I will always prefer a full auto primary weapon, but I heavily rely on medium pen. for when I can’t always hit the weak spots. The Penetrator is about as close to a pea shooter as possible, so that only leaves the Adjudicator. Tried it at launch and immediately said ‘yeah I’ll never use this again’ but finally this week it clicked. This gun hits hard, and the recoil isn’t bad at all. Yes it’s noticeable but easily learnable, or countered by firing 2 or 3 round bursts, which is enough to take out most enemies, or even heavier enemies like Heavy Devestators (shield dudes) it’s super easy to spray at their head and suddenly they’re not an issue, or quickly spraying down berserkers (chainsaw dudes) Absolutely excels at range, the scope is super usable at 150M setting, easily picking off trash enemies from a distance before running in to take out fabricators/bug holes. I tried to go back to the Dominator, scorcher, literally anything else and now nothing can replace that full auto hard hitting Adjudicator. If you haven’t used it and given it an honest try I’d highly recommend it if you’re decently accurate, or at least willing to deal with a little recoil, because even with waves of trash mobs, quickly mag dumping is taking out 6-10 enemies is easy.

Hi all!
This is a first time post and I'd really appreciate any insight from others who had post wedding regrets... I'm really struggling with our day and it's so disheartening for me and my husband.
In short: we planned an outdoor, destination wedding but were unlucky enough to have rain the entire weekend. The rain spun me out so much and triggered so much anxiety that I didn't interact and greet my guests like I wanted to. I am left feeling like I have disappointed everyone and they regret even making the effort to come to our wedding.
Does anyone have any advice or words on how they dealt with a similar experience?
Full story:
The Background: We are expats; I'm Irish, he is from the UK and we met in The Netherlands. We both decided to have our wedding abroad because we didn't feel it was right to choose one location over the other so we opted for the beautiful Portugal. About a year before the wedding, he was offered a job in Sweden so we relocated 6 months before our wedding date (another big undertaking).
Destination weddings always cause some rumblings but in our case, there wasn't really a location to choose that would keep everyone happy so we wanted to make it a little city break so people could really get something extra from the weekend.
The week of the wedding: Well, if you hadn't guessed already: it poured with rain the days before and after our planned outdoor wedding. (The sun did come out by Monday so anyone staying longer did get to experience some sunshine but most people only stayed Friday - Monday morning).... We had to opt for a Plan B and convert to indoors... but I was so spun out by the rain and the guilt of disappointed guests that I really wasn't fully present to greet them the days before. I went into total panic mode. The guilt was so overwhelming that I found it very awkward to talk to a lot of my guests. Of course, I tried to put on a brave face and I hugged them and thanked them for coming...
We had a meetup the night before the wedding. This was supposed to be outdoors in a square with lots of bars but we switched to the hotel. In a panic move, I put 1000EUR behind the bar as a gesture for the guests.
The Wedding Day: On the actual day, I was still a bit shell-shocked and couldn't really enjoy the morning getting ready. My poor bridesmaids didn't know what to do and the whole getting ready experience was a pretty silent affair.
Thankfully, I came around a few hours before the ceremony and realized I had to accept it for what it is. My partner during all this was keeping everything jolly and light and making jokes about the weather.
Walking down the aisle was actually really fun and I loved seeing him there waiting for me. We had a short, informal ceremony given by a friend of my husbands.
After the ceremony, we started with a receiving line but we were ushered to a different location by the venue coordinator and unfortunately, the receiving line kind of fell apart at that stage.
While I have vague memories of hugging people, I really don't remember if I got everybody.
Then the rest of the day is a bit of a blur. I started to do table visits but didn't get very far and then I just remember my husband telling me that he had gotten me a plate of food and that I should sit down and eat...
The rest of the night was spent dancing but not really socializing properly.
We had put on a free bar, BBQ with great food, a band and a DJ.
Families: My husbands family are more introvert and quiet and didn't socialize very well during the wedding. they didn't even congratulate him (there is a complex relationship there)... his mum became upset at the dinner table and started crying and then she left the top table to sit with her friend.
My family are more sociable but my dad is a drinker and he gets quite selfish when he drinks so he upset my mum and me to the point where I told him not to do a speech (he didn't want to anyways so he didn't protest)
The next day: The following day we also invited people to our villa but it lashed rain again and so guests were in separate villas with me running between the two, and again, not really socializing properly.
Now: I am struggling with extreme shame and embarrassment that I threw a terrible wedding and that I was a bad host. I've barely heard anything from guests since and I really would like some advice on how to acknowledge my regret but also maintain some level of positivity with guests.
My poor husband is so gutted that I feel this way about our special day and I want to be able to accept the regrets and move on but I am stuck in a loop.
Does anyone have any similar experience hear and can offer some advice?
​
​
​

This analysis also comes from Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups: A Collection of Outstanding Dissertations and Monographs, "Shakubuku: A Study of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Movement in America, 1960-1975", David A. Snow, 1993, pp. 175-177 - it's a section within the analysis here about how the SGI's "discussion meetings" were carefully planned and choreographed sales pitch performances aimed at convincing any "guests" to convert. I thought this part about the carefully structured "experiences" deserved its own post:

In addition to the general supportive role, members are provided with instructions regarding the more specific role activity. That is, they are coached as to how to give explanations of what NSA [former name of SGI-USA] is all about, to lead songs, and to give testimonies. Regarding the latter, for example, members are reminded to respond to the emcee's request for experiences with great alacrity and enthusiasm by thrusting their hands in the air in a vigorous manner and yelling out "hi."

Actually, it's "Hai!", which means "Yes/Okay/I'll do it" in Japanese.

And if called upon, they are reminded to attend to the five major points or the "five S's" of giving a good experience.

That "coaching" is done before the live performance at the "discussion meeting", of course, not reminded within that performance context. That would break the illusion, as you can imagine.

The first point is Shakubuku. Remember, the guests have absolutely no understanding of this practice or any NSA terminology. Always talk to the guests and not to the members. The sole purpose of an experience is to make the guests curious enough to join ... Don't use Buddhist terms and names the guests won't understand...
Point number two is story. Make sure an experience is just that - something which happened to you and which you either changed into a benefit or changed an aspect of your life-condition through chanting. Basically , an experience should be structured as
(a) I had a problem or I was satisfied [sic] with my life and

That's obviously a typo; it should be either "I wasn't satisfied with my life" or "I was dissatisfied with my life", as confirmed by part (b):

(b) then I chanted, solved the problem or changed that aspect of my life which I wasn't satisfied with...
Make sure that you stress that chanting was the ingredient which changed those aspects of your life. Otherwise, the guests won't be able to connect just how chanting and a person's problems relate.
The third point to keep in mind is simplicity. Make each point of the story simple and to the point. Don't clutter the issue with unnecessary details. Try to be as brief as possible.
The fourth point is that of a seeking mind. What this means is that the person giving an experience should try to find out what type of experience the leader wants to have conveyed to the guests that will most benefit them.

Clearly, this is all about crafting the most persuasive sales pitch, not about honestly and authentically communicating anything real.

We're not saying that there is a "one" type of experience that is sought, but experiences have to be geared to the guests at the meeting. A middle-aged person is definitely going to have hard time relating to the change in values of a college student... The point is, make sure you are perceptive enough to give the type of experience which the guests at the meeting can relate to best.

Keeping in mind that no one knows for certain WHO these "guests" will be - this sort of "adjustment" in the details has to be made on the fly, which demonstrates the inauthenticity of the "experience" performance. But the culties are supposed to make it appear "authentic":

The final point is one of the most important - sincerity ... Even if your experience isn't that spectacular or full of content, the guests can relate to a person' [sic] sincere way of giving the experience...

The "5 S's" section is footnoted as coming from:

"The Five S's of Giving a Good Experience," World Tribune (September 11, 1974). Also, see the NSA Quarterly (Winter, 1975), p. 13; and the World Tribune (October 25, 1974).

It was obviously a structured thing that was explicitly taught (indoctrinated).

These five pointers on how to construct and give a "good" experience are mentioned repeatedly in the movement's literature and by its leaders. Furthermore, members can learn how to construct testimonies in accordance with these instructions by simply watching and listening to other members, and especially core converts, when giving their respective experiences.

You can probably surmise that after a while, these "experiences" will all start to show the same standardized structure; this will be accepted within the cult (because that's the goal), but the guests won't realize just how structured it is - and the focus on making it as manipulative as possible.

Indeed, rank-and-file members and new converts are often told to watch and listen to how so-and-so gives an experience.

That's true - I remember that.

It should thus come as no surprise that the testimonies given at these meetings, or wherever, are usually structured in accordance with the above pointers or instructions. And when they are not, the violators are usually pulled aside after the meeting and provided with corrective suggestions. At the end of several meetings, for example, I overheard the district chief reprimanding and re-instructing members regarding the unsuitable testimonies they had given earlier in the evening. This sanctioning and corrective work occurs not only when unsatisfactory testimonies are given but whenever meeting or movement-related roles are performed in an unsatisfactory manner and whenever members visibly engage in conduct that is inappropriate from the standpoint of NSA. During the San Diego Convention weekend, for example, I observed on several occasions members who were being brought back into line for engaging in unbecoming conduct, such as smoking grass on the bus while en route to the convention. That members who conduct themselves and perform their roles in an unsuitable and unconvincing manner are frequently pulled aside and provided with corrective guidance thus suggests a third consideration pointing to the highly orchestrated and theatrical character of discussion meetings in particular and of NSA in general.

Everyone must be "on" at all times; they must at all times display the SGI-defined image that SGI believes will be most appealing to draw in potential new members.
While these specific "five S's" aren't around any more, there are still guidelines for how to give an "experience":

How do I write an experience for SGI budhist meeting?
State the difficulty you faced.
State how long you have been struggling with it, and how it affected you.
State what you did to resolve it, and how much you chanted.
State the resolution, and what that means to you.
Keep it to under 3.5 minutes.
Before you give your experience, read it to someone who cares about you, someone you know, and ask for an honest opinion on how your delivery is. from 7 years ago

REHEARSE it, in other words. These "experiences" are NOT spontaneous!

Timestamp https://imgur.com/a/44bj3YA
(3) Arex OEM 20 round mags to fit Arex Alpha and REX Zero 1 pistols. These are 18+2 with no salt.
Trade for Glock 17 mags or sell for $85 - shipped CONUS/Legal states.

Respect The Predator

"SKRAAAWWWWW!!!"

The Predator, also known as the Yautja, are an alien species that travel the numerous stars in the galaxy for the thrill of the hunt. The Predators will hunt anything and anyone all in the name of their brutal honor code and with their terrifying advanced technology, interstellar capabilities, and deadly superhuman attributes? The Yautja retain their status as the Alpha Species in the galaxy even in the year of 2056 where humans have also gained the ability of interstellar travel.
Disclaimer: This thread will only be covering feats for the Predator comics originating from the Marvel franchise and will not include feats from the stories originating from the Dark Horse franchise as I will do seperate threads for those in the future.
Linking the thread I made for the Predator vs Wolverine crossover as well as me bringing over some feats from that thread to this one as well.
Key

Day Of The Hunt=DOTH
The Preserve=TP
The Last Hunt=TLH
Predator vs Wolverine=PVW

Strength

• Predator sends Theta flying with a combistick strike.^DOTH
  
• Predator breaks Thetas mothers spine over his leg killing her.^DOTH
  
• Predator punches a survivor with enough force to launch him off his feet and break/crack the bark on a tree.^TP
  
• Predator casually tosses Paolo to a wall breaking the metal panels knocking him out.^TP
  
• The Nightmare Hunter stops a Purple Titan dead in its tracks midair with one arm.^TLH
  

Speed

• Predator kills a Astar security guard in a blur.^DOTH
  
• Predator dodges an Astar laser blast.^DOTH
  
• Predator evades gunfire and kills a survivor.^TP
  
• Predator evades gunfire from multiple shooters and kills a survivor.^TP
  
• Predator evades more automatic fire without getting hit once.^TP
  
• Predator evades automatic gunfire from multiple shooters and isn't tagged once.^TP
  
• Predator is able to evade gunfire/plasma fire from multiple shooters in a hallway without getting tagged until Paolo shoots him with his pistol.^TP
  

Durability/Armor

• Predator tanks a machete to the face only losing a mandible.^DOTH
• Predator bio-mask tanks the damaged Astar laser weapon to the face leaving the bio-mask still fully functional. ^DOTH
  
• Predator survives a direct hit from a speeder going high speeds with no damage to the Predator.^DOTH
  
• Predator is shot in the midsection by a Astar laser rifle. Barely fazes him.^DOTH
  
  • An Astar laser weapon can one-shot this huge beast.^DOTH
  • Limit: Paolo shoots the Predators arm off with the Astar laser weapon although, he also shoots the Predators right hand which remains intact.^DOTH
• Predator armor is bulletproof to pistol fire.^TP
  
• Predator bio-mask tanks a point blank shot from a pistol and it, along with the Predator, were both completely unharmed.^TLH
  
  • Limit: Multiple point blank automatic gunfire from an assault rifle will go through the bio-mask and kill the Predator.^TP

Skill

• Predator successfully infiltrates the Astar Recon Ship Turnstone and kills all combat personnel present. ^DOTH
  
• Theta and the rest of the surviving Astar personnel try to set up a trap for the Predator but it fails...horribly.^DOTH
  
• Predator disables a laser rifle with a skilled shuriken throw.^DOTH
  
• The Predator that almost kills Theta in issue 2 for the 2023 run, puts up a good fight against the River Ghost pack but needed saving from his comrade and would self destruct to erase his shame.^TP
  
• Predator kills Allen in one strike despite him wearing Predator armor outfitted with a exoskeleton suit.^TP
  
• A Super Predator kills multiple various sized Purple Titans at once. ^TLH
  
  • The Purple Titans can easily destroy trees.^TP
• The Nightmare Hunter slaughters numerous armed combatants with ease.^TLH
  Fights With Theta
  
• Theta was hunting the Yautja alone for fifteen years and possibly killed at least 20-25 on her own.^DOTH
  
• Theta uses scavenged Predator weapons and armor and outfits Predator armor with a built in exoskeleton.^TP
  
• She has access to nuke rockets lmao.^DOTH
  
• 2022 run, Issue 4. The full fight between Theta and a Predator. Theta was drunk before the fight but the Predator was able to defeat her in one move and would've killed her had Astar not shown up.^DOTH
  
• The Predator Theta was looking for in the 2022 run would've killed her had Paolo not intervened. ^DOTH
  
• 2023 run, issue 2. Full fight between a Predator that defeats Theta in combat "disarms" her and is about to kill her until the River Ghost pack saves her.^TP
  
• Theta is once again defeated by a Predator in the 2023 run issue 5, and is about to die until she is saved yet again.^TP
  

Fights With Wolverine 616 and Sabretooth 616

• Predator from the crossover fights Logan evenly a couple of times.^PVW
  
• A random Predator from the crossover was able to sneak up on Sabretooth and both mutually "killed" eachother. ^PVW
  

GeaWeapons

Plasma Caster

• Plasma caster blast apart the chest cavity of its targets. ^DOTH
  
• Plasma caster disintegrates a mans head.^DOTH
  
• Predator Plasma Caster takes a chunk out of a stone pillar.^DOTH
  
• A Purple Titan survives an alien explosive device, gets one-shotted by a Predator plasma caster.^TP
  
  • The Purple Titan is immune to small arms fire.^TP
• Predator plasma caster blast a huge hole in a survivors chest. ^TP
  
• Predator plasma caster obliterates a survivors head.^TP
  
• Plasma caster completely Incinerates a Purple Titans head.^TLH (See feat 4 for the plasma caster section for scaling)
  
• Plasma caster takes a sizable chunk out of a human.^TLH
  

Energy Flechette

• Predator energy flechette destroys a stone structure and emits a huge explosion as well as shooting off Thetas prosthetic foot.^DOTH

Shurikens/throwing stars

• Predator shuriken embeds itself in a mans skull.^DOTH
  
• Predator shuriken disables a Astar laser rifle. ^DOTH
  
• Predator shuriken fatally wounds a survivor allowing for an easy kill.^TP
  
  • Predator uses a shuriken to kill a River Ghost. ^TP
  • Predator ninja stars take out three humans.^TLH

Wrist Blades

• Predator cuts a man in half with his wrist blade.^TP
  
• Predator wrist blade obliterates an assault rifle.^TP
  
• Predator wrist blades cut off a survivors hand as well as cut apart the butt stock of the rifle.^TP
  

Predator Axe

• Predator axe cuts into a stone wall with ease.^DOTH
  
• Predator axe cuts Astar laser weapon in two.^DOTH
  
• Predator axe cuts a River Ghost head in two.^TP
  

Miscellaneous

• Predator ships stealth technology can bypass radar in the future of 2056.^DOTH
  
• The Predators have access to snall spider drones one of which kills all survivors in the 2022 run issue 6 leaving Theta and the two other Astar personnel the only ones alive.^DOTH
  
  • The Super Predators also have the explosive spider drones. ^TLH
• Predators have a small type of javelin that can kill a Ghost Runner.^TP
  
• The Nightmare Predator has hell hounds at his disposal.^TLH
  
  • Hell hounds are bullet resistant.^TLH
  • Hell hounds can give armored exoskeleton wearing humans trouble. ^TLH

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/LoOtvcu
https://imgur.com/a/cpqA6FE 510C
https://imgur.com/a/HzXRAjO SCS MP2
https://imgur.com/a/YWf9Q61 Upper pics
Prices CONUS shipped& insured PPFF (preferred) & Cashapp. NO Venmo or G&S. Open to offers on multiple items. If you call dibs, DONT GHOST just say you changed your mind, nbd. Send funds within REASONABLE time or lmk we can work it out. NO G & S, NO NOTES please. To prevent potential scammers, please PM me (chat disabled) after calling dibs
_________________________________________________________________________________
WTS- Shipping USPS ONLY- make an offer on multiples
-MI Quad Upper- mounted everything up just to abandon the build yet again, silicon residue where upper and CH meet

• -square forge upper w/ SI poly dust cover (allegedly BCM which i doubt, no BCM4 mark above gas tube hole), no rounds from me low salt, 55
• -Aero Pencil mid 16" barrel w/ dimpled Aero AGB .625, no rounds from me, low salt125
• -MI 14" quad rail, new only mounted @ 45 ftlbs, 145
• -Badger OG large latch CH, catch & release new, 28
• -DD rail covers, catch and release low salt 20
• Bottle VFG (Aim sports? idk), 13

$355 not splitting until buyer for handguard
-Holosun 510C w/ 1/3rd riser- lower salt/wear shown in pics, sticking with an AEMS core $220
-Holosun SCS MP2 for M&Ps, low salt, decided to go with a larger windowed optic. Comes w box tool & screws $290
-Arredondo +5 M&P basepad for 17rd mags low salt prefer without for that extra pinky lip on my grip. Ran 2 full mags 115gr thru it no malfunctions $20 PENDING
-Cloud LCS for Streamlight HLX polymer, with ODG paint on outside not switch channel- $34
-Wilson Combat Mug apparently discontinued. Clean, no salt only sugar- $11 or +7
-Blackhawk Level 3 holster for Glock/ TLR1s and Optics. larped only no salt $100- would trade for a Glock/x300u or M&P 5"/x300u Lvl2 or 3 or Glock/x300u
-Langdon Tactical Glock 19 grip anchor for no backstraps (mine fit either way), gives you an extended rear grip / funnel. Tried but didnt end up using it- $24
-1911 G10 grip panels & MSH that extend to create a magwell. Off a Sig 1911 Emperor Scorpion or something. 2 range trips never carried, really nice but i needed thicker grips $50
-Pearce Glock double stack pinky extension $10 or +$5
-Riton TARD QD 1/3rd mount- didnt quite line up with a Romeo5, im sure if you want you can make it work- $15 or +10
______________________________________________________
WTT fo WTB
-YHM SRX 1/2X28 Flash Hider mount, full length $50+
-M&P 2.0 5"/x300u Level 2, preferably 3 OWB holster $80+
-PRI Medium Gas Buster CH- $50+ would trade a BCM 4x4 low salt if interested
Willing to go up depending on salt/brand
_____________________________________________________
FREE add on or + shipping
-1" sling sliders
-Jeep JK/JL fire extinguisher strap mount to rear bars
-5x Gunlocks

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

preface

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

the entire report

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

what I experienced

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

in hindsight what happened

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

will anyone stop this. how common is this

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

more about dog behaviour in general that might be relevant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Drink”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The fuck is this?”

“Think of it as a gift.” She snorts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like the title says I'm thinking of farming 5 pink tails and wondering if anyone else has done the same and how long it took them?
I havnt even started farming them yet...the flan princesses are such a gigantic pain in the ass with auto berserking everyone but Cecil that I've resigned to stat maxing up to like lvl 85 before I even attempt to start farming them. Once I even get to that point how long am I realistically looking at with the treasure hunter augment and is a full set of these necessary to beat garyeon & proto babil?

There are two things that bother me about wifeliver's kit:
The petal being to niche and clanky And his lack of offence utility
Everything else I like, the grip, the dash, the noaimhealbot playstile, and the ,constantly geting buffs, tree, but there is no denying the he is one of, if not the weakest support in the roster, so here are two buffs that I think it could help
About the platform, give it a TP(similar to Simmetra) After te Peltal rises it should create a TP on the ground right under it, so that any team member can interact with it, allowing them to TP to the already risen platform. That way teammates can go up the petal whenever they fill like it, or to go back up after falling down.
What about his damage? Well here comes a hot take I don't want lifeweaver to have nether damage bost (it would make him way to similar to mercy) nor I think he should need to use his torn volley(it's clunky to switch, because youre not supposed to switch all the time, at lest I don't believe it was the developers intention for you to do so),to me LW kit was designed for players that do not want to worry about shooting or aiming.
TLDR: I think he should be able to do "passive" damage without ever switching weapons.
But how? It's not a perfect idea but what if lifeweaver had a passive ability ,that worked similar to sojourn secondary fire, where every time he healed an ally with his primary fire, it would fill a meter, when that meter was full the next heal blossom(his primary fire) would became a "torn blossom" a special blossom that creates a single projectile from the team member heald by the blossom that auto target's enemys. It would work similar to mirrorwatch's Mercy damage boost, that attached a red beem of damage to nearby enemys.
I know these changes alone won't save the character and make him meta or something, but it has been so long since wifeliver's relise and the developers have been refusing to rework the character even though the problems with his kit have been apparent since day one, so I wanted to brain storm some ideas that would make him more enjoyable to play as.
Thanks for reading, I don't know if I was able to put my idieas into words properly, Please don't be afraid to call out grammar mistakes in the comments, English is not my first language

First
Previous
Sorry for the delay in getting this part out; been away visiting family so not had much time to put fingers to keyboard, plus I managed to have my phone stolen by a roller coaster and it took a white to get it replaced and be able to get into a few things - stupid two factor authentication! Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
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Y’Lek and K’Rim slowed their mad dash as they neared the armoury; there was no telling whether the Swarm agents had left any traps for them and the armoury was full of extremely energy dense materials and weapons which could potentially jeopardise the structure of the ship if employed in the right way. Grabbing some handy footholds they stopped and considered the imposing door in front of them.
After a few moments of effort K’Rim had eased off the casement off the door’s locking mechanism but could detect nothing amiss with the crystalline structure beneath. Bypassing the outer interface she placed a grasper to the innards and a small spark of bioelectric energy jumped into the crystal which glowed briefly as the uniquely patterned waveform was parsed and compared with the patterns of those permitted access. The door slid aside as they were granted entry with no unwanted surprises being triggered.
With a relieved chitter Y’Lek started inside only to be pulled back sharply as K’Rim pulled on his leg.
“Stop. Just because the door opens, doesn’t mean that it is safe.” K’Rim warned as she pulled a small disc out of one of her utility pouches. Snapping it easily she gently tossed it through the doorway after slowly counting out a grasper of seconds. The exothermic reaction had reached the point where the disc glowed fitfully in the infrared, while it emitted a clear UV light. K’Rim watched it carefully and her antennae twitched with the effort of picking up any slight sound.
The glow-disc struck some of the lockers which filled the armoury and ricocheted off around the room but nothing seemed to react to the heat and movement.
With a decisive clack of her mandibles K’Rim pulled herself through the doorway and into the armoury. Y’Lek followed close on her tarsus. It was immediately obvious that several sets of warrior equipment had been removed, along with copious numbers of weapons.
Y’Lek was surprised when K’Rim didn’t make for the remaining warrior gear but instead to the emergency pressure suits. Seeing the confused tilt of his head K’Rim explained “Although the room appears safe, we don’t know what they may have done while they were here but it is safe to assume that they would have ensured any of the most dangerous equipment could not be used against them.”
She passed a bundled pressure suit to Y’Lek and continued “The emergency gear and non-powered weapons are the least likely to have been tampered with and have the least amount of capacity for harming us even if they have been so we will have to make do with them until we can thoroughly check the rest of the equipment.”
Y’Lek thought for a moment before bobbing in agreement and starting to pull on the pressure suit, careful to sheath his claws with the hardened “gauntlets” integral to the suit before powering up the spiracle gas exchangers and carefully sealing them in place against his thorax. “Yes, I can see the risk now. Though it will potentially leave us vulnerable, it is better to be certain of our equipment than to die of over confidence.”
The emergency pressure suit came together quickly, living up to its name and the pair were quickly sealed against the cold, dry, and slightly strange tasting air that the aliens had been pumping into the Far Flung Seed and supplying them with a more familiar and moister mixture.
K’Rim passed him a set of the ceremonial but still functional weapons and the harness to hold them. They wouldn’t hold up long against a fusion blade or a particle lance but they were durable enough to give them a chance and were completely inert so could not have been sabotaged.
Only a couple of minutes after entering the armoury they swam back out into the corridor and sped off towards the arboretum.
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Smithy quickly sprayed a fluorescent marking on the uneven and root covered tunnel junction to identify which way they had come from. “How can such a small ship have so many damn tunnels?” he growled to himself.
“It’s not the size of the ship, it’s what you do with it that matters” quipped Hall.
“Yeah? Well, apparently in this case it was fill it with bloody tunnels.” deadpanned Smithy in response.
“Can it.” broke in Stroud before anyone else could get involved “You can discuss the relative merits of alien design philosophy on your own time; for now you need to focus.”
A chorus of “Sergeant” came back over the radio and the remainder of Delta and Echo buckled down and continued sweeping what even Stroud was prepared to admit was a seemingly endless series of tunnels with apparently zero overarching logic to their layout. Up until a few minutes ago they had been getting directional updates from some supposedly friendly ET’s in the control room but apparently they had suddenly just buggered off so now they were picking junctions that appeared to take them in the vague direction that had been indicated to them.
Stroud again cursed the fact that the maintenance drones brought by the initial engineering team hadn't been able to access this part of the ship and map it due to the tightly sealed blast doors that had protected the forest from the vacuum. Who could have imagined that there would have been so much structure hidden underneath and between the normal corridors and rooms? The three dimensional map they had been creating as they advanced was like something Jackson Pollock and H R Giger might have come up with on an acid trip.
They approached another intersection and slowed. After a quick glance between them, Mears and Jackson moved forward, taking cover behind Mears’ shield. They crept up to the junction and Jackson poked the muzzle of his shotgun, and its camera into the ragged space beyond. The feed showed several small tunnels radiating off at all angles, way too small for any of them to fit down. One navigable tunnel appeared to curve off back in the direction they came from, while another looked like it might go the right way.
Suddenly the camera and the end third of Jackson’s gun disintegrated into a cloud of superheated vapour, shards of glowing metal and smoking composites. With a scream Jackson jumped back, the outer weave on the gauntlet of his left hand shredded and smouldering. In a stunning display of muscle memory he ejected the internal magazine and disconnected the weapon from the backpack feed almost before his mind had caught up with what was going on.
Hands grabbed him as he was yanked further back into the corridor. He flung the remains of his shotgun down and it clattered and bounced down the tunnel in the vague direction of the junction. Jackson was conscious of Mears backing up towards him, shield held protectively to block as much of the tunnel as possible, while Smithy grabbed his forearm and inspected his hand. Stroud stepped over him and took up guard on Mears’ shoulder, weapon trained forward and sweeping what could be seen of the slightly larger space beyond this section of the tunnel.
Another “FOOOM!” as the tumbling wreckage of the shotgun was vaporised as it spun across the opening of the tunnel.
“Fuuuuuuuck me!” said Jackson, at last able to form words as the adrenaline induced tunnel vision started to clear.
“Well, how about you start by showing me whether you can still use your fingers and we can take it from there, eh?” Smithy said from where he was turning his hand from prone to supine again. “Looks like the inner layer of your glove is intact but both Simmonds and Jones complained of numbness after being hit. How’re you feeling?”
Jackson gingerly flexed his fingers and made a fist a few times but grunted as he felt the tips of his fingers tingle where they pressed into the material of his gloves “Feels weird - tingly like I sat on my hand or something.”
Smithy grunted to acknowledge this “OK, well shout out if it gets any worse; got it?”
He pulled Jackson to his feet and slapped him on the shoulder before they both turned back to face down the tunnel again. Jackson surreptitiously flexed his hand a few more times as he pulled out his sidearm and secured its retaining strap to his right wrist. He wasn’t too hopeful that the small pistol would be able to do too much against the ET’s, but it was better than walking around with nothing.
Stroud backed away from the junction where he had been very gingerly checking all the passageways with a camera barely poking out from the mouth of the tunnel they were in.
He stood up and turned to the security team “Ok, looks like there is something stuffed into one of the narrow tunnels - kind of like those shoulder guns the ET’s have, along with a stand and power supply. My guess is it has some kind of automated fire mode and decided that it really didn’t like Jackson’s gun waving around in front of it. Question is, how are we going to get rid of it? We can’t leave it behind in case we need to come back this way in a hurry.”
“I guess it will probably shoot anything we throw at it so grenades are out?” mused Mears
There followed a number of suggestions and comments.
“Can we get an angle on it and just shoot it?”
“How about we let Jackson distract it some more while the rest of us blow it away?”
“We need to avoid the power pack if the two dead ET’s from the corridor are anything to go by.”
Stroud listened for a minute before cutting the chatter short. “Ok, so I think our best bet is to use the ballistic shield to bait it, while someone else blows the top off it from the other side of the tunnel; Mears you and Jackson handle the shield; keep a tight hold on it as those shots release a lot of energy when they hit. Smithy - I’ve marked its location so you hug the other side of the tunnel and draw a bead on it. Wait for it to hit the shield before popping out and taking your shot; and for the love of all that you hold dear do it fast, Ok?”
The team nodded in agreement.
“I will be there to pull Smithy back as soon as he has popped out of cover, just in case.” concluded Stroud before ushering them to their positions. After a few moments of shuffling around each other in the tight space they were ready.
Smithy led the countdown. “Ready. Steady. Go!” Instantly Mears and Jackson shoved a third of the ballistic shield out into the corridor and planted themselves on top of the section remaining in the corridor only a moment ahead of a bright flash and the shield heaving under the impact.
Seemingly almost simultaneously Smithy leaned out and fired, the boom of his shotgun mingling with the “foom!” of the vaporising surface of the shield. Stroud almost bodily lifted him as he pulled him back from the edge.
For a second they were still as they sprawled around the opening.
“A good hit!” called Stroud as he reviewed the few frames of footage from Smithy’s gun camera between jumping out and back in again.
Mears stood up and inspected the sorry remains of his ballistic shield, now missing most of the top edge. “Great, well I hope there aren’t too many more of those hidden around as I’m running out of shield.”
+++++++++++++++++++
N’Dar’s antennae quivered inside his protective suit. That last series of weapons fire had been far too close for comfort and he still had two more locking systems to bypass. With a furious click of his mandibles he redoubled his efforts, running his bioelectric patterns through a series of filters, amplifiers and other signal processing systems to trick the door into thinking he had a right to open it.
The rot take the claw that had been delaying the aliens! He was supposed to have more time than this!
Next

im coming here to ask for help, ive been searching around for some time now and im coming to a dead spot, ive tried many youtube videos for help but they are all so different ( due to being years ago ) ive also tried asking chatgpt and copilot. no help. Im doing my major project for design and tech in school and need help im very new to programming on python, so if anyone could help that would be great. Ive got a program which already works and you can talk to it and it will talk back. but i want to add functions to it such as: it being able to google search for me, open apps on my computer. this is my code:
import os
from os import PathLike
from time import time
import asyncio
from typing import Union
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import openai
from deepgram import Deepgram
import pygame
from pygame import mixer
import elevenlabs
from record import speech_to_text
load_dotenv()
OPENAI_API_KEY = os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
DEEPGRAM_API_KEY = os.getenv("DEEPGRAM_API_KEY")
elevenlabs.set_api_key(os.getenv("ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"))
gpt_client = openai.Client(api_key=OPENAI_API_KEY)
deepgram = Deepgram(DEEPGRAM_API_KEY)

mixer is a pygame module for playing audio

mixer.init()
context = "You are Cypher, Bear's human assistant. You are witty and full of personality. Your answers should be limited to 1-4 short sentences."
conversation = {"Conversation": []}
RECORDING_PATH = "audio/recording.wav"
def request_gpt(prompt: str) -> str:
"""
Send a prompt to the GPT-3 API and return the response.
Args:

• state: The current state of the app.
  
• prompt: The prompt to send to the API.
  

Returns:
The response from the API.
"""
response = gpt_client.chat.completions.create(
messages=[
{
"role": "user",
"content": f"{prompt}",
}
],
model="gpt-3.5-turbo",
)
return response.choices[0].message.content
async def transcribe(
file_name: Union[Union[str, bytes, PathLike[str], PathLike[bytes]], int]
):
"""
Transcribe audio using Deepgram API.
Args:

• file_name: The name of the file to transcribe.

Returns:
The response from the API.
"""
with open(file_name, "rb") as audio:
source = {"buffer": audio, "mimetype": "audio/wav"}
response = await deepgram.transcription.prerecorded(source)
return response["results"]["channels"][0]["alternatives"][0]["words"]
def log(log: str):
"""
Print and write to status.txt
"""
print(log)
with open("status.txt", "w") as f:
f.write(log)
if __name__ == "__main__":
while True:

Record audio

log("Listening...")
speech_to_text()
log("Done listening")

Transcribe audio

current_time = time()
loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
asyncio.set_event_loop(loop)
words = loop.run_until_complete(transcribe(RECORDING_PATH))
string_words = " ".join(
word_dict.get("word") for word_dict in words if "word" in word_dict
)
with open("conv.txt", "a") as f:
f.write(f"{string_words}\n")
transcription_time = time() - current_time
log(f"Finished transcribing in {transcription_time:.2f} seconds.")

Get response from GPT-3

current_time = time()
context += f"\nAlex: {string_words}\nJarvis: "
response = request_gpt(context)
context += response
gpt_time = time() - current_time
log(f"Finished generating response in {gpt_time:.2f} seconds.")

Convert response to audio

current_time = time()
audio = elevenlabs.generate(
text=response, voice="Adam", model="eleven_monolingual_v1"
)
elevenlabs.save(audio, "audio/response.wav")
audio_time = time() - current_time
log(f"Finished generating audio in {audio_time:.2f} seconds.")

Play response

log("Speaking...")
sound = mixer.Sound("audio/response.wav")

Add response as a new line to conv.txt

with open("conv.txt", "a") as f:
f.write(f"{response}\n")
sound.play()
pygame.time.wait(int(sound.get_length() * 1000))
print(f"\n --- USER: {string_words}\n --- JARVIS: {response}\n")
if anyone can help please do!!!!!!!!!

My husband has struggled with and been medicated for OCD, anxiety, and depression since he was a child. We’ve been married 10 years (this week). When we were dating in college, I knew he had some depressive episodes but he was still functional, social, happy at times, etc.
He deconstructed a year ago from the faith. While I don’t fully agree with his current belief system, there’s a lot that is better about his approach to the world despite our religious differences now. Any way, he says leaving the faith he’s “never been happier” but he has had more depressive episodes/days than not. It’s getting worse over the last 5 months or so.
He’s been in therapy for over a year now. He’s switched medicines, gotten diagnosed with adhd and started adderall, and even spent a small fortune on teas, tinctures, and supplements at this point.
It is deeply affecting our lives. We have a 5 year old, 4 year old, and 1 year old. There is not a single chore or task in this house or our lives I can depend on him to do consistently. It’s not that he always does nothing at all, it’s really inconsistent and unreliable for anything. He didn’t even set up auto payments on the car he purchased in February and I accidentally caught it. Brought to his attention- he still didn’t deal with it so now I’m managing those car payments as well.
I do all things kid. I do our finances. I mow our grass.
No “things around the house” get done unless I asked him to do them…. Repeatedly.
He gets debilitated in his depression and can literally not do anything but lay there on the couch and stare at the ceiling often.
I want to be a supportive spouse, but I can’t handle all 3 kids, the house, and adjusting our moods and expectations literally every day to something different with him. I’m also cleaning up after him, and trying to keep the kids fro bugging him without just handing them screens all the time. I am so emotionally and physically exhausted. I can’t keep up with the house by myself.
I feel so bratty being impacted by my husbands severe depression. He simply wont or cant do things like walk, eat well, etc. he disassociates on his phone like 90 percent of the time he’s home. He says the kids overstimulate him and he just kind of shuts down. Fair, I get it. But like… the show must go on and I need him to be a present parent emotionally and not another persons emotions I’m constantly working through. It’s like he will be happy and great part of the day, then completely shift mood and I have to pick up on it and adjust. He doesn’t tell me when it happens but will just be like “no I can’t” if I ask him to contribute.
He was depressed Mother’s Day so literally did nothing but lay around all day. He later apologized saying I deserved better. He’s not suicidal (or so he claims).
What is expected of me here? We both suspect bipolar and he’s said he’s coming to terms with the fact that he has severe depression and not just moderate. I am losing my mind functioning as a single parent all the time and getting no emotional support for myself. I feel like I always have to be strong, calm, the best parent I can be with no breaks or no sign of breaks.
He will keep the kids at bedtime but it’s not that fun to go grab dinner with a friend only to come home to 2 hours of chores to be done. He’s told me my expectations are unrealistic, but has since apologized. He will often say things like can’t we leave the dishes for tomorrow? With a full sink. He doesn’t get that he will be at work and that means it’s automatically going to be a task for me tomorrow, while he’s working, because we’re going to need dishes.
I guess any advice welcome. I’m struggling. I know marriage is in sickness and health and not always 50/50 but this has been months of this type of pattern and I am getting resentful and burnt out.
I know his depression is real and he’s not trying to give me a hard time but I am getting SO burnt out

Greetings,
We have updated our Course Schedule with classes out to September, 2024.
Upcoming Classes Include:

New Jersey Permit To Carry (PTC) Qualification

• Saturday, May 25, 2024
• 9:00 AM 1:00 PM
• Indian Mills Deer Club (map)

The New Jersey Permit To Carry (PTC) Qualification course is an instructor-led and live-fire shooting qualification course intended to equip you with the training and documentation necessary to apply for your New Jersey Concealed Carry Permit.
UPDATE: This course meets the CCARE Protocol requirements for NJ Concealed Carry as published by the NJSP (September, 2023).
Course Fee is $150.00

NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting

• Saturday, May 25, 2024
• 1:30 PM 6:30 PM
• Indian Mills Deer Club (map)

The NRA Basics of Pistol Course (Instructor-Led) introduces students to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for owning and using a pistol safely.
Note: IF you wish to take this class AND the NJ Permit To Carry Qual this same day, May 25th, you may wait to shoot the NJ PTC Qual until AFTER the Basic Pistol Class is over (shoot the qual at the end of the full day).
In this course we will cover basic firearms safety, fundamentals of pistol shooting (aiming, grip, stance & trigger control), ammunition components, malfunctions, and we will review the core elements of modern pistols & revolvers. We will practice loading and unloading firearms safely. We will cover how to recognize and clear malfunctions. We will discuss and demonstrate proper firearm maintenance and selection criteria.
Then we’ll head out to the range and put these principles in action.
Course Fee is $165.00

Running & Gunning - May 2024 - RIFLES

• Friday, May 31, 2024
• 9:00 AM 3:00 PM
• Jersey Devil Outfitters (map)

By Invitation Only
Each month we will host a Running & Gunning Training day. This 6 hour session will continuously evolve and no two sessions will be the same.
Each session will be focused on pistol, rifle, shotgun or a combination of disciplines.
These sessions will be all range time, with high round counts.
We will focus on balancing speed and accuracy, multiple targets, multiple distances, dynamic movements, obstacles, steel targets, timed exercises/drills, performance-based shooting, and much more.
Invited Ironsights Alumni will be asked to bring their own training drills to share/use in addition to what the instructor provides.
Course Fee: $150.00

NRA Basic CCW

• Saturday, June 1, 2024
• 8:00 AM 2:00 PM
• Indian Mills Deer Club (map)

Introduce the students to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense. This course focuses on the psychological, emotional, social, and physical needs of preparing to carry, carrying & using a firearm for self-defense, and how to manage the aftermath of a self-defense encounter. Significant and dynamic range time included.
Course Fee is $185.00

NRA Certified CCW Instructor

• Sat, Jun 1, 20242:00 PM Sun, Jun 2, 20246:00 PM
• Indian Mills Deer Club (map)

The NRA Certified Pistol Instructor Course is intended to teach the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to conduct the NRA Basic Pistol Course. Following the completion of this course, you will become a Certified NRA CCW Instructor.
Course Fee is $400.00

Beyond the Basics - Pistol Level I

• Saturday, June 15, 2024
• 9:00 AM 3:00 PM
• Jersey Devil Outfitters (map)

The Beyond the Basics (BtB) series is the natural progression for shooters once you have completed the NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting Course. In the BtB - Pistol Level I course, we focus on refining your pistol handling skills, building muscle memory, honing your shooting accuracy, and we take you to the next level of firearms training…beyond the basics.
This course is 100% range time with copious amounts of hands-on instruction.
Course Fee is $185.00
AND MORE!
Hope to see you out there on the range!

I know this probably gets posted all the time but, please, be aware of your teammates' fields of fire.
If you have to move, cross *behind* your teammates whenever possible.
Played with randos over the weekend, and shot so many teammates in the backs of their heads - sometimes more than once - because they would suddenly pop into view while I was going full-auto during ADS.

Hi, I ran into an Enclave purifier patrol while following the early BoS storyline - fortunately I was wearing a recently found set of 45b power armour but I had to resort to a mini nuke to take out the one powered armour trooper in the squad.
The thing is I'm lvl 10 and the power armour dropped was fully upgraded Mark VI Hellfire armour. Along with finding a fully upgraded suppressed 10mm and another 10mm auto pistol later on (advanced and powerful auto receivers) I now feel ridiculously OP for my level.
Is this normal power ramping or just incredibly lucky?

Hi i am new to IPSC and i wanted to ask some questions about some things that i 've seen so far. I have played 4 official competitions so far and i had like 4 courses with instructor before the matches. They always give me a different gun or what is left thats what i believe. Usually glock 17 gen4 , bereta 92fs and an old Smith & Wesson that is small for my hand. In one competition they gave me a cz shadow 2 and i did pretty good with it. In my last match they gave me a glock 17 gen4 and the mag kept falling after i shot one time. They said i dont get it in correctly but i am sure i did it fine. It dropped like 5 times in a stage. In aiming glock was harder compared to chadow2 or Beretta 92fs but still did ok. So am i doing something wrong with glock mag? They said that i should better learn with pistols like glock because they are harder to learn but they reveal all the problems a shooter has with guns. Do you agree? What are your thoughts
Thank you for your time