-This could make you feel better if you didn’t get a IRA when you first started working!-
When I first started working in the 1980s, some pretty “advisor” sold me an REIT IRA. (Richard Roberts Real Estate Growth Trust I). I went back to school and moved around a bit, and I stopped getting statements, forgot about it for a few years, and then couldn’t figure out how to find the account. The last reports were getting really depressing, with at least one foreclosure. I’ve just sorted through the box I’d stashed the statements and reports in. I can’t find anything online that sounds right, can’t find anything in missingmoney.com or state unclaimed property sites. Any idea how to find out what happened to my “investment”? (If nothing else, that $2000 IRA taught me to be a cautious investor!

To make this as short as possible, I was a bored teenager on the internet without many friends in real life, so at 16 I started talking to this 30 year old guy. Initially he told me he just wanted to practice his English, because he’s from Eastern Europe, but we started communicating daily. I viewed him as a friend, but after a few months he started to tell me that I was so beautiful, he wanted to be my boyfriend, and so on.
Around ~2 years ago he told me he moved to America, but he still lived pretty far from me, so we never met in person. At this point we only spoke every once in a while. When we did, he’d offer to buy a me plane ticket and hotel room to come visit him, but I always had some excuse as to why I couldn’t.
In the past few months, he’s showed up in my area (with no prior notice) asking if I could meet him. I’d say that I was out of town, or I had a family emergency, or something like that. Recently, he told me he’s coming again next month and he really, really wants to meet. And this time, I have mixed feelings.
I know it’s shallow, but I’m not physically attracted to him. Maybe he’s better in person, but he’s not really that interesting or funny either. There’s also the whole talking to teenage me on the internet thing.
On the other hand, I’ve tried to date before, but was always unsuccessful. I’d get ghosted when I made it clear I didn’t want to have sex yet. In contrast, he’s never mentioned anything sexual, even once. He also made it clear that his physical “type” is for girls who look like me, which isn’t very common.
I’m kind of a failure in life. I’m 23, I live with my parents, I can’t drive, I don’t have any friends, I’ve never had a real job. I had a few retail/food service sort of jobs, but I never lasted long because I got overwhelmed with being around people all day. I did go to college, but I wasn’t very good at what I majored in, and I don’t know what to with my life. I’m honestly not good at anything. In contrast, he has a house, a car, and a job.
He’s talked about me moving in with him, us getting married, having a family, and he’ll take care of everything. I never saw myself living that kind of life, but maybe I’m not suited for anything else. I’m awkward and don’t have any other skills.
Honestly, I think he’s probably the best I’ll ever get. Most people don’t get their perfect 10/10 person, and I should be happy that someone has been this persistent in their interest of me. The only hurdle is finding a way to go meet him when he comes, but I could figure something out. I’m not sure if it’s an ok idea or if I could possibly try to learn to love him? Should I meet him?

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.

Initially started playing CS2 with an R7 5800X + RTX 3080 + 32GB RAM (3200 MHz), average 230-250~ average FPS on Dust 2, closer to 140-170~ on Ancient. (Dust 2 best performing map, Ancient worst performing map). Originally 350-400~ FPS on CSGO on most maps; I don't have those numbers anymore. First thing I noticed was that CS2 improperly utilizes the CPU, stacking all of the GPU rendering load onto 1 core, causing the CPU to only be at 5-10% utilization (1 core maxed out) with my GPU sitting pretty at 30-40% usage and my FPS barely at my refresh-rate (240 Hz). CSGO had this problem as well, but not nearly as bad. Obviously, this is a problem that thousands of people have run into.
Fast-forward; I got a job that requires me to be out of state 2-3 weeks out of every month, so I sold my desktop and bought a reasonably-priced Alienware M15 R5 laptop (Win10, 1080p, 360 Hz (excessive), R9 5900HX, RTX 3070 (80%~ performance compared to desktop version), 32GB RAM (2667 MHz). The 5900HX is not really comparable to my previous 5800X, obviously. Still, I expected it to be able to play eSports titles reasonably well. CSGO played perfectly fine, 250-300 FPS generally. Valorant currently gets the same, 250-300 FPS (Valorant actually uses all of my cores. Hah).
Out of the box with no launch options, CS2 gets 50-100 FPS depending on the map with this laptop (Inferno and Ancient are especially terrible), only using 5-10% of the CPU (1 core maxed out), 20-30% GPU usage. These FPS stats do not get better by lowering any settings (because of the intentionally-designed CPU bottleneck), but input latency somewhat improves by playing on lowest settings (with FidelityFX disabled). This is, pardon my French, fucking ridiculous. Entirely foreseeable and preventable during engine development, and completely insane to be overlooked without more context. Secondly, Source 2 is over a decade old, so really it's a miracle that anyone thought it was a good idea to release a modern sequel title on this ancient technology.
Before anyone asks, I've done everything possible after 20+ hours of research to try to increase FPS on this system. My best results have been with the "performance" power plan in Windows these launch options (if anyone says "that one doesn't work anymore" I literally don't care, I'm over it and decided to throw everything at it, and these all seem to improve my FPS through a lot of split-testing): -dx11 -coop_fullscreen -force_allow_coop_fullscreen -mainthreadpriority 2 -disable_affinity_preferences -r_max_device_threads 64 -threads 17 -set_power_qos_disable -favor_consistent_framerate +engine_low_latency_sleep_after_client_tick 1 +r_low_latency 2
My FPS has since improved to something resembling a playable experience (90-190 FPS depending on map). I'm aware that I could replace my RAM with a higher clockspeed to further improve performance with a single core, but I have other priorities than spending more time or money trying to improve this. Regardless, I wanted to share what worked for me because there was a huge lack of infomation anywhere in one place. I found these launch options from user Aveyo. Here's his original post; +Rep to that guy: https://www.reddit.com/GlobalOffensive/comments/1ah3eas/comment/kolwa1g/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Either way, this is as good as forcing low-spec players to flock to this game's main competitor just so that they can have a vaguely similar experience with playable FPS. No, sub-100 FPS is not playable for anyone who can tell the difference between 144hz and 240hz and wants a somewhat competitive experience. I can't yet justify spending over $2k on a laptop with a reasonable CPU/GPU combo that would meet my standard because of a single game whose devs are basically telling me they don't care enough to add reasonable multithreading and that I should get over it. Especially when this PC works completely fine for everything else, including playing their competitor's game instead (begrudgingly).

If you're looking to understand more about dog boxes, you're in the right place. Dog boxes are essential for many pet owners, especially for those who travel frequently or need a secure place for their dogs. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you make an informed decision.

What is a Dog Box?

A dog box, also known as a dog crate or kennel, is a secure, enclosed space designed for dogs. It serves multiple purposes such as transportation, training, and providing a safe, comfortable environment for your pet.

Types of Dog Boxes

Plastic Dog Boxes

• Pros: Durable, often airline-approved, provides privacy.
• Cons: Less ventilation, can be bulky.

Wire Dog Boxes

• Pros: Excellent ventilation, collapsible for easy storage, often comes with a removable tray for cleaning.
• Cons: Less privacy, can be noisy if not well-constructed.

Soft-Sided Dog Boxes

• Pros: Lightweight, portable, easy to store.
• Cons: Less durable, not suitable for destructive dogs or escape artists.

Heavy-Duty Dog Boxes

• Pros: Extremely durable, great for strong and large breeds, often made of metal.
• Cons: Heavy, expensive, less portable.

How to Choose the Right Dog Box?

Size Matters

• Ensure the box is large enough for your dog to stand, turn around, and lie down comfortably.
• Measure your dog’s height and length and choose a box that provides a bit more space than these dimensions.

Purpose and Usage

• For travel: Opt for sturdy, well-ventilated boxes, ideally plastic or heavy-duty metal.
• For home use: Wire or soft-sided boxes can be more convenient and easier to clean.

Durability and Safety

• Check for secure latches and sturdy construction to prevent escapes.
• Look for materials that are chew-resistant, especially for puppies and active dogs.

Benefits of Using a Dog Box

Training Tool

• Helps in housebreaking by teaching your dog bladder control.
• Provides a safe space for your dog to retreat and relax.

Travel Safety

• Ensures your dog’s safety during car rides.
• Many are airline-approved, making air travel with pets easier.

Preventing Destructive Behavior

• Keeps your dog safe and prevents destructive behavior when you’re not at home.

Tips for Introducing Your Dog to a Dog Box

1. Make it Comfortable: Add soft bedding and your dog’s favorite toys.
2. Positive Reinforcement: Use treats and praise to encourage your dog to enter and stay in the box.
3. Gradual Introduction: Start with short periods and gradually increase the time your dog spends in the box.

FAQs about Dog Boxes

Q: Can I use a dog box for potty training? A: Yes, dog boxes are highly effective for potty training. They help teach your dog to hold their bladder until they are let outside.
Q: How long can I leave my dog in a dog box? A: It depends on the dog’s age and training. Puppies should not be left for more than a few hours, while adult dogs can stay for longer periods if they are well-trained and comfortable.
Q: What should I put in my dog’s box? A: Include soft bedding, toys, and water (especially for longer periods). Avoid leaving food inside for extended periods to prevent messes.
By understanding the different types of dog boxes and how to choose the right one, you can ensure your furry friend has a safe, comfortable space whether at home or on the go.

This is long to read if your on mobile (I am) any advice helps, thanks.
I, (17f) am about to be a senior in high school and I’ve kind of realized how behind I feel in life.
For background I have very strict parents, and one of them is emotionally absent (I think she’s a narcissist but we will never know) and I don’t think she likes me very much. That’s besides the point however, but she’s kind of hands off in my life not in the “I don’t care what you do” way, but in the “I don’t want you to do anything but school and home” way but she won’t help me do anything else.
My dad however he’s involved more with me and I really appreciate him, but he’s still strict in the sense that if I go somewhere he has to be the one to take me and bring me back, and I have to let him know weeks in advance. This makes it really inconvenient for me socially because we live in the middle of nowhere. Or not nowhere, but an EXTREMELY car dependent area. Like a shopping center a 10 minute drive away, but a 3 hour walk along a narrow empty road kind of nowhere. Meaning no public transport, and without him I’m physically stuck at home. (Ubers not allowed). My parents also don’t really do family bonding stuff to get new experiences. Every somewhat interesting experience I’ve had in my life thus far has come from my oldest brother and his fiance who I also consider my sister who are both twice my age. Meaning I can’t really relate to them on a personal level, but since my brother knows how my parents are he really makes and effort to be there and help me in basically everything. Like if I didn’t have him, I’d never know what an amusement park like six flags is like, I would never have been to Panera bread, I’d never see a movie, id be typing this on a leapfrog, and I’d literally never do anything. at all. That’s how mundane my parents lives are and since they’re older(60s), and come from a really rough life (they migrated here) they’re kind of content with work, home, eat, sleep, repeat. Maybe once in a blue moon go out to eat, or shop at a department store for furniture or something. My mom in particular has also kind of given up being a parent because of me and my siblings age gap, it’s like I’m a ghost to her. I do a lot of stuff myself not by choice. Like If I was told to pack only my things and go, I’d literally pack my entire room. Everything in it except for the mattress and major furniture was purchased by me, or my brother and sister (his fiance). All my shoes, 80% of my clothes, and all else have been bought by me/siblings since I was 15 i think?
I’ve never had a family trip/vacation even to like somewhere local/close. Everywhere we go has to have some sort of legitimate purpose, and when I bring this up to my parents they bring up those types of trips. “Remember when we went to Florida!” But we stayed for literally a day and a half soley for the purpose of attending my brother’s graduation when I was like 8. “Remember when we went to Canada” again for a day and a half just for some church program thing (super Christian). Again when I was like 12. I’m too young to do anything for fun in their eyes or take public transport, but I’m allowed to have my job. Even then I can’t work more than once a week because they’ll complain about having to take me and pick me up as I’m reliant on them for transportation. I’ve been pushing them to get my lisence, but they keep stalling for god knows why. And to knock this out, no they are not financially struggling. On top of that I have no family aside from them/my siblings in the US, so I literally have nobody. My brother, I love him and his help but I feel like I’m holding him back from truly being able to let them go and be free of constant contact with them for other reasons, because he still wants to be in my life and help me.
Earlier I said one of my parents is emotionally absent, it’s no secret but it’s my mom, pretty sure she hates me and I don’t know why, but I’m over it. Suddenly after I turned 11 she just has this constant need to argue with me, put me down, or literally do anything just to assume the worst of me or not be happy for me. The issue with that is, she also doesn’t DO anything. My dad does literally EVERYTHING. He cooks, he takes me to school, he picks me up, he takes me to the doctor, he goes to any ceremonies, everything. It’s so bad that some of my friends deliberately avoided bringing up mothers because they thought my dad was a single dad (my mom is hands off my life so I never bring her up and she’s never in a position to meet them). So I feel 10x guilty anytime I want to even go to the grocery store because I know it’s going to fall on my dad alone and I don’t want to make it harder for him when he does a lot already. I can’t go out with any friends, but when I want to do something alone I can’t do it because it’s suspicious that I want to do it alone. Relationships have always been out of the question, the romance isn’t worth the shit show aftermath at home. And as I get older when I see people my age driving, going out, getting piercings, dye jobs, tattoos, doing weekday shifts, relationships, it kind of hits me that I’m literally so behind and have accomplished nothing outside of academics. It’s led to “what’s the point” thoughts which I have to work through alone because just my luck in the eyes of my parents depression and sewerslidal thoughts are diseases. It’s so bad that when my mom (shocker) asked me if I was depressed a few days ago I instantly said no because I knew it was not genuine. It was 100% bait that would’ve turned into a long lecture as to why I’m wrong even though I hate to self diagnose but I honestly think I have been for a while. The constant isolation (not by choice) has gotten terrible to the point where I’m starting to hear shit and see shit when I’m alone and it’s kind of freaking me out. My one and only vice is impulsive spending online because I literally have nothing to look forward to having money for.
My brothers done so much for me. He bought me my first phone, everything. I keep telling myself to just wait until I’m 18 to live life, but I then think I’d still have missed a decent or somewhat normal high school experience. All that alone time gives me the opportunity to learn a lot of random stuff, and I always end up viewed as the “mature” or “smart-experienced-therapist-like” figure (key word figure because I’m NONE of that) in my friendships and it sucks because due to past experiences of opening up to my mom, I have trouble expressing how I feel to others. No im not mature and handling my own, I just have no idea how to talk about my issues/feelings to others in person. Like no I’m not some know it all fortune teller. Sometimes I literally just want to have someone to feel stupid with you know? Like I want to be able to leave my brain at home with someone and not feel like I’m breaking character or something. I hate being told I carry myself maturely, or I’m an old soul or down to earth by people older than me etc. I don’t want to be. I hate being looked at weird or with wide eyes when I laugh, smile, or joke because for some reason people think it’s not “like me”. I don’t even know what to do, or where to start. Everyone thinks I just have shit sorted and just make moves in silence or something when I’m literally in crisis. I feel weird to even cry, ME a 17 year old girl feels like it’s a crime to cry infront of anyone. None of my friends have ever seen me cry. And I almost did once infront of two of them because of a really bad moment of clarity that my life sucks. They just stared at me like I was some specimen because they didn’t know I was capable of crying I guess? If anyone even reads this I don’t even know what to do. I don’t even know if I make any sense. And I read this over and edited it in less detail because I think my feelings are corny and it sounds stupid and ik that’s my problem even on Reddit UGH.
And disclaimer, no I am not a danger to myself or anyone else, I’m not itching to kick the bucket it’s just a big “ugh” moment.

It's already been checked by an electrician. He says there is nothing wrong.
The smell comes out into the room a bit after many hours of use of a minisplit. However, even when not in use, when I open the box up (it's like metal, in the wall) the inside metal part where the cables are behind the fuses smells like humid/musty/aquarium water type smell.
Any ideas? There is definitely no issue because the fuse has never blown, and the electrician is one I trust and he showed me nothing is wrong there.

I have a child from a previous relationship and her mother can be to put it nicely, demanding and manipulative. I met my gf 6 months ago. She the greatest thing since my child was born. But over these 6months my child's mother has, continuously called (up to 350 times in 2 hours), treated my gf, threatened me, told me she'll text her to say I cheated on her and many many more. And today was too for her. She called me one and I answered to tell her about our child night since she slept over last night. And she proceeded to ask about breakfast I said she had a pancake at a diner and she didn't finish it so l put it in a box. I told her she left it in my car but l'll bring it over later. She then yelled at the top of her lungs how she can't eat it now and that l'm a horrible human being for suggesting that. I hang up I can see my gf getting mad. So I don't answer the following 7. After our outing to the science center she told me she was done. She said she though she was blocked and that she can't take this back and fourth any more. I told her that I'm sorry forever and that she is blocked but she called from a NO CALLER ID so I can't block that. She asked me to pull over in the raid and she'll walk home. I told her no let me bring you to the house. She opened the door while I was driving and after that I relented. I asked her to talk and she said no don't talk to me. She went inside right after me before I could talk her down, l've been In the most of rain for three hours now. I left and bought her flowers. And her favorite candy but she won't come to the door or even unblock me. I know it takes time and whatn I need to show her how sorry I am. Idk what to an. spinning out of control.

Hi! On 4/24, I bought a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport with 46,000 miles from DriveTime (not a great idea trust me I know but it was my only option at the time) Test drive was fine but 20 minutes after leaving and getting on the highway, my transmission started slipping. Brought it to a Mitsubishi dealer and warranty gave me a brand new transmission, all I paid was the deductible due the dealer being out of network. I got the car back finally on 5/10. I’ve filled the tank twice, the first time said I would get 210 miles for my full tank, sent one says 170 miles. My father in law has had the same car and said he got 300-400 miles with a full tank so something is wrong (again 😁) Is this correct? I have like 0 car knowledge so now I’m kinda freaking out and regretting my decision once again. I mainly only drive short distances around my city like bringing my kids to school or to appointments, I don’t drive on the highway much at all. I did also reset the trips on the car before filling the tank again like he recommended. I also want to add I asked the dealership to inspect the vehicle for any other problems I need to be aware of and they said the car was really in pristine condition other than the transmission.

My shop could not find anything. Here is the situation. When I start my car, 2016 Nisan Sentra, there is a smell of natural gas. Not gasoline/petroleum but the smell you get when you start a gas oven. It happens when I slow to a stop and sometimes when I turn on the heat/air. The dealership did a $200 inspection and found nothing. They could smell it too from time to time but came up with zilch. Does anyone have any idea what this is?

Ok I know people post ghost ideas like all the time but Womp Womp I'm posting my own.
I was thinking of a ghost that Hunts at 50% average sanity, but only kills those who are below 50% sanity. Even if everyone in the house is above 50, (like, cursed hunt), then it would kill nobody. It would work the same on singleplayer, which means if you do a cursed hunt, it wouldn't kill you. Also, every time you get a paramic response from this ghost, it drains your sanity 15%.
I literally thought of this like 5 minutes ago, feel free to ask questions n give ideas :3c
oh also it gives D.O.T.S., Spirit Box, and Freezing.

Just for the record, I'm a 42 year old man.
I tried my hand a bobbin lace back when I was a teenager. I made my own pillow, basically butchering an attempts at upholstery with cotton fabric over foam on a piece of plywood. I made my own bobbins with nails glued into the ends of short dowels. I used the materials I could buy myself, and fit in a backpack on my bike.
I found patterns, and punched the pin holes in the cardboard from cereal boxes. I was still able to make quite a few decent patterns, even a lace edged hanky for mothers day, which my mom still proudly displays.
Now, I have a decent job, and have some disposable income I can use to get a new setup. Where do you all get your pillows and bobbins? Are there pattern suppliers that have layouts on something more sturdy than paper? I know how to make it, I just need direction on where to get some good supplies and equipment.

Hey all!
TL;DR : How do you all feel about using a small, high quality analog mixer to impart coloration on tracks and as a sort of “master bus” channel strip while using a control surface for the bulk of your mixing? Sorry, this post got a lot longer than I thought!
First time poster here, I’ve tried to search through the sub to see if I could find a discussion like this and while I found some stuff similar I didn’t find anything exactly like this situation. I don’t really have anyone around me in the country I live in right now that does a lot of audio engineering or studio nonsense to bounce ideas off of, so I’m glad this community exists!
My question here is really more of getting an opinion on if what I’m planning to do is a good idea or not. Currently in my studio I run a multi-interface setup via ADAT to give me 18 ins and 20 outs (2 of those being used for my monitors). I’m getting to a point where recently I’ve had larger and larger projects that have increased track counts in excess of 24 tracks and it’s starting to bother me because my usual workflow involves using the mixer to perform all of the EQ and volume adjustment of my tracks.
My question really lies in the fact of trying to avoid going for a huge 64 channel console for both size and budget constraints. My current idea is to take a control surface ecosystem (such as the Behringer X touch) combine it with two extenders to get 24 faders and enough encoders to control in-the-box EQ and plug-ins, and use the mixer I currently have to continue to run headphone mixes for clients and to serve as channel strips for tracks that might need that coloration. I’d also plan to throw like-instruments on busses at the end of a project and record them THROUGH the console for a final bit of coloration.
Is this a stupid idea, or does it make sense? I like the workflow of an analog board and don’t want to give that up, but I’m cool with mixing in the box with the help of a larger control surface.
If there’s anything I’m missing here, please let me know! All too often do I find myself going through all kinds of nonsense and upgrades only to find out it doesn’t work exactly as I want or I didn’t think everything all the way through.
Thanks for reading my post!

I’ve been stuck on this all day can someone help me solve quick! Which is it a b or c and what the amount of cars
A highway agent sampled cars going from one state to a neighboring state. In his report he indicated that of the 83 cars sampled, 36 cars were driven by women, 56 cars were sport-utility vehicles, 43 cars had two or more passengers, 29 cars were driven by women in sport-utility vehicles, 26 cars were driven by women and had two or more passengers, 19 cars were sport-utility vehicles and had two or more passengers, and 15 cars were driven by women in sport-utility vehicles and had two or more passengers. After his supervisor reads the report, she explains to the agent that he made a mistake. Explain how his supervisor knew that the agent's report contained an error. Select the correct choice below and fill in the answer box to complete your choice. (Type a whole number.) • A. The agent's first three statements indicate that at least cars were driven by women in sport-utility vehicles and had two or more passengers. This contradicts the agent's seventh statement, which says that only 15 such cars were seen. • B. The agent's last four statements indicate that at least. cars were driven by women. This contradicts the agent's first statement, which says that only 36 such cars were seen. • C. The agent's last four statements indicate that at least cars were sport-utility vehicles. This contradicts the agent's second statement, which says that only 56 such cars were seen.

Hey, so, this is a pretty weird issue I've been having for like a month now and trying to google for solutions brings up a plethora of different window focusing issues but not this specific one.
A good chunk of the time everything works great and as expected but at what seems random instances the windows on my desktop stop gaining focus when I click on them. They are open and visible on the desktop, not minized to the taskbar or anything. But when I click on them it's like I'm clicking on the desktop. A right click brings up the desktop context menu (change wallpaper, display settings, etc) and a click-and-hold actually draws the selection box you see on the desktop. To fix this I need to either click on the task bar or alt-tab through the windows so they all regain focus once and then after that click on them works as expected to interact and change focus... until the problem returns randomly.
At first I noticed it a lot with Brave and Ferdium so thought that maybe Electron apps? But nope, it also happens with Dolphin, Konsole and Kate. I'm running mostly stock and I disabled the couple KWin scripts I had and it is still happening. Running X11 because, you know, nvidia.
Any idea how I could troubleshoot this? I honestly ran out of ideas.
Current system versions: * KDE Plasma Version: 6.0.4 * KDE Frameworks Version: 6.2.0 * QT Version: 6.7.0 * Kernel Version: 6.9.1 * Base OS: Arch

Hi! On 4/24, I bought a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport with 46,000 miles from DriveTime (not a great idea trust me I know but it was my only option at the time) Test drive was fine but 20 minutes after leaving and getting on the highway, my transmission started slipping. Brought it to a Mitsubishi dealer and warranty gave me a brand new transmission, all I paid was the deductible due the dealer being out of network. I got the car back finally on 5/10. I’ve filled the tank twice, the first time said I would get 210 miles for my full tank, sent one says 170 miles. My father in law has had the same car and said he got 300-400 miles with a full tank so something is wrong (again 😁) Is this correct? I have like 0 car knowledge so now I’m kinda freaking out and regretting my decision once again. I mainly only drive short distances around my city like bringing my kids to school or to appointments, I don’t drive on the highway much at all. I did also reset the trips on the car before filling the tank again like he recommended. I also want to add I asked the dealership to inspect the vehicle for any other problems I need to be aware of while they had it and they said the car was really in pristine condition other than the transmission.

So I've got a bunch of shipping labels from Amazon delivery that I peel off before disposing the boxes. I have a shredder but I don't want to put these labels in that since that get stuck to the blades and mess it up over time. I haven't tried burning them as I am concerned about embers etc flying in the wind (but I guess on a day without wind should be ok). Any other better ideas than burning them ?

I recently had a run in with my neighbour's dog that left my bike's radiator and fairing buggered. Turns out the wait for parts is potentially 3 months. My bike is my only transport and not having it has been frustrating to say the least.
Have any of you had luck getting a hire car out of the other person's insurance? He's using his home insurance's personal liability cover; I have no idea how that would even work to cover a hire vehicle for such a long time. I worked out the cost of a hire car for that period and at the low end is $8K+. My bike is only worth $11K and the repairs/costs are already around $2 or 3K.