Macbook air M2 15 inch 8 GB RAM has been an absolute disaster for me.
I bought it because my school was giving us a free ipad, so i thought I could use a mac instead of windows to have a dual monitor set up. Safe to say that itself has been a disaster with the screen mirroring capability constantly bugging out making it unusable. No problem I said, I will just use my laptop alone and maybe purchase a real second monitor in the future.
Then, I began dealing with the slowest loading times when using my browser, after some research, learned that it is due to chrome. Ok, weird a brand new device cant handle chrome, but no problem, I will now only use safari despite disliking it.
After a while, I began to have a glitch where I could not click any buttons when attempting to save or upload documents like a microsoft word document, unable to add files to emails, open old documents, etc. Takes like 30 minutes of relaunching finder, reloading the laptop, etc, until it decides to let me go through finder only for minutes before the problem sometimes comes back. Now I am getting frustrated, this is something I could do in 2005 without issues.
Then, when things could not be going worse, I begin to have messages pop up every couple of minutes saying “Your system has run out of application memory”.
I literally only use this device for microsoft word, safari, and Anki (a flashcard app). I think an old PC from 2010 could run this better. And everyone will say I got the garbage option from apple with the 8 GB RAM, the cheapest of the line they had to offer, and I get that. I did that knowing I would use very few apps and that any piece of garbage should be able to handle it. But not this thing, still at a price tag of 1.2k.
So now, I dont know what to do. I can trade it in for $720… should I try and upgrade, or do the better versions still have all these issues?
Or should I just call it a day, and purchase a microsoft surface laptop (my old device was the microsoft surface book, which seemed to work better than my current device. On that old device I got in 2016, I could run many things at once, use anki, play pretty heavy games like EU4 on steam, etc., and that was less expensive (1k) and purchased 8 years before this one)
In fairness - some pros of the device are how lightweight it is, how nice it looks, and how long it can hold a charge, its very impressive, but these faults mentioned above hurt way more than these pros help.

I'm about 25 hours into my first playthrough of Fallout 4, and because it's a Bethesda game I didn't even load it up without installing 72 mods. After searching around for a modlist that would be easy to install, crash and bug free, and largely leave the gameplay untouched I settled on The Midnight Ride.
It took a while to download all the mod files, but once I'd done that and setup Mod Organizer 2 it was really easy to configure. I included some of the optional extras (the TMR website sets everything out really clearly) but the only one I installed that adds content to the game was You And What Army 2.
So far I have had zero crashes or glitches, the game has run perfectly smoothly and it looks really nice due to the subtle changes made by the optional visuals mods.

I downloaded a few songs, per the pics, they are in their own folders in my songs Folder. They are SNG files. I have scanned and Scanned and they aren’t showing up in game. What am I missing or doing wrong?

I’ll give the general rundown of events:
I purged all my mods from the mods folder. Still had them all saved on the mod manager but all of them were gone. Then, my game wouldn’t even open without crashing. I used the verify file integrity thing on steam. Now, I can open the game and start new saves with no issue. But if I want to load an old save it just loads me back to the main menu. Unusually this happens to me if I update a script extender mod. While I did update some of these, I swear I recerted them back to the version they were and it is still doing this. Any help?

I know it isn't possible to add particular hotkey binds per different controllers, but I did read on other threads you can add the lines of the hotkeys you want to the specific autoconfig files in the retroarch/autoconfig folder.
I want to have different hotkeys for one particular controller. I created a game override with the hotkey mappings I want for that controller, then took the lines from that file and pasted them at the end of the autoconfig file of that controller.
Supposedly, this is all there is to it and it should work, right? Because it doesn't for me.
Could anyone help me, please? The particular lines I'm pasting at the end of the autoconfig controller file are:
input_enable_hotkey = "nul"
input_enable_hotkey_btn = "7"
input_load_state = "nul"
input_load_state_btn = "10"
input_menu_toggle = "f1"
input_menu_toggle_btn = "2"
input_save_state = "nul"
input_save_state_btn = "8"
input_state_slot_decrease = "nul"
input_state_slot_decrease_axis = "-0"
input_state_slot_decrease_btn = "nul"
input_state_slot_increase = "nul"
input_state_slot_increase_axis = "+0"
input_state_slot_increase_btn = "nul"
input_toggle_fast_forward = "nul"
input_toggle_fast_forward_axis = "-1"
input_toggle_fast_forward_btn = "nul"
input_toggle_slowmotion = "nul"
input_toggle_slowmotion_axis = "+1"
input_toggle_slowmotion_btn = "nul"

I accidentally posted this to my username instead of my subreddit so here is is:
The Mortgage, Part 3
“Fuck,” I said as I drove to work in the old beater that only started on the fourth try because it could tell that I was pissed off. Ray’s case started at two o’clock, and I was heading to the office to get ready. “Fuck fuck fuckity fucking fuck. Fuck.” I’d wanted to tell Angela about Ray’s case, and how I was sorry that I hadn’t wanted to help him, but now I would, I would help him, and I would win, but then I’d gotten her all riled up on something else, something totally different, something way more serious.
My wife had given me a triple ultimatum: fix things up with her father, save idiot Ray from Sy-Co Corp., and somehow find a downpayment for the place she wanted to buy, in the little townhouse infill project in Bixity. It was like demanding I do a double bank shot, and then run over to the baseball diamond and hit a home run after first pointing to where it would land, Babe Ruth style.
Angela was mad at me, seriously mad. She’d slipped out that morning before I was even awake, sliding quietly past me on the couch. I didn’t realize she was gone until I heard the faint click of the front door closing. I jumped up, tripped over a blanket, and by the time I got up and my robe on, the elevator down the hall dinged, and Angela was gone before I opened the apartment door.
I swore at myself some more and pounded the steering wheel, “I fucked up,” I said, several times as I hit the wheel over and over again, until I accidentally honked it, and then looked all sheepish when the guy in front of me gave me the finger. I reached my office without further incident, but instead of walking in the front door, I went further down the hall, and into the office of Mark Cecil-Rowe, Barrister, LL.D, the man with the finest speaking voice I ever heard. When I entered his office I forgot for a minute about Angela and her father and sleeping on the couch the night before. I forget about everything, except the reason that I had come to Cecil-Rowe’s office: to stump him with a legal problem that I had solved, but which I was pretty sure he could not. In other words, I had come to preen and to brag and to boast. No one likes a showoff, and I had come to show off. I put my hand on the door and turned the knob. After a brief pause, I flung open the door.
“I’m a goddamn genius,” I said as I strolled into the older man’s office.
I noticed the echo of a hastily closed desk drawer hanging in the air. In Aaron’s office, where I rented space, a sudden act of concealment implied cocaine, but with Cecil-Rowe, the item in question was probably a mickey of vodka. I had the sense that he’d been drinking a bit before I arrived, but his powers of observation were unimpaired, and when he looked into my face, his expression showed sympathy, and actual pain.
“What have you done now?” he said, as set the papers before him to one side, and readied himself to hear my latest tale of legal brilliance.
“I’m a genius,” I said.
“Oh dear. Have a seat.”
“No really, I am. I’m a genius. I got this case that everyone says you can’t win, but I’m gonna win it, and when I do, I’m gonna look like a genius.” Cecil-Rowe gave me a sad indulgent smile.
“Whenever you tell me you’re a genius, I am always concerned about what is to follow. When you get wrapped up in what you call your genius, you tend to ignore the more mundane things we lawyers have to do to win a case. You think you’re going to win by genius alone.”
“Let me tell you why I’m a goddamn genius.” With effort I wiped the smug, self-satisfied expression that was on my face.
“Tell me why you’re a genius,” Cecil-Rowe said, “while I pour us a coffee.” He heaved his bulky body up from his chair and shuffled over to a counter. He picked up a carafe of hot coffee sitting on a hot plate, and poured two cups. “Speak,” he said, handing me one. I took a sip of the coffee, and told Cecil-Rowe the tale of Cousin Ray: his purchase of a franchise from Sy-Co Corp, its swift demise, the crash and burn in Commercial Court, the Minutes of Settlement, the seventy-one kilometer limit, and lastly, Sy-Co’s motion scheduled for two p.m. that very day, seeking an interim injunction shutting down Ray’s place.
Cecil-Rowe absorbed all this without the need to take notes. Instead, he sat back while he eyed me, taking the occasional sip of coffee, and smiling at the extravagant flourishes and details that brought out Ray’s story to full effect.
“Obviously Ray is dead on arrival,” he said, “but I guess this is the part where you tell me how you’re going to win.”
So I told him how I was going to win, but it didn’t have the desired effect. “I told ya I’m a genius, Mr. C,” cueing him to applaud, to admit what a brilliant lawyer I was. But there was no applause from Mark Cecil-Rowe. He looked at me without so much as a smile.
“You can cling to that genius notion as a consolation prize, after you get whipped this afternoon in court.”
“No way,” I said, “not a chance. I got this thing won hands down. I’m gonna kick ass in court today and--”
“And how exactly do you plan to do that, if you don’t have evidence?”
“What?”
“Evidence, Calledinthe9os. It’s what lawyers like me use to beat geniuses like you.”
“But I’m gonna win without proof. I don’t need proof. The argument I’m gonna make, relies on simple facts that are totally obvious, so the judge is gonna--” Cecil-Rowe stuck up his hand.
“Stop right there. I know what’s coming. You’re going to ask the judge to take *judicial notice.”
And he was right. That was exactly what I was going to do.
There are some things so obvious that you didn’t have to prove them, things that everyone knew. You didn’t have to prove that water froze at zero degrees and boiled at a hundred, or that Bixity was between West Bay and East Bay.
“You got it,” I said, “judicial notice all the way.”
“You’re going to tell the judge that the centerpiece of your argument, the lynchpin of your case is a fact known to pretty well everyone, and so you don’t need proof.”
“Exactly,” I said. Cecil-Rowe took another sip of his coffee, and left me hanging in the silence for a while before he spoke.
“If that’s true, then why does coming up with that argument make you a genius?”
“Oh, I said,”I didn’t think of that.”
“It is acceptable to rely on judicial notice for minor, ancillary points. But you never should walk into court thinking that the court will take judicial notice of your entire defence. It’s just too risky.”
“But how am I going to rustle up a witness in time for this afternoon?”
“Worry about that after you leave my office. I can’t help you with that. What I want to know, is why you’re doing this at the last minute.”
“What makes you think I’m doing this at the last minute?”
“Because you never would have resorted to judicial notice if you were properly prepared. If you’d opened this case a bit earlier, you’ve have everything lined up. But you got to work on it late, and so you want to rely on judicial notice. You’ve messed up, Calledinthe90s, and you know what my rule is when you mess up.” Cecil-Rowe didn’t extend aid to me, until I admitted the error of my ways. It was infuriating, but he was inflexible. So I fessed up.
“My idiot cousin Ray’s been trying to retain me for almost two weeks, but I was putting him off because I was mad at him. So now my wife’s mad at me, and if I don’t win this case, I’m dead. Plus her dad’s mad at me too and --” My brain roared into overdrive, a mess of family and law and fear, and at the centre of it, thoughts of Angela’s anger and her father. My mind took off, and then came to an instant halt at a helpful destination.
“Yes?” Cecil-Rowe said.
“Sorry. I just realized how to solve the evidence problem. Look, can I ask you about the thing I actually came here to ask you about?”
“You have a problem that’s worse than having no evidence? What could be worse than -- oh. You don’t have a retainer. Your client doesn't have any money.”
“Exactly. How do I get paid? That’s the problem.” I explained that Ray had no money, as in none, and that if he did have money, he wouldn’t spend it on me. Instead, he’d go back downtown and throw his cash at some big firm, who would take on his case, and proceed to lose it in a calm, careful, sober manner, ending in a reporting letter to Ray telling him that he’d lost.
“Now that’s a problem I can solve,” Cecil-Rowe said.
“Really? ‘Cause I can’t see a way around it. I think I’m gonna have to do this for free, and that really pisses me off.” Cecil-Rowe shook his head.
“You may or may not get paid, but you can set things up so that if you win, you’ll win pretty good.”
“How? Ray’s a deadbeat. Tapped out.”
“But is he desperate?”
“Totally. The first time he failed, he lost his own money, but if he goes under this time, he’s taking family money with him, and he’ll be the black sheep forever.”
“And he’s using family to emotionally blackmail you into helping him?’
“Like no shit. That’s the part that pisses me off the most. I’m like a goddamn slave, being forced to work for free.”
“Never fear, young apprentice. I have just the thing in mind.” He reached into a drawer, and pulled out a form. “Fill in the blanks, and have him sign.”
I looked it over, and saw that the document was a retainer agreement. I whistled. “Holy shit. If he signs this, he’s almost my slave.”
“Close, but not quite” Cecil-Rowe said, “the Latin term for this is "contractus pro venditione animae"”. It’s the ultimate retainer agreement. Once Ray signs that, you own any cause of action he has against the person suing him. You can settle the case on any terms you like, and you get to keep whatever proceeds there are.” Cecil-Rowe placed the folder back in a drawer, and from his manner you could tell that the interview was over.
“Awesome, Mr. C. I’ll call you from Commercial Court when we’re done.”
“Commercial Court?” he said.
“Yeah, Commercial Court.”
“This just keeps getting worse. Take notes, Calledinthe90s, while I school you on Commercial Court. Commercial Court is a jungle, and without preparation, you’ll get savaged.”
“That’s what happened to Ray when--”
“Take notes, young apprentice,” he said, tossing me a pad and a pen. He started to lecture, and I took notes that I have with me to this day, in a safe deposit box downstairs in the vault at Mega Bank Main Branch.
* * *
By the time Cecil-Rowe finished schooling me, it was close to ten, and the case started at two. I didn’t have much time. I ran down the hall to my office, and called Ray’s restaurant. No answer. Then I called Ray’s house. I expected to get Ray’s wife, but the man himself answered.
“You’re not at work. Why aren’t you at work?”
“Sy-Co Corp served all my employees with a cease and desist letter. They all got scared and took off. The place is shut down.”
“You gotta fax machine at home?” He did, and asked why.
“I’m taking your case, but only if you sign the paper I’m about to send and fax it back.” I sent the fax, and five minutes later it came back signed, and it was official: Ray had sold me his legal soul.
I went out to the parking lot, got into my beater and drove fast. In less than thirty minutes I reached my destination. I knocked on the door, and when it opened, my diminutive mother-in-law poked out her head. “What a pleasant surprise,” she said.
“Sorry, Mrs. M, but I’m in a super hurry. I gotta rush to get to court to help Ray. But first, I gotta speak to Dr. M.”
“He’s not here,” she said.
“Not here?”
“He’s on his way to his bridge game. He left just a few minutes ago.”
“Where’s the club?”
“He’s walking there,” she said, and pointed down the street.
“Thanks.” I got into my car and headed where Mrs. M had pointed, passing big houses and new project with an “Opening Soon” sign. And walking past it was the figure of Dr. M.
“Hey, Dr. M,” I called out the window. He stopped and looked around, startled. But he didn’t see me, not at first.
“It’s me, Dr. M. Me, Calledin90s.” He leaned forward as if to see me better. I got out of the car.
“Is something wrong with Angela? Or the baby?”
“No, no not at all, sorry to scare you, it’s nothing like that. I need your help.”
“Oh.” He started walking again, and now it was my turn to be a bit stunned, watching my father-in-law walk away from me. I caught up with him in a few quick strides.
“Listen, I really need your help.”
“And I really need to get to a bridge game.”
“This isn’t about me. It’s about Ray.” That brought him to a halt. He turned to me, angrier even than he’d been the night before.
“Did you drive all the way out here just to make fun of me? To remind me of how you won, distracting me with nonsense about Ray’s case?”
“I mean it,” I said, “I can win Ray’s case. I can prove it in a few words.”
“Prove it, then.” So I did. I spoke words, only a few words, but they were the right words to speak to Dr. M, for the words I spoke were in his language, words that he understood perfectly.
“I understand,” he said, “you’ve come to boast some more, to prove that you were right after all.”
“I want to win Ray’s case, but I don’t have any proof of what I’m saying.”
“You don’t need to prove that two plus two is four.”
“This, I gotta prove, and I need you to help me prove it. I need you to come to court with me, as my witness.”
“I can’t do that. I didn’t witness anything.”
“As my witness. My expert witness.” Unlike a normal witness, an expert witness can give an opinion. An expert is there not to advocate, I explained to Dr. M but to instruct, to teach.
“My bridge partner won’t be very happy,” he said.
“But Ray will, and so will Mrs. M and Angela and--”
“Very well. Do you have a cell phone? We can call the bridge club from my car.”
* * *
We were on the highway getting close to the downtown exit, when my wife called my cell phone. Back then cell phone service was super expensive and my wife only used it for emergencies. Or when she was really angry. I picked up the phone, wondering which it would be.
“I’m so happy that you made things up with my father,” she said.
“How did you know?”
“My mother called. She says you took him with you, that you went out together.”
“He’s with me right now,” I said.
“Where are you going?”
“To court. Going to court to win Ray’s case for him.”
“And you brought my father with you to watch?” She was so happy, I could hear in her voice that she was smiling. “That’s a great way to bond with him, Calledinthe90s. Look, I’m sorry I got so mad at you earlier, I really am. My dad’s a bit too sensitive and--”
“Sorry, Angela, your dad’s not coming to watch me.”
“Why is he with you, then?”
“He’s my witness,” I said.
“What?”
“His expert witness,” Dr. M said, loudly enough for Angela to hear.
My wife’s anger exploded into the phone. She wanted to know how I could expose her elderly, vulnerable father to the stress of a court case. I tried to tell her how I needed him, how there was literally no one else I could turn to, that her father was an expert, a true expert, and the judge was legally bound to believe him, but Angela heard none of this.
“Look,’ I said, “I promise you that--” And then I lowered the phone and pushed the red button, terminating the call. I’d learned that the best way to hang up on someone, was to do it when I was doing the talking. That way it looked like the call had dropped.
“I’m going to steal that move,” Dr. M said.
We rolled into the parking lot. I grabbed the cloth bag out of the back of my car, the bag that held my law robes and shirt and tabs, plus the other stuff I needed for court. It was one-thirty, still thirty minutes to go, not a lot of time to get robed and ready for court. It was just past one-forty five when I, with Dr. M in tow, opened the door to a courtroom on the eighth floor of an old insurance building that had been converted into a courthouse, the home of Commercial Court.
“Commercial Court is an exclusive club,” Cecil-Rowe had explained to me earlier that day, “the legal playground of the rich and powerful. They’ll know instantly that you’re not one of them.” And he was right. It was clear from the moment I walked in that I did not belong, for I was the only lawyer in robes. Everyone else was wearing a suit, and not some cheap thing off the rack like I wore.
There were a half-dozen lawyers present, and after they saw me, they exchanged knowing looks about the stranger amongst them. I ignored them, and walked up to the Registrar. I told him the case I was on, and he signed me in.
“First time in Commercial Court?” he said, eyeing my robes. “You know you don’t have to be robed in Commercial Court.” In other Superior Courts, you always had to bring your robes and get all dressed up. But Commercial Court had its own set of rules, and in the court for rich people, their lawyers did not have to wear robes.
“You’re here on the Sy-Co case?” a young woman asked. She was a junior like me, give a year or two either way. She was dressed in the finest downtown counsel fashion, some designer thing that Angela would know if she saw it.
“Just got retained,” I said.
“You know there’s no adjournments, right? We don’t do adjournments in Commercial Court. I’m just trying to be helpful, because I don’t think you've been here before. You know you don’t have to be robed, right?
“So I heard.”
“So where’s your material? You haven’t served anything, so how do you plan to argue your case?”
“I gotta witness,” I said.
She smiled. “There’s no viva voce evidence, either. Affidavit only.”
“We’ll see what the judge says.” There was a knock from the other side of the door to the judge’s chambers, and then the man himself entered.
I was amazed to see that even the judge wasn’t wearing a robe; instead, he was wearing a light coloured suit and a bright blue bow tie. He was dressed as good as the lawyers, all part of the downtown Commercial Court club, the playground of the richest and most powerful corporations in the City.
“Commercial Court’s not like other courts,” Cecil-Rowe told me earlier that day, explaining that most cases were over in fifteen minutes or less. A plaintiff showed up with some papers, and had a short consultation with the judge. The judge signed an order granting an injunction, or taking away a man’s business, or freezing his money. Commercial Court is where you went to get quick and simple court orders that eviscerated your opponent before the case even got going.
Defendants would appear sometimes in Commercial Court, Cecil-Rowe explained, but it was usually their last time up. Defendants always died a quick death in Commercial Court.
The judge took his seat, and then looked over the lawyers before him. His eyes moved along, and then stopped when they reached me, the one lawyer who was not like the others.
“You don’t need robes in Commercial Court,” the judge said to me.
“I’ll remember that for next time,” I said.
“What case are you on?”
I told him.
“He’s filed no responding materials,” my opponent said, “nothing at all.”
“I’m just vetting the list,” the judge said, “I’ll circle back to you two in a few minutes.” I listend while the judge vetted the rest of the afternoon list: a Mareva, plus a Norwich order, with counsel on those cases sent away in a matter of minutes.
Now the courtroom was almost empty, just the judge, two lawyers, the registrar and my star witness and father-in-law, Dr. M, who sat in the back of the courtroom dressed in an old business suit, put on hastily at his place two hours earlier, when I urged him to hurry it up, to not waste so much time on picking a suit.
“Back to you,” the judge said, addressing my opponent, “I thought this was an uncontested matter. That’s what your confirmation sheet said.”
“I’m sorry, Your Honour, but I didn’t know until I got here that the case was defended.”
“I got retained at the last minute,” I said, “barely three hours ago, the day after I read the papers. But I’m ready to go, ready to argue the case on the merits, so long as you grant me an indulgence, and let me call my witness, to let him testify in person instead of by affidavit, there being no time for me to draft anything.”
Opposing counsel was on her feet. “That’s not how things are done in Commercial Court,” she said, “or any court that I know of, for that matter. My friend (that’s what they make lawyers call each other in court, ‘my friend,’ even though you might hate the other guy’s guts),” the lawyer said, “my friend should have served his responding materials and filed them with the court. Instead, he’s taken us totally by surprise.”
“I’m sorry my friend is surprised by opposition,” I said, “but then consider, it’s my client’s livelihood that’s at stake. If my friend gets her injunction, Ray Telewu’s business is dead, and he loses everything. So yes, my client opposes the injunction, and yes, I’d like to call evidence.”
The judge didn’t consult the papers before him nor the books, but instead, he looked up at the big white clock on the courtroom wall. Its hands said two-fifteen.
“How long will your witness take, counsel?”
“In chief, ten minutes.” I’d practiced with Dr. M on the way in, and I was pretty sure he could do it in five, but I gave him a bit of extra time, just in case.
“We’ve got about two hours,” the judge said, “but I want to be fair to you and your client. Let’s take a fifteen minute recess so you can get instructions. Either we go ahead today with viva voce evidence, or we adjourn, and that will give Calledinthe90s time to file responding materials.”
When everyone came back, the junior’s boss was there, Senior Counsel, a heavy weight, one of those big guys downtown. Plus they brought this guy from Sy-Co Corp, the head of some bullshit division, with some bullshit title, Head of whatever, so that’s the title I’ll give him here. He was The Head. He was the man, the big cheese, the signer of the affidavit on which Sy-Co relied that day.
“What’s he doing here?” I asked Senior Counsel.
He stared at me, all lean and steel grey, looking every inch the hard hitting lawyer that commanded the biggest fees. “If you’re calling a live witness, then so can we. The Head will give evidence today, in advance of your client, so that the judge hears it from him first.” His junior smirked at me, and the two of them sat down, delighted that they’d thought of a way to one up me.
Except that they’d done it by exposing their client to cross-examination. The judge came in, allowed the Head to testify, and when he was done, I stood up.
“Just a few questions,” I said. Senior Counsel was stunned for an instant, and then he stood.
“This serves no purpose, Your Honour. The witness has confirmed the simple facts of his affidavit, and there’s no disputing it. Ray Telewu opened a restaurant less than seventy-one kilometres from Bixity City Hall, and that’s in breach of the Minutes of Settlement he signed.”
I did not bother to respond. Instead, I just stood, and I started to ask questions.
“Have a look at that map in your affidavit,” I said, and he did. I picked up my copy, and tore the map out of it. I passed it up to him.
“What do you notice about this map?”
“That it’s accurate,” the Head said, repeating his evidence in chief, amplifying it, talking about how the map contained perfect measurement.
“You will notice that the map is flat,” I said, laying it on the witness box before him.
“Of course it’s flat. That’s what maps are. Maps are flat.”
“But the earth is round,” I said, “or more properly, a sphere.” Senior Counsel was on his feet in an instant.
“What difference does that make?” he said.
“What you’ll hear from my expert witness, is that a flat map cannot accurately show Earth’s curves. A flat map distorts distances, and in this case, reduces them.”
“But that can’t be by very much.”
“In this case, by just over twenty meters,” Dr. M said from the back of the court.
“That’s my expert witness, the esteemed Dr. M.” I didn’t actually say Dr. M. Instead, I said his real name. But I’m not going to use the real names of my family here, so I’ll just keep calling him Dr. M. “Dr. M was a professor of Physics at the University of Bixity for almost thirty years. He has published numerous papers on particle physics, and is the first Canadian winner of the Wolf Prize for physics.”

• * * *

It went downhill after that for Sy-Co Corp. My father-in-law testified, explaining in simple language, language that even a child could understand, that the Earth was a sphere, that the shortest distance between two points on Earth was a curve, not a straight line. He summarized his calculations in plain English, dumbing down the math, so that everyone present imagined, if only for the moment, that they shared his understanding of a difficult mathematical equation.
Senior Counsel tried to cross-examine Dr. M, but it did not go well, my father-in-law indulging him, gently chiding him, continuing his explanations until the lawyer sat down, defeated by Dr. M’s mastery of the subject,his own lack of preparation and his inability to improvise. When counsel said that he had no further questions, the judge addressed us all.
“I’m not going to reserve, and I don’t think I need to tell everyone why. I think it will take about a minute for me to write a decision saying that the Earth is not flat. I’ll give you some more time after that, but after fifteen minutes, I”ll be back to render my decision.” He rose, everyone bowed, and he disappeared behind the door to judge’s chambers.
I pulled a piece of paper out of my file, and slammed it on the desk before Senior Counsel and his junior. “Fill in the blanks, and sign,” I said.
Dr. M’s head shot up at the commotion, and he shuffled over to see what was going on.
“What’s this?” Senior Counsel said, picking up the paper I gave him..
“Minutes of Settlement. You fill in a number, a big number, for the costs you gotta pay me. Your client signs, and then we’re done.” Senior Counsel opened his mouth to bargain, but I overrode him.
“You know your client’s going to lose; the judge made that obvious. Hurry up if you want to settle; we don’t have much time.”
At the end of most Canadian court cases, the loser has to pay at least part of the winner’s legal fees. That’s the way it’s been since forever, and I think it’s a good rule. Sy-Co Corp had lost, so it had to pay a good chunk of Ray’s costs, and Ray’s costs were somewhere between whatever bullshit figure I claimed they were, and where they actually ought to be. Senior Counsel took the paper over to his client. There was a brief discussion, and then they came back, with the form signed, and a number written in the blank space.
I’ll give it to Sy-Co Corp and their lawyer. It wasn’t a bullshit number, a low ball number. They gave me a real number, a number more like something I’d actually accept, a number that made sense to pay me in costs, in light of the success I’d had, and how I got it. It was a respectful number, a common sense number, and I appreciated it an awful lot.
I tossed the paper back at them.
“Add a zero,” I said, continuing on when Senior Counsel blanched, and his junior retreated a step. “I know what’s going on here. Your client sold mine a bullshit franchise, one with a history of failing.” The franchise had opened up again under a new owner not long after Ray had lost it and then it promptly failed again. Like I said at the start of this story, it’s an old story. It’s how some franchise companies make money. “Your client makes more money selling bullshit franchises doomed to fail, then it does from the honest ones that make money. So add a zero to that number, or Ray’s gonna sue you, class action and all that, for all the people you’ve fucked.”
The Head stepped forward from the benches and spoke to me.
“We get threats like that all the time, but no one follows through. They don’t have the money to fight us, and neither does your client. So go ahead and sue.”
“It’s true that Ray doesn’t have jack shit,” I said, “not a pot to piss in, but he’s my cousin, Ray is, and even if he doesn’t have money, he’s got me. Ray’s family, and for Ray, I’ll sue you guys for free. Hell, I’ll even pay the expenses. Plus I’m gonna put a jury notice in, too, come to think of it, ‘cause juries--”
Senior Counsel cut me off, and moved his client to the back of the courtroom. There was a brief discussion, and then they came back. I watched as Senior Counsel wrote a single digit on the Minutes, a zero, written right where I wanted it.
“You’ll have to initial the change,” I said to the Head of Sy-C0, and it gave me great satisfaction to watch him sign.
“Don’t forget,” I said the moment his pen stopped moving, “for the settlement to be valid, I need to get the money today. Right now.”
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” the Head said.
“Not if you want the settlement to stay in place. I’ll follow you back to your office, and you can put a cheque in my hands.”

• * * *

“What’s this?” my wife said when I entered the apartment later that day, after I’d driven Dr. M home, stopping first at a local pub for beers.
“It’s an absurdly expensive bunch of flowers,” I said, “although no flowers, however beautiful, however expensive, could expiate my--”
She took the flowers, and gave a kiss.
“My mom called. She told me what happened. You fixed things with my dad.”
“Yup,” I said. I had certainly done that. I’d made Dr. M a professor again, if only for a few minutes. Not only a professor, but an expert witness. The judge had declared him an expert in plain terms and Dr.M had beamed when he’d heard those words.
“And you won Ray’s case, too. But my mom didn’t know how, and I don’t know how you did it either.”
“I’ll tell you over dinner tonight,” I said.
“But we agreed no more dinners out; we have to save money, now that a baby’s coming.”
I passed her the envelope that I’d received a few hours before. She opened it, and took out a cheque, a cheque drawn up for an amount I specified, made payable to Mr. and Mrs. Calledinthe90s.
The moment I got that cheque, all I could think about was how my wife would react when I put it into her hands. I could not wait to see her eyes bulge, to hear her voice say “oh my god,” to hear her laugh.
She did none of these things. Instead, she cried.
“Does this mean we can buy a house?” The money wouldn’t be enough to buy a house, not nowadays, with prices being so crazy. But things were different back then in the 90s. Sure, the internet was barely a thing and cell phones were super expensive and a lot of things sucked, but I’ll give the nineties one thing: houses were cheap.
“I think so,” I said.

Whenever I want to play a game on linux from itch, it always uses a .sh file instead of a .exe file. Does linux not work with executables? With games that use renpy and bundle the files into one zip folder. There's a .exe file, a .sh file, and a .py file. Why not have just use .exe for both windows and linux?

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 22.0/23.0 Management Guide

Overview

I have been maintaining QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for several years now and have put together this guide on how to deploy the base app and the webpatches to users using Intune. I hope someone else finds this information useful.

• This works for versions **22.0** & **23.0**.
  
• You may reference this guide in an attempt to manage versions prior to 22.0.
  

Before you build your installation and patching packages you will want to make sure you have some necessary tools ready and that you are familiar with how to use them.

Required Tools

PSAppDeployToolkit (PSADT)

You will be using PSADT to do the bulk of the deployment work. You will want to get familiar with this tool if you are not already.

• The PSAppDeployToolkit is a framework for deploying applications in a business or corporate environment.
  
• It offers a set of functions for common application deployment tasks and user interface elements for end-user interaction during a deployment.
  
• The toolkit aims to simplify the complex scripting challenges of deploying applications and to provide a consistent deployment experience.
  
• Download PSAppDeployToolkit at [https://github.com/PSAppDeployToolkit/PSAppDeployToolkit/releases/\](https://github.com/PSAppDeployToolkit/PSAppDeployToolkit/releases/).
  

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

• The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is a free tool for automating Windows and Windows Server operating system deployment, leveraging the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 10.
  
• Version 8456 was released on January 25th 2019 and is the latest current version.
  
• Download the MDT at [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54259\](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54259)
  

For managing QuickBooks with Intune, we are after a specific tool within this toolkit. We will be using the **ServiceUI.exe** tool.

Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool

You should already be familiar with this tool. If not, it is a simple tool to understand and use, so do not feel intimidated. This is what you will be using to package everything into a single **.intunewin** file that will be uploaded to Intune.

• Requires .NET Framework 4.7.2
  
• Download at [https://github.com/microsoft/Microsoft-Win32-Content-Prep-Tool\](https://github.com/microsoft/Microsoft-Win32-Content-Prep-Tool)
  

Building The Deployment Package

Download QuickBooks Installer

We need to download a current installer for our QuickBooks application. Visit the QuickBooks download center at [https://downloads.quickbooks.com/app/qbdt/products\](https://downloads.quickbooks.com/app/qbdt/products)
Select your version and download. This is also where you will download the QBwebpatch.exe patch installer that you need for installing updates.

Prepare PSADT

If you haven't already, download the current version of PSADT, extract, and stage the files to repackage for Intune.
Place the **QuickBooksEnterprise2X.exe** into the **Files** folder of the PSADT structure.

Modify Deploy-Application.ps1

You need to make some modificatons to the deploy script of PSADT. Enter the following commands under each corresponding section of the script.

Installation Tasks

Here you need to enter the following installation command for the **QuickBooksEnterprise23.exe** installer.
```

Execute-Process -Path "$dirFiles\QuickBooksEnterprise22.exe" -Arguments "-s", "-a", "QBMIGRATOR=1", "MSICOMMAND=/s", "QB_PRODUCTNUM=XXXXXX", "QB_LICENSENUM=XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
```

Post-Installation Tasks

Here we will enable the XPS document writer with the following command.
```

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName “Printing-XPSServices-Features” -Online -NoRestart
```

Uninstallation Tasks

Enter the following command to trigger the uninstall script.
```

Execute-Process -Path "$dirFiles\uninstall.cmd"
```

Post-Uninstallation Tasks

Enter the following command to disable the XPS document writer.
```

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName "Printing-XPSServices-Features" -Online -NoRestart
```
You may make any other modifications you choose if you are comfortable working with the deploy script. Depending on your environment, there may be other tasks you need to perform to get the install to complete successfully.

Create Uninstall Script

You will need to navigate through the registry to get the uninstallation string that is used during the uninstall process for your version of QuickBooks.
Install QuickBooks on a computer temporarily if you do not have it installed somewhere already.
The uninstall string for QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise can be found at:
`HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall`
The registry entry for it will have a product ID for its name. Look through them until you find the one for QuickBooks.
Copy the **UninstallString** entry value and paste it onto a notepad editor to build the script.

Use the "/passive" parameter at the end of the uninstall string. This will present the user with a small progress bar during the uninstallation process, but requires no additional interaction.

Your complete uninstall command should look something like this below. Save it as a .cmd file to the **Files** fold of the PSADT structure.
```
msiexec.exe /x {B9BE758E-50B5-4BA7-987B-63184123AA1A} UNIQUE_NAME="belcontractor" QBFULLNAME="QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: Contractor Edition 22.0" ADDREMOVE=1 /passive
```

Add ServiceUI.exe

This package will be running the the SYSTEM context. In order for the uninstall process to work properly the **ServiceUI.exe** tool needs to be added to the root of your PSADT structure.
This tool is part of **MDT** and can be downloaded from the link provided at the top of this guide.
After you download and install the MDT, you will find the **ServiceUI.exe** in `C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Templates\Distribution\Tools\x64`
Copy and paste it into your PSADT pacakge where your **Deploy-Application.ps1** script is.

Wrap with Win32 Content Prep Tool

Now you are ready to wrap it all up into the .intunewin file format so it can be uploaded to Intune.
Select the **Deploy-Application.exe** as the setup file when packaging with the tool. Depending on your computers hardware, it can take a few minutes for it to complete and the app to be ready to upload.

Upload to Intune

Configure Application

Navigate to the Intune portal to create a new Windows application and upload the freshly packaged app.
Enter details to name the application and give it a description. Included with this guide is a description markdown file that you can use if you wish. I have also included an app logo .png image file.
When configuring the app make sure to set install behavior to **System**.
Use the following Install and uninstall commands.
```

Install Command

Deploy-Application.exe -DeploymentType "Install" -DeployMode "Silent"

Uninstall command

.\ServiceUI.exe -Process:explorer.exe Deploy-Application.exe -DeploymentType "Uninstall" -DeployMode "Silent"
```

Detection Method

The detection method can be done a number of ways. For ease and reliability I have only provided the basic detection of the .exe after installation/uninstallation.

• Rule Type: File
  
• Path: `C:\Program Files\Intuit\QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 22.0\`
  
• File: `QBW.EXE`
  
• Detection method: `File or folder exists`
  

That's it. You're all set to assign the app and test installing it on a computer.
Please note, depending on your bandwidth and network environment, it can take several minutes for the package to download and install.
If you run into failures, make sure you have logging enabled for PSADT to make troubleshooting failures a breeze.

QBWebpatch.exe

Prepare Files

I came up with a simpe file creation command that places a "log" file on the computer after successfully running the update installer.
This can be used for future detections if you ever update the app with a newer QBwebpatch.exe. Simply set your detection to look for the log file and its last modified date.
```
u/echo off
for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%I in ('wmic os get localdatetime /format:list') do set datetime=%%I
set datetime=%datetime:~0,4%-%datetime:~4,2%-%datetime:~6,2% %datetime:~8,2%:%datetime:~10,2%:%datetime:~12,2%
echo Update installed %datetime% > "C:\Users\Public\qbupdate.log"
```
Intuit offers the **QBwebpatch.exe** installer that installs all updates for that version that are availalbe at time of installation.
This .exe can be downloaded from the QuickBooks downloads page mentioned at the beginning of this guide.
You will package it the same way we did the parent app. Use the below commands for the **Deploy-Application.ps1** script and **Intune** install/uninstall tasks and commands.
```

Install tasks

Execute-Process -Path "en_qbwebpatch.exe" -Parameter "/silent" -IgnoreExitCodes "1"

Execute-Process -Path "log.cmd"
```

Upload to Intune

Create another app for the update installer. Make sure to set it to System install.
Use the following install/uninstall commands and detection method.
```

Install command

.\ServiceUI.exe -Process:explorer.exe Deploy-Application.exe -DeploymentType "Install" -DeployMode "Silent"

Uninstall Command

Deploy-Application.exe -DeploymentType "Uninstall" -DeployMode "Silent"
```
**File Detection Method**

• Path: `C:\Users\Public`
  
• File: `qbupdate.log`
  
• Detection Method: `Date modified`
  
• Operator: `Greater than or equal to`
  

You're ready to test. The update installer has a "silent" mode, but it is not truly silent. Running it with the `/silent` parameter will hide the first screen, but the user still needs to click on a prompt to install the update when it's ready.

IMovie Project
Any advice on how we might restore an iMovie project. Scenario... My daughter and classmate filmed several video clips using the camera app, imported the clips into iMovie, edited, viewed the final completed project and attempted to export to photos. Next step woud have been to upload the final movie file from photos to Google Classroom. iPad gave back error that the iPad was out of storage. Assuming the movie project now contained the video clips, was edited and viewable, my daughter deleted the video clips from photos and then deleted the recently deleted folder to free up enough space so that she could complete the iMovie export and then Upload to Google Classroom. Now the iMovie project will not load, is no longer playable, the original video files are deleted and we're freaking out.

I played BG3 for a while with the BG3 Mod Manager, got distracted by some other games for a bit, and recently came back to play again. HOWEVER, for some reason this time I can't get any of the mods in the mod manager to show up in game. I have no idea what I'm doing differently this time around, but I'm losing my mind.
At this point I've reinstalled both the mod manager and BG3 and am about to just give up entirely. I have ModFixer, Improved UI +Assets, and Tav's Hairpack. Modfixer, Improved UI, and Improved UI Assets are all in the Overrides section, and Tav's Hairpack is the single mod in the Active Mods section. I'm using the hair mod because it's easy to tell if the mods are loaded are not pretty quickly when I open the character creator.
I save my load order, export the order to the game, and launch the game using the mod manager. And the mod manager launches a mod-free game. No mod hairs.
What am I missing? The mods are all in the AppData folder, so they're all loaded. The Game Data Paths are all correct. Why aren't the mods showing up in-game? I'm not even getting a mod warning on game launch. I feel like there's something crazy simple that I'm overlooking.
I will say that I noticed that for some reason the PlayerProfiles folder has a new third profile playerprofiles8.lsf loose file that the game seems to be using instead of the profile8.lsf inside the Public folder. I'm not sure why that is.

Any advice on how we might restore an iMovie project. Scenario... My daughter and classmate filmed several video clips using the camera app, imported the clips into iMovie, edited, viewed the final completed project and attempted to export to photos. Next step woud have been to upload the final movie file from photos to Google Classroom. iPad gave back error that the iPad was out of storage. Assuming the movie project now contained the video clips, was edited and viewable, my daughter deleted the video clips from photos and then deleted the recently deleted folder to free up enough space so that she could complete the iMovie export and then Upload to Google Classroom. Now the iMovie project will not load, is no longer playable, the original video files are deleted and we're freaking out.

So, I've kind of posted about this in other threads, specifically on askreddit, but by some users request, I will do my best to fully relay this entire tale up to the current point, as well as provide as much context I am able (and will provide missing context if asked in comments).
TL;DR
A friend of mine of 4 years drank himself into liver failure and his wife cheated on him, so I offered him a free room to try and put his life back together, and I was repaid for the thought with a divorce of my own, but honestly, it's probably not that bad.
Part 1: CONTEXT
Me and my wife have been together since early 2014, and married in late 2017. We have been through much together, including two extended deployments, one of which was 10 and a half months long. We have traveled the world together, lived on both coasts of the US, and despite much of our struggles and how things eventually went down, I was always convinced we would work as a team to overcome any issues.
The friend in question was, largely, an online friend. We met playing an MMO during covid and we quickly formed a very tight knit, but small, community that were very close that included me, my wife, my friend, his wife, and 4 other friends. Covid was a wild time and I was surprised how easy it was to form friends in this group and we kept in touch, as a whole, even once quarantine had ended and most of us had moved on from that particular game. This was a group that, while it started online, we have met most of these people several times IRL and had vacations to spend time together and just hang out.
Part 2: His Problems
Fast forward to about January of 2024. My buddy, from here on out I will refer to as Z (and for a quick add, I will refer to my wife as D), contacts us to tell us his condition is dire and he has been diagnosed with stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver as a consequence of his extensive drinking. Shaken, we quickly charter a flight out to visit. Within a week, we're staying with him and his wife and his roommate and a couple members of his family who are taking care of him. This man is bloated, yellow, and probably about 350lbs now. We are worried, but stay supportive and positive that help can be found, especially since he seems keen on changing his lifestyle for the better. Some of his family start a gofundme that we donate to, and many of the people in our gaming circle who have grown close also donate several thousand dollars (One member of our raid team donated 10k. You never know who is stealth rich on the internet I guess). Me and several other friends discuss the possibilities of helping him get on disability and even getting ourselves tested as compatible living donors. Sad, but hopeful, we depart about a week later, and stay in constant touch.
About a month later, I'm getting a call from one of our mutuals letting me know that "Hey, so I may have goofed up." and tells me how Z's wife had visited him and had a 3 way with him and his wife. I am obviously irate at this and turn to back Z up with comments like "So much for in sickness and in health, huh?" I do what I can to stay supportive, and my wife, D, also makes it a point to stay in touch with him as he has found himself banished to the couch of his apartment. Not even allowed to sleep in his own bed and frequently uncomfortable even being in his bedroom to use the PC.
I'm not particularly rich, but I am not poor either. I served in the military and have a high VA rating which means a constant income and have a steady job and a couple side gigs that pay well enough. My love language, in many ways, is gift giving. I pride myself on being able to pick a good gift, even if it's a little early for an occasion such as a bday or christmas, and will often pull the trigger on something if it means a lot or I think it will help. In this case, my brother was selling an old steam deck because he wanted a new OLED model, so I figured "two birds, one stone", and buy the steam deck off him and send it to Z so we can still game together.
In the intervening months, Z and D start playing games that I have no interest in (Disney Dreamlight Valley), but I am happy to play other games and hang out and chat. Really, nothing seems amiss, but since his banishment, me and my wife are both pushing for him to come and take up the spare bedroom we have in our home. Soon enough, I buy him a plane ticket and he arrives with little more than the clothes on his back and we take him in, no cost other than the expectation that he might help around the house a bit (he was a chef, so having a cook and someone to help clean was ideal for me who often did not have the time or energy to handle these tasks as thoroughly as I would like).
Part 3: The Incident
Now, I am skipping ahead a little bit here, but there's not much to be said about the time between. My wife worked part time hours, and when she did go to work, she'd have him tag along just so he wouldn't "Sit and stew with bad thoughts" at the house alone. I will admit that throughout this entire ordeal, I have had several, several times where my brain tried to warn me, but I ignored ALL of those signs because I trusted him, but more importantly, I trusted her with my life.
One new, frequent argument I found myself having with her was she would fall asleep on the couch, and when I finally tried to go to bed, I'd do my best to wake her and drag her upstairs. These became extremely frequent occurrences and I expressed to her how frustrated I was that I had to fight with her just to come to bed so we could sleep (mind you, this is not even about sex. Often I'm taking her to bed at like, 1am and I work at 7, so I really just wanted her to be sleeping in the bed). Hell, one time, I started catching the vibes that the longer I sat and waited for her to be ready to go upstairs, she just never would be, because they were waiting for me to leave so they could talk in hushed tones. On THAT particular night, I went upstairs alone with her finally awake, and she did not join me for another half hour.
Finally, the day arrives. Its Sunday. We are all downstairs hanging out. One of their newest habits I can't really stand but just dealt with is that she'd sit and crochet while he doomscrolled or strummed on a guitar I bought him and listen to music videos on youtube endlessly. Eventually, I grow weary and give my wife a kiss and tell her I'm gonna go upstairs and play some GW2 for a bit.
About an hour passes, and she enters the game room and tells me "I am uncomfortable. I really need to talk to you. Oh, you're dying!" (As she entered the room, I immediately turn face to talk to her and disregard the game, but she decided that my Charr was more important that what was about to happen, so she of course warns me.) We step into the bedroom and close the door.
"You're going to hate me," she says through tears, "me and Z kissed!" At this point, my brain short circuits and I recall one of my first thoughts being "Oh lord, here we go." and just a general desire to not be a part of this conversation. Shock sets in almost immediately. Still with a healthy dose of denial, I talk to her about what had happened and told her that it needed to end. Even at this point, I did not want to send this man home. Was it shock? Denial? Probably a mixture of the two, or some other additional emotional responses. She gets up after some discussion and goes downstairs, promising to shut him down, but comes back about 15 minutes later sobbing "I couldn't do it! I couldn't end it..." (Side note: In my confused haze of a mind, I feel personally threatened, and after she leaves the bedroom, I lock the door and grab a metal water cub I keep at my side and prepare to actually fight if it comes to it, but once she returns, I back off that idea again.)
Talking with her more, I present her with two options; Couple's therapy, or divorce. BOTH of these options are world ending to her, and she even goes so far as to suggest that just because I said the "D word" that it was what I wanted, which was objectively untrue. We talk back and forth about things I don't quite recall at this point, aside from one point where she comes back and locks herself in the master bath and tells me to call 911, she doesn't care, because she's going to take a bunch of pills, but after a couple of hours, Z shows up to the door and knocks and asks if he can come in. I tell him he may enter, and we talk for a bit. After about 5ish minutes, we decide to go downstairs to the living room and continue the discussion.
Once I sit down on the sofa, I immediately feel like I'm being positioned as the bad guy. I'm in the corner of our sectional, and she's on my left, he's on my right. She tells him "He said it's either a divorce or couple's therapy." "Oh, so he gave you an ultimatum?" I continue to argue that yes, those are the two only options. Z tells me "You're not being fair to her emotions. She is telling you there is another option." I am thoroughly baffled at this statement.
D: I didn't think it was possible and I didn't mean for it to happen, but I have fallen in love with another man. My heart has room for two. I truly have two soulmates. I have never been happier than sleeping on the couch next to my two boys.
Z: There is no reason you guys can't stay married, and we can explore what we've found. I mean, look at how happy she has been since I have been here!
Sick to my stomach, I get up to go vomit in the toilet. Now, I wore a silicone wedding ring, and often find even with a hand wash, a little water tends to get trapped under it. After I finish and wash myself up, I come back and am playing with my ring to dry it. She sees this as a sign that I am uncomfortable again wearing my ring, and takes off her ring as I sit back down and hands me her wedding ring.
Me: Uh, excuse me?
D: This is what you want, I can tell.
Me: No? I was washing my hands and water gets stuck under my ring...
D: Oh... I thought... okay. (And she takes back her ring from me)
I tell her, very clearly, the options are to either end things with him, or end things with me. At this point, I'm still in shock, but sober in mind enough to decide that this is not worth fighting over. I will not argue with my own wife my merits or why she shouldn't just pack up and leave with a jobless, now essentially homeless man, and if she cannot figure that out herself then I will eventually move on.
Crying, sobbing, she sits down in front of him and says, "I'm so sorry, I fought for you. I really did. I told you I'd fight for you and I failed. I loved being your girlfriend, but I need to be a good wife and stay."
Z says "Alright." and starts to go gather his things to leave. As he does, she grabs him and says "No, wait! Please don't go. I don't know what I want."
Z: Ok, well if we're getting all this out in the open, I want to say this. I love this girl. I love her with my whole heart, and without her, life is not worth living. I will not leave this house if you (me) tell me to. Only her. You are taking this very well right now, I can tell you want to hit me (Still in shock, no, I can genuinely say that emotion or thought had not actually registered outside of the event upstairs earlier), but this is my stand.
D: OP, we had a good run. I'm sorry.
And with that, I get up and go to get my sandals and leave the house to get some air. As I try to go, she runs to the door and he follows her. She pushes the door closed and says "No wait, please!"
Me: No, this is the deal. I'm going out to get some fresh air. I am not threatening self harm to "win you back".
D: Will you be back?
Me: I don't know.
Z: Man, I'm telling you, you don't understand, you think I am your enemy, but I am not.
And with that, I leave and shut the door.
In the about, hour, I am gone, I drive around near the house and I call my supervisor who I have a very good relationship with (and I did not want to involve direct friends or family yet because I'm afraid it's too early to start spreading this news). I go over to her house nearby and we chat shortly. After our talk, I have at least something of a clear head and go home, with words for both of them.
As I arrive home, there is no one downstairs. I go upstairs. His door is closed. I knock on the door.
Z: Uh, one second.
I wait for about 5 agonizing seconds, but I refuse to be shut out of rooms in my own home and open the door. He is shirtless, and she is hiding in the corner just out of sight of me. I look him in the eye.
Me: Really?
Z: Yep.
Me: Get out of my house.
And with that, they both silently pack their things and leave.
The second I hear the front door close, I start calling people. I am not above pettiness, and the first person I call is her mom, whom I have a good relationship with. She is SHAKEN and immediately calls her. (I find out later that it was a particularly harsh verbal beating by her, but it really doesn't change anything.)
When I come downstairs to check the state of the house, I see her wedding ring on the counter. I call out of work the next day and lay down and hope I die.
Part 4: Her Problems
So, there is some additional context that I did not add in part 1 because a lot of it is red flags I ignored over the course of our relationship that, in the days following, started to become more and more obvious. There are many that I spent much effort playing off or covering her for, but I will try to briefly list much of what I see as glaring issues in the relationship that were never remedied.
This woman is 30 years old and cannot drive. She can drive and HAS driven my vehicle at the start of the relationship (albeit illegally), but after one tiny little accident where she hit a pole and knocked my side mirror off (which she paid for and fixed before telling me, it really wasn't a big deal. I was on deployment), she never drove again. Attempts to get her behind the wheel would end very quickly after they started, and the conditions to get her in the seat were often extremely time limited, scheduled, or something would come up, and every time I told her "okay, this month we're getting your license for sure" it just wouldn't happen and I'd end up feeling like the one who was at fault.
She does not have her Bachelor's degree because she did not turn in her final project for one single class. Not only that, but she has never truly pursued a career with the things she learned from the coursework, or even used her AA.
For half of the relationship, she did not work at all. When she did, it was often part time work, and if she was saddled with full time hours or, god forbid, overtime, it was a world-ending affair. She would come home and constantly be tired from her few hours at work and would do little more than sit around and crochet.
Our agreement when we bought our house was that she was going to work full time and we were going to split household duties, but I would definitely scoop the cat box because she was allergic (but she wanted cats) and wash dishes (because she hated them), and she would do laundry (because I hated it). In practice, all her version of laundry turned out to be was to throw loads in when one of us was out of clothes and just hit wash and then rotate, and then leave all the clothes in a pile on the bed. EVERYONE KNOWS folding the laundry is the worst part! Come on! Men's clothes are easy! I don't wear that much! (When we would fold, I often finished in a third of her time and would just hang out and chat until she was done)
Ultimately, this meant that for many years now, she was working barely more than part time if she was working at all, and would sort-of do laundry. Meanwhile, I am scooping litter, folding laundry, doing dishes, doing all related yard work, doing all the household cleaning, handling all the finances, I did MOST of the cooking, and all of the grocery shopping (often going alone), driving her from work if I could (she'd uber it if not) and picking her up and driving her home, as well as just generally being a chauffeur for her for 10 years, while working a full time job and a side gig online. Many nights I'd have to stop what I was doing to pick her up at closing hours, and then would sit in the parking lot for 30 minutes while she did tasks like vacuum her little crystal shop that she definitely could have done before close so I didn't end up waiting so damn long. Then we'd come home hang out and eat while we watched TV, and then if I wanted to try and go upstairs to do another hobby, I'd be silently guilted about it because she wanted to sit on the couch and crochet.
Part 5: My Problems
I am not perfect, and admit I have flaws. One of her favorite things to claim to our friends now is that I was "emotionally neglectful", and if there is truth to it, I think I can pin down the day. Before I started working full time again, I was going to school on the 9/11 GI bill. I was not a good student in my younger years, but in time, I have become rather good at school. My first two semesters back I easily maintained a 4.0 GPA. Over the summer in 2022, I, woefully, decided to take a Calc 2 class online because I could not find one in person and wanted to be ready for Calc 3 in the Fall to fill a prereq for my bachelor's, and I really liked the instructor for that Calc 3 class. This calc 2 class was painful. The instructor had clearly recorded all his lectures during Covid and we were simply given the full course of videos and given work assignments and said "Email me if you have questions." This is not how I learn, but I figured, hey, it's one class. I'm working again, but one class isn't a huge deal. I can knock this out.
I was wrong.
After the second exam, I had a low C in the class and I knew I couldn't keep up. I withdrew from the class feeling no other option. I tend to be pretty good at math, and ultimately my dream was to work with 3d printing on an industrial scale with a Mechanical Engineering degree- and if that failed I had my military history (which is engineering relevant) and a degree to fall back on and work should come easily. After clicking that withdraw button, I saw those dreams vaporize. After that, I threw myself into my government civilian job full time and slowly fell into depression. By the end of our relationship, with the toll of doing 99% of the work around the house and for her and with my dreams dead and buried, at age 33, I would wake up and pray I died. I would never kill myself, but I wanted to just die. I felt backed into a corner. I still did everything I could to support her and hoped that one day, she would pick up some of the load and maybe, just maybe, I could go back, but that day did not come (At least not in the way I expected).
Part 6: The Aftermath
This post is already too long, and if I include every single detail that has come to light since, I might actually hit the post cap, but I will go over at least some of it here.
I have had my friends come out in droves. Both of them have been effectively exiled, at least from what I can see, from every friend circle we have. After a couple of days, they flew back to live with, I guess, his parents in Vegas while they sorted shit out, because after I spoke with Z's previous roommate, he adamantly explained he was tired of all the "fucking drama" that Z had been bringing into the house and was just done with it.
I have spoken with many, many people and gotten even more context and even receipts of some of each of their conversations to our mutual friends, and some of the shit I read is just hilarious. He is "not ashamed of pursuing happiness, he is just sad that people got hurt". She is "coming to terms with emotional neglect and felt trapped, but now, yes now, she is free."
I got my neighbors to watch the cats, and took my dog up to visit my closest friend of 20 years and spent about a week and a half drinking, smoking, and talking about all this while surrounded by some of the most beautiful nature the US has to offer. Truly, without this man, I don't think I'd have gotten this far as quickly as I have. He really has been a lifesaver and I truly, to my dying day, will always appreciate him.
Paperwork has been filed, we wish to remain on good terms, and one day I still do hope I can be a friend to her, but she is woefully immature and incapable of adequately performing in an adult society. I have quit my job and am returning to school with a much lighter budget and will be getting that degree I desperately need.
It's been hard, real hard. I have put every ounce of my being into this relationship, and I truly felt like she was part of me, and nothing like this could ever happen. But it's that trust that allowed this to happen. I do not hate her, I'm just disappointed. I will pick up my pieces and, hopefully, find myself whole again soon.
Part 7: Rambling anecdotes
These are some stories I wanted to include in the previous body of text but didn't feel like it kept the same flow (if there even is any at all, I'm not proofreading this). If I remember any others after I post, Ill just toss them in the comments.
Early after Z came to live with us, my mother came to the house to drop off a package. I am pretty sure I was at work, but when my mother came to the door, both of them answered the door and the way my mom describes it "First of all, do you answer the door at your friends house? Also, the way he hovered over her made me uncomfortable. They were in the doorway and he was right up behind her poking his head out." She said my wife had told her that I was feeling unwell and was upstairs sleeping. I can't even be sure at this point.
Shortly before all the things happened, my parents were going out of town to celebrate their own anniversary, and I had agreed to dog-sit their 5 month old puppy (who, while cute, has WAY too much energy and was EXTREMELY difficult to handle, and I have raised several dogs at this point). We met up and took the dog, and then ALL of us (including Z) went to dinner. At dinner, my mother looked at my wife and asked, directly "And so how long have you been married? 6, almost 7 years? Well at least you missed that 7 year itch, huh" and my wife shortly followed with a comment about how she was not hungry and did not eat dinner that night.
All of this happened WHILE THIS CRAZY PUPPY was running around the house, and part of me thinks he pushed this to happen when it did because he could not stand having to help take care of this dog any longer (2 days).
About a week after all this happened, my wife did not text or call me, or respond to any messages or emails I sent her (I didn't send many, but they exist). Frustrated, I text her and tell her I need to talk to her about logistics moving forward, specifically about her belongings. She told me "I will talk to you when I am ready." We did not talk for another week. Also, she told me to stop talking to her mom. (I have a good relationship with both of my in-laws and while her step-father tried to remain impartial to the best of his abilities, he gave me some of the best advice I could possibly have gotten at that time, mostly about how to move forward and cope, as he has personally dealt with this with smaller relationships 3 separate times in his life which he gave me details on, and we are still on good terms.)
Their favorite TV show to watch together was Outlander, which, if you aren't aware, is basically a story about a woman who time travels and has two men in her life.
One of our biggest constant points of contention was my friendship with an old high school buddy (who I spent much of the time in the aftermath hanging out with while healing). We believe, with good reason, that she hated this man because after I had almost been hospitalized for psych reasons due to stress, he had told me I needed to talk to her about working again and doing more to help around the house. She figured out, obviously, who was telling me to say these things, and sent a very, very angry text to his wife. They all apparently made up, but I know she never let that grudge go.
One of the fairly recent hobbies I got into was D&D. It seemed like a good fit for all of us. She loved fantasy and gaming, I enjoyed 3d printing and story telling. She needed friends, and a party of people hangin out would give her at least a few connections to start. Every night she "participated" in D&D, she mostly sat quiet and did not do anything. Hell, I tried to get her to participate in 2 different games, and after she left the first one, she asked to just sit quietly in the discord call (This first one was online only, second was in person) and listen, which was super awkward. In the in person game, after 3 months of playing, she did not know how to play her character at all, and mostly spent her time at the table crocheting. (My buddy even made a comment about how at one point, he was proud of how good I was getting at DMing and I was giving particularly good exposition, and she interrupted me to hand another player at the table a dice bag she made. I don't remember it, but I absolutely believe this happened.)
The day of "the incident", she had a meltdown about how a friend of hers had ghosted her. I told her it was okay, she was much younger anyway and people grow apart. She's probably going through stuff and we should respect that path she's on. She cried about how she has no friends.
Also the day of "the incident", we were in the shower together and she told me she had met her sister's new BF on facetime. I asked "why did she break up with her old one?" "Well... she cheated on him." "Oh, that's a shame. Cheating is probably the most cowardly act a person can do to another. If you're going to start a new relationship, you need to grow a pair and end it before starting a new one." She clearly took my words to heart.
One of my biggest pet peeves about cleaning the house is our dog sheds, a lot. If I see a hairball roll through the house it immediately drains me a bit. We had a roomba. She would send that thing home when it started and never start it again. It barely ran. She would not vacuum.
One of the most common descriptors of her I've heard used by many people now that they're "allowed to" is "She was there, doing the thing with us, but it was like she wasn't there."
Something she thought that I apparently hadn't figured out by the time we talked after everything happened was that they had been talking since February. I told her I wasn't stupid and had figured it out already that this wasn't out of the blue.
Z's wife is currently pregnant with the baby of the man she cheated on him with. (And he is also married)
Anything else I remember Ill leave for comments, I know there is much, much more.

Greetings!
I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question, feel free to recommend a more fitting community for this.
Last month I took a screenshot in a game (World of Warcraft). The game was running on an HDR monitor, but the game itself does not natively support HDR. I let Windows auto-adjust image to add HDR. The colors did become more vibrant but, apparently, it takes a toll with screenshots - they become overexposed.
The screenshot was taken through the Geforce App and automatically upscaled into super-resolution to double the original, saved as PNG.
My question is simple - can this image somehow be converted to normal in postprocessing?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EpBdU7RtN8gAb-dM7D1_rShKMyVSPVp1/view?usp=drive_link
Thank you in advance.

I recently used the free trial for Premiere Pro. I'm working on a YouTube channel and generally my editing skills have been considered pretty good. Latest video was made with Premiere Pro, before that I was using CapCut.
Unfortunately I had various issues using Premiere that have temporarily turned me away from it. To start, I often edit videos alongside having YouTube open, as either a reference or a source for the content I use in my videos (either screen recording or downloading mp3/mp4 files). When Premiere was open, YouTube didn't crash, per se, but it would revert to a functionality that could be compared to the speed and responsiveness of YouTube in 2005. Upon closing Premiere, reopening, testing a few more times, yes, Premiere being open caused the problem. I'm using Chrome for YouTube if that helps.
In addition to this, Premiere really didn't like a lot of the MP3 files I tried to use. Most of the time I had to convert them to WAV files, or download them as WAV files, which is another annoyance that just doesn't exist on the previous software programs I was using. Some of the MP3 files worked, most didn't, and I couldn't find a connection.
Mostly, the issues with the interface I can handle, it's a new program, it's going to have a learning curve I have to get through. But the issues like the ones above really just turned me away. Oh, and the program did crash once, and my entire computer also crashed and had to restart itself.
I'm using a Gaming Laptop, the specs are: Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with Radeon Graphics RAM: 16 GB (15.4 GB usable) GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
I may be dropping Premiere for now, unless I can be convinced otherwise. But with the specs mentioned above, should I be having these strange issues? Should I invest in Premiere again once I've upgraded to a full Gaming PC setup? Or am I really just doing something wrong?

I'm an art director experimenting a method to make an entire UE game in blender, using Usync addon, the 3d world but even blueprint coordinates. (so that's all 10x faster than in Unreal as blender is way more comfortable for moving and organizing things.) It seems to work amazingly, but Unreal is daunting, I made a couple blueprints by duplicating others (nearly nothing, just a light), and they were likely the reason why my project was constantly crahsing on startup the next day. Which felt like the end haha. As there's nearly nothing you can do. So before I manage to make a game I would probably have hundreds of such showstopper crashes where there's nothing to do seemingly as you can't even open the project to udnerstand what crashes. (and a huge amount of time is wasted waiting unreal to launch.) The only solution is usually to have a Source control to just nuke whatever changes you made the previous day, which likely made the project crash on startup. But as a solo artist with only 2 neurons for technical clicks, I'm not sure I could setup GIT for large file or solutions like perforce or else. Is there any extrelmy simple, dropbox-like way, to list, document, control the changes made to a Unreal folder, so that some can be reverted when the project starts crashing on startup ? Thanks a lot !

This is a follow up to an on-going issue I've been having with my Skyrim and it's mods. I have cleaned all my mods and plugins and have dealt with every issue that LOOT told me to fix. I have even cleaned and fix some "wild mods". Everything seemed to be working in my favor and going right; typically I'd launch the game and it'd just crash, or it'd load up, I'd open an old save, and then it'd crash. But now I can fully launch into an old save of mine, but I get this odd pop-up message telling me I need SKSE to run my games, and something else about DynDOLOD.
I have reinstalled SKSE 3 times now, and each time I made sure I had the exact version of SKSE that matches my version of Skyrim. When I move the files from the extracted folder, to my skyrim.exe folder, I make sure to click "replace". Yet Skyrim still tells me I need SKSE to run Skyrim correctly.
I work most of the week, so if I don't respond with an update for a while, please hold out for me! I really really do love Skyrim and I really want to get it up and running again so I can continue playing and modding! So please give me a few days to respond if I don't respond quickly!
https://www.reddit.com/skyrimmods/comments/1chk9hn/i_cant_get_skyrimmods_to_launch_without_crashing/ This is link to my previous reddit post here, asking for help with my mods and game constantly crashing. It as some extra information about my entire situation

I am running the (admittedly outdated) Heartland mod set for Oblivion. After making sure the pack, my addons, and built bash patch all work right on PC (sorted with BOSS), then after installing MO2 on Steam Deck, (Proton 9.0.1 as recommended) I copied over my 'Mods' folder and the load order / modlist .txts into a profile from the computer to the Steam Deck. But, I get a CTD on Steam Deck, during the very initial load, well before the main menu.
I am 100% sure it's the Bashed Patch. The game launches and loads if it's not enabled. What's more, I loaded up a blank profile that's just the official plugins / DLC, added the Bashed Patch, and that immediately crashes too in the same fashion. It's the same bashed patch as desktop - I get the 'Bashed Patch' folder from MO2/Heartland/mods and put it in the respective location on my Deck. Is there something I'm missing?
When I try to rebuild the patch in Wrye on desktop, the following are tagged 'NoMerge':
LoadingScreensSI
Book Jackets DLC
GrimbotsSpeelTomes
EVE-StockEquipmentReplacer
Knights - Book Jackets
EVE_KnightsoftheNine
PotionReplacer
No Starting Map Markers
The following come up in the Merge Patches menu:
Oblivion Citadel Door Fix
LoadingScreens
Book Jackets Oblivion
DLCSpellTomes Unofficial Patch
Weapon Improvement Project
Alluring Wine Bottles
DLCFrostcrag-SnowyRoad Patch
Harvest [Flora] Shivering Isles (and Vile Lair and Frostcrag as separate ESPs)
Clutter and Container Ownership
Enemy Weapons dont drop
more mechant money v1.1
ShinySeptims_Septimus
Enhanced Vegetation SI
OCO DLC Faces
No Persistant Enchantment Glow Fix
Book Jackets DLC Misc
SGP Interior Draw Distance Fix
DistinctAyleidBossChests
GreyPrince
WaterFPS
Balanced NPC Level Cap
Balanced NPC Level Cap - DLC Patches
KvGuardFeaturesDevastationReduxPatch
OCO_Eyes_Fix
OCO Cleaned - Vanilla Hair
NAO-Brighter-Nights-Sam
tbskGuardsFeatures-NoGreatHelmets
Here is my loadorder.txt and my modlist.txt (which seems to be in reverse order from how it appears in MO2, but I doubt that's the problem), although, again, this happens with the Bashed Patch on an otherwise clean profile, so that's why I included the merged stuff above and I'm still baffled why this just happens on deck, just to the Bashed Patch, but PC is fine with all the same files.

Was playing DayZ earlier for about 4/5 hours, turned my pc off and gone to work. Come back and rebooted to find that steam is no longer sync’ing with the cloud. I have done the following: Toggled off and on cloud services Restarted steam Restarted pc Reconnected via Ethernet cable and tried wifi connection Gone into settings and verified game files Gone into game folder properties and ensured is updated Checked network driver is up to date Restarted wifi router Restarted pc again
Issue still persists…
Any assistance would be much appreciated as I’m about to set alight to the gremlins inside my pc atm… New to pc gaming and it’s been nothing but a headache since day 1.

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All tested and working with individual photo albums attached for each item/bundle!
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Timestamp
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition Bundle: $50 (pics)

• NO GAME, NO STEELBOOK
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• Legend of Zelda wired Switch controller (unofficial USB cord)

GameCube Controllers:

• Original black GameCube wired controller (weak rumble pack): $20 (pics)
• Original silver GameCube wired controller: $25 (pics)
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SOLD:
GameCube Game Bundle: $250

• Mario Party 5 (no manual) (pics)
• Super Smash Bros. Melee (CIB) (pics)
• Mario Kart Double Dash (no manual) (pics)
• The Legend of Zelda: The WindWaker (CIB) (pics)
• Mario Party 6 (CIB) (pics)