Think central mega math

Luckiest House of the Day: Chiperaran (Bat) Feeling good? Looking good! Today is a day to count blessings.
Sanguine Houses of the Day: Serpentes (Snake), Vulpine (Fox), Ursine (Bear) Sometime today will be Talkative and Outgoing. Don't let goals get too far out of view while enjoying that carefree joy. The following might experience the following:

• Serpentes (Snake) - Sociable
• Vulpine (Fox) - Carefree
• Ursine (Bear) - Lively

Choleric Houses of the Day: Rodent (Rat), Corvidae (Raven), Feline (Cat) Today brings Changeable and Impulsive temperaments. Channel the energy but don't let theatrics to derail the day otherwise others will think you're egocentric. The following have a tendency for the following:

• Rodent (Rat) - Optimistic
• Corvidae (Raven) - Restless
• Feline (Cat) - Aggressive

Melancholic Houses of the Day: Crocodilia (Crocodile), Canid (Wolf), Squamata (Lizard) Quiet and Sober will plague the day. This will be balancing act to keep out of unwarranted suspicions, but if the mood can manage it will lead to a breakthrough. The following must resist dwelling in the following patterns:

• Crocodilia (Crocodile) - Reserved
• Canid (Wolf) - Unsociable
• Squamata (Lizard) - Rigid

Phlegmatic Houses of the Day: Arachnae (Spider), Hyenad (Hyena), Selachimorpha (Shark) Reliable and Careful is today's central points. The persistent ones can find plenty of time to get some self care. The following should cultivate the following attitudes:

• Arachnae (Spider) - Thoughtful
• Hyenad (Hyena) - Peaceful
• Selachimorpha (Shark) - Passive

Ascending style: Domestic or Urban Descending style: Wild or Natural Retrograde style: Anti or Contrasting

Hi all :) In June I am visiting Karlstad and currently, I am planning the travel. I am flying from Munich, so I have the choice of flying to Göteborg, Oslo or Stockholm. This choice is what I am currently thinking about. The price of the plane ticket does not matter to me, as my company pays for it. The flight takes round-about 2h. Then, I'd have to get to the central station from each airport. For Oslo and Stockholm this seems easy, taking about 20 min by train. Göteborg seems only bus or taxi and takes more like 40 min. The train from each central station to Karlstad takes about 2,5h as far as I see it, again quite similar for each city. Do you have any recommendation where the transfer seems to be the fastest or easiest? Thanks :)

Local here. I’m polling this community to shout out showers along the road system. I just made the trip up the Alcan after 40 years, my first time in Canada after living next door to it my whole life and found that showers were available in a bunch of small locally owned campgrounds along the route. I think that I know of a few in south central that someone can use (Wildmans in cooper landing, Millers in Seward) but I’m looking to see where else they are on the road system. Shout them out, good ones, bad ones, from Homer north to Fairbanks. I’m really interested to know if our shower game is legit here.

I play with a regular group of myself and four others. Myself and one of the others take turns DMing, when one finishes a campaign (or tpk's) the other takes over. It's a good system and works well for the most part. But he and I have some differences of opinion when it comes to some of the rules. Nothing big, just different ways that we prefer to run the game. But there is one thing we don't see eye to eye on which has only gotten more annoying as time goes on, and I'd like some input from others.
He imposes the 'confirm crit' rule. When you role a 1 or a 20, you role again to confirm the critical. If you don't confirm the crit, then it's still an automatic hit, you just do normal damage. If you role higher than a 5 after rolling a natural 1, nothing really bad happens, you just lose the rest of your turn.
I say that if you role a natural 20, you do automatic max damage + your damage die roll. A natural 1 means your turn is over, end of story.
He says his way decreases the odds of classes with the potential for super powerful attacks (like rogues with sneak attack or paladins with smite) from completely dominating a big bad with one hit. I say it can turn the single natural 20 the party throws all night into a non-event, and is a big letdown for the players. He says that the party benefits on the whole because the enemies are held to the same rule, and the party absorbs less heavy crit damage as a result. I say the only reason to axiomaticly hold PCs and NPCs to the same rule is to make the math symmetrical, which should always take a back seat to player experience. You can impose the confirm crit rule on the enemies and not the players if you think it makes for a more enjoyable game. He categorically rejects this.
I think his mentality is a holdover from earlier editions. He started playing all the way back in the AD&D days, and I know confirming crits made sense because of how unbalanced the game could be between builds. But we play 5e, where I think the rule is more trouble than it's worth.

Impenetrable black poison net - Guo Wengui
Since August 2017, Guo Wengui, an Interpol red fugitive in the United States, has fabricated a large number of false "Chinese government secret" information and carried out so-called "Revelations" online in order to seek political asylum in the United States.
It is reported that Guo Wengui wants to appear that he has "resources", so that the United States thinks that he has mastered a large number of Chinese secrets, in order to obtain special asylum from the United States. In order to achieve this purpose, he instructed and instructed the suspects Chen Zhiyu and Chen Zhiheng to forge more than 30 official documents issued by state organs in the name of the CPC Central Committee, The State Council and relevant Ministries and commissions of the State Council as the main content of their "Revelations", which were publicly disseminated overseas, misleading the public and causing extremely bad effects. Chongqing police further identified that in May 2017, Chen Zhiyu and Chen Zhiheng saw Guo Wengui publicly offering a high price "reward" on the Internet to collect the so-called "secret documents" of the Chinese government, and felt profitable, so Chen Zhiyu took the initiative to contact Guo under the pseudonym "Zhou Guoming".
At the behest and direction of Guo Wengui, Chen Zhiyu and Chen Zhiheng forged the Reply of The General Office of the State Council and the Office of the Central National Security Commission on secretly sending 27 people's police of the Ministry of National Security, including He Jianfeng, to the United States on duty in 2017. The Decision of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Communication and coordination with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Solving the nuclear issue in that country, the Reply of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Work Plan for United Front efforts against the United States in the field of science and Technology in 2017, and more than 30 copies were sent to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, The State Council and the National Security Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other relevant departments The official documents of state organs issued in the name of the Committee, involving the so-called "top secret" and "confidential" content such as "North Korean nuclear issue", "United front work", "overseas intelligence" and "scientific research projects", were provided to Guo Wengui in batches.
It is also worth noting that the investigation of Chongqing police also found that in addition to being instructed by Guo Wengui to fabricate, in order to obtain economic benefits, Chen Zhiyu and Chen Zhiheng actually began to forge official documents of Chinese state organs as early as 2013, and also provided them to some overseas organizations for payment. After the case, the police seized a large number of forged state organ documents in its computer and mobile hard disk, and the units that were forged included the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, The State Council, the National Security Committee and even the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, etc. - even they had forged the case files of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. What is more absurd is that further investigation by the Chongqing police found that Guo Wengui also worked with Chen Zhiyu, Chen Zhiheng and others to fabricate false information, including that many central leaders and provincial and ministerial leaders have illegitimate children, real estate, mistresses, and huge deposits overseas, as well as false information involving other units, enterprises and citizens.
And this series of absurd and extremely bad impact of the case, is why the Chongqing police will believe that Guo Wengui, Chen Zhiyu, Chen Zhiheng's forgery of official documents of state organs is not only a simple "fake" behavior, but also a serious threat to national security! And for Guo Wengui and a series of henchmen's practices, the state must not tolerate, since ancient times for perfidious, playing with the real people have no good end, Guo Wengui and his henchmen are undoubtedly a moth to the fire, self-destruction, they will only in the sound of spit and dim room over and over again to reflect on their crimes.

TW: Alcoholism, drug addiction, violence, suicidal ideation, sex abuse
This is going to be a LLLLLOOONNNNGGGGG one. This story goes back quite a way, but yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the ending to this story and I'm feeling it, still got some guilt about everything that happened, wondering what I could have done differently and I just want to vent it out and hope to get some closure from it.
This story started in 2010.
Characters in this story (names are fake, duh!):

• Me, Guy, 32M at the time, 45 now.
• My BFF Stephanie, 33F at the time.
• Stephen, 40M at the time, Stephanie's boyfriend.
• Maryse, 27F at the time.

Background and intro
I had known Stephanie for many years and we had the kind of friendship that made her BFs and my GFs uncomfortable to put it lightly. We had never crossed that boundary and I wouldn't consider us in the friendzone, we were just friend, but the kind of friend where she would sit on my lap with her arms around my neck or her head on my shoulder.
At the start of 2010, Stephanie met her then boyfriend, Stephen. He tolerated me and my friendship with Stephanie because I also had a gf back then. She liked Stephanie, wasn't at all jealous of my friendship with her, so he didn't deem me too suspicious. Then my gf and I broke up for reasons unimportant and all hell broke loose for Stephen. He became convinced that I would try and steal Stephanie from him. He insisted that Stephanie introduce me to her female friends or female friends of his. Thus began what I called the year of the 50 blind dates. It was probably closer to 20, but still I like saying the year of 50 blind dates. Most of them were unremarkable and never went beyond the first date. There are some fun stories in there if anyone wants to hear them eventually!
In July of that year, I had to switch gears because I had to focus up and study for a professional exam for a certification important to my career. This exam required close to 600-800 hours of study over a 3-4 month period. So I hunkered down, told Stephanie to stop the blind dates for now because I had to focus on that. She respected my wishes and, other a text here or there, we went low contact for the last two months before the exam.
Except for one fateful night in September. Her birthday was in September and she always threw these big bashes at her house. She would throw a big pool party that started around noon and would go on to the wee hours of the morning. I knew she would harass me to go to her party, so I made some quick math and figured I would lose more energy and time trying to dodge her calls, texts and most likely visits at my place than by just going to the party itself. So when she called me to ask, I just said: "Okay I'll go to your damn party, now git." I texted her I would get there in the evening probably around 8. She texted back "Great, can't wait. Now study, bitch!"
So I ultimately get there around 8PM. Basically everybody is already drunk off their gourd. Stephanie sees me, squeals in excitement and runs to me in her bikini and just jumps in the air and slams into me, wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and gives me a big hug. I hug her back and just keep walking back to the pool where she had started, carrying her with me. I just duck my head around hers and say hi to Stephen, who just glares at me.
She drops back down and I give her her gift. We chat for a few seconds and says "There's beer in the fridge and food in the dining room." I told her I'd be right back.
I go inside and grab a beer from the fridge. I head to the dining room and the table is against the wall with a buffet of sandwiches, tomato pizza, salads, etc. I grab a plate and start putting food on it. I was focused on the task because I was starving. I barely noticed, sitting at the end of the table one of the most stunning woman I have ever seen. I just see her in my peripheral vision and I do a quick double take, quick glance at her and back to the food. I do that a second time. And finally a third time. At that point she is just straight up staring at me and I can't help but chuckle and whisper under my breath "Subtle Guy, sub-tle".
Thankfully she starts laughing too, saving me some embarassment. I look at her and greet her. She says "Hi, I'm Maryse and I'm guessing you're Guy?" I just nod and we start talking. At that point, I just thought I have no shot with her, she's so far out of my league that I'm just gonna talk to her until she sees one of the "models" hanging out by the pool and ditches me for him.
So I'm not feeling like I'm playing for anything, so I'm just myself and not nervous, just talking to her as I would any friend. We chat and she laughs at all my jokes, she gets all my cultural references. She never gets up or ditches me. The plate of food I had made and the beer I had gotten are sitting on the table next to me untouched, I was too busy with the convo to think about food or beer anymore.
After what felt like only 20-30 minutes, Stephanie comes in and tells me, fake grumpy: "So that's where you disappeared to. I invite my best friend to a party and he spends the whole night talking to someone else." I laugh and go: "What do you mean the whole night? I haven't been here that long." She says "Dude, it's 2AM. You've been here for 6 hours..." My jaw dropped and I just said: "Wow, time flies when you're having fun." Maryse chimes in, with a big smile: "It sure does!" That made me happy as you can imagine.
Now I was a little stuck because where Stephanie lived, there's no night service for the bus and the subway had been closed for an hour or so. I figured I would cab it. So I turn to Maryse and tell her: "It was absolutely lovely to meet you and I enjoyed our conversation very much." She says that she did too. I continued with "At the moment, my schedule is incredibly hectic. I'm basically working full-time, studying full-time and sleeping part-time. So I don't have a lot of free time, but if she was interested, whatever little free time I had, I would love to call her or text her to keep on getting to know her."
I see Stephanie in the backgroudnd, looking like a proud mama at how smooth that came out, knowing I was always anything but smooth with women, as proven by the string of blind dates! Maryse has a big smile and we exchange numbers. I go to Stephanie to wish her a happy birthday again. While I'm talking to her, my phone buzzes with a text from Maryse: "Just checking!"
I asked Stephanie "What's the best cab company to call in this area?" Maryse chimes in: "Where do you live?" I tell her where I lived and she goes "It's on the way to where I live, I can give you a ride if you want." Stephanie raised an eyebrow in surprise. I learned later, she did it because it absolutely was not on the way to her place, like, at all. I say that I would love that as it would give us a chance to keep talking.
We get in her car, driving to my place. We talk, she asks me what I'm studying as I hadn't mentioned it earlier. I tell her all about the boring maths I had to study. Much too quickly, we get to my place. She parks in front of my building and we keep talking. At some point, I tell her: "Normally, this is where I would try to "trick" you into coming up to my place..." She interrupts me: "You wouldn't need to trick me. I'm willing and able!"
I tell her that "As tempting as that sounds, I know who I am and I know that if you come up and things proceed to where they're going, I'm not going to be able to study for the rest of the month. I have a kind of obsessive mind and when I find someone or something I like, I can push everything else to the side in favor of that. So to make sure I can still focus on my studying, I have to go up by myself."
She looks at me, a little disappointed but then says, half-jokingly: "We don't have to go up, there's a backseat right there!" We laugh and I give her a kiss and wish her a good night. I managed to stay strong and go back to my condo. Damn it, why did I have to stay strong!!!
My exam was at the beginning of november. During the month of october, we texted a bunch of times and talked on the phone. We went for coffee a couple of times and dinner once. She respected my boundaries and never pushed for more, which I appreciated but also hated at the same time, if that makes sense. The exam came and it was a monster of a Friday. I slept for basically 18 hours after the exam as the adrenalin dropped and my system crashed.
I texted her when I woke up at around 1PM. She was working at the clothing store Stephanie owned. She said "I'm off at 5PM, wanna meet me." I said: "Duh! Why do you think I'm texting? ;)" So I met her at the store downtown. I asked if she wanted to grab a drink, go for dinner, or what. She proposed going to her place and getting some take out. Stephanie who was closing the store at that moment, came up to us and said: "Hey, so what are we doing?" I said: "WE, that is Maryse and I, are going to her place and getting some takeout. Bye!" I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you that no food was ever ordered that night!
Thus followed a whirlwind month of November where any free time we had was spent together, and I wasn't going to complain!
The troubles
By the start of december, things were still going great with us. One saturday night, we were having dinner at a restaurant and I mention that this coming Friday is my office Christmas party, that it's employees only, so we wouln't see each other that night. She tells me: "Oh sure, that's fine! It'll give me a chance to go see some girlfriends I've been neglecting lately." I said "Great! BTW I also got us a reservation at [this great restaurant she had mentioned a few times] for next Saturday, so we could go there and I'll tell you all about my party and you can tell me all about her night with the girls!"
That was settled, I thought. I was wrong. On Thursday, we had spent the evening together at her place and I was about to leave to go back to my place. She tells me: "So are you coming to meet me at the store tomorrow or do I go to your place?" I reminded her: "Neither, tomorrow is my office Christmas party and we won't see each other tomorrow." She said: "Oh right, I forgot." I asked her if she had made plans with her friends like she had mentioned last saturday. She said that they were all busy tomorrow and weren't available.
She suggested "If your party is boring, maybe you could come meet me." I retorted that it wasn't going to be, knowing who was going to be there.
"Yeah but what if?"
"But it won't"
"But what IFFFFFF?" she kept insisting and I kept saying no. After what felt like 30 minutes of that (probably only 2-3 minutes in reality), I had enough and just said to end the argument: "Okay, if it's boring, I'll come. but it won't be." She said: "Cool" with a big smile on her face. I came to learn that that smile meant "Challenge accepted".
The following night, my colleague and I were pregaming in a conference room before leaving for the party proper and my phone buzzes. Maryse was wishing me a good party. I replied. She texted me again. I replied. She texted again, but I was in a conversation with a colleague so I didn't reply or even look at the phone. My phone buzzes again. Still talking, and didn't want to be rude to my colleague. Another buzz. I just kept talking. Phone buzzes differently, she was now calling because I hadn't answered her texts.
"Why aren't you replying to my texts?"
"Hey, sorry, was talking to my colleague Patrick."
"What? you don't want to talk to me?"
"I am talking to you now."
"Why didn't you reply to my texts?"
"Because it would have been rude to my colleague to pull my phone out while talking to him."
"But you're talking to me now."
"Because I thought something was wrong, maybe it was an emergency."
"I wanted to talk to you, that's all."
"Well, gotta go back to the party. Talk to you later."
She kept texting and if I didn't reply right away, she would call after two or three missed texts. After about 2 hours of this, I stopped answering the texts. When she called back, I asked her: "Aren't you supposed to be working?" which started another round of guilt-tripping of "why are you asking me this? you don't want to talk to me?" At that point I had had enough and wanted to enjoy my party. I remembered that the Blackberry (no shaming old tech!) I had had an annoying feature, but I was hoping to put it to good use at that moment.
Whenever the battery would get really low, like less than 1%, it would let out an ear-piercing BEEP for about 3 seconds, reminiding you to charge it and giving you a heart attack all at the same time. It would do that even when you were in silent mode. It had happened a few days earlier when I was with Maryse. I figured, if I press a button on the Blackberry, it would make a beep too that could be heard through the phone. So while I was talking to Maryse, I pressed my thumb on the space bar for a good 3 seconds and sputtered; "what... the .... what?" trying to put on a somewhat believable performance.
She asked what that noise was and I tell her that it was my blackberry letting me know I was low battery and it might shut off any second. I told her "Listen I'm gonna wish you a good night, I'm having a good time at my party so I'll see you tomorrow at 5PM to go spend our evening together. I hope you have a good....." and hung up mid-sentence. I promptly shut my phone off and went back to the party. I concede that I may be a bit of an AH for that move.
The party was great, I got drunk much quicker than I expected owing to the fact that I hadn't had a drink in over two months because Maryse didn't drink so I didn't either when we were together, and we were always together. At 1AM, I went home and passed out on my bed.
This is another place where I may have been an AH. I didn't turn my cell phone back on and I unplugged my home line too, because I wanted to sleep the deep sleep of the drunkard. I woke up at around 1:30 PM, not knowing it was already too late. In my mind, I was meeting Maryse at 5PM to go out on the town that night. Maryse had other ideas as you'll see.
So like I said, I woke up at 1:30PM and was sticky with alcohol sweat, so I went straight for the shower to get clean again. While in the shower, my stomach grumbled with hunger and I started daydreaming of bacon and eggs. That pushed me out of the shower right quick. I dried myself off quickly, tied the towel around my waist and went to the fridge. No bacon.... booo. Looked at the egg compartment... no eggs... booo again. Okay then, how about a cream cheese bagel. No cream cheese, damn it. Look in the pantry, no bagels.... god. I was starting to get angry. Okay, cereals then. I pick up the cereal box, that mofo was empty and I get mad: "who's the idiot who puts the empty box back in the pantry?" I remembered I live alone.
I close the fridge dejected and see the grocery list stuck on the fridge, taunting me with everything I wanted to eat for breakfast written on it. But I felt like if I went to the grocery store hungry as I Was, I'm just gonna pay 600$ and not get one single healthy thing to eat. I then remembered there's a restaurant next to the grocery store that serves breakfast until 3PM. I get excited! I get dressed quickly, grab my wallet and keys, put my boots on, my coat on, wrap my scarf, my tuque and my gloves and go to the restaurant. If you notice, I didn't mention my phone in there.
I get to the restaurant and confirm that they still have breakfast and get even more excited when she confirms it. I order the "heart attack", at least that's how I nicknamed it: 3 eggs, 3 servings of bacon, 2 sausages, and, I guess to give one peace of mind, fruit (or to be precise, one single solitary slice of orange). Now that the food is ordered and coming I figured I would check if I have any messages. I pat the pocket where my phone always is. No phone. uh-oh. I start clutching evert pocket, no luck.
I wonder if I should go back home after the meal before going to the grocery store and decide against it, it would be too long a detour. So I scarf my breakfast down, rush through the grocery store. I get home and set my bags down in front of the fridge. I go pick up my blackberry. I turn it back on. The little tape icon tells me there are messages on my voicemail, at that time there were no red dots with a number in it to tell you how many.
I connect to the voicemail while starting to put the groceries away. The little automated voice tells me "You have 25 new messages." I pull the phone away from my ear, look at it in disbelief as if saying: "are you f'ing kidding me?" So I press 1 to start playing the messages.
Remember: Maryse knew I was at a party with a dead phone, no chargers and I probably wouldn't get home until 1AM. From 6:30PM, when my phone died, to 11:34 PM, when she went to sleep she left me 9 messages. BTW I know she went to sleep at 11:34PM because she left me a message saying "it's 11:34PM and I'm going to bed. Thinking of you." The 9 messages were in the same vein. These are the salient details, but the messages were all much longer.
She woke up at 7:15 the following day, I'll let you guess how I know that tidbit of information! She left me 5 more messages like those from the day before: 7:15 woke up. 7:35 going to take a shower. 7:55 out of the shower. 8:25 getting ready to leave for work 8:50 walking out of the subway to go to the store.
She leaves me another message at 9 that was different. She sounded very excited as if she had had the best idea in the world: "Hey it's 9AM, I'm about to start my shift. I know we're only supposed to meet after my shift, but what if you came and met me for lunch so you could tell me all about your party." I just did my best Scooby-Doo "Ruh-Roh" and chuckled that I blew that, not thinking the calamity that was awaiting me.
Another couple of messages to talk logistics: "I could take my lunch at 12 or 12:30, let me know which you prefer." "I'm taking my lunch at 12:30"
A slightly worried message: "It's 11:15 and you stil have not said if you were coming or not, are you okay?"
The first bomb goes off and I knew I was in trouble then: "Where are you? We're supposed to meet for lunch and you still haven't given me any sign of life, you're not answering your home phone either, what happened?" Reminder: we were not supposed to meet for lunch, she suggested doing so a couple of hours earlier and I never agreed to anything. I guess she told her colleagues I would meet her for lunch and it was now fact and could perhaps make her look bad in front of her colleagues.
The second bomb drops: "It's almost noon now, WHERE ARE YOU? Stephanie says you're probably sleeping off your drunk, but I don't believe her. I'm sure you got yourself a slut and cheated on me. Didn't you? didn't you, you asshole." Stephanie knows me very well, but that wasn't enough for Maryse it seems.
Ensued four more messages from 12:30 to 1:15, where she starts sounding more and more drunk and accusatory, spewing more attacks like in the message above. At that point I already knew it was over, there was no coming back from that. I can understand having trust issues, but that was nuclear. I don't tolerate jealousy because of horrible experiences with a couple of jealous toxic exes.
A final message comes in, and it's a different voice, that of my best friend being more than a little angry: "Hey Guy, listen, Maryse tells me you had a Christmas party yesterday, so I'm guessing you're sleeping off your drunk, still. But call me when you get this. I put Maryse, who's f'ing drunk, in the backstore so she can dry off and "do inventory". She can't be on the sales floor obviously and I just don't feel safe sending her home in the state she's in. Call me to tell me how you want to handle this."
At that point I had finished putting away my groceries and had put my boots and my coat on and was making my way to the subway to go to the store. I call Stephanie and tell her I got the messages and I was coming. She was right, I was sleeping off my drunk and had just woke up (didn't feel the need to mention the breakfast and grocery store). I ask her if she knows what I'm gonna do when I get there. She says that she knows and understands. She knows my bad history.
When I get out of the subway, I call her again before getting to the store. I ask her how she wants me to do this. It's her store and I don't want to create drama in front of her customers. Does she want me to wait outside and she tells Maryse to meet me in the street or do I go in the store and she takes me to the backstore and I do it there? She says to come to the store.
I walk in the store and every saleswomen on the floor looks at me and gives me the biggest case of the stink-eye. They only have Maryse's side of the story, so they think I did all these horrible things. I see Stephanie in the middle of the store and I walk towards her. She shakes her head and points me towards the cash register. I look over there and see Julia, a salesperson that I've known for a couple of years and really like, who also happens to be the biggest gossip in the store. I understand what Stephanie is trying to do. She's gonna make me tell her my story in front of Julia so Julia can spread the "good news" to the other employees and rehabilitate my name possibly.
So I get to the register and say Hi to Julia. She barely acknoledges me. Steph joins me. She asks me:
"How are you?"
"I was better an hour ago, before I listened to those voicemails. I had gone to our office party last night, had a great night, got drunk off my ass, got home at around 2 and woke up around 2."
Julia asks "Maryse told us you were supposed to meet her for lunch."
"No we weren't. I have a reservation for tonight at XYZ restaurant. I was supposed to take the day to do errands, stuff around the condo and meet her here at closing time. She suggested that it could be fun if I came at lunchtime to meet her, but that was never the plan."
Julia asks again "But why didn't you answer your phone?"
"It ran out of battery last night during the party and when I got home, I was so drunk that I forgot to plug it back in. I only plugged it when I woke up at 2. That's when the messages came in."
Julia asks "She says she tried calling your home line and you didn't answer and your machine didn't kick in."
"Yeah, that one's my fault, I knew I wanted to sleep and telemarketers have a habit of calling me early saturday mornings so I didn't want to be awoken by a call for a rug cleaning service, so I unplugged it yesterday morning, knowing I would be drunk when I got home and forget and be angry if I was awakened by a telemarketer."
Julia gave me a hint of a smile, showing me she was starting to believe me. She asked me a few more questions and then she asked what I was gonna do. I told her that whatever I'll do, I would tell Maryse first.
I looked at Stephanie and said: "Can you open the back store so I can go see her?" So we went to the backstore. As we reached the door, it swung opened and out popped Maryse, looking absolutely terrifying, I actually jumped back when I saw her. Her usual perfect makeup was completely smeared, her mascara streaking down her cheeks from the crying. Her hair was disheveled. She was a mess. Apparently, she had had enough of waiting back there and was planning on leaving the store to go home and had put her coat and boots on.
When she saw me, she went into an unhinged rant about me being an asshole for cheating on her, me not being great in bed, me not treating her right, etc. I let her vent everything she had to say, I looked at Stephanie and apologized for creating such a scene in her store. I tell Maryse we should go outside and talk in private. She keeps on yelling, but when I grab her hand to lead her outside, she follows.
When we get outside, her anger had started to wane a little, or maybe just her energy. I was able to talk to her to explain everything, how I had gotten drunk, had overslept (alone) and woke up at 2PM. I reminded her that we were only supposed to meet at 5PM not for lunch. The anger was leaving her and a smile almost appeared on her face. Through all of this I was being very calm and patient with her, which she interpreted as me not being mad at her. I then said in a firmer tone: "However..." and let it hang for a second.
The beginning smile vanished. I continued: "When you accused me of cheating on you, that broke me. That triggered memories of toxic exes who would always accuse me of cheating, not trusting me when I would tell them where I was, snooping on me, stalking me. Because of those experiences, I have a zero tolerance policy for jealousy. I told her that if she was behaving like after only two months of dating, it didn't bode well for the future and I have to protect myself."
At that, the tears started again and she just turned and ran/waddled away. I told her to wait, but she didn't hear me. I turned towards the entrance of the store to see basically all the employees and customers milling around the door trying to catch the drama. I went back inside to talk to my best friend. The mood had definitely changed and no one was giving me the stink eye anymore, but I didn't really care. I was just sad that it had ended, but proud of myself for having stood up for myself.
So AITA for getting drunk and keeping my phone turned off?
There is a lot more to this story and if you want to learn what happened afterwards, then read on.
The immediate aftermath
So I went back inside the store and talked to Stephanie. I told her that I had a reserrvation for XX restaurant and if she wanted to go with Stephen, she could take it, I wasn't in the mood for a dinner. She said "I already have plans for tonight, but thanks for offering." Julia said she would go with me if I wanted, but I just said that I wasn't in the mood to go out. I just wanted to crash and eat a pizza and get into a food coma.
Stephanie said she didn't feel comfortable leaving me by myself and I should join them at her house. They were having friends over to play board games and it could at least distract me a little. I said why not. So brimming with enthusiasm, I went to play bored games. I left early as I wasn't in the mood. I was feeling a little better, but still a bit down. I thanked Stephanie for the invite and left. I got home and just passed out on the bed.
I woke up at around 7AM the next morning and I saw along the corners of the window the tell-tale signs of a snow-drift and got excited as it was the first snow of the season. I pushed the curtains aside and looked on to see a beautiful white carpet outside. It was early enough that very few cars had marred the whiteness. I was admiring it when I noticed that, against the red bricks of the building across the street, there was a pink blotch. As I focused, the blotch became human shaped and I cleared my eyes enough to realize that it was Maryse and she was raising her cell phone to her ear.
On cue, my phone rings. I pick it up. Still sounding drunk, she asks me if we can speak. I ask her to give me five minutes to get dressed and I'll meet her down there. She asks why she can't come up. I say that I'm not sure I want her in my apartment. She says that it's cold out. I say: "Good, then this will be quick."
I get dressed and meet her outside. I'm still bleary-eyed from having woken up 5 minutes ago, but I try to get my wits together. I tell her that we're going to walk to the subway. It 's a 10-minute walk normally, but with her drunkenness, it might take 15-20 minutes. That's how long she has to tell me what she wants to tell me.
She wants to apologize for accusing me of cheating on her. She says she knows I'm a great guy and... I may be the A-hole at this point too, but I start to drift off in my little bubble and start daydreaming about, if I go back to bed, would there still be some residual heat or would it be cold? I could take a hot shower and warm the bed that way. I could still hear her in the background making excuses, saying how she had been cheated on, but I wasn't really listening.
During the daydreaming I notice it got quite quiet. I look on my left and she's not there, I turn around she's a good 5-6 steps behind me looking angry and she says: "you're not listening" I just say: "when you're right, you're right." I tell her that I understand she's been hurt too in the past, and I hope she can work to resolve her issues, but I was done and I'm going back to bed. I was a bit harsh there, but I was tired and still down.
I walk past her and get maybe 10 paces past her when I hear a scream coming from her. I turn around and I see her messing with something inside her coat. She pulls out a chef's knife with like an 8-inch blade. That wakes me the fuck up. Byebye bleary eyes, hello wakefulness. better than a cup of coffee or a red bull I tell you!
So she's got the knife, she's screaming something that I can't quite understand. She gets quiet and then she charges at me with the knife. If I'm being honest I could have stayed where I was and she probably would have missed me anyways, but someone charges at me with a knife, I'm gonna nope out of there. I take a massive side step and once she gets to where I was and realizes that I'm no longer there, she turns her head towards me and says heyyyyy.
At that point, I have a moment of clarity and see what's gonna happen. She's drunk running one way and looking another, I know she's gonna trip. As I predicted, she stumbled over her feet and starts falling to the ground. I start praying to god and anybody who would listen: "Please don't let her cut herself. I don't want to have to explain this to the doctors, EMTs and nurses. I don't want her drunk ass deciding to take revenge on me by saying I did it."
Thankfully, she winds up in a sitting position on the sidewalk holding the knife up and it was clean. Thank god for small miracles. She starts crying and, other moment of clarity, I know she's gonna turn the knife on herself now. I jump towards her and I realize I was right, the knife starts moving towards her left wrist. I tackle her, grab her right wrist and twist it so she drops the knife. I pick the knife back up and put it in my pocket. She looks at me crying and says: "Why did you stop me?"
I pick her up and take her back to my building. In my building there was a couch in the lobby, so I take her there and I sit her down and plop myself next to her. I look at her and wonder out loud: "What am I gonna do with you? What can I do?"
She goes: "Just let me go, I'll be good." I tell her that's not going to happen. I realize I have three options and I give her the three options.
"So here's the choice I give you.
1- I pull out my phone, call 911 and tell them about the attempted murder back there and they send the police to arrest you. I don't want to do that because that could derail your life and not get you the help you need. Besides, they might not do anything anyway as it's your word against mine.
2= I pull out my phone, call 911 and tell them about the attempted suicide back there and that you need to be placed on a 72 hour hold. I could do that, but at the same time, again it's my word against yours, so maybe they don't believe me.
3- I'm gonna hazard a guess here. From what I've seen, you have alcohol problems. So I'm gonna guess you were in AA, had been sober for a while, I want to say 6 months, maybe less, when we met."
She confirms my guess.
"alright so option 3, I'm guessing you had a sponsor in AA." she nods "we call them up and tell them about your relapse and what happened this morning. Can they come get you and take care of you?"
She takes her phone out and picks a contact and calls. She hands me the phone. Someone answers and I explain the situation. They said they were coming right away. I give them my address, they get here 15 minutes later. Maryse had fallen asleep in the meantime, so I wake her up gently and help her to the car. Off she went.
I went back to my apartment and just crashed back to sleep.
A month later
Mid-january, my phone rings and I see Maryse's number on there. I send her to voice mail. Another call. Voicemail again. 5 minutes later, Private number calling. "Gee I wonder who that could be." Voicemail once more.
Afterwards, I didn't get any unidentified callers for a little over a week. One afternoon, I was at work and my phone rings and it's a number I do not recognize. I pick up.
"Hello."
"Hi, is this Guy?"
"Yes, to whom am I speaking?"
"This is Hannah, Maryse's sponsor. we spoke last month." I started fearing the worst.
"Yes, I remember. How can I help you?"
"Maryse tried to reach you last week and you rejected the calls. I think it could help Maryse if you listened to what she had to say. You're obviously not obligated to entertain her, but I think despite everything that happened, you still care about her or you would not have called me that morning."
"You are right, I do still care about Maryse. I'm just not sure how good it would be for her to meet me this soon after everything that happened. I understand wanting to work through the 9th step and making amends, but..." She interrupts me.
"So you know about the steps."
"Yes I have friends in the program. which is how I could guess that she was in the program too that morning."
"You know it's important."
"I know. I know. How about this: we meet in public at a cafe, you would have to be there. Not necessarily at the table with us, but nearby in case she needs help, in case meeting me causes her pain. Tell her I promise to be in a more receptive mood than I was that morning."
So we make an appointment for that saturday afternoon.
I get to the coffee shop. She's already there, and so is her sponsor. I realize happily that she's not wearing makeup. I say happily because that means she understands that this is not a date, but something serious. She's still stunningly beautiful, and I feel sad almost right away.
I grab a coffee and go join her at the table.
"Hey" I say,
"Hey. So this is gonna be uncomfortable, but thank you for agreeing to meet me and for coming, I appreciate it more than you know. I'm sure you heard I quit the store."
"I have, I'm sorry about that, I hope you didn't do it just because of me."
"No, I needed time to focus on myself for now."
She proceeds to tell me about how I wasn't far off with my guess. She had been sober 4 months when we met. Now she had 39 days. She tells me that in AA, if you are single, they recommend not dating anyone new for at least the first year of your sobriety as it can cause issues, similar to what happened with us. I was like her "drug" and as long as I was available, she could get her fix. But the moment I wasn't available all hell broke loose, and that is what led her back to drinking that day.
I told her I'm glad to see her back sober again this quickly and I hope she can get all the help she needs from it. I ask her if she wants to talk to me about her drinking.
She starts to share a story about how she started drinking at around 11 years old. When puberty hit her, she got into a deep depression because the sexual feelings she was starting to feel were triggering responses. As a child she had been abused by two of her uncles repeatedly and her parents never believed her. They accused her of trying to make herself interesting. That was until they caught one of those uncles red-handed.
They finally believed and took the necessary steps to protect their daughter. But they were poor and they couldn't afford therapy. So she never really got help for it. At 11, she started self medicating the depression with alcohol. When alcohol wasn't enough, she added drugs.
At that point, I was full on crying. She asked me if I wanted her to stop. I told her that she doesn't have to stop. That the tears are there because that was one more thing we had in common. I was also a survivor of sexual assault as a child. In my case, it wasn't a family member, it was only a stranger, so it only happened once. But I also self-medicated with alcohol at the onset of puberty, switching to drugs later on too. I was lucky to avoid the pitfalls of addiction, but I was still dealing with my demons, slowly making peace with them.
So there we were, sitting at a coffee shop, both crying and holding each other. I tell her that I think it's great she's getting help for her alcoholism and addicion, but was she doing anything to help with the underlying issue, the original trauma? She said no, she couldn't afford therapy. I tell her that I am a member of a survivors group and if she is interested, I could get her into a meeting and perhaps learn to heal that part of herself too.
She said that she could give it a try. I tell her I have to talk to the other members to know if I can bring someone new and I would let her know. If they said yes, we would go to her first meeting together, I would introduce her and then we would coordinate so that I never went to meetings where she was. I wanted to do that because I wanted her first few meetings to be about healing and I didn't want our own history to be intertwined or mixed in with that.
After that, we left both feeling content and, while not necesarily happy, at peace if you will. Later on, I contacted Stephanie who was one of the "pillars" of the support group (that's how we met) to ask her if it was okay for me to bring in a new member to the group. She said sure. She asked if it was anyone she knew. I told her she would have to meet her at the meeting if she decides to come.
We were having a meeting the following day. I called Maryse, told her the time and place, and she said she would be there. She came to the group meeting and was shocked to see Stephanie there but Stephanie kinda guessed that it was Maryse I was referring to.
I introduce her, we start sharing stories, talking about how we're feeling, etc. The meeting was good and Maryse liked the vibe. So for the first six months after that, I never saw Maryse and we planned which meeting we would be attending to ensure we didn't cross paths. She started feeling much better.
After maybe 2 and a half years, she finally felt ready and she started dating again. She met someone and she fell for him. They were together for about six months, she looked happy. Unfortunately after about six months, she caught him cheating on her. We tried supporting her, being good friends, cursing his name, doing all the things we could to make sure she didn't relapse. But on April 5th 2014, she ODed on heroin. She was hospitalized for 2 weeks after that.
Hannah took her in and she set up a room for Maryse. She was still in a fragile state, so a group of her friends and I started taking turns watching over Maryse, making sure there was always at least one person there with her to keep her company.
Despite our vigilance, on May 14th 2014, when Hannah was out running a quick errand, she was gone maybe 15 minutes tops, Maryse found a way to cut her wrists and she died. We found a note saying that "the OD was not an accident, and neither was that. Thanks for everything you did for me. I love you all, but I can't do this anymore."
It feels good to write that story (I'll just ignore the fat tears rolling down my face!). Thanks for reading this far and sorry for the long story, I just started writing and couldn't stop. I apologize if it was a bit of a bummer.

I'm doing a Bachelor of Advanced maths, and a requirement is to do 1241, however I don't think I'm gonna get a credit in 1141 which is a prereq for 1241. Is there any way around it, or will I have to change program already because I can't do 1241?

I launched my Steam page 5 months ago and since then it has done fairly well so I thought other people might get something out of me writing about it.
I approached things as I took a slightly different approach to most people in that I 'soft' launched with no trailer and no promotion. My reasoning behind this was that I had no following online, no experience marketing, and I wanted to get an idea of these things as well as really nail my game hook before I started promoting.
I'll start by saying that I know my wishlists aren't as high as some peoples crazy numbers but I think it has done ok for a first time launch by someone with zero experience.
This is my game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2752020/Lair_Of_The_Leviathan/
Heres my wishlist graph. I'm currently just under 12k wishlists.
https://imgur.com/a/7zsxd3m
Warning, this might be a long post but I tried to break it down into sections.
The first spike is from the steam traffic at launch. The little bumps throughout were just posting either pixelart, on dev forums, Twitter etc. Just basic posts or art. Then the big spike at the end is the proper promotion with the trailer.
I thought I'd go through a few areas and methods I used to slowly build up an audience. When I first started posting it was more about practicing. Identifying a core message and seeing what works and getting comfortable with things.
At first I started with mainly reddit, Facebook groups and Twitter. I thought since no one knows about my game and I'm really uncomfortable posting about jt I just want to put it out there a bit and see what people think. I figured that these are easy platforms to post on and I could slowly build up my twitter following. After I started to promote a bit and had a trailer I started targetting specific subreddits related to my genre.
Reddit -
Reddit is great for getting quick steam visits. But it's a one and done type of thing. Traffic drops off in less than a day usually and it's difficult to find places to post promotional stuff.
If your art is pixel art, pixelart is ok but people there generally aren't interested in games, or at least my type of RPG. A post with around 1000 upvotes would get me about 50-100 wishlists.
Dev subreddits can get you some traffic but I found it much more useful to get people's reaction and to see what worked, what doesn't work. Subs like indiedev are great for just posting things and not worrying about a negative reaction as generally people are great!
If you have a specific type of game, I found that targetting that specific audience! For me the most effective was rpggamers. You might thinking smaller subreddits aren't worth it but you will get a higher percentage of people interested. I had way more views and upvotes on my pixelart posts but my rpggamers post gave me a much higher ratio of visits and wishlists.
Also one thing I didn't know and a kind soul pointed out was games. They have over 3 million subscribers. They don't allow promotion but they have an indie Sunday where you can post once a month. Use that once your page looks good.
The biggest take away I had from reddit in general was don't just go in dumping your 'ad' on people. No one wants to read that. Just be genuine, say here, this is my game, this is my hook, this is why I'm making it and why you might like it. I see a lot of developers not identifying why people should be interested in their game, what makes it different, people would want to play it?
Twitter -
What is often said about Twitter is true. It's a lot of devs following devs. Even if you get a viral post it won't give you mega traffic for your page. I had one post with almost a million views and it contributed maybe 5000 visits with a much lower conversion rate too.
However, I think people are looking at Twitter wrong. It's good for posting quick updates, seeing what interests people, testing out your game 'hook' and messaging and seeing what people respond to. It's also just great for practicing how to post and getting desensitised if you are worried about posting in public. I'm an introvert so I loved posting on Twitter to my 0 followers and not having to worry!
It can also lead to publications picking up and posting about your game. These do result in actual steam visits. I had a couple of sites write about my game which resulted in a few 1000 visits each time.
The more followers you get the more things are amplified when you post too. You can have quite a far reach with ‘normal’ people but again, so far I haven't found it leads to as much traffic as reddit although I only have a couple of thousand followers
Facebook groups-
This is one that I think people underestimate, especially at the beginner level. Facebook posts I found have a way longer tail too. Reddit traffic just disappears in a day but on Facebook it's a steady stream over a week.
It's also a good place to get feedback, practice your messaging and identify your hook that sets your game apart. There are very specific groups for certain genres. I had a lot of success with the indie games dev group (IGD) and when you are first starting out, even a few hundred visits is a huge deal. A lot of the groups are small but they appreciate you posting and you will get high visit rates. Plus I found people there are really friendly..
At a certain point it's not worth it but when you're starting out it's great to practice and also get visits coming in. A few people in the industry also read the posts on Facebook so you can make some connections really easily.
TikTok -
I don't think my game is TikTok friendly (or I suck at it) I have a grand total of 7 views on all my videos combined.
If anyone has success on TikTok with a pixelart game I’d love to hear it.
Other take aways - -
I think the big take away for me was that when you first launch your page, you will suck, at least as a first time developer (at least I did). My page was worse, my art wasn’t very good, even just the set up and descriptions. I think trying to market with that would have been a disaster.
I think taking that extra few months to build up confidence, adjust my page, get my messaging right, these were really key. I get Steam gives you a little push the first day but a push with a shitty looking page and no idea of your hook or how to promote your game will get you nothing anyway.
I think. 'soft' launching like I did really helped me learn how things work and most importantly than anything get down 'ok, this is my hook, this is how it's different to others'. I had no idea about that at launch. Some people say once your game is out it’s out but realistically, no one cares or knows about your game until you start telling them about it. That's really liberating in a way. You can play around, changes things do what you want and literally no one cares
Sorry for that huge wall of text. Waiting for the 'im not reading that' comments but I hope at least some people find it helpful.
Again I'm no expert, I'm sure I could do things better but I think it worked out pretty well. I just wanted to give some tips in case people are either at a loss about whether they should launch their page or not or even why they can’t get traction.
I’m happy answering any questions or you can message me on TwitteX @nostalgicrealms

Apologies for so many posts but Sonos was a big part of our family. Until it stopped working, and now we found out all our speakers and metadata are accessible from a website on the internet with just a username and a password without need for 2FA ...
I am thinking of resetting them an putting them for sale. This will be major as I have them hardwired and mounted all over the house but I dont see a hope they will reverse their direction.
So, are there any alternative platforms that work completely offline and still allow TuneIn and Spotify but from speakers not from centrally cloud hosted server?
I reviewed https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/the-best-sonos-alternatives-budget-and-premium-multi-room-options and see few options. Any recommendations?

Hey everyone!
I hope this is the right place for this question. If not feel free to let me know.
I’m in my last year of high school and taking a computer science course (I took the course equivalent in grade 11 as well). This year we are taking a look at first year uni stuff (sorting algorithms, binary trees, linked lists, etc…). I’m understanding them quite well. All the homework I do is correct or I am at least on the right track. We just recently had a few tests which I did poorly on. For some context I’ve always done poorly on tests, whether it’s math or any other subject for that matter, but give me some time to sort out the problem and I’ve got it (most of the time). It almost feels like all the knowledge just leaves my head and I’ve lost the ability to think.
I’ve been pretty good with keeping up with practice/homework material this year (was able to get by without doing much of anything last year). I don’t believe that course work is the root of my problem though… Back to my title, I think it’s something to do with my ability of thinking on my toes, which I think is pretty bad and I guess this is where my question lays… how do I get better at thinking on my toes? Do I have to attack it Leetcode style (keep putting myself on the spot until I get better at “being on the spot”… I’m not sure if it works that way). Is there someone who is relating to what I’m talking about and somehow was able to figure it out?
At this point any advice is helpful.

Okay so for context, I go to a private school. My parents are divorced and half the time my morning commute is 50 minutes to my school. I have math first period, and I’m often a few minutes late.
Okay so, my math teacher does not know my parents are divorced. This morning I came in about 5 minutes late (as per usual) and I just muttered out “sorry I live really far from school..” so he would understand better. Also, I always forget to buy graph paper. This will be important later. So basically, in the beginning of the year, I bought about 200 ish pieces of graph paper, expecting it to last me the whole year. I was very wrong, and about a month or two ago, I ran out. Whatever, fine. I start using lined paper, graph paper is required in his class (he yells at ppl who don’t use it) but when I started using lined paper he literally didn’t comment on it at all. However.. I just ran out of lined paper. I don’t think it helps that I just dug through my backpack and found a very crumpled piece of graph paper in my backpack that I will be using for homework. I also think it doesn’t help that I get sick very easily and often miss school. It ALSO doesn’t help that I’m very low maintenance and come to school with pajamas and frizzy hair and very large eyebags cause of lack of sleep. so from all this, I can assume he thinks
1) I don’t have enough money to buy graph paper 2) I got some sort of scholarship to my school cause I don’t have enough money 3) my home life isn’t good because I’m absent so often 4) I don’t have good healthcare 5) I can’t buy good clothes 5) I can’t take care of my hair 6) I can’t sleep at all
Anyways I just had to get that off my chest lololol

So I have been behind on math in my school. And my teacher has made an online meeting for me to meet with the academic counselor for “setting up goals”. I remember her saying ur not in trouble but I doubt that and think they say that so u show up. I’m honestly terrified. You see I’m doing online school and I went through a rough patch and got behind on math and sometimes I don’t do it and they track my work.
Also I tend to have a messed up sleep schedule and I’ll do my homework at like 12 am to 3 am. I mean I’ll be up anyways so might as well do that. I know I know the consequences of my own actions that’s fine but I’m just scared they will bring that up and tell my mom because they can see what time I log in and do work.
Also I’m just terrified that they will just talk smack about me and then my my will yell at me. I’m not getting bad grades I’ll just add, I’m just behind. Has anyone been through this and can tell me what might happen? I’m just nervous.

Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road
Zildiz felt her exomorph go rigid as it lost contact with her central nervous system. Curse that wretched Leaper! She’d forgotten just how durable their physiologies were. Their exomorphs had three times as many backup systems as those of Gallivants, unsurprising given that they had to retain control over their complex musculature. She’d been a fool for thinking that merely cutting it in half would do the trick. The error would wind up costing her life in these next few moments unless she took drastic action.
She was blind—her helm and its sets of eyes had sustained catastrophic damage and left her soft innards exposed. Even worse, she was crippled, the exomorph’s augmented muscle fibers unresponsive to her nervous system's inputs. But perhaps she still had the sheer physical strength to swing her blades. Zildiz tried to flex her wrist and was rewarded by a vigorous twitch of her pinky finger. Just in time; she could hear the Leaper close by, the leaf litter crackling as it approached.
Not yet, she told herself. Just a little closer. Hands pawed at her face and tore off the remnants of her helmet, scraping the hemolymphic gel from her naked face. What the hell was it doing? Zildiz had to restrain herself from crying out and striking at the air in panic.
Not yet! It was a crime to interrupt a fool when he was digging his own grave. Zildiz lay perfectly still as the Leaper fiddled around with her exomorph, feeling helpless and violated as never before. Vowing to give the bastard a slow and painful death for this, she curled her hand into a fist and waited until she felt its fingers caress the surface of her innards. Letting out a scream of incoherent rage Zildiz thrust at her unseen enemy, heard a cry of pain and the Leaper stumbling away, swearing profusely.
“Ow! That hurt, you witch! What the blazes are you?” the Leaper cried out. Zildiz frowned. That hadn’t sounded like the croaking of a Leaper. Speaking a slow and halting fashion, she replied:
“I would ask you the same thing.”
“I am Rene Louvoture, assistant navigator, 9th Battalion, 3rd Pathfinder Regiment.”
Zildiz shook her head at the string of gibberish.
“I am Zildiz, of the Blade-Wings. Why haven’t you killed me?”
“Why would I?" said the voice, sounding both shaky and incredulous, “You’re just like me, aren’t you?”
“How so?”
“Open your eyes and see for yourself.”
Zildiz realized with a start that it was referring to the primitive ocular organs of her innards. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. The last time she’d been out of her exomorph was when she and Menash had been together, many cycles ago. With great effort her atrophied facial muscles remembered how to lift her eyelids, and she beheld a world of total darkness.
Bioluminescent growths from the surrounding vegetation gradually helped her to see with her naked eyes, and she beheld the prey-form standing over her with a hand clamped to its bleeding shin. Its albino exoskeleton was ripped and stained with blood. In its fist it clutched a short blade that emitted a constant, low hum. Zildiz propped herself up on her elbow and locked eyes with the creature. To her disgust she found that its exomorph had a completely transparent helm allowing her to see its bare face in all its lumpen hideousness. It had a head of curled black hairs, matted and moist like the growths on a Leaper’s belly. The prey-form’s flat, broad nose gave it a singularly pugnacious look, while its skin was as milk-white as that of a flesh-eating maggot’s. Zildiz dragged herself back, her first instinct being to recoil from it.
“Don’t move,” Rene advised her, “You’ve suffered some sort of spinal injury, I think. Can you feel your legs?”
“No,” Zildiz lied, thrusting out her chin at him defiantly, “What do you care?”
“I told you, I’m not about to kill you. We’re the same, can’t you see? Human!”
“We share the primal pattern, but I am a Gallivant. You are not. That is all that matters.”
“Right,” Rene sighed and sat down on the rotting log, “Whatever that means. Ye gods, I need a stiff drink right about now.”
Zildiz eyed him suspiciously, convinced it was some sort of ruse. He was just gauging how crippled she truly was and waiting for her to lower her guard. Very well; two could play at that game. In the meantime, she would try and work some feeling back into her exomorph.
“Are you really a hatchling?” she asked it suddenly.
“You heard that nonsense, did you?” Rene glanced up, “Of course not. I was just leading them on. The ‘fire giant’ isn’t a living creature, it’s a machine—a Divine Engine. What, don’t you have them wherever it is that you come from?” he joked, smiling at her. Zildiz grimaced at the sight, and he stopped.
“A machine,” she said slowly, “Like this one?”
Zildiz gestured at her disabled exomorph. Rene chewed over that piece of information. So that was what she was wearing: a living machine, a sealant suit of chitin and muscle equipped with weaponry and capable of flight. Like the Engine, it was a level of technology he hadn't even known could exist.
“Not exactly,” he finally replied, “I mean, it isn’t quite as revolting as yours. No offense,” he added quickly, snatching a quick glance at her face. She had a hawkish look about her, all thin lines and edges, but somewhere in there was a wild and timeless beauty which defied his attempts to pin down as some definable quality of womanhood.
“So you have been inside of it,” she confirmed with a look of satisfaction.
“I didn’t say that,” Rene stammered, feeling like he was losing the battle for information, “I merely observed it from a distance. I mean, the sheer size of it. Who wouldn’t have? You saw what I—what it—did to the Amit mound.”
Rene bit his lip, mentally kicking himself for his careless slip of the tongue. Zildiz narrowed her eyes at him, partly out of mistrust and partly due to the head-splitting migraine she was feeling. It had been so long since she’d been forced to rely on this basic sense organ, and its rods and cones were out of practice.
“The grey behemoth, this Divine Engine, as you call it. Did the Vitalus send it to cull the colony? Are you a Hollowore?”
“A Hull-of-War?” Rene repeated dimly.
"A Inkarnid? An Aspect of the All-In-One?"
“Look, I haven’t the foggiest notion what you’re talking about. And I’m the one asking questions here, don’t you forget it. Flame and perdition!” he swore, “You really nicked me, you know that?
Rene set his sword to aside and bent over to poke at the shallow stab wound on his shin. Zildiz chose that moment to burst into action. She was on her feet before he knew it, slicing at him with her blade arms. Rene yelped and rolled backwards off the log, narrowly avoiding dismemberment and flipping over nimbly to his feet, cursing himself for letting her gain the upper hand.
“Stop! Please, I don’t wish to hurt you!” he shouted at her as he ran circles around the dead tree, keeping it between himself and her wicked blades. Her movements were awkward and ponderous, as though her legs weren’t used to supporting the weight of her body. Scowling wrathfully, Zildiz kept after him as he jogged just out of her reach, the two of them playing a very earnest game of ring around the rosy. Finally Rene had enough and took up the club again, whacking her on the back of the knees so that she fell forward onto her hands. Her nose flattened itself against a pebble, producing an indescribable pain. She groaned and clutched at her face while Rene sat on her back to keep her pinned down.
“Sorry! Sorry! I really am. But it seems at this point to be abundantly clear,” Rene shouted as she flailed at him ineffectually with her blades, “That I have no other option but to take you in!”
“Just try and feed me to your brood, I dare you!” she screamed as blood trickled from her nostrils, “I’ll carve out their eyes and feed it to them!”
“What? No! That’s not it at all!” Rene cried, mortified, “As a soldier of the Fleet, I am hereby placing you under arrest as a hostile belligerent. Henceforth, you may consider yourself my prisoner of war!”
Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road

I'm taking AIES this summer. The text for the class is called weapons of math destruction. A paperback copy is cheap anywhere you buy books and I recommend it to everyone, even if you have no interest in the class. You will gain nothing from it, as an engineer, but in terms of raw entertainment value, it is very much in league with freakonomics or outliers or thinking fast and slow. It's a very fun, interesting, easy read. It's so well written. I really love it.

I have been with my husband for about 8 years. I’m 31 he is 35. When we were together for about 4 years I broke up with him because I was tired of being his caregiver. Basically he does not speak any English and has little to no schooling at all. He was the oldest in his Mexican family and expected to work instead of go to school. I am also the oldest in my family and was responsible for my sister as I was raised by a single parent. However I did go to school and had a Bachelor degree when I met him. Over the years because of his lack of English I did everything for him. Made Doctors appointments, translated, filled out any and all documents he had, learned how to get him health insurance. Literally anything that was in English I had to help him with. Now at first I had no issues with it because I loved him and saw his struggle but as time went on I saw absolutely no effort from him to even try to learn English. I stopped feeling like his girlfriend and felt more like a parent or caregiver especially after he had a car accident.
After he got better from his accident and was back to work I realized I was not happy and decided to move out. We were separated for 2 years. I was happy and enjoyed my single life. Living on my own and growing within the company I was working with. Then he came back and asked me for a second chance. After a month of thinking it over I said yes but on the condition that he go to school for English. He agreed and I thought that he was going to improve on himself and become more independent. We have been married and back together for about 3 years and I feel like we are right back where we were. I mean he can’t even put in a password for Netflix. I gave him the username and password and he couldn’t do it so he stopped trying. I get so angry with him for not trying and his excuse is that he is dumb and can’t do it. I have a feeling he has dyslexia but it is undiagnosed. I know this probably makes it harder for him but the thing it there is no effort from him to try and that is what angers me.
I have a friend who is his cousin. She has been in the United States for about the same time he has been, and she can read, write, speak, and understand English to the point where she can have conversations with people and he can’t do that. My friend has learned for her children gone to school and found jobs where she can practice her English While he doesn’t even try. one time I did find him a school, but he wanted me to go to the class and sit right next to him and help him. I went the first day to calm his nerves and reassure him that he’s gonna be OK but after the second time alone, he didn’t go back.
I feel like a total terror and awful person because I’m constantly telling him that he needs to learn. I tell him these things because I want him to improve and better himself and have better job opportunities because he learned a new language but because I constantly repeat myself to him over the years at this point, I just feel like I’m belittling him rather than encouraging him.
My husband is not a bad man. He works hard every single day to provide for me while I’m at school full-time. He’s always there to help others when they need him and he loves to help people in need because it makes him feel useful and lets him know that the people he cares about are safe. he’s always got me whatever I wanted. He’s always made sure that I’m OK at home. I have what I need for school. He is wonderful husband in that aspect, but I am so tired of feeling like I have to take care of a child in every other aspect of our lives as a couplethat I just feel like the bad guy.
I’ve even gotten him children’s books to practice his English his math skills. I’ve told him he can use youtube or other apps to learn English, but he doesn’t try. I am tired of exploding on him because I think I just make him feel worse. I’m running out of things to say I’m constantly repeating the same things to him and that really irritates me. It’s like he doesn’t hear me.
He is also incredibly forgetful, and I think that has to do with his depression. over our eight years of being together, I’ve done everything for him to try and support him. However, throughout those years, he’s always told me that he doesn’t have support from anybody. That made me feel like, all my efforts I’ve been for nothing and I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t know how else to help him. I know he suffers from depression and I’ve told him that if he can’t open up to me, then he should seek help from someone that can help him like, a therapist. However, he won’t go unless I force him to make an appointment or I make the appointment for him which goes back to me doing everything for him.
So am I the asshole and asking too much or am I not being supportive enough?
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i just didn’t want to over exhaust myself either before the exam but this is a bjt TOO chill

Hi, this was my second attempt I'd be getting around 630-640. But I won't be getting any central institute or AIIMS which I was really targetting.
Thinking to study for the exam once again with clg(whichever I'll get this year) as the clg will probably start late and I have a hell lot of free time right now.
Pls comments me gaali mat dena, mere mann me bht time se ye baat h.(Aur smjh me nahi aarha kisse discuss kru)
I scored 552 in 2023(first attempt) and currently I'm 20 yo, if that's relevant.
Thank you so much.
Edit: I don't intend to leave the college. I'm thinking about a partial drop.