aback by that statement. I understand that family is blood related, but these people do not respect your time, privacy, hell even your freedom. After he said that the rest of the car ride was a blur and I truly felt like I was overreacting at first. We planned to take my son to the park after we dropped his sister off but I ended up telling him I didn’t feel well and we had to cancel. I’m at a loss here guys. Do I have any right to feel hurt by what he said to me? I mean this is the man I planned on creating a family with, becoming old with. Now I’m not so sure. Help me out here and lmk if I am the A-Hole.