SYNOPSIS: Walking your OP monster girlfriend home is easy. No one messes with you. Getting back to your house on your own? That's the tricky part.
What's worse than an eldritch building? How 'bout a bigger one?
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Chapter Cover Art (From Mood Writing Sample)
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Norman took one look at the towering building to his left. Then he took off.
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“̷̵̵̷̶̷̶̶̸̶̶̸̴̡̛̮͉̹̪̼̙̤̲̤͔̗̮̥̣̜͓̟̞̃̔̈́̑̈̍͌̂̂̐̋͛̉̓G̵̶̸̷̴̸̵̵̴̶̸̷̸̴̶̨̢̧̞͈̠̜̳̪͎̬̜̱̫͚̝̩̑̒͐́͆̃̿̉̆̉̃̓̀̎̐͂̎̒̕̕͘͝͝Ǵ̷̷̷̴̸̸̷̷̷̷̵̨̢̞̥͓̰͖͙̰̝͖̩̺͍͎͉͌̽̂́͐̓̀͒̐͗́M̴̷̶̵̴̷̵̶̵̴̷̷̢̡̧̢̛̫̲͕͇̗̯͚̥͙͓͓̀̒͑͒̂̊̅̐͛̂̄͌̈̚͝M̴̷̶̵̴̷̷̶̷̬̼̭̗͍̺̳̩̱͍̂̄̾͂̔̽̇̀͝͝͝͠M̶̯̙̥͕̞̰̗̗͐̔!̸̞̞̬̼̖̩̈́̇͊͐̾͑͋̉!̷̧͈̘̬̆͑͝!̶̤̜̔̓̆̅̔͆͘͝”̸̨̧̼̭̫̒͜

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The new hunting cry boomed through his body. It was much louder than the first building’s, albeit shorter, like a tap on the shoulder from a titan proclaiming its presence to the world.
Of course, the tap of a titan could flatten a man.
Norman fell. His legs had simply stopped working. Jaws clenched, he forced his will into wobbly muscles. His palms slammed into the waterlogged street, stopping the fall. With a sharp push, he sprang back to his feet and ran on.
Norman yanked out the remaining two flash grenades on the go, strung them together, armed and drew back for a throw.
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“̷̬̳̙̍̎̆G̴̥͇̥͔͕̫̈̀M̵̛͇̜͙͇̫͔̭̩̝̜̓̈̏̓̓̀͛̚͜͝͝M̷̩͈͉̘͙̿͌̃̽͂̃̏̏̓̾̈́͌̈́̉̅̄̉͘!̷̢̧̢̤͓̭̖̝̏̏̄̓̾̉̆͋͘͝!̵͍̱̼̮̯̺̲͙̖̮̗͓̻̓̊͂̒̔͐̎͘͘̚!̵̙͍̟̌͒̃͂̎͠”̶̡̛̠̱̭̞̹̟͉̒̎̎̂͂̐̈́̓̄̚̕

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That quick boom pounded through him. His fingers faltered. The flash grenades slipped from his grip and fell. He was still recovering from the sound when they went off at his feet. The nightsight filtered the flash, so he didn’t go blind. He’d gutted the flash grenade’s speakers, so he didn’t go deaf. The peeping building could deafen him all on its own … no, this wasn’t a peeping building. He’d slew a peeping building. They were small fries by comparison.
This was an eyescraper.
Tentacles the width of busses unsheathed from its sides. Even if he’d managed to launch the grenades and bathe it in smitelight, he suspected that wouldn’t be enough.
Norman sliced at its eyes with a focused beam. It barely flinched. Maybe if it got close enough, he could affect it a bit. By then, it would be too late.
Throbbing chuffs thundered from the monster. It sounded like a laugh.
Norman shot it a defiant glare. He bolted. Not fast enough. He could feel the giant closing in. So, he moved faster. Then faster, and still faster. His muscles blared their warnings. Rain lashed his face. He felt the air begin to resist his movements as he reached a speed at which it mattered. It was in his way, so he pushed through it too. No one was there to tell him he was moving far faster than any human known to history. All he cared about was hearing that thing fall behind him, and so it did. The tremours of its tremendous movements grew fainter.
At the end of the street, an apartment building came into view. Norman threw himself against it, climbing with the reckless abandon of a madman. He was halfway to the top.
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“̷̧̨̭̹̘̥̮͖̤̻̥̬̌̀͒̔͌̊̀̚͜͜͠Ǧ̶̨̨̧̺̘̰̗̘̥̝̗̦̩͖͎͋̈͑͐̒̽̉̔͛̾̒́̕ͅM̴̨̉́̾̉͂͆̔̿̀̃̇̎̍͆̂̽͗̔͘͠ͅM̷̝̻̱̆̍͜!̴̮̬̯̮̦̖́͂̆͋̿̇̎̄̄̅̂͑̎̀̕͘͝͝͝!̸̲͎̲̼̠̮̱͖̥̭̤̩͓̘̜͈̟̖̮̰̦͖̀̂͗͂̽̈́̋͌͂̐̓̈̕!̸̜̆̿̋̔̽̕”̷̢̦̜̰̼̳̝͓̆͗̈́̆̆̑̃̾͑̀͗͒͆́͐͒̈́̿̽̕̕͜

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His grip went limp. He fell. Struck the ground. His head bounced. The world grew fu...z z y.
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W
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_CHAT

• LEMMY.OUTA.HERE: (Stupse) Well, he ded.
• BAJANETTE11: ARN74, JUST GO AND FIND HIM!!!
• ARN74: HE DIDN’T SEND ME DE PIN! DIS BAAARE STRESS! NORMAN, YOU PUNK! YOU EMOTIONALLY INVESTED ME IN THIS CHANNEL! IF YOU DIE NOW I’M GONNA KILL YOU!

Something was yapping in the background, but it wasn’t important. He felt fine. Everything was fine. Why not rest? Why was he even-?

_CHAT

• ARN74: YOU PROMISED ME YOU WOULDN’T LEAVE AMY!!

What? No he didn’t! Promises weren’t for trolls! Why would he leave Amy anyway?
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“̸̼͔̖̜̫͍͚̊́̽͆̓̂̋̋͐̕Ģ̴̢͕͉̯̺̗̖͔͙̪͓̻̯̫̭̙̱͕̠̭̩̌M̸̨̧̘̟̹̖̻̲͍̭͓͉̰͙̦̣̜͉̻̎̅͗̇̈́̈̏͌̓̾̀̈̈́͜M̵̢̢̖̯̦͍͕̝̯̥̹̪̠̥̰̝̖̊͛̀̇͜!̵̢̡̡͚͕̘̟͕̥̦̪͆̈́̿͆!̴̛̹͈̜̥͔̬͎̪̩͚̦̯̟̘̩̰̳̍̑̂́̌͌̎́̒͋̽̿̑͌͝͝!̴̛̥͕̪͂̂̂̈̓͆͗̇̄̈́̌̅̎͂̕̚̕͝͠”̷̧̧̛̠̝̰̞̘͙̥̖͎̭̞̜̳̟̓͆̌̊̃̔́͒͋̇̈́͘̚͠͝ͅ
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Oh, right. There was a skyscraper running him down. To think he lived in a world where that made any sense. He rubbed his throbbing head. It was hard to think, though.

_CHAT

• ARN74: TRY AN CLIMB DE TING OPPA!

Brain fog would have to wait.
In two twos he jumped onto the side of the building and kept going up and up without breaking the momentum of the leap. Adrenaline had challenged gravity. Gravity lost. There was no pause to assess handholds. There was no rain stinging his face. In his mind, there was only ‘CLIMB, CLIMB, CLIMB!’ Crest the rooftop. ‘RUN, RUN, RUN!’ Descend the other side ‘JUMP!’ Gravity greedily reclaimed Norman, dragging him 4 storeys down at breakneck speed. He hit the ground in a parkour roll. Bruised a bone. Nearly fractured a shoulder. Wrenched his spine. Joints, muscle, ligaments almost popped. They didn’t.
He was running again.
Norman had never heard a building shred like paper. He’d never thought to wonder what it sounded like.
*( ( BMMM! ) ) ( ( BMM! ) ) ( ( BOOM! ) ) \*

SHHHHHRRRRRRMMMM!

Now he knew.
Those booms … was it the eyescraper’s tentacles breaking the sound barrier, or punching holes through the apartment building? Maybe both. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that it was tearing the building in two with the ease of one parting curtains. Buildings were not designed to be parted. Two became legions as the sundered building collapsed.
Norman rushed for an abandoned truck, slid beneath the trailer. Not quite fast enough. Most of the rubble didn’t reach him directly, but upon hitting the ground? It pulverised into a blast of cloud like a sandstorm. Hissing beneath the trailer, the dust stung at his ankles. He ignored it, racing for the truck’s cabin at the front. Perched on the step beneath the door, he braced as the dust raced beneath, around and above him. The cabin was his shield. He flinched to a duck when its windows shattered as the dust cloud blasted straight through them. The truck rocked and slid slightly, bombarded by wind and dust. It lurched as a chunk of debris finally reached it, crumpling the trailer like cheap foil.
Time to move.
Particles prickled Norman’s eyes, finding their way through the nightsight. He took a fresh glimpse of the path ahead before clouds of grey engulfed it all.
Memorised.
He dashed on. A split second later, the cabin was levelled under a larger slab of concrete. More sporadically thundered down around him. His eyes were squeezed shut, denying entry to any more particles. He scrambled through the street, dodging obstacles from memory. As for the concrete rainfall that couldn’t be seen? He had some prayers about that, but it probably came out like half-baked gibberish.
Norman chanced opening his eyes. They watered like crazy. At least most of the dust was gone. Behind him, the eyescraper’s menacing silhouette was picking through the rubble. Finally, an unblocked street was in sight. He rounded the corner.
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“̵̨̢̮͕̻̲̺́͠G̵̣̒́̓̽̅̊͘͝Ọ̷̝̣͓͙͔̀ͅͅǪ̷̜̺͚̲̯̭̈́̍͂͑̋̋̅͂̅́M̷̨̤̭͈̯̤͋̾̏̈̅̉̀̏͘M̵̡̢̙̱͌̊̓͒́͌Ḿ̸̳͗̀̀͐͒͗́͠ͅ!̷͍͉̣̪̫͙̳̲̤̎̀̾̅̈́̔̎̑͘͜͝͝!̴̨͈͖̘̖̅͛̋̽͠!̸͎̩͓̫̥̼̫̊”̵̫̗̞̣̝̃̅̕͘͜͜͝ͅ
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Another peeping building, rumbling in from the new street. Alright. Straight it was.
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“̷̢̧̻̹͚͔̾G̵̳̭̾̃̎̍̌̂̈́̂͛͘M̶̧̠͇͔͚͉̮͈̰͒͊́̏̔̄̾̊͐̒͂͜M̸̳͓̋͋̔͑̔̔̕͝Ő̷͓̟̱̮͓̍̂̾̽̇͘͠Ô̸̧̫͉̮͚̥̥̯̈̾͋̅͂͘̚M̶̢̫̥̰̮̪͙̬̙̗̺̽͒͐͌̋̈̄͆͝M̴̢̧̧̛̗͔͓̫̭̳̱͑̉!̵̡̛̛͍̲̓̅̑̈́̿̏͘̕͠!̸̧̖͔̣̩̏́͋̀͛͂̏̀̇̑͐!̴̧͕̝̮̤̱͈̬͋”̸͓̉̈́̑̎͊̌
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Maybe not. A third building emerged from the rainfall ahead. All streets blocked. He glanced about. All alleys still blocked. This really was a hunting net, but this much energy for a tiny human? Predators weren’t usually like this.
He ran for the nearest building that wasn’t occupied by eldritch calamari.

( ( BOOMM! ) )

The eyescraper’s tentacle crossed his path. Its supersonic shockwave sent him flying.
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Norman came to. Rain poured against his face as he lay on his back. How long was he out? Why was it so cold? The atmosphere didn’t quite feel right. It didn’t look right either. Something about the colours, or subtle lack thereof. Everything seemed a bit desaturated. Norman sat up and coughed his lungs out, evicting a mix of dust and rain water collected in his slackly gaping mouth. Buildings towered above him on every side, a bit too close for comfort.
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“̸̮̼͍̻̯̲̹͓̬̻̓̍G̷̛̖̙̰̰̟̓Ḿ̸̧̨͊̊̔͒͌̆͆͘͠͝M̷̧̺̏̿̆͑͆͋̅͌̕͝G̵̰̺͇̺̯̲͇̠͖͂͜M̸̡̨͕̹̗̥̎͑́̾!̸͇͙͚̝̩͕̙̒!̵͙̬̮̪̏̍!̶͔̪͉̙̘̃̐̄͝”̶̡̡̥̫̻̝̜̫͙̩͛ͅ

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Oh, right, those weren’t just buildings.
Norman raised a finger, gesturing to wait. “Could you *kaff!* quit subwoofin’ at me for, like, ten seconds!”
“Plucky.̵͚͐͝ for all seasons I .̵̦̺͐̅see,” came a skin-crawling voice from behind him.
Norman swung back his smitelight. It barely moved half a foot, then it stopped. Rather, something stopped it. That ‘something’ was cold. So cold. His wrist felt the chill without even touching it.
Norman turned, slowly, so as not to trigger further attacks. He found himself looking up.
Eight feet tall. Dark grey skin. A grin that went a little too wide. Dagger teeth. An open-chested jacket, revealing sinewy muscles with luminous markings like tattoos. His ebony eyes bore penetrating white pupils. Of all his traits, the dreadlocks stood out most. They belonged in a nightmare, dancing through the air with a life of their own. Somehow, they looked blacker than black, absorbing every ray of light or heat that came their way. That icy chill in the air shifted with the movements of his dreadlocks. They seemed to drink life from the air itself. Norman almost found it hard to breathe. One dreadlock clutched Norman’s smitelight, only by the tip, but its grip was iron.
Norman stared the tall man down.
The nyctal’s grin grew by a smidgeon.
Taking a calculated risk, Norman released the smitelight. Perhaps a peace offering would do good.
“Good.̷̧͋͌̎̿ boy,” the tall man nodded, admiring the smitelight as the dreadlock rotated it. “Clever.̴̧̤̩͈͓̖͂ͅ toy.”
Norman noted an understated Jamaican accent in his voice.
More dreadlocks slithered across the smitelight, as if tasting its every nook and cranny.
Norman did his best to look casual as he scanned for an escape route. The eyescraper’s tentacles had wrapped around the street, fencing him in.

_CHAT

• BAJANETTE11: 😳
• DARCIE222: okay, i’m back
• HARD-BACK-M8N: who you is again?
• DARCIE222: i left after the twilight angel sleep paralysis
• LEMMY_OUTA_HERE: And you’re back for more?
• DARCIE222: wonna know it impossible to stay away from a channel like dis

Norman looked at the tall nyctal again.

_CHAT

• DARCIE222: 😲 WHO IS THAT?!? AND WHY IS HE KIND OF …??? 😍
• MUNSTER-VERSER: I KNOW!!!
• BAJANETTE11: HE LIKE A VAMPIRE RASTA MAN! ❤❤❤
• ENTO_MOLLY: MOVE OVER MIGUEL O’HARA!! 😍🥰😘
• BAJANETTE11: NORMAN ASK FOR HE NUMBER!!!
• NORMAN: I HERE ABOUT TO DIE AND WONNA WANT HE PHONE NUMBER!?!

The nyctal’s eyes shifted to Norman inquisitively. He frowned, raising an eyebrow as the comments piled up. Finally, he smirked mischievously.
“Your fanbase has peculiar tastes,” purred the tall man.

_CHAT

• ENTO_MOLLY: 😳 Is … he talking about us? HE CAN SEE THE CHAT???
• DARCIE222: THE WAY HE SAID IT!!!
• DARCIE222: HBVJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJKL;K''
• LEMMY_OUTA_HERE: Did she just pass out on the keyboard?
• LIKKLE-BOY: lol!
• ARN74: you’re simping. Norman’s about to die, and you’re simping

The tall man handed Norman his smitelight.
Norman’s suspicious gaze flicked between the nyctal and the weapon. Finally, he reached out and took hold of the smitelight.
It crumbled in his fingers like ice-cold ashes. If not for the insulation gloves, he might have gotten frostbite.
The nyctal laughed.
Norman didn’t find it particularly amusing.
The tall man sauntered towards the eyescraper. Beyond it was a darkness even the nightsight had difficulty piercing. He beckoned Norman as if it were an afterthought.
“Please come in, .̵̭̻͌̓̂Norman.̶̲͕͇̅̑̚,” the nyctal instructed.
Norman stared stubbornly, hands in his pockets as he rocked on his heels. He felt for his smartphone. It wasn’t there. When had he lost it?
Without looking back, the nyctal held up Norman’s phone. It disintegrated between his fingers as he rubbed them together.
Norman glared. At least the guy hadn’t pickpocketed deeply enough to find other things.
“Hey. To whom do I owe the … pleasure?” Norman almost had to push the last word through his teeth.
The nyctal stopped in the eyescraper’s doorframe. Shrouded in shadow, little could be seen of him, save the piercing white pupils peering out. Then the glint of his Cheshire grin.
“.̴̜͓̭̻̤̍̈́̆͑͑John Crow.̸̻̮̓̈́̏̓͘,” he answered, before receding into the darkness.
The eyescraper’s tentacles dragged in across the street, corralling Norman towards the building. With an exasperated groan, he trudged towards the main entrance.
“I want my bed,” grumbled Norman.
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First Previous (See NEXT>> in comments)

Hey folks!
Finally done with my GRE! Since this subreddit was such great help for me during prep, I wanted to pay it forward by sharing my experience too and hopefully helping some of the folks currently preparing for the GRE.
I am currently a full time employee and so I can't really dedicate the entire day to studying for the GRE. On the plus side though, I didn't really have a hard deadline for when I needed to take the GRE by. As such, I decided to go with GregMat's 1 Month Study Plan and pace it to best suit my schedule.
I began my GRE preparation in early January 2024, initially completing one day of the Study Plan every two days. For Quant, I preferred Prepswift over GregMat's longer videos. Since I have a STEM background, I used these videos to familiarize myself with GRE topics rather than actually building a foundation from scratch. However, I did find some new information and watched the Prepswift videos at 2x speed. For Verbal I stuck with the videos in the plan and watched them at 2x speed.
For Vocab, not sure why, but I decided to go with the Magoosh Flashcards app over GregMat's vocab mountain. I was initially quite regular with my vocab practice and got the first 2 decks (100 words) in the first week, but this soon fell off (more on this later).
At the end of the First Week, the plan says to take a Diagnostic Test to see where you are at. So by this point the plan had covered the fundamentals of Arithmetic, and so I felt like the diagnostic test would be biased and show me that I did well on the Arithmetic questions and not as well on the others. With this "self-diagnosis", I decided against giving the diagnostic test in the first week and decided to give the test after I had done my first full round of prep. After that I could identify my weak spots and work on those again.
And from here, everything went down, in terms of regularity. I would go days without opening GregMat, or even the Magoosh Flashcards app. Some days I would feel extremely guilt ridden and so sit and grind a few days worth of study in a single sitting, and then again get out of touch for about a week or so. I had fallen into this rut, wherein I didn't study regularly for the GRE, but if I started working on any kind of hobby/side project I would be ridden with guilt that I should be studying instead.
This went on for a few months until by mid April I decided enough was enough and the only way for me to get this over with would be to decide on a test date. So I decided on a "soft" deadline, sometime during mid to end of May. Mid April I started prepping regularly again, trying my best to stick to the one-month plan. I also did 2 more decks from the Magoosh app (now a total of 200 words), but this is where things slowed down again on the vocabulary front.
I started to feel quite confident with my prep - I knew I had strong fundamentals in Quant as I did well on all the mixed practice sets and topic wise sets too, barring a few silly errors (and by silly I mean as silly as they can possibly get). For Verbal, GregMat's strategies were a gold mine. With this confidence, on 4th of May (I said May the Force Be With Me and) I booked the test for the 16th of May - just 12 days away.
I finished all of the available official material (Main Book, Verbal Guide and Quant Guide), except for the official practice tests by the 10th of May. At this point, I had still only memorized the 200 words from the Magoosh Flash Cards, and I had not given any practice test yet. I decided to give my first practice test on 11th, the PP1. I woke up early in the morning and gave the test with a fresh mind and got a 328 (168Q 160V). My goal was to score a 330+ (170Q and 160+V) in the real exam and this came pretty close, so I was somewhat happy. Analysis of my mistakes showed that I had made (yet again) a single silly mistake in the Quant Section that made me lose 2 points there, and missing a negation before a blank in one of the text completions that ended up changing my answer. Other than that, most of the mistakes were simply because I didn't understand what the words meant. That 200 word inventory was not nearly enough.
From this test I took away that my Quant was solid, but I needed to focus extra hard on not making silly mistakes, but my Vocab was in the gutter. I decided to focus the remaining few days on learning vocabulary and improving my reading strategies, since I was still struggling a bit in that area. I took to the vocab mountain and I made an excel sheet in which I only wrote down the words from the first 11 vocab groups that I didn't know. I was pleasantly surprised that for most groups, I only didn't know about half the words to begin with - this was quite the motivator. I also completed the remaining 2 Common Words decks from Magoosh bringing my word count from there to 300. I had also made another list of words that I had seen show up in the official material that I didn't find in words I had covered so far. As the test day drew nearer, I felt a little regretful not starting to memorize vocabulary sooner, but it was too late for that now. I just rinsed and repeated the words I had learnt so far. By my estimate, on test day I had about 500-600 words down (from the new ones I learnt and the ones I already knew).
On the 13th, I gave the Practice Test 1 on the GregMat website. While I found the quant to be slightly harder than the one in PP1, I managed to get a 334 (I don't remember the exact breakdown, but I remember making yet another silly mistake in the quant and missing the 170Q because of that, probably a 168Q 166V or 169Q 165V). Was quite happy with this but the silly mistake in the quant was quite frustrating again.
On the 14th, I grinded all the Quant sections from the practice tests in the official book (four 40 minute sections), consistently making a single silly mistake in each one. At this point I was super annoyed with myself for making such trivial mistakes. There was not a single problem I didn't know how to solve, but some step in the solution, or while reporting the final answer, I would end up blundering. I decided to concede and called it a day.
The day before the test 15th: I had read everywhere just to relax, not learn anything new, and if you really want, just do a light revision of what you already know. But by no means should you take a practice test at this point - nothing good can come out of it. If you identify some gaps you have no time to fill them, and if you do poorly it would be a massive hit to your confidence. Yet, despite my better judgement I decided to give the PP2. I guess I thought it would be stupid to waste an official test and I was quite confident in my prep - if I get a good score it will only raise my confidence. Seems like a good plan, right?
So I sit down first thing in the morning to give the test. I breeze past the first verbal and quant sections. I felt pretty good on the second verbal section too. In the second quant section, I had a small issue with time management and had to rush solving a few questions, but I felt satisfied with the way I handled the section. Time's up - I wait for the results to show up, feeling confident. A 324 - 165Q 159V. My heart sinks. What on earth happened?!
Almost with my heart in my throat, I go through the analysis and see that I had made a lot of mistakes in the sentence equivalence questions in the first verbal section - because I fell in love with one answer and then forced a pair, rather than pairing first and trying to solve the question after. A few more errors in reading. And my second quant section had 3 mistakes, each of which were very easily avoidable, but I didn't have a chance to do well because of poor time management. Boom! In a single swoop all the confidence I had gained over the weeks in my prep just shattered into pieces.
I kept thinking I should not have taken the test like everyone said. I hopped onto this subreddit to find some solace and see if anyone had posted something about a situation similar to mine. I found a few posts and fortunately most of them had an optimistic ending. Feeling better, I took a deeper look at what went wrong and wrote down the exact mistakes I had made. I came to realize that most of the mistakes I had made were not knowledge based errors, but rather strategical errors. I wrote these errors down clearly and made a very strong mental note about avoiding these in the actual test. This helped me calm down a lot and I started to gain a little bit of my confidence again. I called it an early night and hit the sack.
The next day I woke up feeling fresh and confident, telling myself that yesterday's test result was caused by negligence and not under-preparedness. Just don't pull yesterday's shenanigans today. I was ready! Went in and gave the test. I kept an extremely strong focus on good time management and not getting hung up on questions, making sure I finished the first pass over the quant sections with about 8-10 minutes to spare to go back and do the questions I missed and recheck my work. The quant seemed slightly harder than what I had done in the practice tests, although not by a huge margin (it could just be the nerves that made me think even easy questions have some kind of trap behind them). I was super careful not to make a single error, since I was targeting a perfect quant score. The verbal was about the same as all the prep that I had done before, so that didn't throw me off at all. I took a 1 minute break before the start of each section where I closed my eyes and just focused on my breathing. Overall the entire test went smoothly, and when I got my final score of 334 (170Q 164V), I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders.
Takeaway - Should've just been regular with the prep and more serious with the vocabular memorization. Perhaps booking the test date sooner would've helped me be more organized in my prep.
TL;DR:

• Targeting a 330+ (170Q 160+V)
  
• Spread GregMat's 1 Month Study Plan over 4 months in an extremely sporadic fashion (don't do this).
  
• Didn't focus nearly enough on Vocab building - 200 words learnt (also don't do this).
  
• Gave first diagnostic test PP1 5 days before exam - 328 (168Q 160V) - realize I make silly mistakes in quant and don't have nearly enough vocab knowledge
  
• Spend next 3 days grinding vocab (200 -> 600 words) and improving reading strategy.
  
• Gave GregMat Practice Test 1 3 days before exam - 334 (168Q 166V) - still making silly mistakes in quant, vocab is definitely improving.
  
• Make big dum-dum move and give PP2 1 day before exam - 324 (165Q 159V) - confidence absolutely shattered (if there is one thing you take away from this post, 100% DO NOT do this).
  
• Analysing mistakes helped identify flaws in test taking strategy that caused this poor score. Made a mental note to avoid these at all cost during the test.
  
• Test day, super smooth experience with good time management. Final score 334 (170Q 164V).
  

Hello everyone, I have been addicted to pornography since I was 8 years old and it's only gotten worse and has taken a stranglehold on my life, I have struggled with hypersexuality and pornography for years (I fully orgasm 7+ times a day) with my addiction and now I think I found a way to rid myself of this once and for all.
Reddit is my last weak link, when I block Reddit for good, there will be ZERO loopholes for my hypersexual mind anymore. First let's start off with personal computers and laptops, for my PC I use ColdTurkey blocker and it's the best blocker you can get IF you use it with NextDns. You can't uninstall it and I locked my BIOS behind a password I can't even remember so I can't even reset my laptop anymore to overcome Cold Turkey Blocker. But remember, NextDns is VERY important along with a few others apps I will show you.
With the blockers on I can't even visit the website OR turn NextDns off! My porn addiction has gotten so strong that I have even blocked all search engineson my laptop, so I have to search on my phone using the safe SPIN browser.
I have multiple AI threat driven detection blockers and third party blockers installed within NextDns and it works great! I can ONLY get around it when I have a passcode to get around it, the website to NextDns is blocked with cold turkey blocker with a secure password I don't have access to. I had to turn it off temporarily to install an app for work.. I relapsed but I am getting back on my feet and will continue my journey to be clean from this dopamine addiction.
Blocks browsers, websites, everything you'd want blocked. ColdTurkey
Setup some passwords and store them somewhere not readily accessible or you can create a timer within the app and you won't be able to unblock, uninstall, nothing without the password or until block expires.
And for Android, "App block" is by FAR the best app you can use to block websites, downloads, applications from opening, and even keywords in the URL! Pincode to unlock the app, pincode to turn off blocks, and another to unblock strict mode... Very secure and you can keep multiple codes away where you can forget about them. Like at a friend's house or somewhere you can't easily get to.
These measures have worked for the most part really, really well! I had to unblock certain things for my new job so I can install apps and I fell back into my old habits... But since I don't need to install anything else, I am about to setup my blocks again. Combined with SPIN browser and my NextDns filters absolutely NOTHING can get through, only through me stealing someone's computer or phone can I access pornography now.
With Appblock I have used it constantly with free wifi, wifi at home, etc.. and the safeguards, AI driven detection, etc.. works fine. I can't disable it either with the Appblock or go into my phone settings without a password once I have everything set up.
I can't explain it but once you get it set up it really works great. With NextDns you can also block any top level domains easily, .to .de .cc .wf .av etc... The AI monitoring blocks sites as well, There's free blacklists that are awesome, all you gotta do is press any of them and it's added, All for only $1.99/mo.
In addition to that, you can block websites manually too by adding them to the deny list. Combine this with cold turkey blocker or SPIN browser & Appblock and it's a good enough deterrent that will be a 100% deterrent once I block Reddit. Reddit has too much info on how to bypass blocks such as search engines you have never even heard of.
So, goodbye reddit! I'm focusing on my mental healing from the years of scarring myself with hours long porn binges that last well into the early morning simply because my body can't help itself, I didn't ask to be born hypersexual but I am sick of porn and my addiction to it because it's ruining my life
Lookup SPIN browser on Google play
Here's Appblock https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.mobilesoft.appblock
Here's cold turkey blocker https://getcoldturkey.com/
And here's NextDns https://nextdns.io/

In 2022 my marketing agency business was failing.
Just the year prior we had done $4.2M in profit and were at the top of our game in our little niche within the industry (we worked exclusively with VC backed tech companies doing demand gen campaigns for them).. but suddenly the VC market went from booming to bust, and we lost most of our clients. Our team went from 40 to 5.
That year was one of the worst of my life. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to provide for my family (we had just had our first kid), and had no idea what to do.
Of the folks left on my team, I had two really talented designers, but zero design work for them. I didn't want to have to let them go, so I decide to get creative.
I decided I would try to spin them out and create a "design agency."
We've been at it right around a year and a half now, and just hit $59k/mo in profit (somewhere around $120k top line).
Here's how I landed our first 10 customers:
Step 1: built a brand and website so it looked like we were more established and legit than we were.
Step 2: leveraged our existing logos, aka the companies these designers had already done work for under my marketing agency, so that we had some social proof and examples of the work we'd done. Again, making us look more established than we actually were.
Step 3: started hustling within my network. putting the word out to my contacts on Linkedin, going to events (specifically, I went to a VC fund event and hung out with other investors and founders, making sure to pitch my new venture when asked).
Step 4: I started experimenting with cold email. I hired an agency I'd worked with in the past. Paid them $1,750/mo to run cold email for me. (Will share the results of this below).
Step 5: I set my prices SUPER low. Like much lower than I knew the services were worth, so that I could convince a few folks to say yes and take a chance on us. I knew I would raise them quickly after we started seeing momentum.
Step 6: I found some industry specific newsletters and paid between $2,500 - $5,500 each to be a sponsor listed in their newsletters. I tested 3 newsletters in total. The first one was a huge success (closed 3+ clients from this over the course of a few weeks) but the other two were huge flops and produced zero new customers.
Step 7: I tried to double down on the newsletter that was a hit, only to find the next time I tried it was a flop. Go figure. This was super frustrating because I thought I had finally "cracked a good channel" when in fact it was a flash in the pan.
Step 8: I convinced our first few customers to share about us publicly on Linkedin and record video testimonials that I could use as social proof to close more clients.
Step 9: I made an effort to be a guest on other peoples podcasts where I would casually mention what my new business does
Step 10: I joined as many slack group as I could where I thought our ideal buyers would be hanging out
Ok I think those were all the key steps I took. Let me give you a breakdown of exactly where each client came from, as a result of the above steps:
Client 1: came from a founder chat group I'm in Client 2: came from a cold email we sent Client 3: came from the VC conference I went to (chatted with the guy and followed up after the event) Client 4: saw someone post on Linkedin asking about designers, I responded and got a meeting Client 5: heard about us on a podcast I was a guest on Client 6: heard about us from a CEO friend of mine Client 7: posted about design needs in one of the slack groups I had joined Client 8: cold email Client 9: heard about us in the sponsored newsletter post (the one that was a success) Client 10: heard about us in a VC slack group I'm in
My takeaways?
Well first off, as you might have guessed, this isn't my first rodeo, (if you're interested in hearing all the details of how I went from living in my moms basement to building and selling my software company, how much I sold it for etc I recorded a video here on that topic: https://youtu.be/jHZcilZX2Fk )
Anyway, back to my takeaways re: landing those first 10 customers.

1. I'm a huge fan of having a diverse mix of lead sources. It requires a bunch of up front hustle, but it also increases the surface area for luck.
   
2. No matter how many times I do this, it still feels uncomfortable to put myself out there with a new offering and start from scratch.
   
3. The first 10 are the hardest, then next 10 are somewhat easier, and it just seems to get easier as we get more reps and build momentum. That said, it's still very hard. If you know, you know.
   
4. The hustle of the early days (before the game shifts to being about SOPs and hiring) are super fun.
   

AMA.

Took me a while to get through this post and watching this podcast but it's a huge topic with a lot of nuance and I'm missing some points you've brought up, u/sheriffderek. These are numbered in terms of Chronological Order in the video, not importance. Some things that I can speak about:

1. Bootcamp Grads Can't Use HTML/CSS

When you reviewed my portfolio website, you very correctly pointed out "Hey, why is this made with React if it's a static site?" Yup, when I first attended bootcamp, I could not use HTML/CSS to build a website. In order to be accepted to the 2nd bootcamp I attended (Fullstack Academy) I had to pass a live JavaScript assessment. They didn't teach me, test me, or even mention HTML/CSS in the prep material before I stepped foot on campus. After I graduated the second bootcamp I STILL did not know or have the skills to create a static website using HTML/CSS. I absolutely needed create-react-app and that's why my 'static site' portfolio to this day still uses React. Shortly after I was hired at my first dev job, my co-workers who I paired with were nervous when they saw that skill gap. For example, on the job as a Frontend Software Engineer, a Senior Engineer I was pairing with asked me to type a backslash and I did a forwardslash and I legit didn't know the difference between them. Another example was the pairing senior engineer was telling me to put some CSS border on a component we were working on and I didn't know the syntax how to do that by heart. They thought that was huge red flag and maybe it is. But as we were pairing I pointed out something in React that was going to give a namespace error in his code and he was like "No, that's not going to error." He saved the file and the exact error I said popped up. Why? Because the bootcamp taught me React. Not HTML/CSS.

1. Bootcamps Skyrocket Student's Careers

If you took a bootcamp in 2015 it would have helped you get into the door that I went through.
In an incredibly and almost unbelievably short time: 2018 -> first line of code/first bootcamp 2019 -> second bootcamp 2020 -> first dev job 2021 First Software Engineering job.... In 3 YEARS TIME I went from zero programming knowledge to a software engineering position... That's insane to me and I still don't know how that happened. I am not an outlier. I have friends that I keep in touch with, from BOTH bootcamps I went to, who have similar stories. Friends that ended up at Walmart, LinkedIn, Uber, Citibank, Etsy, Spotify, Bloomberg, and GOOGLE, huge companies that were willing to give a kid off the street a chance.

1. Help the People Who It Doesn't Work For

These people believe that it's easy. They think they don't have to put in the effort or the time, or that work is beneath them or it shouldn't be that hard or excuse excuse excuse. They don't have the mindset of "Get It Done". They have the mindset of "I'll get it done eventually" and there's nothing wrong with that at all. But if you want things to happen in your own time, then they're going to happen slowly.

1. Same - but I like it here and people need help, and I wish I had more help when I started. Shoutout INFPs.
   
2. Niche tech - I recently received 2 additional job offers from the previous 5 month job search I had completed. That's three offers from learning a Niche tech stack, in a Niche tech field (Web Application Development). I think that this proves there's some value in learning create-react-app :P But I also acknowledge that tech changes over time, and that I will one day lose my value. One day I will have to pivot to another type of tech, I will become a dinosaur like jQuery/Flash devs... and be forced to learn something new. And that's actually exciting to me. I can't wait what's ahead and what's in store because.. I know I can do it. And learning something new is fun.
   
3. I understood Classes before I understood CSS. I mean like 6 months into learning JS, I understood instantiation of classes, importing of classes, defining and using class methods. Maybe not very well, but what would you rather a person who knows HTML/CSS or knows OOP? (If you were going to focus on one skill at a time)
   
4. Signoff -
   

Talking to reddit, I have to try every angle I can.

There are certainly a lot of skill levels here. From coding virgins to people with CS degrees so I do agree this is needed.

It might cost 20k but you'll make 100k+ for the rest of your life... the investment is worth it (duh).

Agree, Even though a bootcamp is costly, for me, it was worth it. I'd do it again 100 times over because my outcome was good so there may be some bias there.

Want to know about the validity of a bootcamp? Go ask about the bootcamp FROM SOMEONE WHO WENT TO THE BOOTCAMP.

LinkedIn is a blessing.

You get what you pay for.

I mean freecodecamp is pretty comprehensive and I get why you say it may not be the best resource but there are SOOOO many topics covered there's really something for everyone there.

I drive myself crazy talking to people on reddit.

I appreciate everything you do here. You've helped me before and I am grateful. 🤝Thanks sheriffderek! (Btw, this bootcamp you recommended definitely helped get me my new job..)

Residential Contracting 101
With over 20 years of building experience, I would like to share with you my insights in navigating becoming a successful contractor. With many different avenues of the building world its key to understand what problems will arise on any given day. A man once told a saying that stuck-the 6 p’s in life- Piss Poor Preparation leads to Piss Poor Performance. Preparation builds everything in construction, without preparation the jobsite will not run correctly. The best advice I was ever given was to learn a little about every trade giving you the ability to understand trade lingo and secrets. An example would be painters use the terminology flash; this means when the sub structure bleads through the paint. Subcontractors will give the best pricing if they respect your knowledge of the industry. If the subcontractor feels they will have to hold your hand through the job they will charge an extra fee…i.e. I call it the aggravation fee. In this blog I will explain the key elements in finding success in all aspects of the industry. Contracting is a physically and emotionally demanding job which requires planning and foresight to complete projects on time within budget. Picking your customer is just as important as picking your employees or subcontractors. I have worked for some of the most demanding customers leading me to question at the end if the job was even worth it. Sleepless nights, constant changes, lack of payment, lawsuit threats, adding work that was in the contract are just a few things you could face with a tough customer. With so many moving parts at all times it is critical to be able to adapt to changes within a short time frame. Materials will come in damaged, subcontractors will be late, employees will get sick, but the deadline you set does not change. The stress can be overwhelming at times keeping your mind in a good place is key to navigating all that is thrown at you. Choosing your client picking the right jobs-Keep these questions in mind The first question to be asked is what the time frame is to start the job to see if it fits within the timeframe for your business. If the time frame doesn’t work then move on from the project or let them know when you would be available to start. If the client really wants to use, they will wait until you are available. Taking on too much work will only lead to problems. Construction is a serviced based business, staying on top of the project and client will eliminate an unhappy customer and construction issues that will be over seen. With online presence if details are missed and customer service lacks it will only be a matter of time the phone will not ring. The second question to be asked to the client is do they have a budget in mind for the project. If they answer yes this is good, follow through with what the budget is. If the budget seems low let them know, this will eliminate a tire kicker, educate them on what the price range could be. If the budget seems reasonable then continue the discussion to the next question. If they answer no let them know that you can give them an estimate to see if the project is feasible with their finical capabilities. Taking on a job that is not correctly budgeted will lead to an unsatisfied customer due to non-transparency of the construction cost. The third question to be asked is anyone else bidding on the job, if the answer is yes, understand you might just be number check for the contractor doing the job. Dig a little deeper and find out how many numbers they are getting and why. If your business model is to be competitive be completely transparent with customer, this will gain trust with them. Let them know you get what you pay for and if you they choose the lowest bid it could lead into lack of quality of work.
The fourth question I will ask is there any specific subcontractors they wanted to use. If the answer is yes then I would explain to them you only use the subcontractors you have a working relationship with. Otherwise, this could backfire as the subcontractor might not show, do subpar work, talk behind your back to the homeowner. In my experience I would stay away from using any homeowner to alleviate problems down the road. A quick conversation now can save headaches down the road. The fifth question I will ask are planning on getting the job permitted, this needs to be known it takes more time for the permitting process. Plans will have to drawn submitted and approved to the city before work can commence. The sixth question I will ask if a residential remodel is are you going to be living through the remodel if yes understand this will take more time to navigate the project due to answering questions and cleaning the house on a daily occurrence. I would recommend seeing if the customer would be willing to move into an Airbnb or friends for at least the demo portion of the project. If they do plan on living through the remodel add a couple hours a day to accommodate the extra time that will be required. The seventh question I would ask in a residential remodel is how old the house is to see if there is asbestos that would need to removed by a proper company. A home built before 1979 will most likely have some asbestos in the house, use a licensed company with proper insurance to dispose of the materials. If everything looks good to this point find out a little more about the client personality. If the client seems reasonable, I would bid the job. Unreasonable people can cause you more stress than its worth. These are some red flags I would look out for. Some jobs are not worth the money. Very demanding in the way you are going to perform your job- I.e., tell you how you are going to do your job- You’re the professional not them! Give you a hard time about your price- haggle with price you estimated- The price is the price! If they are a family with little money and you want to help them out is one thing, if they are trying to beat you down is another. Mention they have a lawyer-there is no need for them to bring up that they have a lawyer - Run for the hills as if the job goes south, you will be the one losing out! Tell you what the payment terms are. It’s your business you get paid how it works for your company. If you want to get paid every Friday, put it into your contract-If the clients do not agree move on it will save you frustrations If they talk bad about the last contractor, chances are they will talk bad about you. There is a reason why the contractor does not work for them anymore, unless he did subpar work this a red flag Clients are using an interior decorator that will purchasing all of the materials- The materials could be ordered incorrectly by the interior designer your company will not make the mark-up it deserves. Interior decorators usually add time to the job as well as act like your boss. Charging a little extra for the time and stress that it will entail is only fair. Clients want to purchase the materials- You are using your knowledge to buy the correct materials-The mark up on the materials keeps the doors open working for wages only pays the bills The husband and wife do not get along-You will become the mediator between the couple it will lead to taking sides a losing proposition- A drama free work place is always best! Dangling carrot-if you do this job the next one will be better-Only look at what there offering at the present moment, if its not a good fit do not take the job for a job down the road…Its not worth chasing a job that might not happen! The Art of the Sale First things first selling your company is all about presentation. In meeting your clients for the first time show up with a collared golf shirt tucked in, belt, nice jeans, and newer shoes. Have a truck that a clean, no dents scratches, preferably washed the day you are going into your meeting. Have a leather note pad that is clean no dirt or paint visible. Show up 5 minutes early, if you’re running a little late shoot them a text to let them know. Treat the situation as if were going on a first date, best foot forward. As you introduce yourself give them a warm greeting, letting them know you are very interested in the work. Find out a little about them, hobbies, where they lived, etc etc. You are going to be working with them on a daily basis its nice to know what makes them tick. Having a good working relationship from the start is key forming a solid relationship. As the conversation progresses find out who wears the pants in the family…ie who’s the final decision maker. If its fits the wife, chances it is…..then kindly let the husband know happy wife happy life when their in a stall mate on an issue. As your looking at the project throw in some suggestions of what you think would look good from past experiences, this will get their attention that you have knowledge and want what’s best for them. If you see ways to save them money in their project let them know, money is a large point of the sale keep that in mind. Mention that you’re not the least expensive contractor but you’re not the most expensive either. Your customer satisfaction is your number one goal which leads to more time spent on keeping them happy. One happy customer will lead to another, one unsatisfied customer leads to work in the future. Bring up the fact the finishing the job on time is key goal to your business, many contractors run several jobs at once causing the jobs to be finished way behind schedule. You must stand out as having integrity, good morals, and the ability to problem solve to get the job. The clients will be testing you to see if you’re a good fit as well. Keep in mind as you take your notes that you must not forget anything they mention as it will come back before the job is completed…i.e. we mentioned that to you before we started the job! Take pictures of the proposed area for work, that way you can use it to better right your estimate. Let them know you will give them a detailed outline of when the job will be completed letting them see how long each phase will take and correlate it with your payment schedule. Before you leave their house let them know when the estimate will be sent to them. MAKE SURE YOU HIT THAT DEADLINE! Once you sent the email over with estimate make sure you get confirmation that they received it. Wait at least 2 days before checking with them, hopefully they contact you first! If they want negotiate the price, let them know that it is the best price that you can manage, its not worth losing money before you start. I closed 80% of the work I estimated by being very transparent and friendly. If you come off with an attitude charge double what the going rates are you might only land 1 out of 10 jobs as well as getting the reputation of being expensive. Bidding the job Looking up industry standards on pricing is what I would go buy for pricing. If you google the coat of any installation there will be a cost range for everything. Looking at the cost ranging from high to low I would tend to be in the middle. Some items might be low on the internet if this is the case use your best judgment not to lose money. Closing sales is key to success and keep the doors open for business. Being in the middle on pricing is key as most customers shy away from contractors that are extremely low or high on the price range. I tend not bid out hourly as wages do not pay for retirement. Bidding is better as customers no the exact price of the cost of construction. It also keeps the job moving quicker as time and material contractors take longer to complete projects…Thus costing the client more money and valuable time they could spend in their house. Using a Contract Using a detailed estimate tied to a contract covers your butt in 99% of the time. Having a piece of mind that every aspect of the job is covered in the estimate and contract protects both your company and the client. Key terms to include in your estimate/contract are. Have a schedule on excel showing the start dates and dates of each trade this will show the customer you are organized with time lines. If not written in the detailed in the estimate the item is excluded- This ensures if its not written down its not included. TBD- To be Determined- A phrase on a line item that has yet to had final decision of products or service needed. -The pricing will follow the decisions to be finalized Give out what your written warranty will be for parts and labor this changes state to state. If the homeowner provides the product than no warranty will be given on that particular item. In the contract have a start date and end date with the verbiage subject to change due to weather, product delivery, change orders Have a progress payment schedule to ensure the client understands when funding will be expected-Including if not payment is rendered service to the project will stop. Have written terms of how change orders will be charged-cost plus 20% or a set fee Make sure in your contract that arbitration is required versus going to court- This will save lawyer fees and going to court Many contracts can be found online and each state requires different contracts
Finding leads Finding leads is easy with the right network of people. I personally do not find working for friends or family members a good fit. Relationships get strained when money is involved, causing undue stress for both parties. I have listed a couple of ways to build a network or find work using the internet. Get in contact with realtor’s- Realtors have a big client base of homeowners who need work done Contact local Architects to see if they are working with any general contractors Leave some business cards at your local materials suppliers-Doowindow/lumber-many times clients will ask salesman for a referral. Join a business networking group- BNI is one of many Join a internet website lead generation company- Houzz, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, thumbtack, Yelp run an ad on craigslist Use a marketing company to market your website-This could become costly with little results Create a Facebook business page Create a Yelp business page
Building your subcontractor base Having 2 subcontractors for every trade, gives you the flexibility of completing jobs on time if the one the subcontractors is too busy at the time you need their service. Your subcontractors are the face of your business, choose owner run companies that are professional. Check to make sure there license are up to date..ie workman’s comp, liability insurance, state license. Choosing subcontractors with lettered vans, logoed t-shirts is s key to looking professional in the clients’ eyes. In the past I have gotten a lot of subcontractors for material supply shops, stopping by jobsites, researching the internet using Yelp, Home Advisor, etc etc. Once you get one good subcontractor ask them if they know any other trades they would recommend. One good subcontractor leads to another in most cases. The key to having a good group of subcontractors is to let them know that you are there to get help them get the job done. They do work for you but without them you are nothing…keep that in mind! Make them aware a clean jobsite is required at the end of everyday to ensure the proper safety for all parties including theirs! Over the years I have referred a lot of companies work when there is only 1 trade needed. Referring work to subcontractors is a good way to get top priority when you have work that needs to be completed ASAP. Timing is everything in times of emergency having a good group of subcontractors will make your business run smoothly. Pay your subcontractors immediately after performing work, this will make them feel appreciated! A happy subcontractor is one that will gladly go the extra mile for you knowing that there not just a number to your business! Buying lunch once a week for the jobsite is always a good token of appreciation!
Supervising In supervising any jobsite its key to monitor everything from materials on hand, weather, vehicle parking (if applicable), jobsite safety, and subcontractors’ workmanship. If you hired a professional there should be little supervision in the work being performed, on rare occasions a new hire might need some mentoring to get the results completed correctly. If you see a problem with there work address it with the worker directly, no need to call his boss…. building repour with the worker letting him know you got his back goes miles down the road! Checking in on the job first in the morning to answer any questions or changes that need to be conveyed and once in the afternoon to make sure all work be completed is done per construction industry standards. A job that is run blindly will have many more issues than one that is watched over. I have seen many jobs with no site supervision, leading to subpar quality work as well as safety hazards. Its better to be like an eagle than cluck like a turkey!
Working with the City/Inspectors On permitted jobs the city and site inspector will be a large part of how smoothly the job runs. Each phase of construction has an inspection allowing for the project to continue. Make sure your subcontractors are aware that the project is inspected before starting the job. The best way to stay on his good side is to provide a clean jobsite and having the job built to the highest standards possible. When having the site inspected be courteous to the inspector asking any questions or concerns you have with the work during the job. Being completely transparent will save you aggravation of problems down the road. The more he trust you the better if you seem sneaky or rude he will make your life a living nightmare! Many inspectors will have an attitude towards you….I suggest keeping quiet and doing what ever he wants….he’s the boss no need to get in a pissing match you will not win at. How to deal with irate customer Stay calm during any argument with an irate customer. Never raise your voice or show that you are bothered by their disgruntled behavior. If the customer is trying to get more from you than agreed upon stand your ground. Worst case scenario is you walk from the job, which in the long run be more of a loss for the client. I have only run into a couple of these clients; they are unreasonable and not worth losing sleep over a few dollars. Its best to terminate the relationship as it would be my best guess that a referral from this customer would not be one you wanted anyway. If you feel it was just a miscommunication on your end, take reasonability and remedy the problem. Taking accountability for your mistake will go a far way in their eyes and on future issues that arise. Prepping the homeowner pre-construction Before starting the job, it very important to give the homeowners a warning of what will happen during the construction process.

1. All furniture in the proposed working area must be moved- I would recommend having the clients take care of this to limit the risk of damage to their belongings.
2. There will be dust that will be in the house up to 3 months after construction-I would recommend hiring a construction cleaning company at the end of the job even so after it is cleaned dust will be present months after words.
3. There will be conflicts between you in the homeowner at some course of the job. - You will do your best to eliminate them as quickly as they arise-i.e. material damages, miscommunication, job delays
4. All decisions on materials must be made before the start of the job- this will eliminate job stoppage due to materials not being on site.
5. All materials will be on site before commencement of job-
6. Payment structures must be made per contract otherwise job will stop until payment rendered
7. Cars are to be moved out of the driveway- Ensures ease of loading and unloading of materials/tools
8. Give the specific hours that workers will be present- i.e. 7-3:30
9. Determine what areas are allowed to be used as staging for tools/materials
10. If animals are present in the home that they put outside or in a room during the day
11. All valuables in the house are locked in safe
12. Ask if using client’s household bathroom is okay or to bring in Porter Potty
13. Being transparent as possible is key to keeping a great relationship with your client!

During Construction During construction it is key to take detailed photos to eliminate any damages that were not caused by the construction process. I would also make a video to ensure all areas are included. All subcontractors should also take progress pictures to ensure if problems arise in the future, they will not be responsible for any work that they did not perform. Keep an on-going log of progress to the homeowners and share the pictures for there records. This will keep homeowners excited of the progress being made. When the house is gutted to the studs it is important to have construction photos showing where all utilities are run in the walls or sub floor. If there is a problem in the future there will photos showing all utility locations. Protect all flooring with plywood or floor protective. I also like to protect front door and tarp all areas where subcontractors are to be working. Make sure to cover any chandeliers/furniture/doorways with plastic to eliminate dust. Ask the homeowners if they have any concerns that they could think of. We’re all human and possibly a detail was missed! Post Construction Phase If the project went smoothly appreciation should be shown to the customer. Find out if the husband likes a particular type of liquor. Bring the wife a bouquet of flowers. Send a Christmas card to the family letting how much you appreciated the work. You know you have done a good job if they tell you they will refer you to their friends. The best compliment you could receive is a good referral. In Summary Try to find a knitch in the market, I found kitchens to be a great remodel projects. Bathrooms are tough as they are small, expensive with little profit margin with every trade involved. Windows/doors are also another great knitch as they can be installed quickly. There are so many different remodeling items that can be stream lined to make the selling installing process flawless. Once the core group subcontractors are in place the job almost runs itself. Every day is a learning experience with new materials or methods in construction. Keeping up with codes, materials, fluctuating labor and material cost is a job within itself. Anyone can be a contractor with the right mindset.

First / Previous
Before I came in for work today, Suzanne texted me that Andrew was recovering well, just as expected, and I mentally breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn’t slept well, bothered by nightmares that disappeared from my memory but left stress in their wake.
It turned out the animal that had been stolen was a small humanoid creature, something we would label as a cryptid, Suzanne told me. It had claws but wasn’t that strong, and actually she described its appearance as ‘spindly with a large head’, and if the robbers had the right tools for the job, it would have been easy to bind and steal it. My heart went out to the animal, wondering where it had gone, who’d bought it, and where it would be kept. I hadn’t even had the opportunity to see it, but I felt the loss, an endangered animal stolen by someone who cared only for its monetary value.
Then Suzanne told me that Andrew would be recuperating for a week, and informed me of the exciting fact that I’d be getting my first tour group in just a few days. I’ve been studying the animals to get more familiar with them, even the ones I hadn’t seen yet. She had indeed gotten me those glasses that were magically spelled or whatnot and I’d memorized facts along with enclosure numbers, so it seemed I was good to go.
Some fun news today is that Yui’s ginormous ping pong ball arrived, and once I assembled it, it turned out to be just as advertised, which means it’s almost as tall as I am. Needing to be assembled from a bunch of curved pieces wasn’t surprising and it wasn’t difficult to do so. Everything slid into place easily; there were twelve pieces that were held together by screws, some of which I attached while sitting inside it, then a ninth piece to cover the last gap. I had to do it outside the office, obviously, since it wouldn’t have fit through the door. Leila came over to watch, standing a dozen yards away and looking at what I was doing, her expression one of bemusement and interest.
Once I was done, I rolled it gradually forward down the path toward enclosure seven. The material it had been constructed from was almost as lightweight as a ping-pong ball, which made its weight surprising considering its size. Aside from notches here and there for a person to grip to move it, the ball was smooth, which would make it easy for Yui to roll it around. The key to this toy was that it wasn’t easily grabbable, so it would be a challenge to maneuver.
“Knock, knock,” I spoke, bringing the ball to a stop. “Special delivery.”
When I arrived, I considered the fence for a moment before grasping two handholds and pushing the ball slightly against the fence, using that to hoist it up and over. The ball bounced a bit as it landed on the other side and I smiled. “All right. Hope you like your new toy,” I murmured. At that, I took a lap around the zoo, since it was about that time, then headed back toward the security room.
On my way there, though, I slowed to a stop when I saw a man taking the little bag out of a garbage bin that hung from a tree and tying it shut, replacing it with a new one. Suzanne had told me that I’d have company and who to expect, and here he was. There were several bins in the zoo, situated along the typical path guests took, about the size of one you’d put in a small bathroom. It didn’t look that full, but they never really were since they weren’t used often. I guess this one had accumulated a few items.
“Hi,” I said, drawing his attention. “You must be John.”
“And you must be Ripley,” he said, holding out a hand for me, glancing up to meet my gaze only briefly. His handshake was polite but meek. “Pleasure to meet you.”
I would’ve said John’s accent was British also, but it sounded different. Thicker. Honestly, when it comes to the accents on that large collection of islands off the coast of Europe, I can’t say I’m an expert. They all sound the same to my uneducated ears. The man was short and had curly gray hair that tapered at his ears, and looked like his white skin had wrinkled from lots of time in the sun, though it wasn’t that tan.
There was something about him that was a little unsettling, the way he slouched, as if he wanted to turn invisible. Even his clothes seemed drab and shabby, though not quite reaching the rating of being threadbare. He wore an old t-shirt with the Arkansas Razorbacks logo, a pair of blue jeans, worn at the pockets, knees, and bottoms, and light brown sneakers darkened from wear and tear.
Picking up a broom he’d left leaning against the tree, he motioned toward the front of the zoo. “I’ll get back to work now,” he said.
“Doing what?” I asked curiously. There wasn’t much to be done, since zoos usually only needed maintenance because of patrons, and we had very few of those.
“Path needs sweeping,” he called over his shoulder, quickly heading off.
I stared after him and let out a breath. “Not a people person, I guess. Well, I can empathize.”
Back at the security room, I took a seat and pulled up the camera for Yui’s enclosure, sitting up straight and smiling, delighted to see that she’d discovered the ball. The giant tarantula was leaning back and using her front two legs to investigate the texture and weight of it. Then she pushed at it, rolling it across the grass. Obviously, I’m not fluent in tarantula body language, but from the fact that she kept playing with it for the next few minutes, I concluded that she liked it.
I grinned and clapped my hands like an excited child, bouncing once in my chair. It probably seems silly, but enrichment was going so well and it really made me happy. Animals deserve to be able to live wild and free naturally, but short of that, I wanted to be able to give them some fun.
The next lap around the zoo had me stopping at enclosure eight, that green lion creature, where the occupant was lounging across a wide boulder. I checked that her eyes were opened and that I wasn’t waking her before calling, “Thank you for telling me about Andrew.”
The animal lifted her head and got up, slowly descending to the ground. “You’re welcome.”
The animal leaned back to stretch her front legs just like a common housecat, and then leaned forward to stretch the back legs before she shook out her mane and turned to me. “I would like some books.”
My eyebrows went up. “Books? To read?”
“No. Not like you read them. I want to be near them. I’ve seen you giving things to the other animals. Can I have a bookshelf full of books?”
I felt the urge to laugh, but I quashed it. It seemed outlandish, but it must have had something to do with its psychic-ish abilities, so it made sense in a strange sort of way.
“Of course,” I replied. “Can I put the shelf out here on the path, or does it need to be inside your enclosure?”
She lowered herself to the ground, splaying out. “Out there is fine.”
“I’ll cover it with plastic so it doesn’t get wet from rain. Do you know how to read?” I questioned.
“No. It’s too hard,” she said. “But I don’t need to. Having to read a book to learn what it says would take a long time anyway.”
I pursed my lips and nodded my agreement. It was hard to argue with that. And it certainly would’ve been a lot easier for me while I’d been attending college classes. On that note, I wondered if putting a flash drive full of a library’s worth of books at the edge of the animal’s enclosure would do the same trick? I was immediately tempted to try, especially considering it would be much easier than buying, assembling, and water-proofing a bookshelf.
Back at the office, grabbing my purse from the table, I sat down in my chair and fished around inside until I found a flash drive. Then I pulled up archive.org on my computer’s monitor, searching for fiction books. After I’d downloaded a few dozen, I ejected the drive and headed back out to Sun’s enclosure.
She hadn’t moved from where she’d been when I left. “Hello,” she said, her tail whipping in curiosity like a cat’s would.
“Hello again. I have a new device here,” I said, putting the flash drive on the ground just short of the fence. “It has books on it. Can you read them?”
Sitting up a little straighter, Sun blinked languidly and paused for a moment before saying, “Yes, I can.”
I bounced a little bit again in delight. “Awesome. That’s awesome.”
“Is that a book?”
“Oh, no, it’s just got books inside it,” I said.
Sun slowly got to her feet and wandered over, and my muscles tensed as my brain urged me to take a few steps backwards the closer she got. Despite the warding and the fact that she wasn’t looking hungry, my instincts were still determined to protect me from her. “That looks too small to have books inside it.”
“Oh, ah…it’s…complicated,” I said. “But humans found out how to store data on things like this. It’s great that this is just like a bookshelf for you, because I can get so many things for you to read.”
“I’d like that very much.”
“Is there anything specific you like to read? Fiction or nonfiction? Specific genres?”
“I like both information that is true and stories that are made up,” Sun told me. “Humans make things of all kinds and I love all of them.”
At that, Sun wandered back over to the large boulder she’d been on and lay back down on it, as if she were sunbathing in the red light of the lamps. I left the flash drive there so Sun could keep…absorbing the info, or whatever it was she was doing, knowing that I could dig out another from my disorganized, chock-full-of-stuff purse. There was also the possibility of going to Suzanne for permission to buy books, and I wondered if I could use my library card. I could literally get her a different bunch of eBooks every day.
I did indeed find another flash drive floating around, and loaded on as many books as I could find for free. I also found a small old plastic bag, and I put the flash drive in it, to protect it from the elements.
Going back to enclosure eight, I found Sun laying on her back, in that long, upside-down pose cats were fond of. “I have more books for you,” I said with a smile.
“Yes?” She turned over. “I’ve only read one of the books so far from that little thing.”
I blinked and looked down at the flash drive on the ground, picking it up. “You already read one?” I exclaimed. I shouldn’t have been surprised, really. This was learning by osmosis, not actually reading the books.
“I did.”
“Well then it’s a good thing I’ve come with so many more,” I said, putting the other drive in the plastic bag with the new one. I left it on the ground where it had been and stood, my hands on my hips. “I’m taking over for Andrew for a tour. Is there anything you think I should know?”
“There are many things you should know, but you will learn them in time,” she replied.
Apparently when it comes to advice, sometimes Sun is just about as good as a horoscope.
First / Previous
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📜 Experience the Political Machinations of a Kingdom ruled by a lich in this dark fantasy setting of Dead Gods and a Shattered Sun.

Overview

The Arisen is a Political Intrigue campaign based around a country ruled by the Lich Queen Estelle. It is heavily inspired by gothic horror genre's, as well as taking influence from sources such as darkest dungeon, dark souls, and bloodborne. Explore a unique political landscape of a country of undead and demons, bordered by a Divine Land and in the sights of the Avexin Empire ruled by The Blood and allies of devils.

The Dead Rise

You are an adventurer of some renown is respected or feared by the select few who’s lives you have directly impacted, and you are dead.
You remember little of your death, perhaps fleeting memories, sensations, and flashing images. You might even remember the events or days leading up to your death clearly. However, the details of your untimely demise are shrouded in mystery.
As you list aimlessly in whatever afterlife you have found yourself in a voice echoes around you. A tether wraps around your neck as your spirit begins to burn. “...come forth lost souls and join me….Aslendus I call upon you...come forth and become Arisen!” Bits and pieces of a chant fill your ears as you can feel the weight of mortal flesh settle upon you once more and, finally, your eyes open once more!

Who are you?

You are five 1st-level adventurers. You met an untimely end, but now have been resurrected by the powers of Estelle Ofros, the Lich Queen. However, the power and abilities you once held seem to be weakened. You find yourself in The Lichdom of Ofros bound to the queen by the Hand of Estelle. How your body got here, the circumstances of your death, and the intricacies of your newfound life are few among the mysteries you must discover answers for.
Even with the cloud of your death filling your mind, what matters most is Estelle’s motives. War is brewing at her borders. Her people are restless, and some of her subjects plot against her. Political intrigue can be found everywhere as the Divine Land of Astrana musters forces and intel on the Lichdom, all while the Avexin Empire, land ruled by devils and The Blood, sit quietly behind the scenes plotting their machinations.
You now find yourself bound to this ancient Queen, rumored to be one of the most powerful liches, second only to The Ruler of Death himself. She who sacrificed her entire country to ascend, turning them into Undead and Demons to save them from the end of an era, from The Black Month.
How will you navigate the political landscape of this odd country ruled by the dead, for the dead? Will you seek to free yourself from the Queen, or help your newfound

Handout

House Rules

You can find more detailed info on the World Lore Here:

💥 Expectations

• Free Session 0 & first session to see how we all vibe.
• We will be starting the game once we get 3 players with the hopes of eventually having 5 players.
• 3 to 4 hour sessions.
• Session every week
• Custom Website for Setting & Campaign Lore.
• All source material is accessible in Foundry VTT.
• Constant Access to Foundry Server through Forge.com hosting.
• Fully integrated and animated Foundry VTT.
• Custom Discord Server for the campaign.
• Custom character backstories and arcs.
• Homebrew rules and custom Bloodlines System. Character creation is performed on FoundryVTT. All races and classes in dnd5e are allowed. As well as a few homebrew options including custom races or Laserllama's alternate classes.

I have multiple resources to help with character creation and I like to be involved if you want. We use Discord for voice chat. Foundry VTT handles the character sheet, items, and rolls.
Backstories are created together to immerse your character. First, you will write something original and creative then I will provide ideas and supplements until the backstory truly comes alive. each player will also write 4 rumors about their character that may be true, false, or partially true. These rumors will be distributed to the other players.
Once the seats are filled, we will run Session 0 and schedule Session 1. Session 0 is a group activity to learn Foundry VTT and to get to know each other. Session 0 is free!
🔎 Want to Join? Please message me with the following... Name or Nickname: Pronouns: Age: Discord: What interested you: How much TTRPG experience do you have: Anything I should know: Questions for me:

Hi!
I really don’t know where to start with this one. It’s definitely going to be a long post as I don’t want to miss on any potentially crucial detail, hence apologies for posting something this long.
Here’s my best attempt at summarizing what happened without losing on any detail (feel free to ask for clarification if anything isn’t clear):

• I bought a proxmark3 rdv4 as part of a kit which also comes with several of its accessories from an online website selling these kinds of things.
• When I received it, I noticed several smudges on the device itself and the cards that came with it where scratched up to severely, which immediately alarmed me but I really tried to brush it off to just being caused by the manufacturing process.
• Three days after first receiving it, it completely died on me during usage. And showed no signs of life whatsoever.
• Naturally contacted the online website’s support and explained the situation, and they responded asking me to try some troubleshooting steps to try to isolate the issue and potentially fix it remotely, all of which didn’t work.
• Hence they offered to look into it themselves by having me send it back to them.
• However, I insisted on returning the full kit back for a full refund as it is no longer fit for purpose due to both being defective and the fact that I wouldn’t trust a replacement either to not fail the same way now that I experienced this. And since this was 3 days since receiving it, and even 4 days since placing the purchase, it was well within the 14 days period the Consumer Rights Act 2015 allows for. Hence I asked them to just return the full kit for a full refund instead.
• Yet they (or shoud I say he as it turns out this “company” is actually just one person) refused and said since I now opened it I am no longer eligible for a refund and kept insisting that sending it back for repaireplacement was my only option. (Which is nonsense as how was I supposed to even know it was defective if I didn’t open it!!!). They even went as far as stating their ToS also states that defective items aren’t eligible for a refund even if they are within the 14 day period (which is also nonsense as even their own ToS states that you can return faulty items for a full refund within 14 days. And either way the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives me this right regardless of what their ToS say).
• Then things started getting even more suspicious with this sellecompany. They started ignoring my emails stating my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and just resending the same email asking me if I accept to return it for a repair or replacement. Obviously I was not going to say yes as then they will use that against me and say I accepted to not get a refund but have it replaced instead.
• So having paid by PayPal, it seemed straightforward. Just open up a dispute, explain the situation clearly and upload evidence. Which is exactly what I did.
• Then through the PayPal disputes seller-buyer chat you get when first opening a dispute to try to sort things out together first, the seller again insisted on this whole ToS nonsense and then asked for the item back and provided a returns address but wouldn’t provide a returns label unless I accepted not to get a refund (again, not going to say yes to that). So what I did was instead return it under my own dime through Royal Mail Special Guarantee so there’s clear evidence. And uploaded the tracking details to the dispute.
• Item gets delivered with proof of delivery and a signature and everything (because I thankfully decided to send it special guarantee), yet the seller kept asking for it back and not acknowledging that it’s already been delivered. (Even more suspicious!).
• And when I clearly stated even the tracking showing proof of delivery and everything, suddenly the story changed and the seller now has it back… and then things got even more interesting.
• The seller went above and beyond straight up making false statements claiming I damaged and modified the item (which I didn’t do). And the funny thing is, not only is what he was saying contradicting with the manufacturer’s own instructions, but his false allegations even contradict themselves! For example, he said the device outer cover is sealed and that I broke the seal and forced the cover open against the manufacturer’s usage instructions. Yet then claimed the tool which is INCLUDED in the box by the manufacturer specifically to open the casing showed signs of usage. Anyone with a brain without even knowing a thing about the device would instantly realize: Why would the manufacturer seal a device and not condone opening it yet include a tool specifically to do exactly that? And to add to that, the reason why you would open the outer casing is to access a SIM slot under there, which you then plug an also INCLUDED SIM-SAM adapter to that slot to use it… hence again, why would the manufacturer include an adapter in the box which can’t even be used without opening the plastic cover. And mind you all of these are part of the main device box, these aren’t the additional accessories that also came with the kit. Hence none of these could have possibly been aftermarket things not recommended by the manufacturer. See how even someone who doesn’t know anything about the device can instantly tell how these allegations conflict with each other? And to add to that, the seller also claimed that I admitted that I flashed aftermarket software to the device and that the device failed immediately after, and pointed towards one of my emails who he previously claimed he never received (again! Super obvious lie!). Yet that wasn’t what I even said, I said that I updated it to the latest version exactly as the manufacturer getting started docs instruct you to, and it was working fine (hence the failure did not occur after the update!) and the failure only happened 3 days later while I was just reading one of the included NFC cards (yes, one of the ones scratched). Hence again, more clear lies.
• So at that point I clearly explained exactly how his lies conflict each other and conflict with the manufacturer instructions and supplied proof as well with manufacturer documentation and the full terminal log showing all of the things I did and commands I ran with the device, and escalated the claim for PayPal to review.
• PayPal despite saying they will provide a verdict in 5 days, took weeks and them suddenly asked me to provide a police report. Yet when contacting the local police they said they don’t deal with these kind of things (which I expected), so now I am being asked for something that the police don’t even provide. Gave the PayPal customer service a call and explained that… and they rudely just kept repeating that I have to provide that or else my case will be closed in the seller’s favor.
• After looking around I found the action fraud website so reported the incident there and thankfully the report letter you get after submitting mentions it being a police service, hence that would definitely work. So I went ahead and supplied that to the dispute and again it said they will provide a verdict within 5 days. This time they took even longer than last time and after keeping me on my toes for possibly a month+ they just simply rejected the claim saying I modified/damaged the item effectively blindly siding with the seller despite the clear lies and despite the clear explanation and evidence I supplied showing that.
• So I appealed the decision and this time re-wrote the full explanation and evidence in case it wasn’t clear the first time and emphasized everything and made sure it was super clear with numbered bullet points and everything. Yet again they took their time and kept me waiting for weeks, eventually rejecting the appeal too for the same reason. (Clearly they couldn’t be bothered to even read a work I said nor even use any brain cells to see how obvious the lies are from the seller).
• Once your appeal gets rejected then there’s no way to re-open the dispute anymore nor create a new one. So rang the PayPal support again and explained the situation and after the agent looked at the dispute even he agreed that the sellers lies were as clear as day and that my explanation and evidence further proves that, and was confused as to why it got rejected. So he said he will escalate to their head office and I should receive a response in 3 working days. And I immediately asked him: They rejected it twice already and blindly sided with the seller, wouldn’t they just do the same? And he assured me that the head office is a different team from the team that handled the dispute.
• Over 2 weeks later… and I still haven’t heard back from anyone. So I gave them another ring. This time the agent that I got straight up started blaming me for “modifying” the item and saying the same nonsense and after straight up going over how all of them are lies (the same way I went over that twice already in my dispute and appeal, but this time I could actually say it verbally in real time to him as it was a phone call), he kept coming up with random nonsense excuses like saying PayPal disputes don’t handle defective items (which is nonsense) and then also went on saying that since the failure occurred 3 days after and not immediately it’s also not covered (again, nonsense), so I reminded him of my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and he went on saying but that’s not what they PayPal ToS says, and I also reminded him of the signs of usage I also clearly mentioned in the dispute and appeal hence even the item wasn’t as described as it was advertised as new (which in itself entitles me to a full refund even if the device hadn’t failed) and I straight up told him PayPal operates in the UK and all UK laws apply to them and they can’t legally deny my rights regardless of what their ToS says (and by the way, nowhere in the ToS either was it saying anything this guy was claiming). So regardless of what I kept saying he just kept coming up with excuses and nonsense so I knew that phone call was going nowhere. He even went as far as saying that I should resolve this with the seller directly (AS IF I HAVENT BEEN TRYING TO DO THAT FROM THE BEGINNING TO NO AVAIL WHICH IS WHY I HAD TO FILE A DISPUTE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!).
• At that point I had reached a dead end as the seller wasn’t cooperating, PayPal was blindly siding with him regardless of what I did, and to top this off and I couldn’t even file a dispute with my bank as I had used my card from my home country, and apparently when I spoke to them they said they don’t even file disputes unless the item simply hasn’t arrived (which in itself is just stupid on top of all of the stupidity I have faced so far).
• So now I was out £509.99 for the kit, plus the £7.65 I paid out of pocket for postage to return it (which honestly I could have written off if I would have at least gotten the money for the kit refunded), and now I don’t even have the device nor the whole kit as that’s been returned to the seller. So I am out both the money and the kit. And the seller gets to keep the whole kit and probably scam someone else with it as well, plus gets to keep the money.
• So I now filed a case with the financial ombudsman as it been wayyyyyyyyyyyy over 8 weeks and PayPal still hasn’t resolved this nor even wants to (thankfully didn’t need a final response letter due to how long it’s taken otherwise that in itself would have been a nightmare to try to get from PayPal judging by my experience with them so far). But I am honestly not hopeful at all as I have never my life ever won an ombudsman case, as they always blindly side with the company (yes, the same way PayPal blindly sided with the seller), hence no wonder companies confidently refer you to them because they know you probably won’t win.

Hence all of that being said, what are my options now? I am guessing probably small claims court, but if I lose that too then I will also be out the fees for that on top of the already massive losses. Plus I am an international student hence won’t be in the UK over the summer and my schedule during the academic year might not give me time to attend the hearing. Plus I can’t speak legalese and I am generally terrible at communicating on the spot due to my ADHD, hence that also won’t be in my favor. And I can’t afford to have someone represent me either.
I am really sorry if I am sounding super negative, I just really don’t know how to handle this, especially considering how much money I lost now which in itself has been a nightmare.
Any advice would greatly be appreciated whether here or through DMs (my DMs are open if you don’t feel comfortable sharing advice here).
Thanks!

Hello! I am hoping someone can help me here since Pinterest support has been of no help thus far.
I created a pinterest account to use alongside my new blogging website. I claimed my website on pinterest but as soon as i updated an old pin to my new website link and immediately got an email that my website has been blocked.
The website is bare bones - home, about, blog, contact and only has 1 blog post so far on it.
I have been appealing it with pinterest all week with no luck and just responses saying it has been marked as spam and will not be unblocked.
I don't engage in spam behaviours and am at a loss for what to do and how to resolve it. I just purchased this website and domain specifically to avoid being marked as spam on pinterest and then this happens.
Any help and insight would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you so much :)

Hi everyone, I have received admission from a business school in Germany for winter intake 2024. I have paid the first semester fee. Since it's a paid program I need to show proof of funds for second semester during the visa process. The visa website mentions that I can put that second semester fee as unblocked money in the blocked account.
This is where it gets complicated, I have a relative in Germany who is willing to give Verpflichtungserklärungen ( formal obligation letter saying he will take care of my bills and everything). So if he gives the above, I don't have to get a blocked account. But how do I show the proof of funds for second semester fee? Can I show it through my Indian account or my sponser should show it in his German bank account?
my_qualifications - BE CSE 3 years of experience as a cloud software engineer.

So I got my RG35XX-H a few weeks ago. Been loving it. Decided to go down the CFW route. Did some research, figured I would try out the Batocera v40 option because I’m a sucker for pretty UI.
I hadn’t turned on my device in… maybe 3 days or so. But I had “fully charged” it right before I had quit using it. I use quotes there because even when I would leave it to charge overnight, I would turn it on and it would say that it’s only 68% charged. I saw that the FW is what determines battery percent and that some people had disconnected the battery and reconnected to get a proper reading. But I didn’t have a hex key small enough, so I figured I would wait until I had the FW sorted.
So, last night I download the Batocera image. I stupidly just copy/paste the folders on the default SD Card rather than making a back up image. I format the card using Fat32 GUI Formatter and flash the image using Win32 DiskImager.
I put the SD Card back into the device and… nothing. Won’t power on, won’t show anything on the screen, just literally nothing. So I plugged it in and saw that it had a charging light. I let it charge for a bit (maybe 15 minutes) and kept it plugged in and tried to turn it on. Nothing.
So I take the card out and I plugged it into my computer. Computer says initially that it “doesn’t recognize” it. Eventually it shows up as a “20 MB” location. Yes, MB not GB. So, I look in Disk Management and I can see that Batocera has created a 4GB partition and there’s a like 512 MB “Share” partition and then there’s 53GB of unallocated space.
I go back to File Explorer and now I can see the 4GB Batocera partition. I open it up. It looks like there are files there. So I’m like, did I mess up the flash somehow? So I use MiniTools Free to wipe all the partitions and format as FAT32. Then I use Rufus to flash the image. (Thought maybe something was just up with the program or settings or something.) Try again in my system, same result.
So now I’m like, well I know I don’t have the original image, but I guess I’ll try to copy/paste the folders and see what happens. Did that didn’t work. So my last attempt was this morning. I saw that sometimes the system gets confused and is actually fully uncharged. So I left it charging overnight. When I woke up, the charging indicator light was completely off. I then tried the Batocera image one more time. This time though, I saw on this sub that sometimes you need to press the “Reset” button before trying to power on. So I did that. Still nothing.
I’m currently unzipping the original firmware that I downloaded directly from the Anbernic website to try and rebuild this SD Card back to how it originally was, but I just don’t understand how I’m continuing to get nothing. Like, the battery has to be charging even if there’s no OS on it, right? I just cannot fathom how the battery could still be potentially dead, but I also don’t know what is happening to cause it to just do nothing at all.
I know that’s a lot of text, but any thoughts, ideas, or comments would be massively appreciate.

Hello! I decided to get a dashcam and I think I've decided on which one I want, thanks to the guides here (the Viofo A129 Due Plus). But I'm getting a little overwhelmed in my research because a lot of reviews seem to be coming from a perspective of someone who already knows a lot about dashcams and I can't seem to figure out the basics! I can be pretty tech illiterate, to be honest.

1. The front dash cam gets adhered to the front window and then charged through either a USB port or a cigarette lighter port. But what about the rear? Am I really supposed to have a super long cable to connect it?
   
2. Does this need an SD card? It shows there's app connections, but I don't understand how that works. If I want to grab a recording from that day, can I just pull it up on my phone? Or even on the camera itself?
   

2a. The website that the reddit guide links to, and where I found the model I want, says it's selling the model that doesn't have "16gb flash storage". What the fuck does that mean?

1. I'm not gonna fuck around with my car to hardwire this. Say I want to use the parking mode, can I just use a USB connection to a general battery pack, one that I'd use to charge my phone on the go?

Thanks! I'm going on a trip next month with lots of driving so I figured now is the best time to do this, but damn if I'm not overwhelmed trying to figure out if I'll be able to install this with little difficulty.

It is paralyzing to have so many but all basic-level skills that I wish to grow and specialize in, and what makes it even more difficult is unknowing what my passion is. All of the non-technical people in my life encourage me to do something with what seems to them "impressive technical skills" instead of working 11 hours a day in a sales job that I hate, my family wishes I did something with my degree instead, I graduated two years ago as a biomedical engineer (and low-key I regret it now). Of course "impressive" is very subjective, and I realize that those people don't know exactly what the job roles are in any technical field, so I can't build up on those impressions as for them installing drivers for a new hardware and using a CMD makes them think I'm cut for an IT position, and for them a programmer is simply someone who makes software on a computer, and since I was able to create a calculator application in C# and build a website in HTML and CSS, they think now I'm all set for a career in programming.
The thing is, all of my knowledge in: - C# (Winform and Console apps only) - HTML, CSS - Database management and SQL (MS-SQL, SQLite) - Computers software and hardware repair (General IT entry-level skills) - Video editing (in adobe premiere, and other open-source video editing software) - Graphic design (in photoshop) - Flash game deisgn (very old hobby I had) - Technical drawing in SolidWorks - Java programming in Android Studio (I dabbled into it for a university project). - Digital image processing (in Matlab, also for a university class I had).
is at a beginner level. I never gave myself the time to master a thing, and I can't figure out what I should stick to.
For a long time, my dream was to get into game dev, but seeing how competitive and time-consuming it is and judging by the lengthy learning resources available which need to be followed by a protfolio that also needs time to build, and finally hearing about how it actually pays less than software development, I wrote it off. My 2 fellow engineer friends recommended either going for a DevOPS path, or a blender 3D modelling path. Before asking for their advice, I was aiming for a databases-related job because I enjoyed working with databases queries the most, but all of the job descriptions in my country seem to require a lot a lot more than just doing sql queries, so then I was drifted away by a third friend who is a web developer, he convinced me to try out the free bootcamp called "TheOdinProject" and I'm half way in already in their "Foundation" course. And my progress pace suddenly slowed down significantly at some harder topics. Why did I listen to the web developer and ignored the other 2 guys? Honestly I was afraid that being a bit slow at abstract concepts won't make the DevOps path easy for me, and the Blender route was as dreadful because it takes the double amount of time of Web Dev and DevOps as it requires a ton of practice but with the constraining working hours I currently have, that would be super difficult to achieve. So now I don't know what to trust, web dev looks to require as much dedication as the others and I don't know if I will have the motivation to pick it up and get up to speed as before after being stuck for a while now.
Thank you all for reading. Any advice would hopefully illuminate my way and clear up my confusion, so I'd really appreciate any insight.
Side notes: I'm not in the US. I can't quit my job because I have family responsibilities.

I’ve been reading everyone’s incredibly moving posts over the last 2 months, thanking Rooster Teeth for the years of entertainment and for helping them find joy and belonging. After reading all these stories of how Rooster Teeth has changed your lives, I wanted to share mine.
Today is incredibly surreal. My last day at RT was this past weekend, but today our website shuts down- 21 years of content, of memories - going to that farm to play with all the other old content sites. At times it feels like I’ve spent my whole life being entrenched in RT, and at others it feels like 21 years flashed by me in the blink of an eye.
December 12, 2011 was my very first day at Rooster Teeth - just over 7 years after I joined the community website in October of 2004. I remember getting ready to go into the office on that first day… what should I wear? Are people going to be happy that I’m there? Will I be accepted? Do I even deserve to be here? Am I going to fuck this all up?
Jury’s still out on a lot of those questions, but it’s safe to say I definitely fucked up - a lot. I’ve done and said many things that I greatly regret. But like all of you reading this, I am not the same person I was over a decade ago. 5 years ago. 1 year ago. Yesterday. I am proud to have grown up, and to have become who I am with the help of this community.
There were a lot of low points over my time at RT. It’s not easy to put yourself out there in front of millions of people. On the Internet. There were many days I wanted to leave; where it just became too much for me to handle. But my colleagues and friends always had my back, and so did a lot of you. I will never forget those of you who supported us through our highest highs and lowest lows. My time at RT wasn’t always easy, but you all made it worth every second of it.
Saying goodbye to Rooster Teeth is something I knew, realistically, was inevitable – something I knew I would have to do eventually. It’s truly heartbreaking to be here writing this, experiencing it, realizing I never truly prepared myself for it. I know a lot of you feel the same way, and I’m sorry. It’s a very unique kind of grief.
Despite it all, the one feeling I’m left with as these days get further behind us is overwhelming gratitude. Gratitude for getting to make you all laugh (or groan, depending on one’s enjoyment of puns); gratitude for the countless opportunities to learn new things, meet new people, and travel the world; and gratitude for getting to do this with the coolest fucking people on earth.
Today, RoosterTeeth.com closes its internet doors, leaving one final goodbye message. I am honored to have helped write that final message- I hope it stands as a reminder of the joy Rooster Teeth once brought you.
As we move into this next chapter of post-RT life, I hope you’ll still be looking out for what we all do next. We love what we do too much to let this stop us, and hope you’ll be there to support in whatever ways you can.
Good things come to an end, but what good is it if we don’t look back and see all the beauty and joy it brought us? If you take just one thing away from all of this, I hope it’s newfound gratitude for the good in your life, and recognizing it before it’s gone - because sometimes it might last 21 years, but feels like it’s gone in the blink of an eye.
Thank you for spending your years with us.
What a gift it was.
Barbara

Hello! I am a registered nurse & while in nursing school I created colorful study guides and shared with students for free my whole time in school. I created a study group online to share my guides and there is now over 3,000 people in the group. I have graduated but the students are still using my study guides. The study guides I made were digital from my iPad, just pages I made colorful with notes. I have thought about creating different types of study materials like flash cards, game cards for studying, study books based on certain topics.
Let’s say the first thing I want to create is a Flashcards for a certain topic. -Are there certain programs online I can use to design these Flashcards? -what websites do I use to print these? -how do I get these proof read and make sure everything is spelled correct. -I’m also worried about using information from medical textbooks, how/where I reference these to be sure there’s no copyright issues.
There’s endless topics I could use creating these, so I know I would just have to start with one topic and move forward from there. Any tips or suggestions I would greatly appreciate. Thanks!!

This is taken from and is copyright protected by globalsoup.net, a website that promotes flash Fiction with annual writing contests.
I am reprinting these Flash Fiction Prompts because they are outstanding ways to freewrite and offer plenty to work with for those who want to learn how to write Flash Fiction.
So check out these prompts and the article and work some of them into your journal! Post the best responses!
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts - Plus Bonus Prompts!
We’ve put together 100 flash fiction prompts, each one designed for a very short story. These prompts will probably be best suited to a story of between 300-1,000 words. If you want to write a longer story using these prompts, you can easily expand these ideas to fit a story of any length.
What is flash fiction?
Flash Fiction is defined as a very short story that can be anywhere from just a couple of words to about a thousand in length. The beauty (and difficulty) of writing flash fiction lies in trying to tell a complete story in so few words. Great flash fiction is succinct, emotive, thought-provoking, and impactful.
What’s the difference between flash fiction and a short story?
The only difference between flash fiction and a typical short story is the word count. However, this scarcity of words means that writing flash fiction can feel like a completely new skill. Just like the short story is a different animal to the novel or novella; flash fiction is kind of unique.
When writing flash, you’ll need to use fewer characters, a simpler plot, and you’ll have to make each word count. This is why editing is so important. You have to be brutal. Cut out everything superfluous and really make sure each and every word is performing an important function in the story. If you’re interested in writing very short fiction, why not check out drabbles? Drabbles are stories of exactly 100 words in length, and they can be a great way to practice keeping your stories very, very short.
How to plot a flash fiction story
When you sit down to write flash fiction, you must begin by choosing an appropriate plot. You cannot simply use a short story plot and tell it using fewer words. A typical flash fiction plot is like looking at one part of a story under a microscope.
For example, let’s look at prompt #21 in our list of 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat. If you were writing a novel about a sinking ship, you’d probably want the actual sinking to be the climax of the story. Of course, there are infinite ways to write a novel about a sinking ship, but this would structurally be the most obvious. You’d use the first part of the novel to introduce your characters and describe the voyage leading up to the sinking and the sinking of the ship would be the dramatic climax, leaving the last part of the book as the resolution.

The golden rule of writing short stories is to begin as close to end as you can. So, to turn the same story from novel to short story, you’d probably want to begin with the ship sinking. You haven’t got time to introduce the characters before the action begins, so you’d need to feed in exposition and backstory here and there during the events.
All stories need a good climax. So, you would find the most dramatic moment in the story and build up to it. Perhaps your climax would be the two main characters having to decide who will take the remaining seat on the last lifeboat.
Finally, you need a resolution. In a longer short story you do have time to bring in some kind of satisfying resolution at the end.
But, if you’re writing flash fiction and your story is only a few hundred words, you really need to zoom in on one tiny moment in that story.
You don’t have time to tell the entire story of a sinking ship, but you can turn one moment into a story.
We’ve chosen the lifeboat situation as the key moment in this hypothetical story. Two characters must decide which one of them will take the last seat on the last lifeboat. This is an appropriate plot for flash fiction because it’s simple, high-stakes, dramatic, and thought provoking.
Not all flash fiction will have a plot quite this dramatic, but all great flash fiction will have a plot that can be expressed in just one or two sentences.
If you have a plot in mind, but it seems more suitable for a longer story, you can sometimes find several flash fiction plots hidden within it. Just look for little stories within the story, like the lifeboat moment in our hypothetical tale of the sinking ship.
This brings us to our top tip for coming up with ideas for flash fiction stories:
if you’re ever stuck for ideas, you can find little stories within the story in books, movies, and TV shows. A full length feature film might have as many as 20 little incidents in it that could easily be flash fiction.
Don’t directly write a story based on the film, though. Just carefully pick out those little moments, write down what’s happening as a one or two sentence plot, and then use it to inspire your own, completely original flash fiction story.
One of our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts was actually taken from the movie Pulp Fiction!
How to write very short flash fiction
There are several reasons writers might start writing flash fiction. Of course, it could be that they just love and enjoy the form, but sometimes they’ll be a more strategic and practical reason at play.
Perhaps they want to practise the process of writing stories within the confines of a certain word limit. Maybe they are trying to develop a daily writing routine and they don’t have a lot of free time. It could be that they’re trying to break a habit of not finishing writing projects, or perhaps they are entering a flash fiction competition.
Whatever the reason, very often when we sit down to write flash, we must work under an imposed or self-imposed word restraint. We’ve set ourselves (or been set) the task of keeping the story under a particular number of words.
So, how do you plot a flash fiction story when you have to keep your story very, very short.
We’re not going to discuss stories of 100 words or fewer here. Technically, those stories are still flash, however, we prefer to categorise 100 word stories as drabbles and anything under 100 words as micro fiction.
But what if you have to keep your flash fiction story under, let’s say, 300 words? How do you write a flash fiction story that short?
The answer is: get your microscope out again. Remember earlier when we said writing flash fiction is like looking at part of a story under a microscope? If you have to write very short flash fiction, you’ll need to zoom in even further.
Let’s look at a couple of examples from our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to the story, you could have time to tell the story of the entire fight. With only 300 words, it might be better to zoom in on the very moment when the boxer must choose whether or not to go down.
In a longer flash fiction story you might have time to go into detail about why he’s in this situation and why he’s so conflicted. In a 300 word story, you might only devote one or two sentences to his gambling debt and the large sum of money waiting for him if he goes down in the third round, as instructed.

1. A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to this story, you might be able to write about the whole process of choosing what to take and what to leave behind. You might be able to mention many different choices and have the whole family participate in the story. You’d be able to go into some details about certain choices and the stories behind individual objects or mementos, as well as the implications of choosing certain things over others.
With only 300 words, it would be advisable to zoom in on one member of the family and to focus on one profound and important choice.
How to write a flash fiction story
Now you have your mini plot, you still need to make sure your flash fiction feels like a complete story. It should still have a beginning, middle, and an end.
Just like a short story, you may need to bring in a little exposition here and there to give texture, context, backstory, and to bring some depth to the characters. But, unlike a short story, you won’t necessarily need to end with a full, detailed resolution. It’s quite common for a flash fiction story to end with a quick twist or plenty of ambiguity.
Flash Fiction is much more about eliciting emotions and provoking thought, than setting up and resolving a complex story.
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts
A young ballet dancer chooses not to tell the other dancers in her troop about a loose paving stone outside their dance studio.
Two sisters realise they’ve both been on a perfect first date … with the same man.
On the car journey home, two parents realise they’ve left their child’s favourite teddy on a park bench several hours away.
A writer suffering from writers’ block looks for inspiration in a strange place.
Set 200 years in the future, a young man realises he’s too emotionally dependent on his robot assistant.
A young woman discovers she’s taken the wrong suitcase home from the airport. The contents of the case make her question her own life choices.
A murderer realises he has only 10 minutes to dispose of a body.
A child decides to walk home by themselves after their parent forgets to pick them up from school … again.
Your protagonist manages to talk the grim reaper out of collecting their soul.
Your protagonist suddenly realises they’ve been living in a simulation.
A young couple has chosen to spend the night in a haunted house to fix their marriage. Your story starts just as things get very weird.
Your protagonist finds a letter they wrote to themselves when they were a teenager.
Your protagonist must decide whether or not to drink from a fountain that erases all painful memories from the mind.
Your protagonist comes across a street called ‘Memory Lane’. They quickly realise the name is eerily apt.
A bride finds out something startling about her future husband an hour before the wedding.
Your protagonist finds an advertisement for a company that promises everlasting youth.
A youngest sibling shows up at a family reunion they weren’t actually invited to.
Your protagonist finds a piece of paper with a spell on it. If they say the words out loud they aren't sure if something terrible or wonderful will happen.
Your protagonist is watching a jazz band play when they realise they know the drummer from somewhere — but where? It takes a whole song for them to figure it out.
Your protagonist must meet their ex for lunch to tell them they’re now engaged. It’s been just a few weeks since they split up.
Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat.
During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.
Your protagonist must pack their belongings before moving to a new colony on mars.
A pilot realises they have lost control of their aircraft.
Your protagonist doesn’t want to attend their 100th birthday party — and for good reason!
Your protagonist gets stuck in a lift with their ex … 5 minutes after breaking up with them.
A child says goodbye to the fairies in his garden before moving to a new home.
Your protagonist saves someone’s life … and then wishes they hadn’t.
Your protagonist arrives at a blind date. They’ve been set up with someone they actually know a little too well.
Set in a dystopian future in which public displays of affection are banned, your protagonist faces an agonising choice.
An agoraphobic must face their fear in order to save something important.
Your protagonist must make her partner fall out of love with them. Both their lives depend on it.
Your protagonist is hiking with her small children, they come face to face with a grizzly bear and her cubs.
Cinderella and Prince Charming realise they got married too quickly.
A message written in graffiti on a bathroom wall has serious implications for your protagonist.
Your protagonist finds a bag, looks inside, and realises the owner might just be their soulmate.
Your protagonist has been seeing the same stranger everywhere they go for months. They finally decide to confront them.
A couple realise their relationship is over during the trip of a lifetime. They’ve been saving up for the trip for years.
A public debate sees two previously married people letting their private grievances come into their arguments.
Your protagonist plans their escape from a retirement home.
A couple realise their fundamental beliefs are at odds with each other.
An artist develops an obsession with drawing a next-door neighbour.
Your protagonist finds themselves trapped in a cabin with a group of hikers during a heavy snowfall.
An ice skater must face going back on the ice after a dangerous fall.
A couple must decide their plan for New Year’ Eve. They both have secret reasons for their choice.
A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.
Your protagonist is waiting for someone important at the airport. They begin to think that person isn’t going to show up … and then they realise why.
Your protagonist must find their way through a maze. What they find in the middle of the maze is the last thing they were expecting.
An actor waiting in the wings has forgotten his first line.
Your protagonist is wrongly identified as a hero. Do they come clean?
Your protagonist realises their past is catching up with them.
Your protagonist overhears something that has serious implications for them while trying on clothes in a changing room.
Your protagonist is in a costume shop trying to decide what to dress up as for Halloween.
Your protagonist realises they’ve slipped into an alternate dimension.
A surgeon must make an impossible choice on the operating table.
A pregnant journalist interviews the mother of a missing child.
Your protagonist must ask his girlfriend’s father for his blessing, only to discover the father knows his deepest secret.
Your protagonist sees something on social media that will change their life forever.
Two work colleagues realise they’ve been dreaming the same dreams for weeks.
A reluctant daughter comes to terms with having to carry on the family business.
Your protagonist realises she must go on the run.
Two bank robbers disagree on their plan to rob a bank. This leads to a disastrous consequence.
A strange case of deja vous leaves your protagonist convinced of supernatural interference.
A sceptic begins to question their beliefs during a psychic reading.
Your protagonist uncovers a scandal at their workplace.
A hapless cook tries to recreate her late father’s favourite recipes in an effort to feel connected to him.
Your protagonist has a premonition that makes them certain they can’t visit their mother-in-law for Christmas. Now he must convince his husband.
A young backpacker discovers something unexpected in a cave.
An impulsive character and an indecisive character are brought together by chance. They must make an important choice.
Two characters cleaning up after a party discover an object that sheds light on something strange that happened earlier.
Two strangers are trapped together during a blackout.
Your protagonist must take a leap of faith in order to save something important to them.
Your protagonist discovers a huge part of their life has been a lie.
Your protagonist has set up an elaborate way to propose. Inexplicably, everything goes wrong.
Your protagonist must buy a dress for her mother’s funeral.
Your protagonist goes back to her favourite city in the world, only to find it has completely changed.
While stargazing, your protagonist realises the stars are forming secret messages in the sky.
Your protagonist hears a news story on the radio that will mean the world changes forever. However, she seems to be the only person who heard it.
Your protagonist is crossing a frozen lake. They see something under the ice that definitely shouldn’t be there.
A workaholic must come to terms with retirement.
An Olympic athlete must decide whether or not to report their teammate for doping.
A young mother feels isolated from her childless friends.
Your protagonist is about to realise their greatest ambition. Will it be everything they were hoping for?
Onboard a spaceship, a couple prepare to go into stasis for hundreds of years.
Your protagonist has an obsession with thinking about the past.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, your protagonist meets an unlikely love interest.
Your protagonist visits a place from their childhood and realises their memories of that time might not be accurate at all.
A small child has decided to run away from home. Her parents watch on with amusement as she decides what to put in her backpack.
On a whim, a bus driver decides to radically change his route, much to the chagrin of his passengers.
Dystopian. A couple in love are only allowed to spend time with each other one day a year.
A shapeshifter begins to realise their powers are fading. They must decide what form will be the last one they take before they cannot change again.
The devil visits your protagonist with an offer on her soul.
Your protagonist suddenly has the ability to read minds. There’s only one place they want to go now!
Your very wealthy protagonist has designed a simple test to see who will inherit her estate.
An archaeologist discovers something that will change how we see the history of the world. It could be dangerous. Does he keep it to himself?
Your protagonist must clear out their late mother’s house. She discovers an incredible family secret.
Your protagonist is meeting his brother. They haven’t seen each other for 20 years.
Your protagonist develops the ability to see the world literally through someone else’s eyes.
Your protagonist starts to believe their partner might be a spy.
Your protagonist discovers a hidden camera in their living room.
Looking for a flash fiction competition? Check out our ‘Big List of International Writing Competitions!’ Looking for inspiration? Why not check out our list of the 20 Greatest Short Story Writers of All Time! Just received another short story rejection? Here’s our post about ‘How to Deal With Story Rejections’ Bonus Prompts! Two characters waiting by the side of the road realise they are both meeting the same person.
A woman loses her young niece in a busy shopping mall.
Three strangers must solve a riddle in order to gain entry to a secret club.
A poor woman must borrow ingredients from her neighbours to bake her husband a birthday cake.
A waiter finally finds out why an old man has been coming to the restaurant where he works every day at exactly the same time.
Two work colleagues must decide which of them is to take the blame for a terrible mistake at work.
Your disgruntled protagonist goes to confront the couple next door about the strange noises they’ve been hearing at night.
A family dinner party sees three characters make three very surprising announcements.
Two women argue over who should get to buy the last dress available in a store. How do they decide who should get it?
A young couple find out they knew (and disliked) each other vehemently as children.
Love writing stories? Register now for our free 7 Day Story Writing Challenges. Write a short story in a week, get extensive feedback on your entry, and compete for a prize of £500 in each round of the challenge. Register today!
Mastered the art of flash fiction? Now you can try submitting your stories to literary magazines! We’ve compiled a list of the best literary magazines that don’t charge a reading fee! Check out our Big List of No-Fee Literary Magazines.