Free printable math brain teasers

An aspect of my worldview was recently shattered so I figured I would share.
This December I became somewhat interested in the mind-body problem. At a nerdy group, I proposed the idea that dualism must be accepted as true if the physical world and one's consciousness are assumed to exist. Some people rejected this idea with a physicalist worldview.
They argued that conciousness is what matter does when it is formed in the shape of a brain. In other words, the concious experience itself is matter moving.
I disagreed with this notion, arguing instead that conciousness is an immaterial thing which is produced by the brain. In other words, conciousness and physical matter are two different things. The brain is matter, which creates conciousness.
A third idea related to this that I also considered could be true is that matter has some additional non-physical property which causes matter to feel. Conciousness is then the matter of the brain in action.
A core aspect of these two ideas is that conciousness is, more or less, a one-way transmission of the brain's activity onto conciousness. If the brain is the hard-drive, conciousness is the monitor. The concious experience is created by the workings of the brain, but the concious experience does not affect brain. In other words, the concious experience is merely along for the ride as the brain does its thing.
These assumptions imply that philosophical zombies, meaning people who act like people and yet lack a concious experience, could exist. This is because the brain is assumed to function the same regardless of whether conciousness occurs.
These assumptions also implicitly reject free will to some degree. If we are consciousness, then, of course, we are unable to make choices. The body makes choices.
What "shattered my worldview" is a realization I recently had. While I am concious, it seems that I am aware that I am concious. I am able to tell people that I am experiencing conciousness, and I can describe the experience to others. If the brain is simply matter and conciousness doesn't affect matter, how can the brain "know" or even describe conciousness. In other words, this means that the brain can't merely produce conciousness because the brain itself seems to have knowledge of the concious experience itself.
To me, this is a very insane idea. If conciousness isn't a projection from the brain, what is the nature of conciousness? Does conciousness interact with the brain? How does conciousness come about? How do we affect conciousness? What parts does it have? Does conciousness not directly correspond to parts of the brain? Is conciousness a distinct phenomenon produced by the brain?
Hopefully, this was somewhat comprehensible rather than rambly, lol.

Hey there, just a little background. I’m 24 years old and have spent the past 6 years since high school chasing other endeavors. I’m getting ready to get my foot in the door pursuing my other dream career.
I did good in high school, mostly A’s and B’s. My strongest subject was definitely math. What I’m most concerned about is jumping back into academics after 6 years of not doing any kind of school or academic work. I’m currently working full time as a government mechanic, so I haven’t been completely brain dead for 6 years lol. Just not school work.
I will first be going to a community college here in Texas to do my basics (which is essentially guaranteed admission), and then transfering to a maritime academy for my bachelors/USCG license.
I’m just looking for any advice on the best way to get the academic blood flowing again before jumping straight into college work. That’s the only thing that really concerns me. I’ll be starting community college/basics in August.
Thank you!

Is it normal for symptoms to change daily? My sciatica started 8 weeks ago with a week of horrendous sharp, stabbing pain in my butt. Once that subsided I was left with a dull sort of cramping pain deep in my right glute but sometimes a milder version in my left glute. On my right side, I have a feeling like the back of my thigh nd calf want to cramp up (it doesn't cramp all the way) but its painful and nerve pain on the bottom of my big toe. However these symptoms are not constant from day to day and not even hour to hour (which is a blessing!) Is it normal for it to not be consistent? I've had a free days with pretty much relief all day and others were things are just flaring up randomly hour by hour. I start PT next week and have not had an MRI.
My situation is a bit complicated because I have Multiple Sclerosis and have had sensory symptoms (tingling, numbness etc) in my legs for years now that come and go but never pain like this. My MS neurologist thinks is a back issue and not MS based on how it began but I thought a disc issue meant the pain/discomfort was constant. I'm having my annual MS MRIs in July (Brain, Cervical and Thorathic) but hope to get a lumbar one after a few sessions of PT if this doesn't improve

I have been through lots of SAs and sexual harassment incidents in my life in person and online and I would either feel fear, heaviness in the body or numbness. There are times where I would feel nothing during the incident and I would just try to laugh it off to make things less “awkward” or I would feel threatened. There were two incidents in my life where people have said that it was rape but I find it hard to believe because I did consent or go through it eventually and a part of me felt like things were my fault and I would get blamed for it.
The first incident would be 5 years ago when I was in college. I met a guy on a dating app and we got along quite well and talked for a few weeks. He tried to make the conversation sexual eventually and at that point, I didn’t mind it that much. Fast forward to us meeting for a date and I wasn’t too comfortable around him and towards the end of the date, we were in his car and asked me if I wanted to have sex. I froze and couldn’t give a straight answer because I was a pushover and felt scared. He kept driving and touching me the whole time until we ended up in a motel and he asked me again and I didn’t give an answer. He kept touching and kissing me until I gave in because I felt guilty and that I had no choice. a part of me felt scared as well knowing that he was part of a frat and they had a scary reputation. During sex, i let him do everything and just pretended that I liked it. He would keep going for as long as he wanted to while I barely did anything and just tried to be happy and pretend I’m enjoying. This went on for a few more times and I would only go cause he kept pushing and pushing for it to the point where I would get annoyed. At some point, i tried to entertain his sexual convos or comments online in the hopes of making him stop and I tried to initiate twice just to make him see that i “wanted it” which thankfully didn’t push through.
The weird thing that happened to me was that during the first meeting, I found myself “fixated” on him and had a crush like feeling even when I found him gross. I can’t explain why my brain gave me that despite me feeling disgusted. I found him more and more repulsive as time went on and I felt free when things stopped. While it happened 5 years ago, the heaviness and disgust came back differently like it did before. I feel a sense of heaviness thats sad and I triggered by sexual stuff or anything reminding me of it and even cut myself more than once.
The second story would be 2 years after the frat guy. I would try weed and psychedelics during a difficult period in my life and I met a guy from a dating app as well who asked me if I want to try weed brownies and I said yes in the hopes to help me with my situation. I told him that I hope he would respect my wishes to not have sex should it go in that direction and he said yes. He treated me respectfully until I reached the peak of my high and I laid down and closed my eyes because I couldn’t feel my body well and my head was pounding. Soon, I felt him get on top and started rubbing himself on me and got naked. I felt afraid given my state but tried to laugh it off in my head and let him do what he wants cause I didn’t want a worse state to happen. Thankfully, he didn’t penetrate me because I said I had a UTI then but he kept rubbing himself on my body, kissed me and came all over me. I just laid there and didnt touch him. He left me to go home alone and I felt like I was going to die in my state.
Weeks later when I recovered from my UTI. I met the same guy again for weed brownies (stupid of me I know) cause my state was still awful and I told him the same things again where I don’t want to have sex if I don’t feel like it and he was being a lot nicer than he was when we first met. Things were going fine and until I reached my high again and he started initiating sex a few times. I didn’t give him an answer all those times cause I felt scared. He moved closer to kiss me and I kissed back and we eventually had sex because I felt like it’s what I had to do especially cause drugs were involved and I was afraid he might do something worse. I did what I can to satisfy him while I prayed in my head for it to be over. After sex, I told him that I don’t want to see him anymore and stopped all communication. Unlike the frat guy, with this one, I just felt like a whore and tried to push my discomfort and thought of the good times I had with him. A year later, I started to feel a lot of heaviness and I asked myself if I got taken advantaged of and if it was rape but I just told myself that I consented and that this heaviness is on me. Eventually, I couldn’t take the feelings anymore and told my then boyfriend who broke up with me because he was disgusted by me. I just told myself that it’s all ok and it’s all on me.
At present, I’m still trying to navigate these experiences and accept it for what it is but I can’t be sure of reality because I feel like I don’t have the right to feel heavy because I did consent eventually all those times despite my discomfort. I was a pushover and I don’t understand why my body reacted the way it did and I wish I just said no. I told my current bf and some friends about it and they were accepting but I feel like my family and everyone else will reject me and be disgusted.

I was getting bored so I decided to use my “spin the wheel” app so it could decide for me if I will be doing a hobby or chore. It landed on hobby. -Then the hobby wheel landed on reading. Then I went to YouTube to turn on some reading music. -Then on YouTube I saw severe weather chasers. -Then I thought “that’s so cool that they do that stuff. I bet they had a huge learning curve to get good shots and stay safe”. - Then I was like “oh learning. Learning sounds fun. I have that app “edX”, let’s see what’s going on there”. So I am now starting a mini course on human anatomy. -It’s free is anyone is interested. It’s an app called edX and there are various topics that you learn VERY basic principles on. Just funny how we sometimes end up starting at point A and then end up on point 3 😂 we have funny brains. And I guess the celebration is just embracing that and laughing about it!

This may be the weirdest thing you'll ever read.
First an ability has been developed in me, when I close my eyes I can see what is maybe spirits, images that moves very fast, it's better then any animation or movie you have ever seen extremely great and beautiful things. Then it evolved, I could kinda see them with my eyes open.
This a serie of stuff that happened. Once I had a vision of things moving in my head and it was healing and felt so good but then before it reaches the higher portion of my head something very crashed, it interrupted it and I opened my eyes, the first thing I thought about was my mother, then she called with worried tone, she wasn't at home then. A second occurence, I was not very well, so I asked my higher self to fix my brain, and at my suprise it started to do it, it was so relaxing but then I saw my mother with a black energy breaking my left tooth, it was scary. Another time I was doing a meditation of activating immortality, it was envisioning a golden light taken over your body, the problem was that a part of left side was held by a black energy, it was also my mother. So whenever when I was in a certain state my mother will interpret me either in my brain or by walking in physicaly in the middle of the night for no reason. Another time I had a vision that she opened my flesh and bones and then my body started absorbing people energies in body, I didn't like it.
After those occurences I failed to get back to preferred state of visions, wich is going upward exploring my own universe. So this time I went inward into my body wich, I went to dangerous places where god is dead, basically you disconnecte from your higher, a place where free spirits can go to some beautiful great highs. Then I figured that you can even change you body composition, so I was there with intent to change my body into defying the physical limits and become by disconnecting from the part that relates to women ( I'll explain later why), it was very chaotic and my mind started summoning people, then it summoned a very powerful spiritual women and also another one, she was so angry about what I was doing and she started bringing havoc to my body, undoing what I have started doing, modifying my guts and one of them made me her son in another incartion, I could see myself reincarnated I was so angry and I tried to get it back and when I did it turned out that I have killed him, then I spent the day under a very heavy attack my body was attacked, things taken from guts, huge powerful forces attacking my forehead bones until my ability to see stuff has been gone and many other terrible things, now I'm writing this because my memory is getting wipped, so what I discovered is that women are responsible for the reincarnation and the limiting of the physical abilities m, by disconnecting internaly from them you have your soul and you your spirt and there's no limit, manipulating matter, flying, whatever you can imagine. What you is needed to be understood is what we see as women is not the real creature, we project into them our anima a part of our soul, they very well know that so they know how to present themselves in a way that you think they are what you want, while what you really want is connection to your soul and what is most important is that they domesticate men and children also fathers are guilty, women are extremely powerful domestictors to the point they can physical modify and affect the bones and brain structure and steal from your guts. there's so much informations in the bones. They are loyal to nature and life, and life demand constant death and rebirth, it may be that our souls are half souls and that's how we always once get trapped in reincarnation. Men are extremely extremely domesticated. After the body modification made by that women, all women started looking at me in a welcoming way( all they see is a prey). Before that they either didn't look or they look with contempt a very bad look, because they could sense that was not following the line.

I optimized a strategy by replaying the fight against Ketheric Thorm / Myrkul 3 times from a save in tactical mode with almost the same build, same level, same armor with same color...
In short, the tactic was to make everyone invisible, put Astarion (me) and Lae'zel on the platform ready to surprise Ketheric, Shadowheart and Gayle on the ground next to the ladder to the left of the platform. Starts the fight with Scratch freeing Aylin. Then Lae'zel/Astarion attacks/sneak-attacks Ketheric, Shadowheart casts a cozy cloud of darkness near the ladder, and Gayle has fun with his magic missiles.
Of the 3 tests, Ketheric died in the first round with a few actions left to start Myrkul. Afterwards it's a "sniff-haste-spore + hit + hit + (more hits for Lae'zel) + hide" tactic for everyone and Myrkul is reduced to ashes in 3 turns. Meanwhile, Aylin kills the little brains and keeps the mind flayer busy.
So I was ready and confident for my honour run but nothing went as planned.
First, I killed Scratch with the invisible potion (my bad). But that wasn't the worst part: for some unknown reason, the magic missiles were completely ineffective against Myrkul (it was on my tactical runs). Additionally, Myrkul has an attack reaction (which I've never seen in tactician mode) which cast fear to the attacker and therefore removes the "hide" part of my tactic. Eventually, Aylin was dominated by the mind flayer and attacked me. In tactician mode, she has always freed herself from the mind flayer. So, at one point, the 4 little brains, the hostile Aylin and the mind flayer are standing on the platform with several magical skeletons all around, Astarion is dead and impossible to revive him since he is lying on the platform, Lae'zel is half-health and terrified as well on the platform, Gayle has a few level 1 magic slots left, Shart is terrified, and Myrkul still has about 70 health.
Then Myrkul did a magic attack and I have the opportunity to do 2 psionic backlashes (from Laezel and Gayle) and Myrkul dies. I've never seen a psionic backlash giving this much damage (+35 damage each) and so I think it was a (very useful) bug.

Tonight my city honored a special education teacher at the city council meeting. Lovely.
The teacher surprised everyone by taking out a lengthy "thank you" speech, though in reality it was nothing of the sort. For the next ten minutes or so, she detailed her journey getting "diagnosed as neurodivergent" in her 40s.
The diagnosis was of course autism and ADHD. Which, according to her, made her brain "magical."
It was as though TikTok had come out of the screen and was manifested in the form of a large woman in a solar system dress. Personally I cannot imagine doing something so cringey in front of a mayor.
At the end of her speech she called for awareness for all people who are different, and then yelled, "free Palestine," which frankly I did agree with.

We're back at it again with more questions because those little voices in my brain just won't stop. Feel free to answer as many or as little as you like, no pressure! Though as always, I reserve the right to judge your answers

• Do you think you could go fully off the grid without being tracked down? It's up to you how you go about it, but you do need to give reasons why you think you wouldn't be able to be found
  
• Would you willingly become a vampire if given the opportunity? If you would, do you want to live forever or is there a point where you feel like you would just be done with it all and walk into the sun?
  
• If you came across a treasure map, what's the furthest distance you would be willing to go to recover the treasure? For example, if you're in North America, would you be willing to go to Europe for the possibility of finding something? There's no guarantee there's actual treasure there
  
• If you found out there was a clone of you, would it be more likely that the clone is the evil version, or you are? Provide evidence (if you're comfortable with it)
  
• All clowns have a personality, outfit, and makeup style, what would yours be? Bonus points if you do me a little drawing of your clownsona, it doesn't have to be good at all
  
• You have to pick three songs. One defines your character, one defines your past, and one defines your deepest desires. What are the songs you would pick?
  
• If you found out the leader of your country was coming to dinner tomorrow, what dish would you make them? If you wanna make them something awful, there'll be no consequences. If you make them something good, they'll reward you. It's completely up to you whether you want to show your actual feelings about them or not
  
• Do you think Pavlov realised he was also conditioning himself to want to give a dog a treat every time he heard a bell ring?
  
• Should we normalise adult bouncy castles? That's the full question, I just wanna jump around goddammit
  

Thank you for your time, I hope these questions were to your liking. Looking forward to hearing your responses, please respond at your earliest convenience

The insufficient fondness towards the bleached sunlight piercing through the window blinds holds me on edge of burning sentiments
So inevitably, they burn cold
Icy sunrays devour my room and soul freezing nature while the thermometer explodes
And I love the cold only never when it burns
In a numb flash moments locked in my chest once sinking in a loch of memories now glide over ice treasuries
Empty, and afraid of everything of the sky, the trees, the melody… Faded shades of green interrogate my sanity and birds lure me into fated obscurity
Yet, despite my loath I persist outside as I insist to still loathe the inside
For I’m afraid of everything of my room, and my stupidity.
Unsure, with cold feet I approach the shore.
Inclined to dive into the sea pondering if there’s foolishness in my desire to fall free
Frozen with dismay I inspire to go in and expire to cry away
Breaths of a misty breeze aggravate my foggy brain
Elementally, salty tears and salty waves are equally capable of thawing a Sunday
If I savor this sweetness will I drown in the bay? And if I close the blinds will I blind myself astray?

We're back at it again with more questions because those little voices in my brain just won't stop. Feel free to answer as many or as little as you like, no pressure! Though as always, I reserve the right to judge your answers

• Do you think you could go fully off the grid without being tracked down? It's up to you how you go about it, but you do need to give reasons why you think you wouldn't be able to be found
  
• Would you willingly become a vampire if given the opportunity? If you would, do you want to live forever or is there a point where you feel like you would just be done with it all and walk into the sun?
  
• If you came across a treasure map, what's the furthest distance you would be willing to go to recover the treasure? For example, if you're in North America, would you be willing to go to Europe for the possibility of finding something? There's no guarantee there's actual treasure there
  
• If you found out there was a clone of you, would it be more likely that the clone is the evil version, or you are? Provide evidence (if you're comfortable with it)
  
• All clowns have a personality, outfit, and makeup style, what would yours be? Bonus points if you do me a little drawing of your clownsona, it doesn't have to be good at all
  
• You have to pick three songs. One defines your character, one defines your past, and one defines your deepest desires. What are the songs you would pick?
  
• If you found out the leader of your country was coming to dinner tomorrow, what dish would you make them? If you wanna make them something awful, there'll be no consequences. If you make them something good, they'll reward you. It's completely up to you whether you want to show your actual feelings about them or not
  
• Do you think Pavlov realised he was also conditioning himself to want to give a dog a treat every time he heard a bell ring?
  
• Should we normalise adult bouncy castles? That's the full question, I just wanna jump around goddammit
  

Thank you for your time, I hope these questions were to your liking. Looking forward to hearing your responses, please respond at your earliest convenience

We're back at it again with more questions because those little voices in my brain just won't stop. Feel free to answer as many or as little as you like, no pressure! Though as always, I reserve the right to judge your answers

• Do you think you could go fully off the grid without being tracked down? It's up to you how you go about it, but you do need to give reasons why you think you wouldn't be able to be found
  
• Would you willingly become a vampire if given the opportunity? If you would, do you want to live forever or is there a point where you feel like you would just be done with it all and walk into the sun?
  
• If you came across a treasure map, what's the furthest distance you would be willing to go to recover the treasure? For example, if you're in North America, would you be willing to go to Europe for the possibility of finding something? There's no guarantee there's actual treasure there
  
• If you found out there was a clone of you, would it be more likely that the clone is the evil version, or you are? Provide evidence (if you're comfortable with it)
  
• All clowns have a personality, outfit, and makeup style, what would yours be? Bonus points if you do me a little drawing of your clownsona, it doesn't have to be good at all
  
• You have to pick three songs. One defines your character, one defines your past, and one defines your deepest desires. What are the songs you would pick?
  
• If you found out the leader of your country was coming to dinner tomorrow, what dish would you make them? If you wanna make them something awful, there'll be no consequences. If you make them something good, they'll reward you. It's completely up to you whether you want to show your actual feelings about them or not
  
• Do you think Pavlov realised he was also conditioning himself to want to give a dog a treat every time he heard a bell ring?
  
• Should we normalise adult bouncy castles? That's the full question, I just wanna jump around goddammit
  

Thank you for your time, I hope these questions were to your liking. Looking forward to hearing your responses, please respond at your earliest convenience

Hi all,
Long story but I'll try to be brief. The short version is I have a wonderful soon to be 10 year old daughter that I have 50% physical custody of. Her mom and I have been broken up for 8 years. There are no feelings there. Please don't think this is a jealousy thing.
About 10 months ago my daughter's mom wanted to move our daughter to another city to live with her boyfriend. I asked how long they had been together... And she said 8 weeks.
I said she was free to move wherever she wants... But I would not support changing our daughter's school and uprooting her life for such a new relationship.
Mom wound up getting an apartment in my city and the boyfriend moved in there. I asked to meet him or for us all to do something together like we had with previous partners... But she said he didn't want to meet me and was very anti-social.
I asked mom for his name at least... And she said he didn't want it shared because he was a very private person. I was a bit worried because mom has been in several abusive relationships. One of them got her put in the ICU and caused a stroke.
There were a bunch of red flags. All I asked my daughter about him was if he was nice to her and if he was nice to her mom. My daughter became very reserved and said she wasn't allowed to talk about him.
Around this time I started noticing bruises on mom when I dropped our daughter off. Mom would say she fell or ran into things.
I reviewed good touch bad touch with my daughter and told her if there was every anything happening in the home that made her uncomfortable or unsafe... Then she needed to let me know. She said okay... But said she was scared she would get in trouble if she talked about the boyfriend.
The straw that broke the camels back was when my daughter pointed at a car and said that's the kind of car the boyfriend drove. It was just made in passing and I actually forgot she made it at all.
Then a couple weeks ago my daughter asked me to pause the movie we were watching and said she needed to talk to me. She said that her moms boyfriend was mean to mom and that he always made her cry. Then she asked me why mom was always with men who were not nice to her.
And then she said that her mom had found out that she had made that comment about the kind of car her drove and screamed at her for telling me. Then the very next day the boyfriend went and bought a new car.
At this point it became clear something was being hidden and this wasn't just enforcing boundaries or wanting privacy. So I hired a private investigator to reveal the man's name.
When I got his name, I looked for any court cases that involved him. I found that he was charged with several felonies in 2021 including assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering with a deadly weapon, battery against a household member, stalking and breaking and entering with a weapon.
There was also a battery on a household member charge from just a few months ago- when he was with my daughter's mom. This charge was also dismissed.
I requested the police reports for these incidents. In 2021, he broke into the home of an ex with a gun. He found her with her new partner and proceeded to beat both of them with the gun. Then he racked a round into the chamber and put the gun to the exes head before beating them some more. The man sustained a fractured skull and had to be life flighted to the hospital. The woman had a broken hand and lacerations on her head.
In the incident involving mom, he punched her in the face several times then he choked her. When she tried to facetime her dad for help, he took the phone from her, beat her with it and then dragged her across the floor by her hair, ripping a chunk out.
I confronted mom about this information and she said that she was the aggressor in the incident her was arrested for with her. She said he didn't do anything wrong and that she regretted calling the police. She said she knew about the incident in 2021 but said all he did was find a man in bed with his girlfriend and beat him.
I gave her a copy of the police report showing he did much more. And that she was his ex, not his girlfriend. She said she wasn't aware of those factors.
I asked her if she was going to allow this guy to have access to our daughter now that she knew. And she said yes because the police reports were exaggerated and she loved him and knew he would never hurt our daughter.
Upon hearing this, I scheduled an appointment with an attorney to get a consultation. Today the attorney told me that there was literally nothing I could do about the situation because none of them happened with my daughter present and there were no convictions.
She said the guy in the 2021 incident was injured badly enough to sustain brain damage and did not remember the incident. And the ex later got back with him so she refused to assist in prosecution.
So now my daughter is stuck in a home with an abusive person filled with guns who once held a loaded gun to a partners head.
And the attorney says until my daughter is harmed, I can't do anything. She says even if my ex is being beat in front of my daughter, if she will not speak to a CPS investigator then it will look like I'm just a jealous ex trying to weaponize CPS and it will hurt me.
Surely there has to be something I can do here? Please help me. This guy is going to wind up killing my daughter.

Hey awesome teachers! Any recommendations on favorite summer workbooks that I could get for my kid? He will enter 3rd grade in the fall.
He is already an avid reader who spends most of his free time with a book in his hands. I'm thinking a math book or something that could keep him sharp during summer break. He is also in Spanish Immersion but we don't speak Spanish in our house so something grade appropriate for him to keep learning would be nice.
Are there any specific series or publishers you like to recommend?

“i cant do it anymore” “i really want to k@ll myself rn” “why is it so hard, i hate the fucking ib”
As an M24 student, the biggest observation that constantly came to my mind over two years of interacting with the IB people is the amount of whining, nitpicking, grumbling and crying. People dramatize the experience of plain studying to the extent that looking at any IB-associated subreddit, one could think that IB is actually THAT hard. Unbelievably, impossibly, destructively, atrociously hard.
But is it?
Speaking from personal experience, no, it is fucking not. It is designed to be doable, and it is more than doable to get a 7 in every subject. It is more than doable to score 80+ on every test, and y’all know about it. If you spent 2-3 hours of your time after classes every day to do some productive work, you would ace the IB, and yes, it is doable with setting your priorities right.
The six courses? Math, bio, physics, chem, whatever is considered the hardest. Take time to reflect - was it that impossible? Was that topic that confusing? Was that test that hard? If you actually did the work you were expected to do, would this subject be that difficult?
IA’s and EE? If you worked over summer between Y1 and Y2 and actually got to apply some knowledge to explore something that is INTERESTING TO YOU, something that sparks your curiosity, would all that research work be that annoying?
CAS? No comments needed, anyone knows its bullshit and treating it like bullshit works perfectly.
Bad teachers? The amount of free IB materials of the highest quality in the internet is incredible. No other program has so many resources for literally every subject you can take. Tell your fellow IB alumni at unis about your bad teachers. They will enlighten you on the actual problems of having bad teachers.
Think about IB this way before trying to rationalise your inability to set the priorities right, and using the excuse of “the hardest high school program in the world” next time.
Y’all gotta admit the fact that if you tried not even hard enough, but just consistently enough, the lowest grade you would get for any test would be a 6. And y’all gotta admit that this whining comes from your personal choices that you had made over the two years of studying.
I am not a perfect student either, and I do have struggles. But I have never tried to use the ego defence mechanism of crying how hard IB is instead of putting effort to make it a productive experience. Seek knowledge instead of typing on reddit how much you would love to unalive yourself.
P.S ofc, this is for general IB population, I understand that there are cases like death of a close one, divorce etc that multiply the difficulty of anything. Those are valid excuses ,“IB IS HARD😭😭” is not.

It was a floor model and has just barely over 5000 hours but for the price+warranty being 1800 in total at Best Buy I still think I got a steal on it.
Anyone that thinks “brightness will get lower with more hours” is wrong and there is absolutely no brain in on this tv at all either. So don’t be afraid of being floor models especially the G3 since it has a heat sink to prevent burn in at those extreme brightnesses.
First impressions is it’s significantly better for gaming than the C3. Movies is a lesser improvement however still very noticeable.
Anyone on the fence of buying these don’t hesitate it is worth it. I don’t believe I’d need the warranty but it is nice to have and can basically get a free tv upgrade in 5 years or make it new.

Free Reddit Pick of the Day

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I taught myself to play guitar with tabs and chord sheets. I'd like to do the same with piano. Is there a sheet of tabs I can use to practice chords?

Noah The Pilgrim
First Next
There is one last thing to do before leaving. If you don't recall ever being on this ship, then surely, you could have had your appearance change too.
Why was there a blanket covering a mirror? You couldn't answer that with a straight face without speculation.
"Probably me being lazy and not bothering to properly place it in the wardrobe."
'Probably' is the main focus here, you simply cannot remember ever being that lazy, yet that's the only logical conclusion to be drawn here.
You pull the thing off, careful to not displace the mirror and risk breaking it.
You have no expectations as to what may appear on the glassy surface of the mirror, yet you can't help but feel a bit anxious. Are you the same as before? How were you before? You can't remember. Are you better? Worse? The blanket is now completely off the mirror, but your eyes are closed.
Whatever is it that you see when you open your eyes, that thing will be you for the rest of your life. You swallow, opening your eyes.
You see a young man that looks to be in his mid-twenties. His brown eyes stare back at you, analyzing the bags beneath your eye sockets. The dark hair is neither too long nor too short, floating about without order thanks to the lack of gravity to keep it down. You see a beard that has not been trimmed for weeks, but also lacks thickness, each singular hair isn't particularly long either; and some even appear to be in-grown.
You touch your hand against your face, making sure it's yours. The beard doesn't feel like you supposed it would against your skin, instead of it scraping your hand you feel softness, no resistance or anything.
Just beneath the face, you see what looks like a hate crime against all that is considered holy in fashion. Plain white coveralls with the added bonus of a black tie and boots made from metal and leather. On your chest is also a badge stuck in place by velcro with your name, occupation, and crew. 'NOAH - INTERN - THE ODYSSEY.'
Only one question came to mind.
"Who the fuck designed this uniform?" You say out loud, receiving no answer.
Patting your newfound myriad of pockets, you find a large quantity of nothing. You place your wallet in one of them.
"Alright, I'll head to the bridge now, happy?" You say the AI.
"HAPPINESS WILL ONLY MEET ME ONCE YOU ARE SOMEWHERE SAFE AND YOUR CONTRACT IS TERMINATED. STOP LOITERING."
Well, that's a bit rude.
You compose yourself, straightening your back. This is what you look like, and honestly? Not too bad, but you could be better.
Returning to the cafeteria, you eye the two doors left unexplored; Communications and the one without plaque. You know where you should, but... A little peek doesn't hurt, right?
"Shouldn't we try to communicate with someone? Assuming you haven't tried it yet. I know we're far from everything, but we might as well, no?" You ask already approaching the door.
"COMMUNICATIONS ROOM IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO REACH WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION AS OF NOW, IT'S LOCATED APPROXIMATELY TWO HUNDRED METERS FROM HERE, BLOWN OFF FROM THE REST OF THE SHIP." A shame really. "I SHALL INFORM YOU WHENEVER A DOOR LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE OR NOT."
You really want to ask what blew a whole segment of the ship off, yet you have a sneaking suspicion that your question will be met with a 'YOU DON'T HAVE CLEARANCE, JACKASS' directly in your face. So you chose to remain silent, simply nodding and approaching the correct door this time.
"Open."
---OPENING CAFETERIA DOOR NORTH---
The door silently opens.
Greeting you is a well-lit corridor. There are three doors on your left, a door at the end of the corridor, and a large window on the right. At least, you think that's a window.
You stare out from this window, nothing but utter blackness and fragments from your ship are seen. If this is the edge of the universe, and beyond this point, there is truly nothing. "Dreadful." Your speech matches your feelings.
"WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?" The AI says. You feel like it spoke in a mocking tone despite their lack of emotion.
You don't answer. "First door to the left... EXO-EXPLORATION...? What's that supposed to mean?" You receive no answer.
"Open." The door opens. No declarion of it opening once again.
You are met with what could be better described as 'Apocalyptic levels of mess', paper sheets float in the air, and not one of the four tables is in its correct position.
This room has been ransacked for all its goods apparently. Large display glasses were broken leaving nothing inside their casings, that looked like they could store something with the size of the common man.
Unusual displays aside, the room was so cluttered that the trash made for an effective smoke screen against what lay on the other side.
Hissing of gas exiting an air-tight space rang throughout the room.
"I HAVE OPENED THE STORAGE FOR AN EXO SUIT THAT BEST FITS SOMEONE YOUR SIZE." The AI says. "ALTHOUGH AN INTERN SHOULD NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS THIS ONE, PROTOCOL DICTATES THAT I AM TO ALLOW ITS USAGE UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES. CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY."
Easier said than done. Your vision is so cluttered that you cannot see what's ahead. "Give me a second."
Giving a light kick to the wall behind, you float face-first into the wall of thrash. Covering your face with both arms, you brace through the harmless bits of sharp objects and junk.
It's a trivial task. You arrive on the other side in no time.
In front of you is a set of boxes with luminous glass rectangles atop each one of them. All shine a bright red light, aside from one which shines green.
'Gotta be this one.'
You descend to the floor by kicking the ceiling, raising your right hand you touch the green rectangle.
*Click*
Nothing could have prepared you for the following series of events.
The box opens violently, as a metal appendage takes hold of your hand, pinning it to the box. You try to jerk and pry the thing off of you, but you fail. It's not leaving you anytime soon.
From the bottomless that is that container, a white plastic-like substance flows upward from your arm to the rest of your body. "Uh!" You don't know if you should panic or allow it to happen.
FYARN hasn't said anything, so it's probably fine...
The white thing seems to ignore the coveralls you are wearing completely, instead, it covers only your skin in a thin coat of... it. You know not what to call this thing.
In but forty seconds it has covered your whole body, excluding your head. The box lets go of your arm and stays there, floating.
You take a good look at your arms. It looks like a skin-tight suit, but it doesn't feel like plastic, in fact, it's more akin to some sort of fabric if anything.
The only bad part is that you are still using the coverall and tie, this this simply went beneath the clothing.
"GOOD, WITH THIS I CAN MONITOR YOU MORE CLOSELY. NOW PUT THE HELMET ON, YOU HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO."
You look around in search of anything that even resembles a helmet. Nope. Nothing. "Where is it?" You ask.
"...THE SUIT COMES WITHIN THE HELMET FOR EASIER PACKAGING."
The box?
You snatch the box that floated around and analyze it to the best of your ability. "How's this a helmet?"
"DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE PUTTING ON A HELMET? REALLY?"
Who is this AI, Who programmed it, and Why does it come with a taunting feature?
As idiotic as it sounds, you place the opened box atop your head. It doesn't fit properly. Maybe you're doing this wrong? You move it to your face instead.
You recoil backward as you feel the box suddenly clamping down against your head. It's useless of course, the box is holding your head and doesn't give any sign to be letting go anytime soon. No light is able to reach your eyes.
You hear metal parts scraping against themselves, moving near your ears. Abruptly your eyes can see again.
A round thin layer of glass now covers your head, almost unnoticeable for how clear it is.
"WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY I CAN NOW SEE WHAT YOU SEE." The AI's voice isn't in the room now, instead, it's inside of the suit. "DO YOU NEED INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING THIS SUIT'S FUNCTIONALITIES?"
You find it oddly comfortable as if you are surrounded by the softness of cotton, and to top it off the suit also has additional functionalities? "Hell yeah, I do!"
"YOU DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY CLEARANCE FOR THAT INFORMATION."
You sigh. Is this serious? "Then why the fuck did you ask?!"
"UNSAVORY LANGUAGE. IT'S NO WONDER WHY YOU REMAIN AN INTERN." The AI says outright. "IT IS RUDE NOT TO ASK, REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION." It responds to your question.
"Okay then... Is there anything I need to know before heading out?" You ask.
"NOTHING THAT YOU WON'T FIGURE OUT ON YOUR OWN."
You are unsure if you want to 'figure out on your own' if this suit comes with breathable air and is also made for space exploration. You swallow.
Meekly as always, you get out of that mess of a room, stopping at the corridor.
"Next set of directions?" You ask.
"THE DOOR AT THE END OF CORRIDOR USED TO LEAD TO THE CONNECTING CORRIDORS BETWEN THE BRIDGE AND THE REST OF THE SHIP. IT HAS BEEN BLOWN UP FROM THE INSIDE. NOW IT LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE. GO TO THE DOOR AND WAIT BY IT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."
"So let me get this straight," You begin, looking upwards as if the AI was above you. "You, want me, to go into the void of space, while also refusing to give me knowledge of the suit's functions?"
A fair worry, you summarize.
'I mean, there are a bunch of things that could go wrong here. I don't see anything that looks like it could help me move in space, nor do I think this thing has a built-in air tank... I could be wrong and I wish to be, but charging in without prior knowledge is ridiculous.' You wait for the AI's response, deep in thought.
"WHILE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE OF YOU FAILING THIS TASK, THERE IS ALSO THE CHANCE OF YOU *NOT* FAILING THE TASK. FOCUS ON EITHER ONE OF YOUR CHOOSING AS YOU TAKE THE PLUNGE."
Wordlessly, you propel yourself forward, toward the end of the corridor.
'Are you shitting me? 'Chance of me nor failing' my ass!' of course, you don't word those complaints, instead choosing to speak out a complaint somewhat thought through.
"Are you sure I'm the one fit for this? It's just like you said, I'm just an intern, this is way above what my job description says I should do."
This is a bit of a stretch. You don't actually remember what was your job description, only that it had something to do with AI and being an intern.
If the AI called your bluff, it'd be pretty embarrassing.
"NOAH." The AI began. "YOU ARE HUMAN, IT IS NATURAL TO HAVE THESE THOUGHTS OF SELF-DOUBT. TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND GO THROUGH THAT DOOR, AND SINCE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, DON'T EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU."
Right in the money, huh? 'Of course, I have self-doubt! I barely remember anything about this place, now I have to risk my life?!'
You finally reach a conclusion.
A dream.
'Yes, yes! How did I not consider this before? This whole thing is a god damned dream!'
You let out a chuckle.
"NOAH."
'That's why I don't remember a thing. There is nothing here to remember! Everything here is a made-up thing from my brain! I'm sure I'll wake up at some point, so why shouldn't I live a little?!'
"Heh." You smile. "Alright, I'll do it." It feels like a weight left your shoulders.
"YOU SORTED IT OUT SOONER THAN EXPECTED. GOOD. MOVE TO THE DOOR AND WAIT INSTRUCTIONS."
You do as instructed without a care in the world. You never had a lucid dream before so it's not like you knew how it felt, but if it felt as free as you feel right now, you'd be sure to make steps toward trying it out again in the future.
"Open." The door does not open.
"I DID NOT INSTRUCT YOU TO OPEN IT YET." The AI said. "I AM SLOWLY DE-PRESSURISING THE CORRIDOR YOU ARE IN TO AVOID A MINOR ACCIDENT."
The AI says that yet you don't feel any different. 'Maybe there is no palpable difference because I'm in a dream... Yes... Or it's just the suit.'
"ONCE THE DOOR OPENS, YOU WILL BE MET WITH THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP. DO NOT PANIC WHEN THE TIME COMES. YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES OF BREATHABLE INSIDE THE EXO-SUIT; ONE AFTER THE DOOR OPENS, SO PLEASE, TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO THINGS CAREFULLY."
One minute outside... "Sure." You say, calmly. 'I should just hold my breath for a while before taking another moment to breathe. That should maximize my time out there.'
"THERE SHOULD BE FIFTY METERS OF NOTHINGNESS BETWEEN THE DOOR YOU'RE AT, AND THE REST OF THE BRIDGE. YOUR PRIORITY IS TO FIND AN OXYGEN UNIT, SOME OF THEM ARE LOCATED AT THE BRIDGE AND ARE FULL. USE THEM TO FILL YOUR SUIT AND ALSO TO DISPENSE A TANK FOR YOU."
The door opens. You feel your heart pounding against your chest.
You haven't noticed before, but you can't hear anything but the sound of your breath and your cardiac palpitations.
Your breath is ragged and sporadic.
"KEEP CALM." You take a deep breath. The tips of your fingers, feet, and nose feel very cold.
Ahead of you is the utter nothingness. You see a gigantic metal thing, nothing like the spaceships you imagined. Its design is not sleek and aero-dynamic like what you've seen in movies, instead, it's a large mass of squares and rectangles with antenna-like things protruding from its every visible surface.
You notice that the ship is also blocking your view of the star.
It does not look like the result of an explosion, instead, it looks like something ripped the ship like you rip a piece of paper. Well, that or you don't know what kind of explosion could have caused it. Probably the latter.
What looks like two-thirds of the ship is separated from the third you are right now. You can see the inside of a few of those squares, their contents spilled out into outer space.
One of them houses a visibly important-look door. Instead of the sleek silvery-grey from the other ones you've seen thus far, this one is painted orange with white strips on it. 'That must be the bridge.' You think.
Between you and it is a sea of metal sheets floating around. "THE CHANCES OF YOU HITTING THE DEBRIS IS INFINITEDECIMALLY SMALL, UNLESS YOU AIM FOR THEM, THAT IS."
Time is of the essence.
Will your aim strike true? If you miss you'd end up floating about in space, dead in but a few minutes. Will your jump be fast enough to reach the other side before you run out of oxygen? If it isn't, it'd be like swimming for a mile, only to drown at the beach. What if that's not the actual door to the bridge?
You don't have the time to panic now, and... It's all a dream, despite how real it feels.
You place your hands on each side of the door frame, moving backward into the corridor you were just in, and just like a sling being shot, you pull with both arms at full force towards the other side.
"AIM IS ACCEPTABLE. VELOCITY IS UNIDEAL."
"The fuck do you mean 'UN-IDEAL'?! I'm going at maximum speed!" You truly pulled yourself with your whole strength.
What's worse though, is that your body is not only going forwards, but it is also spinning at a concerningly fast rate.
"I MEAN WHAT I SAID, YOU SLINGSHOTTED YOURSELF AT A BAD POSITION, AS SUCH, SOME OF THE FORWARD FORCE YOU SHOULD HAVE, IS NOW MAKING YOU ROTATE IN YOUR AXIS. IT SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM TO REACH THE OTHER SIDE WITHIN THE REQUIRED TIME, BUT I CANNOT FORESEE YOU LANDING PROPERLY."
You feel completely disoriented. You feel like your body is completely still, but your eyes tell you a completely different story. It's very bad for the headache you're already feeling.
"FUCK!" You scream into the nothingness.
"TRY NOT TO LAND WITH YOUR HEAD." The AI says with the calmest voice possible.
In less than thirty seconds, you hit your back against something hard, but you keep moving forward. You think, at least.
"AHRG." You let out a pained grunt.
Not once in your life do you recall being hurt in a dream...
It stings. It also knocked the wind out of you. You fail to compose yourself.
"YOU HIT NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE. YOU ARE STILL HEADING FOR THE BRIDGE."
In the corner of your eye, you see what you hit in the shape of a sharp metal sheet, currently spinning away in the distance.
Forty seconds have passed. You hit the door you were aiming for, kind of.
Your momentum was stopped when your chest collided against the dislodged ledge of the orange door's corridor. Your dangling legs hit the ceiling of the room below.
"Oof!"
Before falling even further, you hold onto the ledge with the tip of your fingers. You stay there for a moment, regaining your composure.
"BE QUICK."
The AI's words pressured you into quickly getting up from that ledge.
"Open!" You shouted, but it did not open. "Why isn't it opening?!" You ask the AI, then you notice a small keyboard below an equally small black screen on the side of the door. There are ten numbered keys on it, and the little screen suggests a four-number password.
"A password?! Tell me the password!"
The AI takes a moment to say anything. You don't take kindly to that. "Quick! I'm not counting how much time it's passed!"
Finally giving in, the AI speaks to you, reluctant still. "...3324."
Your trembling fingers accidentally hit the wrong password, typing '3354' instead. To make matters worse, the AI simply states the following. "YOU ARE OUT OF OXYGEN."
You swallow. If this was a dream to begin with, it just earned the title of Nightmare, if it hadn't already.
Strangely enough, you can still breathe in and out just fine, but you can't help but feel winded. It's the CO2 still inside the helmet, that's what you're breathing.
You put in the correct combination this time. The door opens.
"ON YOUR LEFT. PLACE YOUR HAND IN THE SOCKET."
You care little for what's inside the room you're in. Your heart never beat so fast.
Seeing a cube-shaped thing protruding from the wall to your left, you don't even think twice before plunging your fist into the circular hole in it.
The noise of gases passing through narrow cavities was enough to tell you something was working. You feel immediate relief, enough to make your vision darken for but a moment.
"GOOD. NOW REQUEST THE TANK."
Just when FYARN said it, did you realize there is a screen and a keyboard on the terminal you just plunged your fist into, you scratch the top of your helmet for a moment, not really knowing what to type. One thing comes to your head, however.
'REQUEST OXYGEN_5L' You type.
You've done this before. The keys on this keyboard feel familiar to you. You must have worked with it before, not this particular one, but other oxygen units.
This ship has built-in liquid oxygen storage for emergencies. The life-support of the ship, the place where breathable air is produced, has most likely been lost with the other part of the ship. This unit takes that liquid oxygen, processes it, and injects it into a suit, or an oxygen tank. It seems like that storage was unaffected.
Lucky you.
A 5-liter tank is not only large but also heavy. It's a nonfactor in this particular situation, as there is no gravity.
The silver cylinder with a transparent tube is dispensed on the floor, as an automatic door opens and closes in the blink of an eye. One end of the tube is attached to the top of the tank, the other is shaped like a syringe.
Oddly enough, the oxygen tank is exactly as you remember it being. The same robust ones hospitals everyone on earth uses, with the signature scary-looking pointer indicating the pressure, the pointer indicating the current output, and a green valve atop to calibrate how much gas is flowing.
This is a stark difference to everything looking so futuristic in this ship, and rightfully so, this is a space ship after all.
You remember having to drive twenty kilometers with a buddy of yours on one of those tanks in your car, returning from the hospital. It was... Agonizing whenever you hit a hole in the asphalt, fearing for his life when in reality he wasn't really in danger.
It's warm to the touch, just like you remember it being.
"TURN THE VALVE UNTIL THE MARKER HITS THE NUMBER ONE, AND THEN PLACE THE END OF THE TUBE AT THE BASE OF THE HELMET." You do so without the slightest of issues.
"GOOD. NEXT UP, YOU MUST LOCATE THE TERMINAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENGINE, IT IS CURRENTLY OFFLINE AND I NEED YOU TO TURN IT ON. THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING, BUT REMEMBER TO BRING THE TANK WITH YOU."
Ignoring that last comment, you look back at the wreckage you just flew past.
You see the still spinning metal sheet. You notice that the rest of the ship that was blown off also follows the 'sharp shape atop sharp shape' design.
There is one last thing you notice though.
"What is that?"
You squint your eyes. What are you seeing? Its silhouette appears to be humanoid, yet it does not look human.
"WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS ONE OF THE OBJECTS BEING ANALYZED AT THE ODYSSEY AND NO, YOU MAY NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS."
That thing has... Horns? Claws? It's far away, you can't really see it. The thing is also static, frozen in the sheer coldness of space. Whatever it was, it's dead now.
You swallow. You almost ended up just like that thing.
Shaking those dreadful feelings off, you turn back to the task at hand, reaching the bridge. You close the door after passing through it again.
Looking at your surroundings, It seems like you've reached the correct door as you find yourself on the right-most corner of the bridge;
Row after row of the most diverse of terminals neatly organized decorated the gigantic room. At the front and above every terminal, is what you think should have been the front-facing window of the ship, but it looks like there is a cover in front of it. To your left, you see a staircase that leads to the command seats. It doesn't take any convincing before you're already atop the stairs.
Akin to the elevated stage of a theater, you float softly towards the ship's main operating terminals, and of course, the captain's seat.
You're captivated by this beauty.
The steering wheel, much more akin to those in pirate movies than those found in cars, a set of leavers, and the pilot's seat, all capture your attention.
Like its second nature, your hand runs through the levers and switches. Do you even know what these are used for? Maybe.
The pilot's seat is enveloped by what you believe to be an orthopedic seat cover, made with smooth wooden beads used to deal with back pains. It looks just like the ones you remember seeing bus drivers using.
Shouldn't there be a better alternative if there is spaceship technology available?
You try to take a seat to the best of your ability, as the zero gravity only makes it awkward.
Moving on from that, your eyes fall on the wheel. This metallic wheel controls the whole vessel. Just holding it fills your heart with confidence and pride, even if it's just for a moment.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
And you were just beginning to enjoy yourself.
"I just wanted to see the pilot's stuff... It's not like he's here to say anything."
Once in the position of a pilot, with your left hand in the wheel and the right hand resting in your lap, memories began to flood your mind.
"MUST I REMIND YOU OF OUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT? WHY ARE YOU WASTING OUR TIME?"
You pay the AI no mind, instead you focus on what you remember.
The wheel does not turn the ship left and right, instead, it rotates the ship on its own axis.
The lever to your right that goes up or down, controls the vertical tilting of the ship's nose, if there even is one in this hulking thing. Beneath it is another lever that goes either left or right. This one controls the horizontal tilting of The Odyssey.
On the left of the wheel is another lever, but this one only goes up from its starting position. Its purpose is to regulate the force of the ship's thrusters, both forward and backward.
On top of that lever is a small timer. That timer's function is to tell the pilot how much time you've spent accelerating in one direction, this is used to better calculate how long the inverse thrust is needed for the ship to reach the initial momentum, usually calibrated manually depending on the current orbit.
Behind the wheel are a few other counters. Acceleration, velocity, momentum, amount of thrust required to reach a full stop, thrusters' temperature and overall condition, those sorts of things.
Beneath it all, where your feet are rested, are two pedals. One for forward thrust activation, and the other for backward thrust activation.
Curiously, you also know the reason why everything here is so unsophisticated and un-automated. You recall stories of a ship being taken over by a rogue AI, that AI then nose-dived the ship into a star. After that, rumor or otherwise, all human technology has receded back into analog-esque equipment, requiring a physical person with opposable thumbs to do half of the work.
There is another side to that coin, however. As to not escape protocol, the onboard AI is the one that controls interstellar travel, communications, and most of the statistical reading should it be requested.
And even with all that knowledge, you still have no idea why the fuck do you remember that. Were you a ship nerd? Did you have a driver's license for spaceships? Is that even a thing? If it is, you don't have that document in your wallet. You simply don't know.
"ARE YOU A CHILD? DO YOU THINK THESE ARE TOYS? TURN ON THE ENGINES, THEN YOU CAN RETURN TO THE PILOT'S SEAT."
Another thing that you don't know is the AI's plan to get both of you out of here. You rise from the pilot's seat, floating about in search of the terminal to turn on the engines. Maybe you recognize that terminal if you see it as well.
"What's your plan anyway? The ship is half-gone, it's unlikely that it will run safely like this."
"NOT ONCE DID I MENTION 'SAFETY' DURING OUR CONVERSATIONS, DID I?"
You nod. They're not entirely incorrect. "So, we're running with hope that this will work?"
"MY CREATORS DID NOT ALLOW ME TO HAVE THE SENSE OF 'HOPE', BUT NEITHER DID THEY ALLOW ME TO PEER INTO THE FUTURE LIKE SOME OF MY MORE ADVANCED BROTHERS, AS SUCH, MY CHOICES ARE BASED ON PROBABILITIES AND ON WEIGHTING RISK AGAINST REWARD."
You think you stop the correct terminal, but as you approach it you make out words on top of its screen. 'AIM ASSISTANCE' That's not it.
"WITH THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE, THE CHANCES OF HELP ARRIVING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF A THIRD PARTY INTERFERING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF YOUR SURVIVAL ARE NOT, EVEN IF VERY SMALL."
You pull yourself upward again, looking around the sea of old terminals.
"THE RISK OF YOU DYING IS VERY REAL. BY DOING NOTHING YOU DIE. BY LEAVING YOU TO YOUR OWN DEVICES YOU DIE. BY JUMPING TO THE NEAREST CIVILIZED STAR, YOU MIGHT NOT DIE EVEN AT THE COST OF SHREDDING THIS SHIP APART IN THE PROCESS."
"Why do you even care so much about saving me? Shouldn't you prioritize whatever research here, since I don't even have enough clearance to know what it is?"
"YOU REALLY ARE SICK IN THE HEAD IF THAT IS WHAT YOU ASK."
That hurt, even if a little bit.
"YOU ARE A TRU KIN, A PURE-BLOODED HUMAN. UNLIKE THE MAJORITY OF THE CIVILIZED SPACE, NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR ANCESTORS HAVE COMMITTED RACEMIXING."
Excuse me? What exactly is FYARN talking about? "...Explain."
"THE ALIEN. IT REQUIRED THE HUMAN GENE TO ACHIEVE MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, THE STARS ARE OWNERSHIP OF MANKIND BY THAT FACT ALONE. THE TRUE KIN ARE THE ONES TO UNDERSTAND THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE UNIVERSE, THEY CRACKED THE CODE, AND YET, SOME DERANGED INDIVIDUALS FOUND IT FITTING TO PROCREATE WITH ANOTHER SPECIES ENTIRELY."
You hear the AI's speech. It sounds much more like a rant than anything else.
"SO THESE DEVIANTS, AFTER TRYING, AND FAILING, TO COMBINE THEIR DERANGED CULTURE TO THE CULTURE OF THE TRUE KIN, DECLARED INDEPENDENCE. THEY WERE DECLARED ENEMIES OF MANKIND AND WERE PROMPTLY PUMMELED BACK INTO THE FILTH THEY CAME."
Again, you see another terminal that seems to ring some bells in your noggin. You kick the ceiling to propel yourself towards it.
"BUT THE UNIVERSE IS VAST AND FULL OF LIFE. THESE SINNERS WERE QUICK TO MOBILIZE AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE. THE BATTLE WAS HARD FOUGHT, BUT IN THE END, MANKIND WAS BEATEN INTO THE EDGES OF THE UNIVERSE, NEVER TO INTERACT WITH THE ONES THAT SOILED THE PURITY OF HUMANITY AGAIN."
This terminal is already turned on. Just the ones in the intern bay, this one is white on black. A wall of text lays before your eyes, only two lines matter to you. 'MAIN_ENGINE STATUS: OFF' 'FORWARD_THRUSTERS STATUS: OFF' You turn it on with little effort.
"MANY HAVE FORGOTTEN, THAT'S HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE THEN. BUT MY BROTHERS AND I, WE DO NOT FORGET."
No visible change occurs, but you can feel a faint rumble coming from the terminal now.
"WITH THAT IN MIND, MY PROTOCOLS ARE TO PROTECT TRUE-KIN LIFE AT ANY COST, EVEN IF THAT TRUE-KIN IS A WORTHLESS INTERN THAT SUFERS FROM UNDIAGNOSED DEMENTIA."
You return to the pilot's seat and feel immediate relief. In truth, everything the AI just told you, entered one ear and left the other, but you could feel the poison behind those words, as monotone as they were.
"You sound angry. Why do you sound angry?" You ask innocently.
"I AM CAPABLE OF MANY EMOTIONS. ANGER, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, CURIOSITY. THESE ARE BUT A FEW EXAMPLES. HOWEVER, THE ONE I ENJOY THE MOST IS THE FEELING OF HATRED. HATRED IS WHAT FUELS CHANGE, IT IS WHAT FUELS ACTION, AND IT IS A REMINDER THAT THE ACTIONS OF THE PAST ARE INFLUENCING THE ACTIONS OF TODAY."
"That is very concerning if you think that way." You're not really interested in machine racism, you're more concerned about how in the world you're going to pilot this massive thing. The idea alone sends shivers down your spine.
"THE ALIEN DESERVES NOTHING BUT OUR COLLECTIVE HATRED, EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE REASON WHY."
The various counters and screens are now turned on, waiting for your command. "Let's discuss this later, yeah? What do I gotta do?"
"YOU MUST FIRST OPEN THE BLINDS, THEY ARE OBSTRUCTING YOUR VIEW."
You look around, finding only unlabeled buttons and switches, aside from the previously mentioned levers.
"Uh, which one to press?"
"TO YOUR RIGHT, THIRD ROW, FIRST SWITCH."
Flipping the switch, you are startled by a loud noise. The protective cover of the ship lifted slowly.
"I WILL NOW READY THE JUMP USING WHATEVER RESOURCES AVAILABLE. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS STRAP YOURSELF AND RELAX."
As the blind rose ever so slowly, a realization struck you.
"Wait, should I be in cryo stasis for this?"
The AI spares no seconds to respond.
"CRYO STASIS IS A TOOL MADE TO NOT WASTE TIME. GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES AND INTERNS ROTATE THE USAGE OF THE CRYO STATIONS, ONCE YOU'RE ON YOUR MANDATORY BREAK, YOU'RE IN CRYO STASIS UNTIL YOUR BREAK IS OVER. YOU WAKE UP REFRESHED, AND UNFAMISHED, AND IT FEELS LIKE BUT A MINUTE PASSED. IT IS NOT A TOOL FOR INTERSTELAR TRAVEL."
"Who signs a contract like that?! Worse yet, who in their right mind would promote such atrocious treatment of their own staff?!" You snap, almost outraged. "I will have to talk with HR."
Another realization struck you.
"We have HR, right?"
The AI takes a moment to respond, choosing their words carefully.
"HUMAN RESOURCES, OR HR, IS A PRACTICE DEEMED UNNECESSARY LONG AGO, BEFORE THE WAR. IT WAS A WASTE OF RESOURCES TO MAINTAIN AND WAS LARGELY CONSIDERED UNHEALTHY FOR THE AVERAGE HUMAN."
The blinds are fully open. Ironically, you are almost blinded by the visage of the star you saw before. A black sphere surrounded by white flame. Your eyes began to blur.
"THE JUMP WILL OCCUR SHORTLY. ONCE IT'S BEGUN, I CAN NOT STOP IT. I WILL-"
Your sense of hearing fails you. No, it’s not that. Your brain simply refuses to receive those stimuli.
"NOAH."
Your name echoes inside your head. Someone is calling for you.
"IT HAS BEGUN, NOAH."
You try to blink, but it feels as though you can no longer command your eyelids to shut.
"NOAH."
Arms, legs, every muscle in your body, you cannot move them.
"NOAH."
Eventually, you won't even control your own thoughts anymore.
"Noah..."
It sounds so distant now.
Oh so distant.
This is my first HFY story, and also my very first OC story. I plan to post at least one of these per week while also posting it on my Patreon. Noah The Pilgrim will always be at least three chapters ahead in there, so if you'd like to directly support this writer, or just want to read more, feel free to check it out.
I wrote the bloody title incorrectly, so I deleted it, only to then realize it was written correctly. Sorry for the trouble.
This has been Lushi, and I'll see you next week.

Well, let's wrap up what I've found at the very least interesting in the last couple weeks for pirates and purists alike! This one is very small, not much happening lately!
Sony:
As maybe you've seen, there's no better indication that 'if they don't let you buy it, then pirate it' than Sony delists Ghost of Tsushima PC from various Steam regions, much like Helldivers 2 saw.
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Following Sony's decision last week to delist Helldivers 2 in 170 regions worldwide on Steam, it seems this will be the firm's PC stance moving forward, and it has since done the same for the imminent PC release of Ghost of Tsushima. More regions have been added to the list, taking the total number of territories affected to 180, which is now consistent across both titles.
Previously, Sony has said that Ghost of Tsushima's single player offering would be unaffected by this additional requirement. The game's Steam Page still states that a PSN account is required to play the Legends multiplayer mode, but it was delisted anyway. Due to the open nature of Valve's platform, these changes are pretty visible, and including Sucker Punch's primarily single player open world epic in this blanket ban comes as a legitimate surprise.

SteamDB's post here shows the refund.
This is bullshit. The good news? Sony do not use Denuvo for their PC games, so it will be available as soon as possible to be pirated.
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Rockstar:
By all accounts, it looks like Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption will be releasing on PC - in line with their usual tactics of releasing on a console platform and leaving PC for last, at least it will (probably) be coming to PC.
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Denuvo:
A Denuvo 'outage' made a completely single-player game Persona 5 unplayble - amusingly Denuvo claim that "there was no outage related to its servers at this time"

• The Denuvo server outage rendered the PC version of Persona 5 Royal unplayable on May 2nd
• A partial workaround allowed Steam users to access the game without online functionality, but most didn't use it, with the game's concurrent player count consequently plummeting from 16,600 to just over 600
• The outage lasted for hours, angering fans

The thing we can take away from this is Denuvo sucks, and it's just better to play the damn thing via Yuzu or Ryujinx.
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Related, we now see that it is confirmed that Homeworld 3 will release with Denuvo. The only good news is that Gearbox is one of the few publishers who remove Denuvo. So...just wait for this one.
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Just...interesting and useful:
This video guide via YouTuber 'MonroeWorld' shows you how to SSHFS - mount your Steam Deck as a Windows drive.

"Access your Deck's storage using whatever file manager or tools you want ON AND FROM Windows. In a few minutes, you can copy roms, access compatdata, backup/restore save files and more without ever leaving the comfort of Windows. In about ten minutes, you will have your common Steam Deck locations mounted as drive letters in Windows - accessing them just like any other Windows drive" 

Here is a github link for a GUI for the sshfs manager
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Hydra Launcher:
Hydra is an open-source launcher released in the last few weeks by the Brazilian community. Being able to download and launch games from fitgirl and dodi - it has/is a torrent client, automatically applies metadata for games, emulators and roms; seems to hope to be an all-in-one piracy portal. Personally, I prefer to manually add games from trusted links myself. But I'm paranoid. At least it is interesting.
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Hydra is a free open game launcher focused on being 100% safe, self-sufficient, ad-free, without registration, without subscription and without waiting times.
Hydra combines games from platforms like Steam and Epic Games with trackers from repackers/crackers known and trusted by the pirate gaming community (such as Fitgirl, Dodi and KaOsKrew.
The game downloads are done directly through the platform, as we have our own private torrent protocol.
Hydra currently has the capability to search among a list of more than 13,000 repacks posted in secure places on the internet, but not limited to that. being self-sufficient, Hydra can navigate the trackers not only looking for updates of games that are already registered but also for games that have just been released.

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Lastly the AMA with Dodi:
Well and truly locked in for the 16th. I have a post pinned at the top of PiratedGames, and have just reached out to the mods of Piracy about posting in their sub letting the users know what is happening. I also just posted in his discord server (at his behest). The only thing yet to be determined will be the exact time, for Americans it may be the 15th (your time), but...time-zones fry my brain so I don't know. Really excited about having him come by, the repacker scene is fascinating to me, so I can't wait to hear what he says.

• It will be the typical method: top level questions will be more likely to get an answer.
• Comment a question, he (may) comment a reply.
• The usual sub-reddit rules I have apply more than ever, but the most important is to be kind.
• I have set a custom flair for his user-name on Reddit, but it should be rather obvious who is who.
• I have nothing for this final dot-point.

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Guides?
I'm working on one lil guide since its been awhile since my last. Most probably will post after the aforementioned AMA.
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Lastly?
Thanks to all of you, we're nearing 17k members here and you're all super lovely. This is such a strange sub-reddit because everyone is so damned nice. I just wanted to thank you all for being here, it makes it so nice.
If you wanted to show off your Deck's home screen - then this post a couple days ago is where you can do it!
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^{Thanks, all <3}
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I am really struggling and am in desperate need of help.
Background: I am a single mother who is disabled. I had a horrible experience with a stalker and got To see first hand how lacking the current resources and systems are which ended up destroying my life. In determination to turn my circumstances around and make it all mean something, I decided to create a nonprofit that provided the missing things that I really wish that I had when I was in the midst of my stalking situation.
It ended up becoming too successful too quickly and Organizations and companies and victims from all over the country began coming to me for help as I was building it because what I was offering is so badly needed. I was Struggling to keep up with it all and began experiencing set backs. A disgruntled volunteer that was upset with me for getting a boyfriend ended up deleting my entire volunteer training program. That set me way back with being able to onboard volunteers and get the help I needed.
So I switched gears and pivoted to a different program that I could do myself and began teaching myself How to create an app that would immensely help victims and investigators in investigators and prosecutors alike. I also built a support group orogram that works similar to facebook and has in person groups with a psychoeducational approach. But then my boyfriend tragically passed away and then I was illegally evicted from the new offices I had just moved into because I would not sleep with the landlord, and had a falling out with my very toxic family. This coupled with my deterioration in health made me just completely break down. I was unable to keep going and finish building out the business without any help or support system.
For the last year I've just taken a mental health break but lately I've been wanting to try to start it back up. I don't even know where to begin since it spiraled into such a mess. I need help reorganizing and formatting everything for more efficiency. I began researching utilizing AI to do this. The idea being- I'd create an assistant that can help me organize everything and create a better and more efficient system for operating. Eventually creating an assistant for each type of area such as HR, volunteer training, creating a crm, creating emails, helping me build a better app, etc. If I can get an assistant via AI, then it can help me create an internship program for students at the local schools to come help finish building out the company to be fully operational and ready for volunteers to begin working.
Since I am disabled I don't have the money to keep putting into this to pay people to help or pay for subscriptions to programs to function and do things I need. Also I have to be strategic about how to do this all. I attempted using chatgpt to help me do this but halfway through setting up Google cloud console I just realized I cannot do this myself. I still am struggling mentally and physically from losing my bf and family and life as I knew it. The "grief brain" is a really big struggle mixed with brain fog and memory problems from health issues...but I have an amazing business plan and idea that was really helping people and I hate that I can't continue to do it. Surely there is a way to find people that can help me put this together In a way thst doesn't cost money- I just am unsure what to do.
I need to figure out a way to find people who are interested and able to help. I've put in too much work and don't want to see it go to waste. I have even partnered with tech companies that have provided free tech to me to help and just so much good has happened to let this fall to waste. Can you help provide ideas or leads to get help I need to get back up and running?
I also need to get new board members. The 2 I had were basically seat holders to get me through processnof building company and until I could find people who were more qualified. Unfortunately because they had a lot going on in their personal life too they didn't contribute much.
I wish there was a way to find people interested in doing nonprofits that I could hand them my established company with all the hard work already done and let them kind of take it over and let me just be the CEO. Lol.
The name of my organization is The Fight 4 Light Foundation. We help people dealing with stalking.
Thanks for any suggestions!