Hi all. I’m not too good with structure of long posts and I have a lot of details to get across so forgive the probably sloppily written paragraphs.
Basically, we have been together for almost 10 months, which I know is probably not a lot for some of you. In my personal life I have struggled with motivation, ideas and productivity (rarely going out, not doing nice fun stuff, etc). I thought that if I bettered myself enough to have a girlfriend I’d be much better off, and that I was. I didn’t at all get a GF just for that reason. We merely fell for each other because we were hanging out a lot, spending a lot of time together and both had immensely similar personalities and interests.
It was perfect, the way we clicked when we first got together. Me driving us places, going on so many adventures. I feel like the “new” sensation of the relationship has worn off, meaning that these days we’re a lot more comfortable with each other? So each others presence isn’t as exciting?
Fast forwarding all this time, when I take a step back to look at what we’ve done for 10 months, I/we find that there are a lot of times where we don’t do anything and often sit at home, gaming or sleeping, and it really brings us down.
Recently she told me we should start taking more time apart, as in a couple days of the week (we are together almost everyday currently), as this will motivate us more and make us more excited to do new things.
To summarise the way I feel, I just feel like we’re both sort of zombies in each others presence, and I really struggle to suggest things or take us places. It is extremely worrying to me, as I can’t imagine us drifting apart. I can’t explain how perfect it was back in the summer we got together. The first kiss, the first sleepover, the pictures where we were both so happy.
Don’t get me wrong, we still love each other so much, and make plans for the future. I just feel like lately, especially with my busy life at the moment. (money/job struggles, exams, car crap)
Is this “bad”? Is this at all something to worry about? Is time apart the right decision? How do we reignite the flame? (Not that I would ever suggest it’s gone. We still have arguably the best laughs with each other).
Thank you
TLDR: how can a couple struggling with motivation after 10 months bring back the excitement of going on adventures together?

I'm going crazy! LoL refuses to start the game (the process doesnt show up in task manager either) and only gives me the possibility to reconnect, but nothing happens. I cant even spectate other games. I've reinstalled the game twice, reinstalled the graphics drivers, enabled TPM in bios, triple checked the registry and so on... I use my computer for music production too so reinstalling windows aint an option cause of the hundreds of plugins... any ideas?

I've bene trying to troubleshoot BSOD errors for a friend and I've been trying to isolate the issue from the minidump files using WinDbg. The motherboard had already been replaced through warranty due to similar networking issues, however the NETIO BSOD has returned.
Previously to the new motherboard I had done numerous things including a Reset then USB reinstall of Windows.
Troubleshooting thus far post-new motherboard:
SFC /Scannow
System Restore
As indicated by Research- uninstalled AVG VPN, Auto Driver Updater
Programs in use:
AVG, Zone Alarm
As it has returned it would seem to indicate that a security program is at fault or, perhaps, there is some 'toe stepping' on memory access. Most recent research as also indicated a uninstall reinstall of NIC drivers. I don't often go Dmp diving. I hope someone with more experience in this area can assist in locating the culprit for the NETIO. I hope its something glaring that I'm just missing. If possible could the reading for the solution be explained so I have a better idea of how to procced in the future in these instances. Thank you for your time and efforts.
DMP File

************* Preparing the environment for Debugger Extensions Gallery repositories ************** ExtensionRepository : Implicit UseExperimentalFeatureForNugetShare : true AllowNugetExeUpdate : true NonInteractiveNuget : true AllowNugetMSCredentialProviderInstall : true AllowParallelInitializationOfLocalRepositories : true EnableRedirectToV8JsProvider : false -- Configuring repositories -- Repository : LocalInstalled, Enabled: true -- Repository : UserExtensions, Enabled: true >>>>>>>>>>>>> Preparing the environment for Debugger Extensions Gallery repositories completed, duration 0.000 seconds ************* Waiting for Debugger Extensions Gallery to Initialize ************** >>>>>>>>>>>>> Waiting for Debugger Extensions Gallery to Initialize completed, duration 0.063 seconds -- Repository : UserExtensions, Enabled: true, Packages count: 0 -- Repository : LocalInstalled, Enabled: true, Packages count: 41 Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 10.0.27553.1004 AMD64 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Loading Dump File [C:\Users\user\Documents\MiniDump\050624-11437-01.dmp] Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available Symbol search path is: srv* Executable search path is: Windows 10 Kernel Version 22621 MP (20 procs) Free x64 Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS Personal Kernel base = 0xfffff804`77c00000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0xfffff804`78813110 Debug session time: Mon May 6 15:04:25.709 2024 (UTC - 4:00) System Uptime: 0 days 0:08:21.315 Loading Kernel Symbols ............................................................... ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ............... Loading User Symbols Loading unloaded module list ............. For analysis of this file, run !analyze -v nt!KeBugCheckEx: fffff804`780183e0 48894c2408 mov qword ptr [rsp+8],rcx ss:0018:ffffed8c`3e102600=000000000000000a 0: kd> !analyze -v ******************************************************************************* * * * Bugcheck Analysis * * * ******************************************************************************* DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1) An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high. This is usually caused by drivers using improper addresses. If kernel debugger is available get stack backtrace. Arguments: Arg1: 0000000000000008, memory referenced Arg2: 0000000000000002, IRQL Arg3: 0000000000000000, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation Arg4: fffff8047b3dc4e4, address which referenced memory Debugging Details: ------------------ *** WARNING: Check Image - Checksum mismatch - Dump: 0x210d9b, File: 0x210e8b - C:\ProgramData\Dbg\sym\BTHport.sys\FE108757203000\BTHport.sys KEY_VALUES_STRING: 1 Key : Analysis.CPU.mSec Value: 3702 Key : Analysis.Elapsed.mSec Value: 9123 Key : Analysis.IO.Other.Mb Value: 7 Key : Analysis.IO.Read.Mb Value: 0 Key : Analysis.IO.Write.Mb Value: 46 Key : Analysis.Init.CPU.mSec Value: 1249 Key : Analysis.Init.Elapsed.mSec Value: 27369 Key : Analysis.Memory.CommitPeak.Mb Value: 127 Key : Bugcheck.Code.LegacyAPI Value: 0xd1 Key : Bugcheck.Code.TargetModel Value: 0xd1 Key : Dump.Attributes.AsUlong Value: 1008 Key : Dump.Attributes.DiagDataWrittenToHeader Value: 1 Key : Dump.Attributes.ErrorCode Value: 0 Key : Dump.Attributes.KernelGeneratedTriageDump Value: 1 Key : Dump.Attributes.LastLine Value: Dump completed successfully. Key : Dump.Attributes.ProgressPercentage Value: 0 Key : Failure.Bucket Value: AV_NETIO!StreamInvokeCalloutAndNormalizeAction Key : Failure.Hash Value: {c2ca2d1f-cfdc-88d5-c7bc-7693b8f0de04} BUGCHECK_CODE: d1 BUGCHECK_P1: 8 BUGCHECK_P2: 2 BUGCHECK_P3: 0 BUGCHECK_P4: fffff8047b3dc4e4 FILE_IN_CAB: 050624-11437-01.dmp DUMP_FILE_ATTRIBUTES: 0x1008 Kernel Generated Triage Dump READ_ADDRESS: fffff8047891c4a8: Unable to get MiVisibleState Unable to get NonPagedPoolStart Unable to get NonPagedPoolEnd Unable to get PagedPoolStart Unable to get PagedPoolEnd unable to get nt!MmSpecialPagesInUse 0000000000000008 BLACKBOXBSD: 1 (!blackboxbsd) BLACKBOXNTFS: 1 (!blackboxntfs) BLACKBOXPNP: 1 (!blackboxpnp) BLACKBOXWINLOGON: 1 CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1 PROCESS_NAME: System TRAP_FRAME: ffffed8c3e102740 -- (.trap 0xffffed8c3e102740) NOTE: The trap frame does not contain all registers. Some register values may be zeroed or incorrect. rax=0000000000000000 rbx=0000000000000000 rcx=ffffed8c3e102a48 rdx=ffffa48d658e3010 rsi=0000000000000000 rdi=0000000000000000 rip=fffff8047b3dc4e4 rsp=ffffed8c3e1028d0 rbp=ffffed8c3e102949 r8=ffffa48d658e3010 r9=0000000000001608 r10=ffffa48d61817c70 r11=0000000000000000 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000 r14=0000000000000000 r15=0000000000000000 iopl=0 nv up ei pl zr na po nc NETIO!StreamInvokeCalloutAndNormalizeAction+0x5c: fffff804`7b3dc4e4 488b4808 mov rcx,qword ptr [rax+8] ds:00000000`00000008=???????????????? Resetting default scope STACK_TEXT: ffffed8c`3e1025f8 fffff804`7802e269 : 00000000`0000000a 00000000`00000008 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeBugCheckEx ffffed8c`3e102600 fffff804`78029705 : 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 fffff804`92fd6f78 fffff804`7b7f4e02 : nt!KiBugCheckDispatch+0x69 ffffed8c`3e102740 fffff804`7b3dc4e4 : ffffed8c`3e102a10 ffffa48d`658e3010 ffffed8c`3e102a10 ffffa48d`658e3010 : nt!KiPageFault+0x485 ffffed8c`3e1028d0 fffff804`7b3dbd8b : ffffa48d`658e3010 ffffa48d`658e3010 ffffa48d`61817c01 00000000`00000000 : NETIO!StreamInvokeCalloutAndNormalizeAction+0x5c ffffed8c`3e1029a0 fffff804`7b3d992b : ffffa48d`4ade0014 fffff804`92fc29e0 ffffa48d`00000001 ffffed8c`3e103338 : NETIO!StreamProcessCallout+0x2c7 ffffed8c`3e102ad0 fffff804`7b3d89dd : ffffa48d`5ddd0014 ffffed8c`3e103338 ffffed8c`3e103360 ffffed8c`3e1031e0 : NETIO!ProcessCallout+0xa4b ffffed8c`3e102c50 fffff804`7b3d76ee : 00000000`00000005 ffffed8c`3e103360 ffffa48d`4b3e4aa0 fffff804`77f2f8f4 : NETIO!ArbitrateAndEnforce+0x59d ffffed8c`3e102d80 fffff804`7b3d51d5 : 00000000`00000001 ffffed8c`3e103280 ffffa48d`5f8f9c10 ffffed8c`00000000 : NETIO!KfdClassify+0x33e ffffed8c`3e103130 fffff804`7b3d4dd8 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00003780 ffffa48d`45010000 : NETIO!StreamClassify+0x279 ffffed8c`3e1032d0 fffff804`7b3d4a47 : 00000000`00000000 fffff804`77f2e801 ffffa48d`5ad7c480 00000000`00000000 : NETIO!StreamCommonInspect+0x2ac ffffed8c`3e1036c0 fffff804`7b50bec1 : ffffa48d`60849900 ffffa48d`60849b50 ffffed8c`3e103840 ffffa48d`60849920 : NETIO!WfpStreamInspectReceive+0x157 ffffed8c`3e103740 fffff804`7b50a39e : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : tcpip!TcpTcbFastDatagram+0x1351 ffffed8c`3e103940 fffff804`7b5067c9 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : tcpip!TcpTcbReceive+0x29e ffffed8c`3e103ae0 fffff804`7b5057bf : 00000000`e0c65211 00000000`00000018 00000000`423f8f4a ffffa48d`4ca36520 : tcpip!TcpMatchReceive+0x519 ffffed8c`3e103cb0 fffff804`7b4d4066 : ffffa48d`4bbfed10 ffffb500`f007bb01 00000000`00000001 ffffa48d`5c1fbdc7 : tcpip!TcpReceive+0x35f ffffed8c`3e103dc0 fffff804`7b52d206 : 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`5bbda600 ffffed8c`00000014 ffffa48d`4ca36520 : tcpip!TcpNlClientReceiveDatagrams+0x16 ffffed8c`3e103df0 fffff804`7b52cff9 : 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`00000006 ffffa48d`4ca36000 ffffed8c`3e103f40 : tcpip!IppProcessDeliverList+0xb6 ffffed8c`3e103ee0 fffff804`7b52bcc2 : fffff804`7b6d39d0 ffffa48d`4c9058a0 ffffa48d`4ca36000 ffffed8c`3e104020 : tcpip!IppReceiveHeaderBatch+0x3a9 ffffed8c`3e103fd0 fffff804`7b56b046 : ffffa48d`5b3196f0 ffffa48d`5eff94d0 00000000`00000001 ffffa48d`00000000 : tcpip!IppReceivePackets+0x502 ffffed8c`3e104100 fffff804`7b4c238b : ffffa48d`5b3196f0 ffffa48d`5eff94d0 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : tcpip!IpFlcReceivePreValidatedPackets+0x11c6 ffffed8c`3e104290 fffff804`77e294da : 00000000`00000000 fffff804`7b4c2240 ffffa48d`4b3e20f4 00000000`00000002 : tcpip!FlReceiveNetBufferListChainCalloutRoutine+0x14b ffffed8c`3e1043e0 fffff804`77e2944d : fffff804`7b4c2240 ffffed8c`3e104528 ffffa48d`489fcd50 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeExpandKernelStackAndCalloutInternal+0x7a ffffed8c`3e104450 fffff804`7b4cac60 : ffffed8c`3e104590 ffffa48d`5effd440 ffffa48d`5beaa010 ffffed8c`3e1045a0 : nt!KeExpandKernelStackAndCalloutEx+0x1d ffffed8c`3e104490 fffff804`7b2426e1 : 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000015 ffffb500`f008c066 : tcpip!FlReceiveNetBufferListChain+0x530 ffffed8c`3e104770 fffff804`7b2420fa : ffffa48d`5a0c78b0 ffffa48d`00000801 ffffa48d`00000000 00000000`00000015 : ndis!ndisMIndicateNetBufferListsToOpen+0x141 ffffed8c`3e104850 fffff804`7b2665b5 : ffffa48d`50e0a1a0 ffffa48d`00000000 ffffa48d`00000000 ffffa48d`50e0a1a0 : ndis!ndisMTopReceiveNetBufferLists+0x24a ffffed8c`3e104930 fffff804`7b266023 : 00000000`00000000 ffffed8c`3e104a20 fffff804`7b241eb0 fffffff6`00000002 : ndis!ndisCallReceiveHandler+0xb9 ffffed8c`3e104980 fffff804`7b2663db : fffff804`e178a4c0 fffff804`7b26f7c2 ffffa48d`60602d00 ffffa48d`5effe0f0 : ndis!ndisCallNextDatapathHandler<2,void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,void (__cdecl*& __ptr64)(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long),void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64 & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64>+0x3f ffffed8c`3e1049d0 fffff804`7b266112 : ffffa48d`50e0a1a0 fffff804`7b241eb0 ffffa48d`50e0a1a0 ffffed8c`00000001 : ndis!ndisIterativeDPInvokeHandlerOnTracker<2,void __cdecl(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long)>+0x8b ffffed8c`3e104a40 fffff804`7b26667a : ffffa48d`5bec05a0 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`5eff94d0 : ndis!ndisInvokeIterativeDatapath<2,void __cdecl(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long)>+0xe2 ffffed8c`3e104ab0 fffff804`7b268f7b : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`5eff94d0 fffff804`7b2332ed : ndis!ndisInvokeNextReceiveHandler+0xa6 ffffed8c`3e104b10 fffff804`e1781279 : ffffa48d`00000001 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`00000000 fffff804`00000015 : ndis!NdisFIndicateReceiveNetBufferLists+0x348fb ffffed8c`3e104bc0 fffff804`7b2665b5 : 00000000`00000001 ffffa48d`5bebb028 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000015 : nwifi!Pt6Receive+0x159 ffffed8c`3e104c80 fffff804`7b266023 : 00000000`00005db8 ffffed8c`3e104da0 00000000`00000000 fffff804`77e296d5 : ndis!ndisCallReceiveHandler+0xb9 ffffed8c`3e104cd0 fffff804`7b26cf4a : ffffed8c`3e104db8 00000001`3e01bb01 00000000`0000bbc7 ffffa48d`4c94699c : ndis!ndisCallNextDatapathHandler<2,void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,void (__cdecl*& __ptr64)(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long),void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64 & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64>+0x3f ffffed8c`3e104d20 fffff804`7b2666af : ffffa48d`627f1030 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000015 00000000`00000000 : ndis!ndisExpandDataPathStack<2,void __cdecl(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long)>+0xae ffffed8c`3e104dc0 fffff804`7b268f7b : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`627f1030 fffff804`77e27e21 : ndis!ndisInvokeNextReceiveHandler+0xdb ffffed8c`3e104e20 fffff804`95165ffb : ffffa48d`5be7e800 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff804`00000015 : ndis!NdisFIndicateReceiveNetBufferLists+0x348fb ffffed8c`3e104ed0 fffff804`7b2665b5 : ffffa48d`5bec1ba0 fffff804`95165f20 ffffa48d`5bebb010 ffffed8c`3e105108 : vwififlt!FilterReceiveNetBufferLists+0xdb ffffed8c`3e104f30 fffff804`7b266023 : 00000000`00006068 ffffed8c`3e105050 00000000`00000000 fffff804`77e296d5 : ndis!ndisCallReceiveHandler+0xb9 ffffed8c`3e104f80 fffff804`7b26cf4a : ffffed8c`3e105068 00000000`00000000 ffffed8c`3e1050c0 ffffed8c`3e105110 : ndis!ndisCallNextDatapathHandler<2,void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,void (__cdecl*& __ptr64)(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long),void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64 & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64>+0x3f ffffed8c`3e104fd0 fffff804`7b2666af : ffffa48d`627f1030 fffff804`00000000 00000000`00000015 00000000`00000000 : ndis!ndisExpandDataPathStack<2,void __cdecl(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long)>+0xae ffffed8c`3e105070 fffff804`7b268f7b : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`627f1030 00000000`00000000 : ndis!ndisInvokeNextReceiveHandler+0xdb ffffed8c`3e1050d0 fffff804`7b8812dc : ffffa48d`5be85b00 ffffed8c`3e1051e1 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000015 : ndis!NdisFIndicateReceiveNetBufferLists+0x348fb ffffed8c`3e105180 fffff804`7b2665b5 : 00000000`00000015 ffffa48d`627f1030 ffffa48d`627f1030 00000000`00000001 : wfplwfs!LwfLowerRecvNetBufferLists+0x14c ffffed8c`3e105240 fffff804`7b266023 : 00000000`00006378 ffffed8c`3e105360 00000000`00000000 fffff804`77e296d5 : ndis!ndisCallReceiveHandler+0xb9 ffffed8c`3e105290 fffff804`7b26cf4a : ffffed8c`3e105378 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : ndis!ndisCallNextDatapathHandler<2,void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,void (__cdecl*& __ptr64)(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long),void * __ptr64 & __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64 & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64,unsigned long & __ptr64>+0x3f ffffed8c`3e1052e0 fffff804`7b2666af : ffffa48d`627f1030 00000000`00000000 ffffa48d`00000015 00000000`00000000 : ndis!ndisExpandDataPathStack<2,void __cdecl(void * __ptr64,_NET_BUFFER_LIST * __ptr64,unsigned long,unsigned long,unsigned long)>+0xae ffffed8c`3e105380 fffff804`7b243766 : 00000000`00007d54 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : ndis!ndisInvokeNextReceiveHandler+0xdb ffffed8c`3e1053e0 fffff804`be1ac94d : 00000000`00000002 ffffa48d`53912820 ffffed8c`3e105570 00000000`00000015 : ndis!NdisMIndicateReceiveNetBufferLists+0x116 ffffed8c`3e105470 fffff804`be1abf9e : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : wdiwifi!CPort::IndicateFrames+0xad ffffed8c`3e1055b0 fffff804`be1ab417 : 0000003f`00020000 ffffed8c`3e105748 fffff804`be28f040 00000000`00000000 : wdiwifi!CRxMgr::RxProcessAndIndicateNblChain+0x41e ffffed8c`3e1056e0 fffff804`be1ab268 : ffffa48d`627f1030 00000000`00000003 00000000`00000002 fffff804`abc0bb34 : wdiwifi!CRxMgr::RxInOrderDataInd+0x127 ffffed8c`3e105790 fffff804`abc4d682 : ffffa48d`53165440 ffffa48d`53165440 00000000`00000001 ffffa48d`4fe98610 : wdiwifi!AdapterRxInorderDataInd+0x88 ffffed8c`3e1057e0 ffffa48d`53165440 : ffffa48d`53165440 00000000`00000001 ffffa48d`4fe98610 ffffed8c`3e105828 : Netwtw14+0x4d682 ffffed8c`3e1057e8 ffffa48d`53165440 : 00000000`00000001 ffffa48d`4fe98610 ffffed8c`3e105828 ffffed8c`3e105820 : 0xffffa48d`53165440 ffffed8c`3e1057f0 00000000`00000001 : ffffa48d`4fe98610 ffffed8c`3e105828 ffffed8c`3e105820 00000000`00000004 : 0xffffa48d`53165440 ffffed8c`3e1057f8 ffffa48d`4fe98610 : ffffed8c`3e105828 ffffed8c`3e105820 00000000`00000004 00000000`00000002 : 0x1 ffffed8c`3e105800 ffffed8c`3e105828 : ffffed8c`3e105820 00000000`00000004 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 : 0xffffa48d`4fe98610 ffffed8c`3e105808 ffffed8c`3e105820 : 00000000`00000004 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 fffffffe`ffffffff : 0xffffed8c`3e105828 ffffed8c`3e105810 00000000`00000004 : 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 fffffffe`ffffffff ffff0593`979f21db : 0xffffed8c`3e105820 ffffed8c`3e105818 00000000`00000002 : 00000000`00000000 fffffffe`ffffffff ffff0593`979f21db ffffa48d`4b3e2080 : 0x4 ffffed8c`3e105820 00000000`00000000 : fffffffe`ffffffff ffff0593`979f21db ffffa48d`4b3e2080 ffffa48d`4c888040 : 0x2 SYMBOL_NAME: NETIO!StreamInvokeCalloutAndNormalizeAction+5c MODULE_NAME: NETIO IMAGE_NAME: NETIO.SYS IMAGE_VERSION: 10.0.22621.3575 STACK_COMMAND: .cxr; .ecxr ; kb BUCKET_ID_FUNC_OFFSET: 5c FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: AV_NETIO!StreamInvokeCalloutAndNormalizeAction OSPLATFORM_TYPE: x64 OSNAME: Windows 10 FAILURE_ID_HASH: {c2ca2d1f-cfdc-88d5-c7bc-7693b8f0de04} Followup: MachineOwner --------- 

Every year I’m confronted with the decision of whether to talk about the Met Gala. And it can be a tough decision if I’m being totally honest - on one hand, it’s always easy to point and laugh at rich Leftists wearing weird costumes and making fools out of themselves; on the other hand, it’s gotten way too easy to do that, and as far as celebrity freak shows go, the Met Gala is sort of like the Oscars at this point: its supposed “unpredictability” is now cliche, its zaniness is now boring. Unless mayhem breaks out—say, like an actor slaps the presenter live on-stage or something like that—then the truth is that no one really cares about any of these events anymore - in fact, I’m still not even sure what the Met Gala is. All I know is that the celebrities dress strangely and then go into I guess a big museum. What do they do inside the museum? Is there some kind of award ceremony? Is it a dance? Is it like celebrity prom or something? Do they sacrifice a live goat and drink its blood while chanting satanic curses? Is it some combination of these things? Nobody knows for sure. And most of all, nobody cares.
But fortunately, something interesting did happen at the Met Gala last week, or at least outside of it. Mobs of pro-Palestine demonstrators, apparently bored of their tent cities on college campuses, slowly marched through Manhattan towards the Met, and when they arrived, they tore down the police barricades and flooded the street.
Just for fun, here’s Lizzo dressed like something that you might find inside an unflushed toilet at Panda Express, and that’s what she wore to the Met Gala while riots raged outside in a clash of poor commies versus rich commies, as Peachy Keenan put it. These riots should also bring to mind I think some immediate logistical considerations that the Democratic Party now has to think about - for one thing, it’s safe to say that planning for the Democratic National Convention is going through some last-minute revisions right about now. Just imagine being in charge of security for the DNC; you’re gonna need bigger barricades than they had at the Met, and probably a lot more cops.
But more barricades and cops aren’t gonna fix the underlying problem that the Democratic Party has created here. There’s now a full-on uprising on the Left against the elitism that Democrats have long embraced - and the media is getting involved, too. Yahoo, for example, has already turned on the Met Gala; they just published a piece declaring, “The Met Gala’s Opulence Is Always Gross. This Year, It’s Obscene.”
Now, the whole article is a rant that hits a crescendo with this paragraph, which is probably the single-longest run-on sentence I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Here it is, this whole thing is one sentence, just so you know:

Even in an era filled with the horrors of late-stage capitalism run amok—bipartisan support for genocide; rolling back of reproductive, civil, and voting rights; a threadbare social safety net; decades of wage stagnation; tax cuts for the the rich; the crushing of unions and labor rights; expansion of the militarized police surveillance state; creeping techno-authoritarianism; untested, unregulated, and unchecked A.I.; entrenched racial inequality and injustice; right-wing and white supremacist extremist violence; and Boeing jet parts falling from the sky like so many dead whistleblowers—that kind of frivolous urgency promises that this year’s event nonetheless will stand out as a vainglorious display of self-congratulatory decadence and tone-deaf extravagance.

Now, first of all, just as a stylistic matter, if you’re going to make a sentence that long, it needs to be coherent. And “Boeing jet parts are falling from the sky like so many dead whistleblowers?” That doesn’t even make sense; the dead whistleblowers didn’t fall from the sky. I mean, they’re not being pushed out planes. One of them shot himself allegedly and the other died of an illness. Now, even if you subscribe to the theory that Boeing’s hitmen killed these whistleblowers—which, who knows, maybe they did—the fact remains that they didn’t fall from the sky. They died on the ground, so the metaphor just doesn’t work. And this is the problem you get into with 100-word sentences: eventually, you just lose track of what you’re saying.
In any event, that whole massive paragraph could be summed up as saying, “We’re living through late-stage capitalism right now.” That’s what the Left-wing media is saying. That’s the way that they are framing this, and of course, “late-stage capitalism” is one of their favorite phrases to use these days. And they used to celebrate the Met Gala, but not anymore. Now they’re saying the same thing the demonstrators are, which is that the frivolous elite are partying while Rome burns—which they are, of course—and they’re furious about it, or pretending to be.
Now, what the media and these demonstrators don’t want to admit is that the elitists at this gala—all the celebrities who are dressed like slutty Star Wars villains and so on—are on their team. The celebrities are part of the ruling class, the protesters and media critics are its products and in some cases quite literally its offspring. Now, to be sure, the celebrities and college administrators and the politicians are reluctant to acknowledge that their own Frankenstein monster is turning against them, but that’s exactly what’s happening.
Remember that it was two years ago that AOC showed up to the Met Gala with a “Tax the Rich” gown. There were a bunch of sympathetic news stories highlighting her bravery at the time, and here’s how AOC justified showing up to an event that costs $300,000 per table while equipped with a custom dress, handbag, shoes and jewelry costing more than $2,000.

REPORTER: “You know this dress has a message for this Met Gala, tell me about what that is.”
AOC: “You know, I made a message, it says ’Tax the Rich’ right there, uh, it’s really about having a real conversation about fairness and equity in our system, and I think that this conversation is particularly relevant as we debate over budget and reconciliation down. What we’re talking about, providing working families with child care, healthcare, and meeting the climate crisis [unintelligible]* it deserves. … I think that ultimately, you know, we’re at a very critical point. I think there are some folks who are starting to really understand that this is a very critical conversation for us to be having right now. Other folks have invested interest in not having that conversation, but our point is to keep organizing and keep it going.”*

It’s a really important conversation, AOC says, some people aren’t ready to hear it, but we need to punish rich people, we need to make them as uncomfortable as possible, we need to take their money, and that was the message from AOC, who not incidentally, grew up in a very well-off suburb.
Her whole schtick was always hypocritical and disingenuous, of course, but it turns out that Leftist activists were listening to this rhetoric, I guess, they were taking it seriously, we’ve seen this a lot lately. When Chuck Schumer threatened Supreme Court justices, Leftists showed up at the justices’ homes; when the White House claimed that “trans kids” were being abused, a Leftist shot and killed Christians; when Democrats accused Israel of “genocide,” college students occupied university buildings; now two years after AOC attacked the Met, leftist gathered outside of the building.
This is the escalation that Democrats have primed this country for; it’s now in progress, whether Democrats intended it to happen to THEM or not—which, of course, they didn’t—but that’s not to say that ruling elites are going to roll over and let this happen. I mean, as you saw in that footage, the cops showed up in force and started making arrests the very second that protestors trespassed through the barricades in front of the Met. They were on the scene immediately.
Now, that’s kind of a noticeable contrast when compare it to other things like when these people set up encampments on college campuses, they were given in most cases a few days, maybe a week, before the cops moved in; when they looted and burned poor neighborhoods, they were given about three months to inflict carnage before anyone did anything about it; but when they showed up at the Met Gala, they were given three SECONDS before the arrests started. So it really shows you kind of how the hierarchy works.
The Democrats can’t protect the rest of the country from these mobs, nor do they intend to. So last night, in addition to creating a scene at the Met Gala, Leftists also vandalized a World War I memorial in New York and torched an American flag in front of it.
So please note, again, the contrast, the hierarchy, and the fact that this was happening at the exact same time as the Met Gala thing - REALLY shows you where the priorities are when you notice what kinds of illegal demonstrations the police will stop and which demonstrations they’ll allow to continue. The mob can deface World War I memorials all they want because in doing so, they’re communicating their hatred for this country and everything it stands for. So the Democrats who run New York aren’t going to stop them. But the mob isn’t allowed to inconvenience celebrities at the Met under any circumstances.
The point is that this is the hierarchy that Democrats clearly want to enforce. The trouble is getting the mob to RESPECT the hierarchy, and the Democrats are having trouble with that at the moment.
Yet they still seem oblivious, the Democrats are—or acting oblivious, at least—to the fact that they created this monster themselves, and that’s why inside the Met, as chaos unfolded outside, the party continued uninterrupted, and so did all of this associated weirdness, which was as off-putting as it’s ever been - take for example this decoy costume worn by someone using the name “Karol G.” Now, apparently she wanted to keep her real costume a secret, so earlier in the evening, she sported this beige umbrella-looking lampshade thing instead.
Now, imagine being a hardcore, AOC-loving Leftist who sees this - Democrats have spent the last several years telling you to despise rich people and commit crimes in the name of political activism, and then down the street from your hippy commune at the local university, some celebrity is walking around in a lampshade costume which probably costs $50,000 or something, and the entire Democratic Party establishment is pretending that it’s all normal. What do you do? How would you view the Democratic Party establishment after seeing this?
Now, as for the costume itself, of course, it’s clearly a bid for attention, and I guess it worked—I’m talking about it—but it’s not even an original idea - as a lot of people have pointed out, the outfit bears a striking resemblance to a certain shower curtain costume from the film “Karate Kid,” only with different colors, so there’s really no redeeming qualities whatsoever here, it’s a total debacle all around.
But to be fair, there was at least some originality on display last night - for example, this celebrity apparently walked through a wind tunnel full of roses somewhere before arriving at the Met, and for her trouble, Vogue named her as one of the best-dressed women of the evening.
We can assume again that this… woman?… paid many thousands of dollars for that outfit, which is just a trench coat with flower peddles and glitter glued onto it. It really looks like something a four-year-old girl might make. As everybody knows, in the mind of a four-year-old girl, anything and everything can be made prettier with copious amounts of glitter and flowers, which is a fine mentality for a small child; doesn’t translate very well in this case. And as self-congratulatory as it is, again, there’s no self-awareness whatsoever - it’s almost as if the entire purpose of the event is to celebrate the elites’ total inability to detect how preposterous, self-absorbed, and laughable they are.
An this is nothing new, it’s been the case since the Met Gala was established, it’s always been a mini-theater of the absurd. What’s changed is that the voting base of the Democratic Party isn’t laughing along with these clowns as much anymore. They turned against the universities; now they’ve turned against Hollywood. What the protesters of course don’t understand is that they have inherited their own worldview and everything they believe from these very institutions and these very people.
Hollywood and Academia don’t realize that they’re being attacked by their own Frankenstein, but the Frankenstein monster also doesn’t realize that it IS the Frankenstein monster. And if Frankenstein ever wakes up to that fact, well then the ruling class will really be in trouble.

I'm working on getting into dropshipping. I'm watching a ton of youtube videos, reading through a bunch of forums and I'm still kind of lost amongst all the advice.
There are so many tools out there and I have no idea which ones to use. All these different online courses recommend different competing tools and ways to go about dropshipping.
I also have all these questions about targeting a niche market. Do I work on building on my niche product or do I just sell the hottest trend? Do I sell just one item on my site or do I sell a family of products that fit within that niche?
Those who have been successful here, how did you start? Did you use a tool like Ecomhunt and find the hottest trendiest product and build a site around it. Did you sell just one product or an array on that site? if you had just one, did you have other sites that also sold just one product? Did you have to establish a corporation for each product that you wanted to sell or did it fall under one corporation?
Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions, but it's stuff like this that I can't find on youtube videos or websites. If anyone has any advice on how to tackle questions like this, I'd be so grateful.

I’m posting in digitalminimalism because, I guess, a true alarm clock is a minimalist product in this day and age. Here’s what I’m looking for and why: my cat requires a medication three times a day at specific times. I have an automatic feeder that holds wet food and dispenses medicine mixed with food at specific times. The goal is for him to independently recognize that the feeder has gone off and eat his food with medicine, so that I can leave my house for more than 8 hours at a time. He currently only is able to do this independently about 50% of the time. The feeder makes noise when it goes off, but not a lot. If he is sleeping or doing something else in a different room, he may not notice that it has gone off. Otherwise, I have to pick him up and put him in front of it, and then he eats it. I had the idea that an alarm clock coupled with the system might help him recognize that it’s time to eat his food.
Here’s a kind-of-ridiculous list of features I’m looking for with an alarm clock: 1. Has an auto-off feature for the alarm sound (necessary, but it would be really cool if he could learn to paw the snooze button) 2. Allows for at least 3 programmable times 3. Uses a gentle noise, or allows you to select a noise, that wouldn’t annoy a cat (like a loud beep, for example) 4. Is battery-powered rather than plug-in (not necessary, but preferable)
I’ve looked a lot of alarm clocks online, and I haven’t found any that even explicitly describe all of those 4 features. It seems like something that could only be sussed out in pdf manuals or YouTube reviews. There are so many alarm clocks out there that seem like garbage. I wanted to throw this out to the internet at large to see if anyone has an alarm clock, or has heard of one, that fits the bill. Thank you!

I'm building a simple website, the first page index.php has a form where the user will enter his/her unique number and it will display out a row from a database. The row contains 3 columns Serial number, Unique Number and Name pertaining to unique number and a message. I'm not computer scientist and have no idea Which hosting site will be able to manage this simple database.
the database is currently deployed in MySQL workbench server and it's been queryied from the webpage,
in live conditions the querying from the database will depend on the website traffic, (I don't expect much) around 100 queries a day.
because so far as I'm aware the hosting database may or may not support a database with 600,000 rows. the querying a 20 MB SQL file. I have tried sigingup with Oracle cloud to upload/retrieve the dataset but I have no idea how to use, it has a very complex UI
I need guidance on what product is appropriate for my use case. Thank you.

Spoilers for 2-35 ahead.
So like what happens after the KC discovers the truth of the last 20 years?
That humanity didn't fall and that the Federation and Arxur are over.
Which has got to happen eventually probably in the next 10 chapters. I can't imagine that that they are just going to throw drones at each other the entire war. Will there be any reason to continue the war?
I could maybe see that the war continues since while it was started by mistake millions would have already died by then. So they fight to avenge them.
But I think what could be more likely is that the inner echelons of the KC have a different reason for wanting the war to continue.
Also logistical side note. While it is impressive that the KC was able to produce over a million ships. Which was probably the size of the Shadow fleet. They are still six planets against 200 plus.
Meaning that if the rest of the Galaxy goes total war they should be able to produce over 100 million ships and win handily since apparently Cyborg Meier will attempt to build a galactic collation.
That is unless the KC has unheard of super weapons. Perhaps they have hidden death stars. XD I think I would enjoy that even though it's maybe a little silly.
What could be interesting is if they employed some of the weapons here though these weapons are so powerful they may make everything else irrelevant. And hurt the story.
Or goes for a lightning victory. Meaning they start glassing everybody before they can mobilize production. Which might actually be the plan from their idea to glass 3 planets.
This also shows one of the KC's greatest attributes they actually want to win. And seeing how they had a counter for everything the SC drones had they might have the tech to do so. It will be interesting to see the science arms race that may take place.

As the world faded away into nothing but a dark void, Tom felt the only mildly familiar sensation of magic flowing like a gentle stream. It wasn’t much of a draw, but it was certainly noticeable.
“Right, best make this quick then,” he tried thinking to himself, feeling the flow peak as he did.
“Who is this? Make what quick?” an ethereal sounding female voice replied. It did sound a bit like how he remembered Joelina sounding. Though she did not exactly sound calm.
“Uhm… Hello? Anyone there?”
“Yes hello. Who is this? What must be done quick? Answer me at once!”
“It’s Tom… Is that you, Joelina?”
“Yes of course it is! Stupid dragons taking ages, I have questions for you! So many questiiioooonssss...”
“Yeah I figured that… Fire away I suppose.” Tom replied a little uncertainly as to just what he might be in for.
“Firstly! Did you read the letters?”
“I did yeah…”
“Disregard them, I have learned much since they were written! So much more yes, cursed blessed knowledge…”
“So you do know we have gone to space then?”
“What? No, I re-experienced the memory you had of the movie about the moon mission. It was evident on the second watching that it was trickery of the eye! Spaceflight is but a myth!”
“Riiight.”
“Then how have your kind visited space? And what of the gods above!? it was evident that the woman with the crystals was but a fraud!” Joelina explained with all the calm and restraint of a shoppingmall Karen
“Well the rockets to the moon, that did happen.” Tom attempted, doing his best to remain calm and diplomatic. “The movie you saw was probably a recreation… Tell me, did things go wrong on that trip but they made it home anyway?”
“Yes, do you know of what I speak? Ahr what am I proclaiming! of course you do it is your own memories, how could I forget.”
“Yea…, you watched a movie about Apollo 13 I think. Good movie, and that all happened too. Like for real happened”
“I see…” Joelina replied, sounding rather unstable. “And what of the gods?”
“We ain’t got any. Well not in space at least.”
“Impossible!”
“No, quite possible. Many still believe in gods though, but let’s not get into that too much. It’s a right old mess.”
“No, you must tell me what happened to the gods? Have they left you?”
“Well some think so, but no. I just think it all works a bit different for us. They might be a little more hands off.”
“But the churches… and these religious warriors you did battle with,” the inquisitor all but muttered to herself, sounding like she was struggling to put pieces together. “Do Jesus and Islam fight for power then? no no, they would have long since lost the battles to the ancient gods of war the teachers spoke of… though why they were always naked eludes me yeeees…”
“No, again we don’t really have gods just floating around... Could we please talk about something else? Or is that all you wanted to know?” Tom tried, hoping he really didn’t have to dive deeper into that particular subject.
“No no don’t you dare cut me off! I have seen what you talked of, nuclear fire and missiles, ships of the oceans and planes soaring in the skies. But is it not all fake? Surely it must be! It must be? It must be…”
“I don’t know what you saw… but we have ships sailing around. If you’ve ever seen flying ships like you have here then that’s fake I can assure you of that. We do have airships, but they look more like really big long balloons.”
“But we could make such vessels, or someone could from times past. If you can visit the moon then surely you can make a ship for the skies!”
“No no, we ain’t got grav oil. Or dragon essence as I guess it’s called. That means no anti gravity, and that means weight is a very very big problem for anything you wanna make fly. Planes and helicopters are how we fly. Remember how I flew to Afghanistan on a big ass plane? Or when I learned to parachute later?”
“What is parachute? is it the ham from your times doing, vacationing? what has dried meat products got to do with flying machines of battle!”
“Wooo easy now easy. I guess you didn’t get that far yet. Uhm. It’s a cloth kite you dangle from and then glide to the ground. Very good fun.”
“A cloth kite used to fly?... such strange inventions. Wait was there not a movie of with something of that nature? yeeee… there was a song. I liked that song… something something brains upon his chute. Yeesss…”
“Yeah… You’ll know it when you see it. I have one actually.” Tom clarified trying not to get too weirded out.
“You must demonstrate on a suitable occasion.”
“Yeah… I do have a question too though,” Tom replied, letting silence reign for a short time. “...Your last letter was in Danish.”
“Oh, uhm yes. I- I was having some difficulty separating what was real and what was not… I still am. Do not tell Glazz, she musten know the truth yet. She seeks to limit my excursions.”
“You’ve ended up like I did, have you?”
“No no no, the effects do indeed recede as expected, everything is in good order… But I had to know more. So so much moooore.”
“Maybe you should cool it a bit. You never know when a brain snaps. Or how,” Tom tried, confident his advice would be ignored.
“There is not time!”
“And why is that? How is it going in our beloved Inquisition?”
“Mind your tongue, human! Things are progressing, but so are our enemies. Infiltrators have been caught, traitors within our ranks are making their moves. The reemergence of Rashan, attacks on mines, keeps and a daring heist attempt at a Royal Guard fortress! The game is afoot, we cannot delay.”
“You can’t overreach yourself either. Weren’t you supposed to be winning over the rest of the inquisition right about now? Can’t do that as a gibbering mess.”
There was silence for a while more after that. “Glazz sent you a letter? What did it say?! You may not keep secrets from me- wait not… I should confiscate her arm… she cannot write with her left. Yes far better plan, avoid upsetting him. And fill her pen with invisible ink. Yes very good.”
“No, it’s just obvious to any idiot. But what about winter, won’t things slow down?”
“They should, yet as autumn progresses it has only been picking up. I hope they too are running out of time… But time for what? I must know what they are planning. They might be behind schedule. But what SCHEDULE! sorry…”
“Well you’re not gonna find the answer to that in my memories, now are you?”
“You were sent by someone. You are here for a purpose. I must know this purpose. It will help me understand. The puzzle is large and much of the box kept from me.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m here to help you guys get in gear. That’s a decades to centuries long sorta problem, not a couple of years. Sounds like this war will be in the couple of years category.”
“Then why now? Why did you arrive now?!”
“Shitty luck? Sounds like 10 years ago would have been a lot better… Oh on that note, did you hear? We found something down below.”
“No, Paulin would have told me.”Joelina dismissed, he could almost feel her turning her snout up and away from him.
“Well we opened the vault like 3 days ago,” Tom replied, quite surprised Paulin hadn’t said anything. “Wait yeah she can send you messages, no? She sent the message about what we wanted to buy too, didn’t she?... How did she do that by the way? Why didn’t you just have her ask me questions?”
“That is not for you to know, and this is not for her.”
“Really? More secrets still? Come on, tell me or I’ll let you think flying whales exist.”
“I know those are not real. If they were, you would have harvested them long ago! likely for some deranged snack… or facial decoration.”
“True, but you get the idea,” Tom persisted, feeling like this was something worth pushing for. Why would Paulin not have let her precious Joelina know?
“Very well. This does not leave your mind… In the name of, what was it called… camaraderie. Paulin is in possession of joined paper. Messages may be written down and read by anyone with similarly joined paper. Unsecured. Originally believed to be fore love letters… dastardly studs and wenches using perfectly good magic for such trivialness… simply tie the message to a rock and throw it though the window. Most peasants cannot even afford glass” Joelina trailed off, seemingly zoning out once more.
“You have magical paper that can relay written information… and you don’t fucking use it!?” Tom explaimed, not quite believing what he was hearing.
“No, we do not know how to make freshly bonded paper… only more linked to all other paper in existence…” Joelina agreed. He could almost feel her looking at the floor in shame. “But it is not as if you are infallible, why did you not bring one of these radios?”
“I uhm…”
“Why didn’t you?!”
“I forgot,” Tom admitted, thinking back to his packing days. Of all the things that could have proven useful, that one might have been his biggest blunder.
“For the love of all that is holy! You are our saviour?!” Joelina scolded, understandably so, but still.
“Hey I never claimed to be smart!”
“I have lived your dreams. That is a lie! You very much claim to be smart!”
“Fuck off, I know you are just a scared little insecure girl.”
“She died 30 years ago!”
“Well I haven’t gotten to that bit yet!”
“What in the devils do you mean?” Joelina questioned calming right down in a fraction of a second.
“I’ve only had like three proper dreams about you… wait no, not like that,” Tom blurted out as it clicked just how wrong that sounded. Joelina didn’t seem to care in the slightest though.
“Three? That is it!?” going right back to outrage.
“Yeah… Wait, how many have you had?” Tom questioned. He rather wanted to know just how much she might know about him in addition to the memories she had already picked through when inside his head.
“Several a day!” the inquisitor exclaimed in reply.
“Okay, I can see how that would drive someone a bit mad.”
“I am not going mad!”
“Did Glazz say the same thing?” Tom questioned, quite certain he was striking a nerve.
There was no reply for quite some time, Tom feeling the headache growing as things grew tranquil once more. He could feel his breath. It was rapid, and his heart was pounding. He probably shouldn’t do this for much longer. Thus he endeavored to break the silence.
“You probably should listen to her you know.”
“No! These matters are above her station!”
“Hasn’t she been in the Inquisition longer than you?”
“She has yes. But she is no inquisitor. She is a body guard.”
“Seems like she is a wee bit more than that,” Tom pushed on. He didn’t yet know how those two came to stick together, but it was clear they had been working together for decades by now. All the way since she was assigned to Harvik
“Mind your own matters, human.”
“Very well, don’t think I can keep this up anyway.”
“We have barely been chatting! Where do the dogs come from?!”
“Selective breeding for thousands of years. But I’m gonna go. Take a break, do what Glazz says… even if Jacky hates her.”
Yet more silence followed that, though it was brief and Joelina was the first to speak again.
“Fine! In the interest of cooperation I shall let you rest. Wear the earring at all times, I shall be contacting you again soon.”
“I think I’m gonna be the judge of that. I’ll put it on when I feel like it.”
“You will do as I say!”
“You need a nap and a bit to calm down. I’ll give you three days. Around noon. See yah… How do I get this thing off?”
“I’m not telling you,” Joelina grumped like a little girl. She really didn’t seem quite like herself at all today. She had been the spitting image of restraint and arrogance before. The arrogance was still there, but the restraint had certainly gone.
“Come on, do I just try to cut off the magic or is that a bad idea?”
“If you answer a question I might answer.”
“Right then… Gimme gimme gimme aaaa-”
“JUST CUT IT! Farewell!” she called out loud enough Tom’s head pulsed and then there was blissful silence once more.
“Hehe. That did the trick, right concentrate on that funny feeling aaan-”
__________________________________________________________________________________
After dinner had been rounded up, Dakota had given a brief address as to some of the news received. There wasn’t much that hadn’t already made the rounds at the tables during the dinner itself. The war had been expanding, recruitment had started in full in the cities, and if not for the rather special situation at Bizmati they could have expected their banners to get called by spring.
Rumors had it that the kingdom was preparing itself for counterstrikes the following spring, which meant training through the winter for many volunteers.
“And a lot of not so volunteers,” Fengi muttered as Dakota carried on with the address.
“You can say that twice. At least the street rats might get something to eat and a place to sleep,” Tirox the trader escort added.
“I suppose that is true. Not a bad deal in winter time… I might even have taken it.”
“But we must instead keep our minds on our home,” Dakota carried on, talking to the whole hall. “There can be no mistake, we will be a target. We will be ready. They are getting bolder by the day it seems. It is not impossible they may attempt to take our keep before the winter comes. Or perhaps they will be waiting for spring. It is equally clear their forces are spread thin. We will weather such assaults, I have no doubt. But we must keep training. We must keep vigil. We cannot afford to be surprised or outmatched. I know you will all do your best. And tonight, we have no less than 4 dragons here. So breathe easy, have your snacks and your drinks. If the weather holds soon we will be finished with the warehouse and then we may make final preparations for winter. It is sure to be an interesting one for once.”
The hall replied with a half-discordant cheer, not overly enthusiastic unlike what Dakota had likely envisioned. The talk of them possibly getting attacked even before the snow came wasn’t really that encouraging. But Dakota tended to speak her mind, and she was probably right. Bizmati keep would be a damn tough nut to crack. And to Dakota’s credit she did seem to recognize she hadn’t really managed to rile them up.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she tried again in a slightly more humorous tone. “Eat, drink, and have fun! And put those tables together, don’t want you brooding in your corners.”
That did get a bit more of a reaction, as well as some good humored chuckles. People started getting up and set about moving the tables closer together.
It was a little rude to split up their guests in the same way as they normally did. Saph carried one of the benches over to the new spot, glancing around for any sign of Maiko, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Feeling a little miffed, she sat down with the others as Ray came back with one of the small kegs of cider looking very excited. “We should have a taste, right?”
“Oh yes please!” Pho called out, Essy giving her a slight slap on the wrist.
“This one is only for those who paid for it. You will have to do with whatever you bought. Or the ale I’m sure they intend to serve.”
“Aww man. Not even a sip?”
“Okay, maybe a sip,” Essy relented. “Oh, I should get Koko his gift.”
“You got him a gift?” Saph questioned with mirth in her voice.
“Of course, that is what people do for each other… you did get Maiko something, right?”
Saph felt her expression slip a little as she prepared to disappoint their chief people person. “No, not really…”
“All that money and you didn’t get him shit? That’s cold girl,” Pho laughed, clearly finding it hilarious.
“Oh shut up, not as if I got something for Unkai either,” Fengi added, springing to Sapphire’s defence, though it seemed like the delivery had Fengi second guessing herself as well.
Esmeralda did look a little saddened by the news, but she was far too nice to say anything. Tirox however had no such filter.
“Oh don’t worry about it, just gotta go with a different sort of gift.” The diminutive guard laughed heartily at his joke. Udanti found it quite funny as well, and Pho certainly loved it. Bo just shook her head a little and went back to a small puzzle of some sort she had been working on, on and off, for most of the dinner by now.
“So uhm… One mug each?” Ray questioned, having been left hanging at the keg.
“Oh yes sorry, just the one, this stuff is expensive,” Saph replied, holding out her mug, Ray pushing it back down.
“One moment.” And she produced a wooden mallet and one of the metal taps. It looked like one of Raulf’s, so it was probably old as faded dragonscales.
Ray gingerly placed it against the cork and raised the mallet as the table fell silent in anticipation.
With a whack the tap went in clean with hardly a drop spilled, and Ray breathed a visible sigh of relief. “Right there we go.”
There was a quick round of cheers from the table, and Ray started pouring servings.
“Oh got yours open, have you?” the voice of Balethon came as the guard came walking up to the table, mug in hand and lizard on shoulder. “You all know we are gonna have to work out who got the better stuff, right?”
“Oh does it always have to be a competition with you, Balethon?” Saph questioned. She had just wanted to enjoy the cider.
“Look who is talking… And yeah of course we do! Just think of the bragging rights.”
Ray didn’t look too thrilled, nor did any of the girls who had actually paid for the keg. The rest of the table seemed to think it was a brilliant idea, even as Balethon’s voice carried and heads started to turn as people started to mingle between the now closely together tables.
“I’ll be the independent adjudicator!” Tirox declared, not receiving much attention as the full mugs started to get passed around. “Oh come on. I’ll be fair!”
“Shut it pipsqueak, you’ll end up taking 10 rounds of tastings before you make up your mind,” Udanti scolded, though in good humor.
“I might…” the guy relented, looking to Balethon. “Ey, by the way. Did you teach the brainlet any tricks?”
“Sure, Skitters can do a few things.”
“Aside from chasing the food?”
“You know what I think he might yeah,” Balethon replied sarcastically, gently tapping the static lizard twice on the head. The lizard didn’t do much save skitter about on his shoulder to face Balethon’s head, one eye pointing in whichever direction.
‘That thing just looks so dumb,’ Saph thought to herself as Ray handed her a mug. “Oh thank you.”
“Okay, Skitters. Up,” Balethon went, raising a claw into the air as if he wanted the lizard to jump. Or perhaps stand up. “Up… come on.”
There was no reaction from the lizard aside from it jerking to the left a bit, possibly having spotted a fly or something.
“Weeeell obedience might need some work,” Udanti chuckled. “Have you tried with some food in your hand?”
“Sure, then he just tries to eat the hand. Come on, Skitters. Up!” Balethon tried again, doing the gesture once more. And this time the little lizard jumped into the air. The little legs stretched out, taking its pitiful excuse for wings with it, and it half-fell half-glided to the floor where it hit with all the grace of a 6 year old on his first lesson. The slightly fat lizard bounced once, then rolled over twice before coming to a stop, looking around confused.
“Aaayyy! That’s a good boi,” Balethon went, going to pick it up again before someone stepped on it or it ran off under the tables. “And now you get a treat.” True to his word Skitters was fed a small piece of something or other which it seemed quite happy to snap up.
Fengi leaned in to whisper to Saph. “Was that the trick or did it just get sick of staying there?”
“I have no idea,” Saph replied, holding up her mug. “Cheers though.”
“Cheers,” Fengi replied as they clinked mugs.
“Oh hang on now, wait for me,” Essy protested as Ray finished pouring her mug and started on her own, looking to the girls as she questioned “Oh, also what about Jacky? Should we wait for her?”
“Who knows how long that will take?” Fengi replied, holding her mug impatiently.
“I’m sure she won’t mind. She is with Tom. We’ll let him have a mug as well,” Essy added with a reassuring nod, looking up to the high table. “Oh but we are missing Lin!”
“Oh right yeah she paid too… I can’t remember, did Edita chip in?”
“I don’t think so,” Sapphire replied, shaking her head as Essy got up to go fetch Linkosta. Balethon decided to take her place, a big grin on his face.
“So what else is going on over here?”
“Oh not much, hellooo little guy,” Pho went, trying to give skitters a scritching. In exchange he tried to eat her finger. “Oh… I mean I guess it doesn’t hurt.”
“Oh yeah, he can’t hurt a fly… well he can, but nothing more.”
“Shame he won’t get any bigger either,” Udanti added, nodding sagely. “Would have made a good rat hunter.”
“Nah… toe hunter though. Also where is the ale at?”
“Oh Raulf and Wiperna are getting ale and some of the bubble beer.”
“What is bubble beer?” Udanti questioned, tilting her head.
“Oh you’ll love it,” Saph interjected, waiting patiently as she saw Essy and Linkosta returning to the table out of the corner of her eye. “It’s an ale but it’s all fizzy.”
“Riiight… I’ve heard of fizzy beers before.”
“Oh yes, but this one is so much more fizzy.”
“It’s light and almost springlike.”
“Light ale? You mean for kids?”
“No no no. Just trust us it’s good.”
“Right right, I trust you,” the archer replied, looking to Essy and Linkosta, who seemed to be looking for a place to sit. “Should we not just put two end to end rather than this scrunching up business?”
“Yeah we should… Right get the craftsman table over here then. We don’t wanna have to smell the guards,” Saph called out, holding up her mug.
“Hey! That was uncalled for,” Balethon protested as Ray passed a mug to Linkosta. The girls all raised their mugs and had a sip, not willing to wait any longer. They all smacked their chops a little, looking down at the golden liquid. It was slightly fizzy too… and it tasted like the brew of the gods themselves. Ray was looking at them all visibly tense with anticipation and perhaps a twinge of fear.
“Ray… You have not disappointed,” Saph declared, nodding her approval, a smile creeping onto her face once more.
“Oh this is the best drink I think I’ve ever had,” Fengi added, taking another gentle sip.
Ray looked visibly relieved, her expression changing to one of ecstasy as she too took a sip herself. “Oh it’s even better than I remember. I’m glad you liked it.”
“Like it?! I love it!” Fengi cheers, Essy giving an appreciative nod to Ray before looking to Lin.
“Sooo?”
“It’s very good… Do you think we could try and cool it down a little? Imagine this cold.”
“It is often served cold, yes,” Ray confirmed, nodding her assent.
“I’ll go get the powder!” Saph called out, getting up. “I have got to try that.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
The strange ethereal world that had seemed so all-consuming started to quickly fade. Holes grew as light and reality started seeping in, sounds and noise starting to build around him. “Oom-Tom… Tom, are you okay?” came the familiar voice of Jacky as his eyes shot open and he blinked a few times as he returned to reality proper.
“Yeah yeah, I’m here… That is trippy, but hey, I think it worked.”
“How many fingers?” Jacky questioned, holding up her hand.
“4. Clear as day.”
“Pheeew. Okay look around, anything strange?”
Tom obeyed, sitting up a bit straighter and glancing about the room. “Nnnnn, nope all good. Just like last time I used one of these.”
“Right, good. Now what did she say?”
“Oh a bunch of stuff… mostly we chatted a bit about how she’s going a touch mad. Even Glazz thinks she’s falling apart at the seams apparently. She was also not happy I wanted a break.”
“Oh don’t tell me you have to do this every day from now on?”
“I said she had 3 days to get ready to try again. Hopefully she’ll have her case worked out by then.”
“Here’s to hoping… also how is your head? Does it hurt?”
“A bit, it’ll go away I’m sure.”
“Right,” Jacky replied, looking at him skeptically. “If it gets worse, tell me. But dinner was served a while ago I think. And I’m hungry.”
“Me too, let’s go.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Well then, Joelina got her chat. She seems fine... I am sure she will continue to be a steadfast ally, within the walls of the inquisition for many weeks to co- I mean years, definetly years.
As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, if not you know who to blame. I promise I won't cry to much if you tell me what was wrong... I promise.
Not really any news, other than fuck me I'm a busy boi, luckily I found the time to keep up with the writing yet, hopefully things will quet down soon so I can get back to begin a bit further ahead.
Untill next time, take care
Wiki and Art Gallery If you can't remember who someone is, want to read any of the side stories of fanfiction, or you just wanna watch some of the cool art that's been made for the story. Patreon If you want to help get more cool shit made consider joining the Patreon, you also get chapters two weeks ahead of time. HoH Subreddit if you want more stories from the HoH universe or are interested in writing something for this funny little world. Discord if you wanna have a chat about the story or just hang out First Previous

I am hoping somebody much smarter than me knows why I am a doofus. The amount of forums and searches I have scoured are innumerable. I will number these for easier organization (it's more for me than it is for you).

1. I produce and co-host a podcast. We have three hosts. We each log-in to Zoom from our respective homes in differing states.
   
2. I know Zoom is not the tool to use. I am not in the same area as my co-hosts, am unable to troubleshoot each setup/workstation, and my co-hosts might as well be Amish, technologically speaking. We attempted Waveroom. Amish co-host A was simply unable to connect after multiple attempts. We don't have the finances for better recording software and, even if we did, I don't know that Amish co-host A's PC and bandwidth are even up to the task. The PC is only 2 years old, but, as I stated, I cannot be there to clean up the mess. Logmein123 (or similar) is not an option.
   
3. What I need: from all of the reading I've done, I feel like what I need, and should be able to get, are local recordings on each respective machine that are uploaded to give me availability to each track individually. We run a video podcast, but I am not all that worried about the video quality currently, as my sound issues are more important. I have Zoom set up on my end to record files locally, which it claims to do. Here's one of the many problems I am running into: I have 500mbps up (yes, really) and 500mbps down. That is new. I *recently* had 10-15mbps up and 1000mbps down, yet still had the following issue: If anyone else is speaking, Zoom, *despite* "recording locally", dampens my track. I have ALL of the filters and echo cancellations turned off. I have a TLM 103, a Rodecaster Pro I, decent bandwidth, a powerful enough PC (for a basic idea: Ryzen 7 3700X, 32gb RAM, nvme m.2 drive), the only processes running are what is necessary for recording and media for the podcast. Why does my "local" recording sound like my voice is being sent to Zoom first, treated as if I am background noise when speaking at the same time as a co-host, then sent back to my PC to *actually* be recorded? I hope that makes sense.
   
4. Some other pertinent info: I selected the sound option on Zoom that says something like Live Recording. So, during the podcast, if I click that option up in the top left corner of the screen (because it's not on by default even though I went into settings and selected it?), suddenly both of my co-hosts can hear their own voices echoed back to them. How in the world is my outgoing signal choice causing them to hear their own signals in their headphones as a delayed echo? Obviously, none of our individual tracks match up with each other or the all-in-one track. The only reason I am able to be heard on the post production at all is because I am recording the show separately on my Rodecaster, but that records the whole show as one track, preventing me from splicing anything I would need from what a single track of what my voice should provide which Zoom is distorting and making useless.
   
5. If you've made it this far, I commend you and appreciate you. I know there is going to be some actual simple answer that I missed. Not quite done, though: I don't understand why Amish co-host A's PC is *only* capable of using Zoom and, despite his slow, bogged down system and using WiFi from a router on the opposite side of the house and a floor below, when *he* speaks, Zoom records every syllable, breath, and blink he makes in a mostly clear, but clearly Zoom quality track? He doesn't even record locally! Also, while not ideal, I know other podcasts that use Zoom with zero issues.
   
6. My gain is turned up, in case anyone is wondering.
   
7. Thank you so much for anyone attempting to decipher this garbage I've typed out. I've included what I think may be important, but I obviously don't know for sure. This isn't my specialty. And thank you in advance if you have any advice or guidance aside from what I wish I could do: Use a quality platform.
   

Hello all!
As the title says, I am heavily exploring starting a business and quitting my teaching job. My absolute passion is working with students, however, it’s no secret teachers are treated terribly. (Funnily enough, I teach entrepreneurship!)
Anyways, I have a business plan written up, I’m working on products, I love my ideas and have a solid plan in place. I even hope to one day incorporate charity supporting literacy, schools, etc into my business to keep my passion alive.
All this being said, is there anyone else here who left teaching to open a brick and mortar business?? What was your experience like? I would love to hear from others who were in a similar boat as me!
Any advice or stories much appreciated <3

Here are the goodies.

I am excited about the butter. It's dairy free, and you can't tell the difference for most of the baked goods I make!

Total: $19.84

Coupons: None!

Total Cash Back: $20.45

Final Cost: -$0.61 - Money Maker

 
Here is the complete break down and sites used. The stores are listed in the breakdown image. I don't include sites that take any receipt on my breakdown.
Note: Individual deals vary by user for most apps. If you don't have the deals right now, you can try checking back later.
 
My Guides

1. All rebate apps/sites I use and/or know about
   
2. How I do my hauls
   
3. Beginners guide to using rebate apps/sites - for those who don't know where to start
   

 
If you aren't interested in this kind of thing, please keep your comments to yourself. If you don't like what I buy, you can buy different products. If you don't like hunting for deals, you can do surveys, microtasks, games or whatever else you like instead. There is no need to discourage other users just because you aren't interested in the same things!
 
If you don't need feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, soaps, etc - consider donating them to your local women's shelter, church, or school!
 
Some Additional Deals

• Stem Fly Trap Starter Kit - Money maker after IB + SB
  
• $10 back on 7 Kellogg's Products (specific products only) - Military Commissaries only - Refund is a digital gift card (includes Prepaid visa - view the website for all the options) - Expires 5/31/24 - (Thanks to u/Kicker774 for mentioning it!)
  
• Nature Valley Wafer or Breakfast Bars (specific products) - Free after Rebate - PayPal or Venmo - Void in CT, RI, ND, and Miami Dade County - Expires 8/31/24
  
• Nature Valley Lunch Box Bars, Mott's Baked Bars, Fiber One Donuts (specific products) - Free after Rebate - PayPal or Venmo - Void in CT, RI, ND, and Miami Dade County - Expires 8/31/24
  
• Fresh Fizz - Free can at Fresh Thyme - Venmo or PayPal
  
• Painterland Sisters Yogurt - Free at Whole Foods (PA, VA, MD, DC) - Venmo or PayPal
  
• Pepsi - Free after Rebate. Expires 6/17/24
  
• Tru Water - Free can at Walmart - Venmo or PayPal
  
• Cheesecake Factory GC - $10 bonus card when you buy a $50 one - Expires 5/12
  
• Fromm Diner Can - Free after coupon. (It's pet food)
  
• Painterland Sisters Yogurt - Free after rebate. PayPal or Venmo. Whole Foods only.
  
• Beneful - IB + SK
  
• Suja Protein Shake - Free at Target in-store or online.
  
• Coffee (Any?) - You get a coupon for up to $10 in free coffee when you buy 3 participating special K cereals. I don't see anything mentioned about specific brands, but I also don't quite know how it works. - Expires 5/30/24
  
• Gooey - Free after rebate - Venmo/PayPal - (It says Walmart at the top, but it also says "from any store")
  
• Perfect Bar - One free bar - PayPal, Venmo, Amazon - Rebates are often instant
  
• CHKP - Free after Aisle - Fairway, Whole Foods, ShopRite
  
• Dr Elsey's Cat Litter - Up to $22 back on a bag up to 40 lbs when you purchase at Target, Walmart, or a local business pet store. You need to cut out the barcode and mail it in with the receipt. One rebate per person/household/address. Must submit within 90 days. There's also a handful of $1 coupons on this page.
  
• Free bag of Like Air Puffcorn - Refund via PayPal or Venmo. Must purchase in-store or for curbside pickup. Expiration date unknown.
  
• Kellogg's Promotions - Various stuff ranging from coupons for free products, movie tickets, various merchandise, and more.
  
• Various Sampoll offers
  
• Offers on Aisle Referrals: Halfday Rockstar - Buy 2 get $5 back. No gas purchase needed. Can do every other week. Free HOP Water (using my ref will give me another rebate offer) Pays out via PayPal or Venmo
  
• Various freebies on Ibotta.
  
• Various deals I've done in previous weeks can still be done.
  

 

Afterthoughts

Small haul for a small bonus today. I put together that part of the haul last night, and once I saw the $5 / 10 bonus, I completely forgot to check every other app, haha. Technically a slight profit loss meeting my IB bonus today, but that's okay because I'm making progress towards my bigger bonus. If I were to prorate that bonus, that'd be an extra $4.52, so it's definitely worth it.
 
My Beneful finally stopped resetting, unfortunately. Hopefully the Mac a Roni and butter keep resetting. I was going to get a couple other things too just to work towards my big bonus, but my store was out. I'll be going out of town later this week, so maybe I'll get lucky and find some good deals at stores that aren't around here.
 

Time Spent

I glanced at IB last night for like 5-10 minutes. I was planning to finish planning the haul today, but I didn't need to find any more deals. I was in the store for 50 minutes today, which included my regular shopping as well as browsing through the plants and clearance aisles.
 

Food From Deals

Here's an idea: Mix up a white cheddar Mac a Roni, with your choice of ham, sausage, chicken, pork, or one of the vegan meat alternatives. Add a little soy sauce, and some green peas if you wish. You could even add some extra butter and milk (or plant based milk) to make it a bit creamier. Serve with a slice of buttered toast or some Jasmine Rice. Perhaps make a little Banana bread for dessert. (Note: Everything mentioned has Ibotta deals available.)
 
Here's some things I've made in the past: High Protein Tomato Crackers, Hot Sausage Cups, Peanut Butter Fudge & Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge, Chocolate Cherry Pie
 
Do you guys want me to continue showing things I've made using ingredients I got from rebate apps on these posts? Let me know in the comments, or you can vote on this poll if you want to remain anonymous.
 

Mini FAQ

• If you're new or confused - check out the guides near the top of the post. They go into detail about everything.
  
• I'm from the USA and these posts are tailored as such, but this post of mine does list things from other countries that I know about.
  
• My posts are tailored to being money makers to suit this subreddit. There are tons of great deals that aren't money makers but can still save you a lot of money.
  
• A lot of what I get is given away to friends, family or is donated. I do this more as a hobby than anything.
  
• I generally do not share my spreadsheet since the one shown in this post is not the one I actually use (it's put together with a script from my usual spreadsheet) and there are a ton of little things that will give you wrong values if you don't know about them and even then you have to be careful. It's super easy to make a spreadsheet with Google Sheets though.
  

I understand that the old Fantasy boxes that are still kicking around are almost universally Online Only. Older products seem to make sense. I'm a bit disappointed that everyone's Endless Spells seem online only too but maybe they don't want to bloat shelf space of retailers with options like that. Looking at Seraphon I think, ok everything that is "online only" makes complete sense.
But then I look at Sylvaneth and wonder why Drycha and Lady of the Vines are online only. Aren't those quite recent, and isn't Lady of the Vines less than 2 years old?
Then I go to the Lumineth and am shocked to see bloody half the range is Online Only. Even centerpieces like Teclis. Common mainstay units and recent models like Dawnrides, "Online Only". I don't get it.
Now, the Cynic in me is really worried that GW will transition to a model where they only distribute a chunk of their range to retailers. Spearhead boxes, core units, maybe a few common characters to get people started. But then as a way to limit people going to their local hobby store and getting 15-20% off MSPR, they keep a lot of highly desirable units as Online Only so you have to go through GW meaning they'll get the highest profit. I'm probably just having a tinfoil hat moment there.....
But seriously, was there any reasoning for it? Are there a bunch of boxes maybe getting a repackage, a rename, change in unit size or something? I just can't understand what the logic is for some of these plastic, very recent kits, being Online Only?

TL;DR: After 3 miscarriages and a diagnosis of DOR, I had two healthy pregnancies without IVF or other ART.
We started TTC when I was 35.5, my partner 37. We got pregnant quickly, and quickly had 3 miscarriages, all around 8 or 9 weeks. We never had them tested, but my OB suspected genetic abnormalities.
My partner's test results were normal for a man his age. After the 2nd miscarriage, I had bloodwork and an SHG, a procedure where my OB filled my uterus with saline and looked at it on an ultrasound to see whether I had any visible issues that could explain what was wrong. This procedure was timed to a specific day in my menstrual cycle, so that while we were at it, she could look at my ovaries on the ultrasound as well, to make a prediction about how many eggs she could expect to retrieve if we decided to try IVF.
The SHG turned out normal. My uterus was perfectly fine. My ovaries, however, looked like those of a woman nearing menopause. My antral follicle count (AFC) was only 4. If we did IVF now, the doctor said, that’s how many eggs she expected to harvest -- just 4. Not nearly enough for a promising cycle. The results from the blood test also corresponded to the levels of a menopausal woman. Here are the numbers, for those of you who already know what these mean:
Day 3 AMH: 0.311
Estradiol: 23.8
FSH: 13.8
I might have looked 30 on the outside, but I’d just turned 36, and on the inside I was closer to 50. Our doctor did not recommend that we move forward with IVF. We asked her what we could do instead. She suggested I try supplementing with DHEA, and gave us the recommended dosage (25 mg 3 times/day, for a total of 75 mg daily). She also recommended CoQ10, though she didn’t have a suggested dosage for that, and noted that my vitamin D levels were low. I started supplementing with each of those three things.
I noticed the effects of the DHEA very quickly. It’s an androgen, and can cause women to start sprouting extra body hair. My libido sprang up to teenager levels, and I got acne again.
I decided to take only 200 mg/day of the CoQ10 because it was expensive. That and the vitamin D seemed to give me more energy, maybe, but I couldn’t say for sure.
It took us longer to get pregnant the 3rd time. The miscarriage was the same.
Our OB explained again why she didn't recommend IVF for women with DOR, and told us about a patient of hers who’d had 9 miscarriages before having a successful pregnancy. We were lucky we were able to get pregnant so easily, she said. We were lucky that we didn’t have any other issues compounding the DOR.
If we wanted to explore other options, she told us, our best chance was to use an egg donor. Other than that, all we could do was keep trying. During my fertile window, and given our age, she recommended intercourse every 48 hours.
I doubled down on my research. I read everything I could find online, and read a lot of posts on message boards like the one I’m writing now. Here’s what I decided to do:

1. Lots of exercise, or at least “lots” by my desk-worker standards (brisk walks every day, gentle training with 10-to-20-pound weights a few times a week, and frequent bike rides)
2. Lots of time being happy and relaxed and out in the sun
3. Supplements:
   1. DHEA, 75 mg/day divided in 3 doses
   2. CoQ10, 800 mg/day (ubiquinone, the cheaper kind)
   3. Vitamin D3, 2,000 IU/day
   4. Acetyl L-carnitine, or Alcar, 250 mg/day (the typical dose is 500 mg, but I found this amount gave me nightmares; at 250 mg I felt more energetic, like I could do twice as much exercising as I normally did)
   5. Alpha lipoic acid, 300 mg/day (this makes your urine stink, but it’s inexpensive and safe, and in addition to helping with fertility, I also found studies about its benefit to diabetics and its effect on the pancreas)
   6. Black cohosh on cycle days 1 through 12 (it’s an herb, so I have no idea how much I was actually getting)
   7. Vitex (ditto)
   8. Prenatal vitamins
   9. Fish oil (why not)
   10. More soy foods and freshly ground flax seeds in my diet, for extra estrogen

A note about CoQ10: There are two kinds on the market, a cheaper one (ubiquinone) and an expensive one (ubiquinol), which is supposed to be better absorbed. Both are similar in structure to vitamin E, but are not classified as vitamins because your body can make them on its own. I went with a low-ish dosage of the expensive one the first time around, but after the third miscarriage, I switched to a higher dose of the cheaper one, 800 mg. I definitely noticed an increase in energy while I was taking it.
Here is a study on CoQ10 in follicular fluid and its association with better outcomes: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00404-011-2169-2
Here’s another (“Conclusion: Our observation leads to the hypothesis that the oral supplementation of CoQ10 may improve follicular fluid oxidative metabolism and oocyte quality, specially in over 35-year-old women”): https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/7/10/141
The positive news about CoQ10 keeps coming. I’ll stop with these: https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-018-0343-0, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.12368
From what I learned while researching this stuff, both CoQ10 and acetyl l-carnitine are antioxidants that are thought to be active in the mitochondria. The mitochondria is sometimes called the “battery” of the cell, supplying its energy as it does its job. After an egg leaves the nourishing environment of the ovary for its journey down the fallopian tube, its only source of energy is its own mitochondria. That’s what keeps it fresh and alive. So an antioxidant that might help the mitochondria have more energy might be crucial for keeping egg cells, and the DNA inside them, better organized for longer -- long enough to conceive. This theory would apply to sperm cells as well, and is thought to be why taking these supplements gives people more energy. Young people have a lot of CoQ10 in their bodies, but after age 25 or so, our natural production goes down.
Here’s a study about egg quality and acetyl l-carnitine (ALCAR): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378432012002436
There isn’t as much research, especially in humans, on ACLAR as there is on CoQ10, but what’s been done so far looks promising. Here’s a study in mice: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378432012002436
As for alpha lipoic acid (ALA), my understanding is that this is thought to be beneficial for diabetics because of its effects on the pancreas. The pancreas and the ovaries are similar in the way they age (again, according to things I read while I was researching like crazy). While I’m not overweight, I’ve always had high blood sugar, and have type 2 diabetes on both sides of my family. So I added this to my regimen too.
Research: ALA supplementation is thought to be safe during pregnancy: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09513590.2018.1462320
A small study has shown ALA to be helpful in patients with PCOS undergoing IVF: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luisa_Caponecchia/publication/303088959_Effect_of_myo-inositol_and_alpha-lipoic_acid_on_oocyte_quality_in_polycystic_ovary_syndrome_non-obese_women_undergoing_in_vitro_fertilization_a_pilot_study/links/584fb41c08ae4bc8993b3211/Effect-of-myo-inositol-and-alpha-lipoic-acid-on-oocyte-quality-in-polycystic-ovary-syndrome-non-obese-women-undergoing-in-vitro-fertilization-a-pilot-study.pdf
Anyway, if you're still reading, pregnancy number 4 was a success. I quit every supplement except for prenatal vitamins. My doctor at the IVF clinic put me on progesterone until I got through week 10, in case a progesterone deficiency was the cause of my previous miscarriages. She’d never tested for this, so the progesterone was just a precaution. I’d always been plenty nauseated with each of my pregnancies, and the supplemental progesterone only made it worse. All I could eat were dry crackers. After reading a few things about the potential effects of progesterone on an embryo, I don’t think I’d do it again, not unless my doctor had a test result suggesting that it was what I really needed.
My doctor also recommended I start taking baby aspirin, 81 mgs/day, to be continued throughout the pregnancy, in case I had an issue with blood clotting that was causing the miscarriages. She’d never tested me for it, and given my AFC and AMH and FSH levels, it seemed like we already knew what my problem was, but she said it couldn’t hurt, so I went on it and stayed on it until 36 weeks.
Two years later, while I was supplementing with just prenatal vitamins and CoQ10, and without really trying, we got pregnant again. Baby #1 is now five years old, and #2 is three.

Again, cautiously I proceed, believing there is a danger in applying anything from one of the novellas in The Fifth Head of Cerberus to one or both of the others. With that caveat out of the way, let me explore the potential provenance of “‘A Story’ by John V. Marsch” in light of the revealed situation in “V.R.T.”
​
“V.R.T.” gives us a Soviet model of crime and punishment which recasts “A Story” as being a work of rehabilitation rather than one of anthropology. I sketch some of this territory in “Appendix VRT8: A Soviet Model” (part of Gene Wolfe’s First Four Novels: A Chapter Guide), but I would like to expand it a bit here.
​
I believe “V.R.T.” is largely patterned on Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon (1940). Koestler reveals in his novel that with the Soviet system, a court case could not advance to the show trial stage until after the prisoner had signed a false confession that had been crafted entirely by the authorities. This fantastical document of made-up crime is referred to as “The Grammatical Fiction,” and by definition it is not written by the prisoner, it is written by his jailers, in order to justify his pre-determined fate.
​
I pause here to note that George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is really a “happy ending” version of Darkness at Noon. Be aware that there will be spoilers ahead for both 1984 and Darkness at Noon.
​
Robert Borski is on record arguing that prisoner 143 wrote “A Story” while in prison. I am on record arguing against that, both author and setting, but I will go through a steelman argument of what I think such a thing would look like, using elements I have already published, bending and combining them in service to this new task.
​
To prepare the way, I will engage in a long-delayed response to Borski’s “Marschian Sexuality” (2006), a brief article that detects in the Earth anthropologist Marsch a homosexual nature (The Long and the Short of It, 49). Borski notes that Marsch’s journal describes teenage Victor as “handsome in a rather sensitive way,” and that later entries show Marsch increasingly agitated by the idea that Victor might be sexually engaged with the suspected abo girl, an agitation that rises in intensity to the point Marsch writes about shooting them both if he catches them together. As telling as that is, for Borski, “the clincher is he reports in his journal that he’s noticed Victor is uncircumcised.”
​
This is the first I saw such an idea, and I applaud Borski for his textual detective work. I will build upon this, going in a different direction than Borski goes.
​
If a reader believes there are two distinct personalities in prisoner 143, it makes sense that there be differences to distinguish between the two, differences in voice that will appear in text. Both Marsch and Victor are male; one is in his twenties, the other a teen; one is highly educated, the other is barely educated; both are beardless. Totaling these up, they are practically twins, so a difference in sexual orientation could show which personality is writing a given sentence.
​
Borski assigns the misogynistic remark about Celestine Etienne to the Victor side (49), whereas I take this as expressing the Marsch persona, along with the other misogynisms, such as “Most medical men . . . [only] prolong the lives of ugly women” (5HC, 205).
​
By my reframing, prisoner 143 is ostensibly a misogynistic homosexual, yet during his extra-harsh time in the tomb-like underground cell he writes about dream women (5HC, 210-11) and a prostitute he hired on Ste. Anne (212). After this he gets positive reinforcement, being moved back to his original cell (231), being given the best food and a bath (231), and being given an intimate visit by Celestine Etienne (232). Then, when he is about to burn his uncollected notes, his jailers confiscate them (233).
​
This technique employed by the jailers to break him down is not special, it is their standard way, as declared by the letter: “We are pursuing the usual policy of alternately lenient and severe treatment to produce a breakdown” (242). Yet the resulting breakdown might actually serve to wean Victor of the Marsch persona; or to exorcise the Marsch spirit, in possession terms; or, in actor’s terms, to relegate the role into a mere mask. If Victor’s mother can shift between multiple roles, it shows the importance of not confusing a mask for the core.
​
One model I looked at in my chapter guide was that the government fears prisoner 143 is a human sniper disguised as an abo klutz (“Appendix 5HC2: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”). The opposite to this would be a sheep-in-wolf’s-clothing, which looks like Red Riding Hood in the belly of the wolf.
​
Returning to the Soviet model of “V.R.T.,” perceptive readers will have been arguing for nine paragraphs that “A Story” does not look like a Grammatical Fiction; it looks more like a fictionalization of a personal psychological reintegration, ending in the killing of an ogre and the subduing of a shadow twin. In a sense, this puts “A Story” in company with I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1964), a famous fictionalization of a personal psychological reintegration. As such, consider this mapping of “A Story” to Victor’s point of view in “V.R.T.” (similar to the table in the aforementioned “Appendix VRT8”).
​
=A Story: V.R.T.=
Quest to become a man: expedition starts (find abos/mother)
Become a shadow friend: Marsch as patron (*)
The girlfriend (Seven Girls Waiting): the cat/abo girlfriend
Vision of mother in danger: clue in Roncevaux
Trip by river: starcrosser to Ste. Croix
The trap (capture by marshmen): murder of Number Four
The prison: #143
The family reunion in prison: the incoherent neighbor as mother
The girlfriend in prison: Celestine Etienne
The miracle: (black box**, reality breakthrough)
The execution of Last Voice: (black box, the killing of the ogre)
The switch: (black box, the subduing of the shadow twin)
​
* for “Become a shadow friend: Marsch as patron” I am especially struck by the parallel scenes where the hero, facing a threatening male, weeps and is comforted. In “A Story” this is where Sandwalker prepares to fight the intoxicated Shadow Child (5HC, 86); in “V.R.T.” this is where Marsch asks Victor what he will do when he is a man (5HC, 159), and six days later they talk about an anthropology book Victor has read (223). In addition, the way that the Old Wise One of “A Story” speaks in scientific jargon forms an unexpected link to Marsch-as-tutor; and Victor’s imitation of Marsch and Hagsmith swells their camp number to four, similar to the fluctuating number of phantom-like Shadow Children.
​
** by “black box,” I mean that science and technology term wherein an input goes into a black box and the black box emits a transformed output, but the internal working of the box remains mysterious and opaque. One explicit “black box” in “V.R.T.” involves the murder out in the field: we witness events leading up to that incident, and notes after the incident, but the incident itself remains mysterious and opaque.
​
Continuing beyond this mapping, the letter from the jailers to the junior officer names two solutions: execution of 143 as an agent of Ste. Anne; release of 143 as a scientist from Earth, “at least until he further incriminates himself” (241): in effect, the Darkness at Noon option (execution), or the 1984 option (release for eventual execution). In his response, the junior officer writes that neither is acceptable, and that, “Until complete cooperation is achieved we direct you to continue to detain the prisoner” (243). This “complete cooperation” sounds like the prerequisite for “Grammatical Fiction,” but it also could imply an implied third option, a “fork ending” of the sort promoted by Damon Knight (who, you will recall, grew Gene from a bean), where the third ending is not named but subtly foreshadowed. So, if the end result, the black box output, is the production of “A Story” (foreshadowed by appearing in the text before “V.R.T.”), then the implied off-the-page ending of “V.R.T.” is not a list of imaginary crimes to warrant 143’s execution as a sniper agent, but an anthropological romance to allow 143’s release as a scientist from Earth. Yet this is not the simple release of 143 as the 1984 option, it is a third way: to avoid the possibility that he “further incriminate himself,” the jailers must actively remake him as a scientist from Earth, if only as a stable role. According to my thought chains on Manchurian Candidates (ibid “Appendix 5HC2”), the government therefore must first determine that prisoner 143 is not, in fact, capable of being a sniper (i.e., an Earthman with proven skill at long range rifle use), but is an abo klutz.
​
Given that Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is a “happy ending” version of Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, I hope I have made clear the likely stages required for an even “happier ending” in “A Story” as a rehabilitation document for prisoner 143. The “Grammatical Fiction” has turned into I Never Promised You a Rose Garden; the Soviet-style prison is revealed to be more like a healing mental health hospital, if only for this one exceptional case where the government finds itself in a bind.

Once again, I have come across the "WC is just a rough draft and manga is the amazing finished product" take and I'm about to tear my hair out?
People just say this for rage bait, right? Because I just don't see how anyone who stops to think for loner than two seconds can actually believe this.
Firstly, ONE himself has stated in an interview that he knew right from the start, from he first started OPM, when Murata hadn't even heard of the damn thing, that he knew how it was going to end. He already knew how the story would unfold. Most likely not in detail but the main gist of it.
There is no way he would have been considering the WC as a rough draft for years because there was no way for him to know that a famous mangaka would pick it up and turn it into a manga. Saying WC is a rough draft supposés that ONE and Murata were working together from the start.
Secondly, just because a new version of something exists doesn't make the original a draft ffs. That would be like saying every published novel that has had a film adaptation was a rough draft which is daft.
Thirdly, it is extremely disrespectful to ONE as an artist/creator. For all we know the man is spending weeks meticulously planning storyboards, writing and rewriting dialogue, making spreadsheets and mind maps of the plot etc. He may be making draft after redraft of his chapters before he publishes them only for some trolls to come along and shit on his effort and work with "ahaha that's only a rough draft"
Fourthly, brings me to my last point which is I'm pretty sure these people, if they do really believe this ridiculous idea, think that because they still don't understand that the art style doesn't determine the quality of a story and they just can't seem to look at ONE's art and believe that that really is it. Which is sad because ONE, while not a traditionally great artist, is a master of setting a tone and creating tension as well as comedic timing with his art.
For the love of all that is good and holy, for the love of Garou's abs, stop with this "the WC is just a rough draft" bullshit when it's clearly not.

Hi all, I've had a few unsuccessful Kickstarter campaigns that I'm now able to complete because I saved up enough to fund myself/angel investor.
It takes a super long time to develop a good Kickstarter campaign - just the set-up/art... but I actually have found a few supporters that later became customers when the product was formally released and true fans which was nice. So it was not a COMPLETE bust.
I want to try again but I don't want another unsuccessful campaign since it takes so much work to even get one done correctly. Do you have any advice? I know some people say get your campaign pre-launch link done as early as possible. I have never even done that and idk what that is.
Thank you in advance!
For reference, I did Kickstarters on my original tarot decks and coffee. The designs were complete I just needed money to get bulk orders.
This next one I want to set up for a new book I am writing and a new tarot deck (plus a bonus deck if stretch goals are met). I have barely started the creation process of these as they are new ideas. So, I want to get the hype going during the creation process. It will be cooler this way because crowdfunders will be able to determine if there is extra specs on the book/deck based on funding.

It’s crazy to me how much I enjoy the game when I first open it up. I see my favorite characters all together from the games I played growing up. Playing the game however…doesn’t feel the same when it could be. After hours of only playing just gem grab why does the game stop there. Playing the same objective when we have so many ideas from the other games it makes me hope that they have something big for Global. I mean GOD DAMMINT the plaza can be just like Hayday gameplay:Character interactions, the post trading, character relationships…does it matter? but it’ll be limited which a couple buildings to tap on most likely. Another productive UI where the player can interact with for awhile just messing around or thinking and then back to the chaos. That flow would make it so nice and not just brain rot. We have so many gameplay ideas from our great games and Squad Busters shouldn’t stop from just the characters.

The news was brought to you by Listen2.AI. Listen version:HERE
Folks, I want to speak directly into an issue that's stirring up quite the controversy — the idea of the Biden administration imposing a whopping 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicle (EV) imports. Now, here's where things get intriguing: as of right now, there are no Chinese electric cars officially being offered for sale in our great United States. You heard that right — none!
Let's peel back the layers on this, shall we? We're looking at a proposal that, on the face of it, might seem preventative or protective of our domestic industries but scratch a little deeper, and it’s mostly smoke and mirrors. How do you slap a 100% tariff on something that isn't even being sold here?
Now, let us briefly step back and understand the broader scenario. Chinese vehicles like the Dongfeng Nammi 01 hatchback are priced remarkably lower than, say, a Chevy Bolt — which is almost triple the price for similar or less range. Now, imagine if these Chinese EVs were sold here even with the current 25% tariff. They could potentially reshape the market by offering more affordable options, uplifting the average American consumer's ability to transition to greener tech. But of course, the current administration wants to prevent that, under the guise of protectionism.
Now, China could retaliate considering General Motors sold over 2 million cars there last year. Yet, they might not, understanding this game of tariffs could spiral out detrimentally for both parties. But isn't it curious? While they’re promoting such prohibitive measures, American automakers are actually deepening their tech ties with China. Giants like GM and Ford are not just collaborating but are fundamentally reliant on Chinese tech for their EV advancements.
The truly enlightening bit here comes from the way tariffs are being positioned. Former president Donald Trump, whom I did support for his straightforward approach, also proposed the same measure back in his tenure. Except he was open to negotiation and adjustment, showing leadership by balancing protection with progress.
What happens next? We might see a significant pushback from various sectors within our own borders — industries that understand the crippling effect such restrictive measures could have on technological advancement and international trade relations.
In closing, this move by the Biden administration raises more questions than it answers. It seems less about protecting American jobs or industries and more about political posturing, adding layers of complexity without clear benefits. A tariff on a product that doesn’t even enter the American market? That’s not policy; that’s paradox.

this is going to somewhat be a continuation of my last post. it was a post that I felt was necessary to make despite the pushback gotten from discord for my last one. none of my theory posts ever gain wide acceptance and approval anyway so this was within expectations but in the course of engaging in arguments over that last post, something else came to my attention and that was related to the question of Life and which path it subjects itself to. I don't know if this is a question that has been asked or answered before, but I feel it is a very important one.
think about this, the gu world is a vast world filled with myriad lifeforms, but has anyone that isn't the author thought about what path is responsible for their existence? probably not many and I am certain that if I asked this question here, the answers will overwhelmingly contain heaven path. heaven being considered as the creator of the myriad lifeforms probably makes sense to some people. I mean its heaven path, a mysterious, mystical and unexplored path that leaves a very grand and broad impression. heaven path is responsible for the worlds management and growth, from it many other paths are derived, and its Dao marks can even transform to other paths. it is clear that heaven path is truly responsible for everything.
but what if it isn't? in fact, why is it always heaven path? literally anything the fanbase doesn't understand or isn't clear of they just attribute it to heaven path. eternal gu and eternal life? the answer lies in heavens path, love gu cannot be refined? it must be a heaven path gu worm, what path is ren zu or any domain of heaven and earth we aren't sure of? oh, heaven path. if one is none the wiser, one could easily get the impression of an all-supreme path, so strong that the others are suppressed by at least a head. but that impression is a mistaken one because the reality is, there really is no strongest path and even if heaven path is stronger than the rest, there is one other path that can match it. do I even need to mention its name? the path of humans, one that is often ignored and usually not mentioned. why this is the case is beyond me. not sure where the cognitive gap or bias lies. it is really weird because human path has been shown to be the counter to the path of heaven, explicitly too but it still seems to disappear from the minds of the readers when speculating about future events.
on to the primary subject, life. what exactly is responsible for the myriad lifeforms in the gu world? the normal answer is the blue sea of life and while true, what i really want to know is the path that is responsible for the creation of these lifeforms. when this question first came up while i was arguing in the discord the only answer gotten was the path of heaven. in fact, the idea that human path might be responsible was treated with jest by those i was contesting with because apparently everyone knows that human path is responsible only for humans and it is called human path for that reason. maybe true but my mind cannot be easily swayed, ever since this question came to mind, my suspicions towards human path has only grown. yes, human path is responsible for humans, that is true and if you had asked me this question prior, I probably would have said that human path is only responsible for humans but now my mind has changed.
in my last post, I explained that the great Dao can divided into two major paths, heaven and human. the rest of the other paths can then be derived from these two. to expound, an entire world will have earth as the foundation, clouds filling the skies, water contained in bowels of land, wind travelling omni presently in all directions, rules that make up the operations of the world and its elements, light shining throughout the world, fire that burns and eats at everything it can, space for all other aspects to operate, etc. while for an entire human, he will have wisdom to solve problems competently, strength to till the soil and move things, a soul to contain and nourish his will, bones to give his body structure and protection, blood to transport oxygen to all body parts, dreams to make fill his sleep, the ability to kill for a variety of reasons, the ability to wield multiple weapons and fighting styles, the ability to paint in his leisure time, etc. this classification system should be easy to understand and self-explainable.
from this one can understand why these two major paths are so profound and why they have so much potential, especially human path as was shown in the book. one thing one has to note is that just as the paths were derived from the foundational paths, the reverse is also true, that is fusing two individual paths might just lead to their respective foundational path. like the convergence of strength and enslavement path being just human path. so those of you who were planning on making an entirely new path through fusion might be disappointed as it doesn't always end up that way.
now, the origin of life starts in the legends of ren zu, it was stated that all life started from life gu that existed in the blue sea of life and that ren zu himself was among the few human shaped life gu in that sea. when he washed ashore, he transformed into a human and became the first of his kind. these life gu don't have a stated path but i feel that since one has already basically been implicitly confirmed to be of human path, then shouldn't the rest be the same as well? it can be considered the same as different kinds of will gu belonging to wisdom path. the effect of these life gu should be to form different kinds of life just like ren zu. it wouldn't be a stretch to consider the rest as products of the human path. the rest might not work exactly the same as ren zu but this effect should hold generally true just like will gu
many here will most likely not be convinced by this but there is more to consider. let us look also at the makeup of the myriad lifeforms in the gu world. I wrote earlier on some of the properties and qualities that makes up a human but these qualities aren't found solely within humans, the variant humans for one also possess these qualities. so do the beasts and plants of the world. having skin, bones, blood, dreams, souls, etc. all other living things have them too, why else will they have these traits if not for the path of humans. think about this for just a bit. take a look at the lifeforms born in the crazed demon cave. they didn't have bones, blood, souls, skin, etc and so many things that made humans, humans. they were just elements like wind combined with a will. the worlds in the crazed demon cave were made for limitless's heaven path derivation and they clearly reflected that in the lifeforms that inhabited them.
these lifeforms are what lifeforms actually born from heaven path will look like. they were much simpler and less intelligent than humans, didn't have any the properties humans had and it was only in the venerable dao fields where human path was added where relatively vibrant lifeforms flourished. the difference between the two paths were made abundantly clear in the crazed demon cave yet a lot of people remain unconvinced still. it is extremely obvious when you look at the evidence that lifeforms born from heaven like revived limitless, heavenly spirits and lifeforms in the crazed demon cave are vastly different from those born from humans. the difference should be made clear as each respective group is usually made out of things derived from their path like limitless having an ice body and the other lifeforms being made from elements of the world like wind. gu world lifeforms on the other hand are clearly made from human properties.
all of these should be clear enough but i recently realized that perhaps this is why humans are considered the spirit of all living beings and not just for propaganda purposes. humans can be considered the premier lifeform, one which the others are based on or a variant of. it could also explain why only humans can become rank 9, as they are the first and most complete lifeform and it is from them human path gets its name. in this sense, ren zu could also be looked at as the ancestor of all life. this also fits with my past theory of ren zu being the foundational gu of human path. there were other life gu in the blue sea of life but which gu is most fit to represent the true essence of human path if not the gu that represents the spirit of all living things, humanity itself. it is the only logical conclusion
i think it is highly likely that human path also broadly deals with the creation of all life in the gu world not just human life, it explains its profound nature clearly. the reason why humans are the focus when it is being discussed is because they are the spirit of all living things and very essential to the path. in the human path sacred land, humans weren't the only lifeforms being produced, others were also made depending on the dao marks they came from and i am certain that those lifeforms were way more complete than anything produced with heaven path in the crazed demon cave. i think you guys should consider clearly this point