Recently I have been seeing a lot of posts about getting stuck at X weight, or “I cheated and now I am out of Ketosis.” So I wanted to share my journey with you and what has helped me go from where I was, 343 lbs at my heaviest, down to 280lbs as of this week the last time I weighed myself. Today I am lighter than I have been in over 15 years! I still have a long way to go, and my end goal is 200 lbs, because I want to be thin and attractive and I want people to respect me and not judge me because I am fat, just like you probably reading this right now. Well, I am here to try and help!
My journey started with an initial health scare from when I visited the doctor back in 2019, as you are all probably aware of, pre-diabetic, stage 3 fatty liver, ect… I had known about Keto diets in the past, when I was younger, the low carb diet at the time was Atkins, and I had used this diet before to keep my weight in check as I have always struggled with my weight, but that was back in my early 20s. My solution to fixing my health problems (and weight problem) was to go back on a ketogenic diet.
In 2019, I went through the struggle of getting my body in ketosis, dealt with keto flu, low energy, and was able to overcome those challenges and get on a good track of staying low carb. I managed to do this for about a year before I started to slip. It started with small slip ups here and there “a few Doritos wont hurt, its just a hand full.” “A small piece of cookie wont hurt.” Before I knew it (mid 2022), I was kicked out of Ketosis and craving high carb foods again and back into old eating habits. I went from 343 down to 283 then back up to 312 lbs, Darn! I was losing the battle...
Then in 2023, I started having health issues again, which I won’t go into details, and I wanted to get my health in check for good. What was needed, in my opinion, was a fundamental shift in the way I (we) view food. We need to look at food as an essential building block and an energy source for our body and get out of the mindset of looking at food for comfort and enjoyment. This is not an easy thing to do and is probably the hardest thing I have ever done next to getting an Engineering Degree, but if you can master this one thing, you will be hugely successful in your journey to losing the weight and being healthy.
Step 1: Small steps and Logging
My first piece of advice is start small. Yes, you are impatient and yes you want to be thin RIGHT NOW! I get it, but this won’t happen overnight. This is a long process that takes a long time. You are fighting an uphill battle. You are probably surrounded by people eating all kinds of high carb foods, you probably got that skinny friend/relative that can eat anything and stay thin (NOT FAIR! I totally get it..). The first thing I recommend is track absolutely everything you eat. Lose it is only $3 bucks/month (best money I ever spent). Do not try and diet yet, just track what you are eating. Eat a cookie? Log it! Eat an entire party bag potato chips? Hey don’t sweat it! But LOG IT! Get into the habit of logging absolutely everything you put into your body no matter what it is, and don’t judge yourself for your bad eating habits, don’t worry you and me, we are going to fix this together!
After about a week (maybe 2 weeks), make a small change… I was eating about 250 net grams of carbs per day, so I set a reasonable goal for the next week… Lets see if I can get that down to 150 net/day for a week. One week goes by, easily beat it! All it took was cutting some bread out of my diet as well as rice and potatoes. Next step, 100 net/day. Weeks goes by I was at 120 net/day. Darn! I tried my best, but next week, I’m going to do it! Next week goes by I was at 99 net/day. Yes! I did it I hit my goal. Let’s see if I can do it again and again. 2 more weeks go by, and I was down to 80 net/day without hardly trying. Then I lowered my goal to 50/day and that is when it started to get hard. Now I had to cut that slice of toast out of my diet with my morning eggs. I had to cut that bowl of rice out with my meat. I had to really start making some hard changes, and I wasn’t always successful during the first month. I went over and hit 60/day, but I kept at it, kept logging. Today I average 21 Net/day carbs (not too bad right). The best part about the second time I got myself into Ketosis, there was ZERO side effects. No keto flu. I did have electrolyte imbalances for a while but was easily fixed with upping potassium and adding more salt to my food.
The key here is set reasonable goals for yourself that you know you can beat, you wont always be successful, but keep at it. Breaking bad habits is hard, but if you keep logging, and you keep at your goals, eventually you will break it!
Step 2: Eat only nutrient dense foods
This goes back to looking at food as building blocks and energy for your body, make sure every food you eat is to fulfil a specific nutrient requirement. You need more potassium, eat more kale/spinach, need to get your vitamin D up, eat some smoked salmon. Over time, your taste buds will change, and you will start really enjoying the foods you are eating. I absolutely LOVE kale now!
Also, this includes keto-friendly foods like bacon. I do not eat bacon. There is almost no nutritional value in eating it, so why eat it? Eat some steak instead.
If I eat a food with Carbs, it will be a very nutrient dense food and because my body needs those nutrients. What kind of foods am I talking about? Here are some examples:
73% + or more cocoa chocolate
Berries (strawberries for example)
Lemons/limes
Nuts and seeds of all kinds.
All kinds of vegetables like broccoli, spinach, kale, Peppers, Onions
The Key to staying in ketosis when you are consuming foods with carbs is moderation. Yes that 70% chocolate has sugar in it, but I eat one square MAX per day. That one piece of chocolate has 4.7 grams of net carbs and 2 grams of fiber. There is plenty of room in my daily carb limit to allow for it. As long as my weekly average total carb intake stays under 25 grams/day, I am good (my personal set goal).
Step 3: NO CHEAT DAYS!!!
Once you are in the groove, and you got your carb intake to your set goals, be EXTREMELY strict with food intake. Allow for ZERO cheat days and have a ZERO tolerance policy on any "empty carb" food. What do I mean by empty carb? any food that is high in carbs and has no nutritional value, like cookies, chips, ice-cream ect... Cheating will get you kicked out of ketosis and is the path back to bad eating habits and putting the weight back on and that is exactly what happened to me! Just don’t do it. We are not eating for comfort anymore; we are eating because our bodies need this specific nutrient. This is the goal.
Step 4: Fasting
You don’t need to do this right away, make sure you get yourself into the habit of logging, and eating foods that are nutrient dense and make sure your body is in ketosis first. Like with before, don’t try and jump headfirst into fasting, take small steps and build on it every week. Start with a shorter duration fast once per week, for 12 hours, then increase slowly until you hit 18 hours. The end goal here is twice per week for a minimum of 18 hours. If you get hungry and you cant do it, don’t beat yourself up over it, its hard! Your body will fight you and want you to eat. Try again the next week with your set goals. Just make sure you are eating those nutrient dense foods we talked about above. As your body becomes more and more fat adapted, this will get easier and easier.
I am currently fasting for 24 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays. Monday morning I eat 2 fried eggs and drink my coffee with half and half then fast until Tuesday morning. Then on Tuesday morning, I will eat 2 fried eggs and that same coffee without eating until Wednesday morning. It is currently Tuesday and I have not eaten since this morning. I won’t eat until tomorrow morning.
To prep your body for long fasts that will allow your body to eat itself with ease is making sure you are LOADED with TONS of nutrients, (remember step 2?). Saturday and Sunday are prep days for that fast. I eat dark leafy greens, like Kale, and Spinach, cheesy broccoli I make myself, peppers, ect... I eat lots of nuts and seeds, Walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, peanut butter, steak, Smoked raw salmon. I will eat a little bit more than my metabolic rate, about 200 calories more (2500 cal). I also generously salt everything so that I am around 4000 MG for the day. This will load your body with potassium, magnesium, and sodium. Then I go into my fast on Monday. Perfect for me since I need to be at work on Monday and Tuesday.
If you do this, when you go into your fast, you will have plenty of nutrients/electrolytes for your body to just eat your own fat off your body. You probably wont even feel hungry for many hours on end, but if you do get hungry, drink lemon in water, or apple cider vinegar to suppress your hunger.
Now, the key to coming out of your fast is to NOT over-eat. Eat VERY SLOWLY (I cannot emphasize this enough). Take bites, chew, put your fork down, wait 10-30 seconds after you swallow, then take another bite. Eat high fat foods like cheese, eggs, peanut butter. This will help you feel satiated. Try and keep your first meal out of a fast at around 1000 calories.
Step 5: Exercise
Try and add exercise into your weekly routine and this will help you lose the weight even faster, but is not necessary to lose the weight. Exercise is really good for you anyway. For me personally, I picked up swimming (I swim 2 miles 3x per week now), and I feel great afterwards, all those endorphins! So why not?
Step 6: For life!
What do I mean for life? What I mean is that you need to view keto as a for life plan. The key to staying healthy is eating healthy. So why ever go back to your old way of eating? On this diet, I feel great, my libido is way up and I have tons of energy to do things! I want to go outside and work on my car! I want to go to the gym. When you are eating healthy, you will feel amazing, you will have moments of euphoria, you will be happy, you will have an amazing sex life! That guy/girl you like at the gym will notice you. You will no longer be ignored! You will also be smarter, your mental clarity will be better than ever, you will be able to focus on your goals!
Final piece of advice: You will fail… yes you will fail at your goals over and over again, I still fail my goals once in a while. Last week I had a day where I went up to 30 net/day carbs and ate 2600 calories (DARN!), but I didn’t give up! I wont give up! Sometimes you will slip, but as long as you set reasonable goals for yourself and tighten those goals solely over time, and you keep at it, you will be successful in the long run, and you will get the weight off! Don’t focus on the scale, but focus on getting into healthy eating habits, focus on exercising and I promise you, the weight will come off!

What am I doing? Dominick Mason asked himself for the hundredth time that night. It was late on a rainy Sunday evening and Dom, a tall, lanky man-boy of twenty-five with a prominent Adam’s apple and too big eyes, stared out the rain-slicked window of the 905. The big bus swayed and jostled as it lumbered down Central Avenue, the movements strangely comforting, conducive to reflection…and self-doubt.
As if on cue, his phone buzzed, and a pit opened up in his stomach. He fumbled it out with long fingers and read the text. Are u almost here
His thumb hovered over the screen, but he did not reply. Part of him wanted to block the number, slink back home with his tail between his legs, and forget the whole thing. He could boot up his PS4 and play Red Dead Redemption or GTA V like always. Safe. Familiar. The thought, however, stirred a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.
It was dread.
Every night, he did the same thing. He came home from work to his tiny prison cell apartment. He had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He played video games until it was time to go to bed. The worst part of the whole night was when he turned off the TV and saw his murky reflection in the screen. Plaid. Scrawny. Disgusting. He hated being locked in that apartment, with its old smells and white walls, but he hated going out even more. At least in his hole, he was safe, like a mouse. No one hurt or lied to him there. No one gave him funny looks. No one rejected him. He was completely safe in his solitude, a wounded animal hiding in its den and licking its wounds.
He was wounded and he knew it.
And he hated himself for it. Hated that he wasn’t stronger or better. Hated that even though he tried so hard, everything he did fell apart…if it even came together in the first place, which it rarely did.
The phone buzzed again.
Just a question mark this time.
His heart began to race and a steely fist slowly closed around his lungs. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and took a deep breath. He pictured himself alone in his little apartment. He loved the image, but he hated it too. Most nights, he didn’t mind being alone. He had to not mind it, because he didn’t have a choice. Some nights…some nights he didn’t want to be alone. Some nights he wanted warmth, he wanted tenderness…some nights, he wanted to be human.
Every so often, Dom would get the urge to find those things. They came less frequently than they did before, but unfortunately, they still came. He would create an account on Plenty of Fish and OKCupid, maybe some of the other sites as well. He would agonize over his stupid intro and his stupid list of hobbies. He would spend hours - literally hours - writing and rewriting them, trying at first to be serious, then light and funny, then cool, then aloof, then vulnerable. He would take the best possible pictures from the best possible angles, then upload them, never lingering over them because he hated the way he looked. He didn’t think he was ugly - mid was more like it - but apparently, he was ugly. Too ugly for love, too ugly even to talk to.
The ugly barnacle. So ugly that everyone died. The end.
All of Dom’s pictures were all selfies, of course. Guys he listened to on YouTube said he needed action shots, shots with friends, shots that showed women he had a life, was valued by those around him, and knew how to have fun. Too bad for him, he had no friends and no one valued him, not even his own mother. On the surface, maybe, but she had hurt him so many times over the years in so many ways that even the most devout son would stop and think.
It had to be selfies.
When his profile was in order - or as much in order as he could get it - he would start to browse. Dom knew his place and never messaged women who were too beautiful. He used to, but they never responded. He eventually began to skip their profiles with a pang of loss and a quiet what if? Now, he barely noticed them. Blonde. Petite. Blue eyes. Maybe she was a cheerleader at one time, maybe she was the type of girl who looked down her nose at guys like him. Maybe she was a sweetheart. In any case, he would never find out, so who cares?
He went for women he could realistically obtain…the type of women he’d dated and hooked up with in the past. Some were attractive in their own way, others were hard to look at, he wasn’t picky; he couldn’t afford to be picky. One woman he saw was a good three hundred pounds. She was nice and he liked her enough, but he lapsed into depression while they were dating and he never messaged her back…not that she made a huge effort to message him. Another was a pre-K teacher in her mid-thirties. Overweight with a big nose, glasses, and a plain face when she wasn’t wearing make-up. He liked her a lot and wanted to be with her, but after a month of weekend hookups, she said she didn’t love him. She told him she wanted a family - three kids, to be exact - but “changed her mind.” No, she didn’t. She just didn’t want those things with him.
Now she was in her late thirties, single, and having regrets.
She still wouldn’t settle for him, though.
Another woman he’d seen recently (six months ago) was fifty, but not unattractive. They texted for weeks, hot and heavy. She outright told him that she wanted to have sex with him. Said all sorts of nasty and sexual things. Their first (and only date) was her coming to his apartment. Instead of tender kisses, loving caresses, and intense emotions, they shared an awkward two hours on his couch. When he tried to hold her hand and put his arm around her, she stiffened. Not much, just a little. She said she “wasn’t ready.” He sat there and watched the flowers he’d gotten her wilt as she talked about her ex for an hour and a half, his arms pointedly crossed. He even leaned as far away from her as humanly possible, trying to communicate with his body language what he didn’t have the guts to communicate with his words: I’m uncomfortable, please leave. He planned to take her to a nice restaurant after they made love. Instead, he ordered something after she finally got the hint and left, eating alone like always.
After her, he deleted his profile (again) and resolved to never bother with dating again. Obviously there was something wrong with him. He saw guys who were uglier and more awkward than him with girlfriends, some actually stunning, but there was something about him in particular, something that repelled women…and men too.
Everyone.
It repelled everyone.
Maybe it was his self-loathing. After all, no one likes a sad sack. But that’s the thing: He was like this because of those experiences. It was a what came first, the chicken or the egg situation. Looking back, he had almost normal confidence at one point. Then all of this happened. The hundreds of messages he sent on the dating apps staying on read, unanswered, like he never sent them at all, like he was garbage unworthy of even a hello. The awkward dates. The occasional “success” that eventually fell apart…sometimes because of him, and sometimes because of them. The one girl who ran away from him when he tried to walk her to her car after a date. They didn’t click, he knew that, but he didn’t say or do anything creepy. Why did she do that? The girls who lead him on, talking about sex and sometimes even love but always had a reason they couldn’t meet.
There were other examples - many others - but it was all the same. Who cared?
Dom wanted to crawl back into his hole and stay there, to stop poking his head out and getting hurt. He wanted it so bad…but he was only human. Deep down, buried beneath layer after layer of scar tissue, there was still hope. Hope for love, for companionship, for acceptance, for intimacy and human touch. It was only an ember now, but even an ember is enough to spark a fire.
Some nights, he wanted to be safe. Other nights, he wanted to take a risk.
And this night was one of the latter.
Be there soon, he texted. He swallowed hard and wetted his lips. His heart was pounding faster and his bowels were loose. He really hoped this worked out. He didn’t think he could handle another rejection. If she turned him down, he’d probably go home and kill himself. Why go on like this?
He’d had that thought before…but he never followed through.
Maybe one day he’d actually shut the fuck up and do it already.
Maybe.
Ok :)
Her name was Heather and she was fat. She was not unattractive in the face and she wore her weight well, not that that mattered - he would take what he could get. They started talking on OKCupid last week and very soon, the conversation became sexual. He didn’t start it, though, she did. She was ahem very excited, she said. He liked to think that she was lonely, desperate, and wanted intimacy - any intimacy - just like him.
That really turned him on.
They agreed to meet, and now here he was, on the bus to her apartment on the other side of the city, hoping against hope that she didn’t hurt him too.
He put the phone away and stared straight ahead. The bus was nearly deserted, save for an old bag lady up front and a few Mexican guys in the back. Lights lined the bus’s roof, providing a cold, impersonal light. Dom took a deep breath and forced his dark emotions away. It was all on him to make this work. He would accept her fat, ugly, poor, and crippled, but he had to work to earn her love. He could do it.
When the bus finally reached his stop, he yanked the cord and got off. There was a plexiglass shelter lit by a single, lonely bulb. Trash littered the ground. Beyond the shelter, a park lay in darkness. Behind him, on the other side of the road, a housing project not unlike his own towered into the sky, lit up like a ship at sail. Dom swallowed his nerves and crossed the street. He found the door that she had directed him to use, and climbed the stairs. He expected trash, graffiti, and winos passed out on every landing. Instead, the stairwell was clean and deserted. His nerves welled as he climbed but he forced them down again. On the ninth floor, he went down the hall, battered on all sides by the stale smells of cooking and the murmur of TVs and voices coming from every apartment.
Dom paused at Apartment 237.
Heather’s.
You got this, he told himself.
And really, he did. Their plan - well, Heather’s, really - was simple and straightforward. She told him that she would leave the door unlocked. He was to come in, go to the bedroom, and she would be waiting for him. She said it was a fantasy of hers.
On some level, he knew all along that the whole setup sounded fishy. Was he being set up to get robbed? Would he walk in and get jumped by a bunch of Crips? He hesitated, but his need for love - and, yes, release - pushed him on.
He opened the door.
Inside, the apartment was small and messy, a living room to the right and a tiny kitchen to the left. The only light on was the one above the stove.
Everything else was in shadows.
Dom’s heart skipped a beat.
This didn’t feel right.
That thought was overpowered by the smell, a sickly sweet odor that suddenly seemed to be everywhere. His stomach twisted and he turned his head slightly to one side, as if to spare his nose. It smelled like something spoiled.
A voice spoke from the darkness, startling him. “I’m in here.”
It was light, airy, and cute.
For the last time, Dom hesitated. Some primal sense told him to turn around and leave…
…but he wanted to be loved.
Dom entered and shut the door behind him.
The smell was stronger. The atmosphere darker.
Ahead, he could barely make out an open doorway in the shadows.
He crossed to it.
The smell was overpowering here and Dom felt like he was going to puke. Any desire he had felt was gone, replaced only by revulsion and claustrophobia. It was cold, he realized, so cold that his teeth chattered.
Okay, fuck this.
He started to turn around, intent on leaving, but a small, white hand reached from the darkness. Icy fingertips brushed his cheek and his heart blasted into his throat.
Then she was there, her body pressing against his and her lips fused with his. The smell, the freezer chill, both stronger than ever.
They were both coming from her.
Her tongue hungrily lashed his own, and she pushed him against the wall. Her hands slipped under his shirt and pressed flat against his chest. They were so cold that he almost cried out.
Dom wanted to push her away, to run, but he didn’t. Instead, he froze up and allowed her to push him onto the bed. Was he too gutless to tell her no, the way he’d been too gutless to tell the woman who went on and on about her ex to shut up and leave? Did he secretly want to go through with this? He didn’t know, and he didn’t have time to figure it out. She was on top of him now, straddling him, his legs caged between her ample thighs. She grabbed his hands and pressed them to her bare breasts.
They were as cold as the rest of her.
She leaned down and kissed him again. He hadn’t noticed it before, but her tongue was…dry. Her mouth itself tasted strange. Off.
Heather broke from his lips and peppered kisses on his cheek and forehead, assaulting him with an intimacy that Dom no longer wanted.
Through it all, she was as silent as a tomb. She wasn’t panting or rasping with excitement. In fact, he didn’t think she was even breathing.
She brushed her lips along the exposed curve of his throat, and tingles of revulsion shot down his spine. She found his pulse and kissed it. Trembles of excitement raced through her body and she started to lap his neck like a dog.
Without warning, a fiery pinprick of pain exploded over him and Heather began to shake and pant. Dom cried out and tried to fight her off, but she was too heavy, too much.
With a tiny, mouse-like squeak - a sound of pitiable fear and resignation - Dom blacked out.

It sucks when your face shape is the primary factor affecting your attractiveness because there isn't really anything you can do to change it. I have predominantly more small, cute, and delicate features, and it totally clashes with my long, square face shape. It's hard to accept the fact that there isn't ever going to be anything I could ever do to fix that, no cosmetic procedures, not even really a way I can cover it up without drawing more unwanted attention to myself. At least issue regarding the nose and lips for example can be helped with a little bit of money; but face shape? There is no amount of money in the world that can shorten it or change its structure.
I just feel so depressed over it and the uncanny look it gives me. I just sit in my room hopelessly praying every day for a miracle, or that maybe it isn't as bad as it seems, but it always is.

Edit: If you are going to comment on the length of this post, please don't. This is not a simple snark but rather an actual critical think piece about feminism and Taylor Swift.

Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

With the bat tracking stats everyone is having fun with, I wanted to see if there was much correlation between the new stats and the BA/SLG/wOBA slashline, including the expected versions.
I took all of the players who had enough PAs to qualify for all the stats and put their stats in a spreadsheet. I asked Excel to tell me how all of those stats correlated for every player.. For example, for players who had a high batting average, which of the bat tracking stats were the biggest part of their game (There's probably a better way to say this)? Then I just focused on the slashline stats vs the bat tracking.
Here's a picture of the matrix with colored conditional formatting
Looks like there the stats that correlate the most to batting average (excluding batter run value because I think that's just a given) are Batted Ball Events, Squared Up per Swing, Squared Up per Contact. On the opposite end are competitive swings and whiffs. Those all make sense.
For SLG, it's blasts per swing and hard hit rate. On the opposite side are batted ball events and swords. Again, these all track.
Overall, I don't think there's a lot to learn from this but I thought it was at the very least interesting.
Here's a reddit table that doesn't have neat colors but you can sort it how you like. *(note the sorting doesn't work with negative numbers):

	BA	xBA	SLG	xSLG	wOBA	xwOBA
Batter Run Value	65.0%	50.1%	71.7%	53.0%	70.6%	52.0%
Batted Ball Events	32.7%	49.3%	15.0%	18.9%	18.4%	25.4%
Squared Up per Swing	32.6%	44.3%	11.4%	10.8%	15.7%	17.8%
Squared Up per Contact	28.4%	38.4%	15.7%	17.3%	17.5%	20.2%
Blast per Swing	28.0%	48.5%	44.5%	63.3%	39.6%	58.2%
Contact %	27.4%	36.5%	15.8%	16.2%	20.5%	24.1%
Batted Ball Events per Swing	22.8%	38.6%	-2.0%	-0.3%	1.6%	6.4%
Blast per Contact	22.2%	39.4%	44.2%	62.9%	38.0%	55.5%
Competitive Swings	17.3%	22.0%	18.0%	20.9%	19.7%	23.5%
Hard Swing Rate	0.7%	14.8%	25.7%	43.6%	19.2%	35.5%
Swords	-4.8%	-1.3%	-4.1%	-1.4%	-0.2%	3.9%
Average Bat Speed	-7.8%	7.1%	20.8%	41.2%	12.1%	30.3%
Swing Length	-8.3%	-10.3%	9.9%	13.3%	1.8%	2.7%
Competitive Swings %	-10.6%	-1.4%	1.5%	11.6%	-2.2%	6.8%
Whiffs	-11.9%	-17.9%	9.4%	14.7%	4.8%	6.5%
Whiffs per Swing	-23.8%	-33.5%	3.1%	7.4%	-4.0%	-4.3%

Also, here's a colored matrix with the bat tracking stats only, with correlation %

Google is using its annual developer conference to showcase what the company is calling its lightest and most efficient artificial intelligence models.
At Google I/O on Tuesday, the company announced Gemini 1.5 Flash, the newest addition to the Gemini model series.
“We heard from developers that they wanted something faster and even more cost effective,” said Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, in a press briefing.
The unveiling comes as tech companies increasingly refocus their product development and rollouts around generative AI, which is of particular importance to Google because the new tools give consumers more advanced and creative ways to access online information compared to traditional web search.
OpenAI on Monday launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with a new user interface. The new model, GPT-4o, is twice as fast as GPT-4 Turbo and half the cost, the company said.
Google also announced an improved Gemini 1.5 Pro model, which has the ability to make sense of multiple large documents — 1,500-pages total — or summarize 100 emails, according to a vice president working on Gemini.
Gemini 1.5 Pro will soon be able to handle an hour of video content, or codebases with more than 30,000 lines, Hsiao said.
“You can quickly get answers and insights about dense documents, like figuring out the details of the pet policy in your rental agreement or comparing key arguments of multiple long research papers,” Hsiao said.
OpenAI’s latest upgrade, announced this week, brings with it improved quality and speed of ChatGPT for 50 different languages. It will also be available via OpenAI’s application programming interface (API), allowing developers to begin building applications using the new model immediately, executives said.
With 35 languages, Google says Gemini 1.5 Pro has a 2 million token window, which measures context and indicates how much information the model is able to process at once. The new model has improved local reasoning, planning and image understanding, company executives said.
“It offers the longest context window of any foundational model yet,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in the press briefing. At the event, he gave an example of a parent asking Gemini to summarize all recent emails from their child’s school.
Gemini 1.5 Pro will initially be available for testing in Workspace Labs. Gemini 1.5 Flash will be available for testing and in Vertex AI, which is Google’s machine learning platform that lets developers train and deploy AI applications.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/google-announces-lightweight-ai-model-gemini-flash-1point5-at-google-i/o.html

I'm referring to the truly big stuff, not your standard 416's, 458's or 470's
These cartridges are the stuff of African legends, those that would be considered "stopping cartridges" used by professional hunters.
A few Examples and their respective ballistics. Starting on the Low end.

1. 500 Nitro Express (.510) - 570 grains at 2,150fps, producing 5,851 ft-lbs of energy.
2. 505 Gibbs (.505) - 525 grains at 2,300fps, 6,100 ft-lbs of energy.
3. 500 Jeffery (0.510) - 535 grains at 2,400fps, producing 6,800 ft-lbs of energy.
4. 500 A-Square (0.510) - 600 grains at 2,470 fps, producing 8,127 ft-lbs of energy.
5. 577 Nitro Express (.585) - 750 grains at 2,050fps, producing 7,010 ft-lbs of energy.
6. 577 Tyrannosaur (0.585) - 750 grains at 2,460fps, producing 10,240 ft-lbs of energy.
7. 600 Nitro Express (0.620) - 900 grains at 2,050fps, producing 8,400 ft-lbs of energy.
8. 600 Overkill (0.620) - 900 grains at 2,500fps, producing 13,877 ft⋅lbf of energy.

The majority of these are pretty obscure cartridges unlikely to be seen outside of an African safari. The first 3 are the most common that are at the top end of what most people can handle recoil-wise.
Unfortunately here in Canada all cartridges that produce above 10,000J of energy (7,375 ft-lbs) are prohibited meaning 4/8 we can't purchase here.
Curious if anyone here owns one of the above and hunts with it or maybe just for collection purposes? I'm looking to add a 500NE and maybe a 505G or 500J down the road.

Keshad Johnson saw his collegiate career end in the Sweet Sixteen with the Arizona Wildcats this year after a very successful season, helping the Wildcats earn a #2 seed and win the Pac 12 regular season. Johnson was a member and starter on San Diego State's Final Four team that made the championship in 2023 and played four years for the Aztecs before transferring to Arizona for his final season.
Johnson was a role player for San Diego State, two year starter but primarily a defender and play finisher. He wanted the opportunity to expand his role and he received that this season at Arizona.
Johnson is long, powerfully built 6'7 PF. Weighed at a very chiseled 224 pounds with a 6'11 wingspan at the combine. He has impressed so far with a 42 inch vertical and strong athletic numbers as well as displaying his versatility as a player on both ends: https://twitter.com/JonChep/status/1790163683806462145 https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/1790185163655356782 His stock appears to be on the rise during the draft process. He is a big time leaper in the open floor and with any time/space to load. He's fast in the open floor. He has a quick first step and is very mobile. He plays physically and isn't afraid of getting dirty. He uses his length to his advantage on both ends. Johnson's physical tools are at the heart of his intrigue as a prospect.
Johnson is a big time transition threat, lots of lobs throughout the season, a big time dunker that elevates with ease. Gets off the ground quickly and has a big time vertical. He runs the floor hard. He can even handle a bit in transition. He took it coast to coast a few times during the season.
Johnson isn't the best ballhandler overall, he doesn't have much in the way of advanced moves, he can get a bit uncoordinated at times when looking to do a little too much with his handle and he's not an isolation guy at all, but he is someone in the halfcourt and in transition that plays strong with the ball in a straight line. He's a good straight line driver off rips, he has a quick first step. His mobility aids him as a PnR roller. He makes himself presentable and available for ballhandlers in the PnR as a roller. His ability to elevate makes him a lob threat as a roller. His mobility allows him to fluidity get to the rim. He can finish with both hands. His length gives him good extension.
He's aggressive off rips on the perimeter. If he can't get past a defender off a closeout, he will use his strength to shed them and get to the rim. He's capable of hitting pull up jumpers from the midrange although he's not a great off-the-dribble shooter. He can beat switches against smalls down low in the post. His post game isn't advanced but he has good enough footwork and strength to take advantage of the mismatch.
He's a smart cutter and good at duck-ins and finding easy ways to score. He didn't get to the line a ton this season but that's in large part because he found easy ways to score down low; he had 49 dunks on the season. He's a good offensive rebounder with a nose for the ball, willing to pursue balls in the air, and able to grab balls in traffic. He tips quite a few balls out for his teammates and creates extra possessions, his length and elevation makes him a positive force as an offensive rebounder. Johnson isn't an elite finisher outside of dunks, as he doesn't have quite as much pop vertically when he can't load and he can be swallowed up at times because of size, I don't think he has elite touch, but he was a strong finisher overall. He does have a decent floater in his arsenal if not right at the rim.
Johnson shot 39% from 3 on the season and 41% in conference. He averaged 2.6 attempts per game. His form is OK but is also a bit on the square side. The mechanics are fine, and he's also a good midrange shooter. He's not an off the dribble guy and not as good when facing contests, but give him space and he will knock down the C&S 3 and 2. He even made a few 3's off screens. He shot 71% from the line and had never been a shooter before this year. People will have their questions about sustainability, I don't think he's a natural shooter, but he knocked shots down this year and he being someone who spread the floor and was a reliable C&S guy from the perimeter has really made him a far more attractive prospect.
Johnson sets good screens both on and off the ball, he's a space creator as a screen setter. His screen setting aids him as a PnR rollefinisher, as well as his ballhandlers. He's very fluid in peeling off the screen and rolling to the rim. He does ancillary things very well on the offensive end. He's also a solid passer. He averaged 1.8 assists and will make nifty passes and quick reads in a variety of ways. He finds cutters at the top of the key and FT line, he finds dump off guys and cutters when driving to the rim, he finds shooters off the roll. He will engage dribble handoffs and roll or pop and make shots or find the open teammate. He's not an advanced passer but makes good reads with good timing and good accuracy and has good vision as a passer. He's a good ball mover and functions well within the context of the team on the offensive end.
He also functions well as a team defender. He helps the helper, he's a good and sharp rotater, he deflects passes and keeps his hands up in trail positions and facing ballhandlers, he blocks quite a few shots from behind as a helper. He plays a pretty disciplined brand of defense. He's not someone who's gonna take big risks doubling down for example and straying off shooters, but he does have active hands as a defender and deflects passes with his length. He's really good at contesting shots both on the perimeter and the post. His length helps, he doesn't launch and take himself out of plays....he doesn't bite for fakes often and he can recover when he does. He's very good with verticality down low as a help defender. He's someone who's very good at remaining vertical and bothering and making it a lot more difficult for opponents to make shots around the rim.
Arizona switched a lot and though they had some miscommunications across the board, Johnson is good at executing switches quickly and he has the ability to hang on the perimeter, especially against small forwards on switches. He's a very good on ball defender against forwards overall; he doesn't give up ground, he's got excellent footwork, he's just too quick/strong/long for them to get around. He's a little less apt against guards...he doesn't have elite agility, double moves can catch him out. He's not quick enough laterally to stay with every guard/forward he sees. He has some impressive moments, and I still think he's fairly switchable because of his length if not an elite option down the lineup.
He is a good switch guy up the lineup....he plays strong in the post defensively. He won't be able to deal with every big man he comes across but he's gonna battle.
What makes him a good offensive rebounder also makes him a good defensive rebounder....his physicality, length, motor, and ability to carve out space and attack balls in the air.
Keshad Johnson had a breakout season as a 5th year senior for Arizona and displayed a versatile skill set on both ends of the floor that any team at the NBA level could use. He checks a lot of boxes. He's one of those guys who isn't the sexiest player but his motor, his intensity, his IQ, and ability to fit into a role and contribute in a variety of ways makes him someone whose stock is seemingly on the rise. What do you all think about Keshad Johnson? Thumbs Up, Down, or Across?
Note: Reposting after measurements/athletic testing numbers

Hello,
I'm opening a business. I bought my website domain on porkbun and i wanted to create my email host with mxroute and then use my business email on a website host on something like square space,wix, WordPress ECT. My question is do I use the website domain I purchased, example: thisisconfusing.com, in the hostname part on mxroute.com if I'm going to be using that as my email? Once that is done will I be able to then put my name like johndoe@thisiscomfusing.com? And after that will I be able to use that email when I'm setting up my website? I'm new to opening a business and doing all this website stuff. If there is anything else I need to know about opening a business website and email and all of that then I'm open to Learn if I'm pointed in the right direction, reddit, YouTube,ECT.

 
It's common for non-Ashlands biomes that were connected to the border of the Ashlands biome to have vastly different elevations in the new update, resulting in stuff floating in the sky above the land or sea. (rocks, ancient roots, trees, etc.). This also happens up near the Deep North biome.
The simple solution is to make a fresh new world after the new Ashlands patch. And if you never visited the Ashlands in your old world, you're also likely safe.
But if you ever traveled close to the Ashlands, you'll get this glitch. You can prevent / repair this with the Upgrade World Mod. But it's quite the process.
 

Part 1: Make a world backup

The game automatically makes backup files, but just to be safe, you want to manually create your own backups.
Your Valheim world consists of 2 files with these extentions:

• *****.db
• *****.fwl

In fact, I suggest you include the backups of your backup, too:

• *****.db.old
• *****.fwl.old

Actually, it's not a bad idea to make a backup copy of the entire save folder, just in case.
Now, it's best to be working with Local Saves rather than with Cloud Saves. By default, the game uses cloud saves. Your save file location might be different depending on which save method you had employed.
This is the Valheim local save file location:

• C:\Users\*****\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local

The AppData folder is normally hidden. So here's another way to find the AppData folder:

1. Windows Key + R
2. type in appdata.
3. Navigate Appdata > LocalLow > Irongate > Valheim

Part 2: Staying Pre-Ashlands (Optional)

In order to prevent elevation errors from ever occuring, you might want to perform these fixes before loading up the world with the Ashlands Patch downloaded. To do this, Go to your Steam Library and set your game to the previous patch:

1. Steam Library > right-click Valheim > Properties > Betas
2. change "Beta Participation" from "None" to "default_preal"

(It's not necessary to stay pre-Ashlands, as you can still reset zones after the patch. But better safe than sorry)

Part 3: Enable the Dev Console

Now you need to enable the developer console

1. Steam Library > right-click Valheim > Properties > General
2. Find the Text field in the Launch Options section under where it says "Advanced users may choose to enter modifications to their launch options"
3. In this text field, type -console

You can now open the Developer Console by pressing F5 while in the game world.

Part 4: Mod Installation

You need to install the BepInEx Pack (Source). Followed by the Upgrade World Mod (Source).
I recommend either installing these mods manually or using the r2modman manager (Source)
(DO NOT use the Overwolf / Thunderstore mod manager - it has video ads that ruin performance)

• r2modman video guide
  
• Upgrade World documentation
  

Part 5: Finally doing something

Now we're finally ready to get started.
Be sure to make a new character for this test and do not use your actual character. Then, Load up your Valheim world.
Open the console with F5 and make sure you have the following developer commands active:

• devcommands
• god
• fly

This just makes things easier for later on.
Now we want to reset the Ashlands. In order for a zone reset to work, there needs to be no players near the Biome at all. A quick way to move away from the Ashlands is this command:

• goto 0 0

The command to reset Ashlands is:

• zones_reset biomes=AshLands force

The "force" part of that command forces any player bases in the biome to be destroyed without a trace. If you do not do this, the zones around the base will not be reset by the mod.
If you ever have a big build you want to protect, you can try using the PlanBuild Mod (Source) to save a blueprint of the build and move it somewhere else in the world.

Part 6: Fixing Problem Spots

This is where trial and error begins.

1. Save another backup of your world file.
2. Change your Beta selection back to "None"
3. Load up the game and fly around in god mode, checking to see if everything is fine
4. Write down the coordinates of any problem areas that you find.
5. Leave the area (using goto 0 0 is fastest)
6. Reset the problem spot (see "Step 6" below)
7. Repeat Steps 3-6 until done.

(If you're obsessive like me and want to preserve your pre-patch world, then on Step 5 you'll want to switch the Beta back to "default_preal", and for Step 7 you repeat steps 1-6. Fair warning, doing it this way is very tedious)

Step 6

For Step 6, you'll need to use more targeted resets, limited by max distance. There are 2 ways to do this: by raw position (in meters) or by zone. (a zone is a 64x64 chunk of the map)

• zones_reset pos= max=
• zones_reset zone= max=

pos sets a center position and max sets how far out it goes.
zone sets a center position and changes max to set how many zones away the reset can reach.
Example:

• zones_reset pos=-3700,-7200 max=350

This resets a small area on my map that was giving me problems.

• zones_reset zone=-58,-113 max=6

This more or less does the same thing, but goes by zones. Notice that the max needs to be smaller since zones are a 64x64m area.
 
If there are any player bases in the affected zones, the mod will skip them. To force the mod to delete the player base, add force at the end of your reset command, like we did in Part 5
If you ever have a big build you want to protect, you can try using the PlanBuild Mod (Source) to save a blueprint of the build and move it somewhere else in the world.

Side Note: The Reset Area shape

It is unclear to me whether this "max" distance is actually a "radius" for a circle. I think it might just create a square around the center point. So, for example:

• zones_reset pos=0,0 max=100

If it was a square, this would make a 200x200m square with these corner locations:

-100, 100	100, 100
-100,-100	100,-100

A circle dictated by a radius wouldn't include those.
I have no idea if it is a square or if it is a circle. All I know is that I've had unpredictable and strange results when using a very large radius.

I had a plan to finish mixing the last few tracks and move on to the next project. I'm thinking about making another music video or two for the current tracks I have out. The problem is, as I learn more about the music production process and learn new things I've come to realize just how bad my mixes are. Everytime I learn something new, I take 1 step forward, 2 steps back.
I learned how to generate music using ai, but the song arrangements are terrible. Okay, I know how to arrange music, but the mix sounds terrible and there's all kinds of noise. Okay, I learned how to apply noise reduction and spectral analysis to reduce the noise, but now I reduced too much and parts of the song are gone making it less interesting. Okay, so I learned how to use equalization and manipulate the frequencies, but I didn't account for how it would sound on differernt speakers.
So that's where I am right now. Okay, I improved the mix somewhat, it does sound slightly better on MY speakers, but if you play it on a different setup, like say a cellphone which most people are probably using these days, and it sounds completely different and it's terrible. So now I'm back to square 1. I've come to realize why it takes months for artists to release music after they're done recording because mixing and mastering is a meticulous process that takes a lot of time and concentration. Aside from that, you must be knowledgeable about all aspects of sound frequency and sound reproduction.
Well I'm not going to give up. All that means is that I have more to learn, that's no problem. The downside is that it might take even longer for me to put more music out. But I have a solution. I'm going to take some time to study for a few weeks. In the mean time, I'm going to focus on growing my channels. Since I'm working with AI music, a good portion of what's required to produce music doesn't apply (recording and working with artists/execs) so I can cut down on the learning curve by avoiding all that and focus completely on mixing and mastering.
The solution I have, is in the mean time, I will produce some more Udio songs to fill out "Legends of the Time Dragon" and have that be an Udio album. I may also produce some stray Suno songs that don't belong to any albums yet and put out the unmixed versions for people to listen to. That should keep some fresh content rolling out to keep people interested while I level up my mixing and mastering for a few weeks and continue to work on the next project, which is amazing and I have been wanting to say a few words about it.
So I will close out this blog post with a preview of what my next project is going to be like. I want all the songs to come out at the same time like an actual release, so I might just be a blogger for a little while and just post blogs to all my lurkers about all the awesome music I'm making that nobody gets to listen to.
So here is what I have to say about it. I want to leave a clue but I can't think of anything that's not going to make it obvious. The clue is "origin of darkness", this is the subject of the album. It's going to be a concept album. It's way more focused than my previous work, which was really just a result of experimentation and didn't have much focus. I have 4 songs so far that are 90-95% finished in recomposition. I'm going to say some words about each song for those people who like to read and can maybe visualize things in their mind. 3 of the songs are gothic pop metal similar to "Time Dragon Warrior" and the last song I just made is a heavier metal song that's more numetal hardcore/metalcore vibe. Another note, I'm doing away with the mirrored halfs structure that I used for some of the previous songs and giving them more variety. I plan to have around 15 songs and I'm not sure yet if it will be a mix of Suno and Udio, or if I should make Suno albums and Udio albums exclusively. So far, this album is all Suno.
- song #1 - This song I want to be in the beginning of the album maybe somewhere 2-3. It has kind of a modern sound. I don't listen to modern music so I don't really know but it's kind of gothic pop metal. It's not very heavy but it's very ominous and eerie sounding. I want it to be in the beginning because that's where it sits in regards to the concept I'm working with. It should actually be the first or second based on that but I don't want a pop-ish song to be the opener for the album, or the 2nd track. It's a great song but I want the album to have a heavier overall sound but we shall see. This song has female vocals. Aside from the gothic aspect it also sounds slightly rnb hip hop ish (in comparison) but that's not to say it's rnb or hip hop, far from it, more like tinted.
- song # 2 - This song will probably go somewhere in the middle. This is another of the goth/pop/metal but is a little more dynamic than the previous song, not to say the other song is not dynamic, this one just has a higher range and is a little bit heavier. Aside from the goth/pop sound, the metal aspect is kind of doomy power metalish. The previous song is catchy, but this song is really catchy (and doomy for those who like doom). There is a section that gives me SOAD polka vibes from one of the songs on their self titled, and the next section is grandiose, epic power metal that sounds like angels proclaiming their glory. Then before you get too comfortable with these feelings of power, some really doomy chords to remind you this song is about doom. The song goes back to that glorious sound but now there is some unease because it feels like doom is just lurking. The metal aspect is all power metal. The end is all doom, it's not too heavy or evil but very doomy. Great for people who like playing rpgs I will say that.
-song #3 - This song is going to be close to the end. This is the 3rd of the goth/pop/metal songs and is very poppy but it's super dreamy and eerie sounding. It gives me similar vibes of "Twin Peaks" theme song at times but is a heaver kind of metal song. The metal aspect is like dark, melodic numetal. It's not a heavy song, but it has some crunch similar to a not so heavy Deftones song. The song is kind of beautiful in a way, but also kind of dark and awe inspiring. Of the 3 of these, I would rank them in the reverse order I listed them, with this one being the best. The other songs are great though, but this song is just..wow. Sound wise and concept wise, it's mind blowing. This song has female vocals.
- song #4 - This song will probably be in the beginning. Out of these 4, this one is definitely my favorite and the last song I worked on. This song is actually half of a suno generation, 10% of another and maybe 25% of another song, but it sounds really badass. The style of the song is more numetal metalcore. This is closer to the music I actually want to make. For example, "Embrace the Chaos", "Through Time Dragons", "A World of Broken Dreams" minus the power metal and instead insert "Time Dragon Warrior" and that's maybe my ideal sound. When I heard the songs though, I thought they sounded pretty good though and is an interesting mix of styles I never thought could go together, so I rolled with it.
This song though, not fully close to my vision but it's getting closer. This song is definitely the heaviest so far. It starts off kind of quiet with eerie piano keys, kind of horror sounding, then it kicks it into a slight metalcore chord progression before kicking into a higher gear, which is similar to the fast verses from the previous tracks on self titled. What I really like about this song is how bouncy and aggressive the chorus is. This whole time I've been wanting to make bouncy, heavy songs but I had a hard time getting that in Suno for a while. I just got some ideas for manipulating Suno though, I will have to try those out. I still have enough credits for maybe 100 songs that expire in a few days so I gotta put those to use.
Well yeah, that is it. That's a description of the first 4 songs I have right now for the next project I'm working on. I already know what I'm going to call it and I can visualize what the cover is going to be like. This is going to be a very dark and bleak album, but the sound will have a very wide variety. Until next time when I make another blog post. I hope you all were able to make it this far.
hasta la vista bebe

SABOTAGE?! And it all started out as such a nice idea… A cliche as tall as my ex-roommate’s erection live-blending Kelly Bundy Mike Kelley and Ted Bundy parafernalia wearing blondes to the sound of gekko’s mating in the Amazon. Cut the bullshit! There’s no such thing as a nice idea getting detourné by some smart art postpostsituationist pranker or right-wing gaswhitey flexfrat, no, my dear well-meaning peace dove friends, if an idea can gets turned into its opposite during its execution, it probably was flawed from the start! Sometimes people use Woodstock 99 - the limp dickshit rape and pillage slash and burn disaster edition - as an example of how a great, positive, wonderful, hell, holy idea can turn into the worst kind of evil in the hands of the wrong people. Well, dear naivopino’s, let me inform you: bull-shit! The whole idea of Woodstock, be it ’99, ’94, ’69 or 2219, is just batshit dumbwhat asking for the baddest kind of trouble right from the bat. Or, what? Do you honest-to-dogly think that during the original (I retrovulsely puke into my stomach even using that wretched word) edition of 1969 nothing was burned, stolen, no women were raped? What, just because there were no sperm dna tests, nigh to none options for women to speak up against sexual violence let alone the fact that speaking up against rape during that whole shitshebang of a weak acid trip’s campfire get-together was near to blasphemy in the hippie community means that no women were raped? Because men all of a sudden turned into meek little dickies lambs for three years from 1968 to ’71? Fuck that shit. Please. I don’t even want to spend a single move of a single digit of my old hands having to make anything about that largest circle jerk-off in history clear to you. Read your books. Do your homework. Anyway, that’s what I was thinking about when a friend told me recently about another of those so-called great ideas gone hilariously wrong in a little map smudge of a town in of all fucking places Belgium for chrissakes. Let me admit to you, right here and now, no smirk no smile on my face: I laughed so hard when I heard it I shat my new Calvins. Framed them afterwards, too, in a nice little Nielsen A2 birch. It’s sitting there, stinking the fuck out of my storage, waiting for a good stock market crash to come. Never underestimate the potential of the future art market gold rushes. My shit, my gold, bruv. So, these two clowns of artists in Belgium (are there any other there? don’t get me started on rené ma bite or marcel bread arse here!) had the ammazing idea to get themselves funded by the local government in this hamlet of three houses called Watou which apparently would be part of - ok, stop me here. Not in the history of mankind has ever ended a sentence well which tried to explain any aspect of Belgian politics, topography or whatever the call the thing there where a man rides a horse stark naked and bites the neck of living goose hanging from a tree? (See, that sentence didn’t end well either, did it, what’d I tell you? Cursed stuff!) Let’s try that again: two artists in the Belgian town of Watou had the splendid idea to organize a festive event, in the middle of summer, whereby all the people of this little village (if you’re thinking of blue skinned vikings charging Roman legionnaires in a berry-induced bad trip frenzy, well, so am I) for one day left their houses, dropped the key of their house in a transparant bowl on the town square and all went to the field adjacent to their village to well be (as in: not fornicate) together and thereby, if I had a press release I’d quote this from it: practiced a performative experiment in hospitality and neighborship where no fixed rules are applied. I’m guessing if you’re sensitive like I am to the finer things a life, you might as well start looking for your nearest Nielsen frame too by now, but hey: we haven’t even gotten to the joke yet! This was all the serious stuff. Let me summarise it even more briefly for you, just to get it out of my haemorrhoidical system: Imagine a village. Everyone leaves their house at the same time. Leaves their front door open. Drops the key to said door in a large bowl. Drifts into a field somewhere off to do fripp knows what (no rules applied, but probably: no fornication whatsoever.) Got the mental image? Good. Now get the fuck out of that dream and imagine any sad little teardrop of a town you know. Imagine who lives there. Imagine all the people you know who live in a town, or rather, fuck that, imagine all the people you know. Now imagine that some dogoodydoodydoobywah wants to “bring the people together again” and “mend the social bonds which had been broken by” yaddah yaddah yaddah. Okay? Now imagine the fucking assholes - they might even be you - who get they absolute mostest pleasure out of ruining the naive, well-intentioned ideas of others? You see what I see? The doodygoodoo is a bit all alone on his white ivory hilltowertop, right? All the others apparently prefer to start mayhem, to jinx other people’s efforts, to laugh - loud! - at their friends tripping over their own feet. No? You think in your ‘reality’ people are ‘decent’ and ‘rough diamonds’ or ‘deeper than you’d think they are’? Well, my dear, that paradisiacal odor you’re smelling all around you is the smell of your own shit cause you got your head up your ass! Listen and suffer! Because what happened in our not-just-proverbial Belgian village on that sunny morning in July… a couple of the townspeople - we’ll never know how many but I’m guessing almost everyone except for the government-funded, from-the-city hippie artists was in on the joke - had invited some acquaintances from the town next door to quietly enter the village while everyone was not-fornicating on the idyllic field, to take all the keys from the bowl, lay them on the train tracks which run along the town, flattening them to perfectly unusable little steel flabs and placing them back in the bowl. So when our supposedly resocialised townspeople entered their village that afternoon, ready to get their key, run to their house and close their door for at least the next 364 days, the immediately realised they couldn’t close their doors anymore. Total mayhem ensued. Men started chasing women, people pillaged their neighbours houses, children and adults alike pooped on all toothbrushes they could find, underwear was thrown into compost heaps, compost heaps were thrown into unlawful indoor spas, hundred thousands of untaxed euro piles were find inside old televisions and grandmas paintings. There was no stopping them. Housewifes hung themselves after their portrait, tits out and all, was found hanging above at least three beds in different houses. It was bad. Real bad. By the time news of this feast of anarchy and murder had spread to the nearest villages and the police arrived, the artists had of course long disappeared, no doubt to narrativise their failure into a story of experiment and learning and cash in a couple of fat pay checks.
And you know what the name was the artists had given their beautiful day of harmony and collective connecting: Open Doors Day. They sure got it, their open doors day, they sure got it. Serves them right. Serves them damn right.
peace - out!

I love the idea of Kosmik but the execution isnt quite there yet. I plan on trying it out further but theres a couple of things that get in the way. This is my first impressions review and what i intend as constructive feedback
Usability (testing on windows 10)
Smaller stuff easy to improve (but are creating attrition for me constantly)

• (BUG) For me right-click -> create if i dont navigate correctly to the desired option the sub-menu with the options disapear while the main right-click menu still shows. I need to close the menu and re-open it to try again
• Lack of basic keyboard functionality like shift+arrows for selecting text
• Wich is very weird- on one hand things like text editing are telling me 'this is mouse first', meanwhile i cant drag the canvas with the mouse, only by pressing space...?
• Im constantly confused by the delete key not working, instead only the backspace deletes cards
• Cards can only be resized on their corners
• I expected dragging urls would add then to the canvas and bookmarking being some sort of traditional bookmarks. Took me awhile to figure it out
• Theres a Tag button on the browser, but applying tags to the open browser and later closing the browser dont make that url appear anywhere searching for that tag
• 'Bookmarks'(urls on canvas) for me are failing to show any image or preview beyond the default space station illustration (except for kosmik own website)...
• ...and then the app prevents me from resizing the cards RATIO- i can make the card smaller but i cant make it more of a rectangle or very small, im forced to have a big square repeated ilustration for each, and with no alternative like folding then
• Absent settings for the overall app and smaller features or options- like ui size, custom keyboard shortcuts, dark mode

At least on windows feels a bit undercooked. I dont know wether some of those are design choices or features still missing but i feel the design a bit at odds- in some parts it conveys 'use mouse only/first' in others it demands keyboard, and in the mean time some of the common design patterns both for mouse and keyboard arent used or use some non-tradional choice- making it harder to learn, creating some confusion or wrong expectations.
For example the bookmark icon is a vey tradional and ubiqutuous skeumorphic symbol for a very common feature that saves urls or files in a list, tradionally urls. Some apps get away using then for favorite files, photos or other things given their context so the user can imagine the equivalent in a given context... but here it shows alongside the in-app browser, next to an url... Maybe a different icon, like a card with a Plus sign and a tip 'add to canvas'?
I dont understand why tags are in the browser if apparently they only work with cards added on the canvas. If the intent was treating the open browser as a canvas element then said browser should be like a card (for example being able to open multiple browser windows in different universes) as if they were cards. Right now the browser is like a temporary tool...
If the intention (im trying to deduce here) was to apply tags before bookmarking so the bookmark already apply said tags then both operations would work better together- 1 button, the add-site to canvas, and that button opening up a prompt to add tags before confirming if desired.
Overall- Service, app, marketing
I was a bit misled regarding expectations because of a video/moto 'best browser for research' - so i installed it expecting more of a Browser with a canvas then a canvas with a very limited in-app browser. So i came expecting multiple tabs or adding extensions...
I dont mean to say the app should be like a browser BUT it is a interesting area to improve and turn into its differential, given some of the competition and how most people would be using it alongside a browser anyway
In a general sense my impressions:
From the 'best browser for research' perspective:

• Some missing browser features creates attrition, like quickly switching between 2 sites (tabs or some alternative) or having common used urls quickly acessible (like favorites/bookmarks in a traditional sense)
• For example if i have a site i commonly use or search and wanted to quickly open the app requires we add then to a universe. If i make a universe of 'favorites' they will only open those sites on that particular universe... if i want those common shortcuts elsewhere id have to add then to each and every universe...?
• Given the research goal, existing features like tags and search i was expecting things like bookmarks could have descriptions. I can add a bookmark to a universe then create a text/note explaining it on 1 universe...
• ...but then i cant add that same bookmark and that text and its tags in another universe, unless i made a new repeated bookmark and written the same thing again
• Therefore 2 feature suggestions: (1)some bookmark list or browser, where the bookmarks can also have tags even if they exist globally (2)optional description for bookmarks, that would be acessible if/when theyre added from bookmarks to a canvas
• Some useful features from some browsers or famous extensions are great for research, like saving and reopening sessions...
• ...or searching through your history
• Theres complete obscurity how the app handles logins, cookies... or options for different profiles. We can make different universes, but i see no way of having different profiles/spaces (with different universes each) where one im logged in with my work mail and the other my personal one.

I wonder if the app allowed for pages inside cards (not previews, rendered pages) would be a good alternative for things like tabs
From a general canvas-notation perspective

• Universes even tough created/saved locally are always in sync with the cloud - im one of those people that dont like having sensitive data on clouds because leaks and data theft by hackers exist (and do hit even huge companies). I wouldnt create some of the universes/notes i naturally would take in Kosmik, only more general browsing links and quick notes- unless it had an option for optional local-only universes
• A lot isnt covered in the FAQ and i couldnt find the answers, such as:
• I see no options for exporting universes or its notes in any way
• I could have no sense if images copy-pasted/dragged from the browser are like urls the canvas render (so no file size) or copy-pasted files that hit the cloud space quota- im under the impression theyre all copy-pasted (and i feel like they shouldnt, the app should consider every url as that and render the url)
• I can see nowhere how much space been used, left, etc

I have used waaay too many notes and canvas apps in my search for the apps that filled that niche for me like id like, and heck for years a good app with canvas was my most wanted feature that almost no one was doing save for few clunky flowchart apps.
Im glad that now theres been a boom of options and ive been giving everyone a chance- but still not one have all the things id like (i could pinpoint a frankenstein of features from different apps id wish into one)... Kosmik is already ahead of half of the competition (imo) just by having both a native app and web view options, and by the apps having the files locally+sync instead of rendering from the cloud only all the time (much faster and snappiers wich is a big deal for me) - and the web/browsing+canvas angle is a very interesting proposition
But that is where i got disapointed- the web-browsing in app alongside canvas is still very limited to hit the potential of that proposition. As it is right now, for example, i feel more confortable having any browser in a smaller window and copy-pasting urls into Kosmik then relying fully on the internal browser, save for quick search queries
I focus so much on the browser aspect not only because it was how i first found about kosmik but also because without that angle it falls short on some alternatives. Not completely btw, drawing tools and pdf handling seem to be great and ahead of some alternatives (some are good at drawing but barely beyond that, others better as notes but with terrible or no drawing)...
But i still feel like the 'best app for research' (browser+canvas/notes+pdf), emphasis on the browsing is the best angle, best bet for Kosmik to grow above alternatives... but extra emphasis on potential- i dont feel like its hitting that note quite yet, at least not on windows.
I will try to stick with Kosmik for awhile despite the clunkiness and attriction i feel, but not as id like to use it and more like a buffer between traditional browsing/searching and taking my notes- im planing on inserting Kosmik in between as quick notes for links before later refering to then on notes elsewhere... but i confess im sort of forcing this workflow just to keep using kosmik and keep tabs on updates- im sticking around in the hopes of what may come and not for what it currently is.
I have high hopes for the app and in my case (i lean more towards power user then casual) even if i use other apps a good better version of Kosmik in this niche would fit for me even alongside other apps. Heck i currently use 2 similars in tandem (similar in notes/canvas) for their different strengths and niches- and neither have carved web browsing research as their niche
Anyway, those were my very long 2cents. I hope the feedback is taken positively

I'm new here so happy to remove this post if it contravenes community standards!
Basically the title. With more Korean skincare brands becoming available to global consumers, it's hard to know how well they're received. For example, I recently discovered Dr Althea and Haruharu. I'm not sure how they square up against more well known brands like CosRx. So is there a tier ranking available or how would you tier rank the brands you know of? Regardless of price point, but simply on performance.
For example I have never had a bad thing to say about CosRx or Dr Jart (expect for the price) so this is A tier for me. Innisfree is highly perfumed so has always irritated my skin and TonyMoly seems more focused on packaging than high quality formulations so for me they're D to F tier.
What's are your best / worst / medium brands?

Now I know the title sounds REALLY bad and I just want to say first that I hate EA as much as the next guy and I am not an advocate for their business plans HOWEVER I want to know the problem about EA adding ads into their games and I want to know what problem the common consumer of games feels about EA's business decision (I just want to gather opinions so you can change my mind that's all and I'm not advocating for anything).
I know that EA does a lot of scummy things however the advertisement stuff seems a bit less than I believe. EA has had ads in their games since Battlefield 2, and they were just banner ads you could come across in game and look at and walk past, the same as in 2042 and so on. Companies do need money and this does seem like a good way as it not forceful. It's just like real life ads on buses and in Time Square and in London for example.
I see alot of people complaining about how 2K has ads but ME PERSONALLY (please dont clown me) I dont see a problem as it is part of the 2KTV series and also it is during a loading screen which can be skipped once finished loading so it is not inherently awful. Also they have promotional ads for brands which are cosmetic so that pretty cool too.
Do you people believe banner ads and NON-FORCEFUL ads are ok or is it still scummy
TL;DR Why do you think ads in games are bad, I believe banner ads and ads that you are not forced to watch aren't that bad but I wanna hear your thoughts so you can change my mind.
Please don't clown me lol I just want to have a discussion and hopefully get some conflicting views. And no I'm not a bot made by the EA executives to force you to accept ads into their games.

Eivor is a bit of a strange protagonist.
She’s basically flawless and without blame. She’s brash and bold, proud and unashamed — brave and wise far beyond her years, yet able to be soft and compassionate when not brandishing spears. She’s got a knack for leadership, a strong moral compass and an even stronger muscular system with which to enact justice.
And she’s got bars?
As someone not deeply versed in medieval European histories, imagine my shock and confusion upon discovering that Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla included rap battling.
My first experience with Flyting had me asking so many questions about what I just witnessed that I couldn’t wait to begin Googling. I figured flyting probably was historically accurate, but if that’s the case, then what else can it tells us about the medieval warrior and about Eivor’s characterization?
I set off to find out.
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Wikipedia and howstuffworks combined gave me a robust definition of flyting.
A ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries. Examples of flyting are found throughout Scots, Ancient, Medieval and Modern Celtic, Old English, Middle English and Norse literature involving both historical and mythological figures. The exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of cowardice or sexual perversion.
The idea behind flyting was to influence public opinion of the participants and raise both of their profiles. And each participant wanted to make himself look better than the other, even if they were friendly.
Not only that, but flyting’s also the first recorded use of shit as an insult. That right there is worth this whole essay and then some.
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I came away from those definitions with some small Euphoria, as they reinforce what I already expected from Ubisoft — historically accurate and (arguably) immersive side activities grounded in realism.
Unfortunately, none of the flyting foes that Eivor faces in this fantasy are founded in any real-world flyters. I was particularly frustrated when I realized Fergal the Faceless and Borghild the Alewife’s Bane were fictional features, not real historical fiends of rhythm and rhyme.
Two of Eivor’s syntax competitors are “real” in some sense, however.
In Norse mythos, Odin, Thor, Loki, Freyja and more would handle their Family Matters over a flyte from time to time, dueling wits and words as competition and entertainment.
In fact, one flyte we do see in game — Odin as he flytes over the river with Thor in the Asgard Arc — is likely a reference to a real medieval Norse poem; The Hárbarðsljóð.
In it, Thor jaunts back to Asgard after a journey in Jötunheim. He comes to a junction in which he must jump a large river, and thus hunts down a ferryman to shepherd him across. The ferryman, Hárbarðr, is Odin in disguise. He then begins to diss guys.
Ahem. ‘Guys’ being Thor, obviously.
First, Odin drops a yo-mama joke:

Of thy morning feats art thou proud, but the future thou knowest not wholly; Doleful thine home-coming is: thy mother, me thinks, is dead.

He keeps going, taking more shots than a First Person Shooter, this time saying Thor dresses like a girl:

Three good dwellings methinks, thou hast not; Barefoot thou standest and wearest a beggar’s dress; Not even hose dost thou have.

Thor says watch your mouth before I clap back:

Ill for thee comes thy keenness of tongue, if the water I choose to wade; Louder, I ween, than a wolf thou cryest, if a blow of my hammer thou hast.

Odin replies by saying Thor’s wife is fucking another dude:

Sif has a lover at home, and him shouldst thou meet; More fitting it were on him to put forth thy strength.

The version we play out in game isn’t identical to the real-world poem, but carries some similarities; Thor’s threatening to cross the river to fight Odin as well as his boasting of slaying giants are present in each.
Ratatosk is the only other ‘real’ flyting enemy in Valhalla. While Odin doesn’t flyte with Ratatosk in Norse myth to my knowledge, the flyting against the squirrel is thematically accurate, at least.
Ratatosk’s purpose is to scramble up and down Yggdrasil, scurrying spoken messages from the eagle that sits at its peaks to the snake that slithers at its base. The nature of Ratatosk’s messages is in line with the act of flyting — the mischievous rodent carries falsehoods and aggressive statements to stir up drama and distrust between bird and serpent.
Flyting took place not only in poems and folklore, but in town squares and royal court. It was a facet of medieval life and social interaction. This weaving of prose then, in this time period, seemingly was just about as much of an admired skill as the swinging of a sword. It’s no wonder our unbreakable warrior Eivor is so proficient with word.
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Like, really proficient with word.
I mean, I know it’s me choosing the dialogue options, but sheesh, is there anything she can’t do?
Actually, Eivor’s expertise in flyting is strange to me. It feels random and unearned — out of character, even. It comes more unexpectedly than Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us.
It probably only feels out of character, however, due to our modern understanding of proficiency with words versus proficiency with might. Our current interpretation of verbal ability compared to physical ability would perceive verbal ability as the ‘softer’ of the two skillsets. Physical strength is typically interpreted as tough and more dominant. You don’t expect to see an MMA fighter composing poetry, do you? The qualities that modern thought attributes to writing and physicality don’t mesh.
But in reality — and historically accurately in Valhalla — medieval warriors weren’t just blind berserkers. They were actually artists, poets and writers.
We’ve already demonstrated how Odin and Thor — Norse myth’s most famous warriors — carried out flyting. Thus, medieval Vikings would’ve surely done the same. Beyond Vikings though, the Illiad contains instances of public, ritualized abuse. Taunting songs are present in Inuit culture while Arabic poetry contains a form of flyting called naqa’id. Further, Japanese Samurai were known to be frequent composers of haiku, while Japanese culture also gave birth to Haikai, poetry in which vulgar satire and puns were wielded.
This historical accuracy ends up eliminating the randomness of Eivor’s flyting ability. Despite her verbal finesse feeling unearned, we can surmise historically that Eivor has practiced the wielding of words plenty in her life before we take over as the player. She’s dedicated time to this.
Now that we know why she has it, we can take a closer look at what it does for her.
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So, Eivor can rap. She can match you with her axe or she can match you with her words. She’s just about unbeatable.
Her mastery of words demonstrates on some level that she’s not all Push Ups and might is right. She’s not all bruiser and bluster, burn and berserk. She’s an appreciator of the finer things — the more abstract, mental skills that require brain power, deftness and finesse.
This duality of strength and genius rounds out Eivor into a deeper, richer, more admirable character. More than just raw muscle in pursuit of glory, Eivor’s mastery of verse demonstrates her prioritizing not just her body, but her mind.
And it goes a long way for her.
Eivor can use her prowess with prose to progress past pointless plot points throughout Valhalla’s plethora of arcs and missions. It’s just a stat check in the end, but with enough practice flyting and enough charisma gained, Eivor unlocks new dialogue options that bend the world around her to her will.
Witch hunters in Eurvicscire on the brink of terrorizing Moira can be dispersed verbally rather than brawled or killed. There’s an entire riddle-solving fetch quest in Wincestre that can be skipped completely by telling King Aelfred’s abbot fuck off (figuratively). Eivor’s sharpening of her mind protects her body, saves her time, and allows her to frictionlessly fell her endeavors.
Her articulate advances don’t just alter her into admirability, they allow her to influence people and progression. With semantics from her mouth and twists from her tongue, Eivor can have her way whenever she wishes. In a game this large, I’m only left longing that the opportunity to make use of this charisma wasn’t relegated to niches.
Regardless, if medieval England is butter, Eivor’s tongue is the hot knife that behooves her move through her subduing more smoothly.
It all just goes to show that ̶m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ flyte is right.

Set between the end and the imminent post-war Godzilla represented the horrors of this. A war that persists, the catastrophes it entails are alive among the people. There are many beautiful images of destroyed Tokyo and its progressive reconstruction, moving forward, trying to start again but the protagonist Koichi is unable to do so because he lives with ghosts and torments, he has not fulfilled his """"duty"""" of kamikaze, he fled, just as he hesitates and trembles before the first appearance of Godzilla. The human sector is one of the film's strong points, especially because in films of this type it is often its weak point, the war has never ended for Koichi so he is unable to fully enjoy the opportunity of a new life with Noriko to little Akiku. These dynamics could perhaps have been more in-depth, Koichi's internal torment is often told more, however nothing serious especially for a film of this type. There is a lot of Spielberg in Yamazaki's direction, Godzilla's first appearance is reminiscent of Jurassic Park, subjectively I would have liked more construction in Big G's appearance but the effect is to show him directly; in the end the references to Jaws are evident. The destruction of Tokyo by Godzilla works very well with well-constructed dynamics and shots, the one of the train very good as well as the preparation and launch of the kaiju's atomic ray with the subsequent effects. For the budget available the work is very good, the performance of Godzilla is exemplary, the military vehicles may not have a not so perfect performance but never anything so bad for the eyes, the work on the effects is in fact very spot on. As in Honda's film, in Minus One Godzilla embodies desperation and his attacks are aimed at signs of human progress, both technological and lifestyle, such as the iconic train, the theater and the radio station. However, the kaiju will have no qualms about destroying everything. In the mythology not only of Godzillian but also of Japanese, water is very important and it is from here that everything is born, the film in fact begins with water and the color blue is almost always present, the photography always inserts objects or elements that recall the aquatic color even in the interiors of houses and exteriors. Even moments of rain are therefore significant. The destruction of Tokyo and the resulting effects, which are very human and personal for the protagonist, just when he had just laid himself bare with Noriko, therefore perhaps accepting to really live, is the turning point towards a personal revenge against the kaiju. Even though Koichi and Noriko are ashamed of it, they are two survivors of the war, the film emphasizes how orders from above cause death, planes without the possibility of evacuation, kamikazes, war is something imposed from above , by governments. Minus One, unlike many other films about Godzilla, does not show the government's choices in the foreground, the citizens suffer them, the anti-Godzilla cry is in fact a free voluntary action of the population. The logic of dying for the country is rejected but instead one must live and survive to build the future. Therefore the point of view of the story is framed by Koichi and the citizens who have recently seen the war and relive those horrors through Godzilla, there are no torments of Yamane or Serizawa from Honda's film, no one questions whether Godzilla could be studied, there isn't even a scientific etymology of the kaiju, the population is interested in moving forward and the volunteers want to kill the monster for this. The film is very square and also linear, so in the ending, instead of aiming for presumed twists, it would have been better to focus on Koichi's character, involving the viewer in the moment of the definitive choice that completes his narrative arc. In fact, Koichi is dragged into an existence of war, the dream of a possible life with Noriko and Akiku opposed by his revenge and torments. Certainly with a bigger budget the ship sequence in the finale would have been more impactful, but Godzilla works great in the film, his moments are effective both in the destruction of Tokyo and in the sequences at sea. So even the clash at the end with the iconic soundtrack is very good. There is clearly a strong reference to Dunkirk both purely scenic but also for the spirit of free action of citizens, becoming volunteers, it is a film that focuses on the concept of spontaneous organization without the need for government bodies which instead brought death and war .Yamazaki, in addition to Spielberg, also mentions Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah from 2021, the director himself made it explicit, the underwater scenario and Koichi's action in the finale are examples. Most likely Minus One will be the progenitor for a new Japanese saga, I am very happy about it, in conclusion, the film has a well-described human aspect, yes, at times perhaps more told than experienced but in any case the drama is very present as is the destruction and the desperation that war brings, also represented by Godzilla himself; the kaiju works great, his presence is well exploited if in a Godzilla film, this works the film is spot on and successful. Beautiful.

I had a job interview yesterday. Frustrating would be an understatement. I did a week's worth of work to prepare for this interview. I'm currently a nursing assistant and trying to get out of that field due to burnout. I was applying for an insurance sales job.
While that is still a very customer involved role, it's one where I'm less likely to be micromanaged, there is less company hierarchyhy, less stimulation chaos, and more room to eventually take my education and go do my own thing.
Also, it's a job where my current skills align well, but I can switch to a different career completely. Anyway, I dressed up, got there early, prepared research about the company, asked questions to ask, and presented myself in a professional manner, etc. I didn't even overly mask because I realize sometimes I do that, and it's a bad thing, and people can tell it's fake, and it's off-putting. I was myself but professional.
Immediately, I could tell the guy was not interested in interviewing me. He pulled up me resume and asked me a Q, when I would answer and attempt to make eye contact he would took at traffic outside, or fiddle w his phone and interrupted me saying "sorry traffic is really backing up out there". I was like, "wtf!" In my head. It made it so hard to concentrate on the answers I was attempting to give and staying professional.
Then he went on to talk about how he was looking for a certain right fit, and he didn't want to try to fit a "square peg in round holes" analogy for his team. When I asked him to clarify what a right fit for his team would look like, he couldn't give me a good answer. We talked about how my skills could transfer from healthcare to insurance, and I assured him I had very effective communication skills and was very efficient at deescalating people during times of conflict.
I also talked about when I worked in marketing. He didn't care and dismissed it, saying it wasn't the same. I asked him to give me an example of how it would be handled differently in insurance with an angry customer. He did (somewhat), and I told him "so pretty much effective communication.... active listening, empathy for the customer, problem solving, and escalating the issue higher if needed? Yeah, that's exactly what we do in healthcare. Also, by the end of the interview, I was just done and ready to run out of there.
But I can't help but feel like my feelings are hurt. Idk what I didn't wrong. Idk if it's because I'm older, im not a stereotypical southern blonde belle. My teeth are a little crooked, and maybe I said something wonky, idk. I wouldn't want to work for him anyway he seems like a judgmental 🍑. But I'd like to know what I didn't wrong lmao.

I am still pretty sure that I had learned at the time that with absolute values, you can’t color the surfaces differently. This is different for relative values that are related to the area. For example, number of inhabitants per square kilometer.
The background is that I see more and more often cards that have colored surfaces and refer to absolute values.
Is that true? Are there different rules in the countries?