Have you seen ads for the exciting Vecna: Eve of Ruin Campaign from Wizards of the Coast? Well the wait is finally over, and the game is here. I'm looking for at least two more players to join my weekly game. First to sign up will receive $5 off their first session!
Sessions are every Thursday: Currently 4 P.M. to 7/8 P.M. EST (1 P.M. - 4/5 P.M. PT)
Link to join: Startplaying Link
Adventure Details:
Prepare to embark on the ultimate high-level campaign that will test your skills, wits, and courage like never before. In Vecna: Eve of Ruin, you and your fellow heroes will face the most formidable challenge ever conceived: stopping the dark machinations of Vecna, the arch-lich whose very name instills dread across the multiverse. This is not just another adventure; this is the campaign that will define your legacy.
As seasoned heroes, you have already proven your worth in countless battles and epic quests. Now, the stakes are higher than ever. The fabric of the multiverse is unraveling, and Vecna's sinister plans threaten to plunge all worlds into chaos and destruction. You must traverse through myriad realms, from the celestial heights to the infernal depths, each presenting unique and deadly challenges. Along the way, you'll forge powerful alliances, uncover ancient secrets, and confront unimaginable horrors.
In Vecna: Eve of Ruin, every decision matters, every battle is crucial, and every moment is a step closer to either salvation or doom. The fate of countless worlds hangs in the balance, and only the bravest and most cunning heroes stand a chance against Vecna's relentless pursuit of ultimate power. Will you rise to the occasion and become the legendary heroes who saved the multiverse, or will you fall and be forgotten in the annals of history?
Join me in this unparalleled adventure where the multiverse's fate is in your hands. This is your moment to shine, to defy the odds, and to etch your names among the stars. Are you ready to face the Eve of Ruin and emerge victorious?
Important Details:
Character Level: 10 - 20
Experience Needed: Intermediate preferred, but willing to teach any new players
Schedule: Every Week on Thursdays!
Tech Needed: Computer, Discord Account (free), D&D Beyond Account (Free), and Fantasy Ground Demo Account (Free)

“So, how much?”
I didn’t know Charles well, but well enough to guess that the grizzled hog farmer was a talented salesman. ‘No lowballs,’ I imagined him drawling, waggling his finger, and speaking over his exceptionally jutting chin.
“Three-hundred fifty for the land, the pen, and the house,” the man said. He spat, hard, and the tobacco-black phlegm stuck to the side of the fence post and slowly ran down the side in three rivulets.
“Then another twenty grand for the hogs. Two-hundred thirty-three of ‘em, not a large passel. Price of swine is goin’ up, I’ll tell you, so t’s the best I can give you for what you’s gettin’.”
I had expected to hand him even more money. Charles and his wife had a small operation, but big enough to matter, with a beautiful two-story farmhouse to accompany it nicely. I wasn’t getting a better deal anywhere else. At least not anywhere I wanted to be. I’d longed to live as a farmer in Tennessee ever since my family’s entire property burned to the ground back in the fall of ‘68. It was dry, and we’d just fertilized after the harvest.
Not a living thing was left untouched by the flames, not even my father, who ran back to get the horses after the barn shot up with a pillar of fire. We never found his body. Or maybe we did, but the charred dust of the barn, the corn, and the animals we called our lives and the blackened remains of the man that was my world were all reduced to ashes in the end. And when the wind came, they all blew away just the same, forever to leave me, my two sisters, and my mother behind.
I held out my hand to Charles and we shook on it.
It wasn’t the life I envisioned for myself. Not when I got my engineering degree from Georgia Tech. Not when I began work at a small engineering firm. Not even when I saw the hog farm for sale less than an hour from my house did I realize that was the world I lost that I needed back. My wife didn’t care; in fact, it brought her work commute down to forty minutes from an hour ten.
After we moved there and I began consulting part-time to make allowance for the time I needed to spend raising the hogs, caring for the land, and tending to my now-pregnant wife, the fulfillment I sought seemed that much closer. But only that. Closer, yet still out of the reach of my yearning clutches. It wasn’t until two years after I bought the farm, almost to the day, that the chips seemed to fall on my side with her.
“Micah?”
Jackie was calling from the cubicle over. Then I heard footsteps coming towards my own office space.
“Hey, yeah, did you finish the drainage plans for the floodplain you were working on? If so, I’d happily review and sign off on them.”
Jackie had come here a couple of years after I did. She was an intern at first, and everybody loved her cheery smile and sharp intellect, so she was hired on after she finished her degree. The youngest of our crew, she lived by herself in an apartment, but her lack of experience didn’t keep her from coolly sharing her opinion on matters of work when she knew she was right. And she was always right.
Jackie had always taken a liking to me in a way she didn’t seem to show toward the others. I never became sure of why she did, but I had my suspicions. Trauma and mystique go hand in hand. Maybe she saw me as broken in the same way she saw herself. After all, it didn’t take a psychologist to tell Jackie had her own skeletons in her closet. She just had that aura, the one that neglected children and broken adults share with each other. Nobody knew what life she walked out of and nobody cared. She did her job, and that was all the company cared for. But not me.
I turned away from my computer screen towards the opening of my cubicle and she was there, half silhouetted by the light behind her, staring me in the eye. Jackie trailed a finger down the edge of the cubicle wall, her mouth open barely enough for me to see her tongue flit deftly over her perfectly-aligned incisors. Ignoring my question, she continued.
“Your wife, I take it?”
She gestured with an outstretched palm toward the wedding photo I had framed on my desk.
“Yeah. Hard to believe we’ll be a family of three soon. Ha!”
I chuckled, nervously. Slightly excitedly, too. I can’t tell if Jackie knew that the latter was for what I knew was coming rather than what I had already said, but I don’t think she would have cared one way or the other.
“Say, she must be lonely waiting for you at home? I know that feeling. Being lonely.”
She took a step towards me and I glanced down at my feet. Looking back, it felt like an eternity, that looking down, that knowing what was happening and making a decision. It was a choice. And while it felt like it stretched for minutes, hours, I knew it was but a moment. Yet it only took a moment to make my descent into sin.
“I know it too. Well. Too well. She’s on a business trip - a long one. Say, I raise hogs. Prize swine, there’s good money in them. What’d you say about coming to see my farm sometime?”
It had been two hours since Jackie had left the farmhouse and was almost one-thirty in the morning, yet I wasn’t tired. According to my doctor, I have insomnia. According to my mother, I have “bad juju.” According to myself, well, I guess I just don’t feel like sleep is worth the trouble sometimes. That night, though, I didn’t sleep at all until the sun shone through my window in the early hours of the morning.
Living among swine never gave me a lot of grief before then. Some people hated the stench - my wife among them - but the manure never bothered me, and, come to find out, it didn’t bother Jackie, either. I would have asked if she had been on a farm as a child, but her demeanor and attitude told me that she wasn’t interested in the slightest in my life and that I shouldn’t be in hers, either. I suppose I wasn’t - not in the one outside of our affair, at least.
But that night, when the stars were out and shining like eyes in a limitless black sea, and when the wind rustled through the trees, a gigantic army moving across the land like a plague towards destinations unseen, I started to feel bothered in a way I never had before.
I had been sitting on the back porch in view of the pig pens after having just finished the chores. I knew I wasn’t drunk, I was only on my second beer, but sitting outside, half-empty bottle in hand, I suddenly wished I could be completely wasted. I’d never been one to believe in those types of things that you can’t touch with your hand or see with your eyes. The hair stood up on my arms and the taste of metal lapped my tongue as if a storm was coming. No, I didn’t believe in the things you couldn’t really feel, but I could sure as hell feel something now.
Unsettled, I was turning around to go get another beer before something caught my eye in the pig pen that made me glance over.
All of the pigs visible from this side of the house could be seen, through the metal fencing, staring in my direction. The ones who were blocked by the lumpy bodies of the other swine stood on the hind ends of the others to see. With their combined mass, the pigs strained the metal of the pen stalls until each stall’s fencing bulged out in the middle where the weight was distributed.
Most unique of all was the unanimous behavior of the swine. Not one fell out of sync. Each one, eyes glowing like headlights in the dark, bodies silhouetted against the light of the moon, was without noise or disturbance. Once all of the pigs were in position, they all stayed ominously still.
As I watched, one by one, hundreds of eyes closed, and a wave of darkness spread over the pen as no more eyes were open to reflect the light. I swore for a moment that the stars did too and that the world around me plunged into complete darkness, but I cannot be for certain, because at that same moment, I involuntarily blinked.
I say involuntarily because, frozen in place, the scene was too strange for me to willingly turn away from. I do not know if the same force that caused the swine to flicker their eyes caused me to do the same, perhaps a gust of wind - or of something less tangible - but upon opening them, the pigs had returned to their discord, with several having already gone to sleep. Deeply disturbed, I went inside the house and drank until the morning came and I finally found sleep.
My wife returned from her trip soon enough and without much ado upon her arrival. For the next month or so, the two of us were together, and our lives were lived without significant discord. None that she knew about, anyway. I never told her about Jackie and I certainly didn’t mention the times I saw my coworker after my wife returned, either. And while I did float an innocent question to her asking if she had noticed any of the hogs’ strange behavior, I didn’t enlighten her as to the motivation for my interrogative manner. She never appreciated being in the company of swine as it was, and turning her disdain into disgust wasn’t on my agenda.
Almost as abruptly as she had returned, my wife left, again, to be gone for the next week and a half on another trip. Probably best for her, too, because the hottest days of the year hit western Tennessee when she wasn’t there to experience them. And no sooner had she gone than Jackie resumed her nightly visits to the farm. Each time, she showed up without much notice, if any at all, and left just as abruptly.
Funnily enough, I didn’t care much. I felt no more and no less empty after she left than when she was here. So after I spent my days with my eyes on my screen and my nose in my boss’s ass, I spent my nights staring up through the bottoms of bone-dry bottles, faintly wondering if the path I walked down could’ve been just a little warmer or just a little brighter if things were different.
In spite of my catering towards my boss’s every wish at the office, he didn’t return the good-will in kind.
“What do you mean you’re asking for a raise?”
I swallowed and continued.
“I mean that it’s been five years, Glenn. I simply asked that my pay might increase to match inflation.”
My boss folded his hands across his desk and sighed. Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, he dabbed at a couple of beads of sweat running down from his brow. We were in the heat of summer, and the air hung thick and humid around us. The office had air conditioning, but the unit was old, and the fan whistling away in the corner didn’t do much good against the record-breaking heat pressing in around us.
“I’m sorry, Micah. It’s just that you’re consulting, now, and… I can’t afford you those kinds of benefits-”
“What do you mean benefits? I’ve been here long enough I’m owed at least that, Glenn! What the fuck do you think I’m still here for? Pot lucks?”
That was the first time I had lost my temper at my boss; at least, the first time since he ripped up one of my drafts for a project several years back. That had been a long day for both of us. Now, Glenn sat back and scowled ever so slightly, and only for a brief moment, an indication that his inhibitions keeping his attitude in check were wearing thin. Nonetheless, he put on a smile, and chuckled coldly.
“Micah, look- you always were my right hand man, but you’re here so little now. One could say you’re more like my right thumb man, now.”
That was a long day too. The heat didn’t help. Somehow some bugs got into the office. Somebody probably left a door open to quash the heat, fruitlessly.
No wonder the AC’s shot, I thought to myself.
By the time it was the hour for me to leave, there were moths flitting around the lights, flies eating the stale food in the cafe, gnats alighting on every exposed surface in the office- insects were everywhere. I figured that door must have been left open most of the day.
Gotta be pretty stupid bugs, if this is where they want to be.
The time came for me to leave and I did so without a fuss. As little as I could manage, anyway. I took time to complete some errands and returned home, only to realize the heat wasn’t much less oppressive there than it was at the office, even if there weren’t any insects. If anything, it felt oddly empty without them, even after Jackie showed up. The rest of that evening was a blur of empty bottles and used cigarette butts littering the porch.
At some point — two in the morning, three, it didn’t matter — I was pulled out of my drunken slumber and forced into sobriety by a noise I could no more determine the source of than what I had eaten for dinner a year ago from the day. I sat up with a jolt and listened, suddenly feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
The sound, if it could be called that, was discordant, unnatural, wrong — and yet, I couldn’t remember another thing about it. It wasn’t a sound heard through your ears, a vibration in your skin, nor even a sensation of one’s physical brain; it was a thought processed through one’s sleeping soul, something that certainly cannot be described with words without diminishing the weightiness placed; without negating, in full, the sense of abject horror at its state of being.
I had sat atop that precipice between reality and unreality; sleep, the abyss, where devils absently play amongst the nightmares of men. I told myself it was just that, a dream, but I know now that the place I was and the places I was soon to go were gateways between the waking world and the one beneath it. Before I had time to process what I had just felt, I heard another sound, this one very much real, and resembling a dying animal. Slowly, I made my way out of my crumpled bed and opened the blinds. I almost wished, upon doing so, that I was back on the precipice.
Thirteen of the hogs stood in a circle on the lawn; how they had gotten out, I don’t know. Each stood perfectly still, equidistant from the next, and faced a quivering shadow in the middle of them all. I could make out faint features: a scraggly beard, a bottle- whether the man was a hiker or a drunk, I couldn’t tell. Nonetheless, he had wound up on my property, and found himself caught in a circle of pigs.
I watched the man’s motions and noted with rising horror that as he walked in one direction, the circle of pigs shifted to keep him at the center of the ring, and all the while they drew nearer to him. The man was clearly intoxicated now; it was almost half a minute before he stumbled, fell, and no sooner squelched in the dirt than thirteen squeals rang through the night and the animals blotted out his body from sight with their unified mass.
The man let out one scream but could manage no more than one. The ring was a blur of motion. I saw little but I saw enough; one pig reared its glistening head and I watched part of a scalp fly from its gaping mouth, arcing dark liquid as it trailed across the yard. Another couple chunks of meat rolled away from the pile and reached a stop several feet away in the yard; once the pigs were through with their feast, they broke off from the previous site, now nothing but a red stain on the earth, and gobbled up the pieces that had got away.
It took me the next four hours to get the pigs back into their pen, but I managed it. And, none had to be shot in the process, though I surmised I should come with a gun readied. A cleanup wasn’t necessary either; it was a hog farm, so it’d be getting dirty again soon. I considered another individual might find the stain, but there was no proof it was human blood, and I had no intention of calling the police out there.
That morning, my boss was late to work. I suppose that’s to be expected, though, when one has had their tires slashed. He was livid, and I didn’t correct his supposition that his ex-wife had committed the act, though I’m sure he would have loved another reason to fire me. After all, I was nothing more than a right thumb man.
The day had gone quicker and cooler than the former, and the low droning of the rain made the day seem just a little less lonely. Of course, I was slated to see Jackie that night, and after lunch I had left work, gone off to purchase more drinks from the local liquor store. I remember having gotten enough to fill the passenger seat of my truck, and felt almost as if the pile of liquor was a singular being, watching me; the silently judgemental friend. I had a twinge of anxiety, and half wondered if I was going insane; at that, I laughed.
The air was cool when Jackie got there. My mother always used to call that the first breath of autumn, when the reaper opened his eyes and cooed softly to his crop before the inferno was snuffed out by the frigid winter. As a child, I didn’t pay much attention to her words, but as I grew older I felt the cold in my bones, and tonight I felt it in my soul, a faint whisper of death like the mark of the beast. I watched Jackie’s hair whip to the side, a black flag in the wind, as she approached the house. On the doorstep, we embraced, and I recall she said she needed to talk.
“You’re an awfully successful man, Micah. And I know you’ve got a lot of money. Maybe you’re not wealthy, no, but you’re richer than me, and there’s enough to go around. It’d be a damn shame if your poor wife found out about me. No, I haven’t said a thing yet, and I know you know that, for the poor thing couldn’t take the stress and might just die. But I could say a thing, and maybe even a little more. And a nasty thing it’d be, too. I’d just ask for $1,000 a month, but times are tough, so I’m inclined to say $2,000 would be enough to keep my mouth shut. And, of course, we could continue seeing each other. . . if you’d so please.”
Some say they see red when they’re angry enough, but I still remember how I saw even less; the next five minutes of my life were no clearer to me than several brief glimpses of reality, interspersed by periods of unreality before the next glimpse. A scream, and then another. The thought: she’s got a knife. A bone snapped: mine, hers, it didn’t matter. Blood; spattered on the carpet, on my shirt, and the drip-drip of a glistening red globe, smashed in through the side like a cracked egg. I remember the silence before the adrenaline eased and I felt pain, and I remember the pain before the squelch when I issued one last kick to the body, lying on the ground.
It had been time for me to feed the pigs. Jackie usually helped me with the feeding when she came over, always with a coy look, and often it was short lived and I needed to finish the job on my own after she left. I was betting that she could help me again. Hoisting her up onto my shoulder wasn’t difficult, though I supposed she was lighter than usual. I stooped to pick up the last few pieces that didn’t come with the rest of her and took the two of us to our yard.
The part of the brain we, as people, already understand cannot possibly encompass every sensation which we, as people, feel. Scientifically, maybe- but that feeling that makes dogs bark at empty rooms; that makes cats stare into walls before jumping away, frightened; that feeling exists in humans, too. Call it a sixth sense, or ESP, it’s there, and I felt it when carrying Jackie. The birds had stopped calling, the trees had ceased rustling, and a low, droning buzz resounded outside the pig pen. It rose in volume and pitch, and as I dropped Jackie’s lifeless corpse onto the ground, it blocked entirely the noise of the world around me.
I didn’t even hear the thump. Nor did I hear the pigs, for it wasn’t until I looked up from her body, panting heavily from the effort of what had transpired, that I saw that we stood on the fringe of a gathering of the pigs. I couldn’t see if any remained in the pen, but I could see that at least a hundred gathered here outside the pen, all staring at me with glassy eyes and salivating mouths. Some stood on the haunches of the others to see, and many were covered in blood, having been left uncleaned since the events of the previous night. Even through the foggy daze I was in, my fear registered on a guttural level and, in horror at the unreality of what I was seeing, I backpedaled, eventually tripping over a rut in the earth and falling to the ground.
The next moment, each of the pigs had turned to look at what was left of Jackie. For a couple of seconds, they stared at her, and I realized that the droning in my ears had stopped, replaced with nothing but an ominous silence. That silence was short lived, for in one, unanimous, ear-splitting squeal, the pigs raced each other to the body, and carnage ensued.
The hogs in front no sooner reached the body than were ripped apart by the pigs behind them. Huge flaps of fatty skin hung in ribbons from the napes of their necks and blood sprayed in all directions as necks, limbs, tails, and extremities were mangled with the reckless abandon of a pack of wild dogs. I suppose that’s what they were; even if I treated them like domesticated creatures, they were animals, and they were out of the control of any constraints that civilization wanted to place on them.
The mass of flesh moved rhythmically and dripping bodies were flung like oversized rag dolls from the fray to land wetly and lifelessly on the earth. Occasionally, I would hear a crunch as bones were rent and snapped under the pressure of the fray, and squeals as the broken limbs stabbed through the fleshy bodies of the animals atop them. Hooves, teeth, and bones carved the flesh of the other pigs, and while blood and feces sprayed freely, chunks of gore rolled out of the fray like meaty baseballs.
The pleasant temperature drop had undone itself, as the wind had stopped blowing, and the stench of the scene hung thick in the hot and heavy air of late summer. I vomited, over and over, bent over in the shit and the blood, eyes watering from the smell, and blood dripped from everywhere on my body. It ran off my body in rivulets and pooled around my feet. Some was mine, but more was Jackie’s, and more yet was the remains of the pigs. Blood dripped from my mouth onto the dirt, and I could no longer tell if I was looking up towards the cruel stars, down at the earth, or witnessing the slaughter before me, for my sight was veiled by a coating of blood, and my senses were clouded by the rush of adrenaline, though I could do nothing but sit in shock.
Breathe.
A chunk of meat smacked me in the shoulder.
Breathe.
An ear bounced off of my forehead.
Breathe.
An opened artery sprayed blood across my face in a line.
Breathe.
My eyes recognized four pigs on the fringe of the conflict abandoning their course for what was left of Jackie and I saw turn to me, each foaming at the mouth like a rabid animal. I saw two get ripped away by two other pigs, but the remaining couple charged. The one that reached me first clamped its maw around my leg not a moment before the next reached it, bit into its neck, and thrashed it back and forth.
I couldn’t hear my own screams above the countless squeals of the hog pile and the constant wet ripping that resounded through the dark sky. Eventually, the pig that had bit me gave out with a squeal, but not before the lower half of my leg was snapped with one, final pull, and the pig behind then buried its face in the body of the dying hog before being dragged back into the conflict by another. I failed to even hear my cries of pain over the sounds of the fray; I knew I screamed only from the burning in my throat.
Breathe.
A second later, I was thrown by the arm and crashed against the soggy earth several feet away from the conflict. For a moment, I wondered if I was alive, or if the world I was seeing around me was really Hell, and I was a damned soul being punished for my sins. At that, I blacked out, and entered a timeless, dreamless slumber that sent the world back into the buzzing mayhem I had felt before the carnage.
I opened my eyes some brief time later to find that the buzzing persisted in my ears while awake. Perspiring heavily from the heat, I found I was lying on my back on the ground, facing the burning remains of my house. The buzzing was really the rush of flames lapping at the sky and the crackling of embers as the roaring fire pulled them out of sight.
“Swine,”
The voice, which rang impossibly clear in the noise of the night, above the roar of the inferno and the sounds of the approaching sirens, had come from but a few feet behind the back of my moist head. Even after all that had transpired, the word made my hair stand on end, for it was spoken with a voice that could snuff out the stars if it were to say that they ought to stop shining.
I turned my head to face behind me, groaning sharply from the pain, to see a man atop a mountain of hundreds of mutilated hogs. The pile ran with a constant stream of blood and feces, which dripped slowly over the terraced stack of corpses to form a small lake underneath, the edge of which lapped my face with miniature waves of gore.
“. . . they never learn.”
Then, the man smiled, and I realized with horror that his legs resembled those of ruminants.
And atop his head rested two ebony horns, glistening in the moonlight.

Anybody who pays any attention to the NYSE saw $NVDA across one of their timelines after market hours on 5/22. Day-traders and long-term investors alike had their eyes on the Big-Tech earnings-call marathon, waiting for the final lap that was Nvidia Corporation’s fiscal Q1 earnings report.
Are we really shocked that NVIDIA beat projections at this point?
Closing at $949.50, $NVDA is already up over $100 (11.7%) per share, sitting comfortably above $1000 a share for the first time in company history. It’s hard to blame anyone for getting their piece of $NVDA for ___ HUGE reasons…

1. Superior EPS: The world had extremely high expectations for NVIDIA’’s profitability, projecting an EPS of 5.58; an absurd figure even given Nvidia’s dominance over such a volatile industry. Nevertheless, the company’s EPS figure toppled analyst projections and is up over 600% year-over-year.
2. Stock Split: Among all the big news with AI and NVIDIA especially was the corporations announcement of their 10-for-1 stock split. As the trading price sits at an almost unaffordable level, its a smart move for NVDA to allocate more outstanding shares.
3. Mammoth Revenue Figures: Reporting a Q1 revenue stream of $26 billion is up 262% from a year ago and 18% since last earnings call. Figures like that speak for themselves.
4. Dividend Payments: The last dividend payment to $NVDA shareholders sat at $0.04 a share. Amid the flying dollar-sign convention that was the NVIDIA Corp. earnings call was the announcement that the company would raise its dividend payment 150% to $0.10, making this a growth stock on top of a dividend-paying cash-grabber.
5. Jensen Huang: A name and face that belongs on the Mount Rushmore of CEO’s. With the constant and considerable growth quarter-to-quarter on top of year-over-year, Huang is having a comparable run to, dare I say, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

It truly is remarkable what’s happening in Santa Clara at NVIDIA HQ on top of what’s happening on the floor at the NYSE for $NVDA; even with the ridiculous share price that should continue to rise through market-close 5/23, over 30 analysts have reported $NVDA as a STRONG buy, and if I had the capital myself, I’d be joining in on the train.

As with most things, the opinions expressed in this post are my own. Consider this as just one data point, and not as a guide to your career.
I've been working in the Data/AI space for 5 years now and I've seen hundreds of starry eyed people wanting to work in A.I. because they want to work with the latest and coolest cutting edge technology. But I want to share with you a few reasons why A.I. is not a good career choice.

1. A.I. positions could end up like the "data scientist" position. Looking at the history of the data scientist position, in 2010-2020, the hype around data science made it so that millions of people flocked to that position. Companies eventually realized that most them actually didn't need data science, and the impact of the position didn't always help them profit. The demand of the job has plummeted in recent years, leaving millions of aspiring data scientists unemployed or needing to pursue a different career.
2. A.I. positions will be less than .0001% of tech engineering jobs. In the next few decades, the demand for software and data engineering roles will be much more needed at most companies that A.I. roles. Only a small group companies will a be pursuing A.I. initiatives, while the majority of companies will still need software and data engineers. But because 90% of tech news is A.I. related, there will be a massive influx of people trying to enter the space.
3. The barriers to entry are huge. To pursue a career in A.I. and machine learning. A person's understanding of statistics and software engineering need to be extremely high. To get to that level of knowledge requires much more dedication and studying than most people imagine. Becoming a decent software engineer or data professional is already difficult for the average person.

Before you decide to pursue this as a career, it's important to consider some of the cons listed below. Perhaps consider taking a smaller step first and trying to land a job as a software engineer or data analyst. If you're already in a technical field, consider not putting all your eggs into one basket, and making sure you know enough skills to stay gainfully employed in the job market.
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  • https://www.reddit.com/sidehustlemoney/comments/17jswev/how_i_basically_travel_for_free/

This is Johan Barrows of the time agency branch of the shadow proclamation reporting.
I have succsesfully reached Vertex Station and purchased a starship, a broadsword class long range fightercraft. The model is slightly older but the lack of advanced tech should reduce the risk of detection and tracking from any interested parties. I can modify the vessel back at home base with agency standard equipment which will give me the edge over any potential attackers, I might even be able to plug in my vortex manipulator but that would probably cause a total overload. Vertex was about what I expected, major trade port with a lot of traffic, pretty much everything from the highest end restaurants to the sleaziest of second hand starship dealers were under the thumb of the company. Pretty heavy presence of Trion Security, my guess is that the station is the regional headquaters. I noticed most of the regional Trion Security ships were the same models advertised by Panopticon Production, the local Trion subsidiary. At least the chassis were the same, the colouration of the Trion Security models were different and from what few scans I could get, most of the internal components were different as well
No movement from KnM, it looks like Trion barred them from the TFEZ after their brief crusade against the company so I won't be able to make any progress on the front whilst within the TFEZ. I'll probably need a couple more days to mod my fighter with agency systems to allow me to engage in ftl travel without detection. Whilst waiting for my manipulator's AI to fully integrate with my ship back on Rusalka I managed to dig up some interesting data from Trion regarding a "Project Hirohiko". The basic rundown is that Trion were using an artefact from a planet called Avalon to try and create supersoldiers. The project was apparently somewhat succsesfull, it produced humans far above the average with... unusual capabilities (the report refuses to elaborate on that matter). The success rate was too low however, most people died during testing, and the variation in abilities was too vast to make an effective standardised military unit. Those with abilities deemed "combat suitable" have supposedly been assigned as special operatives with their codenames being named after old world pop culture references (the report makes a particularly scathing comment regarding the head researcher's taste in media.)
Current active operatives are:
Smoke On The Water
Iron Maiden
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Mr Blue Sky
The Magnificent Seven
Big Iron
Ruler Of Everything
So, that's probably something I have to look forward to dealing with if I'm going to be actively getting on Trion's bad side. Another thing to look forward to are their cybermen, by my assessment they are about as dangerous as the Cyberiad cybermen who forced the empire to vaporise a sector of the galaxy. Trion appears to have learned from these mistakes, leading me to believe that they too have access to the services of the time lord. There's no other way they would know the name cyberman or how exactly to stop them from going rogue. First official deployment of these new cybermen, what Trion are calling "generation three", occurred recently on the planet of Ilm to stop a rogue AI caused by KnM, but I have my doubts about that claim. No matter, I will make another report when more intel is acquired.
This is Agent Barrows, signing off.

and I'm looking forward to its release in september.
First about me in short form: Favorite Genre, played thru every FS title, multiple times for Sekiro and Bloodborne. As well as LoP. I LOVE parrying. Since playing Sekiro, every title with a strong parry system hooks me (why I will look into Wolong next).
The demo comes with its issues so lets talk abou them really quick: By being absent from home I've played through the demo on my Steam Deck. Yes 22-30fps with low-medium settings, cinematic one could say. But that isnt probably a performance target for a new game like this, so thats not of relevance here.
Critisicm: Some items dont display a message when picked up
I think there is a dead end in the first town where you have to use a return item; that return item (just droppped from an enemy) doesnt work from the inventory, so I accidentaly used the equivalent to a dark sign, losing my Memoralia (souls). A confirm prompt when using that item would be nice and a proper animation like a whistle, corresponding to the bonfires/item name(its just a fade in black).
Within combat, in my experience, it was just not worth it to use a light weapon and/or to dodge the majority of time than to parry. The light weapons especially should do slightly more unravel damage and slightly more dmg generally.
The masks should have a bigger impact for a loadout: strongemore unique/noticeable effects, maybe unique mask line for every mask etc. That would actually encourage the switch of them midst combat for different stages of fights and enemies.
Switching weapons should be more encouraged: there is just too little memoralia and upgrade materials! Why should i use different weapons when upgrading them is too costly to encourage it.
More memoralia, esp more "stored souls" which you can consume on demand.
Some enemies should just have lower health, like archers or light weapons should do more dmg.
The four primal elements and status effects should be explained WITH the corresponding images. They felt like no impact and i ignored them when i got inflicted with them.
There should be (more) permanent perks in the path of innovator, similiar to the quartz system in LoP (my biggest wish of change)
Imbued weapons look poor, like the green on the Thyrus Slayer looks bad.
The Positives:
The world design is great, the sound track is great. How the boss music subtly changes is nice, the voice acting and lines of the boss are just my favorite, keep it up!
Parrys feel great and are chainable. The animations that are present, the bon fires, the lore drops from items and descriptions are memorable and interesting. Exploration is mostly rewarding.
Generally I personally also think, the bosses are decently balanced. I wouldn't make them easier to beat. Balancing has to be done very carefully. Esp. for these fights, dodging has its value for certain attacks.
My most favorite thing: How mask lines (weapon arts) are detached from weapons and that you have access to 4 equipped at a time: Its so fun to chain them and use when appropriate, magic feels natural and interwoven with the regular combat for the first time:
TL;DR: Play the demo and provide feedback, give it a chance. Get impressed by the vibe, the voice acting and wit of the bosses, try the mask lines and understand what makes the game unique. I'm personally sold on it.

I've seen plenty of guides and examples on network graph and styling - I've also seen tutorials on animating stroke lines etc. But Is surprised how few examples there are on 'previous/next' style data visualisations.
I have two problems. Firstly my data. My graph needs to step through 200 days not unlike a powerpoint slide deck. Each day represents the instance of a node and a few new links. So an example of this could be describing users (approx 100) signing into a social network and making a few friends etc day they use it (a few only logging in once or twice and making very few friends!
At the moment I have set up as there being a different json file for each day, the files are small but I'd rather not have 200 separate files. (sorry if this an obvious answer but I honestly don't know how to do it another way).
My second problem is sometimes I want to 'clear the deck' of previous days data to isolate certain periods of time. For example if a new feature was added which could effect users behaviour (they decrease making friends). How do you think I should go about doing that?
All useful tutorials welcome.

Hi everyone, just heads up if this ever happens to you. I recently placed an order for a GPD Win 4 8840u 2tb 32gb model on Amazon and it shipped earlier this week.
I just received it today and signed off on the delivery by UPS. An hour later when I opened the package, I saw the GPD box inside and lifted it up, then I noticed immediately how light the box was and thought to myself, wow this is way lighter than my steam deck oled!
When I opened the GPD Win 4 box, the console and the charger was completely gone. I examined the charger box and saw it had a rip at the opening, so I'm assuming that the thief quickly took the console and ripped the charger out of the box before packaging it.
I already contacted Amazon support, but they weren't helpful. They'll ask you to file a police report instead of just refunding the purchase entirely.
Luckily, I just contacted my credit card company and had them dispute this transaction for me. They refunded me immediately and will take care of the Amazon dispute process.
Whoever took the console, I hope that you have better days.

Hello, I wanted to make a list with the weapons that I find that not match the name of the superpower, this open up a lot of ideas for theme chars.
Battle axe.

Pickaxe. Shovel. Butcher knife (short and long). 

Broadsword.

Machete. Chainsaw. Hook sword, from far away, looks like a crowbar. Butcher knives again. Redcap dagger. 

Dual blades.

3 different daggers. Sai. Machete again. Chainsaw Battle axe. Butcher knives. 

Katana.

Here there are a lot of big swords and a chainsaw. 

Staff fighting.

Bladed staff. Broom. 9 magic look staff. Metal pipe. Polearm. Pool cue. Tech bladed staff. Trident. 

Titan weapon.

Something that look like a war banner stabbed with swords. A concrete "mallet" made by rip out a street sign. (looks like that to me). Bigger chainsaw. Vintage railroad sign. The nemesis staff, that looks like steampunk magic staff instead of a giant weapon 

War mace.

• Baseball bat.
• Wood club.
• Shillelagh.
• Bone.
• Shovel.
• Police nightstick.
• 2 kinds of police batons.
• 3 pipe wrench.
• A tech mace that looks more like a magic staff than a mace.
• 10 different kinds of hammers.
• A big club with spikes.
• 4 more “maces” that look like wizard staff.

Shields.

Manhole cover. Stop sign. Elementals “shields” some of them look like a shield actually. 

I attempted to sign up for a plan online last week, got through everything fine, then two days ago they email me, say they're refunding my payment, canceling the account. Apparently due to multiple discrepancies with my credit check. They asked for 2 forms of photo ID, health card not allowed. Which is funny, because I only have a health card as photo ID, unless you count a long expired G1 license. I live where i don't necessarily need a car, so I don't have a license.
So, this is a new credit card, and I haven't owned one previously, was just trying to not rack up debt.
So, after emails back and forth, I call them up, end up transferred to the division that emailed me, they basically give me the same info as the email, even when I tried asking what else I can do.
They only suggestion they gave otherwise was for go to a telus store, as they have more tech support and such available to them.
Any thoughts or ideas?

My take on Steven Universe and how Steven got his big break into the acting world and even got his own TV show on Cartoon Network. This was inspired by a short on YouTube I saw called 'Steven Moves In' you can look up 'Steven Universe shorts and watch the video.
I hope I can keep this going for you guys as much as I can. Anyway. Bye, guys!
Chapter 1: Steven's Big Break.
June 2008.
"Is it on?" a voice asked. A boy nods. The boy had a head of curly black hair, had black eyes, he also wore a salmon pink T-shirt that was too big for him, and cuffed jeans. He has a Band-Aid on his left cheek, he also had no shoes on his feet as he sat next to his father in his van which had both the doors open. the child flashed a smile and a peace sign to his mother.
The woman behind the camera chuckled, and the boy smiled softly at her.
"Come on, Steven, show us what you wrote." his father insisted. Steven took a deep breath strummed the ukulele and sang. Steven has heard stories about her team members and wanted to write a song about them, and him if he was a member of his mother's rebellion so, that was how this song came to be.
"If you're evil and you're on the rise
You can count on the four of us taking you down
'Cause we're good and evil never beats us
We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas
We are the Crystal Gems
We'll always save the day!
And if you think we can't
We'll always find a way!
That's why the people of this world believe in
Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl and Steven!"
She laughed in amusement then stopped recording and closed the screen to the video camera, Setting it down so she could upload it to YouTube later on her computer. The man, Greg Universe, looks at his wife walks over to their van, picks up Steven, and kisses his cheek. Steven laughed as the woman spun him around. Her husband smiles, grabs her all-white MacBook, takes out the SD card from the camera, plugs it into the computer, and starts editing it for YouTube.
Steven Quartz Universe has a musical talent from his father, Gregory Universe, and the ability to learn faster than other children from his mother, Rose Quartz Universe.
Greg was only twenty-six years old when he and Rose had Steven. And he couldn't be any happier, they knew that they had to tie the knot, so in 2001, they got married in Los Angeles Rose's team — The Crystal Gems were there also for it, Pearl, Rose's friend (And probably crush) was jealous of her that she was getting married to a rockstar and had a baby with Rose in the process the previous year.
Seven years later, they were happily married and very happy with their son, Steven Quartz Universe who was born on August 15, 2000.
Over time though, He wondered why Steven was not aging like the other kids in his grade were. By the age of one, he still looked a few months old. Rose had an idea of why he wasn't aging.
Due to her being a gem, she and the other Crystal Gems don't age. But, no matter what they still loved him no matter what.
Steven looks at his parents.
His mother, Rose Quartz Universe possesses a commanding stature, towering above both her husband and son at an impressive height of approximately eight feet. Her taller and heavier build projects a sense of strength and presence. Her complexion is characterized by pale peach skin that exudes a soft and gentle radiance, complemented by defined pink lips that add a touch of delicacy to her features.
Her mesmerizing appearance is accentuated by bright black eyes that seem to hold a world of depth and mystery within them. Cascading down her shoulders, her long, curly pink hair is meticulously styled in thick ringlets, lending an air of elegance to her overall demeanor. Notably, her unique gemstone is situated where a human navel would typically be found, serving as a distinctive and striking feature that sets her apart.
His father, Greg is a uniquely styled individual, appearing with a slim physique typical of middle-age, yet with a touch of eccentricity in his appearance. His dark-beige beard frames his mouth, contrasting with his taupe hair, which is styled into a mullet cascading down to his waist. Despite his middle-aged plumpness, he maintains a somewhat skinny frame. Notably, Greg sports a full head of hair, adding to the curious juxtaposition of his appearance.
Moreover, he flaunts a tan line gracing his shoulders and feet, hinting at his outdoor ventures. To add a hint of edginess, his look is further accentuated by earring pieces that embellish his overall look with a touch of individuality.
The Video was finished uploading as they went back to their beach house, located in Delaware.
His childhood home. A two-story house elevated on stilts, characteristic of areas prone to flooding or coastal regions. The front of the house is symmetrical, featuring a central door and two windows on each floor. The exterior is painted in white, creating a contrast with the green surroundings of trees and a clear blue sky.
A distinctive feature of the house is its spacious second-story deck, accessible via a staircase from the ground level. This deck wraps around the front and one side of the house, providing ample outdoor space for relaxation or social activities. Beneath the deck, the ground level seems open, likely used for parking or storage purposes, effectively utilizing the house's footprint and offering protection against potential water damage.
They walked inside and Steven smiled and looked around his home.
He looked at a spacious and elegantly designed open-plan living space with a coastal design aesthetic. The room is illuminated by natural light and features a color scheme predominantly consisting of whites and creams, complemented by deep blues and natural wood tones.
In the living area, there is a large, white sofa adorned with stylish throw pillows, creating a cozy and inviting ambiance. Positioned in front of the sofa is a dark wooden coffee table adorned with books and decorative items, adding a touch of sophistication to the space.
Moving towards the left, there is a dining area featuring a simple wooden table surrounded by contemporary chairs, seamlessly connected to the nearby kitchen. The kitchen boasts white cabinetry and a visually striking blue island, topped with elegant white marble, adding a pop of color and a touch of luxury to the room.
Pictures hung on the walls of Greg and Rose's wedding in California, an acoustic guitar that was signed by Chester Bennington - who was the lead singer for one of their favorite bands LINKIN PARK. Three surfboards lined up the wall. A white one with red roses, A large board bright pink one with hibiscus flowers all over the board which was custom-made for Rose, and the smallest one was light blue with a large white stripe going diagonally.
The room is further enhanced by large windows that offer picturesque views of a water body, enhancing the serene coast.
Steven was now playing on his Nintendo DS in the living room, Rose was cooking dinner as her husband helped her. Steven looks up from his game of Mario. Pausing his game and walking to the kitchen. Steven grabs a chair and stands on it watching his mother. Rose looks over her shoulder.
"Looks like you have a little helper." Greg smiled and looked at his son.
"What are you guys making?" Steven asked.
"Where making mozzarella sticks," Rose said Steven's eyes lit up. He loved mozzarella sticks, and the way his parents made them was amazing!
Rose smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Oh, you don't need this anymore," she said, pulling the Band-Aid off his cheek. Steven smiled as he took his finger and felt the soft fuzzy surface, the cut wasn't there anymore.
He was playing at the beach the previous day. He and his friends Lance and Mikey were playing tag and Steven fell on a rock and scraped his cheek a little bit. He went home then got cleaned up, then he was back to playing again. Rose asked him if she could heal his cheek with her spit but he didn't want to. Rose respects his boundaries and wishes, so she doesn't press on.
Rose wondered if he would ever get his gem powers, or maybe it was a possibility that he wouldn't get them at all. But Steven wants to be like his mother and learn about his gem heritage and culture.
Greg grabs the bowl that was filled with the mozzarella sticks and puts them in the fridge to cool them before frying them. He walked to the sink and washed his hands. He dried them, walked to the couch, and picked up his acoustic guitar that was sitting on a guitar stand. He sat on the couch and began to strum it.
Steven and Rose both smiled. Rose loved her husband's playing ever since they met at that concert back in 1987. Steven knew the story of how they met. Then they had him — The light of their lives. Steven Quartz Universe.
When Greg heard his full name for the first time, he started tearing up. It was such a beautiful name for such a beautiful, bright, and intelligent boy. And Steven was very intelligent for Seven years old.
But, he does love doing stuff like most kids do, from going to the skatepark to playing video games. And Steven had an active imagination and loved to play pretend with his parents and friends.
Since it was summer vacation and his birthday was in two months, what he wanted to do was visit California and go to a movie/TV studio. Greg and Rose were unsure of this though — Any concerned parent would. But, they wanted to respect Steven's decision in all of this and be supportive as much as they could throughout his life and moving forward.
An hour passed, and Greg put the cheese sticks in the oven and closed the door. Rose was on her phone texting one of her teammates that she'd fought along the rebellion a long time ago way before she even met Greg. Steven sat on the couch next to her and looked at his mother texting on her iPhone 3G.
"Who are you texting, mom?"
Rose looked from her phone and faced her son. "You remember the Crystal Gems do you?" Rose asks him.
Steven nods.
"They just want to see how I'm doing and if I'm alright."
"Do you still talk to Pearl, Mom?"
"Yes, I still talk to Pearl, Steven." she smiled and kissed her son's cheek.
Steven smiled back. He felt a sense of happiness. Steven then hugs her. Greg pulled out the food from the oven and plated it for the three of them to share. He pulls out the marinara sauce that he'd made, puts it into three individual dipping cups, and puts the sauce inside them. He served it with some Caesar salad and some spaghetti he'd made earlier in the day while Steven was swimming on the beach.
Dishes were put in the dishwasher, Steven was changing into his bathing suit in his room. Rose wore a one-piece swimsuit with a circle in the middle where her gem was exposed. Steven grabbed a towel, walked downstairs, and saw his mother.
Rose and Steven both went outside to the waves and played together.
Greg smiled and walked down the steps of the beach house with his acoustic guitar in his hand. He had his long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He sat on the sand and played some notes on his guitar as the sun was beginning to set.
Morning approached Greg and Rose were both asleep in their room, Rose woke up and stretched, her pink messy hair falling on her shoulders.
She got up and did her morning stuff. She walks out of her room Rose sees her son playing on his Nintendo GameCube up in his loft bedroom. Steven woke up an hour ago and now he was playing Sonic Heroes.
"Good morning, Steven!" Rose called out to him. Steven paused his game and smiled, he got up from his bed, ran downstairs, and hugged her. Rose smiled and bent down to hug him, Standing at eight feet tall. So he only reached up toward her legs. But he didn't mind it as much. He still had a lot of growing to do.
"You want to go out for breakfast?"
"Yeah, but what about, Dad?"
"We can wait for him."
"Or, you can text him."
Steven nods and pulls out his phone from his pocket then texts him.
Greg walked down the stairs in a black t-shirt and jean shorts. "Let's go, guys! Rose, you can drive." her husband said, tossing the keys toward her. Rose caught them one-handed and they walked out of the beach house, Rose unlocked the van and got into it, and Steven opened the passenger side door and crawled into the back, Rose stuck the key in and they went to Washington to a diner in Delaware.
Steven was reading the menu. Greg was on his phone, Rose looked over his shoulder. "Whatcha doing?" Greg looked at his wife and smiled. "I'm seeing if that video you posted of Steven playing the ukulele got some views."
Rose's eyes widen, that video got ten thousand views overnight! "Steven! look," she said, the seven-year-old looked up at his mother. Rose gave her phone to him and he read the numbers, he looked up with white stars in his pupils as he read the numbers. "Ten. T-Thous-what?!" Steven said in shock and disbelief at what he was reading off her screen.
Rose smiles and nods. "Looks like you are famous my superstar." Rose smiled softly at him, Steven stood up and sat in her lap. Rose felt his warmth and wrapped her arm around his body softly, Steven felt happy at the moment that he saw his video of him playing the ukulele and singing had gone viral on YouTube!
Rose got a text notification, she pulled it out of her shorts pocket and pressed the button to unlock her iPhone 3G.
She sees the lock screen of her iPhone. It features a background showing her, Steven, and her husband. Standing at his car wash The lock screen displays the time as 9:29 AM on Monday, June 17. Notably, there is a text message notification from a contact named "Christopher," Rose read the message content; Can Lucas come over today, or is it a bad time, Mrs. Universe? Additionally, there is a slider at the bottom prompting her to "slide to reply." Rose slid to reply to the message.
"Mom? Who are you texting?"
"You remember your friend, Lucas? his father asked if he could come over."
"Please, mom? can he?" her son begged. Rose giggled and patted his curly hair. "Sure he can, Steven. Your friends are always welcome." Steven smiled as he sat up and hugged his mother's neck. Greg smiled then put a hand on his black fluffy, curly hair
Rose texts him back, saying that he can come over. Steven wanted to jump for joy, but he sat still and kept calm. Rose saw a teen walking up to them, she wore a black apron and her brown hair was in a ponytail.
"Hello, are you ready to order?" she asked with a smile on her face, Steven smiled and looked at her.
"Can I have the chocolate chip pancakes?" he asked. The teen recognized the boy instantly and smiled.
"Hey! I saw the video of your son yesterday after my shift, he's very talented with that ukulele."
"Thank you!" Steven said.
"Thank you so much, miss. He is incredibly talented." Greg smiled
"He is very talented. Who does he get it from?"
"He gets it from me."
"And he picks up things very fast from me." Rose smiled. Steven looks around the restaurant.
"I hope your son gets a job as a singer or an actor one day, you're going places. Say," she knelt to his level.
"What's your name?"
"Steven," he said.
"Well, Steven. I hope to see your face in movies and TV one day, and if you do. Don't forget about who helped you achieve your dreams."
Steven smiles at her. "I won't! what's your name?"
"Pearl."
"Oh, that's funny. I have a friend named Pearl." Rose chuckled.
"That's awesome," she said. "Are you ready to order?"
"We will have the scrambled eggs with bacon and this little guy will have the chocolate chip pancakes," Greg said, passing the menus towards Pearl so she could collect them, Pearl wrote everything down on her notepad, then collected the menus. "Are you okay with water?"
"Do you have a strawberry milkshake?" Rose asked.
Pearl nods. "We do."
"Mom, can I have one too?" Steven asked.
Rose nods. "Okay, what kind? we have chocolate, vanilla, Oreo, and strawberry." Pearl asked him.
"Um, may I have Oreo?" he asked. Pearl smiled and wrote it on her notepad.
"Alright, I will put these in so you guys can get your breakfast." Pearl smiled and walked off.
Rose turned on her phone and she played a game. Greg went on his and dug into his pocket and pulled out a pair of earbuds. He looked at Steven.
"Steven, do you want to listen to some music with me?" Steven nods happily. Greg gave him the left earbud. He grabbed it and he went into his music and played a song. It was called 'All The Small Things' by 'Blink-182, one of their favorite bands. Rose looked at them and wanted to take a picture of them.
Maybe when Pearl comes back with our food I can ask her to take a picture of us.
Rose saw her walk up with their drinks. "Here you go, guys," Pearl said setting down their milkshakes and orange juice. "Thank you, oh, can you take a picture of us?" she asked, pressing the home button and going to the camera app.
"I can," Pearl said, as she took the photo and handed her phone back to Rose. Rose saw them and smiled. "This is so cute. thank you." she smiles.
Pearl nods. "I'll be back with your breakfast," she said walking off. Steven tapped his mom on the arm.
"Mom, can I get down?" Steven asked, pulling the earbud off his ear and letting it hang off from the floor.
Rose nods as she sets Steven off her lap and onto the floor.
The boy walked towards his chair and tried to get on so he could sit, but he was too short and tiny. Rose saw that his son was struggling so she helped him up.
"Thank you," Steven said, Rose smiled and kissed his head.
Just then, A boy and his father walked in, Greg looked at them and smiled
He sees a younger man, with a happy expression. He has short, neatly styled hair and clear skin. He is looking directly at his son. His overall appearance seems clean and well-maintained. Additionally, he is wearing a small earring in one ear, adding a subtle touch of style or personal expression to his look.
The boy standing next to his father is depicted as a cheerful and happy child with dark brown skin. He is wearing a blue short-sleeve T-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of white Converse sneakers and has shoulder-length dreadlocks.
"Greg, Rose, how are you two!" the man — Christopher, or Cris asked the couple.
"We're good, I'm glad that you came. Greg said, hugging the man. Rose looked at his son.
"Hi, Lucas." she smiled.
"Hi, Rose. you look pretty today."
"Aw, thank you, Lucas." She smiled. he then turned to Steven.
"Hi, Steven!"
"Hi!" he smiled, Lucas went toward him and gave him a high five. "Steven! Where matching!" Lucas smiled, looking at Steven's blue T-shirt which was a little bit too big for him.
Lucas knows that he won't grow normally like other kids, but he doesn't care. They're still friends.
Steven and Lucas both met at school in September two years ago when Steven was in first grade. Lucas had changed schools in Delaware. Steven already had no friends because of the way he looked at others. One boy asked if there was something wrong with him or if he had a disability.
And someone even asked Lucas, in front of him 'Why do you hang out with that baby?' Lucas was so angry at this and wanted to kick him in the leg. But Steven told him to let it go and went to play Pokémon with him on his GameBoy.
"Hey, Steven," Lucas said.
"Hi!" he said happily.
"What's up? we're going to have so much fun together" Lucas said. Steven smiles and hugs his friend. Just then, Pearl walked back to their table with their food.
"Here you go, guys," Pearl said, handing them their breakfast. Steven smiled and unrolled his napkin revealing a fork and knife and eating his pancakes. Christopher smiled and put a hand on his son's head.
"Okay, Lucas. I'm off to work now. Have fun with Steven, your momma will pick you up. I have to work late tonight." he told his son, Locas nods
"Okay, bye Dad!" he said, seeing him walk out of the diner.
Steven, Lucas, Greg, and Rose went to the arcade when they went back and played some games, Lucas and Steven went to ski ball while Greg and Rose were on the racing simulators. The owner of the arcade—Mr. Thomas was pleased to see them having fun. He smiled and watched them, Despite that Greg's wife was an alien. He didn't care he was happy to see a person or alien, having fun.
Mr. Thomas was standing not too far away, attending the prize booth. He appeared to be in his thirties, with short light brown hair. He is wearing a checkered shirt with colors that include red, blue, and white. He also wore blue jeans and Vans on his feet. He also had a welcoming smile on his face.
"Hey, Steven!" Mr. Thomas said walking up towards the boy. Steven smiled and looked at the man.
"Hi, Mr. Thomas," he said. He smiled at the boy and knelt to his level.
"Hello, Steven! I heard that your birthday is in two months, are ya doing anything fun?" Steven wanted to go to LA for his birthday and meet his mom's friends who also lived there. He was excited for his birthday. He was turning eight years old. He loved his birthday a lot, hopefully, this one will be special for him. Steven smiled and continued to play ski ball with Lucas. They hoped they would never separate.
Steven was now in his bedroom, it was ten o'clock PM, and he was playing Super Mario Sunshine. Rose walked upstairs to his loft bedroom. Steven looks at his mom, she wearing her Mr. Universe T-shirt and long pants. "Hey, mom," he said, still playing.
"Hi, Steven," she said, the boy smiled, Rose sat on the bed, Steven paused the game and hugged her, feeling the warmth of his mother could put him to sleep. Steven yawned as he hugged her tighter, Rose smiled and kissed his forehead. "Goodnight, Steven."She whispers, covering him up with the white puffy comforter.
Rose walked downstairs and into her and Greg's room. Greg was on his laptop. His wife walked to her side of the bed and went in, he looked at her and smiled lovingly at her. "I love you, Rose."
"I love you too, Greg," she said, kissing her husband on the cheek. Greg smiled, closed his laptop, and put it beside him. Rose got comfortable and they both went to sleep.
A/N: Hi guys! I hope you all enjoyed this fanfic as much as I did. I love making stuff like this. I thought of a Steven Universe Actors AU for a while now. I started writing this three days to come up with, I hope you guys review this it'll mean a lot to me if you do.

"Isn't this the car that hit the wall at Barber?" A Lemons judge inspecting our car Friday afternoon, about to put us in either class A, B or C.
Us, not wanting to reveal too much until we know where this is headed: "Possibly" Privately we joke that without Manny or Fabguy driving this weekend we might have a better chance on staying on track. Later on a epic series of photographs will show up on social media where it shows snap by snap as Fabguy leaves the racing surface at Hallett, gets about forty feet off track in the grass, drives it on and best of all no black flag was thrown. Lemons says to always come in when you screw up. I mostly do, but if there's a change no one saw it, I'm like Ralphie in a Christmas Story when the teacher is asking who told Flick to lick the flagpole. Never admit anything. Sometimes you get flagged for things you never did. They tell us that it makes up for the ones they missed. It mostly works out.
Judge: "I watched that video so many times" Great, I'm glad we entertained someone. FYI Barber has a room where they have cameras on nearly every part of the racing surface and use that to call cautions and spot wrecks as well as contact.
Judge" Yeah, you should have seen it!" One problem being that we are told this room is strictly off limits. Next question from a Lemons photographer. "Why are you and your teammate wearing those costumes with oversized balls?"
I tell him how I am a cancer survivor and am using racing as an outreach to try and convince people to not skip out on getting tested regularly as early detection is important in surviving. Racerguy and I are displaying our large testicles as a tribute to the Johnny Dangerously movie as well as the importance of getting checked. Our shirts say "Men's Health is no joke, get checked before you croak!" I think Manny and Fabguy slide through with no theme, some teams got tagged with a label "error 404, no theme detected" and told to do better.
Something works, either our previous poor performances, our whacky costumes or a combination of both. Class B. Many Miatas get A. Because they can be fast in the right hands. Most of the fast ones are modified or have way better drivers. We are competing against a ecto tech swapped Miata and a Honda swapped Miata that are both very fast. The honda swapped Tow Mator Miata blows either the clutch or the transmission up and are loaded and gone Saturday night after attempting repairs for several hours. Very few of us Miata teams are campaigning well worn 1.6s. I continue to be impressed by ours. We crank it all the way up to redline every lap, lap after lap. 7400 rpm. Race after race, now on 11, not counting track days, not to mention all the races it had before we purchased it. You just know one of these days it will be one redline too many. But the car has so much heart. The Lemons photographer gets Youngest on video saying "this might be a Class A car someday, but we will never be a Class A team"
Saturday night, our car is tucked in our trailer and we are all in the camper less Fabguy who is heading east at a fast pace to be rested up for work Monday. The rest of us aren't that smart, we are sticking it out knowing Sunday promises to be rain all day. We had a great cookout with the other Lemons team and the burgers were great.
About midnight a storm rolls through. It gets kind of nasty and lightning hits nearly on top of us. I try to sleep and not think about what would happen if a tornado were to come through. The camper would offer zero protection. A week or two before the race a tornado relocated several buildings in the southern part of Oklahoma and injured several. The storm abates and we sleep on.
The next morning dawns, kind of. It's one of those cloudy days where it rains off and on and never really seems to stop. I take a extremely cold shower and don my racing gear. If I am going to race in the rain, I want to go out first. Some days you have to play the car owner card. No one else objects, they are all happy with the arrangements. Youngest has already called last stint and I leave Coach and Racerguy to figure out which of those two are going when. It's kind of risky calling last, you never know if there will be a car running by the end of the day, you can either break or get parked due to too many black flags. But Youngest likes the last stint as typically there aren't as many cars on the track and he can usually run the fastest laps of the day.
Who is Coach? Well it's like this, Coach is a friend of a friend. I was telling an old family friend about our racing and he told me that Coach does this type of racing if we ever need another driver. With Manny and Fabguy driving their own car and Blackbeard and our other previous drivers unable to drive to the middle of nowhere and race, I called him and he was in. He co-owns a BMW that they used to run in a series similar to Lemons. It has been parked for a while so he was ready to get back on track. You are always a little worried anytime you are letting a new driver take your car out on the track, but he was smooth and fast and ran just about the same times as everyone else did over the weekend. Best of all he did not go off track and rack up any black flags. He used to be a football coach at one of the local high schools, hence the name Coach.
Back to the race, I roll up to the grid. I think they have some sort of plan in mind as they point to a hole in the line of cars and I stick the Miata in it. At some races they pull the top ten in each class and start them first the second day. This race might not be as important as bringing the top thirty cars to the front doesn't make much difference in a race of fifty cars. I don't pull up a line up and check where we are, just happy that we are ahead of the cars we know we are racing. One being a Chrysler Crossfire. Yes there is a Crossfire in Lemons. It was a junkyard build and they posted the pictures and such of where they had to find and install a complete front clip, hood, nose, fenders and all. It's red and the rest of the car is white. We were battling them all Saturday, along with a Camaro that is run by a bunch of nuts out of West TN. They are running a wild west theme all weekend complete with Sheriff, his wife, a lady of possible ill repute, along with a portable jail and even the head stocks to restrain any offenders. The third car we are competing against that has risen to the top of our challengers is a Mercury Cougar, one of the last of the bigger body Cougars before they downsized. We've competed against them several times in our Midwest races. One time they had a epic battle with another smaller newer Cougar. They typically run well and clean, best of all is their team name, "Nothings Hotter than a Cougar" We are actually two pits away from them and chat a bit back and forth. Great guys, not a huge team. They have manual swapped their car.
My job this morning is not to screw up and not to let any of those cars outrun us. We are so far ahead of the rest of the field we should not have to worry about any of the other cars unless we break or get so far off we loose a ton of laps getting towed out of the mud.
We roll off in a light rain. Right away I notice two problems. One is that the wipers are moving very slowly. I know what is going on there as they inch slowly across the windshield at a snails pace. When we swapped the alternator Youngest put a larger pully on it. It should in theory help the life of the alternator not being turned so many rpms, but the down side is that we noticed is the alternator will not energize until it sees a good amount of rpms. Once I finally get enough room I gas it up and the wipers start working at normal speeds and all is good.
The second problem is more ominous. The car does not want to go when I hit the gas. I'm not too worried as it did this earlier at a race and cleared up. I think that we might have outsmarted ourselves when we installed our version of ram air that takes air from below where the headlight used to be on the drivers side. Water can shoot straight into the car and I think that it's getting something wet and the car is not happy about it. Last time the car came out of it after it got warmed up. I circle under the pace laps and realize that the problem is not going away. So to get it to run every time you slow down and go around a corner, and remember this is a road course with ten corners every lap, if you try to ease into the gas the car stutters and stumbles and nearly dies. The only way to get it to run is to mat and I mean mat the gas pedal. It pauses and then roars to life, then you can back off the gas and then accelerate to the next corner. It being wet out the normal thing to do is not flooring it hard off the corner, typically you have to ease into it when coming off the corners as traction is limited. Hallett is especially traction limited as the racing surface is very worn and slick. It's a exercise in car control, cars get behind you and the car lags and then takes off. The good thing is if the car is straight, it pulls straight, you just have to wait then fire off. It's some very challenging driving and you really have to pay attention. I'm trying to battle, turn in good laps, not slide off the track and keep it wound up as much as possible. I find going outside off three is very slippery, I nearly loose it there. You have to search around and find the better places on the track. I do and try to stay inside through that corner. I'm battling the Crossfire, he gets around me and then I realize I am faster so I run him down and after several laps I get around him. I see the Cougar exactly once. The Camaro is having traction problems in the rain.
The first car that I see spin is a Mustang in two. No shocker there, the turn is slippery with the new patches and it is at the end of a long straight. And Mustangs are going to do Mustang things. Next is a Mercury Bobcat we have raced against several times, also looping it in two. Then coming off six my friends Miata ends up sideways across the track and it's a wonder no one hit him right in the door. I avoided his car as well as the rest of the pack of five or six cars I was around. It was crazy. And I was having a blast.
A little later I see the same Miata closing in on me. I've passed the Crossfire and am pulling away. There's some cars running way faster than I am, but none of them are in our class so no worries. I see the Miata coming up and I am pulling hard out of turn 9 at full throttle. We are as fast as anyone on that part of the track so I figure he will catch me going around turn ten where I slow down and deal with the car hiccup before it takes off. I go inside on the corner and leave room for him and another car that are both looking like they are going to pass me. I hear a car shift and rev up and I am on the gas again heading down the front stretch. Once I have a chance I check the mirrors and no Miata in sight. Hmm, someone had a issue apparently.
Once I come around again and see the yellow flag I am amazed. The Texans Miata went straight off 10 and is not only off track they are sitting with the front end up on top of the pile of tires that mark the outer barrier. Ouch, I hope the driver is ok, and the car is not hurt too much. It takes many laps for them to pull the car out and then extract one of the loose tires that became wedged up under the car during the entire process. The car is able to leave under it's own power. Later I talk to the owner who was not driving and he points to a guy in the corner cleaning tools. "I told him what we expected, now he's cleaning stuff for the rest of the day." Apparently that was not his first boo boo in the car that weekend. He was told to go make safe laps and not screw up. I think it was the same driver who was sideways earlier too. They actually rack up so many black flags that day they are put in time out for a while and get to know the judges really well while they have to do something mildly embarrassing.
We swap out and I pull Racerguy off to the side while Youngest is fueling and Coach is holding the fire extinguisher. I tell him about how treacherous turn three is outside and how the car is stumbling. We have radios but sometimes it's hard to have detailed conversations. I also tell him the ice scraper with a rag is not working great as it's soaked and the helmet blower is better than nothing but still having some fogging issues. He shows me a squeegee he brought. Would have been nice having that. He later tells me once he used it once it was a near perfect drive.
As soon as he goes out we check and we have lost three laps to the Cougar. Ok, we are still up and they are not catching us with their lap times. Racerguy actually gets one lap back. But they haven't pitted yet....
Racerguy keeps going and going, running a nice pace. And the Cougar is not pitting. We realize they are making a long run. Will they pit? Fuel mileage is way lower during the rain, we are putting in about half as much as normal. Just how big of tank does a Cougar have? Can they make it the whole way without pitting? Surely not.
We start to strategize. Do we run Racerguy longer and go for one less stop? We can do that with the fuel mileage we are getting. Right now if they don't stop at all and we stop twice, it would be neck and neck, we project the amount of laps to do the two stops will take up every bit of our lead.
Coach being a team player offers to not drive the car today and give up his stint in the pursuit of a class win. He's new to our team but a total team player. It could have been entirely different going hundreds of miles away with a near stranger for the first time but he fits in well with our team and gets it. I am moved by his offer.
I and Coach are all about going for the win. Youngest acts unconcerned. And do we want to win anyway? A win would mean that we would be bumped out of Class B and into Class A in the future.
We make a decision. We race as a team. Normal stops. Everyone gets their time. Let the chips fall where they may and if the Cougar does not stop we will have to deal with it. We are going for the win together.
We put Coach in the car. Even with us doing a super fast stop we lose a few more laps. We are now three laps ahead of the Cougar which shows no sign of stopping, With the slower lap times we are loosing about 2.5 laps per fuel stop today. The stops are faster as we are not taking much fuel. The next stop to put Youngest in the car could potentially put us neck and neck with the Cougar if they don't stop. Surely they will stop at least once. I admire their strategy but maybe next time they could do this to someone else? It's like a game of chess, so many variables. One thing we do know we aren't running out of fuel today. If only we would not have run out yesterday we would have enough cushion that it would not matter.
Finally, Youngest calls out. "there they go!" The Cougar is pitting. What a relief. We did not think they could make it all the way but you never know. We time the stop and count laps. We gain three laps. If we have a clean stop we will be in position for the win. No pressure!
Another problem arises. We have no communication with Coach. In our haste to get him out we failed the radio check. He was looking for a thumbs up which another team member gave him and he took off. I was trying to get a response on the radio but it was too late. So we need to get him in to pit. We get ready and make a plan and a alternative plan. I am going to tell the officials to black flag the car if we need but first we try our original plan.
When we first got there and unloaded Manny parked his rollback by the fence in turn one. If you go watch any in car video on Youtube from the race you can actually see it there. He turns on the emergency light on the top of the rollback and Coach gives thumbs up as he drives by. He acknowledges the signal to pit we all went over in case of loss of communications. Our emergency plan actually worked! I'm sure there have been plenty of creative ways Lemons people have used for communications but I am guessing using a 100,000 dollar rollback is one of the more expensive methods ever used!
So I go over with Youngest the plan. He just needs to not get passed by the Cougar. Don't mess up and get a time consuming black flag. Typically the last stint is when he tries for a personal best lap time and to get fast time for the team for all the weekend. That will not happen here. Keep the car on the track. I might have said that more than once. The rest of us just need to get a good stop in. No pressure.
Coach comes in and I dive in the passenger side to unhook him. At least we have not needed the cool shirts all day, which speeds us up a few seconds by not having to add ice to the cooler nor unhook the lines to the system. I find that the radio harness is unplugged, there's why we could not talk to him. Mystery solved.
We bust out a fast stop and send Youngest out. We get our stuff up and then all look at the standings. We have just under a three lap lead on the Cougar. The Crossfire and Camaro have faded back. I 'm now about as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room of rocking chairs. I alternate from packing up things to checking the standings.
In a terrible sequence of events our friends in the Magnum wagon get a black flag and then the accelerator cable breaks. They fix it quickly but their lead and dreams of winning Class C are gone in just a few minutes. You are reminded often of how in an instant in racing dreams of winning can evaporate over a broken part or a driver error.
"They won't let me pass" Youngest has caught the Cougar but they are blocking the pass. I can't blame them, I would too. It's to put them three full laps down. We tell him just to fall in behind the Cougar and stay there. I do the math. With our lead we could break or pull off and still win when the clock gets down to about five minutes to go. The time goes by slowly counting down. With five to go we give Youngest the green light and he gets around the Cougar which follows him to the checkers with the Crossfire right behind them.
We start walking to the track off exit. Lemons has a tradition of where everyone lines up and cheers every car as they come off at the end of each day. We take a couple of water bottles and wet down Youngest. Then we line up our car for the ceremony at the end of the race along with the BMW that won class A and the Pinto Wagon that won class C. It's surreal getting our picture taken. We donate our winners check to the Lemons of Love, a charity that provides care packages to those on chemo, as do the other winning teams. I still can't believe we won, there are teams that have run a 100 races in Lemons and not won.
Any rumors that I slept with the trophy cradling it like Ralphie did with his Red Ryder BB Gun are totally mostly untrue.

(This started as pre-writing a rant for u/TOP_TIER 's excellent weekly card-release threads. Then it became a deck-tech. Posting this here for A.) input, and B.) me to link back to when that thread gets posted because I'm lazy.)
(Also, re: flair -- technically, this is a "Deck Guide", because that's how it's formatted. But I'm absolutely looking for improvements if possible as well -- again, all the better for the Sunday post!)

PREFACE

I like big combos and I cannot lie. And I'm pretty sure I can no longer lie about Namora.
When I first saw the card, I clocked the +5 Power buffs and thought, "midrange synergy piece with potential in Move shells". That didn't work well. Too fragile, too high on the curve, too many of the good Move cards are in Shang range after just one Namora buff.
Then, because I've been running Knegative for months and I have a mortal weakness for ridiculously jank bullshit, I re-tooled her into an admittedly B-tier combo deck that uses the Hammer package as a back-up plan. I also started Snap/Retreating like it was a combo deck, because it is. And I started doing better.
But not better enough to not look for suggestions from marvelsnapcomp, because y'all are great and I'm just entertaining.
So here we are. Deck list is at the end because I know from corporate e-mails that that's the only way half of all people will read the notes.

DECK NOTES

God, this deck goes tall sometimes. Even without Kamar-Taj on the field. Beta-Ray Bill hitting 60+ power after stacking Namora buffs and Odin/Stormbringer triggers? Very possible.
That's honestly the big reason I went for the Hammer package as Plan B. It's tight, consistent, effective even if my main plan isn't, and it overlaps well with the Namora package.
Especially when it comes to Mystique. She might be a pretty win-more inclusion (see below). But the added flexibility of serving as emergency second copies of Armor, Colossus, AND Wong was too good to pass up for this version of the list.

PLAY LINES

T1-2, drop Echo and try to make that your Namora lane if you can. T2-3 various buff targets for Namora. T4 Wong/BRB. T5 Namora/Jane, or if you played Wong last turn, Mystique + 2-cost buff target. T6 Odin shows up and drops off some hammers for the kids.
Retreat if you can't cleanly drop Namora T5. Retreat if you see too much interference. Snap if you can get at least 2-3 triggers from Namora/the Hammers. Don't Snap until you see all three locations.

PLAY NOTES AND MATCHUPS

Again, Snap/Retreat like a combo deck. Retreating three times is perfectly okay if the fourth game is a big win for you.
Try and stay below Shang range until T6 if you can.
Good match-ups include Discard and other combo lists, because they run little disruption. Bad match-ups include Junk and various control lists.
Ongoing is feast-or-famine depending on whether they play Jean Grey into your Namora lane, and/or whether you can make it your Namora lane. Destroy is 50/50 depending on whether you can outpower Knull today.

CARD NOTES

Echo is protection against specifically Cosmo, but also Ongoing in general since it's showing up in my meta band a lot right now. Rogue's here for the same reason (give me Wong's pretty circles back! You're running Ongoing, what are you gonna do, Blue Marvel harder?).
Jeff is the only remaining Move card because he's so good for mind games. He can also carry a Namora buff back into another lane if you need it.
As mentioned above, Mystique can copy Wong if you think it'll pay off. She can also copy Armor or Colossus (both of which are Ongoing, natch) if you haven't drawn the other, or Thor, and you really need a Namora target in a specific place.
All other cards function pretty much as expected.

FLEX SLOTS

Rogue. Potentially Mystique. Technically Jeff, but never Jeff.

NOTABLE EXCLUSIONS

Namor is often worse than Wong on the curve. Also becomes vulnerable to a late Shang off of just one Namora activation.
Nocturne brings good Move stats and utility, but also becomes vulnerable to T6 Shang too early.
I found I just ended up leaving Living Tribunal dead in hand in a lot of games.
Some folks out there are recommending White Tiger or Doom, but again, there's a lot of competition at those points on the curve, so I dunno. I already have a Plan B—how necessary is a Plan C, versus just backing out?

POTENTIAL INCLUSIONS

If the amount of Ongoing in the meta stops being Too Damn High™, I can see myself dropping Rogue for Nocturne or Doom.
Pixie/Mobius is tempting with the Hammer synergies, but I think the deck might be trying to do too much at that point.
Welcome any other notes.

THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR—"HAMMORA"

(1) Echo

(2) Armor

(2) Colossus

(2) Jeff the Baby Land Shark

(3) Mystique

(3) Rogue

(3) Thor

(4) Wong

(4) Beta Ray Bill

(5) Namora

(5) Jane Foster Mighty Thor

(6) Odin

eyJDYXJkcyI6W3siQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiQXJtb3IifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IkNvbG9zc3VzIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJXb25nIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJOYW1vcmEifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6Ik9kaW4ifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IkplZmZUaGVCYWJ5TGFuZFNoYXJrIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJFY2hvIn0seyJDYXJkRGVmSWQiOiJNeXN0aXF1ZSJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiVGhvciJ9LHsiQ2FyZERlZklkIjoiQmV0YVJheUJpbGwifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IkphbmVGb3N0ZXIifSx7IkNhcmREZWZJZCI6IlJvZ3VlIn1dfQ==

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Y Combinator has introduced LetsUnifyAI, a service that dynamically routes prompts to the most suitable Language Model (LLM) based on user preferences for quality, speed, and cost. The service aims to simplify the process of selecting the most suitable LLM for specific tasks, avoiding manual testing and benchmarking. Users can sign up, select a router, and start using the service by installing unifyai [1].
Yann LeCun, a prominent figure in AI, has expressed the importance of safer AI and suggested that funding could be obtained to build better AI [2]. He advises students interested in developing AI systems not to work on LLMs [3]. Instead, he is focusing on the next generation of AI systems and encourages others to do the same [4].
NVIDIA AI has highlighted the transformative impact of generative AI on the retail industry, with 98% of retailers planning to invest in this technology in the next 18 months [5]. NVIDIA also offers a wide range of resources for higher education and research in the field of AI, including workshops, courses, webinars, and real-world applications. The company collaborates with universities like Georgia Tech and Oregon State University to address global challenges through AI and supercomputing [6].
The concept of "SynthAI" represents the second wave of B2B AI applications, focusing on utilizing AI capabilities to streamline end-to-end workflows. Startups are increasingly targeting workflows with AI applications [8].
Google AI announced the upcoming launch of a new feature for Google Photos search called Ask Photos. The experimental feature, powered by Gemini, is designed to understand natural language queries and analyze visual content to provide personalized and insightful responses [9][10]. Google AI also introduced LANISTR, a new framework that enables multimodal learning by integrating structured and unstructured data, aligning and fusing them, and generating class predictions. It demonstrates remarkable improvements in healthcare and retail datasets, achieving state-of-the-art results in various tasks [11].
NVIDIA AI Developer's research paper on "Filtering After Shading with Stochastic Texture Filtering" won Best Paper at I3D2024 [12]. NVIDIA also shared information about how NVIDIA NIM inference microservices can accelerate and simplify generative AI deployment [13]. The NVIDIA NeMo Curator is an open-source data curation framework that helps prepare high-quality datasets for training generative AI models [14].
OpenAI has announced a multi-year partnership with News Corp to enhance ChatGPT with its premium journalism [15]. Google's handling of data in relation to its Gemini Apps, including the collection of conversations, location data, and feedback, was also discussed. The company emphasizes its commitment to privacy and transparency in handling user data [16].
Groq Inc is hosting a panel on Efficient and Innovative Thermal Management for AI/ML Applications at the ECTC event, co-chaired by Zhi Yang [17]. The company will also have their Head of GroqCloud, Sundeep, participating in a panel about AI for enterprise teams at Vercel SHIP [19]. Groq Inc emphasizes that their LPU and related systems are designed, fabricated, and assembled in North America [20]. The company is hosting an AMA session for novices interested in function calling on Groq [21]. Groq Inc has positioned itself as a cheaper and faster alternative to Nvidia chips [22]. The company provides cloud and on-prem solutions for AI applications, with a focus on reliability and scalability [23].
1. Y Combinator @ycombinator https://twitter.com/ycombinatostatus/1793325957077487888
2. Yann LeCun @ylecun https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1793319668456755309
3. Yann LeCun @ylecun https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1793326904692428907
4. Yann LeCun @ylecun https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1793330125712294225
5. NVIDIA AI @NVIDIAAI https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAI/status/1793325956527952188
6. NVIDIA AI @NVIDIAAI https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAI/status/1793341197185847403
7. a16z @a16z https://twitter.com/a16z/status/1793307643358159280
8. a16z @a16z https://twitter.com/a16z/status/1793369587612078232
9. Google AI @googleai https://twitter.com/googleai/status/1793350175349674336
10. Google AI @googleai https://twitter.com/googleai/status/1793350277149667499
11. Google AI @googleai https://twitter.com/googleai/status/1793352713755127966
12. NVIDIA AI Developer @NVIDIAAIDev https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAIDev/status/1793317151811522930
13. NVIDIA AI Developer @NVIDIAAIDev https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAIDev/status/1793356153235128545
14. NVIDIA AI Developer @NVIDIAAIDev https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAIDev/status/1793643045147066790
15. OpenAI @openai https://twitter.com/openai/status/1793375378662416400
16. Google @google https://twitter.com/google/status/1793395498654527677
17. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1793342753394368771
18. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1793352961508438111
19. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1793387863486144711
20. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1793419119456621013
21. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1793429387091849278
22. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1793446745130598694
23. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1793633740670763132

I was talking to a friend yesterday and he was asking about the marriage process here in Vietnam, saying I should post a run-down on one of the FB groups as a way of giving some up-to-date information. I tend to avoid them like the plague, though (too many bitter old men), so figured I’d post it here as reference for anyone who might be thinking of doing the same. Note, I’m a British national so some things might be different for people from other countries. Also, my wife is from Dak Lak, so YMMV depending on how efficient/corrupt the government officials are in other provinces. Anyway, this will probably be a long one, so here goes.
First, you’re going to need your affidavit of Marital Status from the embassy. I live in HCM so that was at the British Consulate in D1. Fairly painless process, really, but they don’t offer many appointment slots. I had to wait ten days for the first available slot. Download the form from the gov.uk website, fill it out and take it with you along with your passport and anything else they list. They never mentioned needing any information from my wife, but thankfully she came along anyway as they also wanted to see her ID. Swear on the bible, read from the placard they hold up and pay your £50. They’ll give you the signed and sealed affidavit back along with a map to a Vietnamese government building a short distance away to get it translated and stamped. We went there, they took the form and told us to come back in three days and pay 600k.
It gets a bit messy for this next part, so don’t make the same mistake we did in believing what some government officials tell you. We flew to my wife’s home town and she went to get her single status sorted at her local government office (she also needed my affidavit in order to do this). They told her the marriage process was easy, could be done in half a day, and once we had some passport-sized photos done we had everything we needed. On a previous visit before we got the ball rolling, they told her we didn’t need health certificates to get married there. That’s how easy it is. Sounds too good to be true? It was. She gets her papers and we head into town to the government building we were told to go to. They send us to a different building about ten minutes away. We get there, they go over our documents, then tell us we need health certificates and my passport translated. Good news, though, they agreed that the marriage process would be quick, so that was something. Off we go.
We head to the nearest city to the psychiatric hospital. A mental health hospital in the central highlands looks exactly as you’re probably picturing. Not a fun experience. We fill out form after form, give blood and urine samples, then they take us up to a room and do two separate tests which involved placing some headgear with metal diodes on us. Remember John Coffey at the end of The Green Mile? Yeah, not too dissimilar. Thankfully it was only hooked up to a computer. After that we were seated down and made to do an IQ test, which was just a multiple choice of patterns/shapes as the next logical step to the starting diagram. Once we finished that we had to wait for our blood work result, which never came to fruition. After about forty minutes the tech came out and said the machine was broken and signed us off anyway, so it was back downstairs to fill out more paperwork before being told to come back in a couple of hours because it was break time.
Upon returning we had more paperwork to fill out, blood pressure taken and height/weight recorded before being told to wait some more. I don’t like hospitals at the best of times, but it’s especially unnerving when the entire waiting room and staff are staring at you. If you’re sensitive about your weight, beware that there’s very little privacy (at least in that hospital). Just give them an estimate if you’re unsure, otherwise it’s on to the scales in front of the crowd while one doctor shouts the number across the room to the other. Eventually we were called back and taken to the top floor for the director, who kindly told me I look older than 37, to sign off the paperwork and have them stamped. Done and dusted, but took the better part of the day. Advice: if you’re in a big city like HCM/Hanoi, just get it done beforehand. Saves messing about. I don’t remember the total price, but I’m going to say around 1mil for the both of us. Also, we had to get the photo studio nearby to send over more photos because apparently the hospital forms required a size we didn’t have on us. Get multiple sizes if you can.
So now it’s time to get my passport translated. We get the main passport page photocopied and head to the city again to the Department of Justice. Short wait before being told that they need the ENTIRE passport photocopied. Every page. Why they need to see visa stamps from several years ago, to a completely different continent, I don’t know. My wife handled the rest of this so I don’t have much information. She got the photocopies done, took it back and had it translated by a man who apparently offered me a job. Anyway, all set and we head to the other town to the second government building we visited. They go over all the paperwork before sending us back to the first building ten minutes away. Remember when I said we were told by two officials that it would take half a day to finalise? Yeah, bullshit. When we got there we had to apply to get married, and the wait time was up to thirty days. The missus greased some palms and managed to get them down to fifteen days (they actually called us to come back after ten days).
Fast forward and we were back on a flight to her province, we pick up the paperwork and are sent to the other government building again after paying the fees. At this point I don’t even remember how much it was as it felt like I’d just been handing money over non-stop, between the 40+ km taxi rides from the town and the city, the government officials, the processing fees. I wanna say a mil and a half. Somewhere thereabouts. Anyway, we head to the other building expecting the goal posts to be moved once again as we were getting a bit disheartened with all the running about at that point. Fortunately the final part was quick and easy. We signed the paperwork, they stamped it and voila… legally married.
TL;DR:

• Needs to be done in your spouse’s home province.
• Single status papers for both of you (with the foreigner’s being translated).
• Multiple passport photos each.
• Medical certificates for both of you.
• Photocopy of foreigner’s entire passport, translated and stamped.

Sounds so much more simple when you break it down into five things, but expect to visit a number of government buildings, be told contradicting things and some flat-out lies. Also a lack of information about some of the documents you need (passport photocopy being an example).
TRC is thankfully a lot easier and your Vietnamese spouse can handle all of that themselves. Fill out and sign the forms, pay the $150 and give them your passport. They’ll keep hold of it for about 3-5 days while it’s being processed. Probably the most painless part of the whole thing.
Anyway, that was my (admittedly) long-winded experience of getting married in Vietnam. Also, if you happen to be doing it in Dak Lak, don’t make the mistake we did of doing it during the hottest month in recent memory. The whole ordeal might have been more manageable without the 38 degree weather, in non-air conditioned hospitals and government buildings. All this probably wouldn’t have fit in an FB post anyway...

Reading social media makes your chances worse than doing something random.
Not just learning to code or trying to get a coding job. It's every activity. If you want to start a tech startup, reading social media will kill your tech startup. If you want to get a girlfriend, reading social media will make you an incel.
This has mystified me for 10 years.
The advice on social media isn't bad. It's OK. That's the fiendishness of it.
If you want to learn to code, taking Harvard CS50 (for free) is OK advice. If you want to learn to get a coding job, you could do worse that STAR resumes and LeetCode. If you want to start a tech startup, the Lean Startup is a decent concept. If you want to get a girlfriend, being a smooth talker with some clever pick-up lines can work.
It's not obviously bad advice. You can see how it would work. It makes sense. But it totally sabotages you 99% of the time. Once you read social media, you might as well start engraving tombstones for your dreams right then.
I really puzzled over this. Why doesn't it ever work if I take free OK advice from social media, I really study it and learn it, then I try to do it? Why does everybody else fail, too? Why does it seem that I'd be better off just ignoring it and doing something random?
Why does OK advice perform like bad advice?
That was the key.
It performs like bad advice because it is bad advice. I realized that OK advice performed inappropriately or incompetently is transformed into bad advice.
And it's given that, if you read the advice on social media, you don't have the complete picture and the context. It's impossible to get that from social media; social media is too fragmented to be complete or have context.
Without the complete picture and the context, you will 100% blow the OK advice completely out of proportion. Ipso facto, you are doing it inappropriately and incompetently.
Stop using advice from social media! It's killing your dreams!
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