What am I looking for?
A voice chat! But if not, a friend! I’m just processing uprooting my life and making big changes. The struggles of getting out of my flop girl era but having fun through it!
Apart from being a confused Debby Downer (I’m new to it, not sure if doing it right?), I’m usually out and about living my city girl lifestyle. So throwing events (I help run a charity and love celebrating life events for people), going to museums, watch rugby and football, reading and working in cafes.
I also can be found gig hopping and crate digging because I love exploring music so send your reccos my way! Love a bit of art too, new found obsession with architecture.
If I had to choose characters to describe myself, it would be Gina Linetti meets Amy Farah Fowler meets Leslie Knope meets Bridget Jones. (Yes I’m aware, there’s a general undertone here.) What about you?
Keen on voice calls to get to know each other!
Before this goes on for too long, please say more than “hi/hey, how are you”, be over 26+ and ghost free.
Hear from you soon friend! :)

The way my dad goes to my mom to bitch about certain things makes me laugh. when he came to school to pick me up, this bastard goes “look at your pimples they’re coming out” bro i fucking know. stop mentioning that shit dude tf is wrong with you?
i answered saying “please stop mentioning it, i already know. thank you” he kept quiet after that, then said i was being disrespectful and went to bitch about it to my mom and then she comes interviewing me.
i’ve always told him to stop mentioning my fucking acne because it already makes me insecure enough and they don’t fucking understand that shit. they blow boundaries and don’t respect shit, because they’re supposed to be God 2.0.
this is why i would have preferred staying at school until 2:45 pm. i’ll do anything to leave this house because i don’t want to deal with their fucking bullshit.
this is the same dumb ass that was saying “oh i’ll disgrace you, what did you say to them in the school? why are you reporting us? why can’t you talk to someone in the house rather that at school?” meanwhile when you do it, they’ll criticize you and not even comprehend how hurtful it is. all these bastards do is sit down and compare their kids and their daughter in laws to everyone else but never compare themselves to other parents. bunch of hypocrites acting like saints.

The Lost Legion We are Legion moritūrī tē salūtant -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Lost Legion or TLL in short is looking for both experienced and new players to grow our ranks and make new friends along the way. Where hoping to build a nice fighting force made up of all the roles in the verse. No matter if your interested in being a med player or you just wanna shoot some stuff we will welcome you with open arms. Ofc players that wanna mine or salvage are also just as welcome. We are trying to create a place that is welcome to all the citizens in verse. We also run events with our friends from the alliance (Potestas Imperium) so expect some fun stuff to happen from time to time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Things to know

• Most of our ppl are from the EU/USA so we will be active around those time zones, The Asian side still need to grow a bit more, but its growing slowly
• The USA/Asian side are in need of new active mods, so if you might be interested in being a mod in a growing org lmk and we can have a talk about it. (TLL-robskuuu)
• We are a grey orientated org (That still means grieving for no reason is not allowed, but play all sides of the game without having to worry about rules)
• If your new to the verse, you can always request a guide from the higher ranking players within the org
• All discord channels are locked behind roles (that's why it can seem empty when entering for the first time, a role will be given to you as fast as possible so the discord opens up for you :D)
• age restricted 18+ only

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our goals for the future

• When its time in the verse to have you own base and territories we would like to own a little place to call home
• We will aim to get capital ships as soon as they drop to support the alliance in events and to explore the verse
• When there is sufficient interest we will give trainings to new players (you can already request a guide if your new)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you ready to reinforce our ranks? click the link and you'll be directed to our ORG page! : https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/LEGIONEU Discord: https://discord.gg/xBqkZbT8e9
https://preview.redd.it/93ovabdqhe0d1.png?width=985&format=png&auto=webp&s=880445b1bc3a50e775567967e3e6174e00eedafc

ey there my name is Eduardo and hopefully we can become friends! Below will be a bit about me and some other stuff👇
Overall though I’m just looking for another friend someone who I can talk to about life, anything really, share laughs, and vent. I hope that I can also be a friend like that to someone else here.
I’m from the US (where my fellow Marylanders at?), I’m a busy person but I try my best to make time for my friends as I see friends very high in my priorities. I am in college for a history, work as a carpenter and part time at a restaurant.
I don’t care where you are, 18+, or your background just lmk though so I can keep in mind timezones.
I’ve done some traveling and big road trips I love driving/traveling. We can share road trip stories if you have any :). Now with the weather getting nice and hot I want to get into hiking just more involved with MOTHER NATURE.
I don’t really play games anymore but I did use to collect games so I can share that much lol though I did play a lot before graduation.
Favorite movies/franchises/shows, my favorite anime and fictional series is one piece, if you also watch/read one piece I can talk about it endlessly. Spider-Man I’ve been all over recently, always been a spidey fan and when I can read the comics. Zelda and Mario and some of my favorite game franchises. I played other games I’m not just a Nintendo guy dw. I’m always up to watch something new like a movie or tv show so recommendations are open, genre don’t really matter.
Music, I listen to really all kinds and appreciate from all genres except metal or just screaming sorry metal heads. Mostly as of now I’m getting into or listening to just pop, r&b, indie, classic rock, new wave, reggae rock, salsa, rap/hip hop (mostly older stuff). I’ll take any recommendations if you follow a genre I like 👍
PLEASE no nsfw I don’t want that go somewhere with that I’m good I don’t want to talk or see it.
I’m down to text, call, video chat just lmk but please I can get busy at times so keep that in mind.

Hey there my name is Eduardo and hopefully we can become friends! Below will be a bit about me and some other stuff👇
Overall though I’m just looking for another friend someone who I can talk to about life, anything really, share laughs, and vent. I hope that I can also be a friend like that to someone else here.
I’m from the US (where my fellow Marylanders at?), I’m a busy person but I try my best to make time for my friends as I see friends very high in my priorities. I am in college for a history, work as a carpenter and part time at a restaurant.
I don’t care where you are, 18+, or your background just lmk though so I can keep in mind timezones.
I’ve done some traveling and big road trips I love driving/traveling. We can share road trip stories if you have any :). Now with the weather getting nice and hot I want to get into hiking just more involved with MOTHER NATURE.
I don’t really play games anymore but I did use to collect games so I can share that much lol though I did play a lot before graduation.
Favorite movies/franchises/shows, my favorite anime and fictional series is one piece, if you also watch/read one piece I can talk about it endlessly. Spider-Man I’ve been all over recently, always been a spidey fan and when I can read the comics. Zelda and Mario and some of my favorite game franchises. I played other games I’m not just a Nintendo guy dw. I’m always up to watch something new like a movie or tv show so recommendations are open, genre don’t really matter.
Music, I listen to really all kinds and appreciate from all genres except metal or just screaming sorry metal heads. Mostly as of now I’m getting into or listening to just pop, r&b, indie, classic rock, new wave, reggae rock, salsa, rap/hip hop (mostly older stuff). I’ll take any recommendations if you follow a genre I like 👍
PLEASE no nsfw I don’t want that go somewhere with that I’m good I don’t want to talk or see it.
I’m down to text, call, video chat just lmk but please I can get busy at times so keep that in mind.

If you guys are playing Lovers Fortress the game will bug out on the collecting shards step IF you swap your weapon before you collect all shards and combine them to the sword. Another glitch I found is when you're inputting the code with the lantern to make sure you swap your lantern out before you input the code or the game will glitch you like it does on the shard step. Both instances take away your weapons, your ability to melee, interact on the map, use your miracles, grenades, etc.. going down and reviving does not fix this. You can only end the game and restsrt to fix.

There have been an increasing number of juniors visiting this sub asking for advice about writing essays. Below are some tips and advice for making your essay stand out as excellent. Feel free to ask questions because I will answer every single question in the comments.
I know from experience that many of you are struggling to identify a good topic for your essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or essay examples you read, or the rough draft you already started (or worse, that GPT started...). I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.
Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.
Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.

It's About You. Tell Your Story - And Be The Protagonist

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.
Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?
It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.
You'll see the advice everywhere that all essay prompts are really about the same thing - you. The goal of each essay then is to showcase who you are, what matters to you, and how you think. I guarantee if you're on this sub enough, you'll hear the advice to "show, don't tell" when writing about yourself. But what does this mean really, and how do you do it well? How do you even get started on an essay that does this?

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives, especially those related to personal insights -- what are the most meaningful things about you, and what do you value the most? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests?
  
• What sparks your curiosity?
  
• About what topics do you enjoy reading?
  
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?
  
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
  
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?
  

I have a free introspection worksheet with over 100 questions like this designed to help you find ideas worth exploring in your essays. You can find it on the A2C Discord or download it directly here.

Find Your Story And Arc

Think of a small anecdote or story from your life that you could share that serves as a microcosm of who you are and what is important to you. It will massively help you narrow this down and find a gem of a story if you first start by thinking about your application arc or theme. This is the one-phrase summary of your entire application. It could be "brilliant entrepreneur who started her own successful business" or "talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports", or even "avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry". It doesn't have to be related to your intended major, but it can help your arc be stronger and clearer if it is.
Once you have an arc determined and a story to share, think about what you want that story to say about you. This is where it can help to think of this as something you would share on a date - what impression does it make about you to the reader? Once you know this, start showing, not telling this attribute of yourself through your story. For example, instead of saying that you're compassionate toward others, you show an example of a time you were compassionate, then elaborate on why, and what it means to you.

Essay Brainstorming Techniques

If you are having trouble finding a story, or simply have writer’s block once you have picked your topic, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

• Stream of consciousness writing -- Start writing whatever is in your head, and don’t stop for 30 minutes. You probably won’t use what you just wrote for your essay, but it will help you find a starting point.
  
• Journaling -- Answer the prompt as if you were writing in a journal. This will get you in the habit of writing about yourself and establish comfort with the concept. It will also take you to a new level of introspection and self-awareness.
  
• Twitter X style -- Write several rapid-fire responses to the prompt in 280 characters or less. Choose an idea from these responses to expound upon in your essay.
  
• Read each essay prompt, then go through your introspection worksheet responses and connect the stories and insights to one or more of the prompts. Some students like using color coding to visually see how their different ideas might work together.
  

Why Essays Matter

Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize about college admission: it's not an award for being the smartest, most accomplished, or most impressive. It's an invitation to join a community. Far too many students think that if they can just show that they're smart enough, they'll get in. Yale even says right on their admissions website that 75% of their applicants are academically qualified to succeed at Yale. But only ~4% are getting in. That should tell you that they're looking for more than just top tier test scores and grades. To be perfectly clear, you will need top tier grades and (optionally) test scores to show that you're qualified, and the vast majority of my students come to me with this part already in the bank. But what sets the admits apart? It's personal insight - sharing who you are, how you think, what matters to you, and how you engage community. You can't just say "/IAmVerySmart, please admit me," or even "I did a cool thing guys! Isn't that neat!" You need to go deeper and show them your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, character traits, foundational beliefs, personality, etc. And you need to do it in a charming, winsome way that makes them like you and want to invite you to join their community.
So how do I get students to do this? All of my students complete that introspection worksheet. We go through it and find the stories, examples, anecdotes, conversations, memories, relationships, and other things from their life that will help us craft a strong and personally insightful narrative. We also make lists of the values, strengths, and key personal qualities we want to showcase. Once we have some topics, outlines, abstracts, or rough drafts, we talk about which stories to tell where, how to tell them well, and what details to include to present the best they have to offer. Then we refine, edit, polish, and enhance over and over until the story sings, but more importantly shows their heart and soul. We also go through all the other application components to ensure consistency, quality, and distinctiveness.
Here's why this works so well: at most highly selective colleges there is a primary reader (or 2-3) who will review everything first and then present it to the admissions committee, who then votes on whether to admit you. That presentation typically goes one of three ways:

1. Total enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. They strongly advocate for admission and paint a clear picture of how you will contribute to their goals and community. Everyone in the room picks up on that energy and is leaning forward in their chairs, looking for reasons to admit you. This is quite rare, generally less than 5 out of every 100 applications, even among those which are "fully qualified." When you do this right, you show depth, meaning, and valuable personal insights so the reviewer is learning about who you are and how you might engage the community they're curating. You come alive off the page as a person, not just another file.
   
2. Business as usual. You're another great applicant in a pile of great applicants. They share a basic review of the facts, your profile, stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Maybe someone on the committee finds something they love, and they really push for admission. More likely, not and you get deferred/waitlisted even though there wasn't anything "wrong" with your application. They just didn't love you enough to commit.
   
3. "Here's a stack of 20 applications that I didn't find all that compelling, so we won't present them individually, but you guys are the committee and you make the decisions. So let me know if there are any you want to talk about." In this case, unless there's a letter of endorsement from an athletics coach or your last name matches several buildings on campus, you're probably not getting additional consideration, much less admission. They will regret to inform you.
   

Everything we're doing is designed to help them get to know themselves, present the best they have to offer, and land in that first group. Having top tier essays is the single best way to get there. Get started on brainstorming in the next few weeks so you'll have time to get a few essays completed over the summer.

Enhancing User Management in Laravel

In the ever-evolving landscape of web development, ensuring the authenticity and security of user data is paramount. Laravel 10, the latest iteration of the widely acclaimed PHP framework, continues to offer robust features for developers aiming to streamline user management processes. One such feature is the ability to display a verification status on user profiles, a critical component for platforms requiring verified email addresses for enhanced security and user trust. This functionality not only reinforces the integrity of the user base but also significantly improves user experience by providing clear communication regarding account status.
Implementing a permanent email verification status within Laravel 10 requires a nuanced understanding of its authentication and verification systems. The framework's built-in support for user authentication, coupled with its flexible and straightforward verification process, allows developers to seamlessly integrate email verification indicators into user profiles. This guide aims to navigate through the technicalities of setting up such a feature, exploring the necessary steps to modify Laravel's default user authentication flow to include permanent email verification status display. The focus will be on leveraging Laravel's existing infrastructure to achieve a secure and efficient implementation.

Command	Description
User::find(1)->hasVerifiedEmail()	Checks if the user with ID 1 has a verified email.
Auth::user()->markEmailAsVerified()	Marks the currently authenticated user's email as verified.
event(new Verified($user))	Dispatches an event after a user's email is marked as verified.

Enhancing Email Verification in Laravel

Email verification is a crucial step in ensuring that users provide a valid email address during registration. It serves multiple purposes, including reducing the chance of spam accounts, improving security by verifying the identity of the user, and enhancing communication effectiveness by ensuring that emails reach their intended recipients. In Laravel 10, the framework provides built-in support for email verification through its authentication scaffolding, making it easier for developers to implement this feature without having to write extensive custom code. This built-in feature automatically sends a verification email when a new user registers and provides a route for the user to confirm their email address.
Customizing the email verification process in Laravel 10 allows developers to tailor the experience to the specific needs of their application. This can include customizing the verification email template to match the application's branding, modifying the verification logic to include additional checks or steps, and even extending the default user model to include email verification status as a permanent feature on the user's profile. Implementing a permanent email verification status on user profiles requires understanding of Laravel's user authentication flow, including how to work with middleware, events, and listeners to efficiently manage and display the user's verification status. By leveraging Laravel's flexible architecture, developers can create a more secure, user-friendly application that clearly communicates the user's email verification status, enhancing the overall user experience.

Displaying Email Verification Status

Laravel Blade Template Syntax

 
 @if(Auth::user()->hasVerifiedEmail()) Your email is verified.
 u/else Your email is not verified.
 @endif 
 

Marking Email as Verified Upon User Action

Laravel Controller Method

 public function verifyUserEmail(Request $request) { $user = Auth::user(); if (!$user->hasVerifiedEmail()) { $user->markEmailAsVerified(); event(new \Illuminate\Auth\Events\Verified($user)); } return redirect()->to('/home')->with('status', 'Email verified!'); } 

Exploring Email Verification in Laravel 10

Email verification is a crucial feature in modern web applications, ensuring that users have access to the email addresses they register with. Laravel 10 simplifies this process with its built-in support for user authentication, including email verification. This feature allows developers to protect routes and functionalities from being accessed by unverified users, enhancing the security and integrity of the application. By default, Laravel includes a trait that can be used within the User model to enable these verification features, making it straightforward to implement and customize according to the application's needs.
The process of integrating email verification within a Laravel project involves modifying the User model, setting up routes, and creating controllers and views to handle the verification process. Laravel's built-in notification system is utilized to send verification emails, which can be customized to fit the look and feel of the application. This comprehensive approach ensures that users can verify their email addresses seamlessly, improving the overall user experience. Additionally, developers can extend or modify the default behavior to accommodate more complex requirements, such as verifying emails with third-party services or implementing additional checks before marking an email as verified.

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Verification in Laravel

1. Question: Is email verification required in Laravel 10?
2. Answer: While not mandatory, email verification is highly recommended for applications that require validated user data for security and functionality purposes.
3. Question: Can I customize the verification email template in Laravel?
4. Answer: Yes, Laravel allows you to customize the email template by modifying the notification class that handles email verification.
5. Question: How does Laravel handle email verification internally?
6. Answer: Laravel uses a middleware to check the email verification status of a user and a notification system to send verification emails using customizable mailables.
7. Question: Can I resend the verification email to a user?
8. Answer: Yes, you can trigger the resend functionality using Laravel's built-in methods or by implementing custom logic in your controller.
9. Question: How do I redirect users after email verification?
10. Answer: Laravel allows you to define a redirection path after email verification through the RouteServiceProvider or directly within the verification notification class.
11. Question: What happens if a user tries to access a route requiring verification without being verified?
12. Answer: Laravel will automatically redirect the user to a specified path, often the login page, with an error message indicating the need for verification.
13. Question: Can I use third-party services for email verification with Laravel?
14. Answer: Yes, Laravel's flexible architecture allows you to integrate third-party verification services by customizing the verification process.
15. Question: Is it possible to verify user emails without sending them an email?
16. Answer: While unconventional, you can manually mark a user's email as verified in the database or through a custom admin interface without sending an email.
17. Question: How do I ensure that email verification links are secure?
18. Answer: Laravel generates secure, signed URLs for email verification links, making them tamper-resistant and secure for users to click on.

Wrapping Up Email Verification in Laravel 10

Email verification plays a pivotal role in securing user accounts and enhancing the overall integrity of web applications. Laravel 10, with its extensive support for user authentication and verification, provides a robust framework for developers to implement these features seamlessly. The process, while straightforward, offers flexibility for customization and adaptation to specific application needs. Through the use of middleware, notifications, and custom routes, Laravel ensures a user-friendly and secure verification process. The benefits of implementing email verification are manifold, including reduced fraudulent activities, increased user trust, and improved data integrity. By following the guidelines and practices outlined in this guide, developers can effectively implement and manage email verification in their Laravel 10 applications, paving the way for more secure and user-centric web platforms.
https://www.tempmail.us.com/en/laravel/implementing-permanent-email-verification-status-on-user-profiles-in-laravel-10

To become a millionaire with bonk coins, you would need to consider several factors such as the current value of bonk coins, your starting investment, the rate of return, and the time horizon. Bonk coins, like any other cryptocurrency, can experience significant fluctuations in value over time. Therefore, it's essential to conduct thorough research and analysis before investing.
Firstly, you would need to determine the current price of bonk coins and calculate how many you would need to reach a million dollars based on that price. Keep in mind that this price can change rapidly due to market volatility.
Next, consider your initial investment. The more you invest initially, the fewer bonk coins you would need to become a millionaire. However, investing a large sum of money also comes with higher risks.
Additionally, you should factor in the rate of return on your investment. If the value of bonk coins appreciates over time, you may need fewer coins to reach your million-dollar goal. Conversely, if the value depreciates, you would need more coins or a higher initial investment to compensate.
Lastly, consider your time horizon. Achieving millionaire status solely through bonk coins may take longer depending on market conditions and your investment strategy.
In conclusion, the number of bonk coins you need to become a millionaire varies depending on the factors mentioned above. It's crucial to assess your risk tolerance, investment goals, and market conditions before making any investment decisions.
JOIN THE BEST CRYPTO EXCHANGE

Grindhouse theme kicks off the start followed by "prevues of coming attractions"
A narration opens up the trailer "welcome to the hillside, a small town community located on top of a volcano sized hilltop, a community with everything a city wished it had" while shots of people walking around, interacting, socializing,even shopping at small towns stores. "A lake to fish, an army/Navy surplus store, schools, and even a baseball stadium, then a series of unfortunate events and an act of negligence causes a nearby dam to malfunction and flood the entire countryside" a small group of teens look at what used to be a road downhill through the woods, now vanished from the flood waters "what's going on?, that's the only way we used to get out of here, now we're cut off from the outside world". "As supplies begin get scarce and the core of society begins to crumble and shatter, the townsfolk begin to turn on each other, violence, theft, cruelty, MURDER!!!!! as the mayor's son begins to seize control after killing his own father these teens make a desperate attempt to escape with their lives". "What are we gonna do?, how are we gonna get out of here?", "i saw an old fishing barge that crashed into the shores by the forest,if we can attach a couple of motorboat engines from the sporting goods store the back of it,i think it'll still be seaworthy " the next scene would be the kids running through the woods with the engines, while their former friends (armed with guns) are hot on their trail screaming through the night "HALT!!!, STOP!!!!, STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!!!!, DROP THOSE MOTORS!!!!! ". the kids are running through the forest trying to dodge bullets and trying not to damage the motors (natter how many times they've fallen and gotten back up, you then see a close-up of a rifle barrel shoot a flash followed by the echo of the shot as the screen suddenly fades to black. The narration comes back "The Hillside, if the flood waters don't kill you, your fellow neighbors will"
ALSO..........

Hello everyone! I wanted to ask this to the community because you all have a lot of good advice when it comes to stuff like this. I mentioned on a post a few months back asking what I should do now I’ve been rejected from my graduate schools for English. I wanted to ask now, what’s the best use of my time now? Besides my job, I’ve got a lot of free time to make me and my application the best it can be for the next time around. That being said, I’m open to suggestions!
To the people who were and are English graduate students, and this question also goes to History students as my education also got me a degree in History (emphasis on Ancient History), how did you all best prepare for your (English or History) graduate application? If you would have been given more time, approximately 6 months, what would you do with it? Would you make a new writing sample, simply read more, or something different? Thank you all in advance!

Brother me and my girlfriend started dating in 2015 both 15 , we moved in together at 21- as of now basically almost 24* (im 23 shes 24 , a couple months older) , she had her own dark world and toxic household and so did i. Difference is i had a complete “family” , she was raised by her mother who treated her indifferent because she is her dads twin. She gave the most purest and sweetest love . It even gives me chills to write about it. She surprised me countless times , validated my feelings , took care of me more than own mother did bro. She put her ass on the line for me whenever and vice versa. We traveled to her country mu country and countless other places at a young age all alone . Im gonna be honest i cheated by grabbing another girls ass in 2018 and a year later in 2019 the girl from hs called her to tell her and she waited for me in my house but i was such a coward i kept denying and denying even though she knew exactly what had went on. Fast forward in 2021 shit got so rough my family always hated her for no reason (jealousy is a real thing bro) and so much happened. And imma be honest in 2022 i was taking care of her since we moved in together but 2022 i told her quit her job around early January February i told her i got us cause i found a job paying great so why not? That was my baby you know? So that year i went to a whorehouse with this dumbass loser i was working with and i fell for the temptation. Mind you this was a bad year for her she gained weight up to 260 and her family (mom and sister) they always treated her like shit and always was jealous of even me getting her stuff and just loving her and supporting her. Im not gonna lie yes i cheated and she found out about it the same day cause i fell asleep and went through my phone. My dumbass recorded a voice note that those whores can’t even give oral correctly they use all teeth , so when she found out that was a dealbreaker. Bro i destroyed her with that and i know i fucked up so bad this chick had a hot meal from scratch ready for me every single day after work. Anyways fast forward to 2023, she told me when i get a job i got you and everything you ever did. She got the gastric sleeve surgery in September 2022 so 2023 in February she had started losing weight drastically and then eventually got a job the same month. Brother she was destroyed and still gave me food everyday still helped me still gave me sex just still was trying not giving up. I unfortunately didn’t see it this way due to my own internal problems and trauma and my selfish and stupid ways. Anyways even for my bday she took me to miami wasted $3k on the trip and it was amazing. Eventually it got toxic i got fired around October and i wasn’t really fully employed after that for a while so she had to pick up alot and my egocentric ass said hey i did it for you whats the problem a couple months you hold me down? (She should of been left me) but it got toxic and the stress from work her family me and me not working she was crashing out she would spazz on everyone and i dont blame her looking back she was just going though alot. We started cursing eachother out really bad and even got physical. Not fists punch or slaps just grabbing eachother , breaking stuff, throwing stuff out, breaking property. Anyways for her birthday we went to paris (February 2024) and it was great till we argued (i really shouldn’t have gone cause i got a job in February the whole month and first month on the job i requested a week off already and i lied saying it was something else but it was really this trip i had) anyways after this trip she someway somehow forced me to quit my job because i was out from 6am-7pm everyday monday through Friday. March came and dont get me wrong guys my family i am blessed enough that they were sending me little amounts of money here and there to get me through they know i needed to pay rent food etc. march came and someway somehow when she said something to me she slammed the door and walked out so i immediately reacted and then slammed the door open to chase her . I come back the whole door is ripped off the frame . All the hinges ripped off. I ran away like a coward because she kept screaming at me and cursing me out saying you gotta replace it now but i didnt have 1$ to my name and im asking my mom and she is being a bitch on purpose. Long story short that was march 23rd i get arrested 4 days later because of property of destruction and then get out on limited order of protection. We ran into eachother a couple days later and we spoke she invited me over and i lived with her again the whole month of April. Anyways in april im still just relying on my parents at this point because all these jobs im applying for are not in my favor to respond to me (no one hit me back up) . So towards the end of the month literally the Sunday before the 1st of May we get into another heated argument she said you dont do shit around here you a grown ass man this that and that and tbh bro i can show you my cashapp my mother send me like $1500 that month and every time she would send me $100 here or $300 there for food or something she would tell me waste it on weed. (We kinda of had a weed addiction we were wasting $40 a day 7days a week on weed, you do the math) so anyways most of the money my mom is sending me is being spent very inconsiderately and bad . I didnt think much of it cause i thought hey fuck it man im here whatever she wants to make her happy. Anyways fast forward after the argument sunday before may 1st the weekend before may 1st i leave again because it got so crazy i wasn’t trying to spazz out so i walked out and left. Monday she tells me come back ik your mom isnt cooking im not heartless i still wanna be friends with benefits or friends . Whatever she said and also she said i built this bond with you no one knows me like you do. (We lost our virginity to eachother , we literally told eachother our deepest darkest secrets , met eachothers families, did all this together was very intimate) so i went back and as she said we ate we cuddled etc. the next day after work we go out the whole day because her and mom and sister arent on good terms i forgot to mention we lived in a basement and her mother on the 1st floor. The whole month of april they were on bad terms (just walking by eachother not even talking or acknowledging eachother) so we go out the next day after that Tuesday before May 1st. After work we do all that and come back home at 6/7 ish . I havent checked her phone in ages cause i fucked up alot and honestly i kind of had a feeling if i did i was gonna see exactly what i was looking for. Anyways i still did it cause im a stubborn hardheaded motherfucker, and ofc i saw her texting sexual with some guy she told me she was talking as friends on and off for since November. The convo went like him: im dying to find out i just wanna carry you on top of me , her: omg i forget you’re so tall i love it , him: omg i forget you’re so short i love it, her: Stoppppp omg with the emojis, him: plus if you aren’t gonna wear that dress when we go out atleast where it when you invite me over :p , her: lol i guess im small ( she posted a picture in a shirt blouse showing her curves and body and curly hair) , bro i saw this and went back inside from checking her phone in the middle of the road and said is this what you’re doing to me ? Are you serious? She laughed in my face and said well you’re reading it aren’t you? I lost it and spit in her face and called her a nasty you know what just like her sister. How shes just like her sister (her sister fucks any guy to fill her void and to get money/gifts in exchange. (Going back as to why they weren’t on good terms in april her and her sister got into a physical fight because her sister wore her deadstock jordans i got her from 2018 that are now worth $700 and fried them . What blew my mind during the fight was her sister looked and me straight in the eyes that day and said i know alot about you as if she got something on me. That made me wonder alot. Also she called my ex gf a slut which made me think what the fuck) anyways fast forward after i catch her cheating on me she chases me in her underwear for 12 blocks and im toying running around cars with her at that point and i threw her phone on the ground and she ran right past it. Long story short i got arrested and now im facing a felony cause of that and its no contact as of rn till July when this court date happens. I miss the fuck out of her and regardless of anything i wish her the best and miss her dearly . Side note my brother showed me she was what appeared on a date Yesterday

Gaming in 1080p and i started to get interested in Unity and Unreal game engine that isn't really working or lags on my current laptop.
700 Eur
I plan to build and buy this PC in this month so at most 2 weeks of.
It would be nice if there were a keyboard included in a build because my current one is starting to age
I live in Lithuania. you could access and see our current market prices of components in this website - kainos.lt or kaina24.lt ( you can't change the language sadly )
I plan to use my 144hz 1080p monitor and I have a logitech G305 and a simple keyboard that i may want to replace in the future. Currently i have a working crucial p3 1TB m.2 ssd that i could reuse in this build
I don't plan on overclocking my pc because i am not tech savvy enough and I believe it wears down components
I don't care how PC would look like and it's size I just want it to be the best at this price
I don't need a key for windows because I can get several of them for wn 10 because he works as a programmer and for some reason he just has them laying around that he admitted he doesn't really need...
I currently have a laptop with I7-10750h, gtx 1650 ti and 32gb of ram... ( I got it together with a monitor and mouse back in 2019 or 2020 I believe ). I have Ethernet wired throughout my house so there is no requirement for bluetoth or WiFi but it is just a thing that is nice to have. (Basically if possible to make better PC without these comfort features just throw them out the window) would prefer AM5 for upgrading maybe in the future?.

Its my first time in SEk2, and only my second modded playthrough (the first being k2, which went quickly). So far, I've finished energy science packs and we're working on astronimical and material science.
During the 2 hours me and my friend spent PLANNING our next moves in Norbit, I began to understand the beauty in the tech tree and a feeling of satisfaction that has long been absent from factorio for me.
In the beginning of factorio, every technology feels impactful. You're given new tools to solve problems, automating old problems and allowing you to move at greater speeds in order to encounter brand new problems. But, once understand the tech tree, technology loses its lustre. You can get all the tools you need pretty quickly, and while this is generally preferable to clawing through the desert for a drop of water, sometimes getting that drop of water is worth the entire trip.
Here in SEk2, you might not research a new technology for hours. Not that it takes that long to research, but there's just so much to do with every new technology, because its a requirement to update our factory with every new technology. In vanilla, you might speed run to a specific technology and spend some time building the factory and by the time you've finished a small part of it, the tech tree is basically finished. Here, there's no "skipping" technologies. You have to work through every tech, almost like getting a new age in Age of Empires. In the beginning, you're forced to use burner technology, which necessitates fuel or coal to operate. You can spend a lot of time with zero electricity. But when you get there, you can start stripping down the factory to improve it and make things move faster. There's a puzzle to solve every step of the way. It took us like 20 hours to get trains. I didnt see a requester chest until i was already a man.
Now, I've noticed new level of brilliance that I really like. Once you get into space, there are 4 main paths in the tech tree (and more), each with their own specific rewards that will help your factory grow: Pink, Yellow, Blue, and Green (they have names, i dont care). Each path has a specific resource requirement, so careful consideration has to be made since you'll need to land on a planet to get that resource and then send it somewhere to make the tech cards. That in and of itself is really cool, but now that we've conquered the first tier of Pink, we've noticed in our planning that no matter what our next path is, we get an added bonus of already having pink done. If we choose yellow, we can unlock technologies that require both pink and yellow technologies, and those overlapping technologies can be very powerful. Same with Green or Blue, we unlock technologies that also utilize pink. And moreover, there are even technologies that require 3 or 4 of the colors. And each of those paths of course has 4 tiers, each intermingling in a beautiful chaotic dance. (And of course, there's more beyond that).
And honestly I'm just awestruck. I've spent at least 50 hours chewing and digesting this mod and ive barely scratched the surface. All of this is saying nothing about the production chains and the creative problems you get to solve. So many byproducts and loops. You can increase productivity by adding additional complex crafts to your production line, and every step of the way there's a new logistics problem to try to solve.
I spent a lot of time being uninterested in modded factorio because I didnt think it could be thoughtfully and beautifully designed. As a creative work, it stands shoulder to shoulder with other titans. I am not kidding when i say that this mod is, as a work of art, comparable to the masterpieces of any other medium, relatively speaking. If people understood factorio to the degree that they understand Michelangelo, Shakespeare, or Steven Spielberg, they would erect at least one mid-sized statue in the place of Earendel's birth and maybe even an off-off-broadway play.
Hats off to Earendel, cant wait to see what you guys came up with in space age.

Ok, Before I begin, this is my longest Story yet. It was only meant to be a short story, but I don't think 40 pages on a google doc can fit in a single comment thread, so expect multiple posts. Second, I'd really appreciate feedback, even if it's just in the form of an upvote as it really encourages me to keep up this creative outlet. That's all from me, enjoy the story.
Dialog Key:
[Translated]: Dates, Units of Measurement, or other Grammatical terms will be retrofitted to be legible for readers while still staying true to their definition
{Exposition}: Immediate context regarding events, People, Entities, or other key points that allow for understanding amongst different cultures.
We were tricked, completely and utterly duped. It hit us not like a train, but like a lit fuse approaching a massive stack of trinitrotoluene that we were too blind to see until we found ourselves crammed into the tens of thousands of “Corporate Nexuses” that occupied every startup colony, production world, trade hub, and capital world; working ourselves to death. The worst part? We had nobody else to blame but ourselves.
We were blinded by our hubris, our minds stuck in the past, refusing to adapt. All it took was one fledgling, pre-FTL race that made adaptability a main point of their society and culture. One society with just enough cunning to see through and undermine us and our ploys. One Species to pull off what the Humans called “The Greatest Con Game In The History of The Universe.” So where to begin?
We first discovered Humans when they had nearly finished construction on their star’s [Dyson Swarm], though to us, given the vast distances between the galactic core and Earth, we only noticed a minor anomaly, a stable G-class main sequence star flickering in the void of space. It seemed as though someone, or something, was trying to either signal us, or power their stellar civilization for the first time. But in reality, the structure was already done.
When we dropped out of warp roughly [2 AU] away from their 4th gas giant, we immediately began picking up massive arrays of signals and spikes of energy. Turns out our exploration drones had just wandered into a system-wide intraspecies conflict. Spikes in both heat and radiation from nuclear warheads littered their second asteroid belt as our sensors picked up on hundreds, no, thousands of ships, primitive in nature, sure, but still armed [to the teeth]. Their similar design and technological levels seemed to back the idea that this was the same species blowing each other up, and not some other race or civilization.
The last thing our exploration fleet picked up was the warning of multiple target locks as [4 dozen] missiles were launched from what we presumed was a frigate, at our drones. Our drones took evasive actions, though nearly all of them were destroyed in nuclear fire. Only one survived by being manually overridden and found a crater in a massive asteroid to hide in. The human forces must have thought they were of the enemy’s as it never came back up in diplomatic discussion when first contact was established, but I digress.
We weren’t ready to give up first contact just yet so we had our drones observe from afar and move in only when it was safe. We recorded the entire battle. Despite their relatively primitive technology, their ingenuity couldn’t be understated. They used remarkably simple solutions that likely would have ravaged our then-finest warships. We watched as swarms of nigh-indestructible drones simply carved through ship after ship, targeting weak points like reactor cores and bridges that would completely disable the ship. The only thing, it seemed, that could stop these drones were other drones of similar make and model.
Other times, when that didn’t work, we saw them fire missiles at extreme speeds directly into the hull of the enemy. Miraculously, however, they didn’t explode or tear through the armor, they merely embedded themselves into the ship and sealed the holes they made. We found this odd, perhaps a series of malfunctions? Or Factory sabotage? Subterfuge wasn’t uncommon in galactic wars, it was an art that was hard to master, but given the unorthodox yet effective tactics of these primitives, the assumption could be made that they had become proficient in the art of espionage as well.
But we noticed something odd. Several ships struck by these missiles began taking hits to their weapon efficiency, and they began suffering power shortages before going completely offline. A short while later the missiles would extract themselves from the armor and return to their mother ship, and the victimized ship would spontaneously self-destruct when all of the missiles had long departed.
A closer examination of these weapons told us that these were not missiles at all, but boarding shuttles! How could any species survive those levels of [G]-forces!? We once again watched the carnage repeated on another small ship. Watching several heat signatures, these entry teams would breach the hull of the ship and disperse in two separate directions before our sensors stopped picking up on them. We could fill in the blanks from there: They would go through the ship, butchering the crew and initiating the self-destruction of the ship before escaping with their lives.
Pirate tactics, minus the unnecessary depredation of valuable loot, I suppose.
When the battle finally cleared, after [16 Earth Standard Days] mind you, a ridiculously long time to be [duking it out], We watched as the surviving ships scoured for survivors, occasionally firing off a few nuclear warheads at the corpses of large combat apparatus before they turned tail and headed towards what our sensor’s picked up was what appeared to be an outer system shipyard. Our drone was given the go-ahead to move further into the system which became harder and harder to do in secret. There were at least several hundred orbital habitats and [lunar] colonies were spread out across the system, most, if not all of which we had to evade. For [13 Earth Standard Months] we had to hide our drone in what we later learned was one of the “Trojan” belts because one of their gas giants, and all of its dozens of lunar colonies, were giving us a shallow berth in detection ranges.

Title. I'm partly talking about replayability here, but also post-game content that can make you actually want to log in daily.
Stay realistic with your ideas. Something like "a new region added in an update every month" is obviously going to keep the game in question alive, but that's never going to happen.
So let's take Scarlet and Violet, or hell, even FRLG. Suppose that it's a game that can receive regular updates/patches to add new stuff. What kind of feature would be realistic to add, and also keep you coming back to the game over and over again?
I'll go first. A teambuilder like in Pokemon Showdown would give me an incentive to play PvP within Scarlet and Violet because it removes the step of having to grind up team members (even if that has been streamlined recently). Every time the game updates, perhaps adding new pokemon/items that weren't in the base game, people would stay for a while before putting the game down back because of how much more accessible the new system is.
Alternatively, something like the PWT from B2W2 could add some player retention as well. A randomiser would add replayability. Etc etc.
What would you add to pokemon games to keep players coming back to them? To stop them from getting bored.

Hi - I have a dear friend who is really struggling financially. She works hard at a decent job, but her prospects for making money are limited and her cost of living is high (she is in the UK). She is very frugal, to the point where it's injurious. Yesterday, she learned that she needs to have some teeth pulled, and implants put in, due to decay; had she visited the dentist earlier, this might have been avoided, because they may have caught it earlier, but she was trying to save money and skipped the dentist for several years until the pain forced her there. There have been other similar incidents (not repairing a roof problem until it was dire, which ended up costing more than it would have). In both of these cases she has called me in tears, and I gave her the money to fix the issues (she is a very close friend who spent significant time/resources taking care of me when I was younger, so it was a no-brainer for me).
I am thinking of trying to make her a larger gift, somewhere in the ballpark of $30,000, which I can afford. My thinking is that she will then have a pot of money to draw from so that she can try, as she's able, to take actions to prevent problems, and spend money sooner to protect her from having to spend MORE money later. I think I could talk her into taking the money, especially if I pointed out that having this would prevent the toll it takes on her mental health (she shame-spirals every time she has to ask for money).
I'm wondering two things. First, are there unforeseen potential consequences I haven't considered to making her a gift like this? I have never gifted a large sum to a friend before, and I am nervous about ways that it could impact our very close friendship. I do not believe that she would ever start to view me as a walking ATM or feel entitled to my money, but I'd love to hear from other people with experience who might be able to advise me about whether there are certain guardrails I can put in place to make sure that this doesn't impact our relationship.
Second: When I give it to her, I am thinking of saying something like "While this money is a gift—it is yours now, not mine—I hope that it will function as a pot of money that you can use to handle problems and issues sooner rather than later, so that you can do things like visit the dentist regularly. I know that there will always be unexpected costs that pop up throughout life; but as much as is doable, I'd love for this money to be spent on preventive things." I'd also offer to sit down with her and work on some basic finance/budgeting things, like making a list of priorities for spending; she has been living paycheck-to-paycheck for so long that I think she hasn't thought about this kind of personal financing for a while. Do people think this sounds like a good plan, or should I refrain from offering up such a stipulation? I don't want her to feel like she has to check with me on every expenditure, but I do want to steer her towards financial prudence.
Any and all advice welcome. Thank you in advance!