Guys, please school me.
Is it worth buying a Marantz PM6007 to replace a 4 year old Yamaha A-S301? Does the jump really justify the cash? I suppose what I'm asking is, if I already have the Yamaha, should I be looking at the next tier PM7000n to benefit from the upgrade?
If yes, can you recommend other amps in the PM7000n price range with 2 channels?
Thanks!

Do you guys deal with end-game campaign map lag at all? I start to get terrible performance during the end of every campaign. I’ll click on an army and direct them to go into a settlement (for example) and there will be a long pause (maybe 3-4 seconds) before the army actually starts moving and walks into the settlement. My computer is perfectly capable of running any new game, let alone a game made a decade ago. Everything is crisp until I get to the point where I own over half of the map. Any ideas? Does anybody else deal with this?

M25 F25 Hi so the situation is that I’ve started dating a girl around 4 months ago and I was at her house the other day and asked her if we are exclusive to each other bcus nothing of the kind has been spoken about yet so I wasn’t sure if she was seeing other people or if I could! But anyway she said yes and that she’s not seeing/speaking to anyone else which just to add neither have I.
But anyway long story short it’s been 4-5 months now and she’s hardly ever around! She lives around 45mins away and I probably see her on average once every 2weeks which I really don’t feel to be very much at all at this stage…although we talk everyday her replies can be pretty slow but she still seems to show keen interest when she does reply and we have good sex. My main issue is she always seems to be busy..something nearly every weekend and unfortunately most of the time it’s going out drinking/partying. If it is just a hook up I’m fine with that but I’m not sure why she wouldn’t just say so that I can carry on with other girls. (Not what I’m really wanting)
On top of this she’s going to America with her mates at the end of the month…going to Ibiza with a big group of guys and girls at the end of July and then going travelling round Asia for 4-5months next year!
I don’t want to sound clingy so please tell me if I do😂 but Ill be honest I think I’m cooked here but what do you guys think Any input appreciated 👍🏻

Hey guys I have applied for IIM Bangalore short courses on Swayam NTA website and been preparing for a while. I have paid the fee and received application form too but these guys at NTA aren't releasing admit card till now. It's just 4 days for exam and I don't know which city I would be given despite my preference list of cities in application form.

i emailed this to agencies that deal with hunting and wildlife problems
pasts@varam.gov.lv
info@wildlifesos.org
reportmisconduct@undp.org
there is no obvious place to report this and expect a serious hearing from someone fluent in English and scientifically minded
the following is what I wrote a month ago after the event
i can't judge after hand how much danger i was in but i would treat it seriously
luckily has not happened again in this country for a month. hopefully never happens again. although the next time i will have the benefit of having experienced it already
when police arrived i demanded prison for the dog owner in clearest possible way i could. after my speach was done they did not ask me a single word. they could tell i was furious of fear. and better to talk another time. i am so drained from global security work that i can't follow up on this but this should be available for anyone to read that might experience it themselves or take upon their self to wander around this globe as i do
i will probably feel guilty if the owner lose his dogs or hunting permit or reputation in his community. i am not going to judge anyone extremely harshly
if they ask me to fill out a criminal report according to some kind of format standards i am not going to do it myself an experienced prosecutor that has done it before is free to report this or pass it along. just not going to fill in report fields in some kind of form. you do it for me if you want to. i am not doing it. should be enough information to find
http://geohash.org/u6p4gj36
is the exact location and anyone can guess where the dogs came from probably the nearest mansion two thousand metres away to the east across p111 near upsede. upsede mansion. good luck asking them about it they don't speak a word of English here development is seventy years behind the west

preface

this is so incredulous that it could be picked up by news
still in shock six hours later at dawn
just the title should give you the general idea
i have never heard of such outrageous neglect in dog keeping in my life
the dogs escape unnoticed at night and hunt without human supervision and presumably return in the morning without anyone doing anything about it
this dog owner would make the top ten list anywhere in history
the dogs occasional howl brought up pictures of wolf movies the grey with that guy from Schindler's list the guy that played Oscar Schindler fighting with wolves with broken glass and a big knife to his death but i can safely discard all theories besides a runaway hunting dog militia on four legs in a large pack sounded like at least ten animals
in that immense fear of a completely unfamiliar situation in a life of hiking around the globe thoughts whirled around all possible night mares before i realised it is obviously hunting dogs all else is pure fantasy wolves are absolutely ruled out
they did not retreat when they sensed my presence but stayed in full alarm perhaps as when they encounter prey on a supervised hunt to alert the humans. even though they knew they were alone and no one to alert, they knew i was probably not prey, did not know enough to EVER be alone unsupervised anywhere but home preferably inside, but did NOT know or predict the length of the prison sentence they just brought on their owner by this nightly escapade. whoops
the locals will predictably put the lid on but the power of the internet is a wonderful thing
i can not imagine any circumstance that would make this less than prison anywhere in the union or West europe. now this is the old east. no one understands English etc. one escaped dog barking in the forest. fine. slap on the wrist. possibly losing care of the animal...ten rabid hunting dogs in full alarm scaring the life out of a hiker resting at night. shake those bars for three months. watch that prison television. and there won't be any Marlborough or beers in prison

the entire report

the exact location is near the highest hunting tower on the old railway trail passing by upsede north east of liepaja that is used for hunting commonly judging by all the towers lining the road there
This began around Four hours after dark on the early night of Sunday 28 April 2024 or exactly 1:00 o'clock
I will first describe exactly what happened and after that separately my interpretation in hindsight when recalling these events three hours later when I can calm down
This is a rather long story so I will get to my point right here before the story
What can I do if I encounter a dog pack like this again except tell at them and calmly leave. What if they hunt me or behave like they are guarding a territory. However remotely that might seems. There is a reason this is a serious crime. Too much uncertainty
Can you confirm that this kind of incessant barking is absolutely impossible in any other animal
In no circumstance whatsoever would any wolf pack or any deer flock behave like this even if I stood right on their den with ten kids inside
The occasional howling is something that dogs still retain from their wolf origin not long ago
It is not unlikely that a pack of hunting dogs alone would howl occasionally
Despite yelling at them several times there was no yell back from a human. Very likely the dogs escape at night without anyone caring about it extremely dangerous and frightening to a hiker that need. Rest at night not the fright of a life time
I could not imagine that in a relatively rich country anyone ever would drive their dogs for a night hunt. Would be absolute insanity. Neglect and alcoholism depression (försupen dumhet Swedish) I can easily imagine. Not outright insanity. Even if night hunting permits are sometimes issued in Germany for "animal control" "population control" of wild pigs. This is a completely separate topic that I will not say more about than that I am working on these issues on and off. My view as a progressive world ambassador could not be further from the idea of shooting at anything anywhere for any reason. Except tranquilizer darts for humane population control of CAPTURED animals not hunted. Captured. It is clear in Sweden that shooting anything anywhere with fire arms does not belong in the future society. Now this is all I will say about this. We are working on this as fast as is possible. The education effort still left on this planet is still enormous and daunting
Regarding dog behaviour in detail I know very little despite inspecting a manuscript by the foremost scientist on the subject that work in Budapest that is most famous for working on the Philippine paradise fish ten years ago before they changed to dogs and removed their aquarium
Dogs in particular have very little room in the professional literature since most pros are not anthropo centric. All mammals share common traits like an early recognition of friend and foe. Dogs in particular has almost never been studied at least not dogs for guarding or hunting. There might be one single work perhaps by one single biologist or behaviour ist ethology biology for shepherds dogs that life with grazing livestock
All books cover territory selection and protection and pack hunting or other flock behaviour. But almost nothing has apparently been possible or interesting to anyone to publish as a professional seeking a career in science in ethology animal behaviour or population biology. so i am not the only one drawing a blank when trying to explain the behaviour with any satisfaction more than anecdotal that is hard to call science

what I experienced

A sudden bark that I expect to be a roe deer that bark and run away. happens all the time
Although the bark was not quite right. more like a dog which I have never encountered at night
Suddenly a roaring festival of barking and occasional howling
The distance is extremely uncertain but perhaps five hundred meters
The direction was towards road p111 to the east toeards Upsede. i am by the big tower. There is one house near the road that the dogs could belong to if they crossed p111
Now my primal instinct set in and I envision a pack, a large pack, of wolves near their den the core of their territory. Frothing over my intrusion and ready to approach in full alarm
In hindsight this is just the occasional howling that caused this and everything about this speaks against wolves
IF wolves can behave like this or has been observed or heard doing this in ANY circumstance whatsoever I absolutely need to hear about it because it would bear on my future expeditions
If there is this single wolf dog hybrid pack maybe only one in Europe that I happened to encounter I absolutely need more information. feral dogs that would possibly go unnoticed in Belarus has crossed over to Latvia?
I have never heard of anything like that
All wolf incidents as rare as they are in Poland or anywhere have been with lone wolves that are sick or hungry and have lost their feir of humans
I have never heard of an aggressive wolf pack in Europe or anywhere on the planet
I have seen wolf droppings so many times and spent so much time day and night in wolf territory that I would never expect them to be so aggressive about human scent or sound like that
I have certainly had wolves near me many times but never heard a peep. In Sweden and Norway on long expeditions all summer and even winter and on and off for years from Spain to France Belgium Germany Poland and now here in the Baltics for one month so far direction Finland
The pack was in full alarm with barking and an occasional howl that dogs will still use. But much less than wolves. Wolves never bark together like this in any circumstance I have ever heard it seen if
It is with near certainty the pack of dogs that have hunted there before that happens to live on the farm on the opposite side of the road and escaped west around thousand metres into the forest.
Perhaps they do this regularly but no one cares
And now I happened to be there
Hiking and trekking and wild camping is MUCH more common in Sweden and Norway than anywhere in the world even Finland that is a close second. It is the Scandinavian spirit. As has recently been proven paleo lithic pre farming humans breed into the farming population only in Scandinavian nowhere else in Europe. I am personally absolutely at peace in nature and hate combustion engines that bother few others
Without getting off track completely I am continuing my expedition around Europe and almost all ground breaking record breaking endeavour of exploration has come from Scandinavia specifically. First settlement of the new world five hundred years before another European country etc etc etc first man on the south pole endless list of did what no one else could ot would. I am not placing my breed on a pedestal just explaining that if anyone would encounter something like this most likely it would be a Swede and the locals are most likely entirely puzzled why I am not living my life in doors at home or in a comfortable guest house
But this is beside the point just a side track to explain my presence in this rare encounter

in hindsight what happened

It is clear to me now that a pack of large hunting dogs. Not the small loud ones. Tax in Swedish. I have never owned a dog or hunted. I am a scientist. So I don't know much of anything about dog breeds. But presumably Large dogs that can hunt and kill on their own that have been trained to not kill the prey but only stalk it or drive it and make a loud alarm to draw the apes (not condescending just scientific classification of my species)
This is all speculation I just can't imagine what I heard to be a pack of tax (Swedish) small rabbit hunting dogs. These were large animals certainly with courage to act alone without humans
But I don't know anything about common hunting dogs in this region or anywhere so I can't suggest what breed it could have been that could behave this way
When I yelled at them they silenced for a moment then the roar continued
They had no intention to move back. I called for a police to meet me on road p111 and moved. I could hear the dogs for one thousand metres which gave me the impression that they moved after me at a safe distance perhaps curious about what I was
Again. If wolves can ever in any circumstance behave with this curiosity or aggressive confidence on human scent AND loud roaring. I yelled at them as a three hundred kilos silver back gorilla would try to show how big and powerful he was. No wolves ever no matter how big their biggest packs are in Europe would do anything but withdraw. These animals stayed at a distance and gave me the impression that they followed me on the road even. But not close
Distance is extremely uncertain but my best guess would be five hundred meters
This location has been used before for hunting and these dogs have been released during supervised legal (presumably) hunting in this exact location
They have smelled or sensed a wild animal and followed it into the forest where they have hunted before

will anyone stop this. how common is this

The police said they would call the nearest farms and ask about their dogs and the hunters that set up the hunting towers there in that old railway road where the dogs live that they bring to hunt there
But unfortunately I don't expect them to do anything when the response is "I know nothing". This is obviously a massive incident since I told them I am a scientist that will likely enquire with other scientist and if they cover this up it will explode big time. this is not s minor incident
Jägarna is a popular Swedish movie about the sad reality of this kind of stuff. anything related to mis management with hunting or dogs is so deeply rooted in human behaviour since the stone age that the local police do anything they can to forget about it. "Probably just a barking deer" or "wolves are common in the forest" and might bark despite my sincere explanation that this is hunting dogs not wolves and carries a prison sentence if heard in front of a magistrate
if you imagine "i like logic circuit design" the absolute opposite is "i like dogs and hunting". it's as different as a von Neumann machine is from sticks and stones in technological achievement. and a massive education effort is still needed for that population should they not cause a complete collapse of civilization like 1930s Germany. you might like NATURE you certainly don't like fire arms or dogs. has nothing to do with investigating nature. it is not conscious behaviour. but only photographers and hunters visit nature? you are obviously not a scientist ("what is this?" looking at bowling ball in small Lebowskis bath room. "you are obviously not a golfer")
I don't expect them to even ask anyone and just hope I forgot about it or they never have any other hikers near that spot at night
The "police report" that I received when they returned from the spot I told them to investigate was exactly that "it was probably just a deer and now I will go home and sleep". that only told ne that the pack had moved or did not respond to a car or they went to the wrong place or most likely could not be less motivated to find them
I gave the female officer that spoke English a stern explanation what would happen in Sweden. Prison. Absolutely nothing else than prison. Grave negligence in dog oversight. No hunting license and no dogs for the rest of his life
This is extremely serious that this is seen as a minor mistake that hunting dogs are stalking wild animals alone at night. Only in Sweden do we understand clearly that HUMANS are in the forest at night sometimes. We have palaeolithic blood lines and the world's foremost paleo biologist among other things. I am a renowned explorer. My father and uncle is one of the world's foremost wildlife photographer for WWF NG etc. Wild life is strictly monitored and controlled and this kind of neglect is absolutely treated with utmost sincerity
Our society is not in a state of civil war. Escaped hunting dogs hunting alone at night. Prison. Period. And the local police that tries to suppress it or treat it with a yawn will be investigated by internal affairs and released from service and prohibited from similar work with a responsibility to investigate seriously
We in sweden have the most aggressive policy in the world to combat this suppression of neglect related to hunting from the local community or any kind of coverup attempt or failure to investigate serious neglect, crime or not, we are not "paragraph riders" (paragraf ryttare) we investigate serious problems. anyone can understand how serious this is before digging after paragraphs

more about dog behaviour in general that might be relevant

Regarding dogs that hunt alone. I will not name any names but I have met a couple that lived in a remote valley in Portugal where their two large extremely aggressive dogs (even after ten minutes they were extremely uncomfortable with my presence and would not listen to their owner's calm regarding my encounter near their caravan on Canary islands) hunt together and bring home food. Literally drag it home to the family. Needless to say they have no kids and I will not say more about it more than the point that large dogs can easily on their own learn to hunt wild game. Possibly several breeds. They are still all close relatives of animals that do exactly that to survive. Guard territory identify intruder stalk and hunt prey is their basic behaviour anything else would result from actively counter acting instinctive behaviour that has become common to convert security staff patrol units and killers to social support animals because morons absolutely need to own a dog
Recall that in less developed countries like Chile dogs bark all night EVERYWHERE and run free in the day
I was in Chile for six months and never encountered dogs at night but had to suffer through the incessant noise if "guarding" at night. EVERYONE has night guard dogs. it is completely incomprehensible if you ever passed first grade with honours that they blindly follow a relict tradition for no other reason. Those dogs are GUARD dogs that have no experience of hunting ever. And when they encounter a human in the forest during their daily adventure they are never aggressive that far away from home
In western Europe outside Spain almost never dogs that bark all night. Same in Latvia. Two weeks in Lithuania don't think I ever heard a dog at night. A welcome serenity from Chile that I just arrived from after completing my record breaking expedition there

My mom (70F) has been suffering from dementia for several years and is in denial. She desperately wants to be a hot twenty-something again and hates the idea she’s aging. She battles the appearance of being old with Botox and surgeries (facelifts, tummy tuck, breast lifts, mommy makeovers).
While she initially was pretty well-off from the wealth she inherited from her parents, she has spent a lot of money fighting nature. She has also spent some pretty substantial sums being romance scammed. We have confronted her as we have become aware of the scams but it has only made her more secretive about how she spends her money. My 4 siblings and I currently have no real insight into her finances.
In the past year, she almost burned her house down by putting a pot holder in the oven. She is a hoarder (pets and things) and her house is a hazard. She also almost burned one of my homes down by leaving a pot holder on a hot stove. She has gotten lost driving, frequently forgets who we are, constantly forgets to take her medicine (or takes it twice) and has run her car into random things.
Calls to her doctor have been basically useless. He did a mini-cog and said that while it evidences she has some memory loss, he was hesitant to start her on meds because she said that she agrees she has memory loss, but it comes from “not talking enough because no one coming to visit her.” My siblings are on the brink of reporting him because his apathetic “medical care” is only bolstering her belief that she’s fine.
To put it lightly, my mother was cruel, abusive, and neglectful to my siblings and I growing up. I was beaten every day of my childhood with a horse crop and put into unsafe situations via her neglect until I ran away from home at 16. While dementia has made her a much kinder person overall, my siblings and I cannot forget our childhoods and cannot allow her to live with us.
While we have all tried confronting her with the evidence of her increasing dementia over the last few years, she has been deeply in denial. Things came to a crescendo this past weekend when my siblings and I went back to gather in our hometown for a sibling’s birthday/Mother’s Day and she wandered off by herself and got lost, lost her phone, and forgot who some of us were. She is still in denial there’s a problem.
Regardless, a situation has come up where a house up the street from mine has come up for sale. My siblings and I have decided that my mother should buy it to be closer to family. I would never allow her to live with me, but I think I could stomach my family and I checking in on her if she lived up the street. This will give her a chance to have a little bit of independence. Unlike her, I live in a walkable city with a multitude of resources for the elderly.
However, she is already bucking a bit because she doesn’t want to leave the town where her boyfriend lives. This man barely gives her the time of day. He flatly refused to live with her (he’s also a hoarder) when she was buying her current house just two years ago. We tried to convince her to move closer when she was in the market for that house but she insisted on moving to his town to be near him. I’m not sure why because he rarely comes to visit. He has also been dismissive of her memory problems and told her that everything she is experiencing is part of normal aging (if you can’t tell, I don’t trust this man and neither do my siblings).
My siblings say if she does not accept the plan and buy the house in my neighborhood, she must go to a nursing home. Overall, her dementia has become a time bomb. We are all sure that the “big event” that will force our hand on action will be here before the end of the year. Yesterday she seemed cool with moving here but today I am pretty sure that the boyfriend is going to become an excuse again (anyone who has dealt with family dementia probably understands the agree/disagree cycle).
I don’t know if I’m looking for advice, support, or I’m just venting on this situation but I would appreciate guidance from anyone who has been in something similar. Sending hugs to anyone else going through this, it fucking sucks.

Ruby groaned as the alarm went off signaling that one of her charges had arrived back from their mission. While troublesome in its own right, what really got under her skin was that she only had one charge at the moment, and that edge lord piece of shit wasn’t supposed to complete his task for AT LEAST another 4 deca-cycles according to the prediction algorithm. Grumbling to herself, she rolled out of bed and poured herself a glass of water to offset the hangover she was trying to recover from.

A few moments later she was gliding down the hall to the meeting room. She knew Jason was going to pitch a fit that she had left him waiting, the self-entitled brat always did think the world revolved around him; but perhaps he should have thought about that before freaking dying so early. If he wanted her to be there to meet him upon death, he could at least have the decency to not die the morning after one of her binges.

Other staff members gave her a wide berth, even if it was a hollow title, she was still technically far above basically anyone else in the pecking order, at least those who had a physical presence within the Agency. She knew they all mocked her behind her back, even divine beings were sadly prone towards gossip. She put the anger at her subordinates/coworkers out of her mind for now; even if she didn’t particularly LIKE Jason, he still didn’t deserve her coming in with baggage.

Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed that she’d arrived in front of the conference room door. She had been mulling over her thoughts, just staring into nothingness, for several minutes before she finally snapped back to the present. With a soft rap on the door, she opened it and floated inside. Jason was lounging, sprawled out on the regally padded chair throne he so fancied.

They exchanged pleasantries before she sat down to go over the mission summary. Upon seeing the cause of death, she had regrettably lost her composure and started to laugh uncontrollably. Her mighty subordinate had been felled by a goblin?! The mighty Jason Alexander Coyle, “mercenary extraordinaire”, had gotten his shit kicked in by a lowly goblin using what looked like a shiny butter knife. Oh, it was just too rich to not laugh at the absurdity.

It took her much longer than she would like to admit, to stop laughing. Jason of course wore a sour look through the entire endeavor. She shrugged it off, she had little doubt that if the same thing had happened to someone else, he would have been right beside her doubled over in laughter. Hell, once he was in a less pissy mood, she might even be able to get him to laugh about it later.

As luck would have it, it appeared that Jason’s actions had been enough to alter the tides of the war. The kingdom, and its divinity, would still lose many to the battles ahead, but Jason had done enough that the Agency could still bill the client for services rendered. As she spoke, she could see the disdain the man had for her, he always complained that she was drunk and reeked of liquor. Sure, that was often true, but he didn’t need to be such a stick in the mud about it all.

She went ahead and authorized the transfer of credits to Jason’s account. As soon as she did so, he opened up the store page and tuned her out. She watched him open up the back-channel site and purchase something, a small part of her wondered who was going to get roasted over the coals this time for allowing their admin privileges to be hacked. She toyed with the idea of bringing up his illegal actions, but truth be told she didn’t really give a shit. The other divinities were far too lax with their security, it had been child's play for one of her previous wards to hack into the Agency’s system and build the black site.

She’d ask him once about the whole thing, didn’t really grasp as much as she would have liked, but basically it functioned by spoofing a handler's credentials. This allowed the user to gain access to encrypted parts of the network, specifically access to certain privileged services that handlers enjoyed and most importantly, access to the mission assignment database. Users could buy and sell restricted or banned goods, and a part of the profits would be siphoned off to her ward’s personal account.

With Jason’s attention otherwise occupied, Ruby went ahead and reviewed the logs for his previous mission. Something about it was nagging at her. She couldn’t put it into words; however, the whole series of events just didn’t feel like ‘bad luck’. Using her divine authority, she rewound events, watching Jason’s lungs unfill with blood and refill with air.

The goblin skulked back to its den of corpses, resheathing the dagger at its hips, and reburied itself underneath the bodies. She let it rewind another few moments before stopping the feed and letting it run at normal time. She watched the goblin, slowly shifting the bodies out of the way, making sure they made no noise when it moved them. Slowly, carefully, it began to creep towards Jason’s exposed back. It drew the blade, again slowly and quietly. It closed the distance making sure to never let Jason see it or to give him any reason to think someone was behind him. Then in a flash of movement it leapt, burying the dagger right into a joint in Jason’s armor. The placement was perfect, no resistance, so the blade sank to the hilt. Allowing it to puncture Jason’s right lung.

Ruby rewound the log once more. This was wrong, very wrong. The goblin was way too good to just be some random grunt. Its movements were too smooth, its aim too precise. No, she was sure of it now, this was not a normal goblin. She focused her attention on the thing, aiming to scan the goblin for abnormalities, the dust covering it offering a surprising level of resistance to her scan. Not enough to stop her from doing what she wanted, but more resistance than she felt was reasonable for the anti-magic powder.

When she finally gained access to the monster’s stat block, her suspicions were proven correct. That was no normal goblin, that was a Redcap, a Redcap assassin no less. What in the dozen hells was a Redcap assassin doing in the middle of a freaking battlefield?! Such a valuable unit wouldn’t be used on the front lines, their skill set was terribly suited for the chaos that was an active battle. No, something was very wrong here and Ruby was going to figure out what.

As her mind raced trying to puzzle out what the actual fuck was going on, something else about the goblin flagged in her mind. It had come out of the corpse pile with the dagger already in its possession. She highlighted the various bodies that had made up the goblin's hidey hole, and then rewound the scene back. Every time one of the highlighted bodies met their fate, she froze the moment and pulled the scene into a separate window. It took a few minutes, but she eventually had all of the corpses frozen in the heartbeat before their deaths. She went through and scanned every single individual. Not a single one had been equipped with a magic disruptor blade. “So, where the fuck did the Redcap get a kingdom issued disruptor?”

Looking up, she saw that Jason was still fiddling with whatever it was that he bought. She tried to make idle conversation with the man, but he had gone full auto pilot, giving curt one-to-two word answers when asked a question or having to respond to a comment. She rolled her eyes, as much as she and him butted heads, she did have to admit that she did kind of like the guy. He had been going a little too hard into the whole dark and brooding edge lord thing recently, but that was hardly his fault. The human soul was ill suited to withstand the trauma of death, much less multiple deaths. The Agency usually did a memory scrub every couple missions, to prevent that kind of issue, but Jason had been dodging the screenings. For a moment she considered just letting sleeping dogs lie. Jason was dead and the mission was over regardless of what she might find, but the whole thing just rubbed her the wrong way.

Taking a little nip from her pocket flask, she once more focuses her attention on the Redcap. After scrubbing through the last several months of the creature’s life, she finally finds what she was looking for. The blade had come from one of Jason’s personal guards.

Ruby did a deep dive on the guard, and what came back made her blood run cold. The man had recently lost his lover. Jason had ordered a company to mop up a fleeing enemy force, before it could regroup and cause more issues. The entire thing had been a ruse and the company had been slaughtered to the last. The guard's lover had been part of that company. The loss had hit the man hard, driving him to the only rock left in his life. His deep belief in the kingdom’s divinity.

And wouldn’t you know it, apparently the kingdom’s divinity had some issues with Jason that it couldn’t be bothered to address through the proper channels. So instead of letting Ruby handle the trainwreck that was Jason’s social skills, this little scum lord of a God, had taken upon themself to deal with the issue. Several months of holy visions were enough to convince the grieving widow to betray everyone and everything he had ever known.

Once the guard had been properly brainwashed into turning his coat, it had been a simple matter to worm his way on to all of Jason’s post-fight surveys of the battlefield. The magic scanners that were exclusive to Jason’s retinue, had allowed him to see that Jason’s inhuman ability to avoid taking damage was really just a creative use of high-level magic. High-level magic that could have easily been used to save many of the kingdom’s soldiers. But of course, Jason believed himself too good to give the common man a means to protect themselves and those they loved. All this knowledge was of course worthless to the guard, he was nowhere near skilled enough to actually challenge Jason. But wouldn’t you know it, the divinity had thought of that too.

The podunk worm had brokered a secret deal with the enemy he’d contracted the Agency to deal with. In exchange for getting rid of a thorn in the God’s side, it would use its powers to scale back the war. Instead of facing a war of eradication, the enemy would be allowed to keep some of the land it had conquered.

At the urging of his God, the guard held a series of clandestine meetings with the Redcap. Imparting all the information he had learned in the months of shadowing Jason. He also gave the beast two gifts, the first was a Disruptor blade the guard had swiped from a fellow honor guard; when Jason’s corpse was found the blade would be traced back to the unfortunate guard instead of the traitor. The second was a satchel of Grarothian powder that had been blessed by the divinity, to ensure that Jason wouldn’t see the attack coming. It had worked of course; Jason hadn’t even known he was in danger till the blade was already buried in his lung. Oh, she was going to have the wannabe God’s head on a pike after this.

It pained her to admit it, but Jason deserved the final say in how this was all going to go down. She attempted to grab his attention, but the man was lost in his own little world. She tried waving her hands, ignored. She tried snapping her fingers in his ears, ignored. She even went so far as to beat her wings, blasting his face with the wind force of just under a category 1 hurricane; again ignored. Her rage was starting to reach fever pitch. So, she defaulted to the most tried and true method of stress reduction she had in her arsenal. She decided the only way for herself and Jason, once he knew the truth, to calm down would be to relax with a drink of the finest Earth treats.

With a heavy heart she opened up her most beloved extra planer storage space. This place was used for the only two things Ruby really cared about anymore. It was where she kept her most prized and coveted liquor, and where she kept the last few mementos, she possessed of her fallen wards. Her eyes scanned the room, she needed to pick the right apology gift. As she carefully made her way towards the back, she saw it. Tucked in about two thirds of the way to the back wall, stood a single hogshead of ancient scotch whiskey. The second to last gift she had received from one of her dearest friends, all those years ago.

Yes, this was the correct one. She felt it deep within her chest, a proper atonement requires a proper level of sacrifice. With a heavy heart she lifted the barrel over her head and began to stride out of the extra dimensional space. As she neared the opening, the soft clink of something falling and a flash of gold caught her eye. Sitting on a tiny end table was a small pouch of coins, one of which had somehow gotten loose and tumbled face up onto the polished table face.

For a moment she hesitated, she knew exactly what those coins were; and knew how much trouble she would get into if upper management found out she had them. That said, she also knew a sign when she saw one. The artifacts that she held within this place were the last remnants of those she had failed most of all. She pondered the meaning behind the fact that two of her previous charges seemed to have taken a shine to Jason, offering up to him their most precious of gifts. With a heavy heart and a plea to those long lost, she grabbed the coin before closing the pocket dimension.

With a loud *CLUNK* She set the hogshead down. Apparently, the sound of the barrel had finally made enough noise to draw Jason’s attention away from his screen. From a much smaller storage pocket she produced two crystal glasses. Pouring a hefty serving into each glass, she set one down in front of herself and the other in front of Jason. Locking eyes with the man, she said a single word.

“Drink”

The man twisted his face up in disgust at the sight of the liquor.

“Thanks, but no thanks, I’m not inclined to degr...”

“I said, DRINK!” Ruby growl bellows, casting the Command spell on the last word. Jason, despite his best efforts to ignore the compulsion, is forced to do as he is told, and takes a hearty swig of his hundred-year-old Scotch. With a smile on her lips, Ruby takes the opportunity to sip the illustrious gift. The hours melt away as they both sip and savor the deep complex flavors of this legendary brew.

As the drink flows her recollection of events becomes just a tad bit hazy. She can’t really remember how long it takes, but she does eventually come clean about the reason for this impromptu bout of drinking. It comes as little shock that Jason is... less than pleased to learn about the events that led to his death. He downs the rest of his drink in a single gulp, a waste of grand booze in Ruby’s opinion, and demands she fill his next one to the brim. For the first time in FAR too long, Ruby gets to see the Jason she had known all those years ago was still in there.

As the festivities carried on, she would occasionally catch him fiddling with the token he had bought. Curiosity finally getting the better of her, she decided to ask him about it, deciding to NOT mention that she knew it was illicitly purchased. He was cagey about it at first, but eventually loosened up and told her the truth.

He had grown bored with the usual missions that he had been assigned. He was sick of always having to play support, always cleaning up someone else’s messes, always laying the groundwork for someone else’s story. So, he had decided to cash in his points, and finally make use of the vacation time he had accrued. He had picked out what looked to be a pretty basic Isekai mission. Ruby suggested not mentioning his luck to anyone else, even she was aware how rare and coveted those missions were.

As the night wound to a close, they said their goodbyes. Before taking her leave, Ruby remembered the other present she had for Jason. A sharp whistle was the only warning she gave him before flicking the coin at his head. Even drunk, the man’s senses were still a thing to marvel at as he caught it in midair .

“The fuck is this?”

“Think of it as a gift.” She snorts.

“Oh, how generous of you. A whole gold coin, whatever will I spend it on.” Jason responds as he jangles the large coin pouch at his hip.

“Oh, fuck off. I’ll take it back if you’re going to be a brat about it.”

Jason drops the coin into his wallet and shakes it again for good measure. “Oops, too late now. Guess you’ll just have to let me keep it.” He gives her a smug grin.

She scoffed before turning around and making for the door. She could hear him activate the token as she closed the door behind her. As she wandered down the hallways back to her room, she pondered the events of the day. The rogue client would need to be dealt with, but she still wasn’t sure if burying him in legal paperwork for the next millennia or two, or just giving him a good old fashion human curb stomping, was the better punishment for his actions.

The choices bounced around in her head till she finally reached her residence. Having made no real progress in deciding her actions, she elected to just table the decision till she woke up next. The God was small time, so it wasn’t like it was going anywhere.

She took her time getting ready to sleep. Being a divine being herself, she didn’t actually NEED to sleep, but she did so enjoy the human customs surrounding the whole process. She took a long hot bath to unwind, before summoning a pair of adorable pajamas. Her body clean, and her mind at peace she laid down in her oversized excessively fluffy bed.

She had barely closed her eyes and began to drift off to blissful sleep, before she was awoken once again by the sound of her alarm going off.

“You have got to be shitting me. HOW?!?!”

I've just returned to valorant about 2 weeks ago after a break of a little over a year. I peaked diamond before I stopped last year but I only ranked in silver 2 when I returned, which is understandable since my aim was garbage. But now, my aim is back to normal (my aimlabs scores are actually better than when I peaked diamond)(same with range hard bots and whatnot)(plus I just feel it's back lol), but I'm still getting stomped in Gold(got back to gold few days ago).
Have the players just gotten that much better? Or am I actually not as good as I think I am? From what I can tell my mechanics are only slightly worse but not to the point where I should be getting destroyed as I am right now. Another likely scenario is that my reactions have gotten very slow, because in game the enemy team pretty much always has that 1 guy I can never react to. Just peak and 1 tap and I'm out. And this has been consistent for the last 3 days
So I have 4 questions for the community.
How can I improve my reaction time?
How can I become consistent again?
Should I be aware of any new mechanics that have been popularised this last year?
Or is it just the fact that the level of play has increased within the last year to the point that a diamond player then is now at the same skill level as low gold?

I have always been plus size. Now I’m a 22 year old college student and a size 16/18. Right now my sister F19 and I are home from college. My sister is probably a size 2 or maybe 4. She’s also way more socially adept than I am and is part of the college party scene. I’m a neurodivergent introvert.
This summer my sister is going on some dates with guys she’s known from high school. They are conventionally attractive athletes, who I used to so desperately want to date. Today she’s going out with a guy who is a junior hockey player and will be playing hockey at Notre Dame. He’s absolutely gorgeous.
I feel terrible, because I know that I would never be enough for these guys. Currently, I’m seeing someone, but I feel like a relationship is going through some turmoil. It’s really hard to be happy for my sister, when I feel like I’m at an unfair disadvantage. Honestly, sometimes I think about not talking to her, because it hurts me to see her succeed in these areas. I feel terrible, because I love my sister. It just hurts that. I’ll never be as beautiful as she is. How do you guys cope with having been relatives particularly female relatives?

I was constantly running out of storage on my phone, deleted Anki and several other things... and for months I couldn't find out what was going on. My phone (Huawei) didn't actually show in the list of apps that Anki was taking up all that space, it only showed 106MB.
I only found out after clicking on Ankidroid in the apps list and then on the less conspicuous option "Manage Storage", as you can see below 5.6GB + 6.1GB (only those 4 German decks with audio... I used to have many more decks synced in the past, like 40GB or more... no wonder my phone was always running out of space).
I had deleted Ankidroid, but it didn't solve the problem, merely the app was deleted, I didn't know that the whole collection remained stored in the phone. A "clean up" of residual files didn't delete it either. I had to reinstall Ankidroid, go back to that "Manage Storage" and delete all the data from there.
If you also have problems with storage, I would suggest you sync only decks you absolutely use in your phone. It takes up a lot of storage in the computer too... So if you guys have any other suggestions to manage Anki storage...
I'm not complaining... This is just to help people who might have the same problem.
https://preview.redd.it/tl8nkfbx3e0d1.png?width=391&format=png&auto=webp&s=1121032a41d5d7b9f64bbed75191807496800012
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1. He holds the position of fleet admiral, the previous fleet admiral sengoku was relative to WB, Roger, Shiki and all the other top pirates of his era. This makes sense b/c a fleet admiral is supposed to be the strongest marine so it’s only logical that he can handle the strongest pirates. So, akainu, a fleet admiral, should be equal to or nearly equal to yonko like Kaido, Big Mom, Luffy etc.
   
2. Narratively, Akainu killed Ace and left the most prominent scar on Luffy’s body that is visible at all times. Akainu is even more hated than BB by Luffy, if people think Luffy is gonna low or mid diff him than they don’t understand Oda’s writing and how escalation works. It will likely be an extreme diff fight.
   
3. His portrayal at marineford was great, he did the most contributing damage to WB, took off guard island splitting attack and got up, oden in comparison took a weaker attack and got one shot when he was off guard. He also was shown facing off with Croc+ Marco+Vista+ten other WB commanders and fought them offscreen. If you compare this to other characters like Mihawk who got stalled by a single commander or the other admirals who got stalled by a single commander, it is obvious that Akainu was meant to be >Mihawk, Kizaru and Aokiji.
   
4. Has the best endurance feat fighting 10 days agonist aokiji, and Aokiji has great armament and punching power as seen with the Garp fight where he matched him in that. Garp may have been old but he’s still strong and Aokiji took his attacks without much issue. Akainu beating Aokiji was a great feat since we haven’t seen the limit of how strong Aokiji is either. He was being soft against Garp which let him get hit by the blue hole and other attacks, and yet he still won.
   

Conclusion: Akainu scales to all the yonko, him v Luffy is debatable but I think he beats Big Mom, beats BB and pushes Kaido to extreme diff.

Hey guys I'll trade a mooneglow shiftpod (for 4 people) and a premier parking pass for a ga+ or vip fest band. Meet up Thursday night or Friday In vegas. I ended up with 2 pods and only need one

Let's go back to season one, where everything started and lowkey set the tone for everything else.
- JWOWW was the IT GIRL! 3/4 Guys and after the boyfriend reveal 2/4 Guys. Her and Ron stayed friends/bestfriends. To quote Ron; "Jlo is my go-to girl in the house."
- Angelina was her closest friend before she left the first time around. They cliqued up together to watch the guys, talk smack and just generally formed a bond in a short amount of time.
- Snooki. Although she disliked her at first towards the end she did really like her.
I think Sam was intimidated by Jenni and I think her insecurity stemmed from that. (For anybody who didn't know; Ron had a crush on Jenni from the NY Party Scene, but when he found out she had a BF he backed off.)
Examples: Snooki telling Sammi that Ronnie left with Jwoww and her first instinct is to "knock a b up." When she arrived, she assumed they hooked up. On Boardwalk Blowups, even though Snooki misspoke and included Jenni in her opinion, the way Sam reacted even after Ron found out it was just Snooki who felt that way. She still included Jenni. Before that she doubled down and said "I don't talk to anybody."
Now, for season two. Prior to S2 starting, Angelina did multiple interviews about JS including talking smack on Mike's cell on speaker phone. So- she was alr on everybody shit list because they agreed to not reveal anything. J420, Joey Yanks, Bill.
- Snooki is Sam's closest friend at this point, but she's also the smallest girl. Y'all know this comes into play when it's revealed Ron had been threatening her and even then pushed her. Even though she adamantly wanted to tell Sam, for safety reasons, she really couldn't. Snooki is 4'9.
- Jwoww was Sam's friend by proxy. They didn't have a deep enough relationship and she was more closer to Ron than Sam. Which makes it so much worse when you found out she told Sam to her face multiple times before the Note even happened.
- Angelina. Although a touchy subject. She really did try to give Ang another chance under the circumstances until Vinny revealed. Also, when she was leaving, Sam was like; "When your friend was over, you treated me very different."
Sam did tell Angelina she would be more inclined to forgive Snooki because "Snooki is harmless." But Snooki would never switch sides because in S1 after the punch, Jwoww really stuck to her side.
Finally, season three. A lot of fourth wall breaks because they made them watch S2 whilst filming S3.
- Deena. All because she's Snooki's friend. Very rude. That whole first night and D is small too.
Even though Sam apologized to Deena & Snooki. Deena said in a confessional, because Jwoww has always been nice to her, her loyalty is with Jwoww. Snooki went to talk to Jwoww about Sam apologizing and Jwoww said; "She didn't apologize to me." I don't think she ever did. Jwoww eventually extended an olive branch.
Honorable Mention: Season Four. Locals were hostile and didn't want them there. Mike going through withdrawals. Jenni had a miscarriage and her grandmother died. Ronpage.
- Sam in confessional said about Jwoww; "Who knew the two enemies in the house would be this close together."
What I take from this cause everybody was really scared. Deena gently pulling Sammi out of the room whilst Jenni tries to deescalate Ron. Vinny makes one off hand remark and Sammi took it literal towards the point Jenni is crying, pleading and begging for her to get out the room.
So I will say by the end of S4, she had girl friends. I'm happy after years of therapy and healing, they were able to have a sit down and discuss.
(No, I'm not defending Ron. I will say the Boys checked out of the Rammi relationship in s2. Mainly because Ron attacked Vinny, held Jenni down so Sam could hit her and etc. Although Vinny was the main one separating fights. The lot of them were sick of production letting it go so long and so far. Hell, even Angelina broke the fourth wall in s2 because Ronnie's interference was so bad. I, also think they used the Arvin Situation to keep them separated because they were mentally exhausted.)

Welcome to fucking Russia people, here's the result of your "peaceful" protests, there are barely over 1k people out there, when there should have been more than 100k.

Before you ignite your torch and grab your fork, let me explain. I trust my DM and every DM that I agree to play with that they will make a good and fun campaign. However, that I'd a long term trust. In a short term trust, in some cases, I don't and will never trust 100% in the DM. Specially if he refuses to explain things.
For example, if we are fighting a guy, and in the middle of the combat combat, 2 more appears far way, run 200ft to us and still attack in one single turn, I will question the DM how they did that (real example, that really happened) and he will refuse to explain, he will just treat like some mysterious thing that we shouldn't (and will ever) know.
Now, straight to the point, I casted some saving throw spells that could turn the plot favorable to the players, a cast suggestion one time we encountered the boss of that arc (but that wasn't the time to fight him) and asked him to reveal all his plans, thr master rolled hidden and, guess what, he passed. I also cast banishment on a monster we encountered in a mountain, my turn was the first, if the monster failed we could avoid one entire combat, but he passed either way. The point is, everything my saving throw spell could change the course of the plot, "coincidentally" the enemy always passes.
Some points I should make: First: I know some people will tell me that I should trust the DM and not play with him if I don't. I read a post in this sub about a campaign that all the players quitted after discovering that the DM didn't manage the monster's HP, he just said the monster died when he thought that was good enough. This is an extreme (but valid) example that trusting the DM shouldn't be reason to let him do what he wants, even because the DM not necessarily will know what the players want.
Second: I'm a DM myself for more than 3 years, my campaign started level 1 e and they are now level 18. I always roll open, the only time I don't roll open is when they shouldn't know a roll is being made at all.
Third: I talked already with some (not all) players of this campaign about DM rolling open and they agreed, but not necessarily that I should ask the DM to do so.
My fear is that the DM feel offended or the relationship becomes weird. I've already sent some critics to him in private and sometime we spend hours discussing, but I'm really enjoying the campaign and don't want to quit.

Okay random but there are some errors with Reddit this morning and it won't let me upload my chart. Spoiler alert, I really don't need to do it in the first place bc the chart is pretty much unchanged. The entire market is pretty much in a holding pattern as it waits for CPI. PPI came out this morning and spoiler alert, it was hot. I think we were expecting that a bit as inflation proves sticky and I think overall a hot inflation report all but kills any hopes you get anything more than 1 rate cut this year.
Some people have been saying that they are still thinking 2-3 cuts and these guys haven't been paying attention if ya ask me. That is overly optimistic. The fed slowing down QT is a BIG BIG deal and that starts next month. That should bring yields on the 10 year start to drop. It's not going to be as dramatic as quantitative easing might be with the buying of treasuries. But it will really take away that upward pressure that has been on the 10 year which should help growth stock markets like us.
Why am I talking about all of this???? Well (may not seem like it at the moment) but we are a great growth stock. We are moving so flat and volume has completely dropped off as the entire market is waiting for CPI and ultimately NVDA's earnings. Seeing the meme stocks return was NOT on my bingo card for 2024 so good god. Massive speculation in the market is something to watch out for. If you see any crazy price spikes as dumb money flows in, I would be cautiously optimistic for sure.
AMD has really lost the narrative. I know this might not be popular to say but I've said it in the comments and discussion multiple times. Market is looking at new ATH and we are still soooo far off after literally DOUBLING our sales guidance. It's not a failure of execution. It is a failure of communication and narrative. Computex is our last really chance in the next 6 months to try to regain control of the microphone. I feel in my bones that Zen 5 is coming but we really need another "one more thing" moment that isn't super super technical. The fact that everyone is all quiet on MI300 chip sales and things makes me wonder if they don't want to sing the praises bc they already have a 2nd gen? They might be wanting to really just make it through initial order deliveries before seeing potential cancellations for 2nd gen. This is allllll just pure speculation here. There is zero data to support this.
I just remember when we were fighting these DC wars with INTC, it felt like there was articles every single day coming out about how Genoa and Epyc were destroying the competition. Now radio silence. And I don't know why???? I hope it is by design for some reason but if is not, then honestly every single person on their marketing team HAS to be fired. There needs to be a shakeup for real.
At the end of the day, This price action is giving us a decent value proposition for AMD where our valuation is starting to catch up to our share price. AMD isn't a value stock. If we were, then where is the dividend lol. I do worry that eventually shareholders are going to start to look for some sort of leadership shakeup and this is going to tarnish what Lisa has accomplished with AMD.
AMD it stuck in this middle ground of nothing and we are riding the bottom trendline of $150 for our channel. Hopefully we can hold on here but without holding support in this area, then we are being set up for a massive potential downturn if NVDA misses somehow. We are going to get crushed and get 3x the pain NVDA and we aren't going to get nearly any of the benefit if they beat. Welcome to the suck!

Like I said before the guy is a fraud…..I challenge him to step into the live stream arena and fight….anyone with a pulse….he won’t.

Could Vicente beat Silver in a fight. What do you guys think?

So I was looking for a second home on and off for about a year. Most of the homes in the area I wanted were overpriced without any updates, with sellers unwilling to wiggle on anything (current housing market is trash tbh).
I got on the phone and cried to my realtor, telling him I was throwing in the towel (this second home wasn’t a vacation home, that’s all I’ll say without getting into detail).
That night, I did SATS. Usually I was affirming, but I’ve noticed that sometimes SATS just works better and sometimes affirming works better. I imagined my realtor saying that he found the perfect home. I imagined myself looking at it with excitement, feeling like I finally found a fair deal on a home that was beautifully maintained and updated.
The next morning, the realtor called me to tell me a previous home I liked wasn’t available. While we were talking, he emailed me some more homes to see. While on the phone, I noticed one of the houses actually looked good. We hung up and I looked at the listing a few more times. My gut feeling said this was the one.
I texted the realtor saying I wanted to make an offer sight unseen (I live 35 min from the area and many times even just driving there to see a house someone would already have made a compelling offer). He went to the home (he was close by) and made me a video. I fell in love and signed an offer that night.
The most important part here is that there was an open house scheduled for 4-5 days away. Most people were doing open houses and making the buyers fight over the house by offering over asking price. The sellers realtor suggested to the seller that they cancel the open house and take our offer (of just asking price) and they ended up canceling it and taking our offer.
We visited the home for the inspection and not only is it perfect to my specifications I was affirming the whole time through affirmations, but inspector said the house was immaculately maintained and in great condition (something I wasn’t seeing anywhere with other houses).
Everything you want is already yours, and exactly how you want it too. Love? Wealth? Housing? Things? It’s all yours. Look at my post history, I found my SP through the law. We are now moving in together and so madly in love. Love I never experienced until I learned the law and decided exactly the kind of relationship I wanted. This house is so beautiful, the price is fair, and life is good.