Cool xbox live bios.com

Hey folks,
we all know the new app isn't the best thing Sonos did during the last years. Missing features have annoyed me while using the Sonos Five System in our store, but I could live with it.
Now I'm in my office trying to set up a Play:1. Yesterday, the setup itself worked, but it didn't let me sign in with the Admin Account (which is needed for an update that has to be done before using the speaker), so it didn't work at all.
Today, it even bugs at the Setup - when everything is done, the App tells me something like "We've added the Box to your system, but it maybe won't show up in your App. In this case, plug the box out and in again." Well, that's exactly what I'm doing for the last 2 hours.
Does anyone of you know about this problem and how to fix it? Btw, not even the SONOS Live Chat Support is working for me and won't open on the homepage ._.
I love the concept of Sonos, but on days like this, I have to listen to my music through my iPhone speaker, with the box standing next to me not even having a headphone jack to connect it to the PC. Really cool.
Thanks so much in advance! Best regards

This will be a bit lengthy, so I apologize in advance. I just need to get it out there because I can't talk to anyone in my life about it without them turning on my ex, which I don't want. I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom.
Some background. My ex-fiancee and I were together for a total of 12 years and we have a five year old daughter together. About four or five years ago, I bought a small home with her. She doesn't work, so I paid 100% of the bills, debts, etc. When I bought the place, I was still rebuilding my credit due to being out of work prior to that and I had to move quickly because my previous landlord defaulted on the building I was living in and all the tenants got notified the new owner wanted the place vacated. Ended up buying a mobile/modular home in a pretty quiet little area. I lived in a mobile home as a kid and I hated it - still do now, but it's what I've got and I have it completely paid off. I have a degree and work a good job with decent pay, but it's tough to make ends meet on a single income these days.
My ex cheated on me a few times and left me for another guy. I allowed her to continue living in the house with me for a while until she could find other living arrangements and I slept on the couch. Eventually she moved in with her mom. Now that my credit is in great shape and I'm moving to a new project at work with a very sizable pay increase, I'm looking for an actual house to buy. Unfortunately the housing market is really tough right now and anything within my price range gets snapped up immediately, often over the asking price. The plan is (and has been since she moved out), that once I find another place to live, I'm going to straight up give her this place I'm in now - sign the title over to her and everything. It's by far her cheapest option to live on her own. I've been telling her all along, she needs some form of stable income, because while I will continue helping out financially, I won't be able to pay all the bills on two separate homes. She agreed.
She and her mom do not get along well. Her mom is pretty religious and very Conservative and she isn't. I've repeatedly urged them not to discuss politics and things like that. This morning, apparently they got into an argument about that stuff and my ex called her mom a very obscene name in front of our daughter. Then she called me and started demanding I move back in with my parents (I'm 38 years old) so she and my daughter can move into my house while I continue paying all the bills.
In all the time we'd been together, and even still, I almost never say no to her. She calls me asking for money for food, gas, clothes for our daughter, etc., and I give it to her no questions asked. If she needs help with pretty much anything, I help her. I always made/make her problems my problems for our daughter's sake. My ex has some diagnosed mental health issues (diagnosed with Bipolar I and BPD separately) she struggles with and has a really hard time controlling herself when she gets upset. I told her I was not going to give up pretty much the only thing I had, my home, just because she can't control herself and not escalate disagreements into a screaming match. She immediately started screaming at me, swearing at me, telling me I didn't care about our daughter, etc. and even brought up our breakup, which she blamed 100% all on me.
I did not engage in the hostility and just ignored it. I told her the best I could do was give her some money to get a hotel room for the night and cool off and that I would pause house hunting and look for an apartment to rent. I told her she needed to find some way to make peace with her mom in the meantime and start looking for a way to get some stable income. She's got a hearing for her disability case (for her mental health issues) on the 20th, but who knows how that'll go.
My house is small and not great, but it's my sanctuary. Coming home to a quiet house and relaxing after work is literally all I have that allows me to sort of recharge my batteries and de-stress enough to face the following day. I'm essentially a shell of a man at this point. I'm under a lot of stress between work and dealing with my ex, and my anxiety has been through the roof. I feel it spike every time my phone rings, even more when I see it's my ex calling. All I want is some peace and quiet so that I can focus on my own healing and move on with my life. I feel like I'm stuck in limbo, hiding out and hoping for a night here and there where everyone just leaves me alone. I joined some dating apps to see if I was even still capable of meeting someone new, but can't even bring myself to respond to them when they message me. I probably have too many trust issues and too much baggage with the living situation right now anyway.
I'm just tired of everything turning into a crisis and then having that crisis land squarely in my lap to fix. I work hard, bend over backwards to help out and get them everything they want/need, and I don't bother anyone. I don't even buy things for myself that I want anymore. I pay my bills and hoard the rest in case I need to send some to my ex to get our daughter some clothes or shoes or groceries. On average, I spend less than $100 a month on myself for non-essentials.
I'm nowhere close to perfect, but I've had pretty much endless patience over the years - constantly criticized/put down, verbally attacked, cheated on, and ultimately dumped for a guy she just met. By the end of our relationship, I was already empty inside, so yeah, I can see how she might think I wasn't there emotionally - but I was always patient, kind, and provided for both her and my daughter.
I'm absolutely in shock that she thinks I don't care about our daughter because I won't give into her demands to just hand her my home without anywhere to go. Even if I did want to move back in with my parents, they're smokers and my daughter can't stay with me there on the weekends. She essentially demands that I give up what little bit I have left to salvage my own mental well-being because she can't control herself and decide to simply not respond to touchy subjects between them.
My daughter is my world and I'm truly conflicted about this. I don't want her witnessing my ex screaming obscenities at her mother. I just feel like I have to draw the line somewhere. Maybe it's my own fault for walking on eggshells for so long and bending over backwards to give her everything she asked for. The one time I stand my ground, I'm treated like the most selfish man alive and have to listen to her screaming insults at me on the phone while I'm at work. Am I really being that selfish here?
She pushed back on my offer to get her a hotel room for the night so she could get a break from her mom, but I was eventually able to calm her down for now by suggesting I'd call off my desire to be an actual homeowner so that I can more quickly just find a place to rent and move into - provided she gets some source of steady income to pay for her utilities and groceries.
I think I need to get myself into therapy. At this point, I'm tired of bending over backwards all the time, sacrificing my dignity, self-worth, and happiness, only to get treated like a monster the first time I say no. I want some peace. I've never minded helping out as much as possible and did not want to get lawyers involved because I truly wanted to help whenever it was needed rather than giving a flat amount every month, but I feel like my own humanity is being taken for granted with demands like this. Maybe it's time to set up something official so I can stop taking calls from her 4-5 times a day, just send out a flat amount every month, and finally just be left alone.
If you read this far, I appreciate it. I'm just worn out and empty inside. I'm even ignoring my own friends because I just want to be left alone. Thankfully they're understanding of my situation without me giving specifics and are giving me space. I genuinely don't think my ex is a bad person, but her Bipolar disorder can be very challenging to deal with. I just hope my severe anxiety and my desire to be completely alone goes away once I get into a better place.
TL;DR - ex-fiancee lives with her mom but doesn't get along. They had a fight this morning and she called me, demanding I move back in with my parents and let her live in my home while I continue paying all the bills. I feel it is an unreasonable request and told her no. She did not take it well.

I had this thought of how cool it would be to have an RPG game that plays like a heroic tale against a greater threat (like demons for example) and there are many choices throughout the game that affect sub-endings and the final moment of the game is the player choosing whether to face an endless horde of enemies or running away to live. The game would start with the classic story of how people are struggling to survive and ends the tale with "One day a hero arose to vanquish the "insert enemy" and saved the world..." and then fades into the start of the gameplay.
The endings would be: 1) Run away to survive, leading to a cutscene of the player fleeing while the town burns in the background and fading to the ending cutscene (will explain that below), 2) Stay and fight the endless horde, but die before beating X waves, leading to the destruction of the town anyways with a cutscene showing as much before fading to the ending cutscene, and 3) The player stays and manages to beat x waves before succumbing to the endless waves (make each wave harder so they are eventually killed off as they aren't meant to actually win, only stall for the escape of the villagers) leading to a cutscene of the villagers escaping as the village burns in the background before fading into the ending cutscene.
Now the ending cutscene will open up where the beginning one ended with "One day a hero arose to vanquish the "insert enemy" and saved the world..." but a new line emerges next to the text "One day a hero arose to vanquish the "insert enemy" and saved the world... But this isn't that tale. * Fades away to new screen* This is a tale of someone who 'XXXXX'" and the XXXXX is a description of a player based on their actions throughout the game. If they chose all good/heroic options they get something like "This is a tale of someone who was a Hero of their own kind... One that did their best to do what is right and even giving their life to save only a few... In the end... Are you the Hero you wanted to be?" And then fading to the sub-endings of the minor questlines, whether they completed them or not and what happened depending on their choices when completing them.
Bit of a Text dump but I just had this coming into my head as I typed it. Sadly I can't make games for crap, so I can simply hope someone sees this and makes their own version of this game.

Yeah it would be cool if people picked up their dogs shit on the cape fear river walk, it seems to be medium to big sized dogs judging by the dog shit I’ve seen. And if live around the river walk and you’re purposely taking your dog on walks so they can shit, because it’s a more discreet place for them to go and you not having to clean it up because nobodys around. Shame.. grow up. If you’re too lazy to pick up your dogs shit. Don’t have a dog.

Anyone else past 25 and still haven’t actually dated or been in a relationship?
I’m 26F and I feel so defeated. I’ve dreamed most my life that I would meet someone and get married or at least have a long term relationship. When I get crushes they last yeeeaarrsss and I feel so pathetic about it. In hs I was obsessed with this guy a couple years older because finally male attention and eventually after his gf broke up with him he and I “dated” (didn’t want to accept I was a rebound) and that lasted about a month then I was devastated when he ended it. Fast forward another 2 years I was still infatuated with him (don’t ask why idk!!!) and he rebounded with me again for again like a month and I lost my virginity to him before I left for school. Believe it or not I STILL thought about this loser for a couple years even when he didn’t come visit me at school (I was naive to think he would). Anywho after about 5.5 years of knowing him I finally stopped caring. I tried a little sleep around phase in college but ultimately just disappointed myself because none of these guys were interested in anything beyond hooking up. Which like fine that’s fair. But I still held out hope. I’ve tried dating apps and I probably haven’t given it the greatest go but the few dates i went on just weren’t good and my anxiety would rather just not deal. And now for the Biggest Disappointment I fell in love with my best friend in 2020 and was convinced something would happen for us (like yay this all makes sense he’s the one I’m thinking) and THEN fast forward to almost 2 years ago in line at Disneyland he drops that he’s been dating someone for 3 months… and was just now telling me…. while in line for big thunder fucking mountain. My heart was crushed. So 2 days after that I confessed my feelings and he said he was happy with how things were between us now. That’s fine that’s cool but wow did I feel stupid!! And best believe I STILL think I’m in love with him. That relationship he had didn’t last long but now I feel like I’ll never know what’s going on with his dating life after that experience. He’s so private about it and tbh I know my heart will be broken again when he’s with someone. We live in different states so don’t see each other much more than once a year but we text everyday. I still imagine us together one day but try to remind myself he already said no so cmon girl move on but idk if I can. Or if I’ll ever meet anyone else and build that relationship to what I dream. The dating apps are just so defeating and idk where to meet people! I hate going out!!
TLDR: anyone able to find a healthy fulfilling relationship with bpd2 past mid 20’s? And I knooowww I’m ~so young~ and have so much time but you know it doesn’t feel that way. I don’t want to be on my own forever despite what front I put on that I’m fine with it. I want a husband and family one day. Any words of advice/encouragement/similar experiences? I feel so alone in this situation

That they would add a day/night cycle to the open areas so maybe in the next game they will but i think that would be cool. They could even have Naytiba that only come out at night because they live underground and the sun hurts them..

Ok, I need to take something off my chest, that I don't see many people talking about about these specific foreign influencers/youtubers living in Korea.
I was working in Seoul for some time and I got really surprised by the amount of followers these international foreign 'influencers' that are popular in Korea have.
And for a matter of fact this was before Tik Tok was even a thing, so for this case I'm not gonna talk about the Tik Tok creators, even if the matter still applies to them today.
I don't wanna be rude but why are some of these girls even famous in Korea. When I've first heard about these girls existence, my jaw dropped when I saw the number of followers they girls have. I ask my friends, why are they famous and they would just respond "they are really popular here", because in my opinion they are just white girls with the most basic faces ever.
Honestly the one that called most my attention to this topic was this girl named Dasha Taran, she has 2 instagram profiles (I have no idea why, because the content is exactly the same) and both profiles have MILLIONS of followers, one with 2 million and the other with more than 5 million. And I was shocked because when I looked at her content, it was the most normal thing I've ever seen, she doesn't have a niche, a specific topic she talks about, she doesn't make quality interesting videos about something unique and different and I'm so sorry, she's pretty but she's not like anything we've never seen before, she's just normal, she posts some vlogs but they're just so ok!? So, 5 million followers?
Her friend or whatever, named Elina Karimova, same thing, 3,4 million followers for just being white, basic and living in Korea? Again, her beauty is nothing unique and Elina seems to act more like a koreaboo with the way she acts and behaves around people, sometimes behaving like a child.
This other girls named Angelina Danilova, I'm really trying to understand why is she famous. She is similar to any other european girl you see in the streets. I think she's a model but I don't see her appeal. 1,2 million followers.
The last one called Sissel, I guess she was a youtuber, she made makeup tutorials in the past, some of them were really cringe like the one she tried to make an Japanese Igari Makeup, most of her videos were trying to copy kpop idols makeup. Now she seems to hide she was a kpop fan and is making "aesthetic vlogs" "My life in Seoul" of her life in Korea, basic what asian youtubers like Michelle Choi were doing over years. And of course now she loves to show her korean boyfriend, korean apartment, k-drama moments and monetize over korea with her youtube videos. I'm sorry but she's just white with blue eyes. Zero personality. She doesn't have as many followers as the girls above but I also don't understand why she is popular, she is normal and her content is not even that interesting.
I'm not trying to say they all are bad people and done bad things, or "don't deserve" followers, but comparing to popular youtubers in other countries in big cities, their content about Korea or living in Korea are not good or worth the hype.
The only foreign youtuber before Tik Tok that seemed like a nice person was this girl named Cari Cakes, her videos were really high quality editing videos, and her content and lifestyle seemed very relatable, different from the other girls she showed places around Seoul that were not very known but really worth going and talked in front of the camera about a lot of her hobbies and views about life. But later, it turned out she was a stalker and got jealous over this other foreign girl, because the girl was dating a kpop idol, so she was a koreaboo psycho after all.
Anyway for me it was just a culture shock to see all these people with millions of followers but with no talent, just being famous because they live there and their looks.
I understand a lot of people are obsessed with kpop and kdramas and gain followers because people think it's cool to live in a city like Seoul. And I understand the 'vlog culture' but again, it's the lack of personality I don't understand. Meanwhile asian youtubers that have been doing content about Korea or even about NYC for ages, are so much more interesting in my opinion. Examples of good creators that talk about their lives and have aesthetic videos: Michelle Choi, Kieun Choi, itsyuyan, Weylie Hoang.
What do you guys think?

be it gameplay or story/personality.
for me its 100% Lymle from SO: The last hope.
i never quit a game because of a single character. except for SO4. i hate her voice. i hate her looks. i hate her personality and i hope whoever created her steps on lego every single day for the rest of their lives. maybe she sounds better in japanese but i only played it on xbox which is EN only and my ears bleed from just remembering her calling the MC "Edgy"

Like many of you, I have a collection of vintage slide rules that are carefully stored so as to avoid further deterioration. Recently it occured to me that I don't do much actual slide ruling, and in fact I often have to look up hwo to use various scales. So I decided to get a "beater" slide rule that I can practice on and get faster. The question is, what model should I get? I am looking for something that is:
* A third of a meter or longer; this is for use on a desk, not in a pocket.
* Very common. Don't want to risk wearing out or damaging to something that is rare or hard to replace.
* Cheap and common on ebay. I am willing to spend a lot but if possible, cheap is good.
* Has the scales that would be best for me to learn. Obviously I would like to be able to do multiplication, and division. Squares, square roots, sine, and cosine would be fun to practice with but I could live without them.
* Optional: I have a slight preference for something white, and having color scales looks cool, but I am OK with yellow it that's the best choice.
So, what model would you choose for a daily driver?

The rift between them has caused a lot of tension in my family and now my mom wants to be in the life of her newborn grandson but refuses to address or try to mend things with my wife.
Little history: I probably introduced them too quickly. My grandmother was in town in south Florida about to move here from Illinois for a retirement community. My wife, girlfriend at the time, came with cookies or some form of baked goods like she usually does when visiting someone as a sign of affection and respect. Where it went wrong from here I have no idea. I suppose the initial crack was when wife scheduled a skitrip for her and I to have as a 1 year of dating anniversary present. We are not rich, this is a huge gift that made sense to her since I refused to let her pay rent. Our combines salaries are barely over 120k. So wife calls mom 6 months in advance because she is a planner for the sole purpose of asking my mom to watch one of our four dogs. Wife has already paid in full for the trip. Yet Mom decides it is a great idea to instead use the opportunity to hop on and take a family trip because it is the last time the family will have for a family vacation - I am the oldest of two boys and two stepsisters, my mom married the guy she left my father for who has twin girls of his own that were in the womb during the infidelity. Anyway mom completely takes over and decides to make our one year gift a family vacation, so she books tickets for a hotel nearby. Wife is bold but at the time not bold enough to stop my mom in her tracks for overstepping a boundary. At this time she still respected my mother and kind of let herself get steamrolled.
Probably skippable Family history: Now I have always had issues with my mother, resentment for leaving my father for my stepdad behind my own fathers back and constantly trying to keep brother and I from seeing “Disneyland dad who doesn’t do any of the work but gets all the fun.” my mother was very strict growing up, always bringing us to church and making my father feel guilty for not bringing brother and I on his weekend. So mom marries stepdad age 11, divorces him around 13 after asking me advice for her relationship and i encourage her to move out. Then remarries him and moves us back into his house age 15. Here I begin rebellion and normal teeenager stuff but stepdad won’t butt in because he isn’t my “biological father” so would have my mom intervene brother and i from behind the scenes. For example, I am young and messing around on the piano because music is important and I never had any formal training and mom comes in to tell me stepdad “wants to know when the concert is going to end because it is a little annoying.” Anyway, they have me prescribed adderall at 16 and in the parking lot holding my first prescription I am told that they would like me to move out and in with my father, who had chased us every time mom and stepdad moved several miles away (5 moves from age 5-15 all in one county). Anyway, brother and I are recovering alcoholics with (my) slipups triggered from interactions or visiting my mom, which mom claims is genetics from my father alone and has nothing to do with her. Maternal grandfather, mother, and I have some nasty temper problems which certainly are exacerbated by drinking (at least mine and moms).
Skitrip revelations: Wife and I are on the way to brothers graduation in Chicago, and wife has yet to reveal to me that my mother has taken over her massive investment of a couples ski vacation and it will now be a family vacation for mom, stepdad, brother, two stepsisters who are all getting out of gradschool. On the way to the airport I am told the news by future wife of my one year surprise. So I get upset and call my mom to call it off. She obliges my request and now holds resentment against me and now wife for “ruining her last family vacation.” Fine, whatever. Mother never says a word about it for months until we are out for a distant family members birthday dinner and at a table of about 8-10 people that are having a group conversation and gets real close to my wife’s ear and tells her privately along the lines of “you deprived our family of our last family vacation.” During this time my wife is frantically tapping my leg under the table because my mom can get a little aggressive. My mom saw this and later (privately to me) mocked her for doing it to my leg under the table.
Christmas blessings: Closer to Christmas maybe 2/3 weeks later we went to go see my mom and my mom had a couple drinks in her (not an alcoholic like brother and I just very sensitive to a couple glasses of wine and occasionally some hidden sips of wine or something) and invites my wife to Christmas church and out to dinner after because the family needs photos for a Christmas card and future wife “will be the photographer for it.” Now this can easily be a nothing comment but given the way my mom had been making future wife feel, it was taken as an insult. So wife declined church and showed up to family dinner just in time for photography session to be over.
The distance: Then mom moves to a fancy house up the coast and invites us up to visit. At first it is ok to bring the 4 dogs then the day before she says they will not have dogs at the house and we can easily find a sitter. 2 Dogs don’t get along, they need to be separated always as there has been two attacks on one from the other, so we can’t trust someone to come to the house and keep them separate and we won’t board 4 dogs it’s too expensive for us. Anyway we go back and forth being invited with the dogs then they retract the offer and say pick one dog to bring and leave the others and it’s just annoying, so we say forget it and don’t go. But my brother becomes engaged and decides to throw his engagement party at my mom’s new place near the beach. Great. First all the dogs are welcome, then day before they say it is too chaotic and she will pay for a small hotel room for one night for future wife and her dogs and my one (the attack dog) can stay in a crate at the house with me but I may not leave the dog to stay with her. And no reasonable cheap hotel in the area is going to accommodate 4 dogs. Anyway wife is stressed but feels obligated to come because I am the best man and I stay at the house while she checks her dogs into the hotel. Wife had made a cheesecake and brought it up in a separate car from me, 4 hour drive by the way, and night of.. my mom says no desserts for engagement party dinner, the dessert is themed or some crazy stuff. Wife shows up to dinner a little later and very flustered because of the situation plus I had relapsed on a bottle of whiskey a couple days prior to seeing my mom. Related, I don’t know. Anyway. Mom has had a couple drinks and future wife and I are talking about having children and religion comes up. Mom asks what we were thinking of doing about baptism or not and I jokingly said (guiltily to get on my moms nerves a bit) that he would have a bris and would love it if she would come to the bar mitzvah. now my wife’s mom was forced to convert from Catholicism to Judaism for her own mother in laws acceptance for a failed marriage so wife is not religious, but it hurt my wife and reasonably so when my mom replied “oh, son, I raised you better than that.” Still no acknowlegement of fault from that comment and mom thinks wife is “overly sensitive, dramatic, and childish” for wanting an apology for it.
Weddings: Future wife becomes current wife. We had gotten engaged on our next anniversary trip she planned for us. I proposed on our bike and barge through tulip season in holland with our feet in the water of the North Sea after a picnic in the dunes. her family business manufactures photo albums for professional photographers, so aside from our families all being divorced, estranged, difficult, and us trying to save money, we did not have a wedding, we just did the paperwork within a month of the proposal. I had already decided to have a baby with her before the trip so we were trying. 2 weeks before brothers wedding in Tennessee we become pregnant, so we break news immediately as to not steal limelight from brothers expensive wedding. Mom says she will cover cost of rental car so we can save money. Ok great. She books the tiny car and we pack it and head up the Smokey mountains to the cabins we are staying at. Two cabins for grooms family, one for his mother and one for his father, ten paces from each other: they havnt spoken but twice im since divorce in 1995 but through lawyers. Grandmother, mother, stepdad, 2 stepsisters and one boyfriend stayed in mom’s side. Wife and I stay at father’s side cabin with just his wife. His Wife’s 3 daughters and family’s stayed a town away down the mountain among extended family. Anyway, beautiful wedding takes place. My wife is sent into town to collect flowers and run errands for my mom which she happily obliged to since she is a solitary person and did not want wedding day drama. Day after, we are loading our rental sedan with our bags. Mom and grandma need a ride to the airport and our flight is before theirs so they will drop off the car for us 4 hours or so after we go to the airport 5 hours from current time. We’re loading the car. Stepcousin passed out in mother’s cabin night before and needed a ride. Disorganized brunch for 20 people is trying to be made. Father’s wife’s daughter books a reservation for 10 people which include her family, her sisters, me, my wife, dad, and their mom. My stepdad had left for home at this point as he had taken his own suv instead of flying with my mom and 90 year old grandma. So mom is trying to pack grandma in the car with bags and my wife and stepcousin. At this point mother asks stepmother if she and grandma are on reservation for the brunch. Stepmom says no they are not, she wasn’t sure of their plans. Mom says under her breath “fucking assholes, so typical,” and she goes into a bit of a rage to which my stepmom says here “it’s ok I will call and add you two it’s no big deal.” So we continue packing the car and realize we won’t all fit. So my wife tells my stepcousin to go ride with my father to the restaurant 10 minutes away we will meet you there. Mom says to wife, “no you go with the father.” Wife says “no I am going to ride with my husband” mom gets close to her face with her finger and says “this is my car, you can fucking Uber!” Wife is 6 weeks pregnant at this point and it all escalated from here. wife and mother start yelling at each other swearing at each other and we get into the car, mom behind wife who was in shotgun. 2 occasions on the trip I had to stop the car because mom had taken off her seatbelt to stand over the seat and scream in my wife’s face with so much vigor that spit came on to her face multiple times. I’m trying to tell them both to behave and mom sit down shut the f up. Mom is telling wife to get the f out of the car and find a ride, she has no right to speak because she’s “new here” (dating and living together for 3 years at this point). The following brunch she apologized in a crowd with a hushed voice at a table of 20 people trying to have a group conversation again privately to my wife “I’m sorry you get so upset” and my wife told her “that is not an apology.” The following several hours in the car with grandma and stepcousin and wife were some of the most uncomfortable moments of my life. At a gas station I pulled my mom aside and said I need ther to give a huge apology, that it was so nasty and inappropriate, my brother and I are used to abusive language and aggressive behavior but to my pregnant wife and any other human being it is disgusting and unacceptable. Sitting in the car was quiet for many hours until we got to the airport. No speaking about what happened just mom happy go lucky about Tennessee and Dollywood and wife and I in shock, cousin still half in the bag from a fun wedding, grandma 90 years old probably confused about what happened.
The family groupchat: Im waiting on an apology from my mother to my wife who is extremely hurt and expressed to my mom loads of time she needs to reach out and apologize. We’re not talking until she will do so. It is bugging me and keeping me up at night. My appendix flares up and I am admitted to the hospital with emergency appendectomy. Still pregnant Wife suggests I reach out to mom to let her know what’s going on. So I text mom I’m at the hospital and will have surgery. I send a pic or something that on my end says hasn’t gone through. Mom group texts our family group with stepdad, his daughters, brother and his wife, and grandma that I am in the hospital and attaches the pic I sent of me in there. Then she continues to rave about the success of her startup company and how they got FDA approved clinical trials finally completed or some pivotal moment that made the text about her. Wife and I are in a hospital so the picture comes up on moms end as unable to have been sent. Mom assumes that my wife has blocked her phone, so mom removes my wife from the chat. Wife is rushing home to take care of the dogs at this point and is not alerted on her phone, but on everyone else’s phone it clearly reads “(mom) has removed (wife) from the chat.” Immediately I text my mom and basically say how dare you do that to her she is the one who insisted I let you know out of respect and mom responds with blah blah she did this she did that I will not have it. So I go back to the family chat and remove mother. At this point I let everyone in the chat know what my mother has done and how she refuses to take responsibility for how she made my wife feel, address her feelings, apologize or do anything at all to reach out about the wedding incident or even inquire about the wellbeing of the pregnancy for her first grandchild. Stepdad finally steps in and tells me “enough.” Grandma says “shame on you.” I am dumbfounded. This is a hush hush family that hates to have anything out in the open and likes to maintain a picture perfect image. For examples; 1) I and wife were on the family Christmas card of a photo taken at the wedding that the whole world received except for wife and I. 2)brothers alcoholism was to remain hidden from the family as was his rehab treatment and how it affected his career. Now understand that they like to keep things quiet but that is not how I want to handle my problems, these things trigger alcohol use and violent outbursts on my part that I no longer wish to live through. Now appendectomy’s are pretty simple so I recovered quickly (it don’t rupture we just took it out). But during the time I was scheduled to be under anesthesia, stepdad reaches out to wife to have a chat and clear the air. Wife waits until I come to so i can be there and I hear the conversation. He claims to be here as a middleman like a business meeting to fix things once and for all. Wife and I are like wow great. He then proceeds to double down on my moms behalf that they will not be apologizing or meet any of her demands as she had already apologized as confirmed by 90yo grandma who was in the car and my mother herself. The term he used was stalemate to describe the situation. Wife and I are shocked but she has me keep quiet to show me what he will say. He proceeds to yell at her and they were screaming at each other, again steamrolling the conversation assuring us that he was down the middle yet maintains that mom has made a sufficient apology that needs to be accepted and wife needs to grow up and move on, then wishing her luck with the baby and a nice life. Next day I call stepdad to see how it went. He reassures me that he has done all he can and everything is back to normal. At this point I call him out and tell him I was conscious and explain to him what an apology is. But there is no dialogue with this guy like there is no dialogue with my mother. He proceeds to talk loudly over me like she does and basically call me a piece of shit for the amount he and mother have done for me. I speak to him first time like I never have before by calling him a hands off father and a pussy of a man who finally reaches out while he thinks I am under anesthesia to yell at my wife then pretend it’s cool, and I basically tell him he has never done a single thing for me to try and develop me into a man or nurture me as a child into an adult, but he thinks taking me on fishing trips and ski vacations are equivalent to love and nurturing growth and development just like my mom does. I reassure him that he has no right to talk about family being that he ruined his own as well as mine and couldn’t even tell my dad to his face that it was him who was sleeping with my mom behind his back when my dad came to him very upset as a friend when he got an anonymous phone tip at work one day. Then him and my mom laughed about it in court when my dad brought it up during the divorce. We ended with swearing and I felt very happy for finally giving my true feelings to him.
The birth: Months go by and nobody has said a thing. I can’t sleep at night seeing how much love I am getting from my father and his side for the baby, and my wife’s family, then thinking about how my own mother hasn’t reached out a single time. I’m dreaming about beating up my stepdad and it’s driving me mad. So weeks before the due date I reach out to my mom begging her to clear things up and apologize to my wife. Nothing. A week later i tell her how disappointed and abandoned I feel and want her in the family. Nothing. Baby comes a couple days early. Everyone is excited. Mom texts me begging for photos and to let everyone know. I tell her my brother and two stepsisters have received photos. I ask her to please reach out to wife she still needs to make amends for what’s happened between them and all she needs to do is reach out. Mom’s responses have been defensive, derisive, projecting, playing victim and referring to herself as a kicked puppy. Telling me my wife needs to apologize to her and making the conversation about mother son instead. She is beating around the bush. And she is sending me photos of my own baby that I did not send her. Her friends are congratulating me that I did not tell. Again she is pretending that everything is ok and it is not. She asked me to apologize to her husband for what I said on the phone that day. I said ok, watch this. So I sent the guy a message that was very apologetic and not passive aggressive or backhanded comments in any way. Still my mom won’t say anything.
Now: Baby is 6 days old. He is the best thing in my life and I wish my family were involved but it seems like I am living in a fantasy world where everyone can be happy together. I can be a jerk and have a terrible relationship with my mom, but I want more than anything to just feel loved enough where she can swallow her pride and make amends with my wife. Thats it. And she asked the other day to put a family group chat so everyone can be involved… for real? I know she is stressed with a high pressure job, but it seems heartless to me. She asks what big items she can get for the baby. Mom, baby is here we have everything for a couple months already. I said the biggest thing you can do is reach out and have a heart to heart with my wife so this rift can end and we can at least be cordial if you two can’t get along. I don’t think it will happen.

I get it.
"1,000 subscribers? That's all?"
It probably pales in significance to some other entrepreneurs here, but it's a milestone I thought was unreachable. If I can persuade 1,000 people to listen to what I have to say, why not 5,000? 50,000?
100,000?
A pipe dream of the highest order surely, but we all need something to aspire to right? So that settles it, I'm aiming for 100,000 email subscribers. If I fail, I'll fail in the most beautiful way, to paraphrase my favourite soccer manager.
How about some context?
Design flows through my veins. I live and breathe crafting experiences that I hope will make lives a little easier around the world. Because of this, I've worked with a lot of startup founders over the previous 10 years.
Some of those founders have exited successfully, while others haven't been so fortunate. I keep in touch with them all, and I listen to every single one of the intently. After all, failure doesn't strip you of the founder title, does it?
Chatting with these entrepreneurial minds sparked an idea - what if I shared these stories online? What if I could build a community around what it means to be a founder, and what if I asked founders to participate to share their own stories?
And that's what I did in August 2023. I created a website using Webflow last August, and just a couple of days ago, I finally hit 1,000 email subscribers. I'm immensely proud of that, but the reality is, I'm just getting started.
So, how did I hit this milestone? Here's how:

• Leveraged my network: I'm not sure I would have started had I not had access to founders I've worked with before. Makes sense, right? Having access to a good network means you don't need to do a whole raft of cold outreach to have people share their stories. This helped me get enough stories together to launch an MVP.
• Snowball Effect: If you have a good network to chat to, there's a good chance they know even more professions that you're after. Word of mouth, essentially. For every founder I spoke to, they knew three others that wanted to participate.
• Content: Content is still king, regardless of what anyone says. The beauty of the approach I took was that other people were generating the content for me. While I still have a blog and regularly contribute to it, it's the founder stories that most people visit for. I get a lot of questions asking if I use AI, and yes, I use AI as a personal assistant to help me edit and editorialise submissions. I'm able to get far more work done with ChatGPT. I don't use it to generate content verbatim, however.
• Social Media: Another benefit of other people creating content based on something very personal for them means they're far, far more likely to share it on social media and pull in even more of their network. More shares generally means more founders that want to share their stories with me. Most important of all? The more folks that are drawn into my circle are more likely to subscribe to my mailing list.
• SEO: I'm not an SEO expert, but SEO goes part and parcel with long-term success and organic traffic. I'm not going to lie, this has been the most frustrating and slowest part of this entire journey. I am, however, making moves. Organic traffic is growing, DA (If you care for that metric) is going up, and backlinks are increasing. Essentially, write shit hot content, and Google will eventually pick it up. Having people come to the site and engage with the content without having come from social media is so validating for what I'm doing.

How am I going to hit further milestones?
Basically, do what I'm doing, but turn everything up to 11. Oh, and I need to figure out how to moneitise what I'm doing. No pressure.

• Further Leveraging My Network: I could always be more aggressive in my attempts to reach out to people, and I will be doing this. What I'll also be doing is being more diligent in my search for founders who want to share their stories. Think popular startup founders with large followings.
• Expanding My Content Offering: The key to building a successful newsletter is delivering valuable and engaging content that resonates with your target audience. Pretty obvious, right? Podcasting and sharing more videos on social media in an effort to offer alternatives ways to experience my content.
• More Guest Contributions: Don't want to share your entire founder story? No problem! Can you answer three questions on AI? On fair hiring? On VC funding? Cool. That means people can still contribute, but also share their own content and pull their network in.
• Strategic Promotion: At some point, if I want more email subscribers, I'm going to need to spend more money on marketing than I'm spending now. How much? I don't know, I just know that organic growth can be sloooooow.
• Consistent Effort and Persistence: This won't change. While I'm not busting my chops and up to all hours of the night, I do at least one thing a day that I think will make the most impact. I work during th day, so I have limited time, but I'm okay dropping off the PS5 or watching TV to put that time into this project.

And that's it! If I had to summarise this entire experience into one sentence, it would be: Build something that you love. If you love what you're working on, and can love it through sickness and in health, then you've a better shot at most people who just want to get rich quick.
I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and if I fail, I'll fail in the most beautiful way. ;-)
This is my first contribution here, and I hope to share more of my journey in the future. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to reach out.

So to start off I suggested a restaurant for dinner... Turns out it was a boujie ass spot, I didn't realize cause I'm new to the area. She wanted to learn about stocks from me as a first date, and I suggested to go out for food and I'll teach her.
So we get to the spot, everything was cool, we had a good Convo for about to 1.5 hours, i ordered each of us a Glass of wine, order an app. I thought everything went well (6pm was the date), I usually eat dinner pretty late So I didn't really want food. Also we both aknowledged it was a little too pricey for a first date and agreed we should go to a different place after we finished our wine.
I'm pretty passionate about stocks, and she was pretty interested and kept asking questions, so it was a pretty engaged Convo, got to know her a little better through out our Convo.
When the bill came, obviously I was going to pay.... But she felt entitled asf and didn't even reach for the bill or even at least look or ask to split 🚩🚩🚩 I didn't think too much of it.... It's usually a good sign if she didn't.... That's like saying I'm interested for another date....
We both agreed to go elsewhere during the date... But as soon as we got outside, she was like I have work tomorrow and I need to go home early.....(it was 7pm) we hugged and she left...
Maybe she was expecting dinner? Like a main entre? Idk she could've said something, I asked her if she wanted anything else like 3 times. The bill was already $75, I'm not a stingy person, I wouldn't have minded to pay, especially since my dumbass picked such a boujie spot 😂😂😂. But she couldn't even have known how much the bill was....
Honestly imo I was the one who should've been treated for dinner? I was the one who spent 2 hours explaining and teaching her stocks and answering her questions...... It's whatever Im obviously not expecting it..... But to ghost me afterwards???? That's actually insane, I personally don't think I did anything wrong except maybe not order a main course? But I'm glad I didn't order a main course if she was gunna behave that entitled..... I get it if the girl was in college or can't afford it.... But she agreed to the spot(she's lived here for a few years and knows the area), she's older than me, and she's got almost the identical job as me.....
Just wanna see your guy's opinions cause I'm kinda confused... I even texted her after the date, appreciating the date, that it was fun and I would love to go on another date....

“Ready to make history, baby?”
I looked over toward Sheila as she stood on the gangplank leading up to The Burger. I still couldn’t believe she named our research ship ‘The Burger’... emotional relevance be damned.
“It's not exactly history,” I corrected.
“Oh come on! If your survey is right, this trench might run even deeper than the Challenger Deep, and you’re gonna be the first person to explore it! How is that not exciting?”
“Might be deeper, we only have a limited amount of topological data. And even if it is deeper, we’re talking only a few hundred feet at most, it’s really not that im-”
Sheila silenced me with a kiss.
“Nerd.” She teased, and I found myself too flustered to reply. After five years of marriage, she still could leave me speechless with just a kiss. God… how did someone like me end up with a woman like that?
Then again, how did someone like me end up where I was in general? It was honestly a little overwhelming. Standing on the dock, getting ready to board that ship and join the ranks of Jacques Piccard and James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) as one of the few people to take a manned submersible down to the deepest parts of the ocean. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared too. Diving down that deep could easily be a one way trip if even the slightest thing went wrong. My submarine would be experiencing between 600 to 1100 atmospheres of pressure and while we’d tested it over and over again to make sure it would actually be up for the challenge, there was still a lingering iota of doubt in the back of my mind. All that needed to go wrong was one little thing, and that would be it for me.
The scariest part is that I probably wouldn’t even know what had happened… I’d simply be gone… and Sheila would be alone. The thought of that caused a momentary spike of panic in my chest that almost made me want to call this whole thing off.
Almost.
But, then I felt her hand close around mine. I looked up into her bright blue eyes, and saw her gentle smile.
“You’re gonna be okay, hun,” She promised. “You and your team have been running the numbers, right? It’s gonna go just fine!”
I nodded slowly.
“It’s gonna go fine…” I repeated, before she leaned in to kiss me, and gently pulled me by the wrist up onto the deck of the Burger.
She was probably right.
It probably would be fine.
Probably…
The trench I’d be exploring was a fairly recent discovery, located south of Greenland, in a vast stretch of water situated directly between Newfoundland and Iceland. It’d been uncovered during a topological survey in the area, and my team had taken an interest in investigating it further. At minimum, it was believed to descend to about 35,000 feet deep (over 10,000 meters), although the current theory was that it might have run even deeper. Determining the exact depth of the yet unnamed chasm was just one of the intents of our dive. The rest was studying the organisms that might be found down there, and how they might have differed from the ones found in other deep ocean trenches (some variation being expected given the isolated environment they were developing in.)
I had to admit, it would be exciting to see what new life might have developed in a place such as this, especially if it ran even deeper than our predictions… and that excitement was enough to make me chase the fear of the risks out of my mind, even if it was only briefly. While Sheila went to make sure we were ready to embark, I caught myself wandering out toward the rear of the ship where my submarine, The Tempura, waited for me. Did this submarine deserve a better name than The Tempura? Probably. But, this was my project, so I got to name it and since Burger was already taken, Tempura was the next best name I had. I liked to think that the subs namesake might approve… if she hadn’t died fifteen years ago. Shrimp don’t live very long.
As the ship began to depart, I caught myself reminiscing on how I’d ended up here… it really was all because of those damn shrimp, wasn’t it? Well… maybe not all because of the shrimp. But they were certainly part of it. Back when I was a lot younger, I never really gave much of a shit about anything at all. I guess I did have a thing for the ocean… the great, romantic vastness of it. The sense of adventure that it beckoned with. The endless mysteries that lay within its dark depths. I used to read about it all the time when I was a kid and I especially loved the classic adventures: Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Melville’s Moby Dick… but that love was just confined to my books. I didn’t really have any interest in actually going out and seeing the ocean. Hell, the idea of going to a beach and standing in the sun with my toes in the sand seemed miserable to me. I was happier (although calling myself happy might’ve been a little disingenuous) alone in my room, enjoying the company of books as opposed to people.
Then came the shrimp.
One of my online friends kept them as a hobby. He used to post pictures of his tanks all the time, and I always thought they looked kinda cool. He said that if I was interested in them, I should try keeping some for myself, and during a particularly bad bout of depression, I figured that maybe it might be worth a shot. So, I bought a cheap tank and some cheap decorations, bought myself some shrimp… and promptly watched them die over the next few weeks. That… that bothered me. I don’t know why but… it really bothered me. I’m still not entirely sure how to describe what it was that I was feeling. Guilt? Defeat? Shame? Here I was, trying to set up a habitat for these creatures just to have something to do to keep the suicidal ideation at bay, and I’d failed almost right out of the gate.
Was I just that bad? Was I just that much of a failure? Was this just going to go to shit just like everything else in my life did, because I was just such an abysmal piece of shit who barely deserved the life she had? Had I just not tried hard enough? Was I too apathetic? What had happened? What went wrong?
It bothered me.
It bothered me enough that I made up my mind to just dump the remaining shrimp down the toilet and toss everything. Forget about it. Move on. End of story. But… that wasn’t fair, was it? The shrimp didn’t all deserve to die just because I couldn’t be bothered, did they? Sure, they were just shrimp, but they were alive too, just like me. They deserved to be alive.
I owed it to them to try and keep them alive, didn’t I?
So… I didn’t dump the shrimp.
Instead, I started doing some reading. Started looking into what I was doing wrong and how to do it all better. I actually got really into it and a few months later, I had a nice planted tank. Looking back, it was amateur shit… but it made me happy. I’d even picked out names for my two favorite shrimp. Burger and Tempura. They’d been the last survivors of my original batch, and they were the ones I ended up caring about the most. Caring for Burger and Tempura gave me a purpose. It became an obsession… and that little obsession drove me to finally start turning my life around.
Like I said, shrimp don’t live for very long. Burger and Tempura were long dead by the time I graduated with a degree in Marine Biology. But they were the ones who inspired me to finally get my life in order. Hell, the shrimp were half the reason that I met Sheila. She was something of an aquarium fanatic too… we’d met on a forum, and gotten to talking. I found out that she just so happened to be studying Marine Biology at another school, and we bonded pretty quickly after that. After graduation, I moved to California to be with her and after that, the rest is history. She was my rock. She was the one who always pushed me to be the best possible version of myself… and I loved her more than I ever knew I could love someone.
A glance back at the shore, fading into the distance tore me out of my reminiscing, and I shifted my focus to the present, going over The Tempura to perform some quick checks. My colleagues and I would be checking and rechecking the submarine over the next two days as we made our way toward the dive spot. Considering the danger that descending that deep posed, I didn’t want to take a single unnecessary risk.
I had too much to live for, after all.
***
The day of the dive, I couldn’t notice how excited the rest of the crew seemed… well… Sheila’s usual crew seemed excited. I guess to them, this was just another research expedition, no different than the ones Sheila usually took this ship out on. Lately her research had been focused on the analysis and study of whale calls. Her recent voyages had involved following their pods, recording their calls and playing them back to see how the whales reacted. It was fascinating stuff, but my research was admittedly a lot different than that.
My obsession had drawn me to the denizens of the deep sea. I’d used The Burger for expeditions before, although none of them had been on quite the same scale as this one. Up until today, the most ambitious thing I’d done was send down unmanned submersibles with cameras. Those submersibles had typically returned. We had lost a few early on due to technical glitches, but the past few years had been blissfully uneventful. Logically, this dive would probably be uneventful as well. But it was still hard to get the jitters out of my head.
My team and I did the final checks necessary to make sure that The Tempura was good to go, before setting up the crane to begin lifting it up. In less than an hour, I’d be inside of that thing, descending to the darkest depths of the ocean.
It didn’t feel real.
I felt Sheila’s hand on my shoulder, and looked over at her.
“Moment of truth, huh?” She asked. She probably meant it to sound encouraging, but it just sounded ominous.
“Moment of truth…” I replied.
“You’re gonna be okay, honey. I know you will.”
She reached out to gently squeeze my hand and gave me a reassuring smile that I meekly returned.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be okay,” I agreed, although there was an element of a lie in it. Statistically, yes. It probably WOULD be okay. But there was that lingering anxiety in the back of my mind that just wouldn’t go away. I looked quietly out at the submarine before me and couldn’t shake the thought that it sort of looked like a giant coffin. Unconsciously, I found myself squeezing Sheila’s hand tighter than normal. She just held me close and pressed a kiss to the top of my head, before gently rubbing my back.
“You’ll be okay,” She promised.
“Dr. Jenner, we’re ready for you.” I heard one of my colleagues say.
Moment of truth.
I took one last look at Sheila, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips for luck. She smiled at me, and I smiled back anxiously at her before heading over toward the submarine.
The crew helped me enter the cockpit and get myself situated inside. The cockpit of the Tempura was fairly cramped and not particularly comfortable. Space and comfort aren’t really luxuries you can afford in a submarine like this. The instruments I needed took up a lot of space, leaving little room for me in there… and I am not a very big person.
Once I was inside, they sealed the hatch. Then the diagnostics checks began.
“Grayson, can you hear us in there?” I heard Sheila say through the radio.
“Loud and clear,” I replied.
“Great. We’ll keep in constant radio contact, just to monitor the signal. In the meanwhile, how’s everything looking in there?”
“Green across the board so far,” I said, although I hadn’t finished running all my final checks yet. Ultimately, nothing was out of place.
This submarine was as good to go as it was going to get.
“I’m all good in here,” I said once I was done. “You can drop me when you’re ready.”
“You got it, honey. Let’s get you in the water, run one final round of tests and start lowering you down.”
A short while later, I felt the submarine begin to move as the crane lifted it off the deck and lowered it into the water. The Tempura honestly resembled its namesake in a way, being long and cigar shaped, only vertically oriented instead of horizontally oriented. We’d admittedly taken more than a few design cues from James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all?
Once I was in the water, a 1000 pound releasable ballast weight would cause the submarine to sink. Releasing that weight was also my ticket back to the surface, and I could either trigger it from inside the cockpit, or, in the event that the release failed for any reason, it would trigger automatically after roughly 12 hours of exposure to salt water.
Ideally, this would be the first of a number of dives I’d be undertaking… and if all went according to plan, the Tempura could be the first of many similar submarines that would allow other researchers to safely and effectively descend to extreme depths. If all went well, this could be a massive leap forward for researchers like me, allowing us to better explore the deepest depths of the Hadal Zone and learn all we could about the ecosystems down there via direct observation.
If all went well.
If.
Through the viewport, I watched as I was lowered into the ocean. A few of the other crew members had donned diving gear to escort me down, and after they did their final checks and I did mine, we were fully ready to go.
“All’s green across the board,” I said into the radio. “You can start my descent.”
“I hear you, honey,” Sheila replied. “We’re letting you go. Have fun down there.”
“Yeah, I’ll try…” I said quietly as finally, my submarine began its descent.
I took a deep breath, and told myself again that everything would go fine. We had checked everything on this submarine. We’d tested it rigorously. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to set foot inside of it if I hadn’t personally assured that it was safe. But anxiety never really goes away, does it? The crew couldn’t accompany me far. After only a few meters, they fell behind me as I sank deeper and deeper into the infinite, empty blue of the ocean. Soon after, the tether was released.
I was officially on my own.
“60 feet,” I heard Sheila say over the radio. “How are you doing in there?”
“Good,” I replied. “Doing… doing good.”
The submarine continued to descend. Through the viewport, I could see a few stray fish, but nothing particularly eye catching. I almost felt alone down there… almost…
“120 feet…” Sheila said.
“Still doing good,” I replied.
The descent continued, as the waters slowly grew darker and darker.
“400 feet…”
Everything around me just kept getting darker and darker. Only a fraction of the light from the sun ever reached these depths… and I’d be lying if I said that darkness didn’t feel a little… oppressive.
“800 feet… still feeling good?”
“Yeah, still feeling good…” I said, although it was a bit of a lie. If anything, I was second guessing all of this, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud.
“1000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…” I murmured. “I hear you loud and clear.”
Deeper… deeper… deeper.
“1500 feet…”
Three miles. I was three miles away from home. Three miles away from Sheila.
“2000 feet…”
Still a ways to go.
“3000 feet…”
By this point, it was fully dark outside of my cockpit. Outside, all I could see was inky darkness. Even the submarine’s lights didn’t really cut through it. And the kicker? Relatively speaking, I wasn’t that deep. Fishing trawlers reached deeper than this. Better to conserve power until I was at the bottom. My descent continued.
“6000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…”
The check ins were becoming less frequent. My descent still continued… deeper… deeper… deeper. By now, I’d entered the Hadal Zone. But there was still so much deeper o go.
“8000 feet…”
This was past the depths that most whales would dive to… and I still had a ways to go.
“10,000 feet.”
This was close to where the ocean floor usually bottomed out… and yet there was still so much further to go. No. I was really only a third of the way there. How long had it been?Not much had happened beyond my descent and a few sightings out of my viewport, but time had been passing. A glance at my watch confirmed it’d been almost an hour since I’d started to sink… and I knew I wasn’t even close to the bottom yet. The submarine continued to descend, sinking ever deeper as I dropped into an infinite darkness that few had ever dared to witness.
“15,000 feet.”
This check in came later than the others. At this point, Sheila and the crew must have figured that no news was good news, and they were right. I just continued to sink peacefully, down into the crushing depths of the ocean.
These were the depths that one might normally find deep sea fish… and yet I was going somewhere even deeper than that.
“20,000 feet…”
So close…
I continued to sink.
“25,000 feet.”
Soon… and finally…
“30,000 feet. You still doing alright, honey?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’m doing good,” I assured her. I was so close…
By this point, my real work had begun. I’d engaged the lights and begun documenting what little I could see using the on board cameras. Granted, there wasn’t much life at these depths and what little there was, was scarcely documented. Most of what was down here consisted of invertebrates and microscopic life that seemed to float past my viewport.
The light seemed to draw a few creatures in search of food. Small, hardy things that resembled shrimp.
“How’s it looking, Grayson?”
“Dark,” I said, half joking. “We’ve got some life… shrimp. They’re translucent. Can’t get a great look at them… but we’ll see what the cameras pick up.”
“They’ve recognized you as a friend,” Sheila said. I could almost see the smile on her lips as she said it.
“Yeah…” I replied, “Tempura sent them a message, told them I’d be down. How am I looking on depth?”
“35,000 feet… you seeing a bottom yet?”
“No… not that I would until I was there.”
“Damn… how deep does this go?”
“It can’t go that deep…” I murmured, although I really wasn’t so sure about that.
The submarine continued to sink…
36,000 feet…
37,000 feet…
38,000 feet… and then finally, just past the 39,000 foot mark, I finally saw solid ground below me.
Looking through my viewport, I could see a familiar dark brown diatomaceous sludge, covering the seafloor. Microscopic life, likely similar to what had been observed in other deep sea trenches, such as the Challenger Deep.
I needed to gather a sample.
As my submarine reached the bottom, I extended the mechanical arms, pressed flat against the surface of the Tempura, and opened the collection port near the bottom of the ship. Slowly, I sifted some of the sludge into the port. My disturbance of the seafloor kicked up a cloud of the microbial colony, and I could’ve sworn I saw something wiggling through the debris. A pale, white thing, perhaps some sort of sea cucumber? I hastily angled my submarines camera to try and catch a glimpse of it, before returning to my collection. Even in this forlorn place, there was still so much to see! And here I was… completely forgetting my fear as the excitement took hold of me! Few people had ever been down to these unfathomable depths… and yet here I was.
It didn’t feel real but it was! I had reached the deepest part of the ocean!
“How’s it going down there?” I heard Sheila ask. Her voice was a little garbled. The connection down here was faltering.
“It’s beautiful…” I said. “I can’t wait for you to see it!”
“I’ll bet…”
“I’m going to do a sweep of the area, see what samples I can gather,” I said. “What’s my time right now?”
“Three hours. You’ve got nine before your connection to the weight deteriorates and you start to ascend.”
“I’ll make the most of it,” I said. The plan was only to stay down there for six hours, and I didn’t want to push that limit. Life support would only last me for so long, and one little error was all it would take for the ungodly pressure down here to crush me.
I began to move the submarine. Mobility was limited. This thing wasn’t built to travel far. But I still had some limited movement. I recorded all that I could, filming the shrimp that investigated my light, and the things that slithered and crawled through the muck, likely feeding on the carpet of single celled organisms that populated these depths.
The first two hours were… well… I hesitate to call them uneventful, they were actually very fascinating, but little of note happened beyond my recording of a few specimens.
Midway through the third hour though, as I was reaching one of the rock walls of the abyss, I noticed something just above the edge of my viewport swimming away from the light. I could’ve sworn I saw slender, pale tentacles of some sort. Was that a squid? Were there squid down this deep? I wasn’t aware of any species of known squid who could reach these depths… but in this unknown place, what use was the known?
I moved my light and my camera to try and catch another glimpse of it, but whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. Maybe I’d see another one. I still had plenty of time.
“You made a noise. What’d you see?” Sheila asked.
“Something big… I think,” I said.
“Down there? Like a fish?”
“Squid. You wouldn’t find any vertebrates down this deep… the pressure would crush their bones.”
“Jeez…”
I didn’t reply to that, still searching for the thing I’d seen. I shone my light up along the walls of the chasm and angled my camera up as far as it would go. I could see a few volcanic vents, spewing dark clouds into the darkness, and more diatoms. But not much else. Strange invertebrates crawled along the walls. Small creatures, no bigger than an inch long. Related to isopods, perhaps? If I could collect one as a sample, I would have… although taking any of those back to the surface would surely kill them. They were built to live under the impossible pressure of these depths. Taking them to the surface would rip them apart.
I went back to my research, and it wasn’t long until I saw something in the darkness, just on the edge of where my flashlight reached. Trailing white tendrils, snaking their way through the darkness. My eyes narrowed as I moved the submarine forward, trying to catch whatever it was in the light. I saw the shape move, its body turning… I saw its tendrils unfurling. Whatever this was, it was big. It was almost as big as The Tempura… although it was also slender. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was looking at some sort of floating debris, but this far down? No. And debris wouldn’t move like that.
This had to be a deepsea squid… or perhaps some other type of cephalopod? Something that preyed upon the various invertebrates down here, perhaps? It seemed to float, just out of sight for a bit, as I tried to get closer. I angled up my light to get a better look at it. The light seemed to shine through it, like some sort of ghost… but I did manage to get a look at it.
Although that look…
That single look made me freeze up.
This things slender tendrils certainly resembled a cephalopod of some sort, but the rest of it… the rest of it looked like something else entirely. Its body was thin, emaciated and translucent, yet despite that it still had characteristics that almost seemed… human. It wasn’t human! Not by any stretch of imagination, but the resemblance was there. It almost reminded me of an exhibit I’d seen in a museum once, depicting a preserved, fully removed human nervous system. I could see a similar shape in its translucent body. Its head seemed almost human as well… albeit with no eyes, and a lamprey like mouth I could only describe as fleshy yet crablike.
Still, despite having no eyes I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was looking at me. And that was when I felt something hit the submarine.
I felt a sudden jolt of panic in my chest. For a moment, I thought that the pressure had started to crush me, but no… no, everything was still fine. Something had just hit me. But what? It didn’t take long before I got my answer.
Another pale creature floated past my viewport, swirling gracefully in the cold dark waters. I watched it for a moment with wide eyes, before noticing its ‘head’ turning slightly toward me. Then, almost instantly, it launched itself at the submarine, darting toward me with blinding speed.
I heard a distinct THUD as its body collided with me, and I could see its pale tendrils pressing against the viewport, twisting and writhing violently. It was trying to attack me. The first creature that I’d seen lunged as well, pounding on my submarine with another THUD. And moments later, I could hear more impacts against the hull. There were more of them… and they did not like having me down there.
“What’s going on?” Sheila asked.
“Somebody doesn’t like me…” I said. “One of the animals down here… some kind of squid, it’s just started attacking the hull.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“Not sure… could be nothing, could be-”
I felt the submarine shake as I tried to move it. The thrusters that pushed me forward weren't responding. Had something gotten caught in it? One of the creatures perhaps?
“Grayson?!” Sheila asked.
“Lost propulsion…” I said. “Fuck… I can’t move.”
“Then drop the weight and come up!”
“No, it’s fine, there’s no other damage, I can still use the port and starboard thrusters to-”
“Grayson!”
I paused. There was genuine panic in her voice… enough to make me realize that even if these things stood little chance of actually breaching the hull, taking the risk would be a fatal mistake.
“I’m on my way up…” I finally said, before reaching out to disengage the ballast weights.
Immediately, I felt myself beginning to rise, although the tentacles clinging to my viewport didn’t disappear.
“We’ve got you…” Sheila said. “Rising up to 38,000 feet.”
The submarine continued to rise, but the creatures clinging to me went nowhere. In fact… I was sure I could see more of them. More pale shapes coming up through the darkness, and these ones filled me with dread. I thought I had been looking at some sort of eerie undiscovered life. But seeing what was coming up toward me now… I knew that I was looking at so much more. The creatures swimming up toward me through the darkness carried weapons… makeshift stone spears and daggers. Primitive tools… but tools all the same.
Signs that these were more than just undiscovered animals.
Much. Much more.
The word: ‘Mermaids’ crossed through my mind, but these were something far different than the ones I’d heard of in folklore. These looked like they’d swam out of the depths of hell itself. Boneless pale tendrils reached for me… and they were getting closer. The pale shapes reached my submarine as I rose higher. I kept praying to whatever God may be listening that the dropping pressure would force them off. The air in a submarine is pressurized, so during normal operation, there should have been no danger of decompression sickness for me.
For them… well… normally I’d feel a little guilty about subjecting an undiscovered species of deep sea mermaids to the horrors of the Bends. But given my circumstances, I didn’t have a lot of other options.
They didn’t let go, though.
They should have. But they didn’t.
What were these things?
I saw a splayed hand press against my viewport. Or… it somewhat resembled a hand. It had suckers on it, like a tentacle and the ‘fingers’ curled open like tentacles. The creature crawled over my viewport, clinging to The Tempura as it rose, and I could see the folds of its crablike mouth opening and pressing against the glass. I could see some sort of bile rising up through its translucent throat, before it secreted it all over my viewport. Was it trying to digest me? Was that how these things fed? How strong were its stomach acids? Were they strong enough to-
The window cracked.
My heart skipped a beat.
“No… no, no no…”
“Grayson, what’s wrong?!”
“They cracked the window… S-Sheila they… oh God… oh fuck, they just…”
“THEY DID WHAT?”
“It’s secreting some sort of enzyme… it’s on the window, it’s… FUCK… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…”
“You’re not gonna die, baby! Just… just keep ascending, okay? You’re at 30,000 feet… just keep going…”
I nodded, and kept on rising, although the question of whether or not the rest of the creatures were trying to digest the other parts of my submarine floated through my mind. How much damage could The Tempura take before it imploded? How much longer did I have? The submarine still continued to rise… 25,000 feet… almost halfway home… almost… almost.
The creature outside of my viewport slithered along the glass, searching for a better area to try and digest. Past him, I noticed a few of his companions dropping off. Maybe the change in pressure finally was getting to them?
From the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed a flashing light. A warning. The hydraulics on one of the Tempura’s arms were shot… what else was damaged?
I checked my oxygen levels. 32%.
I should’ve had at least 14 hours of air. I’d only been down there for about 6 hours… I shouldn’t have been this low.
31%.
No… no, no, no, no… they’d damaged the air tanks!
30%.
29%
“20,000 feet!” Sheila said. “You still with me, baby?”
“Y-yeah…” I said. I didn’t mention my air situation. I didn’t need to worry her further.
The submarine continued its ascent.
15,000 feet.
24%. I was running out of time.
The creatures still clung to the Tempura. How had the pressure change not killed them yet? My oxygen was dropping faster than before. I was hemorrhaging air. Another crack formed across my viewport. I let out a little, involuntary gasp before trying to force myself to stop hyperventilating.
“Grayson, what was that?”
“I-it’s fine…” I stammered, “It’s fine!”
“Grayson what the hell is going on down there?!”
“They’re still on the submarine… they’re still…” I paused, looking at my oxygen levels. “19%...”
“19% of what? Grayson what’s going on!”
I paused.
18%.
“Air… I’m… I’m losing air…”
“That’s fine, you’re going to make it!” She said, although I heard her voice cracking a little. “You’re gonna make it!”
I didn’t answer.
12,000 feet.
11,000 feet…
My oxygen level continued to drop.
15%.
14%.
12%.
9,000 feet.
The creatures still clung to me, as the submarine continued to rise. The one on my viewport was still there, slowly crawling along the glass again. I stared into its eyeless face and swore I was looking at the face of my killer.
7,000 feet…
Oxygen had dropped to 9%. It dropped to 8% before I even got to 6,000 feet. I was going to die here…
The viewport cracked again and I squeezed my eyes shut. The submarine rocked. I was sure one of the thrusters had been damaged. My ascent slowed.
“Grayson, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Sheila…”
Another crack spread across my viewport.
“I’m… I’m not making it back up…”
“YES YOU ARE!”
“I’m sorry…” The tears started to come as the reality of my death became clearer and clearer… this was it.
“YOU’RE COMING BACK UP, YOU HEAR ME! GODDAMNIT, I’LL BRING YOU BACK UP!”
“I love you…”
That creatures face pressed against the glass. It vomited more of its stomach acid onto the cracked glass, and I wondered if this might finally be what broke it. Part of me hoped it would be… the one good thing about dying this deep was that at least I’d die quickly. My suffering would be over. Then, the creature suddenly pulled back, twisting and writhing violently. I saw other shapes moving past it in the water, other ‘mermaids’ that had been clinging to the submarine.
Something was agitating them.
Something was scaring them off.
Then I heard it, over the radio… whale songs.
“What the hell…?”
“Grayson, are you still there?!”
“I… they’re finally breaking off. Sheila, what did you do?”
“I’m broadcasting some of the orca recordings we’ve been using. Are they still clinging to you?”
“No! They’re backing off! I… whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
The submarine kept rising.
5,000 feet.
4,000 feet.
4% oxygen.
I could still do this, right?
The submarine continued to rise.
3%.
3,000 feet.
2,000 feet.
2%.
1,000 feet… so close… I was so close…
I could almost see the surface through my viewport, rushing up toward me. I tried not to breathe. Tried not to move. All I did was hope.
500 feet.
I closed my eyes.
“Grayson we have your signal, we’re coming to pick you up!”
Sheila’s voice sounded so far away as my submarine finally breached the surface of the water… and with the last of my strength, I pulled the emergency release on the hatch, and threw it open, taking in lungful after lungful of fresh salty air.
I didn’t dare so much as touch the water beneath me… but I was topside again, and in the distance, I could see The Burger!
“We see you!” Sheila said, “We’ve got you baby… we’ve got you…”
“I see you too…” I said through the tears. “Thank you… thank you…” I didn’t have any words left in me after that.
As soon as I was back on the ship, I collapsed into Sheila’s arms, breaking down into tears as I clung to her, terrified that at any moment, some sort of unspoken other shoe would drop and I’d lose her all over again.
“Shh… it’s alright baby… I’ve got you… you’re safe… you’re safe…” I felt her fingers running through my air and I knew that what she said was true.
I was home.
I was safe.
***
I left my colleagues to review the data that the Tempura gathered during its short expedition. As far as I know, they haven’t published anything. I have a few ideas as to why, but I’ll keep those to myself. Let’s just say that some people would rather this information not become public.
I have a feeling that the Tempura may not be diving again for some time, if ever. I will confess that I do consider that a bit of a shame. Despite everything… I would consider it a success. It endured far more stressful conditions than I had expected, and from what I heard, required fewer repairs than I’d thought it would. But, even if it was approved for another dive, it wouldn’t be me piloting it. No. I will never be setting foot inside of that machine again, nor will I ever be returning to what my colleagues have been quietly referring to as ‘The Jenner Trench’.
I can’t.
Every night, I wake up crying after dreaming of pale shapes outside of my cracked viewport, clinging to Sheila and sobbing. I can’t put myself in that situation again.
I can’t.
Instead, I think I’m going to spend the next few years on solid ground. There’s a teaching position available at a local university. I think that might be the best place for me right now. Who knows, maybe I can help some other deadbeat discover a passion for marine biology.
After everything, my love for the sea remains unchanged… I’m just a little more wary of it, these days.

Hello! Does anyone have any experience with this style of heat pump?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoymSs7yuRE&ab_channel=JulaTools%26DIY
https://www.qlima.com/climate-comfort/monoblock-heat-pumps.html
The design looks attractive to me as I live in apartment under a pitched roof and it would be very difficult and expensive to install a ductless split system with an external unit. This type I could even install myself and looks much better then a portable unit which needs to have a hose through a window.
I'm more interested in the cooling functionality in summer times under this roof.
They don't seems to be a very popular option here in Europe, very few models available and I don't find anywhere near as much information/articles compared to other types of system, so Id love to hear from anyone with hands on experience.

Hi! I’ll give a TL;DR and more in depth below. Any help is greatly appreciated🙏
TL;DR - I’m 30 years old with a love for computers/technology that really evolved after college graduation. I have a degree in marketing and sales, currently selling ERP software to mid market organizations. I’ve come to not enjoy sales the way I used to, and is impacting my mental state. I sell software to finance & IT executives and I’ve always been jealous of the IT teams day to day. I’d love to find a way to get into this field, but how?
Longer version:
Background: I’ve been selling ERP software for 4 years now and make a comfortable living ($100k-$120k USD). As I’ve gained more experience in the professional world I’m finding I want to enjoy my work rather than chasing after money. To be honest, the ability to make money fast is why I went into sales in the first place. I’m now getting married in 2 months and will be trying for kids shortly after. My job in sales is high pressure and stressful, and is negatively impacting my mental state and behavior. I want to have a happy career before having a family as I believe it’ll help me be a better husband and father.
Why IT: After college I switched from being an Xbox gamer to a PC gamer. I built my own PC and fell in love with learning about computer hardware. My current work is all about software, which I also have built an interest in matching the right software for different challenges (selling it not so much though). I work with IT teams and am jealous of their day to day and the projects they are involved in. Candidly, they also seem much happier in their career than myself and my peer salespeople.
What next: I have a degree in marketing and a minor in sales. When I was in college I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew I could make money in sales. If I could do it over, I would have chosen computer science. My current work is very demanding and I don’t know if I have it in me (time & money) to go back to school for a degree in computer science. I’d like to know what steps I can take to transition into IT. Would anyone have a recommendation for a path? Such as getting certain certifications and pursuing entry level jobs? Perhaps IT "boot camps?"
Thank you to anyone who can help!

Hi there! I am working on a project for Pride that is about Alan Turing. I live in California, USA and I’m wondering if any UK friends on here would be willing to mail me one of those Alan Turing £50 notes? I could Zelle you it’s worth or find a way to pay for it and the shipping, I just think it would be cool to include one of these with the project.
Lmk if anyone would like to help! 😁😁

Hey Everyone,
So I've been working as a full stack C# .NET developer for about a decade now. Learning a new front-end framework called React at the moment to expand my skillset. Basically, I create databases, program computer services, build apps, and support them. I've worked at every level in the "software development lifecycle".
All of my 10 years of experience are with really small companies. Nine years was spent at a independent software vendor with government contracts. I loved what I did for many years, until the company was purchased and moved to another state. At our largest we were ~8 people with 3-4 devs, and I was the most senior dev at that time as well.
I'm now working as an independent contractor for another small company, but in the construction services sector. I was brought in to save a failing series of projects with a team that was burnt out, and frankly, abused by their previous programming manager. Despite my best efforts, our most promising junior dev was already planning to leave, and then my employer saw fit to fire the remaining 3 developers, leaving just me after a few months.
It's been about 3 months of solo work now, and I'm exhausted with no one to work with. I'm now doing my best to find a job at a larger company. I want to work somewhere where I actually have a team- whether I'm just a programmer, or a project lead/manager, I do best when I have people to collaborate and communicate with. Frankly, the solo independent contractor life isn't for me and never will be.
After feeling like I nailed a number of interviews but still didn't get any offers, I'm at a bit of a loss on where to go next. I'm still regularly applying to jobs and working with recruiters, setting up interviews, etc. but losing faith.
I'm open to remote work, hybrid, and on-site. I'm an extrovert and really prefer getting to know people in-person, at least a little bit. I also live in an incredibly good area for jobs (DC/MD/VA area), but so much of it is "clearance required" work, which I do not have (but could obtain). A lot of it is also more true engineering work, not full stack web dev which is less scientific. Because I lack serious experience with engineering languages like C, C++, Java, etc. I feel like my skillset is just not lining up with most of the opportunities I'm pursuing.
I'm now considering a few options, and want to know what you guys think:

1. Go back to school and take CS classes, maybe even get a second bachelor's. My degree is Information Systems with a focus in application development and database management, not Computer Science. I actually started out as an Electrical Engineering major, but dislike working with complex hardware/circuitry. Would taking classes in C++, Java, algorithms, systems engineering, etc. help me land the more "software engineering" related positions in my area, or would it just be a waste of money?
   
2. Work on certifications and take project management courses. I've always felt I will go the management route one day. I tend to end up mentoring others, providing guidance and speaking up for my team, etc. during projects, and like the idea of facilitating communication and collaboration for engineering teams. My concern here is: I haven't worked for very large companies, so I worry I won't understand there processes from the get-go. My largest team was only 4-5 developers and I loved it, but I know some larger companies have teams of 10-15.
   
3. Go back to school and get a Master's degree in higher education. It's always been a dream of mine to work in the industry, do cool technical things and make decent money for a while, BUT then go work in education, probably at the high school or university level. My "ten year plan" (I'm 32) was to do this in my mid-40's, but this recent stagnation has me wondering if I should just go for it and accept that I won't be making six figures again for quite a while.
   

What do y'all think? Appreciate any thoughts, insight, or mentoring.

Solchan has officially been on the Solana network for a little over 1 month now. There have been some huge strides made by the team, let's check them out!
Finally after much anticipation you can now “tip” posts on Solchan. Tipping is Solchan’s version of a like or upvote, you see a cool post, tip it! Tipping allows you to send Solchan tokens to whoever the OP is if they have their wallet address connected.

• The tipping function burns 10% of the tokens and puts 5% of them towards the Solchan team, meaning that the person you tip gets 85% of the original amount you tip.
• The amount originally tipped will be displayed next to the original post and will have a live USD equivalent. This allows someone to tip say 10,000 Solchan right now for x amount USD then in the future if the token has grown 5-10x the amount in USD will be displayed.
• FEATURES YET TO BE IMPLEMENTED: tipping leaderboard, who has given and gotten the most.
• Tipping gives Solchan even more utility than before because you can only use its tokens to tip a good post.

Get out there and start making some absolutely beautiful threads and get paid for posting your mind online!
Additionally, Solchan has officially partnered with Bonfida, Solana Name Service. This allows you to display your .sol domain on your Solchan thread. So when posting you go from a jumble of characters to a humanized name.
Solchan is getting closer to the ideal crypto social media, the team has consistently delivered on their promises and will continue to do so.
Come be a part of a great community and something greater than yourself. Study Solchan.

Solchan has officially been on the Solana network for a little over 1 month now. There have been some huge strides made by the team, let's check them out!
Finally after much anticipation you can now “tip” posts on Solchan. Tipping is Solchan’s version of a like or upvote, you see a cool post, tip it! Tipping allows you to send Solchan tokens to whoever the OP is if they have their wallet address connected.

• The tipping function burns 10% of the tokens and puts 5% of them towards the Solchan team, meaning that the person you tip gets 85% of the original amount you tip.
• The amount originally tipped will be displayed next to the original post and will have a live USD equivalent. This allows someone to tip say 10,000 Solchan right now for x amount USD then in the future if the token has grown 5-10x the amount in USD will be displayed.
• FEATURES YET TO BE IMPLEMENTED: tipping leaderboard, who has given and gotten the most.
• Tipping gives Solchan even more utility than before because you can only use its tokens to tip a good post.

Get out there and start making some absolutely beautiful threads and get paid for posting your mind online!
Additionally, Solchan has officially partnered with Bonfida, Solana Name Service. This allows you to display your .sol domain on your Solchan thread. So when posting you go from a jumble of characters to a humanized name.
Solchan is getting closer to the ideal crypto social media, the team has consistently delivered on their promises and will continue to do so.
Come be a part of a great community and something greater than yourself. Study Solchan.

Solchan has officially been on the Solana network for a little over 1 month now. There have been some huge strides made by the team, let's check them out!
Finally after much anticipation you can now “tip” posts on Solchan. Tipping is Solchan’s version of a like or upvote, you see a cool post, tip it! Tipping allows you to send Solchan tokens to whoever the OP is if they have their wallet address connected.

• The tipping function burns 10% of the tokens and puts 5% of them towards the Solchan team, meaning that the person you tip gets 85% of the original amount you tip.
• The amount originally tipped will be displayed next to the original post and will have a live USD equivalent. This allows someone to tip say 10,000 Solchan right now for x amount USD then in the future if the token has grown 5-10x the amount in USD will be displayed.
• FEATURES YET TO BE IMPLEMENTED: tipping leaderboard, who has given and gotten the most.
• Tipping gives Solchan even more utility than before because you can only use its tokens to tip a good post.

Get out there and start making some absolutely beautiful threads and get paid for posting your mind online!
Additionally, Solchan has officially partnered with Bonfida, Solana Name Service. This allows you to display your .sol domain on your Solchan thread. So when posting you go from a jumble of characters to a humanized name.
Solchan is getting closer to the ideal crypto social media, the team has consistently delivered on their promises and will continue to do so.
Come be a part of a great community and something greater than yourself. Study Solchan.