I'll start by saying I'm not much of a Reddit user. My first contact with Nix was on some project I worked on about 2 years ago, but I couldn't get the Nix package manager working reliably on my Fedora install (something that still hasn't been solved, btw). Recently, after being recommended some youtube videos, I decided to try the whole thing, NixOS, under the expectation that the Nix package manager would work well under its own operational system. And it does, but NixOS doesn't. It reminds me of that old Docker joke: "we used to have environment problems, now we only have Docker problems".
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea of declarative configurations and using nixos-rebuild to build the system as you wish, but pretty much nothing runs on this OS.
I started by trying some random pieces of code I had previously written. One that caught my attention was written in Haskell, as Haskellians love Nix and it seems to be well integrated. To my surprise, I wasn't able to get a single Haskell project to build through Nix, despite copy-pasting dozens of flakes I found online on tutorials. Oh yeah, and on the topic of flakes, how the fuck are they "extra-experimental" and yet recommended by every tutorial? Anyways, after a few days of trying, the best I could do was use Stack (One of Haskell's "native" package manager) with the nix setting configured. nix develop or nix build would, inevitably, give me weird errors that I couldn't solve through googling, fiddling, or asking AIs for help.
I gave up on the "random pieces of code" idea and decided to try a github project I had been eyeing for a while. To my surprise, couldn't get a simple javascript code to run. As it turns out, node uses some global paths that won't work on NixOS because they're owned by root. Of course, you can sudo everything but that's a terrible practice - especially with a random github project I don't quite trust. Googling it got me vague results, none of which works. Yarn didn't work either, and neither did bun. Mind you, this is one of the most popular languages in the world, and one of the few I can confidently say is running on your machine as you're reading this post, and yet I can't get it to work.
Not willing to accept defeat, I decided to just YOLO and sudo npm install. While it worked, the project uses playwright - which also doesn't work on NixOS. And even worse, it doesn't work even if I sudo it. After googling a bit I found a few instructions, once again none of which worked. At this point I thought the code I was cloning might have been bad, but on my Fedora machine it ran fine with no setup effort.
Being completed defeated, I came to Reddit to search for solutions and, not only did I not find anything, I was struck with the news that this project lost dozens of core contributors in the last weeks. Something about the Haskell drone maker and a guy putting a picture of a steak on his profile? I don't get it, but this is beyond dumb. As enthusiastic as their replacements might be, the knowledge lost from shedding so many core devs can't be replaced. Thus, I conclude this post's title: I am confident none of my issues will be fixed in the near future - so this project is fucked.

On another Korean subreddit:

• Parent Accusing Me of Sexual Misconduct
• School is asking me to hide from the parents and come to work in private

If you have your blackbelt in Hagwon Ju Jitsu, the first thing (and this is what I DM'd the user) is to be highly suspicious of the take-down move going for the legs of "A parent / student said" maneuver. In search bar: Hagwon: Phantom Complaints. How to Fight Back
My clairvoyant comment 4 years ago:

If they need to get you out in a hurry, expect the scare tactic, "You molested a kid! Quick! Run to the airport and leave us all your money before we call the police!" -Hmmm, funny the PARENTS didn't call the police instead of the money-grubbing Hagwon owner.

The first 🚩 red flag 🚩 is, most places on earth would not have the staff contact you about a serious misdeed. The first time you heard about it would be a knock on your door from the police, and be told not to return to work until the situation has been resolved. This is because you are a flight risk and informing you of a crime would be the stupidest thing they could do. A Hagwonite mulling over whether to have the police involved is a clear sign it's made up. If an accusation is serious enough to be made by anyone, then there would be an official complaint made to the authorities and they would take it from there, and they would act quickly and no one would tip you off the wheels are in motion.

Also, I was told to move out of my apartment to make way for a new teacher, I am constantly being micromanaged, surveilled, and pulled into arguments, and now I'm receiving messages that a parent is accusing me of sexual misconduct.

🚩 Red flag #2 is that the relationship has been increasingly threatening, abusive, hostile etc. The foreigner hasn't taken the hint that they are not wanted and should pack up and head out, Midnight Run it. The Achilles heel of Hagwonites is to push the shame on to the target. They QUIT, couldn't handle it, were failures, left us high & dry without notice, broke the contract! They don't want to fire people except as a last resort due to labor laws and looking like they abused a person that didn't do anything wrong. Search bar: Resign, or I will harass you until you do!

First, it was all the arguments, one of which included the director screaming at me and almost crying on the phone at 8 pm while driving because I taught the students to spell "Cabbage" instead of "Lettuce".

--Never underestimate the depths a Hagwonite will stoop, to make a mountain out of a molehill. They are not very smart to begin with, so they find the smallest traffic violation and turn it into a 1st degree felony. That's happened to me, and I simply responded, "Yeah, so what?" I didn't allow them to drag me in to apologizing, groveling, get into the weeds about literally nothing, or any of that, the argument for the next 10 minutes was whether it was important or not, and if the subject was befitting someone in a management position who should be able to discern things that need attention and things that can be ignored. The intent is to harass and they won't leave until they have exhausted all of their energy and are happy with the victim's response to it. I concluded by saying it was not important and I'm not changing anything. They can teach the class themselves if they think they can go the entire day without making a single error.
🚩 Red flag #3, ridiculous reasons and excuses, -no evidence.

I eventually received a call from the director telling that one of the parents believes that her daughter saw my private area in the bathroom (I am a male teacher and this accusation or anything close to it never occurred)

1. Oh yeah? Which parent? What's the student's name, which classroom of mine is she in, what time did this occur, and why would she be in the men's bathroom? Let me see the CCTV footage?
   
2. It's so weak, it's obviously made up. The foreigner would certainly have seen a student of the opposite gender in his bathroom and told them to leave and would not have unzipped anything if that happened.
   
3. What is a student doing entering or peeping into the men's rest room in the first place? That sounds like student misconduct to me. Why isn't the parent being told to correct their child's behavior and none of this would be an issue?
   
4. It's not illegal to pull your junk out in the rest room and try to relieve yourself, that's what it's for, it's not the hallway or classroom.
   

In the follow-up: School is asking me to hide from the parents and come to work in private
is by-the-numbers attempt to continue to harass, but the director doesn't know what to do after a lawyer was called. So first it was a "major" problem of exposing himself to a student, then when a lawyer contact the school, that was an even bigger error by the employee. Wow, no one can ever do anything right in that place.

Fast forward, the attorney contacted the school, the school says no police were coming to talk to me, but instead, the school talked to the police already on my behalf and I will not be talking to police, so I shouldn't worry.

--NONE OF THIS HAPPENED! Ask the attorney to call the precinct and ask for a copy of the POLICE REPORT. They have to fill out any interaction with the public so it's not all from memory, even if no action is taken. The next officer that fields a call about it, can pull up the report and get a summary of events, dates, names etc.

AND IT JUST GETS STUPIDER

Now, my school is asking me to no longer come to work at 9 am and greet the parents, but instead, come to work 30 minutes earlier, hide from the parents, not teach kindergarten anymore, and sit behind a computer on a different floor, alone, doing random administrative tasks.

--A blackbelt would NEVER come in to work 30 minutes earlier without pay. They would absolutely make their presence known to the parents and children so that the lies they were told, would visually be false. They are trying to hide the employee until they quit or get fired, or may have already told everyone a lie that they ran off w/o notice, because that's what they were expecting from the false sexual exposure claim.
Why cooperate? Come down from 2nd floor, walk around, enter the classroom, say hi to everyone when they show and leave.
Why would the other 4 foreigners cooperate? This is a serious accusation, they should all refuse work until the director is made to apologize and reinstate the teacher.
They are apparently bleeding student numbers, are in way over their heads, barely a year old, are over-staffed now, and need to shed labor costs. A foreigner strike would be the nail in the coffin. They would have to reverse themselves, or face foreclosure in about a week after parents yank their kids not having a NET teaching them.
A golden opportunity to bring them to their knees will undoubtedly be totally wasted. It's like the entire defense fell down, and the person with the ball is not sure whether they should go for a lay-up or not.....ridiculous.

For context, I post cool teams that I made using some underplayed path or tactic, and on the last one, Unorthodox Gameplay 3 : Monarchnesis, a fellow user u/Alexandergus (COME, SAY HI TO EVERYONE) asked me to build a team with not only Anamnesis, but Berserker Helion as well... And as the title says : ASK AND THOU SHALL RECEIVE
Sidenote: If there's too much text for your liking, dear reader, feel free to skip to the summary part down bellow ;)
So, with that out of the way, let's get to strats!

Occultist

I took inspiration on a setup that ShuffleFM (Darkest Dungeon youtuber,twitch streamer and really good reference) showcased on one of his teams. The concept is that you have a Virtuoso Jester using Encore on Occultist, which proceeds to Chaotic Offering on his bonus turn, generating an Unlimited Power Token(UP). After that, when the regular Occ turn rolls in, he gets the second UP because of the turn start effect, which he originally used to nuke someone with Warlock's Burning Stars turn 1; on my case is to perform Aspirant Anamnesis and open the first turn with a really strong cleave, I also run Burning Stars as an option for larger enemies like size 2s or bosses.

Jester

As for the Jester, since I'm basing my entire schtick on Encore, I'm also running Solo and Finale. That's because you can actually use the dazed in your favor and the cooldowns sync. EG: Encore turn 1 > gets dazed and pushed to last turn 2 action order > Solo > Forward 3> gets Speed token and Jester, specially Virtuoso is really fast > goes first on turn 3 > uses Finale > Back 3 and dazed >If encounter's still going, Encore and Repeat. I topped him with Inspiring Tune for Stress heal (literally the best in the game) and Razor's Wit for poke.

Helion

Now let's talk about Helion. She likes the cleave since it helps her kill rank 4 in 1 turn with Iron Swan, specially ordained and modified enemies like elite and sturdy, not only that but as she's Berserk and is at Rank 1, I run Bleed Out as a strong option after I dealed with the backline; Bleed Out doesn't even have a cooldown, it "just" grants you winded tokens, which means you can spam it to stack monstrous bleeds. I just did act 3 and had 18 bleeds on the last phase for 5 turns (I crited). Another synergy is that after you cast Burning Stars at a chonky target, it gets combo; Bleed Out on Berserker on a combo tarket has 63% BLEED PIERCING. It's basically guaranteed (unless you're using this on Warlord, this bastard has 100 base... He's a VERY good reason to not go overboard on bleeds; not only that but if your whole team wants to bleed someone, you'll end up fighting for the same trinkets). For the rest of her kit, I had Toe to Toe for Taunt, Rooted and movement, Adrenaline Rush for heals and Bloodlust for really long fights and as an alternative to remove Winded tokens that isn't dependent on Adrenaline Rush's health threshold AND grants 30% more damage against bleeding targets. With Jester Encore, you can mix a ton of good sequences, specially in later stages of the fight, granting Helion bonus actions, for example stacking Bleed Out faster, or clearing winded with Bloodlust/ Adrenaline Rush/Toe to Toe+ and then hitting again with Bleed Out.

Plague Doctor

And to stitch the team together, I chose Plague Doctor as the Rank 4 hero, but not any Plague Doctor; Physician. I managed to weld together Physician, Anamnesis and Bleed Out and it's ...GOOD? The thing with Physician is that, except for Magnesium Rain that has a cooldown of 3 turns, she doesn't have a damaging skill to use. Instead, her supportive capabilities are enhanced, and they're great with this team because she provides much needed utility with crowd control, corpse clearing, heals and offensive tokens.
Usefulness Utility listed bellow!

• Turn 1 she can use Emboldening Vapors on Occ to boost Anamnesis and Burning Stars, not only that but on this path this skill grants 2 Strenght Tokens instead of 1, with a cooldown of 1 turn or 0 when upgraded.
  
  • She can blind and daze the two backrow enemies wit Blinding Gas+ to delay their actions long enough so Helion and Occ can make quick work of Rank 4 before the target does something WHILE Rank 3 is Blinded!
  • Magnesium Rain is good for chip damage, dodge clearing and corpse removal(therefore, Bleed Out setup)
  • Heals are as great as ever!
  • Even Ounce of Prevention gets an honorable mention for better handling heavy DOT enemy comps and diseases, like creature dens and the Sprawl; and at this path even grants Stress Damage RES
  But one of the reasons I really liked Phys here is because the team can make full use of her Disorienting Blast, which not only has +20% Stun Piercing on upgrade with combo, but grants Vulnerable as well. A problem I had is that some key heavy hitting skills from the rest of the cast are heavelly reliant on position, like Leper's Chop hitting Ranks 1 and 2, PBS hitting 1, Pistol Shot not hitting 1; so it was kinda like a gamble most of the time. But Finale and Burning Stars hit ALL ranks REALLY HARD ; which means that it doesn't really matter where the enemy ends up, it's going to get CLAPPED. Helion also makes good use of it in later stages of the fight, where your Magnesium Rain is on cooldown and the enemy is standing at rank 2, where rank 1 is a corpse and rank 3 and 4 are cleared. You can try to fish it and grant vulnerable at the same time; it's good!
  

Maps

For regions, try to prioritize the Shroud, for the bleed trinkets for Helion and Ocultist and other trinkets for the Jester, like Seamen's Boots and Compass.
Defensive trinkets on Helion aren't bad either, since she's gonna eat 80% of the hits thrown at her, so Tangle isn't a bad choice. Burning Stars ignores Block and Blinding Gas can help by "dodging" some heavy hitting moves.
Sprawl can be okay because of burn trinkets that can up the usefulness of Mag. Rain and speedy trinkets for Jester
Foetor is the lowest priority map to go, literally no one wants blight buffing trinkets and you even risk getting your heroes sick; I'd go if the map mission grants a good reward but that's about it.

Lair Boss matchups

• You can wreck Levi, specially with a bit of scaling since Bleed Out+ gives good damage with 6 points of bleed; the hand has 24 hp and the bleed by itself deals 18. Burning Stars is a Nuke as well as Finale. BTW he has a trophy that DOUBLES BLEED CAUSED. Just saying
  
• Dababy can be dealt with by Helion using Toe to Toe to lock her on Rank 1, which halts the hungering shenanigans from others behind her; try to get Holy Water to get rid of hunger tokens on Helly so you can Toe to Toe again. Other than that just play as normal with the Encore > Chaotic Offering > Emboldening Vapors > Burning Stars setup, use D. Blast as well to try and get Dababy out of Rank 1.
  
• Librarian is okay, try to have a few throwable items on Jester to spend his dodge tokens and try to Encore > Solo > Finale him. Helion can eat the Blinds thanks to Toe to Toe.
  
• The General is the one I worry the most, he has a huge healthpool and only takes 1 action per turn, which makes DOT tick slowly and gives him plenty of time to stall and disrupt you with his stress inducing attacks, Waking Dead and, if you don't deal with the root, Nightmare. I'd avoid fighting him if my team didn't scale enough and I'd bring Cause of Death+ to speed things up.
  

Pets

They are pretty flexible on this team. I like the Rabbit here since everyone has trouble tanking hits, so the bonus HP goes a long way if you get it rolling(HMMM FLAPJACKS). Some good optins are: - The Tick to get the blood for guaranteed crit tokens and huge damage and bleeds - The Owl helps the debuffs from PD to stick and can provide good flow of Combat Items - The Pliskin can be good since the team is squishy and can use more sustain between fights - The Slime if you like running over debris and don't want to deal with negative tokens - This last one is highly experimental and I still have to test it, but it got to my attention that Larval Carrion Eater can be good as a Crit token Generator, specially since Anamnesis cleaves the whole party. On turn 2 you'd have only 1 UP at your turn which means you can either heal or Sac Stab something. If you have Stab+, you can use it on a corpse, kill it, generate another UP, heal 30%, gain a Block Token and a Crit token for next round, and on that round you'll have 3 UPs at your disposal to spend. This translates to 2 Anamnesis / Burning Stars casted on sequence, since you would spend 2 on this turn, and you would generate another one at the beginning of your next turn. Try this at your own courage and peril (and tell me the results later!)

Summary of the team:

Rank 4: Physician Plague Doctor
Emboldening Vapors Disorienting Blast Battlefield Medicine Blinding Gas* Magnesium Rain*
You can swap these with: Indiscriminate Science+ (heals without limited uses, good for Act 5), Ounce of Prevention for DOTS and disease prevention, Cause of Death+ if you want to nuke some large target that has a ton of bleed stacked into it, after Jester's Finale, you can use since he moves you into rank 3
Rank 3: Virtuoso Jester
Encore Solo Finale Inspiring Tune Razor's Wit
Rank 2: Aspirant Ocultist
Chaotic Offering Anamnesis Burning Stars Sacrificial Stab* Wyrd Reconstruction*
You can swap one of these with Binding Shadows if you're worried about shuffles, on Aspirant it moves you Forward 1 and can generate you a stack of UP
Rank 1 : Berserker* Helion
Iron Swan Toe to Toe Bleed Out Adrenaline Rush Bloodlust*
You can swap Bloodlust with: Raucous Revelry for a heal not dependant on limited uses, stress heal, and on upgrade, DBR Wicked Hack for better damage at rank 2 Breakthrough for Shuffles
As for the * on Berserker, is just that maybe it's a good idea changing the path depending on which act boss you're going against; the ones that came to mind are act 2 and 3. Vs act 2, Bleed Out gets absolutely no value so there's no reason to run Berserker, I'd recomend changing to Ravager for easier management of the lungs. You can also change to Carcass to better deal with high damage since apart from this path she doesn't generate blocks; I had her take every inn item I could buy to give her a better chance at survivability against the Focused Fault, but even then I got a few Deathblow checks; would recommend either running Cause of Death on PD with Berserker, or changing to Carcass to tank with Yawp. I'd also recommend not running Bloodlust if you're running Cause of Death on PD, since it clears all DOT for instant damage, making your turn go to waste, in this case just use Toe to Toe+ to get rid of Winded.
phew... this took a WHILE. Feel free to ask any questions about the team and tell me if you'd want some help with a specific path you'd like to play. ASK AND THOU SHALL RECEIVE
Heheh, have a good one! PS: I'm going straight to bed, but I'll try to answer you guys tomorrow. Good night!

MATCH RESULTS

Winner	Loser	Match Finish	Stipulation
Sol Ruca	Izzy Dame	Sol Snatcher	Women's North American Championship Qualifier
OTM w/ Jaida Parker	Edris Enofe and Maliq Blade w/ Brinley Reece	In the Mud
Lash Legend w/ Jakara Jackson	Ivy Nile	Big Boot	Women's North American Championship Qualifier
Je'von Evans w/ Trick Williams	Oro Mensah w/ Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend	Hole in the Road
The Good Brothers	Ridge Holland and Riley Osborne w/ Chase U	Roll-Up
Lola Vice w/ Shayna Balzer	Carlee Bright	Spinning Backfist
Tony D'Angelo w/ The D'Angelo Family	Charlie Dempsey (c)	2-1 Fisherman Suplex	For the NXT Heritage Cup

IMPORTANT NOTES

• Kickoff with Noam Dar laid out backstage, Meta Four go to check on him with Oro and Jakara blaming Trick for this while Lash says Trick would never do this.
  
• Backstage Kiana James tells Izzy Dame there's a real she be-friended her over everyone else and says she's going to be a superstar so run NXT while she goes to Run Raw.
  
• Backstage Ava tells Tony D'Angelo and the family that the tag match for the No Quarter Catch Crew didn't catch and demands to know where Damon and Myles are at. Tony says the ref last week just got a bad case of bronchitis and says they had nothing to do with Damon and Myles going missing. Ava threatens to pull the Heritage Cup match tonight but Tony says that'd be false advertising so instead Ava fines them $20,000 which Arianne pays up with a brown envelope and Tony tells her to spruce up her office a bit.
  
• Shayna Bazler says all she knows is dominance and as the longest reigning NXT Women's Champion she's interested into who Ava will pick as Roxanne's next opponent. Lola Vice sets her sights on challenging Rox as well but gets ambushed by Karmen who brawls with her off screen.
  
• In the trainers office Meta Four are told that Noam is out indefinitely after the attack earlier, so Oro steps up to take on Je'von tonight. Noam says he thinks it's Je'von who attacked him earlier and not Trick and Lash believes it's Je'von as well. Miss Jackson starts to ask Lash why she's so quick to believe it isn't Trick but Lash says she doesn't have time for this with her match next.
  
• Backstage Ridge tells Axiom and Nathan Frazer that he's having fun and says Chase is a hell of a guy and Chase U has a lot in common with him. The Good Brothers enter and says Ridge has a anger problem and he's another main roster talent that needs to get the hell out of NXT. Ridge says he actually was in NXT before. Gallows tells Ridge to find a brother and face them tonight and they'll kick him out of NXT but Anderson says Ridge has no friends.
  
• Je'von Evans is interviewed and denies attacking Noam and says it doesn't sound like his boy Trick either but regardless he's taking on Oro next and your boy about to get bouncy.
  
• Carlee Bright runs into Ava and says she wants a match against Lola Vice tonight after she helped break up the fight with Karmen and Lola. Ava says that Carlee really showed out last week in the Combine, finishing 13th, just barely missing the cut and she'll be happy to give her an opportunity tonight.
  
• Charlie Dempsey says he's been in contact with Damon and Myles and they are on their way despite being in rough shape. He says this cup is stained with the NQCC and he'll beat Tony into an inch of his life to defend it.
  
• Wes Lee makes his way to the ring. He says the last time he was in this ring with a mic things were a bit different, he was in the darkest place of his life and didn't know if he'd ever be back here. He says everyone knows how much he loves the NXT North American Championship, and losing it set him down a chain reaction that almost ended his career but he missed this! He says two days after his surgery he was walking again, and weeks later he was in the gym with one goal, to get back here. Wes says he was supposed to be out for a year but was able to make it back in 6 months feeling this amazing energy and honestly doesn't know what to say. Oba Femi makes his way out, he says he isn't there to cut him down, instead he is very impressed at the heights Wes brought this title to was extraordinary but he took it as far as he could, and now it is his time to bring it higher than Wes could ever dream of. He says Wes has a heart of a lion, but he is an actual warrior and he is the mountain that Wes can not conquer but guesses Wes still wants a title match. He tells Wes he has to do what he used to and fight for an opportunity. Wes says every checkbox tick, and while he may not check every single box, when that title was in his hands...but gets cut off by Ivar. Ivar says he knows what it is like to come back from a career ending injury and even went through the same spinal surgery Wes did and he had to fight for everything he got and knows Wes isn't afraid to fight too. Ivar says if Wes wants a shot at Oba he wants a shot at Oba too. Josh Briggs comes out and says they're all so emotional with Wes's comeback story and Ivar showing the world who he truly is, but this is a man's game and the fact is that at Stand and Deliver he and Oba tore the house down and they know how close Josh was to winning the title with broken ribs but now he's fully healed. Josh says he'll through Wes and Ivar a bone once he's champion. Oba says they all have compelling arguments and Wes tells him if he is such a ruler then make it a fatal four way. Oba says there's a reason he is a champion and Wes is not and tells them to fight among themselves and the winner will face him.
  
• Backstage Ridge is interviewed when Chase U approach him and tell him he doesn't have to go in tonight with Andre volunteering Riley to team with Ridge and Thea says it'd be a teachable moment.
  
• Lexis King says he's been on fire lately and offers to take everything else after the live event this weekend. Jazmine Nyx comes by asking if anyone wants to sign a get well soon card for Jacy Jane but everyone besides Lexis leaves. Lexis says he'll gladly sign for Jamie and agrees to sign anyways. He signs but Jazmine reads it and sees he signed it to Jordan and calls him and idiot once he leaves.
  
• Lola goes to beat down Carlee after their match but Nattalya and Karmen run down to send Shayna and Lola to the outside. Karmen tells them there's no more running around, if they really are the baddest then they'll face off next week in a tag match.
  
• Backstage Riley apologizes for losing the tag match tonight, Ridge says it's all good and they just have to trust him. Thea is overjoyed that they can trust Ridge and Andre thanks Riley for giving him a chance.
  
• Backstage Wes Lee, Ivar, and Josh Briggs are all taken out, the attackers are revealed to be the returning Gallus.
  

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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So I found out about this game through the Wiki. I had no idea there was a Famicom game, 2 Super Famicom games, 4-5 PS1 games, Game Boy games, Dreamcast, DS games about Mini 4WD. All -JPN only. This one seems to be the most like actually playing Mini 4WD in real life. So I download the Shining Scorpion ROM and start playing it on an emulator. I'm pretty lost since I can't read Japanese but I recognize the parts you can buy. They are dead-on like the real parts. Right color gears, endbells, wheels, rollers, all of it. So I'm motivated to learn it.
3 days after downloading it I see what looks like the cartridge in a local game store. No way. Only way I knew was recognizing the Japanese logo from the emulator. I ask the guy working who could read a little Japanese and he was like "Yeah it says 'Shinning' Scorpion Racing". My city isn't known for having a lot of import games at all unlike a coastal city so it was crazy! I get it home an put it next to my home track box and see the Japanese "Yonku" on both. Break the Super Famicom lockouts off of my SNES and fire it up. It's it.
This was way better than using the emulator since it already had a save on it. Whoever had it before grinded their brains out on the track in the first hobby shop in order to be able to buy all this stuff from the hobby shop in the second town. Unfortunately there is very little English documentation of this game and talking to NPCs to learn more is impossible for me. Problem now is course outs on the track where you race against the guy who looks like a 1940s cartoon depiction of a monkey with a bow tie. I have added all the weight possible to my car. Front, side and rear 19mm rollers. Wide rubber tires (the game seems to like these for stability even though few people race with wides today -- some things the game likes aren't how things are done 25+ years later) Tried dual rear rollers both high and middle plus low and it wasn't as stable. Hyper Dash 1 motor, Rev Tuned and Torque Tuned are too slow and still course out sometimes. Even with Hyper Dash I am still 2nd place at the most before eventually coursing out. Both types of 4:1 gears and the 5:1 gears all course out. Switching to 1.2v batteries from 1.5v doesn't stop it either. Car is very heavy. Anybody else played this one and did well?

I'm starting to send myself in spirals thinking about this alone so I wanted to ask the opinion of other people who may be more knowledgeable. I have known this guy for over a year now, we're both second year at uni. We've had 2 intimate moments now, one back in December and one yesterday, and it's brought about some old feelings and fears. I (probably foolishly) kinda formed a crush on him near instantly which back then was just me getting attached to a safe base because I trusted him. However, as the weeks went on and we talked, and opened up more and more the feeling grew and felt more genuine. However, we stand on... Rocky ground.
Like I said, I attached to him as a safe base originally, and then started talking to him properly. The first couple weeks were getting to know him and pretty chill, but about 4 months in, we both started going through stuff mentally. We'd both gone home for summer so all we could do was message. We both helped each other where we could, and he even went as far as to say 'i need you just as much as you need me', a line so raw it near broke me because then, he was right. In fact, I think that was when the feelings started to turn genuine and I tried asking him out but to no avail. Summer comes and goes, we both go through shit and just before Christmas, we both get drunk and I end up inviting him back to my flat. I hadn't even planned on it, I'd made a flippant comment along the lines of "why is it I like you when I know you won't like me back" and he replied with "who says I don't like you like that?" (Funnily enough, him the time before!) But yeah, things happen and... It wasn't enjoyable for either of us, I feel awful, he turns really cold with me for a bit which makes me feel worse like I ruined it all but eventually I get over it, we go back to how we were and I've lost all of the feelings...
Until yesterday that was. We're both out again, and he starts chatting to me and my mate about how he feels he can't choose who he wants between 2 of our other friends and it's like getting hit by a freight train. I go from being in the zone to typing out this near 3 page apology for what happened before. He notices that change, asks if I'm okay, I'm honest with him, saying I'm writing the apology, apologise to him for making him worry, and then he kisses me. I pull away, and say that he didn't mention me when he talked about our 2 friends, and he says that just because he said those 2 doesn't mean he meant only those 2. I slightly begin to panic because I want this more than anything but the fear of fucking it all up is petrifying, to the point I can't even speak, I have to type it all out. He keeps reassuring me, no matter how much I ramble on the dance floor or the walk back to the accommodation. I ask why he likes me or puts up with me and he says it's because I feel genuine, like me ranting and voicing all of my fears is honest, not like the other people he's been with who did it but still hid things. He even goes so far as to double down and say that he does still need me as much as I need him. So we head to his and you can guess where this goes. It's a lot better this time, and I actually come away happy... Until this morning where someone messaged in the group chat if he made any regrettable decisions (he'd been ranting in the GC saying he'd do whatever, he didn't care, he was done with everything) and he says "yes but for different reasons" and I suddenly get that pit once more. I don't know how to bring it up to him, bring any of it up to him because I'm scared if I do, that's it, I ruin it once more.
But that's it. I feel like I'm in this no mans land and hope someone has some form of response they can give me that may ease my mind or help me. I'm sorry this was so long but there was a lot to cover

WARNING: This story contains strong language, mild violence & fictional political radicalism.
(Note, this story portrays the human side in a morally negative light. If you do not like that, then turn back now.)

ULJJAK KASERKOR, ANDZAKTAR, THE HOMEWORLD, ANDZAK EMPIRE, 11,772 A.C. 

Standing in the centre of the Andzak Governing District, in the heart of the Andzak Empire, is the Tree of Civilisation. While there is no direct translation into Human Standard, the meaning of the tree, including its name, stood for the long continuity of Andzak civilisation and the Andzak Empire.
Surrounding the tree were the marvellous palaces of the Imperial Government, the Imperial Advisory Council directly appointed by the emperor among them. The palaces were meant to be opulent and expensive, as if you were a lowly governor coming in from the Outer Provinces, the rows and rows of perfectly symmetric crystalline walls combined with the mirrors to allow the Andzak aristocracy to witness the superb influence of the Imperial Authorities.
Looking into those spotlessly clean mirrors was me, Deputy Governor Uljjak Kaserkor. According to Imperial audits of my activities, I am a "sub-par administrator, foreign to both the Andzak Empire and it's traditions, and the Andzak aristocracy" as Councillor Dlirij once said. In short, they've been looking for an excuse to exile me to a low-ranking advisory position on a third-band world out in the middle of nowhere.
And, as such, I am keeping this diary to myself, so in the event that Councillor Dlirij or one of his cronies tries to bring up charges against me, I am capable of fighting them effectively.
So, what am I doing, thousands of lightyears from my homeworld looking up at the Tree? I am here to report to the Advisory Council of an intense gamma-ray disturbance next to the uninhabited system of [UAG-2113]. Gamma ray disturbances of this scale usually mean the development and testing of superluminal weapons, which are severely restricted under the [Interstellar Accords].
Superluminal weapons are capable of obliterating entire solar systems if given enough energy. The most powerful superluminal weapon ever tested by the Andzak Empire vaporised 3 light-years of space, and fried every unprotected electronic within 117 light-years.
So this means it is understandable that the Empire might be concerned by yet another civilisation in hold of these excessively powerful weapons, especially if they don't know who has them, and they're being tested in the Centauran Reserves, an area that has barely been explored by the Empire due to the Centauran Pandemic a hundred years ago.
By my side, is the Military Advisor Vraxh Huljukrj. To be honest, we don't get along, and while I technically outrank him, stripping him of his rank would be an essential guarantee that the Regional Military Consul would be pissed. Vraxh has gotten into the Armed Forces through nepotism with the Consul.
"So you're bothering the Advisory Council with third-world bullshit just because one sensor buoy near a system nobody's ever heard of in the middle of fucking nowhere read some extra spicy particles?"
Vraxh, for whatever reason, still won't understand the severity of the situation, despite me having explained it to him at least a hundred times over the past 2 weeks we've been travelling here.
"I have explained this to you half a dozen times Vraxh, if you pester me about this decision one more time I will eject the rest of your belongings into space!"
To be honest, I haven't been particularly kind to him either. He kept bugging me with intentionally annoying overexaggerated questions over the 2 weeks we've been travelling here, so while he was in the bathroom, I ejected the bed in his room into the vacuum of space. While he wasn't amused, I found it incredibly funny.
"Okayy, fuck! Fine.."
Maybe I'll have even garnered his false support when the aristocrats in the Advisory Council wonder what I'm doing there.
Me and Vraxh right behind me walked up to the meetings desk. Behind the desk, is a short and relatively aged Andzakian in the uniform worn by imperial servants. He is looking at his holopad, appearing to have not noticed the two borderworlders at the desk. I attempted to grab his attention.
"Hello, sir?"
The imperial servant didn't appear to be surprised, and just looked up at the two with a condescending glare, confirming that he did infact know they were there, and just didn't pay any attention.
"Imperial Advisory Council case #1,714?"
He said the words sharply, as if he had already thought of them hours in advance.
"Yes, sir. A gamma ray disturbance in syste-"
"I don't care. Wait in the lobby, when you are called, arrive on time."
The servant interrupted me rudely, before pointing at a sitting area in the lobby.
I walked over to the lobby and sat down, with Vraxh reluctantly following me. After half an hour of awkwardly silent waiting, the loudspeaker in the lobby called,
"Uljjak Kaserkor and Vraxh Huljukrj, attend conference chamber C-1 immediately."
I immediately got up pulling Vraxh with me, before hastily making my way over to the conference chamber.
The guards at the door opened the heavy chamber doors with a loud thunk.
Sitting in the furthest conference seat was- god damn it, I shouldn't have come!
Sitting in the fanciest conference seat of them all, was Councillor Dlirij, with the biggest shit-eating grin I've ever seen.
"Deputy Governor Uljjak Kaserkor. What matters do you disturb the Advisory Council with this time?" Dlirij said, in generic aristocratic government drone.
I steeled myself with my own government training, before responding through nearly clenched teeth,
"Councillor Dlirij, thank you for coming to address my meeting."
Saying it was my meeting whilst also not using the formal address style was something I knew would piss Dlirij off, but thankfully he couldn't do anything about it according to the formal rules of the palace.
Indeed, Dlirij's grin reduced and he just looked me in the eyes, before saying,
"Deputy Governor, get straight to the point. What do you have to show me?"
I laid out a briefcase on the table, opening it and beginning to explain.
"3 weeks ago, an intense gamma event occured in the uninhabited system [UAG-2113], 3,679 light-years from the Homeworld."
I took a deep breath.
"As you would know as a Councillor, Councillor Dlirij, gamma-intense events in this fashion nearly always signal the activation of a superluminal weapon, legally considered an ultraintense weapon by the Interstellar Accords and thus prohibited for any Interstellar State to possess them aside from the Andzak Empire, the Union of Galactic Republics, and the Ksirlok Dependency."
I paused.
"I am requesting an Advisory Council initiated investigation into what caused the disturbance. If this is not achieved, it could be greatly threatening to the order in the Galaxy."
I then handed Dlirij the papers, which he started to look through.
In the silence while Dlirij looked through the papers, Vraxh had said nothing. I gave him a subtle glare for him to contribute, which he did. He reluctantly said, without thought,
"Councillor Dlirij, the Military Consulate will be the next to be contacted, if we do not succeed here."
I was not pleased with what Vraxh had said. He tried to challenge the Councillor's authority with a threat to go to the military establishment if we got nowhere here. I opted to remain silent though.
Dlirij looked at Vraxh with a glare of anger, before looking back down at the papers.
A few more awkward minutes passed, before Dlirij passed the papers back to me.
"So, you spend 2 weeks travelling to the Imperial Homeworld and the most honourable palaces of the Empire, with your little sidekick, just to bother me, Hasjaxhar Dlirij, with gamma radiation readings from one isolated buoy, nevertheless in the Centauran Reserves, where it has been proven by the Imperial Surveying Authority that there is no intelligent life?"
Dlirij's hand moved underneath the table.
"Councillor Dlirij, I believe you are mistaken by what I have given an explained to you, please-"
At this moment the guards burst through the door, before knocking us both out with the butt of their plasma rifles.
...

SEVEN FOUR EIGHT, NEW YORK CITY, TERRA, ALMIGHTY CELESTIAL STATE, 147 A.R. 

"...Comrades! On this date, July 16th, 147 years since the Revolution, humanity has taken yet another great leap under the leadership of the State. On this day, we have successfully detonated a superluminal weapon."
"A weapon that breaks the laws of the universe, a weapon that propels an object at thousands of times the speed of light, before dropping it back into realspace just before it hits its target. A weapon that, prior to today, the distant enemies of humanity cannot have dreamed of. A weapon that has just obliterated the Wolf 359 star system. Due to the ingenuity of our technology, not only do we get to witness the flash of our excellence, but we can also observe from this distance with our electronics intact!"
"Today, from this date, humanity is not only indivisible, but invincible! We, led forwards by the State, shall never be destroyed by those distant in the void, and our Black Banner shall soon fly on every planet in the Milky Way!"
The crowd cheered.
From my position, it looked fairly typical for a propaganda gathering. Soldiers surrounding the speaking Party official on a tall podium, with the Black Banner of the Almighty Celestial State flying calmly but sternly in the wind. Mounted to structures surrounding the gathering area are various slogans of the Celestial State, among them "HUMANITY INDIVISIBLE" and "THE STARS ARE OURS".
Truth be told, I am not an avid supporter of the ideology or the State. I come from a rural background in the middle of nowhere in North America, and have only joined the Armed Forces because the Party Militia showed up for their quota of soldiers.
In the State, all jobs are connected to, and thus in support, of the Armed Forces. While I was perfectly happy to continue living a solitary life with my family in rural America, I honestly didn't have much choice, and so here I am.
After the gathering, we are told to go back to our barracks and thus be assigned roles by the commanding officer.
I come through the door, and am immediately escorted to the commanding officer with two elite Party Militia members to my side.
"Soldier #7,487,782,311. Due to demand, you are being changed from Military Communications to Reconnaissance starting immediately. You will be transported to the Orbital Station, before boarding a Javelin class reconnaissance ship. The ship will not set sail into the void immediately, so the new crew can get accommodated."
"Got it, commissar. I will be ready in 5 minutes."
The commissar seemed to offer a pleasant nod, before stamping my identity card with the official Government stamp. It read,
"ALMIGHTY CELESTIAL STATE
#7,487,782,311
APPROVAL TO LEAVE THE MANHATTAN DISTRICT
ISSUED BY C.O. #2,349,522 - IF DISCREPANT CONTACT NUMBER ON SLIP"
I packed all of my belongings into a state-issued carrying pack.
Looking at how many belongings I have, pretty much just my uniform and Communication Device made me reminiscent for a time I never lived. How was the world before the Revolution? According to my family, the world was far better before the Revolution. They even had food that they could buy from private individuals, and not just State rations, which I find hard to believe.
The Communications Device had a light next to it's camera that blinked red every few seconds. This was to indicate that the camera was actively recording and watching me. I decided to stop thinking treasonous thoughts, and finished folding and packing my uniform, before taking my carrying pack with me.
After leaving the barracks, I walk past a building with the Emblem of the Celestial State painted on one of the walls, with artistic sunrays surrounding it. There are soldiers saluting the emblem, surrounded by armed party militia, while reciting the pledge of loyalty. I continue walking between two barracks towards the rocket area.
This base is lucky specifically to have it's own dedicated orbital rocket area. If I was stationed out west, I'd likely have to spend hours in the back of a troop transport vehicle being driven to the nearest site.
After a few minutes of walking down the bleak path, I reach the rocket area. There are people queuing to get in the rockets, and I join the queue. All of the soldiers infront of me look at the very least uncomfortable, and some look terrified. While looking ahead of me, a place ahead of me I see a vaguely familiar face.
"Eight one four, do I recognise you?"
His eyes go wide, and he recognises me almost immediately.
You see, this is a childhood friend of mine. Was my neighbour, in the rural countryside and the absence of the state, fuck, even when some parts were controlled by the Resistance, we could play forbidden games from the pre-revolution world.
I moved away from him probably 4 or 5 years ago with my family, which ended up being a mistake. It was in a larger community where the Guards showed up and conscripted me alongside a number of my family members.
"Yes, yes! I recognise you! An-"
Without even thinking, I cover his mouth with my hand.
"Don't!"
His face goes white and he realises the mistake he was about to make, and thus addresses me the proper informal way.
"Seven four eight, how have you been?"
"I've been decent. Can't say too much to be honest. Just bumbled around trying to look for something to do. Then I ended up here. You know how that's like."
Eight four one chuckles.
"Yeah, I know how it is."
We both tried to avoid treasonous language, which prevented us from having a meaningful discussion. It was nice to catch up though.
The line slowly moves forwards. I am close enough to the entrance of the orbital craft to hear a commotion ahead involving my friend.
"Soldier #8,142,327,494! Present your identity documents!"
The Soldier ruffles through his carry pack looking for his identity documents, and after a while, finds them.
"Eight one four! These documents do not have the commissar stamp!"
Two militia members point their service rifles at my unfortunate friend. I am enraged and know what is about to happen, but there is nothing I can do. I look around and see the guardsmen in the guards building, as well as a few guards snipers in watchtowers above us.
I helplessly watch as a third guardsman knocks him to the ground with the butt of his rifle, before he is hand and leg cuffed and escorted away. New militiamen come out of the guards building to take up their positions. I just silently hang my head, performing a neutral expression.
I arrive at the front of the line.
"#7,487,782,311! Your permission slip!"
I feel for it in the pocket in my pants, as that's where I left it.
Except, my pocket is flat, with no identity documents, I frantically feel inside the pocket, and do not feel them.
My face goes white and it feels like my knees are about to give way.
I look inside my carry pack with the guard giving me an intense stare. I find my documents, and hand them to the guard. He checks and verifies them, and I am let past. While walking past the guard, I hear over my shoulder from the other guard,
"Seven four eight. Do not forget the location of your identity documents next time. You know the consequences."
I walk aboard the ship without holding up the line, and sit down in a cramped troop transport seat. It wouldn't matter, entering orbit only takes a few minutes.
I look out of the orbit craft door towards my friend being escorted away into the distance, he gives me one final, depressed look, before him and his escort round the corner.
After a few minutes, the last soldier in the line is boarded onto the ship, and a loudspeaker voice calls to the gathering area that the ships will be leaving.
The landing door closes and the ship shudders. Due to the lack of windows, I have no idea what is going on outside. I am pressed back and down into my seat, as the ship accelerates into the sky.
The acceleration gradually slows until I can only feel the shudder of the ship fighting the atmosphere as it leaves. Gradually, gravity weakens and I begin to feel no weight in my seat.

EIGHT ONE FOUR, NEW YORK CITY, TERRA, ALMIGHTY CELESTIAL STATE, 147 A.R. 

As I round the corner, I see my friend's look on his face. Steeled sadness. I appreciated it in a world of no emotion.
The guardsmen around me had tied my leg cuffs too tightly but were also forcing me to hurry up and walk at their speed.
As I am forced underneath the temporary holding shelter, my leg cuffs are cuffed to a support beam of the structure. The guards then walk into the commissar's office, while a guard in a watchtower keeps an eye on me.
I see the landing ship my friend is on slowly start hover into the sky. Blue plasma shoots out of its 4 engine ports. It stops increasing in altitude, turns around and rapidly accelerates. I see it shoot off into the distance with a vapor cone around it's tail. The extremely loud rumble of it's engines slowly gets quieter and quieter, until it disappears from view.
The guards return from the commissar's office.
Both with neutral steeled expressions return to the shelter. I am held down and injected with a needle, and my vision slowly fades to black.

As the title says, I’m looking for a super old YouTube video. It’s vivid to me but I am not sure how to explain it to find it on YouTube.
Basically it’s like a parody video based in like china/japan and it’s some guy going throughout town using random abilities. One of the most memorable things was him mounting his Dawnsaber mount and it’s not a dawnsaber it’s a bicycle and he’s like at a bus stop and it’s literally a video of a dude at a bus stop with the mount animation/cast bar on the screen. The rest of the video is similar stuff where he eats food to get a buff and then adventures into the city. Does anyone remember something like this and have a link to it?

I (22F) live abroad for my studies. I am going back home for my summer vacations in a week. So last year when I went back home something traumatic happened. I’m in a relationship with (22M) a guy since almost 3 years now. Last year when I went back home his mom got to know about us and eventually ended up telling my parents. They were all against it. We still thought of staying together and hiding it but somehow they got to know again. We were in the worst situation possible. My parents were mad at me, said the worst stuff to me, I had a panic attack in front of them and all in all that night was pretty traumatic. They are the best set of parents one could get but that night was just too messy. Now we are still together because there was never really anything wrong between us, and it was ldr so easy to hide as well. Our parents were just against because of age and career. All in all i still get flashes of all those events and what if it repeats. I’m extremely scared. I just needed to vent it out and talk to people who have experienced anything similar.

in the season 3 trailer, we obviously saw boyd get restrained by several monsters. one that stood out was a guy in brown who looks like he could be some type of professor. we all seemed to think he was new but i believe i saw him after rewatching. it was the scene where elgin went to the van trying to drive ellis to the clinic after getting stabbed (s2 e6). the professor in that scene had glasses, whereas in the trailer he did not. i am very confident it was him, which would mean the professor is not a new monster and not a replacement for smiley

I don't know about you guys but every time DanTDM gets a new haircut I also get a new one out of sheer coincidence. it started in like 2016 to 2017 when I went to the barber store to get a haircut like his (the justin beiber cut with blue) fun around 2019 to 2020 he did a little bit and made it more normal looking instead of like Justin Bieber and then when cut his hair bald I did too. AND I HAVENT SEEN ANY OF HIS VIDEOS SINCE 2020

Not sure what I hope to gain from this but maybe there will be some clarity to gain from an objective opinion. That being said I will prob delete this later- but while I’m here I will try to be as detailed and neutral to the facts as I can be, but there is a lot of history in a 15 year relationship so get ready to read a small book. I M33, grew up in an abusive and poverty stricken home, naturally I escaped that situation as soon as I could (after high school in 2008) my parents would explode over the littlest thing- like the first time I recall thinking I could not rely on my dad was after witnessing him beat my sister to a pulp, and then threaten me about telling (I never did) over her bedroom being filthy. Now, between high school and meeting my now wife F34 I was in a committed long distance relationship. Not to dwell here as it has little to do with the story, that relationship ended Dec 1 2009, I made my way to a small college town and found a place to stay with a few friends I knew from high school. This could only be described as a party house that a few poor and brave folks lived. The rent was cheap and the people were good. Not to mention, it was easy to drowned my feeling with drugs and alcohol here and not be judged. This was right after the 2008 financial crisis and I had found employment delivering for a local restaurant, and was not interested in starting a new relationship. Well mid way through December one roommate decided he was moving out, which left a room open for rent. This is where I met who, at least at one point was the love of my life. Jen F34 was a recent college graduate, who comes from, what I would consider a well off family. Jen was part of some drama with her old roommates and decided she would move in. She had been accepted into a work training program that would send her to a new state 15 hours away, so she was also not interested in a serious relationship. Jen was seeing someone we will call Mark. Mark and Jen we in a non-serious sexual relationship. The moment I saw Jen something inside me said i want to be with her, but I was still fighting demons from my failed relationship. So I hung around her and was content just being a friend..well this goes on for about a month..before it happened. One drunk night and I am waking up, naked next to her..she was still seeing Mark at that point, and I had no idea what I had done. She broke it off with mark a few days later and I took his spot. As a non-serious sexual partner, well the months flew by then all of a sudden we both had caught feelings. We had finally agreed we would only see each other. Well one day I come home from work and she is cuddled up next to a guy we will call Adam. I was devastated. I confronted her and she played it off as nothing. Just passed out and woke up and he was next to her, I had my doubts but in the end believed her and forgot about it. As things got more and more serious the dread of her moving day was inching closer. We both were bothered by this. She wanted to stay, I said no. I eventually agreed I’d move to her after her training program. (She had to stay on a company campus for 3 months for training) during this time we were long distance- I worked my ass off to get ready for a cross country move and she was getting a place ready for us to live. During this time she went out with “friends” and said she would call me after. 2 am nothing, 3 nothing 4 I’m worried sick and finally fell asleep around 4:15am. My phone goes off at 5am. She calls me incoherent and making 0 sense. I thought again she may have cheated on me but again no evidence- said she got a bit to drunk and stayed out too late. I again believed her. I was able to forgive and get over it- I’m not the type to stress over anything that’s not life changing so moving day arrives. I get all my stuff in order jump on the greyhound and start my journey. Dying inside to finally see my women again, well 22 hours later I arrived. She was supposed to be there to pick me up but she was no where to be found. I text and called, she finally answered and was very short with me, and pulled up a short while later. As soon as I got in the car she was mad. Telling me I should not have come, it was a mistake etc. we get to the apartment and I’m feeling like a sucker for being there, we have some food and she apologized for her actions in the car and we moved forward. Well the next almost two years of our relationship was amazing- epic sex life, passionate about each other the whole 9. Some minor drunk arguments here and there but nothing crazy. I consider this the best time of my life. Around 3 years in our relationship we got pregnant. Over those 9 months we were closer than ever. Excited to bring a beautiful baby into to this world, scared beyond words but happy. Then one day she was in pain and pretty sure she was in labor. We get to the hospital and thus starts one of the most traumatizing experiences for her. Extended labor time, breach baby, intense pain and anxiety followed by a c-section, and a multi-night stay in the hospital. Then a long recovery process. Needless to say being young, broke, new parents is probably the hardest thing I have ever experienced and can admit that experience must have been even worse for her and while life as new parents took hold she grew into a nurturing mother while I regressed. I was over worked, underpaid, stressed out and took what was a minor drinking habit to an excessive drinking habit. This was the start of a long line of huge fights, financial problems, and ultimately leads us to know. chewing on the idea of divorce. But before I get to now, let’s do a quick life recap. My wife and I are living together with our newborn, isolated from friends and family, I’m quickly drinking more and more. I worked an over night labor job, and Jen was still working for the same company. But more of an 8 - 5 we only saw each other in passing most days. Our blessing was colic and cried constantly. We both began to feel like we needed to be close to friends so we packed up and move back after her contacted ended a year later. Back to the small sleepy college town we met. We moved back, our kiddo was 1, things were looking up, I had gotten a day job- our kiddo was finally sleeping better, really it seemed good. But since her c-section a year prior, we had only managed to have sex a few times. I thought this would be the change we could to finally revive our bedroom life. But it hardly changed, add a few more times to the few mentioned before. We went from daily to basically none, not to mention we would constantly fight about things that need to be done, money, etc. I’ll admit I did not do my part of house work. So things are starting to fall apart- I’m still drinking heavily, our bedroom was on life support and I fucked up and started watching porn, browsing sites akin to tinder. I have to say I never actually hooked up with anyone but I did get some photos sent to me. Not my proudest moment. Well I arrived home from work and Jen had found said communications and browsing history and was rightfully mad. After a week or so staying with a friend and she allows me to apologize , I assured her it was nothing more than digital and explained how I felt about our sex life, or lack of one specifically. Things kind of improved for a bit, I stopped drinking, we were being intimate, we got married, she quit working and went for a graduate degree, I had found more gainful employment. until one day Jen noticed something new on my body.. a wart to be specific. At some point I contacted HPV. Which then made me look like a liar. (I since found out it was a girl i had a one night stand with shortly before my prior relationship. (Common friend told me years later))but I had no explanation or evidence to prove my infidelity was not physical. Well after this happened things got bad, really bad. I started drinking heavily again, right into financial ruin. We were broke, rent due, hungry baby, relationship just about dead. 0 bedroom life. I never said I was the good guy here. Just trying to be honest about our past. So we need cash quick so we don’t fall behind on bills, it is eventually decided she will strip for cash until we can get out of the hole I dug us. I’m pretty insecure but we had no other choice. I was handling it pretty well, until I noticed something in her attitude. She would get home and try to initiate sex with me. It was welcome but odd- till this point we had a half dead bedroom for years. I pried it out of her that stripping turned her on and instantly felt disgust. I lost it on her, how could she- come home and fuck me smelling like alcohol and bathroom cologne. Can’t fuck them at the club easily so come home and pretend I’m someone that turns you on. Had we not had issues overall in the bedroom I would not have felt this way but this made me feel gross, betrayed, guilty, angry. She obviously is mad at me since it’s my fault she was there. We had a fight and somewhat made up. Bedroom life was slow, life went on, things are pretty crappy and one night she goes out with a friend and shows up back at our place, hammered, with a guy from the bar. Our child was asleep in the room and that man is lucky I did not shoot him. She claims he was her friends stray but she let a stranger come to OUR HOUSE. Well at this point, i was mad but eventually just got over it. Life moved on we came out of the financial hole moved to a nicer place and began work towards saving for a home. She was still stripping on and off to help save. Well then she actually cheated on me, with another girl I front of a group of guys for money. I’m died inside at this point. I fell back to drinking heavily, again sexually all but dead. I basically repressed it and allowed her to get off easy (when she found my digital infidelity years prior I had to stay with a friend for a week) over this time, things are quite- status quo- saving for our first home. After some time like this I got a new job- and we could finally purchase. So we did- just before the pandemic. Our bedroom was basically dead- only initiated by me, was pretty one sided and seemed like she was just doing it to appease me. Constantly fighting of little things like chores (if I did not do them exactly the way or time she wanted it done WW3 would break out) but we managed. The the pandemic happened. We decided we would move closer to her family so we could have some support and hopefully work on us. We were able to live with her family for the next 1.5ish years. I only recall having sex twice during this time. (Could have been more but like I said I’m still drinking at this point) we bicker constantly during this time. Mind you all I am slowly at this dying on the inside this whole time. We had a major blow up in front of everyone a few days prior to closing. Stemming from myself feeling generally put out. Stick in a sexless marriage and the fact that I had a work thing in Vegas for a week. We sign - I leave for Vegas- she organizes the movers and get everything in. We have our own space again. Now we are almost to the present day. I again found new employment and have a high stress, high 6 figure salary career we have had many of fights due to chores, and household duties etc. she was convinced it was due to alcohol so I finally quit drinking for good. The goal was to hopefully fix this relationship, have a more intimate bedroom. In fact this was agreed upon when I quit. Some of the other things that have been said in these arguments was that she is working and trying to find better work so she can financially afford to leave me. She currently works on a “less than part time” contract work type stuff but is basically is a SAHM. I pay 100% of everything. This is now 6 months after I stopped drinking and there has been no change in our bedroom life. 3.5 weeks ago: I calm Loy state that I thought we agreed on the spicing up the bedroom with more frequently maybe some lingerie. I am getting a bit frustrated with this. Her: I just started my period but I hear you. A week goes by period done still nothing. 2 weeks ago Friday: we are sitting on the couch. I am feeling very much frustrated sexually. We are watching tv together, and I make a comment about one of the people. Here is what happened : Person on TV while crying “I recently found out my body produces excess estrogen” me: must be why you’re so emotional. Her: you’re a sexist pig, a misogynist, thats a misnomer and actually testosterone does that and so many other things I forget them all but that was the gist. Just offended. I apologized and said it was just a dumb comment. Somewhat calmed down but the energy was thick. Then I made my second mistake: a morbidly obese person came on screen wearing a sold color onesie. I muttered : dude looks like a bowling ball. And that was it- I’m a disgusting pig and she is going to bed. I sleep on the couch that night seething that again no sex, again random attacks against my character, again using something like a comment about a person on screen to go to bed. Saturday: my kiddo sees me on the couch, asks “dad can you make me an omelet.” Me still upset with how the night ended with my wife- complained about not wanting to make it- and eventually agreed. While cooking breakfast - wife comes downstairs and immediately starts in on me, ignoring my advances for a hug, telling me i need to walk the dog because she doesn’t have time. I also needed to run an errand before the kiddos sports ball game. I told her kind of angrily I had shit to do as well and what is preventing her from doing it. Well she does, things are quiet, we get to the game and we are sitting there. She brings up the comments of the night before and started this whole thing in public. Trying to get me to lose my temper in public. I was able to ignore it and just finish the game. Pushed all that down and was ready to move on. We get home from the day’s activities and she does what she always does says good night to the kiddo and gets ready for bed. Again I sleep on the couch. Sunday: she wakes up and starts cleaning, I try to be nice again- making advances to hug her, kiss her etc. I walked the doggo, not asked to do so- kiddo asks me to cook some food again so I do. No complaint, but while I’m cooking she makes another comment about my character. And brings up Friday again. I lost it: I was screaming at her like I never have before. Told her I wanted a divorce, that she clearly doesn’t want this it’s why she can’t even pretend to want me sexually and that I am nothing more than an ATM for her at this point. The rest of Sunday and Monday was silent. This is when I started this novel of a post. Finally she apologized and admitted to being cold to me, promised to work on this. Tuesday, best sex we have had in a decade, Wednesday, repeat action, Thursday a 3rd time. This past Friday- I was spent this was more sex than I had in a row in years. I was happy. Saturday, family members bday and another sports game. All day gone- everything good. We get home late- she is tired no problems. Sunday Mothers Day. We had plans with her family to do some hiking the first part of the day then have lunch and play a game. Everything is going fine. It starts to get around 3:00 pm and I tell her I am ready to go home. She said we have not played the game and that she wanted to. So I agree- we play a few rounds and during the game she could see that I was getting annoyed that we had to play another round I was not being rude but just not enthusiastic about ti. She looked at me and said I need to check myself. The way she said it, the fact she said it at the table so everyone could hear. I felt disrespected, we left and argued a little but I ended up saying sorry because ok I get it my fault. So we get home and she comes into my office space (which was dirty) glasses, and tons of boxes /other recycling that had not be taken care of. She told me to do it I agreed it was gross and started picking up. She kept on about how I’m disgusting for leaving it in the first place- etc I calmly asked her to just leave it alone and drop it, I’d take care of it but she didnt after 10 mins of her spewing on me I finally lost it and told her to get the fuck out of my office if she doesn’t like it. That I’m tired of the hostility and it’s clear she didn’t actually want to fix this. She kept asking me to lower my volume while telling me why she is right, brining up everything from the prior week. I did not lower my volume I got louder and more upset till she goes to bed and I sleep on the couch again. Monday: we argue more. The general mood is “how could I blow up on her on Mother’s Day.” That she is done etc. as soon as she can financially leave she will. I said why wait and asked her to stay with her mother for a few days- she refused to, so I left to a hotel room. Today was more of the same: not accepting that she had a part in the argument. That I just freaked out over her asking me to clean up. We have eventually agreed to give therapy a shot but here I sit, in my hotel room. Contemplating life I can’t help but feel we gave it our best but we were doomed to fail. I really don’t want to lose my family. but neither of us can take the current state anymore. What does the world of Reddit think?

Yea that’s right, I’m feelin like the shit right now, somehow, with low experience and one year in college(transferring to a top 10 with my associates) I somehow managed to secure my first software interview, they liked my initiative and brought me in for a second interview
Now not going to lie I was not qualified at all I was merely trying to hold my own as I was the only black guy in that office and in that room were 3 white middle aged fully fledged out men that had been working with software for 15-30 years, 15 years ago I was 7. I fought for my life like a valiant warrior, attempting to claim my spot. Did I get it, maybe, but I am hype that they took this chance on me they like people who show drive and initiative, and people who can learn how to do things(ChatGPT and google)
I felt blessed because he said the role he wanted to assign me to was working with data and that’s like a dream come true for me and in the future I’ll be working on IOS apps, ngl I’ve been pretty down bad broke, I did music and 3d animations for 2 years and while I’m really good at both and continue to do them, I realized that if I’m going to really make money I need to learn software, luckily I took IB compsci in high school and have been using tech since I was 4, so I had a large knowledge base to go off of
I’m currently developing an app on my own, and I really want to save up to 20k so I can start investing in things and hiring low cost devs, this job will give me that opportunity, I will have to learn and survive on the job
My friend picked me up and I was a nervous wreck bro, I thought that since it was raining and 4:30 pm these guys were going to be a tiny bit off their game, sleepy or something, but no they sat down and gave me that white devil stare(just a joke) and they were on point like it was 6:30 in the morning, I was sincerely fighting for my life.
I will update if I got it

This is my list of the top 10 non hardcore emo albums post 2000. I did not include any hardcore or true pop punk albums. Obviously this comes down to personal preference, and the emo genre is so diverse this was a difficult list to make. I think I did a decent job of putting together a solid list of diverse emo albums. Let me know your top 10 list! I want to note that I only chose one album from every artist to go on this list. I honestly believe 5 of the 10 bands have more than one album that could potentially make this list, but I wanted to give a nod to a few other lesser known bands and albums. I put the list with no commentary first so people would not be forced to wade through my reviews to see the list.
My Top 10 Emo Albums: 1. Turnover - Peripheral Vision 2. Citizen - Youth 3. Movements - Feel Something 4. Tigers Jaw - Self Titled 5. The Hotelier - Home, Like No Place There Is 6. City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love 7. A Great Big Pile of Leaves - Snack Attack 8. Pinegrove - Marigold 9. Gleemer - Down Through 10. Foxing - The Albatross
Honorable Mention: 1. Secondhand Serenade - Awake 2. For When You Can’t Breathe - A Home That Doesn’t Exist
Quick Album Reviews:

1. Turnover - Peripheral Vision This is and will always be my top album. A true masterpiece to my ears. The music is dreamy, but they still kept some of the heaviness from earlier albums. That Roland JC-120 tone will always be legendary. The lyrics are super emo, but it doesn't sound dark unless you really listen. I have played this album at the cafe, and more than once I have had someone mention, “This music is so happy” lol. Go read the lyrics and get back to me on that. The lyrical content is approachable and relatable. Solid 10/10.
   
2. Citizen - Youth This album simultaneously rocks and jams. The guitars can be heavy at times, but the mix of calm and heavy parts is a genius execution. The Vocals are something of magic. The mix of the clean and yelling vocals not only fits the style but also adds a ton of dynamics. The lyrics are gut wrenching. Songs like “The Night I Drove Alone” are an all too real description of what living with suicidal ideation is like. This is the closest thing to being a hardcore album on this list, except maybe the Hotelier album, but I believe it is much more approachable than your average hardcore album, as the vocals do not really scream. 9.5/10
   
3. Movements - Feel Something This album does not rock as hard as “Youth” but It does jam twice as hard. Now don’t get me wrong: it rocks…hard. The lyrics and melodies on this album may be my favorite on any emo album. The lyrics are clever and witty, and the melodies are smooth and memorable. This is an album I have to sing along to when I listen to it. I believe the first 5 songs on this album may be the best 5 song stretch on any emo album ever produced. These songs together get a 10/10. The only things I didn't really care for at first were the spoken word parts. The words are great, but spoken word just really isn't my thing. It takes me back to my days in the evangelical church, but I have grown to love it. 9.5/10
   
4. Tigers Jaw - Self Titled This is a classic emo album. Personally it is not even my favorite Tiger’s Jaw album. For my personal taste “Spin” takes the cake, but there is no denying that the Self Titled album was more successful and had a larger influence on emo music as a whole. The music is very raw. It could have easily been produced in a bedroom, though it was recorded in a real studio. The guitars and vocals are both pretty raw. It has very little pop influence in the sense that it is not very polished. Let’s be honest, that is one of the major draws to the album. The lyrics, though silly at times, are very real and raw. “What about your friends, do they make you happy?” “Lie to me like you used to” “We are made from chemicals, but what holds us together is much more than that” This album showcases great lyricism and melody building. 9/10
   
5. The Hotelier - Home, Like No Place There Is Many avid emo fans consider this album to be the best emo album ever produced. I agree that it is one of the best. The music ranges from pretty heavy to chiller alt rock. It does have some screamo style vocals, but that is not the majority of the vocals, which is why it's not on the hardcore list. “Life In Drag” is 100% screamo, “Housebroken” is a chill alt song, and songs like “Among The Wildflowers” and “Your Deep Rest” are an excellent combination of both. The lyrics are another example of top tier lyricism in the emo genre. The song “Your Deep Rest” may be the most gut wrenching song I have ever heard in any genre. 9/10
   
6. City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love This is the only acoustic album to make the top 10. I listened to this album from 2008 to 2015 before I even realized that most people even considered it emo. I just saw it as an awesome acoustic album. The music overall has a pretty dark sound especially for an acoustic album. The sound reminds me a bit of The Spill Canvas’ “Sunsets & Car Crashes” album but it is much more refined and has a more pop style production. Dallas’ advanced guitar skills and beautiful and soulful vocals are really a thing of beauty. My first year in college this was my drink and be sad album. It is incredibly dark. “Every man needs a muse and mine could be the bottle” “It's passion, it's not love. Infatuation never ends up right. At least I won't be alone tonight.” “We celebrate the lives of the dead. It's like a man's best party, only happens when he dies.” 8.5/10
   
7. A Great Big Pile of Leaves - Snack Attack A Great Big Pile of Leaves is the least popular band to make this list, but honestly one of the most original emo bands I’ve ever heard. This album has a super fun and happy sound. The music jams and groves very hard, while having a calming effect on the listener. This is a great album to take a nap to. The lyrics can be pretty silly with songs about a wild mouse in the house that they consider a pet, slumber parties, and going back to school. They prove that being happy and joyous are also worthwhile emotions. It is not all fun and games though, it also includes themes of those you trust letting you down, and the struggle of being introverted. I have never related to a song more than “Ambervision” 8.5/10
   
8. Pinegrove - Marigold I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will question why I chose this album over all the other bangers Pinegrove has released. It is one of Pinegrove’s least successful albums. They have obviously had several hits bigger than any of the songs on this album, but the overall album is so cohesive and perfectly executed. Every song’s sound fits perfectly into the style of the whole album. My biggest complaint about Pinegrove, and the reason I disliked them for so long, is because they have such a country (It is fair to say folk) sound. I grew up in East Texas where country music is king, and I always hated it with a passion. This is the album where they leaned the most heavily into the country sound. The melodies have a slight twang and the harmonies are obviously country inspired. The reason I chose this album is because they were able to take elements of music that I hate and make me love it. So Good! 8.5/10
   
9. Gleemer - Down Through This is the most recent album to make the top 10 list. This band is also fairly unknown. I actually did not discover them until maybe a month ago. It may be fair to say that my introduction to this album is too fresh to make it on this list, but It is simply that good. The first time I heard it I knew it would be one of my favorites. It has that dreamy aspect that made Peripheral Vision such a huge hit. I dream of the day that every emo band realizes that a strong chorus effect and intense reverbs are their friend. It is a bit heavier than PV, not by much. The lyrics are very poetic and leave the meaning a bit up to interpretation but they are dark and without a doubt emo. The choruses are catchy, but they do not quite have the sing along factor of PV. Dreamy Emo/Shoegaze for the win! 8/10
   
10. Foxing - The Albatross I actually saw Foxing open up for Tigers Jaw back in 2017, before I had ever heard their recorded music. I really enjoyed it. They slap live. A few months after the concert I was playing random emo music in the cafe and the song “the Medic” came on. I was jamming to it and in the middle of the song I realized, “Holy shit, I saw these guys live”. This is another album that has a crazy 5 song stretch. The first 5 songs are on another level. 9.5/10. “Pent Up In A Blind” is a short interlude instrumental but it perfectly bridges “The Medic” and “Rory” which are undeniably the best two songs on the album. It is dark and depressing, but their musicality is something I have never heard from an emo band. The sound on this album is very unique in the genre. They use a trumpet (which is sick live) and the guitars have a slight midwest emo style, with the sweeping guitar parts on some of the songs, but the tone is unlike what you would hear in midwest emo. The rest of the album is solid, but very instrumental heavy which is the only reason the overall album was dropped down to a 8/10
    

Honorable Mention:

1. Secondhand Serenade - Awake In my mind this is the second best acoustic emo album out there. It is much more polished and poppy than anything else that made the actual top 10. The vocals utilize some fairly significant pitch correction, which becomes obvious when you hear the songs live. He uses pitch correction, but it feels more like an effect than it does about fixing vocal imperfections. The vocals needed to be that perfect to fit the style of the music. Secondhand Serenade used amazingly written harmonies to add depth and dynamics to the music. SS utilizes some unique tunings and chords in his music. I learned so much about playing the acoustic guitar from this album. Just like City and Colour I never considered SS an emo band until around 2015. That’s when I looked past the beautiful music and took a deeper look into the lyrics and realized, “Damn, this guy was going through some shit.” I always considered it a love album, as there are some beautiful love songs, but if you look deeper you will see that they are all about trying to fix messed up relationships. Not exactly as happy as the songs sound.
   
2. For When You Can’t Breathe - A Home That Doesn’t Exist This album was just released this year, by an artist that released their first song in 2022. They are almost completely unknown with less than 36,000 monthly listeners on Spotify (most of those have come in the last few months). The newness of the artist does not detract from the perfection of this album. It has dreamy guitar tones, especially on the verses. The choruses have a strong pop punk feel. The vocals feature both super clean poppy melodies, and yelling and screaming. It kind of feels like a mix of Secondhand Serenade’s clean vocals, Peripheral Vision’s guitar tones, Mayday Parade’s choruses, and the raw vocals of Hotelier. Seriously a cool mix of music and styles. It is everything my 17 year old scene self hoped emo music would be in 15 years.
   

Hey everyone. I've been dabbling with Linux for a long while (started with Mandrake way back when)...with full installs, dual booting, experimented with different distros, etc. But now I need help with something:
I own a 2014 MBP. This thing has been rock solid since I bought it brand new. Had the battery replaced, swapped the original internal SSD with a bigger one (used to be 250 GB, now 1 TB. Still going strong). However, the absolute last version of MacOS it'll take without tinkering is Big Sur. Now that this version has been officially out of support, it's only a matter of time before the apps I use on the regular will stop getting security updates (planned obsolescence, I know it sucks, but that's how the cookie crumbles I guess). The other day I got the idea of dual booting the machine and putting Kubuntu on it. I chose this distro because I'm very familiar with the Ubuntu family since the beginning, and I prefer a KDE-style UI where I can get up and running quickly. Mind you, my days of experimenting with Linux have dwindled, and now I just want an environment where I can get work done. Most of my tasks are:

• Web surfing (Reddit, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, etc)
• LibreOffice for editing documents
• VLC for watching videos
• Networking tools in case I need to troubleshoot (Wireshark, FileZilla, Angry IP scanner, etc)
• VPN utility for masking my IP in case I need to
• Terminal
• Thunderbird and FireFox
• And one of the most crucial, an RDP client capable of managing multiple remote connections to the Windows family simultaneously.

Now, even though the OS is retired, everything works perfectly fine. My question is, should I go ahead with it? Or should I just hunker down and keep using it as it is? Since I'm still not 100% there, I need at least some reassurance to get it set up and gradually migrate my data to Linux, eventually replacing Big Sur completely.
Thanks in advance for any feedback. It's much appreciated.

Hi guys 3; I lost my water bottle and was hoping if anyone saw/sees it to lmk. It’s nothing fancy at all, just has sentimental value, but it’s a plastic clear water bottle with a black top, faded/smeared black yingyang designs, and hella stickers all over. Some of the stickers are twilight ones, a huge orange one that says “punk is dead” and then one that says “BODIES” and has like a naked woman body. Plz plz if yall see it get it back to me bc I love all the stickers on it sm and I’m so sad it’s missing 😭😭😭

https://imgur.com/a/m32jJ81
They all have 3 different lumbar supports, and I guess one of them is the Herman Miller Aeron “Remastered”
Without taking any sort of price into consideration, which of these would you choose?
They all seem like different models of Aerons, gonna do my own research on them too now, but wanted to get your guys opinion as well.
Would appreciate any and all input, thank you.

UNDERSTANDING CARBON FIBER T-GRADES

The "T" in T-grades denotes a classification system utilized by Toray Composite Materials America, Inc., a leading manufacturer of carbon fiber materials. As the first commercial producer of carbon fibers since 1971, Toray manufactures various types of carbon fibers, including standard modulus, intermediate modulus, and high modulus fibers.
T-grades primarily indicate the tensile modulus, or stiffness, of the fiber. Higher grades correspond to a greater tensile modulus and increased fiber stiffness, as well as higher costs. Standard modulus carbon fibers, which are the most economical, have a tensile modulus of 33-34 Msi or higher. Intermediate modulus fibers have a tensile modulus of 42 Msi, while high modulus fibers have nearly double the tensile modulus of intermediate ones, making them the highest quality.
Although tensile modulus is the main criterion, T-grades also encompass other material properties such as tensile strength, density, electrical conductivity, and specific heat capacity.

Fiber Type	Tensile Strength* (ksi)	Tensile Strength* (MPa)	Tensile Modulus* (MSi)	Tensile Modulus* (GPa)	Common Applications
T300	512	3,530	33.4	230	Various including weaving and prepreg, especially for drapability
T700S	711	4,900	33.4	230	Various including filament winding and pultrusion
T700G	711	4,900	34.8	240	Various including weaving and prepreg with enhanced fiberesin adhesion

T300 VS. T700 CARBON FIBER PICKLEBALL PADDLES

Both T300 and T700 are recognized industry standards and belong to the standard modulus carbon fiber category due to their similar tensile modulus. They offer excellent tensile strength and stiffness, making them suitable for manufacturing pickleball paddles. Despite this similarity, T300 and T700 pickleball paddles differ significantly in terms of composition, performance, durability, and cost.

• Composition and Manufacturing

T300 and T700 carbon fibers differ in carbon content. T700 contains about 95.58% carbon, giving it a more crystalline structure and superior bonding compared to T300, which has approximately 92.5% carbon. T300 has a higher nitrogen content at around 6.96%, while T700 contains about 4.24%. This lower nitrogen content makes T700 stiffer, whereas T300 is slightly less rigid.
The manufacturing processes for these fibers also vary. T700 is produced using a dry-jet wet spinning technique, while T300 is made through a wet spinning process. This difference in manufacturing methods significantly affects their physical properties, resulting in T700 pickleball paddles having a smoother surface compared to those made with T300.

• Performance

T700 carbon fiber paddles are generally considered superior due to their 40% higher tensile strength and better strength-to-weight ratio compared to T300. They also offer greater resistance to stress per unit cost. Consequently, T700 paddles are favored by professionals or aggressive, high-energy pickleball players who prioritize power over precision.

• Control

While T700 pickleball paddles allow players to hit the ball with more force, they are more challenging to control. In contrast, T300 paddles are often lighter and easier to control, making it simpler to keep the ball within the court boundaries.

• Spin

Both T300 and T700 paddles can generate good spin due to their rough surfaces, which can be adjusted or enhanced during manufacturing. However, T300 paddles naturally provide slightly better spin because their surface is rougher than that of T700 paddles.

• Durability

T700 paddles are stronger and more durable overall. However, they are more prone to breakage due to their use by players who favor power play. T300 paddles, with a similar tensile modulus, are generally more suitable for their intended play style and tend to last longer.

• Cost

T300 paddles are significantly cheaper than T700 paddles, making them a popular choice for beginners or recreational players. As players improve and seek to enhance their game, switching to T700 paddles can provide better performance and range.

CONCLUSION

Both T300 and T700 carbon fiber pickleball paddles have their advantages and disadvantages. In performance and durability, the latter steals the show, while the former is cost-friendly and preferred for players new to the game. Selet according to your needs.

***I posted this originally in but think this might be a better place for it
TLDR: I'm struggling to understand if my relationship issues are genuine concerns or my past influencing my perception. My boyfriend (29M) and I (25F) have been dating long-distance for 10 months. He initially talked a lot about our future, including plans to get a place together, but has since become non-committal and distant. Given my history with a narcissistic parent, I'm unsure if these are red flags or typical relationship hurdles. I'm worried he's "future faking" me. Any advice on discerning these issues would be appreciated. ___________________________
Sorry this is so long - It's clearly weighing heavy on my mind and I also have a habit of overexplaining myself due to my past. Believe it or not, this was my attempt to keep it short.
As someone raised by a single narcissistic parent, I (25F) have a lot of difficulty in figuring out if my perception is accurate or if I'm misinterpreting things. I've spent years working on this in therapy and have made progress in figuring out when I'm being treated poorly, specifically in platonic relationships, but have still a ways to go.
Recently, I've gotten into a relationship with my bf (29M) after having been single for 5 years. The person I've started dating proactively chased me during this time and I was clear that I wanted to be just friends due to concerns about long-distance, feeling overwhelmed with the interest they had in me without knowing me super well, and feeling like my boundaries weren't being respected. Over those 5 years, we developed a strong friendship/relationship and these issues resolved (except for the long-distance). I had a major life event happen in 2023 that had me questioning how much of my life I had lived in fear and avoidance. Simultaneously, this person was a huge support to me while I went through this difficult moment. I decided I was ready to pursue a romance with him and he agreed he wanted to too. So we started officially dating roughly 10 months ago.
In the beginning of our relationship, he would make tons of comments about our future together, talking about our kids, what life would be like when we're married, trips that we would take, etc. I was hesitant in the beginning to believe this, but slowly started to imagine this future too and would join in these conversations. I had never dated someone who so openly talked about a future with me and while it felt scary in the beginning, I started to feel like it was a beautiful thing and I was experiencing healthy love.
Back in January, he started to talking to me about getting a place in my city. Although we're long distance, he has to come to my city fairly often for business reasons and likes to extend his stays to spend time with me. I initially thought he just meant something for himself that he would stay in when he was in my city. This wasn't super surprising since he has an apartment in another city sitting completely empty and he was talking about getting a place in another city for when he'd visit before we started dating. To be clear, he has vast financial resources. Like hundreds of millions.
I was excited that he was going to get a place in my city, because I knew it would make him more comfortable when he'd visit and therefore make his visits more likely. However, he clarified to me a week later that he actually wanted to get a place for the both of us - where I would stay full time and he would stay when he was visiting. He was surprised that I thought this would just be his place. I thought about it and got excited at the idea (although I had some concerns about living alone for those periods he wasn't there - I've always had roommates and have loved it honestly).
Once I agreed, he said he wanted to start looking at places when he was visiting my city for a few weeks that February. I started to look at places online and have conversations with him about what we'd both want. February came, he didn't make any effort or mention of seeing places in person. My roommates started to ask me if I'd be renewing the lease with them or not and I told them I wasn't sure. I'd periodically bring it up to him and emphasize that we probably need to start looking and make serious progress on it. He would agree, but I wouldn't hear anything more about it. Finally, I told him I needed to give my roommates a final answer about it. He said that I should renew the lease with them so that we're not rushed into finding something and can find the perfect place. He said it was okay if the leases overlapped, assuring me that it wouldn't be a problem and he'd cover it financially. I was hesitant, but given his vast wealth, I figured this was just one of those rich people things where comfort is prioritized over wastefulness.
He has not brought it up since. Recently, I had felt some distance from him. He wasn't as communicative. He flaked on a vacation we were supposed to go on during my spring break at the last minute due to a conference he wanted to attend. He was vague about when he would be able to visit next, saying that I could visit him whenever even though he knew I was in school until May. He invited me to go to a friend's wedding in a far away state in late April, but said he figured I wouldn't be able to go because he knew I had finals. I decided to make it work by flying in for 48 hours despite having finals. While we were together in person, it didn't seem like anything was wrong at all. I decided to talk to him about some of these concerns and mentioned the apartment. He said that he wanted to find the perfect place for us and not stress about it. I told him that I get that, but we need to take action in order to find the perfect place. He said that there's no rush. I pointed out he said he wanted to start looking at places in February, so it seemed like he wanted to get a place fairly soon, but I was feeling confused because since those early talks, I've been the only one to talk to him about it. I told him that it felt like he didn't want to get a place with me anymore. He said that he does want to still but when he brought it up to me, he meant he wanted to get a place in the future and there's no timeline. In his head, it will happen eventually and I shouldn't be worried (????? WTF). Anyways, I decided to drop it and give him the benefit of the doubt.
He also early on told me how excited he was for when we go to his home country, how we'll go in the next year, how he needs to take me there. A week or two ago, an opportunity came up where he would be in a nearby country for business and I would be on a break from school. We talked about me going with him and then going to his home country after for a bit. Yesterday, I asked him about it and he started to express doubts, saying he's never taken a girl home before... Keep in mind: 1) I have already met his parents and brothers more than once. 2) This man has only dated one other person, and it was in high school. 3) This man has been talking about taking me there as soon as its convenient since we started dating.
I'm worried given my past with parental narcissistic abuse and having my perception constantly questioned/invalidated that I'm not able to identify red flags unless they're really severe or different from what I experienced growing up. Prior to this relationship, I always pursued men that were emotionally distant and whose love I had to earn because it felt safer (and mirrored my relationship with my absent parent). This is the first time I've dated someone who consistently showed interest in me. I thought this was healthier and that I was recalibrating my dating patterns, but now I'm starting to have doubts. I'm feeling like I can't trust his word anymore. I'm starting to wonder if he's been future faking me.
What do you guys think? Any tips on what I should be looking out for in the future? Or how you can know with certainty that there might be love bombing/future faking before things get worse? I don't want to find myself in a position years down the line in an abusive or toxic relationship and realize that there were signs I missed/ignored earlier on. I also don't want to ruin a happy and healthy relationship because I'm making mountains out of mole hills.