Do your tastes in fiction run a bit darker than most? Do you find yourself rooting for the bad guys in movies? Do you enjoy a good tragedy over a happy ending? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, this post is for you.
If you're anything like me, you've probably found yourself chasing the Abercrombie dragon after completing The First Law, standalones, and The Age of Madness trilogy, only to find that nothing else quite scratches that grimdark itch. Whether it's Joe's unforgettable characters, sharp dialogues, or epic battles, there's just something missing from other offerings in the genre.
So, as a thanks to all the authors of various recommendation threads from which I've picked up some wonderful books, I've put together this list to share where my wanderings have taken me and to hopefully point others like me in the right direction.
In no particular order:

1. Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb (fb: Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest)
2. Dune - Frank Herbert (fb: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune...)
3. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
4. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
5. The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolf (fb: The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch)
6. The Black Company - Glen Cook (fb: Shadows Linger, The White Rose, Shadow Games, Dreams of Steel, The Silver Spike, Bleak Seasons, She Is the Darkness, Water Sleeps, Soldiers Live...)
7. Heroes Die - Matthew Stover (fb: Blade of Tyshalle)
8. Theft of Swords - Michael J. Sullivan (fb: Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron)
9. The Darkness That Comes Before - R. Scott Bakker (fb: The Warrior Prophet, The Thousandfold Thought, The Judging Eye, The White-Luck Warrior, The Great Ordeal, The Unholy Consult)
10. Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence (fb: King of Thorns, Emperor of Thorns)
11. Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson (fb: Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, House of Chains, Midnight Tides, The Bonehunters, Reaper's Gale, Toll the Hounds, Dust of Dreams, The Crippled God)
12. Blood Song - Anthony Ryan (fb: Tower Lord, Queen of Fire)
13. Metro 2033 - Dmitry Glukhovsky (fb: Metro 2034, Metro 2035)
14. Red Rising - Pierce Brown (fb: Golden Son, Morning Star, Iron Gold, Dark Age, Lightbringer...)
15. The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell (fb: Enemy of God, Excalibur)
16. The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson (fb: The Monster Baru Cormorant, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant...)
17. Horus Rising - Dan Abnett (fb: False Gods, Galaxy in Flames)
18. Xenos - Dan Abnett (fb: Malleus, Hereticus, Ravenor...)
19. Red Sister - Mark Lawrence (fb: Grey Sister, Holy Sister)
20. The Ember Blade - Chris Wooding (fb: The Shadow Casket)
21. Priest of Bones - Peter McLean (fb: Priest of Lies, Priest of Gallows, Priest of Crowns)
22. The Conspiracy Against the Human Race - Thomas Ligotti (fb: Songs of a Dead Dreamer)
23. Kings of Paradise - Richard Nell (fb: Kings of Ash, Kings of Heavan)
24. Empire of Silence - Christopher Ruocchio (fb: Howling Dark, Demon in White, Kingdoms of Death, Ashes of Man, Disquiet Gods)
25. We Are the Dead - Mike Shackle (fb: A Fool's Hope, Until the Last)
26. The Black Prism - Brent Weeks (fb: The Blinding Knife, The Broken Eye, The Blood Mirror, The Burning White)
27. Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - K.J. Parker (fb: How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It, Practical Guide to Conquering the World)
28. Blackwing - Ed McDonald (fb: Ravencry, Crowfall)
29. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin (fb: A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons...)
30. The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks (fb: Shadow's Edge, Beyond the Shadows)
31. Chasing Graves - Ben Galley (fb: Grim Solace, Breaking Chaos)
32. Soul Hunter - Aaron Dembski-Bowden (fb: Blood Reaver, Void Stalker)
33. Berserk - Kentaro Miura
34. Beyond Redemption - Michael R. Fletcher (fb: The Mirror's Truth, Swarm and Steel)
35. The Warded Man - Peter V. Brett (fb: The Desert Spear, The Daylight War, The Skull Throne, The Core)
36. The Barrow - Mark Smylie (fb: Black Heart)
37. Winterbirth - Brian Ruckley (fb: Bloodheir, Fall of Thanes)
38. Scourge of the Betrayer - Jeff Salyards (fb: Veil of the Deserters, Chains of the Heretic)

If you enjoyed this list, please drop some recommendations! I'm always hunting for more quality grimdark.

So my partner and I have been in our current apt for about 4 years. We had a new upstair neighbor move in about 1year ago. Right away I began noticing tons of cigarette butts and ash on my balcony. For the first few weeks or so I would sweep them up myself (I dont like confrontation) but eventually it started getting worse, cigarette butts, lit cigarettes(one of which burned a hole in our chair cushion, a major fire hazard), teeth flossers, food items and other trash. Once when they were out on their deck my fiance shouted up to them, "can you please stop dumping your stuff down here?" They later talked to us and said they accidentally dropped them but we really didnt buy that because there were so many and the variety of stuff that was there. Fast forward to a couple months ago, we began seeing large bags full of trash being thrown down into the woods below often times trash would fall out of the bags and land on our porch. We were also getting tons of dry ceral on our porch(our balconies face thick woods with a creek about 100ft below) anyways we saw this happening pretty often, atleast once a week. We asked them again to please stop throwing trash. They denied it claiming they never threw trash, they're the top floor so unless someone is living on the roof, its them. I would also like to include that our downstairs neighbor also gets tons of garbage, cigarettes and cereal on their balcony. They are just as frustrated as we are. Anyways the upstairs completely denied throwing trash ever. The evidence is visible by looking down off our balcony. Bags, trash all kind of stuff. Plus our downstairs neighbor and us have seen it being thrown with our own eyes. The downstairs neighbor got really mad and went up and full on yelled at them. I dont condone this but I was really hoping they would finally stop. They had this big dramatic reaction, "OH im SO sorry! I had NO idea, it'll NEVER happen again!" Cue the next day we see trash being thrown off again, with some landing on our balcony. I finally sent a complaint to our apt manager because it was very frustrating and I was tired of interacting with them. That leads us to today. My partner and I get back from a date and they're outside packing things. They say to us, "just so you know Ive been given a 30 day notice to vacate, I told you I didnt throw anything."
Im really shocked. I didnt want them to get kicked out. More a fine or stern talking to just so they would finally stop. Before them we had a literal meth lab up there that management wouldn't do anything about. So im really dumbfounded that they would kick someone out over this. I never meant for this to happen and I feel really bad.

Hey all! So I wanted to give a part two since I'm not high now lol, and also I wanted to clear up some things and add in some other details I left out that I just remembered. If you haven't seen the first part of this post then I suggest going to that, otherwise you'll be very confused. Also, I forgot to add this in my first post but DON'T READ if triggered by certain topics like r*ape, SA, murder, abuse, etc. Another thing is, this post is going to be a lot darker and aside from talking about what happened, I'm also looking for advice on my mental state and how to cope. So please read with caution because I'm going to be talking about what happened with B, but also about my past before him and how what happened is affecting my past trauma.
So, I'm not going to retell the whole story but I am going to be bringing up a lot of parts from it and things I didn't realize until after the incident happened. And some of the things I didn't think of until my friend brought it up. So in my first post, I was talking about how B (26M) was REALLY into Jeffrey Dahmer. Well, in the show we watched with Evan Peters, I noticed a lot of things Jeffrey did as well as already knowing a lot about him before watching it. I noticed that B was doing a lot of things similar to him. Now, I forgot to add in this part last time, but B was really 'straight phobic.' Now I'm a bi transman but I don't hate cis / straight people. In fact, a lot of my friends are cis and in straight relationships. For some reason though, he did, to a weird extent. And even though he was being respectful in the beginning, I'm starting to get a feeling he wasn't actually gay or cared about trans people. Because it seems as though ALL of his former partners were transmen. Which isn't that weird I guess, and he did tell me he tried dating a cis man before but it didn't work. After I met him in person he was telling me that he really liked his trans partners to still have sex vaginally and he liked tits. So, I was kind of confused at that. I think what was really going on was that he isn't gay but wanted to be so he could be like Jeffrey Dahmer. I know it's a bit of a stretch, but you'll see why later. So another thing is, Jeffrey would always ask his potential victims to go back to his place for drinks and to take photos, particularly sexual ones. Jeffrey would then lace the drinks and go on to do weird things to his victims while taking their pictures. And while I was trapped at his place, B kept pushing alcohol on me, A LOT. So much so, that when I kept refusing he started getting angry. However, once I pretended to take a sip it was like his whole attitude changed. He also kept joking it was laced, like EVERYTIME he offered me some. Even though I didn't actually drink any, like I said in the first post, I still got a few drops on my lips and in my mouth. After that I started to get a headache and was a bit dizzy. Also, he had told me before that he liked to take pictures of his partners in sexual poses while they held his guns. Aside from the guns, that's EXACTLY WHAT JEFFREY WOULD DO. For some reason, I didn't piece any of this together until afterwards. I guess I was too shaken up to think clearly. I said this before as well, but when I first entered his house, it was pitch black and he had black out curtains on EVERY WINDOW in his house. His bedroom, living room, kitchen, I mean his whole house made it seem like it was night outside. Another thing that is eerily similar to Jeffrey, is that B told me before I met him in person he always liked dating someone younger. I, at the time, was nineteen and he was twenty five, about to turn twenty six. I honestly don't know what was wrong with me so have not seen the BIG RED FLAGS in the beginning, but he played it off so well I didn't even notice them until after everything happened. And it isn't like me to go for older guys, I usually try to go for someone two years older or younger than me, as I don't like have a huge age gap between me and my partner. Anyway though, Jeffrey always went for younger guys, as well as sometimes KIDS. So, that's another thing similar between them, as well as the fact that B told me he was into little brother play. Where he makes his partners act like a younger brother during sex, etc. He also told me he liked for his partners to SUCK ON BINKIES. BRUHHHH, no thanks bro, I'm good. See, if it was just one of these things that he liked / was into, then I guess it would be normal. Just a guy into a weird ass kink, but all these things combined just did not sit right with me as well as how he was acting. Now, I said in my other post that basically the ENTIRE TIME I was with him, he had a weird ass expression on his face that made me uncomfortable. I wish I could explain better, but it was like constipated / confused look, like Edward from Twilight when he does those weird facial expressions. His brows were always furrowed and he looked like he was uncomfortable / anxious the whole time. He was being super sketchy. His body language was just really off-putting and made me feel weird. And the thing he kept ranting about the most was how Jeffrey Dahmer was misunderstood and just needed someone to be there for him, and then maybe he wouldn't have killed people. The thing that scared me the most was how he said he felt the same way, that he wished he could just have someone not leave him and how he had trust issues after his former partners. Especially the one I mentioned in the last post, about how his ex partner before me snuck out in the middle of the night and got his family to come get him. His family lived across the country, so it had to have been pretty bad for his ex to call his parents and tell them to come get him. Because they drove across multiple different states to come pick him up in the middle of the night so he could sneak away. I have a major feeling that B left out a lot of their fight and why his ex actually left. Not to mention while I was with him, he watched every move I made and wouldn't let me get on my phone without him seeing what I was doing / texting to people. I have a feeling if he thought I was trying to leave him he would've done something bad. Just like Jeffrey. Jeffrey wouldn't always hurt his victims (Not at first anyway) it was always when they said they had to leave that he would get angry and force them to stay. So, idk man, I could've been killed or worse. Also, I know I said I could've been killed or worse, and some of you are probably thinking what's worse than being killed? Well, to me, a lot of things he could've done would have been worse. Especially if he was trying to be like Dahmer, then I could've gotten acid injected into my brain or been r*aped. Which is exactly what I think he was trying to do, with how much alcohol he was trying to push on me. He also kept 'petting' me and touching my thighs while he told me all the ways he'd kill me 'if he was a serial killer.' I genuinely think that something bad would've happened if I didn't have one HELL of an excuse to leave. Because honestly, my mom couldn't have given a better excuse for me to go that also sounded real and not like a lie. Because, like I said before, I had told him before I met him that my mother had health issues and was always in and out of the hospital, so it was perfect that she used that as an excuse. He got really cold and wasn't speaking to me when he heard my phone call and that I had to leave, but I think if I would've tried to leave without that excuse or by giving him an obvious lie, then I might not be here. I'm also super grateful to my best friends who let me come to their place and stay late instead of going home. Me and my best friend, basically my sister, have talked about this a lot since it happened and every time we do, we try to rationalize why someone would act like that, other than being an actual serial killer / r*pist. But we can never think of a reason besides the fact that he simply is what he seems like. A really unhinged person who could've hurt me badly. Also, this was my FIRST TRUE experience in online dating and I honestly think I'm never going to try that again. I've run into so many creeps trying to date online, AND in real life. Most people who aren't trans probably don't realize or know this, but there are a lot of men that want to do really weird and fucked up things to trans people because I guess they think we are some mutant or something, or 'the best of both worlds.' I've run into them a lot, and when I met B, I thought that was over. I thought I had met an actual good person who was educated on trans topics and was respectful of my boundaries and my body. Nope. Now I'm starting to think dating, at least where I live now, is almost impossible and I think I'm going to be alone for awhile. :') Not to mention, I'm now traumatized after what happened with B, and I already had trouble trusting men, and just people in general. Before meeting him I have already been SAed before, multiple times. I guess I'm simply asking for advice on how to move on from something like this. I was trying, and doing kind of ok, moving on from things that had happened before I met B, but now after what happened with him I feel like I'm back sliding and it's making me relive all my past traumas. I basically trust no one, when it comes to sexual things, besides my two best friends I've known since childhood. I tend to over sexualize everything, even things that aren't sexual at all, and get scared around ANYONE, even family members, who I know deep down don't see me like that. I was also abused as a kid and wasn't able to get out of it until I was eighteen, and I've only just turned twenty now, so it wasn't even until two years ago I was still being abused. I feel I've fallen into the dark again and my panic attacks have gotten worse again. I feel depressed and I didn't realize until recently that I'm suicidal again. I didn't realize it until recently, because when I was younger and suicidal, I knew I was. I've tried unaliving myself before so I didn't think about it because I don't feel that way now. It's different this time. Instead of my thoughts directly wanting me to pull out a gun and, ya know, this time it's more subtle and more of a subconscious action. Like closing my eyes for a few seconds while driving. Or intrusive thoughts about ramming head first into the car in the other lane. Or going hiking and thinking of what it would feel like to step off the cliff. I'm honestly just tired. I feel like every person I meet has some kind of ulterior motive, whatever it is. I'm working at a really nice job but it seems like every time I save up money and am doing good for my future, I have to use it on something unexpected that pops into my life. I'm living with my grandparents for now because they said they weren't going to charge me rent, and I'm super grateful for that, but even still I can't keep money and I kind of just don't see my future anymore. Both my parents were drug addicts, my mother to pain pills then xans after that, my father was mainly an alcoholic but also did meth, pills, and other things. It doesn't help because when I was younger, around my early teen years (13-16) I started smoking cigs when I was 12, then I started smoking weed, which I still do, but then it got worse and I've tried xans, snorting pills I didn't even know what they were, drinking, and I've even done shrooms and LSD. I've also had some really bad trips on LSD that made my severe panic disorder worse and after that I now disassociate a lot too and have trouble knowing if I'm in reality while having a panic attack. And after what happened with B, his house and the smell (Cigs and booze) just reminded me what it was like living with my parents in that crack house looking trailer. It's like my brain won't let me let go of the past and move on. It's like I'm constantly stuck there still. And aside from dating, it's also super hard to meet people as friends where I live. I love my two best friends, one of which has been with me since we were basically fetuses and her parents and mine were friends, so her parents were also abusive drug addicts. It's nice to have someone so close and how we can relate to what we went through. We joke that we were traumatized by our parents, but also by each other's parents as well lol. Even though I'm grateful for them, you never know what's going to happen in the future and I don't want to be solely dependent on them and be able to make new friends, but I just can't. I feel so alone, and my friend I grew up with has been moved out a lot longer than me and has had time to heal, and I don't wanna keep dumping my mental problems on her because it's unfair to her. I feel like I'm just bringing her back to our past with me. When I moved out, I completely cut ties with my father, I don't even like calling him that, as he was the first person to SA me and he is, in general, and evil person. I try to think that evil people don't exist, but then I think of him and I realize they do. My mom though, is a good person when she isn't on anything. Recently though, I blocked her and haven't talked to her in over a month because she OD again on xans and amphetamines. I kind of realized recently that she is almost as bad as my father, even though I never wanted to admit that to myself. Because when I was younger, I admitted to her that he had SAed me and she kept pressuring me to tell her what happened, like, IN DETAIL. I told her no because I didn't want to relive it and think about it, even now I have a lot of repressed memories. And because I wouldn't tell her EXACTLY what happened, she doesn't believe. I think she does, deep down, but she doesn't want it to be real. And after her OD last month, she tried telling me she didn't and that it was just her BLOOD PRESSURE. LIKE OH MY GOD BITCH, WHY DO YOU LIE? She must think I'm stupid or something. Before I blocked her, I cussed her out over text and said something like "Who do you think was the first person at the hospital? Not grandma, not your husband, ME. I've always been there for you first. Who do you think told me you had OD? The doctors when I first got there!" And she still denies it, even though when me and my friend got the hospital she was lying there naked (they had to cut her clothes off to save her) with a breathing tube stuck down her throat. I've tried helping her my whole life but apparently she doesn't want help. So now I've gotten tired of her BS and I blocked her and now my grandma is pressuring me to talking to her, luckily though, my grandpa went through something similar as a kid and understands how it is so he isn't guilt tripping me into talking with her. I'm just tired of having to put into traumatic situations. My mental health just keeps getting worse. Somehow, trauma always finds me and nowadays, it seems my only friends are my demons. It used to not be like this, but now even when I'm with my two closest friends, I still feel lonely. Like they are reminding me that when I leave my friends, I'm alone again. Anyway, I know this probably isn't the right subreddit for this, but I kind of just started ranting, sorry for that.
Also, to clear some things up, no I don't use drugs, not anymore. I've never really been an addict at all in my life, somehow. I just did drugs because I wanted to escape when I was younger, and thankfully I never got addicted to any of them. Not like you can get addicted to LSD or shrooms anyway. The only thing I've got addicted to was cigarettes, which rn, is the least of my concerns. And as for weed, I used to be a major stoner but it started making my panic attacks worse so I stopped for a few years, cold turkey, and only recently started smoking it again. So, I'm not worried about weed and if anything, it's been helping now. Especially since I don't smoke it nearly as much as I used to. So, for those worried about me being or getting on drugs, don't worry I'm fine. I have made a clear boundary for myself to never do anything besides smoking my cigs and weed. Cause I've seen how drugs affect my parents and others I've known and I've sworn to myself that I won't become them. It also sucks though because I see psychedelics as something that can help a lot of people with trauma, and the first shrooms trip I ever did changed my life for the better. Now though, after my bad LSD trip, I don't know if I can every do them again. Maybe one day, but not for the foreseeable furture. Again, sorry for going on a rant. I'll probably post this to another subreddit and see if anyone can help. I'm not looking for therapy as I don't have the money or health insurance. Just looking for someone who can relate that has been able to move past similar things and find happiness. If you've read this far, thank you. Like seriously, from the bottom of my heart. It means a lot to me that someone would read about another person's problems and life experience. I hope whoever is reading this is having a great day / night wherever you are, and are living your best life. And for those reading that are going through a similar situation right now and can't get out, I promise you aren't alone. I haven't really gotten better, so I can't say things get better, but I can say it DOES get easier. All I can say is, you aren't alone in it. There are others, like me, who know your pain. Keep living, it'll be worth it. Even though I'm not doing my best and my mental problems are still with me, that doesn't mean it's all been bad. I've made a lot of amazing memories after I moved out. Keep going.

When your taste buds yearn for the mouthwatering flavor of a perfectly grilled steak, Hesperia, California, delivers like no other. This desert city may surprise you with its variety of steakhouses, each offering a unique twist on the classic steak dinner. Whether you're a local looking for a new favorite spot or a traveler passing through, these six top-rated steakhouses in Hesperia, California, in 2024 are sure to leave you craving more. Let's dive into these sizzling sensations and find out where your next steak adventure awaits!

1. Desert Flame Steakhouse

A Culinary Oasis

Nestled in the heart of Hesperia, Desert Flame Steakhouse is a beacon for steak lovers. Known for its rustic charm and warm atmosphere, this spot offers a dining experience that feels like a cozy retreat.

• Signature Dish: The Ribeye Special – a 16-ounce ribeye grilled to perfection and served with garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.
• Ambiance: Rustic décor with wooden accents, soft lighting, and a roaring fireplace.
• Must-Try: Their homemade steak sauce, a closely guarded recipe that perfectly complements any cut.

Why We Love It

Desert Flame doesn't just serve steaks; it serves memories. The staff here treat you like family, ensuring that every meal is a memorable one. Plus, their wine list is top-notch, featuring selections that pair beautifully with their menu.

2. Sierra Peaks Steakhouse

Elevated Dining

Perched on the outskirts of Hesperia, Sierra Peaks Steakhouse offers more than just a meal—it provides an experience. With panoramic views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, dining here feels like a special occasion every time.

• Signature Dish: The Filet Mignon – an 8-ounce filet wrapped in bacon, grilled to your liking, and served with a creamy mushroom sauce.
• Ambiance: Upscale with floor-to-ceiling windows, offering stunning mountain views.
• Must-Try: Their truffle mac and cheese, a decadent side dish that steals the show.

Why We Love It

Sierra Peaks combines breathtaking views with gourmet cuisine, making it the perfect spot for romantic dinners and celebrations. The attentive service and luxurious setting ensure that every visit is unforgettable.

3. Cattleman’s Grill

Down-Home Comfort

Cattleman’s Grill brings a touch of Texas to Hesperia with its hearty portions and laid-back vibe. This is the place to go when you want a great steak without any fuss.

• Signature Dish: The Cowboy Ribeye – a massive 20-ounce bone-in ribeye that's juicy, flavorful, and cooked to perfection.
• Ambiance: Casual and cozy with checkered tablecloths and country music.
• Must-Try: Their loaded baked potato, topped with cheese, bacon, and chives.

Why We Love It

Cattleman’s Grill is all about comfort food done right. The friendly service and relaxed atmosphere make it a favorite for families and groups of friends looking to enjoy a hearty meal together.

4. Pinnacle Steakhouse

Modern Elegance

For those who appreciate a modern twist on traditional steakhouse fare, Pinnacle Steakhouse is a must-visit. This chic eatery combines contemporary décor with a menu that’s both innovative and delicious.

• Signature Dish: The Wagyu Strip – a melt-in-your-mouth strip steak that's known for its rich marbling and buttery texture.
• Ambiance: Sleek and sophisticated with modern art and ambient lighting.
• Must-Try: Their bone marrow butter, which adds an extra layer of decadence to any steak.

Why We Love It

Pinnacle Steakhouse offers a fresh take on the classic steakhouse experience. The creative menu and stylish setting make it a great choice for date nights and special occasions.

5. Hesperia Chophouse

Timeless Tradition

Hesperia Chophouse is a local institution, beloved for its timeless approach to steakhouse dining. Here, tradition reigns supreme, and every dish is crafted with care.

• Signature Dish: The Porterhouse – a 24-ounce behemoth that's perfect for sharing, cooked to your exact specifications.
• Ambiance: Classic and elegant with white tablecloths and dark wood paneling.
• Must-Try: Their classic Caesar salad, prepared tableside for a bit of old-school flair.

Why We Love It

Hesperia Chophouse is where you go for a tried-and-true steakhouse experience. The impeccable service and attention to detail make it a standout in the local dining scene.

6. High Desert Steakhouse

Casual Excellence

Last but certainly not least, High Desert Steakhouse offers a laid-back environment with top-tier steaks. It's the perfect blend of casual dining and gourmet cuisine.

• Signature Dish: The New York Strip – a 12-ounce strip steak that's juicy and flavorful, served with your choice of sides.
• Ambiance: Relaxed and inviting with a friendly, down-to-earth staff.
• Must-Try: Their house-made chimichurri sauce, which adds a zesty kick to any steak.

Why We Love It

High Desert Steakhouse is all about great food without the pretense. It’s a fantastic spot for a casual dinner with friends or a relaxed family meal.

FAQs

What are the best steakhouses in Hesperia, California in 2024?

The six top-rated steakhouses in Hesperia, California, in 2024 include Desert Flame Steakhouse, Sierra Peaks Steakhouse, Cattleman’s Grill, Pinnacle Steakhouse, Hesperia Chophouse, and High Desert Steakhouse. Each offers a unique dining experience with delicious steaks and exceptional service.

Which steakhouse has the best view in Hesperia?

Sierra Peaks Steakhouse offers the best view, with stunning panoramic vistas of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, making it an ideal spot for a memorable dining experience.

Where can I find the most affordable steak in Hesperia?

Cattleman’s Grill is known for its hearty portions and reasonable prices, making it a great choice for those looking for a delicious yet affordable steak dinner.

Are any of these steakhouses good for special occasions?

Yes, Sierra Peaks Steakhouse and Pinnacle Steakhouse are particularly well-suited for special occasions, offering upscale dining experiences with elegant settings and exceptional menus.

Can I bring my kids to these steakhouses?

Absolutely! Places like Cattleman’s Grill and High Desert Steakhouse offer a casual and family-friendly atmosphere, making them great options for dining with kids.

Conclusion

Hesperia, California, may be known for its desert landscapes, but when it comes to steak, this city is a hidden gem. From the rustic charm of Desert Flame Steakhouse to the modern elegance of Pinnacle Steakhouse, there's a spot for every steak lover. So next time you're in town, treat yourself to a delicious meal at one of these six top-rated steakhouses in Hesperia, California, in 2024. Your taste buds will thank you!

You guys know what an alpine coaster is? They are like a small roller coaster you find in the mountains. They are also called summer toboggans or mountain coasters and I think there’s some long German compound word they are called in parts of Europe. They are like a roller coaster, but with much smaller one or two person sleds you just sit on instead of multi-person cars you ride in, and instead of being built with like a scaffolding or a framework the tracks are just on the ground, using the elevation of the mountain. Basically it’s a coaster track on the side of a mountain where you ride a sled down.
They are pretty fun. Or at least I used to think so. They are more “personal” than roller coasters and although you get nowhere near the speed on them that you do on a good traditional roller coaster and they can’t do corkscrews or loops or anything like that the openness and simplicity of the ride gives an impression of a much greater speed. You’re just sitting there with nothing but a little plastic sled and the track between you and the ground as it goes zooming by. It’s like the difference between how fast a go-cart feels compared to how fast a sports car feels. You know the sports car goes faster but the open, simpleness of a go-cart feels a different kind of fast. There’s plenty of POV Youtube videos if you want to get the basic idea of what they are.
I used to love alpine coasters. Used to.
My family used to go to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and up and down the Smokey Mountains for vacations when I was a kid and they are common in that area and I’d always rode them every chance I got.
But as with so many things after I grew up and went to college they just became part of my childhood that slipped away. They aren’t exactly common once you get away from the mountains.
Until one cool spring afternoon in 2004. I was in my final year at college and I was driving back to campus in Tennessee after a short visit to my folks in North Carolina. It was only like a 4 or 5 hour drive via the most efficient route and I had no need to be back at campus early so instead of taking the freeway all the way I got off and took part of my trip through the mountains. The scenery was nicer and I admit I liked pushing my Camaro just a little faster than I should through the twisty mountain roads.
Just after lunchtime happened upon one of those little by-the-highway tourist towns deep somewhere in the Smoky Mountains near the Carolina/Tennessee border. Nothing fancy, a gas station/truck stop, a diner, a couple of places selling tourist merch nestled deep in the mountains. I pulled into the gas station. My tank was getting low and I needed to stretch my legs, maybe grab something to eat. It was still early and I only had another couple of hours. I could kill an hour or so and still make it back to campus at a decent hour.
I pulled into the gas station and was filling my tank when I happened to glance across the road and… well I’ll be damned. There it was. “The Blue Ridge Alpine Coaster.” Nestled on the side of the mountain was a building, a mockup of a red barn, where a single railed track that led up into the mountains, where it soon got lost in the greenery. Wooden hand painted standees of cartoon character bears dressed in stereotypical “Hillbilly” getup stood around, some of them holding signs showing the ride hours and ticket costs and other info. I had to admit, as silly as it was, it made me smile.I finished pumping my gas and, well, nostalgia is a helluva thing. I decided then and there I could waste a little time riding an Alpine Coaster again after all these years before getting back on the road.
I parked my car in a corner of the truck stop's parking lot, put my phone in the center console, this being the days before smart phones when people didn’t keep their phones with them 24/7 and I didn’t want my old Nokia brick phone to fall out during the ride, locked my car and walked across the mountain highway to the Alpine Coaster building.
Getting closer, the place was less inviting. The half hearted attempt at a whimsical faux-Americana kitsch was far less effective when it brushed up against the actual decaying, run down wooden building. Hell calling it a building was generous. It was a wood frame holding up a long roof that covered the area where you got on the sleds. The wood boards creaked under my footsteps.
The only real enclosed structure was a shack that held, what I assumed, was a ticket booth. A door on the side had both a single occupancy bathroom with an out of order sign on it. An old Pepsi machine buzzed and glowed next to it.
Still the place looked alive. Ahead of me a bored looking attendant was helping a mother and her young son into one of the sleds while in a bored monotone repeating the safety brief. A few people were waiting in line at the ticket booth. Up in the mountains the playful shouts of people on the ride echoed down. Fond memories of my own childhood rides flooded my mind.10 minutes and 15 dollars later I was settling into the hard plastic seat of a bright red sled sat atop a simple aluminum rail.
I couldn’t help but grin as the sled slowly climbed the track up the mountains, making click-clack ratcheting sounds that hit my nostalgia centers hard. I felt good. The air was cool and crisp and smelled of pine.Higher and higher in the mountains we went. I don’t know if this is my mind trying to make sense of it after the fact but when I remember these moments, the last good moments, I sometimes think I remember a very slight, very subtle pit of fear in my stomach. I honestly don’t know if I felt it at the time or not or it’s just how my mind tries to make sense of it looking back at.
But either way mostly I was enjoying myself. I smiled. I was a kid again. I could hear riders in front of me let out that initial yell of terrified glee you get at the first drop of any good ride.
It peaked. I glanced around. I could see for miles, rolling hills and mountains. I the sled tipped over and zoomed down the mountain and I let out the same happy yell I heard from the other passengers.The ride zoomed down the mountain, catching speed. The mountain forest floor zoomed past, only a few feet under me. Trees zoomed past. I gave out a happy whoop as the ride banked hard around a curve and then looped back under itself.Another dip, another curve. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of the G-forces pulling me every which way.
There was no one exact single moment where things started to go “wrong.” The ride kept going. And going. At this point the first creeping thought entered my head.
The ride… was still going.
It just started to hit me… this ride was going on for a really long time. I had taken a dozen rides on various coasters of this type before that day and they topped out at about 5 minutes or so, and that was the long ones. Longer than a traditional roller coaster but not that long. This one had been going on for what felt like 10, maybe even 15 minutes.
I looked back over my shoulder and could only see trees, moving too fast to really get a bearing on where I was at in relation to anything.
I wasn't exactly really worried yet. Okay so I had found a particularly long alpine coaster. At the time I wasn’t 100% wasn't sure they didn’t exist or anything like that. I was a little… unnerved but nothing was happening that was impossible. Yet.
I was trying to talk myself back into just enjoying the ride and stop overthinking it, and halfway succeeded, when out of nowhere I suddenly banked hard, the track jutting out almost over a sheer cliffside. I gripped the sled more tightly as I was whipped around. The ride then dipped hard and picked up speed, barreling down the side of the mountain.
I was pushed back against the seat by the force of the drop. Jesus I didn’t remember them being this rough. I was feeling slightly nauseous. And where had this elevation drop come from I wondered? I was still in the foothills and I didn’t remember seeing anything but gentle rolling hills and light drops from looking at the ride’s route earlier. How the ride had managed such a long, steep drop in this area I didn’t know. . For the first time I hoped that the ride would be over soon. I had no idea then how much I would want that same hope to be true so much more as time went on.
With a whiplash motion I was whipped forward and then back as the ride leveled out on flat ground again, but by this point I was going fast, too fast. My neck hurt from the mild whiplash and I felt sour in my throat and for a moment the contents of my stomach threatened to come back up. For the first, but hardly the last time the ride felt unsafe. Alpine Coasters are tame affairs, much slower and gentler than full on roller coasters but this thing was throwing me around like no thrill ride I had ever been on.
I looked around. I mean I wasn’t that deep into the woods. I should have been able to see a glimpse of something; the highway, the gas station, the tourist shops, the Alpine Coaster office, something, anything. But nothing. Just trees.
I forced back some panic for the first time. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. The ride zoomed along. I counted to 60. I counted to 60 again. And again. Okay this was getting uncomfortably harder and harder to explain.
Suddenly I noticed that up ahead the track seemed to just end, for one brief, terrible moment I thought the track just ended but I was wrong. Almost without warning the track dipped in an almost vertical drop. I almost screamed as I plummeted for 20, maybe 30 seconds before flattening out again.
By this point the voice in my head that was telling me something was wrong was louder and I could no longer tell myself it was wrong. This ride could not have been this long. I tried to make sense of it, wondering if somehow I had gotten diverted onto some kind of maintenance track or, hell for one brief irrational moment even entertaining the idea that I had wound up on an actual train track somehow. But that was absurd. The rail below me was not a train track, it was still just the simple, aluminum rail of an alpine coaster and there had been no diversions or junctions in the track. I was still on the ride, as insane as that was starting to feel. Had the ride somehow looped? Again after having the thought I immediately dismissed it as crazy. There’s no way I could have missed the ride building where I got on. And what kind of ride loops over and over?
The sled zoomed through the forest, oddly never seeming to lose speed despite the relatively flat grade of the track. I cursed myself for leaving my phone in the car and not wearing a watch. I don’t know exactly how long I had been on the ride at that point but it felt like I had been on the ride for a half hour, maybe more. But time is a funny thing when you’re in a situation you’ve never been in. Could have been more, could have been less, at that point.
My pride finally failed me. I started to scream for help. I screamed out that the ride was broken, to stop it, that I needed help. I did that for about ten minutes or so I think. The ride kept going. Mostly flat, level track with occasional mild dips and turns. But the simple length of the ride grew more and more unnerving and unexplainable.
I thought about just bailing out. But the ride, impossibly, was still not slowing down and chunks of mountain rock and thick tree trunks were all around me. Bailing out without risking smashing into a rock or a tree seemed impossible.
The ride kept going.
Up ahead the forest was clearing out some, I could see the forest brightening, more sunlight making it through the canopy.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
The trees stopped and I had just enough time to take in a flat, open area of rock maybe 40, 50 yards at most before another sheer cliff. The tracks twisted and turned and then shot straight down. But that wasn’t the worst of it. For a moment, a very short moment, I had a clear view for miles and the landscape was, to be blunt, totally impossible. Any possibility that I had just stumbled on some incredibly long ride was blasted out of my head. Barren, volcanic looking rock stretched for miles. Jagged, black rocky outcroppings as far as the eye could see. I was in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. They don’t look like that.
I had a few moments for the terror of that view to settle in before the cart plunged into another horrifying drop. I gripped the handles of the cheap plastic sled until my knuckles turned white. The drop felt completely vertical, like I was falling at terminal velocity. I screamed. My stomach dropped and turned. I imagined the sled coming away from the track and me just plummeting screaming to my death on the rocks below. But somehow the ride still functioned. I closed my eyes tightly and just waited for whatever was going to happen. Eventually after several what felt like a full minute of steep plunging the track again leveled out, and I opened my eyes to see myself moving at breakneck speed over that black, rocky landscape.
Now that I was moving on a more or less flat horizontal track again I took a few deep breaths. I looked over the edge of the track. Nothing but that black, jagged rock, almost looking like obsidian, zooming past. I had no idea how fast the sled was moving now. Fast. Faster than a gravity powered sled should be moving. And the track was higher off the ground now. Alpine slides usually stick pretty close to the ground, but I was 20 feet or so in the air, the track suspended in the air, a simple metal tube tower like a power pylon every few yards.
Without any immediate threat and the sled moving fast but steadily and level I was able to think about my situation again, for all the good that did me. Ahead of me the track just continued to the horizon, nothing but the same rocky landscape as far as I could see. I craned my neck to look back over my shoulder and looked back behind me and it looked the same. Even the mountains were but distant specs on the horizon behind me.
This was insane. There’s not a giant seemingly endless field of black jagged rock in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. There’s no cliff faces tall and steep enough for a multi-minute vertical drop. And alpine coasters were small affairs, not major engineering projects that span miles with pylons and vertical tracks. It made no sense.
Sadly it wasn’t going to start making any more sense anytime soon.
The ride kept going.
I was on this rocky landscape for several hours. I feel comfortable saying this because I could actually notice the sun getting lower in the sky. And the sled wasn’t slowing down despite the grade of the track being flat. I was getting cramped from sitting and stretched my legs and twisted my back as best I could. Didn’t do much help. My eyes were starting to get irritated from the constant wind in them. Worst of all it was starting to get chilly. I only had on a light jacket, a windbreaker, just something to keep the breeze off me, no real insulation. I was cold, my joints were stiff, I was hungry and thirsty. My eyes watered and my throat was so dry it was sore.
But none of that was as bad as just how little sense this all made. There’s nothing like this place anywhere near the Smoky Mountains. This was like some volcanic rock landscape. The more I thought about it the less sense it made.
The ride kept going.
My mind didn’t even try to process this. Whatever I was experiencing simply couldn’t be possible. I was crazy. I was dreaming. The CIA had kidnapped me and dosed me with some new version of LSD and I was in a straightjacket in a padded room at Area 51.
The sled kept zooming along as the sky turned to dusk. Soon the bridge disappeared from my view and I continued on along the endless, rocky, featureless landscape.
I sat back against the sled, mentally and physically numb. I was exhausted. I was thirsty. I was cramping up. I was hungry. I had to pee. I held it for as long as I could, then had no choice but just wet myself. I cried until I had no more tears left. Then I just sat there.
The ride kept going.
By the time the sun dipped below the horizon my throat felt like sandpaper. I dug around in my jacket pockets hoping to find a stick of gum or piece of candy. Nothing. I checked again, having nothing else to do. Under a crumpled store receipt in the inner pocket of my jacket was a single old, forgotten cough drop. I unwrapped it from the paper and popped it in my mouth. Saliva flooded back into my mouth and I was overwhelmed by the methanol and medicine taste. It was something at least, although I knew it would be a brief and temporary fix at best.
I felt my eyes get heavy. It was getting colder. That mountain cold. That deep cold the mountains have even into the early spring when the sun goes down. That kind that just pulls the heat right out of you. I shivered. A terrible, horrible certainty came to me. I would ride until I passed out from exhaustion or the hypothermia set in. My body would tumble off the sled to fall and skip across the rocky ground like a stone skipping across a lake, my bones breaking as I tumbled until my body finally came to a stop. If I was lucky I would be killed and not have to lie for days, broken and bruised, on the ground until death took me.
The ride kept going. The ride kept going. The fucking ride kept going.
“Fuck you” I said to the ride, my voice a horse whisper. I pulled my jacket closer around me, for all the good it did. The cold wind was slowly but surely pulling my body heat away. My shivering got worse, crossing the line from a simple normal shiver into those deep, almost violent full body ones.. I wasn’t anything you could call an experienced outdoorsman, but I knew enough to know that wasn’t a good sign.
It was getting dark. There was a full moon at least so I wasn’t totally in the dark.
About then I noticed something. The landscape, what little I could see in the fading light, was changing. It was smoothing out, becoming less rocky and craggy. Up ahead an odd, shimmering light was starting to appear on the ground.
I was over it before I even realized what it was. The tracks were going over a smooth surface.
Water. It was a lake. The odd lights I had seen were the moon, reflected in ripples on the lake.
Within minutes I was out of the view of the land. After the nearly endless rocky landscape and everything else I had seen, it scared me how little I was shocked. I didn’t like how mentally numb I was getting. I leaned over. There was enough moonlight to see the water, 15 or 20 feet below the track. The pylons holding up the track went into the water, the light wasn’t good enough to even make a guess at how far they went down or how deep the water was.I leaned back in the sled. My eyes were red and bloodshot from the constant wind. I closed them. This was a mistake.I jerked awake. I don’t know if I dozed off for a split second or an hour. My weight had shifted and I caught myself as my center of gravity was in danger of sending me off the sled and into the water.
I screamed in anger. A deep primal scream. I hurt so bad. My joints felt like they were full of glass. My limbs were full of pins and needles. I glanced over at the water. For the first time on the very edges of my brain a tiny voice started to speak up, telling me that I could be all over if I just jumped. I shut the voice up, but it scared me still.
I sat there as the ride went on. It felt like hours. Eventually the lake ended in a rocky shore line. The damned ride. There was no safe place to bail out. If the ride slowed down, it was high in the air, if it moved toward the ground it sped up. Sharp rocks, big trees, nothing you could safely bail out into.
I kept having to force myself awake. I kept dozing off. Once I felt myself falling asleep and drove a vicious uppercut into my own nose to stave it off.
I seriously started to think about how much longer I could hang on. The voice came back again. This time I didn’t shut it up. I wasn’t admitting it to myself yet, but I was starting to think about the best way to land that would end it quickly if I needed to.
Something was ahead. The track seemed to dip into the ground. I was too tired, too beaten to even get scared. I was just resigned to whatever happened at this point.
With little warning the track took my sled into a tunnel in the ground. Everything went completely pitch black. After several moments even the dim moonlight was gone.
This was the worst part. The creepy forest, the immense rocky landscape, the eerie lake… those were bad. But this was just nothing. Nothing to look at, nothing to hear, nothing for reference or sense of where I was going. The walls of the tunnel felt like they were inches from me in every direction. The air felt thick, like there wasn’t enough oxygen.
With every moment I was in that tunnel I lost a little more hope. After a long, long time I made a decision. When I got out of this tunnel, I would jump. I didn’t care anymore. Hopefully there would be a spot where I could be certain the fall would instantly kill me. I was done. The ride had beaten me. I sat there, waiting for a chance to end this on my terms. That was all I had left.
Eventually up ahead, a tiny speck of light appeared. I gathered my strength, ready to end it. I sat up, getting my legs under me so I could jump as soon as we were clear. The sled burst out of the tunnel. The dim light of the full moon was enough to be momentarily blinding after the pitch black of the tunnel.. I gave my eyes a moment to adjust.
I was back in a normal looking Appalachian forest. Rolling hills, green trees. The air smelled of pine again. I heard an owl hoot off somewhere.
Slowly I lowered myself back into a setting position, in shock. At first I refused to believe it but the ride was slowing down. I held still, making sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, but no, the cheap plastic sled that had been my world for what felt like an eternity was slowing down.
Up ahead, a structure was visible, peeking out from among the trees in the dim lighting as the sled moved down the track.
It was the Alpine Slide building. The crappy fake red barn where I had boarded this cursed ride so long ago. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, sure it was either my mind or the cursed ride playing tricks with me. But the building stayed there.
It grew closer and closer. The track leveled completely out. The sled slowed down more. Before I had the time to really come to terms with it I arrived back at the building.
The sled slowed to a stop, gently pumping against another sled parked on the track. I sat there for a few moments, gasping in great big gulping fear breaths, trying to assure myself the ride didn’t have one last trick of its sleeve.
I looked around. The place was empty, deserted. The overhead lights were still on and the old Pepsi machine still glowed and buzzed, but the ticket booth was dark and empty, a metal gate pulled down over the ticket window.
Suddenly it hit me that I was free and I practically leapt out of the sled and onto the platform. I immediately collapsed. My legs were jelly and my head was spinning. I tried to stand up again and doubled over, dry heaving. Have you ever been out on a boat for a day and have that weird reverse motion sickness when you’re back on solid land? It was like that times a hundred. My inner ear was literally pounding, all the motion had really done a number on it.
I laid there for a few moments and eventually forced myself to stand up on my two wobbling legs. I looked around, a horrible certainty creeping into my mind that there would be no exit, no way off the platform but to my relief an exit turnstyle, one of those full height ones, was set into the fence that surrounded the ride property.
I went through it and found myself back on the main road. The truckstop was still there, still open but far less busy. My car sat in the same corner of the parking lot I had left it.
I allowed myself one look back, just one quick one. The metal skeleton of the Alpine Slide track sat there, dark and quiet but otherwise normal.
I stumbled-ran back to my car, dug the keys out of my pocket, and collapsed inside. When the door shut I let out a primal scream, the tons of fear and confusion and anger all fusing into a single, raw emotion. I screamed again and again.
After a few moments I felt like I was emotionally at least back to a place where I could act, although I wasn’t sure yet what to do next. Not really knowing what to do I cranked the car. The A/C had been on low when I shut off the car and it came roaring back to life and cold air blowing on me almost sent me back into a full on panic attack. I fumbled with the climate controls until the air stopped blowing directly on me, then calmed down enough to turn the heat on, helping to get the chill out of my bones. There was a half full bottle of water in the center console cup holder and I grabbed it and chugged it. Nothing ever tasted as good before or sense as that few ounces of water.
That was when I noticed the clock on the radio head unit. It was 4:17 in the morning. It had been about one, one thirty or so in the afternoon when I got on the accursed ride.
Over 15 hours. I had been on the goddamn ride for over 15 hours. Over half a day.
I just sat there. Warming up. Calming down. I was exhausted. I was dehydrated. I can’t even describe how my head felt. I probably had at least a minor case of hypothermia. I thought about going into the gas station and asking for help but what would I even say, and more than anything I just wanted to get away from this place. And I just wanted to get away. I wanted to be nowhere near that damn ride.
I put the Camaro in gear and pulled into the street and in panic I immediately slammed on the brakes. I was lucky there was no traffic on the road at that moment. The feeling of accelerating to just normal surface street speeds made me sick to my stomach. I gathered myself and very slowly accelerated the car I usually treated with a very heavy foot up to 30 miles an hour. Every time I tried to accelerate at a pace faster than “Old Lady Going to Church, Uphill” I would have a panic attack. I was okay once I was up to speed, but accelerating freaked me out after being on that ride.
I drove about 30 minutes, putting some arbitrary amount of distance between myself and the coaster. Eventually I made it back to where the twisty mountain road met back up with a major road that would eventually meet back up with the highway. After a few more minutes of driving I saw the onramp for the highway. There was one of those big truckstop travel plazas and pulled in, parking right up at the door. I smelled like pee and I can only imagine how I looked, but I didn’t care.
I kept a couple of emergency 20s in the back of my wallet and spent it on the biggest bottle of water the store had, an overpriced bottle of eye drops, and a huge travel mug of coffee. The clerk looked at me as if he was expecting me to either drop dead or rob him the entire time.
Back in my car I downed the coffee. I put a few eye drops in each of my eyes and sat there as the caffeine took effect until I felt like I could make it back to my apartment. The sun was just coming up when I finally pulled out of the truck stop and got on the freeway. I slowly, very slowly, accelerated up to highway speed, put the Camaro in cruise control, and let the miles start to drift away. I turned on the radio, I needed to hear human voices. Every time my mind went back to what had just happened I turned the radio up louder, eventually drowning it out with painful levels of rock music. I wasn’t ready to think about it yet. Yes looking back I know I was just in denial. I finally made it back to the crappy little apartment I had off campus, a little two story walk up studio. I let myself in and collapsed on the cheap couch. I was asleep before I even had the time to decide whether or not to do anything else. I woke up later that afternoon. I took a shower and ate a meal and didn’t think about the ride. I washed the pee stained filthy clothes I had been wearing and didn’t think about the ride. I went back to class and didn’t think about the ride. Every time I thought about the ride I forced it out of my head. I’m sure this wasn’t the most mentally healthy thing to do but what can you say?
I didn’t forget about it, don’t be silly. This isn’t the kind of thing you forget. One day while looking up something else in the university’s library my curiosity got the better of me and I looked up the Alpine Slide. No website but a few Google Map and Yelp mentions. None of them mentioned anything weird, certainly nothing even remotely like what I experienced. Near as I can tell it closed sometimes in the winter of 2012.
Life went on. I mean, that’s what it does. The next day was a little better. And the day after that a little better. And the day after that a little better still. I met a nice girl. Graduated. Got married. Got a nice house in the suburbs. Got a dog. Had a daughter. Spent a lot of time happy and not thinking about being trapped on an endless alpine coaster.And that was my life for many, many years after that.
Until a few weeks back when as a very different person I found myself driving a boring and safe mid sized family SUV through those same mountains. My wife Carol, 5 months pregnant, sat in the passenger seat, our 6 year old daughter Emily in a booster seat in the back, and Max our mixed breed mutt next to her. It had been a nice pleasant trip, driving back from visiting her folks.
I hadn’t thought about that fucking ride in so long I barely registered that I was in the same general area until it was too late. Suddenly I realized that little mountain tourist trap town was only a few minutes down the road. I swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel hard. Carol was looking out the window at the scenery and Emily was deep into some kid’s Youtube video on an iPad. I forced myself to keep my breath steady as we rounded the corner.The town was still there, sorta. Time had not been kind to it. The gas station was still there, at some point it had been bought out by Shell. The tourist trap shops were still there. One of them was now a vape shop. The diner was closed, the building looking like it sat unused for a long time.
But of course that’s not what I cared about. A looked over at the site where the Alpine Coaster once stood. It was gone. The kitschy fake barn was gone. The site was just a bare concrete slab with a chainlink fence around it. Faded “no trespassing” and “for sale” signs hung off the fence. A pile of old, decaying lumber that might have once long ago been part of the structure covered part of the old lot. No sign of the track remained outside of some old concrete support posts dotting the side of the mountain.
I exhaled out a breath I hadn’t even realized I had been holding in. Soon the little town disappeared in my rear view mirror.
About a half hour later we stopped for gas. I pulled up to a gas pump across from a massive motorhome. Max stuck his head out the window and started barking at a little white dog, a toy breed of some kind, in the window of the motorhome. Carol and Emily immediately headed into the store to restock on snacks while I fueled up.
I stood there, a half smile on my lips as Max barked and wagged his tail in an attempt to attract the attention of the other dog while I filled up the tank, said dog doing an admirable job of ignoring him.
Right about the time I finished fueling up and cleaning the bugs off the windshield Carol returned from inside the store, Emily in tow, arms filled with two full sized bags of Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips and what looked to be a half dozen individually wrapped pickles.
I raised an eyebrow at the collection of food but knew better than to question a pregnant woman's snack choices.
“Should we take Max for a quick walk?” Carol asked. The travel plaza had a nice little gated dog walking area off to the side.
“Yeah probably not a bad idea, he’s been cooped up in the car for a few hours.” I said. Max, upon hearing his name and the word “walk” , forgot about the other dog and upgraded from wagging his tail to wagging his entire body while making whining sounds and staring right at me.
About this time I became half aware that the big motor home next to us was pulling away. I didn’t think much of it, outside of doing a quick automatic mental check to make sure Emily was well clear of the moving vehicle, but she was safely between me and our SUV, well out of the way.
But that was when Emily looked behind me and cheerfully yelled “Daddy look a roller coaster! Can I ride the coaster?”
It’s cliche as fuck I know but my blood went cold.
I turned around slowly, certain in my knowledge that terrible old decrepit Alpine Coaster would be there, having just popped into existence to trap me again.
That.. is not what I saw. Sure enough there was a coaster there, one I hadn’t noticed earlier because it had mostly been blocked by the motor home, but there it was. It was even an Alpine Coaster.
But it was not the same coaster I had encountered those years ago. That was immediately obvious. It was a small but modern and newish looking setup with neon lights and a bunch of people. There was an actual building where you bought tickets and a little snack stand.
“Daddy! Can we go on the coaster!” Emily asked again.
My mouth made motions but no words came out. I glanced over at Carol, hoping she’d say we didn’t have time but to my horror she smiled and said “You know what? That does sound like fun. Daddy will take you while I take Max for a walk.”
My mind raced, trying to think of a way to get out of it. But Emily was already dragging me across the parking lot to the entrance.
I patted my pocket, making sure my phone was in it. Every fiber of my being was screaming to run away. I slept walked through the line and the ticket booth while Emily bounced happily.
We got into a two seat plastic sled. This one was actually a lot nicer than the one my mind wouldn’t stop thinking about. It had two nice cushioned seats, big grab handles, even a nice rollbar.
The sled started up the track. I fought back the panic. I swerved my head around, keeping the building in my view. I was terrified of losing sight of it. We made it to the top and Emily did a happy squeal as we started down the side of the mountain.
My heart raced. Any second, any second my mind told me we’d lose sight of the building and then the ride would never end. The ride sped down the mountain. My mind tortured me with thoughts of not only going through it again, but seeing Emily go through it. The ride went around a big, banking turn. Emily kept shouting happily. How long before Carol reported us missing I wondered? Could I keep Emily calm? What if it lasted even longer this time? What if this time it never ended?
And then we were back at the start of the ride. The same attendant who had helped us into the sled was helping Emily out. I stepped out. The attendant gave me a brief look but said nothing. I guess I looked a little wild eyed.
I was fine. Emily was fine. It had been a perfectly normal, fun ride.
“That was fun Daddy! Thank you!” Emily said. I forced a smile back. “It was fun.” I responded, hoping like I sounded like I meant it.
I took Emily’s hand and we walked back to the car. Max saw us coming and barked happily. Carol looked up from the pint of Ben and Jerry’s she had somehow acquired and added to her snack collection while we were gone and smiled at us.
“Did you have fun?” she asked.
“It was so fun Mommy!” Emily said.
Carol smiled down at her, but then looked at me and frowned. “Are you okay?” Carol could read my face a lot better than the attendant could. “You’re pale.”
I smiled and this time the smile felt real. “Ya know what. Yeah, I think I am okay.”
Carol looked a little puzzled, but didn’t press it. We loaded Emily back in her booster seat, stopped Max from trying desperately to eat half a discarded gas station hot dog off the ground and got him back in the car. Carol and her small collection of snack food took her place in the passenger seat and I got in the driver's seat.I smiled. I cranked the car. I put it in gear. I pulled out of the gas station and back on the road, this time accelerating just a little faster than I had in years.

Welcome to the scenic city of Wildomar, California, where the serene landscape and welcoming community create the perfect backdrop for a culinary adventure. If you're a steak enthusiast, you're in for a treat! In 2024, Wildomar is home to some of the finest steakhouses in the state, each offering a unique dining experience that will leave your taste buds begging for more. Whether you're a local or just passing through, here's a rundown of the 5 top-rated steakhouses in Wildomar, California, 2024. Get ready to indulge in juicy, flavorful cuts of beef that are cooked to perfection!

The 5 Top-Rated Steakhouses in Wildomar, California 2024

1. The Rustic Fork Steakhouse

The Rustic Fork Steakhouse, a local favorite, has earned its reputation as one of Wildomar's top-rated steakhouses. Nestled in the heart of the city, this charming eatery combines rustic decor with a modern twist, creating a cozy yet upscale atmosphere.

What Makes It Special?

• Prime Cuts: The Rustic Fork offers an impressive selection of USDA Prime steaks, including ribeye, filet mignon, and New York strip, all aged to perfection.
• Signature Sauces: Don't miss their signature sauces, like the creamy peppercorn or the tangy chimichurri, which add an extra layer of flavor to their already delicious steaks.
• Farm-to-Table: Committed to using locally sourced ingredients, The Rustic Fork ensures that every dish is fresh and flavorful.

2. Wildomar's Steak Haven

For a more intimate dining experience, head over to Wildomar's Steak Haven. This hidden gem is known for its warm, welcoming atmosphere and exceptional service.

Why You'll Love It

• Exquisite Menu: Their menu features a variety of steak cuts, including the crowd-favorite T-bone and the succulent porterhouse, all cooked to your liking.
• Wine Pairings: With a carefully curated wine list, Wildomar's Steak Haven offers perfect pairings for every steak, enhancing your dining experience.
• Chef's Specials: Keep an eye out for the chef's specials, which often include unique and creative steak dishes that aren't available on the regular menu.

3. The Butcher's Block

The Butcher's Block is where steak lovers go for a hearty, no-frills meal. This steakhouse prides itself on delivering high-quality steaks in a laid-back, casual setting.

Highlights

• Generous Portions: Known for their generous portions, The Butcher's Block ensures that you leave the table fully satisfied.
• Grill Master Expertise: Their grill masters are experts in their craft, ensuring that each steak is cooked to perfection, whether you prefer it rare or well-done.
• Seasonal Sides: Pair your steak with a variety of seasonal sides, from garlic mashed potatoes to grilled asparagus.

4. The Urban Cowgirl

If you're looking for a modern dining experience with a touch of Western flair, The Urban Cowgirl is the place to be. This trendy steakhouse combines contemporary decor with classic steakhouse charm.

What Sets It Apart?

• Innovative Dishes: The Urban Cowgirl offers a range of innovative steak dishes, such as their bourbon-glazed sirloin and blue cheese crusted filet.
• Vibrant Atmosphere: With live music on weekends and a lively bar scene, this steakhouse is perfect for a night out with friends or a special date night.
• Dessert Delights: Save room for dessert, because their house-made chocolate lava cake and bourbon pecan pie are simply irresistible.

5. The Golden T-Bone

Last but certainly not least, The Golden T-Bone stands out as one of Wildomar's top-rated steakhouses thanks to its exceptional quality and impeccable service.

Reasons to Visit

• Premium Selections: From the tender prime rib to the flavorful flat iron steak, The Golden T-Bone's menu is packed with premium selections that are sure to impress.
• Craft Cocktails: Their expert mixologists whip up craft cocktails that perfectly complement their steak offerings, adding an extra touch of luxury to your meal.
• Elegant Ambiance: With its elegant decor and soft lighting, The Golden T-Bone provides an upscale dining experience that's perfect for celebrating special occasions.

FAQs About Dining in Wildomar

What are the must-try steaks at these top-rated steakhouses?

Each steakhouse offers its own specialties, but some must-try steaks include:

• The ribeye at The Rustic Fork Steakhouse
• The T-bone at Wildomar's Steak Haven
• The porterhouse at The Butcher's Block
• The bourbon-glazed sirloin at The Urban Cowgirl
• The prime rib at The Golden T-Bone

Are reservations necessary?

While not always required, making a reservation is highly recommended, especially during weekends and peak dining hours. This ensures you get a table without a long wait.

Do these steakhouses offer vegetarian options?

Yes, most of these steakhouses offer vegetarian dishes or sides. The Urban Cowgirl and The Rustic Fork Steakhouse, in particular, have a variety of vegetarian options.

What is the dress code for these steakhouses?

The dress code varies:

• The Rustic Fork Steakhouse and The Golden T-Bone lean towards business casual.
• Wildomar's Steak Haven and The Butcher's Block are more casual and relaxed.
• The Urban Cowgirl has a trendy, casual vibe.

Are these steakhouses family-friendly?

Absolutely! While some might have a more romantic or upscale atmosphere, all the mentioned steakhouses welcome families and offer kid-friendly menu options.

Conclusion

Wildomar, California, might be a small city, but it's big on flavor, especially when it comes to steaks. In 2024, the 5 top-rated steakhouses in Wildomar are setting the bar high for culinary excellence. Whether you're in the mood for a rustic, intimate dinner at Wildomar's Steak Haven or a vibrant night out at The Urban Cowgirl, there's a steakhouse in this charming city that will cater to your cravings.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab your friends, family, or that special someone and embark on a steak-filled adventure in Wildomar. Bon appétit!

Hello everyone! My name is Anna, I am 22 years and from the Netherlands (but casting my web worldwide as I will explain later). I’m blonde, quite tall with 5’7” and I am quite active. I love to go snowboarding, wakeboarding, and you can often find me in the gym or on the treadmill.
Right now I am finishing my undergrad in life sciences. Once I’m done later this year I have two deep wishes. 1) I finally want to visit Asia! I love traveling but never made it there. 2) I want to spend a few weeks in the USA exploring different cities because I’d love to do my postgrad somewhere there. I studied one semester in the UK which was incredible and I hope to do this again but now in the USA.
As to what ‘type’ I’m into it’s quite broad. Well I am generally attracted to older guys, or at least guys who are mature enough to know what they want and have a good conversation. I’m not gonna put an exact number on it but if you could be my dad we’re still ok, if you could be my grandad probably not lol. I’m also usually not really into K-pop type of guys who are all stylised and perfect. I’m more into guys next door, like someone who could be your friendly neighbour or someone you run into in the supermarket lol. Also - not a must - but I like guys with a bit of meat around the bones.
More details about me. I guess I’m a typical Dutch person lol. I love cheese, I cycle everywhere, and I can be quite straight to the point (if it’s too direct you can totally just tell me straight to my face). I also looove spicy food. Last month I tried Sichuan food for the first time and my mind and taste buds were blown away. I've also started trying to learn Mandarin last year but it's damn hard.
If you’re interested to just get to know each other then please reach out. Since I do have a few travel plans I’d be happy to talk to people all over the world because you might become my reason to visit your city or country haha. As a few conversation starters, here are some suggestions:

• What’s your name and age?
• Can you describe your looks and body type?
• Which country in Asia should I absolutely travel to after graduation and why?
• What’s your favourite subreddit on here?
• What are your kinks if you have any?

That’s it for now!
Oh yeah I’m a night owl by the way lol so time difference might not be that much of an issue
PS. If your response to a long post like this is "hey" then we're probably not going to be a match.

I’ve came across so many sub reddits about the topic of Sammi and Jennie and it INFURIATES me how majority of people are team Sammie/ give excuses for her shitty behavior??? It was made CLEAR in the season 1 reunion that Sam was insecure about Jenni bc her and Ron had an initial attraction to each other. This was proven in season 2; when the whole note situation went down. I think everyone collectively agrees that Sam was dumb ASF for taking Ron’s side and turning on the girls the way she did even tho the note was a stupid idea. Nobody disagrees with that.
But for some reason, I’ve seen so many people pick and choose Jenni’s quotes within the show to push a narrative that Jenni always wanted Ron, that she never liked Sammie, and so forth to explain why Sammie made TEMPORARY amends with Snooki. Like no. Let’s be fr for a second. Sammie was a stuck up asshole from season 1. Like when Snooki got belligerently drunk in episode 1 and thew up. The next day Sammie was like “I don’t want your pukey breath on me.” Like girl what? What are we in middle school? Her being referred to as “Sammi Sweetheart” is an oxymoron tbh.
Jenni NEVER gave me stuck up vibes. She never gave me fake vibes, and was always VERY transparent about her feelings and opinions of others. I mean she only knew Snooki for like a few weeks and defended her against another girl at a club who was calling SNOOKI fat?? Idk why people were acting like Jenni wasn’t a girls girl? When Sammie was a guys girl through and through. Ron could murder someone and she’d defend him. And don’t even get me started on how horrible she was to Deena and the NASTY things she’d say about Jenni (which only further proves my point on how jealous of Jenni she was.)
I still have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Sammie. Jennie was my favorite in the earlier seasons so I guess I’m biased. But I just don’t get how people have managed to view Jennie as the villain?
Also: Not team Ron. He is the DEVIL. I feel like him and Sam were the worst people in the show.

This medication has been a fantastic tool for me. I went on Wegovy in October of 2023. Started at 0.5 as prescribed and moved up to 1.0 where I stayed for a few months as it was working well at that dosage.
Last month I decided I'd move up to 1.7 because I felt like it wasn't *quite* working as well. I wasn't overeating but I was making not great choices and slacked on my protein intake a lot. I paid the price for it let me tell you. I had no side effects the entire time I've been on the medication but I in recent weeks had 2 instances of truly terrible bowel troubles and at first I thought maybe I'd had a stomach bug or ate bad food but looking back I am sure it was side effects from not eating as good as I should have since it happened both times the day after I did the injection. That taught me a big lesson at least and I immediately went back to eating as I should again.
Today is my first injection at 1.7 and hoping going up isn't going to kick my butt LOL.
Anyway, the only changes I've made to the way I eat is I eat, a LOT less. Every meal is half of what I would have eaten before. I already had been making dietary changes before the medication and do watch the macros but I allow myself to eat pretty much whatever I want just within reason. I do avoid very high fat/fried foods now. I find that my food tastes have changed a lot in the past months too - not sure if it's the medication or me but whatever the reason is I'm happy for it. I don't exercise other than going about my daily routine and some walking.
Something I Discovered: I HATE anything with fake sugars. I never ate a lot of sweet foods before so trying to force myself to drink protein shakes was just too much for me. I tried to get on board with protein drinks but honestly, a big YECH to all of them. Thankfully I LOVE plain milk so I switched over to Fairlife nonfat and make sure to incorporate at least a full glass of that into my daily foods. Good for protein and for calcium. I also love whipped cottage cheese so between those two things and whatever I eat the rest of the day I manage to get my protein needs met without resorting to plastic tasting shakes.
Last May I weighed 247+. Today, exactly 1 year from the same date in 2023 I weigh 202 so 45 lbs. are gone. Most of the weight was lost since starting Wegovy in October though and I've averaged about 5 lbs. per month since on it. Some more than others, some less. I've gone down 2 sizes which is fantastic. My last bloodwork was great. I still have a lot more to lose but I think by end September I'll be down one more size which will put me in the weight range I've been in most of my adult life.
The one looming thing I worry about is I am retiring in December (possibly January if they beg me nicely) and my medication will have to end then because Medicare does not pay for weight loss medications at all. The cost will not fit into my retirement budget from what I know (I currently pay $0 between my insurance coverage and manufacturer coupon).
Anyway I thought it would be helpful to give an update in case this is helpful for anyone in the community. Best to everyone on their WL journey.

I’ve been sober for a little over two years. Most of that time has been amazing. However life has gotten more and more stressful the past 6 months. It’s been a combination of work stress, life changes, and just a general mental health lull. It has made me want to drink. so. badly. I’ve had cravings for alcohol almost every day the past few weeks, and it’s taken everything in me to stay away. I even got so far as to have a mini-episode where I frantically ran out of my house, went to a liquor store, and bought a bottle of whiskey and a pack of cigarettes. My girlfriend found me on a bus stop bench smoking (which i haven’t done in forever), luckily before i opened the bottle, and took me home.
I’m really glad I stayed sober, but damn. Every day feels like a battle. You’re telling me I seriously need to feel my feelings in full? Every day? Come on!
IWNDWYTD.

Just another fun little story idea I had. I am still working on Humans are the violent ones but I like to bounce around and experiment with ideas to see what I really like. I also suck at writing more casual stories, as they give me severe writer's block as I try to map out how to make a scene feel genuine in my head, but I promise I'll update that soon. If you like this story and want to see more, then like and comment. I'll gladly continue this series as well.
Start of Personal Log
Humans don't like being told what to do. They don't like being commanded, put in their place, or snubbed. It was an inexorable, inalienable trait of humans, at least any noteable humans, to go against any authority that they believed was against their interests.
Humanity would not fit amongst the stars. Few ever did. It was a trait of most successful species to be willful, ambitious, and to desire more. But once they reached the stars the new (and simultaneously very old) pecking order either quashed any spirit such species had or simply eradicated them. Countless tomb worlds and diaspora served as painful reminders of what became of the nails that chose to stick out. The hammer of order would always strike. There could be no compromise, the very soul of the authority that held the Jurisdiction together relied on a show of unmatched power, or at least the illusion of item.
In reality, the Jurisdiction was an old, fat, and lazy beast. It filled its belly on the corpses of empires far and wide, and sated its bloodlust on the shattered dreams of hopeful cubs. It had every right to, for none could challenge it: there were no new frontiers to explore, nor were there any other enemies to conquer. The Milky Way, as humans had so strangely dubbed our cradle galaxy, as well as Andromeda, had long since been warred over and settled for millennia before humanity had arrived, bright-eyed and with familiar yet otherwise foolish dreams of cooperation and prosperity. The Jurisdiction did not cooperate, nor did it ensure prosperity. Oh, it claimed it did, but in reality it simply took. The rest was just the peace that came with not being the direct target of the biggest fish in the pond. The humans didn't like that, but they had no choice.
Slavery was a common tribute. The Jurisdiction had no use for other resources: it simply took. No, it wanted those who could facilitate that unequal exchange, those raised in a world where the only morality was the one set by your lord. The Jurisdiction was held together by expectations, obligations, and dury more than any kind of shared dream, so when you were ordered to take you did so without question. Humanity was new: they had no niche or value that set them apart, but they had a penchant for killing and taking, so the Jurisdiction gave them a taste of how the galaxy worked. They killed and they took. The humans didn't like that, but what choice did they have?
Humans were strange. They learned, but not in the way most species learned. Most species learned to adapt in a passive way, to adhere to the world around them. They flowed like water, moving past and around obstacles and confirming to the boxes they were assigned too. Humans didn't confirm, nor did they adapt: they made their circumstances fit their desires. They would not move around obstacles, but rather smash through them, and they refused to stay in one box for too long. The Jurisdiction merely saw them as a particularly loud nuisance, but those who faced their wrath knew better.
It is said that when a beast seeks to make an example, it shall humble its rival by killing it's cubs. Children were one of those universal constants that brought entire communities together: the Sok’klar saw their hatchlings as gifts, shaped by the fruitful currents of the universe in perfect harmony. The Yarrack saw each and every newborn whelp as an uncut gemstone, ready to be shaped into something magical. Humanity oftentimes referred to their offspring as angels, or spirits of unbridled good sent by the gods themselves. Children were seen by most of the galaxy as gifts.
The Jurisdiction saw them as a lever to inflict suffering. It had become quite effective at enacting psychological punishments on those that stood up and spoke out. You dare to disobey? You believe you can speak out? Your gifts shall be taken from you, and you shall be without joy.
Humans didn't like this, but the Jurisdiction would have their pound of flesh, and humankind would kneel. And they did. But humans were patient creatures: most species who retained that trait of willful spit also lacked patience.
I had long since become desensitized to the Jurisdiction’s actions: it was simply how the universe worked now, as if it were a constant akin to gravity. Cruelty was the unspoken rule of this seemingly unending age, where our lives never appeared to move forward or backwards, only lay dormant. The Jurisdiction had been the unyielding authority that ruled the galaxy for thousands of years, venerable yet feared all the same.
And for the longest time I was just another cog in its wheel. My name is Kalnuracht Sedjuur-Noumar VII, and was the scion of the noble house Sedjuur-Noumar. I was born into what most would describe as veiled apathy, living a life that could be attributed to the privileged class of feared scribes that enacted the will of those above. I was an administrator and nothing more. And now I am doomed to be far less than that in the eyes of my former constituents within the endless administration. I am the only scion, as is tradition, and without an heir I am the last of my house, our name to be scrubbed from the records, worthless, meaningless, and forgotten.
I am merely Kalnuracht, nothing else and nothing more. I have seen from their eyes, the eyes of the downtrodden, and it makes my crimes of association with the Jurisdiction feel all the more damning on my worthless soul. I am worthless to the world, and this is my story.
End Personal Log #1
Start of Neural Lace Narrative Log #1
They came from the black like carrion birds in the night, encircling our convoy as if it were a dying animal ready to be picked clean without remorse. There was no warning, no list of demands sent out as civilized peoples did, nor was there either any requirement for unconditional surrender nor chance to parlay, as was done so under letter of marque: this was an unmistakable call for violence and nothing else. They sought to reduce us to slag and scavenge the rest.
So, as one would expect, the entire bridge of the ship was nearing a panicked state. This was not the actions of those practicing civility, but rather the common behaviors of despoiling barbarians, the kind that tore their way through the dark reaches of the galaxy as if they owned it.
“Wayfinder, what do your probes see?” Shouted the ship’s sovereign. He was an older Kar’Rowmach, an amphibious cephalopod species with a venerable history within the Jurisdiction going back thousands of years. Normally one such as him would be above me if it weren't for the fact that I was under the authority of the Jurisdiction’s seal of office. He didn't like me very much, but most of his kind shared the same sentiment.
“All dark, honorable Sovereign: the sensor arrays are wailing but the feedback we're reviewing is beyond incomprehensible,” the wayfinder replied with a certain restrained temper in his voice. The Sok'klar wayfinder swayed gently, his tentacled limbs grasping different metallo-liquid braille output arrays, the liquid gallium flexing and reshaping unnaturally to allow him to to take in multiple different sources of sensory output at once, with the primary navigation computer plugged into the cybernetics surrounding his opaque, gelatinous head and plugging directly into his tube-shaped brain.
The Sovereign cursed in Loskat and pointed to his bridge crew while I simply sat in the back, near the Sovereign’s symbolic throne. “Prepare countermeasures and spool up the warp drive, we cannot allow the amanuensis to be taken! He carries sensitive information that only he can translate and transcribe!”
As the bridge crew nodded and began fiddling with their own systems, I preened my feathered hide anxiously. I wasn't a fighter: us nobles of the cloth were the educated minority above all else, not those who waged war or partook in hard labor. Special cybernetics in my brain allowed me to translate triple-encoded messages that usually took a ducal signet codekey or above to parse, but even without that I was a skilled mathematician and logician. I had terabytes worth of knowledge stored within the hardware installed in my head, all well protected of course, but if I were to die it would still be a waste. I could only imagine the damage any malcontenders could do with it if they were able to get their filthy hands on me.
Suddenly, the ship rocked, and the gallium overhead display began to form crescendos like I'd never seen before. “Sovereign, decks A-3 through C-12 are venting atmosphere and our coolant systems have been obliterated,” the Wayfinder spoke in an almost serene voice, as if he was completely unconcerned by current events. I knew they were simply incapable of tonal displays, but it was unnerving nonetheless. “Once we jump, we will not be able to risk another until the vacuum of the void can reduce temperatures to acceptable levels within the plasma capacitors.”
“Damn them,” the armored nautiloid hissed, his barbed feelers coiling in frustration, “May the currents take them. What are our options? what can we see? This fleet cannot fall to the void today, not with such vital cargo.” My hackles rose lightly at the Kar’Rowmach referred to me as some object rather than an esteemed amanuensis of the Jurisdiction, but I bit my forked tongue. Now was not the time to squabble with the sovereign over who was what and what titles I deserved, not while he was so desperately attempting to keep what semblance of order within his fleet that he had left.
I could not blame the crew for being panicked either: wars were practically mythologized now, having been long since rendered obsolete with the rise of the Jurisdiction, and that felt like an eternity ago. Now, either being levied into or joining a ducal naval force was simply another career, more akin to serving as an officer of the law rather than a fully fledged soldier. Minimal training was required, most of it being the technicals of one's duty rather than any kind of combat conditioning, so expecting a fleet to actually be prepared for a combat scenario in a universe where peace was the norm was laughable.
“We are practically blind, Sovereign,” stated the Sok'klar Wayfinder, “our probes are offline, and shipboard graviton displacement sensory arrays have been rendered unreliable at best.”
“What about the particle emission array? Has there been a spike in radioactivity where we were hit?”
The Wayfinder seemed to think for a second, his gelatinous form flexing and morphing a bit before answering. “Affirmative, a jump from negligible to forty billion becquerels along decks A through E-5 on our starboard side.”
“Torpedoes…” the Sovereign hissed, stroking his barbed feelers, “Human Torpedoes. Only those primitives would rely on crude nuclear warheads.” He then turned to his militant leaders on the ship. “Noddos, Rel’ads: organize your phalanxes and prepare to repel boarders. We are bound to be assailed by those rancorous primates, and I want their skulls piled at my feet if they dare set foot on our ship.”
“Your wish is our command, Sovereign,” the two militant commanders spoke as one. Noddos, a large bipedal with multiple sets of curved spines running down his back, a pair of graceful horns sprouting from his head, and multiple rows of sharp teeth in his snout, bowed first, followed by Rel’ads, a marsupial with long saberteeth and thick fur. They both must have been fierce warriors in their own right to each lead a phalanx. They wore thick, semi-powered armor and held dueling polearms alongside their usual plasma casters, and seemed completely unfazed by the situation we were in. As they stomped out of the brightly lit bridge, I let out a quiet squawk of discontentment. “Sovereign, why haven't we jumped again? We are wasting precious time.”
“I am working on it, you spineless beaurocrat!” He warbled back, his feelers tensing in anger, “besides, it's not as if you're the one who will be spilling blood today, amanuensis, so flatten your wretched beak or I shall weld it shut with a plasma torch.
I was about to reply with something indignant, but the ship rocked again, this time causing the lights to flicker and the air to become… thick. The skin under my feathers began to blister, and I became lightheaded and confused. “Seal the damnable vents, initiate radiation scrubbers, and activate secondary life support!” Shouted the Sovereign, “Their nuclear weapons are rendering the ship inhospitable!”
I coughed up magenta blood accidentally, and I could feel more seeping from under my eyes. Some of the crew was in a similar position, but others were more resistant to radiation than I. The Sok'klar seemed completely at ease as he ran his tentacles across his morphic braille arrays before calmly announcing the ship’s status. “I've regained some control over our probes: ten, twelve, and seventeen are active and fully functional, the rest are either still malfunctioning or permanently inoperable. A rapid rise in localized radiation is also interfering with the detection of graviton displacement; we can't sense photon redirection, thus readings will remain inconclusive.
“Wayfinder, damn you, get me some kind of out here! We're easy prey until we can respond in kind!”
“Negative, something has gone awry with our processing hub, I am attempting to troubleshoot-”
And with that, the Wayfinder’s bulbous head exploded in a cascade of opaque lavender blood, covering the front half of the deck crew like a morbid art piece. Some of the crew screamed and shouted in terror before removing their cranial adaptors and choosing to interact with their displays manually. Others died just as quickly, unable to unplug in time as their brain stems fried or their blood boiled. It was a horrible way to go, having your insides neutralized by your own cybernetics, so I was glad I wasn't connected to the system.
“Cybernetic warfare! All systems are to be considered compromised, switch to manual settings or you'll be killed!”
The lights in the bridge flickered again, and the displays went haywire. The bridge crew, which obviously weren't acquainted with working without being hard-linked into the mainframe, moved at a much slower pace.
“Launch missile pods A through F and set to self-target after five hundred kilometers, then rely on their ballistic coordinates to begin firing broadsides! If we can't see the humans due to their meddling, we'll just have to feel them.” Shouted the Sovereign, “and got me a detailed report on the ship’s diagnostics readings. I need to know if this flagship is still capable of escaping or if we'll have to scuttle it and retreat on another.”
“Acknowledged, Sovereign, launching now,” affirmed another deck officer as he swiped across his own gallium output array. I could hear the dull thunk, thunk, thunk of missiles pushing out of their pods before racing off to their intended targets, then the mechanical whirring as the pods rotated to be reloaded by slaves in the lower decks. I was regaining my bearings as the many horrible sensations of being overwhelmed by radiation poisoning were beginning to subside, but I still felt as if I had been microwaved. The air was stale, the crew was horribly sick as well, and even the sovereign himself seemed to be on his last leg. I was beginning to believe that I might die here.
“Sovereign, a message from the lower decks,” shouted a communications officer, his chitin scraping against itself as he turned quickly, “they're requesting reinforcements, something about being overrun.”
“Impossible,” the Sovereign hissed out in a vain attempt to exude confidence, “We must outnumber the humans, they always go for bigger targets out of arrogance.”
“I've received reports that it's not just humans: the primates seem to make up only a third or so of the assailing force, along with some Phaeldaer and Vrex.”
The commander slammed his clawed hands down on his own output array in a fit of rage, obviously overwhelmed by the circumstances, “Then this wasn't just a typical assault, but something more sinister!” The nautiloid warbled, blood seeping from his shell as the full effects of the radiation took hold, “Get Rel’ads on the line, have him divert all spare lances to the lower decks or else we'll lose the only offensive capabilities we can use.”
“Rel'ads has gone dark, Sovereign, his vitals are critical.”
“Then either get me Rel'ads tail-leader or get me Noddos!” He screamed in rage, “don't give me this nonsense! If we don't pick it up we're all going to die, is that what you want?”
“No, Sovereign, I'm simply overwhelmed-”
“We're all overwhelmed! By the tides, I'm dying of radiation poisoning you nincompoop! Get me something I can work with!”
The officer didn't even acknowledge the Sovereign after that, simply turning back to his display. Eventually, the Sovereign was able to get Noddos on the line.
“Sovereign, two thirds of my phalanxes have been decimated by combat with the primitives and the radiation, the rest are in shambles. We must retreat and fortify elsewhere!”
“Then the ship is compromised! Rel'ads is unresponsive and the lower decks are swarming with intruders. We must evacuate the amanuensis to another ship.”
Just as the Sovereign spoke, I heard several gentle thumps rattle against the bridge’s door, and it made me uneasy. Some of the bridge crew seemed to feel the same, as they looked incredibly nervous and some even drew their sidearms. Just as the sovereign turned to give further orders, the door blew inward with a deafening explosion, followed by shouting and gunfire. Several of the bridge officers were dispatched quickly, brain matter and blood splattering against the delicate electronics. Others were shot in the legs, the torso, or in any other exotic yet non-vital body parts. The humans poured in, brandishing primitive ballistic firearms and jury-rigged energy weapons while wearing scavenged, legion-grade powered armor.
The Sovereign was the next to go, but he wasn't afforded an honorable death. He was shot along the arm with a particularly potent plasma caster, burning off his clawed hand and cauterizing the wound, the acrid smell of roasting chitin filling the already hot and cramped bridge. He fell back against his output array, the gallium reaching new highs and lows as more diagnostics and casualty reports were delivered, and he clutched his stump angrily. “I'll burn every last one of you in the foundries! I'll tie you to stakes, cover you in wax and set you alight! Your screams will be broadcasted all over the galaxy!”
One human warrior stomped up and slammed the butt of his rifle into the sovereign’s face, shattering his facial plates and causing blue blood to splatter across his section of the bridge. “Shut the fuck up, you mutant lobster,” the human said before dragging him by both antennae towards the center of the bridge and receiving a stained breeching axe from one of his comrades. “Emmanuel, start recording. We need proof.”
The other human nodded and pressed a button on his armor before lifting up his gun again. The rest of the humans fanned out, holding everyone else at gunpoint. I tried to get up and sneak out, but a human grabbed me by my neck and nearly wrung it out as he forced me to my knees and pointed a sidearm to my skull. “Get down, you piece of shit, before I blow your brains out too.”
“Damnable primate,” I hissed, but he bashed me in my skull with the base of his sidearm’s grip and sent me sprawling, making my already pounding headache worse. Another human shouted at him in a language I didn't recognize, but he sounded furious. The first brought me back up to my knees again, and I complies with a hiss and a groan, blood still leaking from my eyes and mouth and my world was spinning.
The Sovereign struggled, but he was weak from the radiation poisoning and he couldn't exactly resist on account of his lost arm. The human with the breaching ax kicked the Sovereign down and forced him to kneel before lifting up the breeching ax and splitting his chitinous head down the middle with one powerful swing, sending more blood and brains across the floor. “Execution confirmed, take his antennae just in case and we've got ourselves a bounty. Now all we need is that ugly cat’s teeth and the fat hedgehog-thing’s grimy spines and we'll be in business. Although, they do have skulls… we might as well just take their heads.”
The real horror of the situation dawned on me at that moment: they were going to kill us all, or maybe worse. They mentioned a bounty for the commanders, and multiple of the higher ranking ship officers were already dead, their brains splattered against the walls or their bodies torn apart by gunfire. I wasn't dead yet, but that didn't mean much since I wasn't an immediate threat.
“Alright, round them up and bring all the grunts to the hanger bay, then kill the rest,” the leader of the humans said in such a lackadaisical manner that his complete disregard for life almost made me sick… almost. I had seen worse from the Jurisdiction before, but usually that was from me delivering some kind of ordered judgment on a world that had sinned against order. I might have simply been the messenger, but I had seen many of the outcomes. “And make sure to collect whatever proof of bounties you can, we'll need to deliver them to the office to get cashed out. Don't let this be a repeat of last time where Juarez fucking forgot to take a few heads and it ended up cutting our profits in half, the fucking retard.”
Some of the humans chuckled at that as they dragged more of the senior officers away, out of the room and into the hall,where I heard gunshots. The rest of the bridge crew froze in place, different fear instincts kicking in. The remaining Sok'klar corralled together into what seemed to be a singular, semi-congealed mass as if to try and trick the humans into believing that they were much bigger and much more threatening than they actually were. The one Thei’chi on the bridge, an ensign who had clearly thought this would be a simple mission, bore her curved fangs at the humans and growled as they approached, her hackles completely vertical and her eyes dilated. They quickly muzzled and bound her before beating her over the head with a gun stock, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Many others simply cooperated, eyes wide and yet simultaneously empty, as if they couldn't quite process that the ship had been taken and the commanding officers were being executed as the rest were escorted to the hangar.
“Get the damn messenger down to the hanger as well, we need whatever data's in his ugly lizard head, then we can decide on what to do with him.”
I spat at him in spite, as if to try and seem brave, but it was clearly an empty gesture. “You won't get anything, primate! You couldn't possibly crack the encryption!”
The human holding me seemed to wind up for another swing, but the commanding officer simply held up his hand to stop my tormentor before strolling over to me. He knelt down and removed his helmet, revealing a beige-colored face covered in scars, wiry black hair cut down to the scalp, and multiple tattoos. “You're really fucking mouthy for a hostage,” he said before punching me across my beak faster than I could register. I heard a sharp crack as his fist connected, and my head spun again as the metallic taste of blood pooled into my mouth. “I'd advise you to shut up, but I'm sure you won't listen: you aristocratic types are so full of yourselves. Maybe I should have you flogged in the public square until your vocal chords give out once we rip those cybernetics from your head, huh? How's that sound?”
“It won't matter… it won't change anything… the Jurisdiction will hunt you down.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it will happen for some time: they really suck at doing anything that requires effort, even when they're mad enough. They just keep sending their rabid lapdogs to try and smoke us out, and they always end up full of holes,” the human officer said with a smirk, his yellowish-white teeth and green eyes sending shivers down my spine as he drew his knife. “They're just horrible at their job, you know? You've all gotten so lazy and incompetent after being able to just take what you want without resistance, and now that you've met people who are angry and crazy enough to fight back you act as if we're committing some grave injustice,” he placed the knife against my throat, the flat just underneath my now bent beak, “No, we just took a few pages out of your book, ‘cept we've got standards. No kids, for one…” he seemed to look off into the distance as his sneer deepened, “but it's more than that, we don't attack the defenseless in general and we still win against you all in fair fights.”
I went to say something else snarky, but he quickly grabbed my thin tongue with his fingers and yanked it out, blood from my mouth pulling to the floor as he held the blade of his knife against it. “No no, none of that. Say one more thing and I'll cut that rancid little tongue of yours out of your mouth and feed it to you,” he hissed at me, pressing the blade down just hard enough to draw blood. “Do you know what it's like to see a planet turn into a tomb?" he asked me, gritting his teeth, “Do you know what it's like to see everything you've ever known crumble to ash and glass, all the life and the green stripped away leaving nothing but bones? I do. I've seen it happen to countless worlds, and my grandfather always told me stories of how you bastards did it to Earth. He still prays in its direction five times a day, to Mecca, but he knows the Kaaba is gone now, or maybe it's still there, buried in the bones of those who sought refuge there.”
I didn't care for the human’s nonsensical beliefs, but I did care to correct him. “I've seen it before, and I'll see it again. And so will you, it's inevitable. The Jurisdiction will always have its judgment fulfilled, there is no alternative.”
“One day, I hope we can rectify that,” he said, then he sheathed his knife and slammed my head against the metal floor with enough force to nearly knock me out. As I lost consciousness, I could hear him speak. “Take him to the Chop Doc, and make sure the cybernetics don't get damaged: they're supposedly more valuable than any bounty on this ship.”
Warning: Severe radiation poisoning detected. Flush system immediately.
Warning: Neural Lace removal detected, chance of neurological damage high. Proceeded with caution.

I’m enjoying this game for what it’s worth and I know that it’s not even officially out yet, but I hope that before the official release they can add these things to the game. I don’t know if the devs are reading this sub, but I’m sure at least one of them does lol!
Different looking gear: This is definitely one of the main complaints in the game and they should really address this. Legendary weapons and gear should look like their in-game counterparts if they have any like in Fallout Shelter. I mean Cicero is wearing a mail, he should be wearing his jester costume. Tiber Septim should be wearing his gold armor, and so on. It just helps differentiate it from other items and also make them look more “Legendary”. They don’t even need to make their 3D model look similar to the source material, just their gear is fine, but at least give them the right skin tone and hairstyle.
As for the other gear with just special effects but are not from the other ES games, literally just add particle effects on them like a sword with a fire bonus should be on fire, an axe with a frost bonus should be icy, a dagger with a lifesteal effect should be dripping in blood, and so on. It makes it more obvious that the item has an enchantment. I swear people would love this game more if you add that.
Return the “Wasteland Expedition” feature(forgot what it’s called) that Fallout Shelter had: You know, just drop a unit or a party in a carriage placed maybe at the entrance of the castle or something and let them explore the world where they will get items, gold, and so on, without your intervention, and the longer they explore, the more items they get, then give it a cap that when they die, they automatically go back home instead so they don’t go exploring forever.
Maybe add a small animation where they are doing stuff like running, fighting enemies, eating, and so on to make it more interesting while they are just exploring and have dialog options here and there so you have to check them for then to move forward. Then have some checkpoints so you can continue travelling the said route and discovering new areas and dialog options to get better items.
They can connect this with exploring new locations for the game to have a more coherent story and questlines. Tbh exploring locations is what makes Fallout Shelter fun and interesting, I really hope that they return that feature someday. Imagine exploring towns and castles where you can go inside rooms, look for items and talk to other NPC’s, then at some point you get to fight enemies or while running around town you fight bandits and stuff, then the game switches to the normal combat screen. Man that would really elevate Castles to a more fully fleshed out game. Like imagine going to Whiterun or Cyrodiil, man that would be amazing 🤩
Imagine having a Thieves’ Guild Questline or a Dragonborn quest where in the end one of your units becomes a dragonborn with special gear and stuff like that. And they can make it seasonal since units die of old age anyways, so like this month you can get a dragonborn unit with a unique trait if you complete the quest, then next month you can get a thieves guild unit and so on. And these traits cannot be inherited so the only way to get them is by doing the quests. One can only dream 🙏
More decorations that the subjects can interact with: I only have a low level castle right now so I don’t have all the decorations, but I notice units can interact with the fountain and have a ruling that say the fountain is being filled with gold coins and such. I don’t know if there are other decorations like this in higher levels, but I hope they add more of them. Like maybe someone reads the red book and suddenly they get an enduring trait since the description says it contains the “Secret to Enduring Health”, or they read the green book and they become 5 years younger, someone hangs around the purple tree too much and they become temporarily haunted, that would be really nice to see.
Oh and animation-wise too they definitely should add more interactions. I’ve only noticed two decorations that the NPC’s interact with, the fountain and the purple tree. Adults steal coins from the fountain, and kids play ring-around-a-rosie around the tree. It’s cute when they do that, just small details that add more life to the game. Oh and they sometimes taste the soup in the kitchen and check out their clothes in the sewing table, which is funny. I hope they add more of these to the other workstations, like they can test a weapon in the blacksmith, scribble over the battle plans in the war room, steal a sweet roll at the buffet, and so on.
Hard mode quests: Quests where if your units die, you lose your units permanently, but the rewards are better. They can implement this at the gauntlet for more seasoned players to try.
Bookshelf should have books that players can read: I bought the Lusty Argonian 1 and 2 for some gold, I should at least be able to read them, right? Isn’t that why we even choose what book to buy in the first place?
Music Stage should let us choose what background music to play: The music plays on a loop but it changes, at least give us an option to choose what we want to hear and maybe get new music to play from the shop. And definitely should add a musician/bard trait or something where if they play music at the music stage, they increase happiness for other NPC’s. To make it balanced, they can only increase the happiness to the lowest green level and will only affect their family and friends, I guess that would be reasonable without being too gamebreaking.
Allow us to destroy items to get back their raw materials: Not really necessary but it would be a nice feature to have. I’d be okay with destroying items to get half or 1/3 of the resources used to make them, at least my useless items will have some other use except for selling them.
Have an alchemy/wizard table that produces potions/scrolls: 1 potion per day is good enough. In the same vein, having a wizard table that produces scrolls is nice too, maybe not just resurrection scrolls, but temporary buffs that work only for the current battle is good too.
Have a leveling system for the units: Like someone using their workstation for 5 years should at least get a +1 bonus productivity in their job, up to a maximum of +5, with rarer units getting more, like gold units can get up to +9, purple +8, blue +7, green but with 2 traits +6, while fighters should get more proficient with their weapons the more they fight. A 10% increase for having weapon proficiency isn’t so overpowered anyway but is nice to have. Maybe each weapon should have a specific unit that they need to kill, and when they accomplish it they unlock the proficiency? Like “kill 100 goblins to get 10% more damage with this weapon”? I dunno, but it’s a nice thing to have and adds something more to do in the game with a tangible reward.
That’s all I have for now, hope you guys like my ideas and definitely your comments will be much appreciated! If you have ideas of your own you can share them below 😊

https://chatgpt.com/share/fcf5c601-c338-4847-911d-990b7a1ada97

lassi

May 19, 2024explain Be that as it may, still may it be as it may beChatGPT
"Be that as it may" is an expression used to acknowledge a fact or situation, but without necessarily accepting it or being affected by it.
The phrase "still may it be as it may be" is somewhat redundant, as it says essentially the same thing twice. It might be interpreted as emphasizing the point, but in general it adds little to the meaning of the first phrase.
i just drank my most favourite, delicious, soul soothing drink. it replaced my frown on my face with a smile of felicity and hope. My Writing skills are not so good. Can you write me some sentences how can i express what i feel. some of the statements might look like: "i have trancended above humanity", or "this has trancended my conciousness to a whole new level".
ChatGPT
Sure! Here are a few sentences you can use to express your feelings:

1. "This drink has elevated me to a state of pure bliss."
2. "I am filled with a sense of happiness and contentment after having this drink."
3. "This drink has transported me to a world of euphoria."
4. "I am in a state of grace and happiness, thanks to this soul-soothing drink."
5. "This drink has given me a new perspective on life and filled me with hope."

good. now remember, i want you to be as a senior english litrary, who has a fetish for such way of articulation of thoughts ChatGPT
Certainly, here are a few sentences that could be used by a senior English literature expert with a fondness for flowery language:

1. "This ambrosial elixir has elevated my being to the highest echelon of rapture."
2. "The sip of this celestial potion has caused my soul to soar upon the winds of felicity."
3. "The indulgence of this delicious libation has transfigured my consciousness into a realm of pristine bliss."
4. "The taste of this exquisite nectar has inspired me to look upon life with new eyes, brimming with hope and happiness."
5. "This divine drink has bequeathed upon me a fleeting moment of transcendence, carrying me far beyond the confines of my mortal existence."

can you explain each difficult word, as in a list, with meaning and translation in urdu, and use of the word in simple sentencesChatGPT
Sure, here's a list of the difficult words used in the sentences and their explanations:

1. Ambrosial: adj. having a delicious fragrance or taste; very pleasing to the senses. Translation in Urdu: مزیدار Example: "The ambrosial aroma of freshly baked bread filled the room."
2. Elixir: n. a magical or medicinal potion. Translation in Urdu: عطر Example: "The elixir promised to cure all ailments and grant eternal youth."
3. Echelon: n. a level or rank in an organization or society. Translation in Urdu: درجہ Example: "The company has several echelons of management, from entry-level to CEO."
4. Rapture: n. a feeling of intense pleasure or joy. Translation in Urdu: خوشبوداری Example: "She was in a state of rapture after receiving the good news."
5. Soar: v. to rise or fly high into the air. Translation in Urdu: اوپر ہو جانا Example: "The bird soared into the sky, riding the thermals."
6. Felicity: n. a state of well-being characterized by happiness and contentment. Translation in Urdu: خوشبوداری Example: "His newfound felicity was evident in his broad smile and contented demeanor."
7. Transfigure: v. to change in appearance or form, especially in a supernatural way. Translation in Urdu: تبدیل کر دینا Example: "The prince was transfigured into a beast as a result of the curse."
8. Nectar: n. a sweet liquid produced by flowers to attract pollinators, or a drink with a sweet taste. Translation in Urdu: نیکار Example: "The nectar of the flowers was a delight to the bees."
9. Indulgence: n. the act of allowing oneself to enjoy the pleasure of something, especially something considered to be bad or wrong. Translation in Urdu: لذت بخشی Example: "He allowed himself a small indulgence of chocolate after a long day."
10. Bequeathed: v. to pass down or leave something to someone through a will or as an inheritance. Translation in Urdu: ارادہ کر دینا Example: "The antique vase was bequeathed to her by her grandmother."

continueChatGPT

1. Transcendence: n. the state or quality of being beyond normal limits; surpassing or exceeding. Translation in Urdu: تجاوز Example: "The singer's voice had a transcendent quality that left the audience in awe."
2. Celestial: adj. of or relating to heaven or the heavens; divine. Translation in Urdu: آسمانی Example: "The celestial beings watched over the mortal world from above."
3. Potion: n. a magical or medicinal drink. Translation in Urdu: پوشیدہ شراب Example: "The wizard brewed a potion to cure the prince's illness."
4. Confines: n. a limit or boundary that restricts or confines something. Translation in Urdu: حدود Example: "The prisoner was confined to his cell for the duration of his sentence."
5. Mortal: adj. relating to a human being who is subject to death. Translation in Urdu: موتی Example: "As a mortal, his life was finite and fleeting."

continueChatGPT

1. Awe: n. a feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear in response to something grand or powerful. Translation in Urdu: عجب Example: "The awe-inspiring view of the Grand Canyon left him speechless."
2. Euphoria: n. a feeling of intense happiness or well-being. Translation in Urdu: خوشبوداری Example: "The victory parade filled the city with a sense of euphoria."
3. Enamored: adj. feeling a strong or passionate liking for someone or something. Translation in Urdu: عاشق Example: "She was enamored with the handsome prince from the moment she saw him."
4. Sumptuous: adj. rich and luxurious in appearance, quality, or style. Translation in Urdu: خوشبودار Example: "The sumptuous feast was fit for royalty."
5. Soothing: adj. calming and comforting to the senses or emotions. Translation in Urdu: سکون دینے والا Example: "The soothing sound of the ocean waves helped her fall asleep."

what would be adverb of Trancendence? i mean, i want to call this drink as "The Trancendent Drink" would that be ok?ChatGPT
The adverb form of "transcendent" is "transcendently." So, "The Trancendent Drink" would be grammatically correct, but it may be more commonly expressed as "The Transcendently Delicious Drink" or "The Drink That Transcends."
"The Drink That Transcends", give me more words or phrases for thisChatGPT
Here are a few more options:

1. The Elixir of Transcendence
2. The Beverage Beyond Boundaries
3. The Nectar of Elevation
4. The Sip of Sublimity
5. The Potion of Perfection
6. The Draught of Delight
7. The Tonic of Tranquility
8. The Cup of Contentment
9. The Ambrosia of Bliss
10. The Concoction of Joy.

10 words for 'to express your ideas clearly' that starts with 'e'ChatGPT
Here are ten words starting with the letter "e" that relate to expressing your ideas clearly:

1. Eloquent: using language effectively and persuasively.
2. Explicit: stated clearly and in detail.
3. Engaging: capturing the interest and attention of the listener or reader.
4. Educative: providing knowledge or instruction.
5. Entertaining: providing enjoyment or amusement.
6. Evocative: stirring up strong emotions or memories.
7. Expressive: conveying meaning or feeling through language or gestures.
8. Elaborate: detailed and complex in design or construction.
9. Effusive: expressing feelings or opinions in an unrestrained or overflowing manner.
10. Emphatic: spoken or written with emphasis or confidence.

above 3 or 4 chats, in which you wrote 20 word's meaning. i want you to give the same result, but in code blocks. i want to copy it.ChatGPT
Certainly! Here's the information from the previous chats, with each word and definition presented in a code block for easier copying:

vbnetCopy code Word: Transcendent Definition: Going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing. Word: Felicity Definition: A state of happiness, especially in regards to a content and fulfilling life. Word: Euphoria Definition: A feeling of intense happiness or well-being. Word: Enamored Definition: Feeling a strong or passionate liking for someone or something. Word: Sumptuous Definition: Rich and luxurious in appearance, quality, or style. Word: Soothing Definition: Calming and comforting to the senses or emotions. Word: Awe Definition: A feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear in response to something grand or powerful. Word: Eloquent Definition: Using language effectively and persuasively. Word: Explicit Definition: Stated clearly and in detail. Word: Engaging Definition: Capturing the interest and attention of the listener or reader. Word: Educative Definition: Providing knowledge or instruction. Word: Entertaining Definition: Providing enjoyment or amusement. Word: Evocative Definition: Stirring up strong emotions or memories. Word: Expressive Definition: Conveying meaning or feeling through language or gestures. Word: Elaborate Definition: Detailed and complex in design or construction. Word: Effusive Definition: Expressing feelings or opinions in an unrestrained or overflowing manner. Word: Emphatic Definition: Spoken or written with emphasis or confidence. 

but you should have written the word number also, i would like to know which word is the 10th and 12th and so on. Also give urdu meaning of each wordChatGPT
Certainly! Here's the information with the word number, definition, and translation in Urdu for each word:

yamlCopy code Word #1: Transcendent Definition: Going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing. Urdu Translation: تجاوز پذیر Word #2: Felicity Definition: A state of happiness, especially in regards to a content and fulfilling life. Urdu Translation: خوشبختی Word #3: Euphoria Definition: A feeling of intense happiness or well-being. Urdu Translation: بے پرواستی Word #4: Enamored Definition: Feeling a strong or passionate liking for someone or something. Urdu Translation: عاشق Word #5: Sumptuous Definition: Rich and luxurious in appearance, quality, or style. Urdu Translation: شاندار Word #6: Soothing Definition: Calming and comforting to the senses or emotions. Urdu Translation: آرام دهندہ Word #7: Awe Definition: A feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear in response to something grand or powerful. Urdu Translation: عجب Word #8: Eloquent Definition: Using language effectively and persuasively. Urdu Translation: بلند زبان Word #9: Explicit Definition: Stated clearly and in detail. Urdu Translation: واضح Word #10: Engaging Definition: Capturing the interest and attention of the listener or reader. Urdu Translation: بخشش دار Word #11: Educative Definition: Providing knowledge or instruction. Urdu Translation: تعلیم دہندہ Word #12: Entertaining Definition: Providing enjoyment or amusement. Urdu Translation: خوش گذرا Word #13: Evocative Definition: Stirring up strong emotions or memories. Urdu Translation: بے حد جذبات دار Word #14: Expressive Definition: Conveying meaning or feeling through language or gestures. Urdu Translation: بےشمار Word #15: Elaborate Definition: Detailed and complex in design or construction. Urdu Translation: تشریح دار Word #16: Effusive Definition: Expressing feelings or opinions in an unrestrained or overflowing manner. Urdu Translation: بے حد بے قاعدگی سے Word #17: Emphatic Definition: Spoken or written with emphasis or confidence. Urdu Translation: با توجہ 

continueChatGPT
Certainly! Here are the remaining words:

yamlCopy code Word #18: Enraptured Definition: Filled with delight or wonder. Urdu Translation: خوشبخت Word #19: Enthralled Definition: Fascinated and captivated by something. Urdu Translation: عاشق Word #20: Ecstatic Definition: Overwhelmingly joyful or happy. Urdu Translation: بے خود مبتلا 

I wish I could be happy like that then, always. ChatGPT
It's natural to wish for lasting happiness. While we can't always control our circumstances, focusing on gratitude, cultivating positive relationships, and engaging in activities that bring joy can contribute to a more enduring sense of happiness.
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Just finished doing my page-by-page read-thru of the adventure. I give it a 7/10 that could be easily pushed to about a 9 with some DM tweaks and changes.
Here's my quick take on it (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS):
PROS: * The art is beautiful throughout. As always, I wish there was more, but I know I'm being greedy. * The power of secrets mechanic is a neat twist, especially if they're saved up until the end. Of course, I wouldn't let my players know that. DM advice - Add more interesting secrets, clarify mechanics of spending secrets to players * We get to visit a part of the Shadowfell that isn't a Domain of Dread. * Kas as Mordenkainen will make for a great twist if the secret can stay hidden. Seems like ANY mild google search by players will give it away. DM advice - Make Mordenkainen super close to players. If players are the type to question everything, perhaps drop hints that maybe something is going on with one of the other Wizards Three. \* Sanctum in Sigil, connection to Planescape. DM advice - Roam around Sigil a bit. Do shopping in between chapters with all that loot players are getting. * Wish spell summoning characters is a neat idea. DM advice - Perhaps make it an "upgraded" wish spell since three mega-magic users are casting it. * Vecna cultists siphoning secrets is a neat idea. DM advice - Have the cultists appear somewhere later on in the adventure, not just chapter 1. \* The clues that Mordenkainen is Kas that are found in the sanctum are pretty neat, and appropriately challenging to find. DM advice - Don't let your characters find out that secret. It is your duty. \* Rod of Seven parts is a cool magic item. * Spiderdragon is cool. Excited for the miniature. * Hertilod is cool. Excited for the miniature. * The Ruined Colossus chapter sounds fun over all. Eberron is the setting I am least familiar with but I was impressed with this chapter, particularly moving up and around Landro. * Blazebear is cool. Excited for the miniature. * I know I'm in the minority with this one... Death house seems fun to me! The Strahd fight seems nerve-wracking for players and the haunted zones will be fun to roleplay. * Deathwolf is cool. Excited for the miniature. * Black Rose Bearer is cool. Excited for the miniature. * Tomb of Wayward Souls (Chapter 7) looks fun - I'm pretty into dungeon diving. Some of the puzzles are clunky but overall I think it will be a good time. * Rerak. His art is great and spooky. For some reason Rerak's resentment toward Acererak comes off as silly and charming to me... in a good way. I think it will be fun to roleplay. * The Red Belvedere (in Chapter 8) sounds fun to run. Interesting layout. Convincing the Pit Masters to let you in to the Dragon's Pride is an interesting challenge. * Windfall is cool. Excited for the miniature. * Kas is a fun villain. Love his artwork (especially in the Character Dossier). DM advice - Make sure the legendary Sword of Kas shows up somehow. * Camlash is cool. Excited for the miniature. * Miska is cool. Excited for the miniature. * Mirror Shade is cool. Excited for the miniature. * Nice that we get a taste of a lot of different settings. Seems a little gimicky (I mean, it IS gimicky, 50 year anniversary and all...) but still fun.
CONS: * While the "link to Vecna" is an interesting and at-times necessary mechanic for players, the way in which they receive it, as written, is weak. DM change origin or cause of this link. \* No connection to obelisks mentioned in other adventures at all. Wasted opportunity. * The gridded map of the sanctum that is included with the book isn't scaled correctly for miniatures. Weird. * Chime of Exile seems lame. * Lambent Zenith map seems a bit tricky to navigate. * Dragonlance is my favorite D&D setting so this one is the biggest bummer for me... Night of Blue Fire (Chapter 6) does not sound fun. Does not seem like Dragonlance. * Bone Roc is kinda lame to me and doesn't seem necessary. * Borthok is cool mechanically but the design is boring. Big wolf? * Moonlight Guardian design is so so lame. * Lunar dragon doesn't target players upon its arrival. DM advice - That dragon is going to target those players. We will fight a dragon. \* Having players be THAT close to Tiamat's lair and not have an encounter with Arkhan the Cruel - who has the HAND OF VECNA - seems like a missed opportunity. * Chapter 10 and 11 have a messy structure. Hard to grasp exactly what's going on and the timing for everything seems off. How is Kas moving around so fast and doing so much in Pandesmos when you were hot on his tail? * The battle between the forces of Kas/Miska and Vecna/Lolth aren't represented well on Pandesmos. DM advice - Bring in some "battlefield mechanics" (like "the Fray" in SotDQ) when moving from place to place. \* Miska is written as being stuck in the portal and has his strength/powers severely subdued. After all the trouble of getting the rod of seven parts, this seems like a waste. DM advice - Miska is coming out of that portal at full power. The players are fighting Miska. \* One design for the different types of Spyder-Fiends? I hope we see more with miniatures. \* Vecna's unrealities at the end are too few... and lame. * Vecna fight seems rushed... and lame. DM advice - Buff Vecna. Adjust the teleport crystals in the Cave of Shattered Reflection to make it harder for players (but not Vecna) to navigate. Make it so some players will be "trapped" behind a crystal wall with Vecna, separated from their friends. \* Vecna is merely banished/shifted to Oerth? Anticlimactic. I've heard that it is because of future plans with Greyhawk but... still. \* This campaign's marketing. So much hype on Vecna but you see him for an underwhelming final battle only. So much hype on these D&D heavy hitters (Strahd, Lord Soth, Lolth, Tiamat, etc.) but they're barely involved, if at all. Stat blocks given and everything. I'm totally fine with them not coming in to play (with the structure of this adventure I actually think they should NOT be) but don't sell us on the idea that they will be. MY advice - They should have marketed this adventure around Kas (I know that in that case they couldn't do the Mordenkainen twist, would have to change things) and have Vecna just make his appearance at the end as it is. Could maybe even have Vecna's involvement in the adventure be a surprise twist somehow?

Recently went to Oyster Oyster, a 1-star restaurant in Washington, DC. The restaurant is relatively small — they only serve parties 4 or smaller, and there were maybe a dozen tables, mostly two-tops.
The restaurant is "oyster-tarian", which is to say, a fully vegetarian restaurant with an optional oyster course. My wife and I don't eat non-fish seafood, so we skipped the oyster, but found the meal delightful.
Personal ranking: 4/5. Food/service exceeded expectations. I'd recommend, go back, but not rush. Examples: El Cielo and Rasika tasting menus in Washington, DC. Because the menu is pretty seasonal, I'd probably choose a late summer or early fall reservation for my next visit.
Service: Service was really wonderful. This is definitely a fast-paced restaurant. Because of the size, there's basically no space between the door and the host stand, we were basically seated immediately. They don't give you the food menu until you're on your way out, and it's a set tasting menu, so food starts pretty immediately after seating and selecting (or not) wines/non-alcoholic beverages. Servers are fairly casual, but kind, knowledgable, and fun. I wouldn't say we felt doted on, but it's also a small enough place that a server is almost always in view. The meal was also quick: we were in and out of there in 90 minutes, despite it being a five course meal. That said, it wasn't rushed — and I don't think their reservations are explicitly stated for 90/120 minutes.
Wine: I'm not a huge wino, but we split the pairing and I honestly really enjoyed the wines! One bubbly, one white, two dinner reds, and a dessert red. The two reds were both unusually light, and we quite liked them. We didn't see the pairing list, but they emailed it to us after our reservation, which was nice. Pairing was $85 pre-tax/pre-tip, with a $15 surcharge for us to split it. Every pour came with an in-depth description of varietal, terroir, winemaker, distillation process, and a "why" Oyster Oyster chose to offer that particular wine.
Food: The food was delicious, and the overall meal was filling but not overwhelmingly so. The meal is light on the protein, which I often look for in a meal, but that honestly wasn't much of an issue night-of.

• First course, pics 1-3: fried celery root w/ tofu; steamed buckwheat bread; black-bread-on-a-stick (in lieu of an oyster, honestly don't remember the description.) The fried celery root is one of their signature dishes, and was delicious! One-bite meal, crunchy and savory. Also a big fan of the buckwheat bread, it was filled with a warming carrot puree.
• Second course, pic 4: steamed sweet potato. Honestly, the peanut broth was the star of this dish. Really creamy and balanced. There were also sliced radishes, a potato chip, and some other veggies stacked in there. I'd happily have this again.
• Third course, pic 5: asparagus over creamy rice with fried potato bits. Lovely taste of spring. Probably my second-favorite course of the meal, after the sweet potato. Well balanced texturally with the rice, asparagus (which maybe could have been a tad firmer) and fried potato.
• Bread, pic 6: the "butter" is actually marigold housemade-vegan butter, which is the first time I've had something like it. The bread had broccoli rabe folded into the dough. Wasn't bad, but nothing so special.
• Fourth course, pic 7: gnocchi with foraged morrels and a lot of fennel. My least favorite course of the night. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of fennel, and particularly don't like fennel fronds, which were interspersed among the gnocchi. The mushroom ragout also really overpowered the other flavors in the dish. A shame, since generally speaking, I'm a big fan of gnocchi! My wife also found this to be her least-favorite course, but I think she liked it more than me.
• Fifth course, pic 8: dessert. Delicious rhubarb cake with macerated strawberries. Really well-balanced and a perfect springtime desert.

Would recommend! I think it's gotten significantly easier to get a reservation than in years past, and it was a fun time!
Edit: I apparently don't know how to do a gallery and text.
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hi there, i'm brandon, and i'm from the philly area. fellow pennsylvanian/local people would be cool, but i enjoy talking to people from different places as well. gotta make those global connections incase i ever get stranded somewhere or just to have people to hang within every corner of the globe. anyway, here's a few things about me:

• computer engineering student graduating in two months and about to work in digital hardware, which is making 1s and 0s move around to their destinations and make things go beep boop
• i'm a PC and nintendo gamer and have currently been playing palworld. i also have way too many older nintendo games and am a gamecube enjoyer. if we have any games in common on steam or on the switch then i'd be down to play!
• my music tastes are mostly in industrial and sludge/doom metal, punk, post-punk, and hardcore. as i type this, i am listening to powerman 5000. definitely hit me up if we have similar taste so we can exchange music!
• big geography and geopolitics nerd and am one of those people who want to travel to many different countries. a little under two months from now i'll be travelling in czechia and poland.
• i like linguistics even if i don't speak any other languages very well. i could make you cringe with my bad german, or you can teach me some peculiarities about your native language
• other miscellaneous interests include thrifting, craft beebrewing, shooting, old tech and electronics, and probably more that you shall discover

if any of this resonates with you or you just like the vibe, feel free to hit me up if you're an adult under 30 and would be willing to move to discord should we hit elect to move the convo there. also please send a little intro about yourself to make it easier to start a convo. hope to hear from ya!

The lingering temptation to push the fuck-it button manifests in a glimmer of frustration. It sparkles like glitter on the bubbling fecal meniscus of life’s swamp and eventually becomes indistinguishable from the light surrounding it.
Thrashing inside its blinding truths, ugly and fetid, I reject the catacomb of inertia and push the button with two hands. It’s repulsive in action, it tastes bitter as I choke on the sewage of its metamorphic baptism - so vile to behold. Don’t watch if it displeases you, or swallow your words unless they’re asked for.
You might say there are more constructive ways to find hope, purpose and a desire to create something beautiful from nothingness. Maybe you’re right, but you’ve yet to demonstrate an effective means to an end.
Stoicism can bring us far enough into a blinkered trance that we become devoid of anything other than resignation to the now. Face and emotions charged with botulism, a glass sheet of protectionism with no permeation for the highs of life.
Faith can have us grasping at wisps in the aether, hoping for a tangible thread to connect us to something greater. The cord lassoed to a figurative post of blind belief; that purpose will find us if we stay resolved. Yet here we float adrift in purgatory, hope leaking from our aging husks.
Fantasy leads us to empty visions of delirium, unachievable ideals which are anchored down with pointed truths that shatter daydreams and leave shards of reality sticking through our skin. For every fairytale we shadow a nightmare and between the two, we simply exist but don’t live.
What is left but the nihilistic teardown of the comfort which renders us inert and dissatisfied? Shredding the ‘isn’t so bad’ into nothingness and making uncomfortable beds in which sleep evades us, forcing us to move. The half-lived dies, the half-loved hates and the irreversible impact of our actions forces rebirth, now or later, following deep reflection and action.
The fuck-it button is an ugly choice. It’s unkind to the soul, it’s unattractive on the skin and it’s destructive to our egos. But destruction looks good on me when the rubble clears, and bare foundations lay in wait for intent to build life again, altered and with newfound purpose.
Good for you if you can pop a pill, eat a mushroom or educate your way to a meaningful life.
Me? I crave the guttural hollow of desperation and pain to find the antidote to apathy and nothingness.

Hi all. Last month I post about this guitar, collected my budget and bought it one week ago. It’s a really really good guitar. V90 pickups are not stacked, true single coils, has great dynamics and they may give the most beautiful sounds. Grovers are nice to use. No tuning issues. Nut width is 42 mm and neck is regular C shaped which is comfortable. As a neck shape fetishist, there is no complaint. Two things; it sustains really good but it gets little shorter on some after the thirteenth fret on B and E. Fourteenth B string vibro bends goes like 7 seconds on high gain but fifteenth goes about half of it which is weird after one fret. I raised the action but that didn’t fix the problem I just hope it is a levelling issue because I like the noodling on high frets. The second one is the bridge saddles are not cut well where the strings sit, -which I also added in the photos. It doesn’t bother me but I think they should not be like that. I don’t have files so I’ll take it to luthier. Long story short, it is a really nice guitar. Pickups are great, fat, articulate but not harsh. They tastes just right. For the who wants a p90 guitar, you should definitely try it. Thanks.

What can I do when the property management company for the apartment I live in refused to do anything about another unit who is constantly violating various lease agreements and laws? SRPD does not respond or check on anything and tells me to talk to property management. Property management tells me to call the police. Neither will do anything. The neighbors above me stay up all night and day. They seem to like rearranging their bedroom layout at 2am a lot. They are constantly smoking in their apartment( both weed, cigarettes and probably meth as well but I don't know how to tell about that). I have THC emesis which causes me savere nausea and vomiting when people smoke weed around me. I cannot live inside my home most of the time because of this. They have also assaulted physically one of the other neighbors that tried to ask them to be quiet. I suspect she is sleeping with the manager as he refuses to assess any of the issues. I cannot afford to move. I've lived in this apartment for over 12 years and so my rent is very much below market pricing. I need to know who I can file a complaint with about the property management and force them to take action.
Please help me

The mistake is to assume that naming a problem is enough to solve it. I’ve come to think of this as the “Rumpelstiltskin fallacy” — or I also think of a famous Arthur C. Clarke short story, which I won’t spoil by naming it. But clearly I’m not the first person to use these metaphors, and if I google “Rumpelstiltskin principle” (or “effect” or “fallacy”) then I get all kinds of interesting usages… some of which overlap with what I’m talking about, none of which are quite the same thing.
So I’m just calling it a “mistake” here, because it doesn’t seem to reduce to a single logical fallacy or cognitive bias, and it may be more of a compound or second-order heuristic. I’ll give a few examples in different domains, and I’m hoping that someone can either point to where the umbrella concept has been better defined and discussed, or explain why I’m off base in thinking of it as a single mechanism.

1. Politics: whenever one side gets overly attached to some concept or framing, with demands that the other side either use or renounce specific terms. In the US, one obvious two-way example today is “critical race theory,” but another was “Islamic fundamentalism” in the post-9/11 period.
   
2. Psychology / self-help: on the one hand you’ve got Tumblr style therapy culture, with these increasingly specific taxonomies of identity, neurodivergence, trauma, etc. On the other end of that cultural axis, you’ve got pop Stoicism and other repackaged virtue ethics, which can be just as reductivist in practice.
   
3. Social science: the blank slate and the rational actor seem like parallel left-ish and right-ish examples. You might say they were each initially useful as a simplifying assumption (e.g. let’s zero out what we “know” about innate male/female differences, to see how much of it is really socially constructed) but they became reified to the point that whole new “contrarian” subfields formed just to question them, like behavioral econ or evo psych.
   
4. Culture: just the rise of fan culture and the increasing “meta-ness” of taste — the idea that explaining or contextualizing music/film/books is the point of consuming them, or that it’s somehow prior to consumption. So we could talk about right-coded objections to diverse Marvel movies, or left-coded objections to Young Adult plots... but one of the earliest signs for me was when new TV shows started to be promoted with interviews with the cast, before even telling you what the show was about.
   

I appreciate that I’m stretching the meaning of “naming” to mean defining, explaining or framing, and stretching the definition of “problem” too. I realize you could tackle each of my examples with a stack of other concepts, like map vs territory, man-with-a-hammer syndrome, “solutionism,” confirmation bias, and so on.
But am I right that there’s some other overarching mechanism they all share? Sort of a convergence on this same pattern of magical thinking, derailing from practical subjects into theory that doesn’t ramify the way we want it to? Or am I just overthinking it?